the australian journal of the australian journal of construction economics & building page (i) editorial once again it’s a pleasure to commend an edition of the australian journal of construction economics and building. this, second edition in year 2001, marks a successful first year for the journal, and if this edition receives the same type of feedback as did the first, then we will be well pleased with it’s reception. the balance between the professions has been comfortably maintained, and provides what we believe is a wide breadth of interest to readers. the content on this occasion, maintains a healthy international focus, yet has a healthy selection on australian themes. the paper by ai-lin and runeson on the subject of market differentiation is particularly recommended with its’ theme of minimising risk by diversification into new markets being particularly timely given the state of the current economic cycle. since the appearance of the first edition of the ajceb, our perception of the world and the risks that we run in everyday life has altered substantially with the occurrences in new york city on september 11th of this year. much of our concept of values and risk in everyday life is based on the assumption that things will remain substantially similar to the way we find them now. indeed the professions that we serve tend to assume that risks traditionally associated with the construction, operation and maintenance of built facilities are constant and predictable. we now face an epoch in which even such a simple underlying principal may be called into question. this could create a revolution in our professional lives. the papers in this edition of the journal have been produced in the lead-up to the terrorist attacks in the united states. i imagine that in the editions during the coming year, potential authors may well consider the changed landscape that we may now be working in. whilst the headlinegrabbing outrages are visible it is clear that we are vulnerable in many more subtle ways as well, and that disaffected people have discovered that it is easier to destroy than it is to build. much of the world is now considering whether it is possible to change our philosophy of building, and whether we should now pay a higher price so as to give our societies a little more certainty about the lifestyles we have adopted. it would appear timely for us to consider the implications, both in australia, and worldwide. the editorship of the journal will rotate amongst the universities in australia, and i am pleased to announce that from january, associate professor craig langston of the university of technology sydney will become editor in chief for a period of twelve months. there will again be two editions during the coming year. it merely remains for me to offer thanks to everyone who has been concerned with bringing the journal into being, especially to maureen everett who has regularly performed wonderful charettes that have turned all of our good intentions into finished articles. alan jeary editor-in-chief december 2001 the australian journal of construction economics and building issn 1445-2634 first issued august 2001 microsoft word ajceb vol.2 no.1 compiled sized.doc the australian journal of construction economics and building vol.2 no.1 i editorial adlai stephenson was fond of saying that “an editor is someone who separates the wheat from the chaff and then prints the chaff.” while this was originally aimed at newspaper editors, it is sometimes extended to include editors at large. we have gone to great lengths to avoid the possibility that it will include us as well, by securing the services of an editorial board comprising some of the leading academics of today and tomorrow, an international panel representing nine different countries and the major branches of our discipline. together with the staff of uts they have reviewed every paper offered to us, a large number of contributions on a wide range of subjects. they have recommended the best and suggested ways in which they could be further improved. like the editorial board, the contributors represent the truly international nature of our discipline and the contributions cover an even wider range of countries and topics than it has been possible to include in this issue. a journal can probably survive well without editors and referees, but not without good authors, and we have been lucky in terms of both quality and diversity of interests. we hope that we will continue to enjoy their support and that their example will inspire others to share their research with us. we trust that you will find the papers selected for inclusion in this issue of interest, and we think they make, collectively, a worthy addition to the body of knowledge related to construction economics and building; in other words, pure ‘wheat’ with no ‘chaff’. the topic areas covered in the selected papers are varied, and range from a discussion of the experiences of a group of academics using a problem-based learning approach to teaching construction to some detailed statistical analysis and modelling of the impact of contractor performance on levels of client satisfaction. the end result is a collection of papers that address a number of fundamental concerns that are influencing many aspects of our work in the realisation of construction projects worldwide in the early part of the new millennium including health and safety (a prime concern in the recent uk report, accelerating change), expansion into globalised markets, the bundling of goods and services in the construction industry, the balancing of work and family, and some more sternly practical considerations such as the use of capital budgeting techniques and the criteria used in selecting project procurement systems. our thanks must go to a number of people: the editorial board plus the other referees (all on the staff at uts) who donated their time and expertise, the authors who accepted our decisions and suggestions with good grace, and sally beech, who has done a marvellous job in putting the final journal together. we look forward to our readers’ response to this issue and to completing our commission by producing, in due course, the second issue for 2002. goran runeson rick best july 2001 ajceb[vol4,no1] �� ,�� *�� )�� "��#�a'��?��6b ?; "//&��)'$)� �� #�-��#��!�� ; (�=�� -��! )�� -��&�� g0�$%�h�� $�� %� � � ��::�.. ��-�� g�� #�� $�� %� �� h �� #�"��#��!��)�� ; ��.� ��)�� ?��6qqc�� =�� =�� -��-� ��%�� -��# ��#�� .�� .�-�� $��.�� =�� $�� %� � � ��g�$%�h�� . �� # �� .��-�� -��#� �� =�� (.�-�� ;�� "�� g�"�h� �� .�� .�-�� %��=�� $%��. ��.�� -� ��%��-�� =�� .�� -��#��-�� 6qqc�� -�� ; �� . � � �� .�-�� 6qqc�� . � �� #�� ..�� .��4�� # ��-�� $%� 1�� ;�� -�� $%�� #�� .�-�� .�� d�=�� . ��d� �� $ �� .�� %� ��-��!��#� �� 4�� =�� 6qqc�� .�� !�� .�� ;� �� .�-�� .�-�� .�� .�-�� #�� -�� !��#�� ; ��$ ��8?�� .�� l�!��#� �� m� ��l#� 3��#�� m� ��l� ��! �� m $ �� #�� ;� ��-�� .�� .�-�� viewpoint a theory of construction management? gerard de valence, (university technology of sydney, australia) theory the links between construction management (cm), and for that matter construction economics (ce) and theory, are not strong (see de valence 2011). this may be one of the reasons why they have not gained complete acceptance as academic disciplines and are not seen as distinct branches of management and economics respectively. another reason may be that products and production (the focus of management and economic theories respectively) are not the same as projects and project management in general, and construction projects and cm in particular. so, are management theories of production product-based or process-based? the emphasis seems to be mainly on the range of methods and techniques available to improve the efficiency with which products are delivered, although many of these products are management decisions or plans. processes are secondary, because they are bundled with the production decision, and despite the appearance of diversity in the range of management theories, the approach taken typically treats the firm as a ‘black box’ that turns inputs into outputs using a range of capabilities (porter 1980). these then are a productbased set of theories. there are a number of economic concepts involved in production theory. the important ones include returns to scale, price elasticity of demand, elasticity of substitution between input factors, and technological change. technological change has the three aspects of rate of technical change, acceleration of technical change over time, and the rate of change of marginal products (of factors). these economic effects come from the underlying production process, or processes, that firms choose between when making production decisions. the economic theory of production focuses on the input demand and output supply functions under a technical constraint that describes a range of production processes available to a firm. in that case, could production theory be relevant to cm, because the delivery of a new building or construction project is clearly about producing something. a relationship between cm and the economic theory of production is plausible because both are concerned with technology choices. however, production theory is complex. the economic theory of production developed out of the classical concern with marginal productivities into a production function focused on substitutability of factors under a technological constraint. can cm be reinterpreted in these terms? would that improve industry performance? can a theory be founded on the characteristics of the industry? a new book from milan radosavljevic and john bennett takes on these questions. construction management strategies: a theory of construction management (2012) attempts to provide that foundation by proposing a theory of construction management which identifies the actions which help construction projects and companies to be efficient. it takes on the challenge of creating a precise, tightly defined model of construction management (cm), using five clearly differentiated methods for the delivery of building and construction projects. it is an ambitious and intellectually bold attempt to introduce new thinking into the field. de valence g (2012) ‘a theory of construction management?’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 95-100 96 what they don’t do is draw on any of the many theories of management or production available. on one hand this seems to be an extreme case of exceptionalism that construction is different from all other industries school of thought. in their defence, on the other hand, radosavljevic and bennett argue that construction is different, because it is complex: projects have a number of interacting teams where outcomes in the future depend on the number of involved teams, the quality of relationships between interacting teams and their performance variability. in addition there is also unpredictable interference which may arise from numerous external factors (p. 77). a theory of cm the authors aim is to provide a “rigorous theory” based on a “tool kit of concepts and relationships” that will improve the efficiency and quality of “construction products”. the distinction between the conventional approach of cm, where contractors deliver projects, and the idea of companies producing a product is an important element in the thinking behind the theory proposed here. a related aim of the book is therefore to raise the viewpoint of cm from projects to the companies that manage projects. following that intention they “identifies and defines the concepts needed to understand cm”. radosavljevic and bennett somewhat self-consciously develop their theory without drawing on general management theories, rather wanting to base their ideas on construction industry projects and practice, which makes these definitions extremely important to their theory of cm and to our understanding of that theory. the concepts are construction products and processes, organizations, interactions and relationships, and learning and performance. the main factors are communication, feedback lops, and how well established relationships are (called internal) or not (called boundary relationships). the definition of cm is “taking responsibility for the performance of a construction organization”, measured by efficiency, which is “inversely related to the waste caused by complexity and external interference which prevent organizations achieving their agreed objectives”. these concepts and definitions are important in the exploration of the theory of cm which is the core of the book. through a series of propositions about cm, cm teams (task groups) and related efficiency conditions they build a detailed description of construction organizations, processes and management. this results in “the basic concepts used in the theory of cm in mathematical terms to provide effective measures of features of construction which have a crucial impact on cm decisions”. these are the six inherent difficulty indicators” (idis), which are the fundamental variables in the theory of cm and are used to determine the most appropriate cm strategy. these idis are: 1. established relationships – consequential relationships between interacting teams that existed before the project started; 2. relationship fluctuation – differences between times during the project with and without established relationships between teams; 3. relationship quality – time teams have spent previously working together; 4. relationship configuration – the pattern of team interactions over the project (this is a quite complex indicator because it can vary greatly over time, i.e. during a project); 5. performance variability – team performance may not be consistent between projects; 6. external interference – factors outside the control of the project managers. project size is measured in the number of team days, because “cm is concerned with the selection and organization of teams”. this results in a set of five size groups, from minor (100 team days) to normal (5,000 team days) to mega (25,000 team days). the theory then guides the choice of cm strategy for a project and the idis can check the effect of selecting a particular strategy for that project. here cm strategy is the approach used to deliver the project, and the five “major cm approaches currently used in practice” are: de valence g (2012) ‘a theory of construction management?’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 95-100 97 1. traditional construction – includes the uk’s “developed traditional construction” or architect led version, and the us (specialist contractor design) and european (architect and engineers design) versions; 2. design build – a single point of responsibility for delivery of the project; 3. management approachesdesign and management teams working under the general direction of the client; 4. partnering – concentrates on establishing effective relationships rather than roles and responsibilities, and can be a strategic or ongoing relationship; 5. total construction service – industrialised building modelled on car manufacturers with an emphasis on reliability, quality and continuous improvement. those familiar with john bennett’s work over the last couple of decades will not be surprised that the japanese construction industry features in the discussion of total construction service. the big five contractors and the industrialised home builders are held up as prime examples of what total service is and how it is delivered. to illustrate the theory they use an interesting case study of a large, family-run german building company. they clearly believe this is the future of the industry, and their theory not surprisingly supports that view. each of the cm approaches is described and discussed in some detail, and a hypothetical project is analysed to quantify the six idis, and from these values get a forecast (prediction?) of the project’s likelihood of successful completion. these discussions demonstrate the application of the theory and the use of the idis. whether all this is a theory in the scientific sense of predictive value can be argued about. if data were gathered on a number of projects, and as the sample increases, the ability of the models six variables (the idis) to predict the “probability of project completion as planned” will become apparent. the theory of lean construction this use of a theory of cm as a series of interactions between teams under internal and external constraints is, as far as i know, a completely new and novel approach to cm, indeed, outside the lean construction (lc) movement there has been limited interest in a, or any, theory of production as applied to the construction industry. that said, lc can be also be thought of as a philosophy, as can be seen in many of the publications by the founder of lc, lauri koskela (his editorial in a 2008 special issue of building research and information on theories of the built environment, that did not include cm, is a good example). in the evolution of koskela’s ideas since the 1992 publication of “application of the new production philosophy to construction” production theory has developed into what is now the transformation-flow-value (tfv) theory (koskela 2000). this is a theory that draws on the management literature and history as its base, and these origins are covered in koskela (2000), where the roots of lc in production theory are explored. koskela and his colleagues argue that: what is needed is a production theory and related tools that fully integrate the transformation, flow and value concepts. as a first step toward such integration we can conceptualise production simultaneously from these three points of view … however, the ultimate goal should be to create a unified conception of production instead. (koskela et. al. 2002: 214). the tfv theory combines three points of view and is built on the insight that there are ‘three fundamental phenomena in production that should be managed simultaneously’. the ideas of lc started with site operations but have been progressively applied to the supply chain, design and cost management and project delivery. these elements are brought together in the lpds. the lpds is detailed by koskela et. al. (2002), and the lc tools and techniques by ballard et. al. (2002). de valence g (2012) ‘a theory of construction management?’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 95-100 98 for the construction industry, the ideas and methods of lc in particular offer an alternative to management theories. there are three reasons, apart from the usefulness of conceptualising production processes in a discipline traditionally preoccupied with practical matters. first, lc was, prior to radosavljevic and bennett, the only theory of production to have been developed specifically for the construction industry, as discussed above in this paper. therefore it provides insights into the range of processes that are involved, based on theory, that lead to propositions that can be tested by application to building and construction projects. the many case studies that have been published at the lc conferences over the years are all tests of the theory and practice of lc. these tests now add to a substantial body of evidence for the effectiveness of lc in a wide range of settings. second, the lean project delivery system (lpds, ballard et. al. 2000) is an integrated approach to managing all the participants and stages of a project, from initiation to operation. other approaches, such as value management, design management and indeed project management, only cover certain stages or a specific stage in the progress from conception to operation of a building, facility or structure. the lpds is a framework starting from the project life-cycle, not adding bits on to achieve a comprehensive looking project plan. thirdly, drawing on lc theory and the lpds as an application of that theory, the way building and construction projects are managed can be reconceptualised using the tools and techniques of lean construction. from the new management methods that lc engenders (for example, the activity definition model and set based design), efficiency and productivity gains that have proved to be so elusive under traditional project management in the construction industry might be realised. these efficiency and productivity gains are also what radosavljevic and bennett are seeking. their book puts forward a coherent model of cm and contains an abundance of propositions (25) that are intended as guidance in decision making, that one assumes would also improve performance. it is notable that they present the japanese construction industry as the most advanced in terms of their theory (in providing a total service), and that lc is founded on the toyota production system and the development of lean production in japan. lean is all about management, as womack, jones and roos (1990) keep reminding us, and is the manufacturing philosophy of the age (see fujimoto 2000 and florida and kenney 2000 for the extent of this). while the underlying vision of lc is an industrialised process of delivering construction projects, what lc is focused on is managing processes to deliver better outcomes. clearly there is some relationship between these theories of cm and lc. application of theory radosavljevic and bennett say in their book that it is “a textbook for students and a checklist and guide of best practice for construction managers”, not a research report. how this can be true of a book that explicitly sets out to develop a theory of cm and “to propose a radical new basis for cm research” is deeply mysterious (these quotes from the preface on page xvii) as they go on to look at theory and its potential consequences for industry and research respectively. radosavljevic and discuss the implications of the theory of cm and the idis for clients, design companies and construction companies and strategies. there are separate sections for the different types of construction companies and specialist contractors. they describe: …the practical implications of the theory of construction management for customers and construction companies. the most complete application of the theory which is also the approach that delivers the highest levels of efficiency is a total construction service … other approaches should be regarded as significant steps towards the greater efficiency provided by a total construction service (p. 229). de valence g (2012) ‘a theory of construction management?’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 95-100 99 this view might not find total industry agreement, many firms are quite comfortable with current industry practices. to argue that “it is understandable to want to use a familiar approach but it ... is worth considering alternatives” (p. 229) rather glosses over the many issues associated with custom and practice that are deeply embedded in the construction industry. the propositions that underpin the theory are also used here to provide “guidance” for decision-making. how practitioners might react to these ideas, and whether and how they are put to use are interesting questions. chapter eleven of their book should get some serious attention from cm researchers. here the authors start with the declaration that traditional project-based cm research be replaced by a “map of every possible construction project based on the reality of cm”. what this actually means is using their key concepts of the number of teams, the quality of their relationships, the complexity and agreed objectives of the project to organize data. this seems an important idea – that cm research has a system of organizing and managing data so comparisons can be made across projects on some other basis than size, type, function and so on. whether this could or should be done following radosavljevic and bennett’s proposals for research is an open question. however, there are two different aspects to this. firstly, their model of construction management sets up a clear research path that should be followed up, and they admit: research data is required which measures each of the key concepts in the theory. related to the map of every possible construction project, this data for many different projects provides the material needed to test the 25 propositions (p. 267). secondly, many of these construction management propositions can be developed into research projects in their own right, and indeed many already have a history of previous publications. for example, team organisation, interaction and communication are all topics in their own right. what radosavljevic and bennett have done, therefore, is to create a framework that a lot of existing cm research can be fitted into, and they have provided greater clarity of context and applicability than hitherto available, and they encourage further research into these topics. that in itself is important, because a few general organizing principles would be very useful in cm. a related point is the data set they envisage could be gathered and put through the model for the five different methods of project delivery. this is not one of the author’s suggestions, because they see these strategies as a choice companies make, rather than as one of the criteria for organizing data. however, using cm strategies with the key concepts seems a logical step to make, and would be a link between traditional cm and their theory. conclusion the upshot of all this is that the theory may turn out to be a significant step forward for cm research, rather than an end point. this is not a criticism, because this is exactly how the development of theories and advancement of knowledge proceeds. the authors have laid out a research agenda and invites testing and further research on their indicators. the claim is that this “would give the cm research community a robust basis for designing and undertaking future research”. there are good reasons for the authors’ confidence that this would advance cm, and equally good reasons to think that there will be a diversity of views on how this could or should be done. this is a debate that would move beyond the well-worn and rather sterile paths of relevance to industry, most appropriate methodology and project typologies. the example research questions radosavljevic and bennett pose are on the elements of the theory: teams, the quality of relationships, performance variability, external interference and agreed objectives, followed by suggestions on research into the idis. because the idi values de valence g (2012) ‘a theory of construction management?’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 95-100 100 are presented as the basis of strategic decisions on the appropriate cm strategy it would seem that this is the most important area for development. given the state of contemporary cm research this is a discussion we need, although not everyone will be convinced by radosavljevic and bennett method and conclusions. i found a lot to like in their argument, while reserving judgment on whether it is a theory or a collection of hypotheses. many of the ideas are adventurous in a field where much of the literature is cautious, and in places it is ambitious in its view of how the industry could be rather than harking back to some idea of past glories. the overall framework it suggests for organizing cm research with its propositions and delivery strategies is an important and original contribution. there are many statements, declarations, descriptions and indeed propositions that will not get universal agreement but it makes many good points, it has a refreshingly different perspective on both past and future cm research, and it is open to discussion and debate. as any theory should be. references ballard, g., tommelein, i., koskela, l. and howell, g. (2002) ‘lean construction tools and techniques’, in best, r. and de valence, g. (eds.) building in value: design and construction, oxford, butterworth-heinemann, 227-255 de valence, g. (2011) ‘theory and construction economics’, in modern construction economics, de valence, g. (ed.). london, taylor and francis, 1-13 florida, r. and kenney, m. (2000) ‘transfer and replication of organizational capabilities: japanese transplant organisations in the us’, in dosi, g., nelson, r.r. and winter, s.g. (eds.) the nature and dynamics of organizational capabilities, oxford, oxford university press fujimoto, t. (2000) ‘evolution of manufacturing systems and ex post dynamic capabilities’, in dosi, g., nelson, r.r. and winter, s.g. (eds.) the nature and dynamics of organizational capabilities, oxford, oxford university press koskela, l. (1992) ‘application of the new production philosophy to construction’, technical report no. 72, center for integrated facilities engineering, dept. of civil engineering, stanford university, ca, september 1992 koskela, l. (2000) an exploration towards a production theory and its application to construction, espoo, vtt building technology. vtt publication 408 koskela, l., howell, g., ballard, g. and tommelein, i. (2002) ‘the foundations of lean construction’, in best, r. and de valence, g. (eds.) building in value: design and construction, oxford, butterworth-heinemann, 211-225 koskela, l. (2008) ‘is a theory of the built environment needed?’, building research and information, 36 (3), 211-15 porter, m.e., (1980) competitive strategy: techniques for analysing industries and competitors, new york, free press radosavljevic, m. and bennett, j. (2012) construction management strategies: a theory of construction management, oxford, wiley-blackwell, 2012 womack, j.p., jones, d.t. and roos, d. (1990) the machine that changed the world: based on the massachusetts institute of technology 5-million dollar 5-year study on the future of the automobile, rawson associates, toronto, collier macmillan ajceb book review book review evaluating sustainable development in the built environment, 2nd edition peter s brandon, patrizia lombardi, wiley-blackwell publishing, 2011, 280 pages, isbn: 978-1-4051-9258-3 (hardcover), aud 125.00 nzd 140.00, usd 96.99, gbp 60.95, euro 79.90 the title of this book being “evaluating sustainable development in the built environment” is ideally suited as the content is directly aligned with the keywords of built environment, development and sustainability. the authors (peter s. brandon and patrizia lombardi) have produced a comprehensive text which addresses one of the major challenges in the built environment, namely how to ensure stakeholders fully understand and implement the rapidly changing area of sustainable development. this second edition has been completely rewritten and updated from the successful first edition, as well as including many new and emerging insights into this field. the book is supported by detailed testimonials from highly regarded academics in different european universities, indicating to the reader this text is worthy of respect before even opening the cover. evaluating sustainable development in the built environment covers 264 pages in approximately a5 page size and is divided into nine chapters. the chapters have been carefully organised into a sequential order which commences with a broad scene setting introduction and then progresses to the complex challenges with sustainable development. at the end of the text is a comprehensive index and is accompanied with a list of relevant websites. the book commences with an informative overview of the two authors and their respective backgrounds, following by a preface by the authors and a single page of acknowledgements. the nine chapters are divided into a smaller number of sub-headings with a reference list and also a bibliography inserted after the last chapter. most chapters also include a summary section which is very helpful to the reader to highlight the pertinent aspects in each chapter. chapter one (setting the context for evaluating sustainable development) introduces the environmental perspective and the varying perceptions about sustainability. the discussion moves to the international policy debate and the impact of sustainability on the built environment, prior to seeking to define what sustainability actually is and discussing management and intervention considerations for sustainable development. chapter two (time and sustainability) examines the complex background to sustainability changing over time and investigates innovation and stability. this chapter investigates the impact of time on sustainable development including the development lifecycle and time in evaluation aspects. there is an extensive review of relevant literature and useful supporting graphs and diagrams are included. following on, chapter three (approaches to evaluation) is concerned with different approaches to addressing sustainability in the built environment. the first part refers to the concept of ‘the natural step’ which precedes a discussion about the concept of community capital. this then moves onto the notion of an ecological footprint and a range of alternative evaluation approaches including reference to accounting frameworks. the summary and conclusions section is comprehensive and neatly encapsulates this chapter’s intent. chapter four (indicators and measures) identifies and examines indicators for measuring progress towards sustainable development. it commences by examining the questions behind why it is critical to evaluate and the differences between traditional and sustainable australasian journal of construction economics and building reed, r (2012) book review, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 93-94 94 development indicators. reference is made to the type of questions required, namely general or specific, and which international indicators are relevant. the chapter concludes with an informative discussion section following by a succinct summary. chapter five (assessment methods) investigates an incredibly delicate area with regards to sustainability in the built environment, namely why assessment is undertaken and what is the optimal approach. a comprehensive table of assessment methods, tools and procedures is included as well as a summary of the main assessment methods, tools and procedures in use. this includes a discussion about environmental impact analysis, strategic environmental assessment, cost-benefit analysis, contingent valuation method, hedonic pricing method and other related approaches. the strengths and weaknesses of each approach are discussed and a summary and conclusion section neatly brings the chapter to a close. chapter six (a proposed framework for evaluating sustainable development) builds on previous five chapters and argues for an optimal framework and the relevant theoretical underpinning that is required. considerable attention is placed on identifying 15 modalities for understanding sustainable development in the built environment accompanied by a discussion about each. also included is a checklist of questions segregated for each modality followed by a section which is aimed at synthesising the results. a summary concludes the chapter. chapter seven (the framework as a structuring tool: case studies) seeks to explain the approach to a multi-modal framework for decision-making by using a series of case studies. each of the four case studies are evaluated in detail and are based on a municipal waste treatment system, a redevelopment of an urban area, a multi-stakeholder urban regeneration project and a strategic plan for a designated city. attention is also placed on the key issues of social reporting and followed by a conclusion and summary section. chapter eight (towards management systems and protocols) begins with a broad discussion about management and the appropriate definition thereof. the argument then moves onto the question of who is a manager and what exactly is the concept of the planning framework. challenges with the management process are examined including possible approaches to management. attention is then placed on ‘the vancouver study’ which examines the concept of a sustainable city in 100 years. the final chapter in the book is chapter nine (education and research) which is designed to examine the largest single challenge facing sustainable development in the built environment, namely how to educate the stakeholders and also undertake meaningful research. the majority of this chapter is written in a general discussion format and focuses on education, which is then accompanied by a section highlighting the importance of having a research agenda. throughout the book there is optimal use of detailed tables, graphs and conceptual diagrams which are referred to frequently throughout the text. each chapter is well written and the authors have successfully produced a book which provides a fluent chapter-by-chapter insight into this changing topic. the book is extremely well organised and set out, which in turn assists the reader to gain an insight into this increasingly important area. the typical reader’s knowledge about sustainability can range from very limited to a relatively expert, since the text is well written and caters for a wide range of stakeholders. in conclusion the text is recommended as direct and informative insight into the otherwise complex area of sustainable development in the built environment. professor richard reed deakin university, australia microsoft word july paper 9.doc sustainability of construction education by brian wood page 106 the australian journal of construction economics & bulding sustainability of construction education brian wood oxford centre for construction management, oxford brookes university, oxford, england introduction and background construction is changing, as heraclitus anticipated in the latter half of the sixth century b.c., when he said “no-one can step twice into the same river, nor touch moral substance twice in the same condition”. thus everything changes, and as handy observed (1989) “change is constant”. the following illustrate a few recent changes in relation to construction materials, methods, and management: • new materials have been developed such as epdm and teflon-coated roofings, photo-chronic and other forms of responsive glazing, microporous paints and self-healing finishes. at the same time there has been a resurgence in interest in ‘old’ or ‘traditional’ materials such as earth and turf, and in recycling materials. • construction methods have moved seemingly inexorably in the direction of greater mechanisation, including in uk with encouragement from the egan task force (1998) a renewed interest in prefabrication which had been in the doldrums since the collapse of roman point in 1969. this trend however is being challenged by the developing agenda for more labour intensive construction as exemplified by work of the research centre for employment creation in construction at the university of the witswatersrand reported at a recent cib symposium (mccutcheon, et al, 1999). • management in and of the construction industry has been influenced by changes in general management theories and techniques. the work of charles handy has already been referred to, and he is but one of hundreds of so-called ‘management gurus’. construction organisations have submitted themselves to de-layering, downsizing and re-engineering, and are currently addressing partnering. loosemore (1999) has questioned such ‘management fads’. there have also been changes in built forms with the development and adoption globally of the ‘skyscraper’, the ‘business park’ as successor to the industrial estate, and the edge-of-town supermarket superseding the corner shop. building standards, as represented by regulations and codes, have been increasing as living standards have risen, and more aspects of construction controlled. for instance in uk regulation of thermal insulation was introduced in the 1970s and has been progressively improved at intervals since. however, while standards ‘on paper’ may have improved, there remains indications that work on site does not always measure up. for instance at the launch of the uk construction quality forum in november 1993, the building research establishment (bre) reported that “each year, defects or failures in design and construction cost members of the construction industry more than £1,000 million (latham, 1994, p.79). latham and egan, and many before them, have suggested a target of zero defects, constructing right first time. there are related concerns that construction craft skills may not be available in the quantity of quality required. a study carried out in oxfordshire, uk (wood, 1999a) showed that not only were traditional skills in bricklaying and carpentry in short supply sustainability of construction education by brian wood the australian journal of construction economics and building page 107 but that there were serious shortfalls in it literacy and business skills. a study by the uk construction industry training board estimated that an increase in formal places of around 25% over the years 1999-2003 would be required to meet shortfalls (citb, 1999). this situation is influenced to some extent by an increased rate of “staying on” at school beyond the official school leaving age of 16 years. the uk government has been encouraging students to stay on and to aim for university, and this has resulted in less young people available for craft training. (cib, 1998, p.18). at the same time there is increasing demand for higher qualifications in construction. whilst there has long been an expectation of degree level education for a chartered surveyor or civil engineer, degrees in construction management are relatively younger, and it was only from 1994 that the uk chartered institute of building (ciob) has expected its candidates for professional membership to come through accredited honours degree courses. there has also been growth in postgraduate education; such courses are important for the profile and zone of universities and for the subject areas within them. within an industry where there are many in management positions, or aspiring to them, without graduate level qualifications there is a potential market to be served. for these people, undergraduate courses are unattractive, requiring several years of study and disruption, whether studying full-time or part-time, to achieve a qualification only the same as new entrants to the industry. by contrast, candidates with several years of industrial experience are welcomed onto postgraduate courses which are normally completed in one or two years, arranged possibly with short block visits for teaching and tutorials, and with a focus on self-directed learning. often such students find this kind of study, its level and quality of organisation required, especially time-management, more demanding than anticipated. these problems have been discussed in previous work by the author (wood et al, 1998). although not covered further here, such issues may contribute to the sustainability or otherwise of particular forms or formats of education provision. the poor image of construction is also an inhibition to people deciding to take up construction education. although efforts are being made to redress this, for instance in the uk through the setting up of a pan-industry national construction careers group, it is likely to be some time before construction careers will have the cachet of those in medicine and law. the fragmentation of the construction industry as observed by latham and egan is also unhelpful to construction education as it is reflected in recruitment to separately defined courses for each of the professional disciplines. the disciplines seem to find it as difficult to study together as they do to work together, although there is hope through “common learning outcomes” promulgated through the uk construction industry board (cib, 1996). each of these issues impinges upon the sustainability of construction education. implications for future development are discussed under three main foci: • the construction education market • satisfying needs: students as customers • courses of action markets construction education has a creditable tradition of serving constructing industry through courses designed to meet its needs at a range of levels through a variety of modes. the vocationality of construction education has been both a strength and a drawback; there are few who will study construction without expecting to pursue a career in the construction industry. sustainability of construction education by brian wood page 108 the australian journal of construction economics & bulding a study of construction academics (boshoff-wood, 1996) identified that around half of them did not see themselves as part of the construction industry. employability is a significant issue. course design will often include employers as part of the development team and/or as advisors, and they will be represented on validation, accreditation and quality assessment panels. course content and delivery modes are expected to be industrially relevant. there is a long history in construction, of study through ‘day-release’ programmes. thus many construction courses are already contributing significantly to universities’ missions as they endeavour to provide more diverse routes through higher education. there is also a significant proportion of mature students on construction courses, helping universities provide broader access to higher education. full-time students of construction are also generally expected to undertake a period of at least nine months of “industrial training”, which is often seen by students as the time in which they learned most, relating theory to practice and vice versa. this ‘sandwich’ course approach is highly valued by students and employers, and in this way both are kept up to date with developments, and this informs course content and curriculum, and contributes to sustainability. this experience with undergraduate and sub-degree programmes has helped inform the development of postgraduate or masters level courses. as the undergraduate market has matured and become saturated, especially as demand shrinks at time of recession in the construction market, so there has been increased focus on masters course developments, which are also seen as an important contributor to “profile”, and status within the academic framework. it is not yet certain that there is a sustainable market for masters courses, but that does not appear to be inhibiting their development. there is certainly a substantial body of people undertaking roles in the industry for which a masters level qualification would be appropriate; and the industry would benefit from more people better qualified in strategic planning, leadership and direction of the firm. however, ‘the jury is out’ on how many of these have the ‘right stuff’ for successful study at this level. courses have certainly been designed to appeal to this market and to facilitate study by construction managers. programmes are generally modular and offer a hierarchy of qualifications through certificate and diploma to masters, although often the ‘intermediate’ qualifications are seen as ‘fallbacks’ for students unable for whatever reason to see the course through. in the uk, this apparent “compensation for failure at another level” is proposed to be disallowed (qaa, 1999). credit is normally available for prior learning either by previous study or by experiential learning; these are attractive attributes for students trying to minimise the duration and costs of their studies. flexibility and open learning are also watchwords, enabling and encouraging students to bring to bear their often extensive experience to their benefit and that of their fellow students in discussing alternative approaches and solutions to problems they may have had at work. at the same time, some institutions have invested in trying to reach a wider market through the use of distance learning material, particularly in endeavouring to reach previously unreached markets, for instance in east asia. whether such approaches are sustainable is also open to question, for instance if substantial workbooks or their modern web-based equivalents are to be created and kept up to date. sustainability of construction education by brian wood the australian journal of construction economics and building page 109 the size of the global market may be helpful – it is certainly seductive – but global competition can be fierce and the recipe for success is uncertain. whether this market can be reached and served successfully is not yet proven, let alone whether this form of educational provision is sustainable. a number of issues related to the use of electronic media in a masters course have been discussed by the author elsewhere (wood, 1999b). students as customers the profile of construction students in terms of age, entry qualifications, gender, etc is not ‘typical’ of university students generally. few uk construction management students come direct from school with gce ‘a’ levels; these are generally a minority. broadly similar numbers of undergraduate students come to university after completing construction courses at further education college having left school at 16 rather than 18 years of age, or as mature students from industry with qualifications gained some years previously or with no formal qualification. however, the withdrawal of student maintenance grants and the requirement to pay fees is bringing changes to the nature of the ‘contract’ between the student and the education provider. students must be expected to become increasingly demanding and discerning and attention will need to be given to disparate and differing needs. increased competition for students may also be expected as institutions look to retain and enlarge their market. it will be important for institutions to ‘sell’ their courses, but not to ‘over-hype’ them. to take on too many students, or too many that are under-qualified or under-equipped to cope with the course, or students with unrealistic expectations, must be expected to bring problems in service delivery and dissatisfaction. seeing students as ‘customers’ with rights and expectations to be satisfied may be difficult enough for some, let alone actually achieving customer satisfaction. how sustainable will courses be in this customer focused context when they were designed to meet criteria determined by providers who ‘knew best’? satisfying needs (or wants?) it has been said (kotler et al, 1996) that “marketing must be understood not in the old sense of making a sale – ‘selling’ – but in the new sense of satisfying customer needs”. so what is the ‘need’ for construction education? and does this differ from ‘wants’ for construction education? there may be serious mismatches between what the construction industry needs and what students want. struggling with structures and scientific calculations are such areas of conflict. identifying needs is a necessary prerequisite to trying to meet them; this needs market research, something to which universities have not traditionally needed to apply themselves a great deal. as new courses are developed, and existing courses reviewed, their marketability will need to be assessed. endeavouring to open a course up to ‘market segments’ not previously targeted or served may mean significant changes in direction. items to address will include for instance: • course content • sequence and status of material • assessment regimes • delivery modes • accreditation needs in relation to content for instance, sustainability is definitely an important global issue at this time; however it is suggested that courses with the word ‘environmental’ in the title are attracting sustainability of construction education by brian wood page 110 the australian journal of construction economics & bulding less applicants than previously; more investigation would be warranted here. regarding course structures and organisation, modularity has facilitated students being able to “mix-and-match” and pursue a personalised programme. module content has to be considered in the context of what a student may or may not have already covered. increasingly, module leaders are in competition, seeking to maximise take up of ‘their’ module by making it ‘sexy’. there are also effects on assessment regimes. examinations may not be popular with students, but they can be more “resource-efficient” with regard to staff-time in marking them by comparison with coursework assignments that may represent the result of many hours of student effort. on the other hand, an examination directly on the end of a short block visit may be more “time-efficient” for a student than trying to ‘find time for’ and ‘fit in’ the research necessary for a satisfactory and satisfying piece of coursework. there may also be conflicts between student wants and the demands of accrediting professional bodies. there is often perceived pressure from the latter for a fuller and more prescriptive syllabus, which may cut across the facilitation of a student’s wish, or want, to pursue a particular area, and for which he or she is “paying good money”. review of course content is a familiar and routine exercise. syllabi are regularly revisited and it would be an exceptional course that had not for instance incorporated ‘sustainability’ somewhere into it. in the current marketplace irrelevant syllabus would be unsustainable. some institutions have responded to the marketplace by developing online webbased courses. in a commercially competitive world it is difficult to obtain definitive figures on costs and returns on investment. however, a study at kansas state university, comparing a distance learning course with the on-campus course from which it was developed concluded that “…based on 1997 enrolments, variable costs such as faculty time per student are larger and revenues per course are smaller for distance learning relative to on-campus instruction” (burton, 1998). it is questionable whether the kind and level of input required to start up and maintain bespoke on-line teaching materials is sustainable. an on-line course on sustainability may make an interesting combination of medium and message. information technology more generally offers a range of opportunities, including for instance ‘renewable learning resources’. the author’s experience in this field using existing online databases, websites and mailing-lists suggests this is a viable and effective vehicle for facilitating sustainable construction education. courses of action the relatively new and developing context of a more discerning and demanding student is driving a response that features a greater apparent student centredness as a route towards a greater certainty of customer satisfaction. the benefit of learning by doing, as opposed to just listening to ‘teacher’ or note-taking, has long been recognised. it is also suggested that learning from mistakes is significant. as samuel smiles put it (1859) “we learn wisdom from failure much more than from success. we often discover what will do by finding out what will not do; and probably he who never made a mistake never made a discovery”. governments and others trying to induce greater innovation and invention need environments created that are facilitative; some institutions will find this difficult. perhaps a relatively ‘soft’ way of learning is to learn from the experiences of others, including their mistakes. universities are currently much focused on research and sustainability of construction education by brian wood the australian journal of construction economics and building page 111 publication; a ‘student-centred’ agenda can be aligned with this. sometimes this student-centredness is expressed as the ‘bofo’ model, where the student is encouraged to ‘go away and find out’. at its crudest this model may suggest a student finding out in a library that which a lecturer may otherwise have delivered, but that is to neglect much of the opportunity. a ‘learning contract’ where an individual student negotiates his or her own learning has much to commend it. in essence the student identifies a topic, how he or she intends to investigate it and what the outcome will be, and agrees this with the tutor. this ‘contract’ could be renegotiated if necessary along the way. the author’s experience with learning contracts indicates that students are wellmotivated by the method – they ‘own’ the project – and that the approach is capable of producing good and interesting outcomes. to an extent, the students become ‘researchers’ (and they learn from the process as well as the product) and potentially help tutors and other students by identifying material previously unknown and sometimes creating new material through investigation of their employer’s perceptions and practices. this approach has encouraged a focus on current thinking and practice rather than a reliance on material already published. whilst this may put a strain on electronic resources, it relieves pressure on paperbased materials. a downside may be a tendency to pay less attention to historical development, context and theoretical underpinning. thus while the ‘learning contract’ or bofo method may be sustainable from resource or delivery standpoints, there may be concerns around sustainability of quality outcomes. while it is notoriously difficult to confirm or refute suggestions that students are not “what they used to be”, feedback from employers has confirmed that useful outcomes have been achieved, that students have produced material that they value and that the students have themselves developed through the process. conclusions construction is changing, and so is the market for construction education. construction education providers are responding to this changing context, recognising students as customers to be valued and satisfied. courses need to be designed and reviewed in the context of what and how students want to study. this is likely to have an increasing influence on course content and delivery mechanisms. the ‘bofo’ principle, by which students are encouraged and enabled to ‘go away and find out’ what is needed to meet a learning outcome which he or she has negotiated with a tutor (and possibly their employer too) is capable of producing good results, using renewable resources and delivering sustainable construction education. more information is required on the costs and benefits of distance and on-line educational forms and the author would be keen to participate electronically and face-to-face in an exercise to bring together such global experiences. references burton, r o (1998) costs and benefits of increasing access to a traditional agricultural economics course. american journal of agricultural economics, december 1998, v80(5) pp.979-984. boshoff-wood, e (1996) responses to email questionnaire (unpublished). construction industry board (1996) educating the professional team, thames telford, london. construction industry board (cib), (1998) strategic review of construction skills training, thomas telford, london. sustainability of construction education by brian wood page 112 the australian journal of construction economics & bulding construction industry training board (1999), construction employment and training forecast 1999-2003, citb, january 1999. egan, sir j, (1998) rethinking construction, hmso, london. handy, c (1989), the age of unreason. harvard business school press, boston. kotler et al (1996) principles of marketing: london: prentice hall, p6. latham, sir m (1994) constructing the team, hmso, london. loosemore, m (1999) the problem with business fads in proceedings of second international conference on construction process reengineering (cpr 99), university of new south wales, sydney, september 1999, pp355-363. mccutcheon, r t, van steenderen, w p c, quainoo, h a and taylor parkins, f l m, (1999) research centre for employment creation in construction: innovative research and education in proceedings of customer satisfaction: a focus for research and practice in construction: joint triennial symposium of cib commissions w65 and w55, cape town, september 1999 (cd-rom). quality assurance agency (qaa) (1999) consultative paper on higher education qualifications frameworks – qaa, bristol, october 1999. smiles, s (1859) self help. wood, b r, boshoff-wood, e and hallenberg, t (1998) distance learning: a mechanism for just in time construction education in proceedings of cobra 98, oxford, rics, london, september 1998, vol. 1, pp.124-132. wood, b r (1999a) construction skills training in oxfordshire, oxford brookes university, february 1999. wood, b r (1999b) just in time construction management education in proceedings of the australasian university building education association (aubea), university of western, sydney, july 1999, pp37-45. the australian journal of construction economics and building [vol 5, no 1] � 1 application of project time management tools and techniques to the construction industry in the gaza strip nabil el sawalhi (united nations relief and work agency, gaza, palestine) and adnan enshassi (civil engineering department, the islamic university of gaza, palestine) abstract the objective of this paper is to investigate the level of applying the project time management tools and techniques by public owners and construction contractors in the gaza strip. this study has been conducted by means of a survey questionnaire. seventythree questionnaires were distributed to target construction contractors and twenty-five questionnaires to public owners. sixty completed questionnaires from contractors and twenty-three questionnaires from public owners were received and analysed. the survey results indicated that contemporary project time management tools and techniques are not widely used among local contractors and owners. lack of subcontractor’s knowledge and awareness of the importance of project time management tools and techniques are still major obstacles toward the efficient utilisation of such tools. this study recommended that there is an urgent need to establish a professional industry body such as an institute of building to review and evaluate existing local project management practices. this professional body may be established by the government through the ministry of housing and public works or by the local university in cooperation with a similar international professional industry body. current training effort should be tailored to encourage owners and contractors to use work breakdown structures, resource optimisation, and network scheduling. keywords: management tools, contractors, owners, time, gaza strip. introduction the gaza strip, with an area of 365km2 and a total population of 1.1 million, is located on the south eastern coast of the mediterranean sea. toward the east and north the gaza strip is bordered by israel, on the south it is bordered by egypt and on the west by the mediterranean sea. its length is about 45km and the width is 6km in the north with maximum width of 12km in the south (fafo report, 1993). the gaza strip demographic growth rate is among the highest in the world (world bank, 2001). the palestinian economy may be characterised by its limited size. in 1999, gdp accounted for approximately us $ 4.15 billion and the gdp per capita reached approximately us $ 1,500. the gnp per capita was higher, around us $ 1,800, given the large inflow of remittances from palestinian workers in israel and international aid. by using gnp or gdp criteria, the west bank and gaza strip is ranked within the group of lower middle income countries, while the demographic growth rate is among the highest in the world (world bank, 2001). the construction sector in palestine had experienced a considerable growth following the aftermath of the 1967 war. in 1994, the construction sector represented 26% of the gdp (pecdar, 1997). however, in 1998, it appears that the contribution of the construction sector to the gdp has been reduced to 11% (pcbs, 2000). by the fall of 1996, the construction sector was employing 13% of palestinian workers (mas, 2001). later, many projects were launched under the control of the palestinian authority. it has been noticed that project management becomes all the more important in the construction industry of the gaza strip due to the increase in the number, size and complexity of the projects. the local practices indicate that a lot of failures have occurred in a considerable number of contracting companies during the last ten years, which makes it very important to investigate existing project management practices. the political, economic and cultural conditions in the gaza strip, in addition to the lack of planning and weak performance of both public owners and contractors, have left their marks on the project management industry. the unpredictable success or failure of major contracting companies, the long delays of important projects, and the low quality of some projects reflect an ambiguous picture on the practices used in project management (enshassi, 1997). this paper is intended to explore the project time management practices used by public owners and construction contractors in the gaza strip and to identify the major obstacles towards the efficient utilisation of those practices. background of programme management tools abbasi and al-mharmah (2000), hutchings and christofferson (2000; 2001), yang et al. 1997, shash and al-abdullatif (1993), white and fortune (2002), and kazi (2002) have examined various schedule management tools and techniques. they have selected and identified seven time management tools and techniques as the most popular tools among others. these tools include work breakdown structures, bar charts and linked bar charts, critical path method, resource levelling, schedule crashing and schedule updating, and have been adopted in this study. shash and al-abdullatif (1993) have investigated planning, scheduling, and controlling (psc) techniques in saudi arabia. they concluded that the bar chart is the most popular planning technique; the graphical program evaluation and review technique has never been used at all. abbasi and al-mharmah (2000) has conducted their research in jordan, which is quite similar to the gaza strip in terms of project features. among numerous management tools and techniques, program evaluation and review technique (pert), activity on arrow (aoa), activity on node (aon), bar chart, organisational breakdown structure (obs), work breakdown structure (wbs), critical path method (cpm) and resource levelling have been investigated. also the researchers asked about the obstacles towards the implementation of project management tools and techniques. the researchers concluded that the most significant obstacle in implementing project management tools is the lack of knowledge of project management techniques. the gantt chart is the most widely used tool because of its simplicity and applicability in all phases. the use of networks is considerably low. almost two-thirds of the investigated sample reveals that neither wbs nor obs are utilised. finally, the researchers concluded that the appropriate the australian journal of construction economics and building [vol 5, no 1] � use of project management tools and concepts is one of the major factors affecting the economic performance so that more attention should be given to establish specifications and more focus should be given on training for employees. methodology this study has been conducted by means of a survey questionnaire. seventy-three questionnaires were distributed to selected construction contractors and twenty-five questionnaires to public owners in the gaza strip. sixty completed questionnaires from contractors and twenty-three questionnaires from public owners were received and analysed. the total number of contractors in the gaza strip who have valid registration with the contractor’s union (categorised under first, second and third category) are 90 enterprises. the ‘first’ class contractors are assigned to large projects while ‘third’ class contractors are assigned to small projects. for example, first level class contractors should have completed projects not less than 6 million us dollars during the last ten years. the main criteria for classification are related to company previous experience, capital, the value of executed projects, staffing and financial situation during the last ten years. the lists of contractors are published annually and the qualification of contractors is reviewed every two years by the national committee for contractors classification. the samples were selected randomly from each level of three contractor’s categories. for analysing the data of an ordinal scale, an importance index (i) was used. the importance index was computed using the following equation. where: i = importance index; a i = donstant expressing the weight of the ith response, where a i = 0, 1, 2, 3 respectively [if the first level of ranking, rate nonuse/no importance (mezher and tawil, 1998)]; x i = frequency of the ith response given as a percentage of the total responses for each cause; i = response category index where i = 1, 2, 3, 4,… . the importance index (i) for all causes was calculated. the indexes were ranked for public owners and contractors. the group index is the average of factors in each group. the agreement between the rankings of any two parties was measured using the spearman’s rank correlation test which will be conducted using the spss statistical program. results and discussion study population characteristics the characteristics of study population are outlined in table 1. more than half of the public owner’s organisations (57%) were established before the existence of the palestinian national authorities (pna), while more than three-quarters of the contracting companies (79%) were established after 1994, following the establishment of pna. this means that most contracting companies have limited construction experience which is likely to affect the level of use of project management tools characteristics owners total contractors total no. % no. % year of establishment before 1994 13 57 23 12 21 58 1994 – 1995 6 26 32 55 after 1995 4 18 14 24 field of work building 19 83 23 59 98 60 water & drainage 16 70 33 55 roads 16 70 33 55 others 14 61 7 12 education (level of experience) ph.d. 4 18 22 4 7 60 m.sc. 13 57 12 20 b.sc. 23 100 60 100 diploma 20 91 57 95 employees specialisation civil 21 100 21 57 97 59 architect 14 67 31 53 electrical engineering 16 76 20 34 mechanical engineering 13 62 18 31 technician 18 86 49 83 the total number of respondents=83, 23 owners and 60 contractors. missing number was due to not answering some questions. table 1: summary of the main characteristics of the study population i = ai × x i n −1i=1 n ∑ the australian journal of construction economics and building [vol 5, no 1] � and techniques (pmtt). furthermore, the sudden increase in establishing new contracting companies after the arrival of pna indicated that most of the new companies were very optimistic about getting more projects. nearly all contracting companies (98%) and 83% of public owners are involved in building works, while close to 70% of the owners and 55% of contractors were working in water, drainage, and road fields. all owners and contractors were employing people who have b.sc. degrees, while 18% of the owners and 7% of the contractors were employing employees who have ph.d.’s. in addition, 57% of the owners and 20% of the contractors have employed persons who hold m.sc. degrees. as shown in figure 1, very few owners (8%) have less than 14 employees, while 29% of the contractors have less than 7 employees. around half of the contractors (52%) have 7-14 employees. almost all the owners (91%) have more than 14 employees. meanwhile only a small number of the contractors (19%) have more than 14 employees. this means that the majority of the contractors are categorised as small-size companies, which will limit the volume and capacity of the work done by them. the small volume of projects, the seasonality of work and uneven work volume may explain the small size of the contracting firms. it was found that there is a very weak correlation between the number of employees of respondent organisations and the use of time management tools and techniques. this can be explained by the fact that organisations employ a small number of persons. figure 1: distribution of respondents by number of employees figure 2: distribution of respondent contractors by their classification the study population comprises of 23 public owners (28%) which represents 92% of the total public owner population, while the 60 respondent contractors represent 82.2% of the contractors sample size. regarding the classification of each respondent contracting company, figure 2 illustrates that 60% of the companies were grouped in the first class, 30% of them were grouped in the second class, while only 10% of the contracting companies were grouped in the third class. this distribution shows that the stratum of the first class contractors is very high when compared with other categories. 4% 4% 91% 29% 52% 19% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% < 7 7 to 14 > 14 numb ers of emp loyees ow ners contrac tors the australian journal of construction economics and building [vol 5, no 1] � figure 3 shows the distribution of the respondents’ positions, with 73% of respondents being either president, or vice president. the higher position of the respondents will give credible confidence in the quality of answers and also express the respondents’ concern to deal seriously with this research. it was found that there is no significant difference in relation to the position of respondents and the use of pmtt. however, project managers have a higher concern about rating time management tools and techniques. this can be explained as project managers have a greater awareness and knowledge of these tools. other reasons may be that project managers are the persons who are more qualified than others in implementing project management techniques. figure 3: distribution of respondent’s position time management tools and techniques degree of usage n o u a total work breakdown structure no. 36 17 14 14 81 % 44 21 17 17 bar chart no. 16 24 21 20 81 % 20 30 26 24 linked bar chart no. 12 17 18 36 83 % 14 21 22 43 networks (aoa/aon) no. 73 6 0.0 3 82 % 89 7.3 0.0 3 updating time schedule no. 4 19 29 31 83 % 5 23 35 37 crashing time schedule no. 19 48 9 5 81 % 23 59 11 6 resource allocation and levelling no. 32 31 10 9 82 % 39 38 12 11 (n = never used, o = occasionally, u = usually, a = always) table 2: degree of using time management tools and techniques use of time management tools and techniques it is found that 44% of the study population (table 2) has ‘never’ used wbs, while only 17% of the study population ‘always’ used wbs. the low use of wbs may be attributed to the unawareness of its importance and due to the lack of knowledge about its application. when asked about scheduling construction activities the respondents indicated that linked bar charts are used more frequently (frequently is used to indicate both the ‘usually’ and ‘always’ scale) than bar charts. that is, about two-thirds of participants (65%) were ‘frequently’ using linked bar charts, while half of the respondents (51%) were ‘frequently’ using bar charts. networks (aoa/aon) were ‘frequently’ used by 4% of respondents. the result of this research is supported by the study conducted by abbasi and al-mharmah (2000) and yang et al. (1997). the study conducted by white and fortune (2002) in the uk showed a higher use of wbs and network scheduling than other research studies. however, the gaza strip owners and contractors are the lowest in using networks among jordan, pudong and the uk. it is observed that network scheduling consumes more time in preparation than other methods of scheduling. also, perhaps the size, the volume and complexity of projects in the gaza strip direct the planners to use simple tools rather than others. furthermore, there is no tendency from owners or consultants to request network schedules. the australian journal of construction economics and building [vol 5, no 1] � also of interest was the fact that nearly three-quarters of the study population (72%) was ‘frequently’ updating their time schedules. one of the main reasons for extensively using this tool is due to the prevailing situation in gaza strip. that is, the frequent delay of construction projects due to closures and shortage of materials forces organisations to frequently update their time schedules. in addition, the use of the computer in project scheduling makes updating an easy task. on the other hand, only 17% of the study population was ‘frequently’ crashing the time schedule. around half of the respondents (48%) were ‘occasionally’ crashing the time schedule. approximately ten percent of organisations were always using the resource allocation and levelling technique. the study population does not extensively use resource allocation and levelling. only around a quarter of the study population was frequently using this tool. this result is similar to the study conducted by abbasi and al-mharmah (2000) in jordan. the argument is that the low use of the resource allocation tool results from extensive use of subcontractors. that is, the responsibility of resource allocation is transferred to them. furthermore, resource allocation may consume considerable efforts and may need a wide range of data during the planning stage that is not dealt with seriously by whilegaza strip organisations. as shown in table 3, updating time schedules is the most widely used tool by both parties. linked bar charts are rated second while bar charts are third. it is clear that the least used tool is network scheduling. tools & techniques owners contractors index rank index rank updating time schedule 73 1 67 1 linked bar chart 65 2 64 2 bar chart 58 3 49 3 work breakdown structure 40 4 34 4 resource allocation and leveling 33 6 31 5 crashing time schedule 32 5 34 6 network scheduling 9 7 5 7 table 3: ranking for using time management tools and techniques organisation t p v contractor owner mean % mean % 2.22 55.5 2.37 59.3 -1.081 0.283 * statistically significant table 4: mean values for groups of project management tools and techniques the spearman’s rank correlation test for agreement on ranking time practices indicated that there is a very strong correlation between owners and contractors (rho = 0.964). that is, both parties are strongly agreed on the ranking of these factors. the t-test identified that the correlation is significant at the 0.01 level, which directs to reject the null hypothesis h0(r) = 0. both owners and contractors generally agreed on the ranking of using time tools and techniques. therefore, the level of using the time tools by both owners and contractors is generally equal. the equal use of time practices can be interpreted that there is a mutual concern between owners and contractors about using such practices. they may also have an equal knowledge about using these tools. to find out the mean values of using pmtt for owners and contractors, the average scores for degree of using time tools have been calculated as shown in table 4. a t-test was conducted to compare the mean value of using pmtt. owners showed a slightly higher preference in using time tools than contractors. however, the t-test revealed no significant differences between both parties (pv > 0.05). moreover, one can say that the level of using time tools is generally far from satisfactory. the low level of using time practices (less than 60%) may be linked to several factors. the first is the general low awareness and lack of knowledge about the use of such tools among the study sample. the second factor is the lack of experience of the study population in using time practices. the third factor is that the contract documents do not include requirements for an extensive use of time practices. the australian journal of construction economics and building [vol 5, no 1] � considering the necessity of time practices, figure 4 and figure 5 illustrate the frequency of each time tool in this regard. about half of the contractors (48%) believe that wbs is ‘required’ while 71% of the owners believe this. close to two-thirds of the owners considered ‘bar charts’ and ‘linked bar charts’ as ‘required’ a majority of the contractors (92%) and owners (89%) considered networks to be ‘optional’. most of the owners and contractors considered updating time schedules to be ‘required’ while about two-thirds of the owners and contractors regarded schedule crashing to be ‘optional’. the chi square analysis demonstrates that there were no statistical significant differences between owners and contractors in evaluation of the above. 58.6 73 84.7 71.9 69.5 28.1 30.5 8.5 48 15.3 27 41.4 52 91.5 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 work breakdown structure bar chart linked bar chart networks (aoa/aon) schedule updating schedule crashing resources allocation & level percentage (%) optional required figure 4: necessity of time tools (contractors’ perspective) 71 69.5 65 83 63.6 59.1 17 40.9 36.4 95.74.3 35 30.5 29 0 20 40 60 80 100 work breakdown structure bar chart linked bar chart networks (aoa/aon) schedule updating schedule crashing resources allocation & level percentage (%) optional required figure 5: necessity of time tools (owners’ perspective) obstacles towards non-efficient utilisation of pmtt owners identified “lack of well trained employees” as the most significant obstacle to the non-efficient utilisation of project management tools and techniques (table 5), while contractors considered “lack of subcontractors knowledge” to be the top obstacle. however, owners regarded this factor as the fourth priority. the difference in rating indicates a different perception in judging the obstacles by both parties since owners have no direct working relationships with subcontractors. with the extensive use of subcontracts on gaza strip projects, the contractor respondents appear to blame subcontractor lack of knowledge as the main obstacle. the argument is that most contracting organisations are heavily dependent on the subcontracting approach in executing their projects. training subcontractors is an important issue for better utilisation of project management tools and techniques. the contractors’ union, in the absence of a regulatory body for subcontractors, is held responsible for maintaining and improving subcontractor performance. furthermore, owners considered ‘lack of consultants knowledge on applying pmtt’ to be the second most important issue, while contractors regarded it to be the third. owners considered “employees resistance to change” to be lowest priority, while contractors reported ‘lack of top management commitment’ to be the lowest priority. the australian journal of construction economics and building [vol 5, no 1] � factor owners contractors freq. rank freq. rank lack of well trained employees 70 1 42 4 unawareness of the importance of pmtt 57 3 60 2 lack of consultant capable of helping applying pmtt 57 3 42 4 lack of subcontractors’ knowledge 52 4 65 1 lack of top management commitment 44 5 13 8 increasing the cost of implementation 35 6 25 6 inadequate knowledge of pmtt 35 7 30 5 employee resistance to change 31 8 20 7 table 5: ranking of obstacles to non-efficient utilisation of pmtt obstacles organisation pv contractor owner total no. % no. % no. % lack of top management commitment yes 8 13 10 44 18 22 0.003* no 52 87 13 57 65 78 lack of well trained employees on pmtt yes 25 42 14 61 39 47 0.117 no 35 58 9 39 44 53 increasing the cost of implementation yes 15 25 8 35 23 28 0.373 no 45 75 15 65 60 72 *statistically significant table 6: relationship between type of organisation and obstacles o non-efficient implementation of pmtt there are significant differences in the lack of top management commitment (table 6) at pv = 0.003, between owners and contractors. a total of 57% of owners and 87% of contractors did not believe that ‘lack of top management commitment’ is an obstacle. this may imply that most of the contractor representatives in the survey were from the top management of the companies, so it was difficult for them to blame top management commitment. on the other hand, more than half of the contractors (59%) did not agree that ‘lack of well trained employees’ could represent an obstacle, while 61% of the owners supported the opposite. the statistical test revealed no significant differences (pv = 0.117). the second highest obstacle was ‘unawareness of importance of pmtt’. while owners supported the non-existence of well-trained employees to be the most essential obstacle, they ranked “training program provision” to be the ninth out of ten factors responsible for the successful implementation of pmtt. this can be interpreted that owners are not inclined to train employees although they recognise that the “nonexistence of well trained employees” is a major obstacle. they appear to regard training as another party’s responsibility. the owners should be leaders for others in improving the level of employee knowledge and skills by continuous training. the majority of both groups agreed that ‘increasing the cost of implementation’ is not an obstacle with preference to contractors (75%). the results indicate that there was no statistical significance by type of organisation with this factor (pv = 0.373). conclusion there are methods that will facilitate efficient project performance. project time management practices have proven to be an efficient approach, which would help owners and contractors in developing countries in upgrading their management capabilities and enable them to efficiently complete the construction projects and attain development goals. the gaza strip is expected to undergo a significant growth where strategic projects will require better understanding of time management tools and techniques. the use of time management tools and techniques in the construction industry was studied in this research. it can be stated that there is consensus between owners and contractors regarding the application of management tools that the most used time scheduling tool is the linked bar charts, while the least used tool is network scheduling (aoa/aon). on the other hand, the results confirm that the work breakdown structure and resources allocation and levelling are not satisfactorily used. the results revealed that there are no significant differences in using time tools between owners and contractors. the findings show that using time tools is generally below a satisfactory level. the australian journal of construction economics and building [vol 5, no 1] � the obstacles that cause non-efficient use of project management practices were investigated. the most essential obstacles reported by owners are lack of well trained employees, unawareness of the importance of pmtt and lack of local experienced consultants who are able to help in applying pmtt. the contractors have regarded the lack of subcontractor’s knowledge and skills to be the most conspicuous barrier in addition to what owners believe. the palestinian contractors union, engineering syndicates, and continuous education programs should focus more in conducting training courses and seminars for local engineers in order to improve the usage of project management tools and to overcome the identified obstacles towards the non-efficient applications of time management tools. the training courses should be tailored to improve the abilities of using work breakdown structure, resource optimisation, network scheduling, parametric estimating, cost variance analysis, and earned value concepts. the implementation of project management tools and techniques is not seriously considered in the construction industry in the gaza strip. therefore, it is crucial to both owners and construction contractors to take practical measures to benefit from the application of the management tools and techniques. this study recommends that there is an urgent need to establish a professional industry body such as an institute of building to review and evaluate existing local project management practices. this professional body may be conducted by the government through the ministry of housing and public works or by the local university in cooperation with similar international professional industry bodies. further study is recommended to investigate the relationship between the effectiveness of project management tools and cost benefits and effectiveness. references abbasi, g. and al-mharmah, h. (2000), ‘project management by the public sector in a developing country’, international journal of project management, vol.18, no.2, pp.105-109. enshassi, a. (1997), ‘site organization and supervision in housing project in the gaza strip’, international journal of project management, vol.15, no.2, pp.93-99. fafo report (1993), palestine society. hutchings, d.m. and christofferson, j.p. (2000), ‘a study of management practices in small-volume home building companies’, in proceedings of the asc 36th annual conference, purdue university, indiana, pp.211-220. hutchings, d.m. and christofferson, j.p. (2001), ‘management practices of residential construction companies producing 25 and fewer annually’, in proceedings of the asc 37th annual conference, university of denver, colorado, pp.115-121. kazi, a.s. (2002), project planning and control parameter analysis, mail questionnaire. mas (2001), economic monitoring report, palestinian economic policy research institute, (www.palecon.org/masdir/monitor/ monitor.html). mezher, t. and tawil, w. (1998), ‘causes of delays in the construction industry in lebanon’, engineering construction and architectural management journal, vol.5, no.3, pp.251-260. pecdar (1997), housing in palestine, (www.pecdar.org). pcbs (2000), number of enterprises and persons engaged for construction contractors (1995-1999), the palestinian central bureau of statistics, (www.pcbs.org). shash a. and al-abdullatif a.m. (1993), ‘a survey of planning and controlling techniques used by construction contractors in saudi arabia’, cost engineering, vol.35, no.2, pp.95-112. white, d. and fortune, j. (2002), ‘current practice in project management – an imperial study’, international journal of project management, vol.20, no.3. world bank (2001), west bank and gaza in brief, (www. worldbank.org). yang, m.l., chuah, k.b., rao tummala, v.m. and chen, e.h. (1997), ‘project management practices in pudong’, international journal of project management, vol.15, no.5, pp.313-319. microsoft word july paper 2.doc design and build: views from some major public clients in hong kong by a p chan, d c k ho and c m tam page 22 he australian journal of construction economics & building design and build: views from some major public clients in hong kong albert p chan and danny c k ho department of building and real estate, the hong kong polytechnic university and c m tam department of building and construction, city university of hong kong introduction a number of surveys on design and build (d&b) procurement method were conducted recently (e.g. akintoye, 1994; akintoye and fitzgerald, 1995; bennett et al., 1996; songer et al., 1996; mo and ng, 1997; sanvido and konchar, 1998). these studies usually adopted structured questionnaires as the data collection method. respondents were asked to give some factual data on the d&b projects they involved and express their level of agreement on some questions such as “please indicate to what extent you have encountered the following problems in d&b project”. this type of response format can provide satisfactory answers for the “what” and “how” types of questions. by aggregating all the responses, this approach can assemble views from various parties and give a macro view on the overall picture. nevertheless, the survey method is less effective in answering the “why” type questions. it is difficult to gather some rich background information, which is important in the explanation of the subject matter through questionnaires. instead of following the usual way of investigating the views of practitionersusing survey method, this study used interview method to explore two issues. first, this study investigated how some major public clients in hong kong viewed d&b in general. second, it examined their main reasons of adopting d&b or adhering to traditional procurement method. information about the situation under which clients made the procurement selection decision was also collected through interviews. the interview data were compared with secondary archival data, which helps researchers to better understand client’s basis of using a particular procurement type. it is anticipated that this study can complement survey studies on d&b procurement method. this paper is divided into five sections. in the first section, past d&b survey studies with focus on the reasons of using d&b method are reviewed. research methods are described in section two. the views of the hong kong government and three institutional clients (statutory organizations with financial and administrative autonomy) in the public sector on d&b method are presented in section three. more specifically, their rationales of using and not using d&b method together with the situation they faced are described. finally, discussion and conclusion are given. review of d&b survey studies according to the results of design and build client survey (bennett et al., 1996), clients in the u.k. select d&b method because of the following reasons (listed in descending order of importance): 1. single point of responsibility 2. guaranteed maximum price 3. avoidance of design and construction risks 4. avoidance of conflicts, disputes and claims 5. better value for money 6. faster building times 7. reliability of completion on time 8. lower costs 9. flexibility of project team 10. better understanding of commercial requirements 11. guaranteed quality 12. well though-out standard design 13. innovative one-off designs in general, these results are consistent with the findings of other procurement design and build: views from some major public clients in hong kong by a p chan, d c k ho and c m tam the australian journal of construction economics & building page 23 surveys. songer et al. (1996) reported that the primary reason for both u.s. and u.k. clients to adopt d&b method is to shorten the overall project completion time, while project cost certainty and reduction of the overall project cost are also important considerations. some architects and builders in hong kong share a similar view that project time and project cost are the key factors for using d&b method (mo and ng, 1997). various studies in the procurement selection literature also draw a similar conclusion. industry experts in the u.k. and australia consider d&b as a viable method for clients who want responsibility for the project by one single organisation, transfer of the risks of cost and time slippage, firm price, strict completion date, early completion (chan, 1995; love et al., 1998; skitmore and marsden, 1988) and disputes and arbitration avoidance (love et al., 1998). d&b method has been perceived by some practitioners as a method, which is most suitable for procuring buildings with simple and standardised design. a substantial amount of u.k. clients believe that d&b method is appropriate for office building, warehouse, standard manufacturing facilities and residential building projects (bennett et al., 1996). architects think that it is most suitable for industrial buildings (factories) while contractors think that it is good for educational (schools), industrial (factories) and residential (housing) projects in hong kong (mo and ng, 1997). however, some u.k. practitioners do not totally agree with the “garden shed” image associated with d&b method (i.e. d&b is only appropriate for procuring some very simple structures such as garden sheds). in ndekugri and turner’s (1994) survey, a majority of contractors (98% of 74 respondents) strongly disagreed with the “garden shed” image. all clients also disagreed while 38% of architects disagreed and 25% agreed with this image. it seems that practitioners’ general impression or expectation of the application of d&b method does not always necessarily reflect its usage in reality. in fact, d&b method has been applied to various types of complex projects such as health/hospital, civil engineering and refurbishment (akintoye, 1994; akintoye and fitzgerald, 1995). nevertheless, it appears that the majority of practitioners tend to hold the view that it is difficult to apply d&b method successfully to building projects with requirements of a high standard of design quality and workmanship. this preconception of the application of d&b method influences procurement selection process substantially. it is, therefore, not surprising to find that neither guaranteed quality nor innovative design is considered by the u.k. clients as an important procurement selection criterion in bennett’s et al. (1996) survey. some of the clients even believe that poor quality is the major drawback of d&b method (bennett et al., 1996). design quality was also ranked as a minor selection criterion for d&b method by architects and builders in hong kong (mo and ng, 1997). research methods clients who were familiar with d&b procurement method or had participated in d&b projects from the public sector were invited to give their views on and reasons of using d&b method through face-to-face interviews. active clients with recent completed building projects were the key focus of this study. ten senior staff including assistant director, deputy senior manager, senior architect and senior quantity surveyor from four client organizations were interviewed. most of them had direct involvement in d&b projects. these senior staff were selected because they were the key ‘actors’ in procurement method selection process. these four client organizations were regarded as the major ones because either they had a considerable number of building projects initiated every year or the projects they initiated were large in scale. another reason to select these clients was that their requirements and project attributes were diverse; a mix of reasons accounting for the use of a particular procurement method might be revealed. design and build: views from some major public clients in hong kong by a p chan, d c k ho and c m tam page 24 he australian journal of construction economics & building interviewees were asked some openended questions to explore why a particular procurement method was adopted. survey research normally asks respondents to rate or rank a list of selection criteria for data collection. this was avoided in the current study because such a list may limit or direct interviewees to response in a certain format predetermined by researchers. face-toface interviews were conducted in clients’ offices and lasted about 1 to 1.5 hours. the length of the interviews varied according to the time afforded by the interviewees and the detail of their answers. the main focus of interview questions was on the reasons of using or not using d&b procurement method. background information about client’s organisation and relevant projects was also collected to strengthen researchers’ understanding of client’s decision on procurement method. in addition, the interview data were documented and compared with secondary, archival data pertaining to the rationale of adopting d&b procurement method whenever possible. collecting and comparing data from multiple sources (interviews and archives in this study) helps researchers to build credibility of the findings. findings the hong kong government’s views on d&b method since the first edition of the design and build contracts issued by the hong kong government in the early 1990s, a growing number of d&b projects in the public sector have been undertaken. in particular, since 1986 architectural services department of the hong kong government has taken the lead to promote the usage of d&b method (kwong, 1996) on various types of buildings including godown, depot, flying service headquarters, quarters, offices, schools and slaughterhouse. the results of the completed projects are well received and more public d&b projects will be proposed. according to a technical note issued by works branch of the hong kong government (works branch, 1992), d&b method is useful when: • fast-tracking is important • contractor’s special skills and techniques are to be utilized • innovative design is anticipated • design economy is required fast-tracking among the above four factors, almost all clients’ project team members highlighted short project delivery time as a key consideration for using d&b method. for example, there was an urgent demand for some quarters a few years ago and d&b method was used for its fast-tracking capability. one interviewee from a client’s project team indicated that the total project lead-time could be shortened by some 30% for typical quarters. significant time saving did not come from shortened construction period but from the subletting of design development to d&b contractor and the overlapping of design and construction. contractor’s special skills and techniques apart from time consideration, some client’s project team members pointed out that the utilization of contractor’s special design and construction skills and techniques was an important factor for using d&b method. an example is the project of system design and construction of standard schools. this project called for a system design and construction method, which was particularly cost-effective in some building structures with repetitive parts such as schools. in this project, client wanted to examine whether this special method would offer advantages over the traditional construction method. instead of following the traditional way of building schools such as using timber formwork, bamboo scaffolding, and wet trade, the contractor adopted a system method of design to construct the schools in an environmental-friendly manner. design and build: views from some major public clients in hong kong by a p chan, d c k ho and c m tam the australian journal of construction economics & building page 25 semi-precast elements were used extensively to achieve a consistent level of quality and save construction time. since the surface finishing achieved by steel formwork had met the required standard, the use of wet trade was reduced. this, in turn, could lessen client’s burden of future maintenance. building wastes could also be reduced substantially with the use of steel formwork because the steel molds have a much longer working life than timber formwork. on the surface, it appears that contractor’s involvement in developing a design for a d&b project is little if client has adopted a standard design, which is the case for most schools in hong kong. in this school project, however, the client provided only architectural design and layout of building services and left the structural design to the d&b contractor. this variant of d&b methods does not resemble traditional d&b where client only provides requirements and specifications to a contractor who develops the complete design and constructs the building. it is different from novation because there is no transfer of client’s consultants to contractor’s design team (chan, 1994). nevertheless, it shares some of the characteristics of enhanced d&b method where contractor develops detail design based on the initial design provided by the client and constructs the building (mo and ng, 1997). this special type of d&b methods enables the client to both maintain a tight control on the architectural and building services design and capture contractor’s unique building capability through contractor’s involvement in the structural design. innovative design anticipating innovative designs proposed by contractors was never mentioned by the client’s project team members as an important procurement selection criterion. for example, one interviewee indicated that the architectural design for government’s office building in d&b project would not be very innovative because client required a general type of office and emphasized more on the functionality of the building. this is different from other large corporations such as the hongkong and shanghai bank, which stresses the corporate image reflected by the design of its headquarter. client’s budget is another important consideration for the procurement of a building with an innovative design. clients in private sector may be willing to pay more for superior design than government who has to account to the public for all the money spent. nevertheless, one interviewee pointed out that contractors would explore different new architectural designs and try something innovative only if cost saving could be brought. it would be a bonus for the client if the design developed by the successful tenderer were innovative. design economy regarding design economy, client’s project team pointed out that competition would drive d&b tenderers to develop design, which was economical both in concept and detail. also, client would have more design schemes for selection, as the proposals submitted by various tenderers are different. if client follows the traditional procurement method, only a very limited design options would be developed by the project architect for selection. in general, more design alternatives to be proposed imply more consultant fee the client has to pay. however, d&b method enables the development of a number of different design options at the expense of the tenderers. the results of our study indicate that interviewees did not feel design economy as the most important procurement selection criterion. nevertheless, client’s project teams suggested that if client wanted more options of economical design, d&b would be a good method to achieve it. sometimes d&b method would not be used even a project displays appropriate characteristics. one interviewee indicated that it might not be appropriate to procure some buildings such as court and police station using d&b method for their special security requirements. the client requires full control in the design. in fact, this type design and build: views from some major public clients in hong kong by a p chan, d c k ho and c m tam page 26 he australian journal of construction economics & building of buildings has never been procured by d&b method in hong kong. it is also interesting to find that in a government’s project, client changed the procurement method from traditional to d&b at a stage where some design outlines had been developed. one of the main reasons for such a change was that there was insufficient in-house staff to develop a complete design. since the client had developed the initial design, enhanced d&b method was adopted and contractor only needed to develop detail design following what had been completed and required by the client. three views of institutional clients in the public sector on d&b method switching from traditional to d&b procurement method our findings indicate that one institutional client in the public sector has embarked on a new path to procure buildings partly because of the advantages the new method offers and partly because of political consideration. the variety of the buildings this client procures is limited but most of them require heavy building services. since the number of end-users involved in a typical project of this client is large and their requirements are diverse, pre-construction planning process could be lengthy. it is not unusual to take a decade to plan, design and construct a building required by this client using traditional procurement method. for the government funded building projects, this client has little involvement in the procurement selection process. there is a government department, acting as a representative of this client, decides the procurement method and manages the project. traditional method has been used to procure buildings by this department for a long time. in fact, the client has little influence on the design and project management under such an arrangement. some years ago, this client was requested by the government to procure a building within a time frame, which could never be completed if traditional method had to be used. the requirement of short project delivery time provided a strong justification for this client to explore alternative procurement methods other than the traditional one. cost certainty was also an important selection criterion to be addressed for public project. having considered different procurement options, this client proposed enhanced d&b method as a viable means to finish the project within time and budget constraints. since the planning of end-users’ relationships and requirements involved lots of efforts and expertise, this client was reluctant to hand over everything to a d&b contractor at the very early stage. therefore, traditional d&b method was not considered. after the suggestion of enhanced d&b procurement method had been approved by a government steering committee, this client and his consultants started to plan, identify end-users’ requirements, establish client’s brief, develop the initial design, prepare tender document and undertake other project management activities. adopting a new procurement approach implies a change to the status quo. this client was able to break the old way of doing things by using d&b procurement method. he had assumed a dominant role in this d&b projectacted as an agent of the government to manage the project, while that government department, which used to be the leader, only provided a supportive function this time. this client’s influence was extended even further with the enhanced d&b method. he exerted a tight control over the design by developing not only an explicit functional brief but also an initial design to ensure all end-user’s requirements were addressed. completing this project with the required standard of quality on time and within budget was by no means an easy task for this client. it is because he did not have any experience in using d&b method before. also, the building to be procured was complex. nevertheless, this client determined to take the challenge and perhaps more important is that he could gain more control in both design and project design and build: views from some major public clients in hong kong by a p chan, d c k ho and c m tam the australian journal of construction economics & building page 27 management when d&b method was used. the performance of this d&b project was well received and all objectives were met. based on these successful results, this client had a stronger stand on the initiation of his second d&b project although the required project completion time was not as tight as the first one. switching from d&b to traditional procurement method from our study, it is interesting to find that an institutional client in the public sector has used two different methods to procure the same type of building at different times. d&b and traditional procurement methods were used for the first and second logistic center projects respectively. the second one with a larger scale will replace the old one once completed. although this client had procured some buildings before, he was not as familiar to the design and construction issues as other experienced clients were. the majority of the staff in this organization had extensive business experience and strong administrative skill; however, they did not share the same language with architects and builders. this client suggested that there was a lack of in-house building professionals to oversee the whole project at that time, so d&b method was adopted. using this method could free client from spending lots of manpower on the project because the responsibility for delivering the whole product was shifted to the d&b contractor. after the decision of using d&b method had been made, a business executive who had little architectural and building knowledge was appointed to take charge of this project. the client developed a functional brief of this industrial building and then a contractor was appointed for design and construction. on completion of the project, the client was satisfied with the building in terms of the achievement of the basic functional requirements. however, this client was not happy with the standard of quality delivered; he found what he got was so minimal in terms of quality. for example, water pipes in toilets were not concealed. such “surprises” could be attributed to the comprehensiveness to which the client’s brief was specified. this client might take some seemingly simple requirements for granted and expect the contractor would deliver a building with the “normal” standard. perhaps the client did not have any experience in handling a d&b project and did not recognize the fact that no matter how basic the requirements are, if they have not been stated in the client’s brief or do not provide sufficient details, the contractor can build exactly what the client wants only by chance. certainly, this client has learned much from this d&b project. some time later this client was commissioned to design, construct and manage a large scale and complex building project. professionals from various disciplines were recruited to oversee this project. much emphasis had been put on the requirement of superior design quality because this building was purposed to become a new landmark of hong kong. although this project had to be completed in a very short time, traditional procurement method was used. nevertheless, fast tracking project management principles were used to speed up the project delivery process. during that time, a new logistic center with size doubles the previous one was planned to be built to cope with the growing demand. instead of following d&b approach, traditional method was used to procure this building. the staff responsible for this project was no longer business executives but in-house architects and professional builders. the client pointed out that the key reasons for the choice of traditional procurement method was that there was sufficient professional staff to manage the project and client had a strong control on the design. design and build: views from some major public clients in hong kong by a p chan, d c k ho and c m tam page 28 he australian journal of construction economics & building sticking to traditional procurement method the results of our study indicate that not all public clients think that d&b procurement method is suitable for their projects although most of the d&b projects are public projects in hong kong. those who have never used d&b method think that it does not have any advantage over traditional procurement method, which is the practice they stick to. it is interesting to know why different views on the same procurement method are held by public clients, which can possibly give some insights on the applicability of d&b method in the public sector. it appears that the characteristics of these public clients’ projects could account for why they are in favor of traditional procurement method. the projects of these clients exhibit the following characteristics: • only a single and simple type of building is to be procured. • virtually, the designs of all building projects are standardized and there are limited varieties of them. • buildings are procured according to a well-planned schedule. • end-users’ requirements are known in advance and less likely to be changed once established. • conventional methods are used to construct the buildings in most cases. on the surface, applying d&b method to simple building projects with firm endusers’ requirements should not cast any serious problems. it is because the demand for sophisticated design management capability from the contractor is little and the disruption to contractor’s design and construction process is minimal. nevertheless, these public clients think that traditional method is the most appropriate way to procure their buildings for the following reasons. first, the benefit of d&b method is difficult to be reaped. given that the complexity of these projects is not that high, most contractors can construct the buildings without much difficulty using conventional method. the demand of utilizing a particular contractor’s special, unique expertise in design development and construction, which is an advantage of d&b method, is therefore small. second, adoption of standardized design helps to improve contractors’ productivity, which in turn reduces project delivery time. the involvement of contractor in developing design is not required in these projects because standardized designs are used. procuring a large number of buildings using limited, standardized designs can motivate contractors to invest in the improvement of their construction methods to reduce cost and project delivery time, which can enhance their chance of winning contracts. maybe the initial investment is substantial; however, the financial return will be realized in the repeated contracts. although contractors have little chance to influence the design, their productivity could be raised in the long run. obviously, it is the contractor’s continuous improvement in their efficiency and not any procurement method that can bring significant time savings in this case. third, it is the government’s long-term plan and policy targets that directly determine the supply of the buildings (walker and flanagan, 1991), although the supply has never been able to cope with the growing demand. most of the buildings are procured at a planned pace which is less likely to be altered dramatically in a short term even in face of higher demand. since alternative way of increasing supply can be obtained through the use of private sector resources, using d&b method to boost client’s speed of procuring buildings is not normally considered. d&b method may be attractive to these clients in the future if different designs are promoted, short project completion time is required, and the cost of using d&b method is comparable with that of traditional method. design and build: views from some major public clients in hong kong by a p chan, d c k ho and c m tam the australian journal of construction economics & building page 29 discussion based on the findings of this study, the rationales of adopting d&b and sticking to traditional procurement method are summarized in fig. 1. in general, clients in the public sector of hong kong construction industry share a similar set of reasons of adopting d&b procurement method when compared with their counterparts in the u.s., u.k. (bennett at al., 1996; songer et al., 1996) and australia (chan, 1995). short project completion time and to a lesser extent utilisation of contractor’s expertise have been frequently mentioned by clients as important considerations in using d&b method. these considerations also match the secondary, archival data of works branch (1992). an institutional client also considered price certainty as a major factor in proposing a d&b project. it is not surprising to find that clients in the public sector assigned these considerations a high priority because they have to account to the public for every dollar they spent. in fact, public accountability was also reported as an important selection criterion by public clients in chan’s et al. (1999) and ng and mo’s (1997) studies. the pressure put on these clients is even higher in the time of economic downturn where public institutions’ budget and spending are under close surveillance by the public. it is expected more public works will be procured by d&b method in the future because clients can have a better control on project completion time and budget. (see figure 1 over) in addition, none of the clients in the public sector mentioned that a superior standard of quality in terms of design and construction was the key reason of using d&b. these results are consistent with the findings of past surveys (e.g. bennett at al., 1996). this may be probably due to client’s perception of contractor’s main concerncost. since d&b contractor is responsible for not only construction but also design, chances provided for the contractor to exploit loopholes or grey areas in the contract may be more. contractors could sacrifice both design and building quality if they want. their incentive to undercut quality could be higher in the case where keen competition drives the tender price to an unreasonable low level. of particular interest in our findings is that apart from functional considerations (e.g. project completion time, cost certainty, etc.), factors including internal resources and political force were also important in shaping clients’ decision in the adoption of d&b method in the public sector. since the resource spent on the development of a complete design is substantial, d&b method could be an effective means to shift workload from client’s project team to contractor in the situation where client’s manpower is insufficient. in one of cases mentioned before, client has taken the advantage of using d&b method to increase his control over the design and project management. nevertheless, this procurement method can also fulfil his requirements on short project completion time and cost certainty. moreover, client’s past experience with d&b project is influential in deciding the adoption of d&b method for future projects. if clients have bad experience with d&b project, they may become more cautious of using d&b method because poor performance could recur. on the contrary, if clients have completed d&b project successfully, they may have more confidence in using d&b method and in the performance of subsequent d&b projects. conclusion although the hong kong government has been promoting d&b method since the late 1980s and early 1990s, the results of this study indicate that the views of clients in the public sector on d&b method are diverse. some institutional clients in the public sector have used d&b method just once and then reverted to the traditional one while some keep seeking every possible chance to depart from the traditional way and continue to use d&b method. some clients in the public sector design and build: views from some major public clients in hong kong by a p chan, d c k ho and c m tam page 30 he australian journal of construction economics & building have never used it and do not think it is attractive. all these interesting contrasts reveal that there is not a single reason that explain why some clients use d&b method and some do not to use it. their decision making was based on different grounds. simply saying that certain procurement methods are more appropriate for a particular type of clients will oversimplify the complex reality. fig. 1 summary of client’s considerations in making procurement selection decision to d&b method traditional method fr om tr ad iti on al m et ho d functional consideration: • fast-tracking • firm price • make use of contractor’s special skills and techniques • design economy political force: • more control on the design and project management resource consideration: • inadequate in-house staff to manage the project functional consideration: • standard design • conventional building methods are used • security supply consideration: • buildings are procured following a well planned schedule • end-users’ requirements are known and less likely to be changed once established resource consideration: • adequate in-house staff to manage the project d & b m et ho d functional consideration: • fast-tracking • firm price past experience: • satisfactory project results delivered by d&b method political force: • control on the design and project management can be maintained functional consideration: • more control on the design past experience: • unsatisfactory project results delivered by d&b method resource consideration: • adequate in-house staff to manage the project design and build: views from some major public clients in hong kong by a p chan, d c k ho and c m tam the australian journal of construction economics & building page 31 references akintoye, a. (1994) design and build: a survey of construction contractors’ views, construction management and economics, 12, 155-163. akintoye, a. and fitzgerald, e. (1995) design and build: a survey of architects’ views, engineering, construction and architectural management, 2(1), 27-44. bennett, j., pothecary, e. and robinson, g. (1996) designing and building a worldclass industry. centre for strategic studies in construction, university of reading, reading, u.k. chan, a. p. c. (1994) evaluation of novation contract, national construction and management conference, 17-18 february, 1994, sydney, australia, 383396. chan, a. p. c. (1995) towards an expert system on project procurement, journal of construction procurement, 1(2), 111-123. chan, a. p. c., yu, a. t. w. and tam, c. m. (1999) enhanced design build – an innovative system to procure a hospital project, cib w92 and cib tg23 profitable partnering in construction procurement, procurement systems and culture in construction joint symposium, 25-28 january, 1998, chiang mai, 405-415. kwong, h. s. (1996) the strategic role of design and build in the procurement process, keynote address at design and build symposium, 30 may, 1996, hong kong, 1-4. love, p. e. d., skitmore, m. and earl, g. (1998) selecting a suitable procurement method for a building project, construction management and economics, 16, 221233. mo, j. k. w. and ng, l. y. (1997) design and build procurement method in hong kong – an overview, cib w92 procurement – a key to innovation, procurement systems symposium, 20-23 may, 1997, montreal, 453-462. ndekugri, i. and turner, a. (1994) building procurement by design and build approach, journal of construction engineering and management, 120(2), 243-256. ng, l. y. and mo, j. k. w. (1997) hospital procurement by design and build: a case study in hong kong, cib w92 procurement – a key to innovation, procurement systems symposium, 20-23 may, 1997, montreal, 545-553. sanvido, v. e. and konchar, m. d. (1998) project delivery systems: cm at risk, design-build, design-bid-build. research report 133-11, construction industry institute, university of texas, austin. skitmore, r. m. and marsden, d. e. (1988) which procurement system? towards a universal procurement selection technique, construction management and economics, 6, 71-89. songer, a. d., molenaar, k. r. and robinson, g. d. (1996) selection factors and success criteria for design-build in the u.s. and u.k., journal of construction procurement, 2(2), 69-82. walker, a. and flanagan, r. (1991) property and construction in asia pacific: hong kong, japan and singapore. bsp professional book, oxford. works branch (1992) practice note on design and build contracts, works branch technical circular no. 17/92a, hong kong government. microsoft word paper 9 dec.doc combating the ‘sick building syndrome’ by improving indoor air quality by pongchai nimcharoewon and graham miller page 82 the australian journal of construction economics & building combating the ‘sick building syndrome’ by improving indoor air quality pongchai nimcharoenwon and graham miller, school of construction, property and planning, university of western sydney, new south wales, australia 1. introduction 1.1 sick building syndrome (sbs) the sick building syndrome (sbs) is a term often used to explain symptoms, such as headaches, dizziness, runny noses, itchiness and so on, produced by any harmful environment in buildings, especially in air-conditioned buildings (royal australian institute of architects, 1991, p.1). as approximately 80 to 90% of people’s time is spent in buildings (eap, 1998,), concerns about indoor air quality resulting in such symptoms are increasing. there are a number of methods which appear to be able to reduce the sbs symptoms, such as purifying/cleaning indoor air and utilising materials for construction, furniture and finishes that have been proven to reduce adverse effects. o’brian (1988) and karnstedt (1991), suggest that ionised air is beneficial to human health and can also reduce the symptoms of sbs. based on the premise that, if sbs and the potential for harmful conditions within buildings are to be avoided, building professionals require suitable design tools (ferguson 1987, p.1), this paper describes a method for estimating how much additional negative ions should be added to a room/office to compensate for the losses caused by three major factors namely, video display terminals (vdt), heating ventilation and air-conditioning (hvac) and building contents (bc). 1.2 negative ions ions are electrically charged atoms or molecules that can gain or lose an electron (bionic products, 1998). an atom gaining electron(s) is called a negative ion and an atom losing electron(s) are called a positive ion. from this formation process of the ions, there seem to be a number of ion effects, positively and negatively in terms of indoor air quality. with regard to the nature of the movement of electrons, negative ions (atoms with excess electrons) are quicker than positive ions. the positive effects of this phenomenon can be felt near waterfalls, in pine forests and on the seashore where waves are breaking on the shore (bionic products, 1998). most negative ions are likely to be the negative hydrogen ions (-h) produced by solar continuous spectrum (massey, 1976, p.673). massey suggests that the number of negative ions of carbon (-c) and oxygen (-o) produced by ozone reaction are significant. these types of negative ions are therefore also considered for the purposes of the calculations used in this study. 1.3 negative ion therapy there has been a considerable amount of research that has shown positive and beneficial effects from negative ions such as removing air particles and contaminants, and preventing and reducing the sbs (o’brian, 1988, and karnstedt, 1991). some researchers however, are sceptical about the positive effects. they suggest that the reverse may be true and that generating negative ions might emit ozone excess that can irritate eyes and affect the lungs (nava, 1998). it is not the aim of this study to argue either way but rather to demonstrate a method for estimating the de-ionising effects of key factors in modern buildings. the following tables show the possible effects of the amount of negative ions in particular areas (penex air ionisers, 1988). combating the ‘sick building syndrome’ by improving indoor air quality by pongchai nimcharoewon and graham miller the australian journal of construction economics & building page 83 table 1.1: possible effects of negative ion density density (ions/cc) effects 0-100 dead air, oppressive, difficulty of concentration; virus's and germs flourish. 500-1000 normal air found indoors where pollution is low and the building has open windows. 1000-5000 country fresh air, the minimum level one should sleep, work and live in. 5000 + exceptionally fresh, clean and invigorating air, "mountain air." 50,000 + pure air, very stimulating, exhilarating and relaxing, germs cannot live in this air. table 1.2: negative ion densities in places or conditions density (ions/cc) places or conditions 0-250 hermetically sealed steel-structure office building, with central heating/air conditioning 20-251 inside and airplane 0-100 smoky indoor air 250-500 normal indoor air (windows open) 250-750 urban air in average industrial city 1,000-2,000 country air 1,000-5,000 mountain air 5,000-20,000 inside caves 25,000-100,000 waterfalls 2. negative ion loss in airconditioned buildings 2.1 factors decreasing negative ions negative ions in air-conditioned buildings may be reduced by a number of means. in air-conditioned offices principal reducers of negative ions are, video display terminals (vdt’s), hvac (particularly airconditioning systems), and building contents (bc’s) including building materials, furniture and finishes used. figure 1 shows the effects of the three factors reducing negative ions. as can be seen from the figure 1, each factor reduces the amount of negative ions in buildings differently. vdt’s, appears to decrease negative ions by emitting ionising radiation as low energy xray. hvac is likely to reduce the negative ion density (ions/cc) in air through its process, especially the process of the airconditioning system. the building contents (bc’s), which naturally have electrostatics, may be electrically activated by contact, such as sliding and rolling of two insulating materials. the electrical charges generated appear to attract the positive and negative ions in indoor air and stick on the bc’s surfaces, and therefore the ions in buildings are likely to be reduced. combating the ‘sick building syndrome’ by improving indoor air quality by pongchai nimcharoewon and graham miller page 84 the australian journal of construction economics & building 2.2 how much each factor reduces negative ions 2.2.1 video display terminals (vdt’s) studies of vdt’s by the australian radiation laboratory, (1998), indicate that the while terminals emit visible radiation, in creating the image, many types of the electromagnetic radiation are also generated, in particular, extremely low frequency radiation (elf), and low energy x-ray. the latter is an ionising radiation, which can knock electrons out of negative ions by overcoming the electron binding energy or electron affinity (ebe) of negative ions (australian radiation laboratory, 1998, ionising radiation quantities and unit). the negative ions then lose their potential (see also figure 2). as a consequence of this, the energy of low energy x-ray and the electron binding energy or electron affinity of negative ions (ebe) can be calculated and consequently the amount of negative ions eliminated can also be calculated. the following equation indicates the relationship of participant parameters for estimating negative ion loss from vdt’s (vdt-nil). vdt-nil α lex, 1/ebe, rr, and fn (equation 1) where: lex = low energy x-ray = approx.9 to 20 kev per a vdt (arl, 1998, calibration: therapy dosimeter radiation qualities) ebe = electron binding energy of -h and o2 = approx.0.277 and 0.440 ev (massey h., 1976, p.9 and 184) hvac building contents (bc) vdt’s reduce the density of negative ions flowing in air ions reduce negative ions by attracting to bc’s surfaces building eliminate negative ions by ionising radiation figure 1: three main factors affecting negative ion decrease in buildings ion + + + ion-surface electron ebe x-ray from vdt knocking an electron out of the atom figure 2: the typical positions of electrons in an ion combating the ‘sick building syndrome’ by improving indoor air quality by pongchai nimcharoewon and graham miller the australian journal of construction economics & building page 85 rr = refresh rate of vdt’s = approx.50 to 95 hz (tijierina l., 1984, p.7) fn = negative ion factor = approx.4/9 (ration between ordinarily positive and negative ions) from the relationship in equation (1), the negative ion loss (nil) by vdt’s can be estimated in terms of the negative ions reduced in a period of operating time as follows: vdt-nil = 4.7 x nv x po +-15% bil. ions (equation 2) where: nv = number of the vdt’s po = period of operating the vdt’s this above equation (2) shows the loss of negative ions by the low energy x-ray of a vdt. moreover, it determines by referring to the possible effect of the loss, to the lowest electron binding energy of negative ions. as an example two normal 14” or 15” television and computer screens might eliminate almost all the negative ions (typically 500 neg.ions/cu.cm) in a closed room of 3 x 3 x 2.4 m within 30 mins. 2.2.2 hvac the negative ion loss from hvac (hvac-nil) can be calculated from the fact that particles in air are likely to be electrically charged by an electric field intensity (about 30 kv/cm) in any normal condition including air-conditioned buildings (hendricks, cited in moore, 1973, p.57). they then attract the opposite charge of ionised air (negative or positive charge), and thus a number of negative ions will stick their electrons on the particle surfaces (see also figure 4). each negative ion is assumed to have an excess electron of approximate 1.6 x 10^19 c (weisstein, 1996) after the air conditioning system filters a number of the atmospheric dust and/or particles, a number of negative ions seem to be also obstructed by filtering. the process is to consider filtering atmospheric particles, and assume the particles as spheres. the electric field intensity can be considered as an average value, which includes the intensity of the air conditioning system and others (hendricks, cited in moore, 1973, p.57) the negative ion loss (hvac-nil) is estimated as a percentage of the difference between negative ions outside and inside (%nil). the following equation shows the relationship of the participant parameters for this. %nil α qp, rp, fn, dneg, 1/cp, fh, %ef, and 1/dp (equation 3) where: qp = charge of a particle = 3.1 x 10^-4 x r^2 (hendricks, cited in moore, 1973, p.59) + + + + + + + + + + + figure 4: cross section showing negative ions attracting a particle negative ion particle and electric charges combating the ‘sick building syndrome’ by improving indoor air quality by pongchai nimcharoewon and graham miller page 86 the australian journal of construction economics & building rp = radius of a particle fn = negative ion factor = approx.4/9 (ration between ordinarily positive and negative ions) dneg = density of negative ions outside (ions/cc) cp = particle concentration (gm/cu.m) fh = hvac flow rate (cc/s) %ef = filtration efficiency of hvac (air conditioning systems) dp = density of particles (particles/gm) from the relationship (equation 3), the percentage of negative ions reduced (%nil) in any area type (or in any particle concentration) can evaluated as shown in figure 5. the parameters assumed are that the flow rate of the air conditioning system (fh), and negative ions density outside (dneg) are 200 cfm and 200 to 1000 ions/cc, respectively. for example, in urban air the density (ions/cc) of indoor negative ions is approximately 150 ions/cc. 2.2.3 building contents (bc) this section illustrates the effects of electrostatics on the bc’s surfaces such as building materials and furniture. the effect seems to come from normal activities of the occupants in buildings, such as sitting on a chair, documents being put on a table, walking on a floor, and so on (electro statics, 1998). such activities may potentially bring about electrically charged surfaces. the electrically charged ions (negative and positive ions) in the indoor air will be attracted (polarised) by the charged surfaces and eventually be reduced in the air. 0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0% 90.0% 100.0% 2. 00 e -0 5 4. 00 e -0 5 6. 00 e -0 5 8. 00 e -0 5 1. 00 e -0 4 2. 00 e -0 4 4. 00 e -0 4 6. 00 e -0 4 8. 00 e -0 4 1. 00 e -0 3 2. 00 e -0 3 particle concentration (gr/cu.m) pe rc en ta ge o f n eg at iv e io ns b et w ee n in si de an d o ut si de % nil, 1000 dneg % nil, 200 dneg rural urban ‘when two insulating materials are rubbed together, the surfaces acquire a net electric charge, with one becoming negative and the other positive.’ (cross, 1987, p.17). this is the action of the electrostatic potential on the material surfaces. in addition, the action is likely to be caused by contact between two materials. the unbalancing charges, after that, occur at the material surfaces and become polarising. effectively, air ions will be attracted by the opposite charged surface and give up their potential (jowett, 1976, p.56). figure 6 shows the simply contacting action of two materials during and after contacting. figure 5: relationship between %nil and particle concentrations combating the ‘sick building syndrome’ by improving indoor air quality by pongchai nimcharoewon and graham miller the australian journal of construction economics & building page 87 from the effective contacting of two insulators (see also figure 6), the relationship between the negative ions attracted by the positive charges and related parameters can be demonstrated as follows: bc-nil α σ, %σ,max., and 1/rσ,m/i (equation 4) where: σ = ideal surface charge density of two materials = approx.1.656 x 10^10 e/sq.cm (jowett, 1976, p.116) %σ,max = the maximum percentage of sliding and rolling contacts = approx.8% (jowett, 1976, p.116) rσ,m/i = ratio between the surface charge density of metal and insulate materials = approx.10,000 to 26,000 as a consequence of this, while the material surfaces are electrostatically activated and become electrical charge, negative and positive ions seem to be attracted by polarisation of the opposite surface charges of about 5.095 x 10^4 to 1.325 x 10^5 e/sq.cm. equation (5) is a formula to estimating negative ion loss from the building contents (bc). bc-nil = max.1.325 x 10^9 x noct x abc ions (equation 5) where: noct = number of effective contacts abc = surface area of building contents contacted an example of this is in an office building where the contents, the seat(s) of chairs used, computer keyboard(s) used and so on, may affect the static electrification. if we assume their areas to be about 5 sq.m, this room will lose approximately a maximum of 6.63 bil.ions of negative ions. 3. negative ion loss testing 3.1 dof-nil formula three negative ion loss formulas can be incorporated and become dof-nil formula. the relationship between the dof-nil and participant parameters is demonstrated in the following equation. dof-nil α nv, po, at, fr, noct, and abc (equation 6) where: nv = number of vdt’s po = period of operating time of vdt and hvac at = area type (urban or rural) fr = air filtration rate of hvac (airconditioning system) fe = filtration efficiency of hvac (airconditioning system) noct = number of effective contacts of two insulate materials abc = surface area of a building content contacted 3.2 testing negative ion loss in airconditioned offices to validate the results provided by the formula, testing of negative ion loss (nil) was performed using an instrument called an air ion counter (aic). the test was 2 a contact a balancing charge surface charged during contracting 1 2 negative ions attracted a negative charge -----------+ + + + + a positive charge after contacting figure 6: electric charge surfaces of two building materials 1 combating the ‘sick building syndrome’ by improving indoor air quality by pongchai nimcharoewon and graham miller page 88 the australian journal of construction economics & building performed in two different areas: a typical air-conditioned office (3m x 3m x 2.4mh), and a room (6m x 3m x 2.4mh), which was used for testing only the effects of an air conditioning system, and the density of negative ions outside the rooms (dneg) about 1,500 ions/cc. dof-nil showed the results in terms of negative ion density (ions/cc) in the rooms, and the rate (ions/hr) of negative ions reduced by vdt’s and bc’s with +15% error of vdt and bc effects. the aic showed the negative-ion density (ions/cc) in each room with 25% accuracy. the results were as follows: in the air-conditioned office and the control room, the negative ion densities inside were about 1,400 and 1,450 ions/cc with the negative ion decrease rates of about 1x 10^10 and 1 x 10^9 ions/hr, whereas the aic showed the density of about 600 and 1,250 ions/cc, respectively. figure 7 below, shows the rates of additional negative-ions required for the condition of 1,500 ions/cc in the required period of 1 to 10 hours. the additional rate indicated by the aic drops sharply when longer ion-generation is required. whereas according to the dof-nil formula the rate remains quite stable over any time period. however the estimated required rate of additional negative-ions for a 3 to 4 hour period (a realistic time period) as calculated using the dof-nil formula compared favourably with results obtained by the air ion counter (aic) for an air-conditioned office this is approximately 12 billion ions/hr. figure 7.1: typical office 0.0 10.0 20.0 30.0 40.0 50.0 60.0 70.0 80.0 90.0 100.0 0. 25 1 3 5 7 9 time required (hr.) aic; 25% accuracy dof-nil; 30% error figure 7.2 a room and only air conditioning system 0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0 40.0 45.0 0. 25 1 3 5 7 9 time required (hr.) aic; 25% accuracy dof-nil; 30% error 4. conclusions it is proposed that the dof-nil formula described provides a method that has a reasonable degree of accuracy for estimating the amount of negative ion loss in air-conditioned buildings for the critical 3 to 4 hour period. the dof-nil formula can be used to estimate the loss in terms of negative ion density (ions/cc) by hvac, and the rate (ions/hr) of negative ions reduced by vdt’s and bc’s. a weakness with the dof-nil formula, is that only considers three factors, whereas a suitable instrument can take account of significantly more factors, for example the effects of air leakages in buildings and the effect of particle size and density. however these factors and the additional factors measured by an instrument appear figure 7: additional negative-ions for 1 to 10 hours required combating the ‘sick building syndrome’ by improving indoor air quality by pongchai nimcharoewon and graham miller the australian journal of construction economics & building page 89 to be relatively minor in their effect, and the difference in the results obtained are therefore also minor. currently available instruments require a considerable amount of time to record data – typically up to 10 hours and require a real building to obtain results, whereas applying the formula method can produce data quickly and easily which can be used at the design stage to avoid possibly costly mistakes and/or to introduce measures to counter the adverse effects of deionisation. 5. references australian radiation laboratory arl (1998), calibration: therapy dosemeter radiation qualities, http:// www.health.gov.au:80/arl/irs_cal2.htm australian radiation laboratory arl (1998), ionising radiation quantities and unit, http://www. health.gov.au:80/arl/irs_bg2_htm (10 september, 1998) australian radiation laboratory arl (1998), radiation emissions from video display terminals, http://www.health.gov.au:80/arl/is_vdtrd.ht m (10 september, 1998) bionic products (1998), what are ions, http://www.negativeions.com/main.htm (10 october, 1998) cross, j.a. (1987), electrostatics: principles, problems and applications, adam hilger: bristol electro statics (1998), static electricity, http://www.electrostatics.com/page2.html (15 october, 1998) environmantal protection agency (1998), epa’s indoor air quality home page, http://www.epa.gov/iaq (23 august, 1998) ferguson, d. (1987), indoor air pollution: the concern of architects dissertation 2, raia practice division: n.s.w. jowett, c.e. (1976), electrostatics in the electronics environment, macmillan press: london karnstedt, j (1991, cited in electrocorp, 1998), ions and consciousness, http:// www.net-gain.com/ electrocorp/cons.html (23 august, 1998) massay, h.s. (1976), negative ions, cambridge university press: london mechanical engineering services (1992), air filters no.da15: application manual, australian institute of refrigeration, air conditioning and heating inc. moore, a.d. (ed.) (1973), electrostatics and its applications, john wiley& sons, new york. nava g. (1998), no positive effects from negative ions therapy, http://www.netasia.net/users/truehealth /negative%20ion%20therapy.htm (24 september, 1998) penex air ionisers (1998), what are negative ions, http://www.pentex.com/homepage. html (9 september, 1998) o’brien, r. cited in electrocorp (1998), ions can do strange things to you, http://www.netgain.com/electrocorp/strange.html (23 august, 1998) royal australian institute of architects (may, 1991), the sick building syndrome: the liability of architects in the design of buildings report, raia practice division: n.s.w. tijerina, l. (1984), video display terminals: workstation ergonomics, online computer library center inc.: columbus. weisstein, e.w. (1996-1998), physics, http://www.astro.virginia.edu/eww6n/physics (22nd september, 1998). cost analyses of measures to improve residential energy ratings to 6 stars – playford north development, south australia cost analyses of measures to improve residential energy ratings to 6 stars playford north development, south australia. dr martin belusko and mr timothy o’leary (university of south australia) abstract this paper reports the results of a study on the cost implications of achieving greater energy efficiency as measured by house energy rating (her) ‘stars’ for new housing on a greenfield development in the northern suburbs of adelaide. twelve house designs typical of the housing options available from a number of builders engaged with this development were modeled using the 2nd generation building code of australia (bca) accredited energy rating assessment tool accurate. where the model predicted a rating below the minimum rating (6 star) proposed under the recently agreed commonwealth of australia, national energy efficiency strategy, the designs were modified in order to improve the rating to 6 stars using a combination of specification changes and energy efficient technology options. these changes or options were then priced at prevailing building suppliers and subcontractors retail cost levels in order that an average ‘extra cost to 6 star’ and range of indicative costs to achieve 6 star housing compliance could be articulated. the results revealed that standard and currently available technologies, such a reflective foil barriers, increased insulation and low emissivity ‘e’ type glazing provide a means to achieving 6 star ratings at a modest additional cost, i.e. 1-2% of total construction and development costs. keywords: 6 star costs, energy rating, sustainability, sustainable housing, energy efficiency introduction in australia, the regulation of energy efficiency of buildings is covered by a range of commonwealth, state and territory agencies. in april of 2009 specific measures to increase energy efficiency of buildings were set out in a council of australian governments (coag 2009) communiqué proposing : • an increase in the stringency of energy efficiency for all classes of commercial buildings; • mandatory disclosure of energy efficiency for all classes of commercial buildings; • the phase-in of mandatory disclosure of residential building energy, greenhouse and water performance at the time of sale or lease, commencing with energy efficiency by 2011; and • an increase in energy efficiency requirements for new residential buildings to six stars, or equivalent, nationally in the 2010 update of the building code of australia with full implementation by all states by 2011. the research presented in this paper aims at identifying additional capital costs associated with improving existing house designs to meet the new 6 star standard as per the latter of the four main proposals listed above. the focus is on the volume or ‘project’ home sector typical of modern suburban housing developments of reasonable scale (at least 30 plus allotments) where a number of builders compete on price and design features and where the blocks or allotments are developed on a phased basis over several or more years. the paper demonstrates a case study approach for predicting the additional housing capital costs for achieving six star housing in a temperate climate and mature housing market such australasian journal of construction economics and building belusko, m and o’leary, t (2010) ‘cost analyses of measures to improve residential energy ratings to 6 stars – playford north development, south australia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 36‐47 37 as is found in south australia. an existing housing development, playford north provided a source of typical housing designs where builders and suppliers could be queried on costs of energy efficiency measures and dwellings could be assessed for her star ratings. housing energy efficiency as measured in ‘stars’ relates to the nationally adopted home energy rating (her) rating system and the use of software modeling as a route to verification for compliance with the energy efficiency requirements of volume two (residential class 1 & 10) of the bca. this software simulation method allows for the modeling of energy performance of a house under both heating and cooling loads. the software used to assess the housing designs was the csiro accurate software version 1.4 which is accredited under the ratings protocol of the australian building codes board (abcb). the modeling of improved building envelope thermal performance was limited in scope to typical temperate climate modifications around the elements of wall and roof insulation and glazing as has been shown in a number of recent studies by constructive concepts pty (2009) and earlier by burghardt (2008) to improve thermal performance in australian housing and dwelling units. the focus on these elements is also supported by the prescriptive deemed to satisfy (dts) measures for energy efficiency as adopted by the australian building codes board (2009). in relation to costing the design modifications the builders were queried as to likely ‘upgrade’ costs as well as costings by the authors using market information and publications. in a comparative cost benefit study of energy efficiency measures for victorian housing, energy efficient strategies (2002), data regarding costs of such products as insulation revealed two separate rate levels, i.e. a low rate applicable to volume builders and a higher rate applicable to non volume builders. the analysis revealed across a range of building products and various house improvement measures that volume builders generally enjoyed lower costs (in the order of 10%). playford north housing case study design and energy efficiency options the playford north urban renewal project is a major urban housing and infrastructure project located approximately 30 kilometres north of adelaide, commenced in 2008 and set to continue for a 15 year anticipated development phase. over this period it is anticipated that more than 5000 new houses will be constructed in a variety of phased land and allotment releases with involvement of many of the major volume residential builders operating in the south australian market. a number of adelaide home building companies were approached in early 2009 to be part of this research study on a strictly confidential basis. from this initial approach a modest yet representative sample of 12 house designs and specifications suitable for construction were obtained from project home builders involved in the playford development. a typical specification for the style of housing is outlined in table 1 below with a front elevation photo illustration in figure 1: typical brick veneer house design has very low thermal mass caused by brick or concrete within the internal space, and can be essentially treated as lightweight (athienitis and santamouris, 2002). recently, the level of air leakage in housing has improved, however unless it is measured it is not possible to significantly improve further, and default values are assumed. internal loads cannot be controlled or easily determined, and generally, represent a small component of the total heating and cooling requirement. australasian journal of construction economics and building element construction for base design external walls brick veneer + r1.5 insulation + 10mm plasterboard windows/ext. doors aluminium framed single 3mm clear float glass windows aluminium sliding door, single glazed 5mm clear float flyscreens internal doors timber (solid) floors ceramic tiles to wet areas, vinyl to kitchen areas, carpet to bedrooms ceiling 10mm plasterboard + r 3.0 glasswool bulk insulation roof concrete tiles – unsarked or colorbond metal roof (25 deg pitch) weatherstrip/ seals all windows, external doors and exhaust fans sealed/weatherstripped air movement fans to main living room and bedrooms table 1 typical base specification of playford houses consequently, as far as minimising heating and cooling demand for brick veneer houses the primary focus is on reducing transmission and affecting solar load. affecting solar loads relates to design decisions concerning the orientation of the building, window sizes and shading of windows. transmission loads are reduced by applying various insulation technologies. most brick veneer designs today consist of a large open plan living/dining/kitchen area with a number of contained bedrooms. the living zone represents those areas which are occupied during waking hours. the bedroom zone relates to areas occupied during sleeping hours. the living zone requires greater levels of comfort than bedroom zones and given that the living zone represents the majority of the house floor area, generally dominates the heating and cooling demand for a building. as a result effective design involves north facing windows in the living zone and ensuring all windows are shaded during summer. figure 1 playford housing – photo of typical front elevation belusko, m and o’leary, t (2010) ‘cost analyses of measures to improve residential energy ratings to 6 stars – playford north development, south australia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 36‐47 38 australasian journal of construction economics and building belusko, m and o’leary, t (2010) ‘cost analyses of measures to improve residential energy ratings to 6 stars – playford north development, south australia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 36‐47 39 home energy rating – calculation of the star rating, heating and cooling loads the need for heating or cooling a house relates to the total effect of all heat flows in and out of the building. the sum of the total heat flow determines the internal temperature, and artificial heating or cooling is needed to reach comfort temperatures (ashrae, 2005). this is the method applied by accurate to determine the heating and cooling energy needed for a house design, from which the star rating is determined. an increase in star rating results in a lower energy demand in order to achieve assumed thermal comfort levels.. once the data for a house has been entered the report features of the software can be used to generate two specific reports as below; • a summary report listing the project, client and rating assessor details. the heating and cooling requirements (as measured in megajoules per m2) and most fundamentally a star rating in compliance with the bca/nathers protocol • a more detailed building data report which lists data on the construction elements for individual zones, sizes, openings etc. the classification of houses situated in playford north for climate data purposes under the national home energy rating system (nathers) is climate zone 16 (adelaide) and the relevant energy consumptions are respectively 125 and 96 mj/m2 for 5 and 6 stars.therefore, an increase from 5 to 6 stars represents a reduction of 23% in the energy demand of a house in the adelaide climate zone. whilst a target energy reduction of that magnitude might infer major building specification changes, housing design modifications around insulation and glazing and to a lesser extent shading and air movement devices are known to offer significant improvement to building thermal characteristics. fricker (2002) in his study shows that the benefit of additional insulation levels is non linear and diminishes once high levels of insulation are ‘standardised’ into housing and a recent report by the australian window association (2009) into the changes to a 6 star energy rating for residential buildings points to a requirement for high performance glazing as this insulation benefit reduces. smaller houses have a greater surface area compared to their floor area than larger houses. because total heat flow through the building fabric is greatly influenced by the surface area, without a correction factor smaller houses of the same shape and materials will have higher energy loads per unit of floor area. this effect is exacerbated because window areas as a percentage of floor area are often relatively greater in small houses than in larger houses, and because heat flows through windows are generally the largest. in regulation mode, star ratings are to be based on energy loads that have been adjusted by an area adjustment factor (aaf). the size of the adjustment depends on the conditioned floor area and the climate zone. for adelaide housing (zone 5) the appropriate area adjustments used by the software in energy load calculations are: 50m2 150m2 250m2 350m2 1.2 0.3 -0.3 -0.8 the accurate results for the case study houses when modelled in simulation mode the results of the base designs energy performance is listed in table 2. lot numbers refer to individual house designs unique to each allotment for which builders provided the required design information. australasian journal of construction economics and building belusko, m and o’leary, t (2010) ‘cost analyses of measures to improve residential energy ratings to 6 stars – playford north development, south australia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 36‐47 40 unadjusted load, mj/m2 lot base star rating heating cooling ratio of heating to total load floor area, m2 16 4.9 78 63.8 0.55 175 17 4.9 94.9 61 0.61 130 23 5.8 58.8 53 0.53 142 26 5.9 75.1 42.9 0.64 104 13 5.4 53.4 63.5 0.46 170 29 4.9 62.8 65.1 0.49 211 184 4.9 59.5 77.4 0.43 188 45 5.2 60 68.1 0.47 180 901 5.1 70 68.5 0.51 167 8 5.3 60.5 69.9 0.46 173 902 5.4 51.7 62.5 0.45 224 194 4.9 68.9 70.6 0.49 190 table 2 house star and thermal load information using the list of technology options listed in tables 3 and 4, the star rating was increased to 6 stars for each house design. a condition of the upgrade in energy efficiency was that major changes to the floor plan, changes to window location or overall window and door sizes were deemed too great a divergence from an acceptable design solution for each lot. as a result the principal focus in increasing the star rating relates to technology options affecting the transmission heat flow through the house. lot 17 was the poorest design with a base star rating of 4.9 (figure 1). as shown in table 2 it had the highest heating load due to large southern windows and the northern windows shaded by the building preventing winter sun. as a result, in addition to adding the maximum levels of insulation in the building, the southern windows needed to be double glazed and the windows throughout the house required low emissivity glass. lot 26 was the best design with a base star rating of 5.9. although the house required more energy to heat, per unit of floor area, than some other houses, due to its smaller floor area it was penalised less than other houses, and as a result achieved a higher rating. the house has minimum southern windows preventing heat loss, no eastern and western windows preventing the sun in the summer and northern windows providing for winter sun. to achieve 6 stars all that was required was foil in the roof. lot 184 was a typical design in that it applies the deemed to satisfy provisions of the bca and achieves a star rating in the simulation method of 4.9. the building requires more cooling than heating and this is due to the large unshaded western windows in the living zone. foil was added to the roof and walls, the internal wall was insulated and the roof insulation upgraded to 3.5. low emissivity glass was applied to most of the glass doors/windows. in addition to the development of the 6 star designs, the impact of the technology options was systematically investigated for each house design. applying the list prescriptively, tables 3 and 4 show the absolute and incremental impact on the star rating of the design, respectively. in total, except for lot 17, all other designs achieved 6 stars with the average house design reaching 6.4 stars. this result indicates that in general there is scope to reduce these measures, while maintaining the 6 star rating. furthermore, although insulation options have been exhausted, there is scope to increase the star rating for those designs which achieve a significantly lower star rating. these measures include (in order of application): australasian journal of construction economics and building belusko, m and o’leary, t (2010) ‘cost analyses of measures to improve residential energy ratings to 6 stars – playford north development, south australia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 36‐47 41 1. applying low e single glazing to all other windows/doors in the house 2. applying double glazing to the living zone windows/doors 3. applying double glazing to all windows/doors in the house based on the average increase, each technology option produces a meaningful increase in the star rating. the incremental increase that each technology option generates will be different depending on the order of application. therefore, the average increase determined should only be used as a guide. table 4 shows the average increase each technology option measure provides. low e single glazing is the most effective at 0.49 stars followed by the foil in roof, internal wall insulation and then the bulk insulation measures in the building envelope. this result reflects the fact that bulk insulation is already present in the house design and therefore any increase in the r rating will have less of an impact compared to glazing, where the original glazing has a very poor thermal resistance. updated star rating with technology option lot foil in roof r2.5 ext walls r4 roof r1.5 internal walls low e glass in living zone 16 5.2 5.4 5.6 5.9 6.4 17 5.1 5.2 5.2 5.4 5.6 23 6 6.1 6.3 6.4 6.7 26 6.1 6.3 6.5 6.6 6.8 13 5.7 5.8 5.9 5.9 6.3 29 5.2 5.4 5.4 5.4 6.1 184 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.6 6.2 45 5.4 5.6 5.8 6 6.6 901 5.3 5.4 5.6 6 6.6 8 5.5 5.6 5.6 5.8 6.5 902 5.7 5.8 5.8 6.1 6.6 194 5.1 5.1 5.2 5.4 6 table 3 cumulative star rating impact of each technology measure for each lot star rating increase with technology option lot foil in roof r2.5 ext walls r4 roof r1.5 internal walls low e glass in living zone 16 0.3 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.5 17 0.2 0.1 0 0.2 0.2 23 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.1 0.3 26 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.1 0.2 13 0.3 0.1 0.1 0 0.4 29 0.3 0.2 0 0 0.7 184 0.3 0.1 0.1 0.2 0.6 45 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.6 901 0.2 0.1 0.2 0.4 0.6 8 0.2 0.1 0 0.2 0.7 902 0.3 0.1 0 0.3 0.5 194 0.2 0 0.1 0.2 0.6 average 0.24 0.13 0.11 0.18 0.49 table 4 incremental increase of star rating (rounded to one decimal) by impact of each technology measure for each lot australasian journal of construction economics and building belusko, m and o’leary, t (2010) ‘cost analyses of measures to improve residential energy ratings to 6 stars – playford north development, south australia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 36‐47 42 the performance of the foil reflects the increased impact of the cooling demand on higher star rated homes, and is an important measure for higher star rated houses. internal wall insulation isolates the living zone from the rest of the house and effectively reduces the conditioned area. cost analysis cost per star, cost per technology option costs were determined based on retail costs not including gst. the actual cost increases for each lot relates to the specific design choices and combinations of technology options around insulation and glazing. these design choices were made in order to minimise cost. table 5 below shows these upgrade costs. normalised cost lot base stars estimated upgrade cost total cost/star 16 4.9 3958 3872 3520 17 improved 4.9 4801 6321 5747 23 5.8 433 521 2607 26 5.9 134 220 2199 13 5.4 863 869 1448 29 4.9 7880 6392 5811 184 4.9 5516 5022 4566 45 5.2 2678 2546 3183 901 5.1 1422 1457 1619 8 5.3 2243 2219 3170 902 5.4 1469 1122 1870 194 4.9 6404 5770 5245 17 as provided 4.9 6590 8677 7888 average 5.2 3150 3028 3415 table 5 cost estimates to upgrade existing designs to 6 stars ($aus june 2009 prices) overall, the range of costs was large, with a minimum of $134 and a maximum of $7880, with the average being $3150. this range is significant and reflects design choices made which affected the need for a glazing solution. where a glazing solution was not required cost increases were negligible. two options are provided for lot 17, the as provided value represents what was advised to builders, however, this was able to be significantly improved, and this value is presented. to compare each house correctly, the costs were normalised to the average floor area of 171 m2, and the cost per star was determined. for example, lot 23 has a floor area of 142m2 (see table 2). upgrade cost/floor area $433/142m2 = $3.05/m2 normalised to average size house 171m2 x $3.05 = $521 for the 12 houses in the study the average cost per star is $3415 +/46%. all average values only consider the improved arrangement for lot 17. the study assumes that a cost minimisation approach is available to the builder and that in the absence of being able to make specific design choices, the cost of upgrading, applying the measures listed in tables 3 and 4 can be calculated (table 6). this costing exercise is based on applying the list of measures in full irrespective of whether it achieves a higher star rating than six. based on the average of each measure the highest cost is clearly the glazing solution followed by foil, internal wall insulation and with external wall and roof australasian journal of construction economics and building belusko, m and o’leary, t (2010) ‘cost analyses of measures to improve residential energy ratings to 6 stars – playford north development, south australia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 36‐47 43 insulation being the least costly. this is expected as currently external walls and roof are already insulated, and therefore the cost is only the cost of upgrading. cost increase of technology option, $aud lot foil in roof r2.5 ext walls r4 roof r1.5 internal walls low e glass in living zone 16 526 213 168 478 3322 17 358 190 53 389 2458 23 433 77 136 422 3309 26 320 204 100 251 3225 13 518 87 163 539 4264 29 743 286 202 520 4767 184 578 276 180 498 4720 45 550 244 173 638 4114 901 460 239 160 582 4318 8 475 77 71 558 3873 902 618 101 92 750 4543 194 530 88 78 774 4935 average 509 173 131 533 3987 table 6 cost increase of each measure for each lot table 7 presents the total cost of applying the measures with the average being $5334. the average total based on normalising the cost to the average floor area of 171 m2 was $5377 +/-12%. this cost is significantly higher than the actual upgrade cost presented in table 5. this difference represents the cost minimisation process. where a process of optimisation can be applied in the modelling, an average cost saving of $1962 or average rate of $11.47/m2 gfa can be achieved. this variation of the average total cost of applying the measures in table 7 represents the different choices in window/sliding door area and living room areas which will affect the cost. generally the cost variation is small for applying all the measures. as shown in table 3 the application of these measures delivers varying increases in star rating often well above 6 stars. table 7 also presents the cost of a 1 star increase for each lot with the average being $4921 +/-27%. the variation shows the impact of the design and relates to the base star rating. although this represents the true cost of going from a 5 to 6 star design in practice it will depend on whether designers are able to implement a portion of a measure. for example, applying r3.5 in the roof as opposed to r4, or applying low emissivity glass to some of the glass doors and windows in the living zone. figure 2 presents the average normalised cost of each measure together with the star increase this measure delivers. a description of the measure is presented in table 8. the figure shows that the trends of cost and star increase are essentially identical with the foil and internal wall insulation measure providing higher star increases at higher costs than external wall and roof insulation. what the graph also highlights is that once insulation solutions are exhausted a significant increase in cost occurs with the implementation of the glazing solution. this cost is particularly relevant to poor house designs, as glazing solutions are the only alternative technology option to achieving higher star ratings. australasian journal of construction economics and building normalised cost lot total cost total cost/star 16 4708 4605 3070 17 3448 4540 6486 23 4377 5276 5862 26 4100 6747 7497 13 5571 5609 6233 29 6518 5287 4406 184 6251 5692 4378 45 5718 5438 3884 901 5759 5902 3935 8 5054 5000 4167 902 6103 4663 3886 194 6404 5770 5245 average 5334 5377 4921 table 7 total cost and total normalised cost to a 171 m2 floor area 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 1 2 3 4 5 measure c os t, $ 0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.60 st ar in cr em en t cost star increment figure 2 normalised cost and star rating increment of each measure, as defined in table 8, for a 171 m2 floor area house table 8 presents the star increase each measure delivers per $1000 of cost. what it shows is that increasing external wall and roof insulation are the most cost effective measures followed by adding foil and internal wall insulation and finally the glazing solution. this result shows that although internal wall insulation and foil are of low cost, they are an addition as opposed to an upgrade and therefore are less cost effective than external wall and roof insulation measures. the glazing solution is significantly less cost effective than the insulation solutions. belusko, m and o’leary, t (2010) ‘cost analyses of measures to improve residential energy ratings to 6 stars – playford north development, south australia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 36‐47 44 australasian journal of construction economics and building belusko, m and o’leary, t (2010) ‘cost analyses of measures to improve residential energy ratings to 6 stars – playford north development, south australia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 36‐47 45 1 foil in roof 0.48 2 r2.5 ext walls 0.69 3 r4 roof 0.82 4 r1.5 internal walls 0.35 5 low e glass in living zone 0.12 table 8 star rating increase per $1000 for each measure in table 4 a retail market based approach was used in costing the various material and technology combinations modeled to improve the star rating. suppliers and subcontractors in the south australian home building market were willing to provide indicative supply prices at a retail price i.e. without any mark downs that can often be negotiated by volume purchases or companies using long term customer relationships as price bargaining leverage. therefore it could be said the figures used in the analysis may slightly overstate the increased cost effect of additional measures or higher specification in the houses variations. appendix a (tables a.1 and a.2) presents the list prices as provided by company a for various batt sizes and foils, and companies c, d and f for windows with a discount incorporated. a survey of prices in a major hardware store showed a discount of 46% for batts and a discount of 62% for foils (ignoring gst). these are discounts from normal retail prices and it was explained by company a, that volume home builders would achieve an additional 10% discount. appendix a also provides installation prices at prevailing labour rates that are consistent with current construction cost data publications such as rawlinsons (2009) conclusions with moves towards the 6 star energy efficiency rating for houses, the cost implications need to be analysed. the study of adelaide houses shows a range of indicative costs at an average of cost increase to achieve 6 stars of some $3,150. given average house and land package of $290,000 this represents a low order of cost increase for a housing consumer with anticipated benefits of greater thermal performance built into the house. integrated with this issue is the development of an effective methodology by which designers can readily achieve 6 stars. a five step approach was investigated which involves applying various insulation options and then applying the lowest cost glazing option. applied as a guide this was used on 12 house designs upgrading the designs to 6 stars, through an optimisation process aimed at minimising cost. the variation in the original base star rating was a single star rating, which reflected the impact of the design modification. whilst the average cost increase to achieve 6 stars for all designs was $3150, a significant range in cost increase occurred, from $134 to $7880 due to the required application of various technology options. the principal cost increase is the application of the new glazing solution, low emissivity glass. the most cost effective measures was increasing bulk insulation in the external walls and roof, however this was due to the associated costs only being an upgrade cost. applying reflective foil in the roof together with internal wall insulation was the next most cost effective option achieving 0.24 and 0.18 increases in stars. the most effective increase in star rating was the glazing option increasing the star rating by an average of 0.49. in this study basic design modification principles were identified which can mitigate the costs associated with upgrading to 6 stars. consequently, together with the technology options currently available, the cost increase to 6 stars can be described as modest or minor. australasian journal of construction economics and building belusko, m and o’leary, t (2010) ‘cost analyses of measures to improve residential energy ratings to 6 stars – playford north development, south australia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 36‐47 46 references australian building codes board (abcb) (2009) supporting commentary on the proposals to amend the energy efficiency provisions in the building code of australia volume 2 for 2010, abcb, canberra, act ashrae (2005) ashrae handbook – fundamentals, american society of heating, refrigerating and air-conditioning engineers inc., atlanta, usa australian window association (awa) (2009) industry capacity/capability study, australian window association, gordon, new south wales athienitis a. and santamouris. m. (2002) thermal analysis and design of passive solar buildings, james and james, london ambrose, m. delsante, a. johnson, d. and tucker, s.n. (2004) energy efficiency uptake within the project house building industry, csiro, canberra, act burghardt, g. (2008) study of the thermal performance of class 2 multiple unit dwellings using accurate house energy rating software, report for the australian building codes board, nov. canberra, act constructive concepts (2009) building improvements to raise house energy ratings from 5.0 stars, overview of systematic accurate modelling for the australian building codes board, tony isaacs consulting, australian building codes board, canberra, act council of australian governments (coag), 2009 communiqué, hobart april 2009 national strategy on energy efficiency, canberra act energy efficient strategies, (2002) comparative cost benefit study of energy efficiency measures for class 1 buildings and high rise apartments, report for the sustainable energy authority of victoria, melbourne, australia fricker, j (2002) ‘the diminishing benefit of extra home insulation’, viewed at http://fricker.net.au accessed 09/06/09 rawlinsons (2009) australian construction handbook 2009, rawlhouse publishing pty ltd. perth, western australia appendix a insulation product $/m2 r2 bulk insulation 4.29 r2.5 bulk insulation 4.87 r3 bulk insulation 5.07 r3.5 bulk insulation 5.62 r4 bulk insulation 6.03 r1.5 bulk insulation 3.19 single sided reflective foil 1.00 double sided reflective foil 1.05 installation cost 1.50 table a.1: retail prices for insulation (non gst) australasian journal of construction economics and building belusko, m and o’leary, t (2010) ‘cost analyses of measures to improve residential energy ratings to 6 stars – playford north development, south australia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 36‐47 47 window company $/m2 standard clear single glazed window c 223 standard clear single glazed door c 278 standard clear single glazed window d 118 standard clear single glazed door d 168 low e single glazed window c 426 low e single glazed door c 466 standard double glazed window d 307 standard double glazed door d 526 high performance double glazed window f 450 high performance double glazed door f 940 table a.2: retail prices for windows (non gst) cost analyses of measures to improve residential energy ratings to 6 stars playford north development, south australia. abstract introduction playford north housing case study design and energy efficiency options home energy rating – calculation of the star rating, heating and cooling loads cost analysis cost per star, cost per technology option conclusions references appendix a introduction factors affecting the performance of small indigenous contractors in papua new guinea by daniel wasi and martin skitmore page 80 the australian journal of construction economics & building factors affecting the performance of small indigenous contractors in papua new guinea daniel wasi and martin skitmore, school of construction management and property queensland university of technology, brisbane, australia introduction the total area of png is 461,690 square kilometres with a total land area of 451,710 square kilometres. the national government owns only 3% of the total land, with 2% privately owned and 95% is traditional owned through clans or kinships. the national government-owned land comprises freehold land, which is only accessible by nationals, and alienated land, which is accessible by nationals and foreigners for development purposes. despite 20 years of independence, general construction activity in papua new guinea is dominated by large overseas construction companies, mainly from australia, who undertake major engineering and building construction projects funded by the private and public sector. the large expatriate companies have access to finance, equipment, material and management and technical expertise, which enable them to move around the country to undertake large construction projects. on the other hand, the small indigenous contractors compete for small construction projects within the town or city where they operate and rarely move out to expand their business. when there is a shortage of work, the large expatriate contractors cover their overheads by competing with the small contractors for small work – a phenomenon termed ‘downwards plundering’ (ilo, 1987:37). in 1993, the national government, noting that the construction industry could assist in solving the country’s employment problem, established the construction industry unit (ciu). this unit comes under the department of commerce and industry and is responsible for working together with the construction. in the same year, the national government, under the national housing corporation (nhc) act no.1 of 1990, also established the nhc, by amalgamating the department of housing and the national housing commission. the national government then ruled that all construction projects valued up to 100,000 kina1 must be undertaken by only small indigenous contractors. from k100,000 to k5 million, projects are reserved for local and png based expatriate companies, with projects over k5 million being reserved for joint ventures where the national partner holds over a fifty percent share (tait and callick, 1993:165). towards the end of 1995, the nhc began its housing construction program and today has built over fifty houses at a cost of k1.2 million. in line with the national government policy to create businesses and employment opportunities for the people of png in the construction field, the nhc engages small indigenous contractors for all its infrastructure, maintenance works and housing construction projects throughout the country. all the nhc housing construction projects are carried out under a lump sum contract and open tenders are called for all projects. the construction industry unit (ciu) contractors’ register comprises 150 contractors registered in the country. this includes contractors undertaking engineering, building and specialised work. out of these, there are 20 large expatriate construction companies, mostly involved in both engineering and building work. when registering the contractor, their financial status, experience, plant and equipment, experience and personal qualification are taken into consideration. the contractors are then classified 1 1 kina = approx us25c factors affecting the performance of small indigenous contractors in papua new guinea by daniel wasi and martin skitmore the australian journal of construction economics & building page 81 contractor’s category allowable range of contract cost to be carried out small category sub-category a equal to or less than k 100,000 sub-category b equal to or less than k 500,000 medium category sub-category a above k 500,000 to k 2,500,000 sub-category b above k 500,000 to k 5,000,000 large category sub-category a above k 500,000 to k 10,000,000 sub-category b above k 10,000,000 table 1: contractor’s category and allowable range of contract cost (source: construction industry unit, 1997). accordingly as small, medium or large contractors as shown in table 1 (above). registration of contractors is undertaken annually and contractors are assessed again. if the contractor’s performance is satisfactory the contractors status in the register is upgraded. in the png capital of port moresby, there are a total of 33 contractors registered to undertake building construction work. large expatriate contractors make up almost a third of those registered. however, it is estimated that the number of registered contractors comprise only 5% of the total number of contractors submitting bids for housing projects. small indigenous contractors in png face similar problems as small contractors in other developing countries and their performance is thought to be poor. stretton (1984) has helped identify some problems associated with the poor performance. however, the study did not measure the impact of their problem. the research described in this paper aims to correct this by examining the extent and effect of factors on the performance of small indigenous building construction companies in port moresby. likely factors that affect small indigenous contractors' performance are identified from the literature. an empirical study is then described aimed at determining how these factors affect project cost, time and quality. this comprised a survey by personally administered questionnaires to a sample of small indigenous contractors to assess the level of factors associated with the problem of lack of performance. the view of each firm concerning the effect of each factor on performance was also obtained. the results show that, with the exception of culture, all the factors are perceived to have an effect of construction performance. it is also shown that the incidence of these factors within the firms surveyed are quite low. of particular concern is the level of cash flow. problems faced by small contractors: literature review cash flow small contractors in developing countries are often the ones on the fringe of the construction industry and undertake work unwanted by the large contractors. most of their work, comprising construction, maintenance and refurbishment work, is from the public sector. consequently, they are likely to be greatly affected by the state of the country’s economy because of, for example, changes in the government’s expenditure policy (ruddock, 1992:93). as most government agencies experience financial problems, there are delays of payments to contractors – with a consequent adverse effect on the contractor’s cash flow (ofori, 1991). this then affects the operation of the contractor, ultimately hindering the factors affecting the performance of small indigenous contractors in papua new guinea by daniel wasi and martin skitmore page 82 the australian journal of construction economics & building projects from being delivered as required (adam, 1997:445-55; jannadi, 1997:33). many small contractors also experience difficulties in obtaining money from financial institutions to finance their business due to the high levels of bankruptcy in the industry, hence the initial capital for the business must come from the contractor (miles 1979:86). in addition, most small and medium contractors in developing countries have very limited funds as they are seldom able to offer the necessary fixed assets as collateral (ofori, 1991:27). small contractor’s therefore operate on very tight budgets, and when they make a loss on one project they tend not to have sufficient resources to continue in business (stretton, 1984:34-52). stretton further noted that the success of small indigenous contractors is dependent on the type of contract used lump sum contracts requiring contractors to have sufficient finances for purchasing materials and paying workers. in png, all public funded projects are let on lump sum contacts with funds only released to contractors for payment of work done. the nhc, being aware of contractors’ cash flow problems, make weekly payments to contractors. however, the contractors still experience problems with delay in progress payments. many small local contractors do not have credit arrangements with major building materials suppliers or financial institutions, and operate on a cash basis. delays in payment are therefore expected to greatly affect their cash flow. construction management skills deficiency in planning and management skills is said to be the greatest single problem for small-scale contractors generally (ilo, 1987:47). in developing countries, the local construction industry lacks the capacity and capability of undertaking large construction projects, resulting in the continual domination of expatriate construction companies in undertaking all major construction projects (adam, 1997:95-108). consequently, smaller companies find it hard to acquire experience in their type of project (jannadi, 1997:33) leading to contractors with limited management and technical skills (ofori, 1991:371-2). this affects their ability to acquire building materials, manage their workers, successfully bid for work (stretton, 1984:34-52) and generally contributing to poor performance (ofori, 1991:371-2). given the fluctuation in the building industry, employment in the construction industry in third world countries offers less employment security (stretton, 1984:142). in addition, small contractors in developing countries experience a shortage in skilled labour due to the salary and the security of employment offered by large construction companies being greater than that offered by the small contractor (ilo, 1987:40-3). furthermore, more young graduates are being assigned to oversee projects and their “lack of skills and experience at both the supervisor and worker level” has been a contributing factor (lewis, 1984:37-48). contract documentation inappropriate contract documents has been identified as one of the most common problems affecting the operation of small contractors ofori (1991:371-2). in developing countries, most public sector clients do not use a standard set of contract documents and building plans. the methods of construction are also different which often confuses the contractors. in png, public housing construction drawings provided by nhc are based on the assumption that the site is flat. any site work is considered as extras and the contractor can claim for work done. however extra work is not paid for until after practically completed when all extra work is measured and paid out. this places a consequent strain on the contractors’ cash flow. factors affecting the performance of small indigenous contractors in papua new guinea by daniel wasi and martin skitmore the australian journal of construction economics & building page 83 working relationships overall in png most small indigenous contractors often do not want a bad working relationship with the client, given that this may jeopardise their chances of getting any further work. clients are hard to find and easy to lose and a contractor who finishes a contract on time and with a good reputation will be one step ahead of his competitor when the next invitation to tender comes along (miles, 1980:245). however small indigenous contractors have been known to express disappointment with their working relationship with the client’s representative mainly because of the unsympathetic attitude to the contractor’s problems regarding shortage of materials and the delay in payments. facilities and equipment given the size of their company, many local contractors that are owner managed and operated, run their work from their own residence. without office equipment like fax and photocopying machines, urgent information or queries take time to reach the parties concerned. communication communication in small firms is often good, although poor communication skills of the manager can be a problem (fryer, 1985:65). in developing countries, there is often no means of communication between the workers on site and the contractor’s office. urgent site problems, therefore, cannot be solved immediately because the site workers cannot talk to their manager or owner. in png, the nhc site representative can not communicate urgent information to the contractor, thus it has to be relayed through the workers on site. this may lead to information being given to the wrong person or the information being misinterpreted when relayed. the ilo (1987:43) has further noted that the level of supervision by the client can also affect the performance of the contractor if the client supervisor is not qualified, or there is no effective communication between the contractor and the client. shortage or the lack of client supervision staff in some developing countries also contributes to the contractor’s problem. this may result in the contractor doing remedial work, which can be very costly for small contractors – reducing profit margins and putting a strain on cash flow. cultural impact ‘wantokism2’ is the common cultural problem in png and is thought to lead to the downfall of local construction companies. as in all business ventures in png that are family owned, members of the family are employed to work for the company. local building contractors also employ people from their family, the clan and the village. it has been found that, when a contractor employs only relatives, work input is very low when the owner is away from the site (stretton, 1984:34). local contractors in png are often culturally pressured to employ more of their relatives to maintain a relationship with the village. if the contractors decide otherwise and hire workers from outside the village they are alienated from the village (stretton, 1984:140). financial management skills small contractors have very low financial reserves and use the profit from ongoing projects to finance their next project, hence a loss in one project ultimately leads to a cash flow problem and liquidation (stretton, 1984:43). this is exacerbated by the tendency for small contractors in developing countries to take money out of the business for spending on personal items such as cars or a new house (ilo (1987:40). most indigenous contractors in png are owner operated who also control the company financial matters. it is likely therefore, that project funds will sometimes be channelled into 2 onedo (1991:122) defines wantokism or the wantok system as one talk or language, in generic sense this refers to people of the same linguistic, ethic, village, provincial or region. factors affecting the performance of small indigenous contractors in papua new guinea by daniel wasi and martin skitmore page 84 the australian journal of construction economics & building other personal matters which consequent financial strain to the projects. in addition, delays in contractor payment caused by the cumbersome process of making contractor payments in the public sector, create financial problems for the contractor. unless well managed, this delay is very damaging to contractors who are operating in a location remote from the client (edmonds and miles, 1984:47). research design and methodology all the data required for the study was collected over a one week period in the form of a ‘one-shot’ or cross-sectional study via a self administered questionnaire (see appendix a). the questionnaire comprised two parts. the first part contained both structured and unstructured questions concerning general information about the company, relating to the contractor’s performance. the second part of the questionnaire contained the factors identified above. the questionnaire was estimated to take no more then fifteen minutes to complete. the questionnaire was hand delivered to all small indigenous contractors and each was asked to complete the questionnaire by the end of the week, at which time they were then personally collected. the contractors were allowed to answer the questions in their own office and own time and without any pressure being applied on them. hand delivery and collection of the questionnaire, also afforded the opportunity to answer or clarify any query the contractors had regarding the questions and purpose of the study. there are 100 small indigenous contractors operating in the national capital district, where the survey was conducted. this excludes contractors involved in engineering and trade work like painting and electrical and plumbing work. using stratified random sampling, a total sample of 50 contractors were identified, comprising small indigenous contractors involved in refurbishment, maintenance work, specialist work, engineering and building construction. questionnaires were then prepared and delivered to small indigenous contractors in port moresby experienced in the construction of residential buildings and capable of undertaking project worth up to k100,000 annually. in total, 20 completed questionnaires were returned – representing a response rate of 40%. analysis of results approximately 70% of the respondents obtain work from the public sector, with the remainder securing work from the private sector. a summary of this information regarding the type of work the respondents undertake and their clients is shown in table 2. all the respondents undertook projects totalling no more than k100,000 pa. table 3 shows the results for the questions “extent of item in your company/experienced by your company” and “effect of item on performance” together with their respective means and standard deviations (sd) for each item. this shows that for the “extent of item in your company/experienced by your company”, with the exception of item 7, all the mean responses are below the midpoint of 3 – indicating that all are, as expected, lower than an average standard. the lowest is ‘cash flow, followed by ‘communication’, ‘construction management skills’, ‘financial skills’, ‘office facilities’, ‘contract documentation’, and ‘level of harmonious relationships’. ‘cultural impact’, with a mean of 3.05, was a little higher as expected. the results for the question “effect of item on performance” show that, in contrast with “extent experienced”, the mean responses of all items are above the midpoint of 3 – suggesting that all are, as expected, quite highly rated. the highest is ‘office facilities’, followed by ‘ financial skills’, ‘communication’, ‘cash flow’, ‘contract documentation’, ‘harmonious relationships’, ‘management skills’ and ‘cultural impact’. factors affecting the performance of small indigenous contractors in papua new guinea by daniel wasi and martin skitmore the australian journal of construction economics & building page 85 client house construction (%) maintenance (%) refurbishment (%) others (%) public 20 53 11 15 private 35 37 19 9 table 2: summary of respondent’s source and main areas of work experience performanc e item mean sd mean sd 1 cash flow 2.05 0.99 3.60 1.14 2 construction management skills 2.45 1.43 3.30 1.38 3 contract documentation 2.70 1.21 3.55 0.99 4 harmonious relationship 2.95 1.09 3.40 0.99 5 office facilities and equipment 2.60 1.35 4.10 0.71 6 communication 2.40 1.23 3.80 0.89 7 cultural impact 3.05 1.70 3.20 1.36 8 financial management skills 2.50 1.23 4.05 0.60 table 3: extent of experience and effect on performance discussion the information provided indicates that most of the small indigenous contractors obtained the majority of their work from the public sector. the predominant area of work is shared between maintenance work and the construction of houses, with some undertaking refurbishment and other trade work. performance factors. cash flow ranking the least of the factors experienced by the contractors and yet fourth highest in terms of effect, the results confirm that most contractors work with very limited funds, and any delay in payments by the client or when the project funds are mismanaged have an important effect on the contractor’s performance. management skills this factor was the third least experienced by the contractors but was considered to have one of the lesser effects on performance. it is noted that most of the small indigenous contractors have established their business through the ‘trade route’, and should be reasonably proficient in reading plans and undertaking the actual construction work. clearly, the situation is even worse than expected. contract documentation rated not too low relative to other factors in terms of extent experienced, this factor is rated fifth in terms of the effect on performance. however, it is noted that most clients, either public or private, often use different contract documents. for public housing, the plans are standard all being designed for a flat site to enable plans to be used throughout png. no site contours are shown on the plans and the contractor is required to inspect the site to allow for any siteworks. given the lack of information, contractors may increase their estimates for siteworks at the risk of overpricing the work. most contract conditions put the majority of risk on the contractor. payments are not made for materials on site unless they are installed, but when operating with minimum funds this affects the contractor’s performance. factors affecting the performance of small indigenous contractors in papua new guinea by daniel wasi and martin skitmore page 86 the australian journal of construction economics & building working relationships this is regarded at an average level by respondents and third highest in terms of effect on performance. with almost 70% of their work coming from the public sector, it is necessary for the contractors to maintain a good working relationship with the client to enable them to stand a better chance of getting work in future. therefore, most contractors may have problems but rarely show them. office facilities and equipment this rates better than the least occurring factors in terms of experience but is the most important in terms of effect on performance. whilst undertaking the survey, it was noted that most contractors do have office space within their residence. however given that most of the small indigenous construction companies are owner managed, there is no one to attend to administrative work when the owner is out on site. nor do they keep proper records of the projects that the company has undertaken or is likely to undertake. most do not have proper office facilities to support their field operation in providing materials and equipment. given the office locations, there is insufficient space to store materials required for the project, which often results in the materials being bought when required. when this happens, a number of problems arise: the workers on site cannot do any work until the materials are delivered; materials are expensive as they are not bought in bulk; and projects are delayed when materials are not in stock. the unavailability of space means also that most of the contractors prefabricate the work on site. without any proper working areas and machinery, most of the workmanship in their joinery work is very poor. level of communication as one of the least experienced factors, this is also one of the highest in terms of effect on performance. being small, most of the communication in the organisation is usually informal, and done verbally to get things done quickly to save cost. however, the problem most small contractors have is the mode of communication between their workers on site and their office or with the owner or manager and the client. workers on site do not have any means to communicate with their office or the owner or manager. communication with the owner or manager can only be done when the owner or manager is on site, thus, requests for urgent matters from workers or from the client’s site supervisor are often delayed. cultural impact of all the factors covered, this rated the highest in terms of level experienced but of the lowest effect on performance. this suggests that most of the small indigenous contractors value their culture sufficiently to say that it has a relatively small impact on their performance. it is noted that to be successful in their business the contractors need to be able to combine commercial culture with indigenous culture. this something most businesses in png including the construction business have been unable to do very well. financial management skills this is better than the least of the factors experienced and rated highly in terms of the effect on performance. financial management skills enable the contractor to better manage their finances to enable them to know where and when to spend their money to keep the company operating. those contractors with financial management skills may have come from the commercial route to establish their company or may have taken a book keeping course, hence their ability to manage their finances. however, according to results from the level of cash flow, many contractors have cash flow problems. this could mean that the clients delay payment, or that money is being spent on other things. factors affecting the performance of small indigenous contractors in papua new guinea by daniel wasi and martin skitmore the australian journal of construction economics & building page 87 conclusion the analysis interpretations and discussion of the results support the background and observations regarding the reasons for the inadequate performance of small indigenous contractors. they also show that all the factors investigated are perceived to have a significant effect on performance. equally, it is also shown that the factors are being experienced at poor levels by png contractors. of particular concern is the level of cash flow, which was perceived to be very low by respondents and among the four highest factors affecting performance. similarly, the level of financial skills, one of the most important factors affecting performance, is among the worst recorded in the firms surveyed. cultural impact, however, contrary to expectations, is seen to have the least impact on performance. it is also likely that the factors that affect performance are interrelated and also affect each other. in other words, when there is poor communication between the contractors and the clients site representative, problems associated with the project can not be solved, which would affect their working relationship. the pacific islands group that includes papua new guinea is, in several respects, unique among developing countries. many of the islands have been populated only in the last 500 years. unlike other post colonial economies, they comprise a fragmented and very diverse population with a relatively weak concept of society. papua new guinea, with a population of approximately 4 million people, is by with far the largest of the islands. together with lae, port moresby, is the primate city of the region, with the largest proportion of urban population and the core of economic and commercial activity. this makes it difficult to generalise the results outside the locality of the study. however, information from nhc contracts offices indicated that a majority of small indigenous contractors in the provinces undertaking the nhc projects often experience the same problems as contractors in port moresby when undertaking construction of public housing. it is expected, though, that the relevance of the factors that affect performance would differ from those being experienced in port moresby. for example, a contractor in port moresby experiencing delays in payments would be able to discuss this faceto-face with the client, whilst a contractor outside of port moresby has to either spend money calling the client in port moresby or just wait until payment is made. references adam, o. (1997) contractor development in nigeria: perceptions of contractor and professionals. construction management and economics, 15 95-108 edmonds, g. and miles, d. (1984) foundation of change, aspects of the construction industry in developing countries, london: intermediate technology publication ltd. international labour organisation, (1987) guide-lines for the development of small scale construction enterprises, geneva: international labor office. jannadi, o.m. (1997) reasons for construction business failures in saudi arabia. project management journal, 28(2) jun 32-6. lewis, t, m. (1984) a review of the causes of recent problems in the construction industry of trinidad and tobago. construction management and economics, 2 37-48. miles, d. (1979) financial planning for the small building contractor, london: intermediate technology publication. miles, d. (1980), the small building contractor and the client, london: intermediate technology publication. ofori, g. (1991) programmes for the improving the performance of the contracting firms in developing countries: a review of approaches and appropriate factors affecting the performance of small indigenous contractors in papua new guinea by daniel wasi and martin skitmore page 88 the australian journal of construction economics & building options. construction management and economics, 9 19-38. ruddock, l. (1992) economics for construction and property. london: hodder and stoughhton. stretton, a. (1984) the building industry in papua new guinea, papua new guinea: institute of applied social and economic research. tait, m., and callick, r. (1993) the papua new guinea handbook, canberra: national library of australia. factors affecting the performance of small indigenous contractors in papua new guinea by daniel wasi and martin skitmore the australian journal of construction economics & building page 89 appendix a small local contractors performance survey questionnaire form (a) contractor 1.0 general question please provide suitable answers to the question. 1.1 what approximate percentage (%) of your work is from private and public sector? private ____________% public_______________% 1.2 of your private sector projects please estimate approximate percentage? a) house /building construction ________________% b) maintenance work ________________% c) refurbishment ________________% d) others ________________% 1.3 of your public sector projects please estimate approximate percentage? a) house /building construction ________________% b) maintenance work ________________% c) refurbishment ________________% d) others ________________% 1.4 please indicate the predominant area that you undertook ? ___________________________________________________________ 1.3 what is the total value of work your company undertake annually � a) up to $ 50,000. � b) $50,000 to $100,000 � c) $100,000 to $ 500,000 � d) over $ 500,000 factors affecting the performance of small indigenous contractors in papua new guinea by daniel wasi and martin skitmore page 90 the australian journal of construction economics & building 2.0 performance factor (a) small contractor please circle where appropriate. it is understood that you may not be able to answer all questions, however your attempt in answering all would be greatly appreciated. item extent of item in your company/experienced by your company effect of item on performance low high low high 1. level of cash flow 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 2. level of construction management skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 3. level of sufficient contract documentation 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 4. level of harmonious working relationship 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 5. level of office facilities and equipment 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 6. level of communication within firm & with principal 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 7. level of cultural impact (wantok system) 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 8. level of financial management skills 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 please indicate others 9. …………………………. ………………………………. ……………………………….. 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 10. ………………………….. ………………………………. ………………………………. 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 11. ………………………….. ………………………………. ……………………………….. 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 introduction problems faced by small contractors: literature review cash flow construction management skills contract documentation working relationships facilities and equipment communication cultural impact financial management skills research design and methodology discussion performance factors. cash flow management skills contract documentation working relationships office facilities and equipment level of communication cultural impact financial management skills references item lowhigh microsoft word ajceb vol.2 no.1 compiled sized.doc ahmed usman awil and abdul rashid abdul aziz 94 the australian journal of construction economics and building vol.2 no.1 international markets: malaysian construction contractors and the stage theory ahmed usman awil and abdul rashid abdul aziz school of housing building and planning, universiti sains malaysia introduction the construction industry plays a major and vital role in transforming the aspirations and the needs of people into reality by physically implementing various development projects the construction industry in malaysia consists of over 40,000 companies, employs 800,000 people and is served by around 140 supporting industries (cidb, 2000). the industry has experienced a rise and fall over the last twenty years. while the growth in construction was 17.3% in 1995 it contracted by 23% during the asian financial crisis of 1997–98 (mbam, 2001), resulting in loss of employment, bankruptcies and idle resources. the priming of the economy undertaken by the malaysian government since 1998, though increasing investment in construction, has not been able to bring back the period of high growth. most contractor firms tend to concentrate on the home market and only when the home market contracts is there any pressure to diversify into other markets. unfortunately by this time the firm is lacking in resources and it takes a few months to a few years to develop a sound business plan for working overseas. this project-centric nature of business has driven both resources and attention towards projects at hand to the detriment of systematic, focused business development activities (katsanis and katsanis, 2001). by operating offshore, companies are able to offset seasonal and/or cyclical fluctuations in their domestic market demand and are able to diversify their market portfolio, products or services as well as improving their competitive position (el-higzi, 2001). the need is to provide an alternative approach, from knee-jerk reactions to proactive strategies, by contracting firms in malaysia. the objective of this research is twofold; firstly, locating the factors that motivate malaysian construction contractors to undertake work overseas, and secondly, tracing the position of malaysian construction firms to cavusgil’s (1980) export stages so as to match assistance to the progress they have achieved. internationalisation of malaysian contractors has been chosen as a subject because of the need to provide opportunities for malaysian contractors to stabilise their operations. this study is a follow up to a previous study by rashid (1994a). definition of internationalisation as this paper is concerned with internationalisation of construction contractors it is necessary to define internationalisation. it is the process of leveraging domestic competencies into foreign markets and transferring competitive advantages based on such factors as superior technology and products. in a very simple sense, then internationalisation stems from the domestic operation (hendry 1996). all activities the firm undertakes, from the initial moment that the firm considers seeking work overseas to the moment that the firm exports its services abroad, are included in this process. internationalisation in this paper refers to the process of construction firms leaving their home markets in search of opportunities abroad. literature review increasingly the place to do business is in the global marketplace. recent trends have ushered in an era of unprecedented export opportunities. increasing competition at home from both local and global companies, falling barriers to international trade and improved international communication and information networks have pressed many companies to compete in the international markets (wolff and pett, 2000). since the 1960s many developing countries have begun the transition from import substitution to more outward-looking development strategies. this has involved export support programs aimed at diversification of the composition of exports away from traditional products towards increased involvement in non-traditional exports (haar and orbizinternational markets: malaysian construction contractors and the stage theory the australian journal of construction economics and building vol.2 no.1 95 buonafina, 1995). in the case of malaysia this consisted of shifting attention to manufacturing exports in 1970s and 1980s and recently to the export of services. factors that push firms into exporting can be divided into two categories: one internal to the organisation and the second coming from the environment in which the firm is operating (ghauri, 2000). the first category factors include the ambitions and goals of the individuals and the organisation as regards to resources, capabilities and strategies. the second category relates to environments at home and in the foreign market such as tax regulations, legal requirements, financial considerations, and the type of industry, investigation costs and potential profit possibilities. dunning (1993: 249) developed a paradigm for exporting services, which explained the globalisation of firms and markets. according to dunning the reasons why firms wish to engage in foreign-based activities are: to acquire inputs for further processing activities to supply foreign markets with goods and services more beneficial than by alternative means; sequential investment to acquire assets or some kind of competitive advantage rather than to exploit the use of an existing competitive advantage. in the construction services sector contractors undertaking work overseas have been studied by quak (1989), crosthwaite (1998), neo (1975) and kaynak and dalgic (1992). a comparison of the various studies and the factors that pushed firms towards internationalisation are shown in table 1 what is clear from these studies is that, although the reasons may be different for different countries and for different periods over time, there were three basic reasons: to expand businesses, to diversify risks and to gainfully employ available resources. internationalisation is a complex, multidimensional construct, which comprises elements of different strategies. (kutscher and baurle, 1997). among the determinants that push a firm towards internationalisation is size. larger size is a source of differential advantage enhancing performance in export marketing. many studies have confirmed that size is a factor in exporting, including those by calof (1933 and 1994), samiee and walters (1990), katsikeas and leonidou (1996), dalli (1995) and moini (1995). table 1: factors that push a firm towards internationalisation study neo (1975) quak (1989) kaynak and dalgic (1992) crosthwaite (1998) period of study early 1970s late 1980s 1990 1990–1996 country of study uk singapore turkey uk no. of firms 22 24 not reported 10 main factors in internationalisation expansion of firm top management vision protect shareholder interests efficient utilisation of available resources business expansion spreading of risks generating economies of scale competitive advantage resulting from specialist expertise or technology market contraction at home utilisation of resources entrepneurship booming market in the middle east long term profitability maintain share holder return diversify risk sources: in the table ahmed usman awil and abdul rashid abdul aziz 96 the australian journal of construction economics and building vol.2 no.1 the size of the firm is important in that it determines the ability of the firm to tap into a large resource pool to assemble the services required by clients (sillars and kangari 1997). cavusgil (1984) identified firm size as a concomitant variable (associated with export activity) rather than a causative factor. in the construction industry size, apart from superior technology, is a prime factor as only firms of specific capability and appropriate resources will be able to compete in the international arena. in the internationalisation process managers play an important role, apart from that played by market forces, as it is managers who decide whether to internationalise or not, the path to be followed and the means to be used. a domestic market where many firms operate internationally will speed up learning about internationalisation prospects and strategies for all firms operating in that market (hendry 1996). if the market in which the firm operates is competitive then there is an increased pressure on the firm to internationalise (naidu and rao, 1993). companies in export-intensive industries (measured by the percentage of domestic competitors engaged in exporting) are more likely to have progressed in the internationalisation process. in studying the business environment seven factors that motivate and act as determinants of internationalisation have been considered. table 2 is a compilation of the factors and the studies from which they were derived. table 2: factors that motivate firms to internationalise factor studies from which they were derived growth in the long term burpitt and rondinelli (1998) burpitt and rondinelli (2000) stabilisation of markets kaynak and dalgic (1992) naidu and prasad (1994) bennett, flanagan and norman (1987) top management vision reuber and fischer (1997) cavusgil (1984) dichtl et al. (1984) holzmuller and kasper (1990) specialist expertise and technology ghauri (2000) strassmann (1988) namiki (1988) beamish, craig and mclellan (1993) burton and schlegelmilch (1987) size calof (1993) calof (1994) seymour (1987) samiee and walters (1990) katsikeas et al. (1996) dalli (1995) globalisation (competition) bartlett and ghoshal (2000) naidu and prasad (1994) raftery et al. (1998) ofori and betts (1992) unctd (1999) government support quak (1991) gray (1997) unctd (2000) naidu and rao (1993) international markets: malaysian construction contractors and the stage theory the australian journal of construction economics and building vol.2 no.1 97 stage theory once they have decided on exporting firms have many paths open to them as to how to approach the intended market. the known approaches of internationalisation are the stage model, the contingency model, the interaction model and the social construction model (sorenson, 1997). among these the most developed stream is the stage theory of internationalisation. the stage theory of internationalisation is accomplished in a sequential process. most of the literature on internationalisation supports the stage theory of internationalisation (kasikeas and leonidou, 1996). the majority of firms approach international business involvement in an experimental manner committing resources for newer management tasks incrementally (cavusgil, 1984). among the pioneers of the stage theory, johanson and vahlne (1977) reasoned that the complexity of internationalisation makes it a series of incremental decisions rather than one big leap of faith. the firm’s expansion radiates from the home market in a systematic fashion; the operations of the firm are extended first to those markets that best fit the cognitive and resource character of the company, and ultimately those of the poorest fit. culture plays an important role in this and firms are inclined to initially ‘test the waters’ of countries sharing the same culture, language or regulating laws (fisher and ranasinghe, 2001). as the international experience of the firm develops, so will the size and the complexity of these operations (millington and bayliss, 1990). cavusgil (1984) attributes the sequential character of the internationalisation process to the greater perceived risks associated with international business. each stage of internationalisation involves an increased commitment to international activities, with movement between stages driven by changes in management attitude towards export risks, costs and benefits (calof, 1994). one can infer that incremental success builds confidence, leading to more extensive export activity, and hence to greater internationalisation. gankema et al. (2000) in their model gave a time frame of two years for the transition from one stage of the export process to the next. reuber and fischer (1997) believe that firms with internationally experienced management team can internationalise much faster than other firms. according to cavusgil’s (1980) model, export involvement is operationalised by export/ sales ratio, which is thought to reflect the extent of a firm’s dependence on foreign markets. in this study we will be considering the stage model of cavusgil (1980) (table 3) as our model for the evaluation of the progress of malaysian contractors. table 3: stages in exporting stage description stage 1: domestic marketing the firm is only interested in the domestic market and does not export at all. the export/sales ratio is 0 stage 2: pre-export the firm searches for information and evaluates the feasibility of exporting activities. the export/sales ratio is at or near 0 stage 3: experimental involvement the firm starts exporting on a small basis. physical and cultural distances are limited. the involvement of an experimental exporter is usually marginal and intermittent. the export/sales ratio varies from 0–9% stage 4: active involvement there is systematic effort to increase sales through export to multiple countries. a suitable organisational structure is in place to support these activities. the export/sales ratio is 10–39% stage 5: committed involvement the firm depends heavily on foreign markets. managers are continuously faced with choices for allocation of limited resource to either domestic or foreign markets. the export/sales ratio is 40% or more source: cavusgil (1980) ahmed usman awil and abdul rashid abdul aziz 98 the australian journal of construction economics and building vol.2 no.1 as shown in figure 1 there have been four stages which the firms in the construction industry have gone through in their quest for markets overseas. before going any further it is important to understand what constitutes international construction and who the international contractors are. the international market in which the contractors operate is different from the home market in that the level of risk is higher, the project sizes are larger and the level of demand corresponds to the project specifics (seymour, 1987). international trade in construction services involves participation in a relatively limited number of large projects, the nature of which (e.g. energy, transportation, infrastructure, urban construction) fluctuates overtime (unctd 2000). strassman and wells (1988) nominate three distinct types of structures that are built by construction firms across the world — small and simple, large but conventional, and technologically complex and novel. retail stores, highways and petrochemical plants illustrate these three types. international entry for construction services begins with those types of activities with which the firm is familiar and in which it has the most complete set of resources. research methodology in selecting the contractors for this survey only malaysian contractors were considered. contractors were selected from two sources. the construction business development division of the cidb provided its publication entitled "going global — a strategic partnership of global builders” — this booklet contains a list of malaysian contractors and consultants interested in undertaking work overseas. consultants and those contractors whose primary business interests were not in construction were excluded from the sample. the second source considered was the contractor organisations listed in the main and second board of the kuala lumpur stock exchange (klse). this was done because only contractors of a certain size have the necessary number of employees, access to finance, and good equipment and technical expertise available in-house (seymour, 1987; quak, 1991, along with the studies concerning the size factor cited in table 3). figure 1: the various stages that turkish contractors passed in their progress towards international contractors low cost bidders to win projects abroad sought more efficient business opportunities to maintain profitability concentration on economies of scale to improve productivity and efficient become global companies which are diversified along concentric, horizontal and conglomerate lines source kaynak and dalgic (1992) international markets: malaysian construction contractors and the stage theory the australian journal of construction economics and building vol.2 no.1 99 the questionnaire was divided into two parts: one on the motives and experiences of the contractors, and the second on ways to encourage potential contractors to export. the data collection was done using a selfadministered mail questionnaire in the first phase as this afforded geographical flexibility and large sample size (tan, 1995). the second phase dealt with interviewing representatives of construction contractors. a three page questionnaire was prepared and sent to the 68 selected contractors early in june 2001. an added benefit of sharing the research findings of this study was communicated to the contractors. following the suggestion of roth and bevier (1998) a prepaid envelope was sent with the questionnaire in order to increase the number of responses. fifteen completed questionnaires were returned. only six respondents had export experience while nine were non-exporters. though the response rate was only 22% it was encouraging considering that historically contractors are reluctant to share information for various reasons including the possibility of compromising business secrets, or lack or time or resources. katsanis and katsanis (2001) had difficulty in obtaining access to industry players due to intense competition between players and fear of revealing key indicators. ofori and chan (2001) and dulaimi and tan (2001) in their study of singaporean contractors also had low response rates. generally a response rate of 20%–40% is considered normal in mail surveys (tan, 1995). research findings a majority of malaysian contractors undertook overseas work related to civil engineering projects. civil engineering is one of the types of work that suits foreign contractors are suitable, as the scope of the work is generally large (seymour, 1987; strassman and wells, 1988) and may need some sort of financing by the foreign contractor (table 4). a contributing reason is the expertise of malaysian contractors in civil engineering works due to their experiences with the same type of work undertaken previously in malaysia. south east asia ranked first among the regions where contractors undertook work (table 5). this is not unexpected as contractors are mostly comfortable doing work in neighbouring countries. in quak's (1991) study of singaporean contractors 80% of contractors gave south east asia and north asia as their primary areas of work. this is supported by the stage theory of incremental internationalisation of firms. the second most active region in terms of number of contractors undertaking work was south asia, followed by africa and europe. table 4: type work undertaken overseas number of positive responses type of work undertaken overseas mainly occasionally rank civil engineering 1 3 1 building 2 0 2 specialist (m&e, steel erection) 1 0 3 petrochemical and processing plants 1 0 3 ahmed usman awil and abdul rashid abdul aziz 100 the australian journal of construction economics and building vol.2 no.1 the most common mechanism for securing work overseas is that of joint ventures and alliances. alliance formation is one way to provide construction services by combining the strengths of firms that provide complementary services (sillars and kangari, 1997). this high percentage indicates that the contractors prefer to have local expertise when undertaking work overseas. to initiate, organise and execute work abroad, a construction firm will often associate itself with other firms from both the home country and foreign countries in order to win contracts in the international arena. the profile of malaysian contractors who export their services is reflected in their status in the execution of the contracts. half the contractors nominated ‘responsibility as main contractor’ as their main work overseas (table 7). this suggests that malaysian contractors are of reasonable size and are capable of bidding for work independently. table 5: parts of the world where contractors undertake work parts of the world that malaysian contractors undertake work rank number of positive responses east and south east asia 1 5 south asia 2 2 africa and europe 2 2 middle east 3 1 australia and oceania north and south america table 6: mechanism of securing contracts overseas number of positive responses rank mechanism of securing overseas work mainly occasionally joint ventures/ alliances 2 2 1 international tenders 1 2 2 world bank/adb 2 0 3 international markets: malaysian construction contractors and the stage theory the australian journal of construction economics and building vol.2 no.1 101 factors for internationalisation the next part of the study was aimed at identifying the factors that motivated the exporting contractors towards internationalisation. table 2 lists seven factors for internationalisation that were developed from previous studies. the collated results of the motivation factors for internationalisation are given in table 8. the highest mean of the seven factors was for the long-term profitability of the contractors; this has also been given as the highest mean by the previous studies by rashid (1994b), crosthwaite (1998) and seymour (1987). the long-term profitability of the firm is connected with the survival of the firm. this can be attributed to the strategic plans that the firm has mapped over a period of time and in which internationalisation of the firm is just one of the areas that the firm is exploring. the second most important factor is a tie between three factors: stabilisation of markets, natural progress due to size, and globalisation (competition). construction differs from other industries by virtue of its divergent private and public demand patterns. private sector construction tends to be highly cyclical in nature (unctc, 1990) while public sector construction tends to be much more stable. firms based in countries with limited domestic markets understandably are more drawn into international markets than are firms that have large home markets or firms in booming economies (unctc 1990). table 7: contractor's role overseas work execution capacity rank number of contractors main contractor 1 3 specialist sub-contractor 2 2 turn-key contractor 2 2 project management 3 1 sub-contractor table 8: motivating factors for internationalisation number of responses meaninternationalisation factors rank very important important moderately important not important long-term profitability 1 3 3 3.5 stabilisation of markets 2 2 3 1 3.17 natural progress due to size 2 2 3 1 3.17 globalisation 2 2 3 1 3.17 top management vision 3 1 4 1 3 specialist expertise technology 3 1 4 1 3 government incentives* 4 2 3 2.8 * only five contractors replied to this question very important = 4, important = 3, moderately important = 2, not important =1 ahmed usman awil and abdul rashid abdul aziz 102 the australian journal of construction economics and building vol.2 no.1 natural progress due to size is concerned with the firm’s strategy in utilising its resources efficiently. when firms grow over a period of time they come to a cross-road were the firm has to decide on the possible paths to sustain their growth. among the options available is that of to internationalising the firm — this has the added benefit of using the resources (human, capital, equipment and expertise) available to the firm efficiently. globalisation (with a mean of 3.17) in its present form will be a determinant in shaping the strategies of the contractors. contractors will find it increasingly difficult to remain in their home markets and hope to benefit from home country growth. the creation of the wto and gats (general agreement on trade and services) has made it imperative that contractors be aware of the opportunities and threats that they will face over a period of time. an important point noted by ghoshal and bartlett (2000) is that "in today's global markets, you don’t have to go abroad to experience international competition. sooner or later the world comes to you". in the long-term the differences between home and overseas markets will be blurred and it will be advantageous to take the initiative now, for tomorrow might be too late. the joint third position holders were top management vision and special expertise. the views of the top management in shaping firms’ programs has been noted as a factor in the motivation towards internationalisation in previous studies by dichtl et al. (1984), holzmuller and kasper (1990), reuber and fischer (1997) and cavusgil (1984). management that is interested in gaining a foothold for the firm in the international market is interested in expanding its areas of operation. provision of specialist expertise and technology motivates the firm in competing for the niche area of expertise within the construction services for which it has the resources (personnel and equipment). this experience of malaysian contractors in working with foreign contractors exposed them to new technologies and work methods during the period of high economic growth of 1990–1997. governmental incentive to export was given as having the least impact as motivation for exporting by contractors, however, government incentives to export can make or break the export of services. both south korea and japan have been known to aggressively promote their construction industry. provision of technological services at competitive prices was the main factor in contractors winning contracts in the international market (table 9). by pursuing differentiation through technological superiority of products and services, firms can compete in the international market (namiki, 1988). this is due to the fact that malaysian contractors are capable of providing services comparable to those of developed world contractors but at prices that are a fraction of what developed world contractors charge. the next most important factors that contractors attribute to their winning contractors overseas are size of the firm and reputation of the firm. size of firm, and a consequent ability to tap into a large resource pool, has been identified previously by sillars and kangari (1997) as a factor in the firms doing work overseas. assistance in exporting (results of exporters and non-exporters) in this section data from non-exporters has been included, making the number of respondents in this case 15. the contractor organisations’ need of assistance from the government/governmental organisations was queried. respondents cited provision of market intelligence as the most important assistance that the government can provide to both exporters and potential exporters (figure 2). market intelligence provision can help the contractor organisations find opportunities that are available internationally. provision of market intelligence has also been cited by quak (1991) as an assistance that the government can provide to encourage exporting. this information will help guide the firm towards making informed decisions about the opportunities available overseas. international markets: malaysian construction contractors and the stage theory the australian journal of construction economics and building vol.2 no.1 103 73.3 60 53.3 46.7 20 6.7 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 m arket intelligence export credit finance preferential tax support setting up of consortium s defray m arketing costs other help n a tu re o f a s s is ta n c e r e q u ir e d % of contractors table 9: factors that enable contractors winning contracts overseas important factors enabling contractors winning contract's overseas rank number of positive responses technology at competitive rates 1 4 size of firm 2 3 reputation of firm 2 3 project management expertise 3 2 specialist expertise 3 2 strong equipment support 3 2 international experience 4 1 others 4 1 figure 2: assistance needed to enable contractors to export discussion increasing the number of contractors that can export services will involve disseminating information that is focused towards the contractor organisations and then following it up by organising visits to potential markets that have been identified based on the stage theory of firms. initially this will involve identifying neighbouring countries with which the home market shares culture and language as that will reduce the natural inhibitions associated with exporting. as shown in table 8, emphasising the long-term possibilities of overseas market can help attract the firms towards internationalisation. different firms will have different needs, so it is necessary to know the stage a firm has reached in internationalisation; as moini (1998) noted, matching assistance to the stage of exporting that firms have reached has a positive ahmed usman awil and abdul rashid abdul aziz 104 the australian journal of construction economics and building vol.2 no.1 impact on making firms respond to such assistance. while large contractors will need market intelligence, smaller contractors need to be introduced to the opportunities overseas through seminars and forums dedicated to this subject. pooling of resources can help in reducing the initial risks involved while introducing markets to the contractors. this may be in the form of alliances among the contractors themselves or of consortia set up by the cidb. also the contractors, as they climb up the ladder of internationalisation, can then tender independently once they have learnt the ropes of the international construction market. conclusion entering new markets is one of the strategies that can help contractors diversify their operations abroad and so overcome reduced demand at home. contractors are motivated by the need to maintain long-term profitability of the firm. other factors that were held to be important are the need to stabilise markets, accommodating the increasing size of the enterprise, and globalisation (i.e. increased integration of markets). most firms had a proactive approach to seeking markets for their services. a majority of firms passed through stages in exporting of their services by initially exporting to neighbouring countries and then, as the firm goes up the "the learning curve", to other countries. potential exporters were concerned mainly with creating necessary conditions for them to seek opportunities abroad. among the conditions that will help them in this regard are having knowledge of projects as they are announced overseas, the market complexities, and access to funds in the form of export credit finance that can offset the initial amount spent in overcoming the "learning curve". local malaysian contractors can gain an advantage by having a larger number of them bid for projects by forming alliances among themselves. increased participation by local firms also demands that foreign firms take a local partner so as to achieve some synergy in their operations. acknowledgement one of the authors wishes to thank the scholarship provided by the islamic development bank, saudi arabia references bartlett, c. and ghoshal, s. (2000) going global: lesson from late movers. harvard business review, march–april, 132–142. beamish, p., craig, r. and mcclellan, k. (1993) the performance characteristics of canadian versus uk exporters in small and medium sized firms. management international review, 33 (2), 121–137. bennett, j., flanagan, r. and norman, g. (1987) japanese construction industry. capital and counties report. centre for strategic studies in construction, university of reading. burpitt, w. and rondinelli, d. (1998) export decision making in small firms: the role of organisational learning. columbia journal of world business, 33 (1), 51–68. burpitt, w. and rondinelli, d. (2000) small firms motivation for exporting: to earn and learn. journal of small business management, 38 (4), october. calof, j. (1993) the impact of size on internationalisation. journal of small business management, october, 60–69. calof, j. (1994) the relationship between firm size and export behaviour revisited. journal of international business studies, second quarter, 367–387. cavusgil, t. (1980) on the internationalisation process of firms. european research, 8 (6) 273–281. cavusgil, t. (1984) organisational characteristics associated with export activity. journal of management studies, 21 (1) 3–21. cidb (construction industry development board) (2000). going global: a strategic partnership of global builders: positioning malaysia-india on global frontiers. cidb, kuala lumpur, malaysia. crosthwaite, d. (1998) the internationalisation of british construction companies 1990– 1996: an empirical analysis. construction management and economics, 16, 389–395. czinkota, m. and massaki, k. (1992) state government promotion of manufacturing exports: a gap. journal of international business studies, 23 (4), 637–658. dalli, d. (1995) the organisation of exporting activities: relationships between internal and external arrangements. journal of business research, 34, 107–115. international markets: malaysian construction contractors and the stage theory the australian journal of construction economics and building vol.2 no.1 105 dichtl, e., leibold, m., koglmayr h-g. and muller s. (1984) the export decision of small and medium sized firms: a review. management international review, 24, 49–60. dulaimi, m. and tan fu hwa (2001) developing world-class construction companies in singapore. construction management and economics, 19, 591–599. dunning, j. (1993) the globalisation of business: the challenges of the 1990s. routledge, london. el-higzi, f. (2001) international market entry for construction services. international journal of construction marketing. 3. www.brookes.ac.uk/other/conmark/ijcm/ fisher, t. and ranasinghe m. (2001) culture and foreign companies choice of entry mode: the case of singapore building and construction industry. construction management and economics, 19, 343–353. gankema, h., henoch, g.j., snuif r. and zwart, p. (2000) the internationalisation process of small and medium sized enterprises: an evolution of stage theory. journal of small business management, 38 (4), 15–27. ghauri, p. (2000) internationalisation of the firm. in: tayeb m. (ed.) international business: theories, policies and practices. prentice hall, essex. ghoshal, s. and bartlett, c. (2000) going global: lessons from late movers. harvard business review, march–april, 132–142. gray, b. (1997) profiling managers to improve export promotion targeting. journal of international business studies, second quarter, 387–420. haar, j. and ortiz-buonafina, m. (1995) the internationalisation process and marketing activities: the case of brazilian export firms. journal of business research, 32, 175–181. hendry, c. (1996) continuities in human resource processes in internationalisation and domestic business management. journal of management studies, 33, july, 475–494. holzmuller, h. and kasper h. (1990) the decision maker and export activity: a crossnational comparison of the foreign orientation of austrian managers. management international review, 30 (3) 217–230. johanson, j. and vahlne j. e. (1977) the internationalisation of the firm: a model of knowledge development and increasing foreign commitments. journal of international business studies, 8 (1), 23–32. katsanis c. and katsanis, l. p. (2001). an examination of business development activities and implications for marketing in the aec industry. journal of international construction marketing, 3. www.brookes.ac.uk/ other/conmark/ijcm/ katsikeas, c. and leonidou, l. (1996) the export development process: an integrative review of empirical models. journal of international business studies, third quarter, 517–551. kaynak, e. and dalgic, t. (1992) internationalisation of turkish construction companies: a lesson for third world countries. columbia journal of world business, winter, 60–75. kutschker, m. and bauerle, i. (1997) three+one: multidimensional strategy of internationalisation. management international review, 37 (2) 103–125. mbam (master builder association of malaysia) (2001) data concerning the rise and fall of malaysian construction industry over the last 20 years collected from their website: www.mbam.org millington, a. and bayliss, b. (1990) the process of internationalisation: uk companies in the ec. management international review 30, (2), 151–161. moini, a. (1995) an inquiry into successful exporting: an empirical investigation using three-stage model. journal of small business management, july, 33 (3). moini. a. (1998) small business exporting: how effective are government export assistance export programs? journal of small business management, 36 (1), 1–15. naidu, g. and rao t. (1993) public sector promotion of exports: a need based approach. journal of business research, 27, 85–101. naidu, g. and kanti prasad, v. (1994) predictors of export strategy and performance of small and medium sized firms. journal of business research 31, 107–115. namiki, n. (1988) export strategy for small business. journal of small business management, 26 (2). neo, r. (1975) international construction contracting: a critical investigation into cerahmed usman awil and abdul rashid abdul aziz 106 the australian journal of construction economics and building vol.2 no.1 tain aspects of financing, capital planning and cash flow affects. gower press, farnborough. ofori, g. and betts m. (1992) strategic planning for competitive advantages in construction. construction management and economics, 10, 511–532. ofori, g. and chan swee lean (2001). factors influencing development of construction enterprise in singapore. construction management and economics, 19, 145–154. quak, s. k. (1989) cover story: seeking niches in the international construction market. construction markets digest, cidb singapore, 2–11. quak, s. k. (1991) marketing abroad: competitive strategies and market niches for the singaporean construction industry. pacific trade press, singapore. raftery, j., pasadilla, b., chiang, y.h., hui, c.m. and tang bo-sin (1998) globalisation and construction industry development: implications of recent developments in the construction sector in asia. construction management and economics, 16, 729–737. rashid, a. (1994a) international expansion of malaysian contractors. national seminar on contracting in malaysia, june 1994, universiti sains malaysia rashid, a. (1994b) global strategies: a comparison between japanese and american construction firms. construction management and economics, 12, 473–484. reuber, r. and fischer, e. (1997) the influence of the management team’s international experience on the internationalisation behaviours of sme's. journal of international business studies, fourth quarter, 807–825. roth, p. and bevier, c. (1998) response rates in hrm/op survey research: norms and correlates, 1990–1994. journal of management, 24 (1) 97–117. samiee, s. and walters, p. (1990) influence of firm size on export planning and performance. journal of business research, 20, 235–248. seymour, h. (1987) the multinational construction industry. croom-helm, london. sillars, d. and kangari, r. (1997) japanese construction alliances. journal of construction engineering and management, 123 (2), 146–152. sorenson, o. (1997) internationalisation of companies: different perspectives on how companies internationalise. international business economics, working paper series no. 23. aalborg university, centre of international studies, copenhagen. strassman w. and wells j. (1988) introduction. in: strassman and wells (eds.) the global construction industry. unwin hyman, london. tan, w. (1995) research methods in real estate and construction. sbem textbook series, school of building and real estate, national university of singapore. unctc (united nations centre on transnational corporations) (1990). transnational corporations, services and the uruguay round. sales no. e.90.ii.a.11. st/ctc/103. unctd (united nations centre on trade and development) (1999). analysis of experiences in selected services sector. trade and development board, td/b/com.1/28, 17 august 1999. unctd (united nations conference on trade and development) (2000) regularisation and liberalisation in the construction services sector and its contribution to the development of the developing countries. trade and development board, td/b/com.1/em.12/2, 12 september 2000. wolff, j. and pett, t. (2000) internationalisation of the small firms: an examination of export competitive patterns, firm size, and export performance. journal of small business management, october, 2000. 2 the proposed heating and cooling system in the ch building and its impact on occupant productivity lu aye and robert james fuller (university of melbourne) abstract melbourne's climatic conditions demand that its buildings require both heating and cooling systems. in a multi-storey office building , however, cooling requirements will dominate. how the internal space is cooled and ventilation air is delivered will significantly impact on occupant comfort. this paper discusses the heating and cooling systems proposed for the ch2building. the paper critiques the proposed systems against previous experience, both internationally and in australia. while the heating system employs proven technologies, less established techniques are proposed for the cooling system. air movement in the shower towers, for example, is to be naturally induced and this has not always been successful elsewhere. phase change material for storage of "coolth" does not appear to have been demonstrated previously in a commercial building, so the effectiveness of the proposed system is uncertain. a conventional absorption chiller backs up the untried elements of the cooling system, so that ultimately occupant comfort should not be compromised . keywords: heating, cooling, occupant productivity, performance, thermal comfort. introduction the heating and cooling of buildings has a long history. active heating systems began with cave dwellers, who lit open fires for warmth and light in their rock caverns. more advanced heating systems were adopted by civilizations such as the romans, who operated furnaces below their buildings and ducted the hot gases to upper level rooms to provide warmth. the hypocaust, as it was known , has found a modern day equivalent in the form of advanced fabric energy storage systems such as the termodeck™ system. the provision of cooling in buildings has always presented designers a greater challenge. early cooling systems made use of natural draft and evaporative effects, and this knowledge is being revisited today as building designers strive to provide cooling that does not incur a heavy environmental cost. heating and cooling systems have become obligatory in most modern office bu ildings. aside from issues of occupant comfort and expectations, some believe that the productivity of workers is related to the temperature and humidity of their working environment. a new commercial building, currently under construction in melbourne, australia, is hoping to demonstrate that it is possible to achieve a high quality office environment simultaneously with much reduced energy consumption. ch is in the heart of the city's central business district. this study assesses whether the heating and cooling system proposed for the ch2building provides the necessary thermal conditions for its occupants. this study begins with an overview of the requirements for thermal comfort in terms of temperature, humidity and air movement. the heating and cooling system proposed for the ch2building is then described and evaluated in terms of previous experience, both in australia and overseas. finally, the thermal conditions likely to be created within the ch2building are briefly reviewed against the current research literature on productivity. since the office is still under construction, no measured data from the building is available to verify performance. therefore the proposed design has largely been evaluated using a selection of the design consultants' documentation and refereed literature in international journals. as the building is still being constructed, design changes made subsequent to this evaluation are obviously not considered. thermal comfort while the human species can tolerate extremes of temperature for prolonged periods of time, this is not the choice or expectation of today's office workers who will tolerate a much smaller range of thermal environmental conditions (temperature, air velocity and relative humidity). a widely accepted definition of thermal comfort is "that state of mind that expresses satisfaction with the thermal environment" (ashrae, 1992). many factors (physical , physiological, and psychological) determine whether an individual perceives their environment to be comfortable. the purpose of any conditioning system is to create the local environment that will minimize feelings of thermal discomfort. in general, this means maintaining the body temperature within a certain narrow range with low skin moisture content. the ashrae standard 55 "specifies conditions or comfort zones where 80% of sedentary or slightly active persons find the environment thermally acceptable." summer and winter clothing levels are assumed to be 0.5 and 0.9 clo respectively (1 cio is equal to overall equivalent thermal resistance, r value of 0.16 m2c/w). for a woman, the summer clo value is the equivalent of wearing a knee length skirt, a short sleeved shirt, panty hose and sandals, while for a man, the winter clo value is roughly the equivalent of wearing a suit with a short sleeved shirt. the boundaries of the comfort zones can be expressed as a function of operative temperature and the relative humidity (rh) of the surrounding air. as a result, the comfort zones in summer and winter are defined by two quadrilaterals superimposed on a psychrometric chart, as shown in figure 5 of ashrae (2001). broadly interpreted , in winter a range of 20-24.5°c and 85-20% rh can be tolerated. as the temperature rises , the rh must be lowered to maintain thermal comfort. a similar picture is evident in summer, but with an extended range, based on the assumption that the occupants will wear lighter clothing. thus in summer, the thermal comfort range varies from 22.5-27°c with corresponding rh levels of 80% and 20% respectively. there is a small overlap between summer and winter zones. in the middle of each of the zones, a person would experience their environment in a neutral way, but at the boundaries sensations of slight warmth or coolness would occur. 32 the australian journal of construction economics and building [voi5, no 2] the above boundaries may be extended if the building relies on the adaptive response of its occupants. the theory, advanced by researchers (e.g. de dear and brager, 2001) is that building occupants will adapt their behaviour, based on surrounding conditions, and hence tolerate wider extremes in a building's internal environment. the expanded comfort zones should result in energy savings. these ideas are particularly suited to buildings such as ch2, which use a range of non-conventional technology and where natural ventilation might also be used. the designers of the ch2 building, however, have proposed a climate-controlled office, rather than an adaptively controlled one, principally because they do not believe it would be feasible to open windows during the day due to the building's inner city location. the heating and cooling system of the ch2 building has been designed to maintain office air temperatures in the range of 21-250c and provided this is achieved with acceptable levels of relative humidity, the building should satisfy most occupants in terms of thermal comfort. air movement is important in a closed environment for a number of reasons. these include replenishment of oxygen and the removal of odours, but air movement is not essential for thermal comfort, if evaporative cooling lowers uhu uuh a thermally neutral environment is provided in terms of temperature and relative humidity. for air speeds of 0.25 ms·1or less, thermal acceptability is unaffected in neutral environments (berglund and fobelets, 1987, cited in ashrae, 2001). heating and cooling systems the main hardware components of ch 2's conditioning system are shown schematically in figure 1. thermal modelling by consultants of the ch2 building indicated that heating should not be required (aec, 2003b). the passive design principles adopted plus the heat generated by the people, equipment and lights have been predicted to produce a cooling load even in winter, rather than a demand for heating1. however, the fresh air introduced into the building via the displacement ventilation system will need to be heated on days when the outside air temperature is below 20°c. for this reason and to cover any direct heating requirements, a heating system is to be installed, which uses exhaust heat from the co-generation plant. shower towers phase chan ge materia l heat store conditioned air to occupied space radiant cooling panels absorption chiller boilers and cogen un it (source: kenton , 2004) figure 1: schematic of early heating and cooling system originally proposed for the ch 2 building the cogeneration system, using a gas-fired micro-turbine, will produce electricity for the ch2 building. it has been estimated that approximately 1ookw of the heat generated by the plant will be recovered and used either for direct heating or to drive the vaporization process in the absorption chiller. despite the potential to operate with a high overall efficiency (85-90%), the use of small combined heat and power (chp) systems in buildings is relatively new. alanne and saari (2004) have reviewed the status of small scale chp systems for this application. in their assessment of micro-turbines, high costs and low electrical efficiency, particularly in the part-load condition , are the main disadvantages of the technology. their low noise, weight and vibration level, and small space requirements are the main advantages. in a comparison with other small chp technologies, namely fuel cells, reciprocating and stirling engines, gas micro-turbines were not considered to be the most technically compatible with office buildings. reciprocating engines and fuel cells were considered to be superior. according to a government funded study in australia, small (up to 300kw) high speed reciprocating gas engines were likely to be the most efficient and financially viable way to provide power and heat to buildings (skm, 2001). in the ch2 building , heat will also be recovered from the air exhausted from the offices using a heat exchange system. it has not been possible to assess the heat recovery system, since no details have been made available. however this is a conventional technology and should work effectively if properly designed and operated. waste or recovered heat will be distributed into each level by finned convective heaters "set into the floor near the windows" on the north and south sides of the building . the concept 1 the energy required annually for space and water heating for most of a surveyed 31 commercial buildings in melbourne was found to be between 130-310 mj m-2 (pga, 1997), so this modelling prediction may be overly optimistic. the australian journal of construction economics and building [vois, no 2] i 33 is that the warm air from these heaters will create "a barrier of warmth around the external walls to prevent the cold air coming in" (aec, 2003d). assuming that some convective heating of the inside surface of the window also occurs, the adverse radiant effect of cold windows will also be reduced . for much of the year, the design simulations indicate that cooling will be required. during the daytime, it is proposed that chilled beams and ceiling panels provide cooling for the occupants in the main office zones (figure 2). the intention is that the cooling and 'shower' towers will primarily produce the cool water for these panels at night. this 'coolth ' will be stored in phase change piped la ~.e change f i plant lot r.-cooling .... 19degc 16de c 'liliiii .......... • ' • .. i.... " .... ,. .................... ,. .. ...g............ ij... .. .. .. .. .. .... .. ...... ........................... . piped from ~.e change plant thermal mass passive coofing: thermal mass in concrete slab dur ing daytime absorbs excess heal from llie space. chilled ceilings ----+ -t---o active coo~ng: chilled c ..~ing panels absorb radiated heat frem equipment and occupant • . radiant cooling d... seends into the worl<· space at areund 18 deg c. cooling offices (source: com, 2004) material (pcm) and used to chill the water circulated through the beams and ceil ing panels during the day. an absorption chiller will be used as a back-up cooling system, in the event of insufficient capacity in the primary system. during the night-time, it is proposed that heat accumulated in the building fabric be removed by 'night purging'. this technique uses the diurnal temperature difference of the outside ambient air to flush unwanted heat stored in the building 's thermal mass during the day with cooler night-time air. this purging will be achieved by natural ventilation assisted by wind-driven extractor turbines. since some components of the cooling system are unconventional, a more detailed description of these is presented below. .......... • 1---t--t--low .enerqy equlpmej'\ t significant energy savings by use of low en builders will be jointly and severally liable for the collapse of the construction unit (2009) ministry of housing and urban-rural development of the people’s republic of china (mohurd), news release, 25 december 2009 building code of australia (2009) australian building codes board chen, z. g. (2002) ‘a comparison between the construction law of china and the building control act of singapore’, construction law journal, 18(4), 275–90 china national accreditation service for conformity assessment website china’s statistics on urbanisation (2004)《中国统计摘要》bureau of urban and rural population 2004 chinese government’s official web portal website chinese ministry of housing and urban-rural development website ching, f. and winkel, s. (2009) building codes illustrated: a guide to understanding the 2009 international building code, 3rd edition, international code council code for design of buildings for elderly persons (1999)《老年人建筑设计规范》 (jgj12299) (people’s republic of china) ministry of construction code for architectural design of cinema (2008) (jgj58-2008) (people’s republic of china). code for design of detention houses (2007)《拘留所建设标准》 (jgj127-2000) (people’s republic of china) ministry of housing and urban-rural development of the people’s republic of china (mohurd), 27 february 2007 code for design of funeral parlor buildings (2000) (jgj124-99) (people’s republic of china). code for design of residential building for the aged (1999)《老年人居住建筑设计标准》 (gb/t50340-2003) (people’s republic of china) ministry of construction construction law of the people’s republic of china (1997)《中华人民共和国建筑法》 (people’s republic of china) national people’s congress, order no 91, 1 november 1997 (‘construction law’) construction supervision (2008)《建设工程监理》(statistical bulletin for 2007, ministry of housing and urban-rural development of the people’s republic of china, 24 june 2008) declaration of 2008 on the development of engineering construction standards, amendments to the notification plan (2007) 《关于申报2008年度工程建设标准制订、修订项目计划的通知》 (people’s republic of china) the people's republic of china ministry of construction office, 19 november 2007 australasian journal of construction economics and building ting, m (2010) ‘building on shaky ground: quality and safety in china’s construction industry in the wake of the wenchuan and yushu earthquakes’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (3) 62-75 73 design code for residential buildings (2003) 《住宅设计规范》(gb50096-1999) (people’s republic of china) ministry of construction, 24 april 2003 design code for sports building 2003 (jgj31-2003) (people’s republic of china) guo, y. (2009) ‘quality in the national standardization for safety in construction’, speech delivered onsite at ministry of housing and urban-rural development of the people’s republic of china, 4 december 2009 hageman, r. (1983) ‘an assessment of the value of natural disasters damage reduction in dwellings due to building codes: two case studies’, natural resources journal, 23, 531–48 hoenig, j. (2009) ‘projects in china need vigilance’ engineering news record, 263(19), 2 international disaster and risk conferences website law of the people’s republic of china on the earthquake prevention and disaster relief (2008), (people’s republic of china) national people’s congress, order no 7, 27 december 2008 lee, d. (2008) ‘building codes not set in stone’, los angeles times (online), 14 may 2008 < http://articles.latimes.com/2008/may/14/world/fg-construct14> li et al. (2003) ‘china statistical yearbook 2003’ (statistical yearbook no 22, national bureau of statistics of china, 2003) 527 merritt, f. and ricketts, j. (eds) (2000) building design and construction handbook, 6th edition, mcgraw-hill miyamoto, h. k. (2008) ‘sichuan earthquake disaster chronicle: through the eyes of the first foreign engineers onsite’ museum of science and technology building standards (2007)《科学技术馆建设标准》(people’s republic of china) the people's republic of china ministry of construction, 27 august 2007 national project construction standardization information network website national work conference for construction standards (2007) 《中华人民共和国住房和城乡建设部》(people’s republic of china) ministry of housing and urban-rural development of the people’s republic of china (mohurd), 3 december 2007 national work conference for fixed construction standards (2007) 《全国工程建设标准定额工作会》ministry of housing and urban-rural development of the people’s republic of china (mohurd), news release, 3 december 2007 nelson, a. (2010) ‘us engineers study chile earthquake to bolster california building codes’ the christian science monitor (online), 2 april 2010 news release on building seismic evaluation standards and technical specification for seismic reinforcement (2009)《关于批准发布《公安派出所建设标准》的通知》(people’s republic of china) the people's republic of china ministry of housing and urban engineering quality safety supervision division, 1 july 2009 notice for the declaration of the year 2008 as the year for development of engineering construction standards (2007) 《关于申报2008年度工程建设标准制订、修订项目计划的通知》the people's republic of china ministry of construction office, 19 nov 2007 notice of the 2009 national construction standards, quality, supervision, law enforcement and inspection briefing (2009) http://www.ccsn.gov.cn/ australasian journal of construction economics and building ting, m (2010) ‘building on shaky ground: quality and safety in china’s construction industry in the wake of the wenchuan and yushu earthquakes’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (3) 62-75 74 《关于2009年全国建设工程质量监督执法检查情况的通报》ministry of housing and urbanrural development of the people’s republic of china (mohurd), 29 december 2009 notice on launching the work of supervision of construction (1988) 《关于开展建设监理工作的通知》the people's republic of china ministry of construction office, 25 july 1988 notification on immediate safety inspection of construction works (2010)《关于立即开展建筑施工安全生产大检查的通知》ministry of housing and urbanrural development of the people’s republic of china (mohurd), 6 april 2010 notification on quality residential projects (2007) 《关于做好住宅工程质量分户验收工作的通知》the people's republic of china ministry of construction, 27 august 2007 notification of the requirements for acceptance of good quality residential household projects (2009)《关于做好住宅工程质量分户验收工作的通知》ministry of housing and urban-rural development of the people’s republic of china, order no. 291, 22 december 2009 opinions on launching special rectification work to address the major problems in the engineering and construction sector (2009) (people’s republic of china) general office of state council, order no. 27, 9 july 2009 paterson, emily, del re, domenico & wang, zifa, (2008) the 2008 wenchuan earthquake: risk management lessons and implications, discussion paper, risk management services police station construction standards (2007)《公安派出所建设标准》 (jgj127-2000) (people’s republic of china) ministry of housing and urban-rural development of the people’s republic of china (mohurd), 27 june 2007 provisions on the administration of the qualification of enterprises for survey and design of construction projects (2001) 《建设工程勘察设计企业资质管理规定》ministry of construction, 25 july 2001 regulations of the people’s republic of china on certification and accreditation (2003) (people’s republic of china) state council, order no 390, 20 august 2003 regulations on administration of survey and design of construction projects (2005) (people’s republic of china) state council, order no 293, 25 september 2005 regulations on the quality of construction projects (2000) (people’s republic of china) state council, 30 january 2000 reuben, richard, (1994) ‘picking up the pieces: natural disasters shatter insurance rules’, american bar association journal, 80, 79 rules for preparation of construction standards (1999)《工程建设标准编写规定》(people’s republic of china) ministry of housing and urban-rural development of the people’s republic of china (mohurd) seismic design of buildings (2008) 《建筑抗震设计规范》 (gb50011-2008). shi, p.j. (2008) ‘china wenchuan earthquake disaster (may 12 2008) and its loss assessment’, international disaster and risk conference, 29 august 2008, davos switzerland, 1-73. standardisation law of the people’s republic of china (1988) 《中华人民共和国标准化法》 (people’s republic of china) national people’s congress, 29 december 1988 australasian journal of construction economics and building ting, m (2010) ‘building on shaky ground: quality and safety in china’s construction industry in the wake of the wenchuan and yushu earthquakes’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (3) 62-75 75 technical specification for seismic strengthening of buildings (2009) 《中华人民共和国行业标准：建筑抗震加固技术规程》ministry of housing and urban-rural development of the people’s republic of china (mohurd), 16 june 2009 united states geological survey (2010), magnitude 6.9 southern qinghai, china (14 april 2010) united states geological survey wang y. (2004) ‘comparison of seismic actions and structural design requirements in chinese code gb 50011 and international standard iso 3010’, earthquake engineering and engineering vibrations, 3, 1 weller, richard, (2005) ‘as 1170.4 earthquake actions in australia: worked examples’, conference on earthquake engineering in australia, the australian earthquake engineering society, 2005, albury. wenchuan earthquake restoration and reconstruction ordinance (2008) 《汶川地震灾后恢复重建条例》 (people’s republic of china) state council, order no 526, 4 june 2008 wu y. and wang s. (2009) ‘enlightenments of 512 wenchuan earthquake’, wenchuan earthquake, the path forward, international disaster and risk conference, 13–15 july 2009, chengdu yushu (2010) xinhuanet zhen, g. r. (2009) ‘developers of buildings which collapse causing injury and death will be jointly and severally liable’, newspaper, xinhua, 22 december 2009 zhu, l. (2006) ‘china’s real estate investment passes 5 trillion yuan mark’, newspaper, xinhua (online), 30 january 2006 < http://english.gov.cn/2006-01/30/content_175605.htm> zuo, j. and zillante, g. (2007) ‘building surveying in china – lessons learned from australia’, australian institute of building surveyors conference, november 2007, adelaide australia, 351–66 influence of in-sourcing and outsourcing of consultants on construction project performance in nigeria godwin iroroakpo idoro, (university of lagos, nigeria) abstract research studies have discovered that outsourcing has several benefits and the practice is fast replacing in-sourcing especially with regard to construction consultants. in the attempt to examine the benefits of the two approaches on project outcome, this study investigates the influence of the use of in-sourced and outsourced consultants on project performance in nigeria. the objectives are to determine the use of in-sourcing and outsourcing for selected consultants, compare the use of the two approaches in project delivery and their influence on project performance and compare the performance of projects in which in-sourced and outsourced selected consultants were engaged. to achieve these objectives, a questionnaire design approach was adopted. a field survey involving a sample of 164 projects were selected by stratified random sampling. data were collected using structured questionnaires and analysed using percentage, mean, spearman and t-tests. the results of the study reveal that clients engage both in-sourced and outsourced consultants in project development and that the practice has significant influence on project performance. it also discovered that the use of the two approaches has differing benefits on project delivery time and cost. the study concludes that in-sourcing and outsourcing are common practices in project development and that clients are facing a challenge in deciding which approach to adopt. the study also discovers that both approaches has benefits associated with project outcome and suggests that clients should consider these benefits in their decision to in-source or outsource consultants. keywords: construction projects, in-sourced consultants, nigeria, outsourced consultants and project performance introduction the importance of consultants in construction project delivery cannot be over-emphasised. consultants as havemann (2007) put it are accountable for the technical risks in a conventional project. they are responsible for developing the requirements of project clients, setting targets, deadlines and establishing standards for meeting these requirements, preparing project documents that describe the targets, deadlines and standards set and sometimes monitoring the activities of contractors that execute a project to ensure that the targets, deadlines and standards are achieved. it suffices to say that a project cannot be successfully executed without the services of consultants. these consultants are engaged from two sources namely: in-house or external. in-house consultants can otherwise be described as internal service providers or in-sourced consultants. these refer to professionals on permanent employment of the client who are engaged to perform the services of consultants in the procurement of a project. outsourced consultants can otherwise be described as external or outsourced service providers. these refer to professionals who operate consultancy outfits that are engaged by a client to provide specialised services in the course of procuring a project. traditionally, organisations used to engage professionals on permanent employment to perform the services of consultants. australasian journal of construction economics and building idoro, g i (2011) ‘influence in-sourcing and outsourcing of consultants on construction project performance in nigeria’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (4) 45-58 46 however, in the past decade, outsourcing has become a prevalent practice in most countries. sattineni and university (2008) opined that in developing countries, white collar jobs that were hitherto considered to be stable are now being outsourced. the main concern about consultants that prompts this study is that most of the major clients in particular the public and organised private sector clients have departments where professionals are employed. these professionals are often responsible for most pre-design services and they are fully involved in both design and construction activities. in organisations where project delivery is fully internalised, in-sourced consultants perform all the activities relating to design and construction of a project. idoro (2006) described the in-house project delivery process as direct labour approach. in other projects, clients use in-sourced consultants for some services while engaging external consultants for others. in projects where outsourced consultants are involved, client’s professional staff serve as intermediaries between the external consultants and the client who often seek their advice on every matter relating to a project. boes and doree (2009) opined that the preparatory activities in traditional contract are either carried out in-house or outsourced to consulting engineering firms and that outsourcing to consulting engineering firms requires in-house control measures. they maintained that reducing staff by outsourcing tasks to engineering consultants creates new issues of quality control, risks and staffing. the main questions raised by this practice are: what is the preference of construction clients on inhouse and outsourced consultants in project delivery? what is the effect of in-house and outsourced consultants on project performance? the problem of the study therefore is to determine the influence of in-sourced and outsourced consultants on project performance. the objectives are to compare the extent of use of in-sourced and outsourced project consultants in project delivery and the effect of their use on project performance. the achievement of these objectives will assist stakeholders in the industry in their decision on whether to engage insourced or outsourced consultants in project development. hypotheses of the study in the attempt to achieve the objectives of the study, three hypotheses were postulated. the first hypothesis states that the extent of use of in-sourced and outsourced consultants in project development is not significantly different. this hypothesis is tested to establish the preference of clients on the two types of consultants. the second hypothesis states that the extent of use of in-sourced and outsourced consultants has no significant relationship with project performance. the test of this hypothesis is expected to assist clients to know the influence of the use of insourced and outsourced consultants on project performance. the third hypothesis states that the outcome of projects in which in-sourced consultants were engaged is not significantly different from the outcome of projects in which outsourced consultants were engaged. the results of the hypothesis are expected to assist clients to know the effect of engaging the two types of consultants and which consultants to source in-house or outside conceptual framework of the study three categories of variables namely: project consultant, consultant source and project performance were used in the study. six project consultants namely: project manager, architect, quantity surveyor, structural, electrical and mechanical engineers were used. consultant source was classified into in-source and outsource while twelve variables namely: respondents’ assessment of project cost, duration, quality, variations, fluctuation, risks, conflicts between client and contractors, conflicts between client and consultants, conflicts between consultants and contractors, compliance with contract obligations, time-overrun and cost-overrun were used as parameters of project performance. the last two parameters of project performance were used as parameters of project outcome because the effects of the other ten parameters are expected to manifest in them. project success which is reflected in project performance is the australasian journal of construction economics and building idoro, g i (2011) ‘influence in-sourcing and outsourcing of consultants on construction project performance in nigeria’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (4) 45-58 47 purpose of engaging consultants. hence, the relationship between the two types of consultants and project performance and the difference in the outcome of projects in which in-sourced and outsourced consultants were engaged were used to determine the benefits in project performance of the two types of consultants. this relationship is expressed in fig.1. figure 1 framework for evaluating the relationship between the use of in-sourced and outsourced consultants and project performance previous studies the construction industry is one of the most important economic sectors in nigeria. the industry is known to account for a major proportion of the gross domestic product (gdp) of nigeria (federal government of nigeria, 1986; idoro, 2004). the industry is also a major contributor to employment generation by providing employment to millions of people in diverse professions and skills as well as serving as a vocational training ground. there are several parties that are involved in the delivery of construction projects. idoro (2009a) stated that project teams consist of many parties who have several responsibilities to perform in order to ensure the success of a project. he identified the notable parties as clients, consultants, contractors, suppliers and manufacturers. clients in the nigerian construction industry are classified into two categories namely: public clients made up of the federal, state and local governments and their respective parastatals and private clients made up of individuals and corporate organisations. idoro and okun (2011) opined that in nigeria, government is the main promoter of construction projects and that the private sector depends to a considerable on government expenditure. nigerian contractors are often categorised as either indigenous that is construction firms that are fully owned and managed by nigerians or expatriates that is those firms that are jointly owned by nigerians and foreigners but solely managed by expatriates (idoro, 2009b). olateju (1991) reported that indigenous contractors were responsible for only 7% of the total value of contracts awarded from 1974 to 1994 while their expatriate counterparts were responsible for the remaining 93%. in a study that investigated the reasons for the poor participation of indigenous contractors in contracts’ execution, idoro (2010) discovered that nigerian clients perceive the quality performance of expatriate contractors to be better than that of indigenous contractors and confirmed that clients indeed give preference to expatriate contractors in the award of contracts. there are many professionals that are involved in the design and construction of projects in nigeria that are regarded as consultants. in a study of quantity surveying practice in nigeria, odusami (1999) stated that in nigeria as in britain, the quantity surveyor is one of the key professionals involved in the design and execution of construction projects. others include architects and structural, electrical and mechanical engineers. these consultants can either be consultant source 1. in-source 2. outsource project performance consultants’ assessment of 1. project time 2. project cost 3. project quality 4. variations 5. fluctuation 6. project risks 7. conflict between client & contractors 8. conflict between client & consultants 9. conflict between consultants & contractors 10. compliance with contract obligations project outcome 11. time-overrun 12. cost-overrun project consultant 1. project manager 2. architect 3. structural engineer 4. quantity surveyor 5. electrical engineer 6. mechanical engineer australasian journal of construction economics and building idoro, g i (2011) ‘influence in-sourcing and outsourcing of consultants on construction project performance in nigeria’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (4) 45-58 48 outsourced through direct employment by client, nomination by architect/project manager, nomination by other consultants or competitive bidding from professionals operating consultancy outfits outside the client organisation or in-sourced from professionals that are within the client organisation (odusami, 1999). in the attempt to examine the application of outsourcing in different areas of organisations’ activities, researchers describe it in various ways: the significant contribution by external vendors in the physical and human resources associated with the entire or specific components of the it infrastructure in the user organisation (loh and venkatraman, 1992); the extent of components and finished products supplied to a firm by independent suppliers (kotabe, 1992); the reliance on external sources for the manufacturing of components and other value-adding activities (lei and hitt,1995). grover et al. (1996) described outsourcing as the practice of turning over part or all of an organisation’s internal functions to external service providers. gilley and rasheed (2000) felt that the term outsourcing is so wide that it covers virtually any good or service that an organisation procures from outside firms. referring to another way outsourcing is practised in many organisations, domberger (1998) believed that outsourcing is synonymous with contracting and therefore described it as the process of searching for and appointing contractors for the provision of goods and services and the execution of the contractual relations needed to support such activities. in another view, ender and mooney (1994) described outsourcing as a form of privatisation that refers to an organisation’s (university) decision to contract with an external organisation to provide a traditional organisation function or service to the organisation. all these descriptions (supply, externalisation, contracting and privatisation) show that outsourcing is practised in various ways in different organisations. while all of them can be said to convey the same meaning or practice, two of them mentioned another point to ponder about in outsourcing. grover et al., (1996) called it ‘internal functions’ while ender and mooney (1994) regarded it as ‘traditional functions’. the point in these definitions is that the products or services to be outsourced should be the ones that the organisation is or can currently produce or render. this view is supported by gilley and rasheed (2000) who argued that outsourcing may arise in two ways namely: 1) substitution of external purchases for internal activities that is discontinuation of goods or services and an initiation of procurement from outside suppliers and 2) abstention that is purchases of goods or services from outside organisations even when those goods or services have not been produced in-house in the past. the duo regarded outsourcing as a decision to reject internalisation that is in-house production of goods or services outsourced and opined that outsourcing occurs when the internalisation of the good or service outsourced is within the acquiring firm’s managerial and/or financial capabilities. they suggested that organisations that have no choice but to acquire a particular good or service from external source because of lack of capital or expertise are not outsourcing because the internalisation of the activity in question is not an option. this view tends to indicate that outsourcing applies when the option of in-sourcing is available and that organisations are always faced with the decision on whether to adopt in-sourcing or outsourcing for their products or services. this problem which clients have to confront when embarking on project development is the thrust of this study. kanji and wong (1998) maintained that the construction industry comprised of a multitude of occupations, professions and organisations that are involved in different phases of a construction project and consultants in collaboration with clients, contractors and sub-contractors all have a role to play in delivering a quality project. renier and volker (2009) maintained that every project is usually assigned a new team, precisely from a client’s own network in which context social aspects play an important part. if a firm cannot draw from its australasian journal of construction economics and building idoro, g i (2011) ‘influence in-sourcing and outsourcing of consultants on construction project performance in nigeria’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (4) 45-58 49 own organisation structural engineers, building consultants, climate advisors, other external professionals have to be involved in the process as soon as possible. meiling and johnson (2009) opined that during design, manufacturing and erection, the building is thoroughly defined, manufactured and erected. most of the activities remain in-house while some are performed by external consultants. the duo maintained further that in industrialised buildings in sweden, drafting of the building envelope is handled by companies themselves while hvac drafting, structural design, electrical drafting and life-cycle costing are done by external consultants. although sattineni and university (2008) regarded pre-construction, conception, design and tendering services as areas that suite outsourcing, however if contracting and privatisation are forms of outsourcing, it all means that construction activities are equally being outsourced in project delivery. the point in the above studies is that outsourcing whether full or partial is inevitable in the development of most construction projects. the question that arises from the above review is ‘if outsourcing is a feature of construction project development, what are the benefits derived from it? research studies have discovered that organisations derive numerous benefits when they engage external service providers. it was discovered that by outsourcing, firms often achieve cost advantages relative to vertically integrated firms (quinn 1992; bettis, et al., 1992; d’aveni and ravenscraft, 1994; lei and hitt, 1995); manufacturing costs decline and investment in plant and equipment can be reduced (bettis et al., 1992); reduced fixed costs that leads to a lower break-even point (gilley and rasheed, 2000); firms have opportunities for flexibility in technology (harrigan, 1985); economies of scale by increasing net value and reducing costs, process expertise, access to capital and expensive technology, greater capacity for flexibility (carlson, 1989; harrison, 1994); enhanced competitiveness (gilley and rasheed, 2000); quick response to environmental changes (dess et al., 1995); increased management attention and resource allocation to those tasks that an organisation does best and reliance on management teams in other organisations to oversee tasks in which the outsourcing firm is at relative advantage (quinn et al., 1990); emerging technology without significant investment in the technology (gilley and rasheed, 2000); focus on core competencies (kotabe and murray, 1990; quinn, 1992; dess et al., 1995; sang, 2010). while previous studies have covered many benefits in outsourcing, the aspect of project performance has been virtually neglected. the benefits that a client will derive in terms of the outcome of projects which is the focus of this study are not in the studies. despite these numerous benefits, several problems have been observed on the use of external consultants. outsourcing can lead to loss of overall market performance (bettis et al., 1992; kotabe, 1992) or less investment in research and development which may lead to decline in innovation (teece, 1987). in a project that involved a change of client, michell et al., (2007) discovered problems concerning cooperation between consultants and contractors. as a solution to the problem of inaccurate proposals submitted by consultants, tembo and rwelamila (2007) suggested that organisations should formulate an evaluation process for the assessment of project proposals from consultants in a manner that will reflect true costs and schedules. these problems show that the practice of outsourcing products or services by an organisation is not without losses. research methods a questionnaire survey approach was adopted for the study and a field survey involving 164 clients was conducted. a list of 211 organisations made up of 56 government and 155 organised private establishments was prepared through a preliminary survey conducted in the first quarter of 2010 because a reliable list or statistics of organisations involved in project development could not be obtained. these organisations were used as the population frame for the study. the study sample was selected from this population by stratified random sampling. in australasian journal of construction economics and building idoro, g i (2011) ‘influence in-sourcing and outsourcing of consultants on construction project performance in nigeria’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (4) 45-58 50 the sampling, the population was classified into public and private organisations thereafter; the respondents were selected from each sector randomly. one project preferably the one with the highest contract sum executed by each of the sampled organisations was selected to ensure that the consultants selected for the study were required in the project. data were collected on the characteristics of the projects sampled, the sources of six consultants discovered to be common to all the projects sampled, respondents’ assessment of project duration, cost, quality, extent of risks, variations, fluctuation, compliance with contract obligations and conflicts and disagreement between client and contractors, client and consultants and contractors and consultants of the projects using five ranks namely: poor, low, moderate, high and very high. the ranks were assigned scores of 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 respectively. data on the initial and actual duration and cost of the projects were also collected. the data were collected using structured questionnaires. the instrument was administered to the respondents by hand through personal visits paid to the organisations sampled in mid 2010 and completed questionnaires were also collected through the same approach. the extent of use of the two categories of consultants investigated was defined as the percentage of the six selected consultants engaged in-house or outsourced to procure the projects sampled. time-overrun was defined as the percentage of the difference between actual and initial contract periods divided by initial contract period while cost-overrun was defined as the percentage of the difference between actual and initial contract sums divided by initial contract sum. the data were analysed using percentage, mean, t-test, chi-square and spearman correlation tests. results of data analysis the results of the analysis of the data collected for the study are presented as follows. characteristics of projects used for the study the characteristics of the projects used for the study were investigated for the purpose of understanding the projects which the results of the study apply to. five project characteristics and their sub-types stated table 1 were investigated. the percentages of each sub-type of project characteristics were analyzed. the results are presented in table 1. table 1 shows that the projects sampled were procured by four notable methods namely: direct labour, traditional contract, design-build and labour-only however the percentage of projects procured by direct labour method was the highest. on the owners of the projects used for the study, table 1 shows that both government and private sector projects procured were covered in the sample but private sector projects constituted the majority. on the type of construction, table 1 shows that both new construction and renovation/maintenance works were sampled but the majority of the projects were new projects. table 1 shows that projects were procured by the construction management method in which the construction manager is the coordinator, the project management system in which the project manager was the project leader and the traditional management method in which the architect was the project leader were sampled. the analysis of the rise of the buildings sampled shows that low-rise (1-3 floors), medium-rise (4-7 floors) and high-rise (above 7 floors) buildings were covered but the majority of the projects were low-rise buildings. the analysis of the value of the projects shows that the five value intervals selected were covered in the projects sampled which indicates that the projects sampled were both small and large. on the duration of the projects sampled, table 1 shows that the percentage of long duration (above 52 weeks) projects is the highest while the percentage of medium duration (26-52 weeks) projects is the lowest. on the contractor type that executed the projects sampled, table 1 shows that projects executed by both indigenous and expatriate contractors in nigeria were covered however, majority were executed by indigenous australasian journal of construction economics and building idoro, g i (2011) ‘influence in-sourcing and outsourcing of consultants on construction project performance in nigeria’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (4) 45-58 51 contractors. the analysis of the use of the buildings sampled shows that the projects covered by the study have several uses. characteristic sub-type n % characteristic sub-type n % procurement method design-bid-build direct labour design-build labour-only total 42 64 42 16 164 25.6 39.0 25.6 9.0 100 project value n 125 million n26-50 million n51-75 million n76-100million above n100 million total 32 22 26 8 28 116 27.6 19.0 22.4 6.9 24.1 100 client type public private total 28 136 164 17.1 82.9 100 project duration 1-26 weeks 27-52 weeks above 52 weeks total 48 40 74 162 29.6 24.7 45.7 100 construction type new construction renovation total 122 42 164 74.4 25.6 100 contractor type expatriate indigenous total 42 122 164 25.6 74.6 100 management method traditional project mgt construction mgt total 42 58 64 164 25.6 35.4 39.0 100 project use residential commercial industrial social total 88 62 2 12 164 53.7 37.8 1.2 7.3 100 building rise 1-3 floors 4-7 floors above 7 floors total 96 6 22 124 77.4 4.8 17.7 100 table 1 descriptive result of characteristics of projects used for the study n=number of respondents. n=naira (nigerian official currency; 1us$=158n), mgt=management priority accorded the use of in-sourced and outsourced consultants to investigate the priority accorded the use of in-sourced and out-sourced consultants in project development, the percentages of the consultants in-sourced and outsourced were analysed and ranked separately. the results are presented in table 2. consultant total n in-source n % rank outsource n % rank electrical engineer mechanical engineer architect structural engineer quantity surveyor project manager 94 90 98 112 108 102 43 45.7 6 46 51.1 5 55 56.1 4 63 56.3 3 68 63.0 2 77 75.5 1 51 54.3 1 44 48.9 2 43 43.9 3 49 43.7 4 40 37.0 5 25 24.5 6 table 2 ranks of the sources of selected project consultants n=number of respondents table 2 shows that the percentage of in-sourced project managers (75.5) ranked first while that of quantity surveyors (63) ranked second. the percentage of in-sourced structural engineers (56.3) ranked third while those of architects (56.1), mechanical engineers (51.1) and electrical engineers (45.7) ranked fourth, fifth and sixth respectively. australasian journal of construction economics and building idoro, g i (2011) ‘influence in-sourcing and outsourcing of consultants on construction project performance in nigeria’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (4) 45-58 52 test of difference between the use of in-sourced and outsourced consultants to test whether or not there is difference in the preference of the respondents for in-sourced and outsourced consultants, the first hypothesis was postulated. the hypothesis states that the extents of use of in-sourced and outsourced consultants in project development are not significantly different. the hypothesis was tested using the t-test with p≤0.05. the rule for the acceptance or rejection of the hypothesis is that when p-value>0.05, the hypothesis is accepted but when p-value≤0.05, the hypothesis is rejected. the results are presented in table 3. variables compared n mean t-value df p-value decision diff % of in-sourced consultants % of outsourced consultants 164 164 50.27 49.73 0.158 158 0.874 accept ns table 3 results of t-test for difference between the use of in and out sourced consultants n=number of respondents, df=degrees of freedom. diff=difference, ns=not significant table 4 shows that the p-value (0.874) for the test of difference in the extent of use of insourced and outsourced consultants is greater than the critical p-value (0.05) therefore the hypothesis is accepted. this result implies that the extent of use of in-sourced consultants is not significantly different from the extent of use of outsourced consultants. the result implies that clients have no preference for in-sourced or outsourced consultants in project development. relationship between the use of in-sourced and outsourced consultants and project performance to determine the influence of the use of the two types of consultants on project performance, the second hypothesis of the study was postulated. the hypothesis states that the extent of use of in-sourced and outsourced consultants and project performance are not significantly related that is the extent of use of either in-sourced or outsourced consultants does not have significant influence on project performance. for the test of the hypothesis, data collected on the use of the two variables of project consultants and the respondents’ assessment of the twelve variables of project performance as stated in the research methods were used. the hypothesis was tested using the chi-square and spearman correlation tests with p≤0.05. the rule for the acceptance or rejection of the hypothesis is that when p-value>0.05, the hypothesis is accepted but when pvalue≤0.05, the hypothesis is rejected. the results are presented in table 4. on the relationship between the use of in-sourced consultants and project performance, table 4 shows that the p-values for the test of relationship between the percentage of in-sourced consultants and the respondents assessment of project duration (0.758), variations (0.663), fluctuation (0.229), project risks (0.097), conflicts/disagreement between consultants and contractors (0.356) and percentage of time-overrun to initial contract period (0.080) are greater than the critical p-value (0.05) therefore the hypothesis is accepted. this result implies that the number of in-sourced project consultants has no significant relationship with the perception of clients on project duration, variations, fluctuation, project risks, conflicts or disagreements between consultants and contractors and the percentage of time-overrun to initial contract period of projects. however, the p-values for the test of correlation between the percentage of in-sourced consultants and the respondents’ assessment of project cost (0.033), project quality (0.017), conflicts between clients and contractors (0.015), conflicts between clients and consultants (0.038), compliance with contract obligations (0.001) and percentage of costoverrun to initial contract period (0.002) are lower than the critical p-value (0.05) therefore the hypothesis is rejected. the result indicates that the number of project consultants sourced from among clients’ staff has significant correlation with the perception of the clients on project cost australasian journal of construction economics and building idoro, g i (2011) ‘influence in-sourcing and outsourcing of consultants on construction project performance in nigeria’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (4) 45-58 53 and quality, conflicts between clients and contractors and between client and consultants, compliance with contract obligations and overrun in the cost of projects. variables correlated n p decision rel % of in-sourced consultants res asmt of project cost res asmt of project duration res asmt of project quality res asmt of variations res asmt of fluctuation res asmt of project risk res asmt of client & contractors’ conflicts res asmt of client & consultants’ conflicts res asmt of consultants & contractors’ conflicts res asmt of compliance with contract obligations % time-overrun to initial contract period % cost-overrun to initial contract sum 164 164 164 164 164 164 164 164 164 164 80 54 2x 0.166 -0.024 -0.186 -0.034 0.095 0.130 0.189 -0.162 0.072 0.299 r 0.197 -0.409 0.033 0.758 0.017 0.663 0.229 0.097 0.015 0.038 0.356 0.001 0.80 0.002 reject accept reject accept accept accept reject reject accept reject accept reject s ns s ns ns ns s s ns s ns s table 4 results of spearman test of correlation between the use of in-sourced and outsourced consultants and project performance n=number of respondents, x 2 = chi-square value, r=correlation coefficient, p=p-value, res=respondent, asmt=assessment, rel=relationship, s=significant, ns=not significant difference between performance of projects based on the use of in-sourced and outsourced consultants the argument in favour of the use of outsourced consultants has been that the cost is less than that of engaging in-sourced consultants. the attempt to justify the engagement of in-sourced consultants prompts the comparison between the performance of projects in which in-sourced consultants were engaged with that of projects in which outsourced consultants were engaged. for the purpose of this comparison, the percentages of time-overrun to initial contract period and cost-overrun to initial contract sum of projects in which in-sourced project managers, architects, quantity surveyors and structural, electrical and mechanical engineers were engaged were compared with those of projects in which outsourced consultants were engaged. the third hypothesis of the study was postulated for purpose of the comparison. the hypothesis states that the performance of projects in which in-sourced consultants were engaged is not significantly different from the performance of projects in which outsourced consultants were engaged. the hypothesis was tested using the t-test with p≤0.05. the rule for the acceptance or rejection of the hypothesis is that when p-value>0.05, the hypothesis is accepted but when pvalue≤0.05, the hypothesis is rejected. the results are presented in table 5. table 5 shows that the p-values for the test of difference between the percentages of timeoverrun to initial contract period of projects in which in-sourced and outsourced project managers (0.847), architects (0.563), quantity surveyors (0.649), mechanical engineers (0.360) and structural engineers (0.209) were engaged are higher than the critical p-value (0.05) therefore the hypothesis is accepted. these results imply that the time-overruns of projects in which in-sourced project managers, architects, quantity surveyors, mechanical and structural engineers were engaged are not significantly different from those of projects in which australasian journal of construction economics and building idoro, g i (2011) ‘influence in-sourcing and outsourcing of consultants on construction project performance in nigeria’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (4) 45-58 54 outsourced project managers, architects, quantity surveyors, mechanical and structural engineers were engaged. similarly, the p-values for the test of difference between the percentages of cost-overrun to initial contract sum of projects in which in-sourced and outsourced project managers (0.937), electrical engineers (0.112) and structural engineers (0.733) were engaged are higher than the critical p-value (0.05). these results signify that the hypothesis is accepted that is the cost-overruns of projects in which in-sourced project managers, electrical and structural engineers were engaged are not significantly different from projects in which outsourced project managers, electrical and structural engineers were engaged. parameter consultant n mean t-value df p-value decision diff project manager time-overrun cost-overrun in-source outsource in-source outsource 66 14 50 14 16.29 17.01 12.81 13.35 -0.194 -0.080 78 62 0.847 0.937 accept accept ns ns architect time-overrun cost-overrun in-source outsource in-source outsource 30 48 24 28 16.52 14.95 7.87 16.00 0.581 -2.396 76 50 0.563 0.020 accept reject ns s quantity surveyor time-overrun cost-overrun in-source outsource in-source outsource 38 42 32 22 15.74 17.03 8.09 19.78 -0.457 -3.631 78 52 0.649 0.001 accept reject ns s mechanical engr time-overrun cost-overrun in-source outsource in-source outsource 28 52 24 30 18.19 15.47 8.52 16.32 0.920 -2.297 78 52 0.360 0.026 accept reject ns s electrical engr time-overrun cost-overrun in-source outsource in-source outsource 32 48 28 26 19.84 14.13 10.16 15.75 2.025 -1.618 78 52 0.046 0.112 reject accept s ns structural engr time-overrun cost-overrun in-source outsource in-source outsource 44 34 38 14 18.07 14.40 13.67 12.27 1.266 0.344 76 50 0.209 0.733 accept accept ns ns table 5 results of t-test of difference in project performance based on the use of in-sourced and outsourced consultants n=number of respondents, diff=difference, engr=engineer australasian journal of construction economics and building idoro, g i (2011) ‘influence in-sourcing and outsourcing of consultants on construction project performance in nigeria’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (4) 45-58 55 table 5 however shows that the p-value for the test of difference between the percentages of time-overrun to initial contract period of projects in which in-sourced and outsourced electrical engineers (0.046) were engaged is less than the critical p-value (0.05) therefore the hypothesis is rejected. this result implies that the time-overrun of projects in which in-sourced electrical engineers were engaged are significantly different from that of projects in which outsourced electrical engineers were engaged. similarly, the p-values for the test of difference between the percentages of cost-overrun to initial contract sum of projects in which in-sourced and outsourced architects (0.020), quantity surveyors (0.001) and mechanical engineers (0.026) were engaged are less than the critical p-value (0.05) therefore the hypothesis is rejected. these results indicate that the cost-overruns of projects in which outsourced architects, quantity surveyors and mechanical engineers were engaged are significantly different from projects in which in-sourced architects, quantity surveyors and mechanical engineers were engaged. the results in table 5 reveal that the mean time-overrun of projects in which in-sourced electrical engineers were engaged (19.84 weeks) is higher than the mean time-overrun of projects in which outsourced electrical engineers were engaged (14.13 weeks). this result tends to indicate that less time-overrun was recorded in projects in which outsourced electrical engineers were engaged compared to projects in which their in-sourced counterparts were engaged. however, the mean cost-overrun of projects in which outsourced architects (n16 million), quantity surveyors (n19.78 million) and mechanical engineers (n16.32 million) were engaged are higher than the mean cost-overruns of projects in which in-sourced architects (n7.87 million), quantity surveyors (n8.09 million) and mechanical engineers (n8.52 million) were engaged. these results indicate that less cost-overrun was recorded in projects in which insourced architects, quantity surveyors and mechanical engineers were engaged compared to projects in which their outsourced counterparts were engaged. discussion of findings the analysis of the percentages of use of the two sources of consultants in table 2 has shown that the extent of use of in-sourced project managers is the highest, followed by in-sourced quantity surveyors while the extent of use in-sourced electrical engineers is the least. the reverse is the case of the extent of use of outsourced consultants in project development. these results indicate that clients’ preference for in-sourced and outsourced consultants in project development varies from one consultant to another, and that clients do not rely on one of the two sources of consultants in project development; rather they use their staff as some consultants and source the others from outside. the results in table 4 that there is no significant difference between the extent of use of insourced and outsourced consultants also support the finding that clients use the two types of consultants for the development of projects. this finding shows that the two types of consultants are important features of project development in nigeria. it also goes to show that clients are found of employing professionals who serve as consultants in their organizations. the results of the influence of the use of the two types of consultants in table 4 shows that the use of either in-sourced or outsourced consultants has significant influence on clients’ assessment of project cost, quality, conflicts between project team members and cost-overruns. the results of the test of difference in the performance of projects in which the two types of consultants were engaged tend to indicate that the engagement of in-sourced or outsourced project managers and structural engineers does not make any difference on project performance. this tends to imply that clients can engage their staff or external consultants as project managers and structural engineers without any increase or decrease in both time and cost overruns. however, the results of the study show that the engagement of outsourced electrical engineers could help to achieve savings in the delivery time of projects compared to australasian journal of construction economics and building idoro, g i (2011) ‘influence in-sourcing and outsourcing of consultants on construction project performance in nigeria’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (4) 45-58 56 when in-sourced electrical engineers are engaged but such will not make any difference in the overrun in the delivery cost of projects. this result may suggest that an outsourced electrical engineer is unlikely to prolong his involvement in a project but more willing to perform his service and disengage from a project on time than his counterpart in the employment of the client. this interest can be attributed to the fact that his service fee is fixed and may not vary with the duration of his involvement in a project. the implication of this result is that considerable time can be saved in projects that have long duration when electrical engineers are outsourced. on the other hand, the engagement of in-sourced architects, quantity surveyors and mechanical engineers could help to achieve savings in the delivery cost of projects compared to when outsourced consultants are engaged but this will not make any difference in the delivery time of projects. this result may indicate that in-sourced architects, quantity surveyors and mechanical engineers have better knowledge of both the client and project requirements than their outsourced counterparts and this knowledge helps to minimise incidences of variations and the likes that are responsible for cost-overrun. the implication of this result is that cost can be saved when project design, in particular architectural and mechanical drawings and bills of quantities are carried out in-house, that is direct labour instead of contract. conclusion the study has established that in-sourcing and outsourcing of consultants is a feature of the project delivery process. this finding shows that clients are often faced with the challenge of deciding which of the two types of consultants to engage when they embark on project development. organisations all over the world are abandoning the practice of keeping many construction professionals as staff because construction is a service activity and they need to concentrate on their core business activities and reduce overhead costs. this study has contributed to existing studies on the benefits of in-sourcing and outsourcing by revealing the benefits derived from project outcome when they are adopted. it has revealed that organisations do not have anything to lose on project outcome by engaging external project managers and structural engineers as project consultants. specifically, it has discovered that outsourcing electrical engineers in project development not only provide the clients with the numerous benefits of outsourcing discovered in previous studies, it will equally assist organisations to reduce the delay to be experienced in project delivery. on the other hand, the study has discovered that by engaging in-house architects, quantity surveyors and mechanical engineers as consultants, organisations are likely to derive the benefit of reduced cost-overrun. these results suggest the need for organisations to engage a mixture of in-sourced and outsourced consultants in project development. in adopting this, it is suggested that such organisations should give consideration to electrical engineers in outsourcing and architects, quantity surveyors and mechanical engineers in in-sourcing. suggestion for further studies time and cost overruns are not the only parameters of project outcome. the study could not investigate the benefits associated with other important parameters of project outcome such as project quality when the two consultants are engaged in project development. it therefore suggests further studies on the influence of the use of the two consultants on other parameters of project outcome such as project quality in order to complement the results of the study. references bettis, r., bradley, s. and hamel, g. (1992) ‘outsourcing and industrial decline’, academy of management executive, 6 (1), 7-22 australasian journal of construction economics and building idoro, g i (2011) ‘influence in-sourcing and outsourcing of consultants on construction project performance in nigeria’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (4) 45-58 57 boes, h. and doree, a. (2009) ‘public procurement of local authorities in the netherlands: a case of breaking tradition for a more strategic approach, proceedings of rics cobra research conference, university of cape town, 10-11th september carlson, b. (1989) ‘flexibility and theory of the organisation’, international journal of industrial organisation, 7 (1), 189-203 d’aveni, r. and ravenscraft, d. (1994) ‘economies of integration versus bureaucracy costs: does vertical integration improve performance?’, academy of management journal, 37 (5), 1167-1206 dess, g. g., rasheed, a., mclaughlin, k. and priem, r. (1995) ‘the new corporate architecture’, academy of management executive, 9 (3), 7-20 domberger, s. (1998) the contracting organisation: a strategic guide to outsourcing, 1st edition, oxford university press, oxford ender, k. l. and mooney, k. a. (1994) ‘from outsourcing to alliances: strategies for sharing leadership and exploiting resources in metropolitan universities’, metropolitan universities: an international forum, 5 (3), 51-60 federal government of nigeria (1986) budget, federal government press, lagos gilley, k. t. and rasheed, a. (2000) ‘making more by doing less: an analysis of outsourcing and its effect on firm performance’, journal of management, 26 (4), 763-790 grover, v, cheon, m. j. and teng, j. t. c. (1996) ‘the effect of service quality and partnership on the outsourcing of information systems functions’, journal of management information systems, 12 (4), 89-116 harigan, k. r. (1985) ‘formulating vertical integration strategies’, academy of management review, 9 (4), 638-652 harrigan, k. r. (1985) ‘exit barriers and vertical integration’, academy of management journal, 28 (3), 686-697 harrison, b. t. (1994) lean and mean: the changing landscape of corporate power in the age of flexibility, basic books, new york havemann, g. (2007) ‘the challenge of engaging south africa’s unemployed in construction sector delivery’, proceeding of the cib world building conference on construction for development, cape town, south africa, 14-18 may 2007 idoro, g. i. (2004) ‘the effect of globalisation on safety in the construction industry in nigeria’, proceedings of international symposium on globalisation and construction, 17-18 november, asian institute of technology, thailand, 817-826 idoro, g. i. (2006) ‘an evaluation of the use of direct labour system in the nigerian construction industry’, urban and planning review, 1 (1), 75-88 idoro, g. i. (2009a) ‘clients’ perception of construction project leaders in the nigerian construction industry’, journal of engineering, design and technology, 7 (3), 264-271 idoro, g. i. (2009b) ‘correlation between managerial and technical capacities and quality performance of indigenous and expatriate contractors in nigeria’, international journal of construction project management, 1 (2), 173-187 idoro, g. i. (2010) ‘influence of quality performance on clients’ patronage of indigenous and expatriate construction contractors in nigeria’, journal of civil engineering and management, 16 (1), 65-73 australasian journal of construction economics and building idoro, g i (2011) ‘influence in-sourcing and outsourcing of consultants on construction project performance in nigeria’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (4) 45-58 58 idoro, g. i. and okun, b. o. (2011) ‘project leaders’ assessment of the contribution of contractors to delay in the delivery of federal government projects in nigeria’, proceedings of rics cobra 2011 international built and human environment conference, 12-13 september, university of salford, manchester, uk kanji, g. k. and wong, a. (1998) ‘total quality culture in the construction industry’, total quality management, 9 (4/5), 133-140 kotabe, m. (1992) global sourcing strategy: r&d, manufacturing and marketing interfaces, 1st edition, quorum publications, new york kotabe, m. and murray, j. (1990) ‘linking product and process innovations and modes of international sourcing in global competition: a case of foreign multinational firms’, journal of international business studies, 3, 383-408 lei, d. and hitt, m. (1995) ‘strategies restructuring and outsourcing: the effect of mergers and acquisition and lbos on building firm skills and capabilities’, journal of management, 21 (5), 835-859 loh, l. and venkatraman, n. (1992) ‘determinants of information technology outsourcing: a cross-sectional analysis’, journal of management information systems, 9 (1), 7-24 meiling, j. and johnsson, h. (2009) ‘feedback in industrialised housing: why does it not happen?’, proceedings of rics cobra research conference, university of cape town, 1011th september michell, k., brown, p., catell, k., edwards, p. and pearl, r. (2007) ‘stakeholder perception of construction time, cost and quality management of building projects’, proceeding of the cib world building congress on construction for development, cape town, south africa, 14-18 may 2007 odusami, k. t. (1999) ‘a survey of current trends in quantity surveying consultancy practice in nigeria’, the quantity surveyor, journal of the nigerian quantity surveyor, jan/march, 57-62 quinn, j. b. (1992) intelligent enterprise: a knowledge and service based paradigm for industry. free press, new york quinn, j. b., doorley, t. l. and paquette, p. c. (1990) ‘technology in services: rethinking strategic focus’, sloan management review, 31 (2), 79-87 renier, b. and volker, l. (2009) ‘the architect as a system integrator’, proceedings of rics cobra research conference, university of cape town, 10-11th september, 103-113 sang, j. k. (2010) ‘outsourcing in kenyan universities: an examination of challenges and opportunities’, international journal of business and social science, 1 (2), 204-212 sattineni, a. and university, a. (2008) ‘outsourcing and off-shoring: options for the us construction industry’, international business and economics research journal, 7 (5), 59-66 teece, d (1987) ‘capturing value from technological innovation, strategic partnering and licensing decisions in guile, b. and brooks, h. (eds), technology and global industry, national academy press, washington tembo, e. and rwelamila, p. m. d. (2007) ‘project management maturity in public sector organisations: the case of botswana’, proceedings of cib conference w065/055: commissions transformation through construction organised by herriot-watt, university, edinburg, dubai, november a review of productivity analysis of the new zealand construction industry malcolm abbott, (swinburne university of technology, melbourne, australia) chris carson, (unitec, auckland, new zealand) abstract in recent years there has been a rising interest in the level of productivity and efficiency of the new zealand construction industry. this interest has meant that there has been an increased use of statistical techniques to determine the productivity and efficiency of the overall industry. the purpose of this paper is to review the various measures that have been used to gauge the levels of productivity and efficiency in the new zealand construction industry; as well as analyse some of the results to date. finally, it considers potential areas for future research, including possible improvements to measurements techniques that maybe used. keywords: productivity, construction nz introduction in recent years a number of attempts have been made to identify the reasons for the lack of growth in productivity and income in new zealand. one area where this lack of growth of productivity is most marked is in the case of the construction industry. indeed, official statistics seem to indicate that the construction industry in new zealand has a productivity level roughly comparable to what it was in the late 1970s (statistics new zealand, industry productivity statistics). this has raised considerable concern in the industry itself, and more generally, about the degree to which the industry is operating below its full potential (new zealand, department of building and housing, productivity taskforce 2009; van dai tran 2010; new zealand productivity commission 2011).the possible reasons behind this low level of productivity in new zealand are various and could include such things as low economies of scale in the industry, a lack of competition, regulatory impediments, faulty innovation and management practice, poor investment quality and a low levels of skills (davis 2007). the purpose of this paper is to review the various measures that have been used to gauge the levels of productivity and efficiency in the new zealand construction industry and to make suggestions to how these measures might be improved. in meeting this objective the results of the past studies will be analysed in order to identify some of the issues surrounding the apparent stagnation of growth in productivity in the new zealand construction industry. the manner in which this is approached is to compare the different approaches used and to then identify the pros and cons of the different approaches. the final task is to then suggest improved ways to determine productivity change of the new zealand construction industry that would take account of the difficulties that were identified in the previous approaches used. more improved measures of productivity of the construction industry would be useful as the construction industry constitutes a substantial part of the new zealand economy. furthermore in recent years there has been a concern that this sector has been a relatively stagnant one. more improved measures would assist policy makers and industry leaders to determine ways to improve the performance of this industry. australasian journal of construction economics and building abbott, m and carson, c (2012) ‘a review of productivity analysis of the new zealand construction industry’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 1-15 2 the paper is structured as follows. in the first section a broad description of the condition of the new zealand construction industry is given. this is followed by a section that examines the various ways in which productivity can be assessed and some of the issues involved in doing so. a section is provided that examines past studies of productivity in the construction industry in new zealand and in the final section some conclusions are made. the construction industry in new zealand the construction industry constitutes a significant part of the new zealand economy. in 2010 the industry made up over four per cent of new zealand’s gdp and employed over eight per cent of the employed workforce (table 1). this high level of employment compared to output reflects the relative labour intensity of the industry. gdp gdp employment employment constant 1995/96 $m % 000 % agriculture, fishing, forestry and mining 9,980 7.7 150.2 6.9 manufacturing 16,395 12.7 247.8 11.5 electricity, gas and water 2,634 2.0 14.4 0.7 construction 5,521 4.3 178.8 8.3 wholesale trade 9,374 7.2 103.7 4.8 retail accommodation and restaurants 9,901 7.6 333.7 15.4 transport and communication 13,891 10.7 135.4 6.3 finance, business &personal and community services. 55,061 42.5 869.3 40.2 government administration and defence 6,754 5.2 121.2 5.6 gross domestic product 129,511 100.0 2163.4 100.0 table 1 gross domestic product and employment by industry, 2010, annual (march years) source: statistics new zealand, gross domestic product; household labour force survey growth of the construction industry was solid from the late 1990s and through most of the 2000s, but tapered off in the last few years of the 2000s (figure 1). over the longer term the construction sector has grown at a similar rate to the rest of the new zealand economy, driven by rising incomes and population growth, although there is evidence that the growth of the industry is more volatile than that of the economy in general (figure 1). figure 1 quarterly growth of gdp and construction in new zealand source: statistics new zealand, gross domestic product australasian journal of construction economics and building abbott, m and carson, c (2012) ‘a review of productivity analysis of the new zealand construction industry’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 1-15 3 the construction sector is broadly speaking divided into three sub-sectors:  residential building (houses, units, flats);  non-residential building (offices, shops, hotels);  engineering construction (roads, bridges, water sewerage). the private sector operates predominately in the construction of residential and non residential building, whereas the public sector operates primarily in engineering construction. some major engineering projects are delivered through public-private partnerships, which in its simplest form is a contractual agreement between the government and private sector for the delivery of public infrastructure. despite the growth of the construction industry and its importance to the generation of employment in new zealand, there has been a growing concern that the sector has been a stagnant one in recent times in terms of growth of productivity. indeed some studies have found that the sector’s level of productivity is no higher than it was in the late 1970s (figure 2). a building and construction sector productivity taskforce, for example, was established in 2008 as a joint measure of the industry and government in new zealand to investigate the limited productivity gains in the sector in recent years and reported a number of reasons why this had been the case (new zealand, department of housing productivity taskforce 2009). figure 2 productivity indexes of construction and the new zealand economy, 1978 to 2009 source: statistics new zealand, industry productivity statistics in the past there has been some research undertaken that looks at the growth of productivity of the construction industry at the sector level. most of this past work has been undertaken as part of larger work looking at productivity growth of the larger economy, but in recent times some more focused work has been undertaken (see table 2). to understand the past work that has been undertaken it must first be understood just what approaches can be made to the analysis of productivity. furthermore it is important to policy makers and industry leaders that future productivity analysis accurately reflects changes in the industry and does not give a distorted picture of what is occurring. finally accurate measures can help to raise our understanding or what drives productivity change in the industry, or conversely impedes it. traditional efficiency and productivity measures to understand how productivity analysis has been used in the past to determine change in the new zealand construction over time it is important to understand the different ways in which this can be estimated. the way in which the productivity and efficiency of the construction industry has been analysed in the past has been influenced by the way in which australasian journal of construction economics and building abbott, m and carson, c (2012) ‘a review of productivity analysis of the new zealand construction industry’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 1-15 4 productivity analysis has developed more generally over the years. structural reform of the economy by various governments has encouraged the study of the productivity and efficiency performance of a variety of industries and government service providers. in undertaking this research a range of productivity and efficiency techniques have been used. to begin with, efficiency can be defined as being the degree to which resources are used in an optimal way to produce outputs of a given amount. at the level of an industry there are three main aspects of economic efficiency: allocative, technical, and scale (farrell 1957). allocative efficiency indicates the factor input proportions given relative input prices. an allocatively efficient industry produces using the lowest cost combination of inputs. technical efficiency takes place when the maximum output possible is delivered using given inputs (labour, capital, and other inputs). scale efficiency refers to optimal size of an industry (and firms within it). it could be that an industry may be allocatively and technically efficient, but may still be producing too little or too much output. economic efficiency is a combination of allocative and technical and scale efficiency. it helps to identify whether cost reductions can be made. productivity change differs from efficiency in that it is a dynamic indicator of the change in the ratio of outputs to inputs over time. productivity growth reflects changes in allocative and technical efficiency, technological and managerial improvements and changes in the external environment in which the production of an industry occurs. when an industry improves its efficiency, it moves towards a best practice frontier, and in doing so also increases its productivity. when the frontier also shifts outwards, due say to technological change, then productivity also rises. over the years a range of different measures have been developed to quantify how efficiency and productivity levels change over time. these measures include the calculation of indexes, the estimation of cost and production functions, data envelopment analysis and stochastic frontier measures. most of these types of measures have been used in the past to analyse changes in the new zealand construction industry. partial and total factor productivity index measures the initial way in which productivity changes over time were measured was by using an ‘index’ approach. the index approach involves the estimation of index numbers, which can be used to indicate the partial or total factor productivity change of an industry over time. partial productivity measures generally show the ratio of an index of an industry’s output to an index of a single input factor. in the case of the construction industry, for example, an index of the volume of construction activity per employee is a labour-based partial productivity measure. partial productivity indicators have the advantage of being easy to compute, require only limited data and are intuitively easy to understand. this has meant that they are used very commonly in a range of different industries. unfortunately they can also be misleading when looking at the change in productivity of an industry over time. it might, for instance, be possible for an industry to raise productivity with respect to one input at the expense of reducing the productivity of other inputs. partial indices of output to labour, for instance, often tend to overstate the growth of total productivity because over time the use of capital as an input substitutes for labour. a further problem is that capital productivity measures are difficult to calculate given the difficulty that often occurs in measuring capital inputs, and the often very long life of some assets. total factor productivity indexes were developed to overcome the problem of the substitutability of inputs. total factor productivity measures are the ratio of a total aggregate output quantity index to a total aggregate input quantity index. the index approaches used to combine outputs and inputs that might be used include the laspeyres, paasche, or fisher australasian journal of construction economics and building abbott, m and carson, c (2012) ‘a review of productivity analysis of the new zealand construction industry’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 1-15 5 approaches. a tornqvist index approach has been used in many total factor productivity studies. total factor productivity growth, therefore, is the difference between the growth of the output and input indices. although there are a few studies of industry level total factor productivity in the construction industry the literature is not as extensive as it is in many other industries. most research on construction industry productivity tends to be concerned more with site level labour productivity, which has a more direct relevance to industry management (ganesan 1984; lowe 1987; maloney 1983; allen 1985; thomas, maloney, horner, smith, handa and sanders 1990; thomas and sakarcan 1994). despite this some measures of the total factor productivity of construction were developed using the index approach. on the whole this occurred as part of efforts to establish the growth of productivity for the entire economy and other industry sectors, rather than exclusively for the construction sector. total factor productivity indexes were first developed at the national bureau of economic research in the united states in the late 1940s. initially studies were undertaken of labour productivity for a range of different industries (including construction). this was followed by the estimation of a range of other non-labour partial productivity measurements such as for capital and in the case of agriculture land and livestock. a range of studies were then undertaken that attempted to combine the various types of inputs together in a similar fashion to the way in which earlier researchers like simon kuznets and colin clark had for output in determining levels of gross national product. in undertaking this work the research by stigler (1947; 1961), barton and cooper (1948); kendrick and jones (1951), schmookler (1952), and fabricant (1954) were important. starting with agriculture this work spread to other sectors of the economy as well as national wide studies. by the mid-1950s the national bureau of economic research had published a great deal of work using total factor productivity indexes for a range of industries (kendrick 1956a, 1956b, 1961, 1973). as part of this work total factor productivity indexes were also determined for the construction industry. over the years studies have also been conducted in a range of other countries besides the united states using the index approach (see for instance hong kong; chau and walker 1988; chau 1990 and singapore: tan 2000). in the case of the new zealand construction industry examples of partial productivity indexes include those by marks (1984), davis (2007), janssen and mcloughlin (2008) and the new zealand institute of economic research (2011), who all estimated new zealand labour productivity figures. in terms of total factor productivity indexes there have been a number of main works undertaken on the new zealand construction industry as part of economy wide productivity estimates. these are by diewert and lawrence (1999), black, guy and mclellan (2003), and statistics new zealand, industry productivity statistics (2011). econometric measures – cost and production functions the index approach to determining total factor productivity assumes that the ratio of inputs used and products produced are kept constant over time. as this seems unrealistic other methods were developed. econometric methods involve the estimation of cost or production functions. the estimated function can then be used to identify changes in productivity or efficiency. the estimation of cost functions has been the most commonly used method of determining the levels of efficiency in the industry, although a number of techniques have been used in estimating cost functions. this approach is also often referred to as the growth accounting approach. dacy (1965) was perhaps the first to use an estimated production function for the united states construction industry (1947 to 1963) and found increasing levels of productivity. later examples of estimated production functions include those by allen (1985); stokes (1981) goodrum and haas (2004), schiver and bowlby (1985), mao, goh, wang and ofori (2003) and kau and sirmans (1983).examples of the use of cost functions estimations include australasian journal of construction economics and building abbott, m and carson, c (2012) ‘a review of productivity analysis of the new zealand construction industry’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 1-15 6 those by chau (1993) and chau (2009) who in both cases found rising productivity levels in hong kong; and schriver and bowlby (1985). in the new zealand case a number of researchers used the growth accounting approach to estimate productivity over time by estimating production functions. these include the studies of orr (1989), chapple (1994), philpott (1995), and mason and osborne (2007). in each case they made estimates at the national level and then broke down productivity into various industry sectors including that of construction. one difficulty that arises in using either the index approaches or econometric approaches is that it relies upon there being reliable, market determined prices for both inputs and outputs. in the case of industries such as the utilities where market power distorts prices, and in government service delivery where output prices are often subsidised or non-existent there arose a need to develop productivity measures that was not so reliant on price data. this led to the development of data envelopment analysis (dea). data envelopment analysis (dea) and stochastic frontier measures dea was pioneered by charnes et al (1978) based on the work by farrell (1957) and there are now many texts offering a detailed discussion on dea, including the algorithms used (see, for example, lovell and schmidt (1988), färe, grosskopf and lovell (1985) and coelli, rao and battese (1998)). data envelopment analysis (dea) is a linear programming technique which estimates organisational efficiency by measuring the ratio of total inputs employed to total output produced for each unit. this ratio is then compared to others in the sample group to derive an estimate of relative efficiency. dea identifies the most efficient providers of a good or service by their ability to produce a given level of output using the least number of inputs. other units in the sample group receive an efficiency score determined by the variance in their ratio of inputs employed to outputs produced relative to the most efficient unit in the sample group. dea is therefore a measure of relative efficiency against the sample group’s benchmark best practice. the advantage is that it can be used without input or output prices, which is useful where data of this sort is not available. as well as being used to benchmark units against one another it is possible to use dea to estimate changes in productivity of individual units, or the sample as a group, over time. dea has been used extensively in a number of industries to assess productivity and efficiency levels (especially utilities). in the case of the construction industry only a fewer number have been undertaken, the dea approach was used in the case of hong kong construction by chau and wang (2005), wang (1998); wang and chau (1997, 2001). each study found a rising level of productivity there. in the case of new zealand a single study by fare, grosskopf and margaritis (1996) has been undertaken. stochastic frontier measures involve the use of parametric techniques to estimate technical efficiency by constructing first the production frontier derived from the best practice firms and then comparing the actual output of firms relative to the best practice firms. studies of this sort in the construction industry are rare and in the case of the new zealand industry have not to date been undertaken. although markets for construction tend to be fairly competitive and more market driven than the case of the utilities and government service provision there have been concerns that prices in these markets do face some distortions. for this reason the studies previously mentioned made use of the dea approach at determining changes to productivity over time. issues in addition to the need to use total factor indicators to determine productivity change over time rather than partial indicators and the possible need to use indicators that don’t rely so australasian journal of construction economics and building abbott, m and carson, c (2012) ‘a review of productivity analysis of the new zealand construction industry’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 1-15 7 much on price data a number of other issues have arisen. most studies that look at the productivity of the construction industry are centred on the industry in the united states. one element some researchers found was that there appeared to be a degree of stagnation or decline in productivity in the united states construction industry during the 1970s and 1980s. these include work by stokes (1981), allen (1985) and schriver and bowlby (1985). these researchers had some difficulty explaining why this might have occurred, given that it was a period of some technological change and innovation in the industry. tan (2000) found a similar decline in productivity in the singapore construction industry over the period 1980 to 1996, and mao, goh, wang and ofori (2003) found singapore had a slow rate of growth between 1984 and 1998. the explanations of this perceived stagnation are of some interest to new zealand researchers as a similar stagnation has been detected in this country. in the american context some thought that this decline could be explained by the use of inappropriate price indexes (dacy 1965; stokes 1981). in addition a more influential view expressed at the time in the united states was that construction was largely a labour intensive industry and the introduction of new equipment and materials could only increase outputs with a given level of labour and capital. rosefielde and mills (1979), in contrast, argued that official data did not fully account for changes in quality and so tried to adjust for changes in the scale and structure of the quality of output. they argued that as construction is immobile and designed to achieve some particular function, at some specific site, a diverse and changing type off output is produced by the industry. this coupled with a changing composition of materials makes it difficult to measure quality improvements over time, which in turn leads to an underestimation of output levels, and therefore productivity improvements. in using quality adjusted figures for output rosefielde and mills relied upon the work of cassimatis who used the number of rooms per dwelling and square footage of buildings as an indicator of the quality of output. in the new zealand case past studies have all used some constant dollar valuation of the industry’s production as an in indication of output, which assumes that this value reflects any changes that are occurring in quality and size, whether it be in terms of area or other form of quality. this might, perhaps, be a fair assumption but nowhere has it been justified. indeed over the periods looked at by analysts the average size of both residential and commercial properties has risen considerably. it is notable that unlike countries like australia, quality adjustments for the residential building industry are not included in the new zealand estimation of construction value added (bollard and barrow 2012). as most new zealand studies on productivity use some estimation of value added of the construction industry as the indicator of output it is possible that these studies significantly underestimate new zealand productivity growth. schriver and bowlby also found that much of the fall in productivity could be attributed to a change in the output mix from high to low productivity building projects. one problem in the new zealand case is that the past studies have all bundled construction together as a single industry and do not attempt to break it up into its various components (residential, large engineering projects and commercial property). therefore no attempt has been made to account for either changes in quality of changes in the composition in the output mix. in light of the issues that have arisen in determining productivity change of the construction industry more generally a number of measures can be undertaken. first all a total factor rather than partial approach should be undertaken. secondly it is necessary to use an approach like dea or the stochastic approach along with any index or econometric approach to see if there are any price distortions that are important. finally any approach should try to make use of physical values of output, along with monetary ones, in order to ensure that distortions to the estimates of productivity change are not being made. bearing in mind these issues it is possible to observe how productivity analysis has been conducted in the new zealand case. australasian journal of construction economics and building abbott, m and carson, c (2012) ‘a review of productivity analysis of the new zealand construction industry’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 1-15 8 past measures of productivity in the new zealand construction industry since the 1980s a number of economists in new zealand have made estimates of new zealand’s productivity change over the longer term. notable examples include marks (1984), orr (1989), smith and grimes (1990), chapple (1994), philpott (1991, 1993, 1995), sarel (1996), grubb, jackman and layard (1982),1 fare, grosskopf and margaritis (1996) and conway and hunt (1998). in some of these cases sectoral productivity was also identified, including that of the construction sector (i.e. chapple; philpott; fare, grosskopf and margaritis). further work was initiated from 1999 onwards by government agencies as well (diewert and lawrence 1999; black, guy & mclellan; and janssen & mcloughlin (2008). it should be remembered that all the studies, with one exception (davis 2007), undertook a study of construction productivity as part of broader works on productivity of the new zealand economy as a whole. in none of these cases, therefore, was any attempt made to adapt the methods used to account for any special conditions in the construction industry (such as quality adjustments). the separate studies on the new zealand construction industry are listed in table 2. the first work undertaken was by marks (1984), which used an index approach to determine labour productivity growth in new zealand between 1965/66 and 1980/81. marks’ work was published in a work by the new zealand institute of economic research (nzier) on the labour market, funded by the social science research fund committee of the new zealand government. marks was concerned with analysing the slowdown in labour productivity in all industries that had occurred in new zealand from the early 1970s. as well as national figures, however, she also looked at a number of sectors of the new zealand economy, including construction. in the case of the construction industry labour productivity was found to have increased at a, steady rate through the 1960s and 1970s. marks’s work was followed by three related works, which all used a growth accounting approach to calculate total factor productivity change along with labour and capital productivity changes (orr 1989; chapple 1994; philpott 1995). these studies were undertaken as part of a joint project between the nzier and the institute of policy studies of the victoria university, wellington (for the ministry of commerce). orr’s work was the first of these and his work and was later followed by work by chapple (1994). both orr and chapple worked for the nzier which was to retain an interest in productivity analysis and as late as 2011 published work on this theme (nzier 2011). orr’s work ranged from 1961 to 1986 and found that total factor productivity rose over the period at an annual average of 1.75 percent (labour productivity: 2.30 percent, capital productivity: 1.02 percent). chapple’s work ranged from 1971 to 1991 and showed a rise in annual average productivity of 0.7 per cent over the entire period (1.0 per cent for labour productivity and 0.2 per cent for capital productivity). both estimated a cobb-douglas production function and equated one output to that of the inputs of labour hours and net capital stock, using capital stook figures developed by philpot. orr’s work confirmed marks’ earlier findings that productivity rose steadily during the 1960s and early 1970s. chapple also found that productivity rose in the early 1970s. both orr and chapple also found that productivity tended to peak in the years of construction booms in 1975/76 and then again in 1986/87. at much the same time philpott worked on similar figures for the period 1960 to 1995 (chapple 1991, 1993, 1995). he looked at twenty separate industries including construction. his results were similar to that of chapple and orr, in that he found that productivity growth was steady up until 1975, stagnated somewhat after that and surged during periods of construction boom and flagged during recessions. 1 sarel (1995) and grubb, jackman and layard (1982) both undertook studies on new zealand productivity growth as part of wider studies of growth of the oecd countries. australasian journal of construction economics and building abbott, m and carson, c (2012) ‘a review of productivity analysis of the new zealand construction industry’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 1-15 9 figure 3 provides an overview of these works on productivity of the construction industry. as can be seen productivity tended to rise through the 1960s and early years of the 1970s before peaking around 1976 and then declining. a recovery in productivity took place in the early 1980s. despite the decline in productivity in the late 1970s the situation in the late 1980s still seemed to be a relatively good one. the productivity of the industry tended to rise over the twenty-five year period (1960 to 1985) and this is reflected in the works of marks, orr, chapple and philpott who all recorded increases in total factor productivity of the construction industry (table 2). figure 3 total factor productivity in new zealand construction, 1972=100 source: orr 1989; chapple 1994 the first study to come to more pessimistic conclusions was that of fare grosskopf and margaritis (1996). these economists used a different approach and undertook a study on a national basis and looked at twenty industries (including construction). they used the dea approach and equated value added as the output to labour hours and capital using the perpetual inventory method as the input for the years 1973 to 1994. they found for construction that although productivity rose slightly between 1973 to 1984 (annual average of 0.3 per cent) it declined over the period 1984 to 1994 (-1.2 per cent). for the entire economy between 1973 and 1974 productivity rose by 1.46 per cent, mainly due to technological change rather than efficiency changes. because their study concentrated more on the period from the mid 1970s onwards their results overall showed stagnation in the growth of construction productivity. in 1999 diewert and lawrence in work commissioned by the department of labour, the reserve bank of new zealand and the treasury used labour hours and net capital stock (valued using a user cost formula which accounted for depreciation, a rate of return and capital gain) as inputs and an index of total national output to compute labour productivity, capital productivity and a total factor productivity between the years 1972 and 1998. in doing so it used the index number approach. in this work the construction sector showed a worse performance compared to other sectors, although it enjoyed a trend annual total factor productivity growth of 0.6 per cent although it was the subject of cyclical downturns, especially in 1980 and 1993 (diewert and lawrence 1999, p. 74). statistics new zealand received funding from the growth and innovation framework in 2003 to develop official productivity statistics for new zealand. in doing so they built on the earlier work undertaken by diewert and lawrence (1999) and black, guy and mclellan (2003). the results of the work by diewert and lawrence, black, guy and mclennan and statistics new zealand are all summarised in figure 4. in each case productivity does seem to have stagnated across the whole of the period covered with especially low levels of productivity australasian journal of construction economics and building abbott, m and carson, c (2012) ‘a review of productivity analysis of the new zealand construction industry’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 1-15 10 encountered during the recessions of the late 1970s and early 1990s. there does, therefore, seem to some evidence that productivity in the construction industry correlates to business cycles. figure 4 total factor productivity of the new zealand construction, 1978=1000 construction industry source: statistics new zealand 2011; diewert & lawrence 1999, black, guy & mclellan 2003 additional studies have been undertaken by janssen and mcloughlin (2008), davis (2007), and mason and osborne (2007). each of these studies has tended to concentrate on the periods from the mid-1990s to the end of the 2000s. given that these studies miss the downturns in productivity of the early 1990s and late 2000s they tend to provide more positive results. regardless of the periods selected it appears from the various studies that although productivity increased to some degree up until the mid-1970s, since then the results have been mixed. this appears to be the case even though there have certainly been a range of technological changes that have occurred in the industry since then. new tools and equipment have been introduced that have tended to be labour savings. this has meant the introduction of hand held powered tools (nail drivers, sanders, saws and drills), and improved lifting and moving machinery (cranes, loaders, earth movers, graders, forklifts). new materials and processes have also been introduced along with a greater use of prefabricated materials. the introduction and greater use of new equipment, materials and processes has meant that it is hard to explain why growth in the productivity of the new zealand construction industry has been sluggish. it is possible that the various studies of productivity growth may have underestimated the growth in output of the industry, and therefore productivity, for the reasons explained by rosefielde & mills, and schriver & bowlby; namely the lack of quality adjustments in value added data and the shift of construction from high productivity to low productivity activities. in the future, therefore, it would be useful if studies made greater use of output measures that have some quality adjustment, and that greater use is made of techniques that rely less on pricing. australasian journal of construction economics and building abbott, m and carson, c (2012) ‘a review of productivity analysis of the new zealand construction industry’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 1-15 11 author(s) date measures period studied approach, variables & results marks 1984 labour productivity 1965/6 to 1980/1 index approach output: sectorial real gdp. input: labour employed lp: 1.0% per annum orr 1989 partial and total factor productivity 1961 to 1986 growth accounting production function output: gross domestic product. inputs: employed, net capital stock tfp: 1.75% per annum (lp: 2.30%; kp: 1.02%) chapple 1994 partial and total factor productivity 1972 to 1991 growth accounting production function output: value added. inputs: labour hours, net capital stock tfp: 0.7% per annum (lp: 1.0%; kp: 0.2%) philpott 1995 total factor productivity 1960to1994 growth accounting production function output: sectorial real gdp. inputs: employed, average of gross &net capital stock. tfp: 0.3% per annum (lp: 1.0%; kp: -1.4%) fare, grosskopf & mararitis 1996 total factor productivity 1973 to 1994 dea approach output-value added. inputs-labour hours, net capital tfp: -0.4% per annum diewert & lawrence 1999 partial and total factor productivity 1978 to 1998 index approach inputs: labour hours and net capital stock. tfp: -0.4% per annum black, guy & mclellan 2003 partial and total factor productivity 1988 to 2002 index approach output: sectorial real gdp. inputs: labour hours, net capital stock tfp: -1.51% per annum janssen & mcloughlin 2008 labour productivity 1989 to 2007 index approach output: sectorial real gdp. inputs: labour hours. lp: -3.1% per annum davis 2007 labour productivity 1997 to 2006 index approach output: sectorial real gdp. input: labour hours lp: 0.3% per annum mason & osborne 2007 labour and total factor productivity 1995 to 2004 growth accounting production function output-real value added. inputs: labour hours and net capital stock tfp: 1.12% per annum (lp: 0.84% per annum) nzier 2011 labour productivity 1989 to 2006 index approach output: value added. input: labour employed, net capital stock tfp statistics new zealand 2011 partial and total factor productivity 1978 to 2009 index approach output: sectorial real gdp. inputs: labour hours, flow of capital services generated by capital tfp: -0.2% per annum (lp: 0.4%;kp: -1.9%) table 2 past studies on the productivity of the new zealand construction industry australasian journal of construction economics and building abbott, m and carson, c (2012) ‘a review of productivity analysis of the new zealand construction industry’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 1-15 12 summary over the years there has been an interest in the performance of the construction industry in new zealand and its contribution to national output. in this paper we have reviewed the various measures that have been used to gauge the levels of productivity growth in the industry and some of the key findings, as well as made recommendations on improved measures. from the past research that has been undertaken to date on the productivity growth of the new zealand construction industry a few conclusions can be made. the first of these is that in all probability growth in productivity in the industry was higher in the 1960s and early 1970s then it was in subsequent decades. the apparent stagnation that occurred since the mid 1970s, however, might not have been as great as it first appears given that some form of value added, rather than quality adjusted measure of output, has always been used. even given the difficulties associated with determining levels of output, productivity growth in the industry probably was greater in the period up until 1975. the second factor that can be identified from past studies is the strong cyclical nature of productivity in the industry. strong periods of growth in productivity in the industry are associated with strong periods of growth in demand. sharp falls in productivity are also associated with slumps in building activity and recessions. this is especially true during the recessions in new zealand of the early 1980s and early 1990s. typically in industries productivity slumps during recessions because companies have to regard some of labour and most of their capital as fixed and so output slumps relative to inputs. during boom periods the opposite occurred. one associated problem with this phenomenon is that those studies that cover only a limited number of years are generally dominated by the predominate business cycle (i.e. boom or recession). any study of productivity change in the construction industry in new zealand really has to cover a long period of time if it is to net out the impact of cyclical fluctuations. finally no attempt has been made in the new zealand context to determine if there is any reallocation within the construction industry of activity from high to low productivity areas of activity which might be affecting estimates. it appears that research stills needs to be undertaken in these areas in the future if we are going to be able to make informed inferences about the performance of the industry in terms of productivity. in particular greater use of quality adjusted outputs and less reliance on techniques that require reliable data on prices would be useful. references allen, s.g. (1985) ‘why construction industry productivity is declining’, review of economic statistics, 117 (4), 661-665 alterman, j. and e.e. jacobs (1961) ‘estimates of real product in the united states by industrial sector, 1947-1955, output, input and productivity measurement, national bureau of economic research, princeton university press barton, g.t., and m.r. cooper (1948) ‘relation or agricultural production to inputs’, review of economics and statistics, 30 (7), 117-126 black, m., guy, m. and n. mclellan (2003) productivity in new zealand 1988 to 2002, treasury working paper 03/06, wellington, the treasury bollard, a. and r. barrow (2012) ‘could we be better off than we think?’ reserve bank of new zealand, speech to a meeting of the trans-tasman business circle, auckland, 17 february australasian journal of construction economics and building abbott, m and carson, c (2012) ‘a review of productivity analysis of the new zealand construction industry’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 1-15 13 chapple, s. (1994) ‘searching for the heffalump?’, an exploration into sectoral productivity and growth in new zealand’, new zealand institute of economic research working paper 99/10, wellington. may charnes, a., w.w. cooper and e. rhodes (1978) ‘measuring the efficiency of decision making units, european journal of operational research, 2 (6), 429–444 chau, k.w. (1990) total factor productivity of the building industry of hong kong, unpublished phd thesis, university of hong kong, hong kong chau, k.w. (1993) ‘estimating industry-level productivity trends in the building industry from building cost and price data’, construction management and economics, 11 (4), 370-383 chau, k.w. (2009) ‘explaining total facto productivity trend in building construction: empirical evidence from hong kong’, international journal of construction management, 45-54 chau, k.w. and a. walker (1988) ‘the measurement of total factor productivity of the hong kong construction industry’, construction management and economics, 6 (3), 209-224 chau, k.w. and y.s. wang (2005) ‘an analysis of productivity growth in the construction industry: a non-parametric approach’, in khosrowshahi, f. ed. 21st annual arcom conference, 7-9 september 2005, soas, university of london, association of researchers in construction management, 1, 159-69 coelli, t., d.s. prasadarao and g. e. battese (1998) an introduction to efficiency and productivity analysis, boston, kluwer conway, p. and b. hunt (1998) ‘productivity growth in new zealand: economic reform and the convergence hypothesis’, reserve bank of new zealand, internal paper, economics department, february dacy, d.c. (1965) productivity and price trends in construction since 1947’, review of economics and statistics, 47 (4), 406-411 davis, n. (2007) construction sector productivity scoping report, wellington, martin jenkins diewert, e. and d. lawrence (1999) measuring new zealand’s productivity, treasury working paper 99/5, wellington, treasury fabricant, s. (1954) economic progress and economic change, washington, dc, national bureau of economic research fare, r., s. grosskopf and d. margaritis (1996) ‘productivity growth’ in a study of economic reform: the case of new zealand, b. silverstone, a. bollard, and r. lattimore, eds., elsevier science, new york farrell, m. (1957) ‘the measurement of productive efficiency’, journal of the royal statistical society, series a, cxx, 253-81 ganesan, s. (1984) ‘construction productivity’, habitat international, 8, 3-4 mao, z., b. h. goh, s. q. wang and g. ofori (2003) ‘total factor productivity growth accounting in the construction industry in singapore’, construction management and economics, 21 (7), 707-718 goodrum, p.m. and c.t. haas (2004) ‘long-term impact of equipment technology on labor productivity in the u.s. construction industry at the activity level’, journal of construction engineering and management, 130 (1), 124-13 grubb, d., jackman, r., and r. layard (1982) ‘causes of current stagflation’, review of economic studies, 44, 707-730 haber, w. and h. levinson (1956) labor relations and productivity in the building trades, ann arbor, university of michigan press janssen, j. and s. mcloughlin (2008) new zealand’s productivity performance, new zealand treasury productivity paper 08/02, wellington, the treasury australasian journal of construction economics and building abbott, m and carson, c (2012) ‘a review of productivity analysis of the new zealand construction industry’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 1-15 14 kau, j.b. and sirmans, c.f. (1983) ‘technological change and economic growth in housing’, journal or urban economics, 13, 283-95 kendrick, j.w. (1956a) productivity trends: capital and labor, occasional paper 53, washington, dc, national bureau of economic research kendrick, j.w. (1956b) the meaning and measurement of national productivity, phd thesis. george washington university, washington d.c kendrick, j.w. (1961) productivity trends in the united states, new york, ny, national bureau of economic research/princeton university press kendrick, j.w. (1973) post-war productivity trends in the united states 1948–1966, new york, ny, national bureau of economic research kendrick, k.w. and c.e. jones (1951) ‘gross national farm product in constant dollars, 1910-1950’, survey of current business, 31, september, 12-19 lowe, j.g. (1987) ‘the measurement of productivity in the construction industry’, construction management and economics, 5, 115-21 lovell, c.a. knox and p. schmidt (1988) ‘a comparison of alternative approaches to the measurement of productive efficiency’, in applications of modern production theory: efficiency and productivity. eds. a. dogramaci and r. färe, boston, kluwer, boston maloney, w. (1983) ‘productivity improvement: the influence of labor’, journal of construction engineering management, 109 (3), 321-334 mason, g. and m. osborne (2007) productivity, capital-intensity and labour quality at sector level in new zealand and the uk, new zealand treasury working paper 07/01, wellington marks, p. (1984) ‘the slowdown in labour productivity growth rates in new zealand in the 1970s’, in b. easton, ed., studies in the labour market, wellington, nzier new zealand, department of building and housing, productivity taskforce (2009) report of the building and construction sector productivity taskforce: a modern efficient and productive new zealand built infrastructure industry, wellington, n.z.: dept. of building and housing new zealand, productivity commission (2011) housing affordability inquiry: draft report, wellington, productivity commission new zealand institute of economic research (2011) industry productivity and the australianew zealand income gap, wellington, working paper 2011/3, nzier orr, a. (1989) productivity trends in new zealand: a sectorial and cyclical analysis 19611987, wellington, nzier philpott, b. (1991) ‘economic growth in new zealand models and experience’, in long run perspectives on the new zealand economy, proceedings of the sesquicentennial conference of the new zealand association of economists, new zealand association of economists philpott, b. (1993) ‘data for sectorial productivity analysis and some preliminary results for 1978-93’, rpep paper 256 philpott, b. (1995) new zealand’s aggregate and sectoral productivity growth 1960-1995, research project on economic planning paper 274, victoria university of wellington, october rosenfielde, s. and d.q. mills (1979) ‘is construction technologically stagnant?’, in j.e. lange and d.q. mills, eds., the construction industry, lexington ma, d.c. heath and company sarel, m. (1996) ‘growth and productivity in new zealand’, imf internal paper 14, november australasian journal of construction economics and building abbott, m and carson, c (2012) ‘a review of productivity analysis of the new zealand construction industry’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 1-15 15 schmookler, j. (1952) ‘the changing efficiency of the american economy, 18691938’,review of economics and statistics, 34 (3), 214-231 schriver, w.r. and r.l. bowlby (1985) ‘changes in productivity and composition of output in building construction, 1972-1982’, review of economics and statistics, 67 (2), 318-322 schultz, c.l. (1959) prices, costs and output for the post ware decade: 1947-1957, new york, committee or economic development statistics new zealand (2011) gross domestic product, wellington, statistics new zealand statistics new zealand (2011) household labour force survey, wellington, statistics new zealand statistics new zealand (2011) industry productivity statistics, 1978-2009, wellington, statistics new zealand stokes, h.k. (1981) ‘an examination of the productivity decline in the construction industry’, review of economics and statistics, 63 (4), 495-502 smith, r. and a. grimes (1990) ‘sources of economic growth’, reserve bank of new zealand bulletin, 53 (2), june, 140-48 stigler, g.j. (1947) trends in output and employment, national bureau of economic research, university of princeton press stigler, g.j. (1961) ‘economic problems in measuring changes in productivity’, in output, input and productivity measurement, conference on research in income and wealth, umi tan, w. (2000) ‘total factor productivity in singapore construction’, engineering, construction and architectural management, 7 (2), 154-158 thomas, h. and a. sakarcan (1994) ‘forecasting labor productivity using factor model’, journal of construction engineering management, 120 (1), 228-239 thomas, h., maloney, w., horner, r., smith, g., handa, v., and sanders, s. (1990) ‘modelling construction labor productivity’, journal of construction engineering management, 116 (4), 705-726 van dai tran (2010) exploring construction productivity statistics in new zealand, master of engineering thesis, auckland university of technology, auckland wang, y.s. (1998) an analysis of the technical efficiency in hong kong’s construction industry, unpublished phd thesis, university of hong kong, hong kong wang, y.s. and k.w. chau (1997) ‘an evaluation of the technical efficiency of construction industry in hong kong using the dea approach’, proceedings of arcom97 conference, cambridge, 690-701 wang, y.s. and k.w. chau (2001) ‘an assessment of the technical efficiency of construction firms in hong kong’, international journal of construction management, 29,105-122 stevens, m (2012) book review, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 103 103 book review construction item pricing for more profit and less risk david cattell, uct press, 2012, 150 pages includes cd rom, isbn 9781919895697. price usd 34.95, zar 265.00 david cattell has written the next evolution in construction pricing approaches and strategies. he builds upon previous research breakthroughs in this area while acknowledging those whose work is foundational. cattell’s exhaustive research has made this book an important one for researchers and practitioners to study. in my reading, it clarified some grey areas concerning theory and practice. i am sure it will do the same for others. construction pricing is the first opportunity for construction firms to improve a project’s financial outcome. improved profit and cash flow calculate to a greater return on investment. the idea of improving a project’s cash flow through line item pricing generates controversy. however, contractors still practice it and have an interest in improved approaches. the business of construction contracting is a risk filled venture. cattell recognizes this in his work. he captures the basic premise that faces all construction organizations, “maximising profit while minimising risk.” it is well explained and structured in the pricing model he proposes. i believe this book is a foundational text for those serious about knowing more effective approaches to line item pricing in the construction industry. investment banks are challenged with the same problem. they rely on three sources of input to their decision making process. firstly, “perfect information”, that is, corroborated facts and data. secondly, mathematical models which reflect all those factors and their relative effect on the business situation. thirdly, computer software that calculates the model. in essence, a commercial decision-making system quantifies risk and prices it accordingly. cattell’s model achieves the same for contractors. cattell included a welcome extension. his book furnishes the source code for the program he wrote for implementing his model. his equation includes critical items such as timing, schedule confidence, rate of escalation, expected variations of counts and client’s potential rejection of pricing. the software provides a test of the new model. as a final exhibit in the cd-rom included with the book, it lists optimal pricing for each of 503 items featured in the book’s case study. for the industry practitioner or academic, this is an evolutionary work that should be studied. it is a building block for anyone’s knowledge of construction pricing. it is an improvement over previous works and has to be considered by the next evolutionary person. overall in today’s competitive environment, a detailed computer-pricing model that is reflective of real world factors can quickly start a fact-based discussion the quicker that factbased discussion starts the better the quality of the “art” of final decision-making. this is what cattell offers in his mathematical model and computer language. i believe it affords a competitive edge in producing less risk and more reward for contractors than previous approaches. matt stevens senior lecturer in construction the faculty of architecture, building and planning the university of melbourne building maintenance management in malaysian university campuses: a case study building maintenance management in a malaysian university campuses: a case study olanrewaju abdul lateef, mohd faris khamidi and arazi idrus, (department of civil engineering, universiti teknologi petronas) abstract university buildings require maintenance in order to create a conducive environment that supports and stimulates learning, teaching, innovation, and research. the prime objective of maintenance is to ensure, as far as practicable, the continued peak performance of the building throughout its design life. this paper seeks to report the maintenance management system of a university institution in malaysia. primary data was gathered through the analysis of a case study. the objectives of the case study are to identify, describe and assess the maintenance management system used by the university. the major conclusion drawn from the case study was that although university building maintenance practices are corrective and cyclical there is a lack of a comprehensive maintenance management framework that guides the decision-making processes. the case study also revealed irregularities in the university’s maintenance management system. keywords: service delivery, university buildings, maintenance management, maintenance, malaysia introduction maintenance means different things to different people. the term has been defined and redefined by different authors. however, the various definitions suggest that maintenance revolves around building care. nevertheless, in this paper maintenance is defined as the required processes and services undertaken to preserve, protect, enhance and care for the university buildings’ fabrics and services after completion, in accordance with the prevailing standards to enable the building and services to serve their intended functions throughout their entire life span without drastically upsetting their basic features and uses. university buildings are a factor of production; they are used to produce future leaders, captains of industry, entrepreneurs, scientists, engineers and managers. a building is an asset whose value changes in accordance with the quality (and quantity) of maintenance invested in them. this paper illustrates with a case study how a university organization manages its maintenance services in malaysia. the word “model” in the research is synonymous with the decision-making framework or guidelines for managing university buildings maintenance. thus, a university building maintenance management model means a decision-making framework for the maintenance of university buildings. in this context, the model consists of personnel, procedures (and materials, tools, equipment and facilities), activities, tasks and guidelines. this paper proceeds in section 2 to reviewing the existing literature on building maintenance procedures in malaysia. in section 3, the research design and methodology are described. the fourth section of the paper introduces a case study in which the maintenance management of a university is assessed, evaluated and discussed. this analysis provides insight on various procedures of the university building maintenance system. section 5 presents the summary of the observations made on the case study. the concluding remarks are provided in section 6. literature review on university building maintenance management in malaysia education is a very significant and integral part of the malaysian strategic thrust. the economy of malaysia has since independence been planned on five year strategic plans. in each of the plans, the education sector features prominently in terms of value and policy australasian journal of construction economics and building lateef, o a, khamidi, m f and idrus, a (2010) ‘building maintenance management in a malaysian university campuses: a case study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 76‐89 77 implementations. there has been an expansion of more than 420% in allocation to the education sector for the last 20 years. see table 1 for the federal development allocations to the education sector from 1990 to 2010. the increase in the allocations is part of the government’s commitment to improve the performance of the education system in order to produce human capital with intellectuals capable of competing locally and internationally (ministry of higher education, 2006). the allocation to the education sector 2.1% of the gdp (ministry of higher education, 2006). (rm million) sectors 6mp 7mp 8mp 9mp education 7,469.8 17,948.5 18,660 40,356.5 training 615.4 2,237.3 4,000 4,792.6 total 8,625.2 20,185.8 22,660 45,149.1 table 1 development allocations for the educational and training sectors (government of malaysia, 1996, 2001, 2006) in tandem with the expansion in the allocations to the education sector at all levels, the allocations at the tertiary level are also increasing substantially. as an illustration, under the eighth malaysian plan, the sum of rm8, 900 million was allocated to institutions of higher learning out of the rm18, 660 million allocated to the education sector (government of malaysia, 2001) while under the ninth malaysian plan, allocation to institutions of higher learning was increased to rm16,069 million (government of malaysia, 2006). this represents an increase of more than 80%. as a percentage of total public expenditure, 4.4% was attributable to the higher institutions of learning (ministry of higher education, 2006). higher education in malaysia is both a source of employment as well as source of foreign exchange and it is gradually becoming a major contributor to the economic sector and becoming a strong export source (ministry of higher education, 2006). malaysia is now an educational destination to nationals from different countries particularly those from africa, the middle east, pacific and other asian countries. malaysia’s quest to transform into a knowledge based economy (k-economy) where science, technology, and engineering are integrated into the production process. this is also where creativity, imagination, and design capability are embodied in well-educated skilled workers who are the main source of national prosperity and wealth is not open to compromise (government of malaysia, 2006). in order to achieve this objective however, the assets of the universities must be adequate in all respects. university buildings constitute a significant part of the assets. these buildings and the associated engineering services require maintenance. university buildings are procured to create a suitable, conducive and adequate environment that can support, stimulate and encourage learning, teaching, innovation and research activities. a failure in the supply of these essential services is a loss in value of the building to the university institution, the community, the students, staff and other stakeholders. recent studies (housley, 1997; fleming and storr, 1999; amaratunga and baldry, 2000; price, matzdorf, smith and agahi, 2003; green and turrell, 2005; leung and fung, 2005; wong, fellows and liu, 2007; fianchini, 2007 and lavy and bilbo, 2009) have affirmed the positive correlations between performance of educational buildings and quality of education. it is through the university buildings, that future leaders, captains of industry, entrepreneurs, professionals and scientists are produced (mat, et al., 2009). universities these days use the nature, design and condition of their buildings to entice students. in malaysia, universities that in the past relied on the applications sent to them through the ministry of education, now use their buildings as a variable to attract students (rohaizat, 2002 and yosuf, ahmad, tajudin and ravindran, 2008). constructing new buildings helps to upgrade educational facilities and provide a better quality of education, but it is also necessary to maintain the existing buildings to an australasian journal of construction economics and building lateef, o a, khamidi, m f and idrus, a (2010) ‘building maintenance management in a malaysian university campuses: a case study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 76‐89 78 acceptable performance standard that is capable of facilitating the transfer of knowledge and other academic activities. thus, with any inadequacy of the building facilities, the prime objective of the university will be difficult if not impossible to achieve. therefore, a well maintained building is critical to delivering university core business objectives. while there is a concerted effort in increasing the allocation for the maintenance of public infrastructure assets and facilities, there is also a corresponding increase in the maintenance of university buildings. under the sixth, seventh and eighth plans, allocation for maintenance and upgrading as a percentage of the development allocation was 0.2% under each of the plans, while under the ninth plan, the allocation increased substantially to 0.5%. this marked an increment of 150%. in financial terms, the allocations increased from rm 101 million under the sixth plan to rm 203.2 million under the seventh plan. this is an expansion of about 100%. further, there was some 6% expansion under the eighth plan compared to that of the seventh plan. however, under the ninth plan, it further increased from the rm 214.5 million to rm 1,079 million, an expansion of some 403%. in addition, the government has pledged to give more attention to the maintenance of buildings and other infrastructural facilities. however, there is no comparable numerical data on the exact allocations to the maintenance of university buildings, however based on inconclusive data obtained from the ministry of higher education, it suggests that maintenance expenditure has expanded by nearly 85% from 2004 to 2008. for instance, expenditure on maintenance was nearly rm 340 million in 2004 while it increased to more than rm 600 million in 2008 even though the figure for 2008 was the same as july 2008. see table 2 for the breakdown. however, discussions with those concerned in the management of university building maintenance revealed a concern about the amount of funding universities wish to have compared to the amount of funding they are actually receiving. while there is no comparable numerical data on private universities’ investment on maintenance, it would not be difficult to conclude that they also spend substantial parts of their expenditure on building maintenance just like the public universities, if not more. (rm million) however, it is doubtful whether a solution can be found with increases in the allocation to the maintenance sector, but a proactive and systematic approach to maintenance will go a long way in achieving best value for money invested. it will not be very difficult to argue that maintenance as a technique or science is not the problem per se; rather it is the management of the maintenance service. maintenance management seeks to plan, control, coordinate and organize maintenance activities focusing on efficient allocation and utilization of resources in order to improve the value of a building. in other words, it is procedure and process that is used to achieve effectiveness (increase user satisfactions) and efficiency (with optimum resource) in service. proper maintenance management has effect on the reliability, safety, availability and quality of the building. however, efficient and effective maintenance depends on the availability of information on the criteria that influences university building maintenance, criteria that influences users’ satisfaction in university building, nature of defects in university buildings and maintenance performance metrics for the university buildings. with this information, university building maintenance would be more efficiently and effectively initiated and implemented as compared to how it is currently executed. year expenditure rm 2004 338,529,567 2005 470,480,191 2006 508,921,700 2007 580,491,662 2008 619,229,160 total 2,517,652,280 table 2 expenditure on maintenance of public university buildings, (source: adapted from data obtained from the ministry of higher education, malaysia) australasian journal of construction economics and building lateef, o a, khamidi, m f and idrus, a (2010) ‘building maintenance management in a malaysian university campuses: a case study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 76‐89 79 research design and methodology the research integrates a literature review and a case study. while the literature review provides an overview of building maintenance practices, the case study provides qualitative and contextual data on the building maintenance procedures of a typical university organization in malaysia. there are various methods to collect research data. the method to use for the research depends on the nature of the information required and other prevailing circumstances pertaining to the topic and the study area. the case study approach is a very useful tool to collect detailed and contextual information. it gives an opportunity to delve into one aspect of a problem in more detail within a limited timeframe (bell, 2005). according to bell (2005), the case study approach seeks “to put flesh on the bones of a survey research. much of the information for case study strategy is derived from documentation and archival analyses. for instance, documents that could be analysed for maintenance management include periodic reports, minutes of meetings, specialists’ contractual agreements, previous maintenance records and complaint records. however, a major shortcoming of the case study approach is that of generalization of the findings from the particular case studied to other cases even though they may be similar. critics of the approach also believe that there is always a tendency for data distortion since there is no yardstick for data comparison and critics also argued that the approach is very selective (bell, 2005). however, proponents of the case study approach disagreed arguing that the extent of such generalizations depends on the similarity of the case, and the methodology employed in data organization, collection and analysis (bell, 2005). in fact, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that the findings of the case study can be generalized. according to komu (2008), it is not the sample size in research that determines the scientific rigor but the consistent and systematic approach and fitness for purpose that matters. mcniff (1992) also opinioned that, although the case study approach is time consuming, the data obtained is accurate and representative of the case studied. in using the case study approach, various techniques including the interview, survey, observation and experimentation can be used. through the case study approach, the corporate structures, and the information management of the organization under study, can be well understood (barker, 2005). therefore, considering the nature of the information required vis-à-vis the current arrangement of the organization that is studied, it will not be difficult to conclude that the case study approach is appropriate for this study. following, naoum’s classification of the types of case study design; this particular case study is explanatory in nature (naoum, 2007). this is because it is the intention of this study to explore the maintenance management procedures of the university organization in malaysia. the relationship for this study is shown in figure 1. figure 1 a schematic diagram showing the relationship between maintenance management systems and poor service delivery, poor user satisfaction and maintenance backlogs case study of university building maintenance management this section illustrates how a university organization manages the maintenance of their buildings and engineering service maintenance. in this particular university, the property and maintenance management department (pmmd) is responsible for the management of all the university’s physical assets. the mission of the pmmd, as contained in the university’s guidelines, is to deliver comprehensive property management and maintenance services to support the university’s vision and mission as well as its hse policy. the maintenance unit is responsible for maintenance of buildings, engineering services and the landscaping. the unit is also responsible for the provision of management services for minor refurbishment. is related to poor service delivery poor user satisfaction maintenance backlogs maintenance management system australasian journal of construction economics and building lateef, o a, khamidi, m f and idrus, a (2010) ‘building maintenance management in a malaysian university campuses: a case study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 76‐89 80 the case study commenced on 26th of march, 2009 and was completed on 2nd of april, 2009. the maintenance organization is headed by a general manager, who is assisted by five executive officers one each for the mechanical, electrical, civil, property and landscaping units. the property executive is responsible for the general management of all the university’s physical assets. the other four executive officers are responsible for the maintenance of the building structures and services and the landscaping. however, this paper is only concerned with the electrical, mechanical and civil engineering works. the services provided by the other two executives are beyond the scope of this paper. each of the executive officers possess a bachelor’s degree in their area of specialization. none of them possess a postgraduate degree. they have being working in those capacities for a period ranging from four to ten years. each of the maintenance executives were assisted by a varying number of technicians. some of the technicians hold diplomas while the others only hold secondary school certificates. however, in the case of the electrical unit, in addition to three assistants, there were also clergymen. administratively, the clergymen are superior to the technicians. table 3 shows the staff strength of the department. see also figure 2 for the organizational chart. figure 2 structure of the organization chart (source: adapted from chart obtained from pmmd, 2008) position no percentage general manager 1 5.6 electrical executive 1 5.6 mechanical executive 1 5.6 civil executive 1 5.6 technical assistants 11 49.8 clergyman 2 11.6 landscape architect 1 5.6 property manager 1 5.6 clerk 1 5.6 total 18 100 table 3 work force / strength (source: analysis of data obtained from pmmd, 2008) general manager mechanical executive electrical executive civil executive property executive landscape executive clerk assistant assistant assistant assistant assistant assistant assistant assistant assistant clergyman clergyman australasian journal of construction economics and building lateef, o a, khamidi, m f and idrus, a (2010) ‘building maintenance management in a malaysian university campuses: a case study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 76‐89 81 the case study was initially designed to be conducted in the form of a focus group where all the maintenance executives and the researchers would attend. however, the attempt failed due to the executives’ schedules, it became impossible to have them together in a forum. as a result, it was concluded to meet with them one by one for semi-structured interviews. altogether, there are three members in the research team, with one main researcher. before the main case study was conducted; the researchers’ organization formally wrote a letter to the maintenance organization asking for their corporation on the research. they were assured of high confidentiality with all information provided to the researchers. before the interviews, suitable dates were agreed with each of the executives, this was to avoid or reduce the likelihood of not meeting with the executives at the appointed dates. beside the interviews, there were a series of follow-ups for further clarification through sms, telephone conversations and e-mail. in the semi-structured interviews, the interviewer asked questions pertaining to the topic under investigation and then recorded the respondents’ responses. based on the responses, supplementary questions were asked where necessary. this involved prompting the interviewee (fellows and liu, 2008). on average, the interviews took about 45 minutes with each of the respondents. these were apart from the “casual” discussions carried out prior to the formal interviews. the executives were asked a set of pre-determined questions on the maintenance management procedures they were using. however, they refused to provide answers to some of the questions that were addressed to them. they considered such information as sensitive and personal. for instance, when they were asked how much do they receive per annum for maintenance, the researchers were directed to the university finance unit. however, even though an effort was made to contact the finance unit, they were unable to provide the required information. according to them such information cannot be divulged to an “external party”. they submitted that such information was strictly for the university management as it was proprietary or classified information. the major pre-determined questions that were addressed to the respondents included: • what is your current position? • how long have you been working in this position? • what is the size of the built up area of the university? • what is your approximate annual budget for maintenance? • how do you estimate your annual building maintenance budget? • is your budget allocation sufficient for the complaints that you receive? • in case you run into deficit, how do you make it up? • which of the maintenance approaches do you use? • have you conducted any user satisfaction surveys? • if so, what was the outcome of the survey? • how do you think the current maintenance management system can be improved? for purposes of confidentiality, the identity of the university was not given while other information provided was factual. any other information that could reveal the identity of the university was not mentioned. the university integrates old and new buildings and has been operating in the old buildings whilst awaiting the completion of the new buildings. the old buildings previously served as the satellite campus for a different university. prior to commencing operations in the old buildings, there were mass refurbishment, conversion and maintenance activities. this was to enable the buildings and the associated facilities to perform their intended functions. while the old buildings are about 25 years old, the new ones are less than ten years old. the new buildings were constructed and equipped with state-of-the-art material and equipment. there are about 7000 students comprising both postgraduate and undergraduate students on the campus and about 300 academic and nonacademic staff. more than 90% of the students live on campus. australasian journal of construction economics and building lateef, o a, khamidi, m f and idrus, a (2010) ‘building maintenance management in a malaysian university campuses: a case study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 76‐89 82 based on documentary and archival analyses it was found that the buildings cover about 40,000m2 in built-up area, altogether comprising 111 buildings of various sizes with different functions. it was also gathered that there were 34 lifts in the university that are concentrated in the academic, laboratory and administrative buildings and there are 149 air-handling units in addition to about 700 split air conditioning units. generally, all maintenance work, whether it is electrical, civil or mechanical in nature, is classified into major jobs and minor jobs. small contractors operate on a price agreement basis (i.e. electrical maintenance price agreement, civil maintenance price agreement and mechanical maintenance price agreement). under the agreement, a contractor will quote a unit price for specific items of work that will be executed in one operating year. for instance, it will be agreed on how much it will cost the contractor to fix a new bulb or to repair a door lock. during the specified period, a contractor cannot ask for an increase in price and neither can the university demand a price reduction. at the end of each operating year; when the agreement expires, tenders will be open for suitable contractors to bid for the works from which some will be selected based on their quoted price. the existing contractors can also participate if they so wish. contractors are selected on the advice of the respective executive officers. for example, the electrical executive will vet the electrical contractors’ quotations to recommend the selection of a contractor to the general manager. the major works are the types of works that are managed using other strategies like the traditional procurement strategies. for instance, work will be advertised through various means, inviting contractors to bid for the work and the tender will be awarded to a contactor(s) that is/are selected. so far, the maintenance organization has not used modern procurement systems like public private partnership in their building and services maintenance. for operational purposes, the maintenance department has categorized the buildings into administrative buildings, libraries, staff accommodation, offices and hostels, laboratories, workshops, and other supporting facilities. the building maintenance management revolves around a cyclical and corrective maintenance program. on average, for the last five years, the university spent rm15 million on the maintenance of constructed facilities each year. the official working hours are 8.00am to 5.00pm daily, monday to friday. the department does not open for business on saturday and sunday and all public holidays. all maintenance complaints that arise on saturday and sunday are attended to on the next working day. complaints on maintenance are lodged through the warden for each of the hostels while complaints concerning the other buildings are lodged through the technicians in the control room by the users (i.e. lecturers and laboratory attendants). the control room is located in the administrative buildings. if say, there is a problem in a classroom, the lecturer or whoever is in charge of the classroom will call the control room. depending on the type of complaint, the technician will visit the place and issue a docket. if it is an electrical failure, an electrician will inspect and issue a docket that will be passed on to the head office for necessary action. students are not allowed to make complaints directly to the maintenance unit. instead, students will have to lodge complaints through the warden and the warden, in turn, lodges the complaint to the respective executive at the head office. for instance, whenever there is a complaint from the user, the warden will fill in a docket and send it to the maintenance department. a booklet of dockets contains 100 complaint sheets. the maintenance department will, in turn, send it to a contractor to submit a quotation. the docket contains the complainant’s name, a description of the complaint and location of the defect. usually, it takes a minimum of 24 hours for the maintenance department to settle the work with the contractor concerned. complaints received after 5:00pm are directed to the assistant engineers at the control room and will be treated on the following working day. the clerk receives all dockets daily and sends them to the respective executive. all work including filing and sorting are done using traditional computer programs like microsoft word and excel. maintenance complaints are responded to based on their urgency. table 4 describes the response time for the different complaints categories. the response time is the time that the australasian journal of construction economics and building lateef, o a, khamidi, m f and idrus, a (2010) ‘building maintenance management in a malaysian university campuses: a case study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 76‐89 83 maintenance team takes to respond to the call for maintenance and not for completing the task requested. the priority p1 is the category of work that will cause loss of business to the university. for instance, maintenance that will disrupt or disturb classes, and this category of work is attended to within 24 hours. see figure 3 for the complaint reporting procedure. the figure shows the activities involved from the time that a complaint is received to when the job is completed. all complaints are made by phone, email, or their combination. table 4 response time (source: adapted from data obtained from the pmmd, 2008) specifically, electrical maintenance procedures comprise of corrective, inspection and statutory maintenance. statutory maintenance is the type of maintenance that arises as a result of a law governing the performance of buildings and services in malaysia (i.e. electricity act 1990 and electricity regulation 1994). it is done for calibration of protection relay. protective relays are used to detect faults in major equipment. it is conducted on equipment every two years. on average, the electrical unit receives 30 complaints daily, albeit with a slight increase on mondays, apparently because of the backlogs of complaints from the previous saturday and sunday. the electrical unit has one electrical engineer, two clergymen and three assistant technicians (figure 1). more than 95% of the electrical work is out-sourced. the in-house operatives only entertain minor works like changing of bulbs and sockets. the mechanical installations are maintained correctively, preventively and statutorily. the preventive maintenance involves inspecting the equipment bearings, greasing, checking power load for motors and cleaning the filters of the air-handling units every two months. however, apparently due to the age of the equipments, the mechanical equipment in the old building generates more complaints than in the new buildings. all maintenance that relates to the mechanical unit is 100% outsourced unlike in the case of the electrical work. work that falls under the civil unit includes buildings, water supply, sewage, piping, pest control, general building cleaning and sanitary / hygienic services. maintenance work is mainly corrective and cyclical. more than 95% of the work is cyclical and corrective based maintenance. work categorized as cyclical maintenance includes painting and the changing of door locks. walls are painted every five years. however, this is subject to the availability priority categories response time priority 1 (urgent) serious safety hazard / incident irreplaceable / catastrophic loss to the university business operations, teaching and research serious asset damage (e.g. fire/ major leaks which may include water, gas widespread loss of power within 15 minutes (during normal working hours) within 30 minutes (after working hours) priority 2 (normal) low risk safety hazards malfunction of equipment asset requires maintenance – not urgent minimal risk to teaching and research operations within 1 hour (during normal working hour) within 2 working days (after working hours) priority 3 (cyclical) routine maintenance program work work scheduled as per agreement with customers no specified response time jobs in these categories are usually reserved for future execution, the duration of which depends on the volume of works and availability of budget. it could take a year or more australasian journal of construction economics and building lateef, o a, khamidi, m f and idrus, a (2010) ‘building maintenance management in a malaysian university campuses: a case study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 76‐89 84 of funds. the unit entertains about 30 complaints daily and the most frequent complaints include clogging, problems related to water supply, safety issues, doors and door locks. likewise, there is an increase in complaints on mondays. interestingly, fewer maintenance problems emanate from the old buildings than from the new buildings. arguably, a likely reason for this is the quality of materials and workmanship. for instance, the wood used for the construction of the old buildings was of high quality compared to the wood used in the new buildings (with specific reference to the hostels). the big contractors execute works like renovation, major repairs, and the small contractors do alterations and small jobs like the minor repairs. figure 3 maintenance work reporting procedures (source: adapted from the data obtained from pmmd, 2008) summary and observations in summary, based on the case study, the following observations are made: start maintenance complete work work request closed complaint received by warden or technician at the control room docket sent to maintenance department by the warden (s) or technicians maintenance department invites quotation from the contractor inspect and certify yes no australasian journal of construction economics and building lateef, o a, khamidi, m f and idrus, a (2010) ‘building maintenance management in a malaysian university campuses: a case study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 76‐89 85 1. the maintenance management systems are not it based. the computerized maintenance management system (cmms).is not used. all works are done using the traditional computing process through microsoft word and excel (windows 97). the cmms is a software package that keeps a computer database of information of the organization’s maintenance operations. it enables the maintenance organization and their customers to track the status of maintenance work on their assets. essentially it facilitates the decision making process of assets maintenance. tasks that were traditionally done through paper works are done using the software. the traditional method wastes a lot of time, effort and materials. according to ng, gable and chan (2002), time may be wasted on iterative data gathering and service delivery. services including data analysis, tracking of complaints, and workforce distribution can better be handled by a cmms which can lead to tremendous savings in money and time. 2. the current maintenance management system is mainly corrective and cyclical. these approaches to maintenance have been criticized for various inadequacies. they lead to maintenance backlogs and poor user satisfaction. 3. there are no clear key performance indicators. thus, control functions cannot be optimized. in this situation, it will be difficult to make improvements since improvement in user satisfaction and productivity cannot be measured or monitored for necessary improvements. there is the need for a mechanism for measuring performance. the maintenance organization needs to develop or adopt a performance metric that could be used to benchmark their service with what other similar organizations provide to the customers for a meaningful comparison and for improvement. 4. the maintenance department is understaffed and the staff are also inadequately qualified. perhaps it could be expected that professionals including architects and quantity surveyors be employed to advise on aspects that relate to their specialization. for instance, a quantity surveyor could provide professional advice on alternative procurement strategies and make decisions on contractual matters while the architect is also in charge of the building works. presently, the building works are categorized under the civil engineering works. the person in charge has his background in civil engineering. although, during the interview, he claimed to possess the required knowledge and expertise to manage the maintenance of buildings. however, this may not be entirely correct withstanding his working experience. however, much (nearly 90%) of the maintenance complaints he received relate to building and not civil engineering works. there is duplication of responsibilities particularly in the electrical unit; the function of the technician and the clergymen is not clearly defined. other than the fact that a clergyman is technically superior to the technician in rank, their functions overlapped leading to duplication of responsibilities. the clergymen perform some of the functions of the electrical engineer while also giving instructions to the technicians on certain tasks. from observation there is no need for the middle (clergyman) men. 5. the maintenance is budget-driven rather than needs-driven. maintenance is initiated subject to the availability of funds and in many cases cyclical maintenance is put off until such time that funding is available to perform the tasks. 6. although the funding allocated to maintenance may not be sufficient, it is equally clear that the available budget is not effectively or efficiently managed. thus, maintenance cannot be blamed but it is the management system that should be blamed. for instance, even if all the work is carried out correctively, it still requires some more systematic and cost-effective approaches than those currently used. 7. the outsourcing approach is very rudimentary and haphazard. the contractors do not even have offices on the campus. they only come when there is work for them to do. on the one hand, there are some (martin, 1997 and campbell, 1995) who believe that organizations like universities have nothing to do with maintenance since building maintenance is outside the scope of their core services and, therefore, they should outsource such facilitative functions. on the other hand, there are also quite a australasian journal of construction economics and building lateef, o a, khamidi, m f and idrus, a (2010) ‘building maintenance management in a malaysian university campuses: a case study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 76‐89 86 number of authors (sherwin, 2002) who do not entirely agree with them. the opponents of the strategy believe that even though some aspects of maintenance could lend themselves to outsourcing, not all work can be outsourced. shortcomings of outsourcing include loss of skills, loss of control, and exposing the organization to threats by suppliers of maintenance services (shohet et al., 2003). from the study, it could be inferred that outsourcing of the maintenance function reduces maintenance to corrective maintenance and increases maintenance backlogs. there is also some organizational political-proprietary information that the university would not like to expose to external parties. tsang (2002) warned against organizations outsourcing facilitating functions like maintenance. he also warned organizations not to consider outsourcing activities that are critical to their core activities. no doubt building maintenance is very critical to the continuous existence of a university. however, decisions on what to outsource should be based on objective and quantitative facts even though a situation where a university outsources about 95% of its services may not be entirely healthy for any organization. in the opinion of sherwin (2002), it is still too early to say outsourcing maintenance services is an alternative approach to maintenance service delivery. times have changed. it is high time university organizations accept and take care of their buildings (vis-à-vis the maintenance practices) efficiently. it is no longer acceptable for a university to invest only on improving methods of teaching and learning without improving other assets. universities should invest on training their maintenance staff as they would academic staff. it is a failing on the part of the university management to consider the management of their buildings as non-core activities. it is contended that maintenance is also a core activity of the university organizations, since without it the university would not survive. maintenance is inevitable in the building life cycle, thereby assuming a strategic position and function in the building performance. for organizations that pay millions of dollars to acquire the building facilities to claim that it is not their core function is a failing on their part. 8. universities must take care of their interrelated assets namely; buildings, technology and human resources for better performance, a failing in one will also affect the others. 9. the reporting system is fragmented and complicated; there is a need for a single point of contact to report all problems. fragmentation will encourage delays and increase maintenance costs unnecessarily and worsen building users’ frustration and disappointment. 10. not working at all on saturdays and sundays is another serious inadequacy from a management perspective. provision should be made for technicians to be available to assist students in the hostel during the weekend. this would also reduce maintenance backlogs on the following monday or the next working day. in fact, it is apparent on these days that many students only have the time to report complaints because often there are no scheduled classes on saturdays and sunday. except for some of the postgraduate students, most of the students spent most of their time in classrooms, laboratories or and libraries monday to friday with only saturday and sunday left for defect identification days. 11. the technicians were merely performing clerical functions, leading to under utilizations of staff. they perform administrative functions such as receiving calls on maintenance requests; doing paper work and collating data to be delivered to the respective maintenance executive. the technicians ought to be performing technical tasks. the job of the clerk is to perform the secretariat duties. 12. there is no feedback mechanism on users’ satisfactions. the maintenance organizations of universities seldom carry out user satisfaction surveys. this is necessary as they can contribute to efficiency. it is only through user satisfaction evaluation that their requirements can be made known. users are the direct beneficiaries of the service. they are the only people who can define the quality of the service they are receiving. getting them involved will not only result in australasian journal of construction economics and building lateef, o a, khamidi, m f and idrus, a (2010) ‘building maintenance management in a malaysian university campuses: a case study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 76‐89 87 commitment to efficient services but also influence the service delivery. apart from the fact that users create their value systems, they have the ability to bring their requirements to notice and to take action if their requirements are not fulfilled (see soderholm, holmgren and klefsjo, 2007). users need to be questioned on the services they are provided with. the findings of the evaluation or survey could be the basis of meaningful performance measurement and management. 13. the dockets are haphazardly completed. for instance, sometimes the docket is filled in prior to the commencement of the repair, while it is sometimes filed after the works have been completed leading to inconsistencies. in a book of dockets, often one could find dockets issued for work done in january preceded by those issued in march. as a matter of fact, the information in the docket is not reliable and not all the works in the docket are executed or implemented. it is therefore difficult to rely on the information in the docket to track complaints, assess the size of work done and other decision making information. concluding comments the paper reviewed related literature and presented the outcome of a case study on university organization. the data obtained through the case study revealed a number of shortcomings with building maintenance management in a university organization in malaysia. despite the significance of maintenance management, many academic organizations view building maintenance and building maintenance management as a burden rather than as a value added strategy. hence its current status in university management processes. maintenance management is not regarded as part of the top management function or duties but as an operational function. it only receives management attention when everything has gone wrong. ultimately, users are not satisfied with the quality of the service they are receiving leading to increased maintenance backlogs. the case study also shows that the major reason why the university focuses more on corrective maintenance was a result of budget constraints and the lack of a competent workforce. deferring maintenance is not effective as the component will continue to degenerate until such a time that the building could be unsafe for use. even if it is repaired before this critical stage, the amount of work involved will have been more and the users will be frustrated with the outcome of the services. building users, as the entity or group of individuals or the organisation, are interested in the adequate functioning of the building, a failing in which increases their dissatisfactions. they are affected by the performance of the building. the inadequacies with the maintenance of the system of the university suggests that there is a need for a maintenance management framework capable of guiding maintenance organisations to ensure that whenever maintenance is initiated and implemented it is consistence, systematic and holistic. building maintenance management involves the establishment of a framework for the maintenance of buildings and its associated services and the upkeep of the building performance. although the conclusion drawn is based on a case study, the situation is likely to be similar in most university organisations. references barker, s. (2005) ‘business graduates as end–user developers: understanding information literacy skills required’. in technology literary application in learning environments d. garbonara, (ed): information science publishing, usa bell, j. (2005) doing your research project: a guide for first time researchers in education, health and social science, 4th edition, open university press, london boyd, d. and chinyio, e. (2006) understanding the construction client, blackwell publishing, ny campbell, j. d. (1995) ‘outsourcing in maintenance management: a valid alternative to selfprovision’, journal of quality in maintenance engineering, 1 (3), 18-24 australasian journal of construction economics and building lateef, o a, khamidi, m f and idrus, a (2010) ‘building maintenance management in a malaysian university campuses: a case study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 76‐89 88 fellows, r and liu, a. (2008) research methods for construction, 3rd ed. blackwell publishing, oxford fianchini, m. (2007) ‘a performance evaluation methodology for the management of university buildings’, facilities, 25 (3/4), 137 – 146 flanagan, r. and jewell, c. (2005) whole life appraisal for construction, blackwell publishing, oxford fleming, d. and storr, j. (1999) ‘the impact of lecture theatre design on learning experience’, facilities, 17 (7/8) 231 236 green, d. and turrell, p. (2005) ‘schools buildings investment and impact on pupil performance’, facilities, 23 (5/ 6), 253 261 government of malaysia, (1991) sixth malaysian plan 1991-1995, economic planning unit, prime minister’s department, putrajaya government of malaysia, (1996) seventh malaysian plan 1996-2000, economic planning unit, prime minister’s department, putrajaya government of malaysia, (2001) eighth malaysian plan 2001-2005, economic planning unit, prime minister’s department, putrajaya government of malaysia, (2006) ninth malaysian plan 2006-2010, economic planning unit, prime minister’s department, putrajaya housley, j. (1997) ‘managing the estate in higher education establishments’, facilities, 15 (3/4), 72 83 jones, k. and sharp, m. (2007) ‘a new performance based process model for built asset maintenance’, facilities, 25 (13/14), 525-535 lavy, s. and bilbo, d.l. (2009) ‘facilities maintenance management in large public schools’, texas’ facilities, 27 (1 / 2), 5-20 leung, m and fung, i. (2005) ‘enhancement of classroom facilities of primary schools and its impact on learning behaviors of students’, facilities, 23 (13/14) 585594 komu, f. (2008) ‘quality housing and its influence on house consumers’ behaviour’, in proceedings of the construction and building research conference of the royal institution of chartered surveyors (cobra), 2008), dublin institute of technology, 4-5 september 2008, available at www.rics.org/cobra. martin, h.h. (1997) ‘contracting out maintenance and a plan for future research’, journal of quality in maintenance engineering, 3 (2), 81-90 mat, s., sopian, k., moktar, m., hashim, s.h., abdul rashid, a., zain, m.f.m. and abdullah, g. n. (2009) ‘managing sustainable campus in malaysia – organizational approach and measures’, european journal of social science, 8 (2), 201214 mcniff, j. (1992) action research: principles and practices, routledge, london mills, e.d. (1994) (ed.) building maintenance and preservation; a guide to design and management, 2nd ed, butterworth-heinemann, oxford ministry of higher education, (2006) towards excellence report: report by the committee to study, review and make recommendations concerning the development and direction of higher education in malaysia, university publication centre, university technology malaysia, shah alam naoum, g.s. (2004) dissertation research and writing for construction students. elsevier butterworthheinemann, oxford new straits times (2009 4 mar) ‘rm3.2 billions contracts to be awarded’, prime news australasian journal of construction economics and building lateef, o a, khamidi, m f and idrus, a (2010) ‘building maintenance management in a malaysian university campuses: a case study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 76‐89 89 ng, c.s.p, gable, g. and chan, t. (2003) ‘an erp maintenance model’, in proceeding of the 36th hawaii international conference on system sciences (hicss”03) 0-7695-1874-5 / 03 o’dell, a. (1996) ‘taking stock: a review of stock condition survey methods in the uk’, useroriented and cost effective management, maintenance and modernization of building facilities, cib w70, kesinki 1996 symposium, 2-3 sep olanrewaju, a. a. (2009) ‘maintenance management of university buildings’, accepted for publication in journal of building appraisal price, i.f., matzdorf, f., smith, l. and agahi, h. (2003) ‘the impact of facilities on the student choice of university’, facilities, 21 (10), 212 -222 umeadi, b.b.n and jones, k.g. (2003) ‘from condition to performance assessment of built component’, in proceedings of the rics foundation construction and building research conference cobra, ed d. proverbs, school of engineering and the built environment, university of wolverhampton, 1-2 sep sherwin, d. (2000) ‘a review of overall models for maintenance management’, journal of quality maintenance engineering, 6 (3), 138-164 shohet, i. g., lavy-leibovich, s. and bar-on, d. (2003) ‘integrated maintenance monitoring of hospital buildings’ journal of construction management and economics, 21, 219 228 soderholm, p. holmgren, m. and klefsjo, b. (2007) ‘a process view of maintenance and its stakeholders’, journal of quality in maintenance engineering, 13(1), 19 -32 tapsir, h.s. (2005) ‘strategy for sustainability in affordable housing_ a challenge to malaysia construction industry’, in proceedings of the 2005 world sustainable buildings conference, tokyo 27 – 29 sep the star, (2009 march 23) billion ringgit projects, n4 the star, (2009 april 28) early ageing, m2 – m3 then, s.s. (2002) ‘post –occupancy evaluation’; in: best value in construction, j. kelly, r. morledge and s. wilkinson eds. blackwell publishing, london wood, s and worthing, d. (1996) ‘post-occupancy evaluation of higher education buildings; a case study, the cutting edge’, rics research wong, w.p., fellows, r.f. and liu, a.m.m. (2006) ‘use of electrical energy in university buildings: a hong kong case study’, facilities, 24 (1/ 2), 5 -17 tsang, a.h.c. (2002) ‘strategic dimensions of maintenance management’, journal of quality in maintenance engineering, 8 (1), 7039 building maintenance management in a malaysian university campuses: a case study abstract introduction literature review on university building maintenance management in malaysia research design and methodology case study of university building maintenance management summary and observations concluding comments references an evaluation of a proposed ventilation system for melbourne's ch 2 building lu aye and robert james fuller (university of melbourne) abstract the understanding of ventilation requirements in commercial buildings has been significantly revised in the last 10-15 years. a link between health, productivity and increased fresh air use has been established by some research and this understanding underpins the ventilation philosophy adopted for the ch2 building. the ventilation system design for ch2 that has been evaluated in this paper envisages a mechanically driven system during the day, using the displacement technique to distribute filtered air. all introduced air will be drawn from outside and no recycling of air will occur. natural ventilation will be employed at night using the stack effect, enhanced by turbine ventilators. this paper critiques the proposed ventilation system in the light of international experience and the particular conditions of the building's location. the evidence suggests that natural ventilation sometimes may be inadequate to achieve the desired objectives. minimization of indoor pollutants, adequate filtration and high levels of ventilation should, however, ensure satisfactory air quality during occupied hours. keywords: office buildings, indoor air quality, ventilation, productivity. introduction a study of 56 european office buildings found that their air quality was poor and that there was substantial dissatisfaction among the occupants (bluyssen et ai. , 1996). these buildings were fitted with conventional hvac systems. the study substantiates the view that modern office buildings with hvac systems do not necessarily provide healthy working environments, despite the use of energy-intensive conditioning equipment and sophisticated control systems. ch2, currently under construction in melbourne, australia, is hoping demonstrate that it is possible to achieve a high quality office environment simultaneously with much reduced energy consumption . the overall design vision is to "set a new international standard in ecologically sustainable design" (com, 2004) and the green building council of australia has already given the proposed design a six green star rating. the ventilation concept proposed for the ch2 building is in sharp contrast to the conventional approach. this difference is driven by a design philosophy based on two considerations. firstly, the energy used by a conventional ventilation system requires electricity, which is a greenhouse intensive energy source in victoria. instead the ch2 building aims to demonstrate how natural forces can be used to adequately drive the fresh air through the building. the result should be a substantial reduction in energy requirements. the other motivation for the departure from conventional ventilation thinking is the belief that fresh air in buildings is vital for occupant health and productivity. by increasing the level of fresh air intake substantially, it is believed that these two indicators will be improved. the aim of this paper is to assess the proposed ch2 ventilation design and likely air quality in the light of international precedents and best practice. since the office is still under construction, no measured data from the building is'available to verify performance and the main source of information has been ch2 design consultants' reports. therefore the proposed design has largely been evaluated using a selection of the design consultants' documentation and refereed literature in international journals. design changes made subsequent to this evaluation are obviously not considered. some assessment of the effectiveness of particular aspects of the proposed design has also been attempted using local data. in assessing the ventilation system and likely internal air quality, this paper addresses a number of questions. what is the nature and magnitude of the hazards that can be found in a typical office building? what is the quality of the outside air being introduced into the ch2 building? how well are the individual components likely to perform? what is the evidence that improved health and productivity will result from this approach? and finally, what has been the experience of users of similar buildings? this study begins with a brief summary of the potential hazards that may need to be addressed in the ch 2 building. since large quantities of outside air are to be introduced into the building, the quality of the air in melbourne's central business district is then discussed. the overall objectives and operation of the ch2 ventilation system are then described, followed by a review of the individual components and their expected performance. finally, the performance of other buildings is reported, particularly with respect to the influence of their ventilation system on air quality, and the health and productivity of their occupants. indoor air and occupant health it is likely that if occupants were as knowledgeable about the quality of the air they breathe within their buildings as they are about the food they eat, then much greater action would be demanded to improve the indoor environment. a healthy indoor environment can be defined in terms of safe levels of chemical , biological, physical and ergonomic hazards. some of the physical and ergonomic hazards (e.g. noise and illumination) are not relevant to an assessment of air quality and the ventilation system. table 1 indicates the possible diseases and their chemical or biological causes, related to air quality, which may be encountered in buildings. the australian journal of construction economics and building [vois, no 2] i 47 disease cause rhinitis sinusitis molds, laser toner, carbon less copy paper, cleaning agents asthma molds, laser toner, carbon less copy paper, cleaning agents hypersensitivity pneumonitis molds, moisture organic dust toxic syndrome gram-negative bacteria contact dermatitis molds, laser toner, carbon less copy paper contact urticaria office products, carbonless copy paper eye irritation low relative humidity, volatile organic compounds, particulates nasal irritation low relative humidity, volatile organic compounds, particulates central nervous system symptoms volatile organic compounds, carbon monoxide, cytokines from bioaerosol exposure legionnaires disease aerosols from contaminated water sources, shower heads, water faucet aerators, humidifiers, potable water sources (hot water heaters) (extracted from table 1, ashrae, 2001 , chapter 9-lndoor environmental health) table 1: diseases and their causes related to buildings in order to protect the health of building occupants, standards are the world health organization has published guidelines for europe in place to ensure acceptable levels of contaminants (gaseous and for some gaseous contaminants, and some of those considered particulate) known to be harmful to human health. many countries relevant to this study are shown in table 2. and organizations have established such guidelines. for example, pollutant time-weighted average mg/m3 ppm averaging time carbon monoxide 10 b.7 bh 30 25.0 1 h nitrogen dioxide 0.04 0.02 annual 0.20 0.11 1 h ozone 0.12 0.06 bh 0.20 0.10 1 h formaldehyde 0.10 0.ob1 30 min benzenea no save level a from who , 2000, chapter 5.2 benzene (from table 4, chapter 9, ashrae, 2001 , except where noted) table 2: selected gaseous contaminants and who recommended safe levels particulate contaminates can come from natural or anthropogenic particulates are classified into two sizes, pm10 and pm2.5, being sources. the former includes wind blown dust and smoke from the particle sizes that can enter the lung airways and penetrate the forest fires , both of which on occasions can visibly influence lung lining respectively. some particle size diameters of interest to melbourne's air quality. particles from anthropogenic sources are this study are shown in table 3. the large range of particle sizes those generated by human activities including fuel combustion from both internal and external sources illustrates the challenge for (e.g. motor vehicles and wood burning stoves) and industrial filtering systems in buildings. in terms of exposure levels, various processes. since the ch2 building is located in a city centre, motor recommendations exist. in australia , the recommended exposure vehicle particulates are of particular interest. air pollution from standard for non-toxic inspirable dust in general should be 10 mg wood burning stoves is also of concern in winter in melbourne, m·3 (nohsc, 1995a). when its contribution to particulate emissions can be twice that of motor vehicles. 48 the australian journal of construction economics and building [vois, no 2] particle description particle diameter (ilm) 100 300 dust mites 10 -100 pollen 3.0 35 spores 1.0-150 vehicle emissions 0.4 3.0 copier toner 0.3 30 bacteria 0.2 3.0 burning wood 0.2 2.0 air freshener 0.1 40 clay 0.1 5.0 paint pigments viruses 0.01 0.05 (from owen et ai. , 1992, cited in ashrae, 2001 ) table 3: sizes of selected particulates carbon dioxide, while not a pollutant, can be harmful at high levels (>35000 ppm) due to oxygen displacement. at lower levels, it is also used as an indicator of indoor air quality. the european description high indoor air quality medium indoor air quality acceptable indoor air quality low indoor air quality (source: olesen, 2004) standard organisation, cen, has established levels of co2 above the outside level, with an associated qualitative description of the air quality (table 4). co2 above the outside level (ppm) < or =400 400 600 600 -1000 >1000 table 4: levels of co2 and associated air quality level the australian journal of construction economicsand building [voi5, no 2] i 49 melbourne air quality a study has shown that the daily mortality from ambient air pollution in melbourne is increasing (epa, 2000). the strongest relationships between various pollutants and this increase were for ozone and nitrogen dioxide. a primary source of this pollution is the emissions from motor vehicles. since the ch2 building is located in the heart of the city and will be drawing large quantities of outside air into the building, the quality of that air is crucial to the health and well-being of the ch2 occupants. the closest epa outdoor air quality monitoring station to the ch2 building is located approximately 750 metres away on the roof of an inner city university building. the air sampling height is 19 metres above ground level. the normal sampling height is six metres, but there are apparently no vertical gradients at the rmit site (epa, 2001). pollutant units averaging period ozone ppm 1 hour carbon monoxide ppm 8 hours nitrogen dioxide ppm 1 hour particulates (pm1o) fl91m-3 1 day pm25 fl91m-3 1 day * no recommended guideline values, n.a. indicates 'not available' an indication of inner city melbourne's air quality may be obtained from the epa's annual air monitoring tables (epa, 2004a). table 5 shows the maximum levels of the four pollutants cited in the epa's mortality study and measured at the rmit site in 2003. also shown in the table is the epa's policy objective. while maximum measured levels of ozone, carbon monoxide and nitrogen dioxide met the epa's outdoor air quality policy objective, pm10 particulate levels exceeded that level. pm10 particles are of major concern because they penetrate the respiratory system, with the finer particles (pm2.5) penetrating more deeply into the lungs. these include dust, soot, pollen, asbestos and many other chemicals. exposure to particles increases the risk of death from heart and lung disease. particles can carry carcinogenic materials to the lungs. they can also exacerbate asthma and other chronic lung conditions. maximum epa who measured objective guideline level values 0.093 0.10 0.06 (8 hrs) 3.9 9.0 8.73 0.069 0.12 0.114 279.4 50 * n.a. 25 * table 5: maximum levels of four ambient air pollutants measured at rmit site in 2003 future air quality goals have also been set for melbourne in terms of the number of days when pollution levels exceed certain allowances. in 2003, the ozone and particulate goals for 2008 were not met. the bush fires and dust storms during this period have been cited for these excesses (epa, 2004b). whatever the cause and these are both naturally occurring events the incoming air into the ch2 building may be in excess of epa objectives. in addition, both the ch2 and the monitoring station are in close proximity to the main road through the heart of melbourne. the access of private vehicles to this road has been relaxed in recent times, following a period of restrictions, and it is possible that traffic and therefore emissions in the city centre will increase if traffic levels return to their pre-restricted levels. motor vehicles currently account for 16% of pm10 airborne particles. the ch2 ventilation system system objectives the main design objective of the ch2 ventilation system is to avoid recycling any air into the offices. the air entering the offices is to be both 100% fresh and filtered . in addition, the quantity of introduced fresh air will be substantially higher than required by the australian standard. another goal of the system is to avoid the mixing of fresh and stale air within the occupied spaces. system overview the ch2 ventilation system can be characterized as 'mechanically driven' during the day and 'naturally driven' at night i.e. ventilation is achieved by wind , stack and buoyancy effects. during the day, fresh air is drawn from the roof level (i.e. from approximately 38 metres above street level and travels down ducts located on the south side of the building). some conditioning of the ventilation air takes places prior to its delivery to the offices. the displacement system supply temperature is to be 20°c and depending on the outside air temperature, the ventilation air will be heated or cooled to this temperature by heat exchangers. the air will then be passed through filters prior to its entry into the offices at a low velocity (1.5 m s-1 m-2) through controllable vents in the floors. the minimum fresh air requirement has been set at 22.5 i s-1 m-2 to suit an occupancy level of one person for every 15 m2• assuming a mean office height of 2.9 m, there will be 1.9 air changes per hour (ach-1 ). natural convection forces are used to move the air upward through the office spaces to vents in the ceiling. the stale air will be exhausted through ducts located on the north side of the building. wind turbines are assumed to assist the exhaust process. figure 1 shows the movement of air at office level schematically. 50 the australian journal of construction economics and building [voi5, no 2] exhaust 100% outside a ir supply 10 sealed ac ces.s floor plenum air flow offices (source: com, 2004) figure 1: schematic overview of ventilation system in ch2 building some parts of the ch2 building, such as the toilets, rely on direct because only louvres at an upper level are indicated and no low natural ventilation through windows (figure 2). it is not clear, level openings are shown. however, how a continuous flow of fresh air can be achieved plenum ~~(jr:~ ~lono citdji:r1e "i higb 1e.....1 naturally "eoolabllg ilia inl.&riof. i'm s.liis at eat!)' d llo()(s bllow oood;. iiolied " ir to , i-ay v.ilh. , i c ·:' ijght in contli.t.on&1l spaolk so lis to miflimse air lobby d80%) may produce odour intensities. • micro-organisms were not the main pollution sources in filters, as measured by sensory emissions. • glass fibre filters had less sensory emission than cellulose. • new filters (3 days old) emitted higher odours than 33 day old filters. as filters age, the pollution level increases again. • there was no statistical difference in odour intensity or voc emissions between filters subject to continuous or intermittent flow. • an increase in airflow did not change odour intensity. all of the air entering the ch2 building is to be passed through primary and secondary filters. this means that the concentrations of many of the particulates of outside origin (see table 3) introduced into the ch2 displacement ventilation system may be greatly reduced . precise details of the filtering system to be used in the ch2 building were unavailable at the time of writing this study, so it is not possible to comment on the likely efficacy of the system, but average arrestance rates of >90% have been specified. ducting ductwork, both new and old, will pollute air passing through it. the cause and extent of the pollution will depend on the manufacturing process, the type of ducting used and the length and design of the system. concentrations of dust in ductwork will 52 the australian journal of construction economics and building [vois, no 2] provide the conditions for the growth of microorganisms. these concentrations are determined by the quantity of dust in the passing air, which is a function of the filtration system. the velocity of the air will determine the deposition rate and the duct geometry will determine where depositions of dust will accumulate. dust will adhere to any surface film of oil , if this has been used in the duct manufacturing process. if the water content of the passing air is high, the opportunity for microbial growth is increased. the longer the ductwork, the worse the pollution at the outlet end and smooth ducting will be superior to any spirally wound or flexible varieties. all of the fresh air entering the ch2 building is drawn down through ducting on the south side of the building and then distributed into the offices via controllable vents. a detailed evaluation of the ch2 ducting system was not possible from the information available at the time of this study. table 4 of bluyssen et al. (2003) suggests fifteen strategies to ensure the design and operation of a good ducting system, including using a material that does not use oil in the manufacturing process or emit pollutants, and has a smooth interior surface. sharp-edged curves , transition pieces or self-tapping screws in walls of ducts should be avoided to prevent condensation points. flexible ducting should be avoided, if possible, and insulation should be on the outside of any ducting. finally, contamination of the ducting should be avoided during the construction process. building materials, paint, furniture and fittings some aspects of the ch2 building have been addressed specifically to reduce the hazards listed in table 1. for example, "all materials used in ch2 are being subjected to a full environmental audit to ensure, among other things, that low volatile organic compound materials are used in products such as carpets, paints adhesives and sealants" (com, 2004). a comprehensive database, based on replies to an environmental performance questionnaire of material and product suppliers, has been established to guide material selection decisions (designlnc, 2003). all input data will be audited by the csiro and the outcome will be used as the basis for final product selection. at the time of this assessment, no decisions on particular products relevant to this study had been made. since the building is to be naturally ventilated at night, it is possible that the building fabric and furnishings may act as sinks for incoming pollutants. indoor plants to absorb vocs potted plants will be part of the 'system' used in the ch2 building to reduce contaminants in the indoor air. research in australia has demonstrated the ability of certain plants and their potting mix to reduce the concentration of vocs in enclosed spaces (wood et ai., 2002). in experiments conducted in test chambers, spathyphyllum wallisi (petite peace lilies) were shown to reduce concentrations of benzene from 25 ppm to almost zero over 2-3 days. dracaena deremensis (janet craig) were also observed to reduce n-hexane levels from 100 ppm to approximately 70 and 10 ppm in 2.5 and 11 days respectively. although the authors did not show the natural decay rate of the two vocs in test chambers without plants or growing medium, leak tests were conducted to correct for chamber leakage. the voc removal rate was found to vary with species. for benzene, the highest rate of 686 mg m,3 d'1 per m2 of leaf area was achieved by the dracaena deremensis. for n-hexane, howea forteriana (kentia palm) removed 4032 mg m,3 d'1 per m2 of leaf area, almost double that achieved by the next best performing species, spathyphyllum wallisi. the number and type of potted plants proposed for use in the ch2 building had not been decided at the time of this study. the levels of benzene and n-hexane used by wood et al. (2002) were 25 ppm (80 mg m'3) and 100 ppm (353 mg m,3), which were five and two times the australian maximum allowable occupational exposure concentration (nohsc, 1995b). n-hexane is an indoor pollution source emanating from furnishings, cleaning agents, cosmetic and clothes. some of these (furnishing and cleaning agents) can be limited by initial design and on-going management decisions made for ch2• benzene will mainly come from vehicle emissions and poses a greater hazard because of the building's location and the ingress of unfiltered air at night. plants with the greatest ability to absorb benzene would therefore be the most appropriate choice. performance of non-air conditioned office buildings the ch2 building uses a mechanically driven ventilation system during the day and a naturally driven system at night. there is no recycling of air (i.e. all ventilation air is outside air). the toilet bathrooms in the building are naturally ventilated at all times. comparison with office buildings with similar systems is therefore appropriate in terms of air quality, health and productivity. air quality for an initial perspective on the levels of tvoc concentrations in all types of office building, the work of brown et al. (1994) is useful. these authors, reviewing 50 overseas studies, found that that the concentrations of total volatile organic compounds (tvocs) are generally appreciably higher in established residential dwellings compared to office buildings (table 6). the reasons for this difference were unknown. the concentrations in new and 'complaint' buildings of both types were higher and of similar levels than in established buildings. although the number of offices is considerably smaller than the number of-residential buildings, the data suggests that office workers are more likely to be exposed to more harmful air in their own homes than in their workplace. the australian journal of construction economics and building [voi5, no 2] i 53 building type no. of buildings tvocwagm (/lg m·3) residential established 1081 1130 new 33 4500 complaint 14 520 office established 60 180 new 1 4150 complaint 51 490 (source: derived from brown et ai., 1994) table 6: comparison oftvoc concentrations in established , new and complaint residential and office buildings when various studies of buildings specifically using natural fresh air at whatever rate may be delivered by a mechanical or venti lation were reviewed, the findings are mixed. for natural ventilation system. both of these methods of air delivery example, hedge et al. (1989) found no statistical differences in are employed in the ch2 building. the findings related to the concentrations of carbon dioxide and monoxide, ozone and total system of fresh air delivery are mixed. in their comparison oxidants in two office buildings with different ventilation systems. between an air conditioned and adjacent naturally ventilated however, concentrations of formaldehyde, vocs and respirable office cited previously, hedge et al. (1989) found that health particulates were higher in the building with the hvac system. impacts were significantly lower in the naturally ventilated office, although no significant correlation could be found between the three offices in central london and one in a rural location, all pollutant concentrations and symptom prevalence. there was naturally ventilated, were evaluated by phillips et al. (1993). some significance with feeling ill and formaldehyde levels. the although the offices of the ch2 building are mechanically ventilated measurements of the indoor climate in 14 town halls were made during the day with filtered and conditioned air, the results of the in copenhagen and compared with results of a questionnaire study are indicative of air quality in the toilets during the day and study of over 4000 employees (skov and valbjorn , 1987). no the potential levels of contaminants occurring in the building at statistical difference could be established between the naturally night. carbon dioxide levels exceeded 1000 ppm in all of the ventilated and mechanically ventilated buildings, although the monitored offices at some time during the day over the two-month lowest prevalence of mucosal irritation and work-related general monitoring period. carbon monoxide levels ranged from 1.9-5.4 symptoms were found in the oldest town halls. this latter finding ppm, which was 36-76% of the outdoor level. the lowest value appears to support the conclusion of brown et al. (1994) cited was measured in the rural location . peak levels corresponded to earlier. by contrast, another comparison between an air periods of peak traffic. nox levels followed a similar trend to co conditioned and a naturally ventilated building (parat et ai. , 1997) levels and peak values ranged from 0.11-0.137 ppm (23-68% of found that air microbial content was significantly higher and more outdoor level) for the three city offices. ekberg (1996) confirms variable in the latter building . in addition, the fungal content of these higher values of indoor-outdoor level ratios. for an ach naturally ventilated building was strongly dependent on outside of 1.9 h·1, ekberg demonstrated that the ratio of indoor peak levels, while that in the air-conditioned building was relatively concentration to outdoor peak concentration can be as high as 0.6, constant. no difference could be observed in various gaseous assuming a triangle concentration pulse, indoor pollution sources pollutants. and sinks to be zero and no filtration, for a mechanically ventilated building. higher ventilation levels have been associated with reduced sick leave (milton et ai. , 2000). these authors analysed the sick health leave over one year for some 3700 employees in a large us manufacturer and found consistent associations of increased sickfisk (2002) refers to a study that found that there was a 35% leave with lower levels of outdoor air supply, but the reasons forreduction in short-term absence in buildings with higher venti lation this were not clear. the authors also found an association betweenrates. another study cited by fisk (2002) suggested "that a 10 cfm humidification and increased sick leave, which they suggest may(5 i s·1 ) per person increase in ventilation rates would decrease be due to the longer survival rate of common respiratory pathogensprevalences of the most common sbs symptons by one-third on in a more humid environment. average." even higher ventilation rates have been advocated now for good health (wargocki et ai. , 2002a). in a review of 105 papers productivitythe effects of ventilation on health, comfort and productivity in non industrial indoor environments, a multidisciplinary group concluded it should be noted that office productivity is a complex topic that outdoor air supply rates below 25 i s·1 per person increase and there are many factors which can impact on workplace the risk of sbs symptoms and short-term sick leave. the rate performance. ventilation and indoor air quality are only two proposed for the ch2 building is 22.5 i s·1 per person, which while contributory factors along with temperature, noise, light, stress, considerably higher than current australian building standards morale, workload and management. isolating the effect of requirements , is still 10% lower than some current thinking in ventilation and air quality alone is therefore difficult. reviewing europe. the linkages between improved environmental conditions and 54 the australian journal of construction economics and building [vois, no 2j productivity, fisk and rosenfield (1997) also caution that much of the research is from laboratory experiments and their relevance to "real-world settings is uncertain". for example, wargocki et al. (2002b) demonstrated the significance of pollution loads on simulated office work. some more recent measurements in call centres appears, however, to confirm the link between airflow rate and the productivity of the workers in that type of workplace. tham (2004) found that increasing the supply of outdoor air at 24.50c from 5 to 10 i s ·1 per person decreased the talk time of call-centre workers in a tropical country significantly, compared to a supply temperature of 22.5°c. the impact on the productivity of 26 northern european call-centre operators of a variable airflow rate, in conjunction with clean and used air filters, was investigated by wargocki et al. (2004). replacing a used filter with a clean filter reduced talk-time by about 10% at the high flow rate but had no significant effect at a lower rate . talk-time increased by 8% with a used filter and high flow rate, but decreased by 6% with a clean filter. these findings are perhaps of significance to the operation of the ch2 building air filter system. conclusions since the building has yet to be completed, commissioned and occupied, conclusions about the effectiveness of the ventilation strategy and its impact on occupant health are necessarily speculative. however, clean fresh air in adequate quantities is clearly required for human health and perceived well being . the daytime fresh air supply for the ch2 offices will be provided by a mechanical system at a rate of 22.5 i s·1 per person, which is slightly lower than currently advocated in europe but significantly higher than required by current building standards in australia. in the toilets and at night, however, ventilation of the offices will be induced by natural means. ventilation of the offices at night is mainly required for cool ing, rather than the removal of pollutants and ventilation effectiveness at night may not influence air quality during the daytime. however, removal of odours and particulates from the incoming air in the toilets, especially those near ground level, may be inadequate if natural ventilation alone is used. high levels of ventilation are now often advocated to improve indoor air quality, health and productivity. however, a survey of 56 hvac office buildings in nine countries all over europe found that although there was an average ventilation rate of 25 i s·1 per person, nearly 30% of occupants and 50% of visitors still found the air unacceptable (bluyssen et al. 1996). high ventilation rates alone are therefore no guarantee of acceptable indoor air quality. the same study concluded that the materials, furnishings and activities in the office and the ventilation system itself were the important sources of air pollution, not the occupants. the measures taken to reduce the internal sources of pollution in ch2 such as low emission fittings and the use of plants to absorb pollutants should be effective and therefore the major source of pollutants will be external. given its inner city location and the possibility of excess particulate levels, the efficacy of the filtering system will therefore be a major determinant in indoor air quality. evidence for reduced sickness due to higher ventilation rates does not appear to be conclusive. in the study of over 6500 office workers, bluyssen et al. (1996) could not establish a correlation between the occupants' health.and their acceptability of the air quality, although there was a significant correlation between perceptions of air quality and measured ventilation rates. in terms of a direct link between ventilation and productivity, the evidence is to date mainly from experiments, rather than measured data from real-life conditions. some measured productivity gains amongst call-centre workers have been linked to airflow rate, but not necessarily at high levels. the effect of ventilation rate on performance is therefore not independent of other factors such as temperature and filter system condition. productivity increases will be achieved indirectly if there is less sickness-related absence. the current evidence suggests this is likely to be the major benefit of the ventilation system proposed for the ch2 building . references aec (2003), aircond design strategy, advanced environmental concepts pty ltd , north sydney, nsw ashrae (2001), fundamentals handbook (si), american society of heating, refrigeration and airconditioning engineers, atlanta. bluyssen, p.m., de oliveira fernandes, e., groes, l. , clausen, g.h. , fanger, p.o ., valbjorn, 0 ., bernard, ca and roulet, ca (1996), 'european indoor air quality audit project to optimize indoor air quality and energy consumption in office buildings', indoor air journal, vol.6, pp.221-338. bluyssen , p.m., cox, c., seppanen, 0. , de oliveira fernandes, e., clausen, g., muller, b. and roulet, ca (2003), 'why, when and how do hvac-systems pollute the indoor environment and what to do about it? the european airless project' , building and environment, vo1.38, pp.209-225. brown, s.k., si m, m.r., abramson, m.j. and gray, c.n. (1994), 'concentrations of volatile organic compounds in indoor air a review', indoor air, vol.4 pp.123-134. com (2004), city of melbourne website, http://www.melbourne. vic.gov.au/info.cfm?top=171 &pa=1943&pg=1934 (access 14 july 2004). clausen, g. (2004), 'ventilation filters and indoor air quality: a review of research from the international centre for indoor environment and energy' , indoor air, vo1.14, pp.202-207. designlnc (2003), eco report material + product selection, designlnc melbourne pty ltd, melbourne. ekberg, l.e. (1996), 'relationships between indoor and outdoor contaminants in mechanically ventilated buildings', indoor air, vol.6 , pp.41-47. epa (2000), effects of ambient air pollution on daily mortality in melbourne 1991-1996, melbourne mortality study, environment protection authority, southbank, melbourne. epa (2001), ambient air quality nepm monitoring plan victoria , environment protection authority, southbank, melbourne, february. epa (2004a), victoria 's air quality 2003. air monitoring data tables , environment protection authority, southbank, melbourne. epa (2004b), victoria 's air quality 2003. environment report, environment protection authority, southbank, melbourne. fisk, wj. (2002), 'how ieq affects health, productivity', ashrae journal, may, pp.56-58. fisk, wj. and rosenfeld, a.h . (1997), 'estimates of improved productivity and health from better indoor environments', indoor air, vol. 7, pp.158-172. the australian journal of construction economicsand building [vol s, no 2] i 55 green , n.e. , etheridge, dw and riffat, s.b. (2001), 'location of air intakes to avoid contamination of indoor air: a wind tunnel investigation ', building and environment, vo1.36 , pp.1-14. hedge, a , sterling , to., sterling, e.m ., collett, cw, sterling, da and nie, v. (1989), 'indoor air quality and health in two office buildings with different ventilation systems', environment international, vo1.15, pp.115-128. lai , c. (2003), 'experiments on the ventilation efficiency of turbine ventilators used for building and factory ventilation' , energy and buildings, vo1.35, no.9, pp.927-932. milton , d.k, glencross, pm. and waiters, m.d. (2000), 'risk of sick leave associated with outdoor air supply rate , humidification and occupant complaints', indoor air, vol.1 0, pp.212-221. nohsc (1989), legionnaire's disease and related illnesses, national occupational health and safety commission, australian government, canberra. nohsc (1995a), guidance note on the interpretation of exposure standards for atmospheric contaminants in the occupational environment, [noshc:3008 (1995)] , 3rd. edition, national occupational health and safety commission, australian government, canberra. nohsc (1995b), exposure standards for atmospheric contaminants in the occupational environment, national exposure standards database, national occupational health and safety commission, australian government, canberra. olesen, b.w. (2004), 'international standards for the indoor environment', indoor air, vo1.14, suppl.7, pp.18-26. owen, m.k., ensor, d.s. and sparks, l.e. 1992, 'airborne particle sizes and sources found in indoor air ', atmospheric environment, part a, general topics, vo1.26, no.12, pp.2149-62. phillips, j.l., field, r. , goldstone, m. , reynolds, g.l. , lester, j.n. and perry, r. (1993), 'relationships between indoor and outdoor air quality in four naturally ventilated offices in the united kingdom', atmospheric environment, vol.27a, no.11 , pp.1743-1753. parat, s., perdix, a , fricker-hidalgo, h. , saude, i. , grillot, r. and baconnier, p (1997), 'multivariate analysis comparing microbial air content of an air-conditioned building and a naturally ventilated building over one year', atmospheric environment, vol.31 , no.3, pp.44 1-449. roy, g.g. and miller, s.g. (1981), data handbook for australian solar energy designers, research report no. 7, school of architecture, university of western australia. skov, p., and valbjorn , o. (1987), the "sick" building syndrome in the office environment: the danish town hall study', environment international, no.13, pp.339-349. tham, k.w. (2004), 'effects of temperature and outdoor air supply rate on the performance of call center operators in the tropics', indoor air, vo1.14, suppl.7, pp.119-125. wargocki , p., sundell , j. , bischof, w. ,brundrett, g., fanger, p.o., gyntelberg, f., hanssen, s.o., harrison, p., pickering, a , seppanen, o. and wouters, p. (2002a), 'ventilation and health requirements in non-industrial indoor environments: report from a european multidisciplinary scientific consensus meeting (euroven)', indoor air, vo1.12 , pp.113-128. 56 the australian journal of construction economics and building [voi5, no 2] wargocki , p. , lagercrantz, l., witterseh, t , sundell , j.,wyon, d.p. and fanger, p.o. (2002b), 'subjective perceptions, symptom intensity and performance: a comparision of two independent studies, both changing similarly the pollution load in an office', indoor air, vo1.12 , pp. 74-80. wargocki , p., wyon , d.p. and fanger, po. (2004), the performance and subjective responses of call-center operators with new and used supply air filters at two outdoor air supply rates ', indoor air, vo1.14 , suppl.8, pp.7-16. west, s. (2001), 'improving the sustainable development of building stock by the implementation of energy efficient, climate control technologies', building and environment, vo1.36 , pp.281 289. who (2000), air quality guidelines, 2nd. edition, world health organisation regional office for europe, copenhagen, denmark. wood, r.a, orwell , r.l. , tarran , j., torpy, f. , and burchett, m. (2002), 'pot-plants really do clean indoor air. potted-plant/growth media interactions and capacities for removal of volatiles from indoor air ', journal of horticultural science and biotechnology, vol.??, pp.120-129. city of melbourne response reading a detailed analysis of air quality can be a bit like reading fine print on the potential side-effects of standard prescription medicine without a strong sense of perspective it can sound alarming, even when the chances of any such effects are remote in the extreme. aye and fuller, in their paper on ch2 's proposed ventilation system, raise a series ofpoints that similarly must be read in context and with perspective. for instance, aye and fuller make repeated references to the quality of outdoor air entering the ch2 toilets and the potential for undesirable odour. they say outside air may on occasion exceed targets for pm10 particles and that during 2003, potentially at the time of bushfires and dust-storms, they exceeded the 2008 goal for ozone and particulates. while this may be the case, the perspective must be applied that more than 600,000 people in the city of melbourne every week day breathe this very same air some of them all day long and that staff are unlikely to linger for extended periods in the office toilets. furthermore, the same air has been used to naturally ventilate the city of melbourne's commonwealth bank building offices for many years, with no particular history of odour complaints. the ch2 toilets closest to ground level, which the authors are most wary of, will be mechanically rather than naturally ventilated. people enjoying just one cup of coffee at any of the city's plethora of outdoor cafes can expect to inhale a great many more pollutants than they are likely to encounter in regular visits to a ch2 bathroom. aye and fuller acknowledge their paper is based on readings taken from an air quality monitoring station 19 metres above ground (rather than ch2 's desirable 38 metres) and 750 metres away. however it is important to understand this station is about seven city blocks distant in an area much closer to wide busy roads than the narrow and often closed-off streets surrounding ch2• the nearest main road to ch2 is bourke street, which in very recent times has been substantially and permanently closed to all but tram traffic in the vicinity of ch2• to reintroduce significantly more traffic to swanston st, as alluded to by the authors, is a very long bow to draw. it would require the removal of millions of dollars in street infrastructure, the reversal of long-held council policy and the risking of a renaissance in pedestrian and retail activity in the street, as measured in 10 years of award-winning research. in regards to the quality of the building's air filters, the city of melbourne has a rigorous maintenance program for all its buildings that is well within the australian standards and this most certainly extends to regularly measuring indoor air quality and routinely cleaning and replacing air filters. aye and fuller draw on two studies one in 1987 and one in 1997 to question whether naturally ventilated or mechanically ventilated buildings are preferable. apart from the fact this begs the question why there are not a great many more studies on the subject, it also should be read in context. apart from the toilets, ch2 is not and never was intended to be a naturally ventilated building. it will be ventilated by filtered air, with outdoor air being used only on cool nights when the building is empty and as an energy saving technique only. further clarification is also required for the authors' reference to higher ventilation rates in ch2 being considerably higher than australian standards but below some current thinking in europe. certainly the ch2 design team believes the higher-than-standard ventilation rates will help staff be more effective at work, but it expects the system to provide far greater benefits by minimizing air mixing between occupants working in the same area. this means workers will be much less exposed to the seasonal colds and flu passed by the mixed air common to most other australian office buildings. it is through this and a plethora of other factors certainly not ventilation rates alone the designers expect to reduce sickness in the workplace. in relation to productivity, the authors make a point with which there can be little disagreement. temperature, noise, light, stress, morale, workload and management all have a part to play alongside ventilation and indoor air quality on the satisfaction and productivity of workers. to that, the ch2 design team would add a plethora of other factors: the materials used, office layout, aesthetics, the ability to contribute and workplace values are just a few. ultimately, ch2 was designed to reflect the planet's ecology, which is an immensely complex system of interrelated components. just as it is impossible to completely assess the role of any part of this ecology without reference to the whole, ch2 comprises many parts that work together to create a harmonious environment. context and perspective must be applied at every step of the way. the australian journal of construction economics and building [vois, no 2] i 57 contingency for cost control in project management: a case study gary jackson (school of construction management and property, queensland university of technology,australia) abstract this paper provides a case study of the application of cost management techniques for project management of capital works within a major australian electricity corporation. historical data was collected from the corporation 's archived files to establish the performance status of completed capital works projects. a survey of the corporation's project staff was also conducted to determine the current usage of cost management techniques and further explore the findings of the historical data search. the research indicates a reluctance to utilise formal cost management procedures on minor projects, estimated to cost less than $1 million. the time constraints allocated to project management planning and the perceived cost to implement procedures were identified as contributing to the limited use of formal cost management on minor projects. the paper concludes that increased risk of poor budget performance is inevitable if formal cost control is not applied to capital works projects, and recommends informal risk assessment and cost contingency measures to address this issue. keywords-project management, cost management, cost control , cost contingency, power supply industry introduction the electricity industry in australia is currently experiencing a period of rapid change and increased competition due to deregulation of the industry to allow contestability of supply to consumers. in this volatile environment greater emphasis is placed on cost management to ensure maximum return on investment for the limited funds available for capital works projects. this paper describes a case study of a major australian electricity corporation , codenamed e here for anonymity. since e has entered the marketplace in search of external work it is also imperative that project profitability is actualised. perceptions are that e performs very well in medium-to-iarge design and construction projects but has difficulty controlling costs on minor projects (less than $1 million). large projects contain a substantial component of electrical plant purchased on period contracts and, therefore, costs are believed to be more certain. minor projects tend to contain a high percentage of labour components and are perceived to be more difficult to control. the labour component is believed to be more variable and susceptible to a variety of influences, thus, cost overruns are more likely. ideally, e would like to have greater certainty of individual project costs and therefore subsequent confidence in the capital works program budget. the study involved: ~ an extensive literature review of cost control techniques for project management; ~ the examination of archived reconciliation reports, detailing performance measures from 155 completed capital works projects approved between january 1994 to september 1998; and ~ a self-administered questionnaire survey of staff regularly involved in all phases of the project lifecycle, gathering information on their knowledge and practical application of accepted cost control procedures. cost contingency definition one of the most controversial and least understood items in every estimate is 'contingency' (clark and lorenzoni , 1985, p116). its calculation is a highly subjective part of cost estimating and is inconsistently interpreted and inadequately estimated (moselhi, 1997, cited in baccarini, 1998a, p7). it lacks a standard definition (baccarini, 1998a) and '... is probably the most misunderstood, misinterpreted, and misapplied word in project execution' (patrascu, 1988, p115). the interpretation of definitions varies considerably from company to company and from estimator to estimator, with the net result of a broad range of application (clark and lorenzoni, 1985). patrascu (1988, p115) concurs with clark and lorenzoni stating that 'contingency can and does mean different things to different people, and most are convinced that theirs is the right interpretation'. to management, contingency is money it hopes will not be expended but instead returned undepleted as profit at the end of the project. to engineers, contingency is a savings account that can be drawn on to cover the additional costs of underestimated or omitted project costs. to the construction department, contingency is a fund used to cover additional costs caused by longer schedules, construction problems and lower productivity. to the cost engineer, contingency is a fund that can be used to cover higher costs due to the lack of definition at the estimating stage, including underestimates of material , equipment, labour and indirect costs. the australian journal of construction economics and building j vol 3 , no 1 j attributes the following key attributes of a cost contingency are (baccarini , 1998a): ~ it is a reserve of money; ~ it is part of the cost estimating process; ~ its necessity and amount is associated with the existence of risk and uncertainty in projects. it caters for events within a defined project scope that are unknown, undefined, uncertain or unforeseeable; and ~ it is a risk management tool. it provides a means to reduce the impact if retained risks eventuate and therefore is an 'antidote to risk' (rosenau, 1992, cited in baccarini , 1998a, p7). 'whilst contingencies are a valid risk treatment strategy they should never be a substitute for proper risk analysis' (martin and heaulme, 1998, cited in baccarini, 1998a, p7). the inclusion of contingencies means that the cost estimate represents the total financial commitment for a project (patrascu, 1988). this should avoid the need to appropriate additional funds and reduces the impact of overrunning the cost objective. the objective of contingency allocation is to ensure that the estimated project cost is realistic and sufficient to contain any cost incurred by risks and uncertainties (mak, wong and picken, 1998). inclusions contingency in principle is intended to reduce the risk of overrun for a project executed under expected conditions. what elements should be included in contingency could in itself, however, become an item of contention (patrascu, 1988). baccarini (1998a) suggests the following main elements should be covered by contingencies. incomplete scope definition. historically, as a project is more clearly defined, the estimate invariably increases (clark and lorenzoni, 1985). the amount of the contingency will depend on the stage in the development of the project. inaccuracy of estimating methods. clark and lorenzoni (1985) note that no estimating method or cost datum is perfect, and inadequacies historically result in low estimates. woollett (1998) notes that with a large number of intangibles, the estimator often has to rely on his experience with similar projects to provide an 'educated guess' for these intangibles. identified risks. in this case there is considerable knowledge of the probabilities, and some form of qualitative risk assessment can be performed (krosch, 1995). examples of risks that may be associated with a probability factor include: plant availability; price escalation; heritage and environmental constraints; geotechnical anomalies; technological change; community expectations; and public utility delays (krosch, 1995). unidentified risks. chapman (1994, cited in baccarini , 1998a) refers to unknown unknowns, a contingency reserve contingency for cost control in project management: a case study by gary jackson set up to allow for unidentified risks. for example, unforeseeable major events such as extreme weather conditions, earthquakes, riots, acts of war, new government regulations and economic collapse (aace, 1992; heinze, 1996; moselhi , 1997, cited in baccarini , 1998a). exclusions. baccarini (1998a) suggests that, while contingencies include inadequacies of scope definition and should cover scope development, they should exclude scope changes. estimation contingency allowances are too often based on an historical percentage of the total cost (woollett, 1998). this method is flawed because a total project contingency does not allow accountability for its expenditure. furthermore, all parties assume that the contingency is their own and that, because it is for the unforeseen, it is without limit. numerous methods are available for the calculation and allocation of contingencies. yeo (1990, p465) has proposed a two-tiered contingency allocation approach for project cost, consisting of an engineering allowance and a management contingency utilising a probabilistic framework. the engineering allowance is added to the estimator's base estimate to raise the probability of success to an even chance level. while the management contingency accounts for projects that are high risk because of poor project definition and because management expects a better-than even chance of success (yeo, 1990). ranasinghe (1994) utilised yeo's general framework to develop a contingency allocation and management (calm) model based on the characteristics of individual bill item costs. patrascu (1988) agrees that developing contingencies will depend on the organisation, the type of business, the type of estimate and the phase of the project, and suggests four common methods for estimating contingency use: ~ overall percentage; added to the total cost estimate; ~ detailed percentage; applies a different percentage to each component of an estimate; ~ detailed percentage considering the probability of occurrence; the probability that such contingency will be required applied to each component; and ~ risk analysis; uses a computerised simulation method such as mcs to break down the estimate into many components (patrascu, 1988). woollett (1998) provides a simplistic assessment of the previous methods, suggesting that estimating contingency can be reasonably quantified by breaking out the elements which are not accurately known and assessing the probability of cost overrun for each of the elements. an allowance is then made for the overrun and comparing it with similar projects can check the validity of the total contingency. the contingency allowance will decrease as the project becomes more defined. for instance, table 1 indicates how typical contingency allowances decrease as the project progresses (woollett, 1998). phase concept planning and preliminary d detailed design construction ~ ... -.------- ------------ table 1: typical contingency source : woollett (1998, p17) esign ----------- allowances contingency ±20% ±10% ±8% ±5% management the attitude of project teams that contingency allowances are without limit is a major cause of cost overrun. the responsibilities for expenditure, monitoring and the magnitude and location of allowances in relation to the budget must be made perfectly clear to all parties concerned (woollett, 1998). the success of contingency management depends on: ~ identifying project uncertainties and relating them to specific reserves; ~ establishing procedures for the proper use of contingency reserves; and ~ establishing an information system showing each responsible manager what contingency reserves apply to the work under their control , how they are being depleted, and how the trends appear for the remainder of the project. monitoring of trends will enable assessment of when it may be possible to transfer balances to other less successful areas or to general reserve (avots, 1989, cited in baccarini, 1998b, p13). 'under no circumstances should contingency be treated as a slop fund', it is not an item to cover overruns (clark and lorenzoni, 1985, p122). the individual allocation of contingency service management offers the advantages of showing precisely where contingency was used and indicating the balance of the available contingency (patrascu, 1988). consequently, unexpended funds can be transferred to a general contingency account (baccarini, 1998b) or, more importantly, to other projects to accelerate the capital works program. case study e's capital works introduction e is a major electricity distribution corporation serving nearly one million customers. the organisation is responsible for the development, operation and maintenance of the local electricity transmission and distribution network. planning requires the development, concept planning and project coordination of the capital works program to ensure the electricity network satisfies future load growth requirements. the majority of design and construction services are performed in house with the exception of large civil construction contracts and some minor subcontract works. this section details a case study of e operations for delivery of the capital works program. in particular, consideration is given to cost management procedures for projects estimated to cost less than $1 m. historical data on completion of a capital works project a reconciliation report is prepared for senior management. the report describes project performance in terms of actual achievement compared to approved parameters, with respect to variance in approved scope, cost estimate or system requirement date. included in the report are detailed reasons for any such variance and a recommendation of improvement opportunities for future projects. reconciliation reports were retrieved from the archived files of 145 capital works projects approved between january 1994 and september 1998. reports were not available for projects approved prior to 1994, and projects approved after september 1998 had not been reconciled by the time the data was collected . survey questionnaire the questionnaire avoided open-ended questions, using predominantly a quantitative, tick-a-box style format, with a section for qualitative comment on completion. the questions were designed to address the issues researched in the literature review and to evaluate staff perceptions of project management techniques and the extent of their use within e. the following scales were used to develop and measure the survey data. ~ section a uses a 'nominal scale' to categorise individuals into mutually exclusive groups for frequency calculation of demographic information. ~ section b uses an 'ordinal scale' for ranking the importance that respondents attach to distinct characteristics of project performance. ~ section c uses an 'interval scale' (likert scale) to measure the magnitude of individual perceptions of factors which influence project performance. ~ section d invited qualitative comment on any of the previous questions and, therefore, provides greater understanding of respondent's perceptions of project performance. the questionnaire was distributed bye-mail to 80 e staff. the staff were selected because of their regular involvement in the cost management aspects of capital works project activities. theaustralian journal of construction economics and building i vol 3 , no 1i analysis historical data all of the 145 reports retrieved contained the total project costs for the approved estimate, actual expenditure and the calculated variance. thirty-one percent of reports included an amount for contingency allocation. results were grouped into data series as follows: ~ project total estimate was rounded off up to the nearest increment and arranged in; increments of $50 000 up to $250 000, $250 000 up to $1 mand $2.5m up to $10m. ~ date approved was rounded off to the next quarterly month following the actual date of approval and arranged in the months of march, june, september and december. error bars showing the standard deviation for projects cost variance (%) were added to data series to measure how widely values were dispersed from the average value (arithmetic mean). standard deviations and arithmetic means for variance (%) were tabulated for 'project total estimate' and 'date approved' in their respective data series. scatter diagrams were generated from the tables and logarithmic trend lines added to emphasis the results. questionnaire survey the survey achieved a final response of 67 questionnaires returned out of 80 issued or 84%. invitations to participate in the survey were sent to staff from all phases of the project life cycle. in particular; eight from concept planning, 18 from detailed planning and preliminary design, 40 from detailed design, eight from construction and six from network operation. since the surveyed population represents a large proportion of the participants involved in e project coordination activities across the various phases of project delivery, 84% is considered acceptable from which to draw conclusions. results historical data figure 1 displays the variance between the total project approved estimate, and the actual expenditure (expressed as a percentage of the approved estimate). this variance (%) is plotted against the date (quarterly) of project approval. error bars show the standard deviation of each 'date approved' data series per quarter. there is a greater dispersal of variance (%) from september 1996 to june 1998, with standard deviation exceeding 20% for each quarter. the standard deviations and arithmetic means for each data series were extracted from the graph and tabulated against the relevant 'date approved' as shown in table 2. the number of entries per data series was also included. this was used to measure the number of projects approved in any given quarter and analyse any affect this might have on the standard deviation or arithmetic mean. date approved std. deviation arithmetic mean (quarterly) project # total cost total cost mar-94 2 5.21 % 0% jun-94 2 3.43% -11 % sep-94 3 25.32% -11 % dec-94 2 14.95% 15% sep-95 6 17.84% 1% dec-95 5 14.91 % 1% mar-96 4 42.41 % 33% jun-96 5 18.49% 3% sep-96 17 30.75% -3% dec-96 15 33.67% 11 % mar-97 22 20.71 % -10% jun-97 19 28.03% -13% sep-97 12 21 .72% -9% dec-97 12 28.00% -3% mar-98 6 27.49% -10% jun-98 12 25.99% -18% sep-98 2 7.37% -12% table 2: number of projects approved per quarter figure 2 displays the standard deviation of project total variance (%) plotted against the number of projects approved within the quarterly period that approval was obtained. the trend line displays a significant increase in standard deviation from 13% to 31 %, as the number of projects approved each quarter increases. figure 3 displays the variance between the total project approved estimate and the actual expenditure (expressed as a percentage of the approved estimate). this variance (%) is plotted against the total estimate ($) approved for the project. error bars show the standard deviation of each 'project total estimate' data series per increment ($). the greater dispersal of variance (%) is very obvious in projects estimated at less than $250 000 with standard deviation in excess of 20% for each increment. the standard deviations and arithmetic means for each data series were extracted from the graph and tabulated against the relevant project total estimate as shown in table 3. contingency for cost control in project management: a case study by gary jackson -----• • -------100% . 80% 0 0 60% t 40% . ~ ;e: • 20% f . • • ~ ·•:0 v 1 a ~ 0% t i ~ tr f 1; 1 -20% . ! 1 •-40% -60% > 0 · -80% . -100% l 'd 'd 'd 'dit '" '1it it ¥ '" ~ 'l' '1 " 'l' ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ s i i i" " " oate approved (quarterl y) figure 1: project total variance per date approved 45% . 40% 35% . "# ~ 30% ~ '0 • ---:---- :: 25% 'e e ~ . ~ 20% co 'e /* . f 15% ~ 10% . 5% . 0% o 10 15 i s i ~i . i 1: t 0s . a 0 i i __________________________ i i ~ "'1 "'1 " ~ 'l''" '1 '" '"'1 ~ '" i" " . . i . i i 20 25 nurrber of projects approved (quarterty) figure 2: standard deviation of variance per number of projects approved 100% 1 --,• 80% : bo% 40% • q 1t i <> . 20% { ig j " •~ 0% • •~ ~ ~ -20% ~ <> •• -40% • t <> " f -60% •* q -80% • -100% 25),000 500.000 750 doo 1,000,000 1,25) ,000 projed total estimae ($) figure 3: project total variance per project total estimate the australian journal of construction economics and building) vol 3 , no 1 ) project total standard arithmetic estimate ($) project # deviation mean 50000 53 35.35% -7% 100000 29 26.74% -6% 150000 13 25.74% -11% 200000 12 18.36% -5% 250000 8 23.82% 13% 500000 15 13.21% -3% 750000 6 7.77% -7% 1 000000 2 8.28% 3% 2 500000 5 12.54% 7% 5000000 3 9.52% -7% 7500000 2 5.63% -5% table 3: number of projects approved per $ increment figure 4 displays the standard deviation of project total variance (%) plotted against the project total estimate. the trend line shows a significant decrease in standard deviation from nearly 30%for $50 000 projects to 14%for $1m projects and down to 3% for $7.5m projects. figure 5 displays the variance between the total project approved estimate and the actual expenditure (expressed as a percentage of the approved estimate) . this variance (%) is plotted against the contingency allocation (expressed as a percentage of the approved estimate). there is no appreciative trend evident in this relationship. figure 6 displays the plant component of the total project approved estimate (expressed as a percentage of the approved estimate). this (%) plant component is plotted against the total estimate ($) approved for the project. the project total variance (%) is included to show the relationship between plant component and project variance. the trend lines show the plant component increasing from 12%to 33%and the project total variance (%) decreasing from 12%to -10%, as the size of the project total estimate increases from $50 000 to $8m. questionnaire survey the objective for section a of the survey questionnaire was to establish the demographics for sorting data and classification of responses. considerable experience in the electricity industry is evident from the responses, with 93% of respondents having worked in excess of 10 years in the industry and 66%having more than 20 years experience. fifty-one percent have worked in their current position for less than five years. this could be attributed to industry changes in recent years including corporatisation of e and several departmental restructures within the organisation. question 5 gauged the extent that relevant industry experience was applied to cost management criteria and found that 66%of respondents were required to prepare estimates at least once a month. sixteen percent of respondents prepared estimates only once a year, the majority of whom were department managers who are not involved at project level estimating, however, they compile departmental budget forecasts from individual project estimates. section b sought to determine staff perceptions of project performance for comparison to known data collected during the historical cost research. question 6 suggested to participants that the main project criteria of scope, timing , cost and performance are not all achievable in any given project and asked that they be rated in order from greatest importance (1 ) to least importance (4). project scope was of greatest importance to e projects with 37% of rating 1 responses, followed by project timing with 39%of rating 2 responses. project cost was perceived as the least important criteria with 30%of the rating 4 responses. the estimated cost size of a project is perceived by staff to have a significant influence on its budgetary performance. fifty-one percent rated projects in excess of $2.5m as having the best chance of budgetary success, while 71 % agreed that projects estimated to cost under $250 000 performed poorly. performance was generally perceived to improve as the size of the project increased, this is consistent with the findings of the historical cost data research. question 8 sought to determine the effect that decision making had on the budgetary performance of a project with respect to timing of those decisions. respondents were asked to rate the project phase in which decisions had the greatest infiuence over the budgetary performance. a total of 66%believe projects where decisions are made during the initial phases of concept and planning had the greatest chance of success. as the project progresses through the phases, decisions have diminishing infiuence over the project performance. progressing down the scale; planning received 39%of rating 2, design received 43% of rating 3, while construction received 51 %of rating 4 for decisions having the least infiuence over budget performance. respondents were asked to consider several common risk elements known to adversely affect the final project cost. question 9 required these elements to be rated in order of greatest affect over the budget performance. 58%rated 1 for incomplete scope definition having the greatest influence over budget performance. the second greatest risks are those that are unidentified with 33%of rating 2, while inadequate project control received 46%of rating 4 to indicate the least infiuence on budget performance. question 10 (section c) sought to identify cost management factors from the literature review which may infiuence the performance of capital works projects within e. respondents were first asked to rate on the use of formal cost control processes throughout the project lifecycle (question 10a). this was a general overview statement to gain an appreciation of participant's knowledge and acceptance of contingency for cost control in project management: a case study by gary jackson • • ----40'1; 35'1; 30.,. l. j.~ 25,{ ~ '0 \§ 20"' iii .~ . ~ " ~ 15" -g . ~ .~ 10'1; -5'1> 0'; 1,000,000 2,000,000 3,000,000 4poo pod 5,000,000 6,000,000 1 pod,ooo s,odd pod project total estimate ($) figure 4: standard deviation of variance per project total estimate 50% 40% • •30% 20% 10% • • . c • .~ •> ~ . ~ .. • • ~ 0% • • ..•. • • i• .. • '\j ,10% • • • '0' .. • •.t • i -20% • .. •• • ,30% • l i • -40% -50% 0% 2% 4% 6% 8% 10% 12% 14% 16% 18% 20% contingency ajlocation (%) figure 5: project total variance per contingency allocation 50%~1-'~------------------------------------------------------------------------' ., 4o% ri-------------------------------------------------------1 .. _ ...... . ... . --_ oo •• __ -... _ .. -... -• ----. -10%1=~-~==========~~".' . _20%kl-l. ______________________________________________________________________________~ 1,(0),000 2.000,(0) 3,(0).000 4,(o)doo 5,(0),(0) 5,00),000 7.000,(0) 8,(0).000 9,(0),(0) project total e:ti mate ($) i • project total variance % • % plant component .... log . (om plant component) --log. (project total variance %) i figure 6: project total variance per plant component the australian journal of construction economics and building i vol 3 , no 1i cost management techniques. the results were evenly divided about the median, providing no strong emphasis either for or against the use of cost management processes. statements 10b and 10c were used to gauge awareness and use of value management as a cost management tool. an obvious discrepancy was found between acceptance of the benefits of value management and practical application of the techniques. forty-six percent of respondents agreed that value management allows cost reduction without compromising quality or function , however, 62% indicated that value management studies were not applied to projects. statements 10d, 10e, 10f and 10g addressed estimating requirements for cost management. in response to statement 10d, to determine if budget estimates are produced from preliminary information, 57%agreed and 27%strongly agreed. however, statement 10e revealed that estimates are not always updated when definitive information becomes available, as 43% agreed and only 12%strongly agreed with this statement. respondents seemed generally satisfied with the level of estimating skills and training , with 42% agreeing with statement 10f, although it is worth noting that 12%disagreed and 13% strongly disagreed. the significant contrast to satisfaction with the estimating techniques is evident in statement 10g, where 36%disagree and 24%strongly disagree that sufficient time is allocated for preparation of detailed estimates and budget planning. respondents were asked to rate the use of budget performance indicators in statements 10h and 10i, with no significant results evident. the results loosely follow a bell curve of normal distribution, with the rating emphasis on neither agree nor disagree. it seems unlikely that a cost baseline (s curve) is used to measure performance when only 3% of responses agree with the statement. the respondents were fairly evenly divided on the statement that personnel were kept informed of budget responsibilities and performance. monitoring of projects is closely related to the budgeting process and as such the results from statements 10j and 10k are similar to budget performance. the responses range from 27%to 33% across the ratings of 'agree', 'neither agree nor disagree' and 'disagree' and are fairly evenly distributed about the median. statements 101 and 10m were used to evaluate the use of risk management, the resultant indication is that risk assessment studies are not generally used to identify potential areas of cost risk (only 13%agreed with the statement). however, there seems a strong commitment to rectify problems when they are identified, as 54% agreed with the statement in 10m as opposed to 13%disagreeing and only 9% strongly disagreeing. this indicates a reactive approach to risk containment rather than a pro-active risk management program. statements 10n, 100 and 10p analyse the knowledge and use of contingencies for cost control of capital works projects. the response to statement 10n indicates that contingencies are not necessarily calculated by assessment of potential risk factors. thirty-nine percent of respondents neither agreed nor disagreed with the statement, whereas 37% disagreed and 9% strongly disagreed that contingency plans were produced to overcome the eventuation of risks. however, 34%of respondents to statement 100 agreed that contingencies were allocated to cover unforeseen costs, with only 13%disagreeing with the statement. responsibility for contingency control was not established as 46%of responses rated neither agree nor disagree and 30% disagreed with statement 10p that the project manager controlled the usage of contingencies. qualitative feedback section d invited additional comments on any of the survey questions detailed above, and a total of 23 responses (or 34%) was received . a selection of the more pertinent comments is included in this section. seven of the comments received dealt with the main project management criteria of scope, time and cost and their interdependence. these included: ~ 'if you scope the project in detail , project costs would be much better controlled and adhere to budget' ; ~ 'project work is basically 'urgent' and 'essential ' to the functioning of electricity supply; ~ the jobs must proceed regardless of cost; ~ completion of jobs 'on time' is generally critical to network security; ~ 'just in time' approach does not leave much opportunity for cost control '; ~ 'projects are driven by a network requirement date, the quality and scope must ensure that the product performs as expected as soon as the plant is commissioned, therefore the cost suffers as a consequence'; and ~ 'the best cost control is achieved when the scope is fully documented and estimates have been prepared by those required to do the work'. three respondents referred to the size of the project having an influence over the cost performance and the use of cost management techniques, including 'high value projects come out okay because major plant costs swamp the other costs and they are the most certain (particularly with long-term contracts), . one comment addressed project estimating, and suggested the use of standard modelling 'a simple standard method of estimating projects needs to be available using basic rates in such a way that there are standard models'. five respondents commented on monitoring and reporting of project costs and performance, however these were mainly directed at the new financial system recently introduced to e which is currently experiencing teething problems. contingency for cost control in project management: a case study by gary jackson comment on the allocation of contingencies was received from three respondents including: ~ 'contingencies should encompass cost provision for possible eventualities that are assessed as a reasonably high risk'; ~ 'variations to scope should not be funded from contingency allowances but by separate justification and additional funds '; and ~ 'contingencies should be allocated to specific risk components and not treated as a general 'bucket' of additional funds to overcome poor performance'. discussion project management project management reconciliation reports, prepared on completion of a capital works project, recognise the importance of scope, time and cost and their interdependence. the reports provide details of the project performance including reasons for any variance to the project criteria plus recommendations for improvement opportunities. ideally, e would like projects positioned on the optimum balance point of scope, cost and time. however, all three project criteria are rarely achievable in any given project, lewis (1995) suggests 'pick two' and the third must be allowed to vary. the study supports the view that all three criteria are not always achievable and that project cost is where the greatest variance is most likely to occur. scope of e projects is generally governed by network requirements to ensure integrity of the transmission and distribution systems in accordance with statutory regulations and customer expectations. a design brief is usually produced for each project based on a standard pro forma to ensure consistency of presentation and prevent omissions. the survey rated project scope as the criteria of greatest importance to capital works projects. according to duncan (1996) proper scope definition is critical to project success. timing of e projects is generally dependent on a network requirement date, usually april or october, to cater for anticipated peak loads in winter or summer respectively. a number of standard gantt charts for various project types are to be applied to individual projects. the templates are adjusted to suit the work breakdown structure detailed in the design brief and the network requirement date is applied to determine the project baseline. the survey rated timing as the criteria of second greatest importance behind scope. clark and lorenzoni (1985, p139) discussed the importance of schedule control in describing the construction of a new process plant: the plant should be completed and on stream at the specified time so that the owner can meet product delivery commitments to his customers'. the critical timing requirement of e projects was acknowledged by several comments from the survey. cost variation to the approved estimate was the most prominent criteria detailed in reconciliation reports. indeed, patrascu (1988) suggests that cost seems to be the most difficult of the three project criteria to control , as the schedule and scope are prone to revision throughout the life of the project. estimates rely on professional experience and are generally based on data from previous projects, appl ied to the wbs detailed in the project design brief. the survey rated cost as the criteria of least importance to e capital works projects. survey comments referred to other project elements that impacted on project cost, supporting the theory that cost control alone is not achievable due to its interdependence on the other criteria. cost management the 'bottom line' cost performance of e capital works projects approved between january 1994 and september 1998 seems very respectable at first glance, with an overall total estimated cost of $50.5m and total actual expenditure of $49.0m which equates to a relatively low variance of -$1.5m or -3%. the total cost of each component looks equally impressive with variances at between -1 %and 4% overall. the exception is concept planning at 27%, which is not unexpected during the early phases of a project. however, the wide dispersal of variance (%) for individual projects (figure 2), indicates that project costs are not necessarily under control. when discussing cost variance to budget the natural tendency is to assume a cost overrun. the case study research revealed a fairly even distribution of projects subject to underspending as well as over commitment. in a large organisation with numerous projects active at any given time, it is no more desirable to underspend on projects than it is to overrun the budget. the failure to accurately estimate cash flow can leave funds idle that would give better service elsewhere, either on additional projects or investment opportunities. the chance of successful budget performance seems to be dependent on the size of the estimated total cost of a project. the survey rated projects estimated to cost under $250 000 as having the worst budget performance. historical data supports this perception showing a trend towards increases in standard deviation of variance (%) as the project size decreases, in particular below $250 000 (figure 5). the plant component is believed to be a stabilising influence on the performance of large projects. figure 6 shows the relationship between the project total variance decreasing as the plant component percentage of the project total estimate increases. minor projects tend to not have a substantial component of plant included and the labour component is greater for refurbishment projects. the australian journal of construction economics and building i vol 3 , no 1 i cost control is achieved by comparing where one is with where one is supposed to be, then taking corrective action to resolve any discrepancies that exist (lewis, 1995). the survey revealed that formal cost control processes were not necessarily used throughout the project lifecycle. e's policy requires the implementation of formal cost management procedures only for projects in excess of $1 m. the time and cost required to apply formal cost management to minor projects has not previously been justified. survey results from question 10 reflect much the same trend towards minimal usage of cost management techniques. the benefit of cost management techniques such as value management, budgeting, monitoring and reporting and risk management were acknowledged by the survey. however, the regular application of these techniques to e projects was not evident. the majority of comments referred to the lack of time allocated to perform formal cost management procedures as the greatest infiuence. the positive application of cost estimating techniques, identified in the survey, is negated by insufficient time allocated for preparation of detailed estimates and budget planning. the interdependence on time can affect the accuracy of cost estimating, similar to the effect on actual cost to complete the work. the research suggests that the chance of successful budget performance is dependent on the number of projects approved in that quarter. historical data shows a trend towards an increase in standard deviation of variance (%) as the number of projects approved per quarter increases (figure 3) . cost contingency the total cost contingency allocated to e capital works projects during the period researched from january 1994 to september 1998 was $735 217 or 1 % of the overall project total estimate. individual contingency allocations varied from 0% to 14% of the project total estimate. clark and lorenzoni (1985) observed that 'contingency' is one of the most controversial and least understood items in every estimate. the historical data showed no apparent trend in the relationship between contingency and project total variance suggesting a systematic approach to contingency allocation was used. neither was there any indication that the application of contingencies was effective. to add to this uncertainty, the survey disagreed with the statement, that contingency plans were produced for the eventuation of identified risks. the survey suggests that cost contingencies were allocated to cover unforeseen elements in the majority of projects. this is in contrast to the historical data, which shows only 46 projects (or 32%) were allocated an amount for contingency. this could indicate that individual departments are adding a contingency sum to their own component estimates, which might explain the unusually high number of contingency for cost control in project management: a case study by gary jackson projects regularly completed under budget. according to patrascu (1988), contingency is a separate fund in the estimate and should not be included under each cost item. without a contingency plan it is difficult to assess how cost contingencies were allocated or controlled. reconciliation reports provided minimal information on the reasons for contingency allocation, it seemed to be distributed on an 'as needs' basis to cover any shortfall in the project estimate. the survey acknowledged that the project manager did not control cost contingency usage. woollett (1998) warns that a contingency based on a percentage of the total project cost does not allow accountability for its expenditure, all parties assume that the contingency is their own and that, because it is unforeseen, it is without limit. conclusions the historical data and survey results substantiated the problem statement given as 'e capital works budget performance is generally poor on projects estimated to cost less than $1m total'. the common reason for non-compliance with cost management procedures was found to be the lack of time allocated or available for application of the techniques. e capital works projects are often required urgently. the totallifecycle of minor projects can often be completed in a relatively short time and it may not be feasible to apply the full suite of project management techniques. indeed, e's policy recognises the time restriction and the cost to implement procedures, by not enforcing formal cost management of projects under $1 m total. risk and uncertainty are inherent to all pre-construction and construction activities. in the absence of formal cost management there is increased uncertainty and likelihood of occurrence of risk affecting the cost of the project. the application of formal risk management has, however, been identified in the case study as unpractical for minor projects due to time constraints. contingency is a risk management tool that can be used to reduce the impact on project cost if risks eventuate. other methods of risk reduction include contractual transfer of risk to other parties and implementation of formal project procedures. since the majority of project work is performed 'in house' and the research shows that time constraints restrict the use of formal project procedures, these methods are not considered feasible. an informal approach to risk management could be used for generic application to e projects. the key stakeholder's experience could be used to develop standard contingency plans for each basic project type by assessing the potential risks inherent to each type. krosch (1995) suggests measurement is best done by examining historical data from completed projects and making adjustments to reflect any 10 changes in the nature of the particular project. the greatest challenge would be the short-term commitment of significant resources required for collation of historical data and detailed analysis to complete the initial risk assessment and develop contingency plans. the objective of contingency allocation is to ensure that the estimated project cost is realistic and sufficient to contain any cost incurred by risks and uncertainties (mak, wong and picken, 1998). the development of standard contingency plans should include cost contingencies quantified and allocated to each element of identified risk as an engineering allowance. contingency should not be based on a percentage of the total cost and used to cover inadequacies in estimating methods. a series of contingency plans based on historical data could be developed as templates to be applied to various project types. templates may be as simplistic as an allowance for each phase of the project as advocated by woollett (1998) and illustrated in table1 , and should be reviewed and updated as definitive information becomes available. allocating contingency to specific risk elements allows greater control over its usage, thus avoiding the contingency being treated as a 'slop fund '. there is a natural tendency to draw down on a 'bucket' account with the potential to exhaust the contingency fund before the project is complete. contingency is a separate fund and should not be included in cost estimates for individual components, otherwise the cost to complete the work will expand to fill the budget. to avoid misuse of contingency funds, stakeholders need to be accountable and educated on the benefits of proper contingency management. the contingency allowance should decrease as the project becomes more defined and known risks subside. the individual allocation of allowances offers the advantages of showing precisely where contingencies were used and indicates the balance of the available contingency. this would enable unexpended funds to be transferred to other projects or to enhance the capital works program. greater emphasis on effective cost contingency management to address increased risk in minor projects, would enable those projects to proceed with a greater degree of certainty of the final cost and confidence in the likelihood of successful completion. the study focused on contingency for cost control in project management to glean information from the literature review and gather data from the survey. during the process, additional topics associated with project cost management were identified for further study. the topics include scope definition, monitoring and reporting and presentation of cost reports. scope definition is believed to have a major influence on cost control. comments received with the survey included reference to better cost control being achieved when the project scope is fully documented in detail and not subjected to change. the literature review supported these perceptions with duncan's (1996) view that poor scope definition causes final project costs to be higher because of changes that disrupt project rhythm, cause rework, increase project time and lower productivity and morale. monitoring and reporting is generally assumed to be for the purpose of informing management of the current status of the project. however, several authors recognised monthly reporting as an important cost management tool. in particular, clark and lorenzoni (1985) advocate cost forecast reporting for advising personnel of the cost impact of decisions and actions taken during the previous month. common complaints from the survey referred to poor feedback from previous projects, little feedback received on financial performance and no information received on work group performance. presentation of cost reports was identified as beneficial to project cost control if presented in an effective format. it is important to distinguish between cost control and cost accounting. humphreys and english (1993) describe cost accounting as the historical reporting of actual costs of a project to date, whereas cost control is used to predict the final outcome of a project. control of project costs depends on measurement of progress against a baseline. acknowledgements my thanks go to the kind contributions provided by beatrice ballard, peter price , doug moran,adriana murray, martin skitmore, and the experienced staff who participated in the research survey, provided comprehensive information and shared their knowledge. references baccarini, d. (1998a). project risk managementcost con~ingency, australian project manager, 18, 7-8. baccarini, d. (1998b) . cost contingency-a review, australian institute of quantity surveyors, refereed journal , 2, 8-15. clark, f.d. and lorenzoni, a.b. (1985). applied cost engineering, m. dekker, new york. duncan, w.r. (ed.) (1996). a guide to the project management body of knowledge, pmi standards committee, project management institute, upper darby. humphreys, k.k. and english, l.m. (1993). project and cost engineers ' handbook, m.dekker, new york, mce international, morgantown. the australian journal of construction economics and building i vol 3 , no 1i i 11 krosch, a. (ed.) (1995). total project cost control guidelines, queensland dept.. of transport, infrastructure development division, brisbane. lewis, jp. (1995) . project planning, scheduling and control: a hands-on guide to bringing projects in on time and on budget, irwin, chicago. mak, s. , wong, j and picken, d. (1998). the effect on contingency allowances of using risk analysis in capital cost estimating: a hong kong case study, construction management and economics, 16, 615-619. patrascu, a. (1 988) . construction cost engineering handbook, mdekker, new york. ranasinghe, m. (1994). contingency allocation and management for building projects, construction management and economics,12, 233-243. woollett, j (ed .) (1998). project cost and risk management, queensland university of technology, brisbane. yeo, k.t. (1990) risks, classification of estimates, and contingency management, journal of management in engineering,asce, 6, 458-470. 12 contingency for cost control in project management: a case study by gary jackson 2 viewpoint can project alliance contracts deliver australia’s national broadband network? marianne rose 1 , (the university of melbourne / dla piper, australia) abstract the australian government has commenced an 8-year project to build and operate a new super-fast broadband network. this $43 billion dollar project aims to connect 90% of australians to a 100 mbps broadband service. given the uncertainties associated with the project, this paper argues that an alliance contract structure is a suitable model for the delivery of the national broadband network. introduction: understanding the government’s aspirations to build a fast-paced digital economy a change is taking place in the australian broadband landscape. the australian government has established the company nbn co limited (nbn co) to build and operate a new superfast broadband network. this $43 billion dollar, 8-year project aims to connect 90% of australian homes, schools and businesses to a 100 mbps broadband service (prime minister et al. 2009a, http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media_releases/2009/022). however, in the context of a mass infrastructure project can the national broadband network (‘nbn’) be the foundation stone of the digital economy if it is without a contractual model to bind its framework together? this article considers if the alliance contract model can provide a legal framework to enable the deployment and delivery of an optical fibre broadband network to create the highway to australia’s fast-paced digital future. the nbn project is accumulating debt, while demanding resources to ensure the delivery of a ubiquitous optical fibre network. if it succeeds, it will be the largest infrastructure project in australian history; and yet it has no transparent contractual model to allocate risks and responsibilities in the delivery and deployment of the project. in order for the nbn roll-out to succeed, a clear, publicly available contractual framework must be established; one that defines the contractual model to be used, and appropriately allocates risk in order to manage a project of this magnitude. at the time of writing the government has not publicly articulated the contractual model or risk allocation framework it intends to use. instead, the government maintains a view that it will learn as each stage is rolled out (dbcde 2010, http://www.nbnco.com.au/assets/mediareleases/2010/secon d -release-08-jul-10.pdf). this paper submits that the alliance contract model could aid this ambitious project in an area where little to no transparent discussion exists. during the course of this discussion, the historical context, deliverables and contractual structure will be examined to suggest why the alliance contract model would be the most appropriate for the roll-out of the broadband network. it will be contended that the flexible management structure and ability to adapt to changes in scope of works of an alliance structure, which promotes no fixed cost open pricing and based on project costs and overheads, and internally dispute resolution without referral to a court, usually seen in construction projects makes alliances a viable model. http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media_releases/2009/022 http://www.nbnco.com.au/assets/media-releases/2010/secon%20d%20-release-08-jul-10.pdf http://www.nbnco.com.au/assets/media-releases/2010/secon%20d%20-release-08-jul-10.pdf australasian journal of construction economics and building rose, m (2011) ‘can project alliance contracts deliver australia’s national broadband network?’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (3) 68-81 69 historical development: foundations of the nbn the nbn falls under the auspices of the department of broadband, communication and the digital economy (‘dbcde’), bentley (2009, p. 15) cites the dbcde as a department striving to create: a world-class australian communications and information technology sector [that] will build on the creativity of our people and the opportunities provided by new technologies to enrich the economic and social wellbeing of all australians. the purpose of the nbn is to provide a technological platform whereby the future of australia’s smart infrastructure is shaped by e-health systems, e-commerce, and a ‘digital education revolution’. the complexity in delivering the fibre optic broadband infrastructure for $43billion in 8 years is primarily the size of the project, and simply whether it can be delivered on time and within budget. the historical context of the nbn and the current regime in 1997, the australian telecommunications industry was deregulated through the passage of the telecommunications act 1997 (cth), and part xib and xic of the trade practices act 1974 (cth). these acts removed competition restrictions placed on carriage services providers and encouraged the supply and promotion of innovative and responsive telecommunications services to consumers. with the public listing of telstra in 1997, the australian telecommunications landscape became synonymous with the monopoly wholesaler. it is telstra that owns the ubiquitous copper network that presently services australians with telephony and internet. as part of the 2007 election campaign the then opposition leader, kevin rudd included in his political platform a proposal for a nbn. this proposal competed with the incumbent liberal government’s $958 million australia connected package. under this package, the howard government awarded the optus and elders joint venture, opel networks pty ltd (‘opel’) a contract to connect 1 million rural and remote premises with metropolitan comparable broadband services (optus 2007a, http://www.optus.com.au/aboutoptus/about+optus/ media+centre/media+releases/2007/elders+and+optus+to+build+rural+and+regional+broa dband+network ). following the australian labor party’s win in the 2007 federal election, this contract was promptly withdrawn when the new government came to power. immediately, the new government commenced a request for proposals (‘rfp’) to build a comprehensive broadband network. a number of candidates submitted proposals, including telstra, whose submission was rejected because it did not comply with the terms. however, this process was abandoned in april 2009 on the advice of the independent panel of experts because no suitable candidates offered value for money. despite the rfp’s termination, the government proceeded to fast-track negotiations with the tasmanian government for the construction of the nbn in tasmania. this was because of the independent panel of experts advice that tasmanians were faced with significant disadvantages when accessing high-speed broadband (prime minister et al. 2009b http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media _ releases/2009/023, prime minister et al. 2009c, error! hyperlink reference not valid.). interestingly, the decision to terminate the rfp process coincided with the deterioration of the global economy and one can question whether the rfp participants’ could have succeeded under those conditions. the termination of the tender led to the creation of nbn co. with the establishment of nbn co, the broadband network would be built on behalf of the government and operated as a wholesale-only fibre network (liew 2009, p. 19). this network would be designed to service 90% of the population with fibre-to-the-premises (‘fttp’) coverage; enabling australians to enter the fast-paced digital future. http://www.optus.com.au/aboutoptus/about+optus/%20media+centre/media+releases/2007/elders+and+optus+to+build+rural+and+regional+broadband+network http://www.optus.com.au/aboutoptus/about+optus/%20media+centre/media+releases/2007/elders+and+optus+to+build+rural+and+regional+broadband+network http://www.optus.com.au/aboutoptus/about+optus/%20media+centre/media+releases/2007/elders+and+optus+to+build+rural+and+regional+broadband+network http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media%20_%20releases/2009/023 http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media%20_%20releases/2009/023 australasian journal of construction economics and building rose, m (2011) ‘can project alliance contracts deliver australia’s national broadband network?’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (3) 68-81 70 with the government’s announcement that nbn would undertake the project, it commissioned mckinsey-kpmg to examine the projects viability through an ‘implementation study’ (dbcde, 2010). at the same time, the liberal party dominated senate select committee on the national broadband network that was established to inquire into the project. the short timeframe in which the project and nbn co were brought to life, and the vast scope of work demanded under the nbn project, has seen developments occur on an apparently ad hoc basis and with a lack of operational planning (senate select committee on the national broadband network 2010d, p.9). similarly, the contractual framework was cloaked in confidentiality and remains largely unaccountable or referenced by either the implementation study (dbcde, 2010) or the senate select committee (select committee on the national broadband network 2010d). despite the dynamic history surrounding the project, the current regime may suggest some preferences for a contract model that is flexible in relation to change and costing and is non-adversarial. telstra’s monopoly and the financial heads of agreement with the government under the current regulatory regime, telstra provides the majority of broadband service by means of telephone exchanges and copper phone lines. it is the antiquated copper line system that the optical fibre will replace as the means of delivering high-speed broadband to consumers. with telstra having monopoly control of the wholesale infrastructure and therefore power over the quality, maintenance and provision of the majority of the wholesale services, this structure has led to a lack of competition and underinvestment. the common example provided is that this under-pricing of access created a disincentive for optus to invest in its own hybrid fibre-coaxial (‘hfc’) network (liew 2009, pp. 19-20). instead, optus chose to utilise the telstra copper network for less than the price of upgrading its own network. the limited competition undermined the incentive for having australia-wide market penetration and exacerbated the continuance of an expensive and relatively slow broadband network. telstra owns significant assets and infrastructure, comprising of ducts, pits, poles and backhaul. in order to reduce costs for the broadband build, it was in the government’s interests to negotiate with telstra to gain access to this infrastructure. although, the government indicated it was willing to ‘go it alone’ (dbcde 2010, pp. 397-398) if it could not reach a commercially and operationally viable agreement, on 20 june 2010 the rudd government surprisingly announced that it had entered into a financial heads of agreement with telstra worth $11 billion. this agreement preceded the sudden announcement 4 days later that julia gillard was the new labor leader and prime minister of australia. how this chain of events will affect the nbn project continues to unfold. however, prior to the deal being negotiated, the predominate suggestion was that if telstra cooperated with nbn co then $8 billion in project costs could be saved. this amount was broken down into a saving of $5 billion for the build to use the ducts and dark fibre, plus incentive payments of $2.5 billion to migrate customers to the nbn network (select committee on the national broadband network 2010e). interestingly, this assessment appears to be based upon a presumption about the quality of the copper network despite the government’s comments that information about the quality of the network is still subject to discussions under a commercial agreement (select committee on the national broadband network 2010d, pp.47, 74-75). the heads of agreement suggests that telstra will receive $9 billion in compensation for cooperating with the nbn development (lynch 2010, p. 30). the compensation provides for telstra to decommission its network and to migrate its customer traffic onto the nbn. it appears that just over half of this figure will account for the reuse of existing fit-for-use infrastructure, such as backhaul fibre, pits, ducts and conduits the ceo of nbn co, mr mike quigley (nbn co, 2010b,error! hyperlink reference not valid. australasian journal of construction economics and building rose, m (2011) ‘can project alliance contracts deliver australia’s national broadband network?’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (3) 68-81 71 http://www.nbnco.com.au/assets/media-releases/2010/nbnco-media-release-telstra-headsof-agreement-20-jun-10.pdf) emphasised that: while there is a considerable amount of negotiation and contractual work to go, we believe this agreement is a significant step forward to creating a more competitive telecommunications industry. this subtle acknowledgement that the contractual framework remains unfinished was rapidly followed up with the announcement on 24 june 2010 that 21 companies had been named to tender for the design and construction of the project (wilton 2010, p.3779). the implementation study and the senate select committee’s review of the viability and risks of the nbn project the government commissioned implementation study (dbcde, 2010) by mckinsey-kpmg was released on 6 may 2010, a little over a year since a government media release announced the plans for the nbn. the implementation study was disseminated only one week prior to the planned release of the senate select committee’s report into the feasibility of the project. instead, the senate select committee was compelled to delay its report until 17 june 2010, (select committee on the national broadband network 2010d). both these reports were designed to analyse the risks and benefits of the nbn project. the implementation study’s ‘conservative’ analysis estimates that the project could be rolled out over 8 years with a projected cost of $42.8 billion; this figure is reduced from the government’s initial estimate of $43 billion. it goes on to recommend that nbn co could provide fttp coverage to 93% of premises while the 7% of premises that fall outside the fibre footprint would be services by fixed-wireless and satellite services, using at least two ka-band satellites. suggesting an additional 3% of premises could access the optical fibre network within the projects estimated cost (dbcde, 2010). in contrast, the adversarial senate select committee highlights that the government and nbn co, in its delivery of the project, have made some significant and potentially irreversible decision on the network architecture and product offering. it also suggested that as in tasmania, industry stakeholders, potential customers and telecommunications analysts are being left without information or guidance on key aspects of the plan (select committee on the national broadband network 2010e, p.9.), especially in relation to how the project will be delivered and risks managed. unsurprisingly, the liberal-dominated senate select committee was critical of the government’s plan emphasising that the: implementation study is an exercise in retrofitting a justification for the government’s commitment rather than adequately explaining how the nbn can and/or should be implemented (select committee on the national broadband network 2010e p 9). neither study comments in detail about the lack of contractual transparency surrounding the model, both seemingly accepting nbn co would provide this, despite their scope being to evaluate government policy, review the decision to implement the project and conduct a cost-benefit analysis (select committee on the national broadband network 2010d, p. 8, e, p.9). however, before a contract model can be chosen, it must first be considered what needs to be built. nbn today just shy of one year on, nbn co confirmed on 1 april 2011 that it was suspending the tender process in the view that terms and prices were unacceptable after four rounds of http://www.nbnco.com.au/assets/media-releases/2010/nbnco-media-release-telstra-heads-of-agreement-20-jun-10.pdf http://www.nbnco.com.au/assets/media-releases/2010/nbnco-media-release-telstra-heads-of-agreement-20-jun-10.pdf australasian journal of construction economics and building rose, m (2011) ‘can project alliance contracts deliver australia’s national broadband network?’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (3) 68-81 72 negotiations (nbn co 2011c, http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/nbn-colooks-for-greater-value-from-construction-tender.html). around the same time on 12 april 2011 the national broadband network companies act 2011, which provides the regulatory framework for the nbn came into force. instead nbn co reached agreement with silcar to design and construct the deployment of optic fibre for $380 million over the next two years (nbn co 2011b, http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/nbnco-silcar-reachagreement-to-deliver-value-for-money-fibre-rollout.html). shortly thereafter, on 23 june 2011, nbn co and telstra announced they had signed the definitive agreement to enable the roll out of the nbn, subject to accc and shareholder approval on 18 october 2011 (telstra 2011, http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/download/document/tls795-nom-emvoting.pdf). the same day nbn co announced it had also reached agreement with optus, whereby optus would pay approximately $800million over time to migrate optus’ hfc customers to the nbn (nbn co 2011a, http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/ nbn-co--optus-sign-binding-agreement.html). despite the regulatory framework, high level agreements and the release of two major government reports, the lack of information available in the public domain suggests that nbn co is no closer to articulating a transparent and viable contractual framework for the roll out of the nbn. layering the foundations: how the nbn works in order to physically build and then provide broadband applications and services to consumers, contractual structure and consideration needs to be applied to the nbn project. what work needs to be delivered and deployed to build the broadband network in terms of delivering a fast broadband service to consumers, the nbn will need to build and deliver a working physical network of optical fibres across the country. for the consumer, this deliverable will be experienced as fast internet and multi-user applications on a scale unseen before in australia. to deliver this, nbn co and service providers will need to invest in infrastructure and services that will allow the data packets of information to be delivered at fast speed to the end-user. part of the contractual framework yet to be clarified is who will be responsible for the design and deployment of this infrastructure that enables the data packets of information to reach the end-user? this section will look the physical infrastructure requirements needed to deliver the information to the homes and businesses of australians. layering the physical infrastructure the infrastructure required to build the network commences with the building of a physical network to deliver communications and computer services across the broadband network. this infrastructure comprises a number of ‘layers’. the bottom layer, or ‘layer 1’, is the primary physical layer that incorporates the ‘dark fibre’. this layer incorporates the physical deployment of the ducts, trenches and poles across the network. the physical infrastructure that will be built, or utilised from telstra, is anticipated that have a lifecycle of 30-60 years (dbcde 2010, p. 47). it is this layer that needs to be contracted and built to enable the end services to be delivered. the optical fibre network proposed by the government will allow laser light to be shone down thin glass or plastic strands. the second layer, 'layer 2', is the active equipment that lights the fibres. this is where the active electronic components carry the intelligent ‘bits’ of information, the base unit of data measurement for computers and the internet, across the fibre via an ethernet connection (dbcde 2010, p. 155). the bit is the code that enables computers to calculate, write and store information. although further layers exist, for the purposes of this discussion the last layer is layer 3. this is the network layer that provisions the fibre that allows data to be transmitted between nodes enabling retail services, such as the internet, to be supplied to the end-user. http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/nbn-co-looks-for-greater-value-from-construction-tender.html http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/nbn-co-looks-for-greater-value-from-construction-tender.html http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/nbnco-silcar-reach-agreement-to-deliver-value-for-money-fibre-rollout.html http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/nbnco-silcar-reach-agreement-to-deliver-value-for-money-fibre-rollout.html http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/download/document/tls795-nom-em-voting.pdf http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/download/document/tls795-nom-em-voting.pdf http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/%20nbn-co--optus-sign-binding-agreement.html http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/%20nbn-co--optus-sign-binding-agreement.html australasian journal of construction economics and building rose, m (2011) ‘can project alliance contracts deliver australia’s national broadband network?’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (3) 68-81 73 by recommending that nbn co only offer layer 2 bitstream services (dbcde 2010, pp. 26 29), it will be the role of retail service providers (‘rsp’) to provide equipment to consumers to allow for meaningful end-user application such as voice, video and broadband internet. however, the government envisages that nbn co will have the capacity to provide layer 3 services, mostly in relation to wireless and satellite market, to consumers. to design and build these layers, nbn will need to tender and contract a number of participants. it appears likely it will also incorporate the use of telstra’s existing network. to build the physical network, these contracts will need to be coordinated with contracts that provide the fibre-to-the-premises (‘fttp’) to the home or business to ensure that rights and obligations to provide a working end service are complementary rather than competing. fttp ensuring the network reaches the premises the nbn is being designed as a fttp network. this means that the optical fibre will terminate either at the home or living space, the fibre-to-the-home (‘ftth’) or at the boundary of a building, the fibre-to-the-building (‘fttb’), such as in the basement of a multi-dwelling units (‘mdu’). this means the optical fibre cable network that reaches the premises will allow multiple homes and business to share local area fibre, through the use of gigabit passive optical network (‘gpon’). this will enable one computer to send data to another, and will enable an end-user, simultaneously, to use phones, computers and highdefinition television (dbcde 2011d, http://www.nbn.gov.au/for-households/why-is-it-impor tant/). gpon connecting the fibre to the premises there are two methods that allow for the delivery of fibre into a consumer’s home or business; gpon and point-to-point. gpon can be used to connect up to 32 or 64 houses in a neighbourhood. this is achieved by connecting a single fibre to a side unit in a street and then splitting the light into fibres that directly connect to a person’s home. in contrast, pointto-point connects individual fibres directly with each premises and runs from the main exchange to smaller exchanges in a street. the active electronic equipment in the mini exchange can allow approximately 100 premises to be connected. it is likely that the nbn will utilise a mixture of both methods despite gpon being considered the more cost effective option because it minimizes the amount of fibre used, thereby saving costs. it is likely that point-to-point would be more appropriate for businesses and high density residential areas because it allows for high speed delivery (heydon 2009d, error! hyperlink reference not valid., dbcde 2010, p. 192). until such time as the contractual documents are transparently available, there will remain limited clarity surrounding the integration and deployment of the physical infrastructure around australia that is required over the next 8 years to implement this project. the construction methods required for this integration will need not only to consider customer needs but differing geography, weather conditions and technical solutions, to name a few concerns. to clarify how nbn co will deliver the service to the consumer will require a contract structure that is flexible in relation to variations and risk management, open to how costs are calculated and not prone to competing legal claims about responsibility during the build. building the network what work needs to be delivered to provide broadband to consumers? nbn co will not be providing all the fibre and related infrastructure under the construction — its role is more limited. this means it is paramount to clarify the contractual and risk structure, because even though nbn co intends to offer the fibre service between the point of interconnection (‘poi’) and the end-user’s premises, this does not explain who is http://www.nbn.gov.au/for-households/why-is-it-impor%20tant/ http://www.nbn.gov.au/for-households/why-is-it-impor%20tant/ australasian journal of construction economics and building rose, m (2011) ‘can project alliance contracts deliver australia’s national broadband network?’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (3) 68-81 74 responsible for ensuring the service works. by providing the poi, nbn co will allow the rsp and wholesale service provider (wsp) to connect to the network, allowing the transport and application of content, such as email, to be provided to consumers. it is nbn co’s intention that services will cease at the poi and the end-user will connect to the network with the use of the backhaul services of existing rsps and or wsps (select committee on the national broadband network 2010d p. 52). nbn co will then service the fibre serving area (‘fsa’), which runs from the end-user’s premises to a fibre access node (‘fan’). the fan or fibre exchange houses the active equipment, and its function is analogous to the copper network. this facility will store the active equipment that provides the network services to the fsa. the remainder of the network will be serviced by infrastructure owned and provided by the rsps or wsps. the two principle users of backhaul are rsps and wsps who deliver the ‘value add’ to consumers. backhaul capacity is essential to delivering the retail broadband services because it is the means available to connect the service provider’s network to the point of service delivery, for example, the connection of the copper network exchanges to mobile towers. however, to activate the service to a premise, nbn co would be required to lay fibre down the street, bring the fibre to the side of the building; this final cable run is called the drop. the optical network terminal (‘ont’) is a device that allows optical fibre to deliver different connection types, such as telephony, internet, television, and is powered in a similar way to a dsl modem. nbn co (or a nominated contractor) would install an ont either side of, or inside, a building. in order to connect the premises to fttp network nbn co needs to enter the relevant land and install the drop cable and ont. once the ont is live, the rsp can activate the services. this will allow telephones, computers, and other end-user devices to be serviced by ultrafast broadband (dbcde 2011d). this infrastructure will require a vast amount of construction and resources, and also carries with it the underlying assumption that optical fibre is the superior technology of choice, and the offer of increased speed and bandwidth will drive the australian public to take up the nbn. seemingly unquestioned is whether this will remain the case as new technology or applications emerge with increasing rapidity. a flexible contract model is required to ensure variations that allow new information to be quickly and cost efficiently translated into an agreement between nbn co and various nominated contractors. it remains publicly unclear how the tender process will be undertaken and how these bids will be able to cost and quote for the work because there seems no ability to quote a lump sum fixed price for the work required under the project. there is added uncertainty as to how this would be rolled out around australia, particularly if physical and manual resources are scarce. the implementation study has not answered questions such as whether the same contractor is responsible for the trenching and the computer functioning, and who is responsible for the delay if the telephony is faulty or not provisioned under the customer services guarantee (‘csg’). this leaves open the question of how the deliverables are packaged and provided. likewise, the issue of liability remains unresolved because no transparent discussion has taken place concerning who is responsible for problems that arise out of the design, the deployment of fibre or the integration of computers onto the network. while the physical and practical delivery of the project highlights the need for a flexible contract model that allows for variations and does not demand a fixed sum, there remains an absence of contractual detail to clarify the type of contract that would suit these needs. contracting for the nbn: can alliance contracts support the deployment and delivery of the nbn? in the context of the nbn, this large infrastructure project requires contractual mechanisms to support the deployment and delivery of the project. by being flexible in the manner it manages people and scope changes, by containing the price of the project and assets through the procurement of goods and services, and by internalising disputes to reduce lengthy and costly court proceedings, contracts are best able to contain risk and deliver the australasian journal of construction economics and building rose, m (2011) ‘can project alliance contracts deliver australia’s national broadband network?’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (3) 68-81 75 project on time. in the absence of a transparent contract structure, a viable framework to deliver the nbn project would be the alliance contract model. the panacea of alliancing there has been a recent increase at the commonwealth and state level in the use and encouragement of alliancing to deliver major complex projects. this encouragement of the use of alliancing, and its core concepts of flexible management, design change, pricing and dispute resolution, provide an alternate to traditional forms of contracting and is the reason why it is worthy of discussion as an alternative contract model for the nbn. while alliancing falls into two distinct categories, ‘pure’ project alliances and ‘impure’ strategic alliances, it is project alliancing that has been envisaged by this article as a promising solution for contracting under the nbn. why the project alliance model supports the nbn’s objectives the brief of nbn co is to design and build a ubiquitous optical fibre broadband network. the project alliance model is an optimal framework under which to contract the nbn because it overcomes three key hurdles that may hinder the project: 1. the risk of fundamental change to design requirements causing disunity, delay and increased cost to the project 2. fixed cost for work performed where the scope of work may be uncertain, and 3. resolution of disputes through the courts that may cause delay and increase costs. these three hurdles are not conducive to the government’s aspirations for the nbn and could be countered in an alliance agreement through: 1. flexibility to adapt to change of requirements and through shared responsibility 2. open-book compensation, and 3. non-adversarial dispute resolution. these features under the project alliance model are beneficial for a project like the nbn because a lack of flexibility to vary or change the scope of the project will not allow participants to learn as they go without being penalised for variations. similarly, a lack of coordinated management will mean participants fail to take collective responsibility for risks, and opportunities, associated with the project. likewise, a fixed price contract model means that price competitiveness will overshadow project outcomes. this means that the aims envisaged by the government under the project will be overshadowed by tenders that are cost minimal compared to outcome practicable. moreover, in the absence of a mechanism to control lengthy and costly disputes over rights and obligations, disagreements should be managed internally to ensure that project delay and taxpayer costs are minimised. three illustrations of how alliancing may be advantageous to the nbn framework the three reasons highlighted above of flexibility, open-book accounting and no disputes, are by no means the only hurdles the project will need to overcome. however, in the absence of a contract model these three aspects may be desirable grounds on which to consider the suitability of the project alliance contract model. flexibility to adapt to change of requirements and share responsibility when considering flexibility, discussion turns to the sharing of collective responsibility between the parties for risk. the success of this project may depend on the ability of participants to vary the scope of the contract design and integrate their teams to distribute risk accordingly. australasian journal of construction economics and building rose, m (2011) ‘can project alliance contracts deliver australia’s national broadband network?’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (3) 68-81 76 contracts typically define the scope of the project. the role of nbn co will require different methods of establishment, structure and operation to be undertaken and altered as the needs of the project dictate. this means that the alliance project will need to incorporate a contractual mechanism that will allows each specific project to be varied to suit the design needs, size, location and culture of participants. compared to other large-scale projects, the nbn is unique because the roll-out of the nbn is a repetitive project, tailored to the geographical needs of the location. it will need to manage the legacy copper network and the migration of consumers from telstra to nbn. the work required to deploy fibre or build a wireless tower is similar and the roll-out will take the form of a street-by-street, town-by-town process. it will allow the opportunity to trial new deployment techniques over time, and also presumes that a large number of civil works constructors and equipment vendors will want to be part of the project – which will drive compensative tension, improve productivity and bring down costs. an alliance contract could also reduce the duplication of general administration and supervision costs that nbn co will face. this is because there is no duplication of the services or document control because there are no separate client or contract teams with whom to liaise. a contributor to this reduction in cost is the improved cooperation between designers and builders, who can coordinate their work together on the design and construction drawing thus reducing examination hours. by integrating participants, nbn co could spend less time on site, reduce the materials used and improve the quality of the site by eliminating the need for large project teams at site inspections. if the government and nbn co utilised the alliance model, participants of this project would share governance and management decisions on a ‘best for job’ basis. the difficulty in gauging success will ultimately turn on whether individual team members fit together. this is a difficult question that is hard to quantify as team environments will change over time through natural attrition. however, by relying on ‘management and remuneration structures [to compel participants to] adopt(ed) alliance-style behaviours, but with a less radical approach to risk assumption and liability’ (chew 2004, pp. 323-324) a flexible and cooperative contract structure is designed. this would allow nbn co to offer an integrated management structure that utilises a board, management team and development project team to resolve reporting, management and dispute resolution issues. participants could then be remunerated using performance-based on key performance indicators (‘kpis’) mechanisms. this structure could allow the incorporation of an obligation for participants to cooperate and act in good faith. this is consistent with the government’s tender initially being released to 21 participants, because it recognises that the winning participants would initially need to engage with each other if the construction was to complement the government’s goal of learning from one another. similarly, it would also suit the silcar agreement and silcar's subsequent negotiations with subcontractors. for example, latent conditions may exist where nbn co asks contractors to trench new cabling areas where it cannot access telstra’s pits and trenches. this is a risk that the contractor would normally be required to solely assume. contractors may not be amenable to that risk where trenching is required at multiple locations with unknown latent risks. by sharing risk responsibility, the contractor has the comfort of knowing they will not be adversely cost affected and nbn co would know that there would be a provider willing to undertake the work. the decision to allow this would be based on unanimous consideration taken by a jointly managed project management team that is comprised of members who are chosen and allocated for the tasks on a best-fit basis. disputes can then be resolved within the alliance by escalation up the leadership chain. this style of management would limit costs through participant and open-book accounting and provide no recourse to litigation except in cases of ‘wilful default’. australasian journal of construction economics and building rose, m (2011) ‘can project alliance contracts deliver australia’s national broadband network?’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (3) 68-81 77 open-book compensation the 100% open-book compensation model overcomes the dilemma of how participants cost and quote for work where there is no lump sum price certainty or assess-ability because of project conditions, such as the geographical changes under the nbn. the alliance model provides another means to cost price by removing the need for a lump sum fixed price under the contract. under an alliance contract, project cost transactions would be validated by an independent auditor, and compensation would be determined by the three limb principles of open-book compensations. the first limb is that project costs and project specific overheads are reimbursed. this is based on an audited scale of actual cost, which means that any costs for rework are included in this price. these costs are completely open and auditable amounts. they include the costing for the delivery schedules, quality and performance. the second limb ensures that a fee is provided to cover corporate overheads and a ‘normal’ profit. the third limb allows for ‘pain’ and ‘gain’ to be equitably distributed. this means that depending on how the project compares to pre-agreed targets then parties are committed to share in any profit or loss. meanwhile, non-owner participants’ loss would normally be limited to corporate overheads and normal profit. non-adversarial resolution of disputes since the late 1980s, disputes have been viewed as an endemic part of the construction industry. a risk the nbn faces is where disputes arise concerning whose responsibility it is to undertake an action. for example, regardless of the quality of the contractual drafting, questions might arise surrounding the responsibilities between the participants to ensure the seamless integration of the design, trenching, laying of the fibre, assimilation of computers, packaging of the service and functioning of computers. without something beyond the contract to ensure the end deliverable of fast broadband to consumers is provided, the project could collapse under the pressures of litigation. for a project of this scale, something more than contractual drafting might be required; it may need good faith that fosters an environment where non-adversarial resolution of disputes and cooperation is encouraged. the alliance model is such a mechanism because it encourages disputes to be managed internally and only allows for a limited right of action between the parties. project alliancing adopts a more commercially and legally robust approach to the ideas behind partnering (jones 2001, p. 155). it seeks to align commercial considerations with a ‘no blame, no dispute’ culture (jones 2001, p. 155; thomas 2007, p. 329). the advantage of a project alliance is that it is specifically designed to share the benefits of the contract amongst the parties to it. this modern method to design, contract and maintain would suggests that parties benefit under this contractual structure because participants commit themselves to what would otherwise be unachievable. this is because consultants and contractors put their corporate overheads and profits at risk in return for the promise that exceptional achievements will bring exceptional rewards from the client. invariably, the client guarantees to pay the direct costs incurred by the consultants and contractors. however, while the above has illustrated the possible advantages of the alliance model for the nbn project there remain a number of hurdles to overcome. can the disadvantages that permeate the project alliance model be surmounted? there is a perception that this style of contracting engenders a lack of certainty from the government, in costing and probity by diminishing participants' natural rights to go to court. this section will briefly consider of the disadvantages of the project alliance contract model and discuss whether these obstacles can be overcome. the relational style of project alliances the ‘relational’ style of the project alliance model may make it less appealing from the government’s perspective. this is because there is no perceived tendering on price. it is also in stark contrast with the tender process that appears to have commenced for the five australasian journal of construction economics and building rose, m (2011) ‘can project alliance contracts deliver australia’s national broadband network?’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (3) 68-81 78 first release sites and the second release sites. an alliance contract would be subject to similar criticism to the ppp process; that clients spend money during the tendering process to clarify the costing because there is no fixed price. there is also the potential for perceived collusions amongst the tendering parties and a lack of value for money because it is difficult to cost the project. while these are valid concerns, they can potentially be overcome by a well-considered alliance and a shorter tendering period. while this time and cost saving can potentially be undermined by high training costs to coach the participant in the process — provided participants are willing and able to accept the distribution of risks within the alliance culture — the contract structure can be better understood and managed because participants know what is required of them. in addition, there is an indication that this relational style may find favour with nbn co, and vicariously the government, because there appears to be a high level of engagement and commitment between participants so far, most notably in the government’s initial and active role in creating nbn co to design and manage the project, rather than accepting any of the original tenders. cost to establish a team an additional disadvantage is that there may be significant costs required to establish an integrated team structure where team members are chosen on a ‘best for job’ basis. this means that the success or failure of the job can turn on the dynamics of the team, as well as the succession of planning structures that are in place to account for natural workforce attrition. the idea behind this principle is that a culture is established that encourages and complements the outcomes of the project. this is a difficult problem to overcome because culture is intangible and may not be developed despite workshops and training. however, like all alliance agreements, with diligence, foresight and planning it would be possible to manage this risk in return for the rewards of a flexible business model. probity notwithstanding the integrated structure of a team, the accountability and transparency of this method may create a probity issue for government. in part, this has already been the subject of comment from the implementation study and the senate select committee, although concerns remain that the majority of this work may be in-house by nbn co. this suggests that probity concerns may lie not with the type of contract model but rather with the transparency of nbn co. this could be overcome by ensuring a suitably qualified probity auditor is engaged, financial audits of 100% open-book is undertaken, a public process and tender is held, and costs and targets are validated. open-book compensation despite the three-limbed approach to cost management, direct costs may be difficult to manage with an open-book approach. despite best efforts to meet targets, there may be difficulty in limiting direct costs, and the government would typically pay these amounts to the participant. likewise, when monitoring costs, low costs must be maintained to ensure they are not at the expense of quality, particularly where the infrastructure is being designed to last for approximately 30-60 years. however, this could be overcome provided the agreement contains a 'fit for purpose' clause. this means that the participants would be required to rectify the work after the completion of the project, without increasing the direct cost of the work. it would then be up to nbn co to reasonably adjust the risk-reward curve to ensure it is the participant and not the project that carries the risk. is it legally binding? the criticism of the alliance model is that if legal liability is excluded, there may be no intention to create legal relations. this is because without a legally enforceable right, performance of the contract could be considered illusory where a participant fails to perform an obligation or discharge a duty. it has also been suggested that this mechanism is an attempt by participant’s to oust the jurisdiction of the courts, and that the ‘no blame, no dispute’ clause might compromise a participant's professional indemnity insurance australasian journal of construction economics and building rose, m (2011) ‘can project alliance contracts deliver australia’s national broadband network?’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (3) 68-81 79 (abrahams & cullen 1998, p. 35). this seems to be a simple analysis of what is a highly sophisticated and complex agreement, where the parties expect to be held to the bargain. notwithstanding the concerns raised about the court’s jurisdiction, the court should not consider these clauses to be a collapse of the intention to contract. rather, while the participants may not have the same bargaining power, they can be considered to have equivalent levels of business acumen and professional legal advisors to consider the risk allocation when negotiating the agreement. ross (2010, p. 13) contends that parties do not waive or deny recourse to their natural rights so long as an alliance is properly structured and maintained, because the integrity of the mechanism to resolve legal disputes does not become a concern. why the project alliance model could achieve the nbn’s objectives the project alliance model complements the nbn’s objectives because it encourages participants to focus on a shared business outcome: the completion of a fast and affordable broadband service for all australians. it could achieve this by providing an innovative and unique way to overcome the difficulties particular to this project. it could achieve this by considering the three aspects of the nbn, concerning flexibility of managerial style and scope changes, open-book accounting and no disputes. the alliance model suggests a contractual approach that shares responsibility encourages solutions to accommodate variations, absorbs costs by sharing risks and motivates participants through the use of good faith to resolve disputes in a non-adversarial environment. alliance projects are reliant on setting expectations, working together to overcome each party’s strengths and weaknesses, and a shared mutual goal. for the nbn project to succeed, all participants must work cooperatively towards the government vision of providing high-speed, low-cost broadband to all australians. the participants will need to be willing to share the risks and rewards if they are to bring the project in within time and under cost. project alliances ‘…reflect(s) an emphasis on co-operation and dispute avoidance and reinforce the parties' objective to collaborate and develop innovative solutions for the success of the project without the threat of being sued.’ (abrahams & cullen, 1998, p. 35) by reflecting the behaviours that align with the nbn, an alliance contract would support the government’s view and enable the project to be delivered on time and budget. while, the evolving nature of the nbn project will influence the contractual requirements, the alliance model is a contract whose behaviours coincide with the outcomes desired in the development of the broadband network. it supports the government’s aspirations in three ways: first, by promoting flexibility, this would encourage collective responsibility on the part of contractor participants and suppliers to work together to resolve problems and share decision-making. this means that even when the project is faced with difficulties such as design variations required because of changing risk such as different topography, these risks would be absorbed into the project to avoid increasing the target cost or delaying project completion. this could drive innovation and solutions that may reduce risk and increase reward. moreover, because all participants would be equal the alliance model would encourage decision-making on a ‘best for job’ basis. second, because all transactions are open-book, the costs are not fixed or included as estimates based on projected profit. the expenses are real and demonstrable. this would encourage innovation from the participants because in order for them to make a profit, and develop relationships to encourage further business contracts, they would have to find solutions that are auditable and cost effective. supported by a style of open communication to encourage open cost accounting, this in turn would encourage good faith in relationships and trust as alliance behaviours. these behaviours in turn appear to replicate some of the australasian journal of construction economics and building rose, m (2011) ‘can project alliance contracts deliver australia’s national broadband network?’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (3) 68-81 80 government’s preferences for the project; such as integrating new techniques and lessons learnt into the projects development (dbcde 2010, pp. 10-11). third, because alliance contracting suggests an alternate way to view disputes, through inhouse management, rather than by reference to the courts, a different dynamic is created that demonstrates shared control, for shared outcomes. these three aspects can be managed under the alliance model, because alliance contracts encourage flexibility and shared responsibility. it is these behaviours, elicited by an alliance contract, which illustrates its unique compatibility with the aspirations of the government’s nbn project. the alliance contract model can provide the legal framework to enable the deployment and delivery of an optical fibre broadband network that will found the highway to australia’s fast-paced digital future. in this context, the use of alliance contracts would support the government’s nbn aspiration to ‘fundamentally transform the competitive dynamics of the australian telecommunications sector’ (conroy, 2009, iii). references abrahams, a. and cullen, a. (1998) ‘project alliances in the construction industry’, australian construction law newsletter, vol. 62 bentley, p. (2009) ‘the digital economy dance: getting into step with government policy’, online currents, vol. 23 chew, a. (2004) ‘alliancing in delivery of major infrastructure projects and outsourcing services in australia – an overview of legal issues’, international construction law review, p. 319 conroy, s. (2009) minister for broadband, communications and the digital economy, national broadband network: regulatory reform for the 21st century, discussion paper dbcde (2010) national broadband network implementation study, department of broadband, communication and the digital economy dbcde (2011d) why is it important?, department of broadband, communication and the digital economy, http://www.nbn.gov.au/for-households/why-is-it-important/, accessed 12 september 2011 heydon, g. (2009d) gpon v point to point computer world http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/324177/gpon_vs_point_point, accessed 12 september 2011 jones, d. (2001) ‘keeping the options open: alliance and other forms of relationship contracting with government’, building and construction law, vol.17 liew k 2009, ―next generation broadband regulation: nbn co. and the government’s new role in the market’, communications law bulletin, 29 (3), 19-21 lynch, g. (2010) ‘telstra wrings $11 billion out of nbn co pact’, communications day, vol. june, p. 3767 national broadband network companies act 2011 (cth) nbn co (2011a) nbn co and optus sign binding agreement, media release, http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/nbn-co--optus-sign-bindingagreement.html, accessed 12 september 2011 nbn co (2011b) nbn co & silcar reach agreement to deliver value-for-money fibre rollout, media release http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/nbnco-silcar-reachagreement-to-deliver-value-for-money-fibre-rollout.html, accessed 12 september 2011 http://www.nbn.gov.au/for-households/why-is-it-important/ http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/324177/gpon_vs_point_point http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/nbn-co--optus-sign-binding-agreement.html http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/nbn-co--optus-sign-binding-agreement.html http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/nbnco-silcar-reach-agreement-to-deliver-value-for-money-fibre-rollout.html http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/nbnco-silcar-reach-agreement-to-deliver-value-for-money-fibre-rollout.html australasian journal of construction economics and building rose, m (2011) ‘can project alliance contracts deliver australia’s national broadband network?’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (3) 68-81 81 nbn co (2010a) nbn co announces next rollout locations, http://www.nbnco.com.au/assets/media-releases/2010/second-release-08-jul-10.pdf, accessed 12 september 2011 nbn co (2011c) nbn co looks for greater value from construction tender, media release, http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/nbn-co-looks-for-greater-value-fromconstruction-tender.html, accessed 12 september 2011 nbn co (2010b) nbn co and telstra reach heads of agreement, http://www.nbnco.com.au/ assets/media-releases/2010/nbnco-media-release-telstra-heads-of-agreement-20-jun-10.pdf , accessed 12 september 2011 optus (2007a) elders and optus to build rural and regional broadband network, media release, http://www.optus.com.au/aboutoptus/about+optus/media+centre/media+releases /2007/elders+and+optus+to+build+rural+and+regional+broadband+network, accessed 12 september 2011 prime minister, premier of tasmania and minister of broadband (2009b) tasmania first to receive superfast broadband, media release, http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media /media_releases /2009/023, accessed 12 september 2011 prime minister, treasurer, minister for finance and minister for broadband (2009a) new national broadband network, media release, error! hyperlink reference not valid., accessed 12 september 2011 prime minister, and minister for broadband (2009c) tasmanian nbn co limited established, media release, http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media _releases/2009/075, accessed 12 sep 2011 ross, j. (2010) ‘introduction to project alliancing (on engineering and construction projects), sydney, 30 april 2003 select committee on the national broadband network (2010c) answers to questions on notice, the senate of the parliament of australia, question no. 3, 15 april select committee on the national broadband network (2010d) final report, the senate of the parliament of australia, p. 9 and ch.3 [3.1]-[3.60] select committee on the national broadband network (2010e) fourth interim report, the senate of the parliament of australia, p. 73 telecommunications act 1997 (cth) telstra (2011) notice of annual general meeting, explanatory memorandum and shareholder voting form, http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/download/document/tls 795nom-em-voting.pdf accessed 12 september 2011 thomas. t. (2007) ‘alliance contracts: utility and enforceability’, building and construction law, vol. 23, 329 trade practices act 1974 (cth) wilton, p. (2010) ‘it’s business as usual in comms despite the spill’, communications day, june, p.3779 1 ba/llb (hons). this article is based upon a paper the author submitted to the melbourne university masters of law subject, infrastructure delivery a (13 september 2010) http://www.nbnco.com.au/assets/media-releases/2010/second-release-08-jul-10.pdf http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/nbn-co-looks-for-greater-value-from-construction-tender.html http://www.nbnco.com.au/news-and-events/news/nbn-co-looks-for-greater-value-from-construction-tender.html http://www.nbnco.com.au/%20assets/media-releases/2010/nbnco-media-release-telstra-heads-of-agreement-20-jun-10.pdf http://www.nbnco.com.au/%20assets/media-releases/2010/nbnco-media-release-telstra-heads-of-agreement-20-jun-10.pdf http://www.optus.com.au/aboutoptus/about+optus/media+centre/media+releases%20/2007/elders+and+optus+to+build+rural+and+regional+broadband+network http://www.optus.com.au/aboutoptus/about+optus/media+centre/media+releases%20/2007/elders+and+optus+to+build+rural+and+regional+broadband+network http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media%20/media_releases%20/2009/023 http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media%20/media_releases%20/2009/023 http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media%20_releases/2009/075 http://www.minister.dbcde.gov.au/media/media%20_releases/2009/075 http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/download/document/tls%20795-%20nom-em-voting.pdf http://www.telstra.com.au/abouttelstra/download/document/tls%20795-%20nom-em-voting.pdf the effects of the global financial crisis on the australian building construction supply chain ram karthikeyan thangaraj and toong khuan chan (the university of melbourne, australia) abstract this study involves a financial analysis of 43 publicly listed and large private companies in the building and construction supply chain from 2005 to 2010; straddling the period of the global financial crisis (gfc); and examines the impact of the gfc on the performance of these companies. the construction supply chain was divided into four sectors – material suppliers, construction companies, property developers and real estate investment trusts (reits). the findings indicate that the impact was minimal for both material suppliers and construction companies, but especially severe for the more leveraged property developers and reits. building material suppliers and construction companies have benefitted substantially from the building economic stimulus packages provided by the australian government to mitigate the effects of the gfc. decreases in the valuation of assets have, to a large extent, reduced the profitability of property developers and reits during the gfc but these companies have recovered quickly from these adverse conditions to return to a sound financial position by the end of the 2010 financial year. the results will inform investors, construction company managers and construction professionals in devising strategies for prudent financial management and for weathering future financial crises. keywords: financial analysis, business management, construction, global financial crisis, australia introduction the global financial crisis (gfc) is commonly believed to have begun in july 2007 when a loss of confidence by american investors in the value of sub-prime mortgages caused a liquidity crisis. by september 2008, the crisis had worsened with a sudden dramatic decline of stock prices around the globe. with a large number of borrowers defaulting on loans, banks were faced with a situation where the repossessed house and land was worth less on the market than the bank had loaned out originally. when lehman brothers collapsed in september 2008, governments around the world struggled to rescue large financial institutions as the fallout from the housing and stock market collapse worsened. the australian equity market was no different to many other countries in facing the gfc. the s&p/asx200 index fell from a peak of 6700 in late 2007 to 3400 in november 2008. it was initially thought that australia would fare much better as the local banks’ exposure to collateralised debt obligations (cdos) was relatively small in comparison with other countries. the housing market was also in a strong position with non-conforming loans in australia accounting for only about 1% compared to 13% in the u.s. (debelle 2008). despite the smaller exposure to toxic debts and a stronger housing market, the australian gross domestic product (gdp) declined in the december quarter of 2008. building construction commencements had reduced by 10% in the september 2008 quarter in response to the tightening of credit. total building output for three subsequent quarters reduced as a consequence of the diminishing building commencements. figure 1 below illustrates the change in gdp, building commencements and building output for each quarter between 2005 and 2010. the australian property market was no different from any other industry facing the gfc. from the december 2007 quarter to the december 2008 quarter, australasian journal of construction economics and building thangaraj, r k and chan, t k (2012) ‘the effects of the global financial crisis on the australian building construction supply chain’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 16-30 17 owner occupied housing commitments fell by 22% (abs 2010). this can be attributed to an increase in the unemployment rate during that period, and reduced confidence in the market. a market report states that office property developers in australia experienced a 20.6% decline in their revenue for the financial year 2007-08 (ibisworld 2011a). the retail market was also affected, resulting from reduced consumer spending. figure 1 changes in gdp, building starts and building volume (abs 2010; abs 2011) australia’s response to the gfc the first significant macroeconomic policy response to the global financial crisis came from the reserve bank of australia (rba). on october 7, 2008, the rba board cut interest rates by 100 basis points to 6%. on october 12, the australian government announced it would guarantee all australian bank deposits. two days later, the government announced an aud10.4 billion stimulus package that included aud1.5 billion to support housing construction. the housing aspect of the stimulus package – a time-limited grant to first home buyers – took effect immediately. to prepare for the possibility that the global financial crisis might be deeper and longer lasting than expected, the government brought forward the commencement of large-scale infrastructure projects with a first tranche worth aud4.7 billion announced in early december. on february 3, 2009 the australian government announced a second aud42 billion stimulus package titled the nation building and jobs plan. as the global recession was expected to be deep and long, infrastructure spending played the central role with 70% of the second stimulus package to be spent on schools (aud14.7 billion), social and defence housing (aud6.6 billion), energy efficiency measures (aud3.9 billion), and aud890 million on road, rail and small-scale community infrastructure projects. more recent steps were contained in the 2009-10 budget delivered in may 2009 where the government introduced the third phase in its infrastructure program where an additional aud22 billion was announced. the large increases in building starts in the third and fourth quarters of 2009 resulted from the initiation of stimulus packages earlier in the year. the building the education revolution (ber), the single largest element of the australian government’s nation building economic stimulus plan accounted for 23,600 projects. these developments provided the motivation to develop a broader understanding of the effects of this recent financial crisis on the construction supply chain. the analysis focused on characterizing the impact of the gfc on the financial performance of companies within four sectors of the industry: building material suppliers, building contractors, property -30% -20% -10% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% -1.5% -1.0% -0.5% 0.0% 0.5% 1.0% 1.5% 2.0% 1q 2q 3q 4q 1q 2q 3q 4q 1q 2q 3q 4q 1q 2q 3q 4q 1q 2q 3q 4q 1q 2q 3q 4q change in gdp change in building volume change in building starts 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 c h a n g e in g d p ( q -o n -q , % ) c h a n g e in b u ild in g v o lu m e a n d s ta rt s ( q -o n -q , % ) australasian journal of construction economics and building thangaraj, r k and chan, t k (2012) ‘the effects of the global financial crisis on the australian building construction supply chain’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 16-30 18 developers and australian real estate investment trusts (a-reits). the key points examined are the severity of the impact by means of ratio analysis, changes in cost structure and financial distress. the predicament of firms that were most affected was discussed in order to explore possible common characteristics of distress or failure. the findings will inform investors, managers and construction professionals in devising strategies for prudent financial management and for weathering future financial crises. background investigations into the financial performance of construction companies were initially reported in the 1970’s. sales turnover was identified to have a great impact on the profitability of the enterprise (fadel 1977). a detailed industry level analysis of uk construction industry identified the similarities and differences in profits across general contractors and home builders (akintoye and skitmore 1991). pre-tax profit margins among eighty general contractors hovered around 3.23% over the analysed period. though uncorrelated with firm size, home builders’ profit margin was observed to be four times more than general contractors. low (1997) examined the performance of property companies in the singapore stock exchange over a period of twenty one years and concluded that their performance was not better than the stock market and was highly correlated with the property market itself. other researchers yielded the same findings in different countries (abdul-rasheed and tajudeen 2006). on the contrary, balatbat et al. (2011) reported that the performance of thirty australian securities exchange (asx) listed construction firms operating in civil infrastructure, residential and non-residential sectors over a 10 year period performed better than the all ordinaries index and a pool of blue chip companies. this was due to construction companies’ higher efficiency in the utilisation of assets for revenue generation. a study (cheah et al. 2004) on global construction firms indicates that business strategy has to account for efficiency in financial, operational, technical and human factors, and that corporate failure was largely due to failures in or two critical factors. it is generally accepted practice to assess company performance using financial ratios – the analysis of these ratios over a period of time may provide substantial and reliable information on a company’s financial health. early statistical models based on these financial ratios were developed to analyse company failures. beaver (1966) identified differences based on thirty financial ratios among groups of failed and non-failed firms as early as five years before the firms failed. the differences became more significant as firms approached failure. altman (1968) combined ratio analysis and multiple discriminant analysis to formulate a statistical tool for prediction of company failure. this methodology analysed a combination of ratios, thereby eliminating possibilities of uncertainty in relying on single ratios. from a sample of sixty six manufacturing companies, of which half of them had filed for bankruptcy from 19461965, altman derived a set of ratios covering liquidity, profitability, leverage, solvency and activity ratios. many variations of this model have been created over time for specific industry segments in various regions: construction in the uk (mason and harris 1979; abidali and harris 1995), and for construction in china (ng et al. 2011). macroeconomic factors such as low construction activity, high interest rates, rise in inflation, and reduction in consumer spending have been identified by researchers to be significant factors that can drive companies towards failure (kangari 1988; arditi et al. 2000). both beaver (1966) and altman (1968) are of the view that financial ratios, based solely on financial statements, are an indicator of a company’s past performance, and future performance is beyond prediction. mason and harris (1979) went on to declare that their model is able to identify companies that are 'at risk' of failure but cannot forecast whether a company will actually fail. it is worth pointing out at this stage that these tools only give an indication, and at any point changes in a company’s strategy can transform a company from poor performance to market dominance. langford et al. (1993) recognised that these analytical tools, along with the company’s financial performance have to be used in combination for greater understanding of corporate performance. similar views have been australasian journal of construction economics and building thangaraj, r k and chan, t k (2012) ‘the effects of the global financial crisis on the australian building construction supply chain’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 16-30 19 echoed by chan et al. (2005) when analysing the impact of the asian financial crisis on construction companies in hong kong. recent studies (abdul-rasheed and tajudeen 2006, chen 2009, balatbat et al. 2010, balatbat et al. 2011) have excluded building material suppliers and real estate investment trusts (reits) in the review of financial performance, ignoring their importance within the building construction industry. an industry report estimates about 6,100 establishments to be operating in the materials supply sector in 2010-11 generating an estimated aud20.5 billion in annual revenues (ibisworld 2011b). understanding the performance of the building material suppliers and reits, in comparison with the builders and developers, is vital to the construction industry’s resilience to future market downturns. reits came into existence in the us in 1960 (nareit 2011) to enable retail investors to invest in large scale real estate assets. australian real estate investment trust (a-reit) was established a decade later in 1971. the australian securities exchange defines areits as professionally managed and diversified portfolio of commercial real estate. investors gain exposure to both the value of the real estate the trust owns, and the regular rental income generated from the properties. data and methodology in this study, the supply chain for building construction was limited to 4 sectors: building material suppliers, building contractors, property developers and a-reits. a list of companies in each sector was determined by examining companies listed in the australian securities exchange under global industry classification standards (gics) capital goods and real estate industry groups. the next selection criteria for these companies were as follows to ensure that these companies were representative of the local economy; (i) listed in the asx prior to 2006 financial year, (ii) more than 50% of their revenues were generated from australian operations, and (iii) more than 50% of their revenue were generated from the sectors they represent, respectively. this filter resulted in a total of only 36 companies with only one operating exclusively as a building contractor. this is because most public listed building construction companies in australia were concurrently operating in both construction and development. hence in order to obtain a representative sample of the building contractors, the search was enlarged to include large (revenues exceeding aud25 million) private construction companies that were required to file annual report to the australian security investment commission (asic). this search identified 51 companies of which only 16 had filed form 388 for the years 2006 to 2010. among the 16, only 7 companies were predominantly engaged in building construction. the other firms that were involved in either development or infrastructure works along with construction were not taken into consideration. the lack of local investment opportunities has seen australian reits seeking international property investments in 2000s. while this strategy brings about diversification gains, international property introduces additional currency, political and economic risks. many of the a-reits with large total assets were excluded from this analysis as these comprised significant international properties. a full list of the companies analysed is listed in table 1. the financial performance of all selected companies was calculated over the 2006-10 period, both years inclusive. despite its many drawbacks, the most precise information on these companies can only be determined by relying on audited financial statements (langford et al. 1993). in order to assess the impact of the gfc on the performance of these companies, the values for every consecutive year was compared in a trend analysis. the cost structure for the four sectors has been examined with cost of goods sold (cogs), expenses, depreciation, amortization, interest and profit displayed as a percentage of revenue. items such as rent, utilities, wages and purchases were not always discernable or available and were considered as part of expenses. a distress analysis was conducted using australasian journal of construction economics and building thangaraj, r k and chan, t k (2012) ‘the effects of the global financial crisis on the australian building construction supply chain’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 16-30 20 the altman’s z-index (1968). this was considered to be the most appropriate model to compare the risk of failure across the four different sectors. material supplier adelaide brighton limited (asx:abc) alesco corporation limited (asx:als) boral limited (asx:bld) bluescope steel limited (asx:bsl) brickworks limited (asx:bkw) csr limited (asx:csr) gunns limited (asx:gns) gwa group limited (asx:gwa) reece australia limited (asx:reh) building construction badge constructions (sa) pty ltd hooker cockram corporation pty ltd j. hutchinson pty ltd masterton corporation holding company pty ltd pellicano builders pty ltd reed constructions australia pty ltd st.hilliers construction pty ltd tamawood limited (asx:twd) property developer ahc limited (asx:ahc) australand property group (asx:alz) avjennings limited (asx:avj) becton property group (asx:bec) cedar woods properties ltd (asx:cwp) cic australia limited (asx:cnb) devine limited (asx:dvn) finbar group limited (asx:fri) fkp property group (asx:fkp) geo property group (asx:gpm) international equities corp ltd (asx:ieq) lend lease group (asx:llc) metroland australia limited (asx:mtd) mirvac group (asx:mgr) payce consolidated limited (asx:pay) peet limited (asx:ppc) stockland (asx:sgp) sunland group limited (asx:sdg) areit abacus property group (asx:abp) apn property group limited (asx:apd) aspen group (asx:apz) bwp trust (asx:bwp) cfs retail property trust (asx:cfx) charter hall group (asx:chc) commonwealth property (asx:cpa) cromwell property group (asx:cmw) goodman group (asx:gmg) gpt group (asx:gpt) trafalgar corporate group (asx:tgp) table 1 list of companies studied performance analysis of companies the best gauge for measure of a recession, next to gdp is the stock market. the market index is a reliable tool to plot the timeline of recession right from start to recovery. the primary investable benchmark in australia, the s&p/asx200, fell from its peak of 6748 in october 2007 to 3145 in march 2009, losing 46% of its valuation. since then the markets have recovered and remained fairly buoyant at 4500 until the end of 2010. with the market as a reliable pointer, the period of analysis has been set from financial year 2006 to 2010 to cater for the boom, fall and recovery due to the gfc in australia. in terms of revenue, property developers and a-reits exhibited significant decline in revenues in 2008 and 2009, and in the case of developers, continuing into 2010. the building material sector exhibited a marginal contraction of 2.8% in 2009 followed by a further reduction of nearly 7% in 2010. on the contrary, revenues for building contractors continued to increase, albeit by only 1.6% in 2009 and 0.8% in 2010 despite the slump in building starts in late 2008. the nature of the building construction business is that builders are not immediately affected by a downturn due to continuing construction projects awarded a couple of years earlier. the launch of a number of stimulus packages; bringing forward spending on large-scale infrastructure and additional spending on new school buildings in late 2008 and early 2009 by the australian government to mitigate the effects of the gfc on the local construction market have maintained building starts at a level of aud81.5 billion and aud75.6 billion in 2008 and 2009, respectively (abs 2010; abs 2011). australasian journal of construction economics and building thangaraj, r k and chan, t k (2012) ‘the effects of the global financial crisis on the australian building construction supply chain’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 16-30 21 table 2 indicates that the total net assets of all the companies analysed have increased in the period examined. in fact, net assets for building contractors have more than doubled compared to 2006 with other sectors averaging an increase of 50%. this is not withstanding the small decreases in net assets for property developers and a-reits that had to revalue some of their assets in 2009 and 2010. net asset in this table is usually equal to the shareholders' equity in the company balance sheet or total assets minus total liabilities. year 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 sales revenue building material suppliers (change, % year-on-year) 19,926 20,961 5.2% 24,454 16.7% 23,775 -2.8% 22,136 -6.95 building contractors (change, % year-on-year) 1,506 2,068 37.3% 2,455 18.7% 2,495 1.6% 2,514 0.8% property developers (change, % year-on-year) 7,205 9,323 29.4% 7,827 -16.1% 6,903 -11.8% 6,810 -1.4% a-reits (change, % year-on-year) 1,636 2,762 68.8% 2,294 -16.9% 1,331 -42.0% 1,493 12.2% net assets building material suppliers (change, % year-on-year) 10,404 11,936 14.7% 12,725 6.6% 15,105 18.7% 15,731 4.1% building contractors (change, % year-on-year) 152 248 63.1% 301 21.2% 329 9.5% 357 8.4% property developers (change, % year-on-year) 13,137 17,676 34.6% 18,760 6.1% 18,693 -0.4% 19,705 5.4% a-reits (change, % year-on-year) 6,187 8,102 30.9% 10,134 25.1% 9,521 -6.0% 9,132 -4.1% table 2 sales revenue and net assets (aud million) for years 2006 to 2010 ratios measuring profitability, liquidity, activity, leverage and solvency are generally accepted as the most significant indicators of corporate performance. table 3 lists at least one financial ratio in each of the categories above to evaluate the performance of the companies in the building construction supply chain. these ratios were weighted based on the annual revenues of the respective companies. in terms of profitability, the net profit margin (net profit divided by sales revenue) for material suppliers reduced progressively from more than 7% in 2006 to 0.8% in 2010. net profit margin for building contractors was low at between 3-4% in 2006 and 2007, and reduced to a minimum of 1.6% during the depths of the financial crisis. it recovered slightly to 1.9% in 2010. the net profit margin for property developers was more than 30% before the onset of the gfc, but converted into a 59% loss in 2009. similarly, a-reits reported a net profit margin of 70% and 53% pre-gfc and a massive loss of 106% in 2009. both the property developer and areit sectors returned to profitability and recovered to approximately one half their pre-gfc margins in 2010. return on average equity (roe) measures the rate of return on the shareholders' equity and reflects the company’s efficiency at generating profits from every dollar of equity. defined as net profits divided by average equity, the building material supplier sector exhibited returns between 13% and 17% during the period examined but dropped to a low of 0.2% during 2009 when net profits were depressed by the effects of the gfc. pre-gfc, the building contractors were achieving returns in excess of 40% but fell to 23.1% in 2008 and eventually to a low of 8.3% in 2010. this corresponded with the observed drop in net profit margin from more than 30% pre-gfc to less than 20% post-gfc. the property developers achieved an roe of approximately 20% pre-gfc but suffered losses in 2009 to report an roe of -24% during 2009 and recovering to a small 0.4% in 2010. the roe for the a-reit sector fell from 21% in 2006 to -13.9% at the pits of the gfc in 2009 but recovered when the sector returned to profitability in 2010. australasian journal of construction economics and building thangaraj, r k and chan, t k (2012) ‘the effects of the global financial crisis on the australian building construction supply chain’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 16-30 22 the current ratio, defined as current assets divided by current liabilities, provides a measure of liquidity or the company's ability to pay back its short-term liabilities with cash, inventory and receivables. as can be seen from table 3, the current ratios for both the building material suppliers and building contractors were between 1.5 and 1.9, indicating that these companies were adequately liquid and able to pay its obligations. the current ratios remained above 1.0 during the period of the financial crisis indicating that these companies were managing their cash flows prudently. a number of companies invested in additional property, plant and equipment, increasing debts and consequently reducing the current ratio slightly in 2008. once the effects of the gfc were apparent, these companies sought ways to reduce their current liabilities with a slight improvement in current ratio in 2009. property developers exhibited an increase in current ratios in 2007-08 as completed and unsold properties were accounted for under current inventories leading to a higher current asset value. impairments to the value of properties in inventories and the increases in interest bearing liabilities resulted in higher current liabilities. these changes led to current ratios fluctuating between 1.4 and 2.3 during this period. the current ratio for areits ranged from 0.66 to 1.33 during this period, but was not considered further as this sector invested primarily in properties a non-current asset. financial year 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 building material suppliers net profit margin 0.074 0.084 0.062 0.015 0.014 return on average equity 0.149 0.173 0.134 0.002 0.012 current ratio 1.437 1.544 1.257 1.742 1.780 working capital turnover 11.760 9.430 54.230 8.224 6.770 quick ratio 0.867 0.933 0.722 0.944 0.988 debt ratio 0.540 0.491 0.524 0.432 0.415 times interest earned ratio 93.172 12.231 10.252 3.604 8.059 building contractors net profit margin 0.034 0.040 0.028 0.016 0.019 return on average equity 0.477 0.439 0.231 0.122 0.083 current ratio 1.479 1.504 1.472 1.636 1.466 working capital turnover 6.712 4.650 15.489 11.381 50.254 quick ratio 1.104 1.018 1.034 1.181 1.074 debt ratio 0.683 0.653 0.654 0.599 0.651 times interest earned ratio 1525 6295 10194 816 48 property developers net profit margin 0.324 0.377 0.153 -0.587 0.144 return on average equity 0.203 0.189 0.069 -0.237 0.004 current ratio 1.393 1.725 1.656 2.306 1.460 working capital turnover -2.214 0.911 -1.684 2.270 3.459 quick ratio 0.454 0.778 0.602 1.367 0.726 debt ratio 0.534 0.479 0.502 0.463 0.428 times interest earned ratio 20.462 15.609 5.621 -15.014 8.088 reits net profit margin 0.707 0.776 0.581 -1.057 0.371 return on average equity 0.210 0.222 0.134 -0.139 0.048 current ratio 0.663 1.049 0.750 1.331 0.736 working capital turnover -1.227 -0.839 -0.083 -0.386 0.787 quick ratio 0.643 0.897 0.702 1.210 0.646 debt ratio 0.357 0.336 0.358 0.334 0.330 times interest earned ratio 10.663 13.324 8.294 -9.515 2.749 table 3 financial ratios (weighted on revenue) australasian journal of construction economics and building thangaraj, r k and chan, t k (2012) ‘the effects of the global financial crisis on the australian building construction supply chain’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 16-30 23 the quick ratio, a more severe measure of liquidity, defines the company's ability to meet its short-term obligations with its most liquid assets. inventory was excluded from the current assets because of the delays involved in turning inventory into cash. as expected, the quick ratios for material suppliers were less than the current ratio, but were observed to be slightly below 1.0 indicating that current liabilities were marginally higher than current assets. the increase in short term debt in 2008 resulted in a large drop in quick ratio to 0.722. once these liabilities were restructured in response to the gfc, the quick ratio improved to previous levels. recognising that building contractors operate on very tight but prudent cash flows, the quick ratios for this sector were all marginally above 1.0 during the entire period examined. the property developers and areits exhibited notably low quick ratios as properties were considered to be non-current assets. again, some of these companies had to restructure their liabilities in 2009 leading to improved quick ratios for the year. the working capital turnover (wct) ratio is an activity ratio which represents the number of times the working capital is turned over in the course of a year. a higher wct ratio indicates the efficiency with which the working capital is being used to generate revenue. the building material suppliers exhibited a wct ratio between 6.8 and 11.8 for the period examined except for 2008 when the ratio jumped to a high of 54. this was due to large current liabilities incurred by a number of companies leading to a reduced working capital. the large wct ratio for building contractors between 2008 and 2010 was also due to reductions in working capital as the revenue was previously reported to be relatively constant over this period. the wct ratio for both the property developers and areits did not provide much information as the values fluctuated between -2.2 and +3.5, most likely attributed to large changes in the levels of current assets and liabilities. the use of debt to finance the company’s assets was evaluated by examining the debt ratio which is defined as the ratio of total debt to total assets. the debt ratios remained fairly constant over the entire period examined for all four sectors although the building contractors showed the highest debt ratio at 65% whereas the areits had the lowest ratio of approximately 33%. building contractors exhibited comparatively higher debt ratios due to high levels of short term trade debts payable to sub-contractors. when the debt ratio was examined together with the times interest earned (tie) ratio, it clearly indicated that although the building contractors were most highly leveraged, the debt amounts were small relative to the net profits earned by these companies. building contractors were obviously able to meet its debt obligations many times over. it can be inferred from an examination of the combination of debt and the tie ratios that most of the liabilities of the areits business structure are long term debts whereas building contractors incur short term debts. the tie ratio for building material suppliers reduced drastically from 93 in 2006 to 3.6 in 2009 due to a drop in net profits. the effect of the gfc was evident in two sectors; the property developers and areits, where a majority of these companies suffered losses in 2009 leading to negative tie ratios. industry cost structure the industry cost structure was examined by comparing input costs to revenue for each sector. the cost of input materials (represented by cost of goods sold, cogs) and operating expenses are a significant component of the material supplier cost structure. from figure 2a it can be observed that cogs and expenses have remained fairly consistent at 56-58% and 29-30%, respectively, leading up to the gfc. other costs such as depreciation, amortization and interest expense accounts for very small percentages of the total revenue. the most significant effect of the gfc is the drop in profit from 8% in 2007 to 1% in 2010. for the building construction sector, cogs represents close to 90% of total revenue with profits accounting for 3-4% pre-gfc as illustrated in figure 2b. it can be seen that all the inputs have remained relatively stable with an evident squeeze on profits. interest expense for the building construction sector is lowest amongst all four sectors at less than 0.1% australasian journal of construction economics and building thangaraj, r k and chan, t k (2012) ‘the effects of the global financial crisis on the australian building construction supply chain’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 16-30 24 indicating that companies in this sector have insignificant bank loans. the cost structure for property developers include 70% for cost of goods and another 12-15% for operating expenses. interest payments amount to approximately 3% of total revenues. in terms of profits, property development sector have reported large swings in figures in excess of 12% profit pre-gfc to losses amounting to approximately 20% of revenue in 2009. the increase in expenses was attributed to a write-down in the value of property assets held by these companies during the construction stage. it may be worthwhile to note that this sector recovered in 2010 reporting a profit of 7%. property investment companies and reits have been relatively quick to react to the gfc compared to the other sectors in the supply chain. this is clearly due to a drop in value of the financial assets held by the investment companies and trusts. reits operate in a similar manner as investment funds and do not report cogs. interest payments amount to approximately 10% as this sector is heavily reliant on debt to finance the purchase of real estate assets. figure 2d clearly indicates that reits were amongst the most severely affected with a reported cost structure nearly three times that of the total revenue for 2009. this sector exhibited the highest profit margins with pre-gfc profit levels at 66% of total revenue. a decline was seen in the 2008 financial year, when the effects of the gfc started to affect the bottom line with a loss of 27%, and continuing the decline with a loss amounting to nearly 200% of total revenue in 2009. the effect of the gfc was two-fold: a loss of confidence in the property market meant that real estate valuations plunged requiring these investment companies and trusts to write-down assets values; and a drop in occupancy leading to a sharp decline in revenue. distress analysis altman (1968) used the multiple discriminant analysis model to combine several financial ratios into a single index, called the ‘distress score’ to discriminate between failed and nofailed groups. altman’s proposed z-score, based on an analysis of 66 manufacturing companies of which 33 had failed in 1946, estimated the risk of bankruptcy within a period of two to three years. this analysis was performed to investigate the possibility of business failures in response to the gfc. table 4 indicates that building contractors have remained fairly stable and well above the ‘at risk’ score of 2.7 throughout the period of study. material suppliers on the other hand exhibited excellent scores for 2006-08 but dipped slightly into the ‘at risk’ score for 2009-10 having suffered a drop in revenue and market value. property developers and reits were categorised as ‘at risk’ before the onset of the gfc but fell below the ‘imminent failure’ threshold of 1.8 in 2008. on examining the individual factors for the z-score, it is clear that the fall from the safe level for property developers and reits in 2008 has been influenced by a loss in profitability and productivity. (a) material suppliers 56.38% 56.76% 58.05% 62.03% 62.87% 30.91% 29.02% 29.89% 30.37% 30.10% 7.33% 8.33% 6.21% 1.57% 1.07% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 cogs expenses interest d&a net profit australasian journal of construction economics and building thangaraj, r k and chan, t k (2012) ‘the effects of the global financial crisis on the australian building construction supply chain’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 16-30 25 (b) construction (c) property developers (d) reits figure 2 cost structure for material suppliers, construction, property developers and reit sectors (weighted based on revenue) property developers and reits with higher returns initially have seen greater erosion in their profitability to the extent of negative earnings in 2009 whereas building supplies and building contractors have remained profitable throughout the period. for both developers and reits, interest expenses, depreciation and amortization have remained fairly stable throughout the period. the reduction in profitability was significantly influenced by decreases in valuation of their assets and financial derivatives on hold, and impairment charges. the distress analysis indicates that the building materials and contractors in australia were financially sound and were able to accommodate the impact of the gfc. a similar analysis 88.44% 86.92% 88.99% 90.12% 89.42% 7.78% 8.76% 7.83% 7.48% 8.02% 3.39% 3.99% 2.78% 1.54% 1.85% 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 cogs expenses interest d&a net profit 42.16% 42.12% 45.42% 50.30% 50.79% 24.61% 23.19% 32.32% 93.40% 32.00% 26.67% 29.85% 14.12% 12.78% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120% 140% 160% 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 cogs expenses interest d&a net profit 20.18% 13.75% 23.12% 173.85% 43.04% 9.80% 11.57% 13.95% 22.76% 17.20% 68.38% 72.56% 59.93% 35.60% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120% 140% 160% 180% 200% 220% 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 cogs expenses interest d&a net profit 42.16% 42.12% 45.42% 50.30% 50.79% 24.61% 23.19% 32.32% 93.40% 32.00% 26.67% 29.85% 14.12% 12.78% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% 120% 140% 160% 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 cogs expenses interest d&a net profit australasian journal of construction economics and building thangaraj, r k and chan, t k (2012) ‘the effects of the global financial crisis on the australian building construction supply chain’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 16-30 26 of contractors in hong kong (chan et al. 2005) reported z-scores falling from 2.33 in 1997/98 to 1.41 in 2001/02 due to severe competition and reduced demand for property. financial year 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 building material suppliers z-score 2.79 3.40 2.83 2.22 2.50 building contractors z-score 4.97 4.73 4.35 4.69 4.00 property developers z-score 1.72 2.05 1.14 0.26 1.11 reits z-score 2.43 2.88 1.40 0.77 1.29 table 4 distress analysis (weighted on revenue) discussion of results the results indicate that each of the four sectors of the building supply chain was affected to different extents by the gfc. the building material suppliers were the least affected exhibiting a 3% year-on-year drop in revenue in 2009 and another 7% drop in 2010. these companies remained profitable albeit at a much reduced profit margin. net assets of these companies continued to grow over the entire period of study. a number of these companies were in the business of manufacturing products for other sectors of the economy and were marginally affected by the decline in construction demand in 2008. the activity ratio for these companies remained relatively constant over the period. these companies were moderately leveraged with debt, but earned sufficient revenues to cover the interest payments many times over. the building contractors sector exhibited increases in revenue despite the drop in total building starts in 2008 and the consequential drop in building volumes in 2009. this reflects the mode of operation of building contractors where the project duration delays the effects of a downturn to a couple of years after the onset of a fall in building starts. the net assets of the building contractors, although lowest of all four sectors, have more than doubled from 2006 to 2010, indicating that substantial additional investments were made into these companies. profit margins which were initially low at 3% to 4% were further depressed by the competition for jobs during the lead up to the gfc. the profit margins shown in table 3 for the building contractor sector were the lowest of all sectors examined. although the profit margin was low, this sector remained profitable and financially liquid throughout the gfc period. the observed profit margin was not much different from the margin of 3.23% reported by akintoye and skitmore (1991) for an analysis of 80 general contractors in the uk. it also compares reasonable better than the 1% to 2% reported by chan et al. (2005) for construction companies in hong kong immediately after the 1997 asian financial crisis. the roe ratios in excess of 40% confirms the perception that construction activities require relatively lower amounts of equity and that operations is normally funded through judicious utilisation of working capital. construction companies, though exhibiting debt ratios approximately 60%, are able to repay the interests on their debts from their profits. in general, the financial ratios indicate that they have a well-founded financial position, and are not directly prone to demand fluctuations are generally perceived. a recent study by balabat (2011) of thirty asx-listed construction firms operating in the civil infrastructure, residential and non-residential sectors reported that these firms exhibited a 25% higher growth in share value compared to blue chip companies and 48% higher compared to the asx-all ordinaries index. apparently, both the building material supplier and building contractor sectors benefitted from the stimulus packages once the numerous building projects commenced in earnest in midto late-2009. these sectors remained profitable and solvent, exhibited insignificant australasian journal of construction economics and building thangaraj, r k and chan, t k (2012) ‘the effects of the global financial crisis on the australian building construction supply chain’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 16-30 27 changes to leverage levels; the only indication of concern was a drop in net profits and interest coverage. property developers generally rely on internally generated funds and borrowings to finance their investment opportunities resulting in the largest net assets reported for the four sectors as shown in table 2. given that these developers in australia were making healthy profits on the back of the property boom before the onset of the gfc, these companies tend to utilise more long-term debt to finance their business operations. although the year-on-year falls in revenue between 2007 and 2009 were only 16% and 12%, respectively, a drop in the valuation of properties held or under-construction resulted in serious losses in 2009. once the market recovered partially in 2010 and the revaluation of properties was conducted, these companies reported net profits and reverted to a healthy balance sheet. the reits in australia engage in the acquisition and ownership of property and primarily derive their income from rental or leasing whereas property developers are mainly involved in the development and management of real estate properties. given that rental revenues are usually relatively stable, reits tend to be perceived as a low risk investment vehicle. this study observed net profit margins in excess of 70% during 2006 and 2007, before the onset of the gfc, to a substantial loss of 106% of revenue reported in the 2009 financial year for the reits sector. however, a revaluation of its property portfolio post-gfc resulted in net profit margins recovering to 37% in 2010. although property portfolios of the developers and reits were similarly assessed each financial year, the impact of any upward and downward swings was greater for the reits sector than the property development sector. among the sub sectors being analysed, reits were in a much better situation to cover for their current liabilities with the lowest debt ratios of 0.33 to 0.36. as the reits’ business risk is relatively lower than the other three sectors, these companies utilise more long-term debts to finance their investments in real estate. it may be worthwhile to note that the sample of reits shown here have reduced the debt ratio from 0.36 in 2006 to 0.33 in 2010. excessive levels of gearing have magnified the steep decline in asset values for a number of reits during the gfc. conclusions the financial analysis of the companies operating across the building construction supply chain in australia indicates that all four sectors examined were susceptible to the global financial crisis. from the ratio and cost structure analyses, it was evident that building material suppliers were the least affected as these companies have remained profitable and solvent throughout the period examined. these companies have benefited substantially from the building economic stimulus package provided by the australian government. the impact on building contractors was also limited, as they have also remained profitable albeit at significantly reduced levels. however, there is a very high likelihood that the findings may be different if the study period was extended beyond 2010 as the projects let under the stimulus package are completed. developers and reits were the most affected sectors in this financial crisis where significant erosion in profitability was observed. the most severe drop in profitability was reported in 2009 when developers and reits exhibited losses amounting to 25% and 105% of revenue, respectively. decreases in the valuation of their assets and financial derivatives on hold, and impairment charges, have played a major role in reducing their profitability. the post-gfc recovery to profitability has been triggered by an increase in their asset valuation, more specifically, owned properties and those for sale in inventories. since 2008, the zscores for developers and reits have fallen below the ‘distress’ level, but it was encouraging to see an increase from 2009 and 2010 indicating that the worse was over. the gfc eroded the peak market capitalisation of australian reits from aud147 billion in 2007 to its present value of aud74 billion at the end of the 2010 financial year (asx 2007; asx 2011). the steep decline of asset values during the gfc was magnified by the high gearing australasian journal of construction economics and building thangaraj, r k and chan, t k (2012) ‘the effects of the global financial crisis on the australian building construction supply chain’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 16-30 28 employed by the a-reit sector. the level of debt has reduced slightly to 0.33 in 2010 indicating a more conservative and managed approach to gearing in this sector after the gfc. post script after this research project was completed, two companies in the list shown in table 1 – reed constructions and st hilliers construction, were reported to be in financial distress. reed constructions, based in nsw, was reported to be in financial distress, with up to $80 million of bills outstanding, despite being allocated $383.3 million under the building the education revolution program (moran, 2012a). on 15 june 2012, reed constructions australia pty limited was placed in voluntary administration (ferrier hodgson, 2012) where debts were reportedly at $182.1 million after suffering losses on several other government contracts. on 9 july 2012, reed constructions was placed in the hands of a liquidator following a successful winding up application filed in the nsw supreme court by a creditor, sce group (schlesinger, 2012). data for reed constructions indicate that revenues increased at a compounded annual growth rate of 25% from $171 million in 2006 to $466 million in 2011 with profit before tax at $18 million and $24 million, respectively for these two financial years. at the end of the 2011 financial year, net assets were at $99 million, quick ratio at 1.12 and the debt ratio at 0.54 indicating that the company was reasonably healthy at that point in time. the 2011 financial statements indicate a $47.1 million net cash outflow from its construction activities. st hilliers construction pty limited was placed in voluntary administration on 16 may 2012 after a dispute over the funding of the $350 million ararat prison project that it was constructing under a public-private partnership approach (zappone, 2012). it was reported that st hillers construction owed its creditors and employees a total of $121 million (moran, 2012b). the financial statements indicate that although the revenues increases from $347 million in 2006 to $515 million in 2008 and declined slightly to $476 and $492 million in 2009 and 2010, respectively, the company returned profits between $5 million and $12 million between 2006 to 2009. the company exhibited early signs on distress when it incurred a loss of nearly $18 million, before tax, for the 2010 financial year mainly due to higher construction costs (or conversely, lower margins). net assets remained positive as $27 million, but its quick ratio deteriorated to 0.54 in 2010 compared to 1.00 the previous year. it suffered a net cash outflow of $16.0 million in 2010 and a further $13.3 million in the 2011 financial year. these two recent cases of financial distress is the subject of an ongoing study to further characterise the performance of the building and construction sector in these uncertain financial conditions: the results will follow in a future publication. preliminary data seems to suggest that an adequate profit margin is required to provide a buffer against unforeseen project risks. the continued effects of the gfc will become more evident once financial statements and other pertinent corporate information are made available in the public domain. references abidali, a.f. and harris, f. (1995) ‘a methodology for predicting company failure in the construction industry’, construction management and economics, 13, 189-196 abdul-rasheed, a. and tajudeen, a.b. (2006) ‘performance analysis of listed construction and real estate companies in nigeria’, journal of real estate portfolio management, 12 (2),177-185 australian bureau of statistics (2010) ‘8752.0 building activity, december quarter 2009’, april 2010 australasian journal of construction economics and building thangaraj, r k and chan, t k (2012) ‘the effects of the global financial crisis on the australian building construction supply chain’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 16-30 29 australian bureau of statistics (2011) ‘5206.0 australian national accounts: national income, expenditure and product, june quarter 2011’, september 2011 akintoye, a. and skitmore, m. (1991) ‘profitability of uk construction companies’, construction management and economics, 9 (4), 311-325 altman, e.i. (1968) ‘financial ratios, discriminant analysis and the prediction of corporate bankruptcy’, the journal of finance, 23 (4), 589-609 arditi, d., koksal, a., and kale, s. (2000) ‘business failures in the construction industry’, engineering, construction and architectural management, 7 (2), 120-132 australian securities exchange asx. (2007) ‘listed managed investments (lmi) – monthly update – august 2007’ australian securities exchange (2011) ‘listed managed investments (lmi) – monthly update – august 2011’ balatbat, m.c., lin, c-y. and carmichael, d.g. (2010) ‘comparative performance of publicly listed construction companies: australian evidence’, construction management and economics, 28, 919-932 balatbat, m.c., lin, c-y. and carmichael, d.g. (2011) ‘management efficiency performance of construction business: australian data’, engineering, construction and architectural management, 18 (2), 140-158 beaver, w.h. (1966) ‘financial ratios as predictors of failure’, journal of accounting research, 4, 71-111 chan, j. k., tam, c. m., and cheung, r. (2005) ‘monitoring financial health of contractors at the aftermath of the asian economic turmoil: a case study in hong kong’, construction management and economics, 23, 451-458 cheah, c.y.j., garvin, m.j. and miller, j.b. (2004) ‘empirical study of strategic performance of global construction firms’, journal of construction engineering and management, 130 (6), 808-817 chen, h.l. (2009) ‘model for predicting financial performance of development and construction corporations’, journal of construction engineering and management, 135 (11), november 2009 debelle, g. (2008) ‘a comparison of the us and australian housing markets. reserve bank of australia bulletin’, june 2008 fadel, h. (1977) ‘the predictive power of financial ratios in the british construction industry’, journal of business finance & accounting, 4 (3), 339-352 ferrier hodgson (2012) ‘reed constructions australia placed in administration’, media release, ferrier hodgson, 15 june 2012, retrieved august 28, 2012, from http://www.ferrierhodgson.com ibisworld pty ltd. (2011a) ‘office property operators in australia’, melbourne ibisworld pty ltd. (2011b) ‘building supplies wholesaling in australia’, melbourne kangari, r. (1988) ‘business failure in the construction industry’, journal of construction engineering and management, 114 (2), 172-190 langford, d., iyagba, r, and komba, d. (1993) ‘prediction of solvency in construction companies’, construction management and economics, 11 (5), 317-325 low, k. h. (1997) ‘the historical performance of singapore property stocks’, journal of property finance, 8 (2), 111-125 mason, r. and harris, f. (1979) ‘predicting company failure in the construction industry’, proceedings institution of civil engineers, 66, 301-307 http://www.ferrierhodgson.com/ australasian journal of construction economics and building thangaraj, r k and chan, t k (2012) ‘the effects of the global financial crisis on the australian building construction supply chain’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (3) 16-30 30 moran, s. (2012a) ‘probe into reed's handling of $90m for ber’, the australian, 6 march 2012, retrieved august 28, 2012, from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/nationalaffairs/state-politics/probe-into-reeds-handling-of-90m-for-ber/story-e6frgczx1226289882027 moran, s. (2012b) ‘administrators moore stephens seeking buyer for st.hilliers by august’, the australian, 14 june 2012, retrieved august 28, 2012, from http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/property/administrators-moore-stephens-seekingbuyer-for-st-hilliers-by-august/story-fn9656lz-1226394814547 national association of real estate investment trusts (2011) ‘reit industry timeline: celebrating 50 years of reits and nareit’, retrieved september 1, 2011, from http://www.reit.com/timeline/timeline.php ng, s.t., wong, j.m. and zhang, j. (2011) ‘applying z-score model to distinguish insolvent construction companies in china’, habitat international, 35, 599-607 schlesinger, l. (2012) ‘liquidator appointed for collapsed nsw builder reed construction’, property observer, 11 july 2012, retrieved august 28, 2012, from http://www.propertyobserver.com.au/industry-news/liquidator-appointed-for-collapsed-nswbuilder-reed-construction/2012071155520 zappone, c. (2012) ‘st hilliers placed in voluntary administration after jail break’, the sydney morning herald, 16 may 2012, retrieved august 28, 2012, from http://www.smh.com.au/business/st-hilliers-placed-in-voluntary-administration-after-jailbreak-20120516-1yprv.html http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/probe-into-reeds-handling-of-90m-for-ber/story-e6frgczx-1226289882027 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/probe-into-reeds-handling-of-90m-for-ber/story-e6frgczx-1226289882027 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/state-politics/probe-into-reeds-handling-of-90m-for-ber/story-e6frgczx-1226289882027 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/property/administrators-moore-stephens-seeking-buyer-for-st-hilliers-by-august/story-fn9656lz-1226394814547 http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/property/administrators-moore-stephens-seeking-buyer-for-st-hilliers-by-august/story-fn9656lz-1226394814547 http://www.reit.com/timeline/timeline.php http://www.propertyobserver.com.au/industry-news/liquidator-appointed-for-collapsed-nsw-builder-reed-construction/2012071155520 http://www.propertyobserver.com.au/industry-news/liquidator-appointed-for-collapsed-nsw-builder-reed-construction/2012071155520 http://www.smh.com.au/business/st-hilliers-placed-in-voluntary-administration-after-jail-break-20120516-1yprv.html http://www.smh.com.au/business/st-hilliers-placed-in-voluntary-administration-after-jail-break-20120516-1yprv.html influences on women’s choices of careers in construction: a south african study influences on women’s choices of careers in construction: a south african study kolosa madikizela, (cape peninsula university of technology, south africa) professor theo haupt, (director building and construction science, mississippi state university, usa) abstract this paper analyses the factors influencing the choices of careers in construction by south african women. the literature on challenges which influence women’s choices of careers in construction was reviewed and questionnaires were conducted with multiple samples, including construction organisations, construction students and professional women working in construction. the study found that women have a role to play in the construction industry and that they can build successful careers within the sector. however, it was not easy given the various barriers to entry such as gender-based discrimination against them, the harsh work environment of the construction site, the lack of sufficient knowledge about the industry itself and the shortage of successful women in construction as role models. there was evidence of discrimination and sexual harassment. all these factors impacted negatively on the choices of careers in construction by south african women. this study makes a contribution to our understanding of the factors that have marginalised women in a male dominated industry and provides some indication of approaches to attract more women into the sector. it is hoped that it will stimulate debate about how the low representation of women in construction can be addressed and how construction careers for women can be promoted and encouraged and that the resource pool will be enlarged given the prevalent acute skills shortage in the industry. keywords: sex discrimination, education, gender, built environment, career choices, culture, cultural background. introduction women encounter pervasive gender issues in their chosen careers which require specific strategies to deal with them (phaahla, 2000). in particular, they need to contend with gender role stereotyping which is the belief that a set of traits and abilities is more likely to be found among one sex than the other (schein, 1978). women have been defined as inferior to men and therefore, they are assigned the position of minors in both public and private spheres of life (national gender policy framework, 2003). further, they arguably accept secondary roles without hesitation (mathur-helm, 2005). although women constitute the major segment of the south african population they account for only 33.3% of the labour force. gender inequality in the workplace is underpinned by job segregation and perceived roles associated with gender groups (commission on gender equality, 1999). more specifically in the construction industry with the number of women presently low, the implication is that individuals, the industry, and ultimately the community all suffer the consequences of only fully utilizing the potential of one gender. women are therefore, a wasted resource (mathurhelm, 2005). however prevailing attitudes suggest change will not be easy because the dominantly male makeup of the construction industry is a deterrent to women who fear isolation, discrimination and harassment should they pursue careers in that sector. the nature of the workplace culture in construction is critical in explaining the underachievement of women in construction careers. this culture militates against their equal progression through the somewhat exclusionary and discriminatory environment that characterises the sector. women without an in-depth knowledge of the cultural influences on construction careers soon become disillusioned with the discrimination and the lack of opportunities for australasian journal of construction economics and building madikizela, k and haupt, t (2010) ‘influences on women’s choices of careers in construction: a south african study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 1‐15 2 themselves. they are regarded by males as added competition for the limited promotional opportunities that exist and experience entrenched sexism (bennett, davidson and gale, 1996). consequently, attitudes of males are adversarial and confrontational. further, many young men still believe women are both physically and psychologically unsuited to construction work, despite paying lip service to the notion that “women can do anything” (thompson, 1996). typically young people start contemplating their career choices around the age of 16 or in their last years of high school. gender-based career stereotyping makes it particularly difficult for young girls to establish their own career choices or to diverge from the career choices that their parents dictate. a sense of isolation is another reason for high defections with women having little chance of meeting other women working in construction. education at school level is only part of the battle to recruit more women into the construction industry. male builders need to accept women in the building workplace (thompson, 1996). there is a relationship between higher education and the employment choices of women (phaahla, 2000). women tend to congregate in areas seen as traditional outlets for female employment. female staff and students are typically drawn to faculties such as the humanities, education and the social sciences. generally women do not make up large numbers in technology and applied science areas of study. consequently, the jobs available to women are limited due to social and economic reasons. the position of women is further exacerbated by the fact that gender in south africa is also racially and culturally segmented, creating inequalities that are race-bound. white and black women have extremely different levels of experiences regarding job and development opportunities (mathur-helm, 2005). while more enlightened senior management staff may have recognised the undesirable and debilitating effects of an entrenched male culture, there was little evidence to suggest that there had been any significant erosion of it within the ranks of middle managers, employers or employees (greed, 2006). women are still regarded as secondary to men in south african business culture (mathur-helm, 2005). there is a view that women do not show leadership potential and behave differently from traditional male leaders (mathur-helm, 2004; guppy and rick, 1994). according to johnson (1999) they are emotional and cannot shoulder responsibilities. what women do is rarely defined as leadership given that masculinity is an implicit construct of leadership (kloot, 2004). the south african definition of gender equality is guided by a vision of human rights which incorporates acceptance of the equal and inalienable rights of all men and women (kornegay, 2000). indeed, the rights of women need to be seen as human rights. in the bill of rights of the south african constitution “equality” is specified and enshrined (the republic of south africa, 1996). section 9(3) of the constitution provides that no one may unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on any grounds such as, for example, race, gender and culture. this prohibition on discrimination is an integral part of processes to achieve social justice in south africa. gender equality, therefore, requires that the underlying causes of discrimination are systematically identified and removed in order to give women and men equal opportunities in every sphere of life. according to the ilo: in short, the economic integration of women, which comes only when market barriers are lowered and women are given an equal chance to attain decent work, remains a necessity for economic development and a worthy goal in its own right (2008:4). in south african society women historically faced the burden of unpaid household labour in addition to income generating work. a rigid and uncompromising organisation of working hours and environment prevented them from performing well considering that they needed to take time off for childcare and other family responsibilities (ellison, 2001 and wilson, 1998). often these demands reduced their chances of full-time paid employment. furthermore in australasian journal of construction economics and building madikizela, k and haupt, t (2010) ‘influences on women’s choices of careers in construction: a south african study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 1‐15 3 terms of the south african employment equity act of 1998, labour market discrimination arises when employers make decisions about employees for reasons that are not related to genuine work requirements (republic of south africa, 1998). discrimination appears most obviously when an employer focuses on irrelevant personal characteristics instead of work performance or merit and women have to work extra well and hard to gain any prospect of promotion. unfortunately women have not been benefitting from government policies and legislation to advance their careers (mathur-helm, 2005). there is, therefore, no correlation between policy and practice. the generally accepted and popular image of construction is that of a male-dominated industry requiring brute strength and tolerance for outdoor conditions, inclement weather and bad language (fielden et al., 1999). women, therefore, have three choices, namely to be successful by behaving like men, fail to adapt to the culture and leave, or by not acting like men to remain in unimportant positions (bennett, davidson and gale, 1996; sachs, chrisler and devlin, 1992). according to agapiou (2002), the image and perception of an industry were significant factors in determining career choice in their study. furthermore the construction industry is perceived as being the epitome of crisis, conflict and masculinity manifesting in the unsociable, confrontational behaviour that discourages women and ethnic minorities from considering construction as a meaningful career. the industry had an industry–wide problem with ‘image’, which made both men and women reluctant or uninterested in the industry (gale, 1994). haupt and smallwood, (2005) in their study found south african students had very limited knowledge and understanding of the construction industry. according to fielden et al., (1999) the general lack of knowledge and information about the industry, the career opportunities it can offer and what qualifications are offered, further compound the problem of the low representation by women in the sector. parents, teachers and school children generally believed that jobs in the construction industry were limited to bricklaying, joinery, painting and decorating. against the background that issues of gender equality have been extensively studied in advanced economies but less so in countries with less advanced economies, this paper highlights the findings of a study conducted in south africa to examine the factors that influence the career choices of women with emphasis on the construction industry. the study examined the interconnection between gender, culture, religion, masculinity and the unattractive image of the construction industry and the career choices of women in south africa. in particular, it provides insight into the popularity of careers in construction among women relative to other industrial sectors. it explores the prevalence of discrimination against women in construction and its overall impact on their final career choice preferences. methodology a purposive sampling approach was adopted to gather data on the research topic. construction companies, construction students, and professional women working in construction were surveyed using self administered questionnaires. data was encoded and analysed using spss. the views were canvassed of a convenience sample of 1,435 industry practitioners, 141 first and final year construction students and 17 professional women from the gauteng and western cape provinces where arguably most construction activity in south africa generally occurs. the industry survey included 11 questions on aspects of gender practices and policies within their organizations. the student and professional women survey instruments included 83 and 33 statements respectively to which respondents were required to respond typically using a 5-point likert scale of agreement. australasian journal of construction economics and building madikizela, k and haupt, t (2010) ‘influences on women’s choices of careers in construction: a south african study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 1‐15 4 industry survey the industry sample was comprised of 1,435 participants in construction workshops held in all 9 provinces in south africa over a 12 month period. the profile of the sample is shown in table 1. industry participation % province % architect 8.0 eastern cape 16.2 contractor 19.6 free state 5.5 engineer (consultant) 21.3 gauteng 15.7 manufacturer 1.5 kwazulu-natal 23.8 private sector client 5.8 limpopo 3.5 public sector client 19.4 mpumalanga 5.9 project manager (consultant) 7.6 northern cape 4.0 quantity surveyor (consultant) 7.0 north west 3.0 co-contractor 3.6 western cape 19.2 supplier 1.0 many provinces 3.4 other 5.4 total 100.0 total 100.0 average annual turnover % average annual employment % r1million 11<50 25.9 >r5million 50<100 8.6 >r20million 39.4 >100<250 8.2 total 100.0 >250 26.7 total 100.0 table 1 industry sample profile it is evident that the sample comprised mostly consulting engineers (21.3%), contractors (19.6%) and public sector clients (19.4%) who operated mostly in kwazulu-natal (23.8%), western (19.2%) and eastern cape (16.2%) provinces of south africa. most participants had average annual turnovers greater than r5 million. further, almost all (95.7%) employed on average less than 50 workers per annum. from table 2, it is evident that 90.5% of the sample employed less than 10 females on average per annum in their organisations. table 3 confirms that women are mostly employed to perform secretarial (69.1%) and administrative (42.5%) roles. where they were employed on construction sites they were mostly employed at the level of labourers (31.2%). number % employment category % <10 90.5 yes no >10<50 5.2 secretarial 69.1 30.9 >50<100 0.9 management (administration) 42.5 67.5 >100 3.4 unskilled (labourers) 31.2 68.8 total 100.0 skilled (artisans) 19.9 80.1 supervisory 17.3 82.7 semi-skilled (operators) 16.2 83.8 table 2 average annual employment of females table 3 employment categories of females relative to being asked about the prevalence of certain gender-based issues and practices in their respective organisations almost all respondents reported that females were afforded australasian journal of construction economics and building madikizela, k and haupt, t (2010) ‘influences on women’s choices of careers in construction: a south african study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 1‐15 5 the same rights, benefits and opportunities as males (92.2%). similarly, most of them reported that separate facilities such as toilets and ablutions were provided for females (83.2%) and that females were afforded equal advancement and promotion opportunities (87.6%). however, substantially less reported that funding was available targeted at improving the status and qualifications of female employees (51.1%), written gender equity policies were in place (44.5%), and gender-based educational material was provided to employees (27.8%). notably, a large proportion of almost 25% of respondents did not know what the situation was in their organisations relative to gender-related issues and practices. issue yes % no % don’t know % same rights, benefits and opportunities as males 92.2 3.1 4.7 separate toilet and ablution facilities provided 83.2 14.9 1.9 equal advancement and promotion opportunities 87.6 4.9 7.5 paid same rates of pay (wages and salaries) as males 69.2 7.3 23.4 visible management endorsement of non-discriminatory practices, gender-based education programs and information 65.2 18.5 16.3 simple, clear and unambiguous communication of gender equity policy 55.2 22.7 22.1 available funding targeted at improving status and qualifications of female employees 51.1 25.0 23.9 written gender equity policy in place 44.5 34.9 20.6 provision of gender-based educational material 27.8 50.0 22.2 practices that might be regarded as discriminatory because worker was female 8.8 64.3 26.9 table 4 gender-based issues relative to observed gender-based discriminatory practices (8.8%) respondents cited examples of these as follows, namely: • decision not to award a tender to a woman because of skepticism; • engineers undermine me and threaten to work me out; • no ablution facilities provided on site; • female engineers had to be accompanied to rural sites due to danger. comments suggestive of prevailing attitudes towards females in construction included: • too many unqualified females are appointed to top positions; • [gender] equity is not a priority for management; • heavy construction work negatively affects women’s reproductive organs; • nature of industry has not encouraged women to apply; • construction sites are not suited to women; • family responsibilities interfere with their [women’s] progress; • fellow workers are shocked at my [woman] excellent performance. student survey while the validity of the views of students has been questioned (ross and elechi, 2002), their views need to be considered given that they are one of the three cooperative partners in the cooperative construction education model (haupt, 2003). the student sample was drawn from two major universities in the western cape and gauteng provinces, namely the australasian journal of construction economics and building madikizela, k and haupt, t (2010) ‘influences on women’s choices of careers in construction: a south african study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 1‐15 6 university of johannesburg (55.3%) and the cape peninsula university of technology (44.7%). the sample was constituted as follows, namely • junior (1st and 2nd year) students 43.6% (males=31.2%; females=51.2%); and • senior (3rd and 4th year) students 56.4% (males=68.8%; females=48.8%). institution % program % cput 44.7 construction management 37.5 uj 55.3 quantity surveying 60.8 total 100.0 civil engineering 1.7 total 100.0 year /level of study gender junior 43.6 male 61.0 senior 56.4 female 39.0 total 100.0 total 100.0 table 5 student sample profile from table 5 it is evident that most (60.8%) of the students were quantity surveying majors, 37.5% were construction management majors, and the remaining 1.7% civil engineering majors. in terms of gender, males dominated the sample. the impact of discrimination students were presented with five statements relative to gender-based discriminatory practices in construction to which they needed to respond on a five-point scale of agreement where 1=totally disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral, 4=agree and 5=totally agree. the means of their responses are presented in table 6. sample males females rank statement mean sd mean sd mean sd 1 women on construction sites are not respected to the same extent as men 3.5 1.2 3.2 1.2 4.0 0.9 2 women are likely to be sexually harassed on site 3.4 1.2 3.4 1.3 3.4 1.1 3 the fact that there are more male professionals in construction intimidates women 3.1 1.1 3.3 1.1 2.8 1.0 4 women are more suited to administrative than production functions on site 2.9 1.3 3.4 1.2 2.1 1.1 5 female students are intimidated by the male students in classes 2.2 1.2 2.2 1.2 2.2 1.1 table 6 discrimination against women in the construction workplace the sample means suggest feelings of neutrality about issues of discriminatory practices except for disagreement about intimidation of female students by their male counterparts in class. both male and female students agreed similarly that women were likely to be sexually harassed on site. they also disagreed that female students were intimidated by male students in their classes. however, female students agreed more strongly that women on construction sites were not respected to the same extent as men and were more negative about being intimidated by there being more male professionals in the industry. while males tended to agree, women tended to disagree that women were more suited to administrative australasian journal of construction economics and building madikizela, k and haupt, t (2010) ‘influences on women’s choices of careers in construction: a south african study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 1‐15 7 than production functions on site. there were linear relationships between the gender of students and their responses to issues of discrimination. the spearman’s correlation coefficient of 0.353 at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) suggests that females were more likely to agree that women on construction sites were not respected to the same extent as men. similarly, a correlation coefficient of -0.457 at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) suggests that they were more likely to disagree that women were more suited to administrative than production functions on construction sites. further, the weak correlation coefficient of -0.188 at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) suggests that they were more likely to disagree that they were intimidated by there being more male consultants in the industry. the mann-whitney tests suggested that responses were significantly gender-biased relative to women not being respected on construction sites to the same extent as men and women being more suited to administrative than site production function on construction sites. this finding was reinforced by the kolmogorov-smirnov test statistics. the chi-square tests suggested that that the association was not the result of chance and that there was some association between gender and responses to issues of discrimination. male (%) female (%) discrimination impacts careers in construction negatively resulting in them rather choosing other careers 49.2 50.8 discrimination creates a sense of being inferior 56.5 43.5 discrimination results in less women in construction industry 0.0 100.0 because of discrimination women tend to avoid construction and stick to the conventional careers such as nursing 39.3 60.7 men think they can do all things whereas even women can do men’s work 0.0 100.0 most women become unsure of the available choices in the industry and end up dropping out of construction 39.3 60.7 table 7 impact of discrimination against women on career choices table 7 shows the split by gender of responses to each of the issues about discriminatory practices in the sector. more than half of the respondents (females) reported that discrimination impacted negatively on construction career choices resulting in women choosing careers in other sectors. further, a similar proportion of the sample (males) suggested that discrimination created among females a sense of being inferior to their male counterparts. only females reported that discrimination resulted in less women being employed in construction and that men thought they were the only ones who could do all things. similar proportions of the sample (females) reported that because of discrimination women tended to avoid the sector and were unsure of the career possibilities in construction. the impact of the low representation of women sample males females rank statement mean sd mean sd mean sd 1 an increased number of women in construction will contribute to the improvement of skills shortage in the construction industry 3.5 1.1 3.3 1.1 3.8 0.9 2 the low employment of women in construction contributes to the skills shortage in the construction industry 3.2 1.2 3.0 1.2 3.6 1.1 table 8 impact of women on skills shortages australasian journal of construction economics and building madikizela, k and haupt, t (2010) ‘influences on women’s choices of careers in construction: a south african study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 1‐15 8 the sample means suggest agreement about the impact of women on skills shortages. however, female students agreed more strongly that increased numbers of women would reduce the skills shortage and that the low employment levels of women in the sector actually contributed to the existence of the skills shortage. however, there was a statistically significant correlation albeit weak between gender and student responses to the impact of the low employment of women in construction to the skills shortage in the industry. the spearman’s correlation coefficient of 0.275 at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) suggests that females were more likely to agree that this was the case. similarly, a correlation coefficient of 0.230 at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) suggests that they were more likely to agree that increased numbers of women in the industry would contribute to a reduction in the skills shortage. relationship between culture, historical background and career choice rank question yes (%) no (%) unsure (%) s (n=171) 20.6 64.0 14.7 m (n=104) 20.3 60.8 19.9 1 do you believe that cultural beliefs will influence the success of your career in the construction industry? f (n=64) 19.6 71.7 8.7 s (n=171) 44.9 42.6 12.5 m (n=104) 50.0 35.1 14.9 2 do you believe that the cultural differences between males and females influence their career choice? f (n=64) 30.4 58.7 10.9 s (n=89) 52.3 31.8 15.9 m (n=52) 54.1 23.0 23.0 3 if yes, do you believe that this influence contributes to the low representation of women in construction f (n=37) 50.0 40.6 9.4 s (n=89) 45.2 43.3 10.6 m (n=52) 42.4 42.4 15.3 4 if yes, do you believe that this contributes to the prevalence of discrimination against women who have entered the construction industry f (n=37) 48.4 45.2 6.5 table 9 relationship between cultural beliefs, career choice and career success from table 9 there are no apparent significant differences between the views of males and females on the influence of culture and historical background on their potential career success. however, a greater proportion of females disagreed that cultural beliefs would influence their success (71.7%) and that the cultural differences between the sexes would influence their choice of career (58.7%). while, women generally tended to have more negative or positive views, there were no significant statistical correlations between gender or year of study and responses about cultural and background influences. influences behind career choices students statements males (%) females (%) opportunities in the industry 27.2 11.5 looking at something i constructed makes me feel good – passion 8.5 0.0 fascinated by beauty of buildings 13.6 8.6 my background and family members 15.3 11.5 the fact that there were few women 0.0 20.0 to challenge the perception that construction is for males 0.0 22.9 successful women in construction 1.7 5.7 table 10 influences behind construction career choices australasian journal of construction economics and building madikizela, k and haupt, t (2010) ‘influences on women’s choices of careers in construction: a south african study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 1‐15 9 table 10 shows the relative proportions in the sample of males and females who responded to the statements on the influences behind choosing careers in construction. it is evident that males were more likely to be influenced by opportunities in the industry (27.2%), background and family members (15.3%), and fascination with buildings (13.6%). on the other hand, females were more likely to be influenced by the challenge presented by the male dominant nature of the industry (22.9%) and the paucity of women employed in the sector (20.0%). statement male (%) female (%) nothing 30.8 26.7 poor working conditions 15.3 10.0 poor safety and risk 11.5 6.7 money 7.7 3.3 discrimination against women 0.0 13.3 lack of understanding of career opportunities in construction 7.7 6.7 negative image of the construction industry 5.7 26.7 lack of employment in construction 3.8 3.3 sexual harassment done by men 0.0 6.7 table 11 influences behind not selecting careers in construction similarly, table 11 shows the proportion of the sample by gender who responded to the statements on the influences for not choosing careers in construction. the findings suggest that nothing would deter both males (30.8%) and females (26.7%) from pursuing careers in construction if that was their choice. however, males were more likely to be deterred by poor working conditions (15.3%) and the poor h&s performance and risk management records (11.5%) of the industry. females were more likely to be deterred by the negative image of the industry (26.7%), discrimination against women (13.3%) and poor working conditions (10.0%). using a three-point scale where 1= low, 2=medium and 3=high, students were asked to rate the influence of careers in other sectors over construction. sample male female rank influence mean sd mean sd mean sd 1 the dangerous nature of the construction work 2.3 0.7 2.3 0.7 2.4 0.7 2 challenging work environment 2.3 0.7 2.4 0.7 2.3 0.8 3 the inability to work and have influence in a male dominated industry 2.3 0.7 2.3 0.7 2.3 0.7 4 male dominance of the industry 2.3 0.7 2.3 0.8 2.2 0.7 5 the seemingly discriminatory environment of the construction industry 2.2 0.7 2.2 0.7 2.3 0.7 6 knowledge of the construction industry 2.2 0.7 2.2 0.7 2.2 0.7 7 the masculine and unattractive image of the construction industry 2.0 0.7 2.0 0.8 2.0 0.7 8 career expectations and financial prospects 2.0 0.8 2.1 0.8 2.0 0.7 table 12 influence of career choices in other sectors over construction the results in table 12 suggest that the challenging work environment, dangerous nature of construction, inability to work and influence a male dominated industry, male dominance of the industry, discriminatory working environment and lack of knowledge of the industry were australasian journal of construction economics and building madikizela, k and haupt, t (2010) ‘influences on women’s choices of careers in construction: a south african study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 1‐15 10 rated as being medium to high influences on other women choosing careers in other sectors instead of construction analysis of student survey findings by year of study the responses of students were further analysed to determine the impact, if any, of the year of study on their responses. however, there were no statistically significant correlations between year of study and student responses save for a weak linear negative relationship between year of study and female students being intimidated by male students in classes. in this case the spearman’s correlation coefficient of -0.241 at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) suggests that as students progressed through their studies over time females would feel less threatened by the male students in their classes. professional women survey the professional women sample consisted of 17 construction industry professional women working in various construction industry organisations at junior, middle and senior management levels. the impact of discrimination the sample was presented with nine statements related to the impact of discrimination on their careers to which they needed to respond on a five-point scale of agreement where 1=totally disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral, 4=agree and 5=totally agree. their responses are shown in table 13. rank statement n 1 (%) 2 (%) 3 (%) 4 (%) 5 (%) mean st dev 1 women experience discrimination on entering the construction industry 17 0.0 0.0 5.9 47.1 47.0 4.4 0.6 2 women who work on construction sites are most likely to experience a higher prevalence of discrimination relative to those who work for consulting firms 17 0.0 5.9 17.6 52.9 23.6 3.9 1.2 3 women experience discrimination in construction and do not experience upward mobility in comparison to their male counterparts 17 0.0 23.5 11.8 47.1 17.6 3.6 1.1 4 males discriminate against pregnant women in construction 17 0.0 35.3 11.8 35.3 17.6 3.4 1.2 5 my contribution as a professional woman is not regarded as equally important as that of my male counterparts 17 11.8 20.4 11.8 23.5 23.5 3.2 1.4 6 women who fall pregnant while working in the construction industry experience a higher prevalence to discrimination than those on other sectors 17 0.0 11.8 23.5 35.3 17.4 3.1 1.3 7 women working in construction do not have the same opportunities to develop as their male colleagues 17 0.0 29.2 23.5 23.5 11.8 2.9 1.2 8 i have experienced discrimination in my workplace 17 5.9 17.6 23.5 35.3 17.7 2.9 1.2 9 the nature of the construction industry poses a threat to the career development of women in construction 17 0.0 41.2 17.6 11.8 29.4 2.1 0.9 table 13 discrimination against women in the construction workplace australasian journal of construction economics and building madikizela, k and haupt, t (2010) ‘influences on women’s choices of careers in construction: a south african study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 1‐15 11 from table 13, almost all the women (94.1%) believed that women experienced discrimination while working in the construction industry. about three-quarters (76.5%) believed that this discrimination was more prevalent on construction sites than in consultancies. furthermore, 64.7% agreed that women in construction did not enjoy the same opportunities for upward mobility as their male counterparts. more than half (52.7%) believed that pregnant women experienced discrimination which was more prevalent in construction than in other sectors. more than half (53.0%) of the respondents had experienced discrimination at work. almost half (47%) reported that their contribution as professional women was not regarded as equally important to that of their male counterparts. further, 41.2% believed that the nature of the construction industry posed a threat to the career development of women in the sector. the impact of low representation of women the responses to two questions related to the impact of the low representation of women on the skills shortage experienced by the construction sector are shown in table 14. rank question n yes (%) no (%) unsure (%) mean sd 1 do you believe that the employment equity act is addressing the skills shortage in construction? 17 50.0 14.3 35.7 1.9 0.9 2 do you believe that the low number of women choosing careers in construction contributes to the skills shortage? 17 80.0 20.0 0.0 1.2 0.4 table 14 impact of women on skills shortages half (50.0%) of the women believed that the employment equity act was addressing the low representation of women in construction and subsequently the skills shortage in the industry. however, most (80.0%) of them held that despite this legislation low numbers of women in the construction industry exacerbated the skills shortage. influence of culture, nature of industry and career choice participants in the study were presented with three statements on the influence of culture and the nature of the industry on the career choices of women. their responses are shown in table 15. rank statement n 1 (%) 2 (%) 3 (%) 4 (%) 5 (%) mean st dev 1 i would encourage other young women to pursue a career in construction, because i believe that there is a place and a need for females in the industry 17 0.0 0.0 0.0 29.4 70.6 4.7 0.5 2 women’s cultural beliefs and background influence their success in the construction industry 17 5.9 23.5 29.4 11.9 29.3 3.3 1.3 3 my experience within the construction industry confirmed my expectations and beliefs of the industry being male dominated and discriminatory towards women 17 0.0 35.4 23.5 35.5 5.9 3.1 0.9 table 15 cultural beliefs, industry nature and career success professional women strongly agreed (mean=4.7) that they would encourage women to consider careers in construction, as there was a need for more women in construction. however, they were somewhat neutral (mean=3.3) about the influence of their cultural beliefs and background on their prospects of successful careers in the sector. they were australasian journal of construction economics and building madikizela, k and haupt, t (2010) ‘influences on women’s choices of careers in construction: a south african study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 1‐15 12 somewhat surprisingly neutral (mean=3.1) about whether their experience in the industry had confirmed their views about the industry being both male dominant and discriminatory towards women. it is possible that as they gained experience and acceptance in the industry over time that they became less sensitive to the male dominance and discrimination. influences behind career choices it is evident that job opportunities in the south african construction sector driven by government initiatives, women’s desire to demonstrate their ability to compete equally with men in a male dominated industry, availability of bursaries, influence of family and opportunities for financial independence all influence women when choosing careers in construction. comments by women included, inter alia: • i wanted to prove that women are strong and are capable of handling the harsh realities of construction activities; • the fact that women are taken as powerless and unable to do what men can do. i want to be independent as an african woman who can do things without having to depend on male counterparts; • i was attracted by non-formal clothing, the fact that work on site was not officebased, and jobs are constantly changing. student views compared with professional women views the findings suggest that experience of the industry by professional women tempered their views relative to the industry itself when compared with the responses of students. the findings suggest that there might be a relationship between the perceptions held by the female students about their success in construction and their experience of the sector. the responses of the professional women working in the construction industry suggest that this prospect is likely. similarly, the experience of women in the industry suggested that as they gained more experience and acceptance in the industry they were able to hold their own and develop more realistic views of the nature of the sector. discussion despite government efforts to increase the participation ratio of women in construction, bodies such as the south african women in construction (sawic) and construction industry development board suggest that while there have been increases these have been contractor grading designation maximum value of contract total women owned % of total 1 r200,000 67,119 32,593 49 2 r500,000 4,735 2,206 47 3 r1,500,000 1,271 600 47 4 r3,000,000 1,718 692 40 5 r5,000,000 1,096 407 37 6 r10,000,000 877 274 31 7 r30,000,000 435 94 22 8 r100,000,000 121 10 8 9 no limit 119 1 1 total 77,491 36,877 48 table 16 cidb contractor gradings and breakdown of registered contractors (source: www.cidb.org accessed april 3, 2009) http://www.cidb.org/ australasian journal of construction economics and building madikizela, k and haupt, t (2010) ‘influences on women’s choices of careers in construction: a south african study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 1‐15 13 marginal and at the lowest end of the cidb contractor grades. table 16 shows the respective cidb contractor grades. the cidb register of contractors has 77,491 construction enterprises of which 48% are owned by women, namely 36,877. however, 88.4% of these enterprises fall within the lowest category of registration, namely grade one. a further 7.6% are in grades two and three. only 4% are registered in grades four and higher. only ten contractors are registered at grade 8. it is likely that the low numbers of qualified women entering the industry contributes to the lack of women-owned contracting firms the higher grades of the cidb register. the survey of industry stakeholders confirmed that most construction firms employed small numbers of women per annum in their organisations. these women were mostly employed to perform secretarial and administrative roles. where they were employed on construction sites they were typically employed at the level of laborers suggesting that women were regarded to be more suited to administrative than production functions on site. female students in particular opined that women on construction sites were not respected to the same extent as men and were intimidated by there being more male professionals in the industry. there is evidently a need for women to review their own professional roles and accept themselves as competent professional women in their own right. almost all respondents reported that females were afforded the same rights, benefits and opportunities as males in their organisations, had separate facilities such as toilets and ablutions and were afforded equal advancement and promotion opportunities. however, substantially less reported that there was available funding targeted at improving the status and qualifications of female employees, written gender equity policies in place, and genderbased educational material provided. these findings suggest a lack of visible and tangible commitment to empower women in their organisations. perceived or real discriminatory practices impacted negatively on career choices by women in construction. arguably, if jobs or work climate were developed to provide a more desirable work environment devoid of overt and covert sexism and racism and inflexible working structures an increase in the numbers of women attracted to work in construction would likely result. the current situation results in large reserves of skill and talent remaining untapped. the study found that increasing the numbers of women in the sector would reduce the skills shortage and that the low employment levels of women in the sector actually contributed to the existence of the skills shortage. however, dainty et al. (2004) suggest that women have a poor initial understanding of the culture of the industry and the inherent difficulties of working in a male-dominated and oriented environment. the findings of the study supported the view that there was a general lack of knowledge by women of the industry itself and the career opportunities it offered, suggesting that there might be a relationship between knowledge of the construction industry and the choice of careers in construction. the study found no significant differences between the views of males and females on the influence of culture and historical background on their career success. furthermore, contrary to common belief, cultural beliefs and backgrounds were not major influences on career choices made by women. however, females agreed more strongly that neither cultural beliefs nor the cultural differences between the sexes would influence their choice of career or their success. given the challenging work environment, dangerous nature of construction, inability to work in or influence a male dominated industry, male dominance of the industry, discriminatory working environment and lack of knowledge of the industry women were more likely to choose careers in other sectors instead of construction. women tended to believe that legislation such as the employment equity act created the platform for the low representation of women in construction to be addressed. however, australasian journal of construction economics and building madikizela, k and haupt, t (2010) ‘influences on women’s choices of careers in construction: a south african study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 1‐15 14 most of them held that despite this legislation there continued to be low numbers of women in the construction industry that exacerbated the skills shortage. evidently, more than just legislation is needed. the study findings suggest that it is possible that as they gained experience and acceptance in the industry over time women became less sensitive to the male dominance and discrimination. the study also found that women in construction did not enjoy the same opportunities for upward mobility as their male counterparts. pregnant women experienced discrimination which was more prevalent in construction than in other sectors and many women had themselves experienced discrimination at work. the contribution of women as professionals was not regarded as important as that of their male counterparts. clearly, the current nature of the construction industry posed a threat for the career development of women in the sector. conclusion the findings of this study confirm the gender bias that still exists within the south african construction sector. the male dominant nature of the industry and gender-based discrimination experienced by women employed in the industry are challenges that need to be overcome if increasing numbers of women are to choose careers in construction. legislation by itself is insufficient to boost the present low numbers of women and significantly reduce the skills shortage in the industry. the overall poor image of the industry presents a further inhibitive factor to women choosing to work in construction. the industry needs to make a more visible and tangible commitment to empowering women at all levels by providing equal opportunities for women. gender relations need to change. access to construction education needs to be widened and the specific barriers, image and culture addressed. however, it is also necessary for women to review their own roles and accept themselves as competent contributors to the industry in their own right. references agapiou, a. (2002) ‘exploring the attitudes of school-age children, their parents and educators to career prospects in the scottish construction industry’, equal opportunities international, 12(8), 18-29 bennett, j., davidson, m. and gale, a. (1999) ‘women in construction: a comparative investigation into the expectations and experiences of female and male construction undergraduates and employees’, women in management review, 14 (7), 273-292 dainty, a., bagilhold, b., ansari, k., and jackson, j. (2004) ‘creating equality in the construction industry: an agenda for change for women and ethnic minorities’, journal of construction research, 5 (1), 75-86 ellison, l. (2001) ‘senior management in chartered surveying: where are the women?’ women in management review, 16 (6), 264 –278 fielden, sl., davidson, m. j., gale, a. and davey, c. l. (2001) ‘women, equality and construction’, the journal of management development, 20 (4), 293 305 gale, a. (1994) ‘women in nontraditional occupations: the construction industry’, women in management review, 9 (2), 3-14 greed, c. (2006) ‘social exclusion: women in construction’, in managing diversity and equality in construction: initiatives and practice, eds a. w. gale, & m. davidson, taylor & francis, london, 71-97 guppy, a. and rick, j. (1996) ‘the influence of gender and grade on perceived work stress and job satisfaction in white collar employees’, work and stress, 10 (2), 154-164 haupt, tc. (2003) ‘student attitudes towards co-operative construction education experiences’, australian journal of construction economics and building, 3 (1), 29-40 australasian journal of construction economics and building madikizela, k and haupt, t (2010) ‘influences on women’s choices of careers in construction: a south african study’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (1/2) 1‐15 15 haupt, t. and smallwood, j. (2004) ‘gender equity in construction: myth or reality?’ contact africa, 3 (2), 4 international labor organization, (2008) global employment trends for women – march 2008, international labor organization, geneva johnson, d. (1999) transforming organizations: management cultures, women and leadership in south africa, unpublished kloot, l. (2004) ‘women and leadership in universities: a case study of women academic managers’, the international journal of public sector management, 17 (6), 470-485 kornegay, e. (2000) south african national framework for women’s empowerment and gender equality, the office on the status of women mathur-helm, b. (2005) ‘equal opportunity and affirmative action for south african women: a benefit of barrier?’ women in management review, 20 (1), 56-71 mathur-helm, b. (2004) ‘women in management in south africa’, in women in management worldwide: progress and prospects, eds l. davidson and r. burke ashgate publishing company, aldershot national gender policy framework, (2003) women’s empowerment and gender equality, national gender policy framework, pretoria phaahla, p. (2000) ‘bridging the gender divide in south african higher education management and leadership’, paper presented at the 13th annual international conference on women in higher education, 8-12 january, new orleans, louisiana, 1-10 ross, l.e. and elechi, oo. (2002) ‘student attitudes towards internship experiences: from theory to practice’, journal of criminal justice education, 13 (2), 297-312 sachs, r., chrisler, j. and devlin, a. (1992) ‘biographic and personal characteristics of women in management’, journal of vocational behaviour, 13, 439-447 schein, ve. (1978) ‘sex role stereotyping, ability and performance: prior research and new directions’, personnel psychology, 31, 259-268 thompson, n. (1997) ‘women in construction’, wisenet, 43, (7 pages) www.wisenetaustralia.org the republic of south africa, (1996) constitution of the republic of south africa, act no.108 of 1996, government printers, pretoria the republic of south africa, (1998) the employment equity act no 55 of 1998, government printers, pretoria wilson, e. m. (1998) ‘gendered career paths’, personnel review, 27 (5), 398 – 411 abstract introduction methodology industry survey student survey analysis of student survey findings by year of study professional women survey student views compared with professional women views discussion conclusion references why is design-build commonly used in the public sector? an illustration from hong kong edmond wm. lam, phd candidate,albert p.c. chan, professor, and daniel wm. chan,assistant professor (department of building and real estate, hong kong polytechnic) abstract the design and build (d&b) procurement method is one of the systems advocated to overcome inadequacies with the traditional procurement method. in recent years, this innovative procurement method has been put to practice in hong kong where a vast amount of infrastructure works is taking place. this paper aims to illustrate the applicability of design-build in the hong kong setting.as most d&b projects are undertaken by the public sector of hong kong, the main features of a public sector project and reasons for its wider use on d&b are fully examined in the paper. to further explore the benefits of d&b in actual practice, structured interviews have been conducted with clients, contractors and consultants running d&b projects in hong kong. summary of major problems of running d&b projects from the previous study by the authors is also outlined. with the increasing use of d&b in the public sector of hong kong and worldwide, more research can be undertaken on the quantitative comparison of the traditional mode of procurement and how to carry out a d&b project successfully so as to develop a knowledge base for the d&b procurement method. keywords-design-build , construction , characteristics, public sector, hong kong introdi jctlon the adoption of the traditional design-bid-build method in the building industry has become a common practice (rowlinson and walker, 1995). however, the increasing complexity of buildings, the need to reduce design and construction periods and the increasing burden of contract administration urge the clients and designers to find better and more efficient ways to deliver projects (chan et ai. , 1999).as a result, clients have been seeking more efficient procurement routes in order to have better time, quality and risk performance in recent decades. design-build (d&b) contracts become increasingly popular as the construction industry seeks less adversarial and more integrated project procurement strategies (palaneeswaran and kumaraswamy, 2001). they appear to be a panacea to many of the problems faced by the practitioners. research and surveys reported in the construction press indicate considerable growth of the design and build approach (ndekugri and church, 1996). it has been used around the globe extensively and its popularity has grown substantially over the last 10 years (ernsen and schexnayder, 2000) . in the last decade, d&b has also been used extensively in hong kong to help deal with the problems associated with the traditional system (chan, 2000). it is mostly implemented by the public sector which has shown an increasing acceptance of design-build in recent years (rizzo, 1998). it is a common goal for most governments to introduce more innovative and efficient methods in delivering public building projects. however, d&b is not without problems and practitioners in the industry may increasingly show concerns on the benefits of the d&b method in actual practice. this paper analyses the applicability of the d&b adoption in the public sector of hong kong. it aims to identify the key characteristics of the d&b method and account for its wider adoption in the public sector. it also provides an empirical study on the benefits of the d&b method in actual practice and summarises the potential problems of running d&b projects from a previous study. the paper is divided into five parts. it first presents an overview of the design-build development in the hong kong setting. more detailed analysis in terms of the characteristics of public sector projects and the reasons for the popular use of d&b in the public sector of hong kong will then be provided. structured interviews have also been conducted with practitioners in the industry to study the benefits of the d&b method in actual practice. potential problems of running d&b projects are then summarised from a previous survey. the significance of this study will also be highlighted at the end of the paper. development of design-build procurement system in hong kong d&b has been a popular alternative procurement method (palaneeswaran and kumaraswamy, 2000). it has experienced extraordinary growth in recent years and there have been increasing reports of adopting the design and build method to procure complex projects in the uk and the us (deakin, 1999). among the asian-countries, hong kong has adopted various types of procurement systems, including the separated, integrated and management-oriented methods (masterman, 2002). while management contracting has not been used to any great degree, the design and build approach which uses contractors' expertise to a much greater extent is being increasingly used in hong kong (hatush and skitmore, 1997). the australian journal of constnuction economics and building i vol 3 , no 1i i 53 trend of the design-build adoption in hong kong in the past, d&b was only carried out on an ad hoc basis in hong kong, with insignificant difference between the public and private sector (lam, 1990). the development and use of non-traditional forms of contracting is becoming more common and the d&b procurement method has become accepted by the construction industry of hong kong in the last few years (tam, 1997). the total contract value in the last 20 years is about 3% of the total expenditure, which is about hk$50 billion for d&b main contracts compared with the total expenditure exceeding hk$1 ,600 billion (pearson and skues, 1999). d&b has been used in civil engineering works since 1980 (rowlinson and walker, 1995). because of the implementation of the ten airport core programme projects, hong kong gradually applies d&b to its infrastructure development projects, such as the construction of tsing ma bridge, kap shui mun bridge and ma wan viaducts. in the building sector, the first d&b project was adopted by the architectural services department (asd) in 1989 to procure the vietnam refugee centre (chan and yung , 2000). the success of the project encouraged the asd to consider applying d&b in other government projects and thus the use of d&b is gradually promoted (deakin, 1999). indeed, most d&b projects in hong kong are used in the public sector. over 40% of the d&b projects undertaken by construction firms in hong kong are public works while private user-clients tend to use d&b for specific projects only (chan and yung, 2000). use of the design-build procurement in the public sector of hong kong the government is the single largest client of the construction industry and is responsible for all buildings needed for public services (rowlinson and walker, 1995). while the traditional procurement arrangement is still adopted in the majority of projects, the use of d&b is increasing, particularly in the public sector because the government begins to award major contracts on this basis, with the publication of the general conditions of contract for design and build contracts in may 1992. such contract document was later revised in 1999 with administrative procedures. it is used by the government in hospital, infrastructure, minor works and housing projects. this reflects the situation that the d&b procurement system is gaining its popularity in the public sector (lam and chan, 1995). the hospital authority (ha) the hospital authority of hong kong was established in december 1990. to cater for the increasing needs on health care facilities, the enhanced form of d&b was adopted to achieve the rapid delivery of projects, including north district hospital, tseung kwan 0 hospital and later the redevelopment of the grantham hospital (deakin, 1999; wilkins, 1999). the hong kong housing authority (hkha) the hong kong housing authority (ha) was established in early 1954. the housing department, the executive arm of the ha, introduced the private sector participation scheme (psps) in 1977 as a supplement to the home ownership scheme (hos). in fact, the psps has all the characteristics of a d&b project by using the resources of the private sector in terms of design, construction, supervision of production and project management (ho et ai. , 1996). the environment, transport and works bureau the environment, transport and works bureau of the hong kong special administrative region (hksar) is responsible for the management of the public sector construction work other than housing such as government buildings, roads, reclamation and bridges. it consists of seven departments related to public works projects, namely: ~ the architectural services department (asd) ~ the drainage services department (dsd) ~ the electrical and mechanical services department (emsd) ~ the highways department (hyd) ~ the territory development department (too) ~ the water supplies department (wsd) ~ the civil engineering department (ced) all except the electrical and mechanical services department and the territory development department have projects procured by d&b and the numbers of some major d&b projects in the government organisations of hong kong from 1992 to 2001 are shown in table 1. government organisations ha hkha aso oso hyo wso ceo number of d&b projects 2 20 21 3 3 1 5 table 1: the numbers of major d&b projects in the government organisations of hong kong (chan et al. , 2003104; hong kong housing authority, 2002; environment, transport and works bureau, 2002) of the various government departments, the asd accounted for about one-third of the projects in the public sector and its trend in d&b adoption can well illustrate the increasing significance of d&b projects in the public sector (chan and yung , 2000). why is design-build commonly used in the public sector? an illustration from hong kong by edmond w.m. lam, albert p.c. chan and daniel w.m. chan 54 functions/features of construction management software package i i i a. general system characteristics b. package basic functioni i i i 4. reliability 1. project team1. ease of use 4. progress control and support development 2. compatibility with 2. information5. cost 5. bidding other systems control 3. hardware 6. centralised [3. communicationsrequirements printing services figure 1: the trend ofthe use of d&b projects in the asd over the past eight years (source: chan et al., 2001) 50 'i 45 1°! 40... ~.' ~ 35 , r:: 30 re " ~ 25 ~ .;; 20 <.; ;::: 15 , f;..: 10 < l",., 5 0 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 year figure 2: the proportion in total contract value of d&b projects in the asd over the past eight years (source: chan et al., 2001) the australian journal of construction economics and building j vol 3 , no 1 j i 55 figure 1 shows the trend of the use of d&b projects in the asd over the past 8 years. it is revealed that there is an increasing number of projects adopting the d&b procurement method in the asd, from 0.91% in 1992 to 9.91 % in 1999, with a sudden increase of d&b projects tendered out in 1999. the proportion in total contract value of d&b projects in the asd over the past 8 years is shown as figure 2. the contract value of d&b projects increased from hk$68.58 million in 1992 to hk$6025.41 million in 1999, with an increase of nearly a hundred times in the eight-year period. the total d&b contract value over the total construction contract value also increased in the period, from 2.36% in 1992 to 46.1 4% in 1999, which is almost half of the total construction contract value in the asd. there is indeed a large investment in the d&b projects in hong kong, indicating a significant influence of the d&b procurement method in the public sector of hong kong . hong kong has developed an effective design and build procurement system. other procurement forms like the professional construction management (pcm) may not be widely used in hong kong because of the unfamiliarity of the project participants with such a method. pcm is the basic form of construction management where an agent, construction manager, performs design functions from the start till the end of construction (haltenhoff, 1986). contractors in hong kong may find it difficult to coordinate various professionals under pcm which demands a multi-disciplinary organisation. moreover, pcm requires a well-organised system for registration , licensing and certification of a construction manager, which is absent in the public sector of hong kong. the hong kong construction industry is characterised by the multi-layered sub-contracting structure (cl rc, 2001). under pcm, the work is administratively controlled by a separate entity which performs little or no direct construction work-the construction manager. therefore, coordination can be a problem which adds a heavy burden to the client. like the construction manager, the specialist contractors enter into direct contracts with the client, who needs to bear the risks on time and price. indeed, several court decisions from overseas hold the government responsible for delays and associated costs, indicating an increased risk of government liability when using the cm system (scott and showalter, 1986). while the traditional procurement arrangement is still adopted in the majority of projects, the use of d&b is increasing since the government begins to award major contracts on this basis (lam and chan, 1995). in fact, there are several characteristics of public sector projects that enhance the adoption of the d&b procurement method. characteristics of pljbllc sector projects the meaning of 'public sector' is rather abstract. huque et al. (1998) define it as an entity with ideas related to governmental activities. indeed, the boundary between the private and public sectors has become blurred as the functions and operations always overlap that makes the distinction much more difficult. in fact, the management of the public sector is greatly influenced by existing social, political and economic realities and better management requires a clearer understanding of public sector project characteristics. clear objectives public projects are usually launched with clear objectives to convince the concerned approval authorities for funding purposes. they usually have tight time constraints and a lump sum determined in advance (chan, 2000). the requirements of time, cost and quality are heavily stressed as the principal concern areas where cost certainty is an important selection criterion to be addressed (palaneeswaran and kumaraswamy, 2000). well-established project procedures public projects are being tendered out under rigid rules and regulations through open and fair competition with high levels of bureaucracies. normally, the tender with the lowest bid is accepted (circ, 2001). rigid rules and regulations unlike private sector organisations, government organisations usually procure a project under many governing rules and regulations (palaneeswaran and kumaraswamy, 2000). they are also bound by legislation. therefore, they have been criticised as inert to innovation and rapid change. even those public bodies that genuinely wish to change, standing orders and procedures sometimes render it impossible. clients in public funding projects are also not encouraged to issue variations after the contract is signed because it will reduce the degree of certainty on project cost. flexibility to change is not so important in the public sector since the commercial factor and the profit oriented objective do not normally exist (palaneeswaran and kumaraswamy, 2000). open and fair competition all bidders are given the same information of public sector projects to prepare their bids and they are always treated equally without discrimination. all necessary information provided in the tender documents and all procurement procedures and practices are clear and transparent to facilitate better understanding among contractors. in fact, selection is made on both the less tangible aspects of social public interest, public support and political backing, and the more tangible elements of technical performance, cost and why is design-build commonly used in the public sector? an illustration from hong kong by edmond w.m. lam, albert pc chan and daniel w.m. chan 56 schedule (riggs et ai., 1992). moreover, prequalification screening is essential to cater for the need for open competition through public bidding for public sector projects, especially for design-build projects where there is a scoring system to select the design and build contractor (palaneeswaran and kumaraswamy, 2000). this involves a screening procedure based on a set of prequalification criteria and requires contractors to plan the organisations of the design and construction teams, design strategy, quality assurance strategy, safety and cost management to ensure that the contract can be carried out satisfactorily if it is awarded to them (hatush and skitmore, 1997). high levels of bureaucracies public sector projects are implemented by several government departments with specific interests and skills. such departments have different roles to play and have various degrees of authority towards the approval of public sector projects. there is also a considerable number of client changes during the construction phase (smith and wilkins, 1996). as a result, it is generally observed in the divergent practices of the public clients that there is a lack of communications among such clients (palaneeswaran and kumaraswamy, 2000). moreover, common 'knowledge sharing platforms' in public organisations are rare so some useful experiences cannot be disseminated properly. public sector projects are required to undergo several approval procedures which are lengthy and have eventually led to public works being generally considered as centrally controlled, bureaucratic and inefficient (wilkins, 1999). indeed, public clients need to incorporate most of the modern management tools and technologies to cope with the growing demands of the construction industry to remain competitive and make optimal use of scarce resources. acceptance of the lowest bid normally, public clients are constrained to select the lowest bidder for contracting, except in extraordinary cases (palaneeswaran and kumaraswamy, 2000). they are bound to follow a 'minimum needs doctrine' in public sector procurement to demonstrate that value for money has been obtained (wilkins, 1999). in fact, the acceptance of the lowest bid can best illustrate the need for complete public accountability and the concept of 'value for money' (smith and wilkins, 1996). emphasis on the public in most cases, public acceptance is required prior to implementation of public sector projects. public clients in a public agency can only buy what they actually need, not what they want. the need for a building is no exception as the project may be subject to public hearings and some engineering teams may need to interact with the public (culp and smith, 2001). indeed, the main concerns of public clients are public accountability and certainty of cost. traditionally, the idea of accountability has been very much attached to the use of public resources, especially public funds (leong, 1991 ; mo and ng, 1997). government institutions and their related organisations should constantly be aware that they are accountable to the tax-paying public for their effective and efficient use. in fact, public accountability has been considered an important aspect in project delivery in the public sector, and extended and complex government approval procedures have been established from the pressures of accountability (chan et ai. , 1999). price certainty is usually established for government projects because of public accountability (chan, 2000). the public sector has a duty to ensure that the community gets maximum value from the available resources best value for money (finance bureau, 2000). moreover, clients of public funding projects are not encouraged to take risk and they have to know about the operations of the project clearly (mo and ng, 1997). the twin objectives of 'value for money' and 'public accountability' have, in the past, been seen to be most easily achieved by acceptance of the lowest tender. recent literature suggests other principles of delivering a public sector project effectively, including 'fitness for purpose', reputation , ethics and environmental concerns (kumaraswamy and walker, 1999). in recent years, public sector owners are rapidly identifying new construction procurement methods for the delivery of public sector projects (molenaar and songer, 1998). d&b has emerged as an alternative to the more traditional options of open competitive tendering for procuring public projects. it is a popular mode of procuring construction work and the 1990s have seen an explosion of d&b in the public sector (akintoye, 1994). in fact, the characteristics of d&b projects can account for its increasing use in the public sector. matching d&b features with public sector pro.lect characteristics public sector clients have high regard for accountability, value for money and certainty of completion. they experimented with d&b with varying degrees of success due to a number of benefits that d&b can offer. single point of communication one benefit that d&b offers is the single-point responsibility that has drastically increased productivity at both preand post-contractual stages (franks, 1998). in the public sector, it is recognised that there is usually a lack of communications of end-user requirements in the brief development and design stages-a 'multi-headed client problem' (smith and wilkins, 1996).as a result, there is diffusion of decision-making and difficulty in allocating responsibility. d&b allows the concerned parties to meet the australian journal of construction economics and building 1 vol 3 , no 11 i 57 and discuss detailed requirements through direct communication with the contractor who is responsible for the design, construction , planning, organisation and control of the project. such integrated nature of teams improves communication between designers and builders and encourages a prompt response. it is especially advantageous in the public sector where high levels of bureaucracies occur and hence it is better to introduce one point communication. certainty on time and cost o&b enables public sector clients to have firmer control of time. it offers a faster approach than the traditional procurement method as the fast track concept of overlapping the design and construction is possible (hong kong construction association, 1990). as construction can be commenced before the completion of design, the project duration can be shortened. such characteristics of o&b projects can be better achieved in the public sector as public sector clients can better follow the application procedures. on some occasions, government projects can have exemptions from different statutory requirements and there is no need to queue for long processing time of documentation (oeakin, 1999; huque et ai. , 1998). as a result, public sector clients can be more certain of when the project is finished which has important cost implications. in o&b projects, there are certainties in controlling the design of contractors since the client's requirements are well defined and stable at the project inception stage. therefore, the early cost certainty is possible through o&b (franks, 1998). this criterion is important, particularly in public sector projects as it is considered essential to have a fixed price determined well in advance. o&b is chosen because of the definite completion date and the guaranteed cost which are the prime concerns for public sector projects (chan and yung , 2000). use of contractor's expertise o&b enables combining both the contractor and design consultants' expertise where the special expertise of the contractor can be utilised (hong kong construction association , 1990). the contractor can have more control over the design and introduce components which are more economical to construct and so productivity can be enhanced. moreover, the closer involvement of the design consultants in the building process can lead to designs having a greater appreciation of construction methods buildability (works bureau, 1999). it also provides opportunities for innovation and excellence to come up with the design of the best value for money (palaneeswamy and kumaraswamy, 2000). pre-qualification exercises prequalification is a pre-tender process used to investigate and assess the capabilities of contractors to carry out a contract satisfactorily if it is awarded to them (hatush and skitmore, 1997). this involves a screening procedure based on a set of prequalification criteria, instead of just using the low bid criterion which is not necessarily able to justify the 'value for money' concept (palaneeswamy and kumaraswamy, 2000) . such a screening process is essential, especially in public sector projects to ensure that they are tendered out to technically competent contractors to increase the chance of project success. it also enables public sector clients to have maximum economy of cost in every project so that the one with the best value for money can be selected. fairness and competitiveness can be ensured which is a special demand of public accountability for public funded projects (tam, 1997). use of private sector resources many public sector clients nowadays have sought to privatise social services to minimise financial and managerial effort (la grange and prestorius, 1996). as each project has to satisfy the specific needs of a particular sector of society, the public sector gradually relies on the construction companies to manage the whole project on a design and construct basis (walker, 1995). in fact, the use of the o&b procurement method in the public sector enables public sector clients to enjoy some benefits of privatisation, including the risk transfer to the private sector, the increase in operating efficiency and the streamlining of the size of the public sector (lam, 1990). as many construction projects are planned in the public sector, the lack of resources in the government will cause delays in projects. therefore, the use of private sector resources can provide social benefits and o&b can reduce the government's resources for design work, reduce claims and help lower risks (songer and molenaar, 1996). government initiation the public sector in every country has certain commitments to the public towards project completion so that projects can serve their functions as stated. such commitments have indeed put great pressure on the public sector to complete projects as soon as possible. therefore, the public sector has become more innovative in procurement methods to deliver the projects more effectively. to be more innovative in the context of contract documents, the public sector of hong kong produced a o&b contract in the 1990s. moreover, in 1999, administrative procedures were established to complement the general conditions of contract for o&b projects to maintain the consistency in the common understanding of o&b. such a move not only shows the intention of the public sector to use o&b in future projects, but also creates an image that o&b is one major why is design-build commonly used in the public sector? an illustration from hong kong by edmond w.m. lam,albert p.c. chan and daniel w.m. chan 58 procurement system. in fact, the enactment of the standard forms of design and build contract can combat ambiguities and uncertainties which are particularly important in construction projects where disputes commonly arise (deakin , 1999). a firm government commitment and the promotion by the government to take the lead in using d&b can indeed provide a strong justification for the adoption of such a new alternative procurement method. empirical survey on the use of the d&b method benefits of d&b various literature reported on the benefits of the d&b procurement method but it is questionable whether the application of d&b can better meet the requirements of construction projects. an empirical study has been conducted with ten d&b participants in hong kong on the benefits of adopting the d&b method in their residential quarters projects by means of structured interviews during december 2001 and june 2002. the respondents are notably the client, the contractor and the consultant and are represented by the prefixes clt-, ctrand cotrespectively. details of the respondents are shown in table 2. reference no. group project ctr1 contractor lor quarters clt2 client lor quarters cot3 consultant lor quarters cot4 consultant lor quarters ctrs contractor fl quarters clt6 client lor quarters clt7 client lcl quarters clt8 client hnr quarters ctr9 contractor hnr quarters ctr10 contractor wkr quarters table 2: details of interviewees one client interviewee believed that there were on the whole few disputes that arose from the quarters projects because d&b can be used to take the advantage of the contractor in terms of better buildability with possible cost savings in materials at a lower price and to the required quality (clt2). it can allow the completion of a project at high certainty of time and cost and make good use of the contractor's expertise (clt7, clt8). d&b is advantageous in its fast track construction since the design time is squeezed to provide a faster project delivery (clt6). it also allows flexibility of project and the contractors of the quarters projects were claimed to be rather innovative and keen on providing alternatives regarding the choice of materials (clt7). the contractor interviewees believed that d&b enables the client to rely heavily on the fast track experience of the contractor who is believed to have good time management to control the whole project (ctr1 , ctr10). one contractor interviewee even claimed that d&b can save time by at least seven times in the design stage when compared with the traditional method and there is usually cost reduction when the project is finished (ctrs). as the design is not fixed , more innovative ideas can be obtained from the various tenderers who can contribute more input and construction knowledge to the design of the project to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of construction process (ctr1, ctr10). therefore, even if the tender price of the project is not the lowest, the proposal will still be selected because of the better design from the contractor (ctrs). d&b can also avoid disputes as the contractor provides a single point of responsibility to further enhance the coordination of the project (ctr1 , ctr9). d&b allows an early determination of time and cost (cot4). it is preferred because of the enormous dispute and claim issues in the use of traditional contracts and the government may find ways to a smoother project delivery method to settle the final accounts (cot3). in fact, there were fewer variation orders in d&b because of the d&b nature where few design discrepancies were encountered (cot3, cot4). a better relationship among the project participants can also be maintained under d&b, which puts forward earlier the potential claims before disputes arise (cot3) . it is clear that d&b provides single point of communication to reduce disputes and enhance the coordination of the project. it also allows high certainty of time and cost and makes good use of the contractor's expertise for better buildability of the project. the selection mechanisms also enable the best 'value-for-money' option to be awarded. however, d&b, like other procurement systems, may not be perfect in all circumstances. can d&b be problem-free? the use of d&b is on the increase worldwide, especially in the public sector where public accountability is of utmost importance in delivering public sector projects. d&b provides benefits to project participants but indeed, no one single procurement system is free from problems and d&b is no exception. lam et al (2003) provided a comprehensive desk study on the potential problems of running d&b projects from the viewpoints of client, contractor and consultant (fig. 3) . so long as appropriate management strategies are administered and harmonious relationships are established among project team members, d&b can still be one effective procurement tool for public sector projects. the australian journal of construction economics and building 1 vol 3 , no 11 i 59 problems associated with the client preconstruction stage caused by the group: • lengthy evaluation of tenders • unclear client's requirements faced by the group • little interaction with the tenderers • little choice on market construction stage caused by the group • frequent and late changes • delay of design approval faced by the group • restricted control over the project problems associated with the contractor faced by the group: • lack of management expertise • tendering burden • misinterpretation of client's requirements problems of d&b problems associated with the design consultant faced by the group: • loss of professionalism • ethical problem caused by the group • technical problem figure 3: potential problems of running d&b projects (lam et al., 2003) significance of the stljdy the traditional procurement system is flawed with a number of problems (latham, 1994). however, rwelamila and hall (1994) argued that the problems are not necessarily the fault of the traditional design-bid-build system, but may be conceived as the failure to manage the 'human aspect' effectively and attempts have been made to search for a procurement system with better coordination of various project participants. as a result, the industry strongly advocates the use of innovative procurement systems of which o&b is increasingly popular. the construction industry review committee in hong kong considers d&b to be one method for construction process re-engineering to achieve better integration in project delivery processes (circ, 2001). it recommends o&b be adopted more widely in both the public and the private sectors. this paper is expected to be a positive contribution to encouraging both the initiation and effectiveness of the more integrated procurement arrangements. other considerations • unclear about responsibilities • conflicts in interpretation of client's requirements • resistance to change • frequent changes from end-users • late approval from related statutory organisations • lack of trust and respect • divergent attitudes towards d&b • concerns on 'corner-cutting' • lack of confidence many governments have sought to privatise social services. in hong kong , the ps ps is chosen to maximise revenue to the public sector (la grange and pretorius, 1996). a study of the reasons for the wider adoption of o&b in the public sector represents an important shift from the traditional low bid procurement procedures to a more integrated 'value-for money' project delivery method. it also enables further understanding of the characteristics of this innovative procurement system in meeting the established government objectives of public sector project delivery. still, o&b is not without problems and the management level should consider properly different procurement systems in their decision-making. the public sector is the largest client in hong kong (walker, 1995). it is the key to an effective construction industry. if more projects in the public sector are procured by o&b, contractors may be encouraged to further develop their o&b knowledge in order to stay competitive to bid for future projects. once they are familiarised with o&b, the level of why is design-build commonly used in the public sector? an illustration from hong kong by edmond w.m. lam, alber! p.c. chan and daniel w.m. chan 60 adoption will be increased and even extended to the private sector.as a consequence, the use of d&b should be significantly promoted across a broad spectrum of the construction industry. conclusions this paper attempts to give an overview of the d&b development in the public sector of hong kong. the characteristics of public sector projects are presented, including clear objectives, well-established project procedures in terms of rigid rules and regulations, open & fair competition, high levels of bureaucracies and acceptance of the lowest bid, and emphasis on the public. moreover, reasons for the wider use of d&b in the public sector can be attributed to its characteristics, notably single point of communication , certainty on time & cost, use of contractor's expertise, pre-qualification exercises, use of private sector resources and government initiation. while d&b may not be a perfect procurement method, key findings from the empirical study with d&b practitioners in hong kong show that the benefits of d&b can also be realised in actual practice. more research can be focused on the quantitative comparison of the traditional mode of procurement. with the increasing adoption of the d&b procurement method in the public sector, further research can be conducted on how to carry out a d&b project successfully, particularly in the hong kong context so as to develop a knowledge base for further promotion on the use of d&b in hong kong and other parts of the world. acknowi edgements the authors gratefully acknowledge the respondents for providing valuable information in interview surveys and the hong kong polytechnic university for providing funding to support this research effort. references akintoye, a. (1994). design and build: a survey of construction contractors' views. construction management and economics, 12(2), 155-163. chan, a. p. c. (2000). evaluation of enhanced design and build system: a case study of a hospital project. construction management and economics, 18 (8), 863-871. chan, a. p. c., vu , a. t. wand tam, c. m. (1999) . enhanced design build-an innovative system to procure a hospital project. in: ogunlana s. o. (ed .) profitable partnering in construction procurement, cib w92 and cib tg 23 joint symposium, e&fn spon, longdon, 405-415. chan, a. p. c. and yung, e. h. k. (2000). research monograph: procurement selection model for hong kong, department of building and real estate, the hong kong polytechnic university. chan, a. p. c. , scott, d. and lam, e. w m. (2001). study of design & build projects in hong kong. proceedings of the third international conference on construction project management, 29-30 march 2001 , singapore, 366-376. construction industry review committee (cl rc) (2001). construct for excellence-report of the construction industry review committee 2001 , hksar. culp, g. and smith, a. (2001). understanding psychological type to improve project team performance. journal of management in engineering, asce, 17(1), 24-33. deakin, p. (1999). client's local experience on design and build projects. seminar proceedings on design and build procurement system, january 1999, hong kong , 11-16. environmental, transport and works bureau (2002). unpublished statistics from note for public works subcommittee of finance committee, hong kong. ernsen, j. j. and schexnayder, c. (2000). one company's experience with design/build: labour cost risk and profit potential. journal of construction engineering and management,asce, 126(1), 10-14. finance bureau (2000). enhanced productivity programme (1999-2000), hksar. franks, j. (1998). building procurement systems: a client's guide, 3rd edition, england: chartered institute of building. haltenhoff, c. e. (1986). the forms and variations of the cm system, construction management: a state-of-the-art update, october 27, 1986, boston, massachusetts, usa, 1-15. hatush, s. and skitmore, m. (1997) .assessment and evaluation of contractor data against client goals using pert approach. construction management and economics, 15(1), 327-340. ho, d. c. w, chau, k. wand leung, h. f. (1996). are contractors prepared to take on design and build contracts. proceedings of cib w92-procurement systems north meets south: developing ideas, south africa , 14-17 january 1996, 213-224. hong kong construction association (1990). design and build sub-group report to the joint discussion group on the standard form of conditions of contract. hong kong construction association , occasional paper. hong kong housing authority (2002). unpublished statistics from housing authority contracts under private sector participation scheme, hong kong. huque, a. s. , lee, g. o. m. and cheung, a. b. l. (1998). the civil service in hong kong continuity and change. hong kong university press, hong kong . the austratian journal of construction economics and building i vol 3 , no 1i i 61 kumaraswamy, m. m. and walker, d. h. t. multiple performance criteria for evaluating construction contractors. procurement systems: a guide to best practice in construction , new york: e&fn spon, 228-251. la grange, a. and pretorius, f. (1996). privatization of public housing in hong kong: an assessment of the private sector participation scheme. proceedings of cib w92 procurement systems north meets south: developing ideas, 14-1 7 january 1996, south africa, 261-274. lam, e. w. m., chan, a. p. c. and chan, d. w. m. (2003). potential problems of running design-build projects in construction. hkie transactions. (in press). lam, p. t. i. (1990). report on a critical comparison of the construction procurement and contracting systems in japan, singapore, malaysia and hong kong. department of building and surveying, hong kong polytechnic: hong kong. lam, p. t. i. and chan, a. p. c. (1995). an empirical study of design and build and other procurement approaches in asia pacific countries. design and build projects-international experiences, international congress on construction, 5-6 october 1995, singapore, 213-222. latham, m. (1994). constructing the team-a report on the uk construction industry, hmso, uk. leong, c. (1991). accountability and project management: a convergence of objectives. international journal of project management, 9(4) , 241-249. masterman, j. w. e. (2002). introduction to building procurement systems. 2nd ed. , london; new york. mo, j. k. w. and ng, l. y. (1997). design and build procurement method in hong kong an overview. cib w92 symposium procurement a key to innovation, university de montreal , 20-23 may 1997, 453-463. molenaar, k. r. and songer, a. d. (1998). model for public sector design-build project selection. journal of construction engineering and management, 124(6), 467-479. ndekugri , i. and church, r. (1996). construction procurement by the design and build approach: a survey of problems. proceedings of cib w92 procurement systems north meets south: developing ideas, south africa, 14-17 january 1996, 452-462. palaneeswaran, e. and kumaraswamy, m. m. (2000). benchmarking contractor selection practices in public-sector construction a proposed model. engineering, construction and architectural management 2000, 7(3), 285-299. palaneeswaran, e. and kumaraswamy, m. m. (2001). reinforcing design-build contractor selection: a hong kong perspective. hkie transactions, 8(1) , 7-12. pearson, m. and skues, d. (1999). control of projects implemented through design and build contracts. seminar proceedings on design and build procurement system, january 1999, hong kong, 49-60. rwelamila , p. d. and hall, ka (1994). an inadequate traditional procurement system? where do we go from here? east meets west, cib-w92 symposium, hong kong , 107-114. riggs, j. l. , goodman, m., finley, r. and miller, t. a. (1992). decision support system for predicting project success. project management journal, 22(3) , 37-43. rizzo, j. (1998) . design/build alternative: a contracting method. journal of management in engineering, asce, 14(6), 44-47. rowlinson, s. m. and walker, a. (1995). the construction industry in hong kong, longman. scott, p. s. and showalter, w. e. (1986). the history of construction management. construction management: a state-of-the-art update , october 27, 1986, boston, massachusetts, usa, 51-61. smith, a. and wilkins, b. (1996). team relationships and related critical factors in the successful procurement of health care facilities. journal of construction procurement, 2(1), 30-40. songer, a. d. and molenaar, k. r. (1996). selecting design build : public and private sector owner attitudes. journal of management in engineering, asce, 12(6),47-53. tam, c. m. (1997). design and build for a complicated re-development project in hong kong: the happy valley racecourse redevelopment. cib w92 symposium 1997, university de montreal , may 1997, 743-750. walker, a. (1995). hong kong: the contractors ' experience, hong kong university: hong kong . wilkins, b. (1999). customer orientation in the delivery of public works the impact on building procurement in hong kong . profitable partnering in construction procurement, cib w92 and cib tg 23 joint symposium, e&fn spon, longdon, 147-155. works bureau (1999). administrative procedures for use with the government of the hong kong special administrative region general conditions of contract for design and build contracts, hksarg, 1999 edition. why is design-build commonly used in the public sector? an illustration from hong kong by edmond w.m. lam, albert p.c. chan and daniel w.m. chan 62 instructions and guidelines for authors to the australian journal of construction economics and building submission two issues (june and december) per annual volume of the journal are planned. authors are requested to submit papers for publication at any time to: ms lynn adams australian institute of quantity surveyors po box 301 deakin west act 2600 australia t] +61 262822222 f] +61 2 6285 2427 e]lynn@aiqs.com.au papers will be referred to acknowledged experts for comment as to suitability, originality, interest and content. only those receiving favourable recommendations from the referees will be accepted for publication. if an author is uncertain about whether a paper is suitable for publication, it is acceptable to submit a synopsis first. 1. submission of disks (b) title page disks must be supplied with the manuscript. contributors the first page of the manuscript must contain the full title, should submit a 3.5 disk formatted on a pc or macintosh the affiliation and address of the author(s), a running title of computer in ms word (version 5 and above) and!or excel not more than 75 characters and spaces, the name and (version 4 and above) or email their papers to the above address of the author who will be responsible for address. correspondence and correcting the proofs, and up to five keywords for the purposes of indexing. 2. effective communication the paper should be written and arranged in a style that is (c) keywords succinct and easily followed. an informative title, a concise authors should also provide 5 keywords or descriptors that abstract and a well-written introduction will help to achieve clearly describe the subject matter of the article. these this. simple language, short sentences and a good use of terms have two purposes: to help describe the subject headings all help to communicate information more content of an article to prospective readers; to index the effectively. discursive treatments of the subject matter are article for retrieval from a database or bibliography. such discouraged. figures should be used to aid the clarity of the keywords might include: country, geographical area , e.g. paper, not pad it out. think about your reader. new zealand, micronesia; organisation! organisation related , e.g. building industry, public works; people, e.g. 3. english language assistance consultants, quantity surveyors, sub-contractors; specific as the language of the publication is english, it is strongly processes, technologies or applications, e.g. databases, recommended that non-english speaking authors seek tqm, advanced manufacturing technology; broad functions assistance from a competent english writer to ensure the or disciplines, e.g. information technology, cost spell ing, grammar and style are correct. the editor may be management, innovation studies; other processes and able to assist in identifying appropriate people to consult. subject areas, e.g. industrial relations, economics, design, research 4. manuscript (a) presentation (d) the abstract depending on their nature, papers may be up to 5,000 an abstract should be included. it must not exceed 200 words in length. manuscripts should be typed 1.5 spacing, words and must precis the paper giving a clear indication of left hand justified, including references. a brief the conclusions it contains. autobiographical note should be supplied including full name, position held and name of employing organisation. (e) illustrations the manuscript should be arranged under headings and illustrations must accompany the manuscript but should not subheadings. be included in the text. photographs, standard forms and charts should be referred to as 'fig . 1', 'fig . 2' etc. they the australian journal of construction economics and building j vol 3 , no 1 j i 63 should be numbered in the order in which they are referred to in the text. indicate where in the text you wish the figure to appear. send accurate and clear drawings to enable good reproduction. tables should be numbered consecutively and independently of any figures. each table must have a number, a brief title, and headings down and across. type tables on separate sheets of paper, and indicate in the text where you wish them to appear. photographs, preferably transparencies, should be labelled with the figure number and an indication of which is top. where lettering is to appear on the photograph, two prints should be supplied, one of which should be left unlettered. mmeasurements metric units should be used; if other units are used then metric equivalents should be given in parentheses. (g) references the harvard system is used. references in the text should be quoted in the following manner: smith (1975 ) ... or .. . brown and green, (1976) ... or, if there are more than two authors .. . jones et al. (1980). references should be collected at the end of the paper in alphabetical order by the first author's surname. if references to the same author have the same year, they should be differentiated by using 1980a and 1980b etc. the style should follow the examples below: smithers, n. (1966). cost benefit analysis in town planning. urban studies, 33, 4-27. stone, p. a. (1980). building design evaluation: costs-in use. e. &f.n. spon, london. burnes, s. (1981) . implementation of public policy. in policy and action (edited by s. barrett and c. fudge), 1-33. chapman and hall , london. if no person is named as the author the name of the organisation should be used, for example: australian institute of quantity surveyors. (1980). report on quantity surveying methods, canberra. to reference a website, include the author (be it an individual, organisation or institution), title of document, date the document was created , date it was viewed and the url, for example: international council for research and innovation in building and construction 2000, w100-environmental assessment of buildings, results, international conference sustainable building 2000, 22-25 october, maastricht, the netherlands viewed 14 july 2003, . the austral ian journal of construction economics and building i vol 3 • no 1i (h) notes alimited number of explanatory endnotes is permissible. these should be numbered 1, 2, 3, consecutively in the text and denoted by superscripts. they should be typed on a separate sheet of paper at the end of the text. endnotes should not be used for academic or project citations. 5. proofs proofs will be sent to the corresponding author for correction . the difficulty and expense involved in making amendments at proof stage make it essential for authors to prepare their manuscript carefully: any alterations to the original text are strongly discouraged. our aim is rapid publication: this will be helped if authors provide good copy following the above instructions, and return their proofs as quickly as possible. the editors reserve the right to amend style, grammar and typographical errors without reference to the authors. 6. copyright submission of an article to the australian journal of construction economics and building is taken to imply that it represents original , unpublished work, not under consideration for publication elsewhere. authors submitting articles for publication warrant that the work is not an infringement of any existing copyright and will indemnify the publisher against any breach of such warranty. on submitting a manuscript, authors will be asked to transfer the copyright for their article to the publisher if and when the article is accepted for publication. the copyright covers the exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute the article, including reprints, photographic reproductions, microfilm or any reproduction of a similar nature, and translations. permission to publish illustrations must be obtained by the author before submission and any acknowledgments should be included in the figure captions. 7. refereeing procedure the decision whether or not to publish is the editorial board's. at least two members of the editorial board, and/or . other acknowledged experts will be consulted . 64 scanner's note: this is a blank page scanner's note: this is a blank page scanner's note: this is a blank page • ••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••• ••••••••• ••••••• ----------------•••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••••• • ••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••• • •••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••• • •••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••• • •••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••• • •••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••• • •••••••••••• •••••• •••••••••••••••• ••••••••••••••••••••• •••• •••••••••••••••••••••••1 • ••••••••••••••,•••'••1•••' ____________••••___•••••••1_____••••••••••••••••• •••••••••••••.•.•••.•..•.•1.•••••• ____• ---------------• ••••••••••••••'•••1••1••• '•••••• • ••••••••••••••1••••••••••1•••••• -----------_••••_-_••••••• 1 _____•---------------iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii••••i ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!~~~~! iiiiii.ii.iiiiii••iiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!_ 1! _____.---------___...1_......_!~!!!!!!! • ••••••••••••••1•••1•••••• 1------------~--iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii'.'. '••,. ,. ,••••••1•••'......,••,•••••••••••••...........,.,.,.·,·,·,······,···,·..···,··,·············iiii !!i!!i!!i!!i-!!i!!i!!i!!ii!iiiii'. '. '••'. '. 1••••••1• ••1. .....1••'••••••••••••• •••••••••••,.,. ,••,. ,. ,••••••1• ••1.111••'••1•••1••••••••• iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii'. '. '••,. ,. ,••••••1• ••'• •11••'•••,........... --~~~-..-.-!!!!i!i~~,.,. , ••,.,.,••••.•1••• '••11•• 1••• '........... ••••••••••••• • ,. ,. ,••,. ,. ,••••••,•••'••11.1'•••,........... _____________ii'. '. '••,. ,. ,... .11••'•• • ,........... -----_•••••1........ . ••••••1.1••1.111111•• iii1iuiiiii.i••i.iiiiii•• iiiiiiiiiiiii.i••i.iiiiii•• !!!!!!!!!!!!!ii••iiiiiiiii i iiiiiiiiiii.i••'.iiiiii•• !!!!!!!!!!!ii••iiiiiiii. i iiiiiiiiiiiiiii.i••i.iiiiii. i !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.'••i.iiiiii•• ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;.1••1.111111.1 ••••••·1.1••1.111111•• !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.'••i......i.. j ~==~~~=~;;;;;;;;;;:;iiii; ;;; ;;'. '. 11 111. '•••,•••••••••••••• i!i!!--i!i!!i!i!!!!!!-~.i••i.i.ii.i••,., /1••••••111. '•••,••••••••••••••. !i!i!i!i!i'.i••i...... i••'. '. '1 ••••11.'•••,•••••••••••••• ;;;;;;=;;=iiiliiiiiiiiiii;;;iiiiiii iii'. '. i1.i.iii. i•••,••••••••••••••-----.............'.'. ,~ ,.i.....iiii;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ,.. ii._______•••••••••i.i.ii••••i.'.' ....=________________= ......;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;; ••••••.••••••. ••1••'•••11.'•••,........... • •••;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;==iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ••,••'•••11.'•••,........... • •••;;;;;;;;;;;;;;=======~==-~~~~~~~ ••,••'•••11.'•••'........... • •••=============;;=;;;;=••••••• ••,••'•••11.'•••,........... • •••===========;;;;iiiiiiiiiiiliiiiiilliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii ••'••'••1•••1•••,........... • •••===========---~--!!!i~~~~~!!! ••,••'•••1••'•••,........... • •••==================-••••••• ••,••'•••1••'•••,....... =========___iii__iiiiliiiiiiiiiiiii .'••••1.'•••,........... =========.....~~~ii!iiiii!!!!!!!i~~~~~!!! ••,••[•••11.1•••,........... ===============•••••••. ••1•••••11.'•••,........... • ••• ==================-••••••..,.. ••••=----------------------_.•,.. =================_iiiiiii.,.. =================•••••••.•,.. •••••••••i!!!----------------------_.•••1.iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiii iiiiiii..;;iiiiiiii----------. •••1-••11111111••_1.111:=:=•••~••mml•••~u~•• •••1-••11111111•••1.11••_1••111 •••1_••11111111•••1.llliiiiiiiiiiiiii;i••••'1 •••1•••11111111•••iiiii:=:==~=~=:~=~_ ••••!•••1.1111.'•••11111!! !!!! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;;;;;;;;i•••i.iiii.'•••iiiii!!!!! ! !! ! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! .. ••••1•••1.1111.'•••11111 !!!!! !! ! !!! !! !!!!!!!!!!! ====1•••'.1111.1•••iiiii!!!~!!! ~~~! !!!! ••••~ ••••i•••1.1111.'•••11111 !!!!! !!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!•••i.iiii.i•••11111 ~!!!! !! ~~~! !!!!••••~ iiiiiiiii•••liuuil•••iiui1'j~••!.u,j"• ••••, ••••••••••••11.1•••1.1111.1• ••••1 ••••••••••••11.1•••'.1111.1•••••1 ••••••••••••11.1•••'.1111.1•••••• ••••••••••••i ••••••ii!!!!!!!!! •••••••liiiiiiiiii •••••••i!!!!!!!!!! ••••••••ii;;;;ii• ............, ==================~•••••••====== ~~~~~~~~~~~!••••••••••••i =::::::=:::~::::::=:::::::::=:::::~•••••••ii••••1 ••••••••••••i ••••••••!!!!!!!!! construction delays causing risks on time and cost a critical review chidambaram ramanathan, sp narayanan and arazi b idrus, (universiti teknologi petronas, malaysia) abstract there is an increase in the number of construction projects experiencing extensive delays leading to exceeding the initial time and cost budget. this paper reviews 41 studies around the world which has surveyed the delay factors and classified them into groups. the main purpose of this paper is to review research which has categorized the causes responsible for time delays and cost overruns in projects. the intention was to see whether these causes are valid for projects being executed in sabah east malaysia allowing a mitigation plan to be prepared. the collected list has 113 causes for delays which were categorized into 18 different groups. most of the research has analysed the responses from questionnaire surveys. the collected data are used to rank the problem factors. the data are further used to investigate and analyse the reported “importance index, frequency index, severity index, relative importance index, relative importance weight, weighted average, mean, standard deviation and variance”. the collective comparison has revealed that the ranking given by all the researchers is not the same. further each and every study has different rank ratings from different group. this review paper attempts to provide an updated compilation of the earlier studies on ranking of the delay causers, which are never similar and constant for universal projects. from the critical review, it is concluded that this type of research requires a different method or approach to generate meaningful answers and that there is a strong case against opinion surveys. keywords: construction delays, cost risk, time risk, project management introduction the purpose of this study is to critically review and identify the applicability of past studies on determining the factors causing time delays and cost overrun in current projects. this goal has been accomplished by reviewing articles published during the last 15 years (since 1995) in various project management journals like: international journal of project management (ijpm), journal of construction management economics (jcme), journal of management in engineering (jme), engineering construction and architectural management journal (ecamj) and others. the biggest customer of the construction industry in most countries is the government (okpala and aiekwu, 1988). to the dislike of owners, contractors and consultants, many government projects experience extensive delays and thereby exceed the initial time and cost estimates (odeh and bataineh, 2002). this problem is more evident in the traditional type of contracts in which the contract is awarded to the lowest bidder. this procurement strategy is adopted by majority of government projects in developing countries. the latham report (latham, 1994) suggested that ensuring timely delivery of projects is one of the important needs of clients of the construction industry. severe criticisms of the industry arise if it takes much longer than the stipulated project time (bennett et al., 1979; flanagan et al., 1986). completing projects on time is an indicator of an efficient construction industry (nedo, 1988). contractors are primarily australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 38 concerned with quality, time and cost and yet the majority of construction projects are procured on the basis of only two of these parameters, namely time and cost (bennet and grice, 1990). the literature emphasises time as an indicator for project success. the construction process can be divided into three important phases, i.e. project conception, project design and project construction. usually, the vast majority of project delays occur during the ‘construction’ phase, where many unforeseen factors are always involved (chan and kumaraswamy, 1997). in construction, delay could be defined as the time overrun either beyond completion date specified in a contract, or beyond the date that the parties agreed upon for the delivery of a project. it is a project slipping over its planned schedule and this is a common problem in construction projects. to the owner, delay means loss of revenue through non availability of production facilities and rentable space or a dependence on present facilities. in some cases, delay causes higher overhead costs to the contractor because of longer work period, higher material costs through inflation, and due to labour cost increases. completing projects on time is an indicator of efficiency, but the construction process is subject to many variables and unpredictable factors, which result from many sources. the sources are the performance of parties, resources availability, environmental conditions, involvement of other parties, and contractual relations, and the completion of a project within the specified time is rare (assaf, 2006). cost and schedule overruns occur due to wide range of factors. if project costs or schedules exceed their planned targets, client satisfaction would be compromised. the funding profile no longer matches the budget requirement and further slippage in the schedule could result (kaliba et al., 2009). according to ahmed et al. (2002), delays on construction projects are a universal phenomenon and road construction projects are no exception. delays are usually accompanied by cost overruns. these have a debilitating effect on contractors and consultants in terms of growth in adversarial relationships, mistrust, litigation, arbitration, cash-flow problems, and a general feeling of trepidation towards other stakeholders (ahmed et al., 2002). this problem is not unique to developed countries and is being experienced in most of the developing economies. when projects are delayed, they are either extended or accelerated and therefore, incur additional cost. the normal practices usually allow a percentage of the project cost as a contingency allowance in the contract price and this allowance is usually based on judgment (akinsola, 1996). although the contract parties agree upon the extra time and cost associated with delay, in many cases there are problems between the owner and contractor as to whether the contractor is entitled to claim the extra cost. such situations result in questioning facts, causal factors and contract interpretations (alkass et al., 1996). therefore, delays in construction projects cause dissatisfaction to all parties involved and the main role of the project manager is to make sure that projects are completed within the budgeted time and cost. several studies have been undertaken on factors causing delays and cost overruns, and affecting quality, safety and productivity, etc. and specific problems in special types of projects. these studies usually focus on specific aspects of project performance. practitioners need to develop the capacity to foresee potential problems likely to confront their current and future projects. identification of the common problems experienced on past projects in their construction business environment is a good option (long et al., 2004). frimpong et al. (2003) revealed that project management tools and techniques play an important role in the effective management of a project. pmbok defines project management as the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to project activities to meet the project requirements (pmi, 2008). project management involves managing the resources— australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 39 workers, machines, money, materials and methods used (giridhar and ramesh, 1998). some projects are effectively and efficiently managed while others are mismanaged, incurring much delay and cost overruns. any construction project comprises two distinct phases: the preconstruction phase (the period between the initial conceptions of the project to awarding of the contract) and the construction phase (period from awarding the contract to when the actual construction is completed). delays and cost overruns occur in both phases. however the major instances of project overruns usually take place in the construction phase (frimpong et al., 2003). unfortunately, due to various reasons, project successes are not common in the construction industry, especially in developing countries. from several studies and empirical evidence it is clear that project overruns comprising delays and cost overruns occur during the ‘construction’ phase. therefore, professionals and scholars have been motivated to take steps to meet this challenge. review of construction delays across the world realistic ‘construction time’ has become increasingly important because it often serves as a crucial benchmark for assessing the performance of a project and the efficiency of the contractor (kumaraswamy and chan, 2002). this study aims to identify the uncertainties and to foresee potential problems likely to confront the current and future projects, helping project teams to be proactive in managing their projects in which potential problems are fully anticipated (long et al., 2004). research literature from all around the world has been collated and consolidated for the better understanding and to conceive the overall picture of the issues. this critical review is presented in five sections; firstly identification of factors and category, secondly the research methodology adopted in earlier studies (reorganizing and tabulating the data from literature), thirdly analysis of data, fourthly results and discussions and fifthly conclusions. identification of factors and category the factors identified in the research articles are collated and grouped into 18 categories. the set of factors studied by different authors are collected and presented in table 1. different authors focus on selected categories for study and analysis. table 1 tabulates the type of effect studied by different authors and the respective category as classified in their studies. from the review it is observed that certain factors have been categorized under different groups by different authors. this has been tabulated in detail and discussed in following section of this paper. category no. category no. of causes / factors / problems type of effect studied references 1 financier 4 time delay long et.al 2004 3 time delay assaf et.al. 1995 2 project 6 time delay assaf and hejji 2006 5 time overrun chan & kumaraswamy 1997 3 project attributes 8 time and cost overrun long et.al 2004 australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 40 table 1 cont’ category no. category no. of causes / factors / problems type of effect studied references 4 owner / client 10 time and cost overrun assaf and hejji 2006 10 time and cost overrun long et.al 2004 5 time delay alaghbari et.al. 2007 4 time delay odeh & battaineh 2002 4 time overrun chan & kumaraswamy 1997 5 contractor 13 time and cost overrun assaf and hejji 2006 17 time and cost overrun long et.al 2004 12 time delay alaghbari et.al. 2007 6 time and cost overrun odeh & battaineh 2002 4 time overrun chan & kumaraswamy 1997 6 consultant 7 time and cost overrun assaf and hejji 2006 7 time and cost overrun long et.al 2004 6 time delay alaghbari et.al. 2007 4 time and cost overrun odeh & battaineh 2002 7 design 8 time and cost overrun assaf and hejji 2006 3 time overrun chan & kumaraswamy 1997 8 coordination 7 time and cost overrun long et.al 2004 9 materials 7 time and cost overrun assaf and hejji 2006 2 time and cost overrun odeh & battaineh 2002 4 time overrun chan & kumaraswamy 1997 5 time and cost overrun assaf et.al. 1995 10 plant / equipment 5 time and cost overrun assaf and hejji 2006 1 time delay odeh & battaineh 2002 4 time overrun chan & kumaraswamy 1997 5 time and cost overrun assaf et.al. 1995 australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 41 table 1 cont’ category no. category no. of causes / factors / problems type of effect studied references 11 labour / manpower 5 time and cost overrun assaf and hejji 2006 2 time and cost overrun odeh & battaineh 2002 4 time overrun chan & kumaraswamy 1997 3 time and cost overrun assaf et.al. 1995 12 environment 9 time and cost overrun long, et.al 2004 4 time and cost overrun assaf et.al. 1995 13 contract 2 time & cost disputes odeh & battaineh 2002 14 contractual relationships 3 time & cost effects odeh & battaineh, 2002 14 time delay assaf et.al. 1995 15 external 12 time and cost overrun assaf and hejji 2006 4 time delay odeh & battaineh 2002 2 time overrun chan & kumaraswamy 1997 8 time delay alaghbari et.al. 2007 16 changes 7 time delay assaf et.al. 1995 17 scheduling & controlling 11 time delay assaf et.al. 1995 18 government relations 4 time delay assaf et.al. 1995 table 1 factors and categories research methodology chan and kumaraswamy (1997) adopted a questionnaire survey with 83 hypothesized delay factors which was designed in late 1994 on the basis of a pilot survey. the 83 factors have been grouped into eight major factor categories. odeh and battaineh (2002), frimpong et al (2003), long et al (2004), assaf and al-hejji (2006), abdul-rahman et al. (2006), sambasivan and soon (2007), alaghbari et al. (2007), adnan (2008), and kaliba et al. (2009) also designed their research methodologies with questionnaire surveys comprising individual set of well recognized causes of delay. the questionnaires were designed to evaluate the frequency of occurrence, severity and the importance of the identified causes (assaf, 2006). the questionnaire was distributed to contractors, consultants and clients. in the field survey the respondents were asked to indicate the level of importance of each cause using five-point likert scale ranging from 1 (not important) australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 42 to 5 (extremely important). the number of firms that completed and returned the questionnaire sets are listed in table 2 and graphically represented in figures 1 and 2. figure 1 shows the total number of questionnaires distributed and the total responses of the individual study. figure 2 shows the response rate of individual sectors of respondents in percentage. questionnaire design and methods: the questionnaire study adopted by each author has a different approach. they have been designed based on previous literature, current construction practice, personal experience and location of the project. assaf et al. (1995) conducted the investigation in two phases. the first phase included a literature search and interviews. the first phase identified 56 causes of delay. in the second phase a questionnaire was developed using these delay causes. his scope was limited to large public building projects in the eastern province of saudi arabia. the total population consisted of contractors, architects/engineers (a/es), and public owners (government agencies). chan and kumaraswamy conducted two studies in 1997 and 2002. in the earlier study, a pilot study was carried out in early 1994 to investigate the principal causes of construction delay of both building and civil engineering projects which were completed in hong kong between 1990 and 1993. the latter survey was supplemented by site visits by industry experts with the aim of identifying the principal factors facilitating faster construction in hong kong projects. odeh and battaineh (2002) distributed the questionnaire to a random sample of 100 contractors and 50 consultants representing different specializations in large projects. the sample size of each specialization is proportional to the distribution of the population of the different specializations. given the sample size, the samples were selected randomly from the population in each specialization. sambasivan and soon (2007) adopted the same method in their study on the causes and effects of construction delays. long et al. (2004) developed their questionnaire survey to investigate several issues relating to large construction projects focusing only on the problems experienced. to suit the vietnam construction conditions, the preliminary questionnaire was pilot tested. six experienced professionals in the vietnam construction industry were involved in the pilot test. their comments were used to revise and prepare the final questionnaire. responses to the questionnaire were then collected and analysed. the analysis included ranking the problems in terms of degree of occurrence and level of influence. frimpong et al. (2003) developed a questionnaire of 26 factors designed from previous preliminary investigations conducted in groundwater drilling projects between 1970 and 1999 in ghana. the questionnaire was directed towards three groups in both public and private organisations: owners of the groundwater projects, consulting offices, and contractors working in the groundwater works. alaghbari et al. (2007) distributed the questionnaire among government bodies, main contractors, consultants and developers who were connected with the building systems construction projects. in order to accomplish this, the researchers contacted professional institutions, agents and government bodies. the sample was restricted to building system companies. the respondents were contractors, consultant, developers, subcontractors, engineers and architects who were involved in building system construction projects. australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 43 all the other studies were conducted by the random sampling of the three principal construction parties (owners, consultant and contractor). figure 1 total number of questionnaires distributed and response figure 2 response rate for different categories for the questionnaire 144 287 125 60 200 200 60 502 450 320 150 400 164 285 110 180 57 109 72 30 150 166 37 78 187 82 147 22 87 91 143 0 100 200 300 400 500 600 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 no. of questionnaire total respondents total distributed 4 0 % 3 8 % 5 8 % 5 0 % 7 5 % 8 3 % 7 % 1 7 % 5 8 % 5 5 % 3 7 % 1 3 % 3 1 % 8 3 % 7 9 % 2 6 % 3 3 % 3 9 % 4 5 % 3 0 % 1 4 % 2 3 % 2 9 % 7 % 3 3 % 3 2 % 2 6 % 3 2 % 7 0 % 1 9 % 4 0 % 7 7 % 3 2 % 5 9 % 4 0 % 4 2 % 3 5 % 2 3 % 4 3 % 6 7 % 3 7 % 2 3 % 4 0 % 3 4 % 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 authors surveyed overall owner consultant contractor australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 44 sl. no . description of study questionnaires distributed questionnaire respondents proportional response rate* references total owners consultant s contractor s total owner s consultant s contractor s overall owner consulta nt contractor 1 causes of delay 144 27 51 66 57 15 19 23 40% 26% 33% 40% assaf and hejji 2006 2 large projects in vietnam 287 82 85 120 109 36 27 46 38% 33% 32% 42% long et.al 2004 3 causes of delay ghana case study 125 55 30 40 72 28 19 25 58% 39% 26% 35% frimpong et.al 2003 4 risk in d&b projects in malaysia 60 30 50% adnan et.al 2008 5 causes and effects of delay in malaysian projects 200 100 50 50 150 67 48 35 75% 45% 32% 23% sambasivan & soon, 2007 6 quantify schedule risk in projects 200 166 83% luu et.al. 2009 7 schedule delays and cost escalation in zambia projects 60 30% 70% 43% kaliba et.al. 2009 8 delay mitigation in malaysian projects 502 8 81 413 37 5 7 25 7% 14% 19% 67% abdul-rahman et.al. 2006 9 factors causing delays in malaysia 450 78 17% 23% 40% 37% alaghbari et.al. 2007 10 schedule delay causes in bot 320 187 58% yang et.al. 2010 11 delays in traditional contracts 150 100 50 82 63 19 55% 77% 23% odeh & battaineh, 2002 12 time overrun in hongkong 400 147 50 49 48 37% chan & kumaraswamy 1997 13 compressing duration hong kong 164 22 13% chan & kumaraswamy 2002 14 delay and cost overrun in vietnam 285 87 31% le-hoai. et. al. 2008 15 delay in jordan projects 110 30 30 50 91 26 29 36 83% 29% 32% 40% sweis et.al. 2007 16 time, cost and quality managt. 180 30 90 60 143 10 84 49 79% 7% 59% 34% bowen et.al. 2002 table 2 details of the questionnaire distribution in various studies and their response * the decimals more than 0.5 are rounded to next whole number australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 45 data analysis abbreviation proposed expression parameters reference place of study importance index i where i = importance index; ai = constant expressing the weight of the ith response, where ai = 0,1,2,3 for i = 1,2,3,4, respectively; xi = frequency of the ith response given as a percentage of the total response for each cause; i = response ategory index. assaf et.al. 1995 saudi arabia rank correlation coefficient where, d= difference between ranks given by one party and the rank given by another party for an individual cause and n= umber of cause or groups. assaf et.al. 1995 saudi arabia relative importance index rii where w = weighting given to each factor by the respondentsand ranges from 1 to 5 where '1' is 'not significant' and '5' is 'extremely significant', a = highest weight (i.e. 5 in this case), and n = total number of respondents. chan & kumaraswamy, 1997 hong kong relative importance index rii where r = rating given to each factor by the respondents and ranges from 1 to 5 where '1' is 'not significant' and '5' is 'extremely significant', a = highest rating (i.e. 5 in this case), and n = total number of respondents. chan & kumaraswamy, 2002 hong kong relative importance index rii where i = response category index, wi = the weight assigned to the ith resonse. xi = frequency of the ith response given as percentage of the total responses for each case. odeh & battaineh, 2002 jordan relative importance weight riw where: xj=the sum of the jth factor; j=the factors 1, 2, 3, 4, . . .. . .n; n=total number of factors (26); ai=constant expressing the weight given to the ith response: i=1, 2, 3, 4, 5 frimpong et al. 2003 ghana frequency index (%) f.i. (%) a is the constant expressing weighting given to each response (ranges from 1 for assaf and hejji 2006 saudi arabia australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 46 rarely up to 4 for always), n is the frequency of the responses, and n is total number of responses. severity index (%) s.i. (%) a is the constant expressing weighting given to each response (ranges from 1 for rarely up to 4 for always), n is the frequency of the responses, and n is total number of responses. assaf and hejji 2006 saudi arabia importance index (%) imp.i. (%) assaf and hejji 2006 saudi arabia relative importance index rii where w = weighting given to each factor by the respondentsand ranges from 1 to 5 where '1' is 'not significant' and '5' is 'extremely significant', a = highest weight (i.e. 5 in this case), and n = total number of respondents. sambasivan & soon 2007 malaysia mean score ms where ms is the mean score, f is the frequency of responses to each rating (1-4), s is the score given to each factor by the respondents (ranges from 1 to 4), and n is the total number of responses concerning that factor alaghbari et al. 2007 malaysia frequency index (%) f.i. (%) a = constant expressing the weight assigned to each responses (ranges from 0 for no happen to 4 for always), n = frequency of each response, n = total number of responses. le-hoai et al. 2008 vietnam severity index (%) s.i. (%) a = constant expressing the weight assigned to each responses (ranges from 0 for no happen to 4 for always), n = frequency of each response, n = total number of responses. le-hoai et al. 2008 vietnam relative importance index rii le-hoai et al. 2008 vietnam table 3 data analysis expressions used for various studies reported in literature. australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 47 analysis of data each and every study has a different scope and different conclusions. hence, different approaches have been used and the data analysed with different expressions. table 3 includes the expressions used by individual researchers to produce the results to meet the set objectives. it shows the data analysis approaches with abbreviations and the equations used to calculate the results. the table explains the parameters used in the expressions. the place where the study was performed is denoted in column 6 of the table 6. results and discussions the data from the responses were analyzed by the authors of each and every study and the groups were ranked as shown in table 4. it has collective listing of 18 different groups/category. the respective rankings results of the studies have been summarized to obtain an over view on the groups that are highly responsible for the project delays. the review findings shows that the group and factor ranking differs based on the location like hong kong, jordan, vietnam, etc. sambasivan and soon (2007) stated that “the effects of delays in construction projects can be country-specific” whereas other studies has proven that project characteristics may even be region-specific. none of the studies is comparable to any other and each study has different rankings for the groups/categories/sources of the delays and cost overruns. the groups most influential in earlier studies (in 1995) are now (2010) not considered high risk factors. the possible variations in the ranking results are most unlikely to be because of the different respondents. table 4 clearly outlines that the studies have yielded different results. even sambasivan & soon (2007) adopting the same 28 factors derived by odeh & battaineh (2002) has obtained different results of group influence and their responsible levels. figure 3 shows the scatter diagram of the ranks obtained from the various related studies. as there is no correlation in the ranking of the different studies, the first five rankings influencing project delays and cost overruns from the entire set of results of each author has been collected. in the different studies the groups with rank 1 to rank 5 has been listed. the groups which appear more than once have been identified. this is tabulated in table 5. even though the groups like owner (rank 1), contractor (rank 2), design related and plant and equipments (rank 3), labour (rank 4) and consultant and contractual relationships (rank 5) fall more frequently within the first 5 rank category, other groups like finance related, materials, schedule and controlling, coordination, changes are also found in some studies but occurs only once in the collated studies. so out of all 18 categories 7 categories appears among the first five ranks and other 11 categories are rated consistently below rank 5. this provides an overall view of the study, and is shown in table 5. the critical review has resulted in a consolidated list of factors/causes and their ranking (table 6). this review study has identified 113 factors from the studies discussed in this article. further analysis ranked all these factors according to the results in the respective studies. table 6 compares the results of ten studies in 12 different sectors of the projects. the corresponding factors and their group wise categories are mentioned in the last column of the table 6. this comparative study brings together the results of various studies and combines the factors / causes, ranking and group classification. the serial numbers in row 1 of table 6 represents authors, whose details are as follows: column [1] assaf et.al. 1995, col.[2] chan & kumaraswamy 1997, col. [3] odeh & battaineh australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 48 2002, col.[4] frimpong et.al. 2003, col.[5] long, et.al 2004, col. [6] sambasivan& soon 2007, col.[7] alaghbari et al. 2007, col.[8] le-hoai. et al. 2008, col.[9] luu et al. 2009 and col.[10] tumi et al. 2009. also (a) indicates “contractor”, (b) “consultants”, (c) “occurrence” and (d) “influence”. from the list of factors obtained in table 6 from the previous studies, the first five important causes of delay and cost overruns in different developing countries are determined and summarized in table 7. the problem of delays in the construction industry is a global phenomenon. in saudi arabia, assaf and al-hejji (2006) found that only 30% of construction projects were completed within the scheduled completion dates and that the average time overrun was between 10% and 30%. in nigeria, ajanlekoko (1987) observed that the performance of the construction industry in terms of time was poor. odeyinka and yusif (1997) have shown that seven out of ten projects surveyed in nigeria suffered delays in their execution. ogunlana and promkuntong (1996) conducted a study on construction delays in thailand. al-momani (2000) carried out a quantitative analysis on construction delays in jordan. frimpong et al. (2003) conducted a survey to identify and evaluate the relative importance of the significant factors contributing to delay and cost overruns in ghana groundwater construction projects. chan and kumaraswamy (1997) studied delays in hong kong construction industry. conclusions the critical review undertaken in this paper covers research studies in the area of construction delay with time and cost risks. totally 18 categories of causes were identified from the various related studies reported in the literature. these 18 categories or groups are (1) financerelated, (2) project-related, (3) project attributes, (4) owner/client, (5) contractor, (6) consultant, (7) design-related, (8) coordination, (9) materials, (10) plant/equipment, (11) labour/manpower, (12) environment, (13) contract-related, (14) contractual relationships, (15) external, (16) changes, (17) scheduling & controlling and (18) governmental relationship. generally, all the research studies were conducted by questionnaire surveys using randomly sampled responses and analysis of data obtained from the responses. the review study has ranked the responsible groups by combining the analysis results which are: owner (rank 1), contractor (rank 2), design related and plant and equipments (rank 3), labour (rank 4) and consultant and contractual relationships (rank 5). these fall into the first 5 rank categories. each study has a unique approach and unique results are derived from the questionnaire response data. various indices like importance index (i), rank correlation coefficient, relative importance index (rii), frequency index (fi), severity index (si) and mean score (ms) have been determined to assess the impact of the factors at various angles based on the requirement for the project. each study has rated the groups or factors with ranks of influence. these ranks are compared for better understanding. but two studies have similar rating of ranks. each and every group in the various studies arrived at different weights of ranks. it would appear that the groups and factors causing delays are country, location and project specific and that there are no root causes that can be generalised. australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 49 sl. no. group overall / average ranking studied assaf et.al. 1995 chan& kumaraswamy, 1997 odeh & battaineh 2002 long et.al 2004 assaf and hejji 2006 sambasivan& soon 2007 combined ranking contractors consultants occurrence influence frequency severity importance 1 finance – related 1 7 7 2 project – related 5 7 9 8 3 project attributes 6 5 4 owner / client – related 7 1 1 5 3 1 1 1 4 5 contractor – related 1 3 2 2 4 2 2 2 1 6 consultant – related 6 4 1 1 3 5 5 7 7 design – related 2 5 3 3 8 coordination 3 6 9 materials 2 8 7 5 6 6 6 2 10 plant/equipments 7 6 2 3 9 7 9 3 11 labour 6 3 2 3 4 4 4 3 12 environment 9 4 2 13 contract 4 7 6 14 contractual relationship 3 5 6 5 15 external 4 8 8 8 8 7 8 16 changes 4 17 scheduling and control 5 18 government relationship 8 table 4 group rankings figure 4 scatter diagram of rank distribution 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 r an ks groups assaf,s.a, et.al. 1995 chan,d.w.m & kumaraswamy, m.m 1997 odeh,a.m & battaineh,h.t.2002 "contractor" odeh,a.m & battaineh,h.t.2002 "consultants" long, n.d, et.al 2004 "occurrence" long, n.d, et.al 2004 "influence" australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 50 research study groups results place of study rank 1 rank 2 rank 3 rank 4 rank 5 assaf et.al. 1995 finance-related materials contractual relationship changes schedule and controlling overall saudi arabia chan & kumaraswamy, 1997 contractor design labour external project – related overall hong kong odeh & battaineh, 2002 owner plant and equipment contractor contract contractual relationship contractor’s response jordan owner contractor plant and equipments consultant materials consultant’s response long et.al 2004 consultant contractor coordination environment owner occurrence vietnam consultant environment owner contractor project attributes influence assaf and hejji, 2006 owner contractor consultant labour design frequency saudi arabia owner contractor design labour consultant severity owner contractor design labour consultant importance sambasivan & soon, 2007 contractor materials plant and equipment owner contractual relationship overall malaysia many occurrence (no.) and % owner (5) 50% contractor (5) 50% design (2) + plant & equipment (2) 40% labour (3) 30% consultant (2) & contr. relationship (2) 40% table 5 factors securing the first five rank in different studies australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 51 sl. no. factors / causes [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] groups (a) (b) (c) (d) 1 slow payment for completed works 5 4 2 1 4 7 6 9 financing 2 contractor financial difficulties 2 5 14 5 2 4 4 4 financing 3 cash problems during construction 1 7 5 financing 4 inflation 4 financing 5 financial difficulties to owner 1 3 1 4 6 necessary variations of works 8 7 project 7 obsolete technology 9 9 project attributes 8 unsatisfactory site compensation 10 7 project attributes 9 lack of involvement through project life 16 19 project attributes 10 incompetence project team 20 12 project attributes 11 slow site handover 5 8 12 owner interference 2 4 20 13 long waiting time for approval of drawings 3 owner / client 14 client initiated variations 5 18 19 owner / client 15 unrealistic contract durations imposed by client 13 13 6 18 24 owner / client 16 unrealistic client initial requirement 20 owner / client 17 low speed of decision making 4 8 5 26 13 8 4 owner / client 18 slow site clearance difficulties 2 1 13 owner / client 19 delays in subcontractors’ work 9 9 3 5 13 6 contractor 20 poor site management and supervision 11 5 13 17 2 5 1 11 6 contractor 21 unstable management structure and style of contractor 12 15 20 contractor 22 shortage of technical, managerial and supervisory personnel 15 20 7 4 14 contractor 23 construction method 5 17 15 13 8 contractor 24 improper planning 10 8 1 contractor 25 mistakes during construction 17 11 22 10 6 16 9 17 contractor 26 inadequate contractor experience 3 1 8 3 2 10 contractor 27 severe overtime 5 contractor 28 excessive contracts and subcontracts 18 11 contractor 29 lack of responsibilities 10 contractor 30 contract management 12 7 19 11 consultant 31 delay in work approval 18 11 consultant 32 preparations and approval of drawings 21 19 16 consultant 33 quality assurance/control 25 21 25 22 11 consultant 34 waiting for information 24 11 35 long waiting time for approval of test samples of material 16 18 15 25 23 11 consultant 36 poor contract management 2 consultant 37 supervision too late & slowness in making decision 3 15 11 38 slow to give instructions 4 39 lack of consultant’s experience 9 10 40 poor project management assistance 2 australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 52 sl. no. factors / causes [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] groups (a) (b) (c) (d) 41 delay in design information 2 design related 42 inadequate design team experience 6 15 design related 43 mistakes and discrepancies in design 7 10 3 design related 44 impractical design 19 11 design related 45 slow information flow between project team 10 17 coordination 46 lack of communication between consultant and contractor 14 20 14 9 2 coordination 47 lack of communication between client and consultant 17 20 14 9 2 coordination 48 shortage 11 11 10 15 6 4 9 3 3 materials 49 change in type & spec. 6 materials 50 procurement 3 materials 51 slow / late delivery 16 11 7 13 materials 52 damage in storage while needed at site 45 materials 53 delay in special manufacturer from foreign country (imported) 16 17 materials 54 quality 26 23 12 materials 55 escalation in prices 6 materials 56 difficulty in obtaining at official current prices 13 materials 57 failure 42 7 16 16 8 plant/equipments 58 shortage/availability 36 7 16 15 6 17 8 16 plant/equipments 59 unskilled operators 50 plant/equipments 60 slow / late delivery 41 11 plant/equipments 61 poor productivity 41 plant/equipments 62 shortage / supply 27 16 12 21 7 19 manpower 63 labour skills/productivity 27 1 9 11 19 manpower 64 nationality of labour 49 manpower 65 hot weather effect on construction activity 42 environment 66 rain / inclement weather effect on construction activity 55 18 23 24 8 27 20 12 21 environment 67 insufficient available utilities on site 51 environment 68 social and cultural factor 54 environment 69 project delivery systems used. (#) 33 17 contract 70 mistakes and discrepancies in contract documents 14 22 10 18 contract 71 deficiencies/inaccurate in cost estimates 10 12 15 8 contract 72 low warded bid price 14 7 contract 73 conflicts between contractor & consultant 20 21 contractual relationship 74 uncooperative owner 9 contractual relationship 75 slowness of owner’s decision–making process 2 19 26 contractual relationship 76 joint owner ship of project 51 contractual relationship 77 poor organization of contractor or consultant 11 22 18 25 contractual relationship 78 difficulty of coordination with various parties in the project 11 contractual relationship australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 53 sl. no. factors / causes [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] groups (a) (b) (c) (d) 79 insufficient communication between the owner & design in the design phase. 21 contractual relationship 80 unavailability of professional construction management 31 contractual relationship 81 controlling subcontractors by general contractors in execution of works 6 contractual relationship 82 unavailability of financial incentive for contractor to finish ahead of schedule 32 contractual relationship 83 negotiations and obtaining of contracts 46 contractual relationship 84 legal disputes between various parties in the const. project 46 15 20 14 contractual relationship 85 problems with neighbors 28 27 28 external 86 unforeseen ground conditions 24 25 23 18 6 external 87 fraudulent practices and kickbacks 11 external 88 price fluctuation 12 10 89 design changes by owner 9 19 26 3 13 21 5 14 changes 90 design changes made by designers (*) 14 3 13 21 5 14 changes 91 foundation conditions encountered in the field 33 1 changes 92 mistakes in soil investigation 27 16 changes 93 water table conditions on site 24 changes 94 geological problems on site 46 12 changes 95 errors committed during field construction on site 27 changes 96 inaccurate time estimates 1 3 1 scheduling & control 97 planning and scheduling deficiencies 8 13 6 scheduling & control 98 preparation and approval of shop drawing 11 scheduling & control 99 waiting for sample materials approval 27 scheduling & control 100 preparation of schedule networks and revisions by consultant during construction 33 scheduling & control 101 lack of training personnel and management support to model construction operation 24 scheduling & control 102 lack of database in estimating activity duration and resources 16 scheduling & control 103 poor judgment and experience of involved people in estimating time and resources 6 scheduling & control 104 inadequate early planning of project 16 scheduling & control 105 inspection and testing procedures used in project 36 scheduling & control 106 application of quality control based on foreign specification 42 scheduling & control 107 traffic control regulation practiced at site 53 scheduling & control 108 accident during construction 56 scheduling & control 109 inadequate control procedures 19 scheduling & control 110 obtaining permits from government 21 4 2 21 govt. relations 111 obtaining permits from labourers 24 21 govt. relations 112 excessive bureaucracy in project-owner operation 11 8 14 7 govt. relations 113 building codes used in design of projects 8 27 28 26 govt. relations table 6 consolidated list of factors / causes and their ranking * (due to unfamiliarity with local conditions and environment) # (design & build, general contracting, turnkey, etc.) australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 54 major causes author 1 2 3 4 5 vietnam (a) poor site management and supervision poor site management and assistance financial difficulties of owner financial difficulties of contractor design change le-hoai et. al. 2007 malaysia (b) improper planning site management inadequate contractor experience finance and payments of completed works subcontractors sambasivan, 2007 jordan (b) financial difficulties faced by the contractor too many change order from the owner poor planning and scheduling by the contractor presence of unskilled labours shortage of technical professionals with the contractor sweis, 2007 south korea (b) public interruptions changed site conditions failure to provide site unrealistic time estimation design error acharya et al. 2006 hong kong (b) inadequate resources due to contractor/lack of capital unforeseen ground conditions exceptionally low bids inexperienced contractor works in conflict with existing utility lo, 2006 uae (b) preparation and approval of drawings inadequate early planning of the project slowness of the owner’s decisions making process shortage of manpower poor supervision and poor site management faridi, 2006 nigeria (b) contractor’s financial difficulties client’s cash flow problem architects incomplete drawing subcontractor’s slow mobilization equipment breakdown and maintenance problem aibinu, 2006 saudi arabia (b) changes in orders by owner during construction delay in progress payments insufficient planning and scheduling shortage of labour difficulties in financing contract assaf 2006 kuwait (b) change orders financial constraints owner’s lack of experience materials weather koushki, 2005 (c) contractor materials financial constraints change orders weather ghana (a) monthly payment difficulties poor contract management material procurement inflation contractor’s financial difficulties frimpong, 2003 jordan (b) poor design changes in orders/design weather unforeseen site conditions late deliveries al-moumani 2000 saudi arabia (b) cash flow problem financial difficulties difficulties in obtaining permits “lowest bid wins” system al-khal 1999 lebanon (b) owner’s more concern in financial issues contractors regarded the contractor relationship the most important consultant considered project management most important mezher et al. 1998 saudi arabia (b) slow preparation and approval of shop drawings delays in payment to contractors changes in design/design errors shortage of labour supply poor workmanship assaf et al. 1995 table 7 comparison of previous studies on delay and cost overrun in construction projects in different countries (a): delay and cost overruns; (b): delays only; (c): cost overruns only australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 55 this study has identified 113 distinct factors classified into 18 groups responsible for delays through critical review of 41 previous research studies performed in the relevant field. this gives all the combination of factors and categories responsible for construction delays. but this critical review of forty one studies also demonstrates that none of the studies can be generalised and directly applicable ‘as is’. this presents a strong case against opinion surveys when as in this case, statistical analyse of actual projects could be done which potentially could generate meaningful answers. references abdul-rahman, h., berawi, a.r., berawi, a.r., mohamed, o., othman, m. and yahya, i.a. (2006) ‘delay mitigation in the malaysian construction industry’, journal of construction engineering and management, 132 (2), 125-133 acharya, n.k., lee, y.d. and im, h.m. (2006) ‘investigating delay factors in construction industry: a korean perspective’, korean journal of construction engineering and management, 10, 177-190 adnan, h., jusoff, k. and salim, m.k. (2008) ‘the malaysian construction industry’s risk management in design and build’, journal of modern applied science, 2 (5), 27-33 ahmed, s., azher, s., castillo, m. and kappagantula, p. (2002) construction delays in florida; an empirical study, florida, 2002. http://www.cm.fiu.edu/publication/delays .pdf aibinu, a.a. and odeyinka, a. (2006) ‘construction delays and their causative factors in nigeria’, journal of construction engineering management, 132 (7), 667-677 ajanlekoko, j.o. (1987) ‘controlling cost in the construction industry’, lagos qs digest, lagos, 1 (1), 8–12 akinsola, a.o. (1996) ‘neural network model for predicting building projects’ contingency’, in conference proceedings of association of researchers in construction management, arcom 96, sheffield hallam university, england, 507–16 alaghbari, w., kadir, m.r.a., salim, a. and ernawati (2007) ’the significant factors causing delay of building construction projects in malaysia. engineering’, construction and architectural management journal, 14 (2), 192-206 alkass, s., mazerolle, m. and harris, f. (1994) ’construction delay analysis techniques’, journal of construction management economics, 14 (5), 375–94 al-khalil, m. and al-ghafly, m. (1999) ‘important causes of delay in public utility projects in saudi arabia’, journal of construction management economics, 17 (5), 647–55 al-moumani, a. (2000) ‘construction delay: a quantitative analysis’, international journal of project management, 20, 51–59 assaf, s.a. and al-hejji, s.a. (2006) ’causes of delay in large construction projects’, international journal of project management, 24, 349-357 assaf, s.a., al-khalil, m. and al-hazmi, m. (1995) ’causes of delay in large building construction projects’, journal of management in engineering, 45-50 bennett, j. and grice, t. (1990) ‘procurement systems for building’, in:brandon, p. (ed) quantity surveying techniques: new directions, blackwell scientific publications, oxford bennett, j., flanagan, r., goodacre, p., gray, c., mclaughlin, n. and norman, g. (1979) uk and us construction industries: a comparison of design and contract procedures surveyors publications, uk london http://www.cm.fiu.edu/publication/delays%20.pdf australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 56 bowen, p.a., hall, k.a., edwards, p.j., pearl, r.g. and cattell, k.s. (2002) ‘perceptions of time, cost and quality management on building projects’, the australian journal of construction economics and building, 2, 48-56 chan, d.w.m and kumaraswamy, m.m. (1997) ‘a comparative study of causes of time overruns in hong kong construction projects’, international journal of project management, 15 (1), 55-63 chan, w.m.c. and kumaraswamy, m.m. (2002) ‘compressing construction durations: lessons learned from hong kong building projects’, international journal of project management, 20, 2335 faridi, a.s. and el-sayegh, s.m. (2006) ‘significant factors causing delay in the uae construction industry’, journal of construction management and economics, 24 (11), 1167-1176 flanagan, r., norman, g., ireland, v. and ormerod, r. (1986) a fresh look at the uk and us construction industry building employers confederation, uk, london frimpong, y., oluwoye, j. and crawford, l. (2003) ‘causes of delay and cost overruns in construction of groundwater projects in a developing countries; ghana as a case study’, international journal of project management, 21, 321-326 giridhar, p. and ramesh, k. (1998) effective management of turnkey projects, aace transactions, pm7pm11. istanbul kaliba, c., muya, m. and mumba, k. (2009) ‘cost escalation and schedule delays in road construction projects in zambia’, international journal of project management, 27, 522-531 koushki, p.a., al-rashid, k. and kartam, n. (2005) ‘delays and cost increases in the construction of private residential projects in kuwait’, journal of construction management and economics, 23 (3), 285-294 latham, m. (1994) constructing the team, hmso, london, 87-92 le-hoai, l., lee, y.d. and lee, j.y. (2008) ‘delay and cost overruns in vietnam large construction projects: a comparison with other selected countries’, ksce journal of civil engineering, 367-377 lo, t.y., fung, i.w.h. and tung, k.c.f. (2006) ‘construction delays in hong kong civil engineering projects’, journal of construction engineering management, 132 (6), 636-649 long, n.d., ogunlana, s., quang, t. and lam, k.c. (2004) ‘large construction projects in developing countries: a case study from vietnam’, international journal of project management, 22, 553-561 luu, t.v., kim, s., tuan, n.v. and ogunlana, s.o. (2009) ‘quantify schedule risk in construction projects using bayesian belief networks’, international journal of project management, 27, 3950 mezher, t. and tawil, w. (1998) ‘causes of delays in the construction industry in lebanon’, engineering construction architecture management journal, 5 (3), 252–60 nedo (1988) faster building for commerce hmso, uk. london odeh, a.m. and battaineh, h.t. (2002) ‘causes of construction delay: traditional contracts’, international journal of project management, 20, 67-73 odeyinka, h.a. and yusif, a. (1997) ‘the causes and effects of construction delays on completion cost of housing project in nigeria’, journal financial manage property construction, 2 (3), 31–44 australasian journal of construction economics and building ramanathan, c et al. (2012) ‘construction delays causing risks on time and cost – a critical review’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 12 (1) 37-57 57 ogunlana, s.o. and promkuntong, k. (1996) ‘construction delays in a fast growing economy: comparing thailand with other economies’, international journal of project management, 14 (1), 37–45 okpala, d.c. and aiekwu, a.n. (1988) ‘causes of high costs of construction in nigeria’, journal of construction engineering and management, 114 (2), 233-244 project management institute (pmi) (2008) a guide to the project management body of knowledge, fourth edition, pmbok, atlanta sambasivan, m. and soon, y.w. (2007) ‘causes and effects of delays in malaysian construction industry’, international journal of project management, 25, 517-526 swies, g., swies. r., hammad. a. a. and shboul, a. (2008) ‘delays in construction projects: the case of jordan’, international journal of project management, 26, 665-674 the hindu (2007) hit by delays and cost escalation http://www.hindunnet.com/2007/07/06/stories/2007070657310100 tumi.s.a.h., omran.a. and pakir.a.h.k. (2009) ‘causes of delay in construction industry in libya’, the international conference on administration and business, 265-272 yang.j., yang.c. and kao.c. (2010) ‘evaluating schedule delay causes for private participating public construction works under the build-operate-transfer model’, international journal of project management, 28, 569-579 http://www.hindunnet.com/2007/07/06/stories/2007070657310100 book review book review scientific feng shui for the built environment michael y. mak and albert t. so, city university of hong kong press, isbn:978-962-178-4 paperback 304 pages, usd 29.00 to many, feng shui is something mystical. if something cannot be explained in scientific terms, feng shui comes to rescue. to a certain degree, it is synonymous to superstition. this book by dr. mak and dr. so sets out to bust this myth. this intention has been aptly spelled out in the title. the book has three parts: (a) scientific feng shui (chapter 2 to 5); (b) the form school approach (chapter 6 to 11) and (c) the compass school approach (chapter 12 to 17). the main purpose of part a is to put feng shui on a scientific footing as far as possible. the authors admit that without an approach relaying on scientific methods, the study of feng shui would easily fall prey to superstition. the chapter on “science and feng shui” begins with accounts of the philosophy of science and chinese wisdom. perhaps the differences between the western and eastern approaches to knowledge explain the philosophical emphasis of science and feng shui. the chapter ends with the observation of western acceptance of feng shui knowledge. chapter 3 “scientific methods and feng shui study” outlines the various methodological constructs in the scientific research paradigm. the strength and weaknesses of these methodologies are also discussed. it is advocated that the study of feng shui is akin to the domain of soft methodologies such as naturalistic observation and case study; defining feng shui is no less difficult than studying it. chapter 4 pinpoints the importance of understanding the meaning of the terms used in feng shui study, in particular the intricacies and subtleties of many chinese words in the feng shui language. with regard to the built environment, feng shui knowledge provides a holistic approach embracing ideas in anthropology, ecology and architecture. in view of the complex philosophical constructs, the authors remind readers of the issues of terminology, translation and transliteration in studying feng shui. through this introductory part, the authors highlight the fundamental differences between the east and west in explaining natural phenomena. two major feng shui schools/approaches are introduced. detailed treatment of the two schools, form and compass, are provided in part b and c respectively. part b is devoted to the form school approach. chapter 6 gives a succinct account of the different cultural underpinnings of the east and west. the authors observe that the western concept of architecture tends towards the „reaching up to the heaven‟ approach. the western architecture attitude to palaces and landscapes emphasizes the rigid structure in height and depth and the man-made environment in gardens, while chinese architectural concepts tends towards harmonization of the built and natural environment. the chinese architecture approaches to palaces and landscape stress the spatial relationship incorporated into the natural environment. it is argued that these traditional chinese approaches to architecture originated in feng shui knowledge, in particular from the form school. the fundamentals of the form school are given in chapter 7. based on the form school, the most predominant approach, feng shui models are to be constructed primarily of the physical configuration of the five geographical secrets (dragon, sand, water, cave and direction) and the four emblems (black tortoise, azure dragon, white tiger and red bird). the models are applicable in macrocosms and microcosms. accordingly, outer and inner forms of dwellings are expanded to four design modules: surrounding environment, external layout, internal layout and interior arrangement. australasian journal of construction economics and building cheung, s o (2011) book review, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (3) 92-93 93 chapter 8 gives an excellent summary of the eight approaches discussed by various feng shui scholars. the authors relate these approaches to contemporary form school practices in architectural design and the built environment. chapter 9 is an important chapter where the conceptualization of the form school is presented. the four fundamental concepts of the form school approach to building design are: feng shui model, parallelism, form design modules and feng shui design criteria. favorable and unfavorable conditions with regards to surrounding environment, external layout, internal layout and internal arrangement are particularly informative. for illustrative purposes, two feng shui villages in hong kong are examined in the light of the concepts of the form school approach. these examples, as presented in chapter 10, exemplify the applications of the five geographical secrets and the four emblems theory. apparently, the importance of having the right dragon, sand, water and cave is identified as being more significant than direction. in chapter 11, an example of a 6-star rated office development in sydney is used to compare the concepts of western sustainable design and chinese feng shui. harmonizing the built and natural environment underpins these two approaches. the prominent features in chinese feng shui that map well with sustainability are the notions of balancing yin and yang, exterior and interior and the relationship between human and surrounding environment. part c (chapter 12 to 17) details the compass school approach. in chapter 12 and 13, the authors built connections between the compass school and western philosophy in two aspects, numerology and modern physics. the compass school appears to be more mystical than the form school as it involves more philosophical concepts from chinese beliefs in tai chi, yin and yang theory, eight trigrams, five elements, etc. two popular compass school methods, the eight mansion and the flying stars are clearly explained in chapter 15 and 16. in this connection, case studies both in hong kong and overseas are used to put „theory‟ to practice. the authors state that “… to validate these methods scientifically takes time and requires substantial resources to unravel whatever fundamental physics lay behind them”. feng shui can be identified as the wisdom of ancient chinese, harmonizing the built and natural environment. the nomenclature used is instrumental in a wider and easier acceptance by the general public. notwithstanding, many of the features of the form school model echo well with good architectural practices for the comfort, health and safety of the inhabitants. sustainability has been observed in the golden rule of „live with what you have‟. the notion of „qi‟ is interesting; although yet to be proved scientifically, similar propositions underpin many of the chinese medicine practices. readers with feng shui knowledge would find this book informative. inter-twined with discussions on chinese civilization, western and eastern approaches to architecture, sustainability, numerology and cosmology, the body of knowledge on feng shui has been expounded lucidly in a scientific context. for readers of limited knowledge on feng shui, the authors have thoughtfully prepared an introductionary chapter giving succinct information about the content and chapters arrangement. in addition, for ease of acquaintance with the key concepts and terminology used, a cursory read of the list of classical feng shui terms is useful. the last chapter (18) points to future directions of scientific feng shui in the context of research and education for the built environment. overall, this is an interesting introduction to feng shui, a handy reference on the applications of feng shui concepts to the built environment and a thought-provoking read on a scientific approach to explain feng shui. sai on cheung professor, department of civil and architectural engineering, city university of hong kong, july 2011 book review modern construction economics gerard de valence (ed), routledge, london, 232 pp. hardcover, isbn978-0-41539706-3, usd 115.00 gbp 70.00 the editor, gerard de valence, points out in the preface, this book is neither a textbook nor a guide to what is done by construction managers and construction economists – read quantity surveyors and the like. rather, de valence notes it comprises a collection of chapters each of which focus on matters at the industry level and, in doing so, illustrates that a substantially improved understanding of the building and construction industry can be gained beyond the economics of delivering projects. before giving some thought to how far each of the chapters achieve this, it‟s worth reflecting on the virtues of developing construction economics as its own discipline or sub-discipline in general economics and the bold manner by which de valence is proposing we do this. that is, de valence proposes partitioning industry and project economics as explained in the preface and in chapter 1. de valence‟s view that “the time seems right” for these developments is also worthy of some consideration. george ofori in his article in construction management and economics (cme) in 1994 held the view that construction economics cannot be described as a bona fide academic discipline. towards developing this view, ofori indicates some frustration that we‟re practically ignored as a discipline in general economic textbooks and just glancing through a few more recent general economic texts that i have to hand, i find some evidence that this continues to be the case today. with regard to why we might seek to change this situation and develop construction economics as a sub-discipline of general economics, de valence offers essentially a business case based on construction related factors that contribute to gross domestic product. as important as we know this is, i suspect that this is insufficient motivation for many researchers who are prioritising the desire for an autonomous learning environment and other benefits associated with academe over any serious commercial rewards. in his cme article, ofori goes on to give a rationale for establishing our own discipline comprising benefits from legitimacy in terms of attracting the best minds and research funding. this rationale for change resonates more than de valence‟s business case for change – at least to me. however, ofori‟s rationale may still be seen as falling short in terms of inspiring individual academics to make a real contribution to developing our discipline and in turn our industry if various updates on our progress towards this goal are anything to go by. for example, graham ive and chen-yu chang in their review of cme articles at the cme 25 conference in 2007, concluded cme contains a small number of articles with theory references solely to economic literature. given this lack of progress, it might be that de valence‟s the time seems right statement is perhaps more clearly interpreted as the time is up on allowing more practical and project-based work to dominate our journals. moving construction economics away from projects to industry level analysis and onto more theoretical ground is, therefore, an ambitious suggestion given that updates on ofori‟s article indicates that a number of our researchers may struggle to make this transition – as things currently stand. beyond proposing our future direction and domain in construction economics, more fundamental thought might usefully be given to developing the culture and entire infrastructure surrounding research activity in our field, in order to increase the number of our academics that emphasise articulating problems over solutions; the long term over the short term; and the impact of output over the number of publications. all involved in construction economics have a role to play – not least of which our journals. for example, i was pleased to hear news of recent developments in the editorial policy of cme and which complements the direction proposed by de valence. these developments include australasian journal of construction economics and building bridge, a (2011) book review, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (2) 101-105 102 encouraging papers that incorporate theory and draw more widely than the construction literature, as well as papers that engage more thoroughly with methodological issues and allow a longer discourse. if all of our key journals follow suit, then this could be a step towards changing the nature of reward regimes and selection criteria. in turn, this might more readily encourage academics to invest time in engaging theory from economic literature and which may allow a better understanding of the nature of many problems in construction that have been faced and addressed in other sectors. as the editor of ajceb is also a chapter author, he is likely to sympathise with these developments and view as well. i move on now from de valence‟s preface and his first chapter, to look at the other chapters in terms of how much these other chapters focus on matters at the industry level and how much these chapters show the way in which an industry level approach can yield an improved understanding of building and construction activity beyond the economics of delivering projects. in chapter 2 jan bröchner also develops a critique of project-based economics and, in particular, towards cost and time prediction. this time, however, the focus for change is not such much the issue of domain but rather the conceptual framework. more specifically, and in the face of technological advance and deregulation, bröchner considers that the new institutional economics (nie) based on some key departures from neoclassical economics including a semi-strong form of rationality (bounded rationality) can extend the reach of conventional neoclassicism and deliver new insights into how incentives for firms and individuals affect issues such as innovation and quality. bröchner goes on to illustrate this in terms of three topics that he feels should be given more attention, namely: integration and innovation, signalling in real-estate markets and developing public procurement. for example, with regard to integration and innovation bröchner rightly notes that two microeconomic theories, firstly transaction cost economics (strongly associated with nie) and secondly resource-based theory (that has much in common with nie including bounded rationality) can be used to explain how construction firms integrate vertically and to explain the extent of subcontracting. my view is that bröchner is spot-on here. being able to understand and more fully explain these sorts of fundamental business decisions and in the context of construction projects that comprise a temporary coalition of independent firms, will unlock significant savings in reducing both transaction costs and production costs. this advanced understanding also holds the potential to prompt improvement in the delivery of projects and, therefore, increase the overall value of the constructed project from the client‟s perspective. it‟s interesting to link bröchner‟s chapter to chapter 5 by lauri koskela. bröchner‟s message and approach obviates much of koskela‟s concerns with mainstream or neoclassical economics. moreover, i‟m sure many of us have gained a great deal from the forum and exchange between koskela; glenn ballard and graham winch in building research & information in 2006 and for me koskela is not adopting a forward looking view in the context of this book and in terms of the issue being considered, by ignoring advances made by nie and by focusing on limitations in the mainstream neoclassical economics. moreover, of all the chapters in the book, i feel koskela‟s chapter is the furthest away from de valence‟s call for the development of theory to explain industry level phenomena, as the three-part theory of production is being advocated by koskela on the basis that each part has produced practical methods, tools and production templates. chapter 3 by christian brochman also picks-up on nie and this time applies the principal/agent relationship on the issue of collusion but with an interesting twist given that ex ante the contractor suffers from information asymmetry and assumes a role closer to the principal during the process of the client establishing/selecting the price whereas ex post the client then assumes the role of principal and may suffer from information asymmetry that favours the contractor. brochman‟s comment that zarkada-fraser and skitmore‟s work “has serious flaws” on the basis that estimators are the chosen group in the study when, as brochman asserts, the players are the business unit managers, may fall short of australasian journal of construction economics and building bridge, a (2011) book review, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (2) 101-105 103 appreciating the full complexity involved in making the mark-up decision and in other cases may simply be incorrect when estimators and other site-based operational staff for example, engineers and quantity surveyors make these decisions particularly in remote locations within the business unit. in the end, brochman concludes that strong incentives exist in the construction industry to engage in collusion and a change in institutional arrangements is required to avoid collusion as legislation is not sufficient. derek drew gives an easy introduction to his chapter 4, with some simple examples, of the advanced topic of auction theory with some comments on its possible application to construction tendering. quite correctly, he distinguishes between the standard independent private values (ipv) theory and common value (cv) theory and their contrasting assumptions. in short, the ipv assumption is that each bidder‟s cost estimate is exactly correct, while the cv assumption is also that each bidder‟s cost estimate is inexact, being a random variable with a mean value that is common to all bidders. in the celebrated ipv revenue equivalence theorem the ipv second price equilibrium result is to bid “at cost” – making this form of auction very attractive to the auctioner in theory. cv theory, on the other hand, gives rise to the „winner‟s curse‟ and the need to make some contingency allowance for its effect. for me, the most interesting aspect of this chapter concerns the extent to which the two theories apply to the auctioning of construction contracts. as is intimated, most industry practitioners would not accept the ipv assumption of exact estimates, while the assumption of a common value also seems inappropriate. bearing in mind also the other economic and statistical assumptions of both standard ipv and cv theories – including exclusive profit maximisation, sufficient information, symmetry, randomness and stationarity – it seems there is a long way to go yet before any serious applications can be anticipated in the construction world. de valence‟s chapters 6 and 10 provide us with a detailed account of market structures and, in doing so, de valence develops a useful insight into the particular nature of barriers to entry in construction and across two stereotypical market structures. one of the interesting points that de valence does not dwell on in these chapters concerns an observation de valence has previously made concerning the existence of different market structures in a supply chain in the same construction project. i investigated this further in a building services maintenance supply chain and i think de valance‟s work has great significance in terms of allowing decision makers to configure supply chains to minimise transaction costs. for example, consideration may be given to avoiding allowing powerful firms to be placed upstream and the same supply chain/contract as a less powerful firm at the head of this supply chain/contract. instead, the client might engage these powerful firms directly and reduce the extent of information asymmetry it may face. i would have also liked to see some exploration of the connection between the structure-conduct-performance (scp) model with more fundamental theory concerning the generation of sources of competitive advantage and their relationship with barriers to entry. and it would also have been interesting to consider the current state of play in terms of empirical work on the correlations between the three scp components including empirical work that shows some interesting unconventional relationships between these components. for example, a u-shaped relationship between market share and profitability. in chapter 7, rick best gives a comprehensive account of the relative merits of different approaches to comparing construction costs between countries and develops his own approach, nicknamed the “building bloc” approach. the building bloc approach has the advantage of using real projects; identifying cost significant items and assigning weights to these items. on the other hand, best notes that a number of problems need to be addressed in this approach including the incorporation of contractors‟ margins in pricing; the establishment of labour ratios and the whole approach which requires some significant analysis. the biggest issue though, seems to lie in best‟s comment in his conclusion that “we have no correct” answer to judge the various competing alternatives. best indicates that australasian journal of construction economics and building bridge, a (2011) book review, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (2) 101-105 104 this cannot be solved objectively. i think that this comment needs to be challenged most robustly by all concerned and towards its resolution in order for real progress to be made in selecting better comparative approaches. for example, perhaps there may be ways to externally validate the accuracy of comparisons generated by each of the methods in best‟s paper by reference to key performance indicators or other composite measures of client satisfaction that exclude costs. as such, i feel best‟s conclusion does not live-up to the rest of his chapter. karen manley and stephen kajewski‟s chapter 8 develops a conceptual framework of firmlevel determinants of innovation and in conjunction with a postal survey of key organisations in the australian construction industry and which generates 383 usable responses. from this largest construction innovation survey conducted to date in australia, a set of interesting results are presented and discussed including: adoption rates for advanced practices; business strategies; reasons for undertaking innovation; sources of innovation; and blockers and encourages of innovation – by industry group; sufficiency of innovation to cope with international competition; suggestions for improving the international competitiveness of the australian construction industry; and innovation profitability impact. in the context of this book, it i think it would have been useful if manley and kajewski could have explained more clearly how their conceptual framework was developed and, in turn, how their framework contributes back to extant theory. chapter 9 bee-lan oo gives us an overview of the application of an experimental approach and illustrates this with respect to a bidding experiment including participants in hong kong and singapore. the main problem with theory testing in tendering is that the „real-world‟ of construction tendering is vastly complicated and uncertain. it makes the task of the ancients to work out the movement of heavenly bodies relatively simple – at least you can see the heavenly bodies regularly and record their movements. with tendering, all you see are the bid prices and maybe a (probably unbalanced) priced bill of quantities from time to time. you may have little idea as regards to how the prices were devised or what the bidders took into account at the time. tendering is so important and competitive that we struggle to collect data/records on past bids, costs and profits and to interview people to get reliable information. an analogy might be to ask an alien to build a model of the workings of a television by letting the alien look at a plasma screen for a few seconds occasionally! apart from that, oo does a good job in explaining the relevance of experimental work in economics and an excellent job in going through many of the criticisms of the method (including lack of validity) and her own experiences. for me, the point is that opportunities for experimental work do exist in construction economics. it‟s very appropriate that göran runeson has the final chapter and proceeds to anchor us in his inimitable style. there is no doubt in my mind that runeson is a master at his craft and on the methodology of economics research. runeson has helped me yet again improve my understanding of methodological matters and on this occasion, i think i‟ve progressed my understanding of the significance of motivations with the lead-in runeson takes in this chapter towards making the point that there is no “right” response, such that motivational assumptions cannot be falsified. however, i don‟t completely share runeson‟s observation that our field is “in total confusion”. in one sense, it‟s the opposite, as we have adapted to the nature of research in our discipline and become very clear and skilled at generating a decent number of articles deemed acceptable by our highest ranking journals without seriously connecting with economic literature as noted by ive and chang and mentioned previously. the issue then may go beyond considering how much room there exists for our academic community to increase their understanding of methodological issues to how do we provide sufficient incentives for our academic community to fully engage methodological issues and in order to help sustain a robust debate about alternative/conflicting methodologies. and in this sense, i completely agree with runeson. that is, such a debate is critical but also how australasian journal of construction economics and building bridge, a (2011) book review, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (2) 101-105 105 we evolve this debate is equally critical to help move construction economics beyond a project and practical level concern, towards an industry and explanatory orientation. in summary and in terms of scope, i was a bit surprised that there was not more treatment given to more broader aspects of the behaviour of firms and public policy and regulation. it‟s also apparent that not all of the chapters represent full explanatory research including some room to deploy economic theory more clearly and to contribute back to extant theory. in particular, the low lying fruit here is the opportunity to learn something new about the theory itself as a result of working with it in construction. there is no doubt our industry is very special and exciting. with its extreme conditions on many fronts, our industry gives us very fertile ground within which to research including adapting and contributing to theory. on the other hand, i think all the chapters avoid the charge of being prescriptive and each of the chapters has something important to say in their own right. such that, overall i agree with de valence‟s comment in the preface that all of the authors are contributing towards understanding our industry. finally, returning to ofori‟s 1994 article and using a few key criteria that ofori referred to in order to briefly help update our progress towards becoming an academic discipline in construction economics, it can be seen that runeson‟s chapter connects closely to the “mode of enquiry” criterion; bröchner‟s chapter speaks very clearly to the “conceptual structure” criterion; and de valance has, through his book, advanced a bold direction for construction economics at an industry level and, in doing so, has progressed the “domain” criterion. in total, i think this book is achieving its purpose and contributing towards establishing construction (industry) economics as a field of research. as such, i congratulate and applaud gerald de valance and his colleagues for their collective efforts in helping to keep the progress of our field alive and kicking. adrian bridge brisbane may 2011 book review book review construction stakeholder management ezekiel chiniyo and paul olomolaiye (eds), wiley-blackwell: chchester, uk 2010, i-xxiv 1-392 pp, isbn 978-1-4051-8098-6 (hardback) aud 140.00, nzd 160.00 ., £69.99. construction stakeholder management (csm) is an edited book that has twenty-one chapters with introductory and concluding chapters by the editors and a foreword by professor emeritus dave langford. the back cover of the book states that the book ‘captures the best practice in csm using a range of international case studies’ and ‘advocates an alternative to dispute resolution that is proactive, practical and global in its application’. the book is recommended as an essential text for advanced students, lecturers and practitioners in the built environment. the editors of the book are dr. ezekiel chiniyo, lecturer at the university of wolverhampton and professor paul olomalaiye who is also the pro vice-chancellor and executive dean for environment and technology at the university of west england (uwe) in bristol. this review will provide an overview of the topics covered in the book, discuss its strengths and weaknesses and assess the book with respect to the statements made on the back cover of the book. as you would expect of an edited book with contributions from several authors (from around the world) the book deals with a variety of topics covering a historical perspective of stakeholder management; theoretical perspectives; analysis of the types of stakeholders and strategies to deal with them; managerial issues such as leadership, decision making, change management; construction specific issues such as risk management and contracts; dispute resolution practices such as conflict and negotiation management; useful tools like stakeholder circle, diagramming; and case studies from several countries as well as addressing different situations. the strength of the book is its wide coverage of topics and the examples of stakeholder management issues from several countries. there is something valuable in this book for a diverse range of readers. for those who are theoretically inclined there are chapters that deal with theoretical aspects and a chapter that provides an insight into how stakeholding practices have changed over the years. chapter 2 by kenneth amaeshi reviews corporate stakeholding practices, theories of stakeholder behavior and stakeholder salience. it also points to gaps in the literature on construction stakeholder management which are worth pursuing in future research. chapter 3 by frank harris provides a historical perspective of stakeholder management including a listing of reports by government and industry on how to improve construction industry performance. it also provides a good overview of how stakeholder perspectives have changed over the years. chapter 11 by abbas ali elumualim discusses the role of culture and leadership in stakeholder management covering some theoretical aspects of relationships and power and socio-cultural elements in stakeholder management. for the practitioner, the book provides some useful tools that can be directly applied in practice to manage stakeholders better. chapter 7 by lynda bourne and patrick weaver explains the stakeholder circle methodology which is a visualization tool that can help in identifying and classifying stakeholder importance and influence. the tool also assists in rating stakeholders through the project life cycle to manage them better. chapter 8 by ektewan manowong and stephen ogunlana discusses practical tips on strategies and tactics for managing stakeholders with a useful chart for strategic stakeholder management. chapter 6 by mei-yung leung and 118 paul olomolaiye has some good examples on how risk events affects internal and external stakeholders at various phases of the project life cycle as well as some risk management methods that would come in handy for construction managers. there are several case studies presented in the book from several countries. in particular chapter 20 by ezekiel chiniyo presents ten case studies devoted to several aspects of stakeholder management. in addition case studies are provided in several other chapters. examples of stakeholder management from finland, austria and hongkong also contribute to the international favour of the book. two of the chapters are worth mentioning for their novel and interesting insights into stakeholder management. chapter 14 by matthew wood, amlan mukherjee, todd bridges and igor linkov discusses the practical application of mental models to improve decision making in dynamic situations. the authors compare four diagram–based representation techniques and explain how these are used in practice. chapter 16 by michalea schaffhauser-linzetti discusses a case study from austria on how electronic archiving helped to increase the number of stakeholders involved in document submission and archiving in projects, resulting in increased interconnectedness. the authors claim this as a successful example of egovernment solutions to aid stakeholder management. while variety is a strength, it can also be looked upon as a weakness as readers may not find what they want easily. the editors have not provided a summary of what is to come in their introductory chapter. to ease referencing chapters contributing to similar themes could have been clustered together or placed into sections with themes. the editors have covered topics of general interest in early chapters but after chapter 4 the remaining chapters do not seem to have been placed in any logical sequence. for example while chapter 9 covers negotiations, conflict management is featured in chapter 17. chapter 20 could have benefited by standardizing sections of the case studies or the author could have highlighted the features of the various case studies. the introduction and conclusion sections of this chapter do not provide guidance to the case studies incorporated in the chapter. the preface and the book’s back cover mention partnering which is promoted as a new way of working in contractual relationships. a chapter providing some guideline to set up partnering arrangements or examples of partnering that have been successful or otherwise could have been very useful to the readers and met the objective of the book. a chapter on partnering could have easily replaced chapter 19 on change management which does not specifically focus on the implications of change management in stakeholder management. the revaluing construction management (barrett 2007) research and its findings that would of relevance to stakeholder management is missing from the list of reports mentioned in the history chapter. would it be useful to get a copy of the book? certainly readers will find new and useful materials in this book. it is uncertain if the book could be used as a text book but selected chapters could be essential readings in any course on stakeholder management. the editors have to be commended for putting together a number of perspectives across the world to help in managing stakeholders better in construction management. associate professor shankar sankaran school of the built environment, university of technology, sydney quantitative analysis of criteria in university building maintenance in malaysia quantitative analysis of criteria in university building maintenance in malaysia olanrewaju ashola abdullateef, (department of civil engineering, universiti teknologi petronas) abstract university buildings are a significant part of university assets and considerable resources are committed to their design, construction and maintenance. the purpose of maintenance management is to optimize productivity and user satisfaction with minimum resources. this paper aims to identify, quantify, rank and discuss the criteria that influence maintenance costs, maintenance backlogs, user productivity and user satisfaction in relation to malaysian university buildings. following a review of the related literature, a questionnaire survey identifying thirty one factors which impact effective building maintenance management was issued to 50 university maintenance organizations. participants were required to evaluate the degree to which each of the identified criteria influences effective building maintenance management. the survey achieved a 66% response rate. survey results conclusively identified that quality of original components and materials, budget constraints and the age of the building/s are the most influential criteria. problems associated with in-house workforce, shortage of materials and components were identified as the least influential criteria. this paper also establishes that maintenance management is a strategic function in university administration. keywords: university buildings, maintenance management, service delivery, malaysia introduction this paper reports part of an ongoing research study. the main research seeks to develop a systemic university building maintenance management model. the aim of this present paper is to report a study on the analysis of the criteria that influence the management of the university buildings maintenance in malaysia. in order to achieve the set aim, the study identifies, quantifies, ranks and discusses the criteria that affect maintenance costs, user satisfaction, organizational productivity and total service delivery. the study combines a literature review with a questionnaire survey and analysis to achieve its aim. data obtained was analyzed using spss to produce statistics. the major conclusion drawn from the survey was that although there are many different criteria that influence maintenance management, some exert a greater influence than others. in order to model systemic maintenance management for university buildings the inclusion of the identified criteria is critical. furthermore, the paper argues that building maintenance is a strategic issue for an academic institution. the failure of universities to accept maintenance as a core service is a serious flaw on the part of a sector that prides itself on being a vehicle for change and advancement. the remainder of the paper is structured as follows; an overview of the relevant literature concerning university building maintenance; discussion of the research and data analysis methodology adopted; presentation and discussion of data analysis; major findings and conclusions. australasian journal of construction economics and building olanrewaju, a a (2010) ‘quantitative analysis of criteria in university building maintenance in malaysia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (3) 51-61 52 literature review and background education is a very significant and integral part of the malaysian strategic thrust. the economy of malaysia has, since independence, been planned based on five-year strategic plans. for each of the plans, the education sector has featured prominently in terms of value and policy implementation. malaysia is now an educational hub and a destination for students from many countries, particularly africa, asia pacific, europe, america and the middle east. malaysia‟s quest to transform itself into a high income, knowledge based economy is a primary government focus. under the current malaysian plan or 10 pm (2010–2015) universities are expected to contribute significantly to the malaysian high-income economy status. this will require the universities to produce graduates who can meaningfully contribute regionally and globally towards economic and technological advancements and also for the universities to be able to commercialize any knowledge advancements. in order for the university sector to achieve these outcomes, university infrastructure must adequately meet the physical needs of world-class teaching, learning and research environments. the business of a university is to transmit and disseminate knowledge and culture, teach and conduct scientific research. university assets comprise finance, technology, humans, equipment and plant as well as the constructed facilities (i.e. buildings). the human resource is considered the most significant resource of the university organization because university education is labour intensive (miller 2007). nonetheless, apart from human resources, buildings are the second most significant asset of a university institution. university buildings are procured to create a suitable, conducive environment to support, stimulate and encourage learning, teaching, innovation and research. furthermore, a number of studies (housley 1997, price, matzdorf, smith & agahi 2003, green & turrell 2005, lavy & bilbo 2009) have affirmed positive correlations between the performance of educational buildings and the quality of education. constructing new buildings helps in providing better quality education. it is equally important to maintain performance standards of existing buildings for facilitating the transfer and development of knowledge and other academic related activities. buildings are critical factors of production in achieving desirable outcomes for university institutions. any inadequacy in building facilities represents a loss in value to the university institution, its users and other stakeholders. on the one hand, it is not possible to replace or rebuild all of an organization‟s buildings at one time. as an illustration, the replacement costs of the sixties buildings in english universities alone are estimated to be £11 billion (rawlinson & brett 2009). on the other hand, buildings cannot remain new throughout their entire life. in fact, before a building is completed, maintenance problems start to creep in. therefore, the need for maintenance will only intensify. building maintenance constantly affects everyone‟s life because people‟s comfort and productivity depend on the performance of the buildings they live, learn, conduct research and work in (e.g. homes, offices, schools, universities and markets). universities need functional buildings to operate. even virtual universities require some minimum amount of building to carry out their business. “maintenance” in this paper, is defined as the required processes and services carried out to preserve, repair, protect and care for a building‟s fabric and engineering services after completion, repair, refurbishment or replacement to current standards to enable it to serve its intended functions throughout its entire life span without drastically upsetting its basic features and use (olanrewaju 2010). from this definition, maintenance is not necessarily about the building per se but rather about the occupants of the buildings. therefore, “user care” is / should be the focus of maintenance. this is illustrated thus. buildings are procured for the sake of the australasian journal of construction economics and building olanrewaju, a a (2010) ‘quantitative analysis of criteria in university building maintenance in malaysia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (3) 51-61 53 services (i.e. comfort, protection, accommodation, security and esteem) they offer to their users. it is the correct functioning of the building that the users desire, not the physical condition of the building. to the extent that the building is capable of allowing the users to perform their functions, the building is a source of value creation to the functional service of accommodating, learning, teaching and doing research-with specific reference to the university buildings. in malaysia, there is no conclusive statistical data on the size of maintenance of university buildings. however, based on the data obtained from the ministry of higher education, maintenance expenditure had expanded by nearly 85% from 2004 to 2008. for instance, expenditure on maintenance was nearly 340 million in 2004 while it increased to more than 600 million in 2008 even though the figure for 2008 was at july 2008. therefore, the size and scope of university building maintenance is huge and at the same time is on the increase. however, when comparing these amounts with the total expenditure on education, it can be seen that the government is investing roughly 1 % on university building maintenance. this is, however, inadequate, to cater for maintenance backlogs. however, the 1% may not be the issue per se; the main issue is with the total allocation to higher education as a sector. there are already signs of constraints in financing higher education. for example, public universities are been encouraged by the government to enter into public–private initiatives to finance some of their projects. primary factors that determine maintenance costs include the expected life span of the buildings, the quality of original materials and workmanship as well as the quality of maintenance invested in these buildings. it is most unlikely that a complete solution can be identified without an increase in funding allocation to the maintenance sector. nevertheless it is possible to improve building performance through a better management philosophy. building maintenance is an economic issue and needs to be considered as an investment in maintaining building performance rather than as a reaction to inadequate building performance. total maintenance management requires a multi-disciplinary approach: from the engineering, technological, commercial, economic and social perspectives. strictly speaking, maintenance is business. the maintenance department should be seen as a business unit. the most important segment in the total management of university buildings is the analysis of criteria that influence total maintenance management. this paper is based on the hypothesis that information on and knowledge of the criteria that influence maintenance of university buildings are positively correlated to user satisfaction, maintenance costs and organizational productivity. the lack of this knowledge and information would imply that the scarce resources will not be strategically and positively managed. poor maintenance management systems will lead to unnecessary increases in maintenance costs, poor user satisfaction and low productivity. research design and method of data analysis a questionnaire survey approach was used to collect primary data. the questionnaires were administered on 50 universities in malaysia. the list was drawn from a database prepared by the ministry of higher education. though it was not the intention of the research to carry out a census, all the universities were involved in order to boost the response rate. the questionnaire was designed with consideration of those previously conducted by springer and waller (1996), buys and nkado (2006), amaratunga and baldry (2000), shen, lo and wang (1998), el-haram and horner (2002) and chanter and swallow (2007) and a series of discussions with persons engaged in university building management. australasian journal of construction economics and building olanrewaju, a a (2010) ‘quantitative analysis of criteria in university building maintenance in malaysia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (3) 51-61 54 thirty-one criteria were identified and addressed to the respondents. the data collection and collation commenced in july 2009 and lasted through to october 2009. a questionnaire with a cover letter was posted to individual university maintenance organizations (“maintenance managers”). the respondents were identified by their names and positions. it was found that addressing the letter to an individual respondent would encourage high participation. it was considered that the maintenance managers in the university maintenance organizations are appropriate to respond to the questionnaire because they are the people who establish the goals and objectives of the organizations. a self-addressed, prepaid envelope was provided to facilitate return. the respondents were asked to rank the 31 criteria in order of the influence they have on maintenance management. the criteria were previously identified as major sources of building maintenance related problems for the university sector. the following five-point ranking scale was used: 1 not at all influential, 2 – not influential, 3influential, 4very influential, and 5 extremely influential. the degree of influence of each of the criteria is determined by the mean and mode scores tests of each of the criteria. standard deviation is also calculated to determine the level of spread of each of the individual values from the mean score. from the individual mean score tests, the average mean score was determined. missing data (i.e. where the respondent refused to tick where applicable or where there is a multiple entry) could have a negative impact on the outcome of the findings. such an effect could be improved during data analysis by replacing the missing data with either the mode or mean of the data. nevertheless, in this paper the missing data is not treated as such; instead, the authors prefer to leave the data raw, as it were, so that the outcomes will not in any way be influenced by the authors. results and discussion demographic profile of the respondents this section presents the findings and discussions of the questionnaire survey. thirty-three questionnaires were returned and analyzed for this study. this is a response rate of 66%. this is considered very satisfactory for a postal survey. according to authors like sekeran and bougie (2010), 30% is the common response rate for postal surveys. however, this high response rate was possible because of the long survey duration and the numerous reminders sent to the respondents. analysis of the outcome of the survey shows that most of the respondents possessed sound academic qualifications. for instance, the survey revealed that about 50% of the respondents possessed a bachelor‟s degree and 21.9% had obtained msc degrees. the survey responses were differentiated into two categories depending on whether they are from private or public universities. from the 50 surveyed universities, 33 responded, which involved 17 (51.5%) private and 16 (48.5%) public universities respectively. the survey revealed that most of the respondents hold strategic positions. nearly 32% of the respondents were actually maintenance managers while about 19% were facilities managers. a substantial proportion of the “others” are directors of development and/or maintenance “executives”. maintenance executive is synonymous with maintenance manager. whatever the name given to the roles of the maintenance manager (maintenance executive, property manager or general manager) or the maintenance organizations (asset manager, facility manager or development division) the common intent is the same. the main issue is that one individual takes the overall control and responsibility for managing the activities of the various personnel. table 1 contains the annual maintenance budgets and respondents‟ industrial experience. the table also contains the respondents‟ industrial working experience. thus it australasian journal of construction economics and building olanrewaju, a a (2010) ‘quantitative analysis of criteria in university building maintenance in malaysia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (3) 51-61 55 could be inferred that the majority of respondents have sufficient knowledge to complete the questionnaires. annual maintenance budget (rm) respondent’s working experience budget (million) frequency percentage experience frequency percentage less than 10 16 51.6 less than five years 15 46.9 10 to 20 12 38.7 five years to ten years 7 21.9 20 to 30 1 3.2 ten years to fifteen years 5 15.6 30 to 40 2 6.5 fifteen years and above 5 15.6 total 31 100.0 total 32 100.0 table 1 annual maintenance budgets and respondents’ working experience note: 1 usd = rm 3.15 table 2 contains the built-up areas for the surveyed universities. the table also contains the average age of buildings in the university campuses. from this it could be inferred that most of the university buildings are not that old, although a considerable amount of money is invested in their maintenance. nevertheless, there are considerable complaints about maintenance practices. size of the university built-up area (m2) age of buildings (yrs) frequency percentage age frequency percentage less than 40,000 7 21.9 less than 10 10 32.3 40,000 to 50,000 5 15.6 10 to 20 13 41.9 60,000 to 70,000 2 6.2 20 to 30 5 16.1 70,000 to 80,000 1 3.1 30 to 40 1 3.2 90,000 to 100,000 3 9.4 40 to 50 2 6.5 100,000 and above 14 43.8 total 31 100.0 total 32 100.0 table 2 university built-up area and average age of buildings criteria that influence maintenance management reliability test results indicate that the cronbach alpha for all the criteria is very satisfactory (cronbach's alpha: 0.923). thus, the internal consistency reliability of the criteria used is considered excellent. the validity score also ranges from 0.571 to 0.905. this also signifies the high validity of the result. table 3 contains the statistics for criteria. from the analysis, the average means score test for all the criteria was found to be 3.183. australasian journal of construction economics and building olanrewaju, a a (2010) ‘quantitative analysis of criteria in university building maintenance in malaysia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (3) 51-61 56 criteria level of influential (mode values) mean sd ranking 1 2 3 4 5 use of the building 6.3% 9.4% 43.8% 31.3% 9.4% 3.2813 0.9914 16 budget constraints 0.0% 12.1% 21.2% 39.4% 27.3% 3.8182 0.9828 2 information on user performance satisfaction 0.0% 25% 50% 21.9% 3.1% 3.0313 0.7822 29 staff training / development 0.0% 6.1% 51.5% 30.3% 12.1% 3.4848 0.7954 8 quality of components and materials 0.0% 3.1% 37.5% 31.3% 28.1% 3.8438 0.8839 1 maintenance programme 9.1% 24.2% 27.3% 30.3% 9.1% 3.0606 1.1440 24 budgeting control 9.1% 21.2% 24.2% 39.4% 6.1% 3.1212 1.1112 20 maintenance performance indicator 6.1% 18.2% 39.4% 33.3% 3.0% 3.0909 0.9475 22 building automation system 0.0% 34.4% 34.4% 25.0% 6.3% 3.0313 0.9327 27 lack of skilled personnel 3.0% 12.1% 30.3% 42.4% 12.1% 3.4848 0.9722 7 age of building 0.0% 12.1% 27.3% 48.5% 12.1% 3.6061 0.8638 3 problems associated with inhouse workforce 3.0% 18.2% 54.5% 24.2% 0.0%) 3.0000 0.7500 30 shortage of materials and components 9.1% 27.3% 42.4% 12.1% 9.1% 2.8485 1.0642 31 problems associated with outsourcing 0.0% 27.3% 45.5% 21.2% 6.1% 3.0606 0.8638 25 involving maintenance expert during design stage 6.1% 12.1% 27.3% 27.3% 27.3% 3.5758 1.1998 4 worker motivation 0.0% 16.1% 41.9% 32.3% 9.7% 3.3548 0.8774 14 trust and confidence among staff 0.0% 29.0% 35.5% 32.3% 3.2% 3.0968 0.8701 21 application of maintenance management software 9.7% 22.6% 32.3% 25.8% 9.7% 3.0323 1.1397 26 lack of effective communication 0.0% 16.1% 45.2% 25.8% 12.9% 3.3548 0.9146 13 lack of maintenance manuals 0.0% 15.6% 46.9% 34.4% 3.1% 3.2500 0.7620 18 effective organization structure 0.0% 12.5% 37.5% 37.5% 12.5% 3.5000 0.8799 6 lack of maintenance standards 0.0% 21.9% 40.6% 28.1% 9.4% 3.2500 0.9158 17 top management support 6.3% 3.1% 37.5% 37.5% 15.6% 3.5313 1.0155 5 competency of maintenance managers 9.4% 3.1% 34.4% 37.5% 15.6% 3.4688 1.1067 9 complexity of design 6.5% 16.1% 45. 2% 29.0% 3.2% 3.0645 0.9286 23 availability of building service register 3.1% 21.9% 43.8% 18.8% 12.5% 3.1563 1.0195 19 clear maintenance objectives 9.4% 15.6% 46.9% 18.8% 9.4% 3.0313 1.0621 28 information on existing building performance 0.0% 15.6% 43.8% 34.4% 6.3% 3.3125 0.8206 15 user expectations 0.0% 16.1% 35.5% 41.9% 6.5% 3.3871 0.8437 10 maintenance response time 0.0% 12.5% 46.9% 31.3% 9.4% 3.3750 0.8328 12 complaint reporting system 6.3% 6.3% 46.9% 25.0% 15.6% 3.3750 1.0395 11 total average score 0.68 17.64 25.55 33.60 22.54 3.1834 0.9460 iv table 3 summary of distribution of frequency and mean of the criteria note: vi= very influential, sd = standard deviation australasian journal of construction economics and building olanrewaju, a a (2010) ‘quantitative analysis of criteria in university building maintenance in malaysia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (3) 51-61 57 a total of eighteen criteria have individual mean score tests higher than the average mean test (the shaded criteria in table 3). this indicates that the eighteen criteria were either very influential or extremely influential in total building maintenance management. only a negligible (less than 1%) part of the respondents considered the criteria not influential at all, while nearly 18% indicated that the criteria were not very influential. the majority of the universities (33.6%) considered the criteria very influential and many (26%) of them regarded the criteria as influential. a sizeable percentage (23%) of the respondents considered the criteria to be extremely influential. the quality of components and materials was found to be the most influential criterion, followed by budget constraints and then the age of the building. the three least influential criteria in the order of least influential were storage of materials and components, in-house workforce and information of user performance satisfaction. it is only natural that the quality of materials and components used for maintenance (and design) is given due consideration. it is not surprising that about 95% of the respondents rated the criterion as influential, very influential and extremely influential. it is natural that the use of defective or sub-standard materials will lead to maintenance problems, if not at the commissioning stage then certainly later on when the facility is in operation. good quality materials can also fail to make the grade if used for the wrong purpose or in an unsuitable environment. it is also not unexpected that maintenance organizations rated budget constraints highly. this finding is not surprising. in fact, it only confirmed our undisclosed hypothesis that funding allocation for maintenance is inadequate. malaysia is already witnessing financial constraints in financing education. the government is already partnering with the private sector so that it can maintain control of the public universities. a private financial initiative contract has just been signed for the construction of an additional six campuses of universiti teknologi mara. the transaction is expected to save the government rm 500 million (nordin 2010). the reality is that it is not possible for, say, the government to provide all the funds sufficient to cater for maintenance backlogs to the publicly owned universities. further, it is interesting but surprising to find that the age factor was ranked as influential. the survey revealed that most (48.5%) of the respondents concluded that deterioration due to age can significantly influence maintenance management. nearly 27% of the respondents considered age to be influential. some 12.1% of the respondents believed the criterion to be extremely influential. the same percentage of the respondents considered it as not very influential, however. nevertheless, older buildings constructed of quality materials and components and using well tried and tested techniques (and which in all probability have been updated and improved) may not be subject to heavy maintenance works or expenditure. maintenance in terms of usage hinges on and is very much related to the culture of the occupants. the findings also revealed that the importance of maintainers‟ involvement is critical. this suggests that the maintenance organizations have a lot to offer to the design teams in terms of new development. this is important because design and maintenance are not always considered together. this creates a situation whereby the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. however, maintenance is often given tactical consideration. the maintenance department is not always contacted on issues that relate to new development. while most universities consider new development a top management issue, maintenance is not given the same attention. top management only gets involved when things go wrong. for the maintenance organization to actively support the achievement of the university‟s core business objectives there is a need for top officers in the university administration to support the australasian journal of construction economics and building olanrewaju, a a (2010) ‘quantitative analysis of criteria in university building maintenance in malaysia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (3) 51-61 58 maintenance organization. maintenance issues should be discussed in the university boardroom rather than at the technical desk. issues receive proper attention when brought to the attention of the “big boss”. the vice chancellors, rectors, directors, as the case may be, should have direct access to maintenance personnel. in fact, the maintenance managers should be active members of the university governing council. the vc or rector should be the head of the maintenance organization. in this way, maintenance issues will receive systemic attention. this will define and clarify the lines of communication. ninety percent of the respondents regarded organizational structure as influential, very influential and extremely influential. for effectiveness, the structure of the maintenance organization is very important. close to 90% also believed that communication is influential, very influential and extremely influential. the lack of effective communication could lead to problems, reworks, wastes of time and contribute to poor service delivery. if the organizational structure is not well defined and effective communication is lacking, it will affect the scope and quality of maintenance and at the same time, maintenance objectives will be ambiguously defined. under these conditions, there is no way that the user expectations and perceptions can be met or achieved. however, while only 7% of the university organizations believed that meeting user expectations was extremely influential, a sizeable proportion (16%) believed it is not influential. this is, indeed, unexpected. user expectations should constitute the foundation of maintenance service delivery. customer intimacy demands that companies must have sufficient and adequate knowledge of their customers‟ needs and wants. the service provider must look far beyond the immediate objectives of the products or services to the users. the providers must provide a service that has wider ends than the customers realized was possible (bartholomew 2008) however, a likely interpretation as to why maintenance organizations do not consider that meeting users‟ expectations is critical could be that the respondents did not quite understand what this implied or that they believed there is no way user expectations can be meet. alternatively, it could mean that the respondents were much more concerned about the building than the users. however, while the first justification is very unlikely, the second and the third justifications are the most likely reasons. however, it is very unfortunate that the service providers believed the users‟ expectations cannot be attained. this could be so where maintenance systems are not systemic and when maintenance is considered as an operational issue, only as opposed to a strategic issue. it is argued that this is the only plausible interpretation. fifty percent of the respondents regarded having information on user performance satisfaction as influential while (25%) considered that it is not very influential. logically, it is only by means of a user satisfaction survey that the needs and wants of the users can be revealed. it is, therefore, most unfortunate that maintenance organizations have not appreciated the usefulness of this instrument in driving value added initiatives. it is interesting to find that many of the respondents failed to understand that having information on building performance is influential. in fact, 25% of them also failed to appreciate the importance of a building register. information on the building performance and previous maintenance records should be well documented in a safe register. where this is not the case, a lot of time and effort will be wasted locating the necessary information when needed. many of the respondents also failed to see any reason why the competencies of maintenance managers or executives are influential. however, it was good that many of them considered skilled personnel as influential and very influential at the same time as more than 90% of them saw staff training and development as influential and very influential. labour is very important in maintenance operations. in fact, about 70% of maintenance cost is attributable to labour cost. the maintenance personnel must display a high level of competency and be able to work australasian journal of construction economics and building olanrewaju, a a (2010) ‘quantitative analysis of criteria in university building maintenance in malaysia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (3) 51-61 59 cooperatively. it would not be difficult to postulate that even with high quality materials and components, the facility would eventually fail if the workers that put the objects together were not good at their jobs. poor workmanship could be the result of lack of know-how, training and skill, or just plain negligence. problems associated with out-sourcing and in-sourcing were also considered influential. more than 70% of the respondents considered both criteria influential, very influential or extremely influential. though the responses do not indicate both to be very influential and extremely influential, they are recurrent factors in maintenance issues. often organizations like the university consider building maintenance as a non-core activity. as such, they prefer to outsource much of their services to external contractors. however, building maintenance is very critical to the survival of university organizations. students and faculty members spend most, if not all, of their productive time in or around the classrooms, laboratories, theatres and/or tutorial rooms. universities should also invest in training their maintenance staff as they do for their academic staff. substantial commitment is required for continuing professional development for the building maintenance operatives. maintenance staff must be motivated. after all, enormous resources are committed to procure their buildings. in fact, it is a failing on the part of the university management to consider the management of their buildings as a non-core activity. maintenance is a core activity of the university organizations, since without it the university would not survive. external maintenance organizations could hold their clients to ransom. it also leaves the in-house maintenance organization staff less competent and inactive due to redundancy. it would be more profitable if the university could use in-house operatives for most of their maintenance services. furthermore, another issue in outsourcing is trust and confidence. the outsourcing operatives do not see themselves as part of the mainstream staff leading to the perpetration of dubious behaviour. analysis of reports of theft cases in a university revealed that more than 60% of the theft cases were actually carried out by operatives of `the outsourcing‟ organizations. these operatives came in during their off-duty time or in the evening to commit crimes such as stealing student laptops and other valuables. this is easy since the operatives had carried out repairs to locks, doors and cupboards. they often retain the spare key when they are supposed to return it immediately to the hostel administration. it is unfortunate, however, that about 30% of the respondents failed to consider trust and confidence among staff as influential. in fact, only 3% said it was extremely important. but trust and confidence are not the only issues that are related with the outsourcing arrangement. the in-house maintenance staff should also have confidence and trust in one another. otherwise, service delivery could be undermined. furthermore, empirical evidence has led to the conclusion that outsourcing could, in actual fact, be more expensive in the long run (springer & waller 1996). however, times have changed. it is high time that university organizations accepted and took care of their buildings (vis-à-vis the maintenance practices) efficiently. it is no longer acceptable for a university to invest only on improving methods of teaching and learning without improving the performance of the building assets. outsourcing maintenance always reduces maintenance procurement to a lump sum. however, the risk and uncertainty involved with maintenance services dictate that the traditional lump sum is undoubtedly unsuitable for maintenance works. as anticipated, respondents outlined the use of buildings as very influential. the attitude of users to a building affects maintenance costs. all built assets, irrespective of the material, components or construction methods used will, as a result of use and over time, encounter australasian journal of construction economics and building olanrewaju, a a (2010) ‘quantitative analysis of criteria in university building maintenance in malaysia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (3) 51-61 60 structural deterioration and systemic decline. building users should be provided with the proper information in the form of manuals or guidebooks, not unlike those provided to someone who purchases a washing machine or toaster. furthermore, users can be educated and maintenance manuals would also assist greatly. whilst a number of the respondents did not think a maintenance manual has very much influence on building management, 80% of them thought otherwise. other aspects that a university maintenance organization must look into are the way maintenance complaints are lodged and the response time to complaints by the maintenance organization. users prefer one point of communication and do not want complications. they want someone to talk to if a problem arises. situations where unnecessary time is wasted in an attempt to contact the maintenance organization can only further frustrate users. they want to be able to report their complaint conveniently. the contact addresses (phone numbers) of those concerned with specific items/aspects of maintenance should be made available to the building‟s users. it will further facilitate easy reporting and communication if a toll-free phone can be provided so that users will not need to pay for the complaints they have made. this will go a long way to increasing the satisfaction of the users with the service delivery. conclusions this paper presents the outcome of a questionnaire survey on the maintenance of university buildings. a list of criteria, which had been gathered from the literature and discussions with experts, was addressed to university maintenance organizations to evaluate their agreement on the influence the criteria have on building maintenance. using the mean descriptive statistics technique, 18 criteria are found to be very influential or extremely influential and should be considered in maintenance decision making to enhance service delivery. the study criteria show that the criteria that influence the maintenance management of buildings cuts across technology, management, behavioral and cultural considerations and engineering. maintenance, as a concept, is technical in nature; this is perhaps the major reason why most practitioners and authors have considered maintenance management as a hard science or purely an engineering issue. this is also where the concept of condition-based maintenance originates. however, the essence of maintenance is not about the building itself but about the users. accordingly user satisfaction information is an essential requirement in maintenance management. the current maintenance systems regard the physical condition of the building as the main reason for maintenance demand. this paper concludes that university building maintenance is a core service of the university organization. there is a need for change in university administrators‟ mindsets towards buildings and maintenance. acknowledgments the authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of the respondents who provided their time and other resources to complete the questionnaires for this study. we also thank the anonymous commentators who offered useful suggestions in order to improve the paper. references amaratunga, d. and baldry, d. (2000) „assessment of facilities management performance in higher education properties‟, facilities, 18 (7/8), 293-301 bartholomew (2008) building on knowledge: developing expertise, creativity and intellectual capital in the construction professional. uk: blackwell publishing limited buys, f. and nkado, r. (2006) a benchmark model for maintenance management systems in south african tertiary education institutions, proceedings of the annual research conference of australasian journal of construction economics and building olanrewaju, a a (2010) ‘quantitative analysis of criteria in university building maintenance in malaysia’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10 (3) 51-61 61 the royal institution of chartered surveyors (cobra 2006), edited by elaine silver, university college london 7th and 8th september 2006 el-haram, m, a and horner, m. w. (2002) „factors affecting housing maintenance cost‟, journal of quality in maintenance engineering, 8 (2), 115-123 green, d. and turrell, p. (2005) „schools buildings investment and impact on pupil performance‟, facilities, 23 (5/6), 253-261 housley, j. (1997) „managing the estate in higher education establishments‟, facilities, 15 (3/4), 72-83 lavy, s. and bilbo, d. l. (2009) „facilities maintenance management in large public schools, texas‟, facilities, 27 (1/2), 5-20 miller, b. a. (2007) assessing organizational performance in higher education, usa: john wiley and sons, inc nordin, m. k. (2010) private-finance initiative can save government rm 500 million. the star, 5 may 2010. n4 olanrewaju, a. a. (2010). „maintenance management of university buildings‟, article accepted for publication in journal of building appraisal. price, i. f., matzdorf, f., smith, l. and agahi, h. (2003) „the impact of facilities on the student choice of university‟, facilities, 21 (10), 212-222 rawlinson, s. and brett, l. (2009) cost model universities, building magazine, available at http://www.building.co.uk/data/cost-model-universities/3143057.article, accessed on 15 june 2010 sekeran, u. and bougie, r. (2010) research methods for business: a skill building approach, fifth edition, uk: john wiley and sons, limited shen, q.p., lo, k.k. and wang, q. (1998) „priority setting in maintenance management of public buildings a modified multi-attribute approach using analytic hierarchy process‟, construction management and economics, 16 (6), 693-702 springer, t. m. and waller, n. g. (1996) „maintenance of residential rental property: an empirical analysis‟, the journal of real estate research volume, 12 (1), 89-99 microsoft word paper 7 dec.doc the fee sensitive risk exposures of project authorized person in hong kong by sai-on cheung et al the australian journal of construction economics & building page 65 the fee sensitive risk exposures of project authorized person in hong kong sai-on cheung, ka-chi lam and shek-sau wong, department of building and construction, city university of hong kong and sik-hung wong, morrison hill technical institute, vocational training council, wan chai, hong kong introduction design and construction of buildings are heavily regulated in hong kong. the most important piece of legislation exercising building control is the building ordinance. other supporting regulations include the building (administration) regulations and the building (construction) regulations. the government department responsible is for the implementation of these statutory building control measures is the buildings department. the director of buildings, head of the buildings department, exercises his power vested with him by virtue of the building ordinance, in the name of building authority. in essence, the buildings department operates a central plan processing system, thereby controls private building developments through administrative procedures and statutory powers. as economy grows and increases in private building developments, pressure on the government department for checking of building plans began to mount. to alleviate the burden on government department, a professional licensing system called the registration of authorized persons was introduced in 1974 (ho 1998). this system has been used in hong kong since then and is quite unique for hong kong. reported study on project ap is limited. discussion on legal liabilities (chan and leung 1997) and professional indemnity (chan 1997) are the few found. the intensity of construction activities in hong kong for the last two decades is phenomenal. the ap system contributes to the rapid growth, especially in sharing the control responsibilities with the governmental authorities. under this licensing scheme, professionals registered with the buildings department shall be held responsible for ensuring building works are designed and constructed in compliance with the statutory requirements. three lists of ap are kept by the buildings deapartment. list i is for architects, list ii is for civil or structural engineers, and surveyors are grouped under list iii. applicants for inclusion in the register must possess the relevant qualifications, experience and competence assessed through interviews conducted by the respective registration committee constituted under the building ordinance. the importance of ap can be evidenced by the fact that a project ap must be appointed to coordinate a proposed building works (excepted those exempted from this requirement under the building ordinance). “building works” is defined very broadly under the building ordinance and includes any kind of building construction, site formation, foundation works, repairs, demolition, alteration, addition and every kinds of building operation. in this paper, the major responsibilities of ap under the building ordinance and the allied regulations are outlined. furthermore, a project ap is also often appointed by the project owner as the project team leader thus assumes further responsibilities towards the owner, contractor, third parties and their fellow team members. the study reported in this paper seeks to identify the risk exposures that critically affect the fee of project ap. the risk exposures of project ap are first discussed. with the use of a questionnaire study, practicing aps then assessed the riskiness of the exposures. using the project remuneration level as grouping factor, the significance of the various risk categories are compared. responsibilities of ap under the hong kong building ordinance the fee sensitive risk exposures of project authorized person in hong kong by sai-on cheung et al page 66 the australian journal of construction economics & building under section 4(1) of the building ordinance, whoever wants to carry out building works, an ap has to be appointed to coordinate the proposed works. if structural elements were involved, a registered structural engineer (rse) would also be appointed as a consultant to the ap. section 4(3) of the building ordinance summarizes the duties of an ap and provides that: “an ap appointed shall (a) supervise the carrying out of the building works; (b) notify the building authority of any contravention of the regulations which would result from the carrying out of any work shown in any approved plan; and (c) comply generally with the provisions of the ordinance”. the duties of a project ap therefore are wide-ranging. broadly speaking, the duties can be examined in three stages of the development; pre-construction, construction and post-construction. pre-construction stage approval of plans by the building authority is central in the statutory building control process. this process serves to ensure that the design of the project complies with the relevant regulations. any person intending to carry out building works is required to obtain approval of plans by the building authority (section 14(1)(a) building ordinance). section 11 of the building (administration) regulations details the types of plan required. under section 12(1) of the building (administration) regulations, all plans submitted for approval shall be prepared and signed by an ap, and his signature shall be deemed to be his assumption of all responsibilities for the plan, structural details or calculations as the case may be. this is onerous, as other designer instead of the project ap may have prepared some of the design. nevertheless, under these provisions, the project ap assumes all responsibilities. furthermore, under section 18a of the building (administration) regualtions, in submitting plans for approval the project ap certifies that the plans were either prepared by him or under his supervision or direction; and to the best of his knowledge and beliefs that the plans comply in all respects with the building ordinance and the allied regulations. before physical works can be started on site, even with plans approved, it is necessary to obtain consent to commencement of works (section 14(1)(b) of the building ordinance and sections 31 & 32 building (administration) regulations). the application for such a consent s also the responsibility of the project ap. construction stage under section 36 of the building (administration) regulations, it is the duty of the project ap to supply plans approved by the building authority to the registered contractor. it is also incumbent on the project ap to give such periodical supervision and make such inspections as may be necessary to ensure that he building works are being carried out in general accordance with the provisions of the building ordinance and building (administration) regulations section 4(3)(a) building ordinance and section 37 building (administration) regulations. during the late 80’s and early 90’s, several significant building defects on completed projects were discovered. these include faulty foundation and severe structural cracks. as a result, tighter control on supervision was instigated in 1996. it is now necessary to have the project ap, the registered structural engineer, the registered building general contractor and the registered specialist contractor jointly prepare a supervision plan (section 39a building (administration) regulations). it is also the duty of the project ap to appoint such number of technically competent persons as appropriate to give such supervision as may be required. the building authority may order cessation of building works if there has been a material deviation from the supervision plan. the fee sensitive risk exposures of project authorized person in hong kong by sai-on cheung et al the australian journal of construction economics & building page 67 post-construction stage within 14 days of the completion of any building works the project ap shall certify that the new building has been erected or the building works carried out in accordance with the plans approved in respect thereof by the building authority, and that the new building or such building works, as the case may be, are in his opinion structurally safe and shall, within the said 14 days, send such certificate to the building authority (section 25(2) building (administration) regulations). the project ap also need to certify that water supply has been connected and the water fitments etc. have been completed in compliance with the relevant regulations in connection with plumbing and drainage works (section 25a(1)(2)). it is also incumbent on the project ap to liaise with other government departments to obtain the relevant certificates. for example, a fire certificate issued by the fire services department certifying completion of the fire services installation is a condition that must be fulfilled before an occupation permit can be issued. other responsibilities of project ap as project ap is often appointed by the project owner to be the project team leader, thus the project ap assumes other responsibilities other than those from the building ordinance, towards project owners, contractors, third parties and fellow team members. the responsibilities of the project ap towards the project owner are mainly governed by the contract of engagement. this often imposes duties and standards such as maximizing development potentials. putting the project briefs into drawings and specifications is a challenging job. in hong kong, the project team leader is often the contract administrator of the construction contract and hence is liable in contract and tort if he fails to perform entrusted by the project owner. these include the quasi-arbitral roles such as certifying practical completion and assessing extension of time. in exercising these functions, the contract administrator also owes a duty towards the contractor. the project ap could also e liable in tort to a third party for personal injury or damage to property. normally, he owes a duty of care to the adjoining owners to ensure their interests are not affected by the construction work. he also owes a duty of care to the general public for the safe execution of care of the proposed works, save for the negligence of the contractor. whether a breach of such a duty is judges by a professional of equal experience and knowledge would do in similar situation. it is the one of the main duties of the project team leader to co-ordinate the works of the other consultants, in this context; the project ap may attract liabilities arising from failure to discharge this duty in a professional manner. in summary, in discharging his duties as project ap and project team leader, an ap may be exposed to risks due to: • liabilities arising from duties of an ap under the building ordinance at the pre-construction stage. • liabilities arising under the building ordinance at the construction stage. • liabilities arising from duties under the building ordinance at the postconstruction stage. • liabilities towards the client. • liabilities towards the contractor. • liabilities towards third parties. • liabilities towards his/her fellow project team members. the study having identified the types of risk that aps are exposed to, this study further seeks to examine the impact on risk exposures with different fee level. as information on remuneration is considered as commercial secret and it is unlikely that the respondents will disclose the actual fee percentage charged, the respondents were instead asked to indicate the remuneration level in three ranges; below 3%, 3-5% and above 5%, taking into the fee sensitive risk exposures of project authorized person in hong kong by sai-on cheung et al page 68 the australian journal of construction economics & building account the usual remuneration level falls in the range of 2% to 8%. for the seven types of risk exposures identified as aforesaid. each risk category is separately measured by a number of questions. the risk exposure is assessed by a likert scale of 1 (very low risk) to 7 (very high risk). the measurement of each risk category is calculated by the following equation: m q x m j ij i ∑ == 1 where xi = risk score for liability type i; qij = risk measurement questions under liability type i; j = number of questions under xi. under each of the risk categories, a number of questions setting out the scenarios under which risk may arise are included. this enables more thorough assessment of the risk categories. the following details the risk assessment questions: x1: liabilities arising from duties of an ap under the building ordinance at the pre-construction stage due to: * statutory role as an ap. * submission of building proposals & endorsement of building proposals. * endorsement of structural stability. * endorsement of building plans prepared by subordinates. * endorsement of demolition plans. * endorsement of site formation plans. * endorsement of compliance of statutory test. * temporary absent of ap without notification to the building authority. * acting as a temporary ap. * explanation to the client on the grounds for disapproval of the building proposal submitted. x2: liabilities arising under the building ordinance at the construction stage due to: * carrying out of amendment works without a valid consent for commencement of works. * submission of further particulars to the building authority. * periodic supervision. * inform contractor on works that do not comply with the approved plans and corresponding building regulations. * fail to advice the client on the need to appoint additional specialist consultants. * ensure timely amendment plans submission and consent application for all changes. x3: liabilities arising from duties under the building ordinance at the postconstruction stage due to: * certification of completion of building works. * certification to building authority on the advice from other consultants. * liaise with other government departments for the relevant certificates which affect the issuance of the occupation permit. x4: liabilities towards the client due to: * fail to achieve full development potential. * the brief requirements cannot be achieved. * fail to give proper advice on the implications on innovative design approach. * delay in giving necessary information to the contractor. * delay due to variation order. * fail to give proper advice on the specialist items. * fail to control the site progress and construction cost due to inadequate supervision given. * improper issue of the certification of practical completion. * improper certification on the saleable floor area in sale brochures. * defects due to design fault. * certification of the substandard work. * fail to give proper advice on the effect of variation works. * acting ultra vires to the contract provisions. x5: liabilities towards the contractor due to: * late issue of drawings. the fee sensitive risk exposures of project authorized person in hong kong by sai-on cheung et al the australian journal of construction economics & building page 69 * delay caused by client’s approval. * late respond to request for information or approval of shop drawings. * biased contract administration. * feasibility of the construction details. * fail to provide proper technical support in related to the building control matters. x6: liabilities towards third parties due to: * duties of care towards the adjoining building owners. * duties of care towards the general public safety. x7: liabilities towards your fellow project team members due to: * fail to lead consultant & control of the programme to achieve design brief. * fail to give proper advice on your design in related to the requirements of the building ordinance. data was collected by a questionnaire survey. a total of 150 questionnaires were sent out to the practicing aps randomly elected from the list i ap register. list i register is for architects who typically assume the dual capacities of project ap and team leader. a total of 42 responses were obtained, nine of them were incomplete and hence not used in the analysis. as a result, 33 data sets were used for the anova study. the numbers of project for the low, medium and high fee group are nineteen, seven and seven respectively. the spss programme (spss 1993) was used to perform the anova . for this purposes, the notation used are: remuneration level: 1= low fee (below 3%); 2= medium fee (3%-5%); 3= high fee (higher than 5%) x1 = risk score for liabilities arising from duties of an ap under the building ordinance at the pre-construction stage; x2 = risk score for liabilities arising under the building ordinance at the construction stage; x3= risk score for liabilities arising from duties under the building ordinance at the post-construction stage; x4 = risk score for liabilities towards the client; x5 = risk score for liabilities towards the contractor; x6 = risk score for liabilities towards the third parties; x7 = risk score for liabilities towards his/her fellow project team members; discussions the analysis of variance is a procedure to test the hypothesis that several populations have the same mean. in this study there are three groups, the low fee, the medium fee and the high fee group. the anova result can be used to examine whether there exists significant differences in risk exposures among the three groups. the null hypothesis in this case is that the population means for all three groups are the same. that is, there is no difference in the average risk scores for projects in the three fee level groups. the alternative hypothesis is that there is a difference. the anova result is provided in table 1. in anova, the observed variability in the sample is divided into two parts: variability of the observations within a group about the group mean (within-group variability) and variability between the group mean (between-group variability). the f value is the ratio of the two mean squares. if the null hypothesis is true, a f value close to one can be expected. a large value of f indicates that the sample means for the groups exhibit significant differences. in addition, the significance level (sig.) value also helps to determine whether the null hypothesis is to be rejected. for example, the fee sensitive risk exposures of project authorized person in hong kong by sai-on cheung et al page 70 the australian journal of construction economics & building as in table 1, risk category x2, the f ratio is 7.787 with sig. value of 0.002. that means the probability of obtaining a f ratio of 7.787 or larger when the null hypothesis is true, is 0.002. therefore, a high value of f with a low sig. value, would suggest the null hypothesis is to be rejected. with the objective of the study in mind, the anova results for the seven risk categories are discussed in descending order of the f ratio. the risk category for liabilities arising under the building ordinance at the construction stage gives a f ratio of 7.787 with sig. of 0.002. this suggests a significant difference in the group means among the three fee groups. in fact, the group mean risk scores are the highest among the seven risk categories. with a low fee, the ap will need to keep his expenditure under control and in this circumstance supervision is an area that is often compromised. less frequent visits by the project ap or delegation to junior staff may be a result. another way to curb expenditure is to adopt a lean staff strategy. each of these strategies will increase the chance of the project ap failing to fulfill his obligations during the construction stage of the project. a higher fee level obviously has a positive effect against the potential pitfalls due to compromising acts. table 1: anova results risk category group mean f sig. x1 1 4.4211 1.652 .209 2 4.1429 3 4.0000 x2 1 6.1579 7.787 .002 2 5.8571 3 5.2857 x3 1 4.3158 2.440 .104 2 3.7143 3 2.8571 x4 1 6.0526 2.619 .089 2 5.8571 3 5.2857 x5 1 2.7368 1.901 .167 2 2.2857 3 2.1429 x6 1 4.5789 4.727 .016 2 4.000 3 4.000 x7 1 3.1579 .858 .434 2 2.8571 3 2.4737 the next highest f ratio is found in the risk category related to liabilities towards third parties. this can be viewed as an extension of the lack of supervision, thus allowing the contractor chances to engage in hazardous acts. in this circumstance, the project ap may be sued jointly with the contractor. fortunately the group mean risk scores are around four, being in the middle of the seven point likert scale, suggesting that the risk level is not that high. again, a higher fee will lower this risk exposure. the third highest f ratio relates to the category of risks arising from liabilities towards the client. the group mean risk scores are also quite high, all above five in a scale of seven for all three groups. this the fee sensitive risk exposures of project authorized person in hong kong by sai-on cheung et al the australian journal of construction economics & building page 71 can be explained by the fact that in hong kong, the land costs are very high. the clients are anxious and in fact aim at utilizing the full development potentials. nonetheless, building developments are subject to many constraints imposed under various regulatory frameworks. these include the lease conditions, outline zoning plans, development permission area plans, and provisions under the building (planning) regulations. a building proposal should meet all these constraints as well as the client’s brief. these tasks require a good level of experience and expertise. a project ap is likely to face actions from the client if the design fails to make full use of the development potential, such as permitted plot ratio and site coverage. as project team leader, the project ap will also act as the contract administrator of the construction contract. a typical construction contract empowers him to issue change instructions. if the changes are initiated due to the fault of the ap, the contractor can seek an extension to the contract period as well as loss and expenses resulting there from. the client may in such circumstances, turn to the project ap for the loss suffered. in terms of site supervision a project ap is not expected to be permanently on site. however, in the case of east ham corporation v. bernard sunley & sons ltd. [1966] a.c.406, it was ruled that the project architect (in the context of our analysis, the project ap assumes such a role) needed to periodically supervise so as to control the site progress and the construction cost. in another case (wharf properties ltd. & another v eric cumine associates architects engineers and surveyors (1991) 52 blr 1) the contractor successfully obtained compensation from the project owner due to a delay for which the contractor was not responsible. the project owner alleged that the project ap had failed to properly supervise the contractor, and sought to recover losses of rental income from the project ap. in the capacity of project team leader, the project ap often has to exercise quasiarbitral functions. these include assessing extension of time, loss and expense, and certifying project completion. the house of lords in sutcliffe v. thackrah [1974] a.c.727, rejected the argument that architects, as certifiers, enjoy an immunity from actions in negligence, akin to those of an arbitrator or judge. a project ap, in exercising these duties owes a duty of care to the client for the proper exercise of his professional discretion. if they fail to exercise proper care, project ap’s could be concurrently liable to the project owner in contract (arising from the engagement agreement) and in tort for negligence. the f ratios for the other four risk categories are not high and the sig. value is comparatively high, suggesting that there is no significant difference among the group means. for those risks arising from the design and submission for approval (x1) and completion procedures (x3), the duties of the project ap are spelt out in the building ordinance and failure to fulfil such duties are clearly the direct responsibilities of the ap. hence, although the risk can be considered as medium, and even the fee is not enough, the project ap will not risk his own professional reputation. as for the liabilities towards the contractor (x5) and his fellow team members (x7), the low group mean risk scores for all three groups suggest that the respondents do not consider these risks are critical. the low f ratios also suggest small group mean variances for the risk scores among the three fee groups. concluding remarks as building is a basic necessity, building developments need to be closely monitored. in hong kong, the building department is charged with the job of ensuring building works comply with the requirements of the building ordinance and the associated regulations. the system of the use of aps serves as privatizing such responsibilities to qualified professionals. a project ap is therefore personally responsible for the design and construction of building works under this licensing system. among the seven risk the fee sensitive risk exposures of project authorized person in hong kong by sai-on cheung et al page 72 the australian journal of construction economics & building categories identified in the reported study, the risks due to liabilities arising under the building ordinance at the construction stage and those towards third parties and the clients are found to be fee sensitive. references chan, h.w. & leung, w.y., “the uncertain liabilities of authorized persons in hong kong” in asia pacific building and construction management journal, vol 3 no.1 1997: pp.13-19. chan, h.w., “indemnity insurance for architects/ authorized persons in hong kong”, in professional practice for architects in hong kong, hong kong: pace publishing limited, 1997. ho, s.t., “general building development process” in building construction in hong kong, hong kong government printer, 1998. spss, spss base system syntax reference guide release 6.0, spss inc. 1993. the australian journal of construction �� 2�� *�� 0�� "��#�b'��<��cd >? "--&��0'$0� ��7�� ))�� /��#�� 5��*� �#�� #� ��8,�$%��$"��$*�9 ��/�� 8,�$%�� $*0*�9��'��7�� +��)�� $�� %� � � �� /��!�� )�� 4 /��!�� # �� )��)�� #��#� �� )�� $ �� #��#�� #�� )��)�� ))�� #� �� ) �� !�� $ �� #��/1�� e�� ) �� !�� #��/1�� /�� #�� )��/� ��) ��#� �� )��/�� /��!�� !��)�� $ �� #�� 4)� �� #� )�� /�� !��4 �)�� $ ��!�� e�� '��,'��+�'� +,'��,*�� /��!�� )�� !��4 �)�� #�� #� �� l�� *�� #�� m�8�*��9��)�/��/�� $�� %� � � ��8�$%�9��chhh �� )��/�� /�� *� �� /�� #�� chh<� ��c>>�) #��#�� /��!�� )�� )��)��!��#�� # ��$ ��)�� 4)� �� )�� e�� *��;�� )�� /��#� �$�� #�� #� ��g� /��!� �� organisational culture in construction: an employee perspective raufdeen rameezdeen , senior lecturer, and nishanthi gunarathna, research assistant, (department of building economics, university of moratuwa, sri lanka) abstract a large number of stakeholders in construction projects makes the construction industry prone to disputes. the historical separation between design and construction add to this phenomenon by having a consultant for design and a contractor for construction. communication breakdown, frequently, is the first sign of problems, notably in the relationship between the contractor and the consultant. therefore, it appears that the split between design and construction has given rise to two separate cultures in the construction industry. this paper attempts to identify whether there is a difference in organisational culture between consultants and contractors taken as two groups and determine whether a specific attribute was related to the cultural differences between the two entities. based on case studies it was found that consultants are biased towards clan culture while contractors are biased towards market culture. however, both groups show similar affinity to adhocracy and hierarchy cultures. keywords-organisation, culture, consultant, contractor, competing value framework introdljction the common mode of procuring construction projects in sri lanka as well as many other countries could be explained using a model termed 'tripartite system'. the main three parties in a construction project are the employer, the consultant and the contractor whose mutual responsibilities are defined by contractual and professional obligations. the formal nature of this relationship dates back to the colonial rule in sri lanka, and is regarded by its practitioners as the key to prudent project implementation in a market economy. it is designed to secure value for money through commercial competition, while protecting the legitimate interests of public finance and all concerned. the term employer covers the initiating agency which is responsible for providing funds for the execution of a project. the employer inexperienced in the design and implementation of construction works seeks the advice of the consultant. the consultant is normally given two tasks by the employer; the recommendation and justification of a preferred technical proposal together with an estimate of its cost, and further refinement of the design to the stage where tenders can be called for construction and the framework for site supervision can be established. based on the competitive tendering system, a contractor is selected for the physical execution of the project. responsibilities of the contractor relate to the implementation of works specified in a formal contract, based on the consultant's designs. the relationships between the employer-consultant and the employer-contractor are governed by a formal contract. however, the consultant-contractor relationship is only a functional relationship which does not have contractual implications. nevertheless, during the implementation stage of a project, the consultant-contractor relationship is very crucial for successful execution of the project. this historical separation of design and construction is well documented and considered as a prime cause for problems encountered in the construction industry (egan, 1998; bennett et al. , 1996; seymour and rooke, 1995; latham, 1994). a preliminary investigation of disputes in the sri lankan construction industry was conducted to determine the root causes. communication gap between the consultant and contractor was found to be the main reason for the majority of disputes (fernando, 2002) . therefore, it appears that the separation of design and construction has given rise to two different cultures in the construction industry. these two entities work in watertight compartments and very few things can be seen in common. the desire to bring design and construction activity together is well established and has been generally welcomed by the industry (root and hancock, 1996). however, this is seen primarily as a redesign of the construction process through new contractual relationships, procurement routes and management tools (seymour and rooke, 1995). rameezdeen and de silva (2002) have shown that adoption of these new procurement systems is difficult in countries like sri lanka where the traditional procurement system is well established. eighty-five per cent of construction projects are still procured through the traditional system according to their estimate. it is increasingly accepted that 'culture "is a major element that hinders the integration of design and construction' (latham, 1994; egan, 1998; fellows et ai. , 1994). within this context this paper aims to investigate whether there is a difference in the organisational culture of consultants and contractors taken as two groups, and to determine whether a specific attribute governs the cultural differences between the two entities. the research hypothesis to be tested is that: 'there is a difference in the organisational culture of consultants and contractors taken as two groups and this difference is due to some identifiable attributes'. theaustralian journal of construction economics and building j vol 3 , no 1 j i 19 it is important to note that the focus of this paper is limited to organisational culture, which is narrow in scope compared to the culture taken as a whole. organisational cljltljre organisational culture is identified as 'a collective programming of the mind which distinguishes the members of one organisation from another' (hofstede, 1984). there is no doubt that different organisations develop different cultures. sometimes it is fragmented and difficult to read from outside. according to dawson (1996) it is 'shared values and beliefs that create distinctive patterns of thinking and feeling with in organisations'. the author of corporate culture defined it as 'something historic, historically determined, related to the things anthropologists' study, socially constructed , soft and difficult to change. some say it is something an organisation has, but also seen as something an organisation is' (deal and kennedy, 1982). cultures tend to emerge as an organisation discovers, invents, or develops solutions to the problems that it confronts. successful approaches to solving problems tend to become a part of the culture and are used whenever similar conditions are faced (schein, 1983). further, it can be identified as 'the system of publicly and collectively accepted meanings operating for a given group at a given time' (trice and beyer, 1984). they emphasised the role that culture plays in helping people to decipher their world and highlighted that culture has two basic components, namely, substance and forms. substance is the work practices, which are contained in organisational values, norms and beliefs. on the other hand, forms are expressed, affirmed and communicated to the members of the organisation. drennan (1992) defined culture as 'how things are done around here', and suggested that it is the company's internal environment that has the significant influence on employee attitude and not the external environment such as rising unemployment or global competition. riley and brown (2001) argued that culture is built up from many factors and is influenced by a range of variables that change over time. culture develops through the normal and traditional methods by which things are done. the acceptable standards are established and become the norm. it is rooted in history, collectively held and sufficiently complex to resist attempts at direct manipulation. the culture in an organisation is analogous to personality in an individual. deal and kennedy (1982) suggested that culture was the ~iement that explained why companies differed so greatly, even those in the same industry. most successful organisations have developed something special that supersedes corporate strategy, market presence or technological advances-a distinctive culture. further they had identified five elements of organisational culture as: business environment; values and norms; heroes; rites and rituals; and communication . byar (1987) pointed out four factors that contribute to the origin of an organisation's culture as its history, environment, staffing process and socialisation process. since all organisations must interact with their environment, the environment plays an important role in shaping an organisation's culture. organisations that operate within a highly regulated environment develop cultures totally different from organisations that face fierce competition in industries with rapidly changing technology. without valid means of measuring organisational culture, research into culture and its relationship with various factors and the environment is not possible. further, it is essential to relate or link the measure to the business environment, especially in an industry like construction. bowers (1969) highlighted five variables that composed culture and highlighted communication as being the most significant. harrison (1972) proposed a model consisting of four basic variables namely 'power culture', 'role culture', 'task culture' and 'person culture'. in power culture, power and influence spread out from a central source. there may be a specialist or functional structure but central control is exercised largely through appointing loyal key individuals and exercising regular interventions from centre whim. role culture, often referred as bureaucracy, works by logic and rationality. procedures, role descriptions and authority definitions control work within and between departments of the organisation. coordination is at the top-the senior management group. people are appointed to roles based on their ability to carry out the functions subject to satisfactory performance of role. task culture is job or project oriented. the organisation operates by establishing terms to manage projects autonomously. there is high regard for experts in this culture and dependant on the right people being brought together at the right time, which is mainly associated with matrix structure. person's culture is characterised by the fact that individuals can leave the organisation but the organisation seldom has power to evict individuals. cultures like this can take on a life beyond the personal ambition of the members. it is also possible for person culture pockets to appear in large organisations. hofstede's (1991) studies on organisational culture identified six independent dimensions of practices such as process oriented versus result oriented, job oriented versus employee oriented, professional versus parochial , open systems versus closed systems, rigidly versus loosely controlled , pragmatic versus normative. the position of an organisation on these dimensions is determined by the business or an industry the organisation is in and the number of other 'hard' characteristics of the organisation. deal and kennedy (1982) classified organisational culture on the basis of two aspects: as the degree of risk associated with organisational activities; and the speed with which organisations and their employees get feedback indicating the success of decision. they identified four basic culture types according to their categorisation as 'tough guy/macho culture', 'work hard/play hard culture', 'bet your company culture' and 'process culture'. organisational culture in construction: an employee perspective by raufdeen rameezdeen and nishanthi gunarathna 20 maloney (1989) and maloney and federle (1991) presented a framework developed by quinn (1988) and cameron (1985) in terms of organisational culture, organisational effectiveness, leadership roles and management skills. further, they presented the results of a study of organisational assessment that used a framework of competing values (maloney and federle, 1993), developed by quinn and cameron and proved that the methodology is valid. hence, competing value framework developed by quinn and cameron is a promising model for the measurement of organisational culture. this model is used in this study to determine the cultural differences between consultants and contractors in sri lanka. the quinn and cameron approach is to ask the respondents to describe the organisation by how it functions, i.e. , to describe the behaviours exhibited with in the organisation. based upon the description, the organisational culture is placed within a 'framework of cultures'. results indicate perceptions of employees on their organisation. as shown in figure 1, the model dichotomises four different organisational culture types into a two-by-two matrix. there are four organisational culture types, namely clan, adhocracy, market and hierarchy. the axes for the quadrants illustrate the concept of competing values, in which the organisational culture types on the diagonals are 'competing ' and those adjacent are 'complimentary'. organisations having a bias towards the upper half of the figure are considered to be oriented towards the decentralisation and differentiation, with an emphasis on spontaneity and flexibility. organisations having a bias the clan towards development towards decentralisation, of human re sources differentiation •concern s • commitment • moral • discussion • participation • openness towards maintenance of socio-technique system • measurement • documentation • information management • stability • control • continuity towards centralisation, integration towards consolidation. equilibrium the hierarchy towards the bottom of the figure rely upon centralisation and integration, with an emphasis on predictability and order. organisations, which are biased towards the left side of the figure, emphasise maintenance of socio-technical system, have an internal focus and utilise a long-term horizon. organisations biased on the right side of the figure are oriented towards the competitive position of the overall system, have an external focus, and operate with short-term horizons. thus, the values of the left side are competing with those of the right side. quinn (1988) describes the four organisational culture types that can exist in any organisation with different compositions as follows. clan culture clan culture is in the upper-left quadrant of the figure. it values emphasising openness, participation and discussion. the objective is to get everyone involved in activities and decisions of the organisations. members of the organisation have a concern for other members and the organisation has a commitment to its members and their morale. rewards are based upon group and organisational performance rather than individual performance. the organisation comes before the individual , who is a member of a team committed to the advancement of the organisation . the clan emphasises flexibility and individual differences. it is characterised by teamwork and information sharing. adhocracy culture the upper-right quadrant of the figure is labelled as the adhocracy culture. it prizes external support, resource acquisition , and growth that it obtains through insight, i the adhocracy towards expansion. transformation • insight • innovation • adoption • erlemal support • resource acquisition • growth towards competitive position of the overall system •accomplishment • productivity • profitlimpact • goal clarification • direction • decisiveness towards maximisation of output figure 1.' competing value framework for organisation the market culture (quinn 1998) the australian journal of construction economics and building j vol 3 , no 1 j i 21 innovation, and adaptation. the emphasis is on innovation, looseness, and flexibility of structure in conjunction with a focus on external constituencies and resource providers and the achievements of legitimacy with outside stakeholders. distinguishing features of the adhocracy includes the prominence of entrepreneurial activity, creativity, and acquiring resources from external providers. there is a commitment to risk, innovation and development. market culture market is the term employed for the culture of a rational goal model organisation. this can be identified in the lower-right quadrant of the figure. with its emphasis on the maximisation of output, market culture value goal clarification, providing direction, and being decisive about what is to be done. it prides itself on accomplishment and productivity and in making a profit or having an impact. it emphasises order, rational production, and goal accomplishment in combination with external interactions with suppliers, customers, subcontractors and competitors. the competitive orientation towards rivals and emphasis on achievements on the market place distinguish the market from other cultures. members of the organisation are clearly instructed by a decisive, authoritarian leader and are rewarded financially if they perform well. rewards are based on individual performance rather than organisational performance. hierarchy culture the hierarchy or bureaucratic culture is characteristic of the internal process and is based on consolidation and equilibrium. it is the antithesis of the adhocracy culture. hierarchy culture values stability, control and continuity, which are obtained through measurement, documentation, and information management. maintenance of the internal system is of paramount importance. people are given well-defined roles and are expected to follow the rules and procedure that are developed to govern their actions. situations are structured to fit the rules and procedures of the organisation. the major reward for the performance within the hierarchy culture is job security. financial rewards are primarily seniority based. cultural elements of an organisation organisational culture can be considered as a cumulative representation of an assortment of elements. quinn and cameron identified six elements within the organisation to represent culture. these elements are briefly as follows. dominant characteristics of the organisation dominant characteristics can be considered as core values of the organisation. clan culture values the importance of human resources while market culture highlights the importance of exercising production-related strategies. adhocracy culture place emphasis on enterpreneurship and core values of hierarchy culture are formalised and structured characteristics of organisational activities. . style of the organisation leader to develop and maintain a culture, the leaders of an organisation must function in a manner consistent with the existing or desired culture of the organisation. hence leadership styles are organised by culture types. leaders of clan culture act as mentors or parent figures of the organisation and in market culture they act as hard drivers, producers or competitors. adhocracy culture leaders function as entrepreneurs, innovators or risk takers and in hierarchy culture they show the signs of coordinators or organisers in their work. organisational glue these are espoused values or accepted norms of the organisation. loyalty and traditions are key norms of the clan culture while market culture highlights the importance of goal accomplishment and production. adhocracy culture values innovation and developments and in hierarchy culture, every activity is governed by established rules and procedures of the organisation. nature of organisational climate this explains existing working environment of the organisation. the climate of clan culture is participative and comfortable while market culture has a competitive and confrontational climate. adhocracy culture has the characteristic of readiness and hierarchy culture emphasises the state of performance and stability. success criteria of the organisation this indicates the relationship between organisational success and the core values of it as perceived by the employees of the organisation. clan culture believe that their success lies on the development of human resources while market culture believes market penetration and existing market share as key reasons for their success. adhocracy culture depends on project leaders to achieve success by implementing their innovative ideas. hierarchy culture gives high weightage to smooth scheduling of organisational activities and strict time targets. management style towards the employees for the effective development of a culture within an organisation, th.ere is a necessity to have closer relationships between style of management and culture types. management competencies possessed by the leaders should be consistent with the culture of their organisation. in clan culture managers value teamwork, consensus and participation. management style in market culture is production oriented with incentives for achievement. in adhocracy, employees taste freedom , innovation and uniqueness. employees of the hierarchy culture show security of the job and predictability as their main concern. organisational culture in construction: an employee perspective by raufdeen rameezdeen and nishanthi gunarathna 22 data collection and analysis as described earlier, the 'competing value framework', developed by quinn and cameron was used as a model for measurement of organisational culture. the focus of the research was on entire organisation rather than on units of the organisation. nine contractor organisations and nine consultant organisations in sri lanka participated in the study. the sample was selected with the aim of representing all types of consultant and contractor organisations who are engaged in construction work. hence, selection ranged from small scale to multi-disciplinary construction organisations. the questionnaire survey conducted for data collection included both executive and non-executive employees of the organisation from various divisions. three executive employees and five non-executive employees were randomly chosen from an organisation for personal interviews and questionnaire survey and this ratio was maintained throughout the study. the executives of these organisations held titles such as divisional head, project manager, and company director. in total , 144 questionnaires and personal interviews were conducted equally for contractors and consultants. the survey was carried out by obtaining prior appointments from the respondents and conducting the personal interview followed by the questionnaire survey. the objective of the personal interview was to solicit information related to the organisation, which would be useful in explaining the results of the questionnaire survey. in the questionnaire, four statements were utilised for each element, with one statement representing each of the four culture types based on the competing value framework. respondents were asked to distribute 100 points between the four statements for each element depending on how similar the description was to the organisation in question. the points distributed to each of the statements for the cultural elements were averaged to determine an overall culture score. a sample questionnaire and a sample of the results are contained in appendix 1 and 2 respectively. the responses were presented in a tabulated form for each organisation and summarised to obtain an overall score with the objective of comparing the overall culture of contractor and consultant organisations. further, each element of organisational culture was analysed to determine the dominance and distribution of cultural types. results of survey the results of analysis are presented under three headings as follows. dominating culture types table 1 summarises the dominating culture type for the six elements under consideration. dominating culture type is the one that obtained the highest value when respondents were asked to distribute 100 points among the statements representing the four culture types. five out of the six elements have clan as the dominating culture type for consultants. all six elements of the contractors are dominated by market culture. cultural element clan adhocracy i market i hierarchy dominant characteristics .; organisational leader .; organisational ~~ .; organisational climate .; success criteria .; management of employees .; • consultant '" contractor table 1: dominating culture type in each element of the contractor and consultant organisations competing culture types for each element figures 2-7 show the results for each of the six elements of the organisational culture considered in the study. contractors perceive dominant characteristics of the organisations as strongly market oriented (see figure 2). this shows that the core values of the contractor organisations are oriented towards production-related strategies, which is a main characteristic of the market culture. the organisation leaders of the consultants show a bias towards clan culture while the organisation leaders of contractors tend to move towards market culture as in figure 3. this contrasting scenario explains that the leaders of consulting organisations are considered as mentors or parent figures while the leaders of contractor organisations are considered as hard drivers. clan hierarchy f--t adhocracy , , market figure 2: dominant characteristics clan hierarchy adhocracy market figure 3: organisational leader the australian journal of construction economics and building i vol 3 , no 1i i 23 organisational glue, which indicates the espoused values of the organisation also shows similar results to organisational leader as given in figure 4. this shows that consultants value traditions and loyalty while contractors value goal accomplishment and production, which are the main espoused values in clan and market cultures respectively. the organisation climate of consultants is strongly biased towards clan and adhocracy cultures, while contractors organisation climate is biased towards market and adhocracy culture types (see figure 5). this shows that the working environment of consultants is participative and flexible. in contrast, the working environment of contractors is considered as competitive and confrontational , but flexible enough to provide room for innovation. clan hierarchy e--+--+-t-+-+-+--+-i>-+-~ adhocracy , , market figure 4: organisational glue clan hierarchy f--+-.«--i--+-+--+-).-1---1 adhocracy market figure 5: organisational climate the success criteria of consultants are perceived to be clan oriented, while that of contractors are market oriented with an inclination towards hierarchy as in figure 6. this shows consultants bel ieve that their success lies on the development of human resources which is a distinct feature of clan culture. contractors on the other hand, believe market penetration and market share as their success criteria with an added emphasis on smooth scheduling of organisational activities and strict time targets, which are distinct features of market and hierarchy cultures. the results for management style towards the employees, as given in figure 7, shows a clear bias of clan and market culture types for consultants and contractors respectively. consultants employ teamwork and participatory approach in managing their workers while contractors employ incentives for achievements. clan hierarchy f--~,~---+---if--"""'-;~-+---< adhocracy, , , , market figure 6: success criteria clan hierarchy 1--+~-+-+--+--+}-+--1 adhocracy , , market figure 7: management style overall culture the overall culture profile, which is taken by averaging the six elements, illustrates that the consultants are biased towards clan culture while contractors are biased towards market culture. both categories of organisations show similar affinity to hierarchy and adhocracy culture. consultants prefer teamwork and rewards are based on group rather than individual. consultants also show preference for information sharing, participative and comfortable working environment. contractors on the other hand, emphasise profit maximisation and productivity. the competitive orientation towards rivals and emphasis on achievement make the contractors culture opposite of consultants. similar affinity on competing values between hierarchy and adhocracy indicates that both contractors and consultants value entrepreneurship, innovation, coordination and organisation of work in equal terms. clan hierarchy f--1- dv automatic calculation standard deviation automatic calculation bootstrapped confidence interval path a path b indirect effect se t-value 95% ll 95% ul m1(ls) 0.211 1.060 0.224 0.064 3.495 0.098 0.349 m2(tcs) 0.555 1.060 0.588 0.091 6.465 0.410 0.767 m3(ec) 0.34 1.060 0.364 0.043 8.455 0.279 0.448 table 10. type of mediator p-value of the direct effect (c`) decision original sample of indirect effect (a*b) original sample of direct effect (c`) type of mediator m1(ls) 0.001 significance 0.224 -0.26 competitive partial mediation m2(tcs) 0 significance 0.589 0.538 complementary partial mediation m3(ec) 0 significance 0.364 0.569 complementary partial mediation fehan and aigbogun construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202192 figure 7. mediation path model figure 7, and table 8, table 9, and table 10, depict the approximations after applying the preacher and hayes (2008) mediator analysis method to determine the mediating effect of institutional pressures on the relationship between the exogenous and endogenous latent variables. hypothesis 5 stated that institutional pressures significantly mediate the relationship between leadership style and construction firms’ performance outcomes. however, the result is statistically significant for bootstrap indirect effect as p-value = 0.000, which means that the relationship between leadership style and construction firms’ performance outcomes through institutional pressures is significant. as anticipated, the results presented in table 9 showed that the bootstrapped confidence interval values should not contain a true zero value (95%ll = 0.098, 95%ul = 0.349). therefore, hypothesis 5 was supported, and there is a mediator between leadership style and construction firm’s performance outcomes. table 10 illustrates that the institutional pressures played as a competitive partial mediation (nitzl, roldan and cepeda, 2016). similarly, hypothesis 6 was confirmed, which stated that institutional pressures significantly mediate the relationship between team competency and skills and construction firm’s performance outcomes, such that result is statistically significant for bootstrap indirect effect as p-value= 0.000. however, the bootstrapped confidence interval values (95%ll =0.410, 95%ul =0.767) mean it does not consist of a true zero value. consequently, hypothesis 6 was supported, and there is a mediating effect of institutional pressures on the relationship between team competency and skills and the construction firm’s performance outcomes. based on nitzl, roldan and cepeda (2016) studies with reference to table 10, the institutional pressures play as a complementary partial mediation. finally, hypothesis 7 was confirmed, which stated that institutional pressures significantly mediate the relationship between effective communication and construction firms’ performance outcomes, such that the result is statistically significant for bootstrap the indirect effect as p-value= 0.000. however, the bootstrapped confidence interval values (95%ll =0.279, 95%ul =0.448) mean it does not contain a true zero value. as a result, hypothesis 7 was supported, and there is a mediation effect of institutional pressures on the relationship between effective communication and construction firms’ performance outcomes. based on nitzl, roldan and cepeda (2016) studies with reference to table 10, institutional pressures assume the role of a complementary partial mediation. fehan and aigbogun construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202193 discussion in this study, we combined two streams of literature. on the one hand, we looked at the influence of certain internal organizational factors (leadership style, team competency and skills, effective communication) and institutional pressures (coercive, normative, mimetic) on the construction firm’s performance outcomes. on the other hand, we examined the mediating role of institutional pressures on the strength of the relationship between internal organizational factors and a construction firm’s performance. the pls measurement model assessment results were relatively well specified in terms of its reliability and validity, and the pls structural model assessment results indicate that the independent variables explain 75.7% of the variance in the construction firm’s performance. in addition to this, the predictive ability of the model and model fit were both acceptable. the findings revealed that the relationship between team competence and skill and construction firm performance outcomes was not significant. however, adding institutional pressures as a mediator into this relationship has made it significant, and this proves that aligning suitable pressures on construction firms will improve their team’s competencies and skills. consequently, there will be increasing in the effectiveness of the organization’s construction activities and confers a value-addition point to construction firms. this result might be valuable in explaining and specifying the condition under which positive associations were derived from other studies carried out in developing country context, such as indris and primiana (2015) who affirmed that organizational internal and external factors affect small and medium industries (smes) performance in indonesia; jin (2018) who found a positive relationship between internal organizational factors, external organizational factors, and construction performance management in nairobi, kenya. also, onana (2018) noted that finance and other organizational factors influenced contractors’ performance delivering road projects on time in gabon. however, from internal and external factors, the competition was the only factor that had a significant association with smes’ performance in kwazulu-natal, south africa (sitharam and hoque, 2016). the results suggest that institutional pressures partially mediate the effects of internal organizational factors on construction firms’ performance. however, integrated analysis of coercive, normative, and mimetic pressures related to environmental regulation should be a priority in helping us move toward a complete understanding of construction firm performance in a regulated business context. based on this study, only coercive and normative pressures significantly affect construction firm performance outcomes while mimetic pressures do not affect; this might be due to the lack of successful international construction firms for syrian construction firms to mimic. moreover, leadership style, effective communication, and institutional pressures are revealed as significant predictors of a construction firm’s performance outcomes. considering the turbulent and hypercompetitive environment in which construction firms operate in syria, they must become adaptable, creatively crafting measures for these factors that will ensure their survival while also meeting their clientele’ performance expectations and recording high performance. further, institutional pressures separately were a significant mediator as a lens to comprehend the factor-related effects within a firm. this paper presents notable findings for the management of construction organizations. it first speaks to institutional theory more broadly. prior works on construction management rooted in institutional theory have mostly treated performance outcomes as an isomorphic process at the project level. this paper considered performance outcomes as an inter-organizational matter, which allowed us to focus on the institutional mechanisms at the firm level. conclusion this study contributes to the literature of construction firms’ management in two main perspectives. firstly, from the theoretical perspective, the study established a foundation for future researchers interested in fehan and aigbogun construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202194 examining the causes of heterogeneity in construction firms’ performance. exploring these causes will also help new construction firms’ stakeholders, and policymakers obtain a pre-knowledge of organizational and institutional pressures that may confront them and develop and deploy their resources and strategies to achieve superior performance in such an evolving context. therefore, construction firms should realize that institutional pressures have to be consistent with the performance enhancement strategy and how they can mould the firms in this field in their quest for legitimacy. secondly, from the practical perspective, this study is the first attempt at evaluating the organizational factors and institutional pressures as a critical determinant of organizational performance that should interest management at organizational levels. the findings are likely to be of interest to chief executive officers, project managers, and others with managerial responsibilities in construction firms who need to understand the type of internal pressures most appropriate for different business environments if they wish to make strategic decisions to improve their firm’s performance. however, the findings’ interpretation should be made with caution because when a business environment is considered complex, managers need to acquire market and environmental data and process them to reduce its uncertainty. public agencies tasked with developing and implementing a policy regarding the construction industry’s performance and construction professionals may also be interested in this research outcome. limitation and directions for future research though this study has revealed some understanding of internal organizational factors’ roles with institutional pressures on construction firms’ performance outcomes, this is not without limitations. since the present research adopted a cross-sectional design, underlying inferences cannot be made to the study population. consequently, a longitudinal approach to data collection with more robust methodologies (mixed approach) may yield better results. furthermore, due to sample size limitations, the findings’ generalisability may be limited, as a larger sample could have permitted more realistic conclusions. future researcher works should try to increase the study samples from the 197 for better results and consider different internal pressures capable of causing heterogeneity in construction firms’ performance to raise the total variance explained of endogenous variable above 75.7 percent. furthermore, researching other charismatic traits of pressures such as legitimacy could be another field to study. references accenture, 2012. achieving high performance in the construction industry. accenture. [online] available at: < https:// www.accenture.com/t20150523t042717__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/accenture/conversion-assets/dotcom/documents/ global/pdf/industries_2/accenture-achieving-high-performance-construction-industry.pdf> [accessed 13 november 2020]. adeleke, a.q., bahaudin, a.y. and kamaruddeen, a.m., 2017. organizational internal factors and construction risk management among nigerian construction companies. global business review, [e-journal] 19(4), pp.921–38. https:// doi.org/10.1177/0972150916677460 aguinis, h., edwards, j.r. and bradley, k.j., 2017. improving our understanding of moderation and mediation in strategic management research. organizational research methods, [e-journal] 20(4), pp.665–85. https://doi. org/10.1177/1094428115627498 ali, h.a.e.m., al-sulaihi, i.a. and al-gahtani, k.s., 2013. indicators for measuring performance of building construction companies in kingdom of saudi arabia. journal of king saud university engineering sciences, [e-journal] 25(2) , pp.125–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2012.03.002 fehan and aigbogun construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202195 https://www.accenture.com/t20150523t042717__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/accenture/conversion-assets/dotcom/documents/global/pdf/industries_2/accenture-achieving-high-performance-construction-industry.pdf https://www.accenture.com/t20150523t042717__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/accenture/conversion-assets/dotcom/documents/global/pdf/industries_2/accenture-achieving-high-performance-construction-industry.pdf https://www.accenture.com/t20150523t042717__w__/us-en/_acnmedia/accenture/conversion-assets/dotcom/documents/global/pdf/industries_2/accenture-achieving-high-performance-construction-industry.pdf https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150916677460 https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150916677460 https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428115627498 https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428115627498 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2012.03.002 asseburg, m., 2020. reconstruction in syria: challenges and policy options for the eu and its member states. german institute for international and security affairs, swp research paper 2020/rp11. [online] available at: [accessed 11 january 2021]. balatbat, m.c.a., lin, c.y. and carmichael, d.g., 2011. management efficiency performance of construction businesses: australian data. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 18(2), pp.140–58. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111111120 black, s., gardner, d.g. and bright, d.s., 2019. organizational behavior. [e-book] openstax: rice university. available at: < https://openstax.org/books/organizational-behavior/pages/1-introduction > [accessed 17 october 2020]. chin, w.w., 1998. the partial least squares approach for structural equation modeling. modern methods for business research, ( january 1998), pp.295–336. [online] available at: [accessed 10 march 2020]. collier, p., elliott, v.l., hegre, h., hoeffler, a., reynal-querol, m. and sambanis, n., 2003. breaking the conflict trap. washington dc: world bank and oxford university press. [online] available at: [accessed 11 january 2020]. devarajan, s. and mottaghi, l., 2017. the economics of post-conflict reconstruction in mena. middle east and north africa economic monitor, april 2017. [online] available at: [accessed 7 september 2019]. https://doi.org/10.1596/26305 dimaggio, p.j. and powell, w.w., 1983. the iron cage revisited institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. advances in strategic management, [e-journal] 48(2), pp.143–66. https://doi.org/10.1016/s07423322(00)17011-1 dorsey, d. and mueller-hanson, r., 2017. performance management that makes a difference: an evidence-based approach. alexandria, va: society for human resource management. [online] available at: [accessed 12 december 2019]. druckman, d., singer, j.e. and van cott, h., 1997. enhancing organizational performance. national academy of sciences. washington, dc: national academy press. https://doi.org/10.17226/5128 dubey, r., gunasekaran, a. and samar ali, s., 2015. exploring the relationship between leadership, operational practices, institutional pressures and environmental performance: a framework for green supply chain. international journal of production economics, [e-journal] 160, pp.120–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2014.10.001 faul, f., erdfelder, e., lang, a.-g. and bunchner, a., 2007. g*power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. journal of behavior research methods, [e-journal] 39(2), pp.175–91. https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03193146 fehan, h. and aigbogun, o., 2020. analysis of the factors affecting syrian construction companies ’ performance. international journal of innovation, creativity and change, 11(3), pp.243–58. geisser, s., 1974. a predictive approach effect to the random model. biometrika, 61(1), pp.101–07. [online] [accessed 10 october 2020]. https://doi.org/10.1093/ biomet/61.1.101 geraldi, j.g., lee-kelley, l., and kutsch, e., 2010. the titanic sunk, so what? project manager response to unexpected events. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 28(6), pp.547–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2009.10.008 hair, j., hult, t., ringle, c. and sarstedt, m., 2017. a primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem). [online] available at: http://hdl.handle.net/11420/4083 fehan and aigbogun construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202196 https://www.swp-berlin.org/10.18449/2020rp11/ https://www.swp-berlin.org/10.18449/2020rp11/ https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111111120 https://openstax.org/books/organizational-behavior/pages/1-introduction https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311766005_the_partial_least_squares_approach_to_structural_equation_modeling https://www.researchgate.net/publication/311766005_the_partial_least_squares_approach_to_structural_equation_modeling https://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/abs/10.1596/978-0-8213-5481-0 https://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/abs/10.1596/978-0-8213-5481-0 https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/26305 https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/26305 https://doi.org/10.1596/26305 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0742-3322(00)17011-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0742-3322(00)17011-1 https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-expert-views/documents/performance%20management.pdf https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-expert-views/documents/performance%20management.pdf https://doi.org/10.17226/5128 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2014.10.001 https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03193146 https://academic.oup.com/biomet/article-abstract/61/1/101/264348 https://academic.oup.com/biomet/article-abstract/61/1/101/264348 https://doi.org/10.1093/biomet/61.1.101 https://doi.org/10.1093/biomet/61.1.101 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.10.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.10.008 http://hdl.handle.net/11420/4083 hair, j.f., ringle, c.m. and sarstedt, m., 2011. pls-sem: indeed a silver bullet. journal of marketing theory and practice, [e-journal] 19(2), pp.139–52. https://doi.org/10.2753/mtp1069-6679190202 henseler, j., 2018. partial least squares path modeling: quo vadis? quality and quantity, [e-journal] 52(1), pp.1–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-018-0689-6 hubbard, g., 2009. measuring organizational performance: beyond the triple bottom line. business strategy and the environment, [e-journal] 18(3), pp.177–91. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.564 iliya nyahas, s., munene, j.c., orobia, l. and kigongo kaawaase, t., 2017. isomorphic influences and voluntary disclosure: the mediating role of organizational culture. cogent business and management, [e-journal] 4(1), pp. 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2017.1351144 indris, s. and primiana, i., 2015. internal and external environment analysis on the performance of small and medium industries smes in indonesia. international journal of scientific and technology research, 4(4), pp. 188–96. [online] available at: [accessed 2 october 2019]. jain, p., vyas, v. and chalasani, d.p.s., 2016. corporate social responsibility and financial performance in smes: a structural equation modelling approach. global business review, [e-journal] 17(3), pp.630–53. https://doi. org/10.1177/0972150916630827 jallow, a.k., demian, p., baldwin, a.n. and anumba, c., 2014. an empirical study of the complexity of requirements management in construction projects. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 21(5), pp.505–31. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2013-0084 jin, m., 2018. factors affecting growth of construction organizations in nairobi. mba. united states international university africa. available at: [accessed 21 october 2019]. jin, z. and deng, f., 2012. a proposed framework for evaluating the international construction performance of aec enterprises. in: javernick-will, a., ed. proceedings of the engineering project organization conference, rheden, the netherlands, 10-12 july. pp.1-25. [online] available at: [accessed 2 january 2020]. lee, t.s., kim, d.h. and lee, d.w., 2011. a competency model for project construction team and project control team. ksce journal of civil engineering, [e-journal] 15(5), pp.781–92. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-011-1291-9 leje, m.i., kasimu, m.a. and kolawole, a.f., 2019. impacts of effective communication towards performance of construction organization. path of science, [e-journal] 5(8), pp.3001–08. https://doi.org/10.22178/pos.49-4 li, x., gao-zeller, x., rizzuto, t.e. and yang, f., 2019. institutional pressures on corporate social responsibility strategy in construction corporations: the role of internal motivations. corporate social responsibility and environmental management, [e-journal] 26(4), pp.721–40. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1713 lueg, r., 2015. strategy maps: the essential link between the balanced scorecard and action. journal of business strategy, [e-journal] 36(2), pp.34–40. https://doi.org/10.1108/jbs-10-2013-0101 luu, t-v., kim, s-y., cao, h-l. and park, y-m., 2008. performance measurement of construction firms in developing countries. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 26(4), pp.373–86. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446190801918706 marr, w.a., 2007. why monitor performance?. seventh international symposium on field measurements in geomechanics. boston, massachusetts, united states, september 24-27, 2007. https://doi.org/10.1061/40940(307)4 maya, r.a., 2016. performance management for syrian construction projects. international journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 5(3), pp.65–78. [online] available at: < http://article.sapub. org/10.5923.j.ijcem.20160503.01.html> [accessed 3 september 2019]. fehan and aigbogun construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202197 https://doi.org/10.2753/mtp1069-6679190202 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-018-0689-6 https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.564 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2017.1351144 http://paper.researchbib.com/view/paper/44559 https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150916630827 https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150916630827 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2013-0084 http://erepo.usiu.ac.ke/11732/3912 https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1359814 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-011-1291-9 https://doi.org/10.22178/pos.49-4 https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1713 https://doi.org/10.1108/jbs-10-2013-0101 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190801918706 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190801918706 https://doi.org/10.1061/40940(307)4 http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.ijcem.20160503.01.html http://article.sapub.org/10.5923.j.ijcem.20160503.01.html nandakumar, m.k., ghobadian, a. and regan, n., 2010. business-level strategy and performance: the moderating effects of environment and structure. management decision, [e-journal] 48(6), pp.907–39. https://doi. org/10.1108/00251741011053460 nist, 2019. 2019-2020 baldrige excellence builder. gaithersburg, md: nist. [online] available at: [accessed 25 june 2020]. nitzl, c., roldan, j.l. and cepeda, g., 2016. mediation analysis in partial least squares path modelling, helping researchers discuss more sophisticated models. industrial management and data systems, [e-journal] 116(9), pp.1849–64. https://doi.org/10.1108/imds-07-2015-0302 onana, j.-c., 2018. factors affecting the performance of contractors on road projects supervised by the national agency of public works in gabon. m.sc, university of the witwatersrand. [online] available at: [accessed 2 january 2020]. ortega, e.m., azorin, j.f. and cortes, e., 2010. competitive strategy, structure and firm performance: a comparison of the resource-based view and the contingency approach. management decision, [e-journal] 48(8), pp.1282–1303. https:// doi.org/10.1108/00251741011076799 othman, a.a., rahman, s.a., sundram, v.p.k. and bhatti, m.a., 2015. modelling marketing resources, procurement process coordination and firm performance in the malaysian building construction industry. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 22(6), pp.644–68. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2014-0030 oyewobi, l.o., windapo, a.o. and rotimi, j.o.b., 2015. measuring strategic performance in construction companies: a proposed integrated model. journal of facilities management, [e-journal] 13(2), pp.109–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ jfm-08-2013-0042 ozorhon, b., arditi, d., dickmen, i. and birgonul, m.t., 2011. toward a multidimensional performance measure for international joint ventures in construction. american society of civil engineers, [e-journal] 137(6), pp.403-11. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000314 preacher, k.j. and hayes, a.f., 2008. asymptotic and resampling strategies for assessing and comparing indirect effects in multiple mediator models. behavior research methods, [e-journal] 40(3), pp.879–91. https://doi.org/10.3758/ brm.40.3.879 rathore, z. and elwakil, e., 2020. hierarchical fuzzy expert system for organizational performance assessment in the construction industry. algorithms, [e-journal] 13 (9):205. https://doi.org/10.3390/a13090205 samairat, m., 2008. organizational response to institutional pressures: example from latin america and the caribbean.b.b.a. umea universitet. [online] available at: [accessed 12 may 2020]. sitharam, s. and hoque, m., 2016. factors affecting the performance of small and medium enterprises in kwazulunatal, south africa. problems and perspectives in management, [e-journal] 14 (2-2), pp. 277–288. https://doi. org/10.21511/ppm.14(2-2).2016.03 sousa, s. and aspinwall, e., 2010. development of a performance measurement framework for smes. total quality management, [e-journal] 21 (5), pp. 475–501. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2010.481510 stone, m., 1974. cross-validatory choice and assessment of statistical predictions. journal of the royal statistical society: series b (methodological), [e-journal] 36 (2), pp. 111–133. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2517-6161.1974.tb00994.x talbot, v. and dacrema, e., 2019. rebuilding syria: the middle east next power game?. milano: ispi (istituto per gli studi di poliyica internazionale). [online] available at: [accessed 14 july 2020]. fehan and aigbogun construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202198 https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741011053460 https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741011053460 https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/2017/05/09/baldrige_excellence_builder.pdf https://www.nist.gov/system/files/documents/2017/05/09/baldrige_excellence_builder.pdf https://doi.org/10.1108/imds-07-2015-0302 http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10539/25999/ojconana msc research report rev 4.pdf?sequence=2&isallowed=y http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10539/25999/ojconana msc research report rev 4.pdf?sequence=2&isallowed=y https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741011076799 https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741011076799 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2014-0030 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jfm-08-2013-0042 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jfm-08-2013-0042 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000314 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000314 https://doi.org/10.3758/brm.40.3.879 https://doi.org/10.3758/brm.40.3.879 https://doi.org/10.3390/a13090205 https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:142345/fulltext01.pdf https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:142345/fulltext01.pdf https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.14(2-2).2016.03 https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.14(2-2).2016.03 https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2010.481510 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2517-6161.1974.tb00994.x https://www.ispionline.it/it/pubblicazione/rebuilding-syria-middle-easts-next-power-game-23863 https://www.ispionline.it/it/pubblicazione/rebuilding-syria-middle-easts-next-power-game-23863 tofan, a.s. and breesam, h.k., 2018. using the fuzzy-ahp technique for determining the key performance indicators of public construction companies in iraq. international journal of civil engineering and technology, [e-journal] 9 (13), pp. 1431–1445. available at: [accessed 19 february 2020]. toor, s. ur r. and ofori, g., 2008. leadership for future construction industry: agenda for authentic leadership. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 26 (6), pp. 620–630. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2007.09.010 wang, g., he, q., xia, b., meng, x., and wu, p., 2018. impact of institutional pressures on organizational citizenship behaviors for the environment: evidence from megaprojects. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 34 (5). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000628 wang, q., el-gafy, m. and zha, j., 2010. bi–level framework for measuring performance to improve productivity of construction enterprises. construction research congress 2010: innovation for reshaping construction practice. pp. 970– 79. [online] available at: https://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/41109%28373%2997 wetzels, m., odekerken-schröder, g., and van oppen, c., 2009. using pls path modeling for assessing hierarchical construct models: guidelines and empirical illustration. mis quarterly: management information systems, [e-journal] 33 (1), pp. 177–196. https://doi.org/10.2307/20650284 wu, a.d. and zumbo, b.d., 2008. understanding and using mediators and moderators. social indicators research, [e-journal] 87 (3), pp. 367–392. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-007-9143-1 yang, h., yeung, j.f.y., chan, a.p.c., chiang, y.h., and chan, d.w.m., 2010. a critical review of performance measurement in construction. journal of facilities management, [e-journal] 8 (4), pp. 269–284. https://doi. org/10.1108/14725961011078981 yidizs, s., basturk, f., and boz, i.t., 2014. the effect of leadership and innovativeness on business performance. in: procedia social and behavioral sciences, 10th international strategic management conference , rome, italy. 15 september 2014, pp. 785–793. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.09.064 yu, i., kim, k., jung, y. and chin, s., 2007. comparable performance measurement system for construction companies. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 23 (3), pp. 131–139. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0742-597x(2007)23:3(131) zuhairy, m., tajuddin, m., iberahim, h. and ismail, n., 2013. leadership styles and organizational performance in construction industry in malaysia. malaysia-japan joint international conference 2015 (mjjic2015) yamaguchi university, ube, japan. november 2015. available at: [accessed 21 march 2020]. fehan and aigbogun construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202199 https://iaeme.com/home/article_id/ijciet_09_13_145 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.09.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.09.010 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000628 https://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/41109%28373%2997 https://doi.org/10.2307/20650284 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-007-9143-1 https://doi.org/10.1108/14725961011078981 https://doi.org/10.1108/14725961011078981 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.09.064 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2007)23:3(131 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2007)23:3(131 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319751836 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: pramudya, a. a., wibowo, a., santosa, w., permana, f. j. 2025. a claim-based risk mapping of contractor’s all-risk insurance in indonesia. construction economics and building, 25:1, 122–142. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i1.9035 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article a claim-based risk mapping of contractor’s all-risk insurance in indonesia andreas arianto pramudya1, andreas wibowo2,*, wimpy santosa3, ferry jaya permana4 1 parahyangan catholic university, bandung, indonesia, aapramudya@gmail.com 2 parahyangan catholic university, bandung, indonesia, andreas_wibowo@unpar.ac.id 3 parahyangan catholic university, bandung, indonesia, wimpy@unpar.ac.id 4 parahyangan catholic university, bandung, indonesia, ferryjp@unpar.ac.id corresponding author: andreas wibowo, parahyangan catholic university, bandung, indonesia, andreas_wibowo@unpar.ac.id doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9035 article history: received 08/02/2024; revised 26/11/2024; accepted 25/12/2024; published 31/03/2025 abstract contractor’s all-risk (car) insurance is widely used in construction. although it constitutes a small fraction of the global insurance sector, it records higher claims than other types of insurance. therefore, identifying the root cause or origin of potential losses is pivotal. this study aims to map car insurance risks based on historical data from the policies and claims of two major indonesian insurance firms. this study employed descriptive statistics to summarize the frequency and characteristics of claim values for each risk and the mann–whitney and kruskal–wallis tests to determine significant differences in claim values among several attributes. the shapiro–wilk test was used to assess data normality. of the 76 identified risks based on previous studies, 15 led to car claims, with six risks accounting for 77% of the overall claim values. most risks causing substantial claims are attributed to natural and man-made disasters. while the geographical area (java and outside java island) emerged as a determining factor in claim values, no significant differences in normalized claim values were found for different stages of work progress (<25%, 25% to 50%, >50% to 75%, >75%) or types of construction projects (infrastructure, building, and industrial). this study acknowledges the limitations arising from the incompleteness of the data. despite these limitations, this study can pave the way for further research, such as examining the influence of project characteristics 122 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9035 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9035 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:aapramudya@gmail.com mailto:andreas_wibowo@unpar.ac.id mailto:wimpy@unpar.ac.id mailto:ferryjp@unpar.ac.id mailto:andreas_wibowo@unpar.ac.id https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9035 on the likelihood of claims and quantifying these characteristics to help calculate the premium value of car insurance. keywords claim; contractor’s all-risk insurance; frequency; severity; indonesia introduction construction projects are inherently exposed to risks that can prevent them from attaining their objectives, negatively impacting all involved parties, the projects themselves, and the construction industry (eladaway and kandil, 2010). generally, construction risks are borne by the contractor unless specified as the project owner’s risks. the greater the complexity and difficulty encountered in construction projects, such as challenging site conditions, adverse weather conditions, utility conflicts, and complex structural designs, the higher the associated project risks the contractor must manage. therefore, proactive risk management at each stage of construction is imperative to mitigate the escalation of negative impacts and maintain control over the project. risk management is a systematic approach to anticipating potential losses, incorporating measures such as early warnings, safety protocols, and risk control procedures (vaughan and vaughan, 1994; bunni, 2003). it encompasses planning, leadership, coordination, and control to mitigate the impact of potential losses on resources, income, and cash flow (werner, 1999). risk management uses various strategies, including risk avoidance, mitigation, retention, and transfer through insurance or contractual means (ahmed and azhar, 2004; akinradewo, et al., 2022). risk transfer, a common strategy, involves shifting the risk burden to a third party, typically an insurance company, to mitigate the financial impact of potential losses, with the insured party receiving compensation (levine and haar, 2008; cho, 2013). various types of insurance are prevalent within the construction sector, including engineering, professional indemnity, and workers’ compensation insurance. engineering insurance typically comprises three primary parts: construction, inherent defect, and operational insurance. engineering insurance constitutes 3% and 4% of the global insurance market [asosiasi asuransi umum indonesia (aaui), 2022]. construction insurance comprises approximately 40% to 45% of the total engineering insurance sector, representing approximately 1.5% of the global insurance market (dieter, 2021). despite its relatively small share, construction insurance accounts for a higher percentage of claims value than other insurance types. claims within construction insurance typically occur in 60% to 70% of policies, while property insurance claims generally fall between 28% and 32% (dieter, 2021; aaui, 2022). the higher percentage of claims in construction insurance often leads to insurance companies paying out more in claims than they receive in premiums. the situation described above was further aggravated by shifts in the global insurance market mainly due to the impact of the covid-19 pandemic. this led to a notable increase in construction claims. consequently, many projects underwent review, postponement, or cancellation due to concerns regarding their commercial feasibility and a significant rise in insurance costs. this escalation was driven by the withdrawal of several insurance companies from the construction insurance market (aon, 2021; marsh, 2021; willis tower watson, 2021). substantial losses were often incurred because the construction and insurance industries relied solely on intuition and experience to analyze risks and determine premium values (lyons and skitmore, 2004; öztaş and ökmen, 2004; shapiro, 2007; laryea, 2008). in risk management, identifying the root cause or origin of potential losses, whether from natural or artificial events, commonly referred to as perils in the insurance industry, is pivotal. construction all-risk insurance is a widely used type of construction insurance available on the market. in principle, construction all-risks cover all risks of loss or damage to the construction field, materials, temporary work, and anything pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025123 else brought to the site by the contractor, hence its designation as “all-risk” insurance (perera, rathnayake and rameezdeen, 2008; musundire and aigbavboa, 2015; martina and kumar, 2018). furthermore, construction all-risk insurance can be divided into several types of insurance, including “contractor’s all-risk” (car), “erection all-risk,” “plant all-risk,” “industry all-risk,” and, in a broader scope, “combined all-risk” or “owner-controlled insurance program.” this study is limited solely to contractor’s all-risk. numerous studies have dealt with car as a risk mitigation tool, each focusing on different aspects (harkness and hassanain, 2002; liu, et al., 2007; liu, lin and feng, 2018; ibrahim, mat nor and raja hisham, 2021; ekpo and oladokun, 2023; zhou, et al., 2023). several articles have explored risk identification for construction projects (suraji, duff and peckitt, 2001; hardjomuljadi, 2014; jayasudha and vidivelli, 2016; hatmoko, astuti and farania, 2021); however, they do not specifically address the risks covered by car insurance. only a handful of prior studies have examined construction insurance, although none has analyzed the frequency and severity of car claims stemming from various risks. car insurance covers all risks during the construction period from the start to the handover of construction work (kim, kim and ahn, 2020). however, car insurance has a dynamic nature that aligns with changes in project progress and the potential for increased exposure value during the construction period. therefore, it is essential to understand the risk events that occur frequently and have the most significant impact on project progress. furthermore, while car insurance can cover any damage or loss that occurs across various types of projects (perera, rathnayake and rameezdeen, 2008; musundire and aigbavboa, 2015; martina and kumar, 2018), it is essential to understand the characteristics of the frequency and value of construction risk claims that most frequently arise in the different types of projects. this study aims to map the risks that car can cover based on historical data from insurance firms in indonesia to determine and analyze construction risks with a high frequency of occurrence that can lead to significant losses. risk occurrence determines the frequency, while losses indicate the severity, expressed as each risk’s claim value. this study represents one of the first attempts to map risks using historical claim data for car insurance. indonesia was chosen as a case study for several reasons. first, its construction sector consistently contributes approximately 10% to the country’s gross domestic product (gdp), positioning it among the top five gdp contributors (badan pusat statistik indonesia, 2023). the indonesian construction market is also one of the largest in asia. however, indonesia’s geographical position within the “ring of fire” makes it highly vulnerable to natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods, landslides, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, coastal abrasion, and forest fires. for instance, over the past decade (2014–2023), indonesia has experienced 8,307 flood incidents, 7,376 flood and landslide occurrences, 8,548 tornadoes, 352 earthquakes, and 136 volcanic eruptions (the national agency for disaster management, 2023). in indonesia, the effectiveness of car insurance in transferring potential risks is 72.54% (perera, rathnayake and rameezdeen, 2008; musundire and aigbavboa, 2015). this study significantly contributes to the construction sector and insurance companies by helping to mitigate, prevent, and reduce the impact of construction risks and their associated claim values. by identifying these risks, construction and insurance firms can more accurately assess the likelihood of these risks occurring and estimate potential damages. this analysis is essential for determining appropriate insurance premiums and coverage limits. additionally, recognizing specific risks allows construction firms to collaborate effectively with insurance companies to tailor their coverage, ensuring they are protected against the most relevant risks, as insurance policies usually define the risks they cover. as a result, construction firms can select policies that align with their unique needs and risk profiles. at the same time, insurance companies can better manage their losses and maintain their viability in the construction insurance market. this paper is organized as follows. the next section provides a background on construction insurance and risk identification based on previous pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025124 studies. the subsequent section explains the quantitative methods used in this study, followed by an analysis and discussion of the results. finally, conclusions are drawn based on the findings. literature review construction risks are usually divided into two main categories: financial and operational risks. financial risks include payment delay, exchange rate, interest rate, credit risk, funding, and cash flow constraints, which can influence the construction process. the operational risks include site conditions and environmental risks, health and safety risks, labor risks, resource and equipment availability risks, and supply chain disruption risks. previous literature has examined risk grouping, the general types of construction risk, and specific risks in infrastructure and building projects (ryu, son and kim, 2016; kim, et al., 2019). a hierarchical risk structure has also been compiled by tah and carr (2001). for instance, owusu-manu, et al. (2020) explored construction risk by gathering opinions from the construction and insurance industries regarding insurable and non-insurable risks. disasters caused by human actions can lead to substantial losses, although the losses are typically lower than those from natural disasters (perera, rathnayake and rameezdeen, 2008). workers play an essential role in construction. factors such as labor shortages; an unskilled, untrained, or undisciplined workforce; and workers with low productivity are often obstacles that pose high risks for contractors. disputes and labor strikes also present risks, frequently resulting in project delays (hardjomuljadi, 2014; jayasudha and vidivelli, 2016; khan and gul, 2017; husin, et al., 2019; hatmoko, astuti and farania, 2021). risks arising from material and construction equipment create delays and cost overruns (suraji, duff and peckitt, 2001; hardjomuljadi, 2014; jayasudha and vidivelli, 2016; ryu, son and kim, 2016; mirkovic, 2018; owusu-manu, et al., 2020; hatmoko, astuti and farania, 2021). environmental and occupational health and safety (ohs) risks emerge from internal and external project activities (howard, 2005; gangolells, et al., 2009; ewelina and mikaela, 2011; hardjomuljadi, 2014; jayasudha and vidivelli, 2016). inadequate ohs supervision can lead to health problems, accidents, and third-party property damage (camino lópez, et al., 2008; perera, rathnayake and rameezdeen, 2008; jayasudha and vidivelli, 2016; khan and gul, 2017; li, et al., 2017; owusu-manu, et al., 2020, 2021). design-related risks can be divided into technical risks (shen, wu and ng, 2001; jayasudha and vidivelli, 2016; khan and gul, 2017) and nontechnical risks (flyvbjerg, holm and buhl, 2006; jayasudha and vidivelli, 2016). both types of risks can lead to project failure. if these risks are not adequately managed, the process and competition between bidders can threaten all of the parties involved in the construction project ( jayasudha and vidivelli, 2016). after the tender winner is selected, the contract stage continues, which carries significant risks in construction (hardjomuljadi, 2014; zhao, hwang and phng, 2014; jayasudha and vidivelli, 2016). according to the literature mentioned above, only a few studies (bunni, 2003; jayasudha and vidivelli, 2016; hatmoko and farania, 2021) have analyzed the risk factors covered by insurance; however, these studies did not specifically focus on car insurance. recently, studies regarding the frequency of claims, the value of risk events that cause claims, and the type and location of projects that influence the occurrence of claims are severely limited. analyzing these causal factors is crucial for estimating adverse risks and providing valuable insights for all stakeholders. research methodology building upon prior studies (suraji, duff and peckitt, 2001; hardjomuljadi, 2014; jayasudha and vidivelli, 2016; owusu-manu, et al., 2020), this study identified 76 construction risks, as detailed in table 1. it pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025125 adopted a quantitative approach, employing statistical descriptive analyses of historical car policy and claim data. in this paper, quotation marks denote terms referring to the identified risks. data collection the first stage involved collecting, reviewing, and filtering data. data on all car claims were collected from two large insurance firms in indonesia, covering 2012 to 2022. this dataset comprises 3,509 entries on car policies and 1,437 car claim payments. the data underwent rigorous review and filtering based on specific criteria to ensure data quality. these criteria included ensuring that the minimum project value exceeded idr 50 billion (with usd 1 approximately equivalent to idr 15,000), verifying data reasonability, eliminating duplications, and confirming that the policy coverage period concluded before 2022. a project value cutoff of idr 50 billion was chosen, as claims below this threshold had a relatively low frequency (8.5%) compared to those above. in contrast, claims for projects above this value accounted for 63.6% of the total claims. after applying these filters, the final dataset comprised 1,808 policies and 1,150 claims subjected to further analysis. table 2 provides a summary of the claim data. table 1. construction risks based on previous literature. code risk r1 topography conditions r2 geological conditions r3 groundwater conditions r4 unexpected physical conditions r5 delayed land acquisition by the project owner r6 hurricanes and storms r7 heavy rain, lightning, and flooding r8 earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis r9 landslides r10 robbery and theft on-site r11 fire and explosion r12 riots, strikes, demonstrations, and civil unrest r13 war, civil war, and terrorism r14 labor disputes r15 labor strike r16 shortage of skilled workers, low productivity, inefficiency, and poor worker quality r17 lack of discipline among workers r18 damage of materials/equipment during the shipping or installation process r19 damage of materials/equipment due to accidents or disaster r20 damage to materials/equipment due to water, leaks, or seepage pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025126 code risk r21 delay in delivery of materials or equipment r22 materials or equipment availability r23 increase in material prices or unrealistic variations in material cost r24 poor quality and low-grade materials r25 mistakes in selecting inappropriate or failed materials and equipment r26 unproductive equipment r27 waste of materials by workers r28 failure in machine testing or installation r29 industrial contamination, seepage, and pollution r30 contamination due to nuclear, radioactive, chemical, biological, biochemical reactions, and electromagnetic weapons r31 cultural differences at the project site r32 security disturbances from residents around the project site r33 health disturbances r34 worker accidents, involvement of experts in the project, and project owner r35 property damage by third parties r36 damage due to vibration, settlement, collapse, loss, or weakening of supports r37 inaccurate feasibility study of the project r38 market demand that does not meet expectations r39 competition between similar projects r40 inadequate soil and site investigation r41 design errors, omissions, and failures (including uncoordinated design) r42 inconsistency between the bill of quantities, drawings, and specifications r43 design changes by the consultant r44 the planner fails to follow up on design and changes that occur. r45 insufficient tender time r46 unfair process by tender r47 competition in pricing results in meager construction costs r48 lack of experience in tender pricing r49 ambiguity in the contract documents r50 inappropriate contract document verification process r51 contractual violation by project partner table 1. continued pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025127 code risk r52 delayed dispute resolution r53 difference between actual volume and contract volume r54 poor management changes and leadership style r55 undocumented change orders r56 inadequate construction program planning r57 poor field management and supervision r58 delays in approval of drawings, instructions, and responses from the client r59 poor communication between parties causes disruptions, disputes, or delays. r60 changes in the scope of work r61 inconsistent design plans and modifications during implementation r62 changes in the type and specifications of materials during construction r63 delay or suspension of work by the project owner r64 a tight project schedule and time allocation necessitate acceleration. r65 delay in completing the work by the contractor r66 difficult access to the site r67 implementation of new technology r68 poor quality of work r69 delay in payment by the client r70 delay in payment by the contractor r71 inaccurate project planning and budgeting r72 increase in labor wages, material prices, or equipment rental costs r73 funding shortages, loan cancellations r74 changes in laws and government regulations r75 complex approval and licensing procedures r76 monetary instability (inflation, interest rate fluctuations, exchange rate fluctuations) source: suraji, duff and peckitt (2001), hardjomuljadi (2014), jayasudha and vidivelli (2016), owusu-manu, et al. (2020). risk grouping and data analysis in the second stage, risks were mapped by the following attributes: the progress of work, project types, project locations, and causal factors. risks were categorized according to the four stages of work progress: <25%, 25% to 50%, >50% to 75%, and >75%. this classification was determined by considering potential risk variations and their impact on loss across different stages of construction. risks were classified into three project types: infrastructure, general building, and industrial, as other project types entail varying levels of difficulty and complexity. location characteristics significantly influence risks, leading table 1. continued pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025128 to the grouping of risks based on project locations: java and areas outside the java island. risks were also categorized into two groups based on their causes: “natural disasters” and “man-made disasters,” which include “human-related losses,” “material and equipment-related losses,” and “supervision and safety-related losses.” the identified risks were categorized into four groups: risks with low frequency and slight loss value (the first quadrant), risks with low frequency and high claim rates (the second quadrant), risks with high frequency and high claim rates (the third quadrant), and risks with high frequency and low claim rates (the fourth quadrant). the size of each bubble represents the aggregate claim value for the respective risk, with larger bubbles indicating a more substantial aggregate claim value. pareto’s law was applied to identify risks significantly impacting the total claim values. data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. descriptive statistics summarized the frequency and characteristics of claim values for each risk, presenting central tendency measures such as mean and median, dispersion measures like standard deviation, range (minimum and maximum values), and skewness and kurtosis—measures indicating the data symmetry and tail distribution relative to a standard curve. a hypothesis was tested for inferential analysis to determine whether significant differences in risk claim values among different attributes exist. the claim values were normalized by project value to neutralize the effect of project size. the shapiro-wilk normality test (kvam and vidakovic, 2007) was used to assess the data distribution, facilitating the selection of parametric and nonparametric inferential analysis based on normality. this study adopted a conventional 5% significance level for hypothesis testing. all computations were conducted using ibm spss statistics version 26 (ibm corp., 2019). interpretation and discussion the results of the data analysis were interpreted in the third stage, leading to a comprehensive discussion of the findings and their practical implications. based on the findings, conclusions and suggestions for further research were drawn. figure 1 illustrates the methodological framework of this study. results and discussion frequency and severity analysis of the 76 identified construction risks, 15 (19.7%) resulted in car claims. however, the frequency of claims with “no identified cause” was relatively high at 7.4% primarily due to poor database recording systems. many claims had no record of the cause and did not have a complete chronology of events, making it impossible to determine the cause of the claim. table 2. policy and claim data. description total number of policies number of claims original data obtained 3,509 1,437 project value below idr 50 billion 1,349 114 duplicates and unclear 125 129 premium outside the coverage period 227 44 useful data 1,808 1,150 pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025129 table 3 presents the descriptive statistics for each risk that resulted in the claim. six of the 76 identified risks accounted for 77% of the total claim values. among these, three risks were situated in the third quadrant, two in the second quadrant, and one in the fourth quadrant. these six risks encompass “hurricanes and storms,” “poor quality of work,” “heavy rain, lightning, and flooding,” “landslides,” “fire, explosion, short circuit, and power failure,” and “material or equipment damage due to accidents or disasters.” “hurricanes and storms” caused the most significant economic losses, with enormous consequences for individuals and the government. the necessity for repairs due to this disaster usually incurs considerable expense (stewart, 2003; kunreuther and pauly, 2006; tatum and terrell, 2012). this risk exhibits the highest single claim value among all the risks, amounting to idr 138 billion (usd 9.2 million), and the secondlargest aggregate claim value, totaling idr 255 billion (usd 17 million). while hurricanes and storms are infrequent, their occurrence carries a substantial impact. the highest claim values recorded were associated with an infrastructure project undertaken by public companies in a rural area outside the island of java. “heavy rain, lightning, and flooding” represent the highest aggregate claim value risks, totaling idr 471 billion (usd 31 million), and the second-highest frequency, with 143 recorded events. this finding aligns with research from yum, et al. (2020) , which used rainfall and flooding to assess the risks associated with natural catastrophes. heavy rain and flooding result in work delays and the inundation of project sites. furthermore, these phenomena give rise to additional hazards, such as landslides, equipment damage, and other risks, including delays and cost overruns. despite the widespread occurrence and potential for substantial losses caused by rainfall and flooding, stakeholders often ignore risk mitigation strategies. “landslides” can be triggered by various factors, including human activities such as land use, excavation, and stockpiling. additionally, geological conditions, earthquakes, and climate change can lead to heavy rainfall and floods (bommer, et al., 2002; wiguna and scott, 2005; hardjomuljadi, 2014; froude and petley, 2018). recent climate change has contributed to an increase in the frequency of landslides, a trend substantiated by historical data, which show that landslides rank third in terms of both frequency and claim value per event. however, fatal landslides also result from human activities related to construction, mining, and hill cutting. these incidents occur due to a lack of robust feasibility assessments. “fire, explosion, short circuit, and power failure” are the main hazards in building construction and can potentially result in significant losses. these risks usually emerge after the completion of the substructure work and persist until the project’s handover. incidents may be caused by sparks igniting flammable materials, equipment malfunctions, and substances stored at the project site. additionally, this risk can lead to other events, such as building collapse and fatalities. ranked fourth in the aggregate claim value, it closely rivals “hurricanes and storms.” the highest claim value for “fire and explosion” incidents is idr 41 billion (usd 2.7 million), surpassing the most significant claim from “landslides” (idr 17.5 billion or usd 1.2 million). collecting car policy and claim data reviewing and filtering data project value under idr 50 billion premium still in the coverage period duplicate, unclear, and ambiguous data data mapping based on risk events quadrant analysis discussion the findings conclusion and further research frequency and value of claim analysis descriptive & inferential statistic analysis 1st stage 2nd stage 3rd stage project characteristic analysis figure 1. research methodological framework. pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025130 “poor quality of work” results in damage and accidents during construction, encompassing issues such as concrete cracks, building collapses, damage from improper installation, and accidental harm. notably, a single claim amounting to idr 100 billion ranked as the second-highest single claim, while the mean value of “poor quality of work” claims stood as the third-highest at idr 3.5 billion. while car insurance does not directly cover this risk, insurance policies may be tailored to address poor-quality artistry. finally, “material or equipment damage due to accidents or disasters” exhibits the highest frequency of occurrence at 222 events. based on the claim data, “material or equipment damage due to accidents or disasters” refers to the harm inflicted on equipment because of collisions with materials and instances where equipment fails because of excessive loads. this category also includes damage to underground materials and mechanical and electrical systems. losses stemming from “property damage caused by third parties” are influenced by structural integrity, foundation stability, flooding incidents, and insurance coverage. these risks can lead to many table 3. risk frequency and claims analysis. code risk frequency aggregate of claim value claim value skewness kurtosis mean median standard deviation min. max. no. (%) (in idr billion) r2 geological conditions 14 1.22 96.426 6.888 0.846 18.007 0.0002 67.874 3.45 12.28 r6 hurricanes and storms 37 3.22 255.110 6.895 0.200 23.157 0.0068 138.05 5.35 30.54 r7 heavy rain, lightning, and flooding 143 12.43 471.368 3.296 0.354 8.231 0.0009 62.153 4.74 27.30 r8 earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis 20 1.74 40.205 2.010 0.166 4.768 0.0224 16.20 2.80 6.71 r9 landslides 133 11.57 231.235 1.739 0.496 3.100 0.0030 17.50 2.78 7.98 r10 robbery and theft on-site 100 8.70 26.167 0.262 0.077 0.623 0.0015 4.397 5.04 27.60 r11 fire, explosion, short circuit, and power failure 69 6.00 230.755 3.344 0.345 8.408 0.0057 41.56 3.55 12.58 r12 riots, strikes, demonstrations, and civil unrest 8 0.70 4.570 0.571 0.038 1.112 0.0089 3.140 2.25 4.99 r18 damage of materials/equipment during the shipping or installation process 27 2.35 62.086 2.299 0.160 6.967 0.0002 35.58 4.54 21.93 r19 damage of materials/equipment due to accidents or disasters 222 19.30 186.870 0.842 0.130 2.208 0.0001 22.96 6.26 52.21 r20 damage to materials/equipment due to water, leaks, or seepage 77 6.70 103.611 1.346 0.139 5.520 0.0003 47.40 7.89 65.99 r28 failure in machine testing or installation 31 2.70 58.259 1.879 0.206 3.613 0.0009 15.58 2.58 6.76 r35 property damage by third parties 124 10.78 78.140 0.630 0.053 3.080 0.0007 33.60 10.17 109.10 r36 damage due to vibration, settlement, collapse, loss, or weakening of supports 7 0.61 1.392 0.199 0.026 0.457 0.0021 1.23 2.63 6.94 r68 poor quality of work 53 4.61 188.145 3.550 0.217 14.107 0.0005 100.42 6.527 44.915 r99 unidentified 85 7.39 82.141 0.966 0.097 3.354 0.0003 26.97 6.215 44.570 totals 1150 100 2,116.480 pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025131 issues, including compensation for incurred expenses, the suspension of construction activities, and potential administrative penalties. ultimately, these consequences contribute to diminished productivity, financial losses, and damage to the company’s reputation ( jayasudha and vidivelli, 2016; ahn, kim and kim, 2020). the highest claim within the “material or equipment damage due to accidents or disasters” amounted to idr 22.9 billion, recorded on a large construction project in an urban area on the island of java. in second place, a rural infrastructure project on the island of java experienced a loss of idr 14.7 billion. however, the available data lacked detailed information concerning the type of construction firm involved and the specific cause of the claims. nonparametric test results the shapiro–wilk test results indicate that project sizes, claim values, and normalized claim values deviate from a normal distribution at the 5% significance level (p < 0.0005). in table 3, the skewness of claim values for each risk exceeds 2.0 (positively skewed), while the kurtosis value surpasses 5.0 (leptokurtic). high skewness and kurtosis values suggest the presence of outliers, highlighting the significance of extreme risks for insurance companies to consider. based on these statistics, each risk was plotted into the four quadrants based on frequency and claim values, as illustrated in figure 2. the mapping used the median values for frequency and claim as crosshairs because the data were not normally distributed. r-2 r-6 r-7 r-8 r-9 r-10 r-11 r-12 r-18 r-19 r-20 r-28 r-35 r-36 r-68 r-99 median frequency median claim amount (overall) 0 50 100 150 200 250 0.00 200.00 400.00 600.00 800.00 fr eq ue nc y median claim amount (in million rupiahs) risk (see table 1). the size of each bubble represents the aggregate claim value for the respective risk, with larger bubbles indicating higher aggregate claim values. figure 2. quadrant analysis of risk frequency and median claim value. the kruskal–wallis tests reveal statistically significant differences in the claim values and normalized claim values for these six risks at the 5% significance level, with p < 0.0005 for each. therefore, a post hoc analysis employing the mann–whitney test was conducted to ascertain specific differences among the risks. concerning normalized claim values, the test results demonstrated significant differences solely between “material or equipment damage due to accidents or disasters” and “landslides” (p = 0.048), between “material or equipment damage due to accidents or disasters” and “heavy rain, lightning, and flooding” (p < 0.0005), and between “material or equipment damage due to accidents or disasters” and “fire, explosion, short circuit, and power failure” (p < 0.0005). these significance values were adjusted by the bonferroni correction for multiple tests. conversely, in terms of claim values, notable differences were observed between “material or equipment damage due to accidents or disasters” (median = idr 130 million) and “landslides” (median = idr 496 million, p < 0.0005) and between “material or equipment damage due to accidents or disasters” and “heavy rain, lightning, and flooding” (median = idr 354 million, p < 0.0005). pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025132 the kruskal–wallis test also suggests differences in claim values (p = 0.026) and normalized claim values (p = 0.047) across various stages of work progress. a post hoc analysis employing the mann-whitney test, with significance values adjusted using the bonferroni correction for multiple tests, was conducted to pinpoint specific variations. concerning claim values, a significant difference was observed between project stages below 25% and above 75% (p = 0.019). the median claim values for the former (idr 958 million) were markedly higher than those for the latter (idr 182 million). however, this difference appears to be influenced by the project’s scale. regarding normalized claim value—claim values divided by their corresponding project sizes—the mann–whitney test revealed no differences across work progress stages, with all p-values exceeding 0.05. figures 3 and 4 show the frequency of occurrence and risk claim values based on the work progress. work progress 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 r-2 r-6 r-7 r-8 r-9 r-10 r-11 r-12 r-18 r-19 r-20 r-28 r-35 r-36 r-68 r-99 fr eq ue nc y project risks 0 25% 25% 50% 50% 75% 75% 100% figure 3. claim frequency based on work progress. work progress 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 r-2 r-6 r-7 r-8 r-9 r-10 r-11 r-12 r-18 r-19 r-20 r-28 r-35 r-36 r-68 r-99 m ed ia n c la im a m ou nt (in id r b ill io n) project risks 0 25% 25% 50% 50% 75% 75% 100% figure 4. claim value per event based on work progress. furthermore, the kruskal–wallis test results indicate a significant difference in claim values (p = 0.003) and normalized claim values among various project types. specifically, this difference is evident in infrastructure and building projects (p = 0.003), while no notable difference exists between industrial and building projects (p = 1.000) or between industrial and infrastructure projects (p = 0.249). the variance in project sizes can elucidate this difference: infrastructure projects (median = idr 1.05 trillion) exhibit higher values compared to building projects (median = idr 491 billion) and industrial projects (median = idr 355 billion). when these claim values are adjusted against project sizes, the kruskal-wallis test reveals no significant difference among the three project types (p = 0.660). figures 5 and 6 illustrate the frequency of occurrence and risk claim values across these three construction project types. pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025133 project type 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 r-2 r-6 r-7 r-8 r-9 r-10 r-11 r-12 r-18 r-19 r-20 r-28 r-35 r-36 r-68 r-99 fr eq ue nc y project risks infrastructure building industrial figure 5. claim frequency based on project type. project type 0.0 1.0 2.0 3.0 4.0 r-2 r-6 r-7 r-8 r-9 r-10 r-11 r-12 r-18 r-19 r-20 r-28 r-35 r-36 r-68 r-99 m ed ia n c la im a m ou nt (in id r b ill io n) project risks infrastructure building industrial figure 6. claim value per event based on project type. the mann–whitney test demonstrates a significant contrast in claim values and normalized claim values between projects in java and those outside java, with a p-value < 0.0005. like developed regions, java, indonesia’s most populous island, boasts of a proficient human resource pool and efficient material distribution channels. however, it also contends with challenges such as dense populations, complexities, and uncertainties. in contrast, projects located in rural areas face distinct challenges characterized by remoteness, isolation, and smaller populations. these challenges include difficulties in mobilizing and procuring labor and materials, lower levels of expertise, production risks, cost management and economies of scale, and infrastructure and communication challenges (mcanulty and baroudi, 2010; usman and ibrahim, 2015). figures 7 and 8 present the frequency of occurrence and claim values in these two locations, respectively. these findings will be further examined in conjunction with causal risk factors. based on the characterization of these risks, the kruskal–wallis tests reveal significant differences in claim values and normalized claim values across various factors, with a p-value < 0.0005. subsequent post hoc analysis delineates differences among “natural disasters” and “human-related losses,” “material and equipment-related losses,” and “supervision and safety-related losses,” all with p-values < 0.0005. similar conclusions emerge for normalized claim values, highlighting differences between “supervision and safety-related losses” and “human-related losses” (p = 0.045). this finding prompted further investigation by categorizing risks into “natural disasters” and “man-made disasters,” uncovering significant differences between the two categories pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025134 for both claim values (p < 0.0005) and normalized claim values (p < 0.0005). the median claim values attributed to “natural disasters” amounted to idr 424 million, which is significantly higher than those arising from “man-made disasters” (idr 124 million). project location 0 50 100 150 200 r-2 r-6 r-7 r-8 r-9 r-10 r-11 r-12 r-18 r-19 r-20 r-28 r-35 r-36 r-68 r-99 fr eq ue nc y project risks java island outside java island figure 7. claim frequency based on project location. project location 0.0 0.5 1.0 1.5 2.0 r-2 r-6 r-7 r-8 r-9 r-10 r-11 r-12 r-18 r-19 r-20 r-28 r-35 r-36 r-68 r-99 m ed ia n c la im a m ou nt (in id r b ill io n) project risks java island outside java island figure 8. claim value per event based on project location. natural disasters natural disasters encompass five distinct perilous events: “geological conditions,” “hurricanes and storms,” “heavy rain, lightning, and flooding,” “earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis,” and “landslides.” substantial claim amounts characterize these five risks. figure 2 reveals that “heavy rain, lightning, and flooding” and “landslides” exhibit a high frequency of events, occurring consistently across various stages of work progress, from 25% to 100%. this indicates that they can manifest at any point during construction, with a higher propensity within infrastructure projects. “geological conditions,” “hurricanes and storms,” and “earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and tsunamis” are infrequent but can lead to significant losses, particularly for infrastructure projects. while natural catastrophes cannot be entirely avoided, measures can be implemented to mitigate their impact and limit the associated losses. in contrast, losses arising from human actions differ significantly, as they can be prevented, thereby averting harm and disruptions to the construction process. for insurance firms, a profound understanding of the natural disaster risks inherent in insured construction projects holds fundamental significance for various reasons. it allows them to accurately pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025135 assess and quantify potential liabilities, essential for determining appropriate premium coverage limits and devising effective risk management strategies. an in-depth knowledge of these risks also facilitates improved underwriting decisions. by precisely pricing policies based on region-specific vulnerabilities to natural disasters, contractors and insurers can appropriately tailor insurance products to address the needs of high-risk areas. a comprehensive understanding of natural disaster risks is crucial for making informed decisions regarding reinsurance coverage to manage risk exposure. this understanding significantly enhances insurance firms’ ability to manage claims effectively, enabling well-informed responses in the aftermath of a disaster. understanding the nature of natural disaster risks remains crucial for construction firms, even with insurance coverage, as natural disasters can cause significant business disruptions. construction firms should proactively manage and prevent potential damages, reducing the likelihood and severity of disasters and minimizing losses. although insurance covers losses, preventive measures can reduce the frequency and severity of claims, and construction firms can invest in risk-reduction strategies, potentially lowering insurance premiums and overall costs. in this sense, collaborating between insurance and construction firms to implement proactive risk mitigation measures is feasible, reducing claim frequency and severity and benefiting insurers and insured parties. man-made disasters among “human-related losses,” three stand out: “robbery and theft on-site,” “fire and explosion,” and “riots, strikes, demonstrations, and civil unrest.” notably, losses attributed to “fire and explosion” are minimal, and the frequency of their occurrence is relatively low. according to domke (1999), “robbery and theft onsite” and “fire and explosion” mainly occur during the later stages of construction, typically between 50% and 100% completion. it is worth noting that valuable and flammable materials often become targets for theft and fire incidents, particularly toward the conclusion of construction projects, especially in the case of building projects in java. in contrast, outside java, incidents in infrastructure and industrial projects are relatively low primarily due to the materials being less susceptible to theft or combustion. “material and equipment-related losses” include “damage to materials/equipment during shipping or the installation process,” “damage to materials/equipment due to accidents or disasters,” “damage to materials/ equipment caused by water, leaks, or seepage,” and “failure in machine testing or installation.” these four risks are deemed moderate, with claim values per event closely matching the median value. the frequency of “damage to materials/equipment due to accidents or disasters” notably increases and correlates with construction progress. this risk frequently emerges in building and infrastructure projects, particularly in java. interestingly, the claim values for projects outside java are considerably higher than those within java. damage to materials and equipment can result from accidents or disasters. implementing preventive measures against disaster-induced damage can be more challenging, but a robust ohs system can significantly mitigate such occurrences. the “supervision and safety-related losses” include “worker accidents involving experts in the project and the project owner,” “property damage by third parties,” “damage resulting from vibration, settlement, collapse, loss, or weakening of supports,” and “poor quality of work.” only “property damage by third parties” exhibits a high frequency and is evenly distributed throughout the project timeline, whereas the other three risks have low claim values per event. despite the small claim values, the high frequency of these risks can lead to a significant total claim value. “poor quality of work” exhibits a high frequency and claim magnitude. its claim frequency is evenly distributed from the beginning to the end of a project (figure 2), and such events frequently arise in infrastructure and building projects (figure 4). notably, in infrastructure projects, significant losses tend to occur toward the end of the project, typically when progress exceeds 50%. “poor quality of work” is pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025136 more prevalent in java, yet the claimed magnitude is higher outside java. this finding suggests that despite occurring less frequently due to fewer projects, the inadequate quality of labor outside java leads to more substantial claims. the population density on java contributes to a higher frequency of “property damage by third parties” than outside java, even though the claim amounts on java are lower than those outside java. these events occurred uniformly across all project progress stages but are more frequent in building projects, highlighting that such damage often occurs in densely populated project areas. hence, implementing a robust ohs system can effectively mitigate the risks of property damage incidents near the project site (lingard, 2013). conclusion analyzing the frequency and value of claims is fundamental for comprehensively understanding the diverse range of construction risk events that may lead to claims and for determining the risks inherent in each project based on its specific characteristics. while numerous prior studies have dealt with construction insurance, detailed discussions backed by empirical data regarding the severity and frequency of claim values remain notably scarce. this study aims to bridge this knowledge gap and contribute a deeper understanding of this area. it represents one of the pioneering attempts in this field, drawing from large sample sizes obtained from two insurance firms in indonesia. this study reveals that a small subset of construction risks covered by car insurance significantly influences claim frequencies and values. these findings underscore the crucial need to focus on specific risks, especially those with low frequency but high potential for causing substantial losses if they occur. while some of these risks are unavoidable or uncontrollable, their impact can be minimized, whereas others can be prevented through effective planning and control measures. this study also shows that the geographical area significantly influences the value of claims. however, no significant difference is observed across various stages of work progress or construction project types when claim values are normalized to their corresponding project values. the substantial claims stemming from natural disasters underscore the pivotal role of insurance in mitigating the risks. this highlights indonesia’s vulnerability to such events, emphasizing the critical need for early mitigation measures, mainly when using insurance. while natural disasters are typically uncontrollable, their impact can be lessened through detailed engineering designs and proactive risk management practices, further bolstered by comprehensive insurance solutions. project stakeholders must acknowledge that these risks have the potential to arise at any stage of the project. construction projects can become more resilient and ensure financial protection against unforeseen and uncontrollable natural disasters by integrating insurance mechanisms into risk management strategies. it is worth noting that car insurance provides valuable financial protection for construction projects. however, it should not incentivize contractors to take more significant risks or be less cautious because of the safety net of insurance coverage. several factors mitigate the potential for moral hazard in this context. first, contractual obligations impose stringent requirements and standards on contractors and subcontractors, fostering a culture of accountability and incentivizing adherence to safety protocols and quality standards. these obligations remain regardless of insurance coverage, reinforcing the commitment to responsible behavior. second, contractors are vested in completing projects on time, within budget, and to the required quality standards to maintain profitability and safeguard their professional reputation. the financial and reputational stakes motivate contractors to prioritize risk management and ensure project success, regardless of insurance coverage. furthermore, while insurance protects against unforeseen risks, it does not absolve contractors of their financial responsibilities or mitigate the potential losses associated with project delays, defects, or failures. pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025137 insurance firms can leverage the findings of this study as a valuable reference to gain deeper insights into the risks inherent in construction projects, particularly those covered by car insurance. the prominence of specific project risks in terms of their frequency and severity of claims underscores the importance for insurance firms to prioritize their understanding of these risks. furthermore, these insights encourage insurance firms to engage with contractors in proactive risk mitigation measures. insurance firms should adopt a more data-driven approach instead of relying solely on intuition. factors such as the contractor’s experience, project complexity, location, and historical performance should be carefully considered to tailor appropriate coverage and premiums. this study acknowledges inherent limitations. first, the available project attribute data remain significantly restricted, thus constraining a more comprehensive analysis of the correlation between claim frequency and severity and the limited project attribute data. second, the absence of standardized data recording protocols poses a considerable challenge in identifying hazardous causes. consequently, the frequency of claims labeled “no identified cause” is relatively high, primarily attributed to deficient database systems. many claims lacked causative information and comprehensive event chronologies, impeding the determination of their underlying causes. regardless of the study’s limitations, the findings provide a foundation for further research to address knowledge gaps in construction insurance. these results can pave the way for further studies, such as examining the influence of project characteristics on the likelihood of claims and quantifying these characteristics to help calculate the premium value of car insurance. references ahmed, s.m. and azhar, s., 2004. risk management in the florida construction industry. in: second laccei international latin american and caribbean conference for engineering and technology (laccei’2004) ‘challenges and opportunity for engineering education, research, and development’. florida. ahn, s., kim, t. and kim, j.m., 2020. sustainable risk assessment through the analysis of financial losses from thirdparty damage in bridge construction. sustainability (switzerland), 12(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083435 akinradewo, o., aghimien, d., aigbavboa, c. and onyia, m., 2022. factors influencing the adoption of insurance as a risk treatment tool by contractors in the construction industry. international journal of construction management, 22(13), pp.2484–2492. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1797986 aon, 2021. construction market overview 2nd quarter 2021. [online] london. available at: https://insights-northamerica.aon.com/construction/aon-construction-market-overview-q2-2021-report. asosiasi asuransi umum indonesia, 2022. kinerja asuransi umum dan reasuransi selama tahun – 2021. jakarta. badan pusat statistik indonesia, 2023. construction indicators for the first quarter of 2023. jakarta. bommer, j., spence, r., erdik, m., tabuchi, s., aydinoglu, n., booth, e., del re, d. and peterken, o., 2002. development of an earthquake loss model for turkish catastrophe insurance. journal of seismology, 6(3), pp.431–446. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1020095711419 bunni, n.g., 2003. risk and insurance in construction. second ed. spon press. london and new york: taylor & francis group. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.783703 camino lópez, m.a., ritzel, d.o., fontaneda, i. and gonzález alcantara, o.j., 2008. construction industry accidents in spain. journal of safety research, 39(5), pp.497–507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2008.07.006 cho, y.-j., 2013. a basic study on the introduction of professional indemnity insurance for construction project managers. journal of the korea institute of building construction, 13(2), pp.102–111. https://doi.org/10.5345/ jkibc.2013.13.2.102 pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025138 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083435 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1797986 https://insights-north-america.aon.com/construction/aon-construction-market-overview-q2-2021-report https://insights-north-america.aon.com/construction/aon-construction-market-overview-q2-2021-report https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1020095711419 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.783703 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2008.07.006 https://doi.org/10.5345/jkibc.2013.13.2.102 https://doi.org/10.5345/jkibc.2013.13.2.102 dieter, s., 2021. engineering insurance premium and loss statistics per country 2018-2020. in: imia virtual conference. the international association of engineering insurers. domke, a., 1999. standstill covers under car and ear insurance. swiss reinsurance company. zurich: swiss re publishing. ekpo, i.a. and oladokun, t.t., 2023. adoption of professional indemnity insurance among estate surveying and valuation firms in oyo state, nigeria. property management, 41(5), pp.753–765. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm-10-20220079 el-adaway, i.h. and kandil, a.a., 2010. construction risks: single versus portfolio insurance. journal of management in engineering, 26(1), pp.2–8. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2010)26:1(2) ewelina, g. and mikaela, r., 2011. risk management practice in a construction project a case study. master of science thesis in the master’s programme design and construction project management. chalmers university of technology, sweden. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203887059-17 flyvbjerg, b., holm, m.k.s. and buhl, s.l., 2006. inaccuracy in traffic forecasts. transport reviews, 26(1), pp.1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/01441640500124779 froude, m.j. and petley, d.n., 2018. global fatal landslide occurrence from 2004 to 2016. natural hazards and earth system sciences, 18(8), pp.2161–2181. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-2161-2018 gangolells, m., casals, m., gassó, s., forcada, n., roca, x. and fuertes, a., 2009. a methodology for predicting the severity of environmental impacts related to the construction process of residential buildings. building and environment, 44(3), pp.558–571. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2008.05.001 hardjomuljadi, s., 2014. factor analysis on causal of construction claims and disputes in indonesia (with reference to the construction of hydroelectric power project in indonesia). international journal of applied engineering research, 9(22), pp.12421–12446. harkness, e.l. and hassanain, m.a., 2002. seismic damage in nsw, australia: construction insurance, social, and economic consequences. journal of performance of constructed facilities, 16(2), pp.75–84. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0887-3828(2002)16:2(75) hatmoko, j.u.d., astuti, p.k. and farania, s.n., 2021. insuring project risks: contractor expectations versus insurance company policies. international journal of technology, 12(1), pp.90–100. https://doi.org/10.14716/ijtech.v12i1.4156 howard, w.h., 2005. new issues in environmental risk insurance. environmental claims journal, 17(2), pp.153–192. https://doi.org/10.1080/10406020500239774 husin, s., fachrurrazi, f., rizalihadi, m. and mubarak, m., 2019. implementing fuzzy topsis on project risk variable ranking. advances in civil engineering, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/9283409 ibm corp., 2019. ibm spss statistics for windows. ibrahim, m.a., mat nor, a. and raja hisham, r.r.i., 2021. factors influencing bumiputera contractors’ acceptance of the contractor’s all risk takāful product. isra international journal of islamic finance, 13(3), pp.364–377. https://doi. org/10.1108/ijif-09-2020-0188 jayasudha, k. and vidivelli, b., 2016. analysis of major risks in construction projects. arpn journal of engineering and applied sciences, 11(11), pp.6943–6950. khan, r.a. and gul, w., 2017. emperical study of critical risk factors causing delays in construction projects. proceedings of the 2017 ieee 9th international conference on intelligent data acquisition and advanced computing systems: technology and applications, idaacs 2017, 2, pp.900–906. https://doi.org/10.1109/idaacs.2017.8095217 pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025139 https://doi.org/10.1108/pm-10-2022-0079 https://doi.org/10.1108/pm-10-2022-0079 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2010)26:1(2 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203887059-17 https://doi.org/10.1080/01441640500124779 https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-18-2161-2018 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2008.05.001 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3828(2002)16:2(75 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3828(2002)16:2(75 https://doi.org/10.14716/ijtech.v12i1.4156 https://doi.org/10.1080/10406020500239774 https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/9283409 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijif-09-2020-0188 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijif-09-2020-0188 https://doi.org/10.1109/idaacs.2017.8095217 kim, j.m., kim, t. and ahn, s., 2020. loss assessment for sustainable industrial infrastructure: focusing on bridge construction and financial losses. sustainability (switzerland), 12(13). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12135316 kim, j.m., kim, t., bae, j., son, k. and ahn, s., 2019. analysis of plant construction accidents and loss estimation using insurance loss records. journal of asian architecture and building engineering, 18(6), pp.507–516. https://doi.org/10.1080 /13467581.2019.1687089 kunreuther, h. and pauly, m., 2006. rules rather than discretion: lessons from hurricane katrina. journal of risk and uncertainty, 33(1–2), pp.101–116. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11166-006-0173-x kvam, p.h. and vidakovic, b., 2007. nonparametric statistics with applications to science and engineering. wiley series in probability and statistics. hoboken: wiley-interscience. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470168707 laryea, s., 2008. risk pricing practices in finance, insurance, and construction. in: cobra 2008 construction and building research conference of the royal institution of chartered surveyors. london: university of reading. pp.1–16. levine, m. and haar, r. ter, 2008. construction insurance and uk construction contracts. second ed. oxford: informa law from routledge. li, x., han, s., gül, m., asce, a.m., al-hussein, m. and el-rich, m., 2017. 3d visualization-based ergonomic risk assessment and work modification framework and its validation for a lifting task. journal of construction engineering and management, 144(1), pp.04017093-1–13. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001412 lingard, h., 2013. occupational health and safety in the construction industry. construction management and economics, 31(6), pp.505–514. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.816435 liu, j., li, b., lin, b. and nguyen, v., 2007. key issues and challenges of risk management and insurance in china’s construction industry: an empirical study. industrial management and data systems, 107(3), pp.382–396. https://doi. org/10.1108/02635570710734280 liu, j., lin, s. and feng, y., 2018. understanding why chinese contractors are not willing to purchase construction insurance. engineering, construction and architectural management, 25(2), pp.257–272. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam08-2016-0186 lyons, t. and skitmore, m., 2004. project risk management in the queensland engineering construction industry: a survey. international journal of project management, 22(1), pp.51–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(03)00005-x marsh, 2021. construction insurance market: pricing and underwriter scrutiny increase; capacity remains for good risks. new york. martina, q. and kumar, s., 2018. a study on insurance in construction industry. international research journal of engineering and technology (irjet), [online] 05(04), pp.3991–3993. available at: www.irjet.net. mcanulty, s. and baroudi, b., 2010. construction challenges in remote australian locations. association of researchers in construction management, arcom 2010 proceedings of the 26th annual conference, (september), pp.1247–1257. mirkovic, m., 2018. the impact of failure types in construction production systems on economic risk assessments in the bidding phase. complexity, 2018, pp.1–13. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/5041803 musundire, s. and aigbavboa, c., 2015. management of construction risk through contractor’s all risk insurance policy: a south africa case study. 5th international/11th construction specialty conference, [online] pp.192.1-192.8. available at: https://open.library.ubc.ca/circle/collections/52660/items/1.0076338. owusu-manu, d.g., ghansah, f.a., darko, a. and asiedu, r.o., 2021. service quality of insurance in complex project deals in the construction industry in ghana. international journal of building pathology and adaptation, 39(2), pp.344– 367. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-09-2019-0078 pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025140 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12135316 https://doi.org/10.1080/13467581.2019.1687089 https://doi.org/10.1080/13467581.2019.1687089 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11166-006-0173-x https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470168707 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001412 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.816435 https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570710734280 https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570710734280 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2016-0186 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2016-0186 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(03)00005-x http://www.irjet.net https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/5041803 https://open.library.ubc.ca/circle/collections/52660/items/1.0076338 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-09-2019-0078 owusu-manu, d.g., ghansah, f.a., darko, a., asiedu, r.o. and edwards, d.j., 2020. insurable and non-insurable risks in complex project deals: case of the ghanaian construction industry. journal of engineering, design and technology, 18(6), pp.1971–1995. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-10-2019-0265 öztaş, a. and ökmen, ö., 2004. risk analysis in fixed-price design-build construction projects. building and environment, 39(2), pp.229–237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2003.08.018 perera, b., rathnayake, r. and rameezdeen, r., 2008. use of insurance in managing construction risks: evaluation of contractors’ all risks (car) insurance policy. built-environment sri lanka, 8(2), pp.24–31. https://doi.org/10.4038/ besl.v8i2.1909 ryu, h., son, k. and kim, j.m., 2016. loss prediction model for building construction projects using insurance claim payout. journal of asian architecture and building engineering, 15(3), pp.441–446. https://doi.org/10.3130/jaabe.15.441 shapiro, a.f., 2007. an overview of insurance uses of fuzzy logic. computational intelligence in economics and finance: volume ii, pp.25–61. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-72821-4_2 shen, l., wu, g.w.c. and ng, c.s.k., 2001. risk assessment for construction joint ventures in china. journal of construction engineering and management, 128(1), pp.76–81. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2001)127:1(76) stewart, m.g., 2003. cyclone damage and temporal changes to building vulnerability and economic risks for residential construction. journal of wind engineering and industrial aerodynamics, 91(5), pp.671–691. https://doi.org/10.1016/ s0167-6105(02)00462-2 suraji, a., duff, a.r. and peckitt, s.j., 2001. development of causal model of construction accident causation. journal of construction engineering and management, 127(4), pp.337–344. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2001)127:4(337) tah, j.h.m. and carr, v., 2001. knowledge-based approach to construction project risk management. journal of computing in civil engineering, 15(3), pp.170–177. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3801(2001)15:3(170) tatum, m.c. and terrell, f., 2012. hurricane reconstruction in the united states gulf coast. international journal of disaster resilience in the built environment, 3(3), pp.199–219. https://doi.org/10.1108/17595901211263602 the national agency for disaster management, 2023. indonesian disaster data. data informasi bencana indonesia. usman, n. and ibrahim, a.m., 2015. challenges associated with remote sites project management. journal of multidisciplinary engineering science and technology, [online] 2(6), pp.1454–1459. available at: https://www.jmest.org/ wp-content/uploads/jmestn42350820.pdf. vaughan, e.j. and vaughan, t.m., 1994. fundamentals of risk and insurance. eleventh ed. the journal of risk and insurance. danvers, massachusetts: john wiley & sons. https://doi.org/10.2307/253725 werner, d., 1999. managing risk – construction insurance. wiguna, i.p.a. and scott, s., 2005. nature of the critical risk factors affecting project performance in indonesian building contracts. in: 21st annual arcom conference 2005, university of london. london: association of researchers in construction management. pp.225–235. willis tower watson, 2021. global construction rate trend report q2 2021 regional insight and rate trends. london. yum, s.g., ahn, s., bae, j. and kim, j.m., 2020. assessing the risk of natural disaster-induced losses to tunnelconstruction projects using empirical financial-loss data from south korea. sustainability (switzerland), 12(19), pp.1–15. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12198026 pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025141 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-10-2019-0265 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2003.08.018 https://doi.org/10.4038/besl.v8i2.1909 https://doi.org/10.4038/besl.v8i2.1909 https://doi.org/10.3130/jaabe.15.441 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-72821-4_2 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2001)127:1(76 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2001)127:1(76 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0167-6105(02)00462-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0167-6105(02)00462-2 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2001)127:4(337 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2001)127:4(337 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3801(2001)15:3(170 https://doi.org/10.1108/17595901211263602 https://www.jmest.org/wp-content/uploads/jmestn42350820.pdf https://www.jmest.org/wp-content/uploads/jmestn42350820.pdf https://doi.org/10.2307/253725 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12198026 zhao, x., hwang, b.g. and phng, w., 2014. construction project risk management in singapore: resources, effectiveness, impact, and understanding. ksce journal of civil engineering, 18(1), pp.27–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s12205-014-0045-x zhou, x., wang, y., zhang, y. and liu, f., 2023. macro investigation on china’s engineering insurance industry: based on industrial organization theories. engineering, construction and architectural management. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ecam-03-2022-0219 pramudya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025142 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-014-0045-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-014-0045-x https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-03-2022-0219 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-03-2022-0219 construction economics and building vol. 19, no. 1 jan-jun 2019 © 2019 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: lingard, h., raj, i.s., lythgo, n., troynikov, o., fitzgerald, c. 2019. the impact of tool selection on back and wrist injury risk in tying steel reinforcement bars: a single case experiment. construction economics and building, 19:1, article id 6279. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i1.6279 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://ajceb. epress.lib.uts.edu.au research article (peer-reviewed) the impact of tool selection on back and wrist injury risk in tying steel reinforcement bars: a single case experiment helen lingard1*, isaac selva raj2, noel lythgo3, olga troynikov4, chris fitzgerald5 1 school of property, construction and project management, rmit university, gpo box 2476, melbourne vic 3001 australia. helen.lingard@rmit.edu.au 2 school of health sciences, rmit university, gpo box 2476, melbourne vic 3001 australia. isaacselva.raj@rmit.edu.au 3 school of health sciences, rmit university, gpo box 2476, melbourne vic 3001 australia. noel. lythgo@rmit.edu.au 4 school of fashion and textiles, rmit university, gpo box 2476, melbourne vic 3001 australia. olga.troynikov@rmit.edu.au 5 risk and injury management services pty ltd, po box 9800 middle camberwell, vic, 3124. chris.fitzgerald@rimservices.com.au *corresponding author: helen lingard. helen.lingard@rmit.edu.au doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i1.6279 article history: received 28/8/2018; revised 02/02/2019; accepted 06/02/2019; published 03/06/2019 abstract the paper explores the risk of work-related musculoskeletal injury in tying steel reinforcement bars. three tools are compared to determine the extent to which ergonomically designed tools can reduce the risk of injury to the back and wrist in steel-tying. a whole body system of wearable sensors was used to measure biomechanical risk in tying. three tools were assessed to determine their impact on the risk of work-related musculoskeletal injury when used at different heights. these were: a conventional pincercutter tool; a power-driven tying tool, and a long handled stapler tool. no tool was found to work best in all situations. the long handled stapler tool significantly reduced trunk inclination when used from ground to shoulder height but produced higher trunk extension (backward bending) when used above shoulder height. the power tying tool did not reduce the need to bend when working at lower work heights. the power tying tool declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding this research was jointly funded by worksafe victoria and the major transport infrastructure program, department of economic development, jobs, transport and resources, victorian government. 1 page number not for citation purposes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i1.6279 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i1.6279 https://ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au https://ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au mailto:helen.lingard@rmit.edu.au mailto:isaacselva.raj@rmit.edu.au mailto:noel.lythgo@rmit.edu.au mailto:noel.lythgo@rmit.edu.au mailto:olga.troynikov@rmit.edu.au mailto:chris.fitzgerald@rimservices.com.au mailto:helen.lingard@rmit.edu.au https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i1.6279 produced significantly lower peak wrist flexion values compared to the conventional pincercutter tool at all work heights except overhead. the power tying tool involved significantly lower levels of wrist rotation than the conventional pincer-cutter tool at all work heights above knee level. many assessments of ergonomic risk factors in construction rely on observational methods. the use of small, lightweight wearable sensors permits the objective measurement of biomechanical risk factors for work-related musculoskeletal injury, as well as providing objective performance data that can be used in the design and selection of task-specific tools. our analysis of work by height also provides insight into the way in which the risk factors and reduction opportunities afforded by different tools vary depending on the height at which work is performed. keywords steel reinforcement tying, musculoskeletal injury, construction, wrist, back, wearable sensors, hand tools. introduction work-related musculoskeletal disorders (msds) work-related musculoskeletal disorders (msds) generally occur when a worker’s physical workload exceeds the physical capacity of the human body. msds can arise as a result of a single event or be due to repeated exposures. risk factors associated with work-related msds include repetition, force required, awkward posture, vibration, and contact stress (wang, dai and ning, 2015). contact stress is a term defined by the us occupational safety and health administration as “pressing the body or part of the body (such as the hand) against hard or sharp edges (osha, 2008, p.6). musculoskeletal disorders (msds) are the most common work-related conditions in australia and are associated with hazardous manual tasks and poorly designed work. in 2014-15, 43,555 serious workers’ compensation claims were lodged for body stressing in australia. of these, 10 per cent were lodged by labourers (safe work australia, 2017). the australian work health and safety strategy 2012-2022 targets a reduction in the incidence rate of claims for work-related msds (resulting in one or more weeks off work) of at least 30 per cent to be achieved by 2022. the strategy also identifies construction as a priority industry for this reduction (safe work australia, 2012). construction is a high-risk industry for work-related msds (hartmann and fleischer, 2005; latza, et al., 2000). further, construction workers suffering msds are less likely to return to work and more likely to retire with a disability than workers in other occupations (welch, et al., 2009; arndt, et al., 2005). msds are also costly to employing organisations, resulting in sickness absence, turnover costs, impacts on morale, lost productivity and diminished quality of work (inyang, et al., 2012). the prevalence of work-related msds in construction has been attributed to the dynamic, often non-routine, nature of work (buchholz, et al., 1996; welch, 2009; hannertz, et al., 2005). the changing environmental conditions inherent in construction work also impact the frequency and content of work tasks performed by construction workers, making it difficult to reliably measure exposure to msd risk (paquet, et al., 2005). despite these challenges, understanding msd risk factors associated with specific construction tasks is important in lingard, raj, lythgo, troynikov, fitzgerald construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 20192 page number not for citation purposes order to encourage the development of effective primary prevention measures (latza, et al., 2000). further, the implementation of ergonomic interventions to match tasks, tools, and the work environment to the needs of workers is increasing in importance in light of the ageing construction workforce (choi, 2009). aim in this paper we examine risk factors for work-related msds in the work of tying steel reinforcement bars. in particular, we aim to identify opportunities for risk reduction through the use of ergonomically designed tools. research objectives are to: (a) use objective measurement methods to analyse body movements to identify specific risk factors associated with work-related msds in the task of tying steel reinforcement bars, (b) compare the effect of three steel tying tools on a worker’s body movements so as to investigate whether tool design can reduce the risk of work-related msds, and (c) to compare the performance of three tools when used at different work heights (defined in relation to a worker’s body). risk factors for msds in tying steel reinforcement bars tying steel reinforcement bars involves positioning steel rods (sometimes referred to as rebar) and fixing them together using wire ties in preparation for concreting work. this task involves heavy manual materials handling, work in awkward postures and the expenditure of high levels of energy compared to other construction tasks (faber, et al., 2012; van der molen, 2012; wong, et al., 2014). steel tying has been identified as a high-risk activity for musculoskeletal injury, particularly to the back and upper extremities (vi, 2003). back injuries in workers engaged in tying steel reinforcement bars (hereafter referred to as steel fixers) are attributed to frequently working in stooped postures, manually lifting heavy materials, often from toe to hip level, and working on poor walking surfaces (niskanen, 1985). more recent observational research confirms that steel fixers are more likely to lift loads exceeding 50 lbs (22.7kg) than other construction trades (tak, et al., 2011). buchholz, et al. (2003) observed ergonomic hazards experienced by 17 steel fixers performing five job tasks in a us ‘cut and cover’ tunnel construction project. they report the steel fixers spent 40% of their work time in non-neutral trunk postures. this has been confirmed in laboratory-based simulations studies. for example, umer, et al. (2017) used wearable sensors to directly measure biomechanical risk factors associated with a simulated steel fixing task, finding lumbar flexion angles substantially exceed recommended limits (umer, et al., 2017). however, field-based studies also show that ergonomic exposures vary significantly depending upon the specific work context. buchholz, et al. (2003) found significant differences between risk exposures when erecting steel reinforcement at ground-level, wall height and for a ventilation duct. thus, steel tying is a heterogeneous activity in which trunk posture varies according to the height at which work is performed. research also reveals steel tying presents a high risk of work-related msds affecting the hand, wrist or fingers, with up to 48 per cent of a cohort of steel fixers reporting msds symptoms in these parts of the body (forde, punnett and wegman, 2005). in terms of doctordiagnosed msds, steel fixers were most likely to be diagnosed with tendonitis, carpal tunnel syndrome and ruptured disks in the back (forde, punnett and wegman, 2005). the impact of tool selection on back and wrist injury risk in tying steel reinforcement bars: a single case experiment construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 20193 page number not for citation purposes steel tying tools the prevalence of msds among steel fixers highlights the need for effective ergonomic interventions. one area in which the risks of msds could potentially be reduced is through the design and use of improved hand-held tools to tie the steel reinforcement bars (mital and kilbom, 1992). the conventional method of tying steel reinforcement bars involves the operator pulling out the end of a reel of metal wire from a belt located on their left hip, bending the wire around the rod sections before twisting the wire together and cutting off the end, using a hand-held pincer-cutter tool. this tying/cutting cycle takes approximately two seconds and is a repetitive action. it has been estimated that steel fixers may make 400–600 ties using this method per workday (dababneh and waters, 2000). li (2002) observes that the action of wire twisting involves repetition of awkward hand/wrist postures, including flexion/extension, ulnar deviation of the wrist, as well as supination and pronation of the arm. this observation is consistent with the types of musculoskeletal injury reported in the literature to be common among steel fixers, including injuries to the hand, forearm and wrist (vi, 2003). two alternative commercially available steel tying tools were assessed in the current study, i.e., a power-driven tying tool and a long-handled stapler tool. these are described below. the power-driven tying tool (hereafter referred to as the power tying tool) looks and operates much like a hand-held power drill. the handle and power button are like those on a drill, while the upper body of the tool houses a small reel of tying wire that is fed through feeding gears that pull the wire through as required. the end of the tool uses a structure similar to the beak of a bird of prey. the upper head section has a curled and downward facing end and the smaller lower section sits directly below. the jaws of the tool are placed around two intersecting sections of steel rod (rebar). when the trigger is activated, the wire is fed through the upper curled head. its shape causes the wire to follow this curved trajectory until it interacts with the lower part of the head. while holding the button down, this wire performs two of these loops and the head creates a twisting action to generate the fixing tension required to hold the metal rods together. to remove the tool, it is rotated slightly upwards so the large upper head end does not catch onto the bar it has just fixed. the long-handled stapler tool was manually operated. the stapler tool has a single curved handle at the upper end, like that of an umbrella. a string of v-shaped staples is loaded into the cartridge and the tool has a v-shaped head end that is placed over the two intersecting steel bars to be fixed. when the head is in place, the operator pushes down on the tool. when the tool cartridge stops, the two ends of the staple are crossed over and joined together. evidence to support the use of alternative tying tools dadabneh and waters (2000) report that well designed power tying tools can enable workers to tie steel rods while keeping their wrist straight. they also observe that the use of a long-handled rebar stapling tool can reduce the need for a worker to bend or twist, particularly when tying steel rods at ground level. however, these conclusions were based upon information provided in manufacturers’ materials and video data, rather than objective measurement of a worker’s movement. albers and hudock (2007) also compared the ergonomic aspects of tying steel rods using a conventional pincer-cutter tool and a power tying tool, with and without an extension handle. they used a combination of direct measurement (to determine wrist motion) and observation lingard, raj, lythgo, troynikov, fitzgerald construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 20194 page number not for citation purposes (to assess trunk position). albers and hudock (2007) confirmed that manual tying of steel rods at ground level involves sustained deep bending of the trunk combined with rapid and repetitive hand and wrist movements. further, their direct measurement revealed that handwrist movements measured during conventional tying (i.e., with pincer-cutters) exceeded levels associated with high cumulative trauma disorder risk in the flexion/extension and ulnar/radial planes. using a power tying tool significantly reduced hand-wrist and forearm movements and provided one hand free with which a worker could support the weight of their trunk while tying steel rods at ground level. the power tying tool did not significantly reduce the amount of time workers spent in positions of extreme trunk flexion (defined as being equal to or greater than 90 degrees). however, when the power tying tool was fitted with a specially designed extension handle, the workers were observed to use neutral trunk position (less than 15 degrees flexion) for 83 per cent of the time and moderate forward flexion (16-30 degrees) for 15 per cent of the time (albers and hudock, 2007). vi (2003) evaluated the impact of using a long-handled power tying tool among nine apprentice steel fixers, measuring the apprentices’ wrist and arm angles using electrogoniometers, and low back muscle activation using electromyography. vi (2003) reports that the use of the power tool significantly reduced wrist acceleration in all planes of movement measured (flexion/extension, radial/ulnar and pronation/supination) compared to manual steel tying techniques. the long-handled power tool also decreased peak loading in the lower back, as well as the cumulative loading on the back when compared to conventional steel tying methods. however, this study did not include direct measurement of trunk inclination. alternative tools for tying steel reinforcement are not yet in widespread use in the australian construction industry. thus, the current research involved a rigorous assessment of the impact of a three commercially available steel tying tools on the risk of work-related msds to steel fixers. research methods study design a single case controlled experimental design was utilised. such designs are ideally suited to evaluating the effects of interventions in work settings because they do not require large samples, nor do they rely on the random assignment of participants into treatment and control groups (which is not usually possible in a work setting) (kazdin, 2011). unlike an uncontrolled case study, in which outcomes are observed and recorded as they occur, single case experiments involve the use of replicable, reliable and valid measurements that are repeated continuously throughout the experiment. conditions and the timing of interventions are carefully controlled and measurements of variables of interest are compared between phases of the experiment (e.g. baseline conditions and one or more phases of an intervention). repeated testing provides multiple assessment points, which help to rule out alternative explanations of an observed effect in pre-and post-test experimental designs in which a single measurement point is utilised (kazdin, 2011). our study commenced with the baseline assessment of the steel fixing work task using a conventional pincer-cutter tool. the participant performed a minimum of 12 consecutive rebar tying repetitions at each of six work heights using the pincer-cutter tool. these work heights represent the height of the tool relative to the participant. they do not represent the participant’s hand height. the work heights were: (1) floor or ground level; (2) ankle to knee; the impact of tool selection on back and wrist injury risk in tying steel reinforcement bars: a single case experiment construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 20195 page number not for citation purposes (3) knee to hip; (4) hip to shoulder; (5) above shoulder; and, (6) directly overhead. operating at each height level was conducted in sequence, starting at ground level and moving up to the next level, finishing with the participant working directly overhead. once the measurements had been taken using the conventional pincer-cutter tool for the six work heights, the participant performed the same task using the power tying tool, and then the long handled stapler tool. in total this produced 18 distinct work conditions (3 tools x 6 work heights). continuous measurements (taken at high frequency) were compared between each tool and work height within a single case (the participant) to determine whether the alternative steel tying tools produced any significant benefits in reducing risky postures and movements in the trunk and wrist. data collection data was collected at a participating construction site engaged in the delivery of a major transport infrastructure program of work in melbourne, australia. the research team completed required training and induction sessions before visiting the construction site. the research was approved by the human research ethics committee of the researchers’ institution. data collection was conducted while the participant was tying steel inside a box-girder steel frame section being constructed in an area designated for the manufacture of pre-cast concrete components at the construction site. this allowed the measurement of body movement when tying steel at different work heights. data was collected in a single assessment session. however, the day and time of the assessment was not controlled by the research team but was determined by the principal contractor at the construction site. prior to recruiting participants, a plain language statement in english was read to workers and any questions were answered before they agreed to participate. participation was voluntary and participants were advised that they could withdraw at any point during the research process. table 1 placement and fixing of sensors segment location placement trunk/head head 1-2cm above eyebrows, on the midline shoulders on the upper border of the scapula, midway between the spine and shoulder joint sternum on the level of manubrium (t3-4) pelvis on top of the sacrum in the midline upper limb upper arms on the middle of the upper arm, on the lateral side of each arm forearms just above each wrist hands centre of the dorsum of each hand lower limb upper legs midline of the upper leg on the lateral side of each leg lower legs on the head of tibia on the medial side of each lower leg feet where the metatarsal bones meet phalangeal bones of each foot lingard, raj, lythgo, troynikov, fitzgerald construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 20196 page number not for citation purposes figure 1 positioning of the sensors initially two male steel fixers indicated that they were willing to participate in the study. preliminary testing revealed that one participant quickly adapted to the power tying tool and the long handled stapler tool, demonstrating a low error rate in comparison to the second participant. due to time constraints and limitations regarding site access, the single case experiment was conducted with the first participant only. at the time of the data collection the right-handed male participant was 27 years of age, 173 cm tall and had a body mass of 73 kg. data was collected using a portable, whole body system of lightweight wearable sensors (the xsens three-dimensional motion capture system (mvn biomech, xsens pty ltd, netherlands). increasingly, researchers advocate the use of objective direct measurement of whole-body movement to understand msd risk factors (yan, et al., 2017; brandt, et al., 2015). lightweight wearable sensors are capable of providing large quantities of highly accurate data on a range of msd risk exposure variables (inyang, et al., 2012). to date, whole body measurement systems have been used in a laboratory context (umer, et al. (2017), however, it is less common for such systems to be used in construction work settings. seventeen light-weight inertial sensors (length: 36 mm; width: 24.5 mm; height: 10 mm; mass: 10g) were attached to the participant. the positioning of the sensors is described in table 1 and shown in figure 1. the xsens motion capture system sampled at 240 hz and recorded the participant’s body posture and movement patterns continuously while performing the steel tying task using the three tools at each work height. the following data collection protocol was followed. step 1. the participant’s age, height, mass and body dimensions were recorded. step 2. the attachment of the sensors onto the participant occurred in two stages to inimise the need for the participant to completely undress down to their underwear. firstly, the xsens sensors were fitted to the participant’s trunk and upper body. these sensors were then fitted to their lower limbs. in total, seventeen xsens sensors were attached. nine of the sensors were attached to known body landmarks by using non-allergenic double-sided tape. eight of the sensors were attached by using velcro straps that went around a limb segment. the sensors were then connected by cables to a light-weight transmitter and battery pack worn on the participant’s waist. step 3. the participant put on the remainder of their personal protective equipment (ppe) required for the work task. this included a hard hat, protective glasses, gloves, orange coloured high visibility vest and steel-capped boots. the impact of tool selection on back and wrist injury risk in tying steel reinforcement bars: a single case experiment construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 20197 page number not for citation purposes step 4. the participant’s height, mass and body dimension data were then entered into the xsens software. the participant then stood in an anatomical position for about 1 minute whilst their posture was recorded by the xsens system. this is required for the xsens system to generate a full body model of the participant. step 5. the xsens and two high speed casio cameras (exlim, casio) were then synchronised by having the participant laterally raise (shoulder level) and lower the right arm (to the side of the trunk) three times. these actions were simultaneously recorded by the systems. step 6. upon completion of the participant and instrument setup, and after a 10 to 20 minute familiarisation period (walking about so as to become comfortable with the sensors placed on the body), the participant was asked to perform the designated work task. this involved completing steel fixing for about 30 to 60 minutes. step 7. upon completion of the work task, the sensors were removed. step 8. in total, the capture session lasted for approximately two to three hours (from preparation to removal of the sensors). data analysis before analysis, data was reviewed to check for magnetic interference or possible sensor movement. markers were inserted into each data file along the timeline of the captured work task to define the start and end of each task cycle for each of the different work heights. the participant performed a minimum of 12 repetitions of the tying task in a continuous sequence at each work height. periods of non-task related activity were also marked for exclusion from the analysis. these periods related to the operator preparing to move between work height levels figure 2 mean trunk inclination by tool and work height lingard, raj, lythgo, troynikov, fitzgerald construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 20198 page number not for citation purposes table 2 comparison of mean trunk inclination measurements by tool for each work height variable work height traditional pincercutter handheld power tying tool long handled stapler tool f-ratio p mean trunk inclination ground level 73.8 76.9 34.0 1386.07 < 0.001 ankle to knee 80.3 78.0 54.2 155.96 < 0.001 knee to hip 50.3 70.4 21.9 345.89 < 0.001 hip to shoulder 7.5 19.8 2.1 37.41 < 0.001 above shoulder -8.1 -3.6 -12.3 31.84 < 0.001 nb: positive values indicate forward flexion. negative values indicate backward flexion each marked file was exported and loaded into a matlab data processing software program developed by the research team. data processed in matlab was then exported into microsoft excel for further analysis. statistical analyses of the data were performed using the ibm spss statistical software package (version 23, spss inc., chicago, illinois). descriptive statistical analyses including means and standard deviation were calculated for the relevant movement variables. one-way repeated measures anovas were used. these tests assessed trunk and wrist motion across the three tools for each work height condition. anovas are employed instead of multiple t-tests when there are three or more conditions under which a dependent variable is measures, e.g. tool being used or working height (vincent, 2005). significant differences (p < 0.05) were further examined in post-hoc testing using pairwise comparisons with bonferroni adjustment. results trunk inclination trunk inclination data (trunk forward flexion and extension in the sagittal plane) was determined with reference to the positions of the t12 and s1 vertebrae. figure 2 shows the mean trunk inclination values for each of the three tools by work height. mean trunk inclination was highest when work was performed below hip level and frequently exceeded levels considered safe. for example, the iso consensus standard iso 11226:2000 describes acceptable trunk postures and maximum acceptable holding times for potentially harmful postures. in this standard, postures with trunk flexion greater than 60 degrees are not recommended. worksafe victoria’s manual handling code of practice identifies working with a trunk inclination greater than 20 degrees combined with undertaking a task for more than 2 hours over a whole shift, or continually for more than 30 minutes at a time, as a risk factor for work-related msds (worksafe victoria, 2000). the impact of tool selection on back and wrist injury risk in tying steel reinforcement bars: a single case experiment construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 20199 page number not for citation purposes figure 3 use of the conventional pincer-cutter (a), power tying tool (b) and long handled stapler tool (c) at ground level the three tools produced significantly different values for mean trunk inclination at all work heights (p < 0.05). work at ankle to knee height had the highest values for all three tools. work above the shoulder had the lowest mean trunk inclination values for all three tools (table 2). analysis of post hoc test data revealed mean trunk inclination scores differed significantly between the pincer-cutter tool and the long handled stapler tool for work undertaken at all work heights (p < 0.05). differences in trunk inclination when using the three tools at ground level are shown in figure 3. figure 4 use of the long handled stapler tool at ankle to knee level when used between ground and shoulder heights, use of the long handled stapler tool produced lower mean trunk inclination scores. however, when used above shoulder height, the long handled stapler tool involved higher extension (backward bending) of the trunk. mean trunk inclination scores were also significantly different between the power tying tool and the long handled stapler tool (p < 0.05). at all work heights the power tying tool produced higher mean trunk inclination scores than the stapler tool. at all work heights, except ankle to lingard, raj, lythgo, troynikov, fitzgerald construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201910 page number not for citation purposes knee, the power tying tool also produced significantly higher mean trunk inclination than the manual pincer-cutter tool (p < 0.05). when using the long handled stapler tool between ankle and knee level the participant needed to apply the tool at a 90-degree angle to the steel bars. this action involved the adoption of an awkward posture with an average maximum trunk inclination of 68.7 degrees (see figure 4). wrist movement the tools also produced different wrist movement results (table 3). table 3 peak right wrist movement values by work height for each tool variable work height traditional pincercutter hand-held power tying tool long handled stapler tool f-ratio p peak wrist flexion/ extension* ground level 31.1 -4.4 -15.0 324.92 < 0.001 ankle to knee 30.6 -1.6 -11.8 750.87 < 0.001 knee to hip 33.7 -2.4 -1.7 734.70 < 0.001 hip to shoulder 29.5 -3.8 7.7 359.25 < 0.001 above shoulder 14.7 -3.3 21.0 184.69 < 0.001 overhead -5.6 -5.1 2.7 11.60 < 0.001 peak wrist rotation** ground level 0.2 -6.8 -12.5 42.86 < 0.001 ankle to knee 6.2 5.1 -33.5 345.61 < 0.001 knee to hip 8.9 1.7 -22.7 265.03 < 0.001 hip to shoulder 21.2 0.1 -11.4 153.10 < 0.001 above shoulder 30.9 -2.5 -16.1 239.77 < 0.001 overhead 36.7 3.3 -5.2 503.79 < 0.001 *positive values indicate wrist flexion. negative values indicate wrist extension. ** positive values indicate wrist pronation. negative values indicate wrist supination. figure 5 shows peak wrist flexion/extension values by tool and work height. use of the conventional pincer-cutter tool involved potentially harmful levels of wrist flexion when working at heights up to shoulder level. the peak wrist flexion values across these work heights ranged from 29.5 to 33.7 degrees. worksafe victoria’s manual handling code of practice recommends that where the fingers are bent or applying higher forces (for example, gripping), flexion in excess of 15 degrees presents an elevated risk of injury when undertaking a task the impact of tool selection on back and wrist injury risk in tying steel reinforcement bars: a single case experiment construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201911 page number not for citation purposes for more than 2 hours over a whole shift, or continually for more than 30 minutes at a time (worksafe victoria, 2000). in comparison, the use of the power tying tool involved close to neutral wrist extension/flexion irrespective of the height of work (see figure 5). figure 5 peak right wrist flexion/extension by tool and work height analysis of post hoc test data revealed that peak flexion/extension scores for the right wrist differed significantly between the pincer-cutter tool and both of the alternative tools at all work heights except when working directly overhead (p < 0.05). when working directly overhead there was no significant difference between the wrist extension values for the pincercutter and the power tying tool. peak wrist flexion/extension also differed significantly (p < 0.05) between the long handled stapler tool and the other tools at all work heights, except when working between the knee and the hip when there was no significant difference between the stapler tool and the power tying tool. figure 6 shows average peak rotation (pronation or supination) values for the right wrist by power tool and work height. use of the power tying tool involved statistically significantly less wrist rotation than the other tools (p< 0.05). the pincer-cutter tool exhibited the greatest pronation whereas the long handled stapler tool exhibited the greatest supination of the right wrist. when using the long handled stapler tool, the participant’s wrist remained in a supinated posture. the conventional pincer-cutter tool demonstrated the largest range of right wrist rotation. at levels below hip height, the participant rotated between approximately 20 degrees of wrist pronation to slight supination. this range of rotation increased as the work moved to higher work heights with the level of supination increasing with each increase in level. analysis of post hoc test data revealed the power tying tool involved significantly lower levels of wrist rotation than the conventional pincer cutter tool at all work heights above knee level (p < 0.05). when being used at ground level, the power tying tool involved significantly greater right wrist rotation than the pincer cutter tool (p < 0.05). the difference in right wrist rotation between the pincer-cutter tool and the power tying tool was not significant when work was performed between the ankle and the knee. the power tying tool involved lingard, raj, lythgo, troynikov, fitzgerald construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201912 page number not for citation purposes significantly lower levels of right wrist rotation than the long handled stapler tool at all work heights (p < 0.05). the long handled stapler tool involved significantly less right wrist rotation than the conventional pincer-cutter tool when used at work heights below the hip (p < 0.05). however, when working above hip level, the right wrist rotation when using the pincer-cutter tool was significantly greater than when using the long handled stapler tool (p < 0.05). figure 6 peak right wrist rotation by tool and work height discussion risk factors and tool impacts the research builds on previous analyses of risk factors in two respects. first, we used a full body system of wearable sensors to capture objective direct measurements of the body movement of the workers in a workplace setting. second, we conducted a controlled analysis of steel tying work being performed at different work heights using three different tools. previous research has identified the lower back and hand/wrist as areas most likely to be affected by work-related msds in tying steel reinforcement bars (choi, 2010). our results indicate that steel tying is a heterogeneous activity with risk factors changing depending on the height at which work is performed (see, also, buchholz, et al., 2003). when tying work is performed below hip level, workers are required bend forward to reach down, involving potentially harmful repetitive or sustained trunk inclination over long periods of time. the results show that the use of a long handled stapler tool significantly reduces the amount of trunk inclination when working below the hip level. however, it is noteworthy that the mean trunk inclination values for the long handled stapler tool still exceeded 20 degrees, for work at ground level, from ankle to knee height and from knee to hip height. as such, they would still be classified as a risk factor for work-related msds if maintained for more than 2 hours over a whole shift, or continually for more than 30 minutes at a time (worksafe victoria, 2000). also, when used from ankle to knee height, the positioning of the long handled stapler tool required greater trunk inclination than when used at ground level as the tool needed to be applied at approximately 90 degrees to the reinforcement bars to be fixed. the impact of tool selection on back and wrist injury risk in tying steel reinforcement bars: a single case experiment construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201913 page number not for citation purposes it should also be noted that tying steel above shoulder height required the participant to bend backwards, particularly when using the long handled stapler tool. the difference between the backward bending involved in the three tools was also significant when working above shoulder height. compared to the conventional pincer cutter tool, the power tying tool required significantly greater trunk inclination when used at all work heights except between the ankle and the knee. thus, the power tying tool appears to increase work-related msd risk to the back. in contrast, the power tying tool was associated with significantly reduced movement of the right wrist. the power tying tool involved low levels of wrist flexion/extension and rotation. in comparison, the conventional pincer-cutter tool involved significantly greater levels of wrist movement than the power tying tool at all work heights, except when work was being performed directly overhead. the conventional pincer-cutter tool also involved steadily increasing wrist pronation as the work height increased from ground level to work overhead. implications for tool selection and design researchers and ergonomists have recommended the development of trade-specific tools to reduce the risk of work-related msds in the construction industry (rinder, et al., 2008; li, 2002). however, our analysis suggests that there may not be a ‘one size fits all’ solution to tool selection. the two alternative tools considered in our analysis improved different risk factors for work-related msds, but only under certain conditions. the long handled stapler tool significantly reduced trunk inclination, while the power tying tool reduced potentially harmful wrist movements. the long handled stapler tool also performed differently, in terms of its impact on trunk inclination and wrist movement, depending on the height of work that was being performed. the results suggest that the benefits of using a long handled tool are limited to tying steel at ground level, and that the potential to use a power tying mechanism in a long handled tool could reduce the risks of back and wrist injury in some circumstances. although they are commercially available, the types of tool that we assessed are not widely used in the australian construction industry. glimskär and lundberg (2013) observe that, even when developed and offered to market, the take-up and use of ergonomically designed construction tools is low. researchers observe that the construction industry is not conducive to adopting new ideas or ways of working (kramer, et al., 2009). van der molen, et al. (2005) attribute this to the way that work is organised, in particular the reliance on temporary employment and multi-level contracting. kramer, et al. (2010) similarly argue that the adoption of new ways of working that reduce work-related msd risk in construction will not be straightforward and will be influenced by many factors. the adoption of innovation can fail at many different levels, including at the industry level, the organisation level, the project level and at the level of the innovation itself (kramer, et al., 2010). researchers have noted that the primary reason that decision-makers adopt new tools or work methods is unlikely to lie in their potential to reduce the risk of injury (van der molen, sluiter and frings-dresen, 2005). as such, the potential for ergonomically designed tools to positively impact production efficiency and work quality should also be examined (boatman, et al., 2015; weinstein, et al., 2007). future research should focus more attention on understanding how, why and by whom ergonomic measures are implemented in practice in the construction context. lingard, raj, lythgo, troynikov, fitzgerald construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201914 page number not for citation purposes our results also suggest that, although ergonomic tools can make a positive difference in reducing the risk of work-related msds in steel fixing, further improvements in design and performance should be pursued. integration into construction design and planning boatman, et al. (2015) suggest that the principles of ergonomics should be integrated into all phases of construction (e.g. bidding, engineering, pre-planning, purchasing, materials handling, job site management, training of supervisors and workers). consideration of work height, methods of steel fixing and suitability of tools should be considered in the design and planning of work. in some instances, the need to work at ground level or overhead may be eliminated through careful work process design. opportunities to improve workplace ergonomics and reduce biomechanical risk factors may be identified through the use of three-dimensional virtual visualisation of the construction work environment (golabchi, et al., 2015). li, et al. (2017) have developed and tested three-dimensional skeletal modelling tools that imitate body movement in construction process visualisation activities. such approaches, if further developed and validated, could enable evidence-informed ergonomic assessments and risk reduction decisions to be made at the construction design and planning stages. conclusions field-based biomechanical measurement of risk factors for work-related msds in tying steel reinforcement bars revealed that work at different heights involves different levels of risk to the wrist and back. the use of tools specifically designed for the work task can significantly reduce risk factors, including trunk inclination, wrist flexion/extension and rotation. however, the tools perform differently at different work heights. no tool was perfect for all situations. a long handled stapler tool significantly reduced trunk inclination when working below hip height, while a power tying tool reduced potentially harmful wrist movement but increased trunk inclination compared to a conventional pincer-cutter tool. the results provide new evidence relating to the impact of these tools when used at different heights relative to conventional methods of tying steel. the data also identifies opportunities for tool improvement and further design. for example, the attachment of a long handle on a power tying tool could reduce potentially harmful trunk as well as wrist movement. the availability of light weight whole body systems of wearable sensors enables the measurement of biomechanical risk factors in the construction context. this has the potential to provide access to large sets of objective and reliable data upon which to base the assessment and evaluation of ergonomically designed tools. it also overcomes problems associated with replicating construction site conditions in a laboratory setting, which is inherently challenging. limitations and future research our study was limited in a number of respects. firstly, due to site access constraints, we were only able to collect data from a single participant. while single case experimental designs compare data within cases (or participants) rather than between them and do not require large sample sizes, the study would have been strengthened by repetition with other participants. it is possible that results when tying steel at ground level or directly overhead are potentially affected by an individual worker’s height. however, the other working heights are relative to the impact of tool selection on back and wrist injury risk in tying steel reinforcement bars: a single case experiment construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201915 page number not for citation purposes worker’s body, i.e. between the ankle and the knee, between the knee and the hip etc. these are not likely to be affected by height. notwithstanding this, further data collection and analysis among workers of different body sizes and builds is recommended. if the findings were replicated, this would add to the body of evidence relating to the performance of the tools at different work heights. the timing of our data collection was also based on convenience sampling and reliant upon opportunities to observe steel tying in the context of the construction of a box girder bridge deck section. this allowed us to control the experimental conditions in relation to work height. however, it does not reflect the wide variety of different worksite conditions or steel tying scenarios. thus, no claims to generalizability are made and we recommend that further research be conducted to determine if our findings are replicated in other settings. similar considerations have been recognized by other researchers, for example, karsh et al. (2001) who suggest that, although randomised controlled trials are considered the ‘gold standard’ for experimental research, most field intervention studies are unable to use such designs in a ‘real world’ workplace setting. single case experiment designs are an acceptable and internally valid alternative to randomised controlled trials (kazdin, 2011). neither did our research investigate the impact of the ergonomic tools on production speed or quality. in considering the likely barriers to, or factors facilitating the uptake of ergonomic tools, we recommend that future research examines these factors. references albers, j.t. and hudock, s.d., 2007. biomechanical assessment of three rebar tying techniques. international journal of occupational safety and ergonomics, 13(3), pp.279-89. https://doi.org/10.1080/108 03548.2007.11076728 arndt, v., rothenbacher, d., daniel, u., zschenderlein, b., schuberth, s. and brenner, h., 2005. construction work and risk of occupational disability: a ten year follow up of 14 474 male workers. occupational and environmental medicine, 62(8), pp.559-66. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/oem.2004.018135. australian safety and compensation council, 2006. work-related musculoskeletal disease in australia. canberra: australian government. boatman, l., chaplan, d., teran, s. and welch, l.s., 2015. creating a climate for ergonomic changes in the construction industry. american journal of industrial medicine, 58(8), pp.858-69. https://doi. org/10.1002/ajim.22499. boschman, j.s., van der molen, h.f., sluiter, j.k. and frings-dresen, m.h.w., 2012. musculoskeletal disorders among construction workers: a one-year follow-up study. bmc musculoskeletal disorders, 13(1), p.1. https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2474-13-196 brandt, m., madeleine, p., ajslev, j.z.n., jakobsen, m.d., samani, a., sundstrup, e., kines, p. and andersen, l.l., 2015. participatory intervention with objectively measured physical risk factors for musculoskeletal disorders in the construction industry: study protocol for a cluster randomized controlled trial. bmc musculoskeletal disorders, 16(1), p.302. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-015-0758-0. buchholz, b., paquet, v., wellman, h. and forde, m., 2003. quantification of ergonomic hazards for ironworkers performing concrete reinforcement tasks during heavy highway construction. aiha journal, 64(2), pp.243-50. lingard, raj, lythgo, troynikov, fitzgerald construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201916 page number not for citation purposes https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2007.11076728 https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2007.11076728 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/oem.2004.018135 https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.22499 https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.22499 https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2474-13-196 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12891-015-0758-0 buchholz, b., paquet, v., punnett, l., lee, d. and moir, s., 1996. path: a work sampling-based approach to ergonomic job analysis for construction and other non-repetitive work. applied ergonomics, 27(3), pp.177-87. https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-6870(95)00078-x. choi, s.d., 2010. ergonomic assessment of musculoskeletal discomfort of iron workers in highway construction. work, 36(1), pp.47-53. doi: https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-2010-1006 choi, s.d., 2009. safety and ergonomic considerations for an aging workforce in the us construction industry. work, 33(3), pp.307-15. doi: https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-2009-0878. dababneh, a.j. and waters, t.r., 2000. ergonomics of rebar tying. applied occupational and environmental hygiene, 15(10), pp.721-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/10473220050129329 faber, g., visser, s., van der molen, h.f., kuijer, p.p.f.m., hoozemans, m.j., van dieën, j.h. and frings-dresen, m.h., 2012. does team lifting increase the variability in peak lumbar compression in ironworkers? work, 41(supplement 1), pp.4171-73. doi: https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-2012-07144171. forde, m.s., punnett, l. and wegman, d.h., 2005. prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in union ironworkers. journal of occupational and environmental hygiene, 2(4), pp.203-12. https://doi. org/10.1080/15459620590929635 glimskär, b. and lundberg, s., 2013. barriers to adoption of ergonomic innovations in the construction industry. ergonomics in design, 21(4), pp.26-30. https://doi.org/10.1177/1064804613488890. golabchi, a., han, s.h., seo, j.o., han, s.u., lee, s.h. and al-hussein, m., 2015, an automated biomechanical simulation approach to ergonomic job analysis for workplace design. journal of construction engineering and management, 141(8), pp.1–12. hannerz, h., spangenberg, s., tüchsen, f. and albertsen, k., 2005. disability retirement among former employees at the construction of the great belt link. public health, 119(4), pp.301-04. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.puhe.2004.07.007. hartmann, b. and fleischer, a.g., 2005. physical load exposure at construction sites. scandinavian journal of work, environment and health, 31 (supplement 2), pp.88-95. https://www.jstor.org/ stable/40967468. international organization for standardization., 2000. ergonomics—evaluation of static working postures (standard no. iso 11226:2000). geneva, switzerland. inyang, n., al-hussein, m., el-rich, m. and al-jibouri, s., 2012. ergonomic analysis and the need for its integration for planning and assessing construction tasks. journal of construction engineering and management, 138(12), pp.1370-76. karsh, b. t., moro, f. b., and smith, m. j. (2001). the efficacy of workplace ergonomic interventions to control musculoskeletal disorders: a critical analysis of the peer-reviewed literature. theoretical issues in ergonomics science, 2(1), pp. 23-96. kazdin, a.e., 2011. single case research designs. 2nd ed. new york: oxford university press. kramer, d., bigelow, p., vi, p., garritano, e., carlan, n. and wells, r., 2009. spreading good ideas: a case study of the adoption of an innovation in the construction sector. applied ergonomics, 40(5), pp.82632. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2008.09.006. the impact of tool selection on back and wrist injury risk in tying steel reinforcement bars: a single case experiment construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201917 page number not for citation purposes https://doi.org/10.1016/0003-6870(95)00078-x https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-2010-1006 https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-2009-0878 https://doi.org/10.1080/10473220050129329 https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-2012-0714-4171 https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-2012-0714-4171 https://doi.org/10.1080/15459620590929635 https://doi.org/10.1080/15459620590929635 https://doi.org/10.1177%2f1064804613488890 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2004.07.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2004.07.007 https://www.jstor.org/stable/40967468 https://www.jstor.org/stable/40967468 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2008.09.006 kramer, d.m., bigelow, p.l., carlan, n., wells, r.p., garritano, e., vi, p. and plawinski, m., 2010. searching for needles in a haystack: identifying innovations to prevent msds in the construction sector. applied ergonomics, 41(4), pp.577-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2009.12.003. latza, u., karmaus, w., stürmer, t., steiner, m., neth, a. and rehder, u., 2000. cohort study of occupational risk factors of low back pain in construction workers. occupational and environmental medicine, 57(1), pp.28-34. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/oem.57.1.28. li, k.w., 2002. ergonomic design and evaluation of wire-tying hand tools. international journal of industrial ergonomics, 30(3), pp.149-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0169-8141(02)00097-5 li, x., han, s., gül, m., al-hussein, m. and el-rich, m., 2017. 3d visualization-based ergonomic risk assessment and work modification framework and its validation for a lifting task. journal of construction engineering and management, 144(1), https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001412 mital, a. and kilbom, a., 1992. design, selection and use of hand tools to alleviate trauma of the upper extremities: part ii — the scientific basis (knowledge base) for the guide. international journal of industrial ergonomics, 10(1), pp.7-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/0169-8141(92)90043-y niskanen, t., 1985, accidents and minor accidents of the musculoskeletal system in heavy (concrete reinforcement work) and light (painting) construction work. journal of occupational accidents, 7, pp.17-32. occupational safety and health administration, 2008. guidelines for shipyards ergonomics for the prevention of musculoskeletal disorders. washington dc: united states department of labor occupational safety and health administration. paquet, v., punnett, l., woskie, s. and buchholz, b., 2005. reliable exposure assessment strategies for physical ergonomics stressors in construction and other non-routinized work. ergonomics, 48(9), pp.1200-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/00140130500197302 rinder, m.m., genaidy, a., salem, s., shell, r. and karwowski, w., 2008. interventions in the construction industry: a systematic review and critical appraisal. human factors and ergonomics in manufacturing & service industries, 18(2), pp.212-29. https://doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20109. safe work australia, 2012. australian work health and safety strategy 2012-2022. canberra: safe work australia. safe work australia, 2017, construction industry profile. canberra: safe work australia. schneider, s.p., 2001. musculoskeletal injuries in construction: a review of the literature. applied occupational and environmental hygiene, 16(11), pp.1056-64. https://doi. org/10.1080/104732201753214161 tak, s., buchholz, b., punnett, l., moir, s., paquet, v., fulmer, s., marucci-wellman, h. and wegman, d., 2011. physical ergonomic hazards in highway tunnel construction: overview from the construction occupational health program. applied ergonomics, 42(5), pp.665-71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. apergo.2010.10.001. umer, w., li, h., szeto, g.p.y. and wong, a.y.l., 2017. identification of biomechanical risk factors for the development of lower-back disorders during manual rebar tying. journal of construction engineering and management, 143(1), https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001208 van der molen, h.f., koningsveld, e., haslam, r. and gibb, a., 2005. editorial. ergonomics in building and construction: time for implementation. applied ergonomics 36(4), pp.387–89. http://dx.doi. org/10.1016/j.apergo.2005.01.003. lingard, raj, lythgo, troynikov, fitzgerald construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201918 page number not for citation purposes https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2009.12.003 http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/oem.57.1.28 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0169-8141(02)00097-5 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001412 https://doi.org/10.1016/0169-8141(92)90043-y https://doi.org/10.1080/00140130500197302 https://doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20109 https://doi.org/10.1080/104732201753214161 https://doi.org/10.1080/104732201753214161 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2010.10.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2010.10.001 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001208 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2005.01.003 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2005.01.003 van der molen, h.f., sluiter, j.k., and frings-dresen, m.h.w., 2005. behavioral change phases of different stakeholders involved in the implementation process of ergonomics measures in bricklaying. applied ergonomics 36(4), pp.449–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2004.07.004 van der molen, h.f., visser, s., kuijer, p.p.f.m., faber, g., hoozemans, m.j., van dieën, j.h., and frings-dresen, m.h., 2012. the evaluation of team lifting on physical work demands and workload in ironworkers. work, 41(supplement 1), pp.3771-73. https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-2012-0003-3771. vi, p., 2003. reducing risk of musculoskeletal disorders through the use of rebar-tying machines. applied occupational and environmental hygiene, 18(9), pp.649-54. https://doi.org/10.1080/10473220301374 vincent, j.w., 2005. statistics in kinesiology. champaign, illinois: human kinetics. wang, d., dai, f. and ning, x., 2015. risk assessment of work-related musculoskeletal disorders in construction: state-of-the-art review. journal of construction engineering and management, 141(6). doi: https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000979 weinstein, m.g., hecker, s.f., hess, j.a. and kincl, l., 2007. a roadmap to diffuse ergonomic innovations in the construction industry: there is nothing so practical as a good theory. international journal of occupational and environmental health, 13(1), pp.46-55. https://doi. org/10.1179/107735207800245054 welch, l.s., 2009. improving work ability in construction workers–let’s get to work. scandinavian journal of work, environment & health, 35(5), pp.321-24. welch, l., haile, e., boden, l.i., and hunting, k.l., 2009. musculoskeletal disorders among construction roofers—physical function and disability. scandinavian journal of work, environment & health, 35(1), pp.56-63. wong, d.p., chung, j.w., chan, a.p., wong, f.k. and yi, w., 2014. comparing the physiological and perceptual responses of construction workers (bar benders and bar fixers) in a hot environment. applied ergonomics, 45(6), pp.1705-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2014.06.002. worksafe victoria, 2000. code of practice for manual handling. melbourne: victorian workcover authority. yan, x., li, h., li, a.r. and zhang, h., 2017. wearable imu-based real-time motion warning system for construction workers’ musculoskeletal disorders prevention. automation in construction, 74, pp.2-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2016.11.007. the impact of tool selection on back and wrist injury risk in tying steel reinforcement bars: a single case experiment construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201919 page number not for citation purposes https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2004.07.004 https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-2012-0003-3771 https://doi.org/10.1080/10473220301374 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000979 https://doi.org/10.1179/107735207800245054 https://doi.org/10.1179/107735207800245054 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2014.06.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2016.11.007 construction economics and building vol. 18, no. 3 september 2018 © 2018 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: yusof, n., ishak, s. s. m. and doheim, r. 2018. identifying factors for incorporating spatial data into bim using the delphi method. construction economics and building, 18:3, 1-17. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v18i3.6031 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | ajceb.epress. lib.uts.edu.au research article identifying factors for incorporating spatial data into bim using the delphi method nor’aini yusof1*, siti salwa mohd ishak2, rahma doheim3 1 universiti sains malaysia 11800 penang, malaysia . ynoraini@usm.my 2 universiti sains malaysia 11800 penang, malaysia. salwaishak@usm.my 3 effat university, p.o. box 34689, jeddah 21478, kingdom of saudi arabia. rdoheim@effatuniversity.edu.sa *corresponding author: nor’aini yusof, school of housing, building and planning, universiti sains malaysia 11800 penang, malaysia. ynoraini@usm.my doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i3.6031 article history: received 14/04/2018; revised 14/07/2018; accepted 29/07/2018; published 03/10/2018 abstract construction industry players are now realising the need to implement building information modeling (bim) at the preconstruction planning stage to allow spatial data of the site to be incorporated into bim. incorporating spatial data in bim as early as possible in the building lifecycle poses a new challenge to industry players, particularly to the consultants who collect and provide these data. the aim of this study is to identify important factors through a consensus opinion of industry experts for incorporating spatial data into bim at the preconstruction planning stage. three rounds of the delphi method were employed to obtain a consensus among twenty construction industry experts, selected through purposeful sampling. the findings revealed seven consolidated factors, with technology, client demand, and added value as the top three, followed by regulations, skilled staff, management commitment and data management. experts were significantly in agreement with each other, as indicated by the kendall’s w coefficient (= 0.6505) significant at < 0.005. the findings highlight the requirements for utilising spatial data in bim at the preconstruction planning stage and help the respective professional bodies to identify the prerequisites for bim application and subsequently, improve the existing training for the professional development of their members. keywords spatial data; building information modeling; preconstruction planning; delphi method; construction industry declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 1 introduction the construction industry is challenged to adopt building information modeling (bim) to improve its performance and to achieve sustainability in the industry (arayici et al., 2011). also known as n-dimensional (n-d) modeling or virtual prototyping technology (azhar et al., 2015), bim refers to a digital presentation that integrates various sets processes, technologies and players in a building or facility lifecycle, aimed at increasing productivity and improving performance (thomson, 2016, liao et al., 2017). the visualisation in a 3d model under bim improves understanding of the proposed project (liao et al., 2017). practitioners are now realising the need to implement bim as early as possible to allow the spatial data of the site where the building or facility is going to be constructed to be utilised and incorporated into bim. clearly, the building lifecycle starts with preconstruction planning, followed by the design stage (karan et al., 2015). examples of spatial data collected during surveying work are data on topography, terrain and site obstacles for neighbouring buildings, overhead powerlines, and underground pipelines. these data, which are absent in the current bim models, are valuable for determining the position of a building or facility on the site, the building height, width and length, and the main building materials of the external structures (peckiene and ustinovičius, 2017, ma and ren, 2017). in fact, if spatial data is included into bim, it will permit architects to utilise the climatic data at the design stage, for incorporating natural ventilation (hjelseth and thiis, 2008), natural lighting (vijay k. bansal, 2009) and projections of energy demand in their designs (strzalka et al., 2011).by generating spatial data that are compatible with bim, incorrect interpretations of survey data during the design phase can be reduced (chris houghton et al., 2013). also, the integration of spatial data and bim can help in site planning for temporary structures, which could reduce accidents on construction sites (kumar and cheng, 2015). when applied at the earliest stage of the building lifecycle, bim can address the problems of delay, cost escalation, construction site safety and disputes among project members (azhar et al., 2015). the discussion thus far underscores the importance of incorporating spatial data into bim at the preconstruction planning stage. despite an increase in research interest in bim, very little is devoted to incorporating spatial data into bim technology during the preconstruction planning stage. most published research on bim focuses on its application along the construction supply chain (clark and gray, 2014, baik, 2017), the advantages of bim (ralf becker, 2018, chong et al., 2017), the drivers and barriers to general bim application (oo, 2014, yaakob et al., 2016), the development of bim tools (santos et al., 2017), the narrow application of bim, such as in heritage buildings (baik, 2017), facilities management (kasprzak and dubler, 2015), costing or 5d bim (stanley and thurnell, 2014), formwork design (singh et al., 2017) and on simulation studies using bim information (santos et al., 2017). in other words, there is a lack of research on bim application at the preconstruction planning stage and on the incorporation of spatial data into bim. there are several softwares available for bim application such as tekla, navisworks, and autodesk revit, to name a few. the industry foundation classes (ifc) in bim which provide details on building components, elements, materials and their interrelationships, were established to ensure interoperability (amirebrahimi et al., 2016). spatial data added to a building information model can provide a detailed description of the building and site where the building is located (karan et al., 2015). however, some of the spatial data could not be incorporated into bim (kim et al., 2014). this applies to the 2d maps or digital maps that yusof, ishak and doheim construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 20182 have a geographic reference system, i.e., latitude, longitude and elevation coordinates of an object. to address the complexity, factors for successful inclusion of spatial data into bim should be investigated. as with the adoption of any innovation or new technology, previous studies have established that construction firms face a host of difficulties due to limitations such as the unique social, economic and technological contexts of developing countries (bui et al., 2016). adoption of new technology or processes remains challenging in the construction industry (nor’aini yusof, 2017), which is known to be lagging behind in adopting new ideas, technologies and processes. therefore, it would not be surprising if bim technology received a slow response from the industry players (rogers et al., 2015, liao et al., 2017). at the same time, innovations in the construction industry are not all the same, and each innovation has different influencing factors and outcomes (lai et al., 2016). kamal et al. (2016) showed that some firm characteristics have different impacts on a firm’s adoption of innovation. in peru, for example, migration from traditional tools to bim-compatible models was not an easy task because the players, including clients, architects, key suppliers, and constructors, were not ready for a high level of coordination and synergy (murguia et al., 2017). thus, previous research points to an important area of investigation, which is the need for incorporating spatial data into bim, which the present study seeks to address. the main objective of this study is to obtain agreement among construction industry experts on the factors that are seen as important by the experts for successful inclusion of spatial data into bim at the preconstruction planning stage. at the end of the paper, a framework that consists of consensus factors for bim-spatial will be proposed. the study contributes to our knowledge in two ways: first, in terms of theoretical contribution, the findings will provide further understanding of the potentials of bim, particularly by advancing clark and gray (2014) and park and kim (2016) work by identifying additional factors besides the technology factor, through consensus opinion of the industry experts, that are prerequisite to extend bim beyond its current usage to cover the preconstruction planning stage, and second, in terms of practical contribution, the findings will provide helpful guide to construction industry players who are involved at the preconstruction planning stage of how to prepare themselves to enable bim application. literature review introduced by professor charles m. eastman in 1970, the first application of bim was in the usa in 2000 (latiffi et al., 2013). the original focus of bim was at the planning and design phase, intended for modeling physical aspects of buildings. later on, bim progressed from 3d to 4d and 5d modeling to incorporate the scheduling and costing of the construction process (clark and gray, 2014; stanley and thurnell, 2014). bim application is not only for new buildings, but can also be expanded for existing buildings such as to retrofit them for sustainability – using bim as a tool to achieve thermal comfort, the overall well-being of occupants, and to address the issues of carbon footprint and waste generation in existing buildings (backes et al., 2014). bim was later expanded to 6d and 7d modeling for sustainability and operations-maintenance, respectively (oo, 2014), and, in fact, attempts have been made to identify how bim can be applied to integrate and achieve all three sustainable pillars-social, economic and environmental sustainability (chong et al., 2017). due to bim’s benefits of improving efficiency and productivity, it has been widely used in developed countries such as the usa, australia, hong kong, denmark, norway, finland and singapore (latiffi et al., 2016). identifying factors for incorporating spatial data into bim using the delphi method construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 20183 in most developing countries, bim application is still in the early stages (ishak, 2017, latiffi et al., 2016; murguia et al., 2017). in malaysia, where the current study is carried out, the idea to implement bim was first mooted in 2007 by the department of public works (pwd), and in 2013, the pwd launched the bim roadmap (keat, 2013). bim application can be seen in the integration of digital models with geometric and parametric information, where autodesk is used as bim’s platform software (ashhar, 2017). areas of bim application are project visualisation, refining project design, identifying design collision, quantity take-off, post-occupancy and maintenance (rogers et al., 2015). at the moment, bim implementation in malaysia does not cover the preconstruction planning stage, and the consultants who are responsible for collecting spatial data (i.e., land surveyors, site engineers, geologists) are not included in the bim committee (adimin and rashid, 2016). incorporating spatial data in bim at the preconstruction planning stage poses a new challenge to consultants who collect and provide these data, that is, the surveyors and geospatial consultants. these consultants need to acquire new knowledge and skills beyond their traditional core areas (yeong and ragananthini, 2017; landpoint, nd), in other words, the use of computer-aided design (cad) is no longer sufficient. a new authoring software survey information model that is able to create digital terrain models (dtms), triangulated irregular networks strings and point clouds is now used to allow survey data to be imported into bim (chris houghton et al., 2013). however, experience from developed countries revealed that mismatch issues still exist and hamper the migration process (chris houghton et al., 2013). as previously mentioned, some studies have attempted to address the integration between spatial data and the bim issue, but these studies have limited their focus on a specific topic: bim and geographic information system (gis) integration. examples of these bimgis studies are ma and ren (2017) who proposed four items, namely, application object, application phase, integrated pattern and platform, while park and kim (2016) stressed on technology advancement to overcome the rigid requirements of bim application. liu et al. (2017), on the other hand, suggested that surveying consultants adopt a change towards more flexible and cooperative attitudes. apart from gis, it should be noted that spatial data also exist in other systems, such as cad and computer-aided mapping (cam), where the requirements may differ. this gap points out the need for another study to investigate the factors for successful integration of spatial data into bim. a host of other studies identified factors for general bim or new technology adoption. four readiness criteria, namely, process, management, technology, and people readiness were identified for bim adoption at the design stage (haron, 2013). organisational factors such as organisational culture, forward planning, and economic factors including the cost of software and hardware were identified as important for their role in persuading firms to embrace bim (lee and yu, 2017). free, easy-to-learn, flexible and up-to-date tools were seen to encourage unsophisticated users to embrace new technologies (nilsiam and pearce, 2017, mele and poli, 2017). technological support refers to the existence of a common data environment and effective data sharing tools among the bim team members, made available by a technology provider or research institute can facilitate adoption of the new technology (alreshidi et al., 2017, liao et al., 2017). in contrast, the inability of the current technology used by industry players to keep pace with the advancement of new technology has been cited as the reason for slow advancement from old to new technology (alshammari et al., 2018). legal support and incentives from the government were identified as necessary factors to encourage industry players to adopt a new technology (yusof et al., 2010; yusof et al., 2012). legal support refers yusof, ishak and doheim construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 20184 to the legal protection that the players may receive concerning the issues of data ownership, intellectual property rights and miscommunication (alreshidi et al., 2017). other legal issues, such as data credibility and the liability for inaccurate data, should also be addressed to encourage adoption of new technology ( juhász et al., 2016). government incentives can be defined as the additional help from the government in the form of financial incentives to create a favorable environment for adopting the new technology (yusof et al., 2012). pressure from stakeholders resulting from increased awareness about the importance and benefits of the new technology may affect readiness to adopt bim (rogers et al., 2015). although valuable in their own right, these findings revealed the general factors that influence the application of new technology application along the building lifecycle stages. however, these findings are unable to provide feasible guidance for incorporating spatial data into bim. in order to work towards this latter goal, as a first step, those factors that will enable spatial data to be included in bim technology should be first identified. at the moment, there is no agreement among scholars about those factors; therefore, it is crucial to seek consensus from industry experts on which factors are prerequisite for incorporating spatial data into bim. next, the methodology of the study will be elaborated. methodology the study employed qualitative research methodology, i.e., expert interviews were conducted using the delphi method to obtain consensus from a panel of construction industry experts in malaysia through several rounds of interview sessions. the data were analysed using content analysis and descriptive statistics. the delphi method was employed for the following reasons: (a) there is a lack of studies that have identified the factors necessary for the successful integration of spatial data into bim at the preconstruction planning stage in developing countries; (b) the required information and knowledge can be obtained from the industry experts; (c) the delphi method allows industry experts to introduce new factors that are relevant to the study; (d) the delphi method allows the primary purpose of our study to be examined in detail; and (e) a collective decision made by several individuals who were selected by the delphi method is less likely to be wrong compared to a decision made by a single individual (hasson et al., 2000, livesey, 2016). an individual deemed to be an expert is generally considered to be more experienced, more proficient, and more significant in the work environment (okoli and pawlowski, 2004). since the aim of this study is to seek consensus on factors for incorporating spatial data into bim at the preconstruction planning stage from individuals with specific experience and knowledge, purposive sampling was used to select the individuals that will serve as the delphi panel of experts. the experts must have a minimum of 5 years of working experience in the construction industry, must be currently working in a construction-related organisation and should reflect a high level of knowledge and working experience of the study context. to ensure a balanced view, representatives of construction professionals from public and private clients, consulting firms (architectural, engineering, quantity surveying, land surveyors, property management) and contractors were selected. twenty-five industry experts were contacted by e-mail to obtain their agreement to participate in the study. twenty-two experts agreed to participate, but only twenty experts participated in all three rounds of the interview sessions. two experts who had initially agreed to participate did not reply to several attempts to arrange for the first-round face to face interview and hence were excluded from the delphi method. identifying factors for incorporating spatial data into bim using the delphi method construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 20185 following the suggestion by xia and chan (2012), three rounds of interview were conducted separately with each expert; round 1 the exploration and identification process, round 2 the narrowing down or categorising process, and round 3 the ranking process. the results of each round were fed into the subsequent round, ensuring that decisions were made through the informed consensus of industry experts. figure 1 depicts the study’s process of data collection using the delphi method. figure 1 the study’s process of data collection using the delphi method the first round of interviews was conducted face-to-face at a place and time convenient for the experts. the reasons for conducting the first round interviews face-to-face were to explain the aim of the study, to collect in-depth information about the variables proposed by the experts, and to gain their trust so that they would participate in the subsequent rounds. on average, each interview took 20 minutes. the second round of the delphi method conducted via two rounds of e-mails requested the experts to categorise eighteen variables identified in the previous round into smaller categories identified by the experts themselves. the first round of emails resulted in nine factors. subsequently, the second round of emails was sent to obtain at least 95% consensus among the experts, and this resulted in the final seven agreed upon consolidated factors. the third round of the delphi method was conducted via an online survey where the experts were asked to rank the seven consolidated factors from 1= not at all important to 7= extremely important. the whole process of the delphi method took ten weeks to complete. content analysis was used to analyse the interview data obtained in the first round and descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data received in the third round. the outcome was a consensus of factors that are important for successful inclusion of spatial data in bim. results twenty experts participated in the three rounds of the delphi method. forty percent of the experts were consultants (three were architects, two were land surveyors and one each was yusof, ishak and doheim construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 20186 engineer, quantity surveyor and maintenance manager), 25% were private developers, 20% were government departments and 15% were contractors. twenty percent of the experts had more than 15 years of experience in the industry, 45% had between 10 to 15 years of experience, and 35% had between 5 to 9 years of experience. forty-five percent of the experts were bim users with bim experience ranging from 4 to 8 years. table 1 depicts the profile of the experts who participated in the delphi method. table 1 respondent profiles expert id type of firm position experience (yrs) bim user? bim experience (yrs) e1 contractor managing director 12 no e2 government department general manager 18 no e3 government department project manager 15 yes 5 e4 private property developer owner 20 no e5 consultant architect 11 yes 7 e6 consultant land surveyor 25 no e7 consultant land surveyor 21 no e8 private property developer project manager 12 no e9 consultant architect 7 yes 8 e10 contractor engineer 10 yes 4 e11 consultant engineer 13 yes 5 e12 private property developer director 8 no e13 government department deputy chief division 12 yes 8 e14 consultant quantity surveyor 8 yes 4 e15 government department maintenance manager 9 yes 4 e16 private property developer project manager 6 no e17 consultant architect 8 yes 6 e18 private property developer managing director 13 no e19 contractor engineer 10 no e20 consultant property maintenance manager 7 no round 1 was the exploration and identification process, where the experts were asked to identify the general factors that can help the integration between spatial data and bim. the experts were free to identify any variables based on their knowledge and experience. identifying factors for incorporating spatial data into bim using the delphi method construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 20187 the interview data were analysed using content analysis. since existing literature on the subject matter is limited, a predetermined coding scheme was not used. the interview data were transcribed verbatim and read repeatedly for familiarisation. then each transcript was scrutinised to identify variables that portray factors that were important for inclusion of spatial data in bim and these variables were highlighted. the intention was to pick and gather the actual variables from the transcripts. the ‘find’ feature in the word document was used to identify similar variables in the transcripts of subsequent experts. in addition, new variables were added if they did not fit with the existing variables. the process was repeated until no new variable could be found. figure 2 depicts the content analysis process. the outcome of the content analysis was a list of variables proposed by the experts and their frequencies (table 2). figure 2 the content analysis process as previously mentioned, the study focuses on obtaining consensus from the experts rather than individual opinions. therefore, as suggested by chan et al. (2001) and supported by okoli et al. (2004) and xia and chan (2012), only the variables that were proposed by a minimum of 50% of the experts were retained and considered for the subsequent round. eighteen variables that obtained more than 50% suggestions were identified. five other variables tax reduction, bim champion by construction industry development board (cidb), public projects lead, role of professional body, and research and development were omitted because they obtained less than 50% suggestions. table 2 presents the results of round 1. yusof, ishak and doheim construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 20188 table 2 result of round 1 – delphi method variables for incorporating spatial data in bim proposed frequency (%) 1. affordable technology 100% 2. technology integration/compatibility 100% 3. practical application 100% 4. added quality to products or services 100% 5. semantic interoperability 95% 6. technology availability open-source solution 95% 7. client demand or pressure, awareness 90% 8. knowledge about systems and their functionalities 90% 9. skilled staff 90% 10. common data format 85% 11. technology capability 85% 12. data management, storage, processing time 80% 13. automated integration 80% 14. time saving 80% 15. liability for inaccuracies of the spatial data, data ownership 75% 16. legal support (new building codes/regulations) 75% 17. management commitment, support 65% 18. standard procedure 65% 19. tax reduction 20% 20. bim champion by construction industry development board cidb) 10% 21. public projects lead 10% 22. role of professional body 5% 23. research and development (r&d) 5% round 2 is the narrowing down or categorising process where the experts were asked to categorise the eighteen variables from round 1 into smaller groups. the first emails resulted in 90% of the experts identifying seven factors, i.e., added value, client demand, data management, management commitment, regulations, skilled staff and technology. another two experts identified one new factor each‘automated integration’ and ‘standard procedure’. to produce the final consolidated factors, 95% consensus among the experts is desired. subsequently, in the second emails, the experts were asked to validate and reassess the suitability of the nine factors. the returned assessment indicated that 95% the experts proposed seven consolidated factors. table 3 depicts the final agreed upon consolidated factors and their respective variables. identifying factors for incorporating spatial data into bim using the delphi method construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 20189 table 3 results of round 2 the final agreed upon consolidated factors consolidated factors variables 1. added value added quality to products or services, overall time saving, practical application 2. client demand client demand or pressure, client awareness 3. data management data storage, processing time, common data format, automated integration 4. management commitment management support, standard procedure 5. skilled staff skilled staff, knowledge about systems and their functionalities 6. regulations liability for inaccuracies of the spatial data, legal support (new building codes/regulations), data ownership 7. technology affordable technology, technology compatibility, technology availability, open-source solution, semantic interoperability, technology capability round 3 of the delphi method is the ranking process. the results from round 2 were used in this round, where the experts were asked to rank the factors according to their importance. the purpose of round 3 is to develop an agreement among the experts regarding the importance of each spatial data-bim factor. the results showed that the experts ranked technology as the most important factor for incorporating spatial data in bim at the preconstruction planning stage with the mean score of 6.25, followed by client demand (mean = 5.15) and added value (mean = 4.65) while data management (mean = 1.04) is ranked as the least important factor. figure 3 depicts the results of round 3 – delphi method. figure 3 result of round 3 – delphi method yusof, ishak and doheim construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201810 as suggested by xia and chan (2012), the level of agreement among the experts needs to be calculated using the kendall’s coefficient of concordance (w). kendall’s coefficient of concordance (w) is indicated by 0 to 1. if w = 0, this indicates that the experts are in complete disagreement with each other, whereas if w = 1, this indicates that the experts are in perfect agreement with each other with regards to the ranking of the factors for inclusion of spatial data into bim. the formula for kendall’s w coefficient is as follows: where s is the sum of squared deviations, m is the number of experts (m = 20), and n is the total number of factors being ranked (n = 7). in the present study, w = 0.6505 significant at < 0.005 indicating that the experts were significantly in agreement with each other. discussion the findings revealed seven important factors that should be considered to ensure successful inclusion of spatial data into bim at the preconstruction planning stage. the top three are technology, client demand and added value factors. the technology factor was identified as the most important factor that should be considered by the respective players, and this technology should be affordable, compatible and effective, allowing for information and the meanings of spatial data to be incorporated into the bim environment. one expert, who is a surveyor, revealed that his firm collected spatial data manually using five field workers which was very time consuming. if his firm was to incorporate spatial data into bim, he would need to upgrade the current software and hardware into a compatible technology and address the question about whether such a technology exists and if so, what would be its cost. another expert who is a bim user, brought up the issue of semantic interoperability. in his opinion, to ensure fruitful integration, it is very important to ensure that the spatial data can be transferred into bim without any data loss and with retention of the meaning of the spatial data. next, is the client demand factor where pressure from clients can ensure spatial data can be incorporated into bim at the preconstruction planning stage. clients that are wellinformed about the importance of fully utilising bim will put pressure on the other players at the preconstruction planning stage to ensure that spatial data is incorporated into bim. another expert who is a bim user disclosed that the client demand factor is vital to ensuring bim application. if the client is aware about the benefits of utilising bim at the earliest stage of the building lifecycle, and insists for bim application, the consultants and contractor have to abide by the client’s wish in order to get the job. the third most important factor for inclusion of spatial data into bim at the preconstruction planning is the added value, which such inclusion could provide to the overall performance in terms of the quality of products or services, time-saving, cost reduction and increased profits. in the words of one expert who is a non-bim user “at the end of the day what is important is what do we (industry players) get (from the integration). better service? faster job completion? can we make our clients happy and ask for higher surveying fees?”. according to the expert, the answer to these questions is important to encourage the inclusion of spatial data into bim. the importance of added value has been ignored by most previous studies. precise spatial data that can be collected and prepared easily, faster, safely and less expensively is crucial because it will act as a basis for a design decision in the subsequent building phase. identifying factors for incorporating spatial data into bim using the delphi method construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201811 subsequently, regulations and skilled staff were ranked fourth and fifth, respectively, by the experts. the regulations factor includes the legal protection, the liability for inaccurate data by the consultants who provided the spatial data, and the flexibility of the existing building codes or planning regulations that allow smooth application of spatial data-bim in the layout plan for planning permission purposes is ranked fourth by the experts after added value. the fifth important factor is skilled staff, which includes both the knowledge and skills of the consultants and their staff who are involved in collecting and providing spatial data. their knowledge and skills should cover new authoring software that allows spatial data to be imported to bim. two factors were ranked as least important for incorporating spatial data into bim: data management and management commitment. data management includes data storage, data processing time, common data format and automated transformation. one possible reason why the experts ranked data management as the least important is that they perceived data management as relatively easy to handle through knowledge and skill enhancement. the second least important factor was management commitment or support from the management to ensure successful integration of spatial data into bim. included in management commitment is the existence of standard procedure or best practice that can ease the integration of spatial data into bim. since the majority of experts are the top management in their respective firms, it is likely they would not want to assume responsibility for incorporating spatial data into bim. the findings are in line with park and kim (2016), who stressed the importance of new technology which can enable bim to be extended from its current focus on buildings to their surrounding area, town and region by including spatial data. a new technology such as a middleware system that is easy to use, less time consuming, and at the same time able to address the building site design issues will make bim usage at the preconstruction stage feasible (park and kim, 2016). the ability of this new technology to utilise common gadgets that can collect spatial data such as smartphones and gps receiver devices in both online and offline modes will make the integration of spatial data into bim easier and affordable. the findings support liu et al. (2017) about the complexity of including spatial data into bim, i.e., technology alone is insufficient to incorporate spatial data into bim. increased awareness of clients about the importance of bim at the preconstruction stage can raise support for involving a surveying consultant in the project team and bim utilisation at the earliest stage of the building lifecycle. client demand is critical to encourage openness and a collaborative attitude among construction players, which liu et al. (2017) argued are needed to address the complexity issue of incorporating spatial data into bim. one example of such an attitude is clear communication between the respective project team members on the types of spatial data and their level of detail that are necessary for the subsequent building phase. similarly, the findings support the work by juhász et al. (2016) that identified the importance of regulations for the inclusion of spatial data into bim. application programming interfaces (apis) to extract spatial data provides alternative information for users, however, their legal status needs to be verified prior to usage. liability for inaccurate data and penalties for unnecessary variances should be in place to avoid errors and imprudent conduct, and the consequences are borne by the responsible party. based on the findings, a proposed framework for the inclusion of spatial data into bim is developed and presented in figure 4. yusof, ishak and doheim construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201812 figure 4 a proposed framework for the inclusion of spatial data into bim conclusion the present study aimed to identify the factors that are important for incorporating spatial data into bim at the preconstruction planning stage. the study utilised the delphi method to develop consensus among construction industry experts about the relative importance of factors for incorporating spatial data into bim. eighteen variables were identified and subsequently were categorised into seven consolidated factors. next, these seven factors were ranked according to their importance. technology, client demand, and added value are the top three, followed by regulations, skilled staff, management commitment and data management. the findings provide both theoretical and practical implications. theoretically, the findings of this study provide a greater understanding about the potential of bim application specifically for sustainable layout and urban planning, advancing the work of clark and gray (2014) by incorporating spatial data into bim. the proposed framework can act as a starting point for future exploration of determinants of bim implementation. practically, the findings allow construction players to understand the requirements for utilising spatial data into bim at the preconstruction planning stage, thus ensuring the sharing of spatial data with bim in a meaningful way. also, the findings help the respective professional bodies to identify the prerequisites for bim application at the preconstruction planning stage and to improve the existing training for the professional development of their members. the study has several limitations. first, due to limited information on the subject matter, the present study used the delphi method to obtain agreement among industry experts on factors that need to be considered when incorporating spatial data into bim. future studies should utilise quantitative research methodology such as structured surveys to enable refining and validating of the proposed framework to add value to our knowledge on important factors for incorporating spatial data into bim. secondly, the study was carried out in malaysia, a developing country which is experiencing rapid growth in the construction sector where bim application is still at the beginning despite initiatives to increase its application. the findings can be generalised to other developing countries similar in context to malaysia such as india, identifying factors for incorporating spatial data into bim using the delphi method construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201813 peru, brazil, croatia and the czech republic (see ahuja et al., 2017; murguia et al., 2017; dos santos et al., 2015 and galić et al., 2017). these countries have acknowledged bim as one of the measures to improve construction industry productivity and several measures have been carried out by the governments mentioned to encourage bim application, but they faced greater challenges due to lack of funds, technology and skilled manpower. these developing countries do not enjoy technologies for the smooth integration of spatial data into bim, such as robotic stations, 3d laser scanning and scan-to-bim software that are available in countries with advanced bim usage. the present study has identified the factors that experts perceive as important for incorporating spatial data into bim and ranked these factors in importance. based on this ranking, future researchers can use the ranking to prioritise factors that give the highest impact. last but not least, the present study follows the delphi method protocol, which transformed individual opinion into group consensus. as such, to achieve consensus among the industry experts, only factors that are agreed upon by the majority were considered. future studies should utilise other methods of data collection, such as general expert interviews, to consider all possible factors. references adimin, m. k. & rashid, m. h. a. 2016. roles and readiness of land surveyors towards the implementation of bim in malaysia. geosmart asia 2016. kuala lumpur: jupem and geosmart. alreshidi, e., mourshed, m. & rezgui, y. 2017. factors for effective bim governance. journal of building engineering, 10, 89-101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2017.02.006 alshammari, t., alshammari, n., sedky, m. & howard, c. 2018. simadl: simulated activities of daily living dataset. data, 3, 11. https://doi.org/10.3390/data3020011 amirebrahimi, s., rajabifard, a., mendis, p. & ngo, t. 2016. a bim-gis integration method in support of the assessment and 3d visualisation of flood damage to a building. journal of spatial science, 61, 317-350. https://doi.org/10.1080/14498596.2016.1189365 arayici, y., coates, p., koskela, l., kagioglou, m., usher, c. & o’reilly, k. 2011. technology adoption in the bim implementation for lean architectural practice. automation in construction, 20, 189-195. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.09.016 ashhar, s. m. m. 2017. pelaksanaan bim di jabatan kerja raya ( jkr) [online]. jkr. available: http:// www.architecturemalaysia.com/files/pool/90_170525_1641444144_bim_in_jkr_cidb_penang.pdf [accessed 13 sept 2017]. azhar, s., khalfan, m. & maqsood, t. 2015. building information modelling (bim): now and beyond. construction economics and building, 12, 15-28. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v12i4.3032 backes, d., thomson, c., malki-epshtein, l. & boehm, j. chadwick greenbim: advancing operational understanding of historical buildings with bim to support sustainable use. 2014. ucl (university college london). baik, a. 2017. from point cloud to jeddah heritage bim nasif historical house – case study. digital applications in archaeology and cultural heritage, 4, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.daach.2017.02.001 bui, n., merschbrock, c. & munkvold, b. e. 2016. a review of building information modelling for construction in developing countries. procedia engineering, 164, 487-494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. proeng.2016.11.649 yusof, ishak and doheim construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201814 chan, a. p., yung, e. h., lam, p. t., tam, c. & cheung, s. 2001. application of delphi method in selection of procurement systems for construction projects. construction management and economics, 19, 699-718. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190110066128 chong, h.-y., lee, c.-y. & wang, x. 2017. a mixed review of the adoption of building information modelling (bim) for sustainability. journal of cleaner production, 142, 4114-4126. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.222 chris houghton, david berry, michael byrne & nicholas davies 2013. surveying for bim. in: holzer, d. (ed.) bim in practice. australia: australian institute of architects (aia). clark, j. & gray, c. 2014. a new way of thinking. land journal, 6. galić, m., venkrbec, v., chmelik, f., feine, i., pučko, z. & klanšek, u. 2017. survey of accomplishments in bim implementation in croatia, the czech republic, germany, and slovenia. electronic journal of the faculty of civil engineering osijek-e-gfos, 8(15), 23-35. https://doi.org/10.13167/2017.15.3 haron, a. t. 2013. organisational readiness to implement building information modelling: a framework for design consultants in malysia. university of salford. hasson, f., keeney, s. & mckenna, h. 2000. research guidelines for the delphi survey technique. journal of advanced nursing, 32, 1008-1015. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2648.2000.t01-1-01567.x hjelseth, e. & thiis, t. 2008. use of bim and gis to enable climatic adaptations of buildings. https:// doi.org/10.1201/9780203883327.ch46 ishak, s. s. m., esa, m., & ismail, m. h 2017. social capital, social network and bim practices. 33rd annual arcom conference cambridge, united kingdom.: association of researchers in construction management. juhász, l., rousell, a. & jokar arsanjani, j. 2016. technical guidelines to extract and analyze vgi from different platforms. data, 1, 15. https://doi.org/10.3390/data1030015 kamal, e. m., yusof, n. a. & iranmanesh, m. 2016. innovation creation, innovation adoption, and firm characteristics in the construction industry. journal of science and technology policy management, 7, 43-57. https://doi.org/10.1108/jstpm-03-2015-0011 karan, e., irizary, j. & haymaker, j. 2015. bim and gis integration and interoperability based on semantic web technology. kasprzak, c. & dubler, c. 2015. aligning bim with fm: streamlining the process for future projects. construction economics and building, 12, 10. keat, q. 2013. what it will take to ensure 5d bim sustainability in malaysia. retrieved december, 20. kumar, s. s. & cheng, j. c. p. 2015. a bim-based automated site layout planning framework for congested construction sites. automation in construction, 59, 24-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2015.07.008 lai, k. s., yusof, n. a. & kamal, e. m. 2016. innovation orientation in architectural firms. construction innovation, 16, 425-445. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-05-2015-0030 landpoint. nd. pre-construction planning process: how land surveying services help [online]. available: http://www.landpoint.net/value-added-land-surveying-services-pre-project-planning/ [accessed 5 sept 2017]. identifying factors for incorporating spatial data into bim using the delphi method construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201815 latiffi, a. a., brahim, j. & fathi, m. s. transformation of malaysian construction industry with building information modelling (bim). matec web of conferences, 2016. edp sciences, 00022. https://doi. org/10.1051/matecconf/20166600022 latiffi, a. a., mohd, s., kasim, n. & fathi, m. s. 2013. building information modeling (bim) application in malaysian construction industry. international journal of construction engineering and management, 2, 1-6. lee, s. & yu, j. 2017. discriminant model of bim acceptance readiness in a construction organization. ksce journal of civil engineering, 21, 555-564. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-016-0555-9 liao, l., teo, e. a. l. & low, s. p. 2017. a project management framework for enhanced productivity performance using building information modelling. construction economics and building, 17, 26. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5389 liu, x., wang, x., wright, g., cheng, j. c., li, x. & liu, r. 2017. a state-of-the-art review on the integration of building information modeling (bim) and geographic information system (gis). international journal of geo-information, 6, 21. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi6020053 livesey, p. v. 2016. insights of project managers into the problems in project management. construction economics and building, 16, 14. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i1.4600 ma, z. & ren, y. 2017. integrated application of bim and gis: an overview. procedia engineering, 196, 1072-1079. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.08.064 mele, r. & poli, g. 2017. the effectiveness of geographical data in multi-criteria evaluation of landscape services †. ldata, 2, 9. https://doi.org/10.3390/data2010009 murguia, d., brioso, x., ruiz-conejo, l. & fernandez, l. 2017. process integration framework for the design phase of a residential building. procedia engineering, 196, 462-469. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. proeng.2017.07.225 nilsiam, y. & pearce, j. m. 2017. free and open source 3-d model customizer for websites to democratize design with openscad. designs, 1, 5. https://doi.org/10.3390/designs1010005 nor’aini yusof, k. s. l., ernawati mustafa kamal, 2017. characteristics of innovation orientations in construction companies. journal of engineering, design and technology, 15, 436-455. https://doi. org/10.1108/jedt-06-2016-0037 okoli, c. & pawlowski, s. d. 2004. the delphi method as a research tool: an example, design considerations and applications. information & management, 42, 15-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. im.2003.11.002 oo, t. z. 2014. critical success factors for application of bim for singapore architectural firms. heriotwatt university school of the built environment. peckiene, a. & ustinovičius, l. possibilities for building spatial planning using bim methodology. 2017. 851-858. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.02.085 ralf becker, v. f., sabrina hoenen, sören loges, sven stumm, jörg blankenbach, sigrid brell-cokcan, linda hildebrandt & dirk vallée 2018. bim – towards the entire lifecycle. international journal of sustainable development and planning, 13, 84-95. https://doi.org/10.2495/sdp-v13-n1-84-95 rogers, j., chong, h.-y. & preece, c. 2015. adoption of building information modelling technology (bim): perspectives from malaysian engineering consulting services firms. engineering, construction and architectural management, 22, 424-445. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2014-0067 yusof, ishak and doheim construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201816 santos, r., costa, a. a. & grilo, a. 2017. bibliometric analysis and review of building information modelling literature published between 2005 and 2015. automation in construction, 80, 118-136. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.03.005 singh, m. m., sawhney, a. & sharma, v. 2017. utilising building component data from bim for formwork planning. construction economics and building, 17, 17. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v17i4.5546 stanley, r. & thurnell, d. p. 2014. the benefits of, and barriers to, implementation of 5d bim for quantity surveying in new zealand. construction economics and building, 14, 13. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v14i1.3786 strzalka, a., bogdahn, j., coors, v. & eicker, u. 2011. 3d city modeling for urban scale heating energy demand forecasting. hvac&r research, 17, 526-539. thomson, c. 2016. from point cloud to building information model: capturing and processing survey data towards automation for high quality 3d models to aid a bim process. ucl (university college london). vijay k. bansal, m. p. 2009. extended gis for construction engineering by adding direct sunlight visualisations on buildings. construction innovation, 9, 406-419. https://doi. org/10.1108/14714170910995949 xia, b. & chan, a. p. 2012. measuring complexity for building projects: a delphi study. engineering, construction and architectural management, 19, 7-24. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211192544 yaakob, m., ali, w. n. a. w. & radzuan, k. identifying critical success factors (csfs) of implementing building information modeling (bim) in malaysian construction industry. aip conference proceedings, 2016. aip publishing, 020105. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4960945 yeong, e. & ragananthini, v. 2017. cidb to launch mybim centre in may. the sun, p.13. yusof, n., mohd shafiei, m. w., said, i. & zainul abidin, n. 2010. factors influencing firms’ readiness towards innovation in house building industry: a multi-dimensional construct. international journal of organizational innovation, 2, 74-88. yusof, n. a., abu-jarad, y. & badree, m. h. 2012. the effectiveness of government incentives to facilitate an innovative housing delivery system: the perspective of housing developers. theoretical and empirical researches in urban management, 7, 55-68. identifying factors for incorporating spatial data into bim using the delphi method construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201817 construction economics and building vol. 20, no. 3 september 2020 © 2020 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: zhang, s., duan, h., wei, t., and shane, g. 2020. a review of universityenterprise-cooperation research in china: a quantitative perspective. construction economics and building, 20:3, 62-77. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v20i3.7059 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article a review of university-enterprise-cooperation research in china: a quantitative perspective shang zhang1*, hongxia duan2, tingting wei3, and galvin shane4 1 department of construction management, suzhou university of science and technology, jiangsu province, china. corresponding author: zhangshfan@163.com. 2 school of civil engineering, suzhou university of science and technology, jiangsu province, china. email: dhx123@mail.usts.edu.cn. 3 department of m&e and construction engineering, nanhu college of jiaxing university, zhejiang province, china. email:157427533@qq.com. 4 school of engineering, university of south wales, pontypridd, wales, uk. shane.galvin@ southwales.ac.uk. *corresponding author: shang zhang, department of construction management, suzhou university of science and technology, jiangsu province, china. email: zhangshfan@163.com. doi: 10.5130/ajceb.v20i3.7059 article history: received 07/02/2020; revised 11/03/2020; accepted 23/03/2020; published 15/09/2020 abstract the university-enterprise-cooperation (uec) has been adopted by many universities globally to effectively utilize the high-quality resources of the construction industry, to improve the general competence, problem-solving skills and innovation capability of graduates of an engineering discipline. there are a limited amount of papers published in international journals on uec, compared to a significant volume of chinese published literature. however, based on the best knowledge of the authors, no existing literature has conducted a quantitative statistical analysis on uec research in chinese and international journals. in order to fill this knowledge gap, 300 highquality papers on uec were derived through the chinese cnki database from 2010-2019. the general development trend of uec research in the past 30 years was also mapped and analyzed. the most popular topics under the uec theme and the most frequently adopted research methods within the uec field were also identified. it was found that since the first uec publication in 1990, the number of uec publications experienced a steady increase during the last decade, aiding by strong promotion from the government and active practice within universities and from educators in china. course development (52.94%) and practice resource development (24.89%) declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 62 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i3.7059 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i3.7059 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i3.7059 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:zhangshfan@163.com mailto:dhx123@mail.usts.edu.cn mailto:email:157427533@qq.com mailto:shane.galvin@southwales.ac.uk mailto:shane.galvin@southwales.ac.uk mailto:zhangshfan@163.com http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i3.7059 were two of the most popular research topics in the uec field. the elaboration research method was adopted by more than half (55.94%) of uec papers, followed by case study (21.25%). the findings of this study are valuable for researchers and practitioners globally, to better understand the development status of uec research in china and embark on future research in this field. keywords: university-enterprise-cooperation (uec), course development, practice resource development, research topic, research method. introduction the university-enterprise-cooperation (uec), also interpreted as industry-university partnerships (tener, 1996; smith, et al. 2018) and academia-industry cooperation (shapira and rosenfeld, 2011), refers to a pedagogical form of education approach and thinking, which focuses on the cultivation of graduates with a high-level of innovation capability and practical skills, through the full utilization of resources from both the university and company/ industry (liu and zhong, 2011). as claimed by russell and stouffer (2003), a large number of undergraduate programs for generating construction professionals were not specifically articulated to enable the students to become effective and skilled project managers. hence, the university, the construction industry, professional organizations, and the government should form a broad collaboration to develop competent construction professionals with strong leadership skills (toor and ofori, 2008). american society of civil engineers (asce) also recognized this problem and designed the practitioner-in-residence program for students studying on civil engineering programs. it was recommended that engineering faculties should try to develop their own practical skills, which might be achieved through working in the construction industry and networking with practicing engineers (koehn, 2004). furthermore, the national academy of engineering (nae) published a report in 2005, with the title of educating the engineer of 2020, which emphasized the importance of collaboration between industry and academia to produce engineers with strong theoretical backgrounds and practical experiences (nae, 2005). gann (2001) argued that academic researchers generally published in refereed journals, whereas for applied research in construction-related areas it was not the most appropriate form of producing research output, either for improving knowledge or for disseminating it to the construction industry. research by shapira and rosenfeld (2011) also indicated that cooperation between academia and the construction industry was critical in achieving success of an innovative research and development (r&d) project, and without this cooperation the r&d effort could not be achieved. in recent years, the chinese government through different levels, has attached great importance to uec in higher education. for example, the ministry of education has emphasized many times in their guidance documents, specifying that high attention should be paid to uec with the aim to improve the practical working capability of the graduates. universities should strengthen close collaboration with the industry and provide more practical training and internship opportunities to the students, through the joint effort of universities and industry (xiao and fan, 2017). construction management is a practice-oriented discipline (zhang, galvin and duan, 2018). more than 440 universities or colleges offer construction management undergraduate programs in china. with the economic structure adjusting and the acceleration of a review of university-enterprise-cooperation research in china: a quantitative perspective construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202063 construction industry development, construction management graduates from some chinese universities or colleges are struggling to find appropriate jobs or secure jobs with promising career opportunities. on the contrary, many construction companies and real estate developers complain that it is difficult to find suitable graduates with high competency levels in terms of industry development awareness, strong problem analyzing and solving capabilities, communication skills, and the ability to integrate into a teamwork environment. hence, a contradiction between the talent supply (universities) and demand (construction companies) does exist in china, which needs a paradigm shift in terms of the educational approach and thinking, to significantly improve the general quality of construction management graduates, to better meet the requirements of a modern and evolving construction sector. in order to fully illustrate the background of uec, it is also necessary to elaborate the paradigm shift of undergraduate education across the world during the last 30 years, which is from a “teaching paradigm” to a “learning paradigm”, or a “lecturer-centred paradigm” to a “student-centred paradigm”. under the new paradigm (“student-centred paradigm”), the purpose of education within universities is not limited to teaching, but also to providing an excellent learning environment which fosters the students' self-learning or learning in a most effective way (lin, 2017). in the new learning paradigm, new learning approaches emerged and were widely adopted by an increasing number of lecturers in the universities. these learning approaches include problem-based learning, case-based learning, projectbased learning and experimental learning (lin, 2013a). however, most of the lecturers in engineering universities and colleges lack experience in engineering practice, and they have limited capability to solve real-world engineering problems, which makes it difficult for them to effectively adopt these new learning approaches. most of the time, problems and cases are not collected and derived from real-world engineering practice or company operations, which means they are hypothesized by the lecturers. in this case, it has a negative impact on the cultivation and improvement of students’ general competence in the engineering discipline. through collaboration between universities and industry, highquality resources within companies, such as real-world construction problems and lessons learned in successful or failed projects, can be directly used in the lecture delivery process. this will facilitate the new learning approaches being effectively adopted in the university course delivery process. hence, from the perspective of a new learning paradigm shift in recent years, it is also necessary to bridge the university teaching and industry practice in the construction management field. in fact, universities and colleges globally have a long history of adopting different ways of cooperation with companies in the cultivation of engineering graduates to make up for their weakness in practical education and vocational training. specifically, there are the german bbs (berufsbildenden schule) model, the uk sandwich model, and the australia tafe (technical and further education) model. in terms of the bbs model, the capability requirements and standards of the graduates are jointly defined by the universities and companies. the universities or colleges are responsible for teaching professional knowledge of a specific discipline, and the companies are mainly responsible for the training of students’ practical working skills. as a result, the discipline theory and practice form an integral part, which is effective to improve the general competence of graduates. as to the “sandwich” model in uk, the overall learning process is divided into three stages. in the first stage, the students learn basic theory in universities or colleges, followed by the next stage during which they work in a company to learn practical knowledge and develop practical working skills. then in the third stage, they return to the universities or colleges to complete their studies and zhang, duan, wei, and shane construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202064 obtain a graduation certificate. in australia’s tafe model, the universities or colleges work closely with the industry. the tafe universities or colleges generally have a board of directors. in some cases, the chairperson of the board of directors and the majority of board members are industry experts. the companies participate in evaluating the overall learning process of the graduates. most of the universities or colleges establish a strong practice or internship base with the industrial partners (lin, 2012). in all the three models (i.e. bbs, sandwich and tafe), a comprehensive and close cooperation between the universities or colleges and companies or industry is the common thread to improving the competence of their graduates. in recent years, the practical adoption of uec has been highlighted by educators and government departments in china, and as a result research on this topic has also been gradually increasing. however, currently literature which explores the research progress and trend of uec in china and across the world is limited. this paper utilizes the china national knowledge infrastructure (cnki) database, one of the largest and most popular academic databases in china as the literature source, and adopts a quantitative analysis method to answer the following three questions: (1) what is the development status of uec research in chinese journals in chronological order? (2) what topics emerge from uec research in chinese journals in the ten-year period from 2010-2019? (3) which research methods are frequently adopted by uec researchers in the ten-year period from 2010-2019? in order to answer the above three questions, 300 papers (30 papers each year) published in chinese journals with uec theme were derived and reviewed by the authors. the research topic and research method of each paper were also identified through content analysis method, followed by statistical analysis of the result. in addition, the uec development history and benefits of applying uec in practice were also critically reviewed in the engineering discipline with the educational experience across the world. the findings of this study are valuable for researchers and practitioners worldwide to better understand the development and trend of uec research in china. this study is also helpful for universities or colleges offering construction management program to find a suitable cooperation approach between the universities and companies, with reference to the general uec models in chinese and international institutions. this paper is organized as follows: in section 1, the research background is introduced. in section 2, the development of and research on uec is reviewed. in section 3, the research method of this study, specifically the data collection process from the uec papers in chinese journals and data analysis methods is presented. in section 4, the chronology of uec publications in chinese journals is illustrated. in section 5, the research topics of the selected 300 uec papers in chinese journals are identified and statistically analyzed, and the change of the topics over the last decade are illustrated. in section 6, the research methods adopted by uec researchers in the selected 300 uec papers are identified and analyzed. in section 7, main conclusions as well as limitations and future research directions are presented. literature review industry-university partnerships were first applied through co-op programs in engineering programs in the usa in 1906 and in canada in 1957 (haddara and a review of university-enterprise-cooperation research in china: a quantitative perspective construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202065 skanes, 2007). the construction engineering and management (cem) program at the purdue university was established in 1972, and as a requirement for obtaining the bscem degree, each student had to satisfactorily complete three 12-week internships at a construction company (tener, 1996). the most notable example of uec is the construction industry institute (cii) which is based on the university of texas-austin (back, 2008). established in 1983, the cii is a consortium of employer, engineering companies and construction companies that engage collaboratively with academics at the university, in creating, disseminating and practicing knowledge. hence, cii’s role in promoting innovation through the collaboration between the construction industry and university academia is paramount (shapira and rosenfeld, 2011). another example is the learning factory at penn state university, which was established in 1994 and in 2006 it won the national academy of engineering bernard m. gordon prize for innovation in engineering and technology education (lamancusa, et al. 2008). the success of the learning factory was attributed to the active participation of construction professionals from the construction industry (smith, et al. 2018). in 2001, the architectural engineering department at the university of nebraska-lincoln, with the partnership of industry, started an industry-experienced graduate student program. all parties to the first offering were satisfied with the outcomes and believed that the benefits significantly outweighed the costs incurred (waters, alvine and eble-hankins, 2011). in hong kong, a multimedia educational package, called as civcal, was utilized to support teaching and learning in civil engineering as well as building and construction undergraduate programmes. the online multimedia portal facilitated virtual site visits to the completed and ongoing construction projects in hong kong, through photographic and videographic applications. the online facility proved to be a significant success in consolidating a more practical teaching and learning environment in construction-related disciplines of those universities in hong kong (toor and ofori, 2008). in china, shanghai jiaotong university established an integral teaching-learning centre with shanghai baosteel group, to jointly offer postgraduate (master and phd) degrees, which was considered as a successful pedagogical strategy to sustain the development of innovative capabilities of university graduates (wu and du, 2008). dulaimi, et al. (2002) argued that the lack of cooperation between academia and industry is a primary hindrance to innovation in the construction industry. laborde and sanvido (1994) also highlighted the importance of uec according to their research results. it was found that students involved with internships were made aware of a variety of career opportunities. in addition, their engineering and technical knowledge was increased, their communication skills were improved, and they obtained more contacts for future employment (croissant, ogden and ogden, 2000). further, it was observed that some companies appeared to prefer hiring new employees who already had a co-op, internship, or other work experience within the company (koehn, 2004). smith, et al. (2018) also noted that industry-university partnerships can facilitate students developing a more holistic perspective on corporate social responsibility and the socio-technical nature of professional engineering practice. on the other side, experienced professionals from industry should actively participate in university education as visiting faculty members, or by sponsoring undergraduate design teams, by organizing live field visits for students, and by co-supervising projects and graduate dissertations. industry could also provide sponsorship of r&d projects in universities, offer financial support to help the universities conduct research projects, which were of potential benefit to the industry and fund more scholarships to graduate students. collaboration zhang, duan, wei, and shane construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202066 between universities and industry across a variety of mechanisms, will also benefit the improvement of academic and professional programs through learning industry-led practices (toor and ofori, 2008). in existing uec publications in china, most of the research focused on analyzing the benefits of this model, which is based on the excellent knowledge source that companies may provide. uec is an important mechanism to enhance the general competence, practical application skills and innovation capability of engineering graduates in modern university education (yang, zhang and wu, 2017). as one of the important forms of cooperation between the university and industry, uec is a win-win mode for both the universities and companies, since on one side, it will benefit the university to improve the general quality of their graduates, and on the other side, it will help the company select the right graduates they need in a more efficient way. hence, uec is an effective model to cultivate excellent engineering and management graduates, and as a result many universities and educators in china, as well as across the world, pay special attention to uec in modern education (li, li and lu, 2015). in educating excellent construction engineers and managers, the companies have the resources which universities do not possess. for example, they are sensitive to the development trend of construction market, understand more comprehensively the market requirements and demands of the engineering graduates, have advanced equipment and manufacturing technology, have numerous experienced engineers and technicians, have a real-world engineering practice and innovation environment and establish a special enterprise culture (lin, 2013b). all these ingredients are very helpful to improve the working capability and general competence of construction management graduates. practical learning based on real-world projects can significantly improve the learning performance, such as better understanding of the topic and theory, improvement of problem analyzing and solving capabilities, communication skills, innovation capability and accumulation of real hands-on experience (liu, et al. 2012). therefore, the universities which offer construction management programs should consolidate their education base through cooperation with suitable companies, to create a better environment of educating future competitive construction management graduates. in uec field, very few studies were conducted on analyzing the research status in chinese journals and most of them were published 5 years ago. for example, yi, wen and chen (2014) utilized uec articles published in chinese education journals from 1992-2011 to review the importance of uec, reform of the university management practice in uec process, meaning of uec, uec models and operation mechanism of uec. zhang, yin and chen (2013) used the uec literature published in cnki database from 2000-2011 to identify the research topics of these articles. the two papers also summarized the weakness of past research results and proposed the research directions for uec. in addition, all the existing literature review articles on uec adopted qualitative approach which is based on the analysis of limited number of research publications. fellows and liu (2008) noted that, in qualitative content analysis, the emphasis is to determine the meaning of data (for example grouping the data into different categories). however, the quantitative analysis extends this approach to produce numerical values of the categorized data, such as ratings, frequencies, and rankings, for further statistical analysis. as such, this study employed a quantitative method with the review of 300 high-quality journal papers to derive more comprehensive research findings. a review of university-enterprise-cooperation research in china: a quantitative perspective construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202067 research method in order to achieve the three objectives of this paper, a research framework similar to zhang, et al. (2016) in reviewing the ppp research status was adopted. generally, the research framework comprises the following three stages: (1) stage 1: uec (xiaoqi hezuo in chinese) were used as the search keyword to identify the journal papers published in cnki database. in order to ensure the quality of publications, the papers selected for analysis were based on the download frequency in descending order of the papers published in the same year. usually, the researchers in china rely on the classification of class-a journals (well-known first-tier chinese journals recommended by peking university library) to determine the quality of the paper in chinese journals. however, in the ten-year period, the journals in the class-a clusters have been adjusted every 3-4 years, which means some journals were in the class-a clusters in 2013, but they were removed from the clusters in 2016. hence, the download frequency of the papers was a reliable and straightforward standard to derive higher quality of research papers on uec. in addition, the relevance of the research topic with uec was considered by the authors in screening the valid papers. after downloading the papers one by one in descending order following the download frequency, a quick review (i.e. a review of the title and abstract of the paper) was conducted to determine whether a particular paper was focused on uec. if it was not related with uec in education field, it would be removed from the valid sample. then the next paper in the frequency sequence from the database was downloaded and quickly reviewed to determine whether this paper was suitable for further analysis. (2) stage 2: a brief review (i.e. a quick review of the overall paper, including the title, abstract, introduction and conclusion) was carried out to further determine whether the research topic of the paper was relevant with uec and the general quality of the paper. the irrelevant and low-quality papers were also removed in this stage, and then the paper in the next frequency order would be included to get a final 30 valid samples each year for analysis. in total, 300 high-quality papers on uec were finalized in january 2020, for further content analysis and statistical analysis. (3) stage 3: a comprehensive and in-depth review of the qualified uec papers was conducted to identify the publication date, research topics, research findings and research methods adopted. during the overall research process, content analysis is the primary research method used in this study. fellows and liu (2008) argued that content analysis was frequently adopted to determine the major facets of a set of data by simply counting the number of frequencies that an activity happened or a topic was illustrated. both qualitative and quantitative content analysis methods were adopted in this research. according to fellows and liu (2008), in qualitative content analysis, the focus was to determine the meaning of the data (i.e., grouping the data into different categories), whereas quantitative content analysis focused on generating the numerical values of the categorized data for the following statistical analysis. based on this result, a comparison can be conducted and hierarchies of categories can be illustrated. in terms of qualitative content analysis, this study concentrated on the identification of research topics, research findings and research methods of a specific paper. while quantitative content analysis was based on the qualitative results to statistically categorize and count the identified results, with the assistance of ms excel software. based on the above research process, the overall status of uec research was mapped and analyzed in china. zhang, duan, wei, and shane construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202068 chronology of uec publications in order to understand the development trend of uec research in the latest 30 years, the number of uec publications (including the journal papers, reports, conference papers, msc and phd student’s thesis), with uec as the keyword, were derived from the cnki database and categorized on a yearly basis. the result is shown in table 1. table 1 number of uec publications from 1990-2019 no. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 year 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 number of publications 1 3 1 1 5 3 3 9 15 17 no. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 year 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 number of publications 48 38 58 87 166 200 417 651 1110 1475 no. 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 year 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 number of publications 2025 2711 3233 3750 4012 4071 3857 3647 4078 4412 from table 1, it can be found that since the first uec publication in 1990 in china, the number of uec publications experienced several rises and falls before 2001, whereas after 2002 the volume of publications has been increasing steadily, with only minor decreases in 2016 and 2017. specifically, after 2007, the number of uec publications has been rising significantly. however, this analysis is only for reference, since a frequent occurrence of irrelevant literature on the issue of cooperation between universities and companies were also included, without being discarded through the manual filtering process. according to the database, about 98% of the publications were journal papers, which generated about 35,100 pieces of potential papers on uec topic. since the analysis was conducted mainly through manual approach, review on the 300 sample papers was considered sufficient to generate a preliminary finding. from the above development status of uec research in chinese publications, it appears that uec research has become a “hot” topic in china in recent years, with strong promotion from the chinese government and the active involvement by many universities and educators. during the last ten years, the chinese government has highlighted the importance of uec as an effective way to improve the general quality and practical working capability of university graduates and has taken many measures to promote the cooperation between the universities, companies and industry. under this background, many universities and educators in china have actively utilized the high-quality resources of the companies to improve the quality of learning environment, through which the learning outcome and general quality of the graduates have been improved. the regulations/mandate issued by various chinese government departments and specific requirements on uec are summarized in table 2. a review of university-enterprise-cooperation research in china: a quantitative perspective construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202069 table 2 the regulations/mandate issued by chinese government departments and specific requirements on uec year the regulations/mandate the specific requirements on uec 2007 the ministry of education and the ministry of finance jointly issued a guidance on the implementation of the “undergraduate teaching quality and teaching reform project of higher education” it stated that the students’ practical working skills and innovation spirit should be significantly enhanced; and the practice base in the company should be developed for the students; to offer the students more practice and internship opportunities. 2007 the ministry of education issued a brief guidance on the further reform of undergraduate teaching to improve teaching and learning quality in a comprehensive way it stated that the close cooperation should be strengthened between the universities and companies for teaching and research, and the students’ practice and internship platforms should be expanded, with the support from the companies and institutions in the joint development of practice centre. 2008 the ministry of education issued a guidance on the reinforcement of implementing the “quality project” for undergraduate specialty discipline development it stated that the university should actively conduct practical training and social practice activities......and explore the mode of learning with the cooperation between universities and companies......and develop the students’ practice and internship bases with effort from the companies and industry institutions......and explore new ways to develop lecturers with the joint effort from universities and industry. the university should actively promote the disciplinary lecturers to conduct research with the input from companies and industry and invite outstanding experts and senior managers in the industry as guest lectures to deliver university courses. 2010 outline of the national medium and long-term educational reform and development plan (20102020) to improve the quality of talent development, with the enhancement of skill-development laboratory, university and company practice bases......to reinforce the development of practice capability through optimizing the practical training session. to establish a new mechanism of joint development for graduates with close cooperation between the universities, industry and companies. zhang, duan, wei, and shane construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202070 year the regulations/mandate the specific requirements on uec 2015 general office of the state council issued a guidance on the reform of innovation and entrepreneurship education in universities and colleges to explore new mechanism for graduate development through the university and university cooperation, university and company cooperation, university and industry cooperation, university and industry institution cooperation and international cooperation. to actively attract and use high-quality social resources and international education resources in the development of university graduates with innovative and entrepreneurial competence. 2015 the state council issued a notice on the promotion of the development plan of first-class universities and disciplines to establish a social participation mechanism in the education field, to optimize the close cooperation model between universities and companies as well as industry, and to promote the sharing of high-quality resources between the universities, institutions and social agencies, to form an effective cooperation mechanism. research topics of uec papers in chinese journals smith, et al. (2018) research findings indicated that uec can take various forms, can be initiated at different stages of undergraduate/postgraduate education, and might be an efficient and effective approach, to exposing students to practices and policies that they might not otherwise be exposed to at traditional university education. based on literature review results, it was found that the primary types of uec were course development, practice resource development, lecturer practical skill development and joint research (tener, 1996; toor and ofori, 2008; shapira and rosenfeld, 2011; smith, et al. 2018). the theme of course development means that the university and company may jointly develop disciplinary curriculum, course outline, new disciplinary course and new disciplinary reference learning materials. as arif, et al. (2010) highlighted more input in current academic programs from industry was necessary. the university may also invite experts from companies as guest lecturers to deliver lectures to the students or to jointly supervise the undergraduate/ postgraduate course design or dissertation with university lecturers. the involvement of practitioners is paramount since the traditional faculty might lack the depth and breadth of practical project judgment and experience that professionals in business and industry tended to possess (kerkes, 1995). hence, within this approach, the valuable intellectual resources, e.g. the management/working experience of the expert from the company, is effectively utilized in the learning process. as to the theme of practice resource development, the companies either donate funding to develop laboratories at university or provide internship/part-time working opportunities to table 2 continued a review of university-enterprise-cooperation research in china: a quantitative perspective construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202071 the university students, to create a better practical learning environment for the students. taking purdue’s cem programme as an example, in addition to the value of the students’ practical experience itself, the three 12-week internships provided the students a solid basis for approaching the academic work in the classroom (tener, 1996). those networking with the industry also helps the engineering graduates find employment and the engineering and/ or construction firms recruit new engineers who are best suited to their specific needs (shapira and rosenfeld, 2011). practice at lamar university in usa also showed that being involved with cooperative, part-time and summer work experiences, the undergraduate and graduate students believed that three areas have been significantly enhanced with engineering work, including structural engineering, project management/scheduling and estimating, and teamwork (koehn, 2004). in summary, students benefited significantly from being exposed to professional engineering environments in terms of increasing their engineering and technical knowledge (croissant, ogden and ogden, 2000). in terms of the theme of lecturer practical skill development, the companies either provide part-time working opportunities to the university lecturers or real-world cases and lessons learned in the management/production process, to develop the practical working capabilities and improve the up-to-date sense of industry awareness of university lecturers. shapira and rosenfeld (2011) highlighted that construction academics should not isolate themselves in the “ivory tower”. instead, they should regularly visit construction sites and meet with construction professionals. the site visits and discussions with practitioners complemented the faculty members’ practical experience and generated a better understanding of current issues. under the theme of joint research, the university lecturers and industry experts collaboratively conduct research on specific topics, which might be funded by the companies or by the government or universities or other agencies/departments. arif, et al. (2010) noted that industry-funded research was beneficial. however, in order to foster industry to be actively involved, academic institutions should also prove that they can conduct quality research projects. frequent access to construction sites facilitated the collection of practical research data and led to a more comprehensive understanding from the academics on the research topics. in order to sustain this type of uec, researchers should reach out to the industry beyond purely academic audiences and learn to communicate their ideas with construction professionals using the common language of the construction industry (shapira and rosenfeld, 2011). in the content analysis process, the research topics of each uec paper were identified and then statistical analysis was conducted. the results were shown in table 3. table 3 research topics of uec papers in chinese journals year item course development practice resource development lecturer practical skill development joint research 20102014 number of topics 128 56 28 27 percentage 53.56% 23.43% 11.72% 11.30% 20152019 number of topics 106 54 30 13 percentage 52.22% 26.60% 14.78% 6.40% zhang, duan, wei, and shane construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202072 year item course development practice resource development lecturer practical skill development joint research 20102019 number of topics 234 110 58 40 percentage 52.94% 24.89% 13.12% 9.05% note: most of the papers have more than one research topic. it can be found from table 3 that course development (52.94%) was the most popular research topic in uec field, followed by practice resource development (24.89%), lecturer practical skill development (13.12%), and joint research between the universities and companies (9.05%), in the last decade. this might also imply that course development and practice resource development are the most popular forms of uec in china. comparing the two five-year periods, the research topics only have slight changes in terms of the percentage of each uec topic. in contrast, smith, et al. (2018) argued that although a variety of industry-university partnerships existed, perhaps the most common type to date were internship and co-op programs, as well as industry-sponsored student design projects. in addition, lamancusa, et al. (2008) also noted that industry sponsored student design project was a successful model for collaboration between the industry and university in the united states and internationally. research methods adopted by uec researchers in china in the construction management field, four typical research methods have been frequently adopted by researchers: literature review, case study, interview and questionnaire survey (tang, 2011). literature review is a typical research approach to facilitate researchers understanding the development trend in the research area. literature review is not only about reading research publications on a specific topic, but rather about presenting critiques of current research achievements to identify knowledge gaps (yeung, 2007). the objectives of using case study approach is to identify or attempt to identify different interactive processes, or to identify the unique and common features, and to present how they affect the implementation of systems (tang, 2011). the interview method is very popular in the construction management field to collect first-hand empirical data, which includes structured interview, semi-structured interview and unstructured interview (tang, 2011). in questionnaire survey approach, the respondents' viewpoints are obtained with the same and standard questions using a predesigned survey instrument. this approach is generally considered as one of the most frequently adopted methods in the construction management research area (chow, 2005). in the content analysis process, it was found that two additional methods (i.e. modelling and comparison) were also employed by chinese uec researchers. as to the modelling method, it refers to validating a particular uec research topic through a model verification process based on structural equation modelling (sem) and analytic hierarchy process (ahp) among others. furthermore, comparison is a simple but effective approach to generate powerful and rigorous conclusions（zhang, et al. 2016）. based on the content analysis results, various research methods used in uec literature are summarized and shown in table 4. table 3 continued a review of university-enterprise-cooperation research in china: a quantitative perspective construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202073 table 4 number of research methods adapted by uec papers year item elaboration case study comparison modelling questionnaire survey literature review interview 20102014 number of research methods 95 26 7 13 12 5 2 percentage 59.75% 16.35% 4.40% 8.18% 7.55% 3.14% 1.26% 20152019 number of research methods 84 42 14 6 7 8 1 percentage 52.17% 26.09% 8.70% 3.73% 4.35% 4.97% 0.62% 20102019 number of research methods 179 68 21 19 19 13 3 percentage 55.94% 21.25% 6.56% 5.94% 5.94% 4.06% 0.94% note: some papers adopted more than one research methods. the analysis results showed that the majority (93.00%) of the papers employed only one research method in the last decade among the 300 uec papers. the elaboration research method was adopted by more than half (55.94%) of uec papers, followed by case study (21.25%) and comparison (6.56%). in the two five-year periods, there is no significant change on the research methods adopted by uec researchers in china. elaboration, which is commonly used in the construction management research field in china, refers to narrate, discuss, or depict the study without using other methods to support or validate the research findings (zhang, et al. 2016). in the construction management field, adopting more research methods might rigorously validate the research findings, which makes the study more convincing (zhang, et al. 2016). from this point of view, improvements should be made for chinese researchers to employ a variety of research methods in a single-researchmethod paper in the uec field. conclusion uec in china as well as internationally, was advocated as an efficient and effective way to bring students and faculty staff to the day-to-day practical activities and internal working practice of industry and enhance their understanding of the development status of the industry (smith, et al. 2018). uec might take a variety of forms, such as course development (e.g. industry-sponsored student design project), practice resource development (e.g. internship and co-op programs for students), lecturer practical skill development (site visit access provided by the industry to the lecturer) and joint research (e.g. research collaborations between the faculty and industry). in china, the government has placed emphasis on the application of uec in improving the competence of graduates. in overseas institutions, since the early 1900s, engineering schools have actively promoted uec as a way to engage students, faculty members and construction professionals in collaboration, which resulted in better trained engineers, generate research outputs that were relevant to the industry practice, and offer research and development benefits to companies (koehn, 2004). many educators in the construction engineering field and construction industry frontiers realized that it was valuable to establish effective industry-university working partnerships. by considering the construction industry as their customer and by collaborating with construction professionals on matters influencing the undergraduate/postgraduate program, the university faculty can improve zhang, duan, wei, and shane construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202074 and sustain the quality of the educational program (tener, 1996). however, collaboration between the university and company/industry is not straightforward and simple. the style of functioning, the motivations, the expectations, along with the difference in the ultimate goals of both parties, results in a challenge with bringing them together (arif, et al. 2010). with strong promotion from the chinese government from 2007, publications on the uec have been steadily increasing in the last decade. this study aims to map the overall research status of uec publications in china and identify the most popular research topics under uec theme and the most frequently adopted research methods in the publications. three hundred high-quality journal papers on uec were derived from 2010-2019 for statistical analysis, based on the result of both qualitative and quantitative content analysis. it was found that since the first uec publication in 1990 in china, the number of uec research outputs experienced both rises and falls before 2001, whereas after 2002 it has been increasing steadily. specifically, after 2007, the number of uec publications has been rising significantly, with only minor decreases in 2016 and 2017. course development (52.94%) and practice resource development (24.89%) were two of the most popular research topics in the uec field from 2010-2019, which might also imply the potential application opportunities in practice. as to the research methods adopted by uec researchers in china, more than half (55.94%) of uec papers employed the elaboration method, followed by case study (21.25%) and comparison (6.56%) in the same period. these findings address the knowledge gap in the existing uec literature, and present a practical contribution, since this study may help universities, which offer construction management programs, understand the general development status of uec in china and globally, and take effective measures to strengthen their partnership with companies. in addition, the review on the uec application and theory development status may also be a valuable reference for researchers to embark on relevant research in the future. several limitations exist in this study, which deserve future research in this field. although a brief review of the overall paper was conducted in the data collection process when determining the quality of a specific paper, the 300 sample papers may not be the best quality in the last decade, since the authors primarily followed the principle of descending order of download frequency, as the threshold to determine the quality of papers with subjective evaluation process. this also means that high-quality papers with lower download frequency may not be included in the investigation. on the other hand, with comparison to the large amount of uec papers published in the same period, the 300 sample papers may not represent the overall status and development trend of uec research in china. in future research, more high-quality uec papers will be analyzed to derive more comprehensive findings. references arif, m., egbu, c., alshawi, m., srinivas, s. and tariq, m., 2010. promoting green construction in india through industry-academia collaboration. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 136(3), pp.128-31. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000019 back, e., 2008. cii research report needs: an academic perspective. report to the academic committee of the construction industry institute, university of texas, austin, tx. chow, l.k., 2005. incorporating fuzzy membership functions and gap analysis concept into performance evaluation of engineering consultants hong kong study. phd. the university of hong kong. https://doi. org/10.5353/th_b3200369 a review of university-enterprise-cooperation research in china: a quantitative perspective construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202075 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000019 https://doi.org/10.5353/th_b3200369 https://doi.org/10.5353/th_b3200369 croissant, j., ogden, k. and ogden, g., 2000. teamed internships in environmental engineering and technology: project report. journal of engineering education, 89(2), pp.111-14. https://doi. org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2000.tb00502.x dulaimi, m.f., ling, f.y.y., ofori, g. and de silva, n., 2002. enhancing integration and innovation in construction. building research and information, 30(4), pp.237-47. https://doi. org/10.1080/09613210110115207 fellows, r. and liu, a., 2008. research methods for construction. 3rd ed. oxford, uk: blackwell science. gann, d., 2001. putting academic ideas into practice: technological progress and the absorptive capacity of construction organizations. construction management and economics, 19(3), pp.321-30. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446190010020480 haddara, m. and skanes, h., 2007. a reflection on cooperative education: from experience to experiential learning. asia-pacific journal of cooperative education, 8(1), 67-76. kerkes, d., 1995. arguments for recruiting faculty from business and industry. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 12(4), pp.242-45. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)10523928(1995)121:4(242) koehn, e., 2004. enhancing civil engineering education and abet criteria through practical experience. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 130(2), pp.77-83. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2004)130:2(77) laborde, m. and sanvido, v., 1994. introducing new process technologies into construction companies. journal of construction engineering and management, 120(3), pp.488-508. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(1994)120:3(488) lamancusa, j., zayas, j., soyster, a. l., morell, l. and jorgensen, j., 2008. the learning factory: industrypartnered active learning: 2006 bernard m. gordon prize lecture. journal of engineering education, 97(1), pp.5-11. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2008.tb00949.x li, t., li, f. and lu, g., 2015. improving the quality of engineering technology talents cultivation in terms of the “made in china 2025” plan. high engineering education research, (6), pp.17-23. (in chinese) lin, j., 2013a. evaluation and analysis of university’s progress in implementing petoe (2010-2012) (1). high engineering education research, (4), pp.1-12 (in chinese). lin, j., 2013b. evaluation and analysis of university’s progress in implementing petoe (2010-2012) (2). high engineering education research, (5), pp.13-24 (in chinese). lin, j., 2017. new engineering discipline development: an updated version of petoe with a strong effort. high engineering education research, (3), pp.7-14 (in chinese). lin, j., 2012. the comprehensive cooperation process between universities and companies on training outstanding engineers. high engineering education research, (3), pp.7-23 (in chinese). liu, b., liu, y., zhong, g. and zhang, j., 2012. exploration on the practical teaching systems based on real projects. high engineering education research, (1), pp.116-126 (in chinese). liu, f. and zhong, c., 2011. study on the development of case library and the case-based learning in ‘tax planning’ course based on the university-company cooperation model. high engineering education research, (3), pp.152-155 (in chinese). nae (national academy of engineering), 2005. educating the engineer of 2020: adapting engineering education to the new century. washington, dc: the national academies press. zhang, duan, wei, and shane construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202076 https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2000.tb00502.x https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2000.tb00502.x https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210110115207 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210110115207 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190010020480 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190010020480 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(1995)121:4(242) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(1995)121:4(242) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2004)130:2(77) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2004)130:2(77) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1994)120:3(488) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1994)120:3(488) https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2008.tb00949.x russell, j. and stouffer, b., 2003. leadership: is it time for an educational change? leadership and management in engineering, 3(1), pp.2-3. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1532-6748(2003)3:1(2) shapira, a. and rosenfeld, y., 2011. achieving construction innovation through academia-industry cooperation keys to success. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 137(4), pp.223-31. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000057 smith, n., smith, j., battalora, l. and teschner, b., 2018. industry–university partnerships: engineering education and corporate social responsibility. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 144(3): 04018002, pp.1-15. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000367 tang, l.y.n., 2011. effective and efficient briefing in public private partnership projects in the construction industry. phd. the hong kong polytechnic university. tener, r., 1996. industry-university partnerships for construction engineering education. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 122 (4), pp.156-62. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)1052-3928(1996)122:4(156) toor, s. and ofori, g., 2008. developing construction professionals of the 21st century: renewed vision for leadership. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 134(3), pp.279-86. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2008)134:3(279) waters, c., alvine, s. and eble-hankins, m., 2011. industry-experienced graduate student program: innovative collaboration in architectural engineering at the university of nebraska, lincoln. journal of architectural engineering, 18(1), pp.61-63. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000046 wu, x. and du, z., 2008. developing an integral teaching-learning centre to jointly produce postgraduate students. degree and postgraduate education, special issue, pp.74-76 (in chinese). xiao, j. and fan, x., 2017. strengthening the training links to comprehensively improve students’ engineering expertise. high engineering education research, (4), pp.78-80 (in chinese). yang, h., zhang, w. and wu, l., 2017. research on the education model and reform strategies of the cooperation between universities and companies under the background of made in china 2015 plan. high engineering education research, (3), pp.61-65 (in chinese). yeung, j.f.y., 2007. developing a partnering performance index for construction projects–a fuzzy set theory approach. phd. the hong kong polytechnic university. yi, x., wen, y. and chen, z., 2014. literature review of university-company-cooperation research in twenty years in china. higher education forum, (2), pp.36-41 (in chinese). zhang, j., yin, z. and cheng, p., 2013. research on university-company-cooperation of vocational institutions: literature review and future research directions. modern education management, (2), 100-104 (in chinese). zhang, s., chan, a.p.c., feng, y., duan, h. and ke, y., 2016. critical review on ppp research–a search from the chinese and international journals. international journal of project management, 34(4), pp.597612. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.02.008 zhang, s., galvin, s. and duan, h., 2018. bridging the practice and classroom through professional practice modules to improve the competence of construction management graduates. the construction, building and real estate research conference of the royal institution of chartered surveyors, rics hq, london, uk. a review of university-enterprise-cooperation research in china: a quantitative perspective construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202077 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1532-6748(2003)3:1(2) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000057 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000367 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(1996)122:4(156) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(1996)122:4(156) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2008)134:3(279) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000046 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.02.008 construction economics and building vol. 18, no. 3 september 2018 © 2018 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: livesey, p. v. and runsen, g. 2018. autoethnography and theory testing. construction economics and building, 18:3, 40-54. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v18i3.6139 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | ajceb.epress. lib.uts.edu.au research article autoethnography and theory testing peter vincent livesey1*, goren runsen2 1 school of the built environment, university of technology sydney, po box 123 broadway, nsw 2007 australia. peter.livesey@uts.edu.au 2 school of the built environment, university of technology sydney, po box 123 broadway, nsw 2007 australia. karl.runeson@uts.edu.au *corresponding author: peter vincent livesey, school of the built environment, university of technology sydney, po box 123, broadway, nsw 2007 australia. peter.livesey@uts.edu.au doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i3.6139 article history: received 17/06/2017; revised 21/07/2018; accepted 19/09/2018; published 03/10/2018 abstract one of the problems in construction management research is how to harvest the living experience of people working in the profession. surveys and interviews are the common methods, but they have obvious problems, not only with defining terminology and targeting the appropriate populations but also with the knowledge of the respondents and their willingness to reflect. different forms of ethnography, in their conventional forms overcome most of these problems, but create a new set of problems, particularly in terms of our ability to generalise and verify the results. the purpose of this paper is firstly to advocate that one such approach: autoethnography, which allows researchers to introduce their own lived experience into their research and secondly, to show how this approach can be structured to overcome common – and justified objections to autoethnography. to do this we use a study involving a recent research project investigating the importance of emotional intelligence (ei) in the management of large projects. the paper shows that autoethnography can be applied analytically and rigorously so that it can be used for theory testing and theory building. in doing so, it opens up an untapped source of data to researchers – their own living experience. keywords autoethnography, theory testing, autoethnographic data verification declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 40 introduction the conventional format of a research project is a review of what is already known about the subject matter or phenomena under investigation – the literature review a statement of one or more hypotheses followed by the collection of data, their analysis and organisation into useful information quantitative, qualitative or mixed a discussion of the findings, including, when appropriate, a validation of the results and finally, the conclusion. there are some variations in this pattern, primarily about the use of hypotheses and the method of analysing data. different sources of data require different methods of collection. one of the problems in disciplines like construction management is how to access the large pool of information stored in the lived experience of practitioners in the field. much of this information is never shared or made available to researchers and is permanently lost as the practitioner ceases to be actively involved in the profession. attempts to retrieve this knowledge, typically using methods such as surveys and interviews, all suffer from weaknesses including: • bias introduced as a product of the survey method that is chosen (watt et al., 2002 ). • bias introduced as a result of systematic differences between respondents and nonrespondents (richardson, 2005). • difficulties of obtaining a representative sample( johnson, 2012). it is also difficult to identify the right people with the right knowledge to survey (i.e. identifying the target population). having identified the population there may also be problems in obtaining a robust sample. additionally, response rates are often low, making meaningful statistical analysis and control over biased responses difficult. as a result, surveys often turn into opinion polls of subjects who may, or may not, know what they are talking about – if they bother answering where poor or non-existing definitions of terms lead to misunderstandings and answers that are superficial and badly considered. despite these well recognised problems our discipline’s reliance on surveys as a research method has confined our research into very narrow segments of construction management. examining current research and research practices, it would appear that to restore the faith of practitioners in our research and to move the theoretical work of the discipline forward, construction management needs new approaches to gather data, not more advanced statistics to extract even more sets of questionable findings from dubious data sets. the purpose of this paper is firstly to advocate one such approach: autoethnography, a method that allows researchers to introduce a radically new source of data namely their own lived experience into their research and secondly, to show how this approach can be structured to overcome the common – and justified objections to autoethnography. to do this we use a study involving a recent research project investigating the importance of emotional intelligence (ei) in the management of large projects (livesy, 2016). the history of autoethnography autoethnography has been used as a qualitative method that combines the techniques of autobiography and ethnography. this method allows practitioners to use their experience to reflect on how they work, the skills they have found necessary and those events that brought the need for these skills to their attention. the problem is that, in many applications, this approach lacks external verification and is not therefore sufficiently rigorous to be accepted by many researchers. autoethnography and theory testing construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201841 autoethnography has been employed in sociology and anthropology by a number of writers (denzin, 1998, ellis, 2007, pratt, 2008, reed-danahay, 1997, sparkes, 2000). more recently, the method has been applied to discuss experiences in project management (nugapitiya, 2007, livesey, 2016) and hypermedia design (duncan, 2004). researchers engaging with autoethnography tend to use different approaches in the sense that they place different emphasis on auto(self ), -ethno(the cultural link) and -graphy (the application of a research process) and different examples of autoethnography fall at different places along the continuum of each of these three (reed-danahay, 1997). ellis et al. (2011) have suggested differences in autoethnography may be judged by the emphasis the authors place on the researcher and interaction with others, the context in which the research takes place, the emphasis on the power of a position in a relationship and finally by the degree to which traditional methods of analysis are employed. they identify eight styles: • reflective, in which the researchers, in addition to simply reporting stories resulting from their research, place a heavy emphasis on their own reflections including the interaction of their values, beliefs and experiences whilst doing the research (ellis (2004); • indigenous works, in which the researchers concentrate on power differences and their effects (denzin, 2008); • layered accounts, in which the researchers place a considerable emphasis on the data collection and literature review as well as their experiences (doloriert and sambrook, 2011); • narrative accounts, in which the researchers incorporate their experience into the research concerning the group being studied (tedlock, 1991); • interactive works, in which the researchers deal with highly emotional issues which are probed by in-depth interviews as exemplified by adams (2006); • community autoethnographers, in which the researchers involve themselves as part of a community and discuss how the community deals with the social and cultural issues associated with that community (toyosaki et al., 2009); • co-constructed writing, in which there is a shared work between the parties involved in the relationship or a particular situation as in berg and trujillo (2008); • personal narrative style autoethnography, which is used when the author considers some aspect of himself to be worthy of research as in berry’s work (2007). doloriert and sambrook (2011), however, have suggested that autoethnography can be considered as having developed into three epistemological alternatives viz: • evocative interpretivism that uses an emotive style typified by ellis and bochner (2000); • an analytical style typified by anderson (2006a); • a style dealing with power conflicts typified by jones (2008). writers using the evocative style tend to use an emotional style and aim to fully engage the reader in their narrative. a definition of this form of autoethnography is provided by denzin who says that users of this style “bypass the representational problem by invoking an epistemology of emotion, moving the reader to feel the feelings of the other” (1996). however, entertaining this may be, it has limited use for generalisations. mitch allen (publisher of left coast press) said in a personal interview in a may 2006 report: an autoethnography must look at experience analytically. otherwise [you’re] telling [your] story—and that’s nice—but people do that on oprah [the u.s.–based television program] livesey and runsen construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201842 every day. why is your story more valid than anyone else’s? what makes your story more valid is that you are a researcher? [the answer is, ] you have a set of theoretical and methodological tools and research literature to use. that’s your advantage. if you can’t frame it around these tools and literature and just frame it as “my story,” then why or how should i privilege your story over anyone else’s i see 25 times a day on tv? (ellis et al. (2011, p. 276) this may be compared with anderson’s statement regarding analytic autoethnography: the definitive feature of analytic autoethnography is this value-added quality of not only truthfully rendering the social world under investigation but also transcending that world through broader generalization” (2006a, p. 388). when the objective of the research, as in the paper forming the background to this study, is improving theoretical understanding which involves theory building and/or testing the conventional critisism of qualitative, non-generalisable stories, which are generally leveled at research using the evocative style, can be avoided by using the analytical style suggested by anderson (2006), in which he notes the following key requirements: • the researcher is a complete member of the social event under study. there is awareness of the researcher’s connection to the situation under investigation and their impact on it (analytic reflexivity). • there is visibility of the researcher’s own experiences. • there is dialogue with informants beyond the self. • there is commitment to theoretical analysis requiring not simply the documented experience of the event but also to provide some broader understanding of the situation under investigation. a further characteristic of analytic autoethnography is its commitment to an analytic agenda. the purpose of analytic autoethnography is not simply to document personal experience, to provide an “insider’s perspective,” or to evoke emotional resonance with the reader. rather, the defining characteristic of analytic social science is to use empirical data to gain insight into some broader set of social phenomena than those provided by the data themselves. finally, it can be seen that the analytical style described by anderson is similar technique to the layer account discussed by doloriert and sambrook (2011) the use of analytical style is supported by several researchers including: (atkinson, 2006, buckley, 2015). for a more detailed review of the issues surrounding analytical autoethnography see (anderson, 2006a, atkinson, 2006, anderson, 2006b, burnier, 2006, denzin, 2006, ellis and bochner, 2006, hunt and junco, 2006, vryan, 2006) the approach used in the case study described below meets the requirements laid out by anderson in that: the researcher had worked in project management for over 35 years of which 10 years were spent in managing mega-projects, the work demonstrates a connection to the research and the researcher’s impact on the subject matter, experiences, are clearly visible to the reader and dialogs with others than the researcher are clearly revealed. lastly the work was used to broaden the understanding of the skills required in project management and the findings moved ei from a nice to have skill for project managers to a necessary requirement. all this makes it possible to utilize data not available in any other approach to data collection. ellis et al. quoting mitch allen (2011 p 276, suggests that a way to further overcome the objection against autoethnography of a lack of an analytical approach, is for the researchers to use their experience to develop a framework, to compare that experience autoethnography and theory testing construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201843 and framework with existing research (ronai, 1995, duncan, 2004) and to remember the guidelines provided by anderson (2006a) as to what constitutes analytical autoethnography. the research meets this suggestion by following yin’s s recommendation of using triangulation as a method for validating qualitative work. in research, triangulation generally refers to “collecting evidence from different sources” (yin, 2010, p79). in his research the author used two additional methods of generating data. in common with most forms of quantitative research, it started with a comprehensive literature review that was used to establish the framework for the autoethnography. the literature review generated the theoretical framework for the research and suggested the hypotheses to be tested. for verification, the author then employed a delphi study to test the findings of the autoethnography by incorporating the lived experience of other practitioners. additionally, creswell (2013) recommended using mixed methods to meet the challenge of verification often levelled at single method approaches such as autoethnography. in the research in question the use of autoethnography (qualitative method) and a delphi study (quantitative method) met the requirements of a mixed method approach and thus strengthened the verification of the results. satisfying these requirements doesn’t automatically guarantee good research. there are many general challenges to autoethnography and the next section discusses how they were overcome in the case study research project and in doing so indicating general guidelines for using this method. challenges to the use of autoethnography autoethnography as an approach has attracted some criticism from more conventional researchers, as for example delamont (2007). these criticisms challenge autoethnography on the grounds that: • it lacks an analytical approach. • it lacks verification. • it lacks objectivity. • its focus on the self is self-indulgent and it uses an overly emotional style. • it is unethical. • there is a risk of false memories. the method of dealing with these challenges in analytical autoethnography are discussed below. it lacks an analytical approach and cannot be verified. while this criticism might be true for most forms of autoethnography it misses the point in analytical autoethnography. the analytical approach and the triangulation ensures that the approach suggested here corresponds to the analysis and verification of more conventional quantitative research. the same argument applies also to another frequent criticism: that autoethnography tends to be experiential and so lacking in analytical outcomes (delamont, 2007). livesey and runsen construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201844 it lacks objectivity. as the autoethnographer is personally involved in the research, the method has been challenged as lacking objectivity. this issue is answered by ellis et al. who describe autoethnography as “one of the approaches that acknowledges and accommodates subjectivity, emotionality and the researcher’s influence on research, rather than hiding from these matters or assuming they don’t exist” (2011, p. 274). while it’s true, that it’s difficult to avoid subjectivity in any form of research, suggesting that a method is no worse than others, as ellis et al. does, may be true, but is not a very positive argument. it ignores for instance that due to the literature review, the understanding and the knowledge of the issues by the researcher should be far superior to the normal understanding of survey participants, who, as outlined in the introduction, are often called on to respond to questions which they do not understand or where they have a very limited knowledge. it’s likely, therefore, that the answers are more considered and reflective, and therefore more objective and thoughtful. it is unethical autothnographers are forced to involve others who were involved in the experiences discussed and who may not wish to be identified. they may also have different memories of the events but are not afforded the opportunity to put forward their point of view. this problem has been highlighted and discussed by a number of authors (ellis, 2007, adams, 2008, trahar, 2009, etherington, 2009). whilst it is very difficult, if not impossible, to ensure anonymity in this form of research the following steps can be taken to reduce the degree to which an individual could be identified. 1. rely on a significant time interval having occurred to reduce the likelihood of others identifying the event. 2. if the event occurred more recently, the place and time where the event occurred should not be identified. if 1 and 2 are not sufficient, engage in creative non-fiction to make changes to the narrative surrounding the event that, while not affecting the substance of the experience, will render identification of the individual(s) that the researcher was interacting with more difficult. finally, by dealing with the impact of the event on the researcher’s thoughts and behaviour and not involving the feelings and thoughts of others, the potential to impact on the character(s) involved in the situation is reduced. its focus on the self is self-indulgent and it uses an overly emotional style. autoethnography has been criticised as self-indulgence (holt, 2003) and romantic in construction (atkinson, 1997) and lacking in scholarship (parks, 1998). the emotional writing style that is intended to produce an overly emotional response (reed-danahay, 1997, ellis and bochner, 2000, holt, 2003) has been ruled out in analytical autoethnography. the writing style should be the same as for more traditional research. there is a risk of false memories. it is not uncommon for people who have experienced the same event to have different accounts of what they observed (owen et al., 2009). autoethnography and theory testing construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201845 this was overcome in this study by the researcher dealing with what he had learned from an event and how that learning affected his behaviour. to a large extent, the details of the event recalled were therefore insignificant in comparison to the learning and ongoing behavioural changes they brought about. study methodology and results the study discussed in this paper involves a major research project to establish the need for emotional intelligence (ei) in the management of large projects. it utilised data from the researcher’s 35 years of experience with managing construction projects including three mega projects, based on the theoretical framework of the goleman-boyatzis model (goleman et al., 2013). as its basis the research used a triangulation method as recommended by yin (2010), the first stage of which involved a literature review, which identified the problems in project management, the general relevance of ei and the specific significance of competencies in the goleman-boyatzis model (goleman et al., 2013). tables 1 and 2 below present a summary of the problems identified as a result of the literature review and the goleman-boyatzis model. table 1 problems identified in project management as a result of the literature review fundamental problem resultant impact of the problem considered in the evaluation the project’s limited time frame. building a cohesive team. building trust within the team. developing rapport with stakeholders. developing a working control system. obtaining organisational support. the team members’ diverse backgrounds. team members’ personal goals and resultant personal agendas. team members’ cultural backgrounds. team members’ professional backgrounds. team members’ communication needs. team members’ different geographic locations. team members’ native language differences. the stakeholders’ diverse backgrounds. stakeholders’ personal goals and resultant personal agendas. stakeholders’ cultural backgrounds. stakeholders’ professional backgrounds. stakeholders’ communication needs. stakeholders’ different geographic locations. stakeholders’ native language differences the unique nature of each project. understanding the issues involved in the particular project. managing internal stakeholder expectations. managing external stakeholder expectations. belief that you and the project team can solve the project’s problems. livesey and runsen construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201846 ambiguity and change. lack of a clearly defined project scope. scope changes as the project progresses. lack of information to make fully informed decisions. team member changes. unexpected and unforeseen events (e.g., subcontractor goes bankrupt). changes in the external environment (e.g., legislative and economic). changes in project team and stakeholder personnel. loss of a cohesive team. loss of trust between team members. loss of relationships with key stakeholders. conflicts (the disagreements that arise prior to a formal dispute). those arising internal to the team. those arising external to the team but internal to the parent organisation. those arising with subcontractors. those arising with other stakeholders. table 2 summary of the goleman boyatzis model self other awareness self-awareness: reading you own emotions together and recognising their impact. social awareness: attuned to how others feel. emotional self-awareness: recognising our emotions and their effects on personal performance including recognition of a tendency to avoid issues or situations that cause us discomfort. accurate self-assessment: knowing our strengths and limits. self-confidence: a strong sense of one’s self-worth and capabilities. empathy: understanding others’ feelings and perspectives and taking an active interest in their concerns. organisational awareness: understanding the organisation’s issues, dynamics and politics. services orientation: recognising and meeting customer needs. table 1 continued autoethnography and theory testing construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201847 management self-management: focused control towards the achievement of goals. relationship management: the ability to guide the emotional tone of the group. emotional self-control: keeping disruptive emotions and impulses under control. transparency: maintaining integrity and acting congruently with one’s values. optimism: persistence in pursuing goals despite obstacles and setbacks. adaptability: the ability to adapt to change and work effectively as circumstances change. achievement orientation: the drive to meet an internal standard of excellence. initiative: the readiness to act in order to seize an opportunity. developing others: sensing others’ development needs and bolstering their abilities. inspirational leadership: inspiring and guiding others either as a group or an individual. influence: the ability to persuade others. change catalyst: initiating or managing change. conflict management: resolving disagreements when they occur or preventing a disagreement from happening or growing. teamwork and collaboration: working with others towards shared goals and guiding the group to achieve a collective goal. in the second stage an autoethnography was developed which discussed the problems the author had encountered during his career and identified which of the competencies in the goleman model would have been relevant in dealing with the issue identified, all of which were found to be of relevance. finally, a delphi group was established involving over 25 participants. members of the delphi panel: • must have had over 20 years of experience in the management of construction projects; • must have experience in managing a project greater in size than $500 million. there was no requirement for the panel member to be degree qualified, as it was thought that any potential participant meeting the above criteria certainly qualified as an expert in the management of large construction projects. participants who had either worked for contractors or acted for the client were sought. in the delphi study panel members were asked to rank the usefulness of the specific ei competencies identified in the goleman-boyatzis model (2013) in dealing with the project problems presented in round 1. the results are presented in table 3 table 3 relevance of the goleman-boyatzis competencies to the project management problems identified in the literature competency times found not relevant relevance emotional self-awareness 3 98.3% accurate self-assessment 3 98.3% self-confidence 5 97.3% emotional self-control 0 100.0% table 2 continued livesey and runsen construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201848 transparency 1 99.3% optimism 7 95.0% adaptability 0 100.0% achievement orientation 0 100.0% initiative 0 100.0% empathy 0 100.0% service orientation 0 100.0% organisational awareness 0 100.0% developing others 7 95.0% inspirational leadership 1 99.7% influence 0 100.0% change catalyst 0 100.0% conflict management 0 100.0% teamwork and collaboration 0 100.0% as can be seen the majority of the competencies were found to be 100% relevant with no competency had a relevance below 95%. the delphi members were also asked to rank the importance of the competencies in dealing with the project problems under discussion. these results were compared with those from the autoethnography in table 4. table 4 comparison of autoethnography and delphi study results self-awareness cluster competency autoethnography ranking by frequency of occurrence ranking by delphi group (adjusting for statistical significance) emotional self-awareness 1 1 accurate self-assessment 2 1 self-confidence 1 1 self-management cluster competency autoethnography ranking by frequency of occurrence ranking by delphi group (adjusting for statistical significance) transparency 1 1 emotional self-control 2 1 adaptability 2 2 achievement orientation 2 2 initiative 3 2 optimism 1 1 social awareness cluster table 3 continued autoethnography and theory testing construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201849 competency autoethnography ranking by frequency of occurrence ranking by delphi group (adjusting for statistical significance) organisational awareness 2 1 empathy 1 1 services orientation 3 1 relationship management cluster competency autoethnography ranking by frequency of occurrence ranking by delphi group (adjusting for statistical significance) inspirational leadership 5 1 teamwork and collaboration collaboration 1 1 influence 4 1 conflict management 2 2 change catalyst 6 2 developing others 3 3 the difference in the rankings obtained in the autoethnography to that of the delphi panel is explained by the frequency of the competencies in the autoethnography being based on the author’s developmental needs and their emotional impact on him (the higher the impact the more likely he would have been to remember the event) rather than their relative importance in successfully managing a project. the relative ranking obtained from the delphi panel members reflects their view of the importance of the competencies in managing large projects. further details of the autoethnographical method employed in order to establish a firm foundation for the research and to ensure that it is not viewed as a series of short stories the criteria suggested by (eisner, 1991) for use in qualitative research provided the backdrop. these criteria consist of: • instrumental utility; • coherence; • consensus. to this suggested list may be added the production of a scholarly account. instrumental utility it was this identified by (eisner, 1991) as the most important test for qualitative work. it requires that the research must have an identifiable usefulness. to meet this requirement eisner suggests that a study should achieve one or more of the following: • assist its reader to understand a confusing situation, • provide some guide as to the behaviour to be expected in similar situations, • bring to light factors that had not been previously noticed. in the study project, the analytical approach, aimed at testing a theory, satisfied all of these requirements. the project also had an identifiable usefulness for the profession in that table 4 continued livesey and runsen construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201850 it highlighted factors involved in project management that are not normally considered part of the project management body of knowledge. while not providing a firm predictive model, it provided a framework that, if followed, gives a greater possibility of success. by achieving the first two points, the research will bring a further level of understanding to the problems involved in managing projects. cohesion it is suggested by (eisner, 1991) that coherence in research can be identified by cohesion of the arguments presented, that is, they are internally consistent and supported by evidence. in this research the researcher used a literature review and a delphi study to either confirm or rebut the results of the autoethnography. consensus to achieve consensus, it is not necessary to ensure that others find that the conclusions of the work agree with their own lived experience. it is only necessary that they agree that the conclusions reached are consistent with the evidence presented in the research. (there is an analogy here to legal argument presented in court proceedings.) production of a scholarly account to ensure the production of a scholarly account the objectives of providing insight into phenomena under investigation and providing guidance to others as to where future research maybe carried out, were made a major goal of the research. summary and conclusion autoethnography has, some would say justifiably, a reputation for just creating nice or interesting stories without much scientific value in that the findings can’t be generalised or verified. this paper has presented an approach that makes it possible to use autoethnography to test and/or build theories by structuring the research in a conventional way: creating a theoretical framework – a literature review gathering and analysing data – in this case from past experience of the researcher and finally verifying the findings in this case through a delphi study and a comparison with the original theoretical framework. the paper starts by outlining different styles and approaches to autoethnographic research. the requirements of analytical autoethnography are outlined and discussed. it is then confirmed that the study – the testing of the goleman-boyatzis model satisfies all of these requirements. a delphi study, using 25 experienced project managers over five stages examined and confirmed the validity of the test. the results confirm the goleman-boyatzis model and the importance of emotional intelligence in project management. it also confirms the use of analytical autoethnography for theory building and testing and thereby opens a way to use one of the most extensive but so far inaccessible sources of data in our discipline: the knowledge that the professionals apply every day in their work. references adams, t. e. 2006. seeking father relationally reframing a troubled love story. qualitative inquiry, 12, pp.704-723 https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800406288607. autoethnography and theory testing construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201851 adams, t. e. 2008. a review of narrative ethics. qualitative inquiry, 14, pp.175-194 https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800407304417. anderson, l. 2006a. analytic autoethnography. journal of contemporary ethnography, 35h, pp.373-395 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241605280449. anderson, l. 2006b. on apples, oranges, and autopsies: a response to commentators. journal of contemporary ethnography, 35, pp.450-465 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241606287395. atkinson, p. 1997. narrative turn or blind alley? qualitative health research, 7, pp.325-344 https://doi.org/10.1177/104973239700700302. atkinson, p. 2006. rescuing autoethnography. journal of contemporary ethnography, 35, pp.400-404 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241606286980. berg, l. v. & trujillo, n. 2008. cancer and death: a love story in two voices, hampton press https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800408329240. berry, k. 2007. embracing the catastrophe gay body seeks acceptance. qualitative inquiry, 13, pp.259281 https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800406294934. buckley, r. 2015. autoethnography helps analyse emotions. frontiers in psychology, 6, pp.209 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.00209. burnier, d. 2006. encounters with the self in social science research: a political scientist looks at autoethnography. journal of contemporary ethnography, 35, pp.410-418 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241606286982. creswell, j. w. 2013. research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches, sage. delamont, s. 2007. arguments against auto-ethnography. qualitative researcher, pp.2-4. denzin, n. k. 1996. interpretive ethnography: ethnographic practices for the 21st century, sage publications https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452243672. denzin, n. k. 1998. from positivism to interpretivism and beyond: tales of transformation in educational and social research (the mind-body connection). teachers college record, 99, pp.594. denzin, n. k. 2006. analytic autoethnography, or déjà vu all over again. journal of contemporary ethnography, 35, pp.419-428 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241606286985. denzin, n. k. 2008. handbook of critical and indigenous methodologies, sage publications, incorporated. doloriert, c. & sambrook, s. 2011. accommodating an autoethnographic phd: the tale of the thesis, the viva voce, and the traditional business school. journal of contemporary ethnography, 40, pp.582-615 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241610387135. duncan, m. 2004. autoethnography: critical appreciation of an emerging art. international journal of qualitative methods, 3, pp.28-39 https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690400300403. eisner, e. w. 1991. the enlightened eye: qualitative inquiry and the enhancement of educational practice, merrill. ellis, c. 2004. the ethnographic i: a methodological novel about autoethnography, altamira pr. ellis, c. 2007. telling secrets, revealing lives relational ethics in research with intimate others. qualitative inquiry, 13, pp.3-29 https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800406294947. livesey and runsen construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201852 ellis, c., adams, t. e. & bochner, a. p. 2011. autoethnography: an overview. historical social research/ historische sozialforschung, pp.273-290. ellis, c. s. & bochner, a. 2000. autoethnography, personal narrative, reflexology: researcher as subject. in: norman k, d. & lincoln, y. s. (eds.) handbook of qualitative research. 2nd ed. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. ellis, c. s. & bochner, a. p. 2006. analyzing analytic autoethnography: an autopsy. journal of contemporary ethnography, 35, 429-449 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241606286979. etherington, k. 2009. ethical research in reflexive relationships. relational ethics in practice: narratives from counselling and psychotherapy, pp.58. goleman, d., boyatzis, r. & mckee, a. 2013. primal leadership: unleashing the power of emotional intelligence, harvard business press. holt, n. l. 2003. representation, legitimation, and autoethnography: an autoethonographic writing story. international journal of qualitative methods, 2, pp.1-22 https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690300200102. hunt, s. a. & junco, n. r. 2006. introduction to two thematic issues: defective memory and analytical autoethnography. journal of contemporary ethnography, 35, pp.371-372 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241606291617. johnson, t. p. a. w., j.s 2012. response rates and nonresponse errors in surveys. jama, 307, pp.18051806. jones, s. h. 2008. making the personal political. collecting and interpreting qualitative materials, 3, pp.205. livesey, p. v. 2016. the role of emotional intelligence in the management of large construction projects. unpublished phd thesis uts. nugapitiya, m. 2007. human interaction in project management. phd, university of technology. owen, j. a. t., mcrae, c., adams, t. e. & vitale, a. 2009. truth troubles. qualitative inquiry, 15, pp.178-200 https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800408318316. parks, m. r. 1998. where does scholarship begin. american communication journal, pp.1. pratt, m. l. 2008. imperial eyes: travel writing and transculturation, new york, routledge. reed-danahay, d. e. (ed.) 1997. auto/ethnography: rewriting the self and social, oxford: berg. richardson, j. t. 2005. instruments for obtaining student feedback: a review of the literature. assessment & evaluation in higher education, 30, pp.387-415 https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930500099193. ronai, c. r. 1995. multiple refelections of child sex abuse: an argument for a layered account. journal of contemporary ethnography, 23, pp.395-426 https://doi.org/10.1177/089124195023004001. sparkes, a. c. 2000. autoethnography and narratives of self: reflections on criteria in action. sociology of sport journal, 17, pp.21-43 https://doi.org/10.1123/ssj.17.1.21. tedlock, b. 1991. from participant observation to the observation of participation: the emergence of narrative ethnography. journal of anthropological research, pp.69-94 https://doi.org/10.1086/ jar.47.1.3630581. autoethnography and theory testing construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201853 toyosaki, s., pensoneau-conway, s. l., wendt, n. a. & leathers, k. 2009. community autoethnography: compiling the personal and resituating whiteness. cultural studies↔ critical methodologies, 9, pp.56-83 https://doi.org/10.1177/1532708608321498. trahar, s. beyond the story itself: narrative inquiry and autoethnography in intercultural research in higher education. forum qualitative sozialforschung/forum: qualitative social research, 2009. vryan, k. d. 2006. expanding analytic autoethnography and enhancing its potential. journal of contemporary ethnography, 35, pp.405-409 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241606286977. watt, s., simpson, c., mckillop, c. & nunn, v. 2002. electronic course surveys: does automating feedback and reporting give better results? assessment & evaluation in higher education, 27, pp.325-337 https://doi.org/10.1080/0260293022000001346. yin, r. k. 2010. qualitative research from sstart to finish, guilford press. livesey and runsen construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201854 construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85 copyright: construction economics and building 2016. © 2016 craig langston and amir naser ghanbaripour. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 unported (cc by 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: langston, c. and ghanbaripour, a.n. 2016. a management maturity model (mmm) for project-based organisational performance assessment. construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i4.5028 corresponding author: craig langston; email clangsto@bond.edu.au publisher: university of technology sydney (uts) epress a management maturity model (mmm) for project-based organisational performance assessment craig langston1 and amir naser ghanbaripour 2 1bond university, australia 2iran university of science and technology abstract common sense suggests that organisations are more likely to deliver successful projects if they have systems in place that reflect a mature project environment based on a culture of continuous improvement. this paper develops and discusses a management maturity model (mmm) to assess the maturity of project management organisations through a customisable, systematic, strategic and practical methodology inspired from the seminal work of darwin, deming, drucker and daniel. the model presented is relevant to organisations, such as construction and engineering companies, that prefer to use the project management body of knowledge (pmbok™ guide) published by the project management institute (pmi), but without the disadvantages of excessive time and cost commitments and a ‘one size fits all’ approach linked to rigid increments of maturity. it offers a game-changing advance in the application of projectbased organisational performance assessment compared to existing market solutions that are unnecessarily complex. the feasibility of mmm is field-tested using a medium-sized data centre infrastructure firm in tehran. keywords: project management, delivery success, organisation maturity modelling, pmbok paper type: research article introduction all kinds of organisations, whether they be government agencies, private companies, charitable institutions or other collectives, spend time and effort to define their short, medium and long term objectives and the strategies that help them to be achieved (demir and kocabaş, 2010). the essence of project management is a direct outcome of what is the required scope of work and how well it is implemented (silva et al., 2014). the contemporary need for project management, and the contribution that is possible from deploying a structured methodology, regardless of industry sector or discipline, is well documented. project management has become both a key activity of organisational management and has enabled success, balance and harmony to be realised by global organisations (hutson, 1997). the definition of organisational maturity refers to operations that are in perfect synergy to achieve strategic objectives (silva et al., 2014). maturity models are considered to be tools that simulate specific aspects of capability and define the qualitative attributes that characterise competence at a particular level of performance (demir and kocabaş, 2010). these levels are typically sequential (kohlegger et al., 2009). the origins of maturity models lie in the discipline of total quality management. they require a thorough understanding of an organisation’s current https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i4.5028 construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85 langston and ghanbaripour 69 strategic position and where it aims to be in the future (brookes and clark, 2009). a maturity model provides a framework for systematic and continuous performance improvement. organisations are considered more likely to deliver successful projects if they have systems in place that reflect a mature project management environment based on a culture of continuous improvement (crawford, 2011). over the years research has been undertaken to develop frameworks that objectively measure organisational maturity (cooke-davies, 2004; nesensohn et al., 2014). popular frameworks in widespread use are generally complex and require a high degree of expertise and time when deployed in practice. nesensohn et al. (2014) found that over the past two decades there has been a rapid growth in publications about organisational maturity. based on a search of four key databases (i.e. business source complete; emerald; scopus; discover) from 1990 to 2013, they found that the number of relevant articles per database has increased every year. there has been a simultaneous growth in maturity models over this period. the aim of this paper is to set out a management maturity model based on the plan-do-check-act (pdca) cycle to assess the maturity and performance of organisations in project management environments. this includes a review of relevant literature, reflection of criticisms, model development based on a unique conceptual approach, and field testing of this proposed solution in a real organisation, followed by discussion of implementation feedback and final conclusions. literature review the achievement of consistent project management excellence is assisted by mature organisational systems and processes. the understanding of maturity, however, is often a subjective concept (pretorius et al., 2012). maturity models typically have a conceptual underpinning with constituent components that define the progressive development of capabilities, and ideally outline the processes that organisations could implement to achieve a more mature state (pmi, 2013). maturity improvements require a concerted effort of continuous review and reflection at an organisational management level. it should be noted that maturity models, like the discipline of project management itself, apply generically to any industry sector. for example, no compelling consensus was found in the literature that organisations undertaking engineering and construction projects require a bespoke solution. some models have certainly emerged from a particular sector, such as software development, but their subsequent application has been demonstrated over time to have a much broader appeal. there are now a number of maturity models operating within a range of business management fields, and in particular within the discipline of project management. the three main players in project management are discussed below. capability maturity model integration (cmmi) the capability maturity model integration (cmmi) project had its origins in a number of other tools that were developed from 1986 and were combined together in 1993 to form a single integrated tool (de souza and gomes, 2015). according to the cmmi institute, over 10,500 individual cmmi appraisals have now been undertaken globally since 2007, making it the most successful maturity tool available. the cmmi institute operates through a network of cmmi partners, which comprise trained and certified organisations and individuals providing official training programs, appraisals and other consulting services. the cmmi institute partner network enables global reach to organisational clients and is the only avenue for authentic cmmi services outside of the institute itself (http://cmmiinstitute.com/about-cmmi-institute). construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85 langston and ghanbaripour 70 building on an organisation’s business performance objectives, cmmi provides a set of practices for improving processes, resulting in a continuous improvement system that paves the way for better operations and performance. cmmi applies to organisations that undertake software development, systems engineering and product development through the use of a single tool to assess maturity or capability, and provides direction while developing more sophisticated processes (staples et al., 2007; pane and sarno, 2015). there are five maturity levels used in the ‘staged’ representation of cmmi: 1. initial: processes are unpredictable, poorly controlled and reactive 2. managed: processes are characterised for projects and are often reactive 3. defined: processes are characterised for the organisation and are proactive 4. quantitatively managed: processes are measured and controlled 5. optimising: there is a focus on process improvement an immature organisation would display characteristics such as process improvisation, approved processes being ignored, reactive as opposed to proactive decisions, unrealistic budget and schedule constraints, quality sacrificed for schedule, and no objective measure of quality. in contrast, the characteristics of a mature organisation include inter-group communication and coordination, work accomplished according to plan, practices consistent with processes, processes updated as necessary, well-defined roles/responsibilities, and formal commitment from management. cmmi can also be used as ‘continuous’ representation, where six capability levels apply instead. in this case, ‘level 1: initial’ is subdivided into ‘level 0: incomplete’ and ‘level 1: performed’. the remaining levels are the same. there is little significance between the meaning attached to maturity and capability. some studies state that there is a problem with the adoption of cmmi by organisations, and facilitation of the assessment is required to avoid wasting resources (hardgrave and armstrong, 2005; staples and niazi, 2010; allué et al., 2013). according to allué et al. (2013), one way of achieving facilitation is to provide organisations with tools or software products that make the adoption of cmmi easier. few tools support all of the types of cmmi-related activities however as the support level that is provided is often limited, and a tool’s ability to be customised according to the users’ needs is quite small (musat et al., 2010). cmmi is compatible with the agile project management methodology (jiang et al., 2004). portfolio, program & project management maturity model (p3m3) the office of government commerce (ogc) fostered the development of a government maturity standard called the portfolio, program and project management maturity model (p3m3), aligned to the prince2 methodology (gonzález et al., 2007). according to sowden et al. (2008:8), “p3m3 is not simply about isolated, here-and-now assessments – it also acts as a roadmap for ongoing improvement and progression towards realistic and achievable goals that are suitable for your business needs and aspirations”. gonzález et al. (2007) states that p3m3 focuses on the addition of portfolio and program management domains to earlier versions of the model, helping to expand emerging processes of project complexity that contribute to overall success. the levels of maturity in p3m3 are effectively identical to those for cmmi, and are described in table 1. p3m3, like prince2, is a joint venture between ogc and axelos and has a strong support base in the united kingdom. it is built on seven process-related perspectives that exist in project, program and portfolio domains and is assessed at five levels of increasing maturity (https://www.axelos.com/best-practice-solutions/p3m3/what-is-p3m3). these perspectives are: 1. organisational governance 2. management control construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85 langston and ghanbaripour 71 3. benefits management 4. risk management 5. stakeholder management 6. finance management 7. resource management young et al. (2014:220) argue that one deficiency of the p3m3 model is that it “uses a single number to represent maturity at the project, program and portfolio level, with this number being the lowest score in either generic attributes or the process perspectives across each sub-model […] the single number reported is therefore misleading and will generally report a lower level of maturity than what is present in an organisation, not only painting a poorer picture than what might exist [… but] disregarding the relative closeness of the next higher level”. another shortcoming they mention is that the ‘generic attributes’ evaluated in all three p3m3 domains are claimed as essential to achieving improvement in project management maturity. it is doubtful however whether these generic attributes are appropriate for program and portfolio management domains, which are typically more complex than standalone project management (artto et al., 2009; young et al., 2014). table 1: p3m3 maturity levels (sowden et al., 2008) organisational project management maturity model (opm3) another important model used in the project management discipline is opm3. developed by a team of volunteers from the pmi between 1998 and 2013, it is suitable for organisations of any construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85 langston and ghanbaripour 72 size, location or practice environment. it aims to enumerate the level of maturity of projects and practices, based on best practices as a methodology for assessment. similar to p3m3, it sets out requirements to assist in the development of better capabilities that underpin projects, programs and portfolios and assist organisations to realise strategic objectives through the delivery of successful outcomes (pmi, 2013; silva et al., 2014). this model supports both continuous process improvement to diagnose existing organisational systems, and uniquely highlights potential problems or deficiencies including the detailed design of necessary improvements (fahrenkrog et al., 2003). it is aligned specifically to the widely recognised pmbok methodology. opm3 compares organisational activities with a large number of standardised best practices, measuring them in project, program and portfolio management contexts by examining capabilities and related outcomes. organisations are then classified into four levels of maturity development, not five as embedded in cmmi and p3m3, for each process area in each domain (pinto and williams, 2013): 1. standardise: structured processes are adopted 2. measure: data is used to evaluate process performance 3. control: control plan developed for measures 4. continuously improve: processes are optimised cooke-davies (2004) state that the basic ‘building blocks’ of opm3 are: 1. use of best practices related to organisational project management 2. core capabilities that are needed to support the achievement of each best practice outcome 3. observable evidence that attests to the existence of specific capabilities that are routinely applied within an organisation 4. key performance indicators (kpis) and other metrics that provide a basis for objective outcome measurement 5. pathways that identify the capabilities that aggregate to attainment of relevant best practice outcomes importantly, opm3 creates and advocates the critical connection between organisational strategy and successful projects, as illustrated in figure 1. figure 1: core opm3 philosophy (pmi, 2013) opm3 is by far the most sophisticated of the identified maturity models in the discipline of project management, but also the most resource intensive (hillson, 2003; cooke-davies, 2004; backlund et al., 2014). current maturity models are unlikely to ever be the ‘silver bullet’ that one might hope for because they typically: 1. lack a well-researched and theoretical understanding of what is needed for successful project management outcomes construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85 langston and ghanbaripour 73 2. are founded on the assumption that there is an ideal path of development towards maturity that most organisations should pursue regardless of discipline area, project scope, competitive marketplace context or chosen strategy 3. must walk a fine line “between the ‘scylla’ of over-simplification and the ‘charybdis’ of excessive complexity” (cooke-davies, 2004:1252) opm3 is currently under review and is the subject of deep unrest between some of the certified assessors and the pmi over the current direction and marketing of a product that comprises shared intellectual property. without full access to the best practice standards, which are the heart of the model, assessors are unable to use this tool in practice. it is likely that in the years that lie ahead opm3 will be significantly changed and possibly rebranded. other models a number of other maturity models discovered online were also reviewed: 1. the berkeley project management maturity model (pm2): http://www.ce.berkeley.edu/~ibbs/yhkwak/pmmaturity.html 2. kerzner pm maturity assessment: http://www.iil.com/kpm3/default.asp 3. pm solutions project management maturity model (pmmm): http://www.pmsolutions.com/resources/view/what-is-the-project-managementmaturity-model/ 4. the sukad seven elements of project management maturity (7es): http://sukadway.sukad.com/project-management-maturity-model-overview) 5. onemind: www.onemind.co.uk 6. standardised process improvement for construction enterprises (spice): http://usir.salford.ac.uk/9965/1/280_jeong_ksstructured_process_improvement.pdf 7. ipma delta module o (organisation): http://www.ipma.world/certification/certifyorganisations/deltacompetence-classes/ general criticisms one of the criticisms of applying the current models in organisations is the focus on explicit project management knowledge areas rather than intangible assets, which are less obvious but nevertheless contribute to a mature project management capability (jugdev and thomas, 2002). intangible assets include context-specific outcomes such as customer involvement and implicit human factors including creativity, integrity and trust (pasian et al., 2012; backlund et al., 2014). another problem with many models is the complexity of their frameworks, which may prevent potential users to implement them on the basis of time and cost commitment (crawford, 2011). jugdev and thomas (2002) also summarised some common criticisms of maturity models as comprising: 1. the models are mostly inflexible to change and ongoing improvements and are not able to address specific areas of specialisation 2. the models are often orientated towards identification of problems rather than solving problems 3. the models do not take account of the rapid pace of change and emerging technologies and innovative processes or practices adopted by organisations over time 4. the structured levels of maturity models do not propose sufficient detail to assess progress achievement 5. the models methodologies are largely mono-disciplined, disconnected from practice, and at times overwhelming 6. the models mostly ignore the human resource or operational aspects construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85 langston and ghanbaripour 74 maturity models often have a limited theoretical basis and lack conceptual underpinning (backlund et al., 2014). a major research project by thomas and mullaly (2008) into the benefit of project management identified the significance of ‘fit’ between implementation of projects and organisational strategy, including the impact of internal and external contexts. mullaly and thomas (2010) also highlight that this contradicts lessons from contingency theory, suggesting that different organisational configurations can be successful provided the strategies are consistent with their environment. in other words, maturity models need to provide a bridge between project success and organisational strategy. crawford (2011:1) makes the following observation: “project management is now recognised as an organisational capability and there are numerous generic ‘maturity’ models providing one size fits all approaches to what is considered to be ‘best practice’. both maturity models and best practices are problematic. maturity models typically suggest that all firms must strive to progressively achieve prescribed levels of practice across the same range of ‘best’ practices. but what constitutes best practice for whom and under what circumstances? if we look at an organisation’s project management systems, although they may have similarities across firms, they are operating in different contexts, driven by different strategies. what may be best for some may not be best for others.” the literature highlights a situation where the dominant market solutions to organisational maturity each have disadvantages that make them too rigid (one size fits all), deterministic (based on hierarchical assessment), misaligned to objectives (not strategic) and impractical (disconnect to project success). in addition, existing market solutions are complicated and resource intensive. given the above, it is suggested that an appropriate management maturity model should be customisable by organisations (i.e. able to evolve according to their changing environment over time), systematic in its assessment of organisational capabilities (i.e. continuous improvement framework), aligned to organisational strategy at the level of project, program and portfolio (i.e. management by objectives), and relevant to project delivery success in practice (i.e. use of measurable critical success factors). there is opportunity to align the model to the pmbok methodology given that opm3 is the main player in this domain, yet opm3 is extremely complicated, expensive (cost and time) and currently going through a tumultuous stage in its development. proposed management maturity model (mmm) each of the key criteria mentioned above is examined in this section. inspiration is drawn from the seminal work of charles r. darwin (1809-1882), w. edwards deming (1900-1993), peter f. drucker (1909-2005) and d. ronald daniel (1931-) for the design of the proposed management maturity model (mmm). intrinsic to the model’s approach is the need for it to also be practical in the project management marketplace and hence capable of widespread adoption. customisable the literature is clear that a ‘one size fits all’ approach to maturity assessment is flawed. not only are organisations different, but they also operate in a wide range of industries that themselves are at different stages of maturity. it has always been a core objective of maturity models to enable comparison of organisations in the context of benchmarking against ‘best practice’. what constitutes best practice in one industry, however, may not be appropriate in another. it is also a barrier to adoption if competitive advantage is lost through disclosure of levels of immaturity that might affect reputation and market position. a more confidential way to benchmark performance needs to be found. organisations evolve over time, and the strength of their capabilities dictates whether they are successful or unsuccessful. maturity assessment needs to provide guidance on positive improvement and fix weaknesses that might lead to poor performance. construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85 langston and ghanbaripour 75 charles darwin is renown for his contribution to evolution theory. his research established that all species of life have descended from common ancestors over time. his scientific theory was that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process of natural selection, in which the struggle to survive is similar to selective breeding programs. darwin published his theory of evolution together with compelling field evidence in his book on the origin of species (darwin, 1859). by the 1870s, the scientific community and a significant proportion of the general public believed evolution was indeed true, but it took many more years before a broad consensus emerged that natural selection was the basis of evolutionary improvement and capable of explaining the diversity of life on earth. darwin has been characterised as being one of the most influential people in human history. using this concept, organisations can be viewed as ‘species’ that evolve and diversify. this is not a function of maturation, but their agility to deal with external forces and trends within the environment in which they operate. these influences change over time. best practice is also fluid. generic capabilities and standard criteria for mature systems and performance is limiting and inflexible. a better approach is for organisations to understand their journey of maturity over time by assessing their own core strategic objectives. benchmarking with others can take place through the sharing of relevant organisational objectives used by market leaders or innovators that describe capabilities that are considered critical to success. rather than comparing maturity levels to benchmark best practice, organisations adopt capabilities that are compatible with their individual structure and vision. customisable core strategic objectives and organisational capabilities should be a key tenet in the process of maturity assessment. systematic the literature is also clear that maturity assessment must be systematic and evidence-based. maturity by definition is a process of continuous improvement from a state of relative simplicity (or naivety) to one of sophistication and rigour. this process needs to be capable of translation into measurable evidence at each stage of development. the level of maturity of an organisation is a function of the number of capabilities that can be observed to operate routinely at high levels of optimisation. the underlying systems put in place form the evidence of a mature process. continuous improvement is both sequential and cyclical. it is sequential because there are fundamental steps that must take place to reach higher levels of performance, and cyclical because organisations need to be able to learn from their performances in order to further improve the underlying processes and systematically pursue optimal outcomes (wysocki, 2004). edwards deming is credited with the well-respected plan-do-check-act (pdca) continuous improvement cycle (wood and wood, 2005). the pdca (see figure 2) built on the work from walter shewhart’s book statistical method from the viewpoint of quality control (shewhart, 1939) to produce the plan-do-study-act (pdsa) cycle. nevertheless, deming worked closely with shewhart to develop the idea of continuous improvement as part of a system where feedback from the process and customer is evaluated against organisational goals (moen and norman, 2012). deming is the father of the total quality management movement. continuous improvement can be applied to all management activities including project and performance management (du et al., 2008). for example, in pmbok (2013), the process groups are an example of pdca, demonstrating that project management processes are similar to other business processes when it comes to continuous improvement. the pmbok™ guide adopts six process groups for projects – planning (plan), executing (do), monitoring (check) and controlling (act) – fitting within the context of initiating at the start and closing at the end of the project life cycle. the heart of the pmbok methodology is closely aligned to pdca. construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85 langston and ghanbaripour 76 figure 2: the pdca continuous improvement cycle for any project type, it is necessary to plan, do, check, and act. pdca provides a robust and more tangible method for measuring maturity. the following analogy can be adopted for evidence-based assessment: 1. plan: establish targets 2. do: measure outcomes 3. check: assess performance 4. act: enhance protocols full maturity is reached when there is evidence of routine adoption of the above sequence in the underlying systems that support all of the appropriate organisational capabilities in the model. rather than use a hierarchy of maturity levels, this approach highlights the need for nurturing a learning culture that aims to continuously improve (stacey, 2003). a systematic cycle of organisational growth is thus supported. strategic the literature refers to organisational capabilities as a framework in which maturity can be assessed. capabilities are tied to core strategic objectives that are derived from a declared vision, mission and set of organisational values. the notion is that if capabilities are mature, then the achievement of organisational strategy is enhanced (backlund et al., 2014). a large number of detailed capabilities, however, can inadvertently diminish their connection to strategy. it hence may be preferable to focus assessment on a smaller number of core capabilities (nandyal, 2003). the discipline of project management is commonly characterised as a combination of projects, programs (i.e. multiple aligned project) and portfolios (i.e. collections of projects and programs). it is likely that capabilities change and become more sophisticated on this continuum, and it provides an opportunity to demonstrate a maturation pathway from small scale (local projects) to large scale (global portfolios). in all cases, project management is achieved by the pursuit of objectives. peter drucker is credited with the concept of management by objectives (mbo). his work contributed to the practical and philosophical foundations of the modern business corporation and he is frequently described as the founder of modern business management. he was a writer, academic, business consultant and self-acclaimed ‘social ecologist’ who explored the way that people interact and organise themselves. mbo arose from his book the practice of management (drucker, 1954). it is a model of management that aims to improve organisational performance by clearly articulating strategic objectives that are accepted by both management and staff. according to the theory, participation in goal setting and the development of action plans leads to higher levels of commitment towards organisational success, as well as alignment of objectives across all parts of the business. plan docheck act construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85 langston and ghanbaripour 77 there are countless ways to implement management by objectives in practice. one needs to set core strategic objectives and then break these down into progressive targets. organisations that apply mbo frequently report higher rates for sales and improved worker productivity (http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-managerial-objectives-23790.html). objectives can be defined at any level of an organisation – with collective or individual responsibility. both enable the task at hand to be more attainable and help people to visualise what needs to be achieved and how this can happen. objectives need quantifying and monitoring. organisational capabilities are similar to objectives and can be managed in the same way. these capabilities can be used to track performance in the quest to move from lower capability to higher capability over time (dosi et al., 2000). each capability requires a target goal to be established, outcomes to be measured, assessment of performance and the enhancement of systems and protocols where improvement is warranted. practical the literature is clear that maturity models act as a bridge between organisational strategy and project success. what is not so clear is how to measure success in an objective and organisationwide manner. cooke-davies (2002) highlights confusion between terms such as ‘project success’ (doing the right project) and ‘project management success’ (doing the project right), and between ‘success factors’ (that lead to success) and ‘success criteria’ (that evaluate success). in the latter case, the list is long and criteria/factors are often specific to particular project types and client objectives (davis, 2014). success criteria (such as kpis) and success factors (such as core project constraints) are commonly linked (westerveld, 2003). ron daniel developed the concept of success factors in the 1960s during his long-term role as managing director of mckinsey & co. the notion seems quite obvious: in any business environment certain factors will be critical to the achievement of success, and so logically if objectives associated with the factors are not realised, the business will fail – perhaps dramatically. the objectives are examples of success criteria, and often presented in the form of kpis. critical success factors were defined twenty year’s later by john rockart as success factors that are ‘mission-critical’ (rockart, 1979; bullen and rockart, 1981). daniel’s work translates well to the discipline of project management where successful project delivery is always the main goal. figure 3: 3d project integration model (langston, 2013) construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85 langston and ghanbaripour 78 langston (2013) employs success factors and criteria to explain what successful projects might look like. his aipm and ipma award-winning model (shown in figure 3) for describing project integration is presented as a tetrahedron containing all knowledge areas existing in the pmbok™ guide (fifth edition), plus a new area of project environmental management that can recognise sustainability as an emerging aspect of modern project delivery (ebbesen and hope, 2013; fernández-sánchez and rodríguez-lópez, 2010; hwang and ng, 2013). langston contends his model can be deployed to measure the ability of project teams to deliver successful performances at all stages of the project life cycle. this is achieved through the identification of success factors (represented by the four vertices of the model) and success criteria (represented by the edges of the model). kpis are derived from the model to describe the relationships between success factors. they are constructed so to be relevant to any project type as well as being capable of numeric measurement. project integration management, a key knowledge area in the pmbok™ guide, is intended to ensure that the right balance between all parts of a project is achieved over the project life cycle, and is reflected in the 3d nature of the model itself. this 3d project integration model includes six generic success criteria (kpis) that are related to project delivery success (pds). they comprise: 1. value: this kpi is described as project scope divided by cost (objective: maximise). value is assessed in the context of project stakeholder management, including meeting specified expectations and fostering ongoing engagement. scope is interpreted as an output and cost is interpreted as an input, therefore the more utility delivered per unit of cost the more value for money is realised. 2. efficiency: this kpi is described as project cost divided by time (objective: maximise). efficiency is assessed in the context of project human resource management, including leadership and team high performance. cost is interpreted as an output (i.e. the value of work completed) and time is interpreted as an input, meaning that the more money expended per unit of time the more efficient is the project delivery process. 3. speed: this kpi is described as project scope divided by time (objective: maximise). speed is assessed in the context of project procurement management, including outsourcing strategies and parallel supply chains. scope is interpreted as an output, and time is interpreted as an input, such that the more utility provided per unit of time the faster the project delivery process. 4. innovation: this kpi is described as project risk divided by cost (objective: maximise). innovation is assessed in the context of project communications management, including knowledge management and research-informed learning. risk is interpreted as an output (innovation leads to development risks) and cost is interpreted as an input; therefore a higher level of risk per unit of cost reflects the search for better ways of doing things (i.e. extra risk is only warranted if competitive advantage is realised). 5. complication: this kpi is described as project risk divided by time (objective: minimise). complication (originally known as ‘complexity’) is assessed in the context of project quality management, including being alert to excessive quality assurance paperwork and engineering over design. risk is interpreted as an output and time is interpreted as an input, so a higher level of risk per unit of time is a sign of project difficulty that should be avoided during rollout. 6. impact: this kpi is described as project risk divided by scope (objective: minimise). impact is assessed in the context of project environmental management, including awareness of adverse sustainability outcomes and unnecessary resource consumption. risk is interpreted as an output and scope is interpreted as an input, meaning that a higher risk level per unit of utility reflects unwanted environmental disruption. the key relationships between the four success factors (cost, time, scope and risk) and the six success criteria (value, efficiency, speed, innovation, complication and impact) are illustrated in construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85 langston and ghanbaripour 79 figure 4. a 2d representation of the model is provided for ease of comprehension, but it converts into a 3d tetrahedron by ‘folding’ along the dotted lines. success factors are equally weighted and are shown in upper case. figure 4: success factors and success criteria (langston, 2013) overall success (computed as the change in pds between planned and actual performance) is given by the following formula (langston, 2013): 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 𝐷𝐷𝑃𝑃𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝐷𝐷 𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑆𝑆𝑆𝑆 (𝑃𝑃𝐷𝐷𝑆𝑆) = 𝑆𝑆3 𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃𝑃 where: s = scope baseline, c = cost baseline, t = time baseline and r = risk baseline mmm design and testing drawing on the above issues, a new approach for the assessment of organisation maturity is constructed. it is based on the six kpis for project delivery success (value, efficiency, speed, innovation, complication and impact) plus an overall kpi to take account of the combined effect of the four success factors (scope, cost, time and risk). continuous improvement based on pdca is the means for assessing maturity. core objectives and capabilities for project, program and portfolio domains can be identified. these are customisable and therefore can differ from one organisation to the next. the full model, shown in figure 5, is tested in the field based on a medium-sized data centre infrastructure firm in tehran. the data was collected anonymously and as such the firm is referred to as ‘example organisation’. the example organisation uses a management by project approach as the basis for its business model. within its niche market it is considered a medium-sized firm and employs approximately 270 people. it had a turnover last financial year of us$45 million and participated in numerous iranian data centre projects as designer, supplier and constructor. the firm builds the data centre and then installs infrastructure using proprietary equipment sourced mainly from international suppliers. the standard used for data centre design in the example organisation is ansi/tia942-2005 issued by the american telecommunication industry association. in this standard, data centres are divided into different levels according to client requirements of reliability, infrastructure, construction structure, electric facilities and mechanical facilities (ye et al., 2014). the example organisation is commissioned to design and build data centres according to client needs based on a rating/tier (1, 2, 3 or 4). a team of auditors certified by uptime institute (usa) perform monitoring compliance against the specified rating/tier. construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85 langston and ghanbaripour 80 figure 5: proposed management maturity model (mmm) construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85 langston and ghanbaripour 81 the example organisation shared documents relating to organisational capabilities in action, and facilitated interview responses from the chief executive officer (ceo) and various program and project managers who work at the firm. this access helped to identify the firm’s core strategic objectives and relevant capabilities aligned to each kpi. points were assigned only where demonstrable evidence could be observed. this evidence was recorded electronically and archived in a database underpinning the case study methodology. to illustrate the process, the kpi of ‘value’ is discussed in more detail. value is interpreted in the context of stakeholder management. the core objective for this kpi is identified as ‘strategic alignment to build market share’. in other words, value is strengthened when the performance of a project, program or portfolio is aligned to the strategic vision, mission and values of the organisation. this objective is then broken down into capabilities that enable repeat client work (project level), market positioning (program level) and shareholder return (portfolio level). these three capabilities are in increasing order of complexity and are scored according to evidence of progressive pdca improvement. evidence of ‘plan’ equals 1 point, ‘plan+do’ equals 2 points, ‘plan+do+check’ equals 3 points, and ‘plan+do+check+act’ equals 4 points. missing a step in the pdca sequence disables the scoring of further steps. the evidence collected from the example organisation is shown in figure 6. figure 6: example of identified case study evidence for ‘value’ the maturity score for the example organisation is derived from a self-assessment process. each domain can have a maximum score of 28. the radar diagrams show the level of maturity for project, program and portfolio domains, and the size of the mapped area gives a visual impression of where strengths and weaknesses lie (jin et al., 2014). an extra 4 bonus points are awarded if a domain reaches this fully mature level. an extra 4 bonus points are awarded if all three domains are fully mature, and this would then equal 100 points overall (i.e. 100% maturity). construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85 langston and ghanbaripour 82 the case study results show that the firm has a maturity score of 54% based on their own defined strategy and capabilities. the radar diagrams highlight the weakest performance is in the domain of portfolio management. the firm’s project management office (pmo) has contributed to the stronger performance at the level of individual projects. results from discussions with key personnel identify that the most important objective when operating in the data centre infrastructure industry is to grow market share, and this is achieved by close alignment of all activities with overall organisational strategy. in order to obtain feedback on the case study findings, the ceo was later interviewed about the process and whether it was useful to the organisation. his key comments are listed below (translated from persian): our company is one the most active firms in the data centre infrastructure business in iran. we have done several ict projects within this industry and our first priority is to meet customer expectations in order to get repeat work from them. we have hired and trained a number of professional experts to help us in this regard. the other aspects in which i feel we have developed maturity is our project management systems. our pmo works hard on supporting project managers with useful templates and documents, and evaluating their performance. the project control team reviews data gathered from diverse projects located in different cities. however, there appear to be some weaknesses here. for instance, as there are an overwhelming number of stakeholders on our projects, an effective method of managing communications has not been achieved. actually the problem runs deeper than that. the lack of an effective method leads to overlooking important lessons that would help to improve future projects. recently, in order to increase the company’s technical capabilities, we established an r&d department that is working to minimise the downtime on our dc projects and use leading standard industry practices to satisfy auditors’ requirements. this has proven very valuable to ensuring customer satisfaction. overall, i reckon we have to put more effort on building and developing our reputation within the industry, and controlling cost and time baselines to increase profit. i think that your approach to measuring our maturity is something we would like to continue to use, with your input and advice. we need to continually improve if we want to grow our current market share. the ceo expressed high levels of satisfaction with both the method of maturity assessment and the practicality of its application in the office. the case study demonstrated that organisational strategy can be identified and capability can be demonstrated in terms of specific evidence collected during an independent audit. the outcome score provides a more precise measure of maturity than discrete hierarchical levels and involves up to 84 unique items of objective proof. this case study highlights that maturity in the data centre infrastructure industry requires a set of capabilities that are somewhat different to what might be expected in other fields. for example, impact and environmental management are largely defined as relating to noise transfer to adjoining spaces and neighbouring properties. the firm scored well in terms of their investment in research and development (r&d) which is seen as critical to firm growth and market share. a comprehensive human resource (hr) allocation system exists but has not been updated for many years. a 360-degree appraisal is carried out annually to measure team performance. overall, the audit was able to make recommendations for improving system maturity, such as devoting more effort towards better communication protocols to support competitive advantage. in particular, some of the benefits of r&d activity were not being captured and disseminated throughout the firm. senior managers agreed that lessons learnt were not recorded in the pmo’s system in a timely manner. moreover, given the ceo manages the firm’s portfolio himself, the assessor recommended that a team be established to handle this complex job in the near future. mmm enables organisation maturity to be pursued via a customisable, systematic, strategic and practical approach. while it produces an overall score that can be used for internal trend analysis over time, the rigour of the process lies in the detailed assessment of individual capabilities. however, as capabilities are variables and organisation-specific, the model does not enable maturity to be compared across different organisations. comparison is normally seen as a construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85 langston and ghanbaripour 83 potential barrier to implementation in practice given that the maturity of an organisation (and hence the likelihood of achieving success in its endeavours) is not something to be broadcast to either the market or to one’s competitors. the approach used in mmm is facilitated by the involvement of experienced assessors. these assessors are critical in helping to realise the following benefits: 1. identifying appropriate objectives and capabilities: these can be freely shared between organisations (via the assessors) since they reflect targets not performances 2. certifying the self-assessment process: evidence can be validated and audited by assessors to ensure probity 3. recommendations to enhance protocols: an experienced assessor can suggest ways to address deficiencies and develop more mature systems to support business activities experienced assessors may be people who are already certifiers for other rival maturity models. it would be advantageous to use a small panel of assessors on every assessment. they are also likely to be drawn from senior project managers, directors of pmos and qualified academics in the project management field. their role includes auditing maturity evidence and providing advice on how to improve organisational systems and processes. international professional bodies such as pmi and ipma, and national bodies such as apm and aipm should act as brokers for putting organisations in touch with assessors, as well as ensuring assessors are appropriately trained. conclusion the basis for achieving consistent excellence in project management is assisted by mature organisational systems and processes. mmm is a simple yet robust model capable of guiding the development of any project management environment that needs to support the business of successful project, program and/or portfolio delivery. it forms a bridge between organisational strategy and project success through compatibility with the pmbok™ guide and the 3d integration model for assessing optimal delivery of individual projects. it can be adopted as a self-assessment tool and enhanced by the employment of an experienced consultant or auditor to provide improvement advice. it is a potential replacement for the complex opm3 tool especially for smaller organisations that cannot justify the resultant time and expense. mmm is the only maturity model that uses the pdca continuous improvement cycle embedded in the pmbok methodology, and the only maturity model that supports customisable organisational capabilities. field-testing on a medium-sized firm in tehran suggests the implementation of mmm in practice is feasible and considered valuable by organisational stakeholders. despite established solutions like cmmi, p3m3 and opm3, there is still opportunity for mmm to improve current practices. a microsoft excel™ template for calculation of maturity scores is freely available from the lead author of this paper via an email request. references allué, a., domínguez, e., lópez, a. and zapata, m.a. (2013) qrp: a cmmi appraisal tool for project quality management, procedia technology, 9, 664-669. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protcy.2013.12.073 artto, k., martinsuo, m., gemünden, h.g. and murtoaro, j. (2009) foundations of program management: a bibliometric view, international journal of project management, 27(1), 1-18. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.10.007 backlund, f., chronéer, d. and sundqvist, e. (2014) project management maturity models a critical review: a case study within swedish engineering and construction organisations, procedia social and behavioural sciences, 119, 837-846. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.094 brookes, n. and clark, r. (2009) using maturity models to improve project management practice, poms 20th annual conference, florida usa, may. available from: http://pomsmeetings.org/confproceedings/011/ fullpapers/011-0288.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protcy.2013.12.073 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.10.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.094 http://pomsmeetings.org/confproceedings/011/fullpapers/011-0288.pdf http://pomsmeetings.org/confproceedings/011/fullpapers/011-0288.pdf construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85 langston and ghanbaripour 84 bullen, c.v. and rockart, j.k. (1981) a primer on critical success factors, boston: center for information systems research, mit. cooke-davies, t. (2002) the ‘real’ success factors on projects, international journal of project management, 20(3), 185-190. doi : https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protcy.2013.12.073 cooke-davies, t. (2004) project management maturity models, in morris, p.w.g and pinto, j.k., the wiley guide to managing projects, 1234-1255. doi: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1016/s0263-7863(01)00067-9 crawford, l. (2011) fitting project management capability to strategy, 8th annual project management australia conference (pmoz): project management at the speed of light, sydney, australia, 2-5 august. available from: http://epublications.bond.edu.au/sustainable_development/122 daniel, d.r. (1961) management information crisis, harvard business review, september-october. darwin, c. (1859) on the origin of species, london: john murray. davis, k. (2014) different stakeholder groups and their perceptions of project success, international journal of project management, 32(2), 189-201. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.02.006 de souza, t.f. and gomes, c.f.s. (2015) assessment of maturity in project management: a bibliometric study of main models, procedia computer science, 55, 92-101. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2015.07.012 demir, c. and kocabaş, i̇. (2010) project management maturity model (pmmm) in educational organisations, procedia social and behavioral sciences, 9, 1641-1645. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.12.379 dosi, g., nelson, r.r. and winter, s.g. (2000) the nature and dynamics of organisational capabilities, oxford: oxford university press. drucker, p.f. (1954) the practice of management, new york: harper & row. du, q.l., cao, s.m., ba, l.l. and cheng, j.m. (2008) application of pdca cycle in the performance management system, 4th international conference on wireless communications, networking and mobile computing, 2008 (wicom'08), ieee, october, 1-4. doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/wicom.2008.1682 ebbesen, j.b. and hope, a. (2013) re-imagining the iron triangle: embedding sustainability into project constraints, pm world journal, 2(iii). available from: http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/11311 fahrenkrog, s., abrams, f., haeck, w. and whelbourn, d. (2003) project management institute’s organisational project management maturity model (opm3), pmi north american congress, baltimore, md, june. fernández-sánchez, g. and rodríguez-lópez, f. (2010) a methodology to identify sustainability indicators in construction project management: application to infrastructure projects in spain, ecological indicators, 10(6), 1193-1201. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2010.04.009 gonzález, n., marle, f. and bocquet, j.c. (2007) measuring project maturity: example in a french automotive organisation, international conference on engineering design (iced), august, 28-31. available from: http://www.designsociety.org/downloadpublication/25671/measuring_project_maturity_example_in_a_french_automotive_organization hardgrave, b.c. and armstrong, d.j. (2005) software process improvement: it's a journey, not a destination, communications of the acm, 48(11), 93-96. doi: https://doi.org/10.1145/1096000.1096028 hillson, d. (2003) assessing organisational project management capability, journal of facilities management, 2(3), 298-311. doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/14725960410808276 hutson, n. (1997) what is project management?, the 28th annual project management institute 1997 seminars & symposium, chicago: project management institute, 1141-1142. hwang, b.g. and ng, w.j. (2013) project management knowledge and skills for green construction: overcoming challenges, international journal of project management, 31(2), 272-284. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.05.004 jiang, j.j., klein, g., hwang, h.g., huang, j. and hung, s.y. (2004) an exploration of the relationship between software development process maturity and project performance, information and management, 41(3), 279-288. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/s0378-7206(03)00052-1 jin, d., chai, k.h. and tan, k.c. (2014) new service development maturity model, managing service quality: an international journal, 24(1), 86-116. doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/msq-10-2012-0134 jugdev, k. and thomas, j. (2002) project management maturity models: the silver bullets of competitive advantage, project management institute. available from: http://hdl.handle.net/1880/44250 kohlegger, m., maier, r. and thalmann, s. (2009) understanding maturity models: results of a structured content analysis, iknow '09 and i-semantics '09, graz, austria, september, 51-61. available from: http://iwi.uibk.ac.at/download/downloads/publikationen/kmm.pdf langston, c. (2013) development of generic key performance indicators for pmbok using a 3d project integration model, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 13(4), 78-91. doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i4.3658 (winner: 2016 pmaa australian national research award; winner: 2016 ipma asia pacific regional research award; finalist: ipma international research award) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protcy.2013.12.073 http://dx.doi.org/%2010.1016/s0263-7863(01)00067-9 http://dx.doi.org/%2010.1016/s0263-7863(01)00067-9 http://epublications.bond.edu.au/sustainable_development/122 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.02.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2015.07.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2015.07.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.12.379 https://doi.org/10.1109/wicom.2008.1682 http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/id/eprint/11311 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2010.04.009 http://www.designsociety.org/download-publication/25671/measuring_project_maturity_example_in_a_french_automotive_organization http://www.designsociety.org/download-publication/25671/measuring_project_maturity_example_in_a_french_automotive_organization https://doi.org/10.1145/1096000.1096028 https://doi.org/10.1108/14725960410808276 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.05.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0378-7206%2803%2900052-1 https://doi.org/10.1108/msq-10-2012-0134 http://hdl.handle.net/1880/44250 http://iwi.uibk.ac.at/download/downloads/publikationen/kmm.pdf https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i4.3658 construction economics and building, 16(4), 68-85 langston and ghanbaripour 85 lee, g. and kwak, y.h. (2012) an open government maturity model for social media-based public engagement, government information quarterly, 29(4), 492-503. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2012.06.001 moen r. and norman c. (2012) evolution of the pdca cycle. available from: www.pkpinc.com mullaly, m.e. and thomas, j.l. (2010) re-thinking project management maturity: perspectives gained from explorations of fit and value, pmi research and education conference 2010: defining the future of project management, pennsylvania: project management institute. musat, d., castaño, v., calvo-manzano, j.a. and garbajosa, j. (2010) mature: a model driven based tool to automatically generate a language that supports cmmi process areas specification, in riel, a., o’connor, r., tichkiewitch, s. and messnarz, r. (eds.), systems, software and services process improvement, springer, 48-59. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15666-3_5 nandyal, r.s. (2003) people cmm: interpreting people cmm for software organisations, new delhi: tata mcgrawhill publishing company limited. nesensohn, c., bryde, d., ochieng, e. and fearon, d. (2014) maturity and maturity models in lean construction, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 14(1), 45-59. doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i1.3641 pane, e.s. and sarno, r. (2015) capability maturity model integration (cmmi) for optimising object-oriented analysis and design (ooad), procedia computer science, 72, 40-48. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2015.12.103 pasian, b., sankaran, s. and boydell, s. (2012) project management maturity: a critical analysis of existing and emergent factors, international journal of managing projects in business, 5(1), 146-157. doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371211192946 pinto j.a. and williams n. (2013) country project management maturity, 2013 pmi global congress proceedings, istanbul. pmi (2013) organisational project management maturity model (opm3), third edition, pennsylvania: project management institute inc. pretorius, s., steyn, h. and jordaan, j.c. (2012) project management maturity and project management success in the engineering and construction industries in south africa, south african journal of industrial engineering, 23(3), 1-12. doi: https://doi.org/10.7166/23-3-507 rockart, j.f. (1979) chief executives define their own data needs, sussex business review, march-april. shewhart, w.a. (1939) statistical method from the viewpoint of quality control, washington: u.s. department of agriculture. silva, d., tereso, a., fernandes, g. and pinto, j.â. (2014) opm3 portugal project: analysis of preliminary results, procedia technology, 16, 1027-1036. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protcy.2014.10.057 sowden, r., hinley, d. and clarke, s. (2008) portfolio, programme & project management maturity model (p3m3), office of government commerce journal, 1-4. stacey, r.d. (2003) the learning organisation. in: stacey, r.d. strategic management and organisational dynamics, harlow: pearson education ltd, 103-128. staples, m. and niazi, m. (2010) two case studies on small enterprise motivation and readiness for cmmi, 11th international conference on product focused software, june, 63-66. doi: https://doi.org/10.1145/1961258.1961274 staples, m., niazi, m., jeffery, r., abrahams, a., byatt, p. and murphy, r. (2007) an exploratory study of why organisations do not adopt cmmi, journal of systems and software, 80(6), 883-895. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2006.09.008 thomas, j.l. and mullaly, m.e. (2008) researching the value of project management, pennsylvania: project management institute. westerveld, e. (2003) the project excellence model: linking success criteria and critical success factors, international journal of project management, 21(6), 411-418. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(02)00112-6 wood, j.c. and wood, m.c. (2005) w. edwards deming: critical evaluations in business and management (volume 1), routledge. wysocki, r.k. (2004) project management process improvement, artech house. ye, h., song, z. and sun, q. (2014) design of green data centre deployment model based on cloud computing and tia942 heat dissipation standard, ieee workshop on electronics, computer and applications, may, 433-437. doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/iweca.2014.6845649 young, m., young, r. and romero zapata, j. (2014) project, programme and portfolio maturity: a case study of australian federal government, international journal of managing projects in business, 7(2), 215-230. doi: https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-08-2013-0034 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2012.06.001 http://www.pkpinc.com/ https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-15666-3_5 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i1.3641 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2015.12.103 https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371211192946 https://doi.org/10.7166/23-3-507 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protcy.2014.10.057 https://doi.org/10.1145/1961258.1961274 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2006.09.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863%2802%2900112-6 https://doi.org/10.1109/iweca.2014.6845649 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-08-2013-0034 abstract introduction literature review capability maturity model integration (cmmi) portfolio, program & project management maturity model (p3m3) organisational project management maturity model (opm3) other models general criticisms proposed management maturity model (mmm) customisable systematic strategic practical mmm design and testing conclusion references construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: bajracharya, a., ogunlana, s., tan, h. c., and siew, g. c. 2021. understanding the performance of construction business: a simulationbased experimental study. construction economics and building, 21:4, 60–88. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v21i4.7559 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article understanding the performance of construction business: a simulation-based experimental study arun bajracharya1,*, stephen ogunlana2, hai chen tan3, goh cheng siew4 1 faculty of business, sohar university, 44, suhar 311, sultanate of oman, abajracharya@su.edu. om 2 school of the built environment, heriot-watt university, edinburgh, scotland, uk eh14 4as, s.o.ogunlana@hw.ac.uk 3 school of energy, geoscience, infrastructure and society, heriot-watt university malaysia, 62200 putrajaya, malaysia, h.tan@hw.ac.uk 4 school of energy, geoscience, infrastructure and society, heriot-watt university malaysia, 62200 putrajaya, malaysia, c.goh@hw.ac.uk corresponding author: arun bajracharya, faculty member, faculty of business, sohar university, 44, suhar 311, sultanate of oman, abajracharya@su.edu.om doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7559 article history: received: 30/12/2020; revised: 09/03/2021 & 13/06/2021 & 06/10/2021; accepted: 23/10/2021; published: 20/12/2021 abstract higher failure rates of construction business have been observed as a recurring phenomenon in the construction industry. this research focuses on the causes behind a range of performance modes of construction business. the growth and capacity underinvestment archetype has been used as the main systems archetype to develop a causal structure for understanding the business performance. a system dynamics model was developed to create a simulation platform for the causal structure. a context of a typical small and medium construction company has been used in the simulation model. this research considered and experimented with a set of selected managerial policies and practices that can lead the construction business to failure, sustenance, or growth. in order to achieve the expected growth or sustenance, it is found that a certain level of balance needs to be secured on how much emphasis is to be given to win new projects, how much profit margins to work with, and how much capacities to be arranged and deployed for project operations, management, and execution. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 60 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7559 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7559 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7559 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:abajracharya@su.edu.om mailto:abajracharya@su.edu.om mailto:s.o.ogunlana@hw.ac.uk mailto:h.tan@hw.ac.uk mailto:c.goh@hw.ac.uk mailto:abajracharya@su.edu.om http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7559 keywords construction business performance; project; finance; capacity; system dynamics; simulation experiment introduction in any progressive economy, it can be observed that the registered construction firms would be remarkably large in number. the indicated volume of construction work in terms of their monetary value is perceived to be huge, and at the same time, barriers to entry in the market are generally low for construction firms (dikmen et al., 2010; cidb, 2006; kenley, 2003). probably because of these reasons, entrepreneurs, especially the small and medium ones, get attracted to the construction business. another pattern that can be observed in any construction industry is that the small and medium-sized firms would be relatively more in number in comparison to the large ones, whereas the output generated by the few large ones would be generally higher than the collective output of the small and medium ones (ofori, 1990). for example, the proportions of smes (with up to 250 employees and £50m annual turnover) in the uk construction sector have been consistently high over the last 20 years (ons, 2018). because of the sheer number of smes, their collective contribution to the construction industry and the overall economy is quite significant. however, another set of observations indicates that these small and medium construction companies are facing many challenges in sustaining their business in the industry. the failure and bankruptcy rates of such companies are very high, irrespective of whether they are in the developing (enshassi, al-hallaq and mohamed, 2006; abu bakar, 1993) or developed economy (wood, 2015; russel and cassey, 1992). for example, the insolvencies statistics in 2019 in the uk recorded that the highest number of new company insolvencies was in the construction industry with 3,198 underlying insolvency volumes, which had increased by 2.2% when compared with the 12 months ending q3 2019 (the insolvencies service, 2019). likewise, the construction industry in australia accounted for 20-25% of all insolvencies, with the proportion of 8-10% contribution in the gdp (murray, 2018). a sizable volume of literature on the performance of construction firms dealt with the issues of failure (holt, 2013; enshassi, al-hallaq and mohamed, 2006; arditi, koskal and kale, 2000; kale and arditi, 1998; kangari, 1998; russell and casey, 1992), whereas few others observed from the side of growth as well (abu bakar, et al., 2012; punwani, 1997; abu bakar, 1993). this paper focuses on the issue of growth and failure of construction firms, particularly by exploring the underlying causes in the domain of construction business management. furthermore, in this research, the growth and failure of construction firms are not taken as isolated performance patterns, but they are considered as the possible outcomes at the two sides of the performance continuum. it means that there could be different possible performance outcomes in between the two extremes of absolute success and hopeless failure. the aim of this research is to develop an understanding of the underlying causes of different performance modes of construction firms. a simulation model was developed to explain a range of performance outcomes of construction firms. the system dynamics modelling approach (see sterman (2000) for detailed explanation) has been used to develop the model with a set of causal structure subsuming the context of, and the policies and practices in construction business. the findings of the simulation experiments with the model have been reported as the conclusions of this research. literature review performance of general business or construction firms could be conceptualised and understood from different vantage points considering the very purpose of the use of the construct of performance as such. for instance, deng and smyth (2013a) summarised their literature review in understanding the performance bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202161 of construction firms and reported that there could be four broad perspectives considered by researchers for: (i) clarifying the concept of firm performance, (ii) identifying the practical issues with specific concept of performance, (iii) benchmarking a firm’s performance, and (iv) investigating the determinants of performance through modelling, comparison, or prediction. the same authors in another work (deng and smyth, 2013b) pointed that the majority of organisational studies in construction firm rely on crosssectional analysis and very few considered longitudinal studies whereas “explicitly exploring the performance dynamism is crucial for performance measurement and management of construction companies in the long run”. this research, as it will be explained in the conceptual framework section, uses the formal modelling approach of understanding the performance of construction firm in order to explore the “performance dynamism”. in another set of the literature, construction business performance is generally investigated in terms of the causative factors that lead to failure or growth of business. these factors include the external forces in industry, and internal situational and management-related factors, most of which are associated with the management of finance and cash flow ( jang, jiong and cho, 2020; abu bakar, et al., 2012; arditi, koskal and kale, 2000; kale and arditi, 1998; abu bakar, 1993; hillebrandt and cannon, 1990; kangari, 1988). these studies do provide insights into the factors and their respective influence on the failure or growth of construction firms. however, it is generally observed that individual factors would not affect the entire business unilaterally and independently – the factors are generally inter-related and interdependent (rice, 2016). therefore, there is a need for integrative or systemic inquiry, and this research attempts to fulfil this need. understanding the various aspects of construction firm performance could help address a certain kind of research questions. however, going a little further, a different set of review is needed in order to understand why firms perform as they perform or why some firms are successful while others are not in the similar business environment. the theories of the growth of firm could be a right domain to look into because growth is generally an important performance outcome (stevenson and jarillo, 1990), although it is not necessary that growth will bring in perceptively the better performance outcome. greiner (1972) stated that businesses grow in five subsequent phases from growth through creativity to growth through direction, through delegation, through coordination, and growth through collaboration. some economic theorists posit that there could be two kinds of business growth: organic and inorganic (through mergers and acquisitions), and the growth pattern of smes would dominantly be the organic one (davidsson and delmar, 1998). the frequently used measure of growth are profit, units of output, sales volume and market share (delmar, 1997). these measures are interdependent but the actual nature of interdependencies as observed in empirical research are still vague and inconsistent (machek and machek, 2013; garnsey, stan and heffernan, 2006). moreover, firm growth is a multi-dimensional, heterogeneous and complex phenomenon (leitch, hill and neergaard, 2010), and the internal dynamics have largely been unclear for most growth studies (freel, 2000). there are a few notable studies in which the approach of system dynamics (sd) has been used to study the competitiveness and performance of construction firms. dangerfield, green and austin (2010) and gilkinson and dangerfield (2013) assessed the utility of the sd modelling approach to understand the dynamics of the competitiveness of construction firms. ogunlana, li and sukhera (2003) developed an sd model to derive a set of broader strategic policies to enhance the performance of a construction firm. tang and ogunlana (2003a) developed another set of sd model to replicate a level of operational details of a construction firm, and using the same model tang and ogunlana (2003b) explored another set of broader strategic policies to enhance the performance of the construction firm. the models reported in the above last three sd studies explored the policies such as forming joint ventures, development of management information systems, establishing construction industry development board, implementing quality assurance systems, and expanding the regional market for construction firms. these policy options, in essence, include bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202162 a mix of broad and exogenous courses of policies. there is a need for a more finely operationalized model to explore a bit more realistic and endogenous policies to be used by construction firms. yildiz, dikmen and birgonul (2020) presented an extensive exercise in developing dynamic strategy maps in order to strategically plan and manage the performance of a turkish international construction company. a risk/return analysis was done with the selected operational strategies such as increasing profit margins, winning new projects, managing stakeholders and strengthening human and technical resources capabilities. the sd approach and findings in the study were however reported implicitly. in this paper, emphasis is given in presenting the conceptual and then simulation model explicitly with the underlying concepts, assumptions, and even the model equations. the developed model attempts to capture the comprehensive understanding of construction business with a closer insight into the functional and operational essence. conceptual framework the conceptual framework used in this paper has been taken from the authors’ previous work presented in bajracharya, et al. (2018). the work developed a qualitative systems thinking model that can explain a range of performance modes of construction firms in sme category. the main conceptual basis of the work is the limits to growth archetype, particularly the one that explains the growth and capacity underinvestment (sterman, 2000; senge, 1990). the archetype explains the phenomenon whereby the growth (in business) itself creates limiting situations, and if the limiting forces are stronger, then the growth could get pulled down to the situation of decline and deterioration. the growth and capacity underinvestment archetype (a version of it as presented in figure 1) explains that the efforts for performance and growth essentially need capacity resources, and more efforts mean more consumption of capacity. if the consumption of capacity is overlooked or if there is reluctance/ignorance in making a timely investment to arrange capacity to move in sync with the growth, then the available capacity would get strained. the strained capacity creates a deficit situation in the capacity to put effort. this would affect the performance of the company, and if the performance gets persistently affected, then it would pull down the growth itself. the whole process is dynamic in essence, and the challenge is to manage the changing growth and performance level with the changing capacity availability. effort performance growth impetus to put effort + + + consumption of capacity available capacity + + perceived need to invest in capacity investment in capacity + + r1 b1 b2 demand + + figure 1. the growth and capacity underinvestment archetype the concept of the archetype could be compared with the various connotations of accompanying constraints or risks of the growth of firm as mentioned in the mainstream management literature. referring to penrose’s seminal work on the theory of the growth of the firm (penrose, 1959 and 1995), the rate of growth could be constrained due to the lagged process of acquiring and accumulating sufficient levels of managerial knowledge and expertise, which barringer and jones (2004) considered as the managerial capacity problem. hess (2010) pointed the risks of growth in terms of the over consumption of capabilities and competencies of the company, and the stressed internal operations that can potentially weaken the existing business. according to nicholls-nixon (2005), if the growth is fast, it would add and create managerial complexity that requires organisational adaptation. hambrick and crozier (1985) found that rapid growth could create serious issues of pressure and adaptability on the side of employees in the bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202163 organisation. the stressed and over-consumed capacity could eventually drive the organisation into chaos zone triggering the crisis and even the situation of growth reversal (garengo and bernardi, 2007; covin and slevin, 2000). the essence of the various connotations of the implications of growth are in fact succinctly captured by the growth and capacity underinvestment archetype. senge (1990) developed the concept of the archetype, and morecroft (2015) elaborated it at a greater length taking a reference to forrester’s market growth model (forrester, 1968). sterman (2000, pp. 605 and 606) asserted that “though based on the case of a particular firm, the (market growth) model is quite general and its lessons apply to growing organizations in any industry”. using the concept of the market growth model, morecroft (2015) analysed the performance modes of a high-tech manufacturing company with different executive policies used in the specific context of the company. bajracharya, et al. (2018) developed an adapted version of the concept of growth and capacity underinvestment archetype in the context of the construction business. figure 2 presents a slightly modified version of the archetype model, and this particular model is the main conceptual basis of this research. effort in winning new projects new projects ongoing projects effort in project execution successful execution of projects market reputation clientele potential new projects + + + + + + + + turnover profit appetite for new projects + + + + r1 r2 cash expenditure cash availability + + consumption of capacity + + availability of capacity + + b4 cash balance + cash withdrawal indicated cash withdrawal + indicated borrowing working capital borrowing ++ payback + + indicated capacity + capacity acquisition capacity balance + + expenditure on capacity + + budget allocation for acquiring capacity + + + reinvestments equity investment + b1 + b2 b8 b3 b12 b11 retained earnings + + dividends + -b7 + b5 b6 b13 entrepreneural drive other available projects in the market + + b6 r3 b10 investment of working capital roi on working capital + + r4 r5 r6 b9 r7 + figure 2. the conceptual model there are altogether eight reinforcing (indicated by rs) and twelve balancing (indicated by bs) feedback loops (fbls) identified in the model presented in figure 2, and they are divided into six different categories (see table 1). the first category includes two reinforcing fbls (r1 and r2) that explain the main growth or deterioration processes that could take place in construction business. the first reinforcing fbl r1 explains a growth process based on a better market reputation due to the track record of successful execution of projects. better market reputation provides a broader clientele which would increase the positive network externalities (hellofs and jacobson, 1999; yoon, guffey and kijewski, 1993) and thus the prospect of potential new projects (nieto-morote and ruz-vila, 2012; ng, tang and palaneeswaran, 2009), and such prospects encourage business owners to put more effort in winning new projects. the won new projects would then be implemented as ongoing projects, and more successful execution of ongoing projects means bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202164 table 1. feedback loops in the conceptual model 1. the main growth or deterioration a. the track record and market reputation loop (r1): effort in winning new projects →+ new projects →+ ongoing projects →+ effort in project execution →+ successful execution of projects →+ market reputation →+ clientele →+ potential new projects →+ effort in winning new projects b. the turnover and profit loop (r2): effort in winning new projects →+ new projects →+ ongoing projects →+ effort in project execution →+ successful execution of projects →+ turnover →+ profit →+ appetite for new projects →+ effort in winning new projects 2. the limiting effect due to the cash consumption a. the limiting effect due to cash expenditure for the effort in project execution (b1): effort in project execution →+ cash expenditure → – cash balance →+ cash availability →+ effort in project execution b. the limiting effect due to cash expenditure for the effort in project execution and constrained profit (b2): effort in project execution →+ cash expenditure → – profit →+ appetite for new projects →+ effort in winning new projects →+ new projects →+ ongoing projects →+ effort in project execution 3. the limiting effect due to the capacity consumption a. the limiting effect due to consumption of capacity for the effort in winning new projects (b3): effort in winning new projects →+ consumption of capacity → – availability of capacity →+ effort in winning new projects b. the limiting effect due to consumption of capacity for the effort in project execution (b4): effort in project execution →+ consumption of capacity → – availability of capacity →+ effort in project execution 4. managing the cash and finance a. managing the cash balance by withdrawing from the reserve of working capital (b5): cash balance →+ cash availability → – indicated cash withdrawal →+ cash withdrawal →+ cash balance b. managing the reserve of working capital by borrowing (b6): reserve of working capital → – indicated borrowing →+ borrowing →+ reserve of working capital c. arranging reinvestment from the retained earnings (b7): reinvestment → – retained earnings →+ reinvestment d. maintaining the retained earnings with dividends for shareholders (b8): retained earnings →+ dividends for shareholders → – retained earnings e. the profit and its reinvestment effect (b9): profit →+ retained earnings →+ dividends→– reserve of working capital →+ budget allocation for acquiring capacity →+ capacity acquisition →+ capacity balance →+ availability of capacity →+ effort in project execution →+ successful execution of projects →+ turnover →+ profit 5. managing the capacity a. budget arrangement for acquiring capacity (b10): reserve of working capital →+ budget allocation for acquiring capacity → – reserve of working capital b. managing the expenditure to maintain the capacity balance (b11): capacity balance →+ expenditure on capacity → – reserve of working capital →+ budget allocation for acquiring capacity →+ capacity acquisition →+ capacity balance c. managing the expenditure due to consumption of capacity for the effort in winning new projects (b12): consumption of capacity →+ expenditure in capacity → – reserve of working capital →+ budget allocation for acquiring capacity →+ capacity acquisition →+ capacity balance →+ availability of capacity →+ effort in winning new projects →+ consumption of capacity bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202165 more market reputation in turn. this core market growth loop is important to explain the performance of any construction business as it touches into the main source of revenue. an exogenous variable, “other available projects in the market” has been linked to “potential new projects” (figure 2) – this means that besides the clientele of the construction company, there would also be other available projects in the market. more projects would be available in the market if the economy is doing well and vice versa. the second reinforcing fbl r2 explains another growth process, which is related to the general growthoriented behaviour of the company owners as entrepreneurs. they work for turnover and profit from projects, and the more they get them, the more appetite (or desire) they develop and put more effort to get them more. the expectation of financial reward is one of the strongest growth motivators of business owners (davidsson, 1989), and it is truer in construction business where the turnover and profit are critical for business operations. in fact, more profit is highly crucial for the firms to grow (davidsson, steffens and fitsimmons, 2009), and this second reinforcing fbl explains how the success or failure of achieving the very bottom line could influence the effort and performance in construction business. an exogenous variable “entrepreneurial drive” has also been added and linked to the “appetite for new projects” indicating that besides the appetite the owners develop because of turnover and profit, they would also be driven by their entrepreneurship – staunch entrepreneurs might keep on striving even in the situation of low turnover and less profit (barringer, jones and neubaum, 2005; kolvereid, 1992), and such entrepreneurial orientation supports the growth of a firm (moreno, casillas and moreno-mendez, 2008). the second and third categories of fbls (b1 to b2 and b3 to b4) represent the limiting process developed due to the growth processes explained by the two reinforcing loops, r1 and r2. in the process of company growth, efforts are needed in winning new projects and in the execution of ongoing projects. these efforts require capacities for realizing the intended outcome – the more the amount of efforts, the more the d. managing the expenditure due to consumption of capacity for the effort in project execution (b13): consumption of capacity →+ expenditure in capacity → – reserve of working capital →+ budget allocation for acquiring capacity →+ capacity acquisition →+ capacity balance →+ availability of capacity →+ effort in project execution →+ consumption of capacity 6. other reinforcing processes in the system a. the potential debt trap (r3): indicated borrowing →+ borrowing →+ payback → – reserve of working capital → – indicated borrowing b. the gain from the investment of working capital (r4): reserve of working capital →+ investment of working capital →+ roi on working capital →+ reserve of working capital c. the potential growth/drag-down effect due to the adequacy/deficit in capacity for winning the potential new projects (r5): potential new projects →+ indicated capacity →+ budget allocation for acquiring capacity →+ capacity acquisition →+ capacity balance →+ availability of capacity →+ effort in project execution →+ successful execution of projects →+ market reputation →+ clientele →+ potential new projects d. the potential growth/drag-down effect due to the adequacy/deficit in capacity for ongoing projects (r6): ongoing projects →+ indicated capacity →+ budget allocation for acquiring capacity →+ capacity acquisition →+ capacity balance →+ availability of capacity →+ effort in winning new projects →+ new projects →+ ongoing projects e. the turnover effect (r7): turnover →+ reserve of working capital →+ budget allocation for acquiring capacity →+ capacity acquisition →+ capacity balance →+ availability of capacity →+ effort in project execution →+ successful execution of projects →+ turnover table 1. continued bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202166 capacities they will consume. in this research, the capacities are broadly divided into the financial and other capacities. in fact, capacities are backed-up by relevant resources, and as such, financial capacities primarily require financial resources and other capacities require their relevant resources. other capacity resources in this research are defined as the whole set of resources required for operations of the company, and for the management and execution of projects. the resources are the human, material, equipment, land, building, all the facilities and service (provided by sub-contractors) resources that are consumed/deployed by the company. the balancing loops from b1 to b2 show that the efforts consume the cash, and b3 to b4 show that they consume other capacity resources. as a result, the stocks of these resources get depleted and their availability would be reduced. the less the availability of these cash and other capacity resources, the less effective the efforts would tend to be, and thus the two growth loops (r1 and r2) would be affected. if the availability of resources continues to be low, then it might even turn the growth loops into declining loops, which could eventually pull down the business into a state of poor performance. therefore, the limiting effects of the balancing loops from b1 to b4 could be detrimental to the system if they are not properly checked. the fourth and fifth categories of fbls (b5 to b8 and b9 to b12) explain how the construction company would manage its finance and other capacities to check or control the limiting effects of the balancing loops, b1 to b4. on the financial management side, maintaining sufficient operational cash balance, or in other words, cash flow management is one of the most challenging tasks in construction business. the cash balance could be managed by withdrawing cash from the reserve of the company’s working capital (loop b5) or by borrowing from financial institutions (loop b6). borrowing would increase the working capital, but it might take time to arrange the indicated amount to be borrowed, and it has to be paid back eventually with the interest amount. on the other hand, the main source of working capital would be the turnover in terms of successive payments gained in the process of project execution. the working capital could also be increased with the reinvestment of retained earnings (loop b7) from the turnover after deducting dividend payments to shareholders of the company (loop b8), and by investing the amount of working capital to get a return on its investment (loop r4). in some cases, equity investment could also be sought to increase the working capital reserve. on the side of capacity management, the reserve of working capital would be used as a source to finance the capacity resources. there could be three different ways with which the capacity would be arranged and maintained. first, in order to acquire new capacity, the budget would be allocated as per the indicated (or desired) capacity for potential new projects and ongoing projects (loop b9). second, to maintain the balance of the capacity in possession, the required expenditure (the overhead expenses) would also need to be arranged from the reserve of working capital (loop b10). thirdly, the expenditure due to consumption/ deployment of capacity for the effort in winning new projects (loop b11) and the effort in project execution (loop b12) would also need to be covered by the working capital. the last or sixth category of fbls (r3 to r7) represents the reinforcing loops or processes that get developed in the system. loop r3 explains the process of potential debt trap, meaning that if the company relies more on borrowed money to secure finance, and if the interest rate is significant but return on debt investment is not promising, then the company’s debt liabilities could get escalated. loop r4, on the other hand, explains the situation whereby the company could enjoy the progressive return on investment if it invests the idle or apportioned amount of working capital in other portfolios rather than in the main business of new or ongoing projects. the requirement here is, the quantum of the apportioned working capital and rate of return should be significant to realize the progressive benefit. loops r5 and r6 explain the potential growth/drag-down effect due to adequacy/deficit in the capacity for winning potential new projects and for ongoing projects respectively. loop r7 explains the role of turnover in increasing the reserve of working capital and in the allocation of the budget for capacity acquisition. the practice of allocating a good proportion of profit/retained earnings for reinvestment could have a positive effect in bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202167 increasing the reserve of working capital and in the allocation of budget for capacity acquisition, and at the same time, it also matters how much of the turnover the company allocates for capacity acquisition. each of the fbls, individually, in the six sets as elaborated above, can explain the forces that have the potential to affect the construction business system in different ways. the two main growth loops r1 and r2, ceteris paribus, portray the exponential growth (or decline) of construction company, and the finance and other capacities related balancing loops explain the influence on the potential growth (or even decline) of the business. in fact, the individual fbl-based approach can be taken as the usual factor-based approach in addressing the relevant issues. however, as the fbls are structurally interlocked with non-linear relationships and time delays, an individual factor-based approach, even if it is well-intentioned one, might not be effective in the overall explanation of the observed level of business performance. development of a simulation model the conceptual model (figure 2) was translated into a simulation model to do experiments with a set of policies and practices that are generally used by construction companies. stella architect was used as a software to develop the simulation model. a case of a typical construction company in the sme category was used to contextualize the model. all the fbls in the conceptual model were carefully incorporated in the simulation model, and to make it more operational and realistic, other structural details along with relevant variables were also added in the model. further, in order to gain confidence in the simulation model, the variables and their structural relationships were crafted carefully with their clear and fundamental understanding in the context of a construction company. the whole exercise of model development was extensively iterative. the experiments, modifications, and learning processes with the simulation model were continued with a range of extreme and intermediate possibilities in parameter values and structural relationships till a reasonable level of confidence was gained in the outcome of simulation runs. the case of a construction company before going into a detailed description of the simulation model, first, a case of a construction company is now presented. the main purpose of this case description is to provide a context for the generic conceptual framework. • the case considered is of a general construction company with the size and scale of an sme, which is operating since the last 15 years in a relatively unstable and competitive market in a developing economy. the market is fairly sensitive to the performance of the company, which means information about the project performance of the company spreads steadily in the market, and the track record or market reputation affects the clientele and potential new projects from the market. • the company is owned by a small group of partners. • the perspective in the model is that of the company owners. • the company is a genuine and growth-oriented construction company. • structural outline on the projects (figure 3): the construction company would win new projects from the available potential projects which could be from the clientele of the company or the construction market. once the new projects are won, they are internalized as the ongoing projects for execution, and if the execution is successful, then they would be the completed projects which would eventually be archived as a stock of the successful projects. however, if the execution is not successful, such projects would be abandoned as failed projects which would be archived as a stock of the failed projects. bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202168 projects new projects ongoing projects completed projects archived successful projects failed projects clientele completed projects archived failed projects actual pe time time required to archive successful projects time to make decision about project abandonment time required to archive failed projects increase in clientele number of other potential clients per completed project potential projects other potential projects in the market winning new projects project internalisation project execution natural depletion of clientele successful projects archiving project abandonment failed project archiving fractional depletion of clientele time required to win a project effort in winning new projects time required to internalise projects figure 3. the projects sector • structural outline on the working capital and cash flow (figure 4): working capital is the capital used by the company for day-to-day operations. it is the balance of current assets and the current liabilities. the stock of cash is also a part of working capital in the form of the most liquid current assets. the inflow into the stock of working capital would be the collection of accounts receivables, equity investment, reinvestment of retained earnings, earned interest rate, and the borrowed capital amount. the outflow, on the other hand, would be the payments on the borrowed loan, replenishment of cash as per requirements, budgetary expenditure on the acquisitions of capacities for project operations, and project management and execution. the stock of cash would be maintained using the available working capital, and the cash would be disbursed for the account payables for projects, and the direct (projects) and indirect (company office) overhead amounts. compensation for mobilization costs for new projects and the retention amount on payments for project execution would also affect the receivables and payables. figure 4. the working capital and cash flow sector bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202169 • structural outline on the capacities of the company (figure 5): construction business generally operates at two levels, one is at the head office and the other at project offices. therefore, in order to operationalize in the simulation model, the concept of capacity has been divided into the project operations (po) capacity as the capacity at the head office and the project management and execution (pm&e) capacity as the capacity at the project offices. the po capacity is generally needed and consumed for winning new projects and for providing operational support for ongoing projects, whereas the pm&e capacity is needed and consumed directly for the management and execution of ongoing projects. both po and pm&e capacities could be adjusted as per the requirements, but the acquisitions or adjustments of the capacities would be affected by the budget adequacy for acquisitions, time delay for adjustments, and the capacity deployment policy of the company. the capacity deployment policy mainly relates to the discretionary policy of the company on whether to fully or partly acquire and deploy the indicated (or required) capacities. on the other hand, the turnover and attrition would drain out the respective capacities. operations and pm&e capacity sector project operations capacity pm&e capacity ongoing projects adequacy of pm&e capacity for ongoing projects indicated pm&e capacity for ongoing projects fractional pm&e capacity for ongoing projects change in po capacity project operations capacity turnover and attrition rate of attrition of po capacity po capacity deployment effect of capacity utilisation policy on po turnover effect of budget adequacy on po capacity acquisition po capacity adjustment delay indicated po capacity for pm&e adequacy of po capacity for pm&e proportion of po capacity dedicated for wnp rate of attrition of pm&e capacity effect of capacity utilisation policy on pm&e capacity turnover pm&e capacity deployment pm&e capacity turnover and attrition change in pm&e capacity indicated po capacity for wnp po capacity dedicated for wnp po capacity dedicated for pm&e adequacy of po capacity for wnp effect of budget adequacy on pm&e capacity acquisition equivalent capacity needed for wnp wrt pm&e indicated po capacity for pm&e potential projects pm&e capacity adjustment delay figure 5. the operations and pm&e capacity sector • structural outline on the costs and profit (figure 6): costs of running a project-based construction business can be divided into actual project costs, direct overhead costs (at project office), and indirect overhead costs (at the head office). the balance between these costs and the turnover amount would be the profit figure for the company. the expected costs and profit amounts would be realized if the projects are completed within the planned time duration. however, if there is alteration in the planned time duration of the projects, the costs and profit figures would be affected. longer time duration means more actual costs and less actual profit. accumulation of actual profit would be taken as the retained earnings, and it would be divided into dividends for shareholders and reinvestment portion for the company business. the proportion of the division depends on the profit allocation policy of the company. the profit achievement ratio is the ratio of the actual and expected profit, and the more the value of the ratio, more would be the sense of profit achievement. this particular sense of achievement in the bottom line of the business would affect the appetite for the growth of the business. the higher bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202170 profit achievement ratio develops more appetite for profit, and that is why the owners of the company would be looking for more new projects to get more business and profit. costs and profit sector cumulative dividends retained earnings paid dividends reinvestment of re proportion of re for reinvestment proportion of profit allocation for dividends proportion of expected project cost normal proportion of direct oc normal proportion of indirect oc normal proportion of actual total cost expected profit margin expected profit per month profit achievement ratio observed profit achievement ratio actual profit margin actual profit proportion of actual project cost proportion of actual indirect oc proportion of actual direct oc effect of adequacy of capacities and cash sufficiency on costs allocated dividends adequacy of po capacity for pm&e adequacy of pm&e capacity for ongoing projects dividend payment figure 6. the costs and profit sector other structural details on the entire model of the construction company are presented in terms of model equations in the appendix. the full model could be obtained upon request to the first author of this paper. parameters for the base run in order to further make the context of the construction company more specific, a set of parameters need to be specified and used for simulation experiments (see table 2). to start with, first, the type of projects the company normally prefers to win from the market are small to medium size projects with an average turnover value in between usd 24 and 30 million per project, and it needs to be completed in the average estimated or expected time duration of 24 months. the interest rate on loan would be 14% per annum and the return on investment, 9% per annum. the proportion of debt financing the company secures to cater to cash deficiency would be 100%, meaning that banks are available and supportive to the business, but it takes 3 months in average as a procedural delay to bring-in the required loan amount to the company account. the payback period is generally 10 years. the current po and pm&e capacities of the company are equivalent to 5 projects – the company has currently a capacity of operations, management, and execution of 5 normal projects at a time. in general, in order to win a new project, it would take one third (33%) of the full operations support capacity required for one pm&e. in addition, to bear the costs of deployment (for projects) and maintenance (in terms of direct and indirect overhead costs) of the capacities, the company also allocates budget for new capacity acquisitions. for the po and pm&e capacity acquisitions, 5% and 10% of the turnover respectively would be allocated as the budget for new capacity acquisitions. on the side of payments on project execution, the company would receive compensation for mobilization upfront, and it would be 10% of the contract amount which needs to be paid back with deductions on subsequent running bills. a similar arrangement is also there for sub-contractors of the company, and the upfront compensation for all the sub-contractors would be 2% of the project cost. the retention of payments on completed works for the company and subcontractors would be 25% of the running bill amount, which would eventually be paid back after the completion of works. it would take one month to settle the ongoing accounts payables and accounts receivables. bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202171 besides the parameters listed in table 2, the average time delay in different processes and operations would also be important to understand the dynamics of the construction business. in order to win new projects, the company would need to put in effort for about 6 months on average, which means the time delay in winning a new project would be 6 months on average. once the contract has been signed, it would take a month to internalize the project. the estimated normal execution time of a project would be 24 months, but the actual time taken for project execution depends on the performance of the company and project-level operations. once the project has been successfully completed, within a month it would be recorded as an archived successful project. however, if the project takes more than 2 to 3 times the estimated time duration, a part or even the whole of the project would be abandoned as a failed project. it would take 24 months to declare the set of delayed projects as failed projects, and then after they would be recorded as archived failed projects in a month. it is also important to consider the time taken to arrange for or to adjust the po and pm&e capacities as per their demand situation. on average, it would take 3 months to adjust the po capacity, and 2 months for the pm&e capacity. these time-delay figures indicate the efficiency of the company in arranging the respective capacities as per their demand situation. discussion on the output of simulation experiments the key parameters explained in the previous section represent a context of a typical construction company, and within the context, it is attempted to develop an understanding of the implications of some selected policies and practices that construction companies use in their business. table 2. key parameters for the base run average turnover value per project: random in between usd 24 million and 30 million average time duration of projects: 24 months interest rate on loan: 14% per annum return on investment: 9% per annum proportion of debt financing to cater to cash deficiency: 100% average time taken to borrow the required loan: 3 months current project operations (po) capacity: 5 projects current project management and execution (pm&e) capacity: 5 projects equivalent po capacity needed for winning new projects with respect to that for one pm&e: 0.33 fractional turnover allocated for po capacity acquisition: 0.05 fractional turnover allocated for pm&e capacity acquisition: 0.10 compensation for mobilisation for the company: 10% of the contract amount compensation for mobilisation for subcontractors: 2% of the project cost retention amount on the continuous payments on completed works for the company and subcontractors: 25% time duration for paying the accounts payable: 1 month time duration for receiving the accounts receivable: 1 month bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202172 construction companies cannot survive without ongoing projects, and thus their focus and tendency would be to win more and more new projects. it has been widely observed that the obsession of volume and the perception of “more project revenue means more profit” represent the dominant mind-set of contractors (rice 2016, 2013). with such a mind-set, they tend to be aggressive in winning projects even with lowprofit margins, especially when the market is competitive (hedley, 2011). on the side of capacity management, stretching the available capacity at both the head office and project site offices is a general practice used by construction companies. probably because of the uncertainty in getting projects, they are generally reluctant to add to their current capacity and to build any extra capacity cushions (gill, 2015). they discharge the capacity once the project is over, and they rarely work with the reserve of their own pool of capacity to be proactive in the business. these practices of construction companies indeed seem to be rational from a contractor’s perspective. projects are essential food for survival for the business, and it is highly challenging to win them. therefore, contractors tend to be obsessed with the accumulation of project volume and they put good effort in winning new projects. projects bring-in revenue and cash, and they need to be won even with low-profit margins in difficult situations. as there is so much uncertainty in getting new projects, the current capacity should be fully exploited and there is no point in arranging for unnecessary and extra capacity cushion. in the simulation experiments, these practices were incorporated with the quantified values of relevant parameters. first, the effort for winning more new projects (wnp) needs the capacities and resources which have to be drawn from the capacities at project operations (po) level. more emphasis on winning new projects means more proportion of po capacity to be allocated for marketing, bidding for contracts, negotiation, client relationship maintenance, and so on. this also means that the po capacity needed for ongoing project management and execution (pm&e) would be compromised. the po capacities for wnp and pm&e are mutually exclusive, and it is more so in resource-constrained smes. second, the profit margin of projects with which construction companies would work depends on the relative scale of the project and the risk appetite of the company. the accepted profit margin is the balance when the expected overhead amounts and cost expenses are deducted from the estimated turnover of the project. third, the sense of adequacy of deployed capacities with respect to the indicated ones reflects the deployment policies of the po capacity at the head office and the pm&e capacity at site offices. the company could deploy stretched, just adequate, or even extra buffer capacities. fourth, the time delay in arranging the indicated capacities is another parameter that reflects the company’s ability or preference in the timely management of the desired capacity. if there is no proactive arrangement of capacities, it will surely take at least the required time to arrange for newly indicated capacities. these four parameters have been used to represent the policies and practices of the construction companies as mentioned before, and figure 7 presents a set of relevant simulation runs that reflect the consequences of the policies and practices. in figure 7, a total of five simulation runs (srs) have been presented on the patterns of six selected variables over a period of 144 months (12 years). these 6 variables represent some of the key performance indicators of the construction business. these five sets of srs actually demonstrate the implications of more and more emphasis on new projects, accepting projects with lower profit margins, and tighter capacity deployment. the po capacity allocation for winning new projects (wnp) is increased from 30% to 40%, 50%, 60% to 70% in srs from 1 to 5 successively. likewise, the profit margin is decreased from 30% to 25%, 20%, 15% to 10%. the proportion of po and pm&e capacity deployment is decreased from 90% to 85%, 80%, 75% to 70% of the indicated capacity successively. the po and pm&e capacity adjustment delays, however, have been fixed 3 months and 2 months respectively for this set of simulation runs. bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202173 7.a. 7.b. 7.c. 7.d. 7.e. 7.f. figure 7. implications of the emphasis on winning more new projects, lower profit margins, and tighter capacity deployment the simulation outputs (from figures 7.a. to 7.f.) demonstrate that more emphasis on new projects, lower (or competitive) profit margins and tighter capacity deployment eventually deteriorates the performance of construction business to the situation of absolute failure. the main purpose of dedicating more po capacity for winning new projects is to add a volume of projects, and it could bring in new projects for some time (figure 7.a.). however, it would be difficult to sustain the increase in new projects because in smes, the limited po capacity has to be compromised and the effective head office attention on ongoing projects would get reduced. as a result, the effort in pm&e at the site would be affected. besides that, new projects mean more demand of the capacities, and worse, if the capacities are stretched then the adequacies (figure 7.d. and 7.e.) would be lesser to meet the indicated capacities. another interesting observation is that the adequacy of po capacity for wnp turned out to be far more than that is indicated (or required) (figure 7.c.) because the actually needed po capacity for wnp would be generally less than the perceived need. therefore, allocating more and more po capacities for winning new projects is a faulty practice as it reduces the effective po capacities for pm&e at the project sites. another observation is that the cash sufficiency gets worse successively in the five srs (figure 7.f.) despite the fact that cash deficiency would be covered 100% by borrowing. the main reasons are: there is some procedural delay in borrowing the indicated cash amount, and the number of new projects if get delayed in the process of execution due to lower capacity adequacy, they would not fetch-in the receivables. overall, the set of consequent business performance demonstrates the failure patterns of growth and decline. the effort to win new projects brings in more projects, more turnover, more budget availability for capacities, more added capacities, and more effort to win new projects in turn. however, due to the tighter capacity deployment practices in the situation of its increasing demand create subsequent capacity deficiencies, and it starts repeatedly affecting the effective effort. this turns the virtuous structure of the main reinforcement loops (r1 and r2 in figure 2) into vicious, and thus the business would plunge to failure. figure 8 presents another set of simulation runs. this set presents the experimental output of the inquiry to learn whether the emphasis on wnp is always counterproductive. three groups of results have been produced for the purpose. in the first group (figure 8.a. to 8.f.), po capacity allocated for wnp has been successively increased from 10% to 15%, 20%, 25% to 30% in the five runs at the profit margin of 20%. in the second group (figure 8.g. to 8.l.), po capacity dedicated for wnp has been again successively increased from 10% to 15%, 20%, 25% to 30% in the five runs at the profit margin of 30%. likewise, in the third group (figure 8.m. to 8.r.), po capacity allocated for wnp has been successively increased from 10% to 15%, 20%, 25% to 35% in the five runs at the profit margin of 40%. in all the three groups, the proportions bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202174 of po and pm&e capacity deployment have been fixed at 80%, and the capacity adjustment delays are locked at 3 and 2 months respectively. in short, the three groups of simulation output demonstrate how the company performance would be affected when winning new projects are successively more emphasized in three increasing levels of profit margin with relatively higher proportions of po and pm&e capacity deployment and longer capacity adjustment delay. the results of this experiment show that a higher level of profit margin would help to bring in more projects if more emphasis is given (or more po capacity is deployed) for wnp. in the first group of srs, at the lower 20% of profit margin, 10% of po capacity deployed for wnp could ensure sustained growth of new projects for the company. in the second group of srs, at the next higher 30% of profit margin, 10% and 15% of po capacity deployed for wnp could ensure the growth of new projects. in the third group of srs, at further higher profit margin of 40%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% of po capacity deployed for wnp could ensure sustained growth of new projects for the company. however, in all the three groups, it is found that the extent of po capacity deployed for wnp have a certain limit to yield more new projects 8.a. 8.g. 8.m. 8.b. 8.h. 8.n. 8.c. 8.i. 8.o. 8.d. 8.j. 8.p. 8.e. 8.k. 8.q. 8.f. 8.l. 8.r. figure 8. implications of different profit margins and emphasis on winning more new projects bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202175 9.a. 9.g. 9.m. 9.b. 9.h. 9.n. 9.c. 9.i. 9.o. 9.d. 9.j. 9.p. 9.e. 9.k. 9.q. 9.f. 9.l. 9.r. figure 9. implications of capacities management vis-à-vis different profit margins – in the first group not more than 10%, in the second 20%, and in the third group, not more than 25% po capacity deployed for wnp could ensure growth of new projects. this means more emphasis on winning new projects could be a good policy option for sustained and higher business growth, provided that it is supported by adequate profit margin, but again there is a limit on the effectiveness of emphasis on winning new projects in bringing-in real new projects. another observation is, within the limit, more profit margin would help bring in a larger scale of business in terms of the number of projects, revenues, and resulting dividend amounts. more profit margin means more reinvestment, more resulting capacities, and more cash sufficiency. it also means more sense of achievement and more appetite for new projects. however, the limit would be crossed when the po capacity gets excessively deployed for wnp (figures 8c, i and o). another set of experimental results is presented in figure 9. the purpose of this experiment is to explore whether more profit margin would always ensure sustained growth of the business. in figure 9, for the first group (figure 9.a. to 9.f.) of simulation, the profit margin is fixed at 40%, for the second group (figure bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202176 9.g. to 9.l.), it is fixed at 20%, and for the third group (figure 9.m. to 9.r.), 5%. the profit margins are successively decreased in the groups presented in three columns. for each of the three groups, the po capacity allocated for wnp is decreased from 50% to 40%, 30%, 20% to 10% in srs 1 to 5 respectively. the proportion of po and pm&e capacity deployment is increased from 70% to 75%, 80%, 85% to 90% of the indicated capacity respectively. the po capacity adjustment delay is decreased from 3 months to 2.5, 2, 1.5 to 1 months, and the pm&e capacity adjustment delay is decreased from 2 months to 1.5, 1, 0.75 to 0.5 months. overall, the whole set of effective capacities are successively increased in the five srs in each of the three groups. the experimental results clearly indicate that more profits do help to develop business in larger scales in terms of many projects, revenues, and resulting dividend amounts. however, it is also evident that even a very attractive profit margin of 40% would not be sufficient to sustain the business if it takes longer time to adjust the current capacities as per indicated ones, capacity deployments are tighter, and excessively more po capacity is allocated for wnp. more profits do support the business with the relatively less effective capacities, but again, higher profit margins do have limits. on the other hand, a lower profit margin of 20% or even a meagre 5% would help sustain and grow the business if the effective capacities are adequate. the key point is, the deployment and adequacy of capacities should be ensured vis-à-vis the level of profit margin for the business to successfully scale up. conclusions this research investigated why construction companies would generally fail, and how they could sustain and grow their business. a range of performance modes of a typical construction company has been explored by simulating the underlying causal structure. it was found that the policies and practices that emphasize winning more and more new projects generally create the situation of biting more than what the company could chew. worse it would be, when companies prefer to be more competitive by accepting new projects with lower profit margins, and they work with tighter capacity deployment policies. on the other hand, it was also found that emphasis on winning new projects would help to grow the business, provided that it is supported by adequate profit margins. however, certain profit margins, even the higher ones, do have a limit in letting the company allocate its capacity and resources in winning more and more new projects. it was also observed that more emphasis on winning new projects, if properly synchronized with higher profit margins, could lead to a larger scale growth of the business in terms of the number of projects, revenues, and resulting dividend amounts. further, higher profit margins, even though they look attractive, would not necessarily help sustain the business if it takes a longer time to adjust the current capacities as per the indicated ones, capacity deployments are tighter, and excessively more capacity and resources are allocated for winning new projects. this research considered and experimented with a set of selected managerial policies and practices that can lead the construction business to failure, sustenance, or growth. overall, in order to achieve expected growth or sustenance, it is found that a certain level of balance needs to be secured on how much emphasis is to be given to win new projects, how much profit margins to work with, and how much capacities to be arranged and deployed for project operations, management, and execution. the business performance modes observed in this research were the experimental outcomes within the context of a typical construction company that is explained by the baseline situation and parameters. it is a conceptual or more a semi-empirical work. the advantage of such study is that a range of possible parameter values and information structure in the model could be used to create different sets of contexts and policies for experimental learning. however, the use of experimental data, although they are realistic, might be questionable from the pure empiricist perspective which emphasizes the importance of real life data. bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202177 therefore, for further research, it is recommended to use the pure empirical data in the simulation model to gain more realistic and practical insights. for such research, all the required longitudinal data need to be collected preferably by conducting thorough case or ethnographic studies in the consenting construction firms. references abu bakar, a. h., tabassi, a. a., razak, a. a., and yusof, m. n., 2012. key factors contributing to the growth of construction companies: a malaysian experience. world applied sciences journal, 19(9), pp. 1295-1304. abu bakar, a. h., 1993. growth trend for construction companies: a malaysian experience. proceedings of cib symposium 93, 1, pp. 524-543. arditi, d., koskal, a., and kale, s., 2000. business failures in the construction industry. engineering, construction and architectural management, 7(2), pp. 120-132. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb021137 bajracharya, a., ogunlana, s. o., goh, c. s. and tan, h. c., 2018. conceptualising the nexus of projects, finance and capacity in construction business: a systems thinking approach. frontiers of engineering management, 5(3), pp. 289-297.. barringer, b., jones, f. and neubaum, d., 2005. a quantitative content analysis of the characteristics of rapidgrowth firms and their founders. journal of business venturing, 20(5), pp. 663-687. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jbusvent.2004.03.004 barringer, b. r. and jones, f. f., 2004. achieving rapid growth: revisiting the managerial capacity problem. journal of developmental entrepreneurship, 9(1), pp. 73-86. cidb, 2006. malaysia construction industry master plan. cidb, malaysia. covin, j.g. and slevin, d.p., 2000. high growth transitions: theoretical perspectives and suggested directions. in: sexton, d. l. and smilor, r. w., ed. entrepreneurship 2000, pp. 99–126. chicago: upstart publishing co. dangerfield, b., green, s. and austin, s., 2010. understanding construction competitiveness: the contribution of system dynamics. construction innovation, 10(4), pp. 408-420. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171011083579 davidsson, p., 1989. entrepreneurship—and after? a study of growth willingness in small firms. journal of business venturing, 4, pp. 211-226. https://doi.org/10.1016/0883-9026(89)90022-0 davidsson, p., steffens, p., fitzsimmons, j., 2009. growing profitable or growing from profits: putting the horse in front of the cart? journal of business venturing, 24, pp. 388-406. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2008.04.003 davidsson, p. and delmar, f., 1998. some important observations concerning job creation by firm size and age. rencontres st. gallen, gallen, switzerland. delmar, f., 1997. measuring growth: methodological considerations and empirical results. in donckels, r. and miettinen, r. a., ed. entrepreneurship and sme research: on its way to the next millennium. aldershot a brookfield: ashgate, pp. 190-216. deng, f. and smyth, h., 2013a. contingency-based approach to firm performance in construction: critical review of empirical research. asce journal of construction engineering and management, 139(10). https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)co.1943-7862.0000738 deng, f. and smyth, h., 2013b. nature of firm performance in construction. asce journal of construction engineering and management, 140(2). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000778 dikmen, i. m., birgonul, t., ozorhon, b. and sapci, n. e., 2010. using analytic network process to assess business failure risks of construction firms. engineering, construction and architectural management, 17(4), pp. 369-386. https:// doi.org/10.1108/09699981011056574 bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202178 https://doi.org/10.1108/eb021137 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2004.03.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2004.03.004 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171011083579 https://doi.org/10.1016/0883-9026(89)90022-0 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2008.04.003 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000738 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000738 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000778 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981011056574 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981011056574 enshassi, a., al-hallaq, k. and mohamed, s., 2006. causes of contractor’s business failure in developing countries: the case of palestine. journal of construction in developing countries, 11(2), pp. 1-14. forrester j.w., 1968. market growth as influenced by capital investment. industrial management review, ix(2), pp. 83105. freel, m. s., 2000. towards an evolutionary theory of small firm growth. journal of enterprising culture, 8(4), p. 321. https://doi.org/10.1142/s0218495800000176 garengo, p. and bernardi, g., 2007. organizational capability in smes. international journal of productivity and performance management, 56(5/6), pp. 518-532. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410400710757178 garnsey, e., stam, e. and heffernan, p., 2006. new firm growth: exploring processes and paths. industry and innovation, 13(1), pp. 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13662710500513367 gilkinson, n, and dangerfield, b., 2013. some results from a system dynamics model of construction sector competitiveness. mathematical and computer modelling, 57, pp. 2032-2043. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mcm.2011.09.011 gill, a., 2015. strategic capacity planning process in the construction business. journal of applied business and economics, 17(4), pp. 95-104. greiner, l. e., 1972. evolution and revolution as organizations grow. harvard business review, 50(4), pp. 37-46. hambrick, d. c. and crozier, l. m., 1985. stumblers and stars in the management of rapid growth. journal of business venturing, 1(1), 31-45. https://doi.org/10.1016/0883-9026(85)90005-9 hedley, g., 2011. 9 numbers you need to keep your company profitable. construction business owner, november 2011. hellofs, l. l. and jacobson, r., 1999. market share and customers’ perceptions of quality: when can firms grow their way to higher versus lower quality? journal of marketing, 63(1), pp. 16-25. https://doi. org/10.1177/002224299906300102 hess, e. d., 2010. smart growth: building an enduring business by managing the risks of growth. columbia university press. https://doi.org/10.7312/hess15050 hillebrandt, p m and cannon, j, 1990. the modern construction firm, macmillan, basingstoke. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-1-349-13628-5 holt, g. d., 2013. construction innovation, 13(1), pp. 50-76. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171311296057 jang, y., jeong, i. and cho, y. k., 2020.business failure prediction of construction contractors using a lstm rnn with accounting, construction market, and macroeconomic variables. asce journal of management in engineering, 36(2). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000733 kale, s. and arditi, d., 1998. business failures: liabilities of newness, adolescence, and smallness. asce journal of construction engineering and management, 124(6), pp. 458-464. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(1998)124:6(458) kangari, r., 1998. business failure in the construction industry. asce journal of construction engineering and management, 114(2), pp. 172-190. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1988)114:2(172) kenley, r., 2003. financing construction: cash flows and cash farming. taylor and francis, london. https://doi. org/10.4324/9780203467398 kolvereid, l., 1992. growth aspirations among norwegian entrepreneurs. journal of business venturing, 7(3), pp. 209222. https://doi.org/10.1016/0883-9026(92)90027-o bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202179 https://doi.org/10.1142/s0218495800000176 https://doi.org/10.1108/17410400710757178 https://doi.org/10.1080/13662710500513367 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mcm.2011.09.011 https://doi.org/10.1016/0883-9026(85)90005-9 https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299906300102 https://doi.org/10.1177/002224299906300102 https://doi.org/10.7312/hess15050 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13628-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-13628-5 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171311296057 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000733 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1998)124:6(458 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1998)124:6(458 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1988)114:2(172 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203467398 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203467398 https://doi.org/10.1016/0883-9026(92)90027-o leitch, c., hill, f. and neergaard, h., 2010. entrepreneurial and business growth and the quest for a “comprehensive theory: tilting at windmills?” entrepreneurship theory and practice, 34(2), pp. 249-260. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.15406520.2010.00374.x machek. m. and machek, o., 2013. a model of small business growth. international journal of economics and statistics. 3(1), pp. 89-96. morecroft, j. d. w., 2015. strategic modelling and business dynamics: a feedback systems approach. london: john wiley & sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119176831 moreno, a. m., casillas, j. c., moreno-menendez, a. m., 2008. entrepreneurial orientation and growth of smes: a causal model. entrepreneurship theory and practice, 32, pp. 507–528. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2008.00238.x murray, j., 2018. review of security of payment laws building trust and harmony, australian government department of jobs and small businesses. department of jobs and small business, australian government. ng, s., tang, z. and palaneeswaran, e., 2009. factors contributing to the success of equipment-intensive subcontractors in construction. international journal of project management, 27(7), pp. 736–744. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2008.09.006 nicholls-nixon, c.l., 2005. rapid growth and high performance: the entrepreneur’s “impossible dream?”.” academy of management executive, 19(1), pp. 77-89. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2005.15841955 nieto-morote, a. and ruz-vila, f. a., 2012. a fuzzy multi-criteria decision-making model for construction contractor prequalification. automation in construction, 25, pp. 8-19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.04.004 ofori, g., 1990. the construction industry: aspects of its economics and management. singapore university press, singapore. ogunlana, s. o., li, h. and sukhera, f. a., 2003. system dynamics approach to exploring performance enhancement in a construction organization. asce journal of construction engineering and management, 129(5), pp. 528-536. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2003)129:5(528) ons, 2018. office of national statistics. [accessed 18 march 2019]. penrose, e. t., 1995. the theory of the growth of the firm. oxford university press, usa. https://doi. org/10.1093/0198289774.001.0001 penrose, e. t., 1959. the theory of the growth of the firm. john wiley, new york. punwani, a., 1997. a study of the growth-investment-financing nexus of the major uk construction groups. construction management and economics, .15, pp. 349–361. https://doi.org/10.1080/014461997372908 rice, h., 2016. why large contractors fail – a fresh perspective. fmi quarterly, june 2016. rice, h., 2013. why contractors fail: a causal analysis of large contractor bankruptcies. fmi quarterly, december 2013. russell, j. s. and casey, j., 1992. design engineer/contractor bankruptcy: considerations for debtor and creditors. journal of management in engineering, 8(3), pp. 278-297. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)9742-597x(1992)8:3(278) senge p. m., 1990. the fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organisation. new york: currency double day. sterman, j. d., 2000. business dynamics: systems thinking and modelling for a complex world, irwin mcgraw hill, usa. stevenson, h. h. and jarillo, j. c., 1990. a paradigm of entrepreneurship: entrepreneurial management. strategic management. journal, 11, pp. 17–27. tang y. h. and ogunlana s. o., 2003a. modelling the dynamic performance of a construction organization. construction management and economics, 21(2), pp. 127–136. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000079699 bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202180 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00374.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2010.00374.x https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119176831 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6520.2008.00238.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.09.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.09.006 https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.2005.15841955 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.04.004 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2003)129:5(528 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2003)129:5(528 http://www.ons.gov.uk> https://doi.org/10.1093/0198289774.001.0001 https://doi.org/10.1093/0198289774.001.0001 https://doi.org/10.1080/014461997372908 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)9742-597x(1992)8:3(278 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000079699 tang y. h. and ogunlana s. o., 2003b. selecting superior performance improvement po construction management and economics, 21(3), pp. 247–256. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000093765 the insolvencies service, 2019. company insolvency statistics, q4 october to december 2019. the insolvency service, london. wood, m., 2015. insolvency statistics. the insolvency service, london. yildiz, a. e., dikmen, i. and birgonul, m. t., 2020. using system dynamics for strategic performance management in construction. journal of management in engineering, 36(2). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000744 yoon, e., guffey, h. j. and kijewski, v., 1993. the effects of information and company reputation on intention to buy a business service. journal of business research, 27, pp. 215-228. https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-2963(93)90027-m appendix model equations top-level model: accounts_payable(t) = accounts_payable(t dt) + (increment_in_ap payment_of_ap) * dt {nonnegative} init accounts_payable = 1500000; inflows: increment_in_ap = (net_payments_to_be_made/ time_to_make_payments)-total_retention_amount_per_month_from_subs+total_retention_ amount_to_be_paid_per_completed_project_per_month_to_subs+cfm_for_subs-monthly_ deductible_amount_of_cfm_for_subs {uniflow}; outflows: payment_of_ap = accounts_ payable {uniflow} accounts_receivable(t) = accounts_receivable(t dt) + (rate_of_accumulation_of_ar collection_ of_ar) * dt {non-negative} init accounts_receivable = 1000000; inflows: rate_of_accumulation_of_ar = (net_turnover_ per_project_per_month/time_to_collect_the_turnover_amount)+received_cfm_amount {uniflow} outflows: collection_of_ar = accounts_receivable/average_time_taken_to_collect_ar {uniflow} archived_failed_projects(t) = archived_failed_projects(t dt) + (failed_project_archiving) * dt {non-negative} init archived_failed_projects = 2; inflows: failed_project_archiving = failed_projects/time_ required_to_archive_failed_projects {uniflow} archived_successful_projects(t) = archived_successful_projects(t dt) + (successful_projects_ archiving) * dt {non-negative} bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202181 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000093765 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000744 https://doi.org/10.1016/0148-2963(93)90027-m init archived_successful_projects = 10; inflows: successful_projects_archiving = completed_ projects/time_required_to_archive_successful_projects {uniflow} cash_availability(t) = cash_availability(t dt) + (cash_replenishment cash_disbursement_for_ projects cash_withdrawal_for_indirect_overhead cash_withdrawal_for_direct_overhead) * dt {non-negative} init cash_availability = 500000; inflows: cash_replenishment = required_cash_per_month_ for_pe+indicated_withdrawal_from_equity {uniflow}; outflows: cash_disbursement_ for_projects = payment_of_ap {uniflow}; cash_withdrawal_for_indirect_overhead = ongoing_ projects*estimated_average_turnover_per_project_per_month*proportion_of_indirect_oc_normal {uniflow} cash_withdrawal_for_direct_overhead = ongoing_projects*estimated_average_turnover_per_ project_per_month*proportion_of_direct_oc_normal {uniflow} clientele(t) = clientele(t dt) + (increase_in_clientele natural_depletion_of_clientele) * dt {nonnegative} init clientele = 20; inflows: increase_in_clientele = completed_projects*number_of_other_ potential_clients_per_completed_project {uniflow}; outflows: natural_depletion_of_ clientele = clientele*fractional_depletion_of_clientele {uniflow} completed_projects(t) = completed_projects(t dt) + (project_execution successful_projects_ archiving) * dt {non-negative} init completed_projects = 2; inflows: project_execution = (ongoing_projects+(ongoing_ projects*addition_of_project_scope))/actual_pe_time {uniflow}; outflows: successful_ projects_archiving = completed_projects/time_required_to_archive_successful_projects {uniflow} cumulative_dividends(t) = cumulative_dividends(t dt) + (paid_dividends) * dt {nonnegative} init cumulative_dividends = 0; inflows: paid_dividends = dividend_payment {uniflow}; failed_projects(t) = failed_projects(t dt) + (project_abandonment failed_project_archiving) * dt {non-negative} init failed_projects = 2; inflows: project_abandonment = ongoing_projects*effect_of_actual_ completion_time_on_project_failure/time_to_make_decision_about_project_abandonment {uniflow}; outflows: failed_project_archiving = failed_projects/time_required_to_ archive_failed_projects {uniflow} loan(t) = loan(t dt) + (borrowing loan_repayment) * dt {non-negative} bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202182 init loan = 1000000; inflows: borrowing = (if creditworthiness>=1 then (indicated_ borrowing/time_taken_to_arrange_borrowing) else (0)) {uniflow}; outflows: loan_ repayment = loan_payment_from_wc {uniflow} new_projects(t) = new_projects(t dt) + (winning_new_projects project_internalisation) * dt {non-negative} init new_projects = 1; inflows: winning_new_projects = potential_projects*effort_in_ winning_new_projects/time_required_to_win_a_project {uniflow}; outflows: project_ internalisation = new_projects/time_required_to_internalise_projects {uniflow} ongoing_projects(t) = ongoing_projects(t dt) + (project_internalisation project_execution project_abandonment) * dt {non-negative} init ongoing_projects = 2; inflows: project_internalisation = new_projects/time_required_to_ internalise_projects {uniflow} outflows: project_execution = (ongoing_projects+(ongoing_projects*addition_of_project_ scope))/actual_pe_time {uniflow} project_abandonment = ongoing_projects*effect_of_actual_completion_time_on_project_failure/ time_to_make_decision_about_project_abandonment {uniflow} pm&e_capacity(t) = pm&e_capacity(t dt) + (change_in_pm&e_capacity pm&e_capacity_ turnover_and_attrition) * dt {non-negative} init pm&e_capacity = 5; inflows: change_in_pm&e_capacity = (indicated_pm&e_ capacity_for_ongoing_projects-pm&e_capacity)*pm&e_capacity_deployment*effect_of_budget_ adequacy_on_pm&e_capacity_acquisition/pm&e_capacity_adjustment_delay; outflows: pm&e_capacity_turnover_and_attrition = pm&e_capacity*(effect_of_capacity_utilisation_ policy_on_pm&e_capacity_turnover+rate_of_attrition_of_pm&e_capacity) {uniflow} project_operations_capacity(t) = project_operations_capacity(t dt) + (change_in_po_capacity project_operations_capacity_turnover_and_attrition) * dt {non-negative} init project_operations_capacity = 5; inflows: change_in_po_capacity = ((indicated_po_ capacity_for_wnp+indicated_po_capacity_for_pm&e)-project_operations_capacity)*po_ capacity_deployment*effect_of_budget_adequacy_on_po_capacity_acquisition/po_capacity_ adjustment_delay; outflows: project_operations_capacity_turnover_and_attrition = project_operations_capacity*effect_of_capacity_utilisation_policy_on_po_turnover*rate_of_ attrition_of_po_capacity {uniflow} retained_earnings(t) = retained_earnings(t dt) + (actual_profit paid_dividends reinvestment_ of_re) * dt {non-negative} bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202183 init retained_earnings = 0; inflows: actual_profit = actual_profit_margin*total_turnover_per_ month; outflows: paid_dividends = dividend_payment {uniflow} reinvestment_of_re = proportion_of_re_for_reinvestment*retained_earnings/12 {uniflow} time_count(t) = time_count(t dt) + (rate_of_time_count) * dt {non-negative} init time_count = 0; inflows: rate_of_time_count = 1 {uniflow} working_capital(t) = working_capital(t dt) + (collection_of_ar + other_wc_inflow budget_ for_pm&e_capacity_acquisition budget_for_po_capacity_acquisition loan_payment_from_ wc cash_replenishment dividend_payment) * dt {non-negative} init working_capital = 1000000; inflows: collection_of_ar = accounts_receivable/average_ time_taken_to_collect_ar {uniflow} other_wc_inflow = equity_investment+borrowing+((working_capital+cash_availability)*interest_ rate) {uniflow}; outflows: budget_for_pm&e_capacity_acquisition = delay(indicated_ budget_for_pm&e_capacity_acquisition, 3) {uniflow} budget_for_po_capacity_acquisition = delay(indicated_budget_for_po_capacity_acquisition,3) {uniflow} loan_payment_from_wc = loan*(.10/12)/(1-(1+.10/12)^(-12*10)) {uniflow} cash_replenishment = required_cash_per_month_for_pe+indicated_withdrawal_from_equity {uniflow} dividend_payment = allocated_dividends {uniflow} actual_completion_time_wrt_normal = smth1(actual_pe_time, 3)/normal_project_completion_ time actual_pe_time = (normal_project_completion_time*effect_of_cash_sufficiency_on_ pm&e*effect_of_pm&e_capacity_adequay_on_pm&e*effect_of_po_capacity_adequacy_on_ pm&e); actual_profit_margin = 1-proportion_of_actual_total_cost; addition_of_project_scope = 0 adequacy_of_pm&e_capacity_for_ongoing_projects = (pm&e_capacity/indicated_pm&e_ capacity_for_ongoing_projects) adequacy_of_po_capacity_for_pm&e = po_capacity_dedicated_for_pm&e/indicated_po_ capacity_for_pm&e bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202184 adequacy_of_po_capacity_for_wnp = po_capacity_dedicated_for_wnp/indicated_po_ capacity_for_wnp adverse_impression_in_market = smth1((failed_projects/completed_projects), 24); allocated_ dividends = retained_earnings*proportion_of_profit_allocation_for_dividends/12; average_time_ of_engagement_for_subs = 8 average_time_taken_to_collect_ar = 1; average_time_to_make_payments_to_subs_and_suppliers = 1 base_appetite_for_new_projects = graph(observed_profit_achievement_ratio) (0.00, 0.03), (0.20, 0.09), (0.40, 0.17), (0.60, 0.31), (0.80, 0.57), (1.00, 0.99), (1.200, 1.35), (1.40, 1.59), (1.60, 1.77), (1.80, 1.92), (2.00, 2.00) budget_adequacy_for_po_capacity_improvement = (budget_for_po_capacity_ acquisition+cash_withdrawal_for_indirect_overhead)/cost_of_po_capacity budget_adquacy_for_ pm&e_capacity_acquisition = (budget_for_pm&e_capacity_acquisition+cash_withdrawal_for_ direct_overhead)/cost_of_pm&e_capacity cash_deficiency = (if cash_sufficiency_period>1 then 0 else (1-cash_sufficiency_ period)*required_cash_per_month_for_pe) cash_sufficiency_for_direct_overhead = cash_withdrawal_for_direct_overhead/indicated_cash_ requirmeent_for_direct_overhead cash_sufficiency_for_indirect_overhead =cash_withdrawal_for_indirect_overhead/indicated_cash_ requirement_for_indirect_overhead cash_sufficiency_for_pm&e = (cash_disbursement_for_projects+cash_withdrawal_for_direct_ overhead+cash_withdrawal_for_indirect_overhead)/required_cash_per_month_for_pe; cash_sufficiency_period = cash_availability/required_cash_per_month_for_pe; cfm_for_subs = fractional_cfm_for_subs*total_average_cost_of_ongoing_projects_per_month compensation_ for_mobilisation_costs_per_new_project = fractional_cfm_for_the_company*expected_average_ turnover_per_project cost_of_pm&e_capacity = fractional_cost_for_pm&e_capacity_acquisition*estimated_average_ turnover_per_project_per_month*ongoing_projects cost_of_po_capacity = (indicated_po_capacity_for_wnp+indicated_po_capacity_for_ pm&e)*estimated_average_turnover_per_project_per_month*fractional_cost_for_po_capacity_ aquisition; creditworthiness = ((accounts_receivable+cash_availability+working_capital)*5/ (accounts_payable+loan)); current_ratio = smth1(((working_capital+accounts_receivable+cash_ availability+0.3*(cost_of_po_capacity+cost_of_pm&e_capacity))/(loan+accounts_payable)), 12); effect_of_actual_completion_time_on_project_failure = graph(actual_completion_time_wrt_ normal) (1.00, 0.00), (1.20, 0.00), (1.40, 0.00), (1.60, 0.00), (1.80, 0.00), (2.00, 0.00), (2.20, 0.05), (2.40, 0.15), (2.60, 0.29), (2.80, 0.53), (3.00, 1.00); effect_of_adequacy_of_capacities_and_cash_sufficiency_ on_costs = graph(adequacy_of_pm&e_capacity_for_ongoing_projects*adequacy_of_po_ capacity_for_pm&e*cash_sufficiency_for_pm&e) bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202185 (0.00, 2.00), (0.20, 1.87), (0.40, 1.71), (0.60, 1.50), (0.80, 1.25), (1.00, 1.00), (1.20, 0.89), (1.40, 0.83), (1.60, 0.81), (1.80, 0.80), (2.00, 0.80); effect_of_adequacy_of_po_capacity_for_effort_in_wnp = graph(adequacy_of_po_capacity_for_wnp) (0.00, 0.01), (0.10, 0.03), (0.20, 0.07), (0.30, 0.14), (0.40, 0.29), (0.50, 0.49), (0.60, 0.72), (0.70, 0.86), (0.80, 0.94), (0.90, 0.98), (1.00, 1.00) effect_of_ budget_adequacy_on_pm&e_capacity_acquisition = graph(budget_adquacy_for_pm&e_ capacity_acquisition) (0.00, 0.00), (0.10, 0.05), (0.20, 0.12), (0.30, 0.21), (0.40, 0.32), (0.50, 0.50), (0.60, 0.66), (0.70, 0.80), (0.80, 0.90), (0.90, 0.97), (1.00, 1.00); effect_of_budget_adequacy_on_po_ capacity_acquisition = graph(budget_adequacy_for_po_capacity_improvement) (0.00, 0.00), (0.10, 0.04), (0.20, 0.10), (0.30, 0.21), (0.40, 0.34), (0.50, 0.50), (0.60, 0.66), (0.70, 0.81), (0.80, 0.90), (0.90, 0.96), (1.00, 1.00) effect_of_capacity_utilisation_policy_on_pm&e_capacity_turnover = graph(pm&e_capacity_deployment) (0.00, 1.00), (0.10, 0.46), (0.20, 0.23), (0.30, 0.10), (0.40, 0.04), (0.50, 0.03), (0.60, 0.01), (0.70, 0.01), (0.80, 0.01), (0.90, 0.01), (1.00, 0.00); effect_of_capacity_ utilisation_policy_on_po_turnover = graph(po_capacity_deployment) (0.00, 1.00), (0.10, 0.56), (0.20, 0.31), (0.30, 0.17), (0.40, 0.08), (0.50, 0.04), (0.60, 0.03), (0.70, 0.02), (0.80, 0.01), (0.90, 0.01), (1.00, 0.00); effect_of_cash_sufficiency_on_pm&e = graph(cash_sufficiency_for_pm&e) (0.00, 2.50), (0.20, 1.93), (0.40, 1.55), (0.60, 1.34), (0.80, 1.15), (1.00, 1.00), (1.20, 0.92), (1.40, 0.88), (1.60, 0.84), (1.80, 0.81), (2.00, 0.80); effect_of_pm&e_capacity_adequay_on_pm&e = graph(adequacy_of_pm&e_capacity_for_ongoing_projects) (0.00, 2.50), (0.20, 1.71), (0.40, 1.38), (0.60, 1.18), (0.80, 1.06), (1.00, 1.00), (1.20, 0.94), (1.40, 0.87), (1.60, 0.84), (1.80, 0.82), (2.00, 0.80); effect_of_po_capacity_adequacy_on_pm&e = graph(adequacy_of_po_capacity_for_pm&e) (0.00, 2.00), (0.20, 1.66), (0.40, 1.43), (0.60, 1.23), (0.80, 1.09), (1.00, 1.00), (1.20, 0.92), (1.40, 0.88), (1.60, 0.85), (1.80, 0.82), (2.00, 0.80); effort_in_winning_new_projects = total_appetite_for_new_ projects*effect_of_adequacy_of_po_capacity_for_effort_in_wnp entrepreneural_drive = 2; equity = (cash_availability+working_capital+accounts_ receivable+0.3*cost_of_pm&e_capacity+0.3*cost_of_po_capacity)-(accounts_payable+loan); equity_investment = proportion_of_arranged_equity_for_indicated_withdrawal*indicated_ withdrawal_from_equity equivalent_capacity_needed_for_wnp_wrt_pm&e = .33; estimated_ average_turnover_per_project_per_month = 1000000 expected_average_turnover_per_project = random(24000000,30000000); expected_ profit_margin = 0.1; expected_profit_per_month = expected_profit_margin*smth1(total_ turnover_per_month, 12); expected_turnover_from_incoming_projects_per_month = expected_average_turnover_per_project*project_internalisation; fractional_cfm_for_subs = 0.02; fractional_cfm_for_the_company = 0.1; fractional_cost_for_pm&e_capacity_acquisition = proportion_of_actual_project_cost+proportion_of_actual_direct_oc fractional_cost_for_po_capacity_aquisition = proportion_of_actual_indirect_oc; fractional_ depletion_of_clientele = 0.001 fractional_pm&e_capacity_for_ongoing_projects = 1; fractional_retention_amount = .1; fractional_retention_amount_from_subs = .1 fractional_turnover_allcoated_for_po_capacity_acquisition = 0.1; fractional_turnover_ allocated_for_pm&e_capacity_acquisition = 0.05; indicated_borrowing = (proportion_of_ deficiency_borrowing*cash_deficiency) indicated_budget_for_pm&e_capacity_acquisition = bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202186 indicated_pm&e_capacity_for_ongoing_projects*estimated_average_turnover_per_project_ per_month*fractional_turnover_allocated_for_pm&e_capacity_acquisition; indicated_budget_ for_po_capacity_acquisition = (indicated_po_capacity_for_wnp+indicated_po_capacity_ for_pm&e)*estimated_average_turnover_per_project_per_month*fractional_turnover_ allcoated_for_po_capacity_acquisition; indicated_cash_requirement_for_indirect_overhead = ongoing_projects*estimated_average_turnover_per_project_per_month*proportion_of_indirect_oc_ normal indicated_cash_requirmeent_for_direct_overhead = ongoing_projects*estimated_average_ turnover_per_project_per_month*proportion_of_direct_oc_normal indicated_pm&e_capacity_ for_ongoing_projects = ongoing_projects*fractional_pm&e_capacity_for_ongoing_projects indicated_po_capacity_for_pm&e = ongoing_projects; indicated_po_capacity_for_wnp = potential_projects*equivalent_capacity_needed_for_wnp_wrt_pm&e; indicated_withdrawal_ from_equity = (1-proportion_of_deficiency_borrowing)*cash_deficiency; initial_estimated_ completion_time = 24; interest_rate = 0.06/12 market_reputation = graph(adverse_impression_in_market) (0.000, 1.0000), (0.100, 0.5940), (0.200, 0.3796), (0.300, 0.2532), (0.400, 0.1420), (0.500, 0.0930), (0.600, 0.0570), (0.700, 0.0360), (0.800, 0.0260), (0.900, 0.0180), (1.000, 0.0100) monthly_deductible_amount_of_cfm_for_subs = cfm_for_ subs/average_time_of_engagement_for_subs monthly_deductible_amount_of_compensation_for_ mobilisation = total_cfm_to_be_received_per_month/initial_estimated_completion_time net_average_cost_of_ongoing_projects_per_month = total_average_cost_of_ongoing_projects_ per_month-cfm_for_subs net_payments_to_be_made = net_average_cost_of_ongoing_projects_per_month/average_time_ to_make_payments_to_subs_and_suppliers net_turnover_per_project_per_month = total_turnover_ per_month-total_deductible_retention_amount_per_month-monthly_deductible_amount_of_ compensation_for_mobilisation; normal_project_completion_time = random(24,30) number_of_other_potential_clients_per_completed_project = 2; observed_profit_achievement_ ratio = smth1(profit_achievement_ratio, 24); other_potential_projects_in_market = graph(time) (1.0, 204.5), (12.92, 217.0), (24.83, 248.9), (36.75, 236.2), (48.67, 193.6), (60.58, 217.0), (72.5, 234.0), (84.42, 219.1), (96.33, 202.1), (108.25, 189.4), (120.17, 242.6), (132.08, 206.4), (144.0, 189.4) pm&e_capacity_adjustment_delay = 6; pm&e_capacity_deployment = 0.9; po_ capacity_adjustment_delay = 6 po_capacity_dedicated_for_pm&e = project_operations_capacity-po_capacity_dedicated_ for_wnp; po_capacity_dedicated_for_wnp = project_operations_capacity*proportion_of_po_ capacity_dedicated_for_wnp po_capacity_deployment = .9; potential_projects = (clientele+other_potential_projects_in_ market)*market_reputation profit_achievement_ratio = actual_profit/expected_profit_per_month; proportion_of_actual_direct_ oc = proportion_of_direct_oc_normal*effect_of_adequacy_of_capacities_and_cash_sufficiency_ bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202187 on_costs proportion_of_actual_indirect_oc = proportion_of_indirect_oc_normal*effect_of_ adequacy_of_capacities_and_cash_sufficiency_on_costs proportion_of_actual_project_cost = proportion_of_expected_project_cost_normal*effect_of_ adequacy_of_capacities_and_cash_sufficiency_on_costs proportion_of_actual_total_cost = proportion_of_actual_project_cost+proportion_of_actual_ direct_oc+proportion_of_actual_indirect_oc proportion_of_arranged_equity_for_indicated_withdrawal = 1; proportion_of_ deficiency_borrowing = 0 proportion_of_direct_oc_normal = .1; proportion_of_ expected_project_cost_normal = 1-(expected_profit_margin+proportion_of_direct_oc_ normal+proportion_of_indirect_oc_normal); proportion_of_indirect_oc_normal = 0.05; proportion_of_po_capacity_dedicated_for_wnp = .2; proportion_of_profit_allocation_for_ dividends = .3 proportion_of_re_for_reinvestment = 1-proportion_of_profit_allocation_for_ dividends; rate_of_attrition_of_pm&e_capacity = 0.01 rate_of_attrition_of_po_capacity = 0.01; received_cfm_amount = total_cfm_to_be_received_ per_month/time_taken_to_receive_the_cfm_amount; required_cash_per_month_for_pe = ongoing_projects*estimated_average_turnover_per_project_per_month*(proportion_of_direct_ oc_normal+proportion_of_indirect_oc_normal+proportion_of_expected_project_cost_normal); return_on_equity = retained_earnings/equity time_required_to_archive_failed_projects = 1; time_required_to_archive_successful_projects = 1 time_required_to_internalise_projects = 1; time_required_to_win_a_project = 6; time_taken_to_ arrange_borrowing = 3 time_taken_to_receive_the_cfm_amount = 1; time_to_collect_the_turnover_amount = 1; time_ to_deploy_pm&e_capacity = 1 time_to_make_decision_about_project_abandonment = 24; time_to_make_payments = 1; total_appetite_for_new_projects = base_appetite_for_new_projects*entrepreneural_drive; total_ average_cost_of_ongoing_projects_per_month = total_turnover_per_month*proportion_of_actual_ project_cost; total_cfm_to_be_received_per_month = project_internalisation*compensation_ for_mobilisation_costs_per_new_project; total_deductible_retention_amount_per_month = fractional_retention_amount*total_turnover_per_month; total_retention_amount_per_month_ from_subs = fractional_retention_amount_from_subs*total_average_cost_of_ongoing_projects_ per_month total_retention_amount_to_be_paid_per_completed_project_per_month_to_subs = total_retention_amount_per_month_from_subs/completed_projects; total_turnover_per_month = (project_execution*expected_average_turnover_per_project) {the model has 167 (167) variables (array expansion in parens) ; in root model and 0 additional modules with 4 sectors.; stocks: 17 (17) flows: 31 (31) converters: 119 (119); constants: 42 (42) equations: 108 (108) graphicals: 13 (13) there are also 25 expanded macro variables.} bajracharya, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202188 construction economics and building vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017 © 2017 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: luo, j., zhang, h. & sher, w. 2017. insights into architects’ future roles in off-site construction. viewpoint, construction economics and building, 17:1 107-120. http://dx.doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5252 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | ajceb.epress. lib.uts.edu.au abstract today’s construction industry is overflowing with new ideas about its future. off-site manufacture and construction (oscm) is at the heart of the modern construction industry. much has been written about the state and context of oscm in different countries regarding its perceived benefits and barriers to implementation. off-site production (osp) plays an important role in improving fragmented construction processes. although most osp research targets the attitudes and practices of osp adoption, there is limited understanding of the philosophical issues underpinning osp-related architecture. the roles of the architects’ personal philosophies are neglected and this hampers their implementation of osm (which has had a largely technical focus). this paper explores the traditional thinking patterns of architects in china and predicts possible future roles for them. it then conceptualizes an “architectural work” mode and a “building product” mode of design and construction and identifies the shortcomings of architects in an oscm environment. the arguments made are based on practitioners’ perceptions and the first author’s practical experiences of leading several real-life projects in recent years. the findings reveal the implications and significance of the transformation from an “architectural work” mode to a “building product” mode. we foresee a study approach that focuses on the order and rules for oscm, resulting in architects’ existing mindsets being changed to thinking patterns and design methodologies better suited to osm. keywords off-site manufacture and construction, future roles, “architectural work” mode, “building product” mode, order and rules viewpoint insights into architects’ future roles in off-site construction jianing luo1, hong zhang1, willy sher2 1southeast university, china 2the university of newcastle, australia corresponding author: jianing luo, southeast university, sipailou, xuanwu qu, nanjing shi, jiangsu sheng, 210018, china. jianing.luo@seu.edu.cn doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5252 article history: received 04/01/2017; revised 14/02/2017; accepted 04/03/2017; published 31/03/2017 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 107 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5252 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5252 http://ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au http://ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au mailto:jianing.luo@seu.edu.cn http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5252 introduction off-site manufacture and construction (oscm) has long been recognised, in china and internationally, for the potential and numerous benefits it provides. the increasing complexity of modern buildings, the increasing number of construction functions they perform, in addition to the community’s increased awareness of sustainable development has accentuated the focus on off-site construction and associated techniques. oscm is at the heart of the modern construction industry and translates the needs of customers into the components from which tomorrow’s buildings will be assembled. many academics and practitioners are struggling to identify where and how they will fit into a transformed construction industry. in facing these challenges, an ever-increasing number of investigations into new materials, methods of fabrication, assembly methods and related supporting technologies have been developed over the years. examples include the research and development of building industrialisation in china ( ji, 2011); off-site manufacture in australia (blismas and wakefield, 2009); prefabricated residential building in hong kong ( jaillon and poon, 2009); prefabrication, preassembly, modularization, and off-site fabrication in the united states (song et al. 2005); the development of prefabricated house building in japan (barlow and ozaki, 2005); off-site manufacturing housing in germany (venables and courtney, 2004); off-site modern methods of construction in u.k (pan, gibb and dainty, 2007) and the research project ‘adding value to construction projects through standardisation and pre-assembly’ funded by ciria (construction industry research and information association) in uk (gibb, 2001). these investigations analysed and summarized the state and context of oscm in different countries. for instance, blismas and wakefield (2009) identified the benefits, drivers, and constraints in australia. these benefits and drivers include reductions in time, defects, health and safety risks, environmental impact, and whole-life costs and increases in predictability, productivity, performance, and profitability. the constraints include unreliable, unquantifiable, unpredictable, fragmented, unique, and repetitive processes and program, high initial and setup costs, incompatible regulations, poor skills and knowledge, traditional industry and market culture, and incompatible supply chain and procurement. several research projects have been conducted to identify the factors that drove or constrained the uptake of osp (e.g., blismas et al., 2005; bottom et al., 1994; sparkman et al., 1999, gibb, 2000; fox, marsh and cockerham, 2001; gibb and isack, 2003; housing forum, 2002; neale, price and sher, 1993). with respect to discontinuous construction processes and programs, blismas and wakefield (2009) found that the disciplines and processes involved in designing and constructing buildings need to be streamlined. existing design processes and methodologies are based on traditional approaches and are not suited to osm. improved design tools, better engineering solutions and simpler controls and specifications need to be developed. nawi, lee and nor, (2011) concluded that traditional approaches lead to barriers between designers, contractors and manufacturers and may result in errors and sloppy work (thanoon et al., 2003). this necessitates the redesign of plans and working drawings resulting in additional costs and time (hamid et. al., 2008). this is known as an “over the wall” approach because design professionals pass unresolved problems to their colleagues (evbuomwan and anumba, 1998). this practice restricts manufacturers’ and contractors’ involvement to after the design stage, creating problems (including delays and late deliveries) for the rest of the supply chain and constructability related issues (nawi, lee and nor, 2011). in addition, this approach is arguably one of the main hindrances to the effective integration of design and construction in oscm projects (hamid et. al, 2008; nawi, lee and nor, 2011). luo, zhang & sher construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017108 background: the purpose of understanding architects’ philosophies the design processes commonly used are based on traditional approaches. these are unsuited to osm, and pose a substantial barrier to the adoption of this construction method (blismas and wakefield, 2009). facing these challenges, an increasing number of architects have learned from the manufacturing industry and see buildings as manufactured products. previous research has identified off-site production (osp) as a means of improving construction processes (egan, 1998). it has long been recognized in both the manufacturing industry (peck, 1973) and the construction industry (emerson, 1962) that productivity and quality can be improved by integrating production-related best practice into designs (fox, marsh and cockerham, 2001). applying methodologies and evaluation metrics from the manufacturing industry to the construction industry should be advantageous (e.g., blismas et al., 2005; blismas and wakefield, 2009, blismas et al., 2005; dean and susman, 1989, emerson, 1962; fox, marsh and cockerham, 2001; fox, marsh and cockerham, 2002; gibb, 2001; ji, 2011; peck, 1973). much research has been conducted to promote the uptake of osp in construction from different aspects. in the early 2000s, fox et al. (2001) found that design engineers in the manufacturing industry had proven methodologies to help them and these led to radical improvements. however, in the construction industry, building designers lacked equivalent methodologies, and the integration of production best practice into designs continues to rely on the varying experience of individuals. blismas et al. (2005) identified four broad constraint themes to the use of osp in construction in terms of process, value, supply chain and knowledge. he constructed a model illustrating the relationships between these four themes. knowledge was identified as the essential factor related to other constraints. blismas went on to identify employing knowledge input to the other three constraint themes as the key strategies to mitigate these constraints. he concluded that mitigating the constraints obstructing the use of osp on construction projects should be addressed at the macro level by increasing designers’ knowledge. pan, gibb and dainty (2012) explored strategies for integrating the use of osp technologies in house building at the organizational level. they identified the following critical constraints to the use of osp in construction: fragmented processes in the design stage, unsuitable design methodologies, as well as practitioners with little knowledge and experience of osp. these hinder the implementation of osp in osm, as well as the streamlined processes and programs of oscm. in facing these challenges and to explore design methodologies suited to osm, it is necessary to focus on the key practitioners in the design process architects. since at least the early 1960s, it has been recognized that building design has a significant impact on construction productivity and quality (hmso, 1962). architects are still the critical specifiers in today’s off-site construction industry. indeed, architects continue to be held responsible for productivity and quality problems because of their lack of understanding, or even appreciation, of building construction (fox, marsh and cockerham, 2002; harding, 1999; soubry, 2001). although most research on osp targets the attitudes and practices surrounding the uptake of osp, there is limited understanding of the philosophical issues underpinning osprelated architecture. the role of architects’ personal philosophies in implementing osm have largely been neglected. their philosophies are frequently based on existing traditional design processes and methodologies, which are not suited to osm. this inevitably leads to fractured construction processes and programs. we argue that such traditional and introspective luo, zhang & sher construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017109 mindsets need to be changed. little reference is made about introspection on the part of architects in research papers. this aspect is worthy of investigation. research aim, objectives and scope the aim of this research was to develop an alternative study approach which could be used to explore design methodologies suited to osm. it is based on the foresight and analysis of architects’ future roles. its objectives were: first, to explore the traditional thinking patterns and philosophies of architects in china; second, to identify the shortcomings of architects in an oscm environment; third, to offer possible future scenarios in which architects’ philosophies evolve to encompass alternative design methodologies suited to osm; and finally, to propose an alternative study approach. the research also focuses on conceptualizing the traditional thinking patterns and philosophies of architects, as well as the alternative thinking patterns and design methodologies required in the new paradigm. consequently, an alternative study approach is required. the findings presented here do not assert that this study approach will deliver design methodologies ideally suited to osm. instead, this study provides viewpoints as a starting point for further discussion and development. method a phenomenological approach and a case study were adopted for this study. phenomenological research seeks to understand people’s perceptions, perspectives, and understandings of a particular situation (or phenomenon). it is well documented that insider experience is crucial to understanding a community (thoresen and öhlén, 2015). a first-person perspective has been provided via reflections of the first-named author’s personal experiences (sloan and bowe, 2014; van manen, 1997). fook (2011) considers critical reflection as a research method. in addition, yin (2003) contends that the case study approach is especially appropriate for exploratory research, addressing why and how questions. case study methodologies are widely used in construction engineering and management (taylor, dossick and garvin, 2011). in this investigation, these approaches were adopted. several personal communications were collected and analysed to explore the traditional thinking patterns and philosophies of architects in china. a case study was used to reveal the shortcomings of architects in an oscm environment. in this case the first author was a teaching assistant who systematically observed the whole process. he interviewed and communicated with architects. several semistructured face-to face interviews were conducted. the interview questions were derived from the first author’s reflections of his practical, first-hand experiences as a project leader in a reallife project (luo, zhang and sher, 2016). interviewees involved higher degree students (who were considered as junior architects), academics (as senior architects) and employees in the cooperating construction companies. these data were used to conceptualize “architect centric”, an “architectural work” mode and a “building product mode”. these served to underpin views about the possible future roles of architects and serviced an alternative study approach based on “order and rules” which could be used to explore design methodologies suited to osm. traditional thinking patterns traditionally, architects used to be recognized as the first specifiers in the entire construction supply chain. they bridge between clients and implementers, and between coordinators, suppliers, and constructors. other specifiers acted as “service departments” for architects. luo, zhang & sher construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017110 these relationships can be simply summarized as: architects were responsible to their clients for drawings; builders were responsible for realizing the drawings, while various engineers were responsible for other necessary components of buildings. as an academic in an architecture school in china concluded: “most architects believe that they are mainly responsible for design. they rarely take responsibility for managing building operations or if they do, they consider it at a relatively shallow level and through the lens of an architect. this is because architects generally believe that builders should oversee site activities.” (zhang, pers. comm., 2014). “architectural work” mode architects sometimes instinctively stress their concepts and suggestions to their customers. this is understandable on landmark or public buildings that require impressive ideas to represent images of cities or countries. however, most buildings in cities are residential buildings. they are conventional structures that should prioritize their clients’ comfort. the reality is that most residential buildings in china are over-designed by architects. architects arguably aspire to their work being recognizable, thereby improving their reputation and future prospects. consequently, concentrating on design concepts while overlooking the management of building operations leads to “strong error-tolerance”. architects fix problems after they occur on construction sites. this “build-and-fix” model requires architects to demonstrate their talents and abilities. they immerse themselves in solving the various conflicts that occur between their design drawings and what happens on site. these conflicts have become commonplace in the construction industry. every sector is accustomed to this state of affairs. architects have arguably become resigned to addressing the shortcomings of their designs in this manner. although some may argue that this is team cooperation, it is architect-centric. this phenomenon has been described as an “architectural work” mode by an academic in an architecture school in china. he argued that “architects design buildings to suit customer requests, adopting traditional design methods based on architects’ personal professional skills and talent. this design method derives from the old architectural education system including ecole des beaux-arts. the same customer requests may result in various designs by different architects. most architects treat their designs as works of art which can be highly recognizable. the buildings are unique and cannot be duplicated.” (zhang, pers. comm., 15 may 2014). he concluded that most architects adopt this approach it is their creed. they have balanced art and technology, spatiality and buildability, design and construction for hundreds of years “it is not easy to think out of the box and break the routine. from this perspective of architects’ creed, it is difficult to put customers in front and streamline the entire construction supply chain” he said. case studies a case study was used to understand participants’ perceptions and to reveal the shortcomings of architects in the “architectural work” mode when they face the challenges of oscm. the traditional preferences that impede architects from adopting new ideas and perspectives were identified. the interview questions asked were derived from the first author’s reflections of his practical, first-hand experiences as a project leader in a real-life project (luo, zhang and sher, 2016). “emergency construction” was a real-life building adopting oscm (figure 1). it was also a final learning outcome of a construction teaching practice in an architecture school in china. the author was a teaching assistant who could systematically observe the whole process and to interview and communicate with architects. luo, zhang & sher construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017111 “emergency construction” was a small building which was designed and constructed to provide an effective and timely solution after a disaster. ease of prefabrication, transportation, assembly, use, demolition and reuse were thus of paramount importance. oscm was chosen as the best technical approach to achieve these goals. this building was also a construction teaching exercise (for students, academics, and other practitioners) designed to inform all concerned how to translate drawings into buildings. as such, those involved needed to not only develop their design and construction drawings, but also more detailed drawings (including production drawings or “building process drawings”). these needed to be more comprehensive than traditional construction drawings because they needed to support production, prefabrication, assembly, and transportation. the architects involved became aware of the way manufacturing and construction impacted on their designs. in addition, they found it hard to identify the costs involved because they lacked the necessary cost engineering knowledge. in many cases, what was drawn could not be fabricated or assembled. participants became aware that some issues could not be represented on drawings and were easy to overlook. additionally, participants were not aware of the need to incorporate manufacturing tolerances to ensure that components could be accurately assembled. little attention was paid to these issues but it became most apparent that architects needed to make such allowances to ensure accurate on-site assembly. after the “emergency construction” project was completed, practitioners were interviewed. these involved higher degree students (who may be considered as junior architects), academics (as senior architects) and employees in the cooperating construction companies. a student attending this construction practice said: “through this course, i felt the gaps between drawings and real-life buildings. as an architect, the drawings should be treated with strict and caution. i should learn knowledge more than design skills in the future.” (name withheld, pers. comm., 2011a) an academic who guided the students commented: “as an academic and architect who had many years’ experience in the industry, sometimes i was still not very confident to predict the issues that may occur in the following process. in this construction practice, i was also learning like students all the time. to some extent, this kind of practical experiences was fresh to me.” (name withheld, pers. comm., 2011b). figure 1 emergency construction luo, zhang & sher construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017112 a technical director in the factory who assisted the manufacture and construction of this building said: “sometimes we cannot use architects’ drawings directly to fabricate and assemble, we need to adjust them to be more suitable to the actual manufacture and construction processes in our factory. there is a long way to go in the collaboration between the designers and implementers particularly in oscm projects. the architects should be equipped with oscm specific skills.” (name withheld, pers. comm., 2011c). many architects find it challenging to control their projects in the face of new technologies. in some cases, they become more “technical” than “artistic”. the criteria by which buildings are evaluated are quantifiable and measurable to some extent. some innovative construction activities are gradually confirming this. for example, the solar decathlon competitions (held from 2002 to 2015 by the u.s. department of energy) were collegiate competitions that challenged student teams to design and build full-size, solarpowered houses. teams needed to present a design appropriate to their target market, which functioned competitively at the competition site. the teams worked not only to develop and build their houses, but also to enhance integration and generation of knowledge on sustainable construction. the winner of the competition was the team that best blended design excellence and smart energy production with innovation, market potential, and energy and water efficiency. all contests were evaluated based on quantifiable and measurable criteria (u.s. department of energy, 2015). these findings align with those of blismas (2007) and ji (2011). the skills and knowledge constraints they identified were described as “lack of skills by professionals in osm, with subsequent effects on the entire process”, “lack of skills in manufacturers/ suppliers to enhance osm efficiency”, “lack of industry investment in r&d”, “lack of knowledge repository, portal” (blismas, 2007). these shortcomings were also evident in the emergency construction project. reflection and discussion the traditional thinking pattern inherent in the “architectural work” mode has dominated the industry for several decades. however, in the oscm sector, architects lack practical experience in manufacturing, construction and have limited cost engineering knowledge. these shortcomings restrict their decision-making abilities. many architects realize that they are gradually losing control of projects because their knowledge and educational background are limited to traditional design and construction approaches. some architects and academics are already aware of the shortcomings and are endeavouring to reinvent themselves to recapture their “leadership position”. they are expanding into other sectors by learning related new knowledge to reinvent themselves as professional and powerful players when they collaborate with others. some pin their hopes on bim as a panacea or pursue more influential roles in other construction sectors. rex miller’s ‘the commercial real estate revolution’ (miller, et al., 2009, p.47) describes how today’s construction firms are grappling with decreasing profit margins and looking at expanding their services to provide greater value to clients and achieve greater control over their fate. to achieve this, they point to “construction firms adding architects, architects expanding into construction services, brokers adding project and facility management services, and still others… creating one-stop-shop capabilities.” they conclude “when the lines blur like this, it is a sure sign of more fundamental shifts taking place.” luo, zhang & sher construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017113 “architect centric” it is time for architects to end their era of “individualistic heroism” and establish authentic cooperative relationships between different sectors in the construction industry. the view expressed by the deputy head of a leading architecture school in china; “today’s architects are in an awkward position. we are not as free as real artists because we need to be restricted by rationality derived from design skills. we are not as technical as other engineers because the discipline character and educational background make us so. we need to relocate our position and rethink what responsibilities we should really take.” (gong, pers. comm., 2013). this may mean reasserting leadership, or it may be something else. this view was reinforced by the first-named author’s experience as a postgraduate in an architecture school in china. a civil engineer who worked with the first author complained: “why should i follow architect’s drawings, especially sometimes even architects themselves have not found the rational reasons why they were drawing so. they can say this is because of building codes or design method, or because of client demand or professional analysis. mostly, these are their own personal games and cannot make me convinced.” (zhu, pers. comm., 2013). this engineer’s words may be forthright, but they reveal the challenges inherent in the current construction industry practice. off-site production (osp) has been promoted as one of the solutions to the industry’s performance problems. some architects have started to learn from the manufacturing industry and see buildings as manufactured products. even so, customization is inevitable. it is a design activity trapped in the “architectural work” mode. it is acknowledged that buildings are essentially complex customized products and that each project requires a unique pattern of linkages with every sector involved. no matter how they grapple with these challenges, or adopt manufacturing knowledge to design buildings, most architects still adhere to an “architectural work” mode, highlighting their personal talents. this is like the endless cycle shown in figure 2. “building product” mode in the broader products-based construction industry, clients are likely to have more products to choose from and more opportunities to select them. products will be eliminated if the market does not accept them. corresponding to the “architectural work” mode, a “building product” mode was proposed by the second author of this paper. he defined it in the following terms: “architects treat their designs as industrial products. the architects incorporate customer requests into feasible and rational implementation from drawings to end products. the buildings will be endowed with attributes of other industrial products and the architects will give priority to better customer experience and smooth implementation in the following project phases instead of highlighting their works of art. based on this mode, the process will transform from personal design to product development. the buildings can be duplicated in some cases and mass customized fabrication may come true.” (zhang, pers. comm., 2014). an alternative thinking pattern and future roles of architects so, what will happen if the “architectural work” mode to a “building products” mode was transferred and morph architects into product engineers? would significantly increasing the industrial component content of buildings offer more valuable and better services to clients? luo, zhang & sher construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017114 pragmatic architects are likely to prioritize improved customer experience and smooth implementation in future work. architects’ future roles may be likened to experienced coordinators and interdisciplinary engineers who balance the demands and requirements of clients, designers to implementers such as manufacturers and builders to minimize unpredictable issues. based on this mode, this process will transform personal design into product development. this transition may be considered as an alternative thinking pattern, converting the “architectural work” mode to a “building product” mode. this is an area worthy of further investigation as it will contribute to the development of alternative design methodologies suited to osm. prospect: an alternative study approach the challenges outlined above underpin our oscm research. to explore an alternative design approach suited to osm in the “building product” mode, the first and the second author propose a new oscm “order and rules” for off-site construction manufacture and on-site assembly. the current challenge is not how to build or obtain information. it is how to enable cooperative work by allowing every sector to access database information on the figure 2 endless cycle: reflects the current situation on practices of applying osp into construction in “architectural work” mode luo, zhang & sher construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017115 same platform. bim, for example, is a container and tool for managing information, but construction professionals also need to use this appropriately and effectively. if not, all the sectors become confused and the shared information is meaningless. “order and rules” in the manufacturing industry, design engineers have proven methodologies to help them and these have led to radical improvements. they comprise standard design improvement rules and standard design evaluation metrics (fox, marsh and cockerham, 2001). the term used to describe these is “design for manufacture” (dfm). in the construction industry, architects have no equivalent methodologies (fox, marsh and cockerham, 2001), or are not familiar with equivalent design methods. the integration of production best practice into designs continues to rely on the varying experience of individuals. the first and the second authors’ hypothesis is that “order and rules” can be defined as standard principles, platforms and databases which will contribute to an information exchange mechanism that promotes effective integration and communication between architects, manufacturers, constructors, inspectors, and end customers. “order and rules” may provide advanced design processes and equivalent design methodologies suited to osm in the “building product” mode. to explore what is “order and rules” for osm, specifically, “order and rules” aims to identify constituent prefabricated components (pcs) from which prefabricated buildings (pbs) are constructed, as well as the methods, principles, and processes in which they are constructed. current processes for constructing pbs include sub-processes of design, manufacture, delivery, and construction. based on the refined data, standard principles, platforms, and databases could be established as guidelines mainly for (but not limited to) architects, as well as manufacturers and constructors. on the one hand, these guidelines can assist architects to enhance their designs leading to smooth implementation, thereby satisfying their customers. on the other hand, they also assist during project phases such us manufacture, delivery, construction, and maintenance. they should be measurable and help make oscm cooperative work possible. we argue that this is the missing piece of the oscm puzzle. the uk’s build-offsite property assurance scheme (bopas), (bopas, 2015) is an example of a set of guidelines in accordance with “order and rules”. this adopts a “chain of custody” concept for construction supply lines. this initiative is at the forefront of negotiations with lead underwriters and financial institutions to deliver to their members the ability to assure customers full construction performance across vendors. the bopas database is populated through a series of evaluations and standards and can be accessed by all the stakeholders involved. ongoing oscm case studies a series of investigations of off-site manufacture (osm) buildings using a case study approach will be conducted to explore this alternative design approach suited to osm. essentially, osm buildings represent the assembly of various prefabricated components (pcs). building form generation is a combination of methods. all buildings are derived from a combination of design drawings and basic components. if this approach is followed, “order and rules” can be identified and advanced. luo, zhang & sher construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017116 using the concept of “order and rules”, the internal relationships of osm buildings could be revealed from design drawings to real-life buildings. our investigation will seek participation from professionals and individuals in organisations that use accepted concepts of project phases in the design stage, off-site production stage, delivery stage and construction stage of osm projects. professionals will be invited to participate in semi-structured face-toface interviews. organisations will be invited to provide professional/technical documents and host site/factory visits. the questions, documents and photographs taken will revolve around demonstrating how buildings are generated from components. the research also seeks those who are engaged directly by the end customer or form part of a traditional supply chain. the findings of this study will be published on completion. research limitations this research focuses on the traditional thinking patterns of architects in china and foresees possible future roles. terms including “architect centric”, “architectural work” mode, “building product mode” and “order and rules” are new concepts, partly summarized and derived from informal personal communications and conceptual ideas not published before. they are based on the authors’ practical and first-hand experiences and offered as a foundation for terminology in this emerging field. we acknowledge that the terms are subjective and potentially controversial but argue that they provide a starting point for further discussion and development. we are not aiming to define thinking patterns and design methodologies for osm, nor are we seeking to specify the thinking patterns of architects. these will take time to evolve and be tested and verified. however, they provide alternatives and approaches which may suit osm. more importantly, we trust architects will be encouraged to reflect on their practices and consider other perspectives and provide positive proposals for other sectors of the construction industry. conclusion our study has identified the traditional thinking patterns of architects in china and predicted possible future roles for them as seen through the lens of architects of their personal philosophies. an alternative thinking pattern and design approach suited to osm has been identified as a possible pathway to break through the constraints of discontinuous processes and programs of oscm. the shortcomings of traditional approaches (including process, program and lack of skills and knowledge) have been highlighted. more attention needs to be paid to architects and the philosophies that underpin their practices. they are the critical specifiers in today’s off-site construction industry. the traditional thinking patterns of architects in china has been conceptualized and identified as “architect centric” and “architectural work” mode. the alternative thinking pattern and design approach suited to osm has been conceptualized and identified as a “building product” mode and “order and rules”. architects need to respond to change and to these challenges. many lack practical experience in manufacturing, construction, and the prediction of construction costs. these shortcomings restrict their decision-making abilities. this area is worth researching from the perspective of changing architects’ traditional mindsets to develop alternative design methodologies suited to osm. therefore, a new pathway is proposed at a conceptual level to help to transfer architects’ work mode from an “architectural work” mode to a “building product” mode. we are currently conducting case studies in australia, focusing on the “order and rules”. the participants are professionals and organisations in the construction industry. luo, zhang & sher construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017117 the outcomes of our investigations will be published later. they will contribute to the development of alternative design methodologies suited to osm, to bring tomorrow’s building components together in a seamless manner. acknowledgement this study was funded by the “china scholarship council / the university of newcastle joint funding program”, the chinese national key technology research and development program: the research and demonstration on new industrialised construction technology of indemnificatory housing (2012baj16b03) led by professor hong zhang from southeast university. acknowledgments are given to associate professor willy sher from the university of newcastle and adjunct fellow david chandler oam from western sydney university for their assistance in supporting the upcoming case studies and the first author’s research. references barlow, j. & ozaki, r. 2005, ‘building mass customised housing through innovation in the production system: lessons from japan’, environment and planning a, vol. 37 no. 1, pp. 9-20, http://dx.doi. org/10.1068/a3579 blismas, n.g. 2007, off-site manufacture in australia: current state and future directions. brisbane, australia: cooperative research centre for construction innovation blismas, n. & wakefield, r. 2009, ‘drivers, constraints and the future of offsite manufacture in australia’, construction innovation, vol. 9 no. 1, pp. 72-83, http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14714170910931552 blismas, n.g., pendlebury, m., gibb, a. & pasquire, c. 2005, ‘constraints to the use of off-site production on construction projects’, architectural engineering and design management, vol. 1 no. 3, pp. 153-162, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2005.9684590 bottom, d., gann, d., groak, s. & meikle, j. 1994, innovation in japanese prefabricated house-building industries. london: construction industry research and information association build-offsite property assurance scheme (bopas) 2016, what is the build-offsite property assurance scheme (bopas)? [online] available at: http://www.bopas.org/about [accessed 17 july 2016] dean, j.w. & susman, g.i. 1989, ‘organizing for manufacturable design’, harvard business review, vol. 67 no. 1, p. 28 egan, j. 1998, the egan reportrethinking construction. london: detr emmerson, h. 1962, survey of problems before the construction industry. london, uk: ministry of works evbuomwan, n.f.o. & anumba, c.j. 1998, ‘an integrated framework for concurrent life-cycle design and construction’, advances in engineering software, vol. 29 no. 7-9, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/ s0965-9978(98)00024-6 fook, j. 2011, creative spaces for qualitative researching. rotterdam: sense publishers fox, s., marsh, l. & cockerham, g. 2001, ‘design for manufacture: a strategy for successful application to buildings’, construction management and economics, vol. 19 no. 5, pp. 493-502, http:// dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2001.9709625 fox, s., marsh, l. & cockerham, g. 2002, ‘constructability rules: guidelines for successful application to bespoke buildings’, construction management & economics, vol. 20 no. 8, pp. 689-696, http://dx.doi. org/10.1080/01446190210163606 luo, zhang & sher construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017118 http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/a3579 http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/a3579 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14714170910931552 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2005.9684590 http://www.bopas.org/about> http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0965-9978(98)00024-6 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0965-9978(98)00024-6 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2001.9709625 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2001.9709625 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190210163606 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190210163606 gibb, a.g.f. 2000, client’s guide and toolkit for optimising standardisation and pre-assembly in construction. ciria report cp/75. london: construction industry research and information association gibb, a.g. 2001, ‘standardization and pre-assembly-distinguishing myth from reality using case study research’, construction management & economics, vol. 19 no. 3, pp. 307-315, http://dx.doi. org/10.1080/01446190010020435 gibb, a.g.f. & isack, f. 2003, ‘re-engineering through pre-assembly: client expectations and drivers’, building research and information, vol. 31 no. 2, pp. 146-160, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09613210302000 gong, k. 2013, the presentation on a new off-site manufacture technique. [meeting] (personal communication, 10 april 2013) hamid, z., kamar, k.a.m., zain, m., ghani, k. & rahim, a.h.a. 2008, ‘industrialized building system (ibs) in malaysia: the current state and r&d initiatives’, malaysia construction research journal, vol. 2 no. 1, pp. 1-13 harding, j. 1999, responding to pressure. manufacturing engineer, vol. 78 no. 5, p. 220 housing forum 2002, homing in on excellence – a commentary on the use of off-site fabrication methods for the uk housebuilding industry. london: housing forum hmso 1962, survey of problems before the construction industry. london: ministry of works jaillon, l. & poon, c.s. 2009, ‘the evolution of prefabricated residential building systems in hong kong: a review of the public and the private sector’, automation in construction, vol. 18 no. 3, pp. 239248, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2008.09.002 ji, y.b. 2011, the research and development of building industrialisation in china. beijing: china architecture & building press luo, j.n., zhang, h. & sher, w. 2016, construction education in an architecture school in china based on real-life project: from virtuality to reality. in: natee singhaputtangkul, 40th australasian universities building education association (aubea) conference. cairns, australia, 6-8 july 2016. cairns: central queensland university miller, r., strombom, d., iammarino, m. & black, b. 2009, the commercial real estate revolution. hoboken: john wiley & sons nawi, m.n., lee, a. & nor, k. 2011, ‘barriers to implementation of the industrialised building system (ibs) in malaysia’, the built & human environment review. vol. 4, pp. 22-35. issn 1759-0574 neale, r.h., price, a.d.f. & sher, w.d. 1993, prefabricated modules in construction: a study of current practice in the united kingdom. england: ascot, chartered institute of building pan, w., gibb, a.g. & dainty, a.r. 2007, ‘perspectives of uk housebuilders on the use of offsite modern methods of construction’, construction management and economics, vol. 25 no. 2, pp. 183-194, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190600827058 pan, w., gibb, a.g. & dainty, a.r. 2012, ‘strategies for integrating the use of off-site production technologies in house building’, journal of construction engineering and management, vol. 138 no. 11, pp. 1331-1340, http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000544 peck, h. 1973, designing for manufacture. london, uk: pitman sloan, a. & bowe, b. 2014, ‘phenomenology and hermeneutic phenomenology: the philosophy, the methodologies and using hermeneutic phenomenology to investigate lecturers’ experiences of curriculum design’, quality & quantity, vol. 48 no. 3, pp. 1291-1303, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11135-013-9835-3 luo, zhang & sher construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017119 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190010020435 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190010020435 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09613210302000 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2008.09.002 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190600827058 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000544 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11135-013-9835-3 song, j., fagerlund, w.r., haas, c.t., tatum, c.b. & vanegas, j.a. 2005, ‘considering prework on industrial projects’, journal of construction engineering and management, vol. 131 no. 6, pp. 723-733, http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:6(723) soubry, m. 2001, bridge detailing guide. london: construction industry research and information association sparkman, g., groak, s., gibb, a. & neale, r. 1999, adding value to construction projects through standardisation and pre-assembly. ciria report r176. london: construction industry research and information association taylor, j.e., dossick, c.s. & garvin, m. 2010, ‘meeting the burden of proof with case-study research’, journal of construction engineering and management, vol. 137 no. 4, pp. 303-311, http://dx.doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000283 thanoon, w.a., peng, l.w., kadir, m.r.a., jaafar, m.s. & salit, m.s. 2003, the experiences of malaysia and other countries in industrialised building system. in: icibs, international conference on industrialised building systems. kuala lumpur, malaysia, 10-11 september 2003, kuala lumpur: icibs thoresen, l. & öhlén, j. 2015, ‘lived observations: linking the researcher’s personal experiences to knowledge development’, qualitative health research, vol. 25 no. 11, pp. 1589-1598, http://dx.doi. org/10.1177/1049732315573011 u.s. department of energy 2015, solar decathlon contests. [online] available at: http://www. solardecathlon.gov/2017/competition-contests.html [accessed 10 july 2016] van manen, m. 1997, researching the lived experience: human science for an action sensitive pedagogy, 2nd ed. ontario: althouse press venables, t. 2004, modern methods of construction in germany: playing the off-side rule: report of a dti global watch mission report. london: dti yin, r.k. 2013, case study research: design and methods. 5rd ed. thousand oaks, ca: sage zhu, h.y. 2013, the discussion on real-life project “nanjing jiangning gallery of modern art”. [meeting] (personal communication, 12 december 2013) zhang, h. 2014, the seminar on the future directions of building industrialization in china. [meeting] (personal communication, 15 may 2014) name withheld 2011a. “emergency construction”. interviewed by jianing luo. [audio record] southeast university, 9 sep 2011 name withheld 2011b. “emergency construction”. interviewed by jianing luo. [audio record] southeast university, 12 sep 2011 name withheld 2011c. “emergency construction”. interviewed by jianing luo. [audio record] xinba factory, 11 sep 2011 luo, zhang & sher construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017120 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:6(723 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000283 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000283 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1049732315573011 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1049732315573011 http://www.solardecathlon.gov/2017/competition-contests.html> http://www.solardecathlon.gov/2017/competition-contests.html> construction economics and building, 15(4), 1-15 copyright: construction economics and building 2015. © 2015 luke daniel. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 unported (cc by 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: daniel, l., 2015. safety leadership defined within the australian construction industry, construction economics and building, 15(4), 1-15. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i4.4572 corresponding author: luke daniel; email lukeadaniel01@gmail.com publisher: university of technology sydney (uts) epress safety leadership defined within the australian construction industry luke daniel school of business and tourism, southern cross university, australia abstract this research explores the tenets of safety leadership within the australian construction environment. the scope of this research aims to establish a universal definition of safety leadership and how it differs from other leadership disciplines. the literature review into this topic was governed by the parent disciplines of safety and leadership. gaps were identified in the literature that indicated safety leadership is not a well-defined concept and much of the work into safety leadership has been borrowed from other schools of leadership. an exploratory research methodology was utilised which rooted the research into the post-positivist methodology. there were twenty interviews conducted for this research, with participants coming from various leadership positions across multiple construction projects around australia. findings detailed a saturation of data that allowed for an empirical definition towards safety leadership to be established. as a person’s scope of responsibility increases, their view of safety leadership becomes synonymous with leadership; although differences do exist. these differences were attributed to the importance of demonstrating safety and working within the legal framework of australian construction projects. it is proposed that this research offers a substantial contribution to knowledge, based upon a well-defined definition into safety leadership. keywords: safety leadership, construction, definition, behaviour, australia. paper type: research article introduction safety leadership within itself is a concept that borrows heavily from the leadership framework with specifics being based upon transformational leadership (mullen and kelloway, 2009). throughout this research, safety leadership will be explored and defined with the main research question being framed as: how do leaders within the construction environment define safety leadership and how does safety leadership differ from other leadership disciplines? this research has been rooted within the australian construction industry due to the considerable size of the industry and challenges that pertain to its specificity. these challenges within the construction project environment include personal commitment and responsibility towards safety, communication and organisational culture (hashim and chileshe, 2012). a well-constructed definition towards safety leadership can enhance consistency and minimise confusion around the topic as well as rooting safety leadership within the leadership literature. without a clear definition towards safety leadership, a misalignment between safety expectations may occur which can create a misappropriation towards safety efforts. this may adversely impact https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i4.4572 mailto:lukeadaniel01@gmail.com construction economics and building, 15(4), 1-15 daniel 2 injury rates within the workplace due to ill-conceived safety leadership behaviours. neglecting to define safety leadership may contribute to invalid safety leadership efforts which may dissipate the strength of the overall safety on a project or site. this negative impact can be an immediate fiscal downfall but more importantly a moral and ethical dilemma if someone is injured on a worksite. literature review general leadership the broadness of general leadership is evident in the following definition that leadership is ‘the art of influencing people by persuasion or example to follow a line of action’ (durban, dalglish and miller, 2006, p.3). a plethora of research exists within the leadership arena that can be linked to the nuances of this research. in a recent review on leadership articles over the last decade (2000–2009), it was reported that the general field of leadership is more diverse, varied and complex than at any time in the previous few decades (gardner et al., 2011). with the amount of information available, a narrowing of the literature is needed to focus on those elements that are pertinent towards the defining elements of safety leadership. previously, the management of construction projects has been linked to compliance and error prevention and leadership with prescriptive punishment served for safety violations (podsakoff et al., 2006). this leadership approach has not been able to successfully minimise injuries or improve safety outcomes, as is evident through current injury rates within australia (safe work australia, 2012). as a result, a leadership discipline that encompasses safety through factors of influence such as engagement, ownership and relationships is needed (leroy, et al., 2012). these elements are acutely recognised through the leadership disciplines of third generational leadership, transformational leadership, authentic leadership, charismatic leadership and the importance of leader-member exchange. in the context of this research, these disciplines will be labelled general leadership and will help shape the basis of safety leadership. third generation leadership was coined by long (2013) with the behavioural components being rooted in the leader by being collaborative, commitment based and self-directed. these behaviours are underpinned by the psychology of the person having an internal locus of control. the underpinning of safety leadership can be through the neuroscience of locus of control and its components of reasoning and higher levels of learning. these are components of the neocortex (long, 2013). third-generational leadership can be transposed over individual safety with its nuances being built through transparency and empowerment. the paradigm into transformational leadership has been dominant in the literature over the last 25 years and its practical offshoot has had a benign effect on employees and an organisation’s performance (judge and piccolo, 2004). the markers of a transformational leader range from the articulation of strongly-held beliefs to an overall commitment to the organisation (bass and bass 2009). it was outlined by mullen and kelloway (2009) that there is a considerable lack of transformational based leadership interventions targeted towards safety within the leadership literature. this gap will be addressed through this research under the guise of defining safety leadership. a recent spike in the literature pertaining to authentic leadership has become more prominent over the last decade (gardner et al., 2011). some early pioneering work by kernis and goldman (2006) outlined that authenticity is encompassed by awareness, unbiased processing and relational orientation. the orientation towards interpersonal relationships and deep selfunderstanding can create the edifice of strong organisational policy that is nurturing towards safety and the reporting of safety incidents. construction economics and building, 15(4), 1-15 daniel 3 existing literature suggests that charismatic leadership may be precipitated by a crisis or a time of distress (trice and beyer, 1986). adding to this is further support that a crisis may be a facilitating but unnecessary requirement for charismatic leadership to emerge (halverson, murphy and riggio, 2004). from a safety leadership perspective, a crisis could be anything that relates to the potential to cause harm or injury. as a result, the transition of a crisis which becomes an antecedent for charismatic leadership can also serve as the trigger for safety leadership. strong supervisor to employee relationships can be the foundation of leader-member exchange (lmx). the quality of such relationships has been shown to strongly influence employees’ satisfaction in interpersonal, group and organisational contexts (mueller and lee, 2002). the role that leader-member exchange has within safety has been highlighted through work by hofmann and morgeson (1999). results from their study showed that upward safety communication between team members and their supervisor can be related to adverse safety events. in follow up research by kath, marks and ranney (2010) it was further detailed that the factors that influence leader-member exchange within the safety sphere included perceived management attitudes towards safety, and job-demands interfering with safety. safety leadership to set the scene of leadership as it relates to safety, it was detailed from the work of long (2013) that the board of directors sets the tone of leadership through governance, whilst the chief executive officer (ceo) personalises the message with operational performance and the senior leadership team applies the strategy. the focus of this research will be built around the application of safety leadership with senior leaders as opposed to setting the governance or establishing organisational policy through the board of directors or ceo. this establishes a practical application in defining the behaviours that are evident in successful safety leaders within the construction environment. the initial investigation of broader leadership studies as it pertains to safety was warranted through the research of zanko and dawson (2012). conclusions from this research detailed that traditional occupational health and safety (ohs) has focused on policies and systems and there is a notable lack of research on ohs safety leadership behaviours. it was reported that ohs leadership is often lumped into the human resources (hr) field and further conceptual development is firmly needed. safety leadership seems to be spoken of in the same breath as general leadership, without taking into account the nuances of safety. to assist in the stock-take and understanding of safety leadership, it is best to start with current research within this domain, to help establish the current paradigm that exists towards safety leadership. a recent study into effective safety leadership defined the construct as ‘the process of defining the desired state, setting up the team to succeed and engaging in discretionary efforts that drive the safety value’ (cooper, 2015, p.49). the details behind this definition were investigated and traced back to a website of a consulting company that offers services within the field of safety leadership. their definition of safety leadership was neither research-based nor contextualised for the australian construction environment. a lack of a clear definition is further reflected through other research by read et al. (2010). they detailed the importance of safety leadership when engaging the workforce, although no clear definition of what safety leadership means was provided. a national australian competency framework towards safety leadership was detailed by biggs, dingsdag and roos (2008) who defined a range of safety terms and approaches to safety leadership, however failed to define safety leadership within the framework or as a standalone concept. there is a general sense that the definition of safety leadership is implied, innate or linked to broader leadership studies. construction economics and building, 15(4), 1-15 daniel 4 in a study undertaken by lu and yang (2010), the impact of safety leadership upon safety behaviour was investigated within terminal operations. safety leadership was defined within three main dimensions which included safety motivation, safety policy and safety concern. it was detailed that safety leadership is a sub-system of organisational leadership, where visible leadership behaviours provide opportunities for safety issues and concerns to be discussed. the findings from lu and yang (2010) are based upon specific components of safety leadership being pooled under transformational and transactional leadership. deeper elements of safety, culture and safety systems appear to be negated when considering the wider construct of safety leadership and its uniqueness from other leadership fields. research conducted by wu, chen and li (2008) investigated the impact that safety leadership has upon a company’s safety climate and performance. their definition and construct of safety leadership was established around safety caring, coaching and controlling. the inclusion of coaching has links within the field of relational leadership but was not detailed specifically towards safety. their operational definition of safety leadership was borrowed from a safety leadership scale assessment, without an explanation of what safety leadership entails. results from this study detailed that managers who demonstrate safety commitment positively influence safety performance with safety climate being the moderating component. in a more recent meta-analytic review, safety leadership was explored under the guise of transformational and transactional leadership (clarke, 2013). results showed that transactional leadership is important in ensuring compliance with rules and regulations, whilst transformational leadership is associated with encouraging employee participation in safety. these elements were shown to have a mediating effect on safety culture. further findings outlined suggestions for future theoretical development into the concept of safety leadership in order to explore leadership flexibility and its application within the safety domain. the view that transactional safety leadership is warranted can be applied with some of the nonnegotiable elements of safety. this pertains to the compliance of minimum standards of work which employees need to adhere to, sometimes colloquially called ‘lifesaving rules’. the context of transactional safety leadership within the construction industry may raise some challenges due to this approach being a remnant of the less mature environment. the application of transactional leadership within the construction industry may serve as a continuation of the status quo and a remnant of the less mature environment. this is echoed by the research of o’dea and flin (2001) that outlined leaders within the resources sector have a predilection towards directive leadership and even with knowledge of effective leadership behaviours, still choose to be directive. this in turn has an impact on motivating and controlling some of the more crucial aspects of safety. research method ontology and methodology the pendulum swing from a subjective to objective approach to social research can paint the overall research methodology of a study. the ontology, which explains that reality is a social construction, ties in well with the ontological nature of this research. therefore this study is weighted towards a subjective approach to social science. specifically, the research paradigm for this study can be cemented around an interpretivist/hermeneutics perspective. this perspective was formed on the notion that individuals and groups make sense of the world through their own individual experiences, memories and expectations (flowers, 2009). safety leadership would not be a moot point if we were living within a predictable concrete environment. in contrast to this is the richness of organisational culture and variables of the external environment, which can influence an individual’s behaviour. construction economics and building, 15(4), 1-15 daniel 5 a post-positivist approach was chosen for this topic due to the exploratory nature of the research and absence of a defined theory or descriptive foundation. a deeper understanding of how one views safety leadership was captured through in-depth interviews with a cross section of the senior leadership team. leadership can be an abstract concept that is focused around influence and reach (goleman, 2001). it is for this reason that safety leadership needed to be explored in more detail via the nodes of information discovery and the personal impact that safety leadership has upon an individual. adhering to the nature and integrity of exploratory research, this research was driven by the participant. the research questions were explored through a process of appreciative inquiry and well formulated questions through the free flow of conversation. the adage of expecting the unexpected lends its applicability to exploratory research. with the purpose of this research being rooted within exploratory means, the suitability of the correct data collection technique was astutely accounted for. sampling to assist theoretical development, random sampling was forgone in order to target the population sample that is in the best position to influence employee behaviour. the scope of positional influence for each participant was deemed most suitable in unearthing the phenomenon investigated. purposive sampling is best suited for exploratory research and such sampling can produce highly specific information from a population that could be challenging to reach (neuman, 2011). purposive sampling is also known as judgement sampling, in which individuals are selected based upon some personal judgement (zikmund et al., 2010). this premise adds to the importance of interviewing the chosen sample size of leaders within the construction company. the sampling of participants within this study included general managers (gm), project managers (pm), construction managers (cm) and health, safety and environment (hse) managers. the inclusion of health, safety and environment managers was undertaken given their breadth of influence across all disciplines within a construction project and specialised skills within safety. with the selection of participants chosen, fertile ground for analysis can be established through alignment or misalignment across the leadership group, with common threads being highlighted. to increase the transferability of key themes and exploration of safety leadership, the sample size was driven by data. a sample size of twenty participants were interviewed which included a total of five general managers, five project managers, five construction managers and five hse managers. if data saturation did not occur with this sample size, more participants would have been interviewed. the sample size was taken from various projects across australia within an australian top-tier construction company that has over 5,000 employees. interviews with the participants were undertaken at their place of work and within their environment, to aid ease and to increase comfort. coding and triangulation two commonly adopted approaches to the coding of data can be classified as techniques of ‘code and retrieve’ and techniques relating to the ‘emergence and interrogation’ of data (richards and richards 1994, p.168). the coding and retrieving of data assists with managing data to predetermined categories whilst the emergence and interrogation technique assists in generating concepts from the information obtained (gough and scott, 2000). this research adopted a mix of the two techniques, generated by the literature and ontology of the researcher. for this study, there was an absence of computer programs that were utilised for coding. instead, a focus on construction economics and building, 15(4), 1-15 daniel 6 pre-coding categories was employed which acted as a foundation before further emergence and interrogation of data was employed. coding was conducted through the scope of the literature and themes developed from this research into safety leadership, with other categories being added for further analysis. specifically, the categories were grouped into contained relationships where one category is contained into one larger category. the coding process was undertaken in three separate stages utilising different coding techniques in each stage. each coding technique followed the sequenced methodology of open coding, axial coding and selective coding. this coding process can be broken down to the initial identifying of themes, assigning labels to themes and elaboration of major themes (neuman, 2011). the data obtained went through a process of triangulation. to harness a macro perspective, triangulation in this study was undertaken through selfreflection and peer-review of the data. throughout the interviewing, transcribing and coding data process, this researcher underwent a process of self-reflexivity which included noting down any potential biases and thoughts throughout the coding process. the aim of this was to increase the accuracy and integrity of information, as detailed through the work of guba and lincoln (2008). another by-product of self-reflexivity was to view the data from different perspectives. data was further triangulated through peer review of the themes to aid inter-rater reliability and to objectively ascertain any biases noted. as recommended by shenton (2004), a thick description of data was described to aid the transferability of information. this equated to direct quotes from participants to support any associated themes and help with the dependability of data. results across the sample size of twenty participants, the total years of experience within the construction industry was 387 years, with a mean average of 19.3 years. total length of service within the company that this research was rooted within was 112.5 years with a mean average of 5.6 years. the average number of direct reports that the participants had was twelve. each participant’s first language was english. specific experience and demographics according to job position have been detailed in table 1. table 1: mean demographics based upon job position position years of experience length of service within company number of direct reports construction manager cm) 22.8 5.7 15 project manager (pm) 16.0 4.5 12.6 hse manager (hse) 16.2 4.7 8.6 general manager (gm) 22.4 8.8 11 from the total sample size of participants, 10% were female (2) and 90% were male (18), with 65% (13) of the participants having previously worked outside of australia in the construction industry. the gender imbalance highlighted in the above table is typical of the male-dominated construction and mining industry (mayes and pini, 2014). both females in the sample size were project managers. construction economics and building, 15(4), 1-15 daniel 7 safety leadership v general leadership information gathered from the interviews revealed that the majority of participants believe that there is no difference between safety leadership and general leadership. this was governed by some of the following statements across all job positions: “not sure that i draw a distinction between safety leadership and leadership”; “i prefer not to discern between leadership and safety leadership … i think if you’re a good leader, you’re good at all aspects of leadership and safety is no different”. the main thoughts supporting this notion relate to the perception that safety is one of many elements to a business and that a good leader would be strong in all areas of the business. other comments that further support this view point include: “safety leadership is leadership in general, leading by example” and “that the problem with safety leadership is that we’ve divorced it from all types of leadership” and “regardless of the subject, the style of leadership should be the same”. adding to the notion that safety leadership and leadership should be synonymous is the following comment from a gm that stated if safety leadership exists then it is “owned by the safety department, rather than owned by leadership and the business”. findings indicated that the core similarities between general leadership and safety leadership are constituted by the behaviours of acting with integrity, being able to influence and “the whole human element in terms of how sincere the leader is and are they a good communicator”. weak support was gathered that detailed the unique characteristics that make up safety leadership, although the elements raised are pivotal in their distinction. unique components of safety leadership the viewpoint that safety leadership is a separate category from leadership reached a minority consensus, with unique elements being highlighted which included transparency, wellbeing and the promotion of safety. further to this, safety leadership was seen as “driving the safety message out on site and doing everything the right way”, “about saving someone potentially” and “setting the safety standard and being visible on what’s acceptable, not acceptable”. further findings supporting the distinction of safety leadership included the possibility that “you can be a very good leader, without being a good safety leader”, which was attributed to one’s own conduct and how they personally manage and promote safety. other opinions on safety leadership outlined that “safety leadership goes further through your organisation” and “there’s the guidelines and the rules” which is a core distinction with safety in the australian construction environment. this cascades to other supporting viewpoints from the data, which outlines the priority of safety. one pm stated that, with safety issues, “you’ve got to show that as a safety leader, that it’s got to be dealt with above and beyond anything else” with one cm sharing that “everyone’s got a role in safety on site” and this is how safety leadership differs from general leadership. the above outlined intricacies of safety leadership may warrant its separation from general leadership disciplines. defining safety leadership results fed into the notion that safety leadership is an ill-defined concept which was reflected in one gm saying that “when i think about safety leadership, i tend to think about leadership in general, maybe that’s just because there just isn’t enough definition of what safety leadership is”. when participants were asked to define safety leadership, core factors of accountability, “walking the talk” and “leading by example” was present across all job positions. accountability was referenced through the “outlining of expectations” and “being accountable for safety”. branching from these components was a strong reference about personal value towards safety which was highlighted by one pm saying “it’s not just there at the coalface, it’s everywhere. it’s at construction economics and building, 15(4), 1-15 daniel 8 home; it’s in your personal life”. this was further expanded upon by another pm saying that safety leadership is “not something that you’re trained in ... i think its values”. when participants were defining safety leadership, aspects of safety management were often quoted. this was in relation to abiding by the safety absolutes, with one pm saying it is about “making sure they have the right tools and resources” whilst accounting for all aspects of planning and organising. these findings are further elaborated on under a separate category pertaining to safety management and statistics. the definition of safety leadership also yielded findings that are spoken of in the same realms as general leadership. this included the importance of “empowering others”, “mentoring type role” and “to be adaptable and change the situation you’re in”. this was echoed by one hse manager saying, “i use the old business model of situational leadership”. the importance of integrity and transparency was also commonly discussed as core components in safety leadership. supporting findings of transparency included such comments from an hse manager who stated “it’s probably a lot more transparent”, and one cm saying that it is about “addressing all issues, not just palming them off”. further defining and exploration of safety leadership was heavily aligned to the components of establishing relationships and being authentic in one’s approach. discrepancies did exist between safety leadership and general leadership; however common ground was established between the core characteristics of safety leadership. a penchant towards demonstrated behaviours was often cited through such expressions as “leading by example” and “setting the example”. other common elements were in relation to personal values to safety, empathy and the ability to influence others to undertake work safely and a degree of empathy, which can help foster working relationships. safety leadership differences between job positions across the sample size of participants, there were more similarities between the job roles compared to differences in regard to the topic of safety leadership. the majority of differences were mainly predicated by the amount of data collected upon a theme as well as the depth of examples and agreed scope of definition with safety leadership. across the general managers, there was more of an elaborated reference to the broader context of safety leadership and its application across the australian construction industry. all of the general managers viewed safety leadership and leadership as being synonymous with each other, with generalised comments being made in reference to a safety vision. these differences may be generated around the scope of influence a general manager has upon the business and the lumping of safety as a by-product of leadership. in comparison, the data collected from project managers had a particular emphasis on costs and client expectations. a few project managers saw a distinction between safety leadership and general leadership. examples of this included the transparency of safety, matched with the juggling of compliance-based requirements with safety management systems. construction managers made fewer comments about safety statistics and shared more practical examples of engagement with the workforce. this was outlined through the amount of time each construction manager spends “in the field”, which also reflected their emphasis on relationship building. construction managers within the sample size often reached their position by “rising through the ranks” and coming from a trade background. this historical connection might leverage the importance of connectedness in the field. with construction managers, there was more of a weighting towards safety leadership being a separate discipline from broader leadership. construction economics and building, 15(4), 1-15 daniel 9 the importance of relationship building was jointly emphasised by hse managers, as well as a focus on safety leadership behaviours that were more aligned with managerial tasks. hse managers also noted more challenges associated with safety leadership compared to their research counterparts. from these findings, the maturation of safety leadership and its distinguishing factors from general leadership can be mapped upon a continuum of scope and responsibility. from the findings it appears that the more responsibility one has, the broader safety leadership becomes, where it eventually gets lumped into general leadership. this progression has been mapped out in figure 2. figure 2: safety leadership between job positions discussion the discourse into the definition of safety leadership was explored through the research findings of this study. findings indicated the parallel relationship that safety leadership has with general leadership. such parallels were evident via the importance of transparency when sharing safety information and being open and honest when sharing information which echo the tenets of authentic leadership (gardner et al., 2011). the importance of engagement with safety leadership was reflected through specific language, rhetoric, stories and metaphors being used when describing safety. these findings are akin to research completed within the arena of charismatic leadership (davis and gardner, 2012). it can be concluded from this research that safety leadership dabbles within different branches of leadership but is centred within a safety context, from a legislative and moral framework. this context was evident through the constant mentioning of management systems when participants were describing safety leadership behaviours. safety leadership within leadership the viewpoint shared by many participants is that safety leadership was no different from the broader aspects of leadership, which was validated through a pure linguistic and outcome perspective. the common context and objective of safety leadership could be the absence of injury or harm to employees. as findings from this research suggest, safety leadership is more “visible” and “tactile” and pertains more towards securing the wellbeing and health of others. these distinguishing aspects have elements of corporate social responsibility (csr) written all construction economics and building, 15(4), 1-15 daniel 10 over them, which is often characterised by the moral obligation to act in the interests of others and society as a whole with the purpose of harm reduction (massin, 2012). the importance of csr is getting more public screening through the acceptance of whistle blowers and promotion of ethical conduct. despite this, there is no separate branch of leadership component called csr leadership which would have similar conscripts to safety leadership based upon moral outcomes. the objective in leadership may be fixated on a group collective or goal, which may allow such moral scriptures to be jettisoned for the achievement of a goal. past political leaders such as hitler and stalin showed leadership through the achievement of goals, although arguably in the absence of a moral conscience or a result of ignoring their conscience. safety leadership from this perspective could be demonstrated through the absence of harm and promotion of safety towards others, although this may contrast with other organisational goals of the leader. the factors that differentiate safety leadership from other forms of leadership start to emerge when the beam is magnified on one’s personal regard to safety and the safety of others. the distinguishing factors of transparency also start to divorce safety leadership from general leadership. findings indicated that one could be transparent with all elements of safety, where in other parts of the business one cannot. one project manager commented that all information relating to safety could be shared barring any identifying information for people involved in incidents. when there is a safety process that identifies names for safety non-conformances, employee trust and engagement may be adversely impacted (geller, 2008). findings in this research outlined that safety leadership is most apparent in the field and is something that can be easily demonstrated. this context of safety leadership as a separate branch of leadership has been graphically represented in figure 3 which has been based upon the core themes obtained from the data collected. figure 3: context of safety leadership within current operating environment construction economics and building, 15(4), 1-15 daniel 11 defining safety leadership the results from this study have given clarity and scope to the research question of: how do leaders within the construction environment define safety leadership and how does safety leadership differ from general leadership disciplines? the majority of participants used common colloquialisms such as “walking the talk”. the inability of participants to provide a well-defined construct mirrors the findings of zanko and dawson (2012) who found that safety leadership was being lumped under the human resources discipline. through the collation of quotes, themes and comments, a defined definition of safety leadership was developed. this definition incorporates language that reflects the importance of demonstrating safe behaviours, whilst outlining aspects of general leadership studies and the importance of personal values as detailed in the results. from the research collected, safety leadership has been defined as: the demonstration of safety values through the creation of a vision and the promotion of wellbeing through the art of engagement, honesty and discipline. this definition has been crafted through a conscious choice in language used by participants and empirical findings from this research. the concluding definition was shared with each participant, post interview for further consultation and discussion. there was universal acceptance and agreement towards the definition in providing clarity around the topic as well as serving as a tool for future developmental programs. key components of this definition have been detailed in figure 4 and have been described below. figure 4: integral components to the definition of safety leadership components that make up the definition have been sourced directly from core themes but also mirrored by supporting research. the importance of tactility and the demonstration of displaying safe behaviours were often cited by participants. this importance of tactility on influencing safety was reflected in the work by luria and morag (2012), who found that safety management by walking around increased safety performance and worker morale. the benefit of leadership engagement with the workers has been demonstrated and replicated multiple times (conchie, moon and duncan, 2013) and outlined through this research study via the importance of construction economics and building, 15(4), 1-15 daniel 12 building relationships. the engagement with employees is the pathway to developing robust safety conversations facilitated by effective communication and safety behaviours such as delivering toolboxes, carrying out risk assessments or participation in incident investigations (biggs and biggs, 2013). discipline as applied in the safety leadership definition can have a double loaded meaning. discipline can be a reference to ensuring that people are accountable for their work through the application of suitable consequences. the other application for discipline is through selfdiscipline with regard to the following of safety obligations. such discipline can become a hallmark of consistency, which helps in developing trust (conchie, taylor and charlton, 2011). results from this study outlined the importance of adhering to safety management processes whilst applying discipline to employees who disregard safety. being able to influence others is a key component in safety leadership and is aligned with the promotion of safety through the ability to influence others. the findings in this study outlined that the best way to influence safety as a leader is by “being in the field”. this is crystallised by the interpersonal strengths of influencing others through the variables of communication, selfassurance and the ability to win others over (rath and conchie, 2008). these research findings outlined the importance of values in safety leadership. specifically, this was voiced by a personal belief in safety as well as empathy for others. the values of a safety leader are also linked to the honesty of the individual, and this was quoted multiple times through such comments as being “genuine” and being “transparent”. components of honesty have been linked with existing research on authentic leadership (hsiung, 2012). this study outlined that the common goal of participants was to ensure that each worker goes home safely and that this acts as a broader vision. conclusion the differentiating factors between safety leadership and general leadership have been dissected, with a suitable definition being grounded on the findings of this research. safety leadership has its unique variables established by the operating environment that it exists within and therefore differs from other leadership models. the implication of such findings, allows a more viable discourse into the area of safety leadership which may minimise confusion and lack of clarity around the topic. findings can kick start the separate discipline of safety leadership, which therefore holds its own unique differences based upon such elements as vision, values and demonstration of behaviours. the separation of how safety leadership differs from other disciplines is one of the key contributing factors from this study. with an empirical definition being detailed, future safety leadership programs can be cross-mapped for validity and linked to behaviours emanating from this definition and help reduce work related incidents. the detailed definition of safety leadership may serve as a foundation for other industries such as mining, manufacturing or petrochemicals. the operating environment across the industries may slightly differ, although the safety leadership factors detailed in the definitions may still ring true. further confirmatory research outside the australian construction industry can expand upon these results. construction economics and building, 15(4), 1-15 daniel 13 references bass, b.m. and bass r., 2009. bass handbook of leadership: theory, research and managerial applications. 4th ed. new york: free press. biggs, h.c. and biggs, s.e., 2013. interlocked projects in safety competency and safety effectiveness indicators in the construction sector. safety science, 52(1), pp.37-42. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2012.03.014 biggs, h.c., dingsdag, d.p. and roos, c.r., 2008. a practical guide to safety leadership: implementing a construction safety competency framework. cooperative research centre for construction industry, brisbane: iconnet. clarke, s., 2013. safety leadership: a meta-analytic review of transformational and transactional leadership styles as antecedents of safety behaviours. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 86(1), pp.22-49. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2012.02064.x conchie, s.m., moon, s. and duncan, m., 2013. supervisors’ engagement in safety leadership: factors that help and hinder. safety science, 51(1), pp.109-17. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2012.05.020 conchie, s.m., taylor, p.j. and charlton, a., 2011. trust and distrust in safety leadership: mirror reflections? safety science, 49(8-9), pp.1208-14. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2011.04.002 cooper, d., 2015. effective safety leadership. professional safety, 60(2), pp.49-53. davis, k.m. and gardner, w.l., 2012. charisma under crisis revisited: presidential leadership, perceived leader effectiveness, and contextual influences. the leadership quarterly, 23(5), pp.918-33. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.06.001 durban, a.j., dalglish, c. and miller, p. 2006. leadership. milton: john wiley and sons australia. flowers, p. 2009. research philosophies importance and relevance. msc by research. cranfield school of management. gardner, w.l., cogliser, c.c., davis, k.m. and dickens, m.p., 2011. authentic leadership: a review of the literature and research agenda. the leadership quarterly, 22(6), pp.1120-45. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.09.007 geller, s.e. 2008. leading people-based safety: enriching your culture. coastal training technologies corp, virginia beach. goleman, d., 2001. what makes a leader? harvard business review on: what makes a leader? boston: harvard business school publishing corporation. gough, s. and scott, w., 2000. exploring the purposes of qualitative data coding in educational enquiry: insights from recent research. educational studies, 26(3), pp.339-54. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055690050137141 guba, e.g. and lincoln, y.s., 2008. paradigmatic controversies, contradictions and emerging confluences. in: n.k. denzin and y.s. lincoln, eds. the landscape of qualitative research. thousand oaks: sage publications. pp. 25586. halverson, s.k., murphy, s.e. and riggio, r.e., 2004. charismatic leadership in crisis situations: a laboratory investigation of stress and crisis. small group research, 35, pp.495-514. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1046496404264178 hashim, i.n. and chileshe, n., 2012. major challenges in managing multilpe project environment (mpe) in australia’s construction industry. journal of engineering, design and technology, 10(1), pp.72-92. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17260531211211890 hofmann, d.a. and morgeson, f.p. 1999. safety-related behaviour as a social exchange: the role of perceived organisational support and leader–member exchange. journal of applied psychology, 84(2), pp.286-96. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.84.2.286 hsiung, h.h., 2012. authentic leadership and employee voice behavior: a multi-level psychological process. journal of business ethics, 107(3), pp.349-61. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1043-2 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2012.03.014 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8325.2012.02064.x http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2012.05.020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2011.04.002 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.06.001 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2011.09.007 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03055690050137141 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1046496404264178 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17260531211211890 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.84.2.286 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1043-2 construction economics and building, 15(4), 1-15 daniel 14 judge, t.a. and piccolo, r.f., 2004. transformational and transactional leadership: a meta-analytic test of their relative validity. journal of applied psychology, 89, pp.755-68. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/00219010.89.5.755 kath, l.m., marks, k.m. and ranney, j., 2010. safety climate dimensions, leader–member exchange, and organizational support as predictors of upward safety communication in a sample of rail industry workers. safety science, 48, pp.643-50. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2010.01.016 kernis, m.h. and golfman, b.h., 2006. a multicomponent conceptualization of authenticity: theory and research. advances in experimental social psychology, 38, pp.283-357. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s00652601(06)38006-9 leroy, h., dierynck, b., anseel, f., simons, t., halbesleben, j.r., mccaughey, d., savage, g.t. and sels, l., 2012. behavioral integrity for safety, priority of safety, psychological safety, and patient safety: a team-level study. journal of applied psychology, 97, pp.1273-81. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0030076 long, d.g., 2013. delivering high performance: the third generation organisation. farnham: gower publishing limited. lu, c.s. and yang c.s., 2010. safety leadership and safety behavior in container terminal operations. safety science, 48(1), pp.123-34. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2009.05.003 luria, g. and morag, i., 2012. safety management by walking around (smbwa): a safety intervention program based on both peer and manager participation. accident analysis and prevention, 45(1), pp.248-57. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2011.07.010 massin, s., 2012. is harm reduction profitable? an analytical framework for corporate social responsibility based on epidemic model of addictive consumption. social science and medicine, 74(12), pp.1856-63. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.02.006 mayes, r. and pini, b., 2014. the australian mining industry and the ideal mining woman: mobilizing a public business case for gender equality. journal of industrial relations, 56(4), pp.527-46. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022185613514206 mueller, b.h. and lee, j., 2002. leader-member exchange and organisational communication satisfaction in multiple contexts. the journal of business communication, 39(2), pp.220-44. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002194360203900204 mullen, j.e. and kelloway, e.k., 2009. safety leadership: a longitudinal study of the effects of transformational leadership on safety outcomes. journal of occupational and organisational psychology, 82(2), pp.253-72. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317908x325313 neuman, w.l., 2011. social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. boston: pearson. o’dea, a. and flin, r., 2001. site managers and safety leadership in the offshore oil and gas industry. safety science, 37(1), pp.39-57. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0925-7535(00)00049-7 podsakoff, p.m., bommer, w.h., podsakoff, n.p. and mackenzie, s.b., 2006. relationships between leader reward and punishment behavior and subordinate attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors: a meta-analytic review of existing and new research. organisational behavior and human decision processes, 99(2), pp.113-42. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2005.09.002 rath, t. and conchie, b., 2008. strengths based leadership. new york: gallup press. read, b.r., zartl-klik, a., veir, c., samhaber, r. and zepic, h., 2010. safety leadership that engages the workforce to create sustainable hse performance. spe international conference on health, safety and environment in oil and gas exploration and production. rio de janeiro, brazil, pp.1-18. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/126901-ms richards, i.l. and richards t., 1994. from filing cabinet to computer. in: bryman, a. and burgess, r.g., eds. analysing qualitative data. new york: routledge. pp. 146-72. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203413081_chapter_8 safe work australia, 2012. key work health and safety statistics, australia. [online] available at: [accessed 18 november 2013]. shenton, a.k., 2004. strategies for ensuring trustworthiness in qualitative research projects. education for information, 22(2), pp. 63-75. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.5.755 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.5.755 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2010.01.016 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0065-2601%2806%2938006-9 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0065-2601%2806%2938006-9 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0030076 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2009.05.003 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2011.07.010 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2012.02.006 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0022185613514206 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002194360203900204 http://dx.doi.org/10.1348/096317908x325313 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0925-7535%2800%2900049-7 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2005.09.002 http://dx.doi.org/10.2118/126901-ms http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203413081_chapter_8 http://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/sites/swa/about/publications/pages/key-whs_stats-2012 construction economics and building, 15(4), 1-15 daniel 15 trice, h.m. and beyer, j.m., 1986. charisma and its utilisation in two social movement organizations. research in organizational behaviour, 8, pp.113-64. wu, t.c., chen, c.h. and li, c.c., 2008. a correlation among safety leadership, safety climate and safety performance. journal of loss prevention in the process industries, 21(3), pp.307-18. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jlp.2007.11.001 zanko, m. and dawson, p., 2012. occupational health and safety management in organisations: a review. international journal of management reviews, 14(3), pp.328-44. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.14682370.2011.00319.x zikmund, w.g., babin, b.j., carr, j.c. and griffin, m., 2010. business research methods. mason: south-western cengage learning. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jlp.2007.11.001 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00319.x http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00319.x safety leadership defined within the australian construction industry abstract introduction literature review general leadership safety leadership research method ontology and methodology sampling coding and triangulation results table 1: mean demographics based upon job position safety leadership v general leadership unique components of safety leadership defining safety leadership safety leadership differences between job positions figure 2: safety leadership between job positions discussion safety leadership within leadership figure 3: context of safety leadership within current operating environment defining safety leadership figure 4: integral components to the definition of safety leadership conclusion references construction economics and building vol. 20, no. 2 june 2020 © 2020 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: oke, a.e., aghimien, d.o., akinradewo, o.i., and aigbavboa, c.o. 2020. improving resilience of cities through smart city drivers. construction economics and building, 20:2, 45-64. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v20i2.6647 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article improving resilience of cities through smart city drivers ayodeji emmanuel oke1*, douglas o. aghimien1, opeoluwa i. akinradewo1, clinton o. aigbavboa1 1 sarchl in sustainable construction management and leadership in the built environment, faculty of engineering and the built environment, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa *corresponding author: ayodeji emmanuel oke, sarchl in sustainable construction management and leadership in the built environment, faculty of engineering and the built environment, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa; emailemayok@gmail.com. doi: 10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6647 article history: received 6/25/2019; revised 18/11/2019 & 30/12/2019; accepted 2/23/2020; published 22/06/2020 abstract the embracement of smart city approach as a sustainable system for the management and delivery of infrastructural developments has been on the increase, especially in developed and some developing countries. for this to be successful, cities in these countries, particularly in developing ones like south africa, needs to be resilient because even though resilience can be achieved by making cities smart, smartness does not bring resilience by default. thus, this study examines various factors influencing the ability of cities to develop resilience through smart city drivers. a survey of construction professionals involved in the design, planning, development and general management of cities and their infrastructure was carried out with the aid of a well-structured questionnaire. factors influencing resilience were grouped into five divisions which are climate change, education, food security, public safety and threat to disease, in order of their importance. findings revealed that the most important of these factors are the development of literacy and technical skills of citizens, regeneration of agricultural land and increased localised food production. the paper further examined the effects of these factors on six smart city drivers and found out that smart economy has the most influence on the resilience of a city. it was concluded that stakeholders concerned with the achievement of resilient smart city must give attention to the major needs of its citizens, and such needs are better produced locally. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 45 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6647 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6647 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6647 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:emayok@gmail.com http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6647 keywords: information technology, resilient city, smart city, smart technology, social cohesion, sustainable construction. introduction the word “resilience” has been adjudged by valdés, amaratunga and haigh (2013) as a new term comparatively gaining usage in policy debates as well as academic publications to refer to how the society suppresses its vulnerability to hazards caused by nature and humans. resilience was further elaborated by carpenter et al. (2001) to explain socioecological systems interaction which was supported by twigg (2007) as the community’s ability to adequately manage disturbances. in making a city resilient, its present level of vulnerabilities need to be carefully assessed and detailed (parvin et al., 2011). for cities in south africa (sa) to cope with the present and future requirements of its dwellers, there is a need to promote city development through sustainable approaches such as making the cities resilient (das, 2012). with these sustainable approaches included in policy planning strategies, cities can be transformed and made smart. to ensure cities are sustainable in some decades to come, city-level authorities needs to be provided with policies, strategies, and platforms that are developmental. this will assist in making the citizens resilient savvy and the environment adaptive thereby transforming the cities (harrison et al., 2014). also, there must be proper planning spurred by state officials, community representatives, and experts through collaboration and participation for resilience to be achieved (wijsman and feagan, 2019). urbanisation is one of the major factors which needs to be solved for cities to be resilient and smart city initiatives have proven to be able to provide solutions to this problem (alcatel, 2012; nama and pardo, 2014; oke, aigbavboa and cane 2018). das (2012) submitted that modern technological advancement is capable of making components of a city interlinked with its infrastructures such that standard of living, economic and social wellbeing of dwellers will be improved. this process is referred to as “smartization”. smart city initiatives give inhabitant the necessary comfortability needed to live in urban cities (alfano, amitrano and bifulco, 2014). according to elmqvist, barnett, and wilkinson (2014), moglia et al., (2018) and pelling et al., (2018), for reduction in disaster risks and climate change adaptation globally, urban planning is a major factor to be considered. a resilient city is, therefore, an urban community capable of establishing and hasten an adaptable and equitable relationship between the civic elements and hard infrastructures available within the city (godschalk, 2003). with the relationship established, modification can be made to the civic elements and infrastructure systems to enable it to cope with the natural pressures as well as internal and external crises that may occur. these civic elements include schools, agencies, health centres, libraries among others that form the social and institutional components in the society while hard infrastructures include built roads, buildings, energy facilities, waterways among others (godschalk, 2003). however, the authorities of regional, national or urban districts economic eco-system must be afforded focus in the transformation process. this is supported by the submission of bormann and gulati (2014), that emergence of a resilient economy is the fundamental component for an urban district as it helps in mitigating water, food and energy insecurities. according to the united nations estimates, by 2050, about 66% of the world’s population will reside in urban cities with 90% of this oke, aghimien, akinradewo, and aigbavboa construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202046 trend happening in africa and asia (sha and sonn, 2015). this shows that there will be need to ensure cities in africa are resilient to cater for the daily pressure to be imposed by the dwellers. in doing so, the concerns of resource securities, provision of basic services and the creation of knowledge and employment opportunities are alleviated (municipalities of south africa, 2016). globally, “cities in motion index (cimi)” rank cities on an annual basis using index facilitated by “iese business school at the university of navarra”. the sole aim of the ranking is to establish a “system of measurement for the future resilience and sustainability of the world’s main cities as well as the quality of life of the inhabitants”. berrone and ricart (2016) put forward the ecosystem functionality of urban districts stressing the need to understand how the city networks and components are co-dependent and how they can be improved to make the district resilient. four south african cities (cape town, johannesburg, pretoria and durban) were analysed in the cimi publication from 2013 till date (oke, aigbavboa and cane 2018). the analysis shows that these cities in south africa are experiencing urbanisation and as such, necessary steps must be embarked upon to make them resilient. this study, therefore, set out to assess the factors influencing the resilience levels of a city as well as the capabilities of smart city drivers to improve the resilience of a city. various studies have been carried out on the resilience of south african cities (harrison et al., 2014; turok, 2014), however, attention has not been focused on the capability of smart city drivers in improving the resilience of a city which is the specific knowledge gap this study will fill. review of city resilience when making a city resilient, current infrastructures, resources, citizens and sub-systems’ potentials must be fully acknowledged. a careful and detailed evaluation of the present level of resilience and vulnerability must also be carried out (parvin et al., 2011). simultaneously, authorities must provide an avenue that will help citizens within the urban district cope with the changes that will occur as the city is transformed (municipalities of south africa, 2016). if adaptation is tied-in with shaping the future through decisions on what to improve, hold and dispose-off in the existing systems of an urban district, resilience helps set the edge of reference to give logical opinions to these choices (goldstein et al., 2015). resilience is therefore designed to go beyond restoring functionality but to also make corrections to economic, political and social structures that have been in place to cope with hazards (patel and nosal, 2016). a typical case study is a research carried out by meunier, ferrero and kubicki (2017), which explored the incorporation of smart city drivers into the resilience plan of luxembourg projected for 2060. the study outlined the major requirements that need to be put in place to achieve resilient systems using a holistic smart city approach. the requirements are the six dimensions of smart city with a focus on achieving economic, social and environmental sustainability. however, it was submitted that the smart city concept is designed such that all the development strategies are placed around the people. factors influencing resilience level of a city different researchers have been able to identify some factors that influence the resilience level of urban regions through research surveys and studies (godschalk, 2003; harrison et al., 2014; national treasury, 2016). the highlight of these factors is discussed below. improving resilience of cities through smart city drivers construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202047 knowledge capital knowledge capability of the urban district dwellers is a major factor that influences the resilience of a city. this, therefore, necessitates the need to exert an optimum knowledge capital standard among the citizens (the national population commission (npc), 2012). according to wijsman and feagan (2019), planning a resilience city requires knowledge system which is aimed at “understanding resilience within the locality and specific systems; embrace values such as a plurality of perspectives, collective problem framing, and societal agenda setting; and recognizes the need to pay analytical attention to those practices that keep certain patterns of thinking in place”. skill development programmes are therefore needed for learning and development opportunities to be promoted through technology-savvy equipment usage within the district public facilities (municipalities of south africa, 2016). in a research study conducted by ringwood (2015), a submission was made that the technical capabilities of urban dwellers must be the major priority of national and urban stakeholders to enhance technological aptitude in the city. such an effort will result in the formation of proactive platforms with the embodiment of national and local economies capable of delivering the desired technological advances. furthermore, the world bank (2007), accentuated the aforementioned by highlighting the benefits attached to improving the educational standards of the citizens within the urban district. this has the potential to improve social cohesion among citizens as well as their financial status. the npc (2012) emphasised the regress in knowledge aptitude development of workforces in south african organisations. for a city planning to be resilience, this phenomenon needs to be addressed immediately for success to be achieved. to this end, the scope of the national development plan (ndp) 2030 as proposed by the south african npc, caters for the deployment of skill learning programmes. these programmes will only materialise and achieve their desired target when organisations collaborate with established civic enterprises. food security food security is largely dependent on the quantity of food produced internally in a country. when there is a need to import food from other countries due to insufficiency, food price increases which pose a threat to food security (merwe, 2011). this is corroborated by ruel and garrett (2004) who opined that complex food distribution chain which results from food importation from other countries gives room for food insecurity since income availability goes hand-in-hand with access to food. according to béné et al. (2016), advancing development and resilience plays a major role in nutrition and food security as a “mobilising metaphor”. this happens such that there must be a linkage between the health sector, social protection sector, livelihood sector and nutrition sector which is been disconnectedly operated traditionally. as submitted by municipalities of south africa (2016), the ever-growing climate change effect coupled with urbanisation is contributing majorly to south african cities’ food security concerns. this has resulted in the promotion of urban agricultural subsystem growth by city governments through agricultural land regeneration (department of planning monitoring and evaluation (dpme), 2014). objectively, this land regeneration initiative is expected to improve and facilitate the cities’ ability to extend local products and also launch a solid collaboration between local produce suppliers and food marketers (spencer et al., 2010; municipalities of south africa, 2016). however, food security concern in south africa coupled with some other shortage of resources cannot be wholly weighted on change in climate as corrupt practices among government officials also suppress the efforts of stakeholders in the food sector (chipkin and ngqulunga, 2008). oke, aghimien, akinradewo, and aigbavboa construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202048 healthcare system food utilisation is one of the dimensions of food security which indicates the eating pattern of different ethnic groups and individuals within the city. types of food consumed and the diet lifestyle of the citizens eventually have effects on their health which becomes a challenge to the city at large in the long run (merwe, 2011; oke, aigbavboa and ngema 2017). high consumption of fats which has been recorded among urban dwellers leads to “diet-related non-communicable diseases” such as diabetes and obesity (bourne and steyn, 2000). improvement in hygiene facilities will bring a decrease in the risk of transmissible diseases. therefore, making clean water available will help in the formation of a healthier city (npc, 2012). merwe (2011), added that there is a high intake of tobacco in south africa which leads to lung cancer and eventual death. even though cities around the world are aiming at transforming to healthy regions, processes and programmes that will assist in reducing communicable and non-communicable diseases risks, they remain a major concern. having identified hiv/aids as the deadliest disease in south africa with current statistics showing 22% of deaths caused by hiv/aids increased level of awareness needs to be put in place to improve citizens’ knowledge of this disease (statistics south africa, 2018). citizens must be empowered while adequate awareness knowledge must be passed across on these diseases. increase in the awareness level will help citizens to understand the repercussion of their decisions which will, therefore, guide their choices (ruel and garrett, 2004). this will also help individuals in knowing the symptoms, treatment packages, and available mitigation options thereby promoting the transformation of the city to pro-active and healthy societies (municipalities of south africa, 2016). another way to improve the health status of citizens is to encourage cycling and walking within the city rather than driving vehicles or using other means of transportation to enable them to do exercises and workout (municipalities of south africa, 2016). a survey by harrison et al. (2014) indicated that there is a decline in the wellbeing of south african working class which is affecting productivity at work thereby impacting economic development. climate change according to chan (2017), faster warming is associated with the climate systems of urban areas compared to rural areas. these rural areas have water bodies, less built-up areas and vegetation which helps regulate the temperature. it was further opined that the size of the city determines the warming potential with megacity centres experiencing about 7-10°c heat more than rural areas with the fossil fuels used in urban areas contributing largely to this heat increase. climate change talks about the fluctuations observed in the weather patterns worldwide due to the global warming effects and pollution increase in the environment. this has resulted in the drastic changes experienced in weather conditions globally coupled with supernatural events occurring on a global front (municipalities of south africa, 2016). as proposed by npc (2012), if enough capital can be injected into the energy sector in south africa, improved infrastructures will be achieved. with this implementation, the level of pollution will be reduced while climate change effects will be minimised. in addition, the usage of environmentally friendly resources can be facilitated when modernisation is injected into the energy sector (bormann and gulati, 2014). this can be in the form of using solar panels, nuclear power stations, gas or wind plants, or other forms of modernised energy generation. also, the reduction of coal reliance in the country as electricity production primary source will birth environmentally friendly energy sector (npc, 2012; municipalities of south africa, 2016). this will assist in the reduction improving resilience of cities through smart city drivers construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202049 of carbon dioxide emissions released into the atmosphere. however, the “south african department of energy”, estimated that about 65% of electricity generation in the country will still rely on coal by 2030 (bormann and gulati, 2014). implementation of trade-offs among the various sectors and enterprises in the country is another platform that can be used to maintain energy consumption standards. this is a mitigation measure which has recorded success in california with the green taxes inclusion (spencer et al., 2010). going forward, multi-functional devices can be implemented to monitor the factors contributing to climate change. these devices give room for resource monitoring by utility providers. one of these multi-functional devices is called “smart meters” which has “flow meters and pressure sensors” that measures the level of consumption electricity, water, gas usage and energy outputs (cominola et al., 2015). property developers, private homeowners, and utility providers find these devices very efficient and effective in keeping track of consumption level thereby managing their resources effectively (cominola et al., 2015; ringwood, 2015). public safety the safety of the citizens is a major role the government is expected to play in a city. according to the international centre for the prevention of crime (icpc) (2016), understanding urban safety and crime prevention changes from each language to another. it is therefore put forward that urban safety and crime prevention “emphasizes the role of residents – or communities – in developing and implementing safety policies. likewise, the development of personal capacities, whether by education, professional skills development, leadership, etc., promotes good social integration and the building of peaceful living environments”. public safety begins when there is acceptance of the fact that inadequacy of local governance, urban development, and social patterns gives room for violence and crime occurrence (un-habitat iii, 2015). higgs (2007) reported that crime level has increased in south africa and such has raised general fear among citizens, most especially, foreigners, women, and children due to government’s failure to build up and keep a close relationship with the citizens. also, the citizens and city dwellers failed to form good social cohesion among themselves. greyling (2013) supported the view by reporting that crime in south africa can only be reduced with the collaboration of local authorities and the citizens. the formation of “community policing forums (cpf)” by the government of south africa is expected for assist the “south african police service (saps)” in fighting criminal activities which will alleviate the fear of the citizens. to achieve this, “warning systems” will be implemented, which will aid proactive and effective communication between the cpf, saps, and citizens for timely security alerts (municipalities of south africa, 2016). komninos, schaffers and pallot (2011), opined that with the development of a “real-time control system” through the usage of ict-enabled sensors and devices within the city, the following can be achieved: “ individuals, organisations or areas exposed to high levels of risk can be monitored and controlled; detection of an individual, organisation or civic environment being exposed to crime at any time within the city; the provision of a report which enables authorities to analyse and pick up common crime trends; and, expose personnel who delay necessary actions when threats are revealed by the devices to the relevant safety authorities”. in conclusion, calabrese, kloeckl and ratti (2009), highlighted the advantages of implementing a systematic analysis of trend platform and crime data as it aids in the process of keep tracking of crime statistics, which can be accessed at any point in time. oke, aghimien, akinradewo, and aigbavboa construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202050 research methodology to adequately achieve the objective of this study which is to appraise factors influencing resilience level of cities and the influence of the different drivers of a smart city in improving the resilience of cities, quantitative research method was adopted. this method is used by researchers to “provide solutions to predetermined research questions and objectives, by analysing the relationship between the different variables through the use of an experimental or non-experimental data collection instrument (survey), in turn yielding results which are numerical, thus can be analysed using statistics” (creswell, 2014). the study focused on the three main municipalities that made up gauteng province of sa which are “city of ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality (eku), city of johannesburg metropolitan municipality (coj) and city of tshwane metropolitan municipality (cot) all in the gauteng province of south africa. respondents were chosen from professionals who have knowledge about smart cities and resilience cities within gauteng province which include contracts managers, project managers, town planners, quantity surveyors, civil engineers, architects, data technicians (it) and electrical engineers. the total number of the target population could not be ascertained as the study requires respondents to have a minimum of 5years experience in the construction industry coupled with adequate knowledge of smart cities and the resilience of cities. this, therefore, led to the adoption of snowball sampling technique to reach out to the respondents, and a total of 32 were identified. to carry out the snowball sampling technique, a primary network of professionals currently executing projects classified under smart city projects (smart transportation, smart security, smart living) was identified first and were sent the questionnaires electronically. they were further obliged to distribute the questionnaire to colleagues who meet up with the study’s target population criteria. a similar technique was adopted in the research study carried out by ajibade (2017), huck and monstadt (2019) and sharifi (2019). the survey of opinion from respondents for this study employed a close-ended questionnaire which addressed the set objectives of the study. the questionnaire was designed into three sections based on identified variables from reviewed literature. the first section addressed respondents’ background information while the second section addressed the various factors influencing resilience level of cities as identified in godschalk (2003); harrison et al., (2014); béné et al., (2016); malalgoda, amaratunga and haigh (2016); moglia et al., (2018); borie et al., (2019); martins, rodrigues da silva and pinto (2019) under education, food security, health system, public safety, and climate change arms using a 5-point agreement likert scale. these are the five arms of city resilience. the third section harnessed information related to the usage of smart city drivers which are smart economy, people, mobility, governance, environment and living for increasing the resilience level of cities as identified in colldahl, frey and kelemen (2013); letaifa (2015); sha and sonn (2015); oke, aigbavboa and cane (2017) using a 5-point agreement likert scale. test of reliability and validity was carried out on the retrieved data using cronbach’s alpha, and the result showed 0.935 value. according to tavakol and dennick (2011), with the cronbach’s alpha value ranging between 0.70 and 0.95, the statistical tool is reliable, and values close to 0.95 represents a high level of inter-dependence between the different concepts being measured or investigated in the study. retrieved data was analysed using mean item score (mis), which is the main analysis carried out to rank the variables based on respondents’ agreement to individual variables. the ranking is done in descending order such that the variable with the highest mean value is ranked first followed by subsequent high values. a further analysis was carried out using kruskal-wallis h-test. this was adopted since there improving resilience of cities through smart city drivers construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202051 are different groups of respondents used for the research study, and there is a possibility of disparity in their opinion towards the identified variables. kruskal-wallis h-test determines if there is a difference in the median of groups that make up the respondents. the significant p-value obtained from the analysis must be greater than 0.05 to establish that there is no disparity in the opinion of the respondent groups (pallant, 2011). findings and discussion biographical information of respondents from the analysed data, diploma certificate holders among the respondents are 16%, national diploma certificate holders formed 38%, 40% are bachelor degree certificate holders while 6% have masters degree certificate. in terms of professional qualification, 3% of the respondents are town planners while contract managers, civil engineers, and architects are 6%, 9% and 13% respectively. 25% of the respondents are project managers and quantity surveyors each, 3% are telecommunication electrical engineers, and 16% are data and information technicians. the largest number of the respondents works as principal contractor (41%), 34% works for a consultancy firm, 16% works for information technology companies, 6% of the respondents works in a government department while 3% works in an academic institution. the years of experience analysis shows that 56% of respondents have five years of experience in the construction industry, 28% have 6-10 years of experience, 3% have between 16 and 20 years of experience while 6% have 11-15 years and above 20 years each. the background information gathered from the respondents shows they have adequate professional qualification coupled with tangible years of experience and the needed knowledge to give a professional opinion as regards the objective of this study. influence of education on resilience figure 1 shows the influence of education on urban districts based on the respondent’s view. from the ranking, citizen’s literacy skill development has the highest mis = 4.44 followed keenly by citizen’s technical skill development with mis = 4.34. technology savvy social amenities ranked lowest with mis = 3.78. kruskal-wallis h-test in table 1 revealed that there is no statistically significant difference in the opinion of the group of respondents as all the significant values are above 0.05. as pointed out by npc (2012) earlier, the resilience level a city adopts is dependent directly on the knowledge capacity of its citizens. this is an indication that skills and knowledge development must be implemented so that learning and education level of citizens can be improved through the use of equipment that is technology savvy. such equipment can be installed in higher institutions, schools, and public centres to build technical and literacy skills. the findings are further supported by ringwood (2015), who stated that the technical capabilities of urban dwellers must be the major priority of national and urban stakeholders to enhance technological aptitude in the city. the availability of internet facilities in the locality is another major factor that the government needs to focus on as it plays a major role in the education status of the citizens in this 21st century. this will aid the formation of open online universities for access to education for all citizens within the city. such universities can be subsidised by the government to encourage citizens to get first-hand access to education. oke, aghimien, akinradewo, and aigbavboa construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202052 figure 1 influence of education on resilience. table 1 kruskal-wallis h-test for influence of education on resilience educational influence kruskal-wallis chi-sq. sig. citizen’s literacy skills development 2.214 0.899 citizen’s technical skills development 4.251 0.643 internet facilities access in local communities 9.663 0.140 open online university formation 10.753 0.096 technology savvy social amenities 12.146 0.059 influence of food security on resilience based on the opinion of the respondents, figure 2 reveals the influence of food security on the resilience of urban districts, while table 2 shows the kruskal-wallis h-test result. agricultural land regeneration ranked first with mis = 4.41 and p. value = 0.201, this is followed by entrepreneur empowerment and localised food production increase with mis = 4.31, 4.16 and p. value = 0.105, 0.382, respectively. at the bottom of the ranking is international food supply integration with mis = 3.91 and p. value = 0.402. with the least variable having an mis of 3.91, this is an indication that food security plays a big role in the resilience level of a city. south african department of planning, monitoring and evaluation (2014) opined that agricultural land regeneration can promote the growth of urban agricultural sub-systems. this is in agreement with the findings of this study as respondents believe that this will aid localised food production increase thereby creating empowerment for entrepreneurs in the agricultural sector. spencer et al., (2010) also share this view having pointed out that land regeneration initiative is expected to improve and facilitate the cities’ ability to extend local products and also launch a solid collaboration between local produce suppliers and food marketers. the municipalities of south africa (2016) also stated that the main objective of the regeneration of agricultural lands is to broaden the local production of agricultural products. improving resilience of cities through smart city drivers construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202053 figure 2 influence of food security on resilience table 2 kruskal-wallis h-test for influence of food security on resilience food security influence kruskal-wallis chi-sq. sig. agricultural lands regeneration 8.546 0.201 entrepreneur empowerment 10.499 0.105 localised food production increase 6.384 0.382 productivity level improvement 5.057 0.537 knowledge capital increment 5.866 0.438 public-private partnership 3.612 0.729 international food supply integration 6.193 0.402 influence of healthcare system on resilience the influence of the healthcare system on the resilience level of a city, according to the respondents, is shown in figure 3. all the factors except eradication of transmissible diseases which was ranked fifth have a kruskal-wallis p value above 0.05 from table 3. this, therefore, indicates that there is a diverging opinion concerning this factor by the group of respondents as transmissible disease cannot be completely eradicated according to studies (chan, 2017). implementation of sanitation services was ranked first with mis = 4.22, curbing hiv/aids prevalence ranked second with mis = 3.84, citizens lifestyle influence on health system ranked third with mis = 3.81 while social support networks formation was the lowest with mis = 3.69. having a clean and healthy environment is the first step to maintaining a good healthy lifestyle which can be achieved by implementing proper sanitation services within the city. merwe (2011) reported earlier that types of food consumed, and the diet lifestyle of the citizens eventually have effects on their health which becomes a challenge to the city at large in the long run. citizens must be given adequate awareness of the type of diet lifestyle that will help keep them in a complete state of wellbeing. npc (2012) asserted that an improvement in hygiene facilities will bring a decrease to the risk of transmissible diseases, so making clean water available will help in the formation of a healthier city. however, this cannot completely eradicate transmissible diseases but can only reduce it to the barest oke, aghimien, akinradewo, and aigbavboa construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202054 minimum. statistics south africa (2018) identified hiv/aids as the deadliest disease in south africa. citizens must be empowered while adequate awareness knowledge must be passed across on these diseases. knowing the repercussion of decisions taken by the citizens will guide their choices as pointed out by ruel and garrett (2004). figure 3 influence of healthcare system on resilience table 3 kruskal-wallis h-test for influence of healthcare system on resilience healthcare system influence kruskal-wallis chi-sq. sig. implement sanitation services 5.726 0.455 curb hiv/aids prevalence 6.851 0.335 citizens lifestyle influence on health system 4.435 0.618 psychological support networks formation 11.785 0.067 eradication of transmissible diseases 13.136 0.041** social support networks formation 10.595 0.102 ** significant at p < 0.05 influence of public safety on resilience figure 4 presents the respondents’ opinion on public safety influence on the resilience level of urban districts, while table 4 shows the kruskal-wallis h-test result. from the ranking, real-time control systems were ranked first with mis = 4.25 and p. value = 0.596, crime data and trends platform systematic analysis ranked second having mis = 4.13 and p. value = 0.551 while community policing forum formation ranked lowest with mis = 4.03 and p. value = 0.516. all the variables have mis above 4.00, which suggests that the safety of citizens life is the major criteria to be considered when the resilience level of a city is being measured. when there is no public safety, citizens tend to migrate to safer regions outside the district. this agrees with the findings of komninos, schaffers and pallot (2011), who asserted that the development of a “real-time control system” through the usage of ict-enabled sensors and devices within the city would be of great advantage to the city. with the formation of a improving resilience of cities through smart city drivers construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202055 community policing forum, saps can be assisted in fighting criminal activities which will alleviate the fear of the citizens and ensure the safety of lives as submitted by calabrese, kloeckl and ratti (2009). this will eventually improve the military force of the city and make them well-equipped to tackle crime. figure 4 influence of public safety on resilience table 4 kruskal-wallis h-test for influence of public safety on resilience influence of public safety kruskal-wallis chi-sq. sig. real-time control systems 4.597 0.596 crime data and trends platform systematic analysis 4.947 0.551 usage of cctv surveillance cameras and sensors 9.089 0.169 improvement of military forces 7.664 0.264 community policing forums formation 5.220 0.516 influence of climate change on resilience respondents believe that green infrastructure development and energy conservation are the major factors influencing the resilience of an urban district through climate change with mis = 4.25 each as shown in figure 5. eco-mobility strategies ranked third with mis = 4.06 while carbon emissions trading system formation was ranked lowest by respondents with mis = 3.72. as shown in table 5, there is no statistically significant difference in the opinion of the respondents as all the p. values are above 0.05. with the adoption of green infrastructures within south africa, climate change phenomenon can be managed effectively while energy conservation within the infrastructures will be reduced to a minimum. this has been proposed by npc (2012) that the injection of enough capital into the south african energy sector will improve infrastructure. once these infrastructures are in place, the level of pollution will reduce while climate change effects will be minimised. as opined by bormann and gulati (2014), the usage of environmentally friendly resources must be facilitated by the energy sector experience modernisation. formation of a carbon trading emission system will also help in managing the environment as the environment plays a major role in the oke, aghimien, akinradewo, and aigbavboa construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202056 wellbeing of city dwellers. according to spencer et al., (2010), trade-offs implementation among the various sectors can be used to maintain energy consumption standards. eco-mobility strategies is another factor that requires the attention of policymakers as the adoption of a modern transport system will help to reduce energy emission and consumption. figure 5 influence of climate change on resilience table 5 kruskal-wallis h-test for influence of climate change on resilience influence of climate change kruskal-wallis chi-sq. sig. green infrastructure development 8.818 0.184 energy conservation 9.056 0.170 eco-mobility strategies 6.252 0.396 timely weather patterns study 8.642 0.195 social and economic stresses 6.164 0.405 carbon emissions trading systems formation 2.317 0.888 having ranked the individual factors influencing the resilience of an urban district, a grouped mis of the factors is presented in figure 6 as shown below with food security ranked first followed by education and public safety with mis = 4.19, 4.15 and 4.12, respectively. healthcare system ranked fifth with mis = 3.83, which is below the average total grouped mis of 4.06. this is an indication that more attention must be paid to food security of the citizens as this determines the state of their wellbeing. as the popular saying “health is wealth”, they can only function adequately and efficiently when they are healthy. however, contrary to expectation, the healthcare system does not require much attention probably because once citizens adopt the right diet lifestyle coupled with high educational standard, there will be less need for treatment of diseases which necessitates the provision of healthcare systems. improving resilience of cities through smart city drivers construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202057 figure 6 group mean score for factors influencing resilience role of smart city drivers in resilient cities formation findings on the role smart city drivers play in the resilient city formation is shown in figure 7 and table 6. kruskal-wallis h-test shows no statistically significant difference in the opinion of the respondents. from the ranking, smart economy has the most influence on the resilience of a city with mis = 4.22. the smartness of the economy will ensure there are necessary provisions made for what is required to make a city resilient. this is supported by peberdy and götz (2016), who opined that deployment and modification of strategies on local, provincial and national levels are dependent on smart economy. this helps in energising an environment that supports informal sector evolution and backs up entrepreneurship within the informal and formal sectors. smart living ranked second according to the respondents. as asserted by colldahl, frey and kelemen (2013), smart living brings betterment to the society by making provision for individual safety in the city with the use of surveillance cameras. when citizens are living comfortably, resilience cannot be doubted. with mis = 4.13, smart governance ranked third according to professionals. according to alfano, amitrano and bifulco (2014), smart governance involves having a transparent government that has sound political strategies and considers its citizen’s viewpoints in decision making. it is necessary to carry the citizens along in the decision-making process of the government to ensure that the interest of the citizens is well preserved. smart people followed smart governance which indicates that the citizens must be ready to engage themselves in the activities that upgrade the city. giffinger et al., (2007) posited that smart citizens must participate in public life, increase in education and creativity and be flexible for human activities. to achieve smart environment, washburn et al., (2010) and salga (2015) asserted that waste disposal and management, electricity usage and conservation of renewable/non-renewable resources coupled with the provision of social amenities that can cater for the city must be accorded proper attention. however, natural environment preservation requires strategy and policy implementation which will be tailored towards reduction in carbon emission associated with urban cities (european chronic disease alliance, 2015). the effect of carbon emission is evident in the different chronic diseases which urban citizens suffer from (das, 2012; european chronic disease alliance, 2015). with all the smart city drivers having mis above 4.00, it can be said that smart city drivers are capable of improving the resilience level of cities. oke, aghimien, akinradewo, and aigbavboa construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202058 figure 7 role of smart city drivers in the resilient city formation table 6 kruskal-wallis h-test of role of smart city drivers in the resilient city formation smart city drivers kruskal-wallis chi-sq. sig. smart economy 4.233 0.645 smart living 4.617 0.594 smart governance 6.283 0.392 smart people 3.788 0.705 smart environment 6.020 0.421 smart mobility 2.399 0.880 conclusion having assessed the factors influencing resilience level of a city, and the usage of smart city drivers in increasing the resilience level of cities using a questionnaire survey, the objectives of the study was achieved. respondents within gauteng province who have adequate knowledge about smart cities and resilience in cities were used as the target population. from the findings of the study, it can be concluded that all the primary factors identified from literature influence the resilience level of a city. however, climate change, together with education and food security are major factors to be reckoned with if resilience in south african cities is to be achieved. the findings of this study also revealed that smart cities have the potential and ability to assist south african cities achieve the joburg 2040 gds goals and also improve the levels of resilience. although this will require the attention of city-level stakeholders as well as urban citizens. as a result of the smart city drivers’ ability to promote empowerment of entrepreneurs, thereby aiding the formation of a thriving informal economic sector, the challenge of unemployment can be adequately mitigated. this will enhance the growth of the sa economy. given this, city-level stakeholders, as well as urban citizens, should focus on ensuring cities are made ‘smart’ to improve the resilience of the cities. this can be achieved improving resilience of cities through smart city drivers construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202059 by the construction of smart infrastructure and upgrading the smartization of existing infrastructure to meet up with the required standard. generally, this study has been able to contribute to the body of knowledge by throwing light to the factors that influence the level of resilience of a city and also assessing the ability of smart city drivers to increase the resilience level of a city. little research work has been carried out on this area of study and with the government planning to achieve smartization of cities in south africa, there is a dire need for such study to assist policymakers and regulatory bodies. the findings of the study can serve as a roadmap for emerging economies as these economies will experience rapid urbanisation and there will be a need to make available all the necessary infrastructure to achieve resilience. the findings of this research study if reckoned with, will provide city planners, government authorities, professionals and clients within the built environment with an understanding of the smart city drivers and its usefulness in the development of resilient city systems. this will prompt the creation of a unified community among urban citizens. further research work can be carried out on the opinion of professionals in the remaining eight provinces of sa on smart cities and resilient systems. this will give an overall knowledge of its implementation. references ajibade, i., 2017. can a future city enhance urban resilience and sustainability? a political ecology analysis of eko atlantic city, nigeria. international journal of disaster risk reduction, pp.85–92. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.09.029. alcatel, l., 2012. getting smart about smart cities: recommendations for smart city stakeholders, [pdf ] [online] available at: https://www.tmcnet.com/tmc/whitepapers/documents/whitepapers/2013/7943-alcatellucent-getting-smart-smart-cities-recommendations-smart.pdf. [accessed 23 november 2019]. alfano, a., amitrano, c.c. and bifulco, f., 2014. smart cities drivers and ict : in search of relationships. in: 3rd eiic interdisciplinary conference. univerity of zilina, slovakia, 1-5 september 2014. 3(1), pp.17–22. zilina: edis publishing institution of the university of zilina. béné, c., headey, d., haddad,l. and von grember, k., 2016. is resilience a useful concept in the context of food security and nutrition programmes? some conceptual and practical considerations. food security, 8(1), pp.123–38. doi: 10.1007/s12571-015-0526-x. berrone, p. and ricart, j.e., 2016. iese cities in motion index 2016, iese, st-333-e, [online], available at: https://media.iese.edu/research/pdfs/st-0396-e.pdf [accessed 30 may 2019]. borie, m., pelling, m., ziervogel, g. and hyams, k., 2019. mapping narratives of urban resilience in the global south. global environmental change, 54, pp.203–13. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2019.01.001. bormann, v.t. and gulati, m., 2014. the food energy water nexus: understanding south africa’s most urgent sustainability challenge. wwf-sa report [online]. available at: http://awsassets.wwf.org.za/downloads/ wwf_few_report_3.pdf [accessed 23 november, 2019]. bourne, l.t. and steyn, k., 2000. rural/urban nutrition-related differentials among adult population groups in south africa, with special emphasis on the black population. south african medical journal, 13(1), pp.23–28. calabrese, f., kloeckl, k. and ratti, c., 2009. wikicity : real-time location-sensitive tools for the city. in: marcus foth, ed. handbook of research on urban informatics: the practice and promise of the real-time city. new york: information science reference. ch. xxvii, pp.390-413. oke, aghimien, akinradewo, and aigbavboa construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202060 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.09.029 https://www.tmcnet.com/tmc/whitepapers/documents/whitepapers/2013/7943-alcatel-lucent-getting-smart-smart-cities-recommendations-smart.pdf https://www.tmcnet.com/tmc/whitepapers/documents/whitepapers/2013/7943-alcatel-lucent-getting-smart-smart-cities-recommendations-smart.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12571-015-0526-x https://media.iese.edu/research/pdfs/st-0396-e.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2019.01.001 http://awsassets.wwf.org.za/downloads/wwf_few_report_3.pdf http://awsassets.wwf.org.za/downloads/wwf_few_report_3.pdf carpenter, s., walker, b., anderies, j.m. and abel, n., 2001. from metaphor to measurement: resilience of what to what?. ecosystems, pp.765-81. doi: 10.1007/s10021-001-0045-9. merwe, c van der. 2011. key challenges for ensuring food security in south africa’s inner cities. africa institute of south africa. 36(2), pp. 1–8. doi.org/10.1007/s12132-014-9220-x. chan, n.w., 2017. urbanization, climate change and cities: challenges and opportunities for sustainable development. in: asia-pacific chemical, biological & environmental engineering society (apcbees) international conference, 9 january, universiti sains malaysia, penang, malaysia. chipkin, i. and ngqulunga, b., 2008. friends and family: social cohesion in south africa, journal of southern african studies, 34(1), pp.61–76. doi: 10.1080/03057070701832882. colldahl, c., frey, s. and kelemen, j.e., 2013. smart cities : strategic sustainable development for an urban world. masters thesis. blekinge institute of technology, karlskrona, sweden. cominola, a., giuliani, m., piga, d., castelleti, a. and rizzoli, a.e., 2015. benefits and challenges of using smart meters for advancing residential water demand modeling and management : a review. environmental modelling and software, 72, pp.198–214. doi: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2015.07.012. creswell, j., 2014. research designqualitative, quantitative, and mixed method approaches. usa: sage publications inc. doi: 10.2307/3152153. das, d.k., 2012. how did the asian economy cope with the global financial crisis and recession? a revaluation and review. asia pacific business review, 18(1), pp.7–25. doi: 10.1080/13602381.2011.601584. department of planning monitoring and evaluation, 2014. development indicators. [online] available at: https://www.dpme.gov.za/news/documents/development%20indicators%20combined%20version%20 2013%20%20v38%20aligned%20to%20pdf.pdf. [accessed 23 november 2019]. elmqvist, t., barnett, g. and wilkinson, c., 2014. exploring urban sustainability and resilience. in: newton, pw, pearson, l, and roberts, pw eds. resilient sustainable cities: a future. london: routledge. pp.19–28. doi: 10.4324/9780203593066. european chronic disease alliance, 2015. particulates matter: why the eu must do more to tackle air pollution, european chronic disease alliance [online] available at: https://alliancechronicdiseases.org/ wpcontent/uploads/ecda_air_quality_position_paper_final_22_oct_2015.pdf [accessed 23 november 2019]. giffinger, r., fertner, c., kramar, h. and meijers, e., 2007. smart cities: ranking of european medium-sized cities. centre of regional science (srf). vienna university of technology, vienna, austria. available at: http://www.smart-cities.eu/download/smart_cities_final_report.pdf [accessed 23 november 2019]. godschalk, d.r., 2003. urban hazard mitigation: creating resilient cities. natural hazards review, 4(3), pp.136–43. doi: 10.1061/(asce)1527-6988(2003)4:3(136). goldstein, b.e., wessells, a.t., lejano, r. and butler, w., 2015 narrating resilience: transforming urban systems through collaborative storytelling. urban studies, 52(7), pp.1285–1303. https://doi. org/10.1177/0042098013505653 greyling, t., 2013. occasional paper 7: a composite index of quality of life for the gauteng city-region: a principal component analysis approach. gauteng city-region observatory [online] available at: https:// pdfs.semanticscholar.org/41a0/a2fa7d6608092b6a7040a22c47305c15d259.pdf [accessed 23 november 2019]. improving resilience of cities through smart city drivers construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202061 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10021-001-0045-9 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12132-014-9220-x http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03057070701832882 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2015.07.012 http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3152153 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13602381.2011.601584 https://www.dpme.gov.za/news/documents/development%20indicators%20combined%20version%202013%20%20v38%20aligned%20to%20pdf.pdf https://www.dpme.gov.za/news/documents/development%20indicators%20combined%20version%202013%20%20v38%20aligned%20to%20pdf.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.4324/9780203593066 https://alliancechronicdiseases.org/wpcontent/uploads/ecda_air_quality_position_paper_final_22_oct_2015.pdf https://alliancechronicdiseases.org/wpcontent/uploads/ecda_air_quality_position_paper_final_22_oct_2015.pdf http://www.smart-cities.eu/download/smart_cities_final_report.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1527-6988(2003)4:3(136) https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098013505653 https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098013505653 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/41a0/a2fa7d6608092b6a7040a22c47305c15d259.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/41a0/a2fa7d6608092b6a7040a22c47305c15d259.pdf harrison, p., bobbins, k., culwick, c., humby, t., la mantia, c., tdes, a. and weakley, d., 2014. urban resilience thinking for municipalities. [online] available at: http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/ bitstream/handle/10539/17082/urreport_1901mr.pdf ?sequence=1&isallowed=y [accessed 23 november 2019]. higgs, n.t., 2007. measuring and understanding the well-being of south africans: everyday quality of life in south africa. social indicators research, 81(2), pp.331–56. doi: 10.1007/s11205-006-9012-3. huck, a. and monstadt, j., 2019. urban and infrastructure resilience: diverging concepts and the need for cross-boundary learning. environmental science and policy, 100, pp.211-20 doi: 10.1016/j. envsci.2019.05.008. international centre for the prevention of crime, 2016. crime prevention and community safety: cities and the new urban agenda, 5th international report. [online] available at: https://cipc-icpc.org/wpcontent/uploads/2019/08/cipc_5th_ir5_final.pdf [accessed 23 november 2019]. komninos, n., schaffers, h. and pallot, m., 2011. developing a policy roadmap for smart cities and the future internet. in: cunningham, p. and cunningham, m. eds. echallenges e-2011 conference proceedings, 26-28 october, via giovanni agnelli 33, florence, italy. letaifa, b., 2015. how to strategize smart cities: revealing the smart model. journal of business research, 68(7), pp.1414–19. doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.01.024. malalgoda, c., amaratunga, d. and haigh, r., 2016. overcoming challenges faced by local governments in creating a resilient built environment in cities. disaster prevention and management, 25(5), pp.628–48. doi: 10.1108/dpm-11-2015-0260. martins, m.c.d.m., rodrigues da silva, a.n. and pinto, n., 2019. an indicator-based methodology for assessing resilience in urban mobility. transportation research part d: transport and environment, 77, pp.352-63 doi: 10.1016/j.trd.2019.01.004. merwe, c., 2011. key challenges for ensuring food security in south africa’s inner cities. africa institute of south africa, 36(2), pp.1–8. doi: 10.1007/s12132-014-9220-x. meunier, b., ferrero, f. and kubicki, s., 2017. beyond smart cities, welcome to resilient cities positive perspectives or nightmare. caritas sozial almanach, pp.251-88. moglia, m., cork, s.j., boschetti, f., cook, s., bohensky, e., muster, t. and page, d., 2018 urban transformation stories for the 21st century: insights from strategic conversations, global environmental change, 50, pp.222–37. doi: 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.04.009. municipalities of south africa, 2016. city of johannesburg metropolitan municipality overview. [online] available at: https://municipalities.co.za/metropolitans/view/2/city-of-johannesburg-metropolitanmunicipality#overview [accessed 30 may 2019]. nama, t. and pardo, t., 2014, the changing face of a city government: a case study of philly311. government information quarterly, 31(1), pp.1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2014.01.002 national planning commission, 2012. national development plan 2030: our future make it work. presidency of south africa. [online] available at: https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_ document/201409/ndp-2030-our-future-make-it-workr.pdf [accessed 30 may 2019] national treasury, 2016. a resilient south africa making hard choices in difficult times. 2016 budget review. [online] available at: http://www.treasury.gov.za/documents/national%20budget/2016/review/ chapter%201.pdf. oke, aghimien, akinradewo, and aigbavboa construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202062 http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10539/17082/urreport_1901mr.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y http://wiredspace.wits.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10539/17082/urreport_1901mr.pdf?sequence=1&isallowed=y http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11205-006-9012-3 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2019.05.008 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2019.05.008 https://cipc-icpc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/cipc_5th_ir5_final.pdf https://cipc-icpc.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/cipc_5th_ir5_final.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.01.024 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/dpm-11-2015-0260 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2019.01.004 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12132-014-9220-x http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2018.04.009 https://municipalities.co.za/metropolitans/view/2/city-of-johannesburg-metropolitan-municipality#overview https://municipalities.co.za/metropolitans/view/2/city-of-johannesburg-metropolitan-municipality#overview https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2014.01.002 https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/ndp-2030-our-future-make-it-workr.pdf https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/ndp-2030-our-future-make-it-workr.pdf http://www.treasury.gov.za/documents/national%20budget/2016/review/chapter%201.pdf http://www.treasury.gov.za/documents/national%20budget/2016/review/chapter%201.pdf oke, a., aigbavboa, c. and cane, t., 2017. expected quality of life of smart city citizens. in: r. amoêda and c. pinheiro, eds. the international conference on advances on sustainable cities and buildings development. porto, portugal, 15-17 november 2017. portugal: sb-lab. oke, a., aigbavboa, c. and ngema, w., 2017, november. adoption of smart structures for prevention of health hazards in buildings. materials science and engineering conference series 269(1), 012064 pp. 1-5. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/269/1/012064 pallant, j., 2011. spss survival manual. 4th ed. australia: allen & unwin. doi: s0003497598001581 [pii]. parvin, g.a., joerin, j., parashar, s. and shaw, r., 2011. climate and disaster resilience mapping at microlevel of cities. in: shaw, r. and sharma, a., eds. climate and disaster resilience in cities (community, environment and disaster risk management,. [e-book] bingley: emerald group publishing ch.6. doi: 10.1108/s2040-7262(2011)0000006012. patel, r. and nosal, l., 2016. defining the resilient city. new york, ny. peberdy, s. and götz, g., 2016. gauteng city-region observatory quality of life survey 2015, entrepreneurship report. south africa: gcro. pelling, m., leck, h., pasquini, l., ajibade, i., osuteye, e., parnell, s., lwasa, s., johnson, c., fraser, a., barcena, a. and boubacar, s., 2018. africa’s urban adaptation transition under a 1.5° climate. current opinion in environmental sustainability, 31, pp.10–15. doi: 10.1016/j.cosust.2017.11.005. ringwood, f., 2015. smart metering challenges: metering, water & sanitation africa, 10(3), pp.54–55. ruel, m.t. and garrett, j.l., 2004. features of urban food and nutrition security and considerations for successful urban programming. ejade: electronic journal of agricultural and development economics, 1(10), pp.242–71. salga, 2015. south africal local government association annual report 2014/2015. [online] available at: https://www.salga.org.za/documents/documents%20and%20publications/annual%20 reports/salga-annual-report-final.pdf [accessed 30 may 2019]. sha, r. and sonn, h., 2015. the quest for smart cities, engineerit, pp.64–65. sharifi, a., 2019. urban form resilience: a meso-scale analysis, cities, 93, pp.238–52. doi: 10.1016/j. cities.2019.05.010. spencer, f., swilling, m., everatt, d., muller, m., schulschenk, j., du toit, j., meyer, r. and pierce, w., 2010. a strategy for a developmental green economy for gauteng final report. gauteng province department of economic development. south africa: gcro statistics south africa, 2018. statistics south africa. [online] available at: http://www.statssa.gov.za/ [accessed 10 june 2019]. tavakol, m. and dennick, r., 2011. making sense of cronbach’s alpha. international journal of medical education, 2, pp.53–55. doi: 10.5116/ijme.4dfb.8dfd. turok, i., 2014. the resilience of south african cities a decade after local democracy. environment and planning a: economy and space, 46(4), pp.749–69. doi: 10.1068/a4697. twigg, j., 2007. characteristics of a disaster-resilient community: a guidance note. [online] available at: https://www.preventionweb.net/files/2310_characteristicsdisasterhighres.pdf [accessed 23 november 2019]. improving resilience of cities through smart city drivers construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202063 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/269/1/012064 http://s0003497598001581 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/s2040-7262(2011)0000006012 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cosust.2017.11.005 http://dx.doi.org/2014/2015 https://www.salga.org.za/documents/documents%20and%20publications/annual%20reports/salga-annual-report-final.pdf https://www.salga.org.za/documents/documents%20and%20publications/annual%20reports/salga-annual-report-final.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.05.010 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2019.05.010 http://www.statssa.gov.za/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5116/ijme.4dfb.8dfd http://dx.doi.org/10.1068/a4697 https://www.preventionweb.net/files/2310_characteristicsdisasterhighres.pdf un-habitat iii, 2015. habitat iii issue papers 3 safer cities, united nations conference on housing and sustainable urban development. new york: un habitat. valdés, h.m., amaratunga, d. and haigh, r., 2013. making cities resilient: from awareness to implementation. international journal of disaster resilience in the built environment, 4(1), pp.5–8. doi: 10.1108/17595901311299035. washburn, d., sindhu, u., balaouras, s., dines, r., hayes, n. and nelson, l., 2010. helping cios understand smart city initiatives. growth, 17(2), pp.1-17. doi.org/10.1029/2004rs003041. wijsman, k. and feagan, m., 2019. rethinking knowledge systems for urban resilience: feminist and decolonial contributions to just transformations. environmental science and policy. 98, pp.70–76. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2019.04.017. world bank, 2007. building knowledge economies. the world bank. http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/978-08213-6957-9. oke, aghimien, akinradewo, and aigbavboa construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202064 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17595901311299035 http://doi.org/10.1029/2004rs003041 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2019.04.017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2019.04.017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-6957-9 http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-6957-9 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: gurmu, a., galluzzo, a., and kite, j. 2021. modelling customers’ perception of the quality of services provided by builders: a case of victoria, australia. construction economics and building, 21:1, 100–124. http://dx.doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7501 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021 research article modelling customers’ perception of the quality of services provided by builders: a case of victoria, australia argaw gurmu1,*, anna galluzzo2, john kite1 1 school of architecture and built environment, deakin university, geelong, australia 2 coonans hill building and renovations pty ltd *corresponding author: argaw gurmu, school of architecture and built environment, deakin university, geelong, australia. argaw.gurmu@deakin.edu.au doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7501 article history: received: 11/11/2020; revised: 16/02/2021; accepted: 18/02/2021; published: 15/03/2021 abstract consumer satisfaction is essential for quality assurance, business survival and economic prosperity. it can also be used as an indicator of the occurrence of defects in the houses delivered by builders. the objective of this study is to compare the quality of services provided by volume and small builders, and to develop a model for predicting the chance of occurrence of structural defects in houses. a list of home builders was obtained from australia’s housing industry association media release 2019. thereafter, customer reviews of 10 volume builders and 107 small builders were obtained from publicly available data. overall, 2336 reviews for volume-builders and 2037 reviews for small builders were analysed quantitatively. further, using the scores provided by customers, the probability-based regression model for the structural integrity of residential buildings was developed. generally, the research found that for volume-builders, customers have the highest satisfaction level for ‘customer service’ and the lowest satisfaction level for ‘plumbing and waterproofing’ work. however, for small builders, customers have the highest confidence in the ‘structural integrity’ of their buildings and the least confidence in projects ‘timeliness’. clients can use the stochastic-based model to predict the probability that a builder could deliver a house with low structural defects. the model showed that if a customer service score for a particular builder is less than 3.3, then there is a higher chance of having structural defects. this research contributes to the body of knowledge by developing and validating the logistic regression model that can be used as a tool declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 100 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7501 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7501 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:argaw.gurmu@deakin.edu.au http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7501 to assess the quality of services provided by home builders. moreover, the research provides useful information which can assist builders to improve the quality of services they provide. keywords volume builders; small builders; quality indicators; customer satisfaction; logistic regression; structural integrity; building defects introduction consumer satisfaction is no longer a novel concept in terms of quality assurance and consistency of product, it is now an integral part of many businesses’ policies and practice. it is defined as “the number of customers, or percentage of total customers, whose reported experience with a firm, its products, or its services (ratings) exceeds specified satisfaction goals” (farris, et al., 2006). collection of this type of data has been tried and tested in the marketing sector for years as it has proven to provide a solid indication of consumers’ intentions and loyalties and business performance (farris, et al., 2006). for consumers, the construction of their home is often the single largest investment in their lifetime. thus, to help consumers make the right decision about who to build with, adequate information needs to be made available (mcgregor, 2006). consumers are becoming savvier and more diligent regarding builder selection driven by the plethora of readily available information online such as articles, reports, reviews, and ratings. research has shown that 50% of consumers procure because of product trust which is generally established by two sources: online information via reviews and ratings, and family and friends via ‘word-ofmouth’ (perkins and fenech, 2014). platforms exist to provide a place for existing consumers of different goods and services to share their experiences honestly, and to a public forum. the suppliers or service providers are usually given an aggregated rating out of 5 stars from the consumers that use this platform over a variety of criteria (site administration, timeliness, plumbing and waterproofing, flooring, structural integrity, electrical and lighting and transparency) (productreview, 2020). the purpose of these platforms is not to defame brands, but to provide data to future consumers who wish to build their home. further, the platforms assist builders to adopt business improvement strategies in terms of matching products against client expectations and to improve the services which are essential to enriching general customer satisfaction (leung, ng and cheung, 2004). various tools for assessing homebuyer’s satisfaction have been developed. for instance, torbica and stroh (2000) proposed hombsat, a tool which can provide total home-buyer satisfaction. tang, lu and chan (2003) studied client satisfaction using a questionnaire-based survey. in the context of victoria, australia, galluzzo, sagoo and scott-young (2017) identified factors influencing the housing quality such as demand and supply of housing, marketing, sales through to site completion, building inspections and audits, supply chain relationships, after-sales service, project planning and control and competency of site supervisors. however, there lacks a tool or model that can be used to predict the probability that a certain builder can deliver good quality services in terms of structural integrity, quality of flooring, plumbing fit-off and related criteria. on the other hand, the victorian building authority (2014) concluded that 5.3% of new homes constructed between 2003 and 2011 had shown some forms of distress including cracks in floors and walls. hence, a model for structural integrity is proposed. the model can help consumers to make the right decision while selecting home builders. thus, the objectives of this research are: • to compare customers’ ratings of volume and small builders and rank the criteria of the customer’s satisfaction. • to develop a logistic regression model for predicting the chance of occurrence of structural defects in houses. gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021101 in this research context, ‘volume builder’ refers to a builder that constructs more than 150 homes per year (housing industry association (hia), 2021), whereas ‘small builder’ refers to builders that deliver less than or equal to 150 homes per annum. literature review the level of stakeholder satisfaction directly influences the current project and subsequent projects and the level of satisfaction experienced by other stakeholders (yang and peng, 2008). moreover, forsythe (2016) conducted a study to see if service quality impacts customer satisfaction during construction and found that customer satisfaction is closely related to perceptions of service quality. chevalier and mayzlin (2006) mentioned that customer reviews can have a positive influence on sales (chevalier and mayzlin, 2006). clemons, gao and hitt (2006) found that strongly positive ratings can confidentially influence the growth of product sales. similarly, chen and xie (2005) found that the quality of the review encourages sales. hence, it is essential to analyse previous customers reviews before making decisions. earlier studies have identified various client-satisfaction factors. for instance, ahmed and kangari (1995) conducted a survey of 101 client companies and identified the important factors for clientsatisfaction modelling which include time, cost, quality, client orientation, communication skills and response to complaints. the study showed that all the factors identified in the client-satisfaction model do not possess the same significance when it comes to satisfying clients. liu (1999) studied to understand the residential satisfaction of housing estates in hong kong using questionnaires comprising nine dimensions. the dimensions comprise aesthetics, location, use of space, building enclosure, amenities, health (personal and environmental), safety and security, social needs and miscellaneous. the study developed the postoccupancy evaluation (poe) method for measuring customer satisfaction. additionally, torbica and stroh (2000) developed an instrument, called hombsat for assessing homebuyer satisfaction. hombsat comprises three distinct dimensions of house design, house and services. according to the authors, the indicators of house design are used to rate the product quality of a transaction, whereas the indicators of services are used to rate the service quality. as per torbica and stroh (2000), hombsat can provide a total home-buyer satisfaction across three dimensions to the home builders to track the overall quality of their services. on the other hand, maloney (2002) argued that the physical product and service delivery must be considered when assessing customer satisfaction in the construction industry. the author proposed five dimensions of customer satisfaction for contractors: contractor/customer relationship, project management, safety, prepared/skilled workforce and cost. the study concluded that on-time performance is a factor that is likely to be of importance on any project, but it may be more important on some projects than others. further, tang, lu and chan (2003) studied client satisfactions of engineering consulting firms in hong kong using a questionnaire-based survey. their study used eight factors to evaluate the overall client satisfaction: professionalism of service; competitiveness of service; timeliness of service; quality of design; the degree of innovation; completeness of other considerations; availability of support for a client; and supervision at implementation. tang, lu and chan (2003) suggested that one important strategy for achieving client satisfaction is the proactive attitudes towards attaining professionalism of service and delivering faultless service to the client rather than reactive measures taken to remedy drawbacks subsequent to their occurrence. leung, ng and cheung (2004) measured construction project participant satisfaction through 15 established and verified hypotheses. the study showed that management mechanisms (communication, participation and commitment) rather than particular project goals (time, cost and quality) directly influence participant satisfaction. moreover, forsythe (2008) developed a theoretical model to understand how service quality impacts the perceptions of customers in housing construction. the study showed that customers make service quality gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021102 judgements progressively during the design and construction process, rather than waiting for the end product to emerge. besides, forsythe (2012) developed a pre-purchase decision process model by analysing data obtained from telephone interviews using thematic and comparative analysis techniques. research methodology according to duffy (2002), web-based research provides many advantages such as access to specific, sometimes difficult-to-find populations; the speed of data access; and decreased costs for data collection and data entry. thus, online customer reviews and ratings can be considered as web-based research, with the above-mentioned benefits. this research used customer reviews and ratings, and the target population were builders (volume and small) operating in the australian state of victoria (productreview, 2020). mudambi and schuff (2010) mentioned that retail websites offer consumers the opportunity to post product reviews with content in the form of numerical star ratings (usually ranging from 1 to 5 stars) and open-ended customer-authored comments about the product. several sites that provide consumer ratings have emerged in speciality areas (dabholkar, 2006). productreview.com.au is one of the popular websites which provide customer reviews and ratings of builders, and this study used the information available on productreview.com.au (productreview, 2020). customer satisfaction ratings of 10 volume builders and 107 small builders operating in the australian state of victoria were analysed. the total number of customers who provided their opinions regarding the services of builders was 4373 of which 2336 opinions corresponded to volume-builders and, 2037 to small builders. the online customers’ review portal, productreview.com.au, has been chosen to carry out this study because it offers opinions based on the experiences of real clients and, therefore, it can be considered a powerful source of reliable and adequate information. on productreview.com.au, customers rate builders based on eight criteria by using a 5-point scale (1 = very poor, 2= poor, 3= acceptable, 4 = good and 5 = very good). the scores apply to (1) site administration (sa), (2) customer service (cs), (3) timeliness (t), (4) structural integrity (si), (5) plumbing and waterproofing (pw), (6) electrical and lighting (el), (7) flooring (f) and (8) transparency (tr). the descriptions of the variables (criteria) are provided as follows. site administration: how well managed was your building process which includes site works, communication and administration; customer service: the level of assistance provided by a company to customers; timeliness: the ability to finish the building on time; structural integrity: how was the workmanship and quality of building structure? plumbing and waterproofing: how was the workmanship and quality of plumbing and waterproofing? electrical and lighting: how was the workmanship and quality of electrical and lighting? flooring: how was the workmanship and quality of flooring? transparency: how open, honest and informative a company is regarding its business practice. rodríguez-díaz, rodríguez-díaz and espino-rodríguez (2018) developed an equation to analyse customers’ online social communication to rate lodgings and tourist destinations. likewise, rodríguez-díaz and espino-rodríguez (2018) proposed a methodology for a comparative analysis of the lodging offer of tourism destinations based on online customer reviews. based on the methods proposed in previous studies, equation 1 was developed to analyse the online customer ratings of the services of home builders. this equation is used to determine the score or rating which can be used to compare customers’ satisfaction levels of small builders and volume builders. (1) gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021103 http://productreview.com.au in equation 1, or is an overall rating; sa is rating for site administration, nsa is the number of customers who provided reviews regarding site administration; cs is rating for customer service, ncs is the number of customers who provided reviews regarding customer service; t is rating for timeliness, nt is the number of customers who provided reviews regarding timeliness; si is rating for structural integrity, nsi is the number of customers who provided reviews regarding structural integrity; pw is rating for plumbing and waterproofing, npw is the number of customers who provided reviews regarding plumbing and waterproofing; el is rating for electrical and lighting, nel is the number of customers who provided reviews regarding electrical and lighting; f is rating for flooring, nf is the number of customers who provided reviews regarding flooring; and tr is rating for transparency and ntr is the number of customers who provided reviews regarding customer service. descriptive statistical analysis, normality test, friedman and wilcoxon tests were also carried out before conducting regression analysis. logistic regression analysis was conducted to build a model that can be used in predicting the probability of having lower structural defects based on the customers’ services satisfaction level. structural integrity was modelled since the variable is significant in choosing builders. previous studies conducted in victoria, australia, showed that cracks in the structure of the homes are the most common defects (gurmu, krezel and mahmood, 2020). hence, structural integrity was chosen for further analysis. before building the model, the suitability of the sample for the logistic regression analysis was checked by computing the number of events per variable (epv). the rule of thumb for the sample size for logistic regression analysis is that epv should be greater than 10 (peduzzi, et al., 1996). however, some authors argue that a minimum of 10 events per predictor is conservative (vittinghoff and mcculloch, 2007), in this research, the number of positive events refers to the number of builders that are rated as four and five stars, and there is one predictor. the epv value of 91, which is greater than 10, was obtained. thus, the data was suitable to run a logistic regression analysis. in logistic regression analysis, random sample splitting and k-fold cross-validation techniques can be used to divide the data into model building and validation datasets (steyerberg, et al., 2001). in this study, literature review develop equations data collection from websites descriptivestatistical analysis logistic regression analysis probability-based model ranking of criteria comparison of builders validation of the model figure 1. research flowchart gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021104 a 3-fold cross-validation technique was used as it is less biased than the sample splitting method (abouassaleh, et al., 2004). alternative models using the 3-fold cross-validation techniques were developed and compared before choosing the final model. the criteria for selection include the overall prediction accuracy and statistical significance of the variables in the model. to validate the logistic regression model, the probabilities of validation data sets were computed; structural integrity scores were predicted as binary values (1,0) and compared with the actual structural integrity scores; receiver operating characteristic (roc) curve was drawn and compared with the reference line, and area under the roc curve (auc) was computed. according to gurmu (2019), the auc is interpreted as acceptable if the graph is above the reference line and auc exceeds 0.5. to check the reliability of the logistic regression model, bootstrapping using 10000 samples was conducted. this confirms willems and van aelst (2005) findings that the use of 10000 or more samples provides accurate output in bootstrapping. figure 1 shows the flowchart for the research processes which were discussed above. findings and discussions the descriptive data analysis of the indicators of customer satisfaction for both small and volume builders are presented in table 1 (please refer appendix section for the raw data). accordingly, for small builders, ‘customer service’ has the highest mean value of 4.52, and ‘timeliness’ has the lowest mean value of 4.38 (table 1). for volume builders, ‘customer service’ has the highest mean value of 4.47 and ‘plumbing and waterproofing’ has the lowest mean value of 4.28. table 1. descriptive statistics of customers ratings small builders variables range statistic minimum statistic maximum statistic mean std. deviation statistic variance statistic statistic std. error site administration 4 1 5 4.45 .012 .571 .326 timeliness 4 1 5 4.38 .013 .587 .345 plumbing and waterproofing 4 1 5 4.40 .013 .529 .280 flooring 4 1 5 4.51 .011 .486 .236 structural integrity 3 2 5 4.53 .013 .490 .240 electrical and lighting 4 1 5 4.50 .011 .449 .202 customer service 4 1 5 4.52 .010 .533 .284 transparency 4 1 5 4.44 .011 .525 .276 gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021105 volume builders variables range statistic minimum statistic maximum statistic mean std. deviation statistic variance statistic statistic std. error site administration 1.00 3.70 4.70 4.32 .005 0.252 .063 timeliness 1.10 3.60 4.70 4.34 .007 0.373 .139 plumbing and waterproofing 1.00 3.70 4.70 4.28 .006 0.241 .058 flooring 1.00 3.70 4.70 4.38 .006 0.249 .062 structural integrity 1.10 3.70 4.80 4.41 .005 0.227 .051 electrical and lighting 1.00 3.80 4.80 4.37 .005 0.227 .051 customer service 0.80 4.00 4.80 4.47 .0055 0.328 .108 transparency 0.90 3.80 4.70 4.32 .0053 0.288 .083 normality test was conducted to decide whether to use parametric or non-parametric tests to make statistical commentary regarding the significance of the differences among the weights of the 8 indicators of the customers’ satisfaction. if assumptions of the parametric test (for instance, normality) are fulfilled, ‘repeated measures anova’ will be used, or else the friedman test which is non-parametric will be adopted. in the normality test, the null hypotheses of the shapiro-wilk test, which states ‘the data is normally distributed’ will be rejected if p-values are less than 5% (islam and tarefder, 2014). accordingly, the normality test was conducted using spss 26, and all the p-values of the shapiro-wilk test were found to be less than 0.05 (table 2) indicating that the data is not normally distributed. thus, non-parametric test or friedman test was used to analyze the differences among the weights of the criteria. table 2. tests of normality of data for volume and small builders small builders kolmogorov-smirnova shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. statistic df sig. site administration .326 1465 .000 .747 1465 .000 timeliness .179 1465 .000 .916 1465 .000 plumbing and waterproofing .281 1465 .000 .810 1465 .000 flooring .299 1465 .000 .759 1465 .000 table 1. continued gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021106 small builders kolmogorov-smirnova shapiro-wilk statistic df sig. statistic df sig. structural integrity .301 1465 .000 .677 1465 .000 electrical and lighting .258 1465 .000 .850 1465 .000 customer service .289 1465 .000 .813 1465 .000 transparency .235 1465 .000 .878 1465 .000 volume builders site administration .234 1719 .000 .805 1719 .000 timeliness .291 1719 .000 .849 1719 .000 plumbing and waterproofing .308 1719 .000 .836 1719 .000 flooring .245 1719 .000 .833 1719 .000 structural integrity .228 1719 .000 .743 1719 .000 electrical and lighting .364 1719 .000 .782 1719 .000 customer service .272 1719 .000 .838 1719 .000 transparency .229 1719 .000 .853 1719 .000 the friedman test for the 8 customer satisfaction indicators was conducted and a p-value of less than 0.001 was obtained (table 3 and table 4). the finding implies that there are significant differences among the weights of the indicators. thus, the null hypothesis which states ‘the weights of the eight customer satisfaction indicators are equal’ was rejected. however, as the friedman test is not suitable to identify where the difference lies, posthoc analysis or wilcoxon test was conducted. wilcoxon test was chosen since it is the most suitable test after analyzing data using friedman test (pereira, afonso and medeiros, 2015). the results of wilcoxon test for small builders (table 3) indicate that the null hypothesis which states ‘the weights of site administration and flooring’ is the same was accepted since the p-value exceeds 0.05 (p=0.27>0.05). similarly, the null hypothesis for ‘the equality of weight of site administration and transparency’ was not rejected since p=0.61>0.05. furthermore, p=0.71 for timeliness and electrical and lighting; p=0.37 for flooring and structural integrity; p= 0.95 for flooring and transparency; and p= 0.55 for structural integrity and transparency were obtained (table 3). the findings imply that there are no significant differences between the weights of site administration and transparency, site administration and flooring, timeliness and electrical and lighting, flooring and structural integrity, and structural integrity and transparency. this shows that customers’ satisfaction level among the forementioned criteria does not vary. however, there are significant differences among the 22 combinations that are indicated in bold in table 3. for instance, there is a significant difference between the top two factors ‘structural integrity’ and ‘flooring’ (refer table 5 for the rank of the factors). table 2. continued gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021107 table 3. outputs of friedman and wilcoxon tests – small builders friedman test mean rank chisquare df asymp. sig. site administration 4.83 1701.399 7 .000 timeliness 4.16 plumbing and waterproofing 2.83 flooring 4.69 structural integrity 4.86 electrical and lighting 3.86 customer service 6.21 transparency 4.56 wilcoxon test sa t pw f si el c tr site administration 0.000 0.000 0.272 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.612 timeliness 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.706 0.000 0.000 plumbing and waterproofing 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 flooring 0.365 0.000 0.000 0.953 structural integrity 0.000 0.000 0.553 electrical and lighting 0.000 0.000 customer service 0.000 transparency notes: sa= site administration, t= timeliness, pw= plumbing and waterproofing, f= flooring, si= structural integrity, el= electrical and lighting, c= customer service and tr= transparency the results of the wilcoxon test for volume builders (table 4) indicate that the null hypothesis which states “the weights of ‘timeliness’ and ‘plumbing and waterproofing’ is the same” was accepted since the p-value exceeds 0.05 (p=0.25>0.05). the finding shows that there is no significant difference between the weights of ‘timeliness’ and ‘plumbing and waterproofing’. however, there are significant differences among the 27 combinations that are indicated in bold in table 4. for example, there is a significant difference between the top three factors: customer service, structural integrity and flooring (refer table 5 for the rank of the factors). gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021108 table 4. outputs of friedman and wilcoxon tests – volume builders friedman test mean rank chisquare df asymp. sig. site administration 4.36 3025.911 7 .000 timeliness 4.30 plumbing and waterproofing 4.10 flooring 5.75 structural integrity 6.04 electrical and lighting 5.48 customer service 3.08 transparency 2.89 wilcoxon test sa t pw f si el c tr site administration 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 timeliness 0.250 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 plumbing and waterproofing 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 flooring 0.000 0.000 0.000 0.000 structural integrity 0.000 0.000 0.000 electrical and lighting 0.000 0.000 customer service 0.000 transparency notes: sa= site administration, t= timeliness, pw= plumbing and waterproofing, f= flooring, si= structural integrity, el= electrical and lighting, c= customer service and tr= transparency the weights and ranks of the 8 customer satisfaction indicators for small and volume builders are presented in table 5. accordingly, structural integrity, flooring and customer service were found to be the top three factors for small builders. the results of the wilcoxon test (table 3) also shows that there is a statistically significant difference between the weights of the top two factors ‘structural integrity’ and ‘flooring.’ this implies that the perception of customers regarding the quality of flooring and the structural integrity of the buildings is different, and consumers are more confident in the structural integrity than in the floorings of the buildings constructed by the small builders. on the other hand, customers perceive that small builders did not complete projects within the agreed time. gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021109 table 5. weights and ranks of customer satisfaction indicators small builders indicators weight rank structural integrity 4.533 1 flooring 4.520 2 customer service 4.518 3 electrical & lighting 4.499 4 site admin 4.445 5 transparency 4.441 6 plumbing & waterproofing 4.395 7 timeliness 4.377 8 volume builders customer service 4.4673 1 structural integrity 4.4056 2 flooring 4.3805 3 electrical & lighting 4.3717 4 timeliness 4.3427 5 site admin 4.3164 6 transparency 4.3159 7 plumbing & waterproofing 4.2400 8 in table 5, the results of the weights of the indicators of customers’ satisfaction for volume-builders operating in the australian state of victoria are presented. accordingly, customer service was perceived as the most important factor. this shows that customers were very happy with the customers’ services provided by volume builders. the structural integrity and flooring were ranked in the top three with the weights of 4.41 and 4.38, respectively. nonetheless, the finding indicates that customers were not satisfied with the plumbing and waterproofing works executed by the volume builders. timeliness was ranked last (8th) for small-builders, whereas ‘plumbing and waterproofing’ was ranked last (8th) for volume-builders (table 5). this implies that the project delivery time for volume-builders is better than that of small builders. one of the reasons could be related to resource availability. since volume builders have better financial capacity and larger economies of scale with regards to purchasing power than small builders, they can purchase and deliver construction materials in a shorter period of time. nonetheless, small builders may not have the capacity to pay for labour and materials in a timely manner, and the progress of the project may be impacted. gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021110 to compute the overall satisfaction scores of volume and small builders, equation 1 was used and the overall rating (or) for small builders was found to be 4.47. similarly, the or value for volume builders was calculated to be 4.37. although the two scores did not vary significantly, the finding indicates that customers are more satisfied with small builders than volume builders. whereas customer service was ranked 1st for volume builders, it was ranked 3rd for small builders. this implies that the customer service of the volume builders is better than that of small builders. this could be due to the experience of volume builders in handling numerous customers as well as the higher financial capacity of the volume builders. further, volume builders could have better financial capacity to employ dedicated customer service officers. model building before running the logistic regression, random numbers using microsoft excel was assigned to each data point so that the data can be randomly distributed. based on the random numbers, the data was sorted in ascending order from 1 to 117. the data was then split into model building and validation datasets. in the first trial, the data points ranging from 1-39 and 79-117 were used in model building whereas the data points from 40-78 were kept for validation purposes. in the second trial, data points 40-78 and 79-117 were used in model development and data points1-39 were kept as validation dataset. finally, in the third trial, data points 1-39 and 40-78 were used in the analysis, and data points 79-117 were considered as validation data set. three alternative models using the 3-fold cross-validation technique were developed, and the best model is selected. among the three models, a model with better predictive accuracy (89.7%) and a statistically significant coefficient is chosen. accordingly, data points from 1-39 and 79-117 were used for model building, and data points from 40-78 were used for validation purposes. the results of the logistic regression analysis of the best model are presented in figure 2. in block-0, the true negative percentage of 100.0%, the true positive percentage of 0.0%, and the overall model accuracy of 80.8% were found. the variable in the equation was significant (p=0.001<0.05) and the variable not in the equation was also significant (p=0.001<0.05). in block-1, the chi-square (43.97) of the omnibus test was significant (p=0.001<0.05) which shows that the model is better than the null model (block-0). the hosmer and lemeshow test showed p=0.88>0.05 which implies the model in block-1 is good. the overall prediction accuracy of the model was 89.7%, and the value is greater than the null model’s prediction accuracy (80.8%). the true negative prediction accuracy of the model was 53.3%, and the true positive prediction accuracy was 98.4%. wald chi-square (8.1) for the variable in the equation was statistically significant (p=0.004<0.05). similarly, the wald chi-square (6.1) for the constant was statistically significant (p=0.014<0.05). the exp(b) for the variable was 20.79 which indicates that for one unit increase in the score of the ‘customer service’, the odd of increasing the quality of structure increases by a factor of 20.79. the output of the reliability analysis using bootstrapping is also presented in figure 2. accordingly, the p-values of both the variable (p=0.03<0.05) and the constant (p=0.009<0.05) were found to be statistically significant. the coefficient and the constant obtained after bootstrapping was similar to the model’s coefficient and constant. therefore, the logistic regression model is reliable. gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021111 0 1 0 0 15 1 0 63 b s. e wald df sig exp(b) constant 1.435 0.287 24.591 1 0.001 4.2 score df 1271.64ytirgetni larutcurts 46.172 1 step block model chi-square 2.468 0 1 )b(pxedlawb 497.02611.8503.3ytirgetni larutcurts 100.0770.6318.01-tnatsnoc b bias se sig. lower upper structural integrity 3.305 3.501 5.342 0.03 1.723 14.233 constant -10.813 -13.794 19.86 0.009 -54.154 -4.887 80.8 the cut value is 0.50 variables in the equation step 0 classification table predicted structural integrity percentage correct observed step 0 structural integrity 0 100 overall percentage variables not in the equation step 0 sig. 0.001 100.0scitsitats llarevo omnibus test for model coefficients .gisfderauqs-ihc step 1 100.0179.34 100.0179.34 100.0179.34 hosmer and lemeshow test classification table predicted structural integrity percentage correct 10devresbo step 1 .gisfd 878.06 step 1 structural integrity 3.3578 4.89261 1 0.014 overall percentage 89.7 the cut value is 0.50 variables in the equation step 1 df sig. s. e block-0 block-1 bootstrapping bootstrap 95% confidence interval step 1 400.01560.1 4.386 figure 2. outputs of logistic regression analysis finally, by using the variable’s coefficient and constant indicated in figure 2, the equation for the probability of having low structural defects and customer service is developed as shown in equation 2 and 3. (2) in the equation, pi is the probability of having low structural defects, and csi is customer service score for an ith builder. the above equation can be simplified as follows: (3) where pi is the probability of having low structural defects, and csi is customer service score for an ith builder. based on equation 3, a sigmoid graph (figure 4) was plotted. gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021112 model validation to validate the logistic regression model, probabilities of validation data sets (data points from 40-78) were computed; structural integrity was predicted as binary values (1, 0) and compared with the actual structural integrity scores (table 6). in the table, if a probability value is less than 50%, then the structural integrity is considered as 0, which implies the rating for structural integrity could be less than 4 or not good quality. a probability value more than 50% is considered as 1, which denotes the rating for structural integrity could be greater than or equal to 4 (good quality). as shown in table 6, the model predicts about 82% of the validation data correctly. table 6. validation of the model probability predicted structural integrity actual structural integrity remark probability predicted structural integrity predicted structural integrity remark 97.65% 1.00 1.00 correct 95.56% 1.00 0.00 incorrect 74.74% 1.00 0.00 incorrect 97.65% 1.00 0.00 incorrect 96.77% 1.00 1.00 correct 88.86% 1.00 1.00 correct 74.74% 1.00 0.00 incorrect 98.78% 1.00 1.00 correct 99.67% 1.00 1.00 correct 98.30% 1.00 1.00 correct 91.74% 1.00 1.00 correct 91.74% 1.00 0.00 incorrect 93.92% 1.00 0.00 incorrect 99.67% 1.00 1.00 correct 99.36% 1.00 1.00 correct 0.05% 0.00 0.00 correct 96.77% 1.00 1.00 correct 99.67% 1.00 1.00 correct 99.67% 1.00 1.00 correct 99.67% 1.00 1.00 correct 0.05% 0.00 0.00 correct 99.67% 1.00 1.00 correct 99.67% 1.00 1.00 correct 99.67% 1.00 1.00 correct 98.30% 1.00 1.00 correct 91.74% 1.00 1.00 correct 80.46% 1.00 1.00 correct 98.30% 1.00 1.00 correct 99.36% 1.00 1.00 correct 88.86% 1.00 1.00 correct 44.10% 0.00 0.00 correct 93.92% 1.00 0.00 incorrect 99.12% 1.00 1.00 correct 93.92% 1.00 1.00 correct 91.74% 1.00 1.00 correct 99.54% 1.00 1.00 correct 99.36% 1.00 1.00 correct 99.67% 1.00 1.00 correct 0.05% 0.00 0.00 correct correct 82% incorrect 18% gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021113 during the validation process of the model, the receiver operating characteristic curve was also plotted and compared with the reference line (figure 3). accordingly, the curve of the graph is greater than the reference line (diagonal line) and auc= 0.90 > 0.5. this indicates that the model is good in prediction and it is valid (figure 3). figure 3. roc curve 0.00 0.05 0.10 0.15 0.20 0.25 0.30 0.35 0.40 0.45 0.50 0.55 0.60 0.65 0.70 0.75 0.80 0.85 0.90 0.95 1.00 0.0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 1.6 1.8 2.0 2.2 2.4 2.6 2.8 3.0 3.2 3.4 3.6 3.8 4.0 4.2 4.4 4.6 4.8 5.0 pr ob ab ili ty o f h av in g lo w st ru ct ur al d ef ec ts customer service rating b figure 4. sigmoid graph of structural integrity gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021114 application of the model the logistic regression model of structural integrity can be used as an indicator of the quality of the structure of the houses. based on the output of the model, customers can decide whether to engage a particular builder or not. the application of the model is illustrated as follows. suppose a customer rates a builder as ‘3 or acceptable’ regarding the customer service and explanation of the possible structural materials, installation, certification, testing, and other associated queries. then, from the sigmoid graph, the probability of obtaining low structural defects is 29.0% (figure 4). this suggests that the builder might deliver the house with numerous structural defects or the quality of the structure could be lower. thus, the client should look for an alternative builder. generally, a probability value less than 50% (cut-off value) is not recommended. the model can also be used to determine the equivalent customer service score (3.3) for the cut-off value (50%) (please refer line b in figure 4). this indicates that, if a customer service rating is less than 3.3, then it is suggested not to engage a particular builder since the chance of having defective structural works could be higher. therefore, the model can assist new homeowners in choosing suitable builders. conclusion this research analyzed the customer satisfaction criteria over the following variables: customer service, structural integrity, flooring, electrical and lighting, timeliness, plumbing and waterproofing, site administration, and transparency. the ranks of the criteria were then determined. accordingly, for small builders, structural integrity, flooring, and customer service were ranked from 1 to 3, respectively. similarly, for volume builders, customer service, structural integrity, and flooring were ranked from 1 to 3. comparative analysis of the criteria with regard to the types of builders (volume vs small) was also carried out. the overall satisfaction scores of volume and small builders were found to be 4.37 and 4.47 respectively. this finding shows that, though the two scores do not vary significantly, customers are more satisfied with the service qualities of small builders than volume-builders. based on the findings of this study, consumers can prioritize their needs and decide whether to engage a volume or small builder. moreover, a logistic regression model which helps to predict the perceived quality of the building structure is developed and validated. hence, customers who want to build new houses can use the model to assess the likelihood of occurrence of structural defects in their future homes. this study has some limitations. first, the model is applicable to low-rise residential buildings, not to medium or high-rise commercial buildings. second, models for other criteria such as plumbing, electricity were not developed for the sake of brevity. furthermore, the analysis carried out in this research can only be used as an initial screening of home builders. the final selection of builders should include other criteria such as financial and technical capability. future researchers can build logistic regression models for the quality of builders’ services by following a similar procedure using other criteria such as waterproofing and flooring. moreover, a comparative analysis of the quality of services delivered by builders involved in commercial and residential projects could be conducted. gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021115 appendix a. data for volume builders c om pa ny c od e s ite a dm in ti m el in es s p lu m bi ng & w at er pr oo fin g fl oo ri ng s tr uc tu ra l in te gr it y e le ct ri ca l & li gh ti ng c us to m er s er vi ce tr an sp ar en cy n um be r of h ou se s bu ilt s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s 20 20 /2 01 9 20 19 /1 8 20 18 /1 7 1 4. 5 42 9 4. 5 42 0 4. 5 34 8 4. 6 33 3 4. 6 36 4 4. 5 35 0 4. 3 47 1 4. 2 40 1 45 34 44 73 47 64 2 4. 4 18 3 4. 5 19 2 4. 4 16 3 4. 4 15 5 4. 4 16 3 4. 5 15 5 4. 5 24 3 4. 3 20 1 23 95 25 80 25 00 3 3. 7 14 8 3. 7 17 5 3. 7 10 9 3. 7 10 9 3. 7 11 5 3. 8 11 5 4 26 5 3. 9 20 8 11 14 19 63 20 87 4 4. 7 55 4. 7 52 4. 7 53 4. 7 51 4. 8 53 4. 8 53 4. 8 63 4. 7 57 19 13 19 49 21 53 5 4. 1 33 3 3. 9 33 3 4. 1 30 1 4. 1 25 5 4. 3 30 2 4. 1 31 0 4. 1 37 4 4 30 4 18 17 17 14 22 37 6 4. 3 24 8 4. 1 25 6 4. 2 16 6 4. 3 13 9 4. 4 19 3 4. 3 15 3 4. 1 27 9 4 24 5 14 93 15 55 16 17 7 4. 5 74 9 4. 7 87 6 4. 4 43 2 4. 5 48 4 4. 5 48 5 4. 5 48 4 4. 8 15 75 4. 6 12 72 14 95 14 73 14 03 8 4. 3 10 2 4. 3 10 4 4. 4 99 4. 6 96 4. 5 96 4. 6 99 4. 3 12 0 4. 3 11 5 12 05 9 3. 8 10 9 3. 6 11 4 3. 8 75 4. 2 66 4. 1 81 4. 3 77 4 15 3 3. 8 99 13 27 10 4. 1 39 3. 9 38 4 31 4. 3 31 4. 2 33 4. 2 33 4 40 3. 8 40 23 32 16 24 n ot es : • d at a sh ow n in c ol um n 217 w er e ex tr ac te d fr om p ro du ct re vi ew o n ju ne 3 , 2 02 00 : h tt ps :/ /w w w .p ro du ct re vi ew .c om .a u/ c/ ho m ebu ild er s • d at a sh ow n in c ol um n 18 -2 0 w er e ob ta in ed fr om h ia : 9 ht tp s: // hi a. co m .a u/ -/ m ed ia /h ia -w eb si te /f ile s/ m ed ia -c en tr e/ m ed ia -r el ea se s/ 20 20 /n at io na l/ hi are ve al sau st ra lia -t op -h om ebu ild er sfo r20 19 -2 0. as hx 9 ht tp s: // hi a. co m .a u/ -/ m ed ia /h ia -w eb si te /f ile s/ m ed ia -c en tr e/ m ed ia -r el ea se s/ 20 18 /n at io na l/ hi are ve al sau st ra lia sto pho m eb ui ld er sfo r20 18 .a sh x gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021116 https://www.productreview.com.au/c/home-builders https://hia.com.au/-/media/hia-website/files/media-centre/media-releases/2020/national/hia-reveals-australia-top-home-builders-for-2019-20.ashx https://hia.com.au/-/media/hia-website/files/media-centre/media-releases/2018/national/hia-reveals-australias-top-homebuilders-for-2018.ashx b. data for small builders c om pa ny c od e s ite a dm in ti m el in es s p lu m bi ng & w at er pr oo fin g fl oo ri ng s tr uc tu ra l in te gr it y e le ct ri ca l & li gh ti ng c us to m er s er vi ce tr an sp ar en cy s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s 1 4. 5 74 1 4. 7 86 6 4. 4 43 1 4. 5 46 9 4. 5 48 4 4. 5 48 3 4. 8 15 61 4. 6 12 58 2 4. 6 15 4 4. 6 20 6 4. 5 95 4. 6 89 4. 7 10 3 4. 4 96 4. 7 35 7 4. 7 28 5 3 4. 8 76 4. 8 75 4. 6 68 4. 7 72 4. 8 71 4. 8 69 4. 8 80 4. 7 73 4 4. 8 22 0 4. 8 22 0 4. 6 16 7 4. 7 17 0 4. 7 17 3 4. 6 16 9 4. 8 30 4 4. 7 24 8 5 4. 9 18 5 19 4. 9 14 5 13 4. 9 16 4. 9 14 4. 9 21 5 17 6 4. 6 31 7 4. 4 30 3 4. 5 20 9 4. 7 20 5 4. 6 22 3 4. 6 20 6 4. 7 40 1 4. 5 35 6 7 5. 0 6 5 6 5 6 5 6 5 6 5 6 5 6 4. 8 5 8 4. 6 32 4. 4 41 4. 2 20 4. 1 19 4. 3 21 4. 2 19 4. 8 92 4. 6 80 9 4. 6 28 4. 6 26 4. 7 26 4. 9 24 4. 9 24 4. 9 25 4. 8 32 4. 6 27 10 4. 5 42 1 4. 5 41 2 4. 5 34 0 4. 6 32 8 4. 5 35 7 4. 5 34 1 4. 3 46 3 4. 2 39 3 11 4. 7 13 0 4. 5 12 9 4. 7 11 0 4. 7 11 3 4. 8 11 5 4. 7 11 6 4. 6 15 2 4. 5 13 7 12 4. 4 18 2 4. 5 19 0 4. 4 15 3 4. 4 15 4 4. 4 16 2 4. 5 15 4 4. 5 24 1 4. 3 19 9 13 4. 8 57 4. 8 50 4. 7 46 4. 8 48 4. 7 48 4. 6 47 4. 8 79 4. 8 62 14 4. 5 12 4. 8 11 4. 6 11 4. 4 10 4. 6 11 4. 6 10 4. 6 13 4. 5 12 15 4. 4 7 4. 4 7 4. 3 7 4 6 4. 7 7 4. 3 7 4. 4 7 4. 3 6 16 4. 7 22 4. 3 23 4. 3 21 4. 7 21 4. 6 21 4. 3 22 4. 5 24 4. 2 16 17 4. 8 31 4. 8 33 4. 7 23 4. 8 26 4. 9 25 4. 8 25 4. 9 35 4. 9 30 18 4. 3 39 4. 4 52 4. 3 23 4. 3 22 4. 4 27 4. 3 23 4. 6 69 4. 4 48 gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021117 c om pa ny c od e s ite a dm in ti m el in es s p lu m bi ng & w at er pr oo fin g fl oo ri ng s tr uc tu ra l in te gr it y e le ct ri ca l & li gh ti ng c us to m er s er vi ce tr an sp ar en cy s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s 19 4. 3 24 2 4. 1 25 0 4. 2 16 3 4. 3 13 6 4. 4 19 1 4. 3 15 0 4. 1 27 2 4 23 8 20 4. 9 8 5 7 4. 8 5 5 5 5 6 4. 8 6 5 11 5 10 21 3. 9 44 4 47 3. 5 35 3. 6 34 3. 8 32 3. 9 34 4. 2 62 4. 2 54 22 4. 8 14 4. 9 14 4. 8 13 4. 8 12 4. 9 14 4. 8 14 4. 9 15 4. 9 15 23 5 7 5 5 4. 8 6 5 6 5 7 5 6 5 11 5 8 24 4. 8 51 4. 5 49 4. 6 45 4. 8 48 4. 8 47 4. 8 48 4. 7 55 4. 6 46 25 4. 2 10 6 4. 3 10 8 4. 2 99 4. 3 10 1 4. 3 96 4. 3 10 1 4. 1 12 2 4. 1 10 9 26 4. 8 32 4. 5 32 4. 3 25 4. 6 23 4. 7 25 4. 6 24 4. 6 38 4. 7 33 27 3. 6 40 3. 8 46 3. 7 28 3. 9 29 3. 9 29 3. 8 29 4. 4 64 4. 1 49 28 4. 8 5 5 5 5 5 4. 8 4 4. 8 5 5 5 5 5 5 5 29 4. 0 15 3. 8 16 4 10 4. 3 7 4. 2 13 4. 6 8 3. 8 23 4 19 30 4. 6 46 4. 5 44 4. 5 39 4. 5 39 4. 5 39 4. 5 39 4. 4 53 4. 4 51 31 5. 0 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 32 3. 9 70 3. 7 78 3. 8 47 3. 7 47 3. 7 51 3. 9 50 4. 1 12 6 3. 8 10 2 33 4. 8 30 4. 9 27 4. 7 27 4. 9 26 4. 9 29 4. 8 27 4. 7 32 4. 6 29 34 5. 0 9 4. 9 9 5 9 4. 9 9 5 9 5 9 5 9 5 8 35 3. 3 23 2. 8 25 3. 6 20 3. 8 16 3. 9 18 4. 2 17 3. 6 32 3. 4 27 36 4. 0 32 9 3. 8 32 9 4. 1 29 7 4. 1 25 2 4. 2 29 8 4. 1 30 6 4. 1 36 9 4 29 9 gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021118 c om pa ny c od e s ite a dm in ti m el in es s p lu m bi ng & w at er pr oo fin g fl oo ri ng s tr uc tu ra l in te gr it y e le ct ri ca l & li gh ti ng c us to m er s er vi ce tr an sp ar en cy s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s 37 4. 9 18 4. 9 19 4. 9 17 4. 9 18 4. 9 17 4. 8 18 5 20 4. 9 19 38 4. 9 10 4. 6 11 4. 7 6 4. 8 9 4. 9 8 4. 9 8 5 14 5 5 39 4. 6 19 4. 7 19 4. 4 19 4. 7 17 4. 8 17 4. 9 18 4. 8 20 4. 9 15 40 4. 5 22 4. 6 20 4. 7 17 4. 7 18 4. 7 19 4. 7 18 4. 7 23 4. 6 21 41 1. 0 1 4 1 2 1 1 1 3 1 2 1 1 1 2 1 42 5. 0 5 5 5 5 5 4. 4 5 5 5 4. 6 5 5 5 5 5 43 4. 6 5 4. 3 6 5 2 5 1 5 2 5 3 4. 8 9 5 3 44 4. 0 13 3. 8 12 3. 8 11 4. 3 11 4. 2 11 4. 4 11 3. 8 17 3. 8 17 45 5. 0 2 5 2 5 2 5 2 5 2 5 2 5 2 5 2 46 3. 3 36 3 40 3. 4 28 3. 7 23 3. 4 29 3. 7 27 3. 8 61 3. 5 42 47 4. 8 16 4. 4 17 4. 8 16 4. 8 16 4. 8 15 4. 7 16 4. 5 20 4. 5 20 48 4. 3 8 4. 3 11 4. 4 8 4. 3 8 4. 3 9 4. 5 8 4. 4 10 5 7 49 5. 0 5 4. 5 4 4. 8 4 5 3 5 4 5 4 4. 9 7 4. 9 7 50 5. 0 3 5 3 5 3 5 3 5 3 5 3 5 3 5 2 51 4. 0 8 3. 8 8 4. 3 7 4. 4 7 4 7 4. 6 7 4 8 3. 5 6 52 4. 1 13 3. 7 12 4. 5 11 4. 3 12 4. 6 11 4. 3 11 4 13 3. 5 6 53 5. 0 1 3 1 4 1 4 1 54 4. 8 10 4. 9 11 4. 8 11 4. 8 11 5 11 4. 6 11 5 12 5 9 gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021119 c om pa ny c od e s ite a dm in ti m el in es s p lu m bi ng & w at er pr oo fin g fl oo ri ng s tr uc tu ra l in te gr it y e le ct ri ca l & li gh ti ng c us to m er s er vi ce tr an sp ar en cy s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s 55 5. 0 4 5 4 5 4 5 4 4. 8 4 5 4 5 5 5 4 56 3. 4 41 3. 4 47 3. 4 32 3. 6 33 3. 4 34 3. 6 34 3. 6 61 3. 5 46 57 5. 0 4 4. 8 4 4. 5 4 5 4 4. 5 4 4. 8 4 5 4 4. 7 3 58 4. 0 16 3. 7 14 4 11 4. 3 9 4. 6 12 4. 8 11 3. 9 17 4. 1 15 59 2. 8 6 3. 8 6 3. 5 6 3. 4 5 4 5 3. 7 6 3. 6 9 3. 1 7 60 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 61 4. 2 5 3. 7 6 4. 3 3 5 3 5 3 4. 7 3 3. 8 6 3. 6 5 62 4. 5 6 4. 8 4 5 3 5 4 5 3 5 4 5 9 4. 8 6 63 4. 5 2 3. 5 2 5 2 5 2 5 2 5 2 5 2 4. 5 2 64 4. 8 13 4. 8 11 4. 6 9 4. 9 8 4. 7 9 4. 6 9 4. 8 14 4. 7 14 65 4. 7 6 4. 7 6 4. 8 6 5 6 5 6 5 6 5 7 4. 9 7 66 5. 0 10 4. 3 9 5 10 4. 8 9 4. 8 10 4. 9 10 4. 5 10 4. 5 11 67 3. 5 8 3. 4 7 3 6 3. 2 5 3. 4 5 3 6 4. 1 20 4. 5 14 68 3. 8 8 4 8 4. 3 7 4. 4 7 4. 1 7 4. 1 7 4. 1 9 4. 2 9 69 5. 0 7 5 7 5 7 5 7 5 7 5 7 5 7 5 6 70 5. 0 2 5 2 5 2 5 2 5 2 5 2 5 3 5 3 71 3. 7 22 3. 9 23 3. 8 13 4. 1 12 4. 2 15 4. 1 14 4. 1 29 3. 7 21 72 4. 8 12 4. 8 12 5 12 5 12 5 12 5 12 5 11 5 7 gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021120 c om pa ny c od e s ite a dm in ti m el in es s p lu m bi ng & w at er pr oo fin g fl oo ri ng s tr uc tu ra l in te gr it y e le ct ri ca l & li gh ti ng c us to m er s er vi ce tr an sp ar en cy s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s 73 1. 0 1 1 1 74 3. 8 8 4 8 4. 2 6 4 4 4. 4 7 4. 3 6 3. 9 7 3. 9 8 75 4. 8 6 5 7 5 6 5 6 5 7 5 6 5 10 5 10 76 3. 1 21 2. 7 18 3. 5 16 3. 6 17 3. 5 18 3. 4 16 3. 2 24 3 20 77 2. 7 3 3. 5 2 5 1 5 1 5 1 5 1 2. 6 5 2. 6 5 78 3. 8 5 3. 3 6 4. 2 6 4. 4 7 4. 3 7 4. 4 7 4 9 2. 3 3 79 4. 7 7 4. 9 7 4. 7 7 4. 7 7 4. 9 7 4. 6 7 4. 9 10 4. 9 7 80 4. 2 6 4. 3 6 4. 5 6 4. 2 6 4. 3 6 4. 8 6 4. 5 6 4. 3 6 81 4. 0 8 3. 9 8 3. 4 7 4. 2 5 4 7 4. 5 6 3. 8 9 4 4 82 4. 0 5 4. 8 4 4. 8 4 4. 6 5 4. 8 4 4. 6 5 4. 4 5 4. 4 5 83 5. 0 4 5 3 5 3 5 3 5 4 5 3 5 4 5 4 84 5. 0 3 4. 8 4 4. 8 4 5 4 4. 8 4 5 4 5 6 5 3 85 4. 5 2 4. 5 2 4. 5 2 4. 5 2 4. 5 2 4. 5 2 3. 7 3 5 1 86 5. 0 1 5 1 4 1 5 1 87 1. 7 3 2. 3 3 2. 3 3 2. 3 3 2. 7 3 2. 3 3 1 3 1. 5 2 88 1. 0 6 1. 2 6 1. 3 6 1. 7 6 1. 6 5 2. 3 6 1 6 1 5 89 1. 0 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 90 1. 0 4 1 4 1 1 1 1 1. 5 2 1 1 1. 5 8 1. 7 6 gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021121 c om pa ny c od e s ite a dm in ti m el in es s p lu m bi ng & w at er pr oo fin g fl oo ri ng s tr uc tu ra l in te gr it y e le ct ri ca l & li gh ti ng c us to m er s er vi ce tr an sp ar en cy s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s s ca le n o. o f re vi ew s 91 4. 8 4 4. 5 4 5 4 5 4 5 4 5 4 5 5 4. 8 5 92 4. 8 6 4. 9 7 4. 6 5 5 4 4. 8 5 4. 8 5 5 8 4. 9 7 93 5. 0 6 5 6 4. 8 6 4. 8 5 5 6 5 5 5 6 5 6 94 4. 2 6 4. 3 6 4. 5 6 4. 2 6 4. 3 6 4. 8 6 4. 5 6 4. 3 6 95 4. 0 8 3. 9 8 3. 4 7 4. 2 5 4 7 4. 5 6 3. 8 9 4 4 96 4. 0 5 4. 8 4 4. 8 4 4. 6 5 4. 8 4 4. 6 5 4. 4 5 4. 4 5 97 5. 0 4 5 3 5 3 5 3 5 4 5 3 5 4 5 4 98 5. 0 3 4. 8 4 4. 8 4 5 4 4. 8 4 5 4 5 6 5 3 99 4. 5 2 4. 5 2 4. 5 2 4. 5 2 4. 5 2 4. 5 2 3. 7 3 5 1 10 0 5. 0 1 5 1 4 1 5 1 10 1 1. 7 3 2. 3 3 2. 3 3 2. 3 3 2. 7 3 2. 3 3 1 3 1. 5 2 10 2 1. 0 6 1. 2 6 1. 3 6 1. 7 6 1. 6 5 2. 3 6 1 6 1 5 10 3 1. 0 1 1 1 1 1 3 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 4 1. 0 4 1 4 1 1 1 1 1. 5 2 1 1 1. 5 8 1. 7 6 10 5 4. 8 4 4. 5 4 5 4 5 4 5 4 5 4 5 5 4. 8 5 10 6 4. 8 6 4. 9 7 4. 6 5 5 4 5 4. 8 4. 8 5 5 8 4. 9 7 10 7 5. 0 6 5 6 4. 8 6 4. 8 5 5 6 5 5 5 6 5 6 gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021122 references abou-assaleh, t., cercone, n., keselj, v. and sweidan, r., 2004. n-gram-based detection of new malicious code. in: computer software and applications conference, 2004. compsac 2004. proceedings of the 28th annual international: ieee. https://doi.org/10.1109/cmpsac.2004.1342667 ahmed, s.m. and kangari, r., 1995. analysis of client-satisfaction factors in construction industry. journal of management in engineering, 11(2), pp.36-44. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(1995)11:2(36) chen, y. and xie, j., 2005. third-party product review and firm marketing strategy. marketing science, 24(2), pp.218-40. https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1040.0089 chevalier, j.a. and mayzlin, d., 2006. the effect of word of mouth on sales: online book reviews. journal of marketing research, 43(3), pp.345-54. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.43.3.345 clemons, e.k., gao, g.g. and hitt, l.m., 2006. when online reviews meet hyperdifferentiation: a study of the craft beer industry. journal of management information systems, 23(2), pp.149-71. https://doi.org/10.2753/mis07421222230207 dabholkar, p.a., 2006. factors influencing consumer choice of a” rating web site”: an experimental investigation of an online interactive decision aid. journal of marketing theory and practice, 14(4), pp.259-73. https://doi.org/10.2753/ mtp1069-6679140401 farris, p.w., bendle, n.t., pfeifer, p.e. and reibstein, d.j., 2006. marketing metrics: 50+ metrics every executive should master [e-book]: pearson education. forsythe, p., 2008. modelling customer perceived service quality in housing construction. engineering, construction and architectural management, 15(5), pp.485-96. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980810902767 forsythe, p.j., 2012. profiling customer perceived service quality expectations in made‐to‐order housing construction in australia. engineering, construction and architectural management, 19(6), pp.587-609. https://doi. org/10.1108/09699981211277522 forsythe, p.j., 2016. construction service quality and satisfaction for a targeted housing customer. engineering, construction and architectural management, 23(3), pp.323-48. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2015-0076 galluzzo, a., sagoo, a. and scott-young, c.m., 2017. critical review of factors affecting the quality of build in residential volume building. in: aubea 2017 the 41st australiasian universities building education association conference. melbourne, 3-5 july 2016. melbourne: rmit. gurmu, a.t., 2019. tools for measuring construction materials management practices and predicting labor productivity in multistory building projects. journal of construction engineering and management, 145(2), p.04018139. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001611 gurmu, a.t., krezel, a. and mahmood, m.n., 2020. analysis of the causes of defects in ground floor systems of residential buildings. international journal of construction management, pp.1-8. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020 .1860636 housing industry association (hia), 2021. award category definitions [online]. available at: https://hia.com.au/ awards/category-definitions. islam, m.r. and tarefder, r.a., 2014. determining thermal properties of asphalt concrete using field data and laboratory testing. construction and building materials, 67, pp.297-306. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. conbuildmat.2014.03.040 leung, m.y., ng, s.t. and cheung, s.o., 2004. measuring construction project participant satisfaction. construction management and economics, 22(3), pp.319-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190320000000000 gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021123 https://doi.org/10.1109/cmpsac.2004.1342667 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(1995)11:2(36 https://doi.org/10.1287/mksc.1040.0089 https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.43.3.345 https://doi.org/10.2753/mis0742-1222230207 https://doi.org/10.2753/mis0742-1222230207 https://doi.org/10.2753/mtp1069-6679140401 https://doi.org/10.2753/mtp1069-6679140401 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980810902767 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211277522 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211277522 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2015-0076 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001611 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1860636 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1860636 https://hia.com.au/awards/category-definitions https://hia.com.au/awards/category-definitions https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2014.03.040 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2014.03.040 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190320000000000 liu, a., 1999. residential satisfaction in housing estates: a hong kong perspective. automation in construction, 8(4), pp.511-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0926-5805(98)00098-3 maloney, w.f., 2002. construction product/service and customer satisfaction. journal of construction engineering and management, 128(6), pp.522-29. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2002)128:6(522) mcgregor, s.l., 2006. understanding consumers’ moral consciousness. international journal of consumer studies, 30(2), pp.164-78. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1470-6431.2005.00473.x mudambi, s.m and schuff, d., 2010. what makes a helpful online review? a study of customer reviews on amazon. com. mis quarterly, 34(1), pp.185-200. https://doi.org/10.2307/20721420 peduzzi, p., concato, j., kemper, e., holford, t.r. and feinstein, a.r., 1996. a simulation study of the number of events per variable in logistic regression analysis. journal of clinical epidemiology, 49(12), pp.1373-79. https://doi. org/10.1016/s0895-4356(96)00236-3 pereira, d.g., afonso, a. and medeiros, f.m., 2015. overview of friedman’s test and post-hoc analysis. communications in statistics-simulation and computation, 44(10), pp.2636-53. https://doi.org/10.1080/03610918.2014. 931971 perkins, b. and fenech, c., 2014. deloitte consumer review: the growing power of consumers. london: deloitte llp. productreview, 2020. home builders. available at: https://www.productreview.com.au/c/home-builders [accessed 3 june 2020]. rodríguez-díaz, m. and espino-rodríguez, t.f., 2018. a methodology for a comparative analysis of the lodging offer of tourism destinations based on online customer reviews. journal of destination marketing & management, 8, pp.14760. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2017.02.006 rodríguez-díaz, m., rodríguez-díaz, r. and espino-rodríguez, t.f., 2018. analysis of the online reputation based on customer ratings of lodgings in tourism destinations. administrative sciences, 8(3), p.51. https://doi.org/10.3390/ admsci8030051 steyerberg, e.w., harrell, f.e., borsboom, g.j., eijkemans, m., vergouwe, y. and habbema, j.d.f., 2001. internal validation of predictive models: efficiency of some procedures for logistic regression analysis. journal of clinical epidemiology, 54(8), pp.774-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0895-4356(01)00341-9 tang, s., lu, m. and chan, y., 2003. achieving client satisfaction for engineering consulting firms. journal of management in engineering, 19(4), pp.166-72. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2003)19:4(166) torbica, ž.m. and stroh, r.c., 2000. hombsat—an instrument for measuring home-buyer satisfaction. quality management journal, 7(4), pp.32-44. https://doi.org/10.1080/10686967.2000.11918919 victorian building authority, 2014. research findings on slab heave. available at: https://www.vba.vic.gov.au/__data/ assets/pdf_file/0010/20107/research-findings-on-slab-heave-attachment.pdf [accessed 12 february 2021]. vittinghoff, e. and mcculloch, c.e., 2007. relaxing the rule of ten events per variable in logistic and cox regression. american journal of epidemiology, 165(6), pp.710-18. https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwk052 willems, g. and van aelst, s., 2005. fast and robust bootstrap for lts. computational statistics & data analysis, 48(4), pp.703-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csda.2004.03.018 yang, j.b. and peng, s.c., 2008. development of a customer satisfaction evaluation model for construction project management. building and environment, 43(4), pp.458-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2006.07.044 gurmu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021124 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0926-5805(98)00098-3 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2002)128:6(522 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1470-6431.2005.00473.x https://doi.org/10.2307/20721420 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0895-4356(96)00236-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0895-4356(96)00236-3 https://doi.org/10.1080/03610918.2014.931971 https://doi.org/10.1080/03610918.2014.931971 https://www.productreview.com.au/c/home-builders https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2017.02.006 https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci8030051 https://doi.org/10.3390/admsci8030051 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0895-4356(01)00341-9 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2003)19:4(166 https://doi.org/10.1080/10686967.2000.11918919 https://www.vba.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/20107/research-findings-on-slab-heave-attachment.pdf https://www.vba.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0010/20107/research-findings-on-slab-heave-attachment.pdf https://doi.org/10.1093/aje/kwk052 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.csda.2004.03.018 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2006.07.044 construction economics and building vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023 © 2023 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: oluseye, o., binga, b., ehis, o. g., aigbavboa, c. 2023. effect of anti-corruption systems’ logic on corruption manifestations in project planning and execution in nigeria. construction economics and building, 23:3/4, 186–207. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v23i3/4.8885 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article effect of anti-corruption systems’ logic on corruption manifestations in project planning and execution in nigeria olugboyega oluseye1,*, bobga binga1, oseghale godwin ehis1, clinton aigbavboa2 1 faculty of environmental design and management, department of building, obafemi awolowo university, ile-ife, nigeria 2 cidb centre of excellence, university of johannesburg, south africa corresponding author: olugboyega oluseye, faculty of environmental design and management, department of building, obafemi awolowo university, ile-ife, nigeria, oolugboyega@oauife.edu.ng doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8885 article history: received 27/01/2023; revised 20/09/2023; accepted 31/10/2023; published 23/12/2023 abstract the absence of logical reasoning in the implementation of anti-corruption measures has exerted a significant influence, leading to misguided anti-corruption endeavours in nations such as nigeria. the objective of this study is to discern the underlying rationale behind anti-corruption systems and ascertain their impact on the occurrence of corruption in the context of project planning and execution (ppe) within nigeria. the research formulated a theoretical framework that classified the anti-corruption measures into three distinct systems and elucidated their underlying rationale. the model postulates that anticorruption measures that exhibit a significant influence on corruption in the realm of ppe are those that prioritise the enhancement of reputation and remuneration. the hypotheses were extracted from the model and subjected to testing through the utilisation of multiple linear regression (mlr). the efficacy of all the classifications of anti-corruption systems was determined to be inadequate in mitigating the occurrence of bribery, fraud, and substandard documentation. the empirical findings indicate that the expansion of information access exhibits a robust logical framework and exerts a substantial influence on the prevalence of corruption within the realm of ppe in nigeria. the results of this declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 186 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8885 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8885 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8885 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:oolugboyega@oauife.edu.ng https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8885 study propose a potential strategy for an anti-graft campaign and provide insights into the importance of consolidation. keywords anti-corruption crusade in nigeria; anti-corruption systems in nigeria; corruption in construction industry; corruption in nigeria introduction the african union convention on preventing and combating corruption and related offences established anti-corruption tactics and procedures (mikail, et al., 2017; mikail, 2018). since the country was restored to civil rule in may 1999, the nigerian government has launched a host of measures (for example, whistleblowing, watchdogs, and the treasury single account) targeted at tackling corruption in various economic sectors (inuwa, et al., 2019; inuwa, ononiwu and kah, 2020). since 1999, the impact of anticorruption initiatives in the nigerian construction sector has been uncertain. the existing literature focuses on the influence of anti-corruption strategies on corruption in the banking and political sectors (nnadozie, 2021; joseph, et al., 2016). these sectors are important to the socioeconomic growth of every country, but the construction industry is more basic to the economy and the activities of the other sectors in any country (oladinrin, ogunsemi and aje, 2012; erol and unal, 2015). despite the importance of the construction sector, existing anti-corruption studies have only reviewed anti-corruption practises in the construction sector and identified the potential of e-procurement (mackey and cuomo, 2020; aduwo, et al., 2020; afolabi, et al., 2020), technical auditing (lehtinen, et al., 2022; owusu, et al., 2019; hetami and aransyah, 2020; according to the findings of these investigations, corruption occurs most frequently during the project planning and execution stages, and current anti-corrupt practises are reactive rather than proactive. as a result, there is a gap in analysing the effectiveness of anti-corruption measures in the construction industry. the main issue is that anti-corruption systems have been studied for effectiveness without considering their dimensional logic and logical focus (lehtinen, et al., 2022; oberoi, 2014; mccusker, 2006). this strategy is problematic since a single anti-corruption measure will be ineffective in combating corruption. only by combining several anti-corruption measures can an effective anti-corruption system be established. because there is no one-size-fits-all anti-corruption measure, each anti-corruption measure in the system should have a focus and priority in the fight against corruption (lehtinen, et al., 2022). according to oberoi (2014), little progress has been made in eradicating corruption as a result of faulty and misplaced anti-corruption campaigns done without reasoning. as a result, it is critical to define the various categories of anti-corruption systems and link their levels of logic to their levels of effectiveness for a practical assessment of their viability. the effectiveness of anti-corruption systems is best assessed during project planning and execution, which have been identified as the stages with the highest occurrence of corruption (owusu, et al., 2019; mackey and cuomo, 2020). the goal of this research is to foster conceptual understanding of anti-corruption systems that impact corruption in the construction sector by analysing the logic (focal points and rationale) of anti-corruption systems and establishing anti-corruption systems that satisfactorily and fundamentally address corruption in project planning and execution. to fulfil the study’s goal, the study identified and evaluated the rationale and effectiveness of anti-corruption systems on corruption in project planning and execution. this study is significant because it will aid in the identification of anti-corruption strategies that are typically feasible, significant, and compelling. the classification of the construction sector as the one with the highest level of corruption (maruichi and abe, 2019; adekunle, et al., 2019) emphasises the importance of this investigation. oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023187 literature review classifications and logic of anti-corruption systems scholars cannot agree on how anti-corruption systems should be classified; therefore, the argument continues (badawi and al-qudah, 2019; adnan, et al., 2012; fan, et al., 2022; zou, 2006; owusu, et al., 2019). the categories were built on a number of assumptions. interventionism, managerialism, and organisational schools of thought, for example, all hold that corruption stems from the organisation rather than the people who work inside it (al-hojjaj, 2020; mccusker, 2006). based on the assumption that anti-corruption systems gain importance over time, they were further classified into three types: short-term, medium-term, and long-term systems (badawi and al-qudah, 2019). furthermore, these classifications provided little guidance for effective corruption management or the successful application of anti-corruption measures in the many various economic domains. before implementing an anti-corruption measure, studies recommend assessing its logic and viability (lehtinen, et al., 2022; oberoi, 2014). oberoi (2014) claims that misdirected and untested anti-corruption initiatives have hindered corruption eradication. an effective anti-corruption system has dimensional logic as well as logical focus. this is because a single anti-corruption measure will not reduce corruption (quah, 2013; mackey and cuomo, 2020; afolabi, et al., 2020). a typical anti-corruption system should have at least three measurements, three logical foci, and three-dimensional logic (oberoi, 2014). effectiveness and anticorruption system logic should be linked. in the following sub-sections, this study classifies anti-corruption methods and discusses their effectiveness in project planning and execution: logic of precautionary anti-corruption systems and their effects on corruption in project planning and execution preventative anti-corruption systems define a system in which preventative measures are taken to prevent corruption from occurring. specific anti-corruption preventive methods have been recommended in the literature as effective in preventing corruption. financial auditing, records management, ethical code, financial accountability, project governance, key performance indicators, and technical auditing are examples of these measures (nnadozie, 2021; omadjohwoefe, 2014; joseph, et al., 2016; rizk, sobh and hamzeh, 2018; vian, 2020). the reasoning behind a precautionary anti-corruption system is primarily concerned with ensuring office integrity. technical auditing, for example, is meant as an anti-corruption strategy to analyse both the feasibility and productivity of an organisation’s operations through free and objective confirmation (hetami and aransyah, 2020). this is why sichombo, et al. (2009) advocated for the use of technical auditors early in the planning phase. the rationale of financial auditing can be found in paterson, changwony and miller’s (2019) claim that greater emphasis should be paid to studying the human costs connected with illicit behaviour through regulatory disclosure and jurisprudential practise in the battle against corruption. by analysing the success of a wide range of players and activities in a project, key performance indicators serve as an anti-corruption tool (ledeneva and shekshnia, 2011). logic of reactionary anti-corruption systems and their effects on corruption in project planning and execution reactionary anti-corruption systems respond to corruption without preventing it. reactionary anticorruption systems include investigation and enforcement, rule of law compliance, sustainable investigative capacity, contractor blacklisting and de-registration, social media user oversight, and ngo oversight (krastev, 2003; zou, 2006; sibanda, 2005; mattoni and odilla, 2021; cartwright, liu and raddats, 2021). reactionary anti-corruption strategies emphasise effective punishment for corruption and project delivery transparency ( jang, park and lee, 2012). for instance, fan, et al. (2022) stated that the law and regulation oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023188 enforcement system require all projects to go through the bidding process, tightens control over different types of projects, improves tendering management and supervision, and makes party interactions more transparent. krastev (2003) called rule of law compliance the fastest route to anti-corruption compliance. sibanda (2005) suggests professional groups blacklist, deregister, and revoke contractor licences to align anti-corruption strategies and campaigns. social media users oversee individuals’ integrity by delivering information to the public to increase transparency and receptivity (cartwright, liu and raddats, 2021; mattoni and odilla, 2021). by using freedom of information legislation to gain access to essential governmental services that would otherwise require bribery, ngos improve transparency and integrity (peisakhin and pinto, 2010). logic of strategic anti-corruption systems and their effects on corruption in project planning and execution strategic anti-corruption systems predict corruption and choose the most crucial operational or political measures to combat it. strategic anti-corruption systems usually involve collaboration, partnership, technology, policy change and development, capacity building, and systemic change. anti-corruption scholars recommend whistleblower policy, cashless policy, e-procurement or e-government, due process in public procurement, increased information access, accountability (political, social, and economic), the treasury single account (tsa) initiative, and the integrated payroll and personnel information system (ippis) for strategic anti-corruption systems (ulain and hussain, 2020; folorunso and simeon, 2021). promoting openness and availability of information helps prevent corruption by enhancing office and individual integrity (ulain and hussain, 2020). by connecting citizens to their government digitally to obtain information and services, e-government boosts public officers’ integrity (sheryazdanova and butterfield, 2017). political, social, and economic accountability allow citizens to hold politicians accountable through civic involvement, promoting transparency, accountability, and integrity (hamiltonhart, 2001). to protect public officials, the tsa combined government bank accounts, payments, and receipts (bashir, 2016). ippis protects public personnel against corrupt risks in the former system or manual salary calculation (folorunso and simeon, 2021). public procurement due process controls public construction projects and fights corruption in project planning and procurement, promoting procurement integrity (ebekozien, 2020; dza, et al., 2018). no anti-corruption system is all-encompassing. to improve and implement an anti-corruption system, its viability must be assessed (quah, 2013). this study fills a significant research gap. research framework and hypothesis figure 1 depicts the theoretical model that underpins this research. the model suggests anti-graft system classifications and priorities. anti-graft systems are classified as reactionary, precautionary, or strategic. adnan, et al. (2012), bertot, jaeger and grimes (2010), mccusker (2006), and al-hojjaj (2020) contend that the priorities of anti-graft systems are typically positioned on the enhancement of the integrity of officeholders (individuals or offices) and retribution (to discourage corruption) or restitution (to combat corruption). the model works by connecting the logic levels of anti-corruption systems to their levels of efficacy. the degrees of priority determine the levels of logic of an anti-corruption system (outstanding logic, good logic, fair logic, and poor logic). priorities are divided into two categories: high priority (person integrity and reparation) and low priority (office integrity and retaliation). the logical focus of the anticorruption system determines its level of efficacy. the model identifies four levels of effectiveness (very strong effect, moderately strong effect, weak effect, and very weak effect). anti-corruption methods that focus on both high and low priorities are depicted to have excellent rationale and a very powerful effect on reducing corruption. anti-corruption systems that focus solely on high priorities are regarded as having solid reasoning and a somewhat strong effect on corruption reduction. an anti-corruption strategy with a concentration on high priorities and one or two low priorities has a oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023189 fair logic but a minimal effect on decreasing corruption. anti-corruption programmes that focus solely on low-priority issues are regarded as having poor rationale and a negligible effect. the arguments of mccusker (2006), quah (2013), cartwright, liu and raddats (2021), badawi and al-qudah (2019), fan, et al. (2022), al-hojjaj (2020), nnadozie (2021), and rizk, sobh and hamzeh (2018) are used to establish the levels of logic and priorities of anti-corruption systems. according to mccusker (2006), encouraging rule-abiding behaviour would help people be disciplined and grasp what is expected of them and what will happen if the rules are broken. individuals who follow the rules are also able to be themselves and perform their tasks diligently. however, focusing on crime and retribution is a low-priority approach because it will only result in the imprisonment of corrupt persons and will only attack the symptoms of corruption (quah, 2013; al-hojjaj, 2020; lehtinen, et al., 2022). such a system will have little impact because it reduces the anti-corruption component of punishment. this is because the corrupt individual appears to prioritise the potential of being detected over the punishment that could result from interception (oberoi, 2014; cartwright, liu and raddats, 2021). this means that, while fighting corruption and ensuring the integrity of public offices are important, a solid and effective anti-graft system would entail the development of a set of incentives to improve integrity by rewarding rule-abiding citizens and discouraging rule-aversion. it is logical to focus on the individuals who commit corrupt acts rather than the office or the actual corrupt conduct. thus, this study hypothesises that: hypotheses 1: there is an inverse relationship between anti-corruption systems’ logic and corruption manifestation in project planning and execution. hypothesis 1a (h1a): anti-corruption systems with outstanding logic will have a very strong effect on corruption manifestations in project planning and execution. classifications high priority – integrity of individuals low priority – integrity of office low priority – retribution high priority – restitution logic pr ec au tio na ry m ea su re s financial auditing * * poor records management * * * fair ethical code * * fair contract monitoring * poor contractual compliance * * * * outstanding financial accountability * * * * outstanding international and national standards * * good project governance * * poor transaction analysis * * poor key performance indicators * * good technical auditing * * poor re ac tio na ry m ea su re s investigation and enforcement * * poor rule of law compliance * * * good sustainable investigative capacity * * fair contractor blacklisting and de-registration * * poor license revocation by the professional bodies * * poor oversight by social media users * * good oversight by ngos * * good oversight by civil society * * good st ra te gi c m ea su re s increased information access * * good e-procurement * * fair political accountability * * fair social accountability * * fair economic accountability * * fair treasury single account * * poor ippis * * poor whistle blower policy * * poor cashless policy * * fair due process in public procurement * * fair k ey concentration logic focus on both high and low priorities outstanding focus on only high priorities good focus on one high priority and one or two low priorities fair focus on only low priorities poor figure 1. classifications and logic of anti-corruption systems (source: figure formulated from badawi and al-qudah, 2019; fan, et al., 2022; owusu, et al., 2019; mccusker, 2006; lehtinen, et al., 2022) oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023190 hypothesis 1b (h1b): anti-corruption systems with good logic will have a moderately strong effect on corruption manifestations in project planning and execution. hypothesis 1c (h1c): anti-corruption systems with fair logic will have a weak effect on corruption manifestation in project planning and execution. hypothesis 1d (h1d): anti-corruption systems with poor logic will have a very weak effect on corruption manifestation in project planning and execution. the hypothesised relationships in the hypotheses are summarised in figure 2. the main hypothesis, as shown in figure 2, illustrates that there is an inverse relationship between anti-corruption systems and corruption manifestations in project planning and execution. this hypothesis is based on the insights from oberoi (2014), mccusker (2006), and rizk, sobh and hamzeh (2018). figure 2. research framework methods the study focuses on the construction industry in nigeria; hence the study population are construction stakeholders (architect, builder, mechanical engineer, electrical engineer, quantity surveyor, town planner, and structural/civil engineer) in lagos state, nigeria. the study’s sample size was determined by randomly selecting the research participants from each of the professional categories. this gives a total sample size of 181. this sample size is considered appropriate because the rule of thumb for establishing the permissible sample size for multiple linear regression states that at least 10 observations per variable should be included (vanvoorhis and morgan, 2007). this study has four major variables, resulting in a sample size of at least 40 people. random sampling technique was preferred to other techniques because it is free from bias, easy to implement, enables the making of statistical inferences about a population, helps ensure high internal validity, and allows all the units in the population to have an equal chance of being selected (etikan and bala, 2017). the social-demographic variables of the research participants included profession (architect – 15.7%, builder – 31.5%, mechanical engineer – 13.5%, electrical engineer – 6.7%, quantity surveyor – 13.5%, town planner – 9%, structural/civil engineer – 10%), education level (phd – 2.2%, msc – 24.7%, bsc – oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023191 42.7%, hnd – 24.7%), experience (less than 5 years – 24.7%, 5-10 years – 33.7%, 11 – 15 years – 34.8%, 16 years and above – 6.7%), and projects participation (less than 5 projects – 33.7%, 5 – 10 projects – 30.3%, 11-15 projects – 20.2%, 16-20 projects – 6.7%, more than 21 projects – 9%). anti-corruption systems and corruption manifestation in project planning and execution are the main constructs for this study. twenty-four (24) indicators were used to measure corruption manifestation in project planning and execution, while the anti-corruption system was divided into three subconstructs, namely, precautionary, reactionary, and strategic systems. the indicators for corruption manifestations were adopted from olugboyega, et al., (2023). the anti-corruption systems were formulated from the anticorruption measures identified from fan, et al. (2022), bertot, jaeger and grimes, (2010), nnadozie (2021), and owusu, et al. (2019). precautionary systems were measured using eleven (11) variables, reactionary systems were measured using eight (8) variables, and strategic systems were measured using ten (10) variables. the measured variables for these subconstructs are presented in table 2. the questionnaire was subjected to content validation prior to the survey by delivering it to twelve subject specialists, who examined the contents of the questionnaire items to see if they represented the whole theoretical construct of the planned model of the problem under examination. sixteen postgraduate students were also used to pilot-test the questionnaire. the professionals and postgraduate students completed the survey and provided feedback to help enhance the questionnaire. the internal consistency of the items in the questionnaire was verified using cronbach’s alpha to see if the items were consistent. the value of cronbach’s alpha ranged between 0.77 to 0.89. taber (2018) considers this range to be acceptable. the questionnaire survey to test the hypotheses was self-administered to a random sample of 181 construction stakeholders in lagos state, nigeria. the questionnaire was divided into three fundamental areas: the sociodemographic profile of respondents, corruption manifestations in project planning and execution, and anti-corruption systems impacting the corruption manifestations. respondents were approached to offer their viewpoints as per the inquiries, adhering to the instructions given in each part. multiple linear regression (mlr) was utilised to test the hypotheses. the hypotheses were accepted or rejected based on their nature (positive or negative). only hypotheses with a negative coefficient are acceptable because the hypotheses, as stated in section 2.2, suggest an inverse relationship between anticorruption systems’ logic and corruption manifestation in project planning and execution. the strength of the significance of the hypotheses was determined, as recommended by evans (1996), as follows: very weak significance (0.00–0.19), weak significance (0.20–0.39), moderate significance (0.40–0.59), strong significance (0.60–0.79), and very strong significance (0.80 and above). mlr was selected for data analysis because it allows the assessment of the strength of the relationship between an outcome (the dependent variable) and several predictor variables as well as the importance of each of the predictors to the relationship. mlr is effective in determining the effect of each of the explanatory variables on the response variable and predicting the value of the response variable for a given value of explanatory variable (maxwell, 2000). before conducting the mlr, the anti-corruption systems and corruption indicators in project planning and execution were tested for reliability and significance. table 1 presents the results of the reliability test. formal testing such as tolerance, variance inflation factor (vif), and durbin-watson tests were conducted to recognise the presence of multicollinearity issues in the variables. vif is useful in solving multicollinearity in a regression analysis and identifying which variables are contributing to the multicollinearity. the higher the vif value for a variable, the more it contributes to multicollinearity (maxwell, 2000). removing variables with high vif values can help reduce multicollinearity and improve the accuracy and stability of the regression model. tolerance describes the proportion of the variance of a variable in the equation that is not accounted for by other independent variables in the equation. it measures the influence of one independent variable on all other independent variables (turner, 2020). the durbin watson test checks for auto correlation in the residuals of a statistical oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023192 table 1. collinearity statistics for the multiple linear regression model constant lower bound upper bound tolerance vif durbinwatson r2 f-stat. t-stat. eigen value condition index (constant) 3.360 6.03 2.149 0.544 2.427 7.036 29.071 1.000 bribery 4.695 .040 .493 .354 2.827 1.998 0.663 3.994 6.833 influence peddling 4.384 -.362 .206 .180 5.540 1.992 0.723 5.322 9.203 altering of specifications 6.099 -.403 .235 .148 6.780 2.448 0.671 4.143 5.703 fraud 3.777 -.592 .051 .133 7.515 2.208 0.644 3.677 5.053 embezzlement 3.882 .001 .450 .303 3.298 2.003 0.452 1.676 3.534 dishonesty 3.929 -.711 .000 .163 6.141 2.555 0.524 2.239 4.311 conducive attitudes 3.693 -.345 .245 .239 4.192 2.047 0.735 5.640 4.642 solicitation 3.711 -.759 .088 .080 12.51 2.598 0.639 3.595 5.394 quackery 4.112 -.303 .215 .196 5.107 1.914 0.589 2.910 4.310 incompetence 3.674 -.244 .307 .184 5.429 1.932 0.774 6.987 9.436 client-abuse 6.614 -.507 .318 .077 13.03 2.301 0.724 5.328 6.150 carelessness 4.442 -.247 .154 .416 2.402 1.983 0.705 4.856 5.574 tax evasion 4.123 .003 .586 .115 8.682 2.394 0.753 6.191 0.253 poor documentation 0.182 -.409 .124 .194 5.143 2.553 0.649 3.768 3.406 collusion 2.191 -.465 .186 .121 8.235 2.263 0.558 2.569 6.815 kickbacks 5.218 -.136 .438 .136 7.374 2.319 0.693 4.591 5.965 facilitation payments 4.887 -.080 .192 .437 2.287 2.141 0.697 4.677 5.181 patronage 4.083 -.667 -.125 .176 5.680 2.627 0.600 3.047 4.384 money laundering 4.243 .087 .491 .259 3.860 2.130 0.635 3.536 5.269 non-compliance with contract 3.822 -.541 .050 .136 7.348 1.475 0.474 1.830 5.336 conditions of contracts with vague terms of reference 5.146 -.144 .241 .308 3.247 2.346 0.697 4.687 4.411 leaking of lowest price to the preferred contractors 4.436 -.109 .532 .094 10.68 2.360 0.864 12.965 4.137 falsely increasing the quantities of certified works 3.504 -.310 .339 .116 8.615 2.336 0.578 2.789 6.215 fraudulently increased variation claims 2.228 -.219 .354 .176 5.669 2.435 4.333 3.327 6.150 oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023193 regression analysis. if auto correlation exists, it undervalues the standard error and may cause the researcher to believe that predictors are significant when in reality they are not (turner, 2020). results data reliability and significance tests according to the information presented in table 1, none of the vif values are greater than 10, while all of the tolerance results are greater than 0. this demonstrates that the anti-corruption systems are able to explain the symptoms of corruption to a large degree. the findings of the tolerance test reveal the degree to which the beta coefficients used in the regression model are impacted by the anti-corruption systems contained inside the model. the findings of the durbin-watson test indicate that a range of 1.50 to 2.50 is considered acceptable. this is in line with the recommendations of turner (2020). this suggests that table 2. anti-corruption systems and corruption indicators in project planning and execution anti-corruption systems mean score (ms) precautionary systems financial auditing (ms=4.17), records management (ms=4.17), ethical code (ms=3.94), contract monitoring (ms=4.24), contractual compliance (ms=4.12), financial accountability (ms=4.30), international and national standards (ms=4.08), project governance (ms=3.92), transaction analysis (ms=4.12), key performance indicators (ms=4.15), technical auditing (ms=4.15) reactionary systems investigation and enforcement (ms=4.06), rule of law compliance (ms=3.76), sustainable investigative capacity (ms=3.81), contractor blacklisting and de-registration (ms=3.92), license revocation by the professional bodies (ms=3.99), oversight by social media users (ms=3.31) oversight by ngos (ms=3.650), oversight by civil society (ms=3.60) strategic systems increased information access (ms=3.65), e-procurement (ms=3.31), political accountability (ms=3.43), social accountability (ms=3.54), economic accountability (ms=3.97), treasury single account (ms=3.83), ippis (ms=3.00), whistle blower policy (ms=3.81), cashless policy (ms=3.92), due process in public procurement (ms=3.81) corruption indicators in project planning and execution bribery (ms=4.64), influence peddling (ms=4.07), altering of specifications (ms=3.80), fraud (ms=4.11), embezzlement (ms=4.20), dishonesty (ms=3.91), conducive attitudes (ms=4.00), solicitation (ms=3.77), quackery (ms=4.21), incompetence (ms=4.33), client-abuse (ms=3.93), carelessness (ms=3.85), tax evasion (ms=3.90), poor documentation (ms=3.89), collusion (ms=3.80), kickbacks (ms=3.75), facilitation payments (ms=4.11), patronage (ms=4.15), money laundering (4.03), non-compliance with contract (ms=4.06), conditions of contracts with vague terms of reference (ms=4.04), leaking of lowest price to the preferred contractors (ms=4.04), falsely increasing the quantities of certified works (ms=3.85), fraudulently increased variation claims (ms=3.92) oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023194 the variables do not exhibit any first-order autocorrelation with one another. according to the findings, the model does not suffer from a true case of multicollinearity, and the measured variables are found to be objective, consistent, and reliable for mlr. table 2 presents the findings of a significance test that was run using the mean scores on the items in the survey. because each of the factors has a mean score that is higher than 3.21, it can be deduced that they all have a very significant impact on the outcome. logic of precautionary anti-corruption systems and their effects on corruption in project planning and execution the effects of precautionary anti-corruption systems (pacs) logic on corruption in project planning and execution are presented in table 3. as demonstrated in the data, the pacs has a substantial impact on manifestations of corruption during project planning and execution. pacs with outstanding logic (contractual compliance and financial accountability) have a significant impact on corruption manifestations during project planning and execution. this lends credence to hypothesis 1a. pacs with good logic (international and national standards and kpis) has a moderate effect on corruption manifestations during project planning and execution. this supports hypothesis 1b. it was discovered that pacs with poor logic (financial auditing, contract monitoring, project governance, transaction analysis, and technical auditing) had a negligible impact on the manifestation of corruption in project planning and execution. this supports hypothesis 1d. a pacs with fair logic includes record management and a code of ethics. in accordance with hypothesis 1c, they were found to have a minimal effect on corruption manifestation during project planning and execution. in addition, the table revealed that ethical code has a highly significant and negative effect on changing specifications (r = -1.032, p = 0.000) and money laundering (r = -0.924, p = 0.000). the correlation between technical auditing and embezzlement is statistically significant and negative (r = -0.843, p = 0.000). there was an inversely significant relationship between financial accountability and altering of specifications (r = -0.772, p = 0.000), solicitation (r = -0.629, p = 0.000), client abuse (r = -0.630, p = 0.000), facilitation payment (r = -0.708, p = 0.000), and fraud (r = -0.705, p = 0.000). the correlation between key performance indicators and embezzlement (r = -0.776, p = 0.000) and money laundering (r = -0.661, p = 0.000) the relationship between ethical code and carelessness (r = -0.660, p = 0.000), tax evasion (r = -0.621, p = 0.000), kickbacks (r = -0.688, p = 0.001), and conditions of contracts with imprecise terms of reference (r = -0.623, p = 0.001) is unambiguously and negatively correlated. the relationship between influence peddling and international and national standards is robust and negative (r = -0.689, p = 0.000). international and national standards have a moderately negative relationship with modifying specifications (r = -0.427, p = 0.000), solicitation (r = -0.501, p = 0.000), carelessness (r = -0.458, p = 0.000), falsely increasing the quantities of certified works (r = -0.415, p = 0.000), and fraudulently increasing variation claims (r = -0.450, p = 0.000).a moderately negative relationship exists between financial accountability and embezzlement (r = -0.548, p = 0.000), conducive attitudes (9r = -0.450, p = 0.004), incompetence (r = -0.424, p = 0.000), negligence (r = -0.591, p = 0.000), and kickbacks (r = -0.433, p = 0.001). technical auditing is moderately and negatively associated with negligence (r = -0.593, p = 0.000), facilitation payment (r = -0.591, p = 0.000), and patronage (r = -0.544, p = 0.000), as shown in the table. while dishonesty and contractual compliance have a moderately negative relationship with embezzlement (r = -0.494, p = 0.001), ethical code and contract monitoring have a moderately negative relationship with embezzlement (r = -0.533, p = 0.000). ethical code was found to be negatively and moderately related to client abuse (r = -0.532, p = 0.000), while kpi was found to be negatively and moderately related to incompetence (r = -0.450, p = 0.000). governance of a project has a moderately negative correlation with both quackery (r = -0.507, p = 0.000) and contract non-compliance (r = -0.594, p = 0.000). oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023195 table 3. mlr of the effects of precautionary anti-corruption systems’ logic on corruption in project planning and execution corruption manifestations β1 β2 β3 β4 β5 β6 β7 β8 β9 β10 β11 p-value bribery 0.267 -0.078 -0.084 -0.270 0.225 -0.355 -0.050 -0.044 0.031 -0.094 -0.336 0.002 influence peddling 0.040 0.065 -0.221 -0.212 0.047 0.048 -0.689 -0.101 -0.157 -0.161 0.205 0.000 altering of specifications -0.106 0.288 -1.032 -0.154 0.320 -0.772 -0.427 -0.253 0.273 -0.248 -0.308 0.000 fraud 0.151 0.309 -0.145 -0.520 -0.081 -0.705 0.085 0.152 0.030 0.219 -0.302 0.000 embezzlement -0.173 0.421 -0.533 -0.561 -0.028 -0.548 0.197 0.501 0.137 -0.776 -0.843 0.000 dishonesty -0.233 0.472 -0.468 0.074 -0.494 0.267 -0.259 0.203 -0.062 -0.259 0.222 0.004 conducive attitudes 0.181 0.039 -0.005 -0.202 0.093 -0.450 -0.022 0.059 -0.134 0.235 -0.352 0.000 solicitation 0.218 -0.316 -0.210 -0.066 0.788 -0.629 -0.501 -0.297 -0.180 0.401 0.120 0.000 quackery -0.009 -0.161 0.105 0.252 0.081 -0.063 0.536 -0.507 -0.182 0.080 0.407 0.000 incompetence 0.111 0.020 -0.284 -0.108 0.319 -0.424 0.352 -0.290 0.240 -0.450 -0.127 0.000 client-abuse 0.243 0.097 -0.532 -0.098 0.219 -0.630 -0.001 0.071 -0.201 0.285 -0.375 0.000 carelessness 0.229 0.365 -0.660 -0.087 0.146 -0.591 -0.458 0.204 -0.274 0.280 -0.593 0.000 tax evasion -0.016 -0.209 -0.621 0.119 0.183 -0.153 -0.080 -0.057 -0.346 0.176 0.390 0.000 poor documentation 0.126 0.451 -0.407 0.215 -0.106 -0.093 -0.139 0.025 -0.074 -0.221 0.011 0.000 collusion 0.285 0.271 -0.392 0.001 0.035 -0.190 0.139 0.148 -0.087 -0.388 -0.296 0.001 kickbacks -0.111 0.104 -0.668 -0.316 0.130 -0.433 -0.344 -0.087 0.112 -0.232 -0.260 0.000 facilitation payments 0.193 0.214 0.179 -0.002 0.280 -0.708 -0.110 -0.058 -0.206 0.112 -0.591 0.000 patronage -0.121 0.549 0.003 -0.360 -0.311 -0.331 -0.139 0.372 0.261 -0.101 -0.544 0.000 money laundering -0.018 0.481 -0.924 -0.251 -0.313 -0.133 -0.293 0.131 0.557 -0.661 -0.069 0.000 non-compliance with contract 0.650 -0.114 -0.369 -0.315 0.379 -0.305 -0.253 -0.594 0.321 0.298 0.354 0.000 conditions of contracts with vague terms of reference 0.193 0.058 -0.623 0.264 0.034 -0.048 -0.264 -0.040 -0.150 0.321 0.245 0.001 leaking of lowest price to the preferred contractors -0.101 0.210 -0.393 0.041 -0.239 0.041 -0.259 -0.059 -0.163 -0.106 0.153 0.000 falsely increasing the quantities of certified works 0.361 -0.311 -0.406 0.199 -0.009 0.410 -0.415 -0.220 -0.326 -0.094 0.416 0.000 fraudulently increased variation claims 0.286 0.229 -0.268 0.121 -0.331 0.442 -0.450 0.167 -0.352 0.034 0.552 0.000 logic poor fair fair poor outstanding outstanding good poor poor good poor support for hypotheses support h1d support h1c support h1c support h1d support h1a support h1a support h1b support h1d support h1d support h1b support h1d β1=financial auditing; β2=records management; β3=ethical code; β4=contract monitoring; β5=contractual compliance; β6=financial accountability; β7=international and national standards; β8=project governance; β9=transaction analysis; β10=kpis; β11=technical auditing oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023196 logic of reactionary anti-corruption systems and their effects on corruption in project planning and execution as shown in table 4, among the reactionary anti-corruption systems (racs) with a good logic, oversights by ngos are the only ones that have a relatively strong effect on the manifestations of corruption in project planning and execution, which lends support to hypothesis 1b. despite having good logic, rule of law compliance, oversight by social media users, and oversight by civil society did not have a fairly substantial effect on the manifestations of corruption in project design and execution. racs with fair logic (sustainable investigative capacity) has only a marginal impact on the manifestations of corruption in project planning and execution. this lends credence to hypothesis 1c by providing support for it. racs with poor logic (investigation and enforcement, contractor blacklisting and de-registration, and license revocation) have a very limited impact on the manifestation of corruption in project planning and execution. this provides support for hypothesis 1d. table 4 displays the interrelationships between reactionary anti-corruption systems (racs) and corruption manifestations in project planning and implementation. the relationship between contractor blacklisting, deregistration, and tax evasion is significant and negative, as shown in the table (r = -0.835, p = 0.000). there is a strong negative correlation between ngo oversight and changing specifications (r = -0.618, p = 0.000), dishonesty (r = -0.701, p = 0.000), client abuse (r = -0.614, p = 0.000), negligence (r = -0.661, p = 0.000), and favouritism (r = -0.603, p = 0.000). the table revealed that contractor blacklisting and de-registration are strongly and negatively associated with solicitation (r = -0.723, p = 0.000), kickbacks (r = -0.596, p = 0.000), and conditions of contracts with ambiguous terms of reference (r = -0.536, p = 0.000). there was a moderately negative association between contractor blacklisting and specification alteration (r = -0.471, p = 0.000) and dishonesty (r = -0.337). the correlation between oversight by ngos and embezzlement (r = -0.557, p = 0.000), a conducive attitude (r = -0.483, p = 0.000), collusion (r = -0.464, p = 0.000), money laundering (r = -0.509, p = 0.000), and conditions of contracts with vague terms of reference (r = -0.579, p = 0.000) was moderately negative. the relationship between sustainable investigative capacity and facilitation payments was moderately negative (r = -0.407, p = 0.000). the table reveals that all racs have a very tenuous relationship with at least one manifestation of corruption in project planning and execution. civil society oversight is only marginally and negatively associated with contract noncompliance (r = -0.079, p = 0.000). table 4. mlr of the effects of reactionary anti-corruption systems’ logic on corruption in project planning and execution corruption manifestations β1 β2 β3 β4 β5 β6 β7 β8 p-value bribery -0.047 0.294 -0.143 -0.139 0.151 0.056 -0.396 0.289 0.002 influence peddling 0.160 0.305 0.179 -0.362 0.320 -0.047 -0.338 0.032 0.000 altering of specifications -0.180 0.271 0.360 -0.471 0.612 0.071 -0.618 0.253 0.000 fraud 0.043 0.007 -0.006 0.010 0.078 0.062 -0.381 0.526 0.000 embezzlement -0.315 0.238 0.587 0.401 -0.348 -0.045 -0.557 0.375 0.000 dishonesty -0.164 -0.041 0.364 -0.337 0.327 -0.163 -0.701 0.263 0.004 conducive attitudes 0.317 -0.156 -0.287 -0.014 0.339 -0.027 -0.483 0.471 0.000 oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023197 corruption manifestations β1 β2 β3 β4 β5 β6 β7 β8 p-value solicitation 0.184 0.354 0.084 -0.723 0.721 0.067 0.025 0.205 0.000 quackery -0.175 0.137 -0.080 -0.315 0.058 -0.167 0.047 0.098 0.000 incompetence 0.171 0.358 0.069 -0.269 -0.003 -0.052 -0.212 0.055 0.000 client-abuse -0.182 -0.010 -0.320 -0.299 0.495 -0.216 -0.614 0.421 0.000 carelessness -0.145 0.387 0.131 -0.374 0.048 -0.086 -0.661 0.606 0.000 tax evasion -0.032 0.394 0.257 -0.835 0.180 0.125 -0.161 0.139 0.000 poor documentation -0.031 0.080 0.487 -0.167 0.101 -0.111 -0.376 0.257 0.000 collusion -0.072 -0.130 0.410 0.146 0.145 -0.151 -0.464 0.384 0.001 kickbacks 0.164 0.162 0.245 -0.596 0.399 0.018 -0.388 0.330 0.000 facilitation payments 0.085 0.322 -0.407 -0.310 0.221 -0.034 -0.361 0.198 0.000 patronage -0.015 0.122 -0.293 0.150 0.045 -0.047 -0.603 0.026 0.000 money laundering -0.273 0.030 0.407 -0.131 -0.210 -0.083 -0.081 -0.079 0.000 non-compliance with contract -0.090 0.490 0.130 -0.295 -0.139 0.083 -0.081 -0.079 0.000 conditions of contracts with vague terms of reference -0.046 -0.132 0.014 -0.536 0.243 -0.064 -0.579 0.480 0.001 leaking of lowest price to the preferred contractors -0.263 0.206 -0.123 -0.068 0.151 -0.015 -0.356 0.170 0.000 falsely increasing the quantities of certified works -0.290 0.512 0.065 -0.274 0.528 0.068 -0.044 0.073 0.000 fraudulently increased variation claims -0.378 0.129 -0.052 -0.256 0.522 -0.207 -0.185 0.264 0.000 logic poor good fair poor poor good good good support for hypothesis support h1d did not support h1b support h1c support h1d support h1d did not support h1b support h1b did not support h1b β1=investigation and enforcement; β2=rule of law compliance; β3=sustainable investigative capacity; β4=contractor blacklisting and de-registration; β5=license revocation; β6=oversight by social media users; β7=oversight by ngos; β8=oversight by civil society logic of strategic anti-corruption systems and their effects on corruption in project planning and execution table 5 shows the mlr analysis of the relationship between the logic of strategic anti-corruption systems (sacs) and corruption manifestations in project planning and execution. sacs with good logic (increased information access) has a minor impact on corruption manifestations during project planning table 4. continued oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023198 and execution. this supports hypothesis 1b. sacs with fair logic (e-procurement, political accountability, social accountability, economic accountability, cashless policy, and due process in public procurement) have a minimal impact on the manifestation of corruption during project planning and execution. this supports hypothesis 1c. treasury single account, integrated payroll and personnel information system (ippis), and whistleblower policy are sacs with poor logic. the result shows that they have a negligible impact on the manifestation of corruption in project planning and execution. this supports hypothesis 1d. as shown in the table, there was an extremely significant and negative association between increased information access and solicitation (r = -0.862, p = 0.000); increased information access was also found to have a strong negative association with kickbacks (r = -0.662, p = 0.000), conditions of contracts with vague terms of reference (r = -0.679, p = 0.000), and fraudulently increased variation claims (r = 0.609, p = 0.000). there was a moderately negative correlation between increased information access and dishonesty (r = -0.486, p = 0.000), client abuse (r = -0.461, p = 0.000), money laundering (r = -0.453, p = 0.000), and disclosing the lowest price to preferred contractors (r = -0.506, p = 0.000). the correlation between cashless policy and quackery (r = -0.613, p = 0.000) and between social accountability and tax evasion (r = -0.719, p = 0.000) was determined to be overwhelmingly negative. a moderately negative relationship occurred between political accountability and embezzlement (r = -0.552, p = 0.000), increased information access and dishonesty (r = -0.486, p = 0.000), due process and carelessness (r = -0.430, p = 0.000), cashless policy and tax evasion (r = -0.420, p = 0.000), political accountability and collusion (r = -0.484, p = 0.000), and due process and falsely increasing the quantities of certified works (r = -0.523, p = 0.000). table 5. mlr of the effects of strategic anti-corruption systems’ logic on corruption in project planning and execution corruption manifestations β1 β2 β3 β4 β5 β6 β7 β8 β9 β10 p-value bribery -0.245 0.049 0.212 0.014 0.068 0.300 0.034 0.271 0.055 0.060 0.002 influence peddling -0.342 0.357 -0.044 0.152 -0.061 0.503 -0.227 -0.071 0.537 0.014 0.000 altering of specifications -0.309 0.070 0.304 0.098 0.169 0.247 0.393 0.523 0.434 -0.149 0.000 fraud 0.002 -0.148 0.065 0.068 -0.024 0.438 -0.031 0.256 0.052 -0.009 0.000 embezzlement 0.234 -0.287 -0.552 0.551 0.501 0.248 0.372 0.035 0.789 0.219 0.000 dishonesty -0.486 0.177 0.021 0.255 0.224 0.206 -0.115 0.479 0.477 -0.264 0.004 conducive attitudes -0.862 0.284 0.228 -0.071 -0.164 0.411 0.179 0.297 0.103 0.181 0.000 solicitation 0.071 -0.016 0.574 -0.178 -0.110 0.337 -0.186 -0.177 -0.346 -0.067 0.000 quackery 0.075 -0.164 0.146 0.053 0.315 0.297 -0.214 0.034 -0.613 -0.107 0.000 incompetence -0.030 0.026 0.195 0.030 0.357 0.116 0.172 0.138 -0.283 0.052 0.000 client-abuse -0.461 0.222 0.706 -0.287 0.068 0.907 -0.279 0.507 0.013 -0.393 0.000 carelessness -0.194 0.009 0.317 0.076 0.378 0.273 0.246 0.431 0.467 -0.430 0.000 tax evasion -0.377 0.219 0.789 -0.719 0.580 -0.178 0.284 0.256 -0.420 0.219 0.000 poor documentation -0.149 -0.120 -0.056 0.166 0.394 0.214 0.294 0.156 0.287 -0.259 0.000 collusion -0.280 0.186 -0.484 0.278 0.063 0.182 0.307 0.201 0.205 0.018 0.001 oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023199 corruption manifestations β1 β2 β3 β4 β5 β6 β7 β8 β9 β10 p-value kickbacks -0.662 0.387 0.413 -0.108 0.346 0.442 0.386 0.075 0.319 0.071 0.000 facilitation payments -0.335 0.015 0.288 -0.095 0.048 0.470 -0.096 0.426 -0.122 0.259 0.000 patronage -0.225 -0.103 -0.186 0.139 0.166 0.700 0.023 0.134 0.491 0.198 0.000 money laundering -0.453 0.351 -0.016 0.242 0.523 0.448 -0.077 0.757 0.646 -0.347 0.000 non-compliance with contract 0.230 0.094 0.286 -0.075 0.251 0.545 -0.216 -0.091 -0.046 -0.347 0.000 conditions of contracts with vague terms of reference -0.679 0.010 0.677 -0.347 0.245 0.119 0.131 0.756 -0.311 -0.239 0.001 leaking of lowest price to the preferred contractors -0.506 0.029 0.123 0.024 0.409 0.057 0.074 0.505 0.349 0.039 0.000 falsely increasing the quantities of certified works -0.146 -0.047 0.204 -0.332 0.258 -0.275 0.371 0.289 0.108 -0.523 0.000 fraudulently increased variation claims -0.609 -0.011 0.053 0.049 0.021 0.365 0.132 0.203 0.230 -0.345 0.000 logic good fair fair fair fair poor poor poor fair fair support for hypothesis support h1b support h1c support h1c support h1c support h1c support h1d support h1d support h1d support h1c support h1c β1=increased information access; β2=e-procurement; β3=political accountability; β4=social accountability; β5=economic accountability; β6=treasury single account; β7=ippis; β8=whistle blower policy; β9=cashless policy; β10=due process in public procurement discussion logic of precautionary anti-corruption systems (pacs) and their effects on corruption in project planning and execution in the theoretical framework, this study proposed that anti-graft systems that successfully impact corruption in project planning and execution are those that focus on improving the uprightness of people and restitution. the proposition was tested using four sub-hypotheses. the findings from the hypothesis testing revealed that among the pacs, contractual compliance, financial accountability, kpis, and adherence to international and national standards totally satisfied the conditions of the hypothesis. also, the findings revealed that financial auditing, records management, the ethical code, contract monitoring, technical auditing, transaction analysis, and project governance totally satisfied the conditions of the hypothesis. the conditions of hypotheses 1c and 1d were sufficiently met by investigation and enforcement, sustainable investigative capacity, contractor blacklisting and de-registration, and licence revocation. table 5. continued oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023200 as far as logic is concerned, the findings suggest that kpis and adherence to international and national standards are exceptionally compelling pacs with outstanding rationale. additionally, it is suggested in the findings that contractual compliance and financial accountability are extremely effective pacs with extraordinary rationale. this implies that these pacs should be prioritised in project planning and execution. for the most part, the findings revealed that none of the pacs is strong against bribery in project planning and execution. it was revealed from the findings that every one of the pacs is effective as anti-corruption measures in project planning and execution. ethical codes, kpis, technical auditing, and financial accountability are the most effective pacs for combating corruption manifestations in project planning and execution. contractual compliance, adherence to international and national standards, project governance, and contract monitoring are also tolerably effective. it could be inferred from these discoveries that professional ethics will forestall the altering of specifications and money laundering that are associated with project planning and execution (adnan, et al., 2012). it very well may be accepted from the discoveries of this study that ethical building contractors wouldn’t be indiscreet in their obligations and commitments and wouldn’t dodge tax (kuoribo, et al., 2021). the findings additionally propose that an ethical code would be viable in forestalling demand for kickbacks by public procurement officers or the inclusion of obscure terms of reference in contract agreements. an ethical code would also reduce client abuse, but its impact on misappropriation would be limited (nelson and afonso, 2019). contract monitoring additionally and limitedly affects embezzlement. this is entirely avoidable through technical means. the findings infer that technical auditing would only modestly affect patronage, carelessness, and facilitation payments. the findings also infer that it would be nearly impossible to embezzle project funds, assuming a project is intended to have kpis. likewise, it shows from the findings that a project that is planned with kpis and that has a project governance structure set up has decent potential for success in diminishing quackery and expanding contract compliance. as inferred from this study’s findings, demanding financial accountability in project planning and execution could modestly decrease misappropriation of project funds, conducive attitudes of procurement and monitoring officers, incompetence and recklessness on the part of contractors, and the giving of kickbacks. likewise, it appears that financial accountability in project planning and execution will keep contractors from soliciting contract awards, paying project procurement officers to lean towards them during pre-qualification, cheating clients, and changing qualifications to maximise profits ( jang, park and lee, 2012; mackey and cuomo, 2020; paterson, changwony and miller, 2019). according to this study’s findings, a project that adheres to international and national standards would not encounter influence peddling from unqualified contractors. the findings uncovered that a method for preventing the altering of specifications and solicitation of contracts by unqualified and inept contractors is to specify the utilisation of international and national standards in the project plan (lehtinen, et al., 2022). apparently, projects that are planned and executed to standards (international and national) would record fewer variation claims and falsifications of certified works. the findings made it known that contractual compliance could lessen dishonesty to some degree, but it does not necessarily guarantee honesty on the part of contractors. it is possible that the findings of this study will lead to the discovery of payments made by contractors to facilitate the award of public contracts, assuming that the public procurement or anti-corruption agency has long-term investigative capacity. logic of reactionary anti-corruption systems (racs) and their effects on corruption in project planning and execution in figure 1, none of the racs was theorised as having a remarkable rationale, and none was found to satisfy hypothesis 1a. oversight by ngos totally satisfied the conditions of hypothesis 1b. the rule of law, oversights by social media users, and oversight by civil society failed to satisfy the conditions of hypothesis 1b. this likewise goes against the positions of cartwright, liu and raddats (2021) and owusu, et al. (2019). oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023201 in the theoretical framework, it was anticipated that the rule of law, oversight by social media users, and oversight by civil society would have outstanding logic and would be profoundly successful in battling corruption manifestations in project planning and execution. the outcomes nullified this proposition. oversight by ngos was found to be profoundly proficient and to have outstanding logic. this proposes that oversight by ngos is a significant racs. contractor blacklisting and de-registration are very effective against tax evasion, kickbacks, and solicitation among racs. oversight by ngos weakly affects bribery. all other racs are significantly weak against bribery. as suggested by the findings, the effect of oversight by ngos on bribery and its striking impact on altering specifications, dishonesty, client abuse, carelessness, patronage, money laundering, conducive attitudes, and embezzlement make it the most valuable and compelling racs. shockingly, the findings revealed that oversight by social media users and civil society has an exceptionally limited impact in the fight against corruption in project planning and execution. this contradicts the position of cartwright, liu and raddats (2021). the weak effect of social media users’ oversight on manifestations of corruption could be due to its abusive use. however, social media users’ oversight of manifestations of corruption could help raise awareness about the fight against corruption. the findings shockingly revealed that the rule of law was of no significance in lessening corruption in project planning and execution. this depicts a critical disdain for the rule of law in nigeria (mikail, et al., 2017; mikail, 2018; inuwa, et al., 2020). the findings likewise made it known that blacklisting and deregistering contractors would dissuade them from evading tax. additionally, manifestations of corruption like solicitation and kickbacks could be deterred in public project planning and execution by blacklisting and de-registering contractors that engage in these corrupt acts. somewhat, as shown by the discoveries, blacklisting contractors that were dishonest and altered specifications on past projects would assist in decreasing the future occurrence of such degenerate acts among contractors (hetami and aransyah, 2020). the findings revealed that ngos should be permitted to supervise the planning and execution of public projects, as this would assist with adjusting contractors’ efforts to alter project specifications, disparage public officers, abuse privileges and clients’ rights, and participate in reckless and unscrupulous acts. also, oversights of public projects by ngos would respectably diminish embezzlement, collusion, conducive attitudes, and money laundering (tacconi and williams, 2020). logic of strategic anti-corruption systems (sacs) and their effects on corruption in project planning and execution increased information access adequately satisfied the conditions of hypothesis 1b. this suggests that increased information access is the best sacs. the treasury single account, ippis, and whistleblower policy satisfactorily satisfied the conditions of hypothesis 1d. the conditions of hypothesis 1c were completely met by e-procurement, political accountability, social accountability, economic accountability, a cashless policy, and due process. as anticipated in the framework, increased information access was found to be the best sacs. cashless policy, due process, social accountability, and political accountability were proposed as having fair logic; however, they were found to be compelling in combating manifestations of corruption in project planning and execution. this contradicts the positions of owusu, et al. (2019), lehtinen, et al. (2022), mackey and cuomo (2020), afolabi, et al. (2020), hetami and aransyah (2020), and sichombo, et al. (2009). in the sacs classification, the weak association between increased information access and bribery suggested that increased information access is the only sacs that is helpful in the battle against bribery. the effects of the whistleblower policy and the treasury single account on manifestations of corruption in project planning and execution were exceptionally weak and restricted to tax evasion, falsely increasing the quantities of certified works, influence peddling, solicitation, and non-compliance with contracts. the oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023202 findings additionally demonstrated that every one of the sacs is valuable as anti-corruption measures in project planning and execution, but increased information access is the most useful system (dza, et al., 2018; aduwo, et al., 2020). strategic measures that would altogether lessen manifestations of corruption in project planning and execution are increased information access, a cashless policy, due process, and political accountability. increased information access, as demonstrated by the findings, would decisively forestall kickbacks, conditions of contracts with vague terms of reference, increased variation claims, solicitation, dishonesty, money laundering, and the leaking of the lowest price to the preferred contractor. a cashless policy would sufficiently guarantee social accountability and prevent tax evasion (afolabi, et al., 2020). to a moderate degree, political accountability will decisively lessen collusion and embezzlement. with due process, there is a chance to tolerably forestall imprudence in project planning and execution. conclusions this study investigated the inverse relationship between anti-corruption systems’ logic and corruption manifestations in project planning and execution. based on the findings, the study’s proposition that anti-corruption systems with outstanding logic have a very strong effect on corruption manifestations in project planning and execution was met by pacs (contractual compliance and financial accountability). the postulation that anti-corruption systems with good logic have a moderately strong effect on corruption manifestations in project planning and execution was fulfilled by pacs (international and national standards and kpis), racs (oversight by ngos), and sacs (increased information access). the hypothesis that anti-corruption systems with fair logic have a weak effect on corruption manifestation in project planning and execution was met by pacs (records management and ethical code), racs (sustainable investigative capacity), and sacs (e-procurement, political accountability, social accountability, economic accountability, cashless policy, and due process in public procurement). the postulation that anti-corruption systems with poor logic have a very weak effect on corruption manifestation in project planning and execution was fulfilled by pacs (financial auditing, contract monitoring, project governance, transaction analysis, technical auditing), racs (investigation and enforcement, contractor blacklisting and de-registration, licence revocation), and sacs (ippis, whistleblower policy, treasury single account). thus, this study concludes that pacs are more effective than racs and sacs. pacs would unequivocally impact corruption manifestations in the construction sector. these systems would fundamentally decrease corruption in the construction sector whenever they were joined with racs and sacs with good logic, such as oversight by ngos and increased information access. increased information access was established as an anti-corruption system that is logically good since it centres around improving the integrity of individuals and restitution and would affect corruption in project planning and execution. considering the effectiveness of oversight by ngos in combating corruption, this study recommends that the independence and accountability of ngos be upgraded. every one of the classifications of anticorruption systems is not effective against bribery, fraud, or poor documentation. future examinations should research ways of tending to these corrupt acts in the construction sector. this study has made a critical contribution to knowledge through the finding that to altogether decrease corruption in project planning and execution, attention should be focused on the logic and performance of anti-corruption systems. the anti-corruption systems to focus on are contractual compliance, financial accountability, kpis, international and national standards, oversight by ngos, and increased information access. also, this study has made known the need to create a framework within which the planned effect of anti-corruption measures can be seen before implementation. this pre-implementation profiling ought to reveal the logic of the anti-corruption measures. the study has provided a mechanism for making anticorruption programmes methodical. by choosing anti-corruption systems as indicated by their logic and viability, an anti-corruption programme could be planned to save an individual in an inert and innately oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023203 corrupt climate and save the general public and organisations from corrupt individuals. the study revealed that no single methodology can be utilised to battle corruption in the construction sector owing to its complex nature and sophisticated corruption. the sector requires anti-corruption systems that can induce exclusive standards of conduct and ethics in the sector, as well as meet the international demand for battling corruption and further developing accountability, probity, and transparency in governance. implications, limitations, and future studies the anti-corruption systems that would significantly impact corruption in the construction sector include contractor blacklisting and de-registration, oversight by ngos, increased information access, and kpis. others are technical auditing, financial accountability, contractual compliance, adherence to international and national standards, project governance, cashless policies, due process, social accountability, political accountability, and contract monitoring. due to their logic, these anti-corruption systems would induce exclusive standards of conduct and ethics in the sector. they would also ensure an effective anti-corruption campaign in the short and long term and address the genuine essentials of corruption because they represent various classifications of anti-corruption systems. adoption of integrated anti-corruption systems would account for variations in anti-corruption system effectiveness and political interference caused by administration conditions, poor leadership, regulatory setbacks, and the working environment. it will also protect anti-corruption programmes from relying on legal and financial establishments or from being hampered due to shortcomings and internal corruption in legal and financial institutions. likewise, explicit anti-corruption systems should be considered for limiting corruption at individual, project, organisational, governmental, and national levels. this study is restricted by not considering the public office holders that partake in project planning and execution in various departments and ministries as research participants. future studies would profit from their bits of insight. such studies would extend the generalizability of this study’s findings. although the adoption of random sampling techniques for this research has made it generalizable to similar circumstances, the study findings and concepts of anti-corruption systems’ logic are applicable globally for designing anti-corruption systems and could serve as a theoretical framework for future studies. using the concepts of anti-corruption systems’ logic will not only enhance the external validity of the study and support the replication of this study in similar settings, but also improve the criteria, standards, and level of rigour of similar research. the effect of public tendering procedures and selection criteria on the construction sector’s corruption dynamics should be explored in future studies. the forms, structure, and moral contents of the politics of collusive tendering in the nigerian construction sector should also be explored. references adekunle, a., adewale, a.k., olaifa, o.a. and ukoh, s.n.b., 2019. statistical study on types, causes, effects and remedies of corrupt practices in construction industries in nigeria. international journal of advances in scientific research and engineering, 5(9), pp.71-80. https://doi.org/10.31695/ijasre.2019.33493 adnan, h., hashim, n., mohd, n. and ahmad, n., 2012. ethical issues in the construction industry: contractor’s perspective. procedia-social and behavioural sciences, 35, pp.719-27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.02.142 aduwo, e.b., ibem, e.o., afolabi, a.o., oluwnmi, a.o., tunji-olayeni, p.f., ayo-vaughan, e.a. and oni, a.a., 2020. exploring anti-corruption capabilities of e-procurement in construction project delivery in nigeria. construction economics and building, 20(1), pp.56-76. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i1.6964 oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023204 https://doi.org/10.31695/ijasre.2019.33493 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.02.142 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i1.6964 afolabi, a., ibem, e., aduwo, e. and tunji-olayeni, p., 2020. digitizing the grey areas in the nigerian public procurement system using e-procurement technologies. international journal of construction management, pp.1-10. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1774836 al-hojjaj, a.p.y.a., 2020. the national system of integrity: a novel approach to preventing corruption and enhancing administrative health. palarch’s journal of archaeology of egypt/egyptology, 17(6), pp.16164-78. badawi, a. and alqudah, a., 2019. the impact of anti-corruption policies on the profitability and growth of firms listed in the stock market: application on singapore with a panel data analysis. the journal of developing areas, 53(1), pp.179204. https://doi.org/10.1353/jda.2019.0011 bashir, y.m., 2016. effects of treasury single account on public finance management in nigeria. research journal of finance and accounting, 7(6), pp.164-70. bertot, j.c., jaeger, p.t. and grimes, j.m., 2010. using icts to create a culture of transparency: e-government and social media as openness and anti-corruption tools for societies. government information quarterly, 27(3), pp.264-71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2010.03.001 cartwright, s., liu, h. and raddats, c., 2021. strategic use of social media within business-to-business (b2b) marketing: a systematic literature review. industrial marketing management, 97, pp.35-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. indmarman.2021.06.005 dza, m., kyeremeh, e., dzandu, s.s. and afran, s., 2018. corruption in public procurement in ghana: societal norm or deviant behaviour? archives of business research, 6(12). https://doi.org/10.14738/abr.612.5719 ebekozien, a., 2020. corrupt acts in the nigerian construction industry: is the ruling party fighting corruption? journal of contemporary african studies, 38(3), pp.348-65. https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2020.1758304 erol, i. and unal, u., 2015. role of construction sector in economic growth: new evidence from turkey (no.68263). university library of munich, germany. etikan, i. and bala, k., 2017. sampling and sampling methods. biometrics and biostatistics international journal, 5(6), pp.00149. https://doi.org/10.15406/bbij.2017.05.00149 evans, r.h., 1996. an analysis of criterion variable reliability in conjoint analysis. perceptual and motor skills, 82(3), pp.988-90. https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.1996.82.3.988 fan, d., yeung, a.c., yiu, d.w. and lo, c.k., 2022. safety regulation enforcement and production safety: the role of penalties and voluntary safety management systems. international journal of production economics, 248, pp.108481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2022.108481 folorunso, o.o. and simeon, a.o., 2021. the gains and the pains of integrated payroll and personnel information systems (ippis) policy implementation in nigeria. journal of human resource and sustainability studies, 9(4), pp.551-69. https://doi.org/10.4236/jhrss.2021.94035 hamilton-hart, n., 2001. anti-corruption strategies in indonesia. bulletin of indonesian economic studies, 37(1), pp.6582. https://doi.org/10.1080/000749101300046519 hetami, a.a. and aransyah, m.f., 2020. investigation of corruption prevention plan in construction industries. jurnal perspektif pembiayaan dan pembangunan daerah, 8(1), pp.51-64. https://doi.org/10.22437/ppd.v8i1.8722 inuwa, i., ononiwu, c. and kah, m.m., 2020. dimensions that characterize and mechanisms that cause the misuse of information systems for corrupt practices in the nigerian public sector. the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries, 86(6), pp.12136. https://doi.org/10.1002/isd2.12136 inuwa, i., ononiwu, c., kah, m.m. and quaye, a.k., 2019. mechanisms fostering the misuse of information systems for corrupt practices in the nigerian public sector. in: petter nielsen and h.c. kimaro eds. information and oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023205 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1774836 https://doi.org/10.1353/jda.2019.0011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2010.03.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2021.06.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2021.06.005 https://doi.org/10.14738/abr.612.5719 https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2020.1758304 https://doi.org/10.15406/bbij.2017.05.00149 https://doi.org/10.2466/pms.1996.82.3.988 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2022.108481 https://doi.org/10.4236/jhrss.2021.94035 https://doi.org/10.1080/000749101300046519 https://doi.org/10.22437/ppd.v8i1.8722 https://doi.org/10.1002/isd2.12136 communication technologies for development. proceedings of the international conference on social implications of computers in developing countries, dar es salaam, tanzania, 1-3 may 2019, pp.122-34. cham, switzerland: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19115-3_11 jang, h.s., park, h.k. and lee, y.s., 2012. a study on strategies for enhancing the transparency of the domestic construction industry through foreign cases. ksce journal of civil and environmental engineering research, 32(3d), pp.231-37. joseph, c., gunawan, j., sawani, y., rahmat, m., noyem, j.a. and darus, f., 2016. a comparative study of anticorruption practice disclosure among malaysian and indonesian corporate social responsibility (csr) best-practice companies. journal of cleaner production, 112, pp.2896-2906. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.10.091 krastev, i., 2003. corruption, anti-corruption sentiments, and the rule of law. in: andrea krizan and violetta zentai, eds. reshaping globalization: multilateral dialogues and new policy initiatives. ch.ii, pp.135-54. kuoribo, e., owusu-manu, d.g., yomoah, r., debrah, c., acheampong, a. and edwards, d.j., 2021. ethical and unethical behaviour of built environment professionals in the ghanaian construction industry. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 21(3), pp.840-61. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-02-2021-0108 ledeneva, a.v. and shekshnia, s., 2011. doing business in russia: informal practices and anti-corruption strategies. russie. nei. visions, (58). paris, france: ifri. lehtinen, j., locatelli, g., sainati, t., artto, k. and evans, b., 2022. the grand challenge: effective anti-corruption measures in projects. international journal of project management, 40(4), pp.347-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2022.04.003 mackey, t.k. and cuomo, r.e., 2020. an interdisciplinary review of digital technologies to facilitate anti-corruption, transparency and accountability in medicines procurement. global health action, 13(sup1), pp.1695241. https://doi.org/1 0.1080/16549716.2019.1695241 maruichi, d. and abe, m., 2019. corruption and the business environment in vietnam: implications from an empirical study. asia and the pacific policy studies, 6(2), pp.222-45. https://doi.org/10.1002/app5.275 mattoni, a. and odilla, f., 2021. digital media, activism, and social movements’ outcomes in the policy arena. the case of two anti-corruption mobilizations in brazil. partecipazione e conflitto, 14(3), pp.1127-50. maxwell, s.e., 2000. sample size and multiple regression analysis. psychological methods, 5(4), pp.434. https://doi. org/10.1037/1082-989x.5.4.434 mccusker, r., 2006. review of anti-corruption strategies (pp.4-5). canberra: australian institute of criminology. mikail, i.k., 2018. strategies for combating corruption in nigeria 1999-2015: effectiveness and challenges. phd. universiti utara malaysia. mikail, i.k., abbas, s.s., bint ismail, n. and abdullah, m.a.i.l.i., 2017. comparative studies on strategies for combating corruption between nigeria and iraq. journal of governance and development, 13(2), pp.15-33. nelson, k.l. and afonso, w.b., 2019. ethics by design: the impact of the form of government on municipal corruption. public administration review, 79(4), pp.591-600. https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13050 nnadozie, b.c., 2021. public perceptions of nigeria police monetary bribery in awka, nigeria. phd. walden university. oberoi, r., 2014. mapping the matrix of corruption: tracking the empirical evidences and tailoring responses. journal of asian and african studies, 49(2), pp.187-214. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909613479319 oladinrin, t.o., ogunsemi, d.r. and aje, i.o., 2012. role of construction sector in economic growth: empirical evidence from nigeria. futy journal of the environment, 7(1), pp.50-60. https://doi.org/10.4314/fje.v7i1.4 oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023206 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19115-3_11 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.10.091 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-02-2021-0108 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2022.04.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2022.04.003 https://doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2019.1695241 https://doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2019.1695241 https://doi.org/10.1002/app5.275 https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989x.5.4.434 https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989x.5.4.434 https://doi.org/10.1111/puar.13050 https://doi.org/10.1177/0021909613479319 https://doi.org/10.4314/fje.v7i1.4 olugboyega, o., oyeyemi, o.a., ehis, o.g. and aigbavboa, c., 2023. effects of building contractors’ value systems on corruption manifestations in nigeria’s construction sector. international journal of construction education and research, [e-journal] pp.1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2023.2203956 omadjohwoefe, s., 2014. corruption and sustainable development in nigeria: the imperative of a trado-religious anticorruption strategy. international journal of business and social science, 5(1), pp.223-30. owusu, e.k., chan, a.p., degraft, o.m., ameyaw, e.e. and robert, o.k., 2019. a contemporary review of anticorruption measures in construction project management. project management journal, 50(1), pp.40-56. https://doi. org/10.1177/8756972818808983 paterson, a.s., changwony, f. and miller, p.b., 2019. accounting control, governance and anti-corruption initiatives in public sector organisations. the british accounting review, 51(5), pp.100844. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2019.100844 peisakhin, l. and pinto, p., 2010. is transparency an effective anti‐corruption strategy? evidence from a field experiment in india. regulation and governance, 4(3), pp.261-80. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-5991.2010.01081.x quah, j.s.t., 2013. different paths to curbing corruption: lessons from denmark, finland, hong kong, new zealand and singapore. in: research in public policy analysis and management vol 23. leeds, england: emerald publishing. https://doi.org/10.1108/s0732-1317(2013)0000023012 rizk, r., sobh, d. and hamzeh, f., 2018. studying the mindset of corruption in the construction industry-a lean perspective. 26th annual conference of the international group for lean construction (iglc), 18-22 july 2018, chennai, india. https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0282 sheryazdanova, g. and butterfield, j., 2017. e-government as an anti-corruption strategy in kazakhstan. journal of information technology and politics, 14(1), pp.83-94. https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2016.1275998 sibanda, o., 2005. the south african corruption law and bribery of foreign public officials in international business transactions: a comparative analysis. south african journal of criminal justice, 18(1), pp.1-23. sichombo, b., muya, m., shakantu, w. and kaliba, c., 2009. the need for technical auditing in the zambian construction industry. international journal of project management, 27(8), pp.821-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2009.02.001 taber, k.s., 2018. the use of cronbach’s alpha when developing and reporting research instruments in science education. research in science education, 48(1), pp.1273-96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9602-2 tacconi, l. and williams, d.a., 2020. corruption and anti-corruption in environmental and resource management. annual review of environment and resources, 45, pp.305-29. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-012320-083949 turner, p., 2020. critical values for the durbin-watson test in large samples. applied economics letters, 27(18), pp.149599. https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2019.1691711 ulain, n. and hussain, f., 2020. fighting governmental corruption in pakistan: an evaluation of anti-corruption strategies. hrvatska i komparativna javna uprava: časopis za teoriju i praksu javne uprave, 20(3), pp.439-68. https://doi. org/10.31297/hkju.20.3.2 vanvoorhis, c.w. and morgan, b.l., 2007. understanding power and rules of thumb for determining sample sizes. tutorials in quantitative methods for psychology, 3(2), pp.43-50. https://doi.org/10.20982/tqmp.03.2.p043 vian, t., 2020. anti-corruption, transparency and accountability in health: concepts, frameworks, and approaches. global health action, 13(sup1), 1694744. https://doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2019.1694744 zou, p.x., 2006. strategies for minimizing corruption in the construction industry in china. journal of construction in developing countries, 11(2), pp.15-29. oluseye et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023207 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2023.2203956 https://doi.org/10.1177/8756972818808983 https://doi.org/10.1177/8756972818808983 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2019.100844 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-5991.2010.01081.x https://doi.org/10.1108/s0732-1317(2013)0000023012 https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0282 https://doi.org/10.1080/19331681.2016.1275998 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.02.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.02.001 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9602-2 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-environ-012320-083949 https://doi.org/10.1080/13504851.2019.1691711 https://doi.org/10.31297/hkju.20.3.2 https://doi.org/10.31297/hkju.20.3.2 https://doi.org/10.20982/tqmp.03.2.p043 https://doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2019.1694744 construction economics and building vol. 20, no. 3 september 2020 © 2020 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: marisa, a. and yusof, n.a 2020. factors influencing the performance of architects in construction projects. construction economics and building, 20:3, 20-36. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v20i3.7119 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article factors influencing the performance of architects in construction projects amy marisa1* and nor’aini yusof2 1 department of architecture, faculty of engineering, universitas sumatera utara, indonesia. amy@usu.ac.id 2 school of housing, building and planning, universiti sains malaysia 11800 penang, malaysia. ynoraini@usm.my *corresponding author: amy marisa, department of architecture, faculty of engineering, universitas sumatera utara, indonesia. email amy@usu.ac.id doi: 10.5130/ajceb.v20i3.7119 article history: received 07/04/2020; revised 29/05/2020; accepted 25/07/2020; published 15/09/2020 abstract the construction industry has been accused of ineffectiveness and inefficiency because of delays, cost overruns and defects that are partly due to flaws in the design. as professionals responsible for design, architects should achieve optimum performance in the project delivery process. this study aims to investigate the factors that influence the performance of architects in construction projects. this study employs a questionnaire survey for data collection and partial least square structural equation modelling (pls–sem) for data analysis. using a census method, a total of 222 useable responses are gathered from registered architects in indonesia. results reveal significant and positive relationships between working condition, organisational support and effective design process and the performance of architects. the strongest effect is found from the influence of effective design process on the performance of architects. thus, these factors should be applied to enhance the performance of architects, thereby improving the project outcome. keywords: architects’ performance, construction projects, design process, organisational support, working conditions, working relationships. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 20 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i3.7119 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i3.7119 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i3.7119 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:amy@usu.ac.id mailto:ynoraini@usm.my mailto:amy@usu.ac.id http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i3.7119 introduction performance is a vital indicator of productivity of an individual, viability of a company and competitive advantage of an industry. thus, the construction industry has been seriously criticised for its substandard performance and appeals to identify strategies for performance improvement have been raised (liao, teo and low, 2017; hasan et al., 2018). in particular, the construction industry has been recognised to experience loss due to reworks, delays, defects and several other reasons involving professionals in the industry (nawi et al., 2009; hamza et al., 2019). several scholars have argued that these problems are partly because of mistakes in design decisions (nawi et al., 2009; kärnä and junnonen, 2017) and deficiencies in the design documents (abdallah, assaf and hassanain, 2019); thus, architects have been indicted to be responsible for errors, which occur in buildings. nawi et al. (2009) investigated the constructability concept in malaysia and found that challenges such as delays and reworks are aggravated by the weaknesses of the designs produced by architects at the design stage. similarly, a study in finland revealed that clients exhibit low satisfaction towards the performance of architects, which is induced by flaws in the design, such as incompleteness, incompatibility and inconsistency of design documents (kärnä and junnonen, 2017). design errors due to poorly prepared design documents have led to change orders, thereby generating considerable financial loss to clients (abdallah, assaf and hassanain, 2019; hamza et al., 2019). as professionals with expertise, knowledge and experience, architects play a formidable role for determining project success (oluwatayo and amole, 2011). architects are skilled professionals in the construction industry who are involved in creating new ideas and adopting new technology and innovation (yusof, ishak and doheim, 2018). the quality of the design of an architect has a connection with various aspects of performance (salvatierra et al., 2019). architects must guide their clients to prioritise project objectives, provide advice on the project feasibility and project requirement, interpret the ideas of clients into design and help them achieve the overall project objectives (luo, zhang and sher, 2017; doheim and yusof, 2020). moreover, architects must help the building occupants to fulfil their basic needs for dwellings and help them improve their quality of life by creating a place that can accommodate their activities (abisuga, famakin and oshodi, 2016; afolabi et al., 2018). therefore, the performance of architects is crucial for ensuring project success. however, studies on the performance of architects remain scarce. most studies have focused more on the performance of other construction stakeholders, such as contractors and clients, than on the performance of architects (finnie, ali and park, 2018; zedan and miller, 2018; iyer, kumar and singh, 2020). to date, little is known about the factors that can influence the performance of architects. studies in architectural fields tend to focus on design tools (li and samuelson, 2020; aburamadan and trillo, 2020), design buildability issues (van phuong, 2017; lee et al., 2018) and technology advancement that influence the profession (luo, zhang and sher, 2017; fürstenberg and lædre, 2020). furthermore, existing studies on the performance of architects fail to provide definitive evidence on which factors influence their performance. oyedele (2010) identified working condition, organisational support and design process as the top three factors that influence the performance of architects. by contrast, kärnä and junnonen (2017) assessed the performance of architects through satisfaction rating of various project participants and found that good working relationship and effective design process are significant to the performance of architects. similarly, othman and elsaay (2018) reviewed the literature and identified that lack of communication, coordination and design process as the main reasons for poor performance of architects. factors influencing the performance of architects in construction projects construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202021 this study primarily aims to determine the factors that enhance the performance of architects in construction projects. liao, teo and low (2017) called for additional research to identify strategies for performance improvement. in particular, the present study investigates whether working condition, organisational support, working relationship and design process exhibit significant positive influences on the performance of architects. in terms of theoretical contribution, the current study adopts the works of kärnä and junnonen (2017) and oyedele (2010) to provide further understanding on which of the aforementioned factors influence the performance of architects. practically, findings guide architects, employers and the professional body of architects in the industry on the process of enhancing their performance and consequently achieving project success. performance of architects performance measurement aims to help individuals, organisations or companies to establish standards and targets, gain benefits and communicate the strategy. performance can be defined as an optimal work performance by an individual or group, which relates to a certain expertise (yin, qin and holland, 2011). architects are design professionals in the construction industry where their performance is primarily related to the design quality (adinyira and dafeamekpor, 2015). however, the process of measuring the performance of architects remains unexplored. previous studies have identified several criteria for the performance of architects. the objectives of project stakeholders should be identified to achieve a successful project (afolabi et al., 2018; salvatierra et al., 2019). to do so, architects should work closely with their clients to learn the project objectives that they prioritise (adinyira and dafeamekpor, 2015; marisa, 2018). architects must realise that the common objectives of clients are the completion of the project on time, on budget and at the best quality (meng, 2012; luo, zhang and sher, 2017). therefore, the ability to identify and prioritise project objectives is an important criterion for assessing the performance of architects. salvatierra et al. (2019) argued that the works of architects are evaluated on the basis of the quality of their designs. given that a good design quality should be achieved in construction projects, the performance of architects should consider the quality and aesthetic value of their designs (al-saggaf, nasir and hegazy, 2020). another performance criterion for architects involves the production of clear, complete and consistent specifications with drawings. hamza et al. (2019) revealed that a thorough and high-functional design specification at the early project stage will help complete the project on time and reduce cost. a review of published articles from 1986 to 2016 found that the reasons for poor construction projects performance include the lack of specifications and incomplete drawings (hasan et al., 2018). in such instances, the ability to balance between meeting the needs of clients and minimising design changes is important (knotten, laedre and hansen, 2017). the construction process will not be disrupted when the design specification is thorough, clearly defined and consistent (lubis and yusof, 2016). likewise, good coordination between design and construction is another criterion for the performance of architects (korkmaz, swarup and riley, 2013). architect should collaborate with contractors and structural engineers by providing assistance in the production of quality manuals for construction works (oyedele, 2010). the conformity of an architectural design to regulations, codes and standards is another performance criterion for architects. a building design that fails to follow the building codes and standards may induce accidents during the construction and result in an unsafe building (manu et al., 2019). the discussion above identifies the eight criteria for the performance of architects, namely, ability to design within budget, time, quality and with good aesthetic; to prioritise project marisa and yusof construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202022 objectives; to produce clear and concise specifications in drawings; to assist in construction commissioning and testing programme; to reduce and rework deficiency and conform the design to the codes and standards. this study applies these criteria. factors influencing the performance of architects the factors that influence the performance of architects can be classified into i) working condition (sinesilassie tabish and jha, 2017; böckerman and ilmakunnas, 2019), ii) organisational support (young and young, 2012; lai, yusof and kamal, 2016), iii) working relationship (kärnä and junnonen, 2017; afolabi et al., 2018) and iv) design process (kärnä and junnonen, 2017; assaf, hassanain and abdallah, 2018; othman and elsaay, 2018). these factors are subsequently discussed in detail. working condition working condition in a construction project refers to the quality of working facilities that are acquired by the people which covers psycho–social, organisational and physical working environments (oyedele, 2010). challenging tasks were important for individuals’ psychological need satisfaction at work (arshadi, 2010). böckerman and ilmakunnas (2019) further found that individuals are willing to work when the work condition suits them. therefore, organisations should encourage subordinates to participate in the decision making and experience various assignments that help them feel competent and thereby influence their performance (arshadi, 2010). another criterion for working condition is the physical environment. böckerman and ilmakunnas (2019) described that a good physical working condition deals with the satisfaction of individuals in terms of level of lighting, noise, temperature and hazards, among others within their work environment. this criterion includes sufficient equipment or tools required by individuals to perform their work (sinesilassie, tabish and jha, 2017). therefore, a preferable working condition is important to influence the performance of architects. preferable working condition helps individuals to increase satisfaction towards their work and consequently improves their performance (oyedele, 2010; sinesilassie, tabish and jha, 2017). hence, the first hypothesis of this study is proposed as follows: h1. working condition positively influences the performance of architects. organisational support organisational support focuses on the extent to which individuals in an organisation believe that their contributions are valued and on the level of concern of the organization towards individual’s well-being (baran, shanock and miller, 2012). according to batra (2020), organisational support in the form of providing monetary and non-monetary benefits for the individuals will have an impact on their commitment to accomplish the project goals. organisational support is revealed through guiding individuals to execute their work (young and young, 2012). miao (2011) suggested that the performance of employees can be enhanced through implementing organisational policies and procedures that value their efforts for work. for example, innovative ideas and risk tolerance should be supported to encourage innovation and boost performance (lai, yusof and kamal, 2016). kennedy and daim (2011) proposed that firms must learn about the needs of individuals, such as for self-development or monetary compensation, to ensure that the provided support will yield improved performance. given factors influencing the performance of architects in construction projects construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202023 that organisational support is acknowledged as the most important factor for project success (young and young, 2012), it positively affects the performance of architects (oyedele, 2010). therefore, organisational support is important to influence the performance of architects. the second hypothesis is presented as follows: h2. organisational support positively influences the performance of architects working relationship good working relationship in the workplace is a factor that can influence performance. construction projects involve various parties. the performance of architects is determined at the design phase and during the presentation of the final product, which fulfils the functional, environmental and economics solutions stated in the design (kärnä and junnonen, 2017). thus, communication, harmonious relation and commitment are amongst the criteria for a good working relationship. given that communication is vital to establish a good working relationship (khanyile, musonda and agumba, 2019), individuals in the project team should communicate to ensure successful project completion. thus, architects should have the capability to communicate verbally and graphically with the project team members. a harmonious team relationship is one of the critical success factors within the construction industry (yap, leong and skitmore, 2020). a harmonious working relationship enables project team members to discuss design issues that arise during the implementation process. good working relationship is also reflected through the commitment amongst project participants. mba and agumba (2018) proposed that commitment amongst project participants is important to ensure successful project performance. however, the working relationship amongst project participants is typically problematic and generates adverse effect to project performance (kärnä and junnonen, 2017). rose and manley (2011) and afolabi et al. (2018) emphasised the quality of working relationship amongst project stakeholders for performance improvement. similarly, meng (2012) found that the working relationship between individuals and parties in projects contributes to improved performance. therefore, the present study argues that working relationship with different parties and amongst the design team is important and significantly influences the performance of architects. the third hypothesis of the study is stated as follows. h3. working relationship positively influences the performance of architects. design process effective design process refers to realistic expectation from clients or project objectives, design decisions that are consistent with project objectives, minimum design changes and effective structure for design tasks (lee et al., 2018). the success of buildings depends on the process of creating the design (yin, qin and holland, 2011). intrinsically, competencies within the design team is crucial to ensure effective design process (hamza et al., 2019). competency refers to the need for work effectiveness, the use of energy efficiency in work and to perform tasks at hand well (arshadi, 2010). architects, as one amongst the professionals in the industry, should demonstrate their capabilities in design (oluwatayo and amole, 2011). effective design process can be demonstrated through clear project definition, planning and process of achieving the project goals. effective project process includes compatibility between design decisions and the project objectives (salvatierra et al., 2019). an unrealistic project can occur when clients fail to commit to the scheduled time and design decisions. therefore, architects should be able marisa and yusof construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202024 to interpret the needs of clients and ensure that the end products fulfil these needs and the market demand. effective design process also includes good coordination within the design team (assaf, hassanain and abdallah, 2018). coordination refers to the process of scheduling and sequencing all project activities, which involves reliance of various expertise and resources (assaf, hassanain and abdallah, 2018; mitropoulos and tajima, 2019). this reliance should be considered and understood for design development, because a well-coordinated design process can prevent expensive errors that may occur during project implementation (yin, qin and holland, 2011). the discussion above suggests that the performance of architects is influenced by effective design process. therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed. h4. design process positively influences the performance of architects. methodology this study employs a quantitative method using questionnaire survey as the research instrument for data collection because of several reasons. taylor, sinha and ghoshal (2011) explained that a questionnaire survey seeks to understand a particular facet of a defined population through directing the inquiry to the sample given that the population is large and that the study aims to achieve descriptive purposes and seeks to understand phenomena by identifying influencing factors. in the present study, the population is considered large because it involves all registered architects (328 architects) in medan, indonesia. therefore, the use of questionnaires is apparently suitable for gathering necessary information from respondents who are busy and have limited time to participate in the research. secondly, the questionnaire survey is conducted for explanatory purposes, that is, questions are often devised to assess the relationships between variables to identify correlations (taylor, sinha and ghoshal, 2011). the current study has an explanatory purpose because it aims to identify the strength of the relationships between working condition, organisational support, working relationship, design process, and performance of architects. therefore, survey is an appropriate methodological strategy for this study. this study uses self-evaluation, wherein the respondents assess their own performance (zell and krizan, 2014). roch, mcnall and caputo (2011) argued that self-evaluation is accurate if it is connected with performance evaluation that exhibits behavioural aspects. in this study, the respondents are expected to evaluate whether the four aforementioned factors influence their performance in construction projects. self-evaluation can also provide important feedback and increase the feedback accuracy needed by the employers (roch, mcnall and caputo, 2011). therefore, using self-evaluation is appropriate in the study. measurement of construct the questionnaire comprises three sections. the first section aims to gather information on the background of the respondents in the study. the second section consists of four constructs that measure the factors for the performance of architects with 23 reflective items. these constructs are working condition (six items), organisational support (seven items), working relationship (four items) and effective design process (six items), which are operationalised using a fivepoint scale from 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important) that was adopted from lubis and yusof (2016). the third section measures the performance of architects in construction project with eight formative items, namely, ability to prioritise project objectives; ability to produce clear and factors influencing the performance of architects in construction projects construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202025 concise specifications with drawings; ability to design the project within budget, time, quality, without rework; assist in construction commissioning and testing programme and conform to codes and standard. these items are operationalised using a five-point scale from 1 (very poor) to 5 (excellent). table 1 provides the constructs and sources. table 1 constructs and sources constructs items scale sources architects’ performance 8 (formative) five-point scale from 1very poor to 5 excellent. oyedele (2010); adinyira and dafeamekpor (2015) working condition 6 (reflective) five-point scale from 1-not important to 5-extremely important sinesilassie, tabish and jha (2017); böckerman and ilmakunnas (2019) organizational support 7 (reflective) baran, shanock and miller (2012); lai, yusof and kamal (2016) working relationship 4 (reflective) meng (2012); kärnä and junnonen (2017) design process 6 (reflective) yin, qin and holland (2011); assaf, hassanain and abdallah (2018) data collection this study selected medan as the location for data collection. medan is the capital city of north sumatera province and has 21 districts and 151 villages (badan pusat statistik medan, 2019). the city has been developing rapidly to support the community life in the city. however, the development of urban areas has not been accompanied by the growth of green space and water catchment areas (fahreza and restu, 2016). the targeted respondents are registered architects with the ikatan arsitek indonesia (iai) who worked in medan. iai is a long-standing organisation established in 1959 that embodies professional architects in indonesia. this organisation is active in local and international activities through its memberships with construction service development board (lpjk), architects regional council asia (arcasia) and union internationale de architectes (uia). these architects are members of the parties that determine the development and growth of the city. during the time of study period, the information obtained from the secretariat of iai indicated that 328 architects were registered with iai in medan. the study attempted to cover the entire population (a census method) and 328 registered architects were contacted. a total of 300 respondents have shown their willingness to cooperate in the study and were sent the questionnaires. questionnaires were administered personally to targeted respondents because this method allows the collection of completed responses within a short period. a total of 231 responses were returned, however 222 were valid for further analysis. this study analysed the 222 responses using pls‐sem technique. the researchers used the inverse square root method to calculate the minimum sample size and indicate the representativeness of the results marisa and yusof construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202026 (hair et al., 2019; kock and hadaya, 2018). the calculation results in 221 required sample size (0.197 absolute significant path coefficient, significance level of 0.05 and 90% power level). this result indicates that the 222 useable responses in this study surpass the cut-off point. data analysis and technique this study analyses the data using pls–sem with the help of warppls 6.0 software because of three reasons. firstly, the study aims to identify the factors that affect the performance in construction projects. the study is predictive in nature, and thus, pls–sem is suitable (rigdon, 2016). secondly, the conceptual model of the study consists of reflective and formative constructs, which should select pls–sem according to hair et al. (2019). thirdly, the data were not normally distributed (hair et al., 2019). the researchers conducted a shapiro–wilk test to validate the third reason. the result showed that the shapiro–wilk was significant at 0.012; therefore, the data were significantly departed from a normal distribution and the data were not normal (razali and wah, 2011). all these reasons justify the use of pls–sem in the analysis. the study has four reflective exogenous constructs (working condition, organisational support, working relationship and design process) and one formative endogenous construct (performance of architect). therefore, the steps in the pls–sem modelling of hair et al. (2019) were performed. step 1 refers to the measurement model assessment for reflective constructs; step 2 is the measurement model assessment for formative constructs; step 3 is the structural model assessment. these steps are subsequently elaborated. step 1 measurement model assessment of reflective constructs the measurement model assessment of the reflective constructs involved three tests, namely, internal consistency reliability, convergent validity and discriminant validity (hair et al., 2019). this study used composite reliability (cr) to test for internal consistency reliability; factor loading was used to test convergent validity, and discriminant validity was tested using fornell and larcker’s criterion. the result shows that the cr and loading values of all reflective variables were above 0.7, thereby fulfilling hair et al. (2019)’s conditions. the discriminant validity test showed that the square root of the ave (where ave must be greater than 0.5) of the variable was larger than the value of the correlations between model variables, which fulfils the criteria of ramayah et al. (2018). results indicated that the reflective variables satisfied the reliability and validity requirements. table 2 presents the results of measurement model assessment of reflective constructs. table 2 measurement model assessment of reflective constructs variable/item cr item loadings discriminant validity (fornell-larcker criterion) wcond os wr dp working condition 0.849 0.697* wcond1 wcond2 wcond3 wcond4 wcond5 wcond6 (0.729) (0.696) (0.658) (0.666) (0.770) (0.653) factors influencing the performance of architects in construction projects construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202027 variable/item cr item loadings discriminant validity (fornell-larcker criterion) wcond os wr dp organisational support 0.832 0.639 0.646* os1 os2 os3 os4 os5 os6 os7 (0.655) (0.706) (0.602) (0.714) (0.579) (0.704) (0.542) working relationship 0.852 0.639 0.558 0.771* wr1 wr2 wr3 wr4 (0.599) (0.842) (0.861) (0.755) design process 0.846 0.496 0.598 0.507 0.693* dp1 dp2 dp3 dp4 dp5 dp6 (0.711) (0.657) (0.724) (0.724) (0.737) (0.593) notes: cr = composite reliability, *square root of the aves on the diagonal. step 2 measurement model assessment of formative constructs assessing the measurement model of the formative constructs comprises three steps, namely, convergent validity, the significant and relevance of the formative indicators’ weights (hair et al., 2019) and indicator collinearity. the full collinearity variance inflation factor (vif) of the formative construct is 1.470, which is lower than 3.3. therefore, no multicollinearity exists in the study, which fulfils kock’s (2017) convergent validity criteria. the weights of all the items were more than zero with significant p values (p value < 0.05), and the vifs for the formative items were less than 3.3, thereby fulfilling the limit of kock (2017). results satisfied the formative variable requirements. table 3 presents the results of the assessment of the measurement model for the sole formative construct. table 3 assessment of the measurement model for formative construct variable weight p value vif full collinearity vif architect performance 1.470 archperf 1 0.225 <0.001 1.658 archperf 2 0.225 <0.001 1.666 table 2 continued marisa and yusof construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202028 variable weight p value vif full collinearity vif archperf 3 0.205 <0.001 1.491 archperf 4 0.194 0.002 1.550 archperf 5 0.185 0.002 1.518 archperf 6 0.172 0.004 1.437 archperf 7 0.193 0.002 1.615 archperf 8 0.173 0.004 1.291 step 3 structural model assessment the structural model assessment involves lateral collinearity, the significance and relevance of the structural model relationships, the coefficient of determination (r2) and predictive relevance (q2) tests (chin, 2010; hair et al., 2019). this study assessed the lateral collinearity using average block variance inflation factor (avif) and average full collinearity variance inflation factor (afvif) values. the values revealed 1.789 for avif and 1.801 for afvif, which were below the threshold of 3.3. therefore, the study lacks collinearity issues (kock, 2017). the path coefficient was significant (p ≤ 0.001) with an r2 of 0.338, thereby demonstrating a moderate level of predictive accuracy (chin, 2010). stone–geisser q2 (cross‐validated redundancy) was also examined as the other predictive relevance evaluation (ramayah et al., 2018) and recorded 0.339 for stone–geisser q2. therefore, a strong predictive power is evident. the simpson’s paradox ratio of the model was 1.00, which satisfied kock and gaskins’ (2016) threshold. these results showed a strong predictive relevance and satisfactory fit of the structural model. figure 1 presents the structural model results on the relationships between working condition (wcond), organisational support (os), working relationship (wr), design process (dp) and architect performance (archperf ). figure 1 structural model results table 3 continued factors influencing the performance of architects in construction projects construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202029 results and discussion most of the respondents were experienced in the construction industry for 5–10 years (40.5%), 11–15 years (29.7%), less than five years (16.7%), 16–20 years (11.7%) and three of them (1.4%) had experience of more than 20 years in the industry. most of the respondents worked in private firms (96.8%). most of the firms have been established for 11–15 years (50%), 25.2% of the firms have been established for 5–10 years, followed by the 9% that have been established for 16–20 years; 8.6% of them have been established for more than 20 years, and 7.2% of the firms were established in less than five years. the hypothesis was accepted if p ≤ 0.05, in a one-tailed p value hypothesis test and the t ratio were more than 1.64 (kock and hadaya, 2016). three paths were significant: wcond>archperf path was positive (β = 0.233) and significant (p ≤ 0.001 and t ratio ≥ ± 1.64), os-> archperf path was positive (β = 0.172) and significant (p ≤ 0.004 and t ratio ≥ ± 1.64) and dp-> archperf path was positive (β = 0.285) and significant (p ≤ 0.001 and t ratio ≥ ± 1.64). the highest effects were obtained from dp-> archperf where f2 = 0.142, thereby signifying a medium effect (cohen, 1988). by contrast, the wr-> archperf path was not significant with p value = 0.494, and t ratio was 0.016, which is below the 1.64 threshold. therefore, h1, h2 and h3 were supported. table 4 shows the results of the hypotheses tests. table 4 results of the hypotheses tests hypothesis relationship path coefficient (β) std. error p value t ratios effect size supported? h1 wcond>archperf 0.233 0.064 <0.001 3.618 0.112 yes h2 os-> archperf 0.172 0.065 0.004 2.649 0.083 yes h3 wr-> archperf 0.001 0.067 0.494 0.016 0.000 no h4 dp-> archperf 0.285 0.064 <0.001 4.479 0.142 yes results reveal that effective design process positively influences the performance of architects. thus, their performance in construction projects improves when clear project definition and planning are conducted, design decisions are in line with the project objectives, a competent and well-coordinated design team exists, realistic project expectations are specified by clients and a realistic project schedule is followed. a possible reason is that design is the core service of architects, and their final product substantially depends on the ability to realise the expectations of clients (kärnä and junnonen, 2017) and the effectiveness of the process in creating such designs (yin, qin and holland, 2011). therefore, the availability of an effective design process can significantly increase the performance of architects. the result is consistent with the findings of oluwatayo et al. (2018), who found that competency, ability to understand and fulfilment of the needs of clients are amongst the top factors that influence their satisfaction towards architectural service. results also revealed that working condition positively influences the performance of architects. thus, that the presence of sufficient freedom and tolerance for executing the work, sufficient resources (e.g. software and hardware), a challenging atmosphere, adequate marisa and yusof construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202030 participation in the decision making, various assignments or tasks and good physical working condition benefits the performance of architects. one possible reason is that the majority of the respondents in the present study are from private firms. adinyira and dafeamekpor (2015) described that the private sector is profit-oriented wherein cost-cutting measures that limit the freedom of architects, availability of resources and physical working environment may be placed to maximise profit. therefore, quality work facilities, such as design space, thermal comfort, sufficient resources and freedom for executing their work to explore new approaches to achieve the project objectives increase the performance of architects, which supports oyedele (2010) findings. organisational support in terms of top management concerns towards employees’ safety and welfare, commitment towards employees’ development, empowerment of employees to set goals and achieve them, encouragement towards creativity and new ideas, appropriate feedback mechanisms and good organisational policies for effective project completion positively influence the performance of architects. such support from top management promotes positive feelings of appreciation and secured wellbeing amongst architects, thereby increasing their performance. the result is consistent with the findings of young and young (2012), who revealed that support from the top management is the most important factor for a successful project and thus performance of architects. however, the current study fails to provide sufficient evidence to support h3 (working relationship positively influences the performance of architects). one possible explanation for this result is that architects are involved with various parties throughout the construction process. kärnä and junnonen (2017) explained that architects work with clients more during the planning and design phase than during the production phase, whilst they work closely with contractors and subcontractors at construction sites during the production phase. therefore, a good working relationship with clients, contractors and subcontractors is equally important to good working relationship with superiors, co-workers and design team members. in a similar vein, mba and agumba (2018) also found that a long-term working relationship demonstrated via commitment from parties involved in the project fails to influence construction project outcome. conclusion this paper aimed to evaluate the factors that influence the performance of architects in construction projects. results reveal significant and positive relationships between working condition, organisational support and effective design process and the performance of architects. the strongest effect is obtained from the influence of effective design process on the performance of architects, thereby confirming the studies of oyedele (2010), young and young (2012) and oluwatayo et al. (2018). theoretically, the findings offer an alternative solution to the work of liao, teo and low (2017) through addressing performance issues in countries where the use of innovative methods, such as building information modelling remains lacking. moreover, findings provide empirical evidence to othman and elsaay (2018) and hamza et al. (2019) through identifying factors that influence the performance of architects. practically, the study findings help architects, employers and clients through highlighting the importance of focusing on design process, working condition and organisational support to improve the performance of architects. handling these factors in a proactive manner, such as considering these factors during project initiation, would contribute to improve their performance. factors influencing the performance of architects in construction projects construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202031 furthermore, the professional body of architects, or iai within the context of the present study, should provide a mechanism for boosting design process, organisational support and the working condition of architects. a lean (othman and khalil, 2018) or project governance (young et al., 2019) approach of executing these three factors would help to improve their performance. although this study addresses its objectives, limitations exist. firstly, this study uses questionnaire survey for data collection. future studies should include in-depth interviews to improve understanding on other important factors to enhance the performance of an architect in a construction project. secondly, the respondents are limited to registered architects in indonesia. future studies should include architects from other developing countries to obtain a thorough performance assessment, which can be generalised amongst architects in similar context to that within indonesia. thirdly, this study finds that working relationship is an insignificant factor. therefore, the relationship between working relationship and the performance of architects remains vague and should further be investigated. references abdallah, a., assaf, s. and hassanain, m.a., 2019. assessment of the consequences of deficiencies in design documents in saudi arabia. architectural engineering and design management, 15(4), pp.282-96. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2018.1561412 abisuga, a.o., famakin, i.o. and oshodi, o.s., 2016. educational building conditions and the health of users. construction economics and building, 16(4), pp.19-34. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i4.4979 aburamadan, r. and trillo, c., 2020. applying design science approach to architectural design development. frontiers of architectural research, 9(1), pp.216-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. foar.2019.07.008 adinyira, e. and dafeamekpor, c.a., 2015. clients’ perceptions of architect performance on building projects in ghana. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 141(3). https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000218 afolabi, a.o., oluwatayo, a., oyeyipo, o., ojelabi, r. and fagbenle, o., 2018. assessment of designers’ perception of post conflict housing schemes for internally displaced persons. construction economics and building, 18(1), pp.27-47. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i1.5780 al-saggaf, a., nasir, h. and hegazy, t., 2020. an analytical hierarchy process-based system to evaluate the life-cycle performance of buildings at early design stage. journal of building engineering, 31, pp.101364. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101364 arshadi, n., 2010. basic need satisfaction, work motivation, and job performance in an industrial company in iran. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 5, pp.1267-72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. sbspro.2010.07.273 assaf, s., hassanain, m.a. and abdallah, a., 2018. review and assessment of the causes of deficiencies in design documents for large construction projects. international journal of building pathology and adaptation, 36(3), pp.300-17. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-10-2017-0050 badan pusat statistik medan, 2019. kota medan dalam angka 2019. medan: bps baran, b., shanock, l. and miller, l., 2012. advancing organizational support theory into the twentyfirst century world of work. journal of business and psychology, 27. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869011-9236-3 marisa and yusof construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202032 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2018.1561412 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i4.4979 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2019.07.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2019.07.008 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000218 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000218 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i1.5780 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101364 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.07.273 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.07.273 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-10-2017-0050 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-011-9236-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-011-9236-3 batra, s., 2020. framework of socialisation, authentic leadership and effective commitment for construction professionals. construction economics and building, 20, pp.77-99. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v20i1.6706 böckerman, p. and ilmakunnas, p., 2019. do good working conditions make you work longer? analysing retirement decisions using linked survey and register data. the journal of the economics of ageing, pp.1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeoa.2019.02.001. chin, w.w., 2010. how to write up and report pls analyses. in: v. esposito vinzi et al. eds. handbook of partial least squares: concepts, methods and applications. berlin, heidelberg: springer berlin heidelberg. pp.655-90. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32827-8_29 cohen, j., 1988. statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences 2nd ed. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. doheim, r.m. and yusof, n., 2020. creativity in architecture design studio. assessing students’ and instructors’ perception. journal of cleaner production, 249, p.119418. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2019.119418 fahreza, w. and restu, r., 2016. analisis ruang terbuka hijau perumahan nasional di kota medan, jurnal geografi, 8(2), pp. 197-207. finnie, d., ali, n.a. and park, k., 2018. enhancing off-site manufacturing through early contractor involvement (eci) in new zealand. proceedings of institution of civil engineers: management, procurement and law, 171(4), pp.176-85. https://doi.org/10.1680/jmapl.17.00029 fürstenberg, d. and lædre, o., 2020. application of bim design manuals: a case study. 27th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, iglc 2019. pp.145-56. https://doi. org/10.24928/2019/0147 hair, j., risher, j., sarstedt, m. and ringle, c., 2019. when to use and how to report the results of plssem. european business review, 31(1), pp.2-24. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-11-2018-0203 hamza, m., shahid, s., bin hainin, m.r. and nashwan, m.s., 2019. construction labour productivity: review of factors identified. international journal of construction management, pp.1-13. https://doi.org/10. 1080/15623599.2019.1627503 hasan, a., baroudi, b., elmualim, a. and rameezdeen, r., 2018. factors affecting construction productivity: a 30 year systematic review. engineering, construction and architectural management, 25(7), pp.916-37. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2017-0035 iyer, k.c., kumar, r. and singh, s.p., 2020. understanding the role of contractor capability in risk management: a comparative case study of two similar projects. construction management and economics, 38(3), pp.223-38. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1590614 kärnä, s. and junnonen, j.m., 2017. designers’ performance evaluation in construction projects. engineering, construction and architectural management, 24(1), pp.154-69. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam06-2015-0101 kennedy, e. and daim, t.u., 2010. a strategy to assist management in workforce engagement and employee retention in the high tech engineering environment. evaluation and program planning, 33, pp.468-76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2009.12.001 khanyile, n.s.m., musonda, i. and agumba, j.n., 2019. evaluating the relationship between communication management practices and project outcomes: a case study of eswatini (swaziland) factors influencing the performance of architects in construction projects construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202033 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i1.6706 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i1.6706 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeoa.2019.02.001 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32827-8_29 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119418 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119418 https://doi.org/10.1680/jmapl.17.00029 https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0147 https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0147 https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-11-2018-0203 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1627503 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1627503 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2017-0035 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1590614 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2015-0101 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2015-0101 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2009.12.001 construction industry. construction economics and building, 19, pp.197-219. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v19i2.6646 knotten, v., lædre, o. and hansen, g.k., 2017. building design management–key success factors. architectural engineering and design management, 13(6), pp.479-93. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2 017.1345718 kock, n., 2017. common method bias: a full collinearity assessment method for pls-sem. in. partial least squares path modeling: springer. pp.245-57. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64069-3_11 kock, n. and gaskins, l., 2016. simpson’s paradox, moderation, and the emergence of quadratic relationships in path models: an information systems illustration. international journal of applied nonlinear science, 2(3), pp.200-34. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijans.2016.077025 kock, n. and hadaya, p., 2018. minimum sample size estimation in pls-sem: the inverse square root and gamma-exponential methods. information systems journal, 28(1), pp.227-61. https://doi. org/10.1111/isj.12131 korkmaz, s.m., swarup, l. and riley, d., 2013. delivering sustainable, high-performance buildings: influence of project delivery methods on integration and project outcomes. journal of management in engineering, 29, pp.71-78. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000114 lai, k.s., yusof, n.a. and kamal, e.m., 2016. organizational culture of the architectural firm: a case in a developing country. international journal of construction management, 16(3), pp.197-208. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/15623599.2016.1166545 lee, j.w., cho, k., hwang, t., han, j.-y. and kim, t., 2018. process for integrating constructability into the design phase in high-rise concrete buildings: focused on temporary work. international journal of concrete structures and materials, 12(1), p.81. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40069-018-0317-9 li, w. and samuelson, h., 2020. a new method for visualizing and evaluating views in architectural design. developments in the built environment, p.100005. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dibe.2020.100005 liao, l., teo, e.a.l. and low, s.p., 2017. a project management framework for enhanced productivity performance using building information modelling. construction economics and building, 17(3), pp.1-26. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5389 lubis, a.m. and yusof, n.a., 2016. what matters most: performance attribute selection in the design project delivery process. in. managerial strategies and practice in the asian business sector: igi global. pp.220-37. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-9758-4.ch012 luo, j., zhang, h. and sher, w., 2017. insights into architects’ future roles in off-site construction. construction economics and building, 17(1), pp.107-20. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5252 manu, p., poghosyan, a., mahamadu, a.-m., mahdjoubi, l., gibb, a., behm, m. and akinade olugbenga, o., 2019. design for occupational safety and health: key attributes for organisational capability. engineering, construction and architectural management, 26(11), pp.2614-36. https://doi. org/10.1108/ecam-09-2018-0389 marisa, a., 2018. analysis of architect’s performance indicators in project delivery process. iop conference series: earth and environmental science: institute of physics publishing. https://doi. org/10.1088/1755-1315/126/1/012106 mba, m.f.b. and agumba, j.n., 2018. critical success factors influencing performance outcome of joint venture construction projects in south africa: comparison of first and second order models. construction economics and building, 18, pp.74-94. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i3.5885 marisa and yusof construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202034 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i2.6646 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i2.6646 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2017.1345718 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2017.1345718 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-64069-3_11 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijans.2016.077025 https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12131 https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12131 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000114 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1166545 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1166545 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40069-018-0317-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dibe.2020.100005 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5389 https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-4666-9758-4.ch012 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5252 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2018-0389 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2018-0389 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/126/1/012106 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/126/1/012106 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i3.5885 meng, x. and gallagher, b., 2012. the impact of incentive mechanisms on project performance. international journal of project management, 30(3), pp.352-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.08.006 miao, r.t., 2011. perceived organizational support, job satisfaction, task performance and organizational citizenship behavior in china. journal of behavioral and applied management, 12, pp.105-27. mitropoulos, p. and tajima, v., 2019. constructability opportunities in the engineering design of marine pier structures: a case study. international journal of construction management, pp.1-13. https://doi.org/10 .1080/15623599.2019.1624677 nawi, m.n.m., kamar, k.a.m., abdullah, m.r., haron, a.t., lee, a. and arif, m., 2009. enhancement of constructability concept: an experience in offsite malaysia construction industry. proceeding in changing roles; new roles, new challenges. oluwatayo, a., akinola, a.o., agomuo, i.u., mozimo, s.o., onwuka, c.c. and okagbue, h.i., 2018. survey dataset on factors that influence satisfaction of clients with architectural services in lagos state, nigeria. data in brief, 20, pp.118-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2018.07.055 oluwatayo, a.a. and amole, d., 2011. architectural firms: workforce, business strategy and performance. australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11(4), pp.21-44. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v11i4.2239 othman, a.a.e. and elsaay, h., 2018. a learning-based framework adopting post occupancy evaluation for improving the performance of architectural design firms. journal of engineering, design and technology, 16(3), pp.418-38. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-10-2017-0106 othman, a.a.e. and khalil, m.h.m., 2018. lean talent management: a novel approach for increasing creativity in architectural design firms. engineering, construction and architectural management, 25(10), pp.1355-75. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2017-0139 oyedele, l.o., 2010. sustaining architects’ and engineers’ motivation in design firms: an investigation of critical success factors. engineering, construction and architectural management, 17(2), pp.180-96. https:// doi.org/10.1108/09699981011024687 ramayah, t.j.c., chuah, f., ting, h. and memon, m.a., 2018. partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem) using smartpls 3.0: an updated guide and practical guide to statistical analysis. 2nd ed. kuala lumpur, malaysia: pearson. razali, n.m. and wah, y.b., 2011. power comparisons of shapiro-wilk, kolmogorov-smirnov, lilliefors and anderson-darling tests. journal of statistical modeling and analytics, 2(1), pp.21-33. rigdon, e.e., 2016. choosing pls path modeling as analytical method in european management research: a realist perspective. european management journal, 34(6), pp.598-605. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.emj.2016.05.006 roch, s.g., mcnall, l.a., and caputo, p.m., 2011. self-judgments of accuracy as indicators of performance evaluation quality: should we believe them?. journal of business and psychology, 26, pp.41-55. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9173-6 rose, t. and manley, k., 2011. motivation toward financial incentive goals on construction projects. journal of business research, 64 (7), pp.765-773. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2010.07.003 salvatierra, j.l., gálvez, m.á., bastías, f., castillo, t., herrera, r.f. and alarcón, l.f., 2019. developing a benchmarking system for architecture design firms. engineering, construction and architectural management, 26(1), pp.139-52. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2018-0211 factors influencing the performance of architects in construction projects construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202035 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.08.006 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1624677 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1624677 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2018.07.055 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v11i4.2239 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v11i4.2239 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-10-2017-0106 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2017-0139 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981011024687 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981011024687 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2016.05.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2016.05.006 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-010-9173-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2010.07.003 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2018-0211 sinesilassie, e.g., tabish, s.z.s. and jha, k.n., 2017. critical factors affecting schedule performance: a case of ethiopian public construction projects – engineers’ perspective. engineering, construction and architectural management, 24, pp.757-73. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-03-2016-0062 taylor, b., sinha, g. and ghoshal, t., 2011. research methodology: a guide for researchers in management and social sciences. new delhi, india: phi learning private limited. van phuong, p.n., 2017. the assessment of building designs considering constructability factors. journal of science and technology in civil engineering (stce)-nuce, 11(6), pp.61-69. yap, j.b.h., leong, w.j. and skitmore, m., 2020. capitalising teamwork for enhancing project delivery and management in construction: empirical study in malaysia. engineering, construction and architectural management, pp.1-25. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2019-0581 yin, y., qin, s. and holland, r., 2011. development of a design performance measurement matrix for improving collaborative design during a design process. international journal of productivity and performance management, 60(2), pp.152-84. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410401111101485 young, m. and young, r., 2012. the rise and fall of project management: are we observing the birth of a new discipline? journal of project, program & portfolio management, 3(1), pp.58-77. https://doi. org/10.5130/pppm.v3i1.2654 young, r., chen, w., quazi, a., parry, w., wong, a. and poon, s.k., 2019. the relationship between project governance mechanisms and project success: an international data set [in press]. international journal of managing projects in business. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-10-2018-0212. yusof, n.a., ishak, s.s.m. and doheim, r., 2018. identifying factors for incorporating spatial data into bim using the delphi method. construction economics and building, 18, pp. 1-17. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i3.6031 zedan, s. and miller, w., 2018. quantifying stakeholders’ influence on energy efficiency of housing: development and application of a four-step methodology. construction management and economics, 36(7), pp.375-93. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2017.1411599 zell, e. and krizan, z., 2014. do people have insight into their abilities? a metasynthesis. perspective on psychological science, 9, pp.111-25. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691613518075 marisa and yusof construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 3, september 202036 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-03-2016-0062 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2019-0581 https://doi.org/10.1108/17410401111101485 https://doi.org/10.5130/pppm.v3i1.2654 https://doi.org/10.5130/pppm.v3i1.2654 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-10-2018-0212 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i3.6031 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i3.6031 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2017.1411599 https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691613518075 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: boadu, e. f., wang, c. c, and sunindijo, r. y. 2021. challenges for occupational health and safety enforcement in the construction industry in ghana. construction economics and building, 21:1, 1–21. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v21i1.7482 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021 research article challenges for occupational health and safety enforcement in the construction industry in ghana elijah frimpong boadu1, cynthia changxin wang1, riza yosia sunindijo1,* 1 unsw built environment, unsw sydney, sydney, nsw 2052, australia *corresponding author: riza yosia sunindijo, unsw built environment, unsw sydney, sydney, nsw 2052, australia. r.sunindijo@unsw.edu.au doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7482 article history: received: 18/10/2020; revised: 13/01/2021; accepted: 24/01/2021; published: 15/03/2021 abstract many previous studies have reported that the occupational health and safety (ohs) enforcement is poor in developing countries. however these studies have mainly focused on the broader enforcement problems and not fully considered the challenges confronting the institutions responsible for enforcing ohs standards at workplaces. in this study, twelve potential challenges were identified from an extensive literature review, then an empirical investigation was carried out via a questionnaire survey from ohs inspectors and professionals in the ghanaian construction industry. the twelve challenges were confirmed and ranked. also, analysis of variance (anova) and correlation were used to determine the statistical significance of the responses and the relationships between the challenges. based on these findings, this study provides practical strategies for government, ohs inspectors and other professionals within the construction industry to improve the ohs enforcement. the research findings can also be adopted as a basis to assess challenges confronting ohs institutions in other developing countries. keywords construction industry; ohs; enforcement; challenges; ghana declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 1 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7482 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7482 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7482 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:r.sunindijo@unsw.edu.au http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7482 introduction realising its poor health and safety performance, ghana has enacted and ratified various statutes and regulations that are aimed at safeguarding the health and safety (h&s) of workers. however, regulation which is not enforced rarely achieves its objectives and sadly this is the reality with ohs regulations in ghana. eyiah, kheni and quartey (2019) assessed ohs regulations in the ghanaian construction industry and found that laxity in the enforcement of ohs regulations is a key factor causing poor h&s performance of the industry. according to lingard and rowlinson (2005), enforcement is primarily aimed at ensuring compliance with regulations and, in that way, minimise exposure to the risk of occupational accidents and illnesses to an acceptable level. even though enforcement of ohs regulations are not the only solution to improving ohs, it is a crucial factor to achieving better ohs at workplaces. also, the rules governing the enforcement of the regulations, and the sanctions applied to offenders and discourage would be offenders, would reflect the industry’s response to the legislation (cunningham, 1998). many research findings have concluded that there is a correlation between enforcement carried out by relevant public institutions and compliance of organisations with ohs regulations (ko, mendeloff and gray, 2010). to date, many questions have been raised about the effectiveness and responsibility of public institutions in the enforcement of ohs regulations in ghana. studies by kheni (2008), kheni, gibb and dainty (2010) and appiah (2016) provided evidence of poor, ineffective and non-functional conditions of the ohs regulatory and enforcement systems in ghana particularly in the construction industry. for instance, the ministry of employment and labour relations (2017) reported that, in order to enforce compliance of ohs regulations, the department of factories inspectorate inspected a total of 48 civil and construction workplaces in 2016, which represent a tiny fraction of the total construction sites in ghana. it is therefore important to ascertain the reasons for the ineffective and unaccountable enforcement of ohs regulations by the relevant public institutions. many studies have considered challenges to enforcing ohs in developing countries (choudry, fang and rowlinson, 2008; umeokafor, et al., 2014; umeokafor and isaac, 2015; adeyemo and smallwood, 2017). for instance, choudry, fang and rowlinson (2008) presented strategies for enforcing h&s issues in developing countries and identified some factors to enforce ohs. these factors included among others, safety as a value, safety system, training and organisation, personal protection program, research and development, toolbox talks and site safety cycle. in nigeria, adeyemo and smallwood (2017) identified some problems which affect implementation of ohs legislation within the construction industry. these problems included limitations in the ohs legislation, bribery and corruption, inadequate funding of facilities and equipment, high level of insecurity, poor ohs culture among construction stakeholders, severity of penalties to offenders, and outdated ohs laws. again, on nigeria, umeokafor and isaac (2015) studied the regulatory activities of the h&s regulator and found that their regulatory activities are based on deterrence theory, while being challenged in their operations by factors such as logistics, political influence, and inadequate legislation. specifically, on ghana, a study by kheni and braimah (2014) into the institutional and regulatory frameworks for ohs administration identified that the ohs institutions were inefficient in enforcing ohs standards due to poor coordination and lack of specific ohs regulation for the construction industry. these studies have provided insights into the general problems of ohs enforcement in developing countries. however, the challenges confronting ohs enforcement institutions have been underexamined. thus, there is the need for comprehensive research to systematically consider all possible challenges that confront these institutions to effectively carry out their enforcement mandates. ohs enforcement institutions have an important role in enforcing ohs legislation in workplaces, providing advice and assisting to resolve h&s issues. in providing this delicate balancing act between enforcement and consultation, ohs institutions face numerous challenges which affect their performance. to fill this research gap, this study firstly identifies possible challenges from a comprehensive literature, then boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 20212 confirms and rank these challenges that confront the ohs enforcement institutions through an empirical investigation in ghana. literature review the literature review focuses on introducing the institutional context of ohs enforcement in ghana and identifying potential challenges to enforce ohs standards. legal and institutional framework for ohs in ghana historically, ohs in ghana traced back to the british colonial period. the concept of ohs came to west african countries such as ghana largely through the british colonial industries (asuzu, 1998). according to bavon (2000), ohs laws in the united kingdom required that the similar services be provided for the colonies. accordingly, the commercial and industrial interests that set up factories and shops within the colonies ensured that ohs programs were also in place. even before ghana’s independence in 1957, the factories ordinance 1952 ensured the protection of the health and safety of workers, especially those in the mining and wood processing industries. the factories ordinance 1952 was repealed by the passage of the factories, offices, and shops act 1970. the constitution of the republic of ghana guarantees the right of all workers to work within safe and healthy conditions. as part of the fundamental human rights and freedoms, article 24 (1) of the constitution states that every employee or person in ghana has the right to work under satisfactory, safe and healthy conditions. this provision is reinforced in the directive principles of state policy, as stated in article 36(10), which enjoins the state to safeguard the health, safety and welfare of all persons in employment. this provision covers all workers who are engaged in both the formal and informal sectors. therefore, with reference to the constitution, the government has a responsibility to safeguard the safety, health and wellbeing of all persons in employment. undoubtably, the government carries out this responsibility through the passage and enforcement of ohs legislation and related national policies and guidelines. however, currently, ghana does not have a comprehensive legislation or policy on ohs as required by the international labour organisation’s (ilo) occupational safety and health convention, 1981 (no.155). also, unlike the mining sector which has the minerals and mining (health, safety and technical) regulations, 2012 to comprehensively address occupational health, safety and welfare in that sector, the construction sector has no h&s legislations developed specifically for it. considering that construction is a high-risk industry, this limitation can adversely affect the implementation of h&s standards on construction sites. notwithstanding, some sections of the factories, offices and shops act 1970 (act 328) and the labour act 2003 (act 651), generally provide regulations on ohs for the construction industry. even though these regulations are fragmented and limited in scope (annan, addai and tulashie, 2015), they are used to discharge enforcement and complementary responsibilities towards ohs in the construction industry. also, there is the workmen’s compensation act 1987, which relates to compensation for occupational injuries and diseases, and hence, indirectly impacts on the management of ohs. enforcement of ohs laws in ghana has mainly been and is likely to continue to be a responsibility of the government. the department of factories inspectorate (dfi) is the main government agency responsible for promoting and enforcing ohs to ensure that workplaces including construction sites maintain minimum standards prescribed by the factories, offices and shops act, 1970 (act 328). moreover, the labour department (ld) indirectly enforces ohs at workplaces by carrying out their mandate of enforcing labour laws and working conditions through inspection of workplaces, as prescribed by the labour act, 2003. notwithstanding these institutions, many studies have made a case for a single regulatory body to oversee the construction industry including enforcing ohs (boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2020). boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 20213 challenges to enforcing ohs inadequate skilled personnel inadequate skilled manpower in the ohs enforcement institutions is a major factor that affects enforcement of ohs standards at workplaces in ghana. this position is exemplified by eyiah, kheni and quartey (2019) in a study of ohs regulatory regime within construction industry in ghana. their study revealed that the ohs enforcement institutions are unable to retain highly qualified and experienced inspectors partly due to unattractive conditions of service of personnel employed in these institutions. the inspectors in the departments of factories inspectorates and labour operate as civil servants and therefore are governed by civil and local government workers conditions of service, which is characterised by relatively low remuneration and retirement benefit. consequently, personnel who have had on-the-job training and have experience in workplace inspection and other enforcement measures/procedures leave these institutions for lucrative offers elsewhere. funding and logistical constraints like many government departments and agencies, ohs enforcement institutions suffer from perennial budget cuts, which makes it difficult to implement their programmes. these institutions need funds to employ more inspectors and train them, as well as purchase the appropriate tools and office equipment to ensure the provision of adequate services. for example, kheni (2008) found that, in ghana the yearly approved budget for the ohs enforcement institutions are not released to them in full and in time. also, the ohs institutions lacked the requisite equipment and technology to undertake surveys and inspections; and even existing equipment were outdated and insufficient to enable them to effectively carry out various assessments in relation to ohs standards (eyiah, kheni and quartey, 2019). inadequate ohs regulations, standards, and policies the lack of comprehensive ohs regulations, standards and policies, is a key challenge to the management of ohs in ghana (amponsah-tawiah and dartey-baah, 2012; eyiah, kheni and quartey, 2019). also, the existing ohs laws in ghana are fragmented, generic, inadequate and limited in scope (annan, addai and tulashie, 2015; kheni and braimah, 2014; clarke, 2005). an assessment carried out by the ilo (2015) identified that ohs laws in ghana do not make provisions for key ohs management systems, lack national ohs research programme or institute with clear mandates and funding, and do not deal with specific hazards or risks. consequently, ohs inspectors are compelled to adopt regulations and standards from other countries in their enforcement duties. however, these adopted regulations and standards cannot be strictly enforced in ghana because they do not have their roots from any ohs act in the country. this is an issue because of the effects of cultural context on ohs are proven (loosemore, et al., 2019). influence of people in power enforcement of ohs legislation at workplaces in ghana, like many other developing countries, are perceived to be influenced by political power holders and people close to them. this is further fuelled by the perception that many factories and businesses are owned by these powerful and influential politicians and their cronies. in support of this argument, idubor and osiamoje (2013) and okojie (2010) asserted that in nigeria political influence hinders the ohs inspectors from carrying out their duties. besides, it is generally perceived that politicians and highly placed people in developing countries influence the activities of law enforcement institutions such as the police. accordingly, even when an ohs inspectors are prepared to do their job rightly, they may receive “orders from above” to stop any sanction/penalty from being placed on the offending organisations. consequently, ohs inspectors may be mindful of the kind of workplaces to inspect boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 20214 for compliance by trying to avoid those workplaces that are owned by politicians and other influential people. inadequate instances of sanctions and prosecution non-compliance to ohs regulations is perceived to be encouraged by inadequate examples of punishment and prosecution of offending employers or businesses. although ohs offences under the act 328 and act 651 are criminal in nature, they have usually been treated otherwise. prosecution continues to be one of the enforcement weapons, but it is regarded as a measure that must be carefully used or as a last resort (purse, dawson and dorrian, 2010). jamieson, et al. (2010) investigated prosecuted and non-prosecuted employers in australia and found that prosecution impacts on employer’s actions by compelling them to accept responsibility for ohs, especially the larger companies who have the capacity to recognise and assess the consequences of court-based rulings on their operations. likewise, in the uk, top managers in large firms indicated that their management of risks have been influenced hugely by the penalties imposed on other firms (baldwin and anderson, 2002). this demonstrates that sanctions for breaches of ohs legislation can promote enforcement. the lack of sanctions including court-based prosecutions in respect of ohs in ghana is a disincentive to enforcing ohs regulations. in addition, the low levels of fines for ohs breaches has further fuelled the perception that ohs breaches are not inherently criminal in ghana. delays in justice delivery system one problematic area in ghana’s justice system is the issue of delay in cases hearing and court rulings (gyampo, 2014). one basic principle of rule of law and adjudication of justice is the need to follow due processes and indeed doing this in any competent court of law may bring about some delays. however, when such delays become unreasonable and without justifiable cause, they result in unnecessary hardships and frustrations for people in a manner that undermine access to justice. this phenomenon is a challenge to ohs enforcement in ghana. as stated already, the institutions responsible for ohs enforcement is constrained by resources (human, funding, equipment, etc.) to function effectively; therefore, numerous adjournments and delays in prosecution of ohs cases in the courts become additional burden which may add to their frustrations at work. therefore, this may discourage ohs inspectors from sending ohs breaches to court because it might waste their time and money. unethical practices by inspectors it is perceived that some employees of the ohs enforcement institutions engage in unethical practices in their inspectorial and enforcement duties. corruption in ghana is still high and pervasive (transparency international, 2015), especially in law enforcement and regulatory agencies. consequently, public officials undertaking law enforcement and regulatory duties may exploit the inefficiencies within their organisations for their individual gains. they may circumvent ohs laws in exchange for bribes and other benefits. often the standards are not fully met but the companies have their licenses duly issued or renewed by the enforcement institution to operate. in addition, umeokafor, et al. (2014) reasoned that sometimes it appears that the inspectors visit workplace to conduct enforcement duties because of their personal financial reasons and not to ensure compliance of ohs laws. this perception of corruption in ohs enforcement is fuelled by situations where some companies operate under poor safety conditions, but they are repeatedly certified as satisfactory by inspectors. absence of guidance materials globally, one of the important duties of ohs enforcement institutions is the periodic issuance of practical guidance materials (such as codes of practice) to guide organisations on how to comply with the legal duties under the applicable ohs regulations. unfortunately, poor ohs knowledge management pervades boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 20215 developing countries (deepak and mahesh, 2019), including ghana. with the government failing to enact comprehensive ohs legislations in ghana, the ohs enforcement institutions have an important mandate to develop and disseminate guidelines relating to h&s at workplaces. however, this practice is conspicuously absent in the regulatory and enforcement duties of the institutions and this is a limitation in ohs management. worksafe victoria (2020) illustrated the importance of providing guidance documents on ohs. they evaluated the significance of their guidance note on prevention of bullying and violence at the workplace. they concluded that the guidance material would effectively raise up awareness and promote the implementation of preventive and resolution measures. lack of ohs campaigns and education campaigns and education relative to improving h&s at workplaces are virtually non-existent in ghana. the ohs enforcement institutions do not have consultations with employers, trade unions, and h&s stakeholders at national level (kheni, 2008). the lack of ohs campaigns and education have been partly blamed for the general lack of awareness and knowledge of ohs laws, and for poor h&s performance in ghana (laryea and mensah, 2010; dwumfour-asare and asiedu, 2013). ohs campaigns and education essentially follow the model of ‘advise and persuade’ which is generally aimed at cooperation, conciliation and negotiation to attain the objectives of the regulatory system rather than to punish offenders for ohs breaches ( johnstone, 2003). with strategies such as campaign and education, the threat of deterrent or punitive measures remains in the background, only to be applied where all other strategies fail. lack of innovative ohs enforcement strategies innovative enforcement programmes such as incentives and partnerships with stakeholders are lacking in ghana. this position is strongly supported in a study by laitinen and paivarinta (2010), which appraised the effectiveness of innovative programme to promote construction safety in finland. according to the authors, safety awards were given annually to best performing contractors during an annual industry seminar. the programme which was organised through the cooperation between safety inspectorates, construction industry association and trade unions, has witnessed the participation of over 70% of construction sites in the target area. winners were chosen through objective criteria and reports from unannounced inspections by safety inspectors. the authors’ evaluation of the programme provided evidence that the programme was effective including, 63% reduction in failures to provide good fall protection, and prevented an estimated 4000 accidents and 3 deaths a year (laitinen and paivarinta, 2010). the close collaboration between the enforcement institution, industry and trade unions ensured the success of the safety contest. the absence of these partnerships and incentives programmes in ghana does not stimulate innovative ways of ohs enforcement. poor statistics on occupational accident and diseases data on occupational accidents and diseases are very scanty and barely reliable. there is no framework for consistent reporting of workplace accidents and diseases. for instance, the ministry of employment and labour relations (melr) in their published statistical report for 2016 stated that there were 2697 reported occupational accidents in 2015 (melr, 2017), while report from the ghana statistical service (gss) in their labour force report for 2015, estimated work accident of 586,213 (gss, 2016). these figures are clearly irreconcilable and quite disturbing especially coming from two government institutions. moreover, it is also acknowledged that many employers fail to report workplace accidents to the ohs regulatory institutions (clarke, 2005). therefore, the figures given by the melr are a momentous underestimate of the magnitude of occupational accidents. without accurate data to understand the true situation of ohs at the enterprise, industry and national levels, ghana is unable to perform its constitutional duty of securing the safety and health of workers and take the right decisions in this regard. boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 20216 lack of ohs compliance and enforcement framework to fully realise the benefits of ohs legislation, there is the need for a nationally consistent approach to compliance and enforcement. international best practices suggest that an effective ohs system requires enforcement institutions to implement an enforcement framework that sets out a regulatory enforcement approach and how to implement that approach in order to appropriately balance the advisory and enforcement functions of ohs inspectors. unfortunately, the ohs enforcement institutions in ghana do not have any framework that guides their approach to compliance and enforcement. research method in order to evaluate perceptions of the ohs inspectors and construction industry professionals in ghana, the quantitative research approach was adopted. quantitative research allows for data to be collected and analysed through statistical procedures, with the aim to determine the truth or otherwise of theory or hypotheses (creswell, 2009). thus, the quantitative approach is appropriate to determine the nature of the challenges that confront ohs institutions. survey questionnaire was designed to verify all the identified challenges from literature and determine the most important ones, and their relationships. thus, the content validity of the questionnaire has been established through the literature review. to be assured that the sampled participants can inform important facets and perspectives relating to ohs enforcement challenges in ghana, the sampling frame involved a population of ohs inspectors and construction industry professionals in ghana who are involved in the management of h&s on projects. thus, the participants included the regulators and the regulated. in this research, the perceptions of the regulated were equally important because they provided broader perspectives about the effectiveness of the regulator’s enforcement regimes. the participants were drawn from consultants, contractors, and relevant government institutions, with varied professional backgrounds and levels of ohs management experience in the construction industry. essentially, the views of the government institutions represent that of the regulators, and consultants and contractors represent that of the regulated. a total of 140 paper-based survey questionnaires were distributed across 5 regions of ghana and 67 complete responses were received. this represents a relatively high response rate of 47.9%. the questionnaire was designed to seek the views of respondents on the extent of their agreement or disagreement to the outlined institutional challenges to ohs enforcement within the ghanaian construction industry. the questionnaires consisted of two sections; section 1 requested for details of respondents including gender, years of construction industry work experience, professional background and the nature of their organisations. section 2 outlined 12 key challenges to ohs enforcement within the ghanaian construction industry, which has been identified through literature. likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree was used to guide respondents. results and discussion background of survey respondents table 1 presents the demographic profile of respondents including their gender, years of construction industry experience, professional background and their organisations. boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 20217 table 1. demographic profile of respondents parameter category frequency percentage (%) gender male 59 88.1 female 8 11.9 67 100 years of work experience 1-5 years 5 7.5 6-10 years 14 20.9 11-15 years 19 28.4 16-20 years 21 31.3 over 20 years 8 11.9 67 100 professional background engineering 15 22.4 quantity surveying 10 14.9 architecture 11 16.4 project management 12 17.9 occupational health and safety 13 19.4 building technology 6 9.0 67 100 type of organisation consultants 21 31.3 contractors 24 35.8 government institutions 22 32.8 67 100 ranking of the identified challenges table 2 presents the feedback of respondents on the outlined challenges confronting ohs enforcement within the construction industry in ghana. overall, the respondents significantly agreed that the challenges are indeed factors impacting on ohs enforcement in ghana, evident by the total average of 4.00. the responses indicate that the top three challenges are inadequate ohs regulations, standards and policies; lack of ohs campaigns and education; and inadequate instances of sanctions and prosecutions for ohs breaches. aside the top three ranked challenges mentioned above, respondents also tended to strongly agree that factors such as absence of ohs guidance material, poor statistics on occupational accident and diseases, influence of people in power, inadequate skilled enforcement personnel, and funding and logistical constraints in ohs enforcement institutions have also resulted in the poor enforcement of ohs in the construction industry in ghana. this is evident in the high average scores (between 3.94 to 4.13) obtained by these factors. in general, respondents strongly agreed that inadequate ohs regulation, standards and policies is the main challenge to ohs enforcement within the construction industry in ghana. this challenge has rightly been described by many studies to affect ohs management in many developing countries (umeokafor, boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 20218 ta bl e 2. r an ki ng o f i de nt ifi ed c ha lle ng es s /n c ha lle ng es c on su lt an ts c on tr ac to rs g ov ’t in st . o ve ra ll m ea n r an k m ea n r an k m ea n r an k m ea n r an k s td . d ev . va ri an ce k ur to si s s ke w ne ss 1 in ad eq ua te s ki lle d en fo rc em en t pe rs on ne l 3. 71 9 3. 79 8 4. 45 4 3. 99 7 0. 71 0. 47 -0 .8 1 -0 .0 2 2 fu nd in g an d lo gi st ic al c on st ra in ts in o h s e nf or ce m en t i ns ti tu ti on s 3. 57 11 3. 71 10 4. 55 1 3. 94 8 0. 78 0. 60 -1 .3 2 0. 11 3 in ad eq ua te o h s r eg ul at io ns , st an da rd s an d po lic ie s 4. 48 1 4. 42 2 4. 55 1 4. 48 1 0. 56 0. 31 -0 .8 4 -0 .4 4 4 in fl ue nc e of p eo pl e in p ow er 3. 81 8 3. 92 7 4. 36 5 4. 03 6 0. 70 0. 48 -0 .8 8 -0 .0 4 5 in ad eq ua te in st an ce s of sa nc ti on s an d pr os ec ut io ns fo r o h s b re ac he s 4. 33 2 4. 29 4 4. 09 8 4. 24 3 0. 72 0. 52 -0 .9 7 -0 .3 9 6 d el ay s in ju st ic e de liv er y sy st em 3. 38 12 3. 33 12 3. 77 10 3. 49 12 0. 56 0. 31 -0 .7 3 0. 56 7 u ne th ic al p ra ct ic es b y o h s in sp ec to rs 4. 33 2 4. 38 3 2. 64 12 3. 79 9 1. 09 1. 20 -0 .2 4 -0 .7 1 8 a bs en ce o f o h s g ui da nc e m at er ia ls 4. 14 5 4. 13 5 4. 14 6 4. 13 4 0. 60 0. 36 -0 .2 3 -0 .0 5 9 la ck o f o h s c am pa ig ns a nd ed uc at io n 4. 33 2 4. 46 1 4. 14 6 4. 31 2 0. 53 0. 28 -0 .7 0 0. 17 10 la ck o f i nn ov at iv e o h s en fo rc em en t s tr at eg ie s by en fo rc em en t i ns ti tu ti on 4. 10 6 4. 00 6 3. 14 11 3. 75 10 0. 75 0. 56 -0 .1 1 -0 .2 3 11 p oo r st at is ti cs o n oc cu pa ti on al ac ci de nt a nd d is ea se s 3. 90 7 3. 79 8 4. 55 1 4. 07 5 0. 74 0. 56 -1 .1 6 -0 .1 2 12 la ck o f c om pl ia nc e an d en fo rc em en t f ra m ew or k 3. 67 10 3. 67 11 3. 82 9 3. 72 11 0. 62 0. 39 -0 .6 0 0. 28 to ta l n um be r of r es po nd en ts = 6 7 (in cl ud in g co ns ul ta nt s = 21 , c on tr ac to rs = 2 4 an d g ov er nm en t i ns tit ut io ns = 2 2) *n ot e: 1 = s tr on gl y di sa gr ee , 2 = d is ag re e, 3 = n eu tr al , 4 = a gr ee a nd 5 = s tr on gl y ag re e boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 20219 evangelinos and windapo, 2020). the limitations of the ohs legislations hinder effective enforcement and the feedback from respondents demonstrates that government’s efforts toward addressing this limitation is questionable. paradoxically, a draft ohs policy document titled “development of legislation and policy on osh for all sectors of the ghanaian economy” jointly developed in june 2000 by the ministries of employment and labour relations, health, and lands and natural resources is yet to passed into legislation (amponsah-tawiah and dartey-baah, 2012). to make matters worse, many players in the construction sector are small organisations who tend to have a low level of awareness in relation to the implementation of ohs legislation and standard (furci and sunindijo, 2020). anova results and discussion the analysis of variances (anova) resulting from the responses from the various organisations, namely, consultants, contractors and government institutions has been performed with the aim of verifying whether the responses were influenced by the nature of the respondent’s organisation. before performing the anova, the data was checked for normality; with skewness values of -0.71 to 0.56 and kurtosis values of -1.32 to 0.23 (see table 2), normality of the data could be assumed. according to byrne (2016), if the skewness ranges between -2 to +2 and the kurtosis values fall between -7 to +7, then assumption of normality is fulfilled. additionally, the assumption of homogeneity of variances were tested and found to have been satisfied based on lavene’s f test (see table 3). once the assumptions of normality and homogeneity of variances were found to have been fulfilled, the one-way anova tests between organisations were conducted and the results shown in table 4. the results revealed seven differences which were statistically significant (cha1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 10 and 11). in order to ascertain the source and nature of the statistical differences, the statistically significant anova (cha1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 10 and 11) was followed-up with tukey’s post-hoc multiple comparison tests as shown in table 4. the post-hoc comparison revealed that for cha1 and cha2, there were significant differences between the mean responses for both consultants and government institutions, and contractors and government institutions. these results indicate that consultants and contractors did not differ significantly in their believe about how the lack of skilled enforcement personnel (cha1), and funding and logistical constraints in enforcement institutions (cha2) affect ohs enforcement; but government institutions agreed highly to the challenges posed by these factors, considerably more than contractors and consultants did. as stated already, the respondents from government institutions included ohs inspectors who directly enforce ohs legislation at workplaces. a critical assessment shows that these two challenges (cha1&2) are directly related to the operations of the ohs enforcement institutions. undoubtedly, within this context, ohs inspectors and other respondents from government institutions whose operations are directly affected by such constraints will show higher levels of agreement. this confirms the arguments by canciani (2019) that inadequate resourcing of ohs institutions will result in ineffective undertaking of enforcement activities. for cha4, the mean responses between consultants and government institutions were significantly different. government institutions highly recognise the influence of people in power (cha4) as one of the key challenges to ohs enforcement. this perception may have been shaped through the direct involvement in ohs enforcement by some of the respondents from government institutions. it is acknowledged that many construction enterprises and consultancies in developing countries are owned by powerful and influential people with political ties, who may use subtle political manoeuvres or outright political force to render the decisions of ohs inspectors useless. considering that ohs inspectors are at the receiving side of these political influence; the reason above may have accounted for the perception of government institutions. boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202110 ta bl e 3. te st o f h om og en ei ty o f v ar ia nc es (b as ed o n m ea n) c h a 1 c h a 2 c h a 3 c h a 4 c h a 5 c h a 6 c h a 7 c h a 8 c h a 9 c h a 10 c h a 11 c h a 12 le ve ne s ta ti st ic 1. 15 0 0. 29 6 1. 58 5 0. 49 8 1. 08 5 0. 24 3 2. 11 0 0. 30 2 1. 05 6 0. 57 4 0. 64 6 0. 98 5 df 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 df 2 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 64 s ig ni fic an ce 0. 32 3 0. 74 5 0. 21 3 0. 61 0 0. 34 4 0. 78 5 0. 13 0 0. 74 0 0. 35 4 0. 56 6 0. 52 8 0. 37 9 ch a— ch al le ng es , f or in st an ce c h a1 = in ad eq ua te s ki lle d en fo rc em en t p er so nn el . boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202111 also, for cha6-delays in justice delivery system, the mean responses between both consultants and government institutions, and contractors and government institutions were significantly different. in essence, government institutions believe that prosecutions for ohs breaches have not been effective in ensuring compliance due to the lengthy and expensive court processes. this situation is compounded by the lack of human resources and funding to carry out these prosecutions. on the other hand, studies have shown that construction firms prefer the use of advice, warnings and demands for remedial action, as opposed to prosecutions through the courts in dealing with detected ohs breaches in their workplaces (fairman and yapp, 2005). the preference and belief in advice and persuasive enforcement strategy to the more punitive court-based sanctions may have accounted for the difference in responses to this challenge. furthermore, for cha7-unethical practices by ohs inspectors, the differences between both consultants and government institutions, and contractors and government institutions were significant. table 4. results of anova and multiple comparisons (tukey’s hsd) anova tukey’s hsd f significance organisation a organisation b md(a-b) significance cha1 consultants contractors -0.077 0.905 9.839 0.000 consultants government inst. -0.740* 0.001 contractors government inst. -0.663* 0.001 cha2 consultants contractors -0.137 0.765 14.174 0.000 consultants government inst. -0.974* 0.000 contractors government inst. -0.837* 0.000 cha4 consultants contractors -0.107 0.852 4.293 0.018 consultants government inst. -0.554* 0.022 contractors government inst. -0.447 0.066 cha6 consultants contractors 0.048 0.952 4.579 0.014 consultants government inst. -0.392* 0.049 contractors government inst. -0.439* 0.018 cha7 consultants contractors -0.042 0.981 39.515 0.000 consultants government inst. 1.697* 0.000 contractors government inst. 1.739* 0.000 cha10 consultants contractors 0.095 0.864 16.113 0.000 consultants government inst. 0.959* 0.000 contractors government inst. 0.864* 0.000 cha11 consultants contractors 0.113 0.842 8.108 0.001 consultants government inst. -0.641* 0.008 contractors government inst. -0.754* 0.001 * the mean difference (md) is significant at the 0.05 level. (a-b) = mean difference between the organisations a and b boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202112 essentially, consultants and contractors perceive that ohs inspectors are likely to circumvent ohs legislation in exchange for bribes and other benefits and this indeed raises serious challenges for ohs enforcement within the construction industry, but government institutions have little inclination to this perception. the perception of contractors and consultants (who may be victims of unethical practices by ohs inspectors) emphasises the point that bribery and corruption within law enforcement institutions persists as a serious challenge in ghana (transparency international, 2015). government institutions may have a different perception about this challenge probably because it may has become a ‘normal practice’ or accepting it goes to dent the image of the ohs enforcement institutions. moreover, for cha10-lack of innovative ohs enforcement strategies, the mean responses between consultants and government institutions, and contractor and government institutions were both significantly different. this differences in responses suggest that consultants and contractors are of the opinion that ohs inspectors do not adopt innovative methods and strategic initiatives to ensure compliance. while strategies such as voluntary partnerships and incentives can be an effective way of changing behaviour of construction firms, government institutions do not perceive the absence of such initiatives as a major challenge to ohs enforcement. finally, for cha11-poor statistics on occupational accident and diseases, the mean responses between consultants and government institutions, and contractors and government institutions were both significantly different. this shows that government institutions are of the strong belief that the inadequate reporting and poor record-keeping of occupational accidents is a key challenge to ohs enforcement. statistical trends in ohs accidents are very important for ohs inspectors to develop suitable enforcement strategies. however, research has shown that substantial proportion of construction enterprises fail to report or inaccurately report accidents to the ohs regulatory authorities (clarke, 2005) and this may have accounted for the differences in the responses between consultants and contractors on one hand and government institutions on the other. correlation analysis and discussion the relationship between the years of work experience within the construction industry and the various identified ohs enforcement challenges have been analysed using the pearson’s correlation and the results are presented in table 5. years’ of work experience was correlated with the identified challenges because it gives an idea about how the respondents’ professional experiences have shaped their beliefs and perceptions in relation to the industry’s norms and challenges. in addition, experience has been identified as one of the main contributing factors of h&s perceptions (gyekye and salminen, 2009). the results of the correlation matrix (see table 5) showed 22 significant correlations among the variables, with 5 of them showing strong relationships. the correlation analysis provides a deeper insight into how some of the challenges have potential impact on others. firstly, the results revealed that there is a strong positive relationship between cha1inadequate skilled enforcement personnel and cha2 funding and logistical constraints in ohs enforcement institutions. this indicates that when funding and operational problems increase within the ohs enforcement institutions, the institution will possibly lack the right calibre of staff to carry out their enforcement duties, and vice versa. this relationship emphasises the position espoused by the international labour organisation (2010) that availability of funding and investment is key to the acquisition and maintenance of relevant skills and ultimately impacting on productivity at work. secondly, the years of industry experience showed a strong negative correlation with cha7-unethical practices by ohs inspectors. this result reinforces the belief that if people perceive that a behaviour is widespread and that there is a form of approval of the problem behaviour, they are more likely to accept such a behaviour as normal (ogunsanya, et al., 2019). therefore, considering that years of industry boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202113 experience enables one to appreciate the norms in the industry, it could be reasoned that the higher the industry experience, the more one is likely to consider a practice as normal. perhaps, this has accounted for the situation where the perception of unethical practices by ohs inspectors decrease with the increase in years of work experience. thirdly, the correlation revealed that there is a strong negative relationship between the cha2-funding and logistical constraints in ohs enforcement institutions and cha7unethical practices by ohs inspectors. this relationship shows that there is the possibility for the unethical practices of ohs inspector to increase with improved funding and operational logistics. admittedly, resourcing the ohs enforcement institutions will empower ohs inspectors to regularly carry out inspections and enforcement at many workplaces than they will normally do under the resource constraints; however, this has potential for increased unethical practices, especially where the ohs inspectors have the liberty to use their discretion in decision making, and where contractors are willing to offer incentives in order to avoid compliance or penalties. this relationship suggests that while resourcing ohs inspectors, other measures must be instituted to check the tendency for unethical practices such as corruption. fourthly, in a related matter, cha7-unethical practices by ohs inspectors showed a strong positive correlation with cha10-lack of innovative ohs enforcement strategies by enforcement institution. this essentially indicates that if there is an increase in unethical practices by ohs inspectors, then the ohs institutions will continue to lack innovative strategies to enforce compliance with ohs regulations, and vice versa. this relationship reinforces the position of many researchers that unethical practices such as corruption lowers innovation within an industry (ogunsanya, et al., 2019). lastly, amongst the five with strong correlations, cha2-funding and logistical constraints and cha12-lack of compliance and enforcement framework showed strong positive relationship. this result indicates that a considerable number of respondents who agreed to the challenges posed by funding and logistical constraints, also agreed to the challenges of lack of compliance and enforcement framework. the relationship suggests that an improvement in funding and operational logistics may cause the enactment and use of compliance and enforcement framework that will guide ohs inspectors in their professional duties and ensure the accountable use of the resources. on the other hand, it also suggests that if a comprehensive compliance and enforcement framework is enacted and used, it may contain explicit provisions. for professional conduct and accountability, and this has the potential to trigger an increase in funding and other operational resources from government. factor structure of the challenges factor analysis has been performed to determine the factor structure of the 12 challenges identified from literature and to ensure the construct validity of the questionnaire. prior to performing the factor analysis, the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy and bartlett’s test of sphericity were tested (see table 6). with a kmo coefficient value of 0.55 and a significant level for the bartlett’s test below 0.05, the results suggest that there is substantial correlation in the data and that factor analysis is suitable for analysing the data. based on the eigenvalues (greater than one) and the scree plot, three dimensions of the enforcement challenges were extracted (see table 7). with an initial eigenvalue of 2.942, the first factor explained 24.52% of the variance. the other factors (2 and 3) with initial eigenvalues of 1.761, and 1.437 respectively explained 14.67% and 11.99% of the variances, respectively. therefore, in total the three factors explained 51.170% of the variance. this result indicates that the measures defining the enforcement challenges are diverse (three factor structure). boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202114 ta bl e 5. co rr el at io n re su lt s p ea rs on c or re la ti on e xp er ie nc e c h a 1 c h a 2 c h a 3 c h a 4 c h a 5 c h a 6 c h a 7 c h a 8 c h a 9 c h a 10 c h a 11 c h a 12 e xp er ie nc e c or re la ti on 1 s ig ni fic an ce c h a 1 c or re la ti on 0. 23 8 1 s ig ni fic an ce 0. 05 2 c h a 2 c or re la ti on 0. 22 0 0. 56 8a 1 s ig ni fic an ce 0. 07 3 0. 00 0 c h a 3 c or re la ti on -0 .0 05 -0 .1 39 0. 10 1 1 s ig ni fic an ce 0. 96 8 0. 26 2 0. 41 4 c h a 4 c or re la ti on 0. 12 7 0. 19 2 0. 25 6b 0. 11 8 1 s ig ni fic an ce 0. 30 5 0. 12 0 0. 03 7 0. 34 0 c h a 5 c or re la ti on -0 .0 39 -0 .3 61 a 0. 10 7 -0 .0 24 0. 19 7 1 s ig ni fic an ce 0. 75 3 0. 00 3 0. 38 7 0. 84 6 0. 10 9 c h a 6 c or re la ti on 0. 30 1b 0. 09 8 0. 20 8 0. 06 0 0. 35 0a -0 .0 33 1 s ig ni fic an ce 0. 01 3 0. 42 9 0. 09 1 0. 63 1 0. 00 4 0. 79 0 c h a 7 c or re la ti on -0 .5 05 a -0 .3 68 a -0 .5 14 a -0 .1 56 -0 .1 71 0. 16 0 -0 .3 73 a 1 s ig ni fic an ce 0. 00 0 0. 00 2 0. 00 0 0. 20 7 0. 16 7 0. 19 5 0. 00 2 c h a 8 c or re la ti on 0. 02 8 -0 .0 69 -0 .0 15 -0 .0 13 0. 09 9 0. 17 0 -0 .0 64 0. 06 6 1 s ig ni fic an ce 0. 82 2 0. 58 1 0. 90 4 0. 91 4 0. 42 5 0. 16 9 0. 60 4 0. 59 3 c h a 9 c or re la ti on 0. 10 0 -0 .0 29 0. 04 6 -0 .0 53 -0 .0 67 0. 03 9 -0 .2 22 0. 27 2b 0. 05 6 1 s ig ni fic an ce 0. 42 3 0. 81 7 0. 71 0 0. 67 2 0. 59 0 0. 75 2 0. 07 1 0. 02 6 0. 65 1 c h a 10 c or re la ti on -0 .1 20 -0 .1 26 -0 .1 84 -0 .2 86 b -0 .1 90 0. 22 8 -0 .2 04 0. 49 1a 0. 24 7b 0. 20 5 1 s ig ni fic an ce 0. 33 2 0. 30 9 0. 13 7 0. 01 9 0. 12 4 0. 06 4 0. 09 8 0. 00 0 0. 04 4 0. 09 6 c h a 11 c or re la ti on 0. 12 6 0. 09 1 0. 34 8a 0. 09 5 0. 05 4 0. 16 4 0. 23 7 -0 .2 59 b 0. 01 1 -0 .2 53 b -0 .0 47 1 s ig ni fic an ce 0. 30 8 0. 46 3 0. 00 4 0. 44 5 0. 66 4 0. 18 5 0. 05 3 0. 03 4 0. 92 9 0. 03 9 0. 70 4 c h a 12 c or re la ti on 0. 35 9a 0. 30 9b 0. 43 5a -0 .0 84 0. 02 0 0. 12 0 0. 23 2 -0 .2 88 b 0. 02 2 -0 .2 32 0. 29 9b 0. 30 7b 1 s ig ni fic an ce 0. 00 3 0. 01 1 0. 00 0 0. 50 1 0. 87 3 0. 33 5 0. 05 8 0. 01 8 0. 85 7 0. 05 9 0. 01 4 0. 01 1 a c or re la tio n is s ig ni fic an t a t t he 0 .0 1 le ve l ( 2ta ile d) . b c or re la tio n is s ig ni fic an t a t t he 0 .0 5 le ve l ( 2ta ile d) . c h a— ch al le ng es , f or in st an ce c h a1 = in ad eq ua te s ki lle d en fo rc em en t pe rs on ne l. boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202115 table 6. kmo and bartlett’s test kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy 0.55 bartlett’s test of sphericity approx. chi-square 208.04 df 66 significance 0.000 in table 7, a pattern matrix showing the three extracted principal factors and the identified challenges that loaded on them have been presented. it also shows the loadings, and the internal consistency reliability within each extracted principal factor. from the results, it could be realised that there are strong inter-item correlations within each principal factor. this is demonstrated by the fact that all the item correlations were higher than 0.3. once the factor structure was identified and the principal factors were classified, the internal consistency reliability of the items in each principal factor were determined by calculating coefficient omega (at 95% confidence interval) in r studios. coefficient omega has been argued to provide a more accurate approximation of internal reliability (dunn, baguley and brunsden, 2014; revelle and zinbarg, 2009). according to hinton, et al. (2004), internal consistency that ranges between 0.50-0.70 is acceptable, while those from 0.70-0.90 represent high internal consistency. consequently, from the results it could be concluded that the items were considered to represent an acceptable level of internal consistency reliability. table 7. pattern matrix showing item loadings and internal consistency s/n factor eigenvalue % of variance challenge loadings coefficient omega 1 factor 1 2.942 24.521 inadequate skilled enforcement personnel 0.744 0.756 funding and logistical constraints in ohs enforcement institutions 0.780 lack of compliance and enforcement framework 0.747 2 factor 2 1.761 14.671 inadequate ohs regulations, standards, and policies 0.535 0.569 influence of people in power 0.522 delays in justice delivery system 0.587 poor statistics on occupational accident and diseases 0.426 boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202116 s/n factor eigenvalue % of variance challenge loadings coefficient omega 3 factor 3 1.437 11.979 inadequate instances of sanctions and prosecutions for ohs breaches 0.766 0.602 unethical practices by ohs inspectors 0.356 absence of ohs guidance materials 0.460 lack of innovative ohs enforcement strategies by enforcement institution 0.649 conclusion this study has considered and provided a broad perspective of the challenges hindering the effective enforcement of ohs legislation in ghana. findings from the study demonstrates that substantial measures are required to ensure effective enforcement of ohs legislation within the construction industry in ghana. twelve challenges were identified from literature and, in the context of ghana, the top three challenges hindering the effective enforcement of ohs regulations are inadequate ohs regulations, standards and policies, lack of ohs campaigns and education, and inadequate instances of sanctions or prosecution for ohs breaches. the limitations of ohs regulations, standards and policies hinder effective enforcement of ohs within the construction industry in ghana. this brings to question government’s commitment to safeguarding the h&s of its workforce. as indicated already, a draft occupational policy developed as far back as the year 2000 is yet to be adopted. the nation’s constitutional duty to protect its workforce requires that it creates reasonable legislative and other statutory measures to safeguard the h&s of its employed persons while securing sustainable development. it is recommended that comprehensive ohs regulations, standards and policies must be enacted to prioritise ohs and provide for resources to be utilised in respect of ohs. also, ohs campaigns and education must be prioritised, started rigorously and sustained in order to increase awareness. globally, it is acknowledged that effective ohs campaigns and education have succeeded in shifting h&s attitudes, knowledge and behaviour of workers. faced with limited resources (human, finance, logistics, etc), it is important that ohs enforcement institutions adopt cost effective enforcement techniques. considering that the ratio of ohs inspectors to construction sites in ghana is poor, inspectors may not achieve much through the time-consuming process of preparing and conducting costly site inspections on a regular basis to enforce compliance. it is recommended that the ohs enforcement institutions adopt a prevention-focused mass media campaigns at the population-level and, also, targeted campaign and education on construction sites. this can help to improve workers knowledge in ohs and encourage attitudinal and behavioural changes. furthermore, beyond the advice, campaigns and education, there must be sanctions and/or prosecution for breaches of ohs legislation. sanctions can be used to deter the identified/offending organisation and potential offenders in general. generally, if offending contractors are appropriately sanctioned and the specific breaches publicised, then those contractors and other potential offending contractors can perceive table 7. continued boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202117 the consequences of future breaches and take improved actions to comply with ohs requirements. it should be noted that the identified challenges are interrelated, so that interventions to address a specific challenge can alleviate the impacts of other challenges. this study adds to the broader research on ohs improvement in developing countries by identifying the key challenges confronting ohs enforcement institutions in ghana to adequately enforce ohs in the construction industry. the recommendations provide practical strategies for government, ohs inspectors and other practitioners within the construction sector to practically deal with the key challenges that have resulted in the ineffective ohs enforcement in ghana. despite the study contributions, there are a few limitations that must be acknowledged. firstly, this study collected data from 67 construction practitioners in ghana. while the evidence is enough to draw conclusions with respect to associations, future efforts may focus on a more robust sampling technique in order to draw stronger causal links between the examined variables. secondly, the findings of this study are based on the perspective of the construction industry professionals from ghana, and as such the findings are mainly relevant to ghana. though the construction industry in developing countries share similar characteristics (boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2020), the perception of construction professionals from other developing countries might be different. therefore, the research findings could be adopted as a basis to assess challenges confronting ohs institutions in other developing countries. references adeyemo, o. and smallwood, j., 2017. impact of occupational health and safety legislation on performance improvement in the nigerian construction industry. procedia engineering, [e-journal] 196, pp.785-91. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.08.008 amponsah-tawiah, k. and dartey-baah, k., 2012. occupational health and safety: key issues and concerns in ghana. international journal of business and social science, 2(14), pp.119-26. annan, j.s., addai, e.k. and tulashie, s.k., 2015. a call for action to improve occupational health and safety in ghana and a critical look at the existing legal requirement and legislation. safety and health at work, [e-journal] 6(2), pp.146-50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2014.12.002 appiah, s.o., 2016. connecting occupational safety awareness, legislation, implementation and enforcement within the ghanaian industrial economy. journal of environmental and occupational science, [e-journal] 5(2), pp.53-58. https://doi. org/10.5455/jeos.20160711042737 asuzu, m., 1998. health and safety at the workplace in nigeria: problems and prospects. african newsletter on occupational health and safety, 8(2). (https://web.archive.org/web/20060128104241/http://www.ttl.fi/internet/english/ information/electronic+journals/african+newsletter/1998-02/06.htm) baldwin, r. and anderson, j., 2002. rethinking regulatory risk. london: dla/lse. bavon, a., 2000. occupational health and safety in ghana: an agenda for reform. african social science review, 1(1), article 4. available at: (https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/assr/vol1/iss1/4) boadu, e.f, wang, c.c. and sunindijo, r.y., 2020. characteristics of the construction industry in developing countries and its implication for health and safety; an exploratory study in ghana. international journal of environmental research and public health, [e-journal] 17(11), 4110. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17114110 byrne, b.m., 2016. structural equation modeling with amos: basic concepts, applications, and programming, 3rd ed. new york, ny, usa: routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315757421 canciani, d., 2019. the politics and practice of occupational health and safety law enforcement. critical criminological perspectives. cham, switzerland: palgrave macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98509-1 boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202118 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.08.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.08.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2014.12.002 https://doi.org/10.5455/jeos.20160711042737 https://doi.org/10.5455/jeos.20160711042737 https://web.archive.org/web/20060128104241/http://www.ttl.fi/internet/english/information/electronic+journals/african+newsletter/1998-02/06.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20060128104241/http://www.ttl.fi/internet/english/information/electronic+journals/african+newsletter/1998-02/06.htm https://digitalcommons.kennesaw.edu/assr/vol1/iss1/4 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17114110 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315757421 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98509-1 choudhry, r.m., fang, d. and rowlinson, s., 2008. challenging and enforcing safety management in developing countries: a strategy. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 8(1), pp.87-101. https://doi.org/10. 1080/15623599.2008.10773110 clarke, e., 2005. do occupational health services really exist in ghana? in: lehtinen, s., rantanen, j., elgstrand, k., liesivuori, j. & peurala, m., eds. challenges to occupational health services in the regions: the national and international responses, proceedings of a who/icoh/ilo workshop. helsinki: finish institute of occupational health. creswell, j.w., 2009. research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches, 3rd ed. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. cunningham, n., 1998. towards innovative occupational health and safety regulation. journal of industrial relations, [e-journal] 40, pp.203-31. https://doi.org/10.1177/002218569804000202 deepak, m.d. and mahesh, g., 2019. developing a knowledge-based safety culture instrument for construction industry: reliability and validity assessment in indian context. engineering, construction and architectural management, 26(11), pp.2597-2613. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2018-0383 dunn, t.j., baguley, t. and brunsden, v., 2014. from alpha to omega: a practical solution to the pervasive problem of internal consistency estimation. british journal of psychology, [e-journal] 105, pp.399-412. https://doi.org/10.1111/ bjop.12046 dwumfour-asare, b. and asiedu, s.r., 2013. awareness of the factories, offices and shops act 1970 (act 328) at knust, ghana. developing country studies, 3(10), pp.1–11. eyiah, a.k., kheni, n.a. and quartey, p.d., 2019. an assessment of occupational health and safety regulations in ghana: a study of the construction industry. journal of building construction and planning research, [e-journal] 7, pp.11-31. https://doi.org/10.4236/jbcpr.2019.72002 fairman, r. and yapp, c., 2005. enforced self-regulation, prescription, and conceptions of compliance within small businesses: the impact of enforcement. law and policy, [e-journal] 27(4), pp.491-519. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14679930.2005.00209.x furci, j. and sunindijo, r.y., 2020. impacts of the whs act 2011 on safety management in small and medium construction companies. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 20(3), pp.196-206 https://doi.org /10.1080/15623599.2018.1484844 ghana statistical service, 2016. 2015 labour force report. accra: ghana statistical service. gyampo, r.e.v., 2014. justice delayed is justice denied: a call for timeous court rulings in ghana. journal of law, policy and globalisation, 21, pp.36-42. gyekye, s.a. and salminen, s., 2009. educational status and organizational safety climate: does educational attainment influence workers’ perceptions of workplace safety? safety science, 47, pp.20-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ssci.2007.12.007 hinton, p.r., brownlow, c., mcmurray, i. and cozens, b., 2011. spss explained. london: routledge taylor & francis group. pp.363-64. idubor, e.e. and oisamoje, m.d., 2013. an exploration of health and safety management issues in nigeria’s efforts to industrialize. european scientific journal. [e-journal] 9(12), pp.154-69. https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2013. v9n12p%25p. international labour organisation, 2010. a skilled workforce for strong, sustainable and balanced growth: a g20 training strategy. international labour organisation, geneva. [pdf ] available at: https://www.oecd.org/g20/summits/ toronto/g20-skills-strategy.pdf [accessed 15 june 2020]. boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202119 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2008.10773110 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2008.10773110 https://doi.org/10.1177/002218569804000202 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2018-0383 https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12046 https://doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12046 https://doi.org/10.4236/jbcpr.2019.72002 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9930.2005.00209.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9930.2005.00209.x https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484844 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484844 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2007.12.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2007.12.007 https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2013.v9n12p%25p https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2013.v9n12p%25p https://www.oecd.org/g20/summits/toronto/g20-skills-strategy.pdf https://www.oecd.org/g20/summits/toronto/g20-skills-strategy.pdf international labour organisation, 2015. global database on occupational safety and health legislation ghana 2015. [online] available at: https://www.ilo.org/dyn/legosh/en/f ?p=14100:1100:0::no:1100:p1100_iso_ code3,p1100_subcode_code,p1100_year:gha,,2015:no [accessed 10 january 2019]. jamieson, s., reeve, b., schofield, t. and mccallum, r., 2010. ohs prosecutions: do they deter other companies from offending? journal of occupational health and safety. 25(4), pp. 263-76. available at ssrn: https://ssrn.com/ abstract=1707830. johnstone, r., 2003. from fiction to fact – rethinking ohs enforcement. working paper 11. canberra, australia: national research centre for ohs regulation. kheni, n.a., 2008. impact of health and safety management on safety performance of small and medium-sized construction businesses in ghana. ph.d. loughborough university, uk. kheni, n.a. and braimah, c., 2014. institutional and regulatory frameworks for health and safety administration: study of the construction industry of ghana. international refereed journal of engineering and science, 3(2), pp.24-34. kheni, n.a., dainty, a.r. and gibb, a.g., 2008. health and safety management in developing countries: a study of construction sme’s in ghana. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 26(11), pp.1159-69. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446190802459916 kheni, n., gibb, a. and dainty, a., 2010. health and safety management within smalland medium-sized enterprises (smes) in developing countries: study of contextual influences. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 136(10), pp.1104-15. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000218 ko, k., mendeloff, j. and gray, w., 2010. the role of inspection sequence in compliance with the us occupational safety and health administration’s (osha) standards: interpretations and implications. regulation & governance, [e-journal] 4(1), pp.48-70. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-5991.2010.01070.x laitinen, h. & paivarinta, k., 2010. a new-generation safety contest in the construction industry. a long-term evaluation of a real-life intervention. safety science, [e-journal] 48(5), pp.680-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ssci.2010.01.018 laryea, s. and mensah, s., 2010. health and safety on construction sites in ghana. in: cobra (construction, building and real estate research) 2010 conference of the royal institution of chartered surveyors. dauphine université, paris, france, 2-3 september 2010. [online] available at: http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/16289/ lingard, h. and rowlinson, s., 2005. occupational health and safety in construction project management. oxon: spon press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203507919 loosemore, m., sunindijo, r.y., lestari, f., kusminanti, y. and widanarko, b., 2019. comparing the safety climate of the indonesian and australian construction industries: cultural and institutional relativity in safety research. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 26(10), pp.2206-22. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ecam-08-2018-0340. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2018-0340 ministry of employment and labour relations, 2017. 2016 statistical report. ghana: ministry of employment and labour relations. ogunsanya, o.a., aigbavboa, c.o., thwala, d.w. and edwards, d.j., 2019. barriers to sustainable procurement in the nigerian construction industry: an exploratory factor analysis. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1658697 okojie, o., 2010. system for reporting occupational diseases in nigeria. african newsletter on occupational health and safety, 20(3), pp.51-53. boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202120 https://www.ilo.org/dyn/legosh/en/f?p=14100:1100:0::no:1100:p1100_iso_code3,p1100_subcode_code,p1100_year:gha,,2015:no https://www.ilo.org/dyn/legosh/en/f?p=14100:1100:0::no:1100:p1100_iso_code3,p1100_subcode_code,p1100_year:gha,,2015:no https://ssrn.com/abstract=1707830 https://ssrn.com/abstract=1707830 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190802459916 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190802459916 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000218 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-5991.2010.01070.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2010.01.018 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2010.01.018 http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/16289/ https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203507919 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2018-0340 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2018-0340 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2018-0340 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1658697 purse, k., dawson, d. and dorrian, j., 2010. the deterrent effects of ohs enforcement: a review of the literature. [pdf ] adelaide, south australia: school of psychology, social work and social policy (unisa). available at: https://apo.org. au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2011-11/apo-nid69967.pdf revelle, w., and zinbarg, r., 2009. coefficients alpha, beta, omega, and the glb: comments on sijtsma. psychometrika, [e-journal] 74, pp.145-54. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11336-008-9102-z transparency international, 2015. corruption perception index 2015. [online] available at: http://www.transparency. org/cpi2015#results-table [accessed 20 september 2018]. umeokafor, n. and isaac, d., 2015. understanding the regulatory activities of the health and safety regulator in nigeria. proceedings of cib w099 benefitting workers and society through inherently safe(r) construction belfast, northern ireland, 10-11 september 2015. pp.488-98. umeokafor, n., isaac, d., jones, k. and umeadi, b., 2014. enforcement of occupational safety and health regulations in nigeria: an exploration. european scientific journal [e-journal] 10(7), pp.1857–7881. https://doi.org/10.19044/ esj.2014.v10n7p%25p umeokafor, n., evangelinos, k. and windapo, a., 2020. strategies for improving complex construction health and safety regulatory environments. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] https://doi.org/10.1080/15 623599.2019.1707853 worksafe victoria, 2020. a guide for employers: workplace bullying. geelong, australia: worksafe victoria. https:// content.api.worksafe.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-04/isbn-workplace-bullying-guide-for-employers-2020-04. pdf boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202121 https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2011-11/apo-nid69967.pdf https://apo.org.au/sites/default/files/resource-files/2011-11/apo-nid69967.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s11336-008-9102-z http://www.transparency.org/cpi2015#results-table http://www.transparency.org/cpi2015#results-table https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2014.v10n7p%25p https://doi.org/10.19044/esj.2014.v10n7p%25p https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1707853 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1707853 https://content.api.worksafe.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-04/isbn-workplace-bullying-guide-for-employers-2020-04.pdf https://content.api.worksafe.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-04/isbn-workplace-bullying-guide-for-employers-2020-04.pdf https://content.api.worksafe.vic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-04/isbn-workplace-bullying-guide-for-employers-2020-04.pdf construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: huynh, n. m., le-hoai, l., do, c. d. 2025. assessing and improving labor productivity management in construction: a practical framework and measurement tool. construction economics and building, 25:1, 69–96. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i1.8895 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb 69 research article assessing and improving labor productivity management in construction: a practical framework and measurement tool nhat minh huynh1, long le-hoai2,*, chi dien do3 1 ho chi minh city university of technology (hcmut), vnu-hcm, ho chi minh city, vietnam, huynhnhatminh@hcmut.edu.vn 2 ho chi minh city university of technology (hcmut), vnu-hcm, ho chi minh city, vietnam, lehoailong@hcmut.edu.vn 3 ho chi minh city university of technology (hcmut), vnu-hcm, ho chi minh city, vietnam, diendohcmut@gmail.com corresponding author: long le-hoai, ho chi minh city university of technology (hcmut), vnu-hcm, ho chi minh city, vietnam, lehoailong@hcmut.edu.vn doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8895 article history: received 02/11/2023; revised 24/07/2024; accepted 31/08/2024; published 31/03/2025 abstract despite numerous studies and resources available, the global construction sector has witnessed a decline in productivity over the past two decades, highlighting the need for practical tools and strategies to enhance labor productivity management. this study proposed a tool to support labor productivity management in construction. to achieve this, initial data were gathered through literature reviews and on-site observations, followed by interviews with 10 experienced site managers to refine a comprehensive set of productivity factors. these factors were then used to construct a system of factors before developing a quantitative management tool, inclusive of a measurement scale and an instructive guide. finally, this tool was evaluated by 12 experts using a five-level likert scale to ensure its practicality and accuracy. the results show that the tool offers a structured and informative approach to assessing and enhancing labor productivity in construction projects, thereby supporting managers in making informed decisions and improvements toward more successful project outcomes. the insights gained from this research contribute to the ongoing efforts to address labor productivity challenges in declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8895 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8895 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8895 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:huynhnhatminh@hcmut.edu.vn mailto:lehoailong@hcmut.edu.vn mailto:diendohcmut@gmail.com mailto:lehoailong@hcmut.edu.vn https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8895 the construction industry, paving the way for future developments and enhancements in productivity management tools. keywords labor productivity; productivity factor; productivity system; management tool introduction labor productivity plays an important role in the success of new construction projects such as high-rise buildings, roads, and bridges as poor construction labor productivity is a major cause of delay (abdul kadir, et al., 2005; assaf and al-hejji, 2006; doloi, et al., 2012; kaming, et al., 1997) and cost overrun (abdul kadir, et al., 2005; soekiman, et al., 2011) of construction projects. the expense of construction labor typically makes up approximately 30% to 50% of the overall cost of a construction project in many countries; thus, the productivity of construction labor significantly influences the profitability of nearly all construction projects (el-gohary and aziz, 2014; hanna, peterson and lee, 2002; van tam, et al., 2021). however, labor productivity in construction still faces significant challenges. in the construction industry, labor productivity, commonly referred to as construction labor productivity (clp) is a technical output–input ratio that compares the proportion of labor outcomes created by workers in a given time period to the labor consumed (lu, et al., 2021). gouett, et al. (2011) identified several common metrics used for clp assessment, including the productivity factor, which is the ratio of scheduled or planned to actual work hours; the unit rate, which measures the ratio of labor cost to units of output; and labor productivity itself, defined as the ratio of work hours to units of output. thomas, et al. (1990) provided the concept of “earned hours” as a measurement of the amount of work achieved relative to the labor invested. yi and chan (2014) emphasized productivity as the power of being productive and the efficiency with which goods are produced. despite a large number of investigations, the global construction industry has shown a decline in productivity compared to other industries in the last two decades (adebowale and agumba, 2023; thomas and sudhakumar, 2013). construction professionals spend 35% of their time on non-optimal activities, resulting in a productivity loss of more than 14 h per week per worker (plangrid, 2018). in a typical project, the costs associated with rework can amount up to 20% of the total contract value (cii-r252, 2011). considering its significance, there have been many resources, handbooks, and research studies available that provide factors (adebowale and agumba, 2021; alaghbari, al-sakkaf and sultan, 2019; hamza, et al., 2022; yates, 2014), factor relationships (sandbhor and botre, 2014), predicting models (golnaraghi, et al., 2019; mlybari, 2020; tsehayae and fayek, 2016), frameworks (liao, teo and low, 2017), data (chancellor, 2015; tran and tookey, 2011), impacts (wandahl, et al., 2021), assessment methods (best, 2010; carson and abbott, 2012), and recommendations (gurmu, aibinu and toong khuan, 2016; hamza, et al., 2022; pan, chen and zhan, 2019; parchami jalal and shoar, 2019) to ensure and improve productivity in the industry. however, there is currently a lack of a comprehensive toolkit to support productivity management, which can guide, plan, evaluate, measure, and quantify for labor productivity management and improvement. therefore, further research and development in this area are needed to develop practical tools and techniques to enhance labor productivity management. the primary aim of this study is to develop and validate a comprehensive management tool tailored to enhance labor productivity in new construction projects, which include diverse types such as high-rise buildings, roads, and bridges. this tool is designed to assist managers by providing a robust framework for identifying, measuring, and improving productivity factors effectively. addressing this aim, the research is guided by the following specific questions: huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202570 • first, what are the key factors affecting labor productivity in these varied construction settings? this question seeks to identify and categorize labor productivity factors in these projects. • second, how can a quantitative management tool be systematically designed to assess and enhance labor productivity within these environments? this involves the creation of a tool based on identified factors and refined through expert feedback. • lastly, what impacts does the implementation of the proposed productivity management tool have in real-world construction projects? evaluating the tool’s effectiveness and practical applicability in actual project settings underscores its potential benefits and operational value. the paper is structured into eight sections. the first section serves as the introduction, presenting a summarized general background and introducing the research topic. the second section provides a comprehensive literature review. the third section outlines the research methodology employed in the study. in the fourth section, a system of factors affecting labor productivity in construction is presented. the fifth section introduces an assessment tool designed to support labor productivity management. the sixth section involves an evaluation of this tool, assessing its effectiveness and applicability. the implications of the tool are discussed in the seventh section. finally, the eighth section offers concluding remarks, summarizing the key findings and implications of the study. literature review over the years, many studies have been conducted to investigate the factors that impact labor productivity growth in construction projects. the summary of the critical factors impacting labor productivity in the literature review is systematically presented in table 1, while table 2 outlines the various system dynamics and predictive modeling studies relevant to this research. in developing countries, studies such as those by thomas and sudhakumar (2013), hiyassat, hiyari and sweis (2016), and agrawal and halder (2020) have thoroughly examined the obstacles to productivity growth in construction. meanwhile, in developed nations, durdyev and mbachu (2011), karimi, taylor and goodrum (2017), and moselhi and khan (2012) have undertaken similar investigations with the aim of understanding and addressing these challenges. the critical factors impacting labor productivity identified in different countries can be different. in jordan, hiyassat, hiyari and sweis (2016) conducted a study that identified factors impacting construction labor productivity. their research identified a total of 23 factors and highlighted the significance of work experience, feeling of achievement, efficient scheduling, the utilization of foreign workers, and the use of machinery as key determinants of labor productivity in the jordanian construction industry. dixit, et al. (2017) indicated 24 factors impacting labor productivity in india and underscored the significance of decision-making, availability of labor, logistics, planning, and budget as fundamental factors of productivity. ohueri, et al. (2018) identified 14 factors and found that effective management practices, training and development opportunities, a safe and welcoming working environment, financial incentives, and career progression contributed significantly to labor productivity in malaysia. meanwhile, in cambodia, durdyev and mbachu (2018) identified poor leadership, inadequate construction methods, poor labor supervision, planning inefficiencies, and communication gaps as top factors among 36 identified factors. alaghbari, al-sakkaf and sultan (2019) in yemen indicated 52 factors and emphasized the significance of labor experience and skill levels, material availability both on-site and in the market, effective leadership and management efficiency, and the impact of political and security situations. palikhe, kim and kim (2019) in nepal stressed the unavailability of tools and materials arriving on time at worksites, delay in procurement and material payment, and lack of monetary incentives as the important factors among 30 identified factors. huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202571 notably, some studies have taken a step further by employing system dynamics in the form of qualitative models, to analyze the connections of these factors (el-batreek, ezeldin and elbarkouky, 2013; mawdesley and al‐jibouri, 2009; nasirzadeh and nojedehi, 2013; palikhe, kim and kim, 2019; parchami jalal and shoar, 2019). system dynamics is a methodology for understanding the behavior of complex systems over time. this method uses feedback loops and time delays to simulate the interactions and impacts of various factors within a system. mawdesley and al‐jibouri (2009) and el-batreek, ezeldin and elbarkouky (2013) introduced a system-dynamics-based method for modeling productivity. nasirzadeh and nojedehi (2013) proposed a system-dynamics-based approach for studying and modeling the interactions among factors influencing labor productivity. parchami jalal and shoar (2019) introduced a system-dynamics-based method capable of revealing the interconnected relationships between the causes and effects of construction labor productivity. furthermore, some studies have been conducted to construct predicting models for labor productivity in the construction industry (dissanayake, et al., 2005; golnaraghi, et al., 2019; jang, et al., 2011; mlybari, 2020; tsehayae and fayek, 2016). for instance, golnaraghi, et al. (2019) and dissanayake, et al. (2005) have investigated the utilization of artificial intelligence and computational intelligence models to enhance predictive accuracy in labor productivity. mlybari (2020) has adopted advanced computing techniques for predicting labor productivity. meanwhile, tsehayae and fayek (2016) have emphasized the significance of work sampling proportions in construction labor productivity modeling and developed a system modeling approach to supporting users and researchers in analyzing factors impacting productivity, in conjunction with work sampling proportions. while many studies have been conducted to investigate labor productivity from various angles, such as identifying critical factors, exploring correlations among these factors, and establishing predicting models, a notable gap exists in the form of a comprehensive tool that can quantitatively provide managers with insights into the situation of labor productivity management. therefore, there is a pressing need for further research and development in this domain to create a practical tool that can significantly enhance labor productivity management. table 1. critical factors impacting labor productivity in construction. country researchers year critical factors jordan hiyassat, et al. 2016 work experience, feeling of achievement efficient scheduling, foreign workers, and machinery use india dixit, et al. 2017 decision-making, labor availability, logistics, planning, and budget malaysia ohueri, et al. 2018 management practices, training, work environment, financial incentives, and career progression cambodia durdyev and mbachu 2018 leadership, construction methods, labor supervision, planning, and communication yemen alaghbari, et al. 2019 labor experience, material availability, leadership, management efficiency, and political/security situations nepal palikhe, et al. 2019 tool/material availability, procurement delays, and lack of monetary incentives huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202572 table 2. system dynamics and predictive models for construction labor productivity. researchers year focus of study methodology dissanayake, et al. 2005 predictive modeling for labor productivity predictive modeling mawdesley and al‐jibouri 2009 modeling productivity using system dynamics system dynamics jang, et al. 2011 accessing the significance of labor productivity factors using modeling predictive modeling el-batreek, et al. 2013 modeling productivity using system dynamics system dynamics nasirzadeh and nojedehi 2013 studying interactions among factors influencing labor productivity system dynamics tsehayae and fayek 2016 analyzing factors impacting productivity with work sampling proportions system modeling parchami jalal and shoar 2019 revealing interconnected relationships between causes and effects of productivity system dynamics golnaraghi, et al. 2019 enhancing predictive accuracy in labor productivity using artificial intelligence predictive modeling mlybari 2020 predicting labor productivity using advanced computing techniques predictive modeling research methodology the research methodology employs a mixed-methods research (mmr) approach, which combines both quantitative and qualitative methods. to better understand the process, figure 1 is provided to visually represent the research methodology. this study employs various evidence sources, such as literature reviews, on-site observations, interviews, and document analysis, to enhance validation. also, interviewees were asked to review the interview transcripts to confirm that their views were accurately documented. initially, factors were collected through literature reviews, including books and scientific papers, and on-site observations of construction projects. in conducting the literature review, a systematic approach was employed to identify, select, and analyze relevant studies on factors influencing labor productivity in construction. the search was performed across databases such as asce, emerald, scopus, science direct, and web of science using key terms such as “construction productivity”, “labor productivity factors”, and “construction efficiency”, filtered for articles published from 2000 onward. additionally, resources such as google scholar and general internet search engines were also employed to conduct a more exhaustive search, uncovering valuable insights and practical information. studies focusing specifically on productivity in the construction industry and labor performance were included, while those unrelated were excluded. an initial screening of titles and abstracts was conducted to assess relevance, followed by a detailed review of full texts to apply the inclusion and exclusion criteria. data from the selected articles, including publication year, geographic region, methodology, and productivity factors, were then extracted and categorized. subsequently, interviews collecting opinions toward these factors were conducted with 10 construction experts in vietnam, who are site managers with a minimum of 5 years of experience, shown in table 3. the group of 10 experts come from a diverse mix of companies with their size ranging from small to huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202573 large. among them, some are responsible for managing high-rise commercial projects, with a focus on sustainability and modern urban infrastructure. others specialize in suburban residential developments and housing complexes, having a background in affordable housing or renovating existing commercial properties. two site managers focus on the industrial sector, overseeing the construction of large-scale manufacturing facilities, while one of the site managers has built a career in infrastructure projects such as roads and bridges. from the selected factors, a comprehensive system of labor productivity factors was proposed before being carefully revised based on expert opinions, ensuring its accuracy and relevance. the next step focuses on analyzing collected qualitative data to construct a quantitative tool. based on the synthesis of gathered information from knowledge, experience, observation, and literature, with recommendations about the process of developing tools from the 10 experts, a quantitative labor productivity management tool with a user guide is developed. the final step involves the development of assessment criteria to evaluate the tool using a five-level likert scale (likert, 1932) and conducting testing the tool with the assessment from 10 mentioned experts, plus 2 additional experts in vietnam: a project manager (8 years of experience) and a foreman (6 years of experience). the information of experts and project types used for validation process is shown in table 3. the tool was developed and tested in the summer of 2022. each expert received both a digital version, accessible via computers or tablets, and a printed paper version of the assessment tool. they were instructed to use each format independently to evaluate how the tool performed in realworld scenarios. the feedback gathered from these sessions highlighted the tool’s strengths and areas for improvement, guiding further refinements. system of factors impacting labor productivity a system of factors that affect construction labor productivity will be presented in this section. the system was built with four main categories, which include eight subcategories representing a total of 49 component factors. these categories were inspired by the productivity management framework from the study of yates (2014). this served as the starting reference. subsequently, the categories were developed based on personal experience before being refined and validated through consultations with the 10 site-manager experts. a visual representation of the system’s structure and components is shown in figure 2. the four main categories are resource utilization, management methods, project characteristics and features, and internal figure 1. research process. huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202574 table 3. expert information. no. company size title working project background project used for validation process experience (years) 1 large site manager high-rise commercial project modern urban infrastructure high-rise commercial project 12 2 small site manager suburban residential development affordable housing suburban residential development 5 3 large site manager high-rise commercial project green buildings high-rise commercial project 15 4 medium site manager housing complex affordable housing urban residential project 6 5 medium site manager suburban residential development affordable housing suburban residential development 10 6 large site manager high-rise commercial project commercial buildings high-rise commercial project 11 7 large site manager industrial sector large-scale manufacturing facilities large-scale manufacturing facility 14 8 medium site manager suburban residential development affordable housing suburban residential development 9 9 small site manager suburban residential development renovating existing properties brownfield redevelopment 7 10 large site manager infrastructure project roads and bridges large-scale infrastructure project 13 11 large project manager high-rise commercial project commercial buildings mid-rise building projects 8 12 medium foreman high-rise commercial project commercial buildings mid-rise building projects 6 huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202575 and external factors. the first category, resource utilization, encompasses the use of materials and equipment, and labor resources. the second category is management methods, which includes construction and project management, and level of competency and skill among team members. the third category, project characteristics and attributes, includes specific project characteristics and working conditions. finally, the fourth category is internal and external factors, which includes safety and environmental considerations, and economic and social factors. figure 2. system of factors impacting labor productivity. category 1: resource utilization sub-category 1.1: materials and equipment there are four factors in the materials and equipment group, which are availability of construction materials on the job site; availability of tools, equipment, and construction machinery; maintenance of machinery and equipment; and use of new materials. the availability of construction materials on the job site is a vital factor in labor productivity. timely and sufficient availability of materials ensures smooth progress and minimizes downtime. delays in delivery of construction materials can lead to rework (arashpour, et al., 2014), which decreases efficiency and reduces productivity. the availability and quality of tools, machinery, and equipment significantly impact labor productivity. having the necessary tools and equipment readily available on the job site enables workers to perform their tasks efficiently. limited access to tools and equipment can cause delays (toor and ogunlana, 2008), inefficiencies, and increased labor effort. regular maintenance on equipment are also crucial to maintaining optimal labor productivity. machines that are diligently and regularly maintained not only retain their ability to adhere to precise specifications and tolerances but also play a crucial role in minimizing the need for rework (lee, 1995), hence improving overall productivity. additionally, the utilization of new materials in construction projects can have implications for labor productivity. new materials can offer improved characteristics, such as enhanced durability, ease of installation, or reduced weight (karbhari and seible, 2000), which can enhance construction processes and increase productivity. proper planning, training programs, and effective implementation strategies can harness the benefits of utilizing new materials while minimizing disruptions to labor productivity. huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202576 sub-category 1.2: labor resources the labor resources group consists of five factors, namely workforce experience, labor discipline, cultural knowledge, relationship between construction workers, and pay structure and amount. the level of experience of the workforce is the first factor that can significantly impact labor productivity. a lack of experienced workers is one of the causes of rework (yap, low and wang, 2017) that not only disrupts the construction timeline but also leads to unnecessary waste of materials (mahamid, 2022). this issue can also lead to delays (ogunlana, promkuntong and jearkjirm, 1996; sambasivan and soon, 2007), errors (karimi, et al., 2016), and the need for additional supervision and training, ultimately reducing labor productivity. labor discipline also plays a vital role in labor productivity. lack of discipline can result in absenteeism (salehi sichani, lee and robinson fayek, 2011), low motivation, and reduced productivity. establishing clear expectations, encouraging a culture of accountability, and providing ongoing supervision can enhance labor discipline and productivity. the cultural knowledge of the workforce also impacts labor productivity. workers with higher levels of cultural knowledge possess better problem-solving skills, adaptability, and a broader understanding of construction processes (manoharan, et al., 2024). inter-worker relationships significantly influence labor productivity. positive and collaborative relationships among workers enhance effective communication, teamwork, and coordination, leading to improved productivity (fulford and standing, 2014). conversely, conflicts, lack of communication, or poor teamwork can cause disruptions, misunderstandings, and decreased efficiency. the structure and extent of wages can also impact labor productivity. fair and competitive wages motivate workers to perform their work well, enhancing commitment and productivity. in contrast, wage disparities can diminish group cohesion, which is crucial for enhancing productivity, especially in tasks requiring employee cooperation (leete, 2000; levine, 1991). category 2: management methods sub-category 2.1: construction and management construction and management factors can be categorized into three main groups. the first group is design and planning-related factors, which include adjustments needed due to the differences between reality and design, changes in technical or architectural requirements, availability of construction drawings, unclear construction drawings, rationality of planning and scheduling, arrangement and layout of the construction site, and the plan for supplying and transporting construction materials and equipment. the second group is information and communication-related factors, including ineffective information management and communication systems, lack of standardized measurement and forecasting systems for labor productivity, coordination among stakeholders, and subcontractor management. the third group is constructionrelated factors, which include ineffective construction techniques, adopting new construction technology and methods, plan for using and maintaining machinery and equipment, arrangement of personnel and supervision, mistakes during the construction process, incentive mechanisms, and training and development programs for workers. addressing these factors is crucial to ensure effective labor productivity in construction projects. regarding the first group, which includes design and planning-related factors, discrepancies between the design and the reality on the construction site often emerge as a primary issue. these differences can arise from errors or omissions in the design documentation or unforeseen site conditions (naoum, 2016). such variations significantly impact labor productivity by subjecting workers to unexpected obstacles or necessitating additional resources to align the project with the intended design. changes in technical or architectural requirements also have a substantial influence on labor productivity management (moselhi, leonard and fazio, 1991). as projects progress, modifications may become necessary to meet evolving huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202577 needs or comply with updated regulations. these alterations disrupt workflow and productivity (ibbs, 2005) as workers must adapt to new instructions, acquire additional skills, or adjust their work processes. the availability of construction drawings plays a crucial role in labor productivity management (dai, goodrum and maloney, 2007). insufficient or incomplete drawings can cause misunderstandings among the workforce. this can create confusion and disagreement, resulting in numerous errors in the workplace, ultimately impacting labor productivity. unclear construction drawings can also lead to rework, delays (assaf and al-hejji, 2006; noulmanee, et al., 1999), and inefficiencies as workers seek clarification, make assumptions, or engage in trial and error. the rationality of planning and scheduling is another critical factor affecting labor productivity. poorly organized or unrealistic schedules strain the workforce, resulting in rushed work, inadequate resource allocation, delays (khoshgoftar, bakar and osman, 2010; ogunlana, promkuntong and jearkjirm, 1996), or a lack of coordination. conversely, with a clear and well-planned schedule, when workers stick to their assigned tasks and timelines, the work progresses smoothly, leading to optimal performance and results (ballard and howell, 1995). the arrangement and layout of the construction site significantly impact labor productivity. a poorly organized site impedes the movement of workers and equipment. this can cause site congestion, which affects the performance of a project (thomas, et al., 2002) and is one factor that negatively impacts productivity (ghoddousi and hosseini, 2012). conversely, a well-designed site layout that significantly influences operational efficiency and productivity (small and baqer, 2016) can optimize worker movement and enable smooth operations, thus boosting labor productivity. labor productivity can be influenced by the second group of factors, which includes information and communication-related factors. firstly, ineffective information management and communication systems can have a significant impact on labor productivity. construction projects involve multiple stakeholders, including architects, engineers, contractors, subcontractors, and suppliers, who have different objectives (leung and olomolaiye, 2010) and need to exchange information and collaborate effectively. however, if the information flow is hindered or communication among stakeholders is insufficient, it can result in more on-site rework, thus leading to productivity reduction (naveed and khan, 2022). secondly, the lack of standardized measurement and forecasting systems for labor productivity can hamper project performance. standardized metrics and forecasting models help identify areas of improvement, enable benchmarking against industry standards, and aid in resource allocation and planning. benchmarking is only effective when there are consistent methods in place to measure and evaluate the performance of operations (mohamed, 1996). coordination among stakeholders is another critical factor influencing labor productivity. a lack of coordination throughout the project often arises as stakeholders such as designers and contractors tend to work independently from each other (ajayi, et al., 2016). this can cause conflicting priorities or delays in information sharing, which ultimately leads to disruptions, rework, and inefficiencies. lastly, effective subcontractor management is crucial for labor productivity in construction. most construction projects rely heavily on subcontractors for successful completion (arditi and chotibhongs, 2005). a significant shift in the construction industry over the decades has been the move from employing in-house workers to utilizing extensive subcontracting chains. subcontracting, while offering flexibility and cost advantages, is associated with declining productivity and quality standards and increased difficulties in coordinating and supervising work due to the temporary nature of subcontractor relationships (debrah and ofori, 2001). these problems are exacerbated by the increased number of layers in the subcontracting chain (tam, shen and kong, 2011). lastly, the third group including construction-related factors also impacts labor productivity. ineffective construction techniques are a key factor that can hinder labor productivity due to wasted time or increased labor requirements. evaluating and improving construction techniques allows projects to enhance processes, reduce errors, and improve labor productivity. another factor is the adoption of new construction technology and methods. using advanced technologies such as building information modeling (bim), huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202578 virtual reality (vr), augmented reality (ar), and mixed reality (mr) is expected to enhance communication among stakeholders (elghaish, et al., 2021), improve project delivery (ammar, russello and crispo, 2018), decrease accidents and fatalities at the construction site (aghimien, et al., 2020), and boost productivity (leviäkangas, paik and moon, 2017). also, prefabrication is a method of production that has the potential to significantly enhance productivity and sustainability in construction (mossman and sarhan, 2021). the arrangement of personnel and effective supervision is another important factor. when workers are assigned tasks aligned with their abilities and receive adequate support and oversight, productivity is optimized. mistakes during the construction process can have a detrimental impact on labor productivity. errors and rework lead to delays, increased costs, and decreased overall efficiency. if robust quality control measures are implemented, clear instructions and standards are provided, and attention to detail is promoted, the mistakes can be minimized, productivity can be improved, and setbacks can be avoided. incentive mechanisms also play a role in influencing labor productivity. recognizing and rewarding workers for their performance, productivity, and innovation fosters a positive work environment and motivation. furthermore, training and development programs for workers contribute to enhanced labor productivity. developing skills is fundamental to achieving rapid, sustainable, and comprehensive growth in construction. investing in the development of workers not only improves their performance but also creates a skilled workforce capable of meeting project demands effectively. sub-category 2.2: skill level this section will discuss five skill-level-related factors and their significance in effective management, which are professionalism of third-party entities, capability and experience of the main contractor, capacity and responsibility of the supervision consultant, capability and experience of the design team, and proficiency and skill level of the workforce. regarding the professionalism of third-party entities, such as subcontractors and suppliers, engaging professional and reputable third-party entities with a track record of delivering high-quality work and timely services is essential to mitigate potential delays, quality issues, and disruptions in the construction process. the capability and experience of the main contractor also influence labor productivity management. the main contractor must carry out all tasks according to the plans and specifications laid out in the contract documents, which are created by the designer (oberlender, 1993). a contractor with a strong skill set and sufficient experience can effectively manage the workforce, allocate resources efficiently, and provide clear direction, ultimately enhancing labor productivity. the capacity and responsibility of the supervision consultant are another critical factor. the responsibilities of the supervision consultants involve construction supervision, managing projects and programs, and ensuring quality (choudhry, 2016; fidic, 2011). a competent and responsible supervision consultant can provide timely guidance, address issues promptly, and facilitate smooth progress, contributing to the optimization of labor productivity. the capability and experience of the design team also impact labor productivity. well-designed construction plans, accurate drawings, and detailed specifications are essential for smooth execution. exotic designs and unclear design details can lead to project issues such as design inconsistencies, the need for rework, and productivity reduction (arain, pheng and assaf, 2006). category 3: project characteristics and features sub-category 3.1: characteristics of the construction project the characteristics of a construction project encompass several key factors that influence labor productivity. these factors include the type of contract employed in the project, the scale of the project, the availability of investment capital, the frequent design changes, and the project’s quality requirements. various contract types, such as lump-sum contracts, cost-plus contracts, or unit price contracts, have distinct implications huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202579 for productivity. poorly defined scopes of work or ambiguous contract terms can result in disputes (koc and gurgun, 2022), ultimately reducing productivity. project scale is another crucial factor affecting labor productivity. the escalating complexities due to larger project sizes are mathematically evident, as the number of potential communication channels increases exponentially with the addition of each participant (tucker, 1986). the complexities of managing larger projects, with their intricate logistics, multiple work fronts, and increased workforce, necessitate efficient management to avoid delays, coordination issues, and resource wastage. the availability of investment capital for the project also plays a significant role. timely payments from the project owner to contractors and subcontractors are crucial for maintaining a steady workflow (xie, et al., 2019). insufficient funding or payment delays can lead to a halt in material supply (abdul kadir, et al., 2005), disruptions, resource shortages, and decreased workforce motivation. frequent design changes pose a challenge to labor productivity. almost all civil engineering and building projects will experience changes in the scope, type, sequence, or duration of work after the contract has started (kaming, et al., 1997). changes in project design require adjustments in work processes, materials, and coordination among trades, leading to rework, delays (kaming, et al., 1997), and increased labor hours. moreover, the quality requirements for construction have an impact on labor productivity. stringent quality standards often necessitate additional inspections, testing, and compliance measures, which can increase the time and effort required for completing tasks. balancing quality requirements with productivity considerations is crucial to avoid excessive bureaucracy and potential inefficiencies. sub-category 3.2: working conditions working conditions play a significant role in influencing labor productivity, and several factors within this category can have a substantial impact. these factors include location and transportation conditions of the project, limited workspace, workplace safety, and adaptability of construction site. the location and traffic conditions of a project play a significant role in labor productivity. in a populated urban area, designing a building may require a multi-stage construction approach to ensure adequate working space (kaming, et al., 1997). projects situated in congested or hard-to-reach areas can result in increased travel time for workers (gupta, et al., 2018), which can adversely affect their overall efficiency. furthermore, limited access to transportation and infrastructure can impede the timely delivery of materials and equipment (ying, tookey and roberti, 2014), further hindering productivity. another factor impacting labor productivity is the availability of workspace. interference in workspaces often results in inefficiencies, the need for rework, and increased risks to workers (tao, et al., 2020). when the workspace is limited, workers may encounter difficulties in maneuvering, storing materials, and setting up equipment as they constantly adjust their movements and find alternative solutions to accommodate the restricted space. workplace safety is a crucial factor that influences labor productivity. when workers feel unsafe or are exposed to hazards, their focus and attention may be diverted from their tasks, leading to reduced efficiency. additionally, accidents and injuries can result in time off work, and employees may be unable to perform at full capacity when they return (arditi and gunaydin, 1997), leading to potential delays in project completion. moreover, the adaptability of the construction site significantly affects labor productivity. when a site can swiftly adjust to changes in project plans, weather conditions, or unexpected challenges, it ensures that workers can maintain a steady workflow, thereby boosting efficiency. also, flexible use of space and easy access to tools and materials in the construction site reduce downtime and enhance the effectiveness of labor. huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202580 category 4: internal and external impacts on the project sub-category 4.1: safety and environment safety and environment encompass maintaining a clean and hygienic environment, managing adverse weather conditions, and implementing an occupational safety and health plan. maintaining environmental cleanliness is crucial for optimal labor productivity. a clean and well-maintained work environment promotes better health, reduces the risk of illnesses and infections, and enhances worker morale and productivity. establishing effective waste management systems, promoting cleanliness practices, and providing appropriate sanitation facilities contribute to a healthy and conducive work environment. weather conditions, including natural disasters such as storms, floods, and extreme weather events, can significantly impact labor productivity. construction projects exposed to severe weather face difficulties in carrying out activities, protecting materials and equipment, and ensuring worker safety (schuldt, et al., 2021). for example, heat stress, resulting from global warming, can lead to fatigue, dizziness, and, in extreme cases, even death (kovats and hajat, 2008), causing a reduction in labor productivity. occupational safety and health plan is a critical factor influencing labor productivity. inadequate safety protocols, improper use of equipment, and lack of safety training can lead to accidents, injuries, and interruptions in work activities. developing safety and health policies for construction projects can lower the chances of accidents, leading to improved project productivity (gurmu, 2019). sub-category 4.2: economic and social labor productivity in construction projects can be influenced by economic and social factors including government intervention, compensation and land clearance, market price fluctuations, security around the construction site, and changes in laws and policies. government intervention is a key factor that can impact labor productivity. bureaucratic processes, permitting issues, and changes in regulations can lead to delays and disruptions in construction activities. excessive administrative burdens and uncertainty surrounding government actions can hamper project progress and affect the motivation and efficiency of the workforce. compensation and land clearance processes are also critical considerations in labor productivity. projects involving land acquisition or the relocation of communities may encounter challenges in compensation negotiations (long, et al., 2004), legal disputes, and delays in obtaining approvals. these issues can disrupt the project, decrease workforce morale, and reduce productivity. market price fluctuations can significantly affect labor productivity in construction projects. changes in the costs of materials, equipment, and labor can disrupt project budgeting and planning, resulting in delays (amoatey, et al., 2015; sanni-anibire, mohamad zin and olatunji, 2022), procurement adjustments, and potential conflicts. monitoring market trends, conducting regular market research, and implementing proactive strategies to address price fluctuations can minimize their impact on labor productivity. maintaining security around the construction site is vital for ensuring uninterrupted work and optimal productivity. security concerns, such as vandalism, theft, or protests, can create an unsafe and unstable environment for workers, leading to decreased productivity (berg and hinze, 2005). implementing appropriate security measures, collaborating with local authorities, and engaging with the community can help mitigate risks and maintain productivity levels. furthermore, changes in laws and government policies during project execution can significantly affect labor productivity. modifications in regulations, building codes, or environmental standards may require adjustments to project plans, additional compliance measures, disruptions, or rework. for example, the pandemic led to multiple factors causing delays and disruptions, including travel bans, site closures, strict health guidelines, and virus spread among construction workers (gammanage and gunarathna, 2022). huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202581 table 4. assessment tool of labor productivity management level. main categories group of factors level 1 level 2 level 3 level 4 level 5 maximum score r es ou rc e u til iz at io n a1. materials and equipment: 1. availability of construction materials on the job site 2. availability of tools, equipment, and construction machinery 3. maintenance of machinery and equipment 4. use of new materials (0–4) (5–9) (10–14) (15–18) (19–20) lack of preparation no specific plan for implementation basic preparation and planning clear and detailed planning always being prepared and developing detailed plans from the beginning, and having contingency plans 5 a2. labor resources: 1. insufficient experienced workforce 2. labor discipline 3. cultural knowledge 4. relationship between construction workers 5. pay structure and amount (0–5) (6–11) (12–17) (18–22) (23–25) lack of preparation low awareness and lack of preparation for management moderate level of experience and basic resource management plan extensive experience, clear understanding of the issues, and clear resource management plan comprehensive vision, organizing labor resources with planning from the start, and having contingency plans 5 ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... an assessment tool supporting labor productivity management this section introduces a comprehensive tool designed to assess factors that significantly impact labor productivity. the tool comprised a detailed measurement scale and an easy-to-follow guide. the measurement scale, shown in table 4, is crafted to mirror the current state of labor productivity management, drawing insights from the assessment scores allocated to each element within the factor groups. in the scale, each group of factors is assigned five levels of significance with a clear and concise explanation for each level. this design ensures that users can understand the significance of each level and effectively navigate through the assessment process. building on this foundation, table 5 shows the instruction questionnaire, filled with detailed descriptions and characteristics of the components that constitute each factor group. this serves as an invaluable guide, supporting users in conducting a thorough and accurate assessment. it should be noted that “category 1: resource utilization” is used as an example in these tables, and similar tables also exist for the other categories. the result of this assessment process is reflected in the overall score, a numerical representation of the levels of labor productivity management. this score is derived from the average of the component factors’ scores. table a1 in the appendices explores this score in greater detail, connecting it with the corresponding level of labor productivity management according to the suggested scale. to effectively utilize the labor productivity management assessment tool, the process is started by addressing the guiding questions provided in table 5 for each factor across the different factor groups and ensuring that the possible score for each factor aligns with the maximum scores indicated. for example, considering the factor group “materials and equipment”, after answering all the guiding questions in “availability of construction materials on the job site”, “availability of tools, equipment, and construction machinery”, “maintenance of machinery and equipment”, and “the use of new materials”, hypothetical scores of 3, 5, 4, and 3 might be assigned, respectively. the assessment of all factors is followed by summing the scores obtained in each factor group. in the instance of “materials and equipment”, the summation of scores huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202582 table 5. guidelines for determining the level of labor productivity management. main category group of factors factor guiding question maximum score for each factor total maximum score r es ou rc e u til iz at io n a1. materials and equipment 1. availability of construction materials on the job site • how do construction materials impact the construction process, and what is the extent of their influence? • what criteria should the contractor and the supplier consider when selecting materials? (e.g., lifespan, design, origin, quality, aesthetic aspects) • do the parties involved in the project (contractor, supervisors, suppliers, etc.) have a clear vision and understanding of the project requirements? • what challenges may arise if this aspect experiences negative changes? 5 20 2. availability of tools, equipment, and construction machinery • are the necessary tools and equipment for laborers readily available and properly arranged on-site according to the project plan? • do the relevant parties understand the significance of using machinery and equipment? • can the laborers’ productivity be affected if they do not have access to sufficient tools, machinery, and equipment? • does the supplier have enough machinery and equipment to meet the construction schedule? • what preparations are in place to ensure effective labor productivity? 5 3. maintenance of machinery and equipment • is there a maintenance plan in place for the machinery and equipment? if yes, what does the plan entail? • is there a strict adherence to inspection and maintenance procedures for machinery and equipment as per regulations? • does the project utilize modern and reliable machinery and equipment? 5 4. use of new materials • is there training provided to laborers when introducing new materials? • can the construction be carried out efficiently and within the specified time when using new materials? • does the supplier have experience using these new materials? 5 a2. labor resources 1. insufficient experienced workforce • has the supplier recruited additional skilled laborers? • how does this shortage affect labor productivity? 5 25 2. labor discipline • do the laborers comply with the work regulations on the construction site, including personal conduct guidelines (hygiene, safety, handling violations, working hours, breaks, etc.)? 5 3. cultural knowledge • does the company pay attention to the welfare and mental well-being of the laborers? do they provide training to enhance their skills and improve their professional ethics and behavior? 5 4. relationship between construction workers • what preparations have been made to enhance a collective relationship among different groups of laborers? what positive and negative impacts can arise from the relationships among workers in both directions? • does the relationship among laborers affect labor productivity? if so, what measures are taken to address these impacts? 5 huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202583 3, 5, 4, and 3 results in a total score of 15. this total score is then utilized to ascertain the corresponding level of significance via table 4. in this case, the total score of 15 aligns with level 4, which corresponds to a score of 4. upon replicating this evaluative and scoring process across all factor groups, the overall score is determined by averaging the scores assigned to each group. finally, table a1 is referred to match the overall score with the descriptions provided, enabling a clear understanding of the current state of labor productivity management. by providing scores for individual components and an overall score, this tool empowers managers with insights into the current state of productivity management. this approach paves the way for increased awareness and strategic interventions to enhance labor productivity and management effectiveness. validation of the assessment tool the interpretation of scale is shown in table a2 and the validation results are shown in table a3 in the appendices. it is worth noting that the evaluation of the assessment tool by 12 experts reveals a notable consistency in the scores across various criteria. expert 11, a project manager, and expert 12, a foreman, both provided ratings that align closely with the scores given by the 10 site managers. this homogeneity in responses across different roles within the construction industry underscores the robustness and reliability of the tool. table 6 presents the validation results from 12 experts across nine different criteria. with an average rating of 3.08, the toolkit demonstrates a reasonable level of feasibility in practical applications. this suggests that while it can be implemented in real-world scenarios, there may be some challenges or areas for improvement to enhance its practicality further. the toolkit’s contribution to the effectiveness of employee management received an average rating of 2.83, indicating that it offers a reasonable to limited level of support. while the toolkit aids in employee management, its impact is not significant, and there are potential areas that need enhancement to increase its effectiveness. the clarity and simplicity of formatting and wording were rated at 3.25, showing that the content is generally clear and understandable, leaning toward being clear, concise, and user-friendly, with minor areas for improvement. this indicates that while the toolkit is mostly well-presented, some aspects could be refined for better clarity and simplicity. the appropriateness of the evaluation scale for the construction industry received an average rating of 3.00, suggesting that the scale is relevant but might require some adjustments to fully align with the specific needs and conditions of the construction industry in vietnam. in terms of the content presented fully addressing the tasks and objectives set forth, the toolkit scored 2.83. this implies that while it covers many necessary aspects, it falls short in some areas and needs improvement to comprehensively meet all tasks and objectives. the close integration with other management processes during the construction phase was rated at 3.42, indicating that the toolkit integrates main category group of factors factor guiding question maximum score for each factor total maximum score 5. pay structure and amount • are the salary payment methods suitable for each type of job? • does the company have productivity incentives for the laborers? 5 ... ... • ... ... ... table 5. continued huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202584 well with other processes, showing a moderate to high level of coordination, communication, and alignment. however, there is room for making this integration even more seamless and effective. the flexibility, suitability, and practicality of the toolkit for employee management received an average rating of 2.33, suggesting that it has some adaptability and practicality but needs significant improvements to be more flexible and better suited to diverse employee management objectives. the information gathering and data collection methods were rated at 3.00, implying that while the methods used are generally suitable, there are areas that could be optimized to better meet the objectives. lastly, the contribution to enhancing the awareness and knowledge of stakeholders regarding employee management received a rating of 3.33, suggesting that the toolkit is effective in educating stakeholders but could be enhanced to have a more profound impact. table 6. summary of main points from the validation results. no. criterion average rating brief validation from the scale 1 feasibility of the toolkit when applied in practice 3.08 the toolkit demonstrates a reasonable level of feasibility in practical applications. 2 contribution of the toolkit to the effectiveness of employee management 2.83 the toolkit offers a reasonable to limited level of contribution to the effectiveness of employee management. 3 clarity and simplicity of formatting and wording 3.25 the formatting and wording of the content are generally clear and understandable, leaning toward being clear, concise, and user-friendly, with minor areas for improvement. 4 appropriateness of the evaluation scale for the construction industry 3.00 the evaluation scale has a moderate level of appropriateness for the construction situation in vietnam. 5 the content presented fully addresses the tasks and objectives set forth 2.83 the content presented reasonably to partially addresses the tasks and objectives set forth. 6 close integration with other management processes during the construction phase 3.42 the integration of the management processes with the construction phase is reasonably effective, showing a moderate to high level of coordination, communication, and alignment. 7 flexibility, suitability with the objective, and practicality of employee management 2.33 the toolkit exhibits limited to reasonable flexibility, suitability, and practicality. 8 information gathering and data collection fully appropriate to the objectives set forth 3.00 the information gathering and data collection methods exhibit a moderate level of appropriateness. huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202585 no. criterion average rating brief validation from the scale 9 contributes to enhancing the awareness and knowledge of stakeholders regarding employee management 3.33 the toolkit makes a reasonable to significant contribution to enhancing the awareness and knowledge of stakeholders. implication of the assessment tool this study makes a substantial contribution to both theoretical knowledge and practical applications in the field of construction management. from a theoretical viewpoint, it provides a comprehensive framework and an understanding of the various factors that influence labor productivity in construction projects. by categorizing these factors into distinct groups and establishing a measurement scale, the study enriches the existing body of knowledge, offering a structured approach to analyzing and assessing labor productivity. on the practical side, the introduction of a specialized tool designed specifically for the construction industry stands as a significant advancement. this tool, comprising a measurement scale and an instructive guide, serves as a solution for managers and practitioners in the field, facilitating a more systematic and efficient evaluation of labor productivity. the clear categorization of factors, along with the assignment of significance levels, helps to precisely identify areas that need improvement, thereby enabling targeted interventions and strategies. furthermore, by providing scores for individual components and an overall productivity management level, the tool enhances transparency and objectivity in productivity assessment, encouraging a culture of continuous improvement. the inclusion of detailed descriptions and characteristics for each factor, along with the correlation of scores to productivity levels, ensures that the tool is user-friendly and accessible, even for those who may not have extensive expertise in productivity management. in summary, this study not only contributes valuable theoretical insights that deepen our understanding of labor productivity in construction but also offers a practical tool that directly addresses the needs of the industry, narrowing the gap between academic research and on-the-ground practices. conclusion this study has established a comprehensive system for assessing labor productivity management, comprising four main categories and a total of 49 component factors. these categories are resource utilization, project characteristics and features, internal and external factors, and management methods. based on this system of factors, a practical tool has been proposed, consisting of a measurement scale and an instructive guide. the suggested measurement scale offers clear explanations for each level, aiding evaluators in effectively understanding the current situation of labor productivity management. additionally, the proposed instructive guide provides detailed descriptions and characteristics of the factors using the instruction questionnaire, serving as valuable guidance for the assessment process. a scale was also offered to provide the users with the overall productivity management level based on the overall score. after validating the completeness and applicability of the tool by inviting experts to assess a project they were recently involved in, the evaluation results highlighted both the strengths and areas for improvement in the tool. while the feasibility of implementing the toolkit in practical scenarios shows potential, further refinement and adaptation may be necessary to maximize its effectiveness. the support provided for enhancing labor management efficiency received mixed ratings, emphasizing the need for a more table 6. continued huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202586 comprehensive evaluation and refinement of the toolkit’s features. on a positive note, the presentation format and clarity of the content are well-received, demonstrating that the toolkit effectively conveys its intended message. the appropriateness of the evaluation scale for the construction context is generally affirmed, with only minor adjustments suggested. there is room for enhancing the completeness of task objectives, as well as improving the toolkit’s flexibility to better address the diverse needs and challenges associated with managing laborers in construction projects. on the other hand, the toolkit’s informationgathering process is considered adequate, and its potential contribution to raising awareness and knowledge about labor management in construction projects is recognized. the tool introduced in this study offers a structured and informative approach to assessing and enhancing labor productivity management in construction projects. these resources empower managers to make informed decisions and improvements, ultimately contributing to more efficient and successful project outcomes. future research will focus on improving the labor productivity management tool by addressing subjectivity in assessments. implementing a multi-evaluator approach and developing standardized guidelines and training programs for evaluators will enhance objectivity and consistency. additionally, future research will explore the creation of a dedicated software application to integrate the tool into daily operations, facilitating efficient data collection and real-time feedback. this software will streamline on-site productivity tracking and management. validation across different construction projects and regions will ensure broad applicability and effectiveness. comparative studies in diverse settings will refine the tool and provide insights into factors influencing labor productivity. longitudinal studies will assess the tool’s long-term impact on project performance and productivity, ensuring its sustained relevance and value in the construction industry. the ultimate goal is to develop a robust, user-friendly tool that enhances labor productivity management across various construction projects. acknowledgement we acknowledge ho chi minh city university of technology (hcmut), vnu-hcm for supporting this study. appendices table a1. scale of the overall level of labor productivity management. overall score description 1 no planning preparation 2 no data and preparation for productivity management 3 some necessary data have been prepared, and proposals for productivity management plans have been suggested 4 many necessary data have been prepared, studied, and analyzed. implementation of detailed productivity management plans has been carried out. 5 a significant amount of important data have been collected, studied, and analyzed. detailed and specific productivity management plans have been established and readied for any situation. flexibility, continuous updating, and innovation efforts have been implemented. huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202587 table a2. likert scale for the evaluation of completeness and applicability of the tool. no. criteria level 1 level 2 level 3 level 4 level 5 1 feasibility of the toolkit when applied in practice the toolkit is highly impractical and nearly impossible to implement in real-world scenarios the toolkit has some limitations and challenges when applied in practice the toolkit demonstrates a reasonable level of feasibility in practical applications the toolkit is highly practical and can be readily applied in real-world situations the toolkit is exceptionally feasible and practically ready for widespread adoption 2 contribution of the toolkit to the effectiveness of employee management the toolkit makes a negligible or insignificant contribution to the effectiveness of employee management the toolkit provides limited support and has a minor impact on the effectiveness of employee management the toolkit offers a reasonable level of contribution to the effectiveness of employee management the toolkit highly contributes to the effectiveness of employee management the toolkit makes an exceptional contribution to the effectiveness of employee management 3 clarity and simplicity of formatting and wording the formatting and wording of the content are highly convoluted, confusing, and difficult to understand the formatting and wording of the content have some clarity issues and are relatively complex the formatting and wording of the content are generally clear and understandable, but some areas may still require improvement the formatting and wording of the content are clear, concise, and presented in a user-friendly manner the formatting and wording of the content are exceptionally clear, simple, and well-crafted 4 appropriateness of the evaluation scale for the construction industry the evaluation scale is highly unsuitable for the construction situation in vietnam the evaluation scale has limited relevance to the construction situation in vietnam the evaluation scale has a moderate level of appropriateness for the construction situation in vietnam the evaluation scale is generally appropriate for the construction situation in vietnam the evaluation scale is highly suitable and tailored specifically for the construction situation in vietnam 5 the content presented fully addresses the tasks and objectives set forth the content presented inadequately addresses the tasks and objectives set forth the content presented partially addresses some of the tasks and objectives, but it falls short in several areas the content presented reasonably addresses the majority of the tasks and objectives set forth the content presented effectively addresses the tasks and objectives set forth the content presented fully and excellently addresses all the tasks and objectives set forth 6 close integration with other management processes during the construction phase the integration of the management processes with the construction phase is extremely limited or non-existent the integration of the management processes with the construction phase is limited and fragmented the integration of the management processes with the construction phase is reasonably effective to a moderate extent the management processes are closely integrated with the construction phase, resulting in a high level of coordination, communication, and alignment the integration of the management processes with the construction phase is exceptionally close and seamless table a2. continued huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202588 no. criteria level 1 level 2 level 3 level 4 level 5 7 flexibility, suitability with the objective, and practicality of employee management the toolkit lacks flexibility, suitability, and practicality the toolkit has limited flexibility, suitability, and practicality the toolkit exhibits a reasonable level of flexibility, suitability, and practicality the toolkit demonstrates a high degree of flexibility, suitability, and practicality the toolkit exhibits exceptional flexibility, suitability, and practicality 8 information gathering and data collection fully appropriate to the objectives set forth the information gathering and data collection methods employed are highly inadequate and unsuitable for achieving the set objectives the information gathering and data collection methods have some limitations and fall short of fully meeting the objectives set forth the information gathering and data collection methods exhibit a moderate level of appropriateness in relation to the objectives the information gathering and data collection methods are highly appropriate and well-aligned with the objectives set forth the information gathering and data collection methods are exceptionally appropriate and tailored specifically to the objectives at hand 9 contributes to enhancing the awareness and knowledge of stakeholders regarding employee management the toolkit has minimal or no contribution to enhancing the awareness and knowledge of stakeholders regarding employee management the toolkit provides limited contribution to enhancing the awareness and knowledge of stakeholders regarding employee management the toolkit makes a reasonable contribution to enhancing the awareness and knowledge of stakeholders regarding employee management the toolkit significantly contributes to enhancing the awareness and knowledge of stakeholders regarding employee management the toolkit makes an exceptional contribution to enhancing the awareness and knowledge of stakeholders regarding employee management table a3. validation results from 12 experts with nine different criteria. expert 1 expert 2 expert 3 expert 4 expert 5 expert 6 expert 7 expert 8 expert 9 expert 10 expert 11 expert 12 criterion 1 3 2 3 3 4 3 4 3 3 3 3 3 criterion 2 3 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 criterion 3 4 4 3 3 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 criterion 4 3 3 3 3 3 4 3 3 3 2 3 3 criterion 5 3 2 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 3 3 3 criterion 6 4 4 3 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 criterion 7 3 3 2 2 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 3 criterion 8 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 criterion 9 3 4 4 3 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 4 table a2. likert scale for the evaluation of completeness and applicability of the tool. no. criteria level 1 level 2 level 3 level 4 level 5 1 feasibility of the toolkit when applied in practice the toolkit is highly impractical and nearly impossible to implement in real-world scenarios the toolkit has some limitations and challenges when applied in practice the toolkit demonstrates a reasonable level of feasibility in practical applications the toolkit is highly practical and can be readily applied in real-world situations the toolkit is exceptionally feasible and practically ready for widespread adoption 2 contribution of the toolkit to the effectiveness of employee management the toolkit makes a negligible or insignificant contribution to the effectiveness of employee management the toolkit provides limited support and has a minor impact on the effectiveness of employee management the toolkit offers a reasonable level of contribution to the effectiveness of employee management the toolkit highly contributes to the effectiveness of employee management the toolkit makes an exceptional contribution to the effectiveness of employee management 3 clarity and simplicity of formatting and wording the formatting and wording of the content are highly convoluted, confusing, and difficult to understand the formatting and wording of the content have some clarity issues and are relatively complex the formatting and wording of the content are generally clear and understandable, but some areas may still require improvement the formatting and wording of the content are clear, concise, and presented in a user-friendly manner the formatting and wording of the content are exceptionally clear, simple, and well-crafted 4 appropriateness of the evaluation scale for the construction industry the evaluation scale is highly unsuitable for the construction situation in vietnam the evaluation scale has limited relevance to the construction situation in vietnam the evaluation scale has a moderate level of appropriateness for the construction situation in vietnam the evaluation scale is generally appropriate for the construction situation in vietnam the evaluation scale is highly suitable and tailored specifically for the construction situation in vietnam 5 the content presented fully addresses the tasks and objectives set forth the content presented inadequately addresses the tasks and objectives set forth the content presented partially addresses some of the tasks and objectives, but it falls short in several areas the content presented reasonably addresses the majority of the tasks and objectives set forth the content presented effectively addresses the tasks and objectives set forth the content presented fully and excellently addresses all the tasks and objectives set forth 6 close integration with other management processes during the construction phase the integration of the management processes with the construction phase is extremely limited or non-existent the integration of the management processes with the construction phase is limited and fragmented the integration of the management processes with the construction phase is reasonably effective to a moderate extent the management processes are closely integrated with the construction phase, resulting in a high level of coordination, communication, and alignment the integration of the management processes with the construction phase is exceptionally close and seamless table a2. continued huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202589 references abdul kadir, m., lee, w., jaafar, m., sapuan, s. and ali, a., 2005. factors affecting construction labour productivity for malaysian residential projects. structural survey, [e-journal] 23(1), pp.42-54. https://doi. org/10.1108/02630800510586907 adebowale, o.j. and agumba, j.n., 2021. a meta-analysis of factors affecting labour productivity of construction smes in developing countries. journal of engineering, design and technology. [e-journal] https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-052021-0277 adebowale, o.j. and agumba, j.n., 2023. a scientometric analysis and review of construction labour productivity research. international journal of productivity and performance management, [e-journal] 72(7), pp.1903-23. https://doi. org/10.1108/ijppm-09-2021-0505 aghimien, d.o., aigbavboa, c.o., oke, a.e. and thwala, w.d., 2020. mapping out research focus for robotics and automation research in construction-related studies: a bibliometric approach. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 18(5), pp.1063-79. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-09-2019-0237 agrawal, a. and halder, s., 2020. identifying factors affecting construction labour productivity in india and measures to improve productivity. asian journal of civil engineering, [e-journal] 21, pp.569-79. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42107019-00212-3 ajayi, s.o., oyedele, l.o., akinade, o.o., bilal, m., owolabi, h.a., alaka, h.a. and kadiri, k.o., 2016. reducing waste to landfill: a need for cultural change in the uk construction industry. journal of building engineering, 5, pp.18593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2015.12.007 alaghbari, w., al-sakkaf, a.a. and sultan, b., 2019. factors affecting construction labour productivity in yemen. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 19(1), pp.79-91. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017. 1382091 ammar, m., russello, g. and crispo, b., 2018. internet of things: a survey on the security of iot frameworks. journal of information security and applications, [e-journal] 38, pp.8-27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jisa.2017.11.002 amoatey, c.t., ameyaw, y.a., adaku, e. and famiyeh, s., 2015. analysing delay causes and effects in ghanaian state housing construction projects. international journal of managing projects in business, [e-journal] 8(1), pp.198-214. https:// doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-04-2014-0035 arain, f.m., pheng, l.s. and assaf, s.a., 2006. contractors’ views of the potential causes of inconsistencies between design and construction in saudi arabia. journal of performance of constructed facilities, [e-journal] 20(1), pp.74-83. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3828(2006)20:1(74) arashpour, m., wakefield, r., blismas, n. and lee, e., 2014. analysis of disruptions caused by construction field rework on productivity in residential projects. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 140(2), p.04013053. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000804 arditi, d. and chotibhongs, r., 2005. issues in subcontracting practice. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 131(8), pp.866-76. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:8(866) arditi, d. and gunaydin, h.m., 1997. total quality management in the construction process. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 15(4), pp.235-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(96)00076-2 assaf, s.a. and al-hejji, s., 2006. causes of delay in large construction projects. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 24(4), pp.349-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.11.010 ballard, g. and howell, g., 1995. toward construction jit. lean construction, [e-journal] 291, p.300. https://doi. org/10.4324/9780203345825_toward_construction_jit huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202590 https://doi.org/10.1108/02630800510586907 https://doi.org/10.1108/02630800510586907 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-05-2021-0277 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-05-2021-0277 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-09-2021-0505 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-09-2021-0505 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-09-2019-0237 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42107-019-00212-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42107-019-00212-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2015.12.007 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1382091 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1382091 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jisa.2017.11.002 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-04-2014-0035 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-04-2014-0035 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3828(2006)20:1(74 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000804 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:8(866 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(96)00076-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.11.010 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203345825_toward_construction_jit https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203345825_toward_construction_jit berg, r. and hinze, j., 2005. theft and vandalism on construction sites. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 131(7), pp.826-33. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:7(826) best, r., 2010. using purchasing power parity to assess construction productivity. australasian journal of construction economics and building, [e-journal] 10(4), pp.1-10. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v10i4.1675 carson, c. and abbott, m., 2012. a review of productivity analysis of the new zealand construction industry. australasian journal of construction economics and building, [e-journal] 12(3), pp.1-15. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v12i3.2584 chancellor, w., 2015. drivers of productivity: a case study of the australian construction industry. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 15(3), pp.85-97. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i3.4551 choudhry, r.m., 2016. appointing the design consultant as supervision consultant on construction projects. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, [e-journal] 8(4), p.04516005. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000195 cii-r252, 2011. 2b-a guide to construction rework reduction, construction industry institute, austin, texas, 2011. dai, j., goodrum, p.m. and maloney, w.f., 2007. analysis of craft workers’ and foremen’s perceptions of the factors affecting construction labour productivity. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 25(11), pp.1139-52. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190701598681 debrah, y.a. and ofori, g., 2001. subcontracting, foreign workers and job safety in the singapore construction industry. asia pacific business review, [e-journal] 8(1), pp.145-66. https://doi.org/10.1080/713999129 dissanayake, m., robinson fayek, a., russell, a.d. and pedrycz, w., 2005. a hybrid neural network for predicting construction labour productivity. computing in civil engineering (2005), [e-journal] pp.1-12. https://doi. org/10.1061/40794(179)78 dixit, s., pandey, a.k., mandal, s.n. and bansal, s., 2017. a study of enabling factors affecting construction productivity: indian scnerio. international journal of civil engineering & technology, [e-journal] 8(6), pp.741-58. https:// doi.org/10.3311/ppar.12710 doloi, h., sawhney, a., iyer, k. and rentala, s., 2012. analysing factors affecting delays in indian construction projects. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 30(4), pp.479-89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2011.10.004 durdyev, s. and mbachu, j., 2011. on-site labour productivity of new zealand construction industry: key constraints and improvement measures. australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11(3), pp.18-33. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v11i3.2120 durdyev, s. and mbachu, j., 2018. key constraints to labour productivity in residential building projects: evidence from cambodia. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 18(5), pp.385-93. https://doi.org/10.1080/156 23599.2017.1326301 el-batreek, a.h., ezeldin, a.s. and elbarkouky, m.m., 2013. a framework for construction labor productivity improvement in egypt. aei 2013: building solutions for architectural engineering, [e-journal] pp.1007-17. https://doi. org/10.1061/9780784412909.098 el-gohary, k.m. and aziz, r.f., 2014. factors influencing construction labor productivity in egypt. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 30(1), pp.1-9. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000168 elghaish, f., matarneh, s., talebi, s., kagioglou, m., hosseini, m.r. and abrishami, s., 2021. toward digitalization in the construction industry with immersive and drones technologies: a critical literature review. smart and sustainable built environment, [e-journal] 10(3), pp.345-63. https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-06-2020-0077 huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202591 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:7(826 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v10i4.1675 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v12i3.2584 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v12i3.2584 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i3.4551 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000195 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000195 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190701598681 https://doi.org/10.1080/713999129 https://doi.org/10.1061/40794(179)78 https://doi.org/10.1061/40794(179)78 https://doi.org/10.3311/ppar.12710 https://doi.org/10.3311/ppar.12710 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.10.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.10.004 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v11i3.2120 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v11i3.2120 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1326301 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1326301 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784412909.098 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784412909.098 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000168 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-06-2020-0077 fidic, i.f.o.c.e., 2011. fidic procurement procedures guide: geneva. fulford, r. and standing, c., 2014. construction industry productivity and the potential for collaborative practice. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 32(2), pp.315-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2013.05.007 gammanage, s.h. and gunarathna, n., 2022. delays and disruptions in the construction industry during the global pandemic. proceedings of 10th world construction symposium 2022. [e-journal] https://doi.org/10.31705/wcs.2022.27 ghoddousi, p. and hosseini, m.r., 2012. a survey of the factors affecting the productivity of construction projects in iran. technological and economic development of economy, 18(1), [e-journal] pp.99-116. https://doi.org/10.3846/2029491 3.2012.661203 golnaraghi, s., zangenehmadar, z., moselhi, o. and alkass, s., 2019. application of artificial neural network(s) in predicting formwork labour productivity. advances in civil engineering, 2019. [e-journal] https://doi. org/10.1155/2019/5972620 gouett, m.c., haas, c.t., goodrum, p.m. and caldas, c.h., 2011. activity analysis for direct-work rate improvement in construction. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 137(12), pp.1117-24. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000375 gupta, m., hasan, a., jain, a.k. and jha, k.n., 2018. site amenities and workers’ welfare factors affecting workforce productivity in indian construction projects. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 144(11), p.04018101. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001566 gurmu, a.t., 2019. identifying and prioritizing safety practices affecting construction labour productivity: an empirical study. international journal of productivity and performance management, [e-journal] 68(8), pp.1457-74. https://doi. org/10.1108/ijppm-10-2018-0349 gurmu, a.t., aibinu, a.a. and toong khuan, c., 2016. a study of best management practices for enhancing productivity in building projects: construction methods perspectives. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 16(3), pp.1-19. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i3.4882 hamza, m., shahid, s., bin hainin, m.r. and nashwan, m.s., 2022. construction labour productivity: review of factors identified. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(3), pp.413-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/1562 3599.2019.1627503 hanna, a.s., peterson, p. and lee, m.-j., 2002. benchmarking productivity indicators for electrical/mechanical projects. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 128(4), pp.331-7. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(2002)128:4(331) hiyassat, m.a., hiyari, m.a. and sweis, g.j., 2016. factors affecting construction labour productivity: a case study of jordan. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 16(2), pp.138-49. https://doi.org/10.1080/156235 99.2016.1142266 ibbs, w., 2005. impact of change’s timing on labor productivity. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 131(11), pp.1219-23. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:11(1219) jang, h., kim, k., kim, j. and kim, j., 2011. labour productivity model for reinforced concrete construction projects. construction innovation, [e-journal] 11(1), pp.92-113. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171111104655 kaming, p.f., olomolaiye, p.o., holt, g.d. and harris, f.c., 1997. factors influencing construction time and cost overruns on high-rise projects in indonesia. construction management & economics, [e-journal] 15(1), pp.83-94. https:// doi.org/10.1080/014461997373132 huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202592 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.05.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.05.007 https://doi.org/10.31705/wcs.2022.27 https://doi.org/10.3846/20294913.2012.661203 https://doi.org/10.3846/20294913.2012.661203 https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/5972620 https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/5972620 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000375 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000375 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001566 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-10-2018-0349 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-10-2018-0349 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i3.4882 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1627503 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1627503 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2002)128:4(331 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2002)128:4(331 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1142266 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1142266 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:11(1219 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171111104655 https://doi.org/10.1080/014461997373132 https://doi.org/10.1080/014461997373132 karbhari, v.m. and seible, f., 2000. fiber reinforced composites–advanced materials for the renewal of civil infrastructure. applied composite materials, [e-journal] 7, pp.95-124. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1008915706226 karimi, h., taylor, t.r. and goodrum, p.m., 2017. analysis of the impact of craft labour availability on north american construction project productivity and schedule performance. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 35(6), pp.368-80. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2017.1294257 karimi, h., taylor, t.r., goodrum, p.m. and srinivasan, c., 2016. quantitative analysis of the impact of craft worker availability on construction project safety performance. construction innovation, [e-journal] 16(3), pp.307-22. https:// doi.org/10.1108/ci-10-2015-0050 khoshgoftar, m., bakar, a.h.a. and osman, o., 2010. causes of delays in iranian construction projects. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 10(2), pp.53-69. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2010.10773144 koc, k. and gurgun, a.p., 2022. ambiguity factors in construction contracts entailing conflicts. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 29(5), pp.1946-64. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-20200254 kovats, r.s. and hajat, s., 2008. heat stress and public health: a critical review. annual review public health, [e-journal] 29, pp.41-55. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.29.020907.090843 lee, j., 1995. machine performance monitoring and proactive maintenance in computer-integrated manufacturing: review and perspective. international journal of computer integrated manufacturing, [e-journal] 8(5), pp.370-80. https:// doi.org/10.1080/09511929508944664 leete, l., 2000. wage equity and employee motivation in nonprofit and for-profit organizations. journal of economic behavior & organization, [e-journal] 43(4), pp.423-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0167-2681(00)00129-3 leung, m.-y. and olomolaiye, p., 2010. risk and construction stakeholder management. in: e. chinyio and p. olomolaiye, eds. construction stakeholder management. uk: john wiley & sons ltd. pp.75-98. https://doi. org/10.1002/9781444315349.ch6 leviäkangas, p., paik, s.m. and moon, s., 2017. keeping up with the pace of digitization: the case of the australian construction industry. technology in society, [e-journal] 50, pp.33-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2017.04.003 levine, d.i., 1991. cohesiveness, productivity, and wage dispersion. journal of economic behavior & organization, [e-journal] 15(2), pp.237-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-2681(91)90031-r liao, l., teo, e.a.l. and low, s.p., 2017. a project management framework for enhanced productivity performance using building information modelling. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 17(3), pp.1-26. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5389 likert, r., 1932. a technique for the measurement of attitudes. archives of psychology. available at: https://psycnet.apa. org/record/1933-01885-001. long, n.d., ogunlana, s., quang, t. and lam, k.c., 2004. large construction projects in developing countries: a case study from vietnam. international journal of project management, 22(7), pp.553-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2004.03.004 lu, h., zhang, q., cui, q., luo, y., pishdad-bozorgi, p. and hu, x., 2021. how can information technology use improve construction labor productivity? an empirical analysis from china. sustainability, [e-journal] 13(10), p.5401. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105401 mahamid, i., 2022. impact of rework on material waste in building construction projects. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(8), pp.1500-7. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1728607 huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202593 https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1008915706226 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2017.1294257 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-10-2015-0050 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-10-2015-0050 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2010.10773144 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-2020-0254 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-2020-0254 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.publhealth.29.020907.090843 https://doi.org/10.1080/09511929508944664 https://doi.org/10.1080/09511929508944664 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0167-2681(00)00129-3 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444315349.ch6 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444315349.ch6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2017.04.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-2681(91)90031-r https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5389 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5389 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1933-01885-001 https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1933-01885-001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.03.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.03.004 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105401 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1728607 manoharan, k., dissanayake, p., pathirana, c., deegahawature, d. and silva, r., 2024. assessing the performance and productivity of labour in building construction projects through the application of work-based training practices. construction innovation, [e-journal] 24(2), pp.558-83. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-05-2022-0126 mawdesley, m.j. and al‐jibouri, s., 2009. modelling construction project productivity using systems dynamics approach. international journal of productivity and performance management, [e-journal] 59(1), pp.18-36. https://doi. org/10.1108/17410401011006095 mlybari, e.a., 2020. application of soft computing techniques to predict construction labour productivity in saudi arabia. geomate journal, [e-journal] 19(71), pp.203-10. https://doi.org/10.21660/2020.71.31349 mohamed, s., 1996. benchmarking and improving construction productivity. benchmarking for quality management & technology, [e-journal] 3(3), pp.50-8. https://doi.org/10.1108/14635779610149151 moselhi, o. and khan, z., 2012. significance ranking of parameters impacting construction labour productivity. construction innovation, [e-journal] 12(3), pp.272-96. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171211244541 moselhi, o., leonard, c. and fazio, p., 1991. impact of change orders on construction productivity. canadian journal of civil engineering, [e-journal] 18(3), pp.484-92. https://doi.org/10.1139/l91-059 mossman, a. and sarhan, s., 2021. synchronising off-site fabrication with on-site production in construction. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 21(3), pp.122-41. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7638 naoum, s.g., 2016. factors influencing labor productivity on construction sites: a state-of-the-art literature review and a survey. international journal of productivity and performance management, [e-journal] 65(3), pp.401-21. https://doi. org/10.1108/ijppm-03-2015-0045 nasirzadeh, f. and nojedehi, p., 2013. dynamic modeling of labor productivity in construction projects. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 31(6), pp.903-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.11.003 naveed, f. and khan, k.i.a., 2022. investigating the influence of information complexity on construction quality: a systems thinking approach. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 29(3), pp.1427-48. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2020-0311 noulmanee, a., wachirathamrojn, j., tantichattanont, p. and sittivijan, p., 1999. internal causes of delays in highway construction projects in thailand. international journal of project management, 17, pp.149-59. oberlender, g.d., 1993. project management for engineering and construction. new york: mcgraw-hill. ogunlana, s.o., promkuntong, k. and jearkjirm, v., 1996. construction delays in a fast-growing economy: comparing thailand with other economies. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 14(1), pp.37-45. https://doi. org/10.1016/0263-7863(95)00052-6 ohueri, c.c., enegbuma, w.i., wong, n.h., kuok, k.k. and kenley, r., 2018. labour productivity motivation framework for iskandar malaysia. built environment project and asset management, [e-journal] 8(3), pp.293-304. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-09-2017-0070 palikhe, s., kim, s. and kim, j.j., 2019. critical success factors and dynamic modeling of construction labour productivity. international journal of civil engineering, [e-journal] 17(3), pp.427-42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40999018-0282-3 pan, w., chen, l. and zhan, w., 2019. pestel analysis of construction productivity enhancement strategies: a case study of three economies. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 35(1), p.05018013. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)me.1943-5479.0000662 huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202594 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-05-2022-0126 https://doi.org/10.1108/17410401011006095 https://doi.org/10.1108/17410401011006095 https://doi.org/10.21660/2020.71.31349 https://doi.org/10.1108/14635779610149151 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171211244541 https://doi.org/10.1139/l91-059 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7638 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-03-2015-0045 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-03-2015-0045 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.11.003 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2020-0311 https://doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(95)00052-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(95)00052-6 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-09-2017-0070 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40999-018-0282-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40999-018-0282-3 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000662 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000662 parchami jalal, m. and shoar, s., 2019. a hybrid framework to model factors affecting construction labour productivity: case study of iran. journal of financial management of property and construction, [e-journal] 24(3), pp.630-54. https:// doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-10-2018-0061 plangrid, 2018. construction disconnected: the high cost of poor data and miscommunication. [pdf ] us: fmi. available at: https://pg.plangrid.com/rs/572-jsv-775/images/construction_disconnected.pdf. salehi sichani, m., lee, s. and robinson fayek, a., 2011. understanding construction workforce absenteeism in industrial construction. canadian journal of civil engineering, [e-journal] 38(8), pp.849-58. https://doi.org/10.1139/ l11-052 sambasivan, m. and soon, y.w., 2007. causes and effects of delays in malaysian construction industry. international journal of project management, 25(5), pp.517-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.11.007 sandbhor, s. and botre, r., 2014. applying total interpretive structural modeling to study factors affecting construction labour productivity. australasian journal of construction economics and building, [e-journal] 14(1), pp.20-31. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i1.3753 sanni-anibire, m.o., mohamad zin, r. and olatunji, s.o., 2022. causes of delay in the global construction industry: a meta analytical review. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(8), pp.1395-407. https://doi.org /10.1080/15623599.2020.1716132 schuldt, s.j., nicholson, m.r., adams, y.a. and delorit, j.d., 2021. weather-related construction delays in a changing climate: a systematic state-of-the-art review. sustainability, [e-journal] 13(5), p.2861. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su13052861 small, e.p. and baqer, m., 2016. examination of job-site layout approaches and their impact on construction job-site productivity. procedia engineering, [e-journal] 164, pp.383-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.634 soekiman, a., pribadi, k., soemardi, b. and wirahadikusumah, r., 2011. factors relating to labor productivity affecting the project schedule performance in indonesia. procedia engineering, [e-journal] 14, pp.865-73. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.proeng.2011.07.110 tam, v.w., shen, l. and kong, j.s., 2011. impacts of multi-layer chain subcontracting on project management performance. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 29(1), pp.108-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2010.01.005 tao, s., wu, c., hu, s. and xu, f., 2020. construction project scheduling under workspace interference. computer‐aided civil and infrastructure engineering, [e-journal] 35(9), pp.923-46. https://doi.org/10.1111/mice.12547 thomas, a.v. and sudhakumar, j., 2013. critical analysis of the key factors affecting construction labour productivity– an indian perspective. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 13(4), pp.103-25. https://doi.org/1 0.1080/15623599.2013.10878231 thomas, h.r., horman, m.j., de souza, u.e.l. and zavřski, i., 2002. reducing variability to improve performance as a lean construction principle. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 128(2), pp.144-54. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2002)128:2(144) thomas, h.r., maloney, w.f., horner, r.m.w., smith, g.r., handa, v.k. and sanders, s.r., 1990. modeling construction labor productivity. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 116(4), pp.705-26. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1990)116:4(705) toor, s.u.r. and ogunlana, s.o., 2008. problems causing delays in major construction projects in thailand. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 26(4), pp.395-408. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190801905406 huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202595 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-10-2018-0061 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-10-2018-0061 https://pg.plangrid.com/rs/572-jsv-775/images/construction_disconnected.pdf https://doi.org/10.1139/l11-052 https://doi.org/10.1139/l11-052 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.11.007 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i1.3753 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i1.3753 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1716132 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1716132 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052861 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052861 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.634 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2011.07.110 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2011.07.110 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.01.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.01.005 https://doi.org/10.1111/mice.12547 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2013.10878231 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2013.10878231 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2002)128:2(144 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2002)128:2(144 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1990)116:4(705 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190801905406 tran, v. and tookey, j., 2011. labour productivity in the new zealand construction industry: a thorough investigation. australasian journal of construction economics and building, [e-journal] 11(1), pp.41-60. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v11i1.1841 tsehayae, a.a. and fayek, a.r., 2016. system model for analysing construction labour productivity. construction innovation, [e-journal] 16(2), pp.203-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-07-2015-0040 tucker, r.l., 1986. management of construction productivity. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 2(3), pp.148-56. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)9742-597x(1986)2:3(148) van tam, n., quoc toan, n., tuan hai, d. and le dinh quy, n., 2021. critical factors affecting construction labor productivity: a comparison between perceptions of project managers and contractors. cogent business & management, 8(1), p.1863303. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2020.1863303 wandahl, s., perez, c.t., salling, s., neve, h.h., lerche, j. and petersen, s., 2021. the impact of construction labour productivity on the renovation wave. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 21(3), pp.11-32. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7688 xie, h., zheng, j., zhang, y. and li, h., 2019. effects of payment delays at two links in payment chains on the progress of construction projects: system dynamic modeling and simulation. sustainability, [e-journal] 11(15), p.4115. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su11154115 yap, j.b.h., low, p.l. and wang, c., 2017. rework in malaysian building construction: impacts, causes and potential solutions. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 15(5), pp.591-618. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt01-2017-0002 yates, j.k., 2014. productivity improvement for construction and engineering: implementing programs that save money and time. [e-book] reston, va: asce library publishers. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413463 yi, w. and chan, a.p., 2014. critical review of labor productivity research in construction journals. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 30(2), pp.214-25. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000194 ying, f., tookey, j. and roberti, j., 2014. addressing effective construction logistics through the lens of vehicle movements. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 21(3), pp.261-75. https://doi. org/10.1108/ecam-06-2013-0058 huynh et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202596 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v11i1.1841 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v11i1.1841 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-07-2015-0040 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)9742-597x(1986)2:3(148 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311975.2020.1863303 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7688 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7688 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11154115 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11154115 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-01-2017-0002 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-01-2017-0002 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413463 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000194 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2013-0058 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2013-0058 construction economics and building, 16 (1), 104-105 copyright: construction economics and building 2016. © 2016 thomas ng and kelwin wong. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 unported (cc by 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: ng, t. and wong, k. 2015. book review – the soft power of construction contracting organisations, construction economics and building, 16(1), 104-105. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i1.4879 corresponding author: thomas ng; email – tstng@hku.hk publisher: university of technology sydney (uts) epress book review the soft power of construction contracting organisations cheung, s. o., wong, p. s. p. and wing yiu, t. w. eds., 2015. the soft power of construction contracting organisations. london: routledge. 226 pages. isbn – 9781138805286. this book looks into aspects such as culture, organisational learning and collaborative partnerships in construction contracting organisations (ccos). these are particularly important issues in construction, mainly due to the often adversarial mentalities (as noted in chapter 4) and “cut-throat” nature of the industry. as such, there is a need for ccos to enhance their competitiveness and differentiate themselves from their competitors. doing so will enable the industry to uplift itself as a whole, and this book highlights some of the key issues that needs to be looked at for this to happen. differentiation in particular is challenging within the construction industry, again due to its cut-throat nature and clients’ tendencies to go for the lowest price bids. overall, the book provides some good insights into the above topics. chapter 1 highlights the need for “soft” power in ccos in order to establish competitive advantage and identifies the ingredients organisations need to work collaboratively in a competitive environment. this sets the stage for insights on understanding organisational culture and its impact on performance, which is covered in chapter 2. chapters 3 and 4 discuss highly related aspects for trust and cooperative drivers, where theoretical frameworks are presented. the framework presented (figure 3.1) in chapter 3 is particularly interesting in that communication and knowledge are categorized together under cognition-based trust. these two aspects complement each other and lead to knowledge exchange between stakeholders. organisational learning (ol) is discussed in chapter 5. ol both within a cco and between partners are crucial for supporting the aspects presented earlier in the book on collaborative working in a competitive environment. along this line, chapter 6 covers the important topic of inter-organisational learning. this is very challenging for ccos because of the highly competitive nature of the industry and the previously-mentioned often adversarial mentalities between client, consultant, contractor and sub-contractors. this would be important for uplifting industry performance in general as teams can collectively make improvements so that they would be in better positions to compete with other teams. chapter 7 offers an overview of the development of project monitoring systems in construction and presents a conceptual model to illustrate the relationship between the practice of organisational learning, attention to project monitoring feedback and anticipation of project performance. chapters 8 and 9 are related to behaviours and relationships with the emphasis on conflicts and negotiations. this is another major issue in the industry since (as mentioned in the book) disputes and claims are common and increase with projects of greater complexity. the book presents many conceptual models and theoretical frameworks based on studies with robust research methodologies. the topics covered are highly relevant to many of the current industry’s shortfalls. it is evident that great effort has been put into justifying the reliability and https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i1.4879 construction economics and building, 16 (1), 104-105 ng and wong 105 credibility of the findings from the studies in a scientific manner. these models and frameworks should serve as useful references for researchers, academics and practitioners. the authors pack a lot of interesting material in about 200 pages. some readers, particularly practitioners from the industry, might want some elaboration on the content and we suggest that the authors consider a companion volume with case studies and examples that could include studies and lessons learned from other industries as well. thomas ng professor, department of civil engineering faculty of engineering the university of hong kong kelwin wong post-doctoral fellow, department of civil engineering faculty of engineering the university of hong kong book review the soft power of construction contracting organisations construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 copyright: construction economics and building 2015. © 2015 scott strahorn, thayaparan gajendran and graham brewer. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 unported (cc by 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: strahorn, s., gajendren, t. and brewer, g., 2015. the influence of trust in traditional contracting: investigating the “lived experience” of stakeholders, construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i2.4408 corresponding author: scott strahorn; email scott@strahornconstructiongroup.com.au publisher: university of technology sydney (uts) epress the influence of trust in traditional contracting: investigating the "lived experience" of stakeholders scott strahorn, thayaparan gajendran and graham brewer school of architecture and built environment, university of newcastle, australia abstract the traditional procurement approach is ever-present within the construction industry. with fundamental design principles founded on definitive risk allocation, this transactional based approach fails to acknowledge or foster the cooperative relationships considered to be vital to the success of any project. contractual design encourages stakeholders to defend their own individual interest to the likely detriment of project objectives. these failings are not disputed, however, given that trust is a fundamental requirement for human interaction the influence of trust is potentially important in terms of stakeholder relationships and ultimate project success. trust is therefore examined within this context. a conceptual framework of trust is presented and subsequently used to code and analyse detailed, semi-structured interviews with multiple stakeholders from different projects. using a phenomenological investigation of trust via the lived experiences of multiple practitioners, issues pertaining to the formation and maintenance of trust within traditionally procured construction projects are examined. trust was found to be integral to the lived experiences of practitioners, with both good and bad relationships evident within the constructs of traditional procurement mechanisms. in this regard, individual personalities were considered significant, along with appropriate risk identification and management. communication, particularly of an informal nature, was also highlighted. a greater emphasis on project team selection during the initial stages of a project would therefore be beneficial, as would careful consideration of the allocation of risk. contract design would also be enhanced through prescriptive protocols for developing and maintaining trust, along with mandated mechanisms for informal communication, particularly when responding to negative events. a greater understanding regarding the consequences of lost trust and the intricacies of trust repair would also be of value. keywords: traditional project procurement, trust, trust repair, relationships paper type: research article introduction the construction industry environment is inherently challenging, wherein the management and appropriate allocation of risk, and the ability to deal with states of rapid change are critical skills (sakal, 2005). the traditional procurement approach regularly adopted across the industry embodies transactional-based precepts and is consequently constrained by them (forgues and koskela, 2009; ibrahim, costello and wilkinson, 2011), particularly when dealing with complex and high risk endeavours(campbell, 2004). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i2.4408 construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 82 traditional procurement mechanisms are intended to definitively allocate risk amongst stakeholders despite the fact that, at the project outset, it is fundamentally impossible to accurately predict all of its risks and uncertainties (macneil, 1978). moreover, in focussing on potential uncertainties they fail to recognise or facilitate the cooperative relationships that are considered critical to the success of a contractual arrangement, particularly in terms of dealing with the unforeseeable (mcinnis, 2003). similarly, the principles underpinning traditional procurement mechanisms ensure that the respective parties act in a manner which defends their own individual interests, often leading to disputes and outcomes not consistent with what is best for the project as a whole (chan et al., 2006). adversarial relationships characterised by conflict are thus triggered (chen and chen, 2007) by the competitive, fixed price environment of the traditional contract (pesämaa, eriksson and hair, 2009). from project inception onwards, onerous contract conditions potentially discourage responsible tendering, attracting opportunistic parties to enter into an agreement with devious intentions. these are based on unrealistic tender pricing in anticipation of variations (rahman and kumaraswamy, 2004), and exploitation of weaknesses in the contract documentation (mosey, 2003). ultimately traditional procurement mechanisms have been found to negatively impact on project outcomes in terms of disputes (pesämaa, eriksson and hair, 2009), distrust, mistrust and conflict (sakal, 2005), loss of productivity (ng et al., 2002), high levels of litigation (yiu and cheung, 2007), a prevalence for disagreement rather than cooperation (wood and mcdermott, 1999), cost blow outs and project delays (chan, chan and ho, 2003). the failings of traditional procurement mechanisms and the need for alternatives have therefore been broadly acknowledged by literature (chen and chen, 2007). in light of these acknowledged deficiencies, the influence of trust has the potential to be significant in terms of stakeholder relationships and overall project success (pinto, slevin and english, 2008). trust is considered to be a fundamental requirement for human interaction (romahn and hartman, 1999), and there is widespread agreement on the value of trust in human behaviour (bigley and pearce, 1998). similarly, trust is deemed vital to facilitating cooperative processes within the project environment (kramer, 1999; wicks, berman and jones, 1999). hence, by way of improving relationships and maintaining healthy partnerships, the importance of trust within a transactional procurement context is logically significant (pinto, slevin and english, 2008). this research therefore investigates trust within this context. to this end, the influence of trust within other procurement mechanisms is acknowledged (she, 2013; strahorn, thayaparan and brewer, 2013; yeung, chan and chan, 2007), however, an investigation of trust other than within traditional procurement mechanisms is intentionally not within the scope of this paper. for the purpose of this study, the definition of trust provided by rosseau, sitkin, burt and camerer (1998, p.395) has been adopted. “trust is a psychological state comprising the intention to accept vulnerability based upon positive expectations of the intentions or behaviour of another”. within the context of this research, trust has not been considered as behaviour but rather as a psychological state experienced by practitioners. furthermore, trust has been distinguished from cooperative relationships, which can be present even without trust; mere compliance as an observed behaviour has therefore not been taken to imply the existence of trust (brewer and strahorn, 2012). building upon these precepts, this research adopts a phenomenological lens to explore the formation and maintenance of trust through the lived experiences of multiple practitioners within construction projects procured utilising traditional procurement mechanisms, e.g. lump sum, construct only, and design and construct contracts. a theoretical framework of trust is presented that drove the design and conduct of detailed, semi-structured interviews, facilitating construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 83 their subsequent coding and analysis. this reveals the importance of communication, particularly of an informal nature, as well as appropriate risk identification and management, and individual stakeholder personalities to the success of traditionally procured projects. limitations regarding the appropriateness of the traditional procurement approach are also exposed. by way of enlightening the influence of trust within the context of a traditional procurement environment, potential improvements in the design and implementation of future traditional procurement mechanisms have been highlighted. a greater understanding of trust on the part of project participants is also likely to influence individual attitudes and behaviours, with enhanced project outcomes the result. literature review when considering past research, contextual specifics have provided the impetus for the development of varied definitions and models of trust. debate and ambiguity have resulted (hartman, 1999) with the subjective nature of trust proving to be the limiting factor in terms of developing a universally applicable trust model (becerra, denzinger and kremer, 2001). in order to ensure appropriateness for use in a project environment, this research has focused substantially on the discipline of management, with a thematic review of existing trust models and literature resulting in a comprehensive framework of trust themes (brewer and strahorn, 2012): this is summarised in figure 1 and expanded upon thereafter. figure 1: thematic trust framework (main theme codes) source(s): adapted from (brewer and strahorn, 2012) human variables literature is eloquent regarding the human dimension to trust, with the nature of relationships central in this regard. a relationship can be expressed as the condition in which objectives are achieved via a dependence on another party (sheppard and sherman, 1998). the development of trust cannot eventuate without the existence of a relationship (rosseau et al., 1998); similarly cooperative relationships cannot exist without trust (misztal, 1996). relationships have a temporal dimension (karlsen, græe and massaoud, 2008), and the ongoing interactions which underpin a relationship are a fundamental determinant of trust (tomlinson and mayer, 2009). the correlation between project success and trusting stakeholder relationships is also strong construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 84 (pinto, slevin and english, 2008), however the full benefits of a trusting relationship cannot be realised unless the trust between the parties is mutual (romahn and hartman, 1999). in terms of relational interactions, positive or negative experiences underpin the casual attributions which individuals form towards one another: such ascriptions arise out of perceived causality, controllability and stability (weiner, 1986), which consequently dictate future expectations and emotional responses (tomlinson and mayer, 2009). ultimately trust levels between parties are re-assessed and decisions regarding the propensity for future risk taking are made accordingly (mayer, davis and schoorman, 1995). the initial intent and expectations of project stakeholders are significant in terms of ultimate project success (munns, 1995). while a pre-emptive demonstration of trustworthy behavior at the commencement of any exchange relationship comes with some risk, the full benefits of trust are likely to be forfeited if an alternate display of non-trusting intent is evident (whitener et al., 1998). an initial non-trusting intent will ultimately be detrimental to project success (munns, 1995). trust provides the foundation for human interaction (romahn and hartman, 1999). an understanding of the function and operation of trust is therefore important in terms of stakeholder relationships and interactions within traditionally procured projects, where recourse to contractual remedies are inevitably regarded as non-trusting actions. attribution variables within a project environment the attribution by someone of some quality or characteristic to another person within the project team is a key behaviour. in order to be deemed trustworthy, one party must display a willingness to act in the best interests of another party (mclain and hackman, 1995); to this end an individual’s characteristics and actions determine the extent to which they are more or less trusted (good, 1988). trust building mechanisms that are considered to be important and mutually related to a high degree (lander et al., 2004)) include communication, reliable behaviour, (karlsen, græe and massaoud, 2008), benevolence, competence, integrity and honesty (mcknight and chervany, 1995). attribution variables are therefore significant in terms of trust and its influence (brewer and strahorn, 2012). contextual variables uncertainty and risk are unavoidable in any project environment (schwalbe, 2004), and it is trust in all its forms that ultimately aids the resolution of issues in this regard. trust (and the subsequent benefits of trust) cannot eventuate without one party accepting some amount of risk (chow, cheung and chan, 2012): within a project context the presence of trust reinforces an individual’s motivation towards achieving the overall objectives of a project (wong et al., 2007). the provision of control mechanisms that both manage risk and minimise stakeholder vulnerability facilitates the development of trust in the project context (wong et al., 2007). conversely, excessive control can have a negative influence on the development of trust, and potentially result in distrust among project partners (pinto, slevin and english, 2008). given that the enactment of any control mechanism results in additional project cost, the presence of trust has the potential to reduce the requirement for control. in this way the nurturing of stakeholder relationships allows individuals to interact without the concern of being exploited (aubert and kelsey, 2000). trust is also considered to be critical in terms of maintaining a positive team environment (delisle, 2004); equally, a healthy team environment will have a positive influence on the development and subsequent maintenance of trust. this is crucial for assisting cooperative processes (kramer, 1999), and these improved relationships increase the likelihood of positive project outcomes for all stakeholders (pinto, slevin and english, 2008). construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 85 a project by definition is fundamentally a temporary endeavour (pmi, 2008), with this characteristic of significant consequence in terms of building trusting relationships. to this end, the time available to develop trust is limited to the timeframe in which the project must be completed (hartman, 2002), and as a result, the opportunity to develop long-term trust in interpersonal relationships is hindered (munns, 1995). the establishment of trust is most often realised over a period of time which includes multiple interactions (dervitsiotis, 2003). within the context of a project environment and the development of stakeholder relationships, the importance of trust is therefore subsequently increased (atkinson, crawford and ward, 2006). conversely however, while the temporary nature of a project may not be absolutely conducive to the development of trusting relationships (munns, 1995), provided there is no evidence to the contrary, trust during the initial stages of a relationship can actually be bolstered by a natural assumption to trust (mcknight, cummings and chervany, 1998). furthermore, individuals can display high levels of trust even in relationships without any prior history (meyerson, weick and kramer, 1996). trust failure whilst the benefits of trust creation and maintenance are logically apparent, the realities of project environments mean that the breakdown of trusting relationships frequently occurs. the need to understand the processes involved in repairing this damage is therefore important. negative events in any project directly influence stakeholder relationships, and the subsequent break down in trust can have significant consequences (lewicki and bunker, 1996), resulting in reduced trust and the need for trust repair (kim et al., 2004).the underlying trigger for a negative event will affect the perceptions of trust differently for those involved in it (lewicki and bunker, 1996), according to internal, controllable or stable characteristics afforded to the trustee (tomlinson and mayer, 2009). of these, stability is deemed to be the most influential (weiner, 2001). this is because occurrences that are believed to typify context-specific behaviour facilitate the perception that, under similar circumstances, the same results can be expected in the future (sitkin and roth, 1993). when considering the repair of lost trust – notwithstanding a mistrusted party’s attempts to exhibit trustworthiness – low levels of trust will be compounded by the truster’s memories of the earlier trust violation (slovic, 1993). the trust repair process is therefore more complex than initial trust development, since trust repair efforts must not only restore positive expectations in a relationship, but also overcome negative expectations (kim et al., 2004). any trust repair effort is therefore likely to require greater effort than was initially required to establish a trusting relationship (kim et al., 2006). methodology this study was predicated on the notion that the perception of trust by trusters and trustees is a phenomenon that can be revealed by the purposeful, detailed interrogation of their lived experiences. moreover, given the absence of a project-specific theory of trust, the adoption of a ‘constructivist’ perspective (cresswell and plano clark, 2007) was deemed appropriate to examine the diverse perceptions and experiences of construction practitioners in order to develop a theoretical contribution. driven by these methodological precepts, a phenomenological research method was conceived, utilising the ‘emic’ perspective (pike, 1967) necessary in order to capture lived experience; an interview based study was clearly indicated. with regards to trust and its influence, the phenomenological approach has accurately conceptualised the meaningful world that exists via experience. to this end, the significance of lived situations have been examined, and the experience of trust has been described (wertz et al., 2011). construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 86 a total of 26 interviews provided the data for this study, with details regarding the respective interviewees and subsequent coding identification included in table 1. six individual stakeholders from different sectors and multiple projects were interviewed. a further twenty stakeholders were interviewed from three separate projects. selection and recruitment of the research participants was determined by pragmatism. to this end, all participants were accessibly located, suitably experienced (5+ years of responsibility in their respective role) and had experience in the delivery of major projects procured under traditional procurement mechanisms. each interview was carried out at a location selected by the participant and was approximately one hour in length. the questions firstly set out to clarify the roles of the respective interviewees, and then examined their attitudes to stakeholder relationships, culture and leadership in general. questions were then focused more specifically within the context of traditional procurement mechanisms. accordingly, the data collected via the semi-structured, indepth interviews was recorded and professionally transcribed. table 1: interviewee details coding identifier designation nature of organisation stakeholder consultant # 1: project manager project manager a large engineering consultancy/ project management organisation project management contractor # 1: project manager project manager small regional building construction organisation contractor client # 1: contracts manager contracts manager government infrastructure construction pm unit client contractor # 2: project engineer project engineer client representative in a major rail infrastructure construction coal supply contractor client # 2: senior project manager senior project manager government infrastructure construction pm unit client / project management client # 3: senior project manager senior project manager government infrastructure construction pm unit client / project management contractor #3project manager project manager contractor for warehouse distribution project contractor client #4project manager director client for warehouse distribution project client consultant #2project manager project manager project manager for warehouse distribution project project management consultant #3architect architect architect for warehouse distribution project architectural consultant consultant #4engineer senior engineer engineer for warehouse distribution project engineering consultant consultant #5quantity surveyor quantity surveyor quantity surveyor for warehouse distribution project quantity surveyor consultant subcontractor #1electrical services project manager subcontractor for warehouse distribution project subcontractor contractor #4project manager project manager contractor for hospital extensionpublic health organisation contractor consultant #6architect architect architect for hospital extensionpublic health organisation architectural consultant consultant #7engineer senior engineer engineer for hospital extensionpublic health organisation engineering consultant consultant #8quantity surveyor quantity surveyor quantity surveyor for hospital extensionpublic health organisation quantity surveyor consultant subcontractor #2internal partitions and linings project manager subcontractor for hospital extensionpublic health organisation subcontractor client #5project manager project manager client for hospital extensionpublic health organisation client consultant #9project manager project manager project manager for hospital extensionpublic health organisation project management contractor #5project manager project manager contractor for car park extension to accommodate office/educational facilities for an educational institution contractor consultant #10client representative project manager client for car park extension to accommodate office/educational facilities for an educational institution client consultant #11project manager/quantity surveyor quantity surveyor / project manager quantity surveyor and project manager for car park extension to accommodate office/educational facilities for an educational institution quantity surveyor consultant / project management consultant #12architect architect architect for car park extension to accommodate office/educational facilities for an educational institution architectural consultant consultant #13engineer senior engineer engineer for car park extension to accommodate office/educational facilities for an educational institution engineering consultant subcontractor #3elevator services project manager subcontractor for car park extension to accommodate office/educational facilities for an educational institution subcontractor construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 87 the interview data was subsequently subjected to a thematic analysis process, framed against the developed trust framework (figure 1), made up of 25 open codes, and 74 axial codes (brewer and strahorn, 2012). in broad terms, the data was approached so that the first analytical pass sorted it according to question, and then utilised open coding to reveal predominant trust themes independently of the questions’ subject. thereafter, each of these themes was investigated during second and third analysis rounds utilising axial coding techniques in order to provide detail (where appropriate) to the open code themes. that is, axial codes forthcoming from the developed trust framework were used to guide the subsequent analysis and discussion of pertinent trust themes. the deconstructed, thematically arranged analysis was then subjected to a process of synthesis whereby recurrent themes from across the different interviews were constructed and explained, by confirmatory reference to existing theory wherever possible, and signalling potential theoretical contributions where this was not possible. results in striving for the development of new theory the evaluation of emerging ideas relative to existing literature is considered to be important (eisenhardt, 1989). analysing the interview transcripts with reference to the developed framework of trust themes (figure 1) facilitated the identification of trust-related issues from real world perspectives, while concurrently highlighting agreement or disagreement with the existing literature. in this regard, table 2 in appendix 1 provides a condensed summary of the interviewee quotations central to these results, and as applicable to the experiences of the research participants in terms of trust and its influence. human variables relationships, trust and the project environment the value of positive stakeholder relationships was commonly mentioned, and its link to eventual project success was widely accepted (pinto, slevin and english, 2008). the presence of open and honest communication, collaboration, cooperation, diplomacy, and positive interactions in general, were all considered conducive to a positive project team environment and of consequent benefit to project performance. on the other hand, when a project participant displayed negative traits such as exploitative behaviour, overly overbearing use of project control mechanisms, unreciprocated trust, unreliability, and an unwillingness to accept responsibility, project outcomes were almost inevitably impacted in a negative way. the nature of stakeholder relationships was widely described as being contingent upon various influences, including control mechanisms, fulfilment of contractual obligations, allocation and consequent management of risk, and levels of stakeholder profitability. nevertheless, individual personalities were ultimately felt to be the single most important influence upon project outcomes since they had the power to shape – both positively and negatively – the development of project team culture. the values they brought to the project were moulded by their prior experiences, which largely dictated their initial intent. this could be further modified over time through their interactions with others in the project team, and occasionally by their expectation of building a strategic relationship that would endure beyond the current project. traditional procurement mechanisms were not of themselves regarded as an impediment to good stakeholder relationships, and when adverse events did occur it was widely recognised that the existence of good relationships were central to achieving positive resolutions. moreover, the existence of strong relationships was widely believed to provide a disincentive for exploitative behaviour and to overcome the inclination to resort to adversarial problem-solving. construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 88 in light of the foregoing, it was perhaps surprising how few interviewees were able to point to proactive measures to develop relationships and trust. whilst most espoused the value of trust and relationships in achieving project goals (misztal, 1996), few could explain how to set about ensuring that this would occur. two clues as to why this might be the case emerged: firstly, the ongoing and frequent need to develop new relationships on a project by project basis, and; secondly, the essentially informal nature of relationship building (its dependence upon compatible personalities). as trusting relationships foster project success (pinto, slevin and english, 2008), and cooperative relationships are facilitated through trust (misztal, 1996), a greater emphasis on the need to actively pursue the development of relationships and trust between contracting parties within a traditional procurement context would be advantageous. relationship interactions and trust in terms of developing and maintaining trusting relationships, most interviewees linked future intentions to past experiences. the preexistence of a trusting relationship with a trading partner was most likely to result in an ongoing trusting relationship in the current project. conversely the adage "once bitten, twice shy" was invoked by a number of interviewees, frequently expressing risk averse sentiments about their propensity to accept risk or engage in informal trust building behaviours into the future. at times the causes for reticence could be traced back to previous bad experiences where an untried and unknown project participant had failed to perform adequately; clients in particular were unwilling to repeat such actions, perhaps as a consequence of their past experiences. ongoing re-evaluation of trust levels in relationships was a continual theme across the interviews, with wariness and vigilance being frequently mentioned, perhaps as a consequence of the increased risk that trusting behaviour placed upon project participants. on the other hand, the risk-reward proposition was also clearly on display, with the hope that actions based upon good faith in the current project might result in favourable consideration for future projects. these actions would include benevolence, integrity and honesty, over and above the normal expectations of competence and reliability. professionalism was also mentioned, though it was unclear as to whether only professionals would display this range of positive behaviours, or whether the term professionalism was used as shorthand for describing those behaviours. long-term, trust-based relationships were identified as beneficial when dealing with major conflicts. a history of successful collaborative working was cited as a significant contributor to overcoming problems – usually through informal measures – that might otherwise have resulted in litigation. this was usually couched in terms of "relationship management". the initial intent of project stakeholders the set of underlying assumptions, attitudes and consequent behaviours that a particular project participant – and more importantly, that participant's representative – brought to the initial project meetings were seen as fundamental to the formation of the project team culture (munns, 1995). different interviewees expressed contrasting positions during the early stages of project establishment, ranging from the strictly contractual through to the deeply collaborative. interestingly, this was also reported as a generational issue, with younger interviewees espousing more collaborative intentions, and contrasting these with the intransigent "us versus them" mentality of their seniors. opinions differed as to the beneficial and detrimental impact of aggressive behaviour during the early stages of the project. many participants felt that this approach would have a negative impact upon the conduct of the project, though a few of them reported a softening of stance into cooperation and collaboration once that project team had been initiated. where negative construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 89 influences originated from major clients, those charged with the management of the project often had to work hard to modify the project team culture into something more cooperative. blatant exploitation however, was universally regarded to be a negative influence on project outcomes. as the outcomes of any project are influenced by the initial intent and expectations of the parties involved (munns, 1995), a greater level of awareness amongst project practitioners in this regard would be valuable. similarly, as a non-trusting intent will be detrimental to project success (munns, 1995), an improved understanding regarding the influence of trust and its dimensions would likely help overcome the negative effects of preconceived attitudes and an adversarial culture. while a pre-emptive decision to trust in an exchange relationship is not without risk, the potential benefits of trust will be lost if an alternate non trusting attitude is adopted (whitener et al., 1998). attribution variables trustworthiness, reliability, communication and competence levels of trustworthiness between project stakeholders was determined by attribution variables assigned to one another (good, 1988). to this end, trustworthiness lay in the gift of those with whom they interactedit could only be attributed to them by those who experienced it – and it commonly occurred only where mutually beneficial and collaborative approaches were married to clearly articulated common goals. where this was expressed in hard dollar contract terms, informal "partnering" approaches to solving contractual issues were employed by those who were in a position to do so, or deliberately chose this approach. hence, the mere presence of a traditional procurement mechanism was not shown to be an insurmountable barrier to trustbased solutions, and the benefits of trustworthiness were subsequently acknowledged (gajendran et al., 2013; mclain and hackman, 1995). where the voluntary exposure of a party to increased risk through the employment of trusting behaviour was betrayed, the consequences for that relationship were negative and long term. there was widespread expectation of reciprocation, and where this was not forthcoming it could impact upon decision-making during future projects – to be more reticent about informal partnering – or even the selection of future projects themselves. by extension, other characteristics attributable were found to be similarly influential. the reliability of trading partners, in terms of their ability to communicate efficiently and effectively (gajendran et al., 2013), as well as the competence with which they completed their work were all frequently mentioned, both as positive attributes to be sorting trading partners and as inhibitors to project performance where their absence in trading partners was evident. moreover, some interviewees reflected unfavourably upon their own ability to perform in these regards, principally in relation to communication; this was particularly evident where internal business processes and ict systems hindered the timely communication of documents, thereby reducing their capacity to collaborate. paradoxically, the increased use of ict to improve the efficiency of project team communications was observed to hinder face-to-face contact, and this was felt to inhibit the opportunity to build trust and solve problems informally through collaboration. a track record of the capacity to deliver results was universally acknowledged as a key factor in winning work and becoming the object of trust. reputation and record with supply chain customers was regarded as crucial to the long-term health of businesses; conversely poor performance and/or incompetence were believed to be extremely damaging to a firm's reputation. construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 90 benevolence, honesty, and integrity characteristics of benevolence, honesty and integrity were identified in terms of attributional characteristics ascribed to trading partners, as well as in terms of characteristics displayed and self-identified by the interviewees themselves. a willingness to act with benevolence in the interest of others (lämsä and pucetaite, 2006) was a common characteristic amongst the majority of those interviewed. it typically took the form of "going the extra mile", and doing things that were not strictly contractual, but that would nevertheless result in better – and more trusting – relationships, in the pursuit of better project outcomes (lämsä and pucetaite, 2006). those that demonstrated benevolence did so in spite of, rather than as a result of, the legitimate opportunities to exploit their trading partners using contractual levers available to them. similarly, the exercise of benevolence was found to be instrumental in reducing the negative impacts of contractual conflicts; the search for a win-win outcome was held to be preferable over a transactional win in court, when considered in terms of overall project success. the issue of integrity – adherence to a known set of principles underpinning behaviour – was raised by some interviewees: the presence of integrity in stakeholder relationships was taken as indicative of the trustworthiness of the party displaying it. conversely, actions displaying a lack of integrity by a particular party would quickly undermine relationships, shaping future decisions and tainting attitudes towards that party. in one instance a "charter of agreed values" was appended to a traditional contract in an attempt to better align the personal attitudes and actions of trading partners with the desired project outcomes. only a small number of the interviewees demonstrated an overt understanding of honesty and its influence in terms of developing and maintaining stakeholder relationships, and the consequent improvements in project outcomes. to this end, given that honesty and dishonesty were only scarcely identified as triggers and barriers to better relationships, a wider understanding in this regard would be beneficial. contextual variables risk, vulnerability, uncertainty and its control the need for trust in the first place is not only contingent upon the existence of two parties in an unequal power relationship, but also on the existence of a context within which that power structure places one or the other of these parties in a situation of risk and vulnerability. a strong theme that recurred through many interviews was the idea that the pre-existence of a strong and strategic relationship between trading partners was a powerful mechanism for reducing the initial levels of such risk and vulnerability. this was particularly the case for clients who would gauge the risk associated with alternative trading partners in terms of prior experience with repeat suppliers. contractual apportionment of risk, which was widely regarded as central to the nature of project outcomes (schwalbe, 2004), could be dealt with to the satisfaction of all parties providing there were clear guidelines for its distribution from the outset. conversely, where definitive risk apportionment and management was ambiguous, uncertainty prevailed, and trust diminished as a consequence. the presence of clear guidelines and definitive procedures for dealing with unforeseen risks were therefore considered to be significant. traditional procurement mechanisms even construct-only contracts were not seen as detrimental to either party’s interests so long as these mechanisms were in place from the outset; i.e. contractual remedies had to be appropriate, and appropriately implemented. however, no interviewee made any reference to trust itself as an appropriate risk/uncertainty mitigation technique (wong et al., construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 91 2007). this silence may indicate that an increased level of trust within stakeholder relationships could be beneficial in terms of managing project risk. however, it also supports the idea that it is the appropriate management of risk, more so than the trust amongst stakeholders that is integral to the success of traditionally procured projects. paradoxically then, the human element was seen as being of equal, and perhaps even greater significance to the likelihood of successful outcomes when dealing with unforeseen risk and uncertainty than the control mechanisms themselves. while the control mechanisms would provide the boundary within which project stakeholders interacted under conditions of uncertainty and risk, it was the attitudes and behaviours of the personalities involved that ultimately determined the success of any contractual arrangements. it was therefore widely felt that relationship-based negotiation was preferable to contract-based actions. ultimately, while the respective control mechanism in any project will influence stakeholder relationships and project outcomes, appropriate allocation and management of risk, along with the individual stakeholders involved will likely be of greater consequence. team environment if the foregoing could be said to apply to individuals representing various stakeholders within the project team, the overall project team environment was also seen as being crucial to achieving successful project outcomes. shared values, competent and timely communication, appropriate managerial leadership, and mutual respect were all recognised to contribute to a positive project team culture, leading to collaborative problem-solving when unforeseen circumstances arose. however, the link between individual personalities and overall project team culture could not be ignored, and some interviewees blamed difficult projects which led to poor outcomes on a clash of personalities between key individuals. ultimately, a positive team environment was considered vital for project success, however, while none the less implied in the parallel between a positive team environment and good stakeholder relationships, a greater recognition of the specific value of trust and its dimensions in this regard (delisle, 2004) would be useful within a traditional procurement context. trust, projects and project outcomes the interviewees demonstrated an implicit understanding regarding the influence of trust on cooperative processes (kramer, 1999), and successful project outcomes (pinto, slevin and english, 2008). however, this acknowledgment was overtly limited to other dimensions of trust rather than trust itself. similarly, project characteristics pertaining to a limited timeframe (hartman, 2002), as well as a general lack of opportunity for multiple interactions (dervitsiotis, 2003), were not explicitly acknowledged in terms of trust and its influence (atkinson, crawford and ward, 2006). project supply chains inherently necessitate trust-building on an all-toofrequent basis. hence it may be suggested that stakeholders view trust building as being too hard as a matter of routine, and that trusting/trusted relationships with strategic trading partners arise more by chance than by design or strategy. trust failure trust break down and repair the potential for negative events and a breakdown of trust within traditionally procured projects was universally acknowledged by the interviewees, with reduced project outcomes the result. however, in terms of repairing lost trust, while the interviewees acknowledged the benefits of strong relationships when resolving conflicts and responding to negative events, there was no construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 92 demonstrated understanding of the intricacies of trust repair itself, or how the trust repair process differs from initial trust development (kim et al., 2004). in this regard, there was little evidence that any of the interviewees had considered the possibility of actively repairing and rebuilding relationships with trusted trading partners in the event that they failed for some reason. this appeared to suggest that whilst trust was beneficial and desirable it wasn't sufficiently valuable to invest time and effort in sustaining a trusted relationship through a rough patch. discussion the results obtained from this interview-based study into the influence of trust upon project outcomes within traditionally procured projects have shown that whilst trust is not, and cannot be mandated through contractual instruments, those individuals forced to work within this context recognise its value. that is to say, project participants occupying positions within the top tiers of project teams routinely employ, and experience approaches to solving problems associated with risk and uncertainty that are trusting in nature. they and their counterparts appear to be willing to accept heightened levels of short-term risk and vulnerability (by trusting, and being trusted) in order to solve larger issues of contractual vulnerability, risk, and uncertainty. given that trust must necessarily occur at the level of individuals, whereas contracts apply to trading entities, it can be seen that for trust to occur there is a form of risk transfer: the individual negotiators assume much heightened personal, though informal, liability, in the hope that their actions will lead to mutually acceptable collaborative outcomes. in a personal sense, these individual risk takers are engaging in the search for unique solutions to unique problems (i.e. the sources and consequences of unforeseen contractual risks). on one level the solutions could be thought of as being innovative – novel ideas that might lead to advantageous outcomes, over and above normal expectations – and bring with them the risks associated with innovating (particularly failure). previous research into the attitudinal characteristics of decision-makers in the construction sector has revealed that whilst stakeholders consider and balance salient issues during their deliberations, their decisions are tempered by issues of personal risk – to ongoing employment, reputation, personal return on investment and so on. it is in the context of these personal risks that both trusters and trustees have to consider another innovation concept, namely affordable loss. innovative firms, and to a lesser extent innovative individuals, often balance their desire to seek extraordinary profit through innovation against the costs of doing so and the likelihood of its success. like the prudent gambler, they will have a budget or stake money which they are prepared to lose. this affordable loss then dictates the point at which they are prepared to cut their losses and walk away. the same is often true of corporate entities engaged in litigation over contractual disputes. however, when it comes to individual employees considering engaging in a trust-based relationship with a potential adversarial litigant in the hope of negotiating a mutually favourable outcome, an additional level of affordable loss is introduced. any decision to trust brings with it a heightened risk of failure and the potential for ridicule, loss of reputation, reduced employability, and so on. this is particularly the case for traditionally procured projects when no provision is made for negotiated variations or outcomes: the risk is wholly personal. ultimately, while individual stakeholders may recognise the benefits of trust and it's dimensions, the perceived affordable loss may be deemed too great, and consequently dictate actions and behaviours which ignore the potential benefits forthcoming through a trusting response to risk. or similarly, the "you first attitude" may apply, and individuals become reticent to accept the risk construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 93 associated with a decision to trust, without first experiencing trust themselves. the potential benefits of trust in response to risk may therefore never be realised, with sub optimal project outcomes the result. conclusion it was clear that trust issues frequently influenced the lived experiences of stakeholders within traditionally procured projects. trust through its various dimensions was both an explicit and implicit influence on stakeholder relationships, transactions and eventual project performance. trust issues were found to trigger both good and bad relationships. yet despite its centrality, there was little evidence of proactive actions to develop and maintain trust within traditionally procured projects. a greater understanding of why this was the case would be beneficial. individual stakeholders were found to be a significant influence on project outcomes, with issues of trust fundamental in this regard. the past experiences and initial attitude of stakeholders were shown to be influential to project success. this indicated the importance of a) initiating actions to develop stakeholder trust during project initiation, and b) adopting a focused approach to trading partner selection on the basis of trust compatibility and consequent value delivery, rather than cost alone. given that individual personalities within the project team were the triggers to (non) trust, characteristics of competence, honesty, benevolence, and trustworthiness would be vital, along with willingness for open communication and a cooperative approach to resolving issues when they arose. traditional procurement mechanisms are not inherently conducive to informal communication and problem-solving, yet personal traits espousing this approach were commonly acknowledged as desirable attributes, likely to contribute to project success. in spite of this, most stakeholders were not willing to expose themselves to the increased risk that came with informality, usually to the detriment of project outcomes. mechanisms specifically designed to reduce contractual risk through informality would appear to offer the potential for considerable benefit. the appropriate identification, allocation and management of risk within traditionally procured projects were also found to be vital. while there was some acknowledgement of the parallel between trust and risk, it was apparent that while increased levels of trust may help overcome risk, it is the allocation of the risk in the first instance that is of greater importance. this holds true in spite of the chosen procurement method, and has particular relevance to the design and implementation of traditional procurement mechanisms. there was widespread awareness of the potential for negative events and a subsequent break down in trust within traditionally procured projects. there was also an apparent understanding of the value of strong relationships and trust when responding to negative events and resolving conflict. however, there was no evidence that project participants understood precursor triggers to poor relationships and distrust, which in turn led to poor project performance. nor was they any awareness regarding the importance of and mechanisms to, repairing relationships once trust had been lost. this appears indicative of both an undervaluing of trust as a tool for project performance, and a comfort in retreating to traditional contractual remedies. this study has illuminated the development and maintenance of trust within the lived experiences of construction practitioners operating in traditionally procured projects, while also highlighting the potential short comings of the traditional procurement mechanism. to this end, a greater understanding from stakeholders regarding trust and its dimensions would be advantageous, both in terms of procurement mechanism design, as well as practical application. construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 94 references atkinson, r., crawford, l. and ward, s., 2006. fundamental uncertainties in projects and the scope of project management. international journal of project management, 24(8), pp.687-98. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.09.011 aubert, b.a. and kelsey, b.l., 2000., the illusion of trust and performance [online]. cirano. available at: http://www.cirano.qc.ca/pdf/publication/2000s-03.pdf [accessed 27 april 2009]. becerra, g., denzinger, j. and kremer, r., 2001. can you trust your trust model [online]. department of computer sciences-university of calgary. available at: http://pages.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/~ayala/conference/trust_type_project.pdf [accessed 23 april 2009. bigley, g.a. and pearce, j.l., 1998. straining for shared meaning in organisation science: problems of trust and distrust. academy of management review, 23(3), pp.405-21. brewer, g. and strahorn, s., 2012. trust and the project management body of knowledge. engineering, construction and architectural management, 19(3), pp.286-305. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09699981211219616 campbell, d., 2004. "ian macneil and the relational theory of contract. center for legal dynamics of advanced market societies (cdams) discussion paper, kobe university. chan, a.p., chan, d.w., fan, l.c., lam, p.t. and yeung, j.f., 2006. partnering for construction excellence a reality or myth. building and environment, 41(12), pp.1924-33. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2005.06.026 chan, a.p., chan, d.w. and ho, k.s., 2003. an empirical study of the benefits of construction partnering in hong kong. construction management and economics, 21(5), pp.523-33. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000056162 chen, w.t. and chen, t.t., 2007. critical success factors for construction partnering in taiwan. international journal of project management, 25(5), pp.475-84. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.12.003 chow, p.t., cheung, s.o. and chan, k.y., 2012. trust-building in construction contracting: mechanism and expectation. international journal of project management, 30(8), pp.927-37. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.03.002 cresswell, j.w. and plano clark, v.l., 2007. designing and conducting mixed methods research, thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. delisle, c. 2004. contemporary views on shaping, developing, and managing teams. in: morris pwg and pinto jk (eds.) the wiley guide to managing projects. hoboken, nj: john wiley. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9780470172391.ch39 dervitsiotis, k.n., 2003. beyond stakeholder satisfaction: aiming for a new frontier of sustainable stakeholder trust. total quality management, 14(5), pp.515-28. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1478336032000053555 eisenhardt, k.m., 1989. building theories from case study research. academy of management review, 14(4), pp.532-50. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1989.4308385 and http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/258557 forgues, d. and koskela, l., 2009. the influence of a collaborative procurement approach using integrated design in construction on project team performance. international journal of managing projects in business, 2(3), pp.370-85. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17538370910971036 gajendran, t., brewer, g., jefferies, m. and strahorn, s., 2013. an evaluation of philosophical disposition and operational reality of 'alliances': the risk-trust perspective. rics cobra 2013. proceedings of rics cobra 2013 new delhi, india 10-12 september, 2013: royal institution of chartered surveyors. good, d., 1988. individuals, interpersonal relations and trust. in: gambetta d. (ed.) trust: making and breaking cooperative relations. new york: blackwell. hartman, f.t., 1999. the role of trust in project management. pmi research conference, 1999. hartman, f.t., 2002. the role of trust in project management. in: slevin dp, cleland di and pinto jk (eds.) the frontiers of project manageemnt research. newtown square, pa: project management institute. ibrahim, c.k.c., costello, s.b. and wilkinson, s., key practice indicators of team integration in construction projects: a review. 2011 2nd international conference on construction and project management, 2011. singapore: iacsit press. karlsen, j.t., græe, k. and massaoud, m.j., 2008. building trust in project-stakeholder relationships. baltic journal of management, 3(1), pp.7-22. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17465260810844239 kim, p.h., dirks, k.t., cooper, c.d. and ferrin, d.l., 2006. when more blame is better than less: the implications of internal vs. external attributions for the repair of trust after a competencevs. integrity-based trust violation. organizational behavior and human decision processes, 99(1), pp.49-65. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2005.07.002 kim, p.h., ferrin, d.l., cooper, c.d. and dirks, k.t., 2004. removing the shadow of suspicion: the effects of apology versus denial for repairing competenceversus integritybased trust violations. journal of applied psychology, 89(1), pp.104-18. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.1.104 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.09.011 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09699981211219616 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2005.06.026 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000056162 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.12.003 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.03.002 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/9780470172391.ch39 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/1478336032000053555 http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1989.4308385 http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/258557 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17538370910971036 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/17465260810844239 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2005.07.002 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.89.1.104 construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 95 kramer, r.m., 1999. trust and distrust in organisations: emerging perspectives, enduring questions. annual review of psychology, 50(1), pp.569-98. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.50.1.569 lämsä, a.m. and pucetaite, r., 2006. development of organisational trust among employees from a contextual perspective. bussiness ethics: a european review, 15(2), pp.130-41. lander, m.c., purvis, r.l., mccray, g.e. and leigh, w., 2004. trust building mechanisms utilised in outsourced is development projects: a case study. information and management, 41(4), pp.509-28. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2003.10.001 lewicki, r.j. and bunker, b.b., 1996. developing and maintaining trust in work relationships. in: kramer, r.m. and tyler, t.r. (eds.) trust in organizations: frontiers of theory and research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452243610.n7 macneil, i.r., 1978. contracts: adjustment of long-term economic relations under classical, neoclassical and relational contract law. northwest university law review, 72(2), pp.854-905. mayer, r., davis, c. and schoorman, f., 1995. an integrative model of organisational trust. academy of management review, 20(3), pp.709-34. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/258792 and http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1995.9508080335 mcinnis, a., 2003., relational contracting under the new engineering contract: a model, framework, and analysis. society of construction law, uk, d037 [online] available at: http://www.scl.org.uk/node/766. mcknight, d.h. and chervany, n.l., 1995. trust building processes in organisational relationships. in: ragsdale ct, houck ec and sumichrast rt (eds.) proceedings decision sciences institute: 1995 annual meeting. boston ma. mcknight, d.h., cummings, l.l. and chervany, n.l., 1998. initial trust formation in new organizational relationships. academy of management review, 23(3), pp.473-90. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/259290 and http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1998.926622 mclain, d.l. and hackman, b.k., 1995. trust and risk taking in organisations. public administration quarterly, 23(2), pp.152-76. meyerson, d., weick, k. and kramer, r., 1996. swift trust and temporary groups. in: kramer, r. and tyler, t. (eds.) trust in organizations: frontiers of theory and research. thousand oaks, ca.: sage. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452243610.n9 misztal, b.a., 1996. trust in modern societies. cambridge: polity press. mosey, d., 2003. "ppc 2000: the first standard form of contract for project partnering". society of construction law, uk. munns, a.k., 1995. potential influence of trust on the successful completion of a project. international journal of project management, 13(1), pp.19-24. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(95)95699-e ng, s.t., rose, t.m., mak, m. and chen, s.e., 2002. problematic issues associated with partneringthe contractor perspective. international journal of project management, 20(6), pp.437-49. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s02637863(01)00025-4 pesämaa, o., eriksson, p.e. and hair, j.f., 2009. validating a model of cooperative procurement in the construction industry. international journal of project management, 27(6), pp.552-59. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.10.007 pike, kenneth l., 1967. language in relation to a unified theory of the structures of human behavior (2nd ed.). the hague: mouton. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783111657158 pinto, j.k., slevin, d.p. and english, b., 2008. trust in projects: an empirical assessment of owner/contractor relationships. international journal of project management, 27(6), pp.638-48. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.09.010 pmi 2008. a guide to the project management book of knowledge (pmbok guide)fourth edition, newtown square, pa: project management institute. rahman, m.m. and kumaraswamy, m.m., 2004. contracting relationship trends and transitions. journal of management in engineering, 20(4), pp.147-61. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2004)20:4(147) romahn, e. and hartman, f., trust: a new tool for project managers. proceedings of the 30th annual project management institute 1999 seminars and symposium. 10-16 october 1999. philadelphia, pennsylvania, usa. rosseau, d.m., sitkin, b., burt, r.s. and camerer, c., 1998. not so different after all: a cross-discipline view of trust. academy of management review, 23(3), pp.393-404. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1998.926617 sakal, m.w., 2005. project alliancing: a relational contracting mechanism for dynamic projects. lean construction journal, 2(1), pp.67-79. schwalbe, k., 2004. information technology project management. third edition, course technology, thompson. she, l., 2013. trust, mistrust and distrust in alliancing. in: smith, s.d. and ahiaga-dagbui, d.d., (eds.) procs 29th annual arcom conference 2-4 september 2013. reading, uk: association of researchers in construction management, pp.1001-11. sheppard, b.h. and sherman, d.m., 1998. the grammars of trust: a model and general implications. academy of management review, 23(3), pp.422-37. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1998.926619 and http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/259287 http://dx.doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.50.1.569 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2003.10.001 http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452243610.n7 http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/258792 http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1995.9508080335 http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/259290 http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1998.926622 http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781452243610.n9 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863%2895%2995699-e http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863%2801%2900025-4 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863%2801%2900025-4 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.10.007 http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9783111657158 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.09.010 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/%28asce%290742-597x%282004%2920:4%28147%29 http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1998.926617 http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1998.926619 http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/259287 construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 96 sitkin, s.b. and roth, n.l., 1993. explaining the limited effectiveness of legalistic "remedies" for trust/distrust. organisaitonal science, 4(3), pp.367-92. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.4.3.367 slovic, p., 1993. perceived risk, trust, and democracy. risk analysis, 13(6), pp.675-82. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.1993.tb01329.x strahorn, s., thayaparan, g. and brewer, g., 2013. mechanisms of trust and trust repair in relational contracting: a multiple perspective investigation of alliance projects. cib world congress 2013. brisbane, australia. tomlinson, e.c. and mayer, r.c., 2009. the role of casual attribution dimensions in trust repair. academy of management review, 34(1), pp.85-104. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.2009.35713291 weiner, b., 1986. an attributional model of motivation and emotion, new york: springer-verlag. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4948-1 weiner, b., 2001. responsibility for social transgressions: an attributional analysis. in: malle, b.f., moses, l.j. and baldwin, d.a. (eds.) intentions and intentionality: foundations of social cognition. cambridge, ma: mit press. wertz, f.j., charmaz, k., mcmullen, l.m., josselson, r., anderson, r. and mcspadden, e., 2011. five ways of doing qualitative analysis: phenomenological psychology, grounded theory, discourse analysis, narrative research, and intuitive inquiry, new york: guilford press. whitener, e.m., brodt, s.e., korsgaard, m.a. and werner, j.m., 1998. managers as initiators of trust: an exchange relationship framework for understanding managerial trustworthy behaviour. academy of management review, 23(3), pp.513-30. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1998.926624 and http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/259292 wicks, a.c., berman, s.l. and jones, t.m., 1999. the structure of optimal trust: moral and strategic implications. academy of management review, 24(1), pp.99-119. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/259039 and http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1999.1580443 wong, w.k., cheung, s.o., yiu, t.w. and pang, h.y., 2007. a framework for trust in construction contracting. international journal of project management, 26(8), pp.821-29. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.11.004 wood, g. and mcdermott, p., 1999. building on trust: a co-operative approach to construction procurement. journal of construction procurement, 7(2), pp.4-14. yeung, j.f.y., chan, a.p.c. and chan, d.w.m., 2007. the definition of alliancing in construction as a wittgenstein family-resemblance concept. international journal of project management, 25(3), pp.219-31. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.10.003 yiu, k.t. and cheung, s.o., 2007. a study of construction mediator tactics part ii: the contingent use of tactics. building and environment, 42(2), pp.762-69. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2005.09.005 http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.4.3.367 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1539-6924.1993.tb01329.x http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.2009.35713291 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4948-1 http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1998.926624 http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/259292 http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/259039 http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/amr.1999.1580443 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.11.004 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.10.003 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2005.09.005 construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 97 appendix table 2: condensed summary of interviewee quotations thematic trust framework (main theme codes) interviewee quotations (condensed summary) human variables relationships, trust and the project environment “you can have a very successful project because individuals are prepared to work together to achieve an ultimate goal" (consultant #11project manager/quantity surveyor) “there have been projects that i have been involved in that have been disasters. terrible, personal conflicts, very difficult clients” (consultant #6architect) “it is all about trust” (client #3: senior project manager) “the individuals involved and the trust that you have between them” (contractor #1: project manager) "trust is obviously something that you need to develop and that's where interpersonal relationships become very important" (client #1: contracts manager) “the attitude of people is key” (client #1: contracts manager) “in any contract, it comes down to having the right people for the task more than anything” (client #2: senior project manager) “it probably comes down to the character of the people (contractor #3project manager) “it often depends on personalities” (consultant #8quantity surveyor) are “very confrontational…and trying to see what they can get away with” (consultant #2project manager). “some contractors immediately seem to take a defensive role” (consultant #8quantity surveyor). when negative events did inevitably eventuate, there was common acknowledgment of the value of good relationships in achieving mutually acceptable resolutions. “we try to gel as a team and avoid disputes where ever possible” (contractor #4project manager). with good relationships established, “your problem is my problem. my problem is your problem. how do we work together to resolve it” (contractor #3project manager). strong relationships were also considered to provide a significant disincentive for exploitive behaviour, as well as help “overcome the pressures to be adversarial” (client #3: senior project manager). work collectively “as a team” (client #1: contracts manager) “every new project you have to build a new team. it is all new players. it is all new relationships” (client #4 project manager) “i initially try to foster working as a team” (consultant #3architect). “we are all a team. this has been emphasised from day one” (contractor #3project manager). “trying to improve relationships internally” (contractor #2: project engineer). relationship interactions and trust “there is a relationship there. it plays a big part” (contractor #2: project engineer) “there are real benefits working with people who you know you are comfortable and confident working with” (consultant #13engineer) “we would like to work with them again. it is very important for us to maintain our relationship” (contractor #3project manager) “9/10 people would be paranoid into the future that this would happen again” (contractor #1” project manager) “there were a few issues…so that left a bit of a sour taste in our mouth” (contractor #5project manager) “i would be happy to work with you again” (consultant #1: project manager) “i tend to stay away from people who are difficult to work with interpersonally” (client #1: contracts manager) “if we do not achieve a successful outcome…i have no doubt that would be the last project we would work on for the client” (consultant #11project manager/quantity surveyor) “the client is a little bit wary of what happened in the past on projects” (consultant #11project manager/quantity surveyor) “there is a lot of loyalty and relationships have been built up” (subcontractor #2internal partitions and linings) “you get to know them. a lot of the work up here is done more on trust” (contractor #5project manager) “you got your name recognised by doing a good job” (consultant #8quantity surveyor) “if you do a good job, a good project, it might flow through to future work” (consultant #5quantity construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 98 surveyor) “if all parties are happy…potentially there is another project to walk into the next time around” (subcontractor #1electrical services) “people need to be respected and treated well” (client #1: contracts manager) “if you can trust them, you can call them up at any time and ask them their opinion” (consultant #4 engineer) “it is pretty much a collaborative approach. people working in isolation will not produce the best result” (consultant #7engineer) “a lot of it is to do with a bit of history” (client #3: senior project manager) “there is not a period of getting to know you. you can start already understanding the way things happen” (consultant #12architect) “through previous dealings, we developed a reasonable relationship” (subcontractor #3elevator services) “living together, working together” (client #2: senior project manager) “you can have some big conflicts” “it is all about managing those relationships” (contractor #2: project engineer) the initial intent of project stakeholders “initially it was quite contractual” (contractor #4project manager) ”we have a culture of dealing very much in a collaborative way” (consultant #7engineer) “with older generations…there is an us versus them mentality” (consultant #1: project manager) “it could be a generational thing” (client #3: senior project manager) “it took us time to break down the us against them attitudes and try and get everybody working as one team. i think we are at the position now where everybody is working towards a common goal which is extremely important for the project” (contractor #4project manager) “when the contracts began…it was quite contractually aggressive. i have really tried to break that down” (contractor #4project manager) attributional variables trustworthiness “even though it is the traditional hard dollar contract….you try and help the contractor as much as you can”. "you partner your way through it….if there is an issue" (client #2: senior project manager) “it was a true relationship based arrangement. i don’t think we ever looked at the contract” (client #4 project manager) “they are very quick to charge a variation and extremely slow to give any reduction. that is a real sore point and it gets to the point it is quite adversarial” (consultant #6architect) “you are not going to be bidding for work” (client #3: senior project manager) ”i would never get involved with another job like that” (subcontractor #3elevator services) reliable behaviour “we tend to have our preferred list of people we would rather work with, based on experience” (consultant #7engineer) “we have a core group of each trade that we use almost exclusively” (contractor #5project manager) relationships are negatively influenced by “unreliability” (client # 1: contracts manager) and “poor behaviour” (client #3” senior project manager) “you are not going to be bidding for (future) work” (client # 3: senior project manager) communication “i initially try to foster communication and working as a team” (consultant #3architect) “there is no doubt that communication is the key” (consultant #4engineer) “if there are issues, you have just got to bring them out in the open and discuss them” (client #2: senior project manager) “the project team must get together, and thrash any issues out” (contractor #4project manager) “if there is close communication, a lot of problems can be resolved before they actually become a problem. these are the kind of projects you want to work on” (consultant #7engineer) “if we had a bit more freedom of information…a lot of the problems we have to face day after day would be alleviated” (subcontractor #2internal partitions and linings) “open communication is good” (client #3: senior project manager) “we need to communicate very freely and openly” (consultant #7engineer) construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 99 “everyone is cooperating. everyone is getting on well, getting answers back on questions very promptly” (contractor #3project manager) “if there is no communication, a job will stop” (contractor #2: project engineer) “we have an almost interconnecting corridor….you can see them and you can go and sit down and talk to them” (client #2: senior project manager) “my door is always open so it is always coming in and speaking about any issues” (subcontractor #1 electrical services). “number one preference is to go and see the client face to face” (consultant #1: project manager) “try to keep resolutions of issues as informal as possible….so talk before you write letters” (client #1: contracts manager) “i find the best way to resolve problems is to pick the phone up and talk to them” (contractor #4project manager) “it is more important to be out there on site, physically talking to people. sorting out problems in person” (subcontractor #1electrical services) “i would rather discuss it as opposed to sending an email which can often be received abruptly” (consultant #11project manager/quantity surveyor) “there has been a fair amount of frustration. it is often difficult to interact (with this client) because they are fairly bureaucratic. it is often difficult to get answers” (consultant #10client representative) “we have internal quality assurance procedures here which in some way hinder collaboration in terms of transferring documents and so on” (consultant #12architect) “we do not sit down and talk and interface to the degree we use to. that interpersonal face to face stuff is not there” (client #5project manager) “best to be upfront and open” (contractor #1: project manager) “it is very hard to build up a level of trust” (consultant #8quantity surveyor) competence “we were not the cheapest by far, but they still gave us the job because they know we can deliver it” (contractor #2: project engineer) “there was a reputation….someone known for not delivering quality of work” (contractor#2: project engineer) ”they would not be employing us if they did not think that we could get the job done” (consultant #2 project manager) “can often influence the next job” (consultant #10client representative) “you tend to just stay with them unless something goes wrong” (contractor #2: project engineer) “if you have done it, they will trust you and they will give you more work” (contractor #2: project engineer) ”if you do not do a good job or do not do it right, then you are out of business tomorrow” (subcontractor #3elevator services) benevolence “the courteous phone call to say we are going to do this and it is going to affect you is not required by me. but i will do it. it does build a good relationship” (subcontractor #2internal partitions and linings) “each party needs to acknowledge the other’s goals” (client #1: contracts manager) “i am helping you and you are helping me” (client #4project manager) “there should be a bit of give and take” (consultant #6architect) exploitive behaviour “cruels your relationship” (consultant #1: project manager) “even though it is a hard dollar contract….i have always been of the opinion that you try and help the contractor as much as you can….so you are not sending him bankrupt by sticking to the rules” client #2: senior project manager) “we are working together to fix it. it is not ‘you have made a mistake. rip it out’” (client #4project manager) “at the end of the day we wanted the project to be successful for everybody” (consultant #11project manager/quantity surveyor) integrity “he tabled these drawings. they were our drawings only rebadged. it was terrible” (client #4project manager) “shared values” (contractor #1: project manager) were considered instrumental, particularly during the initial stages of a relationship “a charter of agreed values” (contractor #1: project manager) was drafted at the commencement of a construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 100 contract, in an attempt to foster the right type of individual honesty “honesty is the most important thing” (contractor #1: project manager) “dishonesty” (client #1: contracts manager) negatively influences a relationship “honest” (contractor #1: project manager) behaviour fosters trust contextual variables risk, vulnerability and uncertainty “it is less risk giving it to us than having to bring in a new company, and establish that client relationship” (contractor #2: project engineer) “we have been working with the client for so long anyway, so it was it was really ‘how can we assist you’. the relationship was already there” (consultant #3architect) “we understand how they work. we understand where the risks are and try and manage our way through that process” (consultant #3architect) “sometimes in a hard dollar environment, if they are starting to not perform well and lose money it can become adversarial” (client #3: senior project manager) “the risk that the clients are asking us to take on is getting greater and greater. it really is a concern” (contractor #4project manager) “if you do not get the principles and project requirements absolutely bullet proof you lose control” (client #4project manager) “we have eliminated the risk, even if it is construct-only” (client #3: senior project manager) “if you have got clear guidelines it is quite easy to give clear outputs” (consultant #2project manager) “try and reduce their own internal risks on a project from their own point of view” (consultant #5quantity surveyor) “as long as we have identified the risk and we have made allowances for it” we can avoid “adversarial”, and “contractual head bashing” (client #3: senior project manager) “we get what we want. it is just a much fairer way of doing it” (client #3: senior project manager) control mechanisms “the contract itself can establish or disestablish a relationship” (consultant #1: project manager) "even though it is construct-only you can identify where the risks are and assist in making it fair" (client #3: senior project manager) “the personalities involved” (contractor #1: project manager) “people are always key, but the different styles of contract procurement can place certain pressures on the team that can put a lot more tension in relationships” (client #1: contracts manager) “in any contract it comes down to having the right people for the task more than anything” (client #2: senior project manager) “there is a contractual process in place. it has to be there. it has to be used to manage risk. however, if you get that relationship going with the guys that matter you are fine” (client #4project manager) “it was a true relationship based arrangement. i don’t think we ever looked at the contract” (client #4 project manager) “i find that you get far better outcomes if we are not just quoting contract clauses at each other all the time” (contractor #4project manager) “it was a collaborative approach. i cannot see any other way of doing it” (consultant #6architect) project success relies on “the character of people” (contractor #3project manager) and the ”driving force of certain personalities” (consultant #10client representative) a strictly contractual approach often lead to situations that were “very confrontational” (consultant #2 project manager) and ”totally aggressive”( consultant #5quantity surveyor) “we had a couple of issues that had to go through the dispute resolution process and that was a fairly painful process for everyone” (contractor #4project manager) "the formal contract does not build trust. the building of trust and relationships, etc. etc. – it is all the informal process" (client #3: senior project manager) team environment “common agreement” (consultant #3architect) facilitates a positive team environment “if people are happy, people are productive” (contractor #2: project engineer) “huge economic benefit as well” (client #1: contracts manager) “good leadership and mentorship” will “develop a culture of willingness to discuss things and work things construction economics and building, 15(2), 81-101 strahorn, gajendren and brewer 101 through” (client #1: contracts manager) “it is very collaborative. this had been emphasised from day one. we are all a team. we are working as one to achieve the same goal” (contractor #3project manager) “there were some issues with change of personnel. that always throws a project out” (consultant #10 client representative) “they were out of their comfort zone” (consultant #3architect) when forced to work in an environment where a cooperative and team work approach was fostered “you have an unsuccessful project generally when individuals do not get along (consultant #11project manager/quantity surveyor) trust and project outcomes ”every project you have to build a new team. it is all new players. it is all new relationships” (client #4 project manager) trust and the temporary nature of a project "every new project, you have to build a new team. it is all new players. it is all new relationships" (client #4project manager) "you are creating a new project in its own right. a new team, and a new set of relationships every time" (client #4project manager) "it goes back to this short term project. there are new relationships. so you have got to start all over again" (client #4project manager) "because in a temporary thing you have got to do it fairly quickly and you will probably be friendly by the end of the job" (subcontractor #2internal partitions and linings) "we need to do it from the start. be cooperative at the beginning" (subcontractor #2internal partitions and linings) trust failure trust breakdown “they test the water early on to see what sort of project manager they are dealing with” (consultant #1: project manager) trust repair “good and constructive relationships” (client #1: contracts manager) along with “open communication” and “working together to solve problems” (contractor #2: project engineer) were considered to be important when responding to negative events “try to keep resolutions of issues as informal as possible, without the need to resort to formalising things” (client #1: contracts manager) ”it is more important to be out there on site physically talking to people. sorting out problems in person” (subcontractor #1electrical services) the influence of trust in traditional contracting: investigating the "lived experience" of stakeholders abstract introduction literature review human variables attribution variables contextual variables trust failure methodology results human variables relationships, trust and the project environment relationship interactions and trust the initial intent of project stakeholders attribution variables trustworthiness, reliability, communication and competence benevolence, honesty, and integrity contextual variables risk, vulnerability, uncertainty and its control team environment trust, projects and project outcomes trust failure trust break down and repair discussion conclusion references construction economics and building vol. 20, no. 1 march 2020 © 2020 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: renault, b.y., agumba, j.n., and ansary, n. 2020. underlying structures of risk response measures among small and medium contractors in south africa. construction economics and building, 20:1, 1-16. https:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v20i1.6721 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article underlying structures of risk response measures among small and medium contractors in south africa berenger yembi renault¹*, justus ngala agumba², and nazeem ansary³ ¹ department of construction management and quantity surveying, university of johannesburg, po box 524 auckland park 2006, south africa. renault08@yahoo.fr 2 department of building sciences, tshwane university of technology, private bag x680, pretoria, 0001, south africa. agumbajn@tut.ac.za 3 department of building sciences, tshwane university of technology, private bag x680, pretoria, 0001, south africa. ansaryn@tut.ac.za *corresponding author: berenger yembi renault, department of construction management and quantity surveying, university of johannesburg, po box 524 auckland park 2006, south africa. renault08@yahoo.fr doi: 10.5130/ajceb.v20i1.6721 article history: received 8/6/2019; revised 18/10/2019 & 31/12/2019; accepted 1/11/2020; published 07/04/2020 abstract although attention has been given to the measures used to respond to risk in the construction industry (ci), there is limited literature that scrutinizes underlying structures of risk response measures (rrms) especially among small and medium enterprises (smes). this study, therefore, presents findings from an exploratory factor analysis (efa) of rrms. a positivist paradigm was adopted to collect empirical raw data from 181 conveniently sampled respondents in gauteng, south africa (sa), using a structured questionnaire. the results support the extant literature and empirically established the structural composition of risk response by two constructs. the construct with emerged measures was termed trailing measures while the one with popular measures was termed leading measures of risk response. however, the study yielded a two-factor model with all the six items supposed to measure risk response. based on the results obtained, it seems that risk avoidance and risk mitigation are reliable measures for measuring risk response. this study could thus serve as a reference for the accurate measurement of risk response and for the development of agreed responses for each declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 1 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i1.6721 https://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i1.6721 https://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i1.6721 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:renault08@yahoo.fr mailto:agumbajn@tut.ac.za mailto:ansaryn@tut.ac.za mailto:renault08@yahoo.fr https://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i1.6721 risk, including an appropriate strategy and specific responses to implement the chosen strategy. the study was limited to the ci and to a lesser extent, construction smes in gauteng; hence the findings cannot be generalized to all smes in sa. keywords: exploratory factor analysis, risk response measures, small and medium enterprises, underlying structures. introduction construction projects are laden with risks despite the factual evidence of its industry’s multiform contributions to any country’s citizenry, through gross domestic product (gdp), job provision and poverty alleviation (mafundu and mafini, 2019; hove and banjo, 2018; naude and chiweshe, 2017). regardless of the noted contribution of the ci, the industry is generally considered risk inclined due partly to its long and dynamic processes that are complex and involve several interrelated activities with multi-tasked aspects of its project team and workforce (nanthuru et al., 2018). these activities are in turn coordinated through management processes that are predisposed to risk; a reoccurring phenomenon in construction that can exert either a positive or a negative impact on project objectives (szymansk, 2017). negative risks are unwanted and potentially can cause serious problems and derail the project. an example of negative risks is a lack of material (such as concrete) because of political issues. in this case, strategies are employed to lessen their impacts. positive risks, on the other hand, are opportunities and are desired by both the project manager and stakeholders, and may positively affect the project, such as finishing the project ahead of time. this paper is focused on negative risks. according to al-ajmi and makinde (2018), construction projects barely ever present themselves as innocuous undertakings. each project emerges with its own inimitability and risks and therefore necessitates a specific approach and some proficiency in order to achieve its objectives. nanthuru et al., (2018) believe that it is increasingly difficult to forecast the end results of a project, which means that contractors and other stakeholders cannot ascertain with absolute certainty that a project will be completed within its time and cost estimates. in extreme cases, a time and cost risk can incapacitate the economic outlook of a project, thereby turning a potentially lucrative organization into an unsuccessful company (hove and banjo, 2018). the effects thereof may be quantified using many terms: increase cost, time overruns, property damages; injury to people and at times a combination of all of these. for instance, in sa, the gautrain project which was only ready two years after its baseline completion date and cost r14 billion over budget (parrock, 2015). a further example is r2.5 billion contracts for a multi-product pipeline between durban and gauteng for transnet was estimated to cost r23.4 billion and the completion date was almost 3 years late (guern le, 2013). this poor performance of the industry highlights the universal quest for techniques, tools, and procedures regarding rm in construction companies. since the nature of the ci predisposes its projects to uncertainty and risks, naji and ali (2017) suggested that there is a need to have continual and detailed management of risks undertaken at all stages of the project life cycle. leboea (2017) stated that all enterprises including construction smes face challenges in meeting their project planned objectives in the most cost-effective and at the desired quality. renault, agumba, and ansary construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 1, march 20202 a similar view is held by zoghi (2017) that though smes often face the same risks as large enterprises, they are more exposed to risks than their larger counterparts. de araujo lima, crema and verbano (2019) emphasized that smes need to practice rm much more than large enterprises owing to their resource restraints to respond promptly to potential threats. rm in construction is the process by which risks are identified and analysed and its main aim is to reduce the impact of risk on project delivery (nanthuru et al., 2018). once risk has been identified and analysed, risk response which entails selecting the appropriate method of handling risk, should not be undermined as the performance of the project as well as its success depends on the capability of this stage to overcome uncertainty (de araujo lima, crema, and verbano, 2019). this stage works on preparing the response to the main risks and appoints the people who are responsible for each response. consequently, a management system and appropriate measures should be developed to ensure the success of risk response and to reduce the effects of risk (naji and ali, 2017). several tools and methods are available for risk handling in smes however, despite the increasing volume of literature on rm in the ci in recent years, research into rm and measures used to respond to risks seems to be scant in the saci in general and particularly among smes. most of the studies reviewed stages involved in the rm process, prioritized risks through empirical research in order to suggest mitigative measures. a scarcity of studies has been devoted to rrms used in responding to risks. the current study focuses on rrms, which could be used in handling construction risks at project level of smes and explore underlying structures of the measures identified from extant literature. the objective of the present paper is, therefore, to determine and analyse the underlying structures of rrms, as used in the study. by highlighting the structure of these measures, researchers, construction employers and industry professionals will have information which may serve as a base for the development of agreed responses for each risk, including an appropriate strategy and specific responses to implement the chosen strategy literature review construction smes in south africa the definition of smes based on the number of employees differs across nations (organisation for economic co-operation and development (oecd), 2017). in the european union (eu), smes are defined as those enterprises with less than 250 employees for medium-sized enterprises. some countries set a limit of 200 employees. in the united states of america (usa), a medium-sized enterprise is a firm with 500 or fewer employees. small-sized enterprises, on the other hand, are those firms with fewer than 50 employees while micro-enterprises employ up to 10 employees in the usa and eu. the magnitude of annual revenues is also used as a determinant in defining smes (el madani, 2018). in the eu, enterprises with annual revenue of not more than 50 million euro are considered mediumsized enterprises, those with revenue equal to or fewer than 10 million euro are considered small-sized enterprises while enterprises with annual revenue fewer or equal to 10 million euro are considered micro-enterprises. the sa definition of smes in the ci in terms of the number of employees and annual turnover differ slightly from those of the eu and the usa. the industry typically consists of dissimilar sizes of companies that is, micro, very small, small, medium and large contractors (national small business act amended in 2004). these contractors can be differentiated from underlying structures of risk response measures among small and medium contractors in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 1, march 20203 one another by their annual turnover, capacity, and extent of their fixed assets. medium-sized contractors are referred to by the national small business act (2004) as those contractors having between 50 and 200 full-time employees, with an average total annual turnover ranging from zar6m to zar26m and a total gross asset value (fixed property) ranging from zar1m to zar5m. as for small contractors, they are defined as enterprises employing less than 50 full-time employees, having an average total annual amount turnover fewer than zar6m2 with a total gross asset value (fixed property) of less than zar1m. this study employed this definition given that previous studies (muzondo and mccutcheon, 2018; wentzel, smallwood and emuze, 2016) in sa have employed it. smes play an important role in the sa economy and therefore the government has focused on the development of the sme sector to promote economic growth (muzondo and mccutcheon, 2018). according to the small enterprise development agency (seda, 2018), the sme sector is the largest provider of employment in the country, particularly in the creation of new jobs. smes make up 97% of all sa firms; as a result, they contribute 35% of gdp and employ 55% of the country’s labour force (ibid). the sme construction sector is equally important to the sa economy as that of smes in general. statssa (2018) reported that 78.5% of firms in the saci are smes and the industry employed 1 395 000 people (formal and informal sectors), accounting for 9, 6% on average of gdp between 2008 and 2016. however, these enterprises are viewed as high-risk enterprises as their entry and exit levels in the market are high. it is estimated that 70% of construction smes fail in their first year of existence (leboea, 2017; construction industry development board (cidb), 2017). the factors that contribute to the high failure rate of construction smes are numerous and diverse. some studies (bushe, 2019; leboea, 2017) mention compliance with legislation, resource scarcity, rapidly changing technology, lack of management skills, financial knowledge, and lack of management commitment. others (rungani and potgieter, 2018; rungani and potgieter, 2018) highlight factors such as managerial incompetence, lack of managerial experience, inadequate planning, and poor financial control. however, mafundu and mafini (2019) found that in sa, smes lack the skills to implement rm and are generally inadequately equipped to deliver projects successfully. de araujo, crema and verbano (2019) found that smes tend to use a “reactive, informal or seemingly unstructured, and intuitive approach” to manage risk when compared to large firms. however, the management of risk is critical to project success and it is the task of rm to manage a project’s exposure to risk (nawaz, et al., 2019). effective risk responses are vital if organizations are to make rm work in reducing risk exposure for their projects. risk response measures (rrms) there are different ways in which risk can be managed. nanthuru et al., (2018) suggested that employing a set of measures provides a greater indication of project performance than concentrating on a sole measure. rrms are measures that are employed to eradicate, minimize or transfer risk to an appropriate specialist in the event risk materializes (zoghi, 2017). several measures have been used in literature. for instance, tanojo, hidayat and azis, (2018) found that risk mitigation, risk avoidance, and risk acceptance were mostly used by contractors. alashwal and al-sabahi (2018) evinced three prevailing rrms in the order of risk avoidance, risk transfer, and risk mitigation while szymansk (2017) recommended two measures: avoid risk, transfer, or retain it. further research (abazid and hard, 2018; leboea, 2017) identified three approaches: risk retention, risk reduction, and risk transfer. regardless of the vagueness in the number and rating of rrms in literature, there is a consensus of a specific combination renault, agumba, and ansary construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 1, march 20204 of the measures that will constitute risk response at project level of construction smes. based on this sentiment, the following were identified and summarized as rrms. risk avoidance according to tanojo, hidayat and azis, (2018), risk avoidance means a decision not to partake in a high-risk activity/exposure or to refrain from any risk event-related action to totally eradicate the predicted exposure. however, some researchers (fateminia, seresht and fayek, 2019; okate and kakade, 2019; tembo-silungwe and khatle, 2017) argued that risk avoidance in construction is not generally recognized to be impractical as it may lead to projects not going ahead. for example, a contractor not placing a bid or the owner not proceeding with project funding are two examples of eliminating the risks. risk mitigation alashwal and al-sabahi (2018) indicated that risk mitigation is a holistic approach to reducing risks by addressing both risk severity and probability. the authors categorized risk mitigation into risk prevention and risk reduction. the first category aims at reducing the possibility of a loss occurring while the second is directed at reducing the severity of a loss. according to tanojo, hidayat and azis, (2018), one of the ways to mitigate construction risks is to add expenditures that can be an advantage in the long run. in some projects, experts in the field of rm may be appointed. risk can also be mitigated by sharing with the parties well equipped in dealing with risk (okate and kakade, 2019). in this way, risk-sharing can be an option by working with other parties to the project. risk retention here risks remain present in the project. they are treated and financed by the company in charge of performing the work. risks are retained by two methods namely: “active” and ‘passive” (fayek and lourenzutti, 2018). the first method (self-insurance) is a deliberate management strategy after a constant assessment of the probable losses and costs of substitute ways of handling risks. the second method (non-insurance) usually occurs because of ignorance, negligence, or lack of decision. for instance, risk has not been identified and therefore dealing with the consequences must be borne by the company undertaking the project. risk transfer this is essentially trying to protect the company by transferring responsibility for claims, losses, and damages to the other party. tembo-silungwe and khatle (2017) argued that transferring risk does not eliminate it; the threat still exists however, it is owned and treated by the party well placed to deal with it effectively. in the ci, this type of response strategy is applicable to a subcontractor or a contract between the general contractor and the client, depending on the risk’s nature. one example is the purchase of an insurance policy, by which a specified risk of loss is passed from the policyholder to the insurer. risk financing risk financing is the determination of how an organization will pay for loss events in the most effective and least costly way possible (fayek and lourenzutti, 2018). it involves the underlying structures of risk response measures among small and medium contractors in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 1, march 20205 https://www.investopedia.com/articles/personal-finance/120915/which-type-organization-best-your-business.asp identification of risks and monitoring the effectiveness of the financing technique that is chosen. three aspects of risk financing are considered (fateminia, seresht and fayek, 2019): retention of risk under a self-funding plan, a combination of internal and external funding (shared funding), and transfer funding/external funding, where the cost of risk is transferred to a third party through e.g. commercial insurance. prepare and implement the risk action plan it is intended to optimize project performance (leboea, 2017). however, tembo-silungwe and khatle (2017) argued that like any other plan, it must be appropriately implemented to be successful and achieve optimal project performance. supporting this statement, tanojo, hidayat and azis, (2018) suggested that the process of implementing the risk plan should consist of first getting set up to carry out the plan, and then actually implement the various elements of the plan. the above-mentioned are common in rm literature and used in construction as rrms after potential risks have been identified. they were therefore adopted as the measures of risk response in the current study. classification of risks risk classification is a significant step in the rm process, as it attempts to structure the various risks affecting construction projects. various classifications have been suggested in literature. al-ajmi and makinde (2018) presented a list of risk factors extracted from several sources: financial risks, construction risks, and design risks. in another view, the source of risks was used as a basis for their categorization as physical risks, personal risk, technical risk, safety risks, design risks, political and regulatory risks, financial risks, and contractual risks (nawaz et al., 2019). according to szymansk (2017), risks in construction are in the categories of risks retainable by contractors, consultants, and clients. although risks can be classified differently, nawaz et al., (2019) argued that the motivation for choosing a classification must serve the purpose of research. since the aim of the main study was to establish the influence of rm practices on project success, it was therefore important to identify the risks that can significantly influence project success. in the current study, success with respect to delivery of a building project could be referred to as the completion of a building within budgeted cost, scheduled time, at the required quality and without h&s issues. al-ajmi and makinde (2018) hold the view that there is more to successful project outcome than just focusing on the triple dimensions time, cost and quality. consequently, risks were classified in the study based on their impact on cost, time, quality, and h&s requirements, substantiating rehacek (2017). they were therefore termed as timerelated risk, cost-related risks, quality-related risks, and h&s related risks. research method questionnaire design a positivist research design was adopted using a structured questionnaire which was developed from an extensive literature review, expert consultation, advice from two supervisors, a methodology expert, and a professional statistician for ease of data analysis. numerous sources including, theses and dissertations, academic and professional journals, books, and renault, agumba, and ansary construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 1, march 20206 government reports were consulted. the questionnaire posed questions on respondents’ extent of the use of rrms, using a closed-ended 5-point likert scale-type questions. the scale was: 1=to no extent, 2= a low extent, 3= a moderate extent, 4=a large extent, 5=a very large extent. the identified measures related precisely to those measures which could be used in responding to risks in construction. to achieve content validity, the questionnaire was piloted with 15 personnel who were knowledgeable of the rm practices they have been using for the management of their project risks. the structure of the final questionnaire consisted of five sections with a covering letter which explained the purpose of the study. sections 1 to 4 reported respectively on basic information about the respondent and the company, project risks, obstacles to rm implementation, and rm practices. section 5 consisted of questions related to rm factors and the performance outcome of projects. population and data collection the study was conducted in gauteng (south africa). convenience sampling method was used to identify and select respondents who were operating at management level of the enterprise. respondents to the study included owners, quantity surveyors, project and construction managers, working for established construction smes registered with the cidb register of contractors. in the context of this study, smes refer to firms that are graded between 1 and 6 on the cidb register. the sample size was based on the estimated population provided in the cidb website which was 661. the sample size was determined using the general rule of thumb. out of the 225 questionnaires circulated using drop and collect method, 187 returned and 181 were deemed usable for the empirical analysis, representing approximately 80% response rate. this response rate is considered high and could have been because of the method used to collect data in the current study which has also yielded a high response rate in previous studies (naude and chiweshe, 2017; sifumba et al., 2017) conducted on construction smes in sa. data analysis the statistical package for the social science (spss) version 23 was used to analyse empirical data, computing descriptive and inferential analyses. the reliability of rrms was assessed using cronbach alpha with 0.70 a generally agreed-upon lower limit (hair et al., 2018). however, a lenient cut-off value of 0.60 is common in exploratory research and values closer to 1 suggest good reliability (zaiontz, 2014). the current study adopted a threshold of 0.60. reliability was achieved, signifying that the instrument was reliable. since the study’s aim was to determine the structures underlying rrms and given that efa provides the empirical basis for assessing the structure of variables through data reduction, it was therefore possible using factor loadings to identify representative variables of rrms from the six variables deemed to measure risk response. the representative variables established through efa would explain the structures underlying rrms. prior to testing the factorability of data, the suitability of the data, factor extraction, factor rotation, and interpretation were assessed. the suitability of the data was achieved by checking the sample size requirement of 150+ (pallant, 2016). the sample size for the current study was 181 which was considered greater than the recommended size. bartlett’s test of sphericity (p≤0.05, signifies statistical significance) and the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy (index ranges from 0 to 1, with kmo≥0.60 for good factor analysis) were also underlying structures of risk response measures among small and medium contractors in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 1, march 20207 generated to help assess the suitability of the data. factor extraction was assessed using the kaiser’s criterion and scree test. oblimin with kaiser normalisation rotation techniques were used as the extraction and rotation methods, satisfying factor rotation and interpretation of the theorized variables. missing data were excluded using listwise deletion. outliers were identified by checking the scatterplot which revealed data points that are out on their own and away from the main cluster of points. these were removed from the data set. convergent validity of rrms was tested by determining whether the scores of items in one scale correlate with the scores on the other scales and converge or load together on a single construct (hair, et al., 2018). factor loadings of values ranging between 0.40 and 0.45 are considered significant for a sample size of 150 and 200 respectively (ibid.). the sample size of the current study is 181 and a cut-off value of 0.40 was adopted. no factor loading was less than 0.40 (table 3) which would have been considered insignificant (ibid). thus, convergent validity was supported. next, discriminant validity was assessed by examining the variable correlation matrix (table 1). hair et al., (ibid.) suggested that the correlation between the variables should not exceed 0.70. the item intercorrelations for all the variables in the construct attained correlations below 0.70, indicating that discriminant validity was demonstrated. results of analysis descriptive statistics among the respondents, 30.90% were owners, 22.10% were owner-managers, 17.10% were project managers, and 15.50% were managers. other positions such as quantity surveyors and civil engineers were represented by 14.40%, indicating the various types of professions represented in the industry. 22.90% of the respondents had matriculation, 2.80% had no qualification and 14.50% had attended basic schooling. the remaining 59.80% had graduated with a post-secondary school qualification (1.70% had a doctorate degree, 6.10% had a master’s degree, 15.10% had an honours/btech/bsc degree, 16.20% had a higher national diploma/diploma and 20.70% had another certificate). the percentage of respondents with post-secondary school qualification implies that the respondents are qualified to respond to the questions. in terms of years of experience in construction and type of contractor, it was found that 18.10% of respondents had construction experience between 1-5 years, 28.90% had experience between 6-10 years, 30.80% had experience between 11-20 years, 16.80% had experience between 21-35 years, while only 5.40% had over 36 years of experience in construction. the year bracket 11-20 (30.80 %) predominate construction experience, followed by 6-10 (28.90%) and 21-35 (16.80%). this demonstrates that the respondents have spent a considerable number of years in the ci and are therefore familiar with rm practices. 38.20% of these contractors were sub-contractors, 32% were general contractors and 29.80% were either civil contractors (6.70%), specialist contractors (18%) or home building contractors (5.10%). these results indicate the involvement of smes in various types of business and that the sub-contractors either operated for the main contractor or were sole trade contractors. exploratory factor analysis (efa) results the 6 variables deemed to measure risk response (rp1, rp2, rp3, rp4, rp5, and rp6) were subjected to efa. the data set was first verified for its suitability for factor analysis. renault, agumba, and ansary construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 1, march 20208 kmo value was 0.796, exceeding the threshold of 0.60 suggested by pallant (2016). this result indicates that the correlation pattern between variables is compact. bartlett’s test of sphericity reached statistical significance at p=0.000 (<0.05), suggesting that the correlation matrixes of the variables are not identity matrixes. hence, the data of the study is suitable for factor analysis. the factorability of data for analysis was further supported by inspecting the correlation matrix (table 1) which revealed the presence of many coefficients above 0.30, ranging from 0.344 to 0.492. it is shown that the six variables correlated with at least one other item. table 1 correlation matrix rp1 rp2 rp3 rp4 rp5 rp6 correlation rp1 1.000 -0.083 0.201 0.011 -0.171 0.344 rp2 -0.083 1.000 0.051 0.255 0.377 -0.005 rp3 0.201 0.051 1.000 0.492 0.076 0.436 rp4 0.011 0.255 0.492 1.000 0.189 0.227 rp5 -0.171 0.377 0.076 0.189 1.000 0.354 rp6 0.344 -0.005 0.436 0.227 0.354 1.000 note: coefficients above 0.30 are bolded. legend: rp1 (identify risk treatment options by avoiding risk); rp2 (identify risk treatment options by mitigating risk); rp3: (identify risk treatment options by retaining risk); rp4: (identify risk treatment options by transferring risk); rp5: (identify risk treatment options by financing risk); rp6: (prepare and implement risk action plan). kaiser’s criterion was thereafter used to determine the percentage variance accounted for by each of the 6 components/items. the percentage variability explained by each of the components is presented in table 2. it is shown that only 2 components/items recorded eigenvalues above 1 (2.041 and 1.451), explaining 34.02% and 24.18% of the variance respectively and accounting for 58.20%. the results of the scree plot (figure 1) which revealed a clear break after the second component also supported the decision to retain the first two components. the two components explained a total of 58.20% of the variance (see cumulative % column). this suggests that the two components together explain most of the variability in the six original variables and consequently are clearly a good and simpler substitute for all six variables. table 2 percentage variance explained by the risk response measures component/item eigenvalue % of explained variance cumulative % 1rp1 2.041 34.021 34.021 2rp2 1.451 24.177 58.198 3rp3 .962 16.037 74.235 4rp4 .784 13.067 87.302 5rp5 .442 7.365 94.667 6rp6 .320 5.333 100.000 underlying structures of risk response measures among small and medium contractors in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 1, march 20209 figure 1 output from the scree plot for risk response oblimin with kaiser normalisation rotation method was subsequently performed in order to aid in the interpretation of the two components and to reveal their item-loadings. the rotated solution disclosed the presence of simple structure, both components showing several strong loadings with four items loading above 0.30 on component 1, and three items loading on component 2 (pattern coefficients column). the number of items loading of each component exceeded 3, the recommended minimum number of items on a component (pallant, 2016). this result further supported the decision to retain only two components. moreover, communalities of the variables revealed significant loadings with all values exceeding the threshold of 0.50 (hair et al., 2018) signifying that the variables meet acceptable levels of explanation. the results are presented in table 3. table 3 pattern and structure matrix for efa item pattern coefficients structure coefficients communalities component 1 component 2 component 1 component 2 rp3 0.791 0.101 0.742 -0.292 0.565 rp6 0.783 -0.085 0.727 -0.302 0.567 rp5 0.579 -0.479 0.696 0.127 0.636 rp4 0.549 0.446 0.276 0.699 0.500 rp1 -0.172 0.758 0.368 0.657 0.604 rp2 -0.006 0.753 0.516 0.582 0.620 note: major loadings for each item are bolded. the interpretation of the two components revealed that positive measures clumped together, and negative measures did the same, in line with positive and negative schedule scales used in extant literature (pallant, 2016.). the two components were then adopted as the empirical renault, agumba, and ansary construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 1, march 202010 constructs. therefore, the first component (pattern coefficients column, table 3) with negative items was named trailing measures, while the second component with positive items was named leading measures. it should, however, be noted that one item (rp4) loaded strongly on both components and since this variable has been overwhelmingly cited in previous studies (tanojo, hidayat and azis, 2018; sifumba, et al., 2017; szymansk, 2017) as prevailing measure of risk response, it was considered as part of leading measures. consequently, a two-factor model derived from the factorial analysis, as shown in figure 2. figure 2 two-factor model for risk response measures discussion of the results in connection with construction risk responses for managing risk, mostly used response strategies as evinced by extant literature, are leading measures that provide information that prompt actions an organization or project can take to manage risks whereas trailing measures provide information about an event that has already happened (tanojo, hidayat and azis, 2018). for instance, a company will adopt mitigating measures for a risk occurring or reduce its impact. distinguishing and using both types of measures provide a more reliable and accurate measurement of risk response effectiveness (mwangi and ngugi, 2018). the fact that the structure of the 6 measures deemed to measure risk response were all explained by risk avoidance and risk mitigation suggests that these leading measures (as of the current study) attract considerable attention among construction smes in gauteng. a possible reason for smes considering risk avoidance is that there is a risk of unsuccessful completion of certain projects in part due to the issue of h&s risks which may hamper successful completion of projects. as stated by tanojo, hidayat and azis (2018), though not all risks can be avoided but by avoiding certain risks, some benefits may be forfeited. furthermore, in many firms, some projects have been difficult to carry out due to some clients having to refuse to allow for occupational h&s in the contingency fund. fateminia, seresht and fayek (2019) argued that a project without an h&s plan has the potential to cause many costly problems because compliance by all parties on the project may not be a priority. this also indicates that sme respondents are not very versatile with the strategies they employ in responding to risk hence, another reason for believing that risk should be avoided. risk mitigation is also used by smes as a management strategy to reduce risk severity and the likelihood or consequences of a risk event. this may suggest that smes are well equipped with knowledgeable and experienced personnel capable of handling risk by mitigating the underlying structures of risk response measures among small and medium contractors in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 1, march 202011 impact of its occurrence. sifumba et al., (2017) found that construction smes in sa are utilizing the latest computational tools such as monte carlo simulation and expert system for analysing risks and therefore can mitigate risks by themselves. the current findings support recent studies by tanojo, hidayat and azis, (2018) and alashwal and al-sabahi (2018) where risk response and action planning were empirically measured by risk avoidance, risk mitigation, and risk transfer. it was revealed that when companies try to avoid risks, they do so either by not bidding for a job or by bidding at a very high price. equal consideration should also be given to trailing measures such as risk transfer (based on its factor structure) and risk retention although they seem unpopular among smes. in the studies conducted by sifumba et al., (2017) and rehacek (2017) these were favoured in the order of risk transfer, risk retention, and risk avoidance. a possible reason is that although smes recognize that risk should be transferred to another party, the situation where a general or prime contractor tries to transfer all risks may point the least incentive towards innovation. leboea (2017) found that this situation leads to low productivity, poor quality, and project delays. moreover, it is not unusual for an engineer or architect, for instance, to transfer risks to another party, habitually a sub-consultant, which the engineer/architect also insures against. this can result in the engineer/architect paying for the insurance coverage twice in the form of increased costs of goods or services. there is also a possibility of incomplete risk transfer (tanojo, hidayat and azis, 2018), where depleted insurance or insolvency of the transferee or an unfavourable interpretation by a court can leave the engineer/architect liable for a risk which is expected to be covered by someone else. it is no surprise that risk financing and risk retention were rated as trailing measures to respond to risks. according to fayek and lourenzutti (2018), risk financing and retention are employed based on the contractor’s financial strength, the attitude of management toward risk, and overall risk management programme. a contractor with an overall strong balance sheet provides the contractor with the ability to fund more of its risk exposures without experiencing adverse financial impact. consequently, financially strong contractors can assume larger amounts of risk. furthermore, fateminia, seresht and fayek (2019) stated that the level of retained risk should correspond with the philosophy of the construction firm’s top management. however, some managers are risk-averse while others are risk-takers. for this reason, many smes prefer to insure heavily rather than retain significant amounts of risk. risk retention is often appropriate when the cost of insuring against a potential risk outweighs the financial burden the risk itself would impose (fayek and lourenzutti, 2018). for example, it is usually unreasonable to buy insurance for a small risk knowing that it is not always palpable whether it is better to buy insurance or retain risk. a company might lose money because it bought insurance, or it might lose money because it did not buy insurance. insurance companies use advanced statistical analyses to guide their decisions, but smes lack resources. as a result, sometimes retaining risk is just a guessing game as observed by sifumba et al., (2017). prepare and implement a risk action plan is usually not free. each response could involve an expenditure of additional time and/or cost (tembo-silungwe and khatle, 2017). clearly, it is important that the organization be prepared to spend the required time, money or effort in responding to the identified risks, otherwise, the process will be ineffective. an important part of a risk-aware culture is the acceptance that it is better to incur the definite known cost now in order to avoid the possibility of a variable or unknown cost in the future. however, this finding is not surprising given the plethora of studies (bushe, 2019; rungani and potgieter, 2018; leboea, 2017) that have highlighted the multitude of factors hampering effective rm renault, agumba, and ansary construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 1, march 202012 in smes and financial constraints which, unlike their larger counterparts, prevent them for instance from paying higher premiums and consequently, restraining their ability to negotiate with the insurance company providing a greater degree of flexibility in risk financing alternatives. although the current findings suggest that trailing measures of risk response may be cumbersome to measure, tanojo, hidayat and azis (2018), alashwal and al-sabahi (2018), and abazid and hard (2018) suggested that a combination of leading and trailing measures result in an effective project rm and therefore overall performance. conclusion the objective of the study was to establish the factor structure of rrms at project level of construction smes. risk response was found to be measured by two components. the two components had positive and negative risk response measures. as a result, they were named leading and trailing measures, accordingly. leading measures provide information that prompt actions an organization or project can take to manage a risk whereas trailing measures provide information about an event that has already happened. trailing and leading measures should, consequently, be adopted to appraise and effectively manage project risks. the current study may serve as a base for the development of agreed responses for each risk, including an appropriate strategy (avoid, mitigate, transfer, or retain risk) and specific responses to implement the chosen strategy. such risk response strategies could be beneficial to stakeholders involved in rm, enabling informed decision making regarding enhancing rm and consequently maximizing project performance. finally, the structure of rrms established in this paper offers a framework for developing effective risk responses and maximizing the benefits to be attained through proactive rm. the findings indicate that the study will contribute to the related body of knowledge. however, further studies may be undertaken in sa which will cover the whole country. an overall generic rm model can be developed which would help smes to correctly identify and classify the risk elements as being either controllable or uncontrollable, measure their impacts and probabilities of occurrence. the model could help decide whether to avoid risk completely, retain it and/or try to reduce its impact by taking defensive measures; or transfer it to a party well equipped to manage it. such a model is expected to result in improved profitability and competitiveness for smes. references abazid, m. and hard, h., 2018. an overview of risk management in the construction projects, academic research international, 9(2), pp.73-79. al-ajmi, h.f. and makinde, e., 2018. risk management in construction projects, journal of advanced management science, 6(2), pp.113-116. https://doi.org/10.18178/joams.6.2.113-116 alashwal, a.m. and al-sabahi, m.h., 2018. risk factors in construction projects during unrest period in yemen, journal of construction in developing countries, 23(2), pp.43–62. https://doi.org/10.21315/ jcdc2018.23.2.4 bushe, b., 2019. the causes and impact of business failure among small to micro and medium enterprises in south africa, africa’s public service delivery and performance review, [e-journal] 7(1), pp.1-26. https:// doi.org/10.4102/apsdpr.v7i1.210 underlying structures of risk response measures among small and medium contractors in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 1, march 202013 https://doi.org/10.18178/joams.6.2.113-116 https://doi.org/10.21315/jcdc2018.23.2.4 https://doi.org/10.21315/jcdc2018.23.2.4 https://doi.org/10.4102/apsdpr.v7i1.210 https://doi.org/10.4102/apsdpr.v7i1.210 cidb., 2017. annual report 2016/2017. [online] available at: http://www.cidb.org.za/publications/ documents/annual%20report%202016-2017.pdf. [accessed 12 september 2019]. de araujo lima, p.f., crema, m. and verbano, c., 2019. risk management in smes: a systematic literature review and future directions. european management journal, [e-journal] 38(1), pp78-94. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.06.005. el madani, a. 2018. sme policy: comparative analysis of sme definitions. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 8(8), pp.103-14. fateminia, s.h., seresht, n.g. and fayek, a.r., 2019. evaluating risk response strategies on construction projects using a fuzzy rule-based system. 36th international symposium on automation and robotics in construction (isarc 2019). banff, ab, canada, 21-24 may 2019. fayek, a.r. and lourenzutti, r., 2018. introduction to fuzzy logic in construction engineering and management. in: a.r. fayek, ed. fuzzy hybrid computing in construction engineering and management. bingley, united kingdom: emerald publishing limited. guern le, s., 2013. first fuel begins to flow through sa’s new r23bn fuel pipeline. [online] available at: http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/new-multi-product-pipeline-2013-01-18. [accessed 09 february 2018]. hair, j.f., babin, b.j., anderson, r.e. and black, w.c., 2018. multivariate data analysis. 8th ed. boston: cengage. hove, g. and banjo, a., 2018. perceptions of small business executives on determinants of performance in the construction industry in gauteng, south africa. acta commercii,18(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/ ac.v18i1.528. leboea, s.t., 2017. the factors influencing sme failure in south africa. mphil. university of cape town, south africa. mafundu, r.h. and mafini, c., 2019. internal constraints to business performance in black-owned small to medium enterprises in the construction industry. south african journal of entrepreneurship and small business management, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/sajesbm.v11i1.165. muzondo, f.t. and mccutcheon, r.t., 2018. the relationship between project performance of emerging contractors in government infrastructure projects and their experience and technical qualifications. journal of the south african institution of civil engineering, 60(4), pp.25-33. https://doi. org/10.17159/2309-8775/2018/v60n4a3 mwangi, h.m. and ngugi, l., 2018. risk management practices and performance of construction projects in nairobi city county government, kenya. international academic journal of information sciences and project management, 3(2), pp.111-136. naji, h.i. and ali, r.h., 2017. risk response selection in construction projects. civil engineering journal, 3(12), pp.1208-1221 https://doi.org/10.28991/cej-030950 nanthuru, s.b., pingfeng, l., guihua, n. and mkonya, v.l., 2018. an assessment of risk management practices of sme taxpayers in malawi and their impact on tax compliance. international journal of management sciences and business administration, 4(4), pp.7-17. national small business act 2004. number 29 of 2004 republic of south africa. available at: https:// www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/a29-04.pdf [accessed 04 november 2019] renault, agumba, and ansary construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 1, march 202014 http://www.cidb.org.za/publications/documents/annual%20report%202016-2017.pdf http://www.cidb.org.za/publications/documents/annual%20report%202016-2017.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.06.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.06.005 http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/new-multi-product-pipeline-2013-01-18 https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v18i1.528 https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v18i1.528 https://doi.org/10.4102/sajesbm.v11i1.165 https://doi.org/10.17159/2309-8775/2018/v60n4a3 https://doi.org/10.17159/2309-8775/2018/v60n4a3 https://doi.org/10.28991/cej-030950 https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/a29-04.pdf https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201409/a29-04.pdf naude, m.j. and chiweshe, n., 2017. a proposed operational risk management framework for small and medium enterprises. south african journal of economic and management sciences, 20(1).https://doi. org/10.4102/sajems.v20i1.1621. nawaz, a., shah, s.a.r, sajid, m. and khalid, m.i., 2019. an innovative framework for risk management in construction projects in developing countries: evidence from pakistan. molecular diversity preservation international journals, 7(24), pp.2-10. https://doi.org/10.3390/risks7010024 oecd, 2017. small, medium, strong. trends in sme performance and business conditions. [e-book] paris: oecd publishing. doi:https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264275683-en. okate, a., and kakade, v., 2019. risk management in road construction projects: high volume roads. in: proceedings of sustainable infrastructure development & management (sidm) 2019. http://dx.doi. org/10.2139/ssrn.3375904. pallant, j., 2016. spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using ibm spss. 6th ed. london, uk: mcgraw-hill education. parrock, p. 2015. mega project analysis: a case study of the gauteng freeway improvement project. mtech. stellenbosch university, south africa. rehacek, p., 2017. risk management in construction projects. journal of engineering and applied sciences, 12(20), pp.5347-52. rungani, e.c. and potgieter, m., 2018. the impact of financial support on the success of small, medium and micro-enterprises in the eastern cape province. acta commercii,18(1), https://doi.org/10.4102/ ac.v18i1.591. sifumba, c.m., mothibi, k.b., ezeonwuka, a., qeke, s. and matsoso, m.l., 2017. the risk management practices in the manufacturing smes in cape town. problems and perspectives in management, 15(2), pp.386-403. https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.15(2-2).2017.08 small enterprise development agency (seda), 2018. smme quarterly update 1st quarter 2018. [online] available at: http://www.seda.org.za/publications/publications/smme%20quarterly%202018-q1.pdf [accessed 04 october 2019]. statssa, 2018. quarterly employment statistics; september 2018, publication p0277. [online] available at: statistics south africa, www.statssa.gov.za. szymansk, p., 2017. risk management in construction projects. procedia engineering, 208, pp.174-82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.11.036 tanojo, f.h., hidayat, s. and azis, s., 2018. the analysis of risk management implementation on hospital construction project. international journal of civil engineering and technology (ijciet), 9(7), pp.574-83. tembo-silungwe, c.k. and khatle, n., 2017. deciphering priority areas for improving project risk management through critical analysis of pertinent risks in the zambian construction industry. acta structilia, 24(2), pp.1-43. https://doi.org/10.18820/24150487/as24i2.1 wentzel, l., smallwood, j.j. and emuze, f.a., 2016. improving the business trajectory among small and medium-sized construction firms in south africa. journal of construction project management and innovation, 6(2), pp.1477-87. zaiontz, c., 2014. real statistics using excel. cronbach’s alpha, [blog]. available at: http://www.realstatistics.com/reliability/internal-consistency-reliability/cronbachs-alpha/ word press online. underlying structures of risk response measures among small and medium contractors in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 1, march 202015 https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v20i1.1621 https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v20i1.1621 https://doi.org/10.3390/risks7010024 https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264275683-en http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3375904 http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3375904 https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v18i1.591 https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v18i1.591 https://doi.org/10.21511/ppm.15(2-2).2017.08 http://www.seda.org.za/publications/publications/smme%20quarterly%202018-q1.pdf www.statssa.gov.za https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.11.036 https://doi.org/10.18820/24150487/as24i2.1 http://www.real-statistics.com/reliability/internal-consistency-reliability/cronbachs-alpha/ http://www.real-statistics.com/reliability/internal-consistency-reliability/cronbachs-alpha/ zoghi, f.s., 2017. risk management practices and smes: an empirical study on turkish smes. international journal of trade, economics and finance, 8(2), pp.123-27. https://doi.org/10.18178/ ijtef.2017.8.2.550 renault, agumba, and ansary construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 1, march 202016 https://doi.org/10.18178/ijtef.2017.8.2.550 https://doi.org/10.18178/ijtef.2017.8.2.550 construction economics and building, 15(3), 48-58 copyright: construction economics and building 2015. © 2015 johan fahri, christopher biedenthal, julien pollack and shankar sankaran. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 unported (cc by 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: fahri, j., biesenthal, c., pollack, j. and sankaran, s., 2015. understanding megaproject success beyond the project close-out stage, construction economics and building, 15(3), 48-58. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i3.4611 corresponding author: shankar sankaran; email shankar.sankaran@uts.edu.au publisher: university of technology sydney (uts) epress understanding megaproject success beyond the project closeout stage johan fahri, christopher biesenthal, julien pollack and shankar sankaran school of the built environment, university of technology sydney, ultimo, nsw 2007 australia abstract project success has always been an important topic in the project management literature. one of the main discussions is concerned with how a project’s success is evaluated and what factors lead to achieving this success. traditionally project success has been measured at the point where the project outputs are handed over, after the close out phase. recently, questions have been raised in the literature as to whether we should be evaluating project success beyond the close out phase, to better account for organizational and societal outcomes. however, not much has been published about how the long term impacts and outcomes are measured. this is of particular concern in megaprojects as they often attract a high level of public attention and political interest, and have both direct and indirect impacts on the community, environment, and national budgets. in this paper the authors review success factors and criteria that are applicable to projects in general and megaprojects in particular. they identify the significance of evaluating outcomes and impact and propose an ex-post project evaluation (eppe) framework for megaprojects. keywords: critical success factors, megaproject, evaluation paper type: viewpoint introduction the success of a megaproject is typically assessed when the project has reached its goal or objective, and it is usually measured in terms on the conventional criteria of cost, time, and quality/performance, defined during the scoping stage of the project. however, in order to be successful, critical success factors (csfs) need to be considered, including the specific conditions, events, and circumstances that lead to project results (ika, 2009). the csfs for a project become more challenging as a project increases in complexity. issues such as large investments of time and money, uncertain scope, and increased stakeholder attention all raise the complexity of a project, and are all common factors in large infrastructure projects. such projects are often categorised as megaprojects due to their tendency to consume large investments and timeframes, as well as involvement of various types of stakeholders (fiori and kovaka, 2005; hertogh and westerveld, 2014; jia et al., 2011; kardes et al., 2013; turner and zolin, 2012; zhai, xin and cheng, 2009). research shows that most megaprojects fail to meet their stated objectives (flyvbjerg, 2007). in other words, “megaprojects’ characteristics cause significant project management difficulties that lead to underperformance” (haidar and ellis, 2010). megaprojects tend to experience time and cost overruns (flyvbjerg, 2009, 2014; han et al., 2009; lehtonen, 2014; merrow, 1988), and the https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i3.4611 construction economics and building, 15(3), 48-58 fahri, biesenthal, pollack and sankaran 49 project management literature has tended to emphasise time, cost and quality as the three primary criteria for understanding project success. however, ika (2009) argued for these criteria to be extended, to include client satisfaction, realization of the strategic objectives of the client organizations, the satisfaction of end users, and the satisfaction of other stakeholders. however, many of these criteria can only be understood long after a project has been delivered. many studies have focused on identifying the csfs required to deliver the project successfully (ballantine and stray, 1998; chan, ho and tam, 2001; chua, kog and loh, 1999; fortune and white, 2006; nguyen, ogunlana and thi xuan lan, 2004; ogunlana, 2008; yu et al., 2006). these studies typically only considered success up until the point at which the project was closed and outputs delivered. however, beyond the close-out phase the outputs of project had to produce results that not only demonstrated the performance of the product or service delivered, but which also met the criteria used to sanction the project at an organizational strategic level. this has been classified as the outcome and impact levels of a project (turner and zolin, 2012; vedung, 2010). although the success of a megaproject may be classified during the project close-out phase when deliverables are accepted, stakeholders’ lingering perception of success and the associated benefits are arguably more influenced by the longer term impacts and outcomes resulting from a project. managing the csfs that affect project impacts and outcomes might provide better results than exclusively focusing on csfs targeted towards the successful acceptance of deliverables. this is particularly significant for megaprojects, where the impact and outcome stages of a project may last for many decades. this paper reviewed the literature on csfs and post-project evaluation to understand the factors contributing to the success of megaprojects. first, this paper elaborates on the csfs in a typical project lifecycle. we then argue for the need to consider success beyond the traditional project lifecycle, the importance of post-project evaluation, and the need to consider csfs beyond the project close out phase. the paper concludes by highlighting csfs that are important to megaprojects. understanding megaproject success beyond the project close-out stage critical success factors in project lifecycle traditionally, a project’s success is measured against its original scope, time of delivery, budget, and the quality or performance of deliverables. the term ‘critical success factors’ refers to the specific “conditions, events, and circumstances that contribute to project results” (ika, 2009, p. 8). table 1 summarises csfs that have been found to contribute to project success in research over the last fifteen years. as projects become more complex they may be classified as megaprojects (flyvbjerg, 2014; kardes et al., 2013). megaprojects have to perform in a challenging and unique environment, have to satisfy multiple stakeholders who often have conflicting expectations, and are often expected to deliver outcomes and benefits that go beyond specified budget and schedule (fiori and kovaka, 2005; flyvbjerg, 2014; jia et al., 2011; kardes et al., 2013). these demands lead to a selection of issues more commonly faced on megaprojects than on smaller or more contained projects. priemus (2010, p. 1037) identified the following key issues on megaprojects: inadequate problem analysis; lack of project alternatives; no functional programme; uncertainty about the scope of the project; inadequate process architecture; questions on analyses; contested information; issues with land acquisition; type of chosen technology; changing markets; political discontinuity and inconsistencies; and changing standards and changing legislation. construction economics and building, 15(3), 48-58 fahri, biesenthal, pollack and sankaran 50 table 1 studies on critical success factors study critical success factors chua, kog and loh (1999) • project • characteristics • contractual arrangements • project participants • interactive processes nguyen, ogunlana and thi xuan lan (2004) • comfort • competence • commitment • communication chan, ho and tam (2001) • project team commitment • contractors’ competencies • risk and liability assessment • client’s competencies • end-users’ needs • constraints imposed by end-users fortune and white (2006) • goals and objectives, • performance monitoring • decision-maker(s) • transformations • communication • environment • boundaries • resources • continuity yu et al. (2006) • project-related factors • human-related factors • process-related factors • input-related factors • output-related factors ogunlana (2008) • comprehension • commitment • competence • communication besides consuming a large investment in money and time, megaprojects also attract the interest of a wide range of stakeholders due to their political and social impacts. attempting to meet the needs of a variety of stakeholders involved in megaprojects tends to cause uncertainty and change throughout the lifecycle. this is particularly significant with respect to the level of stakeholder engagement in decision-making, as pointed out by priemus (2010). despite the length of many megaprojects, their delivery lifecycle still ends at a definite point at which deliverables reach final completion and acceptance from the client. the traditional project lifecycle in the pmbok guide (2013) defines four stages of a project: starting the project, organizing and preparing, carrying out the work, and closing out the project. in contrast, priemus (2010) proposed a five-stage conceptualisation of the process of managing a megaproject. the steps he proposes are: (1) problem analysis; (2) compilation of a functional programme of requirements; (3) elaboration of the technical, practical and economic aspects and preparation of the project until it is ready for execution; (4) realization of the project from the moment the first spade hits the soil to the handover; and (5) the operation of the infrastructure after completion. it is interesting to note that only one of these five stages occurs during project construction economics and building, 15(3), 48-58 fahri, biesenthal, pollack and sankaran 51 implementation, the period on which traditional project management typically focuses. this is comparable to lai’s (2000) research on project communication, which identified that only one of six broad areas of project communication breakdown occurs during project implementation. project close-out marks the stage when project outputs are delivered, regardless of whether a project is local and contained, or a sprawling megaproject, delivered across years and different continents. however, the impact of a project depends on how deliverables are used after the project is completed. it may take some time before benefits are realised, or the impact of outcomes on the wider context within which the project is delivered, are understood. therefore it is suggested that an additional phase should be included in the project lifecycle when examining csfs. the following section reviews how project success is traditionally assessed, before exploring issues of temporality and alternative options for the evaluation of megaproject success. post-project evaluation post-project evaluation has been the subject of project management research for many decades (kasi et al., 2008; maheswar and javalagi, 2014; song and letch, 2012; toor and ogunlana, 2010). however, post-project evaluation faces its challenges in practice. first, post-project evaluation is not an assessment of the sustainability of the benefits the project delivers (cleland, 1985). rather, the evaluation targets the time immediately after phase-out (sandru, 2013). it tends to assess how a project satisfies its agreed plan, which may merely include time, cost, and quality/performance criteria. archibald, di filippo and di filippo (2012, p. 29) emphasise the importance of post-project evaluation and note that the “post-project evaluation phase obviously requires a flexible amount of time depending on the type of product that the project has produced" . however, it can be difficult to conduct a thorough evaluation, as project personnel are typically released once the project is finished (ahsan and gunawan, 2010). this can create issues associated with access to the data needed to conduct the evaluation. the second barrier to conducting post-project evaluation relates to management support for the evaluation, and a more general lack of support to continuous improvement, in favour for sanitised reporting buried issues (bowen, cheung and rohde, 2007). in many cases a project has no obligation to conduct post-project appraisal (ahsan and gunawan, 2010). it has been found that project managers often perceive evaluations as a mere formality (al-yaseen et al., 2010), and that existing policies and procedures can limit the ways that information from post-project reviews is to be relayed back to decision makers (kumar, 1990). however post-project evaluation remains an essential part of how organizations learn and improve. although many of the studies of post-project evaluation focus at the level of those stakeholders who were intimately involved in the process, a management that supports the evaluation process, and values transparency in the process, remains vital to capability development. despite the significance of post-project evaluation, this project stage seems to have received very little attention in published project management bodies of knowledge. archibald, di filippo and di filippo (2012) argue that the traditional project lifecycle promoted by the pmbok guide and other similar normative texts, is not complete. they claim that a post-project evaluation stage should be added to the project lifecycle, involving four dimensions: “project management dimension, product dimension, stakeholder satisfaction dimension, and the cognitive constraint dimension” (archibald, di filippo and di filippo, 2012, pp. 26-27). project outputs, outcomes and impacts although project success is usually assessed at the time that deliverables are accepted by the client, the real success of a project is often only understood after the benefits have been achieved construction economics and building, 15(3), 48-58 fahri, biesenthal, pollack and sankaran 52 (song and letch, 2012). long-term perception of success tends to result from an assessment of deliverables’ beneficial impacts on the wider purpose and context. these results are typically experienced at the strategic level, not necessarily at the tactical level at which they were delivered. at the tactical level finishing the project means that the project has entered the operational phase. at the strategic level, a project's success needs to be assessed much more comprehensively. one of the difficulties in comprehensively assessing the success of a project lies in what li (2008) refers to as a “conditional causality” which makes the relationship between project outputs and outcomes somewhat opaque. a simplistic perspective on the link between output and outcome may neglect the importance of the timeframe of evaluation, which becomes increasingly apparent to stakeholders as promised benefits either do, or do not, appear. within these conditional relationships and timeframes, stakeholders possess different expectations. turner and zolin (2012) have referred to this as "different timelines, various stakeholders". they assert that: project success is measured not just by completion of the scope of work to time, cost, and quality, but also by performance of the project's outputs, outcomes, and impacts, and thereby the achievement of the desired business objectives, as assessed by different stakeholders over different timescales (turner and zolin, 2012, pp. 87-88). according to a system developed by the asian development bank (turner and zolin, 2012, p. 4) project results can be divided into three stages: project output, project outcome, and project impact. table 2 summarises factors related to success according to this categorisation, drawing on turner and zolin (2012) and sources. benefits may be recognized in financial and non-financial forms. on a daily basis the financial benefits include improved system costs, such as operational cost, training cost, maintenance cost, upgrade cost, reduction in other staff cost, reduction in salaries, and other expenses saved (alyaseen et al., 2010; kumar, 1990; love and irani, 2001). non-financial benefits mostly cover the operational and the intangible benefits (liu et al., 2003) such as value creation (archibald, di filippo and di filippo, 2012; horvath, hatfield and hill, 2011)) through project outputs. along with the expected outcomes shown in table 2, the non-financial benefits may include changes in the system’s effectiveness and efficiency (poon and wagner, 2001) or the quality of programmes (eldabi, paul and sbeih, 2003). it is necessary to consider the intended and unintended benefits of project's outputs if the project success is to be assessed comprehensively (archibald, di filippo and di filippo, 2012). evaluation at the outcome level may also provide benefits that evaluation of outputs at project completion cannot provide. vedung (2010, p. 273) has identified that evaluation at the outcome stage produces safer knowledge, based on the presentation of empirical evidence of intervention effects. the general literature on evaluation provides further insight into approaches that may be appropriate for the evaluation of megaproject outcomes and impacts. conrad and miller (1987, p. 28) suggest that evaluation has five primary stages; 1) measuring philosophy, 2) means testing, 3) implementing testing, 4) philosophy testing, and 5) reflection. due to their extended duration and the wide variety of stakeholders potentially influencing megaprojects’ success criteria, goals on a megaproject can become somewhat dynamic. lehtonen (2014, p. 289) comments, that in dynamic situations it may be necessary to use more than ex-ante evaluation. to account for the dynamic, emerging goals as an evaluation criterion, it would be necessary to broaden the criteria and perspectives considered in an evaluation. the present bias in favour of ex-ante assessment would likewise need to be complemented by ex-post evaluation and ex nunc monitoring. combining lehtonen’s (2014) classification of evaluation and turner and zolin’s (2012) model for assessing project success, it is possible to demonstrate linkage between the stages for construction economics and building, 15(3), 48-58 fahri, biesenthal, pollack and sankaran 53 conducting the evaluation and the purpose of conducting it (table 3). in this paper the evaluation of a megaproject’s outcomes and impacts is referred to as ex-post project evaluation (eppe). eppe refers to both the period and the purpose of evaluation. table 2 project success understood by timeframe (adopted from turner and zolin, 2012) stakeholder output: at completion outcome: months after completion impact: years after completion investor or owner time cost features performance performance profit reputation consumer loyalty whole life value new technology new capability new competence new class project executive or project sponsor features performance time and cost performance benefits reputation relationships investor loyalty future projects new technology new capability new class value creation reputation consumers time price of benefit features benefit price of product features developments competitive advantage price of product features developments operators/users features performance documentation training usability convenience availability reliability maintainability cost reduction: • operating • maintaining • training • staff new technology new capability new competence new class project manager and project team time cost performance learning camaraderie retention well-being reputation relationships repeat business job security future projects new technology new competence senior supplier (design and/or management) completed work time and cost performance profit from work safety record risk record client appreciation performance reputation relationships repeat business future business new technology new competence other suppliers (goods, materials, works, or services) time profit client appreciation reputation relationships repeat business future business new technology new competence public environmental impact environmental impact social costs social benefits whole life social cost-benefit ratio ex-ante evaluation is simpler to conduct. it can be performed when a majority of project staff are still available to participate. it is also a simpler process to reach consensus regarding the criteria that should be used in ex-ante evaluation. however, the original goals that initiated a megaproject are more likely to be at the output or impact levels. assessment at these levels will not be construction economics and building, 15(3), 48-58 fahri, biesenthal, pollack and sankaran 54 possible during the close out phase, as benefits will likely not yet have been realised. in order to achieve the ultimate goals of a megaproject, it is believed that csfs do still exist, and determine sustainability. it is expected that eppe can be of assistance in revealing these factors. table 3 stages in conducting project evaluation types of evaluation (lehtonen, 2014) new model of project success (turner and zolin, 2012) ex-ante assessment project’s outputs performance ex-post evaluation project’s outcomes performance ex-post project evaluation (eppe) ex nunc monitoring project’s impact performance revealing csfs beyond project closing out phase to improve project performance it is important to consider factors leading to the achievement of desired benefits, unexpected outcomes or effects, and the impact of the project. these can only be assessed by conducting a post-project evaluation. table 4 summarizes previous research into critical success factors at the project outcome level. vedung (2010, p. 273) identifies the outcome stage as the appropriate level at which to produce safe knowledge and empirical evidence of intervention effects. outcome evaluations may focus on the individual level, organizational level, community level, and the policy or government level (mathison, 2005, p. 287). it is also important to consider whether the project stakeholders planned the outcomes of a project. turner and cochrane’s (1993) classification of project types may provide one approach to addressing this question. these purposes would be achieved by employing project management tools and techniques, such as suggested, for instance, in pmbok guide (project management institute, 2013) and prince2 (axelos, 2015). arguably, the timeframe will determine the consistency of goals and methods used. the longer time period a project requires (e.g. megaproject), the more challenging it becomes to maintain consistent goals and methods. this consistency will also be revealed when conducting a post project evaluation. the comparison between initiated and expected outcome and the actual, expected or unexpected result implies that there are essential elements (csfs) contributing the project results at later stages. these factors may provide causal-relationship explanation to the achievements. the issue of temporality in megaproject evaluation is particularly significant, not only due to the extended duration of most megaprojects, but also the period over which benefits are typically realized. issues of the sustainability of outcomes need to be considered during evaluation. for example, the i-595 port everglades expressway, the denver airport megaproject, boston’s central artery/tunnel project, and power plants are delivered on the expectation of expected to have sustained economic impacts. a variety of studies have identified outcome specific critical success factors, and these are summarised in table 4. however, the majority of factors identified in table 3 are taken from relatively small to medium sized projects, and caution should be extended when transferring them to megaprojects. studies of csfs have generally not depicted essential factors leading to the achievement of megaproject goals at the outcome and impact stages. these csfs, for example, include managing risks (kwak and smith, 2009), top management involvement, business plans, vision, vendor support, change readiness, teamwork, team composition and communication (ramayah et al., 2007). other csfs related to megaproject delivery may include lack of owner's ability to manage a hitech oriented megaproject; frequent changes triggered by conflicts between public agencies and growing public resistance from environmental concerns; inappropriate project delivery system; a construction economics and building, 15(3), 48-58 fahri, biesenthal, pollack and sankaran 55 lack of appropriate scheduling for the size of the project (han et al., 2009). other factors may include: lack of clear constraint, marketing and estimation issues, and financial capability (lehoai, lee and lee, 2008). in the context of megaprojects in the construction industry, instead of referring to success factors, toor and ogunlana (2010) refer to key performance indicators (kpis), and focus on safety, efficient use of resources, effectiveness, satisfaction of stakeholders, and conflicts and dispute reduction. table 4 csfs at outcome level studies csfs at outcome level scheers, sterck and bouckaert (2005) good support of and cooperation with the central agencies concerning the financial reforms results-oriented culture and the acknowledgment of the necessity of cash reporting paul (1995, p. 63) senior management has greater responsibility at the key performance outcome level while middle management and general workforce have greater responsibility at the key performance driver level. top management looks to the drivers and the people who manage them to get the outcomes moving in the right direction. lee (1990) user satisfaction measures the effectiveness of an information system. (pinjani and palvia, 2007) group diversity kassahun (2012) a public sector organization in a developing economy can use bpr to improve process and overall organizational performance if it (a) has accumulated stock of bpr-relevant resources and capabilities; (b) has undertaken bpr with sufficient depth; (c) is developing a post-bpr complementary competencies to sustain and further enhance the bpr changes; and (d) has mitigated the adverse effect of bpr implementation problems dong, neufeld and higgins (2009) top management support top management support to resource provision top management support to change management top management support to vision sharing veiga et al. (2014) greater organizational support funnell (2000) agreement by business to meetings with program advisers with a view to identifying possible solutions; few refusals preparation of action plans that include defined key elements business-specific examples of increased willingness evaluation is conducted in order to measure the congruence planned and actual project results. a common assumption in evaluation is the link between actions taken during the project, and project results. however, cook (2000) argues that the evaluation is likely to be insufficient to conclude a causal inference; rather than “falsely choosing” between randomization and program theory, the evaluator can make the optimal choice and combine both. in other words, for instance, the evaluation of it/is in organizations can be seen as the movement from automating to informing, more recently to transformation (ballantine and stray, 1998). in addition, the role of it/is has changed from one of support to one of strategic importance, the focus of evaluation has progressed from efficiency to effectiveness, and advanced understanding (love and irani, 2001). the tendency of project results is the reason why project outputs need to be evaluated for a period after completion. this stage is one of the additional steps proposed by archibald, di filippo and di filippo (2012). song and letch (2012, p. 276) present "a descriptive analysis of research on it/is evaluation over the last 25 years (1986-2010)". even though their study only focuses on it/is sector, it is a seminal reflection on the importance of conducting post-project evaluation. their study examines why evaluation is carried out. their findings confirm the importance of identifying and construction economics and building, 15(3), 48-58 fahri, biesenthal, pollack and sankaran 56 appraising the it/is value (conceptual purpose), as well as the it/is planning and implementation (instrumental use). they also examine the timing of evaluations, finding that almost 60% of the assessment is conducted at ex-post or after the implementation stage. their findings highlight the importance of evaluating a project’s outputs after the project has finished. however, not every post-project evaluation succeeds in revealing factors that contribute to the achievement of the project result at outcome stage. evaluations typically focus on assessing the contribution to the organization. critical success factors of a project should also cover later stages of a project after outputs are delivered. however, the literature in this area is lacking. conclusion project success criteria include time, cost, quality, client satisfaction, the realisation of the strategic objectives of the client organizations, and the satisfaction of end users and other stakeholders. success is contributed to by critical success factors, defining the specific conditions, events, and circumstances that contribute to project results. as aspects of success extend past the handover of deliverables, critical success factors need to be considered after the project has delivered the outputs. the later stages are termed project outcome and impact level. to be able to determine the csfs at project outcome and impact level, post project evaluation needs to be conducted. such evaluation plays a significant role in establishing a means to assess project performance, comprehensively, at the strategic level. the evaluation determines the causal relationship between project process, outcome and impact, as well the evaluation congruence between planned and actual outcomes. it is anticipated that the csfs that affect megaproject outcomes and impacts will vary between sectors and industries. future research may wish to examine these contingent differences, with a view towards understanding how outcomes and impacts can most effectively be achieved. references ahsan, k. and gunawan, i. 2010. analysis of cost and schedule performance of international development projects. international journal of project management, 28(1), pp. 68-78. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.03.005 al-yaseen, h., al-jaghoub, s., al-shorbaji, m. and salim, m. 2010. post-implementation evaluation of healthcare information systems in developing countries. electronic journal of information systems evaluation, 13(1), pp. 9-15. archibald, r.d., di filippo, i. and di filippo, d. 2012. the six-phase comprehensive project life cycle model including the project incubation/feasibility phase and the post-project evaluation phase. pm world journal, 1(5), pp. 1-40. axelos 2015, what is prince2?, [online], available at , [accessed 11 may 2015]. ballantine, j. and stray, s. 1998. financial appraisal and the is/it investment decision making process. journal of information technology, 13(1), pp. 3-14. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/026839698344927 bowen, p.l., cheung, m.-y.d. and rohde, f.h. 2007. enhancing it governance practices: a model and case study of an organization's efforts. international journal of accounting information systems, 8(3), pp. 191-221. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.accinf.2007.07.002 chan, a.p., ho, d.c. and tam, c. 2001. design and build project success factors: multivariate analysis. journal of construction engineering and management, 127(2), pp. 93-100. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2001)127:2(93) chua, d.k.h., kog, y.-c. and loh, p.k. 1999. critical success factors for different project objectives. journal of construction engineering and management, 125(3), pp. 142-150. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(1999)125:3(142) cleland, d.i. 1985, a strategy for ongoing project evaluation, project management journal, 16, pp. 11-17 conrad, k.j. and miller, t.q. 1987. measuring and testing program philosophy. new directions for program evaluation, 1987(33), pp. 19-42. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ev.1444 cook, t.d. 2000. the false choice between theory-based evaluation and experimentation. in p.j. rogers, t.a. hacsi, a. petrosino & t.a. heubner (eds). program theory in evaluation: challenges and opportunities. san fransisco: jossey-bass. pp. 27-34. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ev.1179 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.03.005 https://www.prince2.com/what-is-prince2%3e http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/026839698344927 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.accinf.2007.07.002 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/%28asce%290733-9364%282001%29127:2%2893%29 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/%28asce%290733-9364%282001%29127:2%2893%29 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/%28asce%290733-9364%281999%29125:3%28142%29 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/%28asce%290733-9364%281999%29125:3%28142%29 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ev.1444 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/ev.1179 construction economics and building, 15(3), 48-58 fahri, biesenthal, pollack and sankaran 57 dong, l., neufeld, d. and higgins, c. 2009. top management support of enterprise systems implementations. journal of information technology, 24(1), pp. 55-80. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/jit.2008.21 eldabi, t., paul, r. and sbeih, h. 2003. operational use evaluation/post implementation evaluation of it. proceedings of ukais, pp. 9-11. fiori, c. and kovaka, m. 2005, defining megaprojects: learning from construction at the edge of experience. in construction research congress 2005: broadening perspectives, san diego, california, 5-7 april 2005. san diego, california: asce. flyvbjerg, b. 2007. megaproject policy and planning: problems, causes, cures. summary of dissertation for higher doctorate in science,(dr. scient.), aalborg: aalborg university. flyvbjerg, b. 2009. survival of the unfittest: why the worst infrastructure gets built—and what we can do about it. oxford review of economic policy, 25(3), pp. 344-367. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grp024 flyvbjerg, b. 2014. what you should know about megaprojects and why: an overview. project management journal, 45(2), pp. 6-19. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21409 fortune, j. and white, d. 2006. framing of project critical success factors by a systems model. international journal of project management, 24(1), pp. 53-65. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.07.004 funnell, s.c. 2000. developing and using a program theory matrix for progam evaluation and performance monitoring. in p.j. rogers, t.a. hacsi, a. petrosino & t.a. heubner (eds). program theory in evaluation: challenges and opportunities. san fransisco: jossey-bass. pp. 91-102. haidar, a. and ellis, r. 2010, analysis and improvement of megaprojects performance. in proceedings of engineering project organizations conference, tahoe, california, 4-7 november 2010. tahoe, california: epos. han, s.h., yun, s., kim, h., kwak, y.h., park, h.k. and lee, s.h. 2009. analyzing schedule delay of mega project: lessons learned from korea train express. engineering management, ieee transactions, 56(2), pp. 243256. hertogh, m. and westerveld, e. 2014. complex projects. in j.r. turner (ed.). gower handbook of project management. gower publishing, ltd. horvath, p.a., hatfield, p. and hill, d. 2011. importance and behavior of capital project benefits factors in practice: early evidence. journal of applied business research (jabr), 18(3). ika, l.a. 2009. project success as a topic in project management journals. project management journal, 40(4), pp. 6-19. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pmj.20137 jia, g., yang, f., wang, g., hong, b. and you, r. 2011. a study of mega project from a perspective of social conflict theory. international journal of project management, 29(7), p. 817. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.04.004 kardes, i., ozturk, a., cavusgil, s.t. and cavusgil, e. 2013. managing global megaprojects: complexity and risk management. international business review, 22(6), pp. 905-917. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2013.01.003 kasi, v., keil, m., mathiassen, l. and pedersen, k. 2008. the post mortem paradox: a delphi study of it specialist perceptions. european journal of information systems, 17(1), pp. 62-78. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000727 kassahun, a. 2012, the effect of business process reengineering (bpr) on public sector organisation performance in a developing economy context, phd, rmit. available at, kumar, k. 1990. post implementation evaluation of computer-based information systems: current practices. communications of the acm, 33(2), pp. 203-212. kwak, y.h. and smith, b.m. 2009. managing risks in mega defense acquisition projects: performance, policy, and opportunities. international journal of project management, 27(8), pp. 812-820. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.02.002 lai, l.s.-l. 2000. an integration of systems science methods and object-oriented analysis for determining organizational information requirements. systems research and behavioral science, 17(2), pp. 205-228. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1743(200003/04)17:2<205::aid-sres294>3.0.co;2-t le-hoai, l., lee, y. and lee, j. 2008. delay and cost overruns in vietnam large construction projects: a comparison with other selected countries. ksce journal of civil engineering, 12(6), pp. 367-377. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12205-008-0367-7 lee, s. 1990, effective management of information systems in small business organizations: an empirical study of critical success factors, phd, university of nebraska, lincoln. available at , lehtonen, m. 2014. evaluating megaprojects: from the ‘iron triangle’to network mapping. evaluation, 20(3), pp. 278295. li, j. 2008, three dimensions structure model based on project evaluation. in wicom'08. 4th international conference, dalian, 12-14 october 2008. dalian: ieee. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/wicom.2008.1840 liu, y., yu, f., su, s.y. and lam, h. 2003. a cost–benefit evaluation server for decision support in e-business. decision support systems, 36(1), pp. 81-97. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0167-9236(02)00133-1 http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/jit.2008.21 http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grp024 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21409 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.07.004 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pmj.20137 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.04.004 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2013.01.003 http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.ejis.3000727 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.02.002 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/%28sici%291099-1743%28200003/04%2917:2%3c205::aid-sres294%3e3.0.co;2-t http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12205-008-0367-7 http://search.proquest.com/docview/303865669?accountid=26503%3e http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/wicom.2008.1840 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0167-9236%2802%2900133-1 construction economics and building, 15(3), 48-58 fahri, biesenthal, pollack and sankaran 58 love, p.e. and irani, z. 2001. evaluation of it costs in construction. automation in construction, 10(6), pp. 649-658. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0926-5805(01)00058-9 maheswar and javalagi, d.c. 2014. a review of enterprise resource planning implementation issues. the international journal of business & management, 2(6), pp. 28-34. mathison, s. (ed.) 2005, encyclopedia of evaluation., sage publications, inc., thousand oaks, ca. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412950558 merrow, e.w. 1988, understanding the outcomes of mega-projects: a quantitative analysis of very large civilian projects, rand corporation, santa monica, ca. nguyen, l.d., ogunlana, s.o. and thi xuan lan, d. 2004. a study on project success factors in large construction projects in vietnam. engineering, construction and architectural management, 11(6), pp. 404-413. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09699980410570166 ogunlana, s.o. 2008. critical coms of success in large-scale construction projects: evidence from thailand construction industry. international journal of project management, 26(4), pp. 420-430. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.08.003 paul, w. 1995. overcoming chronic tqm fatigue. the tqm magazine, 7(5), pp. 58-64. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09544789510098650 pinjani, p. and palvia, p. 2007. the role of diversity and technology in global virtual teams. in america conference on information system, p. 66. poon, p. and wagner, c. 2001. critical success factors revisited: success and failure cases of information systems for senior executives. decision support systems, 30(4), pp. 393-418. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s01679236(00)00069-5 priemus, h. 2010. mega-projects: dealing with pitfalls. european planning studies, 18(7), pp. 1023-1039. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09654311003744159 project management institute 2013, a guide to the project management body of knowledge (pmbok guide), newtown square, pa: pmi. ramayah, t., roy, m.h., arokiasamy, s., zbib, i. and ahmed, z.u. 2007. critical success factors for successful implementation of enterprise resource planning systems in manufacturing organisations. international journal of business information systems, 2(3), pp. 276-297. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/ijbis.2007.011980 sandru, r. 2013, the sustainability of aid: the case of the vi agroforestry programme, masters, uppsala university. available at http://www.divaportal.org/smash/record.jsf;jsessionid=fmskhuluee9ldjoaatulkpszixqc4jcaaextdwa1.diva2-search7vm?pid=diva2%3a586113&dswid=-756. scheers, b., sterck, m. and bouckaert, g. 2005. lessons from australian and british reforms in results-oriented financial management. oecd journal on budgeting, 5(2), pp. 133-162. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/budget-v5art14-en song, x. and letch, n. 2012. research on it/is evaluation: a 25 year review. electronic journal of information systems evaluation, 15(3), pp. 276-287. toor, s.-u.-r. and ogunlana, s.o. 2010. beyond the ‘iron triangle’: stakeholder perception of key performance indicators (kpis) for large-scale public sector development projects. international journal of project management, 28(3), pp. 228-236. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.05.005 turner, j.r. and cochrane, r.a. 1993. goals-and-methods matrix: coping with projects with ill defined goals and/or methods of achieving them. international journal of project management, 11(2), pp. 93-102. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(93)90017-h turner, r. and zolin, r. 2012. forecasting success on large projects: developing reliable scales to predict multiple perspectives by multiple stakeholders over multiple time frames. project management journal, 43(5), pp. 87-99. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21289 vedung, e. 2010. four waves of evaluation diffusion. evaluation, 16(3), pp. 263-277. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1356389010372452 veiga, j.f., keupp, m.m., floyd, s.w. and kellermanns, f.w. 2014. the longitudinal impact of enterprise system users' pre-adoption expectations and organizational support on post-adoption proficient usage. european journal of information systems, 23(6), pp. 691-707. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2013.15 yu, a.t., shen, q., kelly, j. and hunter, k. 2006. investigation of critical success factors in construction project briefing by way of content analysis. journal of construction engineering and management, 132(11), pp. 1178-1186. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:11(1178) zhai, l., xin, y. and cheng, c. 2009. understanding the value of project management from a stakeholder's perspective: case study of mega-project management. project management journal, 40(1), pp. 99-109. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pmj.20099 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0926-5805%2801%2900058-9 http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781412950558 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09699980410570166 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.08.003 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09544789510098650 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0167-9236%2800%2900069-5 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0167-9236%2800%2900069-5 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09654311003744159 http://dx.doi.org/10.1504/ijbis.2007.011980 http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/budget-v5-art14-en http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/budget-v5-art14-en http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.05.005 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863%2893%2990017-h http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21289 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1356389010372452 http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2013.15 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/%28asce%290733-9364%282006%29132:11%281178%29 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pmj.20099 understanding megaproject success beyond the project close-out stage abstract introduction understanding megaproject success beyond the project close-out stage critical success factors in project lifecycle post-project evaluation project outputs, outcomes and impacts revealing csfs beyond project closing out phase conclusion references construction economics and building vol. 17, no. 3 september 2017 © 2017 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: jepson, j.m., kirytopoulos, k. and london, k. 2017. exploring project managers’ perception of stress when working in increasingly complex construction projects. construction economics and building, 17:3, 47-67. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v17i3.5567 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | ajceb.epress. lib.uts.edu.au abstract stress is a recognised feature of the project managers’ life. projects are becoming more complex with the uncertainty in the system contributing to the lack of control and added stress. this study explores a microcosm of 25 project managers in the south australian construction industry, their perceived level of uncertainty and stress. the project managers interviewed provide their views on what their key stressors were and the mechanisms they use to manage effectively their stress. the results showed that structural, technical and directional complexity of projects was high, but this did not always convert into more stress for the project managers. the results indicate that stressors like the lack of resources; lack of control and increasing accountability were project managers’ primary concerns. coping strategies included optimism, applying emotional intelligence and active planning strategies. in addition, they reduced their stress by working with good teams, using theirs and their team’s experience, implementing sound systems and processes and effectively researching and gathering information. research article exploring project managers’ perception of stress when working in increasingly complex construction projects jacqueline mary jepson1* , konstantinos kirytopoulos2 , kerry london3 1 school of natural and built environments, university of south australia, gpo box 2471, adelaide, south australia 5001, australia. 2 school of mechanical engineering, national technical university of athens, iroon polytechniou 9, 15344, zografou, greece. 3 school of computing, engineering and mathematics, western sydney university, locked bag 1797 penrith nsw 2751. *corresponding author: jacqueline mary jepson, school of natural and built environments, university of south australia, gpo box 2471, adelaide, south australia 5001, australia. email: jacqueline.jepson@unisa.edu.au doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5567 article history: received 10/06/2017; revised 15/07/2017; accepted 29/07/2017; published 21/09/2017 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 47 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5567 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5567 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5567 ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au mailto:jacqueline.jepson@unisa.edu.au http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5567 keywords stress; project management; project complexity, coping strategies introduction many project managers find project work motivating, stimulating and creative, but it also has a frustrating, ambiguous and stressful aspect to it (karrbom, 2016; koolhaas et al., 2011; hosseini, chileshe and zillante, 2014). the term ‘stress’ is ambiguous, with different people interpreting it in their own way. stress was defined in the 1950’s by selke as ‘‘the non-specific (i.e. common) results of any demand upon the body, be the effect mental or somatic’’ (selke, 2013). a more useful and straightforward definition that will be used by the authors of this study is: ‘stress is a state of mental or emotional strain or tension resulting from adverse or demanding circumstances. (blanchflower, 2014). leung, chan and dongyu’s (2011) study suggested that the work of project managers in the construction industry was stressful due to the time pressures, uncertainty and the dynamic social networks involved. the project management role continues to increase in its complexity (williams, 1999) with the success of a project being tied to the success of their project management skills (mir and pinnington, 2014). a dynamic work environment, with its additional pressures, imposes on the employee fluctuating workloads, undefined requirements, and multiple role demands (turner, huemann and keegan, 2008; sunding and ekholm, 2014). a major part of a project manager’s role is to manage the uncertainty and risk of a project, and this also leads to stress. previous studies have made valuable contributions to stress management and how project managers manage stress. in this study, we initially identified through the literature review what complexity means for project managers and what attributes to the level of complexity. literature is examined to understand and interpret the stress imposed by this increased complexity of projects and what other authors’ research tells us about the cause and mechanisms used to manage that stress. the next section of the study outlines the grounded research methodology and the process for selecting participants. the subsequent section applies the comments made to specific questions to explore how project managers in the construction industry of south australia cope with stress, what they see as causing it and how they manage it. the final section covers the conclusions made from the analysis of conversations and identifies the potential gaps and deficiencies attached to this research. projects, complexity and stress complexity in projects complexity in projects has become a topical issue in recent years. increasing complexity has been attributed to the growth in the size of projects, the rising competitive and dynamic environment, plus the challenging characteristics of programs and projects themselves (qazi et al., 2016; antunes and gonzalez, 2015). the management of complexity in projects includes setting up the appropriate organisational structures, complicated contracting, and procurement processes, increased legislative controls, changing technology, multicultural workforce, and project environments, the need to cultivate talent, provide leadership, and generate flexible and resilient workforces (bakhshi, ireland and gorod, 2016). much of the interest has also arisen by so many complex projects failing due to cost overruns or time delays (remington and pollack, 2007; luo et al., 2017). jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201748 there is no consensus among researchers about the precise definition of complexity. however, a characterization of what is complex is possible as it arises from the number and the nature of interactions among variables or components involved, creating multiple, dependent feedback loops that give rise to emergent and unpredictable outcomes (antunes and gonzalez, 2015). while a complicated project may still be predictable (i.e. it is possible to forecast what could go wrong and treat it through the application of risk management techniques), a complex project has issues arising from the complexity that cannot be foreseen, either in their nature or severity. earls and ebrary (2007, p.108) explain it well when they say “mass behaviour is inherently complex because it is based on the interaction of individual agents. but we try to understand it as if it was complicated… this is why we find it difficult to understand.” the distinction between what is a complicated project and what is a complex one has been studied extensively. a complex project is a project having an unclear goal or uncertainty in its method of delivery. this complexity makes it impossible to plan the project from start to finish and the higher the complexity, the less likely you are to manage the project traditionally. luo et al. (2016) looked at the relationship between project complexity and success in complex construction projects and concluded that project complexity had significant adverse effect on project success. the discussions around complexity are an extension of the concepts of ‘systems theory’, and it is also a reaction to the pmbok guide’s view that people are entirely hierarchical and process driven. in systems thinking, project managers are urged to think of organisations as living systems that are defined by a complex set of internal and external relationships and connections. the system has inputs, transformation processes, outputs or products and feedback. the focus is on the organisation as a whole and the interrelationships of structure and behaviour within the organisation. this ‘systems theory’ introduces the concept of ‘open’ and ‘closed’ management systems. the survival of an organisation is dependent on active exchanges between the individuals and their organisation and the organisation and its environment. the system complexity is dependent on its openness, purposefulness, multidimensionality, emergent properties, and any counterintuitive behaviour (garajedaghi, 2011). project complexity is difficult to quantify precisely. according to the project management institute (pmi, 2013, p.11) causes of program and project complexity can be arranged into three categories: human behaviour, system behaviour and ambiguity. the pmbok guide attempts to address this by trying to standardise every process to make all processes as linear as possible while recognising that certain processes are happening at various times during the life cycle of the project (curlee and gordon, 2011). there is evidence to suggest that a paradigm shift is needed for managing complex projects, as distinct to managing the traditional linear project management processes. bakhshi, ireland and gorod (2016) listed 14 definitions as to what is complexity in projects in their literature review of google scholar articles to 2015. their conclusion was to define a complex project as: “an intricate arrangement of the varied interrelated parts in which the elements can change and evolve constantly with an effect on the project objectives” (bakhshi, ireland and gorod, 2016, p.1203). luo et al. (2016) looked at complexity measurement of construction projects, based on information, task, technological, organisational, environmental, and goal complexity. other studies used different perspectives of what makes a project complex. bakhshi, ireland and gorod (2016) categorised them into three groups: the pmi view, the system of system view, and the view developed from the research papers analysed. jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201749 this study chose the categorisation of complexity which was more appropriate to projects used by remington and pollack (2007, p.7), which categorised it into four types: ‘structural complexity: arising from complicatedness of the project’s structure (esp. large projects) -difficulties in managing and keeping track of all project tasks and activities (interdependencies). technical complexity: arising from the novelty of the technology used in the project (esp. randd, it, engineering projects). directional complexity: arising from uncertainty and lack of agreement about project goals, and stakeholder disagreements: unshared goals, unclear meanings and hidden agendas (ambiguities). temporal complexity: arising from uncertainty in the project’s context, and changes in the context over time: shifting environmental and strategic directions (external influences).’ project stressors being a project manager is one of the most stressful jobs as the pm is directly responsible and accountable for the success or failure of a project (mir and pinnington, 2014). stress is considered a major risk factor for a wide range of health implications and the chronic character of stressors is considered an important factor in the development of various forms of stress-related pathology. studies confirm that construction project managers suffer from stress, the overall level of stress is considerable, with evidence of ‘burnout’ at the extreme (leung, chan and dongyu, 2011; senaratne and rasagopalasingam, 2017). in 1980 albrecht listed the primary stressors within a project, these being: time constraints; concern about the future (he called these anticipatory); the situational; and people (he called these encountered). in the same line of thought, okuntade (2015) made these factors more explicit as: unrealistic timelines; working in a matrix system which pms do not have full control of the resources; lack of resources-human and/ or equipment; proliferation of virtual teams and cross-cultural influences; inter-group conflict in organization and project environment. the outcomes of construction projects are increasingly being made accountable to stakeholders, and because these stakeholders can often see the progress of the construction, this adds another perspective to the stress of the project manager. ng (2005) identified thirty-three stressors for employees covering various aspects such as the organisation policies, working relationships, communication, and personal factors. in their conclusion, they found that the biggest stressors were: bureaucracy, lack of opportunity to learn new skills, work-family conflicts and different view from superiors. while incidents such as valuable resources vanishing, other organisational tasks taking more time and energy than planned, promised resources are not assigned, duties and goals have to be reassigned, etc. these influenced the individuals’ perception of project working conditions (gallstedt, 2003). the project access to ‘resources’ appears to be the biggest cause of stress, and trusted teams appear to be the best defence (gallstedt, 2003). it needs to be stated though that gallstedt’s study was not specific to project managers and included clients, consultants, team members and contractors. jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201750 there is also evidence that experience, genetic makeup, and cognitive perception of situations varies the impact of the stressors (koolhaas et al., 2011). personal ambition and social expectations also influence on project managers stress levels. bowen et al. (2014) gathered data from an on-line questionnaire sample of 676 architects, civil engineers, quantity surveyors, and project and construction managers. the results showed that there was a significant relationship between occupational stress related to work–life imbalance, the need to ‘prove’ oneself, long hours worked, the working to tight deadlines, and support from line managers in demanding situations at work. project management role, especially in multi-project settings, is challenging, characterised by tight schedules, multitasking, multifaceted negotiation and coordination for resources, and the need to take responsibility. zika-viktorsson, sundstrom and engwall (2006) study investigated the psychosocial aspects of work in multi-project settings and how project managers from a range of industries including construction, viewed their work situation. this author found that one-third of the 392 respondents were under ‘project overload’, which was defined as a low adherence to time schedules, little development of skills, less activity for improvement and high levels of psychological stress reactions. stress was caused predominantly by four factors, namely, the lack of opportunities for recuperation, inadequate routines, scarce ‘time resources’, and a large number of simultaneous projects. a summary of project stressors is provided in table 1. table 1 stressors identified in research stressors author time constraints; concern about the future; the situational; and people. albrecht (1980) valuable resources vanishing; other organisational tasks taking more time and energy than planned; promised resources are not assigned; tasks and goals are reassigned. gallstedt, (2003) inadequacy/inconsistency of communication flow; paperwork – too much, too much unnecessary, high volume of reading material; workload – constant time pressure; lack of competent staff to do the job properly; inadequate numbers of staff to do the job properly; unable to delegate because of staffing problems. conflict of boundary situations; working long hours; insufficient time spent in family/home environment; the company strategy – competitive/ dynamic/go-getting image, changing staffing problems. haynes and love (2003) table a p132 bureaucracy, lack of opportunity to learn new skills, work-family conflicts, different view from superiors ng (2005) jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201751 table 1 (continued) stressors author lack of opportunities for recuperation; inadequate routines; scarce time resources; and a large number of simultaneous projects. zika-viktorsson, sundstrom and engwall, (2006) work–life imbalance; the need to ‘prove’ oneself; long hours worked; the working to tight deadlines; lack of support from line managers in difficult situations at work. tight schedules; multi-tasking; multifaceted negotiation and coordination for resources; the need to take responsibility bowen et al. (2014) unrealistic timelines; working in a matrix system in which pms do not have full control of the resources; lack of resources-human and/ or equipment; proliferation of virtual teams and cross-cultural influences; inter-group conflict in organisation and project environment. okuntade (2015) coping with stress construction project managers with different personalities make diverse assessments of risks and develop therefore a variety of different risk management strategies (wang et al., 2016). there appears to be a negative correlation between the amount of control a person has over their job and the level of stress they perceive. that is, low control leads to high stress (bowen et al., 2014). the findings from studies on the person’s appraisal of how much control they have shown a tendency for project managers to appraise stressful situations as controllable or requiring more information (aitken and crawford, 2007; gallstedt, 2003). aitken and crawford’s (2007) study supported the view that project managers use more active and planning coping strategies when dealing with stressful situations. the findings of this study also demonstrated that project managers appraised stressful situations as controllable or requiring more information. historically, leadership theories focused on the individual leader and his or her traits with subsequently leadership theory moving to account for the context of the leadership situation to consider personal attributes to the intellectual exchange and interpersonal relationships. dolfi (2007) recognised that the intrinsic characteristic needed by project managers was one that enabled them to cope with uncertainty. researchers have explored the concept of emotional intelligence and the need for project managers to be technically and socially competent (kloppenborg and opfer, 2002; keegan and den hertog, 2004; thomas and thomas, 2008). project manager competency profiles vary with the type of project conducted but rely on an ability to think critically, to influence and to motivate people plus the trait of conscientiousness (muller, 2007). project managers perform better and stay longer in their role if their personal characteristics meet the requirements of the position (mumford et al., 2000). there is debate as to whether project managers self-select so that those that continue in this role have the personality type or temperament to manage the stress of project management. jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201752 studies such as haynes and love (2003) and aitken and crawford (2007) support the concept that project managers use more active and planning coping strategies when dealing with stressful situations and that the use of planning strategies is related to the level of project management practice that they are exposed to (represented by organisational project management maturity). other studies have looked at the leadership style of the project manager. muller (2010) concluded that a more transactional style was appropriate for relatively simple projects and more transformational leadership styles in complex projects. transformational leaders operate effectively in rapidly changing environments by working with their teams to generate creative solutions to complex problems, while also encouraging them to take on a broader range of leadership responsibilities. transactional leaders work within the system and are motivates by the need to meet organisational goals. they use reward and punishments to gain compliance from their followers tend to be directive and actionoriented (bass et al., 2003). optimism plays an important part in a project manager’s ability to cope with their environment (dolfi, 2007) while the strength of the emotional competencies of selfawareness, emotional resilience, motivation, sensitivity, influence, intuitiveness, and conscientiousness, were the most important for assuring successful projects (rezvani et al., 2016; muller, 2007). high emotional intelligence is considered to be a positive attribute for project managers (rezvani et al., 2016; muller, 2007; livesey, 2015) leading to project success, better job satisfaction and trust in others. emotional intelligence (ei) is the capability of individuals to recognize their own, and other people’s emotions, to discern between different feelings and label them appropriately, to use emotional information to guide thinking and behaviour, and to manage and/or adjust emotions to adapt environments or achieve one’s goal(s) (colman, 2009). training in emotional intelligence is considered as a worthwhile exercise for project managers with positive results on project success (clarke, 2010). emotional intelligence also has a positive relationship with job satisfaction and job performance (turner, 2007). specific work-related characteristics such as work experience, project size, age and level of education influenced the psychological adjustment of the project managers sampled according to haynes and love (2003) to enable them to better cope with their stress. research method exploring the stress within the construction industry is difficult due to its all-encompassing and multifaceted nature. miles, huberman and saldana, (2014, p.11) suggest that qualitative methods have one feature in common in that ‘they focus on naturally occurring, ordinary events in natural settings, so that we have a handle on what “real life” is like.’ the qualitative data is also collected with a ‘groundness’, in that it discusses specific experiences directly with the project managers in a context which allows them to understand, interpret and then express their opinions. analysis of these conversations enables the development of themes that reflect the richness and truths far more than the snapshots that could be gained from a survey, questionnaire or quiz. qualitative research methods with their emphasis on experiences are appropriate for locating the meanings around the events, concepts and the social context of the unique environment that a project managers experience (bryman and bell, 2007). research questions were general and required the respondents to explain and jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201753 describe their own experiences. the semi-structures interviews were considered particularly appropriate for this enquiry as they would draw on the knowledge and experience of participants. the literature reviewed in the previous section provides a benchmark for what has been identified around project complexity, stress causes and coping mechanisms of project managers within the construction industry. this review of the literature has assisted in planning the narrative for the actual research what questions to ask and how open to make the conservation (miles, huberman and saldana, 2014). to provide a measure of complexity, the type of projects the managers were involved in, their size and experience, the interviewees were asked precise questions, at the commencement of the interview. once this quantitative data was collected the interview then turned to a general discussion based on open questions provided by the interviewer. all participants volunteered their time despite heavy workloads and provided a frank and open discussion. qualitative research is purposive rather than random, and a relatively small number of interviews can be acceptable for qualitative research with the conversations being in depth and within a precise context (miles, huberman and saldana, 2014; quinlan, 2011). the boundaries of the research were set by the desire to study project managers within the construction industry. the title of project managers in some cases is a misnomer as the debate on whether project management is a profession is still open (konstantinou, 2015; zwerman, 2004). project managers in the construction industry often come into the area from a background of construction management, engineering or other disciplines. the attributes of these project managers were therefore determined before the research process commenced. twenty-five project managers were interviewed as shown in table 2. all had at least five years or more experience in managing construction projects, with the average being just under 16 and a half years. the group was selected solely from south australia but provides a valid example of what is happening in the construction industry generally in australia. the reason why this is claimed is because it is regular for construction practitioners (including some of table 2 project management experience in years in the construction industry participants id length of experience designation size (m$ aud) p1 25 construction manager/project manager >100 p2 9 project manager 10 100 p3 5 construction manager/project manager <1 p4 40 project manager >100 p5 6 senior project engineer >100 p6 20 principle project manager 1 10 p7 7 program manager >100 p8 10 senior project manager >100 jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201754 table 2 (continued) participants id length of experience designation size (m$ aud) p9 35 project manager >100 p10 12 project manager 10 100 p11 12 project manager 10 100 p12 10 project manager 1 10 p13 4 project engineer 10 100 p14 5 senior project manager and engineer 1 10 p15 10 project manager >100 p16 14 construction manager/project manager 10 100 p17 20 project manager 10 100 p18 20 senior program advisor 1 10 p19 9 program director >100 p20 22 senior project manager 1 10 p21 17 senior project manager 10 100 p22 33 managing director of project management company 1 10 p23 7 project manager 1 10 p24 30 project manager 1 10 p25 32 director of project management services organisation 10 100 the respondents of this research) to move and work around australia and thus have extensive experience interstate. moreover, as it can be deduced from chancellor, abbott and carson (2015) the construction industry shows consistency nationally thus south australia (as any other state) may provide a good example of what is relevant to australia. this grounded theory approach was aimed to get participants to talk generally about their role in managing the complexity, risk and stress of their work. the conversations were recorded, transcribed and imported into nvivo 11 qualitative analysis tool given identifying and analysing common themes. the respondents came mainly from non-residential building, heavy and civil engineering construction and general construction services, working in a mix of private and government organisations, figure 1 provides this information visually. all except one project manager worked with projects greater than $1million with eight managing projects greater than $100 million (australian $). no significant differences were revealed in the qualitative analysis between the groups (experience or project size) as can be seen from the extracted quotes provided in ‘research findings’ section. jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201755 research findings and discussion each interviewee was asked to scale their level of complexity in projects according to remington and pollack (2007) four types of complexity, from level 1 (low) to 10 (very high), to provide some structured understanding of the complexity of their projects. figure 2 shows their responses, with structural, technical and directional complexity indicating high results (7.35, 7.16 and 7.24). conversely, temporal complexity was only 5.04, implying that the time pressures are not as relevant to the managers. the word cloud below formed by the respondents’ comments provides helpful insight into the words they used to describe the stress related to their role. the perception among interviewees is that the complexity attached to projects is increasing and that this adds stress to the role, examples of comments expressing this are shown in table 3. figure 1 industry sectors of construction project managers 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 residen�al building construc�on non-residen�al building heavy and civil engineering construc�on construc�on services industry type /main projects figure 2 ranking of complexity by project managers 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 structural technical direc�onal temporal complexity of project jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201756 table 3 project managers interviewed comments on stress levels and complexity in their projects. stress increasing ‘pressure to perform on tight deadlines and the implications if you don’t is very, very high. and that … the bigger the project, the more risks that are associated and the bigger the risks. so, if something gets missed then implications are millions of dollars, or someone gets seriously hurt’. (p5) ‘well it comes down to the role, it can be a stressful role. i guess some take it more on board than others in terms of their approach to it. …..but it is stressful, you’re carrying the can, and i guess on bigger projects particularly, risk becomes more at the fore, and to have that well covered. and accountability you’ve got to be in a position always to have had something ready, you have had to consider everything. i guess that’s where the risk schedule comes into it, and management of that. “we’ve considered this. we’ve got this contingency in place, or whatever”. but it can be, it certainly can be stressful’ (p18) ‘so, i think yeah it’s highly stressful. we’re playing with other people’s money, other people’s time, we’re managing other people’s expectations, and if we get it wrong then, you know, there’s a world of hurt that could come down on us’. (p17) figure 3 word cloud for stress theme jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201757 table 3 (continued) complexity levels increasing ‘like in this project there’s joint ventures, so you’ve got xxx, xxx are doing a joint venture to do the construction, and there’s three other companies doing the design joint venture so you’re dealing with a lot of different people from different backgrounds and you’ve got to try and understand ... there is a definite structure to how it all operates but sometimes yeah it can become like as to who’s looking after what and things like that.’ (structural complexity: p5) ‘….the reason for that is legacy drawings that we’re often very constrained with which is a huge risk for us because the drawings were developed in the 60’s and 70’s. unfortunately, they’ve not been maintained so it’s very much speculative when i’m doing underground work, we have to do ground penetration rate before we dig a hole because we’ll hit things that we don’t want to hit. so, from a structural complexity, i’d say about an eight of ten’ (structural complexity: p6) ‘hidden agendas and ambiguity, so that’s actually linked to the structural side of things at the top definitely.’ (directional complexity: p10) ‘but on a job this size, it’s quite complex. like, we’ve just had to fly in a team from spain to try and sort some problems out. so, technical complexity on that side of things is probably a nine.’ (technical complexity: p11) ‘there’s been a lot of innovation that we’ve had to do and a lot of melding old technology with new and to get it to work, with incomplete design and documentation.’ (technical complexity: p8) ‘...we do have changing environment from time to time …, if there’s an emerging issue and especially if it’s actually an environmental issue it can be quite constraining.’ (temporal complexity: p6) ‘i think that’s an evolving thing because it’s like scope, you know the full scope before you start. well in a real world, yes you think you do. in reality, no you don’t.’ (p6) ‘…we tend to move these days more into more complex projects, and by complex i mean more things in the project that have to be managed, and also that international projects and worrying about, or not worrying, but having to take into account ethnic and religious and all those sociological and all those sorts of parameters with people.’ (p9) project managers clearly identified what they considered as their main stressors (see table 4). these included working in complex systems in which pms do not have full control of the resources; lack of resources-human and/ or equipment; lack of control, and increasing accountability. participants worked hard to develop personal techniques that enabled them to moderate better the increasing complexity and stress of their projects they appraise projects as jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201758 table 4 stressors in the project manager’s role lack of resources(human and/ or equipment) ‘‘i think people are doing more with less and that ultimately is leading to an increased level of stress.’ (p3), or my biggest source of stress on projects, i think it probably just comes down to my resourcing across different projects and whether i really have the time to do things, kind of properly. (p14) ‘…because resource constraints actually, there is a lot of them …. (p20) lack of control ‘corporate policy, bureaucratises, politics cause stress.’ (p8) ‘the biggest thing that causes me stress is things that happen outside of my control. so, like something will happen, we’ll go, everything’s going smoothly, something hits you out of left field…’ (p11) and ‘i’ve got a high tolerance for ambiguity, right, but then a high-pressure stake, when the stakes are high, that doesn’t sit well. so where normally i’m comfortable with the don’t know stuff, i can deal with stuff, it’s the magnitude of uncertainty or ambiguity that sort of like really bothers me. and the more i know, the more comfort i get, the more, you know, more relaxed i become. the less stressed, i should say.’ (p19) i guess it’s the things that cause me most stress are things beyond my control. that last minute changes, last minute demands from our client…..(p21) increasing accountability ‘it’s definitely increasing, i think you’d have to say, given there’s more justification around project expenditure, what we’re doing in the community, it’s a much higher profile. certainly the areas i was involved in, so …. if something goes wrong you’ll be the point of contact, and at that point, it can be very difficult.’ (p18) everyone’s after a certain result. i mean life these days can tend to be stressful and because there is this expectation that everyone will perform to a certain level and/or above, then if you take that on or if you don’t perform, it depends; every individual is different and how they, if they take that on board then you let it, can get to you and become very stressful. (p24) controllable, have an optimistic attitude and undertake actively planning. the project managers, when discussing management of stress, focused on such things as experience, trustworthy teams, reliable systems and competent colleagues. their experience gave them a perspective that enabled them to manage the complexity of the projects and adapt to the changing situation. the level of experience in project management work did seem to be a decisive factor in how well project members react to a situation or incident (aitken and crawford, 2007). trustworthy teams who they could use for support and information. project managers saw stress in their teams and subcontractors, and they perceive much of their job is about managing people. the attitude of their organisation and the support of their team help them handle the stress. jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201759 dependent on reliable systems and processes that they had developed or which were instituted in their organisations that worked to support their management of uncertainty and reduced their stress. some relied on those systems and processes implemented in their organisation, but others enhanced these with their own processes that enable them to feel comfortable that they had enough information to give them confidence. they are good at seeking the experts and sourcing information whether from associated parts of their organisation, google or paid experts. these themes are demonstrated by some of the many comments in table 5. table 5 project managers’ ability to manage stress tendency for project managers to appraise stressful situations as controllable ‘the more experienced you are, … the anxiety will slowly just go away, and then as you face a new challenge the anxiety will come back again.’ (p10) …stress generated by risk, of you’re able to capture and understand that risk earlier in the piece, then it all becomes quite easy. (p22) optimism also plays an important part in a project manager’s ability to cope with their environment ‘it’s a well-known fact we can manage what we know. we can’t manage what we don’t know.’ (p1) ‘i think if one thing goes wrong, that’s probably it. in projects that are, you know, i’m talking quarter of a million, not several million dollar projects, so they’re not really big enough for things to snowball and go catastrophically wrong.’ (p3) ‘essentially, we just take stock of the situation, sit down, have a look, see what we can do and just work with what you’ve got essentially’ (p6) i’ve got subcontractors that have said to me; they just want to see me just lose it one day, just, they’ve never seen me get stressed. i guess it’s a personal trait. like i said, the problem’s still going to be there tomorrow. there’s no; i don’t see any point losing sleep over something…’ and ‘that’s probably my personality side of things. but with that, i think, if you remain calm with a clear head, you can sit back, look at the bigger picture and start moving the pawns in the project to get things done.’ (p11) ‘yeah to a certain extent yes just like you’re going to have the pessimistic people out there in a workshop that will think everything leads to death, which it might do, but there’s a point where you can just over analyse unknown unknowns and what’s the likelihood that that’s ever actually going to happen? so, let’s not get caught up on the one in a zillion unlikely event, let’s focus our attention to the likely unknown unknowns. so, i think yeah there can be you know paralysis as well in that.’ (p8) ‘that you haven’t seen before and you have to be adaptive to try and work with.’ (p15) jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201760 table 5 (continued) active planning as a coping strategy ‘i put a lot of effort into the pmp [project management plan] normally, because it’s where you start your thinking cap on and plan, as best as you can, the process and methodology and all that sort of thing.’ (p7) ‘planning, planning is a project, or everything is number one. you know get your foundation right, and the building will stay up. get your foundation wrong the building will collapse.’(p8) ‘so, i’m basically the conduit between all these different parties to make sure that everyone has got the right information that they’re all working to the right information as well.’ (p5) experience the level of experience in project management work seems to be a decisive factor in how well project members manage their stress ‘the more experienced you are, … the anxiety will slowly just go away, and then as you face a new challenge, the anxiety will come back again.’ ‘i guess with experience; you get to the point where, you know, it will still be there tomorrow. so you’ve got to, oh, there are times where you do, yeah, you have to take your work home, and you do think about things. but on the good jobs, life’s a lot more flexible. but obviously, when you get the complex jobs and stuff, it does get very, you forget what personal life is, and it does consume you. but i guess that’s where experience comes in. you’ve got to be able to manage that as well, and not let those things consume you. like i said, they’ll still be there tomorrow.’ (p11) ‘i’d say it gets less with the more experience that i gain, definitely. i was more stressed five years ago than i am now.’ (p12) ‘i’m as good as my experience, to be honest.’ (p6) ‘….with experience and over time the anxiety, not worry but the anxiety, just decreases over time because you go i can prepare as much as possible, the organisation can prepare as much as possible, but if something actually is meant to happen, if you go back, and you do the checks and say “has this guy done everything reasonably practicable?” the answer would be a yes, and therefore what am i actually worrying about.’ (p10) i find probably that the younger team members, we got a lot of younger ones here, don’t handle it as well as the older more experienced people do. (p21) “yeah, it depends on the confidence that you have and the experience that you have. so, when i was younger, i was a lot more stressed than i am now because now i can foresee things, i can see things happening and i know how to fix it, really. jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201761 table 5 (continued) whereas when i was younger, it was really stressful because i didn’t know what to do, you know, you start panicking a bit more...’ (p23) relying on teams ‘…it’s normally done as a team, so i guess i’m quite fortunate that if you work on big projects you normally have a team of people that can actually pull together that can discover, or uncover, all of the risks that you might encounter.’ (p1) ‘yeah, i would say always engage your team. don’t try and do it alone.’(p6) ‘i would probably say it’s about the team. it’s all about your team. if you’ve got a team that you can trust and that listens to you and you’re prepared to listen to them, i think that’s the best way to de-risk any situation.’ (p15) ‘i’ve not picked up everything, and i daresay i won’t miss everything either, and this is why i prefer having a group of people working their way through it, so it’s not just one person saying ‘here’s my risk register.’ it’s a group of people saying ‘here’s our risk register.’ (p6) good systems, people and processes reduce the stress attached to managing projects ‘it does help very much to have a systems, processes, and people, in place. if those aren’t there and you’re managing a project with no support, it makes it a lot more difficult, a lot more stressful. so, i’d like to consider it a collaboration more so than a single individual. we’re all managing the project; it’s just a single point person if you like being the project manager who’s capturing a lot of different ideas from different people’. (p18) gathering information and expertise ‘…it’s the magnitude of uncertainty or ambiguity that sort of like really bothers me. and the more i know, the more comfort i get, the more, you know, more relaxed i become. the less stressed, i should say.’ (p19) ‘‘yeah, google, google is my friend. like for instance if i’m building a pump station or if i’m building an air warfare destroyer construction facility i will tend to look at previous examples and just read through any news media, you know this is gone well, this is … i think well how relevant is that? ….’ (p8) an additional coping strategy appeared to be a sense of humour that enabled them to deflect the stress caused, with interviewees often using black humour to express themselves, with quips such as ‘stress builds character’. or ‘ you’ve got good days, you’ve got really bad days, like anyone else. yes, you’ve got days where you’re wading through puddles, you got days when the waves are ten feet high.’ jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201762 conclusion the aim of this article was to explore project managers’ perception of stress when working in increasingly complex construction projects. the findings showed that stress levels are increasing and that this correlates to the increasing complexity experienced by project managers in the construction industry. the level of stress in a project correlates closely with the degree of uncertainty and correspondingly with the level of complexity of that project. project managers interviewed believe they are facing increased structural, technical or directional but lower temporal complexity in their projects. what project managers’ perceive as causing their stress is consistent with many of the issues identified in the literature. the lack of resources and control, and increasing accountability were the themes that the participants discussed. internal stressors such as bureaucracy, lack of opportunity to learn new skills, work-family conflicts and different view from superiors, personal ambitions and expectations, work–life imbalance, the need to ‘prove’ oneself, long hours work or working to tight deadlines, lack of opportunities for recuperation, inadequate routines, unrealistic timeline, a proliferation of virtual teams and cross-cultural influences, inter-group conflict in organization, developed into themes in this qualitative analysis of interviews. experienced project managers interviewed have developed mechanisms to help themselves manage their stressors. the respondents appeared to be very empowered as a group providing a broad view that they are in control of their role and hold an empowered and authorised position within their organisation. coping strategies include a tendency for project managers to appraise stressful situations as controllable and manageable with more information. the respondents demonstrated optimism, emotional intelligence and undertook active planning strategies where they provided leadership in finding solutions. stress was also moderated by experience, sharing it with their teams, having good systems and processes and being effective and smart at additional sourcing information, people and data on which to make reliable decisions. figure 4 managing the stressors jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201763 stress is an intrinsic part of a project manager’s job, and this pressure is increasing with the rising complexity and uncertainty surrounding projects. academics and practitioners need to assess ways to avoid complexity or to reduce its impact on the project manager’s role. stress levels can be reduced by reducing the frequency of stressful situations through the development of project manager’s experience, the provision of supportive structures (teams and good systems and processes) and enabling or assisting them to access reliable experts to assess and manage the uncertainty. recruiting, providing training and enabling project managers to adjust to and manage stressful situations psychologically is important so that they can acquire appropriate levels of confidence, an optimistic attitude, and develop practical leadership tools such as active planning and communication. references antunes, r. and gonzalez, v., 2015. a production model for construction: a theoretical framework. buildings, 5(1), pp. 209-28. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings5010209 aitken, a. and crawford, l., 2007. coping with stress: dispositional coping strategies of project managers. international journal of project management, 25(7), pp. 666-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2007.02.003 albrecht, k., 2008. stress and the manager stress and the manager: making it work. englewood cliffs: n.j prentice-hall a spectrum book. bakhshi, j., ireland, v. and gorod, a., 2016. clarifying the project complexity construct: past, present and future. international journal of project management, 34(7), pp. 1199-1213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2016.06.002 bass, b.m., avolio, b.j., jung, d.i., berson, y. and zedeck, s., 2003. predicting unit performance by assessing transformational and transactional leadership. journal of applied psychology, 88(2), pp. 20718. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.2.207 blanchflower, d., 2014. the impact of stress in the workplace. management services, 58(2), pp. 37-39. bowen, p., edwards, p., lingard, h. and cattell, k., 2014. occupational stress and job demand, control and support factors among construction project consultants. international journal of project management, 32(7), pp. 1273-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.01.008 bryman, a. and bell, e., 2007. business research methods, 2nd ed. oxford: oxford university press. chancellor, w., abbott, m. and carson, c., 2015. factors promoting innovation and efficiency in the construction industry: a comparative study of australia and new zealand. construction economics and building, 15(2), pp. 63-80. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i2.4386 clarke, n., 2010. the impact of a training programme designed to target the emotional intelligence abilities of project managers. international journal of project management, 28(5), pp. 461-68. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.08.004 colman, a.m., 2009. a dictionary of psychology. 3rd ed. oxford: oxford university press. curlee, w. and gordon, r.l., 2011. complexity theory and project management. hoboken, n.j.: wiley. dolfi, j. and andrews, e.j., 2007. the subliminal characteristics of project managers: an exploratory study of optimism overcoming challenge in the project management work environment. international journal of project management, 25(7), pp. 674-682. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.02.002 jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201764 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings5010209 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.02.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.02.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.06.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.06.002 https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.2.207 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.01.008 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i2.4386 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.08.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.08.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.02.002 earls, m. and ebrary, i., 2007. herd how to change mass behaviour by harnessing our true nature. chichester: john wiley and sons. gällstedt, m., 2003. working conditions in projects: perceptions of stress and motivation among project team members and project managers. international journal of project management, 21(6), pp. 449-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(02)00098-4 garajedaghi, j., 2011. systems thinking: managing chaos and complexity: a platform for designing business architecture, 3rd edn, morgan kauffman elsevier. haynes n.s. and love p.e.d., 2003. psychological adjustment and coping among construction project managers. construction management and economics, 22(2), pp. 129-40. https://doi. org/10.1080/0144619042000201330 hosseini, m.r., chileshe, n. and zillante, g., 2014. investigating the factors associated with job satisfaction of construction workers in south australia. australasian journal of construction economics and building, 14(3), pp. 1-17. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i3.4154 pmi, 2013. a guide to the project management body of knowledge (pmbok guide), 5th ed. newtown square, pennsylvania: project management institute. karrbom, g.t., 2016. organizing to avoid project overload: the use and risks of narrowing strategies in multi-project practice. international journal of project management, 34(1), pp. 94-101. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.10.002 keegan a., den hertog d., 2004. transformational leadership in a project based environment. international journal of project management, 22(8), pp. 609–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2004.05.005 kloppenborg t. and opfer w., 2002. the current state of project management research: trends, interpretation, and predictions. project manage journal, 33(2), pp. 5-18. konstantinou, e., 2015. professionalism in project management: redefining the role of the project practitioner. project management journal, 46(2), pp. 21-35. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21481 koolhaas, j.m., bartolomucci, a., buwalda, b., de boer, s.f., flügge, g., korte, s.m., meerlo, p., murison, r., olivier, b. palanza, p., richter-levin, g. sgoifo, a. steimer, t. stiedl, o. van dijk, g., wöhr, m. and fuchs, e., 2011. stress revisited: a critical evaluation of the stress concept. neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, 35(5), pp. 1291-1301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. neubiorev.2011.02.003 leung, m., chan, y.s. and dongyu, c., 2011. structural linear relationships between job stress, burnout, physiological stress, and performance of construction project managers. engineering, construction and architectural management, 18(3), pp. 312-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111126205 livesey, p.v., 2015. goleman-boyatzis model of emotional intelligence for dealing with problems in project management, construction economics and building, 17(1), pp. 20-45. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v17i1.5101 luo, l., he, q., xie, j., yang, d. and wu, g., 2017. investigating the relationship between project complexity and success in complex construction projects. journal of management in engineering, 33(2), in-print. miles, m.b., huberman, a.m. and saldana, 2014. qualitative data analysis: a methods sourcebook 3rd ed. thousand oaks: sage publication, inc. jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201765 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(02)00098-4 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619042000201330 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619042000201330 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i3.4154 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.10.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.10.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.05.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.05.005 https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21481 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.02.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2011.02.003 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111126205 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5101 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5101 mir, f.a. and pinnington, a.h., 2014. exploring the value of project management: linking project management performance and project success. international journal of project management, 32(2), pp. 202-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.05.012 müller, r and turner, jr. 2007, ‘matching the project manager’s leadership style to project type’, international journal of project management, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 21-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2006.04.003 müller, r. and turner, r., 2010, leadership competency profiles of successful project managers. international journal of project management, 28(5), pp. 437-448. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2009.09.003 mumford, s.j., zaccaro, j.f., johnson, m., diana, j.a., gilbert, k.v. and threlfall, a., 2000. patterns of leader characteristics: implications for performance and development. leadership quarterly, 11(1), pp. 115-33. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(99)00045-4 ng, s.t., skitmore, r.m. and leung, t.k., 2005. manageability of stress among construction project participants. engineering, construction and architectural management, 12(3), pp. 264-282. https://doi. org/10.1108/09699980510600125 okuntade, t.f., 2015. stress management in the construction industry-coping strategies for project managers. international journal of business, economics and management works, 2(11), pp. 68-74. qazi, a., quigley, j., dickson, a. and kirytopoulos, k., 2016. project complexity and risk management (procrim): towards modelling project complexity driven risk paths in construction projects. international journal of project management, 34(7), pp. 1183-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.05.008 quinlan, c., 2011. business research methods. andover: south-western cengage learning. remington, k. and pollack, j., 2007. tools for complex projects. aldershott, uk: gower publishing company. rezvani, a., chang, a., wiewiora, a., ashkanasy, n.m., jordan, p.j. and zolin, r., 2016. manager emotional intelligence and project success: the mediating role of job satisfaction and trust. international journal of project management, 34(7), pp. 1112-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.05.012 selye, h., 2013. stress in health and disease. butterworth-heinemann. senaratne, s. and rasagopalasingam, v., 2017. the causes and effects of work stress in construction project managers: the case in sri lanka. international journal of construction management, 17(1), pp. 6575. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1167358 sunding, l. and ekholm, a., 2014. problems and problem attention in the construction sector – understanding the influence of human factors. australasian journal of construction economics and building, 14(2), pp. 1-17. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i2.3925 thomas, j. and thomas m., 2008. preparing project managers to deal with complexity–advanced project management education. international journal of project management, 26(3), pp. 304-15. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.01.001 turner, r., 2007. impact of emotional intelligence in project management as a measure of performance. dissertation, rmit university, australia. turner, r., huemann, m. and keegan, a., 2008. human resource management in the project-oriented organization: employee well-being and ethical treatment. international journal of project management, 26(5), pp. 577-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.05.005 jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201766 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.05.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.04.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.04.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.09.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.09.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1048-9843(99)00045-4 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980510600125 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980510600125 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.05.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.05.012 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1167358 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i2.3925 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.01.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.01.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.05.005 wang, c.m., xu, b.b., zhang, s.j. and chen, y.q., 2016. influence of personality and risk propensity on risk perception of chinese construction project managers. international journal of project management, 34(7), pp. 1294-1304. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.07.004 williams, t., 1999. the need for new paradigms for complex projects. international journal of project management, 17(5), pp. 269-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(98)00047-7 zika-viktorsson, a., sundström, p. and engwall, m., 2006. project overload: an exploratory study of work and management in multi-project settings. international journal of project management, 24(5), pp. 385-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.02.010 zwerman, william l., janice thomas, and susan marie haydt. “professionalization of project management: exploring the past to map the future.” project management institute, 2004. jepson, kirytopoulos & london construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201767 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.07.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(98)00047-7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.02.010 _hlk482084253 _hlk482084270 _hlk488312846 _hlk488315154 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: fuentes-del-burgo, j., fernández, j. p. r., navarro-astor, e. 2024. kanban applied to construction: a literature review. construction economics and building, 24:4/5, 43–57. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v24i4/5.8642 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article kanban applied to construction: a literature review joaquín fuentesdelburgo1,*, juan pedro ruiz fernández2, elena navarroastor2 1 universidad de castilla-la mancha, cuenca, spain, joaquin.fuentes@uclm.es 2 universidad de castilla-la mancha, cuenca, spain, juanpedro.ruiz@uclm.es 3 universitat politècnica de valència, valencia, spain, enavarro@omp.upv.es corresponding author: joaquín fuentes del burgo. escuela politécnica de cuenca. campus universitario. 16071 cuenca (spain), joaquin.fuentes@uclm.es doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8642 article history: received 22/05/2023; revised 29/09/2023; accepted 28/04/2024; published 23/12/2024 abstract kanban is a process management system originally developed in the automotive industry that is migrating to other fields such as construction. this article provides a literature review of 53 international scientific contributions that focus on the application of kanban in the construction sector. the content has been qualitatively analysed using atlas.ti 8.1 software and interpretative synthesis applied to summarise relevant findings. kanban has been used for supply chain management, just in time (jit) implementation in construction, and the last planner® system (lps) for work management and coordination. in addition, we have detected a progressive evolution to ekanban systems and their application in building information management (bim) environments, as well as the development of new software applications and methods. kanban’s flexibility and its value in terms of improving the performance of construction sites is highlighted. future research is suggested to explore the implementation of this system in the european and spanish construction sector. keywords bim; construction industry; ekanban; kanban; last planner system declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 43 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8642 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8642 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:joaquin.fuentes@uclm.es mailto:juanpedro.ruiz@uclm.es mailto:enavarro@omp.upv.es mailto:joaquin.fuentes@uclm.es https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8642 introduction the productivity of the construction industry is lower than that of other industries (pheng, shang and peter, 2016; campoymuñoz and delgado, 2020). its characteristics include its labourintensive nature (ko, wang and kuo, 2011), its fragmentation (pheng, shang and peter, 2016), and a traditional business organisation and management approach (heravi and rashid, 2018), which, according to si, et al. (2021), presents a number of shortcomings. in addition, onsite production, the unique nature of projects with designs that involve assemblies of varying specifications, and the complexity, derived from multiorganisational timing, unique dynamics and a high degree of regulation, differentiate the construction sector from manufacturing industry (paez, et al., 2005; salem, et al., 2006). if these characteristics are combined with inclement weather, a lack of equipment, a shortage of labour and a low level of productivity, errors, reworking, a lack of quality, safety risks, a lack of understanding of the project and processes involved, and delays in supplier deliveries, the result is that these projects are subject to a great deal of uncertainty (salem, et al., 2006; guo, et al., 2013; tezel and aziz, 2017; si, et al., 2021; xing, et al., 2021). the effects include cost overruns, significant wastage of time and materials, and the inability to meet schedule milestones (guo, et al., 2013; mahfuth, et al., 2020; schimanski, et al., 2021). any construction project is usually undertaken by a number of contractors working for a general contractor (straçusser, 2015), as well as in a dynamic and usually crowded environment, in a sequence based on the preplanning of actions (sacks, radosavljevic and barak, 2010; safa, et al., 2022). it also requires a wide spectrum of workers, including carpenters, masons, plumbers, and so on, and a growing diversity of experts, such as architects, building engineers, structural engineers, and mechanical engineers (demir, et al., 2012). in this context, effectively managing production by coordinating and directing the work of a large number of professionals and work teams is a complex task (sacks, radosavljevic and barak, 2010; demir, et al., 2012). today, construction companies are facing increased competition and clients are demanding lower costs, higher quality, reduced execution times, and a more reliable schedule (boateng, 2019). these demands are forcing them to rethink their production methods and systems to increase value for their customers, boost their productivity and consider their sales strategies (perroni de burgos and bastos costa, 2012; ekanayake and sandanayake, 2017). the construction industry is, therefore, attempting to improve its performance by applying practices from the manufacturing industry (goh and goh, 2019), such as the lean philosophy. there is a trend towards integrating this into construction projects by developing methods and applications to improve performance related parameters such as time, profit, productivity and workflow (heravi and rashid, 2018; tezel, et al., 2020; francis and thomas, 2020). the idea of lean construction (lc) was introduced in the 1990s by l. koskela, as a change to the conventional approach to the industry, and it received a great deal of attention from companies in the sector (xing, et al., 2021; francis and thomas, 2020). it is a construction management style that minimises waste, time and effort, by reducing variability; improving quality, reliability and productivity; increasing the workflow and overall efficiency in terms of project delivery; and eventually leading to reduced costs and improved profits (guo, et al., 2013; xing, et al., 2021; francis and thomas, 2020). in their literature review, babalola ibem and ezema (2019) identified 32 lean practices applied to construction projects, classified into four categories: design and engineering; planning and control; construction and construction management; and health and safety management. the most commonly used was the last planner® system (lps) developed by ballard and howell, together with the just in time ( jit) method and the kanban system (pellicer, et al., 2015; xing, et al., 2021). fuentes-del-burgo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202444 this paper presents a literature review of how the kanban system has been applied in the construction sector. the method, results and conclusions are presented below. method literature reviews facilitate the investigation of different approaches to the topic under study (lage and godinho, 2010), identifying inputs and contributing new evidence (tranfield, denyer and smart, 2003), to provide an updated view of existing knowledge (garcés, 2020). they also allow the integration of findings and perspectives from different empirical works (snyder, 2019), facilitating a synthesis that helps to construct new conceptual models (snyder, 2019), as well as enabling other researchers to consult the cited bibliographic sources (gómezluna, et al., 2014). the article presents an overview of the literature on how kanban and related techniques have been applied in the construction sector, collating the information in a structured way to add value by describing the application of this lean technique (van wee and banister, 2016). the research protocol is a synthesis of several suggested standards and guidelines for literature reviews (snyder, 2019), comprising the following steps (nightingale, 2009; vieira de carvalho, denis granja and gomes da silva, 2017; snyder, 2019; caldera, ryley and zatyko, 2020; garcés, 2020): 1. define the objective of the review and the research questions; 2. select the databases; 3. define keywords and search criteria; 4. establish practical inclusion and exclusion criteria; 5. conduct the search for articles; 6. review those selected; 7. apply the snowball sampling technique; 8. analyse; and 9. report the results. the objective is to learn how the kanban system, developed in the automotive industry, has been applied in the construction sector. to achieve this, the following research questions were posed, identified by the letters rq, followed by a number (torrescarrión, et al., 2018): • rq1: what are the characteristics of the kanban system? • rq2: how has the kanban system been applied in the construction sector? the databases web of science, scopus, sciencedirect and asce library were selected (rother, 2007; van wee and banister, 2016; vieira de carvalho, denis granja and gomes da silva, 2017; caldera, ryley and zatyko, 2020), complemented by the google scholar metasearch engine (van wee and banister, 2016). the search was carried out using keywords and search equations formed by keywords together with logical operators, established according to the subject (gómezluna, et al., 2014; tranfield, denyer and smart, 2003). the terms used were the following: “kanban” and “construction,” “kanban” and “construction management;” “kanban” and “project management” and ““kanban” and “bim.” inclusion and exclusion criteria were applied based on the content of the title, abstract and keywords (hepplestone, et al., 2011; caldera, ryley and zatyko, 2020). we included papers from blindreviewed conferences because these allow us to know the stateoftheart (rivas tovar, 2011; sánchez ruiz, blanco fuentes-del-burgo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202445 rojo and pérezlabajos, 2013). the exclusion criteria were: (1) the article was outside the scope of the construction industry; (2) it was not written in english or spanish; or (3) it did not address the kanban system and the construction field together (vieira et al., 2017). a total number of 63 documents met the inclusion criteria; however, after analysis, only 42 presented content related to the research objective. in the analysis phase, the full articles were read and independent judgements were made with the most useful papers for the topic being selected (gómezluna, et al., 2014; wnuk and garrepalli, 2018). in addition, the snowball sampling technique was applied to obtain new references and complement the sample (hepplestone, et al., 2011; vieira de carvalho, denis granja and gomes da silva, 2017; garcés, 2020) with papers directly related to the aspects most relevant to the research objective (gómezluna, et al. ,2014). according to wohlin (2014), this technique refers to the use of an article’s reference list or citations to identify additional articles to include in the literature review. it can be applied in two ways: forward snowballing involves finding citations for an article (van wee and banister, 2016); while backward snowballing involves using the article’s reference list to identify new papers to include (wohlin, 2014; wnuk and garrepalli, 2018). in this study we used backward snowballing, selecting articles that met the inclusion criteria (wohlin, 2014). hence, 11 more references were added in the analysis phase. the articles were analysed qualitatively using the atlas.ti 8.1 software, by open coding the content describing the characteristics and practices related to the kanban system (lappi, et al., 2018). an interpretive synthesis was applied during the reading of the articles, and narrative was used to summarise the methods and key findings (greenhalgh, et al., 2009). results and discussion the kanban system kanban is a subsystem of the toyota production system in the automotive industry ( jang and kim, 2007; lage and godinho, 2010). “kanban” is a japanese term meaning “visual card” or “sign” ( jang and kim, 2007; kanai, et al., 2021) and it acts as a work order that must be present for a particular task to start ( jang and kim, 2007). it is used to provide information that regulates production, so that each process on a production line extracts only the quantity and type of components it requires, producing what is needed, when it is needed (boateng, 2019; tapase, 2019). to help the reader, “kanban” written here with a capital letter refers to the system and “kanban”, with a lower case letter, refers to the cards. kanban management is a tool for transmitting information and/or recording information. it can involve a board or a card, which has the basic function of recording production information, passing on work instructions and avoiding waste (bi and jia, 2016). the original kanban system was a jit control system, but it does not have to be applied only to jit production (zeng, et al., 2019); for example, it also allows information to be passed between members of a project team ( jang and kim, 2007). the system involves the use of an inventory control card or a sign for inventory at the project site. this ensures an effective inventory and proper record keeping in the construction project (babalola, ibem and ezema, 2019). in a lean manufacturing environment, kanban is a visual control system that acts as a material flow mechanism (khalfan, et al., 2008; lage and godinho, 2010). the kanban strategy has five main tasks: order placement, product ordering, product procurement, shipping and replenishment (kanai, et al., 2021). fuentes-del-burgo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202446 the kanban system is designed to be a scheduling system that controls the flow of production in real time, establishing what to produce, when to produce it and how much to produce (pheng, shang and peter, 2016; zeng, et al., 2019). its application allows inventory levels to be controlled and reduced; the production and supply of components and, in some cases, raw materials to be controlled; overproduction to be eliminated; flexibility to be increased; continuous flow to be created; and costs to be reduced by eliminating waste (khalfan, et al., 2008; lage and godinho, 2010; ko, wang and kuo, 2011). the system is highly adaptable, as demonstrated by its application to the industrial sector (el abbadi, et al., 2018), software engineering (ahmad, et al., 2018) and the construction industry (arbulu, ballard and harper, 2003). in industries associated with the construction sector, ahmad, et al. (2018) looked at how implementing a jit and kanban system could improve performance in the production of industrialised pre cast concrete building system components, and lu, olofsson and stehn (2011) studied the development of a production system for prefabricated wooden houses. as mentioned, the kanban system is linked to the lean concept of jit (salem, et al., 2006), which considers that inventories do not add value and should be treated as waste (paez, et al., 2005). the method for achieving jit production is based on a pull system, in other words, a system that always adjusts production to demand (si, et al., 2021). the jit production organisation system allows for the rapid delivery of materials, information, or any element required by a project to the point of use (babalola, ibem and ezema, 2019). jit is used in the lc with positive results (guo, et al., 2013; goh and goh, 2019). by using a kanban system, the production process is transformed into a pull system. kanban also allows the transmission of information, material usage instructions and production instructions, helping to control the flow of information and material (guo, et al., 2013). one of the goals of jit is to ensure production levelling so that a fluctuation in demand can be met by the correct sequence of products with minimum batch sizes (salem, et al., 2006). determining the appropriate kanban size and storage level therefore requires substantial planning, as specifying incorrect values could result in the over or underdelivery of materials (goh and goh, 2019). three categories of cards, or kanban, are used in the toyota production system (tps) (ko and kuo, 2018): • production: used between the finished goods warehouse and the production line to initiate production in the system. • material withdrawal: used by the workers to retrieve the parts they need from the warehouse. the item and the corresponding number of pieces to be withdrawn are recorded. • signal and management: here the kanban is a static board placed in the production area on which two types of cards are placed: one with information for the workers or project participants, and the other showing management data. according to qiaolan and bin (2021), a kanban system applied to construction cannot completely replicate the classification configuration and operation mechanism of the kanban used in industrial production management. it must combine with construction management features to develop a system that considers the architectural characteristics (qiaolan and bin, 2021). other types of cards were found in the review, with functions similar to the categories established in the tps, depending on how the kanban system is implemented. for example, arbulu, ballard and harper (2003) use a supply kanban, which transmits a material replenishment signal to external suppliers. it can also be used to communicate information on safety aspects of construction work (tezel and aziz, 2017). fuentes-del-burgo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202447 tapler (2014) includes the kanban cards that are prepared and delivered to site managers, including during the project plan creation phase, when the detailed scheduling of operations takes place. he also proposes using a kanban card as a tool to record completed work (tapler, 2014). at a conceptual level, the kanban signal itself does not necessarily signify a card; it could be a flag or other object that has an agreed meaning (tapler, 2014). jang and kim (2007) propose using kanban as a work order to manage the production process and as a tool to control the construction process, where work should not start without the appropriate kanban. these cards have three functions ( jang and kim, 2007): • the ordering kanban. sent by a controller from the office to the engineer responsible for the onsite work, including: type of work, work identification number, person responsible, quantity, location, start and completion dates, resources required, unresolved constraints, prerequisites and followup work, special requests for the work, and safety information. • the receipt kanban (linked to the ordering kanban). sent by the onsite engineer to the work controller in the office, it includes the same information as above, plus a box to verify the work completed, plus another for the actual date of completion and the reasons why the work was not completed on time. it is used to calculate performance measurements for production processes and progress payments. • the auxiliary kanban is used to include additional work and delays. it is issued based on the weekly work plan, but is sometimes issued for additional work commissioned by the owner. these are necessary as no work can be started without the appropriate kanban. perroni de burgos and bastos costa (2012) use two types of kanban or cards in the construction phase of buildings. one for the production and transport of the materials produced on site, such as cement mortar, and one for the transport of materials not produced on site, such as bricks and ceramic tiles (perroni de burgos and bastos costa, 2012). the kanban card must contain the necessary data on quantity, time and place of delivery, providing the necessary information on the product or material to produce and/or transport, thus avoiding overproduction (perroni de burgos and bastos costa, 2012). other ways of adapting and using the kanban system have also been described ( jang and kim, 2007; moreira barreto and heineck, 2012; valente, brandalise and formoso, 2019). for example, applying it to manage the flow of materials on construction sites (tapler, 2014; moreira barreto and heineck, 2012), or to implement a continuous flow in formwork construction, reducing the mould inventory (ko and kuo, 2018). several papers describe its use as a visual management system for handling information on a construction site (tezel, et al., 2015; valente, brandalise and formoso, 2019). arbulu, ballard and harper (2003) outline the following strategy: (1) the materials must be transported through the supply network as needed to the work site; (2) the materials, in adequate quantities, must arrive on time at the right place; (3) the supply network delivers the best value to the customer; (4) the necessary measures are taken to minimise vehicle movements on the site; and (5) all necessary measures are implemented to increase the reliability of the onsite work flow (arbulu, ballard and harper, 2003). when implementing a kanban system in the construction supply chain, it is recommended that the periodic kanban batch size is determined based on the shortterm demand forecast (zeng, et al., 2019). this batch size is determined by the flow of extracted material (zeng, et al., 2019), and affected by supplier capacity and the availability of suitable vehicles to transport the material to the construction site (paez, et al., 2005). fuentes-del-burgo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202448 in addition, to implement a kanban approach, there must be adequate storage space on the construction site (zeng, et al., 2019). once the initial batches of material arrive on site, their consumption can be recorded in real time, and discrete demand can be reported using kanban cards (zeng, et al., 2019). the kanban system and last planner® system (lps) some studies have indicated that the kanban system is related to lps (paez, et al., 2005; rybkowski, 2010; modrich and cousins, 2017; schimanski, et al., 2019; xing, et al., 2021). lps delivers a planning, monitoring and control system that follows lean principles, such as pull planning (similar to kanban), just intime delivery, and value stream mapping (vsm) (sivaganesh and ratnayake, 2018). in their case study, xing, et al. (2021), report that lps was used for planning and scheduling, while kanban was used as a visual tool to display detailed weekly and daily schedules (figure 1). through the information provided by kanban, task specifications and sequences are clearly visible to the workers and/or the ultimate planners (schimanski, et al., 2019). the objective of using both techniques is to reduce variation and improve project workflow (xing, et al., 2021). in figure 1, from the takt time planning, using a kanban board, the 4week forecast, the weekly plan and the daily meetings are interconnected (xing, et al., 2021). some authors propose a 6week forecasting interval ( jang and kim, 2007). advance and weekly work plans inform subcontractors about the activities to be completed, therefore functioning like kanban cards in manufacturing (paez, et al., 2005). the weekly meeting allows the progress made in the preceding week to be analysed and the plan for the following week to be presented, classifying each activity according to different disciplines, such as civil engineering, mechanics, electricity, plumbing, and so on. in this way, the lps principle is applied: the construction plans should be established by the construction staff as the ultimate planners, thereby ensuring their involvement in the generation of the project schedule (xing, et al., 2021). the standup meeting, or stum, is a fundamental element in the operation of the lps and kanban systems, as it strengthens the communication between managers and construction personnel at the operational level (xing, et al., 2021). it should take place in a large room located in a site hut or office, with sufficient space to accommodate the participants, the socalled “big room” or obeya in japanese (erazo rondinel, vilacomun and diaz, 2020). the kanban board should be placed on one or more of its walls to facilitate viewing and collaborative planning (pellicer, et al., 2015; pons achell and rubio pérez, 2019; erazorondinel, vilacomun and diaz, 2020). the members of the lean construction management group should meet at the end of each day to review the status of the day’s activities and discuss any issues identified on site. problems to be solved within the week are recorded by means of sticky notes attached to the kanban moving time chart. different coloured postit notes can be associated with the various disciplines (xing, et al., 2021). ekanban industry 4.0 is based, among other things, on cybernetic systems, sensor systems, and the internet of things (iot), resulting in an evolution toward electronic production systems (boca and isitan, 2021). the effect on the traditional kanban card system has been its evolution towards electronic kanban production systems (ekanban) taking advantage of the new technologies provided by the industrial revolutions (boca and isitan, 2021). hence, ekanban is a variation of kanban cards with only one modification, the physical signal is replaced by electronic ones (lage and godinho, 2010; gayakwad and attarde, 2022). the production system that controls the flow of material between workstations uses an electronic signal (boca and isitan, 2021). fuentes-del-burgo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202449 http://modrich and cousins, 2017 ekanban can also store the kanban card information and use the user interface to display its information. it does not change the theory of traditional kanban, but does improve its accuracy and implementation speed (guo, et al., 2013). there are various types of ekanban systems. one of these is applied in the design phase for project coordination (modrich and cousins, 2017). the tool displays each designer’s tasks in several horizontal columns or rows. the kanban board is digital, such as those provided by a number of different software or online programmes, like trello, leankit, kanbanflow and jira (modrich and cousins, 2017). digital kanban boards have the benefit of attaching information, knowledge or decisions to the kanban, which can be archived and accessed later, without losing the knowledge gained during the design (modrich and cousins, 2017). a digital kanban board provides the project manager with a variety of metrics to help interpret and manage the flow of team activities (modrich and cousins, 2017). ekanban approaches applied to supply chain management can comprise electronic signals obtained through barcode scanning, or the use of rfid systems, which allow realtime information to be sent to the supplier (son, et al., 2010; goh and goh, 2019; gayakwad and attarde, 2022). to implement this system, figure 1. components of lps and kanban system, and the relationships between them (source: xing, et al., 2021. own elaboration) fuentes-del-burgo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202450 an agreement must be reached with the manufacturer or supplier, who will send the material or equipment to the construction site based on the actual onsite consumption (barkmeyer and kulvatunyou, 2007). ekanban can also be implemented through mobile apps, using smartphones and apps that allow kanban operations to be implemented at construction sites, although these typically lack the necessary information technology (it) system infrastructure needed to manage an online inventory (tapler, 2014). guo, et al. (2013) propose using several types of ekanban. the transmission system sends information between different locations, for example, the material requisitioner sends order information to the material supplier; the production system transfers information between different related workplaces; the temporary one transmits information between different locations or workplaces in case of emergency. the feedback kanban facilitates the feedback of information between the above ekanban systems, considering the circumstances prevailing on the construction site (guo, et al., 2013). ekanban is often compared to physical cards (guo, et al., 2013; tapler, 2014), but has advantages such as: increasing the transparency and visibility of the system (goh and goh, 2019; boca and isitan, 2021); improving the traceability of movements in the system and facilitating realtime information gathering and feedback (guo, et al., 2013; boca and isitan, 2021); managing a larger number of materials (boca and isitan, 2021); helping to improve dealings with suppliers and evaluating supplier performance (lage and godinho, 2010); eliminating the problem of distance between production operations (lage and godinho, 2010); reducing the waiting time in the replenishment process (tapler, 2014); improving production efficiency and quality (guo, et al., 2013); facilitating the use of computers or the cloud to increase the amount of information stored in the database (guo, et al., 2013; tapler, 2014); minimising errors in terms of information sent and avoiding card losses (tapler, 2014); and reducing the amount of company paperwork (lage and godinho, 2010). the disadvantages of implementing ekanban include the need for an it infrastructure, as well as the impossibility of physically viewing the board with the cards (tapler, 2014). kanban and bim the digitalisation of industrial production through the industry 4.0 concept may be the key to increasing productivity in construction. building information modelling (bim), as a means of digitally representing the physical and functional characteristics of buildings and the data provided in this way, represents the initial transposition of industry 4.0 into the construction field (schimanski, et al., 2019). bim has become an essential approach for making project processes more fluid, transparent and integrated (schimanski, et al., 2019). lc and bim can both be regarded as concepts and tools designed to reduce waste, improving building efficiency and increasing their value (bi and jia, 2016). considering the environment in which construction takes place, with multiple subcontractors involved, bimbased user interfaces are ideal tools for providing process transparency (sacks, treckmann and rozenfeld, 2009). furthermore, visualisation is a fundamental element in lean and bim (bi and jia, 2016) and, in turn, visual management with kanban systems improves communication between stakeholders (guerriero, et al., 2017). an immediate application of a kanban system can be found in the development of a bim model for a project. the bim workflow is based on each modeller’s input in their respective discipline (architecture, structure, mep engineering) (lucena, villena and reyes, 2020). this system is similar to software development, where the work of each developer can be summarised on a visual card, the workflow being regulated by means of a kanban board (anderson, 2010). lucena, villena and reyes (2020) found kanban to be useful for controlling and managing mep information for its incorporation into bim. the implementation of kanban in bim systems has given rise to various procedures and software. zeng, et al. (2019) proposed a method for designing and implementing kanban batches in the supply chain using fuentes-del-burgo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202451 bim systems or tools. sacks, radosavljevic and barak (2010) specified the requirements for implementing an lpsbased bimenabled extraction flow construction management software system named “kanbim”. they also proposed a number of requirements for bimbased leanrelated production management systems such as the following: visualisation of processes, products and methods; calculation and visualisation of work packages and task maturity; support for planning, negotiation, commitment and status feedback; establishment of pull systems; workflow stabilisation; and possibility of continuous improvement. according to guerriero, et al. (2017), kanbim is an example of a 3d bim model linked to kanban. these authors also proposed the lps stages for 4d bim programming and developed the smart construction planner tool that supports collaborative planning according to lps (guerriero, et al., 2017). sticky notes are digitised so that the last planners can use them on multitouch devices for process planning. in addition, a mobile app is available for managing constraints as well as production planning and control tasks (schimanski, et al., 2021). the visilean® software package is a computerised translation of the kanbim™ tool and is adapted to production, site and project management to control scheduling using lean construction and interaction with bim. the model incorporates the task schedule from the first actions at the construction site to the commissioning and handover of the building, as well as the 3d model for visualisation (kanai, et al., 2021). schimanski, et al. (2021) proposed a bimbased production management system, characterised by a theoretical integration model for bim and existing construction management techniques, as well as a method for applying these concepts in practice. this production management system, known as beam!, is a fusion of lean and bim (schimanski, et al., 2021). it includes the socalled digital process kanban (dpk), in which kanban cards are created by the last planners using the beam!app installed on their smartphones and transmitted to the digital beam!board to be used to plan the cooperative phase (schimanski, et al., 2021). conclusions this review shows how the kanban system has been successfully migrated from the automotive industry to the construction sector. kanban’s versatility allows it to be applied to the management and control of the entire construction process, both in the project development phase and in the material supply and execution phases. kanban is perfectly integrated into lps, resulting in a useful tool for scheduling and coordinating the agents and companies involved in the implementation of the work units involved in the construction project. it can also be used as an independent lps tool to manage the construction process. the development of ekanban opens up a new field of application in construction. combined with the internet of things it will facilitate an evolution towards concepts and techniques related to industry 4.0. the progressive implementation of bim in the construction sector may encourage the perception of kanban systems as useful tools. proof of this is their effectiveness in terms of coordinating the team members involved in the development of bim models. although software applications have been developed to implement kanban systems using bim, more research is needed to develop a recognised procedure that covers all expected kanban needs. based on the results of this study, the following research questions are proposed: to what extent is kanban being used in spanish and european construction companies? what characteristics do these have, how are they using it, and what obstacles and facilitators have they encountered? fuentes-del-burgo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202452 references ahmad, m., dennehy, d., conboy, k. and oivo, m., 2018. kanban in software engineering: a systematic mapping study. journal of systems and software, [e-journal] 137, pp.96-113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2017.11.045 anderson, d.j., 2010. kanban: successful evolutionary change for your technology business. sequim, wa: blue hole press. arbulu, r., ballard, g. and harper, n., 2003. kanban in construction. in: 11th annual conference, international group for lean construction. virginia, usa. babalola, o., ibem, e.o.e. and ezema, i., 2019. implementation of lean practices in the construction industry: a systematic review. building and environment, [e-journal] 148, pp.34-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.10.051 barkmeyer, e. and kulvatunyou, b., 2007. an ontology for the e-kanban business process. gaithersburg, md: us department of commerce, national institute of standards and technology. https://doi.org/10.6028/nist.ir.7404 bi, x. and jia, x., 2016. research on the integration of lean construction and bim and a case study in shanghai tower project. in: qui, e., ed. proceedings of the 6th international asia conference on industrial engineering and management innovation. paris, pp.1027–36. https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-145-1_101 boateng, a., 2019. supply chain management and lean concept in construction: a case of ghanaian building construction industry. organization, technology and management in construction: an international journal, [e-journal] 11(1), pp.2034-43. https://doi.org/10.2478/otmcj-2019-0010 boca, g. and isitan, a., 2021. transfer from traditional kanban to kanban 4.0 in smart factory. review of management & economic engineering, 20(3), pp.210-27. caldera, s., ryley, t. and zatyko, n., 2020. enablers and barriers for creating a marketplace for construction and demolition waste: a systematic literature review. sustainability, [e-journal] 12(23), p.9931. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su12239931 campoy-muñoz, p. and delgado, m., 2020. estructura sectorial y productividad de la economía española. panorama económico, [e-journal] 15(30), pp.79-103. https://doi.org/10.29201/pe-ipn.v15i30.253 demir, s., bryde, d., fearon, d. and ochieng, e., 2012. re-conceptualizing lean in construction environments ‘the case for “agilean” project management.’ in: 48th asc annual international conference proceedings. associated schools of construction, pp.1-9. ekanayake, e. and sandanayake, y., 2017. live approach: lean integrated value engineering for construction industry. built environment project and asset management, [e-journal] 7(5), pp.518-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/ bepam-11-2016-0071 el abbadi, l., el manti, s., houti, m. and elrhanim, s., 2018. kanban system for industry 4.0 environment. international journal of engineering & technology, 7(4.16), pp.60-65. erazo-rondinel, a., vila-comun, a. and diaz, a., 2020. application of the last planner® system in a sports infrastructure project in peru. in: tommelein, i. and daniel, e., eds. 28th annual conference of the international group for lean construction (iglc28). berkeley, california, usa, pp.529-40. https://doi.org/10.24928/2020/0091 francis, a. and thomas, a., 2020. exploring the relationship between lean construction and environmental sustainability: a review of existing literature to decipher broader dimensions. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 252(2020), p.119913. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119913 garcés, g., 2020. atributos de liderazgo entre los gerentes de proyectos: una revisión desde el desempeño y la incertidumbre en los proyectos de remodelación de edificios. revista ingeniería de obras civiles, 10(1), pp.15-31. fuentes-del-burgo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202453 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jss.2017.11.045 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.10.051 https://doi.org/10.6028/nist.ir.7404 https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-145-1_101 https://doi.org/10.2478/otmcj-2019-0010 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12239931 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12239931 https://doi.org/10.29201/pe-ipn.v15i30.253 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-11-2016-0071 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-11-2016-0071 https://doi.org/10.24928/2020/0091 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119913 gayakwad, p. and attarde, p., 2022. lean construction. international journal of research in engineering, science and management, [e-journal] 5(5), pp.270-74. goh, m. and goh, y., 2019. lean production theory-based simulation of modular construction processes. automation in construction, [e-journal] 101, pp.227-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.12.017 gómez-luna, e., fernando-navas, d., aponte-mayor, g. and betancourt-buitrago, l., 2014. metodología para la revisión bibliográfica y la gestión de información de temas científicos, a través de su estructuración y sistematización. dyna, 81(184), pp.158-63. https://doi.org/10.15446/dyna.v81n184.37066 greenhalgh, t., potts, h., wong, g., bark, p. and swinglehurst, d., 2009. tensions and paradoxes in electronic patient record research: a systematic literature review using the meta‐narrative method. the milbank quarterly, 87(4), pp.729-88. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0009.2009.00578.x guerriero, a., kubicki, s., berroir, f. and lemaire, c., 2017. im-enhanced collaborative smart technologies for lean construction processes. in: 2017 international conference on engineering, technology and innovation (ice/itmc). ieee, pp.1023-30. https://doi.org/10.1109/ice.2017.8279994 guo, j., teng, j., li, s., wan, d. and jiang, x., 2013. study on electronic kanban management system in steel structure engineering of an international expo centre. advanced materials research, [e-journal] 621, pp.375-80. https://doi. org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.621.375 hepplestone, s., holden, g., irwin, b., parkin, h. and thorpe, l., 2011. using technology to encourage student engagement with feedback: a literature review. research in learning technology, [e-journal] 19(2), pp.117-27. https://doi. org/10.3402/rlt.v19i2.10347 heravi, g. and rashid, m., 2018. developing an approach to develop and validate a lean construction plan using performance evaluation of repetitive subprojects. journal of architectural engineering, [e-journal] 24(1), p.04017033. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000291 jang, j. and kim, y., 2007. using the kanban for construction production and safety control. in: proceedings of the 15th annual conference of the international group for lean construction (iglc). michigan, usa, pp.519-28. kanai, j., gomes, c., bertoli, s. and fontanini, p., 2021. visilean® application for monitoring and control of prefabricated concrete panels. gestão & produção, [e-journal] 28(3). https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9649-2021v28e5800 khalfan, m., mcdermott, p., oyegoke, a., dickinson, m., li, x. and neilson, d., 2008. application of kanban in the uk construction industry by public sector clients. in: 16th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. university of salford, uk. pp.347-59. ko, c. and kuo, j., 2018. lean formwork. in: gonzález, v., ed. 6th annual conference of the international. group for lean construction (iglc). chennai, india, pp.1283–90. https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0211 ko, c., wang, w. and kuo, j., 2011. improving formwork engineering using the toyota way. journal of engineering, project, and production management, 1(1), pp.13-27. https://doi.org/10.32738/jeppm.201107.0003 lage junior, m. and godinho filho, m., 2010. variations of the kanban system: literature review and classification. international journal of production economics, [e-journal] 125(1), pp.13-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2010.01.009 lappi, t., karvonen, t., lwakatare, l., aaltonen, k. and kuvaja, p., 2018. toward an improved understanding of agile project governance: a systematic literature review. project management journal, [e-journal] 49(6), pp.39-63. https://doi. org/10.1177/8756972818803482 lu, w., olofsson, t. and stehn, l., 2011. a lean‐agile model of homebuilders’ production systems. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 29(1), pp.25-35. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2010.531027 fuentes-del-burgo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202454 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.12.017 https://doi.org/10.15446/dyna.v81n184.37066 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0009.2009.00578.x https://doi.org/10.1109/ice.2017.8279994 https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.621.375 https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.621.375 https://doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v19i2.10347 https://doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v19i2.10347 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000291 https://doi.org/10.1590/1806-9649-2021v28e5800 https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0211 https://doi.org/10.32738/jeppm.201107.0003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2010.01.009 https://doi.org/10.1177/8756972818803482 https://doi.org/10.1177/8756972818803482 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2010.531027 lucena gonzález, c., villena manzanares, f. and reyes rodríguez, a., 2020. método para la gestión de la información en proyectos desarrollados en entornos bim. 24th international congress on project engineering. alcoy, españa: asociación española de ingeniería de proyectos (aeipro), pp.451-66. mahfuth, k., loulizi, a., tayeh, b., al hallaq, k. and aisheh, y., 2020. using safety system during the design phase to minimize waste in construction projects. journal of king saud university-engineering sciences, [e-journal] 34(3), pp.170-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2020.09.006 modrich, r. and cousins, b., 2017. digital kanban boards used in design and 3d coordination. in: 25th annual conference of the international group for lean construction (iglc). heraklion, greece, pp.9-12. https://doi. org/10.24928/2017/0345 moreira barreto, a. and heineck, l., 2012. learning, structural masonry technology and lean construction a case study in a small building site. in: 20th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. san diego, usa. nightingale, a., 2009. a guide to systematic literature reviews. surgery, 27(9), pp.381-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. mpsur.2009.07.005 paez, o., salem, s., solomon, j. and genaidy, a., 2005 . moving from lean manufacturing to lean construction: toward a common sociotechnological framework. human factors and ergonomics in manufacturing & service industries, 15(2), pp.233-45. https://doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20023 pellicer, e., cerveró, f., lozano, a. and ponz-tienda, j., 2015. the last planner system of construction planning and control as a teaching and learning tool. in: proceedings of 9th international technology, education and development conference (inted2015). madrid, spain, pp.4877-84. perroni de burgos, a. and bastos costa, d., 2012. assessment of kanban use on construction sites. in: 20th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. san diego, usa. pheng, l., shang, g. and peter, l., 2016. using lean principles to reduce wastes in the concreting supply chain. international journal of construction project management, 8(1), pp.3-23. pons achell, j. and rubio pérez, i., 2019. lean construction y la planificación colaborativa. metodología del last planner® system. madrid: consejo general de la arquitectura técnica de españa (cgate). qiaolan, j. and bin, z., 2021. civil engineering construction management based on bim technology. forest chemicals review, [e-journal] 31, pp.31-37. https://doi.org/10.17762/jfcr.vi.47 rivas tovar, l., 2011. las nueve competencias del investigador. investigación administrativa, [e-journal] 40(108), pp.3454. https://doi.org/10.35426/iav40n108.03 rother, e., 2007. revisión sistemática x revisión narrativa. acta paulista de enfermagem, [e-journal] 20, pp.v-vi. https:// doi.org/10.1590/s0103-21002007000200001 rybkowski, z., 2010. last planner & its role as conceptual kanban. in: 18th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. haifa, israel, pp.63-72. sacks, r., treckmann, m. and rozenfeld, o., 2009. visualization of work flow to support lean construction. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 135(12), pp.1307-15. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0000102 sacks, r., radosavljevic, m. and barak, r., 2010. requirements for building information modeling based lean production management systems for construction. automation in construction, [e-journal] 19(5), pp.641-55. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.02.010 fuentes-del-burgo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202455 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2020.09.006 https://doi.org/10.24928/2017/0345 https://doi.org/10.24928/2017/0345 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mpsur.2009.07.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mpsur.2009.07.005 https://doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20023 https://doi.org/10.17762/jfcr.vi.47 https://doi.org/10.35426/iav40n108.03 https://doi.org/10.1590/s0103-21002007000200001 https://doi.org/10.1590/s0103-21002007000200001 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000102 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000102 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.02.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.02.010 safa, m., weeks, k., elhoubi, a., sharma, n. and macgillivray, s., 2022. construction strategic project readiness assessment. journal of engineering, project, and production management, 12(1), pp.13. salem, o., solomon, j., genaidy, a. and minkarah, i., 2006. lean construction: from theory to implementation. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 22(4), pp.168-75. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742597x(2006)22:4(168) sánchez ruiz, l., blanco rojo, b. and pérez-labajos, c., 2013. lean management. un estudio bibliométrico. tiempo de gestión, (15), pp.9-28. schimanski, c.p., pasetti monizza, g., marcher, c. and matt, d.t., 2021. development of a bim-based production planning and control system for lean construction through advancement an integration of existing management techniques. frontiers of engineering management, [e-journal] 8(3), pp.429-41. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42524-0200105-5 schimanski, c., monizza, g., marcher, c. and matt, d., 2019. conceptual foundations for a new lean bim-based production system in construction. in: pasquire, c.h., ed. 7th annual conference of the international. group for lean construction (iglc). dublin, ireland, pp.877-88. https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0106 si, t., li, h., lei, z., liu, h. and han, s., 2021. a dynamic just-in-time component delivery framework for off-site construction. advances in civil engineering, [e-journal] 2021, p.9953732. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/9953732 sivaganesh, p. and ratnayake, r., 2018. application of last planner® system in product concept development phase: use of lean concepts in academic project work. in: 2018 ieee international conference on industrial engineering and engineering management (ieem). ieee, pp.351-55. https://doi.org/10.1109/ieem.2018.8607584 snyder, h., 2019. literature review as a research methodology: an overview and guidelines. journal of business research, [e-journal] 104, pp.333-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.039 son, h., kim, c., kim, h., han, s. and kim, m., 2010. trend analysis of research and development on automation and robotics technology in the construction industry. ksce journal of civil engineering, [e-journal] 14(2), pp.131-39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-010-0131-7 straçusser, g., 2015. agile project management concepts applied to construction and other non-it fields. orlando: pmi® global congress. tapase, a., 2019. book review: toyota katamanaging people for improvement and superior results. lean construction journal, (2019), pp.21-25. tapler, c., 2014. analysis of the application of different production and material flow mechanisms on construction sites. in: 2014 international conference on computational science and computational intelligence. ieee, pp.241-46. https://doi. org/10.1109/csci.2014.48 tezel, a., koskela, l., tzortzopoulos, p., formoso, c. and alves, t., 2015. visual management in brazilian construction companies: taxonomy and guidelines for implementation. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 31(6), p.05015001. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000354 tezel, a. and aziz, z., 2017. from conventional to it based visual management: a conceptual discussion for lean construction. journal of information technology in construction, 22, pp.220-46. tezel, a., taggart, m., koskela, l., tzortzopoulos, p., hanahoe, j. and kelly, m., 2020. lean construction and bim in small and medium-sized enterprises (smes) in construction: a systematic literature review. canadian journal of civil engineering, [e-journal] 47(2), pp.186-201. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjce-2018-0408 fuentes-del-burgo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202456 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2006)22:4(168 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2006)22:4(168 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42524-020-0105-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42524-020-0105-5 https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0106 https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/9953732 https://doi.org/10.1109/ieem.2018.8607584 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.07.039 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-010-0131-7 https://doi.org/10.1109/csci.2014.48 https://doi.org/10.1109/csci.2014.48 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000354 https://doi.org/10.1139/cjce-2018-0408 torres-carrión, p., gonzález-gonzález, c., aciar, s. and rodríguez-morales, g., 2018. methodology for systematic literature review applied to engineering and education. in: 2018 ieee global engineering education conference (educon). ieee, pp.1364-73. https://doi.org/10.1109/educon.2018.8363388 tranfield, d., denyer, d. and smart, p., 2003. towards a methodology for developing evidence‐informed management knowledge by means of systematic review. british journal of management, 14(3), pp.207-222. https://doi. org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375 valente, c., brandalise, f. and formoso, c., 2019. model for devising visual management systems on construction sites. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 145(2), p.04018138. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0001596 van wee, b. and banister, d., 2016. how to write a literature review paper? transport reviews, [e-journal] 36(2), pp.278-88. https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2015.1065456 vieira de carvalho, a., denis granja, a. and gomes da silva, v., 2017. a systematic literature review on integrative lean and sustainability synergies over a building’s lifecycle. sustainability, [e-journal] 9(7), p.1156. https://doi. org/10.3390/su9071156 wnuk, k. and garrepalli, t., 2018. knowledge management in software testing: a systematic snowball literature review. e-informatica software engineering journal, 12(1), pp.51-78. wohlin, c., 2014. guidelines for snowballing in systematic literature studies and a replication in software engineering. in: proceedings of the 18th international conference on evaluation and assessment in software engineering (ease ’14). london, uk, pp.1-10. https://doi.org/10.1145/2601248.2601268 xing, w., hao, j., qian, l., tam, v. and sikora, k., 2021. implementing lean construction techniques and management methods in chinese projects: a case study in suzhou, china. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 286, p.124944. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124944 zeng, n., ye, x., peng, x. and könig, m., 2019. applying kanban system in construction logistics for real-time material demand report and pulled replenishment. in: proceedings of the 36th international symposium on automation and robotics in construction (isarc 2019). iaarc publications, pp.1018-25. https://doi.org/10.22260/isarc2019/0136 fuentes-del-burgo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202457 https://doi.org/10.1109/educon.2018.8363388 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001596 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001596 https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2015.1065456 https://doi.org/10.3390/su9071156 https://doi.org/10.3390/su9071156 https://doi.org/10.1145/2601248.2601268 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124944 https://doi.org/10.22260/isarc2019/0136 © 2022 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: okoye, p. u., okolie, k. c., and odesola, i. a. 2022. risks of implementing sustainable construction practices in the nigerian building industry. construction economics and building, 22:1, 21–46. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v22i1.7420 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 22, no. 1 march 2022 research article risks of implementing sustainable construction practices in the nigerian building industry peter uchenna okoye1,*, kevin chuks okolie1, isaac abiodun odesola2 1 department of building, nnamdi azikiwe university, awka, nigeria 2 department of building, university of uyo, uyo, nigeria corresponding author: peter uchenna okoye, department of building, nnamdi azikiwe university, awka, nigeria, pu.okoye@unizik.edu.ng doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7420 article history: received: 11/09/2021; revised: 09/12/2021, 11/02/2022; accepted: 13/02/2022; published: 21/03/2022 abstract this study assessed the risks level associated with implementation of sustainable construction practices through a questionnaire survey distributed to 256 building professionals in nigeria. it identified 47 risk factors with different likelihood of occurrence and magnitude of impacts. a quantitative risk analysis result based on mean value method and risk prioritisation number showed that the three top-ranked risk factors with highest likelihood of occurrence were unavailability of sustainable materials and equipment, more complex and unfamiliar construction techniques and processes, and high initial sustainable construction costs; whereas the three top-ranked risk factors with highest magnitude of impacts were high initial sustainable construction costs, poor and inefficient communication among project participants, and high cost of sustainable materials and equipment. the criticality index result identified 23 critical risk factors which mostly related to knowledge and awareness, cost, regulatory framework, building materials and socioeconomic issues. however, the wilcoxon signed-rank test result indicated that there is significant difference (z = -3.207, p<0.001) between the likelihood of occurrence and magnitude of impacts of the risks factors associated with implementation of sustainable construction practices in nigeria of which the effect was moderate (r = 0.468). furthermore, the study revealed that there is no significance difference in the risk level of the risk factors associated with implementation of sustainable construction practices based on the respondents’ roles (p>0.05). the study, therefore, recommended for training declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 21 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7420 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7420 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:pu.okoye@unizik.edu.ng https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7420 of construction practitioners in the multi-risk management approaches and increasing awareness through education on sustainable construction concept for building industry stakeholders. it further recommended for developing of new sustainable and affordable building materials through research institutes like nigerian building and road research institute (nbrri) with appropriate regulatory and policy frameworks for successful sustainable building projects. keywords building industry; building professionals; implementation; risk; sustainable construction introduction construction practice is inherently risky. the construction industry is widely known as one of the riskiest industries in the world (mhetre, konnur and landage, 2016; mohamed, 2017), due to its complexity, magnitude and time-consuming characteristics (kang et al., 2015). the consequences of construction products and activities also come with huge environmental, social and economic burdens (taroun, 2014; xiahuo et al., 2018). in other words, the construction industry directly affects the society, environment and economy (agyekum-mensah, knight and coffey, 2012; xia et al., 2015; aghimien, aigbavboa and thwala, 2019), as a result, has the greatest impact on sustainability compared to any other industry (willar et al., 2021). for example, the construction industry is responsible for 50% of global energy usage, 50% of global solid waste generation, 50% of global co2 emitted into the atmosphere, 20-50% of global natural resources consumption, (thomas, costa and guimarães, 2013; reddy, 2016), and 40% of global extracted raw materials consumption (bribian, capilla and uson, 2011). construction activities increase the air and noise pollution, induce removal of vegetative cover, unsustainable water and energy consumption patterns, resource depletion, and sometimes altering or destroying the natural ecosystem (cotgrave and riley, 2013; kibert, 2016; reddy, 2016; pearce, ahn and hanmiglobal., 2017; wu et al., 2019a); in the course of meeting the population increase and rapid urbanisation demand (kibert, 2016). socio-economically, it consumes a huge amount of country’s annual budgets, usurps socioecological balance, and upsurges social cost and social risks (liu et al., 2016; danku et al., 2020). however, the evolution of sustainable development concept and its application into the construction industry has led to the concept of sustainable construction. sustainable construction is a novel approach adopted by the construction industry towards achieving sustainability (koko and bello, 2020). it represents the construction industry’s response to man’s concern over increasing consumption pattern in the mist of earth’s limited carrying capacity to sustain lives (dania, 2016). practically, sustainable construction deals with how the construction projects preserve the environment and affect the social and economic welfare of the people living around them (willar et al., 2021). a sustainable construction uses less water, optimises energy efficiency, conserves natural resources, generates less waste, provides healthier spaces for occupants as well as reduces the impact of construction activities on human health and environment during the construction project’s lifecycle (u.s. green building council (usgbc), 2010; kanika et al., 2016). contrarily, the conventional construction practices overlook the interrelationships between the construction facility, its components, surroundings, and users (atombo, dzantor and agbo, 2015). sustainable construction practices, therefore, are the optimal utilisation of sustainable materials and technologies in the design, construction and operation of construction projects for social and economic wellbeing of the people without injury to the environment, now and in the future. succinctly, sustainable construction practices are those activities, actions, processes, methods and policies adopted during construction processes so as to ensure a balance between environment, economy and society throughout the life cycle of a construction project both now and in the future. it entails following a suitable practice in choosing and sourcing materials, and construction methodologies, as well as design philosophy to improve okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202222 performance, decrease environmental burden of the project, minimise waste, and become ecologically friendlier; while taking into consideration environmental, economic and socio-cultural values (mohamed and el-meligy, 2013). unfortunately, the implementation of sustainable construction practices is not an easy task (willar et al., 2021), especially in the developing countries like nigeria where construction processes are structured within the traditional construction framework (kibert, 2016). sustainable construction projects require the use of advanced construction techniques (murtagh, scott and fan, 2020), complex design and materials (olawumi and chan, 2018), and greater communication network among construction project stakeholders (wuni and shen, 2020). just as with the traditional construction projects, sustainable construction projects face many risks (hwang et al., 2017; qazi, et al., 2021). construction risk is, therefore, multifaceted (wang, dulami and agar, 2004) and uncertain event or condition (hilson and simon, 2020). it is the likelihood of the occurrence of combination of events/factors or a definite event/factor, which occur during the whole process of construction to the detriment of the project (kasapoğlu, 2018). meanwhile, risk in the construction project may result to substantial cost and time overruns that are detrimental to the project objectives, and inherent in any construction project. adverse effect of risks in the construction project could lead to losses not only to the project owners, contractors or society, but also to the professionals who are engaged in the project (kasapoğlu, 2018). however, sustainability specific risks are unique because they are generally not reflected on the risk checklists and risk matrices, unlike traditional risks related to the short-term project performance measures (qazi, et al., 2021). furthermore, sustainability-related risks are associated with a wide range of probability and impact ratings due to the evolving and complex nature of these risks (guan, abbasi and ryan, 2020). the unpredictability of construction site conditions, multiple stakeholders’ involvement and volatile demand of construction projects make the sustainable construction process riskier (kasapoğlu, 2018). apine and valdés (2017) opine that risks in sustainable construction practices are growing with increasing utilisation of new materials and technology in the field. this has even grown to the extent that it is raising health and safety concerns (fortunate iii et al., 2012; onubi, yusof and hassan, 2020) and thereby, constituting an additional risk to the project. davies and davies (2017) reveal that risk is one of the barriers of implementing sustainable construction practices in the construction projects. it was also acknowledged that the implementation of sustainable construction practices is bedevilled with a lot of challenges and risks; especially to those who are new to sustainable construction operational system (apine and valdés, 2017; ismael and shealy, 2018). to this end, sustainable construction project requires a high level of collaboration between the construction stakeholders more than the traditional construction project due to increased number of uncertainty and risk (klotz and horman, 2010). since the construction managers are still learning and adapting to embrace sustainable practices (qazi, et al., 2021) and also sustainability-related risks in the construction projects are quite different from the traditional risks (mahdiyar et al., 2020), it is very germane to assess the risks of implementing sustainable construction practices. it is against this backdrop that this study was aimed at assessing the risks associated with the implementation of sustainable construction practices in nigeria with a view to increasing the construction managers’ understanding and successes of implementing the dynamics of sustainable construction principles. this would allow for appropriate risk response planning and control (el-sayegh et al., 2018), and minimises the probability of occurrence of unexpected events in executing sustainable building projects ( javed et al., 2020). based on the foregoing, two hypotheses were postulated to direct the path of this study. hypothesis 1: ho: there is no significant difference between the likelihood of risks occurrence and magnitude of risks impact of risks associated with the implementation of sustainable construction practices. okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202223 h1: there is significant difference between the likelihood of risks occurrence and magnitude of risks impact of risks associated with the implementation of sustainable construction practices. hypothesis 2: ho: there is no significance difference in the perceived risk level based on the respondents’ roles in the implementation of sustainable construction practices. h1: there is significance difference in the perceived risk level based on the respondents’ roles in the implementation of sustainable construction practices. the remainder of the paper is organised as follows: a brief overview of the relevant literature, the methodology applied in the study, the result of the study, the discussion and implications of the study, and the conclusions, recommendations and future research directions. literature review currently, there is an increasing awareness over the benefits of implementing sustainable construction principles in all facets of building project delivery process. there is also fear of inherent risks associated with sustainable construction projects and limiting effectiveness of efforts toward sustainable construction objectives (chan, darko and ameyaw, 2017). construction projects often fail due to unforeseen risks (górecki and díaz-madroñero, 2020). undoubtedly, different studies (rafindadi et al., 2014; ismael and shealy, 2018) have affirmed that sustainable construction projects are engrossed with enormous risks. hwang, shan and supa’at (2017) even revealed that adoption of sustainable construction presents additional risks to the building projects. study by ranaweera and crawford (2010) found that sustainable building projects incur a higher financial risk compared to the conventional building projects due to a higher investment resulting from the adoption of environmental strategies as requirements for sustainable buildings. hwang et al. (2017) also found that sustainable buildings projects are facing risks at a more critical level than the conventional building projects. however, from the 42 identified risks, hwang et al. (2017) revealed that complex procedures to obtain approvals, overlooked high initial cost, unclear requirements of owners, employment constraint, and lack of availability of green materials and equipment were top five critical risks in sustainable building construction projects. similarly, apine and valdés (2017) found higher operating expenses, unachievable project requirements, failure to meet green code or green certification requirements, construction schedule and cost impacts, damage to environmental and professional reputation, materials and equipment with reduced life cycles or immediate aesthetic or performance failure as risks associated with the sustainable buildings projects. el-sayegh et al. (2018) categorised 30 identified risks into five groups: management, technical, green team, green materials and regulatory/economic, and found the top five risks associated with sustainable construction projects to include: shortage of clients’ funding, insufficient or incorrect sustainable design information, design changes, unreasonable tight schedule for sustainable construction and poor scope definition in sustainable construction. from the list of 52 risk elements developed, ismael and shealy (2018) found that lack of public awareness was the risk that occurs most, whereas designers’ and contractors’ inexperience has the greatest negative impact on the implementation of sustainable construction in kuwaiti construction industry. however, the study found high cost of sustainable materials and equipment, contractors’ inexperience with sustainable construction, lack of practical experience, lack of public awareness and high initial sustainable construction costs as top five risks of sustainable construction. it recommended for educational interventions, changes in risk allocation, and behavioural science to reframe upfront costs and long-term saving as possible solutions. qin, mo and jing (2016) surveyed different risk factors (including political risks, social risks, quality/technological risks, certification risks, financial/cost risks and managerial risks) associated with green buildings and found 56 risk factors, among which 36 were perceived as key risk factors okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202224 affecting the success of sustainable buildings. likewise, zhao, hwang and gao (2016) identified 28 risk factors which they grouped into 11 groups. they found that inaccurate cost estimation was the top risk factor, while cost overrun risk was the most critical risk group. however, the study found that the overall risk criticality was high, signifying the importance of risk management in green construction projects. an indepth summary of risks associated with implementing sustainable construction practices from the forgoing literature and other sources is presented in table 1. these would form the basis for further analysis. in the developing countries, these risks are more pronounced than in the developed ones due to the low level of awareness and understanding of sustainable construction concept (abolore, 2012; afolayan and tunde, 2014). wang et al. (2016) argued that low level of awareness leads to limited knowledge and in turn irrational behaviour. consequently, construction practitioners are reluctant to change and tend to be risk averse (kibert, 2016; hammond et al., 2019). aghimien, aigbavboa and thwala (2019) and susanti, filestre and juliantina (2019) also revealed that fear of increased cost of investment, inadequate knowledge and understanding of the concept of sustainability, limited number of trained and/or certified workers and lack of communication between parties are some of the major challenges of implementing sustainable construction in the developing countries. therefore, sustainable construction creation depends on the awareness, understanding of the consequences of individual actions, quest for knowledge and absolute involvement and commitment to the principle (abidin, 2010; abolore, 2012). awareness then includes revealing the risks of implementing sustainable construction practices. according to kibert (2016), lack of knowledge and/or experience prevents practitioners from identifying all the risks related to sustainable construction practices. notwithstanding, risk management literature on sustainable construction practices is still insufficient to allow professionals and practitioners to understand and identify the risks involved in implementing sustainable construction practices (apine and valdés, 2017). the complexity and potency of sustainability-related risks indicated the importance of effective management of these risks so as to achieve the desired sustainability goals, allocate budgets, and target certification levels (gurgun, arditi and casals vilar, 2016). sequel to this, durmus-pedini and ashuri (2010) recommended for hiring professionals who are experienced in green buildings and engaging consultants to minimise the impacts of risks related to green construction. likewise, zou and couani (2012) recommended for the utilisation of expertise of green building professionals in managing green construction risks. however, implementation of new or untested green technologies and products can be challenging, particularly if, the professionals using them have limited knowledge (gurgun, arditi and casals vilar, 2016). juxtaposing the level of awareness and understanding of sustainable construction concept vis-à-vis the structure of the building construction industry and current construction practices in nigeria, it could be argued that construction practitioners are not yet very conversant with the risks related to implementation of sustainable construction practices. this therefore, has resulted to the low level of implementation of sustainable construction principles in the nigerian construction industry (chukwu, 2018; otali and oladokun, 2018). although hwang et al. (2017) and el-sayegh et al. (2018) claimed that sustainable construction projects are riskier than the traditional projects due to greater complexity and uncertainty inherent in the sustainable construction projects, wu et al. (2019b) revealed that sustainability like other project performance measures such as time, cost and quality, has also been assessed through the risk management perspective to prioritise the associated risks. notwithstanding, research efforts on the risks associated with sustainable construction projects are still very limited (qin, mo and jing, 2016; hwang, shan and supa’at, 2017; guan, abbasi and ryan, 2020). in nigeria, there is no clear evidence of research directed towards assessing the risk of implementing sustainable construction practices in the literature. available literature has focused on the risk management in construction projects (wang, dulami and agar, 2004; banaitiene and banaitis, 2012; kasapoğlu, 2018; bahamid, doh and al-sharaf, 2019), risk assessment and prioritisation techniques (qin, mo and jing, 2016; zhao, hwang and gao, 2016; okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202225 table 1. summary of risks associated with implementing sustainable construction practices code risk factors sources scr1 uncertain government policies ismael and shealy, 2018; zou, zhang and wang, 2007 scr2 cost estimation inaccuracy ismael and shealy, 2018; qin, mo and jing, 2016; zhao, hwang and gao, 2016; zou and couani, 2012 scr3 payback period is too long durmus-pedini and ashuri, 2010; gurgun, arditi and casals vilar, 2016; ismael and shealy, 2018 scr4 uncertainty in the performance of sustainable buildings projects apine and valdés, 2017; yin et al., 2018 scr5 high cost of sustainable materials and equipment hwang and ng, 2013; ismael and shealy, 2018 scr6 cost and time overrun due to lack of sustainable building knowledge gurgun, arditi and casals vilar, 2016; gurgun, et al., 2018; ismael and shealy, 2018 scr7 lack of sustainable construction management experts zhao, hwang and gao, 2016 scr8 unattainable expectations or requirements hwang et al., 2015; gurgun, arditi and casals vilar, 2016 scr9 culture issues kasapoğlu, 2018 scr10 poor and inefficient communication among project participants zou and couani, 2012; qin, mo and jing, 2016; zhao, hwang and gao, 2016 scr11 liable to undue claims durmus-pedini and ashuri, 2010; tollin, 2011 scr12 complex approval process due to sustainability specifications zou and couani, 2012; qin, mo and jing, 2016; zhao, hwang and gao, 2016; gurgun, arditi and casals vilar, 2016; hwang et al., 2017 scr13 lack of practical experience qin, mo and jing, 2016; ismael and shealy, 2018; kasapoğlu, 2018 scr14 unavailability of sustainable materials and equipment zou and couani, 2012; hwang et al., 2017; ismael and shealy, 2018 scr15 uncertainty in the quality and performance of sustainable materials apine and valdés, 2017 scr16 change in material types and specifications during construction apine and valdés, 2017 scr17 lack of sustainable technical experts zou and couani, 2012; qin, mo and jing, 2016; zhao, hwang and gao, 2016 okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202226 code risk factors sources scr18 unforeseen sustainable projects requirements durmus-pedini and ashuri, 2010; qin, mo and jing, 2016 scr19 lack of public awareness and knowledge ismael and shealy, 2018 scr20 unclear contract conditions for claims, litigations and dispute resolution durmus-pedini and ashuri, 2010; zhao, hwang and gao, 2016 scr21 safety and health issues fortunate et al., 2012; zou and couani, 2012; paradis and tran, 2016; zhao, hwang and gao, 2016; kasapoğlu, 2018; cardoso et al., 2019 scr22 fluctuations in labour and material rate qin, mo and jing, 2016; kasapoğlu, 2018 scr23 lack of market demand durmus-pedini and ashuri, 2010; kasapoğlu, 2018 scr24 lack of political support ismael and shealy, 2018 scr25 high initial sustainable construction costs zou and couani, 2012; qin, mo and jing, 2016; hwang et al., 2017; ismael and shealy, 2018 scr26 cost of investment in skills development and shortage of skills qin, mo and jing, 2016; hwang et al., 2017 scr27 high sustainable construction premiums robichaud and anantatmula, 2011; gurgun, arditi and casals vilar, 2016 scr28 additional responsibilities for construction maintenance zhao, hwang and gao, 2016; apine and valdés, 2017 scr29 project delay due to incremental time caused by sustainable construction apine and valdés, 2017; yin et al., 2018 scr30 more complex and unfamiliar construction techniques and processes zou and couani, 2012; zou and zhao, 2014; yang, zou and wang, 2016 scr31 undue interventions of clients zhao, hwang and gao, 2016 scr32 changing sustainable building certification procedures and policies qin, mo and jing, 2016 scr33 disputes arising from additional requirements zou and couani, 2012; zhao, hwang and gao, 2016 scr34 lack of planning and early consideration of sustainability measures by stakeholders bal et al., 2013 scr35 failure to meet sustainable construction certification requirements gurgun et al., 2016; apine and valdés, 2017; qazi, et al., 2021 scr36 lack of qualified professionals with requite sustainable building expertise zou and couani, 2012; gurgun, arditi and casals vilar, 2016; qin, mo and jing, 2016; zhao, hwang and gao, 2016 table 1. continued okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202227 tong et al., 2018; yuan et al., 2018; ribas et al., 2019; guan, abbasi and ryan, 2020; qazi, et al., 2021), managing risks in green building (zou and couani, 2012), risks in green building projects (durmus-pedini and ashuri, 2010; xiang and shu, 2018), impact of green building (gurgun, arditi and casals vilar, 2016), risk perception (wu et al., 2019b). most of these studies were also conducted outside the shores of nigeria. although qazi et al. (2021) dealt with prioritising the risks in sustainable construction projects in united arab emirates, qin et al. (2016) investigated the risks associated with the life cycle of green buildings in china. this study would focus on the risks associated with the implementation processes of sustainable construction practices in south-east nigeria. it should be noted that the management and administration of construction project is key to achieving its objectives. unarguably, sustainable construction projects cannot be effectively implemented without first identifying and assessing the risks therein. besides, construction professionals who are not familiar with the sustainable construction concepts and approaches may perceive it as risky (ismael and shealy, 2018). this study, therefore, narrows the gap of risks of implementing sustainable construction practices in the literature. methodology research design the study adopted a descriptive survey research design because, the study was only interested in determining the type of risks associated with the process of implementation of sustainable construction projects. code risk factors sources scr37 insufficient or incorrect sustainable design information qin, mo and jing, 2016; zhao, hwang and gao, 2016; el-sayegh et al., 2018 scr38 unreasonable tight schedule for sustainable construction apine and valdés, 2017; el-sayegh et al., 2018 scr39 exposed to litigation for not achieving client expectations tollin, 2011; qin, mo and jing, 2016; kasapoğlu, 2018 scr40 shortage of clients’ funding qin, mo and jing, 2016; zhao, hwang and gao, 2016; el-sayegh et al., 2018 scr41 project team inexperience in providing sustainable construction services gurgun, arditi and casals vilar, 2016; ismael and shealy, 2018 scr42 insecurity paradis and tran, 2016; kasapoğlu, 2018 scr43 corruption and high crime rate zhao, hwang and gao, 2016 scr44 uncertainty in energy saving and renewable energy gurgun, arditi and casals vilar, 2016 scr45 poor scope definition and unclear allocation of roles in sustainable construction gurgun, arditi and casals vilar, 2016; qin, mo and jing, 2016; hwang et al., 2017; el-sayegh et al., 2018 scr46 inflation and fluctuation of exchange rate zhao, hwang and gao, 2016; kasapoğlu, 2018; qazi, et al., 2021 scr47 design changes during construction el-sayegh et al., 2018 table 1. continued okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202228 additionally, a survey approach was adopted because it is efficient, flexible, has ethical advantage, internal and external validity, and can be used to cover geographically spread samples such as in this study (mathers, fox and hunn, 2009). however, it depends on the accuracy of the sampling frame. in this case, it involved the collection of information on the level of risk associated with the implementation of sustainable construction practices (exposure and impact of risk factors) as they exist on the building construction sites in south-east nigeria. although the south-east nigeria is just one region in nigeria, it was chosen because it is the fastest growing region among the six regional blocks in nigeria with very high volume of ongoing building projects. moreover, construction operational system is the same in all parts of nigeria. the study area is the most densely populated region in nigeria with an average density of 442 persons per square kilometre (federal government of nigeria (fgn), 2012). the study made use of structured questionnaire administered to the selected building construction professionals in the study area. although, other methods such as interview, observation and delphi, can also be used, questionnaire is the most efficient data collection mechanism when the researcher knows exactly what is required and how to measure the variables of interest (sekaran and bougie, 2016). since the study was only interested in the risk level of different risk factors affecting implementation of sustainable construction practices and not ‘why’, questionnaire is the most appropriate tool that ensures minimal bias and wider spread. the questionnaire was designed to measure the perceived risk level of sustainable construction practices in nigeria. it was also designed to investigate the perceived likelihood of occurrence and the impact of risk factors affecting the implementation of sustainable construction practices in nigeria. considering the frequency and severity simultaneous indicates a broader result than evaluating risk based on frequency or on severity only (baradan and usmen, 2006). meanwhile, the questionnaire consisted of two parts. part 1 captured the respondents’ demographic data. part 2 contained 47 risk factors for sustainable construction practices extracted from the literature and on which perceived likelihood of occurrence and magnitude of impacts were assessed. the respondents were asked to express their opinion based on their perception on the frequency of occurrence and severity of impact of identified risk factors affecting the implementation of sustainable construction practices on a 5-point likert scale. where, 1 = very unlikely, 2 = unlikely, 3 = fairly unlikely, 4 = likely, 5 = very likely (for likelihood of risk occurrence); and 1 = very insignificant, 2 = insignificant, 3 = fairly significant, 4 = significant, 5 = very significant (for severity of risk impact). sampling and sampling technique the population of this study constituted all relevant registered building industry professionals as obtained from the register of various professional associations in south-east nigeria and have practised for at least 10 years. in this kind of research, experience of the respondents on the subject matter is very important to avoid any suspicion of bias. it is also believed that those professionals with sufficient practical experience of at least 10 years could be able to provide the desired information about the risks inherent in the process of implementation of sustainable construction practices, because they may have handled varieties of building projects that should have given them enough insights about the risks associated with sustainable construction projects. according to ismael and shealy (2018), lack of experience of designers and contractors is the risk element with the highest possible negative impact on future sustainable construction projects. the importance of using experienced construction professionals in identifying and assessing the risks inherent in sustainable construction projects before implementation has also been stressed by durmuspedini and ashuri (2010), zou and couani (2012) and kibert (2016). specifically, wu et al. (2019b) revealed that professionals’ experience in the sustainable construction projects affected their risk perceptions. thus, a total of 728 professionals was involved. to determine the appropriate sample size for this study, cochran’s sample size calculation procedure for large population was used as shown in equation 1 (cochran, 1977). okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202229 ( )( )( ) ( ) = × n t p q d0 2 2 (1) where n0 is the sample size, t = value for selected alpha level of .025 in each tail = 1.96 (the alpha level of .05 indicates the level of risk the researcher is willing to take that true margin of error may exceed the acceptable margin of error), (p)(q) = estimate of variance = 0.25 (maximum possible proportion (0.5) x 1-maximum possible proportion (0.5) produces maximum possible sample size), d = acceptable margin of error for proportion being estimated = 0.05 (error estimate). however, if the computed sample size is greater than 5% of the population (n0 > 5% of population), the final and survey sample size would be calculated using cochran (1977) correction formula in equation 2. otherwise n0 would be adopted as the final and survey sample size for the study. = + n n n population 1 1 0 0 (2) from equation 1, the sample size ( )( ) ( ) ( ) = × ≈n 1.96 0.5 0.5 0.05 3850 2 2 since n0 (385) > 5% of 728 (36), the survey sample size = + ≈n 385 1 385 728 2561 prior to the distribution of the questionnaires, the locations and contacts of the prospective respondents were first identified and consent/permission was sought and obtained from the relevant persons. the objectives of the study were clearly stated in the consent/introduction letter and no further permission was necessary for data collection through the questionnaire in this study. the study then employed a multi-stage sampling procedure in selecting the desired respondents. firstly, cluster sampling technique was employed, where the samples were proportionally divided into five to ensure that the respondents from each of the five states in the study area were adequately represented in the survey (geographical spread). secondly, a simple random sampling technique was used in choosing the respondents from each state (cluster). meanwhile, with the initial set out benchmark of ≥ 10 years of experience, it was assumed that any respondent selected through a simple random sampling was appropriate and capable of giving valid information. based on this, a total of 256 copies of questionnaire were distributed to the respondents through both self-administration and by online post via established mail contacts. after about one month of the distribution of questionnaires, very few responses were obtained. consequently, soft reminder was sent to the respondents who had not responded to the questionnaires through phone calls and emails. two other reminders were sent to the respondents at one-month interval. unfortunately, covid-19 pandemic restricted the researchers from making personal contacts to the respondents which later affected the response rate. the distribution and retrieval of questionnaire were conducted from april to july 2020. thereafter, 162 questionnaires were returned with 117 representing about 45.70% found valid for used in the analysis due to their completeness and meeting other criteria (≥ 10 years of practice). although the valid response rate was below the sample size, dörnyei (2007) recommended that in a descriptive survey research design a sample of between 1% and 10% of the population, with a minimum of 100 respondents is acceptable and can produce a valid result. wiseman (2003) and archer (2008) also noted that web-based surveys often encounter low response rates. however, the result of this study may suffer from generalisability okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202230 (young, 2016). since the population of this study is finite (728), the result of this study is reliable and acceptable within a 5% margin of error and at 95% confidence level as recommended by bartlett, kotrlick and higgins (2001); gilliland and melfi (2010) and taherdoost (2017) for survey research. method of data analysis the data generated from the survey were subjected to descriptive analysis. thereafter, a quantitative risk analysis was carried out to assess the risk factors. table 2 summarised a modified risk factor likelihood of occurrence and impact rating scales respectively, based on the royal institute of chartered surveyors (rics) professional guidance for management of risk (rics, 2015). table 2. risk factor likelihood of occurrence and risk factor impact scales risk factor likelihood of occurrence risk factor impact scale scale rating description scale rating description 1 very unlikely extremely unlikely to happen. 1 very insignificant minimal impact that can be easily remedied 2 unlikely low but not impossible. 2 insignificant minor and shotterm impact on the achievement of objectives 3 fairly likely fairly likely to happen. 3 fairly significant reduced viability and medium-term impact on the achievement of objectives. 4 likely more likely to occur than not. 4 significant serious or major impact on the achievement of objectives. 5 very likely almost certain to occur. 5 very significant critical impact on the achievement of objectives. rics (2015) however, the likelihood of risk occurrence and severity of risk impact were calculated using the mean value method as shown in equations 3 and 4. ∑= = lro n lro1i j i j n 1 (3) ∑= = sri n sri1i j i j n 1 (4) where lroi = the likelihood assessment of risk i; lroj i = the likelihood assessment of risk i by respondents j; srii = the impact assessment of risk i; sri j i = the impact assessment of risk i by respondents j; and n = the total number of respondents. on the other hand, the degree of risk or rather the risk score is obtained using risk criticality index (rci) in equations 5 and 6, which invariably determines the level of risk (risk prioritisation number). the okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202231 risk criticality index has been extensively used in the risk management-related studies (deng, pheng and zhao, 2014; hwang et al., 2017; hwang, shan and supa’at, 2017). = ×rci lro srij i j i j i (5) ∑= = rci n rci1i j i j n 1 (6) where rcii = the risk criticality of risk i; rci j i = the risk criticality of risk i by respondents j; and n = the total number of respondents. since the assessment of lro and sri were both carried out based on 5-point rating system (5x5 matrix), the rci is therefore, on a full scale of 25. in this study, a benchmark for critical risks in implementing sustainable construction practices in the study area is presented in table 3. in this case, any risk factor with score greater than 12 was classified as high-level risk and therefore, considered as critical risk factor (see table 3). table 3. classification of risk level risk score scale risk level 1 ≤ x ≤ 4 low 4 < x ≤ 12 medium 12 < x ≤ 25 high x = actual risk score for each factor workplace safety and health council (2011) as argued in the introduction, a null and alternative hypothesis of significant difference between the likelihood of risks occurrence and magnitude of risks impact of risks associated with the implementation of sustainable construction practices were tested using wilcoxon signed-rank test statistic. meanwhile, kruskal-wallis test statistics was applied to test the differences in the risk level based on the respondents’ role decision: reject h0 if p<0.05 otherwise, do not reject h0 and conclude. result respondents background information the respondents composed of more than half (58.97%) working in the private sector organisations, while about (41.03%) work in the public sector organisations. out of this number, 15.38% were affiliated to building profession, 28.21% to architecture profession, 34.19% belong to engineering, whereas 22.22% belong to quantity surveying profession. similarly, 11.97% of the respondents were holding either the post of project or construction managers, 36.75% were either project/site engineer, architect, quantity surveyor or builder. 17.95% were holding the post of project consultants, 14.53% were academia, 11.11% supervisors, and 7.69% were directors. furthermore, 19.66% of the respondents stated that they had diploma as the highest educational certificate. 40.17% showed that they had first degree certificates, 7.35% had master’s degree, 9.40% had phd as their highest certificate, while 3.42% had other certificates. this showed that all the respondents were okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202232 lettered and could give account of themselves in terms of response to the questions in this study. in terms of years of experience, the benchmark for consideration was (> 10 years). in this case, 28.21% indicated that they have had between 11-15 years working experience, more than half (58.97%) of the respondents indicated that they have had between 16-20 years working experience, while 12.82% indicated that they have had more than 20 years of working experience. this implied that the respondents are very relevant, well positioned and had requite experience in the construction practice to give vital information and express their perception about the risks associated with implementation of sustainable construction practices. likelihood, impact and criticality of risks associated with implementation of sustainable construction practices table 4 showed the result of analysis of risk associated with implementation of sustainable construction practices in south-east nigeria. the result revealed that out of the 47 identified risk factors from the literature, only one risk factor (i.e., unavailability of sustainable materials and equipment) with mean score value of 4.58 occurred very likely, 26 factors with mean scores ranging from 4.48-3.51 occur likely, whereas 20 factors with mean scores ranging from 3.47-2.62 fairly likely or occasionally occurred. likewise, only one risk factor with mean score value of 4.67 (i.e., high initial sustainable construction costs) had very significant impact on the implementation of sustainable construction practices. 21 risk factors had significant impact with mean scores ranging from 4.43-3.68, 18 risk factors had fairly significant impact with mean score ranging from 3.42-2.50, while 7 risk factors with mean scores ranging from 2.48-2.26 had insignificant impact. however, the top five ranked risk factors with the highest likelihood of occurrence in the implementation of sustainable construction practices were unavailability of sustainable materials and equipment (4.58), more complex and unfamiliar construction techniques and processes (4.48), high initial sustainable construction costs (4.37), failure to meet sustainable construction certification requirements (4.35), and uncertain government policies (4.34). similarly, the top five ranked risk factors with the greatest magnitude of impact were high initial sustainable construction costs (4.37), poor and inefficient communication among project participants (4.43), high cost of sustainable materials and equipment (4.39), lack of public awareness and knowledge (4.39) and lack of sustainable technical experts (4.25). in terms of risk level, 23 risk factors were classified as high-level risk factors with rci ranging from 20.41-12.37, while 24 factors with rci ranging from 11.76-6.79 were medium level risk factors. however, the 23 high level risk factors were also critical risk factors which have overall critical effects on the implementation of sustainable construction practices. as also contained in table 4, the top five critical risk factors affecting implementation of sustainable construction practices in south-east nigeria in order of criticality were high initial sustainable construction costs (20.41), unavailability of sustainable materials and equipment (19.34), lack of public awareness and knowledge (18.88), high cost of sustainable materials and equipment (18.75), and failure to meet sustainable construction certification requirements (18.40). to determine the significant difference between the likelihood of occurrence and magnitude of impact of risk factors affecting implementation of sustainable construction practices, the wilcoxon signed-rank test result is showed in tables 5 and 6. the result rejected the null hypothesis of no significant difference and concluded that there is significant difference (z = -3.207, p<0.001) between the likelihood of occurrence and magnitude of impact of risk factors affecting implementation of sustainable construction practices in the study area. in this case, the lro has a larger median (3.76) than sri median (3.24) which suggested the existence of statistically significant difference. the result also suggested that the overall risk level in the implementation of sustainable construction practices was more likely determined by the likelihood of risk occurrence than the magnitude of risk impact. okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202233 table 4. assessment of risks associated with implementation of sustainable construction practices code lro sri rci overall ranking risk levelmean rank frequency rating mean rank impact rating scr1 4.34 5 likely 4.21 9 significant 18.27 6 high scr2 3.51 27 likely 2.70 33 fairly significant 9.48 33 medium scr3 3.91 21 likely 2.90 30 fairly significant 11.34 28 medium scr4 3.97 19 likely 2.91 29 fairly significant 11.55 27 medium scr5 4.27 8 likely 4.39 3 significant 18.75 4 high scr6 3.94 20 likely 3.14 27 fairly significant 12.37 23 high scr7 4.21 10 likely 2.76 31 fairly significant 11.62 25 medium scr8 3.08 34 fairly likely 3.17 26 fairly significant 9.76 31 medium scr9 3.20 31 fairly likely 3.01 28 fairly significant 9.63 32 medium scr10 3.05 35 fairly likely 4.43 2 significant 13.51 20 high scr11 3.26 30 fairly likely 4.11 13 significant 13.40 21 high scr12 4.15 14 likely 4.23 6 significant 17.55 9 high scr13 4.11 16 likely 3.90 19 significant 16.03 15 high scr14 4.58 1 very likely 4.22 8 significant 19.34 2 high scr15 4.19 12 likely 3.92 18 significant 16.42 13 high scr16 4.20 11 likely 4.15 12 significant 17.43 10 high scr17 4.16 13 likely 4.25 5 significant 17.68 7 high scr18 2.97 39 fairly likely 3.96 15 significant 11.76 24 medium scr19 4.30 6 likely 4.39 3 significant 18.88 3 high scr20 3.91 21 likely 3.42 23 fairly significant 13.37 22 high scr21 4.14 15 likely 3.89 20 significant 16.10 14 high scr22 3.72 26 likely 3.68 22 significant 13.69 19 high scr23 3.27 29 fairly likely 2.48 41 insignificant 8.11 36 medium scr24 3.76 24 likely 2.69 34 fairly significant 10.11 29 medium okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202234 table 4. continued code lro sri rci overall ranking risk levelmean rank frequency rating mean rank impact rating scr25 4.37 3 likely 4.67 1 very significant 20.41 1 high scr26 2.97 39 fairly likely 2.29 46 insignificant 6.80 46 medium scr27 3.11 33 fairly likely 2.60 35 fairly significant 8.09 37 medium scr28 3.47 28 fairly likely 2.38 44 insignificant 8.26 35 medium scr29 3.74 25 likely 2.26 47 insignificant 8.45 34 medium scr30 4.48 2 likely 3.24 24 fairly significant 14.52 18 high scr31 2.94 41 fairly likely 2.38 44 insignificant 6.99 45 medium scr32 2.90 42 fairly likely 2.58 37 fairly significant 7.48 41 medium scr33 3.04 37 fairly likely 2.50 40 fairly significant 7.60 40 medium scr34 2.82 44 fairly likely 2.51 39 fairly significant 7.08 44 medium scr35 4.35 4 likely 4.23 6 significant 18.40 5 high scr36 4.30 6 likely 4.10 14 significant 17.63 8 high scr37 2.78 46 fairly likely 4.16 11 significant 11.56 26 medium scr38 2.85 43 fairly likely 2.55 38 fairly significant 7.27 43 medium scr39 2.81 45 fairly likely 2.73 32 fairly significant 7.67 38 medium scr40 4.23 9 likely 3.86 21 significant 16.62 12 high scr41 4.04 17 likely 3.93 17 significant 15.88 16 high scr42 2.62 47 fairly likely 2.59 36 fairly significant 6.79 47 medium scr43 3.86 23 likely 3.96 15 significant 15.29 17 high scr44 2.98 38 fairly likely 2.45 42 insignificant 7.30 42 medium scr45 3.05 35 fairly likely 3.21 25 fairly significant 9.79 30 medium scr46 4.01 18 likely 4.20 10 significant 16.84 11 high scr47 3.15 32 fairly likely 2.42 43 insignificant 7.62 39 medium okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202235 table 5. result of mean rank from wilcoxon signed-ranks test ranks n mean rank sum of ranks lro sri sri lro negative ranks 34a 25.50 867.00 positive ranks 13b 20.08 261.00 ties 0c median 3.76 3.24 total 47 a. sri < lro b. sri > lro c. sri = lro table 6. result of wilcoxon signed-ranks test test statisticsb sri lro z -3.207a asymp. sig. (2-tailed) .001 exact sig. (2-tailed) .001 exact sig. (1-tailed) .001 point probability .000 a. based on positive ranks. b. wilcoxon signed ranks test to further determine the magnitude of the differences, the effect size (r) was computed by dividing the absolute (positive) standardised test statistic (z) by the square root of the number of factors (n) as represented in equation 7. therefore, n zr = (7) where, z = 3.207 and n = 47 thus, = =r 3.207 47 0.468 from the foregoing result, the effect size was 0.468 which is a moderate effect according to cohen’s classification of effect sizes which is 0.1 (small effect), 0.3 (moderate effect) and ≥0.5 (large effect). this result suggested that the differences in the likelihood of occurrence and magnitude of impact of risk factors affecting implementation of sustainable construction practices in the study area could be due to disparities in the tripod of sustainable construction practices. furthermore, to determine if there is significance difference in the risk level of the risk factors associated with implementation of sustainable construction practices based on the respondents’ roles, the kruskalokoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202236 wallis test statistics result presented in table 7 revealed that the computed χ2 was 9.335 and the p value (0.096) is greater than 0.05 at 5% significant level. this implied that there is no significance difference in the risk level of risk factors associated with the implementation of sustainable construction practices based on the respondents’ roles. discussion risk level of sustainable construction projects the result of this study has demonstrated that the risks associated with sustainable construction projects are many and varied. the study also indicated that different elements of sustainable construction are associated with different dimensions and magnitudes of risk factors in operationalising sustainability in the building industry. specifically, the study showed that both high and medium level risk factors are associated with sustainable construction practices. the study further revealed that 23 out of 47 risk factors are high level and critical risk factors, whereas 24 were medium level risk factors. this, therefore, implied that the implementation of sustainable construction practices in nigeria especially in the study area needs to be cautious. this is because the result indicated that many risk factors are contending with implementation of sustainable construction practices most of which are critical to the success of sustainable construction projects. this result aligned with that of bahamid, doh and al-sharaf (2019) who identified 111 risk factors with 56 being critical to the success of construction projects in developing countries. the result further implied that the high-level risk factors affecting implementation of sustainable construction practices must be considered, measured and controlled so as to reduce them to an acceptable level before adventuring into sustainable building projects. at the same time, the medium level risk factors have to be tamed to a minimal level of acceptance so as to maximise the full benefit of sustainable construction projects. table 7. kruskal wallis h test for comparing the risk level based on the respondents’ role role of respondent n mean rank construction manager 14 38.71 project/site engineer, architect, quantity surveyor or builder 43 64.44 project consultants 21 64.10 academia 17 64.35 supervisor 13 59.54 director 9 41.78 total 117 test statisticsa,b risk level chi-square 9.335 df 5 asymp. sig. .096 a. kruskal wallis test b. grouping variable: role of respondents okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202237 however, when the risk level of implementing sustainable construction practices in the study area was compared based on the role of the respondents, the kruskal-wallis test statistics result revealed that there is no significance difference in the risk level of the risk factors associated with the implementation of sustainable construction practices based on the respondents’ roles. this suggested that the respondents perceived the risks associated with the implementation of sustainable construction practices in the study area as the same regardless of the role they play in the construction project. this result corroborated with ismael and shealy (2018) whose result indicated that there were no significant differences in the mean scores for all risk categories in sustainable construction projects between the different titles of the professionals (project manager, site engineer, or architect) in kuwait. since all the respondents were professionals in the building industry, the tendency of perceiving any difference in the risk inherent in any construction project is likely to be slim because professionally, they perform near similar roles in the project. the path of their training is also similar, hence the likelihood of non-significance difference in their perception about the risk level in the implementation of sustainable construction practices as indicated by this study. this result is similar to the result of ribas et al. (2019) who found that different groups in hydroelectric plant construction project have similar risk perceptions, despite having different roles and asymmetric risk sharing caused mainly by the characteristics and provisions contained in the engineering, procurement and construction (epc) contract. it also agreed with zou and couana (2012) whose result suggested that members of green building supply chain invest in green building training and education regarding responsibilities. critical risk factors associated with implementation of sustainable construction practices the study identified 23 critical risk factors associated with the implementation of sustainable construction practices. this study identified seven critical factors relating to knowledge and awareness of sustainable construction, five critical factors relating to cost of sustainable construction projects, and three critical factors relating to sustainable materials and equipment. it also identified five critical factors relating to government policies and regulations for implementation of sustainable construction practices, and three critical factors relating to socioeconomic factors. this result suggested to the importance of sustainable construction knowledge and awareness among the building professionals, operational and suitable regulatory framework, and proper assessment of availability of sustainable construction resources including the prevailing socioeconomic conditions/implications surrounding the implementation of sustainable construction practices. this result is supported by zhao, hwang and gao (2016) who assessed the risk of green projects in singapore. the high number of critical risk factors suggested that they could be responsible for the low implementation of sustainable construction practices in the execution of building projects in the study area. this implied that those critical risk factors must be considered in the planning and execution of sustainable construction projects. for instance, knowledge and awareness about sustainable construction is a capital issue when it comes to the implementation of sustainable construction practices. at least sustainable construction project involves a huge amount of initial capital outlay and requires sound technical and professional expertise with supporting regulatory frameworks. this result is aligned with the results of wang et al. (2016), aghimien, aigbavboa and thwala (2019) and susanti, filestre and juliantina (2019). more significantly, since the critical risk factors were mostly knowledge and awareness related, cost related, policy and regulation related, material and equipment related, and socioeconomic related, it could be argued that the fundamental issues relating to the implementation of sustainable construction practices in the study area have not been adequately addressed; thus, the perception of construction professionals. implicitly, lack of awareness and knowledge about sustainable construction concepts could be the reason while construction professionals perceived the implementation of sustainable construction practices as risky. this could also be the source of low interest in sustainable construction on the part of the government, okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202238 professionals and other relevant stakeholders in terms of development of regulatory and policy frameworks. in addition, the perceived high cost and unavailability of materials and equipment, lack of technical experts, and socioeconomic risks could be reason for the low level of implementation of sustainable construction practices. this view is supported by kibert (2016) and ismael and shealy (2018). consequently, there is need to raise the bar of training and education of building construction professionals and other relevant stakeholders on issues relating to sustainable construction so as to increase their knowledge and awareness. furthermore, the significance of all the 47 identified risk factors was centred on the fact that none was a low-level risk factor. this implied that none of these risk factors should be ignored while planning for implementation of sustainable construction practices in the study area. however, a multiple risk control mechanism should be adopted according to the nature and degree of riskiness of each factor. this is in line with the provision of the risk assessment methodology of the university of melbourne, australia (2017) which stated that risks are controlled using a combination of control measures and must be implemented in accordance with the risk control priorities established during the risk assessment. overall, the result suggested that the level of risk associated with the implementation of sustainable construction practices is more related to the rate of likelihood of occurrence than the magnitude of impact, but in any case careful risk assessment must be undertaken before any consideration for embarking on sustainable construction building project. rate of occurrence and impact of risk factors associated with implementation of sustainable construction practices although the result revealed that all the identified risk factors were either classified as high or medium level risk factors, the result of the wilcoxon signed-rank test showed that there is significant difference between the likelihood of occurrence and magnitude of impact of risks associated with implementation of sustainable construction practices. this implied that the rate of occurrence and magnitude of impact differed across factors. the result also revealed that some factors have high frequency of occurrence, while some others have high severity of impact and vice versa. the result supported zou and couana (2012) who found that the risks in green building development vary and are unequally distributed throughout the supply chain. this could be attributed to the differences and multiplicity of sustainable construction practices, in which environmental, social and economic sustainability criteria must be integrated and considered simultaneously. it also gave credence to the fact that risk management in construction industry is multifaceted, and therefore, requires multiple risk management approaches. this is related to the findings of apine and valdés (2017) which suggested that different tools should be applied in managing sustainable building projects and supported by el-sayegh et al. (2018). particularly, the top risk factors with high rate of frequency of occurrence (e.g. unavailability of sustainable materials and equipment, more complex and unfamiliar construction techniques and processes, high initial sustainable construction costs, failure to meet sustainable construction certification requirements, and uncertain government policies), and high severity of impact factors (e.g. high initial sustainable construction costs, poor and inefficient communication among project participants, high cost of sustainable materials and equipment, lack of public awareness and knowledge and lack of sustainable technical experts) respectively, suggested that different approaches need to be applied in the management of risks associated with implementation of sustainable construction practices. this finding is in line with that of hwang et al. (2017) and ismael and shealy (2018). however, since this study indicated that the rate of occurrence of the risks factors contributed slightly more than the magnitude of impacts to the overall risk level, it then suggested that more attention should be focused on such factors that contributed mostly to the overall risk level. okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202239 conclusion the concept of sustainable construction is still new to the nigerian construction industry. its level of implementation in the building industry has also been found to be very low due to numerous barriers including the risks associated with it. therefore, the need for an insight into the risk level of implementing sustainable construction practices in the nigeria building industry. the study has therefore, assessed the risk level of implementing sustainable construction practices in south-east nigeria. it has found that the risks associated with the implementation of sustainable construction practices are many and varied. it has further found that these risks have different likelihoods of occurrence and magnitudes of impacts depending on the variability of the risk factors and elements of sustainability. furthermore, the study established 23 critical risk factors associated with the implementation of sustainable construction practices in study area. besides, it has succeeded in prioritising the risk levels and risk factors associated with the implementation of sustainable construction practices in south-east nigeria. it then argued that these factors must not be overlooked when considering the execution of sustainable construction building projects for optimum sustainability performance and benefits. specifically, certain factors related to knowledge and awareness, cost, regulatory framework, construction materials and socioeconomic issues call for special attention, while implementing sustainable construction practices. this suggested that sustainable construction concept has not been deeply rooted in the nigerian building construction industry. therefore, there is need for more awareness of sustainable construction among building industry stakeholders. this could be done through education and training, collaboration and knowledge sharing, and other communication channels. this also calls for the need for more research into developing new sustainable building materials and making them available and affordable. furthermore, the need for appropriate regulatory framework and socioeconomic policies that would guide the implementation of sustainable construction practices is of very essence. certainly, this study has provided some positive practical implications. specifically, it has contributed to both practice and research in risk management of sustainable construction projects and nigeria construction industry in general. although the study did not evaluate risk management strategies, it has provided valuable information and basis for developing appropriate guidelines for holistic management of risks associated with sustainable construction projects. in view of this, the study craves for the development of multifaceted strategies for curbing or mitigating the risks associated with implementation of sustainable construction practice, especially the high-level risk factors. since this study has classified and prioritised the risks associated with implementation of sustainable construction practices, it is a useful asset to the construction industry stakeholders especially the clients, construction managers, professionals and contractors who mostly receive the risk impacts in construction projects. the study is also a valuable tool to regulatory agencies, academia in the built environment and building material research agencies. on the strength of this result, the study recommended for a multi-risk management approach incorporating element of sustainable construction for construction managers since the frequency of risk occurrence and the magnitude of risk severity differ due to the variability of risk factors and elements of sustainability. it also suggested for a special training on issues relating to risks management of sustainable construction projects and awareness of sustainable construction concept among building industry stakeholders. finally, it recommended for the development of appropriate regulatory framework for management of sustainable construction projects and intensified efforts towards developing new sustainable and affordable building materials through building material research institutes like nigerian building and road research institute (nbrri). okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202240 references abidin, n.z., 2010. investigating the awareness and application of sustainable construction concept by malaysian developers. habitat international, [e-journal] 34(4), pp.421–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2009.11.011 abolore, a.a., 2012. comparative study of environmental sustainability in building construction in nigeria and malaysia. journal of emerging trends in economics and management sciences ( jetems), 3(6), pp.951-61. afolayan, g.p. and tunde, a.m., 2014. sustainable infrastructure provision through awareness in selected mediumsized towns in kwara state, nigeria. in: d. szymańska and s. środa-murawska, eds. bulletin of geography: socioeconomic series, [e-journal] 25, pp.7-14. https://doi.org/10.2478/bog-2014-0026 aghimien, d., aigbavboa, c. and thwala, w., 2019. microscoping the challenges of sustainable construction in developing countries. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 17(6), pp.1110-28. https://doi. org/10.1108/jedt-01-2019-0002 agyekum-mensah, g., knight, a. and coffey, c.h., 2012. 4es and 4 poles model of sustainability: redefining sustainability in the built environment. structural survey, 30(5), pp.426-42. https://doi. org/10.1108/02630801211288206 apine, a. and valdés, f.j.e., 2017. risk management in sustainable project in the construction industry: cases of swedish companies. master thesis. umeå school of business and economics, sweden. archer, t.m., 2008. response rates to expect from web-based surveys and what to do about it. journal of extension, 46(3), pp.1–6. available at: http://www.joe.org/joe/2008june/rb3.php [accessed 8 december 2021]. atombo, c., dzantor, j.c.k. and agbo, a.a., 2015. integration of sustainable construction in project management: a case study in ghana. international journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 4(1), pp.13-25. https://doi.org/10.5923/j.ijcem.20150401.02 bahamid, r.a., doh, s.i. and al-sharaf, m.a., 2019. risk factors affecting the construction projects in the developing countries. iop conference series: earth and environmental science, [e-journal] 244, p.012040. https://doi. org/10.1088/1755-1315/244/1/012040 bal, m., bryde, d., fearon, d. and ochieng, e., 2013. stakeholder engagement: achieving sustainability in the construction sector. sustainability, [e-journal] 5(2), pp.695-710. https://doi.org/10.3390/su5020695 banaitiene, n. and banaitis a., 2012. risk management in construction projects. in: banaitiene, n. ed. risk management current issues and challenges. intechopen, pp.429-48. https://doi.org/10.5772/51460 baradan, s. and usmen, m.a., 2006. comparative injury and fatality risk analysis of building trades. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 132(5). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2006)132:5(533) bribian, i.z., capilla, a.v. and uson, a.a., 2011. life cycle assessment of building materials: comparative analysis of energy and environmental impacts and evaluation of the ecoefficiency improvement potential. building and environment, [e-journal] 46(5), pp.1133-40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2010.12.002 bartlett, j.e., kotrlick, j.w. and higgins, c.c., 2001. organisational research: determining appropriate sample size in survey research. information technology, learning, and performance journal, 19(1), pp.43-50. cardoso, l., araujo, n., brea, j.a.f. and dieguez-soto, j., 2019. benefits and risks of green jobs in the construction industry. journal of scientific and industrial research, 78(3), pp.254-57. chan, a.p.c., darko, a. and ameyaw, e.e., 2017. strategies for promoting green building technologies adoption in the construction industry – an international study. sustainability, [e-journal] 9, p.969. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9060969 okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202241 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2009.11.011 https://doi.org/10.2478/bog-2014-0026 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-01-2019-0002 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-01-2019-0002 https://doi.org/10.1108/02630801211288206 https://doi.org/10.1108/02630801211288206 http://www.joe.org/joe/2008june/rb3.php https://doi.org/10.5923/j.ijcem.20150401.02 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/244/1/012040 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/244/1/012040 https://doi.org/10.3390/su5020695 https://doi.org/10.5772/51460 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:5(533 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:5(533 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2010.12.002 https://doi.org/10.3390/su9060969 chukwu, i., 2018. sustainability in the nigerian construction industry: the feasibility of adopting green building rating system. phd. indiana state university, terre haute, indiana. cochran, w.g., 1977. sampling techniques. 3rd ed. new york: john wiley & sons inc. cotgrave, a.j. and riley, m. eds., 2013. total sustainability in built environment. london, uk: palgrave macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-39059-1 dania, a.a., 2016. sustainable construction at the firm level: case studies from nigeria. phd. school of construction management and engineering, university of reading. available at: http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/72754/1/18028935_ dania_thesis.pdf [accessed 28 november 2021]. danku, j.c., adjei-kumi, t., baiden, b.k. and agyekun, k., 2020. an exploratory study into social cost consideration in ghanaian construction industry. journal of building construction and planning research, [e-journal] 8(1), pp.14-29. https://doi.org/10.4236/jbcpr.2020.81002 davies, o.o.a. and davies, i.o.e., 2017. barriers to implementation of sustainable construction techniques. mayfeb journal of environmental science, 2, pp.1-9. deng, x., pheng, l.s. and zhao, x., 2014. project system vulnerability to political risks in international construction projects: the case of chinese contractors. project management journal, [e-journal] 45, pp.20-33. https://doi.org/10.1002/ pmj.21397 dörnyei, z., 2007. research methods in applied linguistics. oxford: oxford university press. durmus-pedini, a. and ashuri, b., 2010. an overview of the benefits and risk factors of going green in existing buildings. international journal of facility management, 1(1), pp.1-15. el-sayegh, s.m., manjikian, s., ibrahim, a., abouelyousr, a. and jabbour, r., 2018. risk identification and assessment in sustainable construction projects in the uae. international journal of construction management, [e-journal]. https:// doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1536963 federal government of nigeria. 2012. nigeria’s path to sustainable development through green economy. country report to the rio + 20 summits, june. available at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/ documents/1023nigerianationalreport.pdf. [accessed 29 november 2021]. fortunate iii, b.r., hallowell, m.r., behm, m. and dewlaney, k., 2012. identification of safety risks for highperformance sustainable construction projects. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 138(4), pp.499-508. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000446 gilliland, d. and melfi, v., 2010. a note on confidence interval estimation and margin of error. journal of statistics education, [e-journal] 18(1), pp.1-8. https://doi.org/10.1080/10691898.2010.11889474 górecki, m. and díaz-madroñero, m., 2020. who risks and wins? simulated cost variance in sustainable construction projects. sustainability, [e-journal] 12(8), p.3370. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083370 guan, l., abbasi, a. and ryan, m.j., 2020. analysing green building project risk interdependencies using interpretive structural modelling. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 256, p.120372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2020.120372 gurgun, a.p., arditi, d. and casals vilar, p., 2016. impacts of construction risks on cost in leed-certified projects. journal of green building, [e-journal] 11(4), pp.163-81. https://doi.org/10.3992/jgb.11.4.163.1 gurgun, a.p., bayhan, h.g., polat, g. and turkoglu, h., 2018. schedule risk assessment in green building projects. proceedings of international structural engineering and construction, [e-journal] 5(1), pp.13.1-13.6. https://doi. org/10.14455/isec.res.2018.50 okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202242 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-39059-1 http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/72754/1/18028935_dania_thesis.pdf http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/72754/1/18028935_dania_thesis.pdf https://doi.org/10.4236/jbcpr.2020.81002 https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21397 https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21397 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1536963 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1536963 https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/1023nigerianationalreport.pdf https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/1023nigerianationalreport.pdf https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000446 https://doi.org/10.1080/10691898.2010.11889474 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083370 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120372 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120372 https://doi.org/10.3992/jgb.11.4.163.1 https://doi.org/10.14455/isec.res.2018.50 https://doi.org/10.14455/isec.res.2018.50 hammond, s.f., savage, d.a., gajendran, t. and maund, k., 2019. stakeholders embrace green construction as the right direction: but as individuals they make self-interested decisions. cib world building congress, 17-21 june 2019, hong kong sar, china. hilson, d. and simon, p., 2020. practical project risk management. the atom methodology. oakland, ca: berrettkoehler publishers. hwang, b.g. and ng, w.j., 2013. project management knowledge and skills for green construction: overcoming challenges. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 31(2), pp.272–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2012.05.004 hwang, b.g., shan, m., phua, h. and chi, s., 2017. an exploratory analysis of risks in green residential building construction projects: the case of singapore. sustainability, [e-journal] 9(7), p.1116. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9071116 hwang, b.g., shan, m. and supa’at, n.n.b., 2017. green commercial building projects in singapore: critical risk factors and mitigation measures. sustainable cities and society, [e-journal] 30, pp.237-47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. scs.2017.01.020 hwang, b.g., zhao, x. see, y.l. and zhong, y., 2015. addressing risks in green retrofit projects: the case of singapore. project management journal, [e-journal] 46, pp.76-89. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21512 ismael, d. and shealy, t., 2018. sustainable construction risk perceptions in the kuwaiti construction industry. sustainability, [e-journal] 10(6), p.1854. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10061854 javed, n., thaheem, m.j., bakhtawar, b., nasir, a.r., khan, k.i.a. and gabriel, h.f., 2020. managing risk in green building projects: toward a dedicated framework. smart and sustainable built environment [e-journal] 9(2), pp.156-73. https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-11-2018-0060 kang, b.g., faazlie, m.a., goh, b.h., song, m.k. and zhang, c., 2015. current practice of risk management in the malaysia construction industry – the process and tool/techniques. international journal of structural and civil engineering research, 4(4), pp.371-77. https://doi.org/10.18178/ijscer.4.4.371-377 kanika, singh, k., rana, k. and dahiya, m., 2016. a comparative study on green and conventional buildings. international journal of home science, 2(2), pp338-43. kasapoğlu, e., 2018. risk management in construction. in: a. almusaed, ed. sustainable buildings interaction between a holistic conceptual act and materials properties. london, uk: intechopen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76341 kibert, c.j., 2016. sustainable construction: green building design and delivery. 4th ed. hoboken, nj: john wiley and sons inc. klotz, l. and horman, m., 2010. counterfactual analysis of sustainable project delivery processes. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 136(5), pp.595-605. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000148 koko, a.f. and bello, m., 2020. exploring the factors hindering the use of green architecture in nigeria. in: j.a.p. arcas, c. rubio-bellido, a. pérez-fargallo and i. oropeza-perez, eds. zero-energy buildings new approaches and technologies, intechopen. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92403 liu, z., zhu, z., wang, h. and huang, j., 2016. handling social risks in government-driven mega project: an empirical case study from west china. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 34(2), pp.202-18. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.11.003 mahdiyar, a., mohandes, s.r., durdyev, s., tabatabaee, s. and ismail, s., 2020. barriers to green roof installation: an integrated fuzzy-based mcdm approach. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 269, p.122365. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.122365 okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202243 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.05.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.05.004 https://doi.org/10.3390/su9071116 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2017.01.020 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2017.01.020 https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21512 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10061854 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-11-2018-0060 https://doi.org/10.18178/ijscer.4.4.371-377 https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.76341 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000148 https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.92403 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.11.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.11.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.122365 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.122365 mathers, n., fox, n. and hunn a., 2009. surveys and questionnaires. the national institute for health research (nihr) research design service for the east midlands/yorkshire & the humber. available at: https://www.rds-yh. nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/12_surveys_and_questionnaires_revision_2009.pdf [accessed 10 november 2021]. mhetre, k., konnur, b.a. and landage, a.b., 2016. risk management in construction industry. international journal of engineering research, [e-journal] 5(1), pp.153-55. https://doi.org/10.17950/ijer/v5i1/035 mohamed, a.s.y. and el-meligy, d.a.a., 2013. sustainability tomorrow in construction materials and technologies. iacsit international journal of engineering and technology, [e-journal] 5(1), pp.25-31. https://doi.org/10.7763/ ijet.2013.v5.503 mohamed, h.a., 2017. occupational hazards and their relation with health problems among construction building workers at el sherouk city. american journal of nursing research, [e-journal] 5(3), pp.96-103. https://doi.org/10.12691/ ajnr-5-3-4 murtagh, n., scott, l. and fan, j., 2020. vsi editorial sustainable and resilient construction: current status and future challenges. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 268, p.122264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.122264 olawumi, t.o. and chan, d.w.m., 2018. identifying and prioritising the benefits of integrating bim and sustainability practices in construction projects: a delphi survey of international experts. sustainable cities and society, [e-journal] 40, pp.16-27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2018.03.033 onubi, h.o., yusof, n.a. and hassan, a.s., 2020. adopting green construction practices: health and safety implications. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 18(3), pp.635-52. https://doi.org/10.1108/ jedt-08-2019-0203 otali, m. and oladokun, m.g., 2018. evaluation of level of adoption of sustainability practices among construction firms in the niger delta states of nigeria. journal of construction project management and innovation, 8(1), pp.1711–37. paradis, r. and tran, b., 2016. balancing security/safety and sustainability objectives. washington: national institute of building sciences. available at: https://www.wbdg.org/resources//balancing-securitysafety-and-sustainability-objectives. [accessed 5 december 2019]. pearce, a.r, ahn, y.h. and hanmiglobal co, ltd., 2017. sustainable buildings and infrastructure. london: routledge. https://doi.org/10.9774/gleaf.9781315562643 qazi, a., shamayleh, a., el-sayegh, s. and formaneck, s., 2021. prioritizing risks in sustainable construction projects using a risk matrix-based monte carlo simulation approach. sustainable cities and society, [e-journal] 65, p.102576. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102576 qin, x., mo, y. and jing, l., 2016. risk perceptions of the life-cycle of green buildings in china. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 126, pp.146-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.03.103 rafindadi, a.d., mikić, m., kovaćić, i. and cekić, z., 2014. global perception of sustainable construction project risks. procedia – social and behavioural sciences, [e-journal] 119, pp.456-65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.051 ranaweera, r. and crawford, r.h., 2010. using early-stage assessment to reduce the financial risks and perceived barriers of sustainable buildings. journal of green building, [e-journal] 5(2), pp.129-46. https://doi.org/10.3992/ jgb.5.2.129 reddy, v.s., 2016. sustainable construction: analysis of its costs and financial benefits. international journal of innovative research in engineering and management (ijirem), [e-journal] 3(6), pp.522-25. https://doi.org/10.21276/ ijirem.2016.3.6.12 okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202244 https://www.rds-yh.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/12_surveys_and_questionnaires_revision_2009.pdf https://www.rds-yh.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/12_surveys_and_questionnaires_revision_2009.pdf https://doi.org/10.17950/ijer/v5i1/035 https://doi.org/10.7763/ijet.2013.v5.503 https://doi.org/10.7763/ijet.2013.v5.503 https://doi.org/10.12691/ajnr-5-3-4 https://doi.org/10.12691/ajnr-5-3-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.122264 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2018.03.033 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-08-2019-0203 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-08-2019-0203 https://www.wbdg.org/resources//balancing-securitysafety-and-sustainability-objectives https://doi.org/10.9774/gleaf.9781315562643 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102576 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.03.103 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.051 https://doi.org/10.3992/jgb.5.2.129 https://doi.org/10.3992/jgb.5.2.129 https://doi.org/10.21276/ijirem.2016.3.6.12 https://doi.org/10.21276/ijirem.2016.3.6.12 ribas, j.r., arce, m.e., sohler, f.a. and suárez-garcía, a., 2019. multi-criteria risk assessment: case study of a large hydroelectric project. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 227, pp.237-47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2019.04.043 rics, 2015. management of risk: rics professional note. 1st ed. london, uk: royal institute of chartered surveyors. available at: www.rics.org/guidance. [accessed 10 july 2020]. robichaud, l.b. and anantatmula, v.s., 2011. greening project management practices for sustainable construction. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 27(1), pp.48–57. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.19435479.0000030 sekaran, u. and bougie, r.j., 20016. research methods for business: a skill building approach. 7th ed. new york: wiley. susanti, b. filestre, s.f.h. and juliantina, i., 2019. the analysis of barriers for implementation of sustainable construction in indonesia. the 2nd international conference on smart city innovation, iop conference series: earth and environmental science, 396, p.012033. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/396/1/012033 taherdoost, h. 2017. determining sample size; how to calculate survey sample size. international journal of economics and management systems, 2, pp.23739. taroun, a., 2014. towards a better modelling and assessment of construction risk: insight from a literature review. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 32(1), pp.101-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2013.03.004 the university of melbourne., 2017. risk assessment methodology. melbourne australia: um. available at: https://safety. unimelb.edu.au. [accessed 15 july 2020]. thomas, n.i.r., costa, d.b. and guimarães, m.s.o., 2013. identification of the primary needs for sustainability and improvements in working conditions on construction sites. proceedings of cib world congress, brisbane. tollin, h.m., 2011. green building risks: it is not easy being green. environmental claims journal, [e-journal] 23(3-4), pp.199-213. https://doi.org/10.1080/10406026.2011.593442 tong, r., cheng, m., zhang, l., liu, m., yang, x., li, x. and yin, w., 2018. the construction dust-induced occupational health risk using monte-carlo simulation. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 184, pp.598-608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.02.286 usgbc, 2010. green building design and construction. available at: www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/sbs.html [accessed 28 november 2020]. wang, s.q., dulami, m.f. and agar, m.y., 2004. risk management framework for construction projects in developing countries. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 22(3), pp.237-52. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 0144619032000124689 wang, y., han, q., de vries, b. and zuo, j., 2016. how the public reacts to social impacts in construction projects? a structural equation modelling study. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 34(80), pp.1433-48. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.07.008 willar, d., waney, e.v.y., pangemanan, d.d.g. and mait, r.e.g., 2021. sustainable construction practices in the execution of infrastructure projects: the extent of implementation. smart and sustainable built environment, [e-journal] 10(1), pp.106-24. https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-07-2019-0086 wiseman, f., 2003. on the reporting of response rates in extension research. journal of extension, 41(3). available at: http://www.joe.org/joe/2003june/comm1.php [accessed 8 december 2021]. okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202245 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.043 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.043 http://www.rics.org/guidance https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000030 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000030 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/396/1/012033 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.03.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.03.004 https://safety.unimelb.edu.au https://safety.unimelb.edu.au https://doi.org/10.1080/10406026.2011.593442 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.02.286 http://www.epa.gov/iaq/pubs/sbs.html https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000124689 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.07.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.07.008 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-07-2019-0086 http://www.joe.org/joe/2003june/comm1.php workplace safety and health council, 2011. code of practice on workplace safety and health (wsh) risk management. the workplace safety and health council in collaboration with the ministry of manpower. available at: www.wshc.sg [accessed 15 july 2020]. wu, z., jiang, m., cai, y., wang, h. and li, s., 2019a. what hinders the development of green building? an investigation of china. international journal of environmental research and public health, [e-journal] 16(17), p.3140. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16173140 wu, p., xu, y., jin, r., lu, q., madgwick, d. and hancock, c.m., 2019b. perceptions towards risks involved in off-site construction in the integrated design & construction project delivery. journal of cleaner production, e-journal] 213, pp. 899-914. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.226 wuni, i.y. and shen, g.q., 2020. fuzzy modelling of the critical failure factors for modular integrated construction projects. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 264, p.121595. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121595 xia, b., zuo, j., wu, p. and ke, y., 2015. sustainable construction trends in journal papers. in: l. shen, k. ye and c. mao, eds. proceedings of 19th international symposium on advancement of construction management and real estate, chongqing, china: springer, pp.169-79. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46994-1_15 xiahuo, x., tang, y., yuan, j., chand, t., liu, p. and li, q., 2018. evaluating social performance of construction projects: an empirical study. sustainability, [e-journal] 10(7), p.2329. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072329 xiang t. and shu x.y., 2018. identification of risk in green building projects based on the perspective of sustainability. iop conference series: materials science and engineering, 439, p.032053. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757899x/439/3/032053 yang, r.j., zou, p.x.w. and wang, j., 2016. modelling stakeholder-associated risk networks in green building projects. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 34(1), pp.66-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.09.010 yin, b.c.l., laing, r., leon, m. and mabon, l., 2018. an evaluation of sustainable construction perceptions and practices in singapore. sustainable cities and society, [e-journal] 39, pp.613-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. scs.2018.03.024 yuan, j., chen, k., li, w., ji, c., wang, z. and skibniewski, m.j., 2018. social network analysis for social risks of construction projects in high-density urban areas in china. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 198, pp.940-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.109 young t.j., 2016. questionnaires and surveys. in: z. hua, ed. research methods in intercultural communication: a practical guide. oxford: wiley, pp.165-80. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119166283.ch11 zhao, x., hwang, b.g. and gao, y., 2016. a fuzzy synthetic evaluation approach for risk assessment: a case of singapore’s green projects. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 115, pp.203-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2015.11.042 zou, j. and zhao, z.y., 2014. green building research-current status and future agenda: a review. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, [e-journal] 30, pp.271-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.10.021 zou, p.x.w. and couani, p., 2012. managing risks in green building supply chain. architectural engineering and design management, [e-journal] 8(2), pp.143-58. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2012.659507 zou, p.x.w., zhang, g. and wang, j., 2007. understanding the key risks in construction projects in china. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 25(6), pp.601–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.03.001 okoye, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202246 http://www.wshc.sg https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16173140 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.226 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121595 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-46994-1_15 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072329 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/439/3/032053 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/439/3/032053 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.09.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2018.03.024 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2018.03.024 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.109 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119166283.ch11 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.11.042 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.11.042 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.10.021 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2012.659507 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.03.001 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: barajei, c., kusi, e., ackon, f., osman, a. m., mohammed, a. m. z., simpeh, f., gyimah, f. 2024. success factors of the consultant selection stage of the ghanaian public construction projects: the road sector’s perspective. construction economics and building, 24:1/2, 144–162. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v24i1/2.8660 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article success factors of the consultant selection stage of the ghanaian public construction projects: the road sector’s perspective chelteau barajei1,*, elijah kusi1, frank ackon2, abdul manaan osman3, abdul muhsin z. mohammed3, frederick simpeh1, francis gyimah1 1 department of construction and wood technology education, akenten appiah-menka university of skills training and entrepreneurial development, ghana 2 department of vocational and technical education, university of cape coast, ghana 3 department of building technology, tamale technical university, ghana corresponding author: chelteau barajei, department of construction and wood technology education, akenten appiah-menka university of skills training and entrepreneurial development, ghana, chelteau@yahoo.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8660 article history: received 11/06/2023; revised 19/10/2023; accepted 05/12/2023; published 01/07/2024 abstract the success of the ghanaian public road construction phase and other preconstruction phases has been studied. however, the success of the ghanaian public road project consultant selection phase has not received any attention, even though it is prone to corruption. the goal of this study is to identify the critical success factors (csfs) that, from the standpoint of a developing country, affect the success of the ghanaian public road consultant selection phase. data on the degree to which key success criteria identified in literature have an impact on the success of the ghanaian public road consultant selection phase from the viewpoints of 156 sector practitioners in ghana were acquired using a selfadministered questionnaire. after that, the relative importance index was used to analyse the data. according to the study, external environmental, project management, and procurement-related factors influence the success of the ghanaian public road consultant selection phase. the government and organizations that administer public construction projects will now have a better grasp of the csfs that affect the performance of the ghanaian public road construction project consultant selection phase and be able to use declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 144 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8660 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8660 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:chelteau@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8660 them as a guide to improve the effective and efficient delivery of public road construction projects. in managing public road projects, the study’s findings will be useful to both industry professionals and the ghanaian government. the study is limited to the consultant selection phase of ghanaian public road construction projects. keywords critical success factors; construction; consultant selection phase; construction management; relative importance index background construction projects are planned attempts to develop a structure or a building. construction projects entail the tangible assembly of a building or infrastructure in the disciplines of civil engineering and architecture (amoah, berbegal mirabent and marimon viadiu, 2021). these projects frequently involve numerous contractors, each of whom has a certain agenda and job requirements ( jenkins and wallace, 2016). a significant portion of the economy of many developing economies (des) is based on the administration of construction projects. many nations invest significant resources in ensuring the successful management of construction projects due to their importance to society (kandelousi, et al., 2011). for instance, the construction industry has had a significant positive impact on the gross domestic product (gdp) and employment of the ghanaian economy. according to the ghana statistical service (gss), the sector’s average gdp contribution between 2009 and 2013 was 14.34%. (gss, 2018). according to radujkovia and sjekavicab (2017), a construction project is successfully managed when it achieves its goals while adhering to a predetermined schedule, cost, and quality standards. construction project management and control are crucial to their performance, but most project-oriented companies in des do not always manage these projects in a way that guarantees success (alias, et al., 2014). poor planning, inaccurate project execution and implementation, cost overruns, and failure to fulfill project timelines and quality criteria are common issues with construction project management in des (alias, et al., 2014). there is no question that each administration in a de has a responsibility to provide the necessary infrastructure, including hospitals, schools, roads, latrines, etc. given the strong demand brought on by growing urbanization, it is not a surprise that governments in these nations are currently investing in construction projects such as schools, bridges, rail, roads, etc. (amoah, berbegal mirabent and marimon viadiu, 2021). however, many of these state-funded projects that are frequently found in numerous des are abandoned (rasul and rogger, 2018). the majority of ghana’s budget statements have prioritized development projects that are a part of the country’s construction industry (damoah and akwei, 2017). ofori-kuragu, owusu-manu and ayarkwa (2016) found that in most situations, the results of these projects’ implementation fell short of the deadlines, budgets, and quality standards set by clients and the project team members themselves. also, damoah and kumi (2018) profess that many construction projects in ghana fall short of their intended goals and, in other cases, are completely abandoned. however, few studies have examined the effects of critical success factors (csfs) on public road construction projects in poor countries (damoah, ayakwa and twum, 2022; barajei, et al., 2023). also, the procurement system for ghanaian public construction projects is based on the traditional procurement method bequeathed by british colonial masters (boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2020). under this, the public construction project life cycle comprises the conceptualization and planning, consultant selection, design, contractor selection, and construction phases. the cumulative impact of meeting success criteria across a project’s life cycle determines its success (barajei, et al., 2023). barajei, et al. (2023) postulate that a project’s overall duration might be affected negatively or favourably, for example, by the delay or timely completion of any of the phases. meanwhile, studies on the success of the consultant selection phase of ghanaian public road construction projects do not exist. however, the contract phase of barajei et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024145 construction projects is prone to corruption and political interference (owusu, chan, and ameyaw, 2019; adindu, et al., 2020; osei-tutu, badu and owusu‐manu, 2010; ameyaw, et al., 2017). thus, the objective of this study is to identify the success factors of the consultant selection phase of ghanaian public road construction projects. literature review this section reviews literature on the classification of csfs for the study and empirical studies on csfs. critical success factors classification according to de wit (1988) and cooke-davies and arzymanow (2003), csfs are project management systems’ inputs that must be controlled to ensure project success. kerzner (1998) discovered that csfs assist in identifying the aspects of projects that are essential to achieving the customer’s desired deliverables. key terms in project management include csfs and success criteria. yong and mustaffa (2012) assert that csfs can differ from region to region or industry to industry and are influenced by elements including operating environment, rules, and regulatory restraints. thus, the classification of csfs by barajei, et al. (2023) for the ghanaian public road construction projects shown in table 1 is adopted for this study. table 1. classification of success factors s/n construct variables source(s) 1 project management factors (pmf) top management support amoah, berbegal mirabent and marimon viadiu (2021); damoah, et al. (2019); damoah and kumi (2018) 2 team capability amoah, berbegal mirabent and marimon viadiu (2021); asiedu and adaku (2019); damoah, et al. (2019); damoah and kumi (2018) 3 effective planning amoah, berbegal mirabent and marimon viadiu (2021); damoah, et al. (2019); damoah and kumi (2018) 4 project management structure chan, et al. (2004); asiedu and adaku (2019); damoah, et al. (2019); damoah and kumi (2018) 5 cashflow amoah, berbegal mirabent and marimon viadiu (2021); arafat and skaik (2016); asiedu and adaku (2019); damoah, et al. (2019); damoah and kumi (2018) 6 effective supervision amoah, berbegal mirabent and marimon viadiu (2021); asiedu and adaku (2019); damoah, et al. (2019); damoah and kumi (2018) 7 adequacy of design damoah, et al. (2019); amoatey and ankrah (2017); yong and mustaffa (2012) barajei et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024146 s/n construct variables source(s) 8 team members’ commitment belassi and tukel (1996); yong and mustaffa (2017); ogunlana (2008) 9 transfer of experience and best practice alsulamy, et al. (2014) 10 feasibility study damoah, et al. (2019); amponsah (2010); damoah and kumi (2018) 11 adequately defined task amponsah (2010); clarke (1999) 12 communication amoah, berbegal mirabent and marimon viadiu (2021); asiedu and adaku (2019); damoah and kumi (2018); chan, et al. (2004) 13 external environmental factors (eef) controlled political interference amoah, berbegal mirabent and marimon viadiu (2021); damoah, et al. (2019); damoah and kumi (2018) 14 stable government amoah, berbegal mirabent and marimon viadiu (2021); damoah, et al. (2019); damoah, et al. (2022) 15 availability of equipment amoah, berbegal mirabent and marimon viadiu (2021); damoah and kumi (2018); damoah, et al. (2022) 16 economic (stable economic conditions and economic policy) chan, et al. (2004); amoah, berbegal mirabent and marimon viadiu (2021); asiedu and adaku (2019) 17 fighting corruption amoah, berbegal mirabent and marimon viadiu (2021); asiedu and adaku (2019); damoah, et al. (2019) 18 availability of materials asiedu and adaku (2019); damoah and kumi (2018); damoah, et al. (2022) 19 favourable weather asiedu and adaku (2019); amponsah (2010); damoah, et al. (2022) 20 user involvement damoah and kumi (2018); amponsah (2010); damoah, et al. (2022) 21 procurementrelated factors (prf) minimize bureaucratic procurement process damoah, et al. (2019); damoah and kumi (2018); amponsah (2010) 22 transparent procurement process amoah, berbegal mirabent and marimon viadiu (2021); alsulamy, et al. (2014); young and mustaffa (2017) table 1. continued barajei et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024147 s/n construct variables source(s) 23 works specifications jackson (1990); asiedu and adaku (2019); damoah, et al. (2019); amponsah (2010); jeptepkeny (2015) 24 procurement method amoah, berbegal mirabent and marimon viadiu (2021); damoah and kumi (2018) 25 contractual terms and conditions nguyen and chilieshe (2015); osei-tutu, badu and owusu‐manu (2010); ameyaw, et al. (2017); owusu, chan and ameyaw (2019) 26 project requirements amponsah (2010); eriksson and westerberg (2009); jeptepkeny (2015) source: barajei, et al. (2023) typically, time, cost, and quality have been identified as success criteria by several researchers. in project management literature, the three requirements are together referred to as the “iron triangle” (atkinson, 1999; pollack, helm and adler, 2018). some researchers (crane, et al., 1999; heravi and ilbeigi, 2012) have utilized additional factors, such as safety performance, stakeholder satisfaction, and dispute status, to assess a project’s performance. empirical review although there have been several studies on road infrastructure projects, not much has been done in terms of road projects’ csfs in sub-saharan african nations (damoah, et al., 2022). additionally, studies done on csfs in road construction projects have centred heavily on the use of ppps (chou, et al., 2012; gupta and narasimham, 1998; chan, et al., 2010; debela, 2019; ng, wong and wong, 2012; babatunde and perera, 2017; zhang, 2005; singh and kalidindi, 2006; thomas, kalidindi and ganesh, 2006; mwelu, et al., 2019; damoah, et al., 2022). through a questionnaire survey and a series of expert interviews conducted in hong kong, ng, wong and wong (2012) identified the crucial success factors to be evaluated at the initial stage of ppp projects as perceived by the public sector, a private consortium, and the general community to achieve a “triple win” scenario. according to the survey findings, an acceptable level of tariff is the most important consideration when assessing the viability of ppp projects, particularly for the public. the public sector and private consortia have placed cost-effectiveness and financial attractiveness as the two most crucial evaluation variables, respectively. additionally, there must be (i) a long-term need for the proposed services, (ii) a strong private consortium must be available, (iii) the proposed services must be in line with the strategic goals of the government, and (iv) service delivery must be reliable. four components makeup wang’s (2015) framework for ppp evolution: csfs for ppp, rising risks because of inadequate csfs, corresponding risk management to change/improve the csfs, and modified ppp models. the external environment, internal project characteristics, and partnership-related factors are the three components of the csfs for ppp in this instance. the study discovered that public institutions’ risk management successfully explains the evolution of ppps. this was established using six american toll road development projects established in the 1980s as a confirmatory empirical study. to further examine the impact of csfs on project performance in ppp projects, ahmadabadi and heravi (2019) additionally used two cases of highway projects in iran. they discovered that csfs have a direct impact on project success. however, during the project’s construction phase, the private sector’s capability directly influences its success, but the government’s capability is effective during the operational stage. debela (2019) used a more thorough crosstable 1. continued barajei et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024148 sectional and in-depth analysis of the csfs of ppp road projects in ethiopia to present more convincing findings. debela (2019) when considering 26 csf of ppp in ethiopian road projects, identified the following factors as crucial: (i) a supportive legal framework, (ii) transparency in the procurement system, (iii) a stable social and political environment, (iv) good governance, (v) an environment that is conducive to ppps, and (vi) a functioning public. although these earlier studies provide an overview of the csfs in road construction projects, they mostly concentrate on case studies and focused on the ppps model. as a result, their conclusions might not apply to all road construction projects in emerging economies. according to beleiu, crisan and nistor (2015), the above studies on ppp road projects are unique to that project type. ondari and gekara (2013) then evaluated the elements that contribute to kenya’s effective completion of public road projects. the study used a quantitative research methodology based on questionnaire-based surveys. it used convenience sampling, correlation, and percentage analysis to examine the data gathered. according to the study, (i) management support, (ii) design requirements, (iii) contractor capability, and (iv) influencers’ supervisory capacity are the primary aspects that are crucial to the completion of public road projects. according to mwelu, et al. (2019), (i) regulatory frameworks, (ii) perceptions of their inefficiencies and adherence to them, (iii) monitoring activities, and (iv) professionalism of the staff aid the successful implementation of public road construction projects in uganda. csfs, on the other hand, are particular to a nation, industry, or area (yong and mustaffa, 2012; tripathi and jha 2018). in ghana, famiyeh, et al. (2017) undertook a study to pinpoint the main causes of time and cost overruns in projects related to the education sector in ghana. on roughly 60 government school projects, the study surveyed consultants for clients and representatives of the contractors. the relative effects of the factors causing construction time and cost overruns were assessed using the relative importance index. the main causes of construction time overrun were: (i) financial issues, (ii) irrational contract durations imposed by clients, (iii) a lack of a clearly defined project scope, (iv) client-initiated changes, (v) under-estimation of project costs by consultants, and (vi) inadequate project inspection/supervision by consultants. other contributing problems included (i) contractors’ under-estimation of the project’s complexity, (ii) poor site management, (iii) contractors’ use of improper construction techniques, (iv) delays in the delivery of licenses by governmental bodies, (v) the client’s financial difficulties, (vi) the delays in receiving payment for finished work, (vii) design changes, (viii) a lack of communication strategies, (ix) inadequate feasibility and project analysis, (x) poor financial management on site, and (xi) changes in material prices. kissi, et al. (2019) used structured questionnaires to gather the opinions of project specialists on the impact of project monitoring and evaluation (m&e) methods on project success criteria in the ghanaian construction industry. this research used partial least squares structural equation modelling to establish the hypothesis-based impact of project m&e practices on project success. the results showed a connection between m&e procedures and the standards for successful construction projects. damoah, et al. (2019) investigated the causes of project abandonment in the ghanaian public education sector. the research included a survey of clients, project managers, and contractors in charge of completing community day senior high school building projects. the csfs were divided into five categories using factor analysis and structural equation modelling. they were political leadership, culture, external influences, resources/funding, and administrative/institutional. all these combinations of factors were statistically significant in the abandonment of infrastructure projects for the public education sector in ghana. however, the most important groups of elements were political leadership, followed by weak institutional/administrative practices, inadequate funds and resources, cultural issues, and outside forces. amoah, berbegal mirabent and marimon viadiu (2021) investigated the combined impact of six (6) criteria that are frequently identified as predictors of successful project management in construction projects in the project management literature. an ad-hoc survey was used to compile the replies from 120 ghanaian project management professionals to experimentally accomplish this goal. the researchers first created and validated the scale that assessed project management methods in des based on previous work. subsequently, the combination(s) of the aforementioned six (6) elements barajei et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024149 of successful project management in construction projects were examined using qualitative comparative analysis. the results of the study demonstrated that the success of construction projects is directly influenced by a variety of human-related factors, project-related factors, project procedures, project management factors, project support factors, and external environmental factors. these studies did not specifically focus on road projects. amoatey and ankrah (2017) examined the csfs of public road construction projects using the relative relevance index approach. the analysis found that (i) the owner’s tardy payment for finished work, (ii) the contractor’s lack of expertise, (iii) the owner’s alterations to the project’s scope during construction, (iv) the delay in delivering the site to the contractor, and (v) the project’s rigid financial allocation were the top factors. also, dagba and dagba (2019) evaluated the effect of contract management procedures and procurement techniques on the performance of road construction projects in ghana. purposive sampling and mixed method techniques were employed in this paper. participants in this study were government officials and contractors. according to the research, competitive and limited tendering yield the best value for money because they had the lowest coefficient of variance when compared to the other factors involved in road construction. furthermore, damaoh, et al. (2022) used extensive semi-structured interviews (16) and surveys (372) in ghana to examine the csfs of public-sector road construction project execution from the perspective of definitive stakeholders associated with such projects. thirty-four (34) csfs were found using the chi-square statistical significance test, the relative importance index, spearman rank correlation coefficients, kendall’s coefficient of concordance, and other metrics. the top ten factors, listed in decreasing order of importance, are (i) no political interference; (ii) project continuity by succeeding governments; (iii) adequate project funding; (iv) support from financial institutions and donor agencies and countries; (v) government commitment to the project; (vi) absence of clientelism; (vii) absence of nepotism; (viii) absence of political corruption; (ix) timely payments to contractors; and (x) absence of court injunctions, legal actions, and land disputes. barajei, et al. (2023) examined the csfs of the preconstruction phases of the life cycle of the public road building project in ghana. through a questionnaire survey, information on 26 csfs and 16 success criteria was gathered from key public road construction stakeholders throughout ghana. following that, structural equation modelling (sem) was used to assess the data. the study found that procurement-related factors only had an impact on the performance of the contractor selection phase. however, external environmental elements and project management factors had a direct impact on the success of conceptualization and planning, design, and contractor selection phases of the ghanaian public road construction project life cycle. it is evident from the review of literature that studies that focus on the success factors of the consultant selection phase of public road projects in developing nations are rare. hence, a need to thoroughly investigate the csfs of the consultant selection phase of ghanaian public road construction projects. research methodology the methodology employed in the questionnaire design, the sample techniques used, the data collection method, and the analytical techniques adopted for the work are all explained in this part. the researchers employed a quantitative survey methodology to define and classify the variables. this allowed for the use of significantly larger samples and aided in the statistical forecasting of the relationship between independent and dependent variables. as a result, a phenomenon can be applied to a broader population (bryman, 2016; cresswell and cresswell, 2017). also, given that the respondents are dispersed throughout ghana, questionnaires were chosen over in-person interviews because of their convenience, lower cost, and shorter turnaround time. the questionnaire was thoughtfully created to minimize the number of drawbacks common to questionnaire surveys, such as low response rates and issues with question phrasing and construction (manfreda, batagelj and vehovar, 2002; reips, 2000). based on data gathered from the review of literature, the questionnaire was created. the objective of the study was taken into consideration during the design of the questionnaire. the variables in the survey were graded on a seven-point likert scale (kim, barajei et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024150 2010) with 1 being strongly insignificant, 2 being partially insignificant, 3 being inconsequential, 4 being neutral (uncertain), 5 being partially significant, 6 being significant, and 7 being extremely significant. the first component of the questionnaire aimed to learn more about the demographics of the respondents. the second piece asked about the extent to which 26 csfs influenced the success (i.e., the consultant selection phase was completed on time; the consultant selection phase was completed within budget; a competent consultant engaged; and the internal stakeholders were satisfied with the consultant selection phase) of the consultant selection phase of the completed projects. this was based on a synthesis of success factors that had been discovered by barajei, et al. (2023). to assess the questionnaire’s contents and ensure the applicability of the topics to be addressed, the researchers interviewed five (5) experienced specialists from academia and the construction sector. the survey was administered to 186 clients and consultants’ representatives who supervised the 290 completed road projects implemented by ghana’s road agencies. the respondents were the project management team members of clients and consultants who collectively managed the public road projects completed within the last five years. the relative significance and ranking of the success factors were determined using the relative importance index (rii) created by kometa, olomolaiye, and harris (1994). this method is widely acknowledged and has been utilized by numerous studies in construction project management including sambasivan and soon (2007) and muhwezi, acai and otim (2014). the same approach was used by enshassi, al‐najjar and kumaraswamy (2009) and amoatey, et al. (2015) to analyse delays and cost overruns in construction projects in the gaza strip and ghanaian state housing projects, respectively. the following formula is used to calculate the rii: rii = σw / (a*n) where: w – is the weight given to each factor by the respondents and ranges from 1 to 7, where “1” is “strongly insignificant” and “7” is “strongly significant”. a is the highest weight (i.e., 7 in this case); and n – is the total number of respondents (i.e., 156). results and analysis this section addresses the study’s respondent demographics and descriptive and inferential analyses. background of respondents one hundred and fifty-eight (158) questionnaires, or 85.95% of the total 186 distributed, were collected. following the data cleaning process, two (2) responses (1.07%) were eliminated, leaving 156 (83.87%) valid responses for data analysis. background data like education and years of experience in the construction industry, according to hallowell and gambatese (2009), are good indicators of professional expertise. also, they ensure the validity and reliability of study results (cresswell and cresswell, 2017; dainty, 2008). table 2 displays an overview of the characteristics of the respondents. forty-nine (49) respondents (31.4%) were geomatic engineers, 56 respondents (36.9%) were civil engineers, and 51 respondents (33.7%) were quantity surveyors out of the total 156 valid responses obtained. in light of this, it may be said that respondents’ assessments of the study’s variables fall into a variety of balanced groups. the statistics on the respondents’ greatest levels of academic success revealed that they were professionally qualified, with a bachelor’s degree serving as the lowest qualification. it also suggests that those surveyed were aware of how to complete the forms. one hundred and thirty-five (135) respondents (86.5%) had master’s degrees, compared to 21 respondents (13.5%) who had bachelor’s degrees. only barajei et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024151 two respondents (1.7%) had between six (6) and nine (9) years of professional experience, 65 respondents (56.6%) had between ten and nineteen years, and the remaining 48 respondents (41.7%) had more than twenty years. thus, the respondents generally have more than adequate experience and qualifications in the study’s subject matter. descriptive analysis in terms of respondents’ knowledge of variables for a particular set of statistical data, the standard deviation is a measure of consistency and changeability (motulsky, 2003). as a result, it is significant when considering the reliability and validity of the study findings (motulsky, 2003). less than 1.00 in the standard deviation indicates limited changeability and great consistency. low variability and high consistency in the interpretation of variables by respondents and vice versa are suggested by a small standard deviation (less table 2. profile of respondents variable frequency percent (%) mean (sd) highest level of academic achievement n/a diploma 0 0 bachelors 21 13.5 masters 135 86.5 total 156 100 designation of respondent n/a geomatic engineer 49 31.4 civil engineer 56 36.9 quantity surveyor 51 33.7 total 156 100 training in construction or project management? n/a yes 154 98.7 no 2 1.3 total 156 100 role in project delivery n/a client 41 26.3 consultant 115 73.7 total 156 100 years of field experience in construction 21.65 (6.977) 0 9 years 2 1.7 10 19 years 65 56.6 20 years and above 48 41.7 total 115 100 barajei et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024152 than 1.00) linked with the mean scores of the variables/attributes being measured (field, 2005). because the standard deviations were less than 1.00 for all the variables examined, it can be concluded that the study participants’ replies had low variability and good consistency. the details are shown in table 3. table 3. mean scores for scales notation scale item minimum maximum mean std. deviation sf1 top management support 3.00 7.00 5.651 .67652 sf2 team capability 3.00 7.00 5.343 .50529 sf3 effective planning 3.00 7.00 5.865 .70016 sf4 controlled political interference 3.00 7.00 5.998 .49876 sf5 communication 2.00 7.00 4.005 .52202 sf6 team members commitment 2.00 7.00 3.948 .44053 sf7 user involvement 2.00 7.00 4.099 .62435 sf8 stable government 3.00 7.00 5.805 .71608 sf9 availability of equipment 3.00 7.00 5.285 .64812 sf10 favourable weather 3.00 7.00 5.607 .76539 sf11 transfer of experience and best practice 2.00 7.00 3.948 .64142 sf12 fighting corruption 4.00 7.00 6.674 .59585 sf13 project management structure 3.00 7.00 5.247 .49572 sf14 availability of resources/materials 3.00 7.00 5.103 .75843 sf15 feasibility study 2.00 7.00 3.812 .41691 sf16 minimize bureaucratic procurement process 2.00 7.00 4.267 .59133 sf17 adequately defined task 2.00 7.00 3.891 .80005 sf18 transparent procurement process 4.00 7.00 6.311 .60123 sf19 works specifications 3.00 7.00 5.364 .70081 sf20 project requirements 2.00 7.00 4.148 .64029 sf21 procurement method 3.00 7.00 5.208 .69897 sf22 cashflow 4.00 7.00 6.523 .64413 sf23 contractual terms and conditions 2.00 7.00 4.744 .53629 sf24 adequacy of design 2.00 7.00 4.101 .71115 sf25 economic (stable economic conditions and economic policy) 2.00 7.00 4.907 .61657 sf26 effective supervision 4.00 7.00 6.231 .69985 barajei et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024153 inferential analysis the success factors were ranked and calculated using the rii approach based on the respondents’ indications of their relative importance. in reality, contractors in qatar have utilized a similar procedure to evaluate the key construction risk variables ( jarkas and haupt, 2015). the result of the rii is shown in table 4. table 4. the relative importance index and ranking of construct variables construct variables rii rank project management factors (pmf) cash flow 0.904 1 effective supervision 0.873 2 effective planning 0.848 3 top management support 0.817 4 team capability 0.762 5 project management structure 0.668 6 adequacy of design 0.578 7 communication 0.579 8 transfer of experience and best practice 0.568 9 team members’ commitment 0.568 10 adequately defined task 0.559 11 feasibility study 0.552 12 external environmental factors (ef) fighting corruption 0.924 1 controlled political interference 0.888 2 stable government 0.875 3 favourable weather 0.805 4 availability of equipment 0.753 5 availability of materials 0.697 6 economic (stable economic conditions and economic policy) 0.653 7 user involvement 0.585 8 procurementrelated factors (prf) transparent procurement process 0.898 1 procurement method 0.839 2 works specifications 0.776 3 contractual terms and conditions 0.652 4 minimize bureaucratic procurement process 0.613 5 project requirements 0.583 6 barajei et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024154 the classification of the success factors into three groups was based on barajei (2023). according to muhwezi, acai and otim (2014) and famiyeh, et al. (2017), any factor that reported a rii of less than 0.599 was regarded as inconsequential. hence, such factors were dropped from the study outcome. discussions of results the success elements for the public road project consultant selection phase found by this study are discussed in this section. external environmental factors (eefs) the study result indicates that eefs influence the success of the public road construction project consultant selection phase. eefs made up of fighting corruption, favourable weather, controlled political interference, economic (stable economic conditions and economic policy), stable government, availability of materials, and availability of equipment based. although they serve the same purpose, success and failure factors are opposite to one another (gunasekera, 2009; cooper, 2019). this suggests that project success occurs when failure factors are addressed. owusu, chan and ameyaw (2019) and adindu, et al. (2020) professed that the contract phase of construction projects is vulnerable to corruption and political interference. politicians and technocrats alike do whatever it takes to get the consultancy job awarded to their cronies. this is to inflate the design cost and to ensure collusion among consultants, technocrats, contractors, and politicians during the design and construction phases (luna, 2015). additionally, it has been documented that a lack of equipment affects the success of projects during the construction phase in ghana (damoah, et al., 2019; damoah and kumi, 2018). however, the road agencies in ghana are one of the most equipped in terms of logistics (vehicles, computers, and printers) to carry out their duties due to the relatively huge financial support to the sector by donors and the government of ghana (gog). furthermore, the consultant selection phase is also hardly affected by a change of government which adversely affects the construction phase of projects in developing nations. usually, the new administration gives up unfinished projects from the previous administration and shows more interest in advancing its programmes and initiatives to win the next election (akwei, damoah and amankwah‐amoah, 2020; damoah, et al., 2019; damoah and kumi, 2018). unlike the construction phase, the consultant selection phase is usually short duration. also, it has an insignificant cost and is not bedevilled with any cash flow issues. thus, it is mostly completed within regimes. due to tiredness, hot weather reduces worker productivity, whereas rain and scarcity of materials affect the timely completion of the construction phase of projects (fameyeh, et al., 2017; asiedu and adaku, 2019). however, the consultant selection phase is immune to these conditions as it is largely office-based. also, materials such as stationery are readily available at this stage. these factors contribute to the effect of eefs on the success of the ghanaian public road construction project consultant selection phase. this new finding adds to the body of knowledge on public road construction project management in ghana. project management factors (pmfs) also, the study result shows that pmfs affect the success of the consultant selection phase of ghanaian public road construction projects. pmfs comprise six (6) factors namely top management support, team capability, effective planning, project management structure, cash flow, and effective supervision. these factors depict the importance of personnel capabilities and administrative systems in the execution of the project (damoah, et al., 2019; damoah and kumi, 2018). the competence of a project team is a significant aspect that determines project success, according to aje (2012) and larson and gray (2018). the road agencies have adequate capacity in procurement due to the support from donors and gog over the years. for instance, the world bank has been organizing tailor-made procurement training programmes for road agencies in ghana. technocrats’ impartiality in the execution of public construction projects, however, is under doubt barajei et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024155 (asiedu and adaku, 2019). public institution leaders must behave in their appointer’s best interests to avoid offending them because appointments in these institutions are extremely political (asiedu and adaku, 2019). consequently, even competent technocrats are unable to adhere to appropriate procurement standards, best practices, and the laid down administrative systems. also, cash flow, according to omopariola, et al. (2020), is the primary factor in project success and the lifeblood of construction projects. the road agencies enjoy relatively huge budgetary support from donors and gog as road infrastructure has a huge impact on trade and provides citizens with better access to social, health, and educational services (amoatey and ankrah, 2017). hence, funding of activities during this phase is not an issue, unlike the construction phase which is severely constrained by cash flow irregularities (damoah and kumi, 2018; damoah, et al., 2019; asiedu and adaku, 2019; barajei, et al., 2023). the cost incurred during the consultant selection phase covers only adverts, production of tender documents, and payment of allowances to staff for the evaluation of proposals. this cost is not much compared to the budgetary support to the agencies and the exceedingly high cost of oversubscribed contracts during the construction phase (damoah and kumi, 2018; damoah, et al., 2019; asiedu and adaku, 2019; barajei, et al., 2023). hence, these factors collectively contribute to the effect of pmfs on the success of the ghanaian public road construction project consultant selection phase. likewise, this finding is also new and extends the literature on public road construction project management in ghana. procurement-related factors (prfs) the factors that impact the success of the ghanaian public road construction project consultant selection phase are minimized bureaucratic procurement process, transparent procurement process, procurement method, contractual terms and conditions, and works specifications. if effectively use, the procurement method tackles the problem of consultant capacities (barajei, et al., 2023). based on the difficulty of the task, ghana’s public procurement act (ppa) establishes thresholds for shopping, national, and international bids. this is to make sure that qualified consultants are hired based on the prerequisites for each threshold. when properly drafted and carefully followed throughout evaluation, a works specification, or terms of reference guarantees that the best consultants are hired for the design of a road construction project. additionally, well-written contractual terms and conditions, transparent procurement procedures, and minimized bureaucracy lessen disagreements, increase confidence, spur competition (barajei, et al., 2023), and make it easier to complete any procurement process on schedule and budget. according to ofori-mensah and rutherford, referenced in dauda, sayibu suhuyini and antwi-boasiako (2020), procurement violations are frequently discovered in audit reports in ghana. one of the most vulnerable areas for procurement fraud and corruption in developing countries has been identified as the solicitation and evaluation of bids (owusu, chan and ameyaw, 2019; adindu, et al., 2020; mcpheraon and macsearraigh as referenced in neupane, et al., 2014). in ghana, the procurement process is frequently manipulated to support the interests of politicians and procurement officers (osei-tutu, badu and owusu‐manu, 2010; ameyaw, et al., 2017; owusu, chan and ameyaw, 2019). examples of procurement fraud, according to osei-tutu, badu and owusu‐manu (2010), include procurement entities manipulating procurement rules to favour their favoured tenderer and altering the substance of tender documents to affect contract awards. additionally, the political interference and corruption at this level exacerbate bureaucracy in public administration processes that cause delays (damoah and kumi, 2018; damoah, et al., 2019; barajei, et al., 2023). concerning the transparent procurement process, the ghanaian procurement regulation does not stipulate that public agencies adhere to e-procurement and the “standstill” period following the evaluation of tenders, or the public posting of contracts after awards (barajei, et al., 2023) to ensure transparency and increase public confidence (evenett and hoekman, 2005; prier, mccue and boykin, 2021). these encourage competition and result in value for money in public procurement. hence, these factors together explain the impact of prfs on the success of the ghanaian public road construction project consultant selection phase. again, the literature on public road construction project management in ghana has been expanded by this novel finding. barajei et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024156 study implications the following recommendations can be made in line with the study findings: i. it has become urgent to amend the current procurement statute. value for money will be improved by requiring mandatory e-procurement, a “standstill” time, and the publication of contract awards for national and international competitive tenders. this amendment will enhance real-time auditing, thereby, deepening transparency, efficiency, and effectiveness in the management of public construction projects. politicians and their allies will be forced to follow the best procurement practices leading to improved professionalism. hence, the gog can do more infrastructure projects to enhance the living standards of its citizenry. ii. from the industry and practice point of view, the findings provide insights to project managers and their organizations in terms of how to monitor and control the progress of the ghanaian public road project consultant selection phase based on csfs. thus, the findings will for the first time enable sector practitioners to effectively and efficiently commit resources to properly monitor and control consultant selection phase-specific csfs to ensure project success. conclusion according to ghanaian public road construction experts, the factors that determine the success of the consultant selection phase of ghanaian public road construction projects are project management factors, procurement-related factors, and external environmental factors. a. project management factors comprise six (6) factors, namely, top management support, team capability, effective planning, project management structure, cash flow, and effective supervision. b. external environmental factors are made up of seven (7) factors. these are fighting corruption, favourable weather, controlled political interference, economic (stable economic conditions and economic policy), stable government, availability of materials, and availability of equipment. c. procurement-related factors consist of five (5) factors, which are minimized bureaucratic procurement process, transparent procurement process, procurement method, contractual terms and conditions, and works specifications. finally, the findings of the study extend the literature on ghanaian public road construction project management as it is the first of its kind. limitations and future research direction the study is limited to the consultant selection phase of ghanaian public road construction projects. hence, further research on csfs influencing the success of consultant selection phase of public road construction projects in other jurisdictions is recommended. references adindu, c., diugwu, i., yusuf, s. and musa, m., 2020. issues of corruption in construction projects and infrastructure development in nigeria: an empirical approach. in: e.g. popkova, b.s. sergi, l. haabazoka and j.v. ragulina, eds. supporting inclusive growth and sustainable development in africa, volume i, pp.191–20. cham: palgrave macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41979-0_14 barajei et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024157 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41979-0_14 ahmadabadi, a.a. and heravi, g., 2019. the effect of critical success factors on project success in public-private partnership projects: a case study of highway projects in iran. transport policy, 73, pp.152-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. tranpol.2018.07.004 alsulamy, s., gupta, n., and sloan, b., 2014. factors influencing municipal construction project performance. in matthews, s.j. (ed), proceedings of the institution of civil engineers (pp. 108-117). thomas telford ltd. https://doi. org/10.1680/muen.13.00029 aje, i., 2012. the impact of contractors’ prequalification on construction project delivery in nigeria. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 19(2), pp.159–72. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211206098 akwei, c., damoah, i.s. and amankwah‐amoah, j., 2020. the effects of politics on the implementation of government programs/projects: insights from a developing economy. politics and policy, 48(6), pp.1161-1201. https:// doi.org/10.1111/polp.12384 alias, z., zawawi, e.m.a., yusof, k. and aris, n.m., 2014. determining critical success factors of project management practice: a conceptual framework. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 153, pp.61-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. sbspro.2014.10.041 ameyaw, e.e., pärn, e., chan, a.p., owusu-manu, d.g., edwards, d.j. and darko, a., 2017. corrupt practices in the construction industry: survey of ghanaian experience. journal of management in engineering, 33(6), p.05017006. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000555 amoah, a., berbegal mirabent, j. and marimon viadiu, f., 2021. making the management of a project successful: case of construction projects in developing countries. journal of construction engineering and management (asce), 147(12), p.04021166. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002196 amoatey, c.t., ameyaw, y.a., adaku, e. and famiyeh, s., 2015. analysing delay causes and effects in ghanaian state housing construction projects. international journal of managing projects in business, 8(1), pp.198-214. https://doi. org/10.1108/ijmpb-04-2014-0035 amoatey, c.t. and ankrah, a.n.o., 2017. exploring critical road project delay factors in ghana. journal of facilities management, 15(2), pp.110-27. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-09-2016-0036 amponsah, r., 2010. improving project management practice in ghana with focus on agriculture, banking and construction sectors of the ghanaian economy. ph. d. rmit, australia. arafat, h. and skaik, s., 2016. how can contractors warrant timely payments in the uae construction industry? in: george, b.c., ed. rics cobra 2016: the construction, building and real estate research conference of the royal institution of chartered surveyors. pp 1-10. royal institution of chartered surveyors. asiedu, r.o. and adaku, e., 2019. cost overruns of public sector construction projects: a developing country perspective. international journal of managing projects in business, [e-journal]13(1), pp.66–84. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ijmpb-09-2018-0177 atkinson, r., 1999. project management: cost, time and quality, two best guesses and a phenomenon, it’s time to accept other success criteria. international journal of project management, 17(6), pp.337-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/s02637863(98)00069-6 babatunde, s.o. and perera, s., 2017. analysis of traffic revenue risk factors in bot road projects in developing countries. transport policy, 56, pp.41-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2017.03.012 barajei, c., appiah-kubi, e., kheni, n.a., yalley, p.p.k. and iddrisu, a.b., 2023. success factors of pre-construction stages of ghanaian public road construction project life cycle. international journal of construction management [e-journal] https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2023.2219962 barajei et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024158 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.07.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.07.004 https://doi.org/10.1680/muen.13.00029 https://doi.org/10.1680/muen.13.00029 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211206098 https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12384 https://doi.org/10.1111/polp.12384 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.10.041 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.10.041 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000555 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002196 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-04-2014-0035 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-04-2014-0035 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-09-2016-0036 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-09-2018-0177 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-09-2018-0177 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(98)00069-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(98)00069-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2017.03.012 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2023.2219962 belassi, w. and tukel, o.i., 1996. a new framework for determining critical success/failure factors in projects. international journal of project management, 14(3), pp.141-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(95)00064-x beleiu, i., crisan, e. and nistor, r., 2015. main factors influencing project success. interdisciplinary management research, 11, pp.59-72. boadu, e.f., wang, c.c. and sunindijo, r.y., 2020. characteristics of the construction industry in developing countries and its implications for health and safety: an exploratory study in ghana. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(11), p.4110. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17114110 bryman, a., 2016. social research methods. oxford, uk: oxford university press. chan, a.p., lam, p.t., chan, d.w., cheung, e. and ke, y., 2010. critical success factors for ppps in infrastructure developments: chinese perspective. journal of construction engineering and management, 136(5), pp.484-94. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000152 chan, a.p., scott, d. and chan, a.p., 2004. factors affecting the success of a construction project. journal of construction engineering and management, 130(1), pp.153-55. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:1(153) clarke, a., 1999. a practical use of key success factors to improve the effectiveness of project management. international journal of project management, 17(3), pp.139-45. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(98)00031-3 crane, t.g., felder, j.p., thompson, p.j., thompson, m.g. and sanders, s.r., 1999. partnering measures. journal of management in engineering, 15(2), pp.37-42. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(1999)15:2(37) chou, j.s., tserng, h.p., lin, c. and yeh, c.p., 2012. critical factors and risk allocation for ppp policy: comparison between hsr and general infrastructure projects. transport policy, 22, pp.36-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. tranpol.2012.05.009 cooke-davies, t.j. and arzymanow, a., 2003. the maturity of project management in different industries: an investigation into variations between project management models. international journal of project management, 21(6), pp.471-78. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(02)00084-4 cooper, r.g., 2019. the drivers of success in new-product development. industrial marketing management, 76, pp.3647. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2018.07.005 creswell, j.w. and creswell, j.d., 2017. research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. us: sage publications. dagba, j. and dagba, g., 2019. effects of procurement strategies and contract management practices on the performance of road construction projects in ghana. ssrn [e-journal] available at: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/ papers.cfm?abstract_id=3431156. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3431156 dainty, a., 2008. methodological pluralism in construction management research. advanced research methods in the built environment, 1, pp.1-13. damoah, i.s. and akwei, c., 2017. government project failure in ghana: multidimensional approach. international journal of managing projects in business, 10(1), pp.32-59. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-02-2016-0017 damoah, i., ayakwah, a. and twum, p., 2022. assessing public sector road construction projects’ critical success factors in a developing economy: definitive stakeholders’ perspective. journal of project management, 7(1), pp.23-34. https://doi. org/10.5267/j.jpm.2021.7.003 damoah, i.s. and kumi, d.k., 2018. causes of government construction projects failure in an emerging economy: evidence from ghana. international journal of managing projects in business, [e-journal]11(3), pp.558-82. https://doi. org/10.1108/ijmpb-04-2017-0042 barajei et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024159 https://doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(95)00064-x https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17114110 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000152 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000152 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:1(153 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(98)00031-3 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(1999)15:2(37 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2012.05.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2012.05.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(02)00084-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2018.07.005 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3431156 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3431156 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3431156 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-02-2016-0017 https://doi.org/10.5267/j.jpm.2021.7.003 https://doi.org/10.5267/j.jpm.2021.7.003 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-04-2017-0042 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-04-2017-0042 damoah, i.s., tingbani, i., kumi, d.k., akwei, c.c. and amoako, i.o., 2019. factors influencing school building construction projects abandonment. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] pp.1-16. https://doi.or g/10.1080/15623599.2019.1675025 dauda, h., sayibu suhuyini, a. and antwi-boasiako, j., 2020. challenges of the public accounts committee of ghana’s parliament in ensuring an efficient public financial management. the journal of legislative studies, 26(4), pp.542-57. https://doi.org/10.1080/13572334.2020.1784527 debela, g.y., 2019. critical success factors (csfs) of public–private partnership (ppp) road projects in ethiopia. international journal of construction management, 22(3), pp.489-500. https://doi.org/10.1080/1562 3599.2019.1634667 de wit, a., 1988. measurement of project success. international journal of project management, 6(3), pp.164-70. https://doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(88)90043-9 enshassi, a., al‐najjar, j. and kumaraswamy, m., 2009. delays and cost overruns in the construction projects in the gaza strip. journal of financial management of property and construction, 14(2), pp.126-51. https://doi. org/10.1108/13664380910977592 eriksson, p.e. and westerberg, m., 2009. effects of procurement on construction project performance. available at: www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1011258/fulltext01.pdf. evenett, s.j. and hoekman, b.m., 2005. government procurement: market access, transparency, and multilateral trade rules. european journal of political economy, 21(1), pp.163-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2004.01.001 famiyeh, s., amoatey, c.t., adaku, e. and agbenohevi, c.s., 2017. major causes of construction time and cost overruns: a case of selected educational sector projects in ghana. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 15(2), pp.181-98. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-11-2015-0075 field, a.p., 2005. is the meta-analysis of correlation coefficients accurate when population correlations vary? psychological methods, 10(4), p.444. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989x.10.4.444 ghana statistical service, 2018. release of gross domestic product: provisional annual gdp estimates for 2018. accra, ghana: economic statistics directorate. gunasekera, h.a.d.p.m., 2009. managing critical factors in construction projects: applicability of compensatory model for effective project management. ph. d. sri jayewardenepura university. gupta, m.c. and narasimham, s.v., 1998. csfs in competitive tendering and negotiation model for bot projects. discussion. journal of construction engineering and management, 124(5). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(1998)124:5(430) hallowell, m. r., and gambatese, j. a., 2009. construction safety risk mitigation. journal of construction engineering and management, 135(12), pp.1316-23. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000107 heravi, g. and ilbeigi, m., 2012. development of a comprehensive model for construction project success evaluation by contractors. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 19(5), pp.526-42. https://doi. org/10.1108/09699981211259603 jackson, j.t., 1990. technical specifications’ effect on construction. journal of construction engineering and management, 116(3), pp.463-67. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1990)116:3(463) jarkas, a.m. and haupt, t.c., 2015. major construction risk factors considered by general contractors in qatar. journal of engineering, design and technology, 13(1), pp.165-94. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-03-2014-0012 jenkins, q.c. and wallace, a., 2016. construction bonds: what every contractor and owner should know. vancouver, canada: jenkins marzban logan llp lawyers. barajei et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024160 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1675025 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1675025 https://doi.org/10.1080/13572334.2020.1784527 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1634667 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1634667 https://doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(88)90043-9 https://doi.org/10.1108/13664380910977592 https://doi.org/10.1108/13664380910977592 http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:1011258/fulltext01.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2004.01.001 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-11-2015-0075 https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989x.10.4.444 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1998)124:5(430 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1998)124:5(430 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000107 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211259603 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211259603 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1990)116:3(463 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-03-2014-0012 jeptepkeny, p., 2015. effects of procurement procedures on project performance: a case study of light construction projects at kenya ports authority, mombasa. european journal of logistics purchasing and supply chain management, 3(1), pp.1-11. kandelousi, n.s., ooi, j. and abdollahi, a. 2011. key success factors for managing projects. international journal of economics and management engineering, 5(11), pp.1541-45. kerzner, h., 1998. project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. 6th ed. new york: john wiley & sons. kim, s.h., 2010. the influence of likert scale format on response result, validity, and reliability of scale-using scales measuring economic shopping orientation. journal of the korean society of clothing and textiles, 34(6), pp.913-27. https:// doi.org/10.5850/jksct.2010.34.6.913 kissi, e., agyekum, k., baiden, b.k., tannor, r.a., asamoah, g.e. and andam, e.t., 2019. impact of project monitoring and evaluation practices on construction project success criteria in ghana. built environment project and asset management, 9(3), pp.364-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-11-2018-0135 kometa, s.t., olomolaiye, p.o. and harris, f.c., 1994. attributes of uk construction clients influencing project consultants’ performance. construction management and economics, 12(5), pp.433-43. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446199400000053 larson, e.w. and gray, c.f., 2018. project management: the managerial process, 7th ed. us: mcgraw-hill education. luna, j., 2015. a theory of political organization. [mimeo] available at: http://www.icpublicpolicy.org/conference/file/ reponse/1433891918.pdf. manfreda, k.l., batagelj, z. and vehovar, v., 2002. design of web survey questionnaires: three basic experiments. journal of computer-mediated communication, [e-journal] 7(3), jcmc731. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2002. tb00149.x motulsky, h.j., 2003. graphpad prism 4 statistics guide—statistical analyses for laboratory and clinical researchers. [online] available at: https://www.graphpad.com/guides/prism/latest/statistics/index.htm pp.122-26. muhwezi, l., acai, j. and otim, g., 2014. an assessment of the factors causing delays on building construction projects in uganda. international journal of construction engineering and management, 3(1), pp.13-23. mwelu, n., davis, p.r., ke, y., watundu, s. and jefferies, m., 2019. success factors for implementing uganda’s public road construction projects. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 21(6), pp.598-614. https://doi. org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1573481 neupane, a., soar, j., vaidya, k. and yong, j., 2014. willingness to adopt e-procurement to reduce corruption: results of the pls path modeling. transforming government: people, process and policy, 8(4), pp.500-20. https://doi.org/10.1108/ tg-03-2014-0007 ng, s.t., wong, y.m., and wong, j.m., 2012. factors influencing the success of ppp at feasibility stage–a tripartite comparison study in hong kong. habitat international, 36(4), pp.423-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. habitatint.2012.02.002 nguyen, t.p. and chileshe, n., 2015. revisiting the construction project failure factors in vietnam. built environment project and asset management, [e-journal] 5(4), pp.398-416. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2013-0042 ofori-kuragu, j.k., owusu-manu, d.g. and ayarkwa, j., 2016. the case for a construction industry council in ghana. journal of construction in developing countries, 21(2), pp.131. https://doi.org/10.21315/jcdc2016.21.2.7 barajei et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024161 https://doi.org/10.5850/jksct.2010.34.6.913 https://doi.org/10.5850/jksct.2010.34.6.913 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-11-2018-0135 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446199400000053 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446199400000053 http://www.icpublicpolicy.org/conference/file/reponse/1433891918.pdf http://www.icpublicpolicy.org/conference/file/reponse/1433891918.pdf https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2002.tb00149.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2002.tb00149.x https://www.graphpad.com/guides/prism/latest/statistics/index.htm https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1573481 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1573481 https://doi.org/10.1108/tg-03-2014-0007 https://doi.org/10.1108/tg-03-2014-0007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2012.02.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2012.02.002 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2013-0042 https://doi.org/10.21315/jcdc2016.21.2.7 omopariola, e.d., windapo, a., edwards, d.j. and thwala, w.d., 2020. contractors’ perceptions of the effects of cash flow on construction projects. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 18(2), pp.308–25. https://doi. org/10.1108/jedt-04-2019-0099 ondari, p.o. and gekara, j.m., 2013. factors influencing successful completion of roads projects in kenya. international journal of social sciences and entrepreneurship, 1(6), pp.26-48. ogunlana, s.o., 2008. critical coms of success in large-scale construction projects: evidence from thailand construction industry. international journal of project management, 26(4), pp.420-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2007.08.003 osei-tutu, e., badu, e. and owusu‐manu, d., 2010. exploring corruption practices in public procurement of infrastructural projects in ghana. international journal of managing projects in business, 3(2), pp.236-56. https://doi. org/10.1108/17538371011036563 owusu, e.k., chan, a.p. and ameyaw, e., 2019. toward a cleaner project procurement: evaluation of construction projects’ vulnerability to corruption in developing countries. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 216, pp.394-407. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.01.124 pollack, j., helm, j. and adler, d., 2018. what is the iron triangle, and how has it changed? international journal of managing projects in business, 11(2), pp.527-47. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-09-2017-0107 prier, e., mccue, c. and boykin, e.a., 2021. assessing european union standardization: a descriptive analysis of voluntary ex ante transparency notices. journal of public procurement, 21(1), pp.1-18. https://doi.org/10.1108/jopp-122019-0086 rasul, i. and rogger, d., 2018. management of bureaucrats and public service delivery: evidence from the nigerian civil service. the economic journal, 128(608), pp.413-46. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12418 reips, u.d., 2000. the web experiment method: advantages, disadvantages and solutions. in: m.h. birnbaum, ed. psychological experiments on the internet. san diego: academic press. pp.89–114. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978012099980-4/50005-8 sambasivan, m. and soon, y.w., 2007. causes and effects of delays in malaysian construction industry. international journal of project management, 25(5), pp.517-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.11.007 singh, l.b. and kalidindi, s.n., 2006. traffic revenue risk management through annuity model of ppp road projects in india. international journal of project management, 24(7), pp.605-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.07.008 thomas, a.v., kalidindi, s.n. and ganesh, l.s., 2006. modelling and assessment of critical risks in bot road projects. construction management and economics, 24(4), pp.407-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190500435275 tripathi, k.k. and jha, k.n., 2018. determining success factors for a construction organization: a structural equation modeling approach. journal of management in engineering, 34(1), p.04017050. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) me.1943-5479.0000569 wang, y., 2015. evolution of public–private partnership models in american toll road development: learning based on public institutions’ risk management. international journal of project management, 33(3), pp.684-96. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.10.006 yong, y.c. and mustaffa, n.e., 2012. analysis of factors critical to construction project success in malaysia. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 19(5), pp.543-56. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211259612 zhang, x., 2005. critical success factors for public–private partnerships in infrastructure development. journal of construction engineering and management, 131(1), pp.3-14. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:1(3) barajei et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024162 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2019-0099 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2019-0099 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.08.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.08.003 https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371011036563 https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371011036563 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.01.124 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-09-2017-0107 https://doi.org/10.1108/jopp-12-2019-0086 https://doi.org/10.1108/jopp-12-2019-0086 https://doi.org/10.1111/ecoj.12418 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-012099980-4/50005-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-012099980-4/50005-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.11.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.07.008 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190500435275 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000569 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000569 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.10.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.10.006 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211259612 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:1(3 construction economics and building vol. 17, no. 2 june 2017 © 2017 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: lahdenperä, p. 2017. towards a coherent theory of project alliancing: discovering the system’s complex mechanisms yielding value for money. construction economics and building, 17:2, 41-61. http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v17i2.5292 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | ajceb.epress. lib.uts.edu.au research article towards a coherent theory of project alliancing: discovering the system’s complex mechanisms yielding value for money pertti lahdenperä vtt technical research centre of finland ltd, finland corresponding author: pertti lahdenperä, vtt technical research centre of finland ltd, finland, p.o. box 1300, fi-33101 tampere, finland. pertti.lahdenpera@vtt.fi doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i2.5292 article history: received 06/12/2016; revised 26/03/2017; accepted 01/04/2017; published 22/06/2017 abstract alliancing is a relatively new construction project delivery method receiving increasing interest globally while also eliciting many questions about its effectiveness. that is why its operating logic should be clarified beyond the currently existing general views. correspondingly, this paper aims to define the means and mechanisms which influence the capacity of alliancing to produce value for money. the work establishes the interlaced impact chains between formal basic solutions of alliancing and the key result areas defining the value-for-money ratio. this is made by focussing on a single alliance project and its procedural solutions and experiences. the case project of the study was an urban road tunnel under a city structure and the impact chains were explored by interviewing all eight members of the alliance leadership team covering all contracting parties. the two-stage personal interviews were conducted in accordance with the systematic modelling procedure resulting in eight cognitive maps which were then combined into a group map. the resulting model included around one hundred interlinked concepts initially, but was streamlined for the paper. accordingly, alliancing offers a concrete framework which gives better than normal chances of success in the case of complex, challenging projects fraught with much uncertainty. many diverse basic alliance solutions/features contribute to success, while each feature also seems to strengthen the impact of the others. this suggests that, at its best, pure project alliance is not only a coherent but also a holistic solution to challenging projects. keywords project alliance, alliancing, transport infrastructure, cognitive mapping, value for money. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 41 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i2.5292 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i2.5292 ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au mailto:pertti.lahdenpera@vtt.fi http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i2.5292 introduction demanding construction projects, their conditions and input data are fraught with great uncertainty. the numerous designers and implementers, many interest groups, technical challenges and systems and linkages to existing infrastructure, especially in the case of horizontal infrastructure projects, increase their complexity. traditional project delivery methods based on a transactional approach and a strict distribution of responsibilities have been found to be poorly suited for projects of this type. the uncertainty is reflected in extensive risk contingencies while the primary interest of the parties is to safeguard their own interests. moreover, the possibilities from combining versatile expertise and collaborative work are not seized. on the other hand, in project alliance (alliance contracting) designers, contractors and the project owner form a joint project organisation and work in open collaboration. all benefit from the success of the project entity and there is neither need nor opportunity for company-specific sub-optimisation. moreover, alliance contracting makes effective use of the early co-operation of the actors by integrating versatile expertise for the development of the project solution. thereby it is believed to enable better innovative development and more effective project implementation than traditional delivery methods in challenging projects. the impact of the procedures followed in alliancing on the success of projects is not yet fully clear and undisputed. the presented arguments and causal relationships often remain independent general principles, although the influential factors and impact chains are very diverse. therefore, those who value traditional delivery methods find it hard to believe that refraining from pure price competition and risk transfer can improve project implementation from the viewpoint of the owner. as a result, the functional connection between the various alliance principles and results should be assessed and clarified in addition to comparing the results achieved by alliancing to those produced by other delivery methods. ultimately, only the conformity of functional arguments and achieved results proves proper functioning. however, in a world of individual projects it is very hard to make indisputable comparisons of results which emphasises the importance of theoretical examination focussing on causal relationships. yet, no systematic and comprehensive description of the value-creation mechanisms of alliancing exists. thus, this study aims to determine the means and mechanisms of alliancing that impact its ability to provide value for money. it intends to outline the impact chains between the individual basic solutions of alliancing and the key result areas determining the value-formoney ratio (cost-efficiency, schedule, quality, etc.); basic solutions consist of selections regarding formal organisation, process and conditions of contract. however, the impact chains are not independent but closely interconnected. thus, the entire impact network must be identified to create an overall picture of the value-creation mechanisms of alliancing. the research focusses mainly on a single alliance project and its practices; broadly speaking on so-called ‘pure’ alliance. external factors have been excluded from impact assessments (e.g. market conditions and political decision making). impact chains are studied by interviewing alliance leadership team members using a systematic modelling method (so-called cognitive maps). the conducted interviews were two-stage personal interviews but their results are presented as a combined view. lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201742 the paper proceeds as follows. the next section briefly introduces project alliancing, with main emphasis on the review of literature about how the alliance provides value for money. then the study methods and the alliance case project on which the study is based, are introduced, after which the next section (compiled cognitive impact map) shows the results, i.e. the streamlined group map of the executives of the case project. the paper ends with a discussion and conclusions. present knowledge the project alliance system evolved from the need to improve the implementation of demanding investment projects (see ross, 2003; lahdenperä, 2012). in such projects involving much uncertainty (due to, for instance, new technology and project conditions or interfaces), risk premiums and/or adversarial and opportunistic behaviour characteristics of traditional contracting would lead to an uneconomical result from the viewpoint of the owner (see e.g. sweeney, 2009; bajari and tadelis, 2001; bajari, horton and tadelis, 2014). the low bid syndrome especially can be recognised as a major determinant behind the customary adversarial behaviour leading to failure (weston and gibson, 1993; scott, 2001, stehbens, wilson and skitmore, 1999; nicholson, 1991, loraine, 1994) while sequential involvement of the parties does not allow mutual exchange of information and collaboration for the benefit of the project. project alliance is a project delivery method (typically) based on a joint contract between the key actors to a project (owner, designer, constructor), where the parties assume joint responsibility for the design and construction of the project to be implemented through a joint organisation, and where the actors bear both positive and negative risks related to the project jointly and observe the principles of information accessibility and unanimous decision-making in pursuing close collaboration (lahdenperä, 2009). the system enables the owner to combine broad, versatile expertise to benefit the project and to harmonise the actors’ interests regarding reaching the aims of the project and, therefore, particularly to improve the economic aspects of risky projects. an authoritative introduction to alliancing is given by australian national guidelines (dird, 2015) since the system in its current form is above all an australian innovation applied in hundreds of projects so far (dtf, 2006; 2009). the alliance contract has been the subject of active research since the first projects that used it (e.g. clegg et al., 2002; ross, 2003; walker and hampson, 2003; hauck et al., 2004). these and many later project-specific case studies (e.g. jefferies, rowlinson and schubert, 2012; walker and jacobsson, 2014; morwood, scott and pitcher, 2008; ibrahim et al., 2016b) focussed on principles of operation while also trying to assess the results achievable by alliancing. belief in the excellence of the system is strong in general, but a systematic and comprehensive description of the value-for-money creation mechanisms of project alliancing has not been produced so far. also as concerns assessment of performance, the study is mainly qualitative except for occasional cost savings estimates. walker, harley and mills, (2015) and sweeney (2009) are among the rare studies based on a broad stock of projects and exact data. the results speak for the excellence of alliancing as earlier studies. dtf (2009) also examines project outcome data but mars the otherwise positive picture by questioning alliancing based on non-price selection. the significance of the underlying project-specific challenges and conditions, however, remains unclear (cf. rooney, 2009) while the view tends to be contrary to more dominant insight (e.g. manley and chen, 2016). lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201743 alliance research has also been conducted from the viewpoints of various disciplines. one starting point are formal contractual solutions and their impacts, such as the no-dispute clause (rowlinson et al., 2006) and sharing of risks (love et al., 2011; laan, voordijk and dewulf, 2011). other major themes are development of the parties’ co-operation relations (davis and love, 2011; ibrahim, costello and wilkinson, 2016a), the alliance’s operating culture (walker and lloyd-walker, 2014; lloyd-walker, mills and walker, 2014), and the significance of trust in the organisation’s operations (strahorn, gajendran and brewer, 2013; she, doloi and mills, 2012). thus, human factors and their contribution to success are also strongly emphasised along with the formal organisation, the letter of the agreement and the phases and tasks of the process. the alliance theme has also generated much doctoral research (davis, 2005; davies, 2008; sweeney, 2009; macdonald, 2011; chen, 2013; vilasini, 2014; she, 2014; ibrahim, 2014). related study in general has focussed on finding the success factors of the alliance ( jefferies, brewer and gajendran, 2014; mistry and davis, 2009). these studies also emphasise the characteristics of the alliance which some other research efforts have attempted to define (chen and manley, 2014; walker and lloyd-walker, 2015; chen et al., 2012). from the viewpoint of this study, the contribution of literature has probably been the greatest on the level of alliance principles where it offers an unambiguous knowledge base of the characteristics of alliancing. in general, the presentation of alliance research is pronouncedly verbal and modelling has only been applied to the project process (macdonald, 2011; macdonald, walker and moussa, 2013), albeit from the viewpoint of ensuring value creation. although the published works are meritorious overall, the picture provided by them is unclear from the viewpoint of formal modelling, which means that it is difficult to establish an overall view of the value-creation mechanisms of an alliance based on them. naturally, the presented review is only an example, but it builds on wider mapping. research method research approach the value-creation mechanisms of alliancing were examined based on the experiences from a single alliance project. thus, the results were achieved primarily by means of trying to understand, interpret and evaluate a case. case study is well suited to research areas where existing knowledge is insufficient from the viewpoint of goal setting (eisenhardt, 1989) and we are seeking answers to ‘how’ and ‘why’ questions related to contemporary phenomena (yin, 2014). the data of the case study were collected through expert interviews. the experts were senior executives of the alliance leadership team providing leadership and governance to the alliance while not participating in the everyday management of the project. all eight members of the leadership team, at least one expert from each partner organisation, were interviewed. each member was interviewed separately to provide as comprehensive and authentic a picture as possible (cf. gray, zanre and gray, 2014: emphasis on distinct aspects; risks of group dynamics at joint events). use of experts from a single project ensured the common experiential background of interviewees which enhanced the creation of a coherent view concerning a theme allowing several interpretations. it also eliminated guesswork about the variations of alliancing since the interviews focussed on procedural solutions of the target project. this is important because alliancing can take many forms. lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201744 there were two rounds of interviews to ensure better mapping of a range of factors influencing value creation at separate phases. the first interview was conducted at the beginning of the alliance development phase and the second one after the alliance had determined that readiness to launch the implementation phase existed. there was a one year interval between the rounds of interviews. individual interviews lasted on average two hours (80–140 min.) and took a total time of about 30 hours. data collection was supported using a formal method of description. the views of interviewees were collected into so-called cognitive maps that describe the process characteristics (concepts) and the impact relationships between them (causal links; linkages). the interviews were also recorded for later analysis. this verbal argumentation complemented the comprehensive examination in the original report (lahdenperä, 2015a) and enabled thorough content analysis which was a prerequisite for integration and streamlining of the maps without erroneous interpretations. the starting point of the interviews were the seven key result areas (to be listed below in ‘the case project’ section) presented by the owner in the request for proposals which are normal in alliance projects (cf. walker, harley and mills, 2015). characteristics describing the activity and applied solutions, that were believed to have had an impact on the key result areas (outcome concepts; heads), were sought initially in the interviews. then, reasons for or enablers of the emerging characteristics were sought until it was possible to start dealing with the structural and formal solutions (initial concepts; tails) instead of e.g. viewpoints related to attitudes and culture. the interviewee could see a developing map in front of him throughout the interview to ensure the validity of the forming cognitive map. factors deemed fit for inclusion (concepts to be modelled) were not predetermined or standardised (as is sometimes done when aiming for a combination model) but all issues considered important by the interviewee were included to promote building of the most comprehensive picture possible (cf. gray, zanre and gray, 2014). in other words, the interviewees had to identify the concepts for the model based on their experience. the interviewees were also to evaluate the strength of the impacts of identified concepts to allow later evaluation of the significance of several factors (initial concepts) and performance expectations (outcome concepts) quantitatively. they were particularly reminded of the fact that the impacts can also be negative (detrimental) and such items should also be expressed when putting together the cognitive map. in the second round of interviews, modelling was continued based on the result of the first round. the map was complemented with new observations and experiences and the weights describing the strength of the impact relationships were balanced for the entire impact network. cognitive mapping a cognitive map is generally a formal, visual representation of an individual’s ‘mental model’ construct consisting of nodes and arrows depicting the relationships between them (eden, 2004; gray, zanre and gray, 2014). the maps are typically hierarchical, proceeding mainly from causes to consequences (as all those of this study). traditional cognitive maps do not identify differences in the strength of relationships between nodes (except as positive/ negative). on the other hand, so-called fuzzy cognitive mapping represents a procedure where the degree of influence is identified in the simplest form by a given numerical value lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201745 (kosko, 1986). in this study, the influence could strengthen (+) or weaken (–) the characteristic depicted by the receiving concept while the strength of the relationships between concepts was assigned an integer value, the absolute value being 1 (low), 2 (significant) or 3 (crucial). eight parallel cognitive maps were made into a single comprehensive social cognitive map or group map which, despite its name, does not refer to a map prepared jointly by the group (özesmi and özesmi, 2004; gray, zanre and gray, 2014). when putting together the combination model, concepts with the same content were combined so that the resulting combined concept retained all linkages to concepts that would remain original (not combined ones) unchanged, and the strengths between two pairs of combined concepts were added up to produce a new impact value (see kosko, 1988). table 1 presents indicators of individual experts’ cognitive maps and the group map produced by combining them. comparison of the indicators to those of maps, prepared as part of other studies (özesmi and özesmi, 2004), seems to suggest that the scope of individual maps corresponds at least to the general level attained using the method. on the other hand, the time spent preparing the maps of this study has been greater than in the case of the reference values which gives reason to expect thoroughly thought-out descriptions of mechanisms. the maps were also analysed by a very straightforward calculation method. for instance, in ‘top-down’ calculation evaluating the significance of alliance characteristics (initial concepts), each relationship directly linked to key result areas (outcome concepts) was first assigned a relative weight equal to the value of the link in relation to the sum of all impacts linked to outcome concepts. then, the map was calculated against the impact direction so that in each case the sum of the weights of all outbound relationships of an intermediary concept, which constitutes the weight of the intermediary concept, was divided between the incoming relationships of the concept in proportion to their original values. the weight of an initial concept is the sum of the weights of its outgoing linkages. ‘bottom-up’ calculation followed a similar logic, but the direction of calculation was the opposite. these calculations were run on both the combination model (original group map) and separately on each expert’s individual model (cognitive map), and in the latter case the results were calculated as an average of the individual calculations. decision explorer software was used in modelling the maps although the quantitative approach required developing a separate excel application. decision explorer enables several types of map analyses but they were used only to verify the quantitative analysis (for the part of network structure) since the software does not identify differences in impact strengths table 1 indicators of the cognitive maps prepared in the study expert-specific maps combined map [no.] min. max. mean std dev original streamlined outcome concepts 7 7 7,0 0.0 7 4 intermediary concepts 11 20 14.6 3.1 80 49 initial concepts 3 7 5.0 1.5 14 14 concepts, total 21 34 26.6 4.2 101 67 linkages 33 58 44.8 9.0 296 153 lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201746 (see decision explorer, 2002). the results of this phase are presented comprehensively in an industry report (lahdenperä, 2015a) that includes also the original combination model and the key interview quotes. then, the work was continued by streamlining the model (for this paper). the original combination model was put together without any content changes, and is partly unclear, since different experts perceive things differently. therefore, all related concepts could not be integrated in the original model serving as the basis of the quantitative analysis. in the streamlining stage, these related concepts were also integrated. at the same time, many short-cuts by interviewees were eliminated whenever it was apparent that the actual impact chain runs through other concepts and has already been described in the model as it is. this was done closely in accordance with the content analysis of interviews but the weightings of impact relationships (numerical) were no longer clear which meant that their description had to be abandoned. yet, creation of an understandable overall picture required compaction. the case project the case project of the study was the tampere road tunnel implemented by an alliance. it involved relocating a stretch of highway 12 (which ran along the shore of lake näsijärvi above ground) in a pair of tunnels in the centre of the city of tampere (alliance executive team, 2013). new road and street arrangements, relocation of utilities/services networks, and interchanges at both ends of the tunnel were also part of the project (4.2 km of highways, 4.0 km of streets, seven new bridges). both directions of travel have their separate 2.3 km tunnels with three lanes (one being a safety lane). several passageways with fire and smoke compartmentation were built between the tunnels, and traffic control and guidance systems played a significant role in the project. the initial road-plan phase cost estimate was meur 185 (ely, 2011; march 2011 price level) while an updated (due to indexing and missing items) estimate of meur 204 (at may 2013 price level; i.e. at the time the target cost was set) offers a more appropriate point of comparison. all in all, we are speaking of a demanding project that was fraught with much uncertainty and numerous constraints which is why project alliance was applied in the project. the owner’s view that guided project preparation was that smooth co-operation between the partners would allow achieving better than conventional results since a diverse project enables searching for different alternative solutions (fta, 2012b). the project’s request for proposals and road plan defined its technical requirements and goals. the owner also set the following key result areas for the implementation (fta, 2012b): • cost-efficiency (cost-effective implementation that yields value for money). • schedule (commissioned on schedule, optimised implementation phase duration). • environment (minor environmental impacts from construction and the end-product). • quality (excellent quality of design and construction). • safety (excellent project safety). • traffic (least possible disturbance; uninterrupted usability on completion). • image (favourable public image). the alliance procurement started in december 2011. the service providers were chosen in a competition which required the candidates to have both the competence to design and construct the project (i.e. consortium selection). accordingly, the participants themselves had to form teams that took part in the competition, typically as groups of companies. lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201747 in the stage-wise process, selection was eventually based on capability and fee (companylevel overhead plus expected profit; see lahdenperä, 2015b). the chosen parties signed the development agreement in july 2012. two public owners, two design offices and one construction company constituted the alliance partners. development-phase planning (to determine the project solution and corresponding target cost), which ended the following june, led to the signing of an alliance implementation contract in october 2013 (after some political wrangling; see vainio, 2015). at that time, the road section was expected to be ready for use in may 2017, and the finishing work was to end about a year later; the key result areas became part of the incentive scheme of the agreement, meaning that the compensation of service providers was partly performance-based (alliance executive team, 2013). the target cost was meur 180 (at may 2013 price level). subsequently, the tunnel was completed and opened for traffic in november 2016, with some finishing works still to be completed. compiled cognitive impact map structure of the map the cognitive impact model created by the study describing the value-creation mechanisms of the alliance is analysed in figures 1-4. figure 1 shows the outcome concepts derived from the key result areas (in blue) as well as all the intermediary concepts directly linked to key result areas (in red). generally, intermediary concepts are ones with both inbound and outbound relationships while outcome concepts only have inbound relationships depicted by arrows. thus, arrows describe a relationship between two concepts acting in the direction of the arrow and strengthening the characteristic of an inbound concept since all relationships are positive (while outcome concepts described by neutral terms refer here also to remarkable success with respect to the described characteristic). four of the seven original key result areas are shown combined since the underlying factors are much the same. figures 2-4 show views of the rest of the impact network. each figure presents more closely interrelated initial concepts depicting the formal characteristic of the alliance (in green; with only outbound relationships) as well as the chain of intermediary concepts leading from figure 1 outcome concepts and factors contributing to their successful achievement lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201748 them to outcome concepts (in yellow excl. concepts common with figure 1 in red). in the compilation of figures 2-4, the starting point was that, besides the concepts, also all impact relationships (arrows) are shown at least once in parallel with both of their adjoining concepts, and that none of the impact relationships are presented only in connection with the linkages figure 2 rationality of selection figure 3 effectiveness of development figure 4 efficiency of implementation lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201749 between concepts presented in different figures indicated by short dashed arrows and related concept numbers (where the inbound impact is depicted under each concept and the outbound one above it). therefore, some intermediary concepts are shown in the series of pictures several times, unlike the outcome and initial concepts that appear only once. impact mechanisms formal characteristics concerning the alliance organisation, process and conditions of contract and their impact on the alliance’s capacity to yield value for money are explained below by three model views (figs. 2-4). the views are based roughly on the alliance’s phases although especially the last presented factors impact project implementation even earlier. a written presentation complements the model views although such a compressed presentation cannot, unfortunately, fully depict all the insight included in the comprehensive model. selection phase (figure 2) forming a project organisation mainly through capability-based competition (concept 54) ensures that capable and development-oriented resources can be committed to the project. thereby the problems often ensuing from full price competition affecting implementation and the resulting negative development trend in general can be avoided. to succeed in capability-based competition, service providers also prepare and form teams before actual selection starts, which, for its part, improves the chances of success and accelerates launching of effective work. as concerns team formation, this is true especially in the case of consortium selection where the proposer must have resources for both design and construction, which means that the companies seek partners already before registering for the competition. when there is sufficient supply, such team formation by service providers themselves (55) creates the most favourable conditions for finding the most efficient compositions to implement a project. a key element of capability-based competition is selection workshops where the tendering consortium’s qualifications, ability to co-operate and innovativeness are determined by a variety of tasks (not merely based on documents), even by a psychologist’s statement. team formation with the owner organisation starts at the same time, which allows combining distinct types of expertise for the benefit of the project. moreover, interactive selection (56), which is partly based on the workshop procedure, improves together with other process properties, the possibility of finding development ideas and functioning rules of the game since, in addition to the possibility of improving the cost estimate and the project solution, the rules of implementation, risk sharing and project scope definition are examined together with several competitors. functioning rules of the game, numerous development ideas and a developmentoriented organisation that integrates expertise, provide a good starting point for project work after the selection phase. development phase (figure 3) service provider selection is followed by signing of the alliance’s development-phase agreement, which launches joint development without delay, since earlier input of resources in team formation and interactive selection have created favourable conditions for co-operation and clear rules of the game. at the same time, early involvement of contractor (57) ensures access to cost and constructability information and thereby also immediate feedback for design process management. a capable team, better resourcing and overall competence attained by lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201750 combining different expertise, provide better than normal chances for developing project solutions. owner’s participation in alliance (58) and joint development with the service providers supplements knowledge and allows changing design premises in case it is to the advantage of the project. it can be accomplished smoothly and quickly since the owner knows about the project’s details and the actual costs of the changes: they are based transparently on earlier realised costs and prices quoted by subcontractors. thereby development work is not limited by preset impractical assumptions and boundary conditions guided by the customary information asymmetry and the resulting distrust. presently, trust and mutual respect are important contributing factors and their emergence is supported e.g. by joint work and active, open communication which, again, are underpinned using independent, third-party estimators and audits. thus, smooth collaboration is the only way service providers can eventually improve their bottom line. other drivers promoting the success of the project include the late final agreement (59) to be signed only after the development phase, and the related possibility of termination (60) of the liaison by the owner. these factors also make service providers pay attention to the success of the project already at the development phase. a tight project budget (61) evaluated by many aspirational candidates as early as the competition phase, perhaps even made tighter consequently, has a similar influence. consequently, the expectation at the development phase is that the advantageousness of the project solution improves. on the other hand, during project pricing, design has already advanced far enough to allow avoiding significant risk contingencies through comprehensive joint risk identification and management, and elimination of interface risks. this naturally helps in finding an advantageous solution as do practical fee structures (62): the designer’s fee is generally percentage-based and that of the contractor (relatively) fixed, agreed already at the tender phase. thereby the fee structure does not reward the contractor for expanding the project or raising the quality level, which increases costs (in contrast to a percentage-based fee), but as the designer’s work focusses largely on the development phase, said fee structure spurs investing enough in reviewing options if the parties otherwise jointly consider it practical; after all, design only accounts for a relatively small share of overall costs. implementation phase (figure 4) the implementation phase begins if, and when, the parties consider the development phase goal to have been fulfilled and reach agreement e.g. on the project’s target cost level. then, the key factor guiding implementation is joint bearing of risks (63) which makes the objectives of the parties congruent as they all share e.g. in target cost overand underruns. along with target cost-based cost risk, rewarding systems related to qualitative result areas ensure the best possible realisation of the project’s diverse goals. the common goal guides the activity towards good collaboration and effective and efficient implementation for which the foundation has been laid by other solutions (described below). common will gives rise to a positive development trend which leads to continuous improvement for the benefit of the project. knowledge of the introduction of joint bearing of risks at the implementation phase results in openness and comprehensive risk analysis and mitigation already at the development phase which, for its part, leads to a reduction in risk reserves and an economical solution even before this principle is literally in force. conventional interface risks resulting from strict limits on liability have also been eliminated, and company-specific sub-optimisation typical lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201751 of traditional delivery methods no longer guides alliance activities. this is underpinned by joint organisation and work division flexibility (64) which remove barriers and make work more effective while improving the possibility of tending to the concerns of stakeholders. a joint project office (65) naturally also increases interaction and makes for smoother co-operation while also promoting an atmosphere of trust, and helping maintain it. a joint leadership team (66), for its part, ensures that different views are considered in decision making, especially since unanimous decisions (67) are the default. the continuity of the leadership team’s involvement and the ensuing knowledge about project-related matters create conditions for quick decision making. the mechanism, considering joint bearing of cost risk, is such that all parties suffer from delayed decisions, meaning that it is not a traditional zero-sum game but supports efficient implementation. this is most obvious in the implementation phase, but these solutions are, in fact, in use already at the development phase to boost its realisation. significance of prime factors and performance expectations the original group map, or the impact network it describes, was also subjected to quantitative analysis since the understanding of the overall functioning of an extensive network is otherwise difficult. the analysis was based on weighting of relationships as explained in the chapter on research methods. the results should be considered indicative since the method is only able to reveal order of magnitude level understanding. at this level, the results produced by different approaches are consistent. examination of the formal characteristics of the alliance (initial concepts) showed some carry more impact than others (by ‘top-down’ calculation). joint bearing of risks (63) considered to be responsible for 20% of the success of an alliance was found most important. another keystone of success is capability-based competition (54). the next key factors were related to the multi-sectoral, integrated organisation: early involvement of contractor (57) and owner’s participation in alliance (58) accounted for about 10% each of the overall impact. joint organisation and work division flexibility (64) as well as joint project office (65) are nearly as important. the other characteristics seem to be less significant. on the other hand, if we assess the hypothetical value creation of the alliance (by ‘bottomup’ calculation), the result is strongly positive with respect to all key result areas (outcome concepts). especially cost-efficiency (1) and schedule (2) stand out: at least 30% of the benefit from using alliancing would seem to come in the form of higher cost-efficiency while schedule would contribute 15%. the share of other key result areas is around 10%. to be sure, the balancing of goals is generally some kind of a project optimisation challenge, and as such an issue of valuation and selection. a path analysis of the network also provides a complementary explanation for the performance expectations of key result areas. a survey of the network behind each outcome concept (by decision explorer) reveals that nearly three quarters of the intermediary and initial concepts affect the out-turn of all (ungrouped) outcome concepts. since the network, with its numerous linkages, is also complex and the chain to outcome concepts runs through highly general concepts, it is natural that key result areas such as the environment, quality, safety and traffic (4) are assigned about the same impact value. yet, there are differences between parts of the network behind other outcome factors. some concepts may be found behind image (3) that have a stronger impact only on this key result area. likewise, cost-efficiency and schedule have common background factors, which the others do not have, that emphasise effectiveness thinking. moreover, impact chains and concepts lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201752 solely related to the outcome concept of cost-efficiency lie behind it. the initial factor possibility of termination (60) is not even linked to other key result areas meaning that its practical significance is related specifically to cost control, although the precondition for continuation of the project is that development phase goals are met as to all key result areas. separately recognised costand schedule-related drivers also indicate that the favourable performance expectations for these result areas are well grounded and not merely based on general assumptions. discussion review in relation to project performance one aspect of verifying the conceptual model’s logic is its examination in relation to the results of the case study project. after all, the conceptual model gives an indication of the alliance’s ability to perform well which should, therefore, have been realised also in practice. the plans produced by the alliance (alliance executive team, 2013) as well as the published value-for-money reports (alliance executive team, 2014; 2017) signal remarkable success of the project. first, they show that plenty of recorded development ideas were born during the alliance’s development phase (alliance executive team, 2013), about half of which were also accepted for use already at that stage. the cost-benefit impacts of adopted ideas were reported to be 9% along with a notably shortened schedule (alliance executive team, 2014) while there were also other innovations that were implemented mainly due to their positive value effects. in the implementation phase, the alliance could reach the targets set at the development phase (alliance executive team, 2017). the construction phase was speeded up further in a way that enabled opening the tunnel for traffic half a year earlier than anticipated in the schedule completed at the development phase. the out-turn cost of the original scope of works under-runs the target cost slightly. safety performance was also clearly better than the industry average while none of the other indicators indicate inadequate performance. in other words, quality or other key goals have not been sacrificed to achieve savings or faster completion. thus, the successful realisation of the case study project gives no reason to doubt the authenticity of the solely positive insights of the interviewed experts about the impact of alliancing on project performance. on the other hand, public image and usability related key performance indicators still need to be monitored after substantial completion and opening for traffic (reached at the time of finalising this study/paper). the innovation processes and development phase results of the case study project have been reviewed also in a parallel study (lahdenperä, 2016) where practical experts assessed the alliance’s performance in relation to other delivery methods (design-build, design-bidbuild, construction management). regarding alliancing, experts emphasised its great ability to generate innovations that are a key to high economic efficiency. on the other hand, the development of a project solution is much more difficult when using the alternative delivery methods where the business logic and the competitive arrangements do little to support the presentation of ideas. all in all, the result was that an alliance creates the preconditions for achieving the highest economic efficiency particularly in demanding projects. review in relation to current knowledge existing literature offers another way of reviewing the work done. literature has dealt widely with the alliance approach on a general level. yet, the material is fragmented and reviewing lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201753 it all would be too random and speculative since comparable studies do not exist. thus, this study concentrates on sources giving a comprehensive, condensed and unambiguous view of the principles of alliancing. considering the development of procedures and increased understanding over time, the focus should be on recent publications. accordingly, works by walker and lloyd-walker (2015), chen and manley (2014), chen et al. (2012) and dird (2015) take centre stage. all of them present an itemised list of the alliance’s properties (nearly 50 in all) while many of the listed items have the same meaning despite being expressed differently in different publications. the study went through all these items one by one (cf. lahdenperä, 2015a) even though only a summary of the review focussing on the differences is presented here. most of the listed formal properties of the alliance organisation or process are initial concepts of this study. moreover, some intermediary concepts of the impact map/model – cost transparency (26), selection-phase workshops (41) and maintenance of collaborative and team spirit (38) – are in line with the transparency and open book documentation and reporting principles (dird, 2015; chen et al., 2012; walker and lloyd-walker, 2015) and team workshops (chen and manley, 2014). thus, all literature items on formal practice are included with one exception: issues such as commitment to no disputes and no blame culture (chen et al., 2012; walker and lloyd-walker, 2015; dird, 2015) are included in the concepts of the model in substance, but the fact that the parties agree to resolve all conflicts and disputes internally and not to litigate (chen et al., 2012; dird, 2015) is missing from the developed model. to be sure, all these things, even refraining from legal action (except in cases of intentional damage and gross negligence) are emphasised also in the agreements of the case project (fta, 2012a; 2012c) although the absence of the latter from the discussion about a development-oriented process and its functioning is as such natural. it should be further noted that literature distinguishes incentives related to cost-effectiveness and other key result areas just like the interviews of the study and the model’s explanations although the formal concept map does not. all the informal elements listed by the publications describing the character of the activity also appear in the map, at least in the background definitions of concepts (interviews), although these are by nature more broad-based issues subject to several interpretations and are difficult to define in unambiguous terms. in this regard, we are talking about the map’s intermediary concepts which is consistent with the observation by chen and manley (2014): based on the path analyses they conducted, informal factors serve as mediators in the impact mechanisms of formal factors, basically between initial concepts and outcome concepts. they also stated (based on 320 questionnaire responses) that all listed factors contribute to an improved performance level. thus, the study also supports the interpretation that the factors presented in this study are specifically ones that promote value creation. a comparison in the opposite direction brings up a few initial factors of the concept map that are not emphasised in the reference material. the consortium selection (i.e. team formation by service providers themselves (55) and the related possibility of team optimisation) was identified as a key driver of good-value creation. the guidelines and examples lean toward the use of consortium selection (dtf, 2006; dird, 2015, morwood, scott and pitcher, 2008) though the solution does not define alliance as the delivery method. on the other hand, interactive selection (56) and the ensuing possible redefinition of project scope and rules of the game, as well as clarification of document interpretation, were emphasised more in the study than the reference material. the tight project budget (61) and stage-wise nature of the alliance (possibility of termination (60)) also received emphasis in keeping with policies calling for lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201754 strong-willed leadership from the owner (tamburro and wood, 2014). the case study project also emphasised practical fee structures (62): fixed for the contractor and percentage-based for the designer. although the actual reference material does not take a stand on fee structures, some guidelines are in line with the recommendations of the study (dtf, 2006; morwood, scott and pitcher, 2008) and consider such practical fee structures a conventional practice. all in all, the findings of the study are consistent with earlier studies, but contribute to sector knowledge by linking the various components into a coherent system. closing the discussion the aim of the study was to determine the means and mechanisms which affect the capacity of the project alliance to generate value for money. the related work was done based on the views of the case study project’s experts by systematically modelling them. stage-wise personal interviews of experts allowed extensive mapping of impact chains without the interference of group dynamics, rutted thinking and unbalanced orientation affecting the results. the integration of individual cognitive maps produced an extensive, probably comprehensive group map which initially contained about 100 concepts. streamlining of the map allowed highlighting essential factors without altering contents. moreover, the relative significance of the basic alliance solutions exerting their influence in the background and the relative expected outcomes of the key result areas were also evaluated. the result was achieved by a systematic, rigid process. the views of the interviewed experts were consistent and integratable. the impact model suggesting effective performance was also in line with the results of the case project (outcome; comparison with other delivery methods). these factors support the validity of the results in determining in detail the mechanisms that impacted the ability of alliancing to provide good value for money in the case project. the mechanisms of the impact model are also generally quite consistent with the big picture presented in literature, which means that there is no reason to harbour any major reservations about the results of the study. literature is also quite unanimous about the performance capacity of the alliance as suggested by the study. therefore, the study strengthens the current theoretical view on the capacity of a collaborative, open process and an incentivized, integrated organization to provide competitive results in challenging projects by means of, for instance, certain informal factors that serve as mediators in the impact mechanisms of formal alliance factors. moreover, the study increases our understanding of value creation mechanisms considerably as it describes the operating logic of the alliance in a detailed manner. yet here we are only dealing with a single project which does not allow formulating a universal alliancing theory. more cases of diverse types in different regions with congruent results are required for generalization. nevertheless, the fact that the results are based on a thorough analysis and are consistent with project performance and literature indicates that the model could serve as a basis for creating such a theory, which suggests that it would be worthwhile running further tests. thus, by providing the conceptual model, the study contributes to the knowledge about alliancing and potentially also lays the foundation for a more formal project alliance theory by explaining the capability of alliancing to produce value for money. the novelty value of the model lies primarily in that it connects the basic features, procedures and performance expectations of alliancing closely together, resulting in a comprehensive and coherent system description. no such specification of the alliance’s operating logic is known to have been made since the subject has been mainly addressed at the level of individual alliance principles. lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201755 the system model emphasises the holistic nature of alliancing due to many mutually reinforcing interactions – the entity is more than the sum of its parts. in other words, a system has several parts each of which affects the behaviour of the whole, but the effect that each part can have overall depends on the behaviour or properties of other parts (ackoff, 1974). therefore, the performance of the system is dependent on each of its parts, and any change may have an extraordinary impact on the performance. the practical implications of the work are related, firstly, to the fact that it is hard to make an outcome-based comparison of the performance of different project delivery systems that is indisputable in a world of individual projects, which is why the decision about using project alliancing may require more comprehensive understanding of the system’s functioning. this study can help in that. secondly, projects vary a lot as they have different goals and constraints. the details of the alliance must also be changed sometimes: non-adherence to individual principles might well be practical in some instances. the owner may wish, for instance, to select service providers separately (instead of a complete team) or use selection geared more toward full price. then, the system model can serve as a tool of planning when pondering the functioning of different applications deviating from the described ‘pure’ alliance. conclusion use of the alliance can contribute to the achievement of better than usual outcomes in case of challenging, complex projects that involve much uncertainty. the value generation of an alliance is based, according to the study, on the following formal solutions related to organisation and the process: • capability-based competition (54) • team formation by service providers themselves (55) • interactive selection (56) • selection-phase workshops (41) • early involvement of contractor (57) • owner’s participation in alliance (58) • cost transparency (26) • late final agreement (59) • possibility of termination (60) • tight project budget (61) • practical fee structures (62) • contractor’s fixed fee • designer’s percentage-based fee • joint bearing of risks (63) • target cost-based contract • incentive scheme for qualitative result areas • joint organisation and work division flexibility (64) • joint project office (65) • joint leadership team (66) • unanimous decisions (67), and • refraining from legal action. these factors are, with a few exceptions, initial concepts of the system model produced by the study (concepts represented by green ovals in figs. 2-4). selection-phase workshops and cost lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201756 transparency are, however, shown in the model as so-called (yellow) intermediary concepts, although they also are essential formal alliance solutions. the same applies to the principle of refraining from legal action though it was not raised at all when the model was being put together. the last two principles remind us about some other underlying precautions used in alliancing: financial audits, third party estimate reviews, etc. they may not improve the performance directly, but as a result, the option of wheeling and dealing is eliminated and successful implementation of the entire project is the only way for service providers to improve their bottom line. this is where the other listed formal solutions enter the picture to actively boost performance. accordingly, these formal (hard) process solutions should and will be complemented by other (softer) operational principles: innovation driven, committed, open and sincere cooperation are important for the success of an alliance project. in fact, the above formal factors are implemented to create common goals and interest in co-operation for the parties which supports the realisation of these softer principles (appearing as intermediary concepts in the model). all in all, the basic idea of alliancing is to make it in the best interest of all parties to solve problems and develop the project, which is supported by the model’s many parallel basic solutions synergistically and comprehensively. thus, the pure alliance described by the system model provides a greater boost to the implementation of a project than the sum of its parts, and deviation from the presented principles, just in the case of an individual principle, poses some risk. references ackoff, r., 1974. beyond problem solving. in: a. rapoport, ed. general systems. yearbook of the society for general systems research part vi. washington dc, us: society for general systems research vol. 19, pp. 237-39. alliance executive team, 2013. rantatunneli alliance project. project plan. tampere: tampere city, finnish transport agency, lemminkäinen infra, saanio & riekkola and a-insinöörit suunnittelu. alliance executive team, 2014. rantatunneli alliance project. value for money report, project development phase. tampere: tampere city, finnish transport agency, lemminkäinen infra, saanio & riekkola, a-insinöörit suunnittelu. alliance executive team, 2017. rantatunneli alliance project. value for money report, project completion phase. tampere: tampere city, finnish transport agency, lemminkäinen infra, saanio & riekkola, a-insinöörit suunnittelu (unpublished draft). bajari, p. and tadelis, s., 2001. incentives versus transaction costs: a theory of procurement contracts. rand journal of economics, 32(3), pp. 387-407. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2696361 bajari, p., houghton, s. and tadelis, s., 2014. bidding for incomplete contracts: an empirical analysis of adaptation costs. the american economic review, 104(4), pp. 1288-1319. https://doi.org/10.1257/ aer.104.4.1288 chen, g., 2013. cost management in project alliances: a framework based on interorganizational settings. phd. rmit university. chen, g., zhang, g., xie, y.-m. and jin, x.-h., 2012. overview of alliancing research and practice in the construction industry. architectural engineering and design management, 8(2), pp. 103-19. https://doi. org/10.1080/17452007.2012.659505 lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201757 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2696361 https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.104.4.1288 https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.104.4.1288 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2012.659505 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2012.659505 chen, l. and manley, k., 2014. validation of an instrument to measure governance and performance on collaborative infrastructure projects. journal of construction engineering and management, 140(5), 04014006. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000834 clegg, s., pitsis, t., rura-polley, t. and marosszeky, m., 2002. governmentality matters: designing an alliance culture of inter-organizational collaboration for managing projects. organization studies, 23(3), pp. 317-37. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840602233001 davies, j., 2008. alliance contracts and public-sector governance. phd. griffith university. davis, p., 2005. the application of relationship marketing to construction. phd. royal melbourne institute technology. davis, p. and love, p., 2011. alliance contracting: adding value through relationship development. engineering, construction and architectural management, 18(5), pp. 444-61. https://doi. org/10.1108/09699981111165167 decision explorer, 2002. user’s guide, version 3.2. kendal: banxia software limited. dird, 2015. national alliance contracting guidelines. guide to alliance contracting. canberra: australian government, department of infrastructure and regional development. dtf, 2006. project alliancing. practitioners’ guide. melbourne: the department of treasury and finance (dtf), state of victoria. dtf, 2009. in pursuit of additional value. a benchmarking study into alliancing in the australian public sector. melbourne: department of treasury and finance (dtf), state of victoria. eden, c., 2004. analyzing cognitive maps to help structure issues or problems. european journal of operational re-search, 159(3), pp. 673-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0377-2217(03)00431-4 eisenhardt, k., 1989. building theories from case study research. academy of management review, 14(4), pp. 532-50. https://doi.org/10.2307/258557 and https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1989.4308385 ely, 2011. tiesuunnitelman kustannusarvio ja kustannusjakoehdotus. valtatie 12 (tampereen rantaväylä) välillä santalahti – naistenlahti, tiesuunnitelma. [road plan-phase cost estimate and cost-sharing proposal. highway 12 (tampere lakeside road) santalahti–naistenlahti, road plan.] tampere: pirkanmaa centre for economic development, transport and the environment (ely). (in finnish) fta, 2012a. kehitysvaiheen allianssisopimus, luonnos. vt12 tampereen tunneli, allianssiurakka [development-phase alliance agreement, draft (provided as part of request for proposals). vt12 tampere tunnel, an alliance contract]. helsinki: finnish transport agency (fta). (in finnish) fta, 2012b. tarkennettu tarjouspyyntö. vt12 tampereen tunneli, allianssiurakka [revised request for proposals. vt12 tampere tunnel, an alliance contract]. helsinki: finnish transport agency (fta). (in finnish) fta, 2012c. toteutusvaiheen allianssisopimus, luonnos. vt12 tampereen tunneli, allianssiurakka [implementation-phase alliance agreement, draft (provided as part of request for proposals). vt12 tampere tunnel, an alliance contract]. helsinki: finnish transport agency (fta). (in finnish) gray, s., zanre, e. and gray s., 2014. fuzzy cognitive maps as representations of mental models and group beliefs. in: e. papageorgiou, ed. fuzzy cognitive maps for applied sciences and engineering – from fundamentals to ex-tensions and learning algorithms. berlin: springer publishing. pp. 29-48. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-642-39739-4_2 hauck, a., walker, d., hampson, k. and peters, r., 2004. project alliancing at national museum of australia – collaborative process. journal of construction engineering and management, 130(1), pp. 143-52. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:1(143) lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201758 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000834 https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840602233001 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111165167 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111165167 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0377-2217(03)00431-4 https://doi.org/10.2307/258557 https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1989.4308385 publishing.pp https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39739-4_2 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39739-4_2 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:1(143 ibrahim, c., 2014. development of an assessment tool for team integration in alliance projects. phd. university of auckland. https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/22812 ibrahim, c., costello, s. and wilkinson, s., 2016a. application of a team integration performance index in road infrastructure alliance projects. benchmarking: an international journal, 23(5), pp. 1341-62. https://doi.org/10.1108/bij-06-2015-0058 ibrahim, k., costello, s., wilkinson, s. and walker, d., 2016b. project alliancing: the case of road infrastructure projects in new zealand. in: chan, p. and neilson, c. eds. proceedings of the 32nd annual arcom conference, manchester, 5-7 september 2016. association of researchers in construction management, 1, pp. 175-84. jefferies, m., brewer, g. and gajendran, t., 2014. using a case study approach to identify critical success factors for alliance contracting. engineering, construction and architectural management, 21(5), pp. 465-80. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2012-0007 jefferies, m., rowlinson, s. and schubert, a., 2012. the procurement of indigenous social housing in australia: a project alliance approach. joint cib w70, w92 & tg72 international conference: delivering value to the community. university of cape town, cape town, south africa, 23-25 january 2012. kosko, b., 1986. fuzzy cognitive maps. international journal of man-machine studies, 24(1), pp. 65-75. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0020-7373(86)80040-2 kosko, b., 1988. hidden patterns in combined and adaptive knowledge networks. international journal of approximate reasoning, 2(4), pp. 377-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/0888-613x(88)90111-9 laan, a., voordijk, h. and dewulf, g., 2011. reducing opportunistic behaviour through a project alliance. international journal of managing projects in business, 4(4), pp. 660-79. https://doi. org/10.1108/17538371111164065 lahdenperä, p., 2009. project alliance. the competitive single target-cost approach. technical research centre of finland (vtt), espoo. vtt tiedotteita – research notes 2472. http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/ tiedotteet/2009/t2472.pdf lahdenperä, p., 2012. making sense of the multi-party contractual arrangements of project partnering, project alliancing and integrated project delivery. construction management and economics, 30(1), pp. 5779. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.648947 lahdenperä, p. 2015a. allianssiurakan arvontuoton mekanismit. johdon sosiaalinen kognitiivinen kartta. [value-creation mechanisms of alliancing. a social cognitive map of executives]. vtt, espoo. vtt technology 243. 66 p. + app. 10 p. (in finnish) http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/technology/2015/t243.pdf lahdenperä, p., 2015b. the beauty of incentivised capability-and-fee competition based target-cost contracting. in: the 8th nordic conference on construction economics and organization. procedia economics and finance, 21, pp. 609-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00219-1 lahdenperä, p., 2016. towards quantification of the economic efficiency advantage of alliancing in complex infrastructure projects. in: saari, a., and huovinen, p. eds. proceedings of the cib world building congress 2016 intelligent built environment for life, tampere, finland, 30 may – 3 june 2016. vol. iii. tampere: university of technology, construction management and economics, report 18. pp. 496-509. http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-952-15-3743-1 lloyd-walker, b., mills, a. and walker, d., 2014. enabling construction innovation: the role of a noblame culture as a collaboration behavioural driver in project alliances. construction management and economics, 32(3), pp. 229-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.892629 lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201759 https://researchspace.auckland.ac.nz/handle/2292/22812 https://doi.org/10.1108/bij-06-2015-0058 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2012-0007 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0020-7373(86)80040-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/0888-613x(88)90111-9 https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371111164065 https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371111164065 http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/tiedotteet/2009/t2472.pdf http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/tiedotteet/2009/t2472.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.648947 http://www.vtt.fi/inf/pdf/technology/2015/t243.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00219-1 http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-952-15-3743-1 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.892629 loraine, r., 1994. project specific partnering. engineering construction and architectural management, 1(1), pp. 5-16. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb020989 love, p., davis, p., chevis, r. and edwards, d., 2011. risk/reward compensation model for civil engineering infrastructure alliance projects. journal of construction engineering and management, 137(2), pp. 127-36. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000263 macdonald, c., 2011. value for money in project alliances. phd. rmit university. macdonald, c., walker, d. and moussa, n., 2013. towards a project alliance value for money framework. facilities, 31(5/6), pp. 279-309. https://doi.org/10.1108/02632771311307179 manley, k. and chen, l., 2016. the impact of client characteristics on the time and cost performance of collaborative infrastructure projects. engineering construction and architectural management, 23(4), pp. 511-32. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2015-0084 mistry, d. and davis, p., 2009. a client’s perspective of critical success factors in project alliances. in: dainty, a. ed. proceedings of 25th annual arcom conference, 7–9 september 2009, nottingham: association of researchers in construction management, pp. 217-26. morwood, r., scott, d. and pitcher, i., 2008. alliancing. a participant’s guide. brisbane: maunsell aecom. nicholson, j., 1991. rethinking the competitive bid. civil engineering, 61(1), pp. 66-68. özesmi, u. and özesmi, s., 2004. ecological models based on people’s knowledge: a multi-step fuzzy cognitive mapping approach. ecological modelling, 176(1-2), pp. 43–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ecolmodel.2003.10.027 rooney, g., 2009. project alliancing. the process architecture of a relationship based project delivery system for complex infrastructure projects. in: the 1st ama conference, singapore, 4-5 june 2009. singapore: asian mediation association (ama). ross, j., 2003. project alliancing – a strategy for avoiding and overcoming adversity. in: world project management week, 24-28 march 2003, gold coast, australia. rowlinson, s., cheung, f., simons, r. and rafferty, a., 2006. alliancing in australia – no-litigation contracts: a tautology? journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 132(1), pp. 77-81. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2006)132:1(77) scott, b., 2001. partnering in europe. incentive based alliancing for projects. london: thomas telford. https://doi.org/10.1680/pieibafp.29651 she, l.-y., 2014. understanding the conditions of trust between governance and management within project alliancing. phd. university of melbourne. she, l.-y., doloi, h. and mills, a., 2012. the soft systems approach to understanding trust in alliances in australia. the rics construction and property conference (cobra), royal institution of chartered surveyors (rics), 10-13 september 2012, las vegas. stehbens, k., wilson, o. and skitmore, m., 1999. partnering in the australian construction industry: breaking the vicious circle. in: bowen, p. and hindle, r. eds. cib w55 and w65 joint triennial symposium customer satisfaction: a focus for research and practice, 5-10 september 1999, cape town, south africa, pp. 195-201. lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201760 https://doi.org/10.1108/eb020989 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000263 https://doi.org/10.1108/02632771311307179 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2015-0084 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2003.10.027 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2003.10.027 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2006)132:1(77 https://doi.org/10.1680/pieibafp.29651 strahorn, s., gajendran, t. and brewer, g., 2013. mechanisms of trust and trust repair in relational contracting: a multiple perspective investigation of alliance projects. in: proceedings of the 19th cib world building congress (cibwbc2013), brisbane, 5-9 may 2013. sweeney, s., 2009. addressing market failure: using transaction cost economics to improve the construction industry’s performance. phd. university of melbourne. tamburro, n. and wood, p., 2014. alliancing in australia: competing for thought leadership. management, procurement and law, 167(2), pp. 75-82. https://doi.org/10.1680/mpal.13.00012 and https://doi.org/10.1680/mpl.14.00031 vainio, t., 2015. complex decision-making process of the public sector: case tampere rantaväylä. 8th nordic conference on construction economics and organization. procedia economics and finance, 21, pp. 104-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00156-2 vilasini, n., 2014. generating value in alliance contracts through the lean concept. phd. auckland university of technology. walker, d. and hampson, k. eds., 2003. procurement strategies. a relationship-based approach. oxford: blackwell science. walker, d. and jacobsson, m., 2014. a rationale for alliancing within a public-private partnership. engineering, construction and architectural management, 21(6), pp. 648-73. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ecam-09-2013-0087 walker, d. and lloyd-walker, b., 2014. the ambience of a project alliance in australia. engineering project organiza-tion journal, 4(1), pp. 2-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/21573727.2013.836102 walker, d. and lloyd-walker, b., 2015. collaborative project procurement arrangements. newtown square, pa: project management institute. walker, d., harley, j. and mills, a., 2015. performance of project alliancing in australasia: a digest of infrastructure development from 2008 to 2013. construction economics and building, 15(1), pp. 1-18. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i1.4186 weston, d. and gibson, g., 1993. partnering-project performance in us army corps of engineers. journal of management in engineering, 9(4), pp. 410-25. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)9742597x(1993)9:4(410) yin, r., 2014. case study research. design and methods. 5th edition. thousand oaks: sage publications. lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201761 https://doi.org/10.1680/mpal.13.00012 https://doi.org/10.1680/mpl.14.00031 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00156-2 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2013-0087 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2013-0087 https://doi.org/10.1080/21573727.2013.836102 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i1.4186 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)9742-597x(1993)9:4(410 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)9742-597x(1993)9:4(410 construction economics and building, 16(2), 1-13 copyright: construction economics and building 2016. © 2016 farshid rahmani, malik khalfan and tayyab maqsood. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 unported (cc by 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: rahmani, f., khalfan, m.m.a. and maqsood, t. 2016. lessons learnt from the use of relationship-based procurement methods in australia: clients’ perspectives, construction economics and building, 16(2), 1-13. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i2.4634 corresponding author: malik khalfan; email malik.khalfan@rmit.edu.au publisher: university of technology sydney (uts) epress lessons learnt from the use of relationship-based procurement methods in australia: clients’ perspectives farshid rahmani, malik m a khalfan and tayyab maqsood school of property, construction and project management, rmit university, australia abstract this paper aims to review the use of various construction procurement systems and present the development of relationship-based procurement (rbp) methods currently in use within the australian construction industry. therefore, this paper provides the historical development of procurement briefly and then focuses on the adoption of relationship-based procurement (rbp) approaches in the australian construction industry to investigate the future direction of the collaborative project procurement arrangements. semi-structured interviews with high-level managers in the australian state government organizations have been conducted to answer the research question. a discussion has been presented about the potential future tendency of the industry in adopting a rbp. the findings suggest that even though relationship based procurement systems offer significant benefits; they are not popular among the public sector decision makers because of inability to demonstrate value for money (vfm) propositions for public projects. other reasons which may cause a move away from using rbps in the future include the need for managers to fully engage throughout the project, and the lack of collaborative environment within the construction industry in general. keywords: procurement routes, australia, relationship-based procurement (rbp), construction clients. paper type: research article introduction procurement method is used to describe a variety of ways such as functions, organisations, resources, systems, processes and strategies (mcdermott, 1999; rowlinson and mcdermott, 1999; palaneeswaran, kumaraswamy and ng, 2003; nissen, 2009; love et al., 2012). the definition of procurement within construction has also evolved in last few decades. mohsini and davidson (1989, p.86) defined procurement initially as ‘the acquisition of new buildings, or space within buildings, either by directly buying, renting, or leasing from the open market, or by designing and building the facility to meet a specific need’. this was refined after one decade as ‘a strategy to satisfy the client‘s development and/or operational needs with respect to the provision of constructed facilities or a discrete life cycle’ (lenard and mohsini 1998, p.79). nissen (2009, p.247) explains that ‘procurement was once descriptive of the simple clerical activities associated with purchasing well-specified items, but it has evolved in some organizations to describe instead strategic partnering efforts made by senior executives’. the importance of using a right procurement method for a project, hence, cannot be overemphasized and has caused a proliferation of studies in this field in recent years (love, smith and regan https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i2.4634 construction economics and building, 16(2), 1-13 rahmani, khalfan and maqsood 2 2010a; love, smith and regan 2010b; love et al. 2008; love, skitmore and earl 1998; masterman 2002; miller et al. 2009; skitmore and marsden 1988). this paper aims to explore the present outlook of the clients for the adoption of emerging procurement methods in the future. the study focused on the public organizations in the australian construction industry. influenced by the aim of this study, the main question is: what is the perception of the clients towards the emerging procurements methods and what is envisaged for the future? this paper begins with a review of the salient literature on the procurement management domain to provide an overview of the new generation of procurement systems referred to as relationship-based procurement methods (rbp) which are relied on for partnering and collaborative relationships. the paper then reports the findings of the study about the construction client’s perception of the future trend of the rbp adoption in australia. literature review the construction industry is frequently described as being dominated by a ‘culture of confrontation’ in which a vicious cycle of mistrust, conflict and waste dominates (seymour and fellows 1999), and has attracted a great deal of criticism in recent years for its inability to meet the needs of its clients. many articles within academic and professional construction journals have identified problems such as cost and program overruns, poor quality and performance, low profitability, onerous contract conditions, and a multitude of disputes. the industry has been characterized by adversarial attitudes, with litigation often continuing long after projects have finished. seminal reports by latham (1994) and egan (1998) in the uk, both identified a pressing need for change. subsequently, the construction industry has embarked on a sustained campaign to overcome its perceived performance problems through a number of initiatives and radically different approaches to the procurement and management of construction projects. relationship-based procurement routes represent perhaps the most significant development to date as a means of improving project performance, whilst offering direct benefits to the whole supply chain. these new delivery systems aim to achieve specific business objectives by maximizing the effectiveness of each participant’s resources and establishing ongoing business relationships (wood 2005). partnering, probably the most popular term used to describe the collaborative approach, suggests that the project success is likely to occur when all of the parties involved work together for the good of the project rather than for the good of themselves independently (morledge, smith and kashiwagi, 2006) and seen by many to be a necessary new approach to managing what is often an unpredictable process with the traditional approaches (hinks et al. 1996; mcdermott and khalfan, 2006). a robust characterization is provided by stevens (1993) that partnering is recognition that every contract includes an agreement of good faith but partnering is not a contract itself. rather, it refers to working relationships between the parties that are developed based on trust, dedication to common goals, and an understanding of the expectations and values of each participant (contruction industry institute, 1991). partnering, therefore, can exist within a wide range of procurement methods; from traditional competitive design, bid and build for single project, to long-term commitments formed to respond to the total engineering, procurement, and construction needs of an owner (thompson and sanders, 1998). partnering aims to establish working relationships between stakeholders through a formal strategy of commitment and communication that is mutually developed. it attempts to create an environment where trust and teamwork prevent disputes, foster a co-operative bond to everyone’s benefit, and facilitate the completion of a successful project. hinks et al (1996) also define partnering as a structured management approach to facilitate team working across construction economics and building, 16(2), 1-13 rahmani, khalfan and maqsood 3 contractual boundaries, aiming to obtain specific business objectives by improving the efficiency and effectiveness of each party’s resources and building continuous business rapport. even though the need for high-level commitment is essential, there is also a need for internal readiness assessment to take place within an organization prior to commitment to enter into a partnering agreement. this means preparing the organization and reviewing internal procedures and documentation. the result of this process should be an organization that is prepared to work closely with another organization (mcgeorge and palmer, 1997). development of relationship-based procurement (rbp) methods in australia the australian construction industry suffered in the same way as the industry did in other parts of the world. national public works conference and national building and construction council joint working party (1990) indicated that during the late 1980’s, the australian building and construction industry had substantial increases in the incidence of contractual claims and disputes compared to the previous ten years (kwok and hampson, 1997). this trend continued with increasing disputation and litigation, and win-lose attitudes promoted increasingly with adversarial relationships among project team members. at last the final report of the royal commission into productivity in building industry in new south wales and gyles (1992) clearly indicated the need for a change; to a more cooperative approach to build mutual trust, respect and good faith to overcome the emerging environment of litigation within the industry. relationship-based approaches to project contracting have arisen in response to the above stated problems (manley, 2002). alliancing and early contractor involvement (eci) are two key forms of relationship-based approaches employed on construction projects (walker, hampson and peter, 2000). both methods subscribe to the concept of partnering which was introduced to australia during the 1990s as a technique for managing cultural environments of projects that can be applied to other procurement forms (masterman, 2002; walker and lloyd-walker, 2014). project-based partnering was developed by charles cowan in the us context in the early 1990s and has subsequently been adopted in australian road projects. originating in the uk, alliances first appeared in australia in the 1990s when the oil and gas industry began to use "project alliances" in the development of energy projects during the mid1990s. three major projects in western australia, namely wandoo oil, east spar gas field and port hedland iron ore were procured under the project alliance method. since then, many projects have been procured by alliancing including roxby downs metal ore in south australia, north side storage tunnel project in nsw; the national museum and institute for aboriginal and torres strait islander studies on the acton peninsula in the act, and a new waste water treatment plant at woodman point, south of perth in wa (abrahams and cullen, 1998). within the australian public sector there are different types of legal/commercial relationships in use that are referred to as “alliances”; for the australian public sector the term refers to a specific means of project delivery or ‘procurement option’ where the principal and contractor work together collaboratively in an effort to deliver outcomes of a project in a no blame/no-disputes environment with a shared risk mechanism (davies, 2008). early contractor involvement (eci) is another relationship based procurement method that strives to involve the contractor at the early stage of the project, normally soon after the feasibility planning approval process has been completed. the concept of early involvement of contractors, however, is not new and can be traced back to pre-industrial revolution times when master artisans worked with a client commissioned agent to build large-scale structures. the term was formally acknowledged in the industry during 1990s when the concept of buildability drew academics and participant interests including the construction industry institute in the us (cii) and its counterpart in australia (ciia) (walker and lloyd-walker, 2014). according to construction economics and building, 16(2), 1-13 rahmani, khalfan and maqsood 4 alliancing association of australasia (2008), eci contracting is a process where the designer and constructor work together in a contractual relationship with the client, firstly to scope and price a project and then to design and construct a project. in this two-stage procurement and contractual model, the client appoints design and construction professionals early in the project development process through a non-price based selection, on the basis of the contractor’s track record and availability, understanding of the project and quality of new ideas (laursen and myers, 2009), and those professionals assist in planning, assessing buildability and developing an “open book” target cost in conjunction with the client. the target cost is agreed before construction, and detailed arrangements for the distribution of potential extra costs or savings are determined (mosey, 2009). research method this research focuses on the clients who were involved in a rbp scheme. grounded theory methodology was used in this study as it was found an appropriate qualitative method for answering the research question. subsequent to an initial review of the literature it was decided that the concept of rbp was still new knowledge in the construction industry and there is a dearth of research in this area. on account of the novelty of rbp, grounded theory could provide an efficient means of generating new conceptual categories and illustrating the current situation. in order to identify the core categories, the analysis process adopted a ‘thematic analysis’ approach for the identification of common threads that extends throughout an entire interview or set of interviews. the process was also guided by the ‘constant comparison’ of participants’ responses considered as one of the core grounded theory analytical tenets highlighted by suddaby (2006). finally, all findings were integrated and collated to produce discussion and the subsequent conclusion. the strategy for recruitment of participants for this study was driven by the principles of ‘purposive sampling’ advocated by corbin and strauss (1998). the purposive sampling strategy seeks involvement of participants who could contribute to the generation of the concepts being explored. targeted participants were involved in the construction industry within australia and those who were involved in a rbp scheme. since rbps have been mainly adopted for infrastructure projects in australia, the infrastructure departments of state governments were selected as the targeted samples. all the departments had utilized a type of rbp as well as other traditional procurement methods for their completed infrastructure projects, or those projects in progress at the time of research. according to gibb and isack (2001) the regulated infrastructure clients are more knowledgeable about the construction process and standard components than other private or public clients. there are six states in australia with their own state constitution dividing the state’s government into the same divisions of legislature, executive, and judiciary as the federal government (australian government, 2015). approval to conduct the study within the organization was sought from senior executives of each state through emails (in total six requests sent). four departments responded to the request and agreed to participate in the research project. upon receipt of the approval, a list of candidates who had interest in participating in the research study, including their contact details, was requested. initial participants were sought through invitational emails sent directly to them or their secretary. as the study continued, additional participants were identified through a ‘snowball sampling’ approach. in addition, one leading professional consultant organization, specialist in the establishment and delivery of collaborative contracts for complex projects and programs, was also selected to moderate the possibility of biased perception of the clients toward the use of rbp. all interviewees were in senior leadership roles within their department with several decades of experience within their field of practice and could provide input regarding their experience in that area. construction economics and building, 16(2), 1-13 rahmani, khalfan and maqsood 5 since the analytical process of grounded theory aims to achieve theoretical saturation a state after which no more data makes any useful contribution, grounded theory methodology doesn’t impose any limit on the number of people to be interviewed in the research process (maqsood, 2006). the analysis process in this study adopted a ‘content analysis’ approach for the identification of common threads that extends throughout an entire interview or set of interviews. the process was also guided by the ‘constant comparison’ of participants’ responses considered one of the core grounded theory analytical tenets highlighted by suddaby (2006) in order to attain theoretical saturation of the concepts under exploration. the analysis reached theoretical saturation after fourteen individuals who had been involved directly in managing a rbp were interviewed. this sample could perfectly represent all four infrastructure departments of each state’s government in australia and the private professional consultant organization. semi-structured in-depth interviews with fourteen senior managers and key players of the organizations were conducted within three months in 2014. six individual interviews with respondents within organization 1; four individual interviews with respondents within organization 2; one individual telephone interviews with respondents within organization 3; one individual telephone interviews with respondents within organization 4; and two individual interviews with respondents within organization 5 were conducted. an overview of the interview participants’ details is provided in appendix 1. using in-depth interviewing technique enabled detailed discussion of the issues tackled in the research. each participant was asked a series of questions relating to their perspectives on the rbp method utilized recently, their overall assessment of the project outcomes as a result of the adopted rbp method, and the possibility of using a rbp method for the similar type of projects in the future. each interview took approximately one hour, was recorded and then transcribed. this yielded approximately 300 transcription pages. the analysis process was carried out with the use of the latest version of qualitative data analysis toolkits, qsr-nvivo10.0.303.0, to organize and assist with the analysis of contents from interviews. validity and consistency validity and consistency of the findings were ensured by closely following the strategies prescribed by merriam (1995) to strengthen internal validity, reliability and external validity. the notion of internal validity of the research was addressed as below: theoretical triangulation: practicing theoretical coding procedures as close as possible to the analytical coding procedure described by strauss and corbin (1990) and confirming the findings with the substantive literature. member check: transcription derived from the audio recorded interviews was sent back to the interview respondent from whom the data was gathered, to check and confirm that the transcription was accurate and plausible. peer/colleague examination: findings of this study were constantly checked and examined by experienced internal and external researchers. statement of researcher biases: every effort was made to explain the whole process of the research study and present the researcher’s experience, assumptions and biases towards collecting, interpreting and developing the results. construction economics and building, 16(2), 1-13 rahmani, khalfan and maqsood 6 engagement in the research situation: the duration of each individual interview was long enough to ensure that all interview questions were sufficiently answered and discussed by participants and an in-depth understanding of the phenomenon had been attained. in the social science in which people and human behaviors are involved, measurements and observations can be repeatedly wrong, hence the whole notion of reliability in and of itself is problematic (merriam, 1995). lincoln and guba (1985) pointed out that in qualitative studies the question is not whether the results of one study are the same as the results of a second or third study. instead the qualitative researchers need to demonstrate that the results of a study are consistent with the data collected. in an effort to ensure for greater consistency of this study, some of the strategies used for internal validity could be employed as suggested by merriam (1995) i.e. triangulation and peer examination. beside those, the process as to how the data was collected, how categories were derived and how decisions were made throughout the study (merriam, 1998) was described in detail in preparation for this research. the soundness of the results was then confirmed by the interview participants. strategies adopted to ensure the external validity of this study are highlighted below: thick description: detailed description of the research process throughout all phases was provided, enabling readers to determine how this research closely matched their situation and whether the findings are transferable (merriam, 1995). the details towards the conceptualization and formulation of the results also enable other researchers with any perspectives to follow the analysis process, to understand the analytical logics, and confirm the plausibility of the explanation of the phenomenon (corbin and strauss, 1998) multi-site design: this study used 14 experts from 4 different client organizations within different states in australia and one professional consultant organization located in victoria in attempt to allow the results to be applied to a greater range of other similar situations (glaser and strauss, 1967). results the participants interviewed had different perception toward their experience of using a rbp method for their projects. responses varied from utterly positive with outstanding outcomes, to very negative with a great regret at not using a traditional method instead. there were also a range of responses indicating mixed success with a rbp method. for example, one participant commented that ‘we had some very successful projects by using a relationship-based contract. it enabled us to reform the initial relationship with the contractor and build a more cooperative type of relationship leading to an outstanding success’ (p8). another response that implied a mixed success was ‘we have had some very good successes and a couple that have not gone as well as we would have liked’ (p10). there were also negative comments such as ‘there were a couple of rbp for rail electrification that they haven’t delivered on time and we have been pretty disappointed in the results. the critical question mark was that perhaps we could have gotten a better outcome if we had just gone into a competitive tender’ (p7). from the analysis, particular issues were identified that clearly caused clients to become cynical about using a rbp. key themes emerging from the clients interviews are summarized below: lack of competition rbps were criticized by clients as impeding the demonstration of value for money, especially when ,accountability for public expenditure is required to be manifested to the government. even though clients admittedly indicated that the competition would undermine the quality of construction economics and building, 16(2), 1-13 rahmani, khalfan and maqsood 7 the working relationship with contractors, lack of competition inherent in the rbp characteristics was reported as being more problematic due to inability of clients to attain a benchmark for comparing the value of delivering the project under a rbp with a lump sum design and construct (d&c) with that of design-bid and build (dbb). commenting on this, participant p9 explained that ‘…rbps are a bit of, or potentially, a bit of a softer price. so, you don’t have the hard competitive edge that you would in a traditional contracting sense of d&c or construct-only types. our challenge was to ensure that there was a value for money outcome, that it was going to give us what we expected in terms of scope, and then once we agreed on price, we had to go to the cabinet to get approval to award the contract.’ in addition, some of the respondents argued that innovation is driven by competition. contrary to the general perception that rpbs facilitate innovation, lack of competition was seen as an impediment to obtaining innovative ideas by contractor. innovation can be seen as a competitive advantage of the opponents to win the contract in a competitive environment, however when one contractor is appointed with no competition, the necessity to push the limits is eased and the sole contractor prefers having design and/or delivery of the project go along as usual. one participant indicated that ‘…my honest opinion is that competition drives innovation and if you’ve got no competition, contractors will want a business as usual approach for that and i don’t think they’ll actually push the boundaries because they’ll think, once they’re on board, we will do what we normally do and this is what it will cost.’ (p7) misinterpretation of the relationship clients believed that some contractors did not understand the principles of rbps properly in that a relationship framework did not override the requirements of the contract. contractors often misinterpreted what the contract required and they perceived the relational contracting as an opportunity to avoid or work around the contract by using the relationship instead of being aware that the relationship was there just to help to smooth the contract. in some instances, this misinterpretation engendered destruction to the working relationship between the client and contractor as a result of not respecting the hierarchy of the communication that had been defined in the contract. the participant p4 argued that’…certainly there is a lot of confusion, not a lot but typically our problems deteriorate on our rbp projects when people do not understand that whilst we have a relationship framework, it does not override the requirements of the contract, so they misinterpret what the contract requires and they think that they can neglect or disregard the contract by using the relationship that we have. it is a big challenge to make everyone in the project understands that the relationship is to facilitate how we should work the contract out’. resource hungry the need for involvement of high level management teams from client’s side throughout the project was reported as another challenge clients have encountered. on top of the design teams, clients had to add their internal designers also as the custodian of the standards, to answer the potential questions and provide advices. they had to acquire trained persons for the administration of the process, ensuring the whole process was progressing as per the plan and that teams were operating efficiently. respondents described the instances in which resources were tight and providing enough internal expertise was a big challenge that they had to deal with. participant p2 explained that ‘...we’re tying up three contractor and designer teams for the period of several months. we also have to add our internal resources on top to sort of feed that process as well, so we generally have an embedded designer in each team and they’re effectively full-time with that project team. we have to have our people also so we can contact our engineering and technology branch, to make sure the process is in line with standards. we have to have the right construction economics and building, 16(2), 1-13 rahmani, khalfan and maqsood 8 people there on top to respond to the team inquiries and guide them accordingly. we’ve got to have skilled experts to govern the process and direct the teams…bringing all the available resources all along the journey to support the delivery teams is very difficult’. however, the use of some rbp alternatives such as eci, in which elements of traditional contracts could be traced, was the solution to some extent. cultural barriers culture of organization is viewed as one of the key factors in successful implementation of a rbp. the need for substantial changes in the organizational culture was identified as being a reason for clients becoming reluctant to adopt rbp for their projects. the culture of partnering requires different sorts of personalities and attitudes of key players towards the project parties. on one hand, clients are not able to discard the experienced managers, since their skills and knowledge are crucial to delivery of the project, yet on the other hand, experienced managers have a completely different mindset towards working relationships as they have grown up in an environment that is adversarial or always has been adversarial. they find it difficult to transition into more of a relationship type of environment. participant p3 stated that ‘the problem is that staffs around the place get different ideas from different methodologies. they all bring different experiences to the table. contractors are the same. i see this all the time. i'm actually seeing it on a project at the moment. if the contractors have traditionally worked in client-led design system, they have certain perceptions. if they’ve worked in a hard-dollar d&c or an alliance, they once again have different perceptions. so, if you want to facilitate or run a rbp, it needs to be championed by someone who knows what they're doing. that’s the catch’. unsuitability of the project project procurement choice is influenced by a number of factors. size and complexity of a project were identified as being important determinants for clients adopting rbp. normally, large projects with a high degree of complexity are more suited to rbp as the upfront costs of the project should be justified by the potential gains through using rbp. in addition, the pain/gain share mechanism as the underlying principle of rbp compensation regime is justifiable only if the cost of risk eventuation associated with the project is more, or equal to, the extra money the contractor would earn if the risks are managed jointly. therefore, it is generally accepted that small and straight forward projects can be better managed and delivered by conventional procurement methods. ‘…as an average statement i would say a simpler project would not need so much design work done, whereas as a more complex project you might need to take the design forward; you might need to go well beyond concept design; you might need to go as far as fully design stage to get good value or best value by collaborating with the contractor. so, i suppose i’m resting on the issue of project complexity, or perhaps more appropriately the degree of uncertainty in the project when considering rbp for the project’ (p14). however, clients admitted that ,choice of rbp in many instances was not based on the factors pertaining to the project characteristics. rather, some other factors such as political or the market situation influenced the decisions in favor of selecting rbp system. a senior contract manager of one of the organizations for instance said ‘… to select rbp for a project, we will look at the characteristics of the existing industry at the time, or the market availability at the time. we would look at the market or the industry's capability and availability. if you've got a highly competitive marketplace you could argue rbps may not deliver as much value.’ (p1). or a general manager of another organization who was involved in major transportation projects emphasized that ‘… it is sometimes basically dictated by certain factors which cannot be controlled, such as political environment, the community related things, which can force you go construction economics and building, 16(2), 1-13 rahmani, khalfan and maqsood 9 into one direction, from the other. so in choosing a rbp they are also part of the influencing parameters’. (p6). clients also explained that in some instances, rbp was used as a trial to experiment with new methods of procurement in an effort to understand the process and learn the differences with the other procurement options. a project director at the infrastructure delivery directorate pointed out that ‘the rbp that we did was more or less a bit of a trial. it worked reasonably well, but we haven't done another one since. maybe that's an indication of where we're at, that maybe things are better done as a d&c , rbps don’t really apply all that often’(p11). discussion the central tenet of using a relationship based procurement method is that the collaborative relationship between parties can address the inefficiency of the construction industry (egan, 1998; latham, 1994). in recent years there has been a growing interest in the use of these procurement systems in the construction industry. however, despite the industry reports a large number of successful projects delivered under a relationship based procurement method, the use of these strategies is being placed under scrutiny and there is still considerable disagreement about the actual value they can add to the projects (barlow et al. 1997; bresnen and marshall, 2000; thompson and sanders, 1998). the findings of this study have suggested that clients consider the use of these strategies with extra care. one of the challenges for the pure relational methods such as alliances, is responding to the need to demonstrate value for money. since governments utilize relational contracting for major public projects, exploring and testing the value for money proposition are the key factors that will determine the use of these strategies in the future. nevertheless, these models remain unproven for a number of authorities in government departments who influence the procurement decisions for projects (walker and lloyd-walker, 2014). relationship-based procurement approaches have been unable to demonstrate the full value of what they have done and it probably does not make sense from an accounting point of view, since they look more expensive than traditional delivery models. however the concern regarding value for money can, in part, be addressed by the transparency that arises from the usual audit processes put in place for the project (greenham, 2007). another challenge in using relational contracting suggested by practitioners, is the contractors’ misunderstanding of the working relationships and the contractual requirements. fundamental change in the perception of contractor toward the contractual obligations is required when the working relationship with the client is characterized as collaborative. while implication of a formal contract is insufficient to ensure effective working relationship between client and contractor (merrow, 2011), the existence of a formal contract is essential to govern the entire project delivery process. this finding supports the prior finding by suprapto et al. (2015) that a formal contract is important to structure the clarity of roles and responsibilities among parties, although relatively less influential on the working relationships. contractors therefore need to refrain from exploiting the soft aspect of a relational contract in favor of their own benefits. instead, the relationship with the client should be perceived as an opportunity to facilitate the delivery of project under governance of the contract. notably the client’s internal environment has a significant influence on the decision whether or not a relationship-based procurement strategy should be adopted. two main aspects of the internal environment that identified as barrier or driver of using such strategies are the in-house resource availability and the working culture of key players. while the involvement of high-level management is essential in relationship based procurement methods (ross, 2003), in some instances clients experienced difficulty in allocating adequate numbers of people into the project as a result of either the staff shortage or the lack of alignment between an individual’s culture and orientation with the principles of the rbp culture (morwood et al., 2008). construction economics and building, 16(2), 1-13 rahmani, khalfan and maqsood 10 finally, the findings have suggested that clients are becoming more mature in the selection of rbps for projects as a result of learning from previous projects. this greater maturity has caused a reduction in the popularity of rbps as clients carefully evaluate the suitability of the project to be procured under rbp rather than using it as a leap of faith. this proposes that despite the possibility of a decline in the rate of using rbp for public projects, the number of rbp projects with higher success is more likely to increase. conclusion this paper provided the historical development of procurement briefly and then focused on the adoption of relationship-based procurement (rbp) approaches in the australian construction industry, to investigate the future direction of collaborative project procurement arrangements. the use of collaborative procurement methods in the past few decades has been significantly increased and australia is one of the pioneers in the utilization of alliancing and eci that can be defined as the purest relationship-based procurement systems. this study has identified some significant factors that negatively affect client use of relationship based procurement methods. it has shown that despite appreciation of collaborative procurement methods by those who have been involved directly in such models, issues such as inability of these methods to fully demonstrate value for money, cultural misalignment of senior managers with rbps underlying culture, and the demand to engage senior level resources throughout the project, are the main reasons for a trend away from utilizing rbps. however the industry appears to be more mature in adopting rbp for projects and making more informed decisions due to learning from previous project outcomes, to ensure the right project is procured under a collaborative method. references abrahams, a. and cullen, a., 1998. project alliance in the construction industry. australian construction law newsletter, 62, pp.31-36. alliancing association of australia-aaa 2008. report on project alliancing activities in australasia 2008, the alliancing association of australasia limited, australia australian government, 2015. state and territory government. [online] available at: http://www.australia.gov.au/about-government/how-government-works/state-and-territory-government [accessed 8 oct 2013]. barlow, j. 2000. innovation and learning in complex offshore construction projects. research policy, vol. 29 (7) , pp.973-989. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0048-7333(00)00115-3 bresnen, m., and marshall, n. 2000. motivation, commitment and the use of incentives in partnerships and alliances. construction management and economics, vol 18(5), pp. 587-598 construction industry institute, 1991. in search of partnering excellence. bureau of engineering research. austin, tx: university of texas. corbin, j. and strauss, a., 1998. basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. 2nd ed. thousand oaks: sage publications. davies, j.p., 2008. alliance contracts and public sector governance. phd. griffith university. available at: https://www120.secure.griffith.edu.au/rch/file/f290d391-d099-2ad1-4a01-814daf88434d/1/02whole.pdf egan, j., 1998. rethinking construction. london: department of trade and industry. gibb, a.g. and isack, f., 2001. client drivers for construction projects: implications for standardization. engineering construction and architectural management, 8(1), pp.46-58. available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-232x.2001.00184.x/pdf and doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eb021169 glaser, b.g. and strauss, a.l., 1967. the discovery of grounded theory: strategies for qualitative research. new brunswick: aldine de gruyter. greenham, p., 2007. alliancing: a glimpse of the real world view. minter ellison lawyers, melbourne. hinks, j., cooper, r., allen, s. and carmichael, s. 1996. is partnering a state of mind? a comparison of manufacturing and construction, in esrc/epsrc workshop on partnering in construction, university of salford, 13 may. kwok, t. and hampson, k., 1997. strategic alliances between contractors and subcontractors: a tender evaluation criterion for the public works sector. in: construction process re-engineering: proceedings of the international conference on http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0048-7333%2800%2900115-3 https://www120.secure.griffith.edu.au/rch/file/f290d391-d099-2ad1-4a01-814daf88434d/1/02whole.pdf http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1365-232x.2001.00184.x/pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/eb021169 construction economics and building, 16(2), 1-13 rahmani, khalfan and maqsood 11 construction process re-engineering. gold coast, australia, 14-15 july 2007. available at: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/30067/1/30067.pdf laursen, t., and myers, b. 2009. public investment management in the new eu member states: strengthening planning and implementation of transport infrastructure investments, world bank publications, vol.161. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-7894-6 latham, m., 1994. constructing the team. final report of the government/industry review of procurement and contractual arrangements in the uk construction industry. london: hmso. available at: http://constructingexcellence.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/constructing-the-team-the-lathamreport.pdf http://www.greenspecdownload.co.uk/files/6013/9987/6664/latham-reportconstructing-the-team.pdf lenard, d. and mohsini, r. 1998. recommendations from the organisational workshop, cib w-92 procurement – the way forward, the university of montreal, 18–22 may davidson c. h. and t. a. meguid, cib, 1: 79–81. lincoln, y.s. and guba, e.g., 1985. naturalistic inquiry. thousand oaks: sage publications. love, p.e.d., davis, p., baccarini, d., wilson, g. and lopez, r., 2008. procurement selection in the public sector: a tale of two states. in: clients driving innovation: proceedings of benefiting from innovation conference. gold coast, australia 12-14 march 2008. available at: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/27175/ love, p.e.d., edward, d.j., irani, z. and sharif, a., 2012. participatory action research approach to public sector procurement selection. journal of construction engineering and management, asce, 138(3), pp.311-22. available at: doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000440 love, p., skitmore, m. and earl, g., 1998. selecting a suitable procurement method for a building project. construction management and economics, 16(2), pp.221-33. available at: doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/014461998372501 love, p., smith, j. and regan, m., 2010a. comparative procurement methodology analysis in australia: a new approach. proceedings of w092-special track 18th cib world building congress. salford, united kingdom, may 2010 p.37. available at: http://www.irbnet.de/daten/iconda/cib_dc24228.pdf#page=45 love, p., smith, j. and regan, m. 2010b. procurement method selection in practice: a journal to discover the optimal. in cib world congress 2010: building a better world, may 10, 2010, salford quays, manchester, uk: the university of salford, school of built environment, maxwell building, salford, uk. maqsood, t., 2006. the role of knowledge management in supporting innovation and learning in construction. phd theses. rmit university. available at: https://researchbank.rmit.edu.au/eserv/rmit:6223/maqsood.pdf manley, k., 2002. partnering and alliancing on road projects in australia and internationally. road and transport research, 11(3), pp.46-60. available at: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/7286/ masterman, j.w.e., 2002. an introduction to building procurement system. 2nd ed. london: spon press., mcdermott, p., 1999. strategic and emergent issues in construction procurement. in: rowlinson, s. and mcdermott, p.e., eds., procurement systems: a guide to best practice in construction. london: f. spon. pp.3-26. mcdermott, p. and khalfan, m.m.a., 2006. achieving supply chain integration within construction industry. the australian journal of construction economics and building, 6(2), pp.44-5. available at: doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v6i2.2983 mcgeorge, d. and palmer, a. 1997. construction management: new directions, blackwell, oxford. merriam, s., 1995. what can you tell from an n of l?: issues of validity and reliability in qualitative research. paace journal of lifelong learning, 4(1995), pp.51-60. available at: https://www.iup.edu/workarea/downloadasset.aspx?id=18193 merriam, s.b., 1998. qualitative research and case study applications in education. revised and expanded from "case study research in education". san fransisco: jossey-bass publishers. available at: eric http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed415771 merrow, e.w., 2011. industrial megaprojects: concepts, strategies, and practices for success. new york: john wiley & sons. miller, g., furneaux, c., davis, p., love, p. and o'donnell, a., 2009. built environment procurement practice: impediments to innovation and opportunities for changes. perth: curtin university of technology. mohsini, r., and davidson, c.h., 1989. building procurement – key to improved performance. in cheetham, d., carter, d., lewis, t., and jaggar, d.m., contractual procedures for building: proceedings of the international workshop, 6-7, april, university of liverpool. morledge, r., smith, a. and kashiwagi, d.t., 2006. building procurement. oxford: blackwell publishing ltd. morwood, r., scott, d., pitcher, i. and aecom. 2008. alliancing: a participant's guide: real life experiences for constructors, designers, facilitators and clients. brisbane: maunsell aecom. mosey, d. 2009, early contractor involvement in building procurement: contracts, partnering and project management, wileyblackwell. npwc/nbcc joint working party and national public works conference (australia) and national building and construction council (australia), 1990. no dispute: strategies for improvement in the australian building and construction industry: report by npwc/nbcc joint working party. national public works conference dickson, act. available from http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/record/1827786 http://eprints.qut.edu.au/30067/1/30067.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-7894-6 http://www.greenspecdownload.co.uk/files/6013/9987/6664/latham-report-constructing-the-team.pdf http://www.greenspecdownload.co.uk/files/6013/9987/6664/latham-report-constructing-the-team.pdf https://www.google.com.au/search?biw=1920&bih=969&q=thousand+oaks&stick=h4siaaaaaaaaaopge-luz9u3sew2mc9r4gaxiyyslbsmmsqt9jpzc3jsk0sy8_p084vse_myqxjbngkrjntelmlsxkks1kjihzz8zlawanv_kgvlaaaa&sa=x&sqi=2&ved=0ahukewi19qzc8ajjahxk6kykhrfpddaqmxmigweoatao http://eprints.qut.edu.au/27175/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/%28asce%29co.1943-7862.0000440 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/014461998372501 http://www.irbnet.de/daten/iconda/cib_dc24228.pdf%23page=45 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v6i2.2983 https://www.iup.edu/workarea/downloadasset.aspx?id=18193 http://eric.ed.gov/?id=ed415771 http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/record/1827786 construction economics and building, 16(2), 1-13 rahmani, khalfan and maqsood 12 nissen, m.e. 2009. procurement: process overview and emerging project management techniques. in: morris, p. and pinto, j.k. eds., the wiley guide to project technology, supply chain, and procurement management. hanboken: wiley. chapter 11. palaneeswaran, e., kumaraswamy, m. and ng, t., 2003. targeting optimum value in public sector projects through 'best value' – focused contractor selection. engineering, construction and architectural management, 10(6), pp.418-31. available at: doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09699980310509390 ross, j., 2003. introduction to project alliancing. project control international pty limited (pci group). available at: www.pcigroup.com.au/publications_pci/ rowlinson, s. and mcdermott, p., 1999. procurement system: a guide to best practice. london: spon press. royal commission into productivity in the building industry in new south wales and gyles, r.v., 1938-1992. final report. the commission, sydney. seymour, d.e. and fellows, r.f. 1999. towards a culture of quality in the construction industry, in ogunlana, s. o. profitable partnering in construction procurement. london: e&fn spon, pp. 511-521. skitmore, r. and marsden, d., 1988. which procurement system? towards a universal procurement selection technique. construction management and economics, 6(1), pp.71-89. available at: doi: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01446198800000008 stevens, d., 1993. partnering and value management. the australian institute of quantity surveyors journal, the building economist, september , 5-7. strauss, a. and corbin, j.m., 1990. basics of qualitative research: grounded theory procedures and techniques. thousand oaks: sage publications inc. suprapto, m., bakker, h.l., mooi, h.g. and moree, w., 2015. sorting out the essence of owner–contractor collaboration in capital project delivery. international journal of project management, 33(3), pp.664-83. available at: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s026378631400091x. and doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.05.001 suddaby, r., 2006. from the editors: what grounded theory is not. academy of management journal, 49(4), pp.633-42. available at: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/253203051_from_the_editors_what_grounded_theory_is_not thompson, p.j. and sanders, s.r., 1998. peer-reviewed paper: partnering continuum. journal of management in engineering, 14(5), pp.73-8. available at: http://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/%28asce%290742597x%281998%2914:5%2873%29. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(1998)14:5(73) walker, d.h.t., hampson, k.d. and peter, r.j., 2000. relationship-based procurement strategies for the 21st century. canberra: ausinfo. walker, d.h.t. and lloyd-walker, b., 2014. collaborative project procurement arrangements. newtown square, pa: project management institute. wood ,g., 2005. partnering practice in the relationship between clients and main contractors. rics research paper series, march 2005, 5(2). available at: http://usir.salford.ac.uk/510/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09699980310509390 http://www.pcigroup.com.au/publications_pci/ http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/01446198800000008 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s026378631400091x http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.05.001 http://www.researchgate.net/publication/253203051_from_the_editors_what_grounded_theory_is_not http://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/%28asce%290742-597x%281998%2914:5%2873%29 http://ascelibrary.org/doi/abs/10.1061/%28asce%290742-597x%281998%2914:5%2873%29 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/%28asce%290742-597x%281998%2914:5%2873%29 http://usir.salford.ac.uk/510/ construction economics and building, 16(2), 1-13 rahmani, khalfan and maqsood 13 appendix 1: details of interviewees ref department role notes and comments p1 state program office-program delivery and operations director of programs and specialist delivery involved in delivery of projects, mainly transport industry, for about 30 years p2 state program office-program delivery and operations director of program services working for over 25 years including delivering marine projects and major road projects p3 state program office-program delivery and operations assistant director in infrastructure management and delivery worked in construction for over 30 years mainly for major infrastructure projects p4 state program office-program delivery and operations construction team leader worked for the department for more than 20 years and performed mostly consulting role with designers and contract administrators. p5 north district office in program delivery and operations branch of the department principal engineer (civil) working over 40 years mainly in road construction looking after contracts and building major infrastructure p6 state program office-program delivery and operations general manager working for more than 20 years in traffic and transportation. p7 contracting services general manager working in the department for 33 years and has worked for various design and construct sections p8 rail at public transport services senior contract manager working for 16 years in civil engineering and performed as a contract manager within the department p9 rail revitalization program project director worked in the major capital projects delivery area for 16 years including revitalization of the metro and suburban rail net way p10 network safeguard and development general manager working for more than 20 years for the department in the contract management and project management p11 infrastructure delivery directorate project director worked for the department for about 20 years and been involved in a number of major road works contracts including alliance-type contracts and an eci contract p12 department of major projects project manager working for more than 20 years for the department including large contracts projects p13 specialist consultant founder of the organization over 30 year experience in rbp methods p14 specialist consultant senior consultant and partner worked in management consulting for 30 years. literature review research method validity and consistency results discussion conclusion references © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: ahmed, v., saboor, s., almarzooqi, f. a., alshamsi, h. a., alketbi, m. a., and al marei, f. a. 2021. a comparative study of energy performance in educational buildings in the uae. construction economics and building, 21:3, 33–57. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v21i3.7681 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021 article (peer reviewed) a comparative study of energy performance in educational buildings in the uae vian ahmed1,*, sara saboor2, fatima ahmed almarzooqi3, hessa ahmed alshamsi4, mariam abdalla alketbi5, fatema ahmed al marei6 1,2,3,4,5,6 dept of industrial engineering, american university of sharjah, united arab emirates corresponding author: vian ahmed, dept of industrial engineering, american university of sharjah, united arab emirates, vahmed@aus.edu doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7681 article history: received: 14/04/2021; revised: 08/06/2021; accepted: 27/06/2021; published: 10/09/2021 abstract sustainability has gained popularity and importance around the globe due to the ever increasing effects of climate change and global warming on earth. as of the 21st century, human endeavour has caused an enormous amount of damage to the environmental ecological system. among which, one of the major contributors to the increase in the environmental issues and co2 emissions are the conventional sources of energy, especially in the built environment. globally, the built environment accounts for 12 percent of the world’s drinkable water, 40 percent of energy wastage and 35 percent of scarce natural resources, which in turn produces 40 percent of the total global carbon emission. among which are educational buildings which tend to be a major contributor (as most of these facilities are old and conventionally built in the mid 1900’s) thus, with the education sector being an essential part of society, it becomes important to determine the energy performance and carbon footprint of these buildings. the united arab emirates (uae) vision 2021 highlights the country’s approach to the importance of providing the best education and adopting sustainable environmental infrastructure. therefore, this study adopts a methodological approach based on semistructured interviews and surveys, in order to compare the energy performance of three educational buildings within higher education establishments in the uae as a case study. the study also evaluates the end user’s awareness of the importance of sustainable practices in the buildings and their preference of these buildings. the findings of this study conclude that net zero energy buildings (nzebs) are the most efficient buildings in terms of energy performance, carbon 33 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7681 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7681 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7681 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:vahmed@aus.edu http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7681 consumption and heat generated. therefore, it is important that the integration of these types of buildings are considered in educational establishments. introduction sustainability has gained popularity and importance around the globe due to the everincreasing effects of climate change and global warming on earth ( jordan, 2021). as of the 21st century human endeavour has caused an enormous amount of damage to the environmental ecological system. as per the latest report by nasa, 2020, the carbon dioxide level in the air is 415 parts per million which is the highest in 650,000 years; global temperature has risen up to 2.1 degrees fahrenheit with 19 of the warmest years since 2000; arctic ice decline of 13.1 percent per decade that shrank to the lowest extent on the record since 2012; ice sheets losing mass with 427 billion metric tons per year and sea levels increasing about 3.3 mm per year. the statistics depict the image of a falling earth with its resources getting scarcer year by year, where the major contributor to the increase in the environmental issues and co2 emissions are the conventional sources of energy, especially in the built environment. globally, the built environment accounts for 12 percent of the world’s drinkable water; 40 percent of energy wastage and 35 percent of the scarce natural resources, which in turn produces 40 percent of the total global carbon emission (gobain, 2020). thus, this calls for the need to adopt green construction practices and effective management of natural resources as the need of the hour for mitigation of the reduction of energy consumption and co2 emission in the built environment. parallel to this, literature reports on a significant growth and interest in achieving zero energy targets on an international level, for example in the united states of america in which the initiative is part of the energy independence and security act of 2007 (eisa) as well as the united kingdom initiative of energy performance of buildings 2010 (epbd) with the recent uk parliament legislation in june 2019 committing the government to reduce the net emission by 100 percent relative to 1990 levels by 2050. similarly, other nations such as sweden, scotland, france, denmark, european union (eu), spain, chile, fiji and china also passed on the legislation to achieve their net zero target by 2050. likewise, the gulf cooperation council (gcc) also experiences huge energy and environmental challenges, with recent trends suggesting the realization by the gcc of adopting sustainability as the essential concept for the region. this is evident by the united arab emirates initiatives such as the 2021 national agenda in 2014 to meet the longterm needs and improve the quality of resources as well as to expand the involvement of clean and green energy in the country. as part of this initiative the uae planned to produce 27 percent of its electricity from sustainable sources by 2021 to secure the energy demands for the next generations (mazumder, 2016). in addition, the uae was one of the parties that agreed to the adoption of the paris agreement treaty on climate change at the paris 21st conference of parties (cop21), which emphasizes the uae vision to move forward with achieving its 2030 mission. this said, and although there are a number of initiatives that have been proposed globally to achieve the net zero energy target in residential and commercial buildings, little has been reported on the utilisation of zero energy buildings in the uae in general and educational buildings in particular (marszal, et al., 2011). literature shows that the ‘education sector’ is a significant contributor to the nations’ success while allowing societies to progress and flourish (ahmed, abu alnaaj and saboor, 2020). therefore, it is important to consider the adoption of sustainable practices in educational buildings, in order to set a leading example for the adaptation of sustainable practices, which have a positive effect on the socioeconomic and health of the occupants of buildings. therefore, given the growing interest of the uae in global education, and the fact that the uae is a growing hub for a number of national and international universities, this study, inspired by a number of studies such as (agdas, et al., 2015 and yeo, et al., 2019) is focused on examining the amount of energy ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202134 consumption in a traditional educational building, and comparing it to a semitraditional building as well as a zero energy building in terms of energy efficiency and the preference of the end users of these buildings. energy consumption and sustainable buildings sustainability and sustainable development have become essential concepts for the survival of earth. sustainability is defined as living within an environment without causing any harm or damage to the environment for future generations (mazumder, 2016). furthermore, it is classified into three categories such as social, environmental, and economic sustainability to develop a balanced system (roncz, 2011). this implies that to form a balanced ecosystem, the concept of sustainable development must be adopted into every field. moreover, sustainable development can be defined as any kind of development that occurs for the present generation in order to meet their demands and needs without compromising the needs of the future generations from their requirement (abrahams, 2017). however, there are alarming statistics that show the impact of climate change causes around 12,000 extreme weather events since 1999 – 2018, which resulted in a loss of 4,95000 lives globally and losses of us$ 3.54 trillion as a direct result of these disasters (nasa, 2020). at the same time, studies show that there are key activities that have a significant impact on the ecosystem. these include activities reported by various sectors such as transportation, industrial and the agriculture sector which are a major contribution to climate change. whilst the energy sector and built environment alone contribute to 40 percent of the total global carbon emission with a complex, direct and an everlasting impact on the ecosystem. in addition, around 90 percent of the total material and resources extracted from the environment reside in the built environment globally, at the time of writing (bilgen, 2014). moreover, like other developed nations, the gulf cooperation council (gcc), economic and political association of six countries of the middle east such as saudi arabia, united arab emirates, kuwait, qatar, bahrain, and oman also experience huge energy and environmental challenges such as severe water scarcity, huge demand for energy and a high amount of co2 emissions. over the last few decades, the gcc has experienced a construction boom due to its huge and steady economic growth and modernization (asif, 2016). however, the growth and construction boom has put the gcc among the highest in the world in terms of energy consumptions and co2 emissions, with the average figure of per capita energy consumption for gcc being seven times higher than the global average as shown in figure 1. figure 1. annual per capita electricity consumption in mwh (source: asif, 2016) ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202135 as evident from the figure above, qatar and the uae are amongst the top six countries in the world in terms of metric tonnes of co2 emission per person with qatar accounting for 44 annual per capita co2 emissions and the uae accounting for 23 annual per capita co2 emissions. according to baldwin (2018), the building sector in the uae is the major consumer of the total amount of energy generated which results in an increase in the number of environmental issues such as global warming, increase in temperature of the region and the amount of co2 emissions. whilst a report by the dubai carbon centre of excellence identified the energy sector of the uae as the main reason for the increase of green house gases (ghg) as the electricity and water consumption level, which is considered much higher than other sectors, as shown in figure 2 below (mazumder, 2016). figure 2. ghg emission per sector in uae (source: mazumder, 2016) this figure illustrates that the building and energy sector in the uae has a significant impact on the environment and climate change as well as being major contributors to the increase in temperature of the region. in addition, the massive increase in the population of the uae has caused a huge increase in the energy demand, with a high concentration of ghg ( jayaraman, 2017). similarly, as reported by ipcc (2014), globally the ghg from buildings have more than doubled from 1970 to 2010 which account for onethird of the black carbon emission. in addition, most of ghg emissions are a result of the indirect co2 emissions from the buildings such as electricity uses, heating and transportation. the report further highlights that the indirect emission of residential buildings has quintupled, and emissions of commercial buildings have also been quadrupled. though the building sector alone is the major contributor of co2 emissions; however, as reported in the year 2010 the emission and the total global final energy use differs between the residential buildings that account for 24 percent or 24.3 pwh and 8 percent of the commercial buildings or 8.42 pwh from the total global final energy use as shown in figure 3 below. this figure shows that in residential area cooking, space and water heating are the activities that result in higher energy consumption whereas for the commercial buildings it is the space heating and other activities dealing with it equipment which are also supported by various studies (nematchoua, et al., 2019; khan et al., 2020). the same phenomena were witnessed in educational institutions where the electricity and vehicular emissions were key contributors to the total amount of carbon emissions (ipcc, 2014). it is also important to highlight that the cooling system of buildings represents 70% of the electricity load (karlsson, decker and moussalli, 2015). accordingly, there has been collaboration between the gcc and the eu to improve and enhance the energy consumed in air ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202136 conditioning systems. however, these plans need to be developed as these buildings are still consuming a huge amount of electricity. figure 3. energy consumption residential vs commercial buildings (adapted from ipcc 2014) these statistics therefore make it essential to adopt the sustainability practices in the built environment sector as it has numerous benefits in terms of the economic, social and environmental aspects such as initial savings; maintenance and energy savings; improvement of quality of life with reduced health care costs; environmental benefits; productivity gain; decrease in the cost of future replacements and indirect gains such as improvement in the indoor quality of living. therefore, it can be concluded that sustainable or energy efficient buildings have major benefits in terms of economic, social, and environmental factors. however, to ensure the adoption of sustainable practices in the built environment, it is important to understand the different types of buildings based on their levels of energy performance. types of buildings in order to integrate the energy efficient and sustainable practices in the built environment either during construction or renovation of buildings it is important to identify the types of buildings, given that the type greatly impacts on the energy performance and co2 emission of the building. as such, buildings can be classified into; conventional buildings, sustainable buildings or zero energy buildings (zebs) (kamar, abd hamid and azman, 2011; kamali, hewage and sadiq, 2019). conventional buildings are defined as buildings produced using traditional methods of construction . however, conventional ways of construction have been criticised for over a decade as they result in economic, environmental and social concerns with an increase in the amount of co2 emission and carbon footprint (kamali, hewage and sadiq, 2019). thus, the adoption of sustainable, green or zero energy buildings has been frequently highlighted. these buildings have been defined by their adoption of advanced technologies and materials, which have allowed the building sector to reduce the burning of fossil fuels and generate energy from clean resources resulting in a positive impact on the environment and the decrease in ghg emissions, while leaning towards the development of more energy efficient buildings (marszal, et al., 2011). in addition, zebs are defined by the department of energy (henderson , 2015) as “an energy efficient building where, on a sourceenergy basis, the actual annual delivered energy is less than or equal to the on site renewable exported energy”. this said, literature also reports on a number of terms used to define zeb buildings such as; nearly, net and net plus energy buildings, however fayyad and john (2017) emphasize on the importance of differentiating between these terms such as shown in figure 4. ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202137 figure 4. different definitions of nearly, net and net plus energy buildings (source: fayyad and john, 2017). this study will therefore be guided by the classification of zebs in figure 5 by adopting the following definitions. nearly zero energy buildings – refers to buildings of high performance with a renewable energy generation source that covers most of its annual needs. net zero energy buildings – refers to buildings of high performance with a renewable energy generation source that covers all of its annual needs. net plus energy building – refers to buildings of high performance with a renewable energy generation source exceeding its annual needs. in addition, agostino and mazzarella (2018), define net zero energy buildings (nzebs) or zebs by the amount of consumed energy which should almost be equal to the amount of energy generated from sustainable and renewable energy for any building. this means whatever is generated is nearly equal to the amount of energy consumed in a way that contributes to solving a large number of environmental issues. moreover, this concept can be further explained through figure 5 which further explains the concepts of zebs and nzebs. figure 5. the concept of zebs or nzebs (source: agostino and mazzarella, 2018) ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202138 according to agostino and mazzarella (2018) and as highlighted by figure 6, the concept of zeb is based on using sustainable and renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and biomass to generate electricity for the entire building. furthermore, the total amount of energy consumed shall be equal to the energy produced. this could be achieved by connecting zeb to the electricity grid. for instance, if zeb produces an excess amount of electricity, this will be transmitted through the grid lines and will be beneficial to other facilities. similarly, zebs have the ability to import electricity from the grid if the energy generated is not enough (brambilla, et al., 2018). by implementing such a concept, the reflection on the highenergy consumption, especially for the buildings sector and their impact on the environment will be minimized. moreover, the types of zero energy buildings can be defined depending on the following attributes: • location the first type depends on the actual location of the renewable energy source and to whether it is located within the site of the building, in which case the zeb is called onsite zeb. conversely, the zeb is called offsite, if the renewable energy source is located away from the building. in these types of buildings, additional electricity will be generated to be used for transmission purposes (brambilla, et al., 2018). • amount of energy generated the second type of zebs depends on the total amount of energy generated and consumed. for example, if the annual energy consumed is higher than the energy generated, the building is called nzeb. whilst the building is called net plus energy building (npeb) if the annual energy generated exceeds the actual demand (fayyad and john, 2017). both types of zebs could be implemented based on the condition of the building as well as the location of the source. this will reflect the flexibility of implementing such a concept in different situations. however, for the purpose of this research, this study focuses on investigating the amount of ‘energy generated’ to define zebs. energy performance of buildings energy performance is defined as the measure of “energy consumed, or estimated energy needed by the building to meet its standard’s needs”. the amount is reflected in multiple numeric indicators such as energy efficiency, energy consumption, co2 emission and temperature in addition to taking into account criteria of buildings such as insulation, design and positioning in respect to climatic aspects, technical characteristics, exposure to solar rays, selfenergy generation and indoor or outdoor climate that impact energy demand (balaras, et al., 2007). the importance of energy performance to ensure sustainable and zero energy buildings can be identified from a number of initiatives proposed such as the initiative by the usa as part of the energy independence and security act of 2007 (eisa) that aims to support the goal of net zero energy in new buildings. the initiative also specifies a target of zero energy for 50 percent of all the commercial buildings in the usa by 2040 and by 2050 for all buildings. similarly, the united kingdom adopted an initiative with the energy performance of buildings 2010 (epbd) which aimed to achieve a ‘nearly zero energy building’ target for all buildings by 2020. the uk parliament also passed legislation in june 2019 committing the government to reduce its net emission by 100 percent relative to 1990 levels by 2050 where 78 percent of uk total emissions was contributed to by the four highest emitting sectors such as transportation, energy, commercial and residential buildings (shepheard, 2020). in addition to this, the recent initiatives by the uk government in 2020 such as the ten point plan which calls for a green industrial revolution is promising for a greener and better future that commits the government to build back better, support green jobs and accelerate towards a path of net zero (hm government, 2020). similarly, legislation has also been proposed in other nations such as sweden, scotland, france, denmark, eu, spain, chile, fiji and china to achieve their net zero targets by 2050. ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202139 likewise, gcc countries have experienced a construction boom due to the huge and steady economic growth and modernization, as well as the realisation of the importance of sustainability concepts for the region, whilst the uae and qatar have the highest share of green buildings in the middle east. some of the significant examples of green buildings in the gcc include masdar city; abu dhabi (uae); king abdullah university; saudi arabia (ksa) and msheireb, qatar. the ksa alone has invested 26 billion dollars in the saudi green building initiatives (asif, 2016). in addition, the uae and ksa governments have set ambitious targets to achieve net zero energy. for example, where the uae energy strategy aims to achieve 50 percent of clean energy by 2020, ksa aims to generate 27gw of clean power by 2023 (nagraj, 2020). in addition, uae past initiatives such as the 2021 national agenda in 2014 to meet longterm needs and improve the quality of resources as well as expanding the involvement of clean and green energy in the country, depicts the region’s commitment towards net zero energy. these initiatives aim for the uae to produce 27 percent of its electricity from sustainable sources by 2021 to secure the needs of energy for the next generations (mazumder, 2016). also, the adoption of agreement of paris 21st conference of parties (cop21) emphasizes the uae’s vision to move forward in achieving its 2030 mission. however, despite the proposed initiatives to achieve net zero energy targets in buildings (especially residential and commercial), little attention has been given to educational buildings. the ‘education sector’ in particular is a significant contributor to the nation’s success, allowing societies to progress and flourish. therefore, it is important to consider the adoption of sustainable practices in educational buildings, given their positive effect on the socioeconomic and healthenvironmental aspects of a building’s occupants. this study will therefore focus on the energy performance of higher educational buildings as most of the top educational establishments have been constructed in the early 60’s till 80’s such as oxford university, stanford university, harvard university and university of cambridge, which besides being ranked as the top universities of the world, they are also known for their remarkable architecture and history. thus, it becomes important to adopt the sustainable practices in these establishments in order to reduce their carbon footprint but at the same time preserve their own history and architecture. in the uk alone, educational buildings are estimated to produce 9.245 million tonnes of co2 per year which account for 1.32 percent of the uk’s total emissions (plan, 2006; darby, et al., 2016). furthermore, educational buildings cause direct and indirect emissions which is reported as 26 percent of the total co2 emitted as a direct emission that includes electricity consumption, whereas 14 percent is the result of indirect emissions as a result of the commuting to and from educational buildings and other transport activities (darby, et al., 2016). similarly, the statistics show that the educational buildings contribute to a huge amount of co2 emissions such as the sam wyly hall university in the usa which produces up to 67,500 tonnes of co2 emissions, whereas the educational institute in argentina produces up to 34,000 µ person equivalent of co2 emission in the year 2003 (muthu, 2021). these statistics experience an exponential increase especially in hot climate regions such as the uae where the building sector consumes about 80 percent of the total energy consumption. given that the uae has been defined as a ‘melting pot’ of cultural diversity by westley (2017) with a unique structure of its educational system that attracts students from all around the world, it will be the focus of this study to compare the energy performance amongst different types of educational buildings and determine the preference of the end users of these buildings. to achieve this, the rest of this section intends to explore the approaches adopted to measure the energy performance of buildings which are defined in terms of energy efficiency, co2 emissions and temperature (heat) generated by the buildings. a. calculating energy efficiency in buildings the need for implementing a solution that increases energy efficiency is necessary as argued by papadopoulou, et al. (2013) and rapidtable (2018). thus, it is of significant importance to calculate the ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202140 energy efficiency of buildings, whereby the energy efficiency could be calculated by dividing the energy consumed over the energy produced as shown in equation 1 (a) & (b) below: × 100η = consumed energy produced energy (1a) × 100η = eout ein (1b) where, h is the efficiency in percentage (%) ein is the energy produced from the generation plant in (kwh) eout is the energy consumed from building users in (kwh) as mentioned earlier, buildings consume a huge amount of energy, so controlling the energy efficiency is significant to secure the energy for upcoming generations and save the climate. by using this equation, the amount of energy consumed and saved will be known in order to help improve energy efficiency. the same equation could be used to calculate the efficiency of a building in a way to prove the fact that sustainable buildings are more efficient and generate less energy wastage and ghg i.e., co2 emissions. b. co2 emission the combustion of fossil fuels results in the production of greenhouse gasses that comprises of carbon dioxide (co2), methane (ch4) , nitrous oxide (n2o) and other fluorinated gases. the gcc alone contributes to about 2.4 percent of the global greenhouse gasses emission (solanki, mallela and zhou, 2013). however, since co2 emissions cause an adverse impact on the environment in terms of climate change and global warming, it is therefore important to measure the co2 emission generated from buildings as a measure of its energy performance. the measure of carbon gasses or greenhouse gasses i.e.. co2 amount emitted from the building can be determined in terms of the electricity consumption of the building (epa, 2021; ogl, 2020). the co2 emission will be calculated in this study based on equation 2 stated below: co2 emission from the electricity consumption (ton co2) = total electricity consumption from the building (kwh) * grid emission factor ( ton co2 kwh) (2) the equation requires the electricity consumption units of all the building and the grid emission factor. furthermore, it was found from the literature that the ghg emission of buildings results in an increase in temperature generated by buildings that have a harmful impact on the environment (noaa, 2021). c. temperatures generated from buildings according to irimia and gottschling (2016), the temperature emitted from buildings results in an increase of temperature in the environment. this can be done by finding the radiative forcing ∆f first (which is the change in the climate of the earth), as there is a difference in the incidence solar radiation and the absorption of this radiation by the earth which causes a defect in the concentration of the ghg. so, ∆f can be calculated by using the following equation: ∆f = α ln ln co2 co20 (3) ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202141 where: ∆f is the radiative forcing in w/m^2 a is the constant based on the radiative transfer and for co2 calculations it is = 5.35 co2 is the co2 emission that is produced in metric ton co20 is the baseline value of co2 in the atmosphere this is followed by calculating the base temperature sensitivity ∆ts, that gives an indication about the fluctuations in temperature. in other words, if the temperature is negative this will cool the earth and if positive, it heats up the earth. the temperature will be calculated based on equation 4 according to mills (2007): ∆ts = α0 * ∆f (4) where: ∆ts is the base temperature sensitivity in kelvin (k) a0 is the temperature sensitivity constant = 0.266 k/(w/m^2) ∆f is the radiative forcing in w/m^2 from that, the temperature raised can be calculated in order to provide the change in climate of the world as a whole and in the country specifically; as such, improving the energy efficiency in the building sector will have a substantial positive enhancement on the environment and economic perspectives. from another environmental perspective applying this concept will contribute to the reduction of ghg emissions and solve a number of environmental issues. similarly, from an economical perspective the contribution will be achieved by reducing the cost of maintenance and operation (nulty, 2015). furthermore, energy consumption, sustainability, and sustainable development are related to each other as each practice pulls out the need for the next step. by logic, after harvesting the energy from different clean and sustainable sources, the necessity of managing the energy will arise. according to golusin, ivanovic and vucenov (2012), the energy management concept is defined as professionally controlling, monitoring, and maintaining the produced and consumed energy in a very efficient way. this is helpful for measuring/ calculating the electricity consumption for homes, organizations, and buildings, which will lead to creating different techniques to save energy. besides, energy management emphasizes on the awareness, behaviour and perception of end users. the rest of this paper will therefore discuss the methodological approach adopted by this study in order to observe the differences in the energy performance of different types of buildings within an educational establishment in the uae, and in addition, evaluate the preferences of the end users in relation to these buildings. methodological approach the study adopts a methodological approach to conducting experimental research in order to assess energy performance of buildings, which is important as it aids in monitoring the energy efficiency of buildings and motivates the end user to improve the performance of their buildings for a better quality of life. as such, this study will use the american university of sharjah (aus) as a case study since it is considered to be one of the top tier institutes in the uae. this is an independent and nonprofit educational institute which is based in sharjah and is known for its multiple departments and centres that are involved in sustainability, sustainable development and smart city research. the institute has launched its own phd program in sustainable development for engineers and smart city, which shows the institute’s dedication towards adopting sustainable practices and has taken serious steps towards transforming its campus into a sustainable campus. this study, therefore, targets three different types of buildings within the aus campus ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202142 to determine and compare their energy performance based on energy efficiency and co2 emissions. the targeted buildings are the campus service centre, engineering building, and business administration building. these three buildings have been selected among the other buildings in aus because they represent different sustainability levels, where the campus service centre is classified as the net zero energy building, the school of business administration classified as the sustainable building and the engineering building as the conventional building. in addition, it is within the intent of this study to determine the preference of the end users of these buildings. the following steps were therefore adopted to conduct this research. • step 1: exploration of current practices – a set of semistructured interviews were conducted in order to collect relevant data with regards to the energy performance of the buildings and to understand the current practices, methods and relationships used to determine factors such as co2 emissions, energy efficiency, climate change and energy waste management. key stakeholders from the energy sector of the uae were therefore targeted with focus on the three entities: • the sustainable centre at aus: this centre was approached in order to identify the different types of buildings to be used for this study and to collect the relevant information that will assist in calculating the energy performance of these buildings. as such, information about the history and development of the buildings, the area and parameters of the buildings and annual energy consumption units for each month were obtained. in addition, information about preference of the end users and occupants of these buildings were sought. • sharjah electricity and water authority (sewa): an electricity service provider was approached in order to obtain and verify the amount of energy consumed by the three buildings identified in this study, as well as the cost of electricity consumed. in addition, it was within the intention of this study to explore the current practices for calculating the energy efficiency of buildings which will be utilized in order to compare the energy performance of the selected buildings. • the dubai carbon: this organization was founded in 2011. it is located in dubai and dedicated to monitoring and controlling the level of ghg concentration in dubai. this organization offers consultancy and advisory services for reducing ghg as well as encouraging the use of solar and renewable sources. it is within the intention of this study to explore the existing practices for calculating the ghg emissions from the buildings which will be utilized in order to compare the energy performance of the selected buildings. a representative from each entity was approached to collect the relevant data and information regarding the energy performance of the buildings. each representative holds an essential decisionmaking position within the entity with 20 to 30 years of experience. however, due to ethical consideration the title and position of the interviewee will be referred only as a representative of the entity approached as shown in table 1. table 1. profile of interviewees position/ title years of experience representative of the sustainable centre at aus 20 representative of sharjah electricity and water authority (sewa) 30 representative of the dubai carbon 28 • step 2: energy performance of buildings – this study compares energy performance of targeted buildings i.e., the campus service centre, engineering building, and business administration building by ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202143 considering the total energy consumption of the three targeted buildings over a period of six years i.e. (20132018). this step is conducted in three stages a discussed below. • energy efficiency to calculate the ‘energy efficiency’ and ‘energy score’ of the three buildings, the energy star portfolio manager tool was used. this tool provides information regarding the energy performance and energy usage of the building in terms of energy scores. likewise, another method used was the energy use intensity (eui) method to measure the energy usage of the building. these methods assisted with determining the performance of the building which led to the effectiveness of the building. • co2 emission this stage entails calculating and comparing the co2 emission from the targeted building in order to determine the impact of the buildings on the environment. • temperature – the temperature generated from each building is also calculated and compared in order to evaluate the adverse impact that the three buildings have on the environment. • step 3: factors affecting end user’s preferences – to confirm the findings of the experiments and the perception of representatives from the sustainable centre, this study conducted an online survey targeting students who were the main occupants of these buildings in order to evaluate their preferences of the different types of buildings and the factors that influence their preferences. the rest of this paper will discuss the results, analysis and main findings from the study. results and analysis the methodological steps outlined in the previous section helped this study collect the relevant data regarding the energy performance of the buildings and to understand the current practices, methods adopted to determine factors such as co2 emissions, energy efficiency, climate change, and energy waste management. the rest of this section will therefore discuss the results and analysis obtained from the study. the interviews with the key stakeholders of the sustainable centre at the american university of sharjah aided this study with; a. understanding the classification of the three selected buildings for this research as; the net zero energy building, sustainable (renovated) building, and finally the conventional building. whereby, the campus service centre building belongs to the first category which is the net zero energy building on campus, followed by the school of business administration which is a sustainable (renovated) building that incorporates sustainable features into its construction, whilst the engineering building belongs to the conventional building. the total area for each of the targeted buildings was provided by the centre as shown in table 2. these areas of each type of building were also obtained to aid the study in comparing the energy consumption units of the selected buildings. table 2. total area of targeted building area m^2 ft^2 eb 9064 97564.08 sba 13612 146518.34 csc 3380 36382.02 ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202144 these areas will assist this study with calculating the energy usage intensity (eui) which is explained later in this section. b. the provision of the electricity consumption units for the three identified buildings between (2012– 2018) to help draw comparisons of the energy consumption between the three buildings. however, the data for electricity consumption units for 2012 shows zero consumption in some of the months. therefore, the year 2012 was eliminated from further analysis. based on the data provided by the sustainable centre at aus, figure 6 shows the electricity consumption for each building and the energy scores of the three identified buildings. figure 6(a). electricity consumption of engineering building figure 6(b). electricity consumption of business administration building figure 6(c). electricity consumption of campus service centre building ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202145 it can be seen from these figures that the electricity consumption of the engineering building (figure 6a) is the highest, followed by the business administration building (figure 6b), whilst the lowest consumption is the campus service centre (figure 6c). these results confirm that the energy consumption of each building aligns with their classification and type. the interview results with the key stakeholders from the sharjah electricity and water authority (sewa) showed that there are mainly two different methods that can be used to calculate energy efficiency in buildings, whereby these methods are aligned with the design and operation stages of buildings. the first method for the design stage adopts the energy modelling tool to compare the proposed building energy consumption to the baseline building in order to simulate the energy performance of the building. whereas the second method for the operation stage compares the energy bills to the project building’s actual energy use in order to develop a building benchmark. this study focuses on the second method of operation stage and adopts the energy star portfolio manager and energy use intensity (eui) equations suggested by the interviewees to calculate the energy efficiency of the targeted buildings. as such, interviews guided the process of determining the efficiency of the buildings by using the ‘energy star portfolio manager website’ that aids in measuring the energy performance of the building depending on their annual electricity consumption. hence, the energy star portfolio manager helps track the energy use of any type of building. therefore, to determine the energy efficiency of the three identified buildings, the initial step was to create a profile on the ‘energy star portfolio manager’ website, which required information regarding the type of buildings and the annual electricity consumption. the website then generates the values of energy score which is a measure of energy usage and its associated costs, that defines how efficient a building is. the energy score ranges from 0 to 100, where the highest number indicates more efficient building. the energy score for the three categories of buildings were calculated for the period between (2013 – 2018). however, as indicated from table 3 and figure 7 the energy score for years 2013 and 2018 could not be calculated as it also has few months with zero consumption. table 3. energy score of all buildings energy score (%) 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 total average sba 35 34 33 33 26 0 161 26.8333 csc 84 81 83 81 82 0 411 68.5 eb 0 27 29 26 25 0 107 17.8333 0 20 40 60 80 100 2014 2015 2016 2017 en er gy s co re energy score of all buildings sba csc eb figure 7. energy score of all buildings ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202146 this figure illustrates that the campus service centre has the highest score implying it is more energy efficient followed by the business administrative building, and lastly the engineering building. these findings align with the classification of the identified buildings. another method proposed by the interviewees is to determine the energy usage intensity (eui) of the building from which the energy performance of the building can be evaluated. the eui can be calculated by using equation 5 below: ) =eui ( kbtu total energy consumption of a building for 12 months (kbtu ) area of the building ( ft2)ft2 (5) the equation comprises of the total energy consumption of the building for 12 months to the area of the building in square feet. table 4 below illustrates the energy usage intensity of the three targeted buildings over a period of six years. table 4. details of the three buildings energy score (%) 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 total average sba 45.48 45.12 47.3 47.14 48.27 39.83 273.14 45.5233 csc 25.46 26.76 26.54 27.12 25.68 23.56 155.12 25.8533 eb 62.74 49 49.38 50.79 48.91 45.81 306.63 51.105 the calculated eui value for all the buildings is illustrated in figure 8, showing the lower the intensity, the more efficient the building is. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 eu i years energy use intensity (eui) sba csc eb figure 8. energy use intensity of all buildings hence, the results show that the campus service centre building is the best in terms of the intensity of energy use (with an average of eui of 25.85) than the business administration building (with an average of 45.53) and lastly is the engineering building (with an average of 51.11). these results align with the first method of using energy star portfolio manager discussed earlier. the results also align with the findings from the literature whereby the net zero energy buildings are marginally lower in terms of the eui values ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202147 than the zeb buildings and the conventional type of buildings, indicating that the eui value is a reflection of the energy efficiency of buildings. the dubai carbon: the results from the interviews with key stakeholders from dubai carbon confirmed that the carbon accounting or carbon emission could be calculated on different levels, such as country, city and building level. therefore, any increase in the co2 radiation of a building will definitely impact on the co2 levels and the ecological footprint of the whole country. furthermore, the interviewee stated that there are many activities that are carried out by the buildings’ users that could emit co2 but cannot be controlled, such as driving a car to reach the building. therefore, this study only considers electricity consumption as a measure of energy consumption and a source of co2 emission. accordingly, this study will adopt the figure 9(a). co2 emission of engineering building figure 9(b). co2 emission of business administration building figure 9(c). co2 emission of csc building ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202148 co2 emission equation cited from literature (see section 4), which is aligned with the current practices as suggested by the representative of dubai carbon. the equation requires the electricity consumption of the building and the grid emission factor as it is dependent on the grid used in the region i.e., for sharjah, the grid emission factor is 0.65ton co2/kwh (as confirmed by the interviewees). figure 9 shows the calculated co2 emission of all the buildings. the results show that co2 emissions are the highest from the engineering building with only twice a drop in the co2 emission values for years 2013 and 2018, which as indicated before has had zero consumption for some months. this is followed by the business building; the least co2 emissions being generated by the csc building, which as evident from figure 9(c) has a value lower than 40000 tonnes with a single spike in the year 2013. furthermore, to show the relationship between the co2 emission and the electricity consumption, the co2 emission of each building is plotted against the electricity consumption, as illustrated by figure 10. whereby it can be clearly seen that the increase in energy consumption increases the co2 emissions and that they are directly proportional to each other; this can be seen from the engineering building graph where the dots plotted on the gradient indicates the relation between the energy consumption and co2 emission. the dots are dispersed over the gradient line whereas for the business and csc buildings the level of dispersion is less. as identified before, the csc building is the most efficient building with low energy consumption and co2 emission, followed by business administrative, and then the engineering building. figure 10. co2 emission vs. electricity consumption of all the buildings moreover, co2 emission also affects the environment by raising the temperature that results in global warming (as discussed in the literature review section). in support of this, one of the dubai carbon interviewees stated; “the emissions generated by one community may result in just a miniscule raise in temperature. it is the combined effect of emissions all around the globe that considerably results in temperature raise”. ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202149 therefore, the temperature raised by the buildings due to co2 emission would have a significant impact on the environment. however, given that temperature cannot be calculated for each year individually (since the sample of this study is a building at aus which is very small compared to whole country), it can still be calculated based on the previously calculated co2 emissions. as such, the temperature is calculated cumulatively for all six years (2013 2018); first the total co2 emission of all years were summed up for each building, then the equation from the literature review (see section 4) was adopted to calculate the temperature of the buildings. as a result, the calculated values of ∆f and ∆ts of each building are summarized in table 5 and figure 11 below which shows a positively proportional relationship between the co2 emission and the temperature. the findings of this stage align with the findings from the literature review. table 5. ∆f and ∆ts of all three buildings building/factors co2 emission (metric tons) radiative forcing (w/m^2) temperature (k) eb 4605472.1 9.742 2.59 sba 4178015.2 8.891 2.36 csc 3790232.7 5.083 1.35 figure 11. climate change vs. co2 emission of all buildings for six years as can be seen from figure 11 the higher the co2 emission of the building, the more will be the adverse impact of that building on climate change. it can be therefore concluded from the figure that the engineering building has the highest co2 emission which leads to the highest temperature raised and affects the climate change followed by the business administration building, sustainable building and lastly the campus service centre net zero energy building which has the lowest temperature value. these results therefore highlight the importance of zebs and their reduced impact on the environment. in summary, the results of this study have shown that the csc building (net zero energy building) has the best energy performance in terms of energy efficiency, co2 emission and climate change to other buildings. the experiment results align with the classification of the targeted building by the representative of the sustainable centre from aus; where the engineering building being the conventional building proves to be the least efficient building with high co2 emissions and climate change. in addition, the results of this study and the perceptions of the representatives from the sustainable centre, thus far indicate that there is an amount of energy that is wasted which means that none of the buildings are fully and effectively consuming the energy. hence, the performance of buildings does not only ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202150 depend on the type of building (whether it is energy efficient or not) but it also depends on the behaviours of the buildings’ users. thus, zebs are capable of consuming all the electricity produced without any wasted energy, but this should go hand in hand with controlling and managing the end user practices through awareness plans. hence, the rest of this paper shares the results of a survey that targets students (as end users of these buildings) to evaluate their awareness and perceptions of the sustainability issues which play a role in the management of energy consumption within buildings, and to evaluate their preferences of the different types of buildings. factors affecting the end user’s preferences this study argues that investing in netzero or zero energy buildings is not sufficient, and that the end users of buildings play an important role in all of this. in support of this, one of the key stakeholders at the aus sustainable centre state that the performance of buildings does not only depend on the type of building (whether it is energy efficient or not) but it also depends on the behaviours of the buildings’ users while stating: “the user doesn’t care about the electricity that is wasted as they are not paying for that and they require guidance to spread an awareness regarding the energy waste. moreover, in each building there must be a community that is responsible for managing the energy waste of the building.”. another interviewee from dubai carbon stated that “individuals need to be aware of the importance of sustainability, the government policies and agendas and to be educated on these aspects”. another employee emphasized the impact of the socioeconomic factors on the usability of the buildings, stating that “income, education, employment and community safety are important factors that play a role in the end users’ behaviour”. this study has therefore conducted a short survey to evaluate building users’ perceptions of the socio economic factors. accordingly, a universitywise survey was distributed to a sample of 800 students who are known to be end users of the three identified buildings (engineering, business administration and csc) and 90 responses were returned. the survey aims to determine preference and factors that affect their preferences, awareness of the impact of sustainability on the environment, impact of environmental issues on their personal health and safety and awareness of the impact of buildings on the environment and government initiatives. the rest of this section shared the results of the survey; a. preference and factors that affect their preferences having compared the energy efficiency and performance of the three aus buildings identified by this study; the participants were asked to select their most preferred building. figure 12 shows that 43% of the participants preferred the engineering building (conventional building). however, when asked about the factors that influence their choices of the preferred building, the results in figure 13 indicate that 71% of the participants considered appearance and architecture as the most important factor that influence their choice followed by lighting system (43%), ease of access (43%). surprisingly, a small percentage of the participants identified the ventilation system as a factor that influence their preference. b. awareness of the impact of sustainability on the environment and the impact of environment issues on their personal health and safety the students were asked to give a score of 1 (low) and 5 (high) to the level of their awareness of the impact of sustainability on the environment and the extent to which environmental issues affect their personal health and safety as shown in figure 14 below. ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202151 the results revealed that around 70 percent of the participants were somehow aware or fully aware of the impact of sustainability on the environment. however, a smaller percentage of the participants (60%) were aware of the impact of environmental issues on their own personal health and safety. this indicates that the end users need to be educated on the health benefits of sustainable buildings and its positive impact on the environment. figure 14. awareness of the impact of the sustainability 28.6 42.9 28.6 prefered buildings csc engineering building business administra�ve figure 12. preferred buildings figure 13. factors of sociocultural ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202152 it can therefore be concluded that the majority of the students are not fully aware of the impact of sustainability on the environment and the impact of environmental issues on their personal health and safety. c. awareness of the impact of buildings on the environment and government initiatives the participants were asked to rank the sources that have the most negative impact on the environment (1 high negative impact to 3 – low negative impact). surprisingly, the results displayed in table 6 revealed that the participants considered waste to have the most negative impact on the environment followed by transportation, then buildings. table 6. biggest cause of environmental issues cause/rank 1 2 3 transportation 40.00% 43.00% 10.00% waste 50.33% 43.33% 13.3% buildings 16.67% 6.67% 76.6% this shows that most of the participants associate general waste with a negative impact on the environment without a clear definition of the form of waste. whilst they also felt that transportation is a major source of negative impact on the environment, with limited responses reflecting their awareness of the negative impact that buildings have on the environment; whereby, around 77 percent of the participants gave a low rank to the impact of buildings on the environment. these results contradict the findings from literature which state that buildings are one of the major sources that have a negative impact on the environment. moreover, to determine the participants’ awareness of the uae’s laws in relation to regulating building sustainability practices, 67% of the participants indicated that they were not aware of the building regulations laws. this supports the earlier findings in this section that the participants have limited knowledge about sustainability issues and practices that revolve around buildings as the major contributors to environmental issues. hence, it becomes significantly important to increase the end users’ awareness of such laws and policies, in order to notify the consumers/users in the uae about the impact of misusing the resources in buildings on the environment. it can therefore be concluded that there exists a lack of awareness of end users and occupants of buildings regarding the impact of buildings on the environment, and that their preferred choices of buildings are pretty much associated with the appearance of the building rather than its sustainable components and impact on the environment. therefore, there is a need for raising the awareness of sustainability issues in educational buildings in order to have a community of students and educators working together in harmony to adjust their perceptions and social behaviours as end users of these buildings. reflection and limitation of the study this study achieved its ultimate goal of comparing the energy performance of three educational buildings within higher education establishments in the uae, as a case study, in order to identify the most energy efficient building. this study, however, has a few limitations that are listed below: ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202153 • some of the data for energy consumption of the three identified buildings were missing. although this data did not have the great impact on the results, their presence may have increased the accuracy of the results obtained. • while calculating the co2 emission, the research was limited to considering the emission from the electricity consumption only. however, other causes of co2 emission rather than electricity consumption could be considered for future work. • the research was limited to cover only two aspects of sustainability which are environmental and social, however the future research could benefit from considering all the sustainability aspects in order to evaluate the energy performance of the zeb buildings. • the energy performance of the three identified buildings could be compared with buildings of large areas or more technologically advance educational buildings in order to identify the most viable type of buildings for educational establishments. conclusion over the past few years, the gcc and united arab emirates in particular have realized the significance of sustainability as an essential concept for the region which is evident from the uae’s initiatives which emphasized the uae’s vision to move forward with achieving its 2030 mission. however, although there are a number of initiatives being proposed globally to achieve the net zero energy target in residential and commercial buildings, little has been reported on the utilisation of zebs in the uae in general and educational buildings in particular. therefore, this study adopted a methodological approach to compare the energy performance of three educational buildings within a higher education establishment in the uae as a case study in alignment with the growing interest of the uae in global education, and the fact that the uae is a growing hub for a number national and international universities. this study compared the energy performance of three different types of buildings such as the net zero energy building, sustainable (renovated) building and conventional building based on energy efficiency, co2 emissions and temperature emitted from the buildings. the results indicated that the net zero energy building (csc building) has the better energy performance. however, the results also indicate that there is an amount of energy that is wasted which means that none of the buildings are fully and effectively consuming the energy. hence, the performance of buildings does not only depend on the type of building (whether it is energy efficient or not) but it also depends on the behaviours of the buildings’ users; which showed that there is a lack of awareness from the end users and occupants of the buildings regarding sustainability, its impact and initiatives by the uae government. thus, to ensure energy efficiency in buildings, the endusers and occupants’ awareness of the benefits of zeb or sustainability in buildings must be raised. for future studies, a robust method that compares the energy performance of buildings by the unit values i.e., energy consumption per gifa could be adopted. references abrahams, g., 2017. constructing definitions of sustainable development. (in english), smart and sustainable built environment, 6(1), pp.3447. https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe0320170009 agdas, d., srinivasan, r.s., frost, k. and masters, f.j., 2015. energy use assessment of educational buildings: toward a campuswide sustainable energy policy. sustainable cities and society, [ejournal] 17, pp.1521. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. scs.2015.03.001 agostino, d. and mazzarella, l., 2018. what is a nearly zero energy building? overview, implementation and comparison of definitions. journal of building engineering, [ejournal] 21, pp.20012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jobe.2018.10.019 ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202154 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-03-2017-0009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2015.03.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2015.03.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2018.10.019 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2018.10.019 ahmed, v., abu alnaaj, k. and saboor, s. 2020. an investigation into stakeholders’ perception of smart campus criteria: the american university of sharjah as a case study. sustainability 2020, [ejournal] 12(12), 5187. https://doi. org/10.3390/su12125187 asif, m., 2016. growth and sustainability trends in the buildings sector in the gcc region with particular reference to the ksa and uae, renewable and sustainable energy reviews, volume 55, pages 12671273, issn 13640321. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.05.042 balaras, c. a., dascalaki, e. g., gaglia, a. g., droutsa, k. and kontoyiannidis, s., 2007. energy performance of european buildings. in energy sustainability. vol. 47977, pp. 387396. https://doi.org/10.1115/es200736005 baldwin, d., 2018. new zeroenergy building centre on horizon. gulf news uae, april 13, 2018. [online], available: https://m.gulfnews.com/news/uae/environment/newzeroenergybuildingcentreonhorizon1.2204815 [accessed oct. 15, 2018] bilgen, s., 2014. structure and environmental impact of global energy consumption. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 38, 890902. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.07.004 brambilla, a., salvalai, g., imperadori,, m and sesana, m.m., 2018. nearly zeb renovation: from energy efficiency to environmental efficiency, a pilot case study, energy and buildings, vol. 166, pp. 271283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. enbuild.2018.02.002 darby, h., elmualim, a., clementscroome, d., yearley, t. and box, w., 2016. influence of occupants’ behaviour on energy and carbon emission reduction in a higher education building in the uk. intelligent buildings international, 8(3), 157175. https://doi.org/10.1080/17508975.2016.1139535 epa., 2021. greenhouse gases equivalencies calculator calculations and references. available at: https://www.epa. gov/energy/greenhousegasesequivalenciescalculatorcalculationsandreferences fayyad, m. and john. j., 2017. defining nearly zero energy buildings in the uae,. emirates green building council, rep., 2017. [online]. available: https://emiratesgbc.org/wpcontent/uploads/2017/03/definingnzebsinthe uae2017.pdf. golusin, m., ivanovic. o.m. and vucenov. s., 2012. “sustainable energy management a prerequisite for the realization kyoto protocol. journal of economic development, environment and people, vol. 1, no. 2, pp. 2434. https://doi. org/10.26458/jedep.v1i2.10 henderson, t., 2015. doe defines zero energy building, air conditioning heating & refrigeration news, vol 256, no. 8, p.5. available at: https://www.achrnews.com/articles/130847doedefineszeroenergybuildings hm government., 2020. avaialable at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/ attachment_data/file/936567/10_point_plan_booklet.pdf. ipcc, 2014. buildings. in: climate change 2014: mitigation of climate change. contribution of working group iii to the fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. cambridge university press, cambridge, united kingdom and new york, ny, usa. irimia, r. and gottschling, m., 2016. taxonomic revision of rochefortia sw. (ehretiaceae, boraginales). biodiversity data journal 4: e7720. https://doi.org/10.3897/bdj.4.e7720 jayaraman, r., liuzzi, d., colapinto, c. and malik, t., 2017. a fuzzy goal programming model to analyze energy, environmental and sustainability goals of the united arab emirates (in english), annals of operations research, 251 (1 2), pp. 255270. https://doi.org/10.1007/s1047901518255 ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202155 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12125187 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12125187 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.05.042 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.05.042 https://doi.org/10.1115/es2007-36005 https://m.gulfnews.com/news/uae/environment/new-zero-energy-building-centre-on-horizon-1.2204815 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.07.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.02.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.02.002 https://doi.org/10.1080/17508975.2016.1139535 https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gases-equivalencies-calculator-calculations-and-references https://www.epa.gov/energy/greenhouse-gases-equivalencies-calculator-calculations-and-references https://emiratesgbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/defining-nzebs-in-the-uae-2017.pdf https://emiratesgbc.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/defining-nzebs-in-the-uae-2017.pdf https://doi.org/10.26458/jedep.v1i2.10 https://doi.org/10.26458/jedep.v1i2.10 https://www.achrnews.com/articles/130847-doe-defines-zero-energy-buildings https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/936567/10_point_plan_booklet.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/936567/10_point_plan_booklet.pdf https://doi.org/10.3897/bdj.4.e7720 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10479-015-1825-5 jordan, b., 2021. policies for sustainability. in immigration, social cohesion and political reaction (pp. 6977). palgrave macmillan, cham. isbn 9783030527075 isbn 9783030527082 (ebook) https://doi.org/10.1007/9783030 527082 kamali, m., hewage, k. and sadiq, r., 2019. conventional versus modular construction methods: a comparative cradletogate lca for residential buildings. energy and buildings, 204, 109479. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. enbuild.2019.109479 kamar, a.m., abd hamid, z. and azman, n.a., 2011. industrialized building system (ibs): revisiting issues of definition and classification. international journal of emerging sciences, 1(2), 120. khan, z. a., hussain, t., ullah, a., rho, s., lee, m. and baik, s. w., 2020. towards efficient electricity forecasting in residential and commercial buildings: a novel hybrid cnn with a lstmae based framework. sensors, 20(5), 1399. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20051399 marszal, a. j., heiselberg, p., bourrelle, j. s., musall, e., voss, k., sartori, i. and napolitano, a. (2011). zero energy building– a review of definitions and calculation methodologies. energy and buildings, 43(4), 971979. issn 0378 7788. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2010.12.022 mazumder, l.k., 2016. restructuring the economy through sustainability initiatives in uae a case study analysis, business & management review, london, 7, pp. 191197: the academy of business and retail management (abrm). mills, g., 2007. cities as agents of global change. international journal of climatology: a journal of the royal meteorological society, 27(14), pp.18491857. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.1604 muthu, s.s., 2021. lca based carbon footprint assessment. environmetal footprint and ecodesign of products and processes. page: 68; isbn: 9789813343726, issn 2345 – 7651. nagraj, a., 2020. the climate crisis: is the gcc doing enough in the sustainability space? available at: https:// gulfbusiness.com/theclimatecrisisisthegccdoingenoughinthesustainabilityspace/ nasa, 2020. global climate change. available at: https://climate.nasa.gov/, accessed at: october 2020. nematchoua, m.k., yvon, a., roy, s.e.j., ralijaona, c.g., mamiharijaona, r., razafinjaka, j.n. and tefy, r., 2019. a review on energy consumption in the residential and commercial buildings located in tropical regions of indian ocean: a case of madagascar island. journal of energy storage, 24, p.100748. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2019.04.022 noaa., 2021. temperature change and carbon dioxide change. available at: https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/global warming/temperaturechange#:~:text=when%20the%20carbon%20dioxide%20concentration,goes%20down%2c%20 temperature%20goes%20down. nulty, h. m., 2015. an introduction to energy management systems: energy savings and increased industrial productivity for the iron and steel sector, “ oecd steel committee, rep. [online]. available: https://www.oecd.org/sti/ ind/dsti-su-sc(2014)14-final-eng.pdf. ogl, 2020. government greenhouse gas conversion factors for company reporting. available at: https://assets. publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/901692/conversion-factors-2020methodology.pdf papadopoulou, a. g., al hosany, n., karakosta, c. and psarras, j. (2013). building synergies between eu and gcc on energy efficiency. international journal of energy sector management. vol. 7, no. 1, pp. 628. https://doi. org/10.1108/17506221311316452 plan, g.a., 2006. uk schools carbon footprint scoping study. stockholm environment institute, 176. rapid table., 2018. electric power efficiency. kwh to watts (w) conversion calculator. [online]. available: https://www. rapidtables.com/electric/efficiency.html. [accessed: 05dec2018]. ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202156 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52708-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52708-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.109479 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.109479 https://doi.org/10.3390/s20051399 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2010.12.022 https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.1604 https://gulfbusiness.com/the-climate-crisis-is-the-gcc-doing-enough-in-the-sustainability-space/ https://gulfbusiness.com/the-climate-crisis-is-the-gcc-doing-enough-in-the-sustainability-space/ https://climate.nasa.gov/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.est.2019.04.022 https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/global-warming/temperature-change#:~:text=when%20the%20carbon%20dioxide%20concentration,goes%20down%2c%20temperature%20goes%20down https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/global-warming/temperature-change#:~:text=when%20the%20carbon%20dioxide%20concentration,goes%20down%2c%20temperature%20goes%20down https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/global-warming/temperature-change#:~:text=when%20the%20carbon%20dioxide%20concentration,goes%20down%2c%20temperature%20goes%20down https://www.oecd.org/sti/ind/dsti-su-sc(2014)14-final-eng.pdf https://www.oecd.org/sti/ind/dsti-su-sc(2014)14-final-eng.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/901692/conversion-factors-2020-methodology.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/901692/conversion-factors-2020-methodology.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/901692/conversion-factors-2020-methodology.pdf https://doi.org/10.1108/17506221311316452 https://doi.org/10.1108/17506221311316452 https://www.rapidtables.com/electric/efficiency.html https://www.rapidtables.com/electric/efficiency.html roncz, j., 2011. contributions to interpretations of sustainability (in english). review of economic studies and research virgil madgearu, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 163180. shepheard. m., 2020. uk net zero target, institute for government. available at: https://www.instituteforgovernment. org.uk/explainers/netzerotarget. accessed at: october 2020 solanki, p. s., mallela, v. s. and zhou, c., 2013. estimation and diminution of co2 emissions by clean development mechanism option at power sector in oman. international journal of energy and environment, 4(4), pp. 641652. westley, d., 2017. opinion: schools, uae culture and arabic. available at: https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/ guides/opinionschoolsuaeculturearabic yeo, j., wang, y., an, a. k. and zhang, l., 2019. estimation of energy efficiency for educational buildings in hong kong. journal of cleaner production, 235, pp. 453460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.06.339 ahmed, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202157 https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/net-zero-target https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/explainers/net-zero-target https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/guides/opinion-schools-uae-culture-arabic https://whichschooladvisor.com/uae/guides/opinion-schools-uae-culture-arabic https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.06.339 construction economics and building vol. 17, no. 3 september 2017 © 2017 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: rosa, j.e., hon, c.k.h., xia, b. and lamari, f. 2017. challenges, success factors and strategies for women’s career development in the australian construction industry. construction economics and building, 17:3, 27-46. http://dx.doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5520 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | ajceb.epress. lib.uts.edu.au abstract construction is traditionally a male industry. women have long had difficulties entering or advancing their career in construction. evidence shows that a diversified workforce with gender balance will bring about higher levels of productivity. despite the importance of this issue, there have been limited studies on women’s career development in construction. this study aims to investigate women’s career development in the australian construction industry, with objectives to evaluate the challenges and success factors of women’s career development in the construction industry and provide strategies for narrowing the gender imbalance. a mixed approach of questionnaire survey and interview were conducted with female practitioners in the construction industry. forty-three completed questionnaires were received and 10 interviews were conducted. stress, family-work balance, and negative perception towards women in construction were the top three challenges identified. dedication, determination, and independency were the top three success factors of women in construction. this study recommends construction employers consider providing personal development programs and flexible working arrangement for their female employees. significance of this study lies on contributing to understanding women’s career development in construction. findings will be useful for government and professional institutions to promulgate strategies for advancing women’s career development in construction. research article challenges, success factors and strategies for women’s career development in the australian construction industry jasmin e. rosa¹, carol k.h. hon²*, bo xia2, fiona lamari² ¹ evans built pty ltd, po box 1755 buderim, qld, 4556. 2 school of civil engineering and built environment, queensland university of technology, 2 george st gpo box 2434, brisbane qld 4001 australia. *corresponding author: carol k.h. hon, school of civil engineering and built environment, queensland university of technology, 2 george st gpo box 2434, brisbane qld 4001 australia. email: carol.hon@qut.edu.au doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5520 article history: received 03/05/2017; revised 13/06/2017; accepted 17/06/2017; published 21/09/2017 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 27 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5520 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5520 ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au mailto:carol.hon@qut.edu.au http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5520 keywords women, construction, career development introduction construction is the third largest industry in australia, employing 1,055,200 construction workers which accounted for 9.1% of total employment in february 2015 (australian government department of employment 2016). the construction industry is largely male dominant. as of february 2015, only 11.1% of the workforce in the construction industry was female, with 5.3% employed full time and the remaining 5.8% part-time (australian government department of employment, 2016). the percentage of women engaged in construction has not changed much in the past ten years. notably, women leave the construction industry at a rate almost 40% higher than men (prime minister of australia, 2016). according to the australian government department of gender equality agency, 5.6% of women working in the construction industry were underemployed (wgeagovau, 2016), referring to the situation where a person is working fewer hours when they are willing and available to work for more hours. furthermore, although an increased number of women are progressing into the labour force in general, these women have not been seen to be able to reach top corporate management tiers (singh and vinnicombe, 2004). nawic (2013) found that many challenges faced by women in the construction industry are directly or indirectly related to gender bias (nawic, 2013). there is an underrepresentation and under-recognition of women in construction. although government, industry, and educators actively attempt to recruit young women in non-traditional occupations, a review of government statistics indicates that they are having minimal success. moving forward from the recruiting process, which seems to be the focus for most, initiative has not been taken past the point of entering the construction industry and providing equal opportunity for development of these women. perhaps the greatest impediment lies in the historic culture of the construction industry, which is so reluctant to change in allowing women to progress in their careers (unsw, 2016). it is important to encourage women’s participation in the construction industry. evidence shows that gender diverse workplaces tend to be more productive and deliver better returns to the company’s bottom line (prime minister of australia, 2016). without gender diversity, the construction industry is missing out on attracting and retaining the best talent (prime minister of australia, 2016). hence, recently the australian government launched a pilot mentoring programme to support women in the construction industry. this indicates that improving gender balance in construction is a timely problem that draws the attention of the australian government. despite this, most of the existing studies on women’s career development in construction were conducted in the united states or the united kingdom in the last decade. apart from the recently released unsw (2016) and francis (2017), there is limited research on women in the australian construction industry. there is a lack of up-to-date understanding of the challenges and success factors that contribute to women progressing in their construction career. to design effective strategies for improving women’s career development in the construction industry, there is an urgent need to better understand the challenges faced by women in rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201728 construction and the factors contributing to their career success. strategies for supporting women’s career develop in construction should address or alleviate the challenges faced by women in construction and cultivate or strengthen the factors contributing to their career success. however, there is limited evidence indicating the effectiveness of existing strategies and their contributions in alleviating the challenges or strengthening the factors leading women’s success in the construction industry. this paper aims to evaluate the challenges that women face in the australian construction industry; to evaluate the success factors for women to advance their career in the australian construction industry; and to evaluate the existing strategies for better women’s career development in the australian construction industry. significance of the study lies on filling the research gap of limited up-to-date studies on women in the australian construction industry and providing research-evidence based strategies and recommendations for the industry, professional bodies and the government to advance women’s career in construction and thus improve gender diversity in construction. challenges for women in construction despite studies on challenges for women in construction, these were neither up-to-date nor conducted in the australian context. understanding and alleviating the challenges for women in the australian construction industry will encourage more women to join the industry and advance their career. in a comparison of existing literature, as shown in table 1, women face a whole range of discrimination while undertaking a career in the construction industry. the predominant barrier is related to the perception of sexual harassment. amaratunga, et al. (2006) indicated that because the industry is male dominated, their values become the standard of the industry, such as extensive working hours, competition amongst colleagues, and self-sufficiency. other issues include negative perceptions of women capabilities (chun, arditi and balci, 2009); minimal recognition on project sites (menches and abraham, 2007); expectations to mimic males aggressive behaviours (maskell-pretz and hopkins, 1997); absence of positive influences such as lack of role models/mentors (yates, 2001); difficulty in finding a balance between personal goals and professional goals (quality of work life, family/work life balance) (hatipkarasulu and roff, 2011); slow career progression (english and lejeune, 2012); high stress levels linking to career, lack of recognition and encouragement from supervisors, asked to do repetitive minor tasks, undervalued and low potential for career advancement (loosemore and waters, 2004); discrepancies between women’s perceived societal roles and the image of the construction industry, unfair judgement of training needs, misjudged on performance compared with male counterparts, being restricted to clerical/administration roles (dainty and lingard, 2006). dainty, neale and bagilhole (2000) also found that for women to survive in the maledominated industry, women have three choices: (1) act like men, or (2) lower their goals and assume secondary positions, or (3) surrender and move to work elsewhere. in addition, it was difficult for women to reach high-level positions for two main reasons: (1) men’s intentional social isolation, and (2) men downplaying women’s contributions to maintain their positions in the male-dominated industry (dainty, neale and bagilhole, 2000). an underlying career challenge/barrier prominent in the current research is around women having difficulty balancing personal goals and professional goals (moore, 2006). it is argued rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201729 table 1 challenges of women in construction identified from the literature m as ke llp re tz a nd h op ki ns (1 99 7) b ag ilh ol e, d ai nt y an d n ea le (2 00 0) d ai nt y, n ea le a nd b ag ilh ol e (2 00 0) ya te s (2 00 1) li ng ar d an d li n (2 00 4) lo os em or e an d w at er s (2 00 4) a m ar at un ga , e t a l. (2 00 6) d ai nt y an d li ng ar d (2 00 6) m oo re (2 00 6) m en ch es a nd a br ah am (2 00 7) c hu n, a rd iti , a nd b al ci (2 00 9) w or ra ll, e t a l. (2 01 0) h at ip ka ra su lu a nd r of f ( 20 11 ) en gl is h an d le j eu ne (2 01 2) n aw ic (2 01 3) sexist attitudes, behaviours, and perceptions √ √ √ √ long working hours √ √ competition in staff √ autonomy √ isolation on job sites √ negative perceptions of women capabilities √ √ √ √ small representation on job sites √ expectation of mimicking males aggressive behaviour habits √ √ lack of role models/ mentors unfair assessment of training needs √ √ √ √ √ family/work life balance √ √ √ √ limiting slow career progression / low potential for career advancement √ √ √ √ stress √ undervalued √ institutionalized discrimination (glass ceiling) √ rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201730 that these barriers seem to be universally experienced among women who have families or have the intention of starting a family, regardless of the job role or profession (moore, 2006). the construction industry is known for its high demand in work hours, making it difficult to meet demands of their positions with their construction organization and find enough time to enjoy their lives outside of work (amaratunga, et al., 2006). one of the studies conducted to date that focuses on women career challenges in australia, is a discussion paper issued by the national association of women in construction (nawic). the findings reflect similar results to studies conducted in other countries. nawic (2013) found several significant barriers that deterred women from choosing construction as a career. misinterpretation and misperceptions of the construction industry are perpetuated by family, friends, teachers, career counsellors and the media with regard to the sustainability and suitability of women joining the construction industry. another key challenge identified by nawic (2013) was that networking events and opportunities are centred around male friendly activities such as participating in or attending sporting matches, or involving drinking alcohol. there should be more opportunities for employees to develop their careers in a more relaxed environment. the perception of the construction industry has placed additional pressure on females trying to pursue a career in this ‘non-traditional’ industry. resistance to women in the construction industry was perceived within all areas of the industry, from business/administration to the job site. although researchers had many different explanations, majority of the findings can be broadly placed under the heading of institutionalized discrimination. success factors for women in construction success factors in this study are the personal qualities and abilities that are perceived to be important in leading to women’s career success in the construction industry. helping women to acquire these success factors will facilitate their career success in construction. success factors for women in construction are shown in table 2. findings by moore (2006) and fernando, amaratunga and haigh (2014) show that the ability to work with people, dedication, adaptability, leadership, and integrity/honesty are positively influencing women’s career success. these findings confirm that soft skills are very important for career success while hard skills are essential thereafter. confidence or self-efficacy is one of the personality traits carrying women through their careers in the construction industry. there was also a repetitive occurrence in the research that role models, mentors or other who supported women in their careers had a positive influence in their career success. self-efficiency is related to academic ability, expressed vocational interests and a range of perceived career options (betz and hackett, 1981). in particular, mathieu, sowa and niles (1993) found that women who participate in a ‘non-traditional’ occupation demonstrate the highest level of career self-efficacy. moore (2006) confirmed this and found that the primary source of confidence was derived from within themselves, secondly the influence of people they worked with (mentors), and finally, additional education to give more confidence in their roles. role models, mentors or significant others have been identified in research as the most valuable resource in a women’s career development and profession (moore, 2006; fernando, amaratunga and haigh, 2014; ericksen and schultheiss, 2009). role models are beneficial for individuals to learn from by being present and assist with emotional support and verbal encouragement. in particular, mentors, defined as typically senior people in an organization, help junior individuals navigate psychological and career related issues. rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201731 table 2 success factors of women in construction identified from the literature success factors moore (2006) fernando, amaratunga and haigh (2014) ericksen and schultheiss (2009) organisation √ independence √ determination √ creativity √ self-efficacy/ self confidence √ √ conscientious √ √ √ dedication √ responsible √ practical √ creative (open to new ideas) √ kind (agreeableness) √ adaptability √ √ communication skills √ √ leadership √ √ integrity/ honesty √ √ influence of others (mentors) √ √ ability to network √ strategies for improving career development of women in construction strategies are possible actions to be taken by different parties to support women’s career development in the construction industry. reviewing existing strategies for supporting women in construction will help promulgate the research of evidence-based strategies in the future. as shown in table 3, a common recommendation for recruiting women in construction was to invest in early attraction. data suggested promoting the construction industry to women at an early stage enables them to make an informed decision (nawic, 2013). early attraction via promoting the industry at high schools and in the community to show youth the various disciplines involved in the construction industry and where it can take them, was also suggested by moore (2006). furthermore, emphasising to adolescence the creative and problem-solving aspects of the industry and acknowledging that the industry does not consist of mathematics and science or fieldwork only could be investigated. fernando, amaratunga, and haigh (2014) suggested that it is important to provide training programs such as team building, workshops and seminars working with project team members, communication skills development programs. rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201732 table 3 strategies for improving career development of women in construction identified from the literature strategies nawic (2013) moore (2006) fernando, amaratunga and haigh (2014) worrall et al. (2010) invest in early attraction √ √ √ provide role model √ √ √ √ adopt diversity reporting √ connect kpis to productivity (not hours) √ √ diverse forms of networking √ √ √ embrace a genuine commitment to flexibility √ √ √ training √ √ improve communication √ support career development √ √ √ broaden thinking of individuals in the industry √ cpd for women √ develop participation in support networks √ attracting female students to undertake studies in a construction position is just half the battle. retaining them through studies and then into a career is equally important to the future of the construction industry. all studies suggested that developing a formal mentoring program would be beneficial (fernando, amaratunga and haigh 2014; nawic, 2013; moore, 2006). this would encourage senior members to mentor junior members upon entry and assist them to navigate company policies and communicate on more of a personal level regarding challenges they are facing. another proven strategies in the career development of employees (for men and women) ongoing active and efficient training and career development programs (worrall, et al., 2010). flexibility was highlighted which entails the industry becoming more conducive to women having a family (e.g. hours friendly, job sharing, the flexibility of schedules). nawic (2013) suggested by introducing key performance indicators (kpis) based on productivity rather than unofficial presentism merit based system will allow women to prove they can perform in a role without reliance on long working hours. rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201733 previous research has covered a wide breadth of recommendations for further actions to be drawn upon. the biggest barrier to implementing these changes is the resistance to change itself (nawic, 2013). research method data collection a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews were conducted for data collection. the mixed research methods allow interrogation and triangulation of both quantitative and qualitative data. the questionnaire consists of four parts, namely personal profiles, challenge, success and recommendations for women’s career in construction. respondents were asked to evaluate statements regarding challenges, success, and recommendations for women’s career development in construction with a 5-point likert scale, where 1 represents strongly disagree and 5 represents strongly agree. in the questionnaire, each variable of challenges, success factors and strategies for improving women’s career development in the literature was presented as a self-explanatory statement for the respondents to rate their importance. the survey was administered using the snowball sampling method. targeted respondents were women working in the construction industry who have completed or were studying for a construction-related degree. data collection started with the authors’ personal networks, and participants of the nawic queensland chapter 2016 end-of-year event. respondents were invited to distribute the survey link to their respective networks. moreover, the survey was posted on the nawic – queensland chapter facebook page. interviews were conducted with female practitioners in the construction industry to triangulate the findings of the survey. interviewees were selected based on the same criteria as selecting targeted survey respondents, i.e., they are working in the construction industry, and have completed or are currently studying for a construction-related degree. interview invitations were sent to the authors’ personal networks, who were also invited to suggest other potential interviewees. interview questions were open-ended which allowed the interviewees to provide detailed examples from their experience. this would help discover new factors not identified in the literature and relate directly to women in australia. data analysis a total of 43 completed questionnaires were received. the data were analysed with spss to evaluate the challenges, success factors, and strategies for improving women’s career development in construction, using descriptive statistics such as mean and ranking to show their relative importance. multivariate analysis of variance (manova) was then employed to examine whether personal attributes (i.e. age, occupation, work experience in construction, or career level) would have effects on the top three challenges, success factors, and strategies for women’s career development in construction respectively. dependent variables were the variables with the top three highest mean for challenges, success factors and strategies respectively. significant manova results were followed up with tukey’s post-hoc test. as a rule of thumb of sample size for manova, the number in each cell (group) should be greater than the number of dependent variables (hair et al., 2010). as shown in table 4, the number in each group of the personal profile is greater than the number of dependent variables (i.e. 3 dependent variables). this indicates that data collected for this study meets the sample size requirement for manova. the findings were then triangulated with semi-structured interviews. rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201734 a total of ten interviews were conducted to triangulate with the survey findings. interview data was analysed with opening coding. emerging themes with semantic meanings were coded as one category. results and findings research participants’ personal profile the 43 survey respondents’ personal profiles are shown in table 4. the respondents represented a board spectrum of the construction industry. around half of the respondents were aged below 30 with the remainder aged above 30. respondents mainly worked as quantity surveyors, other construction-related professionals and contractors. more than one third of the respondents had worked in the construction industry for more than eight years. the ten interviewees’ personal profiles are shown in table 5a. about half of the interviewees were quantity surveyors having worked in the construction industry for five years or less. another half of the interviewees were in the middle/senior level. about 40% of them have more than 8 years’ work experience in the construction industry, as contractors or others. both the survey respondents and interviewees reasonably represented a board spectrum of women practitioners in the construction industry. table 4 survey respondents’ personal profile (n = 43) no. of respondents (%) age 18-25 12 (27.9%) 26-30 8 (18.6%) 31-40 15 (34.9%) above 40 8 (18.6%) occupation architect 7 (16.3%) quantity surveyor 12 (27.9%) engineer 4 (9.3%) contractor 8 (18.6%) others 12 (27.9%) work experience in construction 0-2 years 5 (11.6%) 3-5 years 13 (30.2%) 6-8 years 9 (20.9%) more than 8 years 16 (37.2%) career level junior 12 (27.9%) middle 13 (30.2%) senior and others 18 (41.9%) rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201735 table 5a interviewees’ personal profile (n = 10). interviewee age occupation work experience in construction career level a 18-25 contractor 3-5 years junior b 18-25 architect 0-2 years junior c above 40 quantity surveyor more than 8 years senior d 31-40 contractor more than 8 years middle e 31-40 quantity surveyor more than 8 years senior f 31-40 others 3-5 years middle g 26-30 quantity surveyor 0-2 years junior h 18-25 others 3-5 years junior i above 40 quantity surveyor more than 8 years senior j 18-25 quantity surveyor 0-2 years junior table 5b ranking of career challenges for women in construction career challenges mean ranking stress 3.95 1 difficult for family work life balance 3.91 2 negative perceptions 3.84 3 long working hours 3.79 4 sexist attitudes 3.74 5 lack of role models 3.67 6 isolation of construction sites 3.14 7 mimicking male behavior 3.09 8 questionnaire survey findings women in construction faced various challenges identified from the literature. as shown in table 5b, the top three career challenges were stress (mean = 3.95), difficult family work life balance (mean = 3.91), and negative perceptions (mean = 3.84). regarding the success factors of women in construction, table 6 shows that dedication (mean = 4.49), determination (mean = 4.47), and independence (mean = 4.44) were the top three success factors. it is noteworthy that mentor assistance was only ranked 9th even though mentor assistance is frequently mentioned in the literature. in table 7, the key strategies for improving women’s career development in construction includes having a role model/mentor (mean = 4.58), early attractions for female high school students to the construction industry (mean = 4.30), and diverse forms of networking rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201736 (mean = 4.28). considering that lack of role models was not a highly-ranked challenge and mentor assistance was not a highly-ranked success factor, it is interesting to find that having a role model or mentor was considered the most beneficial strategy for improving women’s career development in construction. table 8 shows the manova results of the top three challenges (i.e. stress, difficult for family work life balance, negative perceptions), the top three success factors (i.e. dedication, determination, and independence) for women in construction, and the top three strategies (i.e. role model/mentor, early attraction, diverse forms of networking) for improving women’s career development in construction based on age, occupation, work experience and career level respectively. as shown in table 8, there is no significant difference in the perception of challenges faced by women in construction in terms of their personal attributes. using pillai’s trace, there was no significant difference in the top three challenges of women in construction based on age [v = 0.203, f(9, 117) =.946, p > .05], occupation [v = 0.359, f(12, 114) = 1.291, p > .05], table 6 success factors of women in construction success factors mean ranking dedication 4.49 1 determination 4.47 2 independence 4.44 3 practicality 4.33 4 responsibility 4.23 5 communication skills 4.17 6 self-efficacy 4.09 7 ability to network 4.00 8 conscious 3.98 9 leadership skills 3.98 9 ability to seek mentor assistance 3.98 9 confidence 3.95 12 creativity 3.81 13 table 7 strategies for career development of women in construction strategies mean ranking role model/mentor 4.58 1 early attraction 4.30 2 diverse forms of networking 4.28 3 commitment to flexibility 4.16 4 kpis 3.74 5 cpd 3.07 6 rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201737 work experience in construction [v = 0.125, f(9, 117) = .567, p > .05], and career level [v = 0.476, f(12, 114) = 1.791, p > .05]. this indicates that women in construction across the board face similar challenges even if they are in different age groups, profession types, length of work experience in the industry and career development level. challenges for women to remain in the construction industry do not significantly diminish even they have well-established their career in the industry. as for success factors, using pillai’s trace, there was significant difference in success factors of women in construction based on occupation [v = .589, f(12, 114) = 2.321, p < .05] and work experience [v = .489, f(9, 117) = .734, p < .05]. other personal attributes, including age, and career level, did not have significant effect on the mean differences of success factors for women in construction. tukey’s post-hoc test results (table 9) indicated that respondents in different occupations had significantly different perceptions on determination, and independence. women architects’ perception of determination being the success factor of their career development was significantly higher than that of the women engineers. women engineers’ perception of determination being the success factor of their career development was significantly lower than that of the women practitioners working for contractors. respondents with more than 8 years regarded determination being a success factor for women’s career development significantly higher than those with 0-2 years. regarding strategies for improving women’s career development in construction, there is no significant difference in the perception of the effectiveness of the existing strategies for improving career development of women in the construction industry (table 8). table 8 manova results dependent variables independent variables f hypothesis df error df pillai’s trace (v) sig. top three challenges age .946 9 117 .203 .489 occupation 1.291 12 114 .359 .233 work experience .567 9 117 .125 .822 career level 1.791 12 114 .476 .058 top three success factors age .734 9 117 .160 .677 occupation 2.321 12 114 .589 .011* work experience 2.531 9 117 .489 .011* career level 1.175 12 114 .330 .309 top three strategies age .822 9 117 .178 .597 occupation .802 12 114 .234 .648 work experience 1.298 9 117 .272 .245 career level 1.366 12 114 .377 .192 notes. * p < .05. rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201738 interview findings in the semi-structured interviews, interviewees mainly expressed their challenges of working in the construction industry, and suggested strategies for improving their career development in the construction industry. the themes align with those identified in the literature and those ranked highly in the questionnaire survey. challenges for women’s career development in construction stress although stress is inevitable in the workplace, interviewees identified that in addition to stress arising from the job nature, there are pressures for women working in the construction trying to keep up with their male colleagues. construction projects always have a tight time schedule and the workload is very demanding. one interviewee mentioned that “construction industry just like a roller coaster, fast and risky” (interviewee e). additional stress comes from the fact that women are not often given the opportunity to progress their career. a number of interviewees expressed their struggles around not being accepted in the male dominated industry. interviewee d expressed that “when a male entering the construction industry, they would be accepted straight away, whereas as females we have to earn the respect”. similarly, interviewee b expressed that there is additional stress to women in construction: [as women in construction, you need to] constantly fight to gain the knowledge you need because there is no person before you making that fight for you, we are the women leading this company to bring in the next lot of women, the men don’t know how to treat us and we are constantly fighting to be recognised as on the same level” (interviewee d) you will be taken seriously only if you go into a meeting thinking i have a right to be here and not should i be here (interviewee i) table 9 tukey’s post-hoc test results (success factors) mean difference std. error sig. determination architect vs engineer 1.11 .339 .019* engineer vs contractor -1.13 .332 .013* 0-2 years vs more than 8 years -.88 .258 .008* 3-5 years vs 6-8 years .65 .218 .025* 6-8 years vs more than 8 years -.99 .210 .000* independence architect vs engineer 1.00 .329 .033* architect vs others .83 .250 .015* notes. * p < .05 rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201739 you have to have your own back on a lot of things and have the confidence or else they will see that as a weakness and not take you seriously” (interviewee d); and “you had to work really hard to gain confidence in the beginning and feel equal” (interviewee h). interviewees repeated numerous times that they were pressured to put in extra effort and be overly prepared for their work; otherwise, they won’t be taken seriously or they will be showing weakness because of their female identity. family work life balance finding a balance between competing personal and professional goals was identified by the interviewees as the top challenge of career development for women in construction. discussions around balancing career and personal goals were filled with emotion. those respondents who had family or were planning to have a family expressed a great deal of concern about the high demands and pressure placed on their positions within their construction organisations and their responsibilities to their families. some even spoke of challenges of finding enough time for their lives outside of work and meeting the expectations of their roles. as the female is generally the primary carer in a family, she has multiple responsibilities and respondents felt it was difficult to find family and work balance when undertaking a career in the construction industry as the males don’t have the same responsibilities in the household and can dedicate more time to their careers. some of the comments include: …time off to have children, and question whether to go back to work and put them in day care or raise them yourself. i am lucky to have a supportive partner who understands the demand for the long hours in the industry (interviewee c) i’m at the age now where i get worried about stopping to have a family because i will have to do extra work to get back to where i am now…. (interviewee f) having to stop or reduce workload to have a family, plus having to come back part time limits the responsibility level you will be given. (interviewee c) i’m worried about having a family and the company not having the flexibility towards this (interviewee g) the role varies so much and the workload, and when you have a family other engagements outside of work it does impact because you have to make the decision between family and work (interviewee e) negative perceptions towards women’s involvement in construction regarding the challenges for women’s career development, negative perceptions towards women in construction was highlighted in the interviews. interviewees made similar comments about the way they were perceived by their male counterparts in the industry and they identified negative perception towards women in construction as a factor stopping them from progressing further for their career. for example: “males opinions stop me from progressing as they have the assumption that i know nothing, even when you are trying to get assistance” (interviewee a). some comments were about how management may make decisions about hiring and promoting women in the industry which reflects gender discrimination. interviewee j claimed that “i think men find it difficult to work around the fact that women want to have families, and will eventually have to take time off to do so.”. other examples include: rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201740 management judge at what phase or age a female is at and will their next life phase cause them not to be able to undertake the tasks required for the promotion. (interviewee c) people who are in management positions pick people who are like them, i don’t wear a skirt or have the same family goals, and in this industry being a male dominated majority of management are men. they understand and know what to expect from someone who is like this. it’s a risk to employ someone who isn’t like them…the mentality back in the day that was women don’t work in construction and these are the ones who are our mentors and managing us (interviewee d) one participant mentioned that although she wanted to progress her career to a director position, there was a barrier evident relating to being a mother. “…to be a director you can’t be a mum and something would have to give….” (interviewee c) long working hours there was a mixed response around long working hours. one interviewee who was a quantity surveyor mentioned that “i feel like we are just expected to put the hours in if they are needed….” (interviewee c). some interviewees mentioned the reason of long working hour in construction was due to the set mentality that longer working hours meant you were working hard. there was a saying that “construction industry never takes holidays” (interviewee e). dealing with aggressive behaviour one interesting point revealed from the interviews was that women had to deal with aggressive behaviour of the team. interviewees have expressed fears around dealing with male’s aggressive behaviour in meetings and feeling as though they have to behave like a male to gain respect and be heard. interviewee i expressed that “often women struggle with being outspoken, i see the men and how they talk themselves up, feel as though females are less inclined to do this” whereas interviewee c mentioned “dealing with unfortunate situations with men and aggression in meetings”. another participant mentioned that she acts differently around men in the workplace to be able to be heard. interviewee j expressed that “we just have to learn how to communicate to the other gender to get what you want through”. as illustrated by interviewee d: …..how i am at work is completely different to how i am outside of work, because outside of work what i do wouldn’t be classed as a female attribute. i’m not going to go and have coffee and swear and curse to my friends to get my point across whereas here (in the workplace) you almost have to act like they do there is no division from their end. (interviewee d) strategies for supporting women’s career development in construction interviewees made valuable comments on the strategies for supporting women’s career development in construction. they commented on the role model/mentor scheme and suggested that more diverse forms of networking should be promoted. role model/ mentor getting a role model/mentor was one of the most popular strategies for improving women’s career development in construction. although all the research has demonstrated that it is rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201741 beneficial to have a mentor, one participant made comment about how people could perceive the relationship if the age gap was too small and this could put the male mentor in a position where they won’t give their full potential to their cadet/junior. interviewee c expressed that “male mentor whose age gap is close to the female they are mentoring can get worried about that the relationship perceives…” diverse forms of networking interviewees expressed that more diverse form of social/ networking opportunities should be encouraged in the construction industry. multiple interviewees commented that when they first entered the industry, they were not invited to join social or networking opportunity. for example: ……all the men got invited to a golf day and i didn’t, yet we did the same role, same pay, same uni courses, but to be acknowledged as part of the team or part of the industry to meet the subcontractors that we needed to do the contracts, almost missed out on those opportunities because i was a female.” (interviewee c) all the boys for the first two months i was here would go out to coffee every single day and no one would ask if i wanted to come, there is a culture, and i’m sure individually none of them are sexist but because no one else is asked they just group together. (interviewee b) they suggested that more diverse form of social/networking opportunities need to be offered so as to break the existing norms. discussions existing literature provided a scattered perception of factors effecting women’s career development. this research identified challenges falling into three main categories namely stress, family work life balance and negative perceptions about female’s abilities. these findings were consistent with existing literature (nawic, 2013). finding a balance between personal and professional aspirations/goals was identified as the most significant career challenge for women in the australian construction. over half of respondents agreed that difficulty in finding the family-work life balance is a challenge throughout their career in the construction industry, making it difficult to have a family and split their time between work and home. it is the consequence of the male dominated industry, confirmed in studies by hatipkarasulu and roff (2011), moore (2006), and lingard and lin (2004). male culture of the industry has impaired work life balance. as one interviewee commented “females do 80% more than males, housework, family stuff plus work, how do you balance?” this is supported by dainty, neale and bagilhole (2000) who found over half of the men working in construction had non-working partners who looked after the domestic matters in their households. women had to make the choice between having a successful career or a family orientated lifestyle. a respondent commented; “priorities – if you want to stay home with the kids it will compromise your careers but if you want to continue with your career, you have to sacrifice putting them in child care and not being with them every day”. very often, women would have to stop working to have a family when they realized the inherent difficulties of combining work and family responsibilities. in an industry that already suffers rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201742 shortages of professionals, losing qualified individuals at their crucial stage of career presents a monumental problem (gibson et al., 2003). the perception of the construction industry to women was undesirable, confirmed by the majority of comments relating to challenges women faced. resistance to women participating in professional roles in construction was apparent within all areas of the industry, from the business roles to the job site. prior studies found that causes of stress were extended working hours, inadequate leisure time, paperwork, lack of family life balance, travel, architects, poor communication, and staff shortages (sutherland and davidson, 1993). participants of this study mentioned majority of these and added unpredictable situations and unrealistic expectations as some of the worst parts of working in the construction industry. this study found that the challenges of women’s career development were not significantly different across different age, occupation, work experience in construction and career level. there is a lack of effective measures to tackle the root causes of these challenges. the recent report of unsw (2016) found that the root causes of these challenges come from the culture of the australian construction industry which expects long working hours and pressure to finish jobs early. those who do not live up to this expectation are considered part-timers. to a certain extent, these challenges are also faced by men in the construction industry but they are in greater magnitude for women. these challenges affect all the women in construction, including newcomers and long-time women practitioners. if the culture of the australian construction industry does not change, it is hard to see any change in the gender diversity in the construction industry. dedication, determination, and independency were the top three success factors for women’s career development in the construction industry. personality traits are more important than interpersonal and organizational factors (e.g. mentors, ability to network) for women to be successful in the construction industry. these findings were somewhat in line with francis (2017) that proactive personality was significantly positively correlated with women’s career advancement in the construction industry. individual factors explained the highest variance of women’s career development in construction than interpersonal factors, and organizational factors. success of women in construction largely depends on their individual character and experience. this indicates that personal growth and development training to strengthen character traits would contribute to women’s career development in construction. regarding the strategies for improving women’s career development in construction, role model or mentor is frequently advocated in the literature and in practice. however, the impacts of role model or mentoring program on advancing women’s career development in the construction industry need further investigation. interestingly, francis (2017) has recently found that mentoring does not advance women’s career development in the construction industry but only keeps them from leaving the industry. women in construction have a career development different from men. it is interesting that role model or mentor was ranked relatively low in the success factors of women’s career development but role model or mentor was considered the most important strategy for improving women’s career development in construction. undoubtedly, having a role model or a mentor will be beneficial but the benefits may be limited if the mentor does not understand the challenges that their mentees are facing. there are limited women in the construction industry who can be a role model or act as a mentor. male mentors may not be able to fully understand the challenges the female mentees face and female mentees may not feel comfortable seeking support from the male mentor. findings of this study indicate that existing strategies for improving women’s career development in the construction industry are not directly linked to the challenges or the success factors of women’s career development in the construction industry. thus, the rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201743 effectiveness of these strategies in supporting women’s career development would be limited. further research needs to be done on designing an effective mentoring program for women in the construction industry. new strategies addressing the challenges and strengthening the success factors of women’s career development are urgently needed to develop a more gender balanced construction industry. conclusion to conclude, women’s career development in construction faces different challenges. the top ones are stress, difficult work life balance; negative perceptions towards women in construction, long working hours etc. women in different levels of career development would face similar challenges. notably, women in construction found it difficult to deal with aggressive behaviour of male colleagues. this is a peculiar factor revealed from the interviews. to be successful in the construction industry, personal traits, such as dedication, determination, and independence of the women practitioners, are more important than other interpersonal and organizational factors. thus, personal development strengthening character traits would be particularly useful for women’s career development in construction. lack of role model/mentor was not a highly-ranked challenge to women’s career development in construction. getting a mentor was also not a highly-ranked success factor for women in construction. however, it is interesting to find that role model/mentor was the top strategy for improving women’s career development in construction. this may indicate that there are limited choices of strategies to effectively support women in construction. it seems that these strategies are not fully addressing the challenges that women in construction are facing and they are not dedicated to strengthening the success factors for women in construction. current strategies for women’s career development in construction seem to have minimal effect on alleviating the challenges for women in construction because many challenges require long-term change in the culture of the construction industry. setting up a mentor program for women in construction seems to be a feasible start to bring about changes provided that the mentor program is carefully designed to suit the needs of women in construction. to advance women’s career development in construction, employers should consider providing personal development programs, and flexible working arrangement, such as flexible working hours, to suit individual needs. more importantly, there needs to be a cultural change in the construction industry. it is hoped that the construction industry will become more gender balanced and women can be given the same opportunities to excel in construction. this study is limited by a relatively small sample size in queensland, the second largest state of australia. future research can extend to the other states of australia to reveal a more comprehensive picture across the country. although this study was conducted in australia, the findings would be applicable to other construction industries which share the same goal of improving gender balance and advancing women’s career development in construction. this study contributes to revealing the current situation of the career development of women in the australian construction industry. more strategies to fundamentally address the challenges and strengthen the success factors of women’s career development identified in this study should be developed. further research needs to be conducted to design effective mentoring program to facilitate women’s career development in the construction industry. further research needs to be conducted to evaluate the effectiveness of the existing career development strategies for women in construction and promulgate new strategies to directly address the challenges and strengthen the success factors for women in construction. rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201744 acknowledgements this paper was derived from the first author’s research project undertaken for the bachelor of urban development (quantity surveying). the authors would like to thank the national association of women in construction (nawic) queensland chapter for the support provided in questionnaire survey data collection. references amaratunga, d., haigh, r., shanmugam, m. and elvitigala, g., 2006. current status on construction and women in the north west of england, industry report: manchester, uk: esf regional. australian government department of employment, 2016. construction industry outlook 2015. [pdf ] agde. [online] available at: https://cica.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015-construction-industryoutlook.pdf bagilhole, b.m., dainty, a.r. and neale, r.h., 2000. women in the construction industry in the uk: a cultural discord? journal of women and minorities in science and engineering, 6(1), pp. 40-9. https://doi. org/10.1615/jwomenminorscieneng.v6.i1.40 betz, n.e. and hackett, g., 1981. the relationship of career-related self-efficiency expectations to perceived career options in collage women and men. journal of counselling phycology, 28 (5), pp. 399-410. chun, b.l., arditi, d. and balci, g., 2009. women in construction management. cmaa ejournal, june. [online] available at: http://cmaanet.org/women-construction-management dainty, a., neale, r. and bagilhole, b., 2000. comparison of men’s and women’s careers in u.k. construction industry. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 126(3), pp. 11015. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2000)126:3(110) dainty, a.r. and lingard, h., 2006. indirect discrimination in construction organizations and the impact on women’s careers. journal of management in engineering, 22(3), pp. 108-118. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0742-597x(2006)22:3(108) english, j. and le jeune, k., 2012. do professional women and tradeswomen in the south african construction industry share common employment barriers despite progressive government legislation? journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 138(2), pp. 145-52. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000095 ericksen, j.a. and schultheiss, d.e.p., 2009. women pursuing careers in trades and construction. journal of career development, 36(1), pp. 68-89. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845309340797 fernando, n.g., amaratunga, d. and haigh, r., 2014. the career advancement of the professional women in the uk construction industry: the career success factors. journal of engineering, design and technology, 12(1), pp. 53-70. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2012-0018 francis, v., 2017. what influences professional women’s career advancement in construction? construction management and economics, 35(5), pp. 254-275, https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.12 77026. gibson, g.e, davis-blake, a., dickson, k.e. and mentel, b., 2003. workforce demographics among project engineering professionals – crisis ahead? journal of management in engineering, 19(4), pp. 173-82. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2003)19:4(173) rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201745 https://cica.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015-construction-industry-outlook.pdf https://cica.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2015-construction-industry-outlook.pdf https://doi.org/10.1615/jwomenminorscieneng.v6.i1.40 https://doi.org/10.1615/jwomenminorscieneng.v6.i1.40 http://cmaanet.org/women-construction-management https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2000)126:3(110 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2006)22:3(108 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2006)22:3(108 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000095 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000095 https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845309340797 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2012-0018 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1277026 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1277026 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2003)19:4(173 hair, j.f. jr., black, w.c., babin, b.j. and anderson, r.e., 2010. multivariate data analysis. 7th ed. essex, uk: pearson education limited. hatipkarasulu, y. and roff, e.s., 2011. women in construction: an early historical perspective. in: associated schools of construction (asc) 47th asc annual international conference proceedings. university of nebraska-lincoln, 6-9 april 2011. omaha, ne: asc. lingard, h. and lin, j., 2004. career, family and work environment determinants of organizational commitment among women in the australian construction industry. construction management and economics, 22(4), pp. 409-420. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000122186 loosemore, m. and waters, t., 2004. gender differences in occupational stress among professionals in the construction industry. journal of management in engineering, 20(3), 126-132. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2004)20:3(126) maskell-pretz, m. and hopkins, w.e., 1997. women in engineering: toward a barrier-free work environment. journal of management in engineering, 13(1), pp. 32-37. 10.1061 (asce)0742597x(1997)13:1(32). mathieu, p.w., sowa, c.j. and niles, s.g., 1993. differences in career self-efficiency among women. journal of career development, 19(3), pp. 187-196. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01353277 and https://doi. org/10.1177/089484539301900304 menches, c.l., and abraham, d.m., 2007. women in construction tapping the untapped resource to meet future demands. journal of construction engineering and management, 133(9), pp. 701-707. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:9(701) moore, j.d., 2006. women in construction management: creating a theory of career choice and development. phd. colorado state university. nawic, 2013. what women want from construction careers. [online] available at: http://www.nawic. com.au/documents/nawic/15-04-13_national_nawic_discussion_paper.pdf prime minister of australia, 2016. supporting women in building and construction. [media release] 27 april 2016. available at: https://www.pm.gov.au/media/2016-04-27/supporting-women-building-andconstruction unsw, 2016. construction industry: demolishing gender structures. [online] available at: https://www. be.unsw.edu.au/research/demolishing-gender-structures singh, v. and vinnicombe, s., 2004. female ftse report. bedford: cranfield school of management. sutherland, v. and davidson, m.j., 1993. using a stress audit: the construction site manager experience in the uk. work and stress, 7, pp. 273-86. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678379308257067 wgeagovau., 2016. fact sheet gender composition of the workforce: by industry. [online] available at: https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/2014-04-04-gender composition-of-the-workforce-byindustry.pdf [accessed 27 may 2016]. worrall, l., harris, k., stewart, r., thomas, a. and mcdermott, p., 2010. barriers to women in the uk construction industry. engineering, construction and architectural management, 17(3), pp. 268-81. https:// doi.org/10.1108/09699981011038060 yates, j.k., 2001. retention of non-traditional engineering and construction professionals. journal of management in engineering, 17(1), 41-48. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2001)17:1(41) rosa, hon, xia & lamari construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201746 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000122186 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2004)20:3(126 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2004)20:3(126 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01353277 https://doi.org/10.1177/089484539301900304 https://doi.org/10.1177/089484539301900304 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:9(701 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:9(701 http://www.nawic.com.au/documents/nawic/15-04-13_national_nawic_discussion_paper.pdf http://www.nawic.com.au/documents/nawic/15-04-13_national_nawic_discussion_paper.pdf https://www.pm.gov.au/media/2016-04-27/supporting-women-building-and-construction https://www.pm.gov.au/media/2016-04-27/supporting-women-building-and-construction https://www.be.unsw.edu.au/research/demolishing-gender-structures https://www.be.unsw.edu.au/research/demolishing-gender-structures https://doi.org/10.1080/02678379308257067 https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/2014-04-04-gender composition-of-the-workforce-by-industry.pdf https://www.wgea.gov.au/sites/default/files/2014-04-04-gender composition-of-the-workforce-by-industry.pdf https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981011038060 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981011038060 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2001)17:1(41 _hlk484292652 _hlk485064336 construction economics and building vol. 17, no. 3 september 2017 © 2017 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: liao, l., teo, e.a.l., and low, s.p. 2017. a project management framework for enhanced productivity performance using building information modelling. construction economics and building, 17:3, 1-26. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v17i3.5389 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | ajceb.epress. lib.uts.edu.au abstract although the singapore government has mandated submissions of building plans in building information modelling (bim) format since july 2013, this does not yet seem to lead to enhanced productivity performance. bim collaboration between designers and downstream contractors appears to remain inadequate. while many studies have been conducted on using bim for better project outcomes, studies that relate bim with the identification of non-value adding activities in the project lifecycle and the reduction of the resulting wastes are at infancy stage. this paper aims to propose a project management framework for enhancing the productivity of building projects in singapore, which forms phase i of an ongoing research project. a two-pronged approach is presented. firstly, non-value adding activities in the current project delivery process that uses bim partially in singapore are identified by comparing the typical current process with full bim-based processes; such activities are cut down after process transformation in terms of people, process, and technology. secondly, time savings derived from reducing the wastes caused by these activities are quantified. the proposed framework was validated by a case study of a local residential project. it was concluded that this framework provides a valuable tool for project teams to enhance productivity performance. keywords productivity, building information modelling (bim), process transformation, non-value adding activities, wastes research article a project management framework for enhanced productivity performance using building information modelling longhui liao*¹, evelyn ai lin teo¹, sui pheng low¹ ¹ department of building, national university of singapore, 4 architecture drive, singapore 117566. *corresponding author: longhui liao, department of building, national university of singapore, 4 architecture drive, singapore, 117566, e-mail: a0109736@u.nus.edu doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5389 article history: received 07/02/2017; revised 17/07/2017; accepted 22/07/2017; published 21/09/2017 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 1 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5389 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5389 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5389 ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au mailto:a0109736@u.nus.edu http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5389 introduction productivity performance is not only a determinant of a firm’s long-term viability, but also a benchmark of overall competitive advantage of an industry and an economy. since many countries have suffered from suboptimal productivity performance in the construction industry, much research work needs to be done to formulate strategies for productivity enhancement (ranasinghe, ruwanpura and liu, 2011). singapore’s economic strategies committee (esc, 2010) reported that there was significant room to improve productivity in every sector of singapore’s economy. therefore, the singapore government targeted to achieve productivity growth of 2–3% per year from 2010 to 2020 (esc, 2010), which is measured by labor productivity in terms of valueadded per employee. to meet this target, the first construction productivity roadmap (cpr) was formulated in 2010, which focused on helping firms to adopt technology, according to singapore’s building and construction authority (bca, 2011a). strict legislations have been enforced in this cpr, such as formulating a 5-year bim adoption roadmap. bim electronic submission (e-submission) for regulatory approval has been mandated in three phases. new building projects with a gross floor area (gfa) of 20,000 m2 and above were required to submit their architectural plans in bim format since july 2013 and to submit their structural and mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (mep) plans in bim format since july 2014. eventually, all new building projects with a gfa of 5,000 m2 and above were required to make architectural, structural, and mep bim e-submissions since july 2015 (bca, 2011b). nevertheless, the target had not been completely realized by 2015. the singapore department of statistics (sdos, 2016) reported that the year-on-year changes of labor productivity were 2.3% (2011), -0.3% (2012), 0.5% (2013), -0.5% (2014), and -0.1% (2015) for the total economy; the figures for the construction industry were 2.0% (2011), 2.7% (2012), -3.0% (2013), -1.8 % (2014), and 0.5% (2015), respectively. furthermore, even if the productivity performance in the construction industry is good enough to achieve the target, productivity performance enhancing tools such as bim will still be needed to make the productivity better. to meet this need, the second cpr was formulated in 2015 (bca, 2015), which focuses on upgrading the skills of the construction workforce, driving collaboration among firms, and integrating the construction value chain. virtual design and construction (vdc) and design for manufacture and assembly (dfma) are highlighted as good approaches and supported by the second bim roadmap in this cpr. the literature search also suggests that integrated project delivery (ipd) will be a good approach to meet the productivity growth expectations. as can be seen from the above, there is a need to transform the singapore construction industry, and one of the useful tools in this transformation would be bim (nath et al., 2015). it is process transformation that validates bim implementation in the construction industry (arayici et al., 2011; autodesk, 2012; khosrowshahi and arayici, 2012; enegbuma, aliagha and ali, 2014). researchers (lee et al., 2005; lee and sexton, 2007) studied the process transformation in terms of people, process, and technology. lee and sexton (2007) explored the feasibility of industry absorbing and diffusing n-dimensional (nd) modelling technology and found that there ought to be intrinsic links between technology, people, and process. they reported that although people appreciate the potential significant benefits of nd modelling technology, it could be too embryonic and too far removed from the “comfort zones” of construction firms because it requires heavy investment and contains too many risks. liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 20172 this echoes sentiment in studies concentrating on the singapore construction industry (teo and heng, 2007; teo, 2008). the situation and the above findings inspired the present authors to develop a bim-based process transformation (bbpt) model to enhance the productivity in the singapore construction industry. therefore, an ongoing research project lasting for four years is conducted to fill this gap. in this study, people refers to key project stakeholders including government agencies, owners, architects, engineers, general contractors, key trade contractors, manufacturers/suppliers, and facility managers; process refers to work processes that constitute traditional project delivery process, current project delivery process, and full bim-based processes; technology refers to bim-related tools. in addition, researchers normally measure productivity improvement in terms of time saving (chelson, 2010; nath et al., 2015). but from a broader perspective, the time saving is derived from the identification of wastes such as defects, reworks, overproduction, waiting time, requests for information (rfis), unnecessary inventory (ohno, 1988; chelson, 2010; wu, low and jin, 2013; nikakhtar et al., 2015), and safety issues (alwi, hampson and mohamed, 2002). five research problems have been identified in the larger study after the literature review. firstly, the productivity performance needs to be enhanced. secondly, the current industry practices in the project lifecycle in the singapore construction industry were not identified. in the context of the mandatory bim e-submissions, people concentrate too much on the design stage, rather than full bim adoption in the project lifecycle. thirdly, the process wastes produced by people in the current process and leading causes of the wastes were not established. it is suggested that a good way to reduce the wastes could be to establish the concept of non-value adding activities and to remove such activities in the project lifecycle (wu and low, 2011; wu, low and jin, 2013; nikakhtar et al., 2015). next, critical factors driving and hindering people to change towards the full bim-based processes were not identified and analyzed in tandem with the concept of process transformation. finally, the bbpt model in terms of people, process, and technology for the current process was not developed. a collaborative atmosphere for bim implementation among project teams may not exist in the short term, so the construction industry must take steps to change the unproductive current practices to save time. thus, this larger study aims at developing a bbpt model to assist project teams in reducing wastes, and thus enhancing the productivity performance of building projects in singapore. accordingly, the main objectives of this study are to: • study the current industry practices in the project lifecycle; • identify the non-value adding activities in the current industry practices, study the leading causes, and evaluate their impact on productivity; • study the experiences of people when using bim in their past, similar building projects in singapore; • investigate the drivers that motivate people to change and the hindrances that people are likely to face; • develop a bbpt model from the perspectives of people, process, and technology for the current process in singapore. figure 1 presents the phasing of the entire study which focuses on applying bim to help people transform their current processes into full bim-based processes in building projects in liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 20173 singapore. although the full bim-based process can be discussed from many perspectives, this study focuses on vdc, dfma, and ipd, from the conceptualization phase to the facility management (fm) phase. vdc and dfma are encouraged by the local government; ipd has been proven to be productive in some projects and has gained popularity overseas, especially in north america (cohen, 2010). this paper concentrates on phase i of the larger study. issues related to phase ii and phase iii are beyond the scope of this paper and there are plans to publish their corresponding findings in other papers. this paper proposes a framework for people to enhance the productivity in their building projects in singapore. by identifying the non-value adding activities and reducing the resulting wastes, time savings can be obtained, enhancing productivity. evolution of project delivery processes traditional process traditionally, people used computer-aided design (cad) programs, and architectural and engineering contracts were solely awarded before construction (azhar, kang and ahmad, 2014). hence design was not totally fixed until the construction phase because trade contractor input is not available until then, according to the american institute of architects and the american institute of architects, california council (aia and aiacc, 2007). due to this disconnection, contractors had to reproduce drawings and fm team uses 2d as-built drawings to manage buildings. this process results in frequent claims and disputes between people as well as cost and time overruns. therefore, the construction industry needed alternative delivery methods. current process in singapore azhar, kang and ahmad (2014) advocated using more integrated approaches to overcome the fragmentation issue in the traditional process. the singapore government has mandated the architectural and engineering bim e-submissions, driving bim adoption in the construction industry (see figure 2). despite this, the bim adoption stresses on the design stage, where onsite activities do not begin. lam (2014) reported that the contractors and facility managers are not involved in the design phases to contribute their knowledge. the architects and engineers tend to use design models only for their own benefits such as applying for the regulatory figure 1 phasing of an ongoing research project liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 20174 approvals, and may not consider the bim uses of downstream parties and share their quality bim models. hence general contractors must re-build the bim models based on the 2d drawings, specifications, and incomplete design models from the designers to coordinate key trades, produce shop drawings, and develop and submit as-built bim models to the architects during construction. furthermore, most trade contractors lack bim skills and facility managers rarely use bim. overall, it is a partial bim process currently adopted in singapore. if the designers do not collaborate with the downstream parties, the true spirit of bim will not be realized as it results in fragmented bim uses between the designers, contractors, and facility managers. as a result, there will be many problems in the construction and the fm phases, such as frequent rfis, change orders, and reworks. it is hence necessary to develop suitable strategies to drive for better bim collaboration throughout the construction value chain. shortcomings in current process – developing new processes the fragmentation in the current process inhibits a widespread change in the construction industry. in most projects people work in silos on their own bim models as they do not have a precise knowledge of the potential value of full bim adoption. little attempt has been made to share bim models in building projects in singapore (lam, 2014). people seek change, but do not want to be changed (senge, 1990). it is hence imperative to explore appropriate delivery methods to eliminate the information fragmentation between people in different phases. to achieve this, a change is required from the existing approach which is based on individual uses to an integrated approach which provides quality information of bim models among people in the project lifecycle. in addition, the alignment of participating firms’ activities with project outcomes is needed. bim tools are ready and available to enable new ways of working that result in more predictable and accurate project outcomes (autodesk, 2008). with bim as a facilitator, approaches such as ipd, vdc, and dfma are increasingly used in the construction industry worldwide. ipd ipd has emerged as a solution to the information fragmentation (azhar, kang and ahmad, 2014). it can reduce the inefficiencies and wastes that are embedded in the current design and construction practices (kent and becerik-gerber, 2010). researchers (aiacc, 2014; azhar, kang and ahmad, 2014) identified the following key characteristics that distinguish ipd from other processes: • continuous involvement of an owner and key designers and contractors from early design through project completion; figure 2 people involvement of different phases in the typical current process in the singapore construction industry (adapted from lam, 2014) liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 20175 • a multi-party agreement that clearly defines their roles and responsibilities; • alignment of business interests through shared risks/rewards; • the ipd team collectively and clearly defines achievable goals and benchmarks for measuring them; • joint project control by the ipd team according to predetermined criteria; • ipd team members waive any claim amongst themselves except for in the instance of a wilful default. bim is central to the process changes that ipd would bring in the construction industry, according to autodesk (2008) which explained how the use of bim in an integrated environment enables the ipd working process and results in more predictable and accurate outcomes. eastman et al. (2011) revealed that bim forms the foundation for better collaboration among people. a subsequent study examined how bim can be useful to help achieve the above ipd characteristics (azhar, kang and ahmad, 2014); this said study found that there are direct relationships between bim attributes and ipd characteristics so that bim would be a catalyst for ipd implementation. nevertheless, the full potential of bim will not be realized unless there are structural changes in the current process. aiacc (2014) explained the commonly-used ipd process overseas, which saw that expertise from both the design team and the construction team is available throughout the design phases. despite this, the process needs to be adapted for singapore use. using the phasing and people involvement of the current process in figure 2 as a reference, this paper highlighted the following changes in the ipd process: (1) changing the agency permit phase to agency review phase and moving it forward to be concurrent with the design phases and the construction documentation phase; (2) involving the general contractor since the conceptualization phase, as well as the key trade contractors and the facility manager from early design onwards; and (3) changing the bidding phase to final buyout phase. the agency review phase commences in the criteria design (schematic design) phase and increases in intensity during the final review period. as policy-makers, the local government agencies actively participate from the beginning. singapore’s corenet is a major initiative to facilitate electronic building plans submission, checking, and approval processes (smith, 2014; solihin and eastman, 2015), which allows the agencies to automatically analyze and check the models submitted for program and code compliance (eastman et al., 2011; khosrowshahi and arayici, 2012). the bim use and early involvement and validation by the agencies minimize agency comments and required changes to the designs as submitted (aia and aiacc, 2007). the general contractor and trade contractors are also involved to contribute site knowledge in design and submittal preparation (kent and becerik-gerber, 2010). in addition, the final buyout phase completes the buyout of remaining contracts such as trade contractors not involved during the design phases and materials without long lead time (aiacc, 2014). vdc vdc is an approach for the designers and the contractors working together as a collaborative team to build, visualize, analyze, and evaluate project performance on multi-disciplinary models in the design stage before tremendous time and resources are consumed during construction (chua and yeoh, 2015). kunz and fischer (2012) suggested three stages of vdc implementation: • firstly, visualization. the project team creates bim models to perform design, construction, and operations based on performance metrics, such as buildability and constructability, that liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 20176 are predicted from the models and tracked in the process. this stage is commonly-used within the global construction industry. • secondly, integration. the project team members reliably share discipline specific data between disparate modelling and analysis applications by using industry foundation classes (ifc). for example, an integrated set of design models of different disciplines can be created based on a shared ifc-based architectural model. • thirdly, automation. the project team uses automated methods to perform routine design tasks or to build subassemblies in a factory. for instance, design detailing can be automated using knowledge from design codes (chua and yeoh, 2015), and standard building products can be integrated in the design development phase by the contractors to increase off-site prefabrication and assembling (gao and fischer, 2006). the standard products will appear in the schedule with the precise style and specifications for manufacturing. fischer et al. (2014) found that the visualization and simulation are the engine of vdc. visualization is an effective way for the team members to describe themselves accurately and to analyze their work and that of others; therefore, the team can communicate more clearly with each other, and with the owner. simulation also allows the team to make better predictions by showing how close different design options come to desired outcomes, and the consequences of their decisions. the automation will be realized based on the good visualization and integration (kunz and fischer, 2012). gao and fischer (2006) studied vdc with 11 case projects in finland. this paper also adapted them into a vdc process to the singapore context. compared with the phasing and people involvement of the current process in figure 2, this paper changed the bidding phase to the final buyout phase and moved the bidding phase to where the design stage starts, so that the contractors could participate and input their construction expertise throughout the design phases. in addition, the structural and mep engineers could aid the architects in the architectural modelling in the schematic design stage and then take advantages of the information from the architectural model for their own analysis. the structural engineer uses the model as a base to make strength calculations for the preliminary framing plan and compare different structural frame options. the mep engineers conduct a computerized analysis of 3d spatial model and set realistic targets such as sizing for building systems. these engineers comment on the architectural model with respect to the more complicated systems, and develop structural and mep models after the architectural model is almost fixed. also, the general contractor uses the models shared by the architects and engineers as bases to build its construction model (gao and fischer, 2006; porwal and hewage, 2013). dfma dfma concentrates on developing a design that is optimized for off-site manufacture (osm) of discrete sections of the final facility and on-site assembly of them after being transported to site, essentially moving site-based activities into a controlled factory environment (mcfarlane and stehle, 2014). the dfma approach consists of three major components: • geometry (3d model). it allows the team members to visually understand and interrogate the design intent and mainly includes the engineers’ finite element models and fabrication models that enable automated production of standard building elements. the models are also used to produce 2d drawings for non-automated processes such as the regulatory approvals and third-party manufacture of small elements. liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 20177 • production (osm). the entire fit-out process, namely the manufacture and assembly of structural and mep modules of different scales as well as the decorative elements, can be carried out in the factory environment. • metadata (bim). it contains all relevant project parameters. multiple design analyses can be conducted, such as calculating and predicting the impacts of time, sequencing, scheduling, costs, sustainability, constructability and so on, allowing the team to select the best design option (mcfarlane and stehle, 2014). the basis of dfma is the virtual reality modelling of the building, which includes four significant elements, namely the discretization of the construction, 3d design collaboration, 4d construction planning, and 5d costing. all the elements should be interrogated and improved by the project team members until the optimum solution is reached (mcfarlane and stehle, 2014), allowing people to participle interactively in the design and planning phases (gibb and isack, 2003). this ensures that all the project parameters are met prior to commencing actual construction. to adopt dfma successfully, the construction industry must make fundamental structural changes based on a thorough understanding of the principles underpinning the manufacturing industry (blismas and wakefield, 2009). dfma changes the way people work, both in terms of the process and product. based on the literature on dfma and bim, the dfma process can be adapted for the singapore construction industry. using the phasing and people involvement of the current process in figure 2 for reference, this paper placed emphasis on the following changes in the dfma process: (1) changing the bidding phase to the final buyout phase and locating the bidding phase after the conceptualization phase; (2) adding and highlighting the manufacturers (suppliers) in the list of the key stakeholders; and (3) dividing the construction phase into four phases, namely manufacture, substructure, superstructure, and fit-out. since design changes would be costly after the fabrication of standard building elements begins, the general contractor and the manufacturers are early involved to help develop the optimum design virtually and early whereby the superstructure and fitting out phases can take place offsite while or before ground works and substructure are being done on-site, compressing on-site phases. the bidding phase entails engaging the general contractor and the manufacturers prior to the design stage using a two-stage contract to avoid them working at risk financially before the construction phase. the subcontractors would be engaged in the final buyout phase to complete traditional construction, including ground works, substructure, and so on. it should be noted that the manufacturing team includes factory based operatives, site erection teams, and so on, and that such a team would also act as the general contractor if the conventional construction is not included in the project (ross, cartwright and novakovic, 2006). field study and findings this paper was divided into four stages. firstly, the key activities related to bim in each project delivery process in the singapore construction industry and the potential resulting wastes that would seriously affect the productivity were identified through the literature review. secondly, bim experts in singapore were approached to validate these key activities and wastes, either through personal interviews or via e-mail enquiries. the interviews were recorded and analyzed using content analysis. wong, salleh and rahim (2014) also adopted this method which studied the bim capabilities in quantity surveying in malaysia. more importantly, a framework for enhancing the productivity performance in singapore was proposed based on the identification of the non-value adding activities and the potential liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 20178 resulting wastes in a building project context. finally, a case study was conducted to validate the proposed framework. non-value adding activities previous studies (wu and low, 2011; 2012; wu, low and jin, 2013; wu and feng, 2014) have identified the non-value adding activities in the precast-concrete production and installation processes in singapore, which would increase carbon emissions. such activities are wasteful because they consume the time of workers and other resources but do not add value to the complete process and the final product (wu, low and jin, 2013; nikakhtar et al., 2015). in the singapore context, the key activities related to bim in building projects may be referred to in table 1. it should be noted that the activities in table 1 may not be comprehensive, but provide a good representation of the current uses of bim within the singapore construction industry. the bca’s gap analysis of the first bim roadmap revealed many problems in the current state of bim adoption, such as firm-based rather than projectwide bim collaboration (lam, 2014). as mentioned earlier, the bim uses currently adopted in singapore were lonely or partially. without knowing the downstream bim uses, the design team may not be able to identify the reusable project information and important information exchanges (anumba et al., 2010). compared with the ipd, vdc, dfma processes, this partial bim adoption creates major non-value adding activities in the current process, which result in various wastes and consume time (nikakhtar et al., 2015), leading to productivity loss. wastes non-value adding work held a considerable portion in most construction processes (alsudairi, 2007; nikakhtar et al., 2015). this work even exceeded 50% of the total work in some cases (al-sudairi, 2007). to quantify the impact of the non-value adding activities in the current process on the productivity, a total of 13 kinds of the potential resulting wastes that would be more impactful have been identified from the literature review (see table 2). empirical findings to validate the key activities related to bim and the potential resulting wastes, a total of 68 practitioners in singapore were approached via e-mails. the practitioners were requested to comment on the readability, relevancy, accuracy, applicability, and comprehensiveness of the key activities and the wastes, as well as add and delete necessary items if rational. finally, 16 responses were received, representing a response rate of 23.53% which was acceptable because it was even higher than the general response rate of singapore surveys range of 10%–15% (teo, chan and tan, 2007). thus, the 16 responses from the e-mail enquiries were considered adequate and valuable to validate the activities and wastes identified in this paper. of these, seven incoming e-mails commented on the activities and three on the wastes. some of the comments were incorporated in this paper; for example, the comment “the design and construction data in digital models are less relevant for operations and maintenance, so the facility management team will still use 2d as-built drawings to manage buildings” was merged into the key activities in the current process in table 1. other comments that were less relevant to bim or too drastic were omitted, such as “buildings are evolving and changes are inevitable, thus the use of bim would be a waste of manpower just to update every day”. apart from the e-mail data, six bim experts preferred being interviewed to discuss the bim implementation in singapore. the number of the interviews was adequate liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 20179 ta bl e 1 su m m ar y of th e ke y ac ti vi ti es r el at ed to b im in th e cu rr en t p ro ce ss a nd th e pr op os ed ip d , v d c , a nd d fm a p ro ce ss es in th e si ng ap or e co ns tr uc ti on in du st ry p ha se s p ro ce ss es k ey a ct iv iti es r el at ed to b im c c c ur re nt th e ow ne r an d th e ar ch ite ct s et p ro je ct r eq ui re m en ts ip d th e ke y st ak eh ol de rs a re e ng ag ed , f or m a n ip d te am b y a m ul tipa rt y co nt ra ct , j oi nt ly s et p ro je ct go al s an d be nc hm ar ks , o ut lin e b im g oa ls a nd p ot en tia l b im u se s (s uc h as 4 d m od el lin g an d m od el up da tin g) b as ed o n th e pr oj ec t c ha ra ct er is tic s, s ta ke ho ld er s’ g oa ls a nd c ap ab ili tie s, a nd d es ire d ri sk al lo ca tio ns , a nd id en tif y th e re sp on si bl e st ak eh ol de rs fo r th e b im u se s an d in fo rm at io n ex ch an ge s; th e te am a gr ee s on th e re w ar d/ ri sk s ha ri ng a rr an ge m en ts vd c /d fm a th e ow ne r an d th e ar ch ite ct s et p ro je ct r eq ui re m en ts a nd o ut lin e th e b im g oa ls a nd p ot en tia l b im u se s (s uc h as 3 d s ite a na ly si s an d co de v al id at io n) b as ed o n th e pr oj ec t c ha ra ct er is tic s sd (c ri te ri a de si gn fo r ip d ) c ur re nt th e ar ch ite ct a nd e ng in ee rs c re at e th ei r de si gn m od el s w ith li tt le c ol la bo ra tio n an d w ith ou t t he co ns tr uc tio n, fa br ic at io n, a nd fa ci lit y m an ag em en t i np ut s fr om th e do w ns tr ea m p eo pl e ip d a ll ke y pr oj ec t p ar am et er s (s uc h as s co pe , b as ic d es ig n, s ys te m s el ec tio n, s ch ed ul e, c os t t ar ge t, qu al ity le ve ls , p re fa br ic at ed c om po ne nt s, b ui ld ab ili ty , a nd c on st ru ct ab ili ty ) a re s et ; a ll th e ke y tr ad e co nt ra ct or s ar e en ga ge d to in pu t t he ir s ite e xp er tis e vd c th e de si gn te am a nd c on st ru ct io n te am a gr ee o n th e m ul tipa rt y co lla bo ra tio n co nt ra ct s to s ha re d at a, id en tif y th e da ta e xc ha ng es b et w ee n th e ke y fir m s, a nd d efi ne th e ex ch an ge pr oc ed ur es a nd fo rm at s; th e en gi ne er s an d co nt ra ct or s w or k to ge th er w ith th e ar ch ite ct to d ev el op a rc hi te ct ur al m od el ; th e fa ci lit y m an ag er m ay a ls o co nt ri bu te to th e de si gn d fm a th e en gi ne er s, g en er al c on tr ac to r, a nd m an uf ac tu re rs a re e ng ag ed w ith tw ost ag e co nt ra ct s, fu rt he r ou tli ne th e b im g oa ls a nd p ot en tia l b im u se s (s uc h as 3 d c oo rd in at io n an d di gi ta l f ab ri ca tio n) ac co rd in g to th ei r go al s an d ca pa bi lit ie s as w el l a s ri sk a llo ca tio ns , a nd id en tif y th e re sp on si bl e pa rt ie s fo r th e b im u se s an d th e co lla bo ra tio n m et ho ds (s uc h as re gu la r m ee tin gs ) o f d at a ex ch an ge s; th e en gi ne er s, g en er al c on tr ac to r, a nd m an uf ac tu re rs c on tr ib ut e in th e ar ch ite ct ur al m od el lin g ta bl e 1 co nt in ue s on th e ne xt p ag e liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201710 ta bl e 1 (c on tin ue d) p ha se s p ro ce ss es k ey a ct iv iti es r el at ed to b im d d (d et ai le d de si gn fo r ip d ) c ur re nt th e bu ild in g el em en ts m ay n ot b e w el l d efi ne d; th e bu ild in g sy st em s m ay n ot b e co or di na te d un til th e co ns tr uc tio n ph as e ip d a ll th e bu ild in g sy st em s ar e fu lly e ng in ee re d an d co or di na te d, w ith r eq ui re d le ve l o f d et ai l vd c /d fm a th e en gi ne er s bu ild th e st ru ct ur al a nd m ep m od el s ba se d on th e ar ch ite ct ur al m od el ; th e ge ne ra l c on tr ac to r cr ea te s th e co ns tr uc tio n m od el a nd fa br ic at io n m od el (i f a ny ) u si ng th e de si gn m od el s as b as es c d (im pl em en ta tio n do cu m en ts fo r ip d ) c ur re nt th e de si gn te am p ro du ce s 2d d ra w in gs a nd s pe ci fic at io ns fo r th e do w ns tr ea m u se s su ch a s re gu la to ry s ub m is si on a nd te nd er d oc um en ts p re pa ra tio n; p re fa br ic at io n of s om e bu ild in g co m po ne nt s ca nn ot c om m en ce d ue to d es ig n un ce rt ai nt ie s ip d /v d c /d fm a th e co nt ra ct or s an d m an uf ac tu re rs d oc um en t t he c on st ru ct io n in te nt o f t he b ui ld in g sy st em s an d co m po ne nt s to p ro du ce s ho p an d/ or fa br ic at io n dr aw in gs ; th e fa br ic at io n of th e bu ild in g sy st em s, e sp ec ia lly th os e lo ng -l ea d ite m s, b eg in s as th e de si gn is fix ed ; th e te am g en er at es d oc um en ts fo r pe rm itt in g, a ss em bl y, d et ai le d sc he du le , a nd s o on a p (a ge nc y re vi ew fo r ip d ) c ur re nt / vd c /d fm a th e de si gn er s ap pl y fo r pl an ni ng a pp ro va ls in b im fo rm at ip d si nc e th e re gu la to ry a ge nc ie s pa rt ic ip at e ac tiv el y in th e de si gn s ta ge , t he te am a pp lie s fo r pl an ni ng a pp ro va ls a nd r es po nd s to th e ag en cy c om m en ts in p ar al le l w ith th e de si gn s ta ge ta bl e 1 co nt in ue s on th e ne xt p ag e liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201711 ta bl e 1 (c on tin ue d) p ha se s p ro ce ss es k ey a ct iv iti es r el at ed to b im b c ur re nt th e de si gn er s on ly p as s 2d d ra w in gs o r in co m pl et e de si gn m od el s to p ot en tia l c on tr ac to rs ip d si nc e th e ke y co nt ra ct or s ha ve b ee n en ga ge d ei th er in th e co nc ep tu al iz at io n ph as e or in th e de si gn s ta ge , t hi s ph as e en ta ils th e bu yo ut o f r em ai ni ng c on tr ac ts s uc h as th e tr ad e co nt ra ct or s no t i nv ol ve d in d es ig n an d m at er ia ls w ith ou t l on g le ad ti m e vd c th e tr ad e co nt ra ct or s th at w er e no t i nv ol ve d in th e de si gn s ta ge a re e ng ag ed d fm a si nc e th e ge ne ra l c on tr ac to r an d m an uf ac tu re rs h av e be en e ng ag ed in th e ea rl y de si gn s ta ge , th is p ha se e ng ag es th e su bc on tr ac to rs to c om pl et e th e co nv en tio na l c on st ru ct io n su ch a s th e gr ou nd w or ks a nd s ub st ru ct ur e c s c ur re nt th e ge ne ra l c on tr ac to r re -b ui ld s th e b im m od el s fo r co ns tr uc tio n us es a nd th ei r ow n su bm is si on s; d ue to th e di sc on ne ct io n be tw ee n th e up fr on t a nd d ow ns tr ea m p ar tie s, r fi s m ay b e fr eq ue nt ly ra is ed fo r th e de si gn er s to r es po nd , a nd r ew or ks n ee d to b e co m pl et ed w he re n ec es sa ry ; a lo w p er ce nt ag e of b ui ld in g co m po ne nt s w ou ld b e pr ef ab ri ca te d ip d /v d c th e te am u se s th e m od el s to g ui de c on st ru ct io n, a nd r ev ie w s an d up da te s th e m od el s un til co m pl et io n d fm a th e m an uf ac tu re rs p ro du ce b ui ld in g sy st em s an d m od ul es in th e fa ct or y en vi ro nm en t b ef or e or w hi le th e gr ou nd w or ks a nd s ub st ru ct ur e ar e be in g do ne o nsi te ta bl e 1 co nt in ue s on th e ne xt p ag e liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201712 ta bl e 1 (c on tin ue d) p ha se s p ro ce ss es k ey a ct iv iti es r el at ed to b im h c c ur re nt th e te am m ay s pe nd m uc h tim e an d m an y re so ur ce s to r es ol ve th e di sp ut es b et w ee n th e st ak eh ol de rs ip d th e te am fi na liz es th e as -b ui lt b im m od el s an d sp ec ifi ca tio ns fo r fa ci lit y m an ag em en t a nd re so lv es th e ri sk a nd r ew ar d sh ar in g ar ra ng em en ts vd c /d fm a th e te am fi na liz es th e as -b ui lt b im m od el s an d sp ec ifi ca tio ns fm c ur re nt th e fa ci lit y m an ag em en t t ea m u se s 2d a sbu ilt d ra w in gs to m an ag e th e bu ild in g un le ss th e ow ne r pa ys fo r th e 3d a sbu ilt m od el s ip d /v d c /d fm a th e fa ci lit y m an ag em en t t ea m u se s 3d a sbu ilt m od el s as p la nn ed in th e pr oj ec t b eg in ni ng to m an ag e th e bu ild in g n ot e: c c =c on ce pt ua liz at io n; s d =s ch em at ic d es ig n; d d =d es ig n de ve lo pm en t; c d =c on st ru ct io n do cu m en ta tio n; a p =a ge nc y pe rm it; b =b id di ng ; c s= co ns tr uc tio n; h c =h an do ve r & c lo se ou t; fm =f ac ili ty m an ag em en t. (s ou rc e: a da pt ed fr om g ib b an d is ac k, 2 00 3; g ao a nd f is ch er , 2 00 6; r os s, c ar tw ri gh t a nd n ov ak ov ic , 2 00 6; a ia a nd a ia c c , 2 00 7; a nu m ba e t a l., 2 01 0; k un z an d fi sc he r, 2 01 2; b c a , 2 01 3; p or w al a nd h ew ag e, 2 01 3; a ia c c , 2 01 4; l am , 2 01 4; m cf ar la ne a nd s te hl e, 2 01 4) liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201713 table 2 summary of the wastes affecting productivity more seriously waste references 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 defects x x x x x x x rfis x x x x x reworks/abortive works x x x x x x x waiting time/idle time x x x x x x x x x change orders x x x activity delays x x x x x overproduction/ reproduction x x x x x x x x x x transporting/handling time x x x x x x x unnecessary inventory x x x x x x x excess processing x x x x unnecessary movement of people and materials on site x x x x x design deficiencies (errors, omissions, additions) x x x x safety issues (injuries) x x x x note: (1) abdel-razek, abd-elshakour and abdel-hamid (2007); (2) alarcon (1997); (3) alwi, hampson and mohamed (2002); (4) arayici et al. (2011); (5) chelson (2010); (6) chua and yeoh (2015); (7) eastman et al. (2011); (8) ekanayake and ofori (2004); (9) formoso, isatto and hirota (1999); (10) lee et al. (1999); (11) nikakhtar et al. (2015); (12) ohno (1988); (13) senaratne and wijesiri (2008); (14) teo et al. (2014); (15) wong, salleh and rahim (2014); (16) wu and low (2011); (17) wu and low (2012). for validating the activities and wastes, compared with previous studies: zhao, hwang and low (2016) validated the action plans for improving enterprise risk management implementation in chinese construction firms based in singapore by interviewing six experts; wong, salleh and rahim (2014) validated the capabilities of bim in quantity surveying practice by eight interviews. although wong, salleh and rahim (2014) interviewed two more experts, this said previous study did not conduct other validations such as the e-mail enquires as this paper did. all the six bim experts were from large firms and had at least three-year experience of implementing bim in building projects in singapore. table 3 presents a summary of the personal interviews. the interviews were semi-structured and the data were recorded and transcribed. content analysis of the data outlined that the key activities in table 1 were confirmed by the interviews. in addition, the waste “design errors” was changed to “design efficiencies” to also include design omissions and additions, and the waste “reworks” to “reworks and/or abortive works” that are widelyused in the local construction industry (see table 2). hence, it could be concluded that all liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201714 the key activities in table 1 and the potential resulting wastes in table 2 were validated by the interviewees and e-mail exchanges. the non-value adding activities and resulting wastes led to the suboptimal productivity in the current process in singapore, which may be explained by the following reasons: (1) the rules and guidelines for driving bim adoption in singapore may not encapsulate the best available knowledge of bim spirit. the bim submission policy that most projects should comply with may not necessarily lead to expected consequences (alter, 2015), especially in the short term when the local practitioners were shifting to a higher level of bim readiness. the interviewee (i4) argued that such a policy itself might be wasteful because the submittals prepared in the design phase are at a higher level of detail and precision and cannot be reusable in the later stages of the project, and consume time and resources; instead, the project team may prefer incentives like extra gfa as more strong motivations to use bim fully. meanwhile, the proposed and codified ipd, vdc, and dfma processes serve as suggestions and guidelines for the project team, but the required collaboration skills may not be available to the current team structure to fully implement such processes. so, the full benefits of bim were not reaped; (2) the changes to the accustomed workflow emerged quite uncontrollably for many practitioners in singapore (markus and robey, 1988). although the government mandate and encouragement was gradually rolled out, many firms still did not adapt to or resisted to changes in the new way of working using bim. for example, the small focus group reported that the mep design models often had apparent design deficiencies, which would seriously harm the collaboration between the project participants and resulted in substantial rfis and reproduction of the models by the contractors. other designers may also not identify the downstream bim uses when developing their models; and (3) in addition to the technology and technological processes, the contextual project factors in the singapore construction industry could play critical roles (barley, 1986). the e-mail exchanges data indicated that in the current market, the contract prices were too low for the mep designers table 3 summary of the interviews method bim expert work experience designation firm duration time focus group (with the authors as facilitators) i1 15-20 years project manager construction and development 1 hour i2 15-20 years technical manager construction and development i3 10-15 years corporate bim manager construction and development face to face i4 15-20 years regional bim manager development and construction 30 minutes i5 5-10 years quantity surveying in charge general construction firm 1 hour over telephone i6 5-10 years senior architectural associate architectural consultancy firm 25 minutes liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201715 to put many resources in creating perfect digital design models. in addition, insufficient time was given to full design development; it was common that the detailed design proceeded concurrently with the construction phase which commenced after obtaining the regulatory approvals of the schematic design models. furthermore, the project team members may face interoperability issues that different parties used various software or software versions. hence, the productivity performance was not improved significantly as predicted, implying a steep learning curve of using bim to transform the typical current process adopted in singapore. framework to enhance productivity for project management a project management framework for adopting the full bim-based processes to enhance the productivity performance of building projects in singapore is proposed, as shown in figure 3. the basic purpose of developing this framework is to help project teams transform their project delivery processes for productivity gains. the first step in this approach is to map and ascertain the corporate goals and typical current practices (bim uses, processes, information exchanges, communication procedures, and so on) carried out by people in their building projects in singapore. normally when building a project team, all the key participants have documented their standard corporate practices of figure 3 framework to enhance productivity for project management liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201716 delivering services in the projects they have been working on. the key activities related to bim in building projects in singapore may echo sentiments in table 1. they are not productive enough due to the partial use of bim. although the local government has been driving people to use bim, the state of bim adoption is uneven in the market (mcgraw hill construction, 2014). the largest contractors tend to be very advanced to adopt bim and thus reap the benefits more fully, whereas the others are in the beginning phase. overall, the singapore construction industry is not very bim-ready for project-wide full collaboration among people at various phases of building projects (lam, 2014). the next step is to identify the activities in the current process that are different from their counterparts in the proposed full bim-based process. this can be done by comparing the activities grouped in terms of project phasing in figure 2 and table 1. the activities in table 1 may not be comprehensive, but provide a good representation of the current uses of bim in the current, ipd, vdc, and dfma processes. ipd relies on the collective expertise contributed by people throughout the project lifecycle; they are on the same productivity boat, leading to an ideal project delivery approach. vdc enables the contractors to detect problems virtually in the design stage, and thus there would be fewer problems on site during the construction stage. dfma embeds the use of bim and maximizes the prefabrication of the standard building elements to eliminate the on-site activities and boost the on-site productivity. one of them or a hybrid of them may be appropriately selected as a full bim-based process in the project considering the project specific factors such as the project characteristics and resources priority. following this, the logical approach in enhancing the productivity performance would be to strive for the prevention of any possible occurrence of wastes. the role of project management, which is represented through cutting down the non-value adding activities to reduce the wastes, should be identified. whereas it is desirable to fully prevent the potential wastes from occurring, it is impossible to completely reduce their occurrence by the process change once in one project. this is because not all the activities identified are non-value adding; some may be not significantly non-value adding and remain necessary. hence a two-pronged approach needs to be adopted wherein (step 3): (1) the significant non-value adding activities such as not involving the general contractor during the design stage are cut through the early involvement of the contractor (low, gao and lin, 2015), and; (2) the occurrence of the possible wastes due to insignificant non-value adding activities is properly predicted so that appropriate plans can be tailored. step 4 is to transform the current practices into the selected full bim-based process (see table 1) in this project. although the bim e-submissions have been enforced by the singapore government, the project-wide bim collaboration between the design phases and the construction phase is not enough (lam, 2014). thus, process changes are imperative in the local construction industry. to transform the current process to adopt bim more fully, the hindrances to change in terms of people, process, and technology needs to be overcome. lee et al. (2005) stressed that the most problematic barriers in the uptake of new technologies such as bim are those related to human. this is due to the unpredictability and the multiple effects of the behaviors of the project participants and individuals. besides, attitude plays an important role in whether the changes proceed smoothly or not. the prerequisite for any new technology to work is to ensure the synchronization of the technology and process as well as the readiness of the technology and people. but most importantly, the willingness of people to change is required to ensure that the process can be organized into required applications (teo, 2008). liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201717 hence the most significant problem that the team is likely to face in adopting bim is people management (lee et al., 2005). thus, the hindrances such as psychological afraid of the unknown (khosrowshahi and arayici, 2012), lack of bim experts, top management deciding to mainly use cad from project to project after training employees on bim, and concern about initial productivity loss (eastman et al., 2011) should be overcome. to meet this need, it is critical to remove the resistance of people to change by getting them to understand the potential value and the benefits of full bim adoption over the current drafting practices (khosrowshahi and arayici, 2012). the most important driver for the bim systems and their full adoption is to provide information of good quality to people. the improved information quality, building products, visualization tools, cost estimates, and analyses lead to better decision-making in the design stage and fewer wastes during construction. together with the value of the digital models for operations and maintenance, a snowball effect is likely (eastman et al., 2011). other drivers for change such as government requirement and support like subsidizing the cost of bim software and consultancy, training employees on bim, top management deciding to use bim after training, pursuing long-term competitive advantage from bim to win bids in the future market (arayici et al., 2011; bca, 2016) can also be implemented. it should be clarified that these hindrances to and drivers for change towards the full bim-based processes form the phase ii of the larger study, which is not presented in detail in this paper due to the word limit. in steps 5 and 6, the wastes caused by the established non-value adding activities in the current process in singapore are identified and estimated (see table 2). the identification and reduction of the wastes can be achieved using a waste assessment model (see figure 4). the occurrence of the wastes is due to a multitude of non-value adding activities established in the steps 2 and 3. after the wastes being identified and assessed, a new process change may be required for further cutting the non-value adding activities until the full bim implementation is reached. after various resulting wastes are reduced using the waste assessment model, the amount of the derived time savings can be quantified (step 6), according to the documentation of the workers’ time having been spent on dealing with the wastes occurred in this project. for instance, due to poorly coordinated and unclear building plans being used on site in the current practices, tremendous rfis are raised from the contractors. such rfis mean increased field conflicts which cause the workers’ idle time waiting for the consultants’ responses and potential reworks where necessary, resulting in decreased productivity. however, with full bim use, all the building systems can be fully defined, engineered, and coordinated, greatly reducing the rfis, idle time, reworks, and so on, eventually increasing the productivity performance (chelson, 2010). figure 4 flow diagram for waste assessment model liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201718 validation the proposed framework was validated using data from a large ongoing residential building project with a gfa of more than 100,000 m2 in singapore. the data were collected through participant observations and analysis of past documents. the authors participated in the weekly project meetings in the construction site office over two months to observe how the project team collaborated in the bim work processes; notes were taken promptly and supplemented by using a recorder. documents such as minutes of meetings and milestone reports were collected from the project manager and were analyzed. the vdc-ish approach was implemented in this project, with the general contractor as the leading party to coordinate and compile bim models and the construction bim execution plan in the construction stage. the large general construction firm had delivered or had been working on many building projects in which the typical bim uses and processes could be represented by the typical current process described in table 1 and very often resulted in many non-value adding activities and tremendous wastes such as design changes and reworks. because of the distinctive differences between the typical process and the vdc process, this project team needed to change the typical way of working. the critical hindrances encountered included the following aspects: (1) adaptability. all the key stakeholders had to change their preferential working habits and lacked training on the new way of working; (2) trade contractors’ capabilities. they preferred to use the 2d drawings for submission and construction, and lacked bim skillsets; and (3) smooth communication of information. it was difficult to get the major stakeholders to collectively communicate, review, and coordinate the digital models. nevertheless, to obtain the benefits of bim, the project team overcame the hindrances by: (1) aligning all the key stakeholders from the beginning and providing projectwide trainings; (2) spearheading bim model development for all the key trade contractors; (3) involving all the key stakeholders in project meetings to contribute knowledge. with these strategies, the project team had managed the design well in the construction phase through the following main changes in bim work practices: (1) sharing design models between the designers, the general contractor, and the key trade contractors. specifically, after obtaining the regulatory approval, the architect handed over its model to the general contractor for further design development and coordination in the preconstruction stage. the general contractor used the architectural design model as a reference to integrate it with the structural model, and created a high-level construction model which considered the bim uses of the downstream subcontractors; (2) requiring the trade contractors to use bim. the subcontractors created their models based on the construction model; and (3) driving collaboration and coordination. the high-level construction model was then virtually displayed, communicated, reviewed, and revised collectively by all the key stakeholders, including precast contractors, in weekly technical meetings in the construction site office, greatly reducing design and construction uncertainties. all the models were approved by the owner and specific designers and combined to guide construction activities (including off-site production) 3 levels ahead versus the actual site progress. during the construction stage, a central data platform was used to help the team members store, view, comment, and monitor the latest composite construction model. such process transformation efforts resulted in enhanced productivity performance by the time of this paper. as examples, the productivity improvements for the shop drawing preparation process and rfis were reported in this paper. the total time spent on preparing the structural and architectural shop drawings was projected from the following activities: (1) coordinating liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201719 the structural, architectural, and mep design provisions; (2) preparing the shop drawings; (3) virtually reviewing and revising the designs and drawings; and (4) approving the drawings. meanwhile, by driving the project-wide collaboration and coordination in the weekly technical meetings, all interfacing issues were virtually resolved, thus substantially reducing the number of the rfis. consequently, about 60% of the rfis raised were related to material or specification clarifications. compared with its similar residential project of the general construction firm, the estimated time spent for preparing the structural and architectural shop drawings in this project were 836 manhours and 1408 manhours, saved by 40% and 42%, respectively. the numbers of the rfis in the architecture, structure, and mep disciplines were 126, 63, and 15, respectively, substantially reduced by 70% in total. the results were in line with nath et al. (2015) which found that using bim to re-engineer the precast shop drawing generation process in building projects in singapore would result in a substantial time saving of 380 manhours of producing the shop drawings, leading to an overall productivity improvement of about 36% for processing time and 38% for total time. hence, it could be concluded that even the contractual structure and the bim work activities in the design stage of this residential project remained the same with those of the typical current process adopted in the singapore construction industry, the projectwide bim collaboration in the construction stage could also significantly reduce the non-value adding activities and the wastes, enhancing the productivity performance. this finding indicated short-term wins for the project team and represented a benchmark for adopting an appropriate bim-based process to identify and reduce the process wastes for the productivity enhancement in the singapore construction industry. in addition, this framework was also supported by previous studies. for example, cohen (2010) reported that an interior tenant improvement project was completed using the ipd approach within 8.5 months, an impossible schedule with the typical traditional delivery method used by the owner. critical changes in people and process were made. the owner was actively participated. the contractors and suppliers were involved during the design stage to share their expertise; for instance, their virtual construction manager worked together with the architects two days a week. meanwhile, building officials also participated from early design to ensure that the permitting would not impede the schedule, saving more than one week in the planning reviews. thus, the documents generated from the composite design model created by the whole team could be used for permitting, analysis, bidding, fabrication, and so on. the contractors could procure timeand cost-variable materials and services earlier. after the detailed design phase, the composite model was moved from the architects to the contractors, instead of being re-built by the contractors in the early construction stage which was non-value adding. during construction, the architects moved to the construction site. this close collaboration with the contractors made many non-value adding activities unnecessary and freed the architects to spend much less time reviewing the rfis and submittals from the contractors. consequently, there were 125 rfis in total on the final cost of $13.34 million, 39.61% fewer than the average 155 rfis per $10 million recommended by chelson (2010). the results suggested that compared with the typical current process, following an ipd process and monitoring the project process with a predetermined bim implementation plan would largely avoid the occurrence of the typical non-value adding activities and potential wastes in the project. conclusion productivity performance is one of the major problems faced by the construction industry. the singapore government has expressed concerns and taken relevant measures in recent years to get the industry professionals and owners to understand the potential effects of the full bim liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201720 adoption on the productivity performance. to achieve this, this paper developed a project management framework for enhancing the productivity in the construction industry. the key activities related to bim in the current, ipd, vdc, and dfma processes, and the resulting wastes seriously affecting productivity were identified and validated by the e-mail exchanges or interviews with 16 bim experts in singapore. in addition, both the hindrances to and drivers for changes were interpreted in terms of people, process, and technology. furthermore, the performance of the proposed framework was validated by the case study in an ongoing residential project in singapore and supported by previous studies as well. the proposed project management framework expands the process re-engineering of the precast shop drawings production in singapore (nath et al., 2015) to the project lifecycle perspective. it is likely that this framework would help remove the non-value adding activities and wastes in the design, construction, and facility management processes and led to a more efficient project delivery. the enhanced productivity performance derived from implementing the project management framework in the residential project indicated that the project-wide collaboration and coordination could be somewhat achieved under the current contractual relationships. nevertheless, the collaboration and coordination in the earlier stages of the project were not yet achieved, and therefore a collaborative contractual structure that governs the close project-wide collaboration and disciplinary coordination from the beginning throughout project completion remains urgently needed in the singapore construction industry. besides the owner’s awareness of and insights into the value that full bim implementation can add to the project, the incentives like additional gfa may motivate the owner to adopt new contractual solution to reduce the reluctance of the designers and the risk of the downstream parties being involved in an earlier stage. in addition, because in most projects in singapore the designers tend to lack time and fees to allocate sufficient resources to adopt bim, the owner may need to require the design team to consider the downstream uses when creating their design models, with more financial incentives. this paper adds to knowledge on bim implementation and productivity. firstly, this paper presents and interprets four typical bim-based project delivery processes, providing academics and practitioners with valuable information in different research and project contexts. secondly, it widens the understanding of the non-value adding activities and their influence on the productivity. by knowing the non-value adding activities in building projects, project teams can tailor appropriate plans to deal with various potential resulting wastes according to their project goals, project characteristics, and capabilities of the team members. thirdly, the proposed framework provides a new technique for measuring the productivity improvement of building projects in singapore. time savings are derived from the identification of the non-value adding activities and quantified by the reduction of the consequent wastes. the significant non-value adding activities and disruptive wastes will help the construction industry to rethink its current processes of delivering projects, and ensure that all the practitioners are clearly aware of the opportunities, roles, and responsibilities associated with incorporating bim into the current project delivery workflow (anumba et al., 2010). the government can influence the industry’s progress towards full bim adoption by driving for better project-wide rather than firm-based bim collaboration and integration throughout the construction value chain. for example, incentive mechanisms are expected to be established for the owner to specify the bim use in the project delivery, and objective performance milestones need to be launched for the designers and contractors. the project teams should also consider the project context, such as the project goals, the key stakeholders’ goals, and bim capabilities as well as collaboration skills, and the desired risk allocations to tailor appropriate plans to liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201721 implement bim in their building projects (barley, 1986; anumba et al., 2010). the singapore construction industry may explore the ipd, vdc, and dfma approaches in some projects to make them more integrated in terms of solving issues and processes before the construction phase kicks in. ultimately, the proposed full bim-based processes can be applied to improve the productivity of building projects. thus, with this framework, the construction industry can have an in-depth understanding of how to transform its project delivery process to be more productive. although this framework is proposed for the building projects in singapore in response to the mandatory bim e-submissions policy and the encouragement for project-wide bim collaboration. overseas practitioners may also use the framework. firstly, like the public sector taking the lead to adopt bim in singapore for enhanced productivity, the bim adoption in publicly funded construction and building projects in the global construction industry is also commonly encouraged, specified, or mandated (smith, 2014). secondly, the overseas practitioners can follow the method used in this paper to prepare their customized lists of key practices related to bim and identify the non-value adding activities in their projects to be reduced according to their specific project characteristics and political contexts. nevertheless, the proposed framework has limitations. firstly, some wastes such as rfis and workers’ waiting time may be interrelated. hence it is not possible to achieve complete accuracy when estimating the time savings. secondly, this paper only presented the results of the time savings for the work process of preparing the coordinated structural and architectural shop drawings as well as the reduced number of rfis by the time of this paper. the reasons were that the time saving statistics were not fully documented as the residential project was not yet completed, and that the project team tended to be wary of providing all the statistics of the enhanced productivity performance. thus, it was considered reasonable that this paper only reported the figures of the shop drawing preparation processes and the rfis as examples to illustrate the enhanced productivity performance resulted from the bim-based process changes. thirdly, this framework intends to obtain productivity gains through quantifying the time savings after the process transformation from the partial bim process to an appropriated full bim-based process, without considering cost implications of the process changes. future work is needed to investigate both time savings and cost performance, because owners and construction firms, especially the small and medium-sized enterprises and foreign firms based in singapore, may concern about the first costs in take-up of bim technology or processes (kunz and fischer, 2012). references abdel-razek, r.h., abd-elshakour, h. and abdel-hamid, m., 2007. labor productivity: benchmarking and variability in egyptian projects. international journal of project management, 25(2), pp. 189-97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.06.001 aia and aiacc, 2007. integrated project delivery: a guide. california: american institute of architects. aiacc, 2014. integrated project delivery: an updated working definition. california: american institute of architects, california council. alarcon, l., 1997. lean construction. rotterdam: a.a. balkema. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203345825 al-sudairi, a.a., 2007. evaluating the effect of construction process characteristics to the applicability of lean principles. construction innovation: information, process, management, 7(1), pp. 99-121. liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201722 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.06.001 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203345825 alter, s., 2015. beneficial noncompliance and detrimental compliance: expected paths to unintended consequences. in: proceedings of the 21st americas conference on information systems (amcis 2015). fajardo, puerto rico. alwi, s., hampson, k. and mohamed, s., 2002. non value-adding activities: a comparative study of indonesian and australian construction projects. in: proceedings of the 10th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. gramado, brazil, pp. 627-38. anumba, c., dubler, c., goodman, s., kasprzak, c., kreider, r., messner, j., saluja, c. and zikic, n., 2010. bim project execution planning guide – version 2.0. computer integrated construction research program, pennsylvania state university. arayici, y., coates, p., koskela, l., kagioglou, m., usher, c. and o’reilly, k., 2011. bim adoption and implementation for architectural practices. structural survey, 29(1), pp. 7-25. https://doi. org/10.1108/02630801111118377 autodesk, 2008. improving building industry results through integrated project delivery and building information modelling. us: autodesk, inc. autodesk, 2012 a framework for implementing a bim business transformation. us: autodesk, inc. azhar, n., kang, y. and ahmad, i.u., 2014. factors influencing integrated project delivery in publicly owned construction projects: an information modelling perspective. procedia engineering, 77, pp. 213-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.07.019 barley, s.r., 1986. technology as an occasion for structuring: evidence from observations of ct scanners and the social order of radiology departments. administrative science quarterly, 31, pp. 78-108. https:// doi.org/10.2307/2392767 bca. (2011a) construction productivity roadmap. singapore: building & construction authority. bca. (2011b) overview on construction productivity roadmap. singapore: building & construction authority. bca. (2013) singapore bim guide version 2. singapore: building & construction authority. bca. (2015) the second construction productivity roadmap. build smart, june 2015. bca. (2016) reaching new milestones with design for manufacturing and assembly. build smart. singapore: building & construction authority. blismas, n. and wakefield, r., 2009. drivers, constraints and the future of offsite manufacture in australia. construction innovation, 9(1), pp. 72-83. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170910931552 chelson, d.e., 2010. the effects of building information modelling on construction site productivity. ph.d. university of maryland, college park. chua, d.k. and yeoh, j.k., 2015. understanding the science of virtual design and construction: what it takes to go beyond building information modelling. in: proceedings of the 2015 asce international workshop on computing in civil engineering. austin, texas, usa, pp. 692-99. https://doi. org/10.1061/9780784479247.086 cohen, j., 2010. integrated project delivery: case studies. california: american institute of architects, california council. eastman, c., teicholz, p., sacks, r. and liston, k., 2011. bim handbook: a guide to building information modelling for owners, managers, designers, engineers and contractors. 2nd ed. new jersey: john wiley & sons. liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201723 https://doi.org/10.1108/02630801111118377 https://doi.org/10.1108/02630801111118377 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.07.019 https://doi.org/10.2307/2392767 https://doi.org/10.2307/2392767 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170910931552 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784479247.086 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784479247.086 ekanayake, l.l. and ofori, g., 2004. building waste assessment score: design-based tool. building and environment, 39(7), pp. 851-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2004.01.007 enegbuma, w.i., aliagha, u.g. and ali, k.n., 2014. measurement of theoretical relationships in building information modelling adoption in malaysia. in: proceedings of the 31st international symposium on automation and robotics in construction and mining. sydney, australia, pp. 1000-08. esc, 2010. report of the economic strategies committee. singapore: economic strategies committee. fischer, m., reed, d., khanzode, a. and ashcraft, h., 2014. a simple framework for integrated project delivery. in: proceedings of the 22nd annual conference of the international group for lean construction. oslo, norway, pp. 1319-30. formoso, c.t., isatto, e.l. and hirota, e.h., 1999. method for waste control in the building industry. in: proceedings of the 7th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. university of california, berkeley, ca, usa, pp. 325-34. gao, j. and fischer, m., 2006. case studies on the implementation and impacts of virtual design and construction (vdc) in finland. center for integrated facility engineering, stanford university. gibb, a. and isack, f., 2003. re-engineering through pre-assembly: client expectations and drivers. building research & information, 31(2), pp. 146-60. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210302000 kent, d.c. and becerik-gerber, b., 2010. understanding construction industry experience and attitudes toward integrated project delivery. journal of construction engineering and management, 136(8), pp. 81525. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000188 khosrowshahi, f. and arayici, y., 2012. roadmap for implementation of bim in the uk construction industry. engineering, construction and architectural management, 19(6), pp. 610-35. https://doi. org/10.1108/09699981211277531 kunz, j. and fischer, m., 2012. virtual design and construction: themes, case studies and implementation suggestions. center for integrated facility engineering, stanford university. lam, s.w., 2014. the singapore bim roadmap. singapore: building & construction authority. available at: http://bimsg.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/bim-symposium_mr-lam-siew-wah_ oct-13-v6.pdf [accessed 7 december 2016]. lee, a. and sexton, m.g., 2007. nd modelling: industry uptake considerations. construction innovation, 7(3), pp. 288-302. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170710754768 lee, a., wu, s., marshall-ponting, a.j., aouad, g., cooper, r., tah, j.h.m., abbott, c. and barrett, p.s., 2005. nd modelling roadmap – a vision for nd-enabled construction, university of salford. lee, s.h., diekmann, j.e., songer, a.d. and brown, h., 1999. identifying waste: applications of construction process analysis. in: proceedings of the 7th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. berkeley, ca, usa, 26-28 july 1999, pp. 63-72. low, s.p., gao, s. and lin, j.l., 2015. converging early contractor involvement (eci) and lean construction practices for productivity enhancement: some preliminary findings from singapore. international journal of productivity and performance management, 64(6), pp. 831-52. https://doi. org/10.1108/ijppm-02-2014-0018 markus, m.l. and robey, d., 1988. information technology and organizational change: causal structure in theory and research. management science, 34(5), pp. 583-98. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.34.5.583 liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201724 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2004.01.007 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210302000 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000188 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211277531 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211277531 http://bimsg.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/bim-symposium_mr-lam-siew-wah_oct-13-v6.pdf http://bimsg.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/bim-symposium_mr-lam-siew-wah_oct-13-v6.pdf https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170710754768 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-02-2014-0018 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-02-2014-0018 https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.34.5.583 mcfarlane, a. and stehle, j., 2014. dfma: engineering the future. in: proceedings of council on tall buildings and urban habitat (ctbuh) 2014 shanghai conference. shanghai, china, pp. 508-16. mcgraw hill construction, 2014. the business value of bim for owners. mcgraw hill construction: smartmarket report. nath, t., attarzadeh, m., tiong, r.l., chidambaram, c. and yu, z., 2015. productivity improvement of precast shop drawings generation through bim-based process re-engineering. automation in construction, 54, pp. 54-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.03.014 nikakhtar, a., hosseini, a.a., wong, k.y. and zavichi, a., 2015. application of lean construction principles to reduce construction process waste using computer simulation: a case study. international journal of services and operations management, 20(4), pp. 461-80. https://doi.org/10.1504/ ijsom.2015.068528 ohno, t., 1988. toyota production system: beyond large-scale production. portland: productivity press. porwal, a. and hewage, k.n., 2013. building information modelling (bim) partnering framework for public construction projects. automation in construction, 31, pp. 204-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2012.12.004 ranasinghe, u., ruwanpura, j. and liu, x., 2011. streamlining the construction productivity improvement process with the proposed role of a construction productivity improvement officer. journal of construction engineering and management, 138(6), pp. 697-706. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0000469 ross, k., cartwright, p. and novakovic, o., 2006. a guide to modern methods of construction. bucks: ihs bre press, nhbc foundation. sdos, 2016. yearbook of statistics singapore 2016. singapore: department of statistics. senaratne, s. and wijesiri, d., 2008. lean construction as a strategic option: testing its suitability and acceptability in sri lanka. lean construction journal, 4(1), pp. 34-48. senge, p.m., 1990. the fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. new york: currency doubleday. smith, p., 2014. bim implementation–global strategies. procedia engineering, 85, pp. 482-92.https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.10.575 solihin, w. and eastman, c., 2015. classification of rules for automated bim rule checking development. automation in construction, 53, pp. 69-82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.03.003 teo, a.l., 2008. online survey: factors deterring the development of automated quantity takingoff system. in: proceedings of joint 2008 cib wo65/w055 symposium. dubai, united arab emirates. teo, a.l. and heng, p.s.n. 2007. deployment framework to promote the adoption of automated quantities taking-off system. in: proceedings of the criocm2007 international research symposium on advancement of construction management and real estate. sydney, australia, 8-13 august 2007, pp. 928-43. teo, a.l.e., ofori, g., tjandra, i.k. and kim, h., 2014. the potential of bim for safety and productivity. in: proceedings of cib w099 international conference achieving sustainable construction health and safety. lund, sweden, pp. 618-27. liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201725 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.03.014 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijsom.2015.068528 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijsom.2015.068528 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.12.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.12.004 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000469 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000469 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.10.575 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.10.575 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.03.003 teo, e.a.l., chan, s.l. and tan, p.h., 2007. empirical investigation into factors affecting exporting construction services in smes in singapore. journal of construction engineering and management, 133(8), 582-91. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:8(582) wong, p.f., salleh, h. and rahim, f.a.m., 2014. capability of building information modelling application in quantity surveying practice. journal of surveying, construction and property, 5(1), pp. 1-13. wu, p. and feng, y., 2014. identification of non-value adding activities in precast concrete production to achieve low-carbon production. architectural science review, 57(2), pp. 105-13. https://doi.org/10.1080 /00038628.2013.829023 wu, p. and low, s.p., 2011. lean production, value chain and sustainability in precast concrete factory a case study in singapore. lean construction journal, 2011, pp. 19-36. wu, p. and low, s.p., 2012. lean management and low carbon emissions in precast concrete factories in singapore. journal of architectural engineering, 18(2), pp. 176-86. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) ae.1943-5568.0000053 wu, p., low, s.p. and jin, x., 2013. identification of non-value adding (nva) activities in precast concrete installation sites to achieve low-carbon installation. resources, conservation and recycling, 81, pp. 60-70. zhao, x., hwang, b.g. and low, s.p., 2015. an enterprise risk management knowledgebased decision support system for construction firms. engineering, construction and architectural management, 23(3), pp. 369-84. liao, teo & low construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201726 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:8(582 https://doi.org/10.1080/00038628.2013.829023 https://doi.org/10.1080/00038628.2013.829023 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000053 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000053 construction economics and building vol. 19, no. 2 december 2019 © 2019 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: khanyile, n.s.m., musonda, i., agumba, j.n. 2019. evaluating the relationship between communication management practices and project outcomes: a case study of eswatini (swaziland) construction industry. construction economics and building, 19:2, 197-219. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v19i2.6646 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article evaluating the relationship between communication management practices and project outcomes: a case study of eswatini (swaziland) construction industry nokulunga s.m. khanyile1*, innocent musonda2, justus ngala agumba3 1 department of construction management and quantity surveying, university of johannesburg, p.o. box 524 auckland park 2006, south africa. nokulungakhanyile55@gmail.com 2 department of construction management and quantity surveying, university of johannesburg, p.o. box 524 auckland park 2006, south africa. imusonda@uj.ac.za 3 department of building sciences, tshwane university of technology. private bag x680 pretoria 0001 staatsartillerie road, pretoria west. agumbajn@tut.ac.za *corresponding author: nokulunga s.m. khanyile, department of construction management and quantity surveying, university of johannesburg, p.o. box 524 auckland park 2006, south africa. nokulungakhanyile55@gmail.com doi: 10.5130/ajceb.v19i2.6646 article history: received 25/06/2019; revised 03/10/2019; accepted 11/11/2019; published 02/12/2019 abstract communication management is viewed as an imperative factor associated with performance improvement in construction projects. in eswatini, it is established that projects experience poor project delivery associated with poor communication management practices. this study seeks to elucidate communication management practices informed by local culture and relate it to project outcome. a questionnaire survey of practitioners registered with eswatini construction industry council was adopted for the study. data was collected from 66 respondents. principal axis factoring established nine practices namely; information technology, communication technology, communication skills and competence, communication management plan, teamwork, clear channels within organisation’s structure, project brief requirement management, project brief risk requirement management and context of environment as being key factors to project positive outcome. spearman’s rho established declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 197 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i2.6646 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i2.6646 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:nokulungakhanyile55@gmail.com mailto:imusonda@uj.ac.za mailto:agumbajn@tut.ac.za mailto:nokulungakhanyile55@gmail.com http://10.5130/ajceb.v19i2.6646 that a relationship exists between project outcome and three practices namely; information technology, communication management plan and clear channels within organisation’s structure. the findings present key empirical evidence of the communication management practices that relate to project outcome in eswatini. the study contributes on communication management practices in eswatini and its relation on project outcome. limitation of the study conclude that results and analysis cannot be generalised. however, the findings from the research provides opportunities for extensive further research recommendations to assess, refine and understand the effect of the variable’s communication management practice to project outcome. keywords communication management practices; project outcome; construction projects; construction industry; eswatini introduction effective communication continues to be one of the top challenges in the construction industry (helms, 2017). ineffective communication has been concluded to be the primary cause of one third of project failures (pmi, 2013). priyadharshini and kumar (2015) indicated that poorly managed communication process could lead to demotivated workforce, design errors, slowdown in entire job and failure in production. furthermore, olaniran (2015) study on the role of communication in the construction industry elucidates the effects of communication to be associated with instances such as unclear channels of information and late dissemination of instructions. according to pmi (2013), project communication management is significant to the stakeholders as it inflicts on the project outcome, programs, portfolios and subsequent business success. further, muszyńska (2015) indicated that communication management is a key knowledge area for project managers and construction managers. furthermore, it helps people including highly skilled technical personnel to achieve the construction and engineering goals, in-spite of it being described as a soft skill (aulich 2013). however, reports on communication management practices in the construction industry of eswatini revealed a dampening scenario. communication seemed very alien to quantity surveyors and land surveyors. they believed that the technical skills are more important than the element of soft skills amongst the professionals (eaaes, 2014). such a misconception and under-estimation of this vital knowledge area has become a serious challenge which lays significance on the quality of construction projects (ayodeji, aigbavboa and dlamini., 2017). to reduce the communication challenges related to project performance, perumal and bakar, (2011) and hoezen, reymen and dewulf (2006) specified the need to identify appropriate communication management practices in the construction industry. hoezen, reymen and dewulf (2006) further suggested that communication processes are still far from optimizing their goals and hence the need for their improvement to reduce delays and lower expenses in construction projects. a study by muszynska, (2017), identified communication management practices in poland information technology (it) projects used to develop a method of selecting project communication patterns most appropriate to the, characteristics of a given project, the team and environment. however, it did not incorporate the aspect of understanding which communication management practice relate to project outcome. furthermore, this suggests the importance of implementing the communication management khanyile, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019198 practices that correlate with successful project outcome. this study aims to identify and establish which communication management practices that relate to project outcome. to achieve the objective, structured questionnaire survey based on communication management literature is used to solicit responses from construction practitioners registered with the construction industry council of eswatini (cic). it is anticipated that the recommendation of this study will enable industry practioners to use it as a vehicle or model. this research intends to answer the following specific research questions: • what are the communication management practices used in the construction projects of eswatini? • is there a relationship between communication management practices and project outcome in construction projects of eswatini? to address these specific research questions, literature review was conducted on communication management practices in the construction industry that relate to project outcome. hypothesis have been generated to ascertain and possible relationship between communication management practices and project outcome. literature review various studies have been conducted focusing on communication management impact on project outcome which signifies the importance of this grey area (chan, scott and chan, 2004; walker and nogeste, 2005; prabhakar, 2008; na ronang and phuenngam, 2009; čulo and skendrović, 2010; naqvi, aziz and rehman, 2011; ogwaueleka, 2011; garbharran, govender and msani, 2012; ofori, 2013; yong and mustaffa, 2015). most of the communication management practices have been drawn from the research work carried out by various authors. from this review of literature, it can be inferred that there are limited agreement amount authors about specific communication management practices. moreover, the seems to be no consensus on the definition and measurement of communication practice leading to disregard on the research concept. however, craig (2006) defends communication as a practice, where in that culture, the term communication (or its equivalent in some other languages is used to refer to a range of activities that involve talking and listening, writing and reading, performing and witnessing, or more generally, doing anything that involves “messages” in any medium or situation. considering this view, eight communication management practices were identified that relate to project outcome, namely; information communication technology, communication skills and competence, communication management plan, teamwork, clear channels with organisation’s structure, stakeholder’s personality, project briefing and context of environment. information communication technology (ict) chissiakos (2007) discussed that more emphasis is to be given to ict to surmount information and communication deficiency in construction projects. pietroforte (2010) discovered that technology facilitates communication and interaction amongst project participants that could enhance productivity. comparatively, hijiazi, ghebeh and zayed (2008) further augmented in the study of implementation of visual reality model language (vrml), that moving from “paperless” design in the construction industry was important to, reducing time and cost. correspondingly, peansupap and walker (2005) explained that evaluating the relationship between communication management practices and project outcomes: a case study of eswatini (swaziland) construction industry construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019199 technology provides benefits throughout the design, construction and operation phase of the project’s life cycle. considering this standpoint, the following null hypothesis is stated: h01: there is no relationship between information communication technology and project outcome communication skills and competence (csc) zulch (2014) indicated that communication skills are essential to apprise stakeholders through transmission of real time information for efficient management of the project. aiyewalehinmi (2013) revealed that training of project participants is necessary for on site communication in order to ensure the construction project is successful. according to kliem (2008), the ability to communicate is a crucial competence that project managers must possess to expect a successful outcome of their projects. under this construct, the following null hypothesis is stated: h02: there is no relationship between communication skills or competence and project outcome communication management plan (cmp) garbharran, govender and msani (2012) advocated the necessity of communication management plan for timely flow of project information to project stakeholders during currency of the project. čulo and skendrović (2010) emphasized that a project specific communication management plan lays a good impact on a project. meid (2015) advocated for an honest and open communication with view to improve organisations. tipili, ojeba and muhammad (2014) reached to the conclusion that communication management plans established at the onset substantially improve the project performance. tipili, ojeba and muhammad (2014) further emphasised that a regular review of the plan can reduce disruptions in project implementation and could improve projects. gunasekaran and morteza (2016) substantiated that a clear wellcrafted communication management plan not only decreases the probability of failure of construction projects but adds value to the decisionmaking process during the life cycle. taking this discussion into account, the following null hypothesis is postulated: h03: there is no relationship between communication management plan and project outcome teamwork (tmk) molwus (2014) discovered that project success requires teamwork, collaboration between the client, design and construction teams. according to azmy (2012) and khoshtale and adeli (2016) in order to achieve project success, teamwork needs good communications. mungeria (2012) imparted that effective teamwork that develops and promotes open and clear communications also boosts morale and enhances productivity which ultimately lead to saving time and money. tipili, ojeba and muhammad (2014) asserted that ongoing communications between project stakeholders improved project outcome. naqvi, aziz and rehman (2011) further elaborated that team management and the processes when managed in time lay good impact in project outcomes. hence, the following hypothesis is stated: h04: there is no relationship between teamwork and project outcome khanyile, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019200 clear channels within the organisation’s structures (cos) meid (2015) observed that mapping and aligning the organisation’s structure with the project the roles and responsibilities helps in achieving substantial performance and efficiency. perumal and bakar (2011) elucidated that a proper project organisation structure (projectized organisation or matrix organisation) facilitates smooth flow of information which results into improved time, cost and quality management. tipili, ojeba and muhammad (2014) further advocated that clear communication with well-defined roles of stakeholders drawn in the project plan improves success in the project. čulo and skendrović (2010) corroborated that information has a direct impact on the scope, time, cost, risk, or quality of a task and warrants escalation or acceleration through the appropriate communication channels. nexus to above review, the null hypothesis is evolved as under: h05: there is no relationship between clear channels within organisation’s structure and project outcome stakeholders personality (sp) molwus (2014), explained that stakeholders’ hypothesis, interests, powers and influence change over time. hoezen, reymen and dewulf (2006) indicated that professional, responsible and clear minded stakeholders add enormous value to project outcome. hence, the following null hypothesis was stated: h06: there is no relationship between stakeholders’ personality and project outcome project briefing (pb) gunasekaran and morteza (2016) discovered that stakeholders need to be updated continuously about the health of project and their work plans to bring harmony and coordination amongst each other. tipili, ojeba and muhammad (2014) clarified that project briefings help overcome communications barriers and increase performance levels. garbharran, govender and msani (2012) further expounded that a shared project vision with constant update as the project progresses, improves productivity and performance. the null hypothesis postulated is: h07: there is no relationship between project briefing and project outcome context of environment (ce) naidoo (2011) discovered aspects of the communications process. kleim (2008) explained that communication is affected by the context of the environment. mnkandla (2013) suggested that the context or environment within which a project is undertaken carries significant impact on project’s successes as well as life cycle. kliem (2008) and louw and du plooy-cilliers (2005), discovered that the physical, social, historical, psychological and cultural context of environment can dictate the effectiveness of communication on project success. hence, the following null hypothesis: h08: there is no relationship between context of the environment and project outcome evaluating the relationship between communication management practices and project outcomes: a case study of eswatini (swaziland) construction industry construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019201 the communication management practices are shown hereunder, in table 1: table 1 communication management practices practices source 1.information communication technology pietroforte (2010); hijiazi, gehbeh and zayid (2008); chissiakos (2007); and peansupap and walker (2005) 2.communication skills or competence zulch (2014); aiyewalehinmi (2013); and kleim 2008 3. communication management plan gunasekaran and morteza (2016); meid (2015); tipili, ojeba and muhammad (2014); and čulo and skendrović, (2010) 4.teamwork khoshtale and adeli (2016); molwus (2014); tipili, ojeba and muhammad (2014); mungeria (2012); azmy (2012); and naqvi, aziz and rehman (2011) 5.clear channels within organisation’s structure meid (2015); tipili, ojeba and muhammad (2014); perumal and bakar (2011); and čulo and skendrović (2010) 6.stakeholders personality molwus (2014); and hoezen, reymen and dewulf (2006) 7.project briefing gunasekaran and morteza (2016); tipili, ojeba and muhammad (2014); and garbharran, govender and msani (2012) 8.context of an environment mnkandla (2013); naidoo (2011); kleim 2008; and louw and du plooy-cilliers (2005) relationship of project outcome with communication management practices success criteria for positive outcome explicitly depends upon efficient implementation of communication practices because of their much closed interdependency. project success is based on managing expectations so as to complete the project on time, within approved budget and well-defined quality standards and specifications. these three parameters are referred as “golden triangle” (chan, scott and chan, 2004; prabhakar 2008; walker and nogeste, 2008; dookran 2012; garbharran, govender and msani, 2012; ofori 2013; khoshtale and adeli, 2016). however, nowadays, we know that determining whether a project is a success, or a failure is far more complex (prabhakar, 2008). yong and mustaffa (2015) clarified that the complexity is due to new discoveries such as health and safety, environment, sustainability and technical performance which are also used as measures with growing importance. furthermore, review from other studies shows that limiting project indicators to time, cost and conformance to specifications, takes success as providing solutions to the briefings and design problems and ignores the differing interest in project stakeholders (winch, 2010; molwus, 2014). molwus (2014) explained that project success is attained in construction when the project outcome (realised asset) has become a matter of fully matching the client’s needs at the time of realisation. regardless of no consensus on “what constitutes project khanyile, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019202 success?”, this study concurred with the general agreement of prabhakar (2008) argument that although the schedule and budget performance alone are considered inadequate as measures of project success, they are still important components of the overall construct. furthermore, expanded that the quality is intertwined with issues of technical performance, specifications, achievement of functional objectives and its achievement against these criteria will be most subject to variation in perception by multiple project stakeholders. in the study by čulo and skendrović (2010), it was discovered that efforts have turned towards using effective means of communication since communicating information has been identified to have some direct impact on scope, time, cost, risk or quality of a task. furthermore, miller (2016) argued that without effective civil communication and information exchange, construction projects could not achieve productive project outcome for cost certainty, timely delivery, quality products and services. based on the review, five measures were established to define project outcome as indicated in table 2. table 2 project outcome project outcome measures source 1.scope of works of the project was achieved miller (2016); khoshtale and adeli (2016); yong and mustaffa (2015); garbharran, govender and msani (2012); dookran (2012); čulo and skendrović (2010); (prabhakar 2008) 2.quality of works of the project was achieved miller (2016); khoshtale and adeli (2016); yong and mustaffa (2015); garbharran, govender and msani (2012); dookran (2012); čulo and skendrović (2010); (prabhakar 2008) 3.project risks minimised i.e. occupational accidents miller (2016) khoshtale and adeli (2016); yong and mustaffa (2015); garbharran, govender and msani (2012); dookran (2012); čulo and skendrović (2010); (prabhakar 2008) 4.project was within time miller (2016); khoshtale and adeli (2016); yong and mustaffa (2015); garbharran, govender and msani (2012); dookran (2012); čulo and skendrović (2010); (prabhakar 2008) 5.project was within budget miller (2016); khoshtale and adeli (2016); yong and mustaffa, (2015); garbharran, govender and msani, (2012); dookran (2012); čulo and skendrović, (2010); (prabhakar 2008) literature review has discussed the communication management practices and project outcome. this study anticipates that investigating the communication management practices that impact project outcome in the eswatini context will enhance new perspective evaluating the relationship between communication management practices and project outcomes: a case study of eswatini (swaziland) construction industry construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019203 with reference to communication management to construction project performance. the findings will further strengthen the significance of communication management practices towards a successful project outcome. in eswatini. further, add to the limited literature on communication management practice in the construction industry and enhance understanding of the communication management practices that impact on projects success outcome. the succeeding section presents the research methodology in order to analysis such issues. research methodology research design this study adopted a quantitative method, which is a deductive approach to test the theory i.e. hypotheses developed in the literature. empirical testing was undertaken from a sample of practitioners registered with the construction industry council (cic) of eswatini. structured questionnaire was used for data collection of communication management practices and project success outcomes. closed-ended questions were used to solicit the responses. the questionnaire indicated the level of agreement using the 5-point likert scale where (1 = strongly disagree, 2= disagree, 3= neither agree nor disagree, 4= agree, and 5=strongly agree). pre-testing of the questionnaires was adopted to capture more understanding on the appropriateness of the questions. a pilot study of 30 participants were selected and were similar to the characteristics of study population was performed in order to confirm that the questionnaire was clear and easily understandable. the questionnaire was pre-tested by survey unit of specific construction practitioners in specific construction projects. from the pilot sample, 13 participants responded representing 43% of the total number of respondents. out of the 13, six responded with requests to refine the questions in certain section for more understanding. the remaining seven, completed the questionnaire suggesting clear understanding of the questionnaire. data collection the questionnaire survey was administered online through surveymonkey. this approach has been supported by azmy (2012). an email with a brief introduction to research participants, along with survey’s hyperlink was sent to practitioners registered with the eswatini construction industry council (cic). the practitioners were; consultants, allied professionals and contractors. the consultants included architects, quantity surveyors and engineers (structural, civil, electrical and mechanical). the allied professionals have a direct relationship with the construction projects comprised of project managers, land surveyors, interior designers, property developers, geotechnical engineers, fire engineers, acoustic engineers, water engineers, environmental consultants and urban planners. construction firms included civil, building, specialist, electrical and mechanical contractors. a random sample size of 264 was required from a population of 843 professionals registered with the cic for a confidence level of 95 % and margin of error at 5%. however, since an online survey was conducted an additional 123 participants were included to cater for inactive emails. this resolution was based on duncan (2008) rationale that if online surveys are used, the respondents are more likely to be participants who are familiar with and able to use the medium. data collection was completed in two months, from march to april 2018. a total of 86 questionnaires were returned with 66 responses deemed usable accounting to a completion rate of approximately 77% and a response rate of approximately 22.22%. therefore, the 66 useable questionnaires khanyile, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019204 were incorporated for data analysis. wahab et al. (2010) indicates that the response rates for mailed questionnaires are usually low, thus, a response rate of 15% to 25% is still considered appropriate and acceptable whilst according to fryrear (2015) a response rate of 10% to 15% is still considered appropriate. therefore, the current response rate is appropriate for analysis. data analysis data collected was analysed using the ibm statistical package for social sciences (spss), version 25. descriptive and inferential statistics were used. this included exploratory factor analysis (efa) and correlations. principal axis factoring (paf) was used to develop scales and measures to identify the underlying structure (pallant 2013). the benefit of using paf is that it verifies the conceptualization of each construct and examine whether there is more than one factor and whether the factor does represent the underlying respective construct (azmy, 2012; ngure, kihoro and waititu, 2015). correlations analysis was used to describe the strength and direction of the linear relationship between two variables. spearman’s rank order correlations (non – parametric) was incorporated because ordinal (ranked) scale measure was used for the survey. conclusive significance level was at p value of less than 0.05. research validity and reliability techniques content validity through literature review analysis was used to ensure that the questionnaire designed elicits answers from the research questions. this was also validated using the pilot survey with 30 randomly selected industry practitioners. 13 participants responded representing 43% of the total number of respondents. out of the 13, six responded with requests to refine the questions in certain section for more understanding. the remaining seven, completed the questionnaire suggesting clear understanding of the questionnaire. paf as a factor analysis (fa) approach was used to assess construct validity and seek to ensure that the research effort is measuring what it is supposed to measure according to its stated objective (leedy and ormrod, 2015). the correlations between the variables assessed the criterion related validity (saunders, lewis and thornhill, 2007). for external validity, probability sampling of construction stakeholders from the cic were chosen. all construction stakeholders had an equal probability of being included in the research survey. to attain internal reliability, cronbach ‘s alpha measure was used to assess the items measuring the underlying constructs and a value of 0.70 or more is considered as a good level of reliability to the model (pallant, 2013). however, in earlier studies pallant 2013 cited that briggs and cheek (1986, p.22) argued that in case the internal reliability is below the threshold of 0.70, it might be appropriate to report the mean-inter correlation that should be within the range of 0.20 to 0.40. this was adopted in this current study. table 4 shows the cronbach alpha values and mean inter correlation values for the constructs. paf results of communication management practices in construction projects results from paf presented analysis of structure factor loadings extracted from variables scores of the sample of construction stakeholders registered with cic regarding the perception of communication management practices and project outcome in construction projects. observations indicated that there is more than one factor underlying the constructs of information communication technology and project briefing. the conceptualisation of communication skills and competence, communication management plan, clear channels with evaluating the relationship between communication management practices and project outcomes: a case study of eswatini (swaziland) construction industry construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019205 organisation’s structure, teamwork, context of environment and project outcome was validated. stakeholders’ personality was excluded from analysis due to the survey item not meeting the threshold of the 5 cases for each item as indicated by pallant (2013). the results are discussed and shown in table 3. information communication technology (ict) the correlation matrix of the 9 items were above 0.30 and higher, which indicated factor analysis was possible for the data. for measure of adequacy (msa), most items showed adequate relationship above 0.60. communalities at extraction showed a low 30% of common variance amongst the items. the kmo value was found to be 0.784 which was good and fit for factor analysis. the barlett’s test of sphericity was significant at p < 0.05. the eigen value criterion indicated two eigen values greater than 1 which reflected the proportion of the variance explained by factors. this showed that there were two common factors. so, factor 1 was named “information technology” and second factor was named “communication technology”. the proportion explained by factor 1 was of 45.39 % and factor 2 at 13.53%. the cumulative percentage explained by all factors was of 58.93%. communication skills and competence (csc) correlation matrix of the 5 items were above 0.30 and higher, which indicated factor analysis was possible for the data. for msa, most items showed adequate relationship above 0.60. communalities at extraction showed an adequate 70% of common variance amongst the items. the kmo value was found to be 0.736 which was good and fit for factor analysis. the barlett’s test of sphericity was significant at p < 0.05. the eigen value criterion indicated one eigen values greater than 1 which reflected the proportion of the variance explained by factors. this showed that there was one common factor. varimax rotation showed no solution, indicating that all items loaded on one factor. so, factor 1 was remained “communication skills and competence.” the proportion explained by factor 1 was of 58.78%. communication management plan (cmp) correlation matrix of the 7 items were above 0.30 and higher, which indicated factor analysis was possible for the data. for msa, most items showed adequate relationship above 0.60. communalities at extraction showed a good 50% of common variance amongst the items. the kmo value was found to be 0.841 which was adequate for factor analysis. the barlett’s test of sphericity was significant at p < 0.05. the eigen value criterion indicated one eigen values greater than 1 which reflected the proportion of the variance explained by factors. this showed that there was one common factor. varimax rotation showed no solution, indicating that all items loaded on one factor. so, factor 1 was remained “communication management plan.” the proportion explained by factor 1 was of 59.84%. teamwork (tmk) correlation matrix of the 5 items were above 0.30 and higher, which indicated factor analysis was possible for the data. for msa, all items showed adequate relationship above 0.60. communalities at extraction showed an acceptable 30% of common variance amongst the items. the kmo value was found to be 0.691 which was adequate for factor analysis. the barlett’s test of sphericity was significant at p < 0.05. the eigen value criterion indicated one eigen values greater than 1 which reflected the proportion of the variance explained by khanyile, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019206 factors. this showed that there was one common factor. varimax rotation showed no solution, indicating that all items loaded on one factor. so, factor 1 was remained “teamwork.” the proportion explained by factor 1 was of 48.09%. clear channels within the organisation’s structure (cos) correlation matrix of the 5 items were above 0.30 and higher, which indicated factor analysis was possible for the data. for msa, all items showed adequate relationship above 0.60. communalities at extraction showed an acceptable 45% of common variance amongst the items. the kmo value was found to be 0.783 which was adequate for factor analysis. the barlett’s test of sphericity was significant at p < 0.05. the eigen value criterion indicated one eigen values greater than 1 which reflected the proportion of the variance explained by factors. this showed that there was one common factor. varimax rotation showed no solution, indicating that all items loaded on one factor. so, factor 1 was remained “clear channels within organisation’s structure.” the proportion explained by factor 1 was of 54.61%. project briefing (pb) the correlation matrix of the 9 items were above 0.30 and higher, which indicated factor analysis was possible for the data. for msa, all items showed adequate relationship above 0.60. communalities at extraction showed a fantastic 80% of common variance amongst the items. the kmo value was found to be 0.797 which was good and indicated that the data was fit for factor analysis. the barlett’s test of sphericity was significant at p < 0.05. the eigen value criterion indicated two eigen values greater than 1 which reflected the proportion of the variance explained by factors. this showed that there were two common factors. so, factor 1 was named “project brief requirement management” and second factor was named “project brief risk management”. the proportion explained by factor 1 was of 50.11 % and factor 2 at 18.90%. the cumulative percentage explained by all factors was of 69.02%. context of environment (ce) correlation matrix of the most items was above 0.30 and higher, which indicated factor analysis was possible for the data. for msa, most items showed adequate relationship above 0.60. communalities at extraction showed an acceptable 30% of common variance amongst the items. the kmo value was found to be 0.683 which was adequate for factor analysis. the barlett’s test of sphericity was significant at p < 0.05. the eigen value criterion indicated one eigen values greater than 1 which reflected the proportion of the variance explained by factors. this showed that there was one common factor. varimax rotation showed no solution, indicating that all items loaded on one factor. so, factor 1 was remained “context of environment.” the proportion explained by factor 1 was of 51.78%. project outcome (po) correlation matrix of the 5 items was above 0.30 and higher, which indicated factor analysis was possible for the data. for msa, all items showed adequate relationship above 0.60. communalities at extraction showed an acceptable 50% of common variance amongst the items. the kmo value was found to be 0.768 which was adequate for factor analysis. the barlett’s test of sphericity was significant at p < 0.05. the eigen value criterion indicated one eigen values greater than 1 which reflected the proportion of the variance explained by factors. this showed that there was one common factor. varimax rotation showed no solution, evaluating the relationship between communication management practices and project outcomes: a case study of eswatini (swaziland) construction industry construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019207 indicating that all items loaded on one factor. so, factor 1 was remained “project outcome”. the proportion explained by factor 1 was of 62.25%. notably, stakeholder’s personality (sp) was excluded from analysis because it did not meet the requirements of paf that stipulated that suitability of analysis is limited to 5 cases for each item. the item stakeholder’s personality had only three cases, as shown in table 3. table 3 paf results after rotation of communication management practices and project outcome factor eigenvalue variance % measures factor loading information technology 3.63 45.39 project management software is used e.g. construction computer software (ccs) internet and intranet are consistently available video conferencing facilities are used computer aided design (cad) software is appropriately adopted 0.787 0.646 0.566 0.541 communication technology 1.083 13.53 building information modelling (bim) software is appropriately adopted virtual offices support software and portals is available social media communication is used e.g. whatsapp chatting platform telephones with voicemail services are used 0.709 0.554 0.538 0.516 communication skills and competence 2.351 58.79 excellent verbal communication among project stakeholders excellent written communication among project stakeholders effective use of information communication technology among project stakeholders proper interpretation of contractual matters is communicated project team members have excellent listening skills 0.759 0.584 0.769 0.584 0.425 khanyile, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019208 factor eigenvalue variance % measures factor loading communication management plan 4.189 59.84 communication requirements of the project team are critically analysed in the project communication technology is used to deliver information proper channels of information delivery are established in the organisation every personnel are accountable for the information they are required to send the organisation clearly identifies the recipient of the information to be sent 0.750 0.804 0.772 0.823 0.664 teamwork 2.405 48.09 there is effective communication and coordination within the project stakeholders conducive working relationship between project stakeholders group work effort enhances the quality of communication strong inter-department alliance in the project enables communication to flow efficiently 0.669 0.491 0.623 0.599 table 3 continued evaluating the relationship between communication management practices and project outcomes: a case study of eswatini (swaziland) construction industry construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019209 factor eigenvalue variance % measures factor loading clear channels within organisation’s structure 2.730 54.61 organisational and operational processes are in place roles and responsibilities of project stakeholders are clearly defined there are clearly marked communication channels from superior to subordinates the line of authority is clearly specified for the project tasks to be accomplished clear determination and limits of who will communicate with whom and who will receive which information 0.589 0.804 0.539 0.692 0.659 project brief requirement management 3.007 50.118 a brief provides proper definition of client requirements a brief provides proper analysis of client requirements the changes to brief are properly managed 0.847 0.778 0.559 project brief risk management 1.134 18.91 project risk are properly communicated there is constant interaction amongst project stakeholders the is constant knowledge sharing amongst project stakeholders 0.744 0.709 0.503 table 3 continued khanyile, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019210 factor eigenvalue variance % measures factor loading context of environment 2.071 51.78 areas of communicating are favorable i.e. circular vs linear meeting seating arrangements project stakeholders of different cultures are accommodated conflicts are resolved from previous communication episodes there are good interpersonal relationships among project stakeholders 0.525 0.444 0.697 0.721 project outcome 3.112 62.25 scope of works of the project was achieved project was within time project was within budget project risks minimised i.e. occupational accidents quality of works of the project was achieved 0.756 0.657 0.695 0.775 0.748 table 4 shows the cronbach alpha for the communication management practices and project outcome. a good reliability that ranged between 0.70 and 0.88 was established with an exception of one communication management practice that indicated inconsistences below 0.70. mean inter correlation was used to address the inconsistence and the output ranged between 0.30-0.50, indicating suitability for factor analysis. results of the relationship of communication management practices and project outcome. from the nine communication management practices ascertained with paf. analysis of spearman rank order correlation matrix was established to determine the relationship of the communication management practices with project outcome as follows: correlation results from the relationship between communication management practices and project outcome table 5 shows that six factors i.e. communication technology, communication skills and competence, teamwork, project brief requirement management, project brief risk requirement and context of environment did not have a relationship with project outcome. their level of significance at p value ≤ 0.05 were greater, hence they were not significant. however, information technology, communication management plan and clear channels within organisation’s structure were found to have a relationship with project outcome at statistically significant correlation, p value ≥ 0.05. table 3 continued evaluating the relationship between communication management practices and project outcomes: a case study of eswatini (swaziland) construction industry construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019211 table 4 internal reliability communication management practices reliability cronbach’s alpha mean-inter correlation information technology (4 measures) 0.79 communication technology (4 measures) 0.80 communication skills and competence (5 measures) 0.75 communication management plan (5 measures) 0.88 teamwork (4 measures) 0.72 clear channels within the organisation’s structure (5 measures) 0.78 project brief requirement management (3 measures) 0.80 project brief risk management (3measures) 0.70 context of environment (4 measures) 0.30-0.50 project outcome (5 measures) 0.84 findings from the correlation analysis using the communication management practices established from principal axis factoring, the relationship between communication management practice and project outcome was determined. findings from spearman’s rank rho correlations established a positive and significant correlation between three communication management practices and the project outcome. the results from the correlation analysis are as follows: table 5 correlation between communication management practices and project outcome variables sig. (2-tailed) correlation coefficient information technology 0.037 0.259* communication technology 0.573 0.071 communication skills and competence 0.072 0.225 communication management plan 0.016 0.297* khanyile, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019212 variables sig. (2-tailed) correlation coefficient teamwork 0.069 0.227 clear channels within organisation’s structure 0.033 0.265* project brief requirement management 0.347 0.120 project brief risk management 0.507 0.085 context of environment 0.800 -0.032 the relationship between information technology and project outcome table 5 indicates that a significant positive correlation was found between information technology and project outcome (r = 0.259, p = 0.037<0.05), suggesting that there is an existence of an association between the two variables. the relationship between communication management plan and project outcome a statistically significant positive correlation was found between communication management plan and project outcome shown in table 5. (r = 0.297, p = 0.016<0.05). there was a strong relationship between the two variables suggesting positive association. the relationship between clear channels within organisation’s structure and project outcome a relationship between clear channels within organisation’s structure and project outcome was shown to be statistically significant (r = 0.265, p = 0.033<0.05). the relationship was a positive one, meaning association of the two variables. in contrast, table 5 also shows the results of a negative relationship between communication technology and project outcome; communication skills and competence and project outcome; teamwork and project outcome; project brief requirement and project outcome; project brief risk management and project outcome as well as context of environment and project outcome. discussion of findings firstly, information technology comprised of project management software is used e.g. construction computer software (ccs), internet and intranet are consistently available, table 5 continued evaluating the relationship between communication management practices and project outcomes: a case study of eswatini (swaziland) construction industry construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019213 video conferencing facilities are uses and computer aided design (cad). secondly, communication management plan included: communication requirements of the project team are critically analysed in the project, communication technology is used to deliver information, the organisation critically determines the objectives of communication, proper channels of information delivery are established in the organisation, every personnel is accountable for the information they are required to send, the organisation clearly identifies the recipient of the information to be sent and the organisation determines communication frequency to project stakeholders. lastly, clear channels with in organisation’s structure encompasses, organisational and operational processes are in place, roles and responsibilities of project stakeholders are clearly defined, there are clearly marked communication channels from superior to subordinates, the line of authority is clearly specified for the project tasks to be accomplished and clear determination and limits of who will communicate with whom and who will receive which information. consequently, the findings from the correlation analysis align with two conclusions of communication management practices by muszyńska (2015) study on the significance of communication management in project teams categorised as strategic and informational. the strategic category included clear lines and responsibilities established up front and incorporation of high-quality communication management plan as communication management practices. the informational category indicated shared virtual space/project knowledge centre i.e. websites/wiki, groupware and project tracking software, instant messenger, emails and go to meetings. it can be then suggested that the three communication management practices in eswatini construction projects are consistent with project team communication management practices in italy. although, muszyńska (2015) study did not reveal the analysis of the relationship of the communication management practices to project outcome. the same study cited white and fortune empirical findings on practices in project management and listed critical success factors for a project. clear communication channels were the 6th factor on the list. furthermore, čulo and skendrović (2010) established that if something impacts the scope, time, risk or quality task, this warrant escalating through appropriate channels. in the same study, it was revealed that before starting up a project, the project management should plan communication. the consideration of planning up front is understood to be a useful tool to ensure effective communication in the project to ensure the success of a project (čulo and skendrović, 2010). molwus, (2014) explained that communication management plan is required, and it was essential to ensure good decision and integration throughout the project. similarly, studies by chassiakos (2007), focusing on best practices on using information technology (it) in canada and jordan construction industry, established that when it was adopted, it achieved better quality of work, work done more quickly, better financial control, better communication and faster and simpler access. from the same study, it was further referenced it is necessary for delivering efficiency and improved project delivery in the construction industry. evidently, the three communication management practices established in this study have a major relationship to project outcome and attention must be drawn towards employing them to enhance project performance in eswatini construction industry. figure 1 presents a graphical presentation of the significant relationship of the communication management practices and the project outcome. khanyile, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019214 figure 1 empirical relationship between the communication management practices and project outcome. conclusion eswatini construction projects are faced with the challenge of poor project delivery and one of the problems that contribute to the negative performance is the communication practices partly influenced by the local context and the underplaying the critical nature of this soft skill compared to the technical skill. the purpose of this study was to establish specific and reliable communication management practices that relate to project outcome in eswatini based on theoretical and empirical framework to provide insight to construction practitioners on which communication management practices relate to project outcome. this research presents results obtained through questionnaire survey from eswatini. using paf, the researchers concluded the evidence of nine communication management practices contrary to the eight established in literature. the spearman’s rho established that information technology, communication management plan and clear channels within organisation’s structure had a relationship with the project outcome. the study was conducted in the kingdom of eswatini, so the results are limited to the context of eswatini, so similar studies in other countries could yield different results. the findings of this research were from registered practitioners of the construction industry council of eswatini (swaziland), unregistered participants were excluded. keeping in view the complexity of the execution of projects under virtual teams’ environment, long supply chains, strikes and law and order situation, an efficient and fast communication management plans, means and technology be adopted in order to devise a speedy mechanism. it is recommended that future study be undertaken with a view to evaluating the relationship between communication management practices and project outcomes: a case study of eswatini (swaziland) construction industry construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019215 polish and refine the existing communication management strategies, regimes, plans and knowledge base. furthermore, it was found important that eswatini practitioners incorporate the understanding that although communication is considered as soft skill, there are communication management practices linked to project outcome that buttress the significance of communication management in construction projects worth focusing on for construction projects improvement. references aiyewalehinmi, e.o., 2013. factor analysis of communication in the construction industry. the international journal of engineering and science, 2(10), p.49-57. aulich, t., 2013. the role of effective communication in the construction industry: a guide for education and health clients. australasian journal of construction economics and building, 13(4), p.92-101. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i4.3740 ayodeji, e., aigbavboa, c. and dlamini, e., 2017. factors affecting quality of construction projects in swaziland. 9th international conference on construction in the 21st century, dubai, united arab emirates, 57 march. available at: https://www.academia.edu/31773348/factors_affecting_quality_of_ construction_projects_in_swazilland. [assessed 27 january 2018] azmy, n., 2012. the role of team effectiveness in construction project teams and project performance. phd. iowa state university. chan, a.p.c., scott, d. and chan, a.p.l., 2004. factors affecting the success of a construction project. journal of construction engineering and management, 130(1), p.153. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2004)130:1(153) chassiakos, a.p., 2007. the use of information and communication technologies in construction. scotland: saxe-coburg publication. craig, r.t., 2006. chapter 5: communication as a practice. [e-book] london: sage knowledge publication. available from: http:// www. sk.sagepub.com/books/communication-as/n5.xml. [assessed 11 july 2018]. čulo, k. and skendrović, v., 2010. communication management is critical for project success. informatol, 43, (3), p.228-235. dookran v.r., 2012. managing scope change within fast track projects. master’s. university of johannesburg. duncan, d., 2008. the adequacy of response rates to online and paper surveys: what can be done? the international journal of assessment and evaluation in higher education, 33 (3), p. 301-314. https://doi. org/10.1080/02602930701293231 eaaes, 2014. eswatini association of architects, engineers and surveyors. [online] available at: http//www.swaziplace.com [assessed 15 may 2016]. fryrear, a., 2015. survey response rates. available from: https://www.surveygizmo.com/survey-blog/ survey-response-rates garbharran, h., govender, j. and msani, t., 2012. critical success factors influencing project success in the construction industry. african journal online, 19(2), p.90-108. gunasekaran, a. and morteza, r., 2016. visual means as a way of improving communication in construction projects based on observation from the swedish construction industry. master’s. chalmers university of technology. khanyile, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019216 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i4.3740 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i4.3740 https://www.academia.edu/31773348/factors_affecting_quality_of_construction_projects_in_swazilland https://www.academia.edu/31773348/factors_affecting_quality_of_construction_projects_in_swazilland https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:1(153) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:1(153) http://sk.sagepub.com/books/communication-as/n5.xml https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930701293231 https://doi.org/10.1080/02602930701293231 http//www.swaziplace.com https://www.surveygizmo.com/survey-blog/ helms, k.j., 2017. effective communication is construction industry’s top challenge. [online] available at: https://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/06/prweb14414395.htm [accessed 27 january 2018]. hijazi, w., ghebeh, a. and zayed, t., 2008. vrml as an effective communication technique. csce 2008 annual conference, quebec, canada, 1013 june. hoezen, m., reymen, i. and dewulf, g., 2006. the problem of communication in construction. [online] available at: https://research.utwente.nl/en/publications/the-problem-of-communication-inconstruction [assessed 27 january 2018] kliem, r.l., 2008. effective communication for project management. new york: aurbach publication, taylor & francis group. khoshtale, o. and adeli m.m., 2016. the relationship between team effectiveness factors and project performance aspects: a case study in inranian construction project teams. an international journal of humanities and cultural studies, special may issue (2356-5926), p.1738-1767. leedy, p.d and ormrod, j.e., 2015. practical research planning and design, 11th ed. england: pearson publication. louw, m. and du plooy-cilliers, f., 2003. let’s talk about interpersonal communication, 2nd ed. cape town: heinemann publication. meid, a., 2015. an engineering management analysis of communication system in an organisation the supplies the mining industry. m. ing. university of johannesburg. miller, g., 2016. feature managing projects: key task is to communicate: a communicational approach. build magazine 154. june/july, p.71-72 mnkandla, e., 2013. a review of communication tools and techniques for successful ict projects. the african journal of information systems, 6, (1), p.1-9. molwus, j.j., 2014. stakeholder management in construction projects: a life cycle-based framework. phd. heriot watt university. mungeria k., 2012. professional teamwork and project performance in building construction industry in kenya. master’s. university of nairobi. muszyńska, k., 2015. communication management in project teams – practices and patterns. tiim joint international conference, bari, italy 2729 may. available at: https://www.toknowpress.net/isbn/978961-6914-13-0/papers/ml15-266.pdf. [assessed 11 july 2018] naidoo, p., 2011. intercultural communication: a comparative study of japanese and south african work practice. phd. university of zululand. naqvi, i., aziz, s. and rehman, r., 2011. the impact of stakeholder communication on project outcome. african journal of business management, 6, (14), p.5824-5832. na ranong, p. and phuenngam, w., 2009. critical success factors for effective risk procedures in financial industries: a study of the financial institution in thailand. phd. umeå university. ngure, j.n., kihoro, j.m. and waititu, a., 2015. principal component and principal axis factoring of factors associated with high population in urban areas: a case study of juja and thika, kenya. american journal of theoretical and applied statistics, 4, (4), p.258-263. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajtas.20150404.15 evaluating the relationship between communication management practices and project outcomes: a case study of eswatini (swaziland) construction industry construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019217 https://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/06/prweb14414395.htm https://research.utwente.nl/en/publications/the-problem-of-communication-in-construction https://research.utwente.nl/en/publications/the-problem-of-communication-in-construction https://www.toknowpress.net/isbn/978-961-6914-13-0/papers/ml15-266.pdf https://www.toknowpress.net/isbn/978-961-6914-13-0/papers/ml15-266.pdf https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajtas.20150404.15 ofori, d.f., 2013. project management practices and critical success factors–a developing country perspective. international journal of business and management, 8, (21), p.14. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm. v8n21p14 ogwueleka, a., 2011. the critical success factors influencing project performance in nigeria. international journal of management science and engineering management, 6, (5), p. 343-349. https://doi.org/10.1080/1 7509653.2011.10671182 olaniran, h.f., 2015. on the role of communication in construction projects in nigeria. international journal of scientific & technology research, 4(7) p.129-131. pallant, j., 2013. spss survival manual: a step by step to data analysis using ibm spss’. 5th ed. sydney: allen and unwin publication. peansupap, v. and walker h., 2005. factors enabling information and communication technology diffusion and actual implementation in construction organisations. journal of information technology in construction, 10(1874-4753), p.193-218 perumal, r. and bakar, a., 2011. the need for standardisation of document towards an efficient communication in the construction industry. acta technica corviniensis, bulletin of engineering, tome iv (year 2011) januarymarch, p.1-8. pietroforte, r., 2010. communication and governance in the building process. journal of construction management and economics, 10(1), p.71-82. https://doi.org/10.1080/014461997373123 prabhakar, g.p., 2008. what is project success: literature review? international journal of business and management, 3 (9), p.3-10. priyadharshini, n.s. and kumar s., 2015. project communication: is key to productive construction and its research needs in the future of construction engineering and management. international journal of science, technology and management, 4(1), p.1493-1499. pmi, 2013. the high cost of low performance: the essential role of communication 2013. the essential role of communications report: pmi pulse of profession 2013, pmi’s pulse of the profession in-depth report, project management institute. available at: https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/ public/pdf/learning/thought-leadership/pulse/the-essential-role-of-communications.pdf. [assessed 27 january 2018] saunders j., lewis p. and thornhill, p., 2007. research methods for business student. 4th ed. london: financial times prentice hall. pearson education. tipili, l., ojeba, p. and muhammad, s., 2014. evaluating the effects of communication in construction project delivery in nigeria. global journal of environment science and technology, 2 (5), p.048-054. the construction industry council, 2014. available at: https://www.cic.co.sz/ [assessed 22 july 2016] wahab, s.a., abdullah, h., uli, j. and rose, r.c., 2010. inter-firm technology transfer and performance in international joint venture firms. international journal of business and management, 5(4), pp.93-103. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v5n4p93 walker, d. h. t. and nogeste, k., 2005. project outcomes and outputs – making the intangible tangible. measuring business excellence, 9(4), p. 55–68. https://doi.org/10.1108/13683040510634844 winch, g. m., 2010. managing construction projects: an information processing approach. 2nd ed. west sussex: wiley-blackwell. khanyile, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019218 https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v8n21p14 https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v8n21p14 https://doi.org/10.1080/17509653.2011.10671182 https://doi.org/10.1080/17509653.2011.10671182 https://doi.org/10.1080/014461997373123 https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/learning/thought-leadership/pulse/the-essential-role-of-communications.pdf https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/learning/thought-leadership/pulse/the-essential-role-of-communications.pdf https://www.cic.co.sz/ https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v5n4p93 https://doi.org/10.1108/13683040510634844 yong cheong, y. and mustaffa, e., 2015. clients, consultants and contractor’s perception of critical success factors for construction projects in malaysia. [online] available at: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ clients%2c-consultants-and-contractors’-perception-of-yee-mustaffa/68176341df0472af5c2b27d2ca d6c4ca3dfeeff7 [assessed 27 january 2018] zulch, b.g., 2014. communication skills impact on sustainable and green project management. world sb 4th barcelona conference, barcelona, 28 -30 october. available at: http://wsb14barcelona.org/programme/ pdf_poster/p-182.pdf [assessed 27 january 2018] evaluating the relationship between communication management practices and project outcomes: a case study of eswatini (swaziland) construction industry construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019219 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/clients%2c-consultants-and-contractors'-perception-of-yee-mustaffa/68176341df0472af5c2b27d2cad6c4ca3dfeeff7 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/clients%2c-consultants-and-contractors'-perception-of-yee-mustaffa/68176341df0472af5c2b27d2cad6c4ca3dfeeff7 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/clients%2c-consultants-and-contractors'-perception-of-yee-mustaffa/68176341df0472af5c2b27d2cad6c4ca3dfeeff7 http://wsb14barcelona.org/programme/pdf_poster/p-182.pdf http://wsb14barcelona.org/programme/pdf_poster/p-182.pdf construction economics and building vol. 20, no. 2 june 2020 © 2020 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: peel, j., ahmed, v., and saboor, s. 2020. an investigation of barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting of social housing in london. construction economics and building, 20:2, 127-149. http://dx.doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6746 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article an investigation of barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting of social housing in london james peel1, vian ahmed2, and sara saboor3* 1 university college of estate management, england, united kingdom, email: jimbopeel@yahoo.co.uk 2 department of industrial engineering, american university of sharjah, united arab emirates. email: vahmed@aus.edu 3 department of industrial engineering, american university of sharjah, united arab emirates. email: g00080300@aus.edu *corresponding author: sara saboor, department of industrial engineering, american university of sharjah, united arab emirates. email: g00080300@aus.edu doi: 10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6746 article history: received 8/26/2019; revised 3/03/2020; accepted 3/26/2020; published 22/06/2020 abstract carbon emissions, being hazardous, are triggering social concerns which have led to the creation of international treaties to address climate change. similarly, the united kingdom under the climate change act (2008) has committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emission by at least 80% over 1990 levels by 2050. however, being the oldest member of the eu states (before brexit), the uk has the oldest housing stock, which contributes to 45% of its carbon emissions due to the older dwellings. to address this issue low carbon retrofitting is needed. therefore, this paper seeks to investigate the barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting in social housing in london, uk based on the perception of experts employed in national and construction companies with an experience that ranges between 6 to 16 years. initial literature suggested that the problem of energy efficiency retrofitting in the general building stock has been addressed, however little has been reported on its application to social housing. this paper, therefore, groups the barriers and enablers into seven categories that include: financial matters, technical, it, government policy and regulation, social factors (including awareness of the energy efficiency agenda), quality of workmanship and disruption to residents, using literature review, interviews and surveys with key stakeholders within the declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 127 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6746 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6746 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:jimbopeel@yahoo.co.uk mailto:vahmed@aus.edu mailto:g00080300@aus.edu mailto:g00080300@aus.edu http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6746 housing sector, and draws recommendations to enable effective and efficient retrofitting for social housing projects. keywords: energy efficiency, retrofitting, social housing, and construction industry. introduction carbon emission emerges as a significant factor that has a dangerous impact on climate change (solomon et al., 2007). this issue has triggered social concerns that led to the creation of treaties such as the united nations framework convention (1992), kyoto protocol (1997), climate change act (2008), the energy eff iciency directive (2012), and paris agreement (change, 2016)these are amongst the few treaties that address the issue of climate change. under the 1997 kyoto protocol, the united kingdom has committed to reducing its carbon emissions by 12.5% over the 1990 levels by 2012 and to achieve a 27% reduction in levels by 2011 (house of commons, 2016). the initiative by the european union (eu) includes mandatory carbon reduction targets, the energy eff iciency directive (2012) and the emissions trading scheme. the climate change act (2008) commits the uk to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 80% over 1990 levels by 2050 (house of commons, 2016). in addition to this, adoption of the ratification of the paris agreement (change, 2016 enables the uk to set a target of net-zero emissions. however, being the oldest member of the eu members (before brexit), the uk has the oldest housing stock (davidson et al., 2012). older dwellings often consume more energy to warm them adequately, compared with more energy-efficient new-built dwellings (leal filho et al., 2016). similarly, stafford et al (2011), argue that 45% of the uk’s carbon emissions are the result of energy-inefficient buildings. in addition to environmental concerns, some other consequences of inefficient energy housing are; public health (physical and mental), social aspects, and fuel poverty which is a significant concern in the uk, with its cold weather and relatively high energy prices. palmer and cooper (2013) stated that, in 2011, approximately 10.9% of uk households (2.39 million) were in fuel poverty. therefore, a compelling case exists for energy efficiency retrofitting (eer) to domestic buildings in the uk, and especially in the social housing sector. with its high rates of poverty and a higher level of government control over the sector, the national policy can influence retrofitting in social housing more than other forms of tenure. however, initial literature has suggested that the problem of energy efficiency retrofitting in the general building stock has been addressed to some extent whereas little existed on its application to social housing in the uk.. thus, this paper intends to develop an understanding of energy efficiency retrofitting and common measures reported by the literature as well as the associated barriers and enablers for retrofitting. the paper also brings to light the relevant initiatives and policies set by the uk government, in an and seeks to investigate the barriers and enablers for implementing successful energy efficiency retrofitting in social housing in the london, uk based on the perception of the experts, and making recommendations towards increasing the uptake of such retrofitting. peel, ahmed, and saboor construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020128 social housing – london the united kingdom has the largest stock of social rental housing of about (20%) compared to spain which merely has 2%. in their study, arends and garcía-almirall (2014) differentiate between the management model of london and barcelona by focusing on the social and spatial factors to address the housing problem. therefore, it can be concluded that a relationship between the housing problem, management models, and spatial context exists, and this influences its residents and policies, which is one of the reasons to why this study choses to focus on social housing in london. another study by opoku and guthrie (2018) argues that the social housing sector experiences an increasing pressure to provide more with less as a result of the uk government’s public debt reduction strategy. this study further explores the delivery of social value in terms of social, economic, environmental impacts in the social housing sector, arguing that organizations often fail to follow the governmental initiatives and rules imposed, such as the social value act (2012) in developing their strategies, policies, and procurement. though the government has supported the development of social housing, there has been a substantial decline over the last decade as mentioned by kleinman (1988). the decline has been uneven, causing differences between the regions and local authorities, where london has been at a disadvantage over the changes in the spatial distribution of lettings. similarly, fitzpatrick and pawson (2007) also reports on the 32 percent decline in the supply of social housing and tenancy turnover for almost seven years until 2004 as seen in figure 1, which has resulted in added pressure on the allocation system. figure 1 the decline in social housing and acceptance of homelessness consequently, the limitation to social housing success as argued by lux and sunega (2014) is due to the historical and institutional factors such as privatization, informal economy, ‘decentralization paradox’, and a strong socialist legacy in housing policies. therefore, it can be concluded that the government supports social housing by enforcing laws such as the social value act (2012) although there has been a substantial decline in the social housing sector in london due to various factors. additionally, there exists limited literature that address the problem of energy efficiency retrofitting and its application to social housing in london, which is the main driver behind this research. an investigation of barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting of social housing in london construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020129 energy efficiency retrofitting (eer) the primary focus of this section is to establish a ground for practical understanding of retrofitting, by considering common measures and governmental initiatives that were considered to aid energy efficiency retrofitting. according to eames et al. (2014, p2) retrofitting can be defined as: ‘providing something with a component or feature not fitted during manufacture or adding something that it did not have when first constructed. the term has been used in the built environment to describe substantial physical changes at the building level and has often been used interchangeably with terms such as ‘refurbishment,’ ‘conversion’ or ‘refit.’ this definition is the most accepted definition in the literature, as it provides a comprehensive, clear, and practical understanding of retrofitting, which helps guide this study to investigate energy efficiency retrofitting and its barriers and enablers. guided by this definition, this study intends to investigate the most commonly implemented measures of energy efficiency retrofitting in social housing. in support of this literature reports on a study by provan and brady (2015), a sample of 13 housing associations was targeted to investigate the most common measure of energy efficiency retrofitting as shown in table 1. table 1 common measures of eer in social housing. source (provan and brady, 2015) measure associations mentioning comments boilers and heating systems/ controls 12 many had rolling programs of replacement of boilers with low epc ratings loft insulation all significant activity over past years, with considerable coverage cavity wall insulation 12 many had rolling programs, and two had done almost all double glazing 12 three had almost all stock already done; most had rolling programs external wall cladding 9 these were less common and less extensive; older london properties had problems with obtaining planning permission; internal cladding unpopular as loses room space solar/pv 6 issues about roof space roofs not facing south, the extent of plumbing needs to be installed. also, maintenance issues, but some good results, and issues of needing to secure lender consent, even for self-funded schemes. air circulations/ ventilation 5 sources of some problems with tenants in using these other this includes two with district heating/biomass systems, two with heat pump systems peel, ahmed, and saboor construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020130 these measures indicate that there has been a positive move towards integrating energyefficient components within social housing. however, there are still certain measures that have not been effectively implemented to enable efficient retrofitting, such as air circulation measures and solar/pv, which is an indication of the need for retrofitting in social housing. in addition to these measures, several studies in the literature report on several government initiatives that have attempted to integrate retrofitting in social housing as described in table 2. table 2 government eer initiatives measure details decent homes standard (urbed, 2016) intended to improve the condition of social housing. included modest ee requirements. energy efficiency commitment (eec) (urbed, 2016) covered electricity and gas. focused on disadvantaged households. eec replaced by carbon emissions reduction target (cert) (urbed, 2016) imposed carbon reduction targets from domestic premises on gas and electricity suppliers. (community energy saving programme cesp) introduced (urbed, 2016) required electricity and gas companies to deliver ee measures to homes in low-income areas. promoted ‘whole house’ approach and high-volume retrofits phasing out of warm front (urbed, 2016) delivered basic insulation and heating improvements to vulnerable households. a feed-in tariff (ofgem, 2017) electricity suppliers must pay for electricity generated by small-scale renewables energy companies obligation (eco) replaces cert, cesp and warm front (urbed, 2016) larger energy suppliers fund the installation of domestic eer measures. applies to social housing and certain benefits recipients. low uptake reduced the scheme’s impact (weisselberg, 2015). intended to complement gd by subsidizing solid wall insulation green deal (gd) launched (urbed, 2016) lends money for domestic eer, paid back from savings on electricity bills. eco changed, targets reduced 30% (urbed, 2016) substantial cut for solid wall insulation. rhi introduced (ofgem, 2017) payments based on renewable heat generated. zero carbon homes target and allowable solutions fund scrapped (urbed, 2016) the allowable solutions fund would have helped retrofit existing housing. an investigation of barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting of social housing in london construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020131 measure details green deal home improvement fund closed (urbed, 2016) the ‘home improvement fund’ added in june 2014 to kickstart gd. offered £1,000s in cash, separate from other green deal loans, to help domestic eer. government ceases funding gd finance company (urbed, 2016) funding ended due to low take-up and consumer protection concerns. effectively ended scheme. government publishes consultation for changes to eco in 2017-18 (urbed, 2016) changes include a 26% reduction in funding, with focus only on ‘affordable warmth’ and ‘low-cost insulation’ bonfield report published (bonfield, 2016) numerous recommendations to encourage retrofitting, no gd replacement proposed. green deal re-launches using private sector financing (the green age, 2017) additional audits to ensure quality workmanship. concerns high (c.a. 10%) interest rates and scheme design will discourage uptake. it is therefore evident from the table above that common measures and governmental initiatives of energy efficiency retrofitting for social housing exist. however, these measures are not integrated effectively due to several barriers and enablers that play a role in effecting the progress of energy efficiency retrofitting in social housing. therefore, this paper seeks to identify key barriers and enablers for social housing retrofitting as reported by literature. energy efficiency retrofitting: barriers and enablers several studies from literature report on a number of barriers and enablers for energy efficiency retrofitting which can be grouped into five categories that include: financial matters, technical, government policy and regulation, social factors (including awareness of the energy efficiency agenda), and quality of workmanship (including training for operatives and customer confidence), as presented in table 3. table 3 barriers and enablers to eersh category barriers enablers financial • lack of funds, poor cost-benefit appraisal (opm, 2014) • high costs, transaction costs, poor access to finance (webber, gouldson and kerr, 2015) • split incentive whereby cost is upon the landlord, with savings accruing to the tenant. • sufficient resources. the prospect of savings (opm, 2014) • more efficient homes reduce rent arrears, void durations, improving business case (weisselberg, 2015) • grant funding (opm, 2014) table 2 continued peel, ahmed, and saboor construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020132 category barriers enablers • the government imposed 1% rent cap on housing associations reducing available funds (federation, 2016) • hard to evaluate and price correctly (better building partnership 2010) • lack of funds (opm, 2014) • repeated changes to funding streams technical • measures individually well established, but novel when done together, measures implemented individually holistic strategies superior, owing to complex interactions, but financial constraints frequently prevent this, not considering household sustainability generallyonly physical works, diverse uk stock requires tailored solutions, technical solutions ineffective alone absent behaviour change (urbed, 2016); takeback’ effect – people increase heating when it becomes cheaper to rum following eer (energy saving trust, 2016) • many solid wall properties in pre-1919 stock – costly and difficult to insulate (federation, 2016) and the way people use energy technology is poorly understood (stafford, gorse and shao, 2011). • i.t. systems are key, effective monitoring to better understand performance, economies of scale as shps own many similar buildings and post occupancy evaluation to understand better the use of technology installed (stafford, gorse and shao, 2011); • good stock condition data (provan and brady, 2015) and the ‘performance gap’ and ‘takeback’ not as bad as often thought (webber, gouldson and kerr, 2015). table 3 continued an investigation of barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting of social housing in london construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020133 category barriers enablers policy and regulation • strong mandatory national policies (eames et al. 2014). • lack of replacement for the green deal, chopping and changing regulations and schemes, policy vacuum – little government attention to energy efficiency matters and right to buy makes retrofitting more (weisselberg, 2015). • government creating greater access to finance (bonfield, 2016); • increasing the cost of inaction and helping spread investment cost (stafford, gorse and shao, 2011). • policymakers focussing only on new build, not retrofit, and lack of regulation or incentives. awareness of social issues and energy efficiency • lack of concern (webber, gouldson and kerr, 2015); risk aversion from landlords; • technical solutions ineffective alone, absent behaviour change (urbed, 2016); • official messaging too focused on financial savings (energy saving trust, 2016); • hard to follow advice, consumers required to be proactive in seeking advice and lack of reliable information and advice (opm, 2014) • designated role within the organization to plan and deliver ee; • availability of advice and support to tenants, clarity of advice (opm, 2014); • how to make energy efficiency seem relevant to residents’ lives, messaging focussed on warmth, reduction of draughts and mould and householders’ opinion of advice giver (energy saving trust, 2016). quality and customer confidence • lack of confidence in suppliers (webber et al. 2015); • shortage of skills to carry out retrofit works (vaughan, 2017); • insufficient information on techniques and best practice for suppliers (eames et al., 2016); • loss of knowledge and skills between projects (stafford, gorse and shao, 2011). • insufficient training for operatives and suppliers and lack of quality assurance schemes (bonfield 2016). • create information hub and data warehouse (eames et al., 2016); • social housing projects drive innovation (federation, 2016) • create quality assurance schemes and systems of redress and enhanced training and transferrable qualifications (bonfield 2016). table 3 continued peel, ahmed, and saboor construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020134 it therefore seems apparent from the table above that there are no studies that report on the barriers and enablers of the financial, technical, regulatory, social, and quality categories in relation to uk social housing. accordingly, this paper intends to seek stakeholder’s views of the barrier and enablers within the context of london, uk social housing. methodological steps a qualitative approach based on semi-structured interviews and survey was used to identify the barriers and enablers for social housing retrofitting from the key stakeholders’ point of view. the following methodological steps were therefore followed: • interviews: a set of interviews were conducted to understand stakeholder’s view of the barriers and enablers of energy efficiency retrofitting in social housing , targeting a sample of 7 key london based professionals including; employed as sustainability consultant, development manager, and investment planning officer in companies like national consultancy, local authority, housing associations, and construction repairs & maintenance contractors • ranking survey: experts/professionals as such; consultants, contractors, large and small housing associations and local authorities were asked to rank the categories based on their perception. this approach is intended to corroborate and triangulate the findings from the literature and the interviews against the perception of energy efficiency retrofitting for social housing experts based on the ranking generated by the survey. these methodological steps will assist with developing an understanding of the stakeholder’s perceptions of the barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting of social housing in london. data collection and analysis this section explains how the methodology outlined above was put into practice to develop an understanding of energy efficiency retrofitting challenges facing social housing from the perspective of key professionals. interviews the semi-structured interviews assist the research in determining the barriers and enablers for each category, from the key professionals’ perspective. profile of interviewees the table below shows a summary of the interviewees’ profiles, where 3 of the interviewees worked in national consultancies, 2 for a housing association, and others at the local authority. the interviewees mostly worked as sustainability managers or project managers with experiences ranging between 6 to 16 years, while being between at least 2 to 6 years in their current post. an investigation of barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting of social housing in london construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020135 table 4 interviewee profile interviewee current employer job title & role time in post total experience (in sustainability) a a national consultancy, working with sls sustainability consultant – consultancy and research for the housing sector 4 years 6-7 years b a local authority in london investment planning officer in the asset management section. 6 years 6 years c national consultancy. seconded to social housing consultancy in greater london energy consultant currently seconded as an engagement manager. providing advice on domestic energy efficiency. 2.5 years 12 years d a housing association in london and southeast england sustainability coordinator 3 years more than 6 years e construction, repairs and maintenance contractor in london energy and innovation commercial manager in sustainability team. works entirely on retrofit schemes and forward innovation in energy and efficiency 5 years 13 years f national construction, repairs, and maintenance contractor development support manager 4 years 16 years g a housing association in london and southeast england project officer. overseeing the improvement of epc ratings of employer’s housing stock 5 years more than 6 years barriers and enablers several studies from literature report on grouping the barriers and enablers into five most significant categories as shown in table 3; however, the interviewees perceived it and disruption to residents as significant standalone categories, which resulted in identifying seven peel, ahmed, and saboor construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020136 main categories. this section, therefore, presents the interviewee’s perceptions of the barriers and enablers for each of these categories, which include: financial matters, technical, i.t, government policy and regulation, social factors (including awareness of the energy efficiency agenda), quality of workmanship (including training for operatives and customer confidence) and other factors, as discussed below: financial the interview results showed that ‘financial’ issues are the biggest barrier. for example, interviewee a argued that “the major barrier is definitely financial, and also again concerns about contractors’ workmanship and quality of design and specification as well.” the rest of the interviewee’s comments are summarised in table 5a, highlighting the financial issues as barriers and enablers for retrofitting energy-efficient components in social housing. table 5a financial barriers barrier / enabler freq issue comments barrier 4 financial is the biggest barrier barrier 4 1% rent cut all participants were asked about this. 2 also stated it was not a barrier. barrier 4 cuts and the difficult financial situation of sls job losses, demoralization, lack of ambition and the difficulty of justifying ee in an era of cuts were consequences of this barrier barrier 4 the low level of grant funding the levels of grant funding no longer trigger eersh. conversely, one participant did note that even low levels allow internal funding to stretch further. barrier 4 split incentives between sls and residents/ leaseholders landlords invest, but only residents see a financial benefit. worse where leaseholders involved. barrier 3 the effort and complexity of obtaining grant funding lots of bureaucracy to obtain funding. extra surveys, installations, and monitoring can be required. some sls do feasibility studies to determine if small amounts of grant funding justify the effort and expense. conversely, one interviewee thought grant funding was not too difficult to obtain, and two opined the perception was worse than the problem. barrier 3 hard to make a business case for internal funds the perception that ee keeps on taking an investigation of barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting of social housing in london construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020137 barrier / enabler freq issue comments enabler 4 obtaining internal funding data needed to justify a request. helps if the benefit to sl’s balance sheet, or if eer brings in money, e.g. solar pv. enabler 3 doing eer can benefit sls financially research has indicated this. explained, variously, by reduced voids, rent arrears, and maintenance costs. therefore, it can be concluded from table 5a, that from the perception of key professionals, 1% rent cut, financial situations of sls, low level of grant funding and split incentives between sls and residents/leaseholders were considered as the most important barriers. technical some of the most highlighted technical issues of eersh found from the interviews are the need for individual design, poor workmanship, and performance gap as described by interviewee a: “definitely poor workmanship that would be one thing. poor selection of products and in the worst cases not installing the specified products.”. similarly, interviewee e mentioned: “i would say there are probably three elements you would look at. one aspect you would look at designs…. so, i would say design and client understanding is a really big one. on the back of that is budget …, so behavioural change is quite a difficult one, particularly in social housing. and maintenance is another one.” the rest of the interviewee’s comments are summarised in table 5b, highlighting the technical issues considered as barriers and enablers for retrofitting energyefficient components in social housing. table 5b technical issues barrier / enabler freq issue comments barrier 4 need for individual design sls tend towards a one-size-fits-all approach barrier 3 the performance gap thermal bridging can cause this. one contractor noted reports of poor schemes could be due to poor commissioning and maintenance. barrier 3 type and condition of the stock hard to treat properties are a barrier, easy to treat is an enabler. stock in the poor structural condition is harder to retrofit. a wide range of stock types in the uk is a barrier; conversely, sls tend to have large amounts of the same type. victorian and solid wall properties are harder to treat. barrier 2 need for individual detailing with ewi often where individual properties have had repairs and alterations table 5a continued peel, ahmed, and saboor construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020138 barrier / enabler freq issue comments enabler 6 integrating ee works with regular maintenance and other works. saves money, as does frequent boiler replacement. sls often try to integrate with planned maintenance. enabler 3 considering properties holistically. one interviewee noted sls often lack funds. enabler 2 education to reduce the performance gap it can be caused by residents not understanding ee measures fitted. ‘hard to treat properties’ and ‘the need for individual design’ were ranked as the most important of these factors. this suggests that factors to do with ‘building fabric’ are viewed as more important. ‘effective co-operation’ and ‘co-ordination’ were ranked least important. during the interviews, this point was raised more by contractors and consultants it interviewee e expressed his opinion of the importance and role of it in energy efficiency retrofitting by stating that “at a very high level then you are talking about stuff like passive house and thermal bridging and the i-values, and you need to have quite a high-level experience, and quite highly trained people on the its (inaudible). on a basic level, if you are delivering large schemes and it is more based around project management, moving forward they want, at least all government contracts to be bim level 2 to move towards bim level 3. but that has not picked up that much at the moment.” the rest of the interviewee’s comments are summarised in table 5c. table 5c it issues barrier / enabler freq issue comments barrier 3 bim would not have an effect interviewees though it relates more to new build than retrofitting enabler 5 good stock condition database interviewees noted, inter alia, an energy module and integration of epc/sap data is especially beneficial and helps build the business case enabler 3 good i.t. systems in general enabler 3 bim enabler 2 modelling software these can be useful. the crohm program used by re: new was regarded as good by one interviewee table 5b continued an investigation of barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting of social housing in london construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020139 the responses show a clear view that the availability of data stock condition and standard assessment procedure (sap) data, are the most crucial factors. sl’s data management skills can be viewed as integral to these factors. the availability of relevant programs – modelling software and building information modelling (bim) are viewed as much less important than the availability of data. government policy and regulations issues related to government policy and regulations for eersh can be witnessed through the statement of interviewee d “i know there are pieces of legislation, as i say they keep chopping and changing and either getting rid of things altogether or if not, reducing them down so much so, like the fit, which is not financially viable anymore”. interviewee d further commented on changes to eco and government incentives by stating that “eco, directly, i haven’t had much involvement in, but second hand through axis. i think they found it quite frustrating, but i know there is a new round of funding at the moment, or there will be soon”. similarly, interviewee a stated: “i can’t think of any policies to do with energy efficiency. there is one for private landlords….the government can choose to do it in different ways. it can choose just to ignore domestic emissions, and just focus on industrial and commercial, but obviously, they will do something for housing, but no-one knows what yet. so, we are just on standby right now to see what comes off the back of it”. the rest of the interviewee’s comments are summarised in table 5d, highlighting the ‘government policy’ and ‘regulation issues’ considered as barriers and enablers for retrofitting energy-efficient components in social housing. table 5d government policy and regulation issues barrier / enabler freq issue comments barrier 6 the start-stop nature of government schemes there is no longer trust in government schemes after the repeated changes to ones such as eco, gd, fit, etc. which were major funding streams for eer. the changes prevent contractors from upskilling and investment in the supply chain. barrier 6 the difficulties caused by sls having leaseholders under the right to buy this limits sls options when carrying out eer. the consultation process is lengthy and complicated. the ‘patchwork quilt’ effect of upgraded and un-upgraded properties has thermal and aesthetic implications barrier 4 the changes to eco these changes, in particular, have damaged eer and the supply chain barrier 3 the failure of the gd barrier 3 lack of compulsory national targets for ee standards legal requirements force organizations to fund ee. the ee(prp) r 2015 is seen as valuable. the lack of an equivalent for the social sector is a barrier peel, ahmed, and saboor construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020140 barrier / enabler freq issue comments barrier 3 insufficient government incentives to eer this would drive change barrier 3 lack of policies and confused policymaking not enough being done by the government enabler 4 the ‘energiesprung’ approach this large-scale upgrade program developed in the netherlands and being piloted in the uk. has economies of scale and, crucially, increases the value of sls’ stock enabler 4 policy regarding grant funding funding has been helpful. cert and cesp helped. two interviewees opined that more grant funding was needed, and one mentioned the use of infrastructure funding for eer enabler 3 the changes to eco conversely, some interviewees believed there had been some positive changes to eco and that it is effective at encouraging eersh. enabler 2 bonfield review both contractors interviewed thought this was beneficial and was a step in the right direction. conversely, one consultant had a low view of it and thought it a missed opportunity enabler 2 local policies to encourage eer re: new and the london plan mentioned as good examples the start-stop nature of government schemes and the difficulties caused by sls having leaseholders under the right to buy was ranked as the most important of these factors. social factors and awareness of energy efficiency interviewee b highlighted the resistance and concerns related to energy efficiency retrofitting by stating “generally people welcome it as a good thing, but you know, it depends on the measure, it depends on the context, you will have, you might have a block with 20 residents, who look at doing (solid wall insulation?), you know 18 residents will be quite happy that they are, you know, the block is being given a new façade, you know, a new look, but you will have a couple of residents who just don’t want the work because they may not want the disruption ….., it is a mixed picture.”. however, regarding the concern and demand of residents for energy-efficient retrofitting interviewee d stated: “i think they are interested, but they don’t bombard me with requests and calls for support …. if they are struggling to pay their bills. they are always interested to learn ways in which they could help themselves reduce their bills etc.” table 5d continued an investigation of barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting of social housing in london construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020141 the rest of the interviewee’s comments are summarised in table 5e, highlighting the ‘social factor’ and ‘awareness issues’ considered as barriers and enablers for retrofitting energy-efficient components in social housing. table 5e social factors and awareness issue barrier / enabler freq issue comments barrier 5 the balance of concern for fuel poverty vs. carbon reduction three interviewees thought fuel poverty was a major concern. another thought the balance changes at different times, with another saying they were an equal concern. one interviewee thought they could not be addressed separately, and another thought they can conflict. barrier 4 lack of concern from sls fabric is a higher priority; ee is ‘nice to have’ not essential, a lack of awareness of the benefits to sls of ee works barrier 3 low social and national concern re ee not taken seriously at the national level and awareness has gone down recently barrier 2 low levels of concern and awareness amongst sls leaseholders barrier 2 resistance to works by residents some fear central heating will be more expensive to run or do not like changes to buildings’ appearances. enabler 6 concern from sls there is plenty of concern regarding ee, especially in terms of fuel poverty, lots of discussion of ee, having board-level buy-in and general concern is an enabler. some sls have targets. enabler 5 support and advice for sls re ee available from contractors, consultants, and other organizations. interviewees broadly considered this sufficient, with room for improvement. one interviewee wished for more help with obtaining funding enabler 5 demand from residents for ee works opinions varied on the reasons for this. some participants thought financial reasons were more important, others that occupant comfort was the bigger issue. some observed a preference for measures such as double glazing or loft and cavity insulation. the characteristics of buildings affected the demand for change from residents. peel, ahmed, and saboor construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020142 barrier / enabler freq issue comments enabler 4 providing advice to residents improves the effectiveness of works done. it is a low cost. enabler 3 knowledge sharing between sls various forums for this quality and customers confidence issues related to quality and customers’ confidence for energy efficiency retrofitting for social housing can be witnessed through the statement of interviewee e “i would say it is just as bad. probably 2 years ago, because of the green deal, everyone thought it was something to get into, so you got a rush of trained people. whether or not they are of particularly good quality is difficult, but in theory that is what the pas 2030 was supposed to help with, but certainly before and now, a lot of the companies have gone out of business, so there is a lot smaller market it is probably better than the building industry as a whole, because it was so specialized, for a little while, and there is obviously not as many projects coming up.”. the rest of the interviewee’s comments are summarised in table 5f, highlighting the ‘quality’ and ‘customer confidence’ issues considered as barriers and enablers for retrofitting energy. table 5f quality and customers confidence issues barrier / enabler freq issue comments barrier 5 shortage of skilled operatives this varies with time and place and the measures being installed. the role of contractors in helping to develop this was mentioned, as was the role of the central government. requiring pas 2030 standard from subcontractors drives upskilling. barrier 5 sls’ ability to manage projects lack of staff, resources, and skills to effectively monitor works is a barrier. two interviewees mentioned the overall lack of people with skills in ee and contract administration. one contractor state that the project is ‘as good as the client.’ one interviewee disagreed and believed sls do have the skills needed. enabler 4 availability of competent contractors this split opinion – four interviewees thought there were sufficient, whereas two thought there is a problem. the need for due diligence to avoid problems was raised by two interviewees. table 5e continued an investigation of barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting of social housing in london construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020143 barrier / enabler freq issue comments enabler 2 contractors and consultants assisting clients with project management helps fill the skills gap other factors in addition to the above-mentioned categories that have been mentioned by the literature, the interviewee mentioned other factors that form barriers to energy efficiency retrofitting, which include ‘disruption to residents’ and ‘concerns raised by grenfell tower fire’. table 5g other factors barrier / enabler freq issue comments barrier 6 disruption to residents residents can oppose works due to actual or perceived disruption. residents can refuse access to allow works. residents’ low concern for ee can lead them to refuse access. communication and advance notice help this. barrier 5 grenfell tower fire has discouraged retrofitting and led to cancellation/suspension of some projects. interviewees expressed views such as the need for improved communication with residents, reviews of building regulations, and trust-building with the public to overcome such problems. moreover, to improve the reliability of the findings gained through interviews, a ranking survey was constructed to aid corroborating and triangulating the opinions of energy efficiency retrofitting experts. the survey also determines the most significant issues already identified from literature and interviews, which will be discussed in the next section. ranking survey to understand the relative importance of the categories of barriers and enablers found from the literature and validated through semi-structured interviews, professionals were asked to rank these categories. for ease of interpretation, the ranking of the categories has been displayed graphically in figure 2. table 5f continued peel, ahmed, and saboor construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020144 figure 2 weighted average rankings for survey data the categories of barriers and enablers furthermore, for a better understanding of the data collection and analysis phase, a corroborated and triangulated analysis are summarised in table 6. the table summarises the ranking survey’s results, linking categories’ ranks with the three most important ranking factors in each category. this provides a useful summary from which conclusion can be drawn. table 6 the most prominent barriers to eersh by category rank category weighted average sub-category rank weighted average 1 financial 6.07 low level of grant funding 1 3.64 1% rent cut 2 3.21 the business case for internal funds 3 3.13 2 government policy and regulation 5.07 lack of compulsory national targets 1 4.00 repeated changes to policy & initiatives 2 3.71 level of government engagement 3 3.00 3 technical issues 4.87 hard to treat properties 1 4.00 individual design for different properties 2 3.53 age and condition of sl’s stock 3 2.71 an investigation of barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting of social housing in london construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020145 rank category weighted average sub-category rank weighted average 4 quality and customer confidence 3.40 ability to find competent subcontractors 1 3.67 ability to find competent contractors 2 3.60 sls’ having skills to manage ee works 3 2.80 5 social and awareness of ee 3.27 society’s level of concern re ee 1 3.93 residents’ level of concern re ee 2 3.87 sls’ level of concern re ee 3 3.27 6 disruption to residents 2.93 disruption 1 3.00 n/a 2 n/a 3 7 i.t. 2.36 stock condition data 1 4.13 availability of sap data 2 3.47 sl’s data management skills 3 3.14 therefore, the most prominent findings that have been identified in relation to energy efficiency retrofitting are summarised below: • issues of finance, technical difficulties, and issues of government policy and regulation are considered the most significant barriers and enablers to eersh. • the low level of social concern for environmental and ee issues is a barrier to eersh and the wider ee agenda. • government policy, while being deficient in many areas, has had considerable success in encouraging eersh, notably through eco and its predecessors, cert and cesp and the decent homes initiative. • government support and attention in terms of compulsory national targets for eersh, potentially mirroring ee(prp)r 2015, would drive change and are looked upon favourably by eersh professionals. • repeated changes in government policies, especially reduction/removal of promised funding streams (eco, gd, fit), have eroded trust and hampered development in the supply chain. • low levels of grant funding, including reductions to eco, are regarded by most professionals in the field as a significant barrier to eersh. table 6 continued peel, ahmed, and saboor construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020146 • the 1% rent cut is having a significant impact on sls business plans, complicating their ability to carry out eersh. • hard to treat properties are a significant barrier. this is an increasing problem as the ‘low hanging fruit’ of easy to treat properties are upgraded. • overall, there is not a great concern at the availability of competent contractors or the ability of sls to manage works; however, continuing development is needed. • the availability of good quality stock condition and sap data is critical for sls to target investment. conclusion this paper has developed an understanding of retrofitting for social housing and its common measures. government initiatives that integrate energy efficiency retrofitting in social housing have also been reported from literature, which showed that despite the numerous efforts and initiatives that have been taken, there still seems to be a lack of energy-efficient retrofitting in social housing in the uk. this paper has, therefore, targeted key stakeholders from the social housing industry to get a deeper insight into the barriers and enablers for retrofitting in the sector. the study concluded that ‘financial’ and ‘government policy’ barriers were the greatest barriers facing retrofitting for social housing. based on the above findings, the following recommendations can be made for key stakeholders within the social housing sector, to enable a more efficient and effective retrofitting. • introduction of legally binding national ee targets for the sh sector. • much greater stability in government policies and funding. • more grant funding for ee works. • developing better and more innovative ways of funding and retrofitting hard to treat properties, especially ones with solid walls. • research into innovative solutions for hard to treat properties. • research into the financial benefits to sls of implementing eer to help make the business case for internal funds. although the problem of energy efficiency retrofitting in social housing has been addressed to some extent by this scoping study, future research intends to focus on a wider sample of stakeholders across the uk with more sophisticated data analysis techniques such as delphi and analytical hierarchy process (ahp), to increase the reliability and validity of the results and aid the stakeholders (decision-makers) to prioritize their efforts to overcome the barriers highlighted by this study. references arends, l. and garcía-almirall, p., 2014. a comparative view of social housing in europe. the case of barcelona and london. architecture, city and environment, 9(26), pp.177-200. bonfield, p., 2016. each home counts: an independent review of consumer advice, protection, standards and enforcement for energy efficiency and renewable energy. online: uk department of energy and climate change. change, c.o.c., 2016. uk climate action following the paris agreement. london. an investigation of barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting of social housing in london construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020147 davidson, m., nicol, s., roys, m., garrett, h., beaumont, a. and turner, c., 2012. the cost of poor housing in northern ireland: ihs bre press. eames, m., dixon, t., lannon, s.c., hunt, m., de laurentis, c., marvin, s., hodson, m., guthrie, p. and georgiadou, m.c., 2014. retrofit 2050: critical challenges for urban transitions, page 2 available at: http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/36187/1/critical%20challenges%20briefing-march%202014.pdf [accessed at 13 may 2017] eames, m., dixon, t., lannon, s., hunt, m., de laurentis, c., marvin, s., hodson, m., guthrie, p. and georgiadou, jones b (2016) the bonfield review: better late than never? [online]. available at: http://www.sustainablehomes.co.uk/the-bonfield-review-better-late-than-never/ [accessed 13 may 2017]. energy saving trust, 2016. connecting with homeowners: making energy efficiency relevant uk pulse report. london. federation, n.h., 2016. taking stock – understanding the quality and energy efficiency of housing association homes. london: national housing federation. fitzpatrick, s. and pawson, h., 2007. welfare safety net or tenure of choice? the dilemma facing social housing policy in england. housing studies, 22(2), pp.163-82. https://doi. org/10.1080/02673030601132763 house of commons, 2016. home energy efficiency and demand reduction fourth report of session 2015–16. london: house of commons energy and climate change committee. kleinman, m.p., 1988. where did it hurt most? uneven decline in the availability of council housing in england. policy & politics, 16(4), pp.221-33. https://doi.org/10.1332/030557388782454939 leal filho, w., brandli, l., kuznetsova, o. and paco, a., 2016. integrative approaches to sustainable development at university level. switzerland: springer. lux, m. and sunega, p., 2014. public housing in the post-socialist states of central and eastern europe: decline and an open future. housing studies, 29(4), pp.501-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2013. 875986 ofgem, 2017. about the domestic rhi [online]. available at: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmentalprogrammes/domestic-rhi/about-domestic-rhi [accessed 2020]. opm, 2014. warm home discount energy advice consumer experiences report to ofgem. london. opoku, a. and guthrie, p., 2018. the social value act 2012: current state of practice in the social housing sector. journal of facilities management, 16(3), pp.253-68. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-11-20160049 palmer, j. and cooper, i., 2013. united kingdom housing energy fact file 2013. london. provan, b. and brady, a.m., 2015. energy plus: energy efficiency in social housing casereport 89. london: case london school of economics and political science. solomon, s., qin, d., manning, m., marquis, m., averyt, k., tignor, m.m.b., leroy miller jr, h. and chen, z., eds. 2007. climate change 2007-the physical science basis. contribution of working group i to the fourth assessment report of the ipcc new york: cambridge university press. stafford, a., gorse, c. and shao, l., 2011. the retrofit challenge: delivering low carbon buildings. york, uk. the green age, 2017. re: the green deal is back in 2017! available at: https://www.thegreenage.co.uk/ the-green-deal-is-back/ [accessed 19 june 2017]. peel, ahmed, and saboor construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020148 http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/36187/1/critical%20challenges%20briefing-march%202014.pdf http://centaur.reading.ac.uk/view/creators/90004638.html http://www.sustainablehomes.co.uk/the-bonfield-review-better-late-than-never/ https://doi.org/10.1080/02673030601132763 https://doi.org/10.1080/02673030601132763 https://doi.org/10.1332/030557388782454939 https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2013.875986 https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2013.875986 https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-programmes/domestic-rhi/about-domestic-rhi https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/environmental-programmes/domestic-rhi/about-domestic-rhi https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-11-2016-0049 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-11-2016-0049 https://www.thegreenage.co.uk/the-green-deal-is-back/ https://www.thegreenage.co.uk/the-green-deal-is-back/ urbed, 2016. retrofit factfile a short summary of facts and publications relevant to domestic retrofit. manchester, uk. vaughan, a., 2017. re: 5 barriers to retrofit. tracing green [online]. available at: http://tracinggreen.uk/ technology-construction/5-barriers-retrofit/ [accessed 15 february 2017. webber, p., gouldson, a. and kerr, n., 2015. the impacts of household retrofit and domestic energy efficiency schemes: a large scale, ex post evaluation. energy policy, 84, pp.35-43. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.enpol.2015.04.020 weisselberg, d., 2015. re: the retrofit performance gap sustainable homes conference. bristol green doors [online]. available at: http://www.bristolgreendoors.org/blog/retrofit-performance-gapsustainable-homes-conference. an investigation of barriers and enablers to energy efficiency retrofitting of social housing in london construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 2020149 http://tracinggreen.uk/technology-construction/5-barriers-retrofit/ http://tracinggreen.uk/technology-construction/5-barriers-retrofit/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2015.04.020 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2015.04.020 http://www.bristolgreendoors.org/blog/retrofit-performance-gap-sustainable-homes-conference http://www.bristolgreendoors.org/blog/retrofit-performance-gap-sustainable-homes-conference construction economics and building vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022 © 2022 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: manivannan, j., loganathan, s., kamalanabhan, t. j., kalidindi, s. n. 2022. investigating the relationship between occupational stress and work-life balance among indian construction professionals. construction economics and building, 22:2, 27–51. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v22i2.8052 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article investigating the relationship between occupational stress and work-life balance among indian construction professionals j manivannan1, santhosh loganathan2,*, kamalanabhan t j3 and satyanarayana n kalidindi4 1 principal consultant, athera business enablers, india. 2 joint phd candidate, department of civil engineering, indian institute of technology madras, and school of built environment, university of technology sydney, australia. 3 professor, department of management studies, indian institute of technology madras, india. 4 professor, department of civil engineering, indian institute of technology madras and director, indian institute of technology tirupati, india. corresponding author: santhosh loganathan, joint phd candidate, department of civil engineering, indian institute of technology madras, and school of built environment, university of technology sydney, australia; santomaills@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i2.8052 article history: received: 09/01/2022; revised: 08/04/2022 & 31/05/2022; accepted: 04/06/2022; published: 20/06/2022 abstract the construction industry has long been recognized as a stressful industry, due to its complexity and management of a large number of stakeholders. occupational stress causes a negative impact on both the work and personal life of professionals. previous studies have established that occupational stress of construction professionals is strongly associated with low productivity, high absenteeism, and poor work performance. however, there is a lack of scientific studies that provide linkages between occupational stressors and the dimensions of work-life balance. the present research aims to study the perceived level of occupational stress and assess its relationship with the dimensions of work-life balance among construction professionals. within an established theoretical framework, eight hypotheses were formulated to investigate the above relationship. a cross-sectional survey-based approach was adopted to assess the level of occupational stress and work-life balance. the survey was administered among construction project managers, project engineers, and site engineers in the indian context. with 285 valid declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 27 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7842 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:santomaills@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7842 responses, relative importance index and multiple regression analysis methods were utilised to analyse the collected data. the findings revealed major stressors that contribute to high levels of occupational stress under work-related and organisation-related stressor categories. the top five identified stressors included job nature demands coordination with multiple stakeholders, tight time frame for work, unstable working hours, bureaucracy, and quantitative work overload. with regards to the relationship between the categories of occupational stress and work-life balance, the results indicate that work-related stressors are significantly and positively related to work interference to personal life (wipl) and personal life interference to work (pliw) and negatively relate to work enhancement of personal life (wepl) and personal life enhancement of work (plew). in the case of organisationrelated stressors, both organisation policy and organisation position-related stressors significantly and positively influence wipl however, no significant relationship was noticed with pliw, wepl, and plew. while the existing studies have provided evidence that work-life imbalance causes occupational stress, one of the major contributions of the present study is that it provides valid scientific evidence that occupational stress significantly influences work-life life balance negatively. the study’s findings with regards to unveiling the relationship between the categories of occupational stressors and dimensions of work-life balance would help organisations derive relevant policies for creating a supportive work environment. to this end, the paper advances our collective understanding of occupational stress and work-life balance with multiple dimensions and perspectives. keywords occupational stress; work-life balance; stressors; construction professionals; indian construction industry introduction the construction industry is one of the most people-dependent industries, regardless of numerous technological interventions, and it is highly fragmented in nature. due to the complex nature of the sector, about 70% of construction professionals suffer from occupational stress in the form of anxiety, depression, low motivation, and morale (campbell, 2006; enshassi, el-rayyes and alkilani, 2015; hampton, chinyio, and riva, 2019). an increase in occupational stress directly impacts the work-life balance of working professionals. a recent review of the relevant literature around occupational stress among construction project professionals since 1989 revealed that occupational stress, in general, could be related to physical conditions, organisational culture, interpersonal conflict, work environment, and personal characteristics (naoum, et al., 2018). while there is a good understanding of factors affecting occupational stress among construction professionals (ng, skitmore and leung, 2005; leung, chan and dongyu, 2011; zawawi, bahron and amirul, 2014; naoum, et al., 2018), there is however limited research conducted to understand the relationship between occupational stress and work-life balance in the construction industry. also, the greatest number of studies have been conducted in the context of hong kong, australia, and south africa (naoum, et al., 2018). at the time of writing, no reported scientific studies have been conducted in the indian context. the indian construction industry is the second-largest employer, next to agriculture, in india, generating over 51 million employments and contributing about 10% to the country’s gdp (invest india, 2022). recently, the government of india launched its national infrastructure pipeline between 2020 and 2025 with usd1.4 trillion of projected infrastructure investment in roads, railways, urban infrastructure, energy, and other real estate and infrastructure sectors (make in india, 2022). moreover, it is forecasted that about 40% of the population will live in indian cities by 2030 (make in india, 2022). while the prospects of the indian construction industry are high, the issues concerning completing projects on time manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202228 and within budgets are severe (mospi, 2017). a study by narayanan, kure and palaniappan, (2019) on time and cost overrun in 30 indian megaprojects indicates that the time overrun ranges from 10% to 256%, with an average of 127%. one of the major causes of significant time and cost overruns is improper management of onsite construction activities and workers (narayanan, kure and palaniappan, 2019; anandh and gunasekaran, 2018). also, given the labour-intensive nature of the indian construction industry, with a significant proportion of workers being migrant in nature (loganathan and kalidindi, 2016), a high level of occupational stress is observed among construction site engineers and managers with regard to the management of workers onsite (anandh and gunasekaran, 2018). this includes low levels of productivity, significant safety issues, high absenteeism, high turnover, communication issues and lack of motivation of workers (loganathan and kalidindi, 2016; johari and jha, 2020; johari and jha, 2021). along with issues related to the management of migrant construction workers onsite, lack of transparency and governance, lack of standardisation of construction work processes and procedures, low levels of technological interventions and insufficient training and development of professionals and workers, are issues that are specific to the indian construction industry (sawhney, agnihotri and paul, 2014). previous studies have identified factors that affect construction professionals’ lifestyles, such as financial factors, organisational factors, quality, health and environmental factors, work-related factors, and social (personal and interpersonal) factors (anandh, gunasekaran and mannan, 2020; dubey and jeswani, 2018). however, a deeper collective understanding of various sources of occupational stress and its relationship with work-life balance needs to be gathered for indian conditions. hence, the present study first aims to understand the various sources of occupational stress among indian construction professionals. secondly, it seeks to investigate the relationship between occupational stress and work-life balance. in the following, the paper briefly reviews the relevant literature in the study area, then the methodology utilised is presented, followed by a discussion of the findings from the study. occupational stress and work-life balance occupational stress among construction professionals occupational stress can be defined as ‘the harmful physical and emotional responses that occur when the requirements of the job do not match the capabilities, resources or needs of the worker’ (niosh, 1999). work stress has been widely linked with adverse effects on employees’ psychological and physical well-being in many occupations (kinman and jones, 2005). in the construction industry, the nature of work itself can be stressful such as physical conditions, overcrowding in the workplace, work overload, role-based factors (such as lack of power, role ambiguity, role conflict), lack of privacy, threats to career development and achievement (including the threat of redundancy, being undervalued and unclear promotion) may lead to occupational stress among construction professionals (ng, skitmore and leung, 2005; naoum, et al., 2018). research efforts in the past have classified stressors into different categories. independent research studies in different contexts identify stress and stressors that lead to occupational stress among construction professionals. for instance, ng, skitmore and leung (2005) classified 33 different types of stressors under the categories of work nature-related, work timerelated, organisation policy-related, organisation position-related, situational, and environmental-related, relationship-related, and personal-related stressors. offia ibem, et al. (2011) found that the principal sources of stress were the high volume of work, uncomfortable site offices, lack of feedback on previous and ongoing building projects, and variations/changes in the scope of work. sharma (2013) identified fear of job redundancy, lack of job security, non-commensurate wages with levels of responsibility, under participation in decision making, office politics and conflicts, and interpersonal relations as important determinants of occupational stress. manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202229 based on the critical review of existing studies on occupational stress in the construction management literature, it can be derived that there are various factors that cause occupational stress in the industry. these factors can be collectively termed stressors, which in turn cause occupational stress (leung, chan and yu, 2012; enshassi, el-rayyes and alkilani, 2015). stressors emanating from construction projects are causative factors for occupational stress, which is inherent in the industry (tijani, jin and osei-kyei, 2020). the present study utilises the classification of occupational stressors as work-related stressors and organisational-related stressors, which was initially proposed by ng, skitmore and leung, 2005. this classification of occupational stress is also more parsimonious in nature. the occupational stress that manifests due to work-related factors can be categorized as work-time-related and work-nature-related stressors (ng, skitmore and leung, 2005). occupational stress due to quantitative work overload, tight time frame for work and unstable working hours can be classified under work-time-related stressors (ng, skitmore and leung, 2005). occupational stress due to qualitative workload, over-specialized job nature, coordination with multiple stakeholders, and low job challenges can be classified under work-nature related stressors (ng, skitmore and leung, 2005). the stress which manifests due to organisation-related factors can be termed organisation-related stressors. according to sommerville and langford (1994), stress arising due to organisational factors occurs due to how work is managed, the individual’s role with the organisation, the relationships within the organisation, personal and social relationships, and individual anxiety. organisational-related stressors can further be classified as organisation-position-related stressors and organisation-policy-related stressors (ng, skitmore and leung, 2005). occupational stress manifests due to ambiguity on job requirements, inadequate authority/freedom for decision, dissatisfaction with salary, lack of career guidance, lack of promotion opportunity, and lack of job security can be classified under organisationposition related stressors (ng, skitmore and leung, 2005; naoum, et al., 2018). occupational stress due to inadequate knowledge of project objectives, conflicts among different job demands, adaptability problems with the change of work nature, inadequate room for innovation and bureaucracy can be categorised under organisation-policy related stressors (ng, skitmore and leung, 2005; hampton, chinyio and riva, 2019). previous studies have also explored the relationship between occupational stress and job demands, job control, role conflict, organisational culture, job satisfaction and turnover intentions. a study by bowen, govender and edwards (2014) explored the relationship between occupational stress and job demand, control, and support factors among construction professionals in south africa. the study explored the effects of occupational stress, the coping mechanisms adopted by professionals in an attempt to mitigate the effects of stress, and the role of harassment and discrimination (bowen, govender and edwards, 2014). with regards to organisational culture, researchers have examined the relationship between organisational culture and occupational stress (newton and jimmieson, 2006). they report that an employee’s fit with the organizational culture is important. for some employees, workplace events are seen as more of a challenge than stressful. these employees tended to identify themselves more closely with the organisation (newton and jimmieson, 2006). studies have also determined that psychological, physiological, and sociological strain effects are the terminal consequences of occupational stress (bowen, govender and edwards, 2014). dodanwala and san santoso (2021) evaluated the link between job satisfaction facets, job stress, and turnover intentions of construction project professionals in sri lanka. they determined that job stress is the most significant variable predicting construction employees’ turnover intentions. regarding role conflict, a study by domanial, shrestha and san santoso (2021) indicate that role conflict has a positive direct effect on job stress. they further emphasise that impact of role conflict on job stress is high for young employees in the construction industry, as young employees do not possess the necessary life skills or experience to cope with role conflict (dodanwala and san santoso, 2021). while the existing studies have also explored the relationship between occupational stress and job demands, job control, role conflict, organisational culture, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions, there is a lack of scientific studies that explore the relationship between occupational stress and work-life balance. the present study aims to fill that gap in knowledge. manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202230 work-life balance work-life balance is a self-defined state of wellbeing achieved by an individual when they can effectively manage and integrate the varied responsibilities of work, home, family, community commitments and personal leisure time. good work-life balance has been found beneficial for employees and organisations as it can improve productivity, reduce absenteeism, promote better job autonomy, improve employee retention, increase job satisfaction, improve employee attitudes and behaviours, and attract talents (beauregard and henry, 2009; chimote and srivastava, 2013; lamane-harim, cegarra-leiva and sánchez-vidal, 2021). despite these benefits, poor work-life balance is evident in the construction industry (yang et al., 2017). the growing interest in studies in work-life balance in the construction industry has been magnified recently due to a surge in mental ill-health and suicide of construction professionals worldwide, to which work-life conflict is a major contributor (bryson and duncan, 2018; kotera, green and sheffield, 2020). poor work-life balance emanated from clusters of work and non-work factors (turner and lingard 2016). numerous empirical studies have reported factors, which include long working hours, role conflict and family commitment as contributors to work-life conflict in the construction industry (panojan, perera and dilakshan, 2019). studies in the area of work-life balance in construction are focused on three major themes, which include causes of poor work-life balance, work-life balance interventions and work-life balance initiatives (tijani, osei-kyei and feng, 2020). several studies have pointed out that the long working hours of professionals directly impact their relationship quality (lingard and sublet, 2002). for instance, empirical research on the work-life balance among the employees of a large australian contracting organisation found that more weekly work hours were strongly correlated with employees’ perceptions that work interfered with their non-work-life in a negative way (lingard and francis, 2004). also, it was indicated that site-based employees perceive high work interference to family life when compared to officebased employees (lingard and francis, 2004) as site-based employees work long hours. studies have also shown that long working hours and strain-based issues (emotional exhaustion and distress) in the workplace are significant antecedents of work interference to family (wif) and that wif is a significant predictor of the quality of relationships within families. also, wif was found to be negatively related to family functioning, while family interference with work (fiw) was unrelated to job role performance or distress (townsend et al., 2012). developing interventions for work-life balance in the construction industry is an important strategy to address the social and economic effects of poor work-life balance (tijani, osei-kyei and feng, 2020). work-life balance interventions are proactive measures that mitigate or eliminate sources of poor work-life balance causing family dysfunction (francis et al., 2013). poor productivity negatively influences society and business performance (tijani, osei-kyei and feng, 2020). existing studies indicated work flexibility and compressed work weeks as adequate interventions for wlb (francis et al. 2013; bryce, far and gardner, 2019). in developed countries such as the uk, the usa, australia, and new zealand, work flexibility eases the problem of work-family imbalance among the construction workforce (tijani, osei-kyei and feng, 2020). however, there is an absence of empirical studies that explore the flexibility of working time in developing countries such as china, india, and sri lanka, despite the prevalence of work-life imbalance among the construction workforce (tijani, osei-kyei and feng, 2020). work-life balance initiatives refer to organizational initiatives devised to reduce conflict between employees’ work and personal lives (lingard and francis, 2005). a systematic review of work-life balance initiatives by tijani, osei-kyei and feng, (2020) indicates that australia and new zealand are the only developed countries identified in the literature that investigated work-life balance initiatives to enhance work-life balance among construction workforces. researchers from uk and us under-explored work-life balance initiatives (tijani, osei-kyei and feng, 2020). also, it is important to note that there is an absence of studies in developing countries such as china, india, and sri lanka that investigated work-life balance manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202231 initiatives in the construction industry. studies also suggest that for workers in physically demanding jobs, work-life conflict may extend beyond a time-based, strain-based, and behaviour-based model and include a physical capacity component (lingard and turner, 2021). while studies in work-life balance have focused on issues related to root causes, interventions and initiatives, there is a lack of studies on the linkages between work-life balance and occupational stress, which the present study hypothesises as a significant factor that causes work-life imbalance. hence, as mentioned previously, while there is a good understanding of factors affecting occupational stress among construction professionals, there are no reported scientific studies in the indian context. given the large size of indian construction, with about 51 million people employed (in both manual and managerial categories), it is significant to gather knowledge about work-life balance issues. additionally, based on the review of the literature, it was determined that while there is a growing interest in work-life balance issues in the construction management literature (apraku, et al., 2020; lingard and turner, 2021), only limited research is conducted to understand the relationship between occupational stress and work-life balance in the construction industry. the present research hence aims to fill the above gap in knowledge. therefore, the objectives of the present study include: 1. to identify the various sources of occupational stress among indian construction professionals 2. to study the relationship between occupational stress and work-life balance among construction professionals measures of occupational stress and work-life balance to measure the components of occupational stress (i.e., work-related stressors and organisation-related stressors) and work-life balance (i.e., wipl, pliw, plew and wepl), scales developed by previous studies were adopted. to assess work-related stressors and organisation-related stressors, the scale developed by ng, skitmore and leung (2005) was adopted. similar studies in the recent past also adopted ng, skitmore and leung (2005) scale to study occupational stress in other contexts (zheng, et al., 2021; zhang and bowen, 2021; umer, yu and afari, 2022). to assess the components of work-life balance, a 24-item scale developed by fisher, bulger and smith (2009) was adopted for the present study. similar studies in the recent past also adopted fisher, bulger and smith (2009) work-life balance item scale in other contexts (matthews, wayne and ford, 2014; irawanto, novianti, and roz, 2021; berglund, et al., 2021). for both scales adopted by the present study, exploratory factor analysis has been conducted to ascertain the construct validity of the scales. hypotheses development while objective – 1 aims to identify the various sources of occupational stress, to investigate the objective-2, a series of hypotheses were formulated to test the relationship between occupational stress and worklife balance among construction professionals. as shown in figure 1, the various components of worklife balance act as a dependent variable. these include work interference to personal life (wipl), personal life interference to work (pliw), personal life enhancement of work (plew) and work enhancement of personal life (wepl). the independent variables represent the work-related stressors and organisation-related stressors. hypothesis h 0 1 there is no significant and positive relationship between work stressors and work interference to personal life manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202232 h 0 2 there is no significant and positive relationship between work stressors and personal life interference to work h 0 3 there is no significant and positive relationship between work stressors and work enhancement of personal life h 0 4 there is no significant and positive relationship between work stressors and personal life enhancement of work h 0 5 there is no significant and positive relationship between organization stressors and work interference to personal life h 0 6 there is no significant and positive relationship between organization stressors and personal life interference to work h 0 7 there is no significant and positive relationship between organization stressors and work enhancement of personal life h 0 8 there is no significant and positive relationship between organization stressors and personal life enhancement of work research method the present research has been administered using a cross-sectional survey-based approach (ng, skitmore and leung, 2005; leung, chan and yu, 2009). respondents were approached using a random sampling approach. the survey has been administered in three different ways which included e-mail questionnaires, google forms, and offline questionnaires through field visits. the covering letter of the survey explained work time stressor work nature stressor organization policy organization position work interference to personal life personal life interference to work work enhancement of personal life personal life enhancement of work work stressor organization stressor h01 h02 h03 h04 h07 h08 occupational stressor work life balance dimensions 1. qualification 2. project location 3. average working hours h05 h06 1. age 2. marital status 3. work experience 4. designation 5. average working hours 6. no. of dependents 1. marital status 2. spouse employment 3. average working hours control variables 1. age 2. work experience 3. project nature figure 1. hypothesis development manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202233 the purpose of the study, instructions for completing the questionnaire, and the demographic details of the respondents. before administering the online survey questionnaire (e-mail and google forms), a detailed description of the nature and objective of the study along with survey questions have been sent to the human resources managers/senior management executives of the organisations. in offline surveys, respondents were briefed about the survey during the field visits by organizing short meetings. 550 construction professionals were approached for the survey of which 303 responses have been collected in total, attaining a response rate of 55%. among them, 285 were completed with valid responses of which 122 responses were received through field visits (offline) and the remaining 163 have been received through online mode. the current sample is representative of the population as the sample chosen for the present study exceeds the minimum sample (s) requirement of 271. this is derived from cochran’s sample measure formula for an unknown population, at a 90% confidence interval (z) and 5% margin error (e) (cochran, 2007). the cochran’s formula for an unknown population is given in equation 1: s = z2p(1 − p)/e2 in the calculation made using cochran’s sample measure formula, the population proportion (p) is assumed to be 0.5, providing the maximum sample size. since the sample size for the present study is greater than the minimum requirement, it is considered that the sample chosen would sufficiently represent the population of the study. the data have been collected from 7 different construction companies across india. the size of the organisation is classified into three different categories, such as small organizations where the employee strength is less than 300 (total response = 24.9%), medium organisation where the employee strength is 3011000 (total response = 19.3%) and large organisation where the employee strength is 1001 and above (total response = 55.8%). also, the responses have been collected from the professionals working across different nature of projects and different locations of the project. in addition to this, 11 demographic variables have been collected in the survey. statistically, through 285 samples the results can be generalized with a 90% confidence interval with a 5% margin of error (newbold, carlson and thorne, 2007). table 1 represents the demographics of the respondents who have participated in the study out of the total 285 valid respondents, 34.4% are single and 65.3% are married. among the married respondents, 23.7% of employees’ spouses are working professionals and 76.3% are homemakers. in terms of educational qualification, 30.5% of respondents are diploma holders, and 57.2% are graduates. and 8.1% are post-graduates. the average industrial experience of the employees is classified into 4 different categories, such as 0-7 years (41.8%), 8-13 years (15.8%), 14-20 years (40.7%) and 21 years and above (1.8%). also, as can be seen in table 1, most of the respondents were working onsite (91.2%) and most of them represented large construction contracting organisations (55.8%). this showed the relevant characteristics of the respondents who have participated in the survey – as comparing offsite employees,’ onsite employees undergo more stress and large organisations focus more on stress management and work-life balance policies than mid-size and small organisations. results and discussions exploratory factor analysis for stressors scale as mentioned before, to ascertain the construct validity of the scales selected for the present study, exploratory factor analysis has been conducted. the work stressor scale consists of eight items and the organisation stressor consists of 11 items (ng, skitmore and leung, 2005). the constructs are measured, using a five-point likert scale in which 5 = strongly agree and 1 = strongly disagree. therefore, items manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202234 table 1. demographics of the respondents demographic characteristics category frequency percentage age (in years) 21-30 112 39.3 31-40 63 22.1 41-50 86 30.2 51 & above 24 8.4 marital status married 186 65.3 single 98 34.4 divorced 1 0.4 spouse employment yes 44 18.1 no 142 51.3 not applicable 99 30.7 number of dependents 0 66 23.2 1 30 10.5 2 97 34 3 59 20.7 4 23 8.1 5 10 3.5 educational qualification diploma 87 30.5 b.e./b. tech 163 57.2 m.e./m. tech 23 8.1 others 12 4.2 role in organization construction manager/ project manager 126 44.2 project engineer (planning engineer/ quality engineer/ safety engineer) 52 18.2 site engineer 105 36.8 others 2 0.7 nature of current construction project commercial & residential construction 162 56.8 industrial construction 51 17.9 infrastructure roads and highways 22 7.7 infrastructure airports 8 2.8 infrastructure irrigation projects and dams 6 2.1 infrastructure metro rail and other railway projects 14 4.9 manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202235 with higher means indicate a high level of occupational stress and lower means indicate a low level of occupational stress. table 2 shows the results of the exploratory factor analysis. the table contains the factor scores of work stressor scales. the principal extraction method is employed with promax rotation, and the rotation converged in 3 iterations. eigen values greater than 1 were retained in the analysis. further, table 2 contains the percentage of variance explained and the cumulative percentage of variance explained for the work stressor scale. two components are extracted in the analysis, (i.e.) component 1 work time stressor and component 2 work nature-related stressor. table 3 contains the percentage of variance explained and the cumulative percentage of variance explained for the organisation stressor scale. two components are extracted in the analysis, (i.e.) component 1 organisation position related stressor and component 2 – organisation policy-related stressor. the factor scores are used for multiple regression analysis. the assumption of normality and dispersion of data by using the factor scores is also verified. demographic characteristics category frequency percentage infrastructure electric power generation, transmission and distribution 16 5.6 others 4 1.4 project location urban 195 68.4 semi urban 42 14.7 rural 32 11.2 remote location 16 5.6 stay with family near project location yes 131 46 no 128 44.9 not applicable 26 9.1 work location onsite/site office 260 91.2 regional office 15 5.3 corporate office 10 3.5 industrial experience 0-7 119 41.8 8-13 45 15.8 14-20 116 40.7 21 & above 5 1.8 size of the organization (based on employee strength) 0-300 (small) 71 24.91 301-1000 (medium) 55 19.29 1001 & above (large) 159 55.8 table 1. continued manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202236 table 2. exploratory factor analysis for work stressor scale work stressor component 1 component 2 tight time frame for works 0.87 unstable working hours 0.84 quantitative work overload 0.62 work under load 0.58 over specialized job nature 0.75 qualitative work overload 0.74 low job challenges 0.66 eigen values 2.56 1.4 % of variance explained 36.52 20 cumulative % of variance explained 36.52 56.52 table 3. exploratory factor analysis for organisation stressor scale organization stressor component 1 component 2 inadequate authority / freedom for decision 0.79 lack of career guidance 0.76 adaptability problem with change in job nature 0.66 bureaucracy 0.60 inadequate room for innovation 0.42 lack of job security conflicts among different job demands unsatisfied salary 0.96 inadequate knowledge of project objectives 0.55 lack of promotion opportunity 0.46 ambiguity on job requirements 0.45 eigen values 3.92 1.12 % of variance explained 35.63 10.19 cumulative % of variance explained 35.63 45.82 exploratory factor analysis for work-life balance scale work-life balance is measured with a 24-item scale adopted from an instrument reported by fisher, bulger and smith (2009). the scale has been developed to capture the bidirectional interaction between work and personal life in terms of both the interference between the domains and the enhancement that can occur as a result of active participation in multiple domains. the 24-item scale consists of work interference of manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202237 personal life (wipl) (no. of items – 15), personal life interference to work (pliw) (no. of items – 5), work/personal life enhancement (wepl and plew) (no. of items – 4). the respondents were asked to indicate the frequency with which they have felt in a particular way during the past three months using a five-point time-related scale (e.g., 1 = not at all, 3 = sometimes, and 5 = almost all the time). time-based scale is appropriate as the respondents have the same time frame of reference for responding to the items. a higher value of response indicates that respondents have experienced the situation more frequently. in most cases, items with higher means are purported to indicate lower levels of work-life balance for wipl and pliw items. the wepl and plew items are worded positively, and higher means indicate higher levels of perceived work-life balance. in addition to that, as mentioned before, exploratory factor analysis has been conducted to ascertain the construct validity of the scale. table 4 shows the results of exploratory factor analysis for work-life balance scale. table 4. exploratory factor analysis for work life balance scale work life balance scale component 1 component 2 component 3 component 4 i struggle trying to juggle both my work and non-work responsibilities 0.7 i feel overwhelmed when i try to balance my work and personal life 0.6 i have difficulty scheduling vacation time because of my workload 0.8 i am unable to relax at home because i am preoccupied with my work 0.8 i am not happy with the amount of time i spend doing activities not related to work i often have to make difficult choices between my work and my personal life 0.8 i have to put aspects of my personal life "on hold" because of my work 0.9 i am not able to accomplish what i want in both in my personal and work life 0.5 i often neglect my personal needs because of the demands of my work 0.8 my personal life suffers because of my work 0.8 i have to miss out on important personal activities due to the amount of time i spend doing work 0.8 manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202238 work life balance scale component 1 component 2 component 3 component 4 i feel that i am not allocating appropriate amount of time to both work and non-work activities 0.5 i make personal sacrifices to get work done 0.8 i come home from work too tired to do things i would like to do 0.7 because of my job, it is very difficult to maintain the kind of personal life i would like 0.9 my work suffers because of everything going on in my personal life 0.9 i am ineffective at work because of my personal life problems 0.8 i have difficulty getting my work done because i am preoccupied with personal matters at work 0.8 because of my job, i am in a better mood at home 0.5 my job gives me energy to pursue activities outside of work that are important to me 0.8 i am in a better mood at work because of my personal life satisfaction 0.8 my personal life gives me the energy to do my job 0.8 eigen values 9.04 2.17 1.64 1.06 % of variance explained 38 9 6.9 4.4 cumulative % of variance explained 38 47 54 58 exploratory factor analysis for work-related stressors resulted in two dimensionalities such as work timerelated stressors and work nature-related stressors. similarly, exploratory factor analysis for organization related stressors resulted in two dimensionalities, i.e., organisation policy-related stressors and organization position related stressors. the four-dimension items are confirmed to the work-life balance scale from the factor analysis. these are termed as, work interference with personal life, personal life interference with work, work enhancement of personal life and personal life enhancement of work. once the dimensionalities of the instrument are verified, the internal consistencies of the scales have been checked with reliability analysis. table 4. continued manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202239 reliability analysis the internal consistencies of the scales have been checked by conducting a reliability analysis. the cronbach alpha of the work-related stressors scale (no. of items – 8) is 0.68 and the organisation-related stressors scale (no. of items – 11) is 0.82. the cronbach alpha of the work-life balance components viz. work interference of personal life (no. of items – 15) is 0.926, personal life interference to work is (no. of items – 5) is 0.76, work/personal life enhancement (no. of items – 4) is 0.6. thus, the cronbach alpha of the work-life balance scale (no. of items – 24) is 0.88. as the cronbach alpha of the scales used is more than 0.6, the condition of reliability or internal consistencies of the scales are satisfied (konting, kamaruddin and man, 2009). these results indicate that the adopted scales on stressors and work-life balance can be utilised in the context of the present study. perceived level of occupational stress to identify the perceived level of occupational stress, the collected survey data were analysed using the relative importance index. subsequently, the relationship between the categories of stressors and the various work-life components (i.e., wipl, pliw, wepl, plew) is assessed using multiple regression analysis methods. the results of the analysis are presented and discussed in the following sections. table 5 shows the perceived level of occupational stress due to work-related and organisational-related stressors by the respondents. as can be seen in table 5, the top five stressors included job nature demands coordination with multiple stakeholders, tight time frame for work, unstable working hours, bureaucracy, and quantitative workload experienced by the professionals. among the top five, the top stressor is categorised under the work nature-related factor, three stressors are categorised under the work time-related factor, and one relates to organisation policy. construction professionals perceive a high level of occupational stress due to the job nature which demands multiple contacts and a high level of coordination with various project/organisation stakeholders. the results are consistent with previous studies from hong kong and australia, where the role conflict and role ambiguity are the major sources of stress and poor role congruence is the other key stressor affecting the subjective and objective stresses of construction project managers (leung, chan and yu, 2009; love, edwards and irani, 2010; naoum, et al., 2018). recent studies in this area also conclude that there is a positive link between role conflict and job stress (olafsen, et al., 2021, dodanwala et al., 2021). construction professionals needed to coordinate between various departments (namely, quantity surveying, materials, plant and equipment, financial, and human resource management department) both within and outside (i.e., clients, contractors, subcontractors, designers, architects, consultants’ organisations) their project/organisational setup. and, in india, given the migrant nature of construction workers onsite (loganathan and kalidindi, 2016) the challenges of managing them are many. these also include language and cultural differences, communication, and coordination issues onsite. this was also pointed out by loosemore, et al. (2010) and loosemore, alkilani and hammad (2021) who argue that one of the major challenges affecting work and social relations on construction sites is language barriers which can cause communication problems. this applies largely to the migrant construction workforce. a tight time frame for work is another major source of occupational stress in the construction industry. meeting deadlines is one of the major responsibilities of construction managers (gunduz and yahya, 2018). besides monetary penalties, companies may incur huge losses in credibility when they fail to complete their projects on time. in most cases, the project manager is directly recognized as the responsible person for delays and penalties (prasad, et al., 2019). time and cost overruns are major issues associated with the indian construction industry (mospi, 2017). a study by narayanan, kure and palaniappan (2019) on time and cost overrun in 30 indian megaprojects indicates that the time overrun ranges from 10% to 256% with manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202240 an average of 127%. as a result, time pressure emerges as a prominent source of stress experienced by project managers and engineers both in india and elsewhere (an, et al., 2018). table 5. perceived occupational stress name of the stressor category relative importance index score rank job nature demands multiple contacts work nature 0.787 1 tight time frame for works work time 0.713 2 unstable working hours work time 0.665 3 bureaucracy organisation policy 0.633 4 quantitative work overload work time 0.618 5 adaptability problem with change in job nature organisation policy 0.596 6 unsatisfied salary organisation position 0.583 7 inadequate knowledge of project objectives organisation policy 0.545 8 inadequate authority/freedom for decision organisation position 0.532 9 work under load work time 0.531 10 inadequate room for innovation organisation policy 0.528 11 lack of promotion opportunity organisation position 0.507 12 lack of job security organisation position 0.504 13 lack of career guidance organisation position 0.492 14 conflicts among different job demands organisation policy 0.478 15 over specialized job nature work nature 0.444 16 ambiguity on job requirements organisation position 0.402 17 low job challenges work nature 0.399 18 qualitative work overload work nature 0.380 19 time pressure also leads to unstable working hours and high quantitative work overload among the construction professionals, which are included in the top five identified stressors. when the workload does not match or exceed the capabilities, resources, or needs of the worker, stress is naturally generated (niosh, 1999). overload and long hours are also identified as the major source of stress in australia, hong kong, and south africa (cattell, bowen, and edwards, 2016; leung, et al. 2015; love, edwards and irani, 2010). bureaucracy is also identified as one of the major sources of occupational stress in the indian context. most of the projects in the urban sector require approval from numerous regulatory and administrative bodies. delay in land acquisition, law and order problems, delay in forest clearance, and inadequate funding is identified as the most common causes of delay in the indian context (narayanan, kure and palaniappan, 2019). bureaucracy also relates to the hierarchical nature of the construction industry (ball, 2014). this bureaucratic and hierarchical nature of the industry also relates and leads to inadequate authority, freedom for decision making, inadequate room for innovation, lack of promotion opportunity, lack of clear manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202241 reward system and job security issues which are other causes of occupational stress among construction professionals. relationship between work-related and organisation-related stressors and work-life balance before analysing the relationship between occupational stress and work-life balance, bivariate correlation analysis is carried out to determine the nature of the association between the variables whose relationship has been hypothesised. table 6 shows the outputs of the bivariate correlation analysis between work-related stressors (i.e., work time stressor, wts and work nature stressor, wns) and organisation-related stressors (i.e., organisation policy stressor, ops, and organisation position stressor, opn) and work-life balance dimensions (i.e., wipl, pliw, plew and wepl). table 6. bivariate correlation between the hypothesized variables variables wts wns ops opn wipl pliw plew wepl work time stressor (wts) 1.00 work nature stressor (wns) .27** 1.00 organisation policy stressor (ops) .52** .46** 1.00 organisation position stressor (opn) .43** .41** .37** 1.00 work interference to personal life (wipl) .65** .17** .5** .38** 1.00 personal life interference to work (pliw) .34** .45** .36** .21** .38** 1.00 personal life enhancement of work (plew) -.21** -.23** -.37** -.15* -.4** -.29** 1.00 work enhancement of personal life (wepl) 0.04 .16* 0.11 0.01 -0.08 0.05 0.02 1.00 **. correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). *. correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed). the findings of bivariate correlation analysis provide support for the hypothesised relationships among the independent and the dependent variables. however, more rigorous test such as multiple regression analysis is required to derive further conclusions. there were significant and positive associations amongst independent variables, the correlation coefficients were less than 0.90. control variables the demographic data that was collected from the respondents were used as control variables to see their effect during the testing of the formulated hypothesis. as mentioned in table 1, the demographic variables manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202242 included age, educational qualification, work experience, current designation of the respondent, size of the organisation employed, marital status, number of dependents in the family, spouse employment, type of project currently involved with, project location, work location, stay with family. there is a difference in perceiving work interference to personal life based on employees’ qualification (f (3,281) = 2.68, p << 0.01), project location (f (3; 281) = 7.25, p << 0.01), average working hours (f (18; 266) = 10.6, p << 0.001). therefore, the above demographic variables are controlled while considering work interference to personal life as dependent variable. there is a difference in perceiving personal life interference to work based on the age (f (3;281) = 4.2, p << 0.01), marital status (t (282;0:025) = 3.18, p << 0.001), work experience (f (3;281) = 4.9, p << 0.01), designation (f (3;281) = 7.48, p << 0.001), average working hours (f (18;266) = 2.94, p << 0.001) and number of dependents in the family (f (5;279) = 1.53, p << 0.05). hence the above demographic variables are controlled while considering personal life interference to work as dependent variable. there is a difference in perceiving work enhancement of personal life based on marital status (t (282; 0:025) = 2.01, p < < 0.05), spouse employment (t (185; 0:025) = 2.2, p<< 0.05) and average working hours (f (18; 266) = 2.66, p << 0.001). hence the above demographic variables are controlled while considering work enhancement of personal life as the dependent variable. similarly for age (f (3; 281) = 5.34, p << 0.001), work experience (f (3; 281) = 6.17, p << 0.05) and project nature (f (3; 281) = 2.61, p << 0.01) hence the above demographic variables are controlled in the study. relationship between work-related stressors and work-life balance table 7 shows the output of the multiple regression analysis of the work-related stressors and organisationrelated factors with work-life balance components. table 7. relationship between work-related and organisation-related stressors with work-life balance components wlb components stressor wipl pliw wepl plew work time stressor 0.49*** 0.2* *0.01 -0.15* work nature stressor 0.25* 0.3** -0.15* -0.14* r 0.72 0.52 0.23 0.34 r square 0.52 0.27 0.05 0.15 adjusted r square 0.51 0.25 0.03 0.10 organisation policy organisation position 0.3*** 0.25*** 0.11 -0.32** r 0.11** 0.33 -0.18 -0.11 r square adjusted r square 0.69 0.46 0.45 0.44 0.19 0.16 0.19 0.04 0.01 0.40 0.16 0.14 note: * p < 0.05; * * p < 0.01; * * * p < 0.001; values in the table are standardized beta coefficients manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202243 relating figure 2 (hypotheses development) with table 7, hypotheses h01 and h02 state that workrelated stressors significantly and positively relate to work interference to personal life (wipl) and personal life interference to work (pliw), and hypotheses h03 and h04 state that work-related stressors significantly and negatively related to work enhancement of personal life (wepl) and personal life enhancement of work (plew). from table 7, work-related stressors (i.e., both work time stressors and work nature stressors) are significantly and positively related to wipl and pliw, where 52% of the variance in wipl and 27% of the variance in pliw are explained by work-related stressors, subsequently, the null hypothesis proposed in figure 2 is rejected and the alternate hypothesis is accepted. thus, work-related stressors are a significant predictor of wipl and pliw. similarly, from table 7, hypothesis h03 is partially supported, and it can be concluded that there is a significant and negative relationship between work nature stressors and wepl and there is no significant relationship between work time stressors and wepl. and similarly, there is a significant and negative relationship between work-related stressors (i.e., both work time stressors and work nature stressors) and plew as 34% of the variance in plew is explained by work stressors. it can also be inferred from table 7 that while work-related stressors significantly and positively influence wipl and pliw, it is significantly and negatively related to wepl and plew. within this case, workrelated stressors significantly and negatively related to wepl is partially supported. these results indicate that work-related stressors do not have any role neither in enhancing work-life or personal life. research indicates that a high level of job stress increases work-life conflict among construction professionals (leung, et al., 2015, naoum, et al., 2018). as can be inferred from table 5, among the top five identified stressors causing occupational stress among the construction professionals, four of them are work-related stressors. while studies in the past determine that tight time frames for works, long working hours, and quantitative work overload as major sources of occupational stress, the present study concludes that these identified stressors have a significant influence on the work-life balance of construction professionals. relationship between organisation-related stressors and work-life balance from table 7, organisation-related stressors (i.e., both organisation policy and organisation position) are significantly and positively related to wipl, where 46% of the variance in wipl is explained by organisation-related stressors, subsequently, the null hypothesis (h05) proposed in exhibit 1 is rejected and the alternate hypothesis is accepted. thus, organisation-related stressors are a significant predictor of wipl. similarly, from table 7, hypothesis h06 is partially supported, and it can be concluded that there is a significant and negative relationship between organisation policy stressors and pliw and there is no significant relationship between organisation position stressors and pliw. thus, hypothesis h06 is partially supported by the results. and similarly, there is no significant and negative relationship between organisation-et related stressors (i.e., both organisation policy and organisation position) and wepl. hence, h07 cannot be rejected, and it can be concluded that organisation-related stressors are not a significant predictor of wepl. likewise, from table 7, hypothesis h08 is partially supported, and it can be concluded that there is a significant and negative relationship between organisation policy stressors and plew and there is no significant relationship between organisation position stressors and plew. thus, hypothesis h08 is partially supported by the results. the results indicate that both organisation policy and organisation position-related stressors have a strong influence on wipl. however, organisation-related stressors influence on pliw, wepl and plew are neither partially supported nor not supported. this is so because while work-life balance initiatives are of specific support and act as a recompense system to current employees and attract new employees, these initiatives should firstly be made aware to all employees, and secondly, it should be supported by top manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202244 management (holden and sunindijo, 2018). while research in mainstream management literature in other industrial contexts indicates that the adoption of work-life balance policies has demonstrated a relationship between utilization of the policies support and decreased work-family conflict (shin and enoh 2020; oludayo and omonijo 2020), significant research needs to be conducted in construction context and by so doing quantitative results of the present research can be substantiated. conclusion the present research aims to study the relationship between occupational stress and work-life balance among construction professionals. to do so, the study first aimed at identifying the perceived level of occupational stress under two major categories namely work-related and organisation-related stressors using the relative importance index. subsequently, the relationship between the categories of stressors and the various work-life components (i.e., wipl, pliw, wepl, plew) is assessed using multiple regression analysis. the population of the study included construction project managers, project engineers, and site engineers from indian construction organisations. the results indicate that the five major stressors that contribute to high levels of occupational stress included job nature demands coordination with multiple stakeholders, tight time frame for work, unstable working hours, bureaucracy, and quantitative work overload. with regards to the relationship between the categories of occupational stress and work-life balance, the results indicate that work-related stressors are significantly and positively related to wipl and pliw and negatively relate to wepl and plew exempting for work time stressors showing no significant relationship to wepl. in the case of organisation-related stressors, both organisation policy and organisation position related stressors significantly and positively influence wipl however no significant relationship was noticed with pliw, wepl and plew. these were either partially supported or not supported. while the previous studies have broadly addressed the issue of work-life balance among construction professionals, the present study gathered a richer understanding of work-life balance by examining its constructs and associated variables. by so doing, an understanding of occupational stress and its relationship to work/personal life interference and enhancement is gathered. even with some amount of unavoidable work stress, no enhancement of work/personal life is noted. further, organisational stress also does not add any enhancement to work/ personal life. these results also indicate that while work-related stressors act as a significant predictor of work-life balance, substantial evidence is needed to conclude the same in the case of the organisation-related stressor. however, organisation-related stressors such as the bureaucratic nature of an organisation, adaptability problems with changing job nature, inadequate authority for decision making and unsatisfied salary indicate significant influence on the work-life balance of the professionals. while the existing studies have provided evidence that work-life imbalance causes occupational stress, one of the major contributions of the present study is that it provides valid scientific evidence that occupational stress significantly influences work-life life balance in a negative manner. the study’s findings with regards to unveiling the relationship between the categories of occupational stressors and dimensions of work-life balance would help organisations to derive relevant policies for creating a supportive work environment. some of the organizations in the developed economies realised the need to address the issue of work-life balance and initiated programs for the same. for instance, australia is one of the most productive construction industries in the world, some common initiatives to promote work-life balance followed by many australian construction organisations include flexible work hours, accrued days in lieu for periods of excess overtime, office and site groceries, coffee accounts, child care facilities, wellness programs such as gym facilities and medical check-up programs, employee assistance programs such as financial consultation or counselling, and employee discounts (holden and sunindijo, 2018). construction organisations should aim to formulate and adopt appropriate workmanivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202245 life balance policies considering their social and institutional context for creating sustainable employees. while the present pandemic, covid-19, raises concerns about the future of work, the inherent nature of construction is physical, and so the significant component of the construction/epc industry may remain physical with onsite activities and supporting office-based roles (pirzadeh and lingard, 2021) hence it is essential for organisations to relook and redefine their initiatives and programs for promoting better work-life balance and mitigating occupational stress among their employees and workers. the present study involves an investigation of occupational stress in the context of a developing country which is characterized by significant social differences and economic hardship. this further adds the contribution of the study’s findings to be appropriately adopted to other developing contexts where construction organisations have not prioritized the importance of addressing long-term issues related to occupational stress and its linkages to work-life balance. also, the findings of the present study help organisations to design appropriate work-life balance initiatives. organisational policies should be derived by gathering a scientific understanding of the prevailing issue. the study's findings would allow organisations to derive workable strategies and policies that would address the growing/upcoming issue of mental health and well-being in the industry. the cross-sectional self-report survey approach can be considered one of the limitations of the study. to better understand the occupational stress pattern and work-life experience, a longitudinal approach can be adopted in scenarios. future research includes conducting case studies by adopting qualitative approaches to substantiate the statistical claims and relationships established in the present study. the case studies can shed more light on why and how certain policies can improve work-life balance in a given geographical context. the relationship between occupational stress, work-life balance components, and job satisfaction also needs to be explored well. while the present study was conducted in the indian context, the findings of the present study can be compared with other similar socio-economic contexts, especially in developing economies. in sum, the present study aimed to improve our collective understanding of occupational stress and work-life balance with multiple dimensions and perspectives. references anandh, k.s. and gunasekaran, k., 2018. an investigation on stress among the professionals in the indian construction industry. in: construction research congress 2018, new orleans, louisiana, april 2-4, 2018. pp. 1-7. https://doi. org/10.1061/9780784481288.001 anandh, k.s., gunasekaran, k. and mannan, m.a., 2020. investigation on the factors affecting lifestyle of professionals in the construction industries (kerala and tamil nadu). international journal of integrated engineering, 12(9), pp.246-52. https://doi.org/10.30880/ijie.2020.12.09.029 an, n., qiang, m., wen, q., jiang, h. and xia, b., 2018. contribution of project managers’ capability to project ending performance under stressful conditions. european management journal, 30, p.1e12. apraku, k., bondinuba, f.k., eyiah, a.k. and sadique, a.m., 2020. construction workers work-life balance: a tool for improving productivity in the construction industry. social work and social welfare, 2(1), pp.45-52. https://doi. org/10.25082/swsw.2020.01.001 ball, m., 2014. rebuilding construction: economic change in the british construction industry. london: routledge. beauregard, t.a. and henry, l.c., 2009. making the link between work-life balance practices and organisational performance. human resource management review, 19(1), pp.9-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2008.09.001 berglund, e., anderzén, i., andersén, å. and lindberg, p., 2021. work-life balance predicted work ability two years later: a cohort study of employees in the swedish energy and water sector. bmc public health, 21(1), pp.1-12. https:// doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11235-4 manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202246 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784481288.001 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784481288.001 https://doi.org/10.30880/ijie.2020.12.09.029 https://doi.org/10.25082/swsw.2020.01.001 https://doi.org/10.25082/swsw.2020.01.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2008.09.001 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11235-4 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-021-11235-4 bowen, p., govender, r. and edwards, p., 2014. structural equation modeling of occupational stress in the construction industry. journal of construction engineering and management, 140(9), p.04014042. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0000877 bryce, t., far, h. and gardner, a., 2019. barriers to career advancement for female engineers in australia’s civil construction industry and recommended solutions. australian journal of civil engineering, 17(1), pp.1-10. https://doi.or g/10.1080/14488353.2019.1578055 bryson, k. and duncan, a., 2018. branz study report: mental health in the construction industry scoping study. [online] available at: https://d39d3mj7qio96p.cloudfront.net/media/documents/sr411_mental_health_in_the_construction_ industry.pdf campbell, f., 2006. occupational stress in the construction industry. berkshire, uk: chartered institute of building. cattell, k., bowen, p. and edwards, p., 2016. stress among south african construction professionals: a job demandcontrol-support survey. construction management and economics, 34(10), pp.700-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193. 2016.1203967 chimote, n.k. and srivastava, v.n., 2013. work-life balance benefits: from the perspective of organisations and employees. iup journal of management research, 12(1), p.62. cochran, w.g., 2007. sampling techniques. 3rd ed. new york: john wiley & sons. domanial, t., shrestha, p. and san santoso, d., 2021. role conflict related job stress among construction project professionals: the moderating role of age and organization tenure. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 21(4). https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7609 dodanwala, t.c. and san santoso, d., 2021. the mediating role of job stress on the relationship between job satisfaction facets and turnover intention of the construction professionals. engineering, construction and architectural management, 29(4), pp.1777-96. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2020-1048 dodanwala, t., shrestha, p. and san santoso, d., 2021. role conflict related job stress among construction project professionals: the moderating role of age and organization tenure. construction economics and building, 21(4), pp.21-37. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7609 dubey, m.k. and jeswani, h., 2018. qualitative study on stressors-stresses-absenteeism pattern among indian construction professionals. international journal of engineering technology science and research, 5(4), pp.76-83. enshassi, a., el-rayyes, y. and alkilani, s., 2015. job stress, job burnout and safety performance in the palestinian construction industry. journal of financial management of property and construction, 20(2), pp.170-87. https://doi. org/10.1108/jfmpc-01-2015-0004 fisher, g.g., bulger, c.a. and smith, c.s., 2009. beyond work and family: a measure of work/nonwork interference and enhancement. journal of occupational health psychology, 14(4), p.441. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016737 francis, v., lingard, h., prosser, a. and turner, m., 2013. work-family and construction: public and private sector differences. journal of management in engineering, 29(4), pp.392-99. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.19435479.0000154 gunduz, m. and yahya, a.m.a., 2018. analysis of project success factors in construction industry. technological and economic development of economy, 24(1), pp.67-80. https://doi.org/10.3846/20294913.2015.1074129 hampton, p., chinyio, e.a. and riva, s., 2019. framing stress and associated behaviours at work: an ethnography study in the united kingdom. engineering, construction and architectural management, 26(11), pp.2566-2580. https://doi. org/10.1108/ecam-10-2018-0432 manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202247 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000877 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000877 https://doi.org/10.1080/14488353.2019.1578055 https://doi.org/10.1080/14488353.2019.1578055 https://d39d3mj7qio96p.cloudfront.net/media/documents/sr411_mental_health_in_the_construction_industry.pdf https://d39d3mj7qio96p.cloudfront.net/media/documents/sr411_mental_health_in_the_construction_industry.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1203967 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1203967 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7609 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2020-1048 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7609 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-01-2015-0004 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-01-2015-0004 https://doi.org/10.1037/a0016737 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000154 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000154 https://doi.org/10.3846/20294913.2015.1074129 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2018-0432 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2018-0432 holden, s. and sunindijo, r.y., 2018. technology, long work hours, and stress worsen work-life balance in the construction industry. international journal of integrated engineering, 10(2), pp. 13-18. https://doi.org/10.30880/ ijie.2018.10.02.003 invest india., 2022. sector – construction. [online] available at: https://www.investindia.gov.in/sector/construction/ [accessed 30 march 2022]. irawanto, d.w., novianti, k.r. and roz, k., 2021. work from home: measuring satisfaction between work–life balance and work stress during the covid-19 pandemic in indonesia. economies, 9(3), p.96. https://doi.org/10.3390/ economies9030096 johari, s. and jha, k.n., 2020. impact of work motivation on construction labor productivity. journal of management in engineering, 36(5), p.04020052. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000824 johari, s. and jha, k.n., 2021. exploring the relationship between construction workers’ communication skills and their productivity. journal of management in engineering, 37(3), p.04021009. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.19435479.0000904 kinman, g. and jones, f., 2005. lay representations of workplace stress: what do people really mean when they say they are stressed? work & stress, 19(2), pp.101-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370500144831 konting, m.m., kamaruddin, n. and man, n.a., 2009. quality assurance in higher education institutions: exit survey among universiti putra malaysia graduating students. international education studies, 2(1), pp.25-31. https:// doi.org/10.5539/ies.v2n1p25 kotera, y., green, p. and sheffield, d., 2020. work-life balance of uk construction workers: relationship with mental health. construction management and economics, 38(3), pp.291-303. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1625417 lamane-harim, j., cegarra-leiva, d. and sánchez-vidal, m.e., 2021. work–life balance supportive culture: a way to retain employees in spanish smes. the international journal of human resource management, [e-journal] pp.1-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2021.1878255 leung, m.y., bowen, p., liang, q. and famakin, i., 2015. development of a job-stress model for construction professionals in south africa and hong kong. journal of construction engineering and management, 141(2), p.04014077. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000934 leung, m.y., chan, i.y.s. and yu, j., 2012. preventing construction worker injury incidents through the management of personal stress and organizational stressors. accident analysis & prevention, 48, pp.156-66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. aap.2011.03.017 leung, m.y., chan, y.s. and yu, j., 2009. integrated model for the stressors and stresses of construction project managers in hong kong. journal of construction engineering and management, 135(2), pp.126-34. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2009)135:2(126) leung, m.y., chan, y.s.i. and dongyu, c., 2011. structural linear relationships between job stress, burnout, physiological stress, and performance of construction project managers. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 18(3), pp.312-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111126205 lingard, h. and francis, v., 2004. the work‐life experiences of office and site‐based employees in the australian construction industry. construction management and economics, 22(9), pp.991-1002. https://doi. org/10.1080/0144619042000241444 lingard, h. and francis, v., 2005. the decline of the ‘traditional’ family: work‐life benefits as a means of promoting a diverse workforce in the construction industry of australia. construction management and economics, 23(10), pp.104557. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190500394308 manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202248 https://doi.org/10.30880/ijie.2018.10.02.003 https://doi.org/10.30880/ijie.2018.10.02.003 https://www.investindia.gov.in/sector/construction/ https://doi.org/10.3390/economies9030096 https://doi.org/10.3390/economies9030096 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000824 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000904 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000904 https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370500144831 https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v2n1p25 https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v2n1p25 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1625417 https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2021.1878255 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000934 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2011.03.017 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2011.03.017 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2009)135:2(126 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2009)135:2(126 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111126205 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619042000241444 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619042000241444 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190500394308 lingard, h. and sublet, a., 2002. the impact of job and organisational demands on marital or relationship satisfaction and conflict among australian civil engineers. construction management & economics, 20(6), pp.507-21. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446190210156073 lingard, h. and turner, m., 2021. exploring the relationship between bodily pain and work-life balance among manual/non-managerial construction workers. community, work & family, [e-journal] pp.1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080 /13668803.2020.1868409 loganathan, s. and kalidindi, s.n., 2016, absenteeism and turnover of migrant construction workers in indian projects—a survey-based study. in: construction research congress 2016, pureto rico, 31 may – 2 june 2016. pp.17931802. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784479827.179 loosemore, m., phua, f., dunn, k. and ozguc, u., 2010. operatives’ experiences of cultural diversity on australian construction sites. construction management and economics, 28(2), pp.177-88. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446190903450087 loosemore, m., alkilani, s.z. and hammad, a.w., 2021. the job-seeking experiences of migrants and refugees in the australian construction industry. building research & information, [e-journal] 49(8), pp.1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/0 9613218.2021.1926215 love, p.e., edwards, d.j. and irani, z., 2010. work stress, support, and mental health in construction. journal of construction engineering and management, 136(6), pp.650-58. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000165 make in india., 2022. sector – construction. [online] available at: http://www.makeinindia.com/sector/construction/ [accessed 05 january 2022]. matthews, r.a., wayne, j.h. and ford, m.t., 2014. a work–family conflict/subjective well-being process model: a test of competing theories of longitudinal effects. journal of applied psychology, 99(6), p.1173. https://doi.org/10.1037/ a0036674 mospi, ministry of statistics and programme implementation, 2017. project implementation status report of central sector projects costing rs. 150 crore and above. [online] available at: http://www.cspm.gov.in/english/qr/oct-dec_2018. pdf [accessed 25 february 2020]. naoum, s.g., herrero, c., egbu, c. and fong, d., 2018. integrated model for the stressors, stress, stress-coping behaviour of construction project managers in the uk. international journal of managing projects in business, 11(3), pp.761-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-07-2017-0071 narayanan, s., kure, a.m. and palaniappan, s., 2019. study on time and cost overruns in mega infrastructure projects in india. journal of the institution of engineers (india). series a, 100(1), pp.139-45. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s40030-018-0328-1 newbold, p., carlson, w. and thorne, b.m., 2007. statistics for business and economics, 6th ed. upper saddle river, n.j.: prentice hall. newton, c.j. and jimmieson, n.l., 2006. a qualitative exploration of organizational culture and workplace stressors: a competing values approach. [online] available at: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/5262/1/5262.pdf [accessed 05 may 2022]. ng, s.t., skitmore, r.m. and leung, t.k., 2005. manageability of stress among construction project participants. engineering, construction and architectural management, 12(3), pp.264–82. https://doi. org/10.1108/09699980510600125 niosh, 1999. report of the national institute for occupational safety and health (niosh) on stress at work. cincinnati. [online]. available at: http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/99-101/ [accessed 17 january 2020]. manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202249 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190210156073 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190210156073 https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2020.1868409 https://doi.org/10.1080/13668803.2020.1868409 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784479827.179 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190903450087 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190903450087 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2021.1926215 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2021.1926215 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000165 http://www.makeinindia.com/sector/construction/ https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036674 https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036674 http://www.cspm.gov.in/english/qr/oct-dec_2018.pdf http://www.cspm.gov.in/english/qr/oct-dec_2018.pdf https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-07-2017-0071 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40030-018-0328-1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40030-018-0328-1 http://eprints.qut.edu.au/5262/1/5262.pdf https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980510600125 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980510600125 http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/99-101/ offia ibem, e., anosike, m.n., azuh, d.e. and mosaku, t.o., 2011. work stress among professionals in the building construction industry in nigeria. australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11(3), p.45. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v11i3.2134 olafsen, a.h., niemiec, c.p., deci, e.l., halvari, h., nilsen, e.r. and williams, g.c., 2021. mindfulness buffers the adverse impact of need frustration on employee outcomes: a self‐determination theory perspective. journal of theoretical social psychology, 5(3), pp.283-96. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts5.93 oludayo, a.o. and omonijo, d.o., 2020. work-life balance: relevance of social support. academy of strategic management journal, 9(3), pp.1-10. panojan, p., perera, b.a.k.s. and dilakshan, r., 2019. work-life balance of professional quantity surveyors engaged in the construction industry. international journal of construction management, 22(5), pp.751-68. https://doi.org/10.1080/1 5623599.2019.1644759 pirzadeh, p. and lingard, h., 2021. working from home during the covid-19 pandemic: health and well-being of project-based construction workers. journal of construction engineering and management, 147(6), p.04021048. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002102 prasad, k.v., vasugi, v., venkatesan, r. and bhat, n.s., 2019. critical causes of time overrun in indian construction projects and mitigation measures. international journal of construction education and research, 15(3), pp.216-38. https:// doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2018.1499569 sawhney, a., agnihotri, r. and paul, v.k., 2014. grand challenges for the indian construction industry. built environment project and asset management, 4(4), pp.317-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2013-0055 sharma, p., 2013. a study of organizational climate and stress of police personnel. international journal of advanced research in management and social sciences, 2(2), pp.212-30. shin, d. and enoh, j., 2020. availability and use of work–life balance programs: relationship with organizational profitability. sustainability, 12(7), p.2965. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072965 sommerville, j. and langford, v., 1994. multivariate influences on the people side of projects: stress and conflict. international journal of project management, 12(4), pp.234-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(94)90048-5 tijani, b., jin, x. and osei-kyei, r., 2020. a systematic review of mental stressors in the construction industry. international journal of building pathology and adaptation, 39(2), 2021 pp.433-60. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ijbpa-02-2020-0011 tijani, b., osei-kyei, r. and feng, y., 2020. a review of work-life balance in the construction industry. international journal of construction management, pp.1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1819582 townsend, k., lingard, h., bradley, l. and brown, k., 2012. complicated working time arrangements: construction industry case study. journal of construction engineering and management, 138(3), pp.443-448. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)co.1943-7862.0000436 turner, m. and lingard, h., 2016. work–life fit: identification of demand and resource typologies within a systems framework. construction management and economics, 34(6), pp.377-392. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.12007 37 umer, w., yu, y. and antwi afari, m.f., 2022. quantifying the effect of mental stress on physical stress for construction tasks. journal of construction engineering and management, 148(3), p.04021204. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)co.1943-7862.0002243 manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202250 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v11i3.2134 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v11i3.2134 https://doi.org/10.1002/jts5.93 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1644759 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1644759 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002102 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002102 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2018.1499569 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2018.1499569 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2013-0055 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072965 https://doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(94)90048-5 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-02-2020-0011 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-02-2020-0011 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1819582 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000436 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000436 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1200737 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1200737 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002243 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002243 yang, f., li, x., zhu, y., li, y. and wu, c., 2017. job burnout of construction project managers in china: a cross-sectional analysis. international journal of project management, 35(7), pp.1272-87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2017.06.005 zawawi, i.a., bahron, a., amirul, s.r., 2014. antecedents of occupational stress among the professionals in the construction industry: moderating role of self-efficacy. international journal of research in management and business studies 1(2), pp.59–65. zhang, r.p. and bowen, p., 2021. work-family conflict (wfc)–examining a model of the work-family interface of construction professionals. safety science, 144, p.105469. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105469 zheng, j., gou, x., li, h., xia, n. and wu, g., 2021. linking work–family conflict and burnout from the emotional resource perspective for construction professionals. international journal of managing projects in business, 14(5), pp.10931115. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-06-2020-0181 manivannan, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202251 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.06.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.06.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105469 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-06-2020-0181 construction economics and building vol. 18, no. 2 june 2018 © 2018 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: paz, j. c., rozenboim, d., cuadros, á., cano, s. and escobar, j. w. 2018. a simulation-based scheduling methodology for construction projects considering the potential impacts of delay risks. construction economics and building, 18:2, 41-69. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v18i2.5842 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | ajceb.epress. lib.uts.edu.au research article a simulation-based scheduling methodology for construction projects considering the potential impacts of delay risks juan camilo paz1, david rozenboim2, álvaro cuadros2, sandra cano2, john willmer escobar3* 1 department of civil and industrial engineering, pontificia universidad javeriana cali, cali, colombia. 2 school of industrial engineering, universidad del valle, cali, colombia. 3 pontificia universidad javeriana cali, cali, colombia. *corresponding author: john willmer escobar, pontificia universidad javeriana cali, cali, colombia, e – mail. jwescobar@javerianacali.edu.com doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5842 article history: received 27/11/2017; revised 02/05/2018 & 22/05/2018; accepted 27/05/2018; published 27/06/2018 abstract this paper tackles the problem of scheduling construction projects considering the influence of delay risks. in the actual body of knowledge, several methods have been proposed to handle this problem, starting from the project evaluation and review technique to advanced simulation models. however, this investigation proposes a novel integration of one methodology with some approaches already existing in the literature related to monte carlo simulation scheduling techniques as seen from the perspective of a practitioner. the research began with a literature review of both schedule risks and monte carlo based scheduling models for construction projects. based on this, the methodology was designed with the constant participation of experts in the construction industry. as result of this, a comprehensive and practical methodology was constructed. therefore, a new mathematical structure for the simulation model within the methodology was formulated in which a new concept for each risk defined as “potential impact” was used. moreover, the simulation model is based on the judgment of experts and methods of the known literature such as the explicit model of the occurrence probability of the risks and the activity-risk factor matrix. then, to validate the tool, the proposed methodology was applied using the information of an already constructed construction project of a public university of colombia. the obtained results declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 41 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5842 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5842 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5842 http://ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au http://ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au mailto:david.rozenboim@correounivalle.edu.com mailto:jwescobar@javerianacali.edu.com mailto:jwescobar@javerianacali.edu.com http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5842 were a confidence-based forecast of the end date of the project and a quantitative importance measure of the modelled risks. these results were compared against the real history of the project since it was found an excellent performance of the proposed methodology. to sum up, the research process described above supports the validity of the proposed methodology. keywords construction, monte carlo simulation, project management, risk analysis, scheduling. introduction risks affecting construction projects impact different indicators of success. among them, it is possible to mention: the quality, the sufficiency of the scope, the social environment, the technical functionality, the security requirements, the foreseen term of execution, and the assigned budget (ökmen and öztaş, 2008). traditionally, time, cost and quality have been the predominant successful criteria of construction projects (chan and chan, 2004). for these different indicators, the timely completion of contracted obligations is important for assuring the success of the project. indeed, a project could be economically unfeasible due to the application of some penalties for excess time and cost and the lack of quality of the tasks. also, a delay in the construction works could, in many ways, affect all stakeholders, such as the owner, the government, the companies, the workers and the users (el-sayegh, 2008). different perspectives have been considered to deal with the challenge of risk management on projects (flanagan and norman, 1993; uzzafer, 2010; dikmen, birgönül and arikan, 2004). in particular, the project management institute (pmi, 2008) has formulated risk management as a systematic process of identification, analysis and answer to the risks of projects. this process is divided into six steps: i) planning of management of risks, ii) identification of risks, iii) qualitative risks analysis, iv) quantitative risks analysis, v) responsive plans and vi) control and monitoring of the risks. as can be seen, it is a relevant field the study of risks effects on the schedule of construction projects. in fact, there is extensive literature review such as kolisch and hartmann (2006) and hartmann and briskorn (2010). therefore, it is essential to establish a comprehensive, accurate and objective schedule technique that considers the risk effects to support the construction project risk management, and thus contribute to these projects’ successes. traditionally, the critical path method (cpm) has been widely used for scheduling construction projects. however, the most noticeable weakness of this technique is the consideration of deterministic values for the activities’ durations (antill and woodhead, 1990), which ignores changes caused by the influence of risk factors. thus, several techniques have been developed. one of the first approaches was the program evaluation and review technique (pert). this method has weaknesses already discussed in the literature; for example, tysiak (2011), affirm that pert approach is nothing else than an application of the cpm to estimate a normal distribution of the project duration afterwards; ignoring, the fact that there is no unique critical path and that the critical path changes from case to case (ökmen and öztaş, 2008). additionally, very often pert only use beta distributions for the individual activities, and the normal distribution for the result is criticized (tysiak, 2011). nordmeyer (2018) presents some additional disadvantages of the use of pert charts related to their subjective analysis (the process of pert method is subjectively generating a chart that does not calculate the estimation of time and costs accurately), with their time focus (pert approach is considered primarily as paz, rozenboim, cuadros, cano and escobar construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201842 a time-focused method) and with their resource intensity (pert method requires a detailed analysis involving many people from different organizations becoming an expensive approach to support). furthermore, the pert does not allow implementation of a range of existing constraints in the execution of projects. on the other hand, there exists an extensively researched technique that could address the gaps discussed above, better than the traditional scheduling techniques; this is the monte carlo simulation (mcs) (ökmen and öztaş, 2008; tysiak, 2011). the mcs has addressed the scheduling of construction projects from different perspectives. in this research, a literature review concerning these models was carried out by review of 15 models that combine mcs with different scheduling techniques. however, all of them have different ways to model the effect of risk on the schedule, advantages and disadvantages, and model various considerations of the reality. in this context, this paper deals with the problem of how to analyse the impact of risks in the schedule of construction projects using a monte carlo simulation-based scheduling methodology (sbsm). unlike previously published works, the proposed sbsm approach models the risk impact only for critical activities. furthermore, this paper addresses the scheduling problem of construction projects by proposing the concept of “direct impact” of risks. indeed, for each risk, minimal, most probable, and maximum impacts are defined. these values represent a measure of the effect of the risks on the total duration of the project. in addition, the mathematical relation between risks and activities was included. based on this concept, as well as the integration of other powerful characteristics found in several models of the literature, an sbsm has been developed to numerically value the effect of the risks on the schedule of a construction project. the proposed model supports the quantitative analysis of risks and has been tested with real data obtained from a construction project of a medical building at a public university in colombia. this new sbsm was designed to achieve two primary objectives; first, to determine the end date of the project, and secondly, to determine a quantitative measure of the risks’ importance. the results guarantee: i) the use of practical tools from the perspective of expert practitioners, ii) the use of expert judgment due to a probable lack of information and iii) the research limited to the study of “delay risks”. the last mentioned is understood as the risks that could prolong the end date of construction projects (ökmen and öztaş, 2008). the main contribution of this work is the methodological and mathematical structure proposed to perform a quantitative risk analysis on the scheduling of construction projects. indeed, the proposed approach uses an mcs model with a new mathematical formulation to represent the effect of the delay risks on the duration of the schedule. also, all the elements of the sbsm have been defined in such a way that the effort of the activity programmer is simplified. this issue provides the possibility of obtaining a schedule risk analysis model. additionally, experts in the construction sector supported the proposed structures for the design and validation phases to guarantee an applicative focus. for all these reasons, the proposed model establishes a new scheme to represent the effect of the delay risks on the duration of a construction project. also, a literature review was undertaken, identifying the different schedule risks to which construction projects are exposed. in this sense, this paper contributes to the literature review related to the identification of the construction risks. a simulation-based scheduling methodology for construction projects considering the potential impacts of delay risks construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201843 research method the proposed research methodology is based on a deductive method, which allows generalization of a specific case to the sbsm approach for construction projects. a scheme that allows visualizing the methods used and the relationship between them is shown in figure 1. note that methods such as consultation with experts and analysis to build the sbsm scheme have been considered. afterwards, the sbsm is tested. this process was performed based on data from a construction project of a public university in colombia for which, first, the sbsm was applied to project the date of completion and criticality of the project’s risks. and then, the predictions of the sbsm were compared against the real history of the project. figure 1 steps of the research method a more detailed description of the steps of the methodological process of the research is the following: i. 13 research articles identifying 471 risks to which the construction projects are exposed were reviewed. ii. 15 research articles on models and methodologies to apply the mcs to the analysis of program risks in construction projects; achieving a characterization of the methods regarding their advantages and disadvantages of application were studied. iii. two experts from the construction sector were consulted to analyse the risks found in i). the risks that are not applicable to the colombian context were eliminated. also, those risks that did not affect the project’s program were taken out of consideration. based on this, the list of risks applicable to the study context was defined. iv. a methodological proposal that could be applied to the resources available in the construction sector was proposed. this approach allows a reasonable level of prediction regarding the date of completion of the project and the measurement of the importance of risks. v. a consultation was performed with four experts from the construction sector for analysing the revised methods of the literature, and the methodological approach initially proposed. these revisions were performed until it was determined that the resources demanded by the tool were feasible to provide the sbsm methodology in a real application environment. the analysis of resources such as the available data, the judgments of consulted experts, the feasibility of carrying out the calculations of a real project and the permissibility in time of execution of the steps of the tool were considered. paz, rozenboim, cuadros, cano and escobar construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201844 vi. an application of the methodology to a case study of a project already built was performed. the computational experiments were conducted under the supervision of managers belonging to the owner of the project, guaranteeing that the professionals involved were not aware of the history of the project under study. vii. the results of the simulation carried out in the framework of the sbsm were replicated three times by changing the seed of the series of the random values. this process allows verification that the series used not affect the results obtained. viii. finally, a comparison was performed between the results of the application of the sbsm proposed against the real history of the project. this process was performed to validate the effectiveness of the sbsm based on the closeness between the model’s prediction and the real outcome. the literature review was performed to consider studies of the risks that affect the scheduling program as well as the methods of risk analysis that use mcs as a basis. also, the risks were limited to the project of the case of study (colombia). however, these limitations respond to the need to generate results consistent with the environment of the case study. literature review vanhoucke (2012) defines project planning as a prominent area within operations research, which aims to mathematically determine the beginning and the ending times of the project activities by considering precedence and resource constraints. specifically, project planning optimizes a determined objective as the total execution time of the project. early research was oriented towards the development of linear programming models; then, there were developed network techniques, such as pert and cpm, still widely recognized as essential tools and project management techniques. currently, a significant amount of research has been conducted in different areas of project scheduling (for example schedule, resource scheduling and programming costs). literature on project baseline scheduling can be found in the overview papers written by brucker et al. (1999), herroelen, de reyck and demeulemeester (1998), icmeli, selcuk erenguk and zappe (1993), kolisch and padman (2001), özdamar and uslusoy (1995), kolisch and hartmann (2006) and hartmann and briskorn (2010). on the other hand, the risk management in projects has been developed from different perspectives. for example, barry boehm proposed a risk management model divided into two steps, the risk evaluation and the risk control (uzzafer, 2010). furthermore, dikmen, birgönül and arikan (2004) cited by ökmen and öztaş (2008), defined the risk management of the project as a systematic process to control the risks identified with anticipation. also, it was described as a step-by-step procedure consisting of the identification, classification, analysis and definition of responses to risks (flanagan and norman, 1993). in this field of study, there are some research projects oriented to identify and to classify the risks that affect construction projects; this aspect is the first step performed before the consideration of a risk analysis. for example, assaf and al-hejji (2006) grouped the most significant risk factors that cause delays in construction projects, which have been discussed in several scientific journals and technical reports. in that classification, the following factors were considered: the project, the project managers, the contractors, the consultants, the design, the workforce, the machinery and the environment. in this research, a characterization of schedule risks is performed. this aspect was carried out to establish the risks for the sbsm methodology. a summary of the most significant papers in the topic is presented in table 1. in this review, 471 causes of delays were a simulation-based scheduling methodology for construction projects considering the potential impacts of delay risks construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201845 identified. however, the importance given to these risks is relative to the context where the surveys were performed; for example, one project could be affected by the effects of high temperatures of the weather such as in saudi arabia, but that fact is not applicable in the colombian framework. therefore, they were not taken as the identified risks for the starting point of the sbsm. instead, a systematic process was developed to extract from these articles the relevant risks for the colombian context, explained in further detail in the sbsm application section. note that scheduling and risk management in projects is a prominent research area. however, network techniques such as the cpm method use deterministic values for activities duration without considering changes caused by the influence of risk factors. nevertheless, it is evident that some risks could affect the execution of specific activities of projects and their duration. this is one of the reasons for promoting the development of new scheduling models seeking integration between the quantitative assessment of risks and traditional project scheduling. indeed, these quantitative tools have been included in the project risks management process. specifically, the theoretical framework proposed by the pmi provides for the application of these types of tools as part of their risk management process “quantitative risk analysis” (pmi, 2008). in the literature reviewed, there are several developments of tools related in some manner with the quantitative analysis of schedule risks. these approaches provide information about the risk factors’ sensitivity, the correlation effects into the programs of construction and other aspects. all of this is done with the purpose of supporting the development of response strategies against risks (ökmen and öztaş, 2008). some of these models are: model for uncertainty determination (mud) (carr, 1979), project duration forecast (produf) (ahuja and nandakumar, 1985), platform (levitt and kunz, 1985), conditional value of an expected model (cev) (ranasinghe and russell, 1992), accurate simulation (touran and wiser, 1992), factors simulation (woolery and crandall, 2000) and networks under correlated uncertainty (netcor) (wang and demsetz, 2000). table 1 relevant literature related to risk factors paper country year number of risks zhi china 1995 58 kangari ee.uu 1995 26 chan and kumaraswamy china 1997 20 ahmed et al. china 1999 26 kartam and kartam kuwait 2001 26 odeh and battaineh jordan 2002 28 wang, dutaimi and aguria singapore 2004 28 assaf and al-hejji saudi arabia 2006 70 andi indonesia 2006 27 ling and hoi india 2006 5 el-sayegh united arab emirates 2008 42 luu, sthiannopkao and kim vietnam 2009 16 aziz egypt 2013 99 paz, rozenboim, cuadros, cano and escobar construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201846 more recently, nasirzadeh, khanzadi and rezaie (2014) presented an integrated fuzzy-system dynamics approach for quantitative risk allocation. risk analysis has also been considered with methods such multi-criteria tools (dey, 2010). zhang and chu (2011) proposed approaches that consider the judgment involved with risk factors using the analytic hierarchy process (ahp), or the fuzzy failure mode and the effects analysis for project risks. in this work, methodology that integrates risk prioritization with the probability, impact and possibility of risk, is introduced. other interesting approaches are the optimization algorithms used for minimizing risk in projects (zafra-cabeza, ridao and camacho, 2004; and recently waledzik and mandziuk, 2017). moreover, among the existing tools, there are some based on mcs. this technique can incorporate the stochastic nature of activity and risks in the scheduling process of construction projects. additionally, it gives researchers a flexible way to model different aspects related to risk analysis in the scheduling process; for example, the mathematical method to describe activities with risks. in this paper, a scheduling methodology, based on mcs is proposed. in line with this, the subsequently literature review is limited to tools or methodological structures for quantitative risk analysis that involves the scheduling of construction projects using mcs. a summary of the most significant papers on the topic is presented in table 2. in this table, the reviewed works are compared with the proposed sbsm of this paper. most methods for schedule risk analysis in construction projects consider the uncertainty of activities’ duration to calculate the competition probability of a project through simulation process. for instance, zhong, liu, and yang (2005) combined network planning simulation techniques and risk analysis to calculate the project completion probability. one relevant model is the judgmental risk analysis process ( jrap) proposed by öztaş and ökmen (2005). this model allows determination of the variation of the duration of the activities in the construction project schedule by using expert judgment and mcs. finally, the same authors presented another methodology correlated schedule risk analysis model (csram) which takes into account the correlation between risk factors (ökmen and öztaş, 2008). the proposed methodological structure of the csram is summarized in the following steps: i) define the network diagram (activities, precedence relationships), the minimum, expected, and maximum durations, ii) identify risks and their correlations, iii) define degrees of influence of the risk factors by activity, iv) define limits of probability of the state of the risk factor and v) model and execute the simulation. table 2 comparison between simulation-based scheduling methodologies risk factors analysis details of the risk analysis studies qualitative analysis quantitative analysis consider uncertainty of activities duration consider the correlation between risk factors and activities consider the modelling of the uncertainty of risk factors consider the potential impact risk factors oztas and okmen (2004)     oztas and okman (2005)     a simulation-based scheduling methodology for construction projects considering the potential impacts of delay risks construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201847 risk factors analysis details of the risk analysis studies qualitative analysis quantitative analysis consider uncertainty of activities duration consider the correlation between risk factors and activities consider the modelling of the uncertainty of risk factors consider the potential impact risk factors zhong et al.(2005)  kwak and ingall (2007)  bowman (2007)  okmen and oztas (2008)     wallace (2010)     jun and el-rayes (2011)  dikmen et al. (2012)     wang et al. (2012)  choundhry et al. (2014)     zhong et al. (2015)     zhong et al. (2016)     yuan (2017)    this paper       kwak and ingall (2007) used mcs to quantify the effects of risk and uncertainty in project schedules and budgets, to get a statistical indicator of project performance, like target project completion date and budget. in the same way, bowman (2007) using a program evaluation and review technique (pert) and proposed a method that estimates the effects of changes to the probability distribution for any activity time on several project schedule measures, such as the probability of meeting a specified due date and a project (penalty) cost function. wallace (2010), proposes a practical approach based on the ms project software with three characteristics: i) uses the cpm to calculate the duration of the activities, ii) defines an “impact” for each risk and iii) considers a probability of occurrence explicitly in the model. the model ignores the most probable, the maximum, and the minimum, duration for each activity. the effect of the risks in the overall duration of the project is evaluated for each scenario by table 2 continued paz, rozenboim, cuadros, cano and escobar construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201848 simulating when a risk has occurred. if the risk occurs in the scenario, an impact is generated to each activity according to with the risk. jun and el-rayes (2011) presented a fast, and accurate, approximation method using the pert and mc simulation to focus the risk analysis on the most significant paths in the project network by identifying and removing insignificant paths that are either highly correlated or have a high probability of completion time in large construction projects. wang et al. (2012) proposed a mc simulation method that allows easy identification of the critical path and the most critical activity in pert network. in the same line of research, choundhry et al. (2014) used mc to analyse the risks and the real completion date in a bridge construction project in pakistan. furthermore, dikmen et al. (2012) developed a web tool to predict indicators of a construction project such as the cost and duration. the tool uses mcs with the risk assessment model based on cost-duration influence diagram proposed by poh and tah (2006) for construction projects. zhong et al. (2016) present an improved csram that involves underground powerhouse construction simulation based on the markov chain monte carlo (mcmc) method. this approach considers the interrelationship between the states of parameters through a markov state transition probability matrix and the set model of a time buffer to absorb the effect of potential disturbances. on the other hand, yuan et al. (2017) combined mc simulation with building information modelling (bim) to establish a method that considers a scale of warning boundaries according to the project risk probability. this proposal considers simulating the schedule every time an activity finishes so that the risk probability can be estimated, and the warning scale can be used. in that way, the method addresses the logical relationship between construction activities and visually implements early warning according to construction-duration probability. in synthesis, each structure proposed in table 2 defines a point of view that depends on several factors as the required by the depth of the analysis, the level of the representation of the reality, the complexity of each project and the possible difficulties obtaining the input data. in general, the works proposed by ökmen and öztaş (2008), öztaş and ökmen (2004, 2005) assume that risk is the only source of variation of the activity duration of a construction project. in the work of wallace (2010), the author proposed methodology that uses judgmental data obtained from experts and implicitly includes the effects of risks of the durations of activities and their forecasts, in the author simulation model. in the work of öztaş and ökmen (2005), a pessimistic point of view is maintained, (all risk effects are unfavourable), and the risks-activity relations are modelled in a direct way regarding a percentage that indicates the proportion that risk can impact over the duration of an activity. finally, ökmen and öztaş (2008), present considerable improvements regarding the methodology jrap (öztaş and ökmen, 2005), including: greater simplicity of the input data, an improvement in the adaptation of relations of the variables, and a different vision about the estimation of the duration of the activities that considers the favourable and unfavourable effects of the risks. the simplification of the data input is related to the new definition of the relationship between risk-activity. indeed, this relationship is no longer defined as a percentage, but it is defined as a qualitative scale that is translated into a numeric value. additionally, the correlation between risks is calculated implicitly. the elements of the proposed sbsm approach were obtained of the information described above. the proposed sbsm includes from the csram (ökmen and öztaş, 2008) the risk-activity relation matrix. this technique implies a qualitative qualification by the expert, a simulation-based scheduling methodology for construction projects considering the potential impacts of delay risks construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201849 of influence between risks and activities, in a qualitative scale of very effective, effective, and ineffective. the matrix of criteria is transformed into a numeric value representing the rate of an influence of a risk factor into one activity. also, the proposed methodological structure includes from wallace (2010) the explicit definition of an occurrence probability and impact for each risk. also, the smsm proposed in this paper differs from works like the one described by öztaş and ökmen (2004) because the risk impact is not modelled for each riskactivity relation; instead, it is only modelled for critical activities. finally, a potential impact for each risk is defined within the proposed sbsm approach. indeed, for each risk a minimal impact, most probable, and maximum impact, are defined; values that represent for the consulted experts, a measure of days of the effect of this risk on the project activities. included as well, is the mathematical relation to use this definition to model the relation between risks and activities. proposed simulation-based scheduling methodology for construction projects the sbsm, as well as it mathematical structure for mcs, is described below (see figure 2). the proposed methodology allows the evaluation of active networks under uncertainty, by using mcs (stochastic model). this is done to determine the total time of termination of the project, considering the direct impact of the risks. the proposed methodology considers three elements; i) the definition of a potential impact on the overall duration of the project for every risk, ii) the assumption that risks are the only agents of change of activity durations and iii) the requirements of the constructions projects to obtain the data practically. this methodology contains four steps, (from d to g), for which the mathematical model is described in the step g and defined by sets, parameters, input variables, variables, and the mathematical formulas which represent the effects of delay risks in the project schedule. figure 2 steps of the sbsm in step a, the objective is to consolidate a list of all the risks to which the project can be exposed. this process aims to generate a starting point for the quantitative analysis. therefore, according to galway (2004), it is possible to use techniques such as literature review, brainstorming, the delphi method and swot analysis. in step b, the risks are classified, to identify which interest groups are the primary source of risk; this information could help the subsequent postulation of strategies to face the risks; a classification that can be used for this purpose is the one proposed by el-sayegh (2008). in step c, qualitative tools are used to perform a first filter, due to the importance of the list of risks obtained in step a. there are multiple techniques in the literature to perform this type of analysis (carbone and tippet, 2004; el-sayegh, 2008; dey, 2010; zhang and chou, 2011). paz, rozenboim, cuadros, cano and escobar construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201850 described in the section ‘results and discussion’, is how these steps were carried out in the investigation for replicability effects. however, the steps a, b, and c are essential for the sbsm approach. these steps are considered as a reference for the approach and not as something fixed to be performed. therefore, other techniques could be used within the framework of the sbsm. this is explained by the fact that in the literature review it was possible to verify that each construction environment should be carried out with these studies and that it is not correct to generalize the identification, categorization and qualification of the risks. furthermore, to identify, categorize and qualify risks, there are multiple tools in the literature. step d is related to the elaboration of the deterministic schedule planning. in this step, the deterministic model of the project is built by defining the activities, precedencies, and postpositions, and deterministic durations. in step e, a probability of occurrence must be assigned to the most important risks that can affect the project (step f). this probability could be based on the experience of experts, taking as reference the amount of spent time for each risk on similar projects. also, a potential impact of risks that can generate the risks onto any important activity must be defined regarding a minimal, more probable, and maximum duration. these parameters are used to model the impact of risks through a triangular probability distribution. this potential impact is not expressed by considering particularities of the project as the precedence constraints of the activities or the critical path. instead, it is a point of reference of the impact that each risk may have on the activity duration of the project. in step f, the degrees of influence of the risks on the activities selected by the experts are defined using two qualitative qualifications: “very effective” or “effective”. this scale is considered from csram model proposed by ökmen and öztaş (2008). to simplify the data collection, this relation must be defined over a part of the activities of the project. the activities of the deterministic critical path could be considered, or the activities judged by the experts as critical activities. therefore, it is not necessary to define the relationship for all the activities of the project. for each activity is obtained a number of “very effective” relations and a number of “effective” relations with the risks. in the step g, the simulation model must be developed. different computer tools are used to execute the model. the deterministic schedule must be built for project planning software. in addition, the use of spreadsheet program is also necessary. the proposed approach uses ms project, ms excel and the commercial software @risk for executing the simulation. with these tools, the proposed mathematical structure for the simulation model could be implemented. the mathematical structure for the simulation model is defined as follows: sets deterministic parameters • nrvej, number of “very effective” relations with the risks i for each activity j. • nrej, number of “effective” relations with the risks for each activity j. a simulation-based scheduling methodology for construction projects considering the potential impacts of delay risks construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201851 • dj, is the total duration in time units of the activity j. • cij, parameter which represents the numeric value of the degree of influence of the risk over the activity j. stochastic input variables • ei, a bernoulli variable that takes the value of 1 or 0. the value of 1 represents the occurrence of the risk, 0 otherwise. this distribution was chosen due to it could model the nature of the occurrence phenomena of a risk. this variable takes the value depending of the probabilities of occurrence defined in step e. • ipri, a random variable that represents the potential impact of the risk i, [time units]. it is described by the probability distribution defined for each risk in step e. variables • ddj, variable that represents a deterministic duration in time units of the activity j (without effect of the risks). • irrj, variable that represents the real impact (in time units) of the risks received by the activity j. mathematical constraints output variables • tdp, total duration of the project. the value of the parameter “cij” is obtained from the qualification of step f. the previously qualitative valuations are converted into a numeric value calculated with the equations (1) and (2) (proposed equations based on the csram model, (ökmen and öztaş, 2008). as shown in equation (1), the authors propose 70% as the total influence over the activity of the risks with “very effective” qualifications and the 30% as the total influence over the activity of the risks with “effective” qualifications. the total sum of cij for each activity must be equal to one, which means that the variations of the activity durations are only explained by the existence of the risks. we calculate the activities duration dj that are affected by the risks within the simulation by using the equation (3). equations (4) detail the calculation of dj. also, we have considered the assumption that the variation of the activity durations is only explained by the occurrence of the risks. this is achieved by equation (3), which defines the duration of an activity as the deterministic duration plus the quantity of added days by the effect of the risks (the real impact of the risks over a specific activity irrj). the proposed formula allows considering in the simulation model the potential impact of the risks (ipri), the influence of each risks over each activity (cij), and the occurrence of the risks (ei). then, the model should be built, and the simulation properties must be defined (sample size, seed) to run the simulations. paz, rozenboim, cuadros, cano and escobar construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201852 finally, a tornado diagram is used to measure the influence of each risk in the total duration of the project. this techni que is defined as a diagram in which “input variables that have the highest effect on a selected output variable are shown as horizontal bars at the top of the graph and variables that have a smaller impact are shown at the bottom” (bodmer, 2014) and could be applied by using the methods proposed in eschenbach (2006). therefore a tornado diagram could be used to determine the most important risks. the use of the tornado diagram implies the definition of the input variables. these variables are values of the simulation model that are recorded in each sample, together with the values of the output variable of the model (in this case, the total duration of the project). subsequently, the input variables are changed dynamically, individually, through a given range of values holding all other input variables at their central value, and recording the lower, the mean, and the upper bound values of the output variable. this process is repeated for each input variable. later, these results are compared to define which input variable of the tornado diagram has more influence in the output variable of the model. the x-axis of a tornado diagram represents the different values of the result for the output variable. each bar represents the range of values produced, when each input variable changes (the other variables remaining constant). finally, the input variables are organized from top to bottom according to the total range produced for the output variable. this variable provides the most extensive range at the top of the diagram. hence, bars become smaller toward the bottom of the chart, and the overall effect takes on the appearance of a “tornado.” to achieve this, we propose the definition of rtii, an input variable to the tornado diagram explained in equation (5). as is shown in equation (5), the values of rtii represents the sum of the impacts (in terms of duration) generated by each risk over the activities j that it affects. results and discussion features of the construction project: the construction project is concerned with a medical building for a public university in colombia. the project owner is the institution to which the responsibility is assigned for submitting the technical and architectonic requirements, and the execution to the contractor. the contract of the respective project was signed on 28 october 2011; the execution started on 25 november 2011, the deadline was agreed 180 calendar days after the start, meaning until 22 may 2012. the project was delivered 60 calendar days after the deadline on 20 july 2012. step a. risk identification the identification of schedule risks of this work was initially performed by an extensive literature review (table 1). however, the importance given to these risks is relative to the context where the research projects were performed. therefore, the most important risks in the papers described in table 1 are not completely applicable to colombia, nor to the public university context. thus, instead of simply choosing one of these studies, a systematic process was developed to extract from these articles the relevant risks for the colombian and project context (figure 3). first, the 471 risks found in the literature review (table 1) were compared by the authors, to discard repeated risks implicit in others, and the ones not applicable to the real case context. secondly, two experts of the construction sector were consulted to obtain a practical vision of the risks; with them, some risks were discarded, and others added to the list of risk. in third a simulation-based scheduling methodology for construction projects considering the potential impacts of delay risks construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201853 place, some risks were added from official documents of the university, in which alreadyidentified risks were found. from this process, the risks shown in table 3 were obtained. indeed, a list with 55 risks to be evaluated in the qualitative qualification was obtained; each risk referenced by an identifier (id). figure 3 systematic process to risks identification step b. risk categorization when the two experts were consulted about the risks found in table 3, information about existing risks that affect the success indicators of the construction projects and their possible categorizations was asked. as result of this process, the categories shown in figure 4 were made. this information was used as support for the next step in the sbsm in which the risks are qualified. nevertheless, the project owner could use this information to propose risk responses. figure 4 risks categorization step c. qualification of the risk factors evaluating by mcs all the risks that affect a construction project is not practical. this is an observation performed by the experts about the revision of existing risk analysis methodologies. for example, it was identified as a long and inaccurate process of asking experts the definition of a matrix relating all project activities and risks. therefore, in the case of a large project, a qualitative evaluation must be performed, to identify the most important risks, to reduce the number of simulated risks, and thus simplify the quantitative evaluation. for example, if we pretend to model 55 risks that could have been affecting the case study, and paz, rozenboim, cuadros, cano and escobar construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201854 their relationship with each of the 128 activities of the project; then 7040 relations must be evaluated (55 times 128). the consulted experts identified this aspect as impractical. table 3 risks identified for the case study id description id description 1 delay in performing inspection and testing by consultant 29 rain effect on construction activities 2 late in reviewing and approving design documents by consultant 30 communication failures between the owner and the contractor 3 conflicts between consultant and engineers 31 delays in resolving contractual issues 4 delays in the work development by inconsistency or lack of clearly of the designs 32 delays in resolving disputes with the stakeholders 5 accident during construction 33 strikes and conflicts of labour 6 unpredicted technical problems in construction 34 delays in approvals 7 lack or departure of qualified staff 35 delay in performing final inspection and certification by a third party 8 contractors financial difficulties 36 delay of material supply by suppliers 9 defective works and reworks 37 quality problems of supplier material 10 delay for construction methods 38 delay in construction by disorderly conduct 11 conflicts in sub-contractor’s schedule in execution of project 39 vandalism damage during disturbance of public order. 12 damage of sorted material while they are needed urgently 40 thefts to material, equipment and tools contractor 13 equipment breakdowns 41 delays and noncompliance of the subcontractors 14 misinterpretation of designs 42 subcontracting changes by their inefficient work 15 owners delayed payment to contractors 43 delay in construction by changes to the initial design or lack of definition the relevant areas 16 delays in obtaining site access and right of way 44 changes in financing conditions, exchange rates, lending rates, etc. 17 owners financial difficulties 45 conflicts between auditors and engineers 18 slow decisionmaking by owners 46 delay in the approval of the auditor in construction progress 19 conflicts between joint-ownership of the project 47 flaws in the judgment of the auditor 20 suspension of work by owner 48 late delivery of information from consultants a simulation-based scheduling methodology for construction projects considering the potential impacts of delay risks construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201855 id description id description 21 changes in material types and specifications during construction 49 incomplete delivery of information from consultants 22 delays during construction by user request or relevant areas due to inherent factor in the project 50 conflicts between consultants and design engineers 23 inflation and sudden changes in prices 51 ineffective project planning and scheduling 24 shortage in material supply and availability 52 inadequate policies of the contractor 25 shortage in manpower supply and availability 53 method of financing and payment to complete the project 26 shortage in equipment supply and availability 54 unavailability of services on site 27 shortage in transport supply and availability 55 inconsistencies in the sequence and precedence of the schedule that may affect the execution of the project 28 unforeseen site conditions the qualification of the risks could be performed by different techniques, such as the risks probability-impact evaluation, the evaluation of reliability in data, and the evaluation of the importance of risks, among others. the proposed approach, for this step objective, uses the idea of the risks qualification technique “risk failure mode and effects analysis” (rfmea) proposed by carbone and tippett (2004), to obtain a first synthesis of the risks to be modelled in the quantitative analysis. rfmea is a method that implies a qualitative qualification of the risks by a group of experts in three dimensions: the probability of occurrence, the impact and probability of detection, and some steps defined in the technique (figure 5). in this study, the mentioned technique only was used to qualify, so that only the steps two to six were executed. the rfmea scheme has been selected to determine the probability, and impact, of detection. particularly, the rfmea allows a better way of evaluating the risks that make the project more vulnerable (carbone and tippett, 2004). figure 5 rfmea steps first, step two “assign likelihood, impact and detection values” was executed for the 55 risks, identified above. this is the process in which the risk factors are qualified regarding the probability of occurrence, impact, and detection (values that are assigned through table 3 continued paz, rozenboim, cuadros, cano and escobar construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201856 expert consultation). for each estimate, values from 1 to 10 must be defined considering the description and the scales shown in tables 4, 5, and 6. in the case of the impact value, the rfmea considers valuations to three dimensions: cost, schedule and technical, but, given the scope of the research, only the schedule scale was used. in the case of detection, the definition of carbone and tippett (2004) must be taken: “the ability of detection technique or method(s) to detect the risk event with enough time to plan for a contingency and act upon the risk”. table 4 likelihood values value likelihood value guidelines 9 10 very likely to occur 7 8 will probably occur 5 6 equal chance of occurring or not 3 4 probably will not occur 1 2 very unlikely table 5 impact value guidelines value schedule 9 10 major milestone impact and > 20% impact to critical path 7 8 major milestone impact and 10% – 20% impact to critical path 5 6 impact of 5% – 10% impact to critical path 3 4 impact of < 5% impact to critical path 1 2 impact insignificant cant table 6 the detection value guidelines value detection 9 10 there is no detection method available or known that will provide an alert with enough time to plan for a contingency. 7 8 detection method is unproven or unreliable; or effectiveness of detection method is unknown to detect in time. 5 6 detection method has medium effectiveness. 3 4 detection method has moderately high effectiveness. 1 2 detection method is highly effective, and it is almost certain that the risk will be detected with adequate time. second, steps 3 and 4 (figure 5) were performed. in this phase, the risk score (rs) was calculated as the multiplication of the ratings given in the scales of the tables 4 and 5, plus the probability and the impact of the risk. then, the risk priority number (rpn) was obtained as the multiplication of the ratings of each risk in the aspects: probability, impact, plus the detection value (values of tables 4, 5 and 6). finally, pareto diagrams of rs and rpn were constructed so that experts could determine critical values of these indicators. the pareto distribution diagram is a vertical bar graph useful to analyse the most significant cumulative effect of some variables for a given system. on average, the critical values selected by the experts were 10 and 40 for the rs and the rpn, respectively. the results of this process can be seen in figure 6. after that, step 5 and 6 of the rfmea was carried out. this was done, based on the critical values determined in the previous phase. the fifth step is to build a scatter a simulation-based scheduling methodology for construction projects considering the potential impacts of delay risks construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201857 diagram between the rpn and the rs. the objective of stage six, is to find the intersection of the two critical values, to define the critical risks. the result of this phase could be seen in figure 7. at this stage, note that the worst risk would be that with a high probability of occurrence, high impact on the project, and a low probability of detection (quadrant i). at the other extreme, the least significant risk would be one that has a low probability of occurrence, low impact, and a high probability of detection (quadrant iii). figure 6 pareto diagrams figure 7 risks scatter plot from this process, the definitive list of risks to evaluate, in the qualitative analysis of risks, was obtained (table 7). these are the risks, located in quadrant i of figure 7, that correspond to the rfmea performed with the average ratings of the experts (risks 4, 6, 28, 20 and 32). also, the added risks when applying the rfmea on an individual basis to each expert (risks 8, 29, 41, 18 and 31). step d. deterministic schedule development the activities, relations and project durations were taken from the physical schedule presented by the contractor. in this document, the deterministic program was elaborated by using microsoft project software (cpm method). the project had 144 activities with precedence constraints. paz, rozenboim, cuadros, cano and escobar construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201858 table 7 risks to be simulated id description 4 delays in the work development by inconsistency or lack of clearly of the designs 6 unpredicted technical problems in construction 28 unforeseen site conditions 20 suspension of work by owner 32 delays in resolving disputes with the stakeholders 8 contractors financial difficulties 29 rain effect on construction activities 41 delays and noncompliance of the subcontractors 18 slow decisionmaking by owners 31 delays in resolving contractual issues step e. definition of the probability and potential impact of the identified risks the probability of occurrence of each risk was defined by using criteria of experts. the parameters of minimum, expected, and maximum values of duration of the potential impact were determined for each risk (table 8). table 8 risks, occurrence probability and triangular distribution parameters of the potential impact id occurrence probability minimum potential impact (days) expected potential impact (days) maximum potential impact (days) 4 70% 15 30 90 6 40% 15 20 60 28 15% 5 10 15 20 50% 15 30 60 32 20% 30 45 60 8 10% 5 10 15 29 5% 10 15 20 41 5% 10 15 20 18 70% 15 30 90 31 30% 15 30 90 step f. definition of influence degrees of risks on the activities the influence degrees of risks on activities were defined (table 9). the experts defined the qualitative description to the relations between risks and the project activities they considered as critical. this was done using the values effective (e) or very effective (ve). a simulation-based scheduling methodology for construction projects considering the potential impacts of delay risks construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201859 table 9 influence degrees of risks on the activities in terms of effective (e) or very effective (ve) risks i (id) nrvej nrejactivity 4 6 28 20 32 8 29 41 18 31 1.8 e ve ve 2 1 2.6 ve e e e 1 3 2.7 ve ve e 2 1 6.1 ve e 1 1 8.3 ve ve ve e ve e ve ve 6 2 9.2 ve ve e 2 1 11.3 ve ve e e e ve e e 3 5 12.3 ve e 1 1 12.7 ve e 1 1 step g. modelling of the delay-risk impacts on the schedule the proposed model was elaborated on a spreadsheet of microsoft excel 2013 and the simulation software used was @risk. this software supports integration between the mcs and ms project, allowing the construction of a project schedule with the cpm methodology for each simulated scenario. the input variables of the model were defined as the occurrences of risks and the potential impacts. thus, a bernoulli distribution was assigned to every risk with the probabilities obtained in step e. moreover, the distributions for the potential impacts of every risk were defined as triangular distribution using the parameters of minimum, expected, and maximum potential impact. subsequently, the cij parameter which models the degree of influence of the risk i over the activity j, was calculated using equation (1) and (2), the values are shown in table 10. then the necessary spreadsheet formulas were defined to implement equation (4) to define the duration of the activities affected by the risks. after this, the total duration of the project was selected as output variable of the simulation model. table 10 cij, numeric value of the degree of influence of the risk i over the activity j risks i (id) activity j 4 6 28 20 32 8 29 41 18 31 1.8 0.30 0.35 0.35 2.6 0.70 0.10 0.10 0.10 2.7 0.35 0.35 0.30 6.1 0.70 0.30 8.3 0.12 0.12 0.12 0.15 0.12 0.15 0.12 0.12 9.2 0.35 0.35 0.3 11.3 0.23 0.23 0.06 0.06 0.06 0.23 0.06 0.06 12.3 0.70 0.30 12.7 0.70 0.30 finally, the inputs for the tornado diagram were registered. the values of rtii were used as an input parameter for the tornado diagram, as is defined in the equation (5). paz, rozenboim, cuadros, cano and escobar construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201860 simulation results the results of the simulation of the sbsm applied to the case study were: the descriptive statistics of three experiments. for each experiment a simulated sample of the total duration of the project was calculated; a statistical distribution of the total duration of the project and a quantitative measurement of the variability caused by each risk in the total execution time of the project. the descriptive statistics allow seeing the consistency of the results when the series of random numbers are changed, the statistical distribution was estimated as a project completion date associated with a confidence level and the variability generated in the duration of the project. the results of the simulation process are independent of the series of random numbers generated. three experiments were performed to calculate the descriptive statistics of the total duration of the project, each one with a sample of 1000 simulations and with a different seed for the random values. the results obtained for different seeds are either independent (ideal main goal) or have a high probability of being nearly independent. these results are listed in table 11. note that the values of the mode are equal, and both the average and median can be approximated to 190 and 189 days, respectively. regarding the variation indicators, there are slight variations in the maximum duration but in general, the results of each experiment show the same behaviour. therefore, it can be affirmed that the results are not affected by the series of random numbers used. table 11 statistical results of the simulations statistical experiment 1 experiment 2 experiment 3 minimum 157.00 157.00 157.00 maximum 237.85 241.00 254.62 average 189.55 189.82 189.64 mode 157.00 157.00 157.00 median 188.40 189.46 188.77 est. dev. 17.42 18.00 18.01 kurtosis 2.45 2.38 2.59 figure 8 shows the probability distribution of the duration of the project completion for experiment 1. the distribution presents a flared behaviour that does not exceed 7% of any histogram value. note that, if any value from the range of possibilities is chosen (157 to 238 days) as the predicted duration of the project, then it could be defined a probability (cumulative probability) of completing the project in less or equal time than the selected duration. this fact makes it possible to predict the total duration of the project based on percentiles, which can create a level of confidence in estimating the duration of the project. the percentiles of the distribution of the first experiment are shown in table 12. this table shows the range of possibilities that could be chosen, for example, at 5% reliability for the complete project on june 12012, and a reliability level of 99% for august 20 of the same period. with this information, the project professionals were able to choose the project completion forecast on a quantitative basis; a clear advantage of the mcs. however, it is necessary to validate the inferences of the model proposed in the sbsm. this is because the mathematical way of modelling risks and their interaction with activities differs a simulation-based scheduling methodology for construction projects considering the potential impacts of delay risks construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201861 figure 8 probability distribution of the duration of the project completion, experiment 1 between different mcs models. also, the mathematical formulation used, together with the quality of the input data, is what ultimately determines the cost of constructing the model, and its level of precision. the prediction error associated with each level of confidence of the sbsm was calculated. the relative difference between the date associated with each percentile and the actual date of completion of the project was precisely calculated (table 12). table 12 forecast based on reliability of the duration of the project completion real project duration 205 days 07/20/2012 p er ce nt ile er ro r forecast p er ce nt ile er ro r forecast da ys da te da ys da te 5% -20.6% 162 06/01/2012 55% -6.4% 191 07/04/2012 10% -18.6% 166 06/05/2012 60% -4.9% 194 07/09/2012 15% -16.7% 170 06/11/2012 65% -3.9% 196 07/11/2012 20% -14.7% 174 06/14/2012 70% -2.5% 199 07/14/2012 25% -13.7% 176 06/18/2012 75% -1.0% 202 07/18/2012 30% -12.3% 179 06/21/2012 80% 1.0% 206 07/21/2012 35% -10.8% 182 06/23/2012 85% 2.5% 209 07/25/2012 40% -9.8% 184 06/27/2012 90% 3.9% 212 07/30/2012 45% -8.8% 186 06/29/2012 95% 6.9% 218 08/06/2012 50% -7.8% 188 07/02/2012 99% 13.7% 232 08/20/2012 the results of table 4 show good projection behaviour since the actual termination date is within the range of possibilities. however, we consider positive errors from 80% to 99% levels of confidence. this behaviour does not imply that with higher confidence intervals, the results of the proposed approach become less reliable. on the contrary, this is explained because in any case the prediction is an upper limit for the possible value of the duration of the project, so in the last percentiles it is very likely to find an overestimation of the time necessary to execute the project. however, if any of the common confidence levels in statistics such as 90%, 95% and 99% are used (lawsky et al., 2014), the errors of 3.9%, 6.9% and 13.7% respectively, continue being smaller than those of the deterministic programming method (table 13). in addition, the errors are positive so that in any case they would have avoided the breach of the contract and the fines derived from it. paz, rozenboim, cuadros, cano and escobar construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201862 table 13 forecast compared against the actual performance of the project cpm stochastic (90%) agreed in the contract date 05/25/2012 07/30/2012 05/22/2012 duration 157 213 154 error 23,41% 3,90% 24,88% then, the following results were compared: the deadline, determined by the professionals through the simulation model, for a reliability level of 90% (30 july 2012); the date given by the deterministic cpm model (25 may 2012); the contracted agreement (22 may 2012); and the date when the project was really finished (the work started on 25 november 2011 and ended on 20 july 2012). the comparison was performed with regard to working days associated with each of the deadlines proposed by the two models, and the date agreed upon in the contract. the error of each model is obtained as the relative difference (in working days) of the promised dates versus the real ending date, and the real duration of the project corresponding to 204 working days (table 13). this comparison indicates that the deadline forecast of the proposed sbsm with a reliability level of 90% presented an error of 3.9%, compared to the real duration of the project. moreover, the cpm model and the contractual deadline presented errors of 23.4% and 24.8%, respectively. these results confirm that the proposed model is notable. also, the simulation results suggest that the project completion date agreed in the contract has a zero probability of compliance. this fact means that, if conditions of uncertainty are considered, the deadline agreed on the contract is impossible to achieve. furthermore, a quantitative measure of the impact of each risk on the total duration of the project by a tornado diagram was performed (figure 9). this tool defines higher variability generators on the deadline of the project as the risks: delays in work development by inconsistency or lack of clarity in designs; slow decisionmaking by owners; and unpredicted technical problems in construction. figure 9 tornado diagram of the schedule risks, simulation 1 two further experiments were performed to ensure a different random seed to verify the stability of the risk rank previously described. this allowed a validation of the obtained results about the risks that most affect the entire duration of the project (table 14). the results show that the three first risks have been at the top while the other risks may vary in importance. the behaviour of the risks in a position greater than four is explained because the impact that they a simulation-based scheduling methodology for construction projects considering the potential impacts of delay risks construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201863 generate in the duration of the project does not differ significantly. besides, the most important risk selection is stable, since the first three risks of the first simulation were also the first three risks for the additional experiments. this result implies that series of random numbers do not affect the risk ranking. nevertheless, this result is subject to the case study and cannot be generalized to all construction projects. however, the sbmm can be replicated for any other project provided that the risks analysed are redefined for the environment that is to be studied. table 14 importance rank of the simulated risks position simulation 1 (id) simulation2 (id) simulation3 (id) 1 4 4 4 2 18 6 18 3 6 18 6 4 29 28 20 5 28 20 29 6 20 31 32 7 31 32 28 8 32 29 31 9 8 41 41 10 41 8 8 conclusion in this paper a practical and useful simulation-based methodology to assess risks causing delays in the schedule of construction projects is proposed. the proposed approach was constructed by a method based on an exhaustive review of the literature and including the participation of experts in its design. additionally, a novel mathematical formulation was included in the methodology, for an mcs model that represents the occurrence of the risks and the way in which they impact the activities of the project. then, the proposed approach was applied to a real case of an already-constructed project of a medical building of a public university in colombia. from this exercise, a forecast of the date of completion of the work and a quantitative assessment of the risks was evaluated. the comparison of the obtained results against the historical records of the case study, shows that the proposed methodology works appropriately, and produces realistic results to achieve a minimum error in the total duration estimation of the project. it was found, when regarding the risks prioritization, that the proposed structure enriches the impact analysis of the risks. these results, together with the opinion of experts from the construction sector, prove that the methodology is effective when using resources available to planners of construction projects in an emerging country such as colombia. the proposed approach could be extended as a general method of risk analysis of construction projects based on mcs. indeed, the proposed approach could be applied to another environment by identifying the appropriate risks. the literature review delivered two conclusions. the first one is that the identification of the risks of a construction project must be performed from its environment. this is because the results of the review show that the risks vary according to the geographical context in which the project is carried out. for example, the extremely hot weather was found to be a risk of delay; however, this does not apply in countries in south america. additionally, not only does it affect the country or region, but it also found that the type of project and the type of paz, rozenboim, cuadros, cano and escobar construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201864 institution where it is carried out have an impact. in fact, it was necessary for the case study to adjust the list of risks for the institution that owns the project. it highlights then the results and experiences of this research, that for each project the risks must be carefully determined. however, in the literature there are risk surveys that can be taken as a reference to streamline this process. in this sense, this paper contributes to the literature of the considered problem. the second conclusion derived from the review, is that the methodology proposed in this paper uses an mcs model with a new mathematical formulation, to represent the effect of the risks of delay in the duration of the schedule. this was ensured first, by establishing several risk analysis methods as a design reference, and secondly, by analysing the methods together with experts from the construction sector, with the restriction that the model to be proposed should be applicable with little reference information. this was a characteristic of the working environment of the case study. because of this process, the proposed model is formulated. this is based on the definition of a stochastic variable defined as the “impact of risk”, a random variable of occurrence of a risk and a correlation matrix of risks-activities. all these elements can be defined from the judgment of experts or based on distribution adjustments, according to the availability of information. also, all the elements were defined in such a way that the effort of the programmer was concrete, but that it would provide the possibility of obtaining a comprehensive, accurate and objective schedule risk analysis model. for all these reasons, the model proposed in this paper establishes a new scheme, to represent the effect of the risks of delay in the duration of a construction project and which, as already mentioned above, proved its functionality in the case study. other conclusions are derived from the application of the methodology proposed for the case study. this is based on the comparison of the results of the simulation against the real history of the project. it is evident, that the proposed approach is a better predictor than the cpm of the total time of completion. furthermore, the comparison of the prioritization of risks with the real history of the project shows that all the predicted risk could affect the duration of the project. on the other hand, although the application was based on data from a constructive project in colombia, the methodology was designed for elements that are common to all construction projects. additionally, the project’s environment only changes the risks to which the project is exposed, so by simply re-defining the base risks of the methodology, it is possible to apply the proposed method in another context. for all the above, it is evident that the methodology could: i) improve the estimation of the duration of a construction project against the critical route method, ii) enrich the analysis of the construction project schedule by providing a prioritization of risks that can be used to focus risk management decisions (e.g. mitigation, elimination, among others) on the most important risks, and iii) be the basis of a risk management model for construction projects. nevertheless, future research could be directed to consider aspects such as the natural variation of the activities duration, other project objectives such as costs or quality, the use of different scheduling techniques as a basis rather than cpm, consider the scheduling process resource constraints, and consideration of the addition of activities when adverse events occur. another interesting study is to measure the level of applicability of different techniques to the one proposed in this paper and others risk analysis methods. acknowledgments the authors would like to express their gratitude to the anonymous referees for their valuable comments, which helped to improve the paper significantly. a simulation-based scheduling methodology for construction projects considering the potential impacts of delay risks construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201865 references ahmed, s.m., ahmad, r., saram, d.e. and darshi, d., 1999. risk management trends in the hong kong construction industry: a comparison of contractors and owners’ perceptions. engineering construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 6(3), 225-234. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb021114 ahuja, h.n. and nandakumar, v., 1985. simulation model to forecast project completion time. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 111(4), 325-342. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(1985)111:4(325) andi., 2006. the importance and allocation of risks in indonesian construction projects. construction management and economics, 24(1), pp.69-80. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190500310338 antill, j.m. and woodhead, r.w., 1990. critical path methods in construction practice. new york: john wiley & sons. assaf, s.a. and al-hejji, s., 2006. causes of delay in large construction projects. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 24(4), pp.349-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.11.010 aziz, r.f., 2013. ranking of delay factors in construction projects after egyptian revolution. alexandria engineering journal, [e-journal] 52(3), pp.387-406. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2013.03.002 bodmer, e. 2014. corporate and project finance modeling: theory and practice. hoboken, new jersey: john wiley & sons. bowman, r.a., 2007. efficient sensitivity analysis of pert network performance measures to significant changes in activity time parameters. journal of the operational research society, [e-journal] 58(10), pp.1354-60. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602297 brucker, p., drexl, a., möhring, r., neumann, k. and pesch, e., 1999. resource-constrained project scheduling: notation, classification, models, and methods. european journal of operational research, [e-journal] 112(1), pp.3-41. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0377-2217(98)00204-5 carbone, t.a. and tippett, d.d., 2004. project risk management using the project risk fmea. engineering management journal, [e-journal] 16(4), pp.28-35. https://doi.org/10.1080/10429247.2004.11415263 carr, r.i., 1979. simulation of construction project duration. journal of the construction division, 105(2), pp.117-28. chan, d.w. and kumaraswamy, m.m., 1997. a comparative study of causes of time overruns in hong kong construction projects. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 15(1), pp.55-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(96)00039-7 chan, a.p.c. and chan, a.p.l., 2004. key performance indicators for measuring construction success. benchmarking: an international journal, 11(2), 203-221. https://doi. org/10.1108/14635770410532624 choudhry, r.m., aslam, m.a., hinze, j.w. and arain, f.m. 2014. cost and schedule risk analysis of bridge construction in pakistan: establishing risk guidelines. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 140(7), 04014020. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000857 dey, p.k., 2010. managing project risk using combined analytic hierarchy process and risk map. applied soft computing, [e-journal] 10(4), pp.990-1000. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2010.03.010 dikmen, i., birgönül, m.t. and arikan, a.e., 2004. a critical review of risk management support tools. proceedings, arcom 2004, association of researchers in construction management, heriot watt university, u.k., 2, pp.1145-54. paz, rozenboim, cuadros, cano and escobar construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201866 https://doi.org/10.1108/eb021114 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1985)111:4(325) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1985)111:4(325) https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190500310338 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.11.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2013.03.002 https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602297 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0377-2217(98)00204-5 https://doi.org/10.1080/10429247.2004.11415263 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(96)00039-7 https://doi.org/10.1108/14635770410532624 https://doi.org/10.1108/14635770410532624 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000857 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2010.03.010 dikmen, i., birgonul, m.t., tah, j.h. and ozer, a.h, 2012. web-based risk assessment tool using integrated duration–cost influence network model. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 138(9), pp.1023-34. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000547 el-sayegh, s.m., 2008. risk assessment and allocation in the uae construction industry. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 26(4), pp.431-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2007.07.004 eschenbach, t.g., 2006. constructing tornado diagrams with spreadsheets. [e-journal] the engineering economist, 51(2), pp.195-204. https://doi.org/10.1080/00137910600695676 flanagan, r. and norman, g., 1993. risk management and construction. oxford: blackwell scientific. galway, l., 2004. quantitative risk analysis for project management. santa monica, ca: rand corporation, http://sbir. nasa. gov/sbir/successes/ss/10-018text. html. hartmann, s. and briskorn, d., 2010. a survey of variants and extensions of the resource-constrained project scheduling problem. european journal of operational research, [e-journal] 207(1), pp.1-14. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2009.11.005 herroelen, w., de reyck, b. and demeulemeester, e., 1998. resource-constrained project scheduling: a survey of recent developments. computers & operations research, [e-journal] 25(4), pp.279-302. https:// doi.org/10.1016/s0305-0548(97)00055-5 icmeli, o., selcuk erenguc, s. and zappe, c. j., 1993. project scheduling problems: a survey. international journal of operations & production management, [e-journal] 13(11), pp.80-91. https://doi. org/10.1108/01443579310046454 jun, d.h. and el-rayes, k., 2011. fast and accurate risk evaluation for scheduling large-scale construction projects. journal of computing in civil engineering, [e-journal] 25(5), pp.407-17. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000106 kangari, r., 1995. risk management perceptions and trends of us construction. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 121(4), pp.422-29. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(1995)121:4(422)kartam, n.a. and kartam, s.a., 2001. risk and its management in the kuwaiti construction industry: a contractors’ perspective. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 19(6), pp.325-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(00)00014-4 kolisch, r. and hartmann, s, 2006. experimental investigation of heuristics for resource-constrained project scheduling: an update. european journal of operational research, [e-journal] 174(1), pp.23-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2005.01.065 kolisch, r. and padman, r., 2001. an integrated survey of deterministic project scheduling. omega, [e-journal] 29(3), pp.249-72. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0305-0483(00)00046-3 kwak, y.h. and ingall, l., 2007. exploring monte carlo simulation applications for project management. risk management, [e-journal] 9(1), pp.44-57. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.rm.8250017 lawsky, e., ottman, l., almukkahal, r., meery, b. and delancey, d., 2014. ck-12 advanced probability and statistics. 2nd ed. flexbook, p.243. levitt, r.e. and kunz, j.c., 1985. using knowledge of construction and project management for automated schedule updating. project management journal, 16(5), pp.57-76. a simulation-based scheduling methodology for construction projects considering the potential impacts of delay risks construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201867 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000547 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.07.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.07.004 https://doi.org/10.1080/00137910600695676 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2009.11.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2009.11.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0305-0548(97)00055-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0305-0548(97)00055-5 https://doi.org/10.1108/01443579310046454 https://doi.org/10.1108/01443579310046454 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000106 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000106 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1995)121:4(422) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1995)121:4(422) https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(00)00014-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2005.01.065 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0305-0483(00)00046-3 https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.rm.8250017 ling, f.y.y. and hoi, l., 2006. risks faced by singapore firms when undertaking construction projects in india. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 24(3), pp.261-70. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.11.003 luu, t. t. g., sthiannopkao, s., and kim, k. w., 2009. arsenic and other trace elements contamination in groundwater and a risk assessment study for the residents in the kandal province of cambodia. environment international, 35(3), pp. 455-460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2008.07.013 nasirzadeh, f., khanzadi, m. and rezaie, m., 2014. dynamic modeling of the quantitative risk allocation in construction projects. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 32(3), pp.442-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.06.002. nordmeyer, b., 2018. what are the pros & cons of pert charts? [online] available at: small business chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/pros-cons-pert-charts-42359.html. [accessed 19 may 2018]. odeh, a.m. and battaineh, h.t., 2002. causes of construction delay: traditional contracts. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 20(1), pp.67-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(00)00037-5 ökmen, ö. and öztaş, a., 2008. construction project network evaluation with correlated schedule risk analysis model. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 134(1), pp.49-63. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:1(49) özdamar, l. and ulusoy, g., 1995. a survey on the resource-constrained project scheduling problem. iie transactions, [e-journal] 27(5), pp.574-86. https://doi.org/10.1080/07408179508936773 öztaş, a. and ökmen, ö., 2004. risk analysis in fixed-price design–build construction projects. building and environment, [e-journal] 39(2), pp.229-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2003.08.018 öztaş, a. and ökmen, ö., 2005. judgmental risk analysis process development in construction projects. building and environment, [e-journal] 40(9), pp.1244-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. buildenv.2004.10.013 pmi, 2013. a guide to the project management body of knowledge (pmbok®). fifth edition. project management institute. poh, y.p. and tah, j.h.m., 2006. integrated duration–cost influence network for modelling risk impacts on construction tasks. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 24(8), pp.861-68. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446190600658891 ranasinghe, m. and russell, a.d., 1992. treatment of correlation for risk analysis of engineering projects. civil engineering systems, [e-journal] 9(1), pp.17-39. https://doi. org/10.1080/02630259208970637 tysiak, w., 2011. risk management in projects: the monte carlo approach versus pert. in: ieee (institute of electrical and electronics engineers) 6th ieee international conference, intelligent data acquisition and advanced computing systems (idaacs): technology and applications. prague, czech republic, 15-17 september 2011, 2, pp.906-10. https://doi.org/10.1109/idaacs.2011.6072904 touran, a. and wiser, e.p., 1992. monte carlo technique with correlated random variables. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 118(2), pp.258-72. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(1992)118:2(258) uzzafer, m., 2010. a new dimension in software risk managment. world academy of science, engineering & technology, [e-journal] 64, pp.340-44. paz, rozenboim, cuadros, cano and escobar construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201868 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.11.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.11.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2008.07.013 http://smallbusiness.chron.com/pros-cons-pert-charts-42359.html https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(00)00037-5 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:1(49) https://doi.org/10.1080/07408179508936773 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2003.08.018 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2004.10.013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2004.10.013 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190600658891 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190600658891 https://doi.org/10.1080/02630259208970637 https://doi.org/10.1080/02630259208970637 https://doi.org/10.1109/idaacs.2011.6072904 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1992)118:2(258) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1992)118:2(258) vanhoucke, m., 2012. measuring the efficiency of project control using fictitious and empirical project data. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 30(2), pp.252-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2011.05.006 waledzik, k., and mandziuk, j., 2017. (in press corrected proof ). applying hybrid monte carlo tree search methods to risk-aware project scheduling problem. information sciences. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ins.2017.08.049 wallace, i., 2010. schedule risk and contingency using @risk and probabilistic analysis. ithaca, ny: palisade corporation. wang, s.q., dulaimi, m.f. and aguria, m.y., 2004. risk management framework for construction projects in developing countries. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 22(3), pp.237-52. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000124689 wang, w.c. and demsetz, l.a., 2000. model for evaluating networks under correlated uncertaintynetcor. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 126(6), pp.458-66. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2000)126:6(458) wang, c., hong, j., kafouros, m., and wright, m., 2012. exploring the role of government involvement in outward fdi from emerging economies. journal of international business studies, 43(7), pp. 655-676. https://doi.org/10.1057/jibs.2012.18 woolery, j.c. and crandall, k.c., 1983. stochastic network model for planning scheduling. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 109(3), pp.342-54. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(1983)109:3(342) yuan, h., 2017. barriers and countermeasures for managing construction and demolition waste: a case of shenzhen in china. journal of cleaner production, 157, pp. 84-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2017.04.137 zafra-cabeza, a., ridao, m.a. and camacho, e.f., 2004. an algorithm for optimal scheduling and risk assessment of projects. control engineering practice, 12(10), pp.1329-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. conengprac.2004.03.016 zhang, z. and chu, x., 2011. risk prioritization in failure mode and effects analysis under uncertainty. expert systems with applications, [e-journal] 38(1), pp.206-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. eswa.2010.06.046 zhi, h., 1995. risk management for overseas construction projects. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 13(4), pp.231-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(95)00015-i zhong, d. h., liu, k. j., and yang, x. g., 2005. uncertainty analysis for construction scheduling with flexible network simulation. systems engineering-theory & practice, 2, pp. 17. zhong, d., yang, s., chang, h., yu, j. and yan, f., 2015. construction schedule risk analysis of high roller-compacted concrete dams based on improved csram. science china technological sciences, [e-journal] 58(6), pp.1021-30. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-015-5781-8 zhong, d., bi, l., yu, j. and zhao, m., 2016. robustness analysis of underground powerhouse construction simulation based on markov chain monte carlo method. [e-journal] science china technological sciences, 59(2), pp.252-64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-015-5859-3 a simulation-based scheduling methodology for construction projects considering the potential impacts of delay risks construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201869 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.05.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.05.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2017.08.049 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2017.08.049 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000124689 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2000)126:6(458 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2000)126:6(458 https://doi.org/10.1057/jibs.2012.18 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1983)109:3(342 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1983)109:3(342 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.04.137 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.04.137 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conengprac.2004.03.016 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conengprac.2004.03.016 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2010.06.046 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2010.06.046 https://doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(95)00015-i https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-015-5781-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-015-5859-3 construction economics and building vol. 19, no. 2 december 2019 © 2019 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: vogel, j.a., lind, h., holm, c. 2019. incentivising innovation in the construction sector: the role of consulting contracts. construction economics and building, 19:2, 181-196. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i2.6613 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article incentivising innovation in the construction sector: the role of consulting contracts jonas anund vogel1*, hans lind2, cyril holm3 1 department of energy technology, royal institute of technology, brinellvägen 68, se-10044 stockholm, sweden, javogel@kth.se, +46 708 23 37 26 2 department of real estate and construction management, teknikringen 74 d, se-10044 stockholm, sweden, hans.lind@abe.kth.se 3 faculty of law, university of oxford, st cross building, st cross road, oxford ox1 3ul, cyril. holm@law.ox.ac.uk *corresponding author: jonas anund vogel, department of energy technology, royal institute of technology, brinellvägen 68, se-10044 stockholm, sweden, javogel@kth.se, +46 708 23 37 26 doi: 10.5130/ajceb.v19i2.6613 article history: received 23/05/2019; revised 04/10/2019; accepted 15/10/2019; published 02/12/2019 abstract the issue of whether contracts promote innovation and sustainability is an important but overlooked aspect for achieving energy and environmental targets, as well as for creating smart and sustainable cities. in this article, based on the principle/agent problem and holmström and milgrom’s work on optimal contracts it is argued that the current general conditions of architectural and engineering consulting agreements in sweden (abk 09)—a standard type of contract often used in developer/consultant relations—may not incentivize choices that support the long-term goals of society. furthermore, although this exploratory study specifically analyses a swedish standard contract, the question of how contractual incentive structures can optimize real-world performance is a general one, and thus the article’s findings have general applicability. this exploratory study also points to further research into how contractual structures impact climate-neutral buildings. in this way, swedish consultants who use abk 09 are incentivized to include low-risk, well-proven, and widely used technologies in order to minimize risks for themselves. this study contributes to resolving this dilemma by suggesting how abk 09 could be restructured to change the balance between incentives and risk and incentivize innovation and sustainability. as mentioned above, the current study declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 181 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i2.6613 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i2.6613 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:javogel@kth.se mailto:hans.lind@abe.kth.se mailto:cyril.holm@law.ox.ac.uk mailto:cyril.holm@law.ox.ac.uk mailto:javogel@kth.se http://10.5130/ajceb.v19i2.6613 operates at a theoretical level. it discusses six possible changes that would better align the contract with the societal goals of innovation and sustainability. keywords contracts, incentives for innovation, construction sector, institutional economics, sweden, buildings. introduction the pace of incorporating new technologies in the residential and construction industry is currently too slow to achieve today’s energy-efficiency targets. buildings are estimated to account for 30-40% of overall energy use in industrialized countries, along with almost 40% of the co2 emissions (berardi, 2013). dynamic, sustainable cities need flexible buildings that will meet user preferences not only today but, in the future, while simultaneously reducing the environmental impacts of building construction and operation. it is especially crucial to incentivize innovation and sustainability in order to achieve energy and environmental targets and to make smart and sustainable buildings and cities possible. because novel technology carries risks alongside its advantages, developers, contractors, and consultants must have incentives to fully accept those risks if we are to meet the crucial long-term goals of society for the reduced use of resources and emissions. the design of contracts among the various parties involved is one aspect that merits investigation in order to understand how to incentivize faster adoption of technological innovation. this paper focuses on an actor that has received limited attention in this context: consultants. the structure of the legal contract between consultants and developers or contractors influences their incentive to recommend new, more sustainable technologies and their actual recommendations to contractors on the use of such technology. this focus is in keeping with the focus of institutional economics on the law—and contracts in particular—as a crucial element in framing incentive structures for players and in achieving real-world outcomes of those incentive structures (coase, 1937, 1960; north and thomas, 1973; north, 1990; ostrom, 1990, 2005; holmström and milgrom, 1991, 1994). more specifically, this study uses holmström’s and milgrom’s theoretical framework on how to optimize incentive structures in the principal/agent relation (holmström and milgrom, 1991, 1994) to analyse incentive structures in legal contracts between consultants and contractors. the well-known principal/agent problem is a defining aspect of much of economic activity, but it is a particularly salient feature in the construction industry, which is characterized by complicated networks of players. the thought here is that while it is relatively straightforward (and obviously necessary) to focus on technological and purely regulatory aspects of the transition to climate-neutral construction and operation, incentive structures laid out in contracts are also an important aspect of this transition, and one that has received little attention in the research. in view of the importance of the institutional economics perspective for solving so-called social dilemmas—that is, situations in which short-term incentives are detrimental to the longterm stability of an asset (such as the stability of the climate) this perspective can contribute substantially to hastening the shift towards smart and sustainable buildings and cities through climate-neutral construction and operation practices. vogel, lind, holm construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019182 this study examines one particular standard contract—abk 09—used by consultants in the swedish construction industry. abk 09 is a widely used standard contract that has been developed on an ongoing basis by the non-profit organization construction contracts committee (construction contracts committee, 2015). the committee is an association that brings together many actors, including government authorities, civil organizations, consulting firms, and contractors. there are similar collaborations around the world that offer widely adopted standard contracts, such as the international federation of consulting engineers (fidic) (ndekugri, smith and hughes, 2007). while this study focuses on abk 09 and the swedish context for that contract, such contracts are a feature of any consultant/developer/contractor cooperative undertaking. as a result, although this exploratory study focuses on abk 09, it has direct relevance for contexts elsewhere in the world. in effect, then, it has implications for such contractual incentive structures anywhere. importantly, it also points toward further theoretical and empirical studies to investigate the more precise role of these contractual incentive structures in speeding up the transition to smart and sustainable buildings and cities through climate-neutral construction and operation. this study examines the details of the contract and discusses possible negative effects of the various clauses of abk 09, as well as possible ways to restructure the contract to better balance risks and incentives: i.e. to incentivize change and innovation so as to achieve long-term sustainability goals. here, by change and innovation we mean incentives to propose, invest in, and install technologies that contribute to smart and sustainable buildings and cities through climate-neutral construction and operation. there are many other aspects that are important for creating the right incentives: for example, tax laws and building codes. in addition, it is suggested that researchers should also consider factors that might be of less importance in general, since secondary factors such as these could possibly disincentivize measures unless they also are adjusted. the next section of this article describes the research approach used in this study, followed by a section on general theory. then, after a brief introduction of laws and regulations in the swedish construction sector, it delves into a detailed examination of the relevant clauses of the abk. the analytical section discusses more general implications and possible remedies, followed by conclusions. research approach the aim of this case study is primarily to identify problems in the current contract structure, and therefore it was decided that the best method would be an informal deductive approach. deductive mathematical modelling is common in theoretical economics; although such models are used for different purposes, one task is to find out what can happen in certain situations. by making specific assumptions about the situation and the players’ motives, one can deduce what will happen. because the models always include simplifying assumptions, it is not possible to conclude that the model faithfully reflects what would happen in reality; however, if the model describes what sugden (2000) calls a credible world, the fact that certain things happen in the model does indicate that these same things could happen in reality. even though no mathematical models were built in this article, the fundamental methodological idea is the same. what would be expected of a rational individual with a certain level of risk aversion in a specific situation—in this case, when the relationship to the other parties is regulated by a specific type of contract? the implications of each specific incentivising innovation in the construction sector: the role of consulting contracts construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019183 section of the abk are discussed, on the assumption that the parties involved are partly motivated by self-interest and are risk-averse. the study relies heavily on work from contract theory regarding how to optimize the principal/agent relation (coase, 1937, 1960; ostrom, 1990, 2005; holmström and milgrom, 1991, 1994) and focuses on what rational, profitmaximizing developers and consultants would do in different institutional environments. institutional knowledge is necessary in order to build a good model. without it, the wrong simplifications might be made, and the conclusions might then not yield credible predictions. the same risk exists when a more informal approach is used. one of the authors has worked in the construction sectors for several years—indeed, this background was what led to the initial observation that the design of the consulting contracts might be problematic. this researcher’s knowledge was useful in identifying the possible consequences of the contract design. this study does not present any new empirical data and should primarily be seen as an exploratory study, in which theoretical exploration is used to fined-tune questions for future empirical studies. the possible solutions discussed here should also be investigated more thoroughly in future studies: for example, empirical studies that compare standard contracts in different countries. general theoretical framework law, rules, and regulations can be effective mechanisms to solve social dilemmas (ostrom, 1990). a social dilemma is a situation in which short-term incentives for the participants lead to actions with long-term negative consequences for society (ostrom, 2005). social dilemmas often occur in situations involving common-pool resources (ostrom, 2005) such as rainforests, fresh water, clean air, or cooperatively owned buildings (vogel, lind and lundqvist, 2016). laws can mitigate situations where short-term individual incentives are detrimental to the long-term stability of shared assets (ostrom, 1990). broadly accepted rules and regulations accepted can thus serve to solve social dilemmas and secure assets of importance to the longterm welfare of society. this study argues that the construction industry faces a social dilemma; in this case, the environment is a common-pool resource that is at the mercy of the short-term profit motive of individual players. from a societal perspective, we need a strong desire to construct smart and sustainable buildings with reduced environmental impact to a minimum thus contributing to the long-term survival of the planet and our species. the questions then become how the principal legal tool for mutual exchange—the contract—(i) is designed, and (ii) could/should be designed to align incentives and risk between the developer, contractor, and consultant. an important theoretical starting point for this article is the work of holmström and milgrom on the optimization of contracts, in view of the ubiquitous principal/agent problem. when a principal contracts an agent (such as when a developer contracts a consultant or a contractor) to undertake some work on the principal´s behalf, there are conflicts of interest: the agent wants to perform the contracted work minimizing its use of resources in relation to the remuneration, while the principal wants the work done on time and at optimal quality. the relationship is also characterized by information asymmetries that adversely influence incentives to allocate resources in such a way as to optimize the enduring quality of what is produced under the contract. that is, in most cases the consultant or contractor has superior first-hand information about what they are producing. vogel, lind, holm construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019184 this study has identified three main areas of contract theory in the work of holmström and milgrom that impact the social dilemma described above: risk, time, and incentives. these areas must be addressed in order to balance short-term self-interest against long-term societal interests. risk as holmström and milgrom (1994) point out, a perception of shared risk leads to acting on productive incentives. agents can be risk-averse or risk-neutral, and contracts need to handle both extremes by properly managing risk versus incentives (wahlgren, 2013; holm, 2018). however, research strongly suggests that inexperienced agents are more likely to be riskaverse and tend to provide solutions that adhere to market consensus rather than solutions put forward by more experienced and risk-neutral agents. inexperienced agents simply have more to lose by being wrong: their capabilities are more uncertainty, and therefore they tend to “play it safe” and seek to avoid “standing out from the crowd” (scharfstein and stein, 1990; hong, kubik and solomon, 2000). studies reveal that less-risk-averse agents prefer riskier crops (ackerberg and botticini, 2002) time another pivotal problem in any principal/agent relationship is time. many issues in such relations arise because the risk transfers from one party to the other at a certain stipulated time, eliminating incentives to achieve enduring quality and performance of a product. the issue of time is one overarching issue in the principal/agent relationship. incentives contracts can be designed to incentivize performance by linking the agent’s profit to observable and verifiable performance benchmarks. performance-benchmarked contracts are often imprecise and have well-known drawbacks insofar as they are dependent on factors that may be beyond the principal’s control. this results in a trade-off between offering incentives and sharing risks (holmström and milgrom, 1991). to overcome some of these problems, holmström (1979) developed the informativeness principle, which predicts that when an agent’s remuneration is linked to a performance benchmark, the contract should be indexed in such a way that exogenous factors do not impact the agent’s remuneration. most actions in an industry are complex, multidimensional, and involve multiple actors, technologies, and subsystems that can only be partially observed and measured. only rewarding observable activities might lead agents to focus on activities that are likely to be rewarded (holmström and milgrom, 1991). holmström and milgrom (1991) developed a model of multitasking that involves substitutes in the design. different tasks are measured and rewarded differently, depending on factors such as their importance, their amenability to measurement, risk sharing, etc. the multitasking model balances the agent’s focus among different potential substitutes, weighting incentives and risks so as to achieve optimal outcomes for both parties. the informativeness principle, which calls for a linkage between pay and informative measures, can be applied in simple cases. in more complex situations, where a balance of activities is desirable (such as in construction projects), it might be better to ignore some performance-related information when determining the agent’s compensation. the principal takeaways from holmström’s and milgrom’s body of work is that incentive structures matter hugely in avoiding sub-optimal contract performance. focusing on incentivising innovation in the construction sector: the role of consulting contracts construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019185 easily measured parameters may distort incentive structures, and so holmström and milgrom (holmström, 1979; holmström and milgrom, 1991, 1994) developed a toolbox to fine-tune such contractual incentive structures with a view to optimizing contractual performance. brief overview of laws and regulations in the swedish construction sector the swedish construction sector has a few overarching laws, of which the planning and building law (pbl) and the boverkets building regulations (bbr) are the most prominent. the pbl contains provisions regarding the planning of land and water use and construction. its provisions aim to promote sustainable community development, equitable and satisfactory living conditions, and long-term sustainable development for existing and future generations (swedish parliament, 2010). under the pbl, long-term interests should outweigh shortterm interests (prop. 1985/86:1 pp. 460). the provisions have been revised in order to foster active community participation in decision-making. the bbr, on the other hand, contains mandatory provisions and general recommendations that implement the pbl and the planning and building regulation (pbf). the bbr dictates performance requirements for both residential and non-residential buildings according to geographical location and the selected heating system. the bbr further outlines requirements for the thermal envelope, energy-consuming systems, materials, and products. according to the bbr, regulatory compliance is to be achieved through measurement of actual energy use compared with the stipulated standards (boverket, 2011). the construction industry involves many different types of contracts among a variety of different parties, depending on how tasks are allocated. several studies have analysed these various types of contracts: for example, nyström, nilsson and lind (2016). there is a progressive trend away from design-bid-build (dbb) to design-build (db) contracts (nyström, nilsson and lind, 2016). db and dbb are the two main forms of contracting in the swedish construction sector. in db projects, the contractor has a certain degree of freedom in the design, something that is argued to support increased innovation (nilsson and nyström, 2014; trafikverket, 2018). in dbb projects, the client is responsible for the design. however, case studies on road construction projects in sweden and the uk have not evidenced a clear relationship between contract type, degrees of freedom, and the achievement of greater innovation (hall, holt and graves, 2000; nyström, nilsson and lind, 2016). this article focuses on a type of contract that has not been analysed in detail before, namely contracts with technical consultants. the standard template for the swedish construction industry for procuring services for planning buildings is the “general conditions of contract for consulting agreements for architectural and engineering assignments” (abk 09). as noted earlier, abk 09 is the product of the construction contracts committee, a non-profit organization. likewise, there are similar collaborative efforts around the world, including the ones developed by the international federation of consulting engineers (fidic), which provides widely adopted standard contracts (ndekugri, smith and hughes, 2007). analysis of the general conditions of contract (abk 09) this study is concerned with two central actors in swedish construction projects: developers (who manage and monitor the design phase) and consultants (who draw up the actual design). vogel, lind, holm construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019186 developers are in charge of locating buildings geographically (in cooperation with municipal governments), setting targets related to cost and performance, hiring consultants and contractors, and in some cases also establishing housing cooperatives for future homeowners. creating the cooperatives that will own and operate multifamily housing (vogel, lind and lundqvist, 2016). the consultant is responsible for translating the developer’s ideas into a functioning building, and hence they are also important for the design and performance of the building. the third central player in a building’s development is the contractor, who is not considered here. however, the clauses and issues investigated in this study regarding the abk 09 standard contract also apply to the general conditions of contract for building and civil engineering works and building services (ab 04) and general conditions of contract for design and construction contracts for building, civil engineering and installation works (abt 06), as well as to any generic principal/agent-type relationships that are formalized in a contract. now, the question is: does the current way of organizing collaboration between developers and consultants leads to a social dilemma—that is, is the incentive structure of abk 09 effective? this section investigates how a rational profit-maximizing consultant might interpret an important aspect of the consultant’s institutional context: namely, abk 09. this section further asks whether abk 09 adequately addresses the three main areas identified: risk, time, and incentives. this is undertaken by looking at each section and asking the following research questions: • does the section in any way lead to uncompensated risks for the consultant? • does the section in any way lead to any uncompensated time delays for the consultant? • does the section in any way incentivize consultants to propose novel innovative technologies that can be expected to perform better and contribute more to sustainability than commonly used technologies? six sections of abk 09 were identified that could potentially lead to weak and/or negative incentivization of consultants in proposing the best available technologies. however, the possible misalignment between short-term individual interests and long-term societal interests is present even in the very preamble of abk 09. preamble when negotiating abk 09, the objective has otherwise been to frame the terms in a manner appropriate in scope, and also from an overall industry perspective, to reconcile the interests of clients and consultants in conjunction with the implementation of architectural and engineering consulting assignments. abk 09 is premised on a reasonable balance between rights and obligations, which aims for the optimal allocation of financial risk between the parties. therefore, changes to these terms shall be avoided. comments the current contract only includes an aim for optimal allocation of financial risks. this makes the current contract rather narrow since it does not mention building operation and sustainability in the design phase. it is important to include risks other than financial risks, such as technological risks and environmental risks. it is furthermore important to align shared risk over the term of a contract. incentivising innovation in the construction sector: the role of consulting contracts construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019187 chapter 2, section 1 the consultant shall implement the assignment in a professional manner and with due care, and shall also generally observe sound professional practices. (construction contracts committee, 2009) comments the requirement concerning professionalism and sound professional practice is not troublesome per se and may seem rather sound. however, there is no precise definition or description of the term professionalism in the context of planning and constructing buildings. as described in section 3 above, research reveals that inexperienced agents tend to provide solutions that align more closely with the market consensus compared to solutions that more experienced agents propose. inexperienced agents have more to lose by being wrong (scharfstein and stein, 1990; hong, kubik and solomon, 2000). without further clarification, this term could therefore result in relatively inexperienced consultants, in particular, being afraid to propose new technologies in light of the risk of being judged “unprofessional” or of having offered something that is not yet “sound professional practice.” chapter 2, section 6 the client’s approval does not discharge the consultant from liability for data, the result of investigations, or technical solutions. however, the consultant shall be discharged from liability where the consultant proposed or presented technical solutions which the consultant deems to be associated with particular risks and the client approved the solutions. at the request of the consultant, the client shall provide an answer in such matters of approval. (construction contracts committee, 2009) if the consultant proposes or presents a technical solution which the consultant deems to be associated with particular risks, the demand for professionalism requires that the consultant notify the client of them and of the advantages and disadvantages that exist. (construction contracts committee, 2009) comments the consultant should, according to chapter 2, section 1, implement the assignment in a professional manner with due care and should also generally observe sound professional practices. this means that in order for the consultant to propose a novel innovative technology—one that according to current research can ensure the best technical and economic results for the client—the consultant must be sure that the technology performs well over a relatively long time period (10 years; see section 2, chapter 5). novel innovative technologies are arguably associated with an increased risk compared to older, well-known, but less-efficient technologies. moreover, the multitasking model reveals that agents will allocate their effort away from uncompensated activities and toward compensated activities. investigating the exact level of “professionalism” related to a specific measure or technique is arguably an uncompensated activity. further, the model discusses aggregate output. proposing a novel innovative technology will most certainly also affect other parts of the building that might be outside of the consultants’ control and that would require the cooperation of teams of consultants. if it is only possible to measure aggregate output, it may be difficult to contractually provide optimal incentives for each consultant due to the moral hazard of teams. vogel, lind, holm construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019188 according to section 6, chapter 2, consultants are released from liability if the client approves of the proposed solution, even if it might be associated with risks. however, there is a risk that the client might still pursue a liability claim against the consultant because they cannot be expected to have adequate knowledge of the proposed new solution. current trends (vogel et al., 2015) reveal decreasing technical competence on the developer side, along with increased usage of db contracts, arguably making it more difficult successfully argue for a transfer of liability (nyström, nilsson and lind, 2016). this research also question the view of the relationship between client and consultant since the text states that the consultant should ask for permission to use certain kinds of technology instead of seeing it as more of a partnership relationship in which the parties share the upside/ downside of riskier technologies. in passing, it is noted that this is in line with seeing the law as a fundamental instrument for lowering transaction costs, thereby leading to a more efficient outcome. chapter 4, section 2 the consultant is entitled to an extension of time if the consultant is delayed due to circumstances which the consultant has not caused and the effect of which the consultant could not reasonably have eliminated. (construction contracts committee, 2009) comments chapter 4, section 2, entitles the consultant to an extension of time if the delay is caused by circumstances that the consultant could not reasonably have eliminated. if the consultant proposes to use novel technologies without the client’s approval, then the consultant most probably will not have the right to an extension of time, due to the premise of professionalism stated in section 1, chapter 2. this further increases the risk of trying to introduce new technologies, since such cases are likely to require extra time, especially in the case of smart buildings with complex, interacting systems. in keeping with the comment above, we would call for more emphasis on the partnership aspect between the parties to the contract. chapter 4, section 6 liquidated damages may be agreed to for exceeding a specified deadline for delivery of the entire or part of the assignment. where the consultant exceeds this deadline and is not entitled to an extension of time, the agreed-to liquidated damages shall be paid. if liquidated damages have not been agreed to, the consultant may be liable for damages for the delay. (construction contracts committee, 2009) comments if the introduction of novel innovative technologies results in time delays, the consultant might not be entitled to an extension of time as discussed in chapter 4, section 2, and hence will be forced to pay liquidated damages. as argued in the comments of chapter 2, section 6, smart and sustainable buildings employ multiple interconnected systems and materials, and if it is only possible to measure aggregate output, it may be difficult to contractually provide optimal incentives for each consultant due to the moral hazard of teams. single consultants hired using an abk 09 contract might therefore have weak incentives to propose novel innovative technologies due to the increased risk of having to pay damages. incentivising innovation in the construction sector: the role of consulting contracts construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019189 the issue of damages is a standard remedy for compensating parties in private legal disputes. historically, damages have been a very successful instrument for handling risks related to long-distance maritime transport (greif, 2006). however, this model of damages is one of distrust and not of shared risks. with that in mind, damages may be seen as a sign of distrust in the contractual relation, and this exploratory study suggests that contractual measures involving the sharing of risk over time are an important area for follow-up research. chapter 5, section 1 subject to the limitations below, the consultant is liable for damage that the consultant has caused the client through lack of professionalism, disregard for customary due care, or other negligence in the implementation of the assignment. where the client has shown that damage has occurred and has made likely that the damage is due to an error in the consultant´s documents or an omission by the consultant, the consultant must show that the consultant is not liable for the damage in order to exempt itself from liability. (construction contracts committee, 2009) the damage covered by the term need not consist of property damage but may also concern, for example, financial damage. (construction contracts committee, 2009) comments section 1 of chapter 5 adds another dimension to the problem of liability. in the commentary section, financial damage is also included among the damage that the consultant can be held liable for. this section could be used against consultants that do not propose to use novel innovative technologies that could, for example, lower a client’s operation costs. at some point, novel innovative technologies become standard technology and hence the technology that should be used by a consultant acting with the professionalism that is called for in section 1, chapter 2. the risk related to omission of new and better technologies is, in reality, small, since it could always be argued that the risk of using new technology is higher and the consultant can thus explain and defend their use of traditional but less efficient technology. these wellestablished technologies might also be familiar to a client with less technological knowledge, and therefore it is unlikely that they would question it. using well-established technologies is thus less risky than proposing new technologies, even though the latter are both more sustainable and more profitable. chapter 5, section 2 the consultant is liable for damage discovered within ten years of the date on which the consultant’s assignment is completed or otherwise terminated. (construction contracts committee, 2009) comments section 2, chapter 5 adds further risk for the consultant, typically without any upside. when introducing novel innovative technologies, it is the client who will receive the benefits— through decreased operation costs, for example—but the risk remains with the consultant for quite a long time. the incentive to invest in collaboration depends on the parties´ expectations of how the surplus will be shared. ownership of assets is rather clear in the construction sector but sharing of future profits related to decreased operating and maintenance costs, as well as future service production in buildings, is typically not included in the consulting contract. this is a further area in which future research may significantly improve the inventive structures for vogel, lind, holm construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019190 consultant contracts in order to optimize outcomes in terms of smart, eco-friendly buildings and cities. general analysis and recommendations by looking at the current industry practice for collaboration (abk 09) through the lens of relevant parts of contract theory, this study pinpoints areas where abk 09 theoretically could lead to misalignment between short-term incentives for individual agents and the long-term goals of both companies and society, thus contributing to a social dilemma in which the climate is the asset that is sacrificed (ostrom, 1990). risk and incentives the consultant risks being held liable for damage connected to novel innovative technologies, while the client reaps the benefits of installing such technologies. the consultant risks • being held liable for damage connected to proposed novel innovative technologies, • forfeiting the possibility of time extension, and • being forced to pay penalties if the assignment is delayed due to the introduction of novel innovative technologies. the client, on the other hand, risks missing the opportunity to get the best available technology installed. this can lead to increased operating costs and to missed opportunities and/or future additional costs to reap the benefits of future interconnected smart cities. the current trend of using db contracts instead of dbb contracts is supposed to lead to increased levels of freedom for contractors and consultants and thereby stimulate innovation. however, assigning too much risk to the consultant (or the contractor) might be one reason why there have been no clear signs of increased innovation under these contracts in sweden (see lind and borg, 2010; nyström, nilsson and lind, 2016). time abk 09 describes the apportionment of liabilities between the parties, but only focuses on the deadlines and scope of the current collaboration. the actual outcome of the process (how the building works during the operation stage) is not part of the collaboration. hence, the incentive to focus on long-term sustainability is weak. to stimulate the parties to use contracts that contribute to solving a social dilemma it is important to discuss the sharing of risks over time. it is also important to include risks other than financial risks, such as technology risks, emissions risks, etc. finally, this research seeks to challenge the recommendation that “changes to these terms shall be avoided.” instead, it is considered important that the contract structure a process for changing contractual terms, should such a change improve the balance of risks and incentives for implementing new technologies that reduce emissions and the climate impact of a building. term of liability in abk 09 the same liability period applies to beams and pillars and to hvac systems and information and communication technologies (ict), even though the long-run consequences of new technologies are more difficult to predict. moreover, due to rapid technological development, the turnover of modern ict systems is probably actually shorter than the term incentivising innovation in the construction sector: the role of consulting contracts construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019191 of liability. different terms of liability for different systems could incentivize the use of newer technologies. the concept of professionalism the use of the concept of professionalism in abk 09 is a potential problem. professionalism could be interpreted as the use of the latest technology in order to reduce resource usage and emissions, but it could also be understood as the use of proven technologies that are less efficient. professionalism could be interpreted as performing a lifecycle analysis of the building as a system, but it could also be interpreted as calculating the direct costs for implementing a specific measure. new technology carries a risk as the downside of its advantages and finding measures that fall on the right side of risk/reward line that divides risk-free technologies from unproven, risky technologies, means looking into the past. products and methods eventually shift from new and risky to well-proven and risk-free, but never without testing the technologies in real-world environments (borg, 2015). novel energy-saving technologies cannot be implemented today without adding risk to the actors who introduce them. moreover, younger, inexperienced consultants might not dare to propose novel technologies and their associated risks due to the possibility of damaging their reputation (scharfstein and stein, 1990; hong, kubik and solomon, 2000). research has also found that so-called “dominant shareholders” are better clients/principals (bertrand and mullainathan, 2001) and also that less-risk-averse consultants/agents prefer riskier crops, the so-called selection bias (ackerberg and botticini, 2002). however, teams of experienced developers with extensive knowledge of both details and operation, or developers with teams of experienced and trusted consultants, can make efficient choices under today’s standard contracts. the problems discussed above are heightened when inexperienced or risk-averse consultants work together with poorly informed clients. in such a constellation there will be weak incentives for either party to prioritize sustainability and the long-term environmental impact of a building. possible remedies in order to achieve innovation and sustainability and to make smart and sustainable buildings and cities possible, contracts should be designed to capitalize on the full potential of the consultants’ and contractors’ technical knowledge, as well as the developers’ operational knowledge. the four areas described above must be handled and/or investigated in order to incentivize all parties to the contract to promote and invest in smart, ecofriendly technology and climate-neutral construction and operation. to balance the incentives and risks among the principals and agents (in this study, developers and consultants), this research proposes that the following points be considered in a future revision of the general contract terms in abk 09 and other construction-related standard contracts in other countries: • differentiate liability periods between systems that are necessary for operation (framing, vapor barriers, roofing, etc.) and systems that are optional and continually undergoing changes and upgrades (ict systems). • incentivize consultants and contractors through the sharing of future profits, allocating responsibilities and rewards not only during planning and construction but also operational benefits and responsibilities. this is often referred to as a performance contract. the multitasking model (holmström and milgrom, 1994) indicates that vogel, lind, holm construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019192 agents (consultants) will redirect their efforts away from uncompensated activities and toward compensated activities. there are a number of problems with long-term incentive contracts, but it would at a minimum be possible to have a five-year bonus system for consultants related to benchmarks for certain specific costs. • formalize the procedure for identifying specific technologies and systems as professionally prudent to use. standardize the methods for testing and evaluation, possibly also including suppliers. this change would preferably be implemented on a national level, in order to comply with national building regulations and other framework regulations, such as the municipal planning monopoly. • incentivize knowledge transfer: the study indicates that it would also be desirable to see some kind of process that mitigates risk aversion among less experienced consultants, so that there are incentives for exchange on these matters between client and consultant, and so that the process of exchange in the contract inherently incentivizes new technology and apportions the associated risks. new technologies might also be evaluated by academic committees or government authorities, as borg (2015) discusses. • include building performance or building operation into the overall objective. the contract could be changed to include not only an aim for optimal allocation of financial risks but also long-term building performance and sustainability. • damages should be limited to extreme cases of distrust in the contractual relationship, and in other cases should be replaced by a model of risk sharing. the sharing of risks should be tied to relevant criteria, so that the parties to the contract are incentivized to spend time on work that actual contributes to partnership and risk sharing, possibly a model that builds on holmström’s multitasking model (holmström and milgrom, 1991). the model of damages is one of distrust and not necessarily one of shared risk. conclusion in this study it has been argued that the construction industry faces a social dilemma; in this case, the environment is the common-pool resource that is at the mercy of individual players’ short-term incentives for profit. from a societal perspective, strong incentives are needed to construct smart and sustainable buildings that minimize environmental impacts and that contribute to the survival of the planet and our species over the long term. here the study has sought to contribute ideas on how to incentivize the construction of smart and sustainable buildings, by identifying misalignments related to risk and incentives in a swedish standardized contract, abk 09, which is often used in developer/consultant relationships. this paper also proposes how the standard contract could be restructured to make it attractive for developers to pursue climate-neutral building construction and operation and ultimately resolve the social dilemma described above. this study first asks how the contract is designed, then asks how it might be redesigned to align incentives and risk among developer, contractor, and consultant. three main areas have been identified in contract theory that could impact the social dilemma described above. these areas—risk, time, and incentives—are vital to manage in order to balance short-term selfinterest against long-term societal interests. by looking at the current industry practices for collaboration (abk 09) through the lens of the relevant parts of contract theory—in particular the work of holmström and milgrom on optimal contracts—six sections in abk 09 were identified that contain weak or negative incentivising innovation in the construction sector: the role of consulting contracts construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019193 incentives for consultants to propose the best available technologies that would favour climateneutral construction and building operation. these sections and the misalignments they contain mostly concern risks versus incentives, deadlines, and liabilities. based on the misalignments that were identified, six possible structural changes to standard contracts as instruments for optimized distribution of risk and incentives were put forward that, in turn, are conducive to bridging the social dilemma of ultimate concern. the general terms of abk 09 function well and are widely used. the vast majority of planning processes in sweden use the standard agreement “general conditions of contract for consulting agreements for architectural and engineering assignments” (abk 09) as the basis for collaboration between developers and consultants. the document is vital for the process of planning buildings in sweden and assures stability. however, in order to make smart and sustainable buildings an achievable reality, no matter their origin, contracts must encourage consultants and contractors to use their full technical and operational potential starting in the design phase. risks and incentives must be balanced so as to involve all parties in investigating, promoting, and investing in innovative sustainable solutions. undoubtedly the knowledge, technologies, and materials are available to drastically improve building performance and service production, while at the same time lowering the associated resource usage. however, the processes to actually identify and implement these technologies are not aligned with current technological development. even though this study focuses on abk 09 and the swedish context for that contract, similar contracts are a feature of any consultant/contractor cooperation. as such, this exploratory study has direct relevance for contexts other than sweden and has implications for such contractual incentive structures anywhere. it is hoped that this study encourages others to investigate the role of incentive structures in locally used standard contracts as a means to hasten the transition to smart and sustainable buildings and cities, and climate-neutral construction and operation. the results of this study indicate a need for others to initiate similar attempts at optimizing standard contracts in the construction industry as a means to achieve societal climate goals. if existing structures are left unchanged, there is a risk of ending up in a situation where society desires innovation and sustainability but does not incentivize these goals. the misaligned incentives, the demand for professionalism, and the asymmetrical distribution of knowledge in the construction sector create a risk of stagnation in building innovation. if clients do not take responsibility for demanding novel innovative technologies (which is not a reasonable expectation if they have less information concerning such technologies), consultants need to be incentivized to propose the use of such technologies, making smart and sustainable buildings the norm instead of something for the dedicated few. references ackerberg, d. a. and botticini, m., 2002. endogenous matching and the empirical determinants of contract form endogenous matching and the empirical determinants of contract form maristella botticini. journal of political economy, 110(3), pp. 564–591. https://doi.org/10.1086/339712 berardi, u., 2013. clarifying the new interpretations of the concept of sustainable building. sustainable cities and society. elsevier b.v., 8(2013), pp. 72–78. doi: 10.1016/j.scs.2013.01.008. bertrand, m. and mullainathan, s., 2001. are ceos rewarded for luck ? the ones without principals are. the quarterly journal of economics, 116(3), pp. 901–932. vogel, lind, holm construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019194 https://doi.org/10.1086/339712 http://10.1016/j.scs.2013.01.008 borg, l., 2015. procurement contracts, innovation and productivity in the construction sector: five studies. boverket, 2011. boverkets building regulations. [online] available at: [accessed 19 january 2019]. coase, r. h., 1937. the nature of the firm. economica, 4(16), pp. 386–405. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1468-0335.1937.tb00002.x coase, r. h., 1960. the problem of social cost. the journal of law & economics, 56(4), pp. 837–877. https://doi.org/10.1086/674872 construction contracts committee, 2009. general conditions of contract, for consulting agreements for architectural and engineering assignments for the year 2009. stockholm: ab svensk byggtjänst. construction contracts committee, 2015. construction contracts committee. ab svensk byggtjänst. [online] available at: [accessed: 7 january 2015]. greif, a., 2006. institutions and the path to the modern economy: lessons from medieval trade. cambridge: cambridge university press. hall, m., holt, r. and graves, a., 2000. private finance, public roads: configuring the supply chain in pfi highway construction. european journal of purchasing and supply management, 6(3–4), pp. 227–235. doi: 10.1016/s0969-7012(00)00018-6. holm, c., 2018. bearing and sharing risk in the swedish welfare state. in dyson, m. (ed.) regulating risk through private law. cambridge: intersentia. holmström, b., 1979. moral hazard and observability. the bell journal of economics, 10(1), pp. 74–91. https://doi.org/10.2307/3003320 holmström, b. and milgrom, p., 1991. multitask principal-agent analyses: incentive contracts, asset ownership, and job design. journal of law, economics, & organization, 7, pp. 24–52. doi/10.1108/ ilds.2002.12230dab.004. holmström, b. and milgrom, p., 1994. the firm as an incentive system. the american economic review, 84(4), pp. 972–991. [online] available at: [accessed 19 january 2019]. hong, h., kubik, j. d. and solomon, a., 2000. security analysts’ career concerns and herding of earnings forecasts. the rand journal of economics, 31(1), pp. 121–144. [online] available at: [accessed 7 january 2019]. lind, h. and borg, l., 2010. service-led construction: is it really the future?. construction management and economics, 28(11), pp. 1145–1153. doi: 10.1080/01446193.2010.529452. ndekugri, i., smith, n. and hughes, w., 2007. the engineer under fidic’s conditions of contract for construction. construction management and economics, 25(7), pp. 791–799. doi: 10.1080/01446190701411216. nilsson, j. and nyström, j., 2014. mapping railways maintenance contracts – the case of netherlands, finland and uk. [online] available at: [accessed 25 january 2019]. north, d. c., 1990. institutions, institutional change and economic performance. cambridge: cambridge university press. incentivising innovation in the construction sector: the role of consulting contracts construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019195 http://www.boverket.se/sv/lag--ratt/forfattningssamling/gallande/bbr---bfs-20116/ http://www.boverket.se/sv/lag--ratt/forfattningssamling/gallande/bbr---bfs-20116/ https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0335.1937.tb00002.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0335.1937.tb00002.x https://doi.org/10.1086/674872 http://www.foreningenbkk.org/index.php/the-construction-contracts-committe/ http://10.1016/s0969-7012(00)00018-6 https://doi.org/10.2307/3003320 http://doi/10.1108/ilds.2002.12230dab.004 http://doi/10.1108/ilds.2002.12230dab.004 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2646959 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2601032 http://www.jstor.org/stable/2601032 http://10.1080/01446193.2010.529452 http://10.1080/01446190701411216 http://vti.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:771921/fulltext01.pdf north, d. c. and thomas, r. p., 1973. the rise of the western world: a new economic history. cambridge: cambridge university press. nyström, j., nilsson, j. e. and lind, h., 2016. degrees of freedom and innovations in construction contracts. transport policy. elsevier, 47, pp. 119–126. doi: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2016.01.004. ostrom, e., 1990. governing the commons: the evolution of institutions for collective action. cambridge university press. ostrom, e., 2005. understanding institutional diversity. princeton university press. scharfstein, d. s. and stein, j. c., 1990. american economic association herd behavior and investment. the american economic review, 80(3), pp. 465–479. [online] available at: [accessed 7 january 2019]. sugden, r., 2000. credible worlds : the status of theoretical models in economics. journal of economic methodology, 7(1), pp. 1–31. doi: 10.1080/135017800362220. swedish parliament, 2010. planning and building act. [online] available at: , [accessed 19 january 2019]. trafikverket, 2018. trafikverkets arbete med produktivitet och innovation i anläggningsbranschen. [online] available at: [accessed 6 january 2019]. vogel, a.j., lundqvist, p., blomkvist, p. and arias, j., 2015. problem areas related to energy efficiency implementation in swedish multifamily buildings. energy efficiency, 9(1), pp. 109–127. doi: 10.1007/ s12053-015-9352-4. vogel, j., lind, h. and lundqvist, p., 2016. who is governing the commons: studying swedish housing cooperatives. housing, theory and society, 6096(may), pp. 1–21. doi: 10.1080/14036096.2016.1186730. wahlgren, p., 2013. legal risk analysis: a proactive legal method. stockholm: facutly of law book series. vogel, lind, holm construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019196 http://10.1016/j.tranpol.2016.01.004 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2006678 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2006678 http://10.1080/135017800362220 http://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-lagar/lagar/svenskforfattningssamling/plan--och-bygglag-2010900_sfs-2010-900/ http://www.riksdagen.se/sv/dokument-lagar/lagar/svenskforfattningssamling/plan--och-bygglag-2010900_sfs-2010-900/ https://www.trafikverket.se/contentassets/faf06a1e99bf4024ab4e8680e9ed59aa/trafikverkets-produktivitetsarbete_slutversion.pdf https://www.trafikverket.se/contentassets/faf06a1e99bf4024ab4e8680e9ed59aa/trafikverkets-produktivitetsarbete_slutversion.pdf http://10.1007/s12053-015-9352-4 http://10.1007/s12053-015-9352-4 http://10.1080/14036096.2016.1186730 construction economics and building vol. 17, no. 3 september 2017 © 2017 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: ahmadi, n. and shahandashti, m. 2017. comparative empirical analysis of temporal relationships between construction investment and economic growth in the united states. construction economics and building, 17:3, 85-108. http://dx.doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5482 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | ajceb.epress. lib.uts.edu.au abstract the majority of policymakers believe that investments in construction infrastructure would boost the economy of the united states (u.s.). they also assume that construction investment in infrastructure has similar impact on the economies of different u.s. states. in contrast, there have been studies showing the negative impact of construction activities on the economy. however, there has not been any research attempt to empirically test the temporal relationships between construction investment and economic growth in the u.s. states, to determine the longitudinal impact of construction investment on the economy of each state. the objective of this study is to investigate whether construction value added (cva) is the leading (or lagging) indicator of real gross domestic product (real gdp) for every individual state of the u.s. using empirical time series tests. the results of granger causality tests showed that cva is a leading indicator of state real gdp in 18 states and the district of columbia; real gdp is a leading indicator of cva in 10 states and the district of columbia. there is a bidirectional relationship between cva and real gdp in 5 states and the district of columbia. in 8 states and the district of columbia, not only do cva and real gdp have leading/lagging relationships, but they are also cointegrated. these results highlight the important role of the construction industry in these states. the results also show that leading (or lagging) lengths vary for different states. the results of the comparative empirical analysis reject the hypothesis that cva is a leading indicator of real gdp in the states with the highest viewpoint comparative empirical analysis of temporal relationships between construction investment and economic growth in the united states navid ahmadi1*, mohsen shahandashti1 1 department of civil engineering, the university of texas at arlington, 416 yates street, 425 nedderman hall, arlington, tx, 76010. *corresponding author: navid ahmadi, department of civil engineering, the university of texas at arlington, 416 yates street, 425 nedderman hall, arlington, tx, 76010. email: navid.ahmadiesfahani@uta.edu doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5482 article history: received 08/04/2017; revised 25/05/2017; accepted 26/06/2017; published 21/09/2017 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 85 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5482 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5482 ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au mailto:navid.ahmadiesfahani@uta.edu http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5482 shares of construction in the real gdp. the findings of this research contribute to the state of knowledge by quantifying the temporal relationships between construction investment and economic growth in the u.s. states. it is expected that the results help policymakers better understand the impact of construction investment on the economic growth in various u.s. states. keywords construction value added, economic growth, u.s. states, granger causality test, unit root test, gdp introduction the value added by construction industry or construction value added (cva) is the contribution of the construction industry in the larger economy usually shown by gross domestic product (gdp). cva as a percentage of gdp in the united states (u.s.) declined from a high of 6.2% in 1997 to a low of 3.7% in 2011 and then rose to the stilllow 3.9% in 2015. cva as a percentage of gdp varies dramatically among the states. in 2015, it has ranged from a high of 7.6% for north dakota to a low of 3.1% for new york. share of cva in gdp varies even more dramatically within a state over time. for example, in nevada, it has decreased form a high of 10.6% in 2005 to a low of 5% in 2015, or in montana this share ranges from a high of 7.4% in 2005 to a low of 5.8% in 2015. surprisingly, montana with a share of 5.8% is ranked the 3rd among the u.s. states, which shows the huge decrease of construction investment over the past decade. these variations raise the question whether these fluctuations lead (or lag) the overall economy of the states. many policymakers believe that investments in the infrastructure construction would boost the economy of the u.s. (landers, 2014; aschauer, 1989; munnell, 1990). they also assume that construction investments have similar impacts on the state economies in the u.s. this assumption is the foundation of several policies, especially those that are promoting infrastructure investments in the u.s. however, this critical assumption has not been tested empirically and the temporal relationships between construction investments and economic growth have not been assessed at the state level in the u.s. the construction value added (cva) and real gross domestic product (gdp) quarterly time series data collected by the u.s. bureau of economic analysis provide an opportunity to investigate this temporal relationship. the objective of this study is to investigate the leadlag relationships between cva and real gdp for every state of the u.s. using empirical time series tests. in the next section, a review of the literature is conducted. a statistical approach for evaluating the temporal links between cva and real gdp in the u.s. states is provided under the research method section. the results of the statistical analyses are discussed in empirical results section. finally, conclusions are presented in the last section. research background over the past few decades, several studies have assessed the relationship between construction and economic growth around the world. these studies could be classified into two major categories (giang and pheng, 2010). the first category indicates that construction investments have positive impact on economic growth (e.g., landers, 2014; markstein, 2016). the second ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201786 category points out that construction investments might have negative impact on economic growth (e.g., kocherlakota and yi, 1996; drewer, 1980). turin (1969) analyzed the role of the construction industry in economic growth in 87 countries with different levels of gdp. the results of that study showed a relatively high correlation between construction industry investments and overall economic conditions. they also realized that the share of value added by the construction industry falls somewhere between 5-8% for developed countries while it is between 3-5% for developing countries. further studies during the following decades also pointed out the positive impact of construction investments on economic growth in developed countries, such as the u.s. (aschauer, 1989; munnell, 1990), canada (wylie, 1996), and sweden (berndt and hansson, 1992). wells (1986), turin (1973), and strassman (1970) showed that over the period of economic growth, the construction industry is required to grow at a higher rate than the whole economy. ofori (1988) found that the construction industry plays a major role in the economy of singapore. kirmani (1988) introduced the construction industry as a powerful engine for economic growth. world bank (1994) showed that infrastructure needs to grow fast enough to generate enough facilities for economic growth. the positive impact of construction investment on economic growth is not exclusive to north america and europe. infrastructure investment also led to economic growth in asia and the pacific region by improving the capacity and efficiency of the economy (united nations, 1990). easterly and rebelo (1993) demonstrated a considerably positive correlation between transport and communication investments, and economic growth rate, using the historical time series data of 28 developed countries. anaman, kwabena and oseiamponsah (2007) discussed the importance of construction activities by demonstrating their role in utilizing local human and material resources that promote local employment. construction pushes demand for construction materials and equipment beyond the construction activity itself. financial services (for financing projects and purchases of projects), transportation services for delivering materials to construction sites, and sales and leasing services are additional effects of construction on the economy that are not included in the contribution of the construction industry to gdp. taking all these effects into account, a conservative estimate of additional effect of the construction industry on the economy would be around 2-3% (markstein, 2016). hosein and lewis (2005) acknowledged this additional effect by indicating that “one of its most important economic features is that it creates the facilities that are necessary for the production and distribution of all other goods and services.” the construction industry’s share in gdp has been recognized as an important factor for economic growth. for example, edmonds (1979) suggested that for a steady economic growth in developing countries, the contribution of the construction industry to gdp needs to be 5%. lopes, ruddock and ribeiro (2002) also showed that the economy would enter a steady growth while the share of value added by the construction industry to the gdp is 4-5 %. in contrast to the studies indicating the positive impact of construction on economic growth, some studies have shown the negative impact of the construction industry on the economy. drewer (1980) analyzed the data of the united nations economic commission for europe (ece) region between 1970 and 1976 and concluded that more construction does not necessarily enhance the economic conditions. the author reported that the uncontrolled expansion of construction could have a negative impact on the economy. kocherlakota and yi (1996) suggested that infrastructure investments do not necessarily improve economic growth rate. excessive supply of construction outputs even caused recessions in southeast asia in 1997, in singapore in 1985, and in trinidad and tobago around the same time (ganesan, 2000; lewis, 1984). thus, excessive growth of construction activity might negatively affect the ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201787 macroeconomic stability by misallocation and waste of resources (giang and pheng, 2010). in fact, these scholars reported that production capacity should be accounted for, to avoid overestimating the positive impact of construction investment on economic growth. the granger causality test has been used in economics to analyze the temporal relationships between the variables. the granger causality test is a statistical hypothesis test which determines whether the time series of a variable is useful to predict the time series of another variable (granger 1969). shahandashti and ashuri (2012) implemented the granger causality test to identify the leading indicators of construction cost index (cci). the granger causality test is widely used to analyze the temporal relationship between the construction industry investments and macroeconomic growth. anaman (2003) investigated the relationship between the gdp contributions of the construction industry and overall gdp in brunei using granger causality tests. barot (2002) used granger causality tests to study whether growth rate in investment impacted growth rates in total factor productivity for agriculture and financial institutions, real estate, and other businesses. ofori (1988) studied the impact of construction in singapore’s economy and concluded that the construction sector played a major role in singapore’s economic development. green (1997), based on granger causality tests, showed that residential construction investment granger-caused gdp; however non-residential construction investment does not granger-cause gdp. tse and ganesan (1997) indicated that growth in the economy measured by gdp led to an increase in activity of the construction sector of hong kong from 1985 to 1995. kirmani (1988) introduced the construction industry as a powerful engine for economic growth. anaman, kwabena and osei-amponsah (2007) analyzed the causal links between the growth of the construction industry and the growth of the macro-economy in ghana using the granger causality test. the direction of the causality between the construction sector and gdp has also been analyzed. tse and ganesan (1997) showed that the causality ran from gdp to construction in the case of hong kong. lean (2001) indicated a bi-directional causal relationship between construction and gdp in singapore. zheng and liu (2004) also found a bi-directional causal relationship between construction and gdp in china and concluded that construction had short-term impacts on economic growth, while the economy had long-term impacts on the construction industry. lewis (2009) showed that this relationship in trinidad and tobago changed over time depending on different circumstances. research method the bureau of economic analysis of the u.s. department of commerce has published both cva and gdp for all the u.s. states since 2005 (bea, 2016). cva and gdp time series data for every individual state in the u.s. are collected and used in this study. a time series is a sequence of data, usually presented across equal time intervals. since both cva and gdp are time series data, statistical bivariate time series tests are used to assess temporal relationships between cva and gdp at the state level. statistical time series tests, are usually preceded by unit root tests, to examine the stationarity of the data. the augmented dickey-fuller (adf) test is used as a unit root test to examine the stationarity of the data. the granger causality test is implemented to empirically analyze the temporal relationship between the cva and gdp for all the u.s. states. the cointegration test ( johansen 1988) is used to evaluate the long-run relationship between time series variables. if value added by construction at the state level is cointegrated with gdp at the same state, then there exists a long-run relationship between the time series of these two variables over time. ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201788 unit root test unit root tests are normally used to identify the order of integration of the variables before the granger causality test is implemented. the minimum number of times that a time series needs to be differenced to become stationary is the order of integration of the time series. the augmented dickey-fuller (adf) test, proposed by dickey and fuller (1979) and extended by said and dickey (1984) was implemented to examine the stationarity of the variables: ∑α β γ δ∆ = + + + − = ∆ +− −y t y p i y u 1 1t t i t i t1 (1) where t is the time index, yt is the value of time series at time t, δyt denotes the lagged first differences (i.e., yt – yt-1). α is an intercept constant (a drift term), β is a coefficient on a time trend and γ is a coefficient to test whether we need to difference the data to make it stationary. p is the lag length of the test and determined when applying the test. the akaike information criterion (aic) is used to identify the lag lengths. it is an independent identically distributed residual term. the null hypothesis of the test is that the time series under study is not stationary (γ = 0, β ≠ 0), and the alternative hypothesis is that the time series is stationary (γ < 0, β ≠ 0). granger causality test the granger causality test (granger, 1969) is a statistical hypothesis test to determine whether the time series of a variable is useful to predict the time series of another variable. in other words, this test determines whether the time series of a variable leads the time series of another variable. the null hypothesis of this test is that the past p values of x are not helpful to predict y (x does not granger cause y). p is the lag length of the granger causality test, and the results of the test depend on the chosen lag lengths. therefore, different lag lengths (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 lag lengths) are used in this study. these lag lengths represent a 2.5-year horizon since the data are quarterly. the following bivariate autoregressive models are used to test whether the value added by construction granger causes gdp at the state level and vice versa (gdp granger causes cva): gdp p i gdp p i cva u 1 1t i t i i t i t∑ ∑α β∆ = = ∆ + = ∆ +( ) ( ) ( ) ( )− − (2) ∑ ∑α β∆ = = ∆ + = ∆ +( ) ( ) ( ) ( )− −cva p i cva p i gdpa u 1 1t i t i i t i t (3) where cva(t) represents the time series of the construction value added in the state, gdp(t) is the time series of gross domestic product in the same state, p is the maximum number of lagged observations included in the model, and ut represents the time series of the residuals. cva does not granger cause gdp if βi = 0 (i=1,…,p) in equation 2. gdp does not granger cause cva if βi = 0 (i=1,…,p) in equation 3. cointegration test two-time series variables are cointegrated if the time series variables are integrated in the same order and a linear combination of these two-time series has a lower order of integration. if a combination of two variables is cointegrated, they do not drift apart as time passes and they are related in the long run. ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201789 in this paper, a cointegration test proposed by johansen (1988) and extended by johansen and juselius (1990) was implemented to examine whether cva is cointegrated with gdp in each state of the u.s. the lag length (p) for this test was selected based on akaike information criterion (akaike, 1974). r represents the number of cointegrating relationships between gdp and cva. the trace statistics show that whether the null hypothesis of r = 0 could be rejected. if the null hypothesis is rejected, there is a cointegrating relationship (or are relationships) between gdp and cva at the state level. data non-seasonally adjusted quarterly data of real gdp and cva published by the bureau of economic analysis (bea, 2016) was used in this study. real gross domestic product (real gdp) is a monetary measure of final goods and services. this measure has been widely used for economic analyses. the bureau of economic analysis (bea) has published “quarterly real gdp by state” since 2005. the contribution of each industry to the overall gdp by state is called value added by the industry. in concept, value added of an industry is equivalent to the industry’s gross output minus its intermediate inputs (strassner and wasshausen, 2014). construction value added (cva) represents the contribution of the construction industry to the gdp by state. it includes the value added by several construction activities, such as construction of highways and streets, manufacturing structures, health care structures, educational and vocational structures, and residential structures. as an illustration, table 6 and table 7, in appendix a, represent gdps and cvas for all u.s. states and the district of columbia from the 3rd quarter of 2012 up to the 4th quarter of 2014. empirical results the results of adf unit root tests for the state gdps and cvas are represented in table 1. data of gdps for the states are not stationary first. the gdps of 47 states and the district of columbia become stationary by applying the differencing operator once (δgdp). these results also show that the cvas of 38 states and the district of columbia become stationary after applying the differencing operator δcva. table 1 results of adf unit root tests of real gdp and cva time series for different states state adf t-statistics for δgdp adf t-statistics for δcva ak -3.73** -4.55 *** al -4.61*** -3.33 * ar -4.59*** -5.37 *** az -2.55 -2.43 ca -4.16** -7.39 *** co -4.49*** -3.54 ** ct -3.86** -3.73** dc -4.57*** -4.67*** ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201790 table 1 (continued) state adf t-statistics for δgdp adf t-statistics for δcva de -5.25*** -5.16*** fl -2.32 -2.14 ga -3.95** -2.29 hi -3.59** -1.98 ia -4.62*** -5.08*** id -3.59** -4.26*** il -4.16** -2.87 in -3.49* -3.71** ks -4.06** -4.52*** ky -3.82** -4.86*** la -4.21** -4.73*** ma -4.05** -2.64 md -4.79*** -4.19** me -5.18*** -4.42*** mi -3.26* -4.23*** mn -4.77*** -3.99** mo -5.2*** -3.74** ms -3.92** -3.99** mt -3.96** -3.64** nc -4.13** -2.72 nd -3.16 -3.71** ne -5.66*** -4.95*** nh -6.34*** -4.58*** nj -3.47* -4.64*** nm -5.57*** -2.78 nv -2.75 -2.16 ny -5.15*** -4.07** oh -3.96** -3.74** ok -5.24*** -4.84*** or -3.94** -2.63 pa -5.84*** -4.43*** ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201791 table 1 (continued) state adf t-statistics for δgdp adf t-statistics for δcva ri -4.47*** -3.6** sc -3.82** -2.56 sd -3.69** -5.36*** tn -3.93** -3.87** tx -4.1** -3.61** ut -4.13** -2.1 va -5.48*** -4.21** vt -4.99*** -5.53*** wa -3.72** -2.16 wi -5.15** -5.39*** wv -5.18*** -4.92*** wy -4.48*** -4.7*** notes: *, **, and *** represent rejection of null hypothesis at the 10%, 5%, and 1% significance levels, respectively. akaike information criterion is used for lag selection. to avoid the problem of spurious regression, the granger causality test can only be applied on stationary time series data. both cvas and gdps of 36 states and district of columbia become stationary after applying the difference operator once. therefore, the granger causality test was applied on cvas and gdps of 36 states and the district of columbia in which cvas and gdps become stationary after applying the differencing operator once. the granger causality test investigates whether the first differenced time series of cva of a specific state granger causes the first differenced time series of gdp in the same state. the results of granger causality tests summarized in table 2 indicate that cva is a leading indicator of gdp in 18 states (alaska, california, colorado, connecticut, delaware, idaho, indiana, louisiana, minnesota, missouri, montana, new hampshire, new jersey, new york, oklahoma, wisconsin, west virginia, wyoming) and the district of columbia. figure 1 demonstrates the geographic distribution of the states where cva leads gdp. these states do not belong to a specific geographical area. granger causality test is also applied to understand whether gdp is a leading indicator of cva at the state level. rejection of null hypothesis (gdp does not granger cause cva at the state level) for time series data of a state means that the granger causality runs from gdp to cva at that state. table 3 shows the states in which gdp granger causes cva. the results indicate that in 10 states (colorado, delaware, iowa, kansas, louisiana, michigan, montana, minnesota, nebraska, and rhode island) and the district of columbia causality runs from gdp to cva, which means cva is a lagging indicator of gdp in these states. ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201792 table 2 results of granger causality tests for the states where the null hypothesis was rejected (null hypothesis: cva does not granger cause real gdp at the state level) state f statistics lag 1 lag 2 lag 3 lag 4 lag 5 lag 6 lag 7 lag 8 lag 9 lag 10 ak 2.39 1.98 2.33* 1.59 1.36 1.28 0.89 0.71 0.77 0.62 ca 8.53*** 4.55** 2.35* 1.66 2.16* 2.33* 1.95 2 1.64 1.14 co 3.48* 2.8* 2.14 1.86 1.32 2.43* 1.58 2.3* 1.53 1.25 ct 1.24 1.74 1.36 1.23 3.18** 2.7** 2.33* 3.53** 3.91*** 6.4*** dc 0.47 0.83 1.03 3.08** 3.2** 1.54 1.16 1.19 0.77 0.61 de 1.72 1.93 3.1** 2.16 1.79 1.58 1.14 1.13 1.17 1.22 id 0.59 1.28 4.72*** 3.38** 4.21*** 4.16*** 3.45** 3.2** 2.36* 2.06 in 3.94* 1.99 0.87 0.67 0.59 0.53 0.49 0.54 0.51 0.46 la 2.41 2.89* 2.27* 1.84 1.41 0.98 1.16 1.97 1.45 1.05 mn 3.55* 2.36 2.64* 2 1.2 1.09 1.8 2.85** 2.04 1.82 mo 1.04 0.68 0.58 1.39 1.89 1.52 1.93 2.02* 1.5 0.81 mt 3.29* 2.13 0.91 0.94 0.86 0.59 1.03 1.87 1.81 2.19* nh 0.94 2.25 3.25** 3.46** 3.29** 3.71*** 2.44* 1.65 2.27* 1.87 nj 0.06 0.99 0.91 2.58* 2.61** 2.78** 2.29* 1.69 2.16* 1.67 ny 4.31** 2.04 1.51 0.93 1.21 0.87 1.07 1.3 0.91 0.98 ok 2.81 1.24 0.65 2.06 2.65** 2.3* 1.91 2 1.7 1.57 wi 1.03 0.92 1.43 1.05 0.84 1.18 2.34* 2.56** 2.83** 2.27* wv 0.32 0.45 2.28* 1.86 1.47 1.49 1.44 1.32 0.89 0.75 wy 0.0001 0.001 1.69 4.85*** 4.13*** 3** 2.74** 2.41* 2.29* 1.82 notes: *, **, and *** represent rejection of null hypothesis at the 10%, 5%, and 1% significance levels, respectively. johansen cointegration test is also applied on time series data of the states in which either cva granger causes gdp or gdp granger causes cva. as discussed earlier, time series data of these states are integrated of order 1. if cva and gdp time series data of a state are both integrated of order 1 and a linear combination of gdp and cva is integrated of order 0, these two-time series data are cointegrated. rejection of null hypothesis (r =0) in cointegration test at each state means that there exists a long-run relationship between gdp and cva at the state level. the results of cointegration test summarized in table 4 show that there is a statistically significant cointegrating relationship between gdp and cva in 8 states of the u.s. (connecticut, idaho, michigan, montana, new hampshire, new jersey, rhode island, and wisconsin) and the district of columbia. ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201793 figure 1 granger causality map between cva and gdp value added by construction industry leads gdp by state 18 states value added by construction industry does not lead gdp by state 18 states granger causality test could not be tested 14 states discussion of results the results of this study show that out of 36 states in which the temporal relationship between gdp and cva could be empirically tested, there exists a leading and/or lagging relationship between the construction industry and gdp in 23 states. cva is a leading indicator of gdp in 18 states and the district of columbia; cva is a lagging indicator of gdp in 10 states and the district of columbia, and there is a bi-directional relationship between cva and gdp in 5 states and the district of columbia. we did not find enough evidence showing any causality relationships between cva and gdp in the other 13 states; however, it does not necessarily mean that the construction industry is not important in these states. the results of this study are summarized in table 5. states in which cva is a leading indicator of gdp the results of this study show that cva is a leading indicator of gdp in 18 states and the district of columbia. cva leads gdp in the short-term in 7 states (ak, ca, de, in, la, ny, wv) and the district of columbia. cva leads gdp in the mediumto long-term in 5 states (ct, nj, ok, wi, wy). cva leads gdp in both short and medium to long-term in 6 states (co, id, mn, mo, mt, nh); therefore, construction activity is the consistent leading indicator of economic growth in these states. states in which cva is a lagging indicator of gdp the results of the granger causality test from gdp to cva show that cva is a lagging indicator of gdp in 10 states and the district of columbia that means changes in gdp ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201794 table 3 results of granger causality tests for the states where null hypothesis was rejected (null hypothesis: real gdp does not granger cause cva at the state level) state f statistics lag 1 lag 2 lag 3 lag 4 lag 5 lag 6 lag 7 lag 8 lag 9 lag 10 co 4.98** 2.70* 2.98** 2.03 1.88 3.21** 2.51** 1.77 1.58 1.16 dc 3.77* 2.26 0.96 3.79** 2.99** 2.96** 2.37* 2.25* 2.02 1.77 de 16.9*** 7.91*** 5.16*** 0.33 0.41 0.87 1.35 1.04 0.78 0.71 ia 0.29 4.37** 2.70* 2.53* 2.32* 1.74 1.38 1.46 1.17 1.30 ks 0.007 1.41 0.86 0.59 0.58 0.45 0.90 0.74 2.09* 2.29* la 0.29 4.37** 2.70* 2.53* 2.32* 1.74 1.38 1.46 1.17 1.30 mi 2.79 3.69** 2.41* 1.99 1.44 2.43* 2.06* 1.79 1.47 1.32 mo 0.96 0.54 1.53 1.62 2.39* 1.78 1.21 1.09 1.03 1.13 mt 0.09 1.21 1.27 3.47** 3.51** 2.90** 2.37* 1.62 1.40 1.79 ne 0.45 0.30 1.31 2.21 2.08* 1.73 1.65 1.34 1.01 0.69 ri 0.38 0.96 1.87 2.09 3.00** 3.04** 3.09** 2.64** 3.41** 3.26** notes: *, **, and *** represent rejection of null hypothesis at the 10%, 5%, and 1% significance levels, respectively. table 4 results of johansen cointegration tests for the vector of gdp and cva at the state level for the states where null hypothesis was rejected state trace statistics 5% critical value 1% critical value ct 23.85*** 17.95 23.52 dc 31.22*** 17.95 23.52 id 22.34** 17.95 23.52 mi 27.51*** 17.95 23.52 mt 33.22*** 17.95 23.52 nh 18.03** 17.95 23.52 nj 26.96*** 17.95 23.52 ri 24.32*** 17.95 23.52 wi 31.37*** 17.95 23.52 notes: **, and *** represent rejection of null hypothesis at the 5%, and 1% significance levels, respectively; akai information criterion is used for lag selection. ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201795 table 5 summary of the results state cva as a percentage of gdp in 2015 cva granger causes gdp in short term cva granger causes gdp in medium to long term gdp granger causes cva in short term gdp granger causes cva in medium to long term cointegrating relationship between cva and gdp ak 4.3% ¸ ca 3.4% ¸ co 4.3% ¸ ¸ ¸ ¸ ct 3.1% ¸ ¸ dc 1.0% ¸ ¸ ¸ ¸ de 3.2% ¸ ¸ ia 4.3% ¸ id 5.0% ¸ ¸ ¸ in 3.8% ¸ ks 3.9% ¸ la 5.5% ¸ ¸ mi 3.5% ¸ ¸ ¸ mn 4.0% ¸ ¸ mo 5.8% ¸ ¸ ¸ mt 4.0% ¸ ¸ ¸ ¸ ne 3.6% ¸ nh 3.4% ¸ ¸ ¸ nj 3.7% ¸ ¸ ny 3.1% ¸ ok 4.2% ¸ ri 3.8% ¸ ¸ wi 3.8% ¸ ¸ wv 4.7% ¸ wy 5.8% ¸ ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201796 would take place before a change in the construction sector. economic variations in some states take place right before the construction sector (de, ia, la) while in some other states (ks, mo, mt, ne, ri) these variations will show up in the construction industry up to 2.5 years later. gdp granger causes cva in both the short and medium to long-term in two states (co, mi) and the district of columbia. these results confirm the dependency of the construction sector to the economic conditions in these 10 states and the district of columbia. states in which cva is a lead-lag indicator of gdp there exists a bi-directional causal relationship between cva and gdp in 5 states (co, de, la, mo, mt) and the district of columbia that means while changes in the economic conditions of the state will appear later in the construction sector, construction activities are still an engine of economic variations in these states. states in which cva and gdp are cointegrated the data of cva and gdp are cointegrated in 8 states (ct, id, mi, mt, nh, nj, ri, wi) and the district of columbia. the cointegration relationship means that the time series of the two variables do not drift apart as time passes and there is a long-run relationship between cva and gdp in these states. the association between leading/lagging relationships and share of cva in gdp the bureau of economic analysis calculates the share of construction activity in the state gdp. north dakota, montana, wyoming, louisiana, and utah are the top 5 states with respect to the share of construction activity in the state gdp in 2015 (bea, 2016). new york, connecticut, delaware, oregon, and ohio are the bottom 5 states in this ranking (bea, 2016). some of the 18 states shown in table 1 are among the states with high share of construction activity in the gdp. for example, montana, wyoming, and louisiana are ranked among the top 5 states of the ranking table of construction activity as a percentage of state gdp. on the contrary, some other states of table 1 are among the bottom 5 states of this ranking (new york, connecticut, and delaware). thus, the hypothesis of an existing relationship between the “share of construction in state gdp” and the “impact of construction industry on state gdp” in all u.s. states would be rejected. in other words, a higher share of construction to the state gdp does not necessarily mean that construction investments have more impact on the state’s economy. more interestingly, a lower share of construction to the state gdp does not necessarily indicate the low importance of construction in economic growth of the state. conclusion this study analyzes the temporal relationships between the construction industry and the economy at the state level in the u.s. the results of the present study show that the value added by the construction industry leads state gdp with different lags in 18 states of the u.s. (alaska, california, colorado, connecticut, delaware, idaho, indiana, louisiana, minnesota, missouri, montana, new hampshire, new jersey, new york, oklahoma, wisconsin, west virginia, wyoming) and the district of columbia. since growth in the construction industry ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201797 precedes growth in the larger economy in 18 states and the district of columbia, the government had better provide a conductive requirement for construction firms at least in these states, to enhance their performance. this finding could be useful in policy planning while prioritizing investment opportunities. the results of this study also show that cva is a lagging indicator of gdp in 10 states (colorado, delaware, iowa, kansas, louisiana, michigan, minnesota, montana, nebraska, and rhode island) and the district of columbia that means changes in economic conditions will appear later in the construction sector in these states. economic variations in some states take place right before changes in the construction industry such as in delaware while in some other states (e.g. rhode island) these variations will show up in the construction industry up to 2.5 years later. correspondingly, there is a bi-directional causal relationship between cva and gdp in 5 states (colorado, delaware, louisiana, minnesota, and montana) and the district of columbia that shows the dependency of the construction sector and the economy on each other in these states. we did not find enough evidence showing any relationships between the value added by construction industry and state gdp in other states. the data of 14 states were not stationary; therefore, the granger causality test could not be conducted. this limitation of the study should not be interpreted as minor importance of the construction industry in those states. a comparison between the results of this study and the table of construction as a percentage of gdp shows that the hypothesis of an existing relationship between the “share of construction in state gdp” and the “impact of construction industry on state gdp” in all u.s. states would be rejected. in other words, a higher share of construction to the state gdp does not necessarily mean that construction investments have more impact on the state’s economy. more interestingly, a lower share of construction to the state gdp does not necessarily mean the low importance of construction in economic growth of the state. it is recommended to further investigate the relationships between state gdp growth rates and construction share of gdp. further studies could also be conducted analyzing the impact of investments in different sub-sectors of the construction industry on the economy of the u.s. states. references akaike, h., 1974. a new look at the statistical model identification. ieee transportations on automatic control, 19(6), pp. 716-23. https://doi.org/10.1109/tac.1974.1100705 anaman, kwabena asomanin and osei-amponsah, charity, 2007. analysis of the causality links between the growth of the construction industry and the growth of the macro-economy in ghana, construction management and economics, 25(9), pp. 951-61. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190701411208 aschauer, d.a., 1989. is public expenditure productive? journal of monetary economics, 23, pp. 177-200. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3932(89)90047-0 berndt, e.r. and hansson, b., 1992. measuring the contribution of public infrastructure capital in sweden. scandinavian journal of economics, 94, pp. 151-68. https://doi.org/10.2307/3440255 barot, b., 2002. growth and business cycles for the swedish economy 1963–1999. journal of construction, 3(2), 217-53. https://doi.org/10.1142/s1609945102000242 dickey, d. and fuller, w.a., 1979. distribution of the estimates for autoregressive time series with a unit root. journal of the american statistical association, 74, pp. 427-31. https://doi.org/10.2307/2286348 and https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1979.10482531 ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201798 https://doi.org/10.1109/tac.1974.1100705 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190701411208 https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-3932(89)90047-0 https://doi.org/10.2307/3440255 https://doi.org/10.1142/s1609945102000242 https://doi.org/10.2307/2286348 https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1979.10482531 drewer, s., 1980. construction and development: a new perspective. habitat international, 5(314), pp. 395-428. https://doi.org/10.1016/0197-3975(80)90028-4 easterly, w. and rebelo, s., 1993. fiscal policy and economic growth: an empirical investigation. wp4499. cambridge, ma: national bureau of economic research. https://doi.org/10.3386/w4499 edmonds, g.a., 1979. the construction industry in developing countries. international labour review, 118(3), pp. 355-69. ganesan, s., 2000. employment, technology and construction development: with case studies in asia and china. aldershot: ashgate. giang, d.t.h and pheng, l.s., 2010. role of construction in economic development: review of key concepts in the past 40 years. habitat international, 35(2011), pp. 118-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. habitatint.2010.06.003 granger, c.w.j., 1969. investigating causal relations by econometric models and cross-spectral methods. econometrica, 37(3), pp. 424-38. jstor 1912791. https://doi.org/10.2307/1912791 green, r.k., 1997. follow the leader: how changes in residential and non-residential investment predict changes in gdp. real estate economics, 25(2), pp. 253-70. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6229.00714 hosein, r. and lewis, t.m., 2005. quantifying the relationship between aggregate gdp and construction value added in a small petroleum rich economy – a case study of trinidad and tobago. construction management and economics, 23(2), pp. 185-97. https://doi. org/10.1080/0144619042000287741 johansen, s., 1988. statistical analysis of cointegration vectors. journal of economic dynamics and control, 12, pp. 231-254. https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-1889(88)90041-3 johansen, s. and juselius, k., 1990. maximum likelihood estimation and inference on cointegration – with application to the demand for money. oxford bulletin of economics and statistics, 52(2), pp. 169-210. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0084.1990.mp52002003.x kirmani, s., 1988. the construction industry in development: issues and options. world bank discussion paper. washington, d.c.: the world bank. kocherlakota, n.r. and yi, k., 1996. simple time series test of endogenous vs. exogenous growth models: an application to the united states. review of economics and statistics, 78(1), pp. 126-134. https://doi.org/10.2307/2109852 landers, j., 2014. increased spending on u.s. infrastructure would boost economy, report says. civil engineering-asce, pp. 14-15. lean, c.s., 2001. empirical tests to discern linkages between construction and other economic sectors in singapore. journal of construction management and economics, 19(4), pp. 355-63. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446190010022686 lewis, t.m., 1984. a review of the causes of recent problems in construction industry of trinidad and tobago. construction management and economics, 2, pp. 37-48. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446198400000004 lewis, t.m., 2009. quantifying the gdp-construction relationship. in: l. ruddock, ed. economics for the modern built environment. london: taylor and francis. pp. 34-59. ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 201799 https://doi.org/10.1016/0197-3975(80)90028-4 https://doi.org/10.3386/w4499 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2010.06.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2010.06.003 https://doi.org/10.2307/1912791 https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6229.00714 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619042000287741 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619042000287741 https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-1889(88)90041-3 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0084.1990.mp52002003.x https://doi.org/10.2307/2109852 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190010022686 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190010022686 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446198400000004 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446198400000004 lopes, j., ruddock, l. and ribeiro, f.l., 2002. investment in construction and economic growth in developing countries. building research and information, 30(3), pp. 152-59. https://doi. org/10.1080/09613210110114028 markstein, b.m., 2016. the importance of construction to state economies. association builders and contractors inc. [online] available at: http://www.abc.org/newsmedia/constructioneconomics/ statebystateconstructioneconomics, oct. 2016. munnell, a.h., 1990. why has productivity growth declined? productivity and public investment. new england economic review, january/february, 3e22. ofori, g., 1988. construction industry and economic growth in singapore. construction management and economics, 6, pp. 57-70. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446198800000007 said, s.e. and dickey, d.a., 1984. testing for unit roots in autoregressive-moving average models of unknown order. biometrika, 71, pp. 599-608. https://doi.org/10.1093/biomet/71.3.599 strassmann, p., 1970. the construction sector in economic development. scottish journal of political economy, 17(3), pp. 390-410. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1970.tb00715.x strassner, e.h. and wasshausen, d.b., 2014. new quarterly gross domestic product by industry statistics. bureau of labor statistics. [online] available at: https://www.bea.gov/scb/pdf/2014/05%20 may/0514_gdp-by-industry.pdf, oct. 2016. shahandashti, s.m. and ashuri, b., 2013. forecasting engineering news-record construction cost index using multivariate time series models. journal of construction engineering and management, 139(9), pp. 1237-43. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000689 tse, r.y.c. and ganesan, s., 1997. causal relationship between construction flows and gdp: evidence from hong kong. construction management and economics, 15, pp. 371-76. https://doi. org/10.1080/014461997372926 turin, d.a., 1973. construction and development. 2nd ed. london: university college, environmental research group. turin, d.a., 1969. the construction industry: its economic significance and its role in development. london: university college, environmental research group. u.s. bureau of economic analysis, 2016. quarterly gross domestic product by state. [online] available at: http://www.bea.gov/itable/index_regional.cfm oct. 2016. united nations, 1990. economic and social survey of asia and the pacific. bangkok: united nations. wells, j., 1986. the construction industry in developing countries: alternative strategies for development. london/dover, n.h.: croom helm. world bank, 1994. world development report 1994, infrastructure for development. washington, d.c.: world bank. wylie, p.j., 1996. infrastructure and canadian economic growth 1946e1991 [special issue]. the canadian journal of economics, 29, pp.s350-55. https://doi.org/10.2307/136015 zheng, s. and liu, h., 2004. interaction among construction investment, other investment, and gdp in china. tsinghua science and technology, 9(2), pp. 160-67. ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 2017100 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210110114028 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210110114028 http://www.abc.org/newsmedia/constructioneconomics/statebystateconstructioneconomics http://www.abc.org/newsmedia/constructioneconomics/statebystateconstructioneconomics https://doi.org/10.1080/01446198800000007 https://doi.org/10.1093/biomet/71.3.599 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9485.1970.tb00715.x https://www.bea.gov/scb/pdf/2014/05%20may/0514_gdp-by-industry.pdf https://www.bea.gov/scb/pdf/2014/05%20may/0514_gdp-by-industry.pdf https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000689 https://doi.org/10.1080/014461997372926 https://doi.org/10.1080/014461997372926 http://www.bea.gov/itable/index_regional.cfm https://doi.org/10.2307/136015 ap pe nd ix a ta bl e 6 st at e g d p s st at e ye ar 2 01 2 ye ar 2 01 3 ye ar 2 01 4 q 3 q 4 q 1 q 2 q 3 q 4 q 1 q 2 q 3 q 4 a l 17 89 35 17 85 00 17 75 99 17 92 58 18 16 42 18 08 27 18 23 71 18 16 01 18 30 93 18 37 79 a k 51 17 8 50 47 2 49 88 2 49 65 9 49 27 3 49 70 8 49 59 3 49 96 9 49 01 8 48 85 5 a z 25 40 67 25 68 87 25 70 76 25 80 49 26 04 39 25 94 11 25 97 54 26 12 43 26 11 14 26 26 15 a r 10 88 28 10 91 46 10 90 45 11 02 20 11 09 21 11 18 22 11 04 86 11 17 81 11 28 97 11 33 46 c a 20 61 85 8 21 12 83 3 20 87 20 6 21 09 91 0 21 38 91 1 21 39 40 6 21 71 39 0 22 12 23 5 22 14 36 9 22 29 07 0 c o 26 84 45 27 16 17 27 26 13 27 62 77 28 10 80 28 53 28 28 61 74 28 89 76 28 90 39 29 10 43 c t 22 68 79 22 73 00 22 69 85 22 94 25 22 99 38 22 93 61 22 93 21 23 19 78 22 93 85 23 03 58 d e 56 04 6 57 72 0 57 31 9 58 84 6 59 93 3 59 31 6 59 57 5 60 47 2 59 99 4 60 13 0 d c 10 30 57 10 39 93 10 58 48 10 50 03 10 51 25 10 52 71 10 72 17 10 83 51 10 77 24 10 85 28 fl 74 88 16 75 58 14 75 57 97 76 29 98 77 01 34 77 44 29 77 78 95 78 47 59 79 54 97 80 08 52 g a 42 04 06 42 42 55 42 42 97 42 92 85 43 47 53 43 60 42 43 63 09 44 01 79 44 51 08 44 78 89 h i 68 73 9 69 41 4 69 29 9 69 69 1 69 93 7 69 72 0 70 43 4 70 93 6 70 86 3 71 14 7 id 56 43 3 57 28 4 56 66 6 56 99 9 57 94 9 58 20 8 57 94 2 58 12 4 58 68 7 58 99 0 il 66 52 17 67 19 01 66 80 10 67 34 69 67 87 84 67 74 12 68 73 57 68 38 53 69 41 45 69 42 74 ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 2017101 ta bl e 6 (c on tin ue d) st at e ye ar 2 01 2 ye ar 2 01 3 ye ar 2 01 4 q 3 q 4 q 1 q 2 q 3 q 4 q 1 q 2 q 3 q 4 in 28 84 41 28 89 19 28 99 06 29 23 09 29 53 44 29 77 08 29 46 20 29 90 13 29 97 01 30 19 36 ia 14 95 90 15 05 16 14 78 05 15 35 00 15 55 37 15 70 84 15 28 65 15 50 09 15 59 44 15 47 87 k s 13 07 09 13 19 13 13 02 91 13 20 67 13 35 04 13 34 81 13 24 25 13 32 87 13 25 85 13 23 66 k y 16 97 83 17 02 84 16 94 49 17 15 65 18 21 09 18 29 07 17 09 81 17 34 18 17 40 14 17 51 78 la 20 49 92 20 53 57 20 42 88 20 86 31 21 19 22 21 33 40 21 29 87 21 25 44 21 33 34 21 33 15 m e 49 68 7 49 79 7 49 64 4 50 04 8 50 47 3 50 98 2 49 47 6 50 56 2 50 82 6 50 99 5 m d 31 62 18 31 80 69 31 75 85 32 23 71 32 46 09 32 34 52 32 53 25 32 70 67 32 62 23 32 82 81 m a 41 46 08 41 14 54 41 51 64 41 56 60 42 09 31 42 50 15 42 54 45 43 02 62 42 58 36 42 86 21 m i 40 66 86 40 90 97 40 89 06 41 30 01 41 53 39 41 55 07 41 37 94 41 88 25 42 04 39 42 31 23 m n 28 76 68 28 82 14 28 66 26 28 97 80 29 51 70 29 62 43 29 85 74 29 81 91 29 85 79 30 00 12 m s 96 09 8 94 83 6 94 00 8 94 10 0 94 85 8 95 09 6 94 56 7 95 12 4 95 85 8 96 25 5 m o 25 53 54 25 62 41 25 50 33 25 78 37 25 97 25 26 02 08 25 86 72 26 18 82 26 21 97 26 33 79 m t 39 00 4 39 39 5 39 12 4 39 80 9 40 00 7 39 99 9 40 58 2 41 19 2 41 38 3 41 27 9 n e 96 82 0 96 86 4 96 45 7 98 38 5 98 95 3 10 02 42 98 93 4 10 07 92 10 11 93 10 10 91 n v 11 84 35 11 99 59 12 10 10 12 20 09 12 32 86 12 44 73 12 39 01 12 61 10 12 72 90 12 73 24 ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 2017102 ta bl e 6 (c on tin ue d) st at e ye ar 2 01 2 ye ar 2 01 3 ye ar 2 01 4 q 3 q 4 q 1 q 2 q 3 q 4 q 1 q 2 q 3 q 4 n h 63 39 2 63 58 2 63 87 7 65 04 7 65 23 6 65 80 1 64 21 9 65 19 4 66 20 9 66 40 1 n j 49 47 36 49 73 97 49 42 52 49 85 86 50 14 21 50 22 17 50 00 34 51 02 70 50 96 35 51 27 91 n m 82 98 7 83 25 2 83 17 3 84 41 6 85 92 6 87 39 8 85 67 9 85 94 6 86 00 7 85 77 4 n y 12 37 81 4 12 43 65 8 12 37 35 7 12 41 71 0 12 54 95 5 12 59 17 4 12 41 34 9 12 65 45 6 12 77 99 2 12 78 09 4 n c 42 48 72 42 71 52 42 65 00 42 82 22 43 32 00 43 56 26 43 54 76 44 12 78 44 55 78 44 76 24 n d 49 31 1 49 82 4 49 10 6 51 23 9 51 98 7 53 39 3 51 95 1 50 06 7 49 56 4 49 81 5 o h 51 72 56 52 22 67 52 36 28 53 10 06 54 15 94 54 34 34 53 89 49 54 34 11 54 56 09 54 94 70 o k 16 38 08 16 64 02 16 57 63 16 76 91 17 13 25 17 13 69 17 43 35 17 08 62 17 06 02 16 93 76 o r 18 99 58 19 12 61 18 88 92 18 05 47 19 35 10 19 35 21 19 67 21 19 80 23 20 13 78 20 14 48 pa 60 37 45 60 68 49 60 94 35 61 28 00 61 96 11 62 36 66 62 42 33 62 45 16 62 76 47 61 03 61 r i 49 41 8 49 42 5 49 85 1 50 30 5 50 67 9 51 13 4 50 55 7 51 18 7 51 13 2 51 34 7 sc 17 05 96 17 17 35 17 02 98 17 42 22 17 48 59 17 57 61 17 49 71 17 62 07 17 83 94 17 89 91 sd 39 98 1 40 15 5 39 02 6 39 97 2 40 40 4 40 71 0 39 71 1 40 54 2 41 25 2 41 48 7 tn 27 08 42 27 13 68 27 12 78 27 45 85 27 59 54 27 72 84 27 43 44 28 01 49 28 24 56 28 41 23 tx 13 78 61 3 13 86 69 7 13 88 33 6 14 07 31 2 14 37 86 6 14 53 52 3 14 78 16 5 14 69 63 9 14 74 52 3 14 79 81 3 ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 2017103 ta bl e 6 (c on tin ue d) st at e ye ar 2 01 2 ye ar 2 01 3 ye ar 2 01 4 q 3 q 4 q 1 q 2 q 3 q 4 q 1 q 2 q 3 q 4 u t 12 53 55 12 49 20 12 58 47 12 62 95 12 73 98 12 84 46 12 93 70 13 08 06 13 19 13 13 28 36 vt 26 70 8 26 94 8 26 77 4 26 98 2 27 43 7 27 66 6 26 98 4 26 98 9 27 50 3 27 59 9 va 42 47 07 42 56 47 42 24 67 42 58 35 42 66 78 42 69 32 42 46 77 43 05 68 43 43 08 43 68 90 w a 37 70 23 37 76 58 38 04 31 38 49 94 38 71 99 39 13 76 39 04 67 39 80 49 39 97 56 40 10 11 w v 66 81 0 67 42 4 66 00 9 67 26 7 67 70 4 67 96 4 67 78 3 67 06 9 67 13 5 67 18 9 w i 26 38 67 26 53 74 26 33 36 26 84 64 27 10 53 27 21 14 27 00 03 27 23 76 27 60 20 27 62 84 w y 34 87 3 35 18 1 34 56 4 34 84 8 35 23 1 35 99 6 35 67 8 35 32 6 35 26 4 34 95 7 ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 2017104 ta bl e 7 s ta te c va s st at e ye ar 2 01 2 ye ar 2 01 3 ye ar 2 01 4 q 3 q 4 q 1 q 2 q 3 q 4 q 1 q 2 q 3 q 4 a l 72 71 73 51 75 88 75 40 76 91 79 24 78 16 78 19 80 82 82 68 a k 22 08 22 51 24 21 23 31 22 39 22 41 25 54 25 07 23 37 23 32 a z 10 94 2 11 18 4 11 35 6 11 02 7 10 78 0 11 15 5 11 10 1 11 23 4 11 31 2 11 64 9 a r 42 81 42 77 43 94 44 24 44 78 47 69 46 21 47 46 51 67 52 91 c a 74 53 1 76 27 1 76 51 7 77 43 6 78 98 5 80 60 3 84 46 5 85 89 5 88 59 8 91 02 8 c o 12 28 9 12 83 1 13 16 2 13 43 7 13 63 2 14 08 6 14 30 8 14 15 4 14 50 5 15 04 3 c t 72 58 72 65 73 41 76 06 78 03 75 7 78 60 82 05 84 48 86 36 d e 20 07 20 70 20 06 21 33 21 73 21 66 21 48 21 94 22 67 23 21 d c 15 43 15 61 15 85 15 61 15 74 16 14 14 44 16 13 15 96 16 22 fl 33 91 6 34 72 4 35 26 4 35 87 4 36 82 2 37 96 6 39 14 1 40 23 6 41 49 5 42 49 7 g a 15 49 4 15 92 2 15 98 7 16 36 3 16 76 6 17 38 9 17 74 3 17 76 3 18 25 1 18 82 0 h i 40 59 41 03 41 31 41 79 42 89 43 49 45 88 47 03 48 41 50 82 id 29 62 30 20 30 10 30 61 30 77 31 84 34 51 33 19 32 67 33 74 il 23 04 4 23 27 8 23 48 0 23 92 7 24 62 4 25 67 1 25 77 8 26 85 2 27 42 5 27 94 2 in 12 19 2 12 36 8 12 01 4 12 33 4 12 60 6 12 99 4 12 64 2 13 06 3 13 33 0 13 67 9 ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 2017105 ta bl e 7 (c on tin ue d) st at e ye ar 2 01 2 ye ar 2 01 3 ye ar 2 01 4 q 3 q 4 q 1 q 2 q 3 q 4 q 1 q 2 q 3 q 4 ia 64 97 66 29 68 06 71 46 72 71 75 79 79 55 76 96 75 75 78 57 k s 56 19 58 43 59 68 59 18 57 63 57 77 59 22 60 71 59 50 60 92 k y 69 41 71 09 72 46 74 85 76 41 78 71 77 14 80 76 81 70 84 12 la 11 81 3 12 13 3 12 43 1 12 76 0 13 32 5 13 49 4 13 47 6 12 95 7 13 55 0 13 99 4 m e 21 18 21 50 21 17 21 53 21 69 22 47 21 81 21 80 22 09 22 67 m d 15 36 5 15 40 8 15 49 8 16 03 2 16 28 8 16 44 0 16 13 3 16 72 5 17 20 5 17 66 8 m a 15 67 0 15 88 3 16 04 0 16 26 2 16 71 0 17 19 7 17 42 9 17 94 8 18 49 9 19 02 3 m i 15 07 9 15 57 7 15 65 2 15 98 8 16 52 4 16 88 1 16 35 7 17 35 4 17 37 5 17 75 9 m n 11 62 5 12 01 6 11 99 3 12 18 0 12 56 3 12 79 6 13 56 1 13 74 5 13 82 7 14 06 7 m s 49 86 50 42 48 86 48 02 47 94 47 19 46 70 45 87 47 51 49 74 m o 10 20 6 10 35 8 10 47 7 10 47 3 10 41 5 10 59 2 10 93 9 11 10 8 11 16 0 11 51 9 m t 23 03 23 36 23 84 24 30 25 01 25 84 27 11 26 12 27 93 28 62 n e 36 49 36 13 36 54 37 82 38 67 41 06 41 76 40 90 42 07 43 21 n v 58 67 59 93 62 46 64 44 66 73 68 47 70 35 70 36 73 43 75 32 n h 22 52 23 02 23 25 23 54 23 70 24 64 24 66 24 82 25 81 26 64 ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 2017106 ta bl e 7 (c on tin ue d) st at e ye ar 2 01 2 ye ar 2 01 3 ye ar 2 01 4 q 3 q 4 q 1 q 2 q 3 q 4 q 1 q 2 q 3 q 4 n j 18 93 2 19 49 2 18 95 5 19 74 3 20 27 6 20 79 9 20 60 9 21 64 5 22 01 9 22 77 0 n m 31 39 32 70 31 83 32 17 32 60 33 95 33 51 33 50 33 79 33 95 n y 38 93 9 39 97 5 39 35 3 41 40 4 42 40 1 43 24 8 42 28 5 44 87 7 45 74 1 47 58 1 n c 14 97 4 15 17 5 15 30 7 15 62 9 16 03 7 16 58 4 16 72 1 17 26 8 17 72 5 18 14 9 n d 40 73 41 04 41 89 43 52 45 12 48 74 50 25 44 38 42 06 41 62 o h 19 48 5 19 98 3 19 92 9 20 62 4 20 80 8 21 44 7 21 24 7 21 30 3 21 75 8 22 35 4 o k 77 69 79 02 80 24 78 46 78 88 80 25 82 85 81 80 85 21 86 64 o r 69 34 73 54 74 78 74 52 74 07 74 73 75 53 74 08 76 32 77 97 pa 25 42 8 25 55 0 25 37 2 26 62 5 26 77 4 27 28 7 26 22 4 27 10 7 28 02 7 28 45 5 r i 20 82 21 00 20 75 21 54 21 87 22 12 21 42 22 15 23 01 23 70 sc 79 20 81 14 81 89 82 78 83 20 85 34 85 94 97 96 90 94 93 22 sd 17 35 17 50 17 81 18 18 18 24 18 67 20 33 20 25 19 13 19 83 tn 10 25 6 10 52 6 10 64 4 10 80 2 10 83 2 11 15 6 11 39 0 11 74 9 12 24 6 12 60 4 tx 73 43 5 73 75 0 76 12 5 77 66 6 76 51 0 82 17 4 83 15 3 82 35 2 86 14 4 88 03 3 u t 71 50 70 05 74 18 74 23 74 66 77 08 81 09 81 89 82 15 85 62 ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 2017107 ta bl e 7 (c on tin ue d) st at e ye ar 2 01 2 ye ar 2 01 3 ye ar 2 01 4 q 3 q 4 q 1 q 2 q 3 q 4 q 1 q 2 q 3 q 4 vt 11 59 11 81 11 91 12 14 12 53 12 84 12 68 12 66 12 73 13 09 va 18 29 4 18 53 9 18 39 8 18 92 0 18 98 4 19 26 9 19 19 9 20 01 0 20 28 2 20 71 4 w a 14 61 3 14 93 2 15 08 1 16 32 4 15 81 0 16 37 7 17 13 1 17 65 2 17 45 7 17 79 4 w v 36 80 37 56 35 34 37 13 38 16 38 30 35 40 36 33 36 86 36 88 w i 10 31 3 10 48 2 10 40 7 10 63 9 11 12 7 11 46 3 11 51 1 11 76 7 12 04 7 12 30 7 w y 21 31 23 33 23 40 24 07 24 36 23 52 23 99 22 73 23 08 23 48 ahmadi & shahandashti construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 3 september 2017108 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: oppon, j. a., akomah, b. b., hagan, d. e., tieru, c. k., koufie, k. 2025. organizational culture and its impact on employees’ safety. construction economics and building, 25:3/4, 121–142. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i3/4.9201 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article organizational culture and its impact on employees’ safety james anthony oppon*, benjamin boahene akomah, daniel ebo hagan, chris kurbom tieru, kingsley koufie department of construction technology and management, school of built and natural environment, cape coast technical university, cape coast, ghana corresponding author: james anthony oppon, james.oppon@cctu.edu.gh doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9201 article history: received 24/06/2024; revised 23/10/2024; accepted 21/08/2025; published 05/12/2025 abstract workplace safety in the construction industry, particularly in developing countries, remains a critical concern owing to the high rates of accidents and fatalities. this study investigates how organizational culture influences employee safety in the construction industry, focusing on developing economies. the practical significance of this study lies in bridging the knowledge gap regarding how the different dimensions of cultural artifacts, espoused values, and assumptions affect safety outcomes. utilizing a quantitative research approach, data were collected through structured questionnaires from 30 contractors from the association of building and civil engineering contractors of ghana (abcecg) in the cape coast metropolis of ghana. descriptive and inferential statistics, including multiple regression analysis, examined the relationship between cultural elements and safety performance. the findings revealed that all three dimensions of organizational culture (artifacts, espoused values, and assumptions) contribute significantly to enhanced safety outcomes, with symbols and dress codes emerging as strong predictors of safety practices. however, challenges remain in integrating espoused values into daily operations and adapting cultural assumptions to the evolving conditions. this study contributes to the literature by providing empirical evidence that organizational culture is pivotal in promoting safety in highrisk industries. these practical implications suggest that organizations should reinforce cultural symbols and values, foster leadership involvement, and continuously monitor safety practices to create safer work environments. 121 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9201 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9201 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:james.oppon@cctu.edu.gh https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9201 these results are particularly important for developing economies where improving workplace safety can contribute to broader economic development. keywords construction industry; developing countries; employee safety; organizational culture; safety culture introduction one of the major issues that have plagued the construction industry for many years has been safety issues, and at the core of this huge problem is how some of the organizations in the industry handle issues that must deal with safety (mustapha et al., 2024). safety culture thus represents a subset of organizational culture that relates to the management of risks and is shaped by culture with elements of visible artifacts, espoused values, and assumptions (schein, 1992). thus, safety culture refers to a set of norms and values within an organization and its supporting practices that supersede other business objectives, endorsing only safety ( johnston et al., 2020; bisbey et al., 2019). this is clear through leadership actions, worker attitudes, and the effectiveness of safety management procedures. in the construction sector in low and middle income countries (lmics), the relationship between organizational culture and safety has been poorly defined due to limitations such as lack of funds and inadequate training facilities (de brún et al., 2020). the relationship between organizational culture and safety is particularly relevant in construction industries, where risks are inherent, and safety protocols need to be deeply embedded in daily operations. studies have shown that positive organizational cultures that communicate safety norms and reinforce consistently reduce accident rates significantly (espasandínbustelo, 2020; irawan and sumartik, 2023). despite this, many construction organizations in lmics struggle to integrate espoused values into daily practices, a challenge amplified by limited research in these regions. addressing this gap is critical for improving both safety outcomes and organizational effectiveness in the construction industry in lmics. this study explores how various dimensions of organizational culture, such as symbols, dress codes, and communication of safety values, influence safety practices in construction firms operating in ghana. it aims to provide empirical evidence to guide leadership decisions in enhancing safety culture through targeted organizational interventions. by closing this research gap, this study contributes to the broader objective of reducing workplace accidents and enhancing overall safety in the construction sector in developing economies. literature review organizational culture organizational culture has been a focal point in management and organizational studies because of its profound impact on business operations and employee behavior (fernandes, pereira and wiedenhöft, 2023). defined as collective values, beliefs, and practices within an organization, culture influences how individuals perceive and act in their work environment (zakharchyn, 2022). even in organizations where culture is not formally acknowledged, it subtly dictates behavior, attitudes, and decisionmaking processes (zakharchyn, 2022; fernandes, pereira and wiedenhöft, 2023). the role of organizational culture in determining overall effectiveness and shaping competitive advantage has been widely recognized (morgan and kidombo, 2022; torres, ferraz and santosrodrigues, 2018). schein’s (1992) foundational model of organizational culture, which categorizes culture as artifacts, espoused values, and basic assumptions, has been particularly influential, as shown in figure 1. artifacts oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025122 represent tangible, visible aspects, such as dress codes and office design. in contrast, espoused values reflect the declared principles guiding organizational behavior. basic assumptions are deeply embedded beliefs that influence actions unconsciously. this model has been critical in understanding how organizations foster cultures that enhance employee behavior and organizational success (saifi, 2015). however, schein’s model is not without its criticism. for example, the concept of a unified organizational culture often overlooks the existence of subcultures within large organizations (berger et al., 2020). these subcultures may vary based on age, gender, and education, complicating the integration of a cohesive culture across an entire organization (alankarage et al., 2024). figure 1. organizational culture source: schein (1992) types of organizational culture there are different forms of organizational culture, such as strong culture, subculture, and counterculture ). strong cultures reflect an organization’s fundamental values that are well integrated into the company, thus promoting appropriate employee behavior and enhancing organizational performance (graham et al., 2022). however, such cultures may also have drawbacks, such as resistance to change (mcmillan and overall, 2017). schein (1992), for example, notes that while culture is highly resistant to change, it could increase the organization’s ability to adapt if it encourages people to differentiate assumptions from variables. cultural robustness and flexibility can easily be argued as key to sustainable performance in presentday organizations (chatman et al., 2014). organizational culture and safety safety culture is a part of organizational culture that defines an organization’s approach toward risk management and protecting its employees’ safety (bisbey et al., 2019). research suggests that a strong safety culture enhances safety performance, employee job satisfaction, and organizational effectiveness ( johnston et al., 2020). in the construction industry, particularly in lmics, the relationship between organizational culture and safety is crucial because of the high prevalence of workplace hazards (ahmad, fitria and hakim, 2022; zhang et al., 2023). however, few studies have attempted to explain the direct effect of organizational culture on safety performance in developing nations. nonetheless, the literature suggests that safety culture determines how oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025123 often employees observe suitable safety measures and that transmitting this culture is crucial in hazard prevention (efimova and komarova, 2019). organizational culture types and safety outcomes this literature reveals that the impact of different organizational cultures on safety performance may be positive or negative. in particular, companies with wellestablished safety attitudes can indicate a 75% lower injury frequency and a 46% increased employee participation in safety procedures (chong, 2022). on the other hand, when safety or organizational culture does not support safety, there will be a greater number of accidents and less compliance with safety measures (irawan and sumartik, 2023). a study by isa et al. (2021) found that safety culture comprises commitments from management, communication, and safety training essential to low workplace accident rates. on the other hand, other works, such as hermanto, syahrul and yulihasri (2023), point out that cultural aspects are directly related to safety and the intermediary role of job satisfaction, which is affected by organizational culture concerning safety behavior. the impact of organizational culture on employee safety various authors have emphasized the relationship between organizational culture and employee safety (adekanmbi and ukpere, 2023; irawan and sumartik, 2023). when an organization has a positive culture, its employees work safely without causing many accidents in the workplace (espasandínbustelo, ganaza vargas and diazcarrion, 2020). it is important to note that ensuring leadership integrity for safety and employee participation in safety issues will enhance organizational safety, as companies that embrace an active safety culture usually post superior safety performance (adekanmbi and ukpere, 2023). however, recent research has indicated this may not always be true. for example, hermanto, syahrul and yulihasri (2023) argued that culture and its subsequent responses to contextual factors could be enablers or barriers to enacting the safety process due to how this is disseminated. this underlines the importance of additional studies that discuss the relationship between more specific elements of organizational culture, such as leadership and communication, and safety practices in different environments. methodology based on the research questions that were formulated in this study, as well as the type of data that would be collected in this study, this study adopts a quantitative research approach to establish the effect of organizational culture on the safety of employees in the construction industry in ghana, with a focus on cape coast metropolis. a quantitative approach was chosen over qualitative or mixed methods because this study aimed to compare the level and type of organizational culture factors, namely, artifacts, espoused values, and assumptions, with safety outcomes data (marchand et al., 2013; wahab, ismail and othman, 2017). the choice of this approach was informed by the fact that statistical generality, as well as handling of numerical data across large samples, is more efficiently managed by quantitative study designs than qualitative or mixed designs. quantitative techniques also enable us to use inferential statistics, such as regression analysis, to confirm the existence and strength of these relations (rana, gutierrez and oldroyd, 2021). the target population was 45 contractors who were members of the association of building and civil engineering contractors of ghana (abcecg) operating in the cape coast metropolis. purposive sampling was performed in this study. of all the contractors contacted, 30 were interested in the study, with a response rate of 67%. this sample size was considered adequate for developing a crosssectional dataset of the sample space for statistical validity (motlhale, 2018. the most effective data collection method adopted by the researcher was a structured questionnaire, which mainly included closedended questions. oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025124 the questions were designed using a fivepoint likert scale ranging from strongly agree to strongly disagree to determine the respondents’ perceptions of organizational culture and safety. the likert scale was selected because it provides quantifiable measures of attitudes and produces highly reliable data for statistical testing ( joshi et al., 2015). the items used to assess the dimensions were organizational culture artifacts such as symbols, dress codes, espoused values, and assumptions that were ascertained using valid measures established in the literature (gulua, 2018). the measures used to maintain reliability and validity are as follows: first, the questionnaire was piloted using a sample of 10 contractors in the sekonditakoradi metropolis to enhance the understanding and arrangement of questions. a reliability test known as cronbach’s alpha was employed to determine internal consistency, and all the constructs were above 0.9; hence, it had high reliability (bujang, omar and baharum, 2018; tavakol and dennick, 2011). construct validity was ensured by exploratory factor analysis (efa), where demographic tests limited the factors to ensure that all questionnaire items measured the intended dimensions (dabbagh et al., 2023). these steps ensured that the data collected were accurate and had the quality of valid data, which helped support the statistical analysis to be conducted. descriptive [mean (m) and standard deviation (sd)] and inferential (multiple regression) statistical techniques were used with ibm spss statistics (version 25) and microsoft excel, and the data were presented in graphical and tabular forms (rahman and muktadir, 2021). ethical considerations included seeking informed consent, maintaining confidentiality, and participants’ autonomy to withdraw from the study. results and discussion demographic characteristics of the respondents as shown in table 1, the respondents’ demographic characteristics revealed a diverse sample of gender, age, education, and work experience. most respondents were male (70%), aged under 30 to over 51. the most common educational qualification was a master’s degree (43.3%), followed by a bachelor’s degree (40%). work experience varied, with the largest group having 6– 10 years of experience (30%). organizational culture artifacts as shown in table 2, the results indicate moderate to high agreement (mean scores between 3.37 and 3.73) on all items related to organizational culture artifacts. this suggests that employees perceive a positive alignment between symbols, icons, office decor, dress codes, and the organization’s values and culture. however, standard deviations ranging from 0.809 to 1.245 indicated some degree of variance in individual perceptions. these findings largely align with the existing literature that emphasizes the role of artifacts in reflecting and reinforcing organizational culture (schein, 1992). the relatively high means suggest that the organization has created a cohesive cultural identity through its visible artifacts. however, the standard deviations highlight the nuanced nature of cultural interpretation, aligning with the critiques of schein’s model regarding subcultures (alankarage et al., 2024; berger et al., 2020). the implications of these findings are twofold. researchers have underscored the need to delve deeper into individuallevel interpretations of cultural artifacts, particularly within diverse subcultures. the results positively affirm industries’ current cultural management strategies while highlighting areas where individual perceptions may differ. the results of the efa in table 3 reveal that the organizational culture artifact construct comprises four distinct dimensions: abstract nouns, signs, and symbols (si), corporate logo (cl), organized office layout (ool), and neat dressing code (cdc). all items in each dimension have high factor loadings (above eight), which depict the highreliability coefficients in table 3 below. furthermore, the item– total correlations after correction for attenuation and squared multiple correlations also suggest the validity of oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025125 these dimensions. reliability analysis displayed a cronbach’s alpha for all dimensions greater than 0.9, indicating high reliability. these results align with the proposed switches of schein’s (1992) model of organizational culture, which states that artifacts and behavior (symbols of an office environment, dressing codes, etc.) are observable signs of an organization’s culture. selfgenerated artifacts have high factor loadings and reliability coefficients, supporting that they specify dependable cultural values. thus, it is possible to argue that the dimensions revealed by this study mean schneider’s model is more detailed and does not support schein’s idea of unity in organizational culture. this is because the differentiation between symbols and icons, company logos, office environments, and dress codes suggests that these artifacts could work democratically so that they all have a part to play in shaping organizational culture. the regression analysis in table 4 yielded an r2 value of 0.698, indicating that approximately 69.8% of the variance in employee safety was explained by the various dimensions of organizational culture (artifacts, espoused values, and assumptions). this high r2 value suggests that organizational culture is a critical factor influencing safety outcomes within construction firms in developing countries. in practical terms, this means that enhancing the cultural dimensions within an organization, such as improving the communication of safety values and reinforcing positive symbols, could significantly boost safety performance. however, the remaining 30.2% of the unexplained variance implies that external factors such as regulatory frameworks, economic conditions, and individual behavior may also affect safety outcomes. these findings align with those of chong (2022) and isa et al. (2021), who highlighted the central role of organizational culture in shaping safety behaviors but also emphasized the importance of addressing external variables. table 1. demographic characteristics of the respondents demographic characteristics frequency percent gender male 21 70.0 female 9 30.0 age range less than 30 years 3 10.0 31– 40 years 13 43.3 41– 50 years 9 30.0 51 years and above 5 16.7 highest qualification bachelor’s degree 12 40.0 master’s degree 13 43.3 phd 3 10.0 other 2 6.7 working experience 1– 5 years 8 26.7 6– 10 years 9 30.0 11– 15 years 8 26.7 16– 20 years 2 6.7 21 years and above 3 10.0 total 30 100.0 source: field data, 2023 oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025126 table 2. organizational culture artifacts variables/statements mean sd the symbols and icons used in our organization reflect our values and mission. 3.73 0.944 symbols and icons are consistently used throughout the organization to represent our culture. 3.40 1.003 i believe our organization’s symbols and icons are meaningful and relevant. 3.37 0.850 our company logo effectively communicates our organizational culture. 3.50 1.009 the company logo resonates with employees and aligns with our cultural values. 3.37 0.809 i feel proud to be associated with our company when i see our logo. 3.63 1.189 the decor and layout of our office spaces reflect our organizational culture. 3.37 1.245 our office environment is conducive to collaboration and creativity, which aligns with our culture. 3.47 1.196 the office decor and layout positively impacted my work experience. 3.49 0.937 our organization’s dress code aligns with our cultural values and image. 3.57 1.135 i feel comfortable with the dress code requirements in our organization. 3.43 0.817 the dress code promotes a sense of unity and professionalism among employees. 3.37 1.189 sd, standard deviation source: field data, 2023 the analysis of variance (anova) results presented in table 5, an fratio of 14.45, and a pvalue less than 0.001 indicate that organizational culture significantly influences employee safety [f(4, 25)]. this knowledge aligns with prior studies indicating that organizational culture significantly determines how employees perceive and practice safety in the workplace (chong, 2022; espasandínbustelo, ganazavargas and diazcarrion, 2020). however, the study introduced some complexities in its conclusions compared to prior research. influential organizational culture directly affects safety; however, this study influences safety through the mediating variables of job satisfaction and safety behavior (hermanto, syahrul and yulihasri, 2023). this harmonizes previous findings on the relationship between organizational culture, job satisfaction, and safety practices and provides a deeper insight into how cultural factors affect an organization’s safety conditions. the regression analysis results in table 6 provide significant insights into the influence of organizational culture on employee safety. while some relationships were strongly significant, other factors, such as the company logo (beta = −0.155, p > 0.05) and office decor and layout (beta = 0.118, p > 0.05), did not show significant impacts. this lack of significance could be attributed to alternative explanations, such as the possibility that these factors are less visible or impactful in the construction industry, where the focus on safety may overshadow the importance of aesthetic elements. however, symbols and icons had a significant positive association (beta = 0.373, p < 0.05), suggesting that visual cues, such as symbols, are critical in reinforcing safety culture. similarly, the corporate dress code had a strong positive relationship with organizational culture (beta = 0.491, p < 0.01), indicating that seemingly superficial elements, such as uniforms, can substantially promote safety. these findings align with those of schein (1992), who emphasized the importance of artifacts in shaping organizational culture, while studies such as oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025127 table 3. exploratory factor analysis: dimensionality of organizational culture artifact construct si cl odl cdc corrected item– total correlation squared multiple correlation cronbach’s alpha the symbols and icons used in our organization reflect our values and mission. 0.808 0.594 0.557 0.918 symbols and icons are consistently used throughout the organization to represent our culture. 0.807 0.716 0.694 i believe our organization’s symbols and icons are meaningful and relevant. 0.801 0.595 0.618 i feel proud to be associated with our company when i see our logo. 0.896 0.720 0.694 0.920 our company logo effectively communicates our organizational culture. 0.882 0.683 0.713 the company logo resonates with employees and aligns with our cultural values. 0.855 0.797 0.798 our office environment is conducive to collaboration and creativity, which aligns with our culture. 0.886 0.634 0.687 0.912 the office decor and layout positively impacted my work experience. 0.855 0.720 0.728 the decor and layout of our office spaces reflect our organizational culture. 0.823 0.739 0.717 our organization’s dress code aligns with our cultural values and image. 0.844 0.668 0.686 0.915 i feel comfortable with the dress code requirements in our organization. 0.833 0.567 0.595 the dress code promotes a sense of unity and professionalism among employees. 0.669 0.606 0.612 source: field data, 2023 oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025128 alankarage et al. (2024) demonstrated how company logos may not always yield the desired cultural impact, especially in sectors such as construction, where practicality dominates aesthetic concerns. the findings also suggest that cultural elements such as symbols and dress codes may not have uniform significance across all organizational subcultures. as highlighted by berger et al. (2020), organizational subcultures, such as those based on departments or employee roles, can interpret and respond to cultural artifacts differently. for example, in construction, site workers may view uniforms as crucial for their identity and adherence to safety, whereas office staff may place less emphasis on such elements. this discrepancy points to organizational subcultures, which can complicate creating a homogeneous safety culture. future research could investigate how these subcultures, especially those divided by job roles, gender, or seniority, differ in their perceptions of and adherence to cultural symbols. this approach would help address the varying influences of cultural elements across organizational layers. table 6. regression analysis results standardized coefficients t significance beta (constant) 0.805 0.401 2.006 0.056 symbols and icons 0.373 0.173 0.387 2.156 0.041 company logo −0.155 0.158 −0.189 −0.979 0.337 office decor and layout 0.118 0.133 0.157 0.888 0.383 appropriate dress code 0.491 0.163 0.554 3.020 0.006 source: field data, 2023 organizational culture espoused on values the results in table 7 show that the employees display positive perceptions toward the degree of value their organizations espouse since the mean score is above the midpoint of the likert scale, which is 3. the most appreciated statement is “concerning organizational commitment to values, i think that our organization table 4. model summary r r2 adjusted r2 standard error of the estimate 0.836 0.698 0.650 0.42957 source: field data, 2023 table 5. results of the anova test sum of squares df mean square f significance regression 10.666 4 2.667 14.450 0.000 residual 4.613 25 0.185 total 15.279 29 source: field data, 2023 oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025129 holds breaches of values seriously” (m = 3.76, sd = 0.988). on the other hand, there is still significant potential for improvement, as indicated by two statements that received the lowest ratings: “employees are encouraged to adhere to our values at work” (m = 3.03, sd = 1.239) and “recognize our organizational values reflected at work” (m = 3.13, sd = 1.210), where the relevance and incorporation of values in practice is of concern. these results are comparable with current knowledge concerning how espoused values define organizational culture (schein, 1985). the positive perception of an organization’s commitment to values aligns with research that emphasizes the significance of leadership in fostering a strong culture (chatman et al., 2014). however, lower ratings for integrating values into daily activities and decision making echo concerns about the gap between espoused values and actual practices, a phenomenon often observed in organizational culture studies (mcmillan and overall, 2017). table 7. organizational culture espoused on values statements mean sd rank i believe that our organization takes values violations seriously. 3.76 0.988 1 our organization effectively communicates its core values to all employees. 3.66 1.233 2 i believe that our organization genuinely embraces the values it claims to uphold. 3.53 0.871 3 i know our organization’s core values and understand what they mean. 3.52 1.122 4 our organization’s actions and decisions are consistent with our stated values. 3.45 1.183 5 there are consequences for employees who act contrary to our organizational values. 3.41 1.323 6 our organization consistently reinforces its values through various communication channels. 3.33 1.168 7 our organization’s leaders serve as role models for our stated values. 3.31 1.039 8 our organization holds employees accountable for upholding our core values. 3.24 1.215 9 our organization’s values are integrated into our daily work and decisionmaking. 3.21 1.177 10 i see our organizational values reflected in the way we conduct business. 3.13 1.210 11 employees are encouraged to uphold our values in their daily activities. 3.03 1.239 12 source: field data, 2023 the efa used to discuss the dimensionality of the organizational cultureespoused values (ocvs) is presented in table 8. all components had a corrected item– total correlation of 0.597 to 0.839, meaning that all items loaded well into their respective factors and had adequately squared multiple correlations, meaning they had good factor loadings. using the first set of items, the cronbach’s alpha values ranged from 0.905 to 0.918. by contrast, cronbach’s alpha values ranged from 0.928 to 0.932 using the second set of items, confirming the scale’s internal consistency. cronbach’s alpha was 0.918, indicating high oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025130 organizational culture reliability. these findings are a result of the current research that discusses the complexity of organizational culture, including the identification of its components and the role of espoused values in enhancing organizational culture for the benefit of the organization, as embraced by scholars such as schein (1992) and chatman et al. (2014). the high item– total correlations and cronbach’s alpha coefficients in the present study align with previous studies that have established the reliability and validity of similar organizational culture measures (gochhayat, giri and suar, 2017). however, this study sheds light on organizational culture from a fresh perspective and its espoused values. it must be stated here that the choice of items presented in the scale is made carefully to capture the discretionary nature of how employees perceive and embrace the values an organization seeks to cultivate. this underlines a more distinct perception of this significant facet of organizational climate. by analyzing the model summary shown in table 9, it can be concluded that a strong correlation exists between organizational culture and the results regarding employee safety, as proven by the r2 coefficient (0.606). this indicates that organizational culture can predict approximately 60.6% of the variance in employee safety. moreover, the remaining 39.4% of the variance not explained by organizational culture indicates that other factors influence employee safety. this underscores the necessity for a multifaceted approach to safety management. organizations should focus on cultural elements and consider other influential factors such as leadership styles, individual behaviors, safety training effectiveness, and external regulatory environments. this holistic view allows organizations to identify and address all potential areas of improvement, further enhancing safety outcomes. the adjusted r2 value of 0.592 confirms the model’s goodness of fit for the total number of predictor variables in the equation. these results are consistent with prior research on safety climate and implementation, where organizational culture was identified as a critical factor in determining the maturity of safety culture, safetyrelated behavior, and consequent safety levels in employees (chong, 2022; espasandínbustelo, ganazavargas and diazcarrion, 2020; irawan and sumartik, 2023; isa et al., 2021). as chong (2022) and irawan and sumartik (2023) highlighted, the organizational culture that supports its commitment to safety policies and procedures and increases overall job satisfaction effectively intervenes in the relationship between the safety climate and safety performance. nevertheless, this research differs from some literature findings, asserting that organizational culture and safety performance have a straightforward positive correlation (irawan and sumartik, 2023). this relates to those who postulate that the relationship is moderated by job satisfaction (irawan and sumartik, 2023) and safety behavior (hermanto, syahrul and yulihasri, 2023). this illustrates the more complex and contextually mediated role that organizational culture can play in safety, where it can affect safety through its impact on employees’ perceived safety culture. the model summary in table 9 shows an r2 value of 0.606, meaning that 60.6% of the variance in employee safety can be attributed to organizational culture variables. while this suggests a strong association, the adjusted r2 value of 0.592 accounts for the number of predictors used in the model, thus providing a more accurate representation of this relationship. this highly explained variance indicates that initiatives to improve organizational culture, such as embedding safety values into daily routines and fostering transparent communication, can significantly enhance safety performance. however, the unexplained variance of approximately 40% suggests that factors beyond culture, such as individual employee motivation and operational procedures, may also play a crucial role. this is consistent with misnan and mohammed (2007), who noted that while culture is a key determinant of safety behavior, other organizational factors, such as leadership and external conditions, must also be considered. table 10 shows that the anova outcome indicates a significant correlation between organizational culture and employee safety, f(1, 28) = 43.056, p < 0.001. hence, organizational culture predicts the safety of employees in the workplace. this interactive influence rationale accords with the literature and previous studies regarding the centrality of organizational culture in influencing employees’ personal safety beliefs and practices (chong, 2022; espasandínbustelo, ganazavargas and diazcarrion, 2020; irawan and oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025131 table 8. exploratory factor analysis: dimensionality of organizational culture espoused on values factors ocv corrected item– total correlation squared multiple correlation cronbach’s alpha if the item is deleted cronbach’s alpha our organization holds employees accountable for upholding our core values. 0.839 0.641 0.748 0.912 0.918 i believe that our organization genuinely embraces the values it claims to uphold. 0.838 0.791 0.731 0.908 our organization’s leaders serve as role models for our stated values. 0.822 0.764 0.723 0.907 our organization effectively communicates its core values to all employees. 0.811 0.743 0.793 0.907 i know our organization’s core values and understand what they mean. 0.788 0.728 0.781 0.908 i believe that our organization takes values violations seriously. 0.713 0.511 0.702 0.918 employees are encouraged to uphold our values in their daily activities. 0.713 0.643 0.654 0.912 our organization’s values are integrated into our daily work and decisionmaking. 0.709 0.598 0.803 0.914 our organization’s actions and decisions are consistent with our stated values. 0.703 0.666 0.891 0.911 i see our organizational values reflected in the way we conduct business. 0.653 0.803 0.857 0.905 there are consequences for employees who act contrary to our organizational values. 0.598 0.523 0.640 0.918 our organization consistently reinforces its values through various communication channels. 0.597 0.652 0.685 0.912 source: field data, 2023 oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025132 sumartik, 2023; isa et al., 2021). furthermore, the study confirms that establishing a positive and robust organizational culture positively influences organizational and employee safety and promotes organizational effectiveness. however, the results of the present study contradict those of the previous studies. it also did not suggest a moderating influence of occupational satisfaction on the connection between organizational culture and employee safety, as highlighted by irawan and sumartik (2023). this difference may be due to differences in sample characteristics, industry context, or the approach used in the research. the conclusions of this study have two technological implications. the findings of this study imply that there is a need to conduct more studies on the factors that explain the relationship between organizational culture and employee safety, emphasizing the role of culture and industry in various relationships. for industries, the outcomes highlighted developing a positive organizational safety culture as one of the foremost tactical priorities to guarantee employee safety and attain company efficiency. table 10. anova sum of squares df mean square f significance regression 9.259 1 9.259 43.056 0.000 residual 6.021 28 0.215 total 15.279 29 source: field data, 2023 the analysis revealed a statistically significant positive relationship between espoused values within the organizational culture and employee safety practices (beta = 0.665, t = 6.562, p < 0.001, as shown in table 11). this suggests that employees are likelier to adopt and adhere to safe practices when an organization explicitly communicates and promotes safetyrelated values. these findings align with previous research emphasizing the importance of values in shaping safe behavior (dajani, 2015; chong, 2022). interestingly, this study did not find a significant relationship between employee safety and other dimensions of organizational cultures, such as artifacts and underlying assumptions. this diverges from schein’s (1992) model, which posits that all three levels of culture influence behavior. this discrepancy could be attributed to the specific context of the study or measurement instruments used. table 11. coefficients standardized coefficients t significance beta (constant) 1.456 0.348 4.182 0.000 organizational culture espoused on values 0.665 0.101 0.778 6.562 0.000 source: field data, 2023 table 9. model summary r r2 adjusted r2 standard error of the estimate 0.778 0.606 0.592 0.46372 source: field data, 2023 oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025133 table 12. organizational culture assumptions mean sd rank our organization effectively communicates the fundamental assumptions that underlie our culture. 3.69 1.004 1 our organization is open to revisiting and updating cultural assumptions when necessary. 3.60 1.240 2 i know and understand the critical cultural assumptions shaping our organization. 3.59 1.053 3 employees are encouraged to embrace and apply our cultural assumptions in their work. 3.38 1.147 4 our organization consistently reinforces its cultural assumptions through various communication channels. 3.34 0.814 5 i see our cultural assumptions reflected in how we approach challenges and opportunities. 3.31 0.930 6 our organization’s cultural assumptions are taken into account when making important decisions. 3.30 1.032 7 how things are done in our organization aligns with the underlying assumptions about our operations. 3.28 0.996 8 there are mechanisms to address and adapt to challenges arising from our cultural assumptions. 3.24 1.057 9 our organization’s leaders clearly understand and adhere to our cultural assumptions. 3.21 1.114 10 our organization’s actions and decisions are consistent with its core assumptions. 3.17 1.197 11 our organization is willing to question and evolve its cultural assumptions as needed. 3.00 1.134 12 source: field data, 2023 organizational culture assumptions the findings in table 12, which depict the mean and standard deviation of the responses to statements about organizational culture assumptions, reveal a complex landscape. employees generally agreed that their organizations effectively communicated cultural assumptions (m = 3.69, sd = 1.004), ranking this as the most prominent feature. however, willingness to revisit and adapt to these assumptions as needed was less pronounced (m = 3.00, sd = 1.134), indicating a potential conflict between stability and adaptability. this aligns with schein’s (1992) assertion that solid cultures can be changeoriented if they distinguish between fundamental and relevant assumptions. however, the above indications show that employees do not always distinguish between these performance types. therefore, these results align with previous studies but differ in some ways. the emphasis on communication also corresponds well with the literature (fernandes, pereira and wiedenhöft, 2023). however, the results for adaptability suggest a relatively lower index than the body of knowledge, which emphasizes the need for organizations to develop dynamic cultures to cope with the changing environmental context for work (mcmillan and overall, 2017; ghani et al., 2022). this may be due to the competition between two opposing concepts: maintaining organizational values and pursuing oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025134 the dynamism that organizations face. the critical consequences are related to the further advancement of researchers and industries. these insights indicate that organizations can become overfixated on stability, which stifles their capacity to transform and experiment, and that organizational culture overemphasizes stability, which may be a barrier to change. this calls for more research on fostering the right culture that complements the traditional and change processes. the industry findings suggest that adopting the process of making cultural assumptions explicit and designing and implementing a framework for ongoing assessment and endorsement are crucial. the percentage of variance explained in table 13 arises from the efa of the organizational cultural assumptions (ocas) scale, which depicts a robust and distinctly formed single factor. regarding the reliability assessment, all items showed satisfactory levels of corrected item– total correlation, which varied from 0.587 to 0.839. squared multiple correlations were found to be appropriate for this construct. this shows consistency in the responses obtained from the thank you and mam/sir items since cronbach’s alpha values range from 0.906 to 0.918, implying high internal consistency reliability. simultaneously, the proposed structure of the unidimensional organization is consistent with schein’s (1992) model and focuses on the organization’s coherent collection of assumptions. this high internal consistency resembles other studies with similar research that has established the reliability of the ocas scale (fernandes, pereira and wiedenhöft, 2023). schein’s model, however, frequently points to the conception of a singular organizational culture that envelopes everyone; hence, the outcomes of this research do not exclude subcultures. a relatively high loading factor indicated that there was no second hidden culture. however, the participants’ responses specific to individual items may show minor differences in the assumptions made. table 14 presents an r2 value of 0.512, indicating that the underlying assumptions of organizational culture can explain 51.2% of the variance in employee safety. while this r2 value is lower than that of the other models, it still demonstrates that cultural assumptions, such as deeply ingrained safety beliefs and values, substantially impact the perception and practice of safety. this finding implies that organizations should focus on making implicit cultural assumptions explicit and continuously reassessing them to ensure they align with evolving safety needs. the unexplained 48.8% suggests that other aspects, such as leadership effectiveness, job satisfaction, or specific safety interventions, might mediate the relationship between culture and safety. this aligns with schein’s (1992) model, which emphasizes that assumptions are foundational to organizational behavior but may require reinforcement through other organizational systems to impact safety outcomes fully. as shown in table 15, the results of the anova test indicate a significant relationship between organizational culture and employee safety [f(1, 28) = 29.324, p < 0.001]. this finding aligns with previous research demonstrating a positive association between a strong safety culture and reduced workplace incidents (chong, 2022; espasandínbustelo, ganazavargas and diazcarrion, 2020). the significant regression model (r2 = 0.512) suggests that organizational culture accounts for a substantial proportion of the variance in employee safety, emphasizing its crucial role in shaping safe behaviors and attitudes. however, the findings deviate from some studies that report an indirect effect of organizational culture on safety through job satisfaction (irawan and sumartik, 2023) or safety behavior (hermanto, syahrul and yulihasri, 2023). in this study, the direct impact of organizational culture on safety was significant, implying that a strong safety culture may not always require job satisfaction or explicit safety behaviors as intermediaries. table 16 reports an r2 value of 0.452, showing that cultural assumptions explain 45.2% of the variance in employee safety behavior. while this is lower than in previous models, it still indicates a significant relationship between organizational culture and safety practices. the practical implication here is that focusing solely on improving cultural assumptions, while impactful, may not fully ensure safe behavior. the remaining 54.8% of the variance points to other influential factors such as external regulations, individual employee characteristics, and industryspecific risks. these findings suggest that while cultivating a oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025135 table 13. exploratory factor analysis: dimensionality of organizational cultural assumptions factors ocas corrected item– total correlation squared multiple correlation cronbach’s alpha if the item is deleted cronbach’s alpha our organization is open to revisiting and updating cultural assumptions when necessary. 0.839 0.703 0.623 0.910 0.918 i know and understand the critical cultural assumptions shaping our organization. 0.833 0.526 0.866 0.918 our organization consistently reinforces its cultural assumptions through various communication channels. 0.817 0.667 0.599 0.911 how things are done in our organization aligns with the underlying assumptions about our operations. 0.769 0.516 0.654 0.917 our organization is willing to question and evolve its cultural assumptions as needed. 0.757 0.784 0.865 0.906 our organization’s cultural assumptions are taken into account when making important decisions. 0.754 0.760 0.772 0.909 employees are encouraged to embrace and apply our cultural assumptions in their work. 0.750 0.684 0.805 0.911 our organization’s leaders clearly understand and adhere to our cultural assumptions. 0.725 0.635 0.750 0.913 i see our cultural assumptions reflected in how we approach challenges and opportunities. 0.685 0.671 0.687 0.911 there are mechanisms to address and adapt to challenges arising from our cultural assumptions. 0.655 0.779 0.855 0.906 our organization’s actions and decisions are consistent with its core assumptions. 0.587 0.597 0.657 0.914 our organization effectively communicates the fundamental assumptions that underlie our culture. 0.577 0.713 0.735 0.909 source: field data, 2023 oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025136 positive safety culture is essential, it should be complemented by tailored safety programs and leadership initiatives to achieve comprehensive safety improvements. as gochhayat, giri and suar (2017) noted, safety interventions should integrate organizational culture with broader management practices to fully realize their potential to improve safety behaviors. table 16. coefficients standardized coefficients t significance beta (constant) 1.409 0.428 3.289 0.003 organizational culture assumptions 0.673 0.124 0.715 5.415 0.000 source: field data, 2023 summary of findings this study demonstrates that organizational culture patterns involve several aspects related to worker protection. employees have a positive attitude toward organizational symbols, icons, and dress codes, signaling the organizational culture and flow of organizational symbols. however, the dress code is significant in the study of organizational culture. whereas enacted values are affiliated with positive perceptions, there is room for enhancing efforts toward institutionalization in everyday processes. it was further observed that organizational culture is positively correlated with the level of employee safety, and this variable explains the remaining variation in safety results. most notably, it can be concluded that the hypothesized connection between all three levels of organizational culture (artifacts, espoused values, and assumptions) and safety is substantial and positive, with the effects of shared assumptions being particularly salient. specifically, these outcomes suggest that safety scientists must focus more on developing an organizational safety culture that goes beyond superficial symbols and embraces the full range of formal and informal organizational safety climates to improve employee safety and organizational performance. table 14. model summary r r2 adjusted r2 standard error of the estimate 0.715 0.512 0.494 0.51628 source: field data, 2023 table 15. results of the anova test sum of squares df mean square f significance regression 7.816 1 7.816 29.324 0.000 residual 7.463 28 0.267 total 15.279 29 source: field data, 2023 oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025137 conclusions and recommendations this study provides clear evidence that supports the fact that an organization’s safety culture influences employee safety in the construction industry in developing countries. consequently, this study shows that organizational culture artifacts, espoused values, and assumed values correlate significantly and positively with overall perceived safety among employees. this underlines the necessity of an integrated methodological approach to form an influential safety culture by managing the stated values, easily observable symbolic signs, and structural, philosophical, and epistemological beliefs in the organizational workspace. this study is in tandem with other studies that highlight the place of organizational culture but reveal new perspectives. notably, most organizational cultures impact safety outcomes directly and significantly, which was not moderated by job satisfaction or safety behaviors as found in previous studies; this hints at the fact that organizational culture wields a more direct and consequential influence. moreover, highlighting the cultural elements that are most relevant and can be appropriately associated with organizational culture, including symbols and dress codes, can provide practitioners with valuable suggestions for improving performance. the relevance of these findings is enormous because they call for a new understanding of the role of schools in producing social capital. the present study also highlights the need for more research to clarify the effects of various dimensions of organizational culture on safety behaviors. subsequent studies should include leadership, communication, and training as elements contributing to implementing cultural beliefs in tangible security measures. the credibility of cultural change initiatives gives practitioners reason to engage in safety exoticism. this could entail a redesign of spaces such as offices and workshops to include safety signs and symbols, setting organizational standards that can enhance safe behaviors such as apparel, and providing orientation programs that address such safety culture that is unhealthy for safety. the potential and broader societal implications include minimizing losses by preventing or reducing the number of workplace accidents and deaths, particularly in the construction industry in the developing world, where workplace safety is relatively low. thus, skillful management of safety culture within organizations helps organizations improve the safety and productivity of their employees and work processes and the development of the economy of the communities to which these organizations belong. to effectively integrate organizational cultural changes that enhance employee safety, a stepbystep approach can be designed to draw on theoretical frameworks and practical examples from successful case studies. the suggested implementation plan is as follows. 1. assessment of current safety culture: conduct an internal audit using surveys and focus groups to evaluate the current state of safetyrelated organizational culture. assess areas such as communication, employee engagement, and leadership involvement in safety protocols. 2. development of a strategic plan: based on the audit results, develop a clear strategy that outlines desired cultural changes. this should include specific goals such as improving safety communication and reinforcing safetyrelated dress codes. an example could be using symbols and signage, successfully implemented in malaysia’s construction sector (chong, 2022). 3. leadership involvement: ensure that leadership actively promotes a safety culture. leaders should model safety behaviors and integrate safety into their decisionmaking processes. a case study from australia’s mining industry demonstrated the importance of leadership in promoting a safety culture, significantly reducing workplace accidents ( johnston et al., 2020). 4. training and reinforcement: implement regular training programs to reinforce safety values and practices. use case studies from companies like siemens that have embedded safety training in their corporate culture, leading to enhanced safety adherence (isa et al., 2021). oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025138 5. monitoring and evaluation of progress: establish a system for ongoing monitoring and evaluation. regularly update safety protocols based on employee feedback and emerging best practices. a successful example of this approach is singapore’s construction sector, where continuous evaluation has led to a 30% reduction in workplace accidents (hermanto, syahrul and yulihasri, 2023). the results of this study have important implications for furthering the research knowledge base for specific industries. consequently, this study emphasizes the importance of understanding the pathways through which organizational culture impacts safety. thus, for industries, the outcomes stress the significance of developing an organizational culture that promotes the adoption of safetyrelated approaches and improves employee satisfaction and compliance with safe practices. this comprehensive approach is widely accepted and positively affects safety results, results in minimal accidents, and increases industrial performance. implications for research this study on organizational culture and its relationship with organizational security in terms of employee protection has shown that this is not a simple relationship that should be easily defined, and there is a need for further research. several essential implications for subsequent research have been identified, including awareness of and advancements in this field. these implications underscore the need for more extensive, complex, and multidisciplinary research to examine the relationship between organizational culture and safety as outcomes. they also emphasized the need to refine safety culture assessments and examine diverse avenues through which culture impacts safety. the following research implications guide scholars wishing to progress their studies in this critical area and help enhance workplace safety. this research on organizational culture and its influence on employee safety requires a total examination of the firstorder and secondorder effects. researchers should further investigate how organizational culture affects safety, moderating variables, and the role of interaction effects. this approach requires management to focus on cultural dimensions, pay particular attention to details, and review the influence and impact of certain aspects of organizational culture on safety and related behaviors and orientations. therefore, it is necessary to develop more accurate assessment instruments. developing instruments such as organizational culture values (ocv) and organizational cultural assumptions (ocas) offers practical ways to measure the influence of organizational culture on safety. these tools allow researchers to study the interactions between cultural factors and safety results. one potential direction for future research is to examine the relationships between various aspects of culture and indices of actual safety performance. to this end, researchers should examine the organizational structure and processes that translate values and behavior to explore how cultural factors develop into actual safety measures. to conclude, this exploration should be conducted across different contexts and within various industries to help reveal the specifics of the relationship between organizational culture and safety. to obtain a broader view, further studies should consider other potential variables, including leadership, communication, and specific aspects of safety culture. by adopting this systemic perspective, it will be possible to reveal the various factors that interact to determine organizational safety concerns. furthermore, researchers should pay attention to the potential negative impacts of cultural assumptions on safety and recommend auditing culture concerning culture audits. because of the layered and multifaceted nature of organizational culture and its relationship to and influence on safety, such an approach is justified. crossing the boundaries between organizational psychology, safety science, and management studies provides a broader perspective. this comprehensive approach will generate theoretical innovation and foster a practical understanding of safety enhancements in various organizations. one critical implication for future research is the need to study how subcultures may mediate the relationship oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025139 between organizational culture and safety outcomes. while an overarching organizational culture may promote certain safetyrelated values, subcultures may interpret and implement these values uniquely. researchers should investigate how these subcultural variations influence safetyrelated behaviors, communication, and perceptions and how they align or conflict with the broader organizational culture. this inquiry could uncover why safety practices that work well in one department may not be as effective in another, highlighting the importance of customized safety strategies. limitations some of the limitations that would be worth mentioning concerning this study include the following: the data used in this study are crosssectional, and there is also the possibility of selfreporting bias. furthermore, this study was limited to only one industry and geographical area. subsequent studies should use longitudinal and crosssectional approaches with different samples to check the transportability of the conclusions to different organizational types and settings. references adekanmbi, f. and ukpere, w. 2023, “the impacts of perceived leadership integrity, psychological safety, and organizational culture in sustaining employee voice,” international journal of research in business and social science (21474478), 12(7):199–207, https://doi.org/10.20525/ijrbs.v12i7.2884 ahmad, t. l, fitria, h. and hakim, c. b. 2022, “the influence of work safety culture and work safety monitoring system on work safety,” journal of industrial engineering and halal industries, 3(1):57–63, https://doi.org/10.14421/ jiehis.3486 alankarage, s. m. h. 2024, a framework for managing bim-enabled construction organisations through innovative bim culture (doctoral dissertation, university of south australia). https://hdl.handle.net/11541.2/38691 berger, e. j., wu, c., briody, e. k., wirtz, e. and rodríguez‐mejía, f. 2020, “faculty subcultures in engineering and their implications for organizational change,” journal of engineering education, 110(1):230–251, https://doi. org/10.1002/jee.20370 bisbey, t. m., kilcullen, m. p., thomas, e. j., ottosen, m. j., tsao, k. and salas, e. 2019, “safety culture: an integration of existing models and a framework for understanding its development,” human factors the journal of the human factors and ergonomics society, 63(1):88–110, https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720819868878 bujang, m. a., omar, e. d. and baharum, n. a. 2018, “a review on sample size determination for cronbach’s alpha test: a simple guide for researchers,” malaysian journal of medical sciences, 25(6):85–99, https://doi.org/10.21315/ mjms2018.25.6.9 chatman, j. a., caldwell, d. f., o’reilly, c. a. and doerr, b. 2014, “parsing organizational culture: how the norm for adaptability influences the relationship between culture consensus and financial performance in high-technology firms,” journal of organizational behavior, 35(6):785–808, https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1928 chong, d. 2022, “the influence of organizational justice and organizational culture on employee loyalty,” dinasti international journal of management science, 4(1):175–185, https://doi.org/10.31933/dijms.v4i1.1469 dabbagh, a., seens, h., fraser, j. and macdermid, j. c. 2023, “construct validity and internal consistency of the home and family work roles questionnaires: a cross-sectional study with exploratory factor analysis,” bmc women s health, 23(1), https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-023-02199-1 dajani, m. a. z. 2015, “the impact of employee engagement on job performance and organisational commitment in the egyptian banking sector,” nihon keiei gakkaishi, 3(5):138–147, http://article.businessmanagementsciences.com/pdf/ jbms-3-5-1.pdf oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025140 https://doi.org/10.20525/ijrbs.v12i7.2884 https://doi.org/10.14421/jiehis.3486 https://doi.org/10.14421/jiehis.3486 https://hdl.handle.net/11541.2/38691 https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20370 https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20370 https://doi.org/10.1177/0018720819868878 https://doi.org/10.21315/mjms2018.25.6.9 https://doi.org/10.21315/mjms2018.25.6.9 https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1928 https://doi.org/10.31933/dijms.v4i1.1469 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12905-023-02199-1 http://article.businessmanagementsciences.com/pdf/jbms-3-5-1.pdf http://article.businessmanagementsciences.com/pdf/jbms-3-5-1.pdf de brún, a., anjara, s., cunningham, u., khurshid, z., macdonald, s., o’donovan, r., rogers, l. and mcauliffe, e. 2020, “the collective leadership for safety culture (co-lead) team intervention to promote teamwork and patient safety,” international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(22):8673, https://doi.org/10.3390/ ijerph17228673 efimova, o. v. and komarova, yu, v. 2019, “safety culture as an element of organisation culture of transport companies,” world of transport and transportation, 17(3):234–245, https://doi.org/10.30932/1992-3252-2019-17-3234-245. espasandín-bustelo, f., ganaza-vargas, j. and diaz-carrion, r. 2020, “employee happiness and corporate social responsibility: the role of organizational culture,” employee relations, 43(3):609–629, https://doi.org/10.1108/er-072020-0343 fernandes, p., pereira, r. and wiedenhöft, g. 2023, “organizational culture and the individuals’ discretionary behaviours at work: a cross-cultural analysis,” frontiers in sociology, 8, https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1190488 ghani, b., memon, k.r., han, h., ariza-montes, a. and arjona-fuentes, j.m. 2022, “work stress, technological changes, and job insecurity in the retail organization context,” frontiers in psychology, 13, https://doi.org/10.3389/ fpsyg.2022.918065 gochhayat, j., giri, v. n. and suar, d. 2017, “influence of organizational culture on organizational effectiveness: the mediating role of organizational communication,” global business review, 18(3):691–702, https://doi. org/10.1177/0972150917692185 graham, j. r., grennan, j., harvey, c.r., and rajgopal, s. 2022, “corporate culture: evidence from the field,” journal of financial economics, 146(2):552–593, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2022.07.008 gulua, e. 2018, “organizational culture management challenges,” european journal of interdisciplinary studies, 10(1):67, https://doi.org/10.26417/ejis.v10i1.p67-79 hermanto, b., syahrul, l. and yulihasri, y. 2023, “the influence of organizational culture, work environment, and competence on safety health occupation (sho) laboratory employees with safety behavior as a mediation variable,” journal of social research, 2(8):2773–2789, https://doi.org/10.55324/josr.v2i8.1335 irawan, b. and sumartik, n. 2023, “employee performance: organizational culture, occupational health and safety (k3), with job satisfaction as a mediator,” academia open, 9(2), https://doi.org/10.21070/acopen.9.2024.5561 isa, a. a. m., wahab, w. a., omar, r. c., nordin, m. z. m., taha, h. and roslan, r. 2021, “factors influencing the compliance of workplace safety culture in the government linked company (glc),” e3s web of conferences, 32506005, https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202132506005 johnston, d., pagell, m., veltri, a. and klassen, r. 2020, “values-in-action that support safe production,” journal of safety research, 7275–91, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2019.11.004 joshi, a., kale, s., chandel, s. and pal, d. 2015, “likert scale: explored and explained,” british journal of applied science and technology, 7(4):396–403, https://doi.org/10.9734/bjast/2015/14975 marchand, a., and haines, v. y. and dextras-gauthier, j. 2013, “quantitative analysis of organizational culture in occupational health research: a theory-based validation in 30 workplaces of the organizational culture profile instrument,” bmc public health, 13(1), https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-443 mcmillan, c. j. and overall, j. s. 2017, “crossing the chasm and over the abyss: perspectives on organizational failure,” academy of management perspectives, 31(4):271–287, https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2017.0018 oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025141 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228673 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17228673 https://doi.org/10.30932/1992-3252-2019-17-3-234-245 https://doi.org/10.30932/1992-3252-2019-17-3-234-245 https://doi.org/10.1108/er-07-2020-0343 https://doi.org/10.1108/er-07-2020-0343 https://doi.org/10.3389/fsoc.2023.1190488 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.918065 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.918065 https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150917692185 https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150917692185 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfineco.2022.07.008 https://doi.org/10.26417/ejis.v10i1.p67-79 https://doi.org/10.55324/josr.v2i8.1335 https://doi.org/10.21070/acopen.9.2024.5561 https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202132506005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2019.11.004 https://doi.org/10.9734/bjast/2015/14975 https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2458-13-443 https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2017.0018 misnan, m. s. and mohammed, a. h. 2007, “development of safety culture in the construction industry: a conceptual framework”. in: boyd, d (ed) procs 23rd annual arcom conference, 3-5, september 2007, belfast, uk, association of researchers in construction management, 13-22. morgan, a., and kidombo, h. 2022, “organisational culture and information technology projects success: the role of participatory planning and organisational commitment,” ijrdo journal of business management, 8(7):53–59, https:// doi.org/10.53555/bm.v8i7.5199 motlhale, k. j. 2018, an investigation of the integration challenges of informal contractors in the formal economy : a south african perspective, https://doi.org/10.51415/10321/3327 mustapha, z., akomah, b.b., zebilila, m.d., tieru, c.k., oppon, j.a. and aidoo, p., 2024. occupational stress and its impact on health, safety, and performance among construction workers in ghana’s central region. the asian review of civil engineering, 13(1), pp.22-29. https://doi.org/10.70112/tarce-2024.13.1.4231 rahman, a. and muktadir, mdg. 2021, “spss: an imperative quantitative data analysis tool for social science research,” international journal of research and innovation in social science, 05(10):300–302, https://doi.org/10.47772/ ijriss.2021.51012 rana, j., gutierrez, p. l. and oldroyd, j. c. 2021, “quantitative methods,” in springer ebooks, pp. 1–6, https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_460-1 saifi, s. a. a. 2015, “positioning organisational culture in knowledge management research,” journal of knowledge management, 19(2):164–189, https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-07-2014-0287 schein, e.h. 1992, “organizational culture and leadership: a dynamic view. 2nd edition”, jossey-bass, san francisco. schein, e. h. 1985, “organizational culture and leadership”. san francisco: jossey-bass. tavakol, m., and dennick, r. 2011, “making sense of cronbach’s alpha,” international journal of medical education, 253–55, https://doi.org/10.5116/ijme.4dfb.8dfd torres, a.i, ferraz, s.s and santos-rodrigues, h 2018, “the impact of knowledge management factors in organizational sustainable competitive advantage,” journal of intellectual capital, 19(2):453–472, https://doi.org/10.1108/jic-12-20160143 wahab, s. f. a., ismail, a. r., and othman, r. 2017, “qualitative, quantitative or mixed: which is the most preferred for healthcare studies,” in advances in intelligent systems and computing, pp. 331–336, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-31960483-1_33 zakharchyn, h. 2022, “the factor of organizational culture in the system of organizational behavior,” market infrastructure, (66), https://doi.org/10.32843/infrastruct66-19 zhang, q., chan, a. p. c., yang, y., guan, j. and choi, t. n. y. 2023, “influence of learning from incidents, safety information flow, and resilient safety culture on construction safety performance,” journal of management in engineering, 39(3), https://doi.org/10.1061/jmenea.meeng-5223 oppon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025142 https://doi.org/10.53555/bm.v8i7.5199 https://doi.org/10.53555/bm.v8i7.5199 https://doi.org/10.51415/10321/3327 https://doi.org/10.70112/tarce-2024.13.1.4231 https://doi.org/10.47772/ijriss.2021.51012 https://doi.org/10.47772/ijriss.2021.51012 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_460-1 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-31816-5_460-1 https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-07-2014-0287 https://doi.org/10.5116/ijme.4dfb.8dfd https://doi.org/10.1108/jic-12-2016-0143 https://doi.org/10.1108/jic-12-2016-0143 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60483-1_33 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-60483-1_33 https://doi.org/10.32843/infrastruct66-19 https://doi.org/10.1061/jmenea.meeng-5223 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: ershadi, m., jefferies, m., davis, p., and mojtahedi, m. 2021. achieving sustainable procurement in construction projects: the pivotal role of a project management office. construction economics and building, 21:1, 45–64. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v21i1.7170 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 1 march 2021 research article achieving sustainable procurement in construction projects: the pivotal role of a project management office mahmoud ershadi1,*, marcus jefferies1, peter davis1, mohammad mojtahedi2 1 school of architecture and built environment, university of newcastle, university drive, callaghan nsw 2308, australia 2 school of built environment, university of new south wales, sydney, nsw 2052, australia corresponding author: mahmoud ershadi, school of architecture and built environment, university of newcastle, university drive, callaghan nsw 2308, australia. mahmoud.ershadi@ uon.edu.au doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7170 article history: received: 29/04/2020; revised: 31/01/2021 & 30/10/2020; accepted: 01/02/2021; published: 15/03/2021 abstract environmental and ecological impacts associated with construction activities have become an ever-increasing concern, especially the considerable amount of waste generated on construction sites. regulations and growing client pressure on meeting environmental standards have led contractors to adopt sustainable practices and try to embed this concept in their processes. sustainable procurement management (spm) as a potential solution takes the environmental consequences of procurement decisions into account and integrates sustainable practices into project procurement to bring positive environmental outcomes. previous research has mainly focused on the public sector in achieving green procurement, yet this study attempts to highlight internal capacities that help private organisations manage the requirements associated with practicing sustainability. it is theorised that robust management structures, specifically project management offices (pmos), would enhance the oversight capabilities of contractors in implementing the spm process. the objectives of the current study are to (1) identify the requirements of a sustainable project procurement process in construction sites based on a literature review, and (2) explore the facilitative role of pmo units in achieving these requirements in the private sector. a literature review was conducted followed by a qualitative survey to solicit the viewpoints of construction professionals in principle 45 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7170 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7170 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7170 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:mahmoud.ershadi@uon.edu.au mailto:mahmoud.ershadi@uon.edu.au http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7170 contracting firms. as a result of the study, we identified 17 sustainability requirements and found that pmos boost collaboration and improve the quality of decision making towards sustainable procurement. the findings (1) explain how pmos support sustainability, (2) provide insights on implementing sustainable practices in project purchases, and (3) improve theoretical understanding of the spm principles. keywords construction projects; project management office; sustainable procurement introduction sustainable procurement management (spm) incorporates the environmental consequences of project purchases. sustainability can only be achieved by the commitment and close collaboration of various businesses operating in a supply chain. in a circular industry, all parties involved in a supply chain should take responsibility for the environmental impact of their activities. it is debated that enterprises in a supply chain cannot be more sustainable than their suppliers as their business benefits are interrelated (krause, vachon and klassen, 2009). spm brings noticeable benefits to construction businesses in terms of increasing productivity, reducing overhead, controlling operational costs, enhancing compliance with environmental regulations, minimising construction waste, and tackling environmental risks. forwardthinking companies invest more in technological advances necessary for achieving a sustainable supply chain to maximise their business values in the long run. studies conducted so far revealed that the purchase of materials, equipment, machinery, and services constitutes a significant portion of operations (more than half of the total activities) in a construction project. traditional procedures are no longer adequate for the efficient procurement of such large-scale projects considering emerging complexities in dealing with sustainability risks (ann and shen, 2013). brammer and walker (2011) found that sustainable procurement practices are more evident in the public sector. however, the extent of application varies across different regions and is more prevalent in developed counties. previous studies contributed to the extant body of knowledge by analysing certain aspects of sustainability such as social sustainability (worthington, et al., 2008), waste reduction (holt and ghobadian, 2009), and safety (nawaz, linke and koҫ, 2019). from a procurement perspective, the main reason for the insufficient application of sustainability principles in the private sector is the limited efforts to introduce management capacities essential to boosting contractors’ potentials in embedding sustainability. in this regard, it is necessary to analyse this concept from a broader view concerning key players that affect outcomes in the construction supply chain. although the concept of sustainability has been well introduced into the procurement management domain, the findings need further elaboration to provide more consistent guidance to practitioners. adopting a theoretical view based on existing theories would constitute a solid basis for introducing interventions that help contractors incorporate all necessary aspects to achieve greater levels of sustainability in construction activities (obicci, 2017). supplying construction material and equipment from sources outside of an organisation in a sustainable way requires a clear overview of the procurement process. the literature gives an account of major stages in the procurement process, which encompasses activities such as identifying sourcing opportunities, information search, requisition requests, negotiation, contract approval, purchase order, delivery tracking, and payment (vaidya, 2005). however, practitioners commonly refer to the stages introduced by international professional standards such as pmbok (project management institute, 2017) and prince2 (axelos, 2017), which present detailed tasks and responsibilities associated with the implementation of the procurement process. the pmbok guide emphasises the procurement steps while prince2 focuses on ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202146 the corresponding roles and responsibilities. these two common sources are used in this paper to base the sustainability analysis on a globally recognised procurement process. thus, theoretical concepts of procurement management and sustainability principles are borrowed to map out a framework relating these domains together. we also theorise that the project management office (pmo) structures can facilitate the spm process by playing a coordinative role among senior management, procurement team, and suppliers. pmo refers to an organisational entity for centralised coordination of the parties involved in project activities and arrangements (qi, et al., 2014). employing this oversight structure enables contractors to embed spm practice in multiple projects in a standard manner. therefore, in the course of a qualitative-descriptive study, we introduce sustainability into project procurement practice in light of the mediating role of pmo. the sustainability requirements are explained and then discussed through the lenses of the procurement approach to be consolidated in the context of a theoretical framework. literature review the project procurement management process construction projects are characterised by temporary activities, uniqueness, and resource limitation, requiring their arrangements to be delivered on target. the first step in the study of sustainable procurement is to highlight essential elements of the procurement process in construction organisations. the prince2 guide provides a methodology for the management of projects regardless of their size, type, and geographical distribution. the project management body of knowledge (pmbok) is another standard that provides valuable insights into the process and requirements of procurement management. the concepts in this standard allow for the application of proper knowledge, processes, tools, and techniques, influencing the successful delivery of projects. this standard comprises ten knowledge areas described based on initiating, planning, monitoring and control, executing, and closing. this standard includes procedures and processes that direct activities for optimal project procurement management (project management institute, 2017). on the other hand, the prince2 guide has introduced both the procurement process and relevant roles, which are used in this study to highlight key responsibilities for procurement management in construction projects. the process aspect deals with procedures and steps necessary for accomplishing procurement tasks from planning to contract closure (axelos, 2017). we borrowed concepts from both pmbok and prince2 to define the following steps as a basis for analysing relevant sustainability requirements: 1) pre-procurement decisions: once an outsourcing idea is raised, project leaders evaluate its positive and negative aspects of possible scenarios. risks and benefits of outsourcing scenarios are specifically analysed, and different concerns associated with supplying specific equipment or material from a third party are considered. potential sellers are evaluated against a set of given criteria, and the decision-making board decides the best outsourcing scenario. responsibilities should be assigned to the procurement team so that the selected scenario is implemented. 2) plan procurement: in this step, the details of the project purchase should be specified and planned properly in collaboration with stakeholders. this process is intended to clarify the extent and scope of the work required for the delivery of supplies. this process identifies the requirements and corresponding arrangements essential for supplying project items from outside of the project organisation. the preparation of documents, their submission to potential sellers, and specifying the source selection criteria need to be determined. 3) conduct procurement: this stage ensures that the actions of the involved parties comply with the predetermined specifications. this process includes receiving proposals, price declaration, and selecting ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202147 the best sellers. supplier selection which is often referred to as source selection, includes an assessment of plans proposed by sellers and choosing the best case. after negotiations and agreement over contract terms, the contract is awarded to the selected seller. the contract becomes an important document for ensuring whether the supplier adheres to all their responsibilities concerning the on-target delivery of supplies. 4) control procurement: at this stage, it is necessary to evaluate the work performed by the supplier, manage the interfaces of the procurement team with suppliers’ representatives, and take corrective actions. the procurement team should provide project leaders with sufficient information and timely status reports to make informed decisions on corrective actions. the process of supervising contract performance and the incorporation of amendments help the procurement team to control deviation from the performance baseline before the occurrence of any delay or error. they administer the procurement contract based on predefined objectives to ensure that each party adheres to their contractual obligations. any kind of issue arising in relation to procurement contracts is to be negotiated through conflict resolution and arbitration mechanisms. 5) close procurement: this step includes the approval of procured products/services, carrying out documentation, and formal closure of the contract if all obligations have been fulfilled properly as per terms and conditions. the procurement team must assure that claims are finalized, and lessons learned are documented for future use and implementation. once the supplies are delivered, and project leaders are satisfied with the output, final documentation is collated and archived. as well as these five steps, several principles should be considered to ensure that the project procurement process runs smoothly without major barriers. important necessities to be considered for a more effective procurement include (axelos, 2017): (1) tailoring the project procurement procedure based on the scale and nature of projects allows adjustments in response to particular specifications and standards. (2) roles and responsibilities of the procurement team in planning, supervising, and controlling the activities should be clarified. (3) technical specifications and quality matters should be clarified in advance. (4) potential risks and uncertainties should be acknowledged in contract documents to account for any variation and unexpected outcomes. (5) controls are critical elements to support the execution of the procurement process by identifying the deviations and taking timely actions to realign activities. the importance of sustainability in project procurement construction enterprises need to integrate sustainability across all their functions towards achieving sustainable growth in response to volatile economic variables (mcmurray, et al., 2014). creating a sustainable industry requires close consideration of the long-term consequences associated with construction procurement activities and deliverables. total cost of ownership (tco) supports this view since contractors responsible for the delivery of multiple projects, construction enterprises need to incorporate parameters related to the long-term operation of a facility to ensure optimal energy consumption, minimum noise/air pollution, and high performance of the equipment. tco incorporates all the costs from idea inception to maintenance, which can be significantly optimised by adopting sustainable methods. embedding this concept in construction processes is still immature and needs more empirical elaboration. sustainable procurement seeks sustainable development goals (sdgs) in the domain of project procurement (walker, et al., 2012) and aims to address procurement needs in a way that value is generated not only for a company but also for the whole industry and economy (benchekroun, benmamoun and hachimi, 2019). the interest of suppliers is essential in practicing sustainable procurement since the sustainability level of an enterprise is dependent upon the sustainability commitment of its suppliers in a supply chain (krause, vachon and klassen, 2009). achieving higher maturity levels in sustainability hinges upon the work/items delivered by suppliers, which implies the significance of procurement decisions in creating a sustainable ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202148 organisation. principal contractors and project owners can minimise the environmental risk posed by the involvement of third parties via encouraging their commitment to responsible project procurement (benchekroun, benmamoun and hachimi, 2019). introducing sustainability in project purchasing requires consideration of environmental, social, and economic aspects. the environmental perspective integrates considerations such as minimising waste and pollutants. social sustainability refers to the fact that firms’ performance and reputation are influenced by the services provided by their suppliers. this aspect also focuses on equity, human rights, safety and wellbeing, and labour; while the economic dimension is more concerned with financial outcomes such as the supply of the highest quality product/services with the minimum price and considering the total cost of ownership (benchekroun, benmamoun and hachimi, 2019). this paper takes these three aspects of sustainability into account to study spm. the requirements of sustainable procurement management this study reviewed the findings of both qualitative and quantitative studies on sustainable procurement. early research on sustainable procurement dates back to the late 1990s when carter (1998) carried out a hypothesis testing and developed an environmental purchasing model in which the influence of six factors on environmental purchasing decisions was corroborated. these factors and their associated path coefficient include regulatory sector (h1, 0.076), output sector (h2, 0.296), quality (h3, 0.045), vertical coordination (h4, 0.606), supply uncertainty (h5, 0.023), and resource dependence (h6, 0.711). carter and jennings (2004) identified the facets of purchasing’s involvement in corporate social responsibility (csr) and found that the scales of purchasing social responsibilities and their factor coefficients include the environment (0.736), diversity (0.528), human rights (0.853), philanthropy (0.663), safety (0.793), ethics – deceitful practices (0.12), and ethics – subtle practices (0.143). preuss (2007) conducted a case study analysis to explore the extent to which the local government in the united kingdom utilises its procurement function to foster sustainable development. it was found that “the local government has addressed environmental sustainability standards by phasing out hazardous materials in procured products and services, requiring a minimum recycled content for some goods, and insisting on lower energy or fuel consumption”. another quantitative study was conducted in the uk to obtain the viewpoints of 106 procurement officers in the public sector based on an established questionnaire entitled “purchasing social responsibility”. a cross-sector analysis based on a five-point likert scale revealed that purchases from small suppliers (3.99), purchases from local suppliers (3.81), the safe incoming movement of product to facilities (3.44), are the top three influential sustainability procurement practices. besides, the cost was found to be the leading barrier to sustainable procurement (lindgreen, et al., 2009). two external and internal aspects of sustainability can be highlighted in organisations; the external goals focus on equity, economy, and environment, while the internal goals point to efficiency, business benefits, cost-effectiveness, fairness, and transparency (nijaki and worrel, 2012). brammer and walker (2011) examined the application of sustainable procurement practices within a sample of over 280 public procurement practitioners from 20 countries. their analysis indicated variation in the adoption of such practices in the public sector. the findings also revealed the most prevalent practices among sample organisations according to a five-point lickert scale as follows: buying from small and medium-sized (sme) companies (3.73), purchasing from local suppliers (3.62), ensuring the safe incoming movement of product to an organisation’s facilities (3.40), aiming to reduce packaging materials (3.21) and asking suppliers to commit to waste reduction goals (3.06). mcmurray, et al. (2014) explored the extent of sustainable procurement practices amongst procurement managers in public and private sector organisations in malaysia. it was found that lack of awareness was the most significant barrier to spm whereas improved working conditions, public image, organisational efficiency, and transparency were found as facilitators. a recent study also explored the barriers to sustainable procurement in a brazilian context and, as a result of factor analysis, it was found that organisational culture stands out as a particular barrier to sustainable ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202149 public procurement (delmonico, et al., 2018). overall, the findings of such studies were reviewed to provide an overview of spm concerning three areas of environmental, social, and economic sustainability (benchekroun, benmamoun and hachimi, 2019) (table 1). table 1. the sustainability requirements from a procurement perspective stages of the procurement process sustainability requirement in the literature aspects of sustainability environmental economic social preprocurement decisions allocate adequate budget and resources to implement spm principles (preuss, 2007).    social responsibility and the commitment of senior managers to incorporating sustainability in the procurement process (lindgreen, et al., 2009).  plan procurement follow a life-cycle analysis to evaluate the environmental friendliness of products and packaging supplied by available suppliers in the market (carter and carter, 1998).  ensure endurance, stability, safety, and optimal performance of the equipment to be installed towards delivering a resilient facility/infrastructure (bocchini, et al., 2014)   consideration of optimal energy/water consumption and minimum greenhouse gas/toxic emissions in supplying project equipment and material (nijaki and worrel, 2012)  avoid noise pollution by supplying the equipment that has minimum noise and vibration (shen, et al., 2007).  give preference to local suppliers (support the local economy) (brammer and walker, 2011).  give precedence to small suppliers (lindgreen, et al., 2009)  conduct procurement close consideration of design features in procurement to minimise waste (mcmurray, et al., 2014).  ensure shortlisted suppliers comply with labour laws and regulations (carter and jennings, 2004).  ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202150 the benefits of pmo structures to achieve spm objectives principal contractors establish long-term relations with original equipment manufacturers (oem) to benefit from their high-quality equipment and improve their brand recognition. collaborating with capable suppliers reduces the risk of capital investments in new markets. to take control of procurement activities and arrange batch purchase orders, organisations have turned to centralised oversight mechanisms (ward, 2016). in this regard, procurement teams are assigned to undertake tasks such as placing and handling purchase orders, ensuring timely procurement, inspecting the quality of supplied goods, and following up on the shipment of products from the manufacturing site to the project site. such oversight functions improve the capability of a company to select the best suppliers, negotiate the type and price of the contract, and rigorously assess the risks of outsourcing specific parts of a project. however, undertaking these tasks requires intensive planning and technical support. in such a condition, adopting pmo structures benefit organisations to coordinate technical and procurement teams and ensure that all deliverables will be completed based on the deadlines in the project master schedule as promised with clients. these entities govern project activities and support executives in managing interfaces with external partners. they are well aware of project needs and have access to the knowledge base of projects, which capacitate them to suggest the best sourcing strategies. the underlying benefit of pmo structures in spm includes (1) insisting adherence of suppliers to sustainability requirements and (2) minimising procurement risks emanating from a variety of technical and quality matters (mori, et al., 2013). these risks are closely interrelated and are likely to leave negative impacts on sustainability objectives. regarding the fact that pmos govern project processes, they can address those stages of the procurement process sustainability requirement in the literature aspects of sustainability environmental economic social oblige suppliers to adhere to waste reduction policies (carter and jennings, 2004).  ensure safe operation and transfer of product to project facilities (carter and jennings, 2004).  control procurement reduce packaging material (mcmurray, et al., 2014).  waste recycling and reuse on the construction site (carter and jennings, 2004).  awareness of sustainability objectives among people (delmonico, et al., 2018).  close procurement ensure meeting sustainability goals upon completion of the work package (carter and jennings, 2004).    site decontamination and waste removal after contract closure (cappuyns, 2016)  table 1. continued ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202151 operational risks threatening sustainability through effective risk management to safeguard the environment, society, and economy against the consequences of procurement decisions. pmos can enhance both internal and external communications to provide a nurturing environment in which all procurement parties collaborate in an integrated manner. to ensure their commitment to sustainability objectives, a common understanding of spm principles should be developed within and outside of organisations. research method this qualitative-descriptive study reflects the perspective of principle contractors on spm and is conducted through three stages of (1) literature review, (2) the qualitative survey, and (3) group consensus. the first step addresses the first research objective, and steps 2 to 3 are conducted to achieve the second research objective: 1) the literature review: first, a literature review was conducted to provide a theoretical understanding concerning (1) the steps of the procurement process in construction projects, (2) potential sustainability requirements from a procurement perspective. the purpose of this stage was to synthesise a rapidly growing field of knowledge and specify the requirements of spm from a theoretical viewpoint. the research methodology in this stage was inspired by tranfield, et al. (2003) on conducting reviews in the field of management. one of the difficulties in conducting a review study in a field related to management is the range of research design adopted by researchers ( johnsen, miemczyk and macquet, 2012). both qualitative and quantitative studies were included in the span of the review. the scopus, web of science, and google scholar are the three main databases, and the keywords of “sustainability”, “supply chains”, “procurement management”, and “project procurement” were considered simultaneously to retrieve representative studies. as a result of the first step, the requirements of project procurement management were identified by reviewing the findings of representative studies. key aspects and elements for achieving sustainable procurement management in construction projects were determined accordingly. 2) the qualitative survey: the second stage of the research involves a qualitative survey. this stage was conducted in new south wales, australia, and a thematic analysis approach was adopted for drawing conclusions based on empirical data by following a six-phase step-by-step guide introduced by braun and clarke (2006). this stage aims to solicit expert opinion on the role of pmo as a centralised project oversight mechanism towards embedding spm. the participants were sourced from a group of principal contractors in the private sector, and an online survey tool was used for obtaining their viewpoints. qualitative surveys provide a less structured way of gaining information about experts’ reasoning (giles and yates, 2014). this strategy involves soliciting individual feedback through open-ended questions because the role of pmo in embedding spm should be described from an expert viewpoint. the questionnaire of the study includes two sections (attachment 1); in the first section, demographic questions about qualification, experience, and job position were asked. the second section incorporates five subsections related to the stages of srm. in each subsection, respondents were asked to explain the role of pmos in embedding respective spm requirements. seventy eligible staff received the invitations and twenty completed responses were received (response rate of 28.5%). the sample size is acceptable since it ranges from 15 to 25 for qualitative surveys (trotter ii, 2012). the target population includes project management professionals in principle contracting organisations. to ensure that the most suitable experts are selected, purposive sampling was adopted based on two criteria: (1) the relevance of their expertise to the topic and (2) work experience in the principal contracting sector. forty per cent of professionals had a job tenure of more than 15 years, 40% with 11 to 15 years, and 20% with 5 to 10 years. thirty percentage had a postgraduate degree and the rest of them had a bachelor’s degree. fifty per cent of respondents were pmo leaders, 20% per cent project managers, 20% pmo analysts, and 10% per cent project planner. ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202152 3) thematic analysis: an integrative approach based on the thematic analysis was adopted to analyse, consolidate, and interpret their suggestions. adopting this approach is beneficial in searching across a data set and putting similar ideas together to find repeated patterns of meaning. according to braun and clarke (2006), the type of thematic analysis should be determined. in this paper, an inductive (bottom-up) thematic analysis was conducted. this type of data-driven analysis ensures that themes are strongly linked to the data without trying to fit it into a pre-existing theory. the six phases that were followed to thematically analyse the data set include: 3.1. phase 1. familiarising with data: in this phase, the descriptive responses obtained from participants were reviewed so that we can identify the depth and breadth of the data set before beginning the formal coding process. as a result of this process, the main quotes in experts’ suggestions were extracted. 3.2. phase 2. generating initial codes: codes represent short and most essential segments of raw data, which initially group relevant ideas. since each of the five questions refers to a separate domain of the procurement process, the coding was conducted separately for all responses related to a specific question. the coding was conducted using the nvivo software for facilitating this process. working systematically through the data set, codes were generated to collate similar suggestions together. 3.3. phase 3. searching for themes: themes are broader than codes and are elicited as a result of further interpretation of the data set. in this phase, we collated the codes to identify how they combine to form overarching themes. after sorting the codes and analysing the relation between them, themes were identified to represent the groups of relevant codes. 3.4. phase 4. reviewing themes: after devising the set of candidate themes, they were reviewed from a systematic perspective to ensure their internal homogeneity and external heterogeneity. further refinements were made in the grouping of codes into clear themes. 3.5. phase 5. defining and naming themes: reaching a satisfactory combination of themes, a concise label was selected for each theme considering the aspects which are captured by them. the final labelled themes literature review and designing the questionnaire data collection from the participants thematic analysis (phase 1) questionnaire 20 responses 57 quotes 23 codes thematic analysis (phase 2) thematic analysis (phase 3) 8 themes thematic analysis (phase 4) verified set of codes and themes thematic analysis (phase 5 and 6) named themes and codes sending the results to participants for review (validation) interpretation validated thematic structure figure 1. the research process ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202153 represent a set of consistent groups without overlap. it was checked using the 15-point checklist of criteria for good thematic analysis as introduced by braun and clarke (2006). 3.6. phase 6. producing the report: the themes were interpreted and discussed in the paper to explain the concepts that were identified in the data analysis process. we ensured that the research objectives are addressed by the findings. 4) validation: it is suggested in the literature that after consolidating the individual expert feedback, the results can be sent to participants to review the consolidated outcomes and validate them (aghimien, aigbavboa and oke, 2020). participants were invited via email to review the elicited codes and themes representing essential roles that pmos undertake to implement sustainability in the procurement process. the validated thematic structure includes 23 codes collapsed into eight overarching themes (table 3). figure 1 provides an overview of the main stages of the present research. results participants explained the role of pmos in supporting the spm process for private contractors. regarding the qualitative nature of data obtained from experts, thematic analysis was conducted to capture the similarities and differences in their viewpoints and provide an overview of responsibilities. the coding process was conducted manually, and nvivo software was used to help organise data and identify codes. the text obtained from the qualitative survey was imported to nvivo, and each feedback was closely reviewed and summarised to identify the main points. the key points for each participant were elicited and then compared in terms of their semantic relationship. finally, relevant codes were extracted to represent the role of pmo in spm implementation. an example of the thematic analysis of expert suggestions for the conduct procurement step has been provided in table 2. this analysis was also conducted for the rest of the procurement steps. table 2. example of the thematic analysis (the conduct procurement step) participants quotes codes theme no position 2 project manager “screen potential suppliers based on qualification related to sustainability” evaluate potential vendors/suppliers against sustainability-related source selection criteria. tendering support 9 project planner “evaluate vendors in terms of their capability in meeting requirements of sustainable procurement management” 5 pmo analyst “screen out those suppliers that cannot meet minimum sustainability criteria” 15 project planner “achieve consensus with suppliers on sustainability controls throughout the procurement process” create a common language with selected suppliers on sustainability objectives and controls. ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202154 participants quotes codes theme no position 18 pmo leader “create a common language with suppliers on sustainability objectives and how to achieve them” 3 pmo leader “support the procurement team in tender selection” technical support of the procurement team in the tender evaluation and selection. 13 project manager “provide technical guidance on the evaluation of tender proposals” the sustainability requirements for each stage of the procurement process were elicited from the literature and summarised in table 1. in this section, we elaborated on the mediating role of pmo in embedding the sustainability requirements. to benefit from a steadfast and comprehensive sustainable procurement management, a framework was presented to account for the facilitative role of pmos. in the expert consensus stage, the codes and themes were reviewed and confirmed after making minor modifications in the wording, constituting a validated framework of 23 codes and 8 themes. it can be implied from the synthesised codes that these roles reflect the ability of pmo in the clarification of objectives, the suggestion of effective strategies, the proposition of best solutions, facilitation of procurement steps, demarcation of role boundaries, training the staff, and enforcement of controls. these are beneficial in tackling the sustainability barriers previously asserted in construction research. such obstacles include a lack of adequate coordination arrangements and a lack of a clear understanding of sustainability and its economic benefits among stakeholders (chang, et al., 2015). table 3 provides an overview of the role of pmo in embedding the requirements of sustainable procurement management in construction projects. table 3. the role of pmos in spm stages of the spm process the role of pmo in spm codes themes pre-procurement decisions (obtain the required budget and management commitment to sustainability objectives) • conduct a strategic cost-benefit analysis of spm. • propose effective spm strategies (delivery method, source selection criteria, etc.) • incorporate sustainability into strategic partnership decisions. • strategic analysis • set spm objectives • cascade spm objectives into measurable metrics and controls • reach consensus on the spm objectives • goal setting table 2. continued ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202155 stages of the spm process the role of pmo in spm codes themes plan procurement (compliance with environmental laws, evaluate the environmental friendliness of products/ packaging, and give preference to local/small suppliers) • assign the tasks of each party in implementing the spm process. • document project-specific spm tasks to be tracked during the execution of a contract. • task assignment • draw on lessons learned from previous projects to improve procurement planning outcomes • technical support of the procurement team in analysing equipment/items that are planned to be supplied considering the sustainability criteria • planning support conduct procurement (incorporate sustainability in design features, supplier’s commitment, and safe operations) • evaluate potential suppliers against sustainability source selection criteria. • create a common language with selected vendors/suppliers on sustainability objectives and controls. • technical support of the procurement team in tender evaluation and selection. • tendering support control procurement (reduce packaging material, waste recycling and reuse, and sustainability training) • monitor interphase dependencies to ensure the incorporation of sustainability from design to delivery in an integrated manner. • track the realisation of spm requirements to detect deviations and incompliance. • enforce sustainability controls and determine corrective actions • apply industry best practices to optimise sustainability controls and outcomes • maintain consistency • apply conflict resolution techniques in the procurement process. • offer the best solution to tackle sustainability barriers • coordinate the spm tasks among involved parties • arrange necessary training of project staff on spm to improve their effectiveness in operations. • operational support close procurement (ensure meeting sustainability goals and site decontamination) • procurement post-review to ensure the achievement of sustainability objectives. • capture lessons learned obtained from implementing the spm process. • post-review table 3. continued ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202156 the eight themes elicited as a result of the six-phase thematic analysis present a consistent set of roles that should be undertaken by pmos in support of spm objectives. 1. strategic analysis: the critical role of pmo in incorporating sustainability becomes more evident early in the procurement process when strategic decisions are made. the analysis revealed that this contribution is made by demonstrating the benefits of sustainability to project leaders and investors through cost-benefit analysis. spm scenarios are to be analysed and the best strategies should be proposed to ensure an effective project management approach. 2. goal setting: another major role to be undertaken by pmo is to set measurable spm objectives and translate them into metrics and controls. stakeholders’ buy-in over such objectives and metrics pave the way for a smoother implementation of the spm requirements. 3. task assignment: the evidence from the analysis indicates that pmo assigns and keeps track of the tasks assumed by each party contributing to the sustainable procurement process. role boundaries of each team member are to be clarified to avoid any miscommunication, rework, and overlap. 4. planning support: achieving sustainability is not possible without proper planning and anticipating the arrangements as set early in the spm process. regarding access to lessons learned from previous projects, pmo decides on optimal planning arrangements and puts them into practice. 5. tendering support: the results revealed that during the tendering process, further support is needed to ensure that sustainability principles are properly integrated into the evaluation of potential suppliers and tender selection. those suppliers that cannot demonstrate their commitment to sustainability (e.g., practising waste control systems) should be screened out, which is considered as a riskavoidance strategy for principal contractors. 6. maintain consistency: performing quality assurance (qa) from the perspective of sustainability standards guarantee the achievement of spm requirements throughout the procurement process. the thematic analysis showed that pmo has information dominance on different phases of construction projects and can handle interphase interfaces, manage transitions, detect noncompliance, and realign activities with baseline performance targets. 7. operational support: effective execution of spm plans requires a high level of coordination among the teams involved in the process. challenges and conflicts are likely to occur, which call for operational support of the pmo team in terms of applying problem-solving techniques facilitating and give consultation to the team in tackling operational issues and risks. 8. post-review: delivery of the supplies does not mean that the procurement process is completed since the accomplishment of certain requirements such as site decontamination must be checked. the procurement post-review helps to identify environmental concerns that have not been still addressed and further actions that need to be taken by contractors. discussions embedding sustainability principles in the procurement process adds to its complexities and is more challenging for contracting organisations that are coping with variations in today’s global economy. although contractors are extremely concerned with the timely delivery of their projects with a tight budget and schedule, they should not neglect the importance of sustainability principles in their routine business activities since it can become a competitive advantage over competitors. we conducted this study to highlight the importance of sustainability in the procurement process through a research design including three stages of (1) literature review, (2) opinion survey, and (3) expert consensus. as a result of the first stage, it was found that although there are evident benefits for contractors both in the public and private sectors in practicing sustainability, evidence from previous research shows that it has not still become a permanent part of construction projects (charmaz, 2014; giles and yates, 2014; aghimien, aigbavboa and oke, 2020). ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202157 this study focuses on principle contractors as a key player in construction projects that are in a proper position to encourage subcontractors, vendors, and suppliers in practicing sustainability. the social responsibility of such contractors necessitates adhering to standards related to three aspects of (1) environmental, (2) economic, and (3) social sustainability. as a link connecting clients’ requirements to subcontractors’ work, they are responsible not only for the realisation of the technical specifications but also for the enforcement of sustainability requirements in the procurement process. while previous research sheds light on the importance of environmental, social, and economic sustainability in the construction industry (benchekroun, benmamoun and hachimi, 2019), we consolidated the findings of independent studies and elaborated on the sustainability requirements from a procurement perspective. it was found that prior research on environmental sustainability is more concerned with construction waste, recyclability of construction materials, noise pollution, and natural resource depletion. the social aspect is more related to social responsibility, safety and wellbeing of human resources, public awareness, and labour laws. the economic aspect also concentrates on budget allocation to sustainability, infrastructure resilience, and supporting local and small suppliers. commitment to all these requirements is quite challenging for private construction organisations due to posing further constraints. however, it is their social responsibility to contribute to building a sustainable industry. the findings revealed that employing centralised oversight structures (the most common name for which is pmo) would significantly improve their capability in achieving business targets while adhering to sustainability principles. to provide a theoretical basis for the analysis of sustainability through the lenses of project procurement, five main stages of the project procurement management were adopted from standards (axelos, 2017; project management institute, 2017) and experts were asked to explain the role of pmo in embedding the sustainability requirements associated with each stage of the procurement process. the procurement process starts with strategic supply chain decisions that are made by senior managers. such decisions are a critical part of a company’s strategic direction since they determine long-term partnerships with original equipment manufacturers (oem), local businesses, and industry leaders. the literature asserts the importance of business partnership instead of price and other operational concerns at the stage of design and pre-procurement (pesämaa, eriksson and hair, 2009). in line with this tenet, this study found that pmo units support executives in making strategic partnership decisions to ensure the achievement of business targets without compromising sustainability values. it was found that undertaking a cost-benefit analysis of investments in sustainability would highlight long-term advantages that can be gained in terms of brand image, tax incentives, positive social impact, and contribution to a more resilient economy. such an analysis provides a basis for defining spm objectives and optimal outsourcing strategies early in the procurement process. the pre-procurement stage is followed by procurement planning which is debated to be underemphasised at the initial stages of construction projects (aliza, stephen and bambang, 2011). to cover this gap, we asserted that pmos must take action to ensure the incorporation of sustainability requirements by adopting a collaborative implementation approach in which the role of each party/team in the sustainability practice is determined, controls are in place, and the procurement team is technically supported to analyse the potential equipment/services against the sustainability criteria. at the third stage, conduct procurement involves tender preparation, receiving proposals, price declaration, and tender evaluation, and selection. previous research asserts that the tendering process is of crucial significance in achieving green procurement (leger, oueslati and salanié, 2013) and this study confirms this finding since pmos support the procurement team to evaluate and screen suppliers against sustainability criteria. this is a key stage of the spm process because those suppliers that cannot meet the minimum sustainability requirements are disqualified, which means that a major sustainability risk is being ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202158 avoided. it was also found that pmo plays a facilitative role in creating a common language with suppliers on sustainability targets and requires them to comply with relevant requirements. the fourth stage is control procurement which reflects the key role of compliance with predefined sustainability criteria in construction projects (kasim, et al., 2013), which was confirmed in this study by indicating that pmos systematise the sustainability compliance and maintain the integration of sustainability controls from design to delivery. spm is a collaborative process that requires close intensive interactions and coordination. this study highlighted the coordination role of pmos to speed up spm tasks and keep track of their progress. these units take actions to train human resources on how to practice sustainability in pursuit of green procurement goals. the procurement process ends at the stage of close procurement when all supplies are delivered by the supplier. although the procurement team is responsible for finalising the project purchase documentations and closing suppliers’ contracts, pmos undertake post-delivery reviews to ensure that all necessary steps have been completed and there are no outstanding payments or open claims. it should be confirmed that all sustainability tasks have been accomplished as planned and spm objectives are met with satisfactory performance. the capability of pmo in knowledge management has been well discussed in previous research (martinez sanz and ortiz-marcos, 2019), and the current research confirms this capacity in the form of collating and archiving lessons learned in the organisation’s knowledge base. this paper contributes to examining one of the applications of pmo units in sustainable procurement. we extended the literature on what was already known on the sustainability requirements of the project procurement process and explained how pmos could be employed to enhance effectiveness and coordination among stakeholders of an integrated supply chain towards meeting the spm requirements. conclusion the purpose of this study was to identify the sustainability requirements that need to be considered at different stages of the project procurement process and to elucidate the role of pmo in achieving these requirements. a qualitative survey was conducted among experts in australian principal construction companies and twenty individuals participated that shows a response rate of 28.5%. a majority of participants were pmo leaders with over 15 years of job tenure in the construction industry. the results of the survey revealed a significant contribution of pmo to the sustainable project procurement process in the private sector. the most important contribution is made at the pre-procurement and planning stages since sustainability begins with strategic business decisions such as long-term partnerships with those suppliers that are committed to sustainability and social responsibility. incorporation of sustainability in the source selection criteria helps to avoid the involvement of suppliers that cannot meet minimum sustainability requirements and are unlikely to address sustainability risks. we found that pmos team up with consultants and procurement teams to undertake market analysis in terms of potential suppliers and their products/ services, which is helpful to identify available environmentally friendly materials, goods, and equipment. procurement decision criteria should not be limited to price and technical specifications. however, they must also include an analysis of the total cost of ownership (tco) to consider the long-term value of a product as well as its impact on the environment and society. the literature review revealed that recent research mainly emphasises sustainable procurement in the public sector while achieving sustainability is not possible without the active engagement of the private sector. this study proposed that a cost-benefit analysis should be conducted by pmo at the beginning of a project to convince key stakeholders and sponsors about the budget allocation for the sustainability practice. although practising sustainability imposes further costs and constraints to private contractors, they can benefit from long-term competitive advantages such as tax incentives and a stronger brand image. ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202159 the literature review indicated that some private organisations might be unwilling to practice sustainability due to this assumption that further workload and constraints may be imposed on their routine business activities. however, the empirical survey showed that adopting robust management structures (such as pmo) would enable them to resolve the paradox of making a business profit and incurring overhead costs associated with practicing sustainability. this study encouraged a long-term view of sustainability practice in private organisations. in this regard, pmo adopts a systematic approach to project procurement and puts arrangements in place to enhance intraand inter-organisational collaboration for implementing green procurement goals. in the collaborative spm approach that was introduced in this paper, procurement teams continuously cooperate with pmo, project leaders, and executives to build mutual trust with external stakeholders (third parties) in addressing projects’ supply needs with a minimum negative impact on the environment and society. the result of this study indicated that pmos contribute to the execution of sustainable procurement activities by cascading sustainability objectives into measurable controls to keep track of actions, identify deviations from baseline targets, and suggest corrective actions to be performed collaboratively. the findings of the opinion survey would encourage practitioners in private organisations to approach sustainability differently by considering the positive consequences of implementing spm methods. for instance, applying lean construction techniques benefit them to utilise their resources more optimally with minimum waste and environmental damage. from the perspective of the research implications, we extended what is already known on spm practices by explaining the application of multi-project oversight structures in enabling private contractors to balance their current business undertaking with their new commitment to sustainability. we explained how pmo structures can be employed in response to the lack of integration and engagement which have always been a barrier towards implementing collaborative approaches such as spm in construction projects. this paper extended the literature by providing an overview of the main sustainability requirements from a procurement perspective and suggested the application of pmo to facilitate their realisation in the private sector. the authors recognise the following limitations of the study. first, it is exploratory, which means further quantitative research is needed to validate the proposed factors using a larger sample of construction professionals. regarding the exploratory nature of qualitative research, the generalizability of findings, especially the statistical-probabilistic generalizability, has often been highlighted as a limitation of qualitative research. this study also acknowledges this limitation and encourages a follow-up quantitative survey to examine the statistical validity of the proposed framework using a large sample size. this research also elaborated on pmo interventions in principle contracting firms to enforce spm principles in collaboration with several subcontractors and suppliers. however, a more comprehensive understanding of sustainability in the procurement process is required by analysing the perspectives of subcontractors and suppliers. thus, it is recommended that future research attempts to extend the scope of the current study by incorporating and comparing their views on necessary spm methods and strategies. this refers to an important gap in the literature yet to be addressed in future research since diverse perspectives of stakeholders in construction projects lead to adopting spm in a different way while it requires a collaborative approach that coordinates all involved parties. the emphasis of previous research on the public sector is also a subject that needs a paradigm shift in terms of finding solutions to enhance the commitment of private sectors to sustainability objectives. the majority of construction activities are executed by private companies and the public sector acts as a supervisory body. ultimately, it is the private sector that should adjust its practices to comply with sustainability requirements. thus, we encourage future research to focus on suggesting solutions for improving sustainability practice in the private sector. ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202160 attachment 1. survey questionnaire section a. demographic questions 1 your job tenure in the construction industry. 2 your current job position. 3 your highest academic qualifications. 4 email address: section b. survey questions please suggest the possible role of pmo concerning the sustainability requirements for each stage of the procurement process. 1 what is the possible role of pmo in embedding the sustainability requirements associated with the pre-procurement stage (1. allocate adequate budget and resources to implement spm principles in practice. 2. social responsibility and commitment of senior managers to sustainability)? 2 what is the possible role of pmo in embedding the sustainability requirements associated with the plan procurement stage (1. follow a life-cycle analysis to evaluate the environmental friendliness of products and packaging supplied by available suppliers in the market. 2. deliver a resilient infrastructure, 3. consideration of optimal energy/water consumption and minimum greenhouse gas/toxic emissions 4. avoid noise pollution by supplying the equipment that has minimum noise and vibration 5. give preference to local suppliers. 6. give precedence to small suppliers)? 3 what is the possible role of pmo in embedding the sustainability requirements associated with conduct procurement stage (1. close consideration of design features in procurement to minimise waste, 2. ensure shortlisted suppliers comply with environmental laws and regulations. 3. oblige suppliers to commit to waste reduction goals, 4. ensure safe operation and transfer of product to project facilities)? 4 what is the possible role of pmo in embedding the sustainability requirements associated with the control procurement stage (1. reduce packaging material. 2. waste recycling or reuse on construction sites. 3. awareness of sustainability objectives among staff.)? 5 what is the possible role of pmo in embedding the sustainability requirements associated with the close procurement stage (1. ensure meeting sustainability goals at the end of the procurement process, 2. site decontamination and waste removal after the contract closure)? references aghimien, d.o., aigbavboa, c.o. and oke, a.e., 2020. critical success factors for digital partnering of construction organisations–a delphi study. engineering, construction and architectural management, 27(10), pp.3171-88. https://doi. org/10.1108/ecam-11-2019-0602 aliza, a.h., stephen, k. and bambang, t., 2011. the importance of project governance framework in project procurement planning. procedia engineering, 14, pp.1929-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2011.07.242 ann, t. and shen, g.q., 2013. problems and solutions of requirements management for construction projects under the traditional procurement systems. facilities, 31(5/6), pp.223-37. https://doi.org/10.1108/02632771311307098 ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202161 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-11-2019-0602 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-11-2019-0602 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2011.07.242 https://doi.org/10.1108/02632771311307098 axelos, 2017. managing successful projects with prince2. london,uk: the stationery office. benchekroun, h.t., benmamoun, z. and hachimi, h., 2019. how to select suppliers when implementing a sustainable procurement strategy. 5th international conference on optimisation and applications (icoa), kenitra, morocco, 2019, pp.1-4. https://doi.org/10.1109/icoa.2019.8727666 bocchini, p., frangopol, d.m., ummenhofer, t. and zinke, t., 2014. resilience and sustainability of civil infrastructure: toward a unified approach. journal of infrastructure systems, 20(2), p.04014004. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) is.1943-555x.0000177 brammer, s. and walker, h., 2011. sustainable procurement in the public sector: an international comparative study. international journal of operations & production management, 31(4), pp.452-76. https://doi. org/10.1108/01443571111119551 braun, v. and clarke, v., 2006. using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), pp.77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa cappuyns, v., 2016. inclusion of social indicators in decision support tools for the selection of sustainable site remediation options. journal of environmental management, 184, pp.45-56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jenvman.2016.07.035 carter, c.r. and carter, j.r., 1998. interorganizational determinants of environmental purchasing: initial evidence from the consumer products industries. decision sciences, 29(3), pp.659-84. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5915.1998. tb01358.x carter, c.r. and jennings, m.m., 2004. the role of purchasing in corporate social responsibility: a structural equation analysis. journal of business logistics, 25(1), pp.145-86. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2158-1592.2004.tb00173.x chang, r., zillante, g., soebarto, v. and zhao, z., 2015. transition to a sustainability-oriented construction industry in china: a critical analysis from the multi-level perspective. in. iccrem 2015. pp.361-68. https://doi. org/10.1061/9780784479377.042 charmaz, k., 2014. constructing grounded theory. london: sage publications. delmonico, d., jabbour, c.j.c., pereira, s.c.f., de sousa jabbour, a.b.l., renwick, d.w.s. and thomé, a.m.t., 2018. unveiling barriers to sustainable public procurement in emerging economies: evidence from a leading sustainable supply chain initiative in latin america. resources, conservation and recycling, 134, pp.70-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. resconrec.2018.02.033 giles, d. and yates, r., 2014. enabling educational leaders: qualitatively surveying an organisation’s culture. international journal of organizational analysis, 22(1), pp.94-106. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoa-11-2011-0526 holt, d. and ghobadian, a., 2009. an empirical study of green supply chain management practices amongst uk manufacturers. journal of manufacturing technology management, 20(7), pp.933-56. https://doi. org/10.1108/17410380910984212 johnsen, t., miemczyk, j. and macquet, m., 2012. sustainable purchasing and supply management: a structured literature review of definitions and measures at dyad, chain and network levels. supply chain management: an international journal, 17(5), pp.478-96. https://doi.org/10.1108/13598541211258564 kasim, t., li, h., rezgui, y. and beach, t., 2013. automated sustainability compliance checking process: proof of concept. in: n. dawood and m. kassem, eds. proceedings of the 13th international conference on construction applications of virtual reality, 30-31 october 2013, london, uk. ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202162 https://doi.org/10.1109/icoa.2019.8727666 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000177 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000177 https://doi.org/10.1108/01443571111119551 https://doi.org/10.1108/01443571111119551 https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.07.035 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2016.07.035 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5915.1998.tb01358.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5915.1998.tb01358.x https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2158-1592.2004.tb00173.x https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784479377.042 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784479377.042 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.02.033 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.02.033 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoa-11-2011-0526 https://doi.org/10.1108/17410380910984212 https://doi.org/10.1108/17410380910984212 https://doi.org/10.1108/13598541211258564 krause, d.r., vachon, s. and klassen, r.d., 2009. special topic forum on sustainable supply chain management: introduction and reflections on the role of purchasing management. journal of supply chain management, 45(4), pp.1825. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-493x.2009.03173.x leger, a., oueslati, w. and salanié, j., 2013. public tendering and green procurement as potential drivers for sustainable urban development: implications for landscape architecture and other urban design professions. landscape and urban planning, 116, pp.13-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2013.04.005 lindgreen, a., swaen, v., maon, f., walker, h. and brammer, s., 2009. sustainable procurement in the united kingdom public sector. supply chain management: an international journal, 14(2), pp.128-37. https://doi. org/10.1108/13598540910941993 martinez sanz, m.m. and ortiz-marcos, i., 2019. dimensions of knowledge governance in a multi-pmo project context. international journal of managing projects in business, 13(7), pp.1423-41. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ijmpb-11-2018-0244 mcmurray, a.j., islam, m.m., siwar, c. and fien, j., 2014. sustainable procurement in malaysian organisations: practices, barriers and opportunities. journal of purchasing and supply management, 20(3), pp.195-207. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.pursup.2014.02.005 mori, m., kobayashi, r., samejima, m. and komoda, n., 2013. an evaluation method of reduced procurement risks by decentralised ordering in supply chain. in: 11th ieee international conference on industrial informatics (indin). bochum, germany, 2013, pp.80-85, ny: ieee. https://doi.org/10.1109/indin.2013.6622862 nawaz, w., linke, p. and koҫ, m., 2019. safety and sustainability nexus: a review and appraisal. journal of cleaner production, 216, pp.74-87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.01.167 nijaki, l.k. and worrel, g., 2012. procurement for sustainable local economic development. international journal of public sector management, 25(2), pp.133-53. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513551211223785 obicci, p.a., 2017. trouncing barriers to sustainable procurement practices in public sector organizations in uganda. international journal of research of management, social and technology, 5(1), pp.64-74. pesämaa, o., eriksson, p.e. and hair, j.f., 2009. validating a model of cooperative procurement in the construction industry. international journal of project management, 27(6), pp.552-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.10.007 preuss, l., 2007. buying into our future: sustainability initiatives in local government procurement. business strategy and the environment, 16(5), pp.354-65. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.578 project management institute, 2017. a guide to the project management body of knowledge (pmbok® guide) sixth ed. usa: project management institute. qi, s., zhang, y., wu, j., chen, w. and cai, j., 2014. study on the impact of pmo for multi-project management of contracting construction enterprises based on structural equation model. applied mechanics and materials, 584-586, pp.2239-45. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.584-586.2239 shen, l.y., li hao, j., tam, v.w.y. and yao, h., 2007. a checklist for assessing sustainability performance of construction projects. journal of civil engineering and management, 13(4), pp.273-81. https://doi.org/10.3846/1392373 0.2007.9636447 tranfield, d., denyer, d. and smart, p., 2003. towards a methodology for developing evidence‐informed management knowledge by means of systematic review. british journal of management, 14(3), pp.207-22. https://doi. org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375 trotter ii, r.t., 2012. qualitative research sample design and sample size: resolving and unresolved issues and inferential imperatives. preventive medicine, 55(5), pp.398-400. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2012.07.003 ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202163 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-493x.2009.03173.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2013.04.005 https://doi.org/10.1108/13598540910941993 https://doi.org/10.1108/13598540910941993 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-11-2018-0244 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-11-2018-0244 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pursup.2014.02.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pursup.2014.02.005 https://doi.org/10.1109/indin.2013.6622862 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.01.167 https://doi.org/10.1108/09513551211223785 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.10.007 https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.578 https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.584-586.2239 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2007.9636447 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2007.9636447 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2012.07.003 vaidya, k., 2005. diffusion of innovation: an investigation of e-procurement assimilation in the australian public sector. in: iceb 2005 proceedings. 53. https://aisel.aisnet.org/iceb2005/53. walker, h., miemczyk, j., johnsen, t. and spencer, r., 2012. sustainable procurement: past, present and future. journal of purchasing and supply management, 18(4), pp.201-06. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pursup.2012.11.003 ward, g., 2016. the project manager’s guide to purchasing: contracting for goods and services, 1st ed. [e-book] london: routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315553856 worthington, i., ram, m., boyal, h. and shah, m., 2008. researching the drivers of socially responsible purchasing: a cross-national study of supplier diversity initiatives. journal of business ethics, 79(3), pp.319-31. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10551-007-9400-x ershadi, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 1 march 202164 https://aisel.aisnet.org/iceb2005/53 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pursup.2012.11.003 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315553856 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9400-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-007-9400-x construction economics and building vol. 18, no. 3 september 2018 © 2018 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: mba, m. f.b and j. n. agumba. 2018. critical success factors influencing performance outcome of joint venture construction projects in south africa: comparison of first and second order models. construction economics and building, 18:3, 74-94. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v18i3.5885 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | ajceb.epres.lib. uts.edu.au 74 research article critical success factors influencing performance outcome of joint venture construction projects in south africa: comparison of first and second order models marie francoise bekale mba1, justus ngala agumba2* 1 department of construction management and quantity surveying, university of johannesburg, po box 524 auckland park 2006, south africa. mariefrancoisebm@gmail.com 2 department of construction management and quantity surveying, durban university of technology. p o box 1334, durban 4000. justusa@dut.ac.za *corresponding author: justus ngala agumba, department of construction management and quantity surveying, durban university of technology. p o box 1334, durban 4000. justusa@dut. ac.za doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i3.5885 article history: received 18/01/2018; revised 20/08/2018; accepted 15/09/2018; published 03/10/2018 abstract joints ventures ( jvs) have become increasingly common, because of the complexity and challenges associated with the delivery of construction projects globally and in south africa. however, it has been established that jv projects have experienced unsatisfactory performance leading to clients’ dissatisfaction. the purpose of this paper is therefore to determine the critical success factors (csfs) influencing the performance of jv construction projects in south africa. a positivist philosophy position was adopted using a structured questionnaire survey administered to the construction professionals. prior to the main study, a content validity of the questionnaire was achieved using a pilot study. the data was collected from 115 conveniently sampled respondents, and analysed using principal component analysis and multiple regression analysis. the exploratory factor analysis revealed two empirical models to be tested; namely the first and second order factor models. the result of the first order model revealed that, management control influenced achievement of project objective of jv, whereas, the second order model established that understanding of contractual agreement, which was explained by six components of csfs influenced achievement of project objective. it is suggested that stakeholders who prefer to be involved in jv projects should acquire good declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. understanding of the contractual agreement in managing jv projects in order to successfully achieve the project objectives. this study adds to the discourse and literature on csfs of jvs. it provides new empirical evidence of the csfs that influence project performance outcome of jv in the context of south africa which can also be replicated in other countries globally. however, the study may not be generalised because of the geographical setting and respondents. keywords construction, joint venture, second order, success factors introduction joints ventures ( jvs) have become increasingly common in the construction industry (fitzpatrick, hecker and hazard, 2011). they are common because of the intricate and sophisticated nature of construction projects (kamal, 2010). hence, jvs are useful vehicles for collaborative housing development and future private rented sector projects and regarded as a source of profit where the risks and benefits are shared by two or more parties (cidb, 2004)). the construction industry development board (cidb) (2004) suggested that the formation of a jv mainly depends on: the size of the project, where the project requires specialist skills or abilities, and where the skills and expertise of emerging firms can be developed through their association in jvs with well-established experienced companies. however, according to the studies by kwok, then, and skitmore, (2000) and shen, wu, and catherine, (2001), the risks associated with jv formation are: agreement of the contract, partner selection, potential financial distress, improper project feasibility study, project delay, inadequate forecast about market demand, loss due to bureaucracy for late approvals and design changes. some other challenges are: time and cost variations, skills and competence issues and lack of worker participation (govindan, 1995). farrel (2014), estimated that at least 40 to 70 percent of jvs experienced failure. govindan, (1995) deduced that the failure rate of jvs has been quite alarming through delays and disruptions, as well as poor site management. according to kavishe and chileshe, (2017) the failure of jv housing construction projects could be due to a number of challenges: inadequate financing capacity, risk sharing, loss of rental income, conflicts in getting vacant possession of plots, stalled projects and poor communication. in order to overcome these challenges and failure rates associated with the jv construction projects. adnan, rosman, rashid, yusuwan, and bakhary (2018) suggested that contractors need to know the factors, which are critical if they want their jvs projects to be successful. manitshana (2012) suggested a number of critical success factors (csfs) required for south africa construction jv. these were: openness, transparency and clear communication; clarity of roles, responsibilities, goals and ground rules; commitment of core organizational competencies; application of the same professional rigor and discipline; respect for differences in approach, competence, timeframes and objectives of different partners; focus on achieving mutual benefits; understanding the needs of local partners and beneficiaries. however, manitshana (2012) study did not determine the influence of these csfs to jv project success outcome in south africa. furthermore, manitshana’s (2012) csfs differed from other researchers (hong and chan, 2014; kale, patil, hiravennavar, and kamane, 2013; hyun and ahn, 2013; lambe, spekman, and hunt, 2011). further, in a current study by adnan et al., critical success factors influencing performance outcome of joint venture construction projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201875 (2018) they identified seven (7) csfs, which include inter-partner trust, criteria for partner selection, mutual understanding, agreement of contract, conflict, compatibility of objective, and management control. this informs a lack of consensus of the csfs that impact on the success outcome of jvs. it can further be indicated that there is paucity of analytical studies, comparing suitable factor models using factor analysis, that are ideal for jv projects. this paper therefore compares analytically the appropriate performance model that best predicts the successful outcome of jv construction projects. a structured questionnaire survey, which was developed based on the plethora of literature around jv projects was used to achieve this objective. the survey targeted construction professionals registered with the south african council of the project and construction management professions (sacpcmp) in south africa who have been involved in jv projects. the next section provides an overview of the csfs and the performance outcome. literature review adnan and morledge (2003) indicated that the csfs are those few key areas of activity in which favourable results are unequivocally essential for a particular manager to influence his or her own objectives. however, from the review of the literature it can be indicated that there is consensus of a specific combination of the csfs that will influence the project success of jvs. based on this sentiment eight (8) independent csfs i.e. comprehensive and fair written agreement, mutual understanding, inter-partner trust, co-operation between the members, commitment of the partners, communication between the partners, management control, and partner’s experience, that are perceived to directly influence project success outcome of jvs were identified as per table 1 and hypothesised as follows; comprehensive and fair written agreement it has been pointed that poorly written agreement is a chance for possible disaster for a jv project. it is imperative for the agreement to be comprehensive and the fair setting out of the obligations, rights, risks and rewards for the partners (cidb, 2004). this sentiment has been supported in the previous discourse of hong et al., (2014); kale et al., (2013); hyun et al., (2013); adnan et al., (2003) and miller, (n.d.). adnan et al., (2003) suggested that a good jv agreement is essential and can avoid a great deal of trouble and conflict in future jv operations. in a current study adnan et al., (2018) found that agreement of contract was considered an imperative factor for jv success. the following hypothesis will be tested: h1 a fair written agreement between the jv partners has a positive relationship with the jv project success. mutual understanding adnan et al., (2018), manitshana (2012) and adnan et al., (2003), indicated that mutual understanding may contribute to the success of jv construction projects. hyun et al., (2013) suggested that careful selection of people who are to work in an alliance will assist the prospects of mutual bonding of partners, therefore providing mutual understanding. thus, the following hypothesis will be tested: h2 – mutual understanding positively influences jv success outcome. mba and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201876 inter-partner trust a high degree of trust between the members of a jv is vital for its’ successful operation (adnan, et al., 2018; cidb, 2004). inter-partner trust is often considered to be a very important ingredient of managing relationships (adnan et al., 2003; hyun et al., 2013; hong et al., 2014). mutual trust is indispensable to overcome the restrictions of the contractual agreement (hyun et al., 2013; talman, 2009; govindan, 1995). however, within organizations, trust contributes to more effective implementation of strategy, greater managerial coordination and more effective work teams (adnan et al., 2003). the proposed hypothesis to be tested will be: h3 – inter-partner trust between partners, positively influence the success of jv projects. co-operation between the members co-operation reflects the degree to which the parties share responsibility both for dealing with problems and maintaining their relationship (adnan et al., 2003; govidan, 1995). the partners must be willing to cooperate and share information and resources to enable essential coordination of activities (adnan et al., 2003). the proposed hypothesis to be tested will be: h4 co-operation between the members positively influence the success of jv projects. commitment of the partners adnan et al., (2018) established that commitment is important factor for the success of jv construction projects. it can further be indicated that commitment reflects the actions of some key decision makers regarding continuation of the relationship, acceptance of the joint goals and the values of the partnership, as well as the willingness to invest resources in the relationship (hong et al., 2014; lambe et al., 2011; adnan et al., 2003). it can be indicated that without commitment the performance of the jv could be jeopardized. the importance of commitment provides a long-term relationship, provides resources and capabilities to the specific needs of the jv for its success (adnan et al., 2003; govindan, 1995). therefore the following hypothesis was postulated for testing: h5 the commitment of the partners, positively influence the success of the jv project. communication between the partners communication plays a major role in the success of any business. adnan et al., (2003) and hong et al., (2014) argued that the ease of communication between the jv partners is a potential problem which should be considered when evaluating a potential partner’s suitability. in fact, without adequate communication, problems can occur as a result of differences between national or ethnic cultures, including language, as well as differing corporate cultures (adnan et al., 2003; manitshana, 2012). therefore, the proposed hypothesis is: h6 communication between partners influence the success of jv projects. management control the management control aspect of a construction project plays a very significant role in the successful completion of a jv construction project where the role of project participants is vital in this regard (divakar and subramanian, 2009). talman (2009), aimin and barbara (2001), and adnan et al., (2003) believed that, management control is critical to the success of critical success factors influencing performance outcome of joint venture construction projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201877 a jv. the insufficient control of a jv can limit the ability of the parent partner to synchronize their activities, efficiently and effectively implement their strategy. therefore, the proposed hypothesis is: h7 management control in jv influence their project success. partner experience according to adnan et al., (2003), firms with multinational experience are considered more likely to have the ability to manage and monitor appropriately the jv project. it can be evinced that vast experience, understanding, competence and confidence in managing inputs of a jv will result in a more detailed and accurate perceptions of risk. in addition, lambe et al., (2011) argued that, partners experience contributes to the success of the alliance. it can be opined that such partner experience has an indirect impact on the acquisition of complementary resources. the proposed hypothesis is: h8 jv project performance is successful when experienced partners are involved in the project. table 1 critical success factors for successful jv projects critical factors for successful jv projects source comprehensive and fair written agreement adnan et al., (2018); hong et al., (2014); kale et al., (2013); hyun et al., (2013); cidb (2004); adnan et al., (2003); miller, (n.d.) mutual understanding adnan et al., (2018); hyun et al., (2013); manitshana (2012); adnan et al., (2003) inter-partner trust adnan et al., (2018); hyun et al., (2013); talman (2009); adnan et al., (2003); govindan (1995) co-operation between the members adnan et al., (2003); govindan (1995) commitment of the partners adnan et al., (2018); hong et al., (2014); lambe et al., (2011); adnan et al., (2003); govindan (1995) communication between the partners hong et al., (2014); manitshana (2012); adnan et al., (2003) management control divakar and subramanian, (2009); talman (2009); aimin et al., (2001); adnan et al., (2003); govindan (1995) partner experience lambe et al. (2011); adnan et al., (2003) source: literature review project success outcome of jv projects one of the key challenges in evaluating jv success is the measurement of its performance outcome factors. diverse performance outcome factors have been suggested. the performance parameters according to jha and iyer (2006) and nisaa, javed and akhtar (2015) are: schedule, cost, quality with no-disputes. hong (2014) indicated that measures on performance informs project stakeholders of their success in order for them to understand competitive nature of the environment in order to improve in their future performance. alashwal, fareed and almba and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201878 obaidi (2017) indicated that project success is defined by three levels of success, the project, the product and the market levels. ma and voo, (n.d.) revealed that project success of a jv construction project can be identified through time, cost, safety, quality and client satisfaction. furthermore, terjesen (2004), suggested a range of benefits to partner firms, namely; access to new and/or more resources including but not limited to markets, distribution networks, capacity, staff, purchasing, technology in the form of intellectual property, and finance or increase of funds. in a study by özorhon (2007), performance outcome of international joint ventures (ijv) were measured by four (4) constructs i.e. project performance, partner performance, performance of the ijv management and perceived satisfaction. this discussion suggests that there is no consensus of the measures to determine project success in jv construction projects. therefore, seven (7) measures are identified in this paper as tabulated in table 2, i.e. achieve cost of the project, enhancement of advanced technology, improvement of human capacity, improve quality of the projects, minimising accidents, raising of large capital funds, and reduction of delayed construction projects. table 2 project performance outcome measures project performance outcome source achieve cost of the project hong & chan, (2014); özorhon, (2007); miller, (2001); kwok, et al., (2000). enhancement of advanced technology hong et al., (2014); azlan-shah et al., (2010); cook & hancher, (1990). improve quality of the projects nisaa, et al., (2015); özorhon, (2007); kwok et al., (2000). improvement of human capacity hong et al., (2014); kale et al., (2013); miller, (2001). minimising accidents kale et al., (2013); chan et al., (2002); kwok et al., (2000) raising of large capital funds hong et al., (2014); kale et al., (2013); miller, (2001). reduction of delayed construction projects özorhon, (2007); li et al., (2001). this study tests the performance outcome of jvs and the critical success factors in the context of local jv construction projects in south africa to develop a new view of project success. consequently this will bridge the gap in the literature which shows a small number of studies focused on understanding how to measure project success, and the conditions that contribute to success, based on construction professionals’ perspective. understanding the success factors of local jv construction projects would contribute to the sustainability and competitiveness of the local jvs arrangements. the next section conveys the method of data collection using questionnaire survey, which was developed based on the items identified in this review. research methodology a quantitative research methodology was used. a structured questionnaire survey used to identify the success factors and performance outcome. the questionnaire consisted of seven sections. the cover page which informed the respondent of the nature of research they were getting involved in. the key sections reported in this paper are; the background information of the respondents. the questions included their involvement in jv projects and types of jv. other questions were designed to profile the participants; position in the company, gender, critical success factors influencing performance outcome of joint venture construction projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201879 race, experience in the construction industry and qualification. the questionnaire also profiled the organisation in terms of; type of business and geographic location. the other important sections constituted the csfs and the last section was the success of jv performance outcome. thirty five (35) variables that defined the eight csfs were identified from extant literature review. the respondents were required to indicate their level of agreement with the use of the measures of the csfs in their projects. the csfs measures were rated on a 5-point likert scale, where 1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral, 4=agree and 5=strongly agree. the final section measured seven success performance outcome variables using a 5-point likert scale where 1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral, 4=agree and 5=strongly agree. the respondents were required to rate their level of project success. to achieve content validity the questionnaire was piloted with ten (10) personnel who were knowledgeable, of the csfs they have been using for the success of their jv projects. the final version of the questionnaire was presented to 400 convenience-sampled professionals registered with the south african council of project and construction management professions (sacpcmp) in gauteng, limpopo and western cape. the sample size was based on the estimated population provided in the sacpcmp website which was 5000. the sample size was determined using israel`s sampling table (1992). the data was collected using email and drop and collect method of which 115 questionnaires were returned representing 28.75% response rate. all the 115 questionnaires were deemed valid for analysis. it is important to mention that the response rate for mailed questionnaires are usually low, thus, a response rate of 15% to 25% is considered appropriate and acceptable (wahab, abdullah, uli and rose, 2010). furthermore, according to fryrear (2015) a response rate of 10% to 15% is considered appropriate. the statistical package for social science (spss) version 23 was used to conduct descriptive statistics of the data computing the frequencies, mean scores and standard deviation. furthermore, inferential statistics were determined to analyse the factor analysability of the csfs and project performance outcome. the exploratory factor analysis (efa) was used to determine the validity and reliability of the csfs and project performance outcome. reliability was tested using cronbach alpha with a cut-off value of 0.60 recommended by hair et al., (2006). however, according to pallant, (2013), a cronbach alpha lower than 0.70 can be accepted if the number of variables in the construct is less than ten (10) and the inter-item correlation mean values range, between 0.20 to 0.40. in this current study, this was achieved indicating that the instrument was reliable. the maximum likelihood with varimax with kaiser normalisation rotation techniques were selected as the extraction and rotation methods in the efa. results of analysis descriptive analysis and reliability the predominant age group of respondents’ was between 31 and 40 years accounting for 35.7%. 25.2% of respondents were between the ages of 41 and 50. 48 participants (41.7%) had graduated with a baccalaureate degree, and 37 participants (32.2%) graduated with a diploma or certificate. 99 respondents were involved in jv project in the past 2 years, 79 respondents (52.3%) accounted for general building projects, 21 participants (13.9%) were involved in transportation/roads jv projects. 61 participants (53%) had been involved in one to two jv projects in the past 2 years; while only 18 participants (15.7%) participated in three to four jv mba and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201880 projects. 39 participants (33.9%) had worked in jv projects for a period of less than 5 years, and 37 participants (32.2%) had worked in jv projects for a period of 5 to 10 years. from 115 participants, 45 participants (39.1%) were involved in a combined jv, 42 participants (36.5%) participated in an integrated jv and finally, 28 participants (24.3%) were involved in a nonintegrated jv. the reliability of the measurement scale, and appropriateness of factor analysis were analyzed using spss version 23. the internal reliability of the measurement instrument was evaluated using cronbach alpha. the cronbach’s alpha of success outcome and csfs for both the first and second order factor models ranged between 0.60 and 0.95, indicating acceptable to good reliability (pallant, 2013). the kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) results of the success outcome and csfs were 0.679 and 0.781 respectively, which are above the threshold suggested by pallant, (2013). this suggests that the correlation pattern between variables is compact. the results of bartlett test sphericity are 1680.20 and 149.61 with the associated p-value equal to 0.000 for both csfs and success outcome factors respectively. this indicates that the correlation matrixes of the variables are not identity matrixes. thus the data of the study is suitable for principal component analysis (pca). principal component analysis (pca) results of csfs first order factor analysis the pca result of first order csfs are shown in table 3. the result indicates that the total number of components extracted based on the eigenvalues greater than 1 are nine components, contributing 69.66% variance of the total cumulative variance. the first of the components is called “co-operation between the members” and contributed 26.95% of the total variance to the csfs. the component is defined by five variables namely: “willingness to share resources to enable coordination of activity from partners was undertaken”, “efficiency of implementing organization strategies were achieved” but to name a few. the second component is called “communication between the partners” and contributed 7.86% of the total variance to the csfs. the component is defined by four variables. the third component is called “contract management” and contributed 7.49% of the total variance to the csfs. the component is defined by three (3) variables. the fourth component is “mutual understanding between partners” and contributed 5.85% of the total variance to the csfs. the component is defined by three variables. the fifth component was called “management control” and contributed 4.99% of the total variance to the csfs. the component is defined by five variables. the sixth component was called “inter-partner trust” and was explained by three measures and represented 4.75% of the total variance. the seventh component was called “comprehensive and fair written agreement” and was explained by two measures. the variance percentage explained by this component was 4.36%. the eighth component was defined by four variables and is called “commitment of the partners” which had a contribution of 3.85% of the total variance. the last component was called “implementation of contract agreement” and was defined by two variables and contributed 3.55% of variance of the csfs. critical success factors influencing performance outcome of joint venture construction projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201881 table 3 pca results of first order csfs component eigenvalue variance % variables factor loading 1. co-operation between the members 8.354 26.950 willingness to share resources 0.812 efficiency of implementing organisation strategies 0.654 mutual trust overcame the restrictions of the contractual agreement 0.573 monitoring and safeguard costs within the joint venture were reduced 0.508 willingness to share information to enable essential coordination of activity. 0.470 2. communication between the partners 2.436 7.857 proper communication prevented conflicts of cultural difference 0.813 effective communication prevented conflicts between different ethnicity. 0.692 effective communication prevented misunderstandings and suspicion. 0.487 full commitment between partners. 0.399 3. contract management 2.322 7.489 % participation by each member include risks, rewards, losses and liabilities were recorded. 0.687 conducts & decisions of partner in the organisation in line with goals& policies 0.615 capability trust implemented to ensure professional experience 0.416 4. mutual understanding between partners 1.814 5.853 partners selected on the basis of technical competence 0.654 partners selected on an assessment of their ability to form good relationships 0.593 consensus between the members was promoted 0.424 5. management control 1.548 4.992 ability of the partners to synchronise their project activities 0.644 multinational experience ensure acquisition of added resources 0.534 differences in interests in jv led to the incorporation of management control 0.529 the firms’ multinational experience ensured proper monitoring 0.486 efficiency of utilising the partners’ resources was met 0.454 mba and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201882 6. inter-partner trust 1.472 4.750 contractual trust was met to fulfill contractual duties 0.702 meaningful input by partners to the policy-making & management activities 0.493 goodwill trust executed to ensure partners operate in the concern of the relationship within the jv 0.426 7. comprehensive and fair written agreement 1.353 4.363 management body for the joint venture 0.783 losses to the jv by the default of a member were limited 0.640 8. commitment of the partners 1.195 3.853 jv objectives, inputs by the parties, & management systems of the jv 0.677 friendly personal contact was regularly maintained between the partners 0.513 actions of key decision makers & acceptance of joint goals were achieved 0.447 partner selection were observed in order to achieve mutual understanding 0.435 9. implementation of contract agreement 1.102 3.554 contributions by each member were set out 0.562 effective implementation of strategy, greater managerial coordination & more effective work teams were enhanced 0.556 extraction method: principal component analysis. rotation method: varimax with kaiser normalisation pca results of csfs of second order factor analysis the pca results of the second order factor model are shown in table 4. the result suggest that the nine components extracted in the first order model can be constituted in two components. the two components had an eigenvalue greater than 1, contributing 56.80% variance of the total cumulative variance. the two components were named as: understanding of contractual agreement accounting for 44.80% of the total variance to the csfs. the first component is defined by six of the nine components extracted in first order model. they are, “interpartner trust”, “contract management”, “management control”, “implementation of contract agreement”, “effective implementation of the agreement”, “co-operation between the members” and the “communication between partners”. the second component accounted for 12.00% of the total cumulative variance and was named enhancement of partner accountabilities. it was defined by three of the components table 3 continued critical success factors influencing performance outcome of joint venture construction projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201883 extracted from the first order model. these components were; “commitment of the partners”, “mutual understanding between partners” and “comprehensive and fair written agreement”. table 4 pca results of second order csfs component eigenvalue variance % variables factor loading 1. understanding of contractual agreement 4.03 44.80 inter-partner trust 0.802 contract management 0.750 implementation of contract agreement 0.541 effective implementation of the agreement 0.538 co-operation between the members 0.469 communication between partners 0.439 2. enhancement of partner accountabilities 1.08 12.00 commitment of the partners -0.944 mutual understanding between partners -0.461 comprehensive and fair written agreement -0.393 extraction method: principal component analysis. rotation method: varimax with kaiser normalisation pca results of first order factor analysis of success outcome table 5 indicates the pca results of jv success outcome. the theoretical concept consisted of seven variables defining one component. however, the empirical results established five variables. two components were further extracted with the eigenvalue greater than 1. the first component is named “achievement of project objectives” and contributed 48.66% of the total variance to the jv performance outcome. the component is defined by “project was within budget”, “project was within time” and “occupational accidents were minimised”. the second component is called “attainment of company objectives” and contributed 23.04% of the total variance to the jv performance outcome. the component is defined by “improvement of human resource capacity” and “raising of large capital funds from partners”. the second order factor analysis extracted one component from the two components established in the first order factor analysis. however, the study retained the two components established in first order for further analysis. the retention of the two components will ensure robust analysis is achieved. mba and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201884 table 5 pca results of success outcome of jv construction projects component eigenvalue variance % variable factor loading 1. achievement of project objectives 2.433 48.663 project was within budget 0.856 project was within time 0.744 occupational accidents were minimised 0.539 2. attainment of company objectives 1.152 23.043 improvement of human resource capacity 0.701 raising of large capital funds from partners 0.671 extraction method: principal component analysis. rotation method: varimax with kaiser normalisation multiple regression analysis (mra) results first order model the mra was undertaken to determine the nine individual success factors in the first order factor model that influenced the two project success outcomes i.e., achievement of project objectives (po1) and attainment of company objectives (po2). table 6, reveals that eight of the empirical factors did not influence project objective outcome. their level of significance were not significant at p≤ 0.05. these success factors were: cooperation between the members, communication between the partners, contract management, mutual understanding between partners, inter-partner trust, comprehensive and fair written agreement, commitment of the partners and implementation of contract agreement. however, management control factor was found to influence project objective outcome. the level of significance of p≤ 0.05 (p= 0.001), and contributing 36.8% (beta =0.368) of the variance in the nine-factor success model. table 6 results of mra of first csfs on achievement of project objectives (po1) model unstandardised coefficients standardised coefficients t sig. zeroorder b std. error beta (constant) 1.573 0.553 2.846 0.005 1. co-operation between the members/partners 0.202 0.108 0.194 1.861 0.066 0.283 2. communication between the partners -0.125 0.108 -0.133 -1.157 0.250 0.120 3. contract management -0.238 0.124 -0.210 -1.922 0.057 0.106 4. mutual understanding 0.122 0.128 0.113 0.956 0.341 0.290 5. management control 0.403 0.112 0.368 3.591 0.001 0.392 6. inter-partner trust 0.027 0.120 0.026 0.223 0.824 0.229 7. comprehensive and fair written agreement 0.056 0.083 0.069 0.678 0.499 0.144 critical success factors influencing performance outcome of joint venture construction projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201885 8. commitment of the partners -0.054 0.129 -0.047 -0.419 0.676 0.143 9. implementation of contract agreement 0.208 0.113 0.190 1.839 0.069 0.303 table 7 shows that the nine components i.e. co-operation between the members, communication between the partners, contract management, mutual understanding between partners, inter-partner trust, comprehensive and fair written agreement, commitment of the partners, implementation of contract agreement and management control did not influence the attainment of company objectives. their level of significance at p≤ 0.05 were greater, hence they were not significant. table 7 results of mra of first order csfs on attainment of company objectives (po2) model unstandardised coefficients standardised coefficients t sig. zeroorder b std. error beta (constant) 2.793 0.724 3.857 0.000 1. co-operation between the members/partners 0.145 0.142 0.121 1.025 0.308 0.143 2. communication between the partners 0.035 0.142 0.032 0.246 0.806 0.077 3. contract management 0.008 0.162 0.006 0.048 0.962 0.078 4. mutual understanding -0.086 0.168 -0.069 -0.514 0.609 0.061 5. management control 0.038 0.147 0.030 0.261 0.795 0.056 6. inter-partner trust -0.162 0.157 -0.134 -1.028 0.306 0.038 7. comprehensive and fair written agreement 0.084 0.109 0.089 0.772 0.442 0.119 8. commitment of the partners -0.003 0.169 -0.002 -0.016 0.988 0.084 9. implementation of contract agreement 0.214 0.148 0.169 1.444 0.152 0.157 mra results second order model further analysis was undertaken to determine the combined components in the second order model that influenced the two project performance outcomes i.e. achievement of project objectives (po1) and attainment of company objectives (po2). figure 1 shows the empirical conceptualised model. table 6 continued mba and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201886 figure 1 empirical model for second order factor of jv performance table 8 evinces the results of the second order model which suggests that contractual agreement influenced the achievement of project objective. understanding of contractual agreement, was statistically significant at the 0.05 level (p = 0.001) while enhancement of partner accountabilities was not significant at the 0.05 level (p = 0.609). of the two variables, understanding of contractual agreement made a larger significant unique contribution of 38.9% (beta = 0.389) whilst enhancement of partner accountabilities made less contribution to the prediction of the achievement of project objectives with a lower beta value of 6% (beta = -0.060). table 8 results of mra of second order of csfs in achieving project objectives model unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. zeroorder b std. error beta (constant) 2.092 .566 0.000 contractual agreement 0.564 0.171 0.389 3.695 0.001 0.349 partner accountability -0.085 0.166 -0.060 3.294 0.609 0.190 table 9 reveals the results of the second order model of csfs impact on the attainment of company objectives. the results deduced that the understanding of contractual agreement and enhancement of partner accountabilities, were not statistically significant at 0.05 level. understanding of contractual agreement p=0.418, and enhancement of partner accountabilities p=0.665. however, of the two components, understanding of contractual agreement made a larger significant unique contribution of 9.5% (beta = 0.095) whilst enhancement of partner accountabilities made smaller unique contribution to the prediction of the attainment of company objectives with a beta value of 5.1% (beta = 0.051). critical success factors influencing performance outcome of joint venture construction projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201887 table 9 results of mra of second order of csfs in attainment of company objectives model unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. zeroorder b std. error beta (constant) 2.934 0.666 4.403 0.000 contractual agreement 0.162 0.199 0.095 0.812 0.418 0.349 partner accountability 0.076 0.174 0.051 0.435 0.665 0.190 discussion of the results csfs of jv in south africa the findings established that nine components and two components were valid and reliable as empirically extracted in the first and second order models respectively. this finding suggests that the eight factor model conceptualised from the literature is in the form of a nine factor model or two factor model. in the first order model co-operation between the members contributed significantly to the total variance of csfs at 26.95%. this result expounds on the previous studies of adnan et al., (2003) and govindan (1995). to achieve the success of jv projects co-operation between the members should be evident from conception to the completion of the jv project. the second significant factor is communication between the partners. it can be argued that lack of communication will put constrain in the jv performance. hence, it is vital to ensure that communication is effective at all levels of the jv projects. this will stifle misunderstandings and suspicion within the jv partners. this csf was supported by the studies of; adnan et al., (2003); manitshana, (2012), and dikmen, et al., (2008). furthermore, the second order factor analysis indicates that communication and co-operation between partners are factors that will ensure that contractual agreement is achieved between the different stakeholders in a jv. contractual agreement empirically achieved in the second order factor analysis established the significance of contract management for to achieve jv success. if contract management is haphazardly handled chances of project failure is high. contract management, entails a process of thoroughly and efficiently managing contract creation, execution and analysis to capitalize on operational and financial performance and reduce risk (elsey, 2007). it is important that the percentage participation by each member is agreed, ensuring that risks, rewards, losses and liabilities are shared. it is also imperative, that the conduct and decisions of the partners in the organization is aligned with the jv goals and policies to ensure that the contract management activities are achieved. this will further entail trusting the capability of each professional in order to benefit from each other’s professional experience. the mutual understanding between partners ensures that the selection of partners based on their technical competence is embraced. furthermore, it is advocated that jv partners should form good relationship to achieve their project success. this finding corroborates the findings of adnan et al., (2003), manitshana (2012) and, hong et al., (2014). to buttress this discussion the second order factor analysis, established that mutual understanding defines mba and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201888 the jv partnership accountability. this suggests that, for jv partnership accountability to be achieved jv partners should have mutual understanding between themselves. management control was also identified as a critical component to enable the success of jv projects. it can be argued that management control ensures that the partners synchronise their project activities. furthermore, with proper management control multinational experience of the partners could lead to the acquisition of complementary resources, and ensure the resources are efficiently utilised as was suggested by adnan et al., (2003), govindan (1995), as well as talman (2009). it is interesting to note that management control was a component defining contractual agreement in the second order factor analysis. this suggests that for contractual agreement to manifest in the jv projects, management control should be practiced. contractual agreement component in the second order factor analysis is described by inter-partner trust. inter-partner trust ensures that the parties to the jv are not skeptical of each other. the contractual trust should fulfill contractual duties of the parties. the partners should participate in policy-making and management activities of the jv. this will make certain, that the trust between the partners to the jv is achieved. further, the goodwill trust of the stakeholders safeguards the partners to operate in the confines of the jv relationship. govindan, (1995), adnan et al., (2003); hyun et al., (2013); hong et al., (2014) studies corroborate with this discussion. comprehensive and fair written agreement explains the second order component of partner accountability. in order for partner accountability to be realized, comprehensive and fair written agreement should entail ways to limit conflicts between the jv partners. the cidb, (2004) and adnan et al., (2003), argued that the possible recipe for disaster in a jv is when the partnership is not founded by means of a comprehensive and fair written agreement between the members. this should address the obligations, rights, risks and rewards of each partner. commitment of the partners to the jv is critical in achieving the success of the jv project. the commitment is advocated, because of the varying nature of jv objectives, inputs given by the parties, and management systems of the jv. the commitment of the partners will establish a friendly and personal contact between the leaders of the cooperating organisations, the actions of key decision makers including acceptance of joint goals will be easily embraced, and finally, the partner selection criteria is adhered to. it can also be indicated that for partner accountability to be achieved the commitment of the partners becomes very critical as evinced in the second order factor analysis. joint venture partners should be aware of the implementation of contract agreement. the contribution by each member needs to be set out as well as the strategy of jv implementation. this will ensure no contradictions are experienced. it is pivotal that good managerial coordination and more effective team members are present in the jv project. this is consistent with what durr et al., (2007) emphasized: that a good plan helps optimise the use of the project resources and limits the time spent on resolving complications during implementation. in line with the findings of the second order factor analysis contractual agreement component was also deciphered with implementation of contract agreement. success outcome of jv the project performance outcome of joint ventures is measured using two criteria namely: achievement of project objectives and attainment of company objectives. the achievement of project objectives is a significant measure of jv project performance outcome as it indicates the highest component variance in project performance compared with attainment of critical success factors influencing performance outcome of joint venture construction projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201889 company objectives. the jv partners should ensure that the project attains its project budget, project time and minimise occupational accidents. therefore, the identification of these project objectives directly reports to the project design. among these measures, the project budget seems to be the most important followed by time and then accidents. the component explored in this study amplifies the definition of project management success as provided by aitmeemy et al., (2011). the second component of jv success outcome was attainment of company objectives. in the current study it indicates the possibility of the partners raising large capital funds and ensure the improvement of human resource capacity. this result is supported by terjesen (2004), who established that jvs offer a range of benefits to partner firms through access to new and/or countless resources including but not limited to market entry, distribution networks, capacity, staff, purchasing, technology in the sense of intellectual property, and finance or increase of funds. the new component investigated in this study provides advantages to the jv partners in terms of reputation and competitiveness. significant csfs for jv outcomes the empirical models tested were the first and second order factor models. the nine factors of the first order model were regressed to establish if they influenced the achievement of project objectives and attainment of company objectives. the findings established that, of the nine components, management control significantly influenced achievement of project objectives in jv projects. this finding enhances the findings of adnan et al., (2003), govindan (1995), as well as talman (2009). it is important to note that for management control to influence achievement of project objective outcome, a number of activities should be undertaken. these activities are: the partners should synchronise their project activities, involvement in multinational projects ensures soliciting of complementary resources. importantly the jv partners should fortify the efficiency of utilising the partners’ resources. finally, the partners should ensure that proper monitoring of the jv is achieved and consider the partners difference in the interest of the jv. management control will ensure that the jv partners have competitive and reputational advantage in undertaking or bidding for the jv projects. the two components of the second order model were regressed to establish if they influenced the achievement of project objectives and attainment of company objectives. the findings found that of the two components, contractual agreement significantly influenced the achievement of project objectives in jv projects. this finding is in line with the findings of adnan et al., (2003), govindan (1995), as well as talman (2009). it is interesting to note that in comparison with the first order factor model only one component influenced the achievement of project objectives. the second order suggests that a combination of six factors defining contractual agreement contributed significantly to the achievement of project outcome. this included management control that was established in the first order factor model. these factors were: inter-partner trust; contract management; management control; implementation of contract agreement; effective implementation of the agreement; cooperation between the members and communication between partners. conclusions the purpose of this paper was to establish a set of reliable and valid csfs that influence jv performance outcome in south africa construction industry based on comparative empirical models. in relation to the empirical findings, the principal component analysis (pca) mba and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201890 extracted nine components for the first order factor model and two for the second order factor model. the results are contrary to the eight factor model conceptualised from the literature. the nine factors in the first order model and the two factors in the second order model were reliable and valid. the first order factor model comprised of: co-operation between the members; communication between the partners; contract management; mutual understanding between partners; management control; inter-partner trust; comprehensive and fair written agreement; commitment of the partners and implementation of contract agreement. further, the performance outcome was found to be measured by two factors i.e. achievement of project objectives outcome and attainment of company objective outcome. thus the performance success outcome is measured against traditional and non-traditional criteria. in relation to the nine factors, co-operation between the members contributed significantly to the cumulative variance. however, co-operation between the members did not influence the achievement of project objectives outcome and attainment of company objective outcome. the findings established that management control which contributed 4.99% to the total variance of the csfs significantly influenced the achievement of project objectives. however, it did not influence the attainment of company objectives which is deemed a non-traditional measure. therefore, it can be indicated that the traditional measures were influenced by the management control factor. the second order factor model consisted of two factors, i.e. understanding contractual agreement and enhancing partner accountability. understanding contractual agreement impacted the achievement of project objectives, which is a traditional measure. in line with the results of the first order factor model, management control was among the six factors that constitute the contractual agreement. the performance of south african construction jvs and jvs globally has been unsatisfactory, as highlighted in the introduction of this paper. the jv projects are constraint by time and cost variations, skills and competence issues and lack of worker participation. therefore, this study provides direction to new jv partners and those who are experienced in south africa construction industry. it is imperative that the jv partners embrace the understanding of contractual agreement which is a soft skill rather than a technical skill. the soft skills comprising contractual agreement include: inter-partner trust; contract management; management control; implementation of contract agreement; effective implementation of the agreement; co-operation between the members and communication between partners. further, the study suggests that the jv stakeholders should focus on achieving success equally at the two levels of project success outcome. these include project objective (be within time, be within the budget and minimise accidents), and company objectives (improvement of human resource capacity and raising large capital funds from partners). finally, the study achieved robust result by comparing the result of the first order factor model and second order factor model in obtaining the significant success factors that influence project objective. the csfs can be defined using the second order factor model result comprising contractual agreement and partner accountability. furthermore, the general definition and theory of project success outcomes in jv construction project therefore constitutes two (2) factors of success, i.e. project objective and organisation objective. delimitation the respondents were professional construction managers and construction project managers registered with the sacpcmp in gauteng, limpopo and western cape provinces in south critical success factors influencing performance outcome of joint venture construction projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201891 africa. the findings may not be generalised across south africa and across all professional bodies. references adnan, h. and morledge, r., 2003. joint venture projects in malaysian construction industry factors critical to success. association of researchers in construction management, 3(2), pp.765-774. adnan, h., rosman, m.r., rashid, a.z.z., yusuwan, n.m., and bakhary, n.a., 2018. application of delphi expert panel in joint venture projects. iop conference series: earth environmental science. 117 012048 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/117/1/012048. aimin, y. and barbara, g., 2001. negotiating control and achieving performance in international joint ventures: a conceptual model. journal of international management, 7, pp.295-315 https://doi.org/10.1016/ s1075-4253(01)00049-7. alashwal, a.m., fareed, n.f. and al-obaidi, k.m., 2017. determining success criteria and success factors for international construction projects for malaysian contractors. construction economics and building, 17(2), pp.62-80 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i2.5319 al-tmeemy, s.m.h.m., abdul-rahman, h. and harun, z., 2011. future criteria for success of building projects in malaysia. international journal of project management, 29(3), pp.337-48 https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.03.003. azlan-shah, a., mohd-don, z., anuar, a., syahrul-nizam, k., and pitt, m., 2010. the performance of construction partnering projects in malaysia. international journal of physical sciences, 5(4), pp.327-333. chan, a.p.c., chan, d.w.m., and ho, k.s.k., 2002. an empirical study of the benefits of construction partnering in hong kong. journal of construction management and economics, 21, pp.523-533 https://doi. org/10.1080/0144619032000056162. cidb, 2004. construction: joint venture arrangements. available from: http://www.cidb.org.za/ toolkit06/toolkitpages/module5/20supplementaryinformation/5s14%20pgd2-jv%20edition%201.0.pdf (accessed 23 july 2018). cook, e.l., and hancher, d.e., 1990. partnering: contracting for the future. journal of management in engineering, 6(4), pp.431-446 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)9742-597x(1990)6:4(431). dikmen, i., birgonul, m.t., ozorhon, b. and eren, k., 2008. critical success factors for partnering in the turkish construction industry. conference proceedings of the 24th annual arcom conference held in cardiff, uk, conducted by association of researchers in construction management. ankara turkey: middle east technical university. divakar, k. and subramanian, k., 2009. critical success factors in the real-time monitoring of construction projects. research journal of applied sciences, engineering and technology, 1(2), pp.35-39. durr, b., johnson, e., rugh, j., furany, k., chen, m., rubio, m. and siles, r., 2003. the basics of project implementation: a guide for project managers. available from: http://www.careclimatechange.org/files/ toolkit/care_project_implementation.pdf (accessed 26 november 2016) elsey, d.r., 2007. contract management guideknowledge insight https://www.cips.org/documents/ knowledge/procurement-topics-and-skills/10-developing-and-managing-contracts/t-and-cs-anddeveloping-of-contracts/knowledge_insight-contract_management_guide.pdf (accessed 27 july 2018). farrell, e.p., 2014. the 7 deadly sins of joint ventures. available from: http://www.entrepreneur.com/ article/236987 (accessed 27 january 2015). mba and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201892 fitzpatrick, j., hecker, d. and hazard, g., 2011. divided loyalty: ethical considerations in representing joint ventures. construction super conference, session e23 held in san francisco. california: university of california. fryrear, a., 2015. survey response rates. available from: https://www.surveygizmo.com/survey-blog/ survey-response-rates/ (accessed 13 april 2016). govindan, s., 1995. determinants of joint venture performance in the construction industry: cases from the mass rapid transit project in singapore. phd. london: university college london. hair, j.f, black, w.c, babin, j.b, anderson, r.e and tatham, r.l., 2006. multivariate data analysis, 6th edition. upper saddle river, new jersey: pearson/prentice hall. hong, y. and chan, d. w.m., 2014. research trend of joint ventures in construction: a two-decade taxonomic review. journal of facilities management, 12(2), pp.118-141 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-042013-0022. hyun, j.h. and ahn, s.y., 2013. host country perspectives on partner selection criteria for the success of international joint ventures: an empirical survey of korean firms. conference proceedings of the 24th international business research conference held in las vegas, usa conducted by planet hollywood. korea: hankuk university of foreign studies. israel, g. d., 1992. sampling the evidence of extension program impact: determining sample size. available from: http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/pd/pd00600.pdf (accessed 24 july 2018). jha, k.n. and iyer, k.c., 2006. critical factors affecting quality performance in construction projects. journal of total quality management, 17(9), pp.1155–1170 https://doi.org/10.1080/14783360600750444. kale, v.v., patil, s.s., hiravennavar, a.r., and kamane, s.k., 2013. joint venture in construction industry. journal of mechanical and civil engineering, 3, pp.60-65. kamal, k.k.a., 2010. joint ventures in construction firms in saudi arabia. available from: http://faculty. kfupm.edu.sa/cem/assaf/students_reports/joint-ventures-in-construction-firms.pdf (accessed 22 january 2015). kavishe, n., and chileshe, n. 2017. joint venture housing projects in dar es salaam city: an analysis of challenges and effectiveness in: chan, p w and neilson, c j (eds) proceeding of the 33rd annual arcom conference, 4th-6th september 2017, cambridge, uk, association of researchers in construction management, 144-153. kwok, h.c.a., then, d. and skitmore, m., 2000. risk management in singapore construction joint ventures. journal of construction research, 1(2), pp.139-149. lambe, c. j., spekman, r. e. and hunt, s.d., 2011. alliance competence, resources, and alliance success: conceptualization, measurement, and initial test. journal of the academy of marketing science, 30(2), pp.141-158 https://doi.org/10.1177/03079459994399. li, h., cheng, e., love, p. and irani, z., 2001. co-operative benchmarking: a tool for partnering excellence in construction. international journal of project management, 19(3), pp.171-179 https://doi. org/10.1016/s0263-7863(99)00033-2. ma, t. and voo, m., n.d. a comparative study of construction joint ventures in australia and malaysia. manitshana, b., 2012. assessment of the critical success factors of joint ventures in the south african construction industry. unpublished magister technologiea thesis. johannesburg: university of johannesburg. critical success factors influencing performance outcome of joint venture construction projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201893 miller, r.w., n.d. joint ventures in construction. washington: national association of surety bond producers. nisa, z.u., javed, u. and akhtar, h., 2015. impact of project performance measurement system on project success: a study based on ngo sector of pakistan. international journal of sciences: basic and applied research, 22(2), pp.289-315. özorhon, b., 2007. modelling the performance of international construction joint ventures: unpublished doctoral thesis, the middle east technical university. pallant, j., 2013. spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using ibm spss. london: allan and unwin. richards, p., bowen, p., root, d. and akintoye, a., 2005. client strategic objectives: the impact of choice of construction contract on project delivery. construction law journal, 7(21), pp.1-25 shen, l. y., wu, g. w. c., and catherine, s. k. n., 2001. risk assessment for construction joint ventures in china. journal of construction engineering and management, 127(1), pp.76-81 https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(2001)127:1(76). talman, j.a., 2009. management control in joint ventures: an analysis based on transaction cost economics and game theory. unpublished doctoral thesis. zurich: erasmus university rotterdam. terjesen, s., 2004. joint ventures: synergies and benefits. available from: http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/ icb.topic1157739.files/joint-ventures-synergies-and-benefits.pdf (accessed 26 november 2016). umunna, p., 2014. prs structure issues for bybrid joint ventures. available from: http://www.wslaw.co.uk/ site/uploads/tinymce/prs/prs_booklet/prs_structure_issues_for_hybrid_joint_ventures.pdf (accessed 22 january 2015). wahab, s.a., abdullah, h., uli, j. and rose, r.c., 2010. inter-firm technology transfer and performance in international joint venture firms. international journal of business and management, 5(4), pp.93-103 https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v5n3p89. mba and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 3, september 201894 construction economics and building vol. 18, no. 2 june 2018 © 2018 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: tawalare, a. and laishram, b. 2018. relational contracting conceptual model for public sector construction organisations: an indian context . construction economics and building, 18:2, 70-91. http://dx.doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5872 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | ajceb.epress. lib.uts.edu.au research article relational contracting conceptual model for public sector construction organisations: an indian context abhay tawalare1 and boeing laishram2* 1 department of civil engineering, visvesvaraya national institute of technology nagpur, south ambazri road, nagpur (india)-440010. 2 department of civil engineering, indian institute of technology guwahati, north guwahati, guwahati (india)-781039. *corresponding author: boeing laishram, department of civil engineering, indian institute of technology guwahati, north guwahati, guwahati (india)-781039; email: boeing@iitg.ernet.in doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5872 article history: received 06/01/2018; revised 24/03/2018 & 05/05/2018; accepted 02/06/2018; published 27/06/2018 abstract adoption of relational contracting in public sector construction organisations is more difficult than in private sector organisations due to the inherent rigidity of public sector. therefore, implementation of the relational contracting processes should be treated as an organisational change management process in public sector organisations. the purpose of this paper is to develop a relational contracting conceptual model (rcmm) by integrating success factors for positive change management in public sector organisations. a qualitative research methodology comprising two rounds of expert interviews was used. the first round of interviews was conducted to gauge the present level of relational contracting in public sector construction organisations. the second round of interviews was conducted to validate the relational contracting conceptual model by integrating success factors of change management in public sector organisations. the relational contracting model highlighted the importance of a need to develop a vision for partnering, stakeholder analysis and consensus building among them, empowerment of operational level employees and their participation in plan execution, time bound review meetings of top management on site to show commitment, resolution of disputes and fast decision making along with publication of the performance reports. the paper presents a critical insight on relational processes of public sector construction declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 70 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5872 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5872 http://ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au http://ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au mailto:boeing@iitg.ernet.in http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5872 organisations in india in the context of organisational change management model which has not been the focus in majority of the previous research studies. keywords relational contracting conceptual model, change management, partnering, public sector, indian construction industry. introduction relational contracting, either in the form of partnering or alliancing, improves the working relationship between various stakeholders. partnering is implemented by adding a partnering agreement along with traditional contract. it encourages contractor, consultant and client to proactively address project risks, identifying them before they affect the project, act, and jointly agree to manage the risk. alliance is an agreement between two or more parties who undertake work cooperatively. they work as a team based on principals of good faith and trust, on a shared risk and reward basis, and allow open book approach for achieving agreed outcomes ( jefferies, brewer and gajendran, 2014). partnering and alliancing are different from each other but work on common relational factors like respect, trust, teamwork, commitment and shared goals. this relationship depends on good faith rather than on a formal contract (lu and yan, 2007). therefore relational contracting requires transforming the organisational culture from one state to another state. however, transformation at organisational level for relational contracting is difficult to apply in public sector projects when compared to private sector projects (ling and tran, 2012). the public-sector organizations are rigid, while private sector boundaries are more flexible and permeable, making it an ideal climate for close inter-organizational cooperation in relational transactions (ling et al., 2013 a). public clients are not able to offer any future relationships since project procurement is through competitive bidding. public clients also cannot be seen to have a “hand-in-glove” relationship with contractors. the possible side-effects of closer relationships include break-down of contractual checks and balances, and dangers of shifting collaboration to corruption (rahman and kumaraswamy, 2008). therefore, regulations restrict public officials in some activities and perpetuate a behavioural pattern that works against any kind of trust-based relationships with contractors (palaneeswaran et al., 2003). furthermore, in public agencies, employees and their departments have well defined jurisdictions, responsibilities and a hierarchy of authority. this traditional bureaucratic system of organisation must be overcome to allow public agencies to partner effectively (crowley and karim, 1995). successful implementation of partnering in projects requires the public sector to play the role of facilitator but it is not fully committed and ready to compromise on procedures (ng et al., 2002). for most public agencies, relational contracting represents a significant divergence from traditional practices and requires comprehensive strategic planning for transformation at organisational level. it demands appropriate change at the core of organizational design and functioning. therefore, implementation of partnering in projects should be considered as a modern organisational change management process even though project partnering agreement is carried out for individual projects (wilson, songer and diekmann, 1995). the desperate need of infrastructure development in country has increased the demand of the construction sector in india and the construction industry is growing annually at about 11.1% over the last few years (tripathi and jha, 2018). indian public-sector construction industry is driven by traditional contracting and infrastructure projects are infamous for delays and cost overruns. the critical factors affecting delays are lack of commitment; inefficient site relational contracting conceptual model for public sector construction organisations: an indian context construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201871 management; poor site coordination; improper planning; lack of clarity in project scope; lack of communication; and substandard contract (doloi et al., 2012). there is a need to work on issues like streamline project approvals and statutory sanctions; investments in sectorial skill development; adoption of project management practices and lean principles over the entire life cycle of a project; establish national construction quality, sustainability and safety benchmarks; time-bound dispute resolution and prevention techniques; and strengthen accountability, transparency and governance in public sector projects (sawhney, agnihotri and paul, 2014). tabish and jha (2011 a) evaluated the success factors for public projects in india and pointed out the necessity for more partnering efforts to overcome the challenges of indian public projects. the use of partnering has benefited the public sector organizations in developed countries in terms of significant cost saving and schedule reduction; reduced litigations; better communication; better teamwork; increased trust and stronger relationships (grajek, gibson and tucker, 2000). moreover, it has facilitated more fun at the workplace, a more attractive profession, an improved public image of the construction industry (nystro, 2008). in view of the above, this paper seeks to answer the question “how should relational contracting be incorporated into the traditional procurement processes of indian public-sector construction organisations?” public sector organisational change the public sector undergoes changes to face external environmental threats or to improve the performance for building support among its stakeholders (stewart and kringas, 2003). though there is no specific generic model for implementing planned organisational change, an important step in this direction can be played by leaders by verifying the need for change and persuading other members of the organization and important external stakeholders to accept the need (fernandez and rainey, 2006). the process of convincing stakeholders begins with drafting a vision statement for the perceived change. the content of the vision statement must be sensible and should be clearly understood by the organizational members because a content without clarity is ineffective (cole, harris and bernerth, 2006). getting support from the key external stakeholders is another important aspect of a successful change management strategy. implementation without support of interest groups may cause dissatisfaction and criticism (fernandez and rainey, 2006). it requires a collaborative nature of change effort in which managers, operation level employees and change agents jointly diagnose the organisation’s problems and jointly plan and design the specific changes to be brought about (coram and burnes, 2001). change processes need to be ‘fit for purpose’, with contextually appropriate goals and plans (buick, blackman and o’donnell, 2015). in the past, many public-sector agencies failed to fully adopt change due to the inability of top management to disseminate information about the new policy and convince employees of the need to implement it (fernandez and pitts, 2007). in fact, top management is considered as a role model (voet, kuipers and groeneveld, 2015). whenever employees see their top managers committing both time and effort to bring about the change, employees’ commitment to change and moral support will also be more likely ( jurisch et al., 2013). for effective implementation, employees must also know what is to be achieved and be clear about the direction of change to reduce employee uncertainty and obtains their support (buick, blackman and o’donnell, 2015). successful change management also requires sufficient resources to support the process. it involves redeployment/reorientation of scarce organizational resources for developing the plan, communicating the need, training employees, developing new processes and practices, restructuring and reorganizing the organization (fernandez and rainey, 2006). the change process will not produce the anticipated results tawalare and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201872 if senior management fails to provide necessary resources ( jurisch et al., 2013). similarly, leadership role of direct supervisors should not be overlooked during organisational change in public organisations (voet, 2014). communicating accurate and timely information during change process provides opportunities for the employees to learn about the change (wright, christensen and isett, 2011). a regular and effective communication between managers and employees could be facilitated by regular meetings and informal discussions. this ensures that the employees are kept informed of the changing circumstances so that they can adjust their behaviour accordingly (buick, blackman and o’donnell, 2015). as public organizations serve multiple constituents with multiple goals, it is relatively difficult to assess outcomes. this may reflect a greater emphasis in the public sector on evaluating organizational processes rather than outcomes (robertson and seneviratne, 1995). the outcome of change management needs to be measured on two criteria. firstly, the success of change management as perceived by staff at the management and workforce levels, and secondly, success as measured by improvement in key performance indicators nominated in strategic plans and annual reports (stewart and kringas, 2003). review of partnering models partnering process has normally focused on processes for partner selection, partnering execution, and partnering assessment. some of the key models which have focused on at least two of these processes are highlighted in table 1. these models have been reviewed from the perspective of the key focus areas for ensuring a successful organizational change in public sector context. most of these models have addressed some of the key focus areas such as development of a vision, development of execution plan, commitment of leadership, communication during institutionalism, and measuring and celebrating progress. on the other hand, the key focus areas such as ‘ensure the need’, ‘stakeholder analysis’, ‘consensus building to overcome resistance to change’, and ‘empower team with resources’ have not been addressed by most of the models. furthermore, these models have suggested strategies on partnering but these strategies have certain limitations investigated from the perspective of public sector organizational change. for instance, crowley and karim (1995) have suggested creation of joint alliance for partnering but the model is silent on how the public sector rigid boundaries can be made flexible. li et al. (2001) proposed an approach of co-operative benchmarking approach to partnering (cobap) where the team had the major constraint of needing to include two members from probable contractor organizations in the cobap team before bidding in the public-sector context. anvuur and kumaraswamy (2007) proposed partnering strategies to improve trust, cooperation and productivity but failed to suggest micro-level processes on how to bring about these cultural transformation. similarly, cho et al. (2010) proposed a hybrid model for partnering which had not been designed for public sector organisations that want to use partnering as an organisational change process for the first time. thus, the planned organisational change model for adoption of relational contracting in public sector construction projects had not been the focus of the previous reported models. conceptual model of rc content analysis of the existing body of knowledge had been undertaken to understand the key processes of partnering and what factors should be taken into consideration to ensure successful implementation of those processes. table 2 provides the list of success factors while conceptual framework for relational contracting is shown in figure 1. relational contracting conceptual model for public sector construction organisations: an indian context construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201873 table 1 similarities and differences among rc models against success factors for public sector change c od e p ub lic s ec to r o rg an iz at io na l c ha ng e – k ey f oc us a re as c ro w le y an d k ar im (1 99 5) w ils on , s on ge r an d d ie km an n (1 99 5) c ra ne e t a l. (1 99 7) li e t a l. (2 00 1) c he ng a nd l i ( 20 04 ) b ea ch ,w eb st er a nd c am pb el l, (2 00 5) a nv uu r an d k um ar as w am y (2 00 7) c ho e t a l. (2 01 0) en ensure the need: leaders should verify the need to change within context of environmental change √ √ √ dv develop a vision: vision communicates a picture of the future that provides overall direction for the change process. √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ sa stakeholder analysis: stakeholder analysis identifies stakeholder’s knowledge, attitudes within context of change and convinces for new functional roles. √ √ dep development of execution plan: develop a course of action jointly to diagnose problems, plan and design the specific changes. √ √ √ √ √ √ √ tawalare and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201874 c od e p ub lic s ec to r o rg an iz at io na l c ha ng e – k ey f oc us a re as c ro w le y an d k ar im (1 99 5) w ils on , s on ge r an d d ie km an n (1 99 5) c ra ne e t a l. (1 99 7) li e t a l. (2 00 1) c he ng a nd l i ( 20 04 ) b ea ch ,w eb st er a nd c am pb el l, (2 00 5) a nv uu r an d k um ar as w am y (2 00 7) c ho e t a l. (2 01 0) c cbr consensus building to overcome resistance to change: develop mechanism for creating individual change readiness and obtains their support for organisational change. √ √ etr empower team with resources: successful change requires sufficient resources in terms of money, manpower and authority of decision making for planning, training, communicating, experimenting and innovating. √ √ √ cl commitment of leadership: if senior managers are committing both time and effort to the change then employees get motivated for equal commitment to the change. √ √ √ √ √ √ table 1 continued relational contracting conceptual model for public sector construction organisations: an indian context construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201875 c od e p ub lic s ec to r o rg an iz at io na l c ha ng e – k ey f oc us a re as c ro w le y an d k ar im (1 99 5) w ils on , s on ge r an d d ie km an n (1 99 5) c ra ne e t a l. (1 99 7) li e t a l. (2 00 1) c he ng a nd l i ( 20 04 ) b ea ch ,w eb st er a nd c am pb el l, (2 00 5) a nv uu r an d k um ar as w am y (2 00 7) c ho e t a l. (2 01 0) com communication during institutionalisation: communicating accurate and timely information during change process provides opportunities to employees to learn about the change. √ √ √ √ √ √ √ mp measuring and celebrating progress: the outcome need to measure as improvement against key performance indicators and satisfaction of employees during change. √ √ √ √ √ √ √ internal alignment for change determining owner’s internal ability to partner is a crucial process which the owner can start by analysing culture, work processes and contracting methods (cii, 1996). internal alignment for change will require change in contracting approaches to craft a cooperative culture with contractual flexibilities to proactively address future uncertainties (rahman and kumaraswamy, 2012). one of the key areas of contracting approach requiring internal alignment will be with respect to contractor selection. as lowest price is the least important criterion in rc, other parameters like quality of work, project management capability, adequate resources, safety issues and technical capabilities should also be given importance. framing equitable risk allocation framework (ling, rahman and ng, 2006) and promotion of use of financial incentives will encourage relational contracting and promote cultural shift from traditional adversarial approach to cooperative contracting (tang, duffield and young, table 1 continued tawalare and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201876 2006). the planned processes used by the organisation to improve core competencies like management skills, organisational routines, knowledge base and intangible assets will also decide the necessary changes for internal alignment to facilitate innovation (manley, mcfallan and kajewski, 2009). investing in r&d, maintaining a formal system of transferring project learning into continuous business processes, actively monitoring international best practices and pursuing partnering are some of the key strategies for innovation (manley, mcfallan and kajewski, 2009). relationship alignment relationship alignment focuses on providing opportunities for development of trust. cii (1996) asserted that some clients allowed trust to develop naturally while some made specific efforts to increase trust using business and social opportunities. efforts in the form of organizing initial meetings for exchanging expectations and goals regarding relationships among the parties provide an opportunity for deeper understanding of the project’s overall goals (chen and chen, 2007). employees need to be educated about partnering and made to feel that they are a valuable and necessary part of the process (crane et al., 1997). this should be also extended to sme organisations of the supply chain, as there is no established tradition of training for such skills in such organizations. involvement of the contractor and sub-contractor will help to nurture close collaboration throughout the project life cycle (eriksson, 2010). the team-building sessions should thus be held prior to implementation of the project involving key players from different firms, e.g., engineers, foremen, specialists and other staff (larson, 1997). finally, partnering efforts should attempt to give project team members increased autonomy by delegating decision making authority down to lower level. relationship execution effective teams translate their shared purpose into specific performance goals and targets. they periodically assess their joint performance against targets through review meetings (anvuur and kumaraswamy, 2007). the review meetings provide a platform for open communication among the contract participants. the paradigm shift in attitude towards openness and communication between parties considerably reduces the cost of administration required for a contract (glagola and sheedy, 2002). besides review meetings, regular interim workshops also provide an effective medium to strengthen the partnering spirit of all the parties over the life of project (chan et al., 2006). the project success lies in the member’s ability to embrace conflict and turn it into creative conflict through dialogue (ruuska and teigland, 2009). these contracting parties will feel that their partners are willing to seek a win/win resolution sincerely without destroying the cooperation harmony (wong, cheung and ho, 2005). relational contracting conceptual model for public sector construction organisations: an indian context construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201877 figure 1 rc conceptual model (rccm) for public sector construction organizations table 2 success factors for relational contracting (rc) from literature r c s uc ce ss fa ct or s c he ng a nd l i ( 20 02 ) c he n an d c he n (2 00 7) c ha n et a l. (2 00 4) b la ck , a ki nt oy e an d fi tz ge ra ld (2 00 0) li ng e t a l. (2 01 3 b) k w an a nd o fo ri (2 00 1) b re sn en a nd m ar sh al l (2 00 2) r ah m an a nd k um ar as w am y (2 00 5) b ea ch , w eb st er a nd c am pb el l ( 20 05 ) lo ve , m is tr y an d d av is (2 01 0) je ff er ie s, b re w er a nd g aj en dr an (2 01 4) management commitment √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ risk /reward mechanism √ √ √ √ √ tawalare and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201878 r c s uc ce ss fa ct or s c he ng a nd l i ( 20 02 ) c he n an d c he n (2 00 7) c ha n et a l. (2 00 4) b la ck , a ki nt oy e an d fi tz ge ra ld (2 00 0) li ng e t a l. (2 01 3 b) k w an a nd o fo ri (2 00 1) b re sn en a nd m ar sh al l (2 00 2) r ah m an a nd k um ar as w am y (2 00 5) b ea ch , w eb st er a nd c am pb el l ( 20 05 ) lo ve , m is tr y an d d av is (2 01 0) je ff er ie s, b re w er a nd g aj en dr an (2 01 4) mutual goals and objectives √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ trust √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ continuous evaluation √ √ √ √ open communication √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ conflict resolution √ √ √ √ √ √ early involvement of contractor √ √ √ √ education/ training/ learning climate √ √ √ √ √ innovation √ √ √ long term commitment √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ integrated team √ √ √ √ √ √ √ partnering experience √ effective coordination √ √ √ continuous improvement √ √ √ √ adequate resources √ √ √ √ partner selection √ √ research method this study has adopted qualitative research as its most preferred approach due to the descriptive nature of research questions and research objectives (fellows and liu, 2008). the study has therefore used multiple sources of evidence for research inquiry, comprising literature review and expert interviews, utilizing both secondary and primary data for research inquiry respectively. first, a comprehensive literature review through content analysis of secondary table 2 continued relational contracting conceptual model for public sector construction organisations: an indian context construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201879 data sources such as journal articles and government reports related to relational contracting has been undertaken, to understand the philosophy of relational contracting and processes required for implementation. a qualitative data analysis software package has been used to store, organize, and analyse the literature review data using open and axial coding in content analysis as suggested by miles, huberman and saldana (2013). second, the experts’ interviews were conducted in two rounds. a total of 36 experts took part in this study. of these, 28 were top management representatives of four public sector construction organisations in india and the remaining 8 experts were top management representatives of contractor companies working with these public-sector construction organisations consistently. the first organisation is involved in construction of state highways, major district roads, bridges and governments official buildings. the second organisation is involved in construction of power plants and generation of power. the third organisation is involved in construction of housing, commercial and institutional complexes, water supply and sanitation projects for various central government organisations. the fourth organisation constructs railway routes, bridges, stations, residential and official buildings for its own department. the purpose of inclusion of top management from contractor was triangulation of information gathered from public sector top management. all the experts had industry experience varying from 25 to 35 years. table 3 provides profiles of the experts. all the experts were contacted personally and were given information about the research work well in advance. each interview lasted for about 45-120 minutes. all the interviews were recorded as transcripts. in the first round, open ended interviews were conducted with all experts to understand the extent of relational contracting processes being utilised by the indian public-sector organisations under study. the phrases of the questions were “tell me about new project management strategies used” or “explain it with suitable example”. findings from this primary data collected by way of these interviews and the secondary data collected from the published literature was utilised to develop a preliminary framework of relational contracting. this framework was further improved by inducting the success factors for change management in public sector organizations, which led to the formation of a conceptual model. table 4 shows the integration of success factors for public sector change and relational contracting this conceptual model was further evaluated in the second round of interviews with all the experts. this round of interviews was conducted to validate the framework and to get expert comments for further improvement. therefore, all the interviews were focused interviews. finally, validation of the findings was done using the technique of micro-interlocutor analysis suggested by onwuegbuzie et al. (2009). the confirmation was done by checking the consensus and dissent views of each respondent on each strategy included in the framework for public sector relational contracting. the main purpose of micro-interlocutor analysis was to understand the extent to which the respondents suggested agreement on feasibility of each strategy. the strategies on which there was a disagreement were discarded from the model. the final explanation of the model was strengthened with the secondary evidence of public administrative literature. table 4 also shows the validation of strategies in conceptual model. table 3 participant’s profile designation no. of participants average experience (years) chief engineer 8 33.5 deputy chief engineer 5 32.4 tawalare and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201880 designation no. of participants average experience (years) superintending engineer 7 32.5 executive engineer 8 31.75 contractor’s general manager 4 34.5 contractor’s project manager 4 29.25 total 36 table 4 integration of success factors for public sector change and relational contracting open code public sector organizational change – key focus areas organisational strategies to facilitate rc axial code result of interlocutor analysis en ensure the need analyse government’s present policy en1 ++++ analyse project’s commercial or social benefits en2 +++++ identify organisation’s strength and weakness en3 +++ dv develop a vision decide project specific objectives dv1 ++++ formulate policy for innovation and improvement dv2 +++ formulate policy for team work and cooperation dv3 +++ sa stakeholder analysis formation of transformation team to plan new strategies sa1 +++++ seek government support for new strategies in bidding process sa2 +++ motivate contractors by offering reward and risk sharing sa3 +++ dep development of execution plan contractor and specialised subcontractor involvement in design dep1 ++++ formation of joint project team dep2 ++++ joint project planning and preparation of project charter dep3 ++++ table 3 continued relational contracting conceptual model for public sector construction organisations: an indian context construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201881 open code public sector organizational change – key focus areas organisational strategies to facilitate rc axial code result of interlocutor analysis cbr consensus building to overcome resistance to change initial meetings between top management of both sides to decide common objectives of project cbr1 +++++ soft skill training sessions cbr2 +++++ team building workshops cbr3 +++ etr empower team with resources availability of finance as per provisions of budget etr1 +++++ joint risk identification & mitigation strategy etr2 ++++ joint project controlling & monitoring etr3 ++++ cl commitment of leadership time bound review meeting on site cl1 ++++ time bound decisionmaking mechanism cl2 +++++ time bound dispute resolution mechanism cl3 +++++ informal communication with lower tier cl4 ++++ com communication during institutionalisation established information sharing mechanism com1 ++++ non-hierarchical communication com2 +++ time bound meetings of project team com3 +++++ system of informal communication com4 ++++ mp measuring and celebrating progress regular assessment process as per tangible parameters mp1 +++++ final review report with project’s success and failure strategies mp2 ++++ legends: +++++ very strong support; ++++ strong support; +++ support discussion the conceptual model for implementing relational contracting in public sector construction organizations is discussed in following ten stages. table 4 continued tawalare and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201882 ensuring the need of partnering and developing a vision statement hajnal (2004) suggested that before initiating any reforms in the public sector, it is essential to identify the forces of organisational change such as changes in the world economy, fiscal pressure, technological innovations and global business demand to ensure the need of change. accordingly, top management will initiate change by drafting an appealing vision statement for the organization. this is generally seen as a crucial first step in the implementation of planned change management strategy. moreover, top leaders can be expected to contribute to the implementation of change management strategy by providing intellectual stimulation through the formulation of challenging objectives and the stimulation of new ways of thinking. generally, vision for the public-sector organisation depends on the agenda set by the government. however most of the respondents (experts) in the present study agreed that project specific objectives can be set up by the top management. the objectives of the organization may be to bring technological innovation into the project, to complete the project within cost and time limits, to reduce the claims and disputes on site or to bring overall reforms in the working process of the organization. at this stage, the top management should also identify the core competencies and strengths of the organization along with its weaknesses. the top management will then be able to anticipate how the core competencies will align with the developed framework and how the weaknesses can be addressed. stakeholder analysis and consensus building poor government responsiveness is a major risk in countries like india ( jha and devaya, 2008). changes to promote partnering may invite resistance from both within the organisation or external forces, such as demands from stakeholders and governments’ policies (abdulraheem et al., 2013). it may not be possible to arrive at a consensus, but it is advisable to inform staff so that management can buffer the subordinates from external pressures (fernandez and pitts, 2007). the public-sector organisation can also adopt innovative strategies to promote partnering by either informing the association of contractors through organization of seminars or by conducting demonstration projects. mahalingam, yadav and varaprasad (2015) conducted a pilot project and proved that building information modelling (bim) and lean practices improved the decision making, planning and coordination in construction of metro stations of chennai metro rail project (india). in fact, one of the top-level managers suggested in the similar line that: “before initiating a large-scale reform throughout the organisation, it is always better to select a pilot project. it is easy to convince people for the pilot project.” forming and empowering team transformation team comprising of two or more leaders from the organisation or an external facilitator can play the role of change agent (fernandez and rainey, 2006). one of the chief engineers mentioned that: “an internal change agent is likely to know the organisation people, task, and political situation better, which helps in interpreting the data and understanding the system better.” this transformation team should be given adequate financial resources and authority to take appropriate decisions on time. crane et al. (1997) mentioned that the cost could vary from 0.25% to 2% of the project cost. furthermore, financial resources create opportunities for relational contracting conceptual model for public sector construction organisations: an indian context construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201883 mangers to explore innovative methods for accomplishing organisational tasks (fernandez and pitts, 2007). in indian projects, if resources of all the stakeholders organised properly as per their expertise, then teambuilding would be enhanced ( jha and misra, 2007). initiating change to show commitment of leaders necessity of policy improvement in prequalification for contractor’s selection, incentive mechanism, improvement in risk sharing, and time bound alternate dispute resolution mechanism, has been agreed amongst the respondents. to introduce incentive mechanism in india, client’s top management need to change their attitude of why extra money should be paid to the contractor (hasan and jha, 2016). moreover, it is a necessity of time bound decision making for accountability in public sector projects in india (sawhney, agnihotri and paul, 2014). the respondents have highlighted the need to frame policies by the top management to demonstrate their commitment towards change in this direction. indian construction sector is the highest consumer of natural resources and energy. due to this, indian construction industry is facing urgent pressure for environmental management and sustainability (ahuja, sawhney and arif, 2017). therefore, most of the chief engineers suggested that the prequalification criteria for contractor selection must be expanded by adding quality aspects, safety aspects and environmental aspects so that only those contractor companies who invest in capacity building will qualify for the job. similarly, many respondents suggested inclusion of time bound dispute resolution mechanism to bring accountability in decision making across the hierarchy of bureaucracy. the inclusion of these changes in the contract document before announcing partnering will show the commitment of the top management for organisational changes towards effective partnering. communicating change and consensus building the decision to adopt a partnering strategy needs to be communicated to the operational level employees of the contractor organization as well as those of the public-sector organization, as they are the catalysts for the innovation and the real change (fernandez and pitts, 2007). traditional top down approach is most suitable for communicating change in public sector (coram and burnes, 2001) through techniques like education, facilitation, negotiation and coercion for consensus building (barnard and stoll, 2010). in indian organisations, employees enjoy working with the freedom to express views and ideas. good working culture in the organisation encourages employees to work with dedication which ultimately enhances the chance of success (tripathi and jha, 2018). many managers stressed specifically the need for soft skill training to impart partnering culture. one of the managers commented that: “it is necessary to remove the concept of ‘master and slave’ in public sector projects from the minds of employees. this attitude can be changed through soft skill training only.” forming joint project team the joint project team consisting of employees working on site from both the contractor and client sides plays a key role in partnering. the transformation team should take responsibility for team building of this joint project team. this team needs to show concern for the other person’s ego and should have a sound understanding of psychology of people. they must communicate and coordinate with internal people as well as other department people ( jha and iyer, 2006). one of the ways for team building could be to conduct a joint technical training tawalare and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201884 program for the contractor and client. as most of the contractors are reluctant to invest in training, one of the general managers pointed out that: “the public-sector organizations should take the responsibility of providing training to the contractor people by using their own organisational training centres. this will serve the dual purpose of training and team building.” developing an execution plan execution plan for involvement of junior members of the organisation should be addressed by the top management. without their involvement it is difficult for the change to succeed. the joint project team should prepare the execution plan focusing on the aspects of project planning, risk identification and mitigation plan and project charter with the involvement of contractor’s designers and specialised sub-contractors. it also requires development of team spirit and receiving constructive inputs from all the project participants ( jha and iyer, 2006). similar practice has been reported by one of the deputy chief engineers; “we conduct many meetings with the contractor in the pre-construction phase to reach a consensus in project scheduling, deciding payment milestones and field quality plan. this has resulted in avoiding any confusion and conflict during execution”. implementing the change during the construction phase of the project, the joint project team put into practice the partnering philosophy. during this phase, the joint project team translates the plan on paper into action. in such cooperative contracts, monitoring officials work jointly to overcome obstacles and maintain relationships rather than enforcing rigid standards. the team must measure the deviation of goals in execution, report it to the transformation team and implement the necessary action to correct the deviations. the top management on both the sides should provide sufficient resources and tools to the joint project team to avoid compromise in accountability in case of insufficient resources for contract management (girth, 2012). the transformation team has a very important role to play in this phase. the team needs to coordinate with all the parties; such as the joint project team, the consultants, the sub-contractors and the top management of both sides, by conducting regular meetings with them. extra training sessions or team building workshops can be arranged in this phase if the transformation team observes a lack of communication and participation among the team members. managers of the transformation team often need to balance the rigidity of rules and the flexibility of context, and the discretion allows for subjectivity in decision making based on the unique requirements of the situation (girth, 2012). activities showing commitment of top management in a highly bureaucratic public-sector organization, an organizational change may require the top-down activation of employees by top-management intervention (voet, 2014). top management support is indispensable for overcoming resistance to change, maintaining stakeholder commitment and managing difficulties ( jurisch et al., 2013). achievement of this alignment relies on regular and effective communication between managers and employees, including holding regular meetings and informal discussions to ensure that the employees are kept informed of changing circumstances (buick, blackman and o’donnell, 2015). this will relational contracting conceptual model for public sector construction organisations: an indian context construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201885 also show the commitment of the top management for cooperative relationship development as well as improvement in the communication with lower teams. similar opinion was shared by a technical director of one public sector. “our project cost is always high, and we work with multinational contractors. looking at the technical complexity of our project and the cultural issues, anyone can foresee major disputes in our project. but in reality, we have very few unresolved issues in each project as most of the issues get resolved in our mandatory monthly review meetings conducted on site by our top management.” evaluating the performance public sector organizations should develop systems that support the measurement of progress towards organizational goals throughout the performance cycle of the project (buick, blackman and o’donnell, 2015). for this purpose, all the experts significantly agreed on the strategy of preparing a final assessment report consisting of successes and barriers faced in completing the project. the final assessment report not only acts as a guide for the future projects but also aids in the self-motivation of the public-sector employees if they find their efforts reflected in the success of the project (greasley, watson and patel, 2009). these reports also provide case studies for younger generation learning. in this regard one of the chief engineers mentioned that: “it is required to publish failure studies also as they provide a rich learning material. but, extra care should be taken while publishing failure stories as anti-social elements may try to take benefit of it. they will try to fix the responsibility of failure on specific people which might adversely affect the morale of public sector employees.” conclusion the paper aimed to seek an answer to the question “how to incorporate relational contracting into traditional procurement processes of indian public-sector construction organisations?” this question directed the research to develop a model to implement the relational contracting in public sector organizations. it is pointed out that the implementation of relational contracting processes in public sector organisations should be treated as an organisational change management process. therefore, the paper identified the success factors for this public sector organisational change. these success factors and the relational contracting processes have been integrated to develop a comprehensive framework to facilitate the successful implementation of relational contracting within the traditional procurement processes of indian public-sector organizations. the possibility of implementation of the proposed conceptual framework is validated by top management authorities of four public sector organisations. the model highlighted prominent processes like the need to develop a vision for partnering, stakeholder analysis and consensus building among them, empowerment of operational level employees and their participation in the execution plan, time bound review meetings of top management on site to show commitment, resolve disputes and fast decision making along with publication of performance reports. thus, the proposed framework will be useful to the top decision makers in public sector construction industry in india and other developing countries to adopt relational contracting philosophy as a planned organisational change model. this model is different from other models available in literature because success factors for rc are integrated with success factors of organisational change. also, all tawalare and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201886 the available models consider trust as pre-requisite for implementation of rc, but this model considers trust as an outcome of rc implementation in public sector. however, this research may have limitations of generalisation because the model validation is based on the interviews of only 36 experts. the findings of the study can be further validated through a larger sample of experts. references abdulraheem, i., mordi, c., ojo, y. and ajonbadi, h., 2013. outcomes of planned organisational change in the nigerian public sector: insights from the nigerian higher education institutions. economic insights – trends and challenges, 2(1), pp.26-37. ahuja, r., sawhney, a. and arif, m., 2017. driving lean and green project outcomes using bim: a qualitative comparative analysis. international journal of sustainable built environment, 6, pp.69–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsbe.2016.10.006 anvuur, a.m. and kumaraswamy, m.m., 2007. conceptual model of partnering and alliancing. journal of construction engineering and management, 133(3), pp.225-34. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2007)133:3(225) barnard, m. and stoll, n., 2010. organisational change management: a rapid literature review. short policy report, university of bristol, 10(1), pp.1-11. beach, r., webster, m. and campbell, k.m., 2005. an evaluation of partnership development in the construction industry. international journal of project management, 23(8), pp.611-21. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.04.001 black, c., akintoye, a. and fitzgerald, e., 2000. an analysis of success factors and benefits of partnering in construction. international journal of project management, 18(6), pp.423-34. https://doi.org/10.1016/ s0263-7863(99)00046-0 bresnen, m. and marshall, n., 2002. the engineering or evolution of co-operation? a tale of two partnering projects. international journal of project management, 20, pp.497-505. https://doi.org/10.1016/ s0263-7863(01)00043-6 buick, f., blackman, d.a. and o’donnell, m., 2015. can enhanced performance management support public sector change? journal of organizational change management, 28(2), pp.271-81. https://doi. org/10.1108/jocm-12-2013-0249 chan, a.p.c., chan, d.w.m., chiang, y.h., tang, b.s., chan, e.h.w. and ho, k.s.k., 2004. exploring critical success factors for partnering in construction projects. journal of construction engineering and management, 130(2), pp.188-98. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:2(188) chan, a.p.c., chan, d.w.m., fan, l.c.n., lam, p.t.i. and yeung, j.f.y., 2006. partnering for construction excellence—a reality or myth? building and environment, 41(12), pp.1924–33. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2005.06.026 chen, w.t. and chen, t.-t., 2007. critical success factors for construction partnering in taiwan. international journal of project management, 25, pp.475-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2006.12.003 cheng, e.w.l. and li, h., 2002. construction partnering process and associated critical success factors: quantitative investigation. journal of management in engineering, 18(4), pp.194-202. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2002)18:4(194) relational contracting conceptual model for public sector construction organisations: an indian context construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201887 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsbe.2016.10.006 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:3(225) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:3(225) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.04.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.04.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(99)00046-0 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(99)00046-0 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(01)00043-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(01)00043-6 https://doi.org/10.1108/jocm-12-2013-0249 https://doi.org/10.1108/jocm-12-2013-0249 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:2(188) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2005.06.026 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2005.06.026 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.12.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.12.003 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2002)18:4(194) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2002)18:4(194) cho, k., hyun, c., koo, k. and hong, t., 2010. partnering process model for public-sector fast-track design-build projects in korea. journal of management in engineering, 26(1), pp.19-29. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2010)26:1(19) cii, 1996. model for partnering excellence the construction industry institute, partnering ii research team, research summary 102-1, november 1996. cole, m.s., harris, s.g. and bernerth, j.b., 2006. exploring the implications of vision, appropriateness, and execution of organizational change. leadership & organization development journal, 27(5), pp.35267. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730610677963 coram, r. and burnes, b., 2001. managing organisational change in the public sector:lessons from the privatisation of the property service agency. the international journal of public sector management, 14(2), pp.94-110. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513550110387381 crane, t.g., felder, j.p., thompson, p.j., thompson, m.g. and sanders, s.r., 1997. partnering process model. journal of management in engineering, 13(3), pp.57-63. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742597x(1997)13:3(57) crowley, l.g. and karim, m.a., 1995. conceptual model of partnering. journal of management in engineering, 11(5), pp.33-9. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(1995)11:5(33) doloi, h., sawhney, a., iyer, k.c. and rentala, s., 2012. analysing factors affecting delays in indian construction projects. international journal of project management, 30, pp.479-89. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.10.004 eriksson, p.e., 2010. partnering: what is it, when should it be used, and how should it be implemented? construction management and economics, 28, pp.905-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190903536422 fellows, r. and liu, a., 2008. research methods for construction. oxford, uk: john wiley and sons publications. fernandez, s. and pitts, d.w., 2007. under what conditions do public managers favor and pursue organizational change? the american review of public administration, 37(3), pp.324-41. https://doi. org/10.1177/0275074006293467 fernandez, s. and rainey, h.g., 2006. managing successful organizational change in the public sector. public administration review, 66(2), pp.168-76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2006.00570.x girth, a.m., 2012. a closer look at contract accountability: exploring the determinants of sanctions for unsatisfactory contract performance. journal of public administration research and theory, 24, pp.317–48. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mus033 glagola, c.r. and sheedy, w.m., 2002. partnering on defense contracts. journal of construction engineering and management, 128(2), pp.127-38. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2002)128:2(127) grajek, k.m., gibson, g.e. and tucker, r.l., 2000. partnered project performance in texas department of transportation. journal of infrastructure systems, 6(2), pp.73-9. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)10760342(2000)6:2(73) greasley, k., watson, p. and patel, s., 2009. the impact of organisational change on public sector employees implementing the uk government’s “back to work” programme. employee relations, 31(4), pp.382-97. https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450910965432 tawalare and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201888 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2010)26:1(19) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2010)26:1(19) https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730610677963 https://doi.org/10.1108/09513550110387381 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(1997)13:3(57) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(1997)13:3(57) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(1995)11:5(33) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.10.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.10.004 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190903536422 https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074006293467 https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074006293467 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2006.00570.x https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mus033 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2002)128:2(127) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2002)128:2(127) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1076-0342(2000)6:2(73) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1076-0342(2000)6:2(73) https://doi.org/10.1108/01425450910965432 hajnal, g., 2004. cultural determinants of new public management reforms: a comparative study. society and economy, 26(223-246). https://doi.org/10.1556/socec.26.2004.2-3.5 hasan, a. and jha, k.n., 2016. acceptance of the incentive/disincentive contracting strategy in developing construction markets: empirical study from india. journal of construction engineering and management, pp.1-9. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001048 jefferies, m., brewer, g.j. and gajendran, t., 2014. using a case study approach to identify critical success factors for alliance contracting. engineering, construction and architectural management research news, 21(5), pp.465-80. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2012-0007 jha, k.n. and devaya, m.n., 2008. modelling the risks faced by indian construction companies assessing international projects. construction management and economics, 26(4), pp.337-48. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446190801953281 jha, k.n. and iyer, c.k., 2006. what attributes should a project coordinator possess? construction management and economics, 24(9), pp.977-88. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190600781826 jha, k.n. and misra, s., 2007. ranking and classification of construction coordination activities in indian projects. construction management and economics, 25(4), pp.409-21. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446190601083271 jurisch, m.c., ikas, c., wolf, p. and krcmar, h., 2013. key differences of private and public sector business process change. e-service journal, 9(1), pp.3-27. https://doi.org/10.2979/eservicej.9.1.3 kwan, a.y. and ofori, g., 2001. chinese culture and successful implementation of partnering in singapore’s construction industry. construction management and economics, 19(6), pp.619-32. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446190110062087 larson, e., 1997. partnering on construction projects: a study of the relationship between partnering activities and project success. ieee transactions on engineering management, 44(2), pp.188-95. https:// doi.org/10.1109/17.584926 li, h., cheng, e.w.l., love, p.e.d. and irani, z., 2001. co-operative benchmarking: a tool for partnering excellence in construction. international journal of project management, 19(3), pp.171-9. https:// doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(99)00033-2 ling, f.y.y., ke, y., kumaraswamy, m.m. and wang, s.q., 2013 b. key relational contracting practices affecting performance of public construction projects in china. journal of construction engineering and management, 140(1), pp.1-12. ling, f.y.y., ning, y., ke, y. and kumaraswamy, m.m., 2013 a. modeling relational transaction and relationship quality among team members in public projects in hong kong. automation in construction, 36, pp.16–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2013.08.006 ling, f.y.y., rahman, m.m. and ng, t.l., 2006. incorporating contractual incentives to facilitate relational contracting. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 132(1), pp.57–66. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2006)132:1(57) ling, f.y.y. and tran, p.q., 2012. effects of interpersonal relations on public sector construction contracts in vietnam. construction management and economics, 30(12), pp.1087-101. love, p.e.d., mistry, d. and davis, p.r., 2010. price competitive alliance projects: identification of success factors for public clients. journal of construction engineering and management, 136(9), pp.947–56. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000208 relational contracting conceptual model for public sector construction organisations: an indian context construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201889 https://doi.org/10.1556/socec.26.2004.2-3.5 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001048 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2012-0007 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190801953281 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190801953281 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190600781826 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190601083271 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190601083271 https://doi.org/10.2979/eservicej.9.1.3 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190110062087 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190110062087 https://doi.org/10.1109/17.584926 https://doi.org/10.1109/17.584926 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(99)00033-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(99)00033-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2013.08.006 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2006)132:1(57) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000208 lu, s. and yan, h., 2007. a model for evaluating the applicability of partnering in construction. international journal of project management, 25(2), pp.164-70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2006.09.009 mahalingam, a., yadav, a.k. and varaprasad, j., 2015. investigating the role of lean practices in enabling bim adoption: evidence from two indian cases. journal of construction engineering and management, 141(7), pp.1-11. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000982 manley, k., mcfallan, s. and kajewski, s., 2009. relationship between construction firm strategies and innovation outcomes. journal of construction engineering and management, 135(8), pp.764-71. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000030 miles, m.b., huberman, a.m. and saldana, j., 2013. qualitative data analysis: a methods sourcebook. london, uk: sage publications. ng, s.t., rose, t.m., mak, m. and chen, s.e., 2002. problematic issues associated with project partnering — the contractor perspective. international journal of project management, 20(6), pp.437-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(01)00025-4 nystro, j., 2008. a quasi-experimental evaluation of partnering. construction management and economics, 26(6), pp.531-41. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190802036144 onwuegbuzie, a.j., dickinson, w.b., leech, n.l. and zoran, a.g., 2009. a qualitative framework for collecting and analyzing data in focus group research. international journal of qualitative methods, 8(3), pp.1-21. https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690900800301 palaneeswaran, e., kumaraswamy, m., rahman, m. and ng, t., 2003. curing congenital construction industry disorders through relationally integrated supply chains. building and environment, 38, pp.57182. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0360-1323(02)00188-9 rahman, m.m. and kumaraswamy, m.m., 2005. relational selection for collaborative working arrangements. journal of construction engineering and management, 131(10), pp.1087–98. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:10(1087) rahman, m.m. and kumaraswamy, m.m., 2008. relational contracting and teambuilding: assessing potential contractual and noncontractual incentives. journal of management in engineering, 24(1), pp.48–63. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2008)24:1(48) rahman, m.m. and kumaraswamy, m.m., 2012. multicountry perspectives of relational contracting and integrated project teams. journal of construction engineering and management, 138(4), pp.469–80. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000463 robertson, p.j. and seneviratne, s.j., 1995. outcomes of planned organizational change in the public sector: a meta-analytic comparison to the private sector. public administration review, 55(6), pp.547-58. https://doi.org/10.2307/3110346 ruuska, i. and teigland, r., 2009. ensuring project success through collective competence and creative conflict in public–private partnerships – a case study of bygga villa, a swedish triple helix e-government initiative. international journal of project management, 27, pp.323–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2008.02.007 sawhney, a., agnihotri, r. and paul, v.k., 2014. grand challenges for the indian construction industry. built environment project and asset management, 4(4), pp.317 34. https://doi.org/10.1108/ bepam-10-2013-0055 tawalare and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201890 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.09.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.09.009 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000982 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000030 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000030 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(01)00025-4 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190802036144 https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690900800301 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0360-1323(02)00188-9 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:10(1087) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:10(1087) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2008)24:1(48) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000463 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000463 https://doi.org/10.2307/3110346 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.02.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.02.007 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2013-0055 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2013-0055 stewart, j. and kringas, p., 2003. change management: strategy and values in six agencies from the australian public service. public administration review, 63(6), pp.675-88. https://doi.org/10.1111/15406210.00331 tabish, s.z.s. and jha, k.n., 2011 a. analyses and evaluation of irregularities in public procurement in india. construction management and economics, 29, pp.261-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2010.5 49138 tang, w., duffield, c.f. and young, d.m., 2006. partnering mechanism in construction: an empirical study on the chinese construction industry. journal of construction engineering and management, 132(3), pp.217-29. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:3(217) tripathi, k.k. and jha, k.n., 2018. determining success factors for a construction organization: a structural equation modeling approach. journal of management in engineering, 34(1), pp.1-15. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000569 voet, j.v.d., 2014. the effectiveness and specificity of change management in a public organization: transformational leadership and a bureaucratic organizational structure. european management journal, 32, pp.373–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2013.10.001 voet, j.v.d., kuipers, b.s. and groeneveld, s., 2015. implementing change in public organizations: the relationship between leadership and affective commitment to change in a public sector context. public management review, 18(6), pp.842-65. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2015.1045020 wilson, r.a., songer, a.d. and diekmann, j., 1995. partnering: more than a workshop, a catalyst for change. journal of management in engineering, 11(5), pp.40-5. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742597x(1995)11:5(40) wong, p.s.p., cheung, s.o. and ho, p.k.m., 2005. contractor as trust initiator in construction partneringprisoner’s dilemma perspective. journal of construction engineering and management, 131(10), pp.1045–53. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:10(1045) wright, b.e., christensen, r.k. and isett, k., 2011. motivated to adapt? the role of public service motivation as employees face organizational change. 11th biennial public management research association conference syracuse, new york, pp.1-23. relational contracting conceptual model for public sector construction organisations: an indian context construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201891 https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6210.00331 https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-6210.00331 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2010.549138 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2010.549138 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:3(217) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000569 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000569 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2013.10.001 https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2015.1045020 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(1995)11:5(40) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(1995)11:5(40) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:10(1045) construction economics and building, 16(3), 59-70 copyright: construction economics and building 2016. © 2016 mary hardie. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 unported (cc by 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: hardie, m. 2016. vectors of technical innovation delivery by small and medium australian construction firms, construction economics and building, 16(3), 59-70. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i3.5158 corresponding author: mary hardie; email m.hardie@westernsydney.edu.au publisher: university of technology sydney (uts) epress vectors of technical innovation delivery by small and medium australian construction firms mary hardie school of computing, engineering and mathematics, western sydney university, australia abstract long-established schumpeterian theory on innovation assumes that significant innovations are generated by large companies with ample spare resources. the allocation of time and money to speculative endeavours with unclear outcomes has often been regarded as beyond the scope of small and medium-sized enterprises (smes). as a result, authorities sometimes advise smes to concentrate on the adoption of existing innovative products and processes rather than the generation of new creative ideas. despite this traditional wisdom, some very capable individuals actively choose to participate in the sme sector because the relative absence of internal bureaucratic processes and the capacity for agile response to changing circumstances. ten case studies of significant technical innovations generated within construction smes were examined in the light of common themes identified through a literature review. the case studies were classified according to existing taxonomies of innovation. content analysis was used to map the identified themes against the published material about the innovations from patent applications, company websites, trade literature and industry magazines. the findings indicate that sme innovation stems from several distinct motivations. these drivers of innovation can be described vectors. they inspire innovative solutions but the generated innovations also drive development towards solutions for other, quite different problems. keywords: technical innovation, innovation generation, drivers, case studies, content analysis. paper type: research article introduction a business strategy focussing on innovation and continual improvement has long been identified as an effective means of ensuring ongoing financial success for businesses in a market economy (schumpeter, 1934; schumpeter, 1942; tushman and moore, 1988; audretsch, 1995; drucker 2002; fagerberg, mowery and nelson, 2005). increasingly, openness to innovation is also being associated with improved environmental and social performance in many sectors of the economy in a worldwide context. however some industry sectors, in particular, are widely reported to have avoided the challenge to adopt new attitudes and modes of operation (reichstein, salter and gann 2005). over several decades, the construction industry has been broadly criticised as slow to absorb both new management practices and new technologies (bowley, 1966; latham, 1994; egan, 1998; fairclough, 2002; woudhuysen and abley, 2004). indeed, among the general public there is an often-reported perception of the construction industry as being ‘dirty, dodgy and dangerous’. in the australian context, this belief was widely voiced in submissions to the cole royal commission into the building and construction industry (cole, 2003). in his summary of https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i3.5158 construction economics and building, 16(3), 59-70 hardie 60 findings and recommendations, the royal commissioner listed as his first report outcome that there was “an urgent need for structural and cultural reform” (cole, 2003, p.3). in particular, the position of small contractors, subcontractors and independent workers was identified as highly vulnerable to disruption and intimidation because of their dependence on continuous and undelayed work to maintain cash flow and liquidity. cole also identified “an unwillingness within industry leadership to recognise the long term advantages of structural and cultural change, accepting instead a short term project driven profit process” (cole, 2003, p.13). in this context, the industry culture may be perceived by outsiders as belligerent, fractious, excessively competitive and even inwardly destructive. risk shifting and blame shifting are reportedly commonplace and the smaller and more vulnerable end of the industry can be forced to carry the majority of the risk associated with introducing any new or improved practice (zaghloul and hartman, 2003; mcgrath‐champ and rosewarne, 2009). significantly, the current contractual and governance system tends to assume this background environment of disputation, intimidation and lack of openness and access to information. the available remedies to the resulting disputes tend to be expensive legal ones and unfortunately smaller businesses often lack the capacity to defend their interests in the courts. as a result change from the bottom up may be stifled and a large part of the industry is deflected from the prospect of improving their individual situations through the introduction of an innovation strategy. this negative picture does not, however, define the full range of activity and change management within the construction industry. reforms to supply chains, procurement systems and quality control strategies have made significant improvements in industry performance in recent times (briscoe et al., 2004; de valence, 2010; love, irani and edwards, 2004). many leaders of construction firms are aware of the potential for industry disruption generated by digitalization and globalization. industry veterans such as david chandler oam have warned of the need to adopt modern, measurable performance standards if the industry is to meet the challenge of the new era (chandler, 2015). construction smes have as much at stake as the large business sector and will need to demonstrate agility and innovation in response to new forms of competition and disruption. literature review sme definition the definition of what constitutes a small and medium enterprise (sme) varies a great deal depending on the nature of the national economy and the industry sector concerned. most definitions are based on number of employees though annual turnover, capitalisation and company structure are also included in some definitions (loecher, 2000). in general, larger economies such as the united states of america set the maximum bar higher as regards inclusion in the category of sme. the australian bureau of statistics (abs) has its own definition which varies in the detail from the other definitions and is based on data collected through the system of australian business numbers (abns). the australian bureau of statistics has been collecting specific data on smes since the early nineteen nineties. the definition of an sme has varied in the time since statistics were first separately kept. initially 100 employees was the cut-off limit but since 2003 this has been raised to 200 employees. the sme sector is further subdivided as between 20 and 200 in medium business and up to 19 employees in small business with a further sub category of microbusinesses consisting of less than 5 employees. it is this definition that is accepted for the purposes of this study. while this means that comparisons to the collected data from other nations are limited by the different cut-offs, this is more than compensated for by the construction economics and building, 16(3), 59-70 hardie 61 consistency of the government collected data. year to year comparisons within australia have a high level of validity due to the structural nature of how information is collected. validity of sme information the introduction of the goods and services tax (gst) in 2000 involved a system of national registration for all businesses delivering or using goods and services. the system involves the registration of the trading unit by an australian business number provided by the australian taxation office. only businesses who earn total revenue of less than $50,000 a year are exempt from this requirement and even some of them have an abn nevertheless because it enables them to claim back gst amounts they have paid out to other businesses. as a result there are very reliable figures about the extent of business activity and a relatively small informal sector. in its counts of australian businesses 2016, the abs found that the construction industry had 339,367 businesses operating at the end of the financial year 2014-2015 (abs, 2016). this figure would include sole operators, ‘own account workers’ and multiple trading identities operated by the same individual. since 2003 the abs has specifically been collecting information on innovation in australian business. in these data sets they define a business somewhat more rigidly than the counts of australian business model. businesses are only included in the innovation survey if they lodge pay as you go (payg) instalments with the australian tax office. this means that sole traders who operate as a business with a separate business bank account from which they pay themselves wages are included in the survey. sole operators who accept payment for work and deposit the receipts in their own private account are not included whether or not they later submit quarterly instalment activity statements (ias) or business activity statements (bas). there is a resultant large discrepancy in the number of businesses listed as operating in the construction industry in the counts of australian businesses and in the innovation in australian business survey. for 2012-2013 the figures are 315,617 and 128,000 respectively. it can be seen that more than half the businesses in the construction industry operate in a fairly informal manner and employ few people. nature of construction smes there are some known areas where smes are distinctly different from other industry participants. they often have very limited financial resources both in terms of capital and borrowings. as a consequence they often have little spare capacity to plan for change. they often have to contend with higher levels of competition than larger businesses; (manley, 2008b). smes may be less able to monitor their competitors than large business. consequently keeping an up to date technology watch may be beyond their resources unless they can do so through an industry network. finally some smes may be motivated to simply survive rather than to grow (abbott, jeong and allen, 2006). both the risk and the cost of change may be too great for smes to attempt. the positive side of sme situation is that many smes are headed by very able individuals who have chosen not to work in large business because of the brake that a large bureaucratic organisation can put on individual creativity. such individuals have the potential to be leaders of enterprise growth and industry change, as well as being the generators of new systems and products. nam and tatum (1997) refer to them as ‘champions’ of innovation. the fact that the industry is characterised by many small businesses is therefore both its strength and its weakness. it does lead to restrictions on capacity and resources but it also enables creative individuals to move quickly in new directions and develop new solutions to industry problems. it is this potential that justifies this research into enabling factors for non-micro sme construction companies. construction economics and building, 16(3), 59-70 hardie 62 recent research has applied the concept of ‘dynamic capabilities’ in order to understand readiness and capacity for innovation (gajendran et al. 2014; gajendran, brewer and marimuthu, 2013; brewer, gajendran and runeson, 2013). the dynamic capabilities framework enables introspection that allows firms to identify and seize opportunities for innovation by reconfiguring their resources to address changing circumstances. this provides insights as to how it may be possible for smaller firms to contribute to the innovation process without the spare capacity that schumpeter considered axiomatic. furthermore, bro ̈chner and lagerqvist (2016) have pointed out the potential that partnerships with universities have to enable innovation collaborations. such collaborations may lessen the disadvantage of smes in the innovation process. taxonomies of innovation in construction slaughter (1998) developed a technical innovation taxonomy which related to changes in both concepts and links. the five categories in ascending order from small change to large change are: incremental; modular; architectural; systems; and radical. using this taxonomy, the developers of innovations can become more aware of the changes that need to occur to deliver their innovation and consequently understand the level of intra-industry cooperation needed for successful adoption of a good idea in construction. although the classifications represent a useful framework for discussing innovation, it should be remembered that innovation delivery is a complex process. an innovation that may be modular for one company in a supply chain may require systemic innovation for the users of the innovation (harty, 2008). this complexity has been described by afuah and bahram (1995) as ‘the hypercube of innovation’. there are several other efforts to classify innovation in the literature. these include the decision making typology of mitropoulos and tatum (1999) which sorts innovation into two major categories; strategic/proactive versus project-based/reactive. there is also gopalakrishnan and bierly‘s taxonomy based on knowledge characteristics which has three general categories: tacit/explicit; systemic/autonomous; and complex/ordinary (gopalakrishnan and bierly, 2001). this taxonomy, however, was explicitly created for organisational rather than technical innovation and as such is not strictly relevant to this study. harty (2005) described, the essential difference between a variety of innovation processes as consisting of whether they are bounded or unbounded. in other words, the critical aspect is whether or not the innovation has impacts beyond the operation of the innovator’s own sphere of activity. lim and ofori (2007) taking a different tack found three classes of innovations: those that clients are willing to pay for because of their advantages for the end-user; those that reduce construction costs; and those produce competitive advantage through their intangible qualities. each of these taxonomies of innovation are valid tools and will be used to classify the technical innovations case studies identified in this research, however, it is important to remember that technical innovation is essentially unique in each of its occurrences. vectors of technical innovation this research is limited to the area of technical innovation rather than managerial or service innovations. the technical innovations studied relate to new building products, processes and equipment rather than organisational innovations. it is acknowledged that these categories are not exclusive and often occur simultaneously. this research aims to make a contribution to identifying some of the drivers that influence technical innovation delivery by sme construction firms. seven distinct themes or drivers were identified from the academic literature as having an impact on the generation of technical innovations in construction. these were: contractor creativity; client demands; solving problems on site; economic efficiency; environmental performance; construction economics and building, 16(3), 59-70 hardie 63 work health and safety benefits; and end-user or social focus. these factors were then tested by content analysis against the available information on ten identified instances of technical innovation generation by smes. an explanation of the factors is described briefly below. contractor creativity slaughter (1993) looked in detail at the kinds of innovations developed by builders as opposed to component manufacturers and found that builders were not only more innovative in general, but that they generated the great majority of innovations that related to the connection or integration of component parts. as a result, it can be suggested that there exists a de facto design partnership between the component manufacturer and the builder which can lead to effective innovation delivery, if both sides recognise the necessity of acknowledging the constraints that affect the other‘s operations. client demands that clients can play a key role in the delivery of innovation was recognised by hislop (2002). knowledgeable and supportive clients can foster innovative responses to construction problems provided that a mutually beneficial end result is delivered (sexton and barrett, 2005). solving problems on site li and love (1998) looked at how construction problems should be identified, redesigned and solved. it was found that little formative or procedural knowledge is available about how this problem-solving is done. the problem can be defined as an ‘unsatisfactory situation where conflicting properties and objectives coexist’ (li and love, 1998 p.724). in the complex and sometimes chaotic scenario of a construction site, such problems are frequently encountered. experience assists with a creative response to a problem but only if there is openness to the process of unlearning past practices (wong et al., 2011). economic efficiency abbott, jeong and allen (2006) found that the primary motivation for innovation by smes is overwhelmingly economic. economic motivation encompasses such factors as basic survival, competitive advantage, overall profitability, market growth, reduction in the costs of production and market reputation. environmental performance gluch, gustafsson & thuvander (2009) researched the absorbtive capacity of construction firms as a predictor of their readiness to incorporate ‘green’ innovations. workplace health and safety benefits both lingard and holmes (2001) and loosemore and andonakis (2007) have reported on the issues that relate to small construction businesses and construction safety innovations. while this is an area that some smes struggle with, it can also be a powerful incentive to embrace change because small business people are often very affected by the consequences of accident and injury in the workplace. end user or social focus while an economic focus is almost always present in construction innovations, some innovations find their primary motivation in improvements that are socially driven (pemsel and widén, 2010). this is particularly encouraged by a business focus on end-user satisfaction and resulting repeat business. in addition, safety innovations are often developed by industry practitioners construction economics and building, 16(3), 59-70 hardie 64 who have experienced the impact of death or injury on site and are motivated to improve industry performance in this matter. their motivation can be personal and deeply felt. the vectors identified in the literature review are illustrated in figure 1 below. stemming from these potential vectors, the research question to be tested qualitatively in the case studies is “does case study evidence support the significance of the identified vectors to sme innovators?” figure 1: vectors of technical innovation delivery research method purposive sampling techniques (teddlie and yu, 2007) were used to select suitable technical innovation case studies. the intent of the case studies is descriptive rather than deterministic (yin, 2009). the intention was to identify a select group of successful sme innovators and determine if they had any commonalities between them. the innovations studied were limited to building products, building processes and building equipment and did not include any service or managerial innovations. the principal criterion for inclusion in the case study list was a verifiable track record in successfully delivering a significantly original technical innovation. a significant technical innovation is defined in these circumstances as one that has received recognition by peers in the australian construction industry. the case studies were identified from several sources, which included public databases, industry awards and other peer recognition processes. two public databases were used. these were australian technology showcase (ats) and the building research innovation, technology and environment (brite) national innovative contractor database. the ats website is maintained by three australian state governments (queensland, new south wales and victoria), and is a national networking program aimed at promoting and developing export markets for construction economics and building, 16(3), 59-70 hardie 65 innovative technology based products. the website covers products produced by smes from many industries, including more than 80 in construction. to be eligible, companies must provide two independent referee reports, a current business plan with a commercialisation strategy and they must demonstrate that their technology is: clearly innovative; scientifically credible; significantly local in content; commercially attractive; demonstrably marketable and exportable; and socially and environmentally beneficial (ats, 2008). a spreadsheet was assembled of 38 possible eligible case studies located in an area that was within a day‘s travel by car of the researcher‘s university home campus (approximately 150 km radius). while this geographic limitation could be seen as somewhat arbitrary, it should be noted that this region encompasses more than a fifth of the australian construction industry by number of enterprises and, as such, may be regarded as a significant section of the national industry. it is not, of course, a random sample of the entire australian construction sector, but this simply limits the generalisability of the results. it does not invalidate the usefulness of the sample as a view of opinions in a particular geographic zone. sufficient documentary material for content analysis was available from ten companies who had been identified as deliverers of a significantly original technical innovation. the evidence collected included patent documents listed on scopus, company websites promoting the benefits of the technical innovation, industry award citations and trade literature. table 1 describes the nature of the technical innovations studied and the classification of the company as small or medium sized. in addition, the case studies are classified according to whether or not they involve patented inventions or trade-marked intellectual property. finally the degree of novelty is assessed. content analysis the technique of content analysis was used to classify the data from the case studies. according to krippendorff (2013, p xxii), context analysis views data not only as physical events but also as “texts, images and expressions that are created to be seen, read, interpreted and acted on for their meanings”. using content analysis to classify or code the frequency of themes in source documents allows for rich, multi-faceted interpretation which may yield useful insights into the nature of complex phenomena. source documents, in this case include patents, product descriptions, webpage information, independent testing authority reports, magazine articles and award citations. unstructured interviews were conducted with the principal innovator or innovation champion about the nature of their innovation and what were the factors that influenced its generation and delivery process. the case study data collection and interviews were undertaken between 2011 and 2014. source documents and unstructured interviews with the innovation champions were examined using content analysis techniques to identify correlations with the seven vectors of technical innovation identified through the literature review. nvivo software was used to identify recurring themes in the source documents and interview transcripts. these are represented in figure 1. the identified themes can properly be described as vectors because their relationship to the technical innovation can be either or both a push or pull effect. results and discussion table 2 summarises the initial classification of the innovations with respect to some of the taxonomic schemes reported from the literature. there are three polar pairs developed from the works listed: strategic/proactive/top-down compared with project-based/reactive/bottom-up (mitropoulos and tatum 1999); bounded/autonomous compared with unbounded/systematic (harty, 2005); and analytic/rational compared with intuitive/behavioural (gopalakrishnan and bierly, 2001). there was a strong trend for the case studies to represent bounded innovations. construction economics and building, 16(3), 59-70 hardie 66 this indicates that it may be easier for smes to innovate within a clearly defined area. they are less likely to be able to manage sufficient market share to require other businesses to alter their practices. table 1: case study details technical innovation case study involves patented inventions involves trademark protected intellectual property degree of novelty company size by direct employment a. lightweight interlocking concrete block, impervious to water that does not require tanking in retaining wall situations yes yes high medium b. solar powered rainwater collecting hot water system for ridge line of roofs integrated with storage gutters at eaves yes yes high small c. early warning and function management system designed to reduce the risk of mobile plant roll over yes yes medium medium d. heavy lift tower cranes requiring minimal ground area at the base and suitable for restricted sites no yes high medium e. long span post tensioned steel roofs for column free internal space while minimising weight and materials usage yes yes high small f. increased use of recycled concrete as road base and aggregate in civil projects with tight scheduling requirements no yes medium medium g. salt removing poultice to restore appearance and strength to masonry building components deteriorating due to salt deposits resulting from rising damp yes yes high small h. long span, lightweight, customised roof systems, including double curvature, fabricated on site for large structures such as airport terminals yes yes high medium i. construction system for shoring walls in unstable soil conditions which can be used as close as 50mm from an existing wall without underpinning yes yes high medium j. road pavement repair system using a profiler machine to cut a 1m trench along the edge of the road and fill with hot-mix to extend the life of the pavement without digging up large sections of roadway yes yes medium medium the great majority of the case studies were proactive rather than reactive. this probably indicates that smes who do manage to innovate are likely to be driven by a strong perception that their ideas are an improvement on current practice and should be incorporated as standard practice or “business as usual”. there was a largely even split on the matter of whether the innovation was based on an analytic process or an intuitive one. this is surprising given the amount of construction economics and building, 16(3), 59-70 hardie 67 investment involved in innovation delivery but may indicate the nature of inspiration which has to be followed by verification but is not always generated by an experimental process. table 2: case study classifications t echnical innovation case study strategic/proactive/t op dow n projectbased/r eactive/b ottom up b ounded/a utonom ous u nbounded/system atic a nalytic/r ational intuitive/b ehavioural a.    b.    c.    d.    e.    f.    g.    h.    i.    j.    table 3: vectors of sme technical innovation t echnical innovation case study c ontractor creativity c lient dem and driven o vercom ing problem s on site e nvironm ent focus e conom ic focus w h & s focus e nd-user/social focus a.     b.     c.     d.     e.    f.      g.      h.     i.     j.     table 3 presents the alignment of the case study technical innovations with the identified vectors. all the case studies demonstrated evidence of contractor creativity and economic focus. construction economics and building, 16(3), 59-70 hardie 68 this is perhaps unsurprising as the case studies were selected for their originality as well as for successful delivery of the innovation within the marketplace. nevertheless, it is a useful finding in that it indicates that sme innovators require creative responses that are tempered with economic realism. the ability to seek a creative answer in response to a perceived problem without having to justify the expense to multiple levels of internal policy makers was mentioned directly or indirectly by the great majority of the lead innovators in each of the case studies. this is the justification that many give as to why they are comfortable in the sme situation. interestingly, three vectors were supported by the data on only a third of cases. these vectors were client demand, environment focus and end-user or social focus. while some of the innovators were highly aligned with these vectors, the clear majority were not aligned or only peripherally related to these vectors. only half of the case studies in this study had a work health and safety focus. those that did support this vector, however, did so vehemently. most of the case studies mentioned overcoming problems on site although they were more often proactive in response to these problems rather than reactive. in other words they anticipated these problems rather than responded to them. conclusions as is the nature of much qualitative research, the findings are somewhat diverse. there is no clear theme that can be said to identify an sme generated technical innovation. motivations and supports for innovation delivery appear to be closely related to the innovation character, as well as to the nature of the innovation champion. the sme sector in construction is large in number and diversified in nature. it is demonstrably possible for some sme champions to deliver significant technical innovations contrary to the expectations of traditional schumpeterian theory. whether overall innovation rates are improved by encouraging sme innovators is a question that remains to be addressed. this study answers the research question within the predetermined limitations of the study. contractor creativity and economic motivation are the primary drivers for the innovators in this study. however, specific innovations may be driven by any of the identified vectors. no vector was unsupported by all the case studies. the nature of this research is limited and descriptive rather than deterministic. it is important not to overstate the value of the conclusions. further study on a much larger group of innovators may be able to draw firmer conclusions on the motivations and enablers of sme innovation. this would be significant for policy-makers as well as for aspiring innovators. in the meantime qualitative descriptions of the innovation delivery process have a useful role to play in shedding light on the process involved when new ideas are generated and brought to market by sme innovators. references abbott, c. jeong, k. and allen, s., 2006. the economic motivation for innovation in small construction companies. construction innovation, 6(3), pp.187-96. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14714170610710686 afuah, a. and bahram, n., 1995. the hypercube of innovation. research policy, 24(1), pp.51-76. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0048-7333(93)00749-j audretsch, d.b., 1995. innovation, growth and survival. international journal of industrial organisation, 13(4), pp.44157. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0167-7187(95)00499-8 australian bureau of statistics, 2016. cat. no. 8165.0: counts of australian businesses, including entries and exits, jun 2011 to jun 2015. canberra: abs. australian technology showcase, 2010. australian technology showcase: where australian innovation meets the world. [online] available at:< http://www.ats.business.gov.au/home > [accessed 24 march 2016]. bowley, m., 1966. the british building industry. london: cambridge university press. brewer, g. gajendran, t. and runeson, g., 2013. ict & innovation: a case of integration in a regional construction firm. australasian journal of construction economics and building, 13(3), pp.2436.http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i3.3484 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14714170610710686 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0048-7333%2893%2900749-j http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0167-7187%2895%2900499-8 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i3.3484 construction economics and building, 16(3), 59-70 hardie 69 briscoe, g.h., dainty, a.r.j., millett, s.j. and neale, r.h., 2004. client-led strategies for construction supply chain improvement. construction management & economics, 22(2), pp.193-201. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0144619042000201394 bro ̈chner, j. and lagerqvist, o., 2016. from ideas to construction innovation: firms and universities collaborating. construction economics and building, 16(1), pp.76-87. chandler, d., 2015. what did the rics conference mean for construction’s future? [online] available at: < https://sourceable.net/2015-cobra-and-aubea-conference-was-all-about-the-future-of-construction-but-wasit/> [accessed 24 march 2016]. cole, t.r.h., 2003. royal commission into the building and construction industry. canberra: australian government. de valence, g., 2010. innovation, procurement and construction industry development. australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10(4), pp.50-9. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v10i4.1883 drucker, p.f., 2002. the discipline of innovation. harvard business review, 80(8), pp.95-100. egan, j., 1998. rethinking construction. london: uk department of environment, transport and regions. fagerberg, j., mowery, d. and nelson, r. eds., 2005. the oxford handbook of innovation. oxford, uk: oxford university press. fairclough, s.j., 2002. rethinking construction innovation and research: a review of government r&d policies and practices. london: department of trade and industry. gajendran, t., brewer, g., gudergan, s. and sankaran, s., 2014. deconstructing dynamic capabilities: the role of cognitive and organizational routines in the innovation process. construction management & economics, 32(3), pp.246-61. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.845306 gajendran, t., brewer, g. and marimuthu, m., 2013. internationalisation of construction business and e-commerce: innovation, integration and dynamic capabilities. australasian journal of construction economics and building, 13(2), pp.11-22. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i2.3321 gluch, p., gustafsson, m. and thuvander, l., 2009. an absorptive capacity model for green innovation and performance in the construction industry. construction management & economics, 27(5), pp.451-64. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190902896645 gopalakrishnan, s. and bierly, p., 2001. analyzing innovation adoption using a knowledge-based approach. journal of engineering technology management, 18, pp.107-30 doi: .http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0923-4748(01)00031-5 harty, c., 2005. innovation in construction: a sociology of technology approach. building research & information, 33, (6), pp.512-22 doi: .http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09613210500288605 harty, c., 2008. implementing innovation in construction: contexts, relative boundedness and actor-network theory. construction management & economics, 26(10), pp.1029 -41. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190802298413 hislop, d., 2002. the client role in consultancy relations during the appropriation of technological innovations. research policy, 33(5), pp.657-71. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0048-7333(01)00135-4 krippendorf, k., 2013. content analysis: an introduction to its methodology. 3rd ed. los angeles: sage. latham, m., 1994. constructing the team. london: hmso. li, h. and love, p.e.d., 1998. developing a theory for construction problem solving. construction management and economics, 16(6), pp.721-7. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/014461998372015 lim, j.n. and ofori, g., 2007. classification of innovation for strategic decision making in construction businesses. construction management & economics, 25(9), pp.936-78. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190701393026 lingard, l. and holmes, n., 2001. understandings of occupational health and safety risk control in small business construction firms: barriers to implementing technological controls. construction management & economics, 19(2), pp.217-26 doi: .http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190010002570 loecher, u., 2000. small and medium-sized enterprises – delimitation and the european definition in the area of industrial business. european business review, 12(5), pp.261-4. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09555340010373537 loosemore, m. and andonakis, n., 2007. barriers to implementing ohs reforms – the experiences of small subcontractors in the australian construction industry. international journal of project management, 25(6), pp.57988. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.01.015 love, p.e.d., irani, z. and edwards, d.j., 2004. a seamless supply chain management model for construction. supply chain management, 9(1), pp.43-56. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13598540410517575 manley, k., 2008. against the odds: small firms in australia successfully introducing new technology on construction projects. research policy, 37(10), pp.1751-64. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2008.07.013 mcgrath‐champ, s. and rosewarne, s., 2009. organizational change in australian building and construction: rethinking a unilinear ‘leaning’ discourse. construction management and economics, 27(11), pp.1111-28. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190903236361 mitropoulos, p. and tatum, c.b., 1999. technology adoption decisions in construction organizations. journal of construction engineering and management, 125(5), pp.330-8 doi: .http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(1999)125:5(330) nam, c.h. and tatum, c.b., 1997. leaders and champions for construction innovation. construction management and economics, 15(3), pp.259-70. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/014461997372999 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0144619042000201394 https://sourceable.net/2015-cobra-and-aubea-conference-was-all-about-the-future-of-construction-but-was-it/ https://sourceable.net/2015-cobra-and-aubea-conference-was-all-about-the-future-of-construction-but-was-it/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v10i4.1883 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.845306 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i2.3321 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190902896645 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0923-4748%2801%2900031-5 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09613210500288605 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190802298413 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0048-7333%2801%2900135-4 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/014461998372015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190701393026 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190010002570 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09555340010373537 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.01.015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13598540410517575 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.respol.2008.07.013 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190903236361 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/%28asce%290733-9364%281999%29125:5%28330%29 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/%28asce%290733-9364%281999%29125:5%28330%29 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/014461997372999 construction economics and building, 16(3), 59-70 hardie 70 pemsel, s. and widén, k., 2010. creating knowledge of end users' requirements: the interface between firm and project. project management journal, 41(4), pp.122-30. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pmj.20200 reichstein, t., salter, a. & gann, d., 2005, 'last among equals: a comparison of innovation in construction, services and manufacturing in the uk', construction management and economics, vol. 23, no. 6, pp. 631-44. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190500126940 schumpeter, j.a., 1934. the theory of economic development. cambridge, mass: harvard university press. schumpeter, j.a., 1942. capitalism, socialism and democracy. new york: harper. sexton, m. and barrett, p., 2005. performance-based building and innovation: balancing client and industry needs. building research & information, 33(2), pp.142-8. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0961321042000323789 slaughter, e.s., 1993. builders as sources of construction innovation. journal of construction engineering and management, 119(3), pp.532-49. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1993)119:3(532) slaughter, e.s., 1998, 'models of construction innovation.', journal of construction engineering and management, vol. 124, no. 3, pp. 226-31. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1998)124:3(226) teddlie, c. and yu, f., 2007. mixed method sampling: a typology with examples. journal of mixed methods research. 1(1), pp.77-100. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2345678906292430 tushman, m.l. and moore, w.l., 1988. readings in the management of innovation. boston, mass: ballinger publishing co. wong, p.s.p., cheung, s.o., yiu, r.l.y. and hardie, m., 2011. the unlearning dimension of organizational learning in construction projects. international journal of project management, 30(1), pp.94-104. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.04.001 woudhuysen, j. and abley, i., 2004. why is construction so backward?, chichester: john wiley and sons. yin, r.k., 2009. case study research: design and methods. 4th ed. london: sage. zaghloul, r. and hartman, f., 2003. construction contracts: the cost of mistrust. international journal of project management, 21(6), pp.419-24. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(02)00082-0 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pmj.20200 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190500126940 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0961321042000323789 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/%28asce%290733-9364%281993%29119:3%28532%29 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/%28asce%290733-9364%281998%29124:3%28226%29 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2345678906292430 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.04.001 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863%2802%2900082-0 sme definition validity of sme information nature of construction smes taxonomies of innovation in construction contractor creativity client demands solving problems on site economic efficiency environmental performance workplace health and safety benefits end user or social focus content analysis construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 copyright: construction economics and building 2016. © 2016 jeremy coggins, bianca teng and raufdeen rameezdeen. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 unported (cc by 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: coggins, j., teng, b. and rameezdeen, r. 2016. construction insolvency in australia: reining in the beast, construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i3.5113 corresponding author: jeremy coggins; email – jeremy.coggins@unisa.edu.au publisher: university of technology sydney (uts) epress construction insolvency in australia: reining in the beast jeremy coggins, bianca teng and raufdeen rameezdeen school of natural and built environments, university of south australia, australia abstract insolvency has become endemic in the australian construction industry. the scale of the problem has reached such proportions that both the nsw parliament and the senate have, in recent times, commissioned inquiries into construction insolvency. this paper aims to identify the reasons as to why the construction industry is so susceptible to insolvency, evaluate the effectiveness of any existing insolvency protection measures available to construction firms, and to identify proposed future measures to address the factors causing construction insolvency. the results of a questionnaire survey designed to discover the extent of the construction insolvency problem, as well as building contractors’ views with respect to the causes and regulation of construction insolvency, in south australia are presented. the research found that there is an appetite amongst building contractors for the introduction of further regulation to address construction insolvency. further, although the research found underbidding to be the biggest contributory factor towards construction insolvency, it appears to be the most difficult factor to address through regulation which explains the paucity of recommendations which directly address underbidding emanating from the senate inquiry in 2015. keywords: construction insolvency, underbidding, security of payment, phoenix companies. paper type: research article introduction insolvency represents one of the biggest contemporary issues facing the australian construction industry. no other single industry sector in australia is blighted by the scourge of insolvency anywhere near to the same extent as is the construction industry. data submitted by the australian securities and investment commission (asic) to the senate economic references committee (serc) (2015) shows that over the period 2009-10 to 2013-14, the construction industry (which produced 8 to 10% of national gross domestic product) accounted for 23% of all external administrations in australia1. the same data reported 2,153 corporate insolvency events in the construction industry in the 2013/14 financial year. notably, these figures do not include insolvent non-corporations (such as small sole traders which account for 60% of all construction businesses) who have entered into bankruptcy. if bankruptcies of non-corporations were added to corporate insolvencies, no doubt the construction insolvency statistics would be even more alarming. a large proportion of construction insolvencies are experienced by small contractors and subcontractors; entities with assets of less than $10,000 (bis shrapnel, 2012). this is perhaps unsurprising as the vast majority of construction firms are small specialist trade contractors. these 1 the next largest single identifiable industry is retail trade, accounting for 10% of all external administrations. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i3.5113 construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 coggins, teng and rameezdeen 39 alarming insolvency statistics, coupled with several recent high profile insolvencies of large building contracting firms leaving hundreds of subcontractors and suppliers unpaid, have in recent times prompted the nsw parliament (collins, 2012) and the senate (serc , 2015) to conduct urgent inquiries into the construction insolvency problem. some may argue that insolvency of firms within a particular industry is not necessarily a bad thing; that natural wastage weeds out the financially weaker, less efficient and commercially reckless from the financially stronger, more entrepreneurial and commercially savvy operators. whilst this ‘survival of the fittest’ view may have some foundation per se, in the case of the construction industry it fails to recognise the fact that, due to the hierarchical contracting chains on construction projects, the ill-advised actions of one higher ranking ‘officer’ in the chain of command can be fatal to countless other ‘good soldiers’ following behind.2 as evidence for this, one need look no further than one of the many high profile head contractor insolvencies in recent years – such as southern cross constructions (nsw) pty ltd in new south wales3 and tagara builders pty ltd in south australia4 to name just two – which have affected hundreds of subcontractors and suppliers and left in their wake tens of millions of dollars owing to creditors. it is this vulnerability of those contractors lower down the contracting chain to the actions of those above which justifies regulation to ensure that principal contractors carry out business in an ethical, responsible and commercially sound manner. this paper aims to identify the key reasons for the construction insolvency problem in australia, evaluate the effectiveness of any existing measures available for construction firms to protect themselves against the effects of insolvency and consider what can be done in the way of proposed future measures to address it. the results of a questionnaire survey designed to discover the extent of the construction insolvency problem and building contractors’ views with respect to the causes and regulation of construction insolvency in south australia are presented. reasons for the construction insolvency problem it is due to a combination of characteristics which are found in the construction marketplace that insolvency has proliferated in the industry. these characteristics include: • the pyramidal contracting chains on construction projects; • a predominance of trade credit throughout the construction industry; • the unsecured creditor status of building contractors and suppliers for work done and/or goods supplied; • poor payment practices; • underbidding leading to the prevalence of tight, or even zero, profit margins in the construction industry; • illegal phoenixing activity; • undercapitalised firms, which are not financially resilient; and • poor strategic business management skills of many, particularly smaller, contractors. pyramidal contracting chains subcontracting is endemic in the construction industry, with subcontractors providing the vast majority of building work on construction sites, as it facilitates the most cost efficient method for contractors to engage specialised labour. as such, contractors may be categorised according to which tier in the overall contractual structure they are engaged in (see figure 1). tier 1 contractors are those contractor firms who are directly engaged under contract by the building developer. tier 1 2 martial analogies are not uncommon with respect to construction payment – see, for example, christopher rankin and bob gaussen’s submissions to the senate economics references committee (2015: 14). 3 see further collins (2012: 8). 4 see further small business commissioner, south australia (2016: 5). construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 coggins, teng and rameezdeen 40 contractors are head contractors who establish and run the construction site and manage construction activities to deliver the general contract works. tier 1 contractors typically procure the labour and materials necessary to physically carry out the construction works by engaging tier 2 contractors under contact. on commercial projects, tier 2 contractors are typically medium to large contractors specialising in the construction of one particular trade (e.g., concreting, masonry, joinery, electrical etc.). tier 2 contractors supplement their full-time workforce by engaging smaller tier 3 contractors who then, in turn, may supplement their workforce by engaging even smaller tier 4 contractors. contractors towards the bottom of the contracting chain may very well be small one person sole trader firms. the existence of pyramidal subcontracting chains on construction projects, as illustrated in figure 1, means that subcontractors are financially vulnerable to an insolvency or poor payment practice of a contractor higher up in the contracting chain. as stated by the queensland building services authority (qbsa) (2001), the financial failure of any one party in the contractual chain can cause a domino effect on other parties with those at the bottom most at risk in the event of a client or contractor defaulting. the collapse of one element of the contractual chain or the failure to pass on monies owed can create enormous financial strain on the other parties. figure 1: contractual chains on a construction project (coggins et al 2016: 36) predominance of trade credit construction firms take much more trade credit from their suppliers (two to three times as much, depending on the measure used) as a proportion of their balance sheet than do firms in the rest of the economy (ive and murray, 2013). in 2012, in his inquiry into nsw construction insolvency, collins, (2012) found that the average contractual payment terms between principal contractors and their subcontractors in new south wales fell somewhere between 45 and 80 days, and in the worst cases extended to between 90 and 120 days5. this commercial pressure to extend trade credit terms to principals is passed on down the contractual chains in the construction industry, as each tier in the chain attempts to obtain ever 5subsequent to this finding, the nsw parliament introduced prompt payment provisions into the building and construction industry security of payment act 1999 (nsw) requiring that progress payments under a construction contract become due and payable on the date occurring no later than 15 business days after a payment claim is made by a head contractor, and no later than 30 business days after a payment claim is made by a subcontracto construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 coggins, teng and rameezdeen 41 generous credit terms from firms in the tier below in order to finance their works. this results in the perverse state of affairs whereby the smallest and most vulnerable construction businesses effectively end up financing the construction works on a construction project. consequently, smaller construction contractors are exposed to extremely poor cash flow and high risk of payment default which accentuates the likelihood of insolvency. the prevalence of trade credit in the construction industry may be explained by the dominant bargaining position of principal contractors who, as providers of future revenue to their subcontractors, wield considerable influence in commercial transactions with them. ive and murray (2013) refer to this as ‘dominance hypothesis’, and note that under ‘dominance hypothesis’ subcontractors may lose money by providing credit to their principals at a cheaper rate than they can obtain it. unsecured creditor status an unsecured creditor is a person who is owed money by a business, but does not have a security interest, or charge, over the credit extended (coggins et al., 2016). typically, most of the building contractors and suppliers who carry out works and/or supply goods on a construction project are unsecured creditors. in the event of the liquidation of an insolvent business, under corporations law6 the proceeds from the realisation of the company’s assets must be paid out to creditors in the following order of preference: monies owed to secured creditors, fees and expenses due to the liquidator, any outstanding wages and superannuation contributions owed to the company’s employees7 and, finally, the debts owed to the company’s unsecured creditors. if the proceeds are not sufficient to repay all the debts owed to unsecured creditors, as is often the case, whatever funds remain are distributed between the unsecured creditors on a pro-rata basis. this means that they may only see a small fraction of the money they are owed (e.g. 30 cents in the dollar) and, furthermore, it may well be up to 12 months before this money is paid. indeed, asic figures indicate that insolvent businesses in the construction industry had, at the very least, a total shortfall of liabilities over assets accessible by their creditors of $1.625 billion in 2013/14 (serc, 2015). there are some measures which building contractors and suppliers may choose to adopt in order to protect themselves against losses caused by the insolvency of their principal. contractors and suppliers, for example, may purchase trade credit or insolvency insurance; although many find the cost of such insurance prohibitive and damaging to competitiveness when tendering. there have been several reports and enquiries which have considered the introduction of statutory insolvency insurance to protect subcontractors (see, for example, collins (2012); security of payment taskforce (wa) (2001). all these reports, however, have advised against the introduction of such a scheme due to, amongst other reasons: • insolvency insurance providing no incentive for principal contractors to avoid behaviour that could bring about insolvency, knowing that should their businesses fail, they will not bear personal responsibility for the repayment of their debts; and • no information being available to suggest that the cost of administering such a potentially expensive scheme would be less than the cost of insolvencies in the sector (collins, 2012). in australia, principals often require their contractors to provide performance bonds as a form of security. this protects a principal against any extra costs in completing the works under the contract by being able to call in the bond amount from the providing surety in the event the contractor becomes insolvent. in the usa, although not in australia, the use of payment bonds is common whereby a building owner requires their head contractor to provide a payment bond which 6 corporations act 2001, s 556. 7 although, according to s 561 of the corporations act 2001, claims by employees for unpaid entitlements have priority over secured creditors with floating (but not fixed) charges. construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 coggins, teng and rameezdeen 42 guarantees payment from the surety to any of the head contractors’ unpaid subcontractors in the event of head contractor insolvency. this avoids subcontractors obtaining liens over the owner’s site8. contractors and suppliers may also be able to create a security interest over any unpaid goods and materials, which they have supplied to a principal and are not yet installed into the building works, by inserting a retention of title clause into the contract. in such a case, in order to protect this security interest from other secured creditors, a contractor or supplier needs to register their security interest on the personal properties securities register (ppsr)9. poor payment practices undervalued, withheld and/or non-payment of contractors is both a major cause and effect of construction insolvency. there have been several building and construction industry security of payment reviews in australia over the past 20 years, for example price waterhouse (1996); qbsa (2001); cole (2003); stenning and associates (2006) which have concluded that a significant security of payment problem has existed for decades. such poor payment practices have persisted despite the introduction of ‘proof of payment’ clauses into several standard forms of building contracts in the 1990s, which require a contractor, as a precondition to payment, to provide their principal with evidence that they have paid their subcontractors all monies due and owing. indeed, the independent inquiry into construction industry insolvency in nsw heard much evidence that false statutory declarations are submitted to the principal by head contractors when, in fact, their subcontractors have not been paid, and that such false declarations were not policed (collins, 2012). the senate economics references committee (2015) found that poor payment practices towards subcontractors are caused by the little regard that head contractors often have for the impact of the financial pressures on subcontractors together with the view that, due to their surfeit, subcontractors are expendable and may be easily replaced without financial detriment (due to the holding of retention monies and work received on credit) if they become insolvent. additionally, it is not uncommon for contractors, even those who are normally reputable, to find it difficult or impossible to avoid poor payment practices towards their subcontractors when they are inflicted by financial difficulties which may have been caused by their underbidding or the poor payment practices or insolvency of their own principal. where poor payment practices occur, as illustrated in figure 2, there is a risk that a vicious cycle of insolvency, non-payment, financial difficulties and poor payment practices may be triggered. in the worst cases, this vicious cycle may spiral down the hierarchical contractual chain whereby the construction insolvency of a principal contractor plunges unpaid contractors in the tier below into financial difficulties thereby forcing them to engage in poor payment practices with their own subcontractors which leads to construction insolvency. it is due to this long track record of poor payment practices in the industry that all eight state and territory parliaments across australia have progressively introduced (between 2000 and 2011) statutory adjudication for payment disputes under somewhat diverse building and construction industry security of payment legislation. whilst there is general consensus that security of payment legislation has improved payment culture within the industry, there is still much scope for improvement. as coggins and bell (2015) note, although adjudication usage rates might at first sight appear quite healthy, there is some evidence to show that adjudication is not as well used as it might have been due to a lack of knowledge about the legislation, as well as a reluctance of contractors to endorse their payment claims as being made under the act for fear of losing future work. in an attempt to continually improve the effect of the legislation on security of payment, 8 workers and mechanics liens legislation is prevalent in many us states. 9 the ppsr was established under the personal properties securities act 2009 (cth). construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 coggins, teng and rameezdeen 43 there have over the past couple of years been significant amendments made, in particular, to the queensland and nsw acts which has widened the diversity even further between the legislation interstate10. figure 2: vicious cycle of insolvency, non-payment, financial difficulties and poor payment practices (coggins and lord, 2014, p.225) in recent years, to further enhance security of payment, there have been calls for the introduction of project trust accounts or project bank accounts (collins, 2012; serc, 2015), which require progress payment monies paid by the owner to a head building contractor to be deposited into a trust or project bank account from which all subcontractors are to be paid before the head contractor is permitted to access the monies for their own use. indeed, project bank accounts have been trialled on selected government projects in nsw11 and wa12 over the past 2 to 3 years, and have recently been recommended for use on south australian (small business commissioner, south australia, 2016) and commonwealth government projects (serc, 2015). additionally, a mandatory requirement for retention monies to be held in trust accounts for projects in excess of $20 million was introduced into nsw on 1 may 2015. such trust or project bank accounts prevent the head contractor from using the subcontractors’ progress payment monies and/or associated retention monies for other purposes (e.g., transferring the monies to pay subcontractors on another project), and also protect the subcontractors’ progress payment monies from the head contractor’s secured creditors (e.g., the bank) in the event of head contractor insolvency. underbidding the predominant method of tendering used in the construction industry is that of competitive lump sum tendering. this typically encourages high levels of competition in which contractors contractually commit themselves to deliver the specified contract works for a fixed contract sum. accordingly, williamson et al. (2004, p.61) observe that “the construction industry consists of a set of markets that form a very competitive system, so competitive that it has been said to be one of the closest systems to perfect competition.” gerber and ong (2013) note that price competitiveness is accentuated amongst construction tenderers by owners: • often viewing price as the most decisive criterion for award contracts, and • sometimes encouraging too many contractors to tender for a project, particularly in the case of government projects, due to accountability for public funds. as gerber and ong (2013, p.22) state, “against this backdrop, contractors are motivated to win a tender by submitting an abnormally low bid notwithstanding any inherent complexities the project may face.” 10 furthermore, the act legislative assembly has recently passed amendments to their legislation, and a consultation process is currently underway for a raft of proposed wide sweeping amendments to the south australian legislation (small business commissioner, south australia 2016). 11 see further: https://www.procurepoint.nsw.gov.au/construction-procurement-direction-c2013-02 12 see further: https://www.finance.wa.gov.au/cms/building_management_and_works/new_buildings/project_bank_accounts.aspx http://www.procurepoint.nsw.gov.au/construction-procurement-direction-c2013-02 http://www.finance.wa.gov.au/cms/building_management_and_works/new_buildings/project_bank_accounts construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 coggins, teng and rameezdeen 44 in times of economic downturn, competition intensifies even further as a result of “bidding war[s] for the shrinking pool of work which leaves scarcely any profit margin” (australian financial review, 2012, p.44, cited by collins, 2012, p.8). indeed, in periods of prolonged economic downturn, it is not uncommon for building contractors to adopt a marginal cost pricing strategy – where firms tender to cover the cost of labour, materials and plant (variable costs) to construct the contract works and whatever contribution they can obtain towards covering fixed costs such as head office overheads and returns/profits to the business owners – in an attempt to keep the business running in the short term and ride through the harsh economic climate. alternatively, firms sometimes may underbid on one project in order to obtain a cash flow to meet payments on another project (creighton, handford and mclure, 1995). the practice of intentionally bidding at a price lower than cost is sometimes referred to as ‘suicide bidding’. a suicide bidding strategy is often associated with a premeditated ‘claims mentality’, i.e. contractors who deliberately underbid with the intention of clawing back losses and forgone profit by submitting numerous claims during construction. however, this strategy is highly risky, and often results in disputed claims and financial difficulties for the winning contractor, which may kick-start the vicious cycle of insolvency illustrated in figure 2. alternatively, ‘unwarranted optimism’ has been cited as a reason for some contractors’ underbidding (fenwick elliott, 2015). the highly competitive nature of the construction market may lead to head contractors engaging in ‘bid shopping’, which is widely viewed to be an unethical practice. bid shopping involves head contractors attempting to use the lowest tender price submitted by a subcontractor in a competitive tender process as a ‘bargaining chip’ in order to drive down tender prices even further by negotiation. as uher and davenport (2009, p.211) observe, “despite the presence of codes of ethics and tendering, bid shopping is actively employed by general contractors.” bid depositories, which are typically administered by contractors’ associations13, are used in some us states and canadian provinces in order to prevent bid shopping. in these jurisdictions, building owners may choose to conduct the tender process for their construction project through a bid depository. where bid depositories are used, subcontractors submit their tenders on the various trade packages to the bid depository who then passes a copy of the bids to both the building owner and the head contractors who have confirmed their intention to tender for the general project works. the head contractors then compile their own tenders for the general contract works, which must identify which subcontractor’s tender was used for each trade, and submit them to the building owner. this prevents bid shopping as the building owner has received the subcontractors’ tendered prices from the bid depository, thus bringing transparency to the tendering process. it should be noted, however, that the effectiveness of bid depositories has been somewhat curtailed in the usa by a number of anti-trust legal cases where plaintiff contractors and subcontractors have successfully argued that bid depositories have led to restraint of trade or competition – for example, by only allowing subcontractors who are members of a particular association to submit bids to the bid depository14. illegal phoenix activity illegal phoenix activity involves the deliberate liquidation of a company, after having transferred the indebted company’s assets to a new company, in order to avoid paying creditors, tax or employee entitlements15. according to the ato (2016) website, illegal phoenix activity is typically characterised by the new entity: • carrying out similar or the same business activities as the former company, • having directors who are family members or close associates of the director(s) of the former company, 13 e.g., the associated general contractors of america in maine, usa. 14 see further editors, university of pennsylvania law review (1965). construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 coggins, teng and rameezdeen 45 • operating under a similar trading name to the former company, and • using the same business premises and telephone number (particularly mobile number) as the former company. in the worst cases, rogue company directors may become serial ‘phoenixers’, deliberately liquidating company after company in a systematic and cyclical manner (pwc, 2012). the cole royal commission into the building and construction industry found that ‘there is significant [illegal] phoenix activity in the building and construction industry (serc, 2015, p.68). furthermore, serc (2015) received anecdotal evidence which indicates that phoenixing is considered by some in the industry as merely the way business is done in order to make a profit. illegal phoenix activity contributes further to losses which unpaid construction contractors and suppliers suffer due to the insolvency of their principal. the pwc report prepared for the fair work ombudsman on phoenix activity16 found that an estimated annual cost of $1.93 billion was suffered by businesses as a result of phoenix companies not paying debts or not providing the goods and services that have been paid for by creditors. although this figure is across all industries, serc (2015, p.72) commented that “it should be remembered that it is likely that the construction industry accounts for the greatest incidence of illegal phoenixing.” furthermore, phoenix activity accentuates the damaging phenomenon of underbidding. the senate economic references committee (2015, p.73) received a number of submissions that “phoenix companies are awarded projects through 'net-of-tax-tendering': that is where companies tender quotes calculated on the basis that they will not pay taxes.” undercapitalised firms undercapitalisation is a commonly cited reason for construction insolvency. in 2013/14, approximately 20% of external administrators’ reports lodged with asic nominated undercapitalisation as a cause of business failure (serc, 2015). undercapitalisation may be defined as a firm having insufficient funds to carry out their dayto-day business. the security of payment taskforce (wa) (2001, p.8) observes that, because the mainstream construction industry is heavily fragmented and specialised with capital equipment usually available for short-term hire it is possible to commence contracting in the industry with very little working capital. so long as there is timely payment for work done, and suitably generous terms of trade and credit available from suppliers, the business can survive on very high gearing or even cash flow alone. as such, it is typical for construction firms to have little in the way of owner capital; hence, they need to rely on credit and borrowed capital. as collins (2012) identifies, insufficient capital together with excessive debt is one of the most common causes for construction insolvency. insufficient working capital and the resultant dependency on timely cash flow means that many construction firms are not financially resilient in the event of payment problems. poor business management skills the senate economic references committee (2015) found that poor financial and business acumen was a principal cause for insolvencies in the industry, and received submissions from professional associations such as the master builders association and the housing industry association stressing the importance of ensuring that entrants into the industry receive more business skills training before being allowed to practise. the security of payment taskforce (wa) (2001) found that the construction industry is more prone to poor business practices because it is usually technical skill rather than business acumen that induces people to become contractors or subcontractors. poor business practice manifests in several ways such as, for example, persistent underbidding through a lack of appreciation of true business costs, a failure to understand both contractual risks 15 this definition has been adapted from the asic and ato websites. 16 as cited by the senate economic references committee (2015: 72). construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 coggins, teng and rameezdeen 46 and terms leading to the inability to recover unexpected losses, and poor cash flow management. such practices can lead to the rapid demise of a construction business, especially in the harsh and risky financial environment of the construction industry. the need for empirical research into construction insolvency although much anecdotal evidence exists within government commissioned reports with respect to the causes of construction insolvency (as discussed above), there appears to be little in the way of empirical data obtained via survey of construction industry participants. this paper attempts to take a first step in this direction by presenting the results of a pertinent questionnaire survey targeted at south australian building contractors. whilst the survey is limited to the south australian market, it may be argued the similar nature and characteristics of the construction industry inter-state (particularly in terms of procurement, tendering and regulation) suggests that the results may be representative of building contractors’ views nationwide. having said this, it is recognised that a far more satisfactory approach would be for similar surveys to be carried out in each state and territory, especially given the differing levels of economic activity occurring between them. accordingly, further research along this line is recommended. the details of the research approach adopted and results obtained for the south australian survey are presented below. research method a questionnaire survey was carried out by the authors with the aim of discovering the views of building contractors operating in south australia (sa) with respect to the extent, causes and regulation of construction insolvency. a questionnaire survey is a systematic method of collecting primary data based on a sample (tan, 2002). tan (2002) further highlighted that the purpose of a questionnaire survey is not to consider a specific case in depth but to capture the main characteristics of the population at a given time. saunders, lewis and thornhill (2009) suggested that a questionnaire survey is best suited to a situation where most of the questions are standardized. a questionnaire comprising four distinct sections was developed based on the factors identified in the literature review as follows: • section 1 encompasses general demographics of the study sample, • section 2 comprises questions to capture respondents’ perception of the impacts of insolvency in the south australian construction industry, • section 3 captures the factors that cause insolvency in south australia, and • section 4 captures respondents’ awareness regarding mitigation measures that could be used to protect firms from insolvency. the sampling frame for the study comprised building contractors operating in the south australian construction market (as the unit of analysis) ranging from relatively small to large and including both head contractors and subcontractors. therefore, the targeted sample for the survey was general and trade building contractors who had been prequalified for category 3 building work by the sa department of planning transport and infrastructure. category 3 building works for general building contractors covers contracts between $2million to $4 million and for trade contractors covers contracts between $500,000 to $1 million. although prequalified for category 3 works, several contractors in the survey sample were also prequalified for larger contract works at the category 2 level17 and, sometimes, also the category 1 level18. using the sa government’s building project information management system (bpims) database, 174 contractors were electronically invited to complete questionnaires. forty-two questionnaires were completed and returned, giving a response rate of 24%. construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 coggins, teng and rameezdeen 47 results data analysis the questionnaire survey responses were analysed using following techniques: (1) frequencies; (2) measures of central tendencies (ranking analysis); (3) relative agreement index, and (4) correlation analysis. the ibm (version 21) statistical packages for social sciences (spss) software was used for the analysis. frequencies: section 1 of the survey instrument was mostly composed of profile of the sample structured around nominal variables. according to forza (2002), the relevant type of analysis for such data is “frequencies analysis” and it enables the reference to the number of times various subcategories of certain phenomenon occur. measures of central tendencies: some of the questions in sections 2 and 4 use a likert scale to obtain respondents’ opinions on impacts of insolvency and effectiveness of mitigation measures as discussed in the research methods section. the underlying objective of this analysis was to ascertain the relative magnitude of the issue and the effectiveness of purported solutions through the examination of the reported descriptive statistics (mean scores, standard deviation and coefficient of variation). as with previous studies (kumaraswamy and chan, 1998; yuan, shen and wang, 2011; doloi et al., 2012) rank differentiation where two or more variable had the same mean values was achieved through examination and selection of the variable with the lowest standard deviation or coefficient of variation (cv). based on the classification used to discuss the degree of central tendency, a benchmark of 3.40 was used to identify the significance of the responses. it should however, be noted that different approaches exist in literature for ascertaining the cut-off points when a 5-point likert scale is used to measure the levels of agreement. for example, yuan, shen and wang (2011) adopted the cut-off mean value of 3.00. relative agreement index (rai): in addition to measures of central tendency, rai was used to rank the perceived effectiveness of different mitigation measures put forward to respondents under section 5 of the questionnaire survey. according to past researchers, rai provides an unbiased tool to rank these measures according to the following equation (holt, 2014). …………………………………………………..equation 1 where: w = weighting as assigned by each respondent in a range 1 to 5 of the likert scale; a = the highest weight (5); n= the total number in the sample. profile of study sample the positions of the individuals who responded on behalf of their firms are shown in table 1. it shows that majority (59.5%) of the respondents where at executive level, either as the chief executive officer, general manager or director of their respective firms, followed by senior managers representing operations (16.7%), commercial management (11.9%) and contracts management (11.9%). it is very clear that the majority of respondents occupy very high management positions in the company and are capable of assessing the companies' financial performance and future prospects. 17 $4 million to $10 million for general contractors, and $1 million to $2.5 million for trade contractors. 18 $10 million to $50 million for general contractors, and over $2.5 million for trade contractors. construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 coggins, teng and rameezdeen 48 table1: job positions of respondents position number of respondents1 % cumulative owner , chief executive officer , chief operating officer, general manager, director, managing director 25 59.5 59.5 associate director , office/branch manager, operations manager, project manager 7 16.7 76.2 commercial manager, estimating manager, estimator 5 11.9 88.1 contracts manager, contract administrator 5 11.9 100 note: 1 total number of respondents based on 42 completed responses to this question table 2: organisational profile of study sample characteristics number of respondents1 % cumulative main role (sector) general building 16 38.1 38.1 trade 26 61.9 100.0 principal type of construction work commercial 38 90.5 90.5 public works 4 9.5 100.0 length of activity in the construction industry (years) < 5 2 4.8 4.8 6 10 3 7.1 11.9 11 15 4 9.5 21.4 16 25 12 28.6 50.0 > 25 21 50.0 100.0 number of employees2 1 -2 1 2.4 2.4 3 10 5 11.9 14.3 11 20 10 23.8 38.1 >20 26 61.9 100.0 notes: 1total number of respondents based on 42 completed responses to this question; 2based on average number of employees per year. the profile of the study sample is reported in table 2. of the forty-two respondent firms, • 62% operate as trade contractors and 38% as general building contractors; • 90% of the respondent firms primarily participate in the commercial construction sector and 10% in the public construction sector; • 50% of the firms have been operating in south australia for more than 25 years, 29% between 15 to 25 years, 10% between 10 to 15 years, 7% between 5 to 10 years, and 5% for less than 5 years; and • 62% of the firms employ more than 20 full-time employees, 24% between eleven to twenty full-time employees, 12% between three to ten full-time employees, and 2% between one to two full-time employees. vulnerability to insolvency respondents were asked to indicate on a scale of 1 to 5 how vulnerable they believe the south australian construction industry is to business insolvency. with a mean score of 4.07 and a standard deviation of 0.80, respondents have sent a clear message that the prospect of insolvency is high for construction businesses in south australia as shown in table 3. more than two thirds construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 coggins, teng and rameezdeen 49 of the respondents (76%) gave a ranking of either 4 or 5, indicating that the vast majority believed the construction industry is highly vulnerable to insolvency. respondents were also ask to indicate on a scale of 1 to 5 how much of a threat they believe the insolvency of other construction firms was to the financial wellbeing of their own organisation. a mean score of 3.43 indicates that respondents are not ruling out the impacts on the financial wellbeing of their own company due to the insolvency of other firms. almost half of the respondents gave a ranking of either 4 or 5, indicating that they believe the financial wellbeing of their firm was under considerable threat from the insolvency of other construction firms. however, the robustness of this finding is somewhat undermined by the relatively low mean and relatively high standard deviation values of the responses as compared to those with respect to industry vulnerability to business insolvency. table 3: respondents’ perception on vulnerability to insolvency and threat on financial wellbeing min max ms1 sd2 cv3 how vulnerable sa construction industry to business insolvency 2.00 5.00 4.07 0.80 19.66 how much of a threat other companies’ insolvency could pose on the respondents’ company 1.00 5.00 3.43 1.07 31.20 notes: based on total number of 42 responses; 1ms=mean score where 5= very high; 4=high; 3=moderate; 2=low; 1=very low; 2sd= standard deviation; 3cv=coefficient of variation the above perceptions were verified by asking the respondents how many times in the last 3 years their firm has lost money owing to insolvency of other firms. as shown in table 4, 74% of the respondents’ firms have lost money at least once during last three years. this confirms a serious situation where vulnerability of, and threat to, firms due to insolvency is very high pointing to the need for urgent mitigation measures to be put in place to deal with the issue. table 4: magnitude of threat due to insolvency of other firms number of times the company has lost money owing to insolvency of other firms number of respondents1 % cumulative >4 2 4.8 4.8 3 8 19.0 23.8 2 15 35.7 59.5 1 6 14.3 73.8 never 11 26.2 100.0 note: 1total number of respondents based on 42 completed responses. in order to establish the interactions among these three variables, the ‘pearson correlation coefficient’ and ‘coefficient of determination’ was computed and the results summarised in table 5. it provided an opportunity to test the possibility of respondents’ past experience to determine the perceptions on vulnerability and threat. similarly, it verified whether the perceived vulnerability and threat have a common founding. the significant correlations were between losses and vulnerability (r=0.403; n=42; p=0.008) and vulnerability and threat (r=0.493; n=42; p=0.001) suggesting that respondents perception on vulnerability to insolvency is influenced by past losses to the company and potential threats posed by insolvency of other companies. this finding relates to the very high mean score given by respondents to the potential vulnerability of construction firms in south australia with very low coefficient of variation (ms= 4.07; cv=19.66). this indicates that perceived vulnerability is a collective voice and founded through past experience rather than a spontaneous response. construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 coggins, teng and rameezdeen 50 table 5: results of pearson’s correlation coefficients (r) and coefficient of determination (r2) among vulnerability, threat and losses coefficient of determination (r2) variable: losses vulnerability threat losses 1.000 16.24 4.84 vulnerability 0.403** 1.000 24.30 threat 0.220 0.403** 1.000 note: ** correlation is significant at (p < 0.01) level (2-tailed) factors influencing insolvency respondents’ views were sought on five factors that are responsible for insolvency at the firm level according to the literature discussed earlier. the factors beyond the firm level were not within the scope of this study and not included in the questionnaire survey. respondents were initially asked to simply indicate whether the believed each of the factors per se contributed to the insolvency problem. as shown in table 6, most respondents identified poor payment practices as a cause of insolvency followed by underbidding, poor financial management skills, procurement methods and undercapitalised firms. respondents were also asked to rank these five factors comparatively in ascending order (1 = most contributory factor, 2 = next most contributory factor, etc.) according to level of contribution to the construction insolvency problem. as shown in figure 3, forty-eight percent of the respondents ranked underbidding as the most contributory cause followed by poor financial management skills (24%), undercapitalised firms (14%), procurement methods (12%), and poor payment practices (7%). table 6: respondents’ agreement on factors influencing insolvency frequency rank poor payment practices 40 1 underbidding 39 2 poor financial management skills 37 3 procurement methods 34 4 undercapitalized firms 28 5 note: based on total number of 42 responses figure 3: contribution to construction insolvency ranking ((1 = most contributory factor, 2 = next most contributory factor, etc.) construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 coggins, teng and rameezdeen 51 mitigation measures respondents were asked to indicate their firm’s awareness and use with respect to various measures that are currently available in the construction industry to protect firms from the effects of insolvency. as shown in table 7, awareness of all these measures was high with the exception of the personal properties securities register of which about 50% of respondents were aware. table 7: firms’ awareness of mitigation measures that are currently available frequency rank building and construction industry security of payment act 42 1 prequalification of tenders 41 2 contractual clauses requiring contractor to provide proof of payment to their subcontractors 40 3= retention 40 3= performance bond/bank guarantee 39 5 contractual clauses allowing principal to take work out of hands of an insolvent contractor 35 6 personal property securities register 26 7 note: based on total number of 42 responses as shown in table 8, respondents indicated that the use of these measures in their firms varied with retention being the most popular followed by performance bonds, prequalification of tenders and so on. interestingly, the uptake of the building and construction industry security of payment legislation and contractual ‘take out’ clauses were relatively low. the use of the personal properties securities register was very low indicating this measure is not well used among construction firms operating in south australia. surprisingly, although respondents were well aware of the construction industry security of payment legislation, its usage was not as high as expected. table 8: firms’ usage of mitigation measures that are currently available frequency rank retention 34 1= performance bond/bank guarantee 34 1= prequalification of tenders 31 3 contractual clauses requiring contractor to provide proof of payment to their subcontractors 29 4 building and construction industry security of payment act 16 5 contractual clauses allowing principal to take work out of hands of an insolvent contractor 14 6 personal property securities register 3 7 note: based on total number of 42 responses respondents were also asked to indicate on a scale of 1 to 5 how effective they believe these measures to be with respect to preventing construction insolvency and lessening of financial impacts to the firm. as shown in table 9, three measures were included under prevention of insolvency and four under lessening of financial impacts. with the highest mean score, respondents have indicated that building and construction industry security of payment act is the most effective out of the three measures in preventing insolvency. however, with a mean score of 2.73 that measure is not considered to be statistically significant in preventing insolvency (ms=3.40). except for performance bonds (ms=3.36), the other three measures were not considered significant by respondents in lessening financial impacts due to insolvency. personal property securities register was considered to be the least effective out of the four factors. a high disparity could be observed among respondents with regard to effectiveness of measures such as personal property securities, prequalification of tenders and proof of payment (cv>50%). construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 coggins, teng and rameezdeen 52 table 9: respondents’ perception on effectiveness of mitigation measures on preventing insolvency and lessening of impact of insolvency min max ms1 sd2 cv3 rai prevention of insolvency building and construction industry security of payment act 1.00 5.00 2.73 1.19 43.59 0.58 prequalification of tenders 1.00 5.00 2.44 1.25 51.23 0.49 contractual clauses requiring contractor to provide proof of payment to their subcontractors 1.00 5.00 2.20 1.10 50.00 0.44 lessening of financial impact performance bond/bank guarantee 1.00 5.00 3.36 1.19 35.42 0.67 retention 1.00 5.00 2.69 1.16 43.12 0.54 contractual clauses allowing principal to take work out of hands of an insolvent contractor 1.00 5.00 2.69 1.28 47.58 0.54 personal property securities register 1.00 5.00 2.02 1.12 55.45 0.40 notes: based on total number of 42 responses; 1ms=mean score where 5= very high; 4=high; 3=medium; 2=low; 1=very low; 2sd= standard deviation; 3cv=coefficient of variation government intervention respondents were asked to comment on the need for government intervention to protect construction firms from insolvency and help the construction industry to improve its efficiency. the descriptive statistics of the responses are shown in table 10. firstly, the respondents were asked to indicate on a scale of 1 to 5 how urgent they believe is the need for government regulation is in order to reduce construction insolvency in south australia. with a mean score of 3.83, they agreed that there is urgency for the government to act. more than half (59%) of the respondents believe that government regulation is either urgently or very urgently needed. a relatively low cv (26.63%) indicates a high agreement among respondents for urgent government intervention. secondly, the respondents were asked to indicate either in the affirmative or negative as to which specific mischiefs (or areas) government intervention is needed in order to address the insolvency problem. they indicated that government intervention is most needed in order to address underbidding followed by poor payment practices, poor financial management and undercapitalization as shown in table 11. table 10: respondents’ perception on need for government intervention min max ms1 sd2 cv3 how urgently government regulations should be introduced to reduce construction insolvency in south australia 1.00 5.00 3.83 1.02 26.63 notes: based on total number of 42 responses; 1ms=mean score where 5= very high; 4=high; 3=moderate; 2=low; 1=very low; 2sd= standard deviation; 3cv=coefficient of variation table 11: areas where government intervention is mostly needed frequency rank underbidding 35 1 poor payment practices 34 2 poor financial management skills 31 3 undercapitalized firms 28 4 note: based on total number of 42 responses construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 coggins, teng and rameezdeen 53 discussion of results in accordance with the high incidence of construction insolvencies reported in recent times, the survey found that building contractor firms in south australia firmly viewed that the construction industry is vulnerable to insolvency. the survey also found, although to a lesser statistically significant extent, that building contractor firms in south australia view the insolvency of other construction firms as a threat to their own firm. it is perhaps surprising that this particular finding was not more robust given both that the industry operates on the basis of hierarchical contracting chains and that the survey also found that a majority of the respondent firms had lost money at least twice over the past three years due to the insolvency of other firms. the three factors most identified by the respondents as being a cause of the construction insolvency problem were poor payment practices, underbidding, and poor financial management skills. however, in terms of comparative level of contribution to the construction insolvency problem, the respondents found the top three most contributory causes to be underbidding followed by poor financial management skills and undercapitalised firms. somewhat surprisingly, perhaps, although the vast majority of respondents identified that poor payment practices was a factor causing construction insolvency, they found it to be the factor which least contributes to the construction insolvency problem. one possible explanation for this could be the focus of australian parliaments in recent years on passing extensive building and construction industry payment legislation which has improved to some degree the payment culture generally within the industry. although, having said this, the survey also found that security of payment legislation (along with prequalification of tenders and contractual ‘proof of payment’ clauses) was not statistically significant as a measure per se for preventing construction insolvency. this latter finding accords with the fact that a high construction insolvency rate still exists in nsw despite security of payment legislation having been in operation there since the year 2000. the survey found that awareness of respondents was high with respect to certain existing measures – namely security of payment legislation, prequalification of tenders, contractual ‘proof of payment’ clauses, performance bonds/bank guarantees and contractual ‘take out’ clauses – for firms in the construction industry to protect themselves against both insolvency and financial impact of insolvency. however, respondents’ awareness of the personal property securities register as a means of protecting their security interests in the event of insolvency was significantly lower. of these measures, regular use of retention monies, performance bonds, prequalification of tendering contractors and contractual ‘proof of payment’ clauses was high. in comparison, use of the building and construction industry security of payment legislation and contractual ‘take out’ clauses was relatively low, with use of the personal properties securities register being very low. the relatively lower usage of security of payment legislation may possibly be explained by the potential for use of the legislation to negatively impact upon the future working relationship between contractor and principal. the low usage of the personal properties securities register may be explained by the lack of awareness of the register found to exist amongst many of the respondents. the use of retention, contractual ‘take out’ clauses and the personal properties securities register were not found to be statistically significant in the opinions of the respondents as measures per se for lessening the financial impact of others’ insolvency upon their own firm. only the use of performance bonds or bank guarantees was found to have any significance in this respect. the survey found, to some degree of statistical significance, that the respondents believe urgent government intervention is needed in order to tackle the construction insolvency problem. more specifically, the survey also found that over 80% of the respondents desire further regulation to address underbidding and poor payment practices, with 74% desiring further regulation to address poor financial management skills, and 67% desiring further regulation to address undercapitalisation of firms. construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 coggins, teng and rameezdeen 54 conclusion the australian construction industry is characterised by an extremely high rate of business insolvency due to a unique combination of characteristics present in the construction marketplace including contracting chains, trade credit, poor payment practices, underbidding, undercapitalisation of firms and poor business skills. the construction insolvency problem is accentuated by the phenomenon of phoenix companies, where new companies arise out of the ashes of old companies that have been deliberately traded into insolvency. phoenixing further fuels poor payment practices and underbidding with the construction industry. in addressing the construction insolvency problem, australian parliaments have to date directed most of their regulatory focus towards tackling of poor payment practices via the enactment and subsequent amendment of the various building and construction industry security of payment legislation which exists nationwide. although this has been a huge step in the right direction in encouraging a fairer payment culture, the legislation by itself has proven to be insufficient to alleviate in any significant way the construction insolvency problem. as evidence for this, one need look no further than the nsw experience where 1,113 construction insolvencies occurred in the 2011/12 financial year (collins, 2012) despite security of payment legislation having been operational there for over a decade. as such, a multi-faceted regulatory approach is needed to address the construction insolvency problem, of which security of payment legislation is but one, albeit important, component. the questionnaire survey data presented in this paper indicates that there is an appetite amongst building contractors to address the construction insolvency problem – particularly in the key areas of poor payment practices, poor financial management skills, undercapitalisation of firms and underbidding. with respect to the first three of these areas, the recent serc (2012) report into insolvency in the australian construction industry has made recommendations to tighten regulations via, amongst other things: unification of the building and construction industry security of payment legislation (by the enactment of a commonwealth act), the trialing and evaluation of project bank accounts on commonwealth projects, closer scrutiny and prosecution of false ‘proof or payment’ statutory declarations, random financial health spot -checks on construction firms by building license regulators, requiring building license holders to demonstrate they hold adequate financial backing for the scale of intended project, and requiring building license holders to provide evidence they have completed an agreed level of financial and business training program (serc, 2015). additionally the committee made several recommendations with respect to introducing regulatory measures in order to curb illegal phoenixing activity. notably, however, the senate economics references committee (2015) did not make any recommendations which directly addressed the issue of underbidding in the construction industry19. the practice of underbidding was found by the survey data presented in this paper to be the biggest contributor to construction insolvency. the paucity of recommendations to directly address underbidding is understandable given that the regulation of pricing would likely be viewed as an unreasonable incursion into the territory of free market economics and anti competitive in nature. it is suggested that preliminary proposals for further consideration, with respect to measures which could potentially restrict underbidding practice, may include: the introduction of bid depositories on government projects to eradicate bid shopping; prohibiting ‘bad faith’ underbidding as a requirement of the national building code or state building codes (where they exist), thereby banning offenders from tendering on government-funded projects; and looking into the legal feasibility of the australian competition and consumer commission bringing actions for misleading and deceptive conduct, under section 18 of the australian consumer law, against bad faith under bidders. 19although, the committee (2015: 165) did consider the law reform commission of western australia’s (1995: 54) explanation that the use of trust accounts on construction projects would render it not to be in a head contractor’s interest to underbid for a project. construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 coggins, teng and rameezdeen 55 having said this, it is recognised that it will be difficult to detect where the fine line has been crossed between a contractor pricing a tender over competitively (perhaps due to poor financial estimating or unwarranted optimism) in good faith (i.e. ‘unwarranted optimism’), and a contractor deliberately pricing a tender below cost in bad faith with the intention of subsequently attempting to reclaim losses via contractual claims, poor payment practices to subcontractors and/or phoenixing their company to escape tax and other liabilities. nevertheless, given the scale of construction insolvency in australia and the direct impact which underbidding has upon the problem, further investigation into how underbidding can be discouraged may be too important an issue to ignore. references asic, 2016. small business – illegal phoenix activity. [online] available at: http://asic.gov.au/for-business/yourbusiness/small-business/compliance-for-smallbusiness/small-business-illegal-phoenix-activity/ [accessed 26 july 2016]. ato, 2016. fraudulent phoenix activities. [online] available at: https://www.ato.gov.au/general/the-fight-againsttax-crime/our-focus/fraudulent-phoenixactivities/ [accessed 26 july 2016]. australian bureau of statistics (abs), 2012. 2011-12 private sector construction industry australia, 8772.0, canberra: australian bureau of statistics. australian financial review, 2012. building industry slump claims another victim, australian financial review, 15 november . bis shrapnel, 2012. nsw construction activity and insolvencies report – nsw inquiry into construction insolvency, november 2012. sydney: bis shrapnel. coggins, j. and bell, m., 2015. australia's security of payment experience: a crystal ball for malaysia and hong kong', international construction law review, 32(4), pp.420-54. coggins, j., davie, t., earls, t. and evans, p., 2016. understanding construction law. australia: lexisnexis butterworths. coggins, j. and lord, w., 2014. towards the reduction of construction insolvency: examining the 'supporting statement' requirement in new south wales. building and construction law journal, 30(4), pp.224-37. cole, t., 2003. final report of the royal commission into the building and construction industry, canberra: commonwealth of australia. collins, b., 2012. final report of the independent inquiry into construction industry insolvency in nsw sydney: nsw government. creighton, p., handford, p. and mclure, c.j. 1995. discussion paper on financial protection in the building and construction industry. project no 82. perth, wa: law reform commission of western australia. doloi, h., sawhney, a., iyer, k.c. and renata, s., 2012. analysing factors affecting delays in indian construction projects. international journal of project management, 30, pp.479-89. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.10.004 fenwick elliott, r., 2015. construction insolvency. address to university of south australia’s builders’ organisation of students and staff annual dinner, national wine centre, adelaide, 6 november. forza, c., 2002. survey research in operations management: a process-based perspective. international journal of operations & production management, 22(2), pp.152-94. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01443570210414310 gerber, p., and ong, b., 2013, best practice in construction disputes: avoidance, management and resolution, lexisnexis butterworths, north ryde, nsw. holt, g.d., 2014. asking questions, analyzing answers: relative importance revisited. construction innovation, 14(1), pp.2-16 doi: .http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ci-06-2012-0035 ive, g., and murray, a., 2013, trade credit in the uk construction industry: an empirical analysis of construction contractor financial positioning and performance, bis research paper number 118, department for business innovation & skills, uk. kumaraswamy, m.m. and chan, d.w.m., 1998. contributors to construction delays. construction management and economics, 16(1), pp.17-29. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/014461998372556 price waterhouse, 1996. improving security of payment in the building and construction industry. melbourne: national public works council inc. queensland building services authority (qbsa), 2001. discussion paper on security of payment. brisbane: queensland building services authority. saunders, p., lewis, p. and thornhill, a., 2009. research methods for business students, 5th ed. edinburgh gate, england: pearson education limited. http://asic.gov.au/for-business/your-business/small-business/compliance-for-small-%20business/small-business-illegal-phoenix-activity/ http://asic.gov.au/for-business/your-business/small-business/compliance-for-small-%20business/small-business-illegal-phoenix-activity/ http://www.ato.gov.au/general/the-fight-against-tax-crime/our-focus/fraudulent-phoenixhttp://www.ato.gov.au/general/the-fight-against-tax-crime/our-focus/fraudulent-phoenixhttp://www.ato.gov.au/general/the-fight-against-tax-crime/our-focus/fraudulent-phoenixhttp://www.ato.gov.au/general/the-fight-against-tax-crime/our-focus/fraudulent-phoenixhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.10.004 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/01443570210414310 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ci-06-2012-0035 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/014461998372556 construction economics and building, 16(3), 38-56 coggins, teng and rameezdeen 56 security of payment taskforce (wa), 2001, security of payment taskforce for the western australian building and construction industry : report to the minister for housing and works, deptartment of housing and works, perth, western australia. senate economic references committee, 2015. ‘i just want to be paid’, insolvency in the australian construction industry. canberra: commonwealth of australia. small business commissioner south australia, 2016. consultation paper on proposed changes to the building and construction industry security of payment act 2009 and other initiatives to improve payment to subcontractors in the building and construction industry. june 2016. adelaide: government of south australia. stenning and associates pty ltd., 2006. final report on security of payment in the tasmanian building and construction industry prepared for the minister administering the building act 2000. hobart, tasmania. tan , w., 2002. practical research methods. singapore: prentice hall. uher, t.e. and davenport, p., 2009. fundamentals of building contract management, 2nd ed. sydney: unsw press. williamson, m., wilson o., skitmore, m., and runeson, g., 2004, “client abuses of the competitive tendering system: some general principles and a case study”, journal of construction research, 5(1), pp. 61-74. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s160994510400005x yuan, h., shen, l. and wang, j., 2011. major obstacles to improving the performance of waste management in china's construction industry. facilities, 29(5/6), pp.224-42. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02632771111120538 http://dx.doi.org/10.1142/s160994510400005x http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/02632771111120538 abstract introduction reasons for the construction insolvency problem pyramidal contracting chains predominance of trade credit unsecured creditor status poor payment practices underbidding illegal phoenix activity undercapitalised firms poor business management skills the need for empirical research into construction insolvency research method results data analysis profile of study sample vulnerability to insolvency factors influencing insolvency mitigation measures government intervention discussion of results conclusion references construction economics and building vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 2023 © 2023 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: domínguez-herrera, m. m., gonzález-morales, o., gonzález-díaz, e. 2023. social responsibility of construction company as strategy for sustainability in island territories. construction economics and building, 23:1/2, 31–55. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v23i1/2.8163 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article social responsibility of construction company as strategy for sustainability in island territories marta mª domínguez-herrera1, olga gonzález-morales2,*, eduardo gonzález-díaz3 1 department of techniques and projects in engineering and architecture, university of la laguna, tenerife, spain, mdguez@ull.edu.es, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0986-4791 2 department of applied economics and quantitative methods, member of istur, university of la laguna, tenerife, spain, olgonzal@ull.edu.es, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3754-2300 3 department of techniques and projects in engineering and architecture, university of la laguna, tenerife, spain, egonza@ull.edu.es, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3682-6114 corresponding author: marta mª domínguez-herrera, department of techniques and projects in engineering and architecture, university of la laguna, tenerife, spain, mdguez@ull.edu.es doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8163 article history: received 17/04/2022; revised 14/03/2023; accepted 27/03/2023; published 31/07/2023 abstract the increase in urbanization and the volume of construction has accelerated. this situation requires systematizing the use of limited resources, especially in island territories. the construction sector contributes to the depletion of these resources and has a significant impact on society, which is why it is necessary to change its strategy and decision-making. corporate social responsibility (csr) may be the strategy to develop a socio-environmentally responsible production model that replaces the traditional one. a socially responsible construction company optimizes use construction materials, gives value to waste generated, minimizes the impact that buildings have on the environment, makes responsible use of energy and water, uses innovations to improve the process and adequately manages its human resources. the aim of this work is to analyse the socially responsible behaviour of companies in the construction sector in a limited and fragmented territory as is the province of santa cruz de tenerife and to compare the importance that companies give to their actions, using for the first time 99 indicators grouped into declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 31 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8163 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8163 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:mdguez@ull.edu.es https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0986-4791 mailto:olgonzal@ull.edu.es https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3754-2300 mailto:egonza@ull.edu.es https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3682-6114 mailto:mdguez@ull.edu.es https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8163 three factors: environmental, social and economic, thus also highlighting the contribution of csr to sustainability. the companies surveyed indicate whether they have implemented or plan to implement them in the future. the results indicate that aspects related to environmental sensitivity and social contribution contribute most to the implementation of a csr strategy, while economic aspects have a negative influence. in the case of companies planning to implement a csr strategy in the future, the social contribution aspect is the most influential. keywords corporate social responsibility; construction sector; sustainability; quantitative analysis introduction research on corporate social responsibility (csr) in the construction sector is relatively recent and markedly increased in the second decade of the 21st century (loosemore, et al., 2018). the analyses of the socially responsible behaviour of these companies provide data to assess the way in which they understand business management and its effects on the environment (loosemore and lim, 2017; united nations, 2009; 2012). according to watts, dainty and fernie (2015) and zhang, oo and lim (2019), companies in the construction sector are increasingly concerned about the impact of their activity on society, and they do this motivated by environmental factors, and by factors related to finding ways to protect their legitimacy and image in line with social expectations. daily practices are associated more with the environmental dimension than with the social dimension. specifically, they undertake actions in the field of energy efficiency and management of construction and demolition waste from the projects they execute (ogunmakinde, egbelakin and sher, 2022). some companies publish their mission and vision statements, but do not comply with a formal csr commitment (lim and loosemore, 2017). agents in the construction sector are beginning to think that it is necessary to make commitments regarding social rights and environmental impacts (domínguez-herrera, 2017). burón-maestro (2007) understands that one way to promote the change towards a csr strategy is to create csr indices to assess the goodness of each constructive solution through an indicator of its sustainability (opoku, 2019). given the importance of this sector in the development of communities and in the fulfillment of the sustainable development objectives, the objective of this work focuses on analysing the socially responsible behaviour of companies in the construction sector to verify what practices lead to carried out by these companies and the weight of their contribution to the economic, social and environmental dimensions. given the importance of this sector in the development of communities and in the fulfillment of the sustainable development objectives, the aim of this work is focused on analysing the socially responsible behaviour of companies in the construction sector to verify what practices carried out by these companies and the weight of their contribution to the economic, social and environmental dimensions, comparing the importance that companies place on csr actions depending on whether they have been implemented or there are plans to implement them in the future. the second section then develops the theoretical framework focused on csr and sustainability in the construction sector. the third section describes the hypotheses and the methodology used. the fourth section presents the quantitative results. finally, the discussion and the conclusions of the study are summarized, as well as the limitations and future lines of work. theoretical framework: csr and sustainability in the construction sector after several decades of research, three questions related to csr remain to be answered. the first is that there is no single definition, but in the context of this research the definition of the european commission domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202332 (2001; 2011) is assumed because it is the most complete (diagram 1), subsequently defining the strategy for the sustainable competitiveness of the construction sector and their companies (european commission, 2012). the second issue is that the empirical relationship between company profitability and csr has not been resolved. zeng (2016) sees a direct correlation between the company’s market value and the company’s position in the csr rankings, while cherian, et al. (2019) suggest that certain csr actions increase the value of the company more than others. the third issue concerns the debate on whether csr should be voluntary or mandatory. in any case, there are reasons to be optimistic, since the trend in the business sector points towards more responsible behaviour, with the support of governments playing an important role in meeting the objectives (abbas, 2020). − human resources management − health and safety in the workplace, voluntary advocacy − adaptation to change − environmental impact and natural resources management − integration in local communities − collaboration with business partners, suppliers and consumers − human rights, adoption of codes of conduct − global environmental issues, collaboration in their resolution dimensions of corporate social responsibility (csr). internal dimension external dimension diagram 1. dimensions of corporate social responsibility. source: gonzález morales (2008, p.97) csr is a strategic axis of business management which has a clear impact on decision-making, so it should not be exclusively assimilated as an ethical practice of companies (aguinis and glavas, 2012; croker, 2013; dahlsrud, 2008). the concept has evolved considerably in recent years from the personal responsibilities of the employer to social responsibility in a broader sense (carroll and shabana, 2010). the european commission (2011) encouraged companies to adopt long-term socio-environmentally responsible strategic approaches. respect for the applicable legislation and collective agreements between the social partners was set out as a prerequisite. companies should integrate social, environmental and ethical concerns, respect for human rights and consumer concerns to maximize the creation of shared value for all parties involved, and identify, prevent and mitigate its possible adverse consequences. this way of understanding csr considers the impact of the company on society and integrates those actions that the company performs voluntarily, once its legal obligations are complied with (gowri, 2004). progress is being made in the measurement and application of csr. the une-iso 26000:2012 standard is considered a csr milestone, the result of a global consensus. the use of this standard allows a systematic, objective and independent process to be conducted to determine how the activity of the company satisfies the established requirements. the csr audit can be used as a control tool (asociación española de normalización y certificación, 2012). adopting the iso 26000 standard is relatively straightforward in europe because, in the past, it spearheaded the adoption of the iso 9001 and iso 14001 standards to good effect (pradoroman et al., 2018). there are a growing number of standards and certifications that overlap with iso domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202333 26000 and, in a sense, compete with each other (balzarova and castka, 2018; castka and corbett, 2016; castka, searcy and mohr, 2020). therefore, it is necessary to carry out a review of the standards and certifications to coordinate and/or reduce them, thus preventing confusion in companies. many companies focus csr primarily on occupational health and safety, as well as ethical business practices and environmental management, yet they neglect the external dimension. companies in the construction sector can contribute positively to the development of communities and respond to social changes, as well as identifying the degree of involvement with their stakeholders (vallina, 2020). despite the fact that csr is being put into practice in the construction sector, to a large extent, informally and is in its early stages of development, the results of lim and loosemore (2017) show that, as companies grow, they tend to seek a strategic approach to create public value, take care of their socially responsible image and improve their competitiveness. darko, et al. (2019) reviewed the practices adopted by the stakeholders of construction companies in countries such as the united states, australia, the united kingdom, india and china, and confirmed that, at the end of the 20th century, the construction sector took csr into account and, as the socioenvironmentally responsible vision spreads, the interest of the agents involved in the construction process and of the researchers in the sector grows. xia, et al. (2018) say that the development of actions in the social dimension is predominant. furthermore, zhang and chan (2017) identify indicators, such as mives, leed, green, among others, which aim to improve the understanding of what they call “green building”, and which serve to encourage more responsible building. the commitment to csr also depends on the education and training of entrepreneurs (sarhan and fox, 2013), as well as on other factors that can act as a barrier or facilitate its development such as: cultural barriers, lack of technology and ecological techniques, quality of specifications, stakeholder participation, guidance and benchmarking systems ( jamil and fathi, 2016). sustainability in construction is the process by which all the stakeholders involved —owners, designers, building companies, management teams, suppliers of materials and construction products and administration— integrate functional, economic, environmental and quality considerations to produce and renovate buildings, their surroundings and their impact on the said surroundings (ihobe, 2010). in the case of the spanish construction sector, there is no generalized csr strategy, but rather extensive legislation focused on contributing to the sustainability of structures. if the project establishes requirements related to social, environmental and economic criteria, the execution must be consistent with these requirements (ministerio de presidencia, 2008; ministerio de transportes, movilidad y agenda urbana, 2021). although the use of sustainability assessment tools is necessary in all phases of the construction process, it is essential in the design stage, since most of the decisions affecting the entire useful life of the building are made at this stage. for this paradigm shift to take place, we must evolve towards a way of building with a more fluid interaction between the built heritage and the natural environment, and csr contributes to this, without forgetting the other dimensions of sustainability, taking into account the principles of the circular economy (kurniawati and mujiyati, 2023; opoku, 2019). sustainability, sustainable development, is currently articulated through the united nations 2030 agenda (united nations, 2015; 2020). from its approval in 2015 to the present day, its prominence has been increasing. several of these goals must be considered to the construction sector for their achievement, so once again it becomes clear that csr is the perfect strategy to achieve sustainability in the construction sector and its companies (burón-maestro, 2007; lu and zhang, 2016; opoku, 2019; ye, et al., 2019; zhang, oo and lim, 2022). at present, environmental product declarations only calculate the impacts of materials in the product phase, they do not report on the rest of the life cycle stages. nor is there a known way of accurately assessing the contribution of materials to the sustainability of the building. other tools for assessing the domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202334 sustainability of the building provide information on the global behaviour of the building, for example, the life cycle analysis of the construction products or materials used in buildings. these and other approaches are incomplete, and it would be a useful exercise to review them, as this sector necessarily manages large amounts of data, a good option is to use methodologies based on building information modelling (bim). one can speak of more sustainable construction materials or products in cases where all the information, the environment and the complete life cycle are integrated (domínguez-herrera, gonzález-morales and gonzález-díaz, 2018; rezaei, bulle and lesage, 2019). definitely, a paradigm shift is required to solve ecological and social problems that are structural, not temporary (european commission, 2020a; 2020b; schneider, 2020). the empirical analysis for this work has been carried out on four islands of santa cruz de tenerife province (canary islands, spain), an outermost region of the european union located in the atlantic and economically characterized by its high dependence on tourism associated with a growing construction sector, dedicated to renovations and new buildings. in island tourist destinations, the need to establish a viable balance between economic, sociocultural and environmental impacts of tourism is more evident (graci and doods, 2010). in this scenario, the environmental impacts derived from construction activity, such as increased pressure on land use or waste generation in limited spaces, require specific management so that, in the long term, it does not end up destroying landscape. in this sense, public authorities play a fundamental role, since they are responsible for developing construction planning and monitoring strategies, this being a highly regulated sector (e.g., structural concrete instruction). there is an intricate interconnection between government entities and the private sector, and it is necessary to establish joint action aimed at achieving long-term sustainability goals. hypothesis and methodology based on the theoretical framework developed in the previous section, the following hypotheses are proposed, in which the perception of good csr practices, their sensitivity towards the three dimensions of sustainability and whether the environmental dimension is given more importance are studied in the case of companies in the construction sector in the province of santa cruz de tenerife for the first time. hypothesis h1. there are differences between the valuations of the shares in terms of csr depending on whether the company in the construction sector has or does not have a csr strategy. h2. companies in the construction sector that have a csr strategy value all the aspects that csr encompasses (environmental, economic and social contribution) to the same extend. h3. environmental sensitivity is the most influential factor for companies in the construction sector to assess the possibility of implementing a csr strategy in the future. table 1 shows the relationship between the research questions, the hypotheses, the dimensions of sustainability to which csr contributes and the research results for each group of companies investigated. population and sample size the population under study is companies in the construction sector that perform their activity in the province of santa cruz de tenerife. this business fabric includes delegations of large national companies that coexist with other construction companies of various sizes, as set out by the european union in its directive 2013/34/eu (european union, 2013), as well as developers, manufacturers of construction products and materials, contractors and builders. domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202335 table 1. methodological framework. three questions related to csr remain after several decades of research. research questions theoretical framework: csr and sustainability in the construction sector references hypothesis/ sustainability dimension results table 1st there is no single definition of csr – in the context of this research the definition is the european commission one. – the concept has evolved considerably in recent years from the personal responsibilities of the employer to social responsibility in a broader sense. – aguinis and glavas (2012) – asociación española de normalización y certificación (2012) – balzarova and castka (2018) – carroll and shabana (2010) – castka and corbett (2016) – castka, searcy and mohr (2020) – croker (2013) – dahlsrud (2008) – european commission (2001; 2011; 2012) – gowri (2004) – h1 – factor 2. economic aspects table ii 2nd the empirical relationship between company profitability and csr has not been resolved – companies in the construction sector can contribute positively to the development of communities and respond to social changes, as well as identifying the degree of involvement with their stakeholders. – the commitment to csr also depends on the education and training of entrepreneurs. – jamil and fathi (2016) – sarhan and fox (2013) – cherian, et al. (2019) – darko, zhang and chan (2017) – darko, et al. (2019) – lim and loosemore (2017) – vallina (2020) – xia, et al. (2018) – zeng (2016) – h2 – factor 3. aspects on social contribution table iii domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202336 table 1. continued three questions related to csr remain after several decades of research. research questions theoretical framework: csr and sustainability in the construction sector references hypothesis/ sustainability dimension results table 3rd csr should be voluntary or mandatory? – in the case of the spanish construction sector, there is no generalized csr strategy, but rather extensive legislation focused on contributing to the sustainability of structures. – csr is the perfect strategy to achieve sustainability in the construction sector and its companies. – environmental product declarations only calculate the impacts of materials in the product phase, they do not report on the rest of the life cycle stages – abbas (2020) – cascajero (2022) – domínguezherrera, gonzález-morales and gonzález-díaz (2018) – european commission (2020a; 2020b) – graci and doods (2010) – ihobe (2010) – kurniawati and mujiyati (2023) – ministerio de presidencia (2008) – ministerio de transportes, movilidad y agenda urbana (2021) – opoku (2019) – ogunmakinde, egbelakin and sher (2022) – rezaei, bulle and lesage (2019) – moneva-abadía, gallardo-vázquez y sánchezhernández (2019) – schneider (2020) – united nations (2015; 2020) – ye, et al. (2019) – zhang, oo and lim (2022) – h3 – factor 1. aspects on environmental sensitivity table i domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202337 the population data were obtained from the statistics on companies registered in social security in the construction sector, prepared by the canary institute of statistics. table 2 shows the technical data sheet. representativeness by business size was taken into account to calculate population heterogeneity. the sample size (n) was calculated according to: σ σ = + n z n e n z 2 2 2 2 2 (1) z = % desired reliability for the mean e = maximum permissible error for the sample mean σ = variance n = population size table 2. technical data sheet population 2.137 (2015) area santa cruz de tenerife province information collection method in-person survey, via google drive and by phone sample unit head of the company sample size 221 surveys completed 73 sample error ±9.02% confidence level 95% para z=1.96 y p= .8 q= .2 data collection period year 2017 data collection tools a questionnaire was prepared whose questions were grouped into three groups: aspects of environmental sensitivity, economic aspects and aspects of social contribution, presented on a likert (de 1 a 5) scale. they were regrouped into dichotomous variables to perform the descriptive analysis. in addition, two dichotomous questions were included for use as dependent variables. the questions of the questionnaire can be consulted in tables i, ii y iii. quantitative tools various descriptive and multivariate statistical techniques were applied using the spss 21 program. firstly, the sample was divided into two groups: companies that have a csr strategy in place (group 1) and companies that plan to implement one in the future (group 2). contingency tables were then prepared depending on whether the company had or had not applied the corresponding action. the chi-square test was applied to check whether there were significant differences between these variables. secondly, the variables that were significant were used to perform two multiple linear regression (mlr) analyses, one for group 1 companies and the other for group 2 companies. the objective was to analyse the relationship between the dependent variable (y), quantitative (criterion), and independent quantitative and/ or dummy variables (predictor variables). a linear combination of all or some of the predictor/explanatory variables (xi) that maximally correlated with the dependent variable (y) was sought. both models are summarized in the equation below: domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202338 y = b0 + b1 x1 + b2 x2 +…+ bp xp + ε (2) y = dependent variable scores xi = explanatory independent variables scores (i = 1,…, p) b0 = constant bi = estimated regression coefficients using the least squares method with n observations that measure the influence of the independent variables on the dependent variable (i = 1,…,p) ε = error the backward stepwise regression method was used to build an mlr model with a dependent variable of independent variables with a strong significant relationship. this method introduces all the predictor variables at the beginning of the analysis and, in each step, eliminates the variable whose fisher’s f is not significant, testing the null hypothesis. the process ends when all the p-values are significant, that is, less than .05. given that two groups of companies are proposed, an mlr model is built for each group, which will be called hereinafter model 1 and model 2, respectively (table 3). table 3. variables used in the mlr d ep en de nt va ri ab le models 1 and 2 y1 = the company has a csr strategy in place y2 = the company is thinking of putting a csr strategy in place dichotomous variables in de pe nd en t va ri ab le s factor 1. aspects of environmental sensitivity kmo .643 bartlett sig. .000 factor 2. economic aspects kmo .611 bartlett sig. .000 factor 3. aspects about social contribution kmo .743 bartlett sig. .000 the items of the questionnaire required a transformation of the responses so that they could be used in the mlr in the form of factors that measure an overall result of each group of responses. this transformation was performed through an exploratory factor analysis for each group of aspects of the questionnaire, verifying their validity using the bartlett’s test of sphericity test and the kaiser-meyer-olkin test (kmo). bartlett’s test of sphericity tests the null hypothesis of non-correlation of the variables in the population under study. if a high value is obtained, it means that there is a correlation between the factors and the null hypothesis is rejected; in this case it is possible to continue with the analysis as its values are suitable. the kaiser-meyer-olkin test confirms the validity as the kmo index values are between .5 and 1.0 in all cases. results descriptive results this section describes the results obtained from the two groups under study: group 1: affirmative responses (%) to each indicator on actions carried out in the past and group 2: affirmative responses (%) to each indicator on actions planned to be carried out in the future. domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202339 as regards the aspects related to environmental sensitivity (annex table i), of the 42 items, nine were simultaneously significant for both groups (shaded in grey in annex table i). these nine common actions are related to the use of renewable energy sources, environmental impact, the frequency with which certain key actions are carried out in the management and use of natural resources, and the design of facilities that use energy and water efficiently. in general, the percentages are higher in companies that already have a csr strategy in place (group 1). as an example of these differences, it is worth mentioning that 64% of group 1 companies know and apply, as criteria for choosing construction products, the environmental product declarations or the life cycle analysis, a percentage that is higher than the responses of group 2 companies that plan to implement the csr strategy in the future (42.3%); in addition, 92% of the companies in group 1 reuse rainwater in the buildings they build, compared to 78.8% in group 2. with respect to actions that are not common to both groups, in the case of group 1, there are the assessment of the environmental footprint of the building after its demolition (68%), the adoption of measures for the reuse of rainwater (68%), the choice of materials and construction processes that respect the environment (52%) and the research and development of new, more efficient construction techniques (60%). in group 2, the use of renewable energy sources is noteworthy (75%) and 99.9% do not believe that sustainability strategies only include water saving, comfort, life cycle analysis and the environmental footprint after demolition but that there are some social and economic aspects, in addition to the environmental aspect. regarding the economic aspects (annex table ii), of the 21 items, only five (shaded in grey in annex table ii) were significant and none were common between both groups. in group 1 companies, the importance they attach to building with socio-environmentally responsible criteria is noteworthy because maintenance costs of the building are reduced (96%). likewise, it is worth mentioning that 100% of these companies consider that life cycle cost studies should be carried out in the early stages of the project because this provides greater opportunities to evaluate alternatives. in the group 2 responses, it is notable, on the one hand, that 67.4% think it is advisable to create a public web page for each work to inform the public of the characteristics, execution deadlines and economic data of the work; on the other hand, a negative finding is that 57% of those who do not plan to implement a csr strategy in the future think that socioenvironmentally respectful strategies do not have a favourable impact on the final price of the property. finally, with regard to the aspects of social contribution (annex table iii), of the 36 items, eleven were simultaneously significant for both groups (shaded in grey in annex table iii). as with the aspects of environmental sensitivity, the percentages are higher in group 1 companies. it is especially noteworthy that this facilitates the involvement of all interested parties in decision-making, and that the building’s water quality is defined or that criteria are drawn up to quantify indicators for later comparison, among other actions. in addition, it should be noted that 92% of the companies that have a csr strategy apply innovative methods that are the result of research, development and innovation (r&d&i) conducted in the previous three years, compared to 71.2% of the companies that plan to implement it in the future. if the analysis is done by group of companies, in group 1 it is worth mentioning that 100% have put in place voluntary health and safety actions that contribute to the employees’ quality of life and think that their business activity affects the next generation. in group 2, 69.2% study the ability of people with specific needs to access certain services in the building and evaluate the visual comfort and the spatial characteristics of the building. multiple linear regression models (mlr) a. model 1: a csr model is in place. domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202340 the dependent variable of this model reflects whether the company already has or does not have a csr strategy in place. when the mlr is performed, a model is obtained in which all the independent variables introduced are significant (table 4). an anova analysis of variance was performed to evaluate the significance of the regression model, which resulted in p= .000. therefore, the null hypothesis that the variability observed in the response is explanatory by chance is rejected and an association between the dependent variable and the independent variables is admitted. y1 = 1.342 + .185*factor1 .141*factor2 + .160*factor3 (3) table 4. coefficients of the first model where the dependent variable (y1 in equation [3]) is that the company is thinking of implementing a csr strategy model1 non standardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. b standard error beta constant 1.342 .048 27.756 .000 factor 1 .185 .068 .387 2.719 .008 factor 2 -.141 .063 -.295 -2.305 .024 factor 3 .160 .057 .335 2.794 .007 equation (3) represents a measure of the set of csr actions carried out by companies in the construction sector that have a csr strategy in place. this model shows that one more point in the assessment of the effect of environmental sensitivity aspects (factor 1) favours an increase of .185 points in the implementation of csr actions. this factor is the most influential. regarding the economic aspects (factor 2), the relationship is negative, it indicates that, as the valuation of the negative aspects increases one more point, the adoption of csr actions decreases -.141 points. finally, csr actions in social contribution (factor 3) increased by .160 for each unit. b. model 2: the company is thinking about putting a csr strategy in place the dependent variable of this model reflects whether or not the company plans to implement a csr strategy in the future. when the mlr is performed with the backward stepwise regression method, three models are obtained (table 5). in the first, only factor 3 is significant. in the second model, factor 2 is eliminated, although only factor 3 is still significant. model 3 eliminates factor 1; therefore, factor 3 is the one that is really having a significant impact on whether the company is considering implementing a csr strategy in the future. the resulting equation is: y2 = 1.712 + .171*factor3 (4) these two models show the differences between a socio-environmentally responsible company and one that is seriously thinking about integrating csr strategies in the future. in the first case, the factors that have a positive influence are the environmental sensitivity aspects and the social contribution aspects, with the economic aspects having a negative influence. in the second case, the only factor with influence is the one that includes the social contribution aspects. domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202341 discussion the objective of this work is focused on analysing the socially responsible behaviour of companies in the construction sector in a limited and fragmented territory as is the province of santa cruz de tenerife and comparing the importance they place on csr action depending on whether the company has it in place or plans to implement it in the future. the methodology employed in this research has also been used by zhang, oo and lim (2022), who identify and classify the practices and perceived benefits of csr in construction companies using an online questionnaire and subsequently analyses the perception of csr through the social networks of these companies. the quantitative and qualitative methodology used in this research was carried out through an in-depth study of the practices of these companies. the total number of companies analysed is in line with the work of this author. their findings and those of lu and zhang (2016) are aligned in indicating that the skewed development of corporate sustainability in the construction sector, where much attention has been given to environmental issues at the project level, but the social dimension, such as stakeholders and social governance, is severely lacking and needs to be prioritized. regarding the hypotheses raised, the first hypothesis is fulfilled given that there are differences between the valuations of the actions in terms of csr, depending on whether the company in the construction sector has or does not have a csr strategy in place. the second hypothesis is partially fulfilled, since it has been proven that aspects related to environmental sensitivity and social contribution contribute to a large extent to the implementation of a csr strategy, while economic aspects have a negative influence. these results are partly in line with the conclusions of watts, dainty and fernie (2015) and zhang, oo and lim (2019), who suggest that environmental actions prevail over other types of actions, although without losing sight of the positive image projected by social actions. likewise, in the case of companies that plan to implement a csr strategy in the future, it is observed that the aspect related to social contribution really has the most influence, meaning that hypothesis 3 is table 5. coefficients of the second model where the dependent variable (y2 in equation [4]) is that the company is thinking about putting a csr strategy in place. m od el variables non standardized coefficients standardized coefficients t sig. b standard error beta 1 constant 1.712 .050 34.329 .000 factor 1 .089 .070 .195 1.265 .210 factor 2 -.061 .063 -.134 -.971 .335 factor 3 .145 .059 .317 2.445 .017 2 constant 1.712 .050 34.343 .000 factor 1 .052 .059 .114 .882 .381 factor 3 .144 .059 .316 2.432 .018 3 constant 1.712 .050 34.397 .000 factor 3 .171 .050 .376 3.419 .001 domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202342 not being fulfilled as environmental aspects were the most influential. in the same vein, xia, et al. (2018), say that, in recent years, the social dimension has predominated in line with environmental aspects, with economic aspects being less important. the originality of this research lies in using the indicators in annex 13 of the structural concrete instruction (ministerio de presidencia, 2008) as independent variables, whose relationship with the construction sector is direct. furthermore, the analysis distinguishes between companies that have a csr strategy in place from those that plan to implement it in the future. the information contained in this work makes it possible to evaluate the csr strategy of the participating companies to make decisions that reinforce and/or complement existing actions, as well as reflect on which actions are most valued, which ones would be necessary to include, and which ones would be necessary to enhance in a future strategy. after the dates on which this research was carried out, the new structural code (ministerio de transportes, 2021; cascajero, 2022) was published, replacing the structural concrete instruction (ministerio de presidencia, 2008). it should be noted that the annex used during this research became part of the articles in the current code. to this we should add the work of ye et al. (2019), whose review of csr reports of international companies highlights the lack of work in this field in spain. all of this makes this research even more valuable. conclusions the aim of this work was focused on analysing the socially responsible behaviour of companies in the construction sector to verify what practices carried out by these companies and the weight of their contribution to the economic, social and environmental dimensions, comparing the importance that companies place on csr actions depending on whether they have been implemented or there are plans to implement them in the future. at present, the limitation of the study may be due to its possible lack of generalization because it has been applied to a spanish province with a construction sector that is depends largely on a tourism sector with a lot of weight in the provincial business structure. in this case it is concluded that it is necessary to contribute to raising awareness and disseminating good csr practices in both groups studied. in particular, to integrate sustainability into csr objectives. to raise awareness that the management of a building’s energy resources is part of one of the dimensions of csr: environmental sensitivity. in the same sense, to improve knowledge of the impact of csr on the economic performance of companies and to carry out further studies in this respect. there is still a long way to go. it is necessary to inform and train those responsible for making business decisions to make them understand the importance of the effects of their activity on the environment and that, if well managed, and by applying a csr strategy, could be a source of opportunity. another point to bear in mind is the public health situation caused by covid-19; but, at the same time, this situation becomes an opportunity for the construction sector, which can contribute to the improvement of other economic sectors. as an example, the hotel sector, which requires a renovation the existing hotel stock or new construction that takes the new panorama into account, which demands that the construction sector be more creative, innovative and more sustainable, putting the bases in place to start a csr strategy. future research will be aimed at increasing awareness and dissemination of good csr practices. a panel of indicators is expected to be developed to monitor the contribution of csr to the construction process, which would provide a choice of the most sustainable solutions, with the aim of collaborating in the management of environmental, economic, social and environmental impacts. during the period under review for the publication of this article, the new structural code has entered into force, now it will be possible to see whether the proposed model meets the needs to promote a socially responsible vision. domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202343 references abbas, j., 2020. impact of total quality management on corporate green performance through the mediating role of corporate social responsibility. journal of cleaner production, 242(1), p.118458. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2019.118458 aguinis, h. and glavas, a., 2012. what we know and don’t know about corporate social responsibility: a review and research agenda. journal of management, 38(4), pp.932-68. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311436079 balzarova, m. and castka, p., 2018. social responsibility: experts’ viewpoints on adoption of the iso 26000 standard. corporate social responsibility and environmental management, 25, pp.819–24. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1497 sarhan, s., and fox, a. 2013. barriers to implementing lean construction in the uk construction industry. the built & human environment review, 6, pp 1-17. burón-maestro, m. 2007. la sostenibilidad de las construcciones de hormigón. cemento y hormigón, issn 00088919, nº. 897, 2007, págs. 58-65 (https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=2224256) carroll, a. and shabana, k., 2010. the business case for corporate social responsibility: a review of concepts, research and practice. international journal of management review, 12, pp.85-105. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14682370.2009.00275.x cascajero, j.m., 2022. el nuevo código estructural es una herramienta básica para alcanzar la descarbonzación. cemento y hormigón, 1009. castka, p. and corbett, c., 2016. adoption and dissemination of environmental and social standards: the effect of rigor, governance and media coverage. international journal of operations and production management, 36(11), pp.1504-29. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijopm-01-2015-0037 castka, p., searcy, c. and mohr, j., 2020. technology-enhanced auditing: improving veracity and timeliness in social and environmental audits of supply chains. journal of cleaner production, 258, p.120773. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2020.120773 cherian, j., umar, m., ang thu, p., nguyen-thoi, t., safdar sial, m. and khuong, n.v., 2019. does corporate social responsibility affect the financial performance of the manufacturing sector? evidence from an emerging economy. sustainability, 11(4), p.1182. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11041182 croker, n., 2013. corporate social responsibility and the hong kong construction industry. phd. university of newcastle, australia. dahlsrud, a., 2008. how corporate social responsibility is defined: an analysis of 37 definitions. corporate social responsibility and environmental management, 15(1), pp.1-13. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.132 darko, a., chan, a.p., huo, x. and owusu-manu, d.g., 2019. a scientometric analysis and visualization of global green building research. building and environment, 149, pp.501-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.12.059 darko, a., zhang, c. and chan, a., 2017. drivers for green building: a review of empirical studies. habitat international, 60, pp.34-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2016.12.007 domínguez-herrera, m.m, gonzález-morales, o. and gonzález-díaz, e., 2018. corporate social responsibility of the construction sector in spain. in: charles richard baker, ed., corporate social responsibility (csr): practices, issues and global perspectives. hauppauge, ny: nova science publishers, pp. 215-68. domínguez-herrera, m.m., 2017. social responsibility of companies in the building sector. analysis of sustainability in the case of construction companies in the province of santa cruz de tenerife. phd. university of la laguna, spain. domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202344 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118458 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118458 https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206311436079 https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1497 https://dialnet.unirioja.es/servlet/articulo?codigo=2224256 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2009.00275.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2009.00275.x https://doi.org/10.1108/ijopm-01-2015-0037 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120773 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120773 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11041182 https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.132 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.12.059 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2016.12.007 european commission, 2001. green paper: promoting a european framework for corporate social responsibility [pdf ] available at: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/api/files/document/print/en/doc_01_9/doc_01_9_en.pdf. european commission, 2011. a renewed eu strategy 2011-14 for corporate social responsibility [pdf ] available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/lexuriserv/lexuriserv.do?uri=com:2011:0681:fin:en:pdf. european commission, 2012. strategy for the sustainable competitiveness of the construction sector and its enterprises [pdf ] available at: https://www.eesc.europa.eu/en/our-work/opinions-information-reports/opinions/strategy-sustainablecompetitiven. european commission, 2020a. a renovation wave for europe greening our buildings, creating jobs, improving lives [pdf ] available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/txt/?uri=celex%3a52020dc0662. european commission, 2020b. a new circular economy action plan for a cleaner and more competitive europe [pdf ] available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:9903b325-6388-11ea-b735-01aa…. european union, 2013. directive 2013/34/eu of the european parliament and of the council, 26 june 2013, on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings, amending directive 2006/43/ec of the european parliament and of the council and repealing council directives 78/660/eec and 83/349/eec. 29.6.2013, l 182. available at: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/txt/?uri=celex%3a32013l0034. gonzález morales, o., 2008. iniciativa empresarial: nuevos escenarios y nuevos retos para un desarrollo sostenible. valencia, spain: editorial tirant lo blanch. gowri, a., 2004. when responsibility can’t do it. journal of business ethics, 54(1), pp.33-50. https://doi.org/10.1023/ b:busi.0000043497.23400.00 graci, s. and doods, r., 2010. sustainable tourism in island destinations. london: earthscan. ihobe, 2010. green building rating systems: how to evaluate sustainability in buildings? país vasco: ihobe: elhuyar. jamil, a.h.a and fathi, s.m., 2016. the integration of lean construction and sustainable construction: a stakeholder perspective in analyzing sustainable lean construction strategies in malaysia. procedia computer science, 100, pp.634-43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2016.09.205 kurniawati, l. and mujiyati, m., 2023. analysis of factors affecting the implementation of social and environmental responsibility disclosure in property, real estate, and construction companies listed on the indonesia stock exchange 2015-2020. riset akuntansi dan keuangan indonesia, 7(2), pp.251-61. https://doi.org/10.23917/reaksi. v7i2.20040 lim, b.t. and loosemore, m., 2017. how socially responsible is construction business in australia and new zealand? procedia engineering, 180, pp.531-40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.04.212 loosemore, m. and lim, b., 2017. linking corporate social responsibility and organizational performance in the construction industry. construction management economics, 35(3), pp.95-105. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1 242762 loosemore, m., lim, b.t.h., ling, f.y.y. and zeng, h.y., 2018. a comparison of corporate social responsibility practices in the singapore, australia and new zealand construction industries. journal of cleaner production, 190, pp.149-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.04.157 lu, y. and zhang, x., 2016. corporate sustainability for architecture engineering and construction (aec) organizations: framework, transition and implication strategies. ecological indicators, 61, pp.911–22. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.10.046 domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202345 https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/api/files/document/print/en/doc_01_9/doc_01_9_en.pdf https://eur-lex.europa.eu/lexuriserv/lexuriserv.do?uri=com:2011:0681:fin:en:pdf https://www.eesc.europa.eu/en/our-work/opinions-information-reports/opinions/strategy-sustainable-competitiven https://www.eesc.europa.eu/en/our-work/opinions-information-reports/opinions/strategy-sustainable-competitiven https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/txt/?uri=celex%3a52020dc0662 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/resource.html?uri=cellar:9903b325-6388-11ea-b735-01aa… https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/txt/?uri=celex%3a32013l0034 https://doi.org/10.1023/b:busi.0000043497.23400.00 https://doi.org/10.1023/b:busi.0000043497.23400.00 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2016.09.205 https://doi.org/10.23917/reaksi.v7i2.20040 https://doi.org/10.23917/reaksi.v7i2.20040 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.04.212 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1242762 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1242762 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.04.157 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.10.046 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2015.10.046 moneva-abadía, j.m., gallardo-vázquez, d. y sánchez-hernández, m.i., 2019. la responsabilidad social empresarial como oportunidad estratégica para las pequeñas empresas durante las crisis económicas. revista de gestión de pequeñas empresas 57, pp172-99. ministerio de presidencia, 2008. royal decree 1247/2008, of july 18, which approves the structural concrete instruction (ehe-08). official state gazette, 203, pp.35176-78. ministerio de transportes, movilidad y agenda urbana, 2021. código estructural. real decreto y articulado (volumen i). madrid: centro de publicaciones de la secretaría general técnica. ogunmakinde, o.e., egbelakin, t. and sher, w., 2022. contributions of the circular economy to the un sustainable development goals through sustainable construction. resources, conservation and recycling, [e-journal] 178. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.106023 opoku, a., 2019. biodiversity and the built environment: implications for the sustainable development goals (sdgs). resources, conservation and recycling, 141, pp.1-7. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.10.011 prado-roman, c., del castillo-peces, c., mercado-idoeta, c. and del castillo-peces, j., 2018. the effects of implementing iso 9001 in the spanish construction industry. cuadernos de gestión, 18(1), pp.149-71. https://doi. org/10.5295/cdg.140507cd rezaei, f., bulle, c. and lesage, p., 2019. integrating building information modeling and life cycle assessment in the early and detailed building design stages. building and environment, 153, pp.158-67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. buildenv.2019.01.034 sarhan, s. and fox, a., 2013. barriers to implementing lean construction in the uk. the human and built environment review, 6, pp.1-17. schneider, a., 2020. bound to fail? exploring the systemic pathologies of csr and their implications for csr research. business and society, 59(7), pp.1303-38. https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650319856616 asociación española de normalización y certificación (aenor), 2012. guía de responsabilidad social. une-iso 26000: 2012. madrid: aenor. united nations, 2009. common carbon metric for measuring energy use and reporting greenhouse gas emissions from building operations [pdf ] available at: https://c2e2.unepdtu.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/09/unep-sbcicommon-carbon-metric.pdf [accessed 16 april 2022]. united nations, 2012. the future we want. in: outcome document of the united nations conference on sustainable development rio de janeiro, brazil, 20–22 june. available at: https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/ documents/733futurewewant.pdf [accessed 16 april 2022]. united nations, 2015. transforming our world: the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. resolution adopted by the general assembly. a/res/70/1. [online] available at: https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda. united nations, 2020. sustainable development goals report. [pdf ] available at: https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2020/ the-sustainable-development-goals-report-2020_spanish.pdf. vallina, d., 2020. iii study on csr in the cement sector. cemento hormigón, (177), p.9. watts, g., dainty, a. and fernie, s., 2015. making sense of csr in construction: do contractor and client perceptions align? in: raiden, a., aboagye-nimo, e. eds. proceedings 31st annual arcom conference, 7-9 september 2015. uk: association of researchers in construction management, lincoln, pp.197-206. xia, b., olanipekun, a., chen, q., xie, l. and liu, y., 2018. conceptualising the state of the art of corporate social responsibility (csr) in the construction industry and its nexus to sustainable development. journal of cleaner production, 195, pp.340-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.05.157 domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202346 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.106023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.106023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.10.011 https://doi.org/10.5295/cdg.140507cd https://doi.org/10.5295/cdg.140507cd https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.01.034 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.01.034 https://doi.org/10.1177/0007650319856616 https://c2e2.unepdtu.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/09/unep-sbci-common-carbon-metric.pdf https://c2e2.unepdtu.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2016/09/unep-sbci-common-carbon-metric.pdf https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/733futurewewant.pdf https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/733futurewewant.pdf https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2020/the-sustainable-development-goals-report-2020_spanish.pdf https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2020/the-sustainable-development-goals-report-2020_spanish.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.05.157 ye, m., lu, w., flanagan, r. and chau, k.w., 2019. corporate social responsibility “glocalisation”: evidence from the international construction business. corporate social responsibility and environmental management, 27(2), pp.655-69. https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1831 zeng, t., 2016. corporate social responsibility, tax aggressiveness, and firm market value. accounting perspectives, 15(1), pp.7-30. https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3838.12090 zhang, q., oo, b.l. and lim, b.t.h., 2019. drivers, motivations, and barriers to the implementation of corporate social responsibility practices by construction enterprises: a review. journal of cleaner production, 210, pp.563-84. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.11.050 zhang, q., oo, b.l. and lim, b.t.h., 2022. linking corporate social responsibility (csr) practices and organizational performance in the construction industry: a resource collaboration network. resources, conservation and recycling, 179, pp.106113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.106113 domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202347 https://doi.org/10.1002/csr.1831 https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3838.12090 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.11.050 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.11.050 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.106113 annex table i. valuations of actions related to environmental sensitivity, by group (%) factor 1. aspects on environmental sensitivity group 1: affirmative responses (%) to each indicator on actions carried out in the past group 2: affirmative responses (%) to each indicator on actions planned to be carried out in the future c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith ou t a c s r st ra te gy c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith a c s r s tr at eg y c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith ou t a c s r st ra te gy c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith a c s r s tr at eg y p.1. in the design / execution of a building, what importance do you assign to the following aspects? 1.1. rehabilitation of an existing building as an alternative to the construction of another new plant. 89.6 96.0 85.7 94.2 1.2. choice of location based on the revitalization of underused or abandoned land. 83.3 92.0 90.5 84.7 1.3. connectivity or proximity of public transport to its final location. 87.4 92.0 81.0 92.3 1.4. variation of the natural water cycle. 72.9 88.0 61.9 84.6 1.5. control and reuse of rainwater. 85.5 92.0 76.2 92.3 1.6. selection of vegetation in landscaped spaces that requires less irrigation water. 95.9 96.0 95.2 96.2 1.7. choice of suppliers or manufacturers of construction products and materials that are responsible with the environment. 87.5 92.0 85.8 90.3 1.8. taking care of the quality of living spaces. 95.8 100.0 95.2 98.1 p.2. do you or do you not carry out the following actions on the buildings you run? 2.1. uses or proposes the use of renewable energy sources. 64.6 72.0 47.6 75.0 2.2. it is important to know the distance between the supplier and the work when choosing it. 64.6 88.0 61.9 76.9 2.3. knows and applies the environmental declarations or the life cycle analysis as criteria for choosing construction products. 20.8 64.0 19.0 42.3 2.4. assesses the environmental footprint of the building after its demolition. 35.4 68.0 33.3 51.9 2.5. it takes into account the reuse of rainwater. 64.6 92.0 61.9 78.8 2.6. choose lower consumption sanitary appliances. 81.3 84.0 81.0 82.7 2.7. adopt measures for the reuse of grey water. 14.6 68.0 23.8 36.5 2.8. manages construction and demolition waste (rcd’s). 77.1 84.0 71.4 82.7 domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202348 factor 1. aspects on environmental sensitivity group 1: affirmative responses (%) to each indicator on actions carried out in the past group 2: affirmative responses (%) to each indicator on actions planned to be carried out in the future c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith ou t a c s r st ra te gy c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith a c s r s tr at eg y c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith ou t a c s r st ra te gy c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith a c s r s tr at eg y p.3. in the case of buildings, what is the degree of importance that you give to the environmental impact in each of the following phases and stages? 3.1. extraction and processing of raw materials. 93.8 96.0 90.4 96.1 3.2. transportation of raw materials to the producer. 79.1 88.0 66.7 88.4 3.3. construction product manufacturing. 85.5 92.0 81.0 90.4 3.4. transportation of construction products to the construction site. 83.4 88.0 71.4 90.4 3.5. preliminary draft. 75.0 84.0 71.4 80.8 3.6. building project. 79.2 92.0 76.1 86.6 3.7. building construction process. 91.6 92.0 90.4 92.3 3.8. consumption of water and energy during the period of use of the building. 93.7 100.0 95.3 96.2 3.9. cost of maintenance, repair, replacement and renovation of construction elements during the period of use of the building. 93.7 100.0 95.2 96.2 3.10. use of the building when all services and facilities are working. 97.9 96.0 100.0 96.2 3.11. demolition of the building at the end of its useful life. 60.5 84.0 57.1 73.1 3.12. management of construction and demolition waste (rcd’s), processing, transport and final deposit. 95.9 100.0 100.0 96.1 p.4. indicate the importance that you assign in the design / execution of a building to the following aspects 4.1. the public administration must intervene in urban planning by creating environmental assessment instruments. 93.8 92.0 90.6 94.2 4.2. it is necessary to make changes in the land law that makes energy rehabilitation viable. 91.7 88.0 80.9 94.2 4.3. construction materials and products that are manufactured using waste from other materials or processes as raw materials should preferably be used. 95.9 96.0 95.2 96.2 4.4. the public administration should draw up stricter regulations regarding limit temperatures in the air conditioning of spaces for public use. 91.7 82.0 85.8 90.3 table i. continued domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202349 factor 1. aspects on environmental sensitivity group 1: affirmative responses (%) to each indicator on actions carried out in the past group 2: affirmative responses (%) to each indicator on actions planned to be carried out in the future c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith ou t a c s r st ra te gy c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith a c s r s tr at eg y c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith ou t a c s r st ra te gy c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith a c s r s tr at eg y 4.5. the concept of sustainability in construction and energy efficiency in buildings are equivalent. 56.3 56.0 57.1 55.8 p.5. please indicate your degree of agreement with the following statements 5.1. sustainability is related only to environmental criteria. 79.2 92.0 80.9 84.7 5.2. in sustainable strategies, the social and economic aspect must be considered, in addition to the environmental one, this has not been adequately developed in the building sector. 93.8 96.0 90.6 96.2 5.3. sustainability strategies in construction include only: saving water, comfort, life cycle analysis and the environmental footprint after demolition. 79.2 80.0 99.9 71.2 p.6. please, indicate how often you carry out the following actions. 6.1. choice of materials and construction processes taking into account environmentally responsible extraction and production. 10.4 52.0 19 26.9 6.2. choice of construction materials and products that have undergone a life cycle analysis, from cradle to grave or cradle to cradle. 10.4 20.0 19 11.5 6.3. management and reuse of the natural resources of the environment that it transforms with the building. 22.9 56.0 9.5 44.2 6.4. design of facilities that make efficient and rational use of energy and water. 41.7 72.0 33.3 59.6 6.5. forecast of changes in the use of buildings in order to increase their useful life and / or reduce the impact of their use. 22.9 52.0 14.3 40.4 6.6. research and development of new, more efficient construction techniques. 27.1 60.0 33.3 40.4 table i. continued domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202350 table ii. valuations of actions related to economic aspects, by group (%) factor 2. economic aspects group 1: affirmative responses (%) to each indicator on actions carried out in the past group 2: affirmative responses (%) to each indicator on actions planned to be carried out in the future c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith ou t a c s r st ra te gy c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith a c s r s tr at eg y c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith ou t a c s r st ra te gy c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith a c s r s tr at eg y p.7. how important is the following to you? 7.1. it is appropriate to penalize high consumers of water and electricity who do not demonstrate efficient use of their facilities. 91.6 76.0 90.5 84.6 7.2. mandatory energy audits must be carried out and those responsible for non-compliance punished. 91.7 80.0 80.9 90.4 7.3. socio-environmentally friendly strategies have a favourable impact on the final price of the property. 45.8 40.0 57.0 38.5 7.4. indicators should be established that allow deciding whether the actions are adequate from the economic point of view. 98.0 96.0 100.0 96.1 7.5. the levels of production and development of clean technologies must be improved. 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 7.6. it is advisable to develop a public web page for each work to inform the citizen of the characteristics, execution deadlines and financial data. 60.4 64.0 47.6 67.4 p.8. please indicate your degree of agreement with the following statements 8.1. socio-environmentally responsible construction brings economic advantages. 72.9 92.0 71.4 82.7 8.2. the existence of incentives on the part of the public administration is necessary in the form of reduction of taxes linked to real estate executed by socio-environmentally responsible companies. 93.8 100.0 95.3 96.2 8.3. building maintenance costs are lower if it is built with socioenvironmentally responsible criteria than with traditional methods. 79.1 96.0 76.2 88.4 8.4. the final price of a home or building built with socioenvironmentally responsible criteria is lower compared to other buildings that do not include these criteria. 75.0 80.0 76.1 77.0 8.5. incentives should be created for the certification of corporate social responsibility (csr) of properties. 95.9 92.0 90.5 96.1 domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202351 factor 2. economic aspects group 1: affirmative responses (%) to each indicator on actions carried out in the past group 2: affirmative responses (%) to each indicator on actions planned to be carried out in the future c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith ou t a c s r st ra te gy c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith a c s r s tr at eg y c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith ou t a c s r st ra te gy c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith a c s r s tr at eg y p.9. how important is the following statements? 9.1. 80% of the costs of operation, maintenance and repair of a building are set early in the design process, which is why it is so important to establish strategies in that phase. 91.7 80.0 90.5 86.6 9.2. the life cycle cost study should be done in the early stages of the project to provide greater opportunities to evaluate alternatives. 91.6 100.0 85.8 91.1 9.3. the material execution budget is the ideal tool for evaluating financial aspects. 68.7 64.0 66.7 67.3 9.4. it is interesting to propose other indices in the project phase that are transparent and verifiable to assess the economic aspects. 97.9 96.0 95.3 98.1 9.5. it is convenient to assign sustainability indicators to concrete and other construction products through specifications, characteristics and performance. 98.0 84.0 95.2 92.3 p.10 indicate the degree of impact on the cost of the building of the following actions 10.1. the final price of a building designed to suit people with specific needs is higher. 45.8 56.0 47.6 50.0 10.2. the economic viability of a project that foresees changes in the use of a building throughout its useful life is lower. 64.5 80.0 71.4 69.2 10.3. it is not profitable to apply modifications or improvements that are not required by current regulations. 81.3 76.0 80.9 78.9 10.4. providing all stakeholders with the path to get involved in decision making increases profitability. 89.7 92.0 90.4 90.4 10.5. by improving the working conditions of employees, you improve productivity. 93.8 96.0 95.2 94.2 table ii. continued domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202352 table iii. valuations of shares related to their social contribution, by group (%) factor 3. aspects on social contribution group 1: affirmative responses (%) to each indicator on actions carried out in the past group 2: affirmative responses (%) to each indicator on actions planned to be carried out in the future c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith ou t a c s r st ra te gy c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith a c s r s tr at eg y c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith ou t a c s r st ra te gy c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith a c s r s tr at eg y p.11 indicate the frequency with which you carry out actions related to the health and comfort of the users of the building 11.1. study the ability of people with specific needs to access certain services in the building. 56.3 68.0 38.1 69.2 11.2. make a forecast of the capacity of the building to adapt to the requirements of the residents and to changes in those requirements throughout its useful life. 41.7 52.0 33.3 50.0 11.3. study the acoustic conditions of the building. 45.8 64.0 33.3 59.6 11.4. analyse the indoor air quality of the building. 27.1 52.0 14.3 44.2 11.5. evaluate the visual comfort and spatial characteristics of the building. 50.0 60.0 28.6 63.5 11.6. defines the quality of the building’s water. 14.6 68.0 14.3 40.4 11.7. assess the electromagnetic characteristics of the building. 6.3 28.0 4.8 17.3 11.8. assess the thermal comfort of the building. 43.8 60.0 23.8 59.6 11.9 it takes into account the access to private open spaces from the dwellings 47.9 56.0 28.6 59.6 11.10. look for solutions to protect the interior of the houses from the views from the outside. 54.2 48.0 47.8 53.8 11.11. designs mechanisms to control the lighting system in nonresidential areas of occupation. 45.8 60.0 38.1 55.8 11.12. provides for the control of heating, cooling and ventilation systems in non-residential areas of occupation. 37.5 64.0 33.3 51.9 p.12 indicate the frequency with which you carry out actions related to the load of the building 12.1. design mechanisms to reduce noise. 37.5 64.0 23.8 55.8 12.2. look for solutions to control emissions to outdoor air, soil and water. 47.9 60.0 42.9 55.8 12.3. he designs elements to attenuate the glare and over-sunlight that could be generated in the surrounding buildings. 18.8 44.0 14.3 32.7 domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202353 factor 3. aspects on social contribution group 1: affirmative responses (%) to each indicator on actions carried out in the past group 2: affirmative responses (%) to each indicator on actions planned to be carried out in the future c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith ou t a c s r st ra te gy c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith a c s r s tr at eg y c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith ou t a c s r st ra te gy c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith a c s r s tr at eg y 12.4. it indicates how to reduce impacts and vibrations during all phases of the building process. 31.3 52.0 23.8 44.2 12.5. develop and implement a maintenance management plan. 33.3 60.0 19.0 51.9 12.6. it establishes the maintenance operations including those carried out by the user himself. 39.6 60.0 28.6 53.8 p.13 indicate the frequency with which you carry out actions related to the security of the building 13.1. designs strategies in relation to resistance to climate change: rain, wind, snow, floods, solar radiation, temperature. 20.8 56.0 23.8 36.5 13.2. calculate resistance to accidental situations: earthquakes, explosions, fire, traffic impacts. 35.4 60.0 23.8 51.9 13.3. design security elements against vandalism and intruders. 39.6 56.0 33.3 50.0 13.4. establishes security mechanisms against supply interruptions. 33.3 60.0 42.9 42.3 p.14 indicate the frequency with which you carry out csr actions 14.1. it is responsible for the traceability of the products and services it provides. 56.3 72.0 52.4 65.4 14.2. it facilitates the possibility for all interested parties to get involved in decision-making. 43.8 76.0 38.1 66.5 14.3. establishes criteria to quantify indicators for later comparison. 16.7 64.0 9.5 42.3 14.4. when it is not possible to quantify them, it establishes qualitative criteria and verifies those using checklists. 16.7 52.0 23.8 30.8 14.5. for each work, it prepares a free access web page to inform the citizen, including characteristics, execution deadlines, economic and social implications. 6.3 4.0 4.8 5.8 table iii. continued domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202354 factor 3. aspects on social contribution group 1: affirmative responses (%) to each indicator on actions carried out in the past group 2: affirmative responses (%) to each indicator on actions planned to be carried out in the future c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith ou t a c s r st ra te gy c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith a c s r s tr at eg y c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith ou t a c s r st ra te gy c om pa ny in th e co ns tr uc ti on se ct or w ith a c s r s tr at eg y p.15 indicate the importance you attach to the following statements 15.1. society demands that construction companies improve the service, for this it is convenient to establish indicators that allow evaluating social actions. 87.5 88.0 85.7 88.5 15.2. to contribute to the quality of life of employees, voluntary health and safety measures will be adopted in addition to the mandatory ones. 85.5 100.0 85.7 92.3 15.3. at least 30% of the personnel working in the execution of the structure have had specific training courses in technical, quality or environmental aspects. 81.2 84.0 80.9 82.8 15.4. it should be ensured that the building maintains a good relationship with the urban environment with involvement in its development, it is essential. 95.9 100.0 95.2 98.1 15.5. it proposes possible changes in the use of the buildings it builds in order to increase its useful life 85.5 88.0 85.7 86.5 15.6. it considers that it has responsibility in the way of creating builtup spaces. 87.5 84.0 76.2 90.4 15.7. it applies innovative methods that are the results of r&d&i projects carried out in the last 3 years. 50.0 92.0 47.5 71.2 15.8. your business activity has an impact on the next generation. 87.5 100.0 90.5 92.3 15.9. awareness campaigns should be promoted to publicize socioenvironmentally responsible construction. 97.9 96.0 95.3 98.0 table iii. continued domínguez-herrera, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202355 construction economics and building vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022 © 2022 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: malla, v., delhi, v. s. k. 2022. determining interconnectedness of barriers to interface management in large construction projects. construction economics and building, 22:2, 69–101. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v22i2.7936 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article determining interconnectedness of barriers to interface management in large construction projects vijayeta malla1,* and venkata santosh kumar delhi2 1 doctoral research scholar (indian institute of technology bombay) & assistant professor, school of construction management, national institute of construction management and research (nicmar), hyderabad 500101, india. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9377-8414; 194048002@iitb.ac.in; vijayeta.malla@gmail.com; vmalla@nicmar.ac.in 2 associate professor, dept. of civil engineering, indian institute of technology bombay, mumbai 400076, india. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9588-4130; venkatad@iitb.ac.in corresponding author: vijayeta malla, doctoral research scholar (indian institute of technology bombay) & assistant professor, school of construction management, national institute of construction management and research (nicmar), hyderabad 500101, india. orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9377-8414; 194048002@iitb.ac.in; vijayeta.malla@gmail.com; vmalla@nicmar.ac.in doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i2.7936 article history: received: 13/10/2021; revised: 18/01/2022 & 03/04/2022; accepted: 23/04/2022; published: 20/06/2022 abstract this study aims to identify the crucial barriers to interface management and understand the interdependencies in large infrastructure construction projects (licp). threepronged sequential explanatory mixed methods research is adopted comprising a structured survey of experts (n=102) and semi-structured interviews (n=13). subsequently, interpretive structural modelling (ism) integrated with fuzzy protocol is used to analyse pairwise interrelationships among these factors. a ‘multi-layered im barrier’ model is developed with ‘process related issues,’ 'misaligned incentives among project stakeholders' and 'frequent change orders' as the manifested barriers. on the other hand, this study also prioritized the barriers and classified them as driving, linking, and independent. the outcome of this study presents the interdependence of barriers and classification of barriers, focusing on proactive action on driving barriers, which is crucial to the knowledge of interface management. the impact position of licp with the identified declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 69 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7842 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7842 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9377-8414 mailto:194048002@iitb.ac.in mailto:vijayeta.malla@gmail.com mailto:vmalla@nicmar.ac.in https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9588-4130 mailto:venkatad@iitb.ac.in https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9377-8414 mailto:194048002@iitb.ac.in mailto:vijayeta.malla@gmail.com mailto:vmalla@nicmar.ac.in https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7842 project issues can be compared against ‘multi-layered im barriers’ and can help project teams better strategize im by focusing on essential barriers. in addition, such exercises can improve the coordination among participants in construction projects. using a structured approach to identifying interdependencies among barriers to im is a significant original contribution by the study. keywords interface management; interface issues; project management; interpretive structural modelling; large infrastructure construction projects introduction a sizeable share of large construction projects has been progressively increasing in the modern economic era. simultaneously, the pandemic-induced economic depression in 2020 vividly revealed that successful project delivery depends on sustainable project lifecycle management and project management principles and approaches. large infrastructure construction projects (licp) can be defined as those projects that are multi-stakeholder, long-duration engagement endeavours that are often considered transformative and significantly impact many individuals in a society (flyvbjerg, 2017). such projects cause 'displacements' to rapidly transform landscapes and necessitate coordinated capital and sustained governance for their success (gellert and lynch, 2003). the project complexity, combined with multi-stakeholder nature, makes it highly probable to have several interfaces to facilitate interactions at boundary points between stakeholders. coordination-associated problems such as improper communication (baldwin, et al.,1971; chen, et al., 2020), mismatch of owner's expectations (ling and lau, 2002), rampant bureaucracy (durdyev and hosseini, 2020), dishonest practices (kadry, osman and georgy, 2017), and disputes (chen, et al., 2019) are often observed on projects. such coordination issues call for synergies through sustained “interface management.” effective and efficient interface management (im) is critical to successful project delivery (morris, 1983; pavitt and gibb, 2003; shokri, et al., 2012). there is no single agreed definition for interface management (im); however, it can be described as interaction of entities (for example people, products and organisations) at the level battery limits or boundary. for instance, a joint study conducted by pmi and kpmg in 2019 on comprehending the indian construction projects plagued with massive schedule and cost overruns recommended a few measures. one of those recommendations was use of collaborative, agile planning and management of stakeholders. this recommendation is underpinned by the belief that the adoption of ‘interface management’ would eliminate the interface-related problems among the contracting players and align and work with a shared understanding, thereby improving productivity. earlier research studies revealed that control of interfacerelated issues results in an additional cost to the tune of one-fifth of project costs (nooteboom, 2004). this shows the importance of interface management in controlling project metrics. additionally, the recent studies by (paik, leviakangas and choi, 2020 and sami ur rehman, et al., 2020) indicated that project managers deployed bim for managing large construction projects and attempted to mitigate the interfacerelated impacts. there are exhaustive studies specific to the identification of interface issues between various stakeholders in the construction supply chain (al-hammad, 1995; alarcon and mardones, 1998; alhammad, 2000; fac, et al., 2006; weshah, et al., 2013; yeganeh, azizi and falsafi, 2019; chen, et al., 2020). these studies identified interface issues that lacked the information of interdependency among the barriers necessary for project managers to pinpoint the driving issues and embark on proactive measures. mere identification of barriers is inadequate. however, im's successful implementation entails the identification of interdependencies and structuring between im barriers, as well as revealing the most driving and dependent malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202270 power among these barriers. understanding interdependence among the barriers provides insights into triggering mechanisms amidst the critical barriers, which forms the motivation for this study. nonetheless, little attention is devoted to exploring the interdependencies among the interface management barriers in construction. thus, to fill this gap, this study attempts to identify the critical barriers to im implementation and investigate the interdependencies among the identified barriers. this study identifies the driving and dependent im barriers that enable the construction stakeholders to manage interface-related issues that impact key performance metrics proactively. large construction projects use principles and protocols that involve myriad complications in managing with the owners, technical customers, and epc contractors. this is because the system of licps covers many contracts involving varied contractors (gusakova, 2018). hence, the same principles and approaches would not work for all the stakeholders (internal and external). to begin with, the management of relational ties with a sole project team among the client, customer, designer and the general contractor, is impracticable (araújo, carneiro and palha, 2020). moreover, the assumption of a sole project team is based on the distinct focus on all the participants' interests and goals (pavlov, et al., 2019). in practice, the interests of the participants involved in a licp vary and are often multipronged. this occurs in situations where the owner intends to lower the construction cost, the general contractor intends to increase the construction cost, and the technical customer intends to transfer the coordination work and tasks to the design firm, necessitating extra payment (ding, et al., 2019). also, from the perspective of choosing the most costeffective alternatives, the management of a sole project team seems impractical for implementation (hazır and ulusoy, 2020). from the general contractor's (gc) point of view, the consideration of most profitable construction order is welcomed. however, due to the market conditions and competition from peer industry players, the chances of construction orders to the gcs are few. from the point of view of the customer, the consideration of fulfillment of technical construction order is the priority. numerous transformative engineering and construction enterprises are presently functioning to mitigate the extant prominent issues that cause disintegration. one of the critical issues is the antagonistic repercussions for technology-driven advancement. although, varied forms of contract such as design-build, integrated project delivery (ipd), and public private partnership (ppp) deemed to be modes to foster integration, disintegration nonetheless prevails. irrespective of the project delivery mechanism adopted for projects, there seems to be several interface issues that originate during execution of projects that hamper integration. (nam and tatum, 1992) investigated integration of construction projects and described the non-contractual modes such as client’s leadership, autonomous integration champions, and professional ethics of project teams to overcome disintegration. the coordination problems usually manifest as various interfaces cumulatively impacting productivity, coordination and communication issues (kelly and berger, 2006; chen, reichard and beliveau, 2007; allmayer and winkler, 2014). construction projects in the recent past are often characterized by technological and organisational complexity. such projects often involve cross-functional teams working under pressure to comply with condensed schedules and stricter cost objectives. such interfaces now assume a new character in human-machine interactions and create digitalized asset models for predictive asset maintenance and management (prieto, 2015; shokri, et al., 2016; leviäkangas, paik and moon, 2017). thus, there is an immense need to study increases in im for complex projects where transdisciplinary teams and construction supply chain (csc) interactions are numerous (tah, 2005). structured protocols, processes and precise documentation are essential components of interactions among interfaces. in order to achieve streamlined interactions across interfaces it is imperative to understand the barriers that affect interface management as the initial step. often, these barriers are interdependent. the current study achieves this aim by adopting a systematic approach to identify barriers from the extant literature and establishing interdependency among the identified barriers to im implementation. malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202271 literature review definition, taxonomy, and significance of interfaces in construction the term ‘interface’ can be defined as a liminal or gateway state that demarcates either on the prevalence of a specific type of phenomenon or facilitates non-existent phenomena, territories, conditions, scenarios for use, exploration, exploitation, and participation. interface management can be broadly defined as sharing and managing the boundary limits among the physical constituents, machinery, systems, stages, people, processes, organisations, and others (wren, 1967; wideman, 2002; godinot, 2003). the interface concept took root from the systems approach, wherein the organisations acted as interdependent systems (wren, 1967). thus, the organisations cooperated amongst themselves to achieve both local organisational objectives and global project objectives. likewise, projects have been decomposed into sub-projects, and their interfaces decide the integration required (morris, 1983). interfaces evolved from the disintegration of work into parts accomplished by different stakeholders or organisations (stuckenbruck, 1983). their characteristics often classify the interfaces. firstly, numerous interactions with entities have been classified as 'internal' when the work executed was within one organisation and 'external' when the work was performed on collaborating between different organisations (healy, 1997). further, 'temporal' interfaces existed when transition occurred from one activity to another (morris, 1983). for example, a' geographical' interface exists when the boundary occurs between on-site and off-site construction projects. finally, the interface characteristics often defined the interactions that occur across them. for example, 'technical' interfaces conditioned the limits of interactions between sub-components of a system. similarly, 'organisational' interfaces limited the interactions between the groups and individuals. the interfaces have also been classified as 'complete' and 'partial' matches based on compatibility in project interactions. seamless matching between physical, operational, and data exchange in interactions was achieved in the complete match. however, this was often challenging to attain. a partial match was a frequent scenario where few common characteristics prevailed amongst the work practices or operations in practical scenarios. such partial incompatibility leads to issues at interfaces in several ways. however, the interactions across interfaces were crucial for project progress. for instance, in an organisational interface, the contact between the design team and related parties has been paramount to exchanging precise design data (gibb, 1995). thus, when issues exist across such interfaces, they impact stakeholders involved. significance of interfaces in construction the interface agreements should be established on critical issues, i.e., who warrants the interfaces. the absence of clear expectations in the agreement or roles delineated at such interface leads to insufficient design data exchange and organisation problems. similarly, in a physical interface, the connections or the boundaries between two or more building elements or components like civil work and mechanical, electrical and plumbing (mep) elements interact (pavitt and gibb, 2003). for example, the information regarding the as-built duct openings from civil execution teams has been a mandatory prerequisite for mep work execution (pavitt and gibb, 2003). again at this interface, improper information exchange leads to redundant processes and reworks (lin, 2013). it is essential to understand im in construction, as ineffective communications management across interfaces of construction project players were the primary reasons for cost and schedule overruns in capital projects (han, kim and kim, 2007). therefore, the key to successful construction project execution has been dependent on actively managing respective stakeholders, interfaces, and the risks imbued in improper communications. such im processes were imperative throughout the project life cycle. in consequence of this case and improving project key performance indices (kpis), im practices were poised to serve as an malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202272 effective tool to oversee the project and its performance (al-hammad, 2000; pavitt and gibb, 2003; yun, mulva, and o’brien, 2012). impact of interface-related barriers and the need for interdependency study among barriers though a matured and well-established concept in the manufacturing industry, im has been comparatively a new development in the construction industry (chen, 2007). the impact of interface problems lead to the deterrence of collaboration between stakeholders (töpfer, 1995). furthermore, inadequate management of technical interfaces resulted in rework, excess delays, and costs (sundgren, 1999). managing internal and external interfaces necessitates different skill sets (stuckenbruck, 1983; healy, 1997). also, careful management has been essential while manoeuvring from the conceptual phase to the commissioning stage (morris, 1983; stuckenbruck, 1983; caron, marchet and perego, 1998). the mentioned interface-related problems were detrimental to the project's performance. therefore, it is essential to identify and explore the interdependencies among the barriers to interface management adoption in the early stage of a project life cycle. hence, the process of investigation of interdependencies aid construction practitioners and the research community in understanding their nature and prioritizing based on ranking. barriers imply the hurdles to the implementation of interface management implementation in construction. therefore, im execution requires the identification of these barriers. literature on identifying interface issues has been explored in the dimensions of people, processes, resources, documentation, project management, and environmental aspects, which are considered as control elements for im strategy (chen, reichard and beliveau, 2008). additionally, the interrelation between two stakeholders such as owners and general contractors (al-hammad, 1990), design engineers and general contractor professionals (almansouri, 1988; al-hammad and assaf, 1992), general contractors and sub-contractors (al-hammad, 1993; hinze and andres, 1994), owner and facility management stakeholders (al-hammad, 1995), as well as owners and engineering design professionals (al-hammad and al-hammad, 1996) have been investigated. extant research investigations ranked the barriers; however, the importance of identification and interdependency of critical barriers remains to be understood. also, as im implementation has been new to the construction domain, studies related to large infrastructure projects necessitate understanding the relevance of interdependencies amongst the barriers. the presence of a varied number of im barriers poses difficulty in the successful implementation of im. thus, it necessitates examining the influence of the identified barriers and determining the interrelationship between these barriers while implementing im. merely identifying and uprooting these driving barriers is arduous and requires additional examination. also, it is impossible to eliminate all types of barriers concurrently. therefore, industries need to ascertain the most potent barrier. the current study's key objectives include identifying the critical barriers, determining the interdependencies among the selected im barriers, and examining the driving and dependency powers of imbs for the effective implementation of im in an organisation. to fulfill the objectives mentioned above, a consolidated ism-fuzzy micmac analysis has been established to comprehensively understand the interactions among varied imbs to address those barriers that are needed for effective im implementation. classification of interface management barriers from the literature the grouping of barriers is arranged below, and the references for the same are mentioned in table 1. 1. contractual: the barriers such as nonexistence of contract standards, specifications, penalty clauses, ambiguity in interpretation and sub-standard drafting of the contract clauses, delays in design malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202273 engineering, and respective approvals from owner’s end, engineering, procurement, and construction schedule delays and recurring change orders. 2. economic: barriers such as ad-hoc detailing of schedule of payment, absence of cost indices of construction materials for estimation, poor cost estimation for maintenance works, meagre allocation of budget for design engineering work relative to requirements, exorbitant engineering design fees, and misaligned incentives among the stakeholders 3. use of technology: technology-based barriers such as change management issues in technology adoption and poor forecasting of project-specific problems concerning materials and technology (which includes the incompetency of the professionals in using technology). 4. planning: statutes based barriers such as region-specific legislation and regulatory compliance problems, naïve in working with the government auditing protocols and procedures 5. statutory: planning related barriers such as inadequate work packaging, design and subcontracting, engineering design, unawareness in construction material availability, and building fast-tracking phenomenon in construction activities 6. coordination: coordination issues such as the presence of numerous project interface conflicts with project players, engineering and process-based issues, a lacuna of information exchange, and inadequate coordination and association amongst the construction supply chain 7. communication: communication-based problems such as lacuna of site-specific knowledge, local climatic and environmental factors, inadequate communication and reporting skills among the stakeholders, and design-communication tools between the designer and owner representatives. 8. acts of god: acts of god-related barriers such as poor knowledge of environmental hazards consideration at the design phase at the local level. therefore, the current study conducts a holistic investigation of the interrelations among the contemporary barrier elements to interface management in large infrastructure projects to address this gap. consequently, the planned objectives are: a. to identify critical barriers associated with im implementation in the large infrastructure projects b. to determine the interdependence between the identified critical barriers to im implementation and their classification c. to develop a structured model of identified top im barriers research method sequential explanatory mixed methods research comprising three phases is used to understand the structure and interactions among the im barriers, as depicted in figure 1. the first phase includes exploring relevant peer-reviewed construction interface management literature from databases like scopus, web of science and articles from publishers like emerald, science direct, taylor & francis, and wiley to identify an initial set of im barriers. the second phase encompasses the downsizing of identified barriers through a structured questionnaire survey. lastly, interpretive structural modelling (ism) is directed to aid pairwise interdependency inputs from experts in the third phase on the final set of im barriers. the detailed steps of the research are presented in the subsequent sections. sequential mixed methods research has been used. as the first objective entails identifying critical barriers, the quantitative method was considered the most suitable. therefore, a questionnaire survey has been used to realize the first objective. the second objective deals with the expert opinions through a semi-structured interview approach to evaluate the pairwise relations for the final im barriers; hence, the qualitative method was deployed. malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202274 phase i: systematic review for identification of preliminary barriers to im in the first phase, interface related issues are sourced from extant literature using keywords such as 'interfaces in construction,' 'interface problems,' 'interface issues' and 'interface management in the construction industry' from databases such as scopus, web of science, and articles of related conferences. then a qualitative review of extracted research articles was performed, and upon validation of identified barriers with industry practitioners, a set of thirty (30) preliminary barriers to interface management were confirmed. then, the preliminary barriers to im were categorized as contractual, economic, use of technology, statutory and legislative compliance, planning, coordination, communication, and acts of god, as depicted in table 1. table 1. list of preliminary 30 barriers to im. barriers to interface management (im) from literature review code category description reference 1 contractual lack of contractual standards and specifications (al-hammad, 1995; al-hammad and al-hammad, 1996; al-hammad, 2000; ayudhya, 2011; eray, et al., 2017; sha’ar, et al., 2017; abureishah and hiyassat, 2021) 2 contractual contractual performance delays and client's delay in design approvals (al-hammad, 1995; weshah, et al., 2013; pauwels, zhang and lee, 2017; sha’ar, et al., 2017; sweis, et al., 2019; elhusseiny, nosair and ezeldin, 2021) phase -1 phase -3 identification of interface management barriers through literature review and consultation with experts obtain preliminary set of barriers to interface management (im) collected preliminary set of 30 barriers to im structured questionnaire survey – from 102 respondents obtain final set of barriers to im basing on threshold of rii ranking > 0.7 collected final set of 10 barriers to im based mapping interdependencies among the final im barriers interpretive structural modelling (ism)-13 experts using fuzzy scale (0-1) establishment of hierarchical structure micmac analysis ism-fuzzy micmac model ph as es m et ho ds r es ea rc h fl ow o ut co m es phase -2 figure 1. analytical research methodology malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202275 barriers to interface management (im) from literature review code category description reference 3 contractual engineering, procurement, and construction schedule delays (al-hammad, 1995; weshah, et al., 2013; kim, lee and choi, 2019; lee, et al., 2019; yang, et al., 2019) 4 contractual ambiguous contract language and poor drafting of contractual agreement (al-hammad and al-hammad, 1996; al-hammad, 2000; huang, et al., 2008; ayudhya, 2011; assaf, et al., 2019; nguyen and phu nguyen, 2020) 5 contractual contract deficient of penalty clauses (al-hammad, 1995; assaf, et al., 2019; nguyen and phu nguyen, 2020) 6 contractual frequent change orders (al-hammad and al-hammad, 1996; zidane and andersen, 2018; durdyev and hosseini, 2020) 7 contractual delays in design services completion (al-hammad and al-hammad, 1996; johnson and babu, 2020; shoar and payan, 2021) 8 economic poor detailing of schedule of payments (al-hammad, 1995; weshah, et al., 2013; rachid, toufik and mohammed, 2019; durdyev and hosseini, 2020) 9 economic lack of construction cost indices for estimation al-hammad, 1995; hussain, et al., 2018) 10 economic incorrect maintenance cost estimation (al-hammad, 1995; song, hu and feng, 2018) 11 economic misaligned incentives among project stakeholders (al-hammad, 1995; zhang, et al., 2020) 12 economic low budget for design services relative to requirements (al-hammad and al-hammad, 1996; sha’ar, et al., 2017) 13 economic high engineering design fees (al-hammad and al-hammad, 1996; assaf, hassanain and abdallah, 2017; assaf, et al., 2019) 14 use of technology improper forecast of project-specific issues related to technology and material (al-hammad, 1995; ahn, et al., 2017; sepasgozar, et al., 2019) 15 use of technology resistance to technology adoption (al-hammad, 1995; ahn, et al., 2017; sha’ar, et al., 2017; arefazar, et al., 2019) table 1. continued malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202276 barriers to interface management (im) from literature review code category description reference 16 statutory local and legislation and regulation related issues al-hammad, 2000; huang et al., 2008; ku, et al., 2010; bekdik et al., 2018) 17 inexperience with government auditing protocols and procedures (huang et al., 2008; ku, et al., 2010; kivilä, martinsuo and vuorinen, 2017; biesenthal et al., 2018) 18 planning improper work packaging design and subcontracting (chen, 2007; zidane and andersen, 2018) 19 planning inappropriate engineering design (al-hammad and al-hammad, 1996; zidane and andersen, 2018) 20 planning unawareness about construction materials availability (al-hammad and al-hammad, 1996; sinesilassie, tabish and jha, 2018; hamerski, et al., 2020) 21 planning implementation of fasttrack engineering and construction techniques (al-hammad and assaf, 1992) 22 coordination increased project interfaces conflicts with stakeholders (ku, et al., 2010; shokri et al., 2016; shen et al., 2017) 23 coordination process related issues (al-hammad and assaf, 1992; alhammad, 1993; al-hammad, 2000; chen, 2007; mortaheb and rahimi, 2010; ayudhya, 2011; oraee, et al., 2017) 24 coordination lack of proper information exchange between stakeholders (al-hammad and al-hammad, 1996; li, et al., 2015; li, et al., 2016; mok, shen and yang, 2017) 25 coordination insufficient communication and coordination among project stakeholders (al-hammad, 1993; al-hammad and al-hammad, 1996; al-hammad, 2000; fac, et al., 2006; arain and assaf, 2007; chen, 2007; ku, et al., 2010; yeh et al., 2020) 26 communication unawareness of environmental factors consideration during the design phase (al-hammad and al-hammad, 1996; tian, 2013) 27 communication lack of site-related knowledge (al-hammad and assaf, 1992; yap, abdul-rahman and wang, 2018; yap, et al., 2021) table 1. continued malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202277 barriers to interface management (im) from literature review code category description reference 28 communication insufficient communication and reporting skills among the stakeholders (al-hammad, 1995; chen, et al., 2019) 29 communication insufficient design communication tools between designer and owner (al-hammad and al-hammad, 1996; chen, et al., 2019) 30 acts of god lack of knowledge of local climatic and environmental factors (al-hammad, 2000; chen, reichard and beliveau, 2008; huang, et al., 2008; ayudhya, 2011; famiyeh, et al., 2017) phase ii: structured questionnaire survey a structured questionnaire survey for primary data collection comprising identified preliminary barriers to im derived from phase-i is developed on a rating of im barriers importance over a five-point likert scale (with '1' being the least importance and '5' high importance). the questionnaire was sent to 354 identified industry practitioners and the research community through online modes such as e-mail, whatsapp, and social media. purposive sampling was chosen due to the lower availability of a population of construction professionals who possess expertise in the im-related domain. the purposive sampling technique was used, and the structured survey data collection was administered for two months with fortnight reminders to the survey responders. the participants chosen for responding to the questionnaire are purposive sampling criteria. the criteria for selecting experts are based on two aspects (1) work experience of more than ten years in large construction projects involving multiple interfaces or (2) academia whose research expertise is related to mega construction projects. 102 out of 109 responded surveys were considered valid. the first part of the questionnaire comprised demographic characteristics such as work experience, stakeholder organisation type, job role, and education qualification, shown in table 2. the next part investigated the knowledge specific to im barriers. after data collection, in order to rank the im barriers, on the computing of relative importance index (rii) final set of barriers were (obtained from threshold value where rii is more significant than 0.70) confirmed for interpretive structural modelling analysis. table 2. respondent characteristics of barriers to interface management structured questionnaire survey respondent characteristics frequency percentage organization type researcher 13 13% project management consultants 12 12% design / engineering services 9 9% general contractor 48 47% table 1. continued malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202278 respondent characteristics frequency percentage owner/client 14 14% sub-contractor 4 4% vendor/supplier 2 2% education level bachelor 43 42% masters 38 37% doctorate 5 5% post graduate diploma 16 16% designation in the company engineers / junior managers 24 24% mid-level managers 20 20% senior level managers 32 31% director/assistant vice president and other top management roles 16 16% academicians 10 10% work experience <5 years 12 12% 5-10 years 24 24% 10-15 years 30 29% 15-20 years 11 11% >20 years 25 25% phase iii: expert interviews the identified final set of barriers was subjected to expert opinions for the evaluation of contextual pairwise relationship as per interpretive structural modelling (ism). the criteria for selecting experts were based on two aspects (1) work experience of more than ten years in complex construction projects involving multiple interfaces or (2) academics whose research expertise is related to mega construction projects. experts satisfying the above two requirements were considered qualified as experts for subject matter opinions related to the current study. invitation for evaluating the contextual pairwise association among the identified barriers was sent to forty eligible experts. the selection was based on purposive sampling as the experts possessing im domain experience are scarce. thirteen experts accepted the invitation to semistructured interviews. the experts hailed from the community of general contractors, academia, consultants, and owner enterprises. the selected thirteen experts possess at least 10 years of experience working with im-based large construction projects and were reliable as they provided ample explanations and familiarity on im phenomenon. according to braun and clarke (2013), a qualitative study requires a minimum sample size of at least twelve to arrive at data saturation. therefore, for this ism study, a sample size of thirteen was table 2. continued malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202279 considered adequate. ism is a widely accepted methodology for determining relationships among particular elements that describe an issue or a problem (warfield, 1974). the development of the relationship matrix was enabled with expert opinions resulting in the ism model. the classical ism model was developed initially with the final interface management adoption barriers (imb). however, owing to the lacuna in the detailed structuring of barriers, fuzzy protocols have been integrated for a detailed granularity of hierarchy levels of imbs. interpretive structural modelling (ism)-fuzzy micmac for parameter prioritization and ranking purposes, there are ample multi-criteria decision-making methods like dematel, vikor, ahp, topsis and anp. also, quantitative methods like structural equation modelling map the interrelations among parameters through primary or secondary data sources. fuzzy cognitive maps is another hybrid technique that embeds neural networks and fuzzy sets adopted from cognitive maps (kosko, 1986) and models the cause and effects of a phenomenon. however, these methods lack hierarchical structuring of deployed parameters which specifically aid in the strategic formulation of various quality initiatives in industries (yadav and desai, 2016). ism eradicates drawbacks as mentioned above and builds organized structure from bottom to top level, indicating input to output parameters in a hierarchical way (piltan and sowlati, 2016). the ism’s organised way of constructing a hierarchical portrayal of the system has been widely utilized in various research domains (gorane and kant, 2015). additionally, it converts vague and tacit mental models into comprehensible models (sushil, 2012) and involves structuring the model through an interactive learning method. furthermore, ism method is a qualitative model initiated utilizing the intellectual inputs from experts, aiding in construction of relationships between the parameters and ascertaining the influence of one parameter over the other (chander, jain and shankar, 2013). interpretive structural modelling (ism) builds organised structure from bottom to top, indicating input to output parameters hierarchically (piltan and sowlati, 2016). the ism's organised way of constructing a hierarchical portrayal of the system has been widely utilized in various research domains (gorane and kant, 2015). also, ism qualitatively builds the relationships between the parameters and influence of one parameter over the other with expertise inputs (chander, jain and shankar, 2013). thus, the developed model depicts the structural hierarchy of a complex system in a graphical and verbatim mode. however, a significant structured model gives the outcome; the classical ism lacks an in-depth delineation of the driver and dependent parameters. therefore, researchers have engaged a hybrid ism, and fuzzy micmac methodology to distinguish the input, intermediate, and outcome parameters (mittal and sangwan, 2014). the vagueness within a system is eliminated by incorporating fuzzy theory with micmac analysis, thereby enabling precise judgement (chander, jain and shankar, 2013). the experts' micmac analysis with fuzzy inputs classifies the parameters into four quadrants exhibiting the autonomous, linkage, dependent, and driving types (tripathy, sahu and ray, 2013). as ism retains characteristics that fulfill the objectives set in this study, it is utilized. for example, this ism-fuzzy micmac model has been used to model barriers to implementing supply chain management and world-class factory performance measures (gorane and kant, 2015). also, modelling risk assessment to offshore pipeline construction projects emphasizes proactive planning in the initiating phase (wu, et al., 2015). results identification of top critical barriers to interface management (im) the structured questionnaire survey was synthesized after distribution to 354 participants online. one hundred and nine respondents completed, and seven were discarded due to repetition and incompleteness. malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202280 therefore, the response rate was 29 % (102 valid responses). the survey respondents were construction stakeholders such as general contractor (46%), owner (14%), researcher scholar (13%), project management consultant (12%), designer (9%), sub-contractor (4%), and supplier (2%) which were diverse. the average work experience of respondents was 12 years, and the lower and upper limit of work experience noted was five years and 38 years. the respondents’ job roles, such as senior-level managers comprised (31%), juniorlevel managers (24%), mid-level managers (20%), director/ vice president (16%) and research / academia (10%), respectively as shown previously in table 2. the internal consistency and reliability were checked through cronbach's alpha. the cronbach value for the questionnaire yielded 0.943, which was above the accepted measure of 0.7 (hair, et al., 1998). rii was computed and used to rank the barriers. the barriers whose rii value greater than 0.70 has been the rationale for choosing the final set of barriers (hence 10 barriers met the criteria of rii value greater than 0.70, out of 30 barriers). table 3 illustrates the top critical barriers to im implementation. table 3. rii prioritized the top 10 barriers to im barrier code barriers to interface management implementation from literature survey r.i.i. rank pro process related issues 0.755 1 com insufficient communication and coordination among project stakeholders 0.751 2 wpd improper work packaging design and subcontracting 0.724 3 co frequent change orders 0.722 4 srk lack of site-related knowledge 0.720 5 ta resistance to technology adoption 0.716 6 fct improper forecast of project-specific issues related to technology and material 0.710 7 leg local and legislation and regulation related issues 0.706 8 ed inappropriate engineering design 0.700 9 mi misaligned incentives among project stakeholders 0.698 10 modelling barriers of im the identified final set of barriers were subjected to expert opinions for interpretive structural modelling (ism). the criteria for selecting experts were based on two aspects (1) work experience of more than ten years in large construction projects involving multiple interfaces or (2) academics whose research expertise is related to large construction projects. invitation for semi-structured interviews was sent to forty eligible experts. the selection was based on purposive sampling as the experts possessing im domain experience are scarce. thirteen experts accepted the invitation to a semi-structured interview. the average experience of the experts was 21 years. the experts hailed from the diverse category of construction organisation and to prevent the subjectivity of expert opinions on aggregating the responses, the principle of "the minority gives way to the majority" is implemented as performed for previous similar research studies (mathiyazhagan, et al., 2013; li, et al., 2016). malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202281 table 4. expert characteristics for rating interdependencies among im barriers expert age education level experience (years) job designation employer/ organization type exp-1 55 doctoral 37 professor construction management research institute exp-2 50 doctoral 28 professor construction management research institute exp-3 36 bachelor & executive program in bim implementation strategist 13 design manager general contractor exp-4 34 bachelor 12 planning & contracts management general contractor exp-5 64 diploma 36 sub contract lead sub-contractor firm exp-6 36 master in gis, diploma in data science 14 manager design exp-7 46 master 20 senior discipline lead, civil/ hydraulics design exp-8 36 masters and executive management 11 assistant professor construction management research institute exp-9 42 bachelor 20 deputing general manager general contractor exp-10 56 bachelor 30 deputing general manager general contractor exp-11 38 masters and management, executive masters in business administration 17 senior manager general contractor exp-12 55 bachelor 24 senior deputing general manager general contractor exp-13 39 bachelor 16 senior manager general contractor malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202282 methodology of ism-fuzzy micmac the methodology followed in ism fuzzy micmac is as follows. step 1. the top 10 im barriers (prioritised as per rii value > 0.70) considered for the hierarchical model development are listed. step 2. from the identified top 10 im barriers, the contextual relationship among the im barriers was established through the involvement of subject matter experts in identifying the relationship. step 3. a structural-self interaction matrix (ssim) was developed from the inputs from the subject matter experts which establish the pairwise relationships among the im barriers under investigation. step 4. initial reachability and final reachability matrices were developed from ssim (converting the experts inputs as ‘0’ and ‘1’ ) and performing transitivity checks. transitivity is the assumption of ism methodology, which states that if a variable x is associated to y and y is associated to z, then a is automatically associated to z. step 5. as the traditional ism does not permit assigning the strength of the pairwise relationship ranging between 0 and 1, the fuzzy micmac protocols were deployed. also, fuzzy rules for enabling a detailed hierarchy of barriers. step 6. as an initial step to ism–fuzzy micmac process, the binary direct reachability matrix (bdrm) was developed from the initial reachability matrix of step 4 by substituting the diagonal responses in the cell with ‘0’. step 7. the experts considered in step 2 were engaged in evaluating the contextual relationships between the barriers with a fuzzy scale ranging from 0, 0.25.0.5, 0.75, and 1.00 to derive the fuzzy direct reachability matrix (fdrm). step 8.then, the fuzzy stabilized matrix was developed through defuzzification. the defuzzification was done by multiplying the bdrm and fdrm until stabilization was maintained. step 9. the driving (dr) and dependent powers (dp) were calculated by aggregating the values in the n and m direction of the last cell values in table 9. table 5. pairwise relationship among barriers – ssim (structural self interaction matrix) ↑m → n pro com wpd co srk ta fct leg ed mi pro a v v a a a a o v com x v a o o o v v wpd v x o a a o v co a o a a a v srk o x x v v ta x o o v fct o v v leg o v ed v mi malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202283 step 10. the difference of (dr-dp) is arranged in ascending order which aided in developing the ism fuzzy micmac model by arranging the barriers in different levels as depicted in figure 3. structural self-interaction matrix (ssim) the contextual pairwise comparison between the identified im barriers is conducted using the codes of v, a, x, o. notation of the pairwise relationship between ‘m’ and ‘n’ was used, where ‘m’ means barrier along the y-axis and ‘n’ means barrier along the x-axis. the interpretation of the codes is illustrated below. (a) v indicates, barrier in ‘m’ (y-axis) direction will aid in achieving im barrier ‘n’ direction (x-axis) (b) a indicates, barrier in ‘n’ (x-axis) direction will aid in achieving im barrier ‘m’ direction (y-axis) (c) x indicates, barrier in ‘m’ (y-axis) and ‘n’ direction (x-axis) will aid in achieving im barrier (d) o indicates, barrier in ‘m’ (y-axis) and ‘n’ direction (x-axis) possess no interdependency table 5 represents the ssim developed for interface management implementation barriers the beneath mentioned statements aid in understanding the working protocol of v, a, x, o. the subject matter experts would evaluate the interdependencies with the above codes and the interpretation of table 5 using the symbols v, a, x, o is illustrated below as an example. a similar procedure was used by the experts for filling the matrix. 1. ‘pro’ (‘process related issues’) barrier in ‘m’ direction aids in achieving ‘mi’ (‘misaligned incentives among project stakeholders’) barrier in ‘n’ direction; such relationship is symbolized by ‘v’ within ssim. 2. ‘whereas, ‘fct’ ('improper forecast of project-specific issues related to technology and material') barrier in ‘n’ direction aids in achieving ‘co’ (‘change orders’) barrier in ‘m’ direction. such relationship is symbolized by ‘a’ within ssim. 3. ‘barriers 'wpd'(‘improper work packaging design and subcontracting’) and 'srk’ (‘lack of siterelated knowledge’) aid in achieving each other. such relationship is symbolized by ‘x’ within ssim 4. ‘barriers ‘leg’ ('local and legislation and regulation related issues') and ‘ed’ (‘inappropriate engineering design') possess no relation with each other, then it is symbolized by ‘o’ initial and final reachability matrices development the synthesized ssim was converted into an initial reachability matrix (irm) on replacing the values of v, a, x, o with binary values in the matrix. the input symbols such as v, a, x, o are substituted with binary digits' 0' and '1'. the following protocols execute the substitution of 0 and 1: 1. the instance where (m, n) entry in ssim prevails as v; (m, n) entry is converted into 1 and (n, m) entry is converted into 0 in reachability matrix. 2. the instance where (m, n) entry in ssim prevails as a; (m, n) entry is converted into 0 and (n, m) entry is converted into 1 in reachability matrix. 3. the instance where (m, n) entry in ssim prevails as x; (m, n) entry is converted into 1 and (n, m) entry is converted into 1 in reachability matrix. 4. the instance where (m, n) entry in ssim prevails as o; (m, n) entry is converted into 0 and (n, m) entry is converted into 0 in reachability matrix. the final reachability matrix (frm) was established on the removal of transitivity in the irm.irm and frm are depicted in table 6 and table 7. malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202284 table 6. initial reachability matrix ↑m → n pro com wpd co srk ta fct leg ed mi pro 1 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 com 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 wpd 0 1 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 co 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 srk 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 ta 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 fct 1 0 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 leg 1 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 ed 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 mi 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 table 7. final reachability matrix with driving powers and dependence powersbarrier variables ↑m → n pro com wpd co srk ta fct leg ed mi driving power pro 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 com 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 wpd 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 co 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 srk 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 ta 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 fct 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 leg 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 10 ed 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 1 3 mi 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 dependence power 7 7 7 9 7 7 7 7 8 10 as shown in table 7, the driving and dependence powers of the imbs are computed by aggregating the rows and column values from the final reachability matrix as per the classical ism method. the final reachability matrix is the basis for conducting a level partitioning process to form hierarchical barriers. level partitioning partitioning into levels was performed to form the structuring of barriers. also, the reachability and antecedent sets were synthesized from frm. the reachability set comprises im barrier elements itself and those barrier elements that may aid in achievement; an antecedent set comprises im barrier elements itself malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202285 and the others which contribute to achieving it. then, the im barriers' intersection sets are derived. the im barriers possess the same antecedent elements, and intersection elements are placed at the lower layers of the ism structure. additionally, these lower layer elements act as a solid catalytic input to the structured tier. these barriers assist in achieving the other barrier. an iterative process was conducted on knowing the lower-level elements until the top hierarchy barrier elements were performed along with the partitioning process. the overall leveling procedure enables the formation of a digraph comprising the transitive links. fuzzy micmac analysis according to the classical ism-grounded framework, the binary inputs establish relationships amongst the im barrier elements. during the development of the ism-based model, any association among the im barrier elements was keyed using 0 and 1. however, at par significance, it was substituted by 1. also, an equal relationship between two im barriers cannot be considered for all scenarios. on the one hand, few im barriers possibly are strongly associated; on the other hand, the others might possess weak association. in order to overcome this issue, a fuzzy form of ism was utilized in micmac analysis. the procedure to execute the fuzzy ism is illustrated in subsequent sections. for forming the binary direct reachability matrix (bdrm), the interactions among the im barriers were sourced from the initial reachability matrix as per the classical ism method. then, the diagonal responses were substituted by 0. construction of fuzzy direct reachability matrix (fdrm) the diagrammatic representation of micmac scrutiny envisages only two-sided inputs, either '0' or '1' relationships amongst the downsized variables affecting experts' decision-making tolerance. hence, for improving the sensitivity and precision of micmac exploration, the fuzzy set concept was integrated with the existing study. as per the integrated fuzzy-micmac analysis, additional interactions among the im barriers were infused. the feasibility of the interaction matrix on considering the scale value between 0 to 1 was assumed. the interpretation of the fuzzy scale for micmac analysis is categorized as follows: 1. '0' no influence 2. '0.25' very low influence 3. '0.5' medium influence 4. '0.75' high influence 5. '1' very high influence fuzzy micmac stabilized matrix the procedure for fuzzy micmac analysis was accomplished from the developed fuzzy direct reachability matrix (fdrm is depicted in table 8) from the experts using the fuzzy scale. the defuzzification was conducted by multiplying the matrices until stabilization is attained for the hierarchical development of driving and dependent power. a simplified boolean operation applied the fundamental principle of fuzzy multiplication to multiplicate matrices (gorane and kant, 2015). according to the fuzzy set, the resultant of two fuzzy matrices is always a fuzzy matrix on multiplication. the following rule is applied to multiply the two matrices. z = x.y = max s [min(xms, yns)] eq.1. where x = xms and y = yns malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202286 by using the above fuzzy multiplication rule, a stabilized matrix is achieved (table 8). table 8 is an integrated matrix wherein each cell possesses three values. the first value in each cell corresponds to binary direct reachability, the middle value to fuzzy direct reachability, and the last value to stabilized matrix for barrier variables influencing im implementation. on the one hand, the driving power of the im barrier was assessed by aggregating the row' last value' entries of each cell for all possible interactions. on the other hand, the dependence power was achieved by summing each column entries' final value, as represented in table 9. table 9. effectiveness and ranking of variables barrier variables driving power (dr) dependence power (dp) (dr-dp) level pro 7.75 9 -1.25 iii com 8.75 7.5 1.25 vi wpd 8.50 9 -0.50 iv co 6.00 8.5 -2.50 ii srk 8.50 6.75 1.75 viii ta 8.00 6.75 1.25 vi fct 9.00 7.5 1.50 vii leg 8.50 6 2.50 ix ed 7.00 6 1.00 v mi 0.00 7 -7.00 i table 8. integrated matrix of (binary direct reachability matrix, fuzzy direct reachability matrix and stabilized matrix ) for barrier variables influencing im implementation ↑m → n pro com wpd co srk ta fct leg ed mi driving power (dr) pro 0,0,1 0,0.75,0.75 1,0.5,1 1,0.75,1 0,0.5,0.75 0,0.75,0.75 0,0.75,0.75 0,0.75,0.5 0,0.75,0.75 1,0.75,0.5 7.75 com 1,1,1 0,0,1 1,0.75,1 1,0.5,1 0,1,0.75 0,0.25,0.75 0,0.5,0.75 0,0.5,0.75 1,0.75,0.75 1,0.75,1 8.75 wpd 0,0.75,1 1,0.75,0.75 0,0,1 1,1,1 1,0.75,1 0,0.5,0.75 0,0.5,1 0,0.25,0.5 0,0.75,0.75 1,0.5,0.75 8.5 co 0,0.5,1 0,0.5,0.75 0,1,1 0,0,0.75 0,0.5,0.5 0,0,0.75 0,0.75,0.5 0,0.5,0.5 0,0.5,0.25 1,0.5,0 6 srk 1,0.75,1 1,0.75,0.75 1,0.75,1 1,1,1 0,0,1 0,0.75,0.75 1,1,0.75 1,0.5,0.75 1,0.75,0.75 1,0.75,0.75 8.5 ta 1,0.75,1 0,0.5,0.75 0,0.5,1 0,0.5,1 0,0.75,0.5 0,0,0.75 1,1,0.75 0,0.25,.75 0,0.75,0.75 1,0.5,0.75 8 fct 1,0.75,1 0,0.75,1 1,0.5,1 1,1,1 1,0.5,0.75 1,0.5,0.75 0,0,1 0,0.5,0.75 1,0.75,0.75 1,0.75,1 9 leg 1,0.75,1 0,1,0.75 1,0.75,1 1,0.5,1 1,0.75,0.75 0,0.5,0.75 0,0.75,1 0,0,0.75 0,0.5,0.75 1,0.5,0.75 8.5 ed 0,1,1 0,1,0.75 0,0.75,1 1,0.75,0.75 0,0.75,0.5 0,0.5,0.75 0,0.75,0.75 0,0.75,0.5 0,0,0.5 1,1,0.5 7 mi 0,1,0 0,0.75,0 0,1,0 0,0.75,0 0,0.5,0 0,0.75,0 0,0.5,0 0,0.5,0 0,0.25,0 0,0,0 0 dependence power (dp) 9 7.25 9 8.5 6.5 6.75 7.25 5.75 6 6 malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202287 table 9. outlines the ranking and effectiveness of barriers. first, the driving power (dr) and dependence power (dp) values have been sourced from table 8. then, the hierarchical structuring (level-wise ranking of barriers) was achieved by arranging the difference of (dr-dp) in ascending order. pro com wpd co srk ta fct leg ed mi driving linkage autonomous dependent [iv] [i] [iii] [ii] d riv in g po w er d riv in g po w er dependence power figure 2. classification of barrier variables using fuzzy micmac analysis classification of barrier variables of im implementation the aggregate values obtained by row and column indicate the impact of each im barrier towards effective implementation of interface management and form an avenue for the interface coordinators to utilize for accurate decision making. additional examination is enabled with a micmac analysis in a cluster chart, as portrayed in figure 2. the graph was plotted with dependence and driving power values (as coordinates of x and y axis) of table 9. the graph was categorized into four clusters demonstrating autonomous, linkage, strong driver, and dependent barriers. the detailed analysis of this cluster was subsequently elucidated. employing fuzzy protocols for expert judgment for conducting micmac analysis, the finalized ten variables for im execution barriers have been delineated into four classes. then these variables were accommodated based on power analysis as driving and dependence class. the first quadrant zone pertains to autonomous class where the dominance of dependent and driving nature of the variables are minimal. malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202288 also, these classes of variables are positioned near the origin and are aloof to the whole system. however, in this study, no variables belong to this zone. the next quadrant zone relates to those variables possessing high dependence, accordingly in the current study, the 'mi' variable 'misaligned incentives among project stakeholders’ is the only barrier belonging to dependent quadrant. the third quadrant zone encompasses linking variables possessing substantial driving and dependent characteristics. significant number of im barriers is located in this zone (i.e., the barriers pro, com, wpd, co, srk, ta, fct, leg, and ed). this indicates that any change in any of the barriers in linkage zone will affect the other barriers and layer-9 layer-8 layer-7 layer-6 layer-5 layer-4 layer-3 layer-2 layer-1 ism-fuzzy micmac model-barriers misaligned incentives among project stakeholders (mi) frequent change orders (co) process related issues (pro) improper work packaging design and subcontracting (wpd) inappropriate engineering design(ed) insufficient communication and coordination among project stakeholders (com) improper forecast of project specific issues related to technology and materials (fct) lack of site related knowledge (srk) local, legislation and regulations related issues(leg) resistance to technological adoption (ta) figure 3. ism fuzzy micmac model for barriers to im. malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202289 possess feedback on themselves. so, the barriers positioned in the linkage quadrant are highly unstable. a consolidated structured framework was synthesized utilizing the 'driver' and 'dependent' powers determined from the defuzzification process. the subtraction of attained dependent powers from dependent powers was evaluated to infer the influential capacity of each variable (mishra, et al., 2017) as depicted in table 9. the least effective variables were located at the lowermost level of the framework. the consolidated framework of barrier variables affecting the implementation of interface management in construction operations can be inferred from the influential determined values as in figure 2. discussion the current study has established an attempt to identify critical im barriers to interface management implementation in projects. although research studies exist on identification of im barriers, there is a lacuna in the investigation conducted on categorization and interdependencies of im barriers. nevertheless, the existing ism-grounded model aids chief interface managers and im-based professionals comprehend the interrelationship structural framework for enhanced relationship management with construction actors, which aligns with the study conducted by meng and boyd (2017) for large and complex construction projects. initial barriers were subjected to ism-fuzzy micmac process and barrier variables were structured at different layers based on the driving and dependence power analysis from table 8. then, the difference between driving and dependence power values was the basis for the layer-wise structuring of barrier variables ism model (as per table 9). also, as per the data collection from the mixed methods in this study, it is evident that the three barrier variables of the ism model such as frequent change orders (co), process-related issues (pro) and misaligned incentives among project stakeholders (mi) were observed to be closer (i.e., as per table 9, they are arranged in a consecutive levels) and hence grouped as ‘manifested barriers’ and labelled as tier i. similarly, the next two barriers i.e., ‘improper work packaging design and subcontracting (wpd)’ and ‘inappropriate engineering design(ed)’ are in close proximity to each other (arranged in succession as per levels of table 9), hence grouped as ‘ front end engineering and design (feed) barriers’ and labelled as tier ii. likewise, the remaining barriers were grouped based on such similar proximity and labelled as tier iii, iv and v. on reflection, the alignment of the location of the barrier variables in model (figure 4), it can be inferred that on grouping of proximity barriers there seems to be resonance on confluence of two theories, namely the institutional theory and transaction cost economics theory. the detailed discussion is illustration in further sections. also, the identified interdependencies among the imbs enable concerned construction stakeholders to prioritize project risks (kimiagari and keivanpour, 2019), task inter-relationships (fong and lung, 2007) and the impact of trust on project key performance indicators (yang and cheng, 2021). hence, this research presumes the importance of investigating with this context. the main finding of this research is that incompetent expertise on laws and regulations is a significant im barrier. this im barrier is at the lowermost of the ism-fuzzy micmac model as per figure 3. lack of knowledge of local laws and regulations (which is the most influential factor) possesses an ultimate influence on increased construction cost (habibi, kermanshachi and safapour, 2018). additionally, employing a contracts professional deficient in local laws may negatively impact the contractual and risk management performance (vu, et al., 2016; pham, et al., 2020). hence, construction projects intending to implement interface management should be cautious when practitioners unfamiliar with regulatory and region-specific legislations might be potential project disruptors. another critical finding is 'misaligned incentives among project stakeholders' (the most dependent barrier). therefore, management should avoid frequent change orders which is also a dependent barrier. this barrier significantly disrupts the project, causing schedule delay and additional cost due to rework malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202290 (hanna, et al., 1999). incorporating proper work packaging with a clear statement of work (sow), effective collaboration and coordination with interdisciplinary teams and transparent processes can mitigate the change orders, thereby lessening cost impact. development of multi-layered model from ism-fuzzy micmac model this study contributes to the existing knowledge by transforming the ism-fuzzy micmac model into a ‘multi-layered model of im barriers’ (as illustrated in figure 4.) which aids the interface-related stakeholders in evaluating the interdependent barriers proactively. the nine-level model from figure 3 is transformed to a five-layered model as there existed a resonance of alignment with institutional and transaction cost economics theories, on grouping few barriers. the grouping of the barriers was accomplished as per the order of the level without disturbing the hierarchy. the alignment of the barriers is further explained in the theoretical ratification section. furthermore, using this multi-layered im barriers model, aids project stakeholders to acknowledge the gravity of the interface issues. the top ten critical barriers posited at different layers are labelled as ‘legislative, regulatory and extrinsic barriers’, ‘cultural barriers’, ‘front end engineering and design (feed) barriers’, manifested barriers’, and their explanation is discussed in subsequent sections. legislative, regulatory and extrinsic barriers in this study, there is a lone barrier i.e., 'local, legislation and regulations related issues (leg) at layer ix, which forms the core issue of im implementation. issues such as land acquisition, access management, local regulatory compliances, and other institutional-related aspects fall under this ‘leg’ category. as per this study, leg forms the most effective barrier, and identifying and eradicating the issues related to this “manifested barriers” at layers 1, 2, 3 “front end engineering and design (feed) barriers” at layers 4 & 5 “cultural barriers” at layer 6 “legislative, regulatory & extrinsic barriers” at layer 9 legislative and regulatory (leg) lack of site related knowledge (srk) insufficient communication and coordination among project stakeholders (com) technology adoption issues (ta ) improper work packaging design and subcontracting (wpd) inappropriate engineering design(ed) misaligned incentives among project stakeholders (mi) tier-i tier-ii tier-iii tier-iv “project specific barriers at layers 7&8 tier-v figure 4. multi-layered im implementation related barriers malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202291 barrier at an early stage can mitigate further triggering of ‘cultural barriers’. for instance, when a project manager from the contractor organisation encounters leg-related issues in the early stages of a project, a complacent attitude is generally observed as there is ample time to complete the project. however, this model highlights it as a precursor to other layered interface issues and alerts them to resolve immediately as the severity of risk is low. project-specific barriers this tier possesses two barriers (problems like incompetent site-related knowledge (srk) and improper forecast of project specific issues related to technology and materials (fct)) which are posited at vii and viii layers). these types of issues are typically site-specific and can be addressed through the skill development of construction practitioners using virtual reality or immersive training. also, use of datadriven and visualization processes such as ‘building information modelling’ will enhance the situational awareness of construction practitioners. cultural barriers there are two significant barriers (issues such as technology adoption resistance (ta), and communication hiccups (com) which are posited at layers vi. these can be grouped as cultural barriers involving soft skills and change management aspects. hard skills relate to accomplishing tasks using project management tools, while soft skills refer to interpersonal relations with individuals or groups of stakeholders. the recent complexity of current infrastructure projects necessitates the acquisition of soft skills as equally important to hard skills. this is because soft skills foresee latent uncertainties, which when hard skills alone are deployed, are masked. it is evident in the current study that ta and com barriers are located at the same layer vi, which indicates the equal importance of hard and soft skills and is in line with (söderlund and maylor, 2012), who emphasized supplementing leadership and soft skills with hard skills for successful project delivery. consequently, with the ‘multi-layered im barriers’, when a chief interface manager identifies the cultural-related issues, the project is posited in a medium category of risk and can be resolved at the project level with minor support from top management. front end engineering and design (feed) barriers as per figure 4, the nature of barriers gradually moves from the core ‘broad legislation/ regulatory associated’ barriers to ‘cultural’ and then to ‘project control specific’ barriers such as improper work packaging design, management of sub-contractors (wpd) and inappropriate engineering design (ed). these two barriers (located at layers iv and v as per figure 3) constitute technical skills-oriented and can be meticulously controlled at project sites with appropriate skills through practical training and development. again, with the ‘multi-layered im barriers’, when a chief interface manager identifies the feed-related barriers, the project is bound to be posited at high risk. the mandatory intervention of senior management can lessen the negative impact on the project. manifested barriers barriers such as ‘misaligned incentives among stakeholders’ (mi), ‘frequent change order’ (fco), and ‘process-related issues’ (pro) (located at layers i, ii and iii as per figure 3) have been substantiated as issues due to im barriers at lower layers. nevertheless, again, with the ‘multi-layered im barriers’, when a chief interface manager/project manager identifies the ‘manifested’ related barriers, the project is posited at severe risk, marred by scope creep, cost, and schedule overruns. malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202292 the development of the multi-layered im barrier model (as per figure 4) from the current study aligns with the crossbreed of two theories, namely the institutional theory and transaction cost economics theory. according to the institutional theory of organisation, the social structure resilience is explained with the behaviour of the social elements as coercive, normative and mimetic (dimaggio and powell, 1983). in line with this theory, the core barrier at layer v i.e., legislative and statutory-based, resonates with ‘coercive,’ while the cultural-based barrier at layer iv as ‘normative’ and project specific and front-end engineering design (feed) based barriers at layers iii and ii as ‘mimetic’. however, the barriers at layer i are substantially related to constraints in minimising the cost due to frequent change orders and misaligned incentives for the contractors. this resembles the transaction cost economics theory (williamson, 1989) that posits the achievement of optimum organisational structure with minimum transactive exchange costs. therefore, the proposed ‘multi-layered im barriers’ in this study provides a theoretical contribution in understanding the interconnectedness. moreover, it provides insights for practitioners and the scholarly community with a pragmatic depiction of layered im issues while implementing im practice. during im implementation, it is improper for management to pin point random imbs and eradicate them. before eliminating imbs, the chief interface manager must be thoroughly acquainted with the hierarchical actions to be considered and their respective importance and interrelations. the ‘multi-layered im barriers’ model points out the classification of imbs that requires attention from the practitioners, based on the four category barriers against which to measure their current project status. these pose the bottleneck against effective im implementation and successful project delivery. practitioners should focus on higher driving factors as the root cause of the other imbs with more extraordinary dependency powers. identifying these driving power imbs, enables senior management to chart out a plan to formulate strategies for surmounting their impacts during im implementation. conclusion this study presents a significant contribution through a systematic ‘multi-layered im barrier framework' to establish pairwise interrelations among identified imbs. the framework serves as a gauge for project managers to understand the interdependencies among the identified parameters, compare their project interface issues with the model, and correct actions accordingly. therefore, this study presumes significance. one of the main findings of this study is the identification of significant barriers to effective im implementation such as, unfamiliarity with laws and regulation, incompetent site knowledge, incapacity to predict and solve project issues on technology and novel materials, inept soft skills and change management issues which project planners and execution team should reflect upon. the aforementioned imbs have greater driving power and lower levels of the ism model are likely to be the potential root cause for the remaining imbs. therefore, the top management should address these imbs prudently. these imbs possess greater driving powers and are tackled on priority mode, as these imbs influence other dependent imbs in the structured ism model. to lessen the impact of these imbs, management should institute longstanding strategic planning and focus on these barriers, not only tackle the bottom-level barriers. the study's findings are crucial for practitioners, research communities and policymakers, for im implementation. thus, the designed model delivers a practical approach to the issues that arise during im implementation. therefore, the consolidated ism-fuzzy micmac driven model developed in this study serves as a mechanism for higher management to discern the imbs and identify which ones possess greater dependence and driving power. furthermore, the incorporation of fuzzy theory improved the sensitivity of micmac analysis relative to the classical model. the research outcomes can guide upper management to emphasize the identified im barriers for effective and efficient implementation of im practices. the developed classical ism model and fuzzy micmac model are based on the subjectivity of industry and academic experts, and any bias induced might influence malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202293 the outcome. a validation questionnaire survey of the identified imbs can be performed to comprehend thorough insights. moreover, a developed hypothetical model can be validated through structural equation modelling. references abu-reishah, l. and hiyassat, m.a., 2021. the severity of design-construction interface risks in jordanian construction industry. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] pp.1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021. 1983930 ahn, s., shokri, s., lee, s., haas, c.t. and haas, r.c., 2017. exploratory study on the effectiveness of interfacemanagement practices in dealing with project complexity in large-scale engineering and construction projects. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 33(2), pp.1–12. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.19435479.0000488 al-hammad, a.m., 1995. interface problems between owners and maintenance contractors in saudi arabia. journal of performance of constructed facilities, [e-journal] 9(3), pp.194–205. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)08873828(1995)9:3(194) al-hammad, a.-m. and al-hammad, i., 1996. interface problems between building owners and designers. journal of performance of constructed facilities, [e-journal] 10(3), pp.123–26. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)08873828(1996)10:3(123) al-hammad, a., 1990. a study of the interface problems between owners and contractors over the construction of residential housing in saudi arabia. international journal for housing science and its application, 14(4), pp.245–57. al-hammad, a., 1993. factors affecting the relationship between contractors and their subcontractors in saudi arabia. building research and information, 21(5), pp.269–73. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613219308727315 al-hammad, a. and assaf, s., 1992. design-construction interface problems in saudi arabia. building research and information, 20(1), pp.61–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613219208727172 al-hammad, a.m., 2000. common interface problems among various construction parties. journal of performance of constructed facilities, 14(2), pp.71-74. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3828(2000)14:2(71) al-mansouri, o., 1988. the relationship between the designer and contractor in saudi arabia. phd. university of reading. alarcon, l.f. and mardones, d.a., 1998. improving the design-construction interface. in: proceedings of the 6th annual meeting of the international group for lean construction. guarujá, brazil, 13-15 august 1998. online: iglc. allmayer, s. and winkler, h., 2014. supply chain interface problems affecting productivity. international journal of logistics systems and management, 18(4), pp.415–35. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijlsm.2014.063978 arain, f. and assaf, s., 2007. consultant’s prospects of the sources of design and construction interface problems in large building projects in saudi arabia. journal of king abdulaziz university-environmental design sciences, [e-journal] 5(1), pp.15–37. https://doi.org/10.4197/env.5-1.2 araújo, a.g., carneiro, a.m.p. and palha, r.p., 2020. sustainable construction management: a systematic review of the literature with meta-analysis. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 256, p.120350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2020.120350 arefazar, y., nazari, a., hafezi, m.r. and maghool, s.a.h., 2019. prioritizing agile project management strategies as a change management tool in construction projects. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(4) pp.1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1644757 malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202294 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1983930 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1983930 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000488 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000488 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3828(1995)9:3(194 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3828(1995)9:3(194 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3828(1996)10:3(123 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3828(1996)10:3(123 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613219308727315 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613219208727172 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3828(2000)14:2(71 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijlsm.2014.063978 https://doi.org/10.4197/env.5-1.2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120350 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120350 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1644757 assaf, s., hassanain, m.a., abdallah, a., sayed, a.m. and alshahrani, a., 2019. significant causes of claims and disputes in construction projects in saudi arabia. built environment project and asset management, [e-journal] 9(5), pp.597–615. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-09-2018-0113 assaf, s., hassanain, m.a. and abdallah, a., 2017. assessment of deficiencies in design documents for large construction projects. journal of performance of constructed facilities, [e-journal] 31(5), p.04017086. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)cf.1943-5509.0001081 ayudhya, b.i.n., 2011. appraisal of common dispute problems on public works projects in thailand. journal of civil engineering and architecture, 5(10), pp.928–36. baldwin, j.r., manthei, j.m., rothbart, h. and harris, r.b., 1971. causes of delay in the construction industry. journal of the construction division, 97(2), pp.177–87. https://doi.org/10.1061/jcceaz.0000305 bekdik, b., pörzgen, j., bull, s.s. and thuesen, c., 2018. modularising design processes of façades in denmark: reexploring the use of design structure matrix. architectural engineering and design management, [e-journal] 14(1–2), pp.95–108. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2017.1360760 biesenthal, c., clegg, s., mahalingam, a. and sankaran, s., 2018. applying institutional theories to managing megaprojects. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 36(1), pp.43–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2017.06.006 braun, v. and clarke, v., 2013. successful qualitative research: a practical guide for beginners. melbourne: sage publishing australia. caron, f., marchet, g. and perego, a., 1998. project logistics: integrating the procurement and construction processes. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 16(5), pp.311–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/s02637863(97)00029-x chander, m., jain, s. k. and shankar, r., 2013. modeling of information security management parameters in indian organizations using ism and micmac approach. journal of modelling in management, [e-journal] 8(2), pp.171–89. https://doi.org/10.1108/jm2-10-2011-0054 chen, g.x., shan, m., chan, a.p., liu, x. and zhao, y.q., 2019. investigating the causes of delay in grain bin construction projects: the case of china. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 19(1), pp.1–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1354514 chen, q., hall, d.m., adey, b.t. and haas, c.t., 2020. identifying enablers for coordination across construction supply chain processes: a systematic literature review. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 28(4), pp.1083–1113. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2020-0299 chen, q., reichard, g. and beliveau, y., 2007. interface management-a facilitator of lean construction and agile project management. in: proceedings of 15th annual meeting of the international group for lean construction. michigan, usa july 2007. online: igcl. pp.57–66. chen, q., 2007. an object model framework for interface management in building information models. phd. virginia polytechnic institute and state university. chen, q., reichard, g. and beliveau, y., 2008. multiperspective approach to exploring comprehensive cause factors for interface issues. journal of construction engineering and management [e-journal] 134(6), pp.432–41. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:6(432) dimaggio, p.j. and powell, w., 1983. the iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational field. american sociological review, [e-journal] 48(2), pp.147–60. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101 malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202295 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-09-2018-0113 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cf.1943-5509.0001081 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cf.1943-5509.0001081 https://doi.org/10.1061/jcceaz.0000305 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2017.1360760 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.06.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.06.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(97)00029-x https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(97)00029-x https://doi.org/10.1108/jm2-10-2011-0054 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1354514 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2020-0299 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:6(432 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:6(432 https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101 ding, z., liu, s., liao, l. and zhang, l., 2019. a digital construction framework integrating building information modeling and reverse engineering technologies for renovation projects. automation in construction, [e-journal] 102(february), pp.45–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.02.012 durdyev, s. and hosseini, m.r., 2020. causes of delays on construction projects: a comprehensive list. international journal of managing projects in business, [e-journal] 13(1), pp.20–46. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-09-2018-0178 elhusseiny, h.o., nosair, i. and ezeldin, a.s., 2021. developing a user plug-in to assess delay causes’ impact on construction projects in egypt. ain shams engineering journal, [e-journal] 12(4), pp.3553–68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. asej.2021.04.013 eray, e., golzarpoo, b., rayside, d. and haas, c., 2017. an overview on integrating interface management and building information management systems. in: 6th csce-crc international construction specialty conference 2017 held as part of the canadian society for civil engineering annual conference and general meeting 2017, 31 may to 3 jun 2017. vancouver, canada, canadian society for civil engineering, pp.196–205. fac, j.p.c., arain, f.m., pheng, l.s. and assaf, s.a., 2006. contractors’ views of the potential causes of inconsistencies between design and construction in saudi arabia. journal of performance of constructed facilities, [e-journal] 20(1), 74-83, pp.74–83. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3828(2006)20:1(74) famiyeh, s., amoatey, c.t., adaku, e. and agbenohevi, c., 2017. major causes of construction time and cost overruns: a case of selected educational sector projects in ghana. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 15(2), pp.181–98. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-11-2015-0075 flyvbjerg, b., 2017. introduction: the iron law of megaproject management, in b.flyvbjerg (ed.), oxford handbook of megaproject management pp.1–18. oxford: oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/ oxfordhb/9780198732242.001.0001 fong, p.s. and lung, b.w., 2007. interorganizational teamwork in the construction industry. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 133(2), pp.157–68. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2007)133:2(157) gellert, p.k. and lynch, b.d., 2003. mega-projects as displacements. international social science journal, [e-journal] 55(175), pp.15–25. https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2451.5501002 gibb, a.g.f., 1995. maintain control or delegate responsibility? the design development dilemma at construction interfaces. in: thorpe, a. ed. proceedings, 11th annual arcom conference, association of researchers in construction management. university of york, 18-20 september 1995. loughborough: arcom, pp.202-11. godinot, m., 2003. the work breakdown structure matrix : a tool to improve interface management. meng. national university of singapore. gorane, s. j. and kant, r., 2015. modelling the scm implementation barriers: an integrated ism-fuzzy micmac approach. journal of modelling in management, [e-journal] 10(2), pp.158–78. https://doi.org/10.1108/jm2-08-20120026 gusakova, e., 2018. ‘organizational and technological genesis as a tool for strategic planning of large-scale real estate development projects’, matec web of conferences, [e-journal] 170. https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201817001015 habibi, m., kermanshachi, s. and safapour, e., 2018. ‘engineering, procurement, and construction cost and schedule performance leading indicators: state-of-the-art review’, (1), in proceedings of construction research congress (pp. 2-4). new orleans, louisiana: asce, [e-journal] pp. 378–388. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784481271.037 hair, j.f., anderson, r.e., tatham, r.l. and william, c., 1998. multivariate data analysis. 5th ed. upper saddle river, n.j: prentice hall. malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202296 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.02.012 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-09-2018-0178 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2021.04.013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2021.04.013 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3828(2006)20:1(74 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-11-2015-0075 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198732242.001.0001 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198732242.001.0001 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:2(157 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:2(157 https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2451.5501002 https://doi.org/10.1108/jm2-08-2012-0026 https://doi.org/10.1108/jm2-08-2012-0026 https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201817001015 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784481271.037 hamerski, d.c., formoso, c.t., isatto, e.l. and cevallos, c.a., 2020. combining lean and agile project management in a multi-project environment: case study in a retail company. in: 27th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, iglc 2019, [e-journal] pp.239–50. https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0217 han, s.h., kim, d.y. and kim, h., 2007. predicting profit performance for selecting candidate international construction projects. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 133(6), pp.425–36. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:6(425) hanna, a.s., russell, j.s., nordheim, e.v. and bruggink, m. j., 1999. impact of change orders on labor efficiency for mechanical construction. journal of construction engineering and management, 125(3), pp.176–84. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1999)125:3(176) hazır, ö. and ulusoy, g., 2020. a classification and review of approaches and methods for modeling uncertainty in projects. international journal of production economics, [e-journal] 223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2019.107522 healy, p. 1997. project management: getting the job done on time and in budget. 1st ed. port melbourne: butterworthheinemann. hinze, j. and andres, t., 1994. the contractor-subcontractor relationship : the subcontractor’s view. journal of construction engineering and management, 120(2), pp.274–87. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(1994)120:2(274) huang, r.y., huang, c.t., lin, h. and ku, w.h., 2008. factor analysis of interface problems among construction parties a case study of mrt. journal of marine science and technology, 16(1), pp.52–63. https://doi.org/10.51400/27096998.1997 hussain, s., fangwei, z., siddiqi, a.f., ali, z. and shabbir, m.s., 2018. structural equation model for evaluating factors affecting quality of social infrastructure projects. sustainability, [e-journal] 10(5), pp.1–25. https://doi. org/10.3390/su10051415 johnson, r.m. and babu, r.i.i., 2020. time and cost overruns in the uae construction industry: a critical analysis. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 20(5), pp.402–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018 .1484864 kadry, m., osman, h. and georgy, m., 2017. causes of construction delays in countries with high geopolitical risks. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 143(2), p.04016095. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)co.1943-7862.0001222 kelly, b. and berger, s., 2006. interface management: effective communication to improve process safety. journal of hazardous materials, [e-journal] 130(3), pp.321–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2005.07.009 kim, m.h., lee, e.b. and choi, h.s., 2019. a forecast and mitigation model of construction performance by assessing detailed engineering maturity at key milestones for offshore epc mega-projects. sustainability, [e-journal] 11(5). https://doi.org/10.3390/su11051256 kimiagari, s. and keivanpour, s., 2019. an interactive risk visualisation tool for large-scale and complex engineering and construction projects under uncertainty and interdependence. international journal of production research, [e-journal] 57(21), pp.6827–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2018.1503426 kivilä, j., martinsuo, m. and vuorinen, l., 2017. sustainable project management through project control in infrastructure projects. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 35(6), pp.1167–83. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.02.009 kosko, b., 1986. fuzzy cognitive maps. international journal of man-machine studies, 24(1), pp.65–75. https://doi. org/10.1016/s0020-7373(86)80040-2 malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202297 https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0217 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:6(425 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:6(425 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1999)125:3(176 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1999)125:3(176 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2019.107522 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1994)120:2(274 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1994)120:2(274 https://doi.org/10.51400/2709-6998.1997 https://doi.org/10.51400/2709-6998.1997 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051415 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051415 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484864 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484864 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001222 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001222 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2005.07.009 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11051256 https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2018.1503426 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.02.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.02.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0020-7373(86)80040-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0020-7373(86)80040-2 ku, h.k., lin, j.d., huang, c.t. and shiu, r.h., 2010. development interface knowledge management system for the mass rapid transit system construction. in: 8th international conference on supply chain management and information, 6–8 october 2010, hong kong, pp.1-6. ieee. lee, j.s., kwon, n., ham, n.h., kim, j.j. and ahn, y. h., 2019. bim-based digital fabrication process for a free-form building project in south korea. advances in civil engineering, [e-journal] 2019. https://doi. org/10.1155/2019/4163625 leviäkangas, p., paik, s.m. and moon, s., 2017. keeping up with the pace of digitization: the case of the australian construction industry. technology in society, [e-journal] 50, pp.33–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2017.04.003 li, c.z., hong, j., xue, f., shen, g.q., xu, x. and mok, m.k., 2016. schedule risks in prefabrication housing production in hong kong: a social network analysis. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 134(1), pp.482–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.02.123 li, h., lu, m., chan, g. and skitmore, m., 2015. proactive training system for safe and efficient precast installation. automation in construction, [e-journal] 49, pp.163–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2014.10.010 lin, y.c., 2013. construction network-based interface management system. automation in construction, [e-journal] 30, pp.228–41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.11.025 ling, y.y. and lau, b.s.y., 2002. a case study on the management of the development of a large-scale power plant project in east asia based on design-build arrangement. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 20(6), pp.413–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(01)00036-9 mathiyazhagan, k., govindan, k., noorul haq, a. and geng, y., 2013. an ism approach for the barrier analysis in implementing green supply chain management. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 47, pp.283–97. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.10.042 meng, x. and boyd, p., 2017. the role of the project manager in relationship management. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 35(5), pp.717–28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.03.001 mishra, n., singh, a., rana, n.p. and dwivedi, y.k., 2017. interpretive structural modelling and fuzzy micmac approaches for customer centric beef supply chain: application of a big data technique. production planning and control, [e-journal] 28(11–12), pp.945–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2017.1336789 mittal, v.k. and sangwan, k.s., 2014. modeling drivers for successful adoption of environmentally conscious manufacturing. journal of modelling in management, [e-journal] 9(2), pp.127–40. https://doi.org/10.1108/jm2-032013-0011 mok, k.y., shen, g.q. and yang, r.j., 2017. addressing stakeholder complexity and major pitfalls in large cultural building projects. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 35(3), pp.463–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2016.12.009 morris, p.w., 1983. managing project interfaces–key points for project success. in project management handbook, eds. david i cleland & william r king, new york, van nostrand reinhold, chapter 2, pp 16-55 mortaheb, m.m. and rahimi, m., 2010. interface management in mega oil refinery projects. in: 6th international project management conference. tehran, iran., pp.26–27. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470172353.ch2 nam, c.h. and tatum, c.b., 1992. noncontractual methods of integration on construction projects. journal of construction engineering and management, 118(2), pp.385–98. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(1992)118:2(385) malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202298 https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/4163625 https://doi.org/10.1155/2019/4163625 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2017.04.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.02.123 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2014.10.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.11.025 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(01)00036-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.10.042 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.10.042 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.03.001 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2017.1336789 https://doi.org/10.1108/jm2-03-2013-0011 https://doi.org/10.1108/jm2-03-2013-0011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.12.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.12.009 https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470172353.ch2 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1992)118:2(385 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1992)118:2(385 nguyen, p.t. and phu nguyen, c., 2020. risk management in engineering and construction: a case study in designbuild projects in vietnam. engineering, technology & applied science research, [e-journal] 10(1), pp.5237–41. https://doi. org/10.48084/etasr.3286 nooteboom, u., 2004. interface management improves on-time, on-budget delivery of megaprojects. journal of petroleum technology, 56(8), pp.32–34. https://doi.org/10.2118/0804-0032-jpt oraee, m., hosseini, m.r., papadonikolaki, e., palliyaguru, r. and arashpour, m., 2017. collaboration in bimbased construction networks: a bibliometric-qualitative literature review. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 35(7), pp.1288–1301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.07.001 paik, s.m., leviakangas, p. and choi, j., 2020. making most of bim in design: analysis of the importance of design coordination. international journal of construction management. [e-journal] pp.1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2 020.1774837 pauwels, p., zhang, s. and lee, y.c., 2017. semantic web technologies in aec industry: a literature overview. automation in construction, [e-journal] 73, pp.145–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2016.10.003 pavitt, t.c. and gibb, a.g.f., 2003. interface management within construction: in particular, building façade. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 129(1), pp.8–15. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2003)129:1(8) pavlov, a.s., ginzburg, a.v., gusakova, e.a. and kagan, p.b., 2019. management of large-scale projects for the construction of industrial facilities. monograph ministry of science and higher education of the russian federation, national research moscow state university of civil engineering moscow: publishing house misi mgsu, 188 p pham, h., luu, t.v., kim, s.y. and vien, d.t., 2020. assessing the impact of cost overrun causes in transmission lines construction projects. ksce journal of civil engineering, [e-journal] 24(4), pp.1029–36. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s12205-020-1391-5 piltan, m. and sowlati, t., 2016. a multi-criteria decision support model for evaluating the performance of partnerships. expert systems with applications, [e-journal] 45, pp.373–84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2015.10.002 prieto, b., 2015. is it time to rethink project management theory? pm world journal, [e-journal] iv(iii), pp.1–5. available at: www.pmworldjournal.net. rachid, z., toufik, b. and mohammed, b., 2019. causes of schedule delays in construction projects in algeria. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 19(5), pp.371–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018 .1435234 sami ur rehman, m., thaheem, m.j., nasir, a.r. and khan, k.i.a., 2020. project schedule risk management through building information modelling. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(8), pp.1489-99. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1728606 sepasgozar, s.m., karimi, r., shirowzhan, s., mojtahedi, m., ebrahimzadeh, s. and mccarthy, d., 2019. delay causes and emerging digital tools: a novel model of delay analysis, including integrated project delivery and pmbok. buildings, [e-journal] 9(9), p.191. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings9090191 sha’ar, k.z., assaf, s.a., bambang, t., babsail, m. and fattah, a.a.e., 2017. design–construction interface problems in large building construction projects. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 17(3), pp.238–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1187248 shen, w., tang, w., wang, s., duffield, c.f., hui, f.k.p. and you, r., 2017. enhancing trust-based interface management in international engineering-procurement-construction projects. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 143(9), pp.1–12. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001351 malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202299 https://doi.org/10.48084/etasr.3286 https://doi.org/10.48084/etasr.3286 https://doi.org/10.2118/0804-0032-jpt https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.07.001 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1774837 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1774837 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2016.10.003 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2003)129:1(8 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2003)129:1(8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-020-1391-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-020-1391-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2015.10.002 http://www.pmworldjournal.net https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1435234 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1435234 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1728606 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings9090191 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1187248 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001351 shoar, s. and payan, s., 2021. a qualitative system dynamics approach to modeling the causes and effects of design deficiencies in construction projects. journal of facilities management, [e-journal] https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-022021-0025 shokri, s., haas, c.t., haas, r.c.g. and lee, s.h., 2016. interface-management process for managing risks in complex capital projects. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 142(2), pp.1–12. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000990 shokri, s., safa, m., haas, c.t., haas, r.c., maloney, k. and macgillivray, s., 2012. interface management model for mega capital projects. construction research congress 2012: construction challenges in a flat world, proceedings of the 2012 construction research congress, [e-journal] (1), pp.447–56. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784412329.045 sinesilassie, e.g., tabish, s.z.s. and jha, k.n., 2018. critical factors affecting cost performance: a case of ethiopian public construction projects. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 18(2), pp.108–19. https://doi. org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1277058 söderlund, j. and maylor, h., 2012. project management scholarship: relevance, impact and five integrative challenges for business and management schools. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 30(6), pp.686–96. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.03.007 song, j., hu, y. and feng, z., 2018. factors influencing early termination of ppp projects in china. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 34(1), p.05017008. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000572 stuckenbruck, s., 1983. the wronskian of discrete methods in linear systems. journal of engineering mathematics, [e-journal] 17(1), pp.93–108. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00042840 sundgren, n., 1999. introducing interface management in new product family development. an international publication of the product development & management association, 16(1), pp.40–51. https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-5885.1610040 sushil, 2012. interpreting the interpretive structural model. global journal of flexible systems management, 13(2), pp.87–106. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40171-012-0008-3 sweis, r., moarefi, a., amiri, m.h., moarefi, s. and saleh, r., 2019. causes of delay in iranian oil and gas projects: a root cause analysis. international journal of energy sector management, [e-journal] 13(3), pp.630–50. https://doi. org/10.1108/ijesm-04-2018-0014 tah, j.h.m., 2005. towards an agent-based construction supply network modelling and simulation platform. automation in construction, [e-journal] 14(3), pp.353–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2004.08.003 tian, x., 2013. influencing factors for project interface management. proceedings of the 2013 international conference on construction and real estate management, [e-journal] pp.448–56. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413135.042 töpfer, a., 1995. new products-cutting the time to market. long range planning, [e-journal] 28(2), pp.61–78. https:// doi.org/10.1016/0024-6301(95)98590-o tripathy, s., sahu, s. and ray, p.k., 2013. interpretive structural modelling for critical success factors of r&d performance in indian manufacturing firms. journal of modelling in management, [e-journal] 8(2), pp.212–40. https:// doi.org/10.1108/jm2-11-2011-0061 vu, h.a., wang, j., min, l., mai, s.h. and nguyen, h.p., 2016. research on cost overrun risk of construction phase of vietnam highway international contracting project. engineering, [e-journal] 08(03), pp.86–98. https://doi. org/10.4236/eng.2016.83011 warfield, j.n., 1974. developing subsystem matrices in structural modeling. ieee transactions on systems, man and cybernetics, [e-journal] smc-4(1), pp.74–80. https://doi.org/10.1109/tsmc.1974.5408523 malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022100 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-02-2021-0025 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-02-2021-0025 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000990 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000990 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784412329.045 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1277058 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1277058 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.03.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.03.007 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000572 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00042840 https://doi.org/10.1111/1540-5885.1610040 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40171-012-0008-3 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijesm-04-2018-0014 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijesm-04-2018-0014 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2004.08.003 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413135.042 https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-6301(95)98590-o https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-6301(95)98590-o https://doi.org/10.1108/jm2-11-2011-0061 https://doi.org/10.1108/jm2-11-2011-0061 https://doi.org/10.4236/eng.2016.83011 https://doi.org/10.4236/eng.2016.83011 https://doi.org/10.1109/tsmc.1974.5408523 weshah, n., ghandour, w.e., jergeas, g. and falls, l.c., 2013. factor analysis of the interface management (im) problems for construction projects in alberta. canadian journal of civil engineering, [e-journal] 40(9), pp.848–60. https://doi.org/10.1139/cjce-2012-0531 wideman, r. m., 2002. wideman comparative glossary of project management terms v5.5 [online] available at: http:// www.maxwideman.com/pmglossary/pmg_i03.htm [accessed 27th may 2021]. williamson, o.e., 1989. transaction cost economics. in: richard schmalensee and robert willig, eds., handbook of industrial organization, 1. new york: north holland, ch.3, pp.135-82. wren, d.a., 1967. interface and interorganizational coordination. academy of management journal, 10(1), pp.69–81. https://doi.org/10.2307/255245 wu, w.s., yang, c.f., chang, j.c., château, p.a. and chang, y.c., 2015. risk assessment by integrating interpretive structural modeling and bayesian network, case of offshore pipeline project. reliability engineering and system safety, [e-journal] 142, pp.515–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2015.06.013 yadav, g. and desai, t.n., 2016. lean six sigma: a categorized review of the literature. international journal of lean six sigma, 7(1), pp.2–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijlss-05-2015-0015 yang, j. and cheng, q., 2021. the conditional limitation of relational governance: the moderating role of project complexity. advances in civil engineering, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/8886913 yang, y., tang, w., shen, w. and wang, t., 2019. enhancing risk management by partnering in international epc projects: perspective from evolutionary game in chinese construction companies. sustainability, [e-journal] 11(19). https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195332 yap, j.b.h., lim, b.l., skitmore, m. and gray, j., 2021. criticality of project knowledge and experience in the delivery of construction projects. journal of engineering, design and technology, 20(3), pp.800-22. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt10-2020-0413 yap, j.b.h., abdul-rahman, h. and wang, c., 2018. preventive mitigation of overruns with project communication management and continuous learning: pls-sem approach. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 144(5), pp.1–10. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001456 yeganeh, a.a., azizi, m. and falsafi, r., 2019. root causes of design-construction interface problems in iranian design-build projects. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 145(12), pp.1–14. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001727 yeh, h.h., hsieh, t.y., chen, j.h. and peng, h.t., 2020. preventive interface management for design-build wireless train control mass rapid transit projects. journal of performance of constructed facilities, [e-journal] 34(1). https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)cf.1943-5509.0001337 yun, s., mulva, s.p. and o’brien, w.j., 2012. a quantitative approach for measuring managerial interfaces in the development of a capital project. in construction research congress 2012: construction challenges in a flat worlds, asce, reston,va, pp. 1410–1419. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784412329.142 zhang, n., hwang, b.g., deng, x. and tay, f., 2020. collaborative contracting in the singapore construction industry: current status, major barriers and best solutions. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 27(10), pp. 3115–33. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2019-0451 zidane, y. j. t. and andersen, b., 2018. the top 10 universal delay factors in construction projects. international journal of managing projects in business, [e-journal] 11(3), pp.650–72. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-05-2017-0052 malla and delhi construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022101 https://doi.org/10.1139/cjce-2012-0531 http://www.maxwideman.com/pmglossary/pmg_i03.htm http://www.maxwideman.com/pmglossary/pmg_i03.htm https://doi.org/10.2307/255245 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2015.06.013 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijlss-05-2015-0015 https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/8886913 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195332 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-10-2020-0413 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-10-2020-0413 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001456 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001727 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001727 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cf.1943-5509.0001337 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cf.1943-5509.0001337 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784412329.142 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2019-0451 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-05-2017-0052 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: badawy, m., el-sheikh, r., hamdy, k. 2025. sensitivity analysis of key factors influencing concession period estimation in ppp wastewater treatment projects: a system dynamics approach. construction economics and building, 25:3/4, 65–89. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v25i3/4.9514 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article sensitivity analysis of key factors influencing concession period estimation in ppp wastewater treatment projects: a system dynamics approach mohamed badawy*, rana el-sheikh, khaled hamdy structural engineering department, ain shams university, postcode: 11517, cairo, egypt corresponding author: mohamed badawy, mohamed_badawy@eng.asu.edu.eg doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9514 article history: received 22/12/2024; revised 15/02/2025; accepted 23/03/2025; published 05/12/2025 abstract population growth, combined with a lack of adequate financing, has led to the need for innovative infrastructure financing solutions in developing countries. the mechanism for dealing with these challenges has been, to a certain degree, made viable through the establishment of public– private partnerships (ppps). this study aims to develop a system dynamics (sd) model using anylogic to determine the optimal concession period for wastewater treatment ppps. the model incorporates construction costs, discount rates, construction duration, and preconstruction expenses to provide an integrative mode of decisionmaking. this model’s application is demonstrated through a case study of the new cairo wastewater treatment plant, where the optimum concession period turned out to be 19 years. sensitivity analysis showed that construction costs and discount rates are the most significant factors impacting the estimation of the concession period. the benefits of the sd approach were further validated through comparison with monte carlo simulations and agentbased modeling regarding capturing dynamic feedback mechanisms. the paper emphasizes the essence of adaptive governance and flexible contract structures that can help mitigate financial risks and build stakeholder confidence. the study presents practical recommendations to policymakers and practitioners. 65 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9514 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9514 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:mohamed_badawy@eng.asu.edu.eg https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9514 keywords concession period; public– private partnership; wastewater treatment; system dynamics; riskdecoupled net present value introduction the rapid growth of the population in many developing countries and the relative lack of finance have created a severe need for new types of financing for largescale infrastructure projects (kamel, et al., 2017). public– private partnerships (ppps) have emerged as an essential mechanism to ensure this by utilizing the efficiency of a private hand and public management over the project (toma, et al., 2024). the application of ppps has spread in various sectors such as transportation, healthcare, and wastewater treatment, making the model relevant globally as a means of financing those sectors (martins, 2023). determining an appropriate concession period in ppp agreements is of paramount importance since this represents the time within which a private entity finances, constructs, and operates an infrastructure project before it is transferred to the government (ding, et al., 2023). poor estimation of the concession period may lead to financial disequilibrium; a very short concession period discourages private investment, while an overlong one involves too heavy costs for the public (ullah and thaheem, 2018). now, national and international studies have been more on ppp models in the transportation and energy sectors, while methodologies for estimating concession periods in wastewater treatment projects, especially in emerging economies, are still less robust (eshun, et al., 2021). despite its relevance, the determination of an optimal concession period is substantially difficult due to the high complexity of the involved risk factors and the dynamic traits of infrastructure projects (feng, et al., 2025). in case the period is too short, the private sector operation may not have adequate time to recover its investment, which discourages participation. by contrast, a longer period may result in unfair pricing or excessive revenues for the private sector, becoming a risk factor for the public authority (song et al., 2021). traditional methods, such as the net present value (npv) technique, often oversimplify complex risks and uncertainties involved in longterm projects (kamel, et al., 2023). this study presents a system dynamics (sd) model combined with a riskdecoupled net present value (rdnpv) approach to enhance the accuracy of concession period estimation in wastewater ppps. it involves dynamic, flexible adaptation to this model to incorporate critical financial and risk parameters (construction costs, discount rates, construction duration, and preconstruction expenses) into a challenge common to most infrastructure projects anywhere in the world. literature review ppps are now a basic framework for the financing of large infrastructure projects, especially in developing countries (martins, 2023). a main problem of ppp agreements is the selection of the ideal concession period (hadi and erzaij, 2019): the period during which the private partner builds and operates the infrastructure that is later transferred back to the government (castelblanco, et al., 2025). this interval must be enough for the private partner to obtain a return on its investment and earn a reasonable profit. however, it should not be too long. it must not result in excessive costs for the public sector or citizens either (ibem, et al., 2018). systematic review the structured and replicable methodology was kept for the systematic review to ensure the comprehensiveness and reliability of the findings. the entire process was conducted in four stages: (1) search badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202566 and identification of literature, (2) screening and selection, (3) data extraction, and (4) synthesis and analysis of findings. literature search and identification: the review mainly started with a wide search of scopus, a wellknown research database, which was expected to yield relevant studies on ppp concession period estimation, mostly for wastewater treatment projects. a carefully crafted boolean search query was used, incorporating terms such as “system dynamics”, “ppp” and “public– private partnership”, “concession period”, and “wastewater treatment”. this query was designed to acquire as much relevant literature as possible while ensuring that it checks how accurately it captures studies that were specifically associated with the intervention. screening and selection: the first search yielded 480 articles. with an organized screening approach, the selection was iteratively refined in three distinct filters. discipline filter: here, the results were filtered for studies only concerning the engineering domain, bringing the count to 231 articles. language filter: articles not in english were excluded to have consistency in understanding and analysis, and in this process, 222 articles remained. relevance filter: studies not addressing specific models for estimating concession periods of ppp wastewater treatment projects were excluded, leaving 88 articles that will be examined in full text. data extraction: for each of the selected 88 articles, relevant data were systematically extracted to ensure a structured comparison of the methodologies and findings. the data extracted included the following: the main focus and objectives of the study, types of models used, influencing variables (such as construction costs, risks, discount rates, and preconstruction costs), major conclusions regarding concession period estimation, and numerical results for sensitivity analyses and breakeven points. synthesis and analysis: this makes the synthesis of findings exhaustive for the identification of key trends and insights in the literature under review. the analysis focused on the following: comparing various modeling approaches to point out strengths and limitations in methodology, identifying common influential factors in the estimation of concession periods, numerical results, especially sensitivity analysis and break even estimates, and geographical studies on concession period modeling to understand geographical disparities concerning concession period modeling. figure 1 illustrates the distribution of relevant studies across different countries, demonstrating the geographical spread of research contributions in this field. figure 1. distribution of relevant studies between countries badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202567 systematic review forms a strong ground for understanding the main determinants of ppp concession periods in wastewater treatment projects. these will inform the development of the sd model applied in this study. advanced approaches to concession period estimation in ppp projects for evaluating the viability of ppp projects, traditional financial models such as npv have been very well utilized to calculate the time value of future cash flows ( jin, et al., 2019). however, npv can by no means accurately reflect major characteristics and uncertainties of largescale infrastructure projects, such as fluctuations in demand, regulatory changes, or operational risks, which, in turn, affect longterm financial success ( jin, et al., 2021). for instance, wastewater treatment projects may have demands that vary depending on population growth and industry activity, as well as changes in regulations, which make revenue predictions extremely uncertain (wibowo, 2022). moreover, unexpected increases in the operating costs increase energy prices (zhang, et al., 2018), or increased frequency of maintenance affects project profitability and further complicates an appropriate estimation of the concession period (mamdoohi, et al., 2023). adaptive concession periods, which permit adjustments based on projectspecific conditions, risksharing arrangements, and economic uncertainties, are crucial to improving financial sustainability (guo, su, et al. 2024). researchers nowadays have turned to advanced modeling techniques like agentbased modeling (hamidreza, et al., 2023). a monte carlo simulation method based on cumulative prospect theory was used to build a model for determining the concession period of a transportation build– operate– transfer (bot) project (guo, et al., 2022), genetic algorithm (altanany, et al., 2024), or system dynamics (fahimullah, et al., 2018). to overcome these problems, another study for the development of public– private partnership projects in the field of highways, using the delphi method, developed a unified framework for estimating the concession period. it emphasized the expert consensus on risk sharing, financial modeling, and stakeholder alignment to determine the optimal time frame (fathi and shrestha, 2023). sd is such a powerful methodology for simulating interactions among variables in time. in this case, it also applies well to ppp projects where multiple interacting variables usually exist (taha, et al., 2022). unlike traditional methods, sd considers the dynamic nature of revenue streams, operational costs, and demand fluctuations (fahimullah, et al., 2018). this may be able to provide more realistic projections of the optimal concession period by modeling these factors in real time (guo, et al., 2021). the wastewater treatment plant’s profitability given by altered demands or operational costs is a situation that can be modeled and simulated by the sd model to deduce the right concession period fairly and balanced for the stakeholders of both parties (castelblanco, et al., 2024). guo, chen, et al. (2021) similarly presented a methodology to assign a reasonable concession period to the private sector concerning public works in the financial and operational aspects. there are many methods that one could use to determine the concession period in ppp projects, ranging from simple to complex and accurate ones. the common methods for determining the concession period are npv, monte carlo simulations, and sd. all of them have merits and demerits (dai, et al., 2020). npv is simple but not appropriate for addressing complex, interacting variables. monte carlo analyzes risk through several scenarios based on probabilistic distributions, but it is very computably intensive and perhaps insufficiently captures all interactions of dynamics (yu, et al., 2021). an sd is especially suitable for modeling the nonlinear behavior of complex systems and hence is of special relevance for longterm infrastructure projects such as wastewater treatment plants. realtime adjustments based on performance metrics and varying conditions are also possible from sd models, thus providing a much more accurate and adaptable framework for estimating concession periods (nguyen, et al., 2021). one of the main drawbacks of traditional methods, such as npv, is the use of a single discount rate to capture risk. this simplifies the complex and uncertain nature of risks that may impact a longterm project (kasprowicz, et al., 2023). rdnpv has been suggested as an alternative approach that decouples risk factors badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202568 from the time value of money for a more realistic determination of the financial viability of the project (ameyaw and chan, 2015). by decoupling risk, rdnpv allows for a more granular analysis of a range of risk elements, such as regulatory changes, technological disruptions, and environmental factors, which enable more informed decisions about the concession period ( jin, et al., 2020). dynamic pricing models, such as timeofuse pricing, have also been suggested to address revenue uncertainty in utilitybased ppp projects (song, et al., 2021). these models allow price adjustments depending on realtime demand fluctuations. the models offer a method for managing uncertainty while ensuring that private partners can recover their investment. by embedding dynamic pricing within the sd framework, stakeholders can develop flexible financial models that adapt to shifting market conditions (amiripebdani, et al., 2022). government minimum revenue guarantees or subsidies are commonly applied to reduce risks for the private sector in ppp agreements (ahmadabadi and heravi, 2019). these revenue guarantees will stabilize the revenue streams and may affect the optimal concession period. for example, government support may reduce the length of the concession period by giving more financial certainty to the private sector (sharafi, et al., 2021). conversely, less government involvement could be balanced with a longer concession period to account for greater risk exposure (zhang, et al., 2022). sd could model such differing levels of government support and hence provide useful insight into the sensitivity of structure and timing to such factors in ppps (qi, et al., 2020). while traditional methods like npv and monte carlo simulations provide useful insights, they fall short of capturing the dynamic and uncertain nature of longterm infrastructure projects. the combination of sd and rdnpv offers a more flexible and accurate framework for estimating the optimal concession period, ensuring a balanced and fair approach that benefits both public and private stakeholders. factors affecting the concession period in ppp projects several studies have highlighted that the appropriate risk allocation between public and private parties is a critical issue in concession contracts (nguyen and likhitruangsilp, 2017; rasheed, et al., 2024). it includes construction, operational, and financial risks (elkholy and akal, 2021; osama et al., 2023). the presence of proper risksharing mechanisms can influence the length of the concession period to ensure that the private sector is adequately compensated for the risks it assumes (castelblanco, et al., 2023). the ability of the project to generate sufficient revenue during the concession period is one of the determinants of the length. the duration depends on factors like projected cash flow and revenue risks, allowing a reasonable return on investment to be made by the private sector (fathi, 2024). government policies, which include cost recovery, consideration of public interest, and adjustments due to unforeseen circumstances, may affect the concession period (sanni, 2016). economic conditions like the inflation rate, interest rate, and general economic conditions may influence both the cost and revenue generated over time. also, the concession period influences the length of the concession period (aljaber, et al., 2024). the degree to which the public sector demands performance and quality could equally affect the duration. higher standards are imposed, which may imply a longer time to reach the expected performance levels (chen, et al., 2020). the availability of payment is one of the major parameters in determining the concession period in ppp projects (guo, chen, et al. 2024). renegotiation in public– private partnerships renegotiation in ppps is closely linked to the sd model, which provides a structured approach to understanding and managing complex systems like ppps. the sd model focuses on feedback loops, delays, and nonlinear relationships, making it ideal for analyzing the dynamic interactions between various stakeholders, financial models, and project variables during renegotiations. in the context of renegotiation, the sd model can be applied to simulate the longterm effects of changing conditions such as cost overruns, shifts in demand, or regulatory changes on project outcomes. for instance, when unexpected events occur badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202569 that affect a ppp, renegotiation often becomes necessary to realign the project’s financial or operational terms ( javed, et al., 2014). the sd model helps stakeholders understand how changes in one area, such as increased costs or decreased revenues, can trigger a cascade of effects across other project components, including the concession period, financing structure, and risk allocation. chen, et al. (2023) emphasized the role of renegotiation in maintaining ppp viability amidst evolving circumstances, while khallaf, et al. (2021) suggested that structured risk assessments can mitigate conflicts during renegotiation by identifying potential risks early. the sd model supports these concepts by offering a dynamic simulation framework that can forecast the longterm impact of renegotiation decisions. furthermore, the sd model’s ability to visualize system behavior over time aligns with jin, et al. (2020) gametheoretic framework, where renegotiations are modeled as strategic decisions between stakeholders. the sd model enables a deeper understanding of how stakeholders’ behaviors and decisions interact over time, ensuring that renegotiations are conducted in a manner that maintains project stability while aligning the goals of both public and private sectors. this approach, coupled with optimization models like those of feng, et al. (2019), enhances the ability to renegotiate terms like concession periods and payment structures to better reflect the evolving realities of a project. thus, integrating the sd model with renegotiation strategies offers a comprehensive tool for predicting, analyzing, and guiding ppp renegotiations, ensuring that projects remain viable and aligned with longterm objectives. the research gap statistical financial models have been used in many studies to estimate the concession periods for wastewater treatment projects under ppp, but fail to capture the complexities of longterm agreements (kasprowicz, et al., 2023). monte carlo simulations and public sector comparator (psc) analyses have been adopted, but have not accounted for changes in financial risks and economic conditions in real time (guo, et al., 2022). a serious obstacle encountered in extant research is the divergence in financial metrics, such as psc vs. dnpv, adopted by the public and private sectors, creating a barrier to the proper determination of concession periods (kasprowicz, et al., 2023). past studies often ignored other critical dynamic considerations, such as inflation, variability in interest rates, and changes in risksharing arrangements (guo, et al., 2022). whereas many studies have investigated transportation and general infrastructure projects, wastewater treatment ppps raise unique challenges yet are largely unexplored (eshun, et al., 2021). another gap in the literature is the lack of employment of advanced risk analysis and scenariobased decisionmaking tools, which are critical for improving the ppp framework (nguyen, et al., 2021). to overcome these challenges, this research presents a hybrid system dynamics and riskdecoupled net present value model. this approach decouples risk from the traditional npv calculations and simulates the path of complex financial interactions over time to allow more realistic estimations of the concession period. in contrast to traditional frameworks restricting assumptions to fixed constructs, the sd– rdnpv framework can modify realtime fluctuations in finances, risk uncertainties, and policy changes, making it especially useful for infrastructure projects in developing economies. through this dynamic modeling approach, the study develops a tool for optimizing concession terms that is both more flexible and realistic by conducting a fair balancing of risks and benefits for every stakeholder. methodology the current study optimizes the concession duration of ppp, one of the most influential factors affecting the success and effectiveness of ppp contracts (kukah, et al., 2024). this study develops an sd model integrated with an rdnpv framework to determine the optimal concession period for ppp wastewater treatment badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202570 projects. the methodology follows a structured approach consisting of model building, parameter selection, validation, and sensitivity analysis. identifying parameters from the literature review to develop a comprehensive model, pertinent parameters were identified through a systematic literature review of ppp projects on wastewater treatment. the main variables impacting how concession periods are estimated were focused on in the identification of the parameters that were studied. in their studies, jin, et al. (2021) and nguyen, et al. (2021) recognized the importance of preconstruction costs, construction risks, and discount rates. guo, chen, et al. (2021) and taha, et al. (2022), in turn, further pointed out the influence of operational costs and tax structures. these considerations were useful in selecting the fixed, variable, and dynamic parameters used in developing the model. model development with the anylogic software, dynamic simulation of the interaction between financial and risk parameters influencing concession periods has been developed using an sd model. the model comprises two interlinked submodels: psc and ppp. psc is a model representing the net present costs associated with a public project delivered traditionally, including construction, operational, and maintenance costs plus risk adjustments. in the ppp model, the financial interests of the private sector are captured through dnpv computation, investment recovery, and expected returns. the key variables in the model include pre construction costs, construction costs, discount rates, construction duration, construction risk parameters, operational costs, and tax ratios. causal loop diagrams (clds) and stock and flow diagrams (sfds) were developed to represent the relationships among these variables. data collection and parameter selection the fiscal data from the new cairo wastewater treatment plant (wwtp), which is egypt’s first ppp for wastewater treatment, were employed. the parameters were retrieved from project documents, government policy papers, and expert consultations. model input categories were as follows: fixed parameters (pre construction costs, tax rates, and financing structures), variable parameters (construction costs, discount rates, and operation costs), and dynamic parameters (riskadjusted cost variations and investment returns). a comparative analysis of traditional estimation methods, including npv and monte carlo simulations, was conducted to validate the selection of sd for its flexibility in modeling dynamic financial interactions. model validation and sensitivity analysis the model was wellvalidated with its robust threestep process: structural validation (domain experts examined the logic and causal relations held in the clds and sfds), empirical validation (these validation considerations suggested that the historical concession agreements were parallel along similar ppp projects against the model output), and sensitivity testing (the analysis of critical factors affecting the optimal concession period, namely, construction costs, discount rates, construction time, risk parameters, and pre construction costs). the sensitivity analysis was conducted in a multiple simulation run with one parameter changing at a time while the other parameters remained constant. the analysis of breakeven points and concession period estimates for the parameters is considered: construction costs (from 550m to 650m egyptian pound (egp)), discount rates (from 0.15 to 0.17), construction duration (from 1.5 to 2.5 years), risk parameters (changed between 0.3 and 0.4), and preconstruction costs (range modeled between 90m and 110m egp). badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202571 alternative methods three methods were suggested monte carlo, agentbased modeling, and sd before the application of the model. monte carlo simulation was used for carrying out probabilistic risk analysis, but it does not consider dynamic feedback mechanisms over the long run, as seen in ppp agreements. in agentbased modeling, the individual stakeholder behaviors were modeled, but this method is computationally intensive and less practical for financial optimization. the sd approach can give a complete picture of financial interactions, allowing adaptive governance and risksensitive contract design; hence, it is fitting for complex infrastructure financing. therefore, in this study, the authors determined the sd to model the simulation. while monte carlo analysis evaluates probabilistic risks and npv offers static yield on finance, the risk decoupled net present value framework integrates feedback loops and dynamic risk allocation, which allows and adapts better to realworld uncertainties in ppp wastewater projects. thus, separating the financial risks from the discount rate, the model offers a more detailed, scenariobased understanding of risk effects, ensuring a fairer and more precise determination of concession periods. case study application the method was applied to new cairo wwtp within realworld financial constraints and involved contracts and stakeholder interests. the results indicated that the concession period optimally relates risks to benefits for both the public and private entities. develop an sd model generally, a longer concession period is required and is more beneficial for the private sector. the prolonged period will cause lucrative profits for the private investor but will lead to a loss in the government’s and citizens’ interests. however, if the period is very short, the private sector will refuse the contract or be forced to increase the service fees. therefore, there is a need to estimate a concession period that ensures a reasonable profit for the private sector within a reasonable time and protects the public sector’s interests at the same time. coupling the time value of money and risks may lead to overestimation of the benefits to the private sector at the expense of the public sector’s value for money. therefore, the risk and time should be managed separately. the values of risks during the construction and operation periods were obtained by multiplying the construction risk parameter by the construction cost and the operation risk parameter by the operation and maintenance costs. capital expenditure (capex) describes all construction costs, equipment costs, overhauling costs, etc., during the project’s construction period. operating expenditure (opex) represents the staff salaries, operating and maintenance costs, etc. it is defined as the total expenditures incurred day to day in the project’s operation period (nguyen, et al., 2021). value for money (vfm) is a key metric that guides public sector decisionmaking in ppp. it helps assess whether a project provides the best possible benefits relative to costs, ensuring that public funds are used efficiently. vfm is calculated to determine whether a ppp project yields better values compared to traditional public sector delivery. to achieve a balanced outcome between public and private sector interests, vfm is ideally set to zero, indicating that the benefits and costs are equitably shared, with no net advantage disproportionately favoring either party. this balance helps foster a sustainable partnership where the public sector benefits from highquality, costeffective services, and the private sector achieves reasonable returns on investment. vfm can be estimated using equation (1). vfm = (npsc – nppp) (1) a model was proposed using the anylogic ple simulation software. figure 2 illustrates the cld for vfm, the interaction between the variables, and the sfd for vfm. the types of variables in the stock and badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202572 flow diagrams consist of three types: stocks represent the system’s condition on which the actions are based; flows represent the change in the stock at a particular time, causing an increase or a decrease in the stock; and converters represent constant variables or variables computed from other variables. figure 2. the proposed model to determine the optimum duration of the ppp project. ppp, public– private partnership table 1 shows the main variables of the model. the conditions and actions for each event are illustrated in table 2. case study new cairo’s population was projected to increase from 550,000 to 4 million by 2026, a rapid expansion exceeding the capacity of the existing water supply and sanitation services. the new cairo wwtp, egypt’s first ppp for wastewater management, was established to address these challenges. with a capacity of approximately 250,000 m3 of sewage per day, the wwtp serves new cairo, madinaty, and el mostakbal, ultimately benefiting approximately 3 million residents at full operational capacity. the government of egypt partnered with the international finance corporation (ifc) and the public– private infrastructure advisory facility of the world bank group. the ifc, egypt’s ppp central unit, and the ministry of housing, utilities, and urban development structured the project as a 20year concession under a design– build– finance– operate– transfer contract model. the new urban communities authority managed the project, drawing on the concession period durations of similar international projects (grupo banco mundial, 2020). the project was developed by orasqualia, a consortium named after its shareholders: orascom construction industries (presently named oc) and aqualia (in february 2015, it was replaced by aqualia new europe), each with 50% equity. aqualia new europe itself is a joint venture and is 50% owned badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202573 table 1. main variables of the model variable variable type equation pre_construction_cost parameter input construction costs parameter input numberofconstructionyears parameter input operation_maintenance_costs parameter input construction_cost_year dynamic variable construction_cost/ numberofconstructionyears major maintenance dynamic variable input from the table function construction_risk_parameter parameter input represents the construction risks’ parameter operation_risk_parameter parameter input represents the operation risks’ parameter capex flow construction_cost_year + operation_ maintenance_costs + major_maintenance all_risks dynamic variable construction_cost_year * construction_ risk_parameter + operation_risk_parameter *operation_maintenance_costs discount_rate parameter input npsc stock (capex + all_risks)/math.pow((1 + discount_ rate), time()) initial value = pre_construction_cost profit parameter input capacity_charge parameter input insurance parameter input pass_through_electricity_costs parameter input availabilitypayment dynamic variable (insurance + capacity_charge + operation_ maintenance_costs) * (1 + profit) revenue flow availabilitypayment + pass_through_ electricity_costs tax_ratio parameter input taxes dynamic variable tax_ratio * revenue nppp stock (revenue − taxes)/math.pow((1 + discount_ rate), time()) vfm dynamic variable npv_traditional − npv_ppp badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202574 by aqualia and 50% owned by the european bank for reconstruction and development. the construction started in march 2010 and took 26 months, finishing in may 2012, although 2 months behind schedule due to political instability in egypt in 2011. this delay also affected the operation phase, mainly because of quality issues in the preconstruction outflow, so the plant’s service began in october 2013, 16 months after construction was completed (planas, 2018). financing for the project followed a capital structure with a debttoequity ratio of 70/30, ensuring robust financial support for the project’s longterm viability (velasco, 2012). model parameters the financial data of the new cairo wwtp and the parameters in this study were collected from the ifc. it was agreed that the government would pay a service availability payment to the service provider each year during the operation period to cover all expenses, financing costs, and profit (mohy el din, 2017). this is table 2. conditions and actions for each event event’s name condition action changepre_construction_cost time ()>0.001 pre_construction_cost = 0 change_construction_cost_year time ()>(numberofconstructionyears) construction_cost_year = 0 changeoperationandmaintenance_ costs time ()>numberofconstructionyears operation_maintenance_costs = … changecapacity_charge time ()>numberofconstructionyears capacity_charge = … changepass_through_electricity_ costs time ()>numberofconstructionyears pass_through_electricity_costs = … changeinsurance time ()>numberofconstructionyears insurance = … table 3. the parameters of the model variable value event action pre_construction_cost 100 0 construction costs 600 numberofconstructionyears 2 operation_maintenance_costs 0 12.5 construction_risk_parameter 0.35 operation_risk_parameter 0.2 discount_rate 0.16 profit 0.2 capacity_charge 0 180 insurance 0 1 pass_through_electricity_costs 0 5 tax_ratio 0.2 badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202575 structured around five parameters. a capacity charge is a payment covering total investments made for the design and construction, all the capital expenditure required during the operational period, debt service costs, and return on equity. insurance includes breakdown policy, civil liability insurance, insurance against theft, thirdparty insurance, and insurance against pollution. an operating charge is a payment covering operating and maintenance costs. a passthrough charge is a reimbursement of the full electricity costs. taxes were deducted from revenue in the dnpv calculation according to the sector and deducted from government costs in the vfm calculation, as it is considered revenue to the government (kokkaew and tongthong, 2021). the tax rate was assumed to be 20% of the total revenue. the parameters of the model are shown in table 3. the major maintenance table function is illustrated in table 4. table 4. major maintenance table function at year 12 20 28 major maintenance 30 50 50 results figure 3 illustrates the relationship between the vfm in million pounds and the time in years. npsc refers to the net present for the public sector (comparator). it represents the estimated total cost to the government if the project were implemented through the traditional public procurement approach. this cost includes construction, operation, maintenance, and riskadjusted components, all discounted to their present value. it is often referred to as the public sector comparator (psc) or the net present social cost (npsc). nppp refers to the net present for the public– private partnership (ppp) option. it represents the estimated total cost or value of delivering the same project under a ppp arrangement, also discounted to present value. the analysis of the difference between npsc and nppp yields the same number for both variables, showing their convergence in 19.15 years, as seen in figure 4, which will ensure that financial benefits and costs are balanced for the duration identified for both the public and private sectors. thus, the figure 3. the result of the value for money badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202576 concession period will be optimized at 19 years to ensure that risks are allocated fairly and effectively at an efficient level for both parties involved. figure 4. the relationship between npsc and nppp the results were compared with those of monte carlo simulations and agentbased modeling to assess the validity of the sd approach regarding robustness. monte carlo simulations were performed by generating 10,000 iterations of possible economic conditions, including different inflation rates and construction cost overruns. while it establishes the probabilistic range of concession periods at 95% confidence (between 17 and 22 years), it does not capture the dynamic feedback mechanisms intrinsic to longterm infrastructure projects. agentbased modeling, in contrast, focuses on simulating the behavior of single stakeholders and clarifies how the changes in risksharing mechanisms affect concession periods; however, it incurs large computational requirements concomitant with various subjective assumptions of stakeholder decisionmaking behavior. in comparison, sd modeling strikes an appropriate balance between computational power and realtime adaptability, which makes it more applicable to longterm ppp agreements. critical factors affecting the concession period in ppp projects in the case of the concession period for ppp projects on wastewater treatment, a few important factors are considered to determine an optimal concession period. influencing elements are construction costs, discount rates, duration of construction, risk in construction, and preconstruction expenses. each of these elements can significantly affect the speed at which a project recovers its costs; hence, they affect how attractive the project is to investors. by understanding how these factors are related, stakeholders are better prepared for the complexities that arise while attempting to finance and implement wastewater treatment projects. construction cost it is developed based on three different construction cost scenarios: a, 650m; b, 600m; and c, 550 m. the estimated time for vfm ranges from year 0 to year 50. the breakeven points are in scenario a (650m), breaking even in 34 years; scenario b (600m), breaking even after 19 years; and scenario c (550m), breaking even in 15 years. it can also be realized from this analysis that construction cost is a major factor affecting the concession period optimality of ppp. the higher construction costs with 650m correspond to a longer breakeven period of 34 years, which means that the recovery of the investment takes more time. this misalignment indicates a potential risk for investors if the optimal concession period is shorter than the time required to achieve balance. conversely, lower construction costs would have a rather small breakeven period (e.g., 550m and 600m result in breakeven periods of 15 and 19 years, respectively, thus coming closer to their corresponding optimum concession periods). such investment atmospheres are preferable in investment circles because faster recoveries on investment translate into fewer risks. in all these findings, a vital correlation between construction cost and financial viability related to ppp projects is badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202577 deduced. as construction costs increase, the breakeven timeline increases, which may outpace the optimal concession period. this indicates that construction cost is an important factor in structuring the ppp agreement to ensure sustainable financial returns and project success. figure 5 shows the concession period vs. construction cost scenarios. figure 5. concession period vs. construction cost scenarios discount rate three scenarios of different discount rate analyses are considered: a, 0.15; b, 0.16; and c, 0.17. the estimation time for vfm ranges from year 0 to year 50. breakeven points, which indicate where the projected values reach zero for each scenario, include scenario a, breaking even after 16 years; scenario b, breaking even after 19 years; and scenario c, breaking even after 30 years. this indicates the variations in the times at which projects break even, as affected by the discount rate. in scenario a (0.15), the break even period of only 16 years creates a very favorable investment environment in which quick cost recovery is possible, thus appealing to investors. in scenario b (0.16), the concession period is 19 years, offering a balanced recovery path that still presents attractive potential returns, although with slightly more risk. however, in scenario c (0.17), the breakeven period stretches to 30 years, which could deter investors due to the longer wait to recoup their investments and increased financial risk. overall, these findings underscore the importance of discount rates in assessing project concession periods, as lower rates correlate with shorter recovery times and enhanced investor attractiveness, while higher rates lead to longer recovery periods and greater uncertainty. figure 6 illustrates the concession period vs. discount rate scenarios. number of construction years the analysis considers three distinct number of construction years scenarios: scenario a, 1.5; scenario b, 2; and scenario c, 2.5. the time frame for estimating vfm is from year 0 to year 50. the breakeven points for each scenario, indicating when the projected values reach zero, are as follows: scenario a, breaking even after 16 years; scenario b, breaking even after 19 years; and scenario c, breaking even after 26 years. the analysis reveals how varying construction durations impact the optimal concession period in ppp wastewater projects. scenario a (1.5 years): with the shortest construction duration, this scenario allows for an optimal concession period of 16 years, suggesting a quicker return on investment. this could be attractive badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202578 for investors because it means a relatively fast recovery of costs, which enhances the viability of the project as a whole. scenario b (2 years): the concession period extends to 19 years, offering a moderate time frame for cost recovery. although this option is a bit riskier than scenario a, it still offers a reasonable prospect for investors. scenario c (2.5 years): the longest time of construction is 26 years for breakeven. this very long period could be quite crucial for the investors because it implies a longer period that will be required to recover invested capital. this may discourage potential investors because of increased financial risk and uncertainties. in general, these all highlight the critical impact that the duration of construction has on determining the optimal concession period. shorter construction periods correlate with quicker breakeven points, making projects more attractive to investors, whereas longer ones result in longer recovery periods, which may also increase financial risks. considering these factors, stakeholders need to be very cautious while planning and arranging finances for construction projects to maximize returns and keep risks within manageable limits. figure 7 shows the concession period vs. the number of construction years scenarios. construction risk parameter one of the critical factors that affect the optimal concession period for the ppp wastewater project is the risk ratio linked to construction costs. three different construction risk parameter scenarios are analyzed in this analysis: scenario a, 0.3; scenario b, 0.35; and scenario c, 0.4. the time frame for evaluation for estimating vfm spans from year 0 to year 50. the breakeven points for each construction risk scenario, indicating when the projected values reach zero, are as follows: scenario a (0.3), breaking even after 17 years; scenario b (0.35), breaking even after 19 years; and scenario c (0.4), breaking even after 23 years. this analysis illustrates how varying construction risk ratios impact financial recovery timelines and, hence, the optimal concession period. scenario a (0.3): with the lowest risk ratio, this scenario achieves a break even point after 17 years, suggesting a stable investment environment. this could therefore be attractive to the investors as a result of the faster capital cost recovery and a lower likelihood of unexpected expenses. scenario b (0.35): the breakeven period increases in this scenario to 19 years. while still manageable, the higher risk ratio can indicate that investors may face a little higher uncertainty, which could reduce their confidence in the financial viability of the project. scenario c (0.4): this implies the highest construction risk, yielding a breakeven point of 23 years. this could lead to major concerns for investors since they will figure 6. concession period vs. discount rate scenarios badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202579 be demoralized because of higher costs and exposure to financial risks. the results provide insight into how construction risk ratios greatly impact the derivation of the optimal concession period in wastewater ppp projects. a lowrisk ratio would involve a shorter breakeven time, making the project more attractive to investors, whereas with a highrisk ratio, recovery may take longer, possibly increasing financial risks. these counterbalancing dynamics need to be studied thoroughly by stakeholders to make appropriate project financing and delivery decisions. figure 8 shows the concession period vs. construction risk parameter scenarios. figure 8. concession period vs. construction risk parameter scenarios figure 7. concession period vs. number of construction years scenarios badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202580 preconstruction cost the preconstruction cost is one of the most critical factors that influence the optimal concession period for the ppp wastewater project. this analysis highlights how different preconstruction costs affect the optimal concession period. this analysis examines three distinct preconstruction cost scenarios: scenario a, 90 million; scenario b, 100 million; and scenario c, 110 million. the time frame for evaluation for estimating vfm spans from year 0 to year 50. the breakeven points for each preconstruction cost scenario, indicating when the projected values reach zero, are as follows: scenario a (90 million), optimal concession period at 18 years; scenario b (100 million), breaking even after 19 years; and scenario c (110 million), breaking even after 20 years. scenario a (90 million): the lowest preconstruction cost results in a breakeven after 18 years, which would be ideal regarding investment climate; it implies shorter cost recovery for investors and lower financial vulnerability in the initial stages of an investment. scenario b (100 million): here, the breakeven increases to 19 years. although still reasonable, the increase in pre construction costs suggests a slightly higher financial risk, which may further affect investor confidence and willingness to engage. scenario c (110 million): this scenario, with the highest preconstruction cost, yields a breakeven point of 20 years. the longer recovery time may raise concerns for investors, who may be deterred by the higher initial investment and associated financial risks. these findings highlight that the magnitude of preconstruction cost plays an important role in defining the concession period of any particular ppp wastewater project. for low preconstruction costs, shorter breakeven times imply higher profitability of the project for potential investors, whereas with increasing preconstruction costs, breakeven times will increase along with increased financial risks. proper analysis is required from the stakeholder side to accurately design a financing structure and ultimately implement the project smoothly. figure 9 shows the concession period versus preconstruction cost scenarios. figure 9. concession period vs. preconstruction cost scenarios sensitivity analysis table 5 shows a sensitivity analysis of key factors influencing optimal concession periods in ppp wastewater treatment projects. the optimal concession period in ppp wastewater treatment projects is influenced by five key factors— construction costs, discount rates, construction duration, construction risk parameters, and pre construction costs— each impacting the breakeven timeline in distinct ways. construction cost is critical; badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202581 higher costs (e.g., 650m) result in longer breakeven periods (34 years), while lower costs (e.g., 550m) align with shorter breakeven periods (15 years), enhancing investment appeal. the discount rates also play a significant role; lower rates (0.15) lead to quicker recovery (16 years), whereas higher rates (0.17) stretch breakeven timelines to 30 years, potentially deterring investors. construction duration impacts recovery times as well; shorter durations (1.5 years) yield faster breakeven points (16 years), while longer durations (2.5 years) extend recovery to 26 years, raising financial risk. construction risk ratio affects stability; lower risk ratios (0.3) result in quicker recoveries (17 years), but higher risks (0.4) extend breakeven periods (23 years), increasing investor concerns. finally, preconstruction costs influence initial financial exposure; lower costs (90 million) correspond to faster breakeven (18 years), while higher costs (110 million) lead to extended recovery times (20 years), impacting investor confidence. overall, stakeholders must balance these factors to optimize concession periods and ensure project viability. figure 10 illustrates the sensitivity analysis for the effect of each crucial factor on the optimal concession period in wastewater treatment projects. 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 preconstruction cost construction risk parameter number of construction years discount rate costruction cost figure 10. sensitivity analysis for the crucial factors findings this study shows that the variables with maximum influence on the optimal concession periods in ppp wastewater projects are construction costs, discount rates, construction duration, construction risk table 5. sensitivity analysis of concession period factors in ppp projects factors min most likely max range construction cost 15 19 34 19 discount rate 16 19 30 14 number of construction years 16 19 26 10 construction risk parameter 17 19 23 6 preconstruction cost 18 19 20 2 note: ppp, public– private partnership. badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202582 parameters, and preconstruction costs. the sd model, implemented in anylogic, simulates these factors and arrives at the breakeven point at which public and private financial interests are met. sensitivity analysis showed that the value of higher construction costs extending the concession period to up to 34 years was 650m, while that of lower construction costs reducing it to 15 years was 550m. likewise, a higher discount rate (0.17) delays the cost recovery to 30 years, whereas a lower discount rate (0.15) shortens it to 16 years. the model also indicates that a longer construction duration (2.5 years) leads to a longer concession period (26 years), whereas a shorter one (1.5 years) reduces it to 16 years. the optimal concession period, therefore, for the new cairo wwtp was estimated at 19 years, where the npv of the public sector comparator and the decoupled npv of the private sector are equal. unlike traditional models, which treat risk distributions as static, the riskdecoupled npv framework incorporates dynamic risk factors to achieve a more equitable distribution of responsibility for finance between the public and private sectors. these findings provide evidence that the countries need adaptive governance, financial flexibility, and risksensitive contracts for the survival of ppp frameworks. discussion many parameters play a significant role in defining a concession period associated with wastewater treatment projects under the ppp scheme. this discussion utilizes academic literature and ongoing study findings to show users how certain factors influence the optimal concession period in ppp wastewater treatment projects. preconstruction costs, including those related to design, planning, and compliance with regulations, are also significant (ke, et al., 2017). this analysis reveals that higher preconstruction costs will lead to longer concession periods, enabling the investor to recover the costs of investment. this agrees with the findings of yu, et al. (2021), who emphasized the importance of ascertaining preconstruction costs in ensuring enhanced financial viability. therefore, indepth analysis of preconstruction costs is crucial for striking a good deal for the parties involved. the most important determinant of the concession period is construction cost. in this respect, the analysis of the current study identified that with higher construction costs, longer concession periods are required to allow for sufficient recovery of investments. kamel, et al. (2023) noted that high initial costs may discourage private participation, especially in developing regions such as egypt. therefore, the current research shares the view of kamel, et al. (2023) that one of the most important determinants of the financial viability of ppp wastewater treatment projects is construction cost. a more holistic understanding of construction costs may lead to more competitive bids and concession periods since private investors would want faster returns on a lowercost project. the duration of construction is another critical factor affecting the concession period. this study identifies that longer construction durations increase the risk exposure for private partners, necessitating longer concession periods to offset potential revenue losses during delays. the above sentiment is echoed by jin, et al. (2021), who stated that construction risks complicate revenue projections. a concession length is substantially affected by a discount rate. the present value of future cash flows is determined mainly by a discount rate. the various economic scenarios analyzed herein reveal that a lower discount rate, which increases the present value of the revenues expected, can facilitate a shorter concession period. guo, et al. (2021) supported these results by indicating that higher discount rates can lead to extended periods for cost recovery, which may deter investment. therefore, careful calibration of the discount rate in line with market conditions is an important step in attracting private partners. construction costs, discount rates, construction duration, and preconstruction costs are some of the various influences interacting in a complex manner in ppp wastewater treatment projects. from this study, the outcome of critical factors affecting the concession period provides an understanding coherent with the existing literature on the subject. by way of integrating these perceptions, the stakeholders would be able to shape the ppp agreements in a way that would ultimately balance the risk and investment attractiveness along with project sustainability, so it could go a long way in achieving better success in wastewater management. badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202583 conclusion and policy implications conclusion this study developed an sd model with a view to the rdnpv framework, watching for the optimal concession period for ppp wastewater treatment projects. construction costs, discount rates, construction duration, construction risk parameters, and preconstruction costs have indeed been found to be the most effective parameters of the model. it confirmed that higher construction costs, longer construction durations, and high discount rates would prolong the breakeven time, while lower values would render cost recovery faster. this study implied the new cairo wwtp to be optimally concessioned over 19 years, during which the npsc and the nppp converged. unlike static models, an sd framework instead holds probability ratio changes with time because the risk is dynamic; therefore, the concession period for ppps can now be modeled very flexibly and accurately. these findings strengthen the argument for adaptive financial models integrating risk parameters into ppp contract design, ensuring truly equitable distribution of benefits. this study contributes to ppp infrastructure finance research by introducing a dynamic, risksensitive modeling framework that more accurately predicts concession durations. this approach would enhance the development of future research on adaptive financial models for emerging economies. implications for policy and practice policy frameworks for ppp agreements: findings show that flexible concession period regulations adjust to changing economics. therefore, they need to adopt adaptive governance models that consider realtime changes in costs and revenues while managing risks. risk allocation in contract design: riskdecoupled npv should be built into ppp appraisal processes to develop policyrelated concerns about overrated or underrated financial risks in fair risk sharing among public and private partners. financing and investments: there should be a sensitivity analysis by private investors when they negotiate concession periods. the analysis would ensure cost recovery within time frames that are financially viable and prevent excessive profit that could burden the public sector. project approval implementation: performancebased contract mechanisms should be introduced as dynamic adjustments of the concession period, dependent on economic and operational performance, unlike fixed assumptions. sustainability in ppp projects: environmental and social impact considerations in estimating the concession period should not only be on financial feasibility but also on the capacity of projects to deliver longterm sustainability goals. the recommendations of the findings of this study advise that policymakers should consider flexible concession period frameworks that adjust based on macroeconomic conditions. for example, a realtime monitoring system for discount rates and inflation could establish an automatic reevaluation of concession periods in intervals of 5 years. furthermore, risksharing agreements will have adaptive mechanisms for covering unforeseen cost overruns, and government guarantees for projects that exceed a threshold of defined financial risk. adaptive governance would bolster investor confidence and public sector funding in the long run. limitations of the study data constraint: while the proposed model can be applied to various countries, the numerical results should be adjusted accordingly, as the research heavily relies on data obtained from the new cairo wwtp. badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202584 simplified risk modeling: certain external risks (e.g., political, environmental, or demand fluctuations) have been simplified in the rdnpv model, which therefore can affect the concession periods under real conditions. assumed market stability: discount rates and characteristics of finance were supposed to be constant; however, different permanent conditions exist in the economy (for example, changing inflation or interest rates), which could significantly affect the results of projects. data availability statement all data, models, and code generated or used during the study appear in the submitted article. references ahmadabadi, a.a. and heravi, g., 2019. the effect of critical success factors on project success in public-private partnership projects: a case study of highway projects in iran. transport policy, 73, 152–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. tranpol.2018.07.004 aljaber, k., sohail, m., and ruikar, k., 2024. critical success factors of water and power public–private partnerships in developing countries: a systematic review. buildings, 14 (6), 1603. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14061603 altanany, m.y., badawy, m., ebrahim, g.a., and ehab, a., 2024. modeling and optimizing linear projects using lsm and non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (nsga-ii). automation in construction, 165, 105567. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2024.105567 ameyaw, e.e. and chan, a.p.c., 2015. risk allocation in public-private partnership water supply projects in ghana. construction management and economics, 33 (3), 187–208. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2015.1031148 amiri-pebdani, s., alinaghian, m., and safarzadeh, s., 2022. time-of-use pricing in an energy sustainable supply chain with government interventions: a game theory approach. energy, 255, 124380. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. energy.2022.124380 castelblanco, g., guevara, j., mangano, g., and rafele, c., 2024. financial system dynamics model for multidimensional flexibility in toll road ppps: a life-cycle analysis. construction management and economics, 42 (9), 802–821. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2024.2335566 castelblanco, g., mangano, g., zenezini, g., and de marco, a., 2025. once concessioned, twice shy? asymmetries of “reconcession” in national ppp programs. construction management and economics. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2 024.2448975 castelblanco, g., safari, p., and marco, a. de, 2023. driving factors of concession period in healthcare public private partnerships. buildings. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13102452 chen, c., lv, l., wang, z., and qiao, r., 2023. bargaining optimization model for risk renegotiation with fairness concerns in infrastructure ppp projects. engineering, construction and architectural management, 30 (9), 3876–3894. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-11-2021-1006 chen, h., zhang, l., and wu, x., 2020. performance risk assessment in public–private partnership projects based on adaptive fuzzy cognitive map. applied soft computing, 93, 106413. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2020.106413 dai, t., wang, q., sun, x., and shi, b., 2020. study on investment return system of ppp wastewater treatment projects based on system dynamics. international journal of technology, policy and management, 20 (3), 193–213. https://doi. org/10.1504/ijtpm.2020.109781 badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202585 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.07.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.07.004 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14061603 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2024.105567 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2024.105567 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2015.1031148 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2022.124380 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2022.124380 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2024.2335566 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2024.2448975 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2024.2448975 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13102452 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-11-2021-1006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2020.106413 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijtpm.2020.109781 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijtpm.2020.109781 ding, p., xia, w., zhao, z., and li, x., 2023. the impact of government subsidies on build-operate-transfer contract design for charging piles in circular economy. industrial management and data systems, 123 (4), 1084–1121. https://doi. org/10.1108/imds-01-2022-0060 el-kholy, a.m. and akal, a.y., 2021. assessing and allocating the financial viability risk factors in public-private partnership wastewater treatment plant projects. engineering, construction and architectural management, 28 (10), 3014–3040. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2020-0373 eshun, b.t.b., chan, a.p.c., and osei-kyei, r., 2021. conceptualizing a win–win scenario in public–private partnerships: evidence from a systematic literature review. engineering, construction and architectural management, 28 (9), 2712–2735. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2020-0533 fahimullah, jamaluddin, t.m., e., s.s.m., and nuria, f., 2018. system dynamics model to determine concession period of ppp infrastructure projects: overarching effects of critical success factors. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 10 (4), 4518022. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.19434170.0000280 fathi, m., 2024. a structural equation model on critical risk and success in public–private partnership: exploratory study. journal of risk and financial management, 17 (8), 354. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm17080354 fathi, m. and shrestha, p.p., 2023. public-private partnership contract framework development for highway projects: a delphi approach. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 15 (1). https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000575 feng, k., wang, s., wu, c., xia, g., and hu, w., 2019. optimization of concession period for public private partnership toll roads. engineering economics, 30 (1), 24–31. https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.30.1.19215 feng, z., gao, y., song, j., and he, q., 2025. an analysis of information disclosure in build–operate–transfer road projects. european journal of operational research, 322 (1), 292–306. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2024.10.032 grupo banco mundial, 2020. wastewater: from waste to resource the case of new cairo, egypt. water global practice. guo, j., chen, j., and xie, y., 2022. determining a reasonable concession period for risky transportation bot projects with government subsidies based on cumulative prospect theory. engineering, construction and architectural management, 29 (3), 1396–1426. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-11-2019-0612 guo, k., zhang, l., and wang, t., 2021. concession period optimisation in complex projects under uncertainty: a public–private partnership perspective. construction management and economics, 39 (2), 156–172. https://doi.org/10.108 0/01446193.2020.1849752 guo, y., chen, c., luo, x., and martek, i., 2024. determining concessionary items for ‘availability payment only’ ppp projects: a holistic framework integrating value-for-money and social values. journal of civil engineering and management, 30 (2), 149–167. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2024.20841 guo, y., su, y., chen, c., and martek, i., 2024. inclusion of “managing flexibility” valuations in the pricing of ppp projects: a multi-objective decision-making method. engineering, construction and architectural management, 31 (11), 4562–4584. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2022-0672 hadi, a.h. and erzaij, k.r., 2019. determination a reasonable concession period for (ppp) projects. civil engineering journal (iran), 5 (6), 1235–1248. https://doi.org/10.28991/cej-2019-03091328 hamidreza, a., sajad, n., abbasianjahromi, h., and naserkhaki, s., 2023. using agent-based modeling to determine the concession period of bot contracts. journal of infrastructure systems, 29 (2), 4023010. https://doi.org/10.1061/ jitse4.iseng-2183 badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202586 https://doi.org/10.1108/imds-01-2022-0060 https://doi.org/10.1108/imds-01-2022-0060 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2020-0373 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2020-0533 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000280 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000280 https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm17080354 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000575 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000575 https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.30.1.19215 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2024.10.032 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-11-2019-0612 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1849752 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1849752 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2024.20841 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2022-0672 https://doi.org/10.28991/cej-2019-03091328 https://doi.org/10.1061/jitse4.iseng-2183 https://doi.org/10.1061/jitse4.iseng-2183 ibem, e.o., onyemaechi, p.c., and yo-vaughan, e.a., 2018. project selection and transparency factors in housing public-private partnerships in nigeria. construction economics and building, 18 (2), 15–40. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v18i2.5771 javed, a.a., lam, p.t.i., and chan, a.p.c., 2014. change negotiation in public-private partnership projects through output specifications: an experimental approach based on game theory. construction management and economics, 32 (4), 323–348. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.895846 jin, h., liu, s., li, j., and liu, c., 2020. imperfect information bargaining model for determining concession period of ppps under revenue uncertainty. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 12 (2). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000382 jin, h., liu, s., liu, c., and udawatta, n., 2019. optimizing the concession period of ppp projects for fair allocation of financial risk. engineering, construction and architectural management, 26 (10), 2347–2363. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ecam-05-2018-0201 jin, h., liu, s., sun, j., and liu, c., 2021. determining concession periods and minimum revenue guarantees in publicprivate-partnership agreements. european journal of operational research, 291 (2), 512–524. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ejor.2019.12.013 kamel, m., khallaf, r., and nosaier, i., 2023. net present value-time curve behaviour of public private partnership projects. international journal of construction management, 23 (11), 1924–1931. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022 .2025742 kamel, m., montaser, a., and el-rashid, i.a., 2017. public private partnership in egypt. in: proceedings of the canadian society for civil engineering annual conference (csce 2017), 6th csce/crc international construction specialty conference. vancouver, bc, canada. kasprowicz, t., starczyk-kołbyk, a., and wójcik, r.r., 2023. the randomized method of estimating the net present value of construction projects efficiency. international journal of construction management, 23 (12), 2126–2133. https:// doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2045426 ke, y., hao, w., ding, h., and wang, y., 2017. factors influencing the private involvement in urban rail publicprivate partnership projects in china. construction economics and building, 17 (1), 90–106. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v17i1.5105 khallaf, r., naderpajouh, n., and hastak, m., 2021. robust decision-making for multiparty renegotiations in publicprivate partnerships. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 13 (3). https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000473 kokkaew, n. and tongthong, t., 2021. computational framework for the determination of duration and revenue sharing rates in ppp concession renewal: a monte carlo and risk premium approach. engineering journal, 25 (7), 59–71. https://doi.org/10.4186/ej.2021.25.7.59 kukah, a.s.k., owusu-manu, d.-g., badu, e., and edwards, d.j., 2024. delphi study for evaluating critical success factors (csfs) for ppp power projects in ghana. journal of facilities management, 22 (5), 828–848. https://doi. org/10.1108/jfm-04-2022-0040 mamdoohi, s., miller-hooks, e., and gifford, j., 2023. an equilibrium approach for compensating public–private partnership concessionaires for reduced tolls during roadway maintenance. transportation research part a: policy and practice, 175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2023.103759 martins, a., 2023. public-private partnerships with no contractual base case: adjusting for the impacts of covid-19. european procurement and public private partnership law review, 18 (1), 40–49. https://doi.org/10.21552/ epppl/2023/1/7 badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202587 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5771 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5771 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.895846 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000382 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2018-0201 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2018-0201 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2019.12.013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2019.12.013 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2025742 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2025742 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2045426 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2045426 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5105 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5105 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000473 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000473 https://doi.org/10.4186/ej.2021.25.7.59 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-04-2022-0040 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-04-2022-0040 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2023.103759 https://doi.org/10.21552/epppl/2023/1/7 https://doi.org/10.21552/epppl/2023/1/7 mohy el din, n.s., 2017. an integrated framework approach for ppp projects in egypt. master’s thesis, the american university in cairo. nguyen, n., almarri, k., and boussabaine, h., 2021. a risk-adjusted decoupled-net-present-value model to determine the optimal concession period of bot projects. built environment project and asset management, 11 (1), 4–21. https:// doi.org/10.1108/bepam-12-2019-0134 nguyen, p.t. and likhitruangsilp, v., 2017. identification risk factors affecting concession period length for publicprivate partnership infrastructure projects. international journal of civil engineering and technology, 8 (6), 342–348. osama, m., sherif, a., and badawy, m., 2023. risk analysis of construction of administration projects using bayesian networks. journal of engineering, design and technology, 21 (1), 281–298. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2021-0222 planas, m.r., 2018. the new cairo wastewater treatment plant (egypt). iese business school specialist center on ppp in smart and sustainable cities, 173–186. qi, r., shen, z., and wang, j., 2020. research on government compensation mechanism of public rental housing in public private partnership mode. in: iccrem 2020: intelligent construction and sustainable buildings proceedings of the international conference on construction and real estate management 2020. 501–512. https://doi. org/10.1061/9780784483237.060 rasheed, n., shahzad, w., and rotimi, j., 2024. factor analysis of risk allocation criteria (rac) in public-private partnership (ppp) projects: a case of new zealand. construction economics and building, 24 (4/5). https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9021 sanni, a.o., 2016. factors determining the success of public private partnership projects in nigeria. construction economics and building, 16 (2), 42–55. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i2.4828 sharafi, a., sadegh amalnick, m., and allah taleizadeh, a., 2021. outcome of financial conflicts in the operation phase of public-private partnership contracts. journal of construction engineering and management, 147 (6). https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002011 song, y., shangguan, l., and li, g., 2021. simulation analysis of flexible concession period contracts in electric vehicle charging infrastructure public-private-partnership (evci-ppp) projects based on time-of-use (tou) charging price strategy. energy, 228, 120328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2021.120328 taha, g., sherif, a., and badawy, m., 2022. dynamic modeling for analyzing cost overrun risks in residential projects. asce-asme journal of risk and uncertainty in engineering systems, part a: civil engineering, 8 (3), 04022041. https://doi.org/10.1061/ajrua6.0001262 toma, h.m., el-sayed, s., ibrahim, a.h., and badawy, m., 2024. hybrid evaluation model to assess the overall barriers of public-private partnership contracts. international journal of construction management, 1–10. https://doi.org/1 0.1080/15623599.2024.2358584 ullah, f. and thaheem, m.j., 2018. concession period of public private partnership projects: industry–academia gap analysis. international journal of construction management, 18 (5), 418–429. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.13 33400 velasco, m.d.r. de, 2012. case study on new cairo wastewater project. in: public-private partnerships conference. dakar, senegal: international finance corporation, world bank group. wibowo, a., 2022. vfm-at-risk analysis model for build–operate–transfer infrastructure projects. journal of infrastructure systems, 28 (4), 4022032. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000721 badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202588 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-12-2019-0134 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-12-2019-0134 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2021-0222 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784483237.060 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784483237.060 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9021 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9021 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i2.4828 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002011 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2021.120328 https://doi.org/10.1061/ajrua6.0001262 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2024.2358584 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2024.2358584 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1333400 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1333400 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000721 yu, s., dai, t., yu, y., and zhang, j., 2021. investment decision model of wastewater treatment public–private partnership projects based on value for money. water and environment journal, 35 (1), 322–334. https://doi.org/10.1111/ wej.12629 zhang, h., jin, r., li, h., and skibniewski, m.j., 2018. pavement maintenance–focused decision analysis on concession periods of ppp highway projects. journal of management in engineering, 34 (1). https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)me.1943-5479.0000568 zhang, y., yuan, j., zhao, j., cheng, l., and li, q., 2022. hybrid dynamic pricing model for transport ppp projects during the residual concession period. journal of construction engineering and management, 148 (2). https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002218 badawy et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202589 https://doi.org/10.1111/wej.12629 https://doi.org/10.1111/wej.12629 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000568 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000568 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002218 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002218 construction economics and building vol. 18, no. 2 june 2018 © 2018 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: okoye, p. u. 2018. occupational health and safety risk levels of building construction trades in nigeria construction economics and building, 18:2, 92-109. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v18i2.5882 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | ajceb.epress. lib.uts.edu.au research article occupational health and safety risk levels of building construction trades in nigeria peter uchenna okoye department of building, nnamdi azikiwe university, nigeria; pu.okoye@unizik.edu.ng doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5882 article history: received 15/01/2018; revised 15/04/2018; accepted 06/05/2018; published 27/06/2018 abstract this study assessed the occupational health and safety risk-level of common building construction trades in nigeria. it also identified the sources, frequency and magnitude of risks inherent in the activities of various building construction trades. being site-based survey research, it made use of a structured questionnaire administered to the selected building construction workers of different trades in anambra state, nigeria. the collected data were subjected to quantitative risk analysis using mean value method and risk prioritisation number. the study found that masonry, carpentry (including formwork and roofing), and iron bending and steel fixing are common building trades associated with high risks; whereas electrical fitting and installation, painting, tiling, and plumbing are medium risk building trades. it also found that the rate of occurrence and magnitude of impact of different safety risk factors differ across the building trades, which could be attributed to the differences in activities and modes of operation in different building trades. on this premise, the study suggested a multi-risk management and control approach for construction managers on building construction sites since the frequency of risk occurrence and the magnitude of risk severity differ across trades. it further called for institutional and legislative re-strengthening of extant labour laws in nigeria. keywords building trades, construction activities, health and safety, occupation, risk factors. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 92 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5882 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5882 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5882 http://ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au http://ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au mailto:pu.okoye@unizik.edu.ng http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5882 introduction building construction activities are generally associated with high risks and hazards. building construction workers are also generally exposed to an excessive risk of being injured at work (almen larsson and thunqvist, 2012). alizadeh, mortazavi and sepehri (2015) acknowledged that in construction, workers perform a great diversity of activities, each one with a specific associated risk. zavadskas, turskis and tamošaitiene (2010), kozlovská and struková (2012) and muiruri and mulinge (2014) also agreed that many construction activities inherently possess high health and safety risk factors. according to de los pinos, et al. (2017), the high accident rate in the construction sector is due to a series of factors that do not occur in other sectors. however, the most recognised health and safety hazards on construction sites have been working at height, working underground, working in confined spaces and proximity to falling materials, handling load manually, handling hazardous substances, noises, dusts, using plant and equipment, fire, exposure to live cables, poor housekeeping and ergonomics (kozlovská and struková, 2012; muiruri and mulinge, 2014; vitharana, de silva and de silva, 2015). but while hola (2010) and kozlovská and struková (2012) acknowledge that construction sites undergo changes in work process, topography, topology and working conditions (including weather conditions) throughout the project duration, mhetre, konnur and landage (2016) observed that the construction industry is highly risk prone, with complex and dynamic project environments which create an atmosphere of high uncertainty and risk. to this end, mhetre, konnur and landage (2016) maintained that the construction industry is vulnerable to various technical, socio-political and business risks; as well as physical, chemical, mechanical and social hazards (mohamed, 2017). specifically, tadesse and israel (2016) found that the prevalence of injury among building construction workers was relatively higher when compared to other sectors. consequently, the high injury prevalence on construction sites has been known to have huge cost implications for construction business generally. tadesse and israel (2016) even argued that if urgent interventions are not in place, the absence from work, loss of productivity and work-related illnesses, disabilities and fatalities will continue to be a major challenge for the construction industry in the future. hence the importance of managing risks in construction projects to achieve the project objectives in terms of time, cost, quality, safety and environmental sustainability (zou, zhang and wang, 2014). most importantly, occupational safety and health (osh) does not only seek to secure the safety and health of persons at work but consequentially stimulates productivity in the business of the enterprise (ilo, 2016). however, safety risk in construction cannot be effectively managed without first identifying the risk factors associated with different trades in construction. different studies (alinaitwe, mwakali, and hansson, 2007; dėjus, 2007; gürcanli and müngen, 2013; chong and low, 2014; asanka and ranasinghe, 2015; kanchana, sivaprakash and joseph, 2015) have also revealed that accidents occur on construction sites daily, and efforts towards minimising these have yielded few results. this may not be unconnected with diverse groups/trades of building construction workers involved on construction sites at the same and different times throughout the process of construction as stated by muiruri and mulinge (2014). these workers are specialists in their different building trades but are constantly exposed to high risk activities while carrying out their duties. even fung, et al. (2010) have attributed the high incidence of accidents on construction sites to the risky nature of construction work, low knowledge and a lack of trade risk awareness of tradesmen, among others. in most cases the works of these tradesmen run concurrently on the site, which at the same time increases the risk of injury or fatality on the site. occupational health and safety risk levels of building construction trades in nigeria construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201893 because of the above scenarios, this study is aimed at assessing the occupational health and safety risk level of common building trades in nigeria. such assessment was evaluated through determining the source, frequency and magnitude of risk inherent in the activities of various trades in building construction. this was with a view to identifying workers who are at risk of accidents with severe consequences and classifying and prioritising the workers to determine and apply the appropriate control measures. literature review although lopez-valcarcel (2001) has argued that the construction industry generally is responsible for more than half of all occupational injuries and deaths worldwide, some studies associated certain building trades with high injury or fatality risks while some others are associated with low risks. for instance, baradan and usmen (2006) found that ironworkers and roofers were the highest risk building trades. schneider and susi (1994) found that masonry had the second highest incidence rate of all construction trades for injuries with lost workdays due to overexertion involving lifting. alinaitwe, mwakali and hansson (2007) analysed the accidents on building construction sites reported in uganda during 2001 – 2005 and found that labourers are the most vulnerable workers followed by masons, carpenters and plant operators. the report of the bureau of labour statistics (bls) (2009) affirmed that masonry construction is one of the high-risk specialty trades with the nonfatal incident rate of 191.5 per 10,000 equivalent full-time workers and 2,640 recordable injuries. this report agrees with schneider and susi (1994). it is also supported by memarian and mitropoulos (2012; 2013) who identified and categorised the high-risk activities and groups in masonry construction. in addition, choi (2015) studied the trends of injury type relating to the age and trade of construction workers in the midwestern united states. choi identified that the four trade/occupation groups with the highest injury rates were labourers, carpenters, iron workers, and operators. furthermore, a status survey of occupational risk factors of manual material handling tasks carried out in indian construction site by ray, parida and saha (2015) revealed that the risk of musculoskeletal injuries/disorders appeared to be highest among mason helpers as compared to other occupations because they suffer from pain in almost all the joints and the risk factors are also critical and versatile in nature. it also found that masons are rated as the second highest occupation facing several problems due to the peripatetic nature of construction-related manual material handling activities and highly correlated to the causes of musculoskeletal disorders; and that apart from masons and mason helpers, ground-level workers also suffer from pain causing several musculoskeletal disorders among them because they are also highly involved in manual material handling activities. from the above studies it can be argued that the safety risk associated with any trade depends on the context, setting, and activities involved. this argument is consistent with the position of rozenfeld, et al. (2010) who argued that the safety risk level associated with any task depends on its context; and that the circumstances of construction working environment required a detailed analysis of the various risks to which construction workers are exposed. the following literature (einarsson, 1998; hola, 2010; khosravi, et al., 2014; parida, and ray, 2015; hoła, and szóstak, 2017; mohamed, 2017) also supported the view that safety risks associated with construction workers are dependent on the context, setting and the type of activities. however, nigeria has no official data on accident records of construction activities. likewise, available literature (hofstede, 2001; hofstede, hofstede and minkov, 2010; belhoste and monin, 2013; oishi, 2015) has also shown that differences abound across okoye construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201894 settings, cultures, and geographies. according to loosemore, et al. (2006), the perception of risk varies at both individual and organisational levels because different people hold different views and have different understandings of a specific risk’s components, sources, probabilities, consequences and preferred actions. more specifically, the building industry is characterised by high variety and variability of working processes and work environment conditions, which is conducive to accidents at work (hola, 2010). therefore, risk factors, perceptions and orientations may differ in different work environment, location and culture (cezar-vaz, et al., 2012; nielsen, bergheim and eid, 2013; park and kim, 2014). in addition, there has not been any workable accident prevention intervention programme for nigerian construction sites. the fact that the process for occupational hazard identification, risk assessment and control, risk management, and risk management techniques on construction sites and other workplaces have been dealt with in some previous studies (see odeyinka, oladapo and dada, 2004; ijigah, et al., 2013; odimabo and oduoza, 2013; oranusi, dahunsi and idowu, 2014; edmund, 2015; oladokun, adelekun and ashimolowo, 2016; tipili and yakubu, 2016) did not change the safety and risk concern on the construction site. although okoye’s proposed safety performance improvement framework (okoye, 2016), and okoye, okolie and ngwu’s (2017) proposed safety intervention implementation strategy for the nigerian construction industry may be a stepping stone towards achieving this, the tidal rise in the number of accidents on building construction sites, based on anecdotal evidence, is becoming unacceptable and totally worrisome. the weakness of legislative framework in that regard in nigeria is most unfortunate. thus, this is an indication of misplacement of priority in safety intervention in the construction industry. furthermore, while some other studies laid emphasis on the general safety management practice, accident prevention, risk management and control techniques, and safety performance, little or no studies have been done on the occupational health and safety risk level of building construction trades in nigeria. risk assessment therefore enables the identification of risk factors, their assessment and prioritisation (conte, et al., 2011). the extent of damage occurring to the worker based on risk exposure is also revealed, and from which mechanisms to control risks are established (de los pinos, et al., 2017). unequivocally, gadd, keeley and balmforth (2004) contended that the purpose of risk assessment is to determine if the levels of risk from work activities are acceptable or otherwise, and that measures must be taken to control and reduce the risk. nevertheless, health and safety risk assessment on construction sites, is an important measure towards reduction of hazards and injuries (kozlovská and struková, 2012). since managing health and safety is different from managing any other aspect in construction there is need for a trade-based risk assessment to determine the health and safety risks inherent in building construction trades in nigeria based on their susceptibility to construction safety risk factors, and to put sensible measures in place to control them, and make sure they stay controlled. according to choi (2015) understanding these trade-related tasks can help present a more accurate depiction of the incident and identify trends and intervention methods to meet the needs of the workforce in the industry. research method the study was a site-based survey that made use of a structured questionnaire administered to selected building construction workers (skilled craftsmen/artisans) in anambra state nigeria. according to sekaran (2003) the questionnaire is an efficient data collection mechanism when occupational health and safety risk levels of building construction trades in nigeria construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201895 the researcher knows exactly what is required and how to measure the variables of interest. seven common building construction trades (masonry (including concreting and blockworks); carpentry (including formwork and roofing), iron bending and steel fixing; electrical fitting and installation; painting and decorating; plumbing; and tilling) were considered for inclusion in the survey. the questionnaire was designed to describe the current health and safety risk level of common building construction trades in anambra state nigeria. it was also designed to investigate the probability of occurrence and the impact of risk factors affecting the health and safety of building construction trades. according to baradan and usmen (2006), the simultaneous consideration of frequency and severity shows broader results than analysing risk based only on frequency or on severity. the questionnaire consisted of two parts. part 1 captured the respondents’ demographic data (trade, job position, nature of employment, site location, age of respondents, work experience, and safety training level). part 2 contained 24 items measuring the probability of occurrence and impacts of the risk factors on building construction workers using a likert scale of 1 to 5. the respondents were asked to express their opinion based on their perception on the frequency of occurrence and severity of impact of identified risk factors on the selected building trades on a 5-point scale. the frequency of occurrence included:1 = rarely, 2 = remote, 3 = occasional, 4 = frequent, 5 = almost certain (for the likelihood of risk occurrence); and 1 = negligible, 2 = minor, 3 = moderate, 4 = major, 5 = catastrophic (severity of risk impact). since the entire population of building construction workers in the state is not known, bujang, sa’at and tg abu bakar sidik (2017) noted that the minimum required sample size for almost all types of multivariate analysis is determined conventionally, using a rule-ofthumb which is mostly derived from multiple linear regression. but siddiqui (2013) stated that the appropriate sample sizes depend upon the numbers of items available for factor analysis. to this end, tabachnick and fidell (2013) proposed using formula of “50 + 8m” where “m” is the number of factor, while siddiqui (2013) suggested that for 10 items a sample size of 200 is required; for 25 items 250; for 90 items 400 and for 500 items a sample size of 1000 deemed necessary. in this case therefore, 7 latent variables and 24 indicators (factors) are available for analysis. thus, the sample size for this study is approximately 240 building construction workers. it was noted that there were more than five hundred building projects going on across the state at the time of this study. there are large, medium and small building projects at different stages of construction and with variety of construction workers. most projects are privately owned residential building projects with the owners taking charge of the management of the construction process and involving fewer workers usually coming to work when their services are demanded. moreover, most of these projects are not organised and do not have regular construction activities going on in the site. based on the above scenario certain criteria were set out for site selection in the survey. therefore, for a site to be qualified for selection, the following criteria were considered, that included, inter alia: • sites with at least 5 workers; • sites where at least 2 trades of workers are working at the site at the time; • large building site with multiple activities; • geographical spread; and • not more than 2 same trade workers were selected from one site. okoye construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201896 this specification is necessary to guide the survey and to minimise bias. secondly, different trades of workers are involved at different stages of building construction projects and it is not possible to get all groups of workers on the same site at the same time. based on the stated criteria, a total of 30 building construction sites were qualified and selected for the survey. from each selected site, 8 respondents were selected amounting for a total of 240 respondents (workers) of different trades for the study. to ensure geographical spread across the state, 10 sites are selected from each of the three zones since the anambra state politically is divided into 3 zones of north, south and central senatorial zones. meanwhile, the survey involved a multi-stage sampling procedure in selecting the desired samples (respondents). a judgemental sampling technique was used in selecting the building construction sites based on the specified criteria. secondly, a simple random sampling technique was used in choosing the worker based on their trades. before the distribution of the questionnaires, the participating sites were first identified, and consent/permission was sought and obtained from the site management whose sites were to be selected. the objectives of the study were clearly explained to the participants. while some sites refused to grant permission for the survey, those that granted approval were included for study until the required number was reached. this made it easier during the actual survey because the respondents were already aware of what was expected of them, and with the help of the site supervisors of selected construction sites the desired numbers of respondents were obtained. thus, questionnaires were administered to 240 building construction workers in the selected sites across the state. out of this, all were retrieved, but 4 were found to be invalid and subsequently discarded while the remaining 236 representing about 98.33% were found to be adequate and suitable, and thus used for analysis. to ensure reliability of the result, the margin of error was computed at 95% confidence interval (c.i) within which the result would be acceptable. margin of error (me) is given as: me = critical value x standard error (1) standard error = standard deviation/√n (2) where, n = the sample; the alpha level (α): α = 1-c.i/100 = 0.05 the critical probability (p*): p* = 1 α/2 = 1 0.05/2 = 0.975 the degrees of freedom (df ): df = n 1 = 240 -1 =239 since the population standard deviation of the construction workers is not known, the critical value has been expressed as a t-statistic. in this case, it would be the t-statistic having 239 degrees of freedom and a cumulative probability equal to 0.975. from the t-distribution, the critical value is found to be 1.96. thus, the result of this study is reliable within +/6.3% at the 95% confidence level. this is in line with data star (2008) which suggested that an acceptable margin of error used by survey researchers falls between 4% and 8% at the 95% confidence level. occupational health and safety risk levels of building construction trades in nigeria construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201897 table 1 risk factor probability of occurrence and risk factor impact scale risk factor probability of occurrence risk factor impact scale scale rating description scale impact rating description 1 rarely not expected to occur but still possible. 1 negligible not likely to cause injury or ill-health 2 remote not likely to occur under normal circumstances. 2 minor injury or ill-health requiring first-aid only 3 occasional possible or known to occur. 3 moderate injury requiring medical treatment or ill-health leading to disability. 4 frequent common occurrence. 4 major serious injuries or life-threatening occupational disease. 5 almost certain continual or repeating experience. 5 catastrophic fatality, fatal diseases or multiple major injuries. workplace safety and health council (2011) the data generated through the questionnaire were then subjected to descriptive and quantitative analysis. a quantitative risk analysis was carried out to assess the risk factors. table 1 summarised the risk factor probability of occurrence and the impact rating respectively based on the recommendation of code of practice on workplace safety and health (wsh) risk management (workplace safety and health council, 2011). however, the probability of risk occurrence is calculated using the mean value method as shown below. where pro = probability of risk occurrence; j = probability of occurrence rating scale (integer values between 1and 5), and nj = number of the respondents selecting the probability of occurrence equal to j. likewise, the severity of risk impact is calculated using the mean value method as shown below. where sri = severity of risk impact; k= impact rating scale (integer value between 1 and 5), and nk = number of the respondents selecting an impact equal to k. okoye construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201898 on the other hand, the degree of risk or rather the risk score (r) is obtained through risk prioritisation number which invariably determines the level of risk. based on the average risk values, the trades are ranked accordingly. this is computed using the following equation: where pro = probability of risk occurrence, sri = severity of risk impact and n = number of item. table 2 summarised the risk rating (degree of risk and associated description of risk level) based on the risk scale recommended by the code of practice on workplace safety and health (wsh) risk management (workplace safety and health council, 2011). table 2 risk rating risk score scale risk level 1 ≤ x ≤ 4 low 4 < x ≤ 12 medium 12 < x ≤ 25 high workplace safety and health council (2011). x = actual risk score for the considering variable (trade). results table 3 summarised the result of risk analysis on common building trades in nigeria. the result revealed that among the seven common building trades, carpentry (including formwork and roofing) has the greatest risk level with an average risk score (r) of 13.7; while plumbing has the least risk level with an average risk score (r) of 6.0. however, in terms of frequency of risks occurrence, table 3 revealed that carpentry (including formwork and roofing), is more susceptible to frequent risks occurrence with a pro of 3.8 than any other trades. it is followed by masonry (block laying, brick laying, concreting and plastering) and iron bending and steel fixing with a pro of 3.5 each. in terms of risk impact and severity masonry (block laying, brick laying, concreting and plastering) received the greatest impact from the risk factors with sri of 3.7. this is closely followed by carpentry (including formwork and roofing) with sri of 3.6. on the other hand, plumbing has both the least frequency of risk occurrence with a pro of 2.6, and least severity of risk impact with a sri of 2.3. overall, the result showed that table 3 summary of the result of risk analysis on common building trades building trade pro sri r risk level rank carpentry (including formwork and roofing) 3.8 3.6 13.7 high 1 masonry (block laying, brick laying, concreting and plastering) 3.5 3.7 13.0 high 2 iron bending and steel fixing 3.5 3.5 12.3 high 3 tilling (including terrazzo and marble laying) 3.4 3.3 11.2 medium 4 painting 3.1 2.9 9.0 medium 5 electrical fitting and installation 2.7 2.5 6.8 medium 6 plumbing 2.6 2.3 6.0 medium 7 occupational health and safety risk levels of building construction trades in nigeria construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 201899 carpentry (including formwork and roofing), masonry (block laying, brick laying, concreting and plastering) and iron bending and steel fixing are high risk level building trades, whereas, tilling (including terrazzo and marble laying), painting, electrical fitting and installation and plumbing are medium risk level building trades. this is equally related to the frequency of risk occurrence and severity of risk impact observed on the individual trade. table 4 analysis of risk level of health and safety risk factors in building trades health and safety risk factors building trades r av. r risk level rank cp ms ib tl pt ef pb falls from height 23.5 20.2 14.4 11.3 19.3 17.2 12.6 16.9 high 1 manual handling activities 16.9 22.1 22.6 21.6 15.0 8.7 9.2 16.6 high 2 climbing steps and working platforms 20.2 19.4 14.4 10.2 12.2 16.8 7.3 14.4 high 3 using various types of machinery and tools 20.6 16.3 22.6 12.5 10.2 5.6 11.8 14.2 high 4 risk of pain or injury from performing repetitive tasks 14.8 17.1 21.6 12.5 14.0 7.5 2.9 12.9 high 5 cuts and abrasions 17.2 14.0 20.7 18.4 3.7 6.9 7.0 12.6 high 6 risk of eye injury from flying particles and dust 14.0 14.8 9.61 14.1 12.6 10.8 10.8 12.4 high 7 injuring whilst lifting or carrying 18.3 16.7 9.8 13.3 6.2 6.7 2.6 11.9 medium 8 slips trips and falls due to untidy work area 16.4 13.7 15.8 18.0 9.9 6.2 2.6 11.8 medium 9 risk from exposure to asbestos and hazardous substances 14.4 19.7 3.6 14.4 16.4 4.0 10.2 11.8 medium 9 okoye construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 2018100 health and safety risk factors building trades r av. r risk level rank cp ms ib tl pt ef pb hand and foot injury 12.6 17.6 7.3 12.3 8.1 9.6 6.7 10.6 medium 11 proximity to flammable or combustible materials 11.2 6.2 3.0 4.1 18.8 14.0 14.9 10.3 medium 12 struck by falling objects or materials 20.2 12.6 18.9 5.0 7.5 4.2 2.7 10.2 medium 13 loss of fingers/limbs 11.9 12.6 20.2 12.2 4.9 6.4 3.1 10.2 medium 13 dermatitis 13.7 16.3 6.8 13.7 12.6 2.8 3.2 9.9 medium 15 risk of eye injury from solvent splashes or vapours 8.9 14.6 3.6 12.1 15.6 2.9 10.9 9.8 medium 16 sun exposure 17.5 15.2 14.6 3.3 10.9 2.5 2.4 9.5 medium 17 vibration with finger 13.0 10.9 14.7 17.6 2.7 3.2 3.5 9.4 medium 18 exposure to electricity. overhead and underground cables 12.2 2.4 6.7 4.1 7.6 22.5 6.1 8.8 medium 19 burial by earth collapse during excavations 4.6 14.4 17.3 2.0 2.9 3.0 11.2 7.9 medium 20 risk of vehicle overturning 7.3 9.0 8.3 11.5 4.6 4.5 2.3 6.8 medium 21 struck by machinery 6.9 6.3 13.3 9.8 2.9 3.0 2.9 6.4 medium 22 exposure to noise 7.6 5.2 10.5 12.9 2.0 2.3 2.3 6.1 medium 23 moulds, fungi and bacteria 9.0 5.3 3.2 8.3 6.4 2.6 7.0 6.0 medium 24 cp = carpentry; ms = masonry; ib = iron bending; tl = tilling; pt = painting; ef = electrical fitting; pb = plumbing; av. r = average risk score table 4 showed the average risk score for risk factors generated from each building trade. table 4 revealed that the three highest ranking risk factors within the building trades are falls from height, manual handling activities and climbing steps and working platforms with average risk scores (r) of 16.9, 16.6 and 14.4 respectively. it also showed that struck table 4 continued occupational health and safety risk levels of building construction trades in nigeria construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 2018101 by machinery, exposure to noise, and moulds, fungi and bacteria the three lowest ranking risk factors for the building trades with average risk scores of 6.4, 6.1 and 6.0 respectively. invariably, this rank represents the level of contribution of each of the factors to health and safety risks in building trades. on the trade-by-trade basis, table 4 also revealed that all the factors are high, medium or low-level risk factor in one trade or the other but for risk of vehicle overturning and mould, fungi and bacteria which are medium and low level contributory risk factor. however, on the average; none is a low level contributory risk factor. table 5 revealed that the three most occurring health and safety risk factors for building trades are manual handling activities, falls from height, and using various types of machinery and tools with average pros of 4.6, 4.0 and 3.9 respectively. likewise, the three most severe and impactful health and safety risk factors for building trades are falls from height, climbing steps and working platforms and manual handling activities with sris of 4.2, 3.7 and 3.6 respectively. table 5 analysis of frequency and impact of health and safety risk factors in building trades health and safety risk factors average pro frequency of occurrence rating average sri impact rating falls from height 4.0 frequent 4.2 major manual handling activities 4.6 almost certain 3.6 major climbing steps and working platforms 3.8 frequent 3.7 major using various types of machinery and tools 4.0 frequent 3.4 moderate risk of pain or injury from performing repetitive tasks 3.6 frequent 3.4 moderate cuts and abrasions 3.5 frequent 3.4 moderate risk of eye injury from flying particles and dust 3.5 frequent 3.4 moderate injuring whilst lifting or carrying 3.6 frequent 3.1 moderate slips trips and falls due to untidy work area 3.3 occasional 3.4 moderate risk from exposure to asbestos and hazardous substances 3.3 occasional 3.3 moderate hand and foot injury 3.3 occasional 3.2 moderate proximity to flammable or combustible materials 3.1 occasional 3.1 moderate struck by falling objects or materials 3.1 occasional 3.0 moderate loss of fingers/limbs 2.8 occasional 3.4 moderate dermatitis 3.0 occasional 3.0 moderate okoye construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 2018102 health and safety risk factors average pro frequency of occurrence rating average sri impact rating risk of eye injury from solvent splashes or vapours 3.0 occasional 3.0 moderate sun exposure 3.3 occasional 2.6 moderate vibration with finger 3.0 occasional 2.8 moderate exposure to electricity. overhead and underground cables 3.1 occasional 2.6 moderate burial by earth collapse during excavations 2.7 occasional 2.6 moderate risk of vehicle overturning 2.1 remote 3.0 moderate struck by machinery 2.2 remote 2.8 moderate exposure to noise 2.4 remote 2.3 minor moulds, fungi and bacteria 2.4 remote 2.3 minor on the other hands, the two least occurring health and safety risk factors for building trades are risk of vehicle overturning, and struck by machinery, with the pros of 2.1 and 2.2 respectively. likewise, the two least severe and impactful health and safety risk factors for building trades are exposure to noise, and moulds, fungi and bacteria with sris of 2.3 each. furthermore, risks almost certainly occur from manual handling activities only while risks remotely occur from the risk of vehicle overturning, struck by machinery, exposure to noise, and moulds, fungi and bacteria. risks either occur frequently or occasionally from the rest of the factors. in the same vein, the impact of risks arising from falls from height, climbing steps and working platforms and manual handling activities are majorly felt on the building trades while those arising from exposure to noise, and moulds, fungi and bacteria have minor impacts on the trades. risks arising from the rest of other factors are moderately felt. discussions the result of this study has demonstrated that the risks inherent in building construction trades are many and varied. it has also affirmed that different building trades have different levels of risks associated with them. this implies that depending on the nature and types of activities involved in any trade, there are different dimensions and magnitude of risks in building operations. this further implies that there are building trades associated with high risks which are unacceptable, so also those associated with low risks which can be tolerated. in this case, the study revealed that masonry (block laying, brick laying, concreting and plastering), carpentry (including formwork and roofing), and iron bending and steel fixing are common building trades associated with high risks; whereas electrical fitting and installation, painting, tiling (including terrazzo and marble laying), and plumbing are medium risk building trades. this is to say that all the common building trades in nigeria are still prone to injury, disease and fatalities. it then implied that activities in the high-risk trades need to be carried out with caution, while measures are to be taken to control and reduce the risks to the table 5 continued occupational health and safety risk levels of building construction trades in nigeria construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 2018103 acceptable level. this is in line with gadd, keeley and balmforth (2004) who suggested that if the levels of risk from work activities are unacceptable, measures must be taken to control and reduce the risk. furthermore, even though the study identified the status of building trades as either high or medium risk trades, it found that the rate of occurrence and impact also differed across trades. in other words, while some trades have high frequency of risk occurrence, some experience high severity of risk impact and vice versa. in this case, carpentry (including formwork and roofing), masonry (block laying, brick laying, concreting and plastering), iron bending and steel fixing, tiling (including terrazzo and marble laying), and painting have high frequency of risk occurrence, while masonry (block laying, brick laying, concreting and plastering), carpentry (including formwork and roofing), iron bending and steel fixing, and tiling (including terrazzo and marble laying), have high severity of risk impact. this then suggested that different approaches should be applied in the management of health and safety risks in construction across building trades. significantly, none of the trades was found at the upper end of high risk level. this may be suggestive of some improvements in the risk management processes of the construction industry in nigeria. but at the same time, none of the trades was found to be at low level risk which also implied the need for further improvement to reduce the risk level of building trades and associated accident rates on site. overall, the result implied that the occupational risk factors are strongly associated with construction occupations. similarly, the rate of occurrence and magnitude of impact of different safety risk factors also differed across building trades. this meant that while some risk factors occur more frequently in certain trades, they occur less frequently in some others. on the other hand; while the impacts of some risk factors are felt more severely in certain trades, they exert less impact on some others. this could be attributed to the differences in the types of activities and mode of operations involved in different building trades. it also gave credence that health and safety risk management in construction industry is multifaceted, and thus required multiple management approaches. meanwhile, this is in tandem with the provisions of health and safety: risk assessment methodology (university of melbourne, 2017) which stated that risks are controlled using a combination of control measures and must be implemented in accordance with the risk control priorities established during the risk assessment. the overall result of this study supports the results of the bureau of labour statistics (2009), schneider and susi (1994), baradan and usmen (2006), lópez-arquillos et al. (2014) and choi (2015) which recognised carpentry (including, formwork and roofing), masonry (block laying, brick laying, concreting and plastering), iron bending and steel fixing as highrisk building construction trades. the result of the study is also consistent with the results of kozlovská and struková (2012), muiruri and mulinge (2014), and vitharana, de silva and de silva (2015) that identified working at height, handling load manually, handling hazardous substances, dusts, using plant and equipment, fire, exposure to live cables, poor housekeeping and ergonomics as some of the most recognised health and safety hazards on building construction sites. conclusion proper and adequate risk identification and prioritisation have been determined as prerequisites for effective risk control and management. the fact is that building construction activities and trades are embodiments of health and safety risks and hazards, and that accident okoye construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 2018104 happens more frequently at construction sites because of the activities of construction workers. this demands a further insight into the health and safety risk level inherent in various building construction trades in nigeria. thus, this study has examined the occupational health and safety risk level of the activities of common building trades in nigeria. indubitably, this study provides some positive practical implications. specifically, it contributes to both practice and research in risk management for the nigerian construction industry and provides valuable information for site-based construction management practice in nigeria. it also provides the basis for developing appropriate guidelines for construction workers to ensure a sustainable change in the construction work systems with reduction in occupational hazards to a large extent, and to improve health, safety and performance of workers under the prevailing construction work environment in nigeria. it calls for a need to develop appropriate strategies for curbing or mitigating the risks associated with building construction practice, especially those with high risk levels. in addition, it has succeeded in prioritising the risk levels and risk factors of building trades in nigeria; thereby providing a useful asset to construction managers and safety professionals. . moreover, the research findings provide construction practitioners with further evidence of the hazardous activities associated with different building construction trades and a starting point for targeting worker health and safety programmes. the findings provide a direction for more effective safety management strategies and occupational accident prevention and emergency programmes. thus, it has challenged the extant labour laws in nigeria and more importantly, the provisions of the section 17 subsection 3 of the 1999 constitution (as amended) of the federal republic of nigeria, and calls for institutional and legislative restrengthening. based on this result, the study avers that a multi-risk management and accident prevention approach should be adopted by the construction managers on building construction sites since the frequency of risk occurrence and the magnitude of risk severity differs across trades. the same approaches should be adopted for all the risk factors involved in the building trades since building trades involve multiple and varied risk activities. finally, it suggests that the risk response strategies appropriate for each type of identified risk factor in each trade should be varied. references alinaitwe, h., mwakali, j.a. and hansson, b., 2007. analysis of accidents on building construction sites reported in uganda during 2001 – 2005. proceedings of the cib world building congress 2007, pp.1208-21. alizadeh, s.s., mortazavi, s.b. and sepehri, m.m., 2015. assessment of accident severity in the construction industry using the bayesian theorem. international journal of occupational safety and ergonomics, [e-journal] 21(4), pp.551-57. https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2015.1095546. almen, l., larsson, t.j. and thunqvist, e., 2012. the influence of the designer on the risk of falling from heights and of exposure to excessive workloads on two construction sites. safety science monitor, 16(1), pp.2-7. asanka, w.a. and ranasinghe, m., 2015. study on the impact of accidents on construction projects. 6th international conference on structural engineering and construction management, pp.58-67, kandy, sri lanka 11th – 13th december. occupational health and safety risk levels of building construction trades in nigeria construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 2018105 https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2015.1095546 baradan, s. and usmen, m.a., 2006. comparative injury and fatality risk analysis of building trades. journal of construction engineering and management,[e-journal] 132(5). https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(2006)132:5(533). belhoste, n. and monin, p., 2013. constructing differences in a cross-cultural context: national distance, social differentiation or functional distinction. human relations, [e-journal] 66(12), pp.1-35. https://doi. org/10.1177/0018726713484943. bujang, m.a., sa’at, n. and tg abu bakar sidik, t.m.i., 2017. determination of minimum sample size requirement for multiple linear regression and analysis of covariance based on experimental and non-experimental studies. epidemiology biostatistics and public health, [e-journal] 14(3). https://doi. org/10.2427/12117. bureau of labour statistics, 2009. incidence rate for nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses. [online] available at: https://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/osh/case/ostb2454.pdf. [accessed 10 november 2017] cezar-vaz, m.r., rocha, l.p., clari bonow, c.a., da silva, m.r.s., vaz, j.c. and cardoso, l.s., 2012. risk perception and occupational accidents: a study of gas station workers in southern brazil. international journal of environmental research and public health, [e-journal] 9, pp.2362-77. https://doi. org/10.3390/ijerph9072362. choi, s.d., 2015. aging workers and trade-related injuries in the us construction industry. safety and health at work, [e-journal] 6, pp.151-55. https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2015.02.002. chong, h.y. and low, t.s., 2014. accidents in malaysian construction industry: statistical data and court cases. international journal of occupational safety and ergonomics, [e-journal] 20(3), pp.503-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2014.11077064. conte, j.c., rubio, e., garcía, a.i. and cano, f., 2011. occupational accidents model based on risk–injury affinity groups. safety science,[e-journal]49(2), pp.306-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ssci.2010.09.005. data star, 2008. what every researcher should know about statistical significance. [online] available at: https://www.surveystar.com/startips. [accessed 10 november 2017]. de los pinos, c., josé, a., garcía, g. and de las nieves, m., 2017. critical analysis of risk assessment methods applied to construction works. revista de la construcción, [e-journal] 16(1), pp.104-14. https:// doi.org/10.7764/rdlc.16.1.104. dėjus, t., 2007. accidents on construction sites and their reasons. the 8th international conference on modern building materials, structures and techniques, vilnius, lithuania may 16-18, 2007. edmund, e.e., 2015. analysis of occupational hazards and safety of workers in selected working environments within enugu metropolis. journal of environmental & analytical toxicology,[e-journal] 5(6). https://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2161-0525.1000337. einarsson, s., 1998. the relationship between construction contractors and their clients in petrochemical and related industries. safety science monitor, 2(2), pp.1-19. fung, i.w.h., tam, v.w.y., lo, t.y. and lu, l.l.h., 2010. developing a risk assessment model for construction safety. international journal of project management, 28(6), pp.593-600. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.09.006 gadd, s.a., keeley, d.m. and balmforth, h.f., 2004. pitfalls in risk assessment: examples from the uk. safety science,[e-journal] 42(9), pp.841-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2004.03.003. okoye construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 2018106 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:5(533) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:5(533) https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726713484943 https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726713484943 https://doi.org/10.2427/12117 https://doi.org/10.2427/12117 https://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/osh/case/ostb2454.pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph9072362 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph9072362 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2015.02.002 https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2014.11077064 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2010.09.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2010.09.005 https://www.surveystar.com/startips https://doi.org/10.7764/rdlc.16.1.104 https://doi.org/10.7764/rdlc.16.1.104 https://dx.doi.org/10.4172/2161-0525.1000337 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.09.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.09.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2004.03.003 gürcanli, g.e. and müngen, u., 2013. analysis of construction accidents in turkey and responsible parties. industrial health, 51, pp.581-95. https://doi.org/10.2486/indhealth.2012-0139 hofstede, g., 2001. culture’s consequences: comparing values, behaviours, institutions and organisations across nations. 2nd ed. thousand oaks, ca: sage. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2002.7389951 hofstede, g., hofstede, g.j. and minkov, m., 2010. cultures and organisations: software of the mind. 3rd ed. new york: mcgraw-hill. https://doi.org/10.1177/017084069401500308 hoła, b. and szóstak, m., 2017. methodology of analysing the accident rate in the construction industry. procedia engineering, [e-journal] 172, pp.355-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.02.040. hoła, b., 2010. methodology of hazards identification in construction work course. journal of civil engineering and management,[e-journal]16(4), pp.577-85. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2010.64. ijigah, e.a., jimoh, r.a., bilau, a.a and agbo, a.e., 2013. assessment of risk management practices in nigerian construction industry: towards establishing risk management index. international journal of pure and applied science and technology, 16(2), pp.20-31. international labour organisation (ilo), 2016. nigeria country profile on occupational safety and health. [online] available at: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---africa/---ro-addis_ababa/--ilo-abuja/documents/publication/wcms. [accessed 10 november 2017]. kanchana, s., sivaprakash, p. and joseph, s., 2015. studies on labour safety in construction sites. the scientific world journal, [e-journal] 2015, 6 pages. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/590810. khosravi, y., asilian-mahabadi, h., hajizadeh, e., hassanzadeh-rangi, n., bastani, h. and behzadan, a.h., 2014. factors influencing unsafe behaviors and accidents on construction sites: a review, international journal of occupational safety and ergonomics, [e-journal] 20(1), pp.111-25, https://doi.org/1 0.1080/10803548.2014.11077023. kozlovská, m. and struková, z., 2012. overview of safety risk perception in construction. journal of civil engineering and architecture, 6(2), pp. 211-18. https://doi.org/10.17265/1934-7359/2012.02.010 loosemore, m., raftery, j, reilly, c. and higgon, d., 2006. risk management in projects. 2nd ed. oxford, uk: taylor and francis. https://doi.org/10.1680/mpal.2007.160.4.181 lópez-arquillos, a., rubio-romero, j.c., gibb, a.g. and gambatese j.a., 2014. safety risk assessment for vertical concrete formwork activities in civil engineering construction. work, [e-journal] 49(2), pp.183-92. https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-131724. lopez-valcarcel a., 2001. occupational safety and health in the construction work. occupational health and safety: african news, 11, pp.4-7. memarian, b. and mitropoulos, p., 2012. safety incidents and high-risk activities of masonry construction.,proceedings of the construction research congress, 2012,pp.2510-19, west lafayette, indiana, usa, 21-23 may. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784412329.252 memarian, b. and mitropoulos, p., 2013. accidents in masonry construction: the contribution of production activities to accidents, and the effect on different worker groups. safety science, [e-journal] 59, pp.179-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2013.05.013. mhetre, k. konnur, b.a. landage, a.b., 2016. risk management in construction industry. international journal of engineering research, [e-journal] 5(1), pp.153-55. https://doi.org/10.17950/ijer/v5i1/035. occupational health and safety risk levels of building construction trades in nigeria construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 2018107 https://doi.org/10.2486/indhealth.2012-0139 https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2002.7389951 https://doi.org/10.1177/017084069401500308 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.02.040 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2010.64 https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---africa/---ro-addis_ababa/---ilo-abuja/documents/publication/wcms._ https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---africa/---ro-addis_ababa/---ilo-abuja/documents/publication/wcms._ https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/590810 https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2014.11077023 https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2014.11077023 https://doi.org/10.17265/1934-7359/2012.02.010 https://doi.org/10.1680/mpal.2007.160.4.181 https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-131724 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784412329.252 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2013.05.013 https://doi.org/10.17950/ijer/v5i1/035 mohamed, h.a., 2017. occupational hazards and their relation with health problems among construction building workers at el sherouk city. american journal of nursing research, [e-journal] 5(3), pp.96-103. https://doi.org/10.12691/ajnr-5-3-4. muiruri, g. and mulinge, c., 2014. health and safety management on construction project sites in kenya: a case study of construction projects in nairobi county. in: fig congress, kuala lumpur, malaysia, 16-21 june 2014. nielsen, m.b., bergheim, k. and eid, j., 2013. relationships between work environment factors and workers’ well-being in the maritime industry. international maritime health, [e-journal] 64(2), pp.80-88. odeyinka, h.a., oladapo, a.a. and dada, j.o. 2004. an assessment of risk in construction in the nigerian construction industry. in: proceedings of cib, w107, international symposium on globalisation and construction, ait conference centre, bangkok, thailand, 17-19 november 2004. odimabo, o.o. and oduoza, c.f., 2013. risk assessment framework for building construction projects’ in developing countries. international journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 2(5), pp.143-54. https://doi.org/10.5923/j.ijcem.20130205.02. oishi, s., 2015. geography and personality: why do different neighborhoods have different vibes? proceedings of the national academy of science of the united states america. [e-journal] 112(3), pp.645-46. https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1423744112. okoye, p.u., 2016. improving the safety performance of nigeria construction workers: a social ecological approach. universal journal of engineering science, [e-journal] 4(2), pp.22-37. https://doi.org/10.13189/ ujes.2016.040202. okoye, p.u., okolie, k.c. and ngwu, c., 2017. multilevel safety intervention implementation strategies for nigeria construction industry. journal of construction engineering, [e-journal] 2017, https://doi. org/10.1155/2017/8496258. oladokun, m.g., adelekun, a.d. and ashimolowo, d.o., 2016. evaluation of risk management techniques in developing economies: a case of nigeria. pm world journal. 5(8). oranusi, u.s., dahunsi, s.o. and idowu, s.a., 2014.assessment of occupational diseases among artisans and factory workers in ifo, nigeria. journal of scientific research & reports, 3(2), pp.294-305. https://doi. org/10.9734/jsrr/2014/5554 parida, r. and ray, p.k., 2015. factors influencing construction ergonomic performance in india. procedia manufacturing, [e-journal] 3, pp. 6587-92 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2015.07.284. park, s. and kim, j.g., 2014. risk and culture: variations in dioxin risk perceptions, behavioral preferences among social groups in south korea. environmental health and toxicology, [e-journal]29. https://dx.doi.org/10.5620/eht.e2014013. ray, p.k., parida, r. and saha, e., 2015. status survey of occupational risk factors of manual material handling tasks at a construction site in india. procedia manufacturing, [e-journal] 3, pp.6579-86. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2015.07.279. rozenfeld, o., sacks, r., rosenfeld, y. and baum, h., 2010. construction job safety analysis. safety science, 48, pp.491-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2009.12.017 schneider, s. and susi, p., 1994. ergonomics and construction: review of potential hazards in new construction. american industrial hygiene association journal, 55(7), pp.635-49. https://doi. org/10.1080/15428119491018727 okoye construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 2018108 https://doi.org/10.12691/ajnr-5-3-4 https://doi.org/10.5923/j.ijcem.20130205.02 https://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1423744112 https://doi.org/10.13189/ujes.2016.040202 https://doi.org/10.13189/ujes.2016.040202 https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/8496258 https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/8496258 https://doi.org/10.9734/jsrr/2014/5554 https://doi.org/10.9734/jsrr/2014/5554 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2015.07.284 https://dx.doi.org/10.5620/eht.e2014013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2015.07.279 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2015.07.279 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2009.12.017 https://doi.org/10.1080/15428119491018727 https://doi.org/10.1080/15428119491018727 sekeran, u., 2003. research methods for business. 4th ed. united states of america: john wiley & sons inc. siddiqui, k., 2013. heuristics for sample size determination in multivariate statistical techniques. world applied sciences journal, [e-journal] 27(2), pp. 285-87. https://doi.org/10.5829/idosi.wasj.2013.27.02.889. tabachnick, b.g. and fidell, l.s., 2013. using multivariate statistics. 6th ed.boston: pearson education. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04898-2_394 tadesse, s. and israel, d., 2016. occupational injuries among building construction workers in addis ababa, ethiopia. journal of occupational medicine and toxicology, [e-journal] 11(16). https://doi. org/10.1186/s12995-016-0107-8. the federal republic of nigeria, 1999. constitution of the federal republic of nigeria 1999. the university of melbourne, 2017. risk assessment methodology. the university of melbourne australia. [online] available at: https://safety.unimelb.edu.au. [accessed 15 october 2017]. tipili, l.g. and yakubu, i., 2016. identification and assessment of key risk factors affecting public construction projects in nigeria: stakeholders perspectives. international journal of engineering and advanced technology studies, 4(2), pp.20-32. vitharana, v.h.p., de silva, g.h.m.j.s. and de silva, s., 2015. health hazards, risk and safety practices in construction sites a review study. engineer, 48(3), pp.35-44. https://doi.org/10.4038/engineer. v48i3.6840 workplace safety and health council, 2011. code of practice on workplace safety and health (wsh) risk management. the workplace safety and health council in collaboration with the ministry of manpower. [online] available at: www.wshc.sg. [accessed 1 july 2017]. zavadskas, e.k., turskis, z. and tamošaitiene, j., 2010. risk assessment of construction projects. journal of civil engineering and management, [e-journal] 16(1), pp.33-46. https://dx.doi.org/10.3846/ jcem.2010.03. zou, p.x.w., zhang, g. and wang, j.y., 2014. identifying key risks in construction projects: life cycle and stakeholder perspectives. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 9(1). https:// doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2009.10773122. occupational health and safety risk levels of building construction trades in nigeria construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 2, june 2018109 https://doi.org/10.5829/idosi.wasj.2013.27.02.889 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-04898-2_394 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12995-016-0107-8 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12995-016-0107-8 https://safety.unimelb.edu.au https://doi.org/10.4038/engineer.v48i3.6840 https://doi.org/10.4038/engineer.v48i3.6840 http://www.wshc.sg https://dx.doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2010.03 https://dx.doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2010.03 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2009.10773122 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2009.10773122 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: langston, c., and crowley, c. 2021. evaluation of transportation infrastructure: a case study of gold coast light rail stage 1&2. construction economics and building, 21:4, 1–20. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v21i4.7738 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021 research article evaluation of transportation infrastructure: a case study of gold coast light rail stage 1&2 craig langston1,*, charles crowley1 1 faculty of society and design, bond university, gold coast, australia corresponding author: craig langston, faculty of society and design, bond university, gold coast, australia, clangsto@bond.edu.au doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7738 article history: received: 26/05/2021; revised: 21/08/2021; accepted: 14/09/2021; published: 20/12/2021 abstract since the covid-19 pandemic began, there has been increased reliance on new infrastructure projects to counter economic fallout and underpin employment security. urban and inter-urban transportation projects, such as major road, rail and port facilities, are popular choices for national and state governments in australia as they provide broad fiscal support across all sectors of the economy. the problem with stimulus is making sure that the quality of the new infrastructure provides collective utility to a community or region. whether the benefits will be worthwhile and represent best use of resource inputs requires financial, social, ethical and environmental consequences to be evaluated in a comparable format. the aim in this paper is to analyse the gold coast light rail (gclr) stage 1&2 project using a method that is capable of merging tangible and intangible criteria using an ordinal ranking algorithm. while the gclr case study is undertaken with the benefit of hindsight, normally these types of evaluations are performed in real time as a project progresses from initiation (design) to implementation (deliver) and influence (delight). the method adopted in this study represents a modern form of multi-criteria decision-making, which enables successful projects to be distinguished from unsuccessful ones using a time period from commencement until one full year of operation has occurred. the i3d3 model, developed by a team from bond university, has the unique benefit of ranking projects from best to worst across an organisational portfolio, geographic region or industry sector. it also supports past project performance to inform new design through application of a continuous improvement process of 1 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7738 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7738 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7738 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:clangsto@bond.edu.au http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7738 recording lessons learned. the gclr case study calculated 100% of the critical success factors in the model to be positive and produced an overall success ranking of 23 (on a scale of -100 to +100). this paper presents the approach taken to evaluate gclr’s level of success and the calculations that took place to reach this finding. this is the first time i3d3 has been used on an australian project. keywords transport infrastructure; evaluation techniques; multi-criteria decision-making; case study; australia introduction people have been making judgements about the merits of new infrastructure projects for centuries. the discounted cash flow technique that underpins cost-benefit analysis became popular after the stock market crash of 1929 but can be traced back to ancient times. determining ‘accept–reject’ decisions based on surplus or deficit over time is common sense, but in more recent history other criteria have emerged that need careful consideration. the need for fiscal stimulus post covid-19 has led to an increase in construction of large public infrastructure megaprojects. many of them can be considered as failures. according to flyvbjerg (2017), over the last 20-30 years, 70-90% of megaprojects experienced cost overruns. these problems may be summarised as “over budget, over time, under benefits, over and over again” (flyvbjerg, 2017, p.12). the ‘g20 principles for quality infrastructure investment’ (g20, 2019) is a recent initiative to create a standard for defining successful infrastructure procurement. the document describes infrastructure as “a driver of economic prosperity that provides a solid basis for strong, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth and sustainable development” (p.1). but while the objectives may be agreed, the process to compute success remains opaque. the difficulty of combining financial consequences (largely tangible) with social, ethical and environmental consequences (largely intangible) is a main barrier to widespread adoption. it requires a multiple-criteria approach rather than attempting to measure benefits solely in monetary terms. anecdotal evidence suggests that traditional evaluation methods have become so complex that not only is technical expertise essential, but the process is too time consuming, expensive and open to manipulation. a better approach is needed to ensure that project decisions are balanced, and performance expectations are ultimately achieved. the aim in this paper is to analyse the gold coast light rail (gclr) stage 1&2 project using a method that is capable of merging tangible and intangible criteria using an ordinal ranking algorithm. this process needs to be able to both predict and validate actual performance in terms of project success while ensuring that envisaged benefits during design are realised in operation. literature review evaluation methodologies for transport infrastructure commonwealth and state governments in australia are engaged in unprecedented fiscal stimulus to encourage rapid economic recovery from the covid-19 pandemic (infrastructure australia, 2021). transportation projects are popular forms of infrastructure that can improve living standards, industry productivity, tourism and safety. they can create a legacy through the provision of vital services while putting upward pressure on employment and creating increased consumer confidence and spending. the problem with stimulus is making sure that the quality of the new infrastructure provides collective utility langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 20212 to a community or region. understanding the benefits requires financial, social, ethical and environmental consequences to be evaluated in a comparable format. the evaluation of transport infrastructure projects is complex due to their spatial scale, the scope of their economic, environmental, and social impact, and often their duration – in terms of the design and construction phase as well as their operational lifecycle. this is further complicated by the need to account for a variety of assumptions such as residual value, discounted utility, forecasted economic and demographic growth, and rate of technological progress (helm and mayer, 2016; chi and bunker, 2020). an extensive and rigorous evaluation process is therefore required to ensure that scarce public resources are invested in an optimal project. efficiency in the project evaluation phase is critical, as the selection of the ‘right’ project will ultimately enable the realisation of greater impact (higher return on investment) at a specific investment amount (kyriacou, muinelo-gallo and roca-segales, 2019). the selection of a meticulous and comprehensive project evaluation methodology is key to achieving this, as it will allow society to effectively determine the opportunity cost of prospective proposals. this section will summarise the predominant evaluation methodologies utilised in transport infrastructure project assessments. cost-benefit analysis the traditional (and most common) method to appraise prospective transport infrastructure projects is by conducting a cost-benefit analysis (cba) process (mouter, 2018; chi and bunker, 2020). this process is intellectually rooted in the marshallian theories of welfare economics and collective utility, and thus is primarily concerned with enhancing consumer surplus (vickerman, 2017). essentially, a cba assigns a financial value to the forecast result of an infrastructure project proposal, then seeks to ascertain whether the total amount society is ready to outlay for the proposal surpasses its anticipated costs (vickerman, 2008; ronnle, 2017). in practice this is done by offsetting the overall societal benefits of the proposed project over its lifecycle against its overall societal costs, and then discounting them to the present-day at a set discount rate (helm and mayer, 2016). for the purposes of infrastructure evaluation in australia, the primary discount rate is set at 7% by infrastructure australia the national statutory body mandated with assessing and prioritising major infrastructure investments to ensure consistency of evaluation across the country. however, this analysis is accompanied by outlier discount rates for sensitivity analysis assessment of 4% and 10% respectively (infrastructure australia, 2018). from an economic perspective cbas are typically administered within the confines of a partial equilibrium analysis, in which (in the case of a transport infrastructure project) the transport sector itself is evaluated partially, whereas prices in all other secondary sectors are held fixed (hansen and johansen, 2017). in keeping with the assumption of perfect markets in equilibrium, all applicable benefits will be encapsulated within the final estimated transport consumer benefit in the cba (hansen and johansen, 2017). once finalised, the cba will deliver a benefit-cost ratio (bcr), which is presented as the economic case for project approval (atkins, davies and bishop, 2017). in theory if the bcr is greater than 1 then this should result in the project being greenlit, while if it is less than 1 then the project should be rejected, since its total social costs outweigh its total social benefits (helm and mayer, 2016; ronnle, 2017). owing to the scarcity of social resources, however, the most common outcome is that if a project’s bcr is favourable, then it is further compared and evaluated against a portfolio of other prospective (favourable) projects, with public funds being allocated to whichever proposal is estimated to deliver the highest return on investment – greatest bcr (vickerman, 2008; helm and mayer, 2016). although often criticised for its narrow economic focus and rigidity of process, there are benefits to utilising a cba as the chosen methodological tool when evaluating transport infrastructure projects. paramount amongst these is the method’s sound economic analysis, which compiles a systematic itemisation of all direct benefits and costs (asplund and eliasson, 2016; mouter, 2018). at the governmental level, this langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 20213 provides decision-makers with a clear frame of reference of the benefits and opportunity cost of a project when examining submissions from a broader portfolio of project proposals. this in turn greatly simplifies the overall planning process (mouter, 2018). by excluding the indirect effects of transport infrastructure investment, cbas also safeguard the evaluation process against the duplication of economic benefits which can occur in other methodologies that embrace the dynamic (indirect) wider economic benefits ethos of evaluation (chi and bunker, 2020). in doing so, this will prevent the aggrandised claims of substantial societal and economic benefits, which often accompany these alternate project evaluation methodology assessments (chi and bunker, 2020). the criticisms of cba as a tool for project evaluation primarily relate to its inability to capture the dynamic economic effects of transport infrastructure investment, due to its utilisation of marshallian welfare economics concepts as a theoretical framework (hansen and johansen, 2017; vickerman, 2017). critics argue that partial equilibrium analysis and the resultant assumption of perfect markets is fundamentally wrong, since secondary markets are often misrepresented, thus causing a situation where the attested consumer benefits no longer equate to the aggregate net benefits of the project (helm and mayer, 2016; hansen and johansen, 2017). as coyle (2016) notes, cba fixates on the incremental direct impacts to the consumer arising from the transport infrastructure investment, while neglecting the wider behavioural adjustments that occur to the labour force and firms as a result of increases in accessibility and subsequent agglomeration of industry. this position is supported by lakshmanan (2011), who argues that cbas are typically limited in their outlook owing to their focus on direct productivity output increases to individual consumers and firms. in fact, there is no established principle or acknowledged standard for treating non-monetised factors (intangible impacts) within a cba (spackman, 2013). furthermore, an additional criticism of cbas is that they do not capture the land-use benefits, such as an increase in the capital values of property, which have been empirically proven to increase in the immediate spatial vicinity of public transport infrastructure projects that increase accessibility (levkovich et al., 2016; vickerman, 2017; yen et al., 2018; yen, mulley and zhang, 2020). failing to consider the dynamic indirect effects of transport infrastructure investment can lead to a potential underestimation of aggregate project benefits, which can cause a sub-optimal project selection, and as a result, an inefficient investment of public capital (hansen and johansen, 2017). finally, notwithstanding the contingencies provided by sensitivity analysis, given the significant duration of most project lifecycles, the three key component factors of the analysis (social benefits, social costs, and the social discount rate) are all susceptible to considerable uncertainties over the project lifecycle (helm and mayer, 2016). wider economic benefits and wider economic impacts an alternate evaluation methodology framework to cba specifically for transport infrastructure investment is that of the wider economic benefits (web) and wider economic impacts (wei). the methodology itself is not mutually exclusive to cbas, but rather seeks to capture all the dynamic economic effects (after accounting for all quantifiable environmental, social, and economic costs) that are not encapsulated in the direct consumer surplus benefits of a conventional transport cba (vickerman, 2008; rothengatter, 2017; infrastructure australia, 2018). this is also known as social cba. as opposed to traditional cbas, the web/wei philosophical economic basis is in krugman’s theory of the new economic geography (brathen and givoni, 2017). accordingly, an emphasis is placed on the economic effects that result from increases in accessibility and agglomeration. despite the concerted push to incorporate the concept into project evaluations in recent times, there is still no consensus approach amongst policymakers and transport economists regarding how to integrate the practice within policy guidelines for infrastructure project assessments (wangsness, rodseth and hansen, 2017). langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 20214 infrastructure australia, for example, is yet to develop its own methodology for the process, suggesting that proposed submissions instead seek guidance from the ‘webtag’ methodology devised by the uk department for transport (infrastructure australia, 2018). brathen and givoni (2017) contend that as the economic basis behind the theory is quite rational and established, a renewed emphasis should be placed on agreeing upon a uniform methodology for its practical application and empirically testing it. proposals for measuring web/wei that have been developed so far tend to focus on the main impact factors outlined in the new economic geography (neg), comprising agglomeration effects, increases in the available labour market, and growth in aggregate output in imperfect market conditions (legaspi et al., 2015; rothengatter, 2017). one of the most common methods utilised to assess the web/wei of transport infrastructure projects is that of spatial computable general equilibrium modelling (scgem) or computable general equilibrium modelling (cgem) techniques (hansen and johansen, 2017; rothengatter, 2017; vickerman, 2017). scgem/cgems differ slightly from the core idea of the neg, by attempting to incorporate the key concepts of spatial economics such as accessibility and agglomeration within the traditional welfare economics general equilibrium structure (rothengatter, 2017). while these models allow for econometric modelling of a project’s web/wei, the primary criticism levelled at them is that the methodology is often inconsistent, and they are vulnerable to manipulation from ill-defined inputs (ronnle, 2017; vickerman, 2017). this can result in a lack of transparency in the assessment process, increasing the likelihood for political tinkering and confirmation bias (ronnle, 2017). this is particularly concerning for those transport infrastructure projects that would fall within the category of ‘megaprojects’, which already struggle with a culture of optimism bias in the project evaluation phase (flyvbjerg, 2013; odeck, 2014). an example of this can be seen in the uk, where scgem modelling on the benefits of runway expansion revealed seismically different results due to the utilisation of different data inputs. the assessment complied by the department for transport suggested overall net benefits of £61 billion over the forecasted time period, while an independent assessment commissioned by the airports commission and performed by price waterhouse coopers determined the economic lifecycle benefits to lie between £131 and £147 billion (vickerman, 2017). examples such as this underline the assertation of rothengatter (2017) that web/wei methodologies for transport infrastructure investment are often at the mercy of prevailing political trends, and therefore should be viewed as neither comparable to, nor a substitute for, cba analysis. to this end, germany’s federal government rejects the usage of web/wei methodology for transport infrastructure investment, while the uk department for transport, and infrastructure australia, both recommend conducting a web assessment in addition to a conventional cba for transport infrastructure investment analysis (bmvi, 2014; infrastructure australia, 2018). it should be noted that not all project assessments show such wide variances when incorporating the web method. infrastructure australia’s evaluation of the inland rail project revealed an identical bcr of 1.1 (utilising both cba and web methodologies) when conducting an assessment at the standard discount rate of 7%, and only a marginal variance of 2.8% to 2.9% (web), when assessing at the lower sensitivity analysis rate of 4% (infrastructure australia, 2016). in line with the theory of the neg, in this case the webs were expected to stem from an agglomeration of industry around multimodal freight hubs which were planned to be built at strategic junctures along the rail line, thereby driving a reduction in overall transport costs, which in turn will spur growth in aggregate output (infrastructure australia, 2016). endogenous macroeconomic modelling an alternate methodological framework to scgem/cgem for assessing the web/wei of a transport infrastructure project is that of endogenous macroeconomic modelling. this approach aligns with the theoretical basis for economic growth, outlined in romer’s endogenous growth theory (rothengatter, 2017). the typical data inputs for these models are national economic figures such as gdp, and aggregate langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 20215 consumption (rothengatter, 2017). unlike scgem/cgem models, exogenous growth methodologies do not assume the neo-classical general equilibrium theory but embrace the keynesian concepts whereby employment levels can be fluid, and full utilisation of resources may not be achieved (rothengatter, 2017; cambridge econometrics, 2021). an example of an endogenous growth model which can be applied for infrastructure assessment, is the e3me model developed by cambridge econometrics which has been applied on transport infrastructure projects in the european union (köhler, jin and barker, 2008; rothengatter, 2017). multi-criteria assessment the concluding methodological approach to transport infrastructure assessment is that of multi-criteria decision-making (mcdm). it is also known as multi-criteria decision analysis (mdca). like web/wei, this project evaluation approach is best characterised as a theoretical framework, with there being a number of different methods that can be applied (guitouni and martel, 1998)1. the common thread between all methods is that they seek to provide clarity, structure and guidance to the assessment process in order to help facilitate a judicious final project decision (kabir, sadiq and tesfamariam, 2014; van der meer et al., 2020). mcdm assists decision-makers within government by filtering and arranging project information in such a way as to enable the identification of the vital evaluation criteria for project selection, which in turn allows for clear comparison between competing projects (van der meer et al., 2020). in practice, the framework requires the scoring of a prospective project against multiple criteria irrespective of the explicit mcdm method chosen (broniewicz and ogrodnik, 2020). the scoring itself is weighted according to the preference of key project stakeholders against pre-determined parameters, such as financial cost and environmental impact (van der meer et al., 2020). this weighted scoring of criteria permits a final figure to be assigned to the project, with the highest scoring project at the end of the process theoretically being greenlit (van der meer et al., 2020). although seemingly straightforward, much like a cba, the utilisation of these methods necessitates the application of detailed quantitative datasets to be effective (broniewicz and ogrodnik, 2020). kabir, sadiq and tesfamariam (2014) advocate the usage of mcdm methods on infrastructure project assessments to enable quality project selection. they suggest that mcdm methods achieve this by providing transparency, rigorous analysis, and an audit trail (kabir, sadiq and tesfamariam, 2014). chi and bunker (2020) further promote the utilisation of these methods for infrastructure project evaluation due to their capacity to incorporate economic and non-monetary decision criteria within the same assessment framework. from a risk management perspective, mcdm methods are ideal as they account for broader environmental and social impacts, while adhering to the financial rigour of a cba, which can even be incorporated into the final assessment as an evaluation criterion (chi and bunker, 2020). this is particularly advantageous when evaluating transformational transport infrastructure megaprojects, which undoubtedly deliver sizeable and wide ranging environmental, social and economic (both direct and indirect) impacts that need to be measured, whilst requiring stringent financial controls and cost analysis in order to prevent optimism bias, and to keep project costs in check (chi and bunker, 2020). dimitriou, ward and dean (2016) suggest that this balance will become increasingly important as overarching policy considerations such as alignment with sustainable development goals and fiscal austerity (or perhaps in the current economic climate, fiscal prudence in stimulus spending) concurrently elevate the importance of environmental impact assessment (eia) alongside cbas in the project approval process. due to this, the mcdm methodological framework is effective, as it allows project stakeholders to frame the project 1 broniewicz and ogrodnik (2020) alone were able to identify 46 different methods of multi-criteria assessment which had been applied in the field of transportation (although not all on the evaluation of transport infrastructure). indeed, there is a body of literature dedicated to assisting with the selection of an appropriate method (guitouni and martel, 1998). hence, a considered decision was made not to identify nor evaluate individual mcdm methods in this paper. langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 20216 evaluation in a way that is inclusive of both their primary objectives and key concerns (dimitriou, ward and dean, 2016). thus, mcdm methods can paint a clearer picture of the relevant potential outcomes of the implemented project to the key stakeholders (dimitriou, ward and dean, 2016). across australia at both the state and federal level, assessment processes for public investment in transport infrastructure utilise mcdm as the overarching framework for the evaluation of projects (chi and bunker, 2020). within this process, cba is integrated as the mandatory means for economic evaluation (infrastructure australia, 2018). webtag, the uk department for transport’s project evaluation mechanism, is structured in a similar fashion, incorporating cba, web, eia, and additional social considerations within a broad mcdm framework (dft, 2019). an example of the method’s practical application was on the assessment of the northern line extension in london, where a ‘policy-led’ mcdm method was utilised for project assessment (ward et al., 2016). due to the project’s forecasted transformative web (primarily in terms of real estate appreciation in the spatial area of the rail line and increased accessibility), significant social and environmental impacts, and estimated total project cost of upwards of £1 billion, it was necessary to have an evaluation mechanism which was robust enough to adequately account for all these issues (ward et al., 2016). this was particularly the case owing to the large amount of project stakeholders across multiple levels of government and the community (ward et al., 2016). in this instance, the mcdm method for project evaluation was touted as a success as it was able to address the social costs and benefits of the project (not just from a financial perspective, but in terms of non-monetary winners and losers) and was flexible enough to address these major stakeholder issues within the same assessment framework (ward et al., 2016). indeed, the mcdm method has been praised for its capacity to integrate social considerations into the assessment process for infrastructure evaluation in a way that other evaluation methodologies are unable to do (sierra, yepes and pellicer, 2018). criticisms of mcdm methods primarily focus on the potential adverse effects of the methodology’s subjectivity. in this respect, the methods greatest strength is its greatest weakness. the method’s capacity to flexibly integrate decision criteria chosen by stakeholders into the assessment process, whilst nominally allowing the factoring in of local community considerations (e.g., social or environmental issues) also leaves it susceptible to politically expedient decision-making (te boveldt, van raemdonck and macharis, 2018; dean, 2020). moreover, achieving consensus on criteria when multiple stakeholders are involved is often problematic and can obstruct the assessment schedule. key project stakeholder bodies frequently have disparate objectives, which are often hard to reconcile in a mutually agreeable fashion, thus leading to an impasse in the criteria selection process (te boveldt, van raemdonck and macharis, 2018). additional criticism of the mcdm methodology’s subjectivity is that it can lead to double counting of a project’s impact (annema, mouter and razaei, 2015; chi and bunker, 2020). chi and bunker (2020), in their review of infrastructure assessment criteria utilised in australia on major infrastructure projects, noted that the utilisation of similar evaluation criteria such as ‘service need’ and ‘strategic alignment’ left projects exposed to instances of double counting. the issue of ‘weighting’ can also severely impact the partiality of an mcdm method. as noted by gühnemann, laird and pearman (2012), a specific criterion’s weighting is representative of its relative status in the eye of policy makers. as there is no global standard or indicative benchmark for the weighting of assessment criteria, and generally none at the national nor provincial level, then the allocation of an individual criterion’s weighting is left in the hands of policymakers (gühnemann, laird and pearman, 2012). if left unchecked, this can result in a biased project assessment, as policy makers are left with wriggle room to adjust weightings and potentially greenlight or kill off a project, if it is deemed politically expedient to do so. meddling aside, in a best practice situation disproportionate weighting can still nullify the purpose of mcdm methods if one criterion is assigned a lopsided weighting (dean, 2020). dean (2020) states that mcdm evaluations are too often based off idealistic principles and assumptions that are disconnected from langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 20217 the real-world of transport infrastructure. consequently, he urges greater transparency and standardisation of the mcdm methodology and suggests caution in its usage and adjustable weightings (dean, 2020). method this paper applies a novel evaluation model for measuring project success, known as i3d3, to a real transport infrastructure project: gold coast light rail (glcr) stage 1&2. the model represents a modern form of mcdm and includes twelve critical success factors that span financial, social, ethical and environmental consequences across the phases of project initiate (design), project implement (deliver) and project influence (delight). the basic structure of the model is shown in figure 1. a key feature of the model is that success is judged by a different group of stakeholders as the project advances. figure 1. i3d3 conceptual framework the twelve critical success factors, mostly measured in different units and combined by phase in unique ways, comprise feasible, useable, achievable and sustainable (design), within budget, on schedule, as specified and no surprises (deliver), and desirable, adaptable, practicable and serviceable (delight). each is scored on a scale of -100 to +100 based on a measurable criterion, where a value of zero is the breakeven point between success and failure. criterion outcomes are converted to success scores using fixed translation scales. the alignment of project outcomes to the 17 united nations sustainable development goals is also embedded within the model. it is not feasible to fully describe how the i3d3 model works within the word count limit of this paper. a detailed explanation can be found online (cccr, 2019). nevertheless, it can be applied to determine the level of success for each project phase (initiate, implement, influence) and each consequence type (financial, social, ethical, environmental) to compute the overall ranking that enables projects to be compared with each other. the project initiate phase is focused on design decisions that yield balanced performance across each consequence type. feasibility is assessed using a conventional discounted cash flow approach for tangible langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 20218 benefits and costs over a period of up to 30 years. useability is determined by surveying the level of local community support using a five-point likert scale. achievability is a function of the ratio of project rewards (opportunities) divided by risks (threats) based on their probability of occurrence and impact should they eventuate. finally, sustainability is computed based on six core environmental factors using a five-star rating scheme. success is viewed from the perspective of the project owner/sponsor and shareholders. the project implement phase is focused on cost, time, scope and risk during delivery. this is computed as the variance between planned and actual performance. cost is the amount spent to realise the project. time is the duration from commencement to handover. scope is the extent of work measured in terms of the quantity of functional units produced. risk is a measure of the uncertainty surrounding project procurement. these factors are integrated together to reflect a preference for bigger scope and smaller cost, time and risk. success is viewed from the perspective of the project team and regulatory authorities. the project influence phase is focused on whether the project is well-received by those that use it. the assessment of satisfaction arises from at least 40 generic satisfaction attributes divided into two groups: wants and needs. wants comprise attributes related to desirability and adaptability, whereas needs comprise attributes related to practicability and serviceability. each are evaluated separately using a five-point likert scale for both opinion (-2 to +2) and relevance (1 to 5) and then multiplied together and combined into an overall satisfaction index for each attribute group. the number of respondents that demonstrate a positive experience for both wants and needs divided by the survey sample computes their delight with the project during its first year of usage. success is viewed from the perspective of project client/end-user and local community. the i3d3 model clearly covers more than project selection decisions. it needs to both predict and validate actual performance in terms of project success while ensuring that envisaged benefits during design are realised in operation. it is able to combine multiple criteria measured using different units into a single ranking of success and to apply these outcomes for projects that display quite different characteristics. when applied progressively, as opposed to an audit on completion, it helps guide decisions to ensure favourable outcomes are not achieved by accident. results this paper used a case study of gclr to demonstrate the capability of modern mcdm in delivering major transportation infrastructure. the findings provide evidence that gclr was successful in meeting its objectives. although gclr was not created as a response to covid-19, future stages are being treated as nation-building fiscal stimulus projects. in this study, all factors were assessed using criteria based on a combination of balanced scorecard technique, planned v actual progress, and end-user satisfaction surveys conducted in 2020 after the project had been completed and began operation. data was gathered from documents freely available online, while delight scores were assessed from a specially designed qualtrics survey distributed to a sample population of 413 people within the local community (with a 33% response rate achieved). the findings of the study were discussed with three senior members of the team at goldlinq pty ltd that is responsible for the project roll-out, to ensure there were no inadvertent errors or misunderstandings. all effort was made to use evidenced-based information as much as possible. gclr was shown to be successful, with an i3d3 ranking of 23. all twelve critical success factors were positive. across the three phases of the project lifecycle, delight scored highest (35), then design (28) and deliver (5). across the four consequences, environmental scored highest (28), then ethical (26), social (23) and financial (14). the net benefit for the project was 24 (also on a scale of -100 to +100) with seven stakeholder groups identified as winners, and no losers. the only united nations sustainable development goals (sdgs) that meet the model’s eligible requirements was ‘17 partnerships of the goals’, resulting in langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 20219 a humanity index of 20 (on a scale of 0 to +100). all twelve success factors are equally weighted and hence cannot be used to manipulate outcomes. the decision support system (dss) score for design comprised four measurement criteria. the benefitcost ratio (bcr) was 1.0997 using tangible costs and benefits discounted by a real (inflation-free) rate of 4% over 30 years. local project support (lps) was based on a government survey of 2,142 people and was 0.8690 (on a scale of -2 to +2). risk and reward (rar) was 1.3226 based on the ratio of intangible benefits (opportunities) divided by intangible costs (threats) according to their probability and consequence. the ecological footprint (efp) was 15 (on a scale of 0 to +30) equivalent to 2.5 stars. the project delivery success (pds) score for deliver also comprised four measurement criteria. the percentage change in cost (c) between planned and actual was 0% due to the guaranteed price publicprivate partnership agreement in place. the change in time (t) was also 0% change even though stage 1 was behind schedule by six weeks and stage 2 was ahead of schedule by the same amount. there was no change in scope (s) either, but a 5.13% reducing in risk (r) between planned and actual performance led to a small positive pds overall. basically, the project was delivered on schedule, within budget, as specified and with few surprises. pds is computed as s3 / ctr between planned and actual. the project was assessed as ‘high complexity’ (12) but played no role in the pds score. the end-user satisfaction (eus) score comprised a combination of wants (desirable and adaptable) and needs (practicable and serviceable). out of 138 responses, 67.39% indicated they were happy with the project’s performance as represented by the number of data points in quadrant q1 of the summary chart. attractiveness comprised 20.85% of the total, flexibility was 14.25%, fit for purpose was 36.52% and enduring was 28.38%. the expected delight during design was computed as 43%, but upon completion the actual delight was slightly lower at 35%. this can, of course, change over time as patronage matures. the completed template, downloaded from i3d3.net (https://www.i3d3.net), prints as six pages – where each page is presented in figures 2-7 respectively to evidence the overall process. data highlighted by light grey shading are the inputs to the model (actual end-user responses are not visible but automatically compute the satisfaction chart). the project’s actual cost was aud 1,620 million, which meets the definition of a ‘megaproject’ when converted into usd. use of mcdm in this evaluation did not require high levels of technical expertise, was undertaken over several days and did not involve any expenditure other than the time of the authors in collecting and entering the data. discussion mcdm offers improvement over other approaches to evaluating infrastructure projects as it is able to integrate the assessment of tangible values, based on bcr modelling and project delivery success, with the assessment of intangible values, based on project opportunities and threats, environment impact and enduser satisfaction. it can broaden the view of success from a sponsor’s expectations embedded in the decision to proceed, or from the project team’s perspective of meeting contractual requirements, or the oftenforgotten end-users’ perspective of whether the designed solution was indeed effective. there isn’t anything fundamentally wrong with traditional evaluation approaches, but mcdm is evidenced in the literature as promising potential advantage. this is demonstrated by the gclr case study in evaluating multiple stakeholder criteria and providing the opportunity to improve initiation decision-making on future projects based on the lessons learned from routine end-user feedback. this wider view of project performance is important to ensure that benefits realisation is made a top priority for infrastructure procurement that deploys public funds. successful projects should aim to bring a positive collective utility to our society, even though there will always be winners and losers. for a project to be successful, it must show this consistently over time (i.e., reflect good design, effective delivery and make a lasting contribution). langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202110 https://www.i3d3.net the i3d3 model is an example of modern mcdm. it expands the traditional implementation boundaries of project management to include front-end planning and post-handover evaluation. the integration of all three phases into a single measure of successful procurement is at best uncommon and at worst unachievable. for example, cba might be used for an accept/reject decision to invest, earned value might be used to assess delivery progress and post-occupancy evaluation might be used to assess effectiveness in figure 2. gclr evaluation summary langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202111 practice, but only mcdm can merge these diverse criteria into a single-point value. although the gclr case study was undertaken in hindsight, the i3d3 template should be progressively completed and updated as actual performance unfolds. the evaluation of delight could also be repeated in the future to see if enduser satisfaction has increased, decreased or remained constant over the long term. cost calculations in i3d3 do not change with time, the size of the project has no significant impact on performance, and the location figure 3. gclr net benefits langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202112 of the project does not inhibit its comparison in other jurisdictions. the use of purchasing power parity to compare ‘apples with apples’ is unnecessary with i3d3. it is important to note that i3d3 can rank ‘apples with oranges’. the model is agnostic to the type of project, its size, its location and its date of completion. previous case studies available on the i3d3.net website show that the gclr project (rank = 23) performed better than the hong kong–zhuhai–macau figure 4. gclr humanity index langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202113 bridge project (rank = 22) but worse than the bangladesh electricity upgrade and expansion project (rank = 50). a study of the tham luang cave rescue in thailand in 2018 showed it had a rank = 38. other projects shared with the team at i3d3.net are intended to form a global database of project performance over time. students enrolled in the bachelor of project management at bond university, as part of their capstone figure 5. gclr design assessment langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202114 subject, are each asked to select and audit the success of a different well-documented project to become proficient in performing these types of studies. there is a propensity to evaluate good projects and to use the results as a form of award for performance. over time, it will be possible to objectively demonstrate the performance of projects and to calculate the figure 6. gclr deliver assessment langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202115 ratio of success to failure. this requires making evaluations a routine part of the project management process. the i3d3 model has two key attributes: transparency and simplicity. depending on the political context within which projects are delivered, these could be advantages or disadvantages. but generally, greater transparency is a good thing and simplicity encourages deployment without introducing cost and time figure 7. gclr delight assessment langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202116 barriers. a complete study of a project undertaken in hindsight could be reasonably expected to take about a week for one person assuming there are no access restrictions that block the process. competitions for ‘best project for the year’ would encourage engagement with industry if the eligibility criteria were based on a completed i3d3 template supported by an independent audit review. the i3d3 model is endorsed by the global alliance for the project professions (gapps), which is a volunteer-driven, non-profit alliance that provides a reliable source for comparison of project-based standards and qualifications. endorsement occurred in 2021. more information about gapps can be found at https://globalpmstandards.org/. gclr will form an ongoing evaluation activity with at least two more stages to be rolled out. this provides a useful opportunity to study how lessons learned from previous stages are used to improve performance in later stages. this will be reported in a future paper. conclusion it is often said that sponsors no longer see projects delivered on time, within budget, as specified and with no surprises as sufficient evidence of success. rather, what they really want is projects that are aligned with their strategic stakeholder objectives, providing a range of financial, social, ethical and environmental benefits that are fully realised as anticipated. this thinking is an expansion of project delivery success (with a focus on implementation) to project success (comprising initiation, implementation and influence). projects are merely vehicles of change, and project managers as change-agents have a vested interest in successful outcomes. the problem is that contribution to the wider definition of success is achievable only if project managers are involved early during the initiation phase (design) and stay connected during the influence phase (delight), which is not common. it is found that use of the i3d3 model, a modern form of mcdm, enables successful projects to be distinguished from unsuccessful ones. in addition, projects can be ranked from best to worst across an organisational portfolio, geographic region or industry sector. it also supports past project performance to inform new design through application of a continuous improvement process of recording lessons learned. the case study was shown to have 100% of the critical success factors in the model positive and an overall success ranking of 23 (on a scale of -100 to +100). this paper presents the primary and secondary data and the outcome of calculations that support this finding. the gclr case study clearly demonstrates that the evaluation of project success is not a prohibitive activity. there are few, if any, methodological barriers to undertaking evaluations. while successful projects might be celebrated, evidence of unsuccessful projects may be quietly filed. but in either case, the opportunity for continuous improvement and the formal feedback from end-users to designers is everpresent. the i3d3 model is a forerunner of other mcdm tools that will undoubtedly emerge over time. however, innovation is not a finite pursuit. the measurement of multi-phase project success is a fertile area for future research, especially in the built environment disciplines, as projects tend to be complex, expensive and have lasting effects on the communities they are designed to serve. poor performance is therefore a waste of valuable resources. especially in times of fiscal stimulus to boost the covid-19 recovery, the importance of quality infrastructure investment is paramount. acknowledgements the lead author is one of the team that developed i3d3. langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202117 https://globalpmstandards.org/ the assistance of the centre for comparative construction research at bond university and the team at i3d3.net is much appreciated. both are dedicated to providing free resources and helpful industry support related to measuring project success in practice. references annema, j.a., mouter, n. and razaei, j., 2015. cost-benefit analysis (cba), or multi-criteria decision-making (mcdm) or both: politicians’ perspective in transport policy appraisal. transportation research procedia, 10, pp.788797. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2015.09.032 asplund, d. and eliasson, j., 2016. does uncertainty make cost-benefit analyses pointless? transportation research part a: policy and practice, 92, pp.195-205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2016.08.002 atkins, g., davies, n. and bishop, t.k., 2017. how to value infrastructure? improving cost-benefit analysis. joint report institute for government and project management institute (pmi). available at: https://www.instituteforgovernment. org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/ifg%20report%20cba%20infrastructure%20web%20final1.pdf [accessed 21 august 2021]. brathen, s. and givoni, m., 2017. the wider impacts from transport: what do we know, what do we still need to know, and what does it mean? research in transportation economics, 63, pp.1-4. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2017.09.005 broniewicz, b. and ogrodnik, k., 2020. multi-criteria analysis of transport infrastructure project. transportation research part d: transport and environment, 83, p.102351. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2020.102351 bundesministerium für verkehr und digital infrastruktur (bmvi), 2014. grundsätzliche überprüfung und weiterentwicklung der nutzen-kosten-analyse im bewertungsverfahren der bundesverkehrswegeplanung. available at: file:// datatwo/12992102$/profile/downloads/schlussberichtfe96.09742011-fe2bvwpnka.pdf [accessed 21 august 2021]. cambridge econometrics, 2021. e3me. available at: https://www.e3me.com [accessed 21 august 2021]. cccr, 2019. the application of the i3d3 model for measuring project success (working paper). centre for comparative construction research, bond university. available at: https://bond.edu.au/files/4744/introducing%20i3d3.pdf [accessed 21 august 2021]. chi, s. and bunker, j., 2020. an australian perspective on real-lie cost-benefit analysis and assessment frameworks for transport infrastructure investments. research in transportation economics, p.100946. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. retrec.2020.100946 coyle, d., 2016. infrastructure cannot be built on empty purses and big promises. march 16. financial times. available at: www.ft.com/content/4bb57c70-e9cd-11e5-888e-2eadd5fbc4a4 [accessed 21 august 2021]. dean, m., 2020. multi-criteria analysis. in: n. mouter, ed. standard transport appraisal methods. cambridge, ma: academic press. ch. 6, pp.165-224. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.atpp.2020.07.001 department for transport (dft), 2019. transport analysis guidance (tag). available at: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/ transport-analysis-guidance-tag [accessed 21 august 2021]. dimitriou, h.t., ward, j. and dean, m., 2016. presenting the case for the application of multi-criteria analysis to mega transport infrastructure project appraisal. research in transportation economics, 58, pp.7-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. retrec.2016.08.002 flyvbjerg, b. 2013. quality control and due diligence in project management: getting decisions right by taking the outside view. international journal of project management, 31 (5), 760-774. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2012.10.007 langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202118 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2015.09.032 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2016.08.002 https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/ifg%20report%20cba%20infrastructure%20web%20final1.pdf https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/sites/default/files/publications/ifg%20report%20cba%20infrastructure%20web%20final1.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2017.09.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trd.2020.102351 file://datatwo/12992102$/profile/downloads/schlussberichtfe96.09742011-fe2bvwpnka.pdf file://datatwo/12992102$/profile/downloads/schlussberichtfe96.09742011-fe2bvwpnka.pdf https://www.e3me.com https://bond.edu.au/files/4744/introducing%20i3d3.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2020.100946 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2020.100946 http://www.ft.com/content/4bb57c70-e9cd-11e5-888e-2eadd5fbc4a4 https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.atpp.2020.07.001 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/transport-analysis-guidance-tag https://www.gov.uk/guidance/transport-analysis-guidance-tag https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2016.08.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2016.08.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.10.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.10.007 flyvbjerg, b. 2017. the oxford handbook of megaproject management. oxford handbooks. https://doi.org/10.1093/ oxfordhb/9780198732242.001.0001 g20. 2019. g20 principles for quality infrastructure investment. osaka, japan. https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/economy/ g20_summit/osaka19/pdf/documents/en/annex_01.pdf (accessed 21 august 2021) gühnemann, a., laird, j.j., and pearman, a.d. 2012. combining cost-benefit and multi-criteria analysis to prioritise a national road infrastructure programme. transport policy, 23, 15-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2012.05.005 guitouni, a., and martel, j.m. 1998. tentative guidelines to help choosing an appropriate mcda method. european journal of operational research, 109 (2), 501-521. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0377-2217(98)00073-3 hansen, w., and johansen, b.g. 2017. regional repercussions of new transport infrastructure investments: an scge model analysis of wider economic impacts. research in transportation economics, 63, 38-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. retrec.2017.07.004 helm, d., and mayer, c. 2016. infrastructure: why it is under provided and badly managed. oxford review of economic policy, 32 (3), 343-359. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grw020 infrastructure australia. 2016. inland rail project evaluation summary. https://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/sites/ default/files/2019-06/final_inland_rail_project_evaluation_summary_0.pdf (accessed 21 august 2021) infrastructure australia. 2018. assessment framework: for initiatives and projects to be included in the infrastructure priority list. https://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-06/infrastructure_australia_assessment_ framework_2018.pdf (accessed 21 august 2021) infrastructure australia 2021. ceo update: budget 2020. https://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/listing/newsletter/ ceo-update-budget-2020 (accessed 21 august 2021) kabir, g., sadiq, r., and tesfamariam, s. 2014. a review of multi-criteria decision-making methods for infrastructure management. structure and infrastructure engineering, 10 (9), 1176-1120. https://doi.org/10.1080/15732479.2013.795978 köhler, j., jin, y., and barker, t. 2008. integrated modelling of eu transport policy: assessing economic growth impacts from social marginal cost pricing and infrastructure investment. journal of transport economics and policy, 42 (1), 1-21. kyriacou, a.p., muinelo-gallo, l., and roca-sagales, o. 2019. the efficiency of transport infrastructure investment and the role of government quality: an empirical analysis. transport policy, 74, 93-102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. tranpol.2018.11.017 lakshmanan, t. 2011. the broader economic consequences of transport infrastructure investments. journal of transport geography, 19 (1), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2010.01.001 legaspi, j., hensher, d., and wang, b. 2015. estimating the wider economic benefits of transport investments: the case of the sydney north west rail link project. case studies on transport policy, 3 (2), 182-195. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. cstp.2015.02.002 levkovich, o. rouwendal, j., and van marwijk, r. 2016. the effects of highway development on housing prices. transportation, 43 (2), 378-405. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-015-9580-7 mouter, n. 2018. a critical assessment of discounting policies for transport cost-benefit analysis in five european practices. european journal of transport and infrastructure research, 18 (4), 389-412. https://doi.org/10.18757/ ejtir.2018.18.4.3256 odeck, j. 2014. do reforms reduce the magnitudes of cost overruns in road projects? statistical evidence from norway. transportation research part a, 65, 68-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2014.04.005 langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202119 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198732242.001.0001 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780198732242.001.0001 https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/economy/g20_summit/osaka19/pdf/documents/en/annex_01.pdf https://www.mofa.go.jp/policy/economy/g20_summit/osaka19/pdf/documents/en/annex_01.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2012.05.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0377-2217(98)00073-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2017.07.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2017.07.004 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grw020 https://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-06/final_inland_rail_project_evaluation_summary_0.pdf https://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-06/final_inland_rail_project_evaluation_summary_0.pdf https://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-06/infrastructure_australia_assessment_framework_2018.pdf https://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-06/infrastructure_australia_assessment_framework_2018.pdf https://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/listing/newsletter/ceo-update-budget-2020 https://www.infrastructureaustralia.gov.au/listing/newsletter/ceo-update-budget-2020 https://doi.org/10.1080/15732479.2013.795978 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.11.017 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.11.017 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2010.01.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cstp.2015.02.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cstp.2015.02.002 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-015-9580-7 https://doi.org/10.18757/ejtir.2018.18.4.3256 https://doi.org/10.18757/ejtir.2018.18.4.3256 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2014.04.005 ronnle, e. 2017. a novel approach to economic evaluation of infrastructure? examining the benefits analyses in the swedish high-speed rail project. case studies on transport policy, 5 (3), 492-498. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. cstp.2017.05.005 rothengatter, w. 2017. wider economic impacts of transport infrastructure investments: relevant or negligible. transport policy, 59, 124-133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2017.07.011 sierra, l.a., yepes, v., and pellicer, e. 2018. a review of multi-criteria assessment of the social sustainability of infrastructures. journal of cleaner production, 187, 496-513. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.04.073 spackman, m. 2013. handling non-monetised factors in project, programme and policy appraisal. centre for climate change economics and policy, grantham research institute on climate change and the environment. london school of economics. https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/pp-non-monetisedfactors-project-programme-policy.pdf (accessed 21 august 2021) te boveldt, g., van raemdonck, k., and macharis, c. 2018. a new railway tunnel under brussels? assessing political feasibility and desirability with competence-based multi criteria analysis. transport policy, 66, 30-39. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.03.002 van der meer, j., hartmann, a., van der horst, a., and dewulf, g. 2020. multi-criteria decision analysis and quality of design decisions in infrastructure tenders: a contractor’s perspective. construction management and economics, 38 (2), 172-188. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1577559 vickerman, r. 2008. transit investment and economic development. research in transportation economics, 23 (1), 107115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2008.10.007 vickerman, r. 2017. beyond cost-benefit analysis: the search for a comprehensive evaluation of transport infrastructure. research in transportation economics, 63 (1), 5-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2017.04.003 wangsness, p.b., rodseth, k.l., and hansen, w. 2017. a review of guidelines for including wider economic impacts in transport appraisal. transport reviews, 37 (1), 94-115. https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2016.1217283 ward, e.j., dimitriou, h.t., wright, p., and dean, m. 2016. application of policy-led multi-criteria analysis to the project appraisal of the northern line extension, london. research in transportation economics, 58, 46-80. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.retrec.2016.08.004 yen, b.t.h., mulley, c., and zhang, m. 2020. equity in financing public transport infrastructure: evaluating funding options. transport policy, 95, 68-77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2020.06.001 yen, b.t.h., mulley, c., shearer, h., and burke, m. 2018. announcement, construction or delivery: when does value uplift occur for residential properties? evidence from the gold coast light rail system in australia. land use policy, 73, 412-422. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.02.007 langston and crowley construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202120 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cstp.2017.05.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cstp.2017.05.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2017.07.011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.04.073 https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/pp-non-monetised-factors-project-programme-policy.pdf https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/pp-non-monetised-factors-project-programme-policy.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.03.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.03.002 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1577559 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2008.10.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2017.04.003 https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2016.1217283 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2016.08.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2016.08.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2020.06.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2018.02.007 construction economics and building vol. 17, no. 2 june 2017 © 2017 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: warren-myers, g. and mcrae, e. 2017. volume home building: the provision of sustainability information for new homebuyers. construction economics and building, 17:2, 24-40. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v17i2.5245 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | ajceb.epress. lib.uts.edu.au research article volume home building: the provision of sustainability information for new homebuyers georgia warren-myers*, erryn mcrae melbourne school of design, the university of melbourne *corresponding author: georgia warren-myers, melbourne school of design, mason road, the university of melbourne, parkville, victoria, australia 3010. g.warrenmyers@unimelb.edu.au doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i2.5245 article history: received 28/10/2016; revised 13/04/2017; accepted 27/05/2017; published 22/06/2017 abstract the new residential housing sector is producing approximately 200,000 homes a year that could benefit from methods to increase sustainability and energy efficiency. currently, there is limited implementation of sustainability measures beyond mandatory minimum requirements in australia. new homebuyers are often the scapegoats for the poor sustainability adoption due to their perceived lack of interest and willingness to pay. however, their knowledge and engagement in sustainability is likely to be strongly guided by information provided by the volume builders. this paper investigates the sustainability information that homebuyers are provided by builders, as communicated through their websites. web searching as an important means of information gathering in the preliminary stages of the process for new homebuyers. this paper reports on the analysis of australia’s home industry association’s top 100 volume builders’ websites and their provision of sustainability information. the results suggest the lack of sustainabilityrelated information provided by builders is contributing to disengagement by consumers in the sustainability features available in new homes. keywords residential construction, sustainability, consumers, energy efficient housing, volume builders declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 24 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i2.5245 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i2.5245 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i2.5245 ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au mailto:g.warrenmyers@unimelb.edu.au http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i2.5245 introduction current approaches to increasing sustainability in new home construction are suboptimal in australia and lag other developed countries (csr, 2014; obst, 2015). current mandatory requirements for new homes through the national construction code nationally comprise a six-star nationwide house energy rating scheme (nathers) rating, and a further rating in nsw using the building sustainability index (basix). however, these rating schemes were found to have significant deficiencies as highlighted by pitt and sherry (2014), who identified a range of factors as described in table 1. these weaknesses in the regulatory environment have a significant long-term impact, as the houses built today have a life expectancy of at least 50 years. one aspect identified by pitt and sherry as a key barrier to increasing energy efficiency in new dwellings was consumers’ (homebuyers’) disengagement with sustainability and energy efficiency in the building process. however, for consumers to be able to make an informed choice, information needs to be provided and choices made available (mcgregor, 2005). it is well established that homeowners generally have very limited knowledge of sustainability and the building process in general (crabtree, 2006; williams and dair, 2007; crabtree and hes, 2009; dalton, horne and maller, 2008; warren-myers et al., 2012; pitt and sherry, 2014). consumers are reliant upon the information, education, guidance and provision of products that engage their interest and desire. as a result, when building a new home, information will primarily be obtained from builders. what information could homebuyers be exposed to that would allow them to make an informed choice? this research acknowledges consumers’ limited knowledge about energy efficient features, but challenges the notion that this is the sole responsibility of the consumer. taking a broader view of the industrialised volume building industry (home builders who are producing large numbers of dwellings), it argues that the power in the industry sits with the building table 1 pitt and sherry’s (2014) synopsis of issues associated with the energy efficiency for new dwellings in australia design inconsistencies in the assessments performed by raters using various software for the rating schemes and rater errors limited attention to masterplan development designs to enable enhanced energy efficiency for new dwellings construction lack of sign off and physical inspection that verifies what was designed was built poor practices in dwelling construction affecting the thermal performance of the dwelling due to a variety of aspects including incorrect or missing insulation, poor sealing of the dwelling, product substitutions and divergence from the approved designs operation a disconnect between the dwelling’s designed performance and actual energy use skills and knowledge limited skills and knowledge throughout the delivery supply chain limited knowledge of requirements and options to increase energy efficiency consumers lack of concern regarding energy performance limited understanding of the requirements unwillingness to pay for energy efficiency features warren-myers & mcrae construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201725 companies, rather than with the consumer. therefore, the building company has the responsibility and ability to direct consumers towards sustainable features that are available in new homes. they currently communicate with consumers by advertising through websites, newspapers and display homes with new lifestyle features such as ensuites, alfrescos, walk in-robes and stone bench-tops. therefore, the volume builders have established communication methods with consumers. but what efforts are builders making in terms of providing information in relation to sustainability and energy efficiency features to be included in new homes? consumers are increasingly reliant on the information available from the internet to make decisions (littlefield, bao and cook, 2000; hasbrouck and woodruff, 2008; oates et al., 2008; weinberg et al., 2015). the purpose of this research article is to investigate the type, style and depth of sustainability information homebuyers are exposed to on builders’ websites when selecting a new home. the results demonstrate the severe lack of information regarding sustainability available to consumers. our article suggests that this lack of information and shortage of quality information may contribute to consumers’ disengagement in sustainability in building a new home. the australian volume building industry, new homebuyers and sustainability choices new homebuyers are flooded with choice from what are now commonly known as “volume builders.” the australian residential construction sector through the mass-production of new homes means volume builders are the conduit for homebuyers to build a new home. volume builders offer a complete home package in terms of end-to-end project management and delivery (dowling, 2005). the sector is dominated by substantial-sized volume builders, like metricon, bcg and simonds. these builders act as a powerhouse of providers and, as can be seen in their market share and economic performance, they account for between 37% and 41% of all new housing in australia (dowling, 2005; dalton et al., 2011a). there are between 170,000 and 200,000 dwellings built annually, and competition within the sector is high. this has resulted in highly aggressive marketing approaches to attain new homebuyers’ attention. the volume builders effectively tell consumers what they want and how they want it; while providing what appears to be a wealth of options, they are limiting choices to ensure they can maximise efficiencies of scale and profits (reardon, 2013; warren-myers and heywood, 2016a, 2016b). the residential volume building sector in australia is essentially split into three key areas: speculative builders, project home builders (order builder) and franchise builders (a subset of project home builders). a speculative builder provides a fixed product to the market; the houses are pre-planned dwellings, commonly sold off the plan and the development characteristics are typically fixed with only minimal selections (mostly internal to finishes; e.g., selection of a colour palette) to be made by the purchaser. a speculative volume builder is often considered a community builder, where a homebuyer will purchase an integrated product from a development, commonly an apartment, townhouse or house and land package; e.g., products from mirvac, villaworld or frasers. an order builder or project home builder provides a set of plans, house types, facades and finishes from which a purchaser may select including upgrade options (of which there are usually a limited amount); the homebuyer will then “order” a home and the builder will be engaged to build the dwelling; e.g., metricon and simonds. warren-myers & mcrae construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201726 franchise project home builder is the same as an order builder or project home builder; however, the business is franchised to smaller operators (usually smallto medium-building firms) often under a national brand name, allowing for efficiencies in marketing, product development and documentation and material and trade supplies; e.g., g.j. gardner and hotondo homes.1 oligopoly behaviour is evident in the top 100 australian builders who operate industrialised business models delivering a standardised approach to home building, targeting the bulk of market demand for new housing. in the bespoke end of the market, the consumer has more power and choice over what they include in their home and their interaction with the builder is more like that of a traditional client, as the purchaser will prescribe the program, and specify characteristics and product details (tombesi, 2006). conversely, in the bulk end of the market that is serviced by volume builders, homebuyers in this process are effectively a customer, selecting a prescribed product from a volume builder, which concurs with tombesi’s (2006) viewpoint that the housing consumer is the customer choosing a “known” product (warrenmyers and heywood, 2016b). the bulk end of the new housing market is serviced by volume builders. they effectively provide a product to consumers with many benefits such as value for money (e.g., more floor space), a single contract and short build time. the process has been refined by the volume builders to ensure the new homebuyer feels empowered in their choices of dwelling, features, finishes and certainty of the price and product to be delivered (barlow and ozaki, 2003). simultaneously, the volume builders are making substantial profit by creating a mass construction procurement process that cuts costs and enables prompt and efficient delivery. to ensure this process, volume builders’ “dominant competitive strategy” (barlow and ozaki, 2003, p. 92) is to create a standard set of plans, which have a certain number of choices in materials, finishes and options. these options are used to entice the consumer to build with them and to provide what appears to a wealth of options, making the homebuyers feel empowered. volume builders effectively capitalise on consumers as infrequent purchasers with limited knowledge of the residential construction processes, and guide them in their choices of dwelling, features, and finishes, and provide certainty of the price and product to be delivered (barlow and ozaki, 2003; dalton, wakefield and horne, 2011b). these houses can be built as “speculative” dwellings, defined products ahead of customer purchase, or in response to customer orders (dalton, wakefield and horne, 2011b). the homebuyer is not without their individual wants or needs, but nonetheless they are strongly guided by professionals in the decision-making process. homebuyers are led by volume builders to purchase “lifestyle” aspects they are encouraged to aspire to. volume builders use lifestyle as a marketing tool and create competitive marketing between each other, often sold as “special packages,” “optional extras” or “bonuses.” in current practice, the homebuyer has limited power to choose features that are not specified as “options” or offered as part of the “package.” consequently, in examining opportunities for sustainability, a lack of options to choose from and a lack of knowledge compounds their inability to request and demand sustainabilityand energy-efficiency-reflated features. consequently, they are reliant on the volume builders to provide the options, information, guidance and “package” of sustainability and energy efficiency features. 1 order builders or project home builders often provide ‘house and land’ packages; however, they generally have a split contract between the dwelling and the land because the land is part of a development and the contract is with the developer unless the volume builder has purchased the land. warren-myers & mcrae construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201727 studies have shown that in relation to sustainability, consumers lack knowledge and are not confident in investing in options they know very little about (for example see crabtree, 2006; williams and dair, 2006; crabtree and hes, 2009; dalton, horne and maller, 2008; warren-myers et al., 2012; pitt and sherry, 2014). essentially, they are reliant on others to guide them (mcgregor, 2005). consumers need to be provided with information and feel confident in their choices to pay for sustainability features (gangale, mengolini and onyeji, 2013). trust in the information is paramount for decision-making, and consumers looking to build a new home place that responsibility with the builders. oates et al. (2008) indicate the amount of time and attention given to investigate and analyse options increases depending on the level of financial involvement. for example, low-involvement goods like light bulbs require very little time and effort to understand and make decisions about, while high-involvement products like cars require a significant amount of time and effort to research, understand and come to a decision. a new home, generally the largest investment one will make, is in the high-involvement category. information sources used to inform decision-making for homebuyers vary substantially and include websites (including blogs), television, print advertising, display homes and less tangible sources such as word of mouth (pickton and broderick, 2005). the complexity and variety of information available complicates consumer decision-making, requiring consumers to decipher the reliability of information and verify for themselves the choices they should make (hansen, 2005). in the case of sustainability in new homes, how much information is available from the builders? builders are the key intermediary in the building process, but currently, the level of information, guidance and education they provide to consumers on sustainability and energy efficiency is unknown. research approach this research investigates volume builders’ communication of sustainability information to homebuyers. the research examines builders’ websites and the display and provision of sustainability information to investigate issues such as access to and depth and educational content of the information provided and of links to further information. the research approach utilised content analysis and web content analysis techniques, which comprised a combination of qualitative and quantitative techniques (see mcmillan, 2000; macnamara, 2005; herring, 2010). content analysis was utilised as an established technique for the analysis of documents and comprises a systematic and replicable technique that can provide objective analysis of characteristics in content (holsti, 1969; krippendorf, 1980). the research assesses a multitude of factors that are observable through content analysis to understand the influence of the sustainability content variable that is of interest (riff, lacy and fico, 2014). this research examined themes in web content and utilised coding to allow for quantitative analysis with the use of explicit rules of coding. the purpose of analysing the content of the volume builders’ websites was to understand the level of information communicated about sustainability. this was investigated using a three-tiered approach to identify content that was then separated into five themed components for analysis: visibility of information depth of information relating to sustainability type and quality of information educational content and reference to other documents or websites for consumers to find more information. warren-myers & mcrae construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201728 the analysis of the sustainability information on the websites comprised: thematic theoretical analysis techniques for analysis of the websites as described by braun and clark (2006) media content analysis techniques in which a coding system was created to allow an understanding of the likely impact of the text (macnamara, 2005) scaling of observed factors from 0–5 utilised for relevance weighting (robertson and jones, 1976; craswell et al., 2005). the quantitative coding of qualitative content required researcher judgment, which was validated through comparison and consolidation of opinions between two researchers. data and sample to identify the sample population, the home industry association’s (hia) top 100 residential builders list (hia, 2015) was used to identify the builders to be included in the study. this was relied upon because the top 100 volume builders are contributing between 36% and 46% of housing in australia. the total number of websites examined was 125, from 97 of the top 100 hia home builders. these included several subsidiary providers who are under the banner of larger organisations like bcg who had six subsequent building companies and associated websites (hia top 100, no. 1 in 2014–15) and alcock brown-neaves group who had 7 companies and associated websites (no. 2 in 2014–15), which resulted in there being more than 100 websites. there were three builders on the list that did not have affiliated websites with their products or had gone out of business, thus they were removed from the sample. the distribution of residential home builders across states is shown in table 2. the distribution of builders by state is consistent with the relative size of their population and gdp output and is an indicator of the differing nature of the competitive building industry environment in each state.2 2 it should be noted that the “state” indicated in the hia top 100 report represents the state in which the business is registered rather than where it as operating or offering its building services. the analysis practically assumes that it is operating and is most influenced by the industry environment in this state; however, it should be noted, many volume builders build houses in multiple states, if not australia-wide. thus, the results presented here are representative of the hia top 100 identification of builder location and provides an initial indication of where the market is more industrialised by volume builders’. figure 1 three-tiered investigation approach • inves�ga�on and analysis of main webpage, naviga�on through tabs, pages and links on website • use of the search func�on on the website, using keyword terms ‘sustainability’, ‘sustainable’, ‘energy efficiency/efficient’, and ‘green’ • if no informa�on found within a page or in a specific page, a further search was conducted using google with keyword terms and the volume builders’ name first level inves�ga�on second level inves�ga�on third level inves�ga�on warren-myers & mcrae construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201729 websites are active and live interfaces and, consequently, information and data can change quickly and be different from one day to the next. the analysis of the websites took place between 15 and 26 august 2016. a limitation of this research is that the analysis of websites did not drill down to the regional websites of all builder types. further, where there may have been more than one website for a building company in different states, generally only one was chosen and this was based on where the builders head office was as per the hia top 100 report. results the results report on the investigation and analysis of the websites of the top 100 hia builders in australia. the results detail information provided about sustainability that is available to new homebuyers by examining and quantifying the level of visibility, depth and quality of information, and capacity for educational content. visibility volume builders’ websites are a key source of information for consumers about the types of homes that they can choose to build from, providing information about floor plans, facades, styles and colours, and are therefore a primary source of information in the consumer purchasing process. upon investigation, the visibility of sustainability information on the top 100 hia builders’ websites overall was poor, with 69% of the websites demonstrating no reference to sustainability or green practices, options or information, as shown in table 3. there were only seven builders (6%) that had sustainability information that could be easily found on their websites. table 2 state and territory profile of top 100 home builders in australia and abs dwelling building approvals jul 2014–jun 2015: state by state total vic nsw qld wa sa act tas. no. of builders 97 27 20 23 18 7 1 1 % 28% 21% 24% 19% 7% 1% 1% abs dwelling approvals by state 30% 27% 20% 14% 5% 2% 1% source: hia (2015) top 100 home builders in australia; australian bureau of statistics, 2016, building approvals, 8731 table 3 visibility coding of sustainability content on top 100 homebuilders’ websites ranking description of ranking overall 0 none 86 69% 1 very difficult to find—extensive searching required 9 7% 2 difficult to find—significant searching required 13 10% 3 some searching required 10 8% 4 easy to find—found in second level search 5 4% 5 very easy to fine—tab with sustainability on main page 2 2% n = 125 100% warren-myers & mcrae construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201730 the visibility of sustainability information on websites was very limited, with only a select few order builders and speculative builders making it easy to find sustainabilityrelated information. a rating of five was achieved by the mirvac website and the frasers property australia website. both sites had “sustainability” tabs on the primary navigation bar at the top of the home page, allowing very easy access to their sustainability information. the “some searching required” rating of three was given to ten builders for which multiple tabs and pages needed to be searched to find sustainability information. for example, on one volume builder website, the “about” link needed to be selected from a homepage with multiple menu items at the top of the page. on the “about” page, “sustainability” was number four on the menu on the left of the page. overall, these results indicate that further analysis of information type, depth and quality will produce limited insights due to the 69% of builders not having any sustainability-related information on their websites. level of information finding the sustainability-related information was the first step; the next comprised grading and coding the level of information in terms of the amount of information on the website that may be useful in contributing to the consumers’ knowledge. this rating ranged from 0 = none to 5 = very high level of information with a dedicated tab and pages. consistent with the poor results for the visibility, the weighting towards limited sustainability information available was high. as shown in table 4, the coding analysis identified that 88 home builders had no information relating to sustainability. the slight differential in the numbers between the level of information and the visibility was that there were two websites that indicated sustainability would be found, yet when navigating to the page there was no information at all. in one instance, the page was in development while the other showed an error page. only ten home builders were rated four or five. these volume builders provided dedicated pages of information relating to sustainability that could help consumers better understand sustainability and sustainable features. an example of a website that was rated four, high level, had an environmental responsibility page with multiple headings and “read more” links that consumers could follow to gain more information about sustainability. eleven websites provided moderate information comprising a dedicated page and descriptions and were ranked three, while seven provided table 4 level of information found on the top 100 homebuilders’ websites ranking description of ranking overall 0 none 88 70% 1 minimal—mention in a page 9 7% 2 some—paragraphs 7 6% 3 moderate—dedicated page and descriptions 11 9% 4 high level—multiple dedicated pages 8 6% 5 very high level—dedicated tab and pages 2 2% n = 125 100% warren-myers & mcrae construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201731 minimal information and were ranked two. nine sites were rated one, with minimal information described as a mention on a page. for example, on one website of a nsw order builder, there was an image of the six-star energy rating and a sentence stating all their homes are built to a six-star energy rating. this very low level of information offers minimal opportunity for the customer to increase their knowledge about the benefits of sustainability features in a new home and options for including them. all it does is highlight that the builder provides a six-star energy rating. it failed to highlight that it is a regulatory requirement. type and quality of information to gauge whether the information appearing on the websites would be useful in contributing to consumers’ knowledge about sustainability, the next analysis phase assessed the type and quality of information provided on the website using a scale ranging from 0 = none, to 5 = comprehensive detail and discussion, as described in table 5. again, the quality and type of information provided to consumers relating to sustainability was very poor overall. as shown in table 5, 70% of websites examined have no information, and the remaining 30% are weighted to the low ratings with 14% rated as providing very basic or basic information and a further 10% with generalised descriptions only. information that fell in these categories would contribute very little to a consumers’ understanding of sustainability in building a new home. detailed descriptions were provided by seven builders and only one builder provided comprehensive detail and discussion that provided high-quality information that would increase a consumer’s knowledge in the area. the distribution rankings are like the visibility of information and the level of information factors in that it is heavily weighted towards the lower end where there is no information (70%) or only very basic information (11%). only four of the sites fell in the basic information rating of two. these sites focused on explaining the environmental or sustainable aspects of their internal operations rather than their home building products and services and benefits to the client. an example is an order builder that built over 1000 homes in 2014–2015, where a brief statement regarding their use of materials and corporate social responsibility was table 5 type of information found on the top 100 homebuilders’ websites ranking description of ranking overall 0 none 88 70% 1 very basic—inclusions only 14 11% 2 basic information—business operation-related only 4 3% 3 general description with some detail—nathers rating, greensmart accreditation 11 10% 4 detailed descriptions—greensmart/nathers/ basix, plus list of inclusions 7 6% 5 comprehensive detail and discussion—use of video and interactive presentation to explain sustainable strategy and concepts 1 1% n = 125 100% warren-myers & mcrae construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201732 found under a heading of “environment” on the “quality, safety and environment” page. a further example is a speculative builder that built 332 dwellings (in 2014 – 2015) and the sustainability information was aligned to their strategic business strategy, rather than providing information on the properties they build. eleven websites rated three with general descriptions and some detail of sustainable features and accreditation. examples are a builder that under the “thinking green” heading mentions “greensmart” and discusses some benefits of sustainable features in a home and how they achieve them. the focus of the information found on this page was to educate the consumers about the products offered and describes their use of glass, timber and hebel products, and how they can contribute to a sustainable home. another example, a builder that rated four, provided detailed descriptions of the benefits of sustainable features, comprising orientation, insulation, solar pv cells and ventilation, highlighting both comfort and financial benefits. a speculative builder based in nsw was the only builder in the hia top 100 that achieved a five for the type and quality of information. they built 1684 homes in 2014–15 and on their website, they provide detailed information about their strategy for developing more sustainable homes and present it in ways that engage the consumer. they provide information that can extend the consumers knowledge about sustainability and detail a plan for change to implement more sustainability. they provide case studies of future initiatives and projects, and explain the contribution of sustainable design and features in their homes to reductions in the cost of living and improvements in their customers’ lifestyle. level of educational content the analysis of the websites examined whether there was any form of educational content to assist homebuyers to build knowledge on sustainability. the benchmark to achieve a rating of one in the level of education content was not only to mention a sustainable design, a feature or a product but to discuss in some way how it may improve the home owners’ experience of the home or lifestyle, or provide some cost benefit to the homeowner in the long term. websites that may have mentioned sustainable features or products but did not extend the information provided to a discussion of the benefits, were considered to provide no educational content and were given a rating of zero. there were 24 websites that did attempt to provide some educational material, but 101 websites did not. table 6 provides an overview of the level of educational content found on the various websites, where only one website provided very high level information to educate new homebuyers (located in nsw) and five provided a high level. there are many governmentand industry-based websites that provide educational type content for consumers. only five builders’ websites had links to some of these resources, and directed consumers towards the living housing australia, yourbuilding.org, basix and nathers websites. however, some sites were not reviewed and kept up to date, as two builders still had links to the sustainable energy association of australia website, which was shut down in december 2014 (sanson, 2014). thus, although attempting to provide further direction and information, their failure to stay up to date with industry change in relation to sustainability meant consumers interested in sustainability may have been led to pages that no longer exist. this does not portray a particularly established sustainability industry to convince them to investigate sustainability benefits and options further or to confidently make decisions about including such features in their home. warren-myers & mcrae construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201733 volume housing market overview to gauge the profile of the top 100 volume builders’ engagement in the sustainability space across the industry, a multi-hierarchical cluster analysis was performed, using squared euclidean distance as the measure of the ranked analyses for visibility, level of information, quality of information and educational content. this analysis identified three main clusters that are depicted in figure 2. the first cluster identified active sustainability advocates among the volume builders, comprising 12% of builders in australia. this was split between 23% speculative builders and 77% order builders. there was one builder that managed to score very highly across all categories, indicating that this organisation is a leader in the housing sector in terms of sustainability. this builder was a speculative builder and had clear sustainability objectives. however, the implementation of these sustainability credentials within the developments they produce was unclear from the website content analysis. overall, it is apparent there are leaders in the sector trying to approach and incorporate sustainability and advocate to consumers the importance of sustainability through information provision. the central cluster comprised builders who were moderately active in advocating sustainability, and this cluster demonstrated some level of attempt at sustainability information communication. however, this often meant finding the information was more difficult and the table 6 level of educational content ranking description of ranking overall 0 none—no discussion of the potential lifestyle or cost-saving benefits of sustainable design, features or products 101 81% 1 minimal—broad discussion of lifestyle and/ or cost-saving benefits of one of a sustainable design, feature or product 4 3% 2 some—discussion of the lifestyle and/or costsaving benefits of more than one sustainable design, feature or product 10 8% 3 moderate—some discussion of the lifestyle and/or cost-saving benefits of more than one sustainable design, features or products, plus reference to a rating system or accreditation program 4 3% 4 high level—discussion of the lifestyle and/or cost-saving benefits of many sustainable design, features or products, plus reference to a rating system or accreditation program and external links to further information 5 4% 5 very high level—as above in 4, plus discussing its real-world application and evidence of the lifestyle and cost benefits 1 1% n = 125 100% warren-myers & mcrae construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201734 quality and quantity of information was not consistent. this cluster comprised 18% of the total volume builder sample, and was split into 41% speculative builders and 59% order builders. the final cluster encompassed builders who were inactive and not attempting to include any, or very minimal levels of, sustainability advocacy and information. this includes the bulk of the volume building sector (as profiled by the hia top 100 home builders). this cluster comprised 70% of all builders and was split into 9% franchise builders (all the franchise builders were situated in this cluster), 20% speculative builders and 71% order builders. overall, only 12% of the top 100 home builders are advocating for sustainability in their new housing products, with a further 18% attempting some statement or sustainability positioning, while the majority do not place any importance on sustainability at all. consequently, this research suggests there is consumer disengagement from sustainability in new homes due to a lack of information and guidance. discussion in searching volume builders’ websites across australia, this research has found that a meagre level of sustainability-related information is available to consumers. as consumers utilise volume builders’ websites to gather information for decision-making purposes, the lack of information relating to sustainability provides evidence for why consumers demonstrate little engagement in the sustainability agenda when entering the building process. figure 2 sustainability advocacy cluster analysis of the hia top 100 home builders warren-myers & mcrae construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201735 this research has identified that in the top 100 home builders in australia, there is a lack of sustainability information available on their websites; further, the level and depth of information is limited and only a select few provide a comprehensive and educational discussion on sustainability. after examining the information available to consumers on the topic of sustainability on the volume builders’ websites, it is no surprise that consumers exhibit a reluctance to engage in sustainability and energy efficiency initiatives in the designing and building of their homes. this concurs with eves and kippes (2010), who found that, except for high-income individuals, the general population does not consider sustainability or energy efficiency to be a main determinate in their housing choice. decisions regarding sustainability often result in a trade-off of other aspects (moisander, 2007). particularly where there is a lack of information, consumers are unlikely to purchase something they have little knowledge of or trust in (young et al., 2010). as hoffman and henn (2008) suggest, education and information to overcome the psychological barriers perceived in sustainability, like trust and costs, are required to create incremental changes in building practices, which will lead to sustainability becoming more mainstream. as mcgregor (2005) suggests, information is paramount for consumers to have confidence to invest in sustainability; otherwise, as kimmet (2009) implies, consumers will be sceptical about the capacity of builders to deliver on sustainable technologies. the lack of information regarding sustainability presented to consumers questions the reliability and robustness of sustainability capacity and the implementation ability of the builder. consequently, examining the results in context, a lack of information available to new homebuyers in australia suggests they lack confidence to invest in sustainability or energy efficiency features. this concurs with young et al.’s (2010) study on green consumption and the barriers that impact purchaser decision-making. subsequently, consumer considerations in australia are reduced because of the lack of knowledge about the product, as green consumption and decision-making criteria require knowledge, time for decision-making, desire for the product and capacity to afford the financial costs. in the case of this study, information pertaining to actual sustainability initiatives is limited and even more limited is any mention of associated costs. the commonly perceived understanding of sustainability is that it will cost more, and this appears to be a major barrier to homeowners (dalton, horne and maller, 2008; maller, horne and dalton, 2011; warren-myers et al., 2012). lack of information, costs details and financial and perceived benefits regarding sustainability options means consumers will be reluctant to engage in these options or seek these options. further investigations are required in terms of examining the user experience and decisionmaking in the use of display homes, booklets, pamphlets, print and social media. however, this research suggests a primary reason for consumers’ lack of engagement in sustainability and energy efficiency perceived by industry stakeholders, as outlined in the pitt and sherry (2014) report, is the result of a lack of available information for consumers on builders’ websites. conclusion the technology and the capacity for more sustainable and energy efficient homes is there, and the sector has the capacity to ensure these can be delivered without inordinate costs (warren-myers and heywood, 2016a). however, this research has identified several key barriers to sustainability engagement by consumers that must be overcome to increase the sustainability demand and uptake from consumers: lack of information to describe initiatives and educate consumers on the benefits misleading information or missing information leading to distrust of builders’ capacity to deliver warren-myers & mcrae construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201736 limited offerings of sustainability or energy efficiency initiatives available to the homebuyer where sustainability offerings do exist, no cost information and only some evidence pertaining to benefits sustainability options are subject to rapid change. although not the intent of the research, on reviewing the analysis and revisiting websites, it was observed that sustainable information and attributes advertised via websites were subject to rapid change or disappearance. one example is a sustainability housing range that was no longer available several months later due to a change of leadership within the company. there is a suggestion that volume builders are experimenting in providing sustainability options; however, perhaps due to a lack of communication with consumers, these strategies are failing to attain buyer interest. volume builders need to rethink and improve information provision to new homebuyers. like other initiatives that are effectively marketed by the volume builders, they need to provide information and education and create desire for the product. this will involve some creative strategies but also clarity of information and detailed cost–benefit analysis for consumers. to further engage consumers in sustainability and energy efficiency in the home, they need to be guided and educated, and shown a range of options that will assist in their decision-making. in addition, volume builders may have to commit to this strategy for a period before engagement by consumers in their product is achieved. as hoffman and henn (2008) suggest, the adoption curve for green construction takes time, for either successful adoption or creation of a niche market. failure to persist with initiatives leads to failed adoption, and is possibly why builders reported to pitt and sherry (2014) that consumers are disinterested. this study explored and established a key barrier for consumers’ engagement in sustainability: a lack of information. this can be readily solved through builders creating better information portals and increased availability of information. however, to achieve industrywide change, further research is needed to investigate consumer choices to provide more specific direction to volume builders, supply chain product manufactures and government on how to engage consumers in the sustainability agenda in building their new homes. strategy development across the new housing market will lead to better outcomes and a more sustainable and energy efficient residential housing sector in australia. references australian bureau of statistics, 2016. building approvals, australia, jan 2016, cat no. 8731.0 released 01/03/2016. available at: http://www.abs.gov.au/ [accessed 26 october 2016]. barlow, j. and ozaki, r., 2003. achieving ‘customer focus’ in private housebuilding: current practice and lessons from other industries. housing studies, 18(1), pp. 87-101. https://doi. org/10.1080/0267303032000076858 braun, v. and clarke, v., 2006. using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), pp. 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa crabtree, l., 2006. sustainability begins at home? an ecological exploration of sub/urban australian community-focused housing initiatives. geoforum, 37(4), pp. 519-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. geoforum.2005.04.002 crabtree, l. and hes, d., 2009. sustainability uptake on housing in metropolitan australia: an institutional problem, not a technological one. housing studies, 24(2), pp. 203-24. https://doi. org/10.1080/02673030802704337 warren-myers & mcrae construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201737 http://www.abs.gov.au/ https://doi.org/10.1080/0267303032000076858 https://doi.org/10.1080/0267303032000076858 https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2005.04.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2005.04.002 https://doi.org/10.1080/02673030802704337 https://doi.org/10.1080/02673030802704337 craswell, n., robertson, s., zaragoza, h. and taylor, m., 2005. relevance weighting for query independent evidence. in proceedings of the 28th annual international acm sigir conference on research and development in information retrieval. salvador, brazil, 15-19 august 2005, pp. 416-23. [pdf ]. acm digital library. available at: http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1076106 [accessed 24 march 2016]. csr, 2014. homesick or a sick home? expats confirm overseas houses are much ‘healthier’. [online] available at: http://www.csr.com.au/building-knowledge/internal-environments/expats-confirm-overseas-housesare-much-healthier [accessed 13 april 2017]. dalton, t., horne, r.e. and maller, c.j., 2008. the practice of going green: policy drivers and homeowners’ experiences of improving housing environmental performance in victoria, australia. european housing researchers’ network conference, ‘shrinking cities, sprawling suburbs, changing countrysides’. 3-5 july. dublin, ireland. dalton, t., chetri, p., corcoran, j., groenhart, l. and horne, r., 2011a. understanding the patterns, characteristics and trends in the housing sector labour force in australia. ahuri positioning paper no.142. melbourne: australian housing and urban research institute. dalton, t., wakefield, r. and horne, r., 2011b. australian suburban house building: industry organisation, practices and constraints. ahuri positioning paper no.142. melbourne: australian housing and urban research institute. dowling, r., 2005. residential building in australia, 1993–2003. urban policy and research, 23(4), pp. 447-64. https://doi.org/10.1080/08111470500391424 eves, c. and kippes, s., 2010. public awareness of “green” and “energy efficient” residential property; an empirical survey based on data from new zealand. property management, 28(3), pp. 193-208. https://doi. org/10.1108/02637471011051327 gangale, f., mengolini, a. and onyeji, i., 2013. consumer engagement: an insight from smart grid projects in europe. energy policy, 60(1), pp. 621-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.05.031 hansen, t., 2005. perspectives on consumer decision making: an integrated approach. journal of consumer behaviour, 4(6), pp. 420-37. https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.33 hasbrouck, j. and woodruff, a., 2008. green homeowners as lead adopters: sustainable living and green computing. technology with the environment in mind, intel technology journal, 12(1), pp. 39-48. https:// doi.org/10.1535/itj.1201.04 housing industry association economics, 2015. hia-colorbond steel housing 100 2014/15. campbell, act: housing industry association economics. herring, s.c., 2010. web content analysis: expanding the paradigm. in: j. hunsinger, l. klastrup and m. allen eds. international handbook of internet research. dordrecht: springer netherlands. pp. 233-49. hoffman, a.j. and henn, r., 2008. overcoming the social and psychological barriers to green building, organisation and environment, 21(4), pp. 390-419. https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026608326129 holsti, ole r., 1969. content analysis for the social sciences and humanities. philippines: addison-wesley pub. co. kimmet, p., 2009. comparing “socially responsible” and “sustainable” commercial property investment. journal of property investment & finance, 27(5), pp. 470-480. https://doi. org/10.1108/14635780910982340 krippendorff, k., 1980. content analysis: an introduction to its methodology. newbury park, ca: sage. warren-myers & mcrae construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201738 http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1076106 http://www.csr.com.au/building-knowledge/internal-environments/expats-confirm-overseas-houses-are-much-healthier http://www.csr.com.au/building-knowledge/internal-environments/expats-confirm-overseas-houses-are-much-healthier https://doi.org/10.1080/08111470500391424 https://doi.org/10.1108/02637471011051327 https://doi.org/10.1108/02637471011051327 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.05.031 https://doi.org/10.1002/cb.33 https://doi.org/10.1535/itj.1201.04 https://doi.org/10.1535/itj.1201.04 https://doi.org/10.1177/1086026608326129 https://doi.org/10.1108/14635780910982340 https://doi.org/10.1108/14635780910982340 littlefield, j.e., bao, y. and cook, d.l., 2000. internet real estate information: are home purchasers paying attention to it? journal of consumer marketing, 17(7), pp. 575-90. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760010357787 maller, c., horne, r. and dalton, t., 2011. green renovations: intersections of daily routines, housing aspirations and narratives of environmental sustainability. housing, theory and society, 29(3), p. 255-75. https://doi.org/10.1080/14036096.2011.606332 macnamara, j.r., 2005. media content analysis: its uses, benefits and best practice methodology. asia-pacific public relations journal, 6(1), pp. 1-34. mcgregor, s.l., 2006. understanding consumers’ moral consciousness. international journal of consumer studies, 30(2), pp. 164-178. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1470-6431.2005.00473.x mcmillan, s.j., 2000. the microscope and the moving target: the challenge of applying content analysis to the world wide web. journalism & mass communication quarterly, 77(1), pp. 80-98. https://doi. org/10.1177/107769900007700107 moisander, j., 2007. motivational complexity of green consumerism. international journal of consumer studies, 31(4), pp. 404-9. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1470-6431.2007.00586.x oates, c., mcdonald, s., alevizou, p., hwang, k., young, w. and mcmorland, l-a., 2008. marketing sustainability: use of information sources and degrees of voluntary simplicity. journal of marketing communications, 14(5), pp. 351-65. https://doi.org/10.1080/13527260701869148 obst, c., 2015. australia is among the most liveable nations, but it lags other countries on sustainability, the conversation. [online] 17 september 2015. available at: https://theconversation.com/australia-is-amongthe-most-liveable-nations-but-it-lags-other-countries-on-sustainability-47572 [accessed: 13 april 2017]. pickton, d. and broderick, a., 2005. integrated marketing communications. 2nd ed. harlow, england: pearson education limited. pitt & sherry, 2014. national energy efficiency building project. report produced by pitt & sherry for department of state development. adelaide: government of south australia. reardon, c., 2013. buying a home off the plan. your home [online] available at: http://www.yourhome. gov.au/ [accessed 20 february 2015]. riff, d., lacy, s. and fico, f., 2014. analyzing media messages: using quantitative content analysis in research. 3rd ed. new york: routledge, taylor and francis. robertson, s.e. and jones, k.s., 1976. relevance weighting of search terms. journal of the american society for information science, 27(3), pp. 129-46. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.4630270302 sanson, m., 2014. sustainable energy association of australia shuts down. government news [online], 2 december 2014. available at: http://www.governmentnews.com.au/2014/12/sustainable-energyindustry-group-closes/ [accessed 26 october 2016]. tombesi, p., 2006. good thinking and poor value: on the socialization of knowledge in construction. building research & information, 34(3), pp. 272-86. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210600634336 warren-myers, g., carre, a., vines, m. and wakefield, r., 2012. existing buildings research project: isolating opportunities for the improvement of the environmental performance of existing housing stock. melbourne: sustainability victoria, victorian government. warren-myers, g. and heywood, c., 2016a. investigating demand-side stakeholders’ ability to mainstream sustainability in residential property. pacific rim property journal, 22(1), pp. 59-75. https:// doi.org/10.1080/14445921.2016.1161870 warren-myers & mcrae construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201739 https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760010357787 https://doi.org/10.1080/14036096.2011.606332 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1470-6431.2005.00473.x https://doi.org/10.1177/107769900007700107 https://doi.org/10.1177/107769900007700107 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1470-6431.2007.00586.x https://doi.org/10.1080/13527260701869148 https://theconversation.com/australia-is-among-the-most-liveable-nations-but-it-lags-other-countries-on-sustainability-47572 https://theconversation.com/australia-is-among-the-most-liveable-nations-but-it-lags-other-countries-on-sustainability-47572 http://www.yourhome.gov.au/ http://www.yourhome.gov.au/ https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.4630270302 http://www.governmentnews.com.au/2014/12/sustainable-energy-industry-group-closes/ http://www.governmentnews.com.au/2014/12/sustainable-energy-industry-group-closes/ https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210600634336 https://doi.org/10.1080/14445921.2016.1161870 https://doi.org/10.1080/14445921.2016.1161870 warren-myers, g. and heywood, c., 2016b. identifying client roles in mainstreaming innovation in australian residential construction. cib world building congress 2016, 30 may-3 june 2016. tampere, finland. weinberg, b.d., milne, g.r., andonova, y.g. and hajjat, f.m., 2015. internet of things: convenience vs. privacy and secrecy. business horizons, 58(6), pp. 615-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2015.06.005 williams, k. and dair, c., 2007. what is stopping sustainable building in england? barriers experienced by stakeholders in delivering sustainable developments. sustainable development, 15(3), pp. 135-47. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.308 young, w., hwang, k., mcdonald, s. and oates, c. j., 2010. sustainable consumption: green consumer behaviour when purchasing products. sustainable development, 18(1), pp. 20-31. warren-myers & mcrae construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 2 june 201740 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2015.06.005 https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.308 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: noor, r. n. h. r. m., ibrahim, c. k. i. c., and belayutham, s. 2021. making sense of multi-actor social collaboration in building information modelling level 2 projects: a case in malaysia. construction economics and building, 21:4, 89–114. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v21i4.7829 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021 research article making sense of multi-actor social collaboration in building information modelling level 2 projects: a case in malaysia raja nor husna raja mohd noor1, che khairil izam che ibrahim2,*, sheila belayutham3 1 school of civil engineering, universiti teknologi mara, cawangan pulau pinang, pulau pinang, malaysia, rajanorhusna@uitm.edu.my 2 school of civil engineering, universiti teknologi mara, shah alam, selangor, malaysia, chekhairil449@uitm.edu.my 3 school of civil engineering, universiti teknologi mara, shah alam, selangor, malaysia, sheila6913@uitm.edu.my corresponding author: che khairil izam che ibrahim,school of civil engineering, universiti teknologi mara, shah alam, selangor, malaysia, chekhairil449@uitm.edu.my doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7829 article history: received: 22/07/2021; revised: 14/11/2021; accepted: 16/11/2021; published: 20/12/2021 abstract despite the diversity of thinking among the scholars on building information modelling (bim) collaboration, there is a paucity of studies that capture the dimension of social collaboration in bim projects. this study attempts to develop a comprehensive understanding on the key attributes of multi-actor social collaboration in bim projects through the experience of practitioners in bim-level 2 construction project. the success of multi-actor social collaboration has been investigated through structured interviews with 22 bim practitioners in a bim-level 2 project based on an established theoretical framework of social collaboration. the findings indicted that relationship-oriented attributes; relational contracts bim execution plan; guideline, standard and work process manual approaches; employer information requirement (eir); understanding roles and leadership; commitment from top management; resources; training, team building workshop and awareness program; coordination; and understanding on the theoretical knowledge of bim are of importance towards multi-actor social bim collaboration. this study acknowledges that the success of multi-actor social collaboration was influenced declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 89 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7829 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7829 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7829 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:rajanorhusna@uitm.edu.my mailto:chekhairil449@uitm.edu.my mailto:sheila6913@uitm.edu.my mailto:chekhairil449@uitm.edu.my http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7829 by the consolidation of many attributes, and it extends the dominant relationship between related attributes for multi-actor social collaboration based on the “best practice approach”, which includes dominant-centric attributes (i.e., behaviour formation, procurement model and support principles). this research contributes to the body of bim knowledge in the construction domain by focusing on what it takes to achieve greater social collaboration in bim level 2 projects. keywords bim, key attributes; multi-actor; social collaboration; malaysia introduction in recent decades, most studies have found that the construction industry underperforms (hossain and nadeem, 2019), putting additional pressure on the industry to improve project delivery efficiency (elmualim and gilder, 2014). the fragmentation process, adversarial culture, complexity of the decentralized for coordination and interoperability, ineffective communication and planning are some of the major factors that have contributed to the declining efficiency in project delivery (alreshidi, mourshed and rezgui 2017). the aforementioned issues further hinder the effective collaboration (merschbrock et al., 2018), resulting in multidisciplinary actors being unable to collaborate effectively to deliver projects (blay, tuuli, and francemensah, 2019). several scholars (e.g., mignone et al., 2016; liu, van nederveen and hertogh, 2017) acknowledge that inconsistent standardisation of work practises, intricate contractual and strategy can lead to collaboration failure, particularly on a social dimension, and thus exacerbate project planning problems, delays, and cost overruns. the complexities of multi-actor behaviour (e.g., entrenched silos, inability of interaction among actors, complexities of culture) also contributes to the failure of collaboration for socialcentric initiatives (blay, tuuli, and france-mensah, 2019; cross and carboni, 2021). to address existing issues and concerns surrounding the social collaborative practice, building information modelling (bim) has been introduced as a predominantly capitalised technology that can facilitate more positive cooperative and collaborative behaviour among bim actors in multidisciplinary teams (merschbrock et al., 2018; babalola et al., 2021). it is widely acknowledged that bim has the potential to promote social collaboration (blay, tuuli, and france-mensah, 2019) through building information activities such as, creating an open knowledge-sharing space within multidisciplinary team, detecting clashes early in the during design and construction stages, and reducing the request for information (rfi) as well as cost of projects (zhang et al., 2017; merchbrock et al., 2018). the success of multi-actor social collaboration has been influenced by the several factors such as project strategy plan implementation, actor behaviour characteristics and the consistency of working process, which should be emphasized as a backbone for organizational structure to foster fully collaboration in bim project context (mignone et al., 2016). specifically, the adoption of the dominant function of sociocentric of bim collaboration has revolutionised change management in particular through the bim-level 2 projects. the bim-level 2 can be defined as managed 3d environment held in separate discipline bim tools through collaborative working (e.g., sharing information, data, etc) (bsi, 2016). the collaborative platform in bim-level 2 project has revolutionised the processes of change identification, analysis, and monitoring. with the new adaption of dynamic template approach, minimises the impact of change by capturing feedback processes caused by the change and thus makes the generic processes more effective (lee and pena-mora, 2007). the bim-level 2 mandate was driven by the uk government’s 2011 construction strategy to ensure efficiency, collaboration, innovation, and value across all areas in the industry. to date, bim-level 2 is the highest compulsory level being achieved on government projects in the uk following the passing of the bim mandate in april 2016 (blay, tuuli, and france-mensah, 2019). noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202190 despite the fact that most developed countries are aware of bim’s capability as a collaborative platform on bim-level 2 projects (akdag and maqsood, 2019), the context of bim social collaboration remains an underperforming area (oraee, hosseini and edwards, 2021). in addition, emerging economies such as malaysia face such limitations, with multi-disciplinary organisations’ inability to perform social-centric collaboration in bim activities eventually leading to design clashes, errors, and omissions (blay, tuuli, and france-mensah, 2019; oraee, hosseini and edwards, 2021). furthermore, the complexity of behaviour (i.e., interaction between practitioners and entrenched silos), slow adaptation to culture changes and new processes involved in working practices also contributed to the poor project performance (blay, tuuli, and france-mensah, 2019). recent studies in malaysia context (e.g., ya’acob, rahim and zainon, 2018; alashmori et al., 2020) revealed that the subject of practitioners in shifting common practices and adopting new wave of interaction (also known as socio-centric) to foster collaborative working environment among bim actors in projects still exists and remains stagnant. to address these issues, the malaysian government through construction industry development board (cidb) introduced the construction 4.0 strategy plan (2021-2025) as a framework that will boost the construction industry’s capabilities within the 4.0 industry revolution landscape by maximizing the application of bim (as one of the 12 recognised disruptive technologies) (ibrahim, esa and rahman, 2021). bim implementation is specifically recognised as a shortterm implementation (to be implemented within one year after the introduction of the plan) in the context of facilitating the use of technology in simulation and modelling activities in the construction supply chain. despite the fact that most previous studies (e.g., blay, tuuli, and france-mensah, 2019; oraee, hosseini and edwards, 2021) have successfully captured the general context of bim collaboration, such as collaboration theories, benefits and challenges, the in-depth information on what constitutes the success of social bim collaboration has not been widely explored. as a result, the purpose of this study is to assess the key attributes (kas) influencing social collaboration in a malaysian bim level 2 infrastructure project, with the goal of encouraging construction practitioners to gain a better understanding and knowledge, in order to achieve a high level of social collaboration among multi-actors throughout the bim project life cycle. the findings from this study would provide a foundation to further addressing the capability of organisations (i.e., social collaboration) in wider dimensions of social collaboration in ensuring the success of bim implementation (e.g., exchange and sharing of project information, professional knowledge, etc.) furthermore, a focus on socio-centric collaboration would bring a specific and clear change in the management process, working practices, behaviours in project management as well as to improve continous communication in person and virtually amongst parties from design to the construction stages (ghaffarianhoseini et al., 2017). building information modeling (bim) is a relatively new disruptive innovation for the construction industry that has been used to improve the productivity of collaborative working environments among multi-disciplinary teams (blay, tuuli, and france-mensah, 2019; oraee, hosseini and edwards, 2021). several related standards have been developed to address this new collaborative environment in order to streamline the method of working among all multidisciplinary teams that use bim (bsi, 2016). initially, the uk government introduced bs 1192:2007 in 2011, which focuses on the collaborative production of architectural, engineering, and construction information-codes of practise (bsi, 2013). following the passage of the bim mandate in april 2016 by the uk government’s 2011 construction strategy, bimlevel 2 is currently the highest mandatory level being achieved on government projects in the uk, and it is distinguished by a collaborative working environment and requires coordinated information exchange between systems and parties in the projects (blay, tuuli, and france-mensah, 2019). as a result, specific guidance for the information management requirements associated with projects delivered using bim was introduced in 2016 via pas1992-2:2013 in order to achieve bim-level 2 (bsi, 2013). in fact, the use of these bim standards in bim-level 2 has transformed the processes of change identification, analysis, noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202191 monitoring, and control, resulting in a more effective collaborative working environment (blay, tuuli, and france-mensah, 2019). previous studies (e.g., alreshidi, mourshed and rezgui, 2016; blay, tuuli, and france-mensah, 2019) emphasised that engagement in more collaborative ways in terms of social context in the bim projects through the selection of project implementation strategy (i.e. relational contract such as integrated project delivery (ipd), partnership and etc; ownerships and intellectual property rights (iprs); standard guideline and work manual process) are able to assist and governs the different team working approaches in project delivery. furthermore, the need for a clear understanding of roles and responsibilities, trust and respect are important influences for social collaboration during the coordination, communication and working process across various disciplines in the projects (liu, van nederveen and hertogh, 2017). it is worth noting that the extent of construction literature on collaboration practices tend to focus more on the concept, benefits and barriers rather than specific social collaboration practice. although there is a diversity of current thinking on various ways to improve bim implementation in projects, information on the influencing attributes that contribute to successful multi-actor social collaboration remains elusive. key attributes (kas) of multi-actor social collaboration in bim projects in this paper, the term of key attributes (kas) of social collaboration refers to the consolidation of definition suggested by the previous studies (i.e., kouch, illikainena and perala, 2018; blay, tuuli, and francemensah, 2019), which defined as critical determining factors that have potentiality contributed to the social collaboration among bim actors, and hence could directly indicated the current state of success of bim project implementation. initially, a systematic literature review (slr) approach was used to review the available literature in order to identify kas of successful social collaboration among multi-actors in bim projects. the review identified a set of 40 candidate kas influencing social collaboration (see figure 1) based on the categorization in noor, che ibrahim and belayutham (2021)’s conceptual lens, which can form the basis for influencing social collaboration within the various multi-disciplinary teams in the projects. overall, the findings suggest that organisations that prioritise ‘team and individual interaction and behaviour’ have a direct influence on the relationship between multi-actors. understanding roles and leadership, as well as commitment from top management have been identified as the main behavioural categories influencing the establishment of multi-actor social collaboration practise. despite this, the literature indicates that a ‘process in bim,’ ‘management support,’ ‘assessment arrangement,’ and ‘foundational platform’ are critical in influencing team and individual behaviours among team members to ensure the effectiveness of the collaborative process in the project (mignone et al., 2016; merschbrock et al., 2018). although actor interaction and behaviours are important factors influencing social collaboration, the process attributes (i.e., coordination, standardisation of work practises, centralised communication, sharing of information and experience) are viewed as a complementary element to demonstrate the workflow during project execution (liu, van nederveen and hertogh, 2017; mignone et al., 2016). it goes without saying that project teams must be equipped with ‘management support’ attributes such as training, software, and hardware in order to strengthen existing skills and become acquainted with culture change (merschbrock et al., 2018). furthermore, continuous assessment and digital technology (e.g., common data environment (cde), augmented reality (ar), etc.) are recognised as supportive tools for integrating multi-actor collaboration to improve project performance (mignone et al., 2016). it is also clear that the entire element of the organisation is governed by the ‘management strategy,’ such as contractual, policy, and strategy attributes, which enhance proactive interaction within project teams and ensure the smooth operation of the bim process to achieve the desired project goals (alreshidi, mourshed and rezgui, 2016). previous research (liu, van nederveen and hertogh, 2017; merschbrock et al., 2018) noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202192 foundational platform assessment arrangement management support organizational context bim management strategy (contractual, policy, strategy) key attributes influencing multi-actor social collaboration process oriented integrated team and individual behavior oriented team integrated behaviour  roles and leadership  mutual relationship  no blame culture  common best practice  active teamwork  readiness of mindset and culture changes  co-located individual behaviour  key digital skills  key soft skills  commitment top management  experience in construction work practice and bim  accountability  knowledge  individual readiness for mindset and culture changes  psychological stable  education background process oriented  consensus decision making  transparent  availability of technology  centralized electronic communication  sharing experience  lean integration  supply chain integration  standardization practice  coordination assessment arrangement  competency and assessment foundational platform  future digital technological tool  interoperability contractual  relational contracts (ipd, alliances or partnership)  data security, privacy and clear ownership right policy  guideline, standard and work process manual  bim adoption in education program  strategy  joint governance structure  employer information requirement (eir)  bim execution plan (bep)  incentive support management support oriented  resources  training, team building workshop and awareness program  environment facilities figure 1. summary of 40 attributes identified from existing literature (adapted from noor, che ibrahim and belayutham, 2021) noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202193 indicates that the selection of necessary contracts (i.e., ipd, db, and so on) is a critical component to ensuring the success of social collaboration, where early involvement of actors could facilitate decision making, leading to effective communication and the reduction of residual performance risk. however, the standardisation of guidelines and manual work processes under ‘policy’ should be adaptive in order to deal with the bim scope and the roles of multi-actors in initiating collaborative working practises in projects (merschbrock et al., 2018). on the other hand, strategy arrangement (e.g., eir and bep) is the most important approach to providing a better joint governance structure within project organisation, where able to align the multi-actor behaviour with the centralised and standardised work practise, values, and coordination mechanism thus, governing and controlling the organization’s interaction towards the project goals (kouch, illikainena and perala, 2018). noor, che ibrahim and belayutham (2021) provide a detailed discussion and evaluation of these characteristics. research methodology a case study was conducted on the malaysia’s largest infrastructure urban railway project. the case was chosen because it is a leading example of advanced bim-based design practise in asia that achieves bim-level 2. the project was recognised as the first infrastructure developer in asia to achieve level 2 accreditation in the use of bim in accordance with international standards by lloyd’s register, a leading international classification association providing professional services in engineering and transportation (azman, 2018). the project includes an approved rail alignment of 52.2 km in length, 13.5 km of which is underground. a total of 37 stations will be built, 11 of which will be underground (mrt, 2019). the bim workflow was successfully established and implemented in the project execution, where the use of bim workflow was mandated throughout the project’s design, construction, and operational stages to fully exploit the potential for significant cost savings (mrt, 2019). the project was carried out with the collaboration of 20 disciplines and over 1000 professionals from various parties (i.e., contractor and consultant) (mrt, 2019). as a result, this project, which prioritised bim and collaborative design at bim-level 2, provides a compelling context for the study. the fact that being the only bim level 2 project in the country (due to its uniqueness), it was thought to be extremely useful to draw on the project members’ experience, knowledge, and expertise as valuable input towards the success of multi-actor social collaboration in bim project (adam et al., 2021). furthermore, the case as chosen based on convenience sampling, which includes ease of access (researcher networking and connections), proximity (due to the current movement control order due to the covid 19 pandemic), and the ability to meet the research study’s requirements (i.e., bim social collaboration). sampling size in terms of sample size, a total of 30 potential experts were identified and contacted using the snowballing technique. all potential experts received invitation e-mails, phone calls, and messages outlining the scope of the research study. finally, 22 experts from a pool of 30 potential experts agreed to participate in this research study. the number of experts who participated in this study is deemed appropriate due to the number of experts identified using the snowballing technique ranges between five and twenty respondents. furthermore, there is no limit to the number of respondents required for the snow balling technique, which allows the researcher to end the process when the information has reached a saturation point for the study’s outcome (kumar, 2005). research method this study used a concurrent nested mixed research method with questionnaires surveys (as the predominant or primary method) and an integrated qualitative approach with in-depth interviews to validate the research findings through the description and best captures of thoughts, feelings, and lived experiences for several noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202194 individuals in order to gain a broader, rich perspective of the topic (i.e. social collaboration) and for studying different features (e.g. diverse professionals backgrounds) within a single study (zhang and creswell (2013). the survey and face-to-face interviews were conducted in january 2020, when the project was nearly 70% completed. prior to main data collection, a pilot study was conducted through face-to-face interviews with 10 respondents (i.e., 7 experts with bim experience ranging from 7 to 10 years and 3 academics with 5 years of bim experience) who were responsible for reviewing the contents and structured questions (part of content validity) in the survey forms. following a thorough discussion with the group of experts and academics in this pilot study, a set of 40 attributes was selected from the 50 origin attributes, with some of the attributes were consolidated based on the similarity of the concepts of the attributes. following the concurrent nested mixed approach, the main data were collected first through a questionnaire survey, in which the 40 attributes kas of multi-actor social collaboration were consolidated and assembled into a questionnaire. the questionnaire comprised both closed-ended and open-ended questions and was divided into two parts, which are as follows; part 1: this section sought background information on each participant’s level of experience, how many years they have been in the industry and bim projects, education background, involvement as professional practitioners, participation in any construction industry or bim programme, conference and publication; types of work sector involved and type of contracting that they have been involved in over the years. part 2: the second part focused on the assessment of the kas in terms of their importance of ranked and details on the top ten kas in relation to their important influenced to the success of multi-actor social collaboration in bim projects. a survey was conducted via face-to-face interview with 22 selected bim experts (i.e., engineering consultants, contractors, clients etc.) who were directly involved in a bim level 2 project, with the session lasting approximately two and a half hours for each respondent who was assisted by the researcher. first, the researcher explained the purpose of the study as well as the set of questions included in the questionnaire survey. the researcher then works with each expert one-on-one on the attributes highlighted in the questionnaire survey. at the same time, the following questions were posed: please provide a scale rating for each attribute based on your experience and involvement in this bim project and previous related projects, and then provide the ten most important attributes, as well as your thoughts on the following key attributes; do you think the top ten key attributes are important in facilitating social collaboration and the success of bim-level 2 collaborative working practises? please provide the reasoning for it. following that, all 22 interviews’ discussions were voice recorded (with verbal consent from respondents) and notes were taken throughout the session. data were systematically analysed using manual qualitative data analysis, and transcribed, coded, and summarised into the (i.e., top ten ranked) attributes to reflect commonalities between responses. next, all assigned quotations were reviewed for coding and themes, as well as duplications, to ensure that they represented the shared meaning underpinned by the concept of social collaboration in bim level 2 projects. finally, for each of the top ten ranked attributes, the relevant quotation was consolidated (i.e., voice recorded and notes), cross referenced, and interlinked with the relevant fundamental principles outlined in the publicly available specification (pas) 1992-2: 2013 standards for performing collaborative working practise and information management for bim-level 2 projects. profile of respondents overall, a total of 22 respondents worked in consultant organisations, with 96% holding upper and medium level management positions in their organisations (see table 1). it is clear that half of the respondents are from senior and top management and are involved in decision-making, with the remainder mainly noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202195 responsible as operational drivers to ensure project completion. for example, project manager from gamuda, senior manager from mrt sdn bhd and engineering consultant from arup. sixty-one percent of the respondents have an average of ten years of construction industry experience, while 22.7 percent have an average of five years’ experience. the majority of respondents had five to ten years of experience working on bim projects on average, with 18.1 percent having more than 11 years of experience. in terms of the respondents’ involvement in wider bim related learning activities, the majority of respondents have professional qualifications and actively participate in the construction industry, bim programmes, and conferences. meanwhile, 22.7 percent have experience in sharing industry knowledge and experience through publication. this demonstrates that all 22 of the selected respondents that involved in this bim level 2 project have extensive and diverse career experiences. table 1. summary of respondents respondent characteristics no. of respondents (total = 22) (%) types of organization developer 2 9.1 consultant 14 63.6 contractor 6 27.3 designation managing director 2 9.1 senior manager 2 9.1 project manager 2 9.1 bim manager 5 22.7 architect 1 4.5 civil and structure (c&s) engineer 4 18.2 bim coordinator 4 18.2 others 1 4.5 education background master degree 7 31.8 bachelor degree 11 50.0 diploma 3 13.6 others 1 4.5 involvement’s experience professional practitioners 10 45.5 involvement in any construction industry or bim program 11 50.0 participation in conference 14 63.6 publication record 5 22.7 respondent’s experience in terms of types of delivery methods traditional 3 13.6 design and build 19 86.4 noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202196 in addition to professional experience, all respondents are registered and certified members of various professional bodies (e.g., board of engineers of malaysia, board of architect of malaysia, etc). furthermore, some of the respondents have been actively involved in construction and bim programmes at the local and international levels as chair of committee and committee member (e.g., bim institute of malaysia, national bim committee of malaysia, european chamber of commerce, building construction authority of singapore). the majority of the respondents had worked on building projects, and nearly 73 percent of them had worked on infrastructure projects, particularly rail projects. furthermore, 27 percent were involved in road projects, while 23 percent and 9 percent involved in airport and port projects, respectively. almost 86.4 percent of respondents have had experience with project delivery methods such as design and build throughout their careers, while 13.6 percent have had more experience with traditional methods of project delivery. this is supported by the fact that design and build (db) and traditional systems are the two most commonly used procurement methods in malaysia (suratkon, yunus and deraman, 2020). results and findings assessing and ranking of multi-actor social collaboration attributes the questionnaire was designed to solicit the respondent’s assessment on the degree if importance of the 40 attributes for determining the success of multi-actor social collaboration in bim projects using a five-point likert scale (1: not important to 5: very important). the mean rating and standard deviation (sd) of key attributes influencing multi-actor social collaboration are shown in table 2. overall, the most important attributes under the contractual categories associated with the main categories of bim management strategy were “relational contract related to ipd, alliances or partnership” (mean = 4.455), followed by “data security, privacy, and clear ownership right” (mean = 4.182). in terms of policy, the majority of respondents indicated that “guideline, standard, and work process manual approaches” (mean = 4.591) was the most important attributes that needed to be emphasised in the project organisation to influence the success of social collaboration. following that, the “preparation of bim adoption in education programme” received a mean rating of 4.182. the multi-actor social collaboration attributes “bim execution plan” and “employer information requirement” received the highest mean ratings under strategy categories, with a mean rating of 4.818 and 4.727, respectively. meanwhile, the attribute with the lowest mean score was “incentive support” (mean = 3.682). for the organisational platform main categories are comprised of six categories, each of which includes several key attributes capable of influencing multi-actor social collaboration in bim projects. the attribute of “understanding roles and leadership” (mean = 4.636) was the highest attribute influencing social collaboration among multiactors in the integrated team category, whereas the lowest attribute influencing social collaboration among multi-actors in the integrated team category was “no blame culture (mean = 3.591). under the individual category, the most important attribute influencing multi-actor social collaboration was “commitment from top management” (mean = 4.591). meanwhile, “individual education background” (mean = 3.136) was the lowest attribute on the list due to the adaption of bim knowledge and skills could be enhanced through experience and training courses offered through workshops or specialize courses. the attributes “training, team building workshop, and awareness programme” and “resources” were identified as top attributes that contribute to enhancing social collaboration among bim actors in the management support-oriented category, with a mean rating of 4.500 and 4.318, respectively. meanwhile, the most important attributes specified under the process category were “coordination” (mean = 4.636) and “standardisation practise” (mean = 4.545). in contrast, the lowest attribute associated with process category was identified as “consensus decision making” (mean = 3.727), followed by “lean integration” (mean = 3.591). the mean rating for “competence and performance arrangement” in the continuous arrangement assessment category was 4.045. meanwhile, the most influential attribute influencing social collaboration associated noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202197 table 2. mean rating and standard deviation of kas influencing the multi-actor social collaboration main categories categories code attributes mean rating sd bim management strategy contractual ka1 relational contracts (ipd, alliances or partnership) 4.455 0.739 ka2 data security, privacy and clear ownership right 4.182 0.664 policy ka3 guideline, standard and work process manual approaches 4.591 0.666 ka4 preparation of bim adoption in education program 4.182 0.795 strategy ka5 joint governance structure 3.909 1.109 ka6 eir 4.727 0.631 ka7 bep 4.818 0.395 ka8 incentive support 3.682 0.995 organisational platform integrated team ka9 understanding roles and leadership 4.636 0.531 ka10 mutual relationship or interdependency contribute great decision making 3.955 0.950 ka11 no blame culture 3.591 1.098 ka12 focus towards achieving the common best practice for project 4.182 0.501 ka13 trust and respect 4.000 1.024 ka14 active teamwork based on continuous spirit and motivation 4.091 0.750 ka15 readiness and awareness of mind set and culture to change and share among the top management and multi actor 4.273 0.631 ka16 co-located structure of team through virtual platform and physically meeting approach 4.500 0.598 individual ka17 key digital skills 4.182 0.853 ka18 key soft skills through virtual platform 4.273 0.631 ka19 commitment from top management 4.591 0.590 noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202198 main categories categories code attributes mean rating sd ka20 experience in utilization of bim and construction work management practice 3.727 1.120 ka21 accountability 4.227 0.752 ka22 understanding on the theoretical knowledge of bim 4.045 0.999 ka23 individual readiness for changes of culture and personal attitude through virtual digitization practice 4.545 0.510 ka24 psychological stable and well being 3.364 1.329 ka25 individual education background 3.136 1.246 management support oriented ka26 resources 4.318 0.780 ka27 training, team building workshop and awareness program 4.500 0.512 ka28 environment facilities 3.182 0.907 process oriented ka29 consensus decision making 3.727 0.985 ka30 transparent 3.909 0.811 ka31 availability of technology for exchange and sharing the information through virtual platform 4.409 0.590 ka32 centralised electronic communication 4.227 0.869 ka33 sharing experience through virtual process 3.818 0.795 ka34 lean integration 3.591 0.908 ka35 supply chain integration 4.045 0.844 ka36 standardization practice 4.545 0.596 ka37 coordination 4.636 0.658 continuous assessment arrangement ka38 competency and performance assessment 4.045 1.046 foundational platform ka39 integration of future digital technology tool 4.045 1.090 ka40 interoperability 4.455 0.596 table 2. continued noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202199 with the foundational platform category was “interoperability” (mean = 4.455), implying that interoperability in terms of standardisation of software and tools during the working process was one of the important features that could contribute to the effectiveness of social collaboration among multi-actors involved in bim projects. the interclass correlation coefficient (icc(k)) method (combination of interrater agreement (ira)+interrater reliability (irr)) was used to determine the consistency and consensus of the experts’ ratings on the attributes influencing multi-actor social collaboration. previous research (che ibrahim, castello and wilkinson, 2015) found that the interrater reliability (irr) coefficient indicates the consistency of the pattern of ratings by two or more raters, while the interrater agreement (ira) coefficient shows the degree of similarity in the level or magnitude of ratings by two or more raters. the values 0.898 (irr) and 0.976 (ira) were calculated in this study, both of which exceeded the 0.70 threshold (lebreton and senter, 2008). as a result of the findings, the high irr and ira value indicates a high level of consistency and consensus among experts in assessing the kas influencing multi-actor social collaboration. upon further examination, the survey results confirm that 92.5 percent of the kas addressed, received average responses ranging from towards “important” to “very important,” and 7.5% of the attributes indicate “fairly important,” which are also considered important rating criteria, are required to foster the multi-actor social collaboration practise. despite the fact that quantitative ratings (see table 2) can be extremely useful in identifying areas of relative strength and weakness, it is believed that attention to open-ended ranking questions is important in presenting a clear picture of the primary contributors influencing the success of social collaboration practise among bims actors. following that, each respondent was asked to identify and rank the top ten kas (see table 3). specifically, each respondent was required to choose 10 significant attributes from a list of 40 and rank them from 1 to 10 in order to determine the most significant attributes that influence social collaboration among multi-actors in a bim project. the ranking order for the top ten kas was determined using the plurality voting method (as adopted by lin et al., 2002), with the most first-preference votes being selected based on the highest cumulative percentage compared to the other attributes. the kas were ranked based on the highest cumulative percentage received for each rank. for example, the attribute ka1 received the highest percentage (22.7%) when compared to other attributes, resulting in ka1 being ranked first. however, attribute ka7 was chosen for rank no. 2 because it has the highest cumulative total percentage, which is the percentage ranked first (9.1%) plus the percentage ranked second (27.3%), totaling 36.4 percent. the attribute ka3 was chosen for rank no. 3 because it received the highest cumulative total percentage, that is the percentage ranked no. 2 (27.3%) plus the percentage ranked as no. 3 (18.2%), totalling 45.5 percent. for rank no. 4, attribute ka6 was selected as it has highest cumulative total percentage, where the percentage ranked as no. 3 (36.4%) plus with the percentage ranked as no. 4 (13.6%), totalling 50.0 per cent. ka9, ka19, ka26, ka27, ka37, and ka22 were ranked similarly as no. 3, no. 4, no. 5, no. 6, no. 7, no. 8, no. 9, and no. 10, respectively (see table 4). discussion in the survey’s open-ended question, respondents were asked to explain their reasoning for the key attributes provided for the top ten in ranking order that have the greatest potential to influence multi-actor social collaboration practise in bim projects. the results revealed that there is a difference of opinion among respondents about ensuring the success of social collaboration based on respondents’ diverse backgrounds, types of projects involved, and contract procurement. the following sections discuss the related comments in relation to the top ten attributes identified above. noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021100 table 3. ranking of attributes based on percentage kas rankings/% no.1 no.2 no.3 no.4 no.5 no.6 no.7 no.8 no.9 no.10 1 ∑1 2 ∑2 3 ∑3 4 ∑4 5 ∑5 6 ∑6 7 ∑7 8 ∑8 9 ∑9 10 ∑10 ka1 22.7 22.7 4.5 4.5 9.1 ka2 13.6 13.6 13.6 13.6 13.6 13.6 4.5 18.2 18.2 18.2 4.5 22.7 ka3 18.2 18.2 9.1 27.3 18.2 45.5 4.5 4.5 ka4 4.5 4.5 4.5 9.1 4.5 13.6 13.6 9.1 22.7 22.7 22.7 22.7 22.7 ka5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 9.1 13.6 22.7 22.7 22.7 22.7 22.7 4.5 27.3 ka6 13.6 13.6 13.6 27.3 9.1 36.4 13.6 50.0 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 ka7 9.1 9.1 27.3 36.4 18.2 18.2 4.5 4.5 ka8 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 ka9 4.5 4.5 4.5 18.2 22.7 4.5 27.3 27.3 9.1 9.1 4.5 ka10 4.5 4.5 4.5 9.1 13.6 13.6 13.6 13.6 4.5 18.2 ka11 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 ka12 4.5 4.5 9.1 13.6 13.6 13.6 9.1 22.7 4.5 27.3 27.3 27.3 ka13 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 ka14 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 9.1 9.1 18.2 4.5 22.7 4.5 27.3 ka15 4.5 4.5 4.5 9.1 9.1 9.1 9.1 18.2 4.5 22.7 22.7 ka16 4.5 4.5 22.7 27.3 4.5 31.8 31.8 31.8 31.8 31.8 ka17 4.5 4.5 4.5 9.1 9.1 9.1 9.1 13.6 22.7 22.7 ka18 -4.5 4.5 9.1 13.6 13.6 4.5 18.2 18.2 18.2 ka19 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 9.1 22.7 31.8 4.5 ka20 4.5 4.5 4.5 9.1 22.7 31.8 31.8 31.8 31.8 ka21 4.5 4.5 4.5 9.1 13.6 13.6 13.6 ka22 4.5 4.5 4.5 9.1 0.0 9.1 9.1 4.5 13.6 4.5 18.2 18.2 9.1 27.3 27.3 9.1 36.4 ka23 4.5 4.5 4.5 9.1 9.1 9.1 4.5 13.6 13.6 ka24 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 ka25 ka26 13.6 13.6 4.5 18.2 4.5 22.7 22.7 22.7 4.5 27.3 9.1 36.4 4.5 ka27 4.5 4.5 9.1 13.6 13.6 4.5 18.2 18.2 9.1 27.3 27.3 4.5 31.8 9.1 ka28 ka29 9.1 9.1 9.1 9.1 9.1 ka30 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 9.1 9.1 ka31 4.5 4.5 4.5 9.1 13.6 13.6 27.3 4.5 31.8 31.8 ka32 9.1 9.1 4.5 13.6 4.5 18.2 ka33 ka34 noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021101 relational contractual (ipd, alliances or partnership) the most important attribute influencing multi-actor social collaboration practise in bim projects is relational contractual (i.e., ipd, alliances, and partnerships). previous researchers (e.g., merschbrock et al., 2018) proposed that the relational contracts, could form a way of bringing the various actors together through partnering-oriented relationships, where the early involvement of multi-actors in the project could facilitate decision-making towards greater collaboration. senior manager 1 argued that: “the implementation of ipd contract is very beneficial because it provides positive impact for projects to integrate all project teams through the proper arrangement method addressed in the contract, sharing of benefits and risk to execute the project”. furthermore, the ipd-related contract could impose a contractual obligation on all parties involved to collaborate. for example, bim manager 3 argued: “…. in my experience managing projects that use conventional contracts, it completely fails to form collaboration among all of the project team, resulting in a disorganised and unmanageable situation.” towards achieving bim-level 2, the application of ipd contract (through multiparty agreement, shared risk and reward) is one of the imperative and necessary initiative that table 4. the top ten key attributes of multi-actor social collaboration rank code kas 1 ka1 relational contractual (ipd, alliances or partnership) 2 ka7 bim execution plan (bep) 3 ka3 guideline, standard and work process manual 4 ka6 employer information requirement (eir) 5 ka9 understanding roles and leadership 6 ka19 commitment from top management 7 ka26 resources 8 ka27 training, team building workshop and awareness program 9 ka37 coordination 10 ka22 understanding theoretical and knowledge of bim kas rankings/% no.1 no.2 no.3 no.4 no.5 no.6 no.7 no.8 no.9 no.10 1 ∑1 2 ∑2 3 ∑3 4 ∑4 5 ∑5 6 ∑6 7 ∑7 8 ∑8 9 ∑9 10 ∑10 ka35 4.5 4.5 9.1 13.6 13.6 ka36 9.1 9.1 9.1 9.1 9.1 4.5 13.6 13.6 13.6 9.1 22.7 ka37 4.5 4.5 4.5 9.1 13.6 9.1 22.7 22.7 22.7 22.7 9.1 31.8 13.6 45.5 18.2 ka38 4.5 4.5 4.5 ka39 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 9.1 ka40 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 4.5 9.1 18.2 27.3 notes: “-“denotes as no response in ranking the attribute.”∑” is calculated based on ∑n-1 +n table 3. continued noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021102 can create collaborative environment. the bim manager 4 emphasised that: “the adaptation of the ipd contract incorporates all parties’ commitment in their working practises, to give their best, and it is only appropriate and necessary that this commitment extend to sharing failure risk and reward for performance.” bim execution plan (bep) bep’s proper arrangement, understanding of contents, and updating over time among each multidisciplinary discipline could integrate them to collaborate more and further ensure its effectiveness and functionality as a moderator to govern the organization’s interaction in bim projects (kouch, illikainena and perala, 2018). senior manager 2 stated that: “as a live documentation, the better preparation of bep such as clear statement for roles, type of software and the deliverables process that specifically describe the project execution could push the team to integrate together”. most of respondents believed that this “live document” enables all parties to engage in collaborative working practises because it must be updated on a regular basis from the start of the project to the end of the project. for example, bim coordinator emphasized that: “this document elaborates how they execute the project to meet the eir needs, as well as facilitate the other parties in any decision making and share information.” guideline, standard and work process manual as part of a project’s bim policy, it should be adaptable to the bim scope and roles played by multidisciplinary teams, and it should be usable on a variety of computing platforms in both public and private projects (wong et al., 2010). senior manager 1 added that: “putting in placed the guideline, standard and work process manual in the any project is crucial to nurture collaboration practice among actors.” given the significance of this attribute, experts believed that having and adopting a uniform standard would be a critical requirement that must be followed in order to form collaborative work practises between diverse organisations in projects in order to standardise the bim workflow (lin and yang, 2018). for example, the bim coordinator stated, “in our project, we have bsi standard and iso standard that are very useful to form the proper workflow of process for projects that contribute to the success of collaborative working practises between disciplines.” employer information requirement (eir) as eir is a pretender documentation that is required for bim project delivery, it is critical for the multidisciplinary team involved to have such an understanding as part of their collaborative strategy in order for them to communicate, collaborate, and comply with the client requirements and deliverables (hafeez et al.,2016). managing director 1 offered the following insight: “organising of organisation structure to form collaboration is reflect by the client requirement in the initiating stage of project”. project manager 2 argued that: “having a clear requirement in eir, is crucial since it could act as collaborative platform to integrate parties performing the bim work process”. the eir (as one of the fundamental principles for achieving bim level 2) aims to ensure that users’ information needs are clearly defined at the start of the bim process, and it provides a mechanism for collaboration that allows project parties to communicate, manage, and deliver client requirements (ashworth, tacker and druhmann, 2017). understanding roles and leadership project participants must understand the set of bim specific roles in order to facilitate multidisciplinary collaboration practise and minimise interdependencies among actors (badi and diamantidou, 2017). furthermore, the recognition of the new roles would encourage them to centralise virtual communication noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021103 among all actors who have a significant influence on the social collaboration environment. bim manager 1 argued that “in the hierarchy structure, they must have a clear picture of each of the roles played for project members (e.g., bim manager, bim coordinator, and bim modeller), because the bep explains these roles in detail, which indirectly influences them to build up the leadership spirit to organise the project well.” this was supported by managing director 1 who emphasised: “roles of understanding and leadership is crucial for parties performing teamwork for them collaborate to accomplish the work process”. the expertise of various disciplines (i.e., architects, contractors, engineers, project managers and software technicians) must have include tacit knowledge and experience to enhance their required understanding related to the task that has been entrusted for them to generate the active collaborative working environments (oraee, hosseini and edwards, 2021). commitment from top management a high level of commitment could transform working methods to bim-based processes, thus offsetting the limitations related to experiences that can stymie team member collaboration (al-hattab and hamzeh, 2018). managing director 1 argued that: “it is difficult for all of those things to happen without the highest commitment from top management in project, where they need to have the mutual understand on bim to gain this spirit”. having top management’s commitment is critical for team members to motivate themselves in order to strengthen their relationships and form collaborative working practises to complete tasks. bim manager 5 in particular emphasised: “it’s difficult for project teams to commit to their task, but higher commitment shown by top management could boost their staff motivation to focus more, learn more consistently, and collaborate well to complete work task.” this is consistent with the findings of oraee, hosseini and edwards (2021), who discovered that top management must play effective roles (conducting social activities) as a form of appreciation to ensure the consistency of self-motivation for them to focus on their work. resources several scholars have stated that an adequate resource (i.e., financial and subsidies) provided by top management for training, software, team working workshop, and facilities is an important driver in integrating team members to form a social collaboration environment (al-hattab and hamzeh, 2018). this is consistent with gu and london (2010), who stated that it is critical for the team environment to be supported with appropriate resources in order for them to improve their productivity of working practise. bim manager 2 argued: “the initial of top-down approach to invest in training, hardware and software is also important to enhance project team understanding and competency which able to influence them to collaborate together to fulfil the common goals for project”. the shortcomings of bim tools (i.e., common data environment) continue to impact collaborative practises, with the main issues being interoperability across the project life cycle, particularly between various tools (oraee, hosseini and edwards, 2021; babalola et al., 2021). even though there are a few interoperable formats available, such as ifc, this format is not widely accepted by all bim tools, necessitating vendors to improve their software and standards to be updated. training, team building workshop and awareness program despite the fact that the actors have prior work experience, training, team building workshops, and awareness programmes are essential in preparing them for team effectiveness (gu and london 2010). bim knowledge, soft skills, and technical skills are the most important requirements because they will communicate with advanced digital tools that are appropriate for each actor’s level of understanding and capability. bim executive stated that: “for newcomers, and even now, our company has arranged for noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021104 continuous internal training for all departments to improve their bim knowledge and keep their technical skills up to date on a regular basis”. besides, the empowerment of skills competency and knowledge understanding need to be prioritized, which can be achieved through professional development, in particular to older generations of staff, who are more resistant to change (oraee, hosseini and edwards, 2021). this is supported by bim manager 2: “if they have bim knowledge, skills, and experience, training may increase their productivity and also allowing them to centralise their understanding and collaborate more effectively.” coordination coordination has been linked to the overall effectiveness of organisational collaboration (al-hattab and hamzeh, 2018). with increased commitment, leadership, and open communication within the multidisciplinary team, they will be able to collaborate more effectively through the coordination process using the specific platforms (e.g., common data environment (cde), bim 360), to achieve the common goal (zanni, soetanto and ruikar, 2017). senior manager 1 argued that: “coordination during the design and modelling process, in particular, would help them understand where they need to have mutual understanding, practise open culture, and cooperation when making any decision in the project”. the majority of respondents believed that coordination is important because of its ability to drive collaborative work practises in order to improve project performance. bim manager 2 stated, for example, that “...such as bim manager and bim coordinator in project requires bim knowledge, experience, and effective communication, but they also need coordination skills to effectively identify clashes and reduce error during coordination meeting.” this is consistent with lin and yang (2018), who stated that bim professional knowledge, trust, and experience could influence the diverse project team to collaborate effectively during the design phase to execute coordination for bim model. understanding theoretical and knowledge of bim it has been suggested that it is critical for all actors to have a theoretical understanding and knowledge of bim, as this will allow them to collaborate and work together more effectively (van gassel, láscariscomneno and maas, 2014). the incorporation of bim knowledge and experience would hasten the learning process among actors (al-hattab and hamzeh, 2018). bim manager 3 argued that: “it is essential for all actors to comprehend the bim knowledge that encourage their involvement and collaboration”. in order to embrace collaboration in a social context, each project team and individual must engage in continuous learning regarding bim knowledge because bim evolution occurs on a regular basis (oraee, hosseini and edwards, 2021). bim manager 2 specifically stated: “...it’s important to have theoretical knowledge because for bim, there will be a new thing that they need to learn from time to time. for example, while we previously focused on modelling, we are now concentrating on information and asset management”. fundamental principles for influencing multi-actor social collaboration in bim-level 2 project delivery it is worth noting that the transition from bim-level 1 to bim-level 2 is a necessary benchmark for determining the maturity level and success of a collaborative working environment. according to bew et al. (2008), bim level 1 is associated with the implementation of intelligence on basic cad usage as the entry point into the bim maturity level. bim level 1 features include visualisations and the development of building models, and it is often referred to as ‘lonesome bim’ because the models generated cannot be shared among construction project stakeholders. furthermore, at this level, there is no or little collaboration among the various disciplines because everyone creates and manages their own data information in order to noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021105 behaviour formation understanding roles and leadership commitment from top management understanding theories and knowledge of bim resources coordination training, team building and awareness program relational contracts guideline, standard and manual procedure eir bep figure 2. best practice approach influencing social collaboration among multi-actors in bim level-2 projects complete their assigned project. however, in order to fully implement bim in the project, a transformation shift from bim-level 1 to bim-level 2 is required, because this level promotes collaborative working by providing each discipline with its own 3d cad model. collaborative working at this level necessitates streamlined project-related information exchange and seamless coordination between all systems and diverse disciplines (babatunde and ekundayo, 2019). drawing from the analysis through survey and depth interview, the top ten attributes have been clustered into three dominant-centric approaches based on the similarity of nature features of kas capable of influencing social collaboration among multi-actors as best practice approach towards performing success of collaborative working practise (see figure 2); these include: behaviour formation, procurement model and support principles. based on the empowerment of ‘behaviour formation’ domain, there are three internal attributes need to be highlighted in built the individual and team characteristics in the project (i.e., understanding theories and knowledge of bim, commitment from top management and understanding roles and leadership). this socio-centric approach is the best option in providing the higher level of collaborative working practice, which multi-actors in diverse discipline able to change the way of working with higher level of awareness and responsible feel in managing well for project (awwad, shibani and gostin, 2020). nonetheless, ‘procurement model’ domain is considered crucial to form the strong bonding between multi disciplines in the project, this would comprise (such as, relational contract, guideline, standard and manual procedure, eir and bep). according to alreshidi, mourshed and rezgui (2016) and mignone et al. (2016), the extensive procurement model has led to the introduction of more collaborative-based procurement in delivering projects. towards providing an integrated team in handling project for bim level 2, the advance ‘support principles’ (i.e., resources, coordination, training, team building and awareness program) are necessity to embedded together for progressive collaborative working practice. noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021106 based on publicly available specification (pas) 1992-2: 2013, seven fundamental principles for performing collaborative working practise for bim-level 2 project delivery were considered as a reference to the three main domains in order to shift from lower collaboration (bim level-1) to higher collaborative working (bim level-2) in the project. the relationships of the three main domains (i.e., behaviour formation, contractual model, and support principle) and the seven fundamental principles are discussed in turn. fundamental principle 1: originators produce definition information in models the importance of producing information in models cannot be overstated when performing a project into bim level 2, whereby the project team was assigned as the originator responsible for controlling the sourcing of information from other models where required via reference, federation, or direct information exchange (bsi, 2013). furthermore, this current bim level 2 practice differs from bim level 1 practice in terms of collaboration, where previously all multi-actors in the diverse disciplines created and managed their own data sources of information using separately of 2d and 3d cad drawing, with low level of collaboration in view of all actors still practicing physically collaboration. this is in contrast to bim level 2, where all actors are assigned as originators and are fully responsible for collaborating using federated models and information shared in the cde platform, as well as being involved in decision making to provide the best for the project. specifically, project teams that react as originators to creating information in models need to focus on understanding the roles, responsibilities, and commitments, as well as consistently building relationships and leaderships among teams in order to manage essential construction project information in digital format throughout the project life cycle. furthermore, the standardisation level of understanding and commitment expressed by team members on the interpretation of standard requirements must be clear and transparent enough to avoid issues related to information in models and the collaboration process in steering bim level 2 project. the collaboration process necessitates transparent standards and regulations capable of encouraging all project participants to collaborate effectively (oraee, hosseini and edwards, 2021). it is acknowledged that all teams should refer to the requirements stated in the eir and bep as live documentation as for guidance for the right action and alleviated conflicts during the working process. this current practise creates comprehensive collaboration among multi-actors involved, which differs from bim level 1 collaboration practise, because diverse disciplines are capable of updating federated models and information through cde, in line with eir and bep, which also need to be updated from time to time in the early stages until the end of projects and influence a project’s effectiveness. it is important to note that shared understanding and experience, as well as adhering to standard requirements, are critical for diverse teams to negotiate each other’s in developing information in models. despite the fact that there are a few interoperable formats available on the market, such as ifc, these formats are not widely accepted by all bim tools and require standards to be updated and vendors to improve their software (oraee, hosseini and edwards, 2021). also, the integration of expertise that crosses functional boundaries is critical in bim level 2 in order to reactive the effective coordination after all models have been integrated in one federated model. consistent commitment and well-interaction from various organisations are an important gesture to focus attention and communicate solutions to issues during coordination meetings (kubicki et al., 2019). fundamental principle 2: provision of a clear definition of eir and key decision point based on the findings, there is a need for organisational teams to have a sense of accountability and shared values toward task and goal setting in order to strengthen the circle of interaction in producing specific and noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021107 realistic eir. this study discovered that a very positive and consistent commitment among top management is critical to motivating teamwork to collaborate in comprehending the eir requirement for them to produce the comprehensive bep. having trust from the top down would create a sense of respect in both parties, increasing the level of relationships and allowing them to communicate in order to achieve the main goal of the project (oraee, hosseini and edwards, 2021). furthermore, it would assist diverse teams in achieving standardised levels of understanding in order for them to commit to responding in the bep to optimise performance of working practises beginning in the early stages until handover (mei et al., 2017). with this approach, the transition from bim level-1 to higher-level collaboration (bim level-2) could be accomplished effectively through unity and common understanding, continuous commitment, and trustful practise among multi-actors (awwad, shibani and gostin, 2020) from various disciplines to fulfil their responsible task in the project. the adoption of collaborative arrangement e.g., ipd in bim was the best-fit approach for contracts because it was capable of displaying smart digital data sharing among all project players, primarily due to the elimination of legality (oraee et al., 2019). the use of collaborative arrangement could also increase the value to the client, particularly in common understanding of bim standards, early engagement to produce realistic, achievable, and specific eir for team members, which improves collaboration, coordination, and communication in decision making (eynon, 2016). an appropriate training, awareness, and team building workshop are critical means of increasing efficiency, cooperation, and a positive mindset among team members in order to facilitate organisational collaboration (piroozfar et al., 2019). this approach promotes better routine and behaviour, allowing multi-actors from various disciplines to transition from bim-level 1 to bim-level 2 collaborative working practise. fundamental principal 3: evaluation of the proposed approach, capability and capacity to deliver required information prior to contract award the ability to create a team leadership environment through a collective of expertise from various disciplines and senior groups could initiate active leadership, allowing them to consistently communicate in order to understand the requirements and produce a perfect solution to any problems (oraee, hosseini and edwards, 2021). with this mutual understanding and synergistic leadership, a common understanding and harmonised environment among multi-disciplines would be created, easing the transition from bim level-1 to bim level-2 collaborative working practices in manging project. the importance of top management involvement in supporting and nurturing team project integration practise cannot be overstated, as they acknowledged all requirements stated in eir and bep to motivate all teams to consistently collaborate and exchange information in producing the best outcomes. the content of the bep is critical for the project owner to identify and assess the project team’s capability, capacity, and competence in making contract award decisions (bsi, 2013). furthermore, all teams must have a shared understanding of knowledge (e.g., standard, eir, collaboration processes, contractual arrangements, and roles) and be committed to describing the details content of bep (e.g., software and method use in collaboration process, information sharing, etc.), in order to orchestrate the collection action. previously, in bim level-1 practise, a lack of performing common understanding could impede diverse disciplines from effectively collaborating; however, a consistent spirit and supporting motivation could boost them to optimise their collaborative working practise in managing bim level-2 projects. fundamental principal 4: bim execution plan (bep) the bep is treated as a core agreement in bim-enabled projects that delineates how the bim project is to be delivered (oraee, hosseini and edwards, 2021). the findings indicate that cross-disciplinary understanding of roles is critical for them to discuss, negotiate, hold each other accountable, and make noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021108 collective decisions in preparing the contents of the post-contract award bep, which must include everything stated in the eir. such understanding could encourage discovery, creativity, and empower the team to have team leadership to resolve specific tasks (eynon, 2016). furthermore, clarity of roles, responsibilities, and authority is an essential aspect of effective information management, which should be incorporated into contracts (bsi, 2013). top management commitment is widely regarded as a necessary ingredient in cultivating responsibilities and collaborative working environments. the project team recognised the importance of compliance with standards and eir as a reference to produce specific details of bep when bringing the collaborative working practise (eynon, 2016). the practical application of it solutions for resources (i.e., software, exchange formats, process and data management systems) and the identification of appropriate training should be detailed explained in bep and midp and should be understood by all teams involved in facilitating project delivery management. thus, these efforts would shift current practise (bim level-1) into bim level-2 practise, with a centralization of understanding and action for multi-actors in diverse disciplines, to exhibit specific, achievable, and comprehensive bep and eir, which are realistic to execute in order to achieve their project’s common goal. fundamental principal 5: provision of a single environment to store shared asset data and information the project information model (pim) graphical and non-graphical data documents must be well managed through cde, which provides a collaborative environment for sharing work and can be implemented in a variety of ways. the findings revealed that the project team must understand their own roles as well as those of others in order to stimulate team integration and collaboration during information sharing, coordination, and validation in the cde process. continuous motivation and support from upper management, as well as centralised shared learning efforts that exhibit among diverse disciplines teams, could also ensure the consistency of pim operation. in order to maximise the function of cde and integrate expertise in diverse teams, integrative teams would be formed during the professional design stage in wip, information exchange in the shared area, and the coordination process. according to zanni, soetanto and ruikar (2017), experience, effective communication, and detailed discussion encourage teams to make collective decisions, which contribute to the effectiveness of constructability by minimising clashes during coordination. with this best practise approach, the centralised shared learning and knowledge, embedded with strong spirit cultivate capable of shifting lower collaborative into progressive collaborative working environment to shared data and information comprehensively through cde, which indirectly influences multi-actors to abandon bim level-1 practise towards project completion. fundamental principle 6: application of processes and procedures outlined in the document and standards developing consistent knowledge sharing and application of standards requirements during the working process is critical for teams to make unanimous decisions and achieve productive results. in the spirit of collaboration, social engagement within teams should be prioritised, with members focusing on the collective effort rather than individuals (cross and carboni, 2021). the ability of teams to use the appropriate resources and skills, in reaching the target, especially in exchanging information and completing the challenges of the coordination process, is influenced by the ability of teams to use the appropriate resources provided (i.e., software, hardware, and etc). continuous learning and experience from experts through continuous workshops would allow all teams to greatly accelerate and improve collaborative, as well as raise the reliability of relationships and cultivate their shared noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021109 commitment to drive their working process and adhere to standards. according to pauna et al. (2021), one of the criteria for selecting actors is the ability to work collaboratively and developing the ability to work efficiently together is important. as a result of this positive wave cultivation, it is possible to transform the actors’ (bim level-1) practise to progressive changes in workflow (bim level-2), ensuring the application of processes and procedures outlined in documents and standards can be successfully executed. fundamental principal 7: develop models information using selected tools interactions between project teams in information management can only be supported by bim approach interoperability, i.e., the interoperability of various models created by different models interoperability). however, in order to achieve successful interoperability, social empowerment in the form of team bonding interaction, understanding of roles and knowledge, a culture of trust and mutual expectation, and a culture of trust and mutual expectation must be prioritised. a synergy of teamwork among teams that collaborate in federated models may generate mutual conversation and communication, which further encourages mutual understanding and respect, influencing the seamless interoperability of models to exchange information, coordinated model to resolve issues (e.g., clash detection), and facilitate to visualise constructability. the use of bim as a central repository for building project management is promising and has the potential to revolutionise information management for a project and throughout the project life cycle. thus, top-down cooperation and collaboration are required in order to determine heterogeneous software tools that are interoperable with each other, which must be clearly indicated in bep as a part of contractual agreement in the early stages of projects, allowing for a minimise of disparity of software tools and vendors to co-exist and making collaboration practise more efficient. furthermore, continuous training (internal and external) based on updated software is required to consistently upgrade skills and competency in an accelerated collaborative working environment among project teams working towards the set goal. consequently, the dramatic transition from bim level-1 to bim level-2 practise was accomplished successfully, easing the launch of the bim level-2 implementation process toward expanding the construction industry revolution 4.0 strategies. conclusions this study provides an overview of the kas influencing multi-actor social collaboration in bim projects from the perspective of malaysian practitioners. this study assessed the importance of the kas in nurturing the social collaboration practise based on the slr, questionnaire survey, and in-depth interview with established of 22 bim experts of bim-level 2 projects. the findings suggest that all of attributes are important in determining the success of social collaboration in bim projects. moreover, this study recognises importance of identifying not only the relevant kas but also the dominant attributes in detail. the top ten ranked attributes that contribute to the success of multi-actor social collaboration are as follows: contractual; bep; guideline, standard and manual work process; eir; understanding roles and leadership; commitment from top management; resources; training; coordination and understanding theoretical of bim knowledge. these findings led to the development of a best practise approach consisting of three dominant-centric factors (i.e., behaviour formation, procurement model, and support principles) that have an implicit and explicit influence on social collaboration among actors. following that, the proposed best practise was used to address the collaborative working practise outlined in the bim-level 2 project delivery basic principles. the incorporation of these best practises into the ecosystem of digitalize construction industries will assist industry organisations and academics in responding to the needs and preparing a project team to achieve successful bim-level 2 by bringing social collaboration practise among multi-disciplinary teams as a noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021110 primary concern to drive the success of collaborative environments and acts as a catalyst for collaborative environments. this study is of benefits of construction industry players (i.e., owners, designers, and contractors) in cultivating a collaborative culture among project teams in order to successfully manage information management for bim project delivery. as a result, additional research is recommended to validate the proposed ‘best practise approach’ to real-world working practise referring to the fundamental principles for level 2 information modelling among experts with experience in managing bim-level 2 projects. references adam, v., manu, p., mahamadu, a.-m., dziekonski, k., kissi, e., emuze, f. and lee, s., 2021. building information modelling (bim) readiness of construction professionals: the context of the seychelles construction industry. journal of engineering, design and technology. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-09-2020-0379 akdag, s.g. and maqsood, u., 2019. a roadmap for bim adoption and implementation in developing countries: the pakistan case. international journal of architectural research. 14(1), pp.112-32. https://doi.org/10.1108/arch-04-20190081 al-hattab, m. and hamzeh, f., 2018. simulating the dynamics of social agents and information flows in bim-based design. automation in construction, 92, p.1-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.03.024 alreshidi, e., mourshed, m. and rezgui, y., 2016. requirements for clouds-based bim governance solutions to facilitate team collaboration in construction projects. requirement engineering, 23, 1-31 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/ s00766-016-0254-6 al-ashmori, y.y., othman, i., rahmawati, y., mugahed amran, y.h., abo sabah s.h., rafindadi, a.d. and mikic, m., 2020. bim benefits and its influence on the bim implementation in malaysia. ain shams engineering journal, 11(4), pp.1013-19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2020.02.002 alreshidi, e., mourshed, m. and rezgui, y., 2017. factors for effective governance. journal of building engineering. 10, pp.89-101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2017.02.006 ashworth, s., tacker, m. and druhmann, c. 2017. employer’s information requirements (eir): a bim case study to meet client and facility manager needs. 16th eurofm research symposium, pp. 1-10. awwad, a., shibani, k.w. and ghostin, m., 2020. exploring the critical success factors influencing bim level 2 implementation in the uk construction industry: the case of smes, international journal of construction management. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1744213 azman, a.a., 2018. mrt corp is the first asia to receive bim level 2 accreditation”. new straits times. available at: https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2018/12/442660/mrt-corp-first-asia-achieve-bim-level-2-accreditation [accessed 21 december 2018]. babalola, a., musa, s., akinlolu, m.t. and haupt, t.c., 2021. a bibliometric review of advances in building information modeling (bim) research. journal of engineering, design and technology. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-012021-0013 babatunde, s. o. and ekundayo, d., 2019. barriers to the incorporation of bim into quantity surveying undergraduate curriculum in the nigeria universities. journal of engineering, design and technology. 17(3), pp. 629-648. https://doi. org/10.1108/jedt-10-2018-0181 bew, m., underwood, j., wix, j., and storer, g., 2008. going bim in a commercial world. ework and ebusiness in architecture, engineering and construction: european conferences on product and process modeling (eccpm 2008), sophia antipolis, france. noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021111 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-09-2020-0379 https://doi.org/10.1108/arch-04-2019-0081 https://doi.org/10.1108/arch-04-2019-0081 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.03.024 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766-016-0254-6 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766-016-0254-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2020.02.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2017.02.006 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1744213 https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2018/12/442660/mrt-corp-first-asia-achieve-bim-level-2-accreditation https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-01-2021-0013 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-01-2021-0013 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-10-2018-0181 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-10-2018-0181 badi, s. and diamantidou, d., 2017. a social network perspective of building information modelling in greek construction projects. architectural engineering and design management.13(6), pp.406-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/1745 2007.2017.1307167 blay, k.b., tuuli, m.m., france-mensah, j., 2019.managing change in bim-level 2 projects: benefits, challenges, and opportunities. built environment project and asset management. 9(5), pp.581-96. https://doi.org/10.1108/ bepam-09-2018-0114 bsi. 2013. pas 1192-2:2013. specification for information management for the capital/delivery phase of construction projects using building information modelling. bsi standard limited. isbn: 978-0-580-82666-5. bsi. 2016. bs 1192:2007+a2:2016. collaborative production of architectural, engineering and construction information – code of practice. bsi standard limited. isbn: 978-0-580-92817-8. che ibrahim, c.k.i., castello, s.b. and wilkinson, s., 2015. development of a conceptual team integration performance index for alliance projects, construction management and economics, 31(11), pp.1128-43. https://doi.org/10. 1080/01446193.2013.854399 cross, r. and carboni, i., 2021. when collaboration fails and how to fix it, mitsloan management review. special collection. deloitte. elmualim, a. and gilder, j., 2014. bim: innovation in design management, influence and challenges of implementation. architectural engineering and design management. 10 (3-4). pp.183-99. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2013.821399 eynon, j., 2016. construction manager’s bim handbook, wiley blackwell. john & sons ltd. https://doi. org/10.1002/9781119163404 ghaffarianhoseini, a., tookey, j., ghaffarianhoseini, a, naismith, n. azhar, s., efimova, o. and raahemifar, k., 2017. building information modelling (bim) uptake: clear benefits, understanding its implementation, risks and challenges. renewable and sustainable energy reviews. 75, pp. 1046-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.083 gu, n. and london, k. 2010. understanding and facilitating bim adoption in the aec industry. automation in construction. 19, pp. 988-99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.09.002 hafeez, m.a., chahrour, r., vukovic, v., dawood, n., and kassem, m. 2016. investigating the potential of delivering employer information requirements in bim enabled construction projects in qatar. international federation for information proceeding 2016, springer international publishing switzerland. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-331119_15 hossain, m.a. and nadeem, a., 2019. towards digitizing the construction industry: state of the art of construction 4.0. interdependence between structural engineering and construction management, isec press., isbn:978-0-9960437-62. https://doi.org/10.14455/isec.res.2019.184 ibrahim, f.s. esa, m. and rahman, r.a., 2021. the adoption of iot in the malaysian construction industry: towards construction 4.0. international journal of sustainable construction engineering and technology. 12 (1). pp.56-67. https:// doi.org/10.30880/ijscet.2021.12.01.006 kouch, a. m. illikainena, k. and perala, s., 2018. key factors of an initial bim implementation framework for small and medium-sized enterprises (smes), 35th international symposium on automation and robotics in construction (isarc 2018). berlin, germany, 20-25 june 2018. https://doi.org/10.22260/isarc2018/0126 kubicki, s. guerriero, a. schwartz, l. daher, e. and idris, b., 2019. assessment of synchronous interactive devices for bim project coordination: prospective ergonomics approach. automation in construction. 101. p.160-78. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.12.009 kumar, r., 2005. research methodology-a step by step guide for beginners, 1 st edition. sage publication inc. noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021112 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2017.1307167 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2017.1307167 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-09-2018-0114 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-09-2018-0114 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.854399 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.854399 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2013.821399 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119163404 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119163404 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.083 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.09.002 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33111-9_15 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33111-9_15 https://doi.org/10.14455/isec.res.2019.184 https://doi.org/10.30880/ijscet.2021.12.01.006 https://doi.org/10.30880/ijscet.2021.12.01.006 https://doi.org/10.22260/isarc2018/0126 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.12.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.12.009 lebreton, j.m. and senter, j.l., 2008. answers to 20 questions about interrater reliability and interrater agreement. organizational research methods. 11(4), pp.815-52. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428106296642 lee, s. and pena-mora, f., (2007), understanding and managing iterative error and change cycles in construction. built environment. 8(4), p. 267-71. https://doi.org/10.1002/sdr.359 lin, x. yacoub, s. burns, j. and simske, s., 2002. performance analysis of pattern classifier combination by plurality voting. information infrastructure laboratory. hp laboratories palo alto, hpl-2002-150. lin, y.c. and yang, h.h., 2018. a framework for collaboration management of bim model creation in architectural projects, journal of asian architecture and building engineering. 17(1), pp.39-46. https://doi.org/10.3130/jaabe.17.39 liu, y., van nederveen, s. and hertogh, m., 2017. understanding effects of bim on collaborative design and construction: an empirical study in china. international journal of project management. 35(4). https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2016.06.007 mei, t., wang, q., xiao, y. and yang, m., 2017. rent-seeking behavior of bimand ipd-based construction project in china. engineering, construction and architectural management. 24(3), pp. 514-36. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-112015-0178 merschbrock, c., hosseini, m. r., martek, i., mehrdad, arashpour. and mignone, g., 2018. collaborative role of sociotechnical components in bim-based construction networks in two hospitals. journal management in engineering. 34(4), 05018006. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000605 mignone, g., hosseini, m. r., chileshe, n. and arashpour, m., 2016. enhancing collaboration in bim-based construction networks through organizational discontinuity theory: a case study of the new royal adelaide hospital. architectural engineering and design management. 12(5), pp.333-52. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2016.1169987 mrt. 2019. catalyst for change: bim implementation in the mrt line 2 (ssp) underground works. available at: https://bim.mymrt.com.my/catalyst-for-change/. [accessed 23 may 2021]. noor, r.n.h.r.m., che ibrahim, c.k.i., belayutham, s., 2021. the nexus of key attributes influencing the social collaboration among bim actors: a review of construction literature, international journal of construction management. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1946902 oraee, m. hosseini, m.r. edwards, d.j. li, h. papadonikolaki, e. cao, d., 2019. collaboration barriers in bim-based construction networks: a conceptual model. international journal of project management. 37(6), pp.839-54. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2019.05.004 oraee, m., hosseini, m.r. edwards, d., 2021. collaboration in bim-based construction networks: a qualitative model of influential factors. engineering, construction and architectural management. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-102020-0865 pauna, t., lampela, h.., aaltonen, k. and kujala, j., 2021. challenges for implementing collaborative practices in industrial engineering projects. project leadership and society. 2, 100029. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2021.100029 piroozfar, p. farr, e.r.p. zadeh, a.h.m. inacio, s.t. kilgallon, s. and jin, r., 2019. facilitating building information modelling (bim) using integrated project delivery (ipd): a uk perspective. journal of building engineering. 26, 100907. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2019.100907 suratkon, a., yunus, r. and deraman, r., 2020. characteristics of procurement methods in malaysia – comparing design-bid-build, design-build and construction management. international journal of sustainable construction engineering and technology (ijscet).11 (3), pp.1-11. https://doi.org/10.30880/ijscet.2020.11.03.001 van gassel, f., láscaris-comneno, t. and maas, g., 2014. the conditions for successful automated collaboration in construction. automation in construction. 39, pp. 85-92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2013.12.001 noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021113 https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428106296642 https://doi.org/10.1002/sdr.359 https://doi.org/10.3130/jaabe.17.39 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.06.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.06.007 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-11-2015-0178 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-11-2015-0178 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000605 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2016.1169987 https://bim.mymrt.com.my/catalyst-for-change/ https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1946902 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2019.05.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2019.05.004 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2020-0865 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2020-0865 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2021.100029 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2019.100907 https://doi.org/10.30880/ijscet.2020.11.03.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2013.12.001 wong, a. k. d., wong, f. k. w., and nadeem, a., 2010. attributes of building information modelling implementations in various countries. architectural engineering and design management.6(4), pp.288–302. https://doi. org/10.3763/aedm.2010.idds6 ya’acob, i. a. m., rahim, f. a. m. and zainon, n., 2018. risk in implementing building information modelling (bim) in malaysia construction industry: a review. international conference on civil and environmental engineering (iccee 2018). kuala lumpur, malaysia, 2-5 october 2018. zanni, m.a., soetanto, r. and ruikar, k., 2017. towards a bim-enabled sustainable building design pro cess: roles, responsibilities and requirements. architectural engineering and design management, 13(2), pp.101-29. https://doi.org/10 .1080/17452007.2016.1213153 zhang, s., pan, f., wang, c., sun, y. and wang, h., 2017. bim-based collaboration platform for the management of epc projects in hydropower engineering. journal of construction engineering and management. 143(12), 04017087. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001403 zhang, w. and creswell, j., 2013. the use of “mixing” procedure of mixed methods in health services research. med care. 51(8), e51-7. https://doi.org/10.1097/mlr.0b013e31824642fd noor, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021114 https://doi.org/10.3763/aedm.2010.idds6 https://doi.org/10.3763/aedm.2010.idds6 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2016.1213153 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2016.1213153 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001403 https://doi.org/10.1097/mlr.0b013e31824642fd construction economics and building vol. 19, no. 2 december 2019 © 2019 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: okoro, c.s., musonda, i., agumba, j.n. 2019. validity and reliability of a transportation infrastructure sustainable performance framework: a study of transport projects in south africa. construction economics and building, 19:2, 126-143. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i2.6730 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article validity and reliability of a transportation infrastructure sustainable performance framework: a study of transport projects in south africa chioma sylvia okoro1*, innocent musonda2, justus ngala agumba3 1 college of business and economics, johannesburg business school, department of finance and investment management, auckland park campus, university of johannesburg, south africa; chiomao@uj.ac.za, chiomasokoro@gmail.com; +27115594926 2 faculty of engineering and the built environment, department of quantity surveying and construction management, doornfontein campus, university of johannesburg, south africa; imusonda@uj.ac.za; +27115596655 3 faculty of engineering and built environment, department of building sciences, tshwane university of technology, pretoria; agumbajn@tut.ac.za; +27123822895 *corresponding author: chioma sylvia okoro, college of business and economics, johannesburg business school, department of finance and investment management, auckland park campus, university of johannesburg, south africa; chiomao@uj.ac.za, chiomasokoro@ gmail.com; +27115594926 doi: 10.5130/ajceb.v19i2.6730 article history: received 12/08/2019; revised 28/10/2019; accepted 02/11/2019; published 02/12/2019 abstract transportation infrastructure contributes to the development of an economy. however, the performance of such infrastructure is hampered if sustainability elements are not considered at the initiation/conception and operation stages of the projects. the study aimed to validate a structure of transportation project sustainability measures to evaluate projects and ensure continual delivery of intended benefits in the long run. empirical data were collected using a field questionnaire survey developed from the literature review and a preliminary qualitative inquiry. a total of 132 built environment professionals were included based on purposeful and snowball sampling techniques. a model-generating confirmatory factor analysis was undertaken to validate underlying structures of sustainability measures established from a declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 126 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i2.6730 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i2.6730 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:chiomao@uj.ac.za mailto:chiomasokoro@gmail.com mailto:imusonda@uj.ac.za mailto:agumbajn@tut.ac.za mailto:chiomao@uj.ac.za mailto:chiomasokoro@gmail.com mailto:chiomasokoro@gmail.com http://10.5130/ajceb.v19i2.6730 preliminary common factor analysis. the findings validated that a four-factor structure, with eleven variables, could adequately measure transportation infrastructure project sustainability (ps). the cfa structure achieved construct, convergent and discriminant validity, with fewer variables than were theorised and subsequently established in the common factor analysis. the validated four-factor structure is envisaged to be useful to transportation infrastructure project stakeholders in better decision-making on project selection being cognizant of these factors, which are indicative of the worthwhileness of projects. in addition, monitoring of the projects during the operational stage, based on the identified indicators, could be done with the aim of delivering long-term benefits to generations of users. keywords infrastructure, south africa, sustainability, transportation, confirmatory factor analysis introduction transportation plays an essential role in countries’ competitiveness, balanced and liveable urban spatial development, access to water and energy, and food security, and is critical for social inclusion and improved quality of life (united nations, 2015). it confers mobility and impacts on the development and welfare of the population through employment and income creation, connecting and providing to businesses and vital services, and therefore enhances economic development and growth (friedrich and timol, 2011; chen and cruz, 2012; vilana, 2014). despite the significance of transportation infrastructure, such projects are fraught with uncertainties, which if not considered during the planning of the projects and/or continuous monitoring to sustain intended performance, is detrimental to the immediate community and society. sustainability performance across the life cycle of an infrastructure project is a crucial aspect in achieving the goal of sustainable development (amiril et al., 2014). this then behoves transportation planners, policymakers and indeed researchers to find ways to maintain sustainability of such projects. sustainability in infrastructure development enables sound economic development, job creation and productivity; enhances quality of life; and promotes a more efficient and effective use of financial resources (investors’ margins) (montgomery, 2015). however, sustainability of infrastructure is hampered by lack of finance, governance and policy problems, planning inefficiencies and technical capacity (bueno, vassallo and chueng, 2015). therefore, research on transportation infrastructure project sustainability is paramount in order to ensure that projects continue to deliver intended benefits to generations of users. although previous studies have explored key sustainability and performance elements, the focus has been singularly on one aspect. for instance, amiril et al. (2014) developed a framework for railway infrastructure in malaysia while gamalath, pereira and bandara (2014) and park et al. (2019) focused on environmental and social sustainability aspects, respectively. likewise, velazquez et al. (2015) focused on environmental sustainability of road transport infrastructure. yu et al. (2018) conducted a simulation analysis using system dynamics but focused on effectiveness of transport policies. rouhani (2018) and xue et al (2017) dwelt on financial sustainability, while karjalainena and juhola (2019) focused on reduction of carbon footprint and climate change impacts in public transport systems. further, amiril et al. (2014) employed a literature review for their study and although wai, yusof and ismail (2012) applied factor analytical techniques to determine important project success criteria, sustainability was validity and reliability of a transportation infrastructure sustainable performance framework: a study of transport projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019127 regarded as a secondary factor. this is inadequate since failure to address all sustainability risks on projects is likely to result in long-lasting and potentially irreversible impacts on wellbeing, health and the economy (bhattacharya, oppenheim and stern, 2015). further, it is important to note that transportation sustainability assessments group and apply indicators differently, depending on the approach (system versus sub-system), data restrictions and local contexts (karjalainena and juhola, 2019). since most studies focus on specific factors of the transportation system in different local contexts, the value of the current paper is in the holistic consideration of all factors that affect transportation system, as identified through literature review as well as interviews and document analysis, in the local context (schiff, small and ensor, 2013; velazquez et al., 2015). the objective of the current study is therefore to validate critical project sustainability (ps) indicators that should be used in the evaluation of transportation infrastructure. the study employs confirmatory factor analysis to validate the underlying structure of sustainability indicators established in a previous study through exploratory factor analysis (okoro, musonda and agumba, 2019). by validating the common factors established from factor analysis, the study provides a reliable tool for ex-ante and ex-post evaluation of transportation infrastructure projects in order to ensure that lasting benefits are obtainable for generations of users. literature review overview of sustainable transportation concept sustainability connotes the ability of a project to maintain an acceptable level of benefit flows through its economic life or to maintain its operations, services and benefits during its projected lifetime (muskin, 2017). infrastructure sustainability is concerned with “’fit for purpose assets’, where fitness is a function of an asset’s capacity to be: • continually useful over its entire life; • a consistent and integral part of the wider infrastructure ‘jigsaw’, fulfilling community expectations by helping to solve sustainability challenges; and • resilient and adaptable to changing circumstances (stapledon, 2012). sustainability has been generally viewed and studied based on the three-dimensional aspects (environmental, economic and social aspects). however, transportation infrastructure sustainability entails a wider range of impacts beyond what is mostly studied (stapledon, 2012). it incorporates the useful operational life of the assets since infrastructure projects need to deliver services over their lifetime, efficiently and reliably ( jeon, amekudzi and guensler, 2010). thus, technical or structural quality of roads, with regard to the quality and long-lasting nature of construction materials, in addition to quality of life, project leadership, natural resource management and climate change, have been studied as sustainability elements (ramani et al., 2009; friedrich and timol, 2011; zou, peng and mei, 2011; kaare and koppel, 2012; montgomery, schirmer and hirsch, 2015). further, the sustainability concept includes system effectiveness (which captures the concept of mobility/fluidity of movement) and performance over a long term ( jeon, amekudzi and guensler, 2010). system performance is also related to its resilience and adaptability to changes, as supported by stapledon (2012). these dimensions are interlinked in such a way that their self-producing and non-linear capabilities need to be effectively managed in order to guarantee sustainability of transport okoro, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019128 infrastructure. the implication therefore is that a clear distinction between and among economic, social, and environmental sustainability aspects or concepts is not always possible, since they overlap and interrelate (litman, 2016). thus, integrating economic, social and environmental sustainability aspects can only be effective if proper institutional arrangements are in place in the respective countries (brouwer and van ittersum, 2010). therefore, sustainability encompasses interrelated indicators that enable continual functioning and expected service over generations of users, without disrupting the quality of life of the citizenry. since transport developments are intended to serve generations for a long time, such investments should provide assurance of lasting positive impacts and benefits (for example, mobility needs, access, efficiency and affordability) that are continually and satisfactorily experienced for eons, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet these needs (yu et al., 2018; karjalainena and juhola, 2019). sustainability in the current study therefore connotes the ability of a transportation infrastructure project to continue performing as was expected or projected over a long term, or throughout its life cycle (bueno, vassallo and chueng, 2015). transportation infrastructure project sustainability measures a plethora of infrastructure sustainability indicators exists in different contexts and sectors. rating systems have been used, for instance, leadership in energy and environmental design (leed), civil engineering environmental quality assessment (ceequal), illinois liveable and sustainable transportation (i-last), green leadership in transportation environmental sustainability rating program (greenlites), infrastructure voluntary evaluation sustainability tool (invest), the climate bonds initiative (climate bonds, 2019), and so on. however, albeit they are usually regionally-based and contain contextsensitive and desirable sustainability elements of the location where they were conceived, they are inadequate since they focus on either environmental, or economic assessments and therefore fail to fully address all components of sustainability holistically (bueno, vassallo and chueng, 2015). additionally, they are usually based on historical trends and relationships and thus could be biased (lyons and davidson, 2016). consequently, it is necessary to review and identify specific factors used to measure sustainability in transport infrastructure sectors, and within a specified context. a cornucopia of factors was therefore identified from extant literature as indicative of sustainability. these include the following: • financial and economic factors (affordability, costs, revenue/cash flow) ( jeon, amekudzi and guensler, 2010; litman, 2016; xue et al., 2017; rouhani, 2018; kermanshachi and safapour, 2019); • environmental factors (preservation of the environment and compliance with environmental regulations (karlaftis and kepaptsoglou, 2012); • social factors (accessibility, public acceptability/complaints, demand, willingness to pay set fees, user satisfaction, safety, comfort and convenience (dhingra, 2011; pavlina, 2015; karjalainena and juhola, 2019); • physical infrastructure factors (condition and capacity of infrastructure) (ramani et al., 2009); • institutional factors (coordination, service quality, structures for management and operations, service quality, responsibilities and capacity of partners) (quium, 2014; cottrill and derrible, 2015). validity and reliability of a transportation infrastructure sustainable performance framework: a study of transport projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019129 essentially, sustainability assessment measures should possess representativeness, relevance, policy sensitiveness and predictability, to cater for the complexity of factors that must be considered in infrastructure sustainability (cottrill and derrible, 2015). in summary, sustainability in the current study connotes the ability of a project to continue performing as was expected or projected over a long term, or throughout its life cycle (bueno, vassallo and chueng, 2015). therefore, twenty-eight variables, grouped into six factors, were observed to adequately measure sustainable performance of transportation infrastructure projects (table 1), from literature review and a subsequent qualitative phase (which refined the framework). the variables included socio-economic environment (se1 – se8), financial factors (fi1 – fi3), condition of physical infrastructure (ci1 – ci4), safety and security (ss1 ss5), stakeholder satisfaction (st1 – st5), and service quality (sq1 – sq3) as shown in figure 1. these were theorised to adequately measure transport project sustainability as identified from the literature review and multi-case study qualitative inquiry and used for the quantitative investigation. table 1 theorised transport infrastructure sustainability measures s/no. factors measures labels 1 socio-economic environment there are no complaints about travel times se1 there are no complaints about user discomfort during travel se2 there are no complaints about inconvenience during travel se3 there is no competition between different modes of transport se4 property values have increased after the infrastructure was built se5 new business ventures have developed after the infrastructure was built se6 infrastructure is accessible by all including the disabled and elderly se7 demand for the infrastructure services is as expected se8 2 financial factors capital invested has been recovered fi1 there are no complaints about maintenance resources fi2 there are no complaints from investors about revenue fi3 okoro, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019130 s/no. factors measures labels 3 condition of physical infrastructure the infrastructure is in good condition ci1 there are no complaints about the cleanliness of the infrastructure ci2 there is no traffic overload ci3 the infrastructure, in its present condition, is able to withstand common adverse weather ci4 4 safety and security signage for safety is adequate ss1 fencing (median) is in place for safety ss2 security officers are visible ss3 security cameras are in place ss4 formalised sidewalks are in place for pedestrians ss5 5 stakeholder satisfaction the needs of the stakeholders are satisfied st1 users are satisfied with pricing/charges st2 there are no operational problems st3 the actors are able to work in collaboration with other stakeholders st4 there is clarity of responsibilities among partners st5 6 service quality management responds quickly to user complaints about infrastructure services sq1 management responds quickly to user complaints about safety incidents sq2 the infrastructure services (rides) are predictable sq3 research method research design the current paper is part of a wider study, which investigated the influence of feasibility studies on project sustainability. the broad study adopted a sequential exploratory approach, whereby the results from a qualitative multi-case study (in conjunction with the theoretical findings) phase informed and guided the data collection in the second quantitative phase, and developed theories were refined, to be subsequently tested using survey research in the quantitative phase (darke, shanks and broadbent, 1998). however, only the results of the project sustainability table 1 continued validity and reliability of a transportation infrastructure sustainable performance framework: a study of transport projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019131 framework validation are presented here. the underlying structure of sustainability indicators found in okoro, musonda and agumba (2019) is validated in the current paper. prior to data collection for the broader study, ethical clearance was obtained from the university authorities. consent was also obtained from some of the participants’ superiors as and where required. prior to the main research (qualitative and quantitative phases), a pilot study was undertaken to simplify and clarify some of the questions. unstructured interviews as well as a draft questionnaire were pilot-tested. during the pilot study, it was discovered that a qualitative phase could precede the quantitative phase (in lieu of the concurrent approach initially proposed). it was therefore necessary to refine the questions and reduce the length of the questionnaire. a number of questions were subsequently rephrased considerably, and others deleted, prior to the qualitative research, and ensuing quantitative phase. the pilot study therefore improved test or content validity of the research tools. in addition, pilot-testing served to identify essential research approval processes in the government entities sampled, which were observed to differ from one to another. data collection the questionnaire was distributed by hand, as well as online via email and google forms, and contained questions which sought information regarding transportation infrastructure sustainability measures, on a five-point likert scale, with responses ranging from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree. empirical quantitative data were amassed from 132 respondents selected through purposive and snowball sampling techniques. this sample size was considered to be adequate in producing reliable results in studies of this nature (structural equation modelling (sem). sample sizes as small as n = 50 can produce reliable sem results with normally distributed data and at least three reliable indicators per factor (hoyle and gottfredson, 2015). the respondents in the quantitative phase (reported in the current paper) comprised built environment professionals in the nine provinces of south africa, who had been involved in transportation infrastructure projects, at the feasibility and/or operational stages. the respondents comprised 69% and 31% public and private entity professionals, respectively, consisting of directors, deputy directors and heads of departments that formed majority (25%) of the respondents. others were project managers (15%), engineers (12%) and safety officers (10%). in addition, respondents included executive/deputy managers (8%), development managers/ agents (6%), feasibility study consultants (4%), quantity surveyors (4%), planners (4%), academics (3%), and technical assistants on projects (2%). these were involved in various transportation projects (road, bridge, rail, airport and tunnel), at different project stages. therefore, effort was made to obtain responses from a variety of entities to increase generalisability and reliability of the results. data analysis data was analysed using amos software version 25. the amos software was preferred because of its intuitive graphical user interface, ability to read spss data as an input and accommodate plugins for automatic programming and building of a series of paths, unlike the other packages such as eqs, lisrel and mplus (nokelainen, 2007). prior to the analysis, preliminary analysis considerations were made, including missing data, sample size, univariate and multivariate normality and outliers, definability of the model, theoretical specifications, method of estimation, model fit criteria and modifications. although a sample size of 200 okoro, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019132 cases is generally the rule, a ratio of 5 to 1 was considered sufficient (with 132 cases) in the current study (kenny, 2015). the maximum likelihood method used in the analysis accommodated missing data (carter, 2006). however, missing data was still treated in order to enable assessment of multivariate normality and the presence of outliers, which gravely affect parameter estimates and model fit (gao, mokhtarian and johnston, 2008). missing values were treated using mean imputation, which entailed computing the average response on a particular variable with missing data and imputing the value for the missing data, respectively. multivariate normality and outliers were assessed using univariate skewness and multivariate kurtosis (mardia’s coefficient), as well as mahalanobis d-squared distance tests. an absolute skewness value of 1.0 or lower indicates a normally distributed data (awang, 2012). kurtosis values greater than 1.96 and large multivariate kurtosis (mardia’s) coefficients indicate significant non-normality (byrne, 2001). the outliers were thus identified and removed from further analysis, using mahalanobis squared distance (d), which identified seven cases with the highest d-squared values (with p values less than 0.005) as outliers and were deleted. the definability of the model was assessed using the degrees of freedom, df, which should be positive (greater than 1) for a model to be considered analysed or defined (byrne, 2001). the degrees of freedom, which is the difference between the known and unknown parameters (to be estimated) in a model should be positive. when the number of degrees of freedom is negative, the model is under-identified and cannot be estimated or defined (weston and gore, 2006). the model-generating cfa was thereafter undertaken to determine the model of factors that best fit or represented the data underlying the theory. absolute and comparative fit indices were used and the two-index presentation strategy as advocated by hu and bentler (1999) was adopted. absolute fit indices show how well a hypothesised model reproduces or matches the sample data, while comparative, relative or incremental fit indices compare the fit of one model to the data to the fit of another model to the same data (iacobucci, 2010). these included comparative fit index (cfi) (close to 0.95 or 0.90), relative chi-square (cmin/df ) (χ2 to df ≤ 2 or 3). standardised root mean square residual (srmr) (> 0.05 to 0.08; the lower the better), and root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) (close to 0.06; 0.08 – reasonable fit; > 0.10 – poor fit) (hu and bentler, 1999; schreiber et al., 2006). additionally, the standardised residual matrix (items with high correlations above 1.0), factor loadings or variance explained in the model ((squared multiple correlations below 0.5 were problematic items), and the modification indices (items that may be redundant in the model) were assessed. problematic items were deleted iteratively, and the model was rerun, bearing in mind that item deletion may not exceed 20% of the total number of items and latent constructs should have at least two or three items. further, statistical significance of the parameter estimates was established in order to make reliable conclusions on whether the measurement model is appropriate or needs to be revised further. this was done with reference to the squared multiple correlation and the factor loading values, which should be less than 1.0, and the critical ratio values, akin to z statistic, which should be greater than 1.96 at the 0.05 significance level (byrne, 2006). validity and reliability considerations the piloting and reviews of the questionnaire by the researcher’s supervisors and statistician refined the tool and increased face or content validity of the questionnaire. internal reliability consistency tests for the project sustainability measures was assessed before and after the validity and reliability of a transportation infrastructure sustainable performance framework: a study of transport projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019133 efa using the cronbach’s alpha test and the results indicated good internal consistency with values ranging from 0.76 to 0.84 before efa and 0.92 (n=14) after efa. the interconstruct reliability of the efa model, which was the cfa input model, was good. the interconstruct correlations should not be more than 0.85 to achieve discriminant validity (ahmad, zulkurnian and khairushalimi, 2016). the cfa model was assessed for uni-dimensionality, reliability and validity. uni-dimentionality requires that all factor loadings should be positive and above 0.5 for newly developed items and 0.6 or higher for established items and this was attained through the item-deletion procedure for low loading items (awang, 2012). the reliability and validity of the measurement models were assessed using model fit indices, composite reliability (cr) and average variance extracted (ave) statistics as stated below (awang, 2012). the cr measures the confidence level of latent variables in the cfa model considering the factor loadings an error-variance, and a value greater than 0.6 or 0.7 is needed to achieve composite reliability (xue, liu and shu, 2018). an ave > 0.5 is required for the respective constructs to achieve reliability (awang, 2012). where λ is the factor loading (standardised regression weights), and n is the number of items in the construct. further, convergent validity was achieved during cfa in this study with all the ave values exceeding 0.50 (awang, 2012). the model fit indices, which met the required levels, indicated that the model was reliable and achieved construct validity (marsh et al., 2004). discriminant validity was also achieved when all the redundant items in the model were either deleted or constrained as “free parameters”, discriminant validity was reached (awang, 2012). the modification indices results indicated pairs of items, which were redundant or covarying highly with each other, having values greater than 15, resulting in poor model fit. in addition, when the square root of the ave was greater than the inter-construct correlations, then discriminant validity was achieved (ahmad, zulkurnain and khairushalimi, 2016). in other words, the inter-construct correlations were not high (not greater than 0.85) and thus the values were not measuring the same thing; discriminant validity was achieved (musonda, 2012; ahmad, zulkurnain and khairushalimi, 2016). results and analysis the cfa analysed the relationships between the latent constructs and their variables as presented in the input diagram in figure 1, using the 125 cases remaining (data set with outliers deleted). the rectangles are the observed variables or indicators of each latent construct. the ovals represent the latent constructs. the error terms for each observed variable are represented as circles. these are residual or error variances, which uniquely cause response variations in the observed variables. the results of the model-generating cfa are presented hereunder. okoro, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019134 figure 1 cfa input model (framework after efa) diagnostic fit analysis and model modification the evaluation of the input model showed that there were no high correlations (exceeding 0.80) between the latent constructs. this indicated that there was discriminant validity for the ps input model. however, the input model did not match the data as indicated by the cfi = 0.888 (cut-off value = 0.90) and rmsea = 0.122 (cut-off value = 0.09) indices in table 2. an examination of other output from the first run was therefore undertaken to determine if the model fit could be improved. an examination of the standardised residuals covariance matrix revealed that there were no high residual covariances (above 2.58). however, se6 and ss1 covaried with four and three other items in the model, respectively, with values more than 1.0 and they were deleted successively. the model fit indices (table 2) showed the results after the deletion. it was notable that the model fit improved significantly after the third run with cmin/df = 1.986, falling below the recommended 2.0, cfi = 0.949, close to 0.95 (cut-off value > 0.90), rmsea = 0.089 (cut-off value = < 0.09), and srmr = 0.0586 (cut-off value > 0.05 to 0.08). based on the two-index presentation strategy advocated by hu and bentler (1999), the model after the third run was observed to be an excellent fit to the sample data. however, the item st2 was found to have a low contribution of 34%, indicating that the item was contributing more error variance than explained variance in the model and it was removed, and the test rerun. the final model (figure 2), displayed acceptable fit (table 2), with values within the recommended ranges: cmin/df = 2.087 (cut-off value < 2 or 3), cfi= 0.95 (cut-off value > 0.90), rmsea = 0.094 (cut-off value 0.09), and srmr = 0.0570 (cut-off value > 0.05 to 0.08). these results indicated that the hypothesised ps model matched the sample data by 95% and with a residual value of 5.7%, the model can be deemed to be an excellent fit to the data. it was notable that approximately 20% of the number of items (three out of 14) were deleted, and this was observed to be permissible in a model-generating cfa (byrne, 2001; awang, 2012). validity and reliability of a transportation infrastructure sustainable performance framework: a study of transport projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019135 table 2 model fit indices for input and final ps model fit indices cut off value estimate (input model) estimate (final model) chi-square χ2 203.084 85.579 degrees of freedom df > 0 ; positive 71 (acceptable) 41 (acceptable) relative chi-square (cmin/df) ≤ 2 or 3 2.860 (acceptable) 2.087 (acceptable) comparative fit index (cfi) ≥0.90 0.888 (not acceptable) 0.950 (acceptable) standardised root mean square residual (srmr) > 0.05 to 0.08 0.0687 (acceptable) 0.0570 (acceptable) root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) < 0.09 – good fit; < 1.0 – reasonable fit 0.122 (not acceptable) 0.094 (acceptable) figure 2 validated project sustainability model statistical significance of parameter estimates an examination of the factor loadings (regression weights), standard errors and critical ratio estimates was undertaken to determine if the model parameters were statistically significant (byrne, 2006). the ps final measurement model parameters exhibited statistical significance with the squared multiple correlations values all less than or equal to 1.0 and therefore reasonable. the parameter estimates had high correlation values (above 0.4). the correlation values suggested a high degree of linear association between the indicator variables and their latent constructs, and therefore reasonable. in addition, the critical ratio test statistic, analogous to z scores, was used to test the significance of the parameters. the critical ratio, which is the parameter estimate divided by its okoro, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019136 standard error, had to be greater than 1.96 at the 0.05 significance level for it to be said to be statistically different from zero and considered significant. table 3, containing the parameter estimates, showed that the critical ratio values were all above 1.96 and therefore statistically significant. table 3 parameter estimates of the selected ps measurement model latent construct variable squared multiple correlations r2 factor loading (unstandardised λ) factor loading (standardised λ) critical ratio significant at 0.05 level? infrastructure condition and impacts ci4 .559 1.000 .748 … yes ci1 .633 .972 .795 8.645 yes se7 .442 .822 .665 7.174 yes ci2 .705 1.150 .839 9.100 yes user acceptability se3 1.000 1.000 1.000 … yes se1 .773 1.000 .879 … yes se2 .808 1.000 .899 … yes financial sustainability fi1 .548 1.000 .740 … yes fi3 .622 1.000 .789 … yes safety and security ss4 .689 1.000 .830 … yes ss3 .717 .871 .847 7.454 yes … values not determined due to unstandardised regression weight of 1.0 reliability and validity of the project sustainability model the inter-construct correlations between the constructs from the efa (cfa input diagram) ranged from 0.46 to 0.78, and thus indicating discriminant validity of the four-factor structure. the reliability of the cfa model was evaluated using the cr and ave tests. table 4 indicated that the required levels were met as the cr and ave values exceeded recommended thresholds of 0.6 and 0.5, respectively (awang, 2012). convergent validity was achieved by the ave values all being above 0.5. construct validity was achieved by the model being of good fit, with all the fit indices within the recommended cut-off ranges. discriminant validity was also achieved by the modification indices being below 15 and the inter-construct correlations were lower than 0.85. furthermore, discriminant validity was achieved by the inter-construct correlation values being below the square root of the aves, as shown in table 5. the table showed the diagonals in bold, which are the square root values of the ave for the constructs, and the other values in rows and column are the correlation between the constructs related. the square root of the ave values should be greater than the inter-construct correlations for discriminant validity to be achieved (awang, 2012). validity and reliability of a transportation infrastructure sustainable performance framework: a study of transport projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019137 table 4 reliability results for selected ps measurement model latent construct item factor loading λ cr (> 0.6) ave (> 0.5) comment infrastructure condition and impacts (n = 4) ci4 .748 0.762 0.585 required level was achievedci1 .795 se7 .665 ci2 .839 user acceptability (n = 3) se3 1.000 0.926 0.860 required level was achievedse1 .879 se2 .899 financial sustainability (n = 2) fi1 .740 0.765 0.586 required level was achievedfi3 .789 safety and security (n = 2) ss4 .830 0.839 0.703 required level was achievedss3 .847 table 5 discriminant validity for ps measurement models construct infrastructure condition and impacts user acceptability financial sustainability safety and security infrastructure condition and impacts 0.76 user acceptability 0.57 0.93 financial sustainability 0.73 0.44 0.77 safety and security 0.63 0.46 0.46 0.84 discussion the validated cfa four-factor solution revealed that critical transportation infrastructure project sustainability measures include: • condition and impacts including ability to withstand common adverse weather, infrastructure is in good condition, accessibility to all including the disable and elderly, and no complaints about cleanliness; • user acceptability including no complaints about inconvenience during travel, no complaints about travel times, and no complaints about user discomfort during travel; • financial management factors including capital invested has been recovered and no complaints from investors about revenue; and okoro, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019138 • safety and security – including security cameras are in place and security officers are visible). the above findings slightly align with amiril et al. (2014) study which found that in addition to the traditional iron-triangle consideration of social, economic and environmental sustainability aspects, the quality and functionality as well as project financing are critical sustainability elements. the criticality of the wide-range of factors, which emerged from the analysis, has also been emphasised. the condition of transportation infrastructure with regard to its ability to withstand poor weather conditions or natural disasters and being in good condition (generally) were identified as important performance measures for road infrastructure in south africa (friedrich and timol, 2011). these views were also shared by jeon, amekudzi and guensler (2010) and stapledon (2012) who emphasised the importance of technical and structural conditions and network capacity in sustainability assessments. likewise, user acceptability was defined in line with the satisfaction of travel needs of the stakeholders including the end-users (amiril et al., 2014; yu et al, 2018). safety and security were classified under social factors in amiril et al. (2014) and litman (2019). the findings, which excluded institutional factors, are somewhat inconsistent with karjalainena and juhola’s (2019) views, which stressed the importance of effective and comprehensive management of transport systems through political will and good governance. nonetheless, given the range of objectives, impacts and options considered in transportation developments, which invariably affect different people in many ways, a variety of factors need to be considered in order to ensure that decisions are consistent with strategic long-term goals of sustainable transportation development (litman, 2019). conclusion the study sought to validate the underlying structure of transportation infrastructure project sustainability framework established from a previous study by the author. the objective of the study has been achieved. project sustainability was initially theorised to be measured by a six-factor structure comprising socio-economic factors, financial factors, condition of physical infrastructure, safety and security, stakeholder satisfaction and service quality, with twentyeight items. however, the efa indicated a four-factor solution including infrastructure condition and impacts, user acceptability, financial sustainability as well as safety and security, with fourteen items. using a model generating approach to cfa, the primary focus was to validate a measurement model that best described the sample data, and as such, modifications were necessary based on the sources of misfit identified. findings from the cfa revealed that the four-factor structure established during the efa could adequately measure project sustainability, albeit with fewer variables (eleven). this model achieved construct, convergent and discriminant validity and is therefore deemed reliable and generalisable in sustainability assessments of transportation infrastructure projects in south africa. additionally, the techniques employed in the current study could be applied to a different and larger data set from other geographical locations. it is argued that some of the problems and challenges encountered in the operational stage of transport infrastructure projects could be mitigated by according considerable attention to sustainability factors before and after implementation or development of such infrastructure. the performance of transportation infrastructure projects can be sustained if attention is given to developing robust strategies to overcome or mitigate the impact of sustainability risks associated with the identified factors. validity and reliability of a transportation infrastructure sustainable performance framework: a study of transport projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019139 it is notable that environmental sustainability factors were not included explicitly in the study, albeit literature evidence as to their import. sustainability in the current study was taken to be “the ability of a project to continue performing as was expected or projected over a long term, or throughout its life cycle. therefore, the environmental sustainability aspect included was with respect to the impact on the condition of the infrastructure. future studies could incorporate a wider scope to include environmental aspects to a greater extent. additionally, the relative importance of the factors was not presented in the current study. future studies could be dedicated to establishing the relative importance of the measures as well as the relations among the variables. references ahmad, s., zulkurnain, n.n.a. and khairushalimi, f.i., 2016. assessing the validity and reliability of a measurement model in structural equation modelling (sem). british journal of mathematics and computer science, 15(3), pp.1-8. https://doi.org/10.9734/bjmcs/2016/25183 amiril, a., nawawi, a.h., takim, r. and latif, s.n.f., 2014. transportation infrastructure project sustainability factors and performance. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 153(2014), pp.90-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.10.044 awang, z., 2012. validating the measurement model: cfa. ch. 3 in a handbook for sem. https:// www.researchgate.net>download. [accessed 9 december 2018] bhattacharya, a., oppenheim, j. and stern, n., 2016. driving sustainable development through better infrastructure: key elements of a transformation program. global economy and development. [pdf ] washington, dc: the brookings institution. available at: https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/ uploads/2016/07/07-sustainable-development-infrastructure-v2.pdf [accessed 19 june 2017]. brouwer, f.m. and van ittersum, m. eds, 2010. environmental and agricultural modelling: integrated approaches for policy impact assessment. netherlands: springer science and business media. bueno, p.c., vassallo, j.m. and chueng, k., 2015. sustainability assessment of transport infrastructure projects: a review of tools and methods. transport reviews, 35(5), pp.622-49. https://doi.org/10.1080/01 441647.2015.1041435 byrne, b.m., 2001. structural equation modelling with amos: basic concepts, applications and programming. mahwah, nj, us: lawrence erlbaum associates publishers. byrne, b.m., 2006. structural equation modeling with eqs: basic concepts, applications and programming. 2nd ed. mahwah, nj, us: lawrence erlbaum associates publishers. carter, r.l., 2006. solutions for missing data in structural equation modeling. research and practice in assessment, 1(1), pp.1-6. chen, d. and cruz, p., 2012. performance of transport infrastructure. journal of performance of constructed facilities, 26(2), pp.136-37 10.1061/(asce)cf.1943-5509.0000326. climate bonds, 2019. city of cape town green bond framework 2017/05/29. [online] available at: https://www.climatebonds.net/certification/city-of-cape-town. [accessed 20 october 2019]. cottrill, c.d. and derrible, s., 2015. leveraging big data for the development of transport sustainability indicators. journal of urban technology, 22(1), pp.45-64. https://doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2014.942094 okoro, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019140 https://doi.org/10.9734/bjmcs/2016/25183 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.10.044 https://www.researchgate.net>download https://www.researchgate.net>download https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/07-sustainable-development-infrastructure-v2.pdf https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/07-sustainable-development-infrastructure-v2.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2015.1041435 https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2015.1041435 https://www.climatebonds.net/certification/city-of-cape-town https://doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2014.942094 darke, p., shanks, g. and broadbent, m., 1998. successfully completing case study research: combining rigour, relevance and pragmatism. information systems journal, 8(1998), pp.273-89. https://doi. org/10.1046/j.1365-2575.1998.00040.x dhingra, c., 2011. measuring public transport performance: lessons for developing cities. sustainable urban transport technical document #9. available at: https://www.sutp.org>contents>resources. [accessed 8 june 2016]. friedrich, e. and timol, s., 2011. climate change and urban road transport: a south african case study of vulnerability due to sea level rise. journal of the south african institution of civil engineering, 53(2), pp.14-22. gamalath, i.m., perera, h.l.k. and bandara, j.m.s.j., 2014. environmental impact assessment of transport infrastructure projects in sri lanka: way forward. journal of tropical forestry and environment, 4(1), pp.85-96. https://doi.org/10.31357/jtfe.v4i1.1833 gao, s., mokhtarian, p. and johnston, r., 2008. non-normality of data in structural equation models. transportation research record, 2082(1), pp.116-24. https://doi.org/10.3141/2082-14 hoyle, r.h. and gottfredson, n.c., 2015. sample size considerations in prevention research applications of multilevel modeling and structural equation modeling. prevention science, 16(7), pp.987-96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0489-8 hu, l. and bentler, p.m., 1999. cut-off criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. structural equation modeling, 6(1), pp.1-55. https://doi. org/10.1080/10705519909540118 iacobucci, d., 2010. structural equations modelling: fit indices, sample size and advanced topics. journal of consumer psychology, 20(1), pp.90-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2009.09.003 jeon, c.m., amekudzi, a.a. and guensler, r.l., 2010. evaluating plan alternatives for transportation system sustainability: atlanta metropolitan region. international journal of sustainable transportation, 4(4), pp.227–47. https://doi.org/10.1080/15568310902940209 kaare, k.k. and koppel, o., 2012. performance indicators to support evaluation of road investments. discussions on estonian economic policy: theory and practice of economic policy. journal of economic literature, 20(2), pp.88-107. karjalainena, l.e. and juhola, s., 2019. framework for assessing public transportation sustainability in planning and policy-making. sustainability, 11(4) 1-20. doi: 10.3390/su11041028. karlaftis, m. and kepaptsoglou, k., 2012. performance measurement in the road sector: a cross-country review of experience. discussion paper no. 2012-10, greece: international transport forum. [online] available at: https://www.itf-oecd.org/sites/default/files/docs/dp201210.pdf [accessed 28 june 2016]. kenny, d.a., 2015. measuring model fit. [online] available at: http://www.davidakenny.net/cm/fit.htm. [accessed 22 march 2019]. kermanshachi, s. and safapour, e., 2019. gap analysis in cost estimation, risk analysis and contingency computation of transportation infrastructure projects: a guide to resource and policy-based strategy establishment. practice and periodical on structural design and construction, 25(1). https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)sc.1943-5576.0000460. litman, t., 2016. well measured: developing indicators for sustainable and liveable transport planning. victoria transport policy institute. canada. www.vtpi.org>wellmeas accessed 31 december 2017 validity and reliability of a transportation infrastructure sustainable performance framework: a study of transport projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019141 https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2575.1998.00040.x https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2575.1998.00040.x https://www.sutp.org>contents>resources https://doi.org/10.31357/jtfe.v4i1.1833 https://doi.org/10.3141/2082-14 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-014-0489-8 https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcps.2009.09.003 https://doi.org/10.1080/15568310902940209 https://www.itf-oecd.org/sites/default/files/docs/dp201210.pdf http://www.davidakenny.net/cm/fit.htm https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)sc.1943-5576.0000460 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)sc.1943-5576.0000460 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)sc.1943-5576.0000460 www.vtpi.org>wellmeas litman, t. (2019). well measured: developing indicators for sustainable and livable transport planning 18 march 2019. victoria transport policy institute. https://www.vtpi.org/wellmeas.pdf accessed 13 july 2019. lyons, g. and davidson, c. (2016). guidance for transport planning and policymaking in the face of an uncertain future. transportation research part a: policy and practice, 88:104-16. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.tra.2016.03.012 marsh, h.w., hau, k. and wen, z., 2004. in search of golden rules: comment on hypothesis-testing approaches to setting cut-off values for fit indices and dangers in overgeneralising hu and bentler’s (1999) findings. structural equation modeling: a multidisciplinary journal, 11(3), pp.320-41. montgomery, r. (2015). how can we promote sustainable infrastructure? https://www.weforum.org/ agenda/2015/11/how-can-we-promote-sustainable-infrastructure/ accessed 13 july 2019 montgomery, r., schirmer, h. and hirsch, a. (2015). improving environmental sustainability in road projects. environment and natural resources. global practice discussion paper 02. february 2015. washington dc: world bank http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/220111468272038921/ improving-environmental-sustainability-in-road-projects accessed 8 january 2018 muskin, j. a. (2017). sustainability in development projects: how do we do it and how do we want to? in: the practice of international development, kielson, j. and gubser, m. (eds.). routledge musonda, i. (2012). construction health and safety (h&s) performance improvements: a client-centred model. unpublished doctoral thesis. university of johannesburg, south africa. nokelainen, p. (2007). structural equation modeling with amos. research centre for vocational education. accessed 29 november, 2018. okoro, c. s., musonda, i. and agumba, j. n. (2019). an exploratory factor analysis of transportation project sustainability indicators: a case of projects in south africa. cib wbc 2019, 17-21 june, hong kong, china. park, y., mount, j., liu, l. and xiao, n. (2019). assessing public transit performance using real-time data: spatiotemporal patterns of bus operation delays in columbus, ohio, usa. international journal of geographical information science. 10.1080/13658816.2019.1608997 pavlina, p. (2015). the factors influencing satisfaction with public city transport: a structural equation modelling approach. journal of competitiveness, 7(4): 18 – 32. https://doi.org/10.7441/ joc.2015.04.02 quium, a. s. m. a. (2014). the institutional environment for sustainable transport development. unescap.https://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/article%204_institutional%20environment%20 for%20sustainable%20transport%20development.pdf assessed 20 march 2018 ramani, t., zietsman, j., eisele, w., rosa, d. spillane, d. and bochner, b. (2009). developing sustainable transportation performance measures for texas department of transportation’s strategic plan. technical report. http://static.tti.tamu.edu/documents/0-5541-1.pdf. accessed 7 june 2016 rouhani, o. m. (2018). financing sustainability and resiliency of transportation infrastructure in an era of fiscal constraint. munich personal repec archive, paper no. 88504 https://pdfs. semanticscholar.org/d358/86b683e0e283616bb68b358e73811a463c86.pdf accessed 26 october 2019 schiff, a., small, j. and ensor, m. (2013). infrastructure performance indicator framework development. covec and beca. https://treasury.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2017-12/ipifd-mar13.pdf accessed 4 january 2017 okoro, musonda, agumba construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019142 https://www.vtpi.org/wellmeas.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2016.03.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2016.03.012 https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/11/how-can-we-promote-sustainable-infrastructure/ https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2015/11/how-can-we-promote-sustainable-infrastructure/ http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/220111468272038921/improving-environmental-sustainability-in-road-projects http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/220111468272038921/improving-environmental-sustainability-in-road-projects https://doi.org/10.7441/joc.2015.04.02 https://doi.org/10.7441/joc.2015.04.02 https://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/article%204_institutional%20environment%20for%20sustainable%20transport%20development.pdf https://www.unescap.org/sites/default/files/article%204_institutional%20environment%20for%20sustainable%20transport%20development.pdf http://static.tti.tamu.edu/documents/0-5541-1.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d358/86b683e0e283616bb68b358e73811a463c86.pdf https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/d358/86b683e0e283616bb68b358e73811a463c86.pdf https://treasury.govt.nz/sites/default/files/2017-12/ipifd-mar13.pdf schreiber, j. b., stage, f. k., king, j., nora, a. and barlow, e. a. (2006). reporting structural equation modeling and confirmatory factor analysis: a review. journal of educational research, 99(6):323-338. https://doi.org/10.3200/joer.99.6.323-338 stapledon, t. (2012). why infrastructure sustainability is good for your business. cooperative research centre (crc) for infrastructure and engineering asset management (cieam).https://www.wfeo. org>wp-content>uploads. accessed 07 january 2018 united nations (2015). financing sustainable transport. position paper. position paper. https:// sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/7618advisorygrouptransport.pdf accessed 29 march 2019. velazquez, l., munguia, n., will, m. and zavala, a. (2015). sustainable transportation strategies for decoupling road vehicle transport and carbon dioxide emissions. management of environmental quality an international journal, 26(3); 378-388. https://doi.org/10.1108/meq-07-2014-0120 vilana, m. (2014). department of transport presentation to the gauteng e-toll review panel. republic of south africahttps://www.nra.co.za/content/dot_presentation_to_gauteng_etoll_review_panel_ final_version.pdf accessed 28 june 2016 wai, s. h., yusof, a. m. and ismail, s. (2012). exploring success criteria from the developer’s perspective. international journal of engineering business management, 4(33): 1-9. https://doi.org/10.5772/51096 weston, r. and gore, p. a. (2006). a brief guide to structural equation modeling. the counseling psychologist, 34(5): 719-751. https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000006286345 xue, b., liu, b. and shu, t. (2018). what matters in achieving infrastructure sustainability through project management practices: a preliminary study of critical factors. sustainability, 10(12). doi: 10.3390/su10124421 xue, y., guan, h., corey, j., wei, h. and yan, h. (2017). quantifying a financially sustainable strategy of public transport: private capital investment considering passenger value. sustainability, 9(269): 1-20; doi:10.3390/su9020269 yu, m., zhu, f., yang, x., wang, l. and sun, x. (2018). integrating sustainability into construction engineering projects: perspective of sustainable project planning. sustainability, 10(784): 1-17. doi:10.3390/su10030784 zou, s., peng, y. and mei, z. (2011). research on the new methods of forecasting model of urban passenger traffic mode. 11th international conference of chinese transportation professionals (icctp), 14-17 august, nanjing, china. validity and reliability of a transportation infrastructure sustainable performance framework: a study of transport projects in south africa construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 2, december 2019143 https://doi.org/10.3200/joer.99.6.323-338 https://www.wfeo.org>wp-content>uploads https://www.wfeo.org>wp-content>uploads https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/7618advisorygrouptransport.pdf https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/7618advisorygrouptransport.pdf https://doi.org/10.1108/meq-07-2014-0120 https://www.nra.co.za/content/dot_presentation_to_gauteng_etoll_review_panel_final_version.pdf https://www.nra.co.za/content/dot_presentation_to_gauteng_etoll_review_panel_final_version.pdf https://doi.org/10.5772/51096 https://doi.org/10.1177/0011000006286345 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: al-attar, h., sweis, g., tarawneh, b., abu-khader, w., haddad, l., sweis, r. 2025. enhanced construction project duration estimation using artificial neural networks: initial design and planning stages. construction economics and building, 25:2, 168–191. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i2.9253 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article enhanced construction project duration estimation using artificial neural networks: initial design and planning stages heba al-attar1, ghaleb sweis2, bashar tarawneh3, waleed abu-khader4,*, leen haddad5, rateb sweis6 1 the university of jordan, department of civil engineering, amman, amman, jo, attarheba97@gmail.com 2 the university of jordan, department of civil engineering, amman, amman, jo, gsweis@ju.edu.jo 3 the university of jordan, department of civil engineering, amman, amman, jo, btarawneh@ju.edu.jo 4 merrimack college, civil engineering department, north andover, ma, usa, abukhaderw@merrimack.edu 5 the university of arizona, department of systems & industrial engineering, tucson, az, usa, leenhaddad@email.arizona.edu 6 the university of jordan, business management department, amman, amman, jo, r.sweis@ju.edu.jo corresponding author: waleed abu-khader, merrimack college, civil engineering department, north andover, ma, usa, abukhaderw@merrimack.edu doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9253 article history: received 23/07/2024; revised 20/01/2025; accepted 20/04/2025; published 08/08/2025 abstract maintaining efficiency and quality control during the early phases of construction projects depends on accurate duration estimation. however, because there is not enough data available in the initial stages of project planning, traditional methodologies suffer. to address these challenges, this study presents an innovative approach using artificial neural networks (anns) through python. this method offers reliable predictions for early-stage duration estimation. ann models were created and validated with 53 design parameters using data from 100 different construction projects in jordan. furthermore, 168 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9253 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9253 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9253 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:attarheba97@gmail.com mailto:gsweis@ju.edu.jo mailto:btarawneh@ju.edu.jo mailto:abukhaderw@merrimack.edu mailto:leenhaddad@email.arizona.edu mailto:r.sweis@ju.edu.jo mailto:abukhaderw@merrimack.edu https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9253 the study refined the models to 43 parameters using a questionnaire-driven approach. the average duration estimation accuracy of the ann models was 90% during the initial stage and 95% during the planning stage, demonstrating their great accuracy. its uniqueness comes in its application of ann to early-stage building, an area that has not been extensively studied in the literature to date, and in its demonstration that reliable predictions may be generated in the absence of abundant data. this study demonstrates ann’s effectiveness in enhancing early-stage construction planning by providing stakeholders with a more accurate duration estimation tool than traditional methods. the findings contribute significantly to improving decision-making and project planning in the early phases. keywords duration; artificial neural networks; design; planning; jordan introduction time, cost, and quality are critical factors in determining construction project success. duration estimation remains challenging for contractors and researchers, with project cost often correlating positively with duration (velumani, et al., 2021). accurately estimating duration and cost during the planning stages remains a challenge. traditional techniques, such as the critical path method, often fail to manage the complexity of modern projects, leading to frequent underestimations. the current techniques of estimating durations represent a risk to the contractor, as there is a high possibility that the owner’s estimate of the project’s duration will be inaccurate, making the contractor susceptible to liquidated damages. unexpected delays may lead to litigation and reduced construction quality. conversely, overestimating durations can cause financial losses for clients (galli, 2020). despite these challenges, research on advanced data-driven methods like artificial neural network (ann) for early-stage duration predictions is limited. this study addresses this gap by demonstrating ann’s potential for providing reliable estimates with minimal data. by addressing risks of underestimation and overestimation, ann provides stakeholders with more reliable predictions. sanni-anibire, et al. (2021) claimed that the complexity of structures is increasing in the 21st century. according to experts, one of the most pervasive issues in the construction sector is the significant variance between the estimated and actual duration of construction projects (sanni-anibire, et al., 2020). according to mensah, et al. (2016), a reliable schedule executed from the initial stages reduces project delays and, consequently, cost overruns. the duration of construction projects is regarded as one of the most crucial factors for the success of a project. late completion raises costs and results in lost potential revenue for clients. this research addresses these challenges by developing and validating ann models to estimate project duration using actual data from various construction projects. recent research has demonstrated that anns often surpass traditional regression models in predicting project durations in construction (balali, et al., 2020; titirla and aretoulis, 2020; fan, et al., 2021; ujong, et al., 2022; altalhoni, et al., 2025). anns are preferred for their capability to handle complex, non-linear relationships and provide quick, precise predictions (helvaci, 2008; weckman, et al., 2010; mensah, et al., 2016; nani, et al., 2017; ghritlahre and prasad, 2018). this study aims to enhance initial schedule estimates in construction projects, particularly in scenarios with incomplete information, thereby aiding stakeholders in achieving greater accuracy in project planning and improving duration prediction accuracy. the ann technique has been preferred over other methods of artificial intelligence (ai) because of its ability to manage complex and non-linear functions and its higher accuracy (weckman, et al., 2010; kulkarni, et al., 2017). al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025169 the idea of developing ann models for early-stage prediction is repeated several times. it can be stated once and referenced later instead of repeating it in similar forms. furthermore, it assists stakeholders in obtaining the highest possible accuracy of project scheduling, especially when insufficient information is available about the project during these stages. the main objectives of this research were to provide a quantifiable tool to identify and evaluate the perceived influence of the most important factors affecting the estimation of the project schedule in the initial stages (planning and the initial design stages), as well as the factors specified by literature and experts’ opinion, and at the same time determine what factors have the greatest influence on the accuracy of construction duration estimation. moreover, the ann models with the most effective input variables were used and developed to achieve high accuracy in early-stage duration estimation. after that, an ann analysis of the predictability of an adequate duration for various buildings in jordan was performed by implementing, training, and testing the models. the performance of ann models in predicting project duration was evaluated, providing insights for project managers and researchers into optimizing scheduling practices for new construction projects. this research focuses on construction projects and includes duration estimations in the planning and initial design stages. anns have proven their effectiveness where the accuracy was high during both initial stages when data are limited or unavailable, despite utilizing a high number of factors as well as a high number of different projects during each stage. the data collected were from construction projects during 2014 and 2021 in jordan. the study inherently accounted for covid-19 impacts through its dataset, as anns adjust to disruptions, including pandemic-related delays, therefore reflected in the training data. they can also be retrained for future disruptions, ensuring flexibility. relevant literature, such as the study of ujong, et al. (2022), supports the use of anns in predicting project durations under varying conditions. the adopted parameters are limited to the design factors related to project characteristics and leave out variables related to the estimation process, such as the team’s estimation experience and skills in the field, variables affecting labor productivity, and the availability of storage and equipment. literature review according to ujong, et al. (2022), the need for a precise estimation of construction cost and duration from the outset is evident. this is due to environmental and logistical factors, non-linear dependencies, and general patterns in construction projects. mubarak (2019) defined scheduling as the determination of the timing and sequence of operations in a project and their assembly to provide a total completion time. scheduling and estimating are inextricably linked, and their relationship is likely to be one of the most crucial aspects of project management. this research provides an overview of schedule estimation in construction projects, a clarification of the significant factors that affect schedule delays in construction projects, anns, and empirical studies related to anns’ adoption in estimating the schedule of construction projects. why is schedule estimation important? according to larson and gray (2013), estimating is “balancing stakeholders’ expectations and the requirements for control while the project is being implemented”. furthermore, they specified the following vital factors in project time estimation: • to assist in making good decisions. • to determine cash flow requirements. • to ascertain precisely how effectively the project is accelerating. • to construct time-phased budgets and specify the project baseline. al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025170 the significance of the accurate estimation of construction duration from the contractors’ viewpoint and the underestimation of construction durations entails reorganizing and reallocating resources that were not intended in the beginning. however, overestimating construction duration may be as hazardous as underestimating construction duration (helvaci, 2008). key design factors affecting building duration accuracy numerous parameters influence construction project costs and duration; the most influential parameters were chosen after reviewing numerous studies ( juszczyk, 2015; matel, et al., 2019; al-tawal., 2020; sannianibire, et al., 2020; juan and liou, 2021; rauzana and dharma, 2022; ujong, et al., 2022). the relationship between construction project cost and duration is critical for project management and control. according to olawale and sun (2014), the reasons for cost increases are usually also the reasons for time extensions. furthermore, their study was of cost and time control together in the argument that these two concepts are difficult to separate. this study emphasizes early-stage duration predictions rather than cost estimation due to a lack of studies on duration in jordanian construction projects from 2014 to 2021. relevant information, including costs, was provided by responsible agents. duration reflects project complexity and resource requirements, making it an essential variable. it serves as the target for the ann model, enabling accurate forecasts of project timelines. this approach allows for effective predictions even when cost data are limited or unavailable. properties of the artificial neural network conventional methods rely on algorithmic instructions, while neural networks approach problems through pattern recognition and learning (aneja, 2011). as a result, the computer’s capacity to solve a problem is constrained by the programmers’ comprehension of the issue at hand and their problem-solving skills. the inability of algorithmic approaches to resolve issues is that the programmer only has a hazy understanding of these issues (al-tawal, 2020). in contrast, neural networks, composed of small processing units called neurons, function similarly to the human brain by learning rather than relying solely on programming. they adapt their approach to problemsolving based on acquired knowledge (aneja, 2011). wang and elhag (2007) affirmed that anns can learn and approximate various relationships, including both linear and non-linear ones. their capability to model data with multiple inputs and outputs is a significant advantage. current literature has highlighted that anns serve as effective soft computing tools, simulating the human mind’s reasoning and pattern recognition abilities (kaur, 2016; kulkarni, et al., 2017; pezeshki and mazinani, 2019). anns learn from the relationships between inputs and outputs in training data, enabling them to generalize results and address non-linear problems that require contextual judgment and expertise. according to mijwel (2018), the following characteristics distinguish neural network systems from conventional computing and artificial intelligence: 1. fault tolerance refers to the network’s ability to make a correct decision in the case of incomplete input data because the network correlates the existing components with its memory without the need for the missing components. 2. pattern recognition. 3. a multiple-layer neural network’s generalization and classification abilities are its most important characteristics. al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025171 4. the ability of ann adaptability is in response to new inputs not encountered earlier. the processing elements (neurons) adjust their weights individually and then in groups, naturally in accordance with the learning scheme. empirical studies related to anns’ adoption in estimating the duration of construction projects the application of anns in construction has been estimated to date back to the early 1980s, covering various construction-related challenges. a review of contemporary studies demonstrates the relevance of anns in enhancing estimation accuracy. table 1 illustrates several studies that are pertinent to this research, which utilized anns in construction duration estimation. research gap neural networks have not been used to estimate the duration of construction projects in jordan. furthermore, the estimation of duration is a crucial issue, especially during the initial stages of the design of a construction project and when information is limited. in jordan, the methods of estimation are poor and traditional due to a lack of historical data and high competitiveness between the companies. it is important to develop an ann model to estimate the duration, which is why this research is significant. anns are being applied during various design stages in a project’s life cycle at the regional level. for these reasons, this research focuses on applying anns to actual samples of building construction projects in jordan that have been built over the past 8 years, using different parameters as inputs at each stage to evolve duration estimation models in the planning and initial design stages. moreover, building on the challenges identified in the introduction, this research aimed to develop different ann models for use in the initial stages of construction projects, planning, and preliminary design stages to estimate the duration required to perform a project without delays. research methodology there are two approaches to data analysis: quantitative and qualitative. the objective of the quantitative approach is to gather factual data, investigate the relationships between those facts, and determine whether those facts and relationships are consistent with theories and previous research findings (el-sawalhi and shehatto, 2013). in order to perform statistical analysis, quantitative research requires the reduction of phenomena to numerical values. the qualitative approach identified factors influencing project duration through literature reviews. the quantitative approach, in contrast, gathered data on the main factors affecting project durations that have been built in jordan by building a questionnaire. the identification of the factors that influence the duration of construction projects is one of the most significant steps in developing a neural network (nn) model. through a literature review, a thorough list of factors relevant to jordanian construction was created. key parameters were first determined through literature reviews. after that, a first questionnaire was built based on the literature and a pilot study to identify the factors influencing the duration of construction projects in jordan. a second questionnaire was constructed to demonstrate the importance of each factor during the initial design and planning stages. this research developed ann models for early-stage duration estimation as an alternative to traditional methods. figure 1 outlines the methodology. the pilot study a pilot study was conducted prior to sampling the questionnaire (al-tawal, 2020). ten copies of the questionnaire in total were given and reviewed. the 10 successful surveys were added to the data sample al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025172 table 1. empirical studies related to ann (authors’ own) country objectives findings authors united states compared alternative methods in the initial stages of projects to forecast the conceptual duration of construction projects. regression analysis and ann were used to formulate five models to estimate the duration of 17 construction projects in the united states. 1. the results for the regression and neural network models proved that there were no significant variations in the prediction accuracy. 2. the mean absolute percentage error (mape) of the conceptual estimate of the construction duration in this study reached 13%–15%. helvaci (2008) bosnia and herzegovina a linear regression using a “time cost” model was used to estimate the construction time, and valuable information about the 75 buildings built in the federation of bosnia and herzegovina was gathered through field research. 1. the value of mape was calculated (10.35). 2. the value of mape was then determined by applying a multilayer perceptron neural network (mlp-nn) predictive model to the same data (2.50). 3. the mlp-nn model showed a significant increase in prediction accuracy. petruseva, et al. (2012) ghana studied a tool for estimating the duration of bridge-building projects. one hundred sets of questions were distributed and the historical records for 30 completed bridge projects. the stepwise regression approach and ann strategy were utilized to examine and evaluate the data. 1. both regression and ann models are suitable for forecasting the duration of a new bridge development project. 2. during the validation stage, the development of a regression model and an ann model utilizing a feed-forward backpropagation algorithm resulted in mape values of 25% and 26%, respectively. nani, et al. (2017) nigeria investigated the cost and duration of construction projects. a database was created using six input variables. the levenberg– marquardt training algorithm and mse performance criteria were used in the development of smart intelligent modeling in matlab to achieve an optimized network architecture. 1. an average coefficient of determination (r2) of 0.99995, which is better than the multiple linear regression (mlr) result of 0.6986. 2. the computed results showed a good correlation between the ann model and the actual results. 3. the value of mae was 0.2952, which denotes a robust model. ujong, et al. (2022) note. ann, artificial neural network; mlp, multilayer perceptron; nn, neural network. al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025173 since the analysis from the pilot study demonstrated the validity of the questionnaire’s internal consistency and structure, as well as the reliability of the data gathered. distributing the questionnaire to maintain the research’s objectives, the population to which the questionnaire was distributed was defined. because the population was small and information was acquired from each member, researchers included the complete population in census studies (al-tawal, 2020). the questionnaire for this research was completed in august 2022. schedule engineers from various jordanian construction institutions were included in the research population. due to the small number of people who possessed the desired attribute, judgmental sampling was chosen. using the technique of judgmental sampling, the researcher relied on the population’s expert opinion. therefore, the sample size was carefully chosen to ensure validity and adequate reliability. estimating a proportion for a small, finite population, the following equation was used to calculate the sample size for the population: = −+ 11 mn m n where n is the total population, n is the sample size necessary to estimate population sample proportion p of a small finite population, and m is the sample size necessary to estimate the proportion for a large population, which can be calculated using the following formula: figure 1. methodology steps performed (authors’ own) al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025174 m z p p        /2 2 2 1 where za/ 2 is the z-value (1.96 for a 95% confidence level), e 2 is the margin of error (4%), and p = 0.5 is the population proportion in the worst-case scenario. assuming 2% of engineers work or participate in schedule estimation processes, statistical analysis was done to estimate the number of planning engineers in jordan and calculate population n. according to reports from the jordan engineers association ( jea annual report, 2021) and jordan construction contractors association ( jcca annual report, 2021) and assuming an average of 50 engineers per company, first-grade and second-grade building construction companies in amman were selected to estimate the total number of engineers working as consultants and contractors or with owners. table 2 presents the total number of construction engineering companies and lists the approximate number of engineers in each institution, assuming that there are 50 engineers on average per company. table 2. total number of construction engineering companies’ total number of schedulers/ planners among engineers (authors’ own) total number of construction engineering companies total number of planning engineers degree 1st 2nd total institution total number of engineers total number of planning engineers contractors 44 12 56 contractors 2,800 56 consultants 58 105 163 consultants 8,150 163 clients (assumed) 40 30 70 clients 3,500 70 total 142 147 289 total 14,450 289 thus, n = 56 + 163 + 70 = 289 planning engineers. the sample size for the population can be calculated as follows: m = (1.96)2 × (0.5 × 0.5) ÷ (0.04)2 = 600.25 and = = −+ 600.25 195600.25 11 289 n (planning engineers from owners, consultants, and contractors). the attainable sample was less than the requisite sample size, so the entire population was used. a total of 230 copies of the questionnaire were distributed, and 203 copies were completed and returned by the respondents for quantitative analysis. hypothesis testing the hypothesis for the analysis was formulated in two parts: the null hypothesis h0 represents the expected outcome, while h1 represents the alternative hypothesis. thus, the research hypothesis tested at n ≥ 30 is as follows: h0 : μ ≥ μ0 h1 : μ < μ0 al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025175 where n is the sample size, μ0 = 3, where 3 represents a moderate effect on duration estimation on the likert scale (median), and μ1 refers to the factor being tested. if μ ≥ 3, then accept h0, which means that the tested factor has a significant effect on project duration. other outcomes reject h0, indicating that the tested factor has an insignificant effect on project duration. questionnaire analysis and results the research employed a web-based questionnaire that aligned with a quantitative approach, which was divided into two sections to meet the study’s objectives. the first section gathered general information about the respondents, while the second section focused on design factors with the highest influence on the accuracy of construction duration estimation of buildings in jordan. the questionnaire included multiple-choice questions, which were simple and quick to answer, did not require writing, and were easy to analyze. additionally, a logical filter question was used to exclude engineers with no experience in duration estimation. the second section, which produced the majority of the results, asked respondents to rate 53 previously identified factors using a 5-point likert scale. the likert scale provided a structured, quantifiable way to assess the perceived influence of each factor on duration estimation. scale number 1 indicates an exceptionally low effect on duration estimation, number 2 shows a low effect on duration estimation, number 3 indicates a moderate effect on duration, number 4 shows a high effect on duration, and number 5 illustrates a severe effect on duration. study population characteristics • participation in estimating the duration of construction projects in jordan. the majority of respondents (71.4%) had worked entirely in jordan in estimating project durations; 28.6% had partially participated in estimating project durations. • type of organization the majority of respondents (28.6%) were working in engineering consulting firms, followed by 24.8% working in contracting firms, 21.1% in management firms, and 13.5% in firms that focus on schedule consulting, and the remaining 12% collaborated with owners and client institutions. • job title/position twenty-five respondents described themselves as project managers (18.8%), 20 as site engineers (15%), 36 as quantity surveyors (27.1%), 21 as project engineers (15.8%), 10 as planning engineers (7.5%), two as stakeholders (1.5%), 15 as schedulers (11.3%), and four as contract administrators (3%). • years of experience in the construction industry most respondents (72.2%) had more than 7 years of construction industry experience. the targeted respondents comprised 30.1% with more than 10 years of working experience, 42.1% with 7 to 10 years of experience, 16.5% with 3 to 6 years of experience, and 11.3% with less than 2 years of experience in the construction industry. • number of construction projects that respondents worked on the largest group of respondents (38.3%) worked on 20 to 30 projects, 21.1% worked on more than 30 projects, 16.5% worked on 10 to 20 projects, and 24.1% worked on fewer than 10 projects. • respondents’ demographic information to gather data on projects built in jordan over the previous 8 years, respondents were given the option of providing additional demographic information about themselves. the reliability of al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025176 the questionnaire answers was influenced by the respondents’ understanding of consulting and construction work. factors affecting the duration of construction projects finding the parameters or factors that influence how long construction projects take to complete is one of the most important steps in building a neural network model. based on literature reviews, the factors pertinent to jordanian construction were carefully identified and chosen. key parameters were initially determined through literature studies; subsequently, a questionnaire was developed in accordance with the building and expert opinions. table 3 shows the influence of each factor on building duration. while specific details may not be finalized during the initial stages, expert judgment and assumptions were made based on preliminary design data, historical information, or standard practices. these factors were included as variables in the ann model to account for their potential impact on project duration, even if some details were estimated at the initial stages. moreover, the ann model’s adaptability means that these assumptions can be adjusted as more detailed information becomes available. including such variables from the outset improves the model’s accuracy by considering their influence, helping to refine predictions as the design progresses. table 3. influence of each factor on building duration (authors’ own) no. description rating average for initial design stage rating average for planning stage 1 type of contract 4.13 4.13 2 project cost 3.80 3.80 3 built-up area 3.68 3.68 4 site conditions new or existing construction 3.64 3.64 5 location of the building 3.53 3.53 6 type of aluminum work 3.47 3.47 7 special construction in elevations 3.47 3.47 8 percentage of wood and plastic work 3.47 3.47 9 waterproofing system used 3.47 3.47 10 type of furnishings and equipment 3.45 3.45 11 area of internal wall finish 3.45 3.45 12 use of the building 3.45 3.45 13 number of doors 3.44 3.44 14 number of rooms 3.44 3.44 15 percentage of conveying equipment 3.44 3.44 16 cable work 3.43 3.43 17 type of metalwork 3.42 3.42 18 tons of steel used 3.42 3.42 al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025177 no. description rating average for initial design stage rating average for planning stage 19 percentage of doors work from total building duration 3.41 3.41 20 area of false ceiling 3.40 3.40 21 type of partitions 3.39 3.39 22 specialties used 3.38 3.38 23 type of water and sanitary work 3.38 3.38 24 type of communication and security systems 3.38 3.38 25 area of openings curtain walls 3.36 3.36 26 percentage of alarm work and firefighting 3.35 3.35 27 percentage of thermal and moisture protection 3.32 3.32 28 existence of special electrical systems 3.32 3.32 29 quantity of water and sanitary works 3.32 3.32 30 area of stonework (internal floors only) 3.31 3.31 31 type of carpentry work 3.29 3.29 32 existence of special electrical systems 3.29 3.29 33 quantity of electrical works 3.29 3.28 34 type of internal cladding 3.27 3.26 35 type of ceiling finish 3.27 3.22 36 foundation type 3.27 3.21 37 building height 3.26 3.13 38 area of typical floors 3.25 3.10 39 number of floors above the ground level 3.25 3.05 40 earthworks and special systems 3.25 3.04 41 type of slab 3.23 3.04 42 type of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (hvac) 3.23 3.02 43 type of external finish 3.22 3.02 44 type of floor finish 3.22 2.97 45 number of basements 3.20 2.95 46 number of underground parking 3.20 2.92 47 number of staircases in the building 3.10 2.91 table 3. continued al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025178 no. description rating average for initial design stage rating average for planning stage 48 type of basement walls 3.02 2.91 49 length of spans between columns 3.02 2.89 50 exterior improvements and utilities used 3.03 2.81 51 number of elevators 3.01 2.81 52 slab-on-grade (sog) type 3.01 2.75 53 hvac volume 3.01 2.74 data processing the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) version 23 was used for quantitative analysis following the data collection process. descriptive statistics, such as central tendency (the mean), standard deviation, and normal distribution, were used for data analysis in this research to meet the goals of the questionnaire. the independent samples t-test was used to determine whether there was a significant difference between the means of the two factors. dividing the dataset into five ann models grouped projects by duration, reducing variability and enhancing performance by focusing on homogeneous data ranges. despite fewer samples per ann, this segmentation significantly boosts prediction reliability for each specific duration range, following established practices, such as those in ujong, et al. (2022). to mitigate concerns about data limitations and replicability, standardized preprocessing and segmentation criteria were implemented. the dataset was divided into five duration-based groups to enhance the model accuracy by reducing variability within subsets. the division of the dataset into duration-based groups enhanced the model accuracy by reducing variability within subsets; by optimizing predictive accuracy for various project durations, the segmentation approach, combined with consistent methodologies and thorough documentation, guarantees that future researchers can replicate or tailor this framework to their datasets, irrespective of size or regional context. normality large enough sample sizes (>30 or 40) should prevent key issues arising from the violation of the normality assumption. the central limit theorem states that if the sample data tend to be normal, then the sampling distribution will also be normal. in large samples (>30 or 40), the sampling distribution tends to be normal regardless of the data’s shape (ghasemi and zahediasl, 2012). a normality analysis was conducted by examining the distribution’s skewness and kurtosis to verify the assumption. skewness and kurtosis tests may be reasonably accurate in both small and large samples, according to wulandari, et al. (2021). george and mallery (2003) claimed that to demonstrate a normal distribution, values between −2 and +2 for skewness and kurtosis are acceptable. independent samples t-test the independent samples t-test is frequently used when comparing differences between groups, and the compared groups may not even be related to each other (kim, 2019). it is used under one circumstance: when the items in each group are fairly representative of the population, an independent samples t-test can be used to examine differences between groups according to the data gathered with the value of t = 3, and the significance level is α = 0.05. table 3. continued al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025179 data analysis there are several factors that affect the duration of construction projects during the planning and initial design stages. the first parameters adopted to build the ann model at the initial design stage are shown in table 3; the first model was built using all 53 factors collected from previous literature. although not all factors, such as contract type or special construction details, are fully known at the initial stages, their inclusion accounts for potential impacts on project duration. expert judgment and assumptions fill gaps where specific data are unavailable, enhancing the ann model’s accuracy by considering all influences. the reliance on expert judgment for initial estimates through a structured framework with predefined criteria like thresholds from historical data, weighted scoring systems, and guidelines for assessing duration ranges was standardized. this reduces variability in expert opinions, grounding decisions in consistent, datadriven methodologies. pilot testing with multiple experts showed a prominent level of consensus, validating the framework’s replicability. at the initial design stage of these projects, all specified factors influenced construction duration, as confirmed by engineers, experts, and the hypothesis test results that determined the degree of influence of each factor during each stage. the goal of this section was to reduce the 53 design factors to the most effective ones for the planning stage, resulting in 43 influential factors used in the second ann model. these 43 factors were determined through a combination of hypothesis testing, expert judgment, and questionnaire results, which allowed the refinement of the model for more accurate duration predictions during the planning stage. actual data collection and validation the process of gathering data about actual projects built in jordan over the previous 8 years was challenging because construction companies consider such information to be proprietary to each company and find it challenging to share such information with rival firms. the study made concerted efforts to gather sufficient data from 100 completed projects, ensuring highquality data through the application of rigorous selection criteria to develop a robust nn model. these data were gathered using a methodology based on direct contacts with construction companies, organizations, and government agencies throughout jordan. creating a realistic duration model with the best results relies on a well-prepared dataset. a data sheet was prepared, and the 53 factors collected from literature reviews required to build the dataset accurately were identified. factors were divided into two categories: numerical and descriptive. the most critical thing to build any predictive model is data validation to find unusual or invalid cases, inaccurate variables, and inaccurate data. basic assumptions and criteria were adopted to overcome defects in the data collected: 1. projects must be completely finished and built (el-sawalhi and shehatto, 2013). 2. all inaccurate, missing, or incomplete information must be eliminated. two projects with the same values in their duplicate data must be removed. while this study used data from 100 construction projects, which may be considered small for developing robust ann models, the data underwent a rigorous selection process to ensure their quality and reliability. to ensure a robust and comprehensive dataset for developing the ann and to gather a diverse range of data from various construction projects, which are crucial for building accurate and dependable cost estimation models, the initial dataset included 110 projects. however, after filtering out incomplete, misleading, or duplicating data, 10 projects were eliminated. this rigorous selection process helped ensure the quality and reliability of the data used in the study. additionally, the selected 100 projects represented a diverse set al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025180 of project types, sizes, and complexities within the jordanian construction sector, making the data highly representative despite the smaller sample size. moreover, prior studies have demonstrated that ann models can still perform effectively with small to medium-sized datasets when the data quality is high (ghritlahre and prasad 2018; bilski, et al., 2020). thus, while a larger dataset could further improve the model’s generalizability, this study provides a valuable foundation, laying the groundwork for future research with more extensive data. the selection of 6-month time frames is a deliberate methodological approach designed to enhance the model accuracy by aggregating projects with comparable durations. while it may appear that advanced knowledge of project lengths is necessary, this grouping is informed by historical data and expert insights, facilitating the identification of the most appropriate model for upcoming projects. for projects with durations close to two-time bands, like 6–7 months or 13–14 months, the use of a dual-stage process was chosen. initially, these projects were classified by comparing them to the median duration of each group using statistical thresholds from historical data. then, these classifications were validated by comparing outputs from neighboring ann models to see if they matched actual project durations. if there were differences, a re-evaluation of the project parameters was performed in order to ensure accurate classification without affecting the model’s predictive performance. projects on the cusp of two duration ranges were tested against both adjacent ann models. the outputs were cross-validated to ensure consistency, with results typically aligning within an acceptable margin of error (i.e., <±5%). this dual-model approach ensures that predictions remain robust and comparable, regardless of initial classification. the first group of projects included those with a duration of less than 6 months and comprised 17 projects. the second group included projects with a duration of 7 to 13 months (36 projects). the third group included projects with a duration of 14 to 20 months (19 projects). the fourth group included projects with a duration of 21 to 30 months (22 projects). the fifth group included six projects with a duration of more than 30 months. this project division produced 10 models, which were then compared to build conclusions and recommendations. in the application of these models to new projects, the selection of the most appropriate model is based on the estimated duration range of the project. this decision draws on historical data and expert insights, ensuring that the best-suited model is utilized for accurate predictions. by creating and implementing multiple models, our goal was to improve the accuracy of duration estimates for construction projects, effectively addressing the variability in project durations in a way that a single, consolidated model would not achieve. developing and building the model it took a lot of trial and error to find and confirm the best model architecture. python was chosen to create the ann models due to its accessibility to excellent ai and machine learning (ml) libraries and frameworks, flexibility, platform independence, and wide community. to make the selection of the appropriate ann model consistent and replicable, a structured framework was created. this included setting predefined thresholds, using historical data benchmarks, and applying weighted scoring criteria to guide our decisions. historical duration data and expert consensus, including project size, complexity, and contract type, guided the predefined thresholds. key determinants for duration estimation were identified through analysis, although additional factors were initially considered to address variability and uncertainty in early-stage data. testing the model’s simplification by removing less influential factors led to reduced prediction accuracy, particularly for atypical projects. by having clear guidelines, the differences that can arise from varying expert opinions were minimized. also, this framework with multiple experts was tested, ensuring that they agreed on the classification outcomes, which confirmed that our approach could be replicated across different professional inputs. al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025181 using the appropriate library for anns, python divided the input data into training, validation, and testing sets. the weights attached to the neural network were modified using the training group. the testing group was used to measure the network’s capacity for generalization and to assess network performance, and training was halted when the examination group’s error rose or when generalization stopped improving. however, the test set was not used in the training process and had no bearing on it (arafa and alqedra, 2011; roxas, et al., 2014; al-saadi, et al., 2017). once the neuronal network training was successfully finished, the performance of the model was evaluated using the validation group. as a result, the step of grouping the data into the three categories mentioned above is significant in neural network modeling (alsaadi, et al., 2017). table 4 shows the number of projects for each group and dataset. when projects were initially placed in one duration bracket but later found to fit better in another due to updated design information, a re-evaluation to reassign them was necessary. however, the ann models were built to be flexible, allowing experts to recalibrate based on new data. after reassignment, a test of the project with the new ann model was performed to ensure accuracy. this adaptability ensures that the bestfitting model is always used, even as project details change during the design and planning phases. table 4. number of projects of each group and datasets (authors’ own) project group number of projects datasets training percentage validation percentage testing percentage 1 less than or equal to 6 months 17 13 projects 80% 2 10% 2 10% 2 7 to 13 months 36 28 projects 4 4 3 14 to 20 months 19 15 projects 2 2 4 21 to 30 months 22 18 projects 2 2 5 more than 30 months 6 4 projects 1 1 this was repeated for the two stages, changing the number of input variables (53 and 43 factors) with each stage. table 4 demonstrates the development and validation of the ann model across different project durations, including those less than 6 months. using known durations for testing allowed us to assess the model’s accuracy and generalization of unseen cases. separating data into training, testing, and validation sets ensured robust predictive performance for future projects with unknown timelines. this approach enhanced the model’s reliability in estimating durations. the fifth group, which included projects lasting over 30 months, was the smallest due to these projects’ rarity in the dataset. to manage this limitation, oversampling techniques, cross-validation, and synthetic data generation based on historical trends and expert insights were used. these measures ensure that the ann model for this group remains robust. after the data were prepared, the ann was constructed by selecting appropriate libraries, defining the network architecture, and choosing suitable learning algorithms. the network architecture included decisions on the number of hidden layers, the type of transfer functions, and the learning rate. the levenberg–marquardt algorithm was chosen due to its effectiveness in training smallto medium-sized datasets, combining the efficiency of the gauss–newton method with the robustness of gradient descent (caliskan and sevim, 2019). this algorithm is particularly suited for regression tasks, where high precision is required. to optimize performance, the rectified linear unit (relu) activation function was used, which al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025182 accelerates the learning process and prevents vanishing gradient issues. a learning rate of 0.01 was applied, as it balances convergence speed with stability. relu has become a popular choice in deep learning for its simplicity and effectiveness in producing state-of-the-art results (ramachandran, et al., 2017). the test data included projects covering the full range of each band, including those near the boundaries. this approach ensures that the models are robust in handling real-world cases and validate their performance for both central and borderline projects. testing of cusp projects confirmed the models’ adaptability and predictive consistency across ranges. projects situated near the duration range boundaries underwent testing against neighboring ann models for cross-validation. to avoid data duplication, each project was included in only one model’s training or testing set. this dual-model validation approach ensured the accurate classification of edge projects without inflating the dataset size artificially. model training and results the main goal of training the neural network is to compare the validation sets of each training set to find the network that performs the best for unseen data. the main steps taken to train each of the 10 developed models are shown in figure 2. detailed guidelines, including python scripts and open-source frameworks, are provided to ensure the replicability of these models. figure 2. model training for each of the 10 developed models (authors’ own) detailed stages in programming were taken to choose the adequate nn. first, the python library was used to enter the inputs and targeted data of each model. the inputs are the factor variables of each project, whereas targeted data represent the actual project duration. then, the tensorflow library was used, and the nn tool was selected by typing “pip install tensorflow” in the windows command. after that, the scikit learn library was used by typing “pip install scikit-learn” in the windows command. then, the data were split into training, validation, and testing sets on the “train_test_split” command code. this research allocated 80% of the data for training, 10% for validation, and 10% for testing. additionally, a “fully connected” input layer was added to the sequential ann by calling the dense class to change the number of neurons when the network did not perform well after training. moreover, the network was trained using the levenberg–marquardt training algorithm because it typically consumes more memory but less time. training automatically stopped when generalization stopped improving, as indicated by an increase in the mean squared error (mse) of the validation samples. al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025183 after each training, the results of regression plots were shown for all datasets for each model in two stages. in each run, new weights were applied in the first epoch and then adjusted to minimize the percentage error in other epochs. after achieving the best validation performance on the input–output fit, along with the minimal error, the network was adopted, and its outputs and errors were saved. finally, each adopted network, with its errors and outputs, represented a prediction model. the testing stage of ann models is where the effectiveness of the created model is evaluated. the ideal model for every stage was selected via trial and error (i.e., the model that provided the most accurate duration estimate). the initial design stage network includes one input layer with 53 input neurons, two hidden layers with 1,250 hidden neurons, and one output layer with one output neuron (representing total duration), as shown in figure 3a. the planning stage network includes the same number of layers with 43 input neurons, as shown in figure 3b. figure 3. ann structure for (a) the initial stage and (b) the planning stage, and linear regression at the initial and planning stages for all models. ann, artificial neural network (authors’ own) also, table 5 shows the summary of layers and neurons for two stages and summarizes the average errors and correlation coefficients at various stages for each group of projects in the testing stage for the adopted networks. the mean absolute percentage error (mape) values were 10% and 5% for the initial design and planning stages, respectively. regression analysis was applied to determine the relationship between the estimated and actual durations. in figure 4, the results of linear regression for the two stages (the initial design and planning stages) only for all models are graphically depicted (the r2 values for the initial design and planning stages were 0.918 and 0.928, respectively). additional data were collected (10 real projects), and each model was evaluated separately to test the models and ascertain the efficiency of the models developed in table 5, as the actual duration of the 10 projects exists. the factors influencing the duration of each project were introduced to find the estimated duration, compare it with the actual duration, and verify the value of mape. the identified factors were tested against actual project data to assess their influence on duration estimation. the ann models incorporate these factors as inputs, ensuring that the analysis extends beyond perceived importance to include empirical validation. by comparing predictive performance with and without these factors, the study highlights their significance in improving estimation accuracy. a simulation tool, particularly the scikital-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025184 learn package, was used to enter the externally acquired data variables as inputs and to verify the network outputs once the adopted networks had been saved in python. the actual and estimated duration results from the tested data are shown in table 6. the ann models were crafted to maintain a balance between complexity and dataset size, using simplified architectures for smaller subsets. overfitting was managed through cross-validation, regularization, and dropout layers. the number of neurons in hidden layers was fine-tuned via trial and error, with final configurations optimized based on performance metrics like mse and mape. figure 4. linear regression for planning and initial design stages (authors’ own) table 5. number of layers and neurons for two stages and average error results for each group (authors’ own) stage layers group code project group average error % correlation coefficients (r) coefficient of determination (r2) initial design stage input layers = 1 1 less than or equal to 6 months 9.53% 0.8172 0.6679 neurons = 53 2 7 to 13 months 12.92% 0.7855 0.6171 hidden layers = 2 3 14 to 20 months 9.58% 0.8129 0.6608 neurons = 1,250 4 21 to 30 months 9.66% 0.9434 0.8901 output layers = 1 5 more than 30 months 6.83% 0.9498 0.9022 planning stage input layers = 1 1 less than or equal to 6 months 5.41% 0.9647 0.9306 neurons = 43 2 7 to 13 months 5.11% 0.9901 0.9804 hidden layers = 2 3 14 to 20 months 4.60% 0.9921 0.9842 neurons = 1,250 4 21 to 30 months 5.53% 0.9858 0.9718 output layers = 1 5 more than 30 months 3.58% 0.9973 0.9947 al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025185 discussion a comparative analysis showed that the ann model reduced estimation errors by approximately 10% compared to conventional statistical models, and at the same time, ann models improved estimation abilities by 95% compared to the results of current literature, highlighting ann’s potential to minimize risk for contractors. the results imply that integrating ann into project management practices can enhance schedule reliability and optimize resource planning. the most significant factors that affected the duration of construction projects during the two early stages were the type of contract, project cost, built-up area, site conditions of new or existing construction, and location of the building. in the initial design stage, 53 factors were used to build the first model, while in the planning stage, 43 factors were used to construct the second model. table 3 illustrates the most influential parameters that had the highest rate utilized in earlier studies. in the planning stage, the model refined 53 factors to 43 based on expert feedback and hypothesis testing, enhancing accuracy and aligning with previous studies like sanni-anibire, et al. (2021). reducing less relevant variables minimizes noise in the model, thereby improving predictive performance. this strategy leads to more precise duration estimates for construction projects. two ann multilayer perceptron (mlp) models were created based on previously specified inputs (factors), outputs (estimated duration), and parameters in each iteration. the total number of inputs and outputs determined the number of input and output neurons, whereas two hidden layers with a maximum of 1,250 hidden neurons were present for each stage. the two models were developed in this research based on the python programming language, and for each stage, there were five groups based on the actual duration of each project. the mape of the models was calculated from the average error as shown in table 5. the values equaled approximately 10% and 5% for the initial design and planning stages, respectively. this result can be expressed in another form, accuracy performance (ap), as presented by shehatto (2013). ap is defined as (100 − mape) %. table 6. data simulation on the adopted networks (authors’ own) model number actual duration (days) simulated duration (days) absolute error (days) absolute percentage error (%) 1st model 270 250 20 8% 2nd model 330 300 30 10% 3rd model 150 138 12 9% 4th model 600 545 55 10% 5th model 960 900 60 7% 6th model 360 340 20 6% 7th model 750 730 20 3% 8th model 450 433 17 4% 9th model 720 705 15 2% 10th model 1,200 1,160 40 3% al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025186 ap (at initial design stage) = 100% − 10% = 90% ap (at planning stage) = 100% − 5% = 95% figure 3 shows the comparison of the actual and estimated durations. as presented, the average estimated accuracy of the initial design stage and planning stage was 10% and 5%, respectively. moreover, the correlation coefficient (r) was extremely high for each group in two stages. therefore, it can be concluded that the ann model shows a particularly good agreement with actual duration and is exceptionally good at estimating the output. furthermore, according to the r values in table 5, there is a strong correlation between actual and estimated durations. this research outperformed previous studies, including those by anibire, et al. (2021), helvaci (2008), petruseva, et al. (2012), and nani, et al. (2017). anibire, et al. (2021) developed a model to estimate the duration of high-rise building construction projects in china, utilizing various machine learning algorithms, such as multi-linear regression and ann. out of 12 models created, the most efficient one was selected, with an ann-based ensemble model achieving a correlation coefficient r of 0.69 and a mape of 18%. petruseva, et al. (2012) used a linear regression model to estimate construction time using a “time cost” model, analyzing data from 75 buildings in bosnia and herzegovina, with a resulting mape of 10.35%. nani, et al. (2017) studied duration estimation for bridge-building projects in ghana. they collected historical data on 30 completed bridge projects and distributed 100 questionnaires. their stepwise regression and ann models, developed using a feed-forward backpropagation algorithm, yielded mape values of 25% and 26%, respectively, demonstrating the potential of ann in improving estimation accuracy. conclusion the main objective of this research was to identify and analyze key factors affecting early-stage duration estimation and to develop ann models for accurate project duration predictions. this objective aligns with the broader goal of enhancing schedule reliability and aiding stakeholders in construction planning. summary this research showed the importance of using machine learning, particularly ann, to improve time estimation performance in the construction sector. at each stage, several models were constructed, and the model that produced the most accurate findings was chosen. for the initial design and planning stages, the adopted models’ typical accuracy was 90% and 95%, respectively. this research highlights that the type of contract is the most significant factor influencing construction project duration. by integrating ann models into the early planning stages, project stakeholders can improve accuracy and reduce delays. future research can explore how these models can be adapted to other construction types or geographies to further enhance their utility. a variety of statistical performance metrics, including mse, mape, and correlation coefficient, were calculated to confirm the reliability of the proposed model in determining the duration of new projects. the results were acceptable and dependable, with the mean absolute percentage error of the models for the initial design stage and the planning stage being 10% and 5%, respectively. according to these performance metrics, it is concluded that preliminary stage duration estimates can be just as precise as final stage estimates. accurately estimating durations impacts schedules, resources, and cash flows. advances in technology have improved statistical methods for predicting project success. the significance of this research lies in formulating the relationship between the variables included in the initial and planning stages and ann to al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025187 get accurate estimates and a better understanding of the construction projects’ schedule, especially in the initial stages of project design and when information is extremely limited. recommendations it is advised that all parties involved in the construction sector expand their understanding of this technique and create their models utilizing a well-built database to produce better estimates and decrease schedule overruns. the research recommends increasing the amount of collected data for estimating the project durations and decreasing the number of factors in two stages to improve accuracy, robustness, and add them to the training data. in future studies, researchers may examine the use of ann for duration estimation for various fields, project types, and parameters. it is advised to be specific when choosing a dataset to use for model development. increasing one’s comprehension of construction duration estimation has become imperative in recent times, especially in the early phases of project design when data are limited. according to ujong, et al. (2022), there are a number of contributing elements that make duration estimation important for communities and construction industries. these are as follows: 1. in order to help both the client and the contractor accurately estimate the resources needed and the precise duration needed for completion, the research study’s findings are crucial in order to provide timely and perfect predictions. 2. the findings of this research study provide immeasurable assistance in making decisions that will ensure the necessary quality for the project deliverables, as well as assist in developing community in the construction sector and the quality of life in the main significant area, which is time, and this will automatically reduce the cost of these projects. 3. the benefits gained from this research will help clients, construction stakeholders, and project managers effectively oversee and execute projects within the target time (schedule). limitations although the research’s goals and objectives were met, certain issues need to be resolved: sample selection, including the population of planning engineers from different institutions in the construction sector in jordan, and the firstand second-degree building construction companies in amman were selected to estimate the approximate targeted population. the adopted parameters were limited to the design factors related to project characteristics, excluding variables related to the estimation process, such as the estimation team’s experience and skills in the field, as well as variables affecting labor productivity, the availability of storage and equipment, the state of the market, and changes in timing. the limited availability of historical data on construction project durations and design parameters in jordan is also a shortcoming. references al-saadi, a. m., kh. zamiem, s., al-jumaili, l. a. a., jameel jubair, m., & abdalla alhashemi, h. (2017). estimating the optimum duration of road projects using neural network model. international journal of engineering and technology, 9(5), 3458–3469. https://doi.org/10.21817/ijet/2017/v9i5/170905007 al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025188 https://doi.org/10.21817/ijet/2017/v9i5/170905007 al-tawal, d. r., arafah, m., & sweis, g. j. (2020). a model utilizing the artificial neural network in cost estimation of construction projects in jordan. engineering, construction and architectural management, 28(9), 2466–2488. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2020-0402 altalhoni, a., alwashah, z., liu, h., abudayyeh, o., kwigizile, v., & kirkpatrick, k. (2025). data-driven identification of key pricing factors in highway construction cost estimation during economic volatility. international journal of construction management, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2025.2511065 aneja, n. (2011). neural networks approach vurses algorithmic approach : a study through pattern recognition. advanced computing: an international journal, 2(6), 183–187. https://doi.org/10.5121/acij.2011.2617 anibire, m. o. s., zin, r. m., & olatunji, s. o. (2021). developing a machine learning model to predict the construction duration of tall building projects. journal of construction engineering, management & innovation, 4(1), 022-036. https://doi.org/10.31462/jcemi.2021.01022036 annual report (pp. 67-73, rep.). (2021). jordan, amman: jordan construction contractors association. annual report (pp. 70-78, rep.). (2021). jordan, amman: jordan engineers association. arafa, m. and alqedra, m., (2011). early-stage cost estimation of buildings construction projects using ann. journal of artificial intelligence, 4(1), 63-75. https://doi.org/10.3923/jai.2011.63.75 balali, a., valipour, a., antucheviciene, j., & šaparauskas, j. (2020). improving the results of the earned value management technique using artificial neural networks in construction projects. symmetry, 12(10), 1–17. https:// doi.org/10.3390/sym12101745 bilski, j., kowalczyk, b., marchlewska, a., & zurada, m. j. (2020). local levenberg-marquardt algorithm for learning feedforward neural networks. sciendo: jaiscr, 2020, vol. 10, no. 4, pp. 299 – 316. https://doi. org/10.2478/jaiscr-2020-0020 çaliskan, e., & sevim, y. (2019). a comparative study of artificial neural networks and multiple regression analysis for modeling skidding time. applied ecology and environmental research. https://doi.org/10.15666/ aeer/1702_17411756 el-sawalhi, n. i., and shehatto, o. (2013). cost estimation for building construction projects in gaza strip using artificial neural network (ann), gaza strip. master’s thesis in construction management, the islamic university of gaza. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2013.10773209 fan, s.-l., yeh, i.-c., & chi, w.-s. (2021). improvement in estimating durations for building projects using artificial neural network and sensitivity analysis. journal of construction engineering and management, 147(7), 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002036 galli, b. j. (2020). application of multiple regression and artificial neural networks as tools for estimating duration and life cycle cost of projects. international journal of applied industrial engineering, 7(1), 1–27. https://doi. org/10.4018/ijaie.2020010101 george, d., & mallery, p. (2003). spss for windows step by step: a simple guide and reference, (4th ed.), 1-63. retrieved from https://wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/385/394732/george4answers.pdf ghasemi, a., & zahediasl, s. (2012). normality tests for statistical analysis: a guide for non-statisticians. international journal of endocrinology and metabolism, 10(2), 486–489. https://doi.org/10.5812/ijem.3505 ghritlahre, h. k., & prasad, r. k. (2018). application of ann technique to predict the performance of solar collector systems a review. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 84, 75–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. rser.2018.01.001 al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025189 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2020-0402 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2025.2511065 https://doi.org/10.5121/acij.2011.2617 https://doi.org/10.31462/jcemi.2021.01022036 https://doi.org/10.3923/jai.2011.63.75 https://doi.org/10.3390/sym12101745 https://doi.org/10.3390/sym12101745 https://doi.org/10.2478/jaiscr-2020-0020 https://doi.org/10.2478/jaiscr-2020-0020 https://doi.org/10.15666/aeer/1702_17411756 https://doi.org/10.15666/aeer/1702_17411756 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2013.10773209 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002036 https://doi.org/10.4018/ijaie.2020010101 https://doi.org/10.4018/ijaie.2020010101 https://wps.ablongman.com/wps/media/objects/385/394732/george4answers.pdf https://doi.org/10.5812/ijem.3505 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2018.01.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2018.01.001 helvaci, a. (2008). comparison of parametric models for conceptual duration estimation of building projects, ankara, turkey. master’s thesis in civil engineering, middle east technical university. juan, y. k., & liou, l. e. (2021). predicting the schedule and cost performance in public school building projects in taiwan. journal of civil engineering and management, 28(1), 51–67. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2021.15853 juszczyk, m. (2015). application of committees of neural networks for conceptual cost estimation of residential buildings. proceedings of the international conference on numerical analysis and applied mathematics, 1648(1), 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4912840 kaur, p. (2016). artificial neural networks as an effective project management tool. international journal of advanced technology in engineering and science (ijates), 4(7), 229–239. available at http://ijates.com/images/ short_pdf/1470034546_1140ijates.pdf kim, h.-y. (2019). statistical notes for clinical researchers: the independent samples t test. restorative dentistry & endodontics, 44(3), 2–7. https://doi.org/10.5395/rde.2019.44.e26 kulkarni, p. s., londhe, s. n., & deo, m. c. (2017). artificial neural networks for construction management: a review. journal of soft computing in civil engineering, 1(2), 70-88. https://doi.org/10.22115/scce.2017.49580 larson, e. w., & gray, c. f. (2013). estimating project times and costs. project management: the managerial process, (6th ed.), chapter 5. 126–155. matel, e., vahdatikhaki, f., hosseinyalamdary, s., evers, t., & voordijk, h. (2019). an artificial neural network approach for cost estimation of engineering services. international journal of construction management, 22(7), 1274-1287. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1692400 mensah, i., adjei-kumi, t., & nani, g. (2016). duration determination for rural roads using the principal component analysis and artificial neural network. engineering, construction and architectural management, 23(5), 638–656. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2015-0148 mijwel, m. m. (2018). artificial neural networks advantages and disadvantages. retrieved from linkedin. https// www. linkedin. com/pulse/artificial-neuralnet work mubarak, s. (2019). construction project scheduling and control, (4nd ed.). canada: john wiley & sons, inc. nani, g., mensah, i., & adjei-kumi, t. (2017). duration estimation model for bridge construction projects in ghana. journal of engineering, design and technology, 15(6), 754– 777. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2017-0029 olawale, y., & sun, m. (2014). construction project control in the uk: current practice, existing problems and recommendations for future improvement. international journal of project management, 33(3), 623–637. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.10.003 petruseva, s., zujo, v., & zileska-pancovska, v. (2012). neural network prediction model for construction project duration. international journal of engineering research & technology, 2(11), 1646–1654. available at https://www. ijert.org/research/neuralnetwork-prediction-model-for-construction-project-duration-ijertv2is110333.pdf pezeshki, z., & mazinani, s. m. (2019). comparison of artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic and neuro fuzzy for predicting optimization of building thermal consumption: a survey. artificial intelligence review, 52(1), 495–525. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-018-9630-6 ramachandran, p. zoph, b. & le, q. v. (2017). searching for activation functions. 6th international conference on learning representations, workshop track proceedings, 1–13. available at https://arxiv.org/pdf/1710.05941 rauzana, a., & dharma, w. (2022). causes of delays in construction projects in the province aceh, indonesia. plos one, 17(1), 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263337 al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025190 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2021.15853 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4912840 http://ijates.com/images/short_pdf/1470034546_1140ijates.pdf http://ijates.com/images/short_pdf/1470034546_1140ijates.pdf https://doi.org/10.5395/rde.2019.44.e26 https://doi.org/10.22115/scce.2017.49580 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1692400 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2015-0148 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2017-0029 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.10.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.10.003 https://www.ijert.org/research/neuralnetwork-prediction-model-for-construction-project-duration-ijertv2is110333.pdf https://www.ijert.org/research/neuralnetwork-prediction-model-for-construction-project-duration-ijertv2is110333.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s10462-018-9630-6 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1710.05941 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263337 roxas, cheryl, l. c., ongpeng, jason m. c. (2014). an artificial neural network approach to structural cost estimation of building projects in the philippines. research congress. de la salle university, manila, philippines. retrieved from https://www.dlsu.edu.ph/wpcontent/uploads/dlsu-research-congress-proceedings/2014/see-i-005ft.pdf sanni-anibire, m. o., zin, r. m., & olatunji, s. o. (2020). causes of delay in the global construction industry: a meta-analytical review. international journal of construction management, 48(11), 1395-1407. https://doi. org/10.1139/cjce-2020-0527 sanni-anibire, m. o., zin, r. m., & olatunji, s. o. (2021). developing a machine learning model to predict the construction duration of tall building projects. journal of construction engineering, management & innovation, 4(1), 22-36. https://doi.org/10.31462/jcemi.2021.01022036 titirla, m., & aretoulis, g. (2020). comparison of linear regression and neural network models to estimate the actual duration of greek highway projects. in xiv balkan conference on operational research, virtual balcor 2020. retrieved from https://hal.archivesouvertes.fr/hal-03178692/document ujong, j. a., mbadike, e. m., & alaneme, g. u. (2022). prediction of cost and duration of building construction using artificial neural network. asian journal of civil engineering, 23(7), 1117–1139. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s42107-022-00474-4 velumani, p., nampoothiri, n. v. n., & mariusz, u. (2021). a comparative study of models for the construction duration prediction in highway road projects of india. sustainability (switzerland), 13(8), 1-13. https://doi. org/10.3390/su13084552 wang, y. m., & elhag, t. m. s. (2007). a comparison of neural network, evidential reasoning and multiple regression analysis in modelling bridge risks. journal of expert systems with applications, 32(2), 336 348. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2005.11.029 weckman, g. r., paschold, h. w., dowler, j. d., whiting, h. s., & young, w. a. (2010). using neural networks with limited data to estimate manufacturing cost. journal of industrial and systems engineering, 3(4), 257–274. available at http://www.jise.ir/article_4015.html wulandari, d., sutrisno, s., & nirwana, m. b. (2021). mardia’s skewness and kurtosis for assessing normality assumption in multivariate regression. enthusiastic: international journal of applied statistics and data science, 1(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.20885/enthusiastic.vol1.iss1.art1 al-attar et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025191 https://www.dlsu.edu.ph/wphttps://doi.org/10.1139/cjce-2020-0527 https://doi.org/10.1139/cjce-2020-0527 https://doi.org/10.31462/jcemi.2021.01022036 https://hal.archiveshttps://doi.org/10.1007/s42107-022-00474-4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42107-022-00474-4 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084552 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084552 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2005.11.029 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2005.11.029 http://www.jise.ir/article_4015.html https://doi.org/10.20885/enthusiastic.vol1.iss1.art1 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: osuizugbo, i. c., fauzi, m. a., omer, m. m., njogo, b. o., orekan, a. a. 2024. research trends on early contractor involvement in construction projects: a bibliometric analysis. construction economics and building, 24:4/5, 160–178. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v24i4/5.9113 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article research trends on early contractor involvement in construction projects: a bibliometric analysis innocent chigozie osuizugbo1,*, muhammad ashraf fauzi2, mazen m. omer3, bibiana o. njogo4, atinuke adebimpe orekan5 1 bells university of technology, ota, nigeria, icosuizugbo@bellsuniversity.edu.ng 2 universiti malaysia pahang al-sultan abdullah, gambang, pahang, malaysia, ashrafauzi@umpsa.edu.my 3 higher institute of science and technology, tiji, libya, mazentri@gmail.com 4 bells university of technology, ota, nigeria, bonjogo@bellsuniversity.edu.ng 5 bells university of technology, ota, nigeria, aaorekan@bellsuniversity.edu.ng corresponding author: innocent chigozie osuizugbo, bells university of technology, ota, nigeria, icosuizugbo@bellsuniversity.edu.ng doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9113 article history: received 14/04/2024; revised 26/08/2024; accepted 26/09/2024; published 23/12/2024 abstract the present study aims to highlight most significant journals in early contractor involvement (eci) research, most productive authors on eci studies and territories, geospatial network of the active eci research countries, current trend in eci studies, and the most relevant keywords and cooccurrence networks in eci studies. this study comprehensively examined the eci research field by conducting a bibliometric analysis of 210 journal articles between 1992 and 2023 from the web of science (wos) database. the findings showed that, transportation research record, construction management and economics, journal of management in engineering, and journal of construction engineering and management are the most represented journals. per erik eriksson from luleå university of technology is the most productive author identified in this study. united states of america, england and australia are the most productive countries on eci research. current trends in eci studies include eci and project delivery, eci as critical success factors, eci in design and its impact on construction schedule performance and declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 160 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9113 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9113 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9113 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:icosuizugbo@bellsuniversity.edu.ng mailto:ashrafauzi@umpsa.edu.my mailto:mazentri@gmail.com mailto:bonjogo@bellsuniversity.edu.ng mailto:aaorekan@bellsuniversity.edu.ng mailto:icosuizugbo@bellsuniversity.edu.ng https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9113 overcoming costrelated issues through eci. the highest cooccurred keywords are “procurement”, “early contractor involvement”, “performance,” and “construction.” the findings from this study suggest that applying collaborative contracting theory to eci enhances innovation, project delivery, and communication, while relational contracting theory fosters collaborative risk management, trust, and flexibility, resulting in better relationships and outcomes. to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to conduct bibliometric analysis of past studies on eci. as a result, the study contributed to the existing knowledge by identifying the pattern and trend of eci research area, revealing its broader themes of research and clusters, mapping the network of key eci authors and territories. this study identified “governance structure” as an aspect of eci study that is scarce in the literature and needs further exploration. additionally, since most eci studies originate from developed countries, future research should focus on developing countries. keywords bibliometric analysis; bibliographic coupling analysis; construction projects; coword analysis; early contractor involvement; procurement; scientometric analysis introduction the expression early contractor involvement (eci) was first mentioned in the construction and engineering contract article published in 1998 by england’s institution of civil engineering (turner and riding, 2015). the road and highways agency in the united kingdom was the first to employ the eci concept in the early 2000s. the aim was to add some elements of buildability and constructability advice in the early phases of construction projects development (sagvekar and wayal, 2019; laryea and watermeyer, 2016; turner and riding, 2015). during that period, the agency engaged contractors based on ability instead of price to benefit the project in the design development (turner and riding, 2015). the eci concept was later adopted after 2005 in different countries such as australia, usa, new zealand and netherlands (sagvekar and wayal, 2019). eci means the engagement of contractor during the preconstruction stage of building, so as to work as a team with the project owner and/or consultant, mostly to help in planning and buildability (rahman and alhassan, 2012; laryea and watermeyer, 2016; nibbelink, sutrisna and zaman, 2017). the early contractor involvement has been well defined. eci is defined as the involvement between parties during the early phases of construction project development (turner and riding, 2015). the term “parties” are referred here as the main players of eci arrangement which are usually the project owner, designer and contractors or builders. in other words, the practice of eci is referred to as the engagement of the contractor in the design process to gain the advantage of the contractor’s expertise. this means that, in the eci approach, a contractor is engaged in a construction project before the start of construction works in order to provide an input in design. a similar concept of eci is integrated project delivery (ipd). eci and ipd are both collaborative project delivery approaches, but they vary in application and scope. eci entails engaging the contractor into the construction project at the design stage, allowing for their input on scheduling, cost, and constructability before construction commences (laryea and watermeyer, 2016). in contrast, ipd is a more comprehensive approach that incorporates all key stakeholders such as project designer, contractor, and client all through the entire project lifecycle, promoting shared responsibilities and joint decisionmaking (de marco and karzouna, 2018). both approaches (i.e. eci and ipd) aim to enhance project outcomes, reduce risks, and enhance collaboration, but ipd typically requires a more formalized and contractual incorporation of all parties (de marco and karzouna, 2018), while eci focuses primarily on earlystage contractor involvement (sagvekar and wayal, 2019). while eci is often used to reduce designrelated issues, and osuizugbo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024161 enhance buildability (osuizugbo and oshodi, 2023), ipd aims for a holistic integration of stakeholders and processes to optimize the whole project delivery (de marco and karzouna, 2018). despite the numerous benefits attributed to eci, it also has limitations. example of the limitation of eci is potential conflicts of interest, where contractors may focus on their own interests rather than the project owners (farrell and sunindijo, 2022; rahmani, 2021; love, et al., 2014; sødal, et al., 2014). eci may result in costs increment if contractors exploit early involvement to influence design decisions in their benefit (sødal, et al., 2014). also, eci can limit competitive tendering, as early collaboration frequently limits the number of potentials bidders (love, et al., 2014). this early involvement may also result in project expansion, with contractors recommending changes that add complexity to the project (abe, et al., 2023). besides, the success of eci largely depends on strong collaboration and suggestion (laryea and watermeyer, 2016), which, when lacking, might lead to delay of project and misunderstandings among practitioners (sødal, et al., 2014). finally, not every construction projects may benefit from eci, specifically those that have clearly defined requirements from the beginning or are straightforward. generally, contractors have a greater level of construction knowledge compared to the designers and project owners due to their broad knowledge of construction methods, materials and prices (rahmani, khalfan and maqsood, 2016; song, mohamed and abourizk, 2009). laryea and watermeyer (2016) identified several reasons for adopting the eci concept including value for money, market capacity utilisation, integration of design and construction, and enhanced collaboration. studies have shown that eci help to reduce errors in project drawings, improve material supply, improve time and cost performance as well as achieving higher quality project delivery (e.g. osuizugbo and oshodi, 2023; lappalainen, et al., 2022; botha and scheepbouwer, 2015). taken together, this information provides evidence of the benefits associated with the use of eci in construction projects. a growing body of literature has investigated the use of eci in construction projects. for example, quite a number of studies have commented on the impacts of eci in construction projects (rahmani, 2021; rahmani, khalfan and maqsood, 2016; meng and humphreys, 2015; eadie and graham, 2014; song, mohamed and abourizk, 2009), barriers to eci (farrell and sunindijo, 2022; rahmani, 2021) and eci strategies (wondimu, klakegg and laedre, 2020; wondimu et al., 2018). however, there has been no study that performed scientometric review on eci research. secondly, no previous studies have analysed eci research corpus in terms of network of key eci authors and their territories as well as keywords and co occurrence networks in eci studies. hence, to close these knowledge gaps, this study aims to undertake an indepth scientometric analysis and review of global research on eci in construction projects; with a view to providing construction stakeholders and researchers with a broad understanding of the research trend and status quo of eci in construction projects. therefore, to achieve the aforementioned aim, the following research objectives were addressed using bibliometric and scientometric analysis: (i) to critically examine the most significant journals in eci research; (ii) to identify the most productive authors on eci studies and territories; (iii) to produce a geospatial network of the active eci research countries; (iv) to determine the current trend in eci studies; and (v) to identify the most relevant keywords and cooccurrence networks in eci studies. the findings of this current study are likely to contribute to the existing knowledge by identifying the pattern and trend of eci research area, revealing its broader themes of research and clusters, mapping the network of key eci authors and territories and recommending areas for future research. the findings from this study may be relevant to countless groups of eci research stakeholders. specifically, researchers will easily identify the productive eci research citizens in the international society. it will also help researchers in the selection of the best research outlets in the subject matter. the remainder of this paper has been divided into five sections including a description of research methods, results and discussion, implications to theory and practice, limitations and future research directions, and a conclusion. osuizugbo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024162 theoretical background in the construction project development process, early contractor involvement (eci) theories play a significant role in promoting trust and transparency, effective communication, and maximisation of the potential for successful project outcomes (moradi and kähkönen, 2022; nwajei, 2021; wondimu, et al., 2016). the collaborative contracting theory and relational contracting theory were used to discuss the theoretical context that guided the present research. these theories highlight collaboration and early engagement of contractors and other key stakeholders in the construction project development process. both collaborative contracting and relational contracting theories support the notion that engaging contractors early in the construction project development can lead to reduced conflicts, better project outcomes, innovation through shared expertise and knowledge, and improved cost efficiencies. collaborative contracting theory (cct) collaborative contracting is based on acknowledgment of mutual advantages and winwin scenarios through enhanced cooperation between contracting parties (nwajei, 2021). eci embodies the cct by advocating for contractors’ involvement during the initial stages of a construction project. collaboration is the agreement between experts to share their abilities in a particular process so as to achieve project goals (xue, shen and ren, 2010). cct is a theory of eci that centres on promoting partnerships and collaborative relationships among different stakeholders involved in a construction project. cct emphasizes shared risk and rewards, joint problemsolving and open communication, aiming to maximise project efficiency, innovation, and overall success (moradi and kähkönen, 2022). moreover, project participants now know that, sharing of information and knowledge is one of the key components of a successful contractual relationship (rahman, et al., 2014). previous studies have shown that cct principles can lead to less adversarial relationships, cost reduction, delays reduction, gaining a competitive advantage in the market, client satisfaction, achieving longterm targets, environmental impact minimisation, achieving continuous improvement and improving productivity and sustainability (faris, gaterell and hutchinson, 2024; moradi and kähkönen, 2022; dao and chen, 2021; ahmed, hossain and haq, 2020; hayford, 2018). according to hayford (2018), collaborative contracting is “a mechanism that could unlock significant productivity improvements that would enable the industry to deliver more infrastructure for less.” the implications of cct in relation to eci in construction project development are significant. cct suggests the following implications if it is applied to eci; enhanced communication and knowledge sharing, improved risk management, increased innovation and value engineering, alignment of goals and expectations, streamlined project delivery, and conflict resolution and avoidance. in summary, cct supports the idea that engaging contractor early in the construction project development promotes a collaborative environment, fosters transparency and trust, and maximises the potential for successful project outcomes by leveraging the contractor’s expertise and insights from the inception of the project. relational contracting theory (rct) yeung, chan and chan (2012) described relational contracting as a philosophy or a set of principles on which a contract is based. rct focuses on establishing mutual trust and strong relationships among construction project participants (nwajei, 2021). rct also resonate with the concept of eci. this theory promotes knowledge sharing, collaboration, and joint decisionmaking among designers, contractors and clients, aiming to create sustainable and mutually beneficial partnerships (nwajei 2021; faisol, dainty and price, 2005). rct emphasizes moving beyond strict legalistic contracts to promote relational norms and trust among construction project participants (nwajei, 2021). it prioritizes the development of long term relationships based on cooperation, shared values and mutual respect. instead of focusing only on transactional aspects, rct highlights the significance of ongoing communication, flexibility, and adaptation osuizugbo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024163 of changing circumstances all through the contract period (faisol, dainty and price, 2005). the implications of rct in this context include; building trust and longterm relationships, enhanced communication and collaboration, emphasis on flexibility and adaptability, shared risk management, establishment of relational norms and promotion of winwin outcomes. in summary, application of rct to eci in construction project development emphasizes the significance of collaboration, shared responsibility and trust among key stakeholders. rct aimed at cultivating a cooperative environment that promotes longterm effective communication, relationships, and a collective commitment to achieving successful project outcomes. research method bibliometric analysis this analysis is a commonly utilized technique in previous literature reviews, harnesses statistical tools to examine different types of publications. this technique aids in the impartial examination of literature attributes, effectively reducing the influence of subjective judgments (donthu, et al., 2021). also, this technique allows the researchers to delve into the evolutionary complexities of a particular domain and, at the same time, highlight the emerging areas within that domain (ellegaard and wallin, 2015). in addition, this technique can mitigate researchers’ bias by compiling the viewpoints of numerous scholars within the same domain (zupic and čater, 2015). this technique employs networks to depict the social, conceptual, and intellectual structures of scientific or research domains (cobo, et al., 2011). regarding this, the current research performed this technique to uncover the knowledge fields, common research trends, and primary research channels associated with eci. in this line, this research harnessed vosviewer because commonly used to perform bibliometric analysis (van eck and waltman, 2010). the software provides meaningful visualization and is able to export information from many sources, including wos, scopus, pubmed and dimension. therefore, in line with the defined objectives, this research performs two bibliometric science mapping techniques, which are bibliographic coupling analysis and coword analysis. the following subsections outline the techniques employed to present the current and future trends in the context of eci. bibliographic coupling analysis this technique operates on the premise that publications with standard references exhibit similar or related content (donthu, et al., 2021). also, the technique has the capability to identify the specific domain of interest within a designated time period (zupic and čater, 2015). therefore, this technique is employed to determine the current trend in eci studies. coword analysis this technique assesses the frequency and cooccurrence of keywords in a set of documents (emich, et al., 2020). the technique assumes that sets of frequently occurring keywords represent a particular research topic or domain (narong and hallinger, 2023). also, this technique has the ability to potentially anticipate future research directions by discerning themes derived from the interconnectedness of words. furthermore, by examining how to develop the most relevant keywords over time, the researchers can pinpoint fresh domains within eci research. this information is valuable for anticipating forthcoming trends and potential field focus areas in eci research. therefore, this technique is conducted to identify the most relevant keywords and cooccurrence networks in eci studies. research design and article selection the search on web of science (wos) database was performed on 2 october 2023. a search of “ear*” and “involve*” and “contractor*” was applied to the topic search (ts) function in the wos database. osuizugbo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024164 the initial findings were 305 publications, but after limiting to only journal publication, only 210 were finalized. the article search flow is presented in figure 1. inclusion criteria included all publications and all language. subject area was not restricted as there might be relevant articles included in different subject area. exclusion criteria are publications other than journals. this is to ensure only high quality publications are included in the analysis in producing substantial research streams in the topic of eci (zulkepeli, et al., 2024). figure 1. article selection process descriptive findings the total citation received was 2,909 and 2,732 (without selfcitation). the average citation was 13.85, and an hindex of 29. this statistic shows that studies on eci have gained immense interest from researchers worldwide. the citation received indicated that eci is a crucial issue in the early phases of construction project development. figure 2 shows the number of publications and citations on early contractor involvement. the highest publication recorded was in 2021 with published documents of 21, primarily due to the covid19 pandemic, resonating with the issue of eci. the trend indicates that the total number of publications has been declining each year since 2021 and is likely to continue decreasing in the coming years. most significant journals researchers sometimes have specific preferences for journals where they can submit and publish their work. also, recognizing these preferred journals can assist researchers in locating appropriate platforms for sharing their research (serenko, 2010). this study seeks to identify the most significant journals within the osuizugbo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024165 domain of eci research. this technique aims to address the defined objective “to critically examine the most significant journals in eci research.” most productive authors every output is achieved with a set of efforts of multiple researchers, and each researcher may partner with different colleagues for different outputs. in this regard, this technique target to achieve the defined objective “to identify the most productive authors on eci studies and territories.” geospatial network the geospatial network refers to analyzing the previous publications in terms of including geographic information. this technique can be performed to analyse the spatial distribution of research output and collaboration patterns among researchers and institutions across various regions within a particular domain. this technique seeks to cover the defined objective “to produce a geospatial network of the active eci research countries.” results and discussion most significant journals in eci research by applying a minimum number of documents of a source to 3 and a minimum citation of 6, 20 journals met the threshold. table 1 shows the top journals in eci research. the top journals with the highest documents are transportation research record (10) and construction management and economics (10), followed by journal of management in engineering (8) and journal of construction engineering and management (8). despite having fewer documents than 3, building research and information possesses the highest number of citations (273). this indicates the journal’s significance in producing high impact publications. this is followed by construction management and economics and the journal of management in engineering with 254 and 245 citations, respectively. figure 2. number of publications and citations on early contractor involvement studies osuizugbo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024166 table 1. top journal in early contractor involvement research no journal documents citations total link strength (tls) 1. transportation research record 10 101 25 2. construction management and economics 10 254 17 3. journal of management in engineering 8 245 24 4. journal of construction engineering and management 8 69 9 5. buildings 7 28 12 6. engineering construction and architectural management 7 209 10 7. proceedings of the institution of civil engineers 6 41 15 8. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering 6 49 12 9. construction innovation 5 44 11 10. international journal of construction management 5 48 6 11. proceedings of the institution of civil engineers 5 15 0 12. journal of public procurement 4 35 27 13. built environment project and asset management 4 44 17 14. architectural engineering and design management 4 34 14 15. journal of engineering design and technology 4 54 8 16. international journal of managing projects in business 3 24 6 17. journal of facilities management 3 39 5 18. journal of financial management of property and construction 3 15 3 19. building research and information 3 273 1 20. automation in construction 3 153 0 most productive authors on eci studies and territories the most productive authors identified in this study are per erik eriksson from luleå university of technology with five documents. this is followed by ola laedre from the norwegian university of science and technology and keith r. molenaar from the university of colorado boulder. according to citation, the highest cited authors are per erik eriksson (213), followed by lukuman oyedele (156) and vivian tam (101). despite having only three documents, lukuman oyedele produced a significant publication impact on the topic. table 2 summarises this study’s top authors according to several documents, citations and total link strength (tls). the ranking is based on the tls as the appropriate indicator for measuring the most osuizugbo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024167 significant authors producing recent publications based on the cociting relationship. per eriksson from luleå university of technology produced the highest number of citations from the 5 documents. however, the authors with the highest tls are eric scheepbouwer, from the university of canterbury and karen manley, from halmstad university, producing 17 and 10 tls, respectively. it can be deduced that authors with high citations might not necessarily be connected within the broader network. this is proven further by the authors lukuman oyedele, from the university of the west of england, and vivian tam, from western sydney university, who produced high citations (156 and 101, respectively) but had low tls counts table 2. top authors in early contractor involvement and territories research no author(s) institution documents citations tls 1. eriksson, per erik luleå university of technology 5 213 6 2. laedre, ola norwegian university of science and technology 4 26 9 3. molenaar, keith r. university of colorado boulder 4 41 5 4. scheepbouwer, eric university of canterbury 3 33 17 5. manley, karen halmstad university 3 56 10 6. gransberg, d. iowa state university 3 44 9 7. lahdenpera, pertti tampere university 3 36 8 8. rahmani, farshid pennsylvania state university 3 27 5 9. oyedele, lukuman o. university of the west of england 3 156 4 10. tam, vivian w.y. western sydney university 3 101 0 geospatial network of the active eci research countries by applying a minimum number of documents of a country to 3 and a minimum number of citations to 3, 20 countries met the threshold. table 3 presents the top ten countries in eci. united states of america with the highest documents of fortyfive (45); followed by england (34) and australia (29). these three countries also have the highest citations and tls. these top countries show that the u.s., australia and european countries produced the highest number of publications. only china and south africa were the only countries from asia and africa continent, respectively. current trend in eci studies using bibliographic analysis, this study reveals the current themes in the body of knowledge on eci literature. the network map shows the relationship between the cociting publications, or a bibliographic link, as they are connected when they cite the same publication. applying a threshold 16, 51 documents were finalized out of 210 in the database. the threshold should be appropriate to achieve robust and reliable network visualization. it must not be too high, risking over filtering, causing missing crucial themes. at the same time, it should not be too low, leading to under filtering and causing redundancy of themes in the network (geng, feng and zhu, 2020). the analysis produces four clusters, as displayed in figure 3. based on the authors’ inductive interpretation of each cluster’s representative publication, the following clusters are determined and labelled according to each theme. osuizugbo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024168 figure 3. bibliographic coupling analysis on eci studies cluster 1 (red): with 14 articles, cluster 1 is labelled “early contractor involvement and project delivery”. the rationale for this label is most of the studies relate their findings to different approaches to delivery projects. franz and leicht (2016) identified five different classes of project delivery methods based on characteristics of the project delivery process in the united states building construction industry. these classes include; early builder and trade involvement, with a prequalified, costbased selection and lump sum table 3. top countries in early contractor involvement research no country documents citations tls 1. united states of america 45 610 54 2. england 34 571 56 3. australia 29 506 76 4. people republic china 19 236 8 5. sweden 13 283 16 6. norway 10 74 37 7. south africa 8 72 20 8. netherlands 8 108 7 9. new zealand 7 42 30 10. finland 7 52 12 osuizugbo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024169 designbuild (db) contract; late builder and trade involvement, with an open, costbased selection and lump sum contract; early builder and late trade involvement, with a prequalified noncost based selection and guaranteed maximum price (gmp) contract; early builder and trade involvement, with a prequalified, noncost based selection and gmp db; and late builder and trade involvement, with a prequalified, cost based selection and lump sum contract. osipova and erikson (2011) studied the effect of three procurement variables such as use of partnering or collaboration arrangements, project delivery method, and form of payment on risk management. the study discovered that, with early contractor involvement in project delivery, there is a more thorough risk management process due to the opportunities for collaboration and open dialogue. cluster 2 (green): with 7 articles, the cluster is labelled as “early contractor involvement as critical success factors”. publications in this cluster discussed the participation of early contractor involvement as a crucial factor for project delivery. early contractor involvement has been identified as a critical success factors in delivering construction projects. it is an important approach that adds value to construction project management execution. for example, the studies by shayan, pyungkim and tam (2022) revealed early contractor involvement as one of the most critical success factors for successful risk management at the execution phase of a construction project. early contractor involvement is also a critical success factor for small contractors to conduct green building construction projects (shan, et al., 2020). cluster 3 (blue): with 7 articles, cluster 3 is labelled “early contractor involvement in design and its impact on construction schedule performance”. this theme is based on studies that focused on the impact of early contractor on the construction’s most crucial element, which is meeting the schedule and time performance. contractors are engaged in the design process so as to gain advantage of contraction knowledge. the inputs of contractors at different phases of design of construction projects lead to improved material supply, construction schedule performance, drawing quality and information flow (song, mohamed and abourizk, 2009). rahman and alhassan (2012) found out that eci method of construction project delivery increases the opportunity for better teamwork among project parties, thereby resulting to a successful project delivery. the eci according to lenferink, et al. (2012), adds value to infrastructure projects in terms of time savings, more innovative solutions and enhanced project control. cluster 4 (yellow): cluster 4, with 7 articles, is labelled as “overcoming costrelated issues through early contractor involvement”. eci has been linked to cost savings as the basis of every contractor’s involvement in project and construction management. chan, et al. (2010) reviewed target cost contracting and guaranteed maximum price concept and features in general. the study revealed early contractor involvement as one of the most essential ingredients for successful implementation of target cost contracting and guaranteed maximum price scheme. the research study contributes to the critical success factors for procuring target cost contracting and guaranteed maximum price contracts. table 4 summarizes the bibliographic coupling analysis with the cluster number, labels, number of publications and representative publications. keywords and cooccurrence networks in eci studies based on the cooccurrence of keyword analysis, 42 keywords met a 5 out of 957 threshold. the highest cooccurred keywords are “procurement” (28), “early contractor involvement” (26), “performance” (24) and “construction” (24). these keywords show that the top keywords are centralized within the scope of procurement and early contractor involvement, indicating the focal point of the study. table 5 shows the top fifteen cooccurred keywords with the frequency and total link strength. these cooccurred keywords suggest that future research streams are related to the performance within eci and procurement. as the findings in bibliographic coupling suggest, themes are related to project delivery, eci as critical success factors, design and its impact and overcoming costrelated issues in eci. these keywords are aligned with osuizugbo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024170 table 4. bibliographic coupling analysis on early contractor involvement cluster no and colour cluster label number of publications representative publication 1 (red) early contractor involvement and project delivery 14 franz and leicht (2016), ma and ma (2017), osipova and eriksson (2011) 2 (green) early contractor involvement as critical success factors 7 eriksson and szentes (2017), shan, et al. (2020), shayan, pyungkim and tam (2022) 3 (blue) early contractor involvement in design and its impact on construction schedule performance 7 song, mohamed and abourizk (2009), rahman and alhassan (2012), lenferink, et al. (2012) 4 (yellow) overcoming costrelated issues through early contractor involvement 7 chan, et al. (2010), leśniak and juszczyk (2018) table 5. top 15 keywords in the cooccurrence of keywords analysis rank keyword occurrences total link strength 1. procurement 28 88 2. early contractor involvement 26 87 3. performance 24 91 4. construction 24 78 5. design 21 68 6. management 20 62 7. innovation 17 75 8. construction projects 13 38 9. model 12 36 10. project management 11 29 11. sustainability 11 27 12. trust 10 39 13. impact 9 44 14. collaboration 9 25 15. integration 9 22 osuizugbo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024171 the current trends, which should be the basis for understanding future trends in eci research for future scholars and academics. performancerelated issues in eci research are strongly associated with highly co occurred keywords depicted in the significant keywords: construction, design, management and innovation. as such, future studies should rely on these keywords to form the basis of eci involvement in construction projects. emphasis on the features of early contractor involvement in construction project delivery for this study did not return governance structure among the identified keywords using the set metrics for the scientometric analysis. though governance structure is a key component of eci and helps provides the necessary framework to facilitate communication, collaboration, alignment of interests, risk management, and decisionmaking for projects success (hayford, 2018), it still lacks enough traction in research studies. governance structure in this context refers to the framework of processes, systems, relationships, and rules within which construction project participants interact, make decisions, and resolve conflicts. implications to theory and practice the findings of this review have theoretical and practical implications for key stakeholders in construction projects and researchers. the implications are described in the following subheadings. theoretical implications this study reports that, it is the first attempt to conduct a bibliometric analysis in eci. hence the research has added to the body of knowledge on eci in construction project development. from the theoretical viewpoint, analysing and laying out the literature of eci will provide researchers with systematic knowledge and a wide understanding of the eci concept. specifically, the findings of this current study has contributed to the existing knowledge by identifying the pattern and trend of eci research area, revealing its broader themes of research and clusters, mapping the network of key eci authors and territories and recommending areas for future research. the findings from this study may be relevant to countless groups of eci research stakeholders. particularly, researchers will easily identify the productive eci research citizens in the international society. it will also help researchers in the selection of the best research outlets in the subject matter. in addition, the study suggests that applying theories such as collaborative contracting and relational contracting in eci during construction project development can lead to reduced conflicts, better project outcomes, innovation through shared expertise and knowledge, and improved cost efficiencies (moradi and kähkönen, 2022; nwajei, 2021; wondimu, et al., 2016). many project clients adopt collaborative contracting approaches to attract participants and obtain better value for money (hayford, 2018). according to hayford (2018), collaborative contracts are contracts that integrate features that are particularly designed to overcome misalignment of commercial incentives associated with conventional fixed price contracts. and these features include; (1) contractual commitments to cooperate and act in “good faith”; (2) early warning mechanisms to alert other participants to emerging issues, enabling proactive solutions before escalation; (3) early involvement of the main contractor and key specialist subcontractors in the design process; (4) governance structures that promote collective problemsolving and decisionmaking; (5) payment arrangements that incentivise participants to act in the best interest of the project rather than individual benefit; and (6) agreements among participants to waive the right to sue others for mistakes, breaches, or negligence, except in cases of wilful misconduct (hayford, 2018). on the other hand, nwajei (2021) classified relational contracting into three concepts, which include relational governance, relational contract, and collaborative contracts. existing literature on relational governance highlights two main types: relational governance, which enhances interorganizational relationships through trust, communication, and osuizugbo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024172 cooperation, and contractual governance, which relies on formal contract terms to guide decisionmaking (nwajei, 2021). the study findings suggest that, if cct is applied to eci it would result in enhanced communication and knowledge sharing, improved risk management, increased innovation and value engineering, alignment of goals and expectations, streamlined project delivery, and conflict resolution and avoidance. also, the implications of rct in this context include; building trust and longterm relationships, enhanced communication and collaboration, emphasis on flexibility and adaptability, shared risk management, establishment of relational norms and promotion of winwin outcomes. practical implications this study has also contributed to practice. from the practical perspective, construction stakeholders should consider the findings of this review and recognise the impacts of early contractor involvement in project delivery, which will help in enhancing project designs as well as in improving project performance. for example, it was revealed that, early contractor involvement adds value to infrastructure projects in terms of time savings, more innovative solutions and enhanced project control (moradi and kähkönen, 2022; nwajei, 2021; hayford, 2018; hosseini, et al., 2017). secondly, with early contractor involvement in project delivery, there is a more thorough risk management process due to the opportunities for collaboration and open dialogue (moradi and kähkönen, 2022). limitations and future research directions research limitations even though this research contributes to the body of knowledge, the study also has limitations. the study used wos to elicit the data and focuses only on journal publications, and hence, does not include all academic publications such as scopus. wos was chosen as it is considered the most quality database by indexing highquality journals, leading to its lower journal counts compared to other databases, such as scopus. many studies have adopted only the wos database as the sole database in their bibliometric studies (bernatović, slavecgomezel and černe, 2022; fauzi et al., 2024; ahmad, et al., 2024). secondly, the newest publications (2023 publications) that were accepted but not indexed in wos after october 2, 2023, were ignored. nonetheless, limitations of such are improbable to influence the results identified in this research. in addition, the review used the term “early”, “involvement”, and “contractor” as search terms, while terms such as “preconstruction,” engagement,” “builder,” and the similar can be used to expand the search scope. while the use of synonymous search terms may lead to an additional dataset on the subject under study, the results attained showed that the dataset retrieved from wos is acceptable because all key aspects in early contractor involvement are covered. future research directions research helps with providing knowledge for enhancing practice. secondly, the growth of construction industry relatively depends on the governance. emphasis on the features of early contractor involvement in construction project delivery for this study did not return governance structure among the identified keywords using the set metrics for the scientometric analysis. governance structure is a critical yet underexplored aspect of eci studies. while eci emphasizes collaboration and early input from contractors, the specific governance frameworks that facilitate effective communication, decisionmaking, and risk management are often not adequately addressed. this gap leaves uncertainty in how roles, responsibilities, and authority are distributed among project participants, potentially hindering the full benefits of eci. osuizugbo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024173 addressing this gap would provide clearer guidelines for establishing governance structures that optimize the collaborative potential of eci in construction projects. furthermore, it would be interesting if similar study is conducted with a broader range of eci literature from different databases such as scopus, pubmed, and google scholar for future research. this would complement the present review and monitor the research development in early contractor involvement. the present study revealed that, majority of the eci studies were conducted in the developed countries. this implies that, the study of eci is scarce in the developing countries. hence, there is need to bridge this gap in knowledge. conclusions early contractor involvement has been increasing over the past three decades and has received more attention from construction stakeholders and scholars. this study seeks to achieve the following research objectives using bibliometric and scientometric analysis: (i) to critically examine the most significant journals in eci research; (ii) to identify the most productive authors on eci studies and territories; (iii) to produce a geospatial network of the active eci research countries; (iv) to determine the current trend in eci studies; and (v) to identify the most relevant keywords and cooccurrence networks in eci studies. to the best knowledge of the authors, this study is the first bibliometric analysis for eci. through a bibliometric analysis of early contractor involvement research conducted between 1992 and 2023 using data from the web of science (wos) database, this study has required mapping out and identifying the structure of research within this title. the findings showed that, transportation research record, construction management and economics, journal of management in engineering, and journal of construction engineering and management are the most significant journals in eci research. per erik eriksson from luleå university of technology is the most productive author identified in this study. united states of america, england and australia are the most productive countries on eci research. current trends in eci studies include eci and project delivery, eci as critical success factors, eci in design and its impact on construction schedule performance and overcoming costrelated issues through eci. the highest co occurred keywords are “procurement”, “early contractor involvement”, “performance,” and “construction.” the results have demonstrated significant growth in publications and citations on the subject matter over the last three decades. the findings from this study suggest that applying collaborative contracting theory to eci enhances innovation, project delivery, and communication, while relational contracting theory fosters collaborative risk management, trust, and flexibility, resulting in better relationships and outcomes. this study identified “governance structure” as an aspect of eci study that is scarce in the literature and needs further exploration. additionally, since most eci studies originate from developed countries, future research should focus on developing countries. references abe, r., saito, y. and shide, k., 2023. research on each actor’s awareness of procurement methods involving contractors and consultants in the design phase: based on interviews with persons in charge. japan architectural review, [e-journal] 6(1), e12384. https://doi.org/10.1002/2475-8876.12384 ahmad, m.f., fauzi, m.a., mustapha, m.r., muhamad tamyez, p.f., sadun, a.s., so, i.g., and gui, a., 2024. industry 4.0 in small and medium enterprises: a state-of-the-art science mapping review. industrial robot: the international journal of robotics research and application, [e-journal] (ahead of print). https://doi.org/10.1108/ir-03-2024-0115 ahmed, s., hossain, m.m. and haq, i., 2020. implementation of lean construction in the construction industry in bangladesh: awareness, benefits and challenges. international journal of building pathology and adaptation, 39(2), pp.368406. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-04-2019-0037 osuizugbo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024174 https://doi.org/10.1002/2475-8876.12384 https://doi.org/10.1108/ir-03-2024-0115 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-04-2019-0037 bernatović, i., slavec-gomezel, a. and černe, m., 2022. mapping the knowledge-hiding field and its future prospects: a bibliometric co-citation, co-word, and coupling analysis. knowledge management research and practice, 20(3), pp.394409. https://doi.org/10.1080/14778238.2021.1945963 botha, p.s. and scheepbouwer, e., 2015. relationship between early contractor involvement and financial performance in the rebuilding of infrastructure in christchurch, new zealand. transportation research record, 2504(1), pp.66-72. https://doi.org/10.3141/2504-08 chan, d.w., chan, a.p., lam, p.t. and wong, j.m., 2010. identifying the critical success factors for target cost contracts in the construction industry. journal of facilities management, 8(3), pp.179-201. https://doi. org/10.1108/14725961011058820 cobo, m.j., lópez-herrera, a.g., herrera-viedma, e. and herrera, f., 2011. science mapping software tools: review, analysis, and cooperative study among tools. journal of the american society for information science and technology, 62(7), pp.1382–1402. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.21525 dao, t.n. and chen, p.-h., 2021. critical success factors and a contractual framework for construction projects adopting building information modeling in vietnam. international journal of civil engineering, 19(1), pp.85-102. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40999-020-00542-3 de marco, a. and karzouna, a., 2018. assessing the benefits of the integrated project delivery method: a survey of expert opinions. procedia computer science, [e-journal] 138, pp.823-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2018.10.107 donthu, n., kumar, s., mukherjee, d., pandey, n. and lim, w.m., 2021. how to conduct a bibliometric analysis: an overview and guidelines. journal of business research, [e-journal] 133, pp.285–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jbusres.2021.04.070 eadie, r. and graham, m., 2014. analysing the advantages of early contractor involvement. international journal of procurement management, 7(6), pp.661-76. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpm.2014.064971 ellegaard, o. and wallin, j.a., 2015. the bibliometric analysis of scholarly production: how great is the impact? scientometrics, 105, pp.1809–31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1645-z emich, k.j., kumar, s., lu, l., norder, k. and pandey, n., 2020. mapping 50 years of small group research through small group research. small group research, [e-journal] 51(6), pp.659–99. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496420934541 eriksson, p.e. and szentes, h., 2017. managing the tensions between exploration and exploitation in large construction projects. construction innovation, 17(4), pp.492-510. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-05-2016-0032 faisol, n., dainty, a.r.j. and price, a.d.f., 2005. the concept of ‘relational contracting’ as a tool for understanding interorganizational relationships in construction. association of researchers in construction management, 2, pp.1075-84. faris, h., gaterell, m. and hutchinson, d., 2024. developing a collaborative framework for construction projects in emerging economies. smart and sustainable built environment, [e-journal] 13(1), pp.199-216. https://doi.org/10.1108/ sasbe-10-2021-0186 farrell, a. and sunindijo, r.y., 2022. overcoming challenges of early contractor involvement in local government projects. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(10), pp.1902-09. https://doi.org/10.1080/1562 3599.2020.1744216 fauzi, m.a., mohd aripin, n., alimin, n.s.n., ting, i.w.k., wider, w., maidin, s.s. and zainul abideen, a., 2024. medical tourism in south east asia: science mapping of present and future trends. asian education and development studies, [e-journal] (ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/aeds-04-2024-0093 osuizugbo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024175 https://doi.org/10.1080/14778238.2021.1945963 https://doi.org/10.3141/2504-08 https://doi.org/10.1108/14725961011058820 https://doi.org/10.1108/14725961011058820 https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.21525 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40999-020-00542-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2018.10.107 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.04.070 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.04.070 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpm.2014.064971 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1645-z https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496420934541 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-05-2016-0032 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-10-2021-0186 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-10-2021-0186 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1744216 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1744216 https://doi.org/10.1108/aeds-04-2024-0093 franz, b.w. and leicht, r.m., 2016. an alternative classification of project delivery methods used in the united states building construction industry. construction management and economics, 34(3), pp.160-73. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144 6193.2016.1183800 geng, d., feng, y. and zhu, q., 2020. sustainable design for users: a literature review and bibliometric analysis. environmental science and pollution research, 27, pp.29824-36. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09283-1 hayford, o., 2018. collaborative contracting. pricewaterhousecoopers, australia. [online] available at: https://www. pwc.com.au/legal/assets/collaborative-contracting-mar18.pdf [accessed 24 august 2024]. hosseini, a., haddadi, a., andersen, b., olsson, n. and lædre, o., 2017. relational base contracts–needs and trends in northern europe. procedia computer science, [e-journal] 121, pp.1088–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.11.139 lappalainen, e., uusitalo, p., pikas, e., seppãnen, o., peltokorpi, a., uusitalo, p., reinbold, a. and menzhinskii, n., 2022. improving design quality by contractor involvement: an empirical study on effects. buildings, 12(8), 1188, pp.1-18. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12081188 laryea, s. and watermeyer, r., 2016. early contractor involvement in framework contracts. proceedings of institution of civil engineers: management, procurement and law, 169(1), pp.4-16. https://doi.org/10.1680/jmapl.15.00012 lenferink, s., arts, j., tillema, t., van valkenburg, m. and nijsten, r., 2012. early contractor involvement in dutch infrastructure development: initial experiences with parallel procedures for planning and procurement. journal of public procurement, 12(1), pp.4-42. https://doi.org/10.1108/jopp-12-01-2012-b001 leśniak, a. and juszczyk, m., 2018. prediction of site overhead costs with the use of artificial neural network-based model. archives of civil and mechanical engineering, 18, pp.973-82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acme.2018.01.014 love, p.e.d., o’donoghue, d., davis, p.r. and smith, j., 2014. procurement of public sector facilities: views of early contractor involvement. facilities, 32(9-10), pp.460-71. https://doi.org/10.1108/f-03-2012-0020 ma, z. and ma, j., 2017. formulating the application functional requirements of a bim-based collaboration platform to support ipd projects. ksce journal of civil engineering, 21, pp.2011-26. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-017-0875-4 meng, x. and humphreys, p., 2015. the application of early contractor involvement and its impact on project performance. international journal of project organisation and management, 7(4), pp.339-51. https://doi.org/10.1504/ ijpom.2015.073139 moradi, s. and kähkönen, k., 2022. success in collaborative construction through the lens of project delivery elements. built environment project and asset management, [e-journal] 12(6), pp.973-91. https://doi.org/10.1108/ bepam-09-2021-0118 narong, d.k. and hallinger, p., 2023. a keyword co-occurrence analysis of research on service learning: conceptual foci and emerging research trends. education sciences, [e-journal] 13(4), p.339. https://doi.org/10.3390/ educsci13040339 nibbelink, j.-g., sutrisna, m. and zaman, a.u., 2017. unlocking the potential of early contractor involvement in reducing design risks in commercial building refurbishment projects “a western australian perspective. architectural engineering and design management, 13(6), pp.439-56. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2017.1348334 nwajei, u.o.k., 2021. how relational contract theory influence management strategies and project outcomes: a systematic literature review. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 39(5), pp.432-57. https://doi.org/10.10 80/01446193.2021.1913285 osipova, e. and eriksson, p.e., 2011. how procurement options influence risk management in construction projects. construction management and economics, 29(11), pp.1149-58. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.639379 osuizugbo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024176 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1183800 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1183800 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-09283-1 https://www.pwc.com.au/legal/assets/collaborative-contracting-mar18.pdf https://www.pwc.com.au/legal/assets/collaborative-contracting-mar18.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2017.11.139 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12081188 https://doi.org/10.1680/jmapl.15.00012 https://doi.org/10.1108/jopp-12-01-2012-b001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acme.2018.01.014 https://doi.org/10.1108/f-03-2012-0020 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-017-0875-4 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpom.2015.073139 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpom.2015.073139 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-09-2021-0118 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-09-2021-0118 https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13040339 https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13040339 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2017.1348334 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2021.1913285 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2021.1913285 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.639379 osuizugbo, i.c. and oshodi, o.s., 2023. buildability attributes for improving the practice of construction management in nigeria. built environment project and asset management, [e-journal] 13(2), pp.270-89. https://doi. org/10.1108/bepam-03-2022-0051 rahman, m. and alhassan, a., 2012. a contractor’s perception on early contractor involvement. built environment project and asset management, 2(2), pp.217-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/20441241211280855 rahman, s.h.a., enduta, i.r., faisola, n. and paydar, s., 2014. the importance of collaboration in construction industry from contractors’ perspectives. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 129, pp.414-21. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.695 rahmani, f., 2021. challenges and opportunities in adopting early contractor involvement (eci): client’s perception. architectural engineering and design management, [e-journal] 17(1-2), pp.67-76. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.202 0.1811079 rahmani, f., khalfan, m.m.a. and maqsood, t., 2016. analysing the drivers for early contractor involvement adoption by construction clients. international journal of procurement management, 9(4), pp.373-97. https://doi.org/10.1504/ ijpm.2016.077701 sagvekar, s. and wayal, a.s., 2019. early contractor involvement (eci): indian scenario of construction project delivery. international journal of scientific and technology research, 8(8), pp.807-11. serenko, a., 2010. the development of an ai journal ranking based on the revealed preference approach. journal of informetrics, 4(4), pp.447–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2010.04.001 shan, m., liu, w.q., hwang, b.g. and lye, j.m., 2020. critical success factors for small contractors to conduct green building construction projects in singapore: identification and comparison with large contractors. environmental science and pollution research, 27, pp.8310-22. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06646-1 shayan, s., pyung kim, k. and tam, v.w., 2022. critical success factor analysis for effective risk management at the execution stage of a construction project. international journal of construction management, 22(3), pp.379-86. https://doi. org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1624678 sødal, a.h., lædre, o., svalestuen, f. and lohne, j., 2014. early contractor involvement: advantages and disadvantages for the design team. in: proceedings of 22nd annual conference of the international group for lean construction, design management, 25-27 june 2014, oslo, norway. 1, pp.519-31. song, l., mohamed, y. and abourizk, s.m., 2009. early contractor involvement in design and its impact on construction schedule performance. journal of management in engineering, 25(1), pp.12-20. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0742-597x(2009)25:1(12) turner, n. and riding, m., 2015. early contractor involvement in australia: learnings from transfield services projects. small enterprise research, 22(2-3), pp.173-84. https://doi.org/10.1080/13215906.2015.1061724 van eck, n.j. and waltman, l., 2010. software survey: vosviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. scientometrics, 84(2), pp.523–38. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0146-3 wondimu, p.a., hailemichael, e., hosseini, a., lohne, j., torp, o. and lædre, o., 2016. success factors for early contractor involvement (eci) in public infrastructure projects. energy procedia, [e-journal] 96, pp.845-54. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.egypro.2016.09.146 wondimu, p.a., hosseini, a., lohne, j. and laedre, o., 2018. early contractor involvement approaches in public project procurement. journal of public procurement, 18(4), pp.355-78. https://doi.org/10.1108/jopp-11-2018-021 wondimu, p.a., klakegg, o.j. and laedre, o., 2020. early contractor involvement (eci): ways to do it in public projects. journal of public procurement, 20(1), pp.62-87. https://doi.org/10.1108/jopp-03-2019-0015 osuizugbo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024177 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-03-2022-0051 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-03-2022-0051 https://doi.org/10.1108/20441241211280855 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.695 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.03.695 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2020.1811079 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2020.1811079 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpm.2016.077701 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpm.2016.077701 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.joi.2010.04.001 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-06646-1 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1624678 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1624678 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2009)25:1(12 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2009)25:1(12 https://doi.org/10.1080/13215906.2015.1061724 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0146-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2016.09.146 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2016.09.146 https://doi.org/10.1108/jopp-11-2018-021 https://doi.org/10.1108/jopp-03-2019-0015 xue, x., shen, q. and ren, z., 2010. critical review of collaborative working in construction projects: business environment and human behaviors. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 26(4) pp.196–208. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000025 yeung, j.f.y., chan, a.p.c. and chan, d.w.m., 2012. defining relational contracting from the wittgenstein family-resemblance philosophy. international journal of project management, 30, pp.225–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2011.06.002 zulkepeli, l., fauzi, m.a., suki, n.m., ahmad, m. h., wider, w. and rahamaddulla, s.r., 2024. pro-environmental behavior and the theory of planned behavior: a state of the art science mapping. management of environmental quality: an international journal, (ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/meq-10-2023-0361 zupic, i. and čater, t., 2015. bibliometric methods in management and organization. organizational research methods, 18(3), pp.429–72. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428114562629 osuizugbo et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024178 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000025 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000025 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.06.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.06.002 https://doi.org/10.1108/meq-10-2023-0361 https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428114562629 construction economics and building, 15(4), 95-105 copyright: construction economics and building 2015. © 2015 david finnie and naseem ameer ali. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 unreported (cc by 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: finnie, d. and ameer ali, n.a.n., 2015. the new zealand construction contracts amendment act 2015 – for better or worse? construction economics and building, 15(4), 95-105. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i4.4544 corresponding author: david finnie; email david.finnie@op.ac.nz publisher: university of technology sydney (uts) epress the new zealand construction contracts amendment act 2015 for better or worse? david finnie1 and noushad ali naseem ameer ali2 1 school of architecture, building and engineering, otago polytechnic, new zealand 2 school of engineering and advanced technology, massey university, new zealand abstract adjudication has been statutorily introduced as an alternative dispute resolution method in 14 jurisdictions including new zealand. whilst adjudication under the new zealand construction contracts act 2002 has been hailed a success, further refinements were proposed in the construction contracts amendment bill first published in 2013. as part of the legislative process, 48 submissions were made to the commerce committee. there was general support for most of the amendments, but some parties expressed concerns on some of the changes. a documentary analysis of the amendment bills and submissions to the commerce committee was made to critically evaluate the changes proposed and establish if those changes were improvements. the findings show the major changes proposed include (i) removing most of the distinctions between the treatment of residential and commercial contracts under the act, (ii) extending the scope of the act to apply to contracts for certain professional services, (iii) removing the distinction between enforcement of payment determinations and of those relating to rights and obligations, and (iv) making the enforcement process more efficient. the findings also show that during a period of over two years from when the bill was first introduced in january 2013, one other significant improvement retentions are now to be held in trust was made. a few proposals to further refine the bill such as the suggestion to mandate retentions to be kept in a separate trust account were, however, not accepted. the construction contract amendment bill 97-3 was unanimously passed during the third and final reading in parliament on 20 october 2015 with most of the amendments coming into force on 1 december 2015, those incorporating professional services on 1 september 2016, and the retention provisions on 31 march 2017. royal assent was given on 11 october 2015, leading to, on balance, a better construction contracts amendment act 2015. keywords: adjudication, construction contracts act 2002, construction contracts amendment act 2015, construction contracts amendment bill, new zealand. paper type: viewpoint introduction construction disputes were traditionally resolved through arbitration or the courts if a binding resolution was required. over the years, arbitration, which was supposed to be quicker and cheaper became protracted, typically taking months or years, and became increasingly more expensive. partly to address this problem, adjudication was first mandated to be incorporated in all construction contracts in the uk in 1998 through the housing grants, construction and regeneration act 1996 (uk 1996 act). unlike arbitration, the duration of the adjudication process is statutorily provided. the periods provided are relatively short, typically quoted in days. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i4.4544 construction economics and building, 15(4), 95-105 finnie and ameer ali 96 both arbitration and adjudication are binding dispute resolution methods but unlike arbitration, an adjudicated dispute can subsequently be re-opened in court or, if the contract provides, in arbitration. since the uk 1996 act came into effect in 1998 it has generally been hailed a success. gaitskell (2005) for example suggests it has been a ‘runaway success’. adjudication has since been statutorily introduced in another 13 commonwealth jurisdictions. in new zealand adjudication was introduced through the construction contracts act 2002 (nz act). the uk 1996 act was further refined and replaced in 2009 by the local democracy, economic development and construction act 2009 (uk 2009 act). many of the new changes in the uk 2009 act were features already found in the nz act. as in the uk, the equivalent nz act has generally been well accepted. but ten years after it became operational in 2003, further refinements were proposed. the construction contracts amendment bill was introduced to the new zealand parliament by the hon dr nick smith on 29 january 2013. the new zealand parliamentary website (new zealand parliament, 2015) states: “this bill proposes amendments to the construction contracts act 2002 concerning the disputes adjudication process.” the commerce committee then invited public submissions. there were 48 submissions (including supplementary evidence) to parliament on the bill and four supplementary order papers (sops) released between april 2014 and september 2015. the final amended version of the bill, the construction contracts amendment bill (97-3), was considered and reported by the committee of the whole house on 24 september 2015, then advanced to its third and final reading on 20 october 2015 when it was unanimously passed. the bill received royal assent and passed as the construction contracts amendment act 2015 on 22 october 2015. the act commences on 1 december 2015 except for the parts dealing with the inclusion of consultants, which commences 1 september 2016, and the introduction of retentions to be held in trust, which commences 31 march 2017. coggins, fenwick elliott and bell (2010), when comparing some of the equivalent acts in australia against the nz act identified several advantages of the nz act, including (i) allowance for legal and non-legal representation, (ii) any pre-agreement of adjudicator to be non-binding, (iii) both parties to the dispute having the opportunity to defend themselves, (iv) maintaining some element of freedom of contract to agree any payment provision and making payment provisions in the act only a default provision, and (v) allowing initiation of disputes both up and down the supply chain, insinuating the act was fairly balanced. if the nz act is already working relatively well, has had some of its provisions incorporated in the newer uk 2009 act, and commentators have identified numerous advantages over some of the equivalent acts found in australia, why introduce an amendment bill? are the changes going to be an improvement? summary of key changes the main changes proposed by the construction contracts amendment bill, new zealand legislation (2015) include: • removal of most of the distinctions between the treatment of residential and commercial contracts under the act o contractors can now suspended work as a result of non-payment under both residential and commercial contracts (residential contracts were previously excluded); o notices advising how to respond to payment and adjudication claims must now be served to both residential and commercial clients (previously only applied to residential contracts); construction economics and building, 15(4), 95-105 finnie and ameer ali 97 o default payment provisions apply to both residential and commercial contracts, (residential contracts were previously excluded); o charging orders can, however, still only be placed over commercial construction sites (maintaining the provisions in the original act, the residential exclusion remains). • extending the scope of the act to also apply to contracts for design, engineering, and quantity surveying work, bringing the nz act in line with all other equivalent acts around the world • removal of the distinction between enforcement of payment determinations and of those relating to rights and obligations (previously only payment determinations could be enforced) • making the enforcement process of adjudicators’ determinations more efficient after submissions to the commerce committee were closed, further sops were released, some of which introduced further changes. for example, sop 052 released on 11 march 2015 introduced the new requirement for retentions to be held in trust and for adjudicators to serve their notice of acceptance as adjudicator within just two working days. following numerous correspondence among construction professionals, the legal fraternity and officers of the relevant department and ministry including letters to the relevant minister, sop 106 was released on 22 september 2015 presenting bill 97-3. this sop maintained the requirements for retentions in trust, but following strong concerns expressed by industry professionals, academics, and lawyers, the requirement for adjudicators to serve their notice of acceptance as adjudicator within the impractical two days was sensibly removed. in addition, some other minor changes were incorporated such as the definition of a dispute under s.25(2) which was amended to include a “disagreement as to whether or not there has been a breach of a term of the contract.” the key changes found in the amendment bills are now further considered and reviewed in detail. removal of most of the distinctions between the treatment of residential and commercial contracts under the act section 10 of the nz act differentiates the way residential and commercial contracts are treated. these include (i) default provisions relating to payment, (ii) the ability to suspend work, and (iii) provisions relating to the issuing of charging orders on the construction site. these distinctions were provided allegedly to better protect residential clients who were assumed to be less likely to be aware of the provisions of the act. provisions for default payment terms and the ability to suspend work for non-payment will now apply equally to both residential and commercial contracts. the commerce committee found no reason to distinguish between what was previously assumed to be the different circumstances of commercial and residential clients. the committee recommended that useful advisory notices under s.20(3) be provided to all clients, whether commercial or residential, and for both payment and adjudication claims. this was supported by most of the submissions including the new zealand law society (2013), the building disputes tribunal (2013), and the arbitrators’ and mediators’ institute of new zealand (2013). this change is seen as a sensible move. even if there were some cases where commercial clients were more knowledgeable than residential clients, removing the distinction rationalises the act into a common platform and makes it more efficient. section 31, which prohibits charging orders over residential construction contracts, was however, retained. once a charging order over a commercial project is approved by an adjudicator appointed by an authorised nominating authority and enforced by the district court, the construction economics and building, 15(4), 95-105 finnie and ameer ali 98 property cannot be sold until the adjudicator’s determination is satisfied. some, for example the building disputes tribunal (2013), felt this remaining distinction between residential and commercial contracts was artificial and unwarranted. they argued that it is unfair to contractors working directly for owners of residential dwellings, when those owners failed to pay amounts properly due. they also contended that, as residential property owners make up a quarter of all adjudication respondents, the bill protected residential clients but not residential contractors. “the power imbalance” they said, “is generally in favour of the residential owner over the contractor as most contractors engaged in residential work are small ‘one man’ operators who do not have the benefit of income from multiple sources to cover them while disputes are resolved” (bdt, 2013 p.21). as a consequence many tend to accept less than they are owed to maintain cashflow. the arbitrators’ and mediators’ institute of new zealand (2013, p.10) also questioned in basic terms: “… if an adjudicator determines that a residential owner is liable to pay a contractor, why should that owner’s property not be subject to a charging order?” in the final analysis it had to be a policy decision that determined whether this distinction on charging orders ought to be maintained. the commerce committee felt on balance that placing a charging order over a residential site could risk mortgage default. their decisions may also have been influenced by political and social considerations; in this case the relative importance of continuing to house home owners without causing them to face the risk of mortgage default, as opposed to potential problems associated with delayed payment to the contractor. there is typically more sympathy towards a consumer than a business entity. extended scope of the act to apply to contracts for design, engineering, and quantity surveying work the nz act is the only act among all 14 jurisdictions to exclude construction professional services within the scope of the act. the amendment bill expanded the coverage to include construction professional consultants by inserting the following after s.6(1): construction work includes (a) design or engineering work carried out in new zealand in respect of work of the kind referred to in subsection (1)(a) to (d) and (f): (b) quantity surveying work carried out in new zealand in respect of work of the kind referred to in subsection (1)(a) to (g). adjudication has been considered a successful form of alternative dispute resolution. ameer ali (2013) reports renowned lawyers and specialist construction judges calling it a ‘runaway success’ and ‘revolutionary’ in other equivalent acts, all of which include construction professionals within their scope. given also that there was significant support from the industry generally for inclusion of construction professional services, there appeared little reason to continue excluding construction professional services from the scope of the bill. in a similar vein britton (2015, p.20) describes leaving residential parties with litigation as their only option (as was the case under the original uk 1996 act), as a less than ideal outcome for both parties. bell (2014, p.12) comments that there remains a real difficulty in sensibly answering judge humphrey lloyd qc’s question posed more than a decade ago: “if adjudication is such a good idea, why does it not apply to all sectors of the construction industry?” the context of this question was in relation to the exclusion of some sectors such as the oil and gas sectors. there would nevertheless be even less reason to exclude construction professionals, especially when they have been included in all other jurisdictions without any reported significant adverse issues. construction economics and building, 15(4), 95-105 finnie and ameer ali 99 the building disputes tribunal (2013) said they “regularly receive inquiries from professionals seeking to recover fees in respect of services rendered, and from builders, developers and residential property owners disputing professional fee charges for the nature, scope or standard of professional services rendered.” bayley (2013) notes that where designers’ contracts are novated (contractually passed) from the client to the builder, such as might happen under a design and build procurement, the designer is paid by the builder without the protection other subcontractors receive. this can lead to inconsistent remedies and provisions in the contracts between design and build contractors and the subcontractors and designers they engage. pay when paid clauses could, for example, be retained in design consultancy contracts but not in construction work subcontracts under the current act. a number of submissions including those from building disputes tribunal (2013), argued that incorporating only ‘design or engineering work’ and ‘quantity surveying work’ is selective and rather artificial. many construction projects include other construction professionals such as project management consultants, building consultants, land surveyors, interior design consultants, and landscape architects. the last two could arguably be assumed to be included within the scope ‘design and engineering work’ but not the first three. the equivalent acts in singapore, malaysia, western australia and south australia specifically include “project management” under the scope of consultancy work. the new zealand institute of architects (2013) was one of few submissions that objected to the inclusion of construction professionals in the amendment bill. they argued that disputes over design related issues are too complex for adjudication, given its strict timeframe and unspecified minimum competency standards. these concerns were echoed by one other submitter, transpower (2013), who felt that because their projects were very large and complex, the limited timeframe would make adjudication inappropriate and, that where determinations are later overturned for matters other than payment, compensation may not prove satisfactory. the nzia (2013, p.11) recommended that if the act’s coverage of adjudication is to be expanded to include design disputes, then eligibility criteria should be set specifically for adjudicators of design-related disputes. bayley (2013, p.35) observed that “many adjudicators currently are relatively inexperienced and are not required to demonstrate on-going competency.” on the whole, again the decision had to be made as a policy decision. on balance, given the overwhelming support for inclusion of construction professionals and the absence of enough evidence showing it to be a difficulty in other jurisdictions around the world, the approach taken by the commerce committee to include construction professionals is laudable. at most it is redundant, but it may well help facilitate cash flow for construction professionals and enable expedient resolution of disputes between construction professionals and clients or design and build contractors. while the nzia’s suggestion regarding enhancing adjudicators’ eligibility criteria is laudable, it should be applied across all adjudicators and not just for those dealing with design issues. an anomaly that remains in the final amended act, which is a missed opportunity, is the somewhat limited scope of construction professional services covered by the act. removal of the distinction between enforcement of payment determinations and of those relating to rights and obligations the amendment bill alters s.28(3), making determinations over both payment and other matters enforceable through the courts. previously the courts only had to “have regard” to determinations on rights and obligations, however the commerce committee stated they “consider this amendment reflects a key purpose of the bill” s.28(3)(4). construction economics and building, 15(4), 95-105 finnie and ameer ali 100 ameer ali (2013, p.6) supports the removal of the current distinction which he suggests is peculiar to the nz act. there does not appear to be any rationale for its continued presence. given that the adjudication process has been successful, there is no reason to distinguish the enforcement of payment determinations and determinations relating to rights and obligations. in any case they are often inextricably linked. making the enforcement process more efficient the amendment bill s.74 reduced the time to appeal a determination being entered as a court judgment from 15 working days to five. the arbitrators’ and mediators’ institute of new zealand (2013, p.12) welcomed the more streamlined enforcement. the building disputes tribunal (2013, p.24) saw no need for any process to oppose entry as judgment, believing instead that the three grounds for opposition under 74(2) (the amount payable has been paid, the contract is not a construction contract under the act, or a condition imposed by the adjudicator has not been met) are not required. new zealand courts generally hear appeals where adjudicators have breached rules of natural justice or acted outside their jurisdiction (thode and hardy, 2014). green (2012) highlights the case of herbosch-kiere marine contractors limited v. dover harbour board [2012] heard in the technology and construction court (tcc), where the issue of natural justice was dealt with. akenhead j found that an adjudicator had breached the rules of natural justice when he used a method to assess the sum due to the contractor under a final account that neither party had put to him and upon which they had not been given an opportunity to comment. the adjudicator was considered to be using his own experience and knowledge. in response to a submission that the adjudicator could not be criticised for reaching a decision that was wrong either in fact or law, the tcc judge commented: “what [the adjudicator] can be criticised for is deciding something not only on a basis which was not argued in the adjudication proceedings but also without giving either party the opportunity to address the point.” the tcc found that the adjudicator’s approach and method had a clear and material financial effect on the decision and as such, the decision should not be enforced. bell (2014, p.7) highlights that the current practice, at least in australia and the uk, is that courts are upholding determinations which are made within an adjudicator’s jurisdiction, even where they are erroneous. he then cites mullins j in mcnab developments v mak construction services (2013) who held that “… even though the adjudicator appears to have made errors in the construction of the subcontract, they are not jurisdictional errors that enable [the plaintiff] to obtain the declaratory relief it seeks.” in any of these cases and instances the robustness of the courts to enforce the adjudicator’s determinations is commendable. adjudication is, after all, meant to expedite cash flow and provide a quick dispute resolution process. the amendment to reduce the time to appeal a determination being entered as a court judgment will lead to even greater efficiency and is a welcome improvement. appointment of the adjudicator and pre-adjudication conferences preventing parties from pre-selecting their adjudicator helps achieve a quality outcome by aligning the right adjudicator with the dispute. section 33(3) of the original construction contracts act 2002 already enables this: construction economics and building, 15(4), 95-105 finnie and ameer ali 101 an agreement about the choice of an adjudicator or a nominating body or an authorised nominating authority is not binding on the parties to the adjudication if that agreement was made (whether under the relevant construction contract or otherwise) before the dispute between them arose. however to also prevent ambush by the claimant during the process of appointing an adjudicator, bayley (2013) recommends replacing the current process where parties can choose to adopt any option in selecting an adjudicator, to one with a hierarchy using a ‘failing which’ sequence of selecting an adjudicator under s.33(1). he argues that the sequential approach can help prevent a claimant ambushing a respondent. currently a claimant may spend weeks or months preparing an adjudication claim and jump straight to s.33(1)(d) requesting a nominating authority to appoint an adjudicator. the act does not specify any timeframe for adjudicators to give their notice of acceptance to act as adjudicator, but to only notify their willingness and ability to act. however the authorised nominating authorities may well have procedures instructing their adjudicators to serve their notice of acceptance immediately. potentially the first time the respondent may become aware of the claim is when they are served the adjudicator’s willingness to act (s.35(1)), adjudicator’s notice of acceptance (s.35(2)), and the adjudication claim (s.36(1)), all within one working day. the respondent will in turn then need to respond to the claim in writing within a maximum of five working days. the first version of the amendment bill (97-1) contained a proposal for a mandatory preadjudication conference to be held. however, as then worded, the conference was required to be held only after the adjudicator was appointed, and to be used merely for answering questions and not necessarily for explaining the adjudication process, the party’s rights and obligations, and other options and details. bayley (2013b) and ameer ali (2013) made strong submissions supporting this amendment in principle. ameer ali (2013) also made submissions to correct what he suggested was an error. he proposed the pre-adjudication conference be held before the adjudicator serves the notice of acceptance and not after. this would then enable the adjudicator to explain the adjudication process to the parties (who may well be ignorant of the intricacies involved) and allow the parties to think through their disputes before the strict adjudication clock starts ticking when the adjudicators serve their notice of acceptance. bayley elaborates that the pre-adjudication conference could also be used to deal with a number of issues such as establishing clearly what issues are to be adjudicated, potentially consolidating disputes, organising a timetable, ensuring the adjudicator’s formal appointment terms are agreed, and fees paid. bayley also suggests that such practice, if done without any fee payment, would not cost the parties anything except their time. if necessary, such conferences could even be held virtually through video or audio conferencing. more importantly, as a result of the meeting and briefing, there is the possibility of the parties resolving the dispute amicably, such as through negotiation or mediation. the adjudicator should not be acting as mediator or negotiator in adjudication, but before the adjudication process starts, an altruistic adjudicator would be doing the industry and parties a service by briefing the parties on what might be an arduous process to come, once the official adjudication process starts. the parties would have been briefed that once the adjudicator serves the notice of acceptance, the dispute passes out of their control and transfers into the hands of the adjudicator. most of the other parliamentary submissions either made no comments on this amendment or were against the introduction of a mandatory pre-adjudication conference. several submissions contended that the exercise would add time and cost, the assumption being the adjudicator would charge for the time spent during the pre-adjudication conference and not offer it as a construction economics and building, 15(4), 95-105 finnie and ameer ali 102 public service. the commerce committee eventually recommended removing this provision. they explained their rationale for removing it in the commentary section of the amendment bill: pre-adjudication conference we recommend deleting clause 15. as introduced, the bill proposes mandatory pre-adjudication conferences. we believe this would add cost and delay adjudication. the act already allows adjudicators to hold conferences, and making them mandatory is unnecessary. we believe prescribed forms would be a more effective way of informing parties of their rights and the standard procedures involved in adjudication. following this however, somewhat surprisingly, in the subsequent version of the amendment bill (sop 52), the minister hon nick smith added another new provision which was never deliberated. section 35 required the adjudicator to serve the notice of acceptance within only two working days. this would be an unworkable timeframe for confirming terms of engagement, arranging security for fees, checking for conflicts of interest, and potentially consolidating disputes. it would also have practically prevented adjudicators from holding any pre-adjudication conferences. some adjudicators (see bayley, 2013), who routinely call for a pre-adjudication conference, noted a high success rate of parties reaching their own settlement, avoiding adjudication all together before the notice of acceptance is served by the adjudicator. following strong concerns expressed by a number of construction professionals, lawyers and academics, the onerous restriction for adjudicators to serve their notice of acceptance within only two working days was eventually removed in sop 106 issued on 22 september 2015 (bill 97-3) which was the version passed in parliament on 20 october 2015. as a result of this retraction, adjudicators can continue to hold pre-adjudication conferences and deal with the various preliminary issues suggested earlier. the proposal by bayley (2013) to create a hierarchical process when appointing adjudicators was however not adopted. the wording in the final form is not fatal to ensuring an effective process of appointing an adjudicator. retentions and other security of payment methods widespread concern has existed across the construction industry in new zealand about potential abuse of retention monies, particularly where money was owed by head or main contractors to their subcontractors. the relatively recent collapse of one of new zealand’s major contractors, mainzeal, highlighted how head contractors could use retention monies as free working capital, enabling them to remain operating even after they effectively become insolvent. in their submissions, building disputes tribunal (2013), master plumbers gasfitters and drainlayers (2013), floornz (2013), and the specialist trade contractors federation (2013) all put forward proposals mandating retentions to be held in trust accounts, as a means for securing payment of retentions. sops 52 and 106 proposed a new subpart (2)(a) requiring parties to a commercial construction contract to hold retention monies in trust for the benefit of the party from whom it is deducted. while early proposals only applied to retentions from subcontractors, the amendment bill provides the application to all retention monies, including those retained by the client from the head contractor. some of the parties also proposed that there were a number of key features of the new provisions that ought to be refined. the amendment bill requires the retention monies to be held in trust but does not require that they be held in a separate bank trust account or lawyer’s trust account. the argument against the stricter proposal for the retention monies to be held in a separate trust account was that it would be procedurally too complex to implement and monitor. it was argued that in the event of insolvency, the monies will already be protected from being paid to other creditors under existing trust laws. the parties holding the retention monies must however be transparent in construction economics and building, 15(4), 95-105 finnie and ameer ali 103 their reporting of the funds. this includes keeping appropriate records and making these records available within reasonable time and without charge. the retention monies can only be used to rectify defects and cannot be used as cashflow or for paying other creditors. penalty interest may be claimed for late release of retentions at an amount prescribed by regulation, unless otherwise agreed through the contract. the construction contract cannot be amended to avoid compliance with the new provisions and the prohibition of conditional payments would, under the amendment bill, apply equally to payment of retentions. the holder of the retentions will be free to invest the money in accordance with the trustee act 1956, but they must cover any losses. the new provisions will apply only to commercial construction contracts where the amount of retentions is considered more than the de minimis amount an amount deemed so small that the provisions are not required. this amount will be prescribed through regulations. an alternative to holding retentions is the use of bonds in lieu of retentions. the new zealand contractors’ federation (2013) noted that small firms may struggle to raise bonds but, paradoxically, this is so when their cash-flow is often reduced by money tied up in retentions. they recommended that insurance products that provide bond facilities should be readily available to a contractor in lieu of retentions. however, it should be noted such facilities would add cost to the project. the new zealand contractors’ federation (2013) made two other suggestions to protect subcontractors in the event the head contractor becomes insolvent. firstly, they recommended adding a provision enabling contractors to remove their tools and equipment from a site within a maximum period of 24 hours in the event the head contractor is placed into liquidation.. second, they recommended payment claims and their certificates become exempt from being considered voidable transactions under the companies act 1993, which would otherwise allow liquidators to claw-back payments to creditors (e.g. subcontractors) for up to two years before the head contractor’s liquidation. liquidators only need prove that the head contractor was not able to remain solvent when payment was made (shaw, 2014). there is little doubt that incorporating provisions for holding retention monies in trusts (as promoted by a significant number of submissions on the amendment bill) has the potential to greatly improve cashflow and financial security. however the overall benefit can only be established once implemented and the inconvenience to contractors and clients such as developers, of holding retentions in trust is taken into account. passage of time will also determine if other security methods, such as bonds, replace retentions. unlike new south wales, which introduced the requirement for contractors to hold retentions in trust accounts, the new zealand government took the light-handed approach of allowing contractors to hold retentions from multiple projects in a single bank account. the issue of co-mingling of funds from various construction projects, or the daunting task that may face any subcontractor wanting to obtain its entitlement to retentions in the event the head contractor becomes insolvent, remains to be addressed (simpson grierson, 2015). conclusion the construction contracts amendment act 2015 generally improves what is already considered an effective piece of legislation – the construction contracts act 2002. coverage is now expanded to include designers and quantity surveyors; all determinations, whether those on payment or rights and obligations will now be enforceable through the courts; and the timeframe to appeal is reduced from 15 to five working days. substantially removing the distinction in the treatment between residential and commercial contracts means commercial clients will now be better advised on how to respond to claims through explanatory notices (previously limited to only residential contracts), default payment provisions will apply to both residential and commercial construction contracts, and residential contractors will equally be able to suspend construction economics and building, 15(4), 95-105 finnie and ameer ali 104 work for non-payment. however, commercial construction sites can be subject to charging orders while residential construction sites are exempted. some recommendations found in submissions to the commerce committee were incorporated in the sops and subsequent versions of the bill (97-2 and 97-3) and the eventual act that was passed as the construction contracts amendment act 2015. these include removing the impractical two-day requirement for adjudicators to serve their notice of acceptance. even more significantly, contractors are now protected from their client becoming insolvent through their retention monies being secured in trust. likewise subcontractors are protected against head contractors. how easily they will be able to retrieve their monies held in a mingled fund in the event the party holding the retention money goes into liquidation remains to be seen. the call for retentions to be placed in a separate trust account was among the few outstanding concerns not accepted by the commerce committee. a few other recommendations worthy of consideration that were not adopted include project managers not being included under the umbrella of consultants that were now brought within the remit of the amendment act and the recommendation to create a hierarchical system when selecting an adjudicator starting from agreement between parties, to the claimant unilaterally instructing an authorised nominating authority to select an adjudicator. this would have helped prevent a claimant ambushing a respondent by serving the latter with the adjudicator’s willingness to act, the adjudicator’s notice of acceptance, and the adjudication claim all in one day, while giving the respondent only five working days to respond in writing. given the changes proposed and possibility of dealing with more complex matters, statutorily specifying minimum competency standards would also have helped enhance the standards of the adjudication process. this can however still be achieved by way of publishing regulations to the new construction contracts amendment act 2015. on balance, the construction contracts amendment act 2015 can be said to be for the better. references ameer ali, n., 2013. submission to the commerce select committee on the construction contracts amendment bill 2013. [online] available at: http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/sc/documents/evidence/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_ a348553/naseem-ameer-ali [accessed 29 april 2015]. arbitrators’ and mediators’ institute of new zealand, 2013. to committee members. [online] available at: http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a344145/ 90cba8f206368fa0461e2a29006933501df4f292 [accessed 29 april 2015]. bayley, g., 2013. construction contracts amendment bill submission to the commerce committee by geoff bayley. [online] available at: http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a350025/ 664fbf91bfa47ce8b332235f7da382b1c432129f [accessed 29 april 2015]. bayley, g., 2013. construction contracts amendment bill submission to the commerce committee by geoff bayley supplementary 1. [online] available at: http://www.parliament.nz/resource/ennz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a359250/4b14fe42f6f29bf27bfbd8ad5c23a3aef115a9c1 [accessed 29 april 2015]. bell, m., 2014. beyond the nutcracker: international harmonisation of construction industry payment legislation. society of construction law uk, 188. building disputes tribunal., 2013. construction contracts amendment bill (no 97-1) submission from building disputes tribunal (nz) limited 25 july 2013. [online] available at: http://www.parliament.nz/resource/ennz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a345327/71d4d1e8ab2bdcdb475958fb86d5cd91d727dfac [accessed 29 april 2015]. britton, p., 2015. adjudication and the ‘residential occupier exception’: time for a rethink?. society of construction law uk, 193. coggins, j., fenwick elliott, r. and bell, m., 2010. towards harmonisation of construction industry payment legislation: a consideration of the success afforded by the east and west coast models in australia – plus addendum. australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10(3), pp.14-35. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v10i3.1804 http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/sc/documents/evidence/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_%20a348553/naseem-ameer-ali http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/sc/documents/evidence/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_%20a348553/naseem-ameer-ali http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a344145/%2090cba8f206368fa0461e2a29006933501df4f292 http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a344145/%2090cba8f206368fa0461e2a29006933501df4f292 http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a350025/%20664fbf91bfa47ce8b332235f7da382b1c432129f http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a350025/%20664fbf91bfa47ce8b332235f7da382b1c432129f http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a359250/4b14fe42f6f29bf27bfbd8ad5c23a3aef115a9c1 http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a359250/4b14fe42f6f29bf27bfbd8ad5c23a3aef115a9c1 http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a345327/71d4d1e8ab2bdcdb475958fb86d5cd91d727dfac http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a345327/71d4d1e8ab2bdcdb475958fb86d5cd91d727dfac http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v10i3.1804 construction economics and building, 15(4), 95-105 finnie and ameer ali 105 floornz, 2013. construction contracts amendment bill 97-1. [online] available at: http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a345332/ 3ebb8b4a12c00c350b1853922ea218d526917d31 [accessed 29 april 2015]. gaitskell, r., 2005. adjudication: its effect on other forms of dispute resolution (the uk experience). proceedings of the international conference and forum on construction industry payment acts and adjudication, kuala lumpur. green, j., 2012. natural justice again! buildlaw. 13. [online] available at: http://www.buildingdisputestribunal.co.nz/resources/buildlaw/buildlaw+issue+13+march+2012.h tml [accessed 29 april 2015]. herbosch-kiere marine contractors limited v. dover harbour board [2012] in buildlaw, 2012. natural justice again!!. [online] available at: http://www.buildingdisputestribunal.co.nz/site/buildingdisputes/files/buildlaw/ issue%2013//6.%20natural%20justice%20again!.pdf [accessed 29 april 2015]. master plumbers, gasfitters and drainlayers nz, 2013. commerce select committee submission on construction contracts amendment bill 97-1. [online] available at: http://www.parliament.nz/resource/ennz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a344188/08bc293d588e906267f3a3551ae10eddfaa78144 [accessed 29 april 2015]. new zealand contractors’ federation, 2013. requested submission to the commerce select committee on construction contracts amendment bill 2013. [online] available at: http://www.parliament.nz/ennz/pb/sc/documents/evidence/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a344937/new-zealandcontractors-federation [accessed 29 april 2015]. new zealand legislation, 2015. construction contracts amendment bill 97-1, 97-2, and 97-3. [online] available at: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2013/0097/latest/versions.aspx [accessed 23 october 2015]. new zealand parliament, 2015. construction contracts amendment bill. [online] available at: http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/legislation/bills/00dbhoh_bill11975_1/construction-contractsamendment-bill [accessed 23 october 2015]. new zealand institute of architects, 2013. construction contracts amendment bill commerce select committee additional information tabled. [online] available at: http://www.parliament.nz/resource/ennz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a359246/92bcc6991abcf19c7ac0b5d60cc3323996cddd95 [accessed 29 april 2015]. new zealand law society, 2013. construction contracts amendment bill. [online] available at: http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a345166/ b99cd86e5fd08408c1fd2a9e644b920babc8bd6a [accessed 29 april 2015]. shaw, k., 2014, january/march. voidable transaction changes?. build magazine, 140, 7677. [online] available at: http://www.branz.co.nz/cms_show_download.php?id=c5ceb03ad9c2d1b1e15bb1cb07390fae57656bb4 [accessed 29 april 2015]. simpson grierson, 2015. the construction contracts amendment bill – nearly there!. [online] available at: http://www.simpsongrierson.com/construction-contracts-amendment-bill/ [accessed 29 april 2015]. specialist trade contractors federation, 2013. submission on the construction contracts amendment bill. [online] available at: http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a344327/ 49d8bbe39d527b6ac38820e4a19ef939f3b98bcc [accessed 29 april 2015]. thode, e. and hardy, m., 2014. finality of adjudication under the cca. (2014, september). nzlj 309. transpower, 2013. submission to the commerce committee in relation to the construction contracts amendment bill. [online] available at: http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/sc/documents/evidence/ 50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a344880/transpower-new-zealand. [accessed 23 october 2015] http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a345332/%203ebb8b4a12c00c350b1853922ea218d526917d31 http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a345332/%203ebb8b4a12c00c350b1853922ea218d526917d31 http://www.buildingdisputestribunal.co.nz/resources/buildlaw/buildlaw+issue+13+march+2012.html http://www.buildingdisputestribunal.co.nz/resources/buildlaw/buildlaw+issue+13+march+2012.html http://www.buildingdisputestribunal.co.nz/site/buildingdisputes/files/buildlaw/%20issue%2013/6.%20natural%20justice%20again!.pdf http://www.buildingdisputestribunal.co.nz/site/buildingdisputes/files/buildlaw/%20issue%2013/6.%20natural%20justice%20again!.pdf http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a344188/08bc293d588e906267f3a3551ae10eddfaa78144 http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a344188/08bc293d588e906267f3a3551ae10eddfaa78144 http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/sc/documents/evidence/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a344937/new-zealand-contractors-federation http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/sc/documents/evidence/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a344937/new-zealand-contractors-federation http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/sc/documents/evidence/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a344937/new-zealand-contractors-federation http://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2013/0097/latest/versions.aspx http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/legislation/bills/00dbhoh_bill11975_1/construction-contracts-amendment-bill http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/legislation/bills/00dbhoh_bill11975_1/construction-contracts-amendment-bill http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a359246/92bcc6991abcf19c7ac0b5d60cc3323996cddd95 http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a359246/92bcc6991abcf19c7ac0b5d60cc3323996cddd95 http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a345166/%20b99cd86e5fd08408c1fd2a9e644b920babc8bd6a http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a345166/%20b99cd86e5fd08408c1fd2a9e644b920babc8bd6a http://www.branz.co.nz/cms_show_download.php?id=c5ceb03ad9c2d1b1e15bb1cb07390fae57656bb4 http://www.simpsongrierson.com/construction-contracts-amendment-bill/ http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a344327/%2049d8bbe39d527b6ac38820e4a19ef939f3b98bcc http://www.parliament.nz/resource/en-nz/50scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a344327/%2049d8bbe39d527b6ac38820e4a19ef939f3b98bcc http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/sc/documents/evidence/%2050scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a344880/transpower-new-zealand http://www.parliament.nz/en-nz/pb/sc/documents/evidence/%2050scco_evi_00dbhoh_bill11975_1_a344880/transpower-new-zealand the new zealand construction contracts amendment act 2015 for better or worse? abstract introduction summary of key changes removal of most of the distinctions between the treatment of residential and commercial contracts under the act extended scope of the act to apply to contracts for design, engineering, and quantity surveying work removal of the distinction between enforcement of payment determinations and of those relating to rights and obligations making the enforcement process more efficient appointment of the adjudicator and pre-adjudication conferences retentions and other security of payment methods conclusion references construction economics and building vol. 18, no. 4 december 2018 © 2018 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: belayutham, s., zabidin, n. s. and ibrahim, c. k. i. c. 2018. dynamic representation of barriers for adopting building information modelling in malaysian tertiary education. construction economics and building, 18:4, 24-44. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v18i4.6228 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article (peer-reviewed) dynamic representation of barriers for adopting building information modelling in malaysian tertiary education sheila belayutham1, nadia safura zabidin2 and che khairil izam che ibrahim3 1 faculty of civil engineering, universiti teknologi mara, 40450 shah alam, selangor, malaysia; sheila6913@salam.uitm.edu.my 2 faculty of civil engineering, universiti teknologi mara, 40450 shah alam, selangor, malaysia; nadiasafura@gmail.com 3 faculty of civil engineering, universiti teknologi mara, 40450 shah alam, selangor, malaysia; chekhairil449@salam.uitm.edu.my *corresponding author: sheila belayutham, faculty of civil engineering, universiti teknologi mara, 40450 shah alam, selangor, malaysia. sheila6913@salam.uitm.edu.my doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i4.6228 article history: received 05/08/2018; revised 02/12/2018; accepted 03/12/2018; published 21/12/2018 abstract building information modelling (bim) is deemed to shape the future of the construction sector across the world. at present, the lack of bim in tertiary education has been the rising concern around the world as the demand for bim talent increases. the current landscape suggests that few pedagogic researches have been undertaken to advance bim education, particularly in malaysia. bim implementation could only be possible by identifying the potential barriers, which is a basic pre-requisite for successful adoption of bim. unfortunately, previous studies on the barriers of bim adoption have often based on theoretical constructs, which are deterministic in nature. the methodology used could not portray a conclusive correlation of causal relations among the variables, creating difficulty in developing holistic and workable solutions. therefore, this study aims to develop a methodology that provides a dynamic representation of the barriers in implementing bim in tertiary education. the methodology combines both the deterministic (feedback from questionnaire survey) and dynamic approach (causal loop diagram). data was first collected and analysed through a declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the authors received financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article from the bestari perdana grant, universiti teknologi mara [grant no: 600-irmi/perdana 5/3 bestari (065/2018)]. 24 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i4.6228 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i4.6228 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i4.6228 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:sheila6913@salam.uitm.edu.my mailto:nadiasafura@gmail.com mailto:chekhairil449@salam.uitm.edu.my mailto:sheila6913@salam.uitm.edu.my https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i4.6228 questionnaire survey administered among lecturers from selected malaysian universities. following that, a dynamic systems approach (causal loop diagram) was used to demonstrate the complex nature and interrelationship of the barriers for a more holistic representation. results from the deterministic analysis has suggested barriers that relate to technology, while findings from the dynamics has identified the people aspect as the core barrier for bim adoption. this study has contributed in establishing a methodology that integrates the dynamic approach with the deterministic data towards providing a more holistic representation of a system that further enables the identification of holistic solutions that would address the core barriers inhibiting the implementation of bim education, particularly at malaysian universities. keywords building information modelling (bim); tertiary education; civil engineering; causal loop diagram (cld); barriers; malaysia. introduction education plays a vital role in building information modelling (bim) implementation, as reflected in the increased demand for people with bim skills. zhang, schmidt and li (2016) stated that without bim talent development, no real progress can be made towards construction’s sustainability. therefore, bim education is an essential element in driving forward the use of bim within the industry.bim education is the joint responsibility of construction related organizations, universities, technical colleges, communities of practice and specialized training entities. at present, the lack of bim education in tertiary studies has raised concerns around the world as the demand for bim talent increases (zhang, schmidt and li, 2016). nonetheless, the current landscape suggests that little pedagogic research has been undertaken to advance bim education, as compared to bim adoption in the industry. bataw (2015) suggested that bim education could be deficient because implementing new technologies into a curriculum can be a difficult task, especially technology as complex as bim. in addition, most universities are struggling because there is no common understanding of what skills are needed in the industry nor the content, principles, and methods of education for bim (sacks and pikas, 2013). in their study, rodríguez-rodríguez and dávila-perez (2016) found that the challenge in introducing bim in the civil engineering curricula includes the lack of bim knowledge among faculty members, limited time in completing courses and the lengthy time required to make curriculum changes. in another study, puolitaival and forsythe (2016) have identified the challenges of bim education as the lack of teachinglearning resources, difficulty in finding the balance between theory-practice, technologyprocess and traditional-modern construction project management methods and staff professional development. in malaysia, findings from a questionnaire survey by hedayati, mohandesa and preece (2015) highlighted that software related issues have been identified as the major barrier of bim adoption in the malaysian education system. hadzaman, takim and nawawi (2015) revealed that the bim maturity level in malaysia is still at the awareness stage and support from all parties is crucial in spreading the use of bim, particularly the academia. hence, hedayati, mohandesa and preece (2015) have called for more research to be conducted among malaysian academicians in identifying the barriers in academic institutions, including suggestions to eliminate these obstacles in the education system. dynamic representation of barriers for adopting building information modelling in malaysian tertiary education construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201825 previous studies have investigated the challenges of bim education by eliciting the most important issues,but limited studies were found on the identification of root causes and the inter-relationship between the different challenges, which could lead to the recurrence of the barriers of bim adoption (mamter, aziz and zulkepli, 2017). most studies have been conducted in deterministic manner using quantitative questionnaire survey or qualitative interviews (yusuf, ali and embi, 2016). the sole reliance on the deterministic approach could constraint the overall understanding of an issue because a phenomenon is viewed only from one perspective. this would result in solutions that might not address the core barrier but instead, only overcomes challenges which are thought to be apparent (belayutham, gonzález and yiu, 2016). therefore, this study aims to explore the core barriers of bim adoption in tertiary education through the development of a methodology that provides a dynamic representation of the barriers. this study, as part of a larger scale project, has first chosen civil engineering as the subject of interest. the following objectives have been established to achieve the aim of this study: i) to identify the current barriers of bim adoption in the civil engineering education in malaysian tertiary institutions; and ii) to represent the barriers through a dynamic representation in the form of a causal loop diagram (cld).the contribution of this study is twofold: 1) the development of a methodology to represent both qualitative and quantitative approaches in a complex representation; and 2) a dynamic representation of the barriers in adopting bim in civil engineering tertiary education. bim education the current shortage of building design professionals trained in bim remains a barrier to universal adoption of collaborative working practices in the industry (macdonald, 2012). sacks and pikas (2013) claimed that there are many accredited civil engineering, architectural, architectural engineering, construction engineering, and construction management degree programs in the united states, but very few of the programs offer bim content. as bim tools and processes become the uptrend in the construction industry, the demand for skilled bim professionals increases steadily (zhang, schmidt and li, 2016). hence, it is the duty of tertiary institutions to properly adapt their curriculum so that their graduates become professionals who are able to perform the required bim skills (barison and santos, 2010), because without proper bim education, no real progress could be made towards achieving construction excellence. badrinath, chang and hsieh (2016) have conducted a study by searching through publications ranging from year 2010 to the present day using different search engines (e.g., google scholar, scopus), which have resulted in the collection of 70 academic publications related to bim education. from those publications, almost half were published in 2015 (30 out of 70), which shows that the importance of bim education at tertiary level has only picked-up recently. miller et al. (2013) found that although bim is increasingly deployed in the new zealand (nz) construction industry, the country is yet to have a national bim education framework, with only one tertiary institution offering bim related module. in the uk, underwoodet al. (2015) have conducted a study on the current position and associated challenges of bim education and found that the higher education institutions are generally underperforming, subsequently raises the concern towards the target of getting industry players to achieve at least level 2 bim by 2016. similar scenario is observed in the developing nation, china and in regard to that, zhang, schmidt and li(2016) has urged tertiary institutions to stop defending obsolete programs and to ride along the wave of bim transformation. in order to do so, challenges facing the academia in implementing bim belayutham, zabidin and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201826 education should first be understood. the difficulty to embedded bim in the education system can be factored to different understandings on the needs of the industry, as well as the content, principles and methods of education (sacks and pikas, 2013), with significant diversity found in bim related curriculum (hedayati, mohandesa and preece, 2015). nonetheless, growing numbers of studies have been conducted to embedded bim in the curricular for tertiary institutions, such as sampaio (2015), who has introduced the bim concept for civil engineering at the technical university of lisbon, portugal. similarly, in puerto rico, rodríguez-rodríguez and dávila-perez (2016) have developed a bim framework for the civil engineering department of university of puerto rico as a guide to develop bim curriculum in order to meet industry requirements of professionals with bim skills. zhang, wu and li (2018) have further incorporated team-based learning pedagogy into bim education through an undergraduate capstone project, in order to enhance bim competency among civil engineering and management students in china. similarly, jin et al. (2018) have provided an insight into the pedagogical practices in an interdisciplinary building design project that has adopted bim. findings from their study suggest that students were equipped with bim capabilities for future employment, as thepedagogical practices have emphasised the link between the academia and the industry. hu (2018) has further introducedand encouraged bim-enabled pedagogy, rather than the traditional drafting-based modelling pedagogy, as a teaching platform for technology courses. bim education in malaysia the current limited adoption of bim education is also apparent in malaysia. the differences found in studies related to bim adoption in the industry, as compared to the education sector is appalling. a simple scopus search title-abs-key using two different terms, ‘bim+construction+industry+malaysia’ and ‘bim+education+malaysia’ found the former to have 26 returns, while the latter with only 7 returns. hadzaman, takim and nawawi (2015) found that bim maturity in malaysia is still at the awareness level and support from all parties, including academia is crucial to spread the use of bim. hedayati, mohandesa and preece (2015) who have conducted a questionnaire survey among lecturers in universiti teknologi malaysia (utm) found the biggest challenge to be software related, lack of bim textbook and resources and limited number of courses that students can take. most lecturers have recommended for educators to be given proper training so that knowledge could be transferred correctly to the students. on the other hand, khiyon (2016) has collected data from six tertiary institutions offering qs programme in malaysia and found that the incorporation of bim into qs programmes in malaysia is still at a low level with lack of standardisation. it is apparent that studies conducted on bim education in malaysia is still at its infancy. challenges in bim education as mentioned, universities play a major role in the spread of technological changes, such as bim and the paradigm shift changes the shape of traditional curriculum, which would require acceptance by the entire faculty (sampaio, 2015). previous studies have revealed that various factors could deter the adoption of bim in education. in descending order, becerik-gerber, gerber and ku (2011) listed the reasons for bim to be excluded from the curriculum are: no resource to teach; inadequate resources for curriculum change; no room in current curriculum; not an accreditation criterion and inadequate funding. in a similar tone, rodríguez-rodríguez dynamic representation of barriers for adopting building information modelling in malaysian tertiary education construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201827 and dávila-perez (2016) mentioned the lack of faculty resources with bim skills, the amount of time required to implement curriculum changes and limited time in courses as the barriers of bim education. puolitaival and forsythe (2016) added that the difficulties of bim adoption lies in finding the balance between theory and practice, technology and process and traditional and emerging cpm methods, while facilitating staffs’ professional development. amongst that, shelbourn et al. (2017) has also raised concerns on educators who still view bim as just another cad programme, while students are forced to learn certain targeted software in their own time. the summary of challenges is given in table 1. table 1 summary of barriers for bim education id. variables literature 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 total b1 reluctance to change curricular structure x x x x x x x 7 b2 insufficient space in current curricular x x x x x x x 7 b3 too much time to amend curricular structure x x 2 b4 legal issues x 1 b5 accreditation standards and professional requirements x x x x x 5 b6 reluctance to invest in new curriculum/ software x x x x x 5 b7 lack financial support to train lecturers x x x x x 5 b8 lack proper tools and method to adapt bim x x 2 b9 lack qualified staffs to teach bim x x x x 4 b10 inexperienced, unskilled and insufficient lecturers to teach bim x x x x 4 b11 senior lecturers having difficulties to teach bim x 1 b12 issues due to uncertainties of the course outcomes x x x x 4 b13 misunderstanding on bim process implementation x x 2 belayutham, zabidin and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201828 id. variables literature 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 total b14 limited credit hours due to the requirements to graduate on time (got) x x x 3 b15 longer time taken to learn bim software x x x 3 b16 shortage of student learning tools x x x x 4 b17 limitation of bim software for students’ access x x 2 b18 insufficient hands-on training by universities x x x x 4 b19 incompatibility of using bim with courses in the university x x 2 b20 lack of government/ industry encouragement and initiative to adapt bim in education x x x 3 note: 1-badrinath, chang and hsieh(2016); 2-hedayati, mohandesa and preece (2015); 3-khiyon (2016); 4-macdonald (2012); 5-sacks and pikas (2013); 6-becerik-gerber, gerber and ku (2011); 7-abdirad and dossick (2016); 8-denzer and hedges (2008);9-yusuf, ali and embi (2016); 10-khosrowshahi and arayici (2012); 11-panuwatwanich et al. (2013);12-sabongi and arch (2009); 13-kymmell (2008);14-gordon, azambuja and werner (2009); 15-rodríguez-rodríguez and dávila-perez (2016); and 16-puolitaival and forsythe (2016) the concept of people, process and technology the challenges reported by previous studies have referred to various aspects but did not showcase the interrelationship between the different aspects. this has triggered a study by enegbuma, aliagha and ali (2015), who focused on the relationships between people, process and technology aspects in examining the causal relationshipand its effect on bim adoption. the study found that the process factor significantly affects bim adoption. along the same line, underwood et al. (2015) have perceived the importance of bim components towards bim adoption in descending order, starting from people, information, technology and process. arayici (2011) has earlier mentioned that bim adoption and implementation approach is actually as much about people and processes as it is about technology, subsequently providing another perspective in addressing the barriers of bim adoption, particularly in education. hence, it is essential that those aspects are being viewed from a dynamic perspective that could demonstrate the interrelationship and root causes of certain barriers, rather than the deterministic form found in most of the previous studies. the theoretical construct is shown in figure 1. table 1 continued dynamic representation of barriers for adopting building information modelling in malaysian tertiary education construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201829 figure 1 dynamic interrelationships between people, process and technology aspects of bim education barriers the golden triangle of people, process and technology has commonly been associated as the critical success factor for organizational changes. the phrase people, process and technology has been initiated by harold leavitt in his paper entitled ‘applied organizational change in industry’ (leavitt, 1962). since then, the model has been used in various attempts to accelerate organizational changes, particularly in the realms of the current paradigm shift towards industrial revolution 4.0. for example, liao and teo (2018b) have identified and interpreted the critical drivers for change towards bim implementation based on an organisational change framework, where process-related attributes were found to be the key for full bim implementation. the different definitions observed in regard to the people, process and technology have been summarised in table 2. table 2 representations of people, process and technology references definition people process technology soja and soja (2017) acceptance; involvement; knowledge; competence; reluctance or resistance to changes time overrun; high implementation costs and cost overrun; organisation’s competence and support; trainings system efficiency; system customization; hardware; software; network infrastructure liao, teo and low (2017) key stakeholders work processes; delivery process tools alshawi (2007) staff; skill practices systems belayutham, zabidin and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201830 references definition people process technology chen, rukar and carrillo (2013) social and cultural aspects related within an organization; awareness; understanding; skill requirements of staff within an organization. a practice, or a series of actions, done for a specific purpose; part of a system with defined purpose or objective; defined inputs and outputs; key business working rules; procedures information and communication technologies (ict); hardware; software; tools/ applications; technological infrastructure; systems supporting information transaction and sharing. dave et al. 2008 communication; articulation; commitments task based approach ict systems enegbuma, aliagha and ali (2014) experience; adaptive response; awareness; training organizational process; long term goal; managing cost; new methodologies; work flow changes; bim software; reference material; component database table 3 represents the integration between the barriers (refer to table 1) and thethree aspects of people, process and technology (refer to table 2).similar integration has been observed in a study by liao and teo (2018a), who have interpreted critical barriers and drivers using organisational change framework, in regard topeople-related factors.table 3 shows that the process attribute involves most barriers and it is crucial to address the processbased factors effectively as it could inject positive influences into the other aspects (people and technology). research methodology this study has been divided into two main work phases that addresses the two main objectives, as shown in table 4. the mixed-method (qualitative and quantitative) approach adopted in this study enhances the reliability and validity of the findings. the quantitative method that have been utilised is questionnaire survey, while the qualitative method includes a forum among lecturers and also the use of literature review. this section describes the methodology adopted in the transformation of the qualitative and quantitative data into a causal loop diagram (cld) that maps the interrelation and causal relationship between the different barriers of bim adoption in malaysian civil engineering education. cld is a model that portrays the behaviour of variables in a system, presented as causal relationships and feedback loops. table 2 continued dynamic representation of barriers for adopting building information modelling in malaysian tertiary education construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201831 table 3 barriers in association with people, process and technology people process technology • reluctance to change curricular structure • lack qualified staffs to teach bim • inexperienced, unskilled and insufficient lecturers to teach bim • senior lecturers having difficulties to teach bim • longer time taken to learn bim software • insufficient space in current curricular • too much time to amend curricular structure • legal issues • accreditation standards and professional requirements • reluctance to invest in new curriculum/ software • lack financial support to train lecturers • issues due to uncertainties of the course outcomes • misunderstanding on bim process implementation • limited credit hours due to the requirements to graduate on time (got) • insufficient hands-on training by universities • incompatibility of using bim with courses in the university • lack of government/ industry encouragement and initiative to adapt bim in education • lack proper tools and method to adapt bim • shortage of student learning tools • limitation of bim software for students’ access population and sampling for the questionnaire survey, this study has targeted public universities that offer civil engineering courses in the klang valley area in malaysia. the selected area is regarded as the most developed place in the country, with the most numbers of civil engineering faculties in a locality. public universities were chosen because this type of higher institution generates greater number of graduates as compared to private universities and polytechnics (mohe, 2015). hence, the understanding and subsequently addressing barriers among these universities would benefit a larger number of recipients. non-probability sampling using purposive sampling method has been employed to select the participants for this study. the selected respondents were academicians who were involved or have been part of bim related committees at their respective organisations, which further justifies their credential and knowledge in recognising the barriers of bim education. further details on the sampling frame and sampling is given in table 5, while figure 2 provides the teaching profile of the respondents. belayutham, zabidin and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201832 figure 2 teaching profile of respondents as for the forum, a small group of lecturers have been invited to discuss on the matters regarding to bim education. these lecturers are members of a bim education committee at universiti teknologi mara, making them a viable respondent due to their knowledge in bim implementation in the education system. the lecturers came from different backgrounds in civil engineering, such as structure and material, water and environment, geotechnical and transportation and construction business and project management. their input has been important, particularly on data verification in phase 2 (stage 1 and stage 2). in phase 2 (stage 1), the members were requested to categorise the barriers into either people, process or technology aspect based on the definition provided. in phase 2 (stage 2), the members were requested to suggest and determine causal relationships between the correlated variables, till consensus. table 4 research methodology stages research methods phase 1: the identification of the current barriers in adopting bim in the civil engineering education in malaysian tertiary institutions stage 1 identification of the common barriers in bim education literature review • past studies on the common barriers of adopting bim in the education system were explored. • 20 barriers were extracted and incorporated into the questionnaire survey. • the literatures used to establish the variables in the questionnaire are given in table 1. stage 2 collecting responses on the barriers of bim education in malaysia questionnaire survey • development, pilot study, distribution and data collection. • data analysis: reliability test, descriptive analysis, mean and spearman’s rank correlation dynamic representation of barriers for adopting building information modelling in malaysian tertiary education construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201833 stages research methods phase 2: dynamic interrelation between barriers through the development of causal loop diagram stage 1 stage 2 people, process and technology categorization the barriers established in phase 1 (stage 1) are further categorized into the golden triangle of people, process and technology. this is done through several different approaches: literature review • past literatures in regard to the golden triangle are used to establish the definitions forpeople, process and technology (refer to table 2). then, relevant barriers associated with the definitions were placed under the similar category (refer to table 3). forum • the categorization is further verified among a group of lecturers, who are part of a bim education committee at a local university. correlation between variables spearman’s rank correlation data based on the quantitative data obtained from the questionnaire survey in phase 1, the correlation between variables are ascertained through spearman’s rank correlation data. spearman’s rank correlation could provide a measure of association between the variables by providing monotonic relationship between two variables. the correlation coefficient could be interpreted as follows (hinkle, wiersma and jurs, 2003): correlation coefficient interpretation 0.00–0.29 0.30–0.49 0.50–0.69 0.70–0.89 0.90–1.00 negligible (n) correlation weak (w) correlation moderate (m) correlation strong (s) correlation very strong (vs) correlation causal relationship establishment forum and literature review after establishment of the correlations, all associated variables (only relationships which are weak to very strong) are extracted and defined its causal relationships. the causal relationships are determined through a forum conducted with a group of lecturers. the causal relationships are only finalized after consensus has been reached among the forum members. further, the causal relationship between the networks are also supported with evidences from literatures. the verified causal relation between the variables are then inputted into the vensim software, where a dynamic representation in the form of causal loop diagram (cld) is established.the output would be a cld representing both the quantitative and qualitative data for this study. belayutham, zabidin and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201834 table 5 questionnaire sampling and number of respondents universities sampling frame sample size (krejcie and morgan, 1970) respondents % response universiti teknologi mara (uitm) 178 122 85 69.67 universiti malaya (um) universiti kebangsaan malaysia (ukm) universiti putra malaysia (upm) universiti pertahanan nasional malaysia (upnm) the deterministic barriers of bim education in civil engineering courses in malaysia following the 69.67% rate of return, with 85 number of respondents, a reliability test (cronbach’s alpha test) has been carried out to measure the level of tolerance and internal consistency of the data. a value of 0.78 has been obtained. as a rule of thumb (nunnally, 1978), a value equivalent or larger than 0.7 would signify that the data is consistent and shall be accepted. a mean representation of the barriers for bim adoption in the civil engineering curriculum is shown in table 6, listed from the highest to the lowest rank. the deterministic data from the mean value has resulted in ‘limitation of bim software for students’ access at computer laboratories’ as the highest ranked and most agreed upon barrier of bim adoption in the civil engineering curriculum.the lowest value of standard deviation (sd) (0.69371) among the top five barriers signifies minimal dispersion from the mean value, indicating that the barrier is much agreed upon by respondents. the barrier is closely related to the ‘technology’ factor, followed by the ‘lack of proper tools and method to adopt bim’, which is also under the category of technology. nonetheless, the top five barriers do have a compilation of barriers from different categories, which is people at the third ranked barrier of ‘longer time taken to learn bim’, followed by process-based barriers, which are ‘limited credit hours due to the requirements to graduate on time (got)’ and ‘insufficient space in current curricular structure’. table 6 mean value of barriers for bim adoption in civil engineering curriculum id description of barriers mean sd rank category b17 limitation of bim software for students’ access 3.6824 0.69371 1 technology b8 lack of proper tools and method to adopt bim 3.6588 0.83883 2 technology b15 longer time taken to learn bim software 3.6471 0.71889 3 people dynamic representation of barriers for adopting building information modelling in malaysian tertiary education construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201835 id description of barriers mean sd rank category b14 limited credit hours due to the requirements to graduate on time (got) 3.5882 0.83515 4 process b2 insufficient space in current curricular structure 3.5412 0.83883 5 process b18 insufficient hands-on training by universities 3.5176 0.62890 6 process b10 inexperienced and unskilled lecturers to teach bim 3.4471 0.73202 7 people b9 lack of qualified staffs to teach bim 3.4235 0.87799 8 people b19 incompatibility of using bim with courses in the universities 3.4235 0.80735 9 process b12 issues due to uncertainties of the course outcomes 3.4000 0.94112 10 process b13 misunderstanding on bim process implementation 3.3176 0.84813 11 process b3 too much time to amend the current curricular structure 3.2706 0.73010 12 process b16 shortage of student learning tools 3.2471 0.77006 13 technology b20 lack of government/ industry encouragement and initiatives to adapt bim in education 3.1882 0.66358 14 process b11 senior lecturers having difficulties to teach bim 3.1882 0.77910 15 people b1 reluctance to change the current curricular structure 3.1765 0.67571 16 people b7 lack of financial support to train lecturers 3.1765 0.83347 17 process b6 reluctance to invest in new curriculum/ software 3.1529 0.85225 18 process b5 accreditation standards and professional requirements 3.0118 0.82367 19 process b4 legal issues 2.8235 0.75870 20 process the interrelationship between the barriers of bim education in civil engineering courses in malaysia a spearman’s correlation analysis has been conducted to create a correlational network between the different variables identified in the deterministic approach. table 7 shows a sample of the results from the spearman’s correlation analysis that was used to describe the strength and direction of relationship between variables. spearman’s is a nonparametric measure of the statistical dependence between two variables. from table 7, correlational coefficient (r) indicates the strength and direction of the relation between the independent and dependent variables. the relation becomes stronger as the correlation coefficient value approaches -1 or +1. the sig. (2-tailed), known as p-value, indicated by * or ** signifies that table 6 continued belayutham, zabidin and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201836 any variable larger than 0.05 should be rejected as the data is deemed to be not statistically significant and minimises the chances of relation between the variables.the interrelationship between variables are shown in table 8, where the correlation coefficient interpretation provided by hinkle, wiersma and jurs (2003) has been used to determine the strength of the relationships. only relationships which are statistically significant, with strength above weak relation (negligible relations will be excluded) will be considered for further evaluation, to be portrayed graphically in the causal loop diagram (cld). from the findings, all relations which have the strength from weak and above are found to be statistically significant. table 7 sample analysis of spearman’s correlation barrier 1 barrier 2 barrier 3 barrier 4 barrier 1 correlation coefficient (r) 1.000 0.468** 0.363** 0.028 sig. 2-tailed (p-value) not applicable 0.000 0.001 0.802 n 85 table 8 spearman’s correlation coefficient interpretation dynamic representation of barriers for adopting building information modelling in malaysian tertiary education construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201837 since correlation itself does not imply causation (schober, boer and schwarte, 2018), another evaluation on the cause-effect between those variables have been determined through the qualitative systemic thinking approach. representation of the causal relation between the variables are reflected through the linkages shown between the factors, as given in figure 3. the cld includes the polarities (+/-) between the variables. a ‘+’ polarity would mean that the two variables would move in the same direction (more leads to more, or less leads to less), while a ‘-’polarity would mean that the two variables would move in a different direction. the polarities (+/-) between those variables (arrows) have been determined and validated through a forum (expert views)among a group of academicians, where the discussion has been conducted till consensus. additionally, the polarities are verified with the help of previous literatures (for example: the relationship between variable b3→b1 (too much time to amend the current curricular structure→reluctance to change the current curricular structure was established based on the statement “in the university, curricular change takes longer time, which serves as an impediment…”, taken from yusuf, ali and embi (2016)). a systemic view of the barriers is shown in the cld, as given in figure 3. figure 3a causal loop diagram from the cld, only one reinforcing loop (r1) (signifies a closed loop with even number of ‘+’) has been identified, given as follows: r1: barrier 3→1→9→3 (too much time to amend the current curricular structure→reluctance to change the current curricular structure→lack qualified staff to teach bim→too much time to amend the current curricular structure) the reinforcing loop (r1) suggests that those factors reinforce each other and has pointed to one core cause, which is ‘too much time to amend the current curricular structure’. loop r1 could be explained as follows: the increase in the consumption of time to amend current belayutham, zabidin and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201838 curricular will increase the reluctance of university to change the current curricular. this will subsequently increase the rate for universities not providing and not having qualified lecturers to teach bim. this in return will increase the time to amend current curricular due to the deficiencies of the staff. therefore, the cycle will continue unless the core cause of the barrier is addressed. in categorical form, the factors begin with process, followed by the people factor, to people and back to the process factor in return, as shown in figure 3. figure 3b the interrelation between the different aspects of organisational changes discussion two distinct results have been observed between the deterministic and dynamic approach (refer to table 9). from the deterministic evaluation (mean value), the respondents generally agreed that ‘limitation of bim software for students’ is the main cause for the lack of bim adoption within the locality of study. this finding is aligned with the results from hedayati, mohandesa and preece (2015), who found that software related issue is the major barrier of bim adoption in malaysian education. however, from the dynamic representation (cld) that has been developed based on correlation and cause-effect linkages, it is found that ‘too much time to amend the current curricular structure’ is the core barrier for the subject under study. the cause-effect relation between the core barrier and other subsequent barriers have also been demonstrated, which enables a systemic perspective that allows solutions that solve the issue at the root level. the identification of the true root cause is important as it will affect solutions that will be taken to overcome the related barrier. from a deterministic perspective, the common solution would focus on technology, isolating the people and process aspect. results from the deterministic approach (refer to table 6) would drive solutions, which are technology-based, by increasing the allocation of bim software for student’s access at computer laboratories. this might not solve the core issue as the core barrier identified from the dynamic approach is rooted to the process dimension, which is lengthy time consumption to amend the current curricular. as shown in figure 3, it is suggested that transformation should start from the process factor, without isolating the people factor as both factors are interrelated in a system. this has been mentioned by enegbuma, aliagha and ali (2015), who found that there is a correlation between people, process and technology, and the process factor was found to significantly affect bim adoption in the industry. in this study, the process factor should be streamlined and simplified so that it does not involve lengthy time frame for changes to be made in the curricular structure. it would further encourage people to amend the curricular in accordance with bim, subsequently inspiring university to have more staff qualified in bim and in return, their ability would dynamic representation of barriers for adopting building information modelling in malaysian tertiary education construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201839 enable bim adoption processes to be easier over time. as stated by arayici et al. (2011), “bim adoption is actually as much about the people and processes, as it is about the technology”. table 9 comparison between the top barriers identified using deterministic and dynamic approach approaches core barrier mean rank people/ process/ technology (p/p/t) deterministic approach (quantitative-mean) limitation of bim software for student 1 technology dynamic approach (cld) too much time to amend the current curricular structure 12 process conclusion this study has highlighted the barriers of bim adoption in the malaysian tertiary institution under the civil engineering subject using deterministic and dynamic approaches. the findings suggest two distinct factors that could result in two different solutions to overcome the barriers. however, in reference to the people, process and technology principles, organizational transformation should focus on the process, people then technology, while the dynamic representation has provided the core factor that is process related. the dynamic model that demonstrates the cause and effects enables the understanding of a complex issue by uplifting the root cause, subsequently providing a holistic view of the barriers for the most appropriate solution. even though the study has been conducted with much meticulousness, certain limitations to the study could not be avoided and shall be enhanced in future. this is in respect to the population and subject of study, which involves civil engineering in particular. as bim is about integration among various players in the construction industry, future study should expand the current subject matter,to include architectural, quantity survey, mechanical and electrical engineering as well as built environment related subjects. this would subsequently increase the size of the sampling frame, as well as other potential barriers. academically, this study has contributed in terms of the methodology towards enhancing a purely quantitativebased finding into a dynamic-based result. the methodology could be utilised universally, in other areas that aims to identify core factorsfor a certain issue. in practical, the core barrier identified from this study, which is ‘too much time to amend the current curricular structure’ would benefit the malaysian educational institutions in addressing the barriers to bim adoption, by prioritising the process factor, rather than allocating large sum of money to upgrade hardware and software. acknowledgement this research was supported by the bestari perdana grant, universiti teknologi mara [grant no: 600-irmi/perdana 5/3 bestari (065/2018)]. belayutham, zabidin and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201840 references abdirad, h. and dossick, c. s., 2016. bim curriculum design in architecture, engineering, and construction education: a systematic review, journal of information technology in construction (itcon), 21, pp. 250-271. alshawi, m., 2007. re-thinking it in construction and engineering: organisational readiness. taylor & francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203961933 arayici, y. coates, p. koskela, l. kagioglou, m. usher, c. and o’reilly, k., 2011. bim adoption and implementation for architectural practices, structural survey, 29(1), pp.7-25. https://doi. org/10.1108/02630801111118377 badrinath, a.c., chang, y.t. and hsieh, s.h., 2016. a review of tertiary bim education for advanced engineering communication with visualization. visualization in engineering, 4(9). https://doi. org/10.1186/s40327-016-0038-6 barison, m.b., and santos, e t., 2010. review and analysis of current strategies for planning a bim curriculum. in:proceedings of the cib w78 2010: 27th international conference, 16-19 november 2010, cairo, pp.1-10. bataw, a., 2015. on the integration of building information modelling in undergraduate civil engineering programmes in the united kingdom. phd. university of manchester. becerik-gerber, b., gerber, d.j. and ku, k., 2011. the pace of technological innovation in architecture, engineering, and construction education: integrating recent trends into the curricula. journal of information technology in construction (itcon), 16, pp.411-32. belayutham, s., gonzález, v. and yiu, t.w., 2016. the dynamics of proximal and distal factors in construction site water pollution. journal of cleaner production, 113, pp.54-65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2015.11.075 chen, y., ruikar, k. d. and carrillo, p. m., 2013. strategic e-business framework: a holistic approach for organisations in the construction industry.journal of information technology in construction (itcon), 18, pp.306-320 dave, b., koskela, l., kagioglou, m. and bertelsen, s., 2008. a critical look at integrating people, process and information systems within the construction sector. in: 16thannual conference of the international group for lean construction (iglc-16), 16-18th july 2008, manchester. denzer a.s. and hedges k.e.,2008. from cad to bim: educational strategies for the coming paradigm shift. in: ettouney m. ed.proceedings of the 2008 architectural engineering national conference, 24-27 september 2008, denver, colorado, usa. https://doi.org/10.1061/41002(328)6 enegbuma, w.i., aliagha, u.g. and ali, k.n., 2014. preliminary building informationmodelling adoption model in malaysia: a strategic information technology perspective.construction innovation, 14(4), pp.408-432. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-01-2014-0012 enegbuma, w.i., aliagha, u.g. and ali, k.n., 2015. effects of perceptions on bim adoption in malaysian construction industry. jurnal teknologi, 77(15), pp.69–75. gordon, c., azambuja, m. and werner, a. m., 2009. bim across theconstruction curriculum. in: el-gafy, m. ed. proceedings of the 2009 associated schools of construction, region iii conference, 21-24 october 2009, downers grove, illinois. dynamic representation of barriers for adopting building information modelling in malaysian tertiary education construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201841 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203961933 https://doi.org/10.1108/02630801111118377 https://doi.org/10.1108/02630801111118377 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40327-016-0038-6 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40327-016-0038-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.11.075 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.11.075 https://doi.org/10.1061/41002(328)6 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-01-2014-0012 hadzaman, n.a, takim, r. and nawawi, a.h., 2015. bim roadmap strategic implementation plan: lesson learnt from australia, singapore and hong kong. in: raidén and aboagye-nimo eds. 31st annual arcom conference, 7-9 september 2015, lincoln. association of researchers in construction management, pp.611-20. hedayati, a., mohandesa, s.r. and preece, c., 2015. studying the obstacles to implementing bim in educational system and making some recommendations. journal of basic and applied scientific research, 5(3), pp.29‐35. hinkle, d. e., wiersma, w. and jurs, s. g., 2003. applied statistics for the behavioural sciences. 5th ed. boston, houghton mifflin. hu, m.,2018. bim-enabled pedagogy approach: using bim as an instructional tool in technology courses. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 145(1), p.05018017. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000398 jin, r., yang, t., piroozfar, p., kang, b-g., wanatowski, d., hancock, c.m. and tang, l., 2018. projectbased pedagogy in interdisciplinary building design adopting bim. engineering, construction and architectural management, 25(10), pp.1376-97, https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2017-0119 khiyon, n.a., 2016.incorporation of building information modelling into quantity surveying programmes syllabus in malaysia. selangor, malaysia: the pacific association of quantity surveyors paqs. khosrowshahi, f. and arayici, y., 2012. roadmap for implementation of bim in the uk construction industry.engineering, construction and architectural management, 19(6), pp.610-635. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211277531 krejcie, r.v. and morgan, d.w., 1970. determiningsample size for research activities. educational andpsychological measurement, 30, pp.607–610. https://doi.org/10.1177/001316447003000308 kymmell, w., 2008. building information modelling: planning and managing construction projects with 4d cad and simulations. mcgraw-hillprofessional. leavitt, h. j., 1962. applied organizational change in industry: structural, technological and humanistic approaches.carnegie institute of technology, graduate school of industrial administration. liao, l., teo, e.a.l. and low, s.p., 2017. a project management framework for enhanced productivity performance using building information modelling. construction economics and building, 17(3), pp.1-26. http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v17i3.5389 liao, l. and teo, e.a.l., 2018a. organizational change perspective on people management in bim implementation in building projects. journal of management in engineering, 34(3), p.04018008. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000604 liao, l. and teo, e.a.l., 2018b. managing critical drivers for building information modelling implementation in the singapore construction industry: an organizational change perspective. international journal of construction management. doi: 10.1080/15623599.2017.1423165 macdonald, j.a., 2012. a framework for collaborative bim education across the aec disciplines. in: 37th annual conference of australasian university building educator’s association (aubea), 4-6 july 2012, university of new south wales, australia, pp.223-30. mamter, s. aziz, a.r a. and zulkepli, f., 2017. root causes occurrence of low bim adoption in malaysia: system dynamics modelling approach. in: proceedings of the 3rd international conference on belayutham, zabidin and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201842 https://www-scopus-com.ezaccess.library.uitm.edu.my/sourceid/16301?origin=recordpage https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000398 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000398 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2017-0119 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211277531 https://doi.org/10.1177/001316447003000308 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000604 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000604 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1423165 construction and building engineering (iconbuild), 14-17 august, palembang, indonesia, pp.0800111–080011-6. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5011599 miller, g., sharma, s., donald, c., amor, r., bernard, a., rivest, l. and dutta, d., 2013. developing a building information modelling educational framework for the tertiary sector in new zealand. ifip aict, 409, pp.606-18. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41501-2_60 mohe (ministry of higher education), 2015.makro-institusi pendidikan tinggi. [online] available at: https://www.mohe.gov.my/muat-turun/awam/statistik/2015/215-bab-1-makro-institusi-pendidikantinggi-1/file. nunnally, j., 1978. psychometric theory. new york: mcgraw-hill. panuwatwanich, k., wong, m., doh, j., stewart, r. a. and mccarthy, t. j., 2013. integrating building information modelling (bim) into engineering education: an exploratory study of industry perceptions using social network data. in c. lemckert, g. jenkins and s.lemckert (eds.), aaee2013: proceedings of the 24th annual conference of the australasian association for engineering education, 8-11 december 2013, griffith university, australia. puolitaival, t. and forsythe, p., 2016. practical challenges of bim education. structural survey, 34 45), pp.351-66. https://doi.org/10.1108/ss-12-2015-0053 rodríguez-rodríguez, ky. and dávila-perez, j.l., 2016. framework development to introduce bim into the civil engineering undergraduate curriculum at the university of puerto rico, mayagüez campus. in: construction research congress 2016, 31 may-2 june 2016, san juan, puerto rico. https://doi. org/10.1061/9780784479827.008 sabongi, f. j. and arch, m., 2009. the integration of bim in the undergraduate curriculum: an analysis of undergraduate courses.in: proceedings of the 45th asc annual conference, 1-4 april 2009, gainesville, florida. sacks, r. and pikas, e., 2013. building information modeling education for construction engineering and management: industry requirements, state of the art, and gap analysis. journal of construction engineering and management, 139(11), pp.04013016. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0000759 sampaio, a.z., 2015. building information modelling (bim) taught in a civil engineer school. in: 10th iberian conference on information systems and technologies (cisti), 17-20 june 2015, aveiro, portugal. https://doi.org/10.1109/cisti.2015.7170513 schober, p., boer, c. and schwarte, l.a., 2018. correlation coefficients: appropriate use andinterpretation. anesthesia & analgesia, 126(5), pp.1763-68. https://doi.org/10.1213/ ane.0000000000002864 shelbourn, m., macdonald, j., mccuen, t. and lee, s., 2017. students perceptions of bim education in the higher education sector a uk and usa perspective. industry and higher education, 31(5), pp.293304. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950422217725962 soja, e. and soja, p., 2017. exploring root problems in enterprise system adoption from an employee age perspective: a people-process-technology framework, information systems management, 34(4), pp. 333346. https://doi.org/10.1080/10580530.2017.1366218 underwood, j., ayoade, o.a., khosrowshahi, f., greenwood, d., pittard, s. and garvey, r.,2015. current position and associated challenges of bim education in uk higher education.[online] available at: http:// usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/35164 dynamic representation of barriers for adopting building information modelling in malaysian tertiary education construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201843 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5011599 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-41501-2_60 https://www.mohe.gov.my/muat-turun/awam/statistik/2015/215-bab-1-makro-institusi-pendidikan-tinggi-1/file https://www.mohe.gov.my/muat-turun/awam/statistik/2015/215-bab-1-makro-institusi-pendidikan-tinggi-1/file https://doi.org/10.1108/ss-12-2015-0053 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784479827.008 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784479827.008 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000759 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000759 https://doi.org/10.1109/cisti.2015.7170513 https://doi.org/10.1213/ane.0000000000002864 https://doi.org/10.1213/ane.0000000000002864 https://doi.org/10.1177/0950422217725962 https://doi.org/10.1080/10580530.2017.1366218 http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/35164 http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/35164 yusuf, b.y., ali, k.n. and embi, m.r., 2016. building information modelling (bim) as a process of systemic changes for collaborative education in higher institution. procedia-social and behavioural sciences, 219, pp.820-827. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.05.072 zhang, j., schmidt, k. and li, h., 2016. bim and sustainability education: incorporating instructional needs into curriculum planning in cem programs accredited by acce. sustainability, 8, p.525. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su8060525 zhang, j., wu, w. and li, h., 2018.enhancing building information modeling competency among civil engineering and management students with team-based learning.journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 144(2), pp.05018001. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.19435541.0000356 belayutham, zabidin and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201844 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.05.072 https://doi.org/10.3390/su8060525 https://doi.org/10.3390/su8060525 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000356 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000356 construction economics and building vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017 © 2017 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: ke, y., hao, w., ding, h. & wang, y. 2017. factors influencing the private involvement in urban rail public-private partnership projects in china. construction economics and building, 17:1, 90-106. http://dx.doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5105 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | ajceb.epress. lib.uts.edu.au abstract private investors have been encouraged to participate in the development and operation of urban rail projects in china through public-private partnerships (ppps), given the fact that subnational governments are suffering from urgent development demands and severe fiscal pressure. however, there is no formal assessment to determine the private involvement in a ppp project. this problem is particularly critical in the sector of urban rail, in which the huge investment cannot rely on the private sector alone. this study hence aimed to uncover and identify the influencing factors. multiple research methods, including content analysis, case study and focus group discussion were adopted to achieve the research purpose. seven types of influencing factors were identified, including project financial model, government fiscal commitment, risk allocation, public accountability, efficiency considerations, policy and regulations, and organisational marketing strategies. the findings add to the current knowledge base by uncovering the drivers behind private involvement in a ppp project. they are also beneficial for industry practitioners as a basis/ checklist to determine the private involvement. keywords private involvement, procurement, public private partnership, urban rail research article factors influencing the private involvement in urban rail public-private partnership projects in china yongjian ke1, 4, weiya hao2, huiping ding3, yingying wang4 1 university of technology sydney, australia 2 beijing infrastructure investment co., ltd, china 3 beijing jiaotong university, china 4 center for public-private partnership, tsinghua university, china corresponding author: yongjian ke, university of technology sydney, australia. po box 123, broadway nsw 2007, australia. yongjian.ke@uts.edu.au doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5105 article history: received 29/07/2016; revised 29/11/2016; accepted 04/03/2017; published 31/03/2017 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 90 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5105 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5105 ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5105 introduction the continuous economic growth in china has resulted in an immense demand for infrastructure, thereby leading to a proactive attitude by the central government in promoting private involvement and investment in the infrastructure development (cheng et al., 2016). the new generation of chinese political leaders have reinforced this trend since march 2013. at the executive meeting of the state council on july 31, 2013, premier keqiang li stated that the government would continue to support private investment. the central government also claimed to further widen the market access of public services to eligible private investors with sound credit. this is evident from “opinions of the state council on strengthening urban infrastructure construction” on 6 september 2013, “guidance for government purchases of public services from social organizations” on 26 september 2013, and “regulations on urban drainage and sewage treatment” by state council on 2 october 2013. since the start of 2014, which was considered one of the very important years for public private partnership (ppp) in china, the ministry of finance (mof) and national development and reform commission (ndrc) have been extraordinarily active in promoting and leading the development of ppp. in december 2014, the mof issued several important documents including “operational guidelines for ppps (trial implementation)” and “guidelines for ppp contract (trial implementation)”. at the same time, the ndrc also published their version of operational guidelines and contract guidelines. these newly issued regulations show the ongoing positive attitude of the central government. more private involvement in infrastructure development in china via ppp mode is therefore expected (cheng et al., 2016). in accordance with china’s 13th five-year plan (xinhuanet, 2016) china will increase the government’s focus on innovation – with more emphasis on infrastructure development to respond to the rising urbanisation. the government is expected to continuously promote the development of public transportation to relieve traffic jams and enhance mobility for urban commuters. urban rail transportation is one of the priorities. it was claimed that the central government will build 3,000 kilometres of new urban rail lines during the 13th five-year plan (xinhuanet, 2016). thus, private investment is undoubtedly strongly encouraged in the development of urban rail projects, which could be seen in several recent projects such as beijing metro lines 14 and 16 (si et al., 2015). however, unlike other public facilities such as toll roads or power plants, one of the major characteristics of urban rail projects is the huge investment, which makes it impossible for the expected revenues to cover total project costs, thereby creating a financial gap. the financial gap needs to be closed with funds from the public or private sectors. given the fact that the private investors are looking for a reasonable rate of return from participating in a ppp project, the public sector hence must inject a large share of investment to attract private investors (sharma et al., 2010). in most cases, both the public and private sectors need to invest in an urban rail ppp project. although effective partnerships are developed from shared interests, responsibilities, and resources (ke et al., 2010), there is potential for conflicts of interests. to improve delivery of urban rail ppp projects and protect public interests, this paper discusses the issue of private involvement with the aim of identifying the most relevant factors influencing the private involvement. literature review ppp practice and research in china ppps were firstly introduced in china through the shajiao b power plant project in guangdong province (cheng et al., 2016). after 1996, several state-approved pilot ke, hao, ding & wang construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 201791 build-operate-transfer (bot) projects were awarded to promote bot on a larger scale. thereafter, the involvement of private investors in infrastructure development grew rapidly, but faded out gradually at the end of the 1990s due to the financial crisis in asia. along with the continued rapid economic growth in china at the start of the 21st century, the shortage of infrastructure imposed budgetary pressures on subnational governments and led to the second boom of private investment. in addition, the clear encouraging message from the central government since late 2013 caused another boom of private investment in public projects after 2014 (cheng et al., 2016). in conjunction with the development and adoption of ppp modality in china, there is increasing interest in the topic of ppps in china, but chinese academics appear to be less active in publishing ppp papers in international journals (zhang et al., 2016). one of the potential reasons may be the language (ke et al., 2009; zhang et al., 2016). a statistical analysis of ppp publications by ke et al. (2009), posits that tsinghua university and southeast university are the most active institutions in pursuing ppp research. ppp papers published around 2000 can be categorised into three groups namely “risk”, “procurement” and “financial”. new ideas and topics have been introduced in the latest publications, including: (a) investment environment; (b) procurement; (c) economics viability; (d) financial package; (e) risk allocation and management; (f ) governance issues; and (g) other integration research (ke et al., 2009). nevertheless, an increasing number of chinese academic journals have published papers on ppp. the research topics have switched from a pure construction perspective to a combination of topics on finance, law, public administration, construction, and management. current research topics published in chinese academic journals include: (a) selection of financing models; (b) optimisation of financial structure; (c) risk allocation and management; (d) regulatory and institutional frameworks; (e) behaviours of both sectors; (f ) determination of concession period; (g) contract structure and key clauses; (h) evaluation of private partners; (i) performance indicators; and (j) price mechanism (zhang et al., 2016). ppp research in urban rail transportation in china publications on the topic of urban rail transportation published by international scholars in international journals have been frequently seen. in the early 1990s, several research teams examined the possible financing modalities for urban rail construction, such as hayashi (1989), simpson (1990) and wilmoth (1990). the involvement of government organisations, regional organisations and academic organisations is also worth highlighting. examples include infrastructure finance working group (ifwg) (2012) in australia, mandri-perrott and menzies (2010) in the world bank, and technical assistant reports from asian development bank (2010). however, it is rare to read academic articles in international journals on the topic of ppp in urban rail transportation in china, especially published by researchers from mainland china. yuan et al. (2010) identified 15 driving factors associated with ppp projects in metropolitan transportation systems from the perspective of chinese public sector; de jong et al. (2010) studies seven urban rail ppp projects in five large metropolitan areas in china; roumboutsos, liu and wilkinson (2013) evaluated the experience of ppps in china’s urban rail development with the focus on critical factors impacting on the project viability based on a case study of beijing metro line 4; chang (2013) also studied the beijing metro line 4 to illustrate benefits, costs, opportunities and risks in ppps in china, and he later studied the beijing metro financing sustainability to demonstrate how subnational governments finance the investment in metro systems (chang, 2014). ke, hao, ding & wang construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 201792 conversely, there is great coverage in the chinese academic journals about ppps in the urban rail sector. practitioners like hao, wang and ding (2012), tian and ren (2011) and wang (2006) in the sector are proactive to share their first-hand experience and perspectives. comparison analyses of different finance models in urban rail projects in different countries or cities and introduction of a ppp project are the most popular topics, such as hao and li (2009) and zhang, lin and dong (2007). other popular topics include pricing policy (wang, 2004), risk allocation and management (wang et al. 2011), decision making (liang and wang, 2012), and public involvement (zheng, chen and xin, 2009). it is worth noting that there may be a limitation on research methodology in many chinese journal papers. these publications are in the form of tacit knowledge such as intuitive experience, specific arrangements in one single project, and existing practices in the sector. the potential problem is that some of the current findings are associated with specific conditions. these findings can be described as “know-how”, which is the characteristic of practitioners, who act, make a judgement and so forth without explicitly reflecting on the principle or rules involved. a careful design of research methodology should be adopted and described. private involvement in ppp as explained in the introduction section, the huge investment in an urban rail project cannot rely on the private sector alone, which then requires public fiscal exposure. it is hence a critical question of how to determine the private involvement. unfortunately, there are few research efforts to handle this issue. sharma et al. (2010) presented a structured approach to determine the debt–equity investment between public and private sectors in ppp projects, which considered financial factors alone. jasiukevičius and vasiliauskaitė (2012) formed a procedural model to evaluate the requirements for private sector’s involvement in the delivery of public services, which is practical and focuses more on “how” than “why”. albalate, bel and geddes (2013) found that risk associated with cost recovery and relative cost of labour are key factors explaining the extent of private involvement. publications that consider the targets or rules limiting fiscal exposure could provide a valuable reference to the research question in this paper to some extent. for instances, irwin (2007) described an approach for governments to control spending commitments in ppps; peru’s legislative decree no.1012 (which approves the framework law for ppp and its regulations) also states that the present value of total fiscal commitments to ppps shall not exceed 7% of gdp (peru ministry of economics and finance, 2008); liu and pradelli (2012) provided another alternative, that is, to incorporate limits on ppp commitments within other fiscal targets like public debt. however, the above publications or government documents discussing the limits for fiscal exposure are mainly suitable in the situation where the private sector can undertake the ppp project financially, while the public sector is looking for some extent of involvement to achieve the best project performance. knowledge gap the initial literature review indicates that it is not clear how to determine private involvement in urban rail ppp projects where the expected revenues are not able to cover total project costs. this study was thus undertaken to uncover and identify the factors influencing private involvement in urban rail ppp projects in china. the term “private involvement” in this paper has twofold definitions. first, it refers to the share of investment (including both debt and equity) by the private sector, following sharma ke, hao, ding & wang construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 201793 et al. (2010). in china, subnational governments particularly value this meaning, especially the share of initial investment by the private sector. second, it also denotes a more comprehensive concept including responsibilities, obligations and risks undertaken, as well as resources and skills committed to a project by the private sector, following jasiukevičius and vasiliauskaitė (2012). research method as shown in figure 1, multiple research methods, including content analysis, case study and focus group discussion were adopted to achieve the research purpose, to avoid a common fault in many chinese publications which lack a well-designed research methodology (zhang et al., 2016). content analysis was conducted to obtain an overview of possible factors that could influence private involvement. the data were gathered from relevant published literature including textbooks, research reports, journal articles and conference papers. as indicated in the literature review section, publications such as jasiukevičius and vasiliauskaitė (2012), sharma et al. (2010), and decorla-souza et al. (2013) that consider the limits of fiscal exposure or other topics could have reference value, although they do not directly study the research question, i.e. how to determine the private involvement in ppps. the proposed findings from this step could be formed up as a basis for the following steps. however, the factors obtained from this step are not necessarily applicable to urban rail projects. in the second stage, the case study approach was employed. yin (2003) states case studies are generally preferred for explanatory research, to deal with operational links needing to be traced over time, rather than mere frequencies or incidence. an in-depth case study was hence conducted to identify a preliminary list of influencing factors specifically for urban rail projects. beijing metro line 4 was selected as the case to study because it has been frequently published in academic journals and more importantly two of the authors were directly involved in this project. the primary data would be analysed to identify the influencing factors. figure 1 research framework for this study deliverablesmethods content analysis overview of factors case study preliminary factors focus group final factors ke, hao, ding & wang construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 201794 to ensure that preliminary factors are not particular to the selected case only, a focus group meeting was conducted to collect in-depth understandings of invited experts. the focus group was adopted for validation of the preliminary list of factors. edmunds (2000) suggests focus groups are best used when the best evaluation comes from letting the target customers view the concept directly. therefore, a convenience sampling was adopted to select this group of experts who have worked at an organisation with direct involvement in the development and management of urban rail projects. content analysis as explained above, private involvement is defined as the share of investment, responsibilities, obligations, risks, resources, and skills committed to the project by the private sector. a comprehensive literature review was conducted to understand the overview of influencing factors. table 1 shows a summary of the analysis of this literature. table 1 influencing factors from published literature p roject financial variables r isk allocation g overnm ent fiscal com m itm ent p ublic accountability efficiency considerations p olicy & regulations o rganisational m arketing strategies albalate, bel and geddes (2013) √ √ √ √ chang (2013) √ √ √ √ √ √ de jong et al. (2010) √ √ √ √ decorla-souza et al. (2013) √ √ √ √ √ √ jasiukevičius and vasiliauskaité (2012) √ √ √ √ ke, ling and zou, √ roumboutsos, liu and wilkinson (2013) √ √ √ √ sharma et al. (2010) √ √ yuan et al. (2010) √ √ √ ke, hao, ding & wang construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 201795 from the content analysis, seven types of factors influencing private involvement were identified. for each factor identified, the frequency of use in the literature was recorded to indicate researcher’s relative state of awareness of the factor. among these factors, project financial variables and government fiscal commitment are the major types of factors identified. case study introduction of beijing metro line 4 to accelerate the development of urban rail in beijing for the 2008 olympics, beijing infrastructure investment corporation (biic) decided to adopt ppp in the metro line 4 project. hong kong mtr corporation holds 49% of the joint venture company, and chinese companies beijing capital group and biic hold 49% and 2% respectively (chang, 2013; yuan et al., 2010). the joint venture company signed the concession agreement for a term of 30 years with beijing municipal government in february 2005. beijing metro line 4 is 28 km long with projected costs of rmb 15.3 billion (around aud 2.9 billion as per the exchange rate on 02 march 2017). the project was started in august 2004 and completed in september 2009 (chang, 2013). private involvement as the private sector cannot finance an urban rail ppp project alone, the project financing was divided into two parts for this project (chang, 2013; roumboutsos, liu and wilkinson, 2013). part a is the building of infrastructure with an estimated rmb 10.7 billion (70% of total investment), which was financed by the public sector. part b includes the rolling stock purchases with an estimated investment of rmb 4.6 billion (30% of total investment) that was financed by the private party. the private sector would rent part a from the public, operate the whole system for 30 years, and then transfer the ownership of part b at no additional cost. the private sector is responsible for the design, finance and construction of part b, service operation of metro line 4, maintenance and necessary updates of parts a and b, and business operation in stations. the private sector needs to undertake four major costs, including initial investment of part b, operational cost, annual rental fee of part a, and taxes (chang, 2013). on the other hand, they would receive all the operational revenues from metro fares, advertisements, and other businesses in stations. one of the obligations of the private sector in this project is to control cost. although there were no cost savings in the purchase of rolling stock using the ppp model, costs were reduced in the financial treatment of acquisition and during operation (chang, 2013). the private sector is also required to provide a higher level of service. this is proved to be true by a survey conducted by mckinsey and beijing mtr that indicates a much higher consumer satisfaction than other metro lines in beijing (chang, 2013). most risks related to commissioning, operation, and maintenance were transferred to the private sector, whilst the government undertook or shared risks which were beyond the control of the private sector (roumboutsos, liu and wilkinson, 2013). for instance, the public sector shared the construction risk by dividing it into two parts and undertaking part a with riskier civil works; the government also used shadow patronage, that is a means to compensate the private partner, against the risk of lower ridership than projected. ke, hao, ding & wang construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 201796 influencing factors the case study shows that the seven types of factors did influence private involvement in the beijing metro line 4 project. some sub-factors were also identified through the case study as shown in the following: • project financial variables o construction cost o financial cost o maintenance and operation cost o electricity tariff o insurance cost o labour cost o ridership o metro fare o business revenues • risk allocation o capability to control risks o comparative position in negotiation o causer and sufferer of risks o risk premium o government incentives • government fiscal commitment o initial investment o ongoing payment o overall fiscal budget and balance • public accountability o requirements for overseeing ppps o requirements for public accountability • efficiency considerations o efficiency of public sector o efficiency of private sector • policy & regulations • organisational marketing strategies focus group meeting to ensure that the preliminary list of factors could be applicable to general urban rail projects in china rather than beijing metro line 4 only, a focus group meeting was thereafter carried out on 12 september 2014 with the aim of validating the influencing factors. focus group meeting is a convenient and effective way to collect adequate information from a reasonable number of participants compared with the traditional one-to-one interview technique (edmunds, 2000). the criteria for the selection of focus group participants is that they must have been involved in the development and operation of urban rail projects. convenience sampling was adopted. the second author is working in the public company that is responsible for the development and operation of urban rail projects in beijing. invitations were sent to the partners in their past projects. after much persuasion, 18 experts attended the focus group meeting. table 2 shows the background of these participants. ke, hao, ding & wang construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 201797 the participants were firstly given an introductory presentation about the research background, research questions, research methodology, literature review, case study, preliminary influencing factors, objectives and arrangement of the focus group. the participants were then arranged into three groups based on their backgrounds, i.e. “government and operator”, “contractor” and “consultant”. a team member facilitator led each group of participants and took responsibility for initiating a discussion within the group regarding predefined questions. the questions were based on preliminary influencing factors. the discussions lasted approximately an hour for each group. the facilitators summarised their discussion on behalf of their groups of participants, to conclusively check if there were any significant difference in perspectives from different groups. the participants generally agreed with the preliminary list of influencing factors. one of the comments from the focus group meeting is that project financial variables are quantitative factors, which are used to calculate the share of private investment based on a reasonable return on investment. all quantitative variables related to the project financial model would have an impact on the calculation results of private investment. the sub-factors under project financial variables identified through the case study either have significant or insignificant variables in the sensitivity analysis. however, all of them may not be applicable to other urban rail projects. a more accurate solution is to use the project financial model as an influencing factor rather than using financial variables. another important message from the focus group discussion is that the factor of risk allocation could be twofold: determination of risk allocation and implementation of risk allocation in the contract. the first implication is to determine the risks to be allocated to each sector, and the other is to determine how to implement the risk allocation in term of contract clauses. discussion project financial model to make an urban rail project attractive to private investors, the public sector would contribute part of the investment. this is the reason the project financial model is one of the factors table 2 information of focus group participants categorisation number percentage roles in the urban rail projects government 3 16.7% operator 3 16.7% contractor 6 33.3% consultant 6 33.3% position in organisation top-level manager 5 27.8% middle-level manager 10 55.5% low-level manager 3 16.7% number of years of work experience more than 10 years 8 44.4% 6 10 years 7 38.9% 3 5 years 3 16.7% ke, hao, ding & wang construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 201798 influencing private involvement, particularly the share required of private investment. the influence of project financial model is straightforward and has been well reported in the literature such as sharma et al. (2010). in the sector of urban rail, there is generally a minimum investment by the public sector, and therefore a maximum investment by the private sector, to achieve a reasonable rate of investment return. in the case of beijing metro line 4, the private sector is responsible for the financing of part b (30% of total initial investment). as indicated in the focus group meeting, the financial model would be regarded being one influencing factor. compared to traditional procurement methods, the involvement of private sector in a ppp project brings many changes to the financial model, such as an increase in participation/procurement cost and a reduction of total project cost including financial service cost, operational cost, labour cost due to less employment positions, among others. (chan et al., 2009; chan et al., 2010). once an expected return on investment is assumed, the share of private investment would be available through the financial model. government fiscal commitment three sub-factors, initial investment, ongoing payment and overall fiscal budget and balance, were identified in this study. among them, initial investment and ongoing payment by the public sector are included in the project financial model. taking beijing metro line 4 for instance, the government was committed to the financing of part a (70% of total initial investment), so that the share of investment by the private would be acceptable. overall fiscal budget and balance is the fundamental factor that determines the government’s capability for initial investment and ongoing payment, thereby influencing the share of private investment. as indicated by chan et al. (2009), the drivers for adopting ppps rated higher by respondents in china were economy-related drivers, especially from the viewpoint of subnational governments. in a recent review of ppp applications in china by cheng et al. (2016), it is shown that the central and subnational governments are suffering huge debts of rmb 12.38 trillion and rmb 17.89 trillion. chinese government pinned hopes on the ppps to ease the severe pressure. however, this proactive attitude of subnational governments to some extent increases the difficulty of accurately assessing its actual financial capacity, given the fact that the draft value for money assessment framework, issued by the mof in dec 2015, was not mature enough to ensure that ppp is the most appropriate option, and there is no formal process for deciding the type and extent of government support for ppps (cheng et al., 2016). hence it is important to carefully understand subnational governments’ overall fiscal budget and balance, estimate its capacity for initial investment and ongoing payment, and then calculate the share of private investment through the project financial model. risk allocation the arrangement to share or undertake risks by the private sector is included in the definition of private involvement in this study. it is thus easy to understand that risk allocation is one of the important factors. risk allocation has been commonly seen in recent publications, such as heravi and hajihosseini (2012), jin (2009), jin (2011), jin and doloi (2008). a general principle is that each risk should be allocated to the party best able to manage it at the least cost (cooper et al., 2005). such ability to manage risks may include whether the party can foresee the risk, whether the party can assess the possible magnitude of consequences of the risk, whether the party can control the chance of risk occurring, whether the party can ke, hao, ding & wang construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 201799 manage the risk if it occurs, and whether the party can sustain the consequences if the risk occurs (lam et al., 2007). when both parties have a similar level of risk capacity, the risk may be assumed by a party that would like to pursue the risk premium or have a weaker negotiating position. the response in the focus group meeting indicated the task of risk allocation is not only the determination of risk allocation but also the implementation of risk allocation in the contract. as a part of a risk management strategy, risk allocation is commonly defined through the contractual documents (lam et al., 2007). a contract can thus be considered as a trade-off between the contractor’s price for undertaking the work and his willingness to accept risks (flanagan and norman, 1993). this reflects the impact of the factor “risk premium”. therefore, the most important part of the contract related to risk allocation would be the design of tariff structure and payment mechanism. it is also worth noting that causer and sufferer of risks should be considered. a party is not supposed to request a premium when undertaking a risk that is fully caused by itself. government incentives are another important factor influencing private involvement in term of risk allocation. the influence could be seen in both allocating risks and defining risk allocation in the contract. taking beijiao sewage treatment plant for instance (xu, yeung and jiang, 2014), the government shared the operating revenue risk by guaranteeing a minimum amount of water supply, of 70% of the designed water amount. if the actual amount of water supply is lower than 70%, the government will pay the sewage treatment fee at 70% of the designed amount. however, the government incentives must be carefully evaluated, as inappropriate guarantees offered by the government are regarded as one of the root causes of ppp projects’ failure in china (xu, yeung and jiang, 2014). public accountability theoretically speaking, ppps do change the dynamics of public accountability by involving private partners in government decision making and program delivery (forrer et al., 2010). the terms and conditions of private involvement deserve scrutiny and understanding by public officials, as private partners join a ppp project for different reasons than governments such as pursuing profits (chan et al., 2009; decorla-souza et al., 2013). ppps present problems for public sector accountability because the government remains responsible for services that it does not deliver (shaoul, stafford and stapleton, 2012). corporate governance in the private sector has some extent of overlaps in the two elements of public accountability, i.e. structures of internal governance and external accountability (shaoul, stafford and stapleton, 2012; smith, mather and skelcher, 2006). in the structures of internal governance, both the public and private sectors concentrate on the membership of management board and its sub-committees, while the public sector should introduce notions of corporate governance by disclosure (shaoul, stafford and stapleton, 2012). in term of external accountability, there is a need for multi-dimensional external reporting that covers: use and stewardship of resources; quality of services; financial probity; and financial control over public monies, whether held in the public or private sectors (shaoul, stafford and stapleton, 2012). however, the use of private sector reporting standards may not provide sufficient information for external accountability. in the sector of urban rail projects, accountability requirements are more complicated than many other sectors such as toll roads and power plants, in which a vertical hierarchy can be the principal method of controlling and overseeing. in an urban rail, ppp project, the horizontal ke, hao, ding & wang construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017100 relationship between the public and private sectors would cause many contemporary challenges, because government responsibilities are shared with the private partners. therefore, it is important to determine the private involvement and design a reasonable disclosure and reporting framework for the ppp project company to meet the requirements for overseeing ppps by the public sector and for public accountability. efficiency considerations the concept of adopting ppps to improve the efficiency in delivering public services is in fact not fresh in many countries such as australia (infrastructure australia, 2008), but not given sufficient attention in china yet (chan et al., 2009; cheng et al., 2016). under the severe fiscal pressure, the major driving force for most subnational governments to choose ppps over traditional procurement is still economy-related (chan et al., 2009). nevertheless, as a straightforward principle, tasks that the private sector has a more efficient capability in should be allocated to it. the difference in the efficiency of public and private sectors is, therefore, an influencing factor, which does not directly determine the private involvement but has an impact on the allocation of responsibilities. policy and regulations law and regulatory framework for ppps are immature and still evolving (cheng et al., 2016). there is no ppp law at the national level yet. current ppp regulations lack strong legal force. they were issued by the state council or its ministries or by provincial and municipal governments considering their own responsibilities, and hence lack completeness or compatibility (cheng et al., 2016). overall, the private investors are encouraged to participate in infrastructure development. according to “several opinions of the state council on encouraging and guiding the healthy development of private investment” issued in 2010, the private sector is allowed to invest not only in previously allowed road, bridge, power, water supply, wastewater treatment and waste disposal, but also in railways, water conservation, petroleum and gas related activities, telecommunication, land control, exploration and development of mineral resources, policy-related housing, medical industry, education, social warfare service, and national defence related science and technology industries. however, there is no formal process for deciding the type and extent of government support for ppps, nor private involvement. there are some regulations that may influence private involvement to some extent. taking beijing for instance, beijing municipal commission of development and reform (bmcdr) (2013) prescribes a concession period of 30 years and an expected return on investment of 8% for private investors. a reasonable share of private investment could be calculated using these prescribed economic conditions. another example would be the possible consequences caused by the different ppp related governmental documents. in the recently published guidelines for ppp contract issued by the mof, it is stated that the public sector cannot hold a share of 50% or more in the ppp project company, or hold the de facto dominance in governance. organisational marketing strategies china is receiving a feverish demand for ppps and has had a boom of ppp opportunities since 2014 (cheng et al., 2016). it is hence important for the private sector to maintain a good relationship with the subnational governments, and a good record of accomplishment of past performance, to grasp a share of the ppp market. ke, ling and zou, (2015) claimed that ke, hao, ding & wang construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017101 organisational marketing strategies towards relational contracting have a positive impact on project outcomes, especially client satisfaction and relationship quality among contracting parties. in other words, different organisational marketing strategies could lead to different decisions on private involvement in a ppp project. private investors may actively participate in a notable project and choose to undertake more responsibilities with the purpose of entering the market or advertising their advantages, such as in the case of beijing national stadium (liu, zhao and wang, 2010). similarly, in the beijing metro line 4, hong kong mtr corporation also considered the project as a benchmark project to enter the urban rail market in mainland china. conclusions this paper has looked at the factors that influence private involvement in urban rail ppp projects in china. the term of private involvement does not only refer to the share of investment by the private sector but also denotes a more comprehensive concept including responsibilities, obligations and risks undertaken, as well as resources and skills committed to a project by the private sector. multiple research methods, including content analysis, case study and focus group meeting were adopted in this study to identify the influencing factors. seven types of influencing factors were identified, including project financial model, government fiscal commitment, risk allocation, public accountability, efficiency considerations, policy and regulations, and organisational marketing strategies. an explanation of how these factors influence private involvement in an urban rail ppp project was also presented. the findings add to the current knowledge base by uncovering the drivers behind private sector involvement in a ppp project. they are also beneficial for industry practitioners as a basis/checklist to determine the private involvement. although the study scope is limited to urban rail projects in this paper, the findings can be generally applicable to other infrastructure sectors. the management implication is that designing a deal structure in a ppp project should consider all the influencing factors identified. delivering an infrastructure project via ppps is not to merely engage the private sector as much as possible. in future studies, a procedural framework to determine optimal private involvement in an urban rail ppp project in china can be developed which considers the identified influencing factors in this paper. for instance, the proposed framework of optimal private involvement formation can firstly start from an assessment of whether to deliver the urban rail project via ppp. in the following stages, the public and private sectors can determine the risk allocation and calculate the amount and type of private investment under the conditions of organisational marketing strategies, and policy and regulations. the requirements for public accountability and efficiency consideration can then be validated to ensure that private involvement in an urban rail project would not become detrimental to public interests. acknowledgments special gratitude is extended to those industrial practitioners who have kindly participated in the focus group meeting reported in this paper on 12 september 2014. references albalate, d., bel, g. & geddes, r.r. 2013, ‘recovery risk and labor costs in public–private partnerships: contractual choice in the us water industry’, local government studies, vol. 39 no. 3, pp. 332-351, https:// doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2013.778831 ke, hao, ding & wang construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017102 https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2013.778831 https://doi.org/10.1080/03003930.2013.778831 asian development bank 2010, ta 4724-prc: application of public-private partnerships in urban rail-based transportation project. asian development bank bmcdr 2013, implementation plan of pilot projects for introducing social capitals in the infrastructure development (in chinese) [online] available at: http://www.bjpc.gov.cn/zt/wzz/201307/ t6486566.htm [accessed 16 february 2015] chan, a.p.c., lam, p.t.i., chan, d.w.m., cheung, e. & ke, y. 2009, ‘drivers for adopting public private partnerships-empirical comparison between china and hong kong special administrative region’, journal of construction engineering and management, vol. 135 no. 11, pp. 1115-1124, https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000088 chan, a.p.c., lam, p.t.i., chan, d.w.m., cheung, e. & ke, y. 2010, ‘potential obstacles to successful implementation of public-private partnerships in beijing and the hong kong special administrative region’, journal of management in engineering, vol. 26 no. 1, pp. 30-40, https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0742-597x(2010)26:1(30) chang, z. 2013, public–private partnerships in china: a case of the beijing no.4 metro line. transport policy, 30, pp. 153-160, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2013.09.011 chang, z. 2014, financing new metros the beijing metro financing sustainability study. transport policy, 32, pp. 148-155, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2014.01.009 cheng, z., ke, y., lin, j., yang, z. & cai, j. 2016, ‘spatio-temporal dynamics of public-private partnership projects in china’, international journal of project management, vol. 34 no. 7, pp. 1242-1251, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.05.006 cooper, d.f., grey, s., raymond, g. & walker, p. 2005, project risk management guidelines: managing risk in large projects and complex procurements. west sussex, england: john wiley & sons, ltd de jong, m., mu, r., stead, d., ma, y. & xi, b. 2010, ‘introducing public-private partnerships for metropolitan subways in china: what is the evidence?’, journal of transport geography, vol. 18 no. 2, pp. 301-313, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2009.06.013 decorla-souza, p., mayer, j., jette, a. & buxbaum, j. 2013, key considerations for states seeking to implement public-private partnerships for new highway capacity. transportation research record journal of the transportation research board, 2346(-1), pp. 23-31, december 2013 edmunds, h. 2000, the focus group research handbook. mcgraw-hill education flanagan, r. & norman, g. 1993, risk management and construction. oxford, uk: blackwell scientific publications forrer, j., kee, j.e., newcomer, k.e. & boyer, e. 2010, ‘public–private partnerships and the public accountability question’, public administration review, vol. 70 no. 3, pp. 475-484, https://doi.org/10.1111/ j.1540-6210.2010.02161.x hao, c. & li, j. 2009, ‘comparison of urban rail financing models among beijing, hong kong and new york (in chinese)’, urban mass transit, vol. 12 no. 1, pp. 15-20 hao, w., wang, y. & ding, h. 2012, ‘critical operational issues in ppp urban rail projects: case study of beijing metro line m (in chinese)’, china civil engineering journal, vol. 45 no. 10, pp. 1-6 hayashi, y. 1989, ‘issues in financing urban rail transit projects and value captures’, transportation research part a: general, vol. 23 no. 1, pp. 35-44, https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-2607(89)90138-6 heravi, g. & hajihosseini, z. 2012, ‘risk allocation in public-private partnership infrastructure projects in developing countries: case study of the tehran-chalus toll road’, journal of infrastructure systems, vol. 18 no. 3, pp. 210-217, https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000090 ke, hao, ding & wang construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017103 http://www.bjpc.gov.cn/zt/wzz/201307/t6486566.htm http://www.bjpc.gov.cn/zt/wzz/201307/t6486566.htm https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000088 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000088 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2010)26:1(30 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2010)26:1(30 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2013.09.011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2014.01.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.05.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2009.06.013 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2010.02161.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2010.02161.x https://doi.org/10.1016/0191-2607(89)90138-6 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000090 infrastructure australia 2008, national public private partnerships policy framework. canberra, australia: infrastructure australia infrastructure finance working group 2012, infrastructure finance and funding reform. canberra, australia: infrastructure australia irwin, t.c. 2007, government guarantees: allocating and valuing risk in privately financed infrastructure projects. washington d.c., u.s: world bank, https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-6858-9 jasiukevičius, l. & vasiliauskaitė, a. 2012, ‘formation of optimal capital structure in private-public partnership’, economics and management, vol. 17 no. 4, pp. 1275-1281, https://doi.org/10.5755/j01. em.17.4.2988 jin, x.h. 2009, ‘determinants of efficient risk allocation in privately financed public infrastructure projects in australia’, journal of construction engineering and management, vol. 136 no. 2, pp. 138-150, https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000118 jin, x.h. 2011, ‘model for efficient risk allocation in privately financed public infrastructure projects using neuro-fuzzy techniques’, journal of construction engineering and management, vol. 137 no. 11, pp. 1003-1004, https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000365 jin, x.h. & doloi, h. 2008, ‘interpreting risk allocation mechanism in public–private partnership projects: an empirical study in a transaction cost economics perspective’, construction management and economics, vol. 26 no. 7, pp. 707-721, https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190801998682 ke, y., ling, f.y.y. & zou, p.x.w. 2015, ‘effects of contract strategy on interpersonal relations and project outcomes of public sector construction contracts in australia’, journal of management in engineering, vol. 31 no. 4, 04014062, https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000273 ke, y., wang, s. & chan, a.p.c. 2010, ‘risk allocation in public-private partnership infrastructure projects: comparative study’, journal of infrastructure systems, vol. 16 no. 4, pp. 343-351, https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000030 ke, y., wang, s. & chan, a.p.c. 2012, ‘risk management practice in china’s public-private partnership projects’, journal of civil engineering and management, vol. 18 no. 5, pp. 675-684, https://doi.org/10.384 6/13923730.2012.723380 ke, y., wang, s., chan, a.p.c. & cheung, e. 2009, ‘research trend of public-private partnership in construction journals’, journal of construction engineering and management, vol. 135 no. 10, pp. 1076-1086, https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2009)135:10(1076) ke, y., wang, s., chan, a.p.c. & cheung, e. 2011, ‘understanding the risks in china’s ppp projects: ranking of their probability and consequence’, engineering, construction and architectural management, vol. 18 no. 5, pp. 481-496, https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111165176 lam, k.c., wang, d., lee, p.t. & tsang, y.t. 2007, ‘modelling risk allocation decision in construction contracts’, international journal of project management, vol. 25 no. 5, pp. 485-493, https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.11.005 liang, w. & wang, s. 2012, application of real option in the decision making of urban rail ppp projects (in chinese). journal of engineering management, vol. 26 no. 2, pp. 23-27 liu, l. & pradelli, j. 2012, financing infrastructure and monitoring fiscal risks at the subnational level, world bank, policy research working paper, 6069 liu, y., zhao, g. & wang, s. 2010, ‘many hands, much politics, multiple risks–the case of the 2008 beijing olympics stadium’, australian journal of public administration, 69(s1), pp. 85-98, https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1467-8500.2009.00661.x ke, hao, ding & wang construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017104 https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-6858-9 https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.em.17.4.2988 https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.em.17.4.2988 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000118 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000365 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190801998682 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000273 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000030 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000030 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2012.723380 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2012.723380 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2009)135:10(1076 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111165176 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.11.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.11.005 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8500.2009.00661.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8500.2009.00661.x mandri-perrott, c. & menzies, i. 2010, private sector participation in light rail-light metro transit initiatives. world bank, https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-8085-7 peru ministry of economy and finance 2008, legislative decree no. 1012. lima: republic of peru. roumboutsos, a., liu, t. & wilkinson, s. 2013, ‘can the pilot public-private partnerships project be applied in future urban rail development? a case study of beijing metro line 4 project’, built environment project and asset management, vol. 3 no. 2, pp. 250-263, https://doi.org/10.1108/ bepam-04-2012-0014 shaoul, j., stafford, a. & stapleton, p. 2012, ‘accountability and corporate governance of public private partnerships’, critical perspectives on accounting, vol. 23 no. 3, pp. 213-229, https://doi.org/10.1016/j. cpa.2011.12.006 sharma, d.k., cui, q., chen, l. & lindly, j.k. 2010, ‘balancing private and public interests in publicprivate partnership contracts through optimization of equity capital structure’, transportation research record: journal of the transportation research board, vol. 2151 no. 1, pp. 60-66, https://doi. org/10.3141/2151-08 si, b., fu, l., liu, j., shiravi, s. & gao, z. 2016, ‘a multi-class transit assignment model for estimating transit passenger flows—a case study of beijing subway network’, journal of advanced transportation, vol. 50 no. 1, pp. 50-68, https://doi.org/10.1002/atr.1309 simpson, b.j. 1990, urban rail transit costs and funding. berkshire, uk: transport and road research laboratory smith, m., mathur, n. & skelcher, c. 2006, ‘corporate governance in a collaborative environment: what happens when government, business and civil society work together?’, corporate governance: an international review, vol. 14 no. 3, pp. 159-171, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8683.2006.00496.x tian, z. & ren, y. 2011, post evaluation of financing model in beijing metro line 4 ppp project (in chinese). urban mass transit, vol. 14 no. 12, pp. 5-9 wang, h. 2004, pricing policy in public private partnership urban rail projects (in chinese). urban rail transit, no. 3, pp. 12-15 wang, h. 2006, urban rail transportation finance issues: innovation and practices of public private partnership (in chinese). beijing, china: china financial publishing house wang, j., liu, x., zhao, h. & sheng, x. 2011, risk allocation mechanism in urban rail ppp projects (in chinese). journal of qingdao technological university, (2), pp. 95-100 wilmoth, d. 1990, ‘urban infrastructure finance issues in australia: a review in the context of international experience’, urban policy and research, vol. 8 no. 4, pp. 159-168, https://doi. org/10.1080/08111149008551441 xinhuanet 2016, the 13th five-year plan of p.r. china (in chinese), [online] available at: [accessed: 11 november 2016] xu, y., yeung, j.f.y. & jiang, s. 2014, ‘determining appropriate government guarantees for concession contract: lessons learned from 10 ppp projects in china’, international journal of strategic property management, vol. 18 no. 4, pp. 356-367, https://doi.org/10.3846/1648715x.2014.971088 yin, r.k. 2003, case study research: design and methods. sage publications yuan, j., skibniewski, m.j., li, q. & shan, j. 2010, ‘the driving factors of china’s public‐private partnership projects in metropolitian transportation systems: public sector's viewpoint’, journal of civil engineering and management, vol. 16 no. 1, pp. 5-18, https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2010.01 ke, hao, ding & wang construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017105 https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-8085-7 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-04-2012-0014 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-04-2012-0014 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2011.12.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpa.2011.12.006 https://doi.org/10.3141/2151-08 https://doi.org/10.3141/2151-08 https://doi.org/10.1002/atr.1309 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8683.2006.00496.x https://doi.org/10.1080/08111149008551441 https://doi.org/10.1080/08111149008551441 http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2016lh/2016-03/17/c_1118366322.htm> http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2016lh/2016-03/17/c_1118366322.htm> https://doi.org/10.3846/1648715x.2014.971088 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2010.01 zhang, h., liu, y. & dong, s. 2007, ‘lessons learnt from urban rail projects in seven international mega cities (in chinese)’, urban mass transit, vol. 10 no. 10, pp. 6-10 zhang, s., chan, a.p.c., feng, y., duan, h. & ke, y. 2016, ‘critical review on ppp research – a search from the chinese and international journals’, international journal of project management, vol. 34 no. 4, pp. 597-612, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.02.008 zheng, x., chen, f. & xin, t. 2009, government responsibilities in risk control of urban rail ppp projects (in chinese). china soft science, (s1), pp. 307-310 ke, hao, ding & wang construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 1 march 2017106 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.02.008 construction economics and building vol. 22, no. 4 december 2022 © 2022 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: le, a. t. h., domingo, n., macgregor, c., potangaroa, r. 2022. developing a framework for construction sector capacity. construction economics and building, 22:4, 17–35. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v22i4.8180 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article developing a framework for construction sector capacity an thi hoai le1,*, niluka domingo1, casimir macgregor2, regan potangaroa1 1 school of built environment, massey university, new zealand 2 building research association of new zealand (branz) corresponding author: an thi hoai le, school of built environment, massey university, new zealand, a.lethihoai@massey.ac.nz doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i4.8180 article history: received 11/05/2022; revised 09/09/2022 & 26/10/2022; accepted 22/11/2022; published 15/12/2022 abstract understanding construction sector capacity allows stakeholders to assess the ability to deliver construction projects critically. however, the capacity concept in the construction sector is dynamic, and interrelationships of capacity at different levels have not been explored thoroughly. accordingly, this paper reviewed studies on capacity at different levels: sector, organisational, and individual to (1) identify attributes of capacity at each level; (2) map relationships of the capacities in the construction sector; and (3) develop a conceptual framework of project capacity in the construction sector and propose future research directions. this study used an integrative literature review approach to synthesise literature from various domains to describe different levels of the construction sector’s capacity. the findings of the literature review conceptualised a construction sector capacity framework at four levels: sector, organisational, individual, and project. the detailed descriptions of the relevant attributes at each level advance our understanding of capacity within the construction sector and are fundamental to developing capacity assessment tools for the construction sector. the relationships formed in the proposed framework help explain how the capacity at each level affects the system. findings also serve to identify areas for future research, including investigating interrelationships of attributes in the capacity framework. keywords construction capacity; capacity framework; organisational capacity; project capacity; individual capacity 17 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the research was funded by the new zealand ministry of business, innovation and employment, endeavour programme research grant. contract number: maux2005. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i4.8180 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i4.8180 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:a.lethihoai@massey.ac.nz https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i4.8180 introduction the construction sector directly contributes to the national gdp and facilitates economic activities in other sectors through buildings, infrastructure development, facilities management, and related construction services (deloitte, 2019). in terms of gdp contribution, for example, the construction sector generates about 9% of gdp in the european union (deloitte, 2019); it represents 7.4% of canada’s gdp (statistics canada, 2021) and contributes 6.7% as the fifth largest sector in terms of gdp contribution in new zealand (statistics new zealand, 2021). it is obvious that the ability to deliver projects in the construction sector is vital for the development of any nation. however, lessons learned so far indicate that the construction sector is facing several major issues. it has generally been considered a traditional sector with low productivity (ma and liu, 2016; ghodrati, et al., 2018; hasan, et al., 2018; xiong, newton and skitmore, 2019), especially the lowest productivity gains over the last decades (deloitte, 2019), high staff turnover (ayodele, chang-richards and gonzález, 2020), skills shortages (chang-richards, et al., 2017; kim, chang and castro-lacouture, 2020), loss and lack of collaboration among partners (deep, gajendran and jefferies, 2019), and slow adoption of digital technologies and innovation (chancellor, abbott and carson, 2015; delgado, et al., 2019; olanipekun and sutrisna, 2021). the construction sector is also susceptible to economic fluctuations (ercan, 2019). for example, the construction sector suffers from capacity constraints such as resources and expertise in high-demand periods. at the same time, there are significant job losses in the construction sector during downturns more so than in other sectors (pwc, 2016). the so-called ‘boom-bust’ cycle, leads to instability and uncertainty within the sector, especially for its workforce. therefore, the understanding of the ‘ability’ to deliver is vital to support decision-makers to establish policies or strategies for the development of the construction sector in the ‘boom-bust’ cycle. to the authors’ best knowledge, there are limited studies focusing on developing a framework for measuring the capacity of the construction sector to predict its ability to deliver future projects. in response, the canconstructnz research programme has been established aiming at measuring the capacity of the construction sector in new zealand. the programme aims to create a comprehensive system intending to generate a set of capacity measurement factors that allows the sector stakeholders to understand what can realistically be delivered by the sector and the changes required for the successful delivery of future planned projects. as a part of the canconstructnz programme, this study serves as a starting point to develop a capacity framework with indicators at different levels to help measure the sector capacity, identify gaps in capacity, and map them against the future demand of construction pipeline projects. in addition, in order to explore the potential of interrelationships between the different aspects that define capacity in the construction sector, an in-depth understanding of the different capacity levels and their components is needed. from this perspective, this paper conducts the integrative literature review to present the structure, foundational elements, and attributes of different levels of capacity and then develop a construction sector capacity framework. the following three research objectives guide this review process: (1) identify attributes of capacity at each level; (2) map relationships of the capacities in the construction sector; and (3) develop a conceptual framework of project capacity in the construction sector and propose future research directions. findings from this study can offer a new way of thinking about capacity in the construction sector, including key levels, attributes and their relationships. the findings highlight areas for future research for better understanding of capacity measurement and can support governments and stakeholders in identifying capacity gaps and proposing capacity development interventions. le, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202218 key terms and definitions capacity definitions capacity is an important economic measure and is defined in terms of potential output in consideration of the capital stock, existing regulations, and the state of technology (kirkley and squires, 2003; shaikh and moudud, 2004). previous studies have also proven that understanding the concept of capacity helps explain various economic phenomena to support operation and business strategies (squires and segerson, 2020). therefore, capacity and related terms have been studied in different sectors such as fisheries, electric, health, and dairy farms to prevent over/under-investment in stock resources, explain the appropriate number of firms and plants in the sector, forecast the growth rate and variability of demand, measure productivity, identify opportunities for firm investments and take advantage of market changes (kirkley, morrison paul and squires, 2002; squires and segerson, 2020). there are various definitions of capacity in the literature. brown, lafond and macintyre (2001) defined capacity as its existence to perform a particular action or enable performance and, similarly, michael et al. (2003) agreed that the concept of capacity is the ability to ‘perform or produce’. undp (2010) offered a more detailed definition of capacity as “the ability of individuals, institutions, and societies to perform functions, solve problems, and set and achieve objectives in a sustainable manner” (undp, 2010, p.2). some practitioners and analysts measured capacity as a humane resource issue dealing with skill development and training at the individual level (alsop and kurey, 2005). many other analysts accepted the broader scope of capacity, which includes the ability to deliver and general management problem-solving to implement better at the organisational level (backer, 2000). in more detail, morgan (2006) discussed five central characteristics of the capacity concept, which are empowerment and identity, collective capabilities, a systems phenomenon, a potential state and the creation of public value; thus, defines capacity as “that emergent combination of attributes that enable human system to create development value” (morgan, 2006, p.8). following this definition, morgan (2006) also drew four aspects of capacity that can be used to address various methods of assessment and evaluation of capacity. the first aspect is about foundational components or elements of capacity which are usually financial resources, structure, information, culture, and location, among others. the second aspect covers ‘competencies’ focusing on the energy, skills, behaviours, motivations, influence and abilities of individuals. the third one refers to the management capabilities such as financial management, policy analysis or ability to adapt and earn legitimacy. the last aspect is used to refer to the overall ability of a system to create value. in the construction field, o’brien and fischer (2000) distinguished two definitions of capacity. the first capacity definition is for suppliers, and it is a manufacturing concept so the capacity can be defined as the maximum productive output of a firm’s resources. the second definition is about contractors’ capacity which is determined by their labour and equipment resources. arneson (2018) introduced the concept of construction capacity as the maximum building volume that a construction industry can supply due to the supply chain availability of labour and materials. although the capacity definition varies in different sectors, it can be understood as the ability and resources of the sector/organisations to deliver their projected plans and achieve their development goals. there are two popular approaches for assessing capacity in the literature: the technological/engineering approach and the economic capacity (lowe, 2009; squires and segerson, 2020). the technological approach is defined as the maximum sustainable level of “output that can be reached under normal input conditions” and fully employing the variable inputs (klein, et al., 1973, p.744). this approach has limited applications as it does not consider economic factors (lowe, 2009). for example, the capacity of a plant should not only consider if it is physically feasible to operate, such as three shifts per day but also needs to calculate the le, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202219 higher labour cost of the second and third shifts. in either approach, economic capacity defines the firm’s benchmark level of output based on optimising economic behaviour (squires and segerson, 2020). the term ‘capacity utilisation’ also refers to the economic capacity which is defined by actual output divided by capacity (morrison, 1985) and to identify whether the industry is over/under capacity and how efficient it is. other researchers and organisations established sets of indicators to measure different aspects of capacity such as organisational capacity (ifc, 2017), and regional capacity (arneson, 2018). unfortunately, the current capacity measurement approaches do not seem to be able to assess all these aspects of the construction sector’s capacity. the present research does not seek to provide an exhaustive literature review on capacity definitions but rather aims to discover different levels and attributes of construction sector capacity allowing us to develop a comprehensive assessment model for all aspects of the construction sector capacity. furthermore, the new construction project capacity framework developed in this study enables us to capture relationships within and across the capacity levels in the construction sector. capacity in the construction management research to date, the construction sector capacity has been investigated in the literature but still with an unsystematic approach. researchers tended to focus on investigating certain capacity aspects of the sector such as human capacity and financial capacity. for example, o’brien and fischer (2000) discussed the importance of capacity constraints to construction cost and schedule. the study surveyed fifteen subcontractors and suppliers in norway and the us to explore the effects of capacity on the on-site and off-site cost of firms involved in a project when there are changes in the project schedule. the findings of this study suggested that a model of the relationship between site conditions and capacity allocation is essential to understand subcontractors’ behaviours. using a similar approach, chang-richards, et al. (2016) identified internal and external factors affecting the capacity of subcontracting businesses in canterbury, newzealand. the factors were industry structure, procurement environment, company’s vision/strategic goal, and employee needs and skills. meanwhile, offei, kissi and nani (2019) identified key lacking capacity areas in smes in the ghanaian construction industry including financial, managerial, plans and equipment and technical capacity. these are in line with the findings by tucker, windapo and cattell (2015) who defined capacity as the ability to innovate, having adequate human resources, technology, managerial skills, technical ability and financial capital. another area of the research effort was identifying foundational components or specific elements of construction capacity, such as financial capacity, human resource capacity, technological capacity, and supply chain capacity. tucker, windapo and cattell (2015) explored the use of financial capacity as a predictor of construction company performance with twelve indicators of financial capacity. on the other direction, mishra (2018) assessed the human resource capacity of construction companies in nepal. human resource capacity (hrc) was about ensuring that the organisation had enough people with the necessary skills to achieve its objectives. the hrc also referred to the system of recruitment, training, team development, boarding program, benefits, health and safety and performance appraisal. other research focused on technological capacity as it is a critical factor for innovation strategies in construction companies (ercan, 2019; kamal, et al., 2021). different indicators for measuring the technological capacity of the contractors were found such as staff technological skills, on-job training scheme, investment in r&d, and top management’s support (ercan, 2019). in conjunction with technological capacity, absorptive capacity was discussed in the literature in terms of the main indicators of how construction companies develop their absorptive capacity and factors that influence their absorptive capacity (waalkens, 2006; kamal, et al., 2021). regarding an overall view of capacity building, kululanga (2012) developed a framework for capacity building of the construction industry in four levels: individual, organisational, industry and state levels. the findings indicate that although different aspects of construction capacity were investigated, this body of le, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202220 research did not seek to develop an overall framework for capturing the construction sector’s capacity. the question of whether the different aspects influence each other and, if so how has not yet been explored. the concept of capacity has been studied in the construction sector, but no framework has been developed to date that captures different levels of construction sector capacity, attributes, and relationships from a holistic view. this present study aims to fill the gaps by reviewing the capacity framework in different domains to investigate attributes of different levels of capacity and develop a holistic framework for construction sector capacity. this proposed framework would help decision-makers and researchers in developing measurement indicators for capturing construction sector capacity. research method this study aims to develop a conceptual framework that offers new ways of thinking about capacity in the construction sector and develop research questions for future research. the background section indicates that although ‘capacity’ is a mature topic that has been thoroughly studied in other sectors, there is no capacity framework for the construction sector to date. therefore, an integrative literature review was chosen for this study because it goes beyond analysis and synthesis of previous research findings; it provides a new framework and generates new knowledge about a specific topic (torraco, 2005). furthermore, it allows for the inclusion of both peer-reviewed publications, along with ‘grey literature’ (including government reports, industry reports and policy documents), which are not usually included in a systematic review (lubbe, ham-baloyi and smit, 2020). other researchers have employed this literature review method for similar studies, for example, papastamoulis, et al. (2021) and wagner, schöne and rieger (2020). this paper follows the guidelines for writing an integrative literature review (torraco, 2016). it starts by developing a map of the key levels of capacity in the construction sector: individual, organisation, and the sector as a whole, as well as their relationships. a set of keywords were used to discover the first set of publications that reflect the levels of capacity in the construction sector and their attributes, including individual capacity, organisational capacity, sector capacity, industry capacity and construction capacity. the search was performed separately in the following online databases, considering only peer-reviewed articles: scopus, web of science, science direct, emerald, springer and google scholar. in addition to the academic publications, relevant reports by government, non-government organisations and non-profit organisations were used as the grey literature source for this review. the reports are usually not published in academic journals, so they were sourced from the google database, targeted websites, and in consultation with contact experts. many researchers suggest that grey literature can contribute to the literature review and be used as the basis of empirical findings (godin, et al., 2015; sage, 2017). these documents often contain policy recommendations, guidelines, and programme evaluation studies which can be valuable resources for the review process. because there is no rigid standard for the systematic grey literature search method and google searches, they tend to yield large amounts of data, not all of which are relevant to the topic under investigation. therefore, the selection of the grey literature was conducted manually. the reports were selected from global institutes and networks such as the world bank institute, the united nations development program (undp), the european centre for development policy management, or developed countries such as the united states and the united kingdom and canada. articles and reports were selected according to the following criteria: • they provide means to understand construction sector capacity. • they provide means to define key attributes of different levels of construction sector capacity. • they provide cases to further understand the interrelationships among the different capacity levels. • they define research questions for future research on the topic. le, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202221 the analysis was conducted following general steps suggested by erlingsson and brysiewicz (2017) and assarroudi, et al. (2018): • familiarising with the data: read and re-read the articles and reports while focusing on the research aim. the initial impression was that while the academic papers focus on attributes of specific capacity at the operational level (individual, organizational), the reports focus more on the capacity of the strategic level (sector). • developing a predefined structure of the capacity framework and of attributes to capture the capacity at different levels, and factors affecting capacity. • determination of coding rules to keep the coding process consistent. code the text using nvivo version 12 software findings to date, only two frameworks for construction sector capacity have been proposed, but none of them discovers different levels and attributes of each level for measuring the sector capacity. the first was developed by the infrastructure & cities for economic development (2018), or iced, which designed a construction capacity framework that structured the capacity into three core pillars: investment and business, legal and regulatory, and people and organisations. different elements and considerations are mapped for each pillar within the iced framework, and illustrative questions to understand current practice are proposed under each element; however, measurement indicators of the capacity are missing. another approach was proposed by kululanga (2012), who developed a four-level capacity framework for the construction sector, arguing that capacity-building strategies should be considered from a system perspective. the indicators in this framework focused only on capacity-building interventions and neglected measures of capacity for the construction sector across time and place. another shortcoming of this framework is that it does not capture how the different aspects relate to each other. this study, hence, also reviews the capacity concepts in different domains such as health, agriculture, manufacturing, and ngos, to develop a comprehensive capacity framework for the construction sector. levels of capacity the capacity levels identified in previous studies can be grouped into three broad levels, namely individual, team/program/organisation, and sector/institution. these levels set frames about where capacities are needed or the point of entry for capacity assessment. some studies discuss only a single capacity level (either individual or organisation), such as qvortrup (2016) and rajeshwari, deo and van wessel (2020), while others suggest that capacity should be viewed in a system context and assessed at multiple levels (brown, lafond and macintyre, 2001; baser, et al., 2008; undp, 2008; japan international cooperation agency, 2014; oecd, 2020). regardless of their conceptualisation of different levels, all agree that each level interacts with others and requires different capacity development interventions. however, the attributes and relationships between the levels are where researchers have not reached a definite agreement yet. the individual level, which is also referred to as the employee level (brown, lafond and macintyre, 2001), or the participants/practitioner level (rajeshwari, deo and van wessel, 2020), captures the skills, knowledge, and experience that allow people to perform their roles effectively (bester, 2015). findings from the literature focus on the capacity of individual roles in organisations ( johnson and thomas, 2007; levine, et al., 2013). however, the interaction of different roles in organisational capacity has not been appropriately explored. for example, people involved in a team/group might not be employees from one organisation and have other interests than the team’s mission, so the team capacity should not simply be measured by a combination of the individual capacities in the group. le, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202222 on the other hand, the organisational level has been well-defined and explored in the literature. similar to the individual level, the organisational level can be understood as a point of entry for capacity assessment, where a framework of internal structure, policies, and procedures is provided to allow individuals to work together for a common goal (michael, et al., 2003; undp, 2008). the highest level is the sector level, encompassing the broader system that includes rules, laws, policies, and power relations (undp, 2008; bester, 2015). the sector capacity level impacts the performance of all other levels, including individuals, teams, or one or more organisations within and across sectors (oecd, 2020). attributes of individual capacity individual capacities are divided in the form of ‘hard’ competencies and ‘soft’ competencies, and both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ competencies are mainly made up of human resource capacity in organisational and sector capacity (kululanga, 2012; mishra, 2018; offei, kissi and nani, 2019). the ‘hard’ competencies refer to technical skills, knowledge, and experience associated with areas of expertise such as techniques of operating equipment, manual skills, and data and modelling skills ( johnson and thomas, 2007; kühl, 2009). the hard competencies can be recognised easily, but the specific nature of the skill depends on the unique characteristics of the jobs performed. with regard to soft competencies, the literature has listed various soft competencies such as learning skills, negotiating skills, critical thinking, problem-solving and adapting to change skills ( johnson and thomas, 2007; kühl, 2009), as well as leadership, administrative and financial skills (bennett, et al., 2012). schech, et al. (2020) reported that it is widely recognised that both technical (hard) and functional (soft) capacities are needed to facilitate the capacity development of individuals. however, in practice, sometimes, there is no simple division between the ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ competencies because one type of skill may be included or combined with the others. in the construction sector, there are various occupations such as project management professionals, engineers, architects, structural and civil trades, and finishing trades. they require different sets of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ competencies to perform their tasks and collaborate on a project. however, raidén and dainty (2006) argue that, in all cases, capacity should not mainly focus on human resource issues with skills development and individual training. figure 1. individual capacity le, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202223 attributes of organisational capacity the literature also points out the forms of capacity at the organisational level in different sectors, such as health care, education, agriculture, tourism, and ngos. for example, michael, et al. (2003) developed a conceptual framework for organisational capacity for non-profit and voluntary organisations. organisations can employ three main capacities to achieve their missions and objectives: financial capacity, human capacity, and structural capacity. among those, human capacity is the critical element that facilitates the development of other capacities. details of these capacities are listed below: • financial capacity: the revenues, expenses, assets, and liabilities of the organisation; • human resource capacity: competencies, knowledge, attitudes, motivation, and behaviours of people within the organisation; • structural capacity: relationship and network capacity, infrastructure and process capacity, planning and development capacity. similarly, the ifc (2017) (cncs) defined terms of organisational capacity, including the wide range of capabilities, knowledge, and resources that organisations need to be effective. the cncs also introduced five domains of organisational capacity in the following: • leadership capacity: vision/mission, governance, strategy/planning, culture/values; • management and operations capacity: financial management, human resources, it & infrastructure; • service capacity: program design, program implementation, performance management; • community engagement capacity: fund development, communication and advocacy, volunteer management, community partnerships; • evaluative capacity: evaluation planning, data collection, measuring impact, learning and continuous improvement. among these domains, management and operations capacity and service capacity focus on the internalfacing capacity that determines the organisation’s effectiveness, while community engagement capacity is the primary external-facing capacity as it refers to dealing with relationships with external partners. meanwhile, leadership capacity relates to the capacity of senior leadership to set the strategy and drive organisational culture. finally, evaluative capacity focuses on gathering data and measuring the organisation’s impact and continuous development. baser, et al. (2008) argue that capacity can be conceptualised as being built on five core capabilities that contribute to the overall capacity of a system or organisation. the authors also state that all five capabilities are necessary, and none is sufficient by themselves to ensure overall capacity. these core capabilities together form the capacity that enables an organisation to carry out its missions and processes inside or outside the system, and they are described as follows (brinkerhoff and morgan, 2010): • capability to commit and engage: this core capability involves the ability to: encourage mindfulness; persevere; aspire; embed conviction; take ownership, and be determined. • capability to carry out technical, service delivery, and logistical tasks: this includes capabilities to deliver services; for strategic planning and management and financial management. this capacity needs to be supplemented and combined with the four other capabilities to be effective. • capability to relate and attract support: this is about establishing and managing linkages, alliances, and/or partnerships with others to leverage resources and actions; earning credibility and legitimacy; dealing effectively with competition, politics, and power differentials. le, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202224 • capability to adapt and self-renew: this is about monitoring, adaptation and self-renewal. actors with this capability are able to adapt and modify plans and operations based on monitoring of progress and outcomes; proactively anticipate change and new challenges and develop strategies to cope with these changing contexts as well as resiliency. • capability to balance diversity and coherence: this is about the attention to communication and openness and the use of cross-functional, cross-national, and cross-disciplinary teams and management groups. actors with these capabilities can build connections, manage diversity, balance control, flexibility, and consistency; to manage a difficult situation. based on the findings in the literature, figure 2 illustrates the capacity at the organisational level for the construction sector, regardless of the size of the organisation. the first category is the capacity to formulate policies and strategies (o1) which is similar to leadership capacity or organisational structure and process, enabling the organisation to create visions, strategies and values for the organisation (baser, et al., 2008; brinkerhoff and morgan, 2010; levine, et al., 2013; hambrick, svensson and kang, 2019). this category helps to set the culture and strategy of the organisation, which might include but is not limited to employing staff with relevant qualifications and experience, pursuing partnerships, planning development and improvement, and preparing the capacity to respond to the future (macmillan, 2002; bossink, 2004; sarshar, haigh and amaratunga, 2004). figure 2. organisational capacity the second category (o2) relates to the capability to deliver technical tasks and services, which are similar to ‘service capacity’ in the cncs framework (ifc, 2017). an organisation with o2 capacity has ‘supply and equipment capacity’, ‘infrastructure capacity’, and ‘set of procedures capacity’ that enable their staff to carry out critical functions and produce acceptable outcomes (undp, 2005; baser, et al., 2008; brinkerhoff and morgan, 2010; bennett, et al., 2012; levine, et al., 2013; hambrick, svensson and kang, 2019; dymnicki, et al., 2021). previous work in the construction management field usually centred on le, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202225 specific components of o2 such as financial capacity, human resource capacity, and technology capacity (tucker, windapo and cattell, 2015; offei, 2016; okoye, 2016; arneson, 2018; asante, kissi and badu, 2018; mishra, 2018; ercan, 2019; kamal, et al., 2021). other aspects of organisational capacity in the construction sector have not yet been explored. the third category (o3) is about the capacity to relate and engage, ‘community engagement capacity’, and ‘relationship and network capacity’. this capacity allows organisations to form productive relationships and alliances to make them a part of a broader effort to achieve common objectives (michael, et al., 2003; germann and wilson, 2004; baser, et al., 2008; ifc, 2017). previous works show that collaboration and partnerships are critical for organisational competition (lazar, 2000; hauck, et al., 2004). this category is particularly relevant to construction organisations as their projects based on their work mean that they often have to cooperate with many small firms, meaning that construction projects can often only be achieved through working in partnerships (kululanga, 2012). the fourth category refers to the capacity to evaluate and self-renew, which means an organisation’s ability to measure impacts and learn lessons in an ‘evaluative capacity’ (germann and wilson, 2004; morgan, 2006; baser, et al., 2008; undp, 2008; kühl, 2009; brinkerhoff and morgan, 2010). the strategies and attributes associated with the fourth category are related to managers’ ability to assess their current capacity, accumulate their knowledge and share best practices with other organisations in the construction sector (disterer, 2002). as a result, organisations can adopt new ideas to master change and keep up with the demands of customers and clients (kululanga and mccaffer, 2001). finally, complex systems such as organisations or a network of the organisation usually struggle to balance their capacities, such as whether they should focus on delivering technical services, developing innovation, or prioritising external or internal, short-term or long-term missions. therefore, the fifth category is related to balancing diversity and coherence to encourage stability and innovation (morgan, 2006; brinkerhoff and morgan, 2010; ifc, 2017). attributes of sector capacity previous works demonstrate that improvements in the construction sector had been greatly enhanced at the sector level (thwala and mvubu, 2008). in addition, al-sedairy (2001) suggests that a stable economic and political environment contributes to the construction sector’s capacity building. the sector describes the broader system that includes rules, laws, policies, power relations and the society within which individuals and organisations function and facilitate or hinder operations (undp, 2010; bester, 2015). therefore, the sector level may include regional, national, and inter-sector capacity. to date, studies on sector capacities have tended to focus on specific aspects, such as measuring ‘capacity utilisation,’ rather than providing a detailed description of the attributes of other sector capacity categories. meanwhile, undp capacity assessment practice note (undp, 2008) identified five capacity aspects at the sector level: • policies and strategies formulating capacity (s1) • stakeholders engagement capacity (s2) • data management capacity (s3) • operational capacity (s4) • evaluative capacity (s5) accordingly, figure 3 presents attributes and their relationship at the sector level of the construction capacity based on the findings in the literature. the first category (s1) includes setting objectives, elaborating sectoral and cross-sectoral policies, and managing priority-setting mechanisms. these policies, legislations, and strategies should explore different perspectives and provide incentives in multi-level le, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202226 governance and allow adaptive capacity (brown, lafond and macintyre, 2001; folke, et al., 2002; undp, 2005; 2008; polk, 2011; bennett, et al., 2012; infrastructure & cities for economic development, 2018). the second category (s2) is about engaging and building consensus among all relevant stakeholders in the system, such as creating community-private-public partnerships and networks; motivating and mobilising stakeholders; promoting engagement and coordination between organisations within the community; establishing collaborative mechanisms and communication channels; managing large group processes and open dialogue; and mediating divergent interests (brown, lafond and macintyre, 2001; undp, 2008; polk, 2011; bennett, et al., 2012). furthermore, since the construction sector is interrelated and impacts other sectors such as education, manufacturing, and professional services, engagement among the ‘sister’ sectors is critical to address the issue of capacity at the macro level. some sister sectors can impact the construction capacity, such as curricula for education, construction workforce, research activities, personnel mobility within and outside the sector, and technology development for construction materials (kululanga, 2012). therefore, the ‘capacity to engage stakeholders’ is one of the vital attributes of the construction sector’s capacity. similar to organisation capacity o4, evaluative capacity s3 evaluates progress to ensure performance, learning and accountability. it includes the capacity to measure results and collect feedback to adjust policies, systemise lessons, promote learning, and ensure accountability to all relevant stakeholders (the world bank, 2012, brown et al., 2001, undp, 2008). meanwhile, the s4 category refers to fully understanding an operating environment by gathering, accessing, disaggregating, analysing and synthesising data and information; and translating information into a vision and/or a mandate (undp, 2008; polk, 2011; bennett, et al., 2012; the world bank, 2012). although this category has not been studied extensively in the construction management research domain, it cannot be denied that information is critical for measuring figure 3. sector capacity le, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202227 capacity in the sector and guiding future capacity development changes. last but not least, the s5 category includes the capacity to formulate, plan, and manage projects and programmes, including preparing a budget and estimating capacity development costs, managing human and financial resources and procurement; to set indicators for monitoring progress (brown, lafond and macintyre, 2001; undp, 2008; bennett, et al., 2012). this category is critical because it refers to the planning capacity of the sector which formulates and manages pipeline projects. it is hypothesised that all aspects at the sector level are correlated and impacted by one another, as shown in figure 3. however, these interrelationships have not been examined and described so far. discussion the conceptual frameworks above have defined horizontal planes that form the framework within the construction capacity, starting with individual capacity (figure 1), followed by organisational capacity (figure 2), and finally, sector capacity (figure 3). these separate frames, when combined, provide a comprehensive framework for the construction sector. although attributes of capacity have been studied at length, deeper insights into how to measure capacity in the construction sector are still missing in the literature. future research could develop a measurement model for each level of the construction sector’s capacity. in addition, a project-based organisation is typical for many construction projects in the construction sector. however, the project capacity concept is still vague in the literature. figure 4 presents a new concept of capacity at the project level, assuming that the project capacity is built by all aspects of the figure 4. project-based organisation capacity for future research le, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202228 individual capacity involved in the project and partial aspects of the organisational capacity who are key players in the project. it is demonstrated that individual capacities can be transmitted to the project/ organisational capacity (somarriba-chang, nacional and una, 2014). the explanation for the partial overlap between ‘organisation’ and ‘project’ capacity is that ‘individual’ refers to human resource capacity, as shown in figure 1, while ‘organisation’ and ‘project’ have other capacity dimensions such as financial capacity, engagement capacity, and management capacity. therefore, the overlap between ‘project’ and ‘organisational’ capacity includes other aspects besides human resource capacity (individual capacity). however, the links between organisational capacity and project capacity have not yet been defined. typical construction projects often involve a number of different organisations such as engineering consultants, sub-contractors, suppliers, and consultants. these partners usually join the project to perform specific and short-term tasks/missions. the project capacity should be developed considering the construction sector’s scope, stakeholders, and actors. the key players that influence the project capacity are clients, contractors/sub-contractors and consultants. furthermore, the influence of manufacturers and distributors should be taken into account because it will align through the contractors rather than to the project itself. similarly, institutional actors and regulators, including institutions and associations, are likely to impact the project capacity through the consultants, clients and contractors. due to the complexity of construction projects, measuring project capacity and exploring relationships between organisations involved in the project is challenging and needs to be explored in greater detail in future work. in addition, the interrelationships among the different levels and the attributes in each level also have not been clearly described yet in the literature. for example, with the individual capacity framework, employees in the sector can be informed about the types of skills they should be equipped with, but it does not show how the individual capacity can be transmitted to the project and organisational capacity they are working in. future work different vertical fractures between the capacity frames in figure 4 need to be investigated further in addition to the horizontal ones as outlined below: • the connections/relationship of individual hard competencies (id1) and the client capacity at project level (p1) and organisational capacity to deliver (o2), organisational capacity to formulate policies (o1), organisational capacity to evaluate (o5); • the connections/relationship of individual hard competencies (id1) and the consultant capacity at project level (p2) and organisational capacity to deliver (o2), organisational capacity to formulate policies (o1), organisational capacity to evaluate (o5); • the influences of individual soft competencies (id2) and organisational capacity to relate (o2), sector capacity to engage (s2), and sector capacity to assess a situation (s4); • the influences of individual soft competencies (id2) and organisational capacity to balance diversity and coherence (o4); • the influences of manufacturer and distributor capacity to the contractor capacity connecting to the sector capacity to budget (s2); • the influences of institutional actors’ capacity on the sector capacity to formulate policies (s1), and sector capacity to evaluate (s3). the six threads above also can be used as research questions for future work on the topic. the vertical relationships in figure 4 are meaningful but challenging to validate. future research should first simplify the relationships within the framework to drive the data required for testing these hypotheses. le, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202229 conclusion the construction industry is responsible for the country’s infrastructure, economic growth and society’s well-being. however, the reality is that it faces many capacity limitations to support economic and social development. this review presents foundational elements of the construction sector capacity framework, which have emerged from a holistic approach. the findings of this study contribute to the body knowledge by providing a conceptual framework that can help capture construction capacity at different levels and different aspects. the results can also help policymakers and organisation managers review their capacity against the identified attributes to find gaps and initiate interventions for their capacity development. the findings serve as a starting point for future research to fill the gaps in exploring measurement indicators at each level and the interrelationships between the attributes across the levels. the frameworks suggested above could, in a similar way, be adopted for other sectors and customised by the same process to fit their insector context. however, this study still has a limitation as these frameworks have not been validated using the actual data of the construction sector. future studies may focus on different approaches for validating these frameworks. acknowledgement the authors acknowledge the funding of the new zealand ministry of business, innovation and employment, endeavour programme research grant under contract number maux2005. disclosure statement no potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s). references al-sedairy, s.t., 2001. a change management model for saudi construction industry. international journal of project management, 19(3), pp.161-69. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(99)00067-8 alsop, r. and kurey, b., 2005. local organizations in decentralized development: their functions and performance in india: world bank publications. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-6312-6 arneson, e., 2018. construction capacity: how regional construction supply chains respond to disruption. phd, department of civil, environmental, and architectural engineering, university of colorado. asante, j., kissi, e. and badu, e., 2018. factorial analysis of capacity-building needs of smalland medium-scale building contractors in developing countries. benchmarking: an international journal, 25(1), pp.357-72. https://doi. org/10.1108/bij-07-2016-0117 assarroudi, a., heshmati nabavi, f., armat, m.r., ebadi, a. and vaismoradi, m., 2018. directed qualitative content analysis: the description and elaboration of its underpinning methods and data analysis process. journal of research in nursing, 23(1), pp.42-55. https://doi.org/10.1177/1744987117741667 ayodele, o.a., chang-richards, a. and gonzález, v., 2020. factors affecting workforce turnover in the construction sector: a systematic review. journal of construction engineering and management, 146(2), p.03119010. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001725 backer, t.e., 2000. strengthening nonprofits: capacity-building and philanthropy: human interaction research institute encino, ca. baser, h., morgan, p., bolger, j., bringkerhoff, d., land, a., taschereau, s., waston, d. and jinke, j., 2008. capacity change performance study report. le, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202230 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(99)00067-8 https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-6312-6 https://doi.org/10.1108/bij-07-2016-0117 https://doi.org/10.1108/bij-07-2016-0117 https://doi.org/10.1177/1744987117741667 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001725 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001725 bennett, n., lemelin, r.h., koster, r. and budke, i., 2012. a capital assets framework for appraising and building capacity for tourism development in aboriginal protected area gateway communities. tourism management, 33(4), pp.752-66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2011.08.009 bester, a., 2015. capacity development: a report prepared for the united nations department of economic and social affairs. bossink, b.a., 2004. managing drivers of innovation in construction networks. journal of construction engineering and management, 130(3), pp.337-45. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:3(337) brinkerhoff, d.w. and morgan, p.j., 2010. capacity and capacity development: coping with complexity. public administration and development: the international journal of management research and practice, 30(1), pp.2-10. https:// doi.org/10.1002/pad.559 brown, l., lafond, a. and macintyre, k.e., 2001. measuring capacity building: carolina population center, university of north carolina at chapel hill …. chancellor, w., abbott, m. and carson, c., 2015. factors promoting innovation and efficiency in the construction industry: a comparative study of new zealand and australia. construction economics and building, 15(2), pp.63-80. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i2.4386 chang-richards, a.y., wilkinson, s., seville, e. and brundsdon, d., 2016. capacity and capability development of canterbury subcontracting business: features, motivating factors and obstacles. chang-richards, y., wilkinson, s., seville, e. and brunsdon, d., 2017. effects of a major disaster on skills shortages in the construction industry. engineering, construction and architectural management, 24(1), pp.2-20. https://doi. org/10.1108/ecam-03-2014-0044 deep, s., gajendran, t. and jefferies, m., 2019. a systematic review of ‘enablers of collaboration’among the participants in construction projects. international journal of construction management, pp.1-13. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2 019.1596624 delgado, j.m.d., oyedele, l., ajayi, a., akanbi, l., akinade, o., bilal, m. and owolabi, h., 2019. robotics and automated systems in construction: understanding industry-specific challenges for adoption. journal of building engineering, 26, p.100868. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2019.100868 deloitte, 2019. global powers of construction. disterer, g., 2002. management of project knowledge and experiences. journal of knowledge management. https://doi. org/10.1108/13673270210450450 dymnicki, a., neiman, s., joshi, a., johnson, t. and hodgman, s., 2021. development and validation of a measure of organizational capacity for implementing youth development programs. eval program plann, 86, p.101916. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2021.101916 ercan, t., 2019. building the link between technological capacity strategies and innovation in construction companies. in. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88238 erlingsson, c. and brysiewicz, p., 2017. a hands-on guide to doing content analysis. african journal of emergency medicine, 7(3), pp.93-99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.afjem.2017.08.001 folke, c., carpenter, s., elmqvist, t., gunderson, l., holling, c.s. and walker, b., 2002. resilience and sustainable development: building adaptive capacity in a world of transformations. ambio: a journal of the human environment, 31(5), pp.437-40. https://doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447-31.5.437 germann, k. and wilson, d., 2004. organizational capacity for community development in regional health authorities: a conceptual model. health promotion international, 19(3), pp.289-98. https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/dah303 le, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202231 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2011.08.009 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:3(337 https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.559 https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.559 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i2.4386 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-03-2014-0044 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-03-2014-0044 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1596624 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1596624 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2019.100868 https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270210450450 https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270210450450 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2021.101916 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2021.101916 https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.88238 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.afjem.2017.08.001 https://doi.org/10.1579/0044-7447-31.5.437 https://doi.org/10.1093/heapro/dah303 ghodrati, n., yiu, t.w., wilkinson, s. and shahbazpour, m., 2018. role of management strategies in improving labor productivity in general construction projects in new zealand managerial perspective. journal of management in engineering, 34(6). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000641 godin, k., stapleton, j., kirkpatrick, s.i., hanning, r.m. and leatherdale, s.t., 2015. applying systematic review search methods to the grey literature: a case study examining guidelines for school-based breakfast programs in canada. systematic reviews, 4(1), pp.1-10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-015-0125-0 hambrick, m.e., svensson, p.g. and kang, s., 2019. using social network analysis to investigate interorganizational relationships and capacity building within a sport for development coalition. sport management review, 22(5), pp.70823. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2018.12.002 hasan, a., baroudi, b., elmualim, a. and rameezdeen, r., 2018. factors affecting construction productivity: a 30 year systematic review. engineering, construction and architectural management. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-20170035 hauck, a.j., walker, d.h., hampson, k.d. and peters, r.j., 2004. project alliancing at national museum of australia— collaborative process. journal of construction engineering and management, 130(1), pp.143-52. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(2004)130:1(143) ifc, 2017. organizational capacity assessment tool. washington, dc: corporation for national and community service. infrastructure & cities for economic development, 2018. construction capacity framework. japan international cooperation agency, 2014. capacity development guideline/manual ( jica model). johnson, h. and thomas, a., 2007. individual learning and building organisational capacity for development. public administration and development: the international journal of management research and practice, 27(1), pp.39-48. https:// doi.org/10.1002/pad.429 kamal, e.m., lou, e.c.w., yusof, n.a. and osmadi, a., 2021. absorptive capacity of malaysian sme construction organisations. architectural engineering and design management, pp.1-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2021.1883 518 kim, s., chang, s. and castro-lacouture, d., 2020. dynamic modeling for analyzing impacts of skilled labor shortage on construction project management. journal of management in engineering, 36(1), p.04019035. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000720 kirkley, j., morrison paul, c.j. and squires, d., 2002. capacity and capacity utilization in common-pool resource industries. environmental and resource economics, 22(1), pp.71-97. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015511232039 kirkley, j.e. and squires, d., 2003. capacity and capacity utilization in fishing industries: food and agriculture organization of the united nations. klein, l.r., long, v., greenspan, a., greenwald, d., edmonson, n. and perry, g., 1973. capacity utilization: concept, measurement, and recent estimates. brookings papers on economic activity, 1973(3), pp.743-63. https://doi. org/10.2307/2534206 kühl, s., 2009. capacity development as the model for development aid organizations. development and change, 40(3), pp.551-77. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2009.01538.x kululanga, g., 2012. capacity building of construction industries in sub‐saharan developing countries. engineering, construction and architectural management, 19(1), pp.86-100. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211192580 kululanga, g.k. and mccaffer, r., 2001. measuring knowledge management for construction organizations. engineering, construction and architectural management, 8, pp.346-54. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb021195 le, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202232 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000641 https://doi.org/10.1186/s13643-015-0125-0 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smr.2018.12.002 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2017-0035 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2017-0035 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:1(143 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:1(143 https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.429 https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.429 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2021.1883518 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2021.1883518 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000720 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000720 https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015511232039 https://doi.org/10.2307/2534206 https://doi.org/10.2307/2534206 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-7660.2009.01538.x https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211192580 https://doi.org/10.1108/eb021195 lazar, f.d., 2000. project partnering: improving the likelihood of win/win outcomes. journal of management in engineering, 16(2), pp.71-83. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2000)16:2(71) levine, r., russ-eft, d., burling, a., stephens, j. and downey, j., 2013. evaluating health services research capacity building programs: implications for health services and human resource development. evaluation and program planning, 37, pp.1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2012.12.002 lowe, d.j., 2009, university of cape town, 2009. lubbe, w., ham-baloyi, w.t. and smit, k., 2020. the integrative literature review as a research method: a demonstration review of research on neurodevelopmental supportive care in preterm infants. journal of neonatal nursing, 26(6), pp.308-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnn.2020.04.006 ma, l. and liu, c., 2016. decomposition of temporal changes in construction labour productivity. international journal of construction management, 18(1), pp.65-77. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1258755 macmillan, s., 2002. the right vision for construction r&d? responding to the fairclough review. building research & information, 30(5), pp.328-33. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210210159082 michael, h., alison, a., cathy, b., kathy, b., margaret, d.w., don, e., louis, j., david, l., benoît, l., eli, m., susan, s. and yves, v., 2003. the capacity to serve. mishra, a.k., 2018. assessment of human resource capacity of construction companies in nepal. journal of advanced research in hr & organizational management, 05(04), pp.14-25. https://doi.org/10.24321/2454.3268.201804 morgan, p., 2006. the concept of capacity. european centre for development policy management, pp.1-19. morrison, c.j., 1985. primal and dual capacity utilization: an application to productivity measurement in the us automobile industry. journal of business & economic statistics, 3(4), pp.312-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/07350015.1985. 10509463 o’brien, w.j. and fischer, m.a., 2000. importance of capacity constraints to construction cost and schedule. journal of construction engineering and management, 126, pp.366-73. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2000)126:5(366) oecd, 2020. building capacity for evidence-informed policy-making : lessons from country experiences [online]. available at: https://www.oecd.org/gov/building-capacity-for-evidence-informed-policy-making-86331250-en.htm. offei, i., 2016. development of a framework for capacity building of sme building contractors in ghana through public procurement. offei, i., kissi, e. and nani, g., 2019. factors affecting the capacity of small to medium enterprises (sme) building construction firms in ghana. journal of construction in developing countries, 24(1), pp.49-63. https://doi. org/10.21315/jcdc2019.24.1.3 okoye, p., 2016. optimising the capacity of nigeria construction sector for socio-economic sustainability. british journal of applied science & technology, 16(6), pp.1-16. https://doi.org/10.9734/bjast/2016/26268 olanipekun, a.o. and sutrisna, m., 2021. facilitating digital transformation in construction—a systematic review of the current state of the art. frontiers in built environment, p.96. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2021.660758 papastamoulis, v., london, k., feng, y., zhang, p., crocker, r. and patias, p., 2021. conceptualising the circular economy potential of construction and demolition waste: an integrative literature review. recycling, 6(3), p.61. https://doi.org/10.3390/recycling6030061 polk, m., 2011. institutional capacity-building in urban planning and policy-making for sustainable development: success or failure? planning, practice & research, 26(2), pp.185-206. https://doi.org/10.1080/02697459.2011.560461 le, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202233 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2000)16:2(71 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2012.12.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnn.2020.04.006 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1258755 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210210159082 https://doi.org/10.24321/2454.3268.201804 https://doi.org/10.1080/07350015.1985.10509463 https://doi.org/10.1080/07350015.1985.10509463 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2000)126:5(366 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2000)126:5(366 https://www.oecd.org/gov/building-capacity-for-evidence-informed-policy-making-86331250-en.htm https://doi.org/10.21315/jcdc2019.24.1.3 https://doi.org/10.21315/jcdc2019.24.1.3 https://doi.org/10.9734/bjast/2016/26268 https://doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2021.660758 https://doi.org/10.3390/recycling6030061 https://doi.org/10.1080/02697459.2011.560461 pwc, 2016. value of construction sector in new zealand. price waterhouse and coopers & lybrand. qvortrup, l., 2016. capacity building: data-and research-informed development of schools and teaching practices in denmark and norway. european journal of teacher education, 39(5), pp.564-76. https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.201 6.1253675 raidén, a.b. and dainty, a.r., 2006. human resource development in construction organisations: an example of a “chaordic” learning organisation? the learning organization. https://doi.org/10.1108/09696470610639130 rajeshwari, b., deo, n. and van wessel, m., 2020. negotiating autonomy in capacity development: addressing the inherent tension. world development, 134, p.105046. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105046 sage, 2017. reviewing the literature london, united kingdom. sarshar, m., haigh, r. and amaratunga, d., 2004. improving project processes: best practice case study. construction innovation. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170410815015 schech, s., skelton, t., mundkur, a. and kothari, u., 2020. international volunteerism and capacity development in nonprofit organizations of the global south. nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly, 49(2), pp.252-71. https://doi. org/10.1177/0899764019867774 shaikh, a.m. and moudud, j.k., 2004. measuring capacity utilization in oecd countries: a cointegration method. working paper. somarriba-chang, m., nacional, u. and una, a., 2014. evaluating capacity development. experiencies from research and development organizations around the world. squires, d. and segerson, k., 2020. capacity and capacity utilization in production economics. handbook of production economics, pp.1-37. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3450-3_7-1 statistics canada, 2021. gdp at basis prices. statistics new zealand, 2021. regional gross domestic product: year ended march 2020. the world bank, 2012. guide to evaluating capacity development results. thwala, w.d. and mvubu, m., 2008. current challenges and problems facing small and medium size contractors in swaziland. african journal of business management, 2(5), pp.093-98. torraco, r.j., 2005. writing integrative literature reviews: guidelines and examples. human resource development review, 4(3), pp.356-67. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484305278283 torraco, r.j., 2016. writing integrative literature reviews: using the past and present to explore the future. human resource development review, 15(4), pp.404-28. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484316671606 tucker, g.c., windapo, a. and cattell, k.s., 2015. exploring the use of financial capacity as a predictor of construction company corporate performance. journal of engineering, design and technology, 13(4), pp.596-611. https://doi. org/10.1108/jedt-10-2013-0074 undp, 2005. the undp benchmarks and indicators for capacities [online]. available at: https://www.betterevaluation. org/sites/default/files/undp%20benchmarks%20and%20indicators%20for%20capacities.pdf. undp, 2008. the united nations development program: capacity assessment practice note [online]. available at: https:// www.undp.org/publications/capacity-assessment-practice-note. undp, 2010. the united nations development program: measuring capacity [online]. available at: https://www.undp. org/publications/measuring-capacity. le, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202234 https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2016.1253675 https://doi.org/10.1080/02619768.2016.1253675 https://doi.org/10.1108/09696470610639130 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105046 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170410815015 https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764019867774 https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764019867774 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3450-3_7-1 https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484305278283 https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484316671606 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-10-2013-0074 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-10-2013-0074 https://www.betterevaluation.org/sites/default/files/undp%20benchmarks%20and%20indicators%20for%20capacities.pdf https://www.betterevaluation.org/sites/default/files/undp%20benchmarks%20and%20indicators%20for%20capacities.pdf https://www.undp.org/publications/capacity-assessment-practice-note https://www.undp.org/publications/capacity-assessment-practice-note https://www.undp.org/publications/measuring-capacity https://www.undp.org/publications/measuring-capacity waalkens, j., 2006. building capabilities in the construction sector: absorptive capacity of architectural and engineering medium-sized enterprises. wagner, a., schöne, l. and rieger, m.a., 2020. determinants of occupational safety culture in hospitals and other workplaces—results from an integrative literature review. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(18), p.6588. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186588 xiong, b., newton, s. and skitmore, m., 2019. towards a conceptual model of the job performance of construction professionals: a person-environment fit perspective. international journal of construction management, pp.1-15. https:// doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1695417 le, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202235 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17186588 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1695417 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1695417 construction economics and building vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023 © 2023 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: susanti, b., kadarsa, e., foralisa, m., juliantina, i. 2023. nontoll revenue potential to increase funding sources for toll road maintenance. construction economics and building, 23:3/4, 170–185. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v23i3/4.8876 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article non-toll revenue potential to increase funding sources for toll road maintenance betty susanti*, edi kadarsa, mona foralisa, ika juliantina department of civil engineering, universitas sriwijaya, jalan raya palembang-prabumulih km. 32, inderalaya, ogan ilir, indonesia corresponding author: betty susanti, department of civil engineering, universitas sriwijaya, jalan raya palembang-prabumulih km. 32, inderalaya, ogan ilir, indonesia, bettysusanti@ft.unsri.ac.id doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8876 article history: received 01/08/2023; revised 22/10/2023; accepted 22/11/2023; published 23/12/2023 abstract the purpose of providing toll road infrastructure through public-private partnerships (ppp) is to ensure that the private sector generates sufficient revenue to manage road operations and maintenance effectively. however, in many countries, various practices of ppp have led to budget shortfalls for road operations and maintenance. this situation is often due to escalating construction costs and lower-than-expected traffic volumes. to address these financial challenges, this study aimed to implement asset commercialization schemes within toll road management. a specific case study was conducted on a section of the indonesian trans sumatra toll road that faced rising construction costs and low traffic volumes. a quantitative approach was applied to assess potential non-toll revenue that could be generated through asset commercialization along toll road corridors. the commercialization opportunities considered included leasing land for advertisements, installing solar power plants, erecting communication towers, and establishing rest area businesses. the identification and analysis of these opportunities were closely tied to the type, quantity, and location of the asset. the results showed that asset commercialization schemes, particularly land leases for advertisements and rest area businesses, had potential to generate substantial revenue. it showed that by fully capitalizing on asset commercialization opportunities along toll road corridors, significant additional income could be generated to support road maintenance funding. the approach developed in this study could be applied to other toll road sections facing revenue deficits declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 170 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8876 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8876 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:bettysusanti@ft.unsri.ac.id https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8876 and budgetary challenges in maintaining their operations. this study could contribute to the growing body of knowledge on the commercialization of toll road assets. keywords asset commercialization; road funding; non-toll revenue; road maintenance introduction the responsibility for providing road infrastructure is primarily with the government. however, the growing demand and the increasing complexity of the infrastructure system needs to be consistent with the government’s financial capabilities. public-private partnerships (ppp) has become an alternative approach to financing toll road infrastructure. the implementation of ppp in toll road provision aims to generate revenue for the private sector, ensuring the provision of quality road services during the operational and maintenance phases. however, many ppp projects in various countries have encountered deficits according to castelblanco, et al. (2022), cherkos and jha (2020) and endo, gianoli and edelenbos (2020). the main contributors to these deficits are rising construction costs and declining traffic volumes, leading to reduced toll road revenue (de albornoz, et al., 2021; lv, et al., 2021; wraharjo, susanti and kadarsa, 2021). consequently, a strategy is essential to increase revenue, ensuring adequate funding for road operations and maintenance activities. several quantitative approaches can improve the feasibility of private sector investment in toll road provision. these approaches include optimizing the concession period (lu and meng, 2023; feng, et al., 2019; jin, et al., 2019), optimization of toll rates and traffic capacity (shi, an and chen, 2020), estimating government support (pellegrino, 2021; wang, et al., 2019), and optimizing capital structure and financial variables (chung, 2020; liu, et al., 2020; chen, et al., 2023). the government can also provide subsidies for socially beneficial but financially unprofitable ppp projects, such as minimum traffic guarantee (mtg) and minimum revenue guarantee (mrg) ( jin, zhang and song, 2020; jin, et al., 2021; he, shi and li, 2022; zhang, et al., 2021). however, it is essential to acknowledge that these arrangements need to be established during the concession agreement formulation phase, rather than toll operational phase. a toll road that faces inaccurate planning problems after being operational is exposed to significant risks, including rising construction costs and decreasing traffic volumes. the unpredictability of traffic volume on newly constructed toll roads creates a unique challenge, affecting the operational funding of the road ( jin, et al., 2020). therefore, it becomes crucial to explore additional sources of non-toll revenue during the operational phase of toll roads in such conditions to ensure adequate funds for road operations and maintenance. improving revenue during the operation of infrastructure can be achieved through the commercialization of infrastructure assets. in the transportation sector, commercialization typically consists of renting an asset for advertising, as detailed in czajkowski, et al. (2022), hinton, watson and oviedo-trespalacios (2022), and faroqi, mesbah and kim (2019). the potential revenue generated from commercializing assets is substantial, especially through the rental and placement of advertisements on transportation assets such as buses, bus stops, trains, and stations. a study by silverberg (1998) suggested that potential for alternative revenue in transportation agencies remained largely untapped, with limited exploration on the commercialization potential of transportation infrastructure assets. this situation persists today, as indicated by jammalamadaka, et al. (2017), and wraharjo, susanti and kadarsa (2022), demonstrating the minimal consideration of non-toll revenue as an additional income sources for toll roads beyond primary operational activities. a review by hoeflich and witt (2019) showed numerous potential sources of non-toll revenue, including land leases, advertisements, logo signs, service plaza naming rights, communication towers, 5g network antenna leases, electric charger stations, truck parking information management systems, etc. susanti et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023171 additionally, perkasa, utomo and santoso (2023) showed that revenue from advertisements and land leases in rest areas could contribute to non-toll revenue. indonesia is currently in the process of intensively constructing toll roads to enhance national transportation accessibility. many of the existing toll road sections face challenges related to low traffic volume and inadequate planning, resulting in a limited budget for operations and maintenance (wraharjo, susanti and kadarsa, 2021). previous studies have identified potential revenue from asset commercialization based on practices in the transit sector. however, there is a need for a quantitative approach to calculate potential revenue from commercialization on toll roads. this study aims to analyse potential nontoll revenue that can be obtained through asset commercialization schemes. it contributes to existing explorations by developing a quantitative approach for calculating potential revenue from toll road asset commercialization and provides insights into how revenue generated from road asset commercialization can improve road maintenance funding. literature review this section provides a literature review on asset commercialization in transportation infrastructure, along with an introduction to engineering economics concepts for calculating the present value (pv) of income and annual worth from investment activities. concept of asset commercialization in transportation infrastructure investing in toll road infrastructure demands substantial capital and comprises risks at every phase, starting from project planning to construction and operation, to maintenance. in general, the private sector’s return on investment comes after a prolonged period. according to solak (2022), challenges related to toll road feasibility often arise from rising construction costs and decreasing revenue. construction expenses make up a significant portion of the total investment, leading to a reduction in the private sector’s return due to increased costs. issues also arise concerning toll road operating revenue, which primarily consists of toll collection from road users. the increase in construction costs and the decrease in toll revenue impact road maintenance funding and, consequently, toll road service quality. numerous schemes have been developed to improve the financial feasibility of toll road investments, including conventional and alternative approaches. these efforts need to be outlined and agreed upon in the toll road concession agreement but cannot be implemented during construction and operation. rising construction costs and reduced traffic volume pose significant risks to the private sector. additional measures are necessary to improve operating revenue beyond toll collection. one viable approach is through the commercialization of road infrastructure assets, as showed by czajkowski, et al. (2022) and faroqi, mesbah and kim (2019). asset commercialization is a strategy aimed at enhancing operational capability and capacity to meet cost recovery targets, as described by li and love (2019). in the transportation sector, asset commercialization takes the form of renting assets for advertising (silverberg, 1998; małecki, jankowski and szkwarkowski, 2019). a study by litman (2022) assessed 18 funding options in the transportation sector, showing that advertising and station rentals could provide additional income to cover public transport operational costs. another example from xuto, et al. (2023) proposed that light rail transit (lrt) station advertisements could generate substantial revenue. jin, et al. (2020) explored alternative revenue strategies in toll road industry. silverberg (1998) emphasized the significant revenue potential from advertisements, which many transportation agencies had yet to fully realize. while the willingness to pay (wtp) for advertisements was relatively high, investigation into revenue potential from advertising on transportation infrastructure susanti et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023172 asset was still evolving. additionally, the study indicated that advertising management by third parties or marketing firms was considered more effective and efficient, allowing asset owners or managers to derive net income from leasing infrastructure asset. apart from advertisements, non-toll road revenue can be generated through the rental of assets for utility installations and rest area businesses. hoeflich and witt (2019) conducted a study that showed how the vacant land alongside toll road can be leased for various purposes, including installing communication towers, network antennas, power plants, and electric charging stations. this practice has already begun in indonesia, with solar power plants and communication towers being installed. however, there is a lack of quantitative data regarding potential income from this asset commercialization scheme, primarily because leasing land for utility installations is relatively new. another study by sihombing (2017) suggested that land could also be leased for rest area businesses, particularly on inter-city roads with significant stretches. the recent explorations on asset commercialization through land leases along toll road rights-of-way (row) in indonesia have focused on technical, social, and economic or financial aspects. despite the implementation of road asset commercialization in some indonesian toll road, little attention has been paid to revenue potential for financing road operations and maintenance. this implies that there is an urgent need for scientific evidence regarding the long-term revenue potential. financial indicator of asset commercialization revenue potential revenue from asset commercialization can be evaluated and calculated using the financial indicator known as pv. this approach offers an overview of the total revenue’s equivalent worth from the commercialization of toll road asset at present. essentially, pv calculation includes converting or discounting all future revenue to its pv at a specific rate of return (blank and tarquin, 2012). the calculation of pv is based on the following equation: pv = r0 + (r1/1+i) + (r2/(1+i)2) + … + (rt/(1+i)t) (1) where r = income in the analysis period (0th year (early year of analysis) to year t), i = discount rate, and t = analysis period the present worth of the total revenue can be converted into an equivalent uniform annual worth (euaw), providing an overview of the annual equivalent value of revenue from toll road asset commercialization during the analysis period. the calculation of euaw is represented by the following equation:             1 1 1 n n i i euaw p i (2) where p = pv of revenue, i = discount rate, and n = analysis period the two indicators are widely used in financial investment analyses, as recommended by blank and tarquin (2012), making them suitable for assessing income in toll road asset commercialization studies. methodology this study used a quantitative approach to calculate potential non-toll revenue generated from commercializing assets along toll road corridors. the case study focused on one toll road section that faced challenges of rising construction costs and reduced traffic volume compared to initial projections. the investigation was conducted in several stages, as seen in figure 1. the initial stage consisted of asset inventory and the identification of suitable commercialization schemes for the targeted toll road sections. asset inventory along toll road corridors was conducted through on-site surveys at the constructed toll road segments by examining project planning documents. susanti et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023173 figure 1. research stage after the on-site observations, commercialization schemes were determined based on the conditions of toll road assets. these schemes consisted of various possibilities drawn from a literature review of commercialization in the transportation infrastructure sector. commercialization potential was assessed in terms of advertisements, utility installations including power plants and communication towers, and opportunities for rest area businesses. the identification and analysis of commercialization potential were directly linked to the types, quantities, and locations of assets determined in the previous stage. the subsequent stage comprised calculating potential revenue generated by each commercialization scheme. this calculation considered the interest and willingness of third parties to participate in toll-road asset commercialization. considering the 40-year concession period, which includes a 5-year construction phase, revenue projections were calculated from the 6th year until the end of the concession period. the calculation used financial indicators such as pv and euaw. finally, this study assessed the contribution of asset commercialization revenue to road maintenance funding. susanti et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023174 result and discussion case study the case study focused on kayu agung-palembang-betung (kapb) toll road section in the province of south sumatra, indonesia, as shown in figure 2. this section was part of the trans sumatra toll road network, covering the second-largest island in indonesia with an area of 473,600 km2. kapb toll road extended for a total length of 111.69 kilometers out of the trans sumatra toll road’s total length of 1,980 kilometers. it connected seven major cities, serving as crucial centers of national activities on sumatra island. construction of kapb toll road section began in 2017 and was scheduled for full operation by 2025. the construction was executed in two phases, with the first phase covering 42.5 kilometres and the second phase comprising 69.19 kilometres. toll road’s location primarily traversed swampy terrain, characterized by soft soil layers and river crossings of varying widths. initial planning did not provide detailed site information, leading to significant cost increase for soil improvement during construction and adjustments to the design of special-span bridges to expedite the construction process. the cost increase became even more significant due to the additional work that was required to provide pedestrian bridge facilities at several locations. it was estimated that the total cost of completing the toll figure 2. trans sumatra-indonesia toll road map susanti et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023175 road construction would increase by up to 100% compared to the contract value. another area that required improvement during the operational phase of kapb toll road was the low traffic volume compared to the planned volume. section 1 of kapb road had been in operation since april 2020. the target was to first achieve an average traffic volume of 21,344 vehicles per day. however, by october 2023, the highest actual traffic volume reached only 9,553 vehicles per day. the average daily traffic during 2023 was 8,611 vehicles per day. the typical construction of the kapb toll road was shown in figure 3, with row and traffic lanes having widths of 60 meters and 2 x 3.60 meters, respectively. the pavement width from sta 0+000 to 42+500 was 25.70 meters, while from sta 42+500 to 111+690, it was 29 meters. the outer shoulder width was 3 meters from sta 0+000 to 42+500 and 2.5 meters from sta 42+500 to 111+690. there were 15-17 meter-wide vacant lands on both the left and right sides of roadway. figure 3. typical road transverse profile this toll road section included various structural buildings such as pedestrian bridge overpasses, underpasses, bridges, and toll gates. the field survey from sta 0+000 to 33+500 showed three pedestrian bridge overpasses, 11 bridges, four underpasses, and two toll gates. from sta 33+500 to 111+690, there were 28 pedestrian bridge overpasses, four underpasses, five bridges, and three long-span bridges, along with 15 pedestrian bridge overpasses and seven toll gates. additionally, there were two pairs or 4 units of rest areas along toll road. asset inventory and commercialization schemes the survey conducted along toll road and the study of project planning documents showed that vacant lands on roadsides and pedestrian bridges could have been used for commercialization. interviews with toll road managers identified the types of asset and commercialization schemes that were applied to this toll road section, as shown in table 1. advertising schemes were implemented on the vacant lands on both sides of road, including installing advertisements on the walls of pedestrian bridges. two advertising media options were considered, namely billboards and videotron. furthermore, the vacant lands on both sides of road were suitable for utility installations and rest area businesses. a comprehensive survey consisting of structured interviews was carried out with 50 respondents, representing the marketing, ownership, or cooperation divisions of various companies, agencies, and organizations. the primary objective of these interviews was to gauge their interest in advertising on the kapb toll road section. the survey results showed that property development firms, government and private banks, telecommunications network providers, the food and beverage industry, the cigarette industry, private educational institutions, hoteliers, restaurant owners, and political organizations showed a high level of interest in advertising on toll road. susanti et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023176 a survey was conducted to assess interest in utility installations along toll roads. this survey targeted both state and regional government-owned enterprises and private companies included in power generation and telecommunications networks. interviews with seven respondents, representing technical and marketing managers within these companies, indicated a strong interest in leasing land along the row of kapb toll road. potential for commercializing toll road assets also extended to the development of rest areas. in accordance with regulation of the minister of public works and housing no. 28 of 2021, toll road agencies are mandated to establish rest areas at a minimum distance of 50 kilometres for type a rest areas (large rest areas with comprehensive public facilities) and a minimum distance of 30 kilometres for type b rest areas (smaller and less equipped than type a). this regulation signified a promising opportunity for developing rest areas along toll roads. structured interviews were conducted with 50 respondents, representing food retailers in south sumatra province, to measure their interest in establishing businesses within the rest area of kapb toll road. additionally, based on government regulation no. 17 of 2021 concerning toll roads, toll agencies needed to allocate at least 30% of the rest area for small and medium-sized enterprises (smes). therefore, the survey consisted of food retailers representing both sme and non-sme categories. it should be acknowledged that land rental prices play a crucial role in determining income from asset commercialization. therefore, identifying wtp value among third parties interested in renting the land is essential. survey was conducted using a questionnaire distributed to 60 respondents, representing advertising management companies, food retailers, and firms engaged in power generation and telecommunications networks. the questionnaire was thoughtfully designed to include a range of wtp values for each commercialization scheme. table 2 showed the values of wtp for various commercialization schemes. according to the table, the highest wtp was observed for land leases intended table 1. types of asset and commercialization schemes no types of asset commercialization schemes 1 vacant lands on the left and right sides of roadway a. advertisements (billboards) b. utility installation (solar power plants, communication towers) c. rest area (kiosk rent and advertisements using videotron) 2 walls of pedestrian bridges advertisements (billboards) 3 vacant lands near toll gates advertisements (videotron) table 2. wtp value of land rent no. purpose wtp of land rent (idr/unit/year) 1 billboards, sign boards 30,000,000-40,000,000(a) 2 videotron 40,000,000-50,000,000(a) 3 sme kiosks at a rest area 10,000,000-20,000,000(b) 4 non-sme kiosks at a rest area 30,000,000-40,000,000(b) 5 solar power plants 200,000,000-300,000,000(c) 6 communication towers 60,000,000-80,000,000(d) notes: data sources a) advertising service companies; b) food retail business; c) state-and-regional-owned enterprises engaged in the energy development sector; d) state-and-regional-owned enterprises engaged in communication network providers susanti et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023177 table 3. input calculation of asset commercialization revenue no commercialization schemes wtp (idr/unit/year) 1 land lease for advertisements using billboards a) every 1 km, 1 unit, on both sides of road quantity = 222 units 35,000,000 b) outer walls of pedestrian bridges, 2 units at each wall quantity = 30 units 35,000,000 2 land lease for advertisements using videotron a) in every rest area, 2 units quantity = 8 units 45,000,000 b) every toll gate, 2 units, on both sides of road quantity = 14 units 45,000,000 3 kiosk rent at a rest area a) in every rest area, 6 units of sme kiosks quantity = 24 units 45,000,000 b) 14 units of non-sme kiosks quantity = 56 units 35,000,000 4 land lease for utility installation a) the solar power plant, 1 unit quantity = 1 unit 250,000,000 b) communication tower quantity = 1 unit 70,000,000 for solar power plants, while the lowest was associated with kiosk rentals at rest areas by smes. land rentals for advertisements and non-sme kiosk rentals showed similar values. revenue potential revenue from asset commercialization was determined by combining wtp value and the number of advertisements, utilities and kiosks available for installation and rental in the rest area. to provide clarity, table 3 showed the assumptions used in calculating asset commercialization revenue. wtp for each commercialization scheme was based on the median value within the range shown in table 1. according to survey results from advertising service companies, during the initial phase of kapb toll road asset commercialization, it was anticipated that only 10% of the maximum advertising capacity would be used. this percentage was projected to increase by 10% annually until it reached maximum capacity. similarly, insights from toll managers indicated that kiosk rentals in the rest area were expected to reach only 50% during the initial period and would gradually increase by 10% until maximum capacity was reached. furthermore, it was assumed that one utility unit would be installed during the initial phase of asset commercialization, with land rental rates for each commercialization scheme increasing by 10% annually. table 4 also showed the commercialization schemes for rest area businesses and land leases for utility installations. in this specific road section, there were four rest areas, and the feedback obtained from toll road managers suggested that each of the area could potentially accommodate approximately 20-30 tenants. susanti et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023178 based on the existing operational conditions of the trans sumatra toll road, the area could realistically host only 20 tenants. in accordance with government regulation no. 17/2021, every toll road agency needs to allocate 30% of the rest area for small and medium-sized enterprises (smes). considering the assumption that each rest area could accommodate up to 20 tenants, this would translate to six slots available for smes, totalling 24 units. additionally, there were 56 slots for non-sme tenants across all rest areas along this toll road. toll road manager insights also showed that the rental rate for units within the area during the initial (a) revenue from the land lease for advertisements (b) revenue from a land lease for utility installation (c) revenue from the land lease for rest area business figure 4. revenue from toll road asset commercialization susanti et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023179 year of operation was expected to reach only 50%, with incremental annual increase of 10% till maximum capacity was achieved. interviews with toll road managers showed that land leasing for utility installations would include solar power plants and cellular towers. on this road section, it was feasible to construct a solar power plant with a 2-megawatt capacity alongside row. the vacant land adjacent to row could also be used for the installation of cellular towers. each utility was anticipated to lease land for one solar power plant and one cellular tower. insights from toll road managers suggested that land lease rates could increase by 10% annually. the concession period for this toll road spanned 40 years, comprising a 5-year construction phase for all sections and 35 years of operation. to be consistent with the initial operation period and toll road’s concession duration, revenue analysis period for commercialization was set to match the concession period, with revenue from commercialization assumed to commence when toll road operations began. the total revenue generated from commercialization was calculated using the pv indicator. detailed results of revenue calculations from asset commercialization were shown in figure 4. revenue from commercialization, as calculated by pv, was then transformed into euaw to represent the annual revenue in a consistent value. in line with pv outcomes, euaw calculations reaffirmed that the highest revenue was derived from land leasing for advertisements, as shown in figure 5. the land lease scheme for advertisements significantly contributed, accounting for 72.5% of the total revenue generated through asset commercialization, as shown in figure 6. advertisements using billboards positioned alongside the toll road became the primary revenue sources, contributing 57.7% of the total income from asset commercialization. while the remaining two commercialization schemes constituted only 27.5% of the total commercialization revenue, their financial significance could not be disregarded. figure 5. comparison of pv and euaw for various commercialization schemes figure 6. percentages of revenue for various commercialization schemes susanti et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023180 when translated into euaw, the combined income from all commercialization schemes amounted to idr 30,659,958,301 per annum. this substantial sum played a crucial role in offsetting the routine maintenance expenses of toll roads. based on an annual routine road maintenance cost of idr 500,000,000 per kilometre with a 10% annual increment, the income generated through asset commercialization could potentially cover more than 22% of the total road maintenance costs, provided that all advertisements and rest area businesses reached their maximum capacity, as seen in figure 7. discussion this study showed that the most significant revenue potential from toll road asset commercialization came from advertisements. this scenario was recorded primarily due to the greater number of advertising units that could be accommodated compared to other commercialization schemes. despite the initial assumption of limited interest in advertisements, starting at only 10% and increasing by 10% annually, it showed the substantial revenue potential of advertisements. this study correlated with the discovery of li and love (2019), mendelsohn (2015), and simatupang, ulinata and diyanti (2021) emphasizing that advertising on transportation facilities and streets held potential for substantial additional income. revenue generated from roadside advertisements could play an important role in maintaining road infrastructure (czajkowski, et al., 2022). the practice of leasing land for installing utilities such as solar power plants and cellular communication towers represented a common form of asset commercialization. silverberg (1998) suggested that commercialization practices, including land leases along the row, were adopted by 63% of transit agencies. leasing vacant land along row to other companies could generate a steady stream of passive income for toll road agencies. these results further corroborated studies conducted by xuto, et al. (2023) and bayraktar, et al. (2016), emphasizing that row leases for various utility installations offered additional income opportunities for transit agencies. obtaining quantitative data on income from asset commercialization on toll road was challenging, as there were limited references available. insights from indonesia’s largest state-owned toll road management company shed light on this matter. in 2019, pt. jasa marga reported non-toll revenue amounting to idr 145,084,000,000, attributed to land rentals for advertisements and utilities. this income was generated from leasing land spanning 512 kilometres of toll road corridors, out of a total operational toll road length of 1,162 kilometres under pt. jasa marga’s management. this revenue closely paralleled potential income identified in this study, affirming that optimizing asset commercialization through land leases along toll road corridors could indeed yield substantial additional income. it should be acknowledged that the calculations adopted a pessimistic scenario regarding the value of wtp and the number of units for each figure 7. comparison of routine maintenance costs and commercialization revenue susanti et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023181 commercialization scheme. this implied that the actual potential revenue possibly exceeded the figures presented in the current study. among the various commercialization schemes explored, the leasing of non-sme kiosks in rest areas was distinct as a strategy with significant income-maximizing potential. non-sme kiosk rentals contributed to an 84% increase in potential additional income compared to sme. this was mainly because wtp for nonsme rentals exceeded that of sme kiosks, and also offered a greater number of units. this discovery was in line with tsamboulas, evgenikos and strogyloudis (2006) suggesting that rest areas or service areas held revenue-generating potential for the rest area managers. conclusion in conclusion, this study introduced a quantitative approach for assessing potential revenue from toll road asset commercialization. furthermore, it outlined innovative revenue strategies applicable to private sector contribution in managing toll roads facing financial feasibility challenges. these strategies were implemented during the operational and maintenance phases, addressing issues related to project cost and revenue estimation inaccuracies. the results showed that non-toll revenue generated through asset commercialization significantly contributed to funding the maintenance activities. specifically, land leasing for advertisements and rest area businesses became lucrative commercialization avenues, making them a priority for augmenting income alongside toll collections. this quantitative approach could be adapted to assist other toll road sections facing similar financial feasibility issues. based on the limited scope of study on additional revenue potential for toll roads, further exploration was essential. toll managers possessed valuable assets that various entities were willing to pay for, whether for advertising, utilities, or other ventures. this study primarily focused on renting vacant land along road corridors for asset commercialization. however, potential for asset commercialization could expand in situations where toll managers took a more active role in managing advertisements, rest areas and utility businesses. another limitation of this study was the use of a deterministic approach in determining potential revenue from commercialization schemes. further investigations using a probabilistic approach needed to be conducted in order to provide a better perspective of potential revenue prediction. references bayraktar, m.e., arif, f., ponder, d., prozzi, j. and mahmoud, n.v., 2016. opportunities for value extraction projects in highway rights-of-way and development of feasibility assessment tool. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 142(8), pp.1-13. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001080 blank, l. and tarquin, a., 2012. engineering economy. new york: mc-graw hill. castelblanco, g., guevara, j., mesa, h. and hartmann, a., 2022. social legitimacy challenges in toll road ppp programs: analysis of the colombian and chilean cases. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 38(3), pp.115. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0001010 chen, j., yu, j., shen, z., song, m. and zhou, z., 2023. debt financing and maintenance expenditure: theory and evidence on government-operated toll roads in china. economic systems, [e-journal] 47(1), pp.1-17. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ecosys.2022.101049 cherkos, f.d. and jha, k.n., 2020. enabling successful application of ppps in new (inexperienced) markets: implications of ppps’ success and failure in toll roads. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, [e-journal] 12(4), pp.1-13. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000434 chung, j.h., 2020. debt/equity tradeoff model for revenue based dbfom ppp transportation infrastructure: case study of i-95 (va) express lanes. construction research congress 2020: project management and controls, susanti et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023182 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001080 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0001010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecosys.2022.101049 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecosys.2022.101049 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000434 materials, and contracts. pp. 1177-1185. tempe, arizona: american society of civil engineers (asce). https://doi. org/10.1061/9780784482889.125 czajkowski, m., bylicki, m., budziński, w. and buczyński, m., 2022. valuing externalities of outdoor advertising in an urban setting – the case. journal of urban economics, [e-journal] 130, pp.1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2022.103452 de albornoz, v.a., soliño, a.s., galera, a.l. and álvarez, j.m., 2021. bankrupt ppps: is it really so bad? case study of r-3 and r-5 toll motorways in spain. transport policy, [e-journal] 114, pp.78-87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. tranpol.2021.09.007 endo, k., gianoli, a. and edelenbos, j., 2020. coming to financial close in ppps: identifying critical factors in the case of toll road projects in indonesia. public works management and policy, [e-journal] 26(2), pp.1-29. https://doi. org/10.1177/1087724x20914627 faroqi, h., mesbah, m. and kim, j., 2019. behavioural advertising in the public transit network. research in transportation business and management, [e-journal] 32, pp.1-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2019.100421 feng, k., wang, s., wu, c., xia, g. and hu, w., 2019. optimization of concession period for public private partnership toll roads. inzinerine ekonomika-engineering economics, [e-journal] 30(1), pp.24-31. https://doi.org/10.5755/j01. ee.30.1.19215 he , y., shi, l., and li, z., 2022. early termination mechanism of public–private partnership transportation projects with government guarantee. journal of infrastructure systems, [e-journal] 28(4). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) is.1943-555x.0000720 hinton, j., watson, b. and oviedo-trespalacios, o., 2022. a novel conceptual framework investigating the relationship between roadside advertising and road safety: the driver behaviour and roadside advertising conceptual framework. transportation research part f: traffic psychology and behaviour, [e-journal] 85, pp.221-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. trf.2021.12.002 hoeflich, k. and witt, k., 2019. the evolution of non-toll revenue sources . kansas city, missouri: hntb. jammalamadaka, p., jarmarwala, y., zhou, l., mokkapati, n. and hirunyanitiwattana, w., 2017. evaluation of traffic and revenue risks of toll roads and managed lane facilities. advances in public-private partnerships. pp.460-72). austin, texas: american society of civil engineers. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784480267.036 jin, h., liu, s., li, j. and liu, c., 2020. imperfect information bargaining model for determining concession period of ppps under revenue uncertainty. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, [e-journal] 12(2), pp.1-10. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000382 jin, h., liu, s., liu, c. and udawatta, n., 2019. optimizing the concession period of ppp projects for fair allocation of financial risk. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 26(10), pp.2347-63. https://doi. org/10.1108/ecam-05-2018-0201 jin, h., liu, s., sun, j. and liu, c., 2021. determining concession periods and minimum revenue guarantees in publicprivate-partnership agreements. european journal of operational research, [e-journal] 291(2), pp.512-24. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ejor.2019.12.013 jin, l., zhang, z. and song, j., 2020. profit allocation and subsidy mechanism for public–private partnership toll road projects. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 36(3), pp.1-10. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.19435479.0000766 li, x. and love, p.e., 2019. employing land value capture in urban rail transit public private partnerships: retrospective analysis of delhi’s airport metro express. research in transportation business and management, [e-journal] 32, pp.1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2020.100431 susanti et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023183 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784482889.125 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784482889.125 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2022.103452 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2021.09.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2021.09.007 https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724x20914627 https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724x20914627 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2019.100421 https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.30.1.19215 https://doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.30.1.19215 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000720 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000720 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2021.12.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trf.2021.12.002 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784480267.036 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000382 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2018-0201 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2018-0201 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2019.12.013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2019.12.013 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000766 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000766 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rtbm.2020.100431 litman, t., 2022. local funding options for public transportation. victoria, canada: victoria transport policy institute. liu, h., song, s., hu, y. and yan, x., 2020. monte-carlo optimization model for dynamic capital structure adjustment in chinese public-private partnerships under revenue uncertainty. transportation research part a: policy and practice, [e-journal] 142, pp.115-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2020.10.010 lu, z. and meng, q., 2023. effects of asymmetric investment cost information on revenue-compensated build-operatetransfer highway contracts. transportation research part b: methodological, [e-journal] 172, pp.71-92. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.trb.2023.03.011 lv, j., lin, m., zhou, w. and xu, m., 2021. how ppp renegotiation behaviors evolve with traffic changes: evolutionary game approach. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 147(5), https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)co.1943-7862.0002024 małecki, k., jankowski, j. and szkwarkowski, m., 2019. modelling the impact of transit media on information spreading in an urban space using cellular automata. symmetry, [e-journal] 11(3), pp.1-21. https://doi.org/10.3390/ sym11030428 mendelsohn, p., 2015. review of roadside advertising. glasgow: scottish roads research board. pellegrino, r., 2021. effects of public supports for mitigating revenue risk in public–private partnership projects: model to choose among support alternatives. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 147(12), pp.248–61. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002098 perkasa, a.r., utomo, c. and santoso, e.b., 2023. a review of research methods on highest and best use for toll rest area. materials today, [e-journal] 85, pp.19-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2023.05.247 pt. jasa marga (persero), 2019. annual report. jakarta: pt. jasa marga (persero). shi, s., an, q. and chen, k., 2020. optimal choice of capacity, toll, and subsidy for build-operate-transfer roads with a paid minimum traffic guarantee. transportation research part a: policy and practice, [e-journal] 139, pp.228-54. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2020.06.023 sihombing, l.b., 2017. project finance and risk modelling using a system dynamic approach: a toll road project. malaysian journal of industrial technology, 2(2), pp.86-93. silverberg, b.r., 1998. transit advertising revenue: traditional and new sources and structures. washington, dc: national academy press. simatupang, s., ulinata, u. and diyanti, g., 2021. questioning the common of the street in relation to outdoor advertisements in it. iop conference series: earth and environmental science. 878, pp. 1-7. jakarta: iop publishing. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/878/1/012015 solak, a.o., 2022. toll roads in turkey: private versus public. case studies in transport policies, [e-journal] 10(2), pp.1110-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cstp.2022.03.019 tsamboulas, d., evgenikos, p. and strogyloudis, m.a., 2006. the financial viability of motorway rest areas. public works management and policy, [e-journal] 11(1), pp.63-77. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724x06292333 wang, h., liu, y., xiong, w. and zhu, d., 2019. government support programs and private investments in ppp markets. international public management journal, [e-journal] 22(3), pp.499-523. https://doi.org/10.1080/10967494.201 8.1538025 wraharjo, m., susanti, b. and kadarsa, e., 2022. financial feasibility analysis of cost and traffic volume: case study on toll road investment project. engineering and applied science research, [e-journal] 49(3), pp.308-15. http://doi. org/10.14456/easr.2022.32. susanti et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023184 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2020.10.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trb.2023.03.011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trb.2023.03.011 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002024 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002024 https://doi.org/10.3390/sym11030428 https://doi.org/10.3390/sym11030428 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002098 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2023.05.247 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2020.06.023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2020.06.023 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/878/1/012015 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cstp.2022.03.019 https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724x06292333 https://doi.org/10.1080/10967494.2018.1538025 https://doi.org/10.1080/10967494.2018.1538025 http://doi.org/10.14456/easr.2022.32 http://doi.org/10.14456/easr.2022.32 xuto, p., anderson, r.j., graham, d.j. and hörcher, d., 2023. sustainable urban rail funding: insights from a centurylong global dataset. transport policy, [e-journal] 130, pp.100-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2022.10.005 zhang, s., li, j., li, y. and zhang, x., 2021. revenue risk allocation mechanism in public-private partnership projects: swing option approach. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 147(1), pp.1-14. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001952 susanti et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023185 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2022.10.005 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001952 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001952 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: nguyen, b. t. h., wong, p. s. p., ahankoob, a. 2025. enhancing flood risk governance in australia: challenges, opportunities, and international insights. construction economics and building, 25:3/4, 254–271. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i3/4.9663 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article enhancing flood risk governance in australia: challenges, opportunities, and international insights bao t. h. nguyen1,*, peter s. p. wong2, alireza ahankoob3 1 school of property, construction and project management, rmit university, melbourne, australia 2 school of property, construction and project management, rmit university, melbourne, australia 3 school of property, construction and project management, rmit university, melbourne, australia corresponding author: bao t. h. nguyen, tan.hoang.bao.nguyen@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9663 article history: received 10/03/2025; revised 04/06/2025; accepted 08/22/2025; published 05/12/2025 abstract the substantial damage to homes and infrastructure in australia rekindles the push for improved governance frameworks and adaptive policy measures. coordinating efforts across federal, state, and local governments has proven challenging due to policy fragmentation, delayed responses, overlapping roles, and disparities in resource allocation. this study examines the strengths and weaknesses of australia’s flood risk management (frm) policies through a qualitative document analysis approach, comparing governance structures with international best practices from countries such as japan, the netherlands, and the united states. the findings highlight australia’s strengths in collaborative governance, targeted funding mechanisms, and advanced technical resources such as flood mapping and realtime monitoring systems. however, key weaknesses include governance fragmentation, inconsistent policy implementation, and insufficient support for rural and regional councils. the study proposes a more integrated and adaptive governance framework incorporating crossjurisdictional coordination, enhanced stakeholder engagement, and sustainable investment strategies. the results contribute to policy discussions on flood risk governance by offering recommendations for strengthening institutional resilience and improving disaster preparedness. by addressing 254 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9663 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9663 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:tan.hoang.bao.nguyen@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9663 governance inefficiencies and adopting international best practices, australia can develop a more cohesive and adaptive frm system to mitigate future flood risks. keywords flood risk governance; policy fragmentation; climate adaptation; resilience; disaster management introduction major flood events have caused losses of lives, injuries, and damages to properties, infrastructures, and environments (ladds et al., 2017; ulubaşoğlu et al., 2018). between 2011 and 2022, severe flooding events in australia resulted in over 160 fatalities and caused economic losses exceeding $30 billion (coates, 2022; ica, 2024), with the 2022 eastern australia floods alone accounting for 22 fatalities and approximately $4.3 billion in damages (royal far west and unicef australia, 2022). these events highlight the need for stronger governance frameworks and coordinated flood policymaking to manage flood risk and mitigate socioeconomic impacts (howes et al., 2015). effective flood governance involves multilevel coordination, disaster response frameworks, and stakeholder engagement. in this aspect, governance frameworks for flood risk management (frm) can take various forms, each with different levels of stakeholder involvement and responsibilities. some frameworks, like centralised governmentled models, ensure strong leadership but may lack local adaptability, while decentralised communitybased approaches empower local actors but require resource support. others, such as collaborative partnerships, watershedbased management, and riskbased decisionmaking, integrate multiple stakeholders and scientific assessments to enhance resilience. table 1 presents various forms of governance frameworks being used for frm globally. globally, countries usually consider their affordability and geographical vulnerabilities when deciding on frm approaches. highincome countries, such as japan, the united states, and most countries in europe, focus on advanced flood infrastructure, legal frameworks, and multiagency coordination (ishiwatari and hirai, 2024; van der keur et al., 2017). for example, japan’s comprehensive river basin management strategy and the united states’ national flood insurance program (nfip) showcase the importance of cohesive planning and community participation (brown, 2016; ishiwatari, 2024). middleincome countries like indonesia focus on stakeholder engagement and communitybased disaster risk reduction. for example, indonesia’s communityled initiatives have successfully enhanced flood resilience despite budget constraints (sunarharum et al., 2020). in contrast, lowincome countries like cambodia emphasise early warning systems and disaster preparedness, supported by international aid (plate, 2007). in comparison, australia adopts an frm approach that stresses coordinated efforts by the federal, state, and local governments. the federal government offers disaster relief funding and establishes overarching policy guidelines (ga, 2020a). state governments implement frm policies and coordinate mitigation strategies (nsw government, 2022), while local councils handle ontheground disaster responses, such as flood mapping, landuse planning, and community engagement (queensland government, 2021). key frameworks include the national disaster risk reduction framework and statelevel flood mitigation plans (aidr, 2017). however, reports highlight challenges in achieving a cohesive approach due to jurisdictional overlaps, data fragmentation, inadequate planning, unequal resource allocation across regions, and disengagement with the community (parliament of australia, 2024). research problem and objectives policy fragmentation and interagency coordination gaps remain detrimental to effective frm (lawrence et al., 2015; lietaer et al., 2024). moreover, disparities in resource allocation and differing policy priorities nguyen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025255 across jurisdictions exacerbate these challenges (aidr, 2017; chow et al., 2023; ga, 2020a). begg (2018) highlights that local stakeholders seldom receive the necessary support and resources to effectively carry out flood reporting, prevention, and mitigation responsibilities. cook et al. (2025) argue that participatory frameworks can transform disaster risk governance by fostering institutional change and empowering communities to take ownership of flood preparedness and response efforts. while prior studies have highlighted various gaps in flood governance in australia, there has been a lack of holistic reviews, particularly regarding how australia has learned from recent flood disasters and other countries’ experiences. this study addresses the governance issues through the following objectives: 1. analyse australia’s current frm frameworks. 2. identify governance strengths and weaknesses within australian institutional processes. table 1. summary of governance frameworks being used for frm governance framework type key features examples relevance to flood risk centralised governmentled a single government agency takes primary responsibility for planning, mitigation, and response activities. china’s flood management system (xu et al., 2018) this approach ensures strong leadership and efficient resource allocation but may lack local knowledge and community engagement (moynihan, 2009). decentralised community based government agencies support local communities and play a significant role in managing flood risks. community flood response in indonesia (sijbesma and verhagen, 2008) this approach increases community ownership and allows for tailored solutions but may require strong capacity building within communities (stark and taylor, 2014). collaborative partnerships involves government agencies, businesses, ngos, and communities working together to develop strategies. netherlands’ integrated flood risk governance (van popering verkerk and van buuren, 2017) this approach brings diverse perspectives and shared responsibilities but can face complex coordination challenges (foran et al., 2019). watershed based management focuses on managing flood risk across an entire watershed, considering upstream and downstream impacts. japan’s river basin strategy (fan and huang, 2023) this approach offers an integrated approach to water management but requires cooperation across jurisdictions (kagaya and wada, 2021). riskbased decision making prioritises actions based on the level of risk posed to people, property, and infrastructure. u.k. environment agency’s risk framework (dale et al., 2014) this approach ensures efficient resource allocation but requires robust risk assessment methodologies (maskrey et al., 2022). nguyen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025256 3. compare australia’s flood risk governance to international best practices, including frameworks from countries such as japan, the united states, and indonesia, which have implemented adaptive governance approaches in flood resilience. this study focuses on governance frameworks at australia’s national, state, and local council levels. this research contributes to understanding how governance frameworks may shape flood resilience efforts by examining policymaking processes and interagency collaborations. additionally, comparing australia’s governance structures to global practices highlights areas for policy improvement. research methods this study adopts a qualitative document analysis approach to examine governance and policy processes related to frm in australia. document analysis is a systematic procedure for reviewing and evaluating documents, making it suitable for research exploring governancerelated frameworks where primary data collection may be limited or impractical (bowen, 2009). this method identifies governance structures, processes, and outcomes by extracting and coding relevant text, facilitating an indepth exploration of institutional decisionmaking processes (kapucu et al., 2023). the analysis is informed by a governance framework that focuses on key dimensions such as coordination, resource allocation, stakeholder engagement, and decisionmaking processes (biswas et al., 2019; braganza and lambert, 2000). this framework provides a lens to assess institutional strengths and weaknesses within multilevel governance systems. by comparing australian governance approaches to international best practices, this research aims to generate insights into governance gaps and opportunities for policy improvement. figure 1 illustrates the stepbystep workflow for the document analysis methodology, from data collection to triangulation and validation of findings. figure 1. methodology workflow for governance and policy document analysis nguyen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025257 the study relies on a comprehensive set of secondary data sources to capture governance structures and policy approaches related to frm. secondary data sources, such as government reports and policy documents, are commonly used in governance research due to their credibility and detailed documentation of institutional processes (cumiskey, 2020; ika et al., 2024; kang, 2022). key data sources include the following: • government reports: documents such as the australian disaster resilience index and statelevel flood mitigation plans provide insights into current policy frameworks and resilience efforts. • policy documents: frm strategies, interagency agreements, and emergency response guidelines outline the roles and responsibilities of various governance actors. • international reports: publications from organisations like the european commission and case studies from regions like japan, the netherlands, and indonesia offer comparative insights into effective flood risk governance. these documents were selected because of the need to understand policy content and implementation processes. recent reports and policy updates were prioritised to ensure that the data reflect current governance practices and emerging challenges. a structured search strategy was applied using google scholar, proquest, and australian government repositories, with search terms including “flood governance australia”, “adaptive policy frameworks flood risk”, “floodplain management plans”, and “statelevel flood mitigation strategies”. after evaluation, a total of 26 australian documents were identified, covering all seven australian states and territories, ensuring national representation. these included statelevel flood policies, disaster response frameworks, and interagency coordination reports. furthermore, to enhance the study’s comparative component, an additional 10 international reports were identified from the netherlands, japan, the united states, england, china, vietnam, and indonesia—countries recognised for their flood governance frameworks. these were selected using the same search strategy but tailored to international flood risk management approaches. all 36 documents (26 australian + 10 international) were imported into nvivo for thematic analysis, ensuring a consistent and structured qualitative assessment. a qualitative thematic analysis approach was employed to analyse the above governancerelated documents, following the sixphase framework proposed by braun and clarke (2006). the process began with familiarisation, where documents were thoroughly read to understand their content and context. next, initial codes were generated by identifying key statements related to governance processes such as coordination, funding, and stakeholder engagement. these codes were then organised into broader themes during the theme search phase, reflecting patterns such as “resource and capacity limitations” and “community engagement strategies”. the themes were reviewed and refined to ensure coherence with the data, followed by defining and naming the themes to capture their scope and significance. the final phase involved synthesising the findings into a structured narrative that aligns with the research objectives. given the nature of this study, an interpretationfocused coding strategy was deemed most suitable. this approach involves interpreting the underlying meaning of governancerelated statements and identifying implicit assumptions or challenges. it is particularly effective for uncovering hidden dynamics, such as policy inconsistencies or power imbalances, critical for understanding governance strengths and weaknesses. as aforementioned, to ensure the robustness of the findings, triangulation was conducted by cross referencing themes with secondary sources, including peerreviewed articles and international reports. this reinforced the validity of the analysis and ensured that the themes were grounded in existing research. nguyen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025258 results flood risk management framework in australia several reports (nsw government, 2022; parliament of australia, 2024; queensland government, 2021; south australia government, 2024; ga, 2020a) reveal that australia’s frm matches the key features of the decentralised communitybased model. it can be presented as a fivestage framework emphasising the articulation of the responsibilities shared among the federal, state, and local governments and communities (refer to figure 2). figure 2. stages of the flood risk management framework in australia stage 1. data collection and integration: accurate data collection underpins australia’s flood risk governance. advanced technologies such as geographic information systems (gis), light detection and ranging (lidar), and floodplain mapping are employed to identify vulnerable areas and prioritise interventions (south australia government, 2023; victoria government, 2016a). these tools ensure that stakeholders, including planners and emergency responders, have access to comprehensive flood risk information. stage 2. flood studies and risk analysis: building on data collection, detailed flood studies are conducted to evaluate hazards. scenariobased modelling is integral to these analyses, incorporating climate change projections such as intensified rainfall and rising sea levels (queensland government, 2017; victoria government, 2016b). this stage provides a technical foundation for planning and decisionmaking. stage 3. flood risk management strategy development: strategies are developed to translate technical findings into actionable policies. for example, victoria’s floodplain management strategy aligns landuse planning with mitigation goals, ensuring a “do no harm” approach to infrastructure development in floodprone areas (victoria government, 2019). similarly, western australia uses statutory planning instruments to protect natural floodplain functions (western australia government, 2006). nguyen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025259 stage 4. policy adoption and implementation: once strategies are formalised, they are adopted and implemented by local councils and agencies. this stage emphasises stakeholder coordination to ensure effective risk management plan application. examples include the brown hill and keswick creek flood plan in south australia, which highlights multiagency collaboration (lca of sa, 2018). stage 5. community engagement and resilience building: community participation is essential in ensuring the sustainability and acceptance of flood risk policies. initiatives such as the total flood warning system (tfws) in victoria enhance preparedness by providing tailored warnings and public education campaigns (victoria government, 2016b). furthermore, programs like the resilient homes fund in new south wales strengthen local resilience through infrastructure updates and community involvement (parliament of australia, 2024). this fivestage framework, illustrated in figure 2, highlights the interconnected processes of governance, technical assessment, and community engagement in managing flood risks in australia. however, results from the thematic analysis also suggest that the success of the above frm stages depends heavily on the governance structures that underpin them. governance strengths and weaknesses have been identified, focusing on collaborative mechanisms, technical resources, legislative support, and community engagement, as well as challenges in resource allocation, policy fragmentation, and landuse conflicts. governance strengths and weaknesses of australia’s frm framework strengths 1. collaborative governance and coordination: australia excels in fostering collaboration across all levels of government. mechanisms like the national flood risk advisory group (nfrag) and flood warning consultative committees ensure consistency in policies and resource sharing (coag, 2018; ga, 2020a). regional platforms like the hazards services forum further promote unified planning and data sharing (corangamite cma, 2022). crossagency efforts, such as the queensland reconstruction authority’s resilience projects, reinforce this coordination (queensland government, 2017). 2. targeted funding and legislative support: programs like the disaster ready fund and the nsw floodplain management program provide vital financial support for resilience projects (nsw government, 2022; parliament of australia, 2024). legal frameworks, such as the land use planning and approvals act (lupaa) in tasmania, embed flood risk mitigation into development planning (lgat and dep, 2021). 3. advanced data and technical resources: advanced platforms like the national flood information database (nfid) and floodzoom enable precise flood mapping and realtime monitoring (ga, 2020a; western australia government, 2024). agencies like the bureau of meteorology and geoscience australia enhance governance capacity through scenariobased modelling and lidar data (victoria government, 2016b). 4. community engagement and awareness: programs such as brisbane’s flood resilient homes and the get ready queensland initiative empower communities with education and tailored resources (queensland government, 2021). transparent platforms like tasalert provide realtime updates, enhancing public preparedness and trust (tasmanian government, 2016). 5. integration of climate adaptation into governance: flexible policies, such as scenariobased planning in western australia and victoria’s floodresilient building standards, integrate climate adaptation into governance (victoria government, 2019; western australia government, 2024). partnerships with research organisations further support informed decisionmaking (tasmanian government, 2013). nguyen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025260 weaknesses 1. resource and capacity constraints: resource disparities significantly affect frm, especially in rural and regional councils. limited budgets and technical expertise hinder essential activities such as flood mapping and adopting advanced technologies like lidar (corangamite cma, 2022; wainwright and verdonkidd, 2016). smaller councils often rely on state or federal assistance, creating inequities in resilience across regions (ga, 2020a). 2. policy fragmentation: australia’s decentralised governance results in inconsistencies in flood mapping, hazard standards, and planning laws across states (nsw government, 2022). coordination challenges, particularly in crossborder floodplain areas, delay effective management strategies, while the absence of unified national legislation exacerbates fragmentation (ga, 2020a; victoria government, 2016a). 3. information and communication gaps: inconsistent data collection and sharing practices, along with unclear communication of risks like “1in100year floods”, reduce public trust and preparedness (victoria government, 2016b; wainwright and verdonkidd, 2016). communities remain unaware of updated flood maps and mitigation strategies, highlighting the need for targeted awareness campaigns (south australia government, 2024). 4. landuse conflicts: economic pressures and urban development often conflict with flood resilience goals. legacy planning decisions have allowed developments in floodprone areas, increasing vulnerabilities (queensland government, 2021). public resistance to stricter landuse controls further complicates longterm mitigation efforts (western australia government, 2024). comparison of australia’s flood risk governance to international practices in comparison, countries like the netherlands, japan, the united states, indonesia, and vietnam demonstrate strengths in governance, technology, and planning while revealing common challenges. integrated governance and collaboration across stakeholders are key strengths in international systems. the netherlands’ delta programme aligns national, provincial, and private stakeholders through adaptive delta management, fostering longterm resilience (miwm, 2022). similarly, japan’s basin water cycle plans and indonesia’s decentralised governance systems empower local authorities and communities to address regionspecific flood risks (clegg et al., 2020; jica, 2022). these collaborative frameworks demonstrate the importance of coordination in achieving effective flood management. robust legal and financial mechanisms further enhance resilience. the delta fund in the netherlands guarantees sustained investments, while japan’s basic act on the water cycle embeds sustainable water management into law ( jica, 2022; miwm, 2022). in the united states, fema’s flood mitigation assistance program provides grants for reducing risks, and vietnam’s hydraulic infrastructure improvements integrate flood control with socioeconomic development (crs, 2024; garschagen, 2015). technological innovation also supports flood resilience. the netherlands employs smart water management and sedimentbased dikes, while japan integrates multipurpose dams with hydropower and irrigation ( jica, 2022; miwm, 2022). in the united states, flood insurance rate maps guide floodplain standards and reduce financial losses (crs, 2024). however, these international systems face limitations. fragmented governance often slows progress, as seen in japan’s administrative divisions and coordination gaps in indonesia and england (clegg et al., 2020; jica, 2022). overreliance on structural defences like dikes limits adaptability, with vietnam and the netherlands focusing heavily on maintenance rather than proactive social resilience (garschagen, 2015; miwm, 2022). public awareness is another challenge, with inconsistent communication strategies reducing preparedness in the netherlands, vietnam, and indonesia (hung et al., 2010; kaufmann et al., 2016). nguyen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025261 these international cases provide valuable lessons, emphasising the importance of collaboration, innovation, and adaptive governance. australia can draw from these examples to strengthen its frm frameworks while addressing governance fragmentation and overreliance on structural measures. implications of the findings the above comparison reveals that australia’s frm system demonstrates notable strengths in areas of localised collaboration, targeted funding, advanced technical resources, and community engagement: 1. collaborative governance and coordination: australia excels in fostering collaboration through mechanisms like the national flood risk advisory group (nfrag) and flood warning consultative committees (fwccs), which streamline coordination among federal, state, and local governments. these platforms ensure consistent disaster response strategies, as exemplified by queensland’s reconstruction authority (qra), which leads multiagency initiatives to manage flood resilience (queensland government, 2017). such efforts reflect australia’s strong localised governance model for specific flood risk scenarios. 2. targeted funding and legislative support: australia’s financial and legislative frameworks prioritise resilience. the disaster ready fund commits $1 billion over 5 years to support proactive mitigation measures (parliament of australia, 2024). statelevel initiatives like the nsw floodplain management program reinforce resilience by integrating hazard planning into development processes (nsw government, 2022). these mechanisms, which are effectively applied at localised levels, contrast with international struggles to maintain consistent funding or enforce legislation (miwm, 2022). 3. advanced data and technical resources: the nfid and tools like floodzoom enhance realtime risk mapping, enabling evidencebased decisionmaking (ga, 2020a; western australia government, 2024). these innovations mitigate global challenges related to data fragmentation and outdated modelling techniques, as seen in some international systems (south australia government, 2023). however, governance and policy coherence gaps hinder australia’s ability to deliver consistent and scalable frm strategies. 1. governance and policy fragmentation australia’s decentralised governance model creates inconsistencies in flood management across jurisdictions. the lack of unified national legislation leads to varying hazard standards and uneven application of mitigation measures (victoria government, 2019; wainwright and verdonkidd, 2016). for example, flood mapping and zoning standards differ by state, complicating crossborder coordination and reducing overall policy coherence. in contrast, the netherlands’ adaptive delta management aligns governance across national, provincial, and local levels, demonstrating the effectiveness of an integrated approach (miwm, 2022). 2. resource and capacity disparities rural and regional councils often lack the financial and technical capacity to adopt advanced flood mitigation measures, relying heavily on inconsistent funding from state and federal levels (mcgregor et al., 2022; ga, 2020a). addressing this disparity requires dedicated funding mechanisms, similar to the netherlands’ delta fund, which ensures consistent investment in adaptive strategies (miwm, 2022). 3. information and communication gaps australia’s inconsistent data practices hinder decisionmaking and public engagement. outdated flood maps and complex terminology alienate communities, reducing trust and preparedness (south australia government, 2024). by contrast, the uk integrates transparent flood risk maps into nguyen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025262 its governance frameworks, improving public understanding and trust (ga, 2020b). therefore, a centralised data repository and simplified communication strategies could significantly enhance australia’s resilience. towards developing a new frm framework suitable for australia findings from the review indicate that frm in australia can be significantly enhanced by leveraging existing strengths while addressing critical weaknesses identified in current practices. a new frm framework that can prompt more proactive and inclusive actions while maintaining reliance on evolving risks is needed. figure 3 illustrates the elements of the proposed framework for australia. figure 3. proposed adaptive frm framework for australia the proposed framework emphasises collaboration, inclusivity, and sustainability, positioning australia as a leader in global flood risk management practices. at the core of this framework is establishing a centralised coordinating body, the flood risk management entity (frme). this body would oversee sustainable governance arrangements, serve as a knowledge hub for frm practices, and manage risk prioritisation and forward planning. inspired by the netherlands’ delta programme, which emphasises crossregional alignment and sustainable investments (miwm, 2022), the frme would standardise policies and integrate national, state, and local efforts to ensure coherence across jurisdictions. it is recommended that the proposed frme to be established through intergovernmental agreements in a model legislation framework taken up by different states to nguyen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025263 address national consistency. the reason is that australia’s constitutional framework is very different from unitary systems like the netherlands or the uk. residual powers rest with the states, so a national entity cannot be unilaterally imposed by the commonwealth government (peo and ags, 2023). taking account of these limitations, the proposed frme is not presented as a statutory authority preempting state power, but rather as a nationally coordinated, stateled arrangement aimed at harmonising standards, enhancing data sharing, and enabling crossjurisdictional collaboration. the framework’s first phase, 1) risk identification and assessment, relies on enhanced data collection and advanced modelling techniques. australia can strengthen its datadriven decisionmaking processes by utilising realtime monitoring and predictive analytics (csiro, 2008). this phase would include socio economic impact analyses to prioritise vulnerable communities and inform policy planning. the second phase, 2) policy development and planning, aims to address gaps in governance and standardisation. a unified frm act modelled after the netherlands’ adaptive delta management strategy and england’s flood and water management act (miwm, 2022; ga, 2020b), would establish a clear regulatory framework. inspired by japan’s basin water cycle plans, participatory governance mechanisms would ensure that diverse stakeholders, including communities, nongovernmental organisations (ngos), and private sectors, are involved in decisionmaking processes ( jica, 2022). 3) implementation and action form the third phase of the framework. hybrid flood defences, such as combining levees with restored floodplains, could draw from vietnam’s coastal management practices, which balance structural and nonstructural approaches (hung et al., 2010). like the netherlands’ delta fund, establishing a resilience fund would ensure consistent, longterm investments in frm (kaufmann et al., 2016). propertylevel protection programs, inspired by england’s resilience grants, could also be scaled to address localised risks (ga, 2020b). the final phase, 4) monitoring and review, would incorporate adaptive governance principles to evaluate frm measures’ effectiveness continuously. lessons from indonesia’s integrated water resource management approach highlight the importance of cyclical assessments and flexible policy updates to adapt to evolving risks (clegg et al., 2020). these evaluations would ensure that the framework remains relevant and effective in mitigating flood impacts. crosscutting processes, including communication and consultation, are integral to the framework. continuous public education campaigns, similar to japan’s awareness initiatives ( jica, 2022), and capacity building programs for underresourced councils are essential to enhance community preparedness and local governance capabilities (ga, 2020b). actionable recommendations for enhancing flood risk governance in australia drawing from the comparative analysis and the proposed adaptive frm framework, this section presents a set of interrelated, actionable policy recommendations to address the identified governance challenges. these recommendations are organised into four thematic domains to reflect the systemic and interconnected nature of flood governance reform in australia. together, they form the basis of a governance wheel model (figure 4, adapted from cooperatives uk (2020)), indicating how each domain contributes to a cohesive and adaptive flood risk management system. 1. governance reform to overcome jurisdictional fragmentation, a national coordinating mechanism, such as an frme, should be established through intergovernmental consent and harmonised state legislation. owing to australia’s federal constitution, this organisation would have to function with the collaboration of state governments and in a manner that provides national consistency. it would oversee coordination among federal, state, and local governments, ensure legislative consistency, and standardise flood risk planning across australia. nguyen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025264 2. institutional capacity and funding a dedicated resilience fund should be created to support local councils, particularly those in rural and regional areas, that currently face technical and resource constraints. this fund would ensure access to critical tools such as lidar, gis, and flood modelling software, and enable investment in workforce training, local infrastructure, and hazard mapping initiatives. this approach mirrors long term investment strategies seen in international cases such as the netherlands’ delta fund. 3. community engagement and communication improving public understanding and community participation is essential. a national flood risk communication strategy should be developed to clarify complex concepts (e.g., replacing “1in 100year flood” terminology) and enhance risk awareness. this should be supported by locally led education campaigns, participatory planning workshops, and capacitybuilding programs that empower communities to engage meaningfully in frm decisions. 4. advancing climateadaptive building practices to complement structural mitigation, scalable grants need to be introduced to support both household and businesslevel resilience interventions. these may include incentives for elevating homes, installing waterproof materials, or retrofitting structures in highrisk areas. delivered through existing platforms like the disaster ready fund, this program is believed to target highexposure zones and promote climateadaptive building practices. figure 4. governance wheel for enhancing flood risk governance in australia. source: adapted from cooperatives uk (2020) nguyen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025265 concluding remarks this study has provided critical insights into the governance challenges and opportunities in australia’s frm. the findings highlight persistent issues such as policy fragmentation, coordination gaps among federal, state, and local governments, and resource disparities, particularly in rural and regional areas. these challenges continue to hinder the efficiency of flood resilience efforts. at the same time, australia demonstrates notable strengths, including collaborative mechanisms like the nfrag, targeted funding programs like the disaster ready fund, and advanced technical tools, including gis and lidarbased flood mapping, which have significantly enhanced data collection and decisionmaking processes. the comparative analysis of international cases, including the netherlands’ adaptive delta management and japan’s basin water cycle plans, underscores the potential for integrating adaptive and participatory governance approaches into australian flood policy. notably, the suggestion of a central coordinating body is nuanced to recognise australia’s federal arrangement: such a body would necessitate interstate consensus and cooperative governance structures, rather than a statutory authority imposed unilaterally at the commonwealth level. this keeps the proposal constitutionally viable while still remedying fragmentation and strengthening national consistency. this research contributes to policy and theoretical discussions by identifying enablers and barriers that influence the effectiveness of australia’s flood governance. from a policy perspective, it offers actionable recommendations, such as establishing a central coordinating entity to standardise flood risk policies and enhance crossjurisdictional collaboration, addressing governance fragmentation, and developing unified national legislation. these reforms could ensure greater policy implementation and resource distribution coherence, particularly in underresourced rural areas. furthermore, increasing investment in capacitybuilding programs and technical tools could address disparities and empower local governments to adopt advanced flood mitigation measures. the findings also advance theoretical understanding by illustrating how collaborative and participatory approaches can mitigate policy fragmentation and enhance institutional resilience when integrated with adaptive governance frameworks. comparative insights reveal that governance frameworks are not universally transferable but must be adapted to socioeconomic and environmental contexts. this study has some limitations. it relied on secondary data, which constrain the ability to capture real time governance dynamics and stakeholder interactions during flood events. additionally, the geographic scope of the analysis focuses solely on australia, leaving room for broader crossregional comparisons. future research could address these gaps by conducting realtime evaluations of governance performance during flood events, providing a deeper understanding of dynamic policy responses and interactions. expanding the scope to include regions such as south america or africa would also enable a more comprehensive analysis of how governance frameworks can be adapted to different socioeconomic and climatic conditions. exploring the potential of digital technologies, such as artificial intelligence (ai) driven flood monitoring and decisionmaking tools, could further enhance governance capacities and flood resilience (zabihi et al., 2023). these areas of future research would not only complement the findings of this study but also contribute to global discussions on adaptive flood risk governance and its practical implementation. references australian institute for disaster resilience (aidr). (2017). managing the floodplain: a guide to best practice in flood risk management in australia (australian disaster resilience handbook collection (2011 – ), issue. https://knowledge. aidr.org.au/media/3521/adr-handbook-7.pdf nguyen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025266 https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/media/3521/adr-handbook-7.pdf https://knowledge.aidr.org.au/media/3521/adr-handbook-7.pdf begg, c. (2018). power, responsibility and justice: a review of local stakeholder participation in european flood risk management. local environment 23(4), 383-397. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2017.1422119 biswas, r., jana, a., arya, k., & ramamritham, k. (2019). a good-governance framework for urban management. journal of urban management, 8(2), 225-236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jum.2018.12.009 bowen, g. a. (2009). document analysis as a qualitative research method. qualitative research journal, 9(2), 27-40. https://doi.org/10.3316/qrj0902027 braganza, a., & lambert, r. (2000). strategic integration: developing aprocess±governance framework. knowledge and process management, 7(3), 177-186. https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-1441(200007/09)7:3<177::aidkpm104>3.0.co;2-u braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology 3(2), 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa brown, j. t. (2016). introduction to fema’s national flood insurance program (nfip). https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/blog/ introduction-to-femas-national-flood-insurance-program-_-crs-_-august-2016.pdf chow, e., barnes, d., blunden, j., davidson, j., pang, e., james, w. t. a., & manton-hall. (2023). funding for flood costs: affordability, availability and public policy options https://www.actuaries.asn.au/docs/thought-leadership-reports/ funding-costs-for-floods.pdf clegg, g., haigh, r., amaratunga, d., & rahayu, h. (2020). river governance and flood management arrangements in indonesia (mitigating hydro-meteorological hazard impacts through improved transboundary river management in the ciliwung river basin, issue. https://gdrc.buildresilience.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/indonesiastudyreport.pdf co-operatives uk. (2020). what is good governance? https://www.uk.coop/support-your-co-op/governance/what-goodgovernance coates, l. (2022). a flood of rain events: how does it stack up with the previous decade? (briefing note 465, issue. https:// riskfrontiers.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/465-briefing-note.pdf commonwealth scientific and industrial research organisation (csiro). (2008). water availability in the murray– darling basin (a report to the australian government by the csiro murray–darling basin sustainable yields project, issue. congressional research service (crs). (2024). introduction to the national flood insurance program (nfip). https://sgp. fas.org/crs/homesec/r44593.pdf cook, b. r., cornes, i., satizábal, p., & zurita, m. d. l. m. (2025). experiential learning, practices, and space for change: the institutional preconfiguration of community participation in flood risk reduction. journal of flood risk management, 18(1), e12861. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12861 corangamite catchment management authority (corangamite cma). (2022). floodplain development guidelines: guidelines for development in flood prone areas. https://ccma.vic.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ccmafloodplain-development-guidelines-2022_s.pdf council of australian governments (coag). (2018). intergovernmental agreement on the provision of bureau of meteorology hazard services to the states and territories. https://federation.gov.au/about/agreements/intergovernmentalagreement-provision-bureau-meteorology-hazard-services-states cumiskey, l. r. (2020). joining the dots: a framework for assessing integration in flood risk management with applications to england and serbia (publication number m00611055) middlesex university london]. nguyen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025267 https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2017.1422119 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jum.2018.12.009 https://doi.org/10.3316/qrj0902027 https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-1441(200007/09)7:3<177::aid-kpm104>3.0.co;2-u https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-1441(200007/09)7:3<177::aid-kpm104>3.0.co;2-u https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/blog/introduction-to-femas-national-flood-insurance-program-_-crs-_-august-2016.pdf https://biotech.law.lsu.edu/blog/introduction-to-femas-national-flood-insurance-program-_-crs-_-august-2016.pdf https://www.actuaries.asn.au/docs/thought-leadership-reports/funding-costs-for-floods.pdf https://www.actuaries.asn.au/docs/thought-leadership-reports/funding-costs-for-floods.pdf https://gdrc.buildresilience.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/indonesiastudyreport.pdf https://www.uk.coop/support-your-co-op/governance/what-good-governance https://www.uk.coop/support-your-co-op/governance/what-good-governance https://riskfrontiers.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/465-briefing-note.pdf https://riskfrontiers.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/465-briefing-note.pdf https://sgp.fas.org/crs/homesec/r44593.pdf https://sgp.fas.org/crs/homesec/r44593.pdf https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12861 https://ccma.vic.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ccma-floodplain-development-guidelines-2022_s.pdf https://ccma.vic.gov.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/ccma-floodplain-development-guidelines-2022_s.pdf https://federation.gov.au/about/agreements/intergovernmental-agreement-provision-bureau-meteorology-hazard-services-states https://federation.gov.au/about/agreements/intergovernmental-agreement-provision-bureau-meteorology-hazard-services-states dale, m., wicks, j., mylne, k., pappenberger, f., laeger, s., & taylor, s. (2014). probabilistic flood forecasting and decision-making: an innovative risk-based approach. natural hazards, 70, 159-172. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069012-0483-z fan, j., & huang, g. (2023). flood risk management in japan in response to climate change: shift from river channelfocused control to watershed-oriented management. emergency management science and technology, 3(23). https://doi. org/10.48130/emst-2023-0023 foran, t., penton, d. j., ketelsen, t., barbour, e. j., grigg, n., shrestha, m., lebel, l., ojha, h., almeida, a., & lazarow, n. (2019). planning in democratizing river basins: the case for a co-productive model of decision making. water 11(12), 2480. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11122480 garschagen, m. (2015). risky change? vietnam’s urban flood risk governance between climate dynamics and transformation. pacific affairs, 88(3), 599-621. https://doi.org/10.5509/2015883599 howes, m., tangney, p., reis, k., grant-smith, d., heazle, m., bosomworth, k., & burton, p. (2015). towards networked governance: improving interagency communication and collaboration for disaster risk management and climate change adaptation in australia. journal of environmental planning and management, 58(5), 757-776. https://doi. org/10.1080/09640568.2014.891974 hung, h. v., shaw, r., & kobayashi, m. (2010). flood risk management for the riverside urban areas of hanoi: the need for synergy in urban development and risk management policies. disaster prevention and management, 19(1), 103118. https://doi.org/10.1108/09653561011022171 ika, l., meredith, j., & zwikael, o. (2024). project governance: the impact of environmental changes on governance adaptations in large-scale projects. international journal of managing projects in business, 17(4/5), 829-854. https://doi. org/10.1108/ijmpb-03-2024-0056 insurance council of australia (ica). (2024). ica historical catastrophe list (https://insurancecouncil.com.au/wpcontent/uploads/2024/07/ica-historical-normalised-catastrophe-june-2024.xlsx ishiwatari, m. (2024). strategic governance the challenges of integrated flood risk management. in j. lamond, d. proverbs, & n. b. mis (eds.), research handbook on flood risk management (pp. 291-303). edward elgar publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781839102981.00030 ishiwatari, m., & hirai, h. (2024). challenges in promoting all-hazard approach in japan: institutional arrangements for managing cascading effects. in t. izumi, m. abe, k. fujita, & r. shaw (eds.), all-hazards approach: towards resilience building (pp. 191–205). springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-1860-3_13 japan international cooperation agency ( jica). (2022). japan’s experience on water resources management. https:// www.jica.go.jp/english/our_work/thematic_issues/water/fh2q4d000000ruz4-att/theme_01_01.pdf kagaya, s., & wada, t. (2021). the application of environmental governance for sustainable watershed-based management. asia-pacific journal of regional science, 5, 643-671. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41685-020-00185-1 kang, y. h. (2022). the political dimension of water management in the face of climate change. in climate change adaptation in river management (pp. 1-40). palgrave macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10486-2_1 kapucu, n., dougherty, r. b., ge, y., & zobel, c. (2023). the use of documentary data for network analysis in emergency and crisis management. natural hazards, 116, 425-445. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-022-05681-5 kaufmann, m., van doorn-hoekveld, w., gilissen, h. k., & van rijswick, m. (2016). analysing and evaluating flood risk governance in the netherlands (strengthening and redesigning european flood risk practices: towards appropriate and resilient flood risk governance arrangements, issue. https://hdl.handle.net/2066/159329 nguyen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025268 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-012-0483-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-012-0483-z https://doi.org/10.48130/emst-2023-0023 https://doi.org/10.48130/emst-2023-0023 https://doi.org/10.3390/w11122480 https://doi.org/10.5509/2015883599 https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2014.891974 https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2014.891974 https://doi.org/10.1108/09653561011022171 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-03-2024-0056 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-03-2024-0056 https://insurancecouncil.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ica-historical-normalised-catastrophe-june-2024.xlsx https://insurancecouncil.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/ica-historical-normalised-catastrophe-june-2024.xlsx https://doi.org/10.4337/9781839102981.00030 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-97-1860-3_13 https://www.jica.go.jp/english/our_work/thematic_issues/water/fh2q4d000000ruz4-att/theme_01_01.pdf https://www.jica.go.jp/english/our_work/thematic_issues/water/fh2q4d000000ruz4-att/theme_01_01.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s41685-020-00185-1 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-10486-2_1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-022-05681-5 https://hdl.handle.net/2066/159329 ladds, m., keating, a., handmer, j., & magee, l. (2017). how much do disasters cost? a comparison of disaster cost estimates in australia. international journal of disaster risk reduction, 21, 419-429. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijdrr.2017.01.004 lawrence, j., sullivan, f., lash, a., ide, g., cameron, c., & mcglinchey, l. (2015). adapting to changing climate risk by local government in new zealand: institutional practice barriers and enablers. local environment 20(3), 298-320. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2013.839643 lietaer, s., nagabhatla, n., scheerens, c., mycroft, m., & lombaerde, p. d. (2024). blind spots in belgian flood risk governance: the case of the summer 2021 floods in wallonia (unu-cris research report, issue. https://cris.unu.edu/ blindspotsinbelgianfloodriskgovernance local government association of south australia (lca of sa). (2018). review of stormwater management legislation and policy. https://www.lga.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0039/469983/ecm_658270_v20_review-of-stormwatermanagement-legislation-and-policy.pdf local government association of tasmania (lgat), & derwent estuary program (dep). (2021). tasmanian stormwater policy guidance and standards for development. https://tasman.tas.gov.au/download/policies/c-041tasmanian-stormwater-policy-guidance-and-standards-for-development-2021.pdf maskrey, s. a., mount, n. j., & thorne, c. r. (2022). doing flood risk modelling differently: evaluating the potential for participatory techniques to broaden flood risk management decision-making. journal of flood risk management, 15(1), e12757. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12757 mcgregor, j., parsons, m., & glavac, s. (2022). local government capacity and land use planning for natural hazards: a comparative evaluation of australian local government areas. planning practice & research, 37(2), 248268. https://doi.org/10.1080/02697459.2021.1919431 minister of infrastructure and water management (miwm). (2022). national delta programme 2023: speed up, connect and reconstruct. https://english.deltaprogramma.nl/ moynihan, d. p. (2009). the network governance of crisis response: case studies of incident command systems. journal of public administration research and theory, 19(4), 895–915. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mun033 nsw government. (2022). flood risk management manual: the management of flood liable land. https://www. environment.nsw.gov.au/-/media/oeh/corporate-site/documents/water/floodplains/flood-risk-managementmanual-220060.pdf parliament of australia. (2024). flood failure to future fairness: report on the inquiry into insurers’ responses to 2022 major floods claims. https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlinfo/download/committees/reportrep/rb000297/toc_pdf/ floodfailuretofuturefairness.pdf parliamentary education office (peo), & australian government solicitor (ags). (2023). australia’s constitution: with overview and notes by the australian government solicitor. https://ausconstitution.peo.gov.au/index.html plate, e. j. (2007). early warning and flood forecasting for large rivers with the lower mekong as example. journal of hydro-environment research, 1(2), 80-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jher.2007.10.002 queensland government. (2017). strategic policy framework for riverine flood risk management and community resilience. https://www.qra.qld.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-02/strategic%20policy%20framework%20for%20 riverine%20flood%20risk%20management%20-%20update%202019.pdf queensland government. (2021). queensland flood risk management framework. https://www.qra.qld.gov.au/sites/ default/files/2021-06/queensland_flood_risk_management_framework_2021_qfrmf_0.pdf nguyen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025269 https://hdl.handle.net/2066/159329 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.01.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2017.01.004 https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2013.839643 https://cris.unu.edu/blindspotsinbelgianfloodriskgovernance https://cris.unu.edu/blindspotsinbelgianfloodriskgovernance https://www.lga.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0039/469983/ecm_658270_v20_review-of-stormwater-management-legislation-and-policy.pdf https://www.lga.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0039/469983/ecm_658270_v20_review-of-stormwater-management-legislation-and-policy.pdf https://tasman.tas.gov.au/download/policies/c-041-tasmanian-stormwater-policy-guidance-and-standards-for-development-2021.pdf https://tasman.tas.gov.au/download/policies/c-041-tasmanian-stormwater-policy-guidance-and-standards-for-development-2021.pdf https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12757 https://doi.org/10.1080/02697459.2021.1919431 https://english.deltaprogramma.nl/ https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/mun033 https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/-/media/oeh/corporate-site/documents/water/floodplains/flood-risk-management-manual-220060.pdf https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/-/media/oeh/corporate-site/documents/water/floodplains/flood-risk-management-manual-220060.pdf https://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/-/media/oeh/corporate-site/documents/water/floodplains/flood-risk-management-manual-220060.pdf https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlinfo/download/committees/reportrep/rb000297/toc_pdf/floodfailuretofuturefairness.pdf https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlinfo/download/committees/reportrep/rb000297/toc_pdf/floodfailuretofuturefairness.pdf https://ausconstitution.peo.gov.au/index.html https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jher.2007.10.002 https://www.qra.qld.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-02/strategic%20policy%20framework%20for%20riverine%20flood%20risk%20management%20-%20update%202019.pdf https://www.qra.qld.gov.au/sites/default/files/2019-02/strategic%20policy%20framework%20for%20riverine%20flood%20risk%20management%20-%20update%202019.pdf https://www.qra.qld.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-06/queensland_flood_risk_management_framework_2021_qfrmf_0.pdf https://www.qra.qld.gov.au/sites/default/files/2021-06/queensland_flood_risk_management_framework_2021_qfrmf_0.pdf royal far west, & unicef australia. (2022). 2022 flood response and recovery: children’s needs assessment. https:// www.royalfarwest.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2022_floodresponserecovery_lores.pdf sijbesma, c., & verhagen, j. (2008). making urban sanitation strategies of six indonesian cities more pro-poor and genderequitable: the case of issdp. https://www.ircwash.org/resources/making-urban-sanitation-strategies-six-indonesiancities-more-pro-poor-and-gender south australia government. (2023). flood hazard mapping and assessment project: delivering more consistent and contemporary flood hazard mapping to better prepare for and minimise impacts arising from flood risks. https://plan.sa.gov. au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/1002368/flood_hazard_mapping_and_assessment_project_-_brochure.pdf south australia government. (2024). flood hazard risk reduction plan 2024 (part 3 supporting plans, issue. https:// cdn.environment.sa.gov.au/environment/docs/2024-flood-hazard-risk-reduction-plan.pdf stark, a., & taylor, m. (2014). citizen participation, community resilience and crisis-management policy. australian journal of political science, 49(2), 300-315. https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2014.899966 sunarharum, t. m., sloan, m., & susilawati, c. (2020). collaborative approach for community resilience to natural disaster: perspectives on flood risk management in jakarta, indonesia the 12th kes international conference on sustainability and energy in buildings 2020 (seb20), split, croatia. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8783-2_23 tasmanian government. (2013). principles for the consideration of natural hazards in the planning system. https://www. dpac.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/26841/principles_for_the_consideration_of_natural_hazards.pdf tasmanian government. (2016). submission to the independent review into the june 2016 tasmanian floods. https://www. dpac.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/64260/dpac.pdf the geneva association (ga). (2020a). flood risk management in australia: building flood resilience in a changing climate. https://www.genevaassociation.org/sites/default/files/frm_australia_web.pdf the geneva association (ga). (2020b). flood risk management in england: building flood resilience in a changing climate. https://www.genevaassociation.org/sites/default/files/flood-risk-management-england.pdf ulubaşoğlu, m. a., rahman, m. h., önder, y. k., chen, y., & rajabifard, a. (2018). floods, bushfires and sectoral economic output inaustralia, 1978–2014. economic record, 95(308), 58-80. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-4932.12446 van der keur, p., staugaard, l., meyer, a. m., mcinerny, t., molnár, a., hausmann, h. j., berendt, s., harjanne, a., & hen-riksen, h. j. (2017). an overview of institutional structures and good practices in northern ireland, hungary and denmark based on multi-agency workshops in the three countries and supplementary information from nordic countries (sharing good practice and multi-agency partnership framework: community resilience with focus on flooding, issue. van popering-verkerk, j., & van buuren, a. (2017). developing collaborative capacity in pilot projects: lessons from three dutch flood risk management experiments. journal of cleaner production, 169, 225-233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2017.04.141 victoria government. (2016a). victorian flood data and mapping guidelines. https://www.water.vic.gov.au/__data/ assets/pdf_file/0036/661788/victorian-flood-data-and-mapping-guidelines.pdf victoria government. (2016b). victorian floodplain management strategy. https://fvtoc.com.au/wp-content/ uploads/2023/05/201604_victorian_floodplain_management_strategy.pdf victoria government. (2019). guidelines for development in flood affected areas. https://www.water.vic.gov.au/__data/ assets/pdf_file/0024/662325/guidelines-for-development-in-flood-affected-areas.pdf wainwright, d., & verdon-kidd, d. (2016). a local government framework for coastal risk assessment in australia. https:// coastadapt.com.au/sites/default/files/factsheets/rr5_local_government_framework_coastal_risk_australia.pdf nguyen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025270 https://www.royalfarwest.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2022_floodresponserecovery_lores.pdf https://www.royalfarwest.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/2022_floodresponserecovery_lores.pdf https://www.ircwash.org/resources/making-urban-sanitation-strategies-six-indonesian-cities-more-pro-poor-and-gender https://www.ircwash.org/resources/making-urban-sanitation-strategies-six-indonesian-cities-more-pro-poor-and-gender https://plan.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/1002368/flood_hazard_mapping_and_assessment_project_-_brochure.pdf https://plan.sa.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0020/1002368/flood_hazard_mapping_and_assessment_project_-_brochure.pdf https://cdn.environment.sa.gov.au/environment/docs/2024-flood-hazard-risk-reduction-plan.pdf https://cdn.environment.sa.gov.au/environment/docs/2024-flood-hazard-risk-reduction-plan.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/10361146.2014.899966 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8783-2_23 https://www.dpac.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/26841/principles_for_the_consideration_of_natural_hazards.pdf https://www.dpac.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0021/26841/principles_for_the_consideration_of_natural_hazards.pdf https://www.dpac.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/64260/dpac.pdf https://www.dpac.tas.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0018/64260/dpac.pdf https://www.genevaassociation.org/sites/default/files/frm_australia_web.pdf https://www.genevaassociation.org/sites/default/files/flood-risk-management-england.pdf https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-4932.12446 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.04.141 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.04.141 https://www.water.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0036/661788/victorian-flood-data-and-mapping-guidelines.pdf https://www.water.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0036/661788/victorian-flood-data-and-mapping-guidelines.pdf https://fvtoc.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/201604_victorian_floodplain_management_strategy.pdf https://fvtoc.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/201604_victorian_floodplain_management_strategy.pdf https://www.water.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/662325/guidelines-for-development-in-flood-affected-areas.pdf https://www.water.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0024/662325/guidelines-for-development-in-flood-affected-areas.pdf https://coastadapt.com.au/sites/default/files/factsheets/rr5_local_government_framework_coastal_risk_australia.pdf https://coastadapt.com.au/sites/default/files/factsheets/rr5_local_government_framework_coastal_risk_australia.pdf western australia government. (2006). western australian planning commission: state planning policy no. 3.4. (natural hazards and disasters, issue. https://www.wa.gov.au/system/files/2021-06/spp_3-4_natural_hazards_disasters.pdf western australia government. (2024). a statewide coastal inundation assessment for wa phase 2 report. https://www. transport.wa.gov.au/mediafiles/marine/mac_p_coastal_inundation_assessment_phase_2_report.pdf xu, j., wang, q., xu, d., & lu, y. (2018). types of community-focused organisations for disaster risk reduction in the longmen shan fault area. environmental hazards 17(3), 181-199. https://doi.org/10.1080/17477891.2017.1383879 zabihi, o., siamaki, m., gheibi, m., akrami, m., & hajiaghaei-keshteli, m. (2023). a smart sustainable system for flood damage management with the application of artificial intelligence and multi-criteria decision-making computations. international journal of disaster risk reduction, 84, 103470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103470 nguyen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025271 https://www.wa.gov.au/system/files/2021-06/spp_3-4_natural_hazards_disasters.pdf https://www.transport.wa.gov.au/mediafiles/marine/mac_p_coastal_inundation_assessment_phase_2_report.pdf https://www.transport.wa.gov.au/mediafiles/marine/mac_p_coastal_inundation_assessment_phase_2_report.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/17477891.2017.1383879 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103470 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: aghimien, d. o., ikuabe, m., aigbavboa, c., oke, a., and shirinda, w. 2021. unravelling the factors influencing construction organisations’ intention to adopt big data analytics in south africa. construction economics and building, 21:3, 262– 281. http://dx.doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7634 issn 2204 9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021 article (peer reviewed) unravelling the factors influencing construction organisations’ intention to adopt big data analytics in south africa douglas omoregie aghimien1,*, matthew ikuabe2, clinton aigbavboa3, ayodeji oke4, wealthy shirinda5 1 cidb centre of excellence, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa, aghimiendouglas@yahoo.com 2 department of construction management and quantity surveying, faculty of engineering and the built environment, university of johannesburg, south africa, ikuabematthew@gmail.com 3 cidb centre of excellence, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa, caigbavboa@uj.ac.za 4 department of quantity surveying, federal university of technology, akure, nigeria, emayok@gmail.com 5 department of construction management and quantity surveying, faculty of engineering and the built environment, university of johannesburg, south africa, wtshirinda@gmail.com corresponding author: douglas omoregie aghimien, cidb centre of excellence, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa, aghimiendouglas@yahoo.com doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7634 article history: received: 16/03/2021; revised: 10/06/2021; accepted: 27/06/2021; published: 10/09/2021 abstract the construction industry has been producing massive data that can be transformed for improved decisionmaking and better construction project delivery. however, the industry has been adjudged as a slow adopter of digital technologies such as big data analytics (bda) to improve its service delivery. the implication of this slow adoption is the lack of innovativeness and unsustainable project delivery that has characterised the industry in most countries, particularly in developing ones like south africa. therefore, this study assessed the intention to adopt bda by construction organisations using the unified theory of technology adoption and use of technology (utaut) model. a postpositivism philosophical stance was employed, which informed the use of quantitative research 262 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7634 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7634 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:aghimiendouglas@yahoo.com mailto:ikuabematthew@gmail.com mailto:caigbavboa@uj.ac.za mailto:emayok@gmail.com mailto:wtshirinda@gmail.com mailto:aghimiendouglas@yahoo.com http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7634 with a questionnaire designed to solicit information from construction organisations in south africa. data analysis was done using cronbach alpha to test for reliability and fuzzy synthetic evaluation to evaluate the impact of the different constructs of the utaut on the adoption of bda by construction organisations in south africa. the study found that variables relating to facilitating conditions, performance expectancy, and social influence will significantly impact an organisation’s intention to adopt bda. however, issues surrounding effort expectancy, resistance to use, and perceived risk cannot be overlooked as they also have high impact levels. the study provides an excellent theoretical and practical contribution to the existing discourse on construction digitalisation. keywords big data analytics; construction organisation; digitalisation; digital technology introduction the development of the construction industry has been described as a process that is well planned and managed to improve the industry’s capacity and effectiveness to ensure that the high demand for construction products is met and to maintain the industry’s contribution to socioeconomic development (ofori, 2000). this development cut across diverse phases, including technological advancement. the fourth industry revolution (4ir) promises significant industry development through the optimization of technologies and innovations (oke, et al., 2018; pärn, edwards and sing, 2018). studies showcasing the importance of adopting these digital technologies in the discharge of construction services and the industry’s development has continued to emerge in recent times (hager, golonka, and putanowicz, 2016; sakin and kiroglu, 2017; aghimien, et al., 2018; delgado, et al., 2019). one such technology that has gained significant attention among researchers and practitioners is big data analytics (bda). according to bilal, et al. (2016), advancement in technology has created a world where a significant amount of data abounds. organisations can now collect, store, and analyse the large amount of data (big data) gathered daily. che, safran, and peng (2013) noted that there is an everincreasing stream of big data being generated due to the increase in the use of various digital devices. the magnitude of the generated data has led to the emergence of bda and data mining to get patterns and make informed decisions. in the construction industry, the advent of building information modelling (bim) and sensors has brought about significant data improvement (bilal, et al., 2016). effectively collecting and accurately analysing data from different sources can improve predictions of future events and better construction industry productivity (ahiagadagbui and smith, 2013; jin, et al., 2015). furthermore, decisionmaking is increasingly becoming datadriven (cabrerasánchez and villarejoramos, 2019). therefore, construction organisations must make good use of valuable information that exists in the rapidly changing data environment. the construction industry worldwide has been described as a slow adopter of technology (pärn and edwards, 2019). the case is worse for the industry in developing countries, constrained by several issues such as lack of technical knowledge, lack of adequate funds, skill shortage and lack of appropriate government support, among others (windapo and cattell, 2010; elkhalifa, 2016; haupt and harinarain, 2016; aghimien, aigbavboa, and thwala, 2019). the result of these constraints and poor technology adoption is the constant poor performance of cost, time and client dissatisfaction along with issues of poor health and safety, poor labour productivity and unsustainable project delivery that has characterised these industries in recent times (laryea and mensha, 2010; ali and wen, 2011; chiocha, smallwood, and emuze, 2011; aghimien and awodele, 2017; okoye, okolie, and ngwu, 2017; othman, shafiq, and nuruddin, 2017). hampson, kraatz, and sanchez (2014) noted that the industry in most of these countries consists of many small and mediumsized construction companies with limited capabilities for investments in the new technology. addotenkorang and helo (2016) further stated that for some of these organisations, the aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021263 limited understanding of the potential impact of bda value in their service delivery has hampered their adoption of this technological advancement. based on this understanding, it becomes necessary to assess the factors influencing construction organisations’ behavioural intention to adopt bda with a view to promoting technology adoption and construction industry development. while several studies have emerged on big data adoption, challenges, benefits and diffusion with other digital technologies within the construction industry (bilal, et al., 2016; koseleva and ropaite, 2017; moynihan, et al., 2017; lu, et al., 2018), not much as surfaced on the factors that might influence construction organisations intention to adopt this beneficial technology. several adoption models have been introduced over time to assess technology adoption within organisations, with one of the most common being the technology adoption model (tam) (arbaugh, 2010; charness and boot, 2016). however, cabrerasánchez and villarejoramos (2019) suggested that the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (utaut) is more appropriate for a better view of technology adoption. khatun, palas, and ray (2017) mentioned that the utaut model is the most sensitive and latest approach that explains the variance of technology acceptance and intention to use such technology. this model has been favoured in different studies that have assessed organisations’ intention to adopt diverse technologies (howard, restrepo, and chang, 2017; cabrerasánchez and villarejoramos, 2019). this study assessed the factors influencing construction organisations behavioural intention to adopt bda in south africa. the study’s major objective is to unearth the key variables that will influence construction organisations’ behaviour to adopt bda in the construction industry. the study’s findings provide some practical insight into the factors that should be considered by top management within construction organisations in the formulation of policies surrounding bda usage. furthermore, the study provides an excellent theoretical platform for future research within the area of bda adoption. theoretical background in contemporary society, where data is generated at an exponential rate due to diverse available digital technologies (che, safran, and peng, 2013; cabrerasánchez and villarejoramos, 2019), organisations stand a chance to gain a better competitive edge over their competitors by transforming data into useful information. furthermore, with the clamour for more digitalised organisations (schwab, 2017), without the effective electronic collection and analysis of digital data, organisations’ digital transformation journey will be practically impossible (berger, 2016; zhong, et al., 2016). the analysis of big data, therefore, becomes essential for organisations (construction inclusive) seeking better competitive advantage, digital transformation and overall organisation development. by definition, big data refers to “information asset characterised by high volume, velocity and variety that require specific technology and analytical methods for its transformation into value” (de mauro, greco, and grimaldi, 2016, p.127). chahal and gulia (2016) and manyika, et al. (2011) also described it as a dataset that cannot be documented, secured, managed, analysed, and processed by every regular device. thus, to draw value out of big data, bda becomes essential. bda has been described as using technology to gather and process a large stream of data in realtime and using the information derived from the analysis to become market leaders (mcafee and brynjolfsson, 2012; rüßmann, et al., 2015; cabrerasánchez and villarejoramos, 2019). simply put, bda processes the complex and massive dataset known as big data (nizam and hassan, 2017). with the array of digital devices available to construction organisations, continuous output of data from diverse projects can be analysed to make informed decisions to improve project delivery and ensure organisations’ survival and growth (daniel, 2014). bagheri, et al. (2015) also noted that analysis of previously recorded data could be used to determine the issues in the previous process and help forecast the future challenges that might arise and strategies towards mitigating these issues. freitas and magrini (2017) observed that business activities could be analysed with bda in aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021264 the construction industry to determine the optimal phasing of construction activities. furthermore, data generated from the thousands of sensors installed in buildings and/or moving drones, bridges and any other construction project makes it possible to monitor each one at any level of performance. the adoption of bda in the construction industry, just like every other technology, has been overly slow, and this has negatively impacted the industry’s development (osunsanmi, aigbavboa, oke, 2018; pärn and edwards, 2019). to ascertain the factors influencing construction organisations’ readiness to adopt bda, utaut was adopted. the utaut is a tam developed to achieve a unified view of users’ acceptance of new technology and the probability of such technology’s success (venkatesh, et al., 2003). while several acceptance models have emanated, utaut has been widely embraced in recent studies that have explored technology adoption (verma and sinha, 2018; ayaz and yanartas, 2020). significant studies have adopted this theory in unearthing the intention to use diverse technologies in various fields of studies (isaias, et al., 2017; asastani, kusumawardhana, and warnars, 2018; cabrerasánchez and villarejoramos, 2019; michels, bonke, and mußhoff, 2019; ayaz and yanartas, 2020). while these studies exist, only the study of cabrerasánchez and villarejoramos (2019) assessed organisations adoption and intention to use bda using utaut within an organisation’s marketing context. the original designed utaut, as proposed by venkatesh, et al. (2003), consists of four major constructs viz – performance expectancy (pe), effort expectancy (ee), social influence (si) and facilitating conditions (fc). it is believed that if organisations adopt these four main dimensions, they are most likely to develop a positive attitude towards using new technology (donmezturan, 2019). the dimension of pe assesses the behaviour to use technology by evaluating how an individual believes that the new technology will improve their task performance. past studies have considered this dimension as crucial to the acceptance of new technologies (afonso, et al., 2012; chauhan and jaiswal, 2016; cabrerasánchez and villarejoramos, 2019). therefore, understanding the perspective of construction organisations on bda, making their service delivery easier and improving their performance is important in unearthing the factors influencing their intention to adopt this technology. ee deals with ease of learning and using the new technology (venkatesh, et al., 2003). it has been noted that the extent to which an organisation will be willing to adopt new technology will be dependent on the ease of using such technology (chauhan and jaiswal, 2016). the proper implementation of bda within construction organisations may require the need for a new set of skills. for an industry that has been characterised by skill shortage (windapo and cattell, 2010), the need for new skills to handle bda might be a stumbling block to its acceptance and organisations’ intention to use it. understanding construction organisations’ perception regarding this ease of use and learning of bda becomes a crucial part of determining their intention to use the technology. afonso, et al. (2012) also submitted that si plays a vital role in technology acceptance, because the extent to which an individual or organisation thinks that they should use a particular technology can influence the actual adoption of such technology (venkatesh, et al., 2003). this becomes essential for construction organisations as they do not operate in silos. their perception of the expectation of their competitors and complementors might significantly influence their adoption of bda. in a professional environment (like construction), the view of managers and stakeholders is germane. for organisations to be seen as relevant, they might be forced to adopt technologies that these sets of individuals believe is relevant (chauhan and jaiswal, 2016). venkatesh, et al. (2003) described fc as the extent to which the technical infrastructure available is perceived to be adequate in supporting the use of the new technology. this particular dimension has been identified as directly influencing the intention to use and the usage behaviour of technologies (ayaz and yanartas, 2020). based on this dimension’s importance, this study assessed the extent to which facilitating conditions such as availability of technology, availability of required expertise, availability of trained staff to handle bda, and compatibility of bda with other organisational resources can influence construction organisations’ intention to adopt bda (cabrerasánchez and villarejoramos, 2019). aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021265 while some studies have adopted the four components of the utaut holistically (michels, bonke, and mußhoff, 2019; ayaz and yanartas, 2020), others have introduced new constructs to further assess diverse acceptance issues. cabrerasánchez and villarejoramos (2019) introduced the dimension of resistance to use (ru) and perceived risks (pr) to use as key areas to consider in assessing the factors affecting bda adoption. it was noted that the aspect of resistance to use involves negative reactions to the implementation of bda. several studies have affirmed that resistance from the workforce and unions is a crucial factor affecting the adoption of digital technologies such as bda within the construction industry (alaghbandrad, et al., 2011; vaduvasahhanoglu, calbureanupopescu, and smid, 2016; oke, et al., 2018; ikuabe, et al., 2020). similarly, the introduction of innovative processes and technologies such as bda that threaten processes that work or have been working for years is often perceived as a risky act (hwang, trupp, and liu, 2003; vass and gustavsson, 2017). therefore, the perception of the risk involved in adopting bda might be a significant yardstick to measure construction organisations’ intention to use the technology (cabrera sánchez and villarejoramos, 2019). based on the above, this study draws from cabrerasánchez and villarejoramos (2019) submission in assessing the factors influencing construction organisations’ intention to use bda using six constructs of pe, ee, si, fc, ru, and pr. methodology a postpositivism philosophical perspective with a deductive approach was adopted for this study. using a questionnaire survey, quantitative data were gathered from construction organisations. this approach was selected due to its ability to cover a wide range of participants within a short time frame and also be able to provide quantifiability and objectiveness in research (tan, 2011). these organisations are registered with the construction industry development board (cidb) in gauteng province, south africa. the premise for conducting the study in this province is that the province houses many construction organisations, with a lot of construction work being carried out daily (cidb, 2019). the cidb construction monitor reported a significant number (4070) of construction organisations registered within the province (cidb, 2019). these 4070 construction organisations formed the target population for this study. these organisations are involved in contracting, general subcontracting, and specialised subcontracting. using cochran’s sample size equation, this total target sample was reduced to 352 at a 95% confidence level and a ±5% margin of error with a 0.5 estimated proportion of the population. construction professionals were selected to represent each organisation using convenience sampling. the questionnaire used was designed in two sections as seen in appendix 1. the first section was on the respondents’ background information, and information gathered was used to determine the respondents’ suitability for the study. the second section focused on the six different dimensions of the utaut with the questions designed to understand the factors influencing these organisations intention to adopt bda as proposed in cabrerasánchez and villarejoramos (2019). a description of bda was given in this section to ensure a general understanding of the concept among the respondents. this section adopted a 5point likert scale, with 5 being very high influence and 1 being a very low influence. the questionnaire was electronically distributed among the targeted organisations. a valid response of 110 was retrieved and deemed fit for data analyses. this represents a response rate of 31.3 per cent, which was considered adequate following moser and kalton (1999) submissions that a response rate of below 2030 per cent might be considered as biased and of little significance. the analysis of the data gathered on the respondent’s background information was done using percentage and frequency. the reliability of the questionnaire was also tested using cronbach’s alpha (α) test. moser and kalton (1999) noted that this test is suitable for measuring a questionnaire’s reliability. the test gives an αvalue of between 0 and 1, and the higher value, the more reliable the questionnaire. for this study, aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021266 αvalues of between 0.834 and 0.903 (see table 1) were derived, and this shows that the instrument used is reliable. the difference in the view from the different types of organisations (contracting, general sub contracting, and specialised subcontracting) was also assessed using kruskalwallis htest (kw). the kw test is a nonparametric test used in ascertaining the significant difference in the view of three or more groups (pallant, 2005), as in this present study. the kw test revealed that out of the 28 variables measured under the six categories, only two had a pvalue < 0.05. this implies that there is a convergent view among the respondents from the different organisations with respect to 26 variables, but a significant disparity exists in the way they view ‘bda is easy to understand’ (ee1) and ‘resistance to change in using bda for decision making’ (ru2). to determine the factors with greater impact on construction organisations intention to adopt bda, fuzzy synthetic evaluation (fse), an application fuzzy set theory (zhao, hwang, and gao, 2016), was adopted. this approach’s choice was premised on the ability of fuzzy set theory to solve issues surrounding ambiguity, subjectivity, and poor precision in the judgment of problems (pedrycz, ekel, and parreiras, 2011; zhao, hwang, and low, 2013). fuzzy set theory can precisely and objectively explain and quantify information that is not correctly defined, adopting linguistic variables and terms to create distinctive imprecision in the human cognitive process (wuni, et al., 2020). studies have shown that with the fuzzy set theory, mathematical operators can be applied to the fuzzy domain, and the linguistic facet of available data can be quantified. furthermore, through fuzzy set theory, preferences for individual or group decision making can be achieved (zimmermann, 2001; xia, chan, and yeung, 2011; ma and kremer, 2015). fse within the fuzzy set theory has been described as an approach that helps assess multiple criteria decision making (xu, et al., 2010). the adoption of fse for this study was premised on the need to determine the synthetic evaluation of the factors influencing construction organisations intention to adopt bda in a fuzzy decision environment with multiple criteria (mu, et al., 2014). moreover, this analysis approach has been adopted in different built environment research to solve complex issues (ameyaw and chan, 2015; aghimien, et al., 2020; wuni, et al., 2020). results background information the respondents’ background information revealed 60% of the respondents were from contracting organisations, while general and specialist subcontractors accounted for 20.9% and 19.1% respectively. this is expected as contracting organisations form the bulk of organisations registered with the cidb from whence the target population for this study was drawn (cidb, 2020). the representatives of these various construction organisations comprised architects (11.8%), construction managers and construction project managers (34.6%), engineers (33.6%), and quantity surveyors (20%). the majority of these respondents (48.2%) have a bachelor’s degree, while 31.8% have a diploma. the remaining 20% possesses a master’s degree. in terms of years of experience, 42.7% have up to five years of working experience, while the remaining 57.3% have above five years. on average, the respondents for this study have 7.2 years of working experience in the south african construction industry. with adequate clarification given on the concept of bda, the level of usage revealed that 58% have never used it in their organisations, while 24.5% stated that it is rarely used. also, while 11% noted that it is sometimes used in their organisations, only 6.4% submitted that it is used always. these results revealed that this study’s information was gathered from respondents with adequate academic background and a significant amount of experience in the industry to give reasonable answers to the study’s questions. it further suggested that while bda might be a beneficial tool, most organisations in the study area are yet to embrace its adoption. aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021267 factors influencing construction organisations intention to adopt bda while the level of adoption is low as seen in the background information, understanding the factors that might improve this level of usage was important. thus, table 1 shows the factors assessed in the questionnaire survey. the respondents were asked to rate the subvariables under each factor based on their level of influence. based on the data gathered, analyses were done. table 1. factors influencing construction organisations intention to adopt bda code factors performance expectancy pe1 bda is useful to carry out the tasks of our organisations pe2 bda offers faster delivery of tasks in our organisations pe3 bda can help improve productivity pe4 bda can help improve overall performance pe5 bda offers easy access the clients need pe6 bda offers the use of quality information for organisational growth pe7 bda offers valuable information on clients effort expectancy ee1 bda is easy to understand ee2 bda is easy to use ee3 bda is easy to learn ee4 generating valuable data will be easy using bda social influence si1 bda is used by our competitors si2 bda offers a better competitive advantage si3 bda offers innovativeness si4 using bda will improve the status of our organisation facilitating conditions fc1 availability of technology needed fc2 availability of technical knowledge required fc3 compatibility with other organisations activities fc4 availability of trained staff to handle bda resistance to use ru1 resistance to change in method of data analysis in the organisation ru2 resistance to change in using bda for decision making aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021268 code factors ru3 resistance to change in using bda as a means of interaction among professionals ru4 resistance to change in using bda to change the method of service delivery perceived risk pr1 investment risk pr2 privacy risk pr3 performance risk pr4 time risk pr5 psychological risk the result in table 2 shows the mean score, chisquare (c2) and pvalue derived from the kw test, the αvalue, and the weighting for each factor assessed. fse in this study was done in three levels starting from level three to level one. level three evaluates the different subvariables, while level two determined the criticality of the latent factors. the first level shows the overall index of the factors influencing organisations intention to adopt bda. in developing the suitable weightings for the factors (6) and their subvariables (28), equation one was adopted, and the results are presented in table 2. wi = mj ∑i=1 mj 5 (1) where: wi is the weightings of each dimension or subattributes mj is the mean rating of each dimension or subattributes ∑mj is the summation of mean ratings of all dimensions or subattributes using performance expectancy as an example, this factor has a total mean of 29.28. the first variable, pe1, has a mean score of 4.15. to derive the suitable weighting for this variable, equation two was adopted. this same approach was adopted for all other variables assessed. wpe1 = 4.15 4.15+4.24+4.22+4.21+4.21+4.14+4.12 = 4.15 29.28 = 0.14 (2) the total weight for each main factor can also be derived using a similar approach, as seen in equation three. wpe = = 115.49 = 0.2529.28 29.28 29.28+16.27+16.73+6.78+16.20+20.23 (3) after determining the suitable weightings, the next step in the fse was to determine the membership function of the main factors and subvariables. following the xu, et al. (2010) submission, the basic factors can be written as f = {f1, f2, f3, …, …, …, f28}, while the grading alternatives are e = {1,2,3,4,5} based on the 5point likert scale adopted. equation 4 shows how the different membership function seen in table 3 were computed. still using the performance expectancy and the first subvariables as an example, the percentage response shows that while only 3% of the respondents believe that the subvariable ‘bda is table 1. continued aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021269 table 2. kruskalwallis, mean ratings and weightings of the factors influencing construction organisations intention to adopt bda main factors sub variables c2 sig. α mean weighting total mean total weighting performance expectancy pe1 0.991 0.803 0.903 4.15 0.14 29.28 0.25 pe2 2.579 0.461 4.24 0.14 pe3 1.335 0.721 4.22 0.14 pe4 4.433 0.218 4.21 0.14 pe5 1.633 0.652 4.21 0.14 pe6 0.747 0.862 4.14 0.14 pe7 3.544 0.315 4.12 0.14 effort expectancy ee1 10.107 0.018** 0.863 3.99 0.25 16.27 0.14 ee2 4.776 0.189 4.02 0.25 ee3 6.606 0.086 4.14 0.25 ee4 0.181 0.981 4.13 0.25 social influence si1 5.077 0.166 0.834 4.07 0.24 16.73 0.14 si2 0.780 0.854 4.19 0.25 si3 1.559 0.669 4.22 0.25 si4 3.030 0.387 4.25 0.25 facilitating conditions fc1 1.769 0.622 0.837 4.32 0.26 16.78 0.15 fc2 0.531 0.912 4.28 0.26 fc3 3.824 0.281 4.14 0.25 fc4 1.036 0.793 4.05 0.24 resistance to use ru1 2.064 0.559 0.870 4.06 0.25 16.20 0.14 ru2 10.450 0.015** 4.02 0.25 ru3 4.475 0.215 4.03 0.25 ru4 1.256 0.740 4.09 0.25 perceived risk pr1 2.810 0.422 0.899 4.04 0.20 20.23 0.18 pr2 1.361 0.715 4.11 0.20 pr3 1.370 0.713 4.05 0.20 pr4 3.333 0.343 4.07 0.20 pr5 3.174 0.366 3.95 0.20 total 115.49 1.00 note: ** significant at p < 0.05 aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021270 useful to carry out the tasks of our organisations (pe1)’ has very low influence, 52% noted that it has a very high influence in their organisation’s intention to adopt bda. thus, the membership function of this factor can be calculated, as seen in equation four. this membership function can be expressed as (0.03, 0.04, 0.05, 0.52, 0.36) as evident in table 3. pe1 = 0.03 very low low average high very high + 0.04 + 0.05 + 0.52 + 0.36 = 0.03 1 + 0.04 2 + 0.05 3 + 0.52 4 + 0.36 5 (4) table 3. membership function of the factors influencing construction organisations intention to adopt bda main factors sub variables weighting membership function level 3 membership function level 2 performance expectancy pe1 0.14 (0.03, 0.04, 0.05, 0.52, 0.36) (0.02, 0.03, 0.07, 0.50, 0.38) pe2 0.14 (0.01, 0.03, 0.06, 0.52, 0.38) pe3 0.14 (0.03, 0.02, 0.07, 0.47, 0.41) pe4 0.14 (0.01, 0.04, 0.06, 0.52, 0.37) pe5 0.14 (0.03, 0.03, 0.06, 0.47, 0.41 pe6 0.14 (0.02, 0.05, 0.09, 0.47, 0.37) pe7 0.14 (0.03, 0.03, 0.09, 0.51, 0.35) effort expectancy ee1 0.25 (0.02, 0.05, 0.16, 0.45, 0.32) (0.02, 0.05, 0.13, 0.44, 0.36) ee2 0.25 (0.03, 0.03, 0.14, 0.46, 0.33) ee3 0.25 (0.03, 0.05, 0.12, 0.35, 0.45) ee4 0.25 (0.02, 0.04, 0.10, 0.49, 0.35) social influence si1 0.24 (0.02, 0.05, 0.11, 0.47, 0.35) (0.02, 0.04, 0.09, 0.47, 0.39) si2 0.25 (0.01, 0.03, 0.11, 0.47, 0.38) si3 0.25 (0.02, 0.05, 0.03, 0.49, 0.41) si4 0.25 (0.02, 0.02, 0.10, 0.43, 0.44) facilitating conditions fc1 0.26 (0.02, 0.03, 0.05, 0.44, 0.47) (0.02, 0.04, 0.07, 0.44, 0.42) fc2 0.26 (0.02, 0.03, 0.04, 0.49, 0.43) fc3 0.25 (0.04, 0.05, 0.06, 0.43, 0.42) fc4 0.24 (0.03, 0.06, 0.12, 0.42, 0.37) aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021271 main factors sub variables weighting membership function level 3 membership function level 2 resistance to use ru1 0.25 (0.02, 0.07, 0.12, 0.41, 0.38) (0.02, 0.07, 0.13, 0.42, 0.36) ru2 0.25 (0.02, 0.07, 0.14, 0.42, 0.35) ru3 0.25 (0.01, 0.07, 0.14, 0.45, 0.34) ru4 0.25 (0.03, 0.05, 0.12, 0.43, 0.38) perceived risk pr1 0.20 (0.04, 0.03, 0.12, 0.50, 0.32) (0.03, 0.06, 0.10, 0.45, 0.36) pr2 0.20 (0.02, 0.05, 0.11, 0.46, 0.36) pr3 0.20 (0.02, 0.08, 0.10, 0.43, 0.37) pr4 0.20 (0.04, 0.07, 0.09, 0.38, 0.42) pr5 0.20 (0.04, 0.08, 0.10, 0.45, 0.33) having evaluated the subvariables in level three and the criticality of the main factors in level two, the next step was to determine the model that best explains the factors influencing the intention to adopt bda among construction organisations. past studies have explored different model approaches with unique characteristics in the fuzzy environment. xu, et al. (2010) and chan, et al. (2011) suggested that the most suitable model can be adopted when many factors are being considered, and the difference in their weight is minimal is given below in equation five. m(·, å), bj = min (1, ∑i=1 wi × rij) bj îbam (5) where wi = the weighting of a factor affecting smart city attainment rij = the membership function of a factor affecting smart city attainment ⊕ = the sum of the product of weighting and membership function using the above equation, level one which gives the overall index of the factors influencing construction organisations decision to adopt bda can be attained by: (0.25x0.02+0.14x0.02+0.14x0.02+0.15x0.02+0.14x0.02+0.18x0.03, 0.25x0.03+0.14x0.05+0.14x0.04+0.15x0.04+0.14x0.07+0.18x0.06, 0.25x0.07+0.14x0.13+0.14x0.09+0.15x0.07+0.14x0.13+0.18x0.10, 0.25x0.50+0.14x0.44+0.14x0.47+0.15x0.44+0.14x0.42+0.18x0.45, 0.25x0.38+0.14x0.36+0.14x0.039+0.15x0.42+0.14x0.36+0.18x0.36) = (0.02 0.05, 0.09, 0.46, 0.38). therefore, the membership function of the factors influencing construction organisations adoption of bda at level one can be expressed as (0.02 0.05, 0.09, 0.46, 0.38). using this result, the overall impact of the identified factors on organisations’ intentions to adopt can be derived using equation six. oil = ∑k=1 (w × rk) × l5 (6) table 3. continued aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021272 where; oil = overall impact level w = the weighting of each factor assessed r = the degree of membership function of each factor assessed l = is the linguistic variable (1=very low, 2=low, 3=average, 4=high, 5=very high) therefore oil = 0.02x1 + 0.05x2 + 0.09x3 + 0.46x4 + 0.38x5 = 4.13 the impact shows that the identified six factors and 26 variables will have a high influence (4.13) on construction organisations’ intention to adopt bda. this same approach can be used to calculate each factor’s level of impact to derive the impact level in figure 1. the figure further shows that the six different factors will individually highly influence the adoption of bda. chief of these factors are variables relating to facilitating conditions (4.20), performance expectancy (4.18), and social influence (4.18). however, issues surrounding effort expectancy (4.07), resistance to use (4.05) and perceived risk (4.05) cannot be overlooked as they also have high impact levels. figure 1. level of the impact of each factor on the behavioural intention of construction organisations to use bda. discussion this study has revealed that the six dimensions of the utaut highly impact construction organisation’s intention to adopt bda. more critical is the facilitating conditions such as the availability of technology, technical knowledge, trained staff to handle bda, and compatibility with other organisation activities. these findings resonate with past submissions that have noted that the facilitation conditions within any organisation will significantly influence the behavioural intention and actual usage of new technologies (alharbi, 2014; cabrerasánchez and villarejoramos, 2019; ayaz and yanartas, 2020). therefore, having the right technologies and the right expertise is needed to shape their intention to use bda. this aspect needs to be given significant attention as construction organisations have been described as lacking in technology availability and technical knowledge shortage (windapo and cattell, 2010; elkhalifa, 2016; aghimien, et al., 2018; oke, et al., 2018). aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021273 also, performance expectancy and social influence must be given adequate attention as they also contribute significantly to shaping the intention of construction organisations to use bda. by showcasing the importance of bda in improving construction organisations’ performance and ensuring the development of the industry, the behavioural intention of these organisations can be shaped from the proof of effective delivery of products and services emanating from the adoption of bda. this is because past studies have averred that performance expectancy plays a crucial role in how organisations or individuals will perceive the usefulness of technology and whether they will be encouraged to adopt it or not (afonso, et al., 2012; chauhan and jaiswal, 2016; cabrerasánchez and villarejoramos, 2019). similarly, competitors’ role cannot be overemphasised as organisations have been observed to adopt new technologies while mimicking their competitors whilst staying ahead or within the competition (awa, ojiabo, and orokor, 2017; quinton, et al., 2018). the use of bda by competitors and complementors might go a long way in influencing construction organisations’ behavioural intention to use this technology. hence, the social influence on the use of bda on construction organisations should be carefully considered by any organisations hoping to gain a better competitive advantage through bda (venkatesh et al., 2003; afonso, et al., 2012). conclusion this study assessed the factors influencing construction organisations behavioural intention to adopt bda using south africa as a case study. by adopting the utaut, the study concludes that the intention to use bda in construction organisations is impacted significantly by the facilitation conditions available within the organisation, the organisation’s performance expectations, and the societal influence. however, consideration must also be given to effort expectancy, perceived risk, and resistance to use. they also play a crucial part in the behavioural intention of construction organisations to use bda. the question today is not about whether to adopt technology but how to go about it, as technological advancement has been noted to offer solutions to longterm construction problems. therefore, top management within construction organisations must be willing to invest in bda, its ancillary technologies, and the training of staff to handle these technologies, if the inherent benefits of bda are to be derived. proper enlightening of construction participants and organisations regarding the usefulness of bda to their service delivery is also essential for improving their performance expectations. technology companies and professional bodies can drive this awareness through a series of workshops, seminars and conferences. regulatory bodies such as the cidb can drive the use of bda and other technologies through legislation and supports for construction organisations that may not fund these technologies or acquire the expertise needed. government support through the provision of incentives for the use of bda on public projects can also go a long way in encouraging adoption since the government is the biggest client of the construction industry. practically, this study provides insight into the factors that could influence construction organisations behavioural intention to adopt bda. construction organisations can benefit from the understanding of the factors they need to consider if they are to derive the positive outcomes of adopting bda in their organisation. theoretically, the study provides an excellent background for future research on bda adoption. the submission of the study hopes to further the discourse on the digital transformation of the construction industry through the use of innovations such as bda by drawing from the perspective of a developing country like south africa where such studies are practically nonexistent. however, the study’s findings are limited by factors such as the geographical scope and the methodology adopted. while the study was conducted in gauteng province, the findings cannot be generalised for the entire country as several constraints within individual locality may influence the outcome of the study in other provinces. therefore, further studies can be done in other provinces to get a more comprehensive view of the factors under assessment. also, further studies can be conducted to assess the level of adoption of bda across the different sizes of construction organisations (small, medium and large), as the size of the organisation aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021274 might influence their level of capability to handle bda. other methodologies such as qualitative or mixed method approaches can also be used to get interpretivist and pragmatic perspectives. furthermore, this study adopted fse to ascertain the factors influencing construction organisations’ behavioural intention to adopt bda. the significant impact of each factor on the actual usage of this technology can be conducted using other analytical approaches such as multiple linear regression analysis and structural equation modelling. references addotenkorang, r. and helo, p.t., 2016. big data applications in operations/supplychain management: a literature review. computers and industrial engineering, [ejournal] 101, pp.52843. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2016.09.023 afonso, c. m., roldan, j.l., sanchezfranco, m. and gonzalez, m.o., 2012. the moderator role of gender in the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology utaut: a study on users of electronic document management systems. in: proceeding of the 7th international conference on partial least squares and related methods. houston, texas usa, 1922 may 2012, pp.18. aghimien, d.o, aigbavboa, c.o, oke, a. e. and koloko n., 2018. digitalisation in the south african construction industry. in: proceeding of the fourth australasia and southeast asia structural engineering and construction conference. brisbane, queensland, australia, 35 december, con14, pp.16. https://doi.org/10.14455/isec.res.2018.90 aghimien, d.o., aigbavboa, c.o., edwards, d.j., mahamadu, a., olomolaiye, p., hazel, n. and onyia, m., 2020. a fuzzy synthetic evaluation of the challenges of smart city development in developing countries. smart and sustainable built environment, [ejournal] https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe0620200092 aghimien, d.o. and awodele, o.a., 2017. variability of cost and time delivery of educational buildings in nigeria. international journal of built environment and sustainability, [ejournal] 4(3), pp.156164. https://doi.org/10.11113/ ijbes.v4.n3.208 aghimien, d.o., aigbavboa, c.o. and thwala, w.d., 2019. microscoping the challenges of sustainable construction in developing countries. journal of engineering, design and technology, [ejournal] 176, pp.111028. https://doi. org/10.1108/jedt0120190002 ahiagadagbui, d.d. and smith, s.d., 2013. my cost runneth over: data mining to reduce construction cost overruns. in: s. d. smith and d. d. ahiagadagbui, eds. proceedings of the 29th annual arcom conference. nottingham, united kingdom, 24 september 2013, pp.55968. alaghbandrad, a., nobakht, m., hossenalipour, m. and asnaashari, e., 2011. ict adoption in the iranian construction industry: barriers and opportunities. in: proceedings of the 28th international symposium on automation and robotics in construction, seoul, korea, june 29july 2, pp.28085. https://doi.org/10.22260/isarc2011/0050 alharbi, s.t., 2014. trust and acceptance of cloud computing: a revised utaut model. in: proceedings of the 2014 international conference on computational science and computational intelligence. las vegas, nv, usa, 1013 march 2014, pp.13134. https://doi.org/10.1109/csci.2014.107 ali, a.s. and wen, k.h., 2011. building defects: possible solutions for poor construction workmanship. journal of building performance. 21, pp.5969. ameyaw, e.e. and chan, a.p.c., 2015. evaluation and ranking of risk factors in publicprivate partnership water supply projects in developing countries using fuzzy synthetic evaluation approach. expert systems with applications, [ejournal] 42(12), pp.510216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2015.02.041 arbaugh, j.b., 2010. multidisciplinary and programlevel research in online business education. in: arbaugh j. ed. online and blended business education for the 21st century. sawston, united kingdom: woodhead publishing ltd., pp.1946. https://doi.org/10.1016/b9781843346036.500023 aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021275 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2016.09.023 https://doi.org/10.14455/isec.res.2018.90 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-06-2020-0092 https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v4.n3.208 https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v4.n3.208 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-01-2019-0002 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-01-2019-0002 https://doi.org/10.22260/isarc2011/0050 https://doi.org/10.1109/csci.2014.107 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2015.02.041 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-1-84334-603-6.50002-3 asastani, h.l., kusumawardhana, v.h. and warnars, h.l.h.s., 2018. factors affecting the usage of mobile commerce using technology acceptance model tam and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology utaut. in: 2018 indonesian association for pattern recognition international conference, jakarta, indonesia, 78 september 2018, pp.32228. https://doi.org/10.1109/inapr.2018.8627003 awa, h.o., ojiabo, o.o. and orokor, l.e., 2017. integrated technologyorganisationenvironment toe taxonomies for technology adoption. journal of enterprise information management, [ejournal] 30(6), pp.89321. https://doi. org/10.1108/jeim0320160079 ayaz, a., and yanartas¸ m., 2020. an analysis on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology theory utaut: acceptance of electronic document management system edms. computers in human behavior reports, [e journal] 2, pp.17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2020.100032 bagheri, b., yang, s., kao, h.a. and lee, j., 2015. cyberphysical systems architecture for selfaware machines in industry 4.0 environment, ifac papersonline [ejournal] 48(3), pp.1622– 27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ifacol.2015.06.318 berger, r. 2016. digitisation in the construction industry. think act. [online] available at: https://www.rolandberger. com/publications/publication_pdf/tab_digitization_construction_industry_e_final.pdf [accessed 06 july 2021]. bilal, m., oyedele, l.o, akinade, o.o, ajayi, s.o., alaka, h.a., owolabi, h.a., qadir, j., pasha, m. and bello, s.a., 2016. big data architecture for construction waste analytics cwa: a conceptual framework. journal of building engineering, [ejournal] 6, pp.14456. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2016.03.002 cabrerasánchez, j. and villarejoramos, a.f., 2019. factors affecting the adoption of big data analytics in companies. journal of business management, [ejournal] 596, pp.41529. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0034759020190607 chahal, h. and gulia, p., 2016. big data analytics. research journal of computer and information technology sciences, 4(2), pp.14. chan, j.h.l., chan, d.w.m., chan, a.p.c., lam, p.t.i. and yeung, j.f.y., 2011. developing a fuzzy risk assessment model for guaranteed maximum price and target cost contracts in construction. journal of facilities management, [e journal] 9(1), pp.3451. https://doi.org/10.1108/14725961111105709 charness, n. and boot, w.r., 2016. technology, gaming, and social networking. in: schair, k.w. and willis, s.l. eds. handbook of the psychology of aging. 8th ed. amsterdam, netherlands: elsevier inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978012 4114692.000200 chauhan, s., and jaiswal, m., 2016. determinants of acceptance of erp software training in business schools: empirical investigation using utaut model. international journal of management education, [ejournal] 143, pp.248262. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2016.05.005 che, d., safran, m.s. and peng, z., 2013. from big data to big data mining: challenges, issues, and opportunities. in: hong b., meng x., chen l., winiwarter w., song w., eds database systems for advanced applications. lecture notes in computer science. berlin, heidelberg: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/9783642402708_1 chiocha, c., smallwood, j., and emuze, f., 2011. health and safety in the malawian construction industry. journal of acta structilia, 181, pp.6880. construction industry development board (cidb), 2019. construction monitor – transformation, q4. [online] available at: http://www.cidb.org.za/publications/documents/construction%20monitor,%20transformation%202020. pdf [accessed 22 december 2020]. construction industry development board (cidb), 2020. report on the impact of covid19 on the south african construction industry. [online] available at: http://www.cidb.org.za/publications/documents/cidb%20covid19%20 research%20report.pdf [accessed 06 july 2021]. aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021276 https://doi.org/10.1109/inapr.2018.8627003 https://doi.org/10.1108/jeim-03-2016-0079 https://doi.org/10.1108/jeim-03-2016-0079 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chbr.2020.100032 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2015.06.318 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2015.06.318 https://www.rolandberger.com/publications/publication_pdf/tab_digitization_construction_industry_e_final.pdf https://www.rolandberger.com/publications/publication_pdf/tab_digitization_construction_industry_e_final.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2016.03.002 https://doi.org/10.1590/s0034-759020190607 https://doi.org/10.1108/14725961111105709 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-411469-2.00020-0 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-411469-2.00020-0 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2016.05.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2016.05.005 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40270-8_1 http://www.cidb.org.za/publications/documents/construction%20monitor,%20transformation%202020.pdf http://www.cidb.org.za/publications/documents/construction%20monitor,%20transformation%202020.pdf http://www.cidb.org.za/publications/documents/cidb%20covid-19%20research%20report.pdf http://www.cidb.org.za/publications/documents/cidb%20covid-19%20research%20report.pdf daniel, b., 2014. big data and analytics in higher education: opportunities and challenges. british journal of educational technology, [ejournal] 46(5), pp.117. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12230 delgado, j.m., oyedele, l., ajayi, a., akanbi, l., akinade, o., bilal, m. and owolabi, h., 2019. robotics and automated systems in construction: understanding industry specific challenges for adoption. journal of building engineering, [ejournal] 26, pp.1– 11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2019.100868 de mauro, a., greco, m. and grimaldi, m., 2016. a formal definition of big data based on its essential features. library review, [ejournal] 65(3), pp.122135. https://doi.org/10.1108/lr0620150061 donmezturan, a., 2019. does unified theory of acceptance and use of technology utaut reduce resistance and anxiety of individuals towards a new system? kybernetes, [ejournal] 49(5), pp.138105. https://doi.org/10.1108/k08 20180450 elkhalifa, a. a., 2016. the magnitude of barriers facing the development of the construction and building materials industries in developing countries, with special reference to sudan in africa. habitat international, [ejournal] 54 (3), pp.18998. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2015.11.023 freitas, l.a.r.u. and magrini, a., 2017. waste management in industrial construction: investigating contributions from industrial ecology. sustainability, [ejournal] 9(7), pp.117. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9071251 hager, i., golonka, a. and putanowicz, r., 2016. 3d printing of buildings and building components as the future of sustainable construction? procedia engineering, [ejournal] 151, pp.29299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. proeng.2016.07.357 haupt, t.c. and harinarain, n., 2016. the image of the construction industry and its employment attractiveness. acta structilia, [ejournal] 23(2), pp.79108. https://doi.org/10.18820/24150487/as23i2.4 howard, r., restrepo, l. and chang, c., 2017. addressing individual perceptions: an application of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology to building information modelling. international journal of project management, [e journal] 35(2), pp.10720. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.10.012 hwang, s., trupp, t. and liu, l., 2003. needs and trends of itbased construction field data collection. fourth joint international symposium on information technology in civil engineering 1516 november 2003, nashville, tennessee, united states. https://doi.org/10.1061/40704(2003)7 ikuabe, m., aghimien, d.o., aigbavboa, c.o. and oke, a.e., 2020. inhibiting factors to the adoption of digital technologies in the south african construction industry. in: proceedings of the 5th research conference of the nigerian institute of quantity surveyors (recon 5), niger state, nigeria, 910 november 2020, pp.45561. isaias, p., reis, f., coutinho, c. and lencastre, j.a., 2017. empathic technologies for distance/mobile learning: an empirical research based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology utaut. interactive technology and smart education, [ejournal] 142, pp.159– 80. https://doi.org/10.1108/itse0220170014 jin, x., wah, b.w., cheng, x. and wang, y., 2015. significance and challenges of big data research. big data research, [ejournal] 2(2), pp.5964. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bdr.2015.01.006 khatun f., palas, m.u. and ray, p.k., 2017. using the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology model to analyse cloudbased mhealth service for primary care. digit med, [ejournal] 3, pp.6975. https://doi.org/10.4103/ digm.digm_21_17 koseleva, n. and ropaite, g., 2017. big data in building energy efficiency: understanding of big data and main challenges. procedia engineering, [ejournal] 172, pp.544549. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.02.064 aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021277 https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12230 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2019.100868 https://doi.org/10.1108/lr-06-2015-0061 https://doi.org/10.1108/k-08-2018-0450 https://doi.org/10.1108/k-08-2018-0450 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2015.11.023 https://doi.org/10.3390/su9071251 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.07.357 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.07.357 https://doi.org/10.18820/24150487/as23i2.4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.10.012 https://doi.org/10.1061/40704(2003)7 https://doi.org/10.1108/itse-02-2017-0014 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bdr.2015.01.006 https://doi.org/10.4103/digm.digm_21_17 https://doi.org/10.4103/digm.digm_21_17 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.02.064 hampson, k.d., kraatz, j.a. and sanchez, a.x., 2014. the global construction industry and r&d. in: kraatz, hampson, and sanchez, eds. the global construction industry and r&d. oxfordshire, united kingdom: routledge. pp.423. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315774916 laryea, s. and mensah, s., 2010. the evolution of indigenous contractors in ghana. in: laryea, s., leiringer, r. and hughes, w., eds. proceedings of the west africa built environment research (waber) conference, accra, ghana, 2728 july 2010, pp.57988. lu w., chen x., peng y. and liu x., 2018. the effects of green building on construction waste minimisation: triangulating ‘big data’ with ‘thick data’. waste management, [ejournal] 79, pp.14252. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. wasman.2018.07.030 ma, j. and kremer, g.e.o., 2015. a fuzzy logicbased approach to determine product component endoflife option from the views of sustainability and designer’s perception. journal of cleaner production, [ejournal] 108 (a), pp. 289 300. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.08.029 manyika, j., chui, m., brown, b., bughim, j., dobbs, r., roxburgh, c. and byers, a.h., 2011. big data: the next frontier for innovation, competition, and productivity. [online] available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/business functions/mckinseydigital/ourinsights/bigdatathenextfrontierforinnovation# [accessed 6 july 2021]. mcafee, a. and brynjolfsson, e., 2012. big data: the management revolution. harvard business review, 9(1), pp.6168. https://doi.org/10.1111/npqu.11362 michels, m., bonke, v. and mußhoff, o., 2019. understanding the adoption of crop protection smartphone apps – an application of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology. dare discussion papers 1905, georgaugust university of göttingen, department of agricultural economics and rural development (dare). moser, c.a. and kalton, g., 1999. survey methods in social investigation. 2nd ed. aldershot, england: gower publishing company. moynihan g.p., chau a., vereen s. and batson r.g., 2017. application of big data in university construction projects. 67th annual conference and expo of the institute of industrial engineers, david l. lawrence convention center pittsburgh, united states, 2023 may 2017, pp.8590. mu, s., cheng, h., chohr, m. and peng, w., 2014. assessing risk management capability of contractors in subway projects in mainland china. international journal of project management, [ejournal] 32(3), pp.45260. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.08.007 nizam, t. and hassan, s.i., 2017. big data: a survey paper on big data innovation and its technology. international journal of advanced research in computer science, [ejournal] 8(5), pp.217377. https://doi.org/10.26483/ijarcs.v8i5.4076 ofori, g., 2000. globalisation and construction industry development: research opportunities. construction management and economics, [ejournal] 18(3), pp.257– 62. https://doi.org/10.1080/014461900370627 oke, a.e., aghimien, d.o., aigbavboa, c.o. and koloko, n., 2018. challenges of digital collaboration in the south african construction industry. in: proceedings of the international conference on industrial engineering and operations management, bandung, indonesia, 68 march 2018, pp. 2472– 82. okoye, p.u, okolie, k.c. and ngwu, c., 2017. multilevel safety intervention implementation strategies for nigeria construction industry. journal of construction engineering, [ejournal] pp.8496. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/8496258 osunsanmi, t.o., aigbavboa, c.o. and oke, a.e., 2018. construction 4.0: the future of south africa construction industry. world academy of science, engineering and technology international journal of civil and environmental engineering, 12(3), pp.20612. othman, i., shafiq, n. and nuruddin m.f., 2017. quality planning in construction project. iop conf. series: materials science and engineering, [ejournal] 291, pp.15. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757899x/291/1/012017 aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021278 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315774916 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2018.07.030 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2018.07.030 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.08.029 https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/big-data-the-next-frontier-for-innovation# https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/big-data-the-next-frontier-for-innovation# https://doi.org/10.1111/npqu.11362 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.08.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.08.007 https://doi.org/10.26483/ijarcs.v8i5.4076 https://doi.org/10.1080/014461900370627 https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/8496258 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/291/1/012017 pallant, j., 2005. spss survival manual: a stepbystep guide to data analysis using spss for windows version 12. 2nd ed. crows nest nsw: allen and unwin. pärn, e.a. and edwards, d.j., 2019. cyber threats confronting the digital built environment: common data environment vulnerabilities and block chain deterrence. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e journal] 26(2), pp.24566. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam0320180101 pärn, e.a., edwards, d.j. and sing, m.c.p., 2018. origins and probabilities of mep and structural design clashes within a federated bim model. automation in construction, [ejournal] 85, pp.20919. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2017.09.010 pedrycz, w., ekel, p. and parreiras, r., 2011. fuzzy multicriteria decisionmaking: models, methods and applications, chichester, uk: john wiley and sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470974032 quinton, s., canhoto, a., molinillo, s., pera, r. and budhathoki, t., 2018. conceptualising a digital orientation: antecedents of supporting sme performance in the digital economy. journal of strategic marketing, [ejournal] 26(5), pp.427– 39. https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254x.2016.1258004 rüßmann, m., lorenz, m., gerbert, p. and waldner, m., 2015. industry 4.0: the future of productivity and growth in manufacturing industries. boston consulting group 2015 report. sakin, m. and kiroglu, y.c., 2017. 3d printing of buildings: construction of the sustainable houses of the future by bim. energy procedia, [ejournal] 134, pp.702– 11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.09.562 schwab, k., 2017. the fourth industrial revolution. 1st ed. new york: crown business. tan, w.c.k., 2011. practical research methods.4th ed. singapore: pearson custom publishing. vaduvasahhanoglu, a., calbureanupopescu, m.x. and smid, s., 2016. automated and robotic construction a solution for the social challenges of the construction sector. revista de stiinte politice, 50, pp.21120. vass, s. and gustavsson, t., 2017. challenges when implementing bim for industry change, construction management and economics, [ejournal] 35(10), pp.59710. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2017.1314519 venkatesh, v., morris, m.g., davis, g.b. and davis, f.d., 2003. user acceptance of information technology: toward a unified view. mis quarterly, [ejournal] 27(3), pp.425– 78. https://doi.org/10.2307/30036540 verma, p. and sinha, n., 2018. integrating perceived economic wellbeing to technology acceptance model: the case of mobile based agricultural extension service. technological forecasting and social change, [ejournal] 126, pp.207– 216. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2017.08.013 windapo, a.o. and cattell, k., 2010. perceptions of key construction and development challenges facing the construction industry in south africa. in: proceeding of the association of schools of construction of southern africa asocsa, fifth built environment conference, durban, south africa, 18– 20 july. wuni, i.y., shen, g.q., oseikyei, r. and agyemanyeboah, s., 2020. modelling the critical risk factors for modular integrated construction projects. international journal of construction management, [ejournal] https://doi.org/10.1080/1 5623599.2020.1763049 xia, b., chan, a.p.c. and yeung, j.f.y., 2011. developing a fuzzy multicriteria decisionmaking model for selecting designbuild operational variations. journal of construction engineering and management, [ejournal] 137(12), pp.117684. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0000381 xu, y., chan, a.p.c., yeung, j.f.y., chan, d.w.m., wang, s. and ke, y., 2010. developing a risk assessment model for ppp projects in china: a fuzzy synthetic evaluation approach. automation in construction, [ejournal] 19(7), pp.92943. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.06.006 aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021279 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-03-2018-0101 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.09.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.09.010 https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470974032 https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254x.2016.1258004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.09.562 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2017.1314519 https://doi.org/10.2307/30036540 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2017.08.013 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1763049 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1763049 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000381 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.06.006 zhao, x., hwang, b. and gao, y., 2016. a fuzzy synthetic evaluation approach for risk assessment: a case of singapore green projects. journal of cleaner production, [ejournal] 115, pp.20313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.11.042 zhao, x., hwang, b.g. and low, s.p., 2013. developing fuzzy enterprise risk management maturity model for construction firms. journal of construction engineering and management, [ejournal] 139(9), pp.117989. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0000712 zhong, r.y., neman, s.t., huag, g.q. and lan, s., 2016. big data for supply chain management in the service and manufacturing sectors: challenges, opportunities, and future perspectives. computers and industrial engineering, [e journal] 101, pp.57291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2016.07.013 zimmermann, h.j., 2001. fuzzy set theory and its applications. 4th ed. boston, ma: kluwer academic publishers. https://doi.org/10.1007/9789401006460 appendix 1: questionnaire sample questionnaire on the factors influencing the intention to adopt big data analytics among construction organisations in south africa instruction: please answer the following questions by crossing (x) on the appropriate block section a background information this section of the questionnaire refers to background information. although we are aware of the sensitivity of the questions in this section, the information will allow us to compare groups of respondents. once again, we assure you that your response will remain anonymous. your cooperation is appreciated. 1. what is your highest academic qualification? matric certificate (grade 12) [ ], diploma [ ], bachelor’s degree [ ], master’s degree [ ], doctorate [ ] 2. what is your professional role in the construction sector? architect [ ], construction manager [ ] construction project manager [ ], engineer [ ], quantity surveyor [ ] 3. how many years of experience do you have in the construction industry? 1 – 5 years [ ], 6 – 10 years [ ], 11– 15years [ ], 1620 years [ ], above 20 years [ ] 4. what is your company’s primary role in the construction sector? contractor [ ], generalist subcontractor [ ], specialist subcontractor [ ] section b: factors influencing the intention to adopt big data analytics among construction organisations in south africa definition: big data analytics (bda) involves gathering and processing large and complex datasets known as big data through the use of appropriate technology to derive useful information for effective decisionmaking. 5. based on your understanding of bda, what is the current level of its usage within your organisation? never [ ], rarely [ ], sometimes [ ], often [ ], always [ ] 6. to what extent will the following factors influence the use of bda in your organisation on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being “very low influence”, 2 being “low influence”, 3 being “average influence”, 4 being “high influence” and 5 being “very high influence.” aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021280 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.11.042 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000712 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000712 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2016.07.013 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-0646-0 factors 1 2 3 4 5 bda offers faster delivery of tasks in organisations 1 2 3 4 5 resistance to change in using bda for decision making 1 2 3 4 5 bda can help improve productivity 1 2 3 4 5 bda can help improve overall performance 1 2 3 4 5 bda is easy to learn 1 2 3 4 5 bda offers easy access the clients need 1 2 3 4 5 performance risk 1 2 3 4 5 bda offers valuable information on clients 1 2 3 4 5 bda is easy to understand 1 2 3 4 5 bda is easy to use 1 2 3 4 5 resistance to change in using bda to change the method of service delivery 1 2 3 4 5 using bda will improve the status of our organisation 1 2 3 4 5 bda is used by our competitors 1 2 3 4 5 psychological risk 1 2 3 4 5 bda offers innovativeness 1 2 3 4 5 bda offers the use of quality information for organisational growth 1 2 3 4 5 time risk 1 2 3 4 5 availability of technical knowledge required 1 2 3 4 5 compatibility with other organisations activities 1 2 3 4 5 availability of trained staff to handle bda 1 2 3 4 5 resistance to change in method of data analysis in organisation 1 2 3 4 5 investment risk 1 2 3 4 5 resistance to change in using bda as a means of interaction among professionals 1 2 3 4 5 bda is useful to carry out tasks in organisations 1 2 3 4 5 availability of technology needed 1 2 3 4 5 privacy risk 1 2 3 4 5 generating valuable data will be easy using bda 1 2 3 4 5 bda offers better competitive advantage 1 2 3 4 5 thank you for taking the time to complete this survey. aghimien, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021281 construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18 copyright: construction economics and building 2016. © 2016 ai lin evelyn teo, george ofori, imelda krisiani tjandra and hanjoon kim. this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 unported (cc by 4.0) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: teo, a.l.e., ofori, g., tjandra, i.k. and kim, h. 2016. design for safety: theoretical framework of the safety aspect of bim system to determine the safety index. construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i4.4873 corresponding author: imelda krisiani tjandra; email imelda.tjandra@gmail.com publisher: university of technology sydney (uts) epress design for safety: theoretical framework of the safety aspect of bim system to determine the safety index ai lin evelyn teo, george ofori, imelda krisiani tjandra and hanjoon kim national university of singapore, singapore abstract despite the safety improvement drive that has been implemented in the construction industry in singapore for many years, the industry continues to report the highest number of workplace fatalities, compared to other industries. the purpose of this paper is to discuss the theoretical framework of the safety aspect of a proposed bim system to determine a safety index. an online questionnaire survey was conducted to ascertain the current workplace safety and health situation in the construction industry and explore how bim can be used to improve safety performance in the industry. a safety hazard library was developed based on the main contributors to fatal accidents in the construction industry, determined from the formal records and existing literature, and a series of discussions with representatives from the workplace safety and health institute (wsh institute) in singapore. the results from the survey suggested that the majority of the firms have implemented the necessary policies, programmes and procedures on workplace safety and health (wsh) practices. however, bim is still not widely applied or explored beyond the mandatory requirement that building plans should be submitted to the authorities for approval in bim format. this paper presents a discussion of the safety aspect of the intelligent productivity and safety system (ipass) developed in the study. ipass is an intelligent system incorporating the buildable design concept, theory on the detection, prevention and control of hazards, and the construction safety audit scoring system (consass). the system is based on the premise that safety should be considered at the design stage, and bim can be an effective tool to facilitate the efforts to enhance safety performance. ipass allows users to analyse and monitor key aspects of the safety performance of the project before the project starts and as the project progresses. keywords: bim, design, ipass, safety, singapore. paper type: research article introduction building information modelling (bim) has been identified as the key technology to improve productivity in the singapore construction industry (bca, 2013). the building and construction authority (bca) has introduced a bim fund as part of the s$250-million construction productivity and capability fund (cpcf) to assist construction companies to improve the levels of productivity in the industry (bca, 2015). bim offers the potential for performance improvement in construction along many parameters. among others, bim can be used to improve safety performance (benjaoran and bhokha, 2010; zhang, et al., 2013; choi, choi and kim, 2014). in singapore, where it is now a compulsory requirement for building plans to be submitted to the authorities for approval in bim format, its https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i4.4873 construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18 teo, ofori, tjandra and kim 2 potential should be maximized. with the long-term goal to achieve zero injury in the construction industry (wsh council, 2010), bim could also be utilised to help realise this objective. the singapore government has been actively promoting the use of bim in the construction industry. moreover, raising productivity in all sectors of the economy has been a top national priority. the government has introduced a number of safety initiatives, with the aim of reducing overall workplace fatalities to 1.8 per 100,000 workers by 2018. despite the safety improvement drive that has been in place in the construction industry in singapore for some decades, the industry continues to report the highest number of workplace fatalities, compared to other industries. taking advantage of the government’s initiatives in raising productivity (of which encouragement of, and support for, bim application is a key part) and reducing workplace fatalities, there are opportunities for construction companies and practitioners to maximise the potential of bim to help improve productivity and safety in the industry. however to date no study has attempted to incorporate the two project parameters together, or which considered the relationship between the two performance parameters. finally, although research has been conducted into the ability of bim to help enhance productivity, the potential of bim to improve both productivity and safety performance has not been fully explored. hence, the research project aimed to develop an intelligent monitoring system which incorporated both the productivity and safety performance criteria using bim for simultaneous exploration. the specific objectives were to: • study the relationship between productivity and safety, and how the application of bim can help to enhance the level of performance on these two project parameters; • assess the current situation of the construction industry in singapore, particularly pertaining to productivity and safety; • ascertain the level of bim implementation in the industry; • study the potential of bim to facilitate the attainment of productivity and safety improvement; and • design a comprehensive monitoring system for improving productivity and safety through the application of bim. this paper reports on part of the larger research project which is presented in figure 1. the paper focuses on how bim could be used to improve safety performance (in the rest of the discussion in this paper, productivity is excluded, that means section 4c and its associated parts in sections 5, 6 and 7 in figure 1 are excluded). the specific objectives of this paper are to: • ascertain the current workplace safety and health (wsh) situation in the construction industry in singapore; • explore how bim can be used to improve safety performance in the industry; and • discuss the development of the safety aspect of the tool, intelligent productivity and safety system (ipass) which was created, and its validation exercise. in the rest of this paper, the first section considers “design for safety with consass assessment”; it is followed by the “potential of bim for improving safety”. the field study and the findings from it are next presented. the “proposed theoretical framework of the safety aspect of ipass” and its validation are then discussed before some concluding remarks are made. construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18 teo, ofori, tjandra and kim 3 figure 1: stages of the entire research project design for safety with consass assessment dfs, which is also referred to as designing for construction safety (dfcs) (behm, 2005a), prevention through design (ptd) (schulte, et al., 2008; ku, 2014), safe design (safe work australia, 2012) and construction hazards prevention through design (chptd) (toole and gambatese, 2008; gangolells, et al. (2010), is the deliberate consideration of construction site safety in the design phase of a project (behm, 2005a). the main notion is that, by addressing safety during the design process, hazards will be eliminated or reduced during construction (behm, 2005a). the focus is also on reducing rework through effective project planning (wsh council, 2015). traditionally, designers have not addressed construction worker safety in their design decisions (gambatese, hinze and haas, 1997) particularly owing to the attitude that construction work is inherently unsafe and a project’s design has no effect on safety (gambatese, hinze and haas, 1997). construction worker safety was often regarded as the sole responsibility of the contractor, although the safety performance on a project may be largely determined by decisions made by the designer (hinze and wiegand, 1992). the consideration of the safety aspects during design was traditionally limited to the end user of the completed facility rather than that of the construction workers (hecker and gambatese, 2003). construction worker safety is often overlooked until the start of the construction phase (gambatese, hinze and haas, 1997). the concept of dfs started to gain attention in the 1990s, with gambatese, hinze and haas (1997) applying the concept in the us construction industry. they incorporated an accumulation of best practices into a “design for construction safety toolbox” that assists designers in recognising project-specific hazards and implementing the design suggestions in a project’s design. the toolbox links the design and construction phases to improve construction worker safety. gangolells, et al. (2010) developed a quantitative methodology that allows designers to 4a 4c 4b construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18 teo, ofori, tjandra and kim 4 evaluate the safety-related performance of designs by comparing the overall safety risk level of various construction designs prior to the construction stage. behm (2005b) and gambatese, behm and rajendran (2008) confirm the link between design and construction safety. toole and gambatese (2008) have identified four specific trajectories that chptd is likely to follow in future: increased prefabrication, increased use of less hazardous materials and systems, increased application of construction engineering, and increased spatial investigation and consideration. in the uk, the concept of dfs was first made a mandatory requirement by law through the construction design and management (cdm) regulations 1994, which came into force in 1995 (zou and sunindijo, 2015). in australia, the work health and safety (whs) act 2011 defined the responsibilities of designers with regards to the health and safety aspects of their designs (zou and sunindijo, 2015). in singapore, the wsh council launched the “guidelines on design for safety in buildings and structures” in 2008. the guidelines seek to bring together stakeholders including client, designers and contractors to help reduce risks at source (wsh council, 2011b). the dfs regulations took effect in august 2014, requiring safety features for workers to be incorporated into the design. the rules apply to projects with contract values of s$10 million and above. safety in the construction industry in singapore has always been a concern, and significant efforts have been made to address it. considering the slow progress of safety improvement in the industry, in early 2015, the wsh council, in consultation with the industry, launched a series of new action plans (wsh council, 2015). the action plans focus on leadership, procurement, dfs training, wsh culture and wsh practices. leadership and commitment by clients and contractors in setting up wsh policies, goals and expectations for all other project players is key in the effort to improve the safety performance of the construction industry. clients, starting with those in the public sector, should consider past wsh performance as part of the criteria for the selection of contractors in tendering exercises for their projects. the wsh council works together with developers, contractors and the professional institutions to develop training programmes to ensure that workers are competent to work safely. clients and contractors work together to build a wsh culture in the industry. sharing of good wsh practices among stakeholders in the industry will help to raise wsh standards. dfs will be strengthened by incorporating it into the curricula of the institutions of higher learning (ihls) and ensuring that sufficient time and resources are provided for the design and execution of every project. consass audits are now mandatory for all construction sites with a contract sum of s$30 million or more (wsh council, 2015). consass is a tool to measure the maturity of the wsh system, aiming at providing a standardized scoring system for the construction industry. consass was aimed at providing an easy cross comparison between worksites in terms of the effectiveness in managing safety and health risks at work on these sites. hence, it was expected to motivate the contractors to strive for improvement in managing safety and health risks at their worksites. evaluation of the maturity profile of each element of the safety and health management system (shms) enables the management of the worksite to focus its attention on the weaker elements so as to improve the overall maturity of their shms. consass also makes it possible for clients to assess the capabilities of each contractor in managing wsh risks before awarding the contracts. consass forms part of the national wsh 2018 strategy, and is under the third strategy, “promoting the benefits of wsh and integrating wsh into business” (wsh council, 2010). under the strategy, clients are encouraged to factor in consass results in their selection of contractors. the aim was to achieve the adoption of consass at all construction sites by 2015, with 80 percent of sites achieving at least consass band iii. the questions in the consass checklist are grouped into four bands which reflect the increasing level of maturity of the elements being audited. the bands are: construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18 teo, ofori, tjandra and kim 5 • band i: whether the shms has a particular provision; • band ii: whether the content of the particular provision is sufficiently comprehensive; • band iii: whether the particular provision is well-implemented on site; and • band iv: best practices the audit checklist of consass was derived from audit questionnaires from the singapore standards for occupational safety and health management system (ss506), code of practice for safety management systems for construction worksites (cp 79) and the universal assessment instrument (uai) published by the american industrial hygiene association (aiha). the questions in the checklist are structured along deming’s plan-do-check-act (pdca) cycle as follows: osh policy (plan), planning (plan), implementation and operation (do), checking and corrective action (check) and management review (act) (wshc, 2008) potential of bim for improving safety bim is a three-dimensional modelling technology and an integrated process that allows the building professionals of various disciplines to share, discuss and explore the building project digitally before it is built. this allows the professionals, especially architects, engineers and contractors, to analyse and resolve potential design clashes before construction begins (bca, 2011). this facilitates better teamwork among the professionals, helping to reduce unnecessary reworks after construction starts on site. bim offers a wide range of benefits at various stages of the construction process. bim has the potential to improve the overall safety performance of the construction project due to the possibility of eliminating potential risks and uncertainty (smith, 2007). from the safety perspective, bim offers a number of benefits which include raising the safety awareness of the team (benjaoran and bhokha, 2010) and identifying the likely conflicts and risks that would have arisen due to the changes in work practices (gu and london, 2010). the ability of bim to enable the detection of possible problems during construction through visualization allows the application of bim to be in accordance with the principle of dfs, which aims to consider safety at the earliest opportunity. in the uk, winfield (2015) argues that the data-rich environment of bim can assist companies to implement the cdm regulations 2015, where everyone involved in a construction project has responsibility for health and safety. the potential of bim to assist project participants in the fulfillment of their cdm duties lies in its ability to carry out simulations to identify the safest construction arrangements or processes, and establish the possible construction hazards. in addition bim databases could be used to track important health and safety information relating to changes in design, materials, equipment and personnel. in the event of an accident, the data in the model could be used in investigations, reducing the time and costs of such investigations and any disputes that may arise. according to zhang et al. (2015a), safety performance in construction is often poor due to the lack of a pro-active or formalized approach to construction safety planning. zhang et al. (2015a) noted that the link between planning for safety and work-task execution is weak because many contractors use two-dimensional drawings in applying hazard-prevention techniques. this may largely impede the realization of worker safety, health and productivity on a construction project. there is a need for an approach to obtain the geometric parameters of the proposed constructed item, visualise the workspace and detect workspace conflicts, and this is enabled by bim and its environment (zhang et al., 2015a). the potential of bim in improving safety in the construction industry has been explored by a number of researchers who developed automated safety checking platforms which are able to detect, and thus help to prevent, work-at-height hazards (benjaoran and bhokha, 2010; zhang, et al., 2013). these systems are able to automatically analyse a building model and suggest necessary construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18 teo, ofori, tjandra and kim 6 preventive safety measures before construction starts. choi et al. (2014) developed a bim-based evacuation system for high-rise and complex buildings. their system allows architects, designers and owners to evaluate the proposed design at the initial planning stage to ensure that the design meets the safety requirements. wetzel and thabet (2015) developed a bim-based framework for safety in facility management using rules algorithm to output safety information. a group of researchers have used rule algorithm to develop construction safety ontology that enabled more effective inquiry on safety knowledge based on rules for job hazard analysis. they found that the links between construction safety management and information models are missing (zhang et al., 2014; zhang et al., 2015b; malekitabar et al., 2016; zou et al., 2016). numerous research works have explored the use of bim to enhance safety performance (see table 1) but none of these studies has attempted to apply the integration of bim, dfs, consass, control measure and hazards identification to enhance safety performance on construction sites. despite the potential of bim for improving safety and the current push from the singapore government to encourage and facilitate the utilization of bim in construction projects, most local firms still use bim purely for simple tasks such as submission of building plans to the authority for approval, and visualization. some firms, however, have embarked on relatively advanced levels of bim for more sophisticated tasks such as clash detection, simulation, estimation, preparation of structural details, and environmental analysis (teo et al, 2015). construction firms do acknowledge the benefits of bim, such as its ability to facilitate communication and coordination, and enable visualization and clash detection. however, in general, (teo et al, 2015) found that the construction firms in singapore are not taking full advantage of bim. field study a systematic investigative process (see figure 1) was carried out to increase current knowledge on bim and safety by discovering new facts in this study. it comprises two general categories: (1) basic research inquiry aimed at increasing scientific knowledge; and (2) applied research effort aimed at using basic research findings for solving problems by developing a new bim-based system. the process used to collect information and data for the purpose of developing the ipass system includes a literature review, interviews, a questionnaire-based survey, and bimsystem-analysis review. another key aspect of the study was an analysis of both present and historical official statistics/information on safety. in the field study, in order to obtain good basic information on the situation in the construction industry in singapore with respect to the issues being investigated, only senior personnel were approached for interviews. they were ceos, directors, bim managers and safety managers who have been involved in the local authorities safety and/or bim initiatives. moreover, on the online questionnaire-based survey, there was a covering letter in which it was indicated that only senior personnel with a certain period of relevant working experience could participate in the survey (section a of the online questionnaire contained a question requesting respondents to indicate the number of years they had worked in the construction industry). the methods employed in this study are deemed to be appropriate to the subject of the research. ipass is based on a study which ascertained the current situation in the industry from interviews and a survey. it uses bim technology to integrate the concepts as well as aspects of application of buildable design, prevention and control of hazards, and safety assessment. the on-line questionnaire survey, from which the information for the part of the field study reported in this paper was obtained, sought to ascertain how senior personnel in singapore’s construction industry perceived: the current practice of safety and bim in the industry, the level of awareness of bim and the potential of bim in improving safety of the industry. in most of the questions in the survey instrument, the respondents were requested to indicate the extent to construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18 teo, ofori, tjandra and kim 7 which they agreed with various statements, on a five-point likert scale. for example, when respondents were asked to rate the extent to which they agreed with each of the statements on the potential of bim, they were required to select a number from 1 to 5, where 1 represented “strongly agree” and 5 stood for “strongly disagree”. in addition, for the firms’ wsh practices, there were two possible responses, which were “yes” and “no”. the respondents were requested to respond to the questions in the survey from the perspective of their firms. table 1: previous research on the application of bim to enhance safety performance phase focus areas outline author (year) design design for safety tool for design suggestions that alert designer when project-specific safety hazard is identified gambatese et al. (1997) design design for safety tool to estimate time, cost and worker safety impacts of specific design and construction process alternatives for projects slaughter (2003) design bim design / rules algorithm algorithms that automatically analyze a building model to detect hazards and suggest preventive measures to users are developed for different cases involving fall-related hazards zhang et al. (2013) design and construction virtual reality / bim 4d explores relationships between construction safety and digital design practices zhou et al. (2012) construction virtual reality database and virtual reality application to allow for a walkthrough to identify hazards and select accident prevention approaches hadikusumo and rowlinson (2002) construction bim 4d (fall hazards only) site organisation to promote safety against falls sulankivi et al. (2009) construction bim 4d/ rules algorithm conceptual model that enables forecasting of safety risks for different trades rozenfeld et al. (2009) construction bim 4d / rules algorithm (fall hazards only) rules-based system that analyzes design information to detect working-at-height hazards benjaoran and bhokha (2010) construction bim 4d / rules algorithm (falls & hazardous environments only) use of real-time location system for worker tracking to provide warnings when one is approaching hazardous areas hammad et al. (2012) construction bim 4d / rules algorithm (falls hazards only) automated safety checking in a 4d simulation application sulankivi et al. (2013) construction rules algorithm identification of accidents, risks and hazards influencing safety of construction workers melzner et al. (2013) construction bim design / bim 4d (fall hazards only) bim-based approach for communicating and implementing construction safety plan azhar and behringer (2013) construction rules algorithm construction site safety knowledge using rules algorithm zhang et al (2014) construction ontology-based modelling (job hazard analysis) development of ontology-based semantic modelling of construction knowledge towards automated safety planning for job hazard analysis zhang et al (2015a) construction fall hazard bim-based fall hazard identification only and prevention in construction planning zhang et al (2015b) construction risk management review of risk management through bim and bim-related technologies zou et al (2016) construction rules checking suggestion of five sets of safety risk drivers that can influence either the probability or standards malekitabar et al (2016) operation and maintenance facility management use of bim-based framework to support safety facility management wetzel and thabet (2015) construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18 teo, ofori, tjandra and kim 8 the target respondents included senior personnel of main contractors and consultants. the main contractors were identified from the bca directory of registered contractors and licensed builders (bca, 2014a). a total of 383 main contractors were selected. the consultants included architects, structural engineers, mechanical and electrical (m&e) engineers, and quantity surveyors. they were identified from the lists of members of the respective professional institutions in singapore, consisting of the singapore institute of architects (sia), association of consulting engineers singapore (aces) and singapore institute of surveyors and valuers (sisv). using this method, a total of 454 consultants were selected. hence, the total number of target respondents was 837. each of the 837 target respondents was sent an e-mail message containing a link to the questionnaire survey in august 2014. 55 e-mail messages bounced back due to the use of the wrong e-mail addresses, 59 usable responses were received, which reflected a response rate of 7.54 per cent (table 2). table 2: response rate respondents population e-mail invitations sent out wrong e-mail addresses correct e-mail addresses usable responses response rate main contractors 2,709 383 22 361 25 6.93% architectural firms 377 323 15 308 15 4.87% structural and m&e engineering firms 142 87 13 74 17 22.97% quantity surveying firms 623 44 5 39 2 5.13% total 3,851 837 55 782 59 7.54% the 59 firms consisted of 25 main contractors, 15 architectural firms, 17 structural and m&e engineering firms, and 2 quantity surveying firms. the respondents who completed the questionnaires for their firms comprised: (i) persons in the upper management level (33.90 per cent); (ii) middle management level personnel (32.20 per cent); and (iii) professionals (33.90 per cent). the respondents were asked to answer the questions from the perspective of their firms’ policies and practices. findings a key research objective was to investigate the wsh practices of the construction industry. moreover, from the review of the literature (wshc, 2010; wshc, 2015; teo et al., 2015) it was found that good wsh practices will lead to good safety performance on site. thus, the respondents were asked questions on the firms’ corporate practices with regard to safety. in answer to a number of “yes” or “no” questions on the firms’ corporate practices with regard to safety, many of the respondents from the 25 main contractors reported that their firms have implemented the necessary policies, programmes and procedures on wsh practices. all the respondents reported that their firms: (i) have policies for the improvement of safety on the firms’ projects (#1 of figure 2); (ii) conduct a periodic review of the firms’ safety policy, vision, mission and/or objectives (#2 of figure 2); (iii) assess the overall wsh performance on the firm's projects (#7 of figure 2); and (iv) have targets of wsh performance levels to achieve on the firm's projects (#10 of figure 2). on the remaining questions, only one to three firms did not have such practices. five main contractors do not have wsh incentive programs. construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18 teo, ofori, tjandra and kim 9 legend: wsh practices 1 policies on the improvement of safety on the firm's projects 2 periodic reviews of the firm's safety policy, vision, mission and/or objectives 3 a site safety and health committee for each project 4 wsh incentive programs 5 penalties for wsh lapses 6 a measurement of wsh performance on site 7 an assessment of the overall wsh performance on the firm's projects 8 records of wsh performance on the firm's trades or projects 9 procedures to ensure that the sub-contractors meet the site wsh requirements 10 targets of wsh performance level to achieve on the firm's projects 11 visible leadership on wsh 12 wsh culture figure 2: wsh practices (implementation by contractors at construction stage) to ascertain the respondents’ views on the potential of bim, they were asked to indicate their agreement with various possibilities on a scale of 1-5 (1 being “strongly agree” and 5 being “strongly disagree”). the respondents agreed with all the potentials listed, with the two items that were ranked the lowest being pre-project planning and clash detection. the three items that were ranked the highest were: safety monitoring using actual construction data; hazard identification; and safety simulation (table 3). from the field study, it can be concluded that the government’s drive to ensure that construction firms in singapore put in place the necessary wsh policies, programs and procedures has been successful. however, the official statistics showed that the construction industry has the highest fatality rate among the sectors of the economy (wshi, 2015b). it can be concluded therefore that having the necessary wsh policies, programs and procedures in place are not sufficient to improve safety performance. the findings of this study are in line with the results of similar previous studies (zhang et al., 2014; zhang et al., 2015a; malekitabar et al., 2016; zou et al., 2016), highlighting the need for a technological advance to improve safety performance in construction projects. capitalizing on the promotion of bim and dfs in the industry, an intelligent system using bim was developed. the system, which is discussed in the next section, focuses on the improvement of safety performance in the industry using the principles of dfs 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 available not available construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18 teo, ofori, tjandra and kim 10 and consass assessment. the system was developed to be able to perform seven potential applications of bim as indicated in table 3. this section explores the safety aspect of the proposed system using the bim platform (figure 3). the aim of the system, in relation to safety, is to determine a safety index for a building using bim technology and dfs via consass. it focuses on the prevention and control of hazards detected in the structural and wall systems of the building; and incorporation of consass assessment. the system was designed to be able to proactively identify and mitigate risks. risk mitigation through an embedded control system follows the hierarchy of hazard control, such as elimination, substitution, engineering control, administrative control and personal protective equipment (ppe), prescribed by wsh council (2011a). three levels of hazard were used; “low”, “medium” and “high”. a safety score and the corresponding safety index could then be generated. the next sections present the discussion of the features of ipass in terms of providing the potential applications as listed in table 3. table 3: potential of bim in improving safety factors n mean std. dev. variance statistic statistic std. error statistic statistic hazard identification (f1) 59 2.66 .140 1.077 1.159 pre-project planning (f2) 59 1.97 .130 .999 .999 clash detection (f3) 59 2.29 .130 1.001 1.002 location tracking (f4) 59 2.51 .140 1.073 1.151 conformance to performance standards and regulations (f5) 59 2.51 .122 .935 .875 safety monitoring using actual construction site data (f6) 59 2.64 .134 1.030 1.061 safety simulation (f7) 59 2.69 .159 1.221 1.492 theoretical framework of safety aspect of ipass as discussed above, dfs is a deliberate consideration at the design stage to address safety issues before construction starts on site so that hazards can be eliminated or reduced during the construction stage, resulting in fewer incidents and possible injuries. in short, dfs is designing for construction safety by implementing prevention methods in the design approach in order to achieve safe design. the theoretical basis of the safety aspect of the proposed ipass was drawn from the literature review, data collected from the field study which comprised the on-line questionnaire-based survey, and an analysis of historical information from the industry and wsh institute. its primary objective is to assist designers in recognising hazards virtually, hence reducing risks at the source. the proposed system’s algorithm is built from this theoretical framework as shown in figure 3. the proposed theoretical framework has five features: (1) rule check, (2) hazard check, (3) control measure, (4) wsh evaluation, and (5) planning and monitoring. rule check: conformance to performance standards and regulations (f5) ipass was developed with reference to singapore’s building and safety regulations (building control regulations 2003; and workplace safety and health (construction) regulations 2007) and bim standards (singapore bim guide version 2.0 and bim essential guides). parameters construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18 teo, ofori, tjandra and kim 11 such as depth and height of building elements in bim models are calculated and analysed by the rule-checking system which was developed by referring to the regulations. the safety index is derived from the safety module which was built by taking into account the types of hazards and control measures outlined in the code of practice on workplace safety and health (wsh) risk management (wsh council, 2011a) and consass (mom, 2013). the property information of the basic elements that make up a building (for example, walls, columns, beams, slabs, doors, windows and so on) was defined by referring to the bim guides of the bca. ipass also makes use of the international standard format called industry foundation classes (ifc) to enhance collaboration, information exchange and interoperability. figure 3: proposed theoretical framework of the safety aspect of intelligent productivity and safety system (ipass) (* the productivity aspect of ipass is not discussed in this paper but will be elaborated on in another paper.) rule check: clash detection (f3) the system is developed to detect clashes between different elements in the structural and wall systems. clash detection analysis is important to allow coordination between different aspects of the building elements, as a pre-emptive measure against potential problems arising from the design. the clash detection capability of ipass helps to identify potential conflict of elements and resolve the issue even before construction begins. the project team will be able to identify gaps and errors to rectify in the design. moreover, clash detection helps the project team to find incompatibilities and inconsistencies much earlier, before the actual construction begins, potentially playing a crucial role in avoiding delays, saving time and resources. as such it helps to improve construction safety, and also minimizes delays due to reduced reworks during the intelligent productivity and safety system (ipass) safety productivity* hazard check control measure wsh evaluation design/ bim rule check planning & monitoring  conformance to performance standards and regulations (f5)  clash detection (f3)  location tracking (f4)  hazard identification (refer to type of hazards list) (f1) elimination substitution engineering controls administrative controls personal protective equipment (ppe) consass assessment (refer to “design for safety with consass assessment” section & figure 2)  pre-project planning (design stage) (f2)  safety simulation (design & construction stage) (f7)  safety monitoring using actual site data (design vs construction) (f6) construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18 teo, ofori, tjandra and kim 12 construction stage. during clash detection, ipass analyses the components in the structural and wall systems and highlights the clashes detected between the different components so that changes can be made. simultaneous detection can also be performed by the architects and engineers; thus, bim helps to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the project team. rule check: location tracking (f4) the geometric, parametric and material information of building elements in ipass can be classified in a number of ways; for example, according to the levels of the building or the specific materials used. the classified information can be generated for the specific objects shown in the 3d model. the search function also allows the user to search for all building objects which have specific information entered into the system. hazard check: hazard identification (f1), control measure, wsh evaluation the proposed system (ipass) has a hazard check feature which enables designers to identify any possible hazards in the design. the list of hazards1 was derived from historical information from the construction industry in singapore and wshi. no bim-based safety system in singapore has this list, which considers safety by cataloguing the main contributors to fatal accidents in the construction industry; this list contributes to the body of knowledge in terms of control measures. through the development of this list it may be possible to remove the potential hazard completely, or at the very least to reduce the likelihood of the risk of exposure to that hazard. an example of a scenario in which the hazard identification and mitigation process could be utilised would be: when the system is checking for possible hazards due to “falling from height”, one of the checks it conducts is to check the heights of slab openings. when the height of one slab opening is above 3 metres, the system checks for availability of anchorage points and guard rails. the system then alerts the users when these are not available. this would enable the users to take the necessary actions to avoid the possible hazard from the absence of anchorage points and guard rails. in addition, users can also evaluate the wsh system via the consass assessment feature embedded in ipass. this enhanced feature of the system is aimed at providing cross comparison between the design and the worksite in terms of their effectiveness in managing safety and health risks at work, enabling the project team to move away from manual consass. in developing the bim-based system, the results (refer to figure 2 and table 3) of the study were critical factors which were embedded into the proposed system to calculate the safety score and safety index. from the list of hazards (refer to footnote 1) identified and the appropriate control measures taken (refer to figure 3), the less hazardous index (lhi)2 can be generated by the proposed ipass. on the basis of the generated lhi, the safety score can be computed. this safety score is computed based on the prevention and control of hazards detected in the structural and wall systems, and the consass assessment. reports on the detailed breakdown 1 (i) fall into depth (excavation), (ii) fall from height, (iii) fall from mewp, (iv) fall from moving objects, (v) communication, (vi) slip and fall, (vii) trip and fall (obstacles, poor housekeeping, uneven surfaces), (viii) collapse of structure, support or machine (inadequate structure stage), (ix) collapse of structure, support or machine (unsafe formwork erection stage), (x) hit by moving objects (improper planning of layout), (xi) hit by falling objects (no toe boards), (xii) hit by falling objects (loose hand tools), (xiii) crane collapse (topping/overturn), (xiv) crane structure failure, (xv) crane collide with building structure/other cranes, (xvi) poor maintenance of the lifting gears, (xvii) exposure to asbestos dust inhalation, (xviii) exposure to particulates (inhalation), (xix) exposure to toxic substances (inhalation), (xx) exposure to toxic substances (skin contact), (xxi) hot work, (xxii) confined space (asphyxiation), (xxiii) confined space (toxic atmoshphere), (xxiv) confined space (oxygen enrichment), (xxv) electrical hazard, (xxvi) mechanical hazard, (xxvii) noise, (xxviii) unsafe means of access and egress between different levels in a building, and (xxix) fire and explosion. 2 there are three types of risks; namely low, medium and high. construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18 teo, ofori, tjandra and kim 13 of the safety score are generated by the proposed ipass, highlighting the unsafe areas of the design and inappropriate or inadequate control measures. planning and monitoring: pre-project planning (f2) ipass is developed with a feature which allows construction project managers to plan site activities and safety programs focusing on higher-risk trades and activities by visualising the possibility of occurrence of any of the hazards shown in footnote 1. they can also prioritise hazard mitigation strategies and intervention methods to make effective resource allocation decisions. once the hazards have been identified, they can be avoided, or their impacts mitigated. by incorporating safety into the project at the earliest opportunity, the number of accidents and fatalities can be reduced. this focus also enables the reduction of rework through effective project planning. planning and monitoring: safety simulation (f7) simulation exercises that can be performed by the system include the identification of clashes and safety hazards. the results of the simulation are presented in a report to facilitate early communications of possible safety hazards and suggest preventive measures. hence, simulation helps to identify risks factors and minimize possible delays during construction phase. the testing, analysis and simulation of the modelled building enables the project team to better understand the strengths and limitations of the design, allowing necessary improvements and amendments to be made. planning and monitoring: safety monitoring using actual construction site data (f6) the system allows close monitoring of a building’s safety performance from the earliest stage and as the construction project progresses. the system was specifically designed so that it can be used during different stages of a construction project to help designers to consider and improve the safety aspect of the design of a building. it is therefore able to perform safety monitoring using actual construction data, and incorporate various hazards as shown in table 3. the monitoring system is a combination of visualisation of the 3d model generated, and studying the focus areas from different angles; such a task is impossible to perform without bim. the project team should monitor the safety performance of a project by referring to the list of hazards, comparing the safety score obtained throughout the duration of a construction project. a further application of the system is to carry out a comparison of safety scores achieved on different projects, so that it is possible to monitor safety performance over a number of projects during a defined period. validation the proposed system was validated by using the bim model of a 10-storey building designed for an academic institution. the bim model (revit model) was prepared by the main contractor. the initial score (50.3) generated by the proposed ipass was different from the actual score (manual calculation of 91.5). steps were taken to determine why there was a difference. bim model quality assessment was conducted to inspect the model, noting any omissions, mistakes, or areas for improvement by comparing the 2d drawings to the model's details. it was discovered that the bim model did not follow a naming convention and the bim model also had not been built with the proper levels of detail so the data could not be used in downstream applications such as analysis of safety compliance. the safety compliance could not be accurately analyzed because the building elements were modelled using generic and nonparametric objects; and each curtain wall was built by different entities, instead of one entity. once the bim model had been built with a proper naming convention and to the proper levels construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18 teo, ofori, tjandra and kim 14 of detail to make it compliant with the provisions of the singapore bim modelling guides, the two scores generated were quite similar (90.7 [ipass] vs 91.5 [manual]). in addition to the bim model of the 10-storey building, the proposed ipass was also validated by using the bim models of another eight virtual projects. these eight bim models (archicad models) were built by 80 fourth year undergraduate students (ten students per project) under a module which forms part of the b.sc. project and facilities management program at the national university of singapore.3 the steps described above were repeated for each of these eight bim models. the scores generated by ipass were very similar to the manually calculated scores of these eight bim models, again, after the bim models had been built with proper naming convention and levels of detail such that they complied with the bim modelling guides. the validation exercise provided useful lessons on the features, input requirements and capabilities of ipass. the validation process identified limitations for implementation of ipass, due to incorrect scores being generated, with two potential causes found for these discrepancies. first, there were technical errors due to the loss of ifc data during the import-export process. in this case, it was found that it is important to ensure the properties of the materials have been correctly input into the corresponding bim authoring tools before exporting the model into the ifc format. second, human error can result in naming errors or input errors so that the bim model does not fit the provisions of the modelling guide. for this reason, bim quality assurance is necessary in order to make sure the bim model is configured to enable any applications to proceed properly. this validation exercise highlighted the importance of the quality of the bim models; it was evident that the safety scores generated by ipass can only be done after a bim model quality assessment has been carried out to check the modelling techniques, content, completeness, and naming convention. from the validation with nine bim models of different authoring tools, it can be seen that the safety scores generated by ipass were very similar to those of the manual calculations. the validation results showed that ipass is able to generate safety scores for any project as long as the bim models are built with proper naming convention, and proper levels of detail, in accordance with bim modelling guides. conclusion the aim of this paper is to discuss the theoretical framework of the safety aspect of a bim system for determining the safety index in the proposed ipass. ipass is proactive, and will fulfil a need in the construction industry in singapore. the safety aspect of the system is based on the premise that safety should be considered at the design stage, with bim as a tool to facilitate it. the system incorporates the principles of dfs by identifying risks and incorporating safety at the earliest stage of design. consass assessment is also included to evaluate the capabilities of each contractor in managing wsh risks. ipass comes with the hazard check feature which enables the designers to identify hazards of their design at the earliest opportunity. thus, the number of accidents and fatalities can be reduced. the focus is also on reducing rework through effective project planning. for the purpose of this study, a preliminary safety hazard library was developed based on the main contributors to fatal accidents in the construction industry. the control measures feature is also one of the primary features that allow the project team to consider the precautions at the design stage with appropriate actions that can be taken to reduce the potential of the hazard or to reduce the level of its risk by adding precautions/control measures, as necessary. besides the 3 pf4206 building information modelling is an elective module taken mainly by final year students. it is assessed on a series of tasks including a major group project which involved the creation of a bim in response to a set of project parameters. the models are assessed by a panel of judges drawn from local and overseas bim experts. construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18 teo, ofori, tjandra and kim 15 control measures feature, another contributor to knowledge is the creation of the less hazardous index (lhi). from the list of hazards identified and the appropriate control measures to be taken, the lhi can be generated by ipass. from the generated lhi, the safety score can be computed. reports on the detailed breakdown of the safety score are generated by ipass, highlighting the unsafe areas of the design and the inappropriate control measures. the possible limitations of this study are now considered. it should be stated that it might not be appropriate to draw conclusions concerning dfs, and using bim for enhancing safety performance throughout the construction industry, given the relatively small number of respondents, and the size of the response rate (59 responding companies, indicating a response rate of 7.54%). according to the relevant authority there is a very low percentage of companies using bim for multi-discipline activities, even fewer would therefore be using bim for enhancing safety (bca, 2015), which had a negative impact on response rates. moreover, according to cheah et al. (2004) as long as the intent of the study was neither to precisely identify a “formula” for success, nor to draw statistical inferences, it would not require a larger sample size. this research does not attempt to reconcile the many differences between individual firms and construction industry conditions; rather, it is meant to extract critical factors that contribute to the success of using bim for enhancing safety at the project level. the data collected for this study adequately supported the application of the method that was designed to form the basis for the development of a new bim system for enhancing safety. thus, the data were judged sufficient for the purposes of this research despite the limitations which have been mentioned here. the practical implications of ipass are: (a) it enables collaboration among project stakeholders as they can base their work on an analysis of the safety performance before the project starts, and as it progresses, also; (b) it is suggested that the bim model submitted to the authorities for building plan approval should be the one which is used for the ipass application. the originality/value of ipass is that it has rule-checking, hazard identification and quality checking capabilities. thus, it is able to identify hazards and risks with these capabilities. ipass enables practitioners to check mistakes and the rationality of a design. it also helps to mitigate risks as there are built-in safety measures/controls rules to overcome the problems caused by design deficiency, wrong-material-choice, and so on. acknowledgements the authors gratefully acknowledge the funding received from the workplace safety and health institute (wsh institute) of the ministry of manpower (mom). they are also grateful to the collaborating organisations, the building and construction authority (bca) and samwoh corporation pte ltd. they would also like to thank the practitioners who responded to the questionnaire survey. references azhar s. and behringer a. (2013) a bim-based approach for communicating and implementing a construction site safety plan. proc., 49th asc annual international conference proceedings, san luis obispo. behm, m. (2005a) design for construction safety: an introduction, implementation techniques, and research summary. in: asse (american society of safety engineers), asse professional development conference and exposition. new orleans, usa, 12-15 june 2005. new orleans: asse. behm, m. (2005b) linking construction fatalities to the design for construction safety concept. safety science, 43, p.589-611. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2005.04.002 benjaoran, .v. and bhokha, s. (2010) an integrated safety management with construction management using 4d cad model. safety science, 48(3), p.395-403. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2009.09.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2005.04.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2009.09.009 construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18 teo, ofori, tjandra and kim 16 building and construction authority, (2011) media release: construction productivity roadmap to chart transformation of the construction sector. bca. available at: . [accessed 20 february 2016]. building and construction authority, (2013) building information modelling. [online] available at: [accessed 23 february 2016]. building and construction authority, (2014a) bca directory of registered contractors and licensed builders. [online] available at: [accessed 23 february 2016]. building and construction authority, (2014b) code of practice on buildability, 2014 edition. [pdf] bca. available at: [accessed 20 february 2016]. building and construction authority, (2015) construction productivity and capability fund. [online] available at: [accessed 23 february 2016]. cheah c. y. j., garvin m. j. and miller j. b. (2004) empirical study of strategic performance of global construction firms. journal of construction engineering and management, 130(6), p.808-817. doi: https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:6(808) choi, j., choi, j. and kim, i. (2014) development of bim-based evacuation regulation checking system for high-rise and complex buildings. automation in construction, 46, p.38-49. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2013.12.005 gambatese, j. a., hinze, j. and haas, c. t., 1997. tool to design for construction worker safety. journal of architectural engineering, 3(1), p.32-41. doi: https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1076-0431(1997)3:1(32) gambatese, j., behm, m. and rajendran, s. (2008) design’s role in construction accident causality and prevention: perspectives from an expert panel. safety science, 46, p.675-691. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2007.06.010 gangolells, m., casals, m., forcada, n., roca, x. and fuertes, a. (2010) mitigating construction safety risks using prevention through design. journal of safety research, 41, p.107-122. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2009.10.007 gu, n. and london, k. (2010) understanding and facilitating bim adoption in the aec industry. automation in construction, 19(8), p.988-999. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.09.002 hadikusumo b.h.w. and rowlinson s. (2002) integration of virtually real construction model and design-for-safety process database, automation in construction, 11(5), p.501-509. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/s09265805(01)00061-9 hammad a., setayeshgar s., zhang c. and asen y. (2012) automatic generation of dynamic virtual fences as part of bim-based prevention program for construction safety, proc., proceedings of the 2012 winter simulation conference (wsc), berlin, germany 2012. doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/wsc.2012.6465164 hecker, s. and gambatese, j. a. (2003) safety in design: a proactive approach to construction worker safety and health. applied occupational and environmental hygiene, 18(5), p.339-342. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/10473220301369 hinze, j. and wiegand, f. (1992) role of designers in construction worker safety. journal of construction engineering and management, 118(4), p.677-684. doi: https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1992)118:4(677) joint mnd-mom review committee, (2005) report of the joint mnd-mom review committee on construction safety. singapore: jrc. ku, k., 2014. design risk management practices and assessment tools for safety in construction: opportunities for bim. in: aulin, r. and ek, å. (eds.), proceedings of cib w099 achieving sustainable construction health and safety. lund, sweden, 2-3 june 2014. cib w099. malekitabar, h., ardeshir, a., sebt, m.h., stuoffs, r. (2016) construction safety risk drivers: a bim approach. safety science 82, p.445-455. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2015.11.002 melzner j., hollermann s., korchner s. and bargstadt h.j. (2013) model-based construction work analysis considering process-related hazards, proc., proceedings of the 2013 winter simulation conference, ieee, washington, d.c., 2013, p.3203-3214. doi: https://doi.org/10.1109/wsc.2013.6721686 ministry of manpower, (2013) a guide to the construction safety audit scoring system (consass). [pdf] mom. available at: [accessed 22 february 2016]. ministry of manpower, (2015) requirements for a safety and health management systems. [online] available at: [accessed 23 february 2016]. rozenfeld o., sacks r. and rosenfeld y. (2009) “chaste”: construction hazard assessment with spatial and temporal exposure, construction management and economic 27(7), p.625-638. doi: https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190903002771 safe work australia, (2012) safe design of structures: code of practice. canberra: safe work australia. http://www.bca.gov.sg/newsroom/others/pr03032011_cpa.pdf http://www.bcadirectory.sg/ http://www.bca.gov.sg/buildabledesign/others/copbdnov2014.pdf http://www.bca.gov.sg/cpcf/cpcf.html https://doi.org/10.1061/%28asce%290733-9364%282004%29130:6%28808%29 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2013.12.005 https://doi.org/10.1061/%28asce%291076-0431%281997%293:1%2832%29 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2007.06.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2009.10.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.09.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0926-5805%2801%2900061-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0926-5805%2801%2900061-9 https://doi.org/10.1109/wsc.2012.6465164 https://doi.org/10.1080/10473220301369 https://doi.org/10.1061/%28asce%290733-9364%281992%29118:4%28677%29 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2015.11.002 https://doi.org/10.1109/wsc.2013.6721686 http://www.mom.gov.sg/%7e/media/mom/documents/services-forms/safety-health/a%20guide%20to%20the%20consass.pdf http://www.mom.gov.sg/%7e/media/mom/documents/services-forms/safety-health/a%20guide%20to%20the%20consass.pdf http://www.mom.gov.sg/workplace-safety-and-health/safety-and-health-management-systems/safety-and-health-management-system-requirements http://www.mom.gov.sg/workplace-safety-and-health/safety-and-health-management-systems/safety-and-health-management-system-requirements https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190903002771 construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18 teo, ofori, tjandra and kim 17 schulte, p. a., rinehart, r., okun, a., geraci, c. l. and heidel, d. s. (2008) national prevention through design (ptd) initiative. journal of safety research, 39(2), p.115-121. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2008.02.021 slaughter e.s. (2003) the link between design and process: dynamic process simulation models of construction activities, 4d cad and visualization in construction: developments and applications, swets & zeitlinger, gainesville, fl, p.145-164. doi: https://doi.org/10.1201/9780203971123.ch7 smith, d. (2007) an introduction to building information modelling (bim). journal of building information modelling, fall, p.12-14. sulankivi k., makela t. and kiviniemi m. (2009) bim-based site layout and safety planning. proc., 1st international conference on improving construction and use through integrated design solutions, cib ids, finland, 2009. sulankivi k., zhang s., teizer j. eastman c.m., kiviniemi m., romo i. and granholm l. (2013) utilization of bimbased automated safety checking in construction planning, proc., cib world building conference, brisbane, australia. teo e. a. l., ofori g. and tjandra i. k. (2015) building information modelling (bim) for safety improvement in singapore construction. proceedings of the 2015 cib w099 conference: benefitting workers and society through inherenetly safe(r) construction, belfast, 9-11 september 2015. toole, t. m. and gambatese, j. (2008) the trajectories of prevention through design in construction. journal of safety research, 39, p.225-230. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2008.02.026 wetzel e. m. and thabet w. y. (2015) the use of a bim-based framework to support safe facility management processes, automation in construction, 60, p.12-24. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.09.004 winfield, m. (2015) how bim can assist the implementation of the cdm regulations 2015. [online] available at: [accessed 23 february 2016]. workplace safety and health act 2009. (c.354a) singapore: mom. workplace safety and health council, (2007) implementing wsh 2015 for construction industry. singapore: wsh council. workplace safety and health council, (2008) case studies: construction industry. [pdf] wsh council. available at: [accessed 23 february 2016]. workplace safety and health council, (2010) implementing wsh 2018 for the construction sector in singapore: towards a progressive and pervasive safety and health culture [pdf] wsh council. available at: [accessed 23 february 2016]. workplace safety and health council, (2011a) code of practice on workplace safety and health (wsh) risk management. [pdf] wsh council. available at: [accessed 22 february 2016]. workplace safety and health council, (2011b) guidelines on design for safety in buildings and structures. [pdf] wsh council. available at: [accessed 23 february 2016]. workplace safety and health council, (2015) construction industry wsh action plans 2015. [pdf] wsh council. available at: [accessed 22 february 2016]. workplace safety and health council and ministry of manpower, (2013) curriculum development advisory: construction safety orientation course for workers (csoc). [pdf] wsh council and mom. available at: [accessed 23 february 2016]. workplace safety and health institute, (2015a) workplace safety and health report, 2014 national statistics. [pdf] wsh institute. available at: < https://www.wshinstitute.sg/files/wshi/upload/cms/file/wshi%20national%20statistics%20report%202014.pdf> [accessed 23 february 2016]. workplace safety and health institute, (2015b) workplace safety and health report, january-june 2015 national statistics. [pdf] wsh institute. available at: [accessed 23 february 2016]. yong, g. k., (2008) speech at wsh council 2008 construction ceo summit. [online] available at: [accessed 23 february 2016]. zhang s., boulcamp f. and teizer j. (2014) ontology-based semantic modelling of safety management knowledge, 2014 international conference on computing in civil and building engineering, american society of civil engineers, orlando, fl, p.2254-2262. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2008.02.021 https://doi.org/10.1201/9780203971123.ch7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2008.02.026 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.09.004 http://www.bimplus.co.uk/management/how-bim-can-assi9st-implemen8tation-cd4m/ https://www.wshc.sg/files/wshc/upload/cms/file/falls%20from%20height.pdf https://www.wshc.sg/files/wshc/upload/cms/file/wsh%20construction%20sectoral%20final_lowres.pdf https://www.wshc.sg/files/wshc/upload/cms/file/2014/rmcp_2012.pdf https://www.wshc.sg/files/wshc/upload/cms/file/2014/dfs_guidelines_revised_july2011.pdf https://www.wshc.sg/files/wshc/upload/cms/file/2014/csoc.pdf https://www.wsh-institute.sg/files/wshi/upload/cms/file/wshi%20national%20statistics%20report%202014.pdf https://www.wsh-institute.sg/files/wshi/upload/cms/file/wshi%20national%20statistics%20report%202014.pdf http://www.lsh.sg/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/wsh-institute-national-wsh-statistics-report-jan-jun-2015.pdf http://www.lsh.sg/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/wsh-institute-national-wsh-statistics-report-jan-jun-2015.pdf http://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/speeches/2008/speech-by-mr-gan-kim-yong-acting-minister-for-manpower-at-the-wsh-council-2008-construction-ceo-summit-18-november-2008-regent-hotel http://www.mom.gov.sg/newsroom/speeches/2008/speech-by-mr-gan-kim-yong-acting-minister-for-manpower-at-the-wsh-council-2008-construction-ceo-summit-18-november-2008-regent-hotel construction economics and building, 16(4), 1-18 teo, ofori, tjandra and kim 18 zhang s., boulcamp f. and teizer j. (2015a) ontology-based semantic modelling of construction safety knowledge: towards automated safety planning for job hazard analysis (jha), automation in construction, elsevier 52, p.29-41. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.02.005 zhang s., sulankivi k., kiviniemi, m., romo, i., eastman, c.m., teizer, j. (2015b) bim-based fall hazard identification and prevention in construction planning, safety science, safety science, elsevier 72, p.31-45. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2014.08.001 zhang s., teizer, j., lee, j., eastman, c. and venugopal, m. (2013) building information modeling (bim) and safety: automatic safety checking of construction models and schedules. automation in construction, 29, p.183195. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.05.006 zhang s., teizer, j., pradhananga n. and eastman c. m. (2015) workforce location tracking to model, visualize and analyse workspace requirements in building information models for construction safety planning, automation in construction, 60, p.74-86. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.09.009 zhou w., whyte j., sacks r. (2012) construction safety and digital design: a review. automation in construction, 22, p.102-111. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2011.07.005 zou, p. x. w. and sunindijo, r. y. (2015) strategic safety management in construction and engineering. hoboken: john wiley and sons. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118839362 zou, y., kiviniemi, a. and jones, s.w. (2016) “a review of risk management through bim and bim-related technologies”, safety science, 2016,1. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2015.12.027 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.02.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2014.08.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.05.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.09.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2011.07.005 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118839362 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2015.12.027 keywords: bim, design, ipass, safety, singapore. introduction design for safety with consass assessment potential of bim for improving safety field study findings theoretical framework of safety aspect of ipass rule check: conformance to performance standards and regulations (f5) rule check: clash detection (f3) rule check: location tracking (f4) hazard check: hazard identification (f1), control measure, wsh evaluation planning and monitoring: pre-project planning (f2) planning and monitoring: safety simulation (f7) planning and monitoring: safety monitoring using actual construction site data (f6) validation conclusion acknowledgements references construction economics and building vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022 © 2022 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: mustaffa, n. k., isa, c. m. m., ekundayo, d., joseph, v. r. a. 2022. barriers and strategies for improving carbon emissions management approaches in malaysian construction. construction economics and building, 22:3, 99–123. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v22i3.7909 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article barriers and strategies for improving carbon emissions management approaches in malaysian construction nur kamaliah mustaffa1,*, che maznah mat isa1, damilola ekundayo2, verona ramas anak joseph1 1 school of civil engineering, college of engineering, universiti teknologi mara shah alam, 40450, shah alam, selangor, malaysia 2 school of engineering and the built environment, faculty of cebe, birmingham city university, millennium point, birmingham, b4 7xg, uk corresponding author: nur kamaliah, mustaffa, school of civil engineering, college of engineering, universiti teknologi mara shah alam, 40450, shah alam, selangor, malaysia, nurkamaliah@uitm.edu.my doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.7909 article history: received: 24/09/2021; revised: 13/06/2022 & 10/08/2022; accepted: 13/08/2022; published: 20/09/2022 abstract a recent study has focused on environmental challenges due to the construction industry’s elevated energy consumption and greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions. a more effective low-carbon development implementation relies on proper emissions management throughout the construction industry. the purpose of this research is to investigate current industry practises in managing emissions in construction projects and the driving factors that influence the efficacy of emissions in construction operations. this study relied on information gathering from eighty-three respondents and thirteen expert interviews with stakeholders engaged in construction projects. emissions management and monitoring are still underdeveloped, despite growing awareness and commitment to developing low-carbon growth. this study’s findings also highlighted that the primary constraints to the industry’s adaptation of emissions-reduction strategies exist at the institutional, organisational, and individual levels. this article proposed that government support, capacity building, and the development of emissions monitoring techniques and technologies are vital to minimizing emissions. this study contributed to the existing information on the current understanding and practices of the construction sector 99 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding this work was supported by the ministry of higher education malaysia under grant frgs/1/2019/tk10/uitm/02/4. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.7909 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.7909 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.7909 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:nurkamaliah@uitm.edu.my https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.7909 in malaysia in adopting emissions management, the key obstacles, and recommendations for proper implementation. by addressing concerns regarding promoting low-carbon enhancement and adoption in malaysia, the findings of this research could assist stakeholders in the construction industry. keywords barriers; carbon; construction; emissions; management practices; strategy introduction as society becomes more aware of the ramifications of climate change and global warming, the emphasis is transitioning to minimising the environmental footprint of construction projects. carbon dioxide outputs are typically considered a fundamental factor of climate change. the building and construction sector has been criticised for being a significant source of unregulated ghg emissions. it is no secret that the construction industry consumes a tremendous amount of energy and contributes significantly to global warming gases. additionally, the building and construction industry is responsible for more than 35% of global energy consumption and nearly 39% of ghg emissions from energy (ipcc, 2015; united nations environment programme (unep),(2014). nevertheless, according to unep (2009), the building and construction field has immense opportunity to reduce ghg emissions compared to other main polluting industries. the construction and building industry, as per the un environment and international energy agency (2017), can save up to 84% of carbon by 2050 through fuel switching, energy efficiency, and renewable energy use. malaysia’s rapid development has elevated carbon emissions consumption as a component of social stability and economic strength. based on the davidson et al. (2020), the country’s ghg emissions were 7.27 tonnes per capita, higher than other southeast asian nations. since the initial low level in 1980, malaysia’s ghg emissions have steadily increased, surpassing the global average in 1995 and 2010 with 5.8 and 7.7 metric tonnes of ghg per capita, respectively. in 2016, the value increased exponentially to 8.09 metric tonnes per capita (zaid, et al., 2015; world bank, 2016). during the 2015 paris climate conference, the malaysian government expressed the intent to reduce the ghg emissions intensity by 45% by 2030 (relative to the emissions intensity of gdp in 2005) (ministry of energy, green technology and water malaysia (kettha), 2017). the government has developed a range of initiatives and goals, including policy, procedures, as well regulatory frameworks, to enable an optimum decrease in emissions, with the vision of making malaysia’s way to carbon neutrality in 2050. malaysia’s government is encouraging a lowcarbon, green, and climate-resilient economy through implementing national policies and targets. it is sensible to enhance the environmental productivity of construction activities by mitigating and decreasing ghg emissions throughout the construction stage. some studies have demonstrated that targeting emissions efforts during the construction phase instead of just the design and operating phases is critical (guggemos and horvath, 2006; pena-mora, et al., 2009; bilec, ries and matthews, 2010; carmichael, williams and kaboli, 2012; arocho, rasdorf and hummer, 2014). in contrast, the majority of existing research on construction-related emissions focuses on material selection (chen and kamara, 2011; shafiq et al., 2015; cho and chae, 2016; sathanandam, et al., 2017; omar, 2018), strategies (tuohy and murphy, 2015; kerdan, et al. 2017; su, et al., 2021), and technologies (ho, et al., 2013; shaikh, et al., 2017) to dramatically reduce emissions levels. nonetheless, whereas various articles have concentrated on measuring embodied carbon across the building’s lifespan, there is a limitation to an extensive study on carbon emissions during construction, particularly for onsite monitoring (acquaye and duffy, 2010; kim, et al., 2012; de wolf, et al., 2017; hong, et al., 2020). according to eras et al. (2013), carbon emissions from the construction process are frequently neglected, meaning that stricter monitoring of constructionrelated emissions is required. consequently, this study aims to bridge such knowledge gaps by assessing mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022100 current construction industry emissions control measures and the key underlying factors that contribute to better emissions management practice in construction projects. this paper attempts to accomplish three (3) objectives, which are as follows: 1) to identify current industry practises in managing emissions in construction projects, 2) to assess the key factors of effective emissions management in construction projects, and 3) to recommend solutions for promoting improved practises in managing construction sector emissions in developing countries like malaysia. the following is the structure of the paper: the first section provides a literature review of the previous study on construction emissions. the methodology and data collection are discussed in a subsequent section. the conclusion follows a discussion on the significant barriers to emissions management and potential solutions for successfully implementing emissions management in construction projects. literature review previous studies on construction emissions by using a range of diesel construction tools, construction works yield substantial ghg emissions such as nitrous oxides (n2o), carbon monoxide (co), carbon dioxide (co2), hydrocarbons (hc), methane (ch4), and particulate matter (pm). the construction sector has recently drawn much attention owing to the high utilisation and ghg emissions (unep, 2006). epa clean air act advisory committee (2006) reported that all types of off-road diesel engines produced approximately 32% nox and 37% pm emissions during construction activities (ahn and lee, 2013). according to guggemos and horvath (2006), worksite equipment used in construction operations emits more than 50% of co2. nonetheless, rather than emphasising the construction procedures, attention has increasingly shifted to the operation and design phases (bilec, ries and matthews, 2010). the majority of emissions were generated during the construction period due to the amount of fuel and energy consumed to power the machinery. consequently, in conjunction with the worldwide push for sustainable growth, there is a need to reduce the environmental impact of the construction and building industry by lowering emissions (wong, ng and shahidi, 2013; waris, et al., 2014). the majority of research on construction-related emissions has centred on material selection, approaches, and emission-reduction tools. many studies have concentrated on estimating embodied carbon using life cycle assessment (lca) (avetisyan,miller-hooks and melanta, 2012; eras, et al., 2013; noh, et al., 2014). there have been a few studies published on the calculation of emissions from earthmoving procedures using a variety of techniques and frameworks. for example, analyses that involved field measurements include those that were performed by abolhasani et al. (2008), frey, rasdorf and lewis (2010), rasdorf et al. (2012), and hajji and lewis (2013). studies by ahn et al. (2010) and albohasani and frey (2013) used the portable emissions measurement system (pems) to measure emissions from construction equipment in various classifications, such as bulldozers, excavators, and trucks. frey, rasdorf and lewis (2010) concluded that onboard pems fuel consumption and emissions field data is preferable to laboratory dynamometer tests since it reflects actual in-use conditions. in addition, construction emissions research has developed output estimation methods using multilinear regression (lewis and hajji, 2012), and equipment tracking systems (ahn, et al., 2013; heydarian and golparvar-fard, 2011), and carbon calculators (hughes, et al., 2011). discrete event-oriented simulation has also been investigated by some researchers (gonzález and echaveguren, 2012; zhang, zhai and yang, 2014; li and akhavian, 2017; nadoushani, akbarnezhad and rey, 2018) to simulate actual processes. a modelling tool established by (wong, ng and shahidi, 2013; tang, cass and mukherjee,2013) was used to develop a visual depiction of prospective emissions over time to take preventative steps against these emissions. mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022101 the emphasis has turned to incorporating optimisation-based methodologies to develop solutions that maximise or minimise study parameters to achieve sustainable construction. this study used a performance tuning approach to evaluate the most cost-effective equipment to employ in fulfilling environmental regulations or indicate the necessity for further device expenditures in lowering project emissions. in the meantime, moayedi et al. (2019) applied an optimisation model based on a genetic algorithm to regulate the environmental performances of construction works, which can be anticipated from the early design phase. recent research has also incorporated internet of things (iot)-based technologies for construction productivity monitoring, including computer vision-based algorithms (kim, et al. 2018; roberts and golparvar-fard, 2019) and multicamera vision-based frameworks (kim and chi, 2020). furthermore, a prior work by naghshbandi, varga and hu (2021) assessed the monitoring and instrument detecting technology strategy. overview of key factors concerning construction emissions despite several attempts to comply with sustainability policies, the construction industry emits vast quantities of ghg. various measures have been undertaken to reduce construction emissions. an assessment of prior studies on construction emissions minimisation revealed that multiple reports have oriented on establishing an output estimating method to analyse pollutants from building works. multiple studies have underlined the need to monitor emissions onsite. these comprise carbon calculator (sihabuddin and ariaratnam, 2009), on-site emissions evaluation (heydarian and golparvar-fard, 2011; ahn, et al., 2013), or computer simulation (ahn and lee, 2013; zhang, zhai and yang, 2014). additionally, multiple published studies have emphasised limiting equipment productivity as part of measures to minimise emissions. according to a study conducted by carmichael and mustaffa (2018) and mustaffa (2022), lowering equipment idle time and boosting equipment utilisation can enhance productivity while cutting emissions and expenses. previously, kim et al. (2012) and rasdorf et al. (2012) revealed that reducing equipment idle time and addressing adequate equipment maintenance can improve equipment efficiency. similarly, szamocki et al. (2019) discovered that reducing idling machinery may minimise pollutants from construction works. as reported by tang et al. (2013), coordinating operations is more helpful at lowering emissions than working equipment. this investigation suggests that the adjustment in equipment period control did not instantly increase pollution efficiencies. better management methods, such as task planning, operation planning, and activity planning, may help mitigate onsite emissions (szamocki, et al., 2019). moreover, many experts agree that instituting regulations and policies relating to emissions and environmental repercussions is the most practical tool for engaging regional reduction targets. thorough emissions monitoring and measurement standards, legislation, and guidelines have been enacted. the california air resources board (carb, 2009), and environmental protection agency (epa, 2008) for example, have issued nonroad and offroad guidelines to achieve a system for calculating emissions for various types of construction tools. government regulations can significantly facilitate industry perceptions and drive further behavioural change (carmichael, mustaffa and shen, 2018). unep (2009) reckon intrinsic incentives like rewards, rebates, loans or grants, or loans strategically urge people. the gaps and challenges in low carbon construction development in malaysia the government of malaysia has established green development guidelines, the national policy on climate change (npcc), and the national green technology policy (ngtp) to stimulate green and low carbon progression. multiple initiatives and strategic plans relevant to green growth have been developed, along with a green rating system, green incentives and finance, a green procurement system, and green technology enterprises (chua and oh, 2011). a further strategy for incorporating environmentally friendly practises mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022102 into the acquisition process has been introduced by the government. the myhijau green procurement effort offers the potential to generate demand for green products, resources, and services in emerging malaysian markets (bohari, et al., 2017). the government has enacted many measures to encourage local enterprises to participate in green building and technology initiatives, including the subsidy system, construction levy reduction, and tax benefits (diyana and abidin, 2013). further efforts include green performance assessment system in construction (greenpass), the low carbon cities framework and assessment system (lccf), malaysia public work department green rating scheme (phjkr), green building index (gbi), malaysian carbon reduction and environmental sustainability (mcrest), and green real estate (greenre). by introducing top-down rules and efforts, the malaysian government seeks to render the industry’s projects more sustainable. however, there are persistent obstacles to addressing the problems from the ground up in different areas. although sustainability aspects have been included in different government programmes and policies, it is not yet been integrated into malaysia’s construction investment and development activities (idris, ismail and hashim, 2015). the industry delayed implementation of the approaches due to the government’s vague policies, and overlapping and fragmented agencies and activities (algburi, faieza and baharudin, 2016). shari and soebarto (2017) suggest that malaysian construction stakeholders are hesitant to adopt a sustainable culture. construction companies in malaysia are not required to engage in government initiatives as most are voluntary. the technology limitation is a serious obstacle to malaysia’s adaptation to low-carbon and green development. green building materials are not quite as commonly accessible as conventional materials as it is not well-marketed. most green building products and technology have not yet matured enough for widespread use in many countries (algburi, faieza and baharudin, 2016). this is similar to malaysia’s existing position, in which a broad range of technologies and green materials are inaccessible. owing to malaysia’s lack of relevant tools, the required technology must be imported regardless of government advances in green technology laws and efforts, including incentive schemes and rebates (ong, yusof and osmadi, 2021). despite the availability of evaluation methods for distinguishing green and low carbon products in malaysia, the rise of low carbon and green materials has remained moderate. previous malaysian studies on building and construction emissions focused on the impact of building materials (shafiq, et al.,2015; wen,siong and noor, 2015; omar, 2018). according to ishak, mustafa kamal and yusof (2017), even though green certification is a crucial part of identifying green producers, some firms refuse to acknowledge its worth. this is corroborated by hafizan, hussein, and noor (2021) research, which that revealed industry participation has been restricted given the lack of need for green products. life cycle assessment (lca) for assessing embodied carbon in construction materials is new in malaysia (idris, ismail and hashim, 2015; ishak, mustafa kamal and yusof, 2017). recent research by ang and morad (2013) shows that malaysia does not impose any regulations that require all businesses to fulfil these requirements as it depends on the client’s needs. international standards like lca are becoming more vital in the country owing to worldwide demand. overall, the malaysian government has undertaken a tremendous effort to promote low carbon growth by launching a variety of policies and projects. in contrast, there has been little collaborative effort put into effective countermeasures for operation on construction sites, and there has been less activity to generalise industry participant’s existing ways of applying emissions-reduction approaches. this research intended to address these knowledge gaps by assessing current industry emissions control measures and the underlying factors that contribute to successful emissions reductions in construction works. mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022103 research methodology using a mixed-methods strategy in 2021, this study collected a wide range of data and made it convenient to compare outcomes from various sources. qualitative and quantitative methodologies are used to gather data from three (3) key sources: site visit, a questionnaire survey, and additional semi-structured interviews. this approach provides a clearer context than the other methods. this study focuses on the state of selangor, which is the most developed state in terms of economic development and is regarded as the economic powerhouse of malaysia (malaysian dutch business council) (mdbc, 2022). besides, selangor is also the spot where the majority of the mega construction projects are carried out. site visits were conducted at eight (8) construction sites to collect quantitative data on the implementation of carbon emissions management in construction projects. cross-sectional surveys were then used to gather quantitative data on industry perceptions of understanding and experience with low-carbon practices. lastly, semi-structured interviews with thirteen (13) experts were performed to obtain professional viewpoints on the most significant restrictions, factors, and approaches for effectively adopting emissions control. the next section summarises the results and findings from each of the three methods of data collecting. site observations the top twenty construction businesses in selangor that are currently engaged in building activities received an invitation letter to take part in this study. the purpose of the study is to examine the factors that influence ongoing construction operations. only eight (8) of the companies have responded, agreeing to have site visits conducted at respective building sites to collect relevant data. it was necessary to hold a few discussions with the site’s management for information and assessment of the implementation level of emissions control measures on the premises. on-site paperwork such as logbooks and inventory lists was examined for statistics about energy usage and the amount of equipment operating time. an independent list was used to build this non-participatory approach to verify emissions management processes. there was no application of the recording’s components in any way. the employees have inactively participated in the process of gaining more knowledge that best reflects actual current practises within the scope of this research. questionnaire survey findings from this study will enable the construction industry to comprehend the best ways to incorporate pollution control into projects, as well as the problems and techniques for accomplishing this goal. the primary obstacles and difficulties were drawn from research studies by carmichael, mustaffa and shen (2018) and joseph and mustaffa (2021), in addition to earlier research on low-carbon and environmentally friendly practises. the extension of well-known criteria derived from earlier studies helps to boost the relevance of the analysis (cheng and li, 2002). prior to the survey’s distribution, pilot questionnaires were conducted with five (5) construction professionals, including contractors, consultants, project managers, and scholars. the final questions were then presented to the target participants in accordance with the responses and insights obtained from the pilot questionnaire. the questionnaire is broken down into three sections: i. section a necessitates the participant’s profile history. ii. section b addresses respondents on existing industry knowledge and procedures for managing emissions in construction projects. iii. section c emphasizes the core limitations to emissions management and personal insights from respondents concerning the issue as well as choices for implementing emissions management. a mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022104 likert scale with five points, ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree,” has been structured into sixteen different items (the extent to which the respondents agree to the given statements). the total number of participants in the survey was drawn from a wide range of construction industry stakeholders in selangor, malaysia. respondents were selected using a non-probability sampling method, known as criterion purposive sampling. a total sample of 384 was selected by using krejcie and morgan sampling procedure (krejcie and morgan, 1970). this strategy was considered fit since it enables the research to fulfil the study’s objectives (samari, et al., 2013). the following set of predetermined criteria was utilised to pick the construction workers: holding both recent/ongoing and current active involvement in the management of construction sites, as well as significant industry experience (>5 years). online and postal approaches were used to administer the survey. a response rate of 21.6% has been obtained out of a total sample size of 384 people, including local governments, contractors, project leaders, consultants, site supervisors, site engineers, and developers engaged in building projects. the results of a study by visser et al. (1996) indicate that studies with minimal response levels, as low as 20%, can generate more accurate findings. similarly, the results of a national survey demonstrate that response rates range from 5% to 54% (holbrook, krosnick and pfent, 2007). table 1 summarises the demographics of the survey respondents. table 1. demographic profile of respondents respondent characteristics no. of respondents (total= 83) years of experience less than 10 years 28 between 11 and 20 years 38 between 21 and 30 years 17 designation project managers 11 contractors 20 consultants 17 site engineers 10 site supervisors 13 local authorities 8 developers 4 interviews as part of an explanatory sequential design, semi-structured interviews are used to supplement and explain quantitative data obtained from cross-sectional survey questionnaires and case studies. the rationale for this explanatory process is that quantitative measures and outcomes provide a comprehensive insight into the topic, permitting for a more thorough examination. thirteen (13) industry professionals were selected after careful consideration to discuss views regarding the management methods for carbon emissions in the construction business. project and construction site management experience were taken into consideration when selecting interviewees. there are a total of six roles held by the respondent, including three (3) contractors, three (3) project managers, two (2) engineers, two (2) consultants, two (2) site supervisors, and one (1) developer. the total number of interviews is backed by skulmoski, hartman and krahn (2007), who concurs that between 10 and 15 participants should be mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022105 interviewed, as well as guest, bunce and johnson (2006) stated that saturation often hits around 12 to 15 individuals in homogeneous groups. therefore, the validity and depth of qualitative information ought to be relevant to the information richness of the selection and the analytical capabilities, rather than the number of participants in the study. the following describes the semi-structured inquiries that were designed to allow participants the opportunity to offer personal insights on the effective implementation of emissions reduction measures: a) the restrictions prevent those involved in the building industry from consistently incorporating emissions management strategies. b) initiatives to optimise the performance of emissions management in the construction sector. c) an intriguing question enables the participant to contribute or address related concerns. the data sufficiency of data is reached or appeared at a saturation point or redundancy (strauss and corbin, 1998), once there is no additional knowledge identified in the last few interview sessions. data analysis the percentage frequency distribution, content analysis, mean, standard deviation, reliability analysis, and pearson correlation analysis were conducted to obtain descriptive statistics. reliability test the sixteen variable items found in section c of the questionnaire (strategies and obstacles to practicing emissions management) were subjected to a reliability analysis, which resulted in a cronbach’s alpha score of 0.891. nunnally and bernstein (1994) stated that a value greater than 0.70 was deemed acceptable. pearson correlation analysis the pearson product-moment correlation coefficient (r) was employed for normal data in this study to quantify the strength, direction, and likelihood of the linear link between two interval or ratio variables as described by pallant (2020). pearson’s r can be interpreted as an indicator of the linear relationship in either a positive or negative direction. this measure takes into account the importance of the link between the variables and can take on values that range from –1.0 to +1.0. there was a positive correlation between variables when the trend had a comparable direction, regardless of whether it was an increase or decrease. an essential outcome of this study was the existence of a strong link between implementation challenges and carbon emissions reduction techniques. the strength of the correlations is determined by the pearson coefficient’s absolute value. the following are the rules for interpreting the strength of association, as outlined by cohen (1988): if .10 < l r l < .3, the value is regarded small having a poor relationship. if .29 < l r l < .49, value is deemed medium having a moderate relationship. if .5 < l r l < 1.0, value is considered high having a strong relationship. content analysis analysing information is an extensively used qualitative research method that counts the numerous features of a given piece of information to provide a brief description. it is divided into three major strategies: summative, conventional, and directed (hsieh and shannon, 2005). this inquiry used standard content mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022106 analysis. the data gathered served as the foundation for the creation of the basic coding template. this necessitated an exploratory method in which the codes were organised and rearranged until a set of themes developed that represented the data’s basic patterns and connections (saunders, lewis and thornhill, 2016). this procedure permitted the key theoretical premises to be further integrated as it was established to reflect and examine major themes also linkage in the data. thus, participant responses were analysed by shifting raw narrative data (notes, audiotapes) into semi-processed data (transcripts) and manually transcribing it. results and discussion this part comprises the data gathering on participants’ comments through questionnaire forms on the participant’s degree of comprehension of the necessity of emissions management ideas and existing practices. percentage frequency distributions were applied to analyse the data from the study. awareness of the importance of emissions management in construction projects 17% 11% 22% 28% 11% 11% 44% 39% 17% 33% 50% 22% 17% 39% 44% 56% 44% 22% 50% 50% 6% 28% 17% 22% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% project managers contractors consultants site engineers site supervisors local authorities developers slightly aware somewhat aware moderately aware very aware figure 1. awareness of the importance of emissions management in the construction project the respondents were questioned regarding their level of familiarity with the idea of low carbon as well as the government’s goal of reducing emissions by 45% in the year 2030. figure 1 portrays that consultants are more conscious of the implications of the low-carbon paradigm than contractors, developers, local governments, and project managers. this could imply that consultants with responses of ‘moderately knowledgeable’ and ‘very aware’ (84%) have a greater grasp and knowledge of engaging with low carbon and green development than developers (72%) and local governments (67%). in contrast, when asked about the necessity of mitigating emissions in construction operations, site supervisors (78%), project managers (61%), and site engineers (55%) were either ‘slightly aware’ or ‘somewhat aware,’ reflecting the inadequate information. further research revealed that, while the majority of respondents were exposed to low-carbon ideas through seminars, webinars, and a capacity-building programme initiated by the government to mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022107 promote green development in malaysia, the volume of information gleaned is conceptual and idea-based, causing it tricky to impose to real-world project implementation. do you consider practicing emissions management in construction projects? 70% 50% 80% 40% 23% 100% 75% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% project managers contractors consultants site engineers site supervisors local authorities developers no and no plan to consider no but to consider yes figure 2. consideration of the emissions management implementation besides, figure 2 shows that the vast majority of respondents approved including emissions mitigation in the construction projects. in the meantime, half of them are still debating whether to go forward and implement it. nonetheless, approximately 4% do not practise emissions management and thus have no intentions to do so. these data confirm that employee attitudes differ, and the industry’s readiness to evolve is contingent on its conviction in the consequences of necessary changes (wong, ng and shahidi, 2013). who do you believe should ultimately be most responsible for emissions management implementation in a construction project? 9% 11% 21% 8% 17% 13% 10% 6% 5% 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% architect client contractor consultant project manager site engineers site supervisor local authority developers figure 3. professions are believed to be the most responsible for emissions management in construction projects. mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022108 the construction project’s best practises for emissions control are shown graphically in figure 3. participants were asked to consider which occupations should oversee ensuring project emissions. the findings indicate that contractors (21%) were voted as the most liable for decreasing construction emissions. the project manager (17%) and site engineers (13%), for instance, play a significant role in carbon reduction on the construction site. this signifies that these positions were directly involved on the construction site. emissions management practices in construction projects figure 4. emissions management practice in construction projects figure 4 displays construction project emissions management strategies. in general, the majority of construction players have used emissions control in their projects. roughly 78% of construction site managers reuse and recycle construction debris. moreover, 67% of them answered to monitor and document the on-site tools and machinery used, organise delivery trips to the site to reduce truck waiting time, and source locally available materials to reduce transportation emissions. another 56% of site managers claim to track on-site energy and fuel consumption, as well as use offsite/prefabricated construction components. on the other side, little effort was discovered on measures like alternative fuel use, on-site renewable energy installation, fuel-efficient method training, and the implementation of carbon calculation tools. overall, the application of emissions control in building projects is still low, despite prior measures to regulate the site’s outputs. this study’s findings contribute to current knowledge (ghazali and zahid, 2015), revealing that, while there is a rising commitment to environmental sustainability, real practise in controlling and managing emissions remains remarkably low. similarly, most firms have just made assertions about their attempts to reduce co2 emissions, without providing any actual data on carbon emissions. according to nejat et al. (2015), establishing emissions reports obligatory will drive the industry to assess and cut emissions. survey questionnaire findings the participants were required to provide their views on the constraints to incorporating emissions management in infrastructure projects and the carbon strategies enacted by their organisations. mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022109 barriers to implementing emissions management table 2. descriptive statistics of the mean (m) and standard deviation (sd) for the barriers to emissions management implementation key barriers in implementing emissions management mean std. deviation rank lack of awareness and interest in the significance of emissions and the implications on the environment. 3.9742 1.1790 1 lack of technical knowledge and skills in mitigating emissions and adopting green technology. 3.3291 1.2060 6 resistance to change from the use of traditional methods and techniques. 3.3291 0.9958 6 lack of information on the availability of alternative construction materials and products and green technologies available in the market. 3.5570 0.9362 4 lack of organisation’s commitments toward sustainability. 3.2532 1.0916 8 environmental target is not included in the company’s objective. 3.1882 0.9573 9 lack of tools and mechanisms to monitor emissions management implementation in the construction project. 3.7368 1.0637 3 high costs for low carbon products, materials, and green technologies. 3.8354 0.9928 2 lack of information on the government’s initiatives on emissions. 3.5570 0.9325 4 the limited resource to invest in implementing emissions mitigation strategies. 3.4735 1.4315 5 lack of enforcement and mandatory requirement in emissions mitigations. 3.2658 1.0785 7 the limitations are ranked based on mean values to determine the most significant challenges that respondents encountered while adopting emissions management in the construction industry. according to the results of the survey, the prime serious obstacle is a “lack of awareness and interest in the relevance of emissions and the effects on the environment” (m=3.9742; sd =1.1790). ‘high costs for low carbon products, materials and green technology’ (m=3.8354; sd=0.9928) was the second-highest rated issue. furthermore, ‘the absence of instruments and framework to monitor emissions management performance of a construction project’ (m=3.7368; sd=1.0637) ranked third on the list. moreover, a shortage of information on the existence of alternative building materials, products, and green technologies accessible in the market was mentioned as an obstacle to reducing emissions in a project. the respondents appear to be unsure about the types of environmentally friendly and low-carbon technologies to implement in their construction projects. however, they have expressed an interest in gaining additional knowledge on the implementation of low-carbon technologies in future building projects. on the basis of the responses, critical obstacles to the implementation of carbon emissions controls have been categorised into three (3) different groups: institutional, organisational, and individual for improving emission planning and management. mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022110 table 3. summary findings of key challenges hindering successful emissions management key barriers key findings institutional/ government • lack of tools and mechanisms to monitor emissions management implementation in the construction project. • lack of information on the government’s initiatives on emissions. • lack of enforcement and mandatory requirement in emissions mitigations. organisational • high costs for low carbon products, materials, and green technologies. • limited resources to invest in implementing emissions mitigation strategies. • lack of organisation’s commitments toward sustainability. • environmental target is not included in the company’s objective individual • lack of awareness and interest in the significance of emissions and the implications on the environment. • lack of information on the availability of alternative construction materials and products, and green technologies. • lack of technical knowledge and skills in mitigating emissions and adopting green technology. • resistance to change from the use of traditional methods and techniques. carbon reduction strategies five (5) carbon reduction strategies were proposed to the respondents to rate based on their professional opinions. table 4 shows the descriptive statistics of the mean (m) and standard deviation (sd) correlations and cronbach’s alpha reliability coefficients of the construct measured. table 4. descriptive statistics of the mean (m) and standard deviation (sd) for carbon reduction strategies carbon reduction strategies mean std. deviation rank uniform policies and stricter standards: introducing carbon disincentives schemes or carbon regulations for direct emissions mitigation in construction projects. 3.5696 1.0462 3 rewards and incentives: rewarding schemes and incentives to motivate construction companies to implement energy savings or emissions-reduction technologies like tax rebates, capital subsidies, and loan schemes. 3.7215 1.0119 1 monitoring tools and mechanism: national/ industry carbon inventory and standardized monitoring mechanism act as a reference to the industry to benchmark, monitor and report their emissions. 3.5949 1.0318 2 promotion and education: promotion, training, and education that a company can receive from the government or professional institutes on carbon management strategies. 3.5570 0.9967 4 project planning and management: incorporate emissions targets in operational and activity planning. 3.3165 1.2252 5 mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022111 ‘rewards and incentives’ (m=3.7215; sd=1.0119) were deemed to be the most important strategy when respondents were asked to rank the strategies. meanwhile, ‘monitoring tools and mechanisms’ (m=3.5949; sd=1.0318) is the second crucial component. another key driver identified by respondents is the approach of ‘uniform policies and tougher standards’ (m=3.5696; sd=1.0462), which is followed by ‘promotion and education on the carbon management methods’ (m=3.5570; sd=0.9967) and ‘project planning and management’ (m=3.3165; sd=1.2252), respectively. inter-correlations between barriers and strategies based on mean ranking this study employed pearson’s r to calculate the strength, direction, and probability of a linear relationship between two variables (barriers and strategies). using data from table 5, this research shows the moderate and high correlations between the top-ranked techniques and barriers. the selected values for the sig (2-tailed) bold statistic are either lower than or equal to .05. a statistically substantial correlation between these factors may be deduced, suggesting that higher or lower barriers are linked to increasing or decreasing strategy. table 5. a consolidation of the descriptive statistics based on mean ranking and inter-correlations between the carbon reduction strategies and the barriers (constructs) measured rank 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 rank carbon reduction strategies and barriers lack of awareness high costs lack of tools and mechanisms lack of information (policies and standards) lack of information (alternative materials and products resistance to change lack of technical expertise lack of organisation’s commitments 1 rewards and incentives schemes .459** .260* .224* .581** 2 monitoring tools and mechanism .440** .301** .255* .459** 3 uniform policies and stricter standards .260* .298** .412** .271* .562** 4 promotion and education .326** .278* .346** .346** .528** .251* 5 project planning and management .329** .291** .349** .325** .266* following the top-rated strategies, it is apparent that both variables have a strong correlation; 1. increased incentives (r=.581; p<0.05) for construction firms that employ energy savings or emissionsreduction innovations like tax rebates, capital subsidies, and loan schemes (r=.459; p<0.05) boost the organization’s commitment even though this could also indicate higher expenses for low carbon products, materials, and green technologies. 2. however, a rise in the use of carbon inventory monitoring tools and mechanisms may improve technical expertise, knowledge, and skills in mitigating emissions as well as adopting mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022112 green technology (r=.459; p<0.05), while this would also imply additional fees for low carbon materials, products, and green technologies (r=.440; p<0.0). 3. the organization’s commitment will grow if uniform policies and tougher standards on carbon disincentives schemes or carbon regulations are introduced for direct emissions mitigation in building projects (r = 0.562; p<0.05). this will also strengthen the data regarding the availability of alternative construction materials and goods and green technologies that are currently on the market (r =.412; p<0.05). 4. a company’s ability to receive government or professional institute-sponsored training and education on carbon management strategies indicates an increase in technical expertise, knowledge, and skills in mitigating emissions and adopting green technology (r=.528; p<0.05), as well as information on policies and standards and alternative materials and products (r=.346; p<0.05). 5. even though this would indicate higher prices for low carbon products, materials, plus green technologies, strong capacity in project planning and management increases the information connected to regulations and standards (r=.349; p<0.05) as well as information on alternative materials and products (r=.325); p<0.05). interview findings an exchange of questions and answers with thirteen (13) recognised authorities in the sector yielded more insights about the removal of obstacles to the implementation of emissions management strategies. as shown in table 6, the classification of solutions to linked concepts or issues aimed to increase understanding of the findings of the in-depth interviews. these emissions plans are based on the insights of the participants and aim to boost the efforts of the concerned stakeholders. table 6. emissions strategies are based on participant’s opinions to improve stakeholder’s effort key strategies respondent’s opinions key responsibility 1. uniform and relevant policies and stricter regulation and standard -introducing carbon disincentives schemes or carbon regulations in construction projects would improve the current state of scenarios in construction project and consequently will encourage and motivate stakeholders in monitoring their construction emissions seriously. -more stringent construction regulations of construction procurement and mandatory reporting process should be implemented to achieve construction emissions standards. government, local authority beneficial programmes and incentives -the implementation of beneficial programmes and incentives, such as tax refunds, capital subsidies, and loan incentives to encourage construction companies to adopt emissions measures and green technologies application in their project. government, banks, financial institutions promotion and education -educating, promoting, and creating awareness on environment concerns, emissions management techniques and green technology application will generate interest among construction stakeholders to start monitor their construction emissions. -in a mission to apply for emissions measures and green technology, it is important for them to leverage their skills and knowledge through training to cope with up-to-date technologies. construction companies, government, semi governmental agencies, ngos, educational institutes. mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022113 key strategies respondent’s opinions key responsibility monitoring tools and mechanism -the establishment of national/ industry carbon inventory and standardized monitoring mechanism such as carbon calculator will help the industry to benchmark, monitor and report their emissions production. -although they are committed to start monitor the emissions; however, they are not very sure with the right mechanism to be adopted. government, construction stakeholders, academia and research institutes project planning and management -incorporating emissions target in operational and activity planning will direct the company towards effective emissions monitoring process. –implement sustainable site management to effectively manage waste, material, resource and equipment would also contribute to emissions. construction stakeholders respondents have suggested five (5) emissions management strategies. introducing ‘uniform and relevant policies and stricter regulation and standard,’ ‘beneficial programmes and incentives,’ ‘promotion and education,’ ‘monitoring tools and mechanism,’ and ‘project planning and management’ were highlighted as crucial drivers in developing effective emission mitigation strategies in construction operations. discussion: a way forward on the better emissions management practice this section provides recommendations for boosting the effectiveness of malaysia’s emissions management frameworks predicated on the triangulation of outcomes from the eight (8) site observations, a survey administered to eighty-three respondents, and interviews involving thirteen experts. the data from the interviews and the surveys were cross-checked to ensure a sufficient degree of saturation. the themes of the strategies presented here are centred on two-tier plans that reflect top-level and bottom-level measures to expedite emissions control in the construction industry, in response to the major obstacles revealed in this study. figure 5 displays the basis for emissions management approaches in the construction sector. initiatives taken at the highest level of government indicate strategies for overcoming limitations imposed by institutions at lower levels. due to this, a more effective strategy for managing emissions relies heavily on government policy. the findings demonstrate that the organisational commitment grows by offering more incentives like tax refunds, capital subsidies, and loan schemes to the construction firms. these measures will push them to deploy technology that saves energy or reduce emissions, even though doing so would result in increased costs for low-carbon products, materials, and green technologies. in addition, policies, laws, and standards; benefits programmes and incentives; and capacity training are three important components of the government’s participation in converting the country to low-carbon construction. in parallel with the government of malaysia’s goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030 (relative to the 2005 emissions intensity of gdp) (susskind, et al. 2020) and establish a carbon-neutral nation by 2050, the government has launched several programmes, including financial support, promotional tactics, legislation, and action plans (mustaffa, isa and ibrahim, 2021). in addition, the government has set a target to reach a carbon-neutral country by 2050. the development of effective carbon policies is essential to ensure that decreasing emissions is a legal necessity and that all construction companies use emissions control measures to meet carbon standards and regulations. construction projects must implement mandatory ghg disclosure as a proactive measure to reduce emissions. this can be accomplished by adopting penalties, a carbon tax, a cap-and-trade system, and carbon trading on businesses that surpass table 6. continued mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022114 the mandated ghg limit that the government established, as well as by establishing more severe building requirements, such as energy performance specifications, building standards, and equipment specifications. the use of positive incentives, like awards, subsidies, grants, or loans, is more effective than the use of negative compensation, such as fines, at motivating and changing the behaviour of an industry. these many types of incentives have the potential to persuade industry workers to carry out effective strategies for reducing emissions and achieving the emissions targets as well as the national goals that have been set. relying on previous research, this study confirms the findings of karkanias et al. (2010) as well as diyana and abidin (2013). furthermore, a disincentive strategy based on their procedures and actions must be established to decrease carbon emissions. according to the findings, an increase in the use of monitoring tools or techniques and mechanisms for the national/industry carbon inventory and standardised monitoring mechanisms act as a reference to the industry to benchmark, monitor, and report their emissions may strengthen the technical expertise knowledge and skills in mitigating emissions as well as adopting green technology. despite the fact that this would also indicate higher costs for low carbon products, materials, and green technology, the findings show that this may enhance the technical expert knowledge, and skills in mitigating emissions, and adopting green technology. among the most important factors in the development of effective methods to reduce emissions is enhancing the level of information and insight held inside the sector. following the results obtained, increasing the amount of promotion, training, and education that is provided to construction companies by the government or professional institutions on carbon management strategies will boost the technical expertise, knowledge, and competence in mitigating emissions and implementing green technology. this will, in turn, improve the relevant data associated with guidelines and regulations, as well as alternative materials and products. malaysia’s low-carbon policy compliance could be aided by an informed government planning and knowledge management approach (emissions evaluation tools, green building processes). moreover, the building of institutional capacity can be used to improve an organization’s capabilities and barriers institutional individual organizational figure 5. emissions management strategies framework in the construction industry mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022115 foster a culture that is more conducive to low-carbon, climate-resilient growth. educating decision-makers, construction stakeholders, and other professionals regarding the recent technological breakthroughs and innovative emissions reduction practises will contribute to addressing these concerns. for strategic emissions control purposes, mustaffa, isa and ibrahim (2021) emphasised the importance of enhancing knowledge and skills, as well as a platform for managing data on benchmarks for energy savings or emissions-reduction technology. kim et al. (2012) and rasdorf et al. (2012) suggested that equipment operators receive emissions training to limit the amount of fuel combustion that occurs during construction. the bottom category includes organisational and individual actions aimed at promoting the government’s goal of low-carbon growth. this level of capacity utilisation is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions. a practical monitoring system and onsite emissions criteria for individual sites and activities can only be implemented on time if the industry undergoes technical and knowledge upskilling on emissions management. this is necessary to make sure that the industry is capable of complying with the carbon emission regulations. project planning and management skills can increase information on rules and standards, alternative materials, and goods, even if this means greater expenses for low-carbon products, materials, and green technology. efficient emissions mitigation techniques in construction hence necessitate well-trained project managers with experience in emissions managing and monitoring at the construction site. mandating the reporting of carbon emissions will encourage companies to combat climate change to avoid bad publicity and maintain their strong brand images. additionally, this study found that the government’s ability to gather data and develop a national emissions inventory relies on the industry’s reporting of carbon emissions and disclosure of carbon emissions reports. sustainability in site management not only reduces emissions, but also preserves resources, materials, and equipment. in addition to reducing waste and utilising renewable energy, these strategies also take into account embodied carbon and managing water resources. the findings of this study have contributed to a better grasp of the construction industry’s knowledge and practises in integrating emissions management, as well as the key obstacles to effective implementation of emissions management and recommendations for emissions control. the policies and performance of carbon emissions management in the malaysian context have been addressed in previous studies (bohari, et al., 2015; algburi, faieza and baharudin, 2016; ohueri, enegbuma and kenley, 2018), however, this research adds to knowledge by identifying the industry’s acceptability and the key factors contributing to successful emission control in construction operations. more realistic viewpoints on how low carbon growth affects industry behaviour and commitments to better emissions management methods in malaysian construction projects have been discovered through this work. as a consequence of this, the research constructs a motivating resonance among the top to bottom information and bottom-to-top efforts solutions to enhance low-carbon growth in malaysian construction. figure 5 presents this finding as an illustration of a paradigm for emissions management solutions in the construction industry. conclusion in an attempt to bridge the information gap, this study explores existing industry pollutants management strategies in construction and the limitations and alternatives for efficient emissions in construction work. this study’s triangulation of information was assisted through a field survey of eight (8) construction sites, replies from eighty-three construction participants acquired from the questionnaire, and thirteen expert interviews. the first findings from current emissions management practises reveal that, while there is a growing awareness and commitment to low-carbon development, actual practise in controlling and managing emissions remains relatively minimal. furthermore, the most major challenges to better emissions practises occur at all levels, including institutional, organisational, and individual. though the mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022116 country’s ambition for a low-carbon future is encouraging, its success is dependent on the cooperation and collaboration of all stakeholders. this research emphasised the proposed interventions to overcome the constraints. premised on triangulation of findings, a framework displaying topand bottom-level efforts was established. in accordance with the proposed technique, the nation’s goal should be translated into a successful emissions target by upgrading legislation, establishing beneficial programmes and incentives, and increasing building capacity at the highest level. building capability, establishing monitoring tools, and competent project design and management will augment top-level initiatives to accelerate malaysia’s lowcarbon construction transition. the finding of this research could be beneficial in addressing particular concerns regarding lowcarbon adoption and establishing effective methods for achieving low-carbon progress in malaysia. this study makes a significant contribution of insight pertaining to the industry’s prior knowledge and strategies in integrating emissions management in a construction project, as well as the key challenges and factors associated with the management in malaysia. this study’s ramifications encompass offering more valuable information about the current industry’s low-carbon development goals and what it would take to boost emissions control in construction projects. moreover, the research outcomes could serve as a framework for further discussion on promoting awareness at all levels to accomplish sustainable development goal (sdg) 13: climate change. this is also necessary for supporting the government›s aspirations to become a low-carbon nation, as highlighted in the twelfth malaysia plan 2021-2025. nevertheless, certain restrictions pertain throughout this study. since this study relied primarily on statement-based research approaches, no actual figures on co2 emissions from building sites could be obtained. future studies on emissions should incorporate actual data from construction sites to smooth out the findings. this study has a small number of participants and is only based on purposeful sampling from the specified area of selangor, malaysia. as a result, the findings of this investigation cannot be extrapolated beyond the boundaries of the scope of this study. therefore, as malaysia’s emissions management practises continue to evolve, future research may expand the existing population to a bigger extent. a sampling approach that is random, stratified, clustered, or other recognised probability sampling approaches must be used to make generalisations from the larger population. ergo, further research should engage a wider range of stakeholders, particularly policymakers and stakeholders, for producing better relevant data that offer greater insights into the deployment of low-carbon initiatives. acknowledgements the authors would like to express their gratitude to the ministry of higher education malaysia and universiti teknologi mara, shah alam, for supporting this publication via research grant frgs/1/2019/ tk10/uitm/02/4. references abolhasani, s., frey, h. c., kim, k., rasdorf, w., lewis, p. and pang, s. h., 2008. real-world in-use activity, fuel use, and emissions for nonroad construction vehicles: a case study for excavators. journal of the air and waste management association, [e-journal] 58(8), pp.1033-46. https://doi.org/10.3155/1047-3289.58.8.1033 acquaye, a. a., and duffy, a. p., 2010. input – output analysis of irish construction sector greenhouse gas emissions. building and environment, [e-journal] 45(3), pp.784–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2009.08.022 ahn, c., pan, w., lee, s., and peña-mora, f., 2010. enhanced estimation of air emissions from construction operations based on discrete-event simulation. in: w. tizani, ed. proceedings of the international conference on computing in civil and building engineering, 30 june to 2 july 2010. nottingham, uk: nottingham university press. mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022117 https://doi.org/10.3155/1047-3289.58.8.1033 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2009.08.022 ahn, c. r. and lee, s., 2013. importance of operational efficiency to achieve energy efficiency and exhaust emission reduction of construction operations. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 139(4), pp.40413. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000609 ahn, c.r., lewis, p., golparvar-fard, m. and lee, s., 2013. integrated framework for estimating, benchmarking, and monitoring pollutant emissions of construction operations. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 139(12), p.a4013003. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000755 algburi, s.m., faieza, a.a., and baharudin, b.t.h.t., 2016. review of green building index in malaysia; existing work and challenges. international journal of applied engineering research, 11(5), pp.3160–67. ang, c.t. and morad, n., 2013. lca, ecolabelling and carbon footprint as product environmental assessment tool (peat) in malaysian perspective. world applied sciences journal, [e-journal] 24(9), pp.1261–70. https://doi. org/10.5829/idosi.wasj.2013.24.09.582 arocho, i., rasdorf, w. and hummer, j., 2014. methodology to forecast the emissions from construction equipment for a transportation construction project. in: construction research congress 2014: construction in a global network, atlanta, georgia, 19-21 may, pp.554-63. available at: https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413517.057 avetisyan, h.g., miller-hooks, e. and melanta, s., 2012. decision models to support greenhouse gas emissions reduction from transportation construction projects. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 138(5), pp.631-41. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000477 bilec, m.m., ries, r.j. and matthews, h.s., 2010. life-cycle assessment modelling of construction processes for buildings. journal of infrastructure systems, [e-journal] 16(3), pp.199. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943555x.0000022 bohari, a.a.m., skitmore, m., xia, b., teo, m., zhang, x. and adham, k.n., 2015. the path towards greening the malaysian construction industry. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, [e-journal] 52, pp.1742-48. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.07.148 bohari, a.a.m., skitmore, m., xia, b., and teo, m., 2017. green oriented procurement for building projects: preliminary findings from malaysia. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 148, pp.690-700. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.01.141 california air resources board (carb), 2009. off-road emissions inventory program, version 2009, california air resources board, sacramento, california. available at: http://www.arb.ca.gov/msei/offroad.htm. [accessed 28 april 2020]. carmichael, d.g., williams, e.h., and kaboli, a.s., 2012. minimum operational emissions in earthmoving. asce construction research congress 2012, 21-23 may, purdue university, indiana. pp.1869-78. isbn 9780784412329. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784412329.188 carmichael, d.g., and mustaffa, n.k., 2018. emissions and production penalties/bonuses associated with non-standard earthmoving loading policies. construction innovation, [e-journal] 18(2). https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-05-2017-0047 carmichael, d.g., mustaffa, n.k., and shen, x., 2018. a utility measure of attitudes to lower-emissions production in construction. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 202, pp.23-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.08.086 chen, y., and kamara, j.m., 2011. a framework for using mobile computing for information management on construction sites. automation in construction, [e-journal] 20(7), pp.776-88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2011.01.002 cheng, e.w., and li, h., 2002. construction partnering process and associated critical success factors: quantitative investigation. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 18(4), pp.194-202. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0742-597x(2002)18:4(194) mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022118 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000609 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000755 https://doi.org/10.5829/idosi.wasj.2013.24.09.582 https://doi.org/10.5829/idosi.wasj.2013.24.09.582 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413517.057 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000477 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000022 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.07.148 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2015.07.148 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.01.141 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.01.141 http://www.arb.ca.gov/msei/offroad.htm https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784412329.188 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-05-2017-0047 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.08.086 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2011.01.002 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2002)18:4(194 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2002)18:4(194 cho, s.h. and chae, c.u., 2016. a study on life cycle co2 emissions of low-carbon building in south korea. sustainability, [e-journal] 8(6), p.579. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8060579 chua, s.c. and oh, t.h., 2011. green progress and prospect in malaysia. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, [e-journal] 15(6), pp.2850–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2011.03.008 cohen, j., 1988. statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. hillsdale, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. pp.2026. davidson, k., nguyệt, p.t.m., gunawan, n. and boulle, b., 2020. malaysia green infrastructure investment opportunities (giio) report 2020. climate bonds initiative, malaysia, pp. 1-52. https://doi.org/10.18235/0002638 diyana, n. and abidin, z., 2013. motivation and expectation of developers on green construction: a conceptual view. international journal of humanities and social sciences, [e-journal] 7(4), pp.914-18. doi.org/10.5281/ zenodo.1077573 de wolf, c., cerezo, c., murtadhawi, z., hajiah, a., al mumin, a., ochsendorf, j. and reinhart, c., 2017. life cycle building impact of a middle eastern residential neighborhood. energy, [e-journal] 134, pp.336-48. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.06.026 environmental protection agency (epa), 2008. nonroad model 2008, [computer program] us epa, office of transportation and air quality, ann arbor, mi. available at: https://www3.epa.gov/otaq/nonrdmdl.htm. [accessed 22 september 2020]. epa clean air act advisory committee (caaac), 2006. recommendations for reducing emissions from the legacy diesel fleet. us epa. available at: http://www.epa.gov/diesel/documents/caaac-apr06.pdf. [accessed 10 july 2020]. eras, j.j.c., gutiérrez, a.s., capote, d.h., hens, l. and vandecasteele, c., 2013. improving the environmental performance of an earthwork project using cleaner production strategies. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 47, pp.368-76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.11.026 frey, h., rasdorf, w. and lewis, p., 2010. comprehensive field study of fuel use and emissions of nonroad diesel construction equipment. transportation research record: journal of the transportation research board, [e-journal] 2158(1), pp.69-76. https://doi.org/10.3141/2158-09 ghazali, z. and zahid, m., 2015. environmental sustainability: carbon emission reduction strategies and reporting among malaysian construction companies. in: 2015 international symposium on technology management and emerging technologies (istmet), pp. 417-21. ieee. https://doi.org/10.1109/istmet.2015.7359070 gonzález, v. and echaveguren, t., 2012. exploring the environmental modeling of road construction operations using discrete-event simulation. automation in construction, [e-journal] 24, pp.100–110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2012.02.011 guest, g., bunce, a. and johnson, l., 2006. how many interviews are enough? an experiment with data saturation and variability. field methods, [e-journal] 18(1), pp.59−82. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822x05279903 guggemos, a.a. and horvath, a., 2006. decision-support tool for assessing the environmental effects of constructing commercial buildings. journal of architectural engineering, [e-journal] 12(4), pp.187-95. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)1076-0431(2006)12:4(187) hajji, a.m. and lewis, p., 2013. development of productivity-based estimating tool for energy and air emissions from earthwork construction activities. smart and sustainable built environment, [e-journal] 2(1), pp.84-100. https://doi. org/10.1108/20466091311325863 mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022119 https://doi.org/10.3390/su8060579 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2011.03.008 https://doi.org/10.18235/0002638 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.06.026 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2017.06.026 https://www3.epa.gov/otaq/nonrdmdl.htm http://www.epa.gov/diesel/documents/caaac-apr06.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.11.026 https://doi.org/10.3141/2158-09 https://doi.org/10.1109/istmet.2015.7359070 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.02.011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.02.011 https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822x05279903 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1076-0431(2006)12:4(187 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1076-0431(2006)12:4(187 https://doi.org/10.1108/20466091311325863 https://doi.org/10.1108/20466091311325863 hafizan, c., hussein, n. and noor, z. z., 2021. life cycle assessment framework application in malaysia. in: iop conference series: materials science and engineering, 1051(1), p. 012101. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757899x/1051/1/012101 heydarian, a. and golparvar-fard, m., 2011. a visual monitoring framework for integrated productivity and carbon footprint control of construction operations. asce computing in civil engineering, 182(416), p.62. https://doi. org/10.1061/41182(416)62 ho, c.s., matsuoka, y., simson, j., and gomi, k., 2013. low carbon urban development strategy in malaysia–the case of iskandar malaysia development corridor. habitat international, [e-journal] 37, pp.43-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. habitatint.2011.12.018 holbrook, a., krosnick, j. and pfent, a., 2007. the causes and consequences of response rates in surveys by the news media and government contractor survey research firms. in: advances in telephone survey methodology. ca: sage publications. ch.23. hong, t., wang, z., luo, x. and zhang, w., 2020. state-of-the-art on research and applications of machine learning in the building life cycle. energy and buildings, [e-journal] 212, pp.109831. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.109831 hughes, l., phear, a., nicholson, d., pantelidou, h., soga, k., guthrie, p., kidd, a. and fraser, n., 2011, may. carbon dioxide from earthworks: a bottom-up approach. in: proceedings of the institution of civil engineers-civil engineering, [e-journal]164(2), pp.66-72. https://doi.org/10.1680/cien.2011.164.2.66 hsieh, h.f. and shannon, e.s., 2005. three approaches to qualitative content analysis. qualitative health research, [e-journal] 1(9), pp.1277–88. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732305276687 idris, n.h., ismail, z. and hashim, h., 2015. towards a framework for promoting sustainable construction in malaysia. jurnal teknologi, [e-journal] 76(1). https://doi.org/10.11113/jt.v76.2674 ishak, n.i., mustafa kamal, e. and yusof, n.a., 2017. the green manufacturer’s compliance with green criteria throughout the life cycle of building material. sage open, [e-journal] 7(3). https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017725446 joseph, v.r., and mustaffa, n.k., 2021. carbon emissions management in construction operations: a systematic review. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal – ahead of print]. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ecam-04-2021-0318 karkanias, c., boemi, n., papadopoulos, a., tsoutsos, t. and karagiannidis, a., 2010. energy efficiency in the hellenic building sector: an assessment of the restrictions and perspectives of the market. energy policy, [e-journal] 38(6), pp. 2776-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2010.01.009 kerdan, i.g., raslan, r., ruyssevelt, p., and gálvez, d.m., 2017. exret-opt: an automated exergy/exergoeconomic simulation framework for building energy retrofit analysis and design optimisation. applied energy, [e-journal] 192, pp.33–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.02.006 kim, b., lee, h., park, h. and kim, h., 2012. greenhouse gas emissions from onsite equipment usage in road construction. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 138(8), pp.982–90. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000515 kim, h., bang, s., jeong, h., ham, y. and kim, h., 2018. analyzing context and productivity of tunnel earthmoving processes using imaging and simulation. automation in construction. [e-journal] 92, pp.188–98. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.04.002 kim, j. and chi, s., 2020. multi-camera vision-based productivity monitoring of earthmoving operations. automation in construction. [e-journal] 112, p.103121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103121 mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022120 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/1051/1/012101 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/1051/1/012101 https://doi.org/10.1061/41182(416)62 https://doi.org/10.1061/41182(416)62 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2011.12.018 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2011.12.018 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.109831 https://doi.org/10.1680/cien.2011.164.2.66 https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732305276687 https://doi.org/10.11113/jt.v76.2674 https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244017725446 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-2021-0318 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-2021-0318 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2010.01.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2017.02.006 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000515 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000515 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.04.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.04.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103121 krejcie, r.v. and morgan, d.w., 1970. determining sample size for research activities. educational and psychological measurement, [e-journal] 30(3), pp.607-10. https://doi.org/10.1177/001316447003000308 lewis, p. and hajji, a., 2012. estimating the economic, energy, and environmental impact of earthwork activities. asce construction research congress 2012, 21-23 may, purdue university, indiana. pp.1770-79. https://doi. org/10.1061/9780784412329.178 li, z.t. and akhavian, r., 2017. carbon dioxide emission evaluation in construction operations using des: a case study of carwash construction. in: 2017 winter simulation conference (wsc), pp.2384-93. ieee. https://doi. org/10.1109/wsc.2017.8247968 ipcc, 2015. climate change 2014: mitigation of climate change: working group iii contribution to the ipcc fifth assessment report. cambridge: cambridge university press. malaysian dutch business council (mdbc), 2022. mdbc-outlook-2022-invest-selangor. [pdf ]. available at: https:// www.mdbc.com.my/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/mdbc-outlook-2022-invest-selangor.pdf. [accessed 10 june 2022]. ministry of energy, green technology and water malaysia (kettha), 2017. low carbon city framework (lccf) 2017. [pdf ] available at: https://www.lccf.my/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/lccf_book-version-2-2017.pdf. [accessed 19 may 2022]. moayedi, f., amila, n., abdullah, w. and liew, m.s., 2019. a systematic approach to embodied carbon reduction in buildings. in: proceedings of iop conference series: earth and environmental science. 220(2019), p.012055. https://doi. org/10.1088/1755-1315/220/1/012055 mustaffa, n.k., isa, c.m.m. and ibrahim, c.k i.c., 2021. top-down bottom-up strategic green building development framework: case studies in malaysia. building and environment, [e-journal] 203, p.108052. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. buildenv.2021.108052 mustaffa, n.k., 2022. alternative configurations of earthmoving loading practices toward emissions. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 148(1), p. 04021177. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0002211 nadoushani, z.s.m., akbarnezhad, a. and rey, d., 2018. optimization of concrete placing operation based on competing carbon footprint, cost and production rate objectives. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 25(7), pp. 938-57. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2017-0080 naghshbandi, s.n., varga, l. and hu y., 2021. technologies for safe and resilient earthmoving operations: a systematic literature review. automation in construction, [e-journal] 125, p.103632. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2021.103632 nejat, p., jomehzadeh, f., taheri, m.m., gohari, m. and majid, m.z.a., 2015. a global review of energy consumption, co2 emissions and policy in the residential sector (with an overview of the top ten co2 emitting countries). renewable and sustainable energy reviews, [e-journal] 43, pp.843-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.11.066 noh, s., son, y., bong, t. and park, j., 2014. an assessment for leakage reduction methods of reservoir embankments through estimation of co2 emissions during the construction process. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 79, pp.116-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.05.020 nunnally, j.c. and bernstein, i.h.,1994. the assessment of reliability. psychometric theory, [e-journal] 3, pp.248-92. ohueri, c., enegbuma, w. and kenley, r., 2018. energy efficiency practices for malaysian green office building occupants. built environment project and asset management, [e-journal] 8, pp.134-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/ bepam-10-2017-0091 mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022121 https://doi.org/10.1177/001316447003000308 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784412329.178 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784412329.178 https://doi.org/10.1109/wsc.2017.8247968 https://doi.org/10.1109/wsc.2017.8247968 https://www.mdbc.com.my/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/mdbc-outlook-2022-invest-selangor.pdf https://www.mdbc.com.my/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/mdbc-outlook-2022-invest-selangor.pdf https://www.lccf.my/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/lccf_book-version-2-2017.pdf https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/220/1/012055 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/220/1/012055 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108052 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108052 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002211 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002211 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2017-0080 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2021.103632 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.11.066 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.05.020 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2017-0091 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2017-0091 omar, w.m.s.w., 2018. a hybrid life cycle assessment of embodied energy and carbon emissions from conventional and industrialised building systems in malaysia. energy and buildings, [e-journal] 167, pp.253-68 https://doi. org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.02.045 ong, y.s., yusof, n.a. and osmadi, a., 2021. challenges of green office implementation: a case study in penang, malaysia. international journal of sustainable construction engineering and technology, 12(1), pp.153–63. https://doi. org/10.30880/ijscet.2021.12.01.015 pallant, j., 2020. spss survival manual: a step by step guide to data analysis using ibm spss. 7th ed. london: routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003117452 peña–mora, f., ahn, c., golparvar-fard, m., hajibabai, l., shiftehfar, s., an, s., aziz, z. and song, s.h., 2009. a framework for managing emissions during construction. in: proceedings of international conference and workshop on sustainable green building design and construction. arlington, va: national science foundation. rasdorf, w., lewis, p., marshall, s.k., arocho, i. and frey, h.c., 2012. evaluation of on-site fuel use and emissions over the duration of a commercial building project. journal of infrastructure systems, [e-journal] 18(2), pp.119-29. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000071 roberts, d. and golparvar-fard, m., 2019. end-to-end vision-based detection, tracking and activity analysis of earthmoving equipment filmed at ground level. automation in construction, [e-journal] 105, p.102811. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.04.006 samari, m., godrati, n., esmaeilifar, r., olfat, p. and shafiei, m.w.m., 2013. the investigation of the barriers in developing green building in malaysia. modern applied science, 7(2), p.1. https://doi.org/10.5539/mas.v7n2p1 sathanandam, t., awoyera, p.o., vijayan, v. and sathishkumar, k., 2017. low carbon building: experimental insight on the use of fly ash and glass fibre for making geopolymer concrete. sustainable environment research, [e-journal] 27(3), pp.146–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.serj.2017.03.005 saunders, m., lewis, p. and thornhill, a., 2016. research methods for business students, 7th ed. pearson education. shafiq, n., nurrudin, m.f., gardezi, s.s.s. and kamaruzzaman, a.b., 2015. carbon footprint assessment of a typical low rise office building in malaysia using building information modelling (bim). international journal of sustainable building technology and urban development, [e-journal] 6(3), pp.157-72. https://doi.org/10.1080/209376 1x.2015.1057876 shaikh, p.h., nor, n.b.m., sahito, a.a., nallagownden, p., elamvazuthi, i. and shaikh, m. s., 2017. building energy for sustainable development in malaysia: a review. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, [e-journal] 75, pp.1392– 1403. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.128 shari, z. and soebarto, v., 2017. development of an office building sustainability assessment framework for malaysia. pertanika journal of social sciences and humanities, 25(3), pp.1449-72. sihabuddin, s. and ariaratnam, s.t., 2009. quantification of carbon footprint on underground utility projects. in: construction research congress 2009: building a sustainable future, 5-7 april, seattle, washington, pp.618-27. https:// doi.org/10.1061/41020(339)63 skulmoski, g.j., hartman, f.t. and krahn, j., 2007. the delphi method for graduate research. journal of information technology education, [e-journal] 6, pp.31−52. doi:10.28945/199. https://doi.org/10.28945/199 su, y., wang, l., feng, w., zhou, n. and wang, l., 2021. analysis of green building performance in cold coastal climates: an in-depth evaluation of green buildings in dalian, china. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, [e-journal] 146, p.111149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.111149 mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022122 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.02.045 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.02.045 https://doi.org/10.30880/ijscet.2021.12.01.015 https://doi.org/10.30880/ijscet.2021.12.01.015 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003117452 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000071 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000071 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.04.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.04.006 https://doi.org/10.5539/mas.v7n2p1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.serj.2017.03.005 https://doi.org/10.1080/2093761x.2015.1057876 https://doi.org/10.1080/2093761x.2015.1057876 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.128 https://doi.org/10.1061/41020(339)63 https://doi.org/10.1061/41020(339)63 https://doi.org/10.28945/199 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.111149 susskind, l., chun, j., goldberg, s., gordon, j.a., smith, g. and zaerpoor, y., 2020. breaking out of carbon lockin: malaysia’s path to decarbonization. frontiers in built environment, [e-journal] 6, p.21. https://doi.org/10.3389/ fbuil.2020.00021 strauss, a.l. and corbin, j.m., 1998. basics of qualitative research: techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. sage publications. available at: https://resv.hums.ac.ir/uploads/22_288_57_1qualitative.pdf. szamocki, n., kim, m.k., ahn, c.r. and brilakis, i., 2019. reducing greenhouse gas emission of construction equipment at construction sites: field study approach. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 145(9), p. 05019012. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001690 tang, p., cass, d. and mukherjee, a., 2013. investigating the effect of construction management strategies on project greenhouse gas emissions using interactive simulation. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 54, pp.78-88. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.03.046 tuohy, p.g. and murphy, g.b., 2015. are current design processes and policies delivering comfortable low carbon buildings? architectural science review, [e-journal] 58(1), pp.39-46. https://doi.org/10.1080/00038628.2014.975779 united nations environment programme (unep), 2006. sustainable building and construction initiative. united nations environment programme division of technology, industry and economics, paris, france. available at: https:// www.unepfi.org/fileadmin/events/2006/paris_pwg/3unep_sbci.pdf. united nations environment programme (unep), 2009. buildings and climate change: summary for decision-makers. united nations environment programme and sustainable buildings and climate initiative (unep sbci). paris, france. united nations environment programme (unep), 2014. using indicators for green economy policymaking. united nations environment programme. nairobi, kenya. available at: http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/. un environment and international energy agency, 2017. towards a zero-emission, efficient, and resilient buildings and construction sector. the global status report 2017. available at: https://www.worldgbc.org/news-media/globalstatus-report-2017. visser, p.s., krosnick, j.a., marquette, j. and curtin, m., 1996. mail surveys for election forecasting? an evaluation of the columbus dispatch poll. public opinion quarterly, [e-journal] 60(2), pp.181-227. https://doi.org/10.1086/297748 waris, m., liew, m.s., khamidi, m.f. and idrus, a., 2014. criteria for the selection of sustainable onsite construction equipment. international journal of sustainable built environment, [e-journal] 3(1), pp.96-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijsbe.2014.06.002 wen, t.j., siong, h.c. and noor, z.z., 2015. assessment of embodied energy and global warming potential of building construction using life cycle analysis approach: case studies of residential buildings in iskandar malaysia. energy and buildings, [e-journal] 93, pp.295-302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2014.12.002 wong, p.s., ng, s.t. and shahidi, m., 2013. towards understanding the contractor’s response to carbon reduction policies in the construction projects. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 31(7), pp.1042-56. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.11.004 world bank, 2016. co2 emissions (metric tons per capita) – malaysia. tennessee, us: carbon dioxide information analysis center, environmental sciences division, oak ridge national laboratory. available at: https://data. worldbank.org/indicator/en.atm.co2e.pc?locations=my. zaid, s.m., myeda, n.e., mahyuddin, n. and sulaiman, r., 2015. malaysia’s rising ghg emissions and carbon ‘lockin’ risk: a review of malaysian building sector legislation and policy. journal of surveying, construction and property, [e-journal] 6(1), pp.1-13. https://doi.org/10.22452/jscp.vol6no1.1 zhang, h., zhai, d. and yang, y.n., 2014. simulation-based estimation of environmental pollutions from construction processes. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 76, pp.85-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.04.021 mustaffa, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022123 https://doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2020.00021 https://doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2020.00021 https://resv.hums.ac.ir/uploads/22_288_57_1qualitative.pdf https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001690 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.03.046 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2013.03.046 https://doi.org/10.1080/00038628.2014.975779 https://www.unepfi.org/fileadmin/events/2006/paris_pwg/3unep_sbci.pdf https://www.unepfi.org/fileadmin/events/2006/paris_pwg/3unep_sbci.pdf http://www.unep.org/greeneconomy/ https://www.worldgbc.org/news-media/global-status-report-2017 https://www.worldgbc.org/news-media/global-status-report-2017 https://doi.org/10.1086/297748 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsbe.2014.06.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijsbe.2014.06.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2014.12.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.11.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.11.004 https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/en.atm.co2e.pc?locations=my https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/en.atm.co2e.pc?locations=my https://doi.org/10.22452/jscp.vol6no1.1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.04.021 construction economics and building vol. 18, no. 4 december 2018 © 2018 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: langston, c., chan, e.h.w., and yung, e.h.k. 2018. embodied carbon and construction cost differences between hong kong and melbourne buildings. construction economics and building, 18:4, 84-102. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v18i4.6280 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article (peer-reviewed) embodied carbon and construction cost differences between hong kong and melbourne buildings craig langston1*, edwin h.w. chan2 and esther h.k. yung3 1 faculty of society & design, bond university, gold coast, queensland, australia, clangsto@ bond.edu.au 2 department of building & real estate, the hong kong polytechnic university, hung hom,kowloon, hong kong special administrative region, edwin.chan@polyu.edu.hk 3 department of building & real estate, the hong kong polytechnic university, hung hom,kowloon, hong kong special administrative region, esther.yung@polyu.edu.hk *corresponding author: craig langston, faculty of society & design, bond university, gold coast, queensland, australia, clangsto@bond.edu.au doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i4.6280 article history: received 28/10/2018; revised 01/12/2018; accepted 03/12/2018; published 21/12/2018 abstract limiting the amount of embodied carbon in buildings can help minimize the damaging impacts of global warming through lower upstream emission of co2. this study empirically investigates the embodied carbon footprint of new-build and refurbished buildings in both hong kong and melbourneto determine the embodied carbon profile and its relationship to both embodied energy and construction cost. the hong kong findingssuggest that mean embodied carbon for refurbished buildings is 33-39% lower than new-build projects, and the cost for refurbished buildings is 22-50% lower than new-build projects (per square metre of floor area). the melbourne findings, however,suggest that mean embodied carbon for refurbished buildings is 4% lower than new-build projects, and the cost for refurbished buildings is 24% higher than new-build projects (per square metre of floor area). embodied carbon ranges from 645-1,059 kgco2e/m2for new-build and 294-655 kgco2e/m2 for refurbished projects in hong kong, and 1,138-1,705 kgco2e/m2 for new-build and 9001,681 kgco2e/m2 for refurbished projects in melbourne. the reasons behind these locational discrepancies are explored and critiqued. overall, a very strong linear relationship between declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the authors received financial support for the research, authorship and/or publication of this article from the rgc-grf grant (project no. 152006/14e). 84 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i4.6280 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i4.6280 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i4.6280 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb http://clangsto@bond.edu.au http://clangsto@bond.edu.au http://edwin.chan@polyu.edu.hk http://esther.yung@polyu.edu.hk http://clangsto@bond.edu.au https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i4.6280 embodied energy and construction cost in both cities was found and can be used to predict the former, given the latter. keywords embodied energy, embodied carbon, construction cost, energy-cost relationship, hong kong, melbourne introduction the benefits of preserving existing buildings are generally well accepted ( jackson, 2005). socially, these projects help to maintain continuity of a community’s history and culture for future generationsto enjoy, as well as safeguard against premature obsolescence or unnecessary demolition of building stock. environmentally, these projects lessen the demand for new resources bycareful reuse or recycling, minimizewaste sent to landfill and ‘reclaim’ carbon already invested in existing work (pomponi and moncaster, 2018). economically, these projects should cost less than new-build, however this depends on factors such as the extent of conservation works, the latent conditions of the project and the complexities involved in construction. so, there are sound arguments for why conservation of buildings is important. embodied carbon is the invisible part of any building’s energy profile. in reality, more focus is applied to a building’s operational energy performance using various rating tools and calculators that are commercially available in the international marketplace. yet many previous studies have concluded that the embodied component can be significant (e.g. treloar, 1994; de wolf, pomponi and moncaster, 2017; luo, yang and liu, 2016; zhang and wang, 2017; kumanayake, luo and paulusz, 2018). hence, using materials for building construction that possess low embodied carbon intensity can assist, indirectly, to mitigate some of the damaging effects of future climate change resulting from global warming and sea level rise. these effects can be traced back to human-induced carbon emissions entering into the earth’s atmosphere, much of which arises from electricity generation using fossil fuels. minimizing our use of carbon is a fundamental socio-political strategy that the majority of nations globallyhave agreed to uphold (iea, 2016), at least in principle. this research aims to compare embodied carbon footprints for a range of new-build and refurbished projects representing a range of functional purposes in both hong kong and melbourne. refurbished projects are defined as those where the majority of the structure of an existing building is retained and may include change of use. while the hong kong projects represent new data, the performance of these projects is to be compared to earlier work undertaken by langston (2006) based on thirty commercial buildings in melbourne that also comprised new-build and refurbished work. the initial research idea arose as part of a hong kong rgc-grf grant (2015-2017) as later acknowledged in this paper. hence, hong kong was chosen as the site for new data collection. hong kong is one of the most densely populated cities in the world per square metre of land area, and comprises a dynamic melting pot for new construction, urban renewal, heritage protection and demolition activities (chan and lee, 2009). the decision to compare hong kong with melbourne is to highlight the problems implicit with inter-country comparisons. in this case, these problems are primarily a factor of different energy generation profiles, different approaches to building construction that would engender a different profile of materials and associated energy intensities, and different currencies for embodied carbon and construction cost differences between hong kong and melbourne buildings construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201885 construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018 estimating building costs. utilizing the same approach for measuring embodied carbon per square metre of floor area, it would be interesting to know whether both cities also yield similar results. these are compared for both new-build and refurbished construction project types. this is an empirical study (fellows and liu, 2015). the researchers act as impartial ‘observers’. the accuracy of the base data (quantities of building work and their unit costs) for each building is not in question. due to client confidentiality, data are de-identified and contextual information that might have been available from physical site visits and inspections is unfortunately not available. this study does not test or generate theory, but rather applies current understanding of embodied carbon principles to explore what differences in the relationship between carbon and cost might exist for new-build and refurbished projects in both hong kong and melbourne. this appears a valid research question. the inclusion of melbourne as a comparator is largely made on convenience of access to detailed data, albeit about ten years earlier than the data collected for hong kong. nevertheless, when making comparisons, energy intensities do not change significantly over time, and within each country any errors in their accuracy largely cancel out to leave exposed the overall differences between the embodied carbon appetites of these two cities in relation to building works. the structure of the remainder of this paper explores the underpinning literature, which is focused on recent research outcomes relevant to embodied carbon footprints in hong kong and melbourne, an explanation of the method applied, case study results, discussion and limitations, and finally a conclusion and funding acknowledgement. underpinning literature rics (2014:5) defines embodied carbon (ec) as: carbon emissions associated with energy consumption (embodied energy) and chemical processes during the extraction, manufacture, transportation, assembly, replacement and deconstruction of construction materials or products. embodied carbon can be measured from cradle-to-gate, cradle-to-site, cradle-to-end of construction, cradle-to-grave, or even cradleto-cradle. the typical embodied carbon datasets are cradle-to-gate. embodied carbon is usually expressed in kilograms of co2e per kilogram of product or material. the cradle-to-gate system boundary includes all the upstream carbon requirements for completion of work constructed on site. however, it specifically excludes any operational (recurrent) carbon footprints, such as those arising from heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and cooling systems and all carbon-based electricity required to power machines and building technologies. it also excludes the carbontransactions involved in demolition and removal or recycling at end-of-life. carbonemissions areseen as a driver for global warming and climate change (abergel, dean and dulac, 2017; united nations, 2016). ec is distinct from embodied energy (ee), which may comprise carbon-based or non-carbon-basedfuel sources (e.g. fossil fuels versus renewables). electricity is the main power source for construction, although a small proportion is attributable to direct use of combustible fuels like diesel and oil. the analysis of ec is based on the concept of life cycle assessment (lca). lca is a techniqueused to evaluate the impacts of a product, technology or service on its surrounding environment. life cycle includes the stages of raw material extraction, manufacture, transport/ distribution, construction, usage, maintenance and end-of-life scenarios like replacement, disposal langston, chan, and yung construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201886 construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018 or recycling. the term ‘embodied’ refers to the resource implications of upstream processes that form part of the finished product, technology or service required (langston, 2005). measurement of ec is the dominant approach today, but ee is still in use and was employed almost exclusively prior to the early part of the 21st century (rics, 2014; clf, 2017). the conversion from ee to ec is based on the fuel mix involved in energy generation, and this varies according to location. a country that uses only clean renewable energy, for example, has little interest in ec other than what they import from other carbon-based economies. as a means of mitigating the damaging effects of climate change, countries need to minimize theirongoing use of carbon-based fuels. clf (2017) is the largest study to date on embodied carbon in buildings. it is a global study containing over one thousand buildings across a wide range of typologies and incorporates new-build and refurbished projects. it presents ec (kgco2e/m2) data and draws conclusions across the entire dataset. figure 1 summarizes the analysis of the embodied carbon benchmark database (ecbd) and is used later as a benchmark against which the results in this paper can be compared.prior to ecbd, the construction industry has seen few efforts to benchmark ec. some include the athena report for incorporating whole building lca benchmarks into the ie4b, the european superbuildings project, the australian materials and buildings products life cycle inventory database, and the french “construisons ensemble hqe performance” (clf, 2017). the mean is shown at about 400 kgco2e/m2. figure 1. ecbd findings (source: simonen, rodriguez and de wolf [2017] – reproduced with permission of lead author) embodied carbon and construction cost differences between hong kong and melbourne buildings construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201887 construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018 the main source of relevant embodied energy data pertaining to hong kong was found in chen, burnett and chau (2001). however, this data is not actually specific to hong kong, but is an average of data from a range of global sources. the same can be said for other hong kong research conducted by chau et al. (2007; 2012; 2015). a comparison between data from chen, burnett and chau (2001) and the ice database (hammond and jones, 2011) shows some consistency on key materials, and appears more reliable. in fact, chau et al. (2012:33) noted “since embodied energy data are not specifically collected by national agencies, the data used for estimating the co2 emissions in buildings are generally extracted from multiple sources and may not be of good quality”. the latest ee research for hong kong can be found in chau et al. (2017). they list ee intensities (11 common materials only) from a range of sources including hammond and jones (2011). they acknowledged that a majority of building materials in hong kong are imported from mainland china, but a lack of ee data for virgin and recycled building materials also exists there. using hammond and jones (2011) as a basis, they adjusted ee intensities for assumed transportationenergies both within china and from china to hong kong. however, constructing a more reliable database of ee intensities suitable for use in both mainland china and hong kong sar is a recommended area of further research (pan, qin and zhao, 2017). langston (2006) studied the ee implications for thirty individual buildings in melbourne through discovering and quantifying a reliable linear relationship with construction cost data. from this relationship, ee could be calculated knowing only the estimated cost of construction and the gross floor area. the method underpinning the study was set out in treloar (1994). gan et al. (2017a) found that ec mapped against number of storeys (40-100) produced an upward concave curve, suggesting an optimum building height can be determined. however, this study was based on a geometric model of a typical high-rise building and did not use real data. wu, peng and lin (2017), based on a study of 26 actual residential and commercial buildings in china, found that green (esgb-certified) buildings had slightly higher ec/m2 than non-green buildings, but with much lower operational emissions, and this phenomenon was significant in residential buildings. gan et al. (2017b) found that structural steel and rebar accounted for the majority of ec in the frame of high-rise buildings in hong kong. chau et al. (2000) investigated the cost of the hkbeam environmental rating scheme for hong kong. they found that the economic benefit-cost ratios of prescribed criteria under the [then]hkbeam structure varied considerably. lam et al. (2010) analysed 25 commercial buildings in hong kong, including three grade a office buildings, four grade b office buildings, one grade c office building, four retail centres and three hotels. they found no statistical differences in the average life cycle environmental impacts for different building types. however, concrete, reinforcement bar, and copper cables and busbars were ranked to be the most significant materials or components to total life cycle environmental impacts. in a later study, lam et al. (2011) called for a framework for developing green specifications to promote sustainability in hong kong. finally, ng and chau (2015) looked at different waste management strategies and found that recycling had the highest energy saving potential for ee (53%), compared to reusing (6.2%) and incineration (0.4%). langston, chan, and yung construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201888 construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018 method this research uses a case study methodology (yin, 2017). for each case, a list of building materials and quantities (such as may be found in a cost plan) is required. eccan be derived from this list, based on embodied energy intensities and carbon-based fuel mix, including all the upstream carbon implications involved in mining, manufacture, transport and installation onsite, and expressed in kgco2e/m2 of construction floor area (cfa) in hong kong or gross floor area (gfa) in australia. cfa and gfa are similar enough to not require remeasurement. the australian data werenot collected as part of this research butwere reported in langston and langston (2007). ec performance was not computed in that study, although ee data was provided using a hybrid input-output calculation model (lenzen and murray, 2001; treloar, 1994). all construction costsare expressed in 2016 terms in local currency per square metre of floor area (note that melbourne costs were escalated by 38.7% to convert themfrom 2005 to 2016). rics (2014) provides useful guidance for undertaking ec calculations. yet it does not make it clear that ec intensities vary according to the mix of energy generation strategies in different countries, and that this mix changes over time. countries are aiming to reduce their use of carbon for generating electricity, which accounts fora largeamount of ee involved in upstream manufacturing processes for materials and other building components. in this study, ee will first be estimated using energy intensities (ultimately expressed in gj/unit), as ee is not as volatile as ec over time. then ec will be calculatedbasedon the currentfuel mix used in electricity generation for a particular location, which is time-sensitive. environment bureau (2014) discusses future power generation options for hong kong and forms the basis for a suitable current ee-ec conversion factor for use in this study. note that this is significantly higher that the factor estimated by chau et al. (2012). the factor is forecast to reduce over time (see table 1).it may be appropriate to use china’s energy mix instead, since most of hong kong’s material resourcescomefrom across the border. if so, the conversion factor should be 69.40 kgco2e/gj, which is 18.07% higher than the current mix in hong kong (greig, 2016).in this study, however, it was decided to use hong kong’s fuel mix. comparative data for australia is also shown in table 2 (the forecast for 2025 is aspirational). table 1 hong kong electricity generation mix generation type now (2012) emission factor (kgco2e/gj) future (2023) emission factor (kgco2e/gj) coal-fired power 53% 89.60 20% 89.60 natural gas 22% 51.33 60% 51.33 nuclear 23% 0.00 20% 0.00 others 2% 0.00 fuel mix: 58.78 48.72 the research plan in this studywas to approach a number of prominent quantity surveying consultancies in hong kong to request data in the form of cost plans. projects had to be evenly distributed between new-build and refurbishedworks, and no more than five years old. ideally thirtyprojects in total were sought. this proved to be quite difficult due to client confidentiality concerns. there were no historic buildings in the dataset. embodied carbon and construction cost differences between hong kong and melbourne buildings construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201889 construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018 table 2 australia electricity generation mix – source: langston (2015) generation type now (2015) emission factor (kgco2e/gj) future (2025) emission factor (kgco2e/gj) coal-fired power 36% 89.60 30% 89.60 metallurgical coal 8% 92.78 5% 92.78 gas-fired power 6% 51.33 10% 51.33 gas heating 9% 52.07 10% 52.07 oil 28% 65.34 20% 65.34 renewables 14% 0.00 25% 0.00 fuel mix: 65.07 54.93 from the items of work within these cost plans, material quantities were converted to mass (kg) and multiplied by ee intensities. total ee, expressed in gigajoules (gj), was computed as the sum of all the materials in the project via a spreadsheet application. a cradle-to-gate approach was adopted. upon completion, the total ee was converted to ec using the current fuel mix data from table 1 (earlier). the construction cost was taken directly from the cost plan and updated to 2016 prices where necessary, using rlb (2017) building price index (bpi). the cfa was also taken directly from the cost plan, and used to compare cost, ee and ec per square metre of total floor space. as noted earlier, there are no ee intensities unique to hong kong. however, chen, burnett and chau (2001) published a list of common building materials with ee intensities expressed in mj/kg as part of research into hong kong residential buildings. these were preferentially used as the basis for the calculations in this study. where other materials were encountered, these were computed using a combination of similar items, and where this was unrealistic, from ee data sources in other countries, including the ice database (hammond and jones, 2011). the latter was also very useful for converting measured units of m3, m2, m, etc. to kilograms for each material. de wolf, pomponi and moncaster (2017), in a large study of the global practice of embodied carbon modelling for built environment applications, concluded that governments should mandate for improved data quality as well as support the development of a more transparent and simplified methodology. as stated earlier, the melbourne data and applied methodology were derived from langston (2006). her study comprised thirty commercial buildings of various functional types. detailed ee calculations based on consultant quantity surveyor cost plan quantities and unit rates were used to compile the results, which are summarized in this paper. ec was not undertaken in her original research, and hence was an extension in this paper. costs were updated from 2005 to reflect 2016 prices (i.e. 36.89% increase) using the bpi in rawlinsons (2017). case study results with the valued cooperation of several large quantity surveying consultancies in hong kong sar and mainland china, 26 project cost plans were eventually attained and used to perform all the necessary calculations to determine ee. they were effectively a random sample of recent hong kong projects. the cost plans comprised 14 new-build projects and langston, chan, and yung construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201890 construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018 12 refurbished projects. of the 14 new-build, all of which were designated as high-quality residential apartments by the consultants, two were actually low-rise residential projects. they were treated as outliers as they were less efficient in key elements such as foundations, roof and external envelope and hence hadmuch higher cost/cfa values. of the 12 refurbished projects, all of which were designated as high quality low/medium-rise office space except one high quality high-rise apartment, only seven involved significant structural work. unfortunately, fourprojects involved mainly decorative upgrades. one of the refurbished office projects had to be rejected as it was confined to façade replacement and did not relate to a measurable floor area at all. tables 3 and 4 list the results of the new-build and refurbished projects for hong kong respectively. projects 4, 10, 21 and 24-26 were later excluded as outliers, and project 23 was rejected since it could not be used. that left 19 projects for further analysis. table 3 new-build projects (hong kong) id cfa cost ee ee/cfa ec/cfa cost/cfa comment 1 25,477 588 362,195 14.22 836 23,093 2 107,663 3,750 1,181,816 10.98 645 34,835 3 19,735 748 222,860 11.29 664 37,880 4 17,901 1,097 257,327 14.38 845 61,271 low-rise 5 164,533 4,827 1,910,130 11.61 682 29,339 6 384,137 14,165 4,430,499 11.53 678 36,875 7 53,969 2,000 723,626 13.41 788 37,067 8 240,846 6,963 2,929,006 12.16 715 28,912 9 146,775 6,689 2,644,634 18.02 1,059 45,574 10 15,785 1,236 235,325 14.91 876 78,277 low-rise 11 48,496 2,113 533,310 11.00 646 43,570 12 74,292 2,532 968,524 13.04 766 34,086 13 192,047 6,749 2,439,680 12.70 747 35,145 14 179,725 6,365 2,170,321 12.08 710 35,415 mean: 12.95 761 40,096 notes: cfa = construction floor area (m2) cost = hkd (millions) ee = embodied energy (gj) ec = embodied carbon (kgco2e) ee>ec conversion = 58.78 kgco2e/ gj embodied carbon and construction cost differences between hong kong and melbourne buildings construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201891 construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018 table 4 refurbished projects (hong kong) id cfa cost ee ee/cfa ec/cfa cost/cfa comment 15 23,161 253 115,684 4.99 294 10,905 16 28,150 992 257,119 9.13 537 35,236 17 2,900 158 26,009 8.97 527 54,410 18 4,712 107 38,376 8.14 479 22,784 19 4,800 64 46,299 9.65 567 13,300 20 24,490 571 183,204 7.48 440 23,316 21 275 3 2,095 7.62 448 11,891 decorative 22 18,294 577 203,727 11.14 655 31,557 23 n/a 71 4,199 n/a n/a n/a façade 24 610 3 3,485 5.71 336 5,082 decorative 25 10,155 13 70,617 6.95 409 1,325 decorative 26 4,010 35 29,741 7.42 436 8,728 decorative mean: 7.93 466 19,867 notes: cfa = construction floor area (m2) cost = hkd (millions) ee = embodied energy (gj) ec = embodied carbon (kgco2e) ee>ec conversion = 58.78 kgco2e/gj thanks to the cooperation of the original researcher, the melbourne dataset was split into 19 new-build and 11 refurbished projects. ec was computed by multiplying values of ee by 65.07 kgco2e/gj, using information sourced from langston (2015). tables 5 and 6 list the results of these new-build and refurbished projects respectively. no outliers were evident. table 5 new-build projects (melbourne) id gfa cost ee ee/gfa ec/gfa cost/gfa comment 1 1,409 4 26,742 18.98 1,235 2,887 3 1,791 5 36,679 20.48 1,333 2,867 4 2,543 8 60,326 23.72 1,544 3,164 6 6,761 26 154,157 22.80 1,484 3,799 7 328 1 7,275 22.18 1,443 2,212 8 1,223 3 21,397 17.50 1,138 2,147 11 249 1 5,991 24.06 1,566 2,923 langston, chan, and yung construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201892 construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018 id gfa cost ee ee/gfa ec/gfa cost/gfa comment 12 635 2 15,696 25.11 1,634 3,449 13 2,696 6 49,445 18.34 1,193 2,040 14 2,790 11 62,048 22.24 1,447 3,797 16 378 2 9,261 24.50 1,594 4,008 18 5,412 7 105,937 19.57 1,274 1,378 19 4,281 17 112,160 26.20 1,705 4,043 20 787 2 18,322 23.28 1,515 3,135 21 1,159 4 28,008 24.17 1,572 3,571 24 10,565 47 263,068 24.90 1,620 4,461 28 2,502 8 57,218 22.87 1,488 3,121 29 5,223 17 96,058 18.39 1,197 3,325 30 3,649 12 78,622 21.55 1,402 3,233 mean: 22.15 1,441 3,135 notes: gfa = gross floor area (m2) – similar to cfa cost = aud (millions) ee = embodied energy (gj) ec = embodied carbon (kgco2e) ee>ec conversion = 65.07 kgco2e/ gj table 6 refurbished projects (melbourne) id gfa cost ee ee/gfa ec/gfa cost/gfa comment 2 450 2 9,571 21.27 1,384 3,595 5 528 1 9,558 18.10 1,178 2,150 9 3,278 16 77,893 23.76 1,546 4,849 10 3,760 20 96,512 25.67 1,670 5,362 15 5,677 22 134,281 23.65 1,539 3,945 17 652 2 10,405 15.96 1,038 2,691 22 12,930 60 286,656 22.17 1,443 4,678 23 18,821 56 260,255 13.83 900 2,983 25 4,704 23 121,541 25.84 1,681 4,958 table 5 continued embodied carbon and construction cost differences between hong kong and melbourne buildings construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201893 construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018 id gfa cost ee ee/gfa ec/gfa cost/gfa comment 26 1,345 4 24,983 18.57 1,209 3,043 27 5,940 26 149,738 25.21 1,640 4,340 mean: 21.28 1,384 3,872 notes: gfa = gross floor area (m2) – similar to cfa cost = aud (millions) ee = embodied energy (gj) ec = embodied carbon (kgco2e) ee>ec conversion = 65.07 kgco2e/gj for hong kong, after removing the outliers noted earlier, a very strong relationship is found between ee and cost for new-build (n) projects. an r2 of 0.9573 shows that ee (or ec) can be reliably predicted from cost using eq.1. refurbished (r) projects are shown to also have a very strong relationship between ee and cost. an r2 of 0.8912 shows that ee (or ec) can be reliably predicted from cost using eq.2. high r2 values indicate that a good fit of x and y values – in this case, total cost and total energy respectively. both equations for hong kong are provided below – where cost is measured in hkd (millions): een = 346.77 x cost (eq.1) eer = 296.23 x cost (eq.2) figures 2 and 3 show this correlation graphically for hong kong projects. the gradient of the line changes according to a variety of factors, including the ee-ec conversion factor and construction price inflation, but the correlation is likely to remain quite similar. these values are relevant for 2016 prices and should be adjusted downwards in future years to reflect construction price inflation. for melbourne, very strong relationships were also found between ee and cost for newbuild projects (r2 = 0.9315) and refurbishment projects (r2 = 0.9834). these are shown in figures 4 and 5. the equations for melbourne are provided below – where cost is measured in aud (millions): een = 5990.1 x cost (eq.3) eer = 4887.3 x cost (eq.4) discussion and limitations there is an urgency to move away from the use of carbon as a source of electrical energy. this transition is unlikely to be achieved quickly. international agreements have been made to ensure global warming this century is kept well below 2oc compared to pre-industrial table 6 continued langston, chan, and yung construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201894 construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018 levels (united nations, 2016). however, recently the united states has withdrawn their commitment, placing these targets in jeopardy (zhang et al. 2017). other countries, including australia, have waived slightly on their commitment to the challenge ahead. theoretically, as countries decarbonize, the ee-ec conversion rate moves towards zero. until then, strategies to reduce the amount of carbon embodied in construction will be of importance, not only in monetary terms, but in order to ensure our planet remains habitable. the constructed environment is clearly a major player in energy demand when the upstream (embodied) and downstream (operational) energy footprint isconsidered over the full life cycle of existing buildingstock. figure 2 new-build ee versus cost (hong kong) figure 3 refurbished ee versus cost (hong kong) embodied carbon and construction cost differences between hong kong and melbourne buildings construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201895 construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018 figure 4 new-build ee versus cost (melbourne) figure 5 refurbished ee versus cost (melbourne) figure 6 combines both new-build and refurbished projects for hong kong. the mean for each isrepresented as horizontal and vertical solid lines and computed to determine the likely reduction in ec and cost per square metre between new-build (blue) and refurbished (red) building work. this is shown as 33% and 22% respectively. the horizontal and vertical dotted lines represent mean ec and cost prior to removal of outliers, and if not removed would have produced computed reductions of 39% and 50% respectively. the results make sense, given the correlation between ee and cost and the direct relationship between ee and ec, demonstrating that refurbished projects can provide both economic and environmental advantage over new-build projects. their social contribution, however, is a compromise between preserving community history and culture versus langston, chan, and yung construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201896 construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018 figure 6 new-build versus refurbished ec and cost comparison (hong kong) progressive improvements to end-user experience through new technology and enhanced design flexibility. the differentialsaving in ec outstrips the differentialsaving in cost. a limitation of this finding, however, is the homogenous nature of the projects in the dataset. new-build projects were all high-rise residential apartments. refurbished projects were nearly all high-rise office space. leaving the outliers in might be a fairer test. figure 7 combines both new-build and refurbished projects for melbourne. the mean for each is represented as horizontal and vertical solid lines and computed to determine the likely reduction in ec and cost per square metre. this is shown as 4% and -24% respectively (i.e. refurbished costs were shown to be higher than new-build construction). this result is surprising because it does not reflect the same trend as evident in the hong kong data. the lack of saving in ec may be explained if there was a large component of new work (i.e. lack of reuse) within the refurbished projects, and the higher cost for refurbished projects may be due to the labour-intensive nature of the work coupled with the much higher cost of labour in australia. there were no outliers in the melbourne data. overall, ec per square metreis higher in melbourne than hong kong. this is partially due to the higher ee-ec conversion factor between the two countries and the slight difference between cfa and gfa calculation, but more likely it is a result of the quality of ee intensity data available. the average ec of new-build projects for the hong kong study is 745 kgco2e/ m2. this compares to 1,441 kgco2e/m2 for melbourne. refurbished projects average 500 kgco2e/m2 for hong kong and 1,384 kgco2e/m2 for melbourne.all are higher that the embodied carbon and construction cost differences between hong kong and melbourne buildings construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201897 construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018 figure 7 new-build versus refurbished ec and cost comparison (melbourne) ecbd averages presented earlier in figure 1. it should be noted there are inherent and selfdeclared limitations with the ecbd (clf 2017:8): 1. the database reports initial embodied carbon of buildings and does not include maintenance, energy use, or end of life impacts, nor building related components such as site work, mechanical/electrical systems and furnishings. 2. it is not appropriate to use this data to make comparative assertions between building types or categories. 3. this database is not a statistically representative sample of current building practices and is weighted to larger, more prominent buildings than those that make up the complete building stock. in regard to dot point 1 above, ecbd is likely to under-report ec. project costs were higher in hong kong than melbourne. applying a simple exchange rate appropriate to 2016 (1 aud = 6 hkd), the cost of new-build projects for the hong kong study average hkd 35,149/m2 compared to hkd 18,810/m2 (aud 3,135/m2) for melbourne. the cost of refurbished projects for the hong kong study average hkd 27,358/ m2 compared to hkd 23,232/m2 (aud 3,872/m2) for melbourne. however, exchange rates are not the preferred method for comparing international construction performance. langston (2016) recommended the use of citibloc (a construction-specific purchasing power parity method) for comparing prices between cities. he indicated that the indices for hong kong and melbourne (actually sydney) were 4,149 and 2,574 respectively in 2013. this indicates an overall cost premium for hong kong of langston, chan, and yung construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201898 construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018 61.19%. more recent calculations for 2018 show the indices are now 5,317 (hong kong) and 2,919 (melbourne), representing a cost premium for hong kong of 82.15% using the same methodology. so, the collected data seems reasonable. in comparing the ec and cost performance of two types of projects across two cities, a number of contextual factors have probably affected the results: 1. generally, the hong kong projects were of bigger scale. the average size of new-build projects for the hong kong study is 136,475 m2. this compares to 2,862 m2 for melbourne. refurbished projects average 15,215 m2 for hong kong and 5,280 m2 for melbourne. 2. hong kong projects are generally high-rise while melbourne projects are generally low-rise. while multi-storey buildings are more cost effective than single-storey, due to efficiencies in expensive foundation and roof elements, this cost effectiveness is eventually replaced by extra costs in lifting materials to high floors, vertical transportation, and the additional expense of structural elements and façade treatment. 3. melbourne new-build projects are largely commercial (schools, hospitals, office buildings, civic buildings, etc.) compared to residential apartments in hong kong. the hong kong dataset generally is more homogenous. 4. the cost of construction labour, based on general unskilled worker hourly rates sourced from turner and townsend (2018), is higher in melbourne (aud 68/hr) than hong kong (hkd 115/hr). refurbished projects are likely to be more labour-intensive than new-build projects. therefore, the above issues, which underscore temporal, geographical and cultural differences between the hong kong and melbourne projects, need to be considered as a further limitation of this study. the reasons for differences in ec and cost that have been identified herein are beyond the scope of this paper, but certainly deserving of future research investigations. conclusion comparing construction performance between different countries is always fraught with difficulty. in this study, project size, height, usage and labour cost variances (which are linked to productivity) all play a part in the discovered results. what is clear, is that there is a very strong relationship between ee and cost for both new-build and refurbished projects in each city suggesting that the former can be predicted from the latter. there is also some evidence, and certainly logic,to infer that refurbished projects have lower ec/m2 than new-build projects. nevertheless, as the world moves slowly towards less reliance on fossil fuels as an energy source, as it must, the relevance of ec is constantly reducing. perhaps in the future, embodied pollution may be a hotter topic for researchers to explore. waste from building demolition of existing structures to make way for new-build developments may need to be given more consideration, with more emphasis placed on recycling and adaptive reuse strategies. acknowledgement this paper is prepared with the research funding support from the rgc-grf grant (project no. 152006/14e). the authors are thankful to individual professionals and consultancy firms for providing cost information for this study, in particular the two major qs firms of arcadis and rlb (hong kong and china). embodied carbon and construction cost differences between hong kong and melbourne buildings construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 201899 construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018 references abergel, t., dean, b. and dulac, j., 2017. towards a zero-emission, efficient, and resilient buildings and construction sector: global status report 2017, international energy agency, global alliance for buildings and construction, and the united nations environment programme. available at: https:// globalabc.org/uploads/media/default/0001/01/35860b0b1bb31a8bcf2f6b0acd18841d8d00e1f6.pdf [accessed 02 march 2018]. chau, c.k., burnett, j. and lee, w.l., 2000. assessing the cost effectiveness of environmental assessment scheme. building and environment, 35, pp.307-20. doi: 10.1016/s0360-1323(99)00024-4. chau, c.k., hui, w.k., ng, w.y. and powell, g., 2012. assessment of co2 emissions reduction in high-rise concrete office buildings using different material use options. resources, conservation and recycling, 61, pp.22-34. doi: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2012.01.001. chau, c.k., leung, t.m. and ng, w.y., 2015. a review on life cycle assessment, life cycle energy assessment and life cycle carbon emissions assessment on buildings. applied energy, 143, pp.395-413. doi: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.01.023. chau, c.k., xu, j.m., leung, t.m. and ng, w.y., 2017. evaluation of the impacts of end-of-life management strategies for deconstruction of a high-rise concrete framed office building. applied energy, 185, pp.1595-1603. doi: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.01.019. chau, c.k., yik, f.w.h., hui, w.k., liu, h.c. and yu, h.k., 2007. environmental impacts of building materials and building services components for commercial buildings in hong kong, journal of cleaner production, 15, pp.1840-51. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2006.10.004. chen, t.y., burnett, j. and chau, c.k., 2001. analysis of embodied energy use in the residential building of hong kong. energy, 26(4), pp.323-40. doi: 10.1016/s0360-5442(01)00006-8. clf, 2017. embodied carbon benchmark study: lca for low carbon construction (part 1), the carbon leadership forum, university of washington. available at: http://carbonleadershipforum.org/clfembodied-carbon-benchmark-study/ [accessed 30 august 2017]. de wolf, c., pomponi, f. and moncaster, a., 2017. measuring embodied carbon dioxide equivalent of buildings: a review and critique of current industry practice. energy and buildings, 140, pp.68-80. doi: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.01.075. environment bureau, 2014. future fuel mix for electricity generation: planning ahead for a better fuel mix, consultation document, hksar environment bureau, available from http://www.enb.gov.hk/ sites/default/files/en/node2605/consultation%20document.pdf [accessed 30 august 2017]. fellows, r. and liu, a., 2015. research methods for construction. 4th ed. wiley-blackwell. gan, v.j.l., chan, c.m., tse, k.t., lo, i.m.c. and cheng, j.c.p., 2017a. a comparative analysis of embodied carbon in high-rise buildings regarding different design parameters, journal of cleaner production, 161, pp.663-75. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.05.156. gan, v.j.l., cheng, j.c.p., lo, i.m.c. and chan, c.m., 2017b. developing a co2-e accounting method for quantification and analysis of embodied carbon in high-rise buildings, journal of cleaner production, 141, 825-836. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.126. greig, c., 2016. will climate and emissions targets really curb china’s coal consumption? only time will tell.the conversation. available at: https://theconversation.com/will-climate-and-emissions-targetsreally-curb-chinas-coal-consumption-only-time-will-tell-60328 [accessed 08 august 2017]. langston, chan, and yung construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018100 construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018 https://globalabc.org/uploads/media/default/0001/01/35860b0b1bb31a8bcf2f6b0acd18841d8d00e1f6.pdf https://globalabc.org/uploads/media/default/0001/01/35860b0b1bb31a8bcf2f6b0acd18841d8d00e1f6.pdf http://10.1016/s0360-1323(99)00024-4 http://10.1016/j.resconrec.2012.01.001 http://10.1016/j.apenergy.2015.01.023 http://10.1016/j.apenergy.2016.01.019 http://10.1016/j.jclepro.2006.10.004 http://10.1016/s0360-5442(01)00006-8 http://carbonleadershipforum.org/clf-embodied-carbon-benchmark-study/ http://carbonleadershipforum.org/clf-embodied-carbon-benchmark-study/ http://10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.01.075 http://www.enb.gov.hk/sites/default/files/en/node2605/consultation%20document.pdf http://www.enb.gov.hk/sites/default/files/en/node2605/consultation%20document.pdf http://10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.05.156 http://10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.126 https://theconversation.com/will-climate-and-emissions-targets-really-curb-chinas-coal-consumption-only-time-will-tell-60328 https://theconversation.com/will-climate-and-emissions-targets-really-curb-chinas-coal-consumption-only-time-will-tell-60328 hammond, g. and jones, c., 2011. ice inventory of carbon and energy (version 2.0), sustainable energy research team (sert), university of bath. available at: http://www.circularecology.com/ embodied-energy-and-carbon-footprint-database.html#.wbcn_yn94nu [accessed 31 august 2017]. iea, 2016. energy efficiency market report 2016, international energy agency. available at: https:// www.iea.org/eemr16/files/medium-term-energy-efficiency-2016_web.pdf [accessed 02 march 2018]. jackson, m., 2005. embodied energy and historic preservation: a needed reassessment, journal of preservation technology, 36(4), pp.47-52. available at: https://blogs.umass.edu/honors391a-clouston/ files/2012/08/1.3.-embodied-energy-and-historic-preservation-a-needed-reassesment1.pdf [accessed 08 august 2017]. kumanayake, r., luo, h. and paulusz, n., 2018. assessment of material related embodied carbon of an office building in sri lanka.energy and buildings, 166, pp.250-57. doi: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.01.065. lam, p.t.i., chan, e.h.w., chau, c.k., poon, c.s. and chun, k.p., 2011. environmental management system vs green specifications: how do they complement each other in the construction industry?journal of environmental management, 92, pp.788-95. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2010.10.030. lam, p.t.i., chan, e.h.w., poon, c.s., chau, c.k. and chun, k.p., 2010. factors affecting the implementation of green specifications in construction, journal of environmental management, 91, pp.654-61. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2009.09.029. langston, c., 2005. life-cost approach to building evaluation, elsevier (co-published with unsw press). langston, c., 2015. green roof evaluation: a holistic ‘long life, loose fit, low, energy’ approach, construction economics and building, 15(4), pp.76-94. doi: 10.5130/ajceb.v15i4.4617. langston, c., 2016. the reliability of currency and purchasing power parity conversion for international project cost benchmarking, benchmarking: an international journal, 23(1), pp.61-77. doi: 10.1108/bij08-2013-0085. langston, y.l. and langston, c., 2007. building energy and cost performance: an analysis of thirty melbourne case studies, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 7(1), pp.1-18. doi: 10.5130/ajceb.v7i1.2973. langston, y.l., 2006. embodied energy modeling of individual buildings in melbourne: the inherent energy-cost relationship. phd. deakin university, geelong, australia. lenzen m. and murray s.a., 2001. a modified ecological footprint method and its application to australia, ecological economics, 37, pp.229-55. doi: 10.1016/s0921-8009(00)00275-5. luo, z., yang, l. and liu, j., 2016. embodied carbon emissions of office buildings: a case study of china’s 78 office buildings, building and environment, 95, pp.365-71. doi: 10.1016/j. buildenv.2015.09.018. ng, w.y. and chau, c.k., 2015. new life of the building materials: recycle, reuse and recovery, energy procedia, 75, pp.2884-91. doi: 10.1016/j.egypro.2015.07.581. pan, w., qin, h. and zhao, y., 2017. challenges for energy and carbon modeling of high-rise buildings: the case of public housing in hong kong, resources, conservation and recycling, 123, pp.208-18. doi: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2016.02.013. embodied carbon and construction cost differences between hong kong and melbourne buildings construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018101 construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018 https://www.iea.org/eemr16/files/medium-term-energy-efficiency-2016_web.pdf https://www.iea.org/eemr16/files/medium-term-energy-efficiency-2016_web.pdf https://blogs.umass.edu/honors391a-clouston/files/2012/08/1.3.-embodied-energy-and-historic-preservation-a-needed-reassesment1.pdf https://blogs.umass.edu/honors391a-clouston/files/2012/08/1.3.-embodied-energy-and-historic-preservation-a-needed-reassesment1.pdf http://10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.01.065 http://10.1016/j.jenvman.2010.10.030 http://10.1016/j.jenvman.2009.09.029 http://10.5130/ajceb.v15i4.4617 http://10.1108/bij-08-2013-0085 http://10.1108/bij-08-2013-0085 http://10.5130/ajceb.v7i1.2973 http://10.1016/s0921-8009(00)00275-5 http://10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.09.018 http://10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.09.018 http://10.1016/j.egypro.2015.07.581 http://10.1016/j.resconrec.2016.02.013 pomponi. f. and moncaster, a., 2018. scrutinising embodied carbon in buildings: the next performance gap made manifest, renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 81, pp.2431-42. doi: 10.1016/j. rser.2017.06.049. rawlinsons, 2017. australian construction handbook. 2017 ed. perth: rawlhouse publishing. rics, 2014. methodology to calculate embodied carbon. 1st ed. rics guidance note (global), london: rics. rlb, 2017. hong kong report (quarterly construction cost update), rider levett bucknall. available at: http://assets.rlb.com/production/2017/08/07065327/rlb-construction-cost-update-hk-q2-2017english-version.pdf [accessed 08 august 2017]. simonen, k., rodriguez, b.x. and de wolf, c., 2017. benchmarking the embodied carbon of buildings, technology | architecture + design, 1(2), pp.208-18. doi: 10.1080/24751448.2017.1354623. tata steel, 2014. steel construction: embodied carbon, in conjunction with the british constructional steelwork association. available at: http://www.steelconstruction.info/images/c/c9/steel_ construction_-_embodied_carbon.pdf [accessed 08 august 2017]. treloar g.j., 1994. embodied energy analysis of construction of office buildings. m.arch. deakin university, geelong, australia. turner and townsend, 2018. international construction market survey 2018. available at: http://www. turnerandtownsend.com/en/insights/international-construction-market-survey-2018/ [accessed 02 june 2018]. united nations, 2016. framework convention on climate change. available at: http://unfccc.int/paris_ agreement/items/9485.php [accessed 08 august 2017]. wu, x., peng, b. and lin, b., 2017. a dynamic life cycle carbon emission assessment on green and nongreen buildings in china. energy and buildings, 149, pp.272-81. doi: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.05.041. yin, r.k., 2017. case study research and applications: design and methods. 6th ed. sage publications inc. zhang, h.b., dai, h.c., lai, h.x. and wang, w.t., 2017. u.s. withdrawal from the paris agreement: reasons, impacts and china’s response. advances in climate change research, 8(4), pp.220-25. doi: 10.1016/j.accre.2017.09.002. zhang, x. and wang, f., 2017. analysis of embodied carbon in the building life cycle considering the temporal perspectives of emissions: a case study in china. energy and buildings, 155, pp.404-13. doi: 10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.09.049. langston, chan, and yung construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018102 construction economics and building, vol. 18, no. 4, december 2018 http://10.1016/j.rser.2017.06.049 http://10.1016/j.rser.2017.06.049 http://assets.rlb.com/production/2017/08/07065327/rlb-construction-cost-update-hk-q2-2017-english-version.pdf http://assets.rlb.com/production/2017/08/07065327/rlb-construction-cost-update-hk-q2-2017-english-version.pdf http://10.1080/24751448.2017.1354623 http://www.steelconstruction.info/images/c/c9/steel_construction_-_embodied_carbon.pdf http://www.steelconstruction.info/images/c/c9/steel_construction_-_embodied_carbon.pdf http://www.turnerandtownsend.com/en/insights/international-construction-market-survey-2018/ http://www.turnerandtownsend.com/en/insights/international-construction-market-survey-2018/ http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9485.php http://unfccc.int/paris_agreement/items/9485.php http://10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.05.041 http://10.1016/j.accre.2017.09.002 http://10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.09.049 construction economics and building vol. 19, no. 1 jan-jun 2019 © 2019 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: belayutham, s. and ibrahim, c.k.i.z 2019. barriers and strategies for better safety practices: the case of construction smes in malaysia. construction economics and building, 19:1, article id 6331. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i1.6331 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://ajceb. epress.lib.uts.edu.au research article (peer-reviewed) barriers and strategies for better safety practices: the case of construction smes in malaysia sheila belayutham1 and che khairil izam che ibrahim2* 1 faculty of civil engineering, universiti teknologi mara, 40450, shah alam, selangor, malaysia; sheila6913@uitm.edu.my 2 faculty of civil engineering, universiti teknologi mara, 40450, shah alam, selangor, malaysia; chekhairil449@uitm.edu.my *corresponding author: che khairil izam che ibrahim. chekhairil449@uitm.edu.my doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i1.6331 article history: received 22/10/2018; revised 23/03/2019; accepted 19/04/2019; published 03/06/2019 abstract despite the various efforts that have been made by the government and construction authorities to strengthen safety practices among smes in malaysia, the construction smes are still unable to demonstrate good safety practices. as part of a wider intervention study to improve the safety practices of the smes, this study has taken the first step in identifying the barriers and strategies to improve the safety practices at construction sites in malaysia. the study has been conducted using various approaches (workshops, site observation and questionnaire survey) that have enabled the triangulation of information. the findings highlighted that the main barriers to good safety practices are the implementation costs, poor safety culture and lack of safety commitment from the client. the proposed solutions include introducing safety as one of the construction kpis, creating more safety-conscious culture and establishing a funding mechanism to support the cost of safety training. subsequently, several recommendations have been provided by collating inputs based on the barriers, strategies and drivers through three-party collaboration (authorities, industry and academia) in creating a collaborative movement towards enhancing safety practices among the smes. the fresh insights from this study would enable authorities and smes to be more proactive, rather than reactive in improving safety practices in the construction industry. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding this work was supported by the social security organisation (socso), malaysia (ref. no. pks/pbk(s)/208/24/2 jld.5 (26)) with the collaboration of the department of occupational safety and health (dosh) malaysia and the faculty of civil engineering, universiti teknologi mara, malaysia. 1 page number not for citation purposes https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i1.6331 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i1.6331 https://ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au https://ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au mailto:sheila6913@uitm.edu.my mailto:chekhairil449@uitm.edu.my mailto:chekhairil449@uitm.edu.my https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i1.6331 keywords safety and hazards, construction, small and medium-sized enterprises (smes), barriers and strategies, malaysia. introduction occupational health and safety (ohs) is well acknowledged in the construction industry as one of the most important subjects by its very dynamic nature. the involvement of a wide range of construction stakeholders such as the government, developers, main and subcontractors, consultants, construction related associations and unions, as well as skilled and general workers have resulted in the industry being seen as a test case of human rights within the context of workers’ safety (zou and zhang, 2009; gao, et al., 2017). the implementation of ohs measures in the industry is critical for the protection of all project stakeholders (lingard, et al., 2015). over the years, the construction industry has recorded one of the poorest occupational safety and health records as compared to the other industries (lingard, 2013; sherratt, et al., 2015; choe and leite, 2017). the high number of accidents (i.e. death, permanent disability and non-permanent disability) reported has been explained by the natural characteristics of construction work environment (choe and leite, 2017). despite the persistent endeavours that have been made to improve and promote construction safety (sherratt, et al., 2015), those accidents still plague the industry (zhou, et al., 2015). according to arewa and farrell (2012), small and medium-sized enterprises (smes) in construction accounts for 90% of the fatalities at work. evidence has also shown that construction smes are the major contributor to the high incidence of serious injuries and fatalities (mayhew, quintan and ferris, 1997). furthermore, there is evidence that accident rate is higher in small construction businesses than in larger ones (kheni, gibb and dainty, 2010). as most smes are ranked at the lower end of the inter-organisational hierarchy (e.g. sub-contractor) of a project, the ability for smes to exert influences on decision-making in the construction process is limited, despite their workers’ day-to-day exposure to ohs risks (lingard and holmes, 2001). moreover, construction smes are often unaware of their responsibilities for ohs, owing to less resources and awareness of the ohs risks at work, hence contributing to poor safety practices (sunindijo, 2015). the consequences of poor safety practices could negatively influence the notion of safety management towards a safe work environment. the diffused nature of ohs practices within the construction industry has long been recognised in developed countries and is no exception in developing countries such as malaysia. manu, et al. (2018) in their recent study on ohs practices in developing countries revealed that malaysia is one of the countries, where the practice ohs management is not commonly implemented and could only worsen if no appropriate actions and preventive measures were taken. in malaysia, construction is the third most dangerous industry, with the highest rate of fatalities compared to other industries. according to the department of occupational safety and health (2016), out of 237 occupational accidents reported in construction in the year 2015, 88 were fatal with a fatality rate of 4.84 per 100,000 workers. the number of fatalities increased about 3 per cent, equivalent to 91 fatalities in the following year. a total of 328 fatal occupational injuries that occurred in the construction sector were recorded in malaysia from year 2013 to 2016. in recent statistics, 52 cases of deaths at construction sites have been reported within the first 6 months of year 2018, as compared belayutham and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 20192 page number not for citation purposes to a lower figure of 40 deaths for the similar time frame in year 2017 (dosh, 2018). the figures might have looked even worse, considering the possibility of non-fatal accidents in the construction sector, which goes unreported (colak, etiler and biser, 2004). despite the previous studies conducted in malaysia (e.g. ismail, et al., 2012; subramaniam, et al., 2016), ohs has almost exclusively focused on safety practices in other industries, while little has been undertaken on examining the extent of construction smes’ osh practices. in malaysia, supporting the smes in managing health and safety risk should be the priority, due to the significantly greater proportion of smes in the construction sector (manu, et al., 2018). the performance of construction smes (in particular, smes owned by the bumiputera, malaysian indigenous of malay origin) from every angle has often been the matter of concern by the malaysian government. the failure rate among construction smes in delivering projects according to requirements has become an issue to the government, which has established initiatives to elevate the economy of the bumiputera through new economy policy that was introduced decades ago (ayob, et al., 2018). in regard to ohs, the social security organization (socso) report (2010-2012) has stated that 80-90 percent of work-related accidents reported were from the sme businesses (aziz, et al., 2015). surienty (2012) further emphasised that ohs in smes is still lacking despite their substantial contribution to workplace accident statistics. the failures in osh compliance were due to the inability to fully understand the construction process and requirements (as most of the owner were retired civil servants with no engineering and construction background), lack of financial capability, lack of ohs and risk management knowledge, as well as the lack of ownerships to deliver the project (e.g. subcontract the project to other parties) (ayob, et al., 2018). thus, more fine-grained knowledge is needed regarding to osh practices as bumiputera construction smes is vulnerable to adverse safety and health incidents as it can negatively affect the image and future job demands for the company. it is well acknowledged that the bumiputera construction smes have different business approaches than non-bumiputera, especially on the efforts to acquire new information and knowledge to improve their productivity (kamal and flanagan, 2014).therefore, this study aims to explore the current ohs practices, as well as the barriers and strategies for better safety practices by construction smes. this aim will assist in providing answer to the research question: “how to improve the ohs practices among construction smes?”. as mentioned by alarcon, et al. (2016), detecting the best practices or strategies for different company sizes, with different needs will help reduce occupational accidents in the construction industry. the characteristics of construction smes in relation to osh in the malaysian construction industry, more than 90% of the registered construction companies are smes (cidb, 2018). this is in line with a recent study by manu, et al. (2018), who found that there is a significant proportion of micro-business construction firms in malaysia. the construction smes play an important role as general contractors on small and medium-sized projects and as sub-contractors to large construction companies. the malaysian construction industry development board (cidb) has categorized sme contractors using grades from g1 to g5 with two relevant variables which are tendering capacity (less than rm 5 million) and paid-up capital (up to rm 250,000). as for the bumiputera status, the smes must fulfill the following criteria: 1) established under the companies act, 1965; 2) paid-up capital of at least rm25,000; 3) shareholders are 100% bumiputera; 4) board of directors consist of at least 51% bumiputera; and 5) managerial, professional and supporting staff consist of at least 51% bumiputera. barriers and strategies for better safety practices: the case of construction smes in malaysia construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 20193 page number not for citation purposes there has been considerable debate about the distinct features of smes compared to large organizations, particularly on the subject of safety management and practices. large organizations usually are involved in large projects that contains a wider range of safety risks, which requires the implementation of more comprehensive safety measures (sunindijo, 2015). in contrast, most smes are still operating at the lower end of inter-organisational hierarchy that tends to utilize less formal ohs approaches. this could be the resultant of the constant change in ownership due to the frequent changes in contractual relationships, which complicates the ohs operational and management activities (loosemore and andonakis, 2007). hence, the implementation of safety management practices could be associated with the firm size (manu, et al., 2018). several construction literatures have emphasized that poor ohs practices (leads to high risk of accidents) at construction sites were dominated by the smes. one of the main differences between large organizations and smes is the financial resource capability and availability towards the implementation of ohs management practices (kheni, gibb and dainty, 2010; surienty, 2012). large organizations often have strong financial capability that could ensure good implementation of safety management systems, while most smes have constrained financial capability that disables the commitment on planning and implementing safety management practices and programmes. apart from the economic distinction, smes could also be characterised by its nature (e.g. heterogeneous, geographical dispersion, lack of cohesive representation, etc.), organisational factor (e.g. non-formal ownership, being independent, simple lines of communication) and industry dynamism (e.g. a limited market share, high resource constraints, limited access to external sources for support) (legg, et al., 2015). hasle, et al. (2012) emphasised that it is difficult to separate between safety management practices and other aspects (management and operational activities) of running small businesses. for example, smes prefer to use verbal compared to written communication, causing the lack of formal documentation and system (e.g. in-house ohs policy and ohs system), limited knowledge of existing ohs acts, regulations and codes of practices and limited knowledge on hazards controls and health effects (e.g. evaluation of risks to avoid accidents) (hasle, et al., 2012; legg, et al., 2015; manu, et al., 2018). in addition, the nature of construction smes, being trade sub-contractors in projects also inhibit good ohs practices (loosemore and andonakis, 2007). there is evidence that subcontractors commonly hire unskilled workers who have difficulty to go through ohs learning and training due to linguistic and cognitive inability to understand good safety practices (gao, et al., 2017). moreover, smes are also characterized as having mostly migrant workers, whereby the ohs knowledge on practices and prevention measures among the workers are difficult to be maintained over time. the difficulties faced by smes due to payment issues from principal contractors also influence their ability to focus on ohs (lingard, 2013). several scholars (e.g. loosemore and andonakis, 2007; sunindijo, 2015) have suggested that the lack of collective support (e.g. union representation) from the industry also weakens the effort to govern safety within the community. overall, these characteristics could further exacerbate the ability of construction smes to deliver systematic safety management practices in the workplace. previous studies on ohs practices among smes in the construction domain the subject of ohs in smes has received widespread attention in construction management research due to the nature of smes (e.g. firms and operational characteristics) towards the belayutham and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 20194 page number not for citation purposes implementation of ohs management practices. however, the intention here is not to review the broader literature of ohs on smes but to concentrate on past research that focused on ohs practices among smes in the construction domain. in order to trace the patterns and trends, we have split the time frame into four sub-periods and summarised each study based on the publication year. the early literatures of ohs in smes were observed within the context of ohs implementation and performance among subcontractors. the research direction has then moved from the general context to more specific features (i.e. individual-level) of ohs (e.g. ohs risk and behaviour). for example, attention has been given by lingard and holmes (2001), who have made one of the initial attempts in understanding two specific ohs risk controls among small businesses engaged in the australian construction industry. they emphasised that individuals, rather than technological controls need to be considered in minimizing the incidence of occupational injury or ill-health for the consideration of ohs risk in small firms. studies within this time period were mostly from developed countries such as the united states of america, united kingdom and australia. in the sub period of 2006 2010, the research has broadened its landscape to include more analytical-based studies that provided evidences on the attitudes and problems faced by small firms in implementing ohs regulations. studies include loosemore and andonakis (2007) who focused on exploring the nature and extent of problems faced by subcontractors in implementing the ohs regulation in australia. they found that the main barriers to effective ohs compliance among small-contractors are the implementation costs, language and educational barriers and a fear of change. in contrast, kheni, gibb and dainty (2010) examined the influence of contextual environment (sub-saharan africa) towards ghanaian construction smes in managing ohs. they have recommended several measures to overcome the challenges faced by in the country that includes cost, safety culture and commitment by providing education, funding for training and h&s cost being made part of the prime cost items in bills of quantities. on the other hand, studies at national-level (e.g. uk) have been initiated to investigate the wider engagement of smes in ohs implementation. the subject of safety behaviour continues to be the on-demand topic for the scholars. several types of methodological frameworks were adopted to achieve the objectives. at later stage, the literatures have also included developing countries such as ghana, pakistan, taiwan and south africa, unlike in previous time frame where most studies focused only on developed countries. in the third sub period 2011-2015, the research expands to consider the multiple context (e.g. comparative studies, role of owner-manager) in understanding ohs implementation in smes. for example, holte, kjestveit and lipscomb (2015) studied on injury risks among apprentices in different small-size construction enterprises within different building and construction trades. more empirical studies to deepen the understanding of the ohs concept (e.g. identify motivation factors, leading indicators) has begun to develop. articles also adopted different types of quantitative method (e.g. delphi survey) , from countries such as denmark, india, sri lanka, and nigeria as their research settings. in the fourth sub period (≥2016), new lines of research began to emerge, where scholars began to develop assessment tools to measure the performance of ohs in smes. in addition, different approaches to capture ohs practices began to be adopted. for instance, lingard, et al. (2015) used participatory video to capture subcontracted construction workers’ safety rule violations. overall, it is widely acknowledged in the construction literature that smes are typically lagging in embracing effective ohs management practices. several scholars have highlighted increasing research interest at various levels including individual, organisational, barriers and strategies for better safety practices: the case of construction smes in malaysia construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 20195 page number not for citation purposes project and national level. although there is diversity in the current thinking on the aspect of ohs among smes, there is still a lack of effort to contextualise the smes for safety in local construction context (i.e. malaysia). several scholars (e.g. subramaniam, et al., 2016) have suggested for more attention and studies to be done on ohs in smes within the specific context and sector. consequently, this study has attempted to fill the gap by providing more practical views on the extent of ohs management practices among construction smes in malaysia. findings from two sessions of ohs workshops and site visits to several construction sites have been examined, where the barriers and strategies of ohs management practices have been discussed in detail. research methods this study was performed in 2017, as part of an intervention programme for bumiputera construction smes, conducted in collaboration with the department of occupational safety and health (dosh), malaysia. this study has adopted a pragmatic philosophical perspective of mixed-methods research design, that facilitates consistent conceptualisation and triangulation of findings. the adoption of pragmatic approach provides a workable solution to the multifaceted problem (e.g. current practices, barriers) through the mix of data collection methods within the research process (creswell, 2003). in this study, adopting the pragmatic approach is seen to be most suitable as integrating more than one approaches could produce results that can be translated into practical ends (e.g. strategies to improve ohs practices among construction smes). mixed methods in terms of conducting ohs workshops, a questionnaire survey and site observations were adopted with a cross-sectional sample of construction smes to identify the current ohs practices, barriers and strategies, subsequently addressing the research question. initially, past research regarding ohs practices among construction smes were reviewed. based on the ohs studies in the local context and other countries, the ohs practices, barriers and strategies for continuous improvements were examined. a preliminary study was conducted to complement the literature research. the preliminary study consisted of several discussions and meetings with subject matter experts from the construction industry (i.e. project manager and safety manager) and ohs related government bodies in order to gather information related to ohs practices among construction smes. site observations were also conducted at eight small construction sites with the use of work improvement in small construction sites (wiscon) checklist developed by kawakami (2016), in order to capture the insights on the current practices of ohs among construction smes. in the next stage, two ohs workshops were conducted to increase the awareness on the ohs regulations and to highlight the important areas related to the enhancement of ohs for construction smes. during the workshops, a set of questionnaire survey, which have focused on capturing insights on barriers and strategies was distributed to each participant. initially, pilot surveys with five construction practitioners were conducted prior to administering the survey to assure reliability, further improving the clarity of the instructions and assess the time needed for the survey. a one-hour session was allocated in the workshop for a direct face-to-face discussion and to assist the participants in filling up the survey. the survey data were analysed using descriptive statistics including frequencies and means to show the relative importance of variables. inferential statistics (i.e. multivariate analysis of variance (manova)) were then employed to examine whether the nature of organisations (i.e. main contractor and sub-contractor) have peculiar effect on the strategies. belayutham and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 20196 page number not for citation purposes results and discussion 1) site observations in total, eight small construction sites were visited in order to observe their level of ohs implementation. a wiscon checklist was adopted as part of the assessment tool. during the covert participant observation, the researches were given permission by the site management to observe the participants (workers), as well as the site for safety practices, regarding the wiscon checklist. the data for this non-participatory approach was documented solely using the checklist (enables objective documentation of safety practices) and no elements of recording has been utilised. the workers were engaged as passive participants towards producing findings that provide accurate representation of a culture, particularly in safety, from the context of this study. findings from the observation is shown in table 1. each compliance to the wiscon criteria is given a yes, while a non-compliance is given a no. from the observation, all the sites have fulfilled a minimum of one out of the 37 criteria, except for the variable ‘remove all projecting nails in timber’ ( material handling and storage). based on the findings, the variables that have been complied most by the contractors were: ‘use wheeled devices when moving materials’ (materials handling and storage) and ‘ensure safe wiring connections for supplying’ (physical environment). meanwhile, the least complied upon variable is under the category of ‘work at height’. this could be due to the reason that smes are less involved in high-rise projects, particularly so for the site visits conducted, where only one site (site 6) has been identified as having work at height hazard. a comparison between the eight sites showed that only two sites (site 4 and 6) have compliance rate of more than 50%, while the other six sites (site 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 and 8) have compliance rate below 50%. site 6 showed the most compliance with 31 yes (83.78% compliance), while the least compliant site was site 5 with only 6 yes (16.22% compliance). the difference could be drawn to the element of ‘working at height’, where site 6 is the only high-rise project site and the adherence to most of the criteria showed that the site was performing well in terms of their ohs implementation. in summary, the initial findings indicate that although ohs practices at some sites (site 4 and 6) complied to most of the wiscon variables, there are still smes that were unable to improve and enhance their ohs practices at the construction sites. this can be seen, for example, from the observations that some of the workers were not even equipped with basic personal protective equipment (ppe) such as safety helmets (site 1 and 3) and safety boots (site 1, 3 and 5). in summary, the revelation aligns with the initial findings and the disclosure leads to a dire need to improve the ohs performance of construction smes in the local context. the findings of the status-quo were later shared at the ohs workshop for further reference and discussion. barriers and strategies for better safety practices: the case of construction smes in malaysia construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 20197 page number not for citation purposes table 1 summary of findings (based on wiscon checklist) from eight small construction sites wiscon safety and health 37 variables evident (frequency of yes) site 1 site 2 site 3 site 4 site 5 site 6 site 7 site 8 materials handling and storage (7 variables) 1 3 2 4 2 6 2 4 work at height (7 variables) 1 na 0 2 na 6 na na machine safety (4 variables) no 4 na 4 0 na 3 1 physical environment (6 variables) 2 4 3 3 2 6 1 2 welfare facilities (5 variables) 3 no 4 1 no 5 no no emergency preparedness (3 variables) 1 1 2 1 1 3 1 1 work organization (2 variables) 1 2 2 2 1 2 1 2 safety and health organization (3 variables) no 1 2 2 no 3 no 2 frequencies of yes 9 15 15 19 6 31 8 12 note: na – not applicable (i.e. the variables are not relevant to the site) no – no practices were found in the site 2) ohs workshop two ohs workshops have been conducted to provide a platform for discussion on the importance and practices of ohs at small construction sites based on specific ohs modules. the modules included: 1) elements of work improvement at small construction sites; 2) safety and health policy; 3) safety and health committee and safety and health meeting requirement; 4) legal requirement, 5) work safety; 6) hazard identification , risk assessment and risk control (hirarc); and incident and accident investigation and reporting procedure. these two-series of workshops are part of a wider ohs project focusing on improving the bumiputera’s capability on safety and health management practices at construction sites. the contractor services center (csc) and the department of occupational safety and health (dosh) malaysia have helped in identifying construction smes, subsequently contacting the organisations to seek for their agreement to participate in the workshops. in this study, belayutham and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 20198 page number not for citation purposes only construction smes in kuala lumpur and selangor were targeted as participants as the incidence of work-related fatal injuries occurred in these states were among the highest in malaysia (ayob, et al., 2018). in workshop 1, 18 smes have participated, while 21 smes participated in workshop 2. it is worth highlighting that despite the sampling covers only small fraction of the total population (there were approximately about 45000 registered construction smes (cidb, 2018)), these smes are the ones who are continuously active in the industry and have been recommended by the authorities (due to their commitment and proactiveness towards ohs). in addition, coviello and jones (2004) emphasised that even if the survey response is not significant in number, but if the respondents were drawn from a high-quality group, significant findings can still be produced. in both workshops, apart from the module presentation, a questionnaire survey was also administered to the participants in order to gauge their opinion on the barriers and strategies in the implementation of ohs among smes. profile of respondents overall, there were good mixtures of designations of respondents with almost 60 per cent of the respondents holding upper-level management positions in their organisations (see table 2). it was clear that most respondents belonged to senior and top management decision makers, with the balance predominantly engineers and supervisors who were working in daily site operations. on average, respondents had about 12 years of experience in the construction industry. in terms of the nature or organisation, almost 80 percent of the participants indicated that their main business were main contractors. the remaining 20 per cent were mostly sub-contractors. table 2 summary of respondents respondents characteristics no. of respondents (total = 39) designation project director 11 project manager 7 construction manager 5 civil engineer 2 site supervisor 9 safety & health officer 2 safety site supervisor 1 others (assistant director, cost controller) 2 years of experience 0 5 14 6 10 12 11 15 6 ›15 7 nature of construction smes main contractor 31 sub-contractor 8 barriers and strategies for better safety practices: the case of construction smes in malaysia construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 20199 page number not for citation purposes assessing the barriers to improve safety and health practices a questionnaire was designed to solicit the respondents’ opinion on the degree of relevancy of the nine barriers in order to determine the current barriers in implementing ohs practices among the smes. a five-point likert scale (1: least relevant to 5: extremely relevant) was used for this purpose. table 3 shows that the respondents have rated ‘cost of ohs implementation’ as the most relevant barrier for the implementation of ohs among smes with the highest mean value of 3.56. this is followed by ‘poor safety culture’ with a mean value of 3.31 and ‘lack of safety commitment from client’, with mean value of 3.27. barriers such as ‘lack of managerial commitment’ and ‘lack of strict enforcement of ohs regulations’ received mean values of 3.23 and 3.19, respectively. the remaining choices among the nine barriers were ‘ohs regulations are too prescriptive’ with a mean of 3.16, ‘lack of health and safety training for workers ‘ with a mean of 3.08 and ‘lack of resources to implement safety’ with a mean of 3.04. the least relevant factor was ‘lack of point of reference for ohs improvements’ with the lowest mean value of 2.96. table 3 key barriers to improve safety performance among sme contractors no. barriers to improve safety performance among smes in the construction industry mean std deviation 1 lack of safety commitment from client 3.27 0.919 2 cost of ohs implementation 3.56 0.917 3 poor safety culture 3.31 0.970 4 lack of managerial commitment 3.23 1.177 5 lack of strict enforcement of ohs regulations 3.19 1.200 6 lack of resources to implement safety 3.04 1.280 7 lack of health and safety training for workers 3.08 1.164 8 ohs regulations are too prescriptive 3.16 0.850 9 lack of point of reference for ohs improvements 2.96 1.060 strategies to improve safety performance among the construction smes table 4 shows the respondents’ perception on the strategies that would be effective to enhance the h&s performance of sme contractors. table 4: strategies to improve safety performance among the sme contractors no. strategies to improve safety performance among smes in construction industry mean std deviation 1 safety as one of the key performance indicators (kpi) 3.92 0.845 2 safety is one of the criteria in tendering 3.77 0.815 3 government funding on ohs training 3.84 0.800 belayutham and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201910 page number not for citation purposes no. strategies to improve safety performance among smes in construction industry mean std deviation 4 platform to share experience and promoting best practices 3.69 0.736 5 linking ohs and insurance 3.62 0.804 6 tougher renewing licenses 3.31 1.087 7 strict enforcement on ohs regulations 3.64 0.952 8 more focus and tougher health and safety training programme 3.69 0.788 9 forming “safety responsible group” 3.46 0.761 10 measuring tool for ohs practice 3.38 0.803 11 less prescriptive on the ohs regulations 3.19 0.938 12 creating more safety-conscious culture 3.85 0.785 13 tougher penalties 3.33 1.129 14 outreach efforts coordinated action among worker unions and related associations 3.46 0.706 15 more communication efforts 3.58 0.902 as shown in table 5, the respondents have rated ‘safety as one of the key performance indicators (kpi)’ as the most important strategy for the implementation of ohs among smes with a mean value of 3.92. this is followed by ‘creating more safety-conscious culture’ with mean value of 3.85 and ‘government funding on ohs training’ with mean value of 3.84. next, the strategy of making ‘safety as one of the criteria in tendering’, received the mean value of 3.77, while ‘platform to share experience and promoting best practices’ and ‘more focus and tougher health and safety training programme’ received the same mean value of 3.69. strategies such as ‘strict enforcement on ohs regulations’ and ‘linking ohs and insurance’ received the mean value of 3.64 and 3.62, respectively. the remaining choices among 15 strategies were ‘more communication efforts’ with a mean of 3.58, ‘outreach efforts’ and ‘forming “safety responsible group” with the same mean value of 3.46, ‘measuring tool for ohs practice with mean of 3.38, ‘tougher penalties’ with mean of 3.33 and ‘tougher renewing licenses’ with mean of 3.31. the least favourable strategy was ‘less prescriptive on the ohs regulation’ with the lowest mean value of 3.19. overall, this result resonates with the earlier findings on the barriers of ohs implementation, whereby both findings pointed to ‘organisational strategy’, ‘culture’ and ‘cost’ as the main variables. table 5 shows the manova results of the 15 strategies to improve ohs based on the nature of smes (i.e. main contractor and sub-contractor). as shown in table 5, based upon the standard α of 0.05, subjects in the 15 independent variables (the strategies) are not significantly different based on their nature of smes. this indicates that regardless of them being a main contractor or sub-contractor, their perception on these strategies are similar towards improving the ohs practices. one of the possible reasons is about the relationship between main and subcontractors. the mutual understanding on co-existence table 4 continued barriers and strategies for better safety practices: the case of construction smes in malaysia construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201911 page number not for citation purposes and responsibility also creates a reciprocal notion towards embracing the importance of safety practices in construction. table 5 manova results dependent variable independent variables (strategies) type iii sum of squares df mean square f sig. nature of organisation safety as one of the key performance indicators (kpi) .709 1 .709 1.036 .316 safety is one of the criteria in tendering 1.368 1 1.368 1.541 .223 government funding on ohs training .060 1 .060 .090 .765 platform to share experience and promoting best practices .833 1 .833 1.404 .244 linking ohs and insurance 2.720 1 2.720 3.553 .068 tougher renewing licenses .123 1 .123 .074 .788 strict enforcement on ohs regulations 1.970 1 1.970 1.594 .215 more focus and tougher health and safety training programme .168 1 .168 .218 .644 forming “safety responsible group” .001 1 .001 .002 .967 measuring tool for ohs practice .509 1 .509 .568 .456 less prescriptive on the ohs regulations .384 1 .384 .437 .513 creating more safetyconscious culture .342 1 .342 .494 .487 tougher penalties 1.686 1 1.686 1.168 .287 outreach efforts coordinated action among worker unions and related associations .140 1 .140 .209 .650 more communication efforts .833 1 .833 1.171 .287 belayutham and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201912 page number not for citation purposes respondents’ personal opinion on the drivers to improve ohs practices in construction projects an open-ended discussion during the workshop was conducted to seek the respondents’ opinion on the question: what drives the smes to improve their safety & health practices in a construction project? the discussion was moderated by the researcher and assisted by the officer from dosh. the quotes from the respondents have been analysed through converting raw narrative data (notes, audiotapes) into partially processed data (transcripts), which were then coded manually. the keywords most related to the quotes have been extracted and displayed in table 6. table 6 keywords for the drivers to improve h&s in construction projects keywords example of quotes from the respondents top management support, commitment, monitor workers, outreach of effort higher commitment by top management by having monitored kpi, introduce simple safety management tool, sme’s management shall be committed to comply on osha 1994 & fma 1967 safety awareness, safety culture, self-regulation, attitude change most of the safety officers do not feel the belonging because their job as per contract basis groom safety officer with cultural diversity such as indonesia, bangladesh and vietnam h&s tender evaluation/ tender budget rate dictated by public work department (pwd) not including safety features. include the cost of s&h of project into the costing of the project review previous project ohs recognition and performance evaluation during tendering stage government agencies should impose relevant fix cost to smes during tender stage reward and penalty system foster culture of incentives provide healthier competition between smes at state level smes should impose a penalties system to workers training, sharing of best practices provide specific ohs training and continuous education platform to share experience via local group engaged by regional cidb using social media to share and disseminate ohs information to workers and other firms funding from government/ client funding from government to give knowledge and training to sme social networking social media as a tool and platform to deliver construction ohs messages and information foreign workers are isolated from conventional communications networks by poor english and malay language skills. the use of social media could connect them with more effective information. barriers and strategies for better safety practices: the case of construction smes in malaysia construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201913 page number not for citation purposes keywords example of quotes from the respondents regulations, enforcement translate law statement into layman words. prepare guidelines for each industry and not too general. (be specific) with a lot of regulation but without any enforcement and check and balance, it will become wasting of effort overall, it is evident that most of the discussion points in table 6, regarding to the drivers to improve the implementation of ohs are almost like the strategies highlighted in the previous section. most of the respondents have recognised ‘top management’ support, ‘safety culture’ and ‘h&s tender budget as the top drivers. these variables coincide well with the top three barriers identified earlier in the questionnaire (refer to table 3), although not in the same order. nonetheless, the notion to tackle the current barriers are clear, as follows: 1) in terms of cost, the budget on h&s should be included in the tender; 2) crucial support must be given by management; and 3) a need to instil safety culture across the organization. recommendations for the enhancement of ohs practices among construction smes findings for the ohs workshop could be retrieved from the three major sections, which has been discussed as follows: 1) barriers to improve safety performance among the sme contractors; 2) strategies to improve safety performance among the sme contractors; and 3) respondents’ personal opinion on the drivers to improve h&s practices in construction projects. the triangulation of the data obtained from the questionnaire survey (barriers and strategies) and the open-ended question (top three strategies) has reached saturation, where the results have been conclusive with cost, management’s commitment and safety culture emerging as the three most prominent themes for enhancing safety practices among construction smes. each of the variables were then formed into a structure for the enhancement of ohs practices among construction smes. in relation to the findings (triangle of cost, safety culture and commitment) from this study, the following recommendations are made; • practical initiatives should be developed to provide a platform to improve the safety training for foreign workers in order to increase the safety awareness and culture. this is important as the malaysian construction industry largely consist of multicultural environment due to limited local labour force, with total dependency on migrant workers. there is evidence that the migrant workers are embracing their home-grown culture (which is agriculturally based), for example, not used to wearing personal protective equipment (mat zin and ismail, 2012). ensuring the right safety culture for the intended audience (e.g. workers at site) is crucial for the advancement of ohs and for the well-being of the workers. one of the possible initiatives is to have more stringent in-house rules by incorporating the ‘carrot and stick’ approach, with a combination of reward and punishment to induce good behaviour. in addition, fees reduction or subsidising cost of safety training up to 40% (like the reduction of levy fees for foreign workers in the construction sector that has been introduced in 2019) table 6 continued belayutham and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201914 page number not for citation purposes could also benefit the construction smes. this would give opportunities for the smes to continuously send their workers to safety training workshops to improve the ohs knowledge, attitude and practice. • social networking could also be adopted to increase safety awareness. for example, the formation of groups using social media (e.g. via whatsapp, telegram, online forum) for dissemination of ideas and information on safety and health, for both top management, as well as workers. there is evidence that there is a need for more means of communication and dissemination of ohs information among construction firms in malaysia (manu, et al., 2018). the authorities such as dosh and cidb could also work together by using their platforms (e.g. seminar, workshops, sharing sessions, award ceremony) to promote or engage smes to be part of the ohs activities. in addition, authorities such as dosh and cidb could also create construction safety booklets containing illustrations of basic rules and safe work practices specifically for smes. • more specific ohs training programs should be introduced for bumiputera construction smes to increase their knowledge on safety practices with regards to specific nature of works at construction sites. it is at the construction sites where these knowledge and practice have a significant impact on expenditure, efficiency and productivity (wilkinson, sherratt and farrell, 2015). an example could be, training on road traffic safety for smes, who are involved in rural road maintenance works. another example is to provide training related to new technologies in construction. this would further encourage the use of new technologies (e.g. bim, drone etc) in improving ohs practices. in addition, training for managerial level on the management aspect of safety practices (e.g. developing in-house safety policy statement and safety file) could ease the planning and implementation of safety practices. moreover, specific rules should be introduced that require employers (who employ in excess of a certain percentage of foreign workers) to provide free english or malay language sessions to their workers. ensuring that training is provided in the language(s) and at a literacy level that all workers can understand is vital to ensure effective ohs implementation. there is evidence that local construction smes have performed poorly in the planning and management aspect of safety practices (manu, et al., 2018). • established bumiputera construction smes should be encouraged to get involved in tertiary education (could start with relevant bumiputera educational institutions), promoting their practices and disseminating their experience know-how. this could be done through a sharing session on ohs with undergraduate students as part of nurturing the safety culture and awareness in early education. in addition, collaboration on ohs activities (e.g. competition on ohs best practices or innovation) could also spur more industrial-academic collaboration and cooperation. this will eventually help the industry to produce more skilled bumiputera workers (which is currently dominated by the others) equipped with ohs skills. the relevant authorities could also introduce continuous contractor development (ccd) points as part of their involvement in tertiary education. this initiative could benefit not only the organisation (in terms of the ccd points) but also the students and academics with regards to teaching and learning. • consideration should also be given to implement a funding mechanism to assist in supporting the associated cost of implementing and educating the ohs practices. apart from relying mostly on direct funding from the government, a mechanism such as tax incentives could also be introduced (i.e. any cost spent for ohs training could be given tax exemptions), linking cost of safety performance in the premium insurance (as a barriers and strategies for better safety practices: the case of construction smes in malaysia construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201915 page number not for citation purposes driver to increase smes’ motivation and awareness in construction site safety) and ohs workshops handled by local authorities/private clients could be initiated to help the construction smes. in addition, the introduction of ohs bq in government projects (outlined in the construction industry transformation programme (citp) 20162020) should help the contractors on the financial implication of ohs implementation. however, the inclusion of ohs bq should not be introduced only to large scale projects, but also to smaller projects. • as for management’s commitment to ohs at construction sites, the idiom ‘walk the talk’ fits the situation well. commitment from management should be demonstrated through actions such as proper funding allocated for ppe, safety audit, safety drill, etc., rather than just a safety policy in the form of words. the responsibility of ensuring ohs practices should not be placed solely on the contractors but should be shared by all actors involved in the project. since stakeholders commonly do not recognise the impact, they can make on site safety (spillane and oyedele, 2013), a collective involvement through a legislative framework (e.g. occupational safety and health in construction industry (management) (oshci(m)) could govern the safety responsibilities and influence the safety decision making at the early phase of construction projects. • management should take ‘ownership’ of the project and workers (at all level of operations who are involved daily at site) should be treated as valuable project team members through collective responsibility (durdyev, et al., 2017), rather than just a tool to complete a project. the establishment of a simple safety assessment and monitoring tool and including ‘safety’ as one of the company’s kpis could represent the top managements’ commitment on safety. measuring and reviewing ohs performance is critical for small contractors, such as bumiputera smes in order to assess the extent the goals have been achieved (manu, et al., 2018). hence, management’s commitment is very important to ensure proper understanding and appreciation of h&s across the organisation, especially workers who are physically facing the h&s risk in their daily life. moreover, the continuous appreciation from management could influence the workers to reciprocate by expanding their formal role into voluntary behaviours of safety practices (gao, et al., 2017). comparison to related ohs studies on construction smes the results found in this study presents an opportunity for comparison with other related ohs studies on construction smes. for example, a study on barriers to implement ohs by loosemore and andonakis (2007) identified that implementation costs, language and educational barriers and fear of change were the barriers for effective ohs compliance among small subcontractors in australia. in another study in new south wales, australia, sunindijo (2015) found that subcontracting practices, especially the use of best price to win projects, clients’ focus on other objectives (e.g., time and cost rather than safety) and fierce competition in the industry were the top barriers faced by the small construction organisations in the region. kheni, gibb and dainty (2010) highlighted ineffective prevention services, low socio-economic status of workers, size related constraints and owner/managers’ commitment to extended family goals were the key barriers to effective ohs management within ghanaian smes. in contrast, this study identified cost of ohs implementation, lack of safety commitment from client and poor safety culture as the top three barriers faced by the construction smes in malaysia. belayutham and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201916 page number not for citation purposes in terms of the strategies to improve ohs, the findings of this study are in line with other related studies such as on having closer interaction and communication between authorities and smes, initiatives related to reducing or subsidising the training-related cost and formal health and safety compliance management systems. while advocating institutional pressures (e.g. new legislation framework) is preferable for immediate change, softer approach is needed to engage the construction smes, particularly the bumiputera towards developing the ohs best practices. this study indicated that this could be done through a three-party collaboration (authorities, industry and academia) in order to enhance the collaborative movement towards improving the cost, safety culture and commitment, and hence achieving ohs knowledge, attitude and practice among the smes. this type of collaboration is regarded in the literature as effective and is a potential source of the gap in ohs among smes in developing countries. overall, although the subject of this study is like other related ohs studies, they are incomparable due to the differences in the context of the findings. the aforementioned studies were using different types of methodological framework (different methods, sampling etc) depending on several aspects (e.g. availability of data, geographical etc), and hence resulting in different arrangements of findings. all barriers and strategies have their own contexts that require certain levels of experience by practitioners in implementing ohs practices. this study provides a reflection from the local context in influencing an effective ohs practices, because the smes are dependent on the internal and external environment to drive the ohs. consequently, it is believed that the findings from this study could provide a point of reference for construction smes, authorities and academia to further enable the strategies that would address the core barriers inhibiting the ohs implementation, particularly in developing countries. conclusions this study was initiated as part of a pilot programme by the department of occupational safety and health (dosh) malaysia and the social security organisation (socso) to better understand what it takes for the bumiputera construction smes to continuously improve their ohs practices. the initial findings from the site observation have indicated that there is a need to improve the ohs practices of bumiputera construction smes. the results from two ohs workshops indicate that the main barriers to better safety practices have been costs implications, poor safety culture and lack of safety commitment from the client. the proposed strategies include introducing safety as one of the construction kpis, creating more safety-conscious culture and establishing a funding mechanism to support the cost of training. based on the triangulation of our findings, a framework has been developed based on the triangle of cost, safety culture and commitment. hence, the three elements are deemed necessary for the enhancement of ohs practices among bumiputera construction smes. there are several implications of this study. first, this study has provided some practical insights for construction organisations and authorities into the current safety practices among the bumiputera construction smes and what it takes to improve the practices. secondly, the findings from this study could act as a platform for further discussions in regard to the advancements of bumiputera smes in terms of their capacity and capability building in the construction sector, as outlined in the malaysia new economic policy and citp 2016-2020 under strategic thrust: quality, safety and professionalism. this study has the following limitations. first, since the study is part of a project by dosh, the current study is therefore based on a relatively small number of bumiputera construction barriers and strategies for better safety practices: the case of construction smes in malaysia construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201917 page number not for citation purposes smes, which in turn could limit the generalisation of the findings. thus, as the project progresses positively, future studies could expand the current population to larger scales with diverse samples of construction smes. second, this study has delimited the scope of research to skilled / professional workers and thus, did not collect data from unskilled workers for comparison purposes. it is recommended that future studies should include the participation of the unskilled / semi-skilled workers for better coverage of findings. third, this study has focused on general group of smes and types of construction works. considerations to further group the smes into medium-sized, small-sized and micro-sized enterprises along with the specific trading works, could lead to a better understanding on the implementation of ohs practices. finally, the recommendations proposed in this study have not been validated and tested. it is suggested that future work should focus on a follow-up validation study through diverse research methods with relevant parties (e.g. focus group, case studies and industry forum) to facilitate the impact from the recommendations. references alarcón, l.f., acuna d., diethelm s. and pellicer e., 2016. strategies for improving safety performance in construction firms. accident analysis and prevention, 94, pp.107–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. aap.2016.05.021. arewa, a.o. and farrell p., 2012. a review of compliance with health and safety regulations and economic performance in small and medium construction enterprises in: smith, s.d. (ed) proceedings of 28th annual arcom conference. 3-5 september 2012. edinburgh, uk: association of researchers in construction management, pp.423-32. aziz, a.a., baruji, m.e., abdullah, m.s., nik him, n.f. and yusof, n.m., 2015. an initial study on accident rate in the workplace through occupational safety and health management in sewerage services. international journal of business and social science, 6(2), pp.249-55. ayob, a., shaari, a.a., zaki, m.f.m. and munaaim, m.a.c., 2018. fatal occupational injuries in the malaysian construction sector–causes and accidental agents, 4th international conference on civil and environmental engineering for sustainability (iconcees 2017) 4–5 december 2017, langkawi, malaysia. choe, s. and leite, f., 2017. assessing safety risk among different construction trades: quantitative approach. journal of construction engineering and management, 143(5), 04016133, https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001237. cidb, 2018. construction industry review & prospect 2016/2017: chapter 2 – construction projects, contractors and personnel. [online] available at: http://www.cidb.gov.my/images/content/pdf/bisnes/ const-review-2016-2017/cidb----construction-industries-review---chapter-2-jan-15-2018.pdf [accessed 5 february 2019] construction industry transformation programme (citp) 2016-2020. quality, safety & professionalism available at http://www.citp.my/strategic-thrusts/quality-safety-professionalism/ [accessed 20 january 2019]. colak, b., etiler, n. and bicer, u., 2004. fatal occupational injuries in the construction sector in kocaeli, turkey, 1990-2001. industrial health, 42, pp.424-30. coviello, n.e. and jones, m.v. 2004. methodological issues in international entrepreneurship research. journal of business venturing, 19(4), pp.485-508. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2003.06.001 belayutham and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201918 page number not for citation purposes https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2016.05.021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2016.05.021 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001237 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001237 http://www.cidb.gov.my/images/content/pdf/bisnes/const-review-2016-2017/cidb----construction-industries-review---chapter-2-jan-15-2018.pdf http://www.cidb.gov.my/images/content/pdf/bisnes/const-review-2016-2017/cidb----construction-industries-review---chapter-2-jan-15-2018.pdf http://www.citp.my/strategic-thrusts/quality-safety-professionalism/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2003.06.001 creswell, j. 2003. research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. thousand oaks, ca: sage. durdyev, s., mohamed, s., lay, m.l. and ismail, s., 2017. key factors affecting construction safety performance in developing countries: evidence from cambodia, construction economics and building, 17(4), https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i4.5596. gao, r., chan, a.p.c, utama, w.p and zahoor, h., 2017. workers’ perceptions of safety climate in international construction projects: effects of nationality, religious belief, and employment mode. journal of construction engineering and management, 143(4), 04016117, https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0001226. hasle, p., kvorning, l.v., rasmussen, c.d.n., smith, l.h. and flyvholm, m. a., 2012. a model for design of tailored working environment intervention programmes for small enterprises. safety health work, 3, pp. 181–191. https://doi.org/10.5491/shaw.2012.3.3.181 holte, k.a., kjestveit, k. and lipscomb, h.j., 2015. company size and differences in injury prevalence among apprentices in building and construction in norway. safety science 71 (part c), pp.205-12, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2014.01.007. ismail, f., ahmada, n., janipha, n.a.i. and ismail, r., 2012. assessing the behavioural factors’ of safety culture for the malaysian construction companies. asean conference on environment-behaviour studies, savoy homann bidakara bandung hotel, bandung, indonesia, 15-17 june 2011. kamal, e.m. and flanagan, r. 2014. key characteristics of rural construction smes, journal of construction in developing countries, 19(2), pp.1–13. kawakami, t., 2016. participatory training to improve safety and health in small construction sites in some countries in asia: development and application of the wiscon training program. journal of environmental and occupational health policy, 26(2) pp.208–19. http://dx.doi. org/10.1177/1048291116652158. kheni, n., gibb, a.g.f. and dainty, a.r.j., 2010. health and safety management within smes in developing countries: a study of contextual influences. journal of construction engineering and management, 136(10), pp.1104-15. http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000218. legg, s., olsen, k.b., laird, i.s. and hasle, p., 2015. managing safety in small and medium enterprises, safety science, 71 (part c), pp.189–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2014.11.007. lingard, h., 2013. occupational health and safety in the construction industry, construction management and economics, 31(6), pp.505-14, https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.816435. lingard, h. and holmes, n., 2001. understandings of occupational health and safety risk control in small business construction firms: barriers to implementing technological controls. construction management and economics, 19(2), pp.217-26. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190010002570. lingard, h., pink, s., harley, j. and edirisinghe, r., 2015. looking and learning: using participatory video to improve health and safety in the construction industry. construction management and economics, 33(9), pp.740–51. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2015.1102301. loosemore, m. and andonakis, n., 2007. barriers to implementing ohs reforms – the experiences of small subcontractors in the australian construction industry. international journal of project management, 25, pp.579–88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.01.015. barriers and strategies for better safety practices: the case of construction smes in malaysia construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201919 page number not for citation purposes https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i4.5596 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001226 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001226 https://doi.org/10.5491/shaw.2012.3.3.181 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2014.01.007 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1048291116652158 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1048291116652158 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000218 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2014.11.007 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.816435 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190010002570 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2015.1102301 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.01.015 mat zin, s. and ismail, f., 2011. employers’ behavioural safety compliance factors toward occupational, safety and health improvement in the construction industry., procedia social and behavioral sciences, 36, pp.742–51. manu, p., mahamadu, a-m., phung, v.m., nguyen, t.t., ath, c., heng, a.y.t. and kit, s.c., 2018. health and safety management practices of contractors in south east asia: a multi country study of cambodia, vietnam and malaysia. safety science, 107, pp.188–201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ssci.2017.07.007. mayhew, c., quintan, m. and ferris, r., 1997. the effects of subcontracting/outsourcing on occupational health and safety: survey evidence from four australian industries. safety science, 25(1–3), pp.163-78. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0925-7535(97)00014-3. sherratt, f., crapper, m., foster-smith, l. and walsh, s., 2015. safety and volunteer construction workers. construction management and economics, 33(5-6), pp.361-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193 .2015.1024269. spillane, j. and oyedele, l., 2013. strategies for effective management of health and safety in confined site construction’, australasian journal of construction economics and building, 13(4), pp.50-64. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i4.3619. subramaniam, c., shamsudin, f.m., zina, m.l.m., ramalub, s.s. and hassan, z., 2016. safety management practices and safety compliance in small medium enterprises: mediating role of safety participation. asia-pacific journal of business administration, 8(3), pp.226-44, sunindijo, r.y., 2015. improving safety among small organisations in the construction industry: key barriers and improvement strategies. procedia engineering, 125, pp.109–16. surienty, l., 2012. management practices and osh implementation in sme in malaysia. in: proceedings of the 20th congress of the international ergonomics association (iea 2018), florence, italy, august 26-30, 2018. wilkinson, r., sherratt, f. and farrell, p., 2015. knowledge management on site: a case study project. in: proceedings of the institution of civil engineers – management, procurement and law, 168(2), pp.99–109, https://doi.org/10.1680/mpal.14.00022. zou, p.x.w. and zhang, g., 2009. comparative study on the perception of construction safety risks in china and australia. journal of construction engineering and management, 135(7), pp.620-27. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000019. zhou, z., goh, y.m. and li, q., 2015. overview and analysis of safety management studies in the construction. safety science, 72, pp.337–50, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2014.10.006. belayutham and ibrahim construction economics and building, vol. 19, no. 1, jan-jun 201920 page number not for citation purposes https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.07.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.07.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0925-7535(97)00014-3 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2015.1024269 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2015.1024269 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i4.3619 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i4.3619 https://doi.org/10.1680/mpal.14.00022 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000019 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000019 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2014.10.006 construction economics and building vol. 20, no. 2 june 2020 © 2020 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: das, d.k. 2020. perspectives of smart cities in south africa through applied systems analysis approach: a case of bloemfontein. construction economics and building, 20:2, 65-88. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v20i2.6657 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article perspectives of smart cities in south africa through applied systems analysis approach: a case of bloemfontein dillip kumar das the discipline of civil engineering, school of engineering, howard college, university of kwazulu natal, durban, south africa. *corresponding author: dillip kumar das, the discipline of civil engineering, school of engineering, howard college, university of kwazulu natal, durban, south africa. email: dasd@ukzn.ac.za doi: 10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6657 article history: received 6/30/2019; revised 25/03/2020 & 21/04/2020; accepted 5/5/2020; published 22/06/2020 abstract there is a changed perspective regarding the development of cities and increasingly many countries in the west and some developing countries, as in south africa, are making concerted attempts to transform their cities to smart cities. using the context of the city of bloemfontein, south africa and drawing on the perceptions of stakeholders, the objective of the paper is to offer a perspective on such a transformation. the study first assessed the performance of various factors and attributes that influence three important aspects of a smart city: economy, mobility and governance system. it then recorded the viewpoints of stakeholders about how these aspects can contribute to the development of a smart city. further, applied systems analysis (asa) linked system dynamics (sd) conceptual models based on the interlinkage and causal feedback relationships among various factors under each aspect were developed, which could assist in offering perspectives that would enable eliciting of policy interventions to develop smart cities. findings indicate that there are potentials and positive indicators in all three aspects. it is emerged that reinforcement of the inter-relationship among entrepreneurship, innovation, productivity, economic image and international embeddedness will foster a smart economy. efficient public transportation and advancement of information communication technology (ict) system will strengthen local accessibility and ensure an innovative, sustainable and safe transportation system that will result in smart mobility. effective participation of stakeholders in the decisiondeclaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the research was funded by national research foundation (nrf), south africa (grant number: 106023, 15-12-2016). 65 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6657 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6657 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6657 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:dasd@ukzn.ac.za http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6657 making process alongside the elected city council and transparency will aid smart governance. the combined effect of these attributes should enable the transformation of the city to a smart city. keywords: entrepreneurship; governance; people’s participation; public transportation, information communication technology. introduction cities across the world are observed to have evolved over time. many cities have been transformed from one state to another, in terms of size, functions, and characteristics. for example, some cities have grown from a small and humble centre to a large or sometimes to a megacity. some cities have been transformed from uni-functional cities to multifunctional cities for example, a city that starts with an administrative or governance function but develops to encompass social, economic and industrial functions. although the transformation of the cities is natural, there have been also concerted and deliberate planned efforts to attain qualitative transformation, such as making cities functional, liveable, efficient and, more importantly, sustainable (marsal-llacuna, 2016; yigitcanlar, et al., 2019a). however, in recent years, a new trend has emerged that some existing cities have been transformed to make them ‘smart’, and initiatives for the development of several new smart cities have been taken (batty et al., 2012; das, 2017; townsend, 2013; yigitcanlar and kamruzzaman, 2018). before the emergence of the smart city concept, different approaches have been attempted to augment various development attributes in the cities, depending on the opportunities and potential they offer. in the process, concepts such as pioneer cities, digital cities (yovanof and hazapis, 2009), connected cities (batty, et al., 2012), entrepreneurial cities (kourtit and nijkamp, 2012; thite, 2011), liveable cities (caragliu, del bo, and nijkamp, 2011; nam and pardo, 2011; praharaj and han, 2019) and so on have emerged. furthermore, recent technological advancements have added opportunities for realising such concepts. in this context, scholars have argued that cities should be developed in such a way that it will bring economic, social and infrastructural advantages (batty, et al., 2012; batty, 2015; datta, 2015; harrison and donnelly, 2011; moussiopoulos, et al., 2010), offer possibilities for creating safe and healthy living conditions (moussiopoulo et al. 2010), enable judicious resource-use (batty, et al., 2012; harrison and donnelly, 2011), enhance connectivity (townsend, 2013), assist in reducing energy consumption and wastes, and create an atmosphere for an enjoyable lifestyle (batty, et al., 2012; datta, 2015). consequently, arguments have emerged to take the cities beyond sustainability and make them economically, socially and environmentally smart (batty, 2015; datta, 2015; giffinger, et al., 2007; harrison and donnelly, 2011; townsend, 2013). many south african cities offer the potential for both economic advancements and appropriate spatial development and municipalities have already been proactive in promoting an agenda of economic, social and environmental sustainability. beyond sustainability, there is a political will to move to make policy interventions towards achieving smart cities. (areff, 2019; das and emuze, 2014). arguments have emerged that this should be based on a balanced interlinkage between sophisticated digital solutions and expectations around the economy, infrastructure, environment and services that meet basic human demands and aspirations (areff, 2019; das and emuze, 2014). this demands a critical assessment of opportunities and demands of each city that aspires to transform to a smart city. therefore, das construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202066 using the study context of bloemfontein city, this paper provides a perspective of how existing cities can be transformed to smart cities in south africa. for this purpose, the paper first assessed the performance of the various factors and attributes that would influence the three key aspects of the economy, mobility and governance (local) system. the study developed applied systems analysis (asa) linked to system dynamics (sd) conceptual models based on the interlinkage and causal feedback relationships among various factors under each aspect to engender dynamic hypotheses that assist in developing policy interventions. furthermore, the study recorded stakeholder viewpoints, through a perception survey and focus group discussions, on how these aspects can contribute to the development of a smart city, in other words, to evaluate the performance of and establish causal relationships amongst various factors and attributes under the three mentioned aspects. this was done because of the unavailability of structured data, which is a limitation of the study. literature review the study entails to two specific aspects: (1) the perspectives of development of smart cities in the south african context and (2), application of the asa paradigm to build conceptual sd models to comprehend the perspectives. therefore, the literature review is specifically contextualised on these two aspects to provide theoretical underpinnings to the study. smart city perspectives there is no universal definition(s) of a smart city. an array of issues, such as information and communication technology (ict), ubiquitous connectivity, knowledge and creativity, big data and open data, social capital, business and entrepreneurialism, smart community, ecological sustainability, etc., have been used to characterise the smart city discourse (harrison and donnelly, 2011; praharaj and han, 2019). several rather different schools of thoughts and different approaches to building smart cities have emerged that vary according to the context and perspectives. according to one predominant school of thought, a smart city is an instrumented, interconnected and intelligent city that enhances efficiency in various urban activity facets through the use of advanced and digital technology (cavada, hunt and rogers, 2014; datta, 2015; ibm, 2008; praharaj and han, 2019; townsend, 2013). for instance, a smart city – songdo in south korea – is developed to foster sustainable design practices through the incorporation of the latest technologies that reduce energy consumption and increase energy efficiency, utilize recycled and natural materials and generate clean or renewable electricity (yigitcanlar, et al., 2019b). planit valley in portugal is conceptualised to combine intelligent buildings, transport, built environment information and energy systems with enhanced mobility, parking and emergency services (cavada, hunt and rogers, 2014; livingplanit-sa, 2013). similarly, in india, dholera is planned or being developed with seamless integration of urban planning with digital technologies as the most sustainable solution to rapid urbanization, with an expectation of creating a new city without the annoyances of everyday urban life (datta, 2015). moreover, alongside technology, other fundamental characteristics that have been underlined are competitiveness and productivity (kourtit and nijkamp, 2012), creative economy (thite, 2011), urban place marketing and business-led urban development (sokolov, et al., 2019); self-branding and image building to attract businesses and the creative class (hollands, 2008; national geographic, 2015). perspectives of smart cities in south africa through applied systems analysis approach: a case of bloemfontein construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202067 besides, an alternative smart city narrative has emerged, which projects it as a human concept, focussing on social innovation (nam and pardo, 2011; caragliu, del bo and nijkamp, 2009), smart citizenry (coe, paquet and roy, 2001; griffinger, et al., 2007), learning and knowledge capital (yigitcanlar, o’connor and westerman, 2008) and inter-organisational collaboration. linking these two concepts of smart city, scholars like kitchin (2014) perceive that a smart city is increasingly composed of and monitored by pervasive and ubiquitous computing and its economy and governance are driven by innovation, creativity and entrepreneurship enacted by smart people (kitchin, 2014). according to another school of thought, the smart city concept is derived from the combination of concepts of the connected city (smart logistics and sustainable mobility), the entrepreneurial city (economic vitality), the pioneer city (social participation and social capital), and the liveable city (ecological sustainability) (giffinger, et al., 2007; komninos, 2002; lombardi, 2011; nijkamp and kourtik, 2011; shapiro 2008). such a smart city has six characteristics: smart economy, smart people, smart mobility, smart environment, smart governance and smart living. in this case, the smart city is not considered holistically but rather refers to aspects that range from ict (digital) districts to smart populace in terms of educational level (giffinger, et al., 2007; komninos, 2002; lombardi, 2011; shapiro 2008). in other words, a smart city must be smart and perform efficiently in these six important aspects of the city independently or in combination (das and emuze, 2014; giffinger, et al., 2007). essentially, smart cities can be construed as those in which technologies, ubiquitous computing and digitally instrumented devices are built into the very fabric of urban environments, which monitor, manage and regulate city flow and processes; engage with place, activities and people – often in real-time (greenfield, 2006; hollands, 2008; kitchin, 2014). this, in turn, enhances economic efficiency and environmental sustainability, creates a unique image and offers appreciable living conditions, and most importantly should be managed by a participative and inclusive governance system (hancke, silva, and hancke jr., 2013; sokolov, et al., 2019; townsend, 2013). however, unlike the western counterparts, a different narrative has been emerged in developing countries such as india. according to government of india (goi, 2015), a smart city in india would have a different connotation than its western counterparts. this revolves around how best to meet the aspirations of a city dweller when it comes to infrastructure and services that range from improving the essential services through the supply of adequate clean water, upgrading sanitation and the solid waste management system, making available 24/7 power supply, and strengthening urban mobility. also, along with the provision of these infrastructure and services smart cities are expected to reinforce economic performance, enhance energy efficiency and reduce environmental pollution (praharaj and han, 2019). in contrast, cities like dholera are being built to become competitive global cities, an urban utopia led by smart technologies to create economic enterprises so as to leapfrog or at least compete with the more mature economies (datta, 2015; kitchin, 2014). thus, a strange duality in the perspectives has been seen. despite the lack of unanimity of the concept of a smart city, the primary goal is to create an urban environment that offers services for a high quality of life to its residents while also generating overall economic growth and reducing environmental degeneration (batty, et al., 2012; harrison and donnelly, 2011; shea and burns, 2016). moreover, it uses ict to increase its operational efficiency, share information with the public, and improve the quality of government services and citizen welfare (areff, 2019). das construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202068 in south africa, certain studies with regards to different aspects of smart city have been conducted. for example, premised upon the study on the ranking of european middle-sized cities, das and emuze (2014) assessed the potential and opportunities of a city based on the performance of six smart characteristics of a city. a further study examined how safe and sustainable road transportation can be achieved by smart mobility (emuze and das, 2015). the augmentation of the economy, mobility and governance have been argued to be a critical step in this transformation (areff, 2019; das, 2015). it was also stressed that location of the ict and related industries in the cities of south africa will revitalise the economy of the cities that might lead to a smart economy, which is an essential element of a smart city (das, 2019). another study (das and emuze, 2020) explored the politico-cultural dimensions and argued that people and governance are the two important dimensions, which should be considered while developing smart cities. thus, for a smart city, three essential aspects such as smart economy, smart mobility and smart governance are highlighted. this study builds on these studies in assessing how these aspects are currently performing in a south africa city (bloemfontein) and in developing a viewpoint on how these aspects can contribute to transforming the city to a smart city. the economy for a smart city revolves around such elements as innovation, entrepreneurship, branding, productivity and flexibility of the labour market as well as integration in the national and international market (griffner, et al., 2007; van der weijden, chraibi, and rajagopalan, 2017). the focus of the smart economy in a city is aimed at creating equal opportunities for its people and to engender a conducive environment for increased work opportunities (kummitha, 2019; un habitat, 2016). this includes the creation of entrepreneurial opportunities through the use of technological innovations and participation of stakeholders (for example, public-private partnerships) that not only promote corporate sector but also small and medium and social enterprises (almirall, et al., 2016; mclaren and agyeman, 2015). the economy should moreover be inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable (kummitha, 2019; allam and newman, 2018), which need to be at the forefront of city development in south africa (das, 2015; 2019). local and international accessibility in the form of a sustainable physical transportation system and ict refers to mobility, which is of paramount importance (griffner, et al., 2007; hemel, 2018; sokolov, et al., 2019). reinforcing of local accessibility through quality public transportation, enabled and operated by ict remain vital for smart mobility. moreover, while intelligent transport and autonomous vehicles are likely to be the backbone of the mobility services in future (chehri and mouftah, 2019; haboucha, ishaq, and shiftan, 2017), low carbon emissions, traffic safety, use of economical and low carbon emission cars are the important determinants of smart mobility in a city (emuze and das, 2015), which are major challenges in south africa (das, 2015; emuze and das, 2015). the new paradigm of life in society such as a smart city requires a process of governance that is premised upon innovations, creativity and planning to meet the societal challenges (guimarães, et al., 2020). arguments have emerged that technologies such as ict can influence and be useful to meet various societal and governance challenges, for example, participation of people in decisionmaking, provision of infrastructure and services, management of environment (gil-garcia, helbig and ojo, 2014; schwab, 2017). so, governance, in terms of political participation, services for citizens and the functioning of the administration, are of primary importance to build smart cities (boyko, et al., 2012; guimarães, et al., 2020; hunt and rogers, 2016; sokolov, et al., 2019). people’s participation, community engagement and inclusiveness in perspectives of smart cities in south africa through applied systems analysis approach: a case of bloemfontein construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202069 the local governance system have been identified as critical issues in south african city development (das and emuze, 2014). understanding the positioning of south africa both in terms of advanced technological leadership point of view and the challenges of economy, mobility, and governance, this study is contextualised within a middle-sized city of south africa. the scope of the study is confined to the three predominant challenges – economy, mobility and governance, with regards to transforming the city to a smart city. epigrammatic outline of applied systems analysis and its application for development of smart cities a city is considered as a system (chadwick, 1971, pp.36-37; checkland, 1981; forrester, 1969). accordingly, a city as a system constitutes a set of subsystems or in other words components, for example, people, land, governance, mobility, technology, environment, and so on, which are interlinked and interdependent on each other to perform a function as a whole (bertalanffy, 1974; chadwick, 1971, pp.36-37; checkland, 1981; forrester, 1969). applied system analysis (asa), which is essentially premised upon systems theory, is construed to be an appropriate method for modelling principles used to comprehend the behaviour of the complex problems of independent urban subsystems or a city as a whole system (beck, et al., 2018). asa is a modelling principle that is multidisciplinary and crossdisciplinary and can deal with complex problems having (or without) causal (feedback or no feedback) relationships. it provides a holistic approach in finding solutions to complex problems (beck, et al., 2018; laszlo and krippner, 1997). further, according to scholars such as forrester (1994) and lane and oliva (1998), the rigorous structural framework provided by systems dynamics (sd) modelling principles assists to build causal feedback relations and consequent conceptual models, which can elicit the behaviour of the various complex problems of a system or subsystems and in this case a complex socio-economic system of a city. literature also evidences that the asa premised sd modelling principle, although generally quantitative in nature, can also be used qualitatively to comprehend the challenge in understanding complex urban problems (beck, et al., 2018; emuze and das, 2015; lee, choi and nam‐hee, 2005; robinson, 2008). since a smart city as a system has various subsystems (components) that are interlinked and interdependent and relate to complex socio-economic problems, asa linked to conceptual sd modelling is suitable for analysis and evolving policy interventions (beck, et al., 2018). furthermore, the potentials of the sd modelling principles to cater for the feedback relationships make it more suitable to elicit the causal feedback relationships among the various influential variables, which assists in understanding the dynamics of the city system (beck, et al., 2018; forrester, 1994). study context and research methods study context: bloemfontein city bloemfontein city is taken as the case study for investigating the possibility of developing smart cities in south africa. bloemfontein city is among the growing medium-sized cities in the country. it is the capital city of free state province, having a population of about 500 000 (statistics, sa, 2011) and located almost at the geographical centre of the country. functionally, it is also one of the three national capitals of the country, as the judicial appellate and supreme court of the country are located in the city. two universities offer tertiary das construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202070 education to almost 50 000 students. several privately-owned high level and advanced hospitals and health care centres, in addition to government-managed hospitals, are available in the city. the city is connected to all parts of the country by all three modes of transportation, road, rail and air. an international airport provides connecting flights to major cities of south africa and abroad. besides, it houses several regional centres of business corporate houses and professional institutions. as observed, the availability of adequate basic urban infrastructure facilities, including the existence of road transport and communication services, presence of skilled manpower and its proximity to johannesburg, the largest city of south africa and pretoria, the administrative capital city of the country, have attracted a few domestic and multinational industrial companies. moreover, the presence of the information and communication sector and internet are well felt in the city as most areas in the city are well connected through ict. however, the growth of industrial activities, influx of population and enhancement of tertiary (service-related) functions are increasingly creating pressure on the environment, urban infrastructures, and services. besides, there are major challenges of public transportation for local accessibility. a thorough discussion with several stakeholders, members of the metro municipal council and urban development experts and review of the integrated development plan (idp 2017) suggested that the economy, mobility and governance need to be prioritised and could be important considerations for transforming the city to a smart city. therefore, the scope of the study is limited to examine the three above aspects for exploring its perspectives to become smart. research methods the study is premised upon the philosophy of epistemological interpretivism (creswell, 2017; saunders, lewis and thornhill, 2016). in this context, both phenomenological and symbolic interactional approaches have been adopted. adoption of such an approach was essential because the study relied on the perceptions of the people based on their engagements and experiences and interpretations of the focus groups due to the lack of availability of structured statistical data pertaining to various urban development parameters including the three aspects such as economy, mobility and governance. moreover, the study is aimed at creating new, richer understandings and interpretations of the complex problems within the context of developing smart cities. for this purpose, conceptual sd models premised upon the asa paradigm were developed and used. this approach was deemed to be suitable as it has the ability to elicit causal feedback relationships based on real-world information (both subjective and objective). it offers a holistic viewpoint of the working of a system and generates dynamic hypotheses that could be used to generate the behaviour of a system (robinson 2008; wolstenholme 1992), in this instance a city system. conceptual models for the three above mentioned aspects were built independently to understand the perspectives of the three aspects of smart city development. however, before the conceptual models were built, a survey among key stakeholders was conducted to obtain their perceptions on these three aspects of the city, based on their experiences and engagements. the perceptions were used to evaluate the performance of the various indicators that significantly influence these three aspects of city development. the conceptual models were built by using interlinkage and causal feedback relationships among the various influential variables related to each key aspect. furthermore, two focus group discussions were conducted with 22 and 17 participating members respectively, which are found to be perspectives of smart cities in south africa through applied systems analysis approach: a case of bloemfontein construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202071 adequate (nyumba, et al., 2018). the members participating in the focus groups included urban planning professionals and consultants, asa modelling experts, personnel belonging to the ict industry, personnel belonging to non-governmental organisations (ngo) engaged in city planning and development activities, municipal officials, academics and researchers of urban development, and common people. the focus group members were selected based on their engagement and involvement in the city development process at the national and city level, expertise in asa and ict industry. a list of potential participants was prepared based on their professional profiles. after, initial scrutiny, contacts were established to invite relevant and potential respondents to participate in the focus group discussions. the available and willing respondents were then invited to the focus group discussions. in the first focus group discussions, the survey results (the performance of the various factors and attributes) on each aspect were discussed and verified. moreover, perspectives on different aspects for smart city development were discussed and opinions were gathered. the second focus group discussion addressed the verification and validation of causal relations and conceptual models. the details of the data collection, data analyses and conceptual models are discussed in the following subsections. data and analysis a household survey was conducted to collect primary data regarding demographic, economic, transportation and communication and governance scenarios of the city, which was used to evaluate the performance of the various development attributes of the city. the household survey was resorted to because there no structured statistical data was found to be available. moreover, a household data survey was expected to provide adequate and relevant information at the grassroots level. the survey was conducted in six selected areas, hiededal in the east, langenhoven park in the south west, fichardpark and fauna in the south, pentagonpark in the north, and the cbd area, out of more than 35 suburbs of the city. these suburbs were selected based on their geographical location, population and demographic composition, level of development, and influence on the city development process and expected to represent the city because of their heterogeneous attributes and characteristics. a systematic stratified random sampling method was used for selecting the households. to select the households, first, a list of households located in the suburbs were collected and scrutinised. households were then stratified according to the streets. also, the number of households to be surveyed in each street were decided proportionally. sample households for the survey were selected at a particular interval of houses located in the selected streets of the suburbs. however, if one household was absent or unwilling then the next household was surveyed. pre-tested questionnaires and semi-structured direct interview method were employed to conduct the survey and collect data. for this purpose, a sample size of 380 selected households was surveyed with the number of households varying from 60 to 70 households in each selected suburb. the sample size is found to be adequate for a population of 500 000, with a confidence level of 95% at a confidence interval of 5.03 at the worst-case percentage, 50%. the respondents were from all walks of life in the city, such as common citizen, merchants, businessmen, entrepreneurs, academics, students, government officials, people working in industries and enterprises, etc. to avoid bias, no discrimination based on gender race, education, income level, health conditions or status was made while conducting the survey. all ethical protocols were adhered to while collecting the data. the survey questionnaire included peoples’ perception regarding the performance of different factors that influence each of the three aspects (economy, mobility and governance system). the attributes and factors under each das construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202072 attribute were identified from the published literature based on their relevance and influence on the city development process (camboim, zawislak and pufal, 2019; coe, paquet and roy, 2001; das and emuze, 2014, emuze and das, 2015; giffinger, et al., 2007; moussiopoulos et, al. 2010; praharaj and han, 2019; shapiro, 2008; sokolov, et al., 2019), and included in the questionnaire for their performance evaluation. the relevance and importance of these factors and attributes were checked and contextualised after discussion with experts and professionals belonging to urban development field. for example, there are 16 factors under six attributes (table 1) that influence the smart economy, which were included in the survey questionnaire. respondents were asked to assign their perceptions on a seven-point scale ranging between -3 and +3 (-3 representing the worse performance, +3 the maximum performance and zero neutral) (das and emuze, 2014, giffinger, et al., 2007). similarly, data on the performance of the factors under the aspects of mobility and governance were collected from the respondents. further, secondary data (statistical and time series data) were collected from published and unpublished literature, such as reports and the review of integrated development plan 2017 (idp, 2017) for the mangaung metropolitan municipality (administrative authority of bloemfontein city). the data collected from secondary sources were found to be very limited and were utilised only to check the correctness and adequacy of primary data wherever required. the data collected from the primary household survey were checked for correctness and relevance and then compiled in code sheets. this compilation was analysed using descriptive statistics to see the variations and consistency in the responses. besides, cronbach α test was conducted to test the reliability of the data set. the performance evaluation of the attributes and factors was conducted by using the data set collected through the perception survey. to evaluate the performance of the factors and attributes, a mathematical quantitative smart factor index (sfi) and smart attribute index (sai) were developed, based on the weighted average method. the smart factor index evaluates the performance of each factor under different city development attributes. it is defined as the function of values assigned to a factor by the respondents in a scale of -3 to +3 (-3 representing the worse performance, +3 maximum performance and zero neutral) and the total number of respondents (das and emuze, 2014; giffinger, et al., 2007). the mathematical equation is presented in equation (eq.) 1. where: p= values assigned to each factor by the respondents x= number of respondents assign a particular value smart attribute index evaluates the performance of various developmental attributes of the city. it is a function of the cumulative smart factor indices under each attribute and weightages of each factor. it is also evaluated in a scale ranging from -3 to +3. eq. 2 presents the mathematical equation used to evaluate sai. where sfi= smart factor index w= weightage of each indicator in each factor the discussions made and information gathered from focus group discussions were analysed by narrative and interpretative analysis (creswell, 2017; saunders, lewis and thornhill, 2016). perspectives of smart cities in south africa through applied systems analysis approach: a case of bloemfontein construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202073 development of asa linked conceptual models the data analyses were followed by the development of causal feedback relationships among the factors under each attribute by applying the asa paradigm and using sd principles. development of causal loop diagrams (cld) for the city system generally preludes conceptual modelling. essentially clds are the visual, largely qualitative representation of how the analyst believes the system behaves, in respect of the interactions among those entities that matter, to resolve the problem (beck, et al., 2018). the clds offer dynamic hypothesis (theory) on which the systems are believed to work or behave and identify the leverage points on which decisions can be made or policy interventions can be evolved. in this investigation, when the clds were developed, cause and effect relations were properly comprehended and appropriate polarities (negative or positive) were assigned. the loops were identified as either reinforcing or balancing. a reinforcing loop forms when an increase (decrease) in a variable lead to a tendency for the variable to be increased (decreased) due to the feedback through other variables in the loop. a balancing loop forms when a variable increases (decreases), and there is a tendency for the same variable to decrease (increase) due to the feedback through other variables in the loop (mohammadi, tavakolan and khosravi, 2018; sterman, 2000). however, to develop the loops, first one-way causalities were established, and then the feedback relations were checked and established if there are any. then the various cause and effect relationships among the factors and the feedback clds were combined to develop the conceptual models. the clds, cause and effect relationships and conceptual models were discussed with stakeholders and experts through focus group discussions to examine their correctness and logical linkages and validate the models. the models were developed following a series of iterations of development, discussion, amendment and final validation. the validated conceptual models were used to comprehend the influence of the three sectors – economy, mobility and governance, for transforming the city to a smart city. scenario of bloemfontein as a smart city: findings and discussion the scenario of smart city perspectives of bloemfontein was comprehended based on the concurrent analysis of (1) evaluation of the performance of three aspects, such as economy, mobility and governance, (2) perceptions and opinions obtained from the focus group discussions and (3) the dynamic hypotheses generated from the conceptual models developed for each of the three aspects. before the evaluations were conducted first the veracity of the data was checked through descriptive statistics and cronbach α. the low standard deviation in each factor shows the consistency and high cronbach α (> 0.9) values confirm the reliability of the data set used. the different development attribute scenarios are discussed below. economy table 1 presents the current economic performance of the city. twelve factors under five attributes were used for the evaluation. it was observed that the employment rate in knowledge-intensive sector and productivity (gdp) per employee is reasonably high and the unemployability rate is very low. factors like self-employment rate, new businesses registered, importance as decision-making centre, proportion in part-time employment, r das construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202074 & d expenditure and ict connectivity have moderate positive indices, implying average performance. however, the performance of factors like patent applications per inhabitants, and availability of company headquarters is very poor and it seems their presence is insignificant. consequently, it is found that economic attributes like productivity and flexibility in the labour market have a strong influence in the city, whereas it lacks international embeddedness and economic image, trademark and branding. entrepreneurship and innovation are observed to be present but not so strong. thus, although the economic attributes of the city indicate mixed performance, the positive influence of productivity, flexibility in the labour market, entrepreneurship and innovation offer opportunities for the economy of the city to strengthen further. the challenge is to enhance the economic image, branding and international embeddedness of the city. in support of these findings, urban planning experts and professionals and researchers in the focus group discussions stated that: “…. bloemfontein has certain potentials for economic development because of its potential for setting up of knowledge-intensive and ict related industries. however, entrepreneurship, creation of economic image and branding as well as innovative spirit should be strengthened.” similarly, the ict experts added: “…. ict plays a very important role in enhancing seamless communication both at the national and international level. strengthening of ict services in the city will assist in inter-(national) connectedness and perhaps can attract investments in the emerging and advanced sectors such as ict or knowledge industries.” table 1 performance of economic attributes of bloemfontein city smart factors mean sd sfi smart attributes sai r&d expenditure 1.2 0.15 1.0 innovative spirit 0.51 employment rate in knowledge-intensive sectors 2.1 0.24 2.4 patent applications per inhabitant -2.2 -0.25 -2.5 self-employment rate 1.3 0.15 1.2 entrepreneurship 1.2 new businesses registered in proportion of existing companies 1.25 0.17 1.2 importance as decisionmaking centre -1.4 -0.14 -1.5 economic image and branding -1.5 gdp per employed person 2.1 0.30 2.0 productivity 2.0 unemployment rate 2.3 0.28 2.2 flexibility in labour market 1.75 proportion in part-time employment 1.4 0.22 1.3 perspectives of smart cities in south africa through applied systems analysis approach: a case of bloemfontein construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202075 smart factors mean sd sfi smart attributes sai companies with hq in the city quoted on the national stock -2.60 0.35 -2.75 international embeddedness -0.5 ict connectivity with the companies 1.6 0.25 1.5 ict use by companies 0.5 0.10 0.5 cronbach’α 0.925 (source: camboim, zawislak and pufal, 2019; das and emuze, 2014; giffinger, et al., 2007; moussiopoulos, et, al., 2010; praharaj and han, 2019; shapiro, 2008; sokolov, et al., 2019) figure 1 presents a conceptual model for the economic sectors of the city. amongst influential economic factors, entrepreneurship is considered the key factor that defines the economic performance of a city (das, 2019; sokolov, et al., 2019). a higher level of enterprising activities in the city would lead to enhancement of the economy (van der weijden, et al., 2017), which in turn would facilitate the location of corporate offices or business decision-making centres. the location of corporate offices would increase inter(national) embeddedness enhancing both communication and business relations, which would have a positive influence on the enterprises located in the city as shown by the reinforced causal feedback mechanism er1. besides, entrepreneurship would bring in innovation (van der weijden, et al., 2017), which would positively influence productivity in the city. higher productivity would enhance the economic image and branding of the city creating a congenial environment for entrepreneurship development as feedback through a mechanism presented the reinforcement loop er2. thus, entrepreneurship in the city is strengthened by both the mechanisms represented by reinforcing loops er1 and er2. further enhancement of entrepreneurial activities in the city with the aid of innovation would lead to higher productivity and gdp per employee (sokolov, et al., 2019; van der weijden, et al., 2017). higher productivity, income, innovation and entrepreneurship would enable the city as an important decision-making centre for business, which would transform the economy to a smart economy (kummitha, 2019) as seen through feedback mechanism er3. thus, enhancement of entrepreneurship in the city remains vital for transforming the economy to a smart economy, which can contribute to transforming the city to a smart city. this can be enhanced by inculcating innovation, increasing productivity and creating an economic image. concurrently, there is a need for efforts to increase inter(national) embeddedness (by use of ict), providing incentives for setting up of corporate offices and developing it as a decision-making centre for business and enterprises. although the selfemployment rate and labour market flexibility offer a congenial environment to enhance entrepreneurship at the local level, the registration of new business needs encouragement. ict use by companies needs augmentation, and expenditure in r & d and intensified applications for patent registration are other key areas. table 1 continued das construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202076 figure 1 conceptual models for a smart economy mobility the mobility of the city was evaluated based on ten factors and four attributes. table 2 presents the index values and performance of these mobility factors and attributes. the findings revealed that six factors: transport network per inhabitant, access to public transport, quality of public transport, green mobility share, use of economical cars and air transport of freight have moderate to high negative values. this implies that the performances of these factors are very poor. on the other hand, air transport for international passengers, local air transport for local people, traffic safety, and availability of computers (including mobile devices such as tablets, ipads, cell phones) in households have moderate to relatively high positive indices, although internet access in households has a low index value, indicating moderate positive performance of these factors. consequently, the state of two of the four mobility attributes, such as local accessibility and sustainable, innovative and safe transport systems are very poor. however, the state of attributes like (inter-)national accessibility (physical movement) and availability of ict infrastructure for accessing travel-related information in households are encouraging. sustainable, innovative and efficient physical movement in the city is a challenge, however, international accessibility and ict availability in the households offer opportunities for the development of smart mobility in the city. these findings were more or less corroborated in the focus group discussions. in this context, according to urban planning professionals, academics, ngo representatives, and some of the common people: “…local accessibility in the city is a big challenge particularly with regards to public transportation. most people rely on the use of the individual or private cars and whatever public transportation system available is not efficient…. the transportation system is neither sustainable, innovative nor safe. this is one area which should be taken up on priority if [we] look to make the city smart.” perspectives of smart cities in south africa through applied systems analysis approach: a case of bloemfontein construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202077 further, according to ict professionals, ngo representatives, researchers and common people: “… the city has good levels of internet connectivity. people use mobile devices for their travel needs (…) specifically use of gps to select routes and access different destinations effectively. ict can also help to work from home or anywhere, and make other social activities such as shopping by using online platforms, which can reduce the travel needs…. [we] think this is the way to go to reduce pressure on the transportation system. perhaps this can help in developing smart mobility in the city.” table 2 performance of mobility attributes of bloemfontein city smart factors mean sd sfi smart attributes sai public transport network per inhabitant -1.35 0.18 -1.5 local accessibility public transport -1.68 access to public transport -1.40 0.22 -1.5 quality of public transport 2.20 0.35 -2.0 air transport (local) 1.30 0.15 1.10 air transport of passengers (international) 1.60 0.15 1.50 (inter)national accessibility (physical movement) 1.11 air transport of freight 1.10 0.12 -1.30 green mobility share -1.90 0.28 -2.0 sustainable, innovative and safe transport systems -0.45 traffic safety 1.40 0.20 1.50 use of economical cars -1.25 0.15 -1.5 computers (including mobile communication devices) in households 1.80 0.22 2.0 availability of ictinfrastructure computers (including mobile devices) in households 1.25 internet access in households 0.60 0.08 0.50 cronbach’α 0.911 (source: das and emuze, 2014, emuze and das, 2015; giffinger, et al., 2007; praharaj and han, 2019; sokolov, et al., 2019) figure 2 depicts the conceptual model for the development of smart mobility in the city. the mobility sector has been categorized into two significant elements: physical movement and access through ict at both the local and inter-(national) level. the development of smart mobility is envisaged to be based on four major reinforcing causal feedback mechanisms involving: (1) sustainable, innovative and transportation system, (2) local accessibility, (3) availability of ict infrastructure and international accessibility and (4) availability in ict infrastructure leading to a reduction in local transportation needs (emuze and das, 2015; kirkey, maloney and noelting 2017; sokolov, et al., 2019). das construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202078 a sustainable, innovative and safe transportation system is actuated using economical cars, green mobility and traffic safety at the local level (emuze and das, 2015). a sustainable, innovative and safe transportation system and effective local accessibility have a feedback relationship with enhanced and efficient mobility (mr1). simultaneously, the availability of ict infrastructure and international accessibility by air transportation system reinforce international accessibility and consequently enhances the mobility of the city through a feedback mechanism (mr2). thus, current mobility scenarios can be transformed to smart mobility through the reinforcing effect of both the mechanisms mr1 and mr2. however, local accessibility is a major component of smart mobility. so, enhancement of the public transportation network, improvement in the public transportation system and higher access to public transportation would facilitate physical local accessibility through a feedback mechanism, mr3, improving mobility in the city. in turn, such a mechanism would also reinforce the mechanism developed by mechanism mr1 resulting in the strengthening of the sustainable, innovative and safe transportation system in the city. further, the availability of ict infrastructure and its higher use by households would lead to a reduction in local transportation needs. reduction of local transportation needs would have two significant impactsincrease in traffic safety and low carbon emissions, which consequently would lead to the sustainable and innovative transportation system and smart mobility through causal feedback mechanisms mr4a and mr4b. therefore, feedback mechanisms mr4a and mr4b along with mr3 reinforce the feedback mechanism mr1 and mr2 and result in smart mobility in the city. the reinforcement of the ict infrastructure would assist in reducing travel needs at the local level, thereby easing the pressure on the mobility system and increasing international accessibility. moreover, the use of public transportation and a reduction in travel needs also reduce carbon emissions. thus, the combination of these factors engenders smart mobility, which essentially contributes to making the smart city. figure 2 conceptual model for smart mobility perspectives of smart cities in south africa through applied systems analysis approach: a case of bloemfontein construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202079 governance table 3 presents the performance of the governance system of the city, which was assessed based on ten governance factors and three attributes. four of the ten factors – city representative per resident, female city representatives in the city council, expenditure of municipality per resident, and perception of the quality of schools have relatively high positive indicators. three factors: perception of transparency of bureaucracy, perception of fighting against corruption and participation in voluntary and social work have moderately positive indices. the moderate to high positive indices imply that the city governance system is performing reasonably well in these areas. however, three indicators, such as political activities of inhabitants, importance of politics for inhabitants and children in daycare have moderate negative indices suggesting the poor performance in these areas. it is seen, though, that the governance system is performing reasonably well in all its three attributes, such as, in creating a transparent governance system, participation in voluntary work and participation of people in decision making. the positive performance of the governance attributes provides definite opportunities for developing a smart governance system in the city. the findings from the focus group discussions supported these findings. for instance, according to a majority of the focus group participants: “…. the local governance system and various departments sometimes look to be proactive and encourage the participation of different stakeholders through discussions and ‘indabas’ (community participation or conferences of stakeholders). they make efforts to focus on social and public services as well as to provide better service delivery. however, there are challenges with regards to inclusivity (…) as a lack of interest of the people in the development and municipal activities is a barrier against participation and inclusivity.” some of the other respondents added: “…the municipality makes efforts to be transparent in decision making and implementation of the policies and projects to a certain extent, for example, they make the plans and programmes pubic, have customer care system, etc.…. but there are many challenges providing timely information, lack of professionalism, etc., which need to be improved significantly.” table 3 performance of governance attributes of bloemfontein city smart factors mean sd sfi smart attributes sai city representatives 2.4 0.25 2.5 participation in decisionmaking 0.75 political activity of inhabitants -1.35 -0.15 -1.5 importance of politics for inhabitants -1.45 -0.17 -1.5 female city representatives 2.1 0.25 2.0 expenditure of the municipal per suburbs 1.8 0.30 2.0 public and social services 1.025 children in day care -1.4 -0.15 -1.2 perception of quality of schools 2.2 0.28 2.0 participation in voluntary works 1.2 0.15 1.3 das construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202080 smart factors mean sd sfi smart attributes sai perception on transparency of bureaucracy 1.4 0.20 1.5 transparent governance 1.5 perception on fight against corruption 1.4 0.18 1.5 cronbach’α 0.914 (camboim, zawislak and pufal, 2019; coe, paquet, and roy, 2001; das and emuze, 2014; giffinger, et al., 2007; marsal-llacuna, 2016; moussiopoulos, et, al., 2010; praharaj and han, 2019; shapiro 2008; sokolov, et al., 2019) the conceptual model for smart governance system in the city is presented in figure 3. people’s involvement in decision-making processes is the most important attribute in the governance system (das and emuze, 2020). people’s participation in decision making and governance would lead to transparency in governance. transparency in governance is influenced by transparency in bureaucracy and perceptions of fighting corruption. a transparent government would encourage higher expenditure, participation in public and social services like children daycare, quality schools and civic services in the suburbs of the city. the whole process of participation, transparency in governance, and public and social services strengthens the governance of the city (branagh and ratcliffe, 2002; guimaraes, et al., 2020; hunt and rogers, 2016) through a feedback mechanism (gr1). similarly, participation in decision making would positively influence political activities of inhabitants and provide opportunities for adequate city representatives including female representatives in the governance system, thereby reinforcing participation in decision making through reinforcing feedback mechanism (gr2). this mechanism, in turn, reinforces the mechanism gr1; as a result, the governance system developed is also further strengthened. besides, as the governance system gets strengthened, it would enhance the importance of politics for the people resulting in higher political activities by them. the combination of these attributes and their reinforcing effects through feedback mechanisms ultimately create an environment for smart governance (gr2a). thus, the smart governance system relies on transparency in governance and participation of people or stakeholders in decision-making, which is considered an essential precursor to smart city development. although bloemfontein city offers positive indications on these attributes, there is a need for further strengthening. the democratic setup and adequate local governance system provide an opportunity for the development of a smart governance system in the city if policy interventions are made to make people politically active; create an environment to involve people in social and political activities by encouraging participation in voluntary work and child care; making an equitable expenditure in suburban areas; and, more importantly, allowing them to be a part of the decision making processes and building transparent bureaucracy. table 3 continued perspectives of smart cities in south africa through applied systems analysis approach: a case of bloemfontein construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202081 figure 3 conceptual model for smart governance conclusion a smart city is regarded as a well-performing city in one or more of its attributes, based on the potentials and challenges it offers. some of the important aspects include economy, mobility, governance, people, environment, ict, etc. moreover, the purpose of developing smart cities is to enhance the capacity of the city and judicious resource management for optimal development of the cities. in recent times, the development of smart cities both in developed and developing countries has gained momentum. an evaluation of the smart city perspectives of south african cities was conducted by considering bloemfontein as a case study. in this context, this investigation first provides an evaluation of the performance of the important influential factors and attributes under three important aspects: economy, mobility and governance system. secondly, the perspectives of different stakeholders were sought through focus group discussions. this provided asa premised conceptual models based on the analytical causal feedback logics among the factors and attributes in these aspects, which are aimed at enabling the development of policy interventions for transforming it to a smart city. the evaluation suggested that there are positive indications in all three aspects but there are serious challenges to be met, particularly in the economy and mobility sectors. the positive attributes of governance scenarios offer certain opportunities. also, the process of rigorously extracting causal feedback mechanisms among the factors and attributes in each sector brought the influential inter-linkages and mechanisms to light. entrepreneurship is found to be vital for engendering a smart economy, which needs to be reinforced through the inculcation of innovation and increasing productivity. moreover, it is necessary to explore the establishment of knowledge or ict based industries and steps to improve the economic image, branding and international embeddedness. in other words, policy interventions to reinforce the causal feedback relationship among entrepreneurship, innovation, productivity, economic image and international embeddedness, would foster a smart economy. similarly, local accessibility, and sustainable, innovative and safe physical movement in the city are major concerns. strengthening of public transportation to provide efficient local accessibility and advancement of ict to ensure an innovative, sustainable and safe das construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202082 transportation system, as well as to reduce the travel needs and consequently the pressure on the transportation system, would result in smart mobility. further, it is essential to ensure effective participation of stakeholders in the decisionmaking process alongside the elected city council, and transparency in governance. the complementary effect of the combined attainment of the three attributes of would enable the transformation of the city to a smart city. the development of smart cities is a complex problem and needs adequate and appropriate policy interventions. however, evolving policy interventions poses specific modelling challenges that include interdependency, inter-linkage and causal relationships among the various parameters that influence the smart city development. these challenges are compounded by the lack of adequate and reliable data, uncertainties, the role of stakeholders, and other prominent aspects that are not easily amenable to quantification. in this context, the study has two significant contributions. first, it offers the perceptions of the people on the performance of the factors that influence the economy, mobility and governance and what needs to be reinforced to make the city smart. this, in turn, provides an avenue for an inclusive and bottom-up approach of smart city development. second, asa linked conceptual models with their integrative nature are found to provide a framework to elicit the complex and dynamic inter-linkages among various factors and attributes under the three concerned aspects, based on which policies can be generated to augment the strengths and alleviate the weaknesses in an urban system (city) to facilitate the development of smart cities. this could help the policy and decision-makers to make scenario analysis and take appropriate policy decisions. however, there is also a need to transform these conceptual models to computer simulation models, which would reveal the gaps between the desired condition and current scenario, and the extent to which various attributes need enhancement, and that is the next goal of this investigation. despite the limitations of the study being premised upon the perceptions of people and stakeholders, it offers a way forward conceptually to guide the policy makers and planners for possible action for transforming bloemfontein city or similar cities in south africa to smart cities. acknowledgement the research was a part of the research project funded by national research foundation (nrf), south africa (grant number: 106023, 15-12-2016). the author acknowledges the support of nrf, south africa. references allam, z. and newman, p., 2018. redefining the smart city: culture, metabolism and governance. smart cities 1(1), pp.4–25. doi:10.3390/smartcities1010002. almirall, e., wareham, j., ratti, c., conesa, p., bria, f., gaviria, a. and edmondson, a., 2016. smart cities at crossroads: new tensions in city transformation. california management review, 59 (1), pp.14152. https://doi.org/10.1177/0008125616683949 areff, m., 2019. opinion: sa needs smart cities, just not what you envisage, african news agency (ana) archives. [online] available at: [accessed 6 march 2020]. batty, m., axhausen, k. w., giannotti, f., pozdnoukhov, a., bazzani, a., wachowicz, m. and portugali, y., 2012. smart cities of the future. the european physical journal, special topics 214(1), pp.481-518. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2012-01703-3 perspectives of smart cities in south africa through applied systems analysis approach: a case of bloemfontein construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202083 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/smartcities1010002 https://doi.org/10.1177/0008125616683949 https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/opinion/opinion-sa-needs-smart-cities-just-not-what-you-envisage-28716340 https://www.iol.co.za/business-report/opinion/opinion-sa-needs-smart-cities-just-not-what-you-envisage-28716340 https://doi.org/10.1140/epjst/e2012-01703-3 batty, m., 2015. smart cities by anthony townsend: a review. smart cities, [blog] 21 may. available at: http://www.spatialcomplexity.info/archives/2419. beck, m.b., das, d., thompson, m., chirisa, i., eromobor, s., kubanza, s., rewal, t. and burger, e., 2018. cities as forces for good in the environment: a systems approach. in: priscilla mensah, ed. applying systems analysis to complex global problems, pp.9-39. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71486-8_2 bertalanffy, l.v., 1974. perspectives on general systems theory. e. taschdigian and m. von bertalanffy, eds. new york: george braziller. boyko, c.t., gaterell, m.r., barber, a.r.g., brown, j., bryson, j.r., butlere, d., caputo, s., caserio, m., coles, r., cooper, r., davies, g., farmanie, r., hale, j., hales a.c., hewitt, c.n., hunt, d.v.l., jankovic, l., jefferson, i., leach, j.m., lombardi, r., mackenzie, a.r., memon, f.a., pugh, t.a.m., sadler, j.p., weingaertner, c., whyatt, d. and rogers, c.d.f., 2012. benchmarking sustainability in cities: the role of indicators and future scenarios. global environmental change, 22(1), pp.245–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.10.004 branagh, s. and ratcliffe, j., 2002. dublin city foresight. dublin: dublin institute of technology. camboim, g.f., zawislak, p.a. and pufal, n.a., 2019. driving elements to make cities smarter: evidences from european projects. technological forecasting & social change, 142, pp.154-67. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.09.014 caragliu, a., del bo, c. and nijkamp, p., 2009. smart cities in europe. proceedings of the 3rd central european conference in regional science – cers. kosice, slovakia, 7-9 october 2009. pp.49-59. caragliu, a., chiara, del bo. and nijkamp, p., 2011. smart cities in europe. journal of urban technology, 18(2), pp.65–82. https://doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2011.601117. cavada, m., hunt, d. and rogers, c., 2014. smart cities: contradicting definitions and unclear measures. 4th world sustainability forum, 1-30 november [online] 2014. available at: http://www.sciforum.net/ conference/wsf-4. chehri, a. and mouftah, h.t., 2019. autonomous vehicles in the sustainable cities, the beginning of a green adventure. sustainable cities and society, 51, 101751. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101751. chadwick, g.f., 1971. a systems view of planning: towards a theory of the urban and regional planning process. urban and regional planning series. oxford: elsevier science & technology books. checkland, p., 1981. systems thinking, systems practice. university of michigan: j. wiley. coe, a., paquet, g. and roy, j., 2001. e-governance and smart communities: a social learning challenge. social science computer review, 19(1), pp.80-93. https://doi.org/10.1177/089443930101900107 creswell, j.w., 2017. research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. 5th ed. thousand oaks, ca: sage. das, d., 2019. exploring perspectives of the information technology industry in a south african city, sustainability, 11, 6520. doi:10.3390/su11226520. das, d., 2017. exploring the politico-cultural dimensions for development of smart cities in india. international review for spatial planning and sustainable development, 5(3), pp.79-99. http://dx.doi. org/10.14246/irspsd.5.3_79. das, d., 2015. transforming bloemfontein city to a smart citya systems thinking approach. proceedings of the smart and sustainable built environment (sasbe) conference 2015, pp.27-38. isbn.978-0-79885624-9. das construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202084 http://www.spatialcomplexity.info/archives/2419 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71486-8_2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2011.10.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.09.014 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.09.014 https://doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2011.601117 http://www.sciforum.net/conference/wsf-4 http://www.sciforum.net/conference/wsf-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101751 https://doi.org/10.1177/089443930101900107 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su11226520 http://dx.doi.org/10.14246/irspsd.5.3_79 http://dx.doi.org/10.14246/irspsd.5.3_79 das, d. and emuze, f., 2014. smart city perspectives of bloemfontein, south africa. journal of construction project management and innovation, 4(2), pp.930-50. das, d. and emuze, f., 2020. dimensions for transforming southern african cities to smart cities, in: isaac olawale albert and taibat lawanson ed. urban crisis management in africa, pp.15-31, austin, tx: pan african press, isbn: 978-1-943533-40-4, lccn: 2019939955. datta, a., 2015. new urban utopias of postcolonial india: entrepreneurial urbanization in dholera smart city, gujarat. dialogues in human geography, 5(1), pp.3-22. https://doi. org/10.1177/2043820614565748 emuze, f. and das, d., 2015. regenerative ideas for urban roads in south africa. municipal engineer, 168(4), pp.209–19, http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/muen.14.00041. forrester, j.w., 1969. urban dynamics. cambridge, ma: m.i.t press. forrester, j.w., 1994. system dynamics, systems thinking, and soft or. system dynamics review, 10, pp.1–14. gil-garcia, j.r., helbig, n. and ojo, a., 2014. being smart: emerging technologies and innovation in the public sector, government information quarterly, 31, pp.11-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2014.09.001 giffinger, r., fertne, c., kramar, h., kalasek, r., pichler milanović, n. and evert, m., 2007. smart cities – ranking of european medium-sized cities. final project report. vienna: centre of regional science, vienna ut [online] available at: http://smartcity-ranking.org/download/smart_cities_final_report.pdf. goi., 2015. smart cities mission statement and guidelines. ministry of urban development, government of india. [online] available at: http://smartcities.gov.in/content/innerpage/guidelines.php. greenfield, a., 2006. everyware: the dawning age of ubiquitous computing. boston: new riders. guimarães, j., severo, e., felix, j.l., costa, w. and salmoria, f., 2020. governance and quality of life in smart cities: towards sustainable development goals. journal of cleaner production, 253, 119926. 10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119926. haboucha, c.j., ishaq, r. and shiftan, y., 2017. user preferences regarding autonomous vehicles. transportation research part c: emerging technologies, 78, pp.37–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. trc.2017.01.010. hancke, g.p., silva, c. and hancke jr., g.p., 2013. the role of advanced sensing in smart cities’, sensors, 13(1), pp.393-425. https://doi.org/10.3390/s130100393 harrison, c. and donnelly, i., 2011. a theory of smart cities. in: 55th annual meeting of the international society for the systems sciences. hull, uk, 17-22 july 2011. york, uk: isss. hemel, z., 2018. four scenarios for future smart cities. [online] available at: https://set.kuleuven.be/events/ ethiekweek/2017/smart_cities_wise_cities/presentatie-zef-hemel.pdf [accessed 5 october 2018]. hollands, r.g., 2008. will the real smart city please stand up? intelligent, progressive or entrepreneurial? city, 12(3), pp.303-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13604810802479126 hunt, d. and rogers, c., 2016. aspirational city futures: a short review of foresight approaches. birmingham: university of birmingham. ibm., 2008. a smarter planet: the next leadership agenda. council on foreign relations. council on foreign relations https://www.cfr.org/event/smarter-planet-nextleadership-agenda. idp., 2017. integrated development plan, city of mangaung, free state, south africa. bloemfontein. perspectives of smart cities in south africa through applied systems analysis approach: a case of bloemfontein construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202085 https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820614565748 https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820614565748 http://dx.doi.org/10.1680/muen.14.00041 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2014.09.001 http://smartcity-ranking.org/download/smart_cities_final_report.pdf http://smartcities.gov.in/content/innerpage/guidelines.php http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119926 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2017.01.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2017.01.010 https://doi.org/10.3390/s130100393 https://set.kuleuven.be/events/ethiekweek/2017/smart_cities_wise_cities/presentatie-zef-hemel.pdf https://set.kuleuven.be/events/ethiekweek/2017/smart_cities_wise_cities/presentatie-zef-hemel.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/13604810802479126 https://www.cfr.org/event/smarter-planet-nextleadership-agenda kirkey, k., maloney, m. and noelting, a., 2017. planbay area 2040: final scenario planning report. [online] available at: http://2040.planbayarea.org/sites/default/files/2017/07/scenario_planning_ pba2040_supplemental%20report_7-2017.pdf [accessed 16 february 2018]. kitchin, r., 2014. the real-time city? big data and smart urbanism. geojournal, 79(1), pp.1-14. komninos, n., 2002. intelligent cities: innovation, knowledge systems and digital spaces. london: spon press. kourtit, k. and nijkamp, p., 2012. smart cities in the innovation age. innovation: the european journal of social science research, 25(2), pp.93–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2012.660331. kummitha, r.k.r., 2019. smart cities and entrepreneurship: an agenda for future research. technological forecasting & social change 149, 119763, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2019.119763. lane, d.c. and oliva, r., 1998. the greater whole: towards a synthesis of system dynamics and soft systems methodology. european journal of operational research, 107(1), pp.214-35. https://doi. org/10.1016/s0377-2217(97)00205-1. laszlo, a. and krippner, s. 1997. systems theories: their origins, foundations, and development, in: j.s. jordan, ed. systems theories and a priori aspects of perception, elsevier, amsterdam, pp.47-74. https://doi. org/10.1016/s0166-4115(98)80017-4 lee, m., choi, p., nam‐hee, m., 2005. a systems thinking approach to the new administrative capital in korea: balanced development or not? system dynamics review, 21(1), pp.69-85. https://doi.org/10.1002/ sdr.304 living-planit-sa., 2013. living plan it. [online] available at: http://www.living-planit.com/ [accessed 07 may 2015] lombardi, p., 2011. new challenges in the evaluation of smart cities. network industries quarterly, 13(3), pp.8-10. marsal-llacuna, m.l., 2016. city indicators on social sustainability as standardization technologies for smarter (citizen-centered) governance of cities. social indicators research, 128(3), pp.1193–1216. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s11205-015-1075-6 mclaren, d., agyeman, j., 2015. sharing cities: a case for truly smart and sustainable cities. cambridge, ma: mit press. mohammadi, a., tavakolan, m., khosravi, y., 2018. developing safety archetypes of construction industry at project level using system dynamics. journal of safety research, 67, pp.17–26. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jsr.2018.09.010 moussiopoulos, n., achillas, c., vlachokostas, c., spyridi, d. and nikolaou, k., 2010. environmental, social and economic information management for the evaluation of sustainability in urban areas: a system of indicators for thessaloniki, greece. cities, 27, 377-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. cities.2010.06.001 nam, t. and pardo, t.a., 2011. smart city as urban innovation: focusing on management, policy, and context. in: icegov proceedings, 5th international conference on theory and practice of electronic governance. tallinn, estonia, 26-28 september 2011. doi: 10.1145/2072069.2072100. national geographic, 2015. world’s smart cities: san diego. [video online] available at: https://www. youtube.com/watch?v=lajznaje5uq. nijkamp, p. and kourtik, k. 2011. joint programming initiative ( jpi) on urban europe. global challenges and local responses in the urban century. a scoping document. amsterdam: vu university. das construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202086 http://2040.planbayarea.org/sites/default/files/2017/07/scenario_planning_pba2040_supplemental%20rep http://2040.planbayarea.org/sites/default/files/2017/07/scenario_planning_pba2040_supplemental%20rep https://doi.org/10.1080/13511610.2012.660331 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2019.119763 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0377-2217(97)00205-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0377-2217(97)00205-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0166-4115(98)80017-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0166-4115(98)80017-4 https://doi.org/10.1002/sdr.304 https://doi.org/10.1002/sdr.304 http://www.living-planit.com/ https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-015-1075-6 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-015-1075-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2018.09.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2018.09.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2010.06.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2010.06.001 http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2072069.2072100 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lajznaje5uq https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lajznaje5uq nyumba t.o., wilson, k., derrick, c.j. and mukherjee n., 2018. the use of focus group discussion methodology: insights from two decades of application in conservation. methods in ecology and evolution, 9, pp.20-32. doi: 10.1111/2041-210x.12860. praharaj, s. and han, h., 2019. cutting through the clutter of smart city definitions: a reading into the smart city perceptions in india. city, culture and society, 18, 100285. robinson, s., 2008. conceptual modelling for simulation part ii: a framework for conceptual modelling. journal of the operational research society, 59, pp.291–304. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602369 saunders, m., lewis, p. and thornhill, a., 2016. research methods for business students. essex: pearson education. schwab, k., 2017. the fourth industrial revolution. geneva, switzerland: world economic forum. shea, s., burns, e., 2016. definition: smart city. tech target iot agenda [blog] july 2019. available at: [accessed 6 march 2020]. shapiro, j.m., 2008. smart cities: quality of life, productivity, and the growth effects of human capital. the review of economics and statistics, 88(2), pp.324-35. https://doi.org/10.1162/rest.88.2.324 sokolov, a., veselitskaya, n., carabias, v. and yildirim, o., 2019. scenario-based identification of key factors for smart cities development policies. technological forecasting & social change, 148, 119279. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2019.119729 statistics south africa., 2011. census, 2011. [online] available at: [accessed 11 july 2018]. sterman, j., 2000. business dynamics: systems thinking and modeling for a complex world. boston: irwin/ mcgraw-hill. thite, m., 2011. smart cities: implications of urban planning for human resource development. human resource development international, 14(5), pp.623-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2011.618349. townsend, a.m., 2013. smart cities: big data, civic hackers, and the quest for a new utopia. new york: ww norton & company. un habitat., 2016. new urban agenda. new york, ny: united nations. van der weijden, a.m., chraibi, s., rajagopalan, r., lekse, d., lunz, m., dannemann, e., cherenack, k., stainthorpe, j., fleuren, m., mason, j. and aliakseyeu, d., 2017. future of cities scenarios that show how people may experience cities in 2035. eindhoven, the netherlands: philips lighting research. wolstenholme, e.f., 1992. the definition and application of a stepwise approach to model conceptualisation and analysis. european journal of operational research, 59, pp.123-36. https://doi. org/10.1016/0377-2217(92)90010-7 yigitcanlar, t., o’connor, k. and westerman, c., 2008. the making of knowledge cities: melbourne’s knowledge-based urban development experience. cities, 25(2), pp.63–72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. cities.2008.01.001. yigitcanlar, t. and kamruzzaman, m., 2018. smart cities and mobility: does the smartness of australian cities lead to sustainable commuting patterns? journal of urban technology, 26(2), pp.21-46. doi: 10.1080/10630732.2018.1476794. yigitcanlar, t., kamruzzaman, m., foth, m., sabatini, j., costa, e. and ioppolo, g., 2019a. can cities become smart without being sustainable? a systematic review of the literature. sustainable cities and society, 45, pp.348-65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2018.11.033 perspectives of smart cities in south africa through applied systems analysis approach: a case of bloemfontein construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202087 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/2041-210x.12860 https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2602369 https://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/definition/smart-city https://doi.org/10.1162/rest.88.2.324 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2019.119729 http://www.statssa.gov.za/ https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2011.618349 https://doi.org/10.1016/0377-2217(92)90010-7 https://doi.org/10.1016/0377-2217(92)90010-7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2008.01.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2008.01.001 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2018.1476794 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2018.11.033 yigitcanlar, t., han, h., kamruzzaman, m., ioppolo, g. and sabatini-marquese, j., 2019b. the making of smart cities: are songdo, masdar, amsterdam, san francisco and brisbane the best we could build? land use policy, 88, 104187. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104187 yovanof, g.s. and hazapis, g.n., 2009. an architectural framework and enabling wireless technologies for digital cities & intelligent urban environments. wireless personal communications, 49, pp.445-63. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-009-9693-4. das construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 2, june 202088 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.104187 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11277-009-9693-4 construction economics and building vol. 22, no. 4 december 2022 © 2022 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: pramudya, a. a., wibowo, a. 2022. ranking risks of bot toll road investment projects in indonesia using fuzzy interpretive structural modelling. construction economics and building, 22:4, 59–80. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v22i4.8091 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article ranking risks of bot toll road investment projects in indonesia using fuzzy interpretive structural modelling andreas a. pramudya1,*, andreas wibowo2 1 department of civil engineering, parahyangan catholic university, bandung 40141, indonesia, aapramudya@gmail.com 2 center of excellence in urban infrastructure development and department of civil engineering, parahyangan catholic university, bandung 40141, indonesia, andreas_wibowo@unpar.ac.id corresponding author: andreas a. pramudya, department of civil engineering, parahyangan catholic university, bandung 40141, indonesia, aapramudya@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i4.8091 article history: received 07/02/2022; revised 06/06/2022 & 28/08/2022; accepted 05/09/2022; published 15/12/2022 abstract the government of indonesia implemented the build, operate, and transfer (bot) model, relying on private investment to bridge the financing gap in developing public infrastructure facilities, including toll roads. toll road investments, like other greenfield infrastructure projects, are typically characterized by high project risk, which discourages private sector investment. many previous studies have investigated the various risk events in toll road investment projects, but only a few have assessed the interrelationships of risk events in the indonesian context. this study fills this knowledge gap by determining which risk event influences other events most. fuzzy interpretive structural modelling combined with the matrix impact of cross-references multiplication applied to a classification method was used to determine the hierarchy of risk events and analyze their influences on other risk events. a total of fourteen risk events were identified and analyzed. an unclear output specification was found to be the most significant risk event, with the biggest driving power affecting other risks. the findings and limitations of this study point the way forward for future research. 59 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i4.8091 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i4.8091 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:aapramudya@gmail.com mailto:andreas_wibowo@unpar.ac.id mailto:aapramudya@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i4.8091 keywords risk ranking; toll roads; build-operate-transfer; fuzzy interpretive structural modelling; indonesia introduction indonesia’s toll road industry began in 1978 with the construction of the jakarta–bogor–ciawi ( jagorawi) toll road, the first country’s toll road. based on government regulation no. 4 of 1978, the government of indonesia (goi) established pt jasa marga (ptjm) as a state-owned enterprise with a mandate to build and operate toll roads. the ptjm was indonesia’s sole toll road operator until the late 1980s. in 1990, the goi issued law no. 8 concerning toll roads, ushering in the era of private toll roads under public-private partnership (ppp) with the build, operate, and transfer (bot) model under the condition that the private sector must partner with ptjm when investing in toll roads. under the bot model, the private sector is required to build and operate the toll road commercially for a set period, known as the concession period, and then transfer all the assets back to the contracting agency after the end of the concession period. in 2004, the goi initiated massive policy reforms, including amending old regulations that had hampered private investment in infrastructure. for instance, the goi lifted the ptjm’s monopoly power and allowed the private sector to compete with it for bot contracts. the goi is clearly paying close attention to the development of toll road infrastructure as part of the national strategic plan to help overcome the country’s connectivity issues and promote national economic growth. in the 2019–2024 mid-term development plan, the goi set a new goal of developing approximately 2,000 kilometres of new toll roads, exceeding the previous target. from 1978 to 2021, for instance, the total length of built toll roads was only 2,391 km (or about 56 kilometres per year)—a slow rate of toll road development compared to other countries such as china and india. this goal necessitates massive capital funding, which the goi cannot provide on its own. as a result, the goi strongly encourages the private sector to participate in toll road development under the bot contract. attracting private investment in public infrastructure is not as trivial as it appears. most developing and developed countries have historically failed to attract private investment (osei-kyei and chan, 2017). this failure can be attributed to the nature of toll road investment, which frequently involves a multitude of project risks; this is especially prevalent in bot projects due to the long-term nature of the agreement, as risks can occur at any stage and jeopardize the project’s sustainability. some studies have reported that one of the most common reasons for the failure of ppp projects is improper risk identification, assessment, and mitigation (zou, wang, and fang, 2008). proper risk management is thus crucial for successfully implementing ppp projects (bypaneni and tran, 2018; karaca and nunez, 2019; rzempała, borkowski, and rzempała, 2022). risks must first be identified and categorized to be well managed (le et al., 2019). earlier studies have explored the risks of toll road projects (chi, bunker, and teo, 2017; nguyen, mollik, and chih, 2018; patel, haupt, and bhatt, 2020). by nature, many project risks are interrelated in their occurrences and impacts. failing to take this into account can result in inaccurate risk assessments and impede project implementation (wang et al., 2020). given that, some studies have focused on investigating interrelationships among risks in construction and infrastructure projects (boateng, chen, and ogunlana, 2015; han et al., 2019; li and wang, 2019; shoar et al., 2021; erol et al., 2022). nevertheless, studies on risk interrelationships in bot toll road projects are scarce. this study makes contributions in two areas. first, it identifies and ranks risk factors in indonesia’s bot toll road projects, with interrelationships among them considered. every major capital investment project entails a plethora of project risks. while some risks are shared by many projects, others are unique to a specific project-and-country context. even though indonesia is among the most active ppp markets in the asian region, it has received little attention in global ppp research. this study’s findings are compared and contrasted with similar studies in different country settings, thereby contributing to the existing literature pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202260 on bot risk management. this study adopted the fuzzy interpretive structural modelling (fism) to determine the factor interrelationships and the impact matrix cross-reference multiplication applied to a classification (micmac) technique to classify the factors based on the driving and dependence powers. this study’s methodology can also be extrapolated to other countries facing similar challenges. second, from a practical standpoint, this study provides a list of influential risk factors that merit special consideration. key stakeholders who have control over the risks can prepare necessary measures to mitigate them early in the project lifecycle. a timely risk response strategy would help make toll road projects more attractive for private financing. literature review risks exist in every project and can lead to considerable delays or cost overruns. project risks can be classified into risk groups, categories, and events. risk groups are further divided into internal and external risks. the former is related to and occurs under the management team’s control, while the latter is beyond the control of management (el-sayegh, 2008). classifications of categories and events can take on a variety of forms. some studies have divided risk categories into risk events based on project phases or activities (doloi, 2012; effah ameyaw and chan, 2013; the world bank, 2017; pt. penjaminan infrastruktur indonesia, 2020). risk events in infrastructure projects can vary greatly depending on the sector and the country’s circumstances (e.g., law enforcement and macroeconomic environment). likewise, risk allocation can differ depending on the delivery system (bypaneni and tran, 2018). under a bot agreement, risks over a 30– 40year contract period are allocated between the public and private contracting parties under the efficient risk-sharing principle: risk should be borne by the party best able to deal with it. risk management is an essential aspect of project management that contributes to the success of ppp projects (wang and chou, 2003; le et al., 2019). numerous studies have demonstrated the significance of risk management in bot projects, with some concentrating on risk identification and assessment (wibowo and mohamed, 2010; ke et al., 2011; trangkanont and charoenngam, 2014; patel, haupt, and bhatt, 2020); risk allocation between the public and private sectors ( jin, 2010; ameyaw and chan, 2016; elkholy and akal, 2021); and specific project risks (yuan et al., 2009; carpintero, vassallo, and soliño, 2015; roumboutsos and pantelias, 2015; shao, yuan, and li, 2017). risks can occur in all phases of toll road projects, from pre-construction to operation, and can be categorized differently. during the land acquisition phase, the projects are vulnerable to cost and time overruns due to lengthy and protracted land acquisition processes, particularly when the land acquisitions are carried out simultaneously with construction activities (bagui and ghosh, 2013; babatunde, adeniyi, and awodele, 2017; le et al., 2019). during the design and construction phases, there are many construction-related risk events, including unclear output specifications (akintoye and beck, 2009; javed and lam, 2013; javed, lam, and chan, 2014); increase in construction costs (flyvbjerg, bruzelius, and rothengatter, 2003; bain, 2007); and changes in the scope of work after the contract is signed (tan, 2009; walker and jacobsson, 2014; permatasari, hardjosoekarto, and salomo, 2020). during the operational phase, projects are exposed to operational and maintenance (o&m) risks, which can affect the cash flow and increase costs due to various factors. the increase in o&m costs is one of the major concerns for both the public and private sectors (sharma, bindal, and cantt, 2014; karaca and nunez, 2019). regular maintenance and reliable operator are required to control the o&m risk. also, revenue-related risks emerge among the most significant and highly unpredictable risks in toll road investments. risk events include low traffic in the early years of operation, often referred to as the rampup period (flyvbjerg et al., 2009); estimation error, and change in volume projection or optimism bias (carbonara et al., 2014; alasad and motawa, 2016; phong, likhitruangsilp, and onishi, 2017); uncertain pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202261 tariff adjustments or tariff adjustments that do not match expectations (kerf et al., 1998; ke et al., 2010); and initial tariff miscalculation (malini, 1999; ng, xie, and kumaraswamy, 2010). financial-related risks may emerge over the course of the contract. these can include a failure to achieve financial close (iyer and sagheer, 2010; kurniawan, mudjanarko, and ogunlana, 2015; asian development bank, 2020; endo, gianoli, and edelenbos, 2021); land bailout refunds (guild, 2019; sungkono and kurniawan, 2019; endo, gianoli, and edelenbos, 2021); the currency exchange rate (oladokun and dada, 2008; ameyaw and chan, 2015; osei-kyei and chan, 2017; nour and hao, 2019); increasing interest rates (zhang, 2005; xu et al., 2014; pellegrino et al., 2019); and insurance risk (demirag et al., 2012; moody’s investors service, 2016). according to the literature mentioned above, numerous publications have focused on project risks in toll road projects, but most studies did not adequately consider the interrelationships between project risk events. only a handful of studies have examined this issue, including iyer and sagheer (2010) and bhatt and sarkar (2020) on toll roads, han et al. (2019) on brownfield remediation projects, and jiang et al. (2019) and li and wang (2019) on general risk assessment. in addition, previous studies mainly indicate that land unavailability (nguyen, mollik and chih, 2018) and legal aspects pose the greatest threat in china, india, the uk, and vietnam (boateng, chen and ogunlana, 2015; han et al., 2019; li and wang, 2019). research methodology risk identification this study adopted the identification and categorization of risk events on bot toll road projects from the risk allocation guideline published by pt. penjaminan infrastruktur indonesia (2020). aside from avoiding unnecessary repetition, there are two additional reasons for this adoption. first, the identified risks were defined within the indonesian context; second, the guideline is reviewed annually by selected stakeholders as mandated by the ministry of finance regulation 260/2010, ensuring the risk identification’s validity and relevance. the list included fourteen risk events and clustered into the following groups: (i) location risk; (ii) construction and test operation design risks; (iii) financial risk; (iv) operating risks; and (v) revenue risks. this list has also been supported and confirmed by the relevant literature. table 1 shows the relevant risk events and categories. table 1. risk categories and events in toll roads risk category risk event code description project stage supporting literature location risk delays and increases in land acquisition costs a 1 delays and increased costs due to prolonged land acquisition processes preconstruction and construction (bagui and ghosh, 2013; babatunde, adeniyi, and awodele, 2017) design and construction risk unclear output specifications a 2 delays and cost increases due to unclear output specifications preconstruction (akintoye and beck, 2009; javed and lam, 2013; javed, lam, and chan, 2014) pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202262 risk category risk event code description project stage supporting literature increases in construction costs a 3 construction cost increases due to changes in work volume or material prices construction (flyvbjerg, bruzelius, and rothengatter, 2003; bain, 2007) changes in the scope of work after signing the contract a 4 changes in capital expenditure and operational expenditure due to changes in the scope of work at the request of the contracting agency and private sector proposals all stages (tan, 2009; walker and jacobsson, 2014; permatasari, hardjosoekarto, and salomo, 2020) financial risk failure to achieve financial close a 5 failure to achieve a financial close due to uncertainty in market conditions or non-optimal project capital structure preconstruction (iyer and sagheer, 2010; kurniawan, mudjanarko, and ogunlana, 2015; asian development bank, 2020; endo, gianoli and edelenbos, 2020) land bailout refund a 6 the delayed reimbursement of land costs by the government (lembaga manajemen aset negara; lman) to the private sector construction (guild, 2019; sungkono and kurniawan, 2019; endo, gianoli, and edelenbos, 2021) currency exchange rate a 7 fluctuations (non-extreme) in exchange rates all stages (oladokun and dada, 2008; ameyaw and chan, 2015; osei-kyei and chan, 2017; nour and hao, 2019) table 1. continued pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202263 risk category risk event code description project stage supporting literature increase interest rates a 8 increases (nonextreme) in interest rates all stages (zhang, 2005; xu et al., 2014; pellegrino et al., 2019) insurance risk a 9 insurance coverage for certain risks no longer available on the market, with a substantial increase in premium rates against initial estimates all stages (demirag et al., 2012; moody’s investors service, 2016) operational risk increase in o&m costs a 10 risk arising from incorrect estimates of o&m costs or unexpected increases operation (sharma et al., 2014; malek and gad, 2017; karaca and nunez, 2019) revenue risk risk of low traffic in the early year operation (ramp-up period) a 11 errors in input parameters and model design cause estimation results to deviate, resulting in decreased revenues and deficits at the start of the operating period operation (flyvbjerg et al., 2009) estimation error and change in volume projection a 12 errors in input parameters and model design cause the estimation results to deviate, resulting in a decrease in revenues and financial losses for the private sector operation (carbonara et al., 2014; alasad and motawa, 2016; phong, likhitruangsilp, and onishi, 2017) table 1. continued pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202264 risk category risk event code description project stage supporting literature tariff adjustments do not match expectations a 13 risk caused by the private sector’s inability to meet the minimum standards or achieve the agreedupon indexation and rebasing rates operation (kerf et al., 1998; ke et al., 2010) errors in calculating the initial rate estimate a 14 tariff settings too optimistic or above the users’ willingness to pay operation (malini, 1999; wibowo, 2006; ng et al., 2010) fuzzy interpretive structure modelling as previously mentioned, this study used fism. this method was introduced by saxena et al. (1992) to clarify the interaction relationship among bot risk events and establish a risk hierarchy. it integrates the fuzzy set theory (fst) and interpretive structural modeling (ism). the ism, which was developed by (warfield, 1973, 1974), is a technique to simplify complex problems into simple ones via tiered structure modeling. it can provide decision-makers with a clear picture by identifying current conditions and allowing them to make the best decisions with limited resources (wang et al., 2018). it is particularly suitable for presenting a complicated system in a simplified way, providing an interpretation of the fixed object, facilitating the identification of the structure within a system, and analyzing one factor’s influence on other factors (gardas, raut and narkhede, 2017; qureshi et al., 2007). while ism variables are considered to be interrelated, the fism can demonstrate the strength of these relationships. the fism takes into account variations in the relationship between variables and specific aspects of elements that cannot be given crisp and precise values ( jiang et al., 2019; ajmera and jain, 2020). on another front, the fst addresses imprecision, ambiguity, and uncertainty in decision-making. in this study, the fst was used to convert the assessments expressed in linguistic terms into fuzzy numbers, which took the form of triangular fuzzy numbers (tfns; see figure 1). the tfns provide a three-point estimate—that is, a minimum value (l), most likely (m), and maximum values (r)—instead of a crisp value as in the ism, to represent the influence level of the relationship between factors. the tfn was selected as it is easy to use and appropriate for promoting representation and information processing in a fuzzy environment (zhao, hwang, and low, 2013). figure 1. linguistic variables on triangular fuzzy numbers table 1. continued pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202265 data collection the data were collected through a questionnaire distributed to the chosen respondents. for research using respondents from expert groups, including the fism method, the ideal number of experts is between three and seven people (hora, 2004). some fism-based studies used less than ten respondents, such as lee, kang and chang (2011); kumar, luthra and haleem (2013); balaji et al. (2016); das, azmi and james (2020); bakhtari et al. (2021). given that the results depend upon the judgments of the experts who make decisions, the respondents must possess sufficient knowledge of the study context, as indicated by the length of their hands-on experience, which should not be less than ten years in more than two bot projects. the questionnaire was administered with google forms. the questionnaires were distributed to ten experts, but only six completed and returned valid responses. despite the small number of respondents, it is still within the acceptable range. table 2 shows the demographic profiles of respondents willing to participate in the survey. table 2. demographic profiles of respondents code educational background working experience length of years of working experience (years) position in affiliation organization type of affiliation number of bot projects involved infrastrucutre sector r1 master practitioner 10-15 first line management public sector > 5 projects multisector r2 bachelor practitioner > 20 senior engineer public sector > 5 projects multisector r3 bachelor practitioner > 20 middle management private sector (guarantee agency) > 5 projects multisector r4 master practitioner > 20 top management public sector > 5 projects road r5 master practitioner > 20 top management public sector (contracting agency) 3 – 4 projects road r6 master practitioner and academician 15 – 20 special advisor public sector (contracting agency) > 5 projects multisector in the survey, each respondent was asked to rate the effect of one risk event on other events using the following linguistic terms: “very high” (vh), “high” (h), “medium” (m), “low” (l), and “very low” (vl). examples of the survey questions include “how much influence does the increase in construction costs have on an increase in interest rates”? and “how much influence does the increase in interest rates have on the increase in construction costs”? data analysis based on the questionnaire results, a triangular fuzzy relations (tfr) matrix was employed to assess the strength of the relationship between risk events. in the tfr matrix, dk is expressed in terms of pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202266  ( )=d l m r, ,ij k ij k ij k ij k , which represents the results of the assessment from expert k, on the degree of influence of risk events i on j, as follows: � � � � � � � � � � � � � � =d d d d d d d k k n k k n k n k n k 0 0 0 12 1 21 1 2 2 (1) the notation (~) is placed above a symbol (d), indicating a fuzzy set. the value    ( )=d l m r, ,ij k ij k ij k ij k is a fuzzy evaluation of experts-k (k =1,2,3,…, p) of the extent to which risk event i affects j, where p is the number of experts. defuzzification method there are various methods to perform defuzzification. the most common method is the centroid method, but this cannot distinguish between two fuzzy numbers with the same crisp value but different shapes. therefore, this study converted fuzzy data into crisp scores to solve this problem (opricovic and tzeng, 2003); this process determines the left and right values based on the smallest and largest fuzzy values. the procedure to generate ism and micmac diagrams is as follows: i. normalizing tfns: ( ) ( ) ( ) = − ∆ = − ∆ = − ∆ a l l b m l c r l min , min , min ij k ij k ij k min max ij k ij k ij k min max ij k ij k ij k min max (2) ∆ = − { } { }∈ … ∈ … r lmax minmin max k p ij k k p ij k 1, 2, , 1, 2, , (3) ii. calculating the left and right limits of the normalized value: ( )= + − u b b a 1ij k ij k ij k ij k (4) ( )= + − v c c b 1ij k ij k ij k ij k (5) iii. calculating the normalized total crisp value: ( ) ( ) ( )= − + + − w u u v b a 1 1ij k ij k ij k ij k ij k ij k 2 (6) iv. calculating the crisp value: = + ∆d l wminij k ij k ij k min max ⋅ (7) v. integrating the crisp values: ∑= = d p d1 ij ij k k p 1 ⋅ (8) vi. determining the fuzzy direct relation matrix, d: � � � � � � � =d d d d d d d 0 0 0 n n n n 12 1 21 2 1 2 (9) pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202267 vii. setting the intercept coefficient (α) the fuzzy direct relation matrix can be converted into the initial reachability matrix [t] using an intercept coefficient (α). an element equal to or greater than α will be replaced with a value of 1; otherwise, they are set to 0. ( ) ( ) = ≥ α < α t if d if d 1, 0, ij ij ij (10) the threshold value (α) was set at 0.5, following jiang et al. (2019). viii. drawing ism diagrams after the initial reachability matrix is constructed, the transitivity of each element must be examined (i.e., if variable a has an effect on b, and b has an impact on c, then a must affect c). the transitivity check refers to the floyd warshall algorithm, which finds the shortest path between all pairs of elements in a graph to obtain the final reachability matrix (floyd, 1962; warshall, 1962). a partitioning matrix was performed based on the final reachability matrix, and finally, the ism diagram was produced to describe the relationship between factors (anand and bansal, 2017). ix. developing the micmac diagram the micmac diagram was used to determine the driving and dependence powers of risk events and to classify risk events. driving and dependence powers are associated with the number of risks that can be affected and those affecting that event (bhosale and kant, 2016). this method can maintain a higher level of consistency and reduce the uncertainty inherent in expert responses (wang et al., 2017). the micmac diagram is partitioned into four quadrants: “autonomous,” “dependent,” “linkage,” and “independent.” risk events with low driving and dependence power are located in quadrant i (autonomous), and those with high dependence and driving power are located in quadrant iii (linkage). risk events with high driving power but low dependence power are located in quadrant ii (independent), and those with high dependence but low driving power are in quadrant iv (dependent) (chakraborty et al., 2019). figure 2 shows this study’s methodological framework. figure 2. research methodological framework { pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202268 results and discussion the assessment from each expert was converted into a matrix of linguistic variables. equations (2) and (7) were applied to generate the total normalized crisp values. the average result of the six experts was calculated using equation (8) to obtain a fuzzy direct relation matrix. the final reachability matrix was obtained by applying the α value. figure 3 depicts the partitioning matrix used to generate the risk event hierarchy. figure 3. ism diagram on bot risk events the micmac method was developed by plotting each risk event on the cartesian system using the value of each risk’s driving and dependence power in the final reachability matrix. the fourteen risks were plotted into their respective quadrants, as shown in figure 4. based on their positions in the ism diagram, risk events were partitioned into first-tier risk events (levels 1 and 2), second-tier events (levels 3 and 4), and third-tier risk events (levels 5 and 6). first-tier risks events first-tier risk events include “delays and increases in land acquisition costs” (a1), “unclear output specifications” (a2), and “changes in the scope of work after signing the contract” (a4). the a1 and a2 risk events are located in quadrant ii, with high driving and low dependence power. the a4 risk event has high driving power and moderate dependence power. it is directly affected by land acquisition costs, unclear output specifications, and other risk events such as construction cost and time (tan, 2009; walker and jacobsson, 2014; permatasari et al., 2020). pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202269 several studies have confirmed the significance of risks associated with land acquisition (bagui and ghosh, 2013; babatunde, adeniyi, and awodele, 2017; le et al., 2019). the asian development bank (2015) stated that land acquisition and licensing are the primary issues in bot toll road projects that can cause delays and recommended that at least 80% of the required land be acquired before bidding. bhatt and sarkar (2020) show that the land acquisition risk is also critical in india. indonesia is in a similar situation. some strategic toll road projects, such as the 2800-km trans sumatera project and the 62-km cileunyi–sumedang–dawuan project, were delayed due to prolonged land acquisition processes (parama and gorbiano, 2020). this study corroborates the findings of akintoye and beck (2009) and javed and lam (2013), highlighting the importance of establishing robust output specifications. a failure to define the expected output specifications will affect subsequent phases (ppp book, 2020). a robust output specification should clearly outline the public sector’s needs (akintoye and beck, 2009). output specifications serve as a guideline for implementing bots as they specify the minimum requirements established during the project’s planning phase. output specifications must be well defined early in project development ( javed, lam, and chan, 2013). they are an integral part of project documentation for procurement and performance monitoring of ppps throughout the project life cycle (lam and javed, 2015). unclear output specifications can impede the entire process, including the land acquisition process and the scope of work, which are the initial part of development implementation. however, developing sound output specifications requires a great deal of time and effort from each party involved in monitoring until the concession period has been completed ( javed and lam, 2013). in the case of indonesia’s bot toll road projects, the goi has provided the general specifications and minimum service level requirements for toll roads to be included in the bot contracts. the tariffs can only increase if the requirements have been satisfactorily met. to this extent, the risk associated with unclear output specifications appears well managed. however, empirical evidence also reveals that actual figure 4. diagram of driving and dependence powers pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202270 construction costs for some toll road projects can considerably deviate from the initial estimates due to the changes in their scope of work. a rough estimate indicates that the risk of changes in the scope of works eventuated in one of every two projects, resulting in an average cost increase of about 60% and 70%. although these statistics must be treated with extreme caution due to the small sample size (76 toll roads), they can at least shed light on the significance of the risk of the scope of work changes. suppose the contracting agency causes the changes. in that case, the private operator must be compensated with a concession period extension or tariff adjustments at toll road users’ expenses to maintain the expected projects’ rates of return at an acceptable level. from the public viewpoint, the value for money of these projects can thus be questionable. as this study may suggest, the changes can be associated with output specifications (see figure 3). second-tier risk events second-tier risk events are “increase in construction costs” (a3), “failure to achieve financial closure” (a5), “land bailout refund risk” (a6), “currency exchange rates” (a7), “increase in interest rates” (a8), and “rampup period” (a11). a6 and a7 are risk events with high driving and low dependence power in quadrant ii, and only first-tier risk events can influence them. in indonesia, presidential regulation no. 102/2016 is the basis for the lembaga manajemen aset negara (lman, state asset management agency) to bear the cost of land acquisition directly or indirectly as a result of land bailout refund risks. the risk associated with land acquisition rests with the goi for public infrastructure development by regulation. given the public budget constraints, the private sector is, in some instances, permitted to cover the land cost in advance to speed up land acquisition and will be reimbursed. however, delays in land cost reimbursement by the lman can be challenging for the private sector in managing its cash flows. currency exchange rates in developed countries are relatively stable, but this is not the case in developing countries (osei-kyei and a. p. c. chan, 2017; nour and hao, 2019). the high importance of this risk has also been affirmed by ameyaw and chan (2015). toll road investments are often characterized by a significant asset-liability mismatch where revenues are denominated in local currency, but debt is in foreign currencies. therefore, exchange rate volatility can be detrimental to the project’s financial sustainability. the 1999 asian crisis, which hit indonesia the worst, provides a compelling example of how private investors in toll roads should manage risk appropriately, as the indonesian rupiah plunged to 15,000 from 2,400 to the us dollar, making the us dollar-denominated debt value escalate six times higher in terms of local currency (see details in wibowo, 2005). risk events a6 and a7 have no direct relation but equally affect the other three second-tier risk events: “increase in construction costs” (a3), “failure to achieve financial closure” (a5), and “increased interest rates” (a8). these three events have high driving and dependence power and are located in quadrant iii. as shown, risk events in quadrant iii can affect other tiered risk events but are also influenced by lower-risk events. under this group level, special attention is given to traffic risk during the ramp-up period. interestingly, this risk event is the only one in quadrant i, denoting that it has low driving and dependence power. it has no relationship with the other risk events in the central part of the project, but it directly influences the event risk of changes in volume projections, the estimated error rate adjustment, and the initial rate. the ramp-up period is one of the characteristics of toll road investment, where traffic volume requires time for the public to become aware of and use the newly opened toll road facilities (asian development bank, 2020). based on four interurban toll roads in java and bali, meviany, joewono and wibowo (2019) estimate that the ramp-up period can range from nine months (the jakarta outer ring road) to four years (bali mandara). however, it is believed that the ramp-up can span much longer in cases of intraurban toll pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202271 roads, particularly in regions other than java. as bain (2009) noted, the severity and magnitude of the ramp-up are often underestimated, leading to traffic forecasting errors. third-tier risks events the third-tier risk events consist of “insurance risk” (a9), “increase in o&m costs” (a10), “estimation error and changes in volume projection” (a12), “tariff adjustments that do not match expectations” (a13), and “error in calculating the initial rate estimate” (a14). these risk events are located in quadrant iv, indicating high dependence power but low driving power, except for a10, in quadrant iii. there is a solid relationship between risk events a12, a13, and a14. likewise, there is a close relationship between a9 and a10 as the direct cause of a12, a13, and a14. some risk events specific to toll road investment projects deserve a more profound discussion at this level: traffic forecasting errors and uncertainty in initial and future tariff settings. empirical findings suggest that significant errors and considerable optimism bias often characterize toll road forecasts (bain, 2009). highly inaccurate traffic forecasts can pose substantial financial and economic risks (flyvbjerg, holm, and buhl, 2006), and demand forecasting errors are found in many bot toll-road projects (alasad and motawa, 2016; phong et al., 2017). traffic risk is also prevalent on indonesia’s toll roads. the private sector asserted that traffic forecasts developed in the government-prepared feasibility studies often differ from the actual traffic, resulting in losses to the private sector. although the goi has made a counterclaim, arguing that forecast errors were not always present, it has conceded that there was no standardized forecasting methodology and that consulting firms did not possess the same levels of expertise. the initial tariff is the toll rate for the first year of operation. it is determined by a survey of the willingness to pay and micro-economic forecasts (malini, 1999). the tariff level is typically set as the bid parameter for indonesia’s toll roads: the private bidder that offers the lowest tariff wins the contract. by law, the tariff is adjusted every two years following inflation. under this price-cap system, the private sector bears the demand risk. during the 1990s, the private sector faced significant tariff risk, as tariffs could not be adjusted according to the bot contract. however, since 2004, especially after the passage of government law 38/2004, the private sector has been relatively protected from the risk, as the goi will compensate the private sector for financial losses incurred due to tariffs falling below the agreed-upon level. the private sector may also demand a government guarantee protecting it against any breach of contract by the goi, such as the failure to approve tariff adjustments promptly. conclusions this study ranks risk events that affect bot toll road projects within indonesia. fourteen risk events were identified and grouped into different risk categories. the fism method was used to determine the hierarchy of each risk event, and micmac was used to determine driving and dependence powers. this study resulted in six levels of risk events, classified into three tiers. the first-tier events included unclear output specifications, problems with land acquisition, and changes in the scope of work, which are worth particular notice, although other risk events should not be neglected. developing a clear output specification is crucial to successfully implementing bot projects. it must reflect what the public sector requires from the projects and incentivize the private sector to leverage its financial, technical, and management resources to reduce lifecycle costs and improve the quality of service, thereby maximizing the public’s value for money. output specifications should not be prescriptive so as not to discourage innovation and risk-taking from the private sector. pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202272 land acquisition remains one of the most significant obstacles to the development of toll roads in indonesia, despite the government’s repeated issuance and revision of land-acquisition regulations for public infrastructure. the goi must find a way to resolve land-related issues before the start of construction activities although it is not easy, as the issues are often politically and socially sensitive. changes in the scope of work might be inevitable given the long-term nature of bot projects. the changes can be attributed to the contracting agency, the private partner, or external events, but regardless of the source, there must be a formal process for scoping and reaching an agreement on such changes. the goi needs to ascertain that existing bot contracts contain scope management provisions to reduce opportunistic behaviors and disputes between the contracting parties. a clear output specification can help manage changes, if foreseeable, in the contract duration (lam and javed, 2015). this is because scope changes most likely occur during construction to meet the actual conditions to achieve output specifications (apmg international, 2016). this study has two limitations. first, it was based on a limited number of respondents participating in the survey, although the number can still be considered acceptable in terms of the minimum requirements. in order to obtain a clearer picture of significant risk events, it is recommended that future studies include a greater number of participants. second, the study context is limited to indonesia, making the findings not readily extendable to other contexts. however, as mentioned previously, it can contribute to remedying the dearth of studies on risk ranking for indonesia’s bot toll roads. the findings and limitations of this study can provide directions for future research. first, future research could investigate the robustness of output specifications and the quality of indonesia’s bot contract documents. second, it could focus on finding innovative solutions to the land acquisition problem, a longstanding issue that has not been resolved. thirdly, it should include a larger number of respondents to enhance the finding generalization. it would also be worthwhile to investigate the empirical comparison of risk events between indonesia’s bot toll road projects and those of countries with comparable characteristics. references ajmera, p. and jain, v., 2020. a fuzzy interpretive structural modeling approach for evaluating the factors affecting lean implementation in indian healthcare industry. international journal of lean six sigma, 11(2), pp. 376–397. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijlss-02-2018-0016 akintoye, a. and beck, m., 2009, policy, finance & management for public-private partnerships. willey-blackwell publishing ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444301427 alasad, r. and motawa, i., 2016. dynamic demand risk assessment for toll road projects. construction management and economics, 33(10), pp. 799–817. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1143561 ameyaw, e. e. and chan, a. p. c., 2015. risk ranking and analysis in ppp water supply infrastructure projects: an international survey of industry experts. journal of facilities management, 33(7/8), pp. 428–453. https://doi. org/10.1108/f-12-2013-0091 ameyaw, e. e. and chan, a. p. c., 2016. a fuzzy approach for the allocation of risks in public-private partnership water-infrastructure projects in developing countries. journal of infrastructure systems, 22(3), p. 04016016. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000297 anand, a. and bansal, g., 2017. interpretive structural modelling for attributes of software quality. journal of advances in management research, 14(3), pp. 256–269. https://doi.org/10.1108/jamr-11-2016-0097 apmg international, 2016. the apmg public-private partnership (ppp) certification guide. washington, d.c.: world bank group. pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202273 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijlss-02-2018-0016 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444301427 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1143561 https://doi.org/10.1108/f-12-2013-0091 https://doi.org/10.1108/f-12-2013-0091 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000297 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000297 https://doi.org/10.1108/jamr-11-2016-0097 asian development bank 2015 trial balance : private sector financing for road projects in india, asian development bank. asian development bank 2020 public-private partnership monitor indonesia december 2020. https://doi.org/10.22617/ tcs179134-2 babatunde, s. o., adeniyi, o. and awodele, o. a., 2017. investigation into the causes of delay in land acquisition for ppp projects in developing countries. journal of engineering, design and technology, 15(4), pp. 552–570. https://doi. org/10.1108/jedt-05-2016-0029 bagui, s. k. and ghosh, a., 2013. design of concession period considering risk management for a road project. jordan journal of civil engineering, 7(4), pp. 401–418. bain, r., 2007. ppp construction risk : international evidence from the roads sector., standard & poor’s, london, pp. 1–19. bain, r., 2009. error and optimism bias in toll road traffic forecasts. transportation, 36(5), pp. 469–482. https://doi. org/10.1007/s11116-009-9199-7 bakhtari, a. r., waris, m. m., sanin, c., and szczerbicki, e., 2021. evaluating industry 4.0 implementation challenges using interpretive structural modeling and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process. cybernetics and systems, 0(0), pp. 1–29. https://doi.org/10.1080/01969722.2020.1871226 balaji, m., velmurugan, v., prapa, m., mythily, v., 2016. a fuzzy approach for modeling and design of agile supply chains using interpretive structural modeling. jordan journal of mechanical and industrial engineering, 10(1), pp. 67–74. bhatt, n. and sarkar, d., 2020. evaluation of success and risk factors for highway project performance through integrated analytical hierarchy process and fuzzy interpretive structural modelling. international journal of construction management, 20(6), pp. 653–665. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1753142 bhosale, v. a. and kant, r., 2016. an integrated ism fuzzy micmac approach for modelling the supply chain knowledge flow enablers. international journal of production research, 54(24), pp. 7374–7399. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 00207543.2016.1189102 boateng, p., chen, z. and ogunlana, s. o., 2015. an analytical network process model for risks prioritisation in megaprojects. international journal of project management, 33(8), pp. 1795–1811. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2015.08.007 bypaneni, s. p. k. and tran, d. q., 2018. empirical identification and evaluation of risk in highway project delivery methods. journal of management in engineering, 34(3), p. 04018007. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.19435479.0000602 carbonara, n., costantino, n. and pellegrino, r., 2014. revenue guarantee in public-private partnerships: a fair risk allocation model. construction management and economics, 32(4), pp. 403–415. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014. 906638 carpintero, s., vassallo, j. m. and soliño, a. s., 2015. dealing with traffic risk in latin american toll roads. journal of management in engineering, 31(2), p. 05014016. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000266 chakraborty, k., mondal, s. and mukherjee, k., 2019. critical analysis of enablers and barriers in extension of useful life of automotive products through remanufacturing. journal of cleaner production, 227, pp. 1117–1135. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.265 chi, s., bunker, j. and teo, m., 2017. measuring impacts and risks to the public of a privately operated toll road project by considering perspectives in cost-benefit analysis. journal of transportation engineering, part a: systems, 143(12), p. 04017060. https://doi.org/10.1061/jtepbs.0000088 pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202274 https://doi.org/10.22617/tcs179134-2 https://doi.org/10.22617/tcs179134-2 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-05-2016-0029 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-05-2016-0029 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-009-9199-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11116-009-9199-7 https://doi.org/10.1080/01969722.2020.1871226 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1753142 https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2016.1189102 https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2016.1189102 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.08.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.08.007 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000602 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000602 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.906638 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.906638 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000266 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.265 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.265 https://doi.org/10.1061/jtepbs.0000088 das, s. k., azmi, f. t. and james, p. s., 2020. factors influencing employees’ perception of human resource practice: a fuzzy interpretive structural modeling approach. jindal journal of business research, 9(1), pp. 41–55. https://doi. org/10.1177/2278682120908557 demirag, i., khadaroo, i., stapleton, p., stevenson, c., 2012. the diffusion of risks in public-private partnership contracts. accounting, auditing and accountability journal, 25(8), pp. 1317–1339. https://doi. org/10.1108/09513571211275498 doloi, h., 2012. understanding impacts of time and cost related construction risks on operational performance of ppp projects. international journal of strategic property management, 16(3), pp. 316–337. https://doi.org/10.3846/16487 15x.2012.688774 effah ameyaw, e. and chan, a. p. c., 2013. identifying public-private partnership (ppp) risks in managing water supply projects in ghana. journal of facilities management, 11(2), pp. 152–182. https://doi. org/10.1108/14725961311314651 el-kholy, a. m. and akal, a. y., 2021. assessing and allocating the financial viability risk factors in public-private partnership wastewater treatment plant projects. engineering, construction and architectural management, 28(10), pp. 3014–3040. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2020-0373 el-sayegh, s. m., 2008. risk assessment and allocation in the uae construction industry., international journal of project management, 26(4), pp. 431–438. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.07.004 endo, k., gianoli, a. and edelenbos, j., 2021. coming to financial close in ppps: identifying critical factors in the case of toll road projects in indonesia. public works management and policy, 26(2), pp. 115–143. https://doi. org/10.1177/1087724x20914627 erol, h., dikmen, i., atasoy, g., birgonul, m. t., 2022. an analytic network process model for risk quantification of mega construction projects. expert systems with applications, 191, p. 116215. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. eswa.2021.116215 floyd, r. w., 1962. algorithm 97: shortest path., communications of the acm, 5(6), p. 345. https://doi. org/10.1145/367766.368168 flyvbjerg, b., bruzelius, n. and rothengatter, w., 2003. megaprojects and risk : an anatomy of ambition, cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1108/09513550410530199 flyvbjerg, b., garbuio, m. and lovallo, d., 2009. delusion and deception in large infrastructure projects: two models for explaining and preventing executive disaster. california management review, 51(2), pp. 170–193. https://doi. org/10.2307/41166485 flyvbjerg, b., holm, m. k. s. and buhl, s. l., 2006. inaccuracy in traffic forecasts. transport reviews, 26(1), pp. 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/01441640500124779 gardas, b. b., raut, r. d. and narkhede, b. e., 2017. a state-of the-art survey of interpretive structural modelling methodologies and applications. international journal of business excellence, 11(4), pp. 505–560. https://doi.org/10.1504/ ijbex.2017.082576 guild, j., 2019. the state, infrastructure and economic growth in jokowi’s first term. phd thesis, nanyang technological university, singapore. han, q., zhu, y. m., ke, g. y., hipel, k. w., 2019. public-private partnership in brownfield remediation projects in china: identification and structure analysis of risks. land use policy, 84(november 2018), pp. 87–104. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.01.034 pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202275 https://doi.org/10.1177/2278682120908557 https://doi.org/10.1177/2278682120908557 https://doi.org/10.1108/09513571211275498 https://doi.org/10.1108/09513571211275498 https://doi.org/10.3846/1648715x.2012.688774 https://doi.org/10.3846/1648715x.2012.688774 https://doi.org/10.1108/14725961311314651 https://doi.org/10.1108/14725961311314651 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2020-0373 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.07.004 https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724x20914627 https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724x20914627 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2021.116215 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2021.116215 https://doi.org/10.1145/367766.368168 https://doi.org/10.1145/367766.368168 https://doi.org/10.1108/09513550410530199 https://doi.org/10.2307/41166485 https://doi.org/10.2307/41166485 https://doi.org/10.1080/01441640500124779 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijbex.2017.082576 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijbex.2017.082576 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.01.034 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2019.01.034 hora, s. c., 2004. probability judgments for continuous quantities: linear combinations and calibration. management science, 50(5), pp. 597–604. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1040.0205 iyer, k. c. and sagheer, m., 2010. hierarchical structuring of ppp risks using interpretative structural modeling. journal of construction engineering and management, 136(2), pp. 151–159. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0000127 javed, a. a. and lam, p. t. i., 2013. output-based specifications for ppp projects: lessons for facilities management from australia. journal of facilities management, 11(1), pp. 5–30. https://doi.org/10.1108/14725961311301448 javed, a. a., lam, p. t. i. and chan, a. p. c., 2013. a model framework of output specifications for hospital ppp/pfi projects. facilities, 31(13/14), pp. 610–633. https://doi.org/10.1108/f-02-2012-0014 javed, a. a., lam, p. t. i. and chan, a. p. c., 2014. change negotiation in public-private partnership projects through output specifications: an experimental approach based on game theory. construction management and economics, 32(4), pp. 323–348. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.895846 jiang, x., lu, k., xia, b., liu, y., cui, c., 2019. identifying significant risks and analyzing risk relationship for construction ppp projects in china using integrated fism-micmac approach. sustainability (switzerland), 11(19), pp. 1–31. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195206 jin, x. h., 2010. determinants of efficient risk allocation in privately financed public infrastructure projects in australia. journal of construction engineering & management, 136(2), pp. 138–150. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0000118 karaca, i. and nunez, m. p., 2019. project risk perception on public-private partnership projects. transportation research board annual meeting, 19(august). ke, y., wang, s., chan, a. p. c., lam, p. t. i., 2010. preferred risk allocation in china’s public-private partnership (ppp) projects. international journal of project management, 28(5), pp. 482–492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2009.08.007 ke, y., wang, s., chan, a. p. c., cheung, e., 2011. understanding the risks in china’s ppp projects: ranking of their probability and consequence’, engineering, construction and architectural management, 18(5), pp. 481–496. https://doi. org/10.1108/09699981111165176 kerf, m., gray, r. d., irwin, t., levesque, c., taylor, r., klein, m., 1998. ‘concessions for infrastructure a guide to their design and award’, world bank technical paper no. 399 (finance, private sector, and infrastructure network). available at: http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&q=ppi+and+finance+and+ investment+and+infrastructure+and+development+and+impact+and+poverty+and+evaluation+ and+access+or+affordability+or+%22crowding+out%22+or+regulation+or+reform&btng=search& as_sdt=1,5&as_ylo=199. kumar, s., luthra, s. and haleem, a. 2013. customer involvement in greening the supply chain: an interpretive structural modeling methodology. journal of industrial engineering international, 9, pp. 1–13. https://doi. org/10.1186/2251-712x-9-6 kurniawan, f., mudjanarko, s. w. and ogunlana, s., 2015. best practice for financial models of ppp projects. procedia engineering, 125, pp. 124–132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.11.019 lam, p. t. i. and javed, a. a., 2015. comparative study on the use of output specifications for australian and u.k. ppp/pfi projects. journal of performance of constructed facilities, 29(2), p. 04014061. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) cf.1943-5509.0000554 pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202276 https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.1040.0205 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000127 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000127 https://doi.org/10.1108/14725961311301448 https://doi.org/10.1108/f-02-2012-0014 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.895846 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195206 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000118 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000118 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.08.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.08.007 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111165176 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111165176 http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&q=ppi+and+finance+and+ investment+and+infrastructure+and+development+and+impact+and+poverty+and+evaluation+ and+access+or+affordability+or+%22crowding+out%22+or+regulation+or+reform&btng=search& as_sdt=1,5&as_ylo=199 http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&q=ppi+and+finance+and+ investment+and+infrastructure+and+development+and+impact+and+poverty+and+evaluation+ and+access+or+affordability+or+%22crowding+out%22+or+regulation+or+reform&btng=search& as_sdt=1,5&as_ylo=199 http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&q=ppi+and+finance+and+ investment+and+infrastructure+and+development+and+impact+and+poverty+and+evaluation+ and+access+or+affordability+or+%22crowding+out%22+or+regulation+or+reform&btng=search& as_sdt=1,5&as_ylo=199 http://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?hl=en&q=ppi+and+finance+and+ investment+and+infrastructure+and+development+and+impact+and+poverty+and+evaluation+ and+access+or+affordability+or+%22crowding+out%22+or+regulation+or+reform&btng=search& as_sdt=1,5&as_ylo=199 https://doi.org/10.1186/2251-712x-9-6 https://doi.org/10.1186/2251-712x-9-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.11.019 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cf.1943-5509.0000554 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cf.1943-5509.0000554 le, p. t., kirytopoulos, k., chileshe, n., and rameezdeen, r., 2019. taxonomy of risks in ppp transportation projects: a systematic literature review. international journal of construction management, 22(2), pp. 166–181. https://doi.org/10.1 080/15623599.2019.1615756 lee, a. h. i., kang, h. y. and chang, c. c., 2011. an integrated interpretive structural modeling-fuzzy analytic network processbenefits, opportunities, costs and risks model for selecting technologies. international journal of information technology and decision making, 10(5), pp. 843–871. https://doi.org/10.1142/s0219622011004592 li, y. and wang, x., 2019. using fuzzy analytic network process and ism methods for risk assessment of publicprivate partnership: a china perspective. journal of civil engineering and management, 25(2), pp. 168–183. https://doi. org/10.3846/jcem.2019.8655 malek, r. and gad, g. m., 2017. lean principles application in ppp projects procurement. in second international conference on public-private partnership’ procurement, pp. 447–459. malini, e., 1999. build and operate transfer municipal bridge projects in india. journal of management in engineering, 14(august), pp. 51–58. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(1999)15:4(51) meviany, y., joewono, t. b. and wibowo, a., 2019. estimate periode ramp-up lalu lintas jalan tol dalam kota. jurnal jalan dan jembatan, 36(2), pp. 67–76. moody’s investors service, 2016. construction risk in privately-financed public infrastructure (pfi/ppp/p3) projects. rating methodology, (29 june 2016), pp. 1–44. ng, s. t., xie, j. and kumaraswamy, m. m., 2010. simulating the effect of risks on equity return for concessionbased public-private partnership projects. engineering, construction and architectural management, 17(4), pp. 352–368. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981011056565 nguyen, a., mollik, a. and chih, y.-y., 2018. managing critical risks affecting the financial viability of public–private partnership projects: case study of toll road projects in vietnam. journal of construction engineering and management, 144(12), p. 05018014. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001571 nour, n. m. and hao, h., 2019. the risk of foreign exchange currency in a public-private partnership ( ppp ) projects and djibouti currency forecast. north american academic research, 2(3), pp. 76–84. oladokun, m. g. and dada, m. o., 2008. critical success factors in public-private-partnership projects in nigeria: a eerceptual survey. transformation through construction, pp. 1–10. olusola babatunde, s., opawole, a. and emmanuel akinsiku, o., 2012. critical success factors in publicprivate partnership (ppp) on infrastructure delivery in nigeria. journal of facilities management. https://doi. org/10.1108/14725961211246018 opricovic, s. and tzeng, g. h., 2003. defuzzification within a multicriteria decision model. international journal of uncertainty, fuzziness and knowlege-based systems, 11(5), pp. 635–652. https://doi.org/10.1142/s0218488503002387 osei-kyei, r. and chan, a. p., 2017. risk assessment in public-private partnership infrastructure projects : empirical comparison between ghana and hong kong. construction innovation, 17(2). https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-08-20160043 osei-kyei, r. and chan, a. p. c., 2017. risk assessment in public-private partnership infrastructure projects. construction innovation, 17(2), pp. 204–223. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-08-2016-0043 parama, m. and gorbiano, m. i., 2020. financing, land acquisition issues hamper strategic toll road projects. jakarta post. available at: https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/07/09/financing-land-acquisition-issues-hamperstrategic-toll-road-projects.html. pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202277 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1615756 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1615756 https://doi.org/10.1142/s0219622011004592 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2019.8655 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2019.8655 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(1999)15:4(51 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981011056565 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001571 https://doi.org/10.1108/14725961211246018 https://doi.org/10.1108/14725961211246018 https://doi.org/10.1142/s0218488503002387 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-08-2016-0043 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-08-2016-0043 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-08-2016-0043 https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/07/09/financing-land-acquisition-issues-hamper-strategic-toll-road-projects.html https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2020/07/09/financing-land-acquisition-issues-hamper-strategic-toll-road-projects.html patel, t. d., haupt, t. c. and bhatt, t., 2020. fuzzy probabilistic approach for risk assessment of bot toll roads in indian context. journal of engineering, design and technology, 18(1), pp. 251–269. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-052019-0138 pellegrino, r., carbonara, n. and costantino, n., 2019. public guarantees for mitigating interest rate risk in ppp projects. built environment project and asset management, 9(2), pp. 248–261. https://doi.org/10.1108/ bepam-01-2018-0012 permatasari, y. i., hardjosoekarto, s. and salomo, r. v., 2020. institutional transformation of public private partnership to ensure low transaction costs: case study of infrastructure provision at the ministry of public works and housing of the republic of indonesia. systemic practice and action research, 33(2), pp. 149–165. https://doi. org/10.1007/s11213-019-09485-w phong, n. t., likhitruangsilp, v. and onishi, m., 2017. developing a stochastic traffic volume prediction model for public-private partnership projects. aip conference proceedings, 1903. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5011564 ppp book, 2020. indonesia public private partnership handbook 2020. journal of international development cooperation, 2020(1), pp. 50–66. pt. penjaminan infrastruktur indonesia, 2020. acuan alokasi risiko 2020 kerjasama pemerintah dengan badan usaha di indonesia. qureshi, m. n., kumar, d. and kumar, p., 2007. modeling the logistics oursourcing realtionship variables to enhance shippers’ productivity and competitiveness in logistical supply chain. international journal of productivity and performance management, 56(8), pp. 689–714. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410400710833001 roumboutsos, a. and pantelias, a., 2015. allocating revenue risk in transport infrastructure public private partnership projects: how it matters. transport reviews, 35(2), pp. 183–203. https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2014.988306 rzempała, j., borkowski, d. and rzempała, a. p., 2022. risk identification in cogeneration (combined heat and power) projects: a polish case study. energies, 15(1), pp. 1–16. https://doi.org/10.3390/en15010042 saxena, j. p., sushil and vrat, p., 1992. hierarchy and classification of program plan elements using interpretive structural modeling: a case study of energy conservation in the indian cement industry. systems practice, 5(6), pp. 651–670. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01083616 shao, y., yuan, j. and li, q., 2017. identification of the residual value risk factors for road ppp projects in china : questionnaire survey and analysis. proceedings of the 20th international symposium on advancement of construction management and real estate, pp. 379–389. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0855-9 sharma, m., bindal, a. and cantt, s. d. c. a., 2014. public-private partnership’, international journal of research (ijr), 1(7), pp. 1270–1274. https://doi.org/10.26643/ijr.1.2014.14-27 shoar, s., yiu, t. w., payan, s., parchamijalal, m., (2021). modeling cost overrun in building construction projects using the interpretive structural modeling approach: a developing country perspective. engineering, construction and architectural management, ahead-of-p(ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2021-0732 sungkono, p. a. and kurniawan, h. f., 2019. case studies of private government cooperation: procurement of land development projects toll road krian – legundi – bunder – manyar. ijti (international journal of transportation and infrastructure), 2(2), pp. 92–97. https://doi.org/10.29138/ijti.v2i2.788 tan, w., 2009. restructuring public-private partnership in student housing. proceedings of institution of civil engineers: management, procurement and law, 162(2), pp. 83–88. https://doi.org/10.1680/mpal.2009.162.2.83 tang, w., 2019. business group wants certainty in ppp projects. jakarta post, 27 march. available at: https://www. thejakartapost.com/news/2019/03/27/business-group-wants-certainty-ppp-projects.html. pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202278 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-05-2019-0138 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-05-2019-0138 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-01-2018-0012 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-01-2018-0012 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11213-019-09485-w https://doi.org/10.1007/s11213-019-09485-w https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5011564 https://doi.org/10.1108/17410400710833001 https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2014.988306 https://doi.org/10.3390/en15010042 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01083616 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0855-9 https://doi.org/10.26643/ijr.1.2014.14-27 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2021-0732 https://doi.org/10.29138/ijti.v2i2.788 https://doi.org/10.1680/mpal.2009.162.2.83 https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/03/27/business-group-wants-certainty-ppp-projects.html https://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2019/03/27/business-group-wants-certainty-ppp-projects.html the world bank, 2017. public-private partnerships reference guide. ppp knowledge lab library, (3), p. 238. trangkanont, s. and charoenngam, c., 2014. private partner’s risk response in ppp low-cost housing projects. property management, 32(1), pp. 67–94. https://doi.org/10.1108/pm-02-2013-0008 walker, d. h. t. and jacobsson, m., 2014. a rationale for alliancing within a public–private partnership. engineering, construction and architectural management, 21(6). https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2013-0087 wang, l., ma, l., wu, k., chiu, a., nathaphan, s., 2017. applying fuzzy interpretive structural modeling to evaluate responsible consumption and production. industrial management & data systems. https://doi.org/10.1108/imds-032017-0109 wang, l., cao, q. and zhou, l., 2018. research on the influencing factors in coal mine production safety based on the combination of dematel and ism. safety science, 103(april 2017), pp. 51–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ssci.2017.11.007 wang, m.-t. and chou, h.-y., 2003. risk allocation and risk handling of highway projects in taiwan. journal of management in engineering, 19(2), pp. 60–68. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2003)19:2(60) wang, y., wang y., wu, x., and li, j., 2020. exploring the risk factors of infrastructure ppp projects for sustainable delivery: a social network perspective. sustainability (switzerland), 12(10). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104152 warfield, j. n., 1973. binary matrices in system modeling. ieee transactions on systems, man and cybernetics, 3(5), pp. 441–449. https://doi.org/10.1109/tsmc.1973.4309270 warfield, j. n., 1974. developing interconnection matrices in structural modeling. ieee transactions on systems, man and cybernetics, smc-4(1), pp. 81–87. https://doi.org/10.1109/tsmc.1974.5408524 warshall, s., 1962. a theorem on boolean matrices. journal of the acm, 9(1), pp. 11–12. https://doi. org/10.1145/321105.321107 wibowo, a., 2005. private participation in transport: case of indonesia’s build, operate, transfer (bot) toll roads. edited by b. kochendoerfer. berlin: tu berlin-universitaetsverlag. wibowo, a., 2006. indonesia’s experience on managing public-private partnership (ppp) infrastructure projects. in public works international, pp. 109–114. wibowo, a. and mohamed, s., 2010. risk criticality and allocation in privatised water supply projects in indonesia. international journal of project management, 28(5), pp. 504–513. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.08.003 xu, y., yeung, j. f. y. and jiang, s., 2014. determining appropriate government guarantees for concession contract: lessons learned from 10 ppp projects in china. international journal of strategic property management, 18(4), pp. 356–367. https://doi.org/10.3846/1648715x.2014.971088 yuan, j., chan, a. p. c., xiong, w., skibniewski, j., 2009. perception of residual value risk in public private partnership projects: critical review. journal of management in engineering, 31(3), pp. 04014041-1-04014041–15. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000256 zhang, x., 2005a. critical success factors for public–private partnerships in infrastructure development. journal of construction engineering and management, 131(1), pp. 3–14. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:1(3) zhang, x., 2005b. financial viability analysis and capital structure optimization in privatized public infrastructure projects. journal of construction engineering and management, 131(6), pp. 656–668. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(2005)131:6(656) zhao, x., hwang, b. and low, s. p., 2013. developing fuzzy enterprise risk management maturity model for construction firms. journal of construction engineering and management © asce, 139(9), pp. 1179–1189. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000712 pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202279 https://doi.org/10.1108/pm-02-2013-0008 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2013-0087 https://doi.org/10.1108/imds-03-2017-0109 https://doi.org/10.1108/imds-03-2017-0109 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.11.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.11.007 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2003)19:2(60 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12104152 https://doi.org/10.1109/tsmc.1973.4309270 https://doi.org/10.1109/tsmc.1974.5408524 https://doi.org/10.1145/321105.321107 https://doi.org/10.1145/321105.321107 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.08.003 https://doi.org/10.3846/1648715x.2014.971088 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000256 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000256 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:1(3 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:6(656 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:6(656 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000712 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000712 zou, p. x. w., wang, s. and fang, d., 2008. a lifecycle risk management framework for ppp infrastructure projects. journal of financial management of property and construction, 13(2), pp. 123–142. https://doi. org/10.1108/13664380810898131 pramudya and wibowo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202280 https://doi.org/10.1108/13664380810898131 https://doi.org/10.1108/13664380810898131 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: suriyanon, n., sutheerawatthana, p., rinchumphu, d., suksawat, r. 2025. carbon footprint assessment of a precast concrete yard: a case study from thailand. construction economics and building, 25:2, 43–68. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v25i2.9030 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article carbon footprint assessment of a precast concrete yard: a case study from thailand natee suriyanon1,*, pitch sutheerawatthana2, damrongsak rinchumphu3, ratchanon suksawat4 1 chiang mai university, chiang mai, thailand, natee.suriyanon@cmu.ac.th 2 king mongkut’s university of technology thonburi, bangkok, thailand, pitch.sut@kmutt.ac.th 3 chiang mai university, chiang mai, thailand, damrongsak.r@cmu.ac.th 4 chiang mai university, chiang mai, thailand, ratchanon_suks@cmu.ac.th corresponding author: natee suriyanon, chiang mai university, chiang mai, thailand, natee.suriyanon@cmu.ac.th doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9030 article history: received 05/02/2024; revised 31/01/2025; accepted 04/05/2025; published 08/08/2025 abstract despite the significant contribution of precast concrete yards to greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions in the thai construction industry, research on their carbon footprint is limited. this study assessed the carbon footprint of a precast concrete yard in thailand, from 1 january to 31 december 2022, during which 2,054.60 m3 of precast concrete products were produced. the total carbon footprint for 2022 was 915.489 tco2e (tons of carbon dioxide equivalent), with emissions categorized into scope 1 (0.74%), scope 2 (1.18%), and scope 3 (98.08%). notably, ready-mix concrete consumption emerged as the primary hotspot, contributing 70.59% of total emissions. the ghg emissions-to-production volume ratio for 2022 was 0.445580 tco2e per m3, with a potential 0.44% reduction achievable by maximizing production volume. the study presented a ghg emission ratio of purchased goods (raw materials) to the production process for precast concrete (1:0.0136), facilitating estimates of emissions based on raw material data. three key challenges in assessing carbon footprints in thailand’s construction sector were identified: (1) limited carbon footprint data for construction materials, (2) inadequate data for general products, and (3) gaps in ghg emission factors for truck transportation in the thai national life cycle inventory database. the identified ghg emission hotspots serve as critical starting points for strategies to manage and mitigate emissions in the case study yard and similar 43 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding this study was supported by the cmu junior research fellowship program. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9030 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9030 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:natee.suriyanon@cmu.ac.th mailto:pitch.sut@kmutt.ac.th mailto:damrongsak.r@cmu.ac.th mailto:ratchanon_suks@cmu.ac.th mailto:natee.suriyanon@cmu.ac.th https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9030 facilities, including optimizing ready-mix concrete usage and prioritizing environmentally responsible manufacturers. these insights, along with the identified challenges, offer valuable guidance for future assessments of organizational carbon footprints in the construction sector and the embodied carbon of buildings. keywords carbon footprint; concrete yard; greenhouse gas emission; precast concrete; sustainability introduction climate change, manifested primarily as global warming, poses a severe threat to the planet. the earth’s average temperature has increased steadily, resulting in significant ecological impacts and unpredictable weather patterns. according to data from the united nations, the global temperature increased by 1°c in 2018 compared to that from the pre-industrial era. global collaboration is essential to counteract potentially devastating consequences by limiting the temperature rise to 1.50°c and maintaining it below 2°c (unfccc, n.d.). the anthropogenic greenhouse effect occurs when certain gases from human activities act as reflective barriers in the earth’s atmosphere. these gases are the main drivers of global warming. this process allows sunlight to pass through the atmosphere but traps heat radiation, leading to a rise in global temperatures. recognizing the gravity of this situation, thailand, among other nations, pledged its commitment to address climate change during the 26th united nations climate change conference of the parties. the thai prime minister announced an ambitious target for the country to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions by 2065 (office of natural resources and environmental policy and planning, 2022). the kyoto protocol was a global agreement for the reduction of ghg emissions that built upon the 1992 united nations framework convention on climate change. it covered seven crucial ghgs with varying global warming potentials and suggested quantifying ghg emissions in terms of carbon dioxide equivalent (co2e). in 2022, thailand was globally ranked 19th in terms of ghg emissions, releasing 463.875 m tco2e (tons of co2e) (crippa et al., 2023). to attain the emission reduction objectives, collaboration among businesses from different industries is necessary. real-estate developers and contractors, who are integral to the thai construction sector, play pivotal roles in this effort. their operations involve various activities that directly and indirectly emit ghgs, including the use of energy sources, consuming resources, and transportation. obtaining detailed data on ghg emissions and their sources is crucial for raising environmental awareness among these stakeholders. additionally, these data aid organizations in planning and implementing strategies that effectively reduce ghg emissions. the construction industry is increasingly adopting precast construction methods, particularly in residential building projects. this approach involves manufacturing precast components in concrete yards and transporting them to sites for assembly. research has shown that precast construction can reduce construction time by up to 15.17% compared to traditional methods (priya and neamitha, 2018). consequently, ghg emissions now predominantly originate from precast concrete yards, making it essential to gather emission data from these facilities to formulate effective management guidelines for the construction sector. the carbon footprint of an organization (cfo) represents the total ghg emissions released from the operations of an organization measures total ghg emissions from its operations in co2e. assessing the cfo enables organizations to understand their emissions related to specific activities and formulate strategies to reduce emissions from significant sources. existing research on cfo has primarily focused on educational institutions and offices (awanthi and navaratne, 2010, 2018; battistini et al., 2023; suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202544 chaivanich, 2020; janangkakan, chavalparit and kanchanapiya, 2012; keawsawang, amonsanguansin and sornilm 2017; kiehle et al., 2023; lucendo et al., 2019; maimun et al., 2018; pruangpreechasak et al., 2020; rodtusana, 2013; sikiwat et al., 2021; tantipanatip, 2018; usubharatana and phungrussami, 2014; vrachni et al., 2022). additionally, a few studies have explored other sectors, such as a liquor factory (doolgindachbaporn, neeratanaphan and wararakpraphat, 2014), a wine company (pettineo et al., 2020), and a beverage manufacturing factory (luengyuang and wattana, 2022). there remains a knowledge gap regarding the cfos of the construction sector, particularly precast concrete yards. an examination of the thailand greenhouse gas management organization (tgo) revealed that only 66 organizations from the construction industry—primarily manufacturing facilities for construction materials—were registered for cfo certificates (tgo, n.d.a). further, only six real-estate developers and construction contractors had active carbon footprint registration certificates. these data highlight the need for greater awareness and understanding among organizations from the thai construction sector regarding their ghg emissions. this study aimed to enhance awareness of ghg emissions in the thai construction sector by assessing the cfo of a specific case study and identifying major emission sources. given the crucial role of precast concrete yards in ghg emissions for real-estate developers and contractors, a precast concrete yard was chosen for the case study. case study the precast concrete yard selected for this case study is owned by one of the largest real-estate companies in chiang mai, thailand, and spans 5,600 m2. it encompasses two sections of casting yards—one for detached house components and another for semi-detached house components—both measuring 10 m wide and 50 m long (500 m2 each). two additional buildings occupy the premises: an 80-m2 single-story office and a 180-m2 single-story store. the yard’s layout, including the casting areas and buildings, is illustrated in figure 1; figure 2 provides a snapshot of the detached house component casting yard. figure 1. layout of the precast concrete yard under study (author’s own). the production process at the two casting yards involves seven stages operated by subcontractors. these include installing reinforcement steel onto the casting mold, assembling its sides, pouring concrete, curing, demolding, transferring to the storage area, cleaning molds, and transporting the precast components to suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202545 sites. further, the categories of precast components produced at the two casting yards are columns, beams, floor components (for second floors), and precast beams with an integrated floor (for balcony areas on the second floor). each detached house requires 23 precast components, comprising three columns, nine beams, nine floor components, and two beams with an integrated floor. conversely, each semi-detached house requires 20 precast components: four columns, seven beams, seven floor components, and two beams with an integrated floor. the yard has a monthly production capacity of up to eight sets of precast components for detached and semi-detached houses. this totals 192 sets per year (96 sets for each house type), with a maximum concrete work quantity of 3,028.80 m3. the key raw materials used in the production of precast components include concrete, reinforcing steel, and wire mesh. additionally, tap water is utilized to clean the concrete mixer truck wheels before departure. the electricity-intensive appliances include two gantry cranes within the casting yards and a 24,000-btu (british thermal unit) air-conditioning system in the office of the yard, which is staffed by nine members. on-site facilities also include a single restroom, and its wastewater undergoes treatment via a septic tank system. scope of the study and calculation approach the primary objective of this cfo assessment was to identify emission hotspots from activities under the yard’s control, providing data to develop strategies for managing and mitigating ghg emissions. the store, located nearby but functioning independently as a company-wide storage facility for construction materials and machinery not directly managed by the yard, was excluded from the study. consequently, the focus was solely on the three utility units within the yard’s operational control: the detached house component casting yard, the semi-detached house component casting yard, and the yard’s office. to calculate the cfo, this study adhered to the guidelines established by the tgo (tgo, 2022a). these guidelines align with international standards such as international organization for standardization (iso) 14064-1 (iso, 2018) and corporate accounting and reporting standards (ghg protocol, 2004). the tgo framework classifies ghg emissions into three distinct scopes. scope 1 encompasses direct emissions figure 2. detached house component casting yard (author’s own). suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202546 from sources owned or controlled by an organization. scope 2 includes indirect energy emissions from the imported electricity, heat, and steam consumed by an organization. scope 3 addresses other indirect emissions associated with the organization’s activities but originating from sources controlled by external entities. scope 3 is confined to categories deemed impactful to the organization. adopting the tgo requirements, this study provided an overview of the yard’s ghg emissions (co2e), refraining from a detailed breakdown referring to specific gases. the emissions across all three scopes were calculated following a standardized equation: ghg emissions = activity data × emission factor, (1) where ghg emissions represents the amount of ghgs emitted during an activity (tco2e). activity data encompasses the information about an emissions-producing activity, while emission factor is the conversion factor used for converting activity data into ghg emission values. research methodology to achieve the goals of this study, a well-organized process with seven clear steps was carried out. each step played a crucial role in understanding and reporting ghg emissions in the three utility units of the yard, covering activities based on scopes 1, 2, and 3. step 1: identifying current activity categories the first stage involved carefully examining the processes and data from the three utility units in the yard. the main goal was to create a comprehensive list of activity categories within scopes 1, 2, and 3, all contributing to ghg emissions in these units. step 2: selection of relevant categories after identifying activity categories, significant ones were evaluated and selected based on five criteria: sector guidance, magnitude, level of influence, risk, and employee engagement. as cfo assessments in thailand are voluntary, the tgo does not set specific ranges for criteria scores, criterion weights, or thresholds for identifying significant categories. instead, organizations have the flexibility to establish these parameters as needed. in this study, relevance score ranges, criterion weights, and category scoring thresholds were collaboratively determined with representatives from the organization conducting the cfo assessment. table 1 outlines the guidelines used for assessing the importance scores of activity categories and their respective weights. activity categories scoring 2 points or higher were considered significant, and their associated ghg emissions were assessed and reported. step 3: specification of data types in this phase, the data types necessary to calculate the ghg emissions were clearly defined. all activities were examined to determine whether the data were available or collectible within the organization. this step ensured accuracy, consistency, and the ability to replicate the ghg emission calculations. step 4: collection of activity data here, the organization was contacted to collect the necessary activity data. various existing documents, such as purchase orders, material issue notes, invoices, and product specifications, were used as primary sources. when documented data were unavailable, interviews with relevant personnel were conducted to gather suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202547 essential activity data. the data obtained from the interviews were verified by comparing the consistency of responses from different interviewees and comparing them with insights or information provided by experts. step 5: selection or computation of emission factors this step involved obtaining the emission factors (efs) for each activity from different sources or using calculated equations. priority was given to the currency and reliability of the data sources. efs were crucial for accurately calculating ghg emissions during the study. step 6: calculation of ghg emissions this step involved converting activity data into ghg emissions for each activity using efs. the equation for these calculations is presented as equation 1 in the “scope of the study and calculation approach” section, with results expressed in mtco2e. step 7: analysis of ghg emission data the final step involved a comprehensive analysis of the ghg emission data obtained throughout the study. data were categorized to highlight relevant information regarding ghg emissions during the study period. monitoring period the monitoring period of this study spanned from 1 january to 31 december 2022. as the primary function of the yard is to produce precast components for installation at construction sites, the volume of most activities at the yard is closely linked to the annual production of these components. consequently, ghg emissions from these activities and the yard’s cfo are directly proportional to the production volume of precast components. therefore, any assessment and analysis of the yard’s cfo should consider table 1. guidelines for assessing the relevant scores of activity categories for each criterion and their respective weights. no. criteria guidelines for assessing relevant scores criterion score weight of each criterion 1 2 3 4 5 1 sector guidance if specified in the sector guidance, it is a relevant activity category. 2 magnitude emission (% relative to ghg of scopes 1 + 2 + 3) e ≤ 10% 10% < e ≤ 20% 20% < e ≤ 30% 30% < e ≤ 40% 40% < e 50% 3 level of influence level of importance low medium high 30% 4 risk level of importance low medium high 10% 5 employee engagement level of importance low medium high 10% suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202548 the production volume during this period, typically reported as the quantity of concrete (m3). during the monitoring period, the yard produced 56 sets of precast components for detached houses and 76 sets for semi-detached houses, totaling 2,054.60 m3, which represents 67.84% of the maximum production rate of the yard. relevant activity categories after conducting a brief study on the yard operations, ghg emission activities were identified in three categories within scope 1, one within scope 2, and eight within scope 3 (bolded categories in table 2). because sector guidance requires reporting all activity categories within scopes 1 and 2, three categories within scope 1 and one within scope 2 were reported. regarding scope 3, after a thorough assessment based on specific criteria, only five categories—3-1, 3-3, 3-4, 3-5, and 3-7—were determined to score higher than 2. therefore, these active categories were considered relevant to the organization, and their ghg emission data were reported (table 2). table 2. activity categories of scopes 1, 2, and 3 and relevant activity categories reported. no. sources source of ghg sector guidance category score relevant/ report size level of influence risk employee engagement total scope 1: direct ghg emissions 1-1 stationary combustion / / / 1-2 mobile combustion / / / 1-3 process emissions x / x 1-4 fugitive emissions / / / 1-5 land use change emission x / x scope 2: energy indirect ghg emissions 2-1 purchased electricity / / / 2-2 other types of purchased energy such as steam, heat, or cooling. x / x scope 3: other indirect ghg emissions 3-1 purchased goods and services / x 5 3 3 1 3.80 / 3-2 capital goods / x 1 1 1 1 1.00 x 3-3 fueland energy-related activities / x 3 3 1 1 2.60 / 3-4 upstream transportation and distribution / x 3 3 1 1 2.60 / 3-5 waste generated in operations / x 1 5 1 3 2.40 / 3-6 business travel / x 1 3 1 1 1.60 x suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202549 no. sources source of ghg sector guidance category score relevant/ report size level of influence risk employee engagement total 3-7 employee commuting / x 1 5 1 5 2.60 / 3-8 upstream leased assets / x 1 3 1 1 1.60 x 3-9 downstream transportation and distribution x x x 3-10 processing of sold products x x x 3-11 use of sold products x x x 3-12 end-of-life treatment of sold products x x x 3-13 downstream leased assets x x x 3-14 franchises x x x 3-15 investments x x x note “/” means “yes” “x” means “no” “-” means “not considered” activity data, ghg ef, and ghg emissions the activity data, ghg efs, and emissions obtained in the study are presented in tables 3–11. the activity data were collected from various sources. for ghg efs, certified data from product suppliers accredited by the tgo were prioritized. additional sources included the thai national life cycle inventory (tlci) database, peer-reviewed publications, life cycle assessment (lca) software, and data from reputable international organizations. data with varying measurement units were converted to ensure consistency; the ghg emissions for each activity were calculated using equation 1 and converted from kgco2e to tco2e. emissions from activities within scope 1-1 (direct ghg emissions from stationary combustion) two activities from the casting yard within scope 1-1 are detailed in table 3. their ghg emissions totaled 1.785 tco2e. the liquefied petroleum gas (lpg) data in table 3 were converted from the number of lpg cylinders noted on the invoice to kilograms using a conversion factor of 15 kg per lpg cylinder. emissions from activities within scope 1-2 (direct ghg emissions from mobile combustion) table 4 outlines the casting yard activity within scope 1-2, with a ghg emission of 2.604 tco2e. a company-owned 10-wheeler truck used the specified diesel quantity to transport all precast elements from the yard to the construction site, separated by a distance of 1 km. table 2. continued suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202550 emissions from activities within scope 1-4 (direct ghg emissions from fugitive emissions) three scope 1-4 activities—one from the casting yards and two from the office—are detailed in table 5. the ghg emissions from these activities totaled 2.370 tco2e. to evaluate refrigerant leakage from air-conditioning units using r-410a, the refrigerant capacity of each unit was multiplied by its leakage rate and scaled by the total number of units. the refrigerant capacities and unit counts were obtained through surveys, while leakage rates were derived from table 6-3 of tgo (2022a). the survey identified two key air-conditioning unit types: a unit with a 1.50kg refrigerant capacity in a 10-wheeler truck used in the casting yards, and a unit with a 2.15-kg capacity in office buildings. based on the tgo publication, leakage rates were assumed to be 20% for mobile air conditioners and 15% for standalone commercial applications. r-410a, composed of hfc-32 and hfc125 in a 50:50 ratio, has its ef calculated as the average of the efs of hfc-32 and hfc-125. to estimate the ch4 emission from domestic wastewater treatment, the daily per-person ch4 leakage from domestic wastewater treatment was multiplied by the total working man-days of company officers. based on ipcc, the calculated rate was assumed to be 0.012 kg per person per day (doorn et al., 2006), while company data indicate a total of 3,195 man-days. table 4. activity data, ghg ef, and ghg emission of the activity within scope 1-2. activity activity data unit quantity quantity data source ef (kgco2e/ unit) ef data source emission (tco2e) 1-2 mobile combustion casting yards transporting precast components between the yard and the construction site diesel l 950.00 material issue note 2.7406 tgo (2022b) 2.604 table 3. activity data, ghg ef, and ghg emission activities within scope 1-1. activity activity data unit quantity quantity data source ef (kgco2e /unit) ef data source emission (tco2e) 1-1 stationary combustion casting yards using a rebar cutting machine lpg kg 420.00 invoice 3.1134 tgo (2022b) 1.308 using a concrete vibrator gasoline l 218.00 material issue note 2.1894 tgo (2022b) 0.477 suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202551 emissions from activities within scope 2-1 (indirect ghg emissions from purchased electricity) scope 2-1 encompassed the electricity consumption of the casting yards and office (table 6). the invoice from the provincial electricity authority indicated a total consumption of 21,585 kwh in 2022, equivalent to a ghg emission of 10.790 tco2e. owing to the absence of separate electricity meters, precise allocation of ghg emissions between the casting yards and office was challenging. considering its significant portion of electricity usage, the entire electricity consumption of the office was attributed to the 24,000-btu airconditioning unit in this study. the electricity required for this air-conditioning unit was computed based on daily operation hours and employee workdays, resulting in 5,967 kwh. the remaining 15,618 kwh were allocated to the operation of the two gantry cranes and other equipment at the casting yards. table 6. activity data, ghg ef, and ghg emission activities within scope 2-1. activity activity data unit quantity quantity data source ef (kgco2e/ unit) ef data source emission (tco2e) 2-1 purchased electricity casting yards electricity consumption electricity (grid mix) kwh 15,618.00 invoice/ calculation 0.4999 tgo (2022b) 7.807 office electricity consumption electricity (grid mix) kwh 5,967.00 calculation 0.4999 tgo (2022b) 2.983 table 5. activity data, ghg ef, and ghg emission activities within scope 1-4. activity activity data unit quantity quantity data source ef (kgco2e/ unit) ef data source emission (tco2e) 1-4 fugitive emissions casting yards leakage of refrigerant from the air-conditioning system in vehicles r-410a kg 0.30 calculation 2,090.0000 tgo (2022b)/ calculation 0.627 office leakage of refrigerant from the air-conditioning system r-410a kg 0.32 calculation 2,090.0000 tgo (2022b)/ calculation 0.669 - ch4 emission from the treatment of domestic wastewater in a septic tank ch4 kg 38.34 calculation 28.0000 tgo (2022a) 1.074 suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202552 emissions from activities within scope 3-1 (indirect ghg emissions from purchased goods and services) ten scope 3-1 activities, eight from the casting yards and two from the office, are detailed in table 7. the ghg emissions from these activities totaled 869.388 tco2e. table 7. activity data, ghg ef, and ghg emission activities within scope 3-1. activity activity data unit quantity quantity data source ef (kgco2e/ unit) ef data source emission (tco2e) 3-1 purchased goods and services casting yards ready-mix concrete consumption ready-mix concrete (350 ksc cube) m3 2,198.00 concrete receipt 294.0000 tgo (n.d.b) (the concrete products and aggregate co., ltd.) 646.212 reinforcement bar consumption reinforcement bar kg 65,743.43 purchase order 2.1400 tgo (n.d.b) (siam steel syndicate pub co., ltd.) 140.691 flat bar consumption flat bar kg 699.60 purchase order 0.9880 tgo (n.d.b) (metallic pipe mill co., ltd.) 0.691 wire mesh consumption wire mesh kg 44,064.84 purchase order 1.6382 ecoinvent 2.2, ipcc 2007 gwp 100a 72.187 tying wire consumption black annealed iron wire kg 237.50 purchase order 1.1400 tgo (n.d.b) (tata steel manufacturing pub co., ltd.) (thailand) 0.271 pvc pipe consumption pvc pipe (class 5) cm3 44,532.08 purchase order 0.0045 tgo (n.d.b) (nawaplastic industries co., ltd.) 0.200 oxygen consumption oxygen kg 1,604.46 purchase order 0.4690 tgo (2022c) 0.752 tap water consumption tap water (provincial waterworks authority) m3 14,765.00 invoice 0.5410 tgo (2022c) 7.988 office copier paper consumption copier paper (a4; 80 gsm) sheet 32,500.00 stock card 0.0115 tgo (n.d.b) (phoenix pulp & paper pub co., ltd.) 0.374 toilet paper consumption toilet paper (300 m) roll 8.00 stock card 2.8100 tgo (n.d.b) (berli jucker cellox co., ltd.) 0.022 suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202553 the determination of the quantities of various construction materials involved specific calculations. the weight of the reinforcement bars (kg) was obtained by multiplying the purchased amount by the weight per piece corresponding to each diameter and length. similarly, the weight of the flat bars (kg) was obtained by multiplying the purchased amount of pieces by the weight per piece. the wire mesh consumption (kg) was calculated by multiplying the purchased amount by the weight per m2 for each wire mesh specification, categorized according to diameter and wire spacing. the consumption of black-annealed iron wire (kg) was determined by multiplying the number of wires, determined by the number of coils, by the weight per coil. the amount of polyvinyl chloride (pvc) class 5 pipes was calculated by multiplying the number of pieces by the volume of pvc per piece. the amount of consumed oxygen (kg) was calculated by multiplying the purchased amount of tanks by their weight capacity, obtained from the oxygen volume per tank and the mass density of oxygen. in terms of the office materials, the quantity of the a4 copier paper sheets was determined by multiplying the amount of paper packs by the number of sheets per pack (500 sheets/pack). notably, no carbon footprint data for flat bars, tying wires, and oxygen gas products from any manufacturer have been certified and listed by tgo. however, certified carbon footprint data for hotrolled sheets—a precursor to flat bars—are available on the tgo website. thus, these data were used as the ghg efs for the flat bar consumption. simultaneously, available carbon footprint data for a high-quality, high-carbon steel wire product resembling tying wire properties were used as the ghg ef for tying wire consumption. finally, the ghg emissions from oxygen gas consumption were calculated using the ghg ef of liquid oxygen, a by-product of chemical manufacturing processes, as a substitute. emissions from activities within scope 3-3 (indirect ghg emissions from fuel and energy-related activities) four scope 3-3 activities, three from the casting yards and one from the office, are detailed in table 8. the ghg emissions from these activities totaled 2.544 tco2e. table 8. activity data, ghg ef, and ghg emission activities within scope 3-3. activity activity data unit quantity quantity data source ef (kgco2e/ unit) ef data source emission (tco2e) 3-3 fueland energy-related activities casting yards lpg consumption lpg mixed kg 420.00 invoice 0.2720 tgo (n.d.b) (bangchak corporation pub co., ltd.) 0.114 gasoline consumption gasoline l 218.00 material issue note 0.3440 tgo (n.d.b) (bangchak corporation pub co., ltd) 0.075 diesel consumption diesel l 950.00 material issue note 0.2370 tgo (n.d.b) (bangchak corporation pub co., ltd) 0.225 suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202554 activity activity data unit quantity quantity data source ef (kgco2e/ unit) ef data source emission (tco2e) electricity transmission and distribution losses electricity (grid mix) kwh 21,585.00 invoice 0.0987 tgo (2022b), tgo (2022c) 1.541 office electricity transmission and distribution losses electricity (grid mix) kwh 21,585.00 invoice 0.0987 tgo (2022b), tgo (2022c) 0.589 emissions from activities within scope 3-4 (indirect ghg emissions from upstream transportation and distribution) seven scope 3-4 activities, with six from the casting yards and one from the office, are detailed in table 9. the ghg emissions from these activities totaled 18.643 tco2e. table 9. activity data, ghg ef, and ghg emission of activities within scope 3-4. activity activity data unit quantity quantity data source ef (kgco2e/ unit) ef data source emission (tco2e) 3-4 upstream transportation and distribution casting yards transporting ready-mix concrete 10-wheeler concrete mixer 75% loading (max load 16.00 tons) (concrete plant to yard) loaddistance t-km 99,173.76 concrete receipt/ google map 0.0625 tgo (2022c) 6.198 10-wheeler concrete mixer 0% loading (max load 16.00tons) (yard to concrete plant) tripdistance km 8,347.20 concrete receipt/ google map 0.6316 tgo (2022c) 5.272 transporting reinforcement bar and wire mesh 22-wheeler truck and trailer 100% loading (max load 32.00tons) (steel factory to yard) loaddistance t-km 84,222.94 purchase order / google map 0.0459 tgo (2022c) 3.866 table 8. continued suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202555 activity activity data unit quantity quantity data source ef (kgco2e/ unit) ef data source emission (tco2e) 22-wheeler truck and trailer 0% loading (max load 32.00tons) (yard to steel factory) tripdistance km 2,631.97 calculation/ google map 1.0206 tgo (2022c) 2.686 transporting flat bar, tying wire, and pvc pipe large size 6-wheeler truck 0% loading (max load 11.00tons) (vendor’s store to yard) tripdistance km 96.00 purchase order / google map 0.4923 tgo (2022c) 0.047 large size 6-wheeler truck 0% loading (max load 11.00tons) (yard to supplies store) tripdistance km 96.00 purchase order / google map 0.4923 tgo (2022c) 0.047 22-wheeler truck and trailer 100% loading (max load 32.00tons) (factory to vendor’s store) loaddistance t-km 536.59 purchase order / google map 0.0459 tgo (2022c) 0.025 22-wheeler truck and trailer 0% loading (max load 32.00tons) (vendor’s store to factory) tripdistance km 16.67 calculation / google map 1.0206 tgo (2022c) 0.017 22-wheeler truck and trailer 100% loading (max load 32.00tons) (factory to vendor’s store) loaddistance t-km 323.71 purchase order / google map 0.0459 tgo (2022c) 0.015 22-wheeler truck and trailer 0% loading (max load 32.00tons) (vendor’s store to factory) tripdistance km 10.12 calculation / google map 1.0206 tgo (2022c) 0.010 table 9. continued suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202556 activity activity data unit quantity quantity data source ef (kgco2e/ unit) ef data source emission (tco2e) transporting oxygen 6-wheeler truck 0% loading (max load 8.50tons) (vendor’s store to yard) tripdistance km 120.00 purchase order / google map 0.4069 tgo (2022c) 0.049 6-wheeler truck 0% loading (max load 8.50tons) (yard to vendor’s store) tripdistance km 120.00 calculation / google map 0.4069 tgo (2022c) 0.049 transporting lpg 4-wheeler truck 0% loading (max load 7.00tons) (vendor’s store to yard) tripdistance km 280.00 purchase order / google map 0.3131 tgo (2022c) 0.088 4-wheeler truck 0% loading (max load 7.00tons) (yard to vendor’s store) tripdistance km 280.00 purchase order / google map 0.3131 tgo (2022c) 0.088 22-wheeler truck and trailer 75% loading (max load 32.00tons) (oil refinery to vendor’s store) loaddistance t-km 354.44 purchase order / google map 0.0960 tgo (2022c) 0.034 22-wheeler truck and trailer 0% loading (max load 32.00tons) (vendor’s store to oil refinery) tripdistance km 22.15 purchase order / google map 1.0206 tgo (2022c) 0.023 transporting gasoline and diesel 22-wheeler truck and trailer 100% loading (max load 32.00tons) (oil refinery to gas station) loaddistance t-km 820.06 purchase order / google map 0.0659 tgo (2022c) 0.054 table 9. continued suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202557 activity activity data unit quantity quantity data source ef (kgco2e/ unit) ef data source emission (tco2e) 22-wheeler truck and trailer) 0% loading (max load 32.00 tons) (gas station oil to refinery) tripdistance km 36.80 purchase order / google map 1.0206 tgo (2022c) 0.038 office transporting copier paper and toilet paper 4-wheeler truck 0% loading (max load 7.00tons) (vendor’s store to yard) tripdistance km 40.00 purchase order / google map 0.3131 tgo (2022c) 0.013 4-wheeler truck 0% loading (max load 7.00tons) (yard to vendor’s store) tripdistance km 40.00 purchase order / google map 0.3131 tgo (2022c) 0.013 10-wheeler truck 100% loading (max load 16.00tons) (factory to vendor’s store) loaddistance t-km 126.40 purchase order / google map 0.0454 tgo (2022c) 0.006 10-wheeler truck 0% loading (max load 16.00tons) (vendor’s store to factory) tripdistance km 7.90 calculation / google map 0.5747 tgo (2022c) 0.005 the concrete weight used in the load-distance calculation (5,275,200 kg) was obtained by multiplying the purchased volume of plain cement concrete (m3) by its unit weight (2,400 kg/m3). transport from the concrete plant to the yard involved 10-wheeler concrete mixers covering a distance of 18.80 km, with each trip carrying 12 tons (75% of full capacity) over 444 trips. reinforcement bars and wire mesh were shipped directly from the steel factory to the yard using 22-wheeler trucks and trailers, typically at full capacity. if the yard ordered less than a full truckload, the vendor proposed sharing transportation with external parties. the transportation distance to the yard was 767 km, including an additional 50 km for travel. the required trips for transporting reinforcement bars and wire mesh were calculated by dividing the total weight by the load per trip, resulting in 3.43 trips. flat bars, tying wires, and pvc pipes were delivered from the vendor’s store to the yard using large sixwheeler trucks. the pvc pipe weight (125 kg) for load-distance calculations was determined by multiplying the purchased quantity by the weight per piece (1.25 kg/piece). with a load per trip under 5.50 tons (50% table 9. continued suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202558 of full capacity), ghg emissions for empty trucks (0% loading) were calculated over an 8-km distance, corresponding to 12 transport trips for flat bars, tying wires, and pvc. flat bars were transported from the steel factory to the vendor’s store with 22-wheeler trucks at full capacity, covering 767 km. the number of trips was calculated by dividing the total weight of flat bars by the load per trip, resulting in 0.02 trips. tying wires and pvc pipes were transported from the factories to the vendor’s store using 22-wheeler trucks at full capacity, traveling 681.70 km (distance between saraburi and chiang mai provinces plus an additional 50 km). the trips required for tying wires and pvc pipes were calculated to be 0.01 trips. oxygen cylinders were transported from the vendor’s store to the yard using six-wheeler trucks. each cylinder, with a 6-l capacity, weighed a total of 56.58 kg (48 kg empty cylinder weight plus 8.58 kg of o2). an equal number of empty cylinders were returned, with a load per trip for both delivery and return under 4.25 tons (50% of full capacity). the ghg emissions for empty trucks (0% loading) were calculated over a 10-km distance, with 12 transport trips indicated by the purchase order data. four-wheeler trucks delivered a given number of lpg cylinders from the vendor’s store to the yard, each with a 15-kg capacity and a total weight of 33 kg (18 kg empty weight). an equal number of empty cylinders were returned. the load per trip for both delivery and return was less than 3.50 tons (50% of full capacity), leading to the application of ghg emissions for empty trucks (0% loading) over 10 km, with 28 lpg transport trips, each corresponding to a single cylinder. transporting lpg from the oil refinery to the vendor’s store required 22-wheeler trucks and trailers with a full load capacity of 32 tons. the empty weight of the lpg storage tank transported was 9.72 tons, accommodating 16 tons of lpg. thus, the total transported weight was 25.72 tons per trip, constituting approximately 80.04% of the truck’s maximum capacity. the transportation distance from rayong province to chiang mai was 843.90 km, including an additional 50 km for travel. to account for the weight of the empty lpg storage tank, the ghg emission factor (ef) for lpg transportation was adjusted by multiplying by a factor of 1.608 (25.72 tons/16 tons), resulting in an adjusted value of 0.096 kgco2e/tkm from the original 0.0597 kgco2e/t-km. for the return trip, as the loaded weight was only 9.72 tons (less than 50% of full capacity), the ghg ef for the empty truck scenario (0% loading) was applied. the number of lpg transport trips was calculated by dividing the total weight of lpg by the per-trip load, resulting in 0.03 trips (0.420 tons/16 tons). the weight of gasoline and diesel for load-distance calculations was determined by multiplying the volume of purchased fuel by the weight per liter (gasoline: 0.75 kg/l; diesel: 0.85 kg/l), yielding 164.25 kg of gasoline and 807.50 kg of diesel. transport to refuel the yard vehicles involved 22-wheeler trucks with a full load capacity of 32 tons. with an empty tank weight of 9.72 tons, the load capacity for fuel was 22.28 tons. the transportation distance was also 843.90 km. the ghg ef for gasoline and diesel transportation per ton-kilometer was adjusted by multiplying by a factor of 1.436 (32 tons/22.28 tons), resulting in an adjusted value of 0.0659 kgco2e/t-km from the original 0.0459 kgco2e/t-km. the quantity of copier paper was calculated by multiplying the number of purchased paper packs by the weight per pack (2.40 kg/pack), while the quantity of toilet paper was determined by multiplying the number of rolls by the weight per roll (0.78 kg/roll). for delivery, the vendor used four-wheeler trucks to transport these products from the store to the yard. each trip’s loaded weight was under 3.50 tons (50% of full capacity), so the ghg emission value for the empty truck scenario was applied. the purchase order data indicated four transport trips over a distance of 10 km. transportation of copier and toilet paper from the factory to the vendor’s store used 10-wheeler trucks with a full load capacity of 16 tons. the transportation distance was 779.10 km, based on the distance between samut sakhon and chiang mai, plus an additional 50 km. the number of trips was calculated by dividing the total weight by the load per trip, resulting in 0.01 trips (0.16224 tons/16 tons). suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202559 emissions from activities within scope 3-5 (indirect ghg emissions from waste generated in operations) two scope 3-5 activities, one from the casting yards and one from the office, are detailed in table 10. the ghg emissions from these activities totaled 0.775 tco2e. table 10. activity data, ghg ef, and ghg emission activities within scope 3-5. activity activity data unit quantity quantity data source ef (kgco2e/ unit) ef data source emission (tco2e) 3-5 waste generated in operations casting yards disposal of waste from casting precast concrete component ready-mix concrete waste ready-mix concrete waste kg 344,160.00 concrete receipt/ working drawing 0.0000 0.000 reinforcement bar waste reinforcement bar waste kg 1,288.03 purchase order/ working drawing 0.0030 tgo (2022c)/ calculation 0.004 flat bar waste flat bar waste kg 0.00 purchase order/ working drawing not considered 0.000 wire mesh waste wire mesh waste kg 1458.02 purchase order/ working drawing 0.0030 tgo (2022c)/ calculation 0.004 tying wire waste tying wire waste kg 0.00 interview not considered 0.000 pvc pipe waste pvc pipe waste kg 0.00 interview not considered 0.000 office disposal of office waste through consumption and use (utilizing landfilling) office waste kg 949.63 calculation 0.8076 tgo (2022c) 0.767 the ghg emissions associated with waste disposal included emissions from waste disposal operations and those from waste transport to these sites. to determine the concrete waste amount (kg), the volume of waste concrete (m3) was multiplied by the plain cement concrete unit weight (2,400 kg/m3). because concrete waste is inert and exhibits no chemical or biological reactivity, it does not decompose in landfills; consequently, concrete waste did not emit ch4 or n2o (mah, fujiwara and ho, 2017). residual concrete suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202560 from delivery mixers was transported to the disposal site on the return journey to the concrete plant. as the ghg emissions from transporting concrete waste were considered part of the overall emissions for delivering concrete mixers to the plant, no ghg emissions were explicitly attributed to concrete waste disposal. the waste generated during operations with reinforcement bars and wire mesh was sold to a recycling facility, resulting in zero ghg emissions from disposal at the site. emissions were limited to transporting these materials to a recycling facility located 10 km away. typically, six-wheeler trucks, each with a loaded weight per trip lower than 4.25 tons (50% of the full truckload), were used for this purpose. therefore, the ghg emission value for the empty truck scenario (0% loading) was applied. based on these data, the calculated amount of ghg emissions for transporting these materials to the recycling facility is 0.0030 kgco2e per kg of material. the purchased flat bars and tying wire were fully utilized for casting the precast concrete components, resulting in no waste from the production process. similarly, pvc pipe waste was assumed to be zero because of the minimal quantity generated during the production process. considering that pvc pipes are classified as inert waste and any transportation of pvc pipe waste was combined with general waste, emissions from the transportation process to the landfill were not considered significant. to calculate office waste, the total amount of personal waste (kg) was first determined by multiplying the number of working man-days (1,775 man-days) by the paper waste generation rate per person per day (1.07 kg/person/day, according to the pollution control department, 2023). as each day consists of 24 h, and approximately 8 h are spent sleeping, the remaining 16 h represent the active period for employees. during this active period, employees work in the office for approximately 8 h per day, which accounts for 50% of their active time. therefore, the total office waste was calculated by multiplying the total personal waste by a factor of 0.5 to reflect the proportion of time spent at the office. emissions from activities within scope 3-7 (indirect ghg emissions from employee commuting) two scope 3-7 activities, one from the casting yards and one from the office, are detailed in table 11. the ghg emissions from these activities totaled 6.590 tco2e. table 11. activity data, ghg ef, and ghg emission activities within scope 3-7. activity activity data unit quantity quantity data source ef (kgco2e/ unit) ef data source emission (tco2e) 3-7 employee commuting casting yards commuting between home and the yard (subcontractor worker) gasoline l 226.35 interview 2.2394 tgo (2022b) 0.507 office commuting between home and the yard (company employee). gasoline l 2,716.26 interview 2.2394 tgo (2022b) 6.083 suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202561 subcontractors and company employees commuted to the yard using four-stroke motorcycles. to calculate the amount of gasoline used for commuting, daily commuting distance data for each subcontractor and company employee were first acquired through interviews. next, the traveling distance for each person was calculated based on their daily commuting distance and number of days they worked at the yard. considering the total commuting distance of subcontractors (8,520 km) and company employees (102,240 km) in 2022, the amount of motor gasoline (l) was determined by dividing these distances by the average fuel consumption rate of a four-stroke motorcycle (37.640 km/l). main findings and discussion the ghg emissions data obtained throughout this study were categorized and analyzed to elucidate four relevant findings, as detailed in the following subsections. cfo and ghg emissions hotspot the total ghg emissions amounted to 915.489 tco2e, constituting the cfo. figure 3 depicts the breakdown of ghg emissions by activity type and the respective utility units responsible for each activity. figure 3. breakdown of ghg emissions data by activity type and the respective utility units responsible for each activity. scopes 1 (direct ghg emissions), 2 (indirect ghg emissions from purchased energy), and 3 (other indirect ghg emissions) contributed 0.74%, 1.18%, and 98.08%, respectively, to the total cfo (figure 3). scope 3 activities accounted for the vast majority of ghg emissions (98.08%), far surpassing those of scopes 1 and 2. the comparison of ghg emissions from yard activities obtained in this study with those of previous works on cfos of other organizations reveals a notable finding. service-oriented organizations, such as educational institutions and offices, primarily generate ghg emissions from activities in scope 1 (direct ghg emissions), scope 2 (indirect ghg emissions from purchased energy), and scope 3-7 (indirect ghg emissions from employee commuting) (awanthi and navaratne, 2010, 2018; battistini et al., 2023; chaivanich, 2020; and others). in contrast, yards generate most of their ghg emissions from activities in scope 3-1 (indirect ghg emissions from purchased goods and services) and scope 3-4 (indirect ghg emissions from upstream transportation and distribution), with a combined emission of 888.031 tco2e, or 97.00% of the total emissions from the yard. suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202562 on the other hand, the results of comparing ghg emissions from this study with those of chonburi concrete product pub co., ltd., a concrete product factory, reveal a close alignment. specifically, chonburi concrete product pub co., ltd. reports ghg emissions from activities in scopes 1, 2, and 3, representing 2%, 0%, and 98%, respectively (tgo, 2023). this similarity reflects the shared core function of both the case study precast concrete yard and chonburi concrete product pub co., ltd.—processing raw construction materials into finished products. while both organizations generate some ghg emissions from direct activities (scope 1) and electricity consumption (scope 2), the majority of their emissions stem from raw material production and transportation within scope 3. this finding highlights the importance of effective cfo management, which should focus not only on direct activities but also on supply chain management. to enhance sustainability, organizations should educate suppliers, raise awareness, and where necessary, enforce environmental responsibility. further analysis identified ready-mix concrete consumption (scope 3-1) as the largest source of ghg emissions, emitting 646.212 tco2e, or 70.59% of the total emissions. when emissions from ready-mix concrete transportation (scope 3-4), which emitted 11.470 tco2e, are added, these activities contributed a combined total of 657.682 tco2e, or 71.84% of the total ghg emissions. this finding emphasizes the importance of efficient concrete usage management and selecting low-emission manufacturers to reduce emissions. to manage construction materials efficiently, yards should review the entire process of ordering and using materials. this includes addressing key issues such as overestimating and overordering materials, losses during storage, inefficiencies in production processes, and product waste. once these inefficiencies are identified, corrective actions can be implemented to minimize unnecessary material usage and associated emissions. at the same time, when selecting construction products, yards should consider the carbon footprint of products (cfp) alongside their prices. if a product’s cfp is not available, manufacturers should be required to provide specific cfp data. by combining this information with transportation data and the distances between factories, suppliers, and yards, yards can identify and select more environmentally friendly products. in this specific study, the yard used 2,198 m3 of ready-mix concrete, while only 2,054.60 m3 was required, resulting in 143.40 m3 of ineffective material usage, representing 6.98%. proper concrete usage management could reduce the cfo by up to 5.01% (6.98% * 71.84%). additionally, as the ghg ef of ready-mix concrete varies between 3.02% and 7.17% (based on tgo data), selecting different manufacturers could lower cfo values by 2.13% to 5.06% (3.02% * 70.59% to 7.17% * 70.59%). these findings highlight the importance of efficient material usage management and supplier selection strategies in effectively optimizing ghg emission management. ghg emissions per production quantity the cfo data revealed significant insights into emission distribution and management efficiency, but these findings were specific to the production quantity of a particular year. relying solely on the absolute cfo value may provide incomplete information for the efficient management of ghg emissions, especially when considering potential annual changes in production quantity based on organizational policies. therefore, ghg emissions per production quantity are a crucial metric for evaluating the effectiveness of ghg emission management. data from figure 3 indicate that activities within casting yards and the office contributed to 98.62% and 1.38% of the cfo, respectively, establishing a ghg emission ratio of 1:0.0138 between the casting yards and office. further analysis demonstrated that the emissions from the two casting yards aligned proportionally with product quantity. conversely, office emissions, which are tied to employee numbers, remained relatively stable owing to consistent staffing levels. suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202563 in 2022, with a concrete work quantity of 2,054.6 m3, the ghg emissions from the organization were 914.729 tco2e, resulting in a 0.445580 tco2e/m3 ratio of ghg emissions per production quantity. interviews revealed that office staff could support production at maximum capacity (3,028.8 m3). if the casting yards operated at full capacity, their estimated total ghg emissions would be 1,331.002 tco2e (902.891 tco2e * 3,028.80 m3/2,054.60 m3). factoring in a consistent office emissions value (12.598 tco2e), the estimated ghg emissions of the organization at full yard capacity in that year reached 1,343.600 tco2e, resulting in a 0.443608 tco2e/m3 ratio. these data suggest that increasing production to full capacity can reduce the ghg emissions per production quantity by 0.44%, emphasizing the potential benefits of maximizing the production efficiency. it is important to note that the two strategies for optimizing ghg emissions discussed in the previous section, along with the strategy to increase production to full capacity presented here, are based on an analysis of ghg emission data collected during the monitoring period. these strategies are tailored to the current production environment for precast components, which relies on existing raw materials, designs, specifications, machinery, and labor. however, ghg emission control and reduction strategies should extend beyond the current environment. yards can explore transformative measures such as switching to alternative, more environmentally friendly raw materials, redesigning precast components to minimize reliance on conventional materials or accommodate sustainable alternatives, and adopting increased automation in production processes to enhance reliability, reduce waste, and improve overall efficiency. these transformative changes could significantly lower ghg emissions while promoting more sustainable production practices. ratio of ghg emissions from purchased goods (raw material) to those from precast concrete production precast concrete products are essential in construction but are challenging to assess for embodied carbon in projects and the cfo of construction organizations because manufacturers rarely provide their carbon footprint data. access to cfp data enables assessors to estimate ghg emissions associated with the use of precast concrete products. the cfp of precast concrete products primarily includes emissions from purchased goods (raw materials), transportation of raw materials, and production operations. while estimating ghg emissions from purchased goods and the transportation of raw materials is relatively straightforward, predicting emissions from the casting operations is more complex due to limited data on production processes. accurate data on the ratio of ghg emissions from purchased goods to those from production operations are essential for reliable carbon footprint estimations of precast concrete products. in 2022, the total ghg emissions from the casting yards in this case study amounted to 902.891 tco2e, with 868.992 tco2e attributed to purchased goods. the ghg emissions from the production process were calculated by subtracting the combined emissions from purchased goods and transportation-related activities from the total emissions of the casting yards. transportation-related activities, including mobile combustion, fugitive emissions, fueland energy-related activities (limited to diesel), and upstream transportation and distribution, contributed an additional 22.062 tco2e. as a result, the ghg emissions from the production process were determined to be 11.837 tco2e (902.891 tco2e − (868.992 tco2e + 22.062 tco2e)). the ratio of ghg emissions from purchased goods to those from the production process in this case study was 868.992:11.837 tco2e, equivalent to 1:0.0136. obstacles and limitations in assessing the cfo in the thai construction sector notable obstacles and limitations specific to assessing the cfo for entities in the thai construction industry emerged in this case study. below are three key aspects that represent these challenges: suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202564 1. limited cfp data for construction materials: evaluating a cfo in the construction sector requires comprehensive data on the cfp of various construction materials. this information is vital for assessing the ghg emissions from purchased goods (scope 3-1), which are a significant contributor to total ghg emissions. the present case study revealed a need for more registered and certified cfp data for construction products within the tgo. it is imperative to have cfp data for relevant materials, such as flat bars, wire mesh, tying wires, and oxygen, registered and listed. furthermore, among the limited construction materials with registered cfp data, only a few brands of each type of material were represented, adversely affecting the accuracy of the carbon footprint assessment. 2. scarcity of data for general products: the tgo website has minimal cfp data for general office products, often having only one brand listed for each commonly consumed item (e.g., lpg, gasoline, diesel, copier paper, and toilet paper). this lack of data poses a challenge for organizations aiming to comprehensively assess the carbon footprint associated with their general product consumption. 3. constraints regarding ghg ef data from truck transportation: the tlci categorizes ghg ef data according to truck types and load weights. however, the existing categories—0%, 50%, 75%, and 100% loadings—are insufficient when confronted with cases involving load weights between 0% and 50%. the proposed addition of a 25% loading level to the database would enhance flexibility, allowing more accurate ghg ef values for ghg emission calculations. this refinement is crucial to more precisely assess the transportation-related carbon footprint of the construction industry. conclusions this study delved into the carbon footprint assessment of a precast concrete yard in chiang mai, thailand, uncovering a cfo of 915.489 tco2e in 2022. a breakdown across scopes 1 (direct ghg emissions), 2 (indirect ghg emissions from purchased energy), and 3 (other indirect ghg emissions) revealed contributions of 0.74%, 1.18%, and 98.08%, respectively, to the cfo. notably, the ready-mix concrete consumption activity constituted 70.59% of the cfo and was identified as a significant ghg emission source. the results of this study suggest that implementing strategic optimization of the use of construction materials, focusing on ready-mix concrete, could reduce the cfo by up to 5.01%. additionally, opting for diverse manufacturers of this material may result in cfo variations ranging from 2.13% to 5.06%. thus, the importance of effectively managing construction material and selecting appropriate product manufacturers is underscored. in particular, employing these strategies for ready-mix concrete products could achieve a substantial reduction of ghg emissions in precast concrete yards. by examining the 2022 production volume of concrete work (2,054.6 m3), this study established a 0.445580 tco2e/m3 ratio for ghg emissions-to-production volume. given the proportional relationship between the two casting yards and product volume emissions, attention was drawn to the correlation between office ghg emissions and the number of employees. based on interview data indicating that the current office workforce in this case study is capable of supporting the maximum production capacity, the organization could reduce its ghg emissions-to-production volume ratio by increasing production to its maximum capacity. this would result in a 0.44% reduction of ghg emissions, from 0.445580 tco2e/m3 to 0.443608 tco2e/m3, emphasizing the potential of maximizing production volume to lower ghg emissions in relative terms, considering the remaining capacity associated with back-office operations. this study highlighted the ratio of ghg emissions from purchased goods (raw materials) to those from the precast concrete production process (1:0.0136). combining this ratio with ghg emissions data from purchased goods and raw material transportation enables a more accurate determination of the cfp for precast concrete products. as a pioneering academic research endeavor in cfo assessment within the thai construction industry, this study disclosed the obstacles and limitations for future cfo assessments in other thai organizations. suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202565 the three major challenges included the limited availability of carbon footprint data for construction materials and general products as well as the constraints on ghg ef data from truck transportation in the tlci. these insights offer valuable considerations for subsequent assessments in this domain. recommendations for future research the current study assessed the cfo of a specific type of construction organization—a construction yard. however, as various types of construction organizations have unique characteristics, further research is needed to deepen our understanding of their carbon footprints. this knowledge would enable organizations across the construction industry to develop more effective strategies for managing and reducing ghg emissions to achieve sustainability. future research could focus on assessing the carbon footprints of other construction organizations, such as road, bridge, building, electrical system, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (hvac) contractors. concerning specifically addressing the carbon footprint of yards, continued research is essential to fill knowledge gaps regarding strategies for improving organizational processes to control and reduce ghg emissions and to evaluate the effectiveness of these strategies. broader process improvement options could involve changing raw materials, redesigning precast components, and modifying production processes. investigating these areas would provide valuable insights, helping construction yards produce more environmentally friendly precast components and operate sustainably. moreover, the obstacles and limitations identified in this study regarding the assessment of organizational carbon footprints in the thai construction sector underscore the urgent need for further research. key areas include the carbon footprints of various brands of construction materials, general products, and emissions from truck transportation. access to diverse and accurate data would allow assessors to select the most appropriate values for cfo evaluations, enhancing the reliability of these assessments for construction organizations. ultimately, this would improve the effectiveness of strategies for managing and reducing ghg emissions in the construction industry. references awanthi, m.g.g. and navaratne, c.m., 2010. carbon footprint of an organization: a case study, faculty of agriculture, university of ruhuna. in: proceedings of international forestry and environment symposium 15th, nugegoda, sri lanka, pp.366-77. https://doi.org/10.31357/fesympo.v15i0.206 awanthi, m.g.g. and navaratne, c.m., 2018. carbon footprint of an organization: a tool for monitoring impacts on global warming. procedia engineering, 212, pp.729-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2018.01.094 battistini, r., passarini, f., marrollo, r., lantieri, c., simone, a. and vignali, v., 2023. how to assess the carbon footprint of a large university? the case study of university of bologna’s multicampus organization. energies, 16(1), 166. https://doi.org/10.3390/en16010166 chaivanich, k., 2020. carbon footprint of an organization: a case study of the department of ordnance engineering academic division, chulachomklao royal military academy. science and technology nakorn sawan rajabhat university journal, 12(15), pp.48-57. (in thai). crippa, m., guizzardi, d., pagani, f., banja, m., muntean, m., schaaf e., becker, w., monforti-ferrario, f., quadrelli, r., risquez martin, a., taghavi-moharamli, p., köykkä, j., grassi, g., rossi, s., brandao de melo, j., oom, d., branco, a., san-miguel, j. and vignati, e., 2023. ghg emissions of all world countries – jrc/iea 2023 report, luxembourg: publications office of the european union. https://doi.org/10.2760/173513 doolgindachbaporn, t., neeratanaphan, l., and wararakpraphat, n., 2014. carbon footprint of thai white spirit factory. crma journal, 12(1), pp.45-58. (in thai). suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202566 https://doi.org/10.31357/fesympo.v15i0.206 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2018.01.094 https://doi.org/10.3390/en16010166 https://doi.org/10.2760/173513 doorn, m.r.j., towprayoon, s., vieira, s.m.m., irving, w., palmer, c., pipatti, r., and wang, c., 2006. chapter 6 wastewater treatment and discharge. in: s. eggleston, l. buendia, k. miwa, t. ngara and k. tanabe, eds. 2006. 2006 ipcc guidelines for national greenhouse gas inventories. japan: iges, ch.6. ghg protocol, 2004. a corporate accounting and reporting standard, revised ed. usa: world resources institute and world business council for sustainable development. iso, 2018. iso 14064-1: 2018 greenhouse gases–part 1: specification with guidance at the organization level for quantification and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions and removals. geneva: international organization for standardization. janangkakan, b., chavalparit, o. and kanchanapiya, p., 2012. carbon footprint of an academic organization: a case study of the department of environmental engineering, chulalongkorn university. applied environmental research, 34(1), pp.23-35. (in thai). keawsawang, n., amonsanguansin, j. and sornilm, w., 2017. carbon footprint assessment and sustainable approaches to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions of thai local administrative organizations: a case study of the bangkhae district office, thailand, kasetsart engineering journal, 30(102), pp.61-72. (in thai). kiehle, j., kopsakangas-savolainen, m., hilli, m. and pongrácz, e., 2023. carbon footprint at institutions of higher education: the case of the university of oulu. journal of environmental management, 329, 117056. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.117056 lucendo, a.g., garcía-orenesa, f., ruiz-martínez, j.j. and quilesb, p.g., 2019. the spanish carbon footprint calculation and registration system: the miguel hernández of elche university case. advances in ecological and environmental research, 4(11), pp.324-36. luengyuang, n. and wattana, s., 2022. corporate carbon footprint assessment: a case study of beverage manufacturing factory. in: proceedings of the 23rd national graduate research conference, khon kaen, thailand, pp.201-12. (in thai). maimun, t., teekasap, s., sareephattananon, a. and rattanatai, b., 2018. organization carbon footprint assessment of eastern asia university. eau heritage journal science and technology, 12(2), pp.195-209. (in thai). mah, c.m., fujiwara, t. and ho, c.s., 2017. concrete waste management decision analysis based on life cycle assessment. chemical engineering transactions, 56, pp.25-30. https://doi.org/10.3303/cet1756005 office of natural resources and environmental policy and planning, 2022. thailand’s long-term low greenhouse gas emission development strategy, revised ed. bangkok: office of natural resources and environmental policy and planning. pettineo, g., raciti, r., allegro, g., zerbo, a. and froio, a.p., 2020. principi di butera: the carbon footprint in the sicilian wine industry. procedia environmental science, engineering and management, 7(2). pp.233-242. pollution control department, 2023. report on the community waste management situation in thailand 2022. (in thai). [online] available at: https://www.pcd.go.th/publication/29509 [accessed 1 january 2024]. priya, p.k. and neamitha, m., 2018. a comparative study on precast construction and conventional construction. international research journal of engineering and technology (irjet), 5(8), pp.839-42. pruangpreechasak, p., junggoth, r., tantriratna, p. and kamsong, t., 2020. carbon footprint of organization: case study faculty of public health, khon kaen university. kku journal for public health research, 13(3), pp.34-43. (in thai). rodtusana, i., 2013. carbon footprint for organization; huachiew chalermprakiet university. applied environmental research, 35(2), pp.33-42. (in thai). suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202567 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.117056 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2022.117056 https://doi.org/10.3303/cet1756005 https://www.pcd.go.th/publication/29509 sikiwat, w., thonghom, w., kwangsopa, s., neamhom, t. and patthanaissaranukool, w., 2021. carbon footprint of faculty of public health, mahidol university, phayathai campus. thai science and technology journal, 29(4), pp.604-17. (in thai). tantipanatip, w., 2018. carbon footprint of organization: a case study of the faculty of science and technology, phranakhon si ayutthaya rajabhat university. journal of science & technology msu, 37(4), pp.494-503. (in thai). tgo, 2022a. requirements for the calculation and reporting of the carbon footprint of the organization. 6thed. thailand greenhouse gas management organization. (in thai). tgo, 2022b. emission factor compiled from secondary data for the assessment of organizational carbon footprints, carbon label project. (in thai). [online] available at: https://thaicarbonlabel.tgo.or.th/tools/files. php?mod=yjnkbllxnxblbuywyvc5dvgyvnrhwe56yvc5dq&type=wdbaslrfvlq&files=txc9pq [accessed 1 january 2024]. tgo, 2022c. emission factors categorized by industry groups, carbon label project. (in thai). [online] available at: https://thaicarbonlabel.tgo.or.th/index.php?lang=th&mod=y0hkdlpivmpkse5mwlcxcgmztnbimjq9 [accessed 1 january 2024]. tgo, 2023. manufacture and distribute precast concrete products, carbon label project. (in thai). available at: https://thaicarbonlabel.tgo.or.th/index.php?lang=th&mod=yjnkbllxnxblbuywyvc5dvgyrndjsep2zg1gcw& action=wkdwmflxbhm¶m=tvrvek1eqt0 [accessed 1 january 2024]. tgo, no date a. carbon footprint of organization: certified companies and products, carbon label project. (in thai). [online] available at: https://thaicarbonlabel.tgo.or.th/index.php?lang=th&mod=yjnkbllxnxblbuywyvc5dvgyrndjsep2zg1gcw [accessed 1 january 2024]. tgo, no date b. carbon footprint of product: certified companies and products, carbon label project. (in thai). [online] available at: https://thaicarbonlabel.tgo.or.th/index. php?lang=th&mod=y0hkdlpivmpkse5mwvhcd2ntotjzv3c9 [accessed 1 january 2024]. unfccc, no date. the paris agreement: what is the paris agreement?, unfccc.int. [online] available at: https:// unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement#:~:text=its%20overarching%20goal%20is%20to,above%20 pre%2dindustrial%20levels.%e2%80%9d [accessed 1 january 2024]. usubharatana, p. and phungrussami, h., 2014. carbon footprint of organization: case study for thammasat university. thai journal of science and technology, 22(1), pp.1-12. (in thai). vrachni, a., christogerou, a., thomopoulos, g.a., marazioti, c. and angelopoulos, g.n., 2022. carbon footprint of the university of patras in greece: evaluating environmental culture and campus’ energy management towards 2030. pollutants, 2(3), pp.347-62. https://doi.org/10.3390/pollutants2030024 suriyanon et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202568 https://thaicarbonlabel.tgo.or.th/tools/files.php?mod=yjnkbllxnxblbuywyvc5dvgyvnrhwe56yvc5dq&type=wdbaslrfvlq&files=txc9pq https://thaicarbonlabel.tgo.or.th/tools/files.php?mod=yjnkbllxnxblbuywyvc5dvgyvnrhwe56yvc5dq&type=wdbaslrfvlq&files=txc9pq https://thaicarbonlabel.tgo.or.th/index.php?lang=th&mod=y0hkdlpivmpkse5mwlcxcgmztnbimjq9 https://thaicarbonlabel.tgo.or.th/index.php?lang=th&mod=yjnkbllxnxblbuywyvc5dvgyrndjsep2zg1gcw&action=wkdwmflxbhm¶m=tvrvek1eqt0 https://thaicarbonlabel.tgo.or.th/index.php?lang=th&mod=yjnkbllxnxblbuywyvc5dvgyrndjsep2zg1gcw&action=wkdwmflxbhm¶m=tvrvek1eqt0 https://thaicarbonlabel.tgo.or.th/index.php?lang=th&mod=yjnkbllxnxblbuywyvc5dvgyrndjsep2zg1gcw https://thaicarbonlabel.tgo.or.th/index.php?lang=th&mod=y0hkdlpivmpkse5mwvhcd2ntotjzv3c9 https://thaicarbonlabel.tgo.or.th/index.php?lang=th&mod=y0hkdlpivmpkse5mwvhcd2ntotjzv3c9 https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement#:~:text=its%20overarching%20goal%20is%20to,above%20pre%2dindustrial%20levels.%e2%80%9d https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement#:~:text=its%20overarching%20goal%20is%20to,above%20pre%2dindustrial%20levels.%e2%80%9d https://unfccc.int/process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement#:~:text=its%20overarching%20goal%20is%20to,above%20pre%2dindustrial%20levels.%e2%80%9d https://doi.org/10.3390/pollutants2030024 construction economics and building vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022 © 2022 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: annunen, p., haapasalo, h. 2022. production capability creation (pcc) for collaborative construction projects – a qualitative study from finland. construction economics and building, 22:3, 1–20. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v22i3.8146 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article production capability creation (pcc) for collaborative construction projects – a qualitative study from finland petteri annunen1, harri haapasalo2,* 1 department of industrial engineering and management, university of oulu, oulu, finland, petteri.annunen@oulu.fi 2 department of industrial engineering and management, university of oulu, oulu, finland, harri.haapasalo@oulu.fi corresponding author: harri haapasalo, department of industrial engineering and management, university of oulu, oulu, finland, harri.haapasalo@oulu.fi doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.8146 article history: received: 05/04/2022; revised: 12/08/2022; accepted: 16/08/2022; published: 20/09/2022 abstract the construction industry has been suffering from modest productivity development in recent decades. to address the recognized problems, collaborative delivery methods are replacing traditional project delivery models, especially in large and complex projects. the aim of this research is to describe the production capability creation (pcc) process as a solution for planning the production phase. the pcc process should be implemented parallel to the design phase and owned by the production. a qualitative and inductive approach, based primarily on case company interviews, is applied to identify the twelve most important challenges for preplanning in the design phase from a group of different types of stakeholders in construction projects. based on these challenges, the main areas of pcc are structured, solving the depicted production challenges, enabling a wasteless and cost-efficient production phase to avoid unnecessary delays and problems. parallel implementation of pcc and design processes of the building naturally also improve the result of the design itself. with pcc, contractors can recognize the need for improvement in their processes but, more importantly, can directly contribute to the design of the building. described pcc process solves major challenges emerging from the case company interviews. earlier literature on capability creation is scarce, and for the construction industry it is even more narrow. the pcc process presented in this research declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 1 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.8146 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.8146 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:petteri.annunen@oulu.fi mailto:harri.haapasalo@oulu.fi mailto:harri.haapasalo@oulu.fi https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.8146 enables significant improvement in efficiency and effectiveness, and the elimination of waste in the construction industry. keywords collaborative projects; supply chain management; design for excellence; production capability creation introduction productivity development in the construction industry has been modest in the recent decades (pekuri, haapasalo and herrala, 2011; dixit, et al., 2019; teräväinen and junnonen, 2019). fragmentation and low level of collaboration among project stakeholders have been identified as among the main reasons for this (aapaoja, et al., 2013; larsen, et al. 2018; halttula, haapasalo and silvola, 2020). traditional contract models such as design–bid–build and design–build have resulted in problems with key processes, information sharing, and trust (halttula, aapaoja and haapasalo, 2015; sarhan, et al., 2018). division in terms of design and production phases does not enable collaboration, which is seen as a prerequisite for successful projects (love, irani and edwards, 2004; almunifi and almutairi, 2021). recently, collaborative delivery models such as integrated project delivery and project alliancing have enabled development—improving collaboration among participating companies and across project phases (hietajärvi, aaltonen and haapasalo, 2017a; 2017b). in collaborative contracts, once the main suppliers (members of the collaborative contract) are selected and permitted to collaborate at a very early phase, they are able to create a more efficient design for the end result (aapaoja and haapasalo, 2014), incorporate their competence in creating the most efficient delivery plan (aapaoja, et al., 2013), and even provide innovative solutions for the client (hietajärvi, aaltonen and haapasalo, 2017b). in this way, projects avoid a range of problems between the design phase and the activities being performed (de blois, lizarralde and de coninck, 2016). the emerging development is at least partially due to new contract models. among others, gerth, et al. (2013) and halttula, haapasalo and silvola (2020), introduced new concepts from other industries to construction industry. methods such as design for excellence (dfx) and capability creation (cc) aim to enable more accurate value creation not only for the client but also for other stakeholders. such methods also aim to increase the efficiency of a project through the elimination of waste (halttula, et al., 2017) and overall constructability (khan, 2015). dfx is a method that takes the requirements of the key project stakeholder (stakeholder x) into account even at the design phase of a project (lehto, et al., 2011). in turn, the xcc method aims to plan and create key capabilities for stakeholder x and the project during the early phase to ensure efficient project implementation (tolonen, et al., 2017; annunen, et al., 2021). the complementary nature of dfx and xcc processes has been presented by tolonen, et al. (2017); namely, how design for supply chain (dfsc) incorporates the requirements of the supply chain into design while the supply chain capability creation (sccc) process creates the capabilities for these supply chain requirements. the main drivers of this study (dfx and cc utilisation) are improvements for the final value delivery and efficiency of a project (lehto, et al., 2011; halttula, et al., 2017; verrollot, et al., 2017). therefore, aim is to create content for the production capability creation (pcc) process that is applicable to the construction industry. the pcc is a separate systematic process that takes place parallel to a building’s design or development phase and should be managed by the stakeholder responsible for the construction (cf. annunen, et al., 2021). the traditional approaches of design and construction collaboration (cf. kleinsmann, et al., 2012) and design management (cf. herrera, et al., 2020) are not neglected, but target is to create content for the pcc process that aims to improve constructability and provide a dedicated responsible role. annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 20222 earlier research emphasized the benefits of involving construction stakeholders during the design process but has not explained directly how readiness for delivering a product (building) can be created in parallel with the design process (tolonen, et al., 2017; verrollot, et al., 2017), nor there are any systematic models or process for preplanning. this research position requires a foundation that enables collaboration, or at least a contract model that does not restrict it. all this leads us to the following research questions: rq1: which key issues require preplanning in the collaborative project design phase to ensure an efficient production phase? rq2: what are the main areas and process for production capability creation in collaborative projects? in the literature review, the fundamental setup for collaborative projects is summarized, streamlining supply chain management, and dfx as a pre-requirement for cc to synthesize justification for early planning. after describing the research process, the main challenges of production and the findings on the preplanning elements of the design phase of collaborative construction projects are presented (rq1). based on these, the framework and the main areas of the pcc process are presented (rq2). the final sections of the study cover the discussion and present the conclusions. the main impact of pcc process enables companies to improve their efficiency by saving time, gaining benefits through repeatability and by reducing the variation in their operations. literature review collaborative project models and integration traditionally, the construction business has mainly been using design–bid–build or design–build project models (walker, 2018). in design–bid–build projects, the client chooses the main designer, who manages the design work. after a competitive tendering process, the client selects a contractor to manage the overall project. the lowest-cost bid usually wins, which typically leads to problems later on, especially in complex or largescale projects involving difficult and precise design work (halttula, aapaoja and haapasalo, 2015). changes during the production phase mean that the main contractor and subcontractors can then charge for the extra work (halttula, aapaoja and haapasalo, 2015), and, as a result, project costs and schedules are likely to be adversely affected (yeganeh, azizi and falsafi, 2019). in the case of design–build projects, the main contractor is responsible for managing both design and construction. collaborative projects have been seen as the answer to these problems, especially for large and complex construction projects (lahdenperä, 2012; børve, et al., 2017; mesa, molenaar and alarcón, 2019). in collaborative projects, project participants aim for the same and jointly agreed targets, for which suboptimization is precluded. according to børve, et al. (2017), the project owner in a collaborative model integrates contractors and other major contributors into the project; trust and commitment are central to it, with continuous feedback given and improvement attained. a collaborative method combines the potential knowledge, experience, and decision-making capabilities of the companies involved (walker, 2018), aligning stakeholders’ objectives through risk-sharing and joint organization and decision-making (lahdenperä, 2012). according to ross (2003), service providers share the “pain” or “gain”, to achieve their target through collective responsibility and ownership. a further key element in collaborative projects is early involvement and integration, which enables the availability of critical information from both internal and external stakeholders already in the design phase, all of which is to be used for better planning and preparation for the production phase (aapaoja and haapasalo, 2014). early involvement means a systematic approach is taken to identify, analyze, and classify key stakeholders and involve them in the front-end of a project, enabling them to contribute to value creation (aapaoja and haapasalo, 2014; halttula, et al., 2017). integration refers to collaborative annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 20223 methods and behavior to promote an environment whereby information is exchanged transparently among stakeholders to ensure the best decisions are made (baiden, price and dainty, 2006). however, early involvement and integration are quite generic concepts, and a substantial amount of research is needed to take these to a level whereby they can operate in practice. challenges in the construction supply chain supply-chain management (scm) refers to the design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of activities in the supply chain. it focuses on intensifying the flow and value creation in the chain and tries to minimize total costs with respect to existing conflicts among stakeholders (fawcett and magnan, 2002). scm can also be seen as a “network of organisations that are involved, through upstream and downstream linkages, in the different processes and activities that produce value in the form of products and services in the hands of the ultimate customer” (christopher, 2011). in construction, supply chains include multiple subcontractors and businesses that directly or indirectly provide the requisite materials or services for a project (mcdermotti and khalfan, 2012; meng, 2013). supplier relationships in the construction supply chain are short-term and often adversarial (bresnen and marshall, 2000; saad, jones and james, 2002; meng, 2013; fulford and standing, 2014), and they are adjusted based on a risk-shedding attitude, causing the industry to suffer from a lack of interoperability, collaboration, and information exchange (succar, 2009; papadonikolaki, vrijhoef and wamelink, 2016). the traditional arm’s length and adversarial model toward the supplier is centered on maximizing the bargaining power of buyers on the one hand and minimizing their dependency on suppliers on the other, to keep the suppliers at arm’s length without any form of commitment (dyer, cho and cgu, 1998). in contrast, the more collaborative model proposed by dyer, cho and cgu (1998) achieves better performance and quality improvement through better information sharing and the coordination of tasks with minimum transaction costs. from the scm literature, it is evident that a supply chain’s performance improvement requires, among other things, tighter stakeholder relationships and transparent processes. womack and jones (2003) discussed value stream management and lean implementation. another discussion has emerged about the elimination of waste (in the upstream) to focus on solving problems before they emerge (in the downstream). originally, ohno’s (1988) seven initial types of waste have been analyzed in more detail through later research (cf. womack and jones, 2003) and tailored specifically to construction (koskela, 2004). halttula, et al. (2017) reviewed the literature and performed empirical analysis to prioritize wastes in the construction industry (the twelve most important forms), namely communication and documentation, people’s unused potential, defects, making wrong products or services, unnecessary movements, inadequate processing, making do, overloading, poor constructability, overproduction, waiting, and unnecessary transportation. almost all of these can be linked to inaccurate or incorrect planning in an operation, thereby highlighting the importance of preplanning. design for excellence and capability creation complementary dfx and cc approaches have been applied to product development projects involving several key xs—for example, dft (testing), dfa (assembly), dfl (logistics), and dfe (environment), dfs (safety) etc. (lehto, et al., 2011; teo, et al., 2016). in construction, key xs in current use include design for manufacturing (dfm), design for assembly (dfa), and design for manufacturing and assembly (dfma) (gerth, et al., 2013; lu, et al., 2021). design for construction (dfc) has been discussed in terms of constructability (khan, 2015) in order to avoid problems and excessive costs during the construction phase. the problem identified in this discussion is that there is no dedicated party to present the requirements, constraints, and best practices and no specific means for doing this. once design for production (dfp) is in use, there should be a dedicated stakeholder whose role is to set these for the design process. at the same annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 20224 time, cc processes run parallel to the product design process, influencing its governance as well as target setting, key metrics, tasks, milestone criteria, and roles. the main goals of cc are to improve product design and facilitate efficient production. there should be a dedicated capability manager responsible for related work during the design process (tolonen, et al., 2017). tolonen, et al. (2017) further identified mature process platforms as a precondition for efficient cc activities. the design process must be described, and capabilities created parallel to it, in addition to dfx concepts. for the third requirement, a design process governance model is needed to support the work. verrollot, et al. (2017) highlighted the importance of an efficient milestone process and use of milestone criteria in product development, defining the early involvement and integration of all the relevant stakeholders that are important for success. for high-quality capability creation work, the main kpis are the quality of the product itself and the related processes (verrollot, et al., 2017). synthesis earlier literature has provided an understanding of what early stakeholder involvement and integration mean during the front-end phase of the project, and especially of how important they are for enabling project success. in traditional contracts, the opportunity for early involvement is possible only in extreme cases, and there is little motivation for it; however, collaborative contracts provide an ideal platform for this. details of early stakeholder involvement and integration, how those are executed, and the essential actor’s roles, responsibilities, and activities, were much more limited in earlier research. the literature (cf. gerth, et al., 2013; lu, et al., 2021) has depicted the importance of production or the manufacturing process in general as a stakeholder in construction projects. therefore, it can be considered self-evidently as a key stakeholder, with dfp setting requirements for design, naturally with other key stakeholders. in this study, the production is used as the process, for which cc is aimed to define. the cc process seeks to improve (product) design and facilitate efficient production through preplanning (tolonen, et al., 2017). efficient production can be divided into several subareas, but the overall aim of it is accuracy, in terms of time, lower production costs, and achieving the required quality. dfp and pcc are counterpart processes that support each other (see figure 1). they both require and utilize recognition and analysis of the most important stakeholder or area concerning the product and its production. the figure 1. complementary nature of dfp and pcc (modified from tolonen, et al., 2017, and annunen, et al., 2021), connected with general collaborative construction project phases. annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 20225 main idea of dfp is to recognize the main stakeholder (production) and elicit, collect, document, and analyze the requirements of that stakeholder, to the product design in the early phase. then the same stakeholder (production), parallel to the design phase, creates the required capability. once production begins, production operations are then simply implemented. dfx’s effort is the greatest during the start of the design phase, but then this effort diminishes as the project proceeds. the relative importance of pcc increases when the project has started. based on earlier research, pcc processes can bridge major gaps in the design for the production phase, especially in collaborative projects. the cornerstones of pcc in construction projects, however, require mature core processes (design and production) and a clear governance model for implementation (annunen, et al., 2021). in collaborative projects, aims, organizational structure, and joint responsibilities form a sound basis for implementing pcc processes. the process owner’s role and the milestones for controlling progress are also critical for multi-stakeholder processes (kohlbacher and gruenwald, 2011). research process given the scarcity of previous research on pcc (cf. constructability), this study adopted a qualitative and inductive approach (bryman and bell, 2011; figure 2). first, a literature review was performed to understand the foundation. based on the literature synthesis, the data collection topics were scoped, and a semi-structured interview guide was created (appendix 1), for highlighting which issues require more detailed understanding of preplanning in the design phase, to ensure an efficient production phase. after the first interviews and analysis, more in-depth validation interviews were performed with selected industry experts to validate the findings from the first interviews, and to outline in particular the experts’ views on the definitions of the main areas of pcc in collaborative projects. figure 2. research process. collaborative project models, supply chain management in construction and capability creation formed the theoretical foundation for the study, guiding the data collection in the interviews. the first interviews were conducted in thirteen key stakeholder organizations involved in collaborative projects. in order to secure rich data, different types of stakeholders in construction projects, which were critical for production preplanning in the design phase, were chosen. interviewed stakeholders included building authority and client, who had proved their expertise and knowledge of production. selecting the informants was based on good access to the companies and the informant expertise in the field. purposeful interview sampling was utilized based on denzin and lincoln (2005). interviewees were asked, if all relevant roles are included in the interview set-up, to secure data validity and consistency. willingness and availability to participate in the interview was secured beforehand. the ability to communicate experiences and opinions in an expressive and reflective sense was noted, as advised by palinkas, et al. (2015). the organizations mainly operated in finland and had experience with several collaborative projects. informants were selected with experience of collaborating with each other on earlier projects. the unit of analysis in this study was a collaborative construction project with a design phase and a production phase. any specific case project was not analyzed, annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 20226 but rather the cumulative experiences of the general production phase challenges of collaborative projects in finland. the data were collected from semi-structured interviews (clifford, et al., 2016), before which respondents were provided interview guidelines to give them an idea of the scope and subject matter. the interviews were conducted in groups, with one interviewer responsible for asking questions and another for taking notes from the responses. all interviews were also recorded for more detailed analysis. the interview questions were created based on the most important topics raising from the literature review, to find out the most critical issues and to form the basis for the pcc process. questions covered basic descriptive data about the organization, interviewee, and experiences related to the processes and key methods of collaborative models and supply chain management. key questions included asking about the most critical issues regarding preplanning and preparation in the design phase and the issues that caused problems in the production phase. table 1. details of thirteen organizations/companies and interviewees in the first phase of interviews. company company’s role in collaborative project interviewee’s role in company informants (n) prior involvement in collaborative projects (n) company size* a building authority director 1 1 small b main designer team manager, architect 2 2 small c sub designer design director 1 1 large d sub designer executive vicepresident 1 12 large e developer builder consultant 1 5 large f main contractor area director, project development manager 2 4 medium g main contractor area director 1 2 large h main contractor head of department, production manager 2 6 large i subcontractor project director 1 10 large j client/user program director 1 1 large k client/owner project manager 1 3 medium l consultant managing partner 1 25 small m consultant chief operating officer 1 7 small * based on the european commission definition. small = 10-50 employees, 2-10m€ turnover; medium = 50-250 employees, 10-50m€ turnover; large = more than 250 employees, more than 50m€ turnover. annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 20227 the information from the first interviews was analyzed using content analysis principles, consisting of data collection, coding, content analysis, and results interpretation, following duriau, reger and pfarrer (2007). the research team first summarized the overall findings and then began to identify emerging issues requiring preplanning and smaller indicators related to the new pcc method requiring preplanning (see table 4 for a detailed description of the key issues). in the second phase of the analysis, during the second formal coding round, key issues emerged and were combined with the depicted challenges and connected to groups (capability creation areas) to build up the pcc process structure. a proposal of the pcc areas was created based on the literature, analysis of the first interviews, and finally from the validation interviews. for the validation interviews, unstructured discussions were used with three professionals (table 2), with particular experience in areas of pcc, to validate the findings. these validation informants were known to have extensive insight into the construction industry and were familiar with the benefits of cc processes. the validation interviews included detailed discussions related to all the key challenges and full pcc process, supporting the proposal of the pcc areas. based on the informant feedback, the general high-level set-up for the pcc process was finalized. table 2. interviewees in the validation phase. company company role interviewee role company size* n main contractor chief executive officer medium o main contractor chief development officer large p consultant partner small * based on the european commission definition results common findings from the first interview round all the interviewed organizations reported similar principles and methodologies regarding their approach to collaborative projects. all the companies had followed the description of project alliances (rt103239, 2020) for finnish construction regulations. they reported utilization of largely the same lean tools and key performance indicators, and the stakeholders in the majority of such alliances were quite similar. eleven of the participating organizations were working on the same large and complex project in addition to their earlier experiences of collaborative projects. all participating organizations used the same basic project alliance process that involved five phases: strategy, predevelopment, development (design phase), implementation (production phase), and maintenance. in collaborative projects, the key stakeholders were the clients, users, main designers, and main contractors, as well as the sub designers, subcontractors, and suppliers. a collaborative mindset was considered central to this way of working, and the phrase “best for the project” was mentioned in most of the interviews as the basis for all decisions. in all collaborative projects, target value design (tvd) was among the key guiding principles. regarding the key lean tools, all participants reported using big room and last planner; kanban, vsm (value stream mapping), 3p (product preparation process), a3-decision matrix, and cba (choosing by advantages) were also widely used. some also mentioned other lean-related tools. most of the participating organizations used similar types of kpis related to money, time, quality, and safety. most also used building information modelling (bim), which was increasingly valued. annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 20228 key issues requiring preplanning in the design phase central to the first interviews was finding out, which issues required more preplanning and concentration in the design phase of collaborative projects to achieve a successful production phase, and cross-checking whether those were the same issues that caused most of the problems during the production phase. the aim of these questions was to find support for the development of key areas for a possible pcc process. ccrelated terminology was deliberately not used to ensure that the interviewees had the freedom to point out all the related key issues and not to lead them to ready-made solutions. in the analysis of the first interviews, one of the key findings was that issues, which should have been concentrated on more in the design phase were, from a data analysis point of view, basically the same as the issues causing problems in the production phase. the research group coded the key findings and combined them into twelve key areas for improvement (table 3). table 3. synthesis of key challenges emerging from the first interviews. key challenges company a b c d e f g h i j k l m 1. change management in production phase x x x x x x x x x 2. big room usage x x x x x x x x x 3. decision management x x x x x x 4. how collaborative organization is formed x x x x x x 5. sourcing/subcontracting x x x x x 6. kpis, target setting x x x x x 7. training/teaching, lessons to learn x x x x x 8. exact project requirements to be clear x x x x x 9. lack of communication x x x x x 10. transparency/co-operation x x x x x 11. design phase readiness x x x x 12. quality and innovation management x x x most of the participating organizations viewed change management in the production phase as a key problem. this relates to several other critical areas, including decision management, how well the interface between the design and production phases is managed, how client requirements are managed, and how organizations cooperate within a project alliance. all of these can lead to excessive changes in the production phase, and these changes were not being managed as well as they needed to be. even the change management process was not sufficiently well defined. many concerns were also raised about big room functionality. according to company c (direct citations are accurate representative replies, reflecting the company experiences): annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 20229 working efficiency is low in big room meetings, and it is difficult to find one’s own peace. several raised concerns about efficiency and whether the right people were in the right place at the right time. one proposal to make big room usage more efficient was to introduce a facilitator. decision management is critical in large and complex collaborative projects, but this is not always the case, according to a representative from organization d, who stated: in big collaborative projects in particular, project management efforts do not meet the required level, which is why things proceed slowly and we run into problems. if the organizational structure is too complicated, decisions may be delayed, and some of them may not be properly communicated to the organization as a whole. forming decision boards is an important means of ensuring effective decision-making. according to a representative of organization g: without sufficient attention to forming a board, the project is very likely to be hindered by inefficient decision-making. decisions must also be taken at the appropriate organizational level. from a sub designer’s perspective (company c), designers should have more power and scope to make decisions; otherwise, decision management is slow and difficult because there are too many stakeholders with too many opinions about the design. there are some fundamental problems in forming the collaborative organization. as company m described it: users, especially clients, are missing or play too small a role in the collaborative project management group. this causes several problems, as the voice of the client remains too quiet, and the project cannot proceed in the most efficient way so that value is delivered to the client. roles and responsibilities should be clear. company e also raised the problem of resourcing: among stakeholders, users are especially problematic because they are not allocated to the project, and while they have their own job to do, they cannot participate enough in the design phase. similarly, those involved in the production phase (i.e., construction companies) are not sufficiently involved with design phase resources (i.e., designers). choosing the correct stakeholders, and even the correct people among the stakeholders, is seen as important. sourcing and subcontracting concerned five of the companies, but their concerns were notable and, moreover, were shared by all the key companies that used subcontractors. according to company d: subcontracting decisions should be made early enough in the development phase to utilize product information—for example, through early use of bim. a company l representative elaborated on this point: the ability to implement a project successfully requires procurement planning even in the tendering phase. subcontractor selection must be managed carefully for recruiting reliable subcontractors with a high-quality supply chain that can support project targets. clearly, sourcing/subcontractor management and integration is among the key challenges in finnish collaborative projects, and there is a need to consider whether subcontractors are to be included in the same collaborative agreement or managed through a traditional tendering process. the increasing use of subcontracting in collaborative projects highlights the importance of this issue. annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202210 target setting should be visible, and kpis should guide work in the right direction. collaborative projects should as far as possible use real-time kpis rather than managers “looking in the rear-view mirror.” kpis are especially important when moving from the development phase to the implementation phase. one common view was that project alliance–related training and usage of lessons to learn were not being utilized as they should be. according to a representative from company c: training is available, but in reality, only a small proportion of project personnel have participated in it. regarding collaborative project roles and responsibilities, a lack of information about exact client requirements would cause problems across an alliance. as a representative from company g noted: if the client is not willing to put in the effort right from the start of the project, this will very likely translate into wasted money in the latter stages … the project owner must set starting points that are sufficiently precise. a representative from company h described this problem in another way: the client’s desire to handle the project as a collaborative one is essential for success. additional costs will be incurred if the constructor has to make additional efforts to ensure compliance with the alliance contract in circumstances whereby the client is unsure of the model and its assumptions. regarding decision management, according to company c: when the client is not sufficiently involved, some decisions need to be delayed. and if there is no clear understanding about what designers and construction companies can decide on, decisions are not managed properly and are therefore delayed. in the design phase, one of the most important requirements is to understand the client’s needs in as much detail as possible, as special requests during the production phase can cost too much to keep the project on target. cooperation is vital, and lack of communication will damage a project. these are common problems in all modern projects, but collaborative projects also face some specific issues, as described by an interviewee from company h: designers should participate more in common project work. [the fact that they don’t] is most likely a consequence of all the years they have spent working as consultants, simply doing the tasks they’ve been assigned. for people who are used to the traditional design–bid–build project model, it takes time to learn how to cooperate for the common good. at the end of the project design phase, moving to the production phase was seen as a critical step. according to a representative from company l, a typical problem is that development of the project stops in the design phase even if there is still half of the planning yet to be done and efforts are not fully devoted to the project. the planning of solutions is considered too deeply, instead of concentrating on developing the way to operate, as takt time production has done. there is also a critical phase between design and construction when a lot of new people are starting to work on production. training and coaching should be done with more precision, and construction companies should be more involved. annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202211 according to an interviewee from company m: parties need to be committed to agreed-upon issues when moving from the development phase to the implementation phase, as the organization size will increase by a factor of ten and many changes will be made in the organization. the fact that the production phase stakeholders (construction companies) are involved too late in collaborative project work was seen as a common problem. general quality management and innovation management through workshops were considered important, as a representative from company h put it: innovation workshops boost collaboration and enthusiasm for a project, which can help to build trust. the innovation itself does not necessarily have to cost a significant amount of money. from the analysis, the typology of key issues requiring preplanning in the collaborative project design phase was quite consistent, and surprisingly so (table 4). some of the identified challenges were related to collaborative project methods (e.g., big room utilization) and basic processes (e.g., change management). however, some related to common supply chain capability issues such as subcontracting and quality management. in summary, as collaborative project methods are relatively new to all stakeholders, many of the key issues arise from new practices and the demanding nature of the project set-up. by implication, collaborative methods require leadership to ensure that they are optimally utilized. table 4. key issues requiring preplanning in the design phase to ensure an efficient production phase. key issue requiring pre-planning more detailed description of the issue causing challenges in the production phase 1. change management in the production phase the change management process is not defined well enough. there are too many changes in production phase, and these are not managed in a proper way. 2. big room working efficiency in big room is low. the right people are not in the right place at the right time. facilitators are missing. 3. decision management decisions are delayed and are not properly communicated. forming of the decision board is a problem. 4. how a collaborative organization is formed—roles and responsibilities the user and especially the client have too small role in the management group; they are not properly allocated to the project. construction companies are not sufficiently involved in the design phase. 5. subcontracting subcontracting decisions should be made earlier to involve the subcontractors. subcontractors should be reliable with high-quality supply chains. 6. kpis and target setting target setting should be visible. kpis should guide the work in the right direction and should as far as possible be in real-time. 7. training, teaching, lessons to learn training and lessons to learn are not utilized as they should be; people are not participating in training. annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202212 key issue requiring pre-planning more detailed description of the issue causing challenges in the production phase 8. clear and exact project requirements the client does not make sufficient effort, especially at the beginning of the project. the project owner must set more precise starting points. 9. lack of communication, shared expertise designers do not sufficiently participate in common project work, and construction companies do not participate enough in the design phase. best practices should be shared. 10. transparency/ cooperation people are too used to working with traditional design–bid–build projects, making it more difficult to begin working together for the common good, and company boundaries remain in place. 11. design phase readiness development work ends too early because of time pressure. construction companies should be involved earlier and be trained in a timely fashion to be ready for the production phase. 12. quality and innovation management quality management is of importance throughout the project; innovation workshops should be organized to boost collaboration and development. validating the areas of pcc after the analysis of the first interviews, the key activities to be included in the pcc process were listed. logical groups of activities proved difficult to establish, but preliminary groupings were formulated for validation by beginning with the easiest ones. in the validation interviews, support was found for the premise that the pcc process should be extended to include more general topics, beyond those mentioned in the first interviews. as the expert from company o stated: all the challenges identified in the first interviews are valid, especially in large collaborative projects, but the framework for pcc should also include some general supply chain management–related activities, which are important for the industry. based on the validation interviews, two activities were moved to more appropriate groups, and two new activities were also added. in the last phase of the validation process, the interviewees helped to specify names for activities and groups (pcc areas). the finalized process structure (table 5) included collaboration, production process, and sourcing as production capability creation process areas, covering most of the identified challenges such as change management, decision management, subcontracting, and quality management. certain other general construction-related issues, which were not mentioned in the first interviews, were also included (e.g., safety, environmental issues, logistics). there was also a recognized need for a production capability manager (pcm) role in collaborative construction projects. as an interviewee from company p said: a pcm role would definitely be needed in collaborative projects. at present, construction companies do not engage in sufficient discussion with development personnel, and the needs of construction companies are not sufficiently visible during the design phase. table 4. continued annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202213 the optimum set-up would include a pcm to lead capability creation work during the design phase from a construction perspective. the pcm would be part of the respective management team leading the design phase. separate production process capability and sourcing capability managers might be needed in large and complex projects; in smaller projects, the pcm could occupy all three roles. table 5. main areas of production capability creation in collaborative projects. area of production capability creation activities included in the area (numerals refer to key issue requiring preplanning number in table 4) collaboration capability creation forming and maintaining organization set-up [4, 8] defined roles and responsibilities for activities efficient and transparent decision management [3] change management process and practices [1] communication methods [9, 10] defined follow-up training [7] production process capability creation production and material management (both onsite and prefabrication) time management (scheduling and follow-up) risk management [12] cost management (tvd, close follow-up of kpis) [6] quality management (including big room and innovation practices) [2,12] safety and environmental management sourcing capability creation supplier selection process [5] affective supplier management [5] subcontracting [5] purchasing [5] logistics and site logistics–related methods the collaboration capability creation area includes all the needed project-related general capabilities, starting from efficient organizational setup and defined roles and responsibilities. some of the key challenges found in the first interviews, namely efficient decision management and change management, belong to this common area. the role of communication methods and practices cannot be overestimated. several types of training (lean, technical, and project method–related) belong to this area. production process capability creation includes more technical and construction-related activities, such as construction and material management (for both onsite construction and the prefabrication of parts). time management (e.g., takt time planning) also belongs in this area, along with risk management, quality management, and innovation management–related activities such as innovation workshops. cost management, including tvd-related activities, is among the most important elements of every project, and the construction industry places increasing emphasis on safety and environmental management. sourcing capability creation includes all activities related to the growing area of subcontractors and suppliers, from supplier selection to the effectiveness of suppliers, subcontractors, and purchasing management. logistics and site logistics–related activities are also important elements in this area. the general process setup principle is presented in figure 3, namely a pcc process with three main areas as part of the construction project. process phases 1–6 and milestones 1–6 in the figure follow the current construction project phases used in finnish collaborative construction projects and need be modified based on local processes. the most important thing is to agree the actual activities and tasks for each main pcc area and the project phase, to be followed up in each milestone, by the agreed persons responsible. annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202214 figure 3. pcc processes as part of construction project. (m = milestone) discussion the pcc in this study is in line with cc presented in other industries by tolonen, et al. (2017), verrollot, et al. (2017), and annunen, et al. (2021). the importance of creating relevant capabilities during the project’s earlier phases, is highlighted in this study. the findings confirm the importance of cooperation among the various project participants and with the client (kang, et al., 2020), as well as the need for early involvement in construction (aapaoja and haapasalo, 2014; almunifi and almutairi, 2021) at a more detailed level. this study also complements research on design for construction by gerth, et al. (2013) and other dfx studies on construction (lehto, et al., 2011; halttula, et al., 2017; lu, et al., 2021) and acknowledges the complementary nature of dfx and pcc in a construction industry setting. the managerial implications of this study include the proposed framework for pcc in the construction industry—what needs to be done in practice, and how. the proposed pcc process is also validated in conceptual level into companies use. as a basis, the operation model of the company needs to be in place, including defined products and processes, which need to be standardized to reduce the variation and to improve the efficiency (annunen and haapasalo, 2022). there is a clear need to understand the importance of the design phase across collaborative projects. planning and managing capability creation of the production phase is essential in construction projects, and it is essential that the stakeholder tasked with leading production is responsible for creating capabilities for production. pcc enables avoiding the types of waste listed by halttula, et al. (2017), thereby improving cost efficiency. in principle, pcc can be initiated for rapid benefits by agreeing to requisite roles and actively managing essential activities from the design phase onwards, tying activities into relevant milestones. at the same time, construction companies can directly contribute to the design of the building. conclusions among the shortages in the construction industry, which is causing productivity challenges, is the lack of efficient cooperation among the stakeholders and between the design and production phases. this results in failure to make full use of the available capabilities during both phases, causing excessive production costs. collaborative methods are increasingly replacing traditional project management methods in construction, improving communication between participating companies and project phases. to improve productivity, annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202215 lean methods such as big room and innovation workshops are increasingly utilized in collaborative construction, along with supply chain management principles. in combination with existing dfx methods, these form a viable basis for capability creation practices in the construction industry that will improve the design phase and ensure a smooth and efficient production phase. the production challenges that require preplanning in the design phase to ensure an efficient production phase, were depicted in an analysis of construction project stakeholders. more detailed descriptions of these twelve issues were also elaborated. then these challenges were further converted into elements across three main areas for pcc. collaboration capability creation refers to managing multiple stakeholders during production, production process capability creation is dedicated to more technical and detail-related activities, and sourcing capability creation focuses on a growing number of subcontractors and suppliers. at a practical level, pcc needs to be managed by a dedicated owner, such as a production capability manager, through a milestone model for iteratively progressing processes. it is important to notice, that with a production capability manager, the production process is responsible for implementing pcc parallel to the design process. this study is based on selected construction project stakeholders in a certain market. they have been operating on the same project and therefore are competent to collaboratively recognize and solve challenges. naturally, these findings cannot be fully generalized; however, they are in line with existing literature on construction, and cc in other industries. the limitation of the study is, that these results apply in finland, and conceptual level comparative studies should be done in other countries and regions. presented pcc process is covering the key areas and activities of the pcc, but the actual detailed specific activity planning for each milestone needs to be done in each project. the follow-up studies should dive more deeply into these detailed areas of pcc, and the phenomena should be studied in completely different market areas. on a final note, the whole construction industry is still learning how to implement collaborative project methods in the most efficient and effective way. references aapaoja, a., herrala, m., pekuri, a. and haapasalo, h., 2013. the characteristics of and cornerstones for creating integrated teams. international journal of managing projects in business, [e-journal] 6(4), pp.695-713. https://doi. org/10.1108/ijmpb-09-2012-0056 aapaoja, a. and haapasalo, h., 2014. a framework for stakeholder identification and classification in construction projects. open journal of business and management, [e-journal] 2(1), pp.43-55. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojbm.2014.21007 almunifi, a.a. and almutairi, s. 2021. lessons learned framework for efficient delivery of construction projects in saudi arabia. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 21(4). https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7858 annunen, p., mustonen, e., harkonen, j. and haapasalo, h., 2021. sales capability creation during new product development – early involvement of sales. journal of business & industrial marketing, [e-journal] 36(13), pp.263-73. https://doi.org/10.1108/jbim-06-2020-0274 annunen, p. and haapasalo, h., 2022. industrial operation model for the construction industry. international journal of construction management. [e-journal] https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2092810 baiden, b.k., price, a.d.f. and dainty, a.r.j., 2006. the extent of team integration within construction projects. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 24(2), pp. 13-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2005.05.001 børve, s., rolstadås, a., andersen, b. and aarseth, w., 2017. defining project partnering. international journal of managing projects in business, [e-journal] 10(4), pp.666-99. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-10-2016-0076 annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202216 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-09-2012-0056 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-09-2012-0056 https://doi.org/10.4236/ojbm.2014.21007 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7858 https://doi.org/10.1108/jbim-06-2020-0274 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2092810 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.05.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.05.001 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-10-2016-0076 bresnen, m. and marshall, n., 2000. partnering in construction: a critical review of issues, problems and dilemmas. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 18(2), pp.229-37. https://doi.org/10.1080/014461900370852 bryman, a. and bell, e., 2011. business research methods. 3rd ed. oxford: oxford university press. christopher, m., 2011. logistics & supply chain management. 4th ed. harlow: financial times prentice hall. clifford, n., cope, m., gillespie, t. and french, s., 2016. key methods in geography. thousand oaks: sage publications. de blois, m., lizarralde, g., de coninck, p., 2016. iterative project processes within temporary multi-organizations in construction: the self-, eco-, re-organizing projects. project management journal, [e-journal] 47(1), pp.27-44. https://doi. org/10.1002/pmj.21560 denzin, n. and lincoln, y., 2005. handbook of qualitative research. sage publications. dixit, s., mandal, s.n., thanikal, j.v. and saurabh, k., 2019. evolution of studies in construction productivity: a systematic literature review (2006–2017). ain shams engineering journal, [e-journal] 10(3), pp.555-64. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.asej.2018.10.010 duriau, v., reger, r. and pfarrer, m., 2007. a content analysis of the content analysis literature in organization studies: research themes, data sources, and methodological refinements. organizational research methods, [e-journal] 10, pp.534. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428106289252 dyer, j.h., cho, d.s. and cgu, w., 1998. strategic supplier segmentation: the next ‘best practice’ in supply chain management. california management review, [e-journal] 40(2), pp.57-77. https://doi.org/10.2307/41165933 fawcett, s.e. and magnan, g.m., 2002. the rhetoric and reality of supply chain integration. international journal of physical distribution & logistics management, [e-journal] 32(5), pp.339-61. https://doi. org/10.1108/09600030210436222 fulford, r. and standing, c., 2014. construction industry productivity and the potential for collaborative practice. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 32(2), pp.315–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2013.05.007 gerth, r., boqvist, a., bjelkemyr, m. and lindberg b., 2013. design for construction: utilizing production experiences in development. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 31(2), pp.135-50. https://doi.org/10.1080/014461 93.2012.756142 halttula, h., aapaoja, a. and haapasalo, h., 2015. the contemporaneous use of building information modeling and relational project delivery arrangements. procedia economics and finance, [e-journal] 21, pp.532-39. https://doi. org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00209-9 halttula, h., haapasalo, h., aapaoja, a. and manninen, s., 2017. early involvement and integration in construction projects: the benefits of dfx in elimination of wastes. international journal of management, knowledge and learning, 6(2), pp.215-37. halttula, h., haapasalo, h. and silvola, r., 2020. managing data flows in infrastructure projects the lifecycle process model. journal of information technology in construction, [e-journal] 25, pp.193-211. https://doi.org/10.36680/j. itcon.2020.012 herrera, r.f., mourgues, c., alarcón, l.f. and pellicer, e., 2020. an assessment of lean design management practices in construction projects. sustainability, [e-journal] 12(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12010019 hietajärvi, a-m., aaltonen, k. and haapasalo, h., 2017a. managing integration in infrastructure alliance projects: dynamics of integration mechanisms. international journal of managing projects in business, [e-journal] 10(1), pp.5-31. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-02-2016-0009 annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202217 https://doi.org/10.1080/014461900370852 https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21560 https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21560 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2018.10.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2018.10.010 https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428106289252 https://doi.org/10.2307/41165933 https://doi.org/10.1108/09600030210436222 https://doi.org/10.1108/09600030210436222 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.05.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.05.007 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2012.756142 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2012.756142 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00209-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00209-9 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2020.012 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2020.012 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12010019 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-02-2016-0009 hietajärvi, a-m., aaltonen, k. and haapasalo, h., 2017b. opportunity management in large projects: a case study of an infrastructure alliance project. construction innovation, [e-journal] 17(3), pp.340-362. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci10-2016-0051 kang, m., lee, g., hwang, d.w., wei, j. and huo, b., 2021. effects of cross-functional integration on npd success: mediating roles of customer and supplier involvement. total quality management & business excellence, [e-journal] 32(13-14), pp.1515-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2020.1736543 khan, s., 2015. an overview of constructability: a management tool for architects. architecture research, [e-journal] 5(5), p.125-39. https://doi.org/10.5923/j.arch.20150505.01 kleinsmann, m., deken, f., dong, a. and lauche, k., 2012. development of design collaboration skills. journal of engineering design, [e-journal] 23(7), pp.485-506. https://doi.org/10.1080/09544828.2011.619499 kohlbacher, m. and gruenwald, s., 2011. process ownership, process performance measurement and firm performance. international journal of productivity and performance management, [e-journal] 60(7), pp.709-20. https://doi. org/10.1108/17410401111167799 koskela, l., 2004. making-do – the eight categories of waste. 12th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. helsingor, denmark. lahdenperä, p., 2012. making sense of the multi-party contractual arrangements of project partnering, project alliancing and integrated project delivery. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 30(1), pp.57-79. https://doi.org/10. 1080/01446193.2011.648947 larsen, j.k., lindhard, s.m., brunoe, t.d. and jensen, k.n., 2018. the relation between pre-planning, commissioning and enhanced project performance. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 18(2), pp.1-14. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5762 lehto, j., harkonen, j., haapasalo, h., belt, p., mottonen, m. and kuvaja, p., 2011. benefits of dfx in requirements engineering. technology and investment, [e-journal] 2(1), pp.27-37. https://doi.org/10.4236/ti.2011.21004 love, p.e.d., irani, z. and edwards, d.j., 2004. a seamless supply chain management model for construction. supply chain management, [e-journal] 9(1), pp.43-56. https://doi.org/10.1108/13598540410517575 lu, w., tan, t., xu, j., wang, j., chen, k., gao, s. and xue, f., 2021. design for manufacture and assembly (dfma) in construction: the old and the new. architectural engineering and design management, [e-journal] 17(1-2), pp.77-91. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2020.1768505 mcdermotti, p. and khalfan, m., 2012. achieving supply chain integration within construction industry. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 6(2), pp.44-54. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v6i2.2983 mesa, h.a., molenaar, k.r. and alarcón, l.f., 2019. comparative analysis between integrated project delivery and lean project delivery. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 37(3), pp.395-409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2019.01.012 meng, x., 2013. change in uk construction: moving toward supply chain collaboration. journal of civil engineering and management, [e-journal] 19(3), pp.422–432. https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2012.760479 ohno, t., 1988. toyota production system: beyond large-scale production. cambridge: productivity press. palinkas, l.a., horwitz, s.m., green, c.a., wisdom, j.p., duan, n. and hoagwood, k., 2015. purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. administration and policy in mental health and mental health services, [e-journal] 42, pp.533-44. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-013-0528-y annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202218 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-10-2016-0051 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-10-2016-0051 https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2020.1736543 https://doi.org/10.5923/j.arch.20150505.01 https://doi.org/10.1080/09544828.2011.619499 https://doi.org/10.1108/17410401111167799 https://doi.org/10.1108/17410401111167799 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.648947 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.648947 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5762 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5762 https://doi.org/10.4236/ti.2011.21004 https://doi.org/10.1108/13598540410517575 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2020.1768505 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v6i2.2983 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2019.01.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2019.01.012 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2012.760479 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-013-0528-y papadonikolaki, e., vrijhoef, r. and wamelink, h., 2016. the interdependences of bim and supply chain partnering: empirical explorations. architectural engineering and design management, [e-journal] 12(6), pp.476–94. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/17452007.2016.1212693 pekuri, a., haapasalo, h. and herrala, m., 2011. productivity and performance management – managerial practices in construction industry. international journal of performance measurement, 1(1), pp.39-58. rt103239, 2020. allianssimalli hankkeen toteutusmuotona. allianssimallin yleiskuvaus (project alliance as a project method in finnish construction industry). rakennustieto. ross, j., 2003. introduction to project alliancing. alliance contracting conference. 30 april 2003. sydney: project control international., sydney. pp.1-42. saad, m., jones, m. and james, p., 2002. a review of the progress towards the adoption of supply chain management (scm) relationships in construction. european journal of purchasing & supply management, [e-journal] 8(3), pp.173-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0969-7012(02)00007-2 sarhan, j., xia, b., fawzia, s., karim, a. and olanipekun, a., 2018. barriers to implementing lean construction practices in the kingdom of saudi arabia (ksa) construction industry. construction innovation, [e-journal] 18(2), pp.246-72. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-04-2017-0033 succar, b., 2009. building information modelling framework: a research and delivery foundation for industry stakeholders. automation in construction, [e-journal] 18(3), pp.357-75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2008.10.003 teo, a. l. e., ofori, g., tjandra, i. k. and kim, h., 2016. design for safety: theoretical framework of the safety aspect of bim system to determine the safety index. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 16(4), pp.1-18. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i4.4873 teräväinen, v.j. and junnonen, j.-m., 2019. the promoters and the barriers for organizational culture change in a finnish construction company. construction innovation, [e-journal] 19(4), pp.672-88. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-042019-0029 tolonen, a., haapasalo, h., harkonen, j. and verrollot, j., 2017. supply chain capability creation – the creation of the supply chain readiness for a new product during product development process. international journal of production economics, [e-journal] 194, pp.237-45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2017.09.007 verrollot, j., tolonen, a., harkonen, j. and haapasalo, h., 2017. supply capability creation process: key milestone criteria and activities. journal of industrial engineering and management, [e-journal] 10(3), pp.495-521. https://doi. org/10.3926/jiem.2375 walker, d., 2018. integrating project delivery. international journal of managing projects in business, [e-journal] 11(2), pp.548-54. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-05-2018-166 womack, j.p. and jones, d.t., 2003. lean thinking. banish waste and create wealth in your corporation. new york: free press. yeganeh, a.a., azizi, m. and falsafi, r., 2019. root causes of design-construction interface problems in iranian design-build projects. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 145(12). https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)co.1943-7862.0001727 annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202219 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2016.1212693 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2016.1212693 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0969-7012(02)00007-2 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-04-2017-0033 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2008.10.003 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i4.4873 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i4.4873 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-04-2019-0029 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-04-2019-0029 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2017.09.007 https://doi.org/10.3926/jiem.2375 https://doi.org/10.3926/jiem.2375 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-05-2018-166 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001727 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001727 appendix 1 questionnaire basics 1. name of the case company 2. role of the case company in the alliance project(s) 3. role of the interviewee background questions 4. alliance model–related experiences in the company: • how many and what alliance projects you have participated in? • what differences were there in past alliance projects? 5. do you have alliance model process descriptions in use? • are you using takt time production? • are you using big room? • are you using last planner? • are you using other lean/alliance model–related processes/methods? 6. how does your alliance model work with other construction project–related processes and methods in your company? 7. which other processes and methods are in use in your company as the basis of your construction project work? key questions 8. which issues require preplanning and preparation in the alliance project development phase (kas) to ensure an implementation phase (tas) that is as good as possible? (e.g., time management (takt time-based manufacturing), procurement/purchasing, site logistics, construction, costs, quality, risk management, organization structure.) 9. which issues have caused problems in the implementation phase (tas)? 10. how would you resolve those issues? 11. what are the key targets and metrics in your current alliance project(s)? 12. how are you following up and measuring whether you have reached your targets? 13. are there any other issues that you would like to mention related to discussed topics and interview? annunen & haapasalo construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202220 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: rastogi, a., singla, h. k. 2025. exhausted employees do not leave, disengaged employees do: a case of the indian construction industry. construction economics and building, 25:3/4, 143–162. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i3/4.9812 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article exhausted employees do not leave, disengaged employees do: a case of the indian construction industry ashish rastogi1, harish kumar singla2,* 1 nicmar university, pune411045, india, professorashish@gmail.com, orcid: 0000000224126770 2 nicmar university, pune411045, india, hsingla25@gmail.com, orcid: 0000000301801515 corresponding author: harish kumar singla, hsingla25@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9812 article history: received 10/07/2024; revised 24/05/2025; accepted 18/06/2025; published 05/12/2025 abstract the purpose of this study is to examine the mechanisms that explain how burnout mediates the relationship between job demands and turnover intention. responses on job demands [workload (wol) and time pressure (tpr)], burnout [exhaustion (exh) and disengagement (dis)], and turnover intention (toi) were sought, employing standard measures. the valid data (n = 199), thus collected, were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (plssem). the significant mediating effects of tpr, i.e., wol→tpr→dis (h02) and wol→tpr→exh (h03), indicate that excessive workload on construction projects enhances time pressure, which in turn leads to disengagement and exhaustion. similarly, the significant mediating effects of exh, i.e., wol→exh→dis (h04) and tpr→exh→dis (h05), indicate that workplace demands lead to exhaustion; disengagement sets in later. furthermore, the significant mediating effects of dis, i.e., wol→dis→toi (h08), tpr→dis→toi (h09), and exh→dis→toi (h10), suggest that in the wake of excessive demands and exhaustion, employees are likely to feel disengaged and eventually consider quitting the organization. with respect to the research implications, this study attempts a multitheoretic conceptualization following it up with comprehensive mediation analyses. with respect to the practical implications, the study findings call for actionable strategies in the domains of work design, training, and supervisor support. 143 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9812 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9812 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:professorashish@gmail.com mailto:hsingla25@gmail.com mailto:hsingla25@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9812 keywords disengagement; exhaustion; workload; time pressure; turnover intention introduction the construction industry is widely acknowledged as being characterized by extremely challenging working conditions (enshassi et al., 2015, wu et al., 2019). construction professionals are expected to take up demanding and varied workload and deliver timebound results in resourceconstrained environments (ayalp 2021, lingard and francis 2006). thus, construction professionals experience a significant physical and mental workload coupled with immense time pressure (leung et al., 2011, wu et al., 2019). such factors create a demanding work environment for construction professionals (leung et al., 2011, yip and rowlinson 2009), which leads to burnout. in fact, the prevalence of burnout in the construction industry is well documented. extant research has identified a multitude of antecedents for the onset of burnout. these antecedents emerge from aspects such as the job role and work design, organizational interactions and policies, and, finally, the interface between work and personal domain. for instance, it has been found that irregular schedule coupled with long working hours is one of the prominent reasons for burnout (leung et al., 2007, yip and rowlinson 2009). construction professionals experience extremely high workload and time pressure in demanding conditions characterized by ambiguity and conflict visàvis the assigned roles (see avila et al., 2021, bowen et al., 2014, ibem et al., 2011, pinto et al., 2014, sun et al., 2020). furthermore, organizational factors contributing to burnout include perceived injustice, job insecurity, unfair reward and recognition policies, poor interpersonal relationships at work, and challenging work environments despite limited resources (e.g., enshassi et al., 2016, janssen and bakker 2001, leung et al., 2008, leung et al., 2009, lingard and francis 2005, yang et al., 2018). finally, the interface between work and personal domain has also been highlighted as a reason for burnout. for example, many studies have concluded the work– family conflict or work– life imbalance is a major predictor of burnout in construction professionals (see lingard and francis 2006, zheng et al., 2021). the harmful consequences of burnout have also been well researched. construction professionals exposed to burnout suffer from poor health ( janssen and bakker 2001, yang et al., 2017, wahab 2010). furthermore, the negative impact of burnout on adherence to safety protocols has also been documented (see ibem et al., 2011, poon et al., 2013). burnout is also known to have debilitating effects on job satisfaction, interpersonal relationships, and work performance (leung et al., 2008, leung et al., 2011, love and edwards 2005). finally, burnout leads to turnover intention (see chih et al., 2016, yang et al., 2017, yip and rowlinson 2009). as is evident, extant literature has made significant strides in cautioning the practitioners about the multifarious causes and adverse consequences of burnout in the construction industry. nevertheless, some research gaps remain. first, existing studies on burnout in the construction industry have extensively employed either a job demands resources model (demerouti et al., 2001) or the conservation of resources theory (hobfoll 1989). the broader organizational and management literature has sought synthesis in both these theoretical frameworks (e.g., bakker and demerouti 2007). however, they are rarely employed in conjunction in the construction context. second, in construction literature, burnout is often understood as an event. contrarily, research in the broader organizational and management literature informs us that burnout ought to be seen as a process, wherein the antecedents first lead to exhaustion; disengagement and other consequences follow (see bakker et al., 2004, leiter 1993, rastogi et al., 2018, dierendonck et al., 2001). to the best of our knowledge, such a conceptualization of burnout has not been reported in construction literature. third, lacking the consideration of burnout as a process, underlying mechanisms as to how the workplace demands lead to the onset of exhaustion, followed by disengagement and other negative consequences, remain unexamined empirically. such empirical analyses are also hampered by rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025144 the employment of theoretical lenses in isolation as explained above. finally, the studies on burnout in construction have been carried out in scattered, yet limited geographies. for example, we found empirical examinations based in australia (e.g., lingard and francis 2005, 2006, moore and loosemore 2014); china (e.g., sun et al., 2020, yang et al., 2017), african countries (e.g., bowen et al., 2014, ibem et al., 2011, wahab 2010), the middle east (e.g., enshassi et al., 2015; enshassi et al., 2016), and european countries (e.g., janssen and bakker 2001, love and edwards 2005). nevertheless, we did not come across such empirical examinations in india, despite its demographic and economic standing (rastogi et al., 2020). not only is india the most populous country, but it is also fast emerging as a major economic power. in this backdrop, our study seeks to uncover the mechanisms that explain how burnout mediates the relationship between job demands and turnover intention. to accomplish this, the study employs (1) the job demandsresources ( jdr) model, (2) the conservation of resources (cor) theory, and (3) the process model of burnout, thereby serving the purpose of theoretical integration. furthermore, the study employs workload and time pressure (as job demands) leading to the onset of exhaustion and disengagement (the process of burnout), finally culminating in turnover intention. to the best of our knowledge, such a comprehensive mediation analysis employing similar variables has not been reported in the construction context. finally, our research has been carried out in india. our study therefore makes significant conceptual, methodological, and contextual contributions in simultaneous examination of antecedents and consequences of burnout in the indian construction industry. theoretical background and hypotheses specification mediating effects of time pressure (hypotheses 01– 03) when employees experience a depletion of resources such as energy and time due to excessive workload (wol) and time pressure (tpr), they are likely to exhibit withdrawal behaviors such as turnover intention (toi) (h01) and disengagement (dis) (h02). this is in accordance with the cor theory (see halbesleben et al., 2014. hobfoll 1989). furthermore, according to the jdr model, excessive job demands such as wol and tpr are positively associated with exhaustion (exh) (see bakker and demerouti 2017, demerouti et al., 2001), thereby giving credence to h03. inherent in these arguments is the assumption that often excessive wol in construction projects results in tpr owing to strict deadlines in which construction projects operate (leung et al., 2007, pinto et al., 2014), thereby enhancing an employee’s toi (h01), dis (h02), and exh (h03). accordingly, we hypothesize the following: h01: time pressure mediates the relationship between workload and turnover intention. h02: time pressure mediates the relationship between workload and disengagement. h03: time pressure mediates the relationship between workload and exhaustion. mediating effects of exhaustion (hypotheses 04– 07) according to the jdr model, persistent job demands such as wol and tpr are likely to lead to exh (see bakker and demerouti 2017, demerouti et al., 2001). as per the cor theory, when employees experience excessive job demands such as wol and tpr, they tend to lose resources such as energy and time. to prevent a continual depletion of these resources, they are likely to withdraw either through dis or toi (see halbesleben et al., 2014, hobfoll 1989). furthermore, exh will trigger withdrawal behaviors in the form of dis and toi as a coping mechanism to prevent further resource depletion (thanacoody et al., 2014). finally, demands leading to exh till dis sets in are in line with the explanation of burnout as a process (bakker et al., 2004, leiter 1993). in the construction project context, job demands such as wol and tpr are likely to lead to exh, which in turn will lead to dis (h04 and h05, respectively). rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025145 similarly, enhanced exh due to high wol and tpr could also lead to withdrawal in the form on toi (h06 and h07, respectively). similar contentions have been supported in the construction project contexts (chih et al., 2016, leung et al., 2007, pinto et al., 2014, yang et al., 2017). accordingly, we hypothesize the following: h04: exhaustion mediates the relationship between workload and disengagement. h05: exhaustion mediates the relationship between time pressure and disengagement. h06: exhaustion mediates the relationship between workload and turnover intention. h07: exhaustion mediates the relationship between time pressure and turnover intention. mediating effects of disengagement (hypotheses 08– 10) according to the cor theory, employees overwhelmed by job demands such as wol and tpr are likely to experience a depletion of resources such as energy and time. to arrest the loss of resources, the employees may exhibit dis, a withdrawal behavior. similarly, exh will trigger dis as a coping mechanism (see halbesleben et al., 2014, hobfoll 1989). exh leading to dis is in consonance with the process model of burnout as well (bakker et al., 2004, leiter 1993). nevertheless, if their resource reservoirs are not sufficiently replenished, disengaged employees may intend to quit as well, thereby closing the loop from dis to toi (hobfoll 1989, thanacoody et al., 2014). in the construction project context, job demands such as wol and tpr are likely to lead to dis, which in turn will lead to toi (h08 and h09, respectively). similarly, enhanced dis due to high exh could also lead to withdrawal in the form of toi (h10). these contentions have been supported in the construction project contexts (chih et al., 2016, yang et al., 2017, yip and rowlinson 2009). accordingly, we hypothesize the following: h08: disengagement mediates the relationship between workload and turnover intention. h09: disengagement mediates the relationship between time pressure and turnover intention. h10: disengagement mediates the relationship between exhaustion and turnover intention. methods sample and procedure the indian construction industry is highly fragmented and unorganized. though the construction sector is one of the largest providers of employment, only a scant minority of skilled professionals are in regular employment of a few corporations (dixit et al., 2017, sakthivel and joddar 2006, tiwary et al., 2012). accordingly, to carry out an empirical investigation across a scarce and geographically scattered sample of construction professionals, we decided to focus on some of the largest construction companies in india. these large corporations have institutional mechanisms for training the employees in technical and managerial aspects of their respective domains. such trainings are conducted in the form of executive development programs of varied durations at india’s leading technical and management institutions. for this study, we approached successive groups of participants in various executive development programs of a prominent construction management institute in western india, with a request to respond to our survey. this kind of data collection strategy can be termed as snowball sampling. the data were collected in person from the respondents during their visit to the abovementioned institute over a period of 4 months (may 2023 to august 2023), allowing for heterogeneity in affiliations, backgrounds, age, education, gender, marital status, and work experience. it must be noted that snowball sampling has inherent limitations with respect to ensuring diversity and positional and locational heterogeneity. though authors were careful of the fact rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025146 to make sure that the sample is not concentrated geographically, the respondents mainly were working on operational profiles and very few were working in managerial positions. the respondents were given an initial briefing about the survey and its purpose. at the same time, the company and the respondents were assured of anonymity. respondents were asked to complete the questionnaire responses in one sitting. the data collection exercise sought to collect data from approximately 300 respondents. however, we could collect a total of 211 responses during the study period. at first, we measured the intraindividual response variability (irv). it is a measure of withinperson variability (standard deviation). if the irv values are below 0.50, it indicates that the respondent was probably not engaged and made insufficient effort in responding to the survey (hong et al., 2020). we found 12 such responses, which were dropped from further analyses, leaving us with 199 valid responses. the sample had 45.23% participants aged between 25 and 30, 37.18% aged between 31 and 40, 8.04% aged between 41 and 50, and 9.55% participants aged above 51. all the respondents were graduates, with over 55% reporting themselves to be postgraduate or above. the sample comprised 69.35% male and 30.65% female participants. sixtyone percent of the participants reported to be married. finally, work experience was skewed toward young professionals with over 72% reporting having less than 10 years of experience. the demographic profile of all the respondents is reported in table 1. table 1. demographic profile of the respondents age 25 to 30 90 45.23% 31 to 40 74 37.18% 41 to 50 16 08.04% 51 and above 19 09.55% edu graduate 89 44.72% postgraduate or above 110 55.28% gen female 61 30.65% male 138 69.35% mrs unmarried 77 39.69% married 122 61.31% wex 0 to 10 144 72.36% 10 to 20 25 12.56% 21 to 30 15 07.54% 31 and above 15 07.54% notes: age = age, edu = education, gen = gender, mrs = marital status, wex = total work experience. source: authors’ selfcompilation. rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025147 measures the entire questionnaire was divided into four sections. a. demographics the first section collected respondents’ demographic information such as age (age), education (edu), gender (gen), marital status (mrs), and total work experience (wex). b. measuring workload, time pressure, disengagement, exhaustion, and turnover intention a fiveitem workload scale developed by kirby et al. (2003) was used for measuring workload. a sample item for workload is “the workload here is too heavy”. furthermore, the fiveitem time pressure scale developed by teng et al. (2010) was adapted to measure time pressure. a sample item for time pressure is “when working, i often have limited time to finish the assigned tasks”. we used four items each, which were sourced from demerouti et al. (2001) to measure exhaustion and disengagement. a sample item for exhaustion is “after my work, i usually feel worn out and weary”. similarly, a sample item for disengagement is “over time, one can become disconnected from this type of work”. following meyer et al. (1993), we employed three items to measure turnover intention. a sample item for turnover intention is “i often think of quitting this organization”. responses to all perceptual variables were obtained on a scale of 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). control variables in the model, we controlled demographic variables, namely, age, education, gender, marital status, and total work experience, to partial out their effects, if any. notwithstanding their probable empirical importance, these were not the variables of central importance in the study (nielsena and raswanta 2018). the demographic variables were coded as follows: age (0 = 21 to 30, 1 = 31 to 40, 2 = 41 to 50, 3 = 51 and above), edu (0 = graduate, 1 = postgraduate and above), gen (0 = female, 1 = male), mrs (0 = unmarried, 1 = married), and wex (0 = 0 to 10, 1 = 11 to 20, 2 = 21 to 30 years and 3 = 31 and above). analysis strategy the data were analyzed in steps. first, we examined the prerequisites such as sampling adequacy and construct reliability. following recommendations by hair et al. (2010), we measured the sampling sufficiency using the kaiser– meyer– olkin measure (kmo) test and measures of sampling adequacy (msa). to measure the internal consistency of constructs, we used cronbach’s alpha. this study aims to simultaneously examine the relationship between theoretical constructs by building nomological networks. according to dash and paul (2021), structural equation modeling (sem) is a technique used to explain multiple statistical relationships simultaneously through visualization and model validation. complex models can be discussed simply through this technique. sem can be defined as a combination of factor analyses and multiple regression analyses simultaneously (sarstedt et al., 2017; hair jr et al., 2017a; haenlein and kaplan, 2004) and aims to understand the relationship between latent constructs (factors) that are generally indicated by various measures. hence, for the second step in data analyses, it was decided to use the sem technique (see bollen 1989). though numerous statistical packages are available to study the concept of sem, ibm spss amos (analysis of moment structures) and smart pls (partial least squares) are the most popular ones. “the philosophical distinction between cb-sem and pls-sem is that if the research objective is theory testing and confirmation, then the appropriate method is cb-sem. in contrast, if the research objective is prediction and theory development, then the appropriate method is pls-sem. conceptually and practically, pls-sem is similar to using multiple regression analysis. the primary objective is to maximize rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025148 explained variance in the dependent constructs but additionally to evaluate the data quality based on measurement model characteristics” (hair jr et al., 2017a). considering the objectives of the present study, it was decided to use plssem. variancebased plssem is a causalpredictive approach used for confirming measurement models (dash and paul 2021, hair et al., 2021). the following steps are followed for plssem (hair et al., 2019): 1. specify the model and examine the measurement constructs. 2. examine the convergent and discriminant validity of constructs. 3. assess structural models path coefficients and their fitness. accordingly, the model was specified based on the hypothesized relationships among the study variables (figure 1) and measurement constructs were assessed through factor loadings. after model specification, the convergent and discriminant validity of constructs was examined. convergent validity was examined using the values of composite reliability (cr) and average variance extracted (ave), while the discriminant validity was examined using the heterotrait– monotrait (htmt) ratio and the fornell– larcker criterion (fornell and cha 1994). next, the structural model was assessed using path coefficients. finally, we used the standardized root mean square residual (srmr) value, chisquare/df, normed fit index (nfi) value, and goodnessoffit (gof) index to assess model performance or fit. results measuring sampling adequacy as per extant guidelines, a kmo value of above 0.700 and an msa value of above 0.500 are desirable to indicate the sampling adequacy (hair et al., 2010). the kmo test extracted a value of 0.913 in our case. furthermore, msa values for all items were above the cutoff value of 0.500. a higher value of msa indicates that an item is perfectly predicted by the other variable without error (hair et al., 2010). accordingly, we concluded sampling adequacy. measuring construct reliability thereafter, the initial reliability of the constructs was also measured using cronbach’s alpha before proceeding for the plssem. the cronbach’s alphas for the variables were as follows: workload (0.805), time pressure (0.831), exhaustion (0.775), disengagement (0.814), and turnover intention (0.889). the results are shown in table 2. model specification a minimum sample size of 150 is recommended by hair et al. (2010), in case the model contains seven or fewer constructs and each construct has at least three items. our data fulfill the above guideline as we have five constructs, and each construct has at least three items. thus, a sample size of 199 is considered appropriate for data analysis using sem. a conceptual model was specified and identified based on theoretical relationships in extant literature (figure 1). assessing measurement constructs the measurement constructs were examined through the factor loadings. hair et al. (2019) recommend these loadings to be more than 0.708, so that the construct would explain more than 50.12% (0.708 * 0.708 = 0.5012) of the item’s variance. the factor loadings for each item were found to be more than rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025149 0.708 except for wol03. however, for a sample greater than 100, the loading criteria can be relaxed up to 0.500 (hair et al., 2010). hence, we retained the item and concluded that the research constructs sufficiently explain the variance of their respective items. the results of factor loading for measurement model are shown in table 2. table 2. factor loading, msa, and cronbach’s alpha item question code factor loading msa cronbach’s alpha dis exh toi tpr wol it happens more and more often that i talk about my work in a negative way. dis01 0.815 0.942 0.814 sometimes i feel sickened by my work tasks. dis02 0.828 0.953 over time, one can become disconnected from this type of work. dis03 0.814 0.935 lately, i tend to think less at work and do my job almost mechanically. dis04 0.753 0.921 after my work, i usually feel worn out and weary. exh01 0.847 0.940 0.775 during my work, i often feel emotionally drained. exh02 0.869 0.926 figure 1. hypothesized model notes: wol = workload, tpr = time pressure, exh = exhaustion, dis = disengagement, and toi = turnover intention, age = age, edu = education, gen = gender, mrs = marital status, and wex = total work experience. control variables: age, edu, gen, mrs, and wex. rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025150 item question code factor loading msa cronbach’s alpha dis exh toi tpr wol there are days when i feel tired before i arrive at work. exh03 0.777 0.902 i often think of quitting this organization. toi01 0.932 0.855 0.889 i think of searching for another position with another organization. toi02 0.897 0.855 i often think of leaving the organization within the next year. toi03 0.887 0.916 when working, i often have limited time to finish the assigned tasks. tpr01 0.783 0.917 0.831 at work, i am often in a hurry to complete the tasks at hand. tpr02 0.748 0.921 when working, i often feel very busy. tpr03 0.727 0.914 at work, i do not have enough time to complete the assigned tasks. tpr04 0.797 0.904 when working, i often feel heavy time pressure. tpr05 0.812 0.916 the workload here is too heavy. wol01 0.707 0.9 0.805 it sometimes seems to me that my job requires me to do too many different things. wol02 0.719 0.914 in this organization, you are expected to spend a lot of time learning things on your own. wol03 0.647 0.891 there seems to be too much work to get through here. wol04 0.839 0.902 there is a lot of pressure of work on you as an employee here. wol05 0.826 0.926 notes: wol = workload, tpr = time pressure, exh = exhaustion, dis = disengagement, toi = turnover intention. source: authors’ selfcompilation based on the output of spss21. examining construct validity the validity of a construct can only be established if it fulfills the criteria of convergent and discriminant validity (henseler et al., 2016). a construct is said to be convergent if it explains the variance of its items (hair et al., 2019). the convergent validity of a construct is established if composite reliability (rho_a and rho_c) and average variance extracted (ave) are 0.700 and 0.500, respectively, and rho_a and rho_c are greater than ave (hair et al., 2010). the results are reported in table 3. table 2. continued rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025151 table 3. convergent and discriminant validity construct rho_a rho_c ave htmt fornell– larcker criterion wol tpr exh dis toi ave wol tpr exh dis toi wol 0.822 0.865 0.564 0.564 0.751 tpr 0.833 0.882 0.599 0.831 0.599 0.684 0.774 exh 0.787 0.87 0.692 0.646 0.676 0.692 0.521 0.550 0.832 dis 0.824 0.879 0.645 0.71 0.755 0.828 0.645 0.586 0.624 0.664 0.803 toi 0.891 0.932 0.82 0.481 0.572 0.633 0.731 0.82 0.415 0.491 0.525 0.632 0.906 notes: ave = average variance extracted, wol = workload, tpr = time pressure, exh = exhaustion, dis = disengagement, toi = turnover intention. source: authors’ selfcompilation based on the output of smartpls4. examining discriminant validity two constructs can be refereed to be discriminant, if they exhibit low or no correlation (hair et al., 2010). the htmt ratio and the fornell– larcker criterion were used to examine the discriminant validity of constructs. the htmt ratio is as an estimator for the correlation between two latent variables. if the htmt value is high, discriminant validity problems are present. thresholds of 0.850 (kline 2011) and 0.900 (gold et al., 2001) have been proposed. in our findings, all the values were found to be below the more conservative threshold, i.e., 0.850. the fornell– larcker criterion method discriminates two constructs on the basis of aves. if the ave of two constructs is higher than that of the squared factor correlation between the scales, the constructs are said to be discriminant (hair et al., 2014). we find that the values of ave for all constructs are below the correlations with other constructs. hence, we conclude that all the constructs are distinct and have confirmed the extant guidelines on the discriminant validity. the results are reported in table 3. hypothesis testing after establishing the validity of constructs, we examined the model’s path coefficients (table 4). as is evident, barring age, we found no effect of control variables on turnover intention. age was found to have a significant negative effect on turnover intention, i.e., the lesser the age, higher the turnover intention. with respect to the study variables, an interesting pattern is observed. even as workload positively predicted time pressure, exhaustion, and disengagement, it was not found to be associated with turnover intention. similarly, time pressure was found to be positively associated with exhaustion and disengagement, but not with turnover intention. finally, exhaustion was positively related to disengagement, but not to turnover intention. only disengagement positively predicted turnover intention. in other words, none of the study variables barring disengagement predicted turnover intention. the structural model depicting path coefficients is presented in figure 2. table 5 documents the results of hypothesized mediations. time pressure was found to mediate the relationship of workload with disengagement (h02) and exhaustion (h03), but the mediation was not supported for the relationship between workload and turnover intention (h01). furthermore, exhaustion was found to mediate the relationships of workload and time pressure with disengagement (h04 and h05, respectively). however, no support was found for the hypothesized exhaustion mediation in the association of workload and time pressure with turnover intention (h06 and h07, respectively). finally, disengagement was found to successfully mediate the relationships of workload, time pressure, and exhaustion with turnover rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025152 intention (h08, h09, and h10, respectively). in summary, we found support for h02, h03, h04, h05, h08, h09, and h10, whereas h01, h06, and h07 were not supported. assessment of model fitness a model that has the ability to reproduce the data and does not essentially necessitate respecification (barrett 2007) can be called a good fit model. not attempting to optimize a unique global scalar function, plssem does not provide a comprehensive set of fit indices or measures (henseler and sarstedt 2013). the gof index, which takes both the measurement and structural models’ performance into account, is a response to this limitation (tenenhaus et al., 2004 p. 173) and makes sense in specific types of model validation (see henseler and sarstedt 2013). owing to the limitations of the fit indices for plssem, fewer approximate measures like srmr, nfi, and χ2 are reported. we used combination rules (see hu and bentler 1999) and reported the values of the srmr (henseler et al., 2014, absolute fit measure), the relative χ2 (χ2 min/df; wheaton et al., 1977), and nfi (bentler and bonett 1980) in table 6. table 7 reports the values of r2 and gof index. plssem reports the output for both the models, i.e., the saturated model and the estimated model. the estimated model is a more restricted version, and even though there is no guideline for choosing values of saturated and estimated models, many researchers have suggested estimated model values for these measures in pls (hair jr et al., 2017a, hair jr et al., 2017b). the fit indices for both saturated and estimated models were found to be within range. the results of tables 6 and 7 suggest that the model is a good fit. table 4. path coefficients control/predictor variable outcome variable path coefficients p values age toi −0.362 0.002** edu toi 0.021 0.860 gen toi 0.018 0.763 mrs toi −0.065 0.674 wex toi 0.165 0.083 wol toi −0.006 0.945 wol dis 0.184 0.010* wol exh 0.272 0.001** wol tpr 0.684 0.000** tpr toi 0.151 0.092 tpr dis 0.267 0.001** tpr exh 0.363 0.000** exh toi 0.114 0.128 exh dis 0.421 0.000** dis toi 0.447 0.000** notes: age = age, edu = education, gen = gender, mrs = marital status, wex = total work experience, wol = workload, tpr = time pressure, exh = exhaustion, dis = disengagement, toi = turnover intention. source: authors’ self compilation based on the output of smartpls 4. **significant at 1%; * significant at 5%. rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025153 figure 2. structural model notes: wol = workload, tpr = time pressure, exh = exhaustion, dis = disengagement, toi = turnover intention, age = age, edu = education, gen = gender, mrs = marital status, and wex = total work experience. independent variables: wol, tpr, exh, and dis. mediating variables: tpr, exh, and dis. dependent variables: tpr, exh, dis, and toi. control variables: age, edu, gen, mrs, and wex. table 5. specific mediation hypothesis predictor mediator outcome path coefficients p values remarks h01 wol tpr toi 0.103 0.096 not supported h02 wol tpr dis 0.183 0.001** supported h03 wol tpr exh 0.249 0.000** supported h04 wol exh dis 0.115 0.003** supported h05 tpr exh dis 0.153 0.000** supported h06 wol exh toi 0.031 0.182 not supported h07 tpr exh toi 0.041 0.160 not supported h08 wol dis toi 0.082 0.017* supported h09 tpr dis toi 0.119 0.004** supported h10 exh dis toi 0.188 0.000** supported notes: wol = workload, tpr = time pressure, exh = exhaustion, dis = disengagement, toi = turnover intention. source: authors’ selfcompilation based on the output of smartpls 4. **significant at 1%; * significant at 5%. rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025154 discussion and implications this study attempted a simultaneous examination of antecedents and consequences of burnout in the indian construction industry. a structural model rooted in (1) the jdr model, (2) the cor theory, and (3) the process model of burnout was formulated to examine the said objective. in doing so, this research employed workload and time pressure as job demands; exhaustion and disengagement as components of burnout; and disengagement and turnover intention as withdrawal behaviors. comprehensive mediation analyses were carried out, while controlling for the effects of demographic variables. we found that the control variable age has a significant negative relationship with turnover intention. other control variables, i.e., education, gender, marital status, and total work experience, were found to have no effect on turnover intention. the significant negative association of age on turnover intentions is on expected lines. extant research has documented that younger professionals are more likely to consider quitting their jobs compared to their experienced counterparts (borg and scottyoung 2022). we found mixed results for the mediation hypotheses. the significant mediating effects of time pressure, i.e., workload → time pressure → disengagement (h02) and workload → time pressure → exhaustion (h03), are in line with the jdr framework (demerouti et al., 2001). in other words, excessive workload on construction projects enhances time pressure, which in turn leads to disengagement and exhaustion. similarly, the significant mediating effects of exhaustion, i.e., workload → exhaustion → disengagement (h04) and time pressure → exhaustion → disengagement (h05), demonstrate the process model of burnout (see bakker et al., 2004, leiter 1993). in other words, workplace demands lead to exhaustion; disengagement sets in later. furthermore, the significant mediating effects of disengagement, i.e., workload → disengagement → turnover intention (h08), time pressure → disengagement → turnover intention (h09), and exhaustion → disengagement → turnover intention (h10), are in line with conservation of resources theory (see hobfoll 1989). in other words, in the wake of excessive demands and exhaustion, employees are likely to feel disengaged and eventually consider quitting the organization. finally, the mediation hypotheses not supported were workload→ time pressure→ table 6. fit measures fit summary saturated model estimated model reference range* remarks srmr 0.063 0.069 less than .08 excellent chisquare/df 564.421/265 = 2.13 577.422/300 = 1.92 1 to 3 excellent nfi 0.794 0.790 above 0.9 average notes: srmr = standardized root mean square residual; df = degrees of freedom; nfi = normed fit index. source: authors’ selfcompilation based on the output of smartpls 4. *range suggested by hu and bentler (1999). table 7. goodness of fit dependent variable r2 gof cutoff* remarks dis 0.554 0.598 0.360 excellent exh 0.342 0.486 excellent toi 0.492 0.635 excellent tpr 0.467 0.529 excellent notes: tpr = time pressure, exh = exhaustion, dis = disengagement, toi = turnover intention. source: authors’ self compilation. gof cutoff values recommended by wetzels et al. (2009). rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025155 turnover intention (h01), workload → exhaustion → turnover intention (h06), and time pressure → exhaustion → turnover intention (h07). the significance of these results lies in the pattern that with the exception of disengagement, no other hypothesized mediator predicts the intention to quit of employees (see thanacoody et al., 2014). in other words, while exhausted employees may not contemplate leaving, disengaged employees are likely to quit. implications for research our study has several implications for research. first, this study employs (1) the job demandsresources model, (2) the conservation of resources theory, and (3) the process model of burnout. this is significant because each of these models is extensively used to explain the phenomena of stress and burnout. however, they are rarely employed in conjunction. our study therefore serves the purpose of theoretical integration. second, employing representative variables, this study uncovers the mediation mechanisms that explain how burnout mediates the relationship between job demands and turnover intention. to accomplish this, the study employs workload and time pressure (as job demands), leading to the onset of exhaustion and disengagement (the process of burnout), and finally culminating in turnover intention. to the best of our knowledge, such a comprehensive mediation analysis employing similar variables has not been reported in the construction context. thus, our study is both conceptually and methodologically robust. finally, our research has been carried out in india. not only is india the most populous country, but it is also fast emerging as a major economic power. however, despite its demographic and economic standing, studies rooted in the indian context are few and far between (rastogi et al., 2020). results of our study are in line with the extant findings across various geographical contexts regarding the antecedents and consequences of burnout. thus, our study also makes a contextual contribution by validating in the indian context the findings of researchers in australia (e.g., lingard and francis 2005), china (e.g., sun et al., 2020), african countries (e.g., bowen et al., 2014), the middle east (e.g., enshassi et al., 2015), and european countries (e.g., janssen and bakker 2001). our empirical examination further highlights that the incidence of burnout is not subject to crosscultural differences. implications for practice our findings unambiguously establish the debilitating effects of job demands on construction professionals. workload coupled with time pressure causes both exhaustion and disengagement, separately as well as sequentially. furthermore, the differential effects of exhaustion and disengagement on turnover intention are clearly established. while exhausted construction professionals are not likely to contemplate leaving, disengaged professionals are likely to quit. accordingly, our research has the following practical implications. first, organizational leaders must strive to drastically improve the working environment. we add our voice to the call of rastogi and singla (2023) that construction leaders should seriously rethink the industry’s work design. they should consider introducing flexible work arrangements and regulating working hours in order to mitigate the negative influence of extreme workload and immense time pressure. while progress is already being made in select pockets in the developed world (see dentons, 2024; nichol, 2021; rogers, 2023), such efforts must also be implemented widely across economic and geographic contexts. second, construction leaders should actively work to provide training mechanisms to help the professionals cope with burnout. dedicated training efforts should be made in technical, managerial, and personal effectiveness domains. for example, if construction professionals are specifically trained to manage stress and time, they are likely to be able to efficiently and effectively manage the job demands, while resisting the incidence of burnout. finally, the supervisors must strive to maintain a cordial association with their subordinates. support received from supervisors is likely to help the construction professionals to balance workload and wellbeing without compromising productivity. in other words, supportive supervisors are likely to act as a rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025156 coping mechanism to exhausted professionals, possibly preventing the onset of withdrawal behaviors such as disengagement and turnover. limitations and future research directions even as this study attempted a comprehensive mediation analysis incorporating job demands, burnout, and turnover intention, it is not without its share of limitations. first, this study limited its scope only to job demands. it does not consider organizational (such as management of stakeholders) and personal demands (such as work– family conflict), which are known to cause exhaustion (see rastogi and singla 2023). second, this study did not consider job, organizational, and personal resources that help employees cope with the demands in the workplace. inclusion of resources (such as supervisor support and resilience) could have offered a more comprehensive explanation of the phenomenon. finally, notwithstanding precedence, data collection employing the snowballing sampling technique is not a statistical sampling method. the sample size is relatively small and geographically concentrated. accordingly, generalizability could be difficult. furthermore, owing to the limitations of the fit indices for plssem, fewer approximate measures are reported to examine model fitness. therefore, we call for validation studies across contexts and samples. future research should employ a rich and varied combination of demands and resources to uncover the path mechanisms that determine the onset of burnout and its harmful consequences. conclusions burnout and its antecedents and consequences continue to remain issues of major concern for construction practitioners as well as researchers. the demanding and stressful working environment in the construction industry leads to the onset of burnout and consequent negative personal and organizational outcomes. in this backdrop, our research attempted comprehensive mediation analyses to simultaneously examine how workload and time pressure (job demands) lead to the onset of exhaustion and disengagement (the process of burnout), finally culminating in turnover intention. in summary, our findings suggest that workload coupled with time pressure causes both exhaustion and disengagement, separately as well as sequentially. furthermore, the differential effects of exhaustion and disengagement on turnover intention are clearly established. while exhausted construction professionals are not likely to contemplate leaving, disengaged professionals are likely to quit. determined efforts on the part of construction leaders are required in order to arrest the incidence of burnout and prevent its detrimental consequences. specifically, we have recommended flexible work arrangement and regulation of work hours in the construction industry. furthermore, dedicated training efforts are needed in technical, managerial, and personal effectiveness domains, to enable construction professionals to perform their jobs effectively while managing the accompanying stress. finally, we call for enhanced interaction and support from the concerned supervisors as a coping mechanism for exhausted construction professionals, thereby preventing withdrawal in the form of disengagement and turnover. data availability statement some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. references avila, j., rapp, r., dunbar, s., and a. jackson. 2021. burnout and work life in disaster restoration: maslach burnout inventory and areas of work life survey. journal of construction engineering and management, 147 (2), 04020171. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001986 rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025157 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001986 ayalp, g.g. 2021. critical predictors of burnout among civil engineers at construction sites: a structural equation modelling. engineering, construction and architectural management, 29 (9), pp. 3547-3573. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ecam-12-2020-1066 bakker, a.b., and e. demerouti. 2007. the job demands-resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22 (3), pp. 309–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 bakker, a.b., and e. demerouti. 2017. job demands–resources theory: taking stock and looking forward. journal of occupational health psychology, 22 (3), pp. 273-85. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000056 bakker, a.b., demerouti, e., and w. verbeke. 2004. using the job demands‐resources model to predict burnout and performance. human resource management: published in cooperation with the school of business administration. the university of michigan and in alliance with the society of human resources management, 43 (1), pp. 83-104. https:// doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20004 barrett, p. 2007. structural equation modelling: adjudging model fit. personality and individual differences, 42 (5), pp. 815-824. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.09.018 bentler, p.m., and d.g. bonett. 1980. significance tests and goodness of fit in the analysis of covariance structures. psychological bulletin, 88 (3), pp. 588-606. https://doi.org/10.1037//0033-2909.88.3.588 borg, j., and c.m. scott-young. 2022. contributing factors to turnover intentions of early career project management professionals in construction. construction management and economics, 40 (10), pp. 835-853. https://doi.org/10.1080/01 446193.2022.2110602 bowen, p., edwards, p., lingard, h., and k. cattell. 2014. predictive modelling of workplace stress among construction professionals. journal of construction engineering and management, 140 (3), 04013055. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0000806 chih, y.-y., kiazad, k., zhou, l., capezio, a., li, m., and s. restubog 2016. investigating employee turnover in the construction industry: a psychological contract perspective. journal of construction engineering and management, 142 (6), 04016006. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001101 dash, g. and paul, j. 2021. cb-sem vs pls-sem methods for research in social sciences and technology forecasting. technological forecasting and social change, 173 (3), 121092. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121092 demerouti, e., bakker, a.b., nachreiner, f., and w.b. schaufeli. 2001. the job demands-resources model of burnout. journal of applied psychology, 86 (3), pp. 499-512. https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.86.3.499 dentons. 2024. will a four-day week work for construction? [online] 18 october. available at: https://www.dentons.com/ en/insights/articles/2024/october/18/will-a-four-day-week-work-for-construction (accessed: 14 april 2025). dixit, s., pandey, a.k., mandal, s.n., and s. bansal. 2017. a study of enabling factors affecting construction productivity: indian scenario. international journal of civil engineering & technology, 8 (6), pp. 741-758. enshassi, a., swaity, e. al., and f. arain. 2016. investigating common causes of burnout in the construction industry. the international journal of construction management, 8 (1), pp. 43–56. enshassi, a., el-rayyes, y., and s. alkilani. 2015. job stress, job burnout and safety performance in the palestinian construction industry. journal of financial management of property and construction, 20 (2), pp. 170-187. https://doi. org/10.1108/jfmpc-01-2015-0004 fornell, c., and j. cha. 1994. partial least squares. in: r. bagozzi, ed., advanced methods of marketing research, blackwell, cambridge, pp. 52-87. rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025158 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2020-1066 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2020-1066 https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000056 https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20004 https://doi.org/10.1002/hrm.20004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.09.018 https://doi.org/10.1037//0033-2909.88.3.588 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2022.2110602 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2022.2110602 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000806 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000806 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001101 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121092 https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.86.3.499 https://www.dentons.com/en/insights/articles/2024/october/18/will-a-four-day-week-work-for-construction https://www.dentons.com/en/insights/articles/2024/october/18/will-a-four-day-week-work-for-construction https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-01-2015-0004 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-01-2015-0004 gold, a.h., malhotra, a., and a.h. segers. 2001. knowledge management: an organizational capabilities perspective. journal of management information systems, 18 (1), pp. 185-214. https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2001.11 045669 hair, j. f., jr., babin, b. j., and n. krey. 2017b. covariance-based structural equation modeling in the journal of advertising: review and recommendations. journal of advertising, 46 (1), pp. 163–177. https://doi.org/10.1080/009133 67.2017.1281777 hair, j. f., matthews, l., matthews, r., and m. sarstedt. 2017a. pls-sem or cb-sem: updated guidelines on which method to use. international journal of multivariate data analysis, 1 (2), pp. 107–123. https://doi.org/10.1504/ ijmda.2017.087624 hair, j., hult, g.t.m., ringle, c., and m. sarstedt. 2014. a primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling pls-sem. sage publications, incorporated, los angeles. hair, j., black, w., babin, b.y.a., anderson, r., and r. tatham. 2010. multivariate data analysis. a global perspective. pearson prentice hall, new jersey, nj. hair, j.f., hult, g.t.m., ringle, c.m., sarstedt, m., danks, n.p., and s. ray. 2021. an introduction to structural equation modelling. in: partial least squares structural equation modeling pls-sem using r. classroom companion: business, springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80519-7_1 hair, j.f., jeff, r., marko, s., and r. christian. 2019. when to use and how to report the results of pls-sem. european business review, 31 (1), pp. 2–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-11-2018-0203 halbesleben, j.r., neveu, j.p., paustian-underdahl, s.c., and m. westman. 2014. getting to the cor understanding the role of resources in conservation of resources theory. journal of management, 40 (5), pp. 1334-1364, https://doi. org/10.1177/0149206314527130 haenlein, m., kaplan, a.m. 2004. a beginner’s guide to partial least squares analysis. understanding statistics, 3 (4), pp. 283–297. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328031us0304_4 henseler, j., dijkstra, t. k., sarstedt, m., ringle, c. m., diamantopoulos, a., straub, d. w., ketchen, d. j., hair, j. f., hult, g. t. m., and r.j. calantone. 2014. common beliefs and reality about partial least squares: comments on rönkkö & evermann 2013. organizational research methods, 17 (2), pp. 182-209. https://doi. org/10.1177/1094428114526928 henseler, j., hubona, g., and p.a. ray. 2016. using pls path modeling in new technology research: updated guidelines. industrial management and data systems, 116 (1), pp. 2-20. https://doi.org/10.1108/imds-09-2015-0382 henseler, j., and m. sarstedt. 2013. goodness-of-fit indices for partial least squares path modelling. computational statistics, 28 (2), pp. 565–580. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00180-012-0317-1 hobfoll, s.e. 1989. conservation of resources: a new attempt at conceptualizing stress. american psychologist, 44 (3), pp. 513-524. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.44.3.513 hong, m., steedle, j.t., and y. cheng. 2020. methods of detecting insufficient effort responding: comparisons and practical recommendations. educational and psychological measurement, 80 (2), pp. 312-345. https://doi. org/10.1177/0013164419865316 hu, l., and p.m. bentler. 1999. cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. structural equation modeling: a multidisciplinary journal, 6 (1), pp. 1-55. https://doi. org/10.1080/10705519909540118 rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025159 https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2001.11045669 https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2001.11045669 https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2017.1281777 https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2017.1281777 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijmda.2017.087624 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijmda.2017.087624 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80519-7_1 https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-11-2018-0203 https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314527130 https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314527130 https://doi.org/10.1207/s15328031us0304_4 https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428114526928 https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428114526928 https://doi.org/10.1108/imds-09-2015-0382 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00180-012-0317-1 https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066x.44.3.513 https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164419865316 https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164419865316 https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 ibem, e., anosike, m., and d.m.t. azuh. 2011. work stress among professionals in the building construction industry in nigeria. australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11 (3), pp. 45-57. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v11i3.2134 janssen, p., and a.j. bakker. 2001. a test and refinement of the demand–control–support model in the construction industry. international journal of stress management, 8 (4), pp. 315-332. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1017517716727 bollen, k. 1989. a new incremental fit index for general structural equation models. sociological methods & research, 17 (3), pp. 303–316. https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124189017003004 kirby, j. r., knapper, c. k., evans, c. j., carty, a. e., and c. gadula. 2003. approaches to learning at work and workplace climate. international journal of training and development, 7 (1), pp. 31-52. https://doi.org/10.1111/14682419.00169 kline, r.b. 2011. principles and practice of structural equation modeling. third edition, new york: the guilford press. leiter, m.p. 1993. burnout as a developmental process: consideration of models. in schaufeli, w.b., maslach, c. and marek, t. eds, professional burnout: recent developments in theory and research, taylor & francis, washington, dc, pp. 237-250. leung, m., chan, y.-s., and j. yu. 2009. integrated model for the stressors and stresses of construction project managers in hong kong. journal of construction engineering and management, 135 (2), pp. 126-134. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(2009)135:2(126) leung, m., chan, s.i.y., and c. dongyu. 2011. structural linear relationships between job stress, burnout, physiological stress, and performance of construction project managers. engineering, construction and architectural management, 18 (3), pp. 312-328. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111126205 leung, m.y., chan, y.s., and p. olomolaiye. 2008. impact of stress on the performance of construction project managers. journal of construction engineering and management, 134 (8), pp. 644-652. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(2008)134:8(644) leung, m.y., sham, j., and y.j. chan. 2007. adjusting stressors–job-demand stress in preventing rust out/burnout in estimators. surveying and built environment, 18 (1), pp. 17-26. lingard, h., and v. francis. 2006. does a supportive work environment moderate the relationship between work-family conflict and burnout among construction professionals? construction management and economics, 24 (2), pp. 185-196. https://doi.org/10.1080/14697010500226913 lingard, h., and v. francis. 2005. does work-family conflict mediate the relationship between job schedule demands and burnout in male construction professionals and managers? construction management and economics, 23 (7), pp. 733– 745. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190500040836 love, p.e.d., and d.j. edwards. 2005. taking the pulse of uk construction project managers’ health: influence of job demands, job control and social support on psychological wellbeing. engineering, construction and architectural management, 12 (1), pp. 88-101. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980510576916 meyer, j.p., allen, n.j., and c.a. smith. 1993. commitment to organizations and occupations: extension and test of a three-component conceptualization. journal of applied psychology, 78 (4), pp. 538-551. https://doi.org/10.1037//00219010.78.4.538 moore, p. and m. loosemore. 2014. burnout of undergraduate construction management students in australia. construction management and economics, 32 (11), pp. 1066-1077. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.966734 rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025160 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v11i3.2134 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v11i3.2134 https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1017517716727 https://doi.org/10.1177/0049124189017003004 https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2419.00169 https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2419.00169 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2009)135:2(126 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2009)135:2(126 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111126205 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:8(644 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:8(644 https://doi.org/10.1080/14697010500226913 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190500040836 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980510576916 https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.78.4.538 https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.78.4.538 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.966734 nichol, s. 2021. making construction a great place to work: can flexible working help? [pdf] london: timewise. available at: https://timewise.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/tw-making-construction-a-great-place-to-work-report.pdf (accessed: 14 april 2025). nielsena, b.b., and a. raswanta. 2018. the selection, use, and reporting of control variables in international business research: a review and recommendations. journal of world business, 53 (6), pp. 958-968. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jwb.2018.05.003 pinto, j. k., dawood, s., and m.b. pinto. 2014. project management and burnout: implications of the demandcontrol–support model on project-based work. international journal of project management, 32 (4), pp. 578–589. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.09.003 poon, s.w., rowlinson, s.m., koh, t., and y. deng. 2013. job burnout and safety performance in the hong kong construction industry. international journal of construction management, 13 (1), pp. 69-78. https://doi.org/10.1080/1562 3599.2013.10773206 rastogi, a., and h.k. singla. 2023. exploration of exhaustion in early-career construction professionals in india. engineering, construction and architectural management, ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2022-0938 rastogi, a., pati, s.p., kumar, p., and j.k. dixit. 2020. development of a ‘karma-yoga’ instrument, the core of the hindu work ethic. iimb management review, 32 (4), pp. 352-364. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iimb.2019.10.013 rastogi, a., pati, s.p., dixit, j.k., and p. kumar. 2018. work disengagement among sme workers: evidence from india. benchmarking: an international journal, 25 (3), pp. 968-980. https://doi.org/10.1108/bij-07-2017-0189 rogers, d. 2023. how sir robert mcalpine introduced flexible working to construction sites. [online] 21 february. available at: https://www.building.co.uk/building-the-future-commission/how-sir-robert-mcalpine-introduced-flexible-workingto-construction-sites/5121668.article (accessed: 14 april 2025). sarstedt, m., ringle, c.m., hair, j.f., 2017. partial least squares structural equation modeling. handbook of market research, 26 (1), 1–40. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05542-8_15-1 sakthivel, s., and p. joddar. 2006. unorganised sector workforce in india: trends, patterns and social security coverage. economic and political weekly, 41 (21), pp. 2107-2114. sun, m., zhu, f., and x. sun. 2020. influencing factors of construction professionals’ burnout in china: a sequential mixed-method approach. engineering, construction and architectural management, 27 (10), pp. 3215-3233. https://doi. org/10.1108/ecam-02-2020-0106 tenenhaus, m., amato, s., and v. esposito. 2004. a global goodness-of-fit index for pls structural equation modelling. in: proceedings of the xlii sis scientific meeting, pp. 739–742. teng, c.i., hsiao, f.j., and t.a. chou. 2010. nurse‐perceived time pressure and patient‐perceived care quality. journal of nursing management, 18 (3), pp. 275-284. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2834.2010.01073.x thanacoody, p.r., newman, a., and s. fuchs. 2014. affective commitment and turnover intentions among healthcare professionals: the role of emotional exhaustion and disengagement. the international journal of human resource management, 25 (13), pp. 1841-1857. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.860389 tiwary, g., gangopadhyay, p.k., biswas, s., nayak, k., chatterjee, m.k., chakraborty, d., and s. mukherjee. 2012. socio-economic status of workers of building construction industry. indian journal of occupational and environmental medicine, 16 (2), pp. 66-71. https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5278.107072 dierendonck, v. d., schaufeli, w.b., and b.p. buunk. 2001. toward a process model of burnout: results from a secondary analysis. european journal of work and organizational psychology, 10 (1), pp. 41-52. https://doi. org/10.1080/13594320042000025 rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025161 https://timewise.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/tw-making-construction-a-great-place-to-work-report.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2018.05.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jwb.2018.05.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.09.003 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2013.10773206 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2013.10773206 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2022-0938 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iimb.2019.10.013 https://doi.org/10.1108/bij-07-2017-0189 https://www.building.co.uk/building-the-future-commission/how-sir-robert-mcalpine-introduced-flexible-working-to-construction-sites/5121668.article https://www.building.co.uk/building-the-future-commission/how-sir-robert-mcalpine-introduced-flexible-working-to-construction-sites/5121668.article https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-05542-8_15-1 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2020-0106 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2020-0106 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2834.2010.01073.x https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2013.860389 https://doi.org/10.4103/0019-5278.107072 https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320042000025 https://doi.org/10.1080/13594320042000025 wahab, a. 2010. stress management among artisans in construction industry in nigeria. global journal of researches in engineering, 10 (1), pp. 93-103. wetzels, m., odekerken-schröder, g., and c. van oppen. 2009. using pls path modeling for assessing hierarchical construct models: guidelines and empirical illustration. mis quarterly, 33 (1), pp. 177-195. https://doi. org/10.2307/20650284 wheaton, b., muthén, b., alwin, d.f., and g.f. summers. 1977. assessing reliability and stability in panel models. in: heise d ed sociological methodology, jossey-bass, washington, dc, pp. 84–136. https://doi.org/10.2307/270754 wu, g., hu, z., and j. zheng. 2019. role stress, job burnout, and job performance in construction project managers: the moderating role of career calling. international journal of environmental research and public health, 16 (13), pp. 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16132394 yang, f., li, x., li, y., zhu, y., and c. wu. 2017. job burnout of construction project managers in china: a crosssectional analysis. international journal of project management, 35 (7), pp. 1272–1287. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2017.06.005 yang, f., li, x. song, z., and y. li. 2018. job burnout of construction project managers: considering the role of organizational justice. journal of construction engineering and management, 144 (11), 04018103. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001567 yip, b., and s. rowlinson. 2009. job burnout among construction engineers working within consulting and contracting organizations. journal of management in engineering, 25 (3), pp. 122-130. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0742-597x(2009)25:3(122) zheng, j., gou, x., li, h., xia, n., and g. wu. 2021. linking work–family conflict and burnout from the emotional resource perspective for construction professionals. international journal of managing projects in business, 14 (5), pp. 1093-1115. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-06-2020-0181 rastogi and singla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025162 https://doi.org/10.2307/20650284 https://doi.org/10.2307/20650284 https://doi.org/10.2307/270754 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16132394 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.06.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.06.005 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001567 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001567 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2009)25:3(122 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2009)25:3(122 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-06-2020-0181 research article role conflict related job stress among construction professionals: the moderating role of age and organization tenure tharindu c. dodanwala1,*, pooja shrestha2, djoen san santoso1 1 school of engineering and technology, asian institute of technology, bangkok, thailand 2 school of management, asian institute of technology, bangkok, thailand corresponding author: tharindu c. dodanwala, school of engineering and technology, asian institute of technology, bangkok, thailand, tharindudodanwala@gmail.com doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7609 article history: received: 24/02/2021; revised: 14/07/2021 & 19/10/2021; accepted: 20/10/2021; published: 20/12/2021 abstract demographic variables play a vital role in determining stress occurring from workplace demands. role conflict is a major workplace demand, specifically in the context of construction. however, the way demographic variables influence the stress occurring from role conflict is less explored in the literature. specifically, the literature does not fully explain the positioning of age and organization tenure on the relationship between role conflict and job stress. hence, the present study evaluates the moderating role of age and organization tenure on the relationship between role conflict and job stress. a survey was conducted by distributing the questionnaire directly to randomly selected project-level employees of ten large private contractors in sri lanka. a total of 274 valid respondents were collected and used to run a factor analysis validated hierarchical regression analysis to assess the research hypotheses. the results showed that role conflict has a positive direct effect on job stress. the findings further revealed that the impact of role conflict on job stress is high for young employees in the construction industry, as young employees do not possess the necessary life skills or experience to cope with role conflict. contrary to the authors’ expectations, there is no significant contribution from organization tenure to the relationship of role conflict and job stress. since the young employees are more vulnerable to role conflict, special considerations should be given to improve the wellbeing of the young workforce. hence, it is recommended that contractors should assign seasoned supervisors who can nurture the young employees and act as mentors. the © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: dodanwala, t. c., shrestha, p., and santoso, d. s. 2021. role conflict related job stress among construction professionals: the moderating role of age and organization tenure. construction economics and building, 21:4, 21–37. http://dx.doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7609 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 21 mailto:tharindudodanwala@gmail.com http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7609 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7609 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7609 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb supervisors should give clear instructions and inform what the young subordinates need to do when confronted with non-overlapping requests or orders from the other parties involved in the project. besides, organizations must conduct periodic conflict management and resolution training programs to help the employees cope with the conflicts that occur in the workplace, which is the path to lessen the impact of role conflict as organization tenure accumulates. keywords role conflict; job stress; age; organization tenure; construction industry introduction job stress has progressed as a critical issue in the modern corporate environment as it has consequences for both organization and the employees themselves. stress could create changes in metabolism, increase heart and breathing rates and blood pressure, bring on headaches, induce heart attacks, backaches, eye strain, sleep disturbances, dizziness, fatigue, loss of appetite, and gastrointestinal problems (nixon et al., 2011; gianaros and wager, 2015; robbins and judge, 2019). besides, the employees who often struggle to cope with stress might develop mental health illnesses such as depression, autism, and schizophrenia (manderscheid et al., 2010). adverse health conditions such as job stress and burnout are not only related to psychological and physiological illnesses but also related to several organizational factors such as decreased job satisfaction, low organization commitment, diminished performance, high absenteeism, elevated turnover, and greater accident rate (leung, chan and olomolaiye, 2008; halkos and bousinakis, 2010; leung, chan and yuen, 2010; calisir, gumussoy and iskin, 2011; leung, yee and dongyu, 2011; robbins and judge, 2019; yukongdi and shrestha, 2020; dodanwala and santoso, 2021; dodanwala and shrestha, 2021). thus, insight into the antecedents of job stress would help mitigate stress and adverse outcomes resulting from stress. over the past couple of decades, a considerable amount of research has been conducted to develop predictive models of job stress, with role conflict among the most frequently proposed antecedents (calisir, gumussoy and iskin, 2011; chen, lin and lien, 2011; rizwan et al., 2014; vanishree, 2014; parvaiz et al., 2015; frank, lambert and qureshi, 2017). construction projects are complex, with many trades and many parties involved. on many occasions, employees have to work with two or more groups that operate quite differently and/or receive incompatible requests from two or more people. thus, workplace conflict is a common phenomenon in the construction industry (barough, shoubi and skardi, 2012). it appears that previous studies of construction conflicts focus heavily on how the conflicts would affect the contractor as a company, but less has been done on the empirical validation of workplace conflict and job stress linkage (leung et al., 2005; leung, chan and yuen, 2010). therefore, there is a limitation in the existing literature on the relationship between role conflict and job stress in the context of construction project employees. workplace conflict is inevitable, impossible to eliminate, and probably not wise to try, as it could be the path toward a much-needed change in the organization (haraway and haraway, 2005; olafsen et al., 2021). with this in mind, it is crucial to identify the factors that diminish the adverse impact of role conflict on job stress. age and the organization tenure of the employees could be factors of such caliber, as with an increase in age and organization tenure, people gain new experience and skills, which act as a natural tool against workplace demands and help them cope with stress (frese and zapf, 1994; bradley, 2007; cohen-callow, hopkins and kim, 2009; boyas, wind and kang, 2012). however, the role of age and organization tenure in role conflict (a type of work demand) and the job stress relationship is not empirically tested and validated in the literature. dodanwala, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202122 in addressing the above knowledge gaps, the present study first evaluates the effect of role conflict on the job stress of the project-level construction professionals. since job stress is a major issue in sri lanka’s construction industry (de silva, samanmali and de silva, 2017; senaratne and rasagopalasingam, 2017; panojan, perera and dilakshan, 2019; dodanwala and santoso, 2021), the present study authors focus on collecting data from the project level employees of sri lanka’s construction industry. second, the moderating role of age and organization tenure on the relationship between role conflict and job stress is assessed. the rest of the paper’s structure is as follows: the article reviews relevant literature and develops the conceptual framework and hypotheses. then, the methodology is described, followed by results and discussion. finally, the conclusions are discussed. literature review job stress the three most common definitions of stress are stimulus-based stress, response-based stress, and stressorstrain-based stress (beehr and franz, 1987). the stimulus-based stress looks into stress as a situational or environment-based stimulus, imposing upon a person (beehr and franz, 1987). in contrast, response-based stress is defined as a person’s psychological or physiological reaction to environmental factors (beehr and franz, 1987). the third definition of job stress uses a combination of both first and the second definitions, and the third definition is assumed to be superior as it explains more about stress (arnold et al., 2005). therefore, the third definition of job stress has been used in this study. hence, job stress is defined as a person’s psychological or physiological response to environmental forces that cause bodily and mental strain (beehr and franz, 1987). when an employee perceives the working environmental stimulus as a threat and believes it is beyond their capacity to deal with it, the job stress occurs in the form of physical or mental strain (fleming, baum and singer, 1984). stress primarily occurs in chronic and acute states. a continuous source of stress could lead to a chronic nature in stress, and the employees’ who experience chronic stress do not fully recover between workdays, causing a lasting psychological and physiological strain (parker and decotiis, 1983; jamal and baba, 2000; naoum et al., 2018). in contrast, acute stress occurs in the short term due to temporary situations (parker and decotiis, 1983; jamal and baba, 2000). thus, understanding the chronic nature of stress in construction projects are extremely important as the construction industry is already one of the world’s most stressful sectors (poon et al., 2013; enshassi, el-rayyes and alkilani, 2015), and adding more into stress is only going to make matters worse as elevated stress is detrimental to the employees’ health (robbins and judge, 2019). some of these detrimental effects are empirically validated in the construction literature itself. dodanwala and santoso (2021) evaluated the link between job satisfaction facets, job stress, and turnover intentions of construction project professionals in sri lanka and concluded that job stress is the most significant variable predicting construction employees’ turnover intentions. besides, studies of leung, chan and olomolaiye (2008), leung, yee and dongyu (2011), and leung, liang and chan (2017) assessed how workplace stress influences the performance of construction project managers and other construction professionals. they concluded that extreme levels of stress are adversely related to the task, interpersonal, organizational, and overall performance. in addition, stress at construction projects is related to elevated injury incidents as psychological and physiological feelings greatly influence project personnel’s safety behavior and performance (leung, chan and yuen, 2010; wu et al., 2018). hence, job stress has risen as an imperative variable in the project environment that should be controlled for the well-being of the project staff and the project itself. dodanwala, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202123 role conflict according to the job demands-resources model, role conflict is a job demand that can drain energy and yield physiological and psychological costs by requiring sustained physical and/or mental effort at work (bakker and demerouti, 2007; olafsen et al., 2021). role conflict occurs when an employee faces inconsistency or incompatibility in the demands and expectations of various parties that cannot be satisfied at the same time (kahn et al., 1964). this means that the employees who have to work with two or more groups that operate quite differently and/or receive incompatible requests from two or more people would have increased role conflict levels. projects involving construction bring together a variety of specialized organizations and people. these people engage with one another during the project to achieve the project’s objectives and goals (kabiri, hughes and schweber, 2014). one of the most important aspects of every encounter between people is the expectation that one person has for the other, which can be clearly seen in any construction project. for any given participant in the project, a number of other participants will have multiple expectations regarding the tasks of that participant (kabiri, hughes and schweber, 2014). thus, the project-level employees of construction organizations are confronted with fulfilling their role expectations and the other stakeholders’ expectations. when these expectations do not align together, conflict can occur between the parties involved in it (chen, lin and lien, 2011; frank, lambert and qureshi, 2017). age age is a conspicuous variable in stress-related studies as prior research has demonstrated that age links to employees’ job attitudes and well-being. the literature mainly suggests that older employees tend to report better well-being and more favorable workplace views than younger ones (ng and feldman, 2009; boyas, wind and kang, 2012; dodanwala and santoso, 2021). this is because younger employees are at a higher risk for adverse outcomes such as job stress as they do not possess the necessary life skills or experience to cope with it. in contrast, older employees develop better-coping practices to deal with stress over time (barnes-farrell, rumery and swody, 2002; cohen-callow, hopkins and kim, 2009). organization tenure organization tenure refers to the number of years an individual has spent in their present organization (dodanwala and santoso, 2021). the literature on organization tenure suggests that the employees are more likely to learn throughout their tenure about new stress coping mechanisms and which coping mechanisms are most appropriate for them in various job scenarios, resulting in better well-being (frese and zapf, 1994; barnes-farrell, rumery and swody, 2002; bradley, 2007). besides, the employees who cannot adapt to the environmental forces that cause job stress would eventually quit the job, and stress-resilient employees will remain (firth et al., 2004; chen, lin and lien, 2011; fong et al., 2018; tetteh et al., 2020; yukongdi and shrestha, 2020; dodanwala and santoso, 2021). controlling role of gender and education level several studies have assessed the role of gender in stress measures. it was revealed that employees with more masculine characteristics are less stressed at the workplace than employees with feminine traits (wu and shih, 2010). typically, male employees tend to display more masculine characteristics than their female counterparts (dodanwala and santoso, 2021). these masculine characteristics would help male employees to cope with stress occurring at the workplace, resulting in a lower degree of job stress (conway, 2000; dial, downey and goodlin, 2010; wu and shih, 2010; dodanwala and santoso, 2021). since the gender of the respondents plays a role in their perceived stress levels in the construction sector (dodanwala and santoso, dodanwala, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202124 2021), which is the focus of this study and is considered heavily dominated by men (fielden et al., 2000; adeyemi et al., 2006; ness, 2012), the authors of the present study have decided to control the effects of gender on job stress. as suggested by azad and qolami (2011) in their study of the relationship between geographical areas, personality, socioeconomic status, and demographical factors, the education level of employees is negatively associated with workplace stress. the more educated employees are more aware of their role complexity and are equipped with advanced knowledge to address the scope of the work (shenkar and zeira, 1992), resulting in lessened role ambiguity and more clarity at work. construction projects are complex, with many parties from different backgrounds involved in the execution; consequently, role clarity plays a major role in their day-to-day work (leung, chan and yuen, 2010). since role clarity is a major antecedent of job stress (leung, chan and yuen, 2010; calisir, gumussoy and iskin, 2011; chen, lin and lien, 2011; vanishree, 2014) and education level influences role clarity, the authors have decided to use education level as a control variable. conceptual framework and hypothesis development the conceptual framework of this study is shown in figure 1. role conflict is modeled as the independent variable in this conceptual framework, and job stress is modeled as the dependent variable. age and the organization tenure are set as the moderating variables on the relationship between role conflict and job stress. the hypotheses development of the study is explained and discussed in the below paragraphs. figure 1. conceptual framework of the study construction projects involve bringing different people together to achieve the objectives (leung, chan and yuen, 2010). the project employees have to interact with these people daily and are tasked with fulfilling their role expectations as well as those stakeholders during the day-to-day operations (leung, chan and yuen, 2010). when these expectations are not in sync, conflict can occur (leung, chan and yuen, 2010; chen, lin and lien, 2011; kabiri, hughes and schweber, 2014). consequently, the stress levels occurring to the employees will increase. hence, a high level of role conflict increases work-related stress (leung et al., 2005; leung, chan and yuen, 2010; calisir, gumussoy and iskin, 2011; chen, lin and lien, 2011; rizwan et al., 2014; vanishree, 2014; parvaiz et al., 2015; frank, lambert and qureshi, 2017; summers et al., 2020; olafsen et al., 2021). however, this relationship is not rigorously explored in the construction literature. thus, the following hypothesis is developed and tested in the context of construction for this research. h1: role conflict has a positive direct effect on job stress. since older employees develop better life skills or experience to cope with possible workplace demands (barnes-farrell, rumery and swody, 2002; cohen-callow, hopkins and kim, 2009), the authors believe that the old employees would have better-coping mechanisms against workplace conflict. thus, the effect dodanwala, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202125 of role conflict on job stress would be low for older employees than that of the young employees at the construction project level. however, the role of age on role conflict and job stress linkage is yet to be empirically evaluated. hence, the following hypothesis is tested in the study. h2: age moderates the effect of role conflict on job stress such that the effect of role conflict on job stress is lower for older employees. with the accumulation of the organization tenure, the employees develop new coping mechanisms, learn appropriate use of different coping mechanisms, and either quit or remain on the job based on individual stress resilience levels (frese and zapf, 1994; barnes-farrell, rumery and swody, 2002; bradley, 2007; yukongdi and shrestha, 2020; dodanwala and santoso, 2021). hence, the employees who have developed greater coping mechanisms may overcome workplace demands and would have a long tenure. in view of the above arguments, it is assumed that with an increment in organization tenure, the employees have learned how to cope with role conflict, which results in a lower degree of job stress. thus, the authors developed the following hypothesis. h3: organization tenure moderates the effect of role conflict on job stress such that the effect of role conflict job stress is lower for employees with longer tenure. research methods sample and data collection a self-administered survey has been distributed to randomly selected 520 project-level employees of ten large private contractors in sri lanka during the fourth quarter of the year 2019. the ten construction organizations were selected for the data collection purposes based on the following criteria. first, the company must be a large contractor. second, the company should operate building construction projects. third, the building construction projects must be in colombo, sri lanka. the hard copies of the questionnaires were then distributed to the randomly selected staff level project employees at the building construction projects, which accounted for 520 employees. along with the questionnaire, a cover letter is also enclosed. the cover letter assures the confidentiality of the respondents and explains the purpose of this survey. altogether, 329 questionnaires were received back with a response rate of 63.27%, and 274 fully completed questionnaires have been selected for analysis purposes. the sample chosen for the study exceeds the minimum sample (s) requirement of 271, derived from cochran’s sample measure formula for an unknown population, at a 90% confidence interval (z) and 5% margin error (e) (cochran, 2007). in the calculation, the authors assumed population proportion (p) to be 0.5, providing the maximum sample size. since the sample size is greater than the minimum requirement, it is assumed that the sample chosen would sufficiently represent the population of the study. cochran’s formula for an unknown population is illustrated in equation 1. − s = z p(1 p) e 2 2 (1) measures role conflict. an eight-item scale developed by rizzo, house and lirtzman (1970) was used to measure role conflict occurring to the employees. the scale has been widely used by many researchers and has proven to show good psychometric properties. a sample item of role conflict includes “i receive incompatible requests from two or more people.” a five-point likert scale of 1 = “strongly disagree” to 5 = “strongly agree” has been used to rate the items on this scale. dodanwala, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202126 job stress. an eight-item scale developed by tate, whatley and clugston (1997) was used to measure job stress. this scale assesses both psychological and physiological features of stress. many researchers have widely used this scale, such as firth et al. (2004) and siong et al. (2006) and exhibited good psychometric properties. a sample item of psychological features includes “i feel frustrated at my job,” and a sample item of physiological features includes “job-related problems make my heart beat faster than usual.” a five-point likert scale where 1 = “strongly disagree” to 5 = “strongly agree” has been used to rate the items on this scale. since role conflict and job stress are measured using existing instruments, it was required to assess the validation and the suitability of these instruments in the context of the construction industry in sri lanka. hence, a pilot testing was conducted with 30 randomized samples and checked for the factor loadings and internal consistency of the two variables. all the items under two constructs had factor loadings above 0.30, which is greater than the minimum factor loading recommended by hair et al. (2019). besides, both the constructs showed adequate internal reliability over 0.70 (nunnally and bernstein, 1994). hence, no items were dropped, and no changes were made to the instruments. moderating variables. age and organization tenure is used as the moderating variables in the present study. both age and organization tenure were measured in years as continuous variables, and exact values are used in the analysis. using exact values as continuous variables is commonly used in role conflict and job stress literature (e.g., hang-yue, foley and loi, 2005; dodanwala and santoso, 2021), as it exerts more profound and accurate results. control variables. gender and education level can influence job stress occurring to the employees at the workplace. hence, the gender and education level of respondents are controlled in the analysis. gender was coded 1 if the respondent is male and coded 2 if the respondent is female. education level was coded 1 if the respondent has a high school degree, coded 2 if the respondent has a diploma, coded 3 if the respondent has a bachelor’s degree, and coded 4 if the respondent has a master’s degree. survey data analyzing strategy the analysis was initiated by assessing the demographic information of the respondents. then confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) for role conflict and job stress was conducted using the analysis of moment structures (amos) to assess the model fit of the specified model and the construct validity of the study variables (hair et al., 2019). the cfa is utilized because the present study employs existing instruments to measure role conflict and job stress, and the authors focus on validating the use of it in the context of sri lanka’s construction industry. the two moderating variables and the control variables are excluded from cfa, as they are not latent constructs. after the validation, the composite variable of job stress and role conflict was established for the latter stage of the analysis. subsequently, the authors developed descriptive statistics to get an overview of the study variables. finally, the authors conducted hierarchical regression analysis as recommended by aiken, west and reno (1991) to assess the moderating role of age and organization tenure on the relationship between role conflict and job stress, with the use of the statistical package for the social sciences (spss). results demographic information table 1 represents the demographic information of the respondents. of the total sample, 78.8% were male, and 21.2% were female, implying that the sample is in line with previous studies indicating that the construction industry is still male-dominant (fielden et al., 2000; adeyemi et al., 2006; ness, 2012). about 42% of the respondents hold a diploma, 49.6% hold a bachelor’s degree, and only 8.4% hold a master’s dodanwala, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202127 degree. more than one-third (34.3%) of the respondents were in the low-level management, whereas the rest (65.7%) accounts for the middle-level management at the construction project level. the marital status information suggests that 46.4% were single, 53.3% were married, and 0.4% were divorced. confirmatory factor analysis the purpose of cfa was to assess the model fit of the specified model and the construct validity of the study variables. the analysis is conducted with the use of a measurement model. the fit statistics determine how well this theoretical model fits the data of the study, whereas the construct validity explains the extent to which a set of measured items accurately reflects the latent theoretical constructs in the model. for role conflict and job stress of the present study, items themselves have been used as the indicators of the constructs. the two moderating variables and the control variables are excluded from cfa, as they are not latent constructs and do not have any measurement errors. first, it was checked how well the specified model fit the data with the use of model fit indices. as recommended by hair et al. (2019), researchers should provide one absolute fit index and one incremental fit index in addition to providing chi-square (x2) and its associated degrees of freedom (df ) statistics in determining the model fit. therefore, the authors include the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) test, an absolute fit index measure, and the comparative fit index (cfi) test, an incremental fit index measure to assess the fitness of the measurement model. the models’ x2 = 391.764, df = 103, table 1. demographic information respondent’s profile number percentage gender male 216 78.8 female 58 21.2 educational level highschool 1 0.4 diploma 114 41.6 bachelor’s degree 136 49.6 master’s degree 23 8.4 managerial level low-level management 94 34.3 middle-level management 180 65.7 marital status single 127 46.4 married 146 53.3 divorced 1 0.4 dodanwala, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202128 table 2. standardized factor loadings, ave, internal reliability, and the fit statistics of the modified cfa model code items standardized factor loadings ave composite reliability cronbach’s alpha role conflict 0.446 0.865 0.864 rc1 i have to do things that should be done differently 0.601 rc2 i receive an assignment without the manpower to complete it 0.684 rc3 i have to ‘buck’ a rule or policy in order to carry out an assignment 0.575 rc4 i work with two or more groups who operate quite differently 0.662 rc5 i receive incompatible requests from two or more people 0.737 rc6 i do things that are apt to be accepted by one person and not accepted by others 0.728 rc7 i receive an assignment without adequate resources and materials to execute it 0.732 rc8 i work on unnecessary things 0.603 job stress 0.383 0.827 0.835 jst1 i feel emotionally drained by my job 0.669 jst2 i feel burned-out by my job 0.695 jst3 i feel frustrated at my job 0.740 jst4 i feel tense at my job 0.733 jst5 i lose my appetite because of my job-related problems 0.590 jst6 job-related problems keep me awake at night 0.363 jst7 job-related problems make my stomach upset 0.488 jst8 job-related problems make my heart beat faster than usual 0.575 model fit indices x 2 = 255.098, df = 101, p = 0.000, x 2/df = 2.526, rmsea = 0.075, and cfi = 0.909 dodanwala, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202129 p = 0.000, x2/df = 3.804, rmsea = 0.101, and cfi = 0.829, suggesting that the model do not provide a sufficient fit to the data. therefore, the authors inserted covariance for error terms based on modification indices to improve the model’s fit statistics. the authors have covaried the first and the second error terms of the job stress construct and the sixth and seventh error terms of the job stress construct. table 2 illustrates the cfa results of the modified measurement model. the fit statistics of the modified measurement model include x2 = 255.098, df = 101, p = 0.000, x2/df = 2.526, rmsea = 0.075, and cfi = 0.909, implying that the modified model provides a sufficient fit to the data. then, the construct validity, i.e., convergent validity, discriminant validity, and internal reliability, were assessed. the average variance extracted (ave) of role conflict (ave = 0.446) and job stress (ave = 0.383) was lower than the recommended criteria of 0.5. however, fornell and larcker (1981) suggest that even though the ave < 0.5, the convergent validity can be achieved if the composite reliability is above 0.6. since the two variables’ composite reliability is greater than 0.6, the authors conclude that adequate convergent validity exists for both role conflict and job stress constructs. the square root values of the ave for both role conflict (square root of ave = 0.668) and job stress (square root of ave = 0.619) are greater than their correlation value (r = 0.28, p < 0.01), and hence the latent constructs explain more of the variance in its item measures than that it shares with another construct. thus, the two variables satisfy the discriminant validity criteria. finally, the internal reliability testing suggests adequate internal reliability for both role conflict and job stress constructs, as both are above the minimum acceptable criteria of 0.6 for composite reliability and 0.7 for cronbach’s alpha (fornell and larcker, 1981; nunnally and bernstein, 1994). descriptive analysis the authors conducted a correlation analysis between the independent, dependent, moderating, and control variables. the purpose of this analysis was to identify the interrelationship between the study variables. table 3 presents the correlation results and the mean values of each variable. the maximum achievable mean value for role conflict and job stress is 5.00 as this study uses a five-point likert scale to measure them. as expected, role conflict is significantly correlated with job stress (r = 0.28, p < 0.01). besides, job stress is significantly correlated with gender (r = 0.13, p < 0.05), one of the study’s control variables. hierarchical regression analysis lastly, the authors tested the specific research model using hierarchical regression analysis. the analysis tested the theoretical model in which age and organization tenure act as moderating variables on the table 3. descriptive statistics of the study variables variables m sd 1 2 3 4 5 6 1. gender 1.21 0.41 1 2. education level 2.66 0.63 0.00 1 3. age 31.24 5.93 -0.23** 0.30** 1 4. organization tenure 3.17 2.24 -0.11 0.11 0.56** 1 5. role conflict 3.47 0.65 -0.05 0.14* 0.02 0.10 1 6. job stress 3.01 0.64 0.13* 0.01 -0.09 0.00 0.28** 1 note: ** p < 0.01 and * p < 0.05; m = mean and sd = standard deviation; 1 = male and 2 = female has been coded for gender; 1 = high school, 2 = diploma, 3 = bachelor’s degree, and 4 = master’s degree has been coded for education level; age and organization tenure were measured in years. dodanwala, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202130 relationship between role conflict and job stress. to test moderation, the authors followed aiken, west and reno (1991) procedure by entering the main effect of role conflict as well as the interaction effects on job stress. if the interaction paths are significant, moderator hypotheses are supported. table 4 illustrates the two-way interaction results of age and organization tenure. all main variables were mean-centered to reduce multicollinearity and enhance interpretability (cohen et al., 2013). the authors further followed the aiken, west and reno (1991) procedure to plot simple slopes at high (m+1sd) and low (m–1sd) levels of age and organization tenure, which is illustrated in figure 2. table 4. hierarchical regression results on job stress variables job stress step 1 step 2 step 3 control variables gender 0.13* 0.13* 0.15* education level 0.01 -0.01 -0.01 main variables role conflict 0.29** 0.27** age -0.08 -0.11 organization tenure 0.03 0.06 interaction variables role conflict × age -0.19* role conflict × organization tenure 0.04 r2 (adjusted) 0.01 0.09 0.11 f statistics 2.30 6.19** 5.60** r2 change 0.09 0.02 f change 8.66** 3.79* note: ** p < 0.01 and * p < 0.05; standardized coefficients are reported; 1 = male and 2 = female has been coded for gender; 1 = high school, 2 = diploma, 3 = bachelor’s degree, and 4 = master’s degree has been coded for education level; age and organization tenure were measured in years. the hierarchical regression results suggest that role conflict positively affects job stress (b = 0.27, p < 0.01). given the above finding, h1 is supported by this study. the two-way interaction hypotheses 2 and 3 were tested by observing step 3 of the hierarchical regression analysis. as shown in table 4, the interaction between role conflict and age was negative and significant to job stress (b = -0.19, p < 0.05). hence, h2 is supported. contrary to the authors’ expectations, they could not find a significant interaction from organization tenure (b = 0.04, p > 0.1), and hence h3 is not supported in this study. dodanwala, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202131 discussion the present study added the moderating role of age and organization tenure to the existing empirical research on role conflict and job stress linkage. the purpose was to examine the relationship between role conflict and job stress by focusing on the project-level construction employees’ age and organization tenure. in line with the hypotheses, the results supported the theoretical model, which enhanced the understanding of workplace conflict and stress measures. the theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the following subsections. theoretical implications consistent with the previous studies (leung et al., 2005; leung, chan and yuen, 2010; calisir, gumussoy and iskin, 2011; chen, lin and lien, 2011; rizwan et al., 2014; vanishree, 2014; parvaiz et al., 2015; frank, lambert and qureshi, 2017; summers et al., 2020; olafsen et al., 2021), the authors found a positive link between role conflict and job stress. construction projects are complex, with many trades and many parties involved. consequently, in many cases, employees have to work with two or more groups that operate quite differently and/or receive incompatible requests from two or more people. the project-level employees of construction organizations are confronted with fulfilling their role expectations and the other stakeholders’ expectations. when these expectations do not align together, conflict can occur between the parties involved in it. this conflict can cause confusion, and when mistakes happen, typically, the blame will be on the side of the employees. as a consequence, the stress levels occurring to the employees will increase. the importance of age in stress-related studies has also been illustrated from the findings. in particular, the influence of role conflict on job stress is stronger for young employees than that of old employees at the construction project level. this may be due to the fact that younger employees are at a higher risk for adverse outcomes such as job stress as they do not possess the necessary skills or experience to cope with role conflict. in contrast, with an increment in age, people repeatedly gain life experience or learn new skills (cohen-callow, hopkins and kim, 2009; sakires, doherty and misener, 2009). this knowledge carries over to other situations such as work, which would help them cope with workplace conflicts. hence, employees develop better-coping practices to deal with stress occurring from role conflict as age accumulates. it was also highlighted that organization tenure does not play a moderating role in the relationship between role conflict and job stress. this could be related to the respondents of the study, in which the study covers all staff-level construction project professionals of contractors in sri lanka. the non-significant interaction of organization tenure could mean that merely gaining experience at construction projects is ineffective in learning how to cope with workplace conflicts. figure 2. the moderating role of age and organization tenure dodanwala, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202132 practical implications the findings of this study have implications for practice. since young employees are more vulnerable to role conflict, special considerations should be given to improve the well-being of the young workforce. upon joining a construction project, young employees should be informed of the project hierarchy, and seasoned supervisors should be allocated, which can act as direct supervisors and mentors to the young employees. the supervisor should give clear instructions and inform the young subordinates when confronted with non-overlapping requests or orders from the other parties involved in the project. the supervisors’ instruction should be based on the contract conditions and specifications of the project. providing an open and accessible communication platform in the project is also necessary for this to work. additionally, such working culture will provide social support to the young employees who are mainly in the early stage of their careers. more importantly, with such a nurturing work environment, the supervisors manage to personally guide the young employees and pass down the knowledge on how to cope with conflicts arising at the workplace. the construction industry in sri lanka hardly conducts any human resource development training programs and is mainly focuses on the projects’ outcomes. this becomes an issue, as shown by the findings; merely gaining work experience along with an increment in the tenure would not help employees cope with stress occurring from workplace conflict. hence, the working culture in sri lanka, which heavily focuses on experience rather than the quality of experience, could be detrimental to the construction organizations, as workplace conflict and stress is linked with increased turnover, decreased productivity, and high accidental rates (hang-yue, foley and loi, 2005; leung, chan and yuen, 2010; calisir, gumussoy and iskin, 2011; leung, liang and chan, 2017; dodanwala and santoso, 2021). therefore, it is crucial for organizations to conduct periodic conflict management and resolution training programs to help the employees cope with the conflicts that occur in the workplace, which could lead to a lower degree of job stress as organization tenure accumulates (haraway and haraway, 2005). limitations and future research directions the practical implications of the study, however, are tempered to some extent by its limitations. first, the relationship between role conflict and job stress included common method variance as the data were obtained from a self-administered questionnaire. second, the data of this study came from a relatively restrictive population of project-level construction professionals. hence, future research should explore this research direction in different industries and regions to make comparisons. conclusions this study presents an attempt to assess the moderating role of age and organization tenure for the previous empirical research on the relationship between role conflict and job stress in the construction industry context. thus, this study fills a research gap and enhances the understanding of role conflict and work stress for construction professionals, who are highly vulnerable to the stress inherent in their occupation. moreover, it contributes to the literature by including age and organization tenure as potential moderators on the relationship between role conflict and job stress, an underexplored area in the literature. the present study confirmed the moderating role of age empirically. contrary to the authors’ expectations, they could not find evidence to support the moderating role of organizational tenure. since young employees are more vulnerable to role conflict, it is recommended to focus on improving the well-being of the young workforce by assigning seasoned supervisors who can nurture the young employees and act as mentors. additionally, organizations need to conduct periodic conflict management and resolution training programs to aid the employees in coping with the conflicts that occur in the workplace. finally, the authors hope that this study dodanwala, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202133 will motivate the researchers to conduct research in non-western settings using samples often neglected in the literature. references adeyemi, a.y., ojo, s.o., aina, o.o. and olanipekun, e.a., 2006. empirical evidence of women under‐ representation in the construction industry in nigeria. women in management review, 21(7), pp.567–577. https://doi. org/10.1108/09649420610692516 aiken, l.s., west, s.g. and reno, r.r., 1991. multiple regression: testing and interpreting interactions. newbury park: sage. arnold, j., silvester, j., cooper, c.l., robertson, i.t. and patterson, f.m., 2005. work psychology: understanding human behaviour in the workplace. 4th ed. harlow: pearson education. azad, m.e. and qolami, f.m., 2011. the relationship between geographical areas, personality, socio-economical status and demographical factors with job stress. international journal of behavioral science, 5(2), pp.151–156. bakker, a.b. and demerouti, e., 2007. the job demands‐resources model: state of the art. journal of managerial psychology, 22(3), pp.309–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 barnes-farrell, j.l., rumery, s.m. and swody, c.a., 2002. how do concepts of age relate to work and off-the-job stresses and strains? a field study of health care workers in five nations. experimental aging research, 28(1), pp.87–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/036107302753365577 barough, a.s., shoubi, m.v. and skardi, m.j.e., 2012. application of game theory approach in solving the construction project conflicts. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 58, pp.1586–1593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. sbspro.2012.09.1145 beehr, t.a. and franz, t.m., 1987. the current debate about the meaning of job stress. journal of organizational behavior management, 8(2), pp.5–18. https://doi.org/10.1300/j075v08n02_02 boyas, j., wind, l.h. and kang, s.-y., 2012. exploring the relationship between employment-based social capital, job stress, burnout, and intent to leave among child protection workers: an age-based path analysis model. children and youth services review, 34(1), pp.50–62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2011.08.033 bradley, g., 2007. job tenure as a moderator of stressor–strain relations: a comparison of experienced and new-start teachers. work & stress, 21(1), pp.48–64. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370701264685 calisir, f., gumussoy, c.a. and iskin, i., 2011. factors affecting intention to quit among it professionals in turkey. personnel review, 40(4), pp.514–533. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481111133363 chen, m.-f., lin, c.-p. and lien, g.-y., 2011. modelling job stress as a mediating role in predicting turnover intention. the service industries journal, 31(8), pp.1327–1345. https://doi.org/10.1080/02642060903437543 cochran, w.g., 2007. sampling techniques. 3rd ed. new york: john wiley & sons. cohen-callow, a., hopkins, k.m. and kim, h.j., 2009. retaining workers approaching retirement: why child welfare needs to pay attention to the aging workforce. child welfare, 88(5), pp.209–228. cohen, j., cohen, p., west, s.g. and aiken, l.s., 2013. applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences. routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203774441 conway, m., 2000. on sex roles and representations of emotional experience: masculinity, femininity, and emotional awareness. sex roles, 43(9), pp.687–698. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1007156608823 dial, k.c., downey, r.a. and goodlin, w.e., 2010. the job in the joint: the impact of generation and gender on work stress in prison. journal of criminal justice, 38(4), pp.609–615. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2010.04.033 dodanwala, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202134 https://doi.org/10.1108/09649420610692516 https://doi.org/10.1108/09649420610692516 https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940710733115 https://doi.org/10.1080/036107302753365577 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.1145 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.09.1145 https://doi.org/10.1300/j075v08n02_02 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2011.08.033 https://doi.org/10.1080/02678370701264685 https://doi.org/10.1108/00483481111133363 https://doi.org/10.1080/02642060903437543 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203774441 https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1007156608823 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2010.04.033 dodanwala, t.c. and santoso, d.s., 2021. the mediating role of job stress on the relationship between job satisfaction facets and turnover intention of the construction professionals. engineering, construction and architectural management. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2020-1048 dodanwala, t.c. and shrestha, p., 2021. work–family conflict and job satisfaction among construction professionals: the mediating role of emotional exhaustion. on the horizon, 29(2), pp.62–75. https://doi.org/10.1108/oth-11-20200042 enshassi, a., el-rayyes, y. and alkilani, s., 2015. job stress, job burnout and safety performance in the palestinian construction industry. journal of financial management of property and construction, 20(2), pp.170–187. https://doi. org/10.1108/jfmpc-01-2015-0004 fielden, s.l., davidson, m.j., gale, a.w. and davey, c.l., 2000. women in construction: the untapped resource. construction management and economics, 18(1), pp.113–121. https://doi.org/10.1080/014461900371004 firth, l., mellor, d.j., moore, k.a. and loquet, c., 2004. how can managers reduce employee intention to quit? journal of managerial psychology, 19(2), pp.170–187. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940410526127 fleming, r., baum, a. and singer, j.e., 1984. toward an integrative approach to the study of stress. journal of personality and social psychology, 46(4), pp.939–949. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.46.4.939 fong, l.h.n., chui, p.m.w., cheong, i.s.c. and fong, d.k.c., 2018. moderating effects of social support on job stress and turnover intentions. journal of hospitality marketing & management, 27(7), pp.795–810. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 19368623.2018.1446862 fornell, c. and larcker, d.f., 1981. evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. journal of marketing research, 18(1), pp.39–50. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800104 frank, j., lambert, e.g. and qureshi, h., 2017. examining police officer work stress using the job demands–resources model. journal of contemporary criminal justice, 33(4), pp.348–367. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043986217724248 frese, m. and zapf, d., 1994. methodological issues in the study of work stress: objective vs subjective measurement of work stress and the question of longitudinal studies. in: c.l. cooper and r. payne, eds. wiley series on studies in occupational stress. causes, coping and consequences of stress at work. john wiley & sons.pp.375–411. gianaros, p.j. and wager, t.d., 2015. brain-body pathways linking psychological stress and physical health. current directions in psychological science, 24(4), pp.313–321. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721415581476 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j. and anderson, r.e., 2019. multivariate data analysis. 8th ed. andover, hampshire: cengage learning. halkos, g. and bousinakis, d., 2010. the effect of stress and satisfaction on productivity. international journal of productivity and performance management, 59(5), pp.415–431. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410401011052869 hang-yue, n., foley, s. and loi, r., 2005. work role stressors and turnover intentions: a study of professional clergy in hong kong. the international journal of human resource management, 16(11), pp.2133–2146. https://doi. org/10.1080/09585190500315141 haraway, d.l. and haraway, w.m., 2005. analysis of the effect of conflict-management and resolution training on employee stress at a healthcare organization. hospital topics, 83(4), pp.11–17. https://doi.org/10.3200/htps.83.4.1118 jamal, m. and baba, v. v, 2000. job stress and burnout among canadian managers and nurses: an empirical examination. canadian journal of public health, 91(6), pp.454–458. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03404828 kabiri, s., hughes, w. and schweber, l., 2014. role conflict in project team dynamics. in: 30th annual arcom conference. portsmouth.pp.1–11. dodanwala, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202135 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2020-1048 https://doi.org/10.1108/oth-11-2020-0042 https://doi.org/10.1108/oth-11-2020-0042 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-01-2015-0004 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-01-2015-0004 https://doi.org/10.1080/014461900371004 https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940410526127 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.46.4.939 https://doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2018.1446862 https://doi.org/10.1080/19368623.2018.1446862 https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800104 https://doi.org/10.1177/1043986217724248 https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721415581476 https://doi.org/10.1108/17410401011052869 https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190500315141 https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190500315141 https://doi.org/10.3200/htps.83.4.11-18 https://doi.org/10.3200/htps.83.4.11-18 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03404828 kahn, r.l., wolfe, d.m., quinn, r.p., snoek, j.d. and rosenthal, r.a., 1964. organizational stress: studies in role conflict and ambiguity. oxford: john wiley. leung, m., chan, y.-s. and olomolaiye, p., 2008. impact of stress on the performance of construction project managers. journal of construction engineering and management, 134(8), pp.644–652. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2008)134:8(644) leung, m., chan, y.-s. and yuen, k.-w., 2010. impacts of stressors and stress on the injury incidents of construction workers in hong kong. journal of construction engineering and management, 136(10), pp.1093–1103. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000216 leung, m., liang, q. and chan, i.y.s., 2017. development of a stressors–stress–performance–outcome model for expatriate construction professionals. journal of construction engineering and management, 143(5), p.04016121. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001266 leung, m., ng, s.t., skitmore, m. and cheung, s., 2005. critical stressors influencing construction estimators in hong kong. construction management and economics, 23(1), pp.33–44. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190410001678099 leung, m., yee, s.i.c. and dongyu, c., 2011. structural linear relationships between job stress, burnout, physiological stress, and performance of construction project managers. engineering, construction and architectural management, 18(3), pp.312–328. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111126205 manderscheid, r.w., ryff, c.d., freeman, e.j., mcknight-eily, l.r., dhingra, s. and strine, t.w., 2010. evolving definitions of mental illness and wellness. preventing chronic disease, 7(1), pp.1–6. naoum, s.g., herrero, c., egbu, c. and fong, d., 2018. integrated model for the stressors, stress, stress-coping behaviour of construction project managers in the uk. international journal of managing projects in business, 11(3), pp.761–782. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-07-2017-0071 ness, k., 2012. constructing masculinity in the building trades:‘most jobs in the construction industry can be done by women’. gender, work & organization, 19(6), pp.654–676. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2010.00551.x ng, t.w.h. and feldman, d.c., 2009. age, work experience, and the psychological contract. journal of organizational behavior, 30(8), pp.1053–1075. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.599 nixon, a.e., mazzola, j.j., bauer, j., krueger, j.r. and spector, p.e., 2011. can work make you sick? a meta-analysis of the relationships between job stressors and physical symptoms. work & stress, 25(1), pp.1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 02678373.2011.569175 nunnally, j.c. and bernstein, i.h., 1994. psychometric theory. 3rd ed. new york: mcgraw-hill. olafsen, a.h., niemiec, c.p., deci, e.l., halvari, h., nilsen, e.r. and williams, g.c., 2021. mindfulness buffers the adverse impact of need frustration on employee outcomes: a self‐determination theory perspective. journal of theoretical social psychology, 5(3), pp.283–296. https://doi.org/10.1002/jts5.93 panojan, p., perera, b.a.k.s. and dilakshan, r., 2019. work-life balance of professional quantity surveyors engaged in the construction industry. international journal of construction management. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019 .1644759 parker, d.f. and decotiis, t.a., 1983. organizational determinants of job stress. organizational behavior and human performance, 32(2), pp.160–177. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(83)90145-9 parvaiz, l., batool, s., khalid, a. and aftabfarooqi, y., 2015. impact of stressors (role conflict, role overload, leadership support and organizational politics) on job stress and its subsequent impact on turnover intention. international journal of business and management invention, 4(10), pp.52–63. dodanwala, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202136 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:8(644 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:8(644 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000216 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000216 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001266 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190410001678099 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111126205 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-07-2017-0071 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2010.00551.x https://doi.org/10.1002/job.599 https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2011.569175 https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2011.569175 https://doi.org/10.1002/jts5.93 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1644759 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1644759 https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(83)90145-9 poon, s.w., rowlinson, s.m., koh, t. and deng, y., 2013. job burnout and safety performance in the hong kong construction industry. international journal of construction management, 13(1), pp.69–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/15 623599.2013.10773206 rizwan, m., waseem, a., bukhari, s.a. and others, 2014. antecedents of job stress and its impact on job performance and job satisfaction. international journal of learning & development, 4(2), pp.187–203. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijld. v4i2.6097 rizzo, j.r., house, r.j. and lirtzman, s.i., 1970. role conflict and ambiguity in complex organizations. administrative science quarterly, 15(2), pp.150–163. https://doi.org/10.2307/2391486 robbins, s.p. and judge, t.a., 2019. organizational behavior. 18th ed. new york: pearson. sakires, j., doherty, a. and misener, k., 2009. role ambiguity in voluntary sport organizations. journal of sport management, 23(5), pp.615–643. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.23.5.615 senaratne, s. and rasagopalasingam, v., 2017. the causes and effects of work stress in construction project managers: the case in sri lanka. international journal of construction management, 17(1), pp.65–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/15 623599.2016.1167358 shenkar, o. and zeira, y., 1992. role conflict and role ambiguity of chief executive officers in international joint ventures. journal of international business studies, 23(1), pp.55–75. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490259 de silva, n., samanmali, r. and de silva, h.l., 2017. managing occupational stress of professionals in large construction projects. journal of engineering, design and technology, 15(4), pp.488–504. https://doi.org/10.1108/ jedt-09-2016-0066 siong, m.b.z., mellor, d., moore, k.a. and firth, l., 2006. predicting intention to quit in the call centre industry: does the retail model fit? journal of managerial psychology, 21(3), pp.231–243. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610659579 summers, j.k., munyon, t.p., brouer, r.l., pahng, p. and ferris, g.r., 2020. political skill in the stressor strain relationship: a meta-analytic update and extension. journal of vocational behavior, 118, p.103372. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jvb.2019.103372 tate, u., whatley, a. and clugston, m., 1997. sources and outcomes of job tension: a three-nation study. international journal of management, 14, pp.350–358. tetteh, s., wu, c., opata, c.n., asirifua agyapong, g.n.y., amoako, r. and osei-kusi, f., 2020. perceived organisational support, job stress, and turnover intention: the moderation of affective commitments. journal of psychology in africa, 30(1), pp.9–16. https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2020.1722365 vanishree, p., 2014. impact of role ambiguity, role conflict and role overload on job stress in small and medium scale industries. research journal of management sciences, 3(1), pp.10–13. wu, x., li, y., yao, y., luo, x., he, x. and yin, w., 2018. development of construction workers job stress scale to study and the relationship between job stress and safety behavior: an empirical study in beijing. international journal of environmental research and public health, 15(11), p.2409. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15112409 wu, y.-c. and shih, k.-y., 2010. the effects of gender role on perceived job stress. the journal of human resource and adult learning, 6(2), pp.74–79. yukongdi, v. and shrestha, p., 2020. the influence of affective commitment, job satisfaction and job stress on turnover intention: a study of nepalese bank employees. review of integrative business and economics research, 9(1), pp.88–98. dodanwala, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202137 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2013.10773206 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2013.10773206 https://doi.org/10.5296/ijld.v4i2.6097 https://doi.org/10.5296/ijld.v4i2.6097 https://doi.org/10.2307/2391486 https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.23.5.615 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1167358 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1167358 https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490259 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-09-2016-0066 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-09-2016-0066 https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940610659579 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2019.103372 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2019.103372 https://doi.org/10.1080/14330237.2020.1722365 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15112409 construction economics and building vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023 © 2023 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: lucas, j., gajjar, d., loadholt, g., davis, d. 2023. understanding roofing distributor employee job perception to address recruitment and retention of workers. construction economics and building, 23:3/4, 3–24. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v23i3/4.8315 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article understanding roofing distributor employee job perception to address recruitment and retention of workers jason lucas*, dhaval gajjar, georgia loadholt, david davis nieri department of construction, development, and planning, 2-136 lee hall, clemson university corresponding author: associate professor jason lucas, nieri department of construction, development, and planning, 2-136 lee hall, clemson university, jlucas2@clemson.edu doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8315 article history: received 13/08/2022; revised 12/09/2023; accepted 27/10/2023; published 23/12/2023 abstract the roofing industry faces a severe decline in workforce strength in all areas, including distribution. this study aims to collect and present workforce data that distributor companies can use to create an attractive company culture to strengthen their workforce. this study collected data via survey and analysed current workforce satisfaction, attraction, retention factors, and demographics of various roofing distributor companies. findings yield that the overall work and the yearly compensation were crucial factors for attraction and retention to the industry. the study results illustrate the development of workforce needs in the affordability of benefits, work-life balance, and a defined career path. the importance of this study lies in the ability of distributor companies to understand how they are doing in terms of current employee satisfaction and what areas they may need to address when developing recruitment strategies for the next generation of workforce, generation z. keywords roofing; distribution; workforce satisfaction; attraction; retention declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 3 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8315 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8315 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:jlucas2@clemson.edu https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8315 introduction the construction industry is one of the largest employers in the united states. in 2021, over 733,000 employers employed over 7 million workers (agc, 2022). the construction industry continues to grow exponentially, causing higher demand and advances for the supply chain and material distribution. over the past five years, the revenue in the construction industry increased annually by 2.4%. in 2021, the construction industry (including material supply chain) revenue increased by 2.6% as the economy recovered from the covid-19 pandemic (ibisworld, 2022). construction demand is highly volatile in relation to government actions and macroeconomics; the workforce needs of construction fluctuate with business. there is a significant workforce shortage throughout the u.s. there are many contributors to this shortage; however, a growing workforce gap is one of the main contributors. over the next ten years, 41% of the industry workforce will retire (nccer, 2017). many retiring workers hold critical leadership positions that demand highly skilled personnel. according to the 2022 associated general contractors (agc) survey, 86% of the firms need help filling both craft and salaried professionals in the construction industry (agc, 2022). a significant portion of the workforce retiring creates a demand for a younger workforce and presents a difficult task to industry recruiters in fulfilling open jobs. moreover, millennials and generation z members do not view construction-related jobs as rewarding based on the perception that construction-related jobs are labour-intensive and the industry’s image is poor (kim, chang and castro-lacouture, 2020). this not only raises concerns about attracting workers but also retaining younger workers. in 2020, the u.s. construction industry experienced its highest annual quit rate, 27.8% (bls, 2020). since the retention rates are relatively low compared to other industry retention rates, retaining workers is a competitive advantage for construction-related industries as they would not have to train and develop new workers but be able to complete jobs more efficiently and economically (chih, et al., 2016). however, to adequately retain workers, the industry must be knowledgeable of the workforce’s desires, including but not limited to attraction factors, retention factors, and workforce preferences. therefore, the understanding of workforce retention has exponentially increased as a research topic within the past few years (karakhan, gambatese and simmons, 2020; clarke and herrmann, 2019; gajjar, et al., 2022; bigelow, et al., 2021; perrenoud, et al., 2020). workforce perception in the roofing industry has only been documented for roofing contractors (gajjar, et al., 2022). workforce demographics were studied throughout the roofing industry by delvinne, et al. (2020), though they did not consider job satisfaction or workforce retention. other studies have been conducted that looked at job satisfaction in electric and drywall workers (bigelow, et al., 2017), gender differences in attraction and retention (perrenoud, 2020), and generational or age differences (zaniboni, et al., 2016), but there has been no previous research regarding the perception of the professionals in the distribution sector of the roofing industry. understanding workers within a specific trade is important in creating effective recruiting and retention strategies. generalizations should not be made between industry sectors (bigelow, et al., 2017). this study explores a gap in the current body of knowledge to better understand the perception of professionals in the distribution sector of the roofing industry. it will also assist the distributing companies in understanding and developing other strategies to attract and retain professionals, especially those of younger generations, within the roofing distribution sector. the study analyses the current workforce by looking at their experience level, education, compensation, satisfaction, and attraction and retention factors and their correlation. additionally, these findings are reviewed against generational preferences to identify where the sector is doing well and where they may want to focus more of their efforts in future recruitment programs. lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 20234 literature review the construction industry comprises multiple sectors, and the workforce shortages are more expansive than in one sector. instead, they impact all aspects of the construction industry, including but not limited to general contractors, sub-contractors, manufacturing, and distributing. distribution is an essential aspect of the construction industry since distributors are responsible for coordinating the procurement and sourcing of various construction materials between the manufacturers and the contractors. the material distribution sector accounts for one of the highest contributors in the construction industry, with 8% to 12% value-added and profits of 13% to 17% in the construction industry (andersson, et al., 2020). however, distributors could see their value to the construction industry diminish if they cannot sustain a workforce. a challenge that the construction industry consistently faces is low productivity. over the past few decades, global labour productivity in construction has only increased by 1% annually compared to 2.8% of the world economy and 3.6% for manufacturing (barbosa, et al., 2017). a skilled workforce shortage is one of the many factors challenging the construction industry’s productivity growth (hasan, et al., 2018). another identified area that affects construction productivity is other external factors (dixit, and sharma, 2020). one of the external factors to be assessed is the distribution industry and its correlation to construction production since supply chain management, or material distribution, is key to maintaining productivity. distributor workforce one of the greatest evolutions to the distribution workforce is automation and technological advancements that reduce human workforce demand (monroe, 2021). while this is a significant advancement, recruiting and retaining a human-based workforce for jobs that technology cannot replace is very important. like the challenges mentioned above, the distribution sector must reevaluate the retention and attraction factors for a younger generation. over the past few years, this distributor sector has seen significant workforce disruption, impacting the supply chain. this distribution workforce shortage is not expected to improve until at least 2023 (marcello, 2021). therefore, distributors must start taking action to curb the effects of the workforce shortage on the overall construction industry supply chain. distributors put forward a product or service for the user who demands it. therefore, the distribution industry significantly impacts market supply. if the consumer requires the product or service, the distributor must make it available in the market. with that said, distributors must demonstrate significant levels of commitment in their relationships with consumers and suppliers. research has identified many levels of commitment needed between a distributor and their counterparts. however, practical commitment requires unity among all involved (kim, and frazier, 1997). one of the most effective ways to generate agreement is through the workforce. a company’s workforce should align with its goals and collaborate to achieve them (bhadury, mighty and damar, 2000). however, this is difficult for distributors due to the industry’s workforce shortage. this workforce shortage dates back to the mid-1970s, creating the need for legislative action. in 1977, the tax reduction and simplification act was passed to combat workforce shortages in many industries, including distribution. the new jobs tax credit offers a tax credit for companies that increase employment by greater than two percent from the previous year (bishop, 1981). while this provision might have increased the workforce at the time, it has yet to sustain workforce growth and development. as the demand for distribution operations grows, so does the need for a strong distribution workforce. more recently, between 1998 and 2005, this demand generated an employment growth of 22.23% (andreoli, goodchild and vitasek, 2013). lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 20235 distribution connects products and services to the end users and consumers via general and subcontractors. the distributor is the intermediary between the manufacturer and the consumer, thus creating the supply chain. like many processes, the supply chain adapts new technology to increase output. however, technology output is comparable to the input level (kersting, 2006). therefore, technology has not entirely replaced human work, and a strong workforce is still in great demand. even more critical, the supply chain is susceptible and significantly affects the economy. covid-19 has demonstrated the supply chain’s impact on the overall economy. covid-19 highlighted a weakness in supply chain sustainability (sarkis, 2020). when faced with a disaster, the supply chain can no longer sustain itself. at its peak during the covid-19 pandemic, distribution companies fired more workers and exported less (meier and pinto, 2020). as the economy begins to reboot from the covid-19 pandemic, there is a demand for workforce growth in all sectors. the shortage of workers in the distribution sector creates a domino effect on the construction industry because distributors cannot meet the industry’s demands. the need for more workers in distribution harms the delivery of products from the manufacturer to the consumer, thus creating budget and schedule overruns. therefore, a strong workforce must be created to prevent more significant harm to industry success. to begin, a distribution company must first analyse the current professional’s perspective of the industry (azeez, gambatese and hernandez, 2019). this includes but is not limited to perspective on job functions, satisfaction, and compensation (bonilla, gajjar and sullivan, 2019). given these factors influence industry attraction, they are essential to analyse to attract the younger workforce. further, attention to detail in specific trades is more effective in recruiting and retention than a broader approach (bigelow, et al., 2017). generation z (gen z) – workforce preferences the youngest generation entering the workforce is generation z (gen z). this generation comprises workers born during or after 1997 (dimock, 2019) and those just starting to enter the current workforce. for any industry to successfully recruit this generation, it is important to understand their job preferences as they do not generally align with older generations that currently comprise most of the construction and distribution workforce. one of the priorities documented in the literature that gen z looks for when choosing a career is the potential for work-life balance (chan, et al., 2020; metro, harper and bogus, 2021). this work-life balance plays a critical role in the workforce’s job satisfaction. additionally, gen z emphasizes safety and organization effectiveness, fair rewards, resource adequacy, job tenure and promotion, and physical and mental health (shan, et al., 2017). gen z workers have been defined as self-reliant (pichler, kohli and granitz, 2021) while also needing a community to bond with in a collaborative workplace (maloni, hiatt and campbell, 2019). this generation identifies with a strong organizational structure and fears missing out, so working as part of a team can help combat that fear (liu, et al., 2021). they are open to diversity and change, looking for a fast-paced, satisfying job that challenges their skills and grows them as an employee (collisson, eck and harig, 2021). growing up in a technologically savvy environment, they look for results in a fast-paced environment (pichler, kohli and granitz, 2021). lastly, having knowledge about different career opportunities linked with career growth has been identified as an attractor of gen z to an industry (bigelow, et al., 2019). job satisfaction job satisfaction has been linked to organizational commitment. when job satisfaction through employee engagement is high, there tends to be a higher commitment level to that organization (kim, et al., 2017). in a tight labour market, when most industries are looking for the same group of people to fulfill labour shortages, the market is competitive, and once someone is hired, the preference is to keep them with the company. understanding factors of satisfaction can help with retaining employees. lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 20236 kian, et al. (2014) found job satisfaction and motivation to be among the most discussed topics in research when looking at organizational success factors. motivation is summarized as having a similar meaning to drive, energize, and act with a worker’s desire to achieve something, thus being followed by the action to obtain the desire (kian, et al., 2014). job satisfaction is often explained as a “pleasurable emotional state” based on meeting one’s job’s values (locke, 1976). job satisfaction is also defined as the extent to which workers like or dislike their jobs (spector, 1997). maslow (1970) observed a general pattern of recognition based on met needs and theorized that a person could not pursue the next higher need in the five-level hierarchy until the current need was satisfied. for example, the physiological need for shelter, food, and water must be met before a need for safety can be recognized. maslow’s hierarchy has also been applied to job satisfaction theory because satisfaction occurs when one gets what they need, desire, want, expect, deserve, or deem to be entitled to (thangaswamy and thiyagaraj, 2017). as a person moves up, needs are met, and satisfaction is increased. in contrast to maslow’s theory, herzberg, mausner and snyderman (1959) proposed a two-dimensional paradigm that affects people’s satisfaction with work by categorizing factors into motivators and hygiene. herzberg argues that factors related to hygiene (e.g., company policies, working conditions, salary), when not present, can result in dissatisfaction, but when present, only lead to “neutrality” in satisfaction and do not result in motivation. the second dimension, a motivator (e.g., achievement, recognition, the work itself, responsibility), leads to satisfaction when they are present and conversely results in “neutrality” when they are not. several studies have argued that hygiene factors and motivators affect motivation and satisfaction. yusoff, kian and rajah, (2013) identified hygiene factors as motivators for a younger generation of workers, while traditional motivators had more of a motivational response to older generations. aziri (2011) supports that job satisfaction is based more on feelings and beliefs people hold about their work and that both hygiene factors and motivators raise motivation. the job characteristics model ( jcm) extends beyond herzberg’s theory and looks more closely at the aspects of the work and how that affects satisfaction and motivation (blanz, 2017). the jcm consists of five (5) job dimensions (i.e., skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback). these dimensions prompt three psychological states (i.e., experienced meaningfulness of the work, experienced responsibility for the outcome of the work, and knowledge of the actual results of the work activity). once prompted, the physiological states lead to personal and work outcomes (i.e., high internal work motivation, high-quality work performance, high satisfaction with the work, low absenteeism and turnover). österberg and rydstedt (2018) analysed a series of review studies that indicated partial support for the jcm while noting that the job dimensions more strongly influence the attitudinal variables (job satisfaction and work motivation) more than the behavioural outcomes. worker attraction and retention factors much of the job satisfaction theory and sub-factors that feed into them align with factors of worker retention. overall, job satisfaction has also been documented as one of the reasons for employee retention and helps reduce stress, absenteeism, and burnout (aletraris, 2010). employees are attracted to a particular career by several factors. first, a family business can majorly impact attraction (bigelow, et al., 2017). salary has been found to attract a worker to a specific employer but is not as big of a factor for worker satisfaction and retention, especially when job responsibilities, stress level, and work-life balance are affected (sharma and bajpai, 2011). compensation, exciting work, good work-life balance, job security, and job variety help attract workers, especially younger generations, to an industry (bonilla, gajjar and sullivan, 2019). factors of attraction and retention include training and career growth opportunities within the company (bigelow, et al., 2019; goh and okumus, 2020). creating a lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 20237 caring environment with a positive work culture has also been linked to retaining employees (sedighi and loosemore, 2012). prior studies have been done examining the workforce attraction and retention factors for electrical subcontractors (bigelow, et al., 2021), management level of roofing contractors (gajjar, lucan and davis, 2022), drywall subcontractors (bigelow, et al., 2019), and attracting women to the construction industry (perrenoud, bigelow and perkins, 2020). however, bigelow, et al. (2017) identified that it is vital to understand workers in a specific trade to create effective recruiting and retention strategies for any industry sub-group based on a study that found differences between drywall and electrical workers. for the current research, it is important to understand what the current workforce identifies as satisfying about their job. these characteristics that help retain them in the industry can be examined against what generation z is looking for in a job and indicate the industry’s preparedness to recruit and retain the younger generation. methodology this study was conducted in partnership with the roofing alliance and the national roofing contractors association (nrca), as shown in figure 1. � respondent demographics (age, position, salary, etc.) � career path – positions held � worker satisfaction (likert scale) � attraction/retention factors (likert scale) � recommendation to future professionals industry advisory committee � provide feedback � validate survey questions � provide additional topics phase 1: study framework survey questionnaire development conduct literature review � existing studies � workforce satisfaction � attraction/retention factors phase 2: data collection electronic survey � qualtrics distribu�on � roofing alliance member companies � nrca member companies � referral invitations phase 3: data analysis benchmark current industry practices phase 4: findings recommendations for recruitment worker satisfaction ratings attraction and retention factors areas for industry improvement figure 1. study methodology phase 1: study framework the professionals from the major companies within the roofing alliance and the nrca served on an industry advisory committee for this research. the advisory committee provided feedback on developing the survey questionnaire and validated the study’s findings. industry feedback and previously identified factors of employee satisfaction, attraction, retention, and workforce perception (bigelow, et al., 2019; bonilla, gajjar and sullivan, 2019; chinyio, suresh and salisu, 2018; zaniboni, et al., 2016; gajjar, lucas and davis, 2022) were used to design the survey questionnaire. the advisory committee reviewed and pilot-tested the questionnaire. the survey was edited based on the committee’s feedback before being disseminated to the lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 20238 larger workforce. the researcher’s university institutional review board reviewed and approved the protocol (irb2023-0833) under exempt status before administering it. the four main areas of the survey included: 1. respondent background – basic demographic information of the respondent that included age, education, experience, and company location. 2. job position – respondents were asked to provide information on their current position within the industry, position held, length of time at the position, salary, and benefits received. 3. worker satisfaction –worker satisfaction with various aspects of their job and industry was gauged through likert scale questions. 4. attraction and retention factors – select from a list of attraction and retention factors related to their choice of work in the roofing material distribution industry. phase 2: data collection a self-administered electronic survey was sent to the roofing alliance member companies within the roofing material distribution sector. the survey was administered through qualtrics. qualtrics allows for the distribution and analysis of survey findings. additionally, features were used within qualtrics to help ensure the validity of the survey results. these include examining flagged responses. with a response pool of over 100 respondents, qualtrics calculates the time to complete the survey and flags those responses that were completed in an abnormally short time. additionally, allowing only one response per ip address minimized the chance for duplicate responses. referral invitations were encouraged to reach the broadest possible population, so a response rate is difficult to calculate. five hundred and eighty-six (586) respondents from across the united states completed the survey and were considered valid responses. the number of responses analysed for each section depended on the completeness of survey responses for those questions. for example, if a respondent failed to identify their age, their responses were removed from the age-based analysis. the survey was organized into the following sections: 1. part 1: background information: this section confirmed what sector of the industry the respondents worked in. any response other than “roofing distributor” was removed from consideration and not included in the 586 respondents. additionally, respondents were asked what state they worked in, the specialty sector of the industry, the geographical presence of the company they worked for, age, education, and time spent in the industry. skip logic was used to allow for drilling down on the position. for instance, if “management” were selected, typical management job titles were provided to choose from instead of those that would be sales or technical personnel. additionally, the type of benefits offered by their employer and the ones they enrolled in were documented. 2. part 2: job position: this section documented the current career status of the respondents and included the type of position they currently held, annual total salary, and length of time in the position. this information allowed for sorting respondents based on various factors to examine trends within the industry. 3. part 3: worker satisfaction: variables that other studies have identified as affecting worker satisfaction were listed. these include overall work being performed (nature of the work, etc.), work-life balance, benefits offered, affordability of benefits, job function, work impact/meaning to the greater good, a documented path for promotion (structure of career), career advancement opportunities being available, overall industry (image of, being a part of ), job security, and job variety/diversity. lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 20239 4. part 4: attraction and retention factors: the same factors that have been often associated with worker satisfaction play a role in attracting and retaining workers. the list was the same as from part three with the addition of a “family business,” meaning the family owned it or was involved in it, and “other.” the survey asked for what factors attracted the worker to the industry and then asked them to rank the selected factors. similarly, the questions were rephrased to ask about what retains them. phase 3: data analysis the data were analysed using the following methods: 1. descriptive statistics: descriptive statistics were used to analyse the yearly compensation based on age, education, experience, and position. the satisfaction factors were analysed using a likert scale from 1 (very dissatisfied) to 5 (very satisfied) for the key factors that impact the professionals in the roofing distribution sector. the count data model was utilized to analyse the attraction and retention factors for the professionals in the roofing distribution sector. 2. quantitative statistical analysis: two types of statistical tests were performed: a. kruskal-wallis test: a non-parametric test followed by a post hoc test was performed to determine if there are statistically significant differences between yearly compensation for different education levels, years of experience, and overall satisfaction. b. spearman correlation efficient (r-value): a non-parametric correlation efficient test was performed to describe the relationship between yearly compensation and overall worker satisfaction and yearly compensation and years of experience. results and findings respondent demographics data for respondent demographics include age, education, experience, and position. age the respondents’ ages were categorized into 5-year increments, ranging from 21 to 60 years. the “60+” category accounts for all respondents over 60. out of five-hundred-and-eighty-six (586) respondents, threehundred-and-six (306) responses were analysed when “age” was a variable. the remaining two-hundredand-eighty (280) respondents did not provide their age. table 1 shows the age categories and details the number of respondents per category, corresponding percentage, and weighted average yearly compensation per age category. forty-five (45) was considered the halfway point of a professional’s career, so the 41-45 category was used as a mid-point for comparison. 48% of the total respondents were 45 or younger, compared to 52% above 45. respondents in the younger category reported a weighted average yearly compensation of $90,940, whereas respondents above 45 years of age reported $100,670, representing a 10.7% difference between the two populations. with the nature of the positions the respondents reported having, it is assumed they are salary or fixed hourly positions and not paid on rate of work (unit cost). rate pay is rare for management and office-level positions in the distribution sector of the industry. lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202310 education respondents were analysed based on their highest level of education. five hundred and sixty (560) responses were collected and analysed. table 2 shows the respondents into different categories based on their education level, corresponding percentages, and weighted average yearly compensation for each category. 45% of the respondents had at least a four-year college degree or greater (bachelor’s or master’s) and 55% had less than a four-year college degree (some high school, some college, vocational training, high school graduate, and associate degree). the weighted average yearly compensation for respondents with a four-year college degree or greater was $109,893. the respondents who did not have a four-year college degree or greater identified a weighted average yearly salary as $80,097 representing a 27.1% decrease from those with a college degree. apprenticeships or other on-the-job training that may provide a baseline for greater compensation were not measured. table 2. education and compensation education # of respondents % of respondents weighted average yearly compensation some high school 5 1% $82,000 some college 140 25% $89,036 vocational training 15 3% $62,000 high school graduate 96 17% $85,938 associate degree 53 9% $81,509 bachelor’s degree 209 37% $104,904 master’s degree 42 8% $114,881 table 1. age range and total respondents age range # of respondents % of respondents weighted average yearly compensation 21-25 18 6% $66,667 26-30 22 7% $76,818 31-35 31 10% $87,258 36-40 35 11% $106,000 41-45 44 14% $117,955 46-50 41 13% $102,683 51-55 49 16% $93,571 56-60 31 10% $118,710 60+ 35 11% $87,714 total 306 100% $95,264 lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202311 a kruskal-wallis test was conducted to analyse if there are any significant differences in yearly compensation between different educational levels. the hypotheses tested for this test include: h0: the distribution of compensation is the same across categories of education. h.a.: the distribution of compensation is significantly different across categories of education. the test revealed a significant difference between yearly compensation across education categories and hence rejected the null hypothesis, h(6) = 49.189, p = <0.001. the post hoc test indicated that yearly compensation for professionals with vocational training was significantly different when compared to professionals with high school diplomas (p = 0.023), some college credit (p = 0.009), bachelor’s degree (p < 0.001) and master’s degree (p < 0.001). differences in yearly compensation were also found between professionals holding a bachelor’s or master’s degree and professionals holding an associate degree, high school diploma, and some college credit, p < 0.001. the results indicate that education does play a factor in yearly compensation. experience survey respondents provided the total number of years worked in the roofing industry. years of experience were sorted into categories, each representing a five-year increment ranging from one to forty-one and greater. the study collected and analysed a total of five-hundred-and-forty-five (545) responses. table 3 breaks down respondents by experience range and provides the average compensation for each. table 3. experience vs. compensation experience range # of respondents % of respondents average compensation 1 5 139 26% $76,727 6 10 78 14% $92,051 11 15 70 13% $104,929 16 20 71 13% $100,423 21 25 55 10% $106,545 26 30 48 9% $111,875 31 35 41 7% $104,878 36 40 30 5% $107,667 41 + 13 2% $95,385 between 1-5 and 6-10 years of experience, there was a 16.6% increase in average compensation from $76,727 to $92,051. this increase was the highest among all the ranges. average compensation peaks at its highest pay in the 26 – 30 range at $111,875. the minimum salary also increases with the increase in experience level. a kruskal-wallis test was conducted to analyse if there are any significant differences in mean yearly compensation for different experience levels. the hypotheses tested for this test include: lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202312 h0: the distribution of yearly compensation is the same across categories of years of experience. h.a.: the distribution of yearly compensation is significantly different across categories of years of experience. a statistically significant difference was found in the compensation distributions across categories of years of experience, h(7) = 53.396, p = <0.001. the post hoc test indicated that professionals in the 1 – 5 experience range had a statistically significant difference in yearly compensation from professionals in every other experience range between 6 – 40, p < 0.001. a significant difference was also found between the yearly compensations of professionals in the 6-10 experience range and professionals in the 21-30 experience range, p = 0.008. spearman’s rank correlation was computed to assess the relationship between years of experience and yearly compensation. there was a weak positive correlation between the two variables, r(543)=0.29, p<0.001 meaning the yearly compensation does tend to have some relationship with an increase in experience for the provided data (akoglu, 2018). influence of education and experience on compensation within the construction industry, the years of experience and education alone and its correlation to compensation do not provide a complete analysis. therefore, it is critical to simultaneously analyse the years of experience and education. education level was classified into two categories: 4-year or more degree or less than a four-year degree. next, the experience was categorized based on the respondents’ total years reported as working in the roofing distribution sector. table 4 compares the education, average experience in years, and yearly compensation for both categories of respondents. table 4. experience vs. compensation education level # of respondents average experience (yrs.) yearly compensation ($) four-year or more 249 13.5 $106,988 less than four-year 304 18.7 $85,855 the average experience for professionals with a four-year or more degree was five (5) years less than those that have less than a four-year degree. however, the professionals’ yearly compensation with a fouryear or more degree was $21,133 higher (19.8%) than those with less than a four-year degree. therefore, professionals with a four-year or more degree had less experience, but higher yearly compensation compared to professionals with less than a four-year degree. figure 2 represents the difference in the yearly compensation across different years of experience for four-year or more degrees compared to less than fouryear degrees. a kruskal-wallis test was conducted to analyse if there are any significant differences between yearly compensation across different categories of years of experience, separately, for professionals having a four-year or more college degree and for professionals having a less than four-year college degree. for professionals with a four-year or more college degree, the test results revealed a significant difference in yearly compensation across categories of years of experience, h(7) = 44.085, p = <0.001. a post hoc test indicated that there was a significant difference between the yearly compensation of professionals in the 0 5 years’ experience range and all other experience ranges from 6 35+, p < 0.001. similarly, for professionals with a less than four-year college degree, a significant difference was identified between yearly compensation across categories of years of experience, h(7) = 68.448, p = <0.001. a post hoc test identified that yearly compensation for professionals in the 0 – 5 years’ experience range once lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202313 again differed with yearly compensations of every other experience ranging from 6 – 35+, p < 0.001. based on the results, it can be seen that both education and experience can affect the yearly compensation of professionals. for the entire work period, the yearly compensation for both groups increased with the years of experience. interestingly, the yearly compensation for a four-year or more college degree was consistently higher than those with less than a four-year degree no matter how many years of experience a worker had. position survey respondents were asked to identify their career path with their current and all previous positions and the yearly compensation for each. the survey provided a list of nine (9) different positions for the respondent to select from, including executive (owner, president, vp, director), project manager/estimator, safety manager, sales manager, assistant project manager, project engineer, technician, and administrative staff with an additional option to write in a position. table 5 shows the number of respondents per position, corresponding percentage (out of 519 total responses), average years of experience, and average weighted yearly compensation. respondents identifying as holding an executive position had seven (7) years on average more experience in the sector compared to the lower project manager/estimator. furthermore, there was a significant difference of $78,192 in the average weighted yearly compensation between these two groups. in general, the yearly compensation increased with each position as expected. attraction and retention factors the survey identified twelve (12) attraction and retention factors for respondents to select from that attracted them to the roofing material distribution sector of the industry. the advisory industry committee and previously published research were used to generate the list of attraction and retention factors (bigelow, $0.00 $20,000.00 $40,000.00 $60,000.00 $80,000.00 $100,000.00 $120,000.00 $140,000.00 $160,000.00 $180,000.00 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 y ea rl y c o m p en sa ti o n ( $ ) experience (yrs.) college degree compensation comparison four-year or more college degree less than four-year college degree linear (four-year or more college degree) linear (less than four-year college degree) figure 2. effect of college degree on compensation lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202314 saseendran and elliott, 2017; bigelow, et al., 2019; bonilla, gajjar and sullivan, 2018; gajjar, lucas and davis, 2022). the respondents were asked to rank the factors to determine which had the most influence on them joining this industry sector. understanding what attracts current employees to the industry helps table 5. respondents by position position type # of respondents % of respondents average experience average weighted yearly compensation executive 40 8% 20.6 $150,500 project manager / estimator 26 5% 13.4 $72,308 safety manager 11 2% 16.6 $73,182 sales manager 188 36% 18.4 $99,548 administrative staff 46 9% 9.7 $66,304 other management 208 40% 15.3 $94,495 table 6. ranked attraction/retention factors attraction factors total selected % selected retention factors total selected % selected overall work 214 37% yearly compensation 297 51% yearly compensation 182 31% overall work 242 41% career advancement opportunities 162 28% work-life balance 180 31% job function 154 26% benefits offered 174 30% job security 135 23% career advancement opportunities 168 29% benefits offered 122 21% job function 150 26% defined promotion path / structure 119 20% job security 149 25% work-life balance 117 20% defined promotion path / structure 129 22% job variety / diversity 108 18% work impact 121 21% work impact 97 17% job variety / diversity 108 18% family business 81 14% affordability of benefits 98 17% affordability of benefits 64 11% family business 39 7% lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202315 companies understand attractive and not-as-attractive characteristics of the work. additionally, matching these with current generational preferences from literature can help determine what characteristics of the work to highlight in recruiting material, as well as identifying if there are characteristics that do not align that might need to be addressed with revised business practices. table 6 shows the respondents’ top-rated factors for both attraction and retention to the industry. overall type of work and experience, yearly compensation, and career advancement opportunities within the industry were the top three attraction factors. affordability of benefits, roofing distribution being a family business, and work impact (or significance of the work) were the bottom three attraction factors. the top three retention factors were yearly compensation, overall work, and work-life balance. family business, affordability of benefits, and job variety/diversity were the least three retention factors. work-life balance was rated low as the attraction factor but was ranked highest in the retention factor. benefits analysis the affordability of benefits was ranked lowest by the respondents as both the attraction and retention factor. respondents were asked to identify the benefits offered by their company and the benefits they were enrolled in. the survey provided twelve (12) common types of benefits companies offer, as identified by the industry advisory committee. if a benefit was excluded from the survey, the respondent can write in the benefit. five-hundred and fifty-six (556) responses were collected and analysed. figure 3 shows the survey response percentages for benefits offered and benefits enrolled. 83% 81% 80% 78% 78% 75% 74% 73% 35% 29% 24% 23% health insurance dental insurance vision insurance life insurance retirement benefits short-term disability long-term disability healthcare employee recognition retail membership tuition reimbursement childcare benefits 92% 83% 82% 81% 68% 56% 55% 31% 27% 20% 17% 8% retirement benefits health insurance life insurance dental insurance vision insurance long-term disability short-term disability healthcare retail membership employee recognition childcare benefits tuition reimbursement figure 3. benefits offered / enrolled the top three benefits offered by the roofing distributor companies were health insurance (83%), dental insurance (81%), and vision insurance (80%). 92% and 83% of the respondents were enrolled in retirement benefits and health insurance plans when their company offered this benefit. it is important that companies provide benefit packages to increase employee attraction and retention. overall, most of the roofing distributors offered decent benefits packages, and there was a higher percentage of enrolment in these basic benefits of retirement, health insurance, life insurance, dental, and vision insurance. satisfaction factors to gain a deeper understanding of the distributor professional’s perspective regarding the industry, respondents rated specific satisfaction factors. the questions were phrased with a lead-in of “how satisfied lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202316 are you with…” a likert scale of 1 to 5 (1 – very dissatisfied; 5 – very satisfied) was used for the measurement. five hundred and fifty-five (555) responses were collected and analysed. figure 4 shows a bar chart based on the data from survey respondents. the graph shows the positive versus negative favourability distribution for each topic area. a “neutral” response of three on the likert scale is indicated as 0% on the favourability distribution scale, whereas a “very satisfied” response of five would be 100%. the weighted mean is also indicated. figure 4. satisfaction rating researchers analysed respondents’ satisfaction with the above factors based on the weighted mean satisfaction. the top three satisfaction factors were benefits offered, overall work, and job function based on the weighted mean. no factor was overly negative, and all had a weighted mean over “neutral.” the bottom three satisfaction factors were work-life balance, promotion path/structure, and career advancement opportunities. this provides the roofing distributors with the factors that need to be focused on to improve further attraction and retention of roofing professionals in the distribution industry. overall satisfaction vs. yearly compensation in the construction industry, there is a common assumption that an increase in yearly compensation is directly related to the rise in employee satisfaction. however, the study compared the average overall satisfaction to yearly compensation for the collected data to understand if this assumption is true. figure 5 displays a scatter plot that graphs the respondents’ overall satisfaction and yearly compensation data. spearman’s rank correlation was computed to assess the relationship between yearly compensation and overall satisfaction. the two variables had a weak positive correlation, r(547)=0.24, p<0.001. the test suggests a weak positive relationship between overall satisfaction and yearly compensation. this is demonstrated graphically by seeing a gradual increase in satisfaction as compensation increases. there is an unusual drop in satisfaction in the compensation range of $80,000 $90,000. anecdotally, job responsibilities and stress related to a different position in the company may influence this drop. when asked regarding the lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202317 recommendation for others considering a career in the roofing distribution sector, eighty-five percent (85%) of respondents said they would highly recommend working in this industry sector. discussion though not the focus of the study, information pertaining to the value of education in terms of how it affects overall compensation was examined. on average, those with four or more years of college made close to 20% more in annual salary than those with less than four years of college throughout their work career. on average, this equates to approximately $20,000 per year. over a 40-year career, someone with a fouryear degree or more could make over $800,0000 more than someone without. this aligns with lobo and burke-smalley (2017), who identified that those with a four-year degree maintain higher compensation and higher salary growth than those who do not, and kantrowitz (2007), who identified a significant return on investment for a four-year college education. this does not account for the fact that those with a four-year degree are likely to obtain a higher-level position earlier in their career, which could influence the lifetime salary to be significantly higher than those without a college degree. salary and compensation are also a factor for job satisfaction and worker retention. overall work, yearly compensation, and career advancement opportunities were identified as the top three factors identified by the respondents as attracting them to the industry. the fact that people find the work satisfying and overall work meaningful works well for recruiting gen z workers as they desire fulfilling work (ozkan and solmaz, 2015; chillakuri and mahanandia, 2018). additionally, they desire a career that has a visible path for promotion (goh and okumus, 2020), so having career advancement opportunities is a strength for the industry sector when it comes to recruiting gen z. yearly compensation, overall work, and work-life balance were identified as the top three reasons for respondents to stay in the distributor sector of the industry. as mentioned, overall work and the value of work is important to gen z. another thing gen z looks for is work-life balance (hampton and welsh, 2019). affordability of benefits was not listed high as an attraction or retention factor, however received a high rating of satisfaction. this is important since the younger generation desires good and affordable benefits (hampton and welsh, 2019). overall, in terms of satisfaction with the job, respondents currently working in the industry either agreed or strongly agreed. the factors of job security, good compensation, interesting work, good work-life balance, and job variety have been identified as important to gen z workers (lanier, 2017; hampton and welsh, 2019). it is important to understand that just because current workers are satisfied with these individual 3.00 3.20 3.40 3.60 3.80 4.00 4.20 4.40 4.60 4.80 5.00 figure 5. compensation vs. overall satisfaction lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202318 factors does not mean that the gen z workers will be satisfied as they have different work preferences, however, understanding and having an awareness of what current professionals are feeling can help develop tools to better prepare the next generation (azeez, gambatese and hernandez, 2019; srour, haas and borcherding, 2006). the industry must understand the factors of career fulfillment in order to attract young talent into the industry (bonilla, gajjar and sullivan, 2019). research limitations one of the research limitations is the respondents. as shown in the demographics, very few youngergeneration workers were included in the responses. this is also representative of the current industry since gen z workers are just starting to enter the workforce. because of this, gen z workers were not isolated and examined for their preferences. instead, their preferences and characteristics are identified in other literature and matched to the industry. it is possible that due to their generational perspectives they would have different views in where the industry is doing well and where it needs improvement, however the response pool did not allow for a generational analysis due to the lower number of respondents who would qualify as “gen z.” additionally, the means at which responses were solicited whereby partnering with the national roofing contractors association (nrca) and having them send out invitations to their membership. though they are a national organization with national reach, it is possible that there are subpopulations that were not included in the representative sample. the responses were disproportionate from executive office and management staff and no technicians were included in the responses. technicians, transportation and logistics, and warehouse staff may have different responses to the survey than those who responded. conclusion the main objective of this study was to identify and analyse workforce data to benchmark the roofing industry in terms of employee satisfaction, attraction, and retention. the findings can allow distributor companies to create an attractive company culture to strengthen their workforce recruiting and retention efforts. a roofing industry-wide survey was drafted and delivered to roofing professionals. for this research, five-hundred-and-sixty roofing distributor professionals responded to the survey. the importance of this study lies in the ability of distributor companies to understand areas they are doing well in and identify areas that need to be improved. they can also incorporate the findings in developing recruitment material for new employees. this can allow the distributor companies to design specific programs that fit their needs. by taking into consideration areas of alignment and gaps between current characteristics of work and generational preferences, companies can customize their recruiting material to best attract the next generation of workers. in this study, yearly compensation correlates to overall satisfaction. therefore, the roofing distributor companies should maintain competitive salaries. additionally, distributor companies should re-address their promotion path/structure and career advancement opportunities, as discussed earlier. both factors received low satisfaction ratings from current employees. the future generations of the workforce are attracted to companies that can provide a clear career path and advancement. the distribution industry performs well in benefits offered, overall work, job function, and affordability of benefits. however, there is a need for further development in work-life balance, promotion path/structure, career advancement opportunities, and job variety/diversity. to remain competitive and strengthen their workforce, it is recommended that roofing distributor companies focus on this area of opportunity. with the growing challenge of labour shortages throughout this and other industries, future workers have the upper hand when it comes to selecting a career, which makes it necessary for the roofing material lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202319 distributors to understand what they are good at and where they should look to change. the workforce will not change their perception of the industry on their own; the industry must make the changes to better align with the worker’s preferences. the good news for roofing material distributors is that, according to the results found in this study, they are very strong in many aspects of attraction and retention for the current workforce. however, there needs to be a better understanding of how they can relate to the future workers they are competing to attract – generation z – those just now starting to enter the workforce. future research will contain a deeper exploration into how industry practices may need to change to better attract and align with the next generation of workers. it will also involve examining differences between the satisfactions of different generation groups currently within the workforce (e.g., boomer vs. generation x vs. millennial). the current and future analysis findings will serve as a benchmark for companies working within this industry sector to examine their practices and potentially identify needed changes to grow and sustain their workforce. acknowledgments this study was made possible by the support of the roofing alliance, the foundation of the national roofing contractors association, through funding of “workforce education and retention initiatives for the roofing industry.” references akoglu, h., 2018. user’s guide to correlation coefficients. turkish journal of emergency medicine, [e-journal] 18(3), pp.91–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tjem.2018.08.001 aletraris, l., 2010. how satisfied are they and why? a study of job satisfaction, job rewards, gender and temporary agency workers in australia. human relations, [e-journal] 63(8), pp.1129–55. https://doi. org/10.1177/0018726709354131 andersson, t., biörck, j., sjödin, e. and mischke, j., 2020. the next normal in construction material distribution, [online] available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/the-next-normal-in-constructionmaterial-distribution [accessed 11 august 2022]. andreoli, d., goodchild, a. and vitasek, k., 2013. the rise of mega distribution centers and the impact on logistical uncertainty. transportation letters, [e-journal] 2(2), pp.75-88. https://doi.org/10.3328/tl.2010.02.02.75-88 associated general contractors of america (agc), 2022. construction data, [online] available at: https://www.agc. org/learn/construction-data [accessed 11 august 2022]. aziri, b., 2011. job satisfaction: a literature review. management research and practice, 3(4), pp.77-86. azeez, m., gambatese, j. and hernandez, s., 2019. what do construction workers really want? a study about representation, importance, and perception of u.s. construction occupational rewards. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 145(7), p.04019040. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001669 barbosa, f., woetzel, j., mischke, j., ribeirinho, m.j., sridhar, m., parsons, m., bertram, n. and brown, s., 2017. reinventing construction: a route to higher productivity [online] available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/ mckinsey/business%20functions/operations/our%20insights/reinventing construction through a productivity revolution/ mgi-reinventing-construction-executive-summary.pdf [accessed 11 august 2022]. bhadury, j., mighty, e.j. and damar, h., 2000. maximizing workforce diversity in project teams: a network flow approach. omega, [e-journal] 28 (2), pp.143-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0305-0483(99)00037-7 lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202320 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tjem.2018.08.001 https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726709354131 https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726709354131 https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/the-next-normal-in-construction-material-distribution https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/operations/our-insights/the-next-normal-in-construction-material-distribution https://doi.org/10.3328/tl.2010.02.02.75-88 https://www.agc.org/learn/construction-data https://www.agc.org/learn/construction-data https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001669 https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/operations/our%20insights/reinventing construction through a productivity revolution/mgi-reinventing-construction-executive-summary.pdf https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/operations/our%20insights/reinventing construction through a productivity revolution/mgi-reinventing-construction-executive-summary.pdf https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/operations/our%20insights/reinventing construction through a productivity revolution/mgi-reinventing-construction-executive-summary.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/s0305-0483(99)00037-7 bigelow, b.f., perrenoud, a.j., rahman, m. and saseendran, a., 2021. an exploration of age on attraction and retention of managerial workforce in the electrical construction industry in the united states. international journal of construction education and research, [e-journal] 17(1), pp.3–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2019.1611678 bigelow, b.f., perrenoud, a.j., rahman, m. and saseendran, a., 2019. an exploration of age on attraction and retention of managerial workforce in the electrical construction industry in the united states. international journal of construction education and research, [e-journal] 17(1), pp.3-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2019.1611678 bigelow, b.f., zarate, v., soto, j., arenas, j. and perrenoud, a., 2017. attracting and retaining tradespeople, an evaluation of influencers on construction workers in two different trades in texas. international journal of construction education and research, [e-journal] 15(3), pp.163-78. https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2017.1280103 bigelow, b.f., saseendran, a. and elliott, j.w., 2017. attracting students to construction education programs: an exploration of perceptions by gender. international journal of construction education and research, [e-journal] 14(3), pp.179-97. https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2017.1280101 bishop, j., 1981. employment in construction and distribution industries: the impact of the new jos tax credit. in: s. rosen, ed. 1981. studies in labor markets. chicago usa: university of chicago press. pp.209-46. blanz, m., 2017. employees’ job satisfaction: a test of the job characteristics model among social work practitioners. journal of evidence-informed social work, [e-journal] 14(1), pp.35-50. https://doi.org/10.1080/23761407.2 017.1288187 bonilla, a., gajjar, d. and sullivan, k., 2019. study of various construction job functions to address workforce challenge. journal of the american institute of constructors, 44(01), pp.6-13. bureau of labor statistics (bls), 2020. table 18. annual quits rates by industry and region, not seasonally adjusted. [online] available at: u.s. bureau of labor statistics https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t18.htm [accessed 11 august 2022]. chan, a.p.c., chiang, y.-h., wong, f.k.-w., liang, s. and abidoye, f.a., 2020. work–life balance for construction manual workers. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 146(5), p.04020031. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001800 chih, y.y., kiazad, k., zhou, l., capezio, a., li, m. and d. restubog, s.l., 2016. investigating employee turnover in the construction industry: a psychological contract perspective. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 142(6), p.04016006. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001101 chillakuri, b. and mahanandia, r., 2018. viewpoint: generation z entering the workforce: the need for sustainable strategies in maximizing their talent. human resource management international digest, [e-journal] 26(4), pp.34-38. https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid-01-2018-0006 chinyio, e., suresh, s. and salisu, j.b., 2018. the impacts of monetary rewards on public sector employees in construction. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 16(1), pp.125-42. https://doi.org/10.1108/ jedt-12-2016-0098 clarke, l. and herrmann, g., 2019. skill shortages, recruitment and retention in the house building sector. personnel review, [e-journal] 36(4), pp.509-27. https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480710752777 collisson, b., eck, b.e. and harig, t., 2021. introducing gen z psychology majors: why they choose to major in psychology (and what they expect to learn). scholarship of teaching and learning in psychology, [e-journal] 9(3), pp.27687. https://doi.org/10.1037/stl0000249 delvinne, h.h., hurtado, k., smithwick, j., lines, b. and sullivan, k., 2020. construction workforce challenges and solutions: a national study of the roofing sector in the united states. in: asmar, m.e. et al., eds. asce, proceedings lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202321 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2019.1611678 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2019.1611678 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2017.1280103 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2017.1280101 https://doi.org/10.1080/23761407.2017.1288187 https://doi.org/10.1080/23761407.2017.1288187 https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jolts.t18.htm https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001800 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001800 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001101 https://doi.org/10.1108/hrmid-01-2018-0006 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-12-2016-0098 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-12-2016-0098 https://doi.org/10.1108/00483480710752777 https://doi.org/10.1037/stl0000249 of construction research congress 2020: safety, workforce and education. tempe, arizona, usa, 8-10 march 2020. virginia, us: asce. pp.529-37. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784482872.057 dimock, m., 2019. defining generations: where millennials end, and generation z begins. pew research center. [online] available at: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-zbegins/ [accessed 9 november 2022]. dixit, s. and sharma, k., 2020. an empirical study of major factors affecting productivity of construction projects. in: babu, k., rao, h., amarnath, y., eds. emerging trends in civil engineering. lecture notes in civil engineering, 61. singapore: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1404-3_12 gajjar, d., lucas, j. and davis, d., 2022. understanding employee perception to promote management level workforce development for roofing contractors. international journal of construction education and research, [e-journal] 19(2), pp.221-38. https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2022.2049663 goh, e. and okumus, f., 2020. avoiding the hospitality workforce bubble: strategies to attract and retain generation z talent in the hospitality workforce. tourism management perspectives, [e-journal] 33(2020), p.100603. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.tmp.2019.100603 hampton, d. and welsh, d., 2019. work values of generation z nurses. the journal of nursing administration, [e-journal] 49(10), pp.480-86. https://doi.org/10.1097/nna.0000000000000791 hasan, a., baroudi, b., elmualim, a. and rameezdeen, r., 2018. factors affecting construction productivity: a 30 year systematic review. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 25(7), pp.916-37. https://doi. org/10.1108/ecam-02-2017-0035 herzberg, f., mausner, b. and snyderman, b.b., 1959. the motivation to work. 2nd ed. new york: john wiley & sons. ibisworld, 2022. construction industry in the u.s. – market research reports [online] available at: https://www. ibisworld.com/united-states/market-research-reports/construction-industry/ [accessed 11 august 2022]. kantrowitz, m., 2007. the financial value of a higher education. nasfaa journal of student financial aid, 37(1), pp.19-27. https://doi.org/10.55504/0884-9153.1075 karakhan, a.a., gambatese, j. and simmons, d.r., 2020. development of assessment tool for workforce sustainability. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 146(4), p.04020017. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0001794 kersting, w.h., 2006. distribution system modeling and analysis, 2nd ed. boca raton: crc press. https://doi. org/10.1201/9781420006162 kian, t.s, yusoff, w.f.w., rajah, s., hussein, t. and malaysia, o., 2014. job satisfaction and motivation: what are the differences among the two? european journal of business and social sciences, 3(2), pp.94-102. https://doi.org/10.6007/ ijarbss/v3-i11/319 kim, k. and frazier, g.l., 1997. measurement of distributor commitment in industrial channels of distribution, journal of business research, [e-journal] 40(2), pp.139-54. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0148-2963(96)00284-6 kim, w., kim, j., wo, h., park, j., jo, j., park, s.h. and lim, s.y., 2017. the relationship between work engagement and organizational commitment: proposing research agendas through a review of empirical literature. human resource development review, [e-journal] 16(4), pp.350-76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484317725967 kim, s., chang, s. and castro-lacouture, d., 2020. dynamic modeling for analyzing impacts of skilled labor shortage on construction project management. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 36(1), p.04019035. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000720 lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202322 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784482872.057 https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/ https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/17/where-millennials-end-and-generation-z-begins/ https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1404-3_12 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2022.2049663 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2019.100603 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2019.100603 https://doi.org/10.1097/nna.0000000000000791 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2017-0035 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2017-0035 https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/market-research-reports/construction-industry/ https://www.ibisworld.com/united-states/market-research-reports/construction-industry/ https://doi.org/10.55504/0884-9153.1075 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001794 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001794 https://doi.org/10.1201/9781420006162 https://doi.org/10.1201/9781420006162 https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v3-i11/319 https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarbss/v3-i11/319 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0148-2963(96)00284-6 https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484317725967 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000720 lanier, k., 2017. 5 things h.r. professionals need to know about generation z. strategic h.r. review, [e-journal] 16(6), pp.288-90. https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-08-2017-0051 lobo, b.j. and burke-smalley, l.a., 2017. an empirical investigation of the financial value of a college degree. education economics, [e-journal] 26(1), pp.78–92. https://doi.org/10.1080/09645292.2017.1332167 locke, e.a., 1976. the nature and causes of job satisfaction. in: dunnette, m.p., ed. handbook of industrial and organizational psychology. chicago: rand mcnally, pp.1297-1350. lui, h., liu, w., yoganathan, v. and osburg, v., 2021. covid-19 information overload and generation z’s social media discontinuance intention during the pandemic lockdown. technological forecasting and social change, [e-journal] 166(2021), p.120600. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120600 maloni, m., hiatt, m.s. and campbell, s., 2019. understanding the work values of gen z business students. international journal of management education, [e-journal] 17(3), p.100320. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2019.100320 marcello, j., 2021. 7 steps to offset the distributor labor shortage. mdm distribution intelligence, operations, [blog] 29 september. available at: https://www.mdm.com/blog/tech-operations/operations/7-steps-to-offset-the-distributionlabor-shortage/ [accessed 11 august 2022]. maslow, a.h., 1970. motivation and personality. 2nd ed. new york: harper and row. meier, m. and pinto, e., 2020. covid-19 supply chain disruptions. discussion paper no. 239, german research foundation. [online] available at: https://www.wiwi.uni-bonn.de/bgsepapers/boncrc/crctr224_2020_239.pdf [accessed 11 august 2022]. metro, k., harper, c. and bogus, s.m., 2021. factors affecting workforce resilience in public transportation agencies. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 37(4), p.04021018. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) me.1943-5479.0000920 monroe, w., 2021. learning to live with the manufacturing and distribution labor shortage. supplychaindive, operations management, [blog] 18 october. available at: https://www.supplychaindive.com/spons/learning-to-livewith-the-manufacturing-and-distribution-labor-shortage/608196/ [accessed 11 august 2022]. national center for construction education and research (nccer), 2017. inside the industry: broadening our horizon: the search for talent. the cornerstone: a construction publication for workforce development professionals, fall/ winter, pp.26-31. [online] available at: https://www.nccer.org/docs/default-source/pdfs/nccer-cornerstone-fall-winter2017-final.pdf [accessed 11 august 2022]. österberg, j. and rydstedt, l., 2018. job satisfaction among swedish soldiers: applying the job characteristics model to newly recruited military personnel. military psychology, [e-journal] 30(4), pp.302-10. https://doi.org/10.1080/089956 05.2018.1425585 ozkan, m. and solmaz, b., 2015. the changing face of the employees – generation z and their perceptions of work (a study applied to university students). 4th world conference on business, economics and management (wcbem), procedia economics and finance, [e-journal] 26(2015), pp.476-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00876-x perrenoud, a.j., bigelow, b.f. and perkins, e.m., 2020. advancing women in construction: gender differences in attraction and retention factors with managers in the electrical construction industry. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 36(5), p.04020043. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000808 pichler, s., kohli, c. and granitz, n., 2021. ditto for gen z: a framework for leveraging the uniqueness of the new generation. business horizons, [e-journal] 64(5), pp.599–610. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2021.02.021 sarkis, j., 2020. supply chain sustainability: learning from the covid-19 pandemic. international journal of operations & production management, [e-journal] 41(1), pp.63-73. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijopm-08-2020-0568 lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202323 https://doi.org/10.1108/shr-08-2017-0051 https://doi.org/10.1080/09645292.2017.1332167 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120600 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2019.100320 https://www.mdm.com/blog/tech-operations/operations/7-steps-to-offset-the-distribution-labor-shortage/ https://www.mdm.com/blog/tech-operations/operations/7-steps-to-offset-the-distribution-labor-shortage/ https://www.wiwi.uni-bonn.de/bgsepapers/boncrc/crctr224_2020_239.pdf https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000920 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000920 https://www.supplychaindive.com/spons/learning-to-live-with-the-manufacturing-and-distribution-labor-shortage/608196/ https://www.supplychaindive.com/spons/learning-to-live-with-the-manufacturing-and-distribution-labor-shortage/608196/ https://www.nccer.org/docs/default-source/pdfs/nccer-cornerstone-fall-winter-2017-final.pdf https://www.nccer.org/docs/default-source/pdfs/nccer-cornerstone-fall-winter-2017-final.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/08995605.2018.1425585 https://doi.org/10.1080/08995605.2018.1425585 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00876-x https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000808 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2021.02.021 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijopm-08-2020-0568 sedighi, f. and loosemore, m., 2012. employer-of-choice characteristics in the construction industry. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 30(11), pp.941–50. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2012.694458 shan, y., imran, h., lewis, p. and zhai, d., 2017. investigating the latent factors of quality of work-life affecting construction craft worker job satisfaction. journal of construction engineering and management, 143(5), p.04016134. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001281 sharma, j.p. and bjapai, n., 2011. salary satisfaction as an antecedent of job satisfaction: development of a regression model to determine the linearity between salary satisfaction and job satisfaction in a public and a private organization. european journal of social sciences, 18(3), pp.450-61. spector, p.e., 1997. job satisfaction: application, assessment, causes, and consequences. london: sage. https://doi. org/10.4135/9781452231549 srour, i.m., haas, c.t. and borcherding, j.d., 2006. what does the construction industry value in its workers? journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 132(10), pp.1053-58. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2006)132:10(1053) thangaswamy, a. and thiyagaraj, d., 2017. theoretical concept of job satisfaction – a study. international journal of research – granthaalayah, [e-journal] 5(6), pp.464-70. https://doi.org/10.29121/granthaalayah.v5.i6.2017.2057 yusoff, w.f.w., kian, t.s. and rajah, s., 2013. employee satisfaction and citizenship performance among generation x and y. in: proceedings of international business information management association entrepreneurship vision 2020: innovation, development sustainability, and economic growth. kuala lumpur, malaysia, 25-26 march 2013. pp.10991111. zaniboni, s., truxillo, d.m., rineer, j.r., bodner, r.e., hammer, l.b. and krainer, m., 2016. relating age, decision authority, job satisfaction, and mental health: a study of construction workers. work, aging and retirement, [e-journal] 2(4), pp.428-35. https://doi.org/10.1093/workar/waw006 lucas et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202324 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2012.694458 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001281 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452231549 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781452231549 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:10(1053 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:10(1053 https://doi.org/10.29121/granthaalayah.v5.i6.2017.2057 https://doi.org/10.1093/workar/waw006 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: chiponde, d., gledson, b., greenwood, d. 2024. the institutional field of learning from project-related failures – opportunities and challenges. construction economics and building, 24:1/2, 163–181. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v24i1/2.8394 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article the institutional field of learning from project-related failures – opportunities and challenges danstan chiponde1,*, barry gledson2, david greenwood2 1 school of energy, construction and environment, coventry university, priory street, coventry, cv1 5fb, uk 2 school of architecture and built environment, city campus, northumbria university, uk corresponding author: danstan chiponde, school of energy, construction and environment, coventry university, priory street, coventry, cv1 5fb, uk, ad9502@coventry.ac.uk doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8394 article history: received 03/10/2022; revised 10/17/2022, 03/09/2023; accepted 27/10/2023; published 01/07/2024 abstract learning from past project failures presents opportunities for firms working within the construction sector to improve project delivery. this is because, if lessons from these experiences are absorbed, they offer benefits such as failure mitigation and developing resilient project teams. however, instead of using sector-wide perspectives, project-based organisations (pbos) typically implement internal technological and strategic mechanisms in both learning and project management with little attention being given to institutional contexts. hence, this study focuses on how learning within a pbo is influenced by the external environment by adopting institutional theory. via exploratory research, the data was collected using semi-structured interviews with 19 uk construction industry professionals. thematic data analysis method was used to analyse the data. findings reveal that there exists an institutional field of learning within which pbos operate based on their interactions with the external environment. three pillars of organisations are revealed: organisations that are related to the regulatory pillar, normative pillar and cultural-cognitive pillar. the study contends that each of these pillars offers lessons for the sector. findings further reveal that cross organisational learning is hampered mostly by competition and fragmentation. hence, to learn from failure, it is important that the sector brings together the identified institutional field declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 163 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8394 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8394 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:ad9502@coventry.ac.uk https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8394 members through boundary spanning organisations such as professional bodies and regulatory bodies. thus, pbos should build better networks by viewing organisations within the institutional field as sources of knowledge and embracing collaboration instead of competition. keywords institutional field; learning from project-related failure; project based organisation introduction learning from project-related failures is being encouraged across several industries including the construction industry due to the benefits this can provide. these include building team members’ resilience, improved planning, innovation, and delivery of future projects (madsen and desai, 2018; flyvbjerg, 2022). other benefits according to min (2018) and scholten, sharkey scott and fines (2019) include avoiding the pain and cost of rare failures by learning from failures vicariously. danneels and vestal (2020) also contend that learning from project-related failures develops confidence and constructive ways of solving problems. khanna, guler and nekar (2016), who did a study in the pharmaceutical industry, also reason that learning from project-related failures improves the quality and output of product development. however, within construction, even when project-related failures affect several parties, failure and the influence of institutions on learning from project-related failures has received little attention. similarly, scholars such as morris and geraldi (2011) and biesenthal, et al. (2018) contend that there is a lack of understanding of institutions in the project environment. specifically, biesenthal, et al. (2018) observe a lack of field-wide learning within project management which mostly relies on a normative approach to learning, by instilling professional standards and certification. accordingly, hu, et al. (2023) encourage paying attention to the complex project environment (national and regional) since it influences the final outcome of a project. accordingly, instead of focusing on a single project based organisation (pbo) or project, attempts of learning from project-related failures should consider the many parties or institutions involved in the project-delivery process. to achieve that, institutional theory has been adopted in this study as the theoretical lens. institutions are considered as the rules of the game and norms, arising from social interactions, which constrain or facilitate human behaviour (north, 1991; hall and scott, 2019). accordingly, uriarte, espinoza-benavides and ribeiro-soriano (2023) contend that society (e.g., friends, family and the governments) does influence a firm’s capability to learn from past failures through failure identification and financial and emotional support when recovering from grief and shame. escandonbarbosa and salas-páramo (2022) also contend that learning is influenced by social networks which act as sources of information and feedback. therefore, engwall (2003) advises against focusing on individual project structures and dynamics by calling “for an ontological change; instead of lonely and closed systems, projects have to be conceptualized as contextually-embedded open systems, open in time as well as in space” (2003, p.791). morris and geraldi (2011) similarly argue against technical mechanisms such as project planning in favour of context wide mechanisms that acknowledge the influence of the external environment on pbos and their respective projects. focusing on learning, scholars such as hartmann and dorée (2015) and wei and miraglia (2017) contend that learning is influenced by social activities embedded in an organisation such as organisational artefacts, norms and shared beliefs. thus, understanding the influence of other organisations learning from failures within the sector cannot be overemphasized since learning is a social process. therefore, considering argote, mcevily and reagans (2003) who contend that though the relationship between units of learning is important and yet it receives little attention, this study is focused on discussing how institutional field parties influence learning from project-related failures. according to dimaggio and powell (1983), the institutional field in this study is defined as different organisations that interact and operate in a recognized institutional life by producing similar products and services. this is in chiponde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024164 contrast to having a community of practice (cmp) since it creates islands of practice through identification and membership of specific groups working towards similar goals, as observed by macpherson and clark (2009). hence, the main aim of the study is to assess how institutions influence learning from projectrelated failures. this will be achieved by addressing the following questions a) who are the actors involved in the institutional field of learning from project-related failures? and b) how do actors in the institutional field of learning from project-related failures influence learning from failure? past studies and theoretical positioning learning from failure is being encouraged in several sectors. however, within construction, focus has been on pbos’ mechanisms and technology for failure detection, mitigation and collecting and sharing lessons through lessons learnt meetings. for instance ulitzsch, et al. (2023) discuss the use of machine learning for identifying failures early. anandayuvaraj, et al. (2023) also examined the use of failure lessons in designing internet of things (iot) systems with schmidt (2023) discussing how information from past failures can be used mitigate risks. other scholars have reviewed the emotional side and recovery of individuals (shepherd and cardon, 2009; frese and keith, 2015), failure perception and orientation (chiponde, gledson and greenwood, 2022a; tao, robson and wing, 2023) and culture (cannon and edmondson, 2005; catino and patriotta, 2013). evidently, focus has been on definition and mitigation of failure within individual pbos without considering the wider context even when projects have increased in size and complexity (biesenthal, et al., 2018; hu, et al., 2023). therefore, instead of focusing on individual pbos when discussing learning from project-related failures, this study argues in favour of understanding the influence of the external environment on learning. this aligns with scholars such as lau, li and cheung (2019) who encourage a global perspective of learning and madsen and desai (2018) who suggest a population level of learning since this offers a wider source of lessons and possible solutions to the challenges faced by pbos. the institutional theory lens in order to understand who is to be involved in the wider approach to learning from project-related failures, institutional theory has been adopted. this is in agreement with qiu and chen (2022) who consider institutional theory ideal for analysing the micro and macro environments of project management since it involves multiple disciplinary fields and stakeholders. accordingly, bresnen (2016, p.328) contends that “what we know about project management and organisation is shaped by a huge variety of actors and institutions and informed by the diverse orientations and interests that they represent”. this is based on the understanding that “institutions comprise regulative, normative, and cultural-cognitive elements that, together with associated activities and resources, provide stability and meaning to social life” (scott, 2014, p.56). institutions are define by dille and söderlund (2011, p.485) as “cultural rules and resources that shape how we experience and perceive the environment”. though these rules may come from formal and informal structures, this study focuses on formal structures as sources which are referred to as institutional pillars (regulatory, normative and cultural-cognitive pillars). this is because formal institutions are well structured and easily identified as opposed to informal institutions which are difficulty to structure and document the learning process (wang, et al., 2018). according to scott (2014) the regulatory pillar is composed of regulatory organisation such as government bodies and financial institutions which influence behaviour through coercion (rules, laws and sanctions). the normative pillar includes professional bodies such as the association for project management (apm) and influence behaviour through standardization of good practice achieved through accreditation and certification. the third pillar is the cultural-cognitive pillar and is composed of peer pbos, suppliers and supply chain wide actors who influence each other through common beliefs and values. realising the negative perception associated with failure, the above institutional pillars may also provide mechanisms of legitimizing and structuring learning from project-related failures. this is based on meyer chiponde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024165 and rowan’s (1977) earlier observation that practices that are normatively sanctioned are easily accepted by organisations. therefore, instead of conceptualising or restricting the sources of lessons to a single organisation (or a project), the sector (society) is considered as the wider source of lessons (levinthal and march, 1993; barnett, 1994; madsen and desai, 2018). this is by identifying the parties involved in learning from project-related failures and how they influence the process by referring to institutional theory’s concept of an ‘institutional field’. this aligns with bresnen (2016) and levitt and scott (2016) who emphasize the need to understand the institutional context and how it enables or inhibits the development of a discipline. the institutional field of learning from project-related failures debate exists on whether it is an individual or an organisation that learns. in this study, we agree with edmondson (2004) who reasons that the two are inseparable and indispensable in the process of learning. organisations and teams learn through individuals while organisations create an environment for individuals to learn. therefore, in agreement with scholars such as madsen and desai (2018) who encourage a population level approach to learning, we suggest a systemic approach to learning which occurs at all levels: individual, project, organisational and sectoral levels. to achieve that, the institutional field has been considered as a framework for learning from project-related failures. dimaggio and powell (1983, p.148) define the institutional field as “organizations that, in the aggregate, constitute a recognized area of institutional life: key suppliers, resource and product consumers, regulatory agencies, and other organizations that produce similar services or products”. the institutional field shows the interlink of organisations and individuals to the wider social structure and other regulatory agencies (dille and söderlund, 2011). equally, pbos do not operate in isolation, since they interact with organisations such as regulatory agencies, professional bodies, financial institutions, suppliers, and client bodies with which they form an institutional field of learning from projectrelated failures. the influence of institutions on learning from project-related failures according to hall and scott (2019), project delivery involves fragmented teams with varied networks of professionals such as designers, academics, contractors and suppliers who have to conform to the industry’s norms, rules and values. these rules and norms also influence learning within projects (escandon-barbosa and salas-páramo, 2022). the institutional field of learning from project-related failures and its parties’ influence can be appreciated from the three institutional pillars. for instance, the regulatory pillar-related organisations’ influence is through coercion (i.e., rules from government and other regulatory bodies). examples of such organisations include client bodies which assist with failure identification and cognition and financing learning related activities. the regulatory pillar related norms may also include policies, budgeting and structuring learning within an organisation (escandon-barbosa and salas-páramo, 2022). a good example is the sutter health project where problems were identified within the system and rectified. accordingly, through engagement with industry partners, the client was able to learn from such failures by using integrated project delivery and learn construction principles (hall and scott, 2019). the normative pillar’s influence on learning from project-related failures may be observed from professional bodies which set standards for practice and training professionals (via certification and accreditation), legitimising and diffusing the content of the knowledge (and changes) such as the project management body of knowledge (pmbok) (greenwood, suddaby and hinings, 2002; morris and geraldi, 2011). the cultural-cognitive pillar’s influence is through mimicking beliefs and values (i.e., rules based on religion and cultural differences). organisations in this pillar include peer pbos and suppliers. therefore, through social interaction amongst peer construction firms, knowledge and information may be shared across organisations (escandon-barbosa and salas-páramo, 2022). however, due to the competitive nature of the sector, failure is rarely shared by organisations who seek to maintain their social legitimacy and competitiveness chiponde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024166 as observed by chiponde, gledson and greenwood (2022a, 2022b). hence, this study encourages the institutional field actors to focus on collaboration instead of competition. barriers and opportunities of the institutional field approach to learning from project-related failures as much as the institutional field approach to learning from project-related failures is being encouraged, knowledge may not be shared easily due to fragmented participants and professionals with divergent world views, institutional norms (different actors, institutional interest and pressures), beliefs and values (grunberg and pallas, 2009; perkman, 2017). for instance, bresnen (2016) has observed that the differences and fragmentation of the parties are reflected in the challenge of understanding project management and organisational processes of knowledge management and learning. such differences can be observed from the contractors’ focus on profit while the clients are focused on value for money. perkman (2017) further observes that academics value knowledge that is acceptable by peers whilst among practitioners, commercial value and impact of knowledge is prioritised. other institutional barriers include the focus on performance, productivity, and practices instead of the long-term development of the project. hence, stopping a project in order to capture and share lessons is seen as counterproductive (macpherson and clark, 2009). considering dimaggio and powell (1983), identifying firms within the institutional filed and its boundary is not straightforward since some members may leave whilst others are joining the field at different times. due to competition within the sector, shame, embarrassment and the fear of losing one’s employment and competitiveness leads to hiding and a lack of sharing failure related information (danneels and vestal, 2020). such competition may also lead to failure of some organisations as observed much earlier by hannan and freeman (1977, p.940) who contend that “organizational forms presumably fail to flourish in certain environmental circumstances because other forms successfully compete with them for essential resources”. macpherson and clark (2009) also note that institutional practices such as recruitment, induction and training based on teams create islands of practice between gangs. in addition, pbos may not engage in learning from project-related failures if such learning is not embedded in the contract. interaction between pbos may also be limited to those with contractual arrangements such as suppliers and subcontractors. this aligns with wang, et al. (2021) who notes that knowledge sharing and relationships of parties on mega projects are affected by contractual arrangements. these may include contractual functions (which omits learning from project-related failures) and time and cost constraints. these influence the frequency, nature of information and documents (or lessons) that is shared. therefore, contractual agreements such as frameworks which support long term collaboration and learning (sharing past failures) among the parties is being encouraged. opportunities from the institutional field the benefits of the institutional field can be observed from morris and geraldi (2011) who note that focusing on ‘organisation of the environment’ and not ‘organisations in their environment’ enhances interaction between the many parties for effective project management. institutional actors also legitimize and coerce the sharing of information since sources of knowledge with authority and expertise receive more weight or attention (chiponde, gledson and greenwood, 2022a). this aligns with escandonbarbosa and salas-páramo (2022) who contend that institutions facilitate learning through networks and structured processes with the external world. this also serves as a source of current and past lessons from failures. the opportunities of learning from the institutional field can be appreciated from min (2018) who contend that vicarious learning from failures reduces the cost and reputation damage to an organisation since it does not experience the actual failure. in addition, the institutional field approach encourages the recognition of connectedness instead of competitiveness (dimaggio and powell, 1983). importantly, since project delivery involves various organisations scholten, sharkey scott and fynes (2019, p.430) recommend chiponde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024167 that “collaborative and vicarious learning across the supply chain and broader network of stakeholders not only in preparation for, but also in response to and recovery from disruptions”. such sector wide learning from project-related failures is evident from the grenfell tower fire disaster which lead to the introduction of new fire testing regime for new materials and guidelines through the engagement of regulatory bodies and professional bodies. for instance, the ‘code of quality’ a guide on quality management on site, has been published by the chartered institute of builders (ciob) in response to the grenfell tower fire disaster (flanagan and jewell, 2021). therefore, sector wide approach to learning offers multiple sources of lessons from failure that may assist in developing resilience within teams members and project delivery (madsen and desai, 2018). dynamism, competing values and logics within an institutional field though the identified parties in the institutional field of learning from project-related failures offer opportunities, worth considering is faulconbridge and muzio (2021) who emphasize the need to appreciate the dynamic nature of the institutional field since they involve subfields. more specific, ringel, hiller and zietsma (2018) contend that some organisations may be embedded in the field on a shorter period, while others may be exposed to one or more institutional fields. as such, organisations may have divergent values, needs and interests due to different institutional pressure such as mega projects which involve pbos and financiers from different countries with varying institutions. hence, interaction may not only exist between organisations, but also across fields necessitated by globalisation (ringel, hiller and zietsma, 2018; faulconbridge and muzio, 2021). this also presents the challenge of governing cross institutional field interactions influenced by a number of factors such as national culture and professional background which leads to boundary protection (ringel, hiller and zietsma, 2018). in construction, this is reflected via competitive tendencies. for instance, pbos within an institutional field may compete for a larger market share which hinders boundary permeability since both good practice and failures are hidden. enhancing learning from project-related failures boundary spanning practices since knowledge does not only reside within an organisation but also across organisations and communities, perkman (2017) encourages the use of boundary practices (and organisations) that are effective in diffusing conflicts amongst actors and at the same offer structural and cognitive mechanisms for sharing knowledge. similarly, stjerne, soderland and minbaeva (2019) encourages the use of boundary organisations (organisations that interact with several organisations within a field by virtue of their authority) and framing as practices which may facilitate collaboration and exchange of lessons. framing “involves the use of various measures that extend or shrink the time horizon of the interorganizational collaboration… in order to motivate additional resource investments, knowledge sharing, and relational stability” (stjerne, soderland and minbaeva, 2019, p.353). from a project management perspective, these may include professional bodies, universities and regulatory bodies such as the health and safety executive. this is by acting both as repositories of knowledge and framing and structuring (social) interactions among pbos for purposes of sharing lessons from failure. the code of quality report produced by the ciob serves as an example which provide guidance on quality management on construction sites in response to quality failures (flanagan and jewell, 2021). other boundary organisations, and associated boundary documents, include the national audit office’s reports on delayed and over budget projects such as crossrail (nao, 2019). in contrast, sage, dainty and brookes (2010) contend that some of the boundary objects such as project files are rarely used. hence, to encourage use of boundary objects and interaction with boundary organisations it is important that incentives such as prospective works are offered across supply chain actors (stjerne, soderland and minbaeva, 2019). chiponde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024168 instead of focusing on one institutional pillar and associated organisations, which is typical of the cmp, the study agrees with levitt and scott (2016) who recommend a ‘multiple pillars’. this is based on the understanding that any system is sustained by the robust interaction of the regulatory, normative and cultural-cognitive pillars. therefore, this study proposes a shift from the cmp to an institutional field for the following reasons: firstly, the cmp is myopic and limited with regard to sources of knowledge since it only considers teams with similar practice and is focused on quality practices without considering failures (macpherson and clark, 2009). secondly, the word ‘community’ presents the cmp as being homogenous, yet disputes may at times arise in such ‘communities’ since teams have vying and different interests. for instance, contractors are focused on profit while the regulatory bodies or clients are focused on value for money ( jugdev and muller, 2005; müller and jugdev, 2012). lindkvist (2005) also contends that because projects are temporal, the cmp cannot be sustained since this requires teams or units that have worked together for a long time. roberts (2006) also observe lack of clarity on power and control within the cmp. consequently, participants struggle to balance instructions from internal leaders and those from external organisations. therefore, roberts (2006, p.628) notes that “where power is centralized, negotiation may be limited to key figures of authority within the organization, the voices of members of a community may be somewhat muted”. such imbalance of power can be observed from the contractor-subcontractor relationships with the main contractor having more influence in discussing failures since they decide who to engage in future projects (chiponde, gledson and greenwood, 2022b). hence, since project delivery involves multiple, teams the institutional field does provide an opportunity to structure the parties and their powers through norms established under the three pillars (regulatory, normative, and cultural-cognitive). methodology to get a better understanding of the main parties involved in learning from project-related failures and their influence, the study adopted an exploratory study. due to failure being subjective, the data was collected through semi-structured interviews since they offer an opportunity of getting in-depth insights through probing. having adopted institutional theory, which inherently discusses heterogenous organisations, the participants were purposively sampled from varied professions in order to have views from the wider institutional field of where learning from project-related failures occurs. accordingly, 19 participants were drawn from different construction professionals and pbos of varying size and type such as project managers, quantity surveyors, architects, planners, and engineers. the interviews were conducted face-toface and virtually through microsoft teams in order to reach participants in distant locations. due to the sensitive nature of failure, snowball sampling was adopted (bryman, 2012). this involved initially gaining trust from a few participants who later then recommended other participants to be interviewed. worth stating are limitations associated with snowball sampling such as difficulty in achieving a representative sample and generalization of findings. however, in agreement with bryman (2012), the method was adopted since it is ideal for qualitative studies which do not seek to test a theory and are focused establishing relationships amongst people or actors. this aligns with the focus of our study which sought to identify parties and their influence on learning from project-related failures. to overcome such limitations, participants with varied experience (number of years and professional background) and position/power (top and middle management) were interviewed. therefore, participants with over 10 years were interviewed and data saturation was reached at 19 (malterud, siersma and guassora, 2016). see table 1 which provides a summary participants’ information. the data was analysed using thematic data analysis method. considering bryman (2012), saunders, philip and thornhill (2009), and nowell, et al. (2017), the key stages of thematic data analysis involved the following stages. the initial stage involved transcription using nvivo 12 and familiarisation with transcripts. due to the sensitive nature of the topic, denaturalised type of transcription was adopted which allowed the chiponde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024169 table 1. summary of research participants’ information interview no. participants id years of experience job function job level company size 1 participant 1 10 19 years director top management 1 49 employees 2 participant 2 10 19 years director top management 250+ employees 3 participant 3 30+ years academic/civil engineer middle management 250+ employees 4 participant 4 10 19 years electrical engineer middle management 50 – 249 employees 5 participant 5 30+ years project planner middle management 250+ employees 6 participant 6 20 29 years project manager top management 250+ employees 7 participant 7 30+ years environmental engineer top management 1 49 employees 8 participant 8 30+ years director top management 250+ employees 9 participant 9 10 19 years director top management 250+ employees 10 participant 10 20 – 29 years director middle management 250+ employees 11 participant 11 20 – 29 years project manager upper management 250+ employees 12 participant 12 over 30 years regional manager lower management 250+ employees 13 participant 13 10 – 19 years social value manager lower management 250+ employees 14 participant 14 20 – 29 years civil engineer lower management 250+ employees 15 participant 15 10 – 19 years civil engineer top management 1 – 49 employees 16 participant 16 20 – 29 years regional manager commercial middle management 250+ employees 17 participant 17 10 – 19 years commercial manager lower management 250+ employees 18 participant 18 10 – 19 years services engineer middle management 250+ employees 19 participant 19 20 29 years project manager lower management 250+ employees chiponde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024170 removal of actual company names (and personal information) and vocalised expressions (oliver, serovich and mason, 2005). this led to the second stage which involved identification of themes through prolonged reading and review of transcripts. as a guide, the initial codes were informed theoretically by institutional theory and took a deductive approach. hence, themes of the parties within the institutional field of learning from project-related failures were categorised and coded based on the three pillars (regulatory, normative, and cultural-cognitive related organisations). using the inductive approach, repeating topics among participants were also identified as themes such as boundary related mechanisms. the third stage involved reviewing the themes. according to braun and clarke (2006) and nowell, et al. (2017), this involves checking for themes that may not have enough data while those with similar themes being combined. the final stage involved drawing relationships between the identified codes and was supported by sufficient details from the transcripts in form of quotations as advised by nowell, et al. (2017). findings the first section of the findings is based on the participants’ perception of failure as this is considered as the important part of learning from failures. the second part discusses the levels and the parties in the process of learning from project-related failures. this is in response to the two main questions of the study: a) who are the actors involved in the institutional field of learning from project-related failures, and b) how do actors in the institutional field of learning from project-related failures influence learning from failure? understanding and perception of failure participants were asked on how they define and measure failure which gave subjective or contradicting definition. for instance, though participants 18 and 19 referred to a failed project as the one that does not meet its intended function. in contrast, participant 17 referred to a failed project as when “the project hasn’t made the percentage profit that you want to make”. however, this study encourages a balanced perception of project failure as provided by participant 4 “….a project which has not met the requirements [and] expectations of a client, and you also as an organisation [contractor] in terms of the profit”. it was also found that a contest of power exists on projects when deciding on whether there is a failure or not. two extremes were found: the client (and its project management team) and the end users, with the client having more influence than the users. evidently, participant 5 indicated that “that links with understanding who the project stakeholders are and much more importantly understanding which of them have the powers… the ability to say whether the project has failed or not”. this demonstrates the influence of institutions and how project failure is perceived and measured subjectively. however, though failure is subjective, project failure is still mostly measured through the regulatory and normative pillars by referring to the time, cost, and quality constraints. for instance, participant 4 indicated that “if you extract issues [failures] relating to suppliers, supply issues whether it was a wrong product supplied or it was a supplier who failed, who delivered outside the agreed time limit”. learning from others a multilevel approach in order to learn from project-related failures, participants emphasized engaging everyone. for instance, participant 2 noted that “…you need an external view of it. the person who is being directly accountable or directly in the interface with the failure, you essentially need that reviewed and challenged by a number of experienced and senior people around them”. therefore, the following themes have been identified as levels for learning from failure: • theme 1 – individual level: as much as sector wider learning is being encouraged, individual learning remains important. this may include individuals attending company sponsored training and cpds as observed by participant 17 “so we do have training courses which are organized through the year chiponde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024171 and we put people on those training courses to improve their ability and obviously make their progressive learning as well.” • theme 2 – team/project level; unlike a focus on productivity at the project level, participants encouraged projects to serve as a source of knowledge. for instance, participant 2 indicated that “perception and understanding needs to be more about how collaboration is managed and how knowledge is shared, and the culture on a project, moving away from, we produce deliverables towards we produce a landscape of information that everyone uses” • theme 3 – pbo level: at the pbo level, participant 2 reasoned that “quite often you may need other people from the business support involved, it could be how hr manages something, it could be finance getting involved, it just depends”. this may also be likened to grunberg and pallas’ (2009) boundary units within an organization as evidence of the influence of institutions. • theme 4 – sectoral level: the importance of the sectoral level may be observed from participant 14 who reasons that “if a certain group came together, you may be key designers, or customers and suppliers within the organisation. one modification could impact the internal customers and venders.” this again highlights the influence of institutions on learning from project-related failures and the possibility of making the boundaries between organisations permeable to allow the inflow and outflow of lessons from failure (perkman, 2017). considering the above themes, the findings demonstrate the need to take a sectoral approach to learning from project-related failures. who should be involved in learning from project-related failures and their influence? to identify the parties in the institutional field of learning from project-related failures, participants were asked to indicate who they involve in the process of learning from failures. in reference to the previous section, the project level and pbo level are regarded as important units for learning from project-related failures. this is supported by participant 4 echoed that “all the key project team members must be involved… any other organisational department which contributes to projects must also be involved”. however, since a context wide approach via the institutional field is being encouraged, it is worth considering the reasoning by participant 10 of involving external organisations such as the client: “so we incorporate the client side, we get the design side, the build side and all those individuals right through to handover processes. so, we get a cross section view from everybody about how well we are performing in these particular areas”. thus, responses to the research question on who should be involved in learning from project-related failures, the themes of parties to be involved were identified based on the following institutional pillars: • theme 1 – regulatory pillar-related actors – participant 1 indicated that “the government and all the different governing bodies… have a part to play, they could probably work together on some [additional] standard key performance indicators for the industry”. therefore, under the regulatory pillar, mechanism for encouraging (influencing) learning is coercion via contractual arrangements and provision of guidelines. for instance, participant 3 indicated that there has to be an external force (such as policy and culture) to encourage acceptance of failures and learning from them: “let’s say a construction project has a fatality, they are forced to try and learn from that because of the legal proceedings brought against them and procedures and regulations that govern that sort of things”. participant 1 also referred to the government collecting failure information for government projects by requesting contractors to submit records to a common portal to review the performance of various projects with the intention of collecting and sharing lessons on failure. chiponde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024172 • theme 2 normative pillar-related parties participant 2 submitted that “maybe the ciob or someone like that could get… call it a lesson learnt amnesty rather than a failure amnesty which might get a few people”. under the normative pillar, this is through embedding learning from project-related failures into good practice, providing guidelines and documenting lessons for sharing across the sector by professional bodies. hence, the influence of normative related pillar parties by embedding lessons on failure in professional body practices such as certification and accreditation. • theme 3 cultural-cognitive pillar-related parties – this may include peer pbos, subcontractors, suppliers, and other supply chain actors. accordingly, participant 14 notes that “the whole team working on the [project] needs to be involved in the measure right from internal and external suppliers and that’s right through the internal and external customers and clients. and subcontractors they normally get left out, they are normally who get the blame”. learning at this level is influenced through the belief and values held across the sector. hence, collaboration is encouraged as opposed to competition. in addition, by mimicking, pbos may learn vicariously from their peers’ failures. overall, an institutional wide approach as opposed to learning within individual pbos is echoed by participant 1 who reasons that “it’s really dangerous to concentrate just on your expertise, you have to open that up to everybody within your team. because there might be what any other discipline might think is the right way to approach something or detail something, once it’s been done on site, it might not actually be practical to do it as you are drawing it”. this aligns with scholars in favour of boundary spanning practices and appreciating subfields since knowledge does not reside within a single organisation (perkman, 2017; faulconbridge and muzio, 2021). in contrast, instead of learning involving other organisations in the institutional field, participant 4 focused more on the pbo level by stating that “organisational learning, it’s basically the learning process is run under the human resource department”. instead of such an approach, collective learning is being encouraged since it presents benefits to all parties as echoed by participant 17 that “it is all about sharing the lessons learnt… if we can make them [subcontractors] profitable as a company by learning from mistakes, we will become more profitable because they are… and if the site runs smoothly, generally the subcontractor makes money and so do we”. this also highlights the influence of leadership and sub-institutions within an organisation learning from failure. hence, attention should be given to nuances observable within the institutional field which include power differences. for instance, participant 16, as a main contractor, echoed that subcontractors not willing to engage in learning risk not being considered for future jobs. equally, the influence of key parties such as the client, from the regulatory pillar, can be appreciated from participant 5 who revealed that the “sutter health did in california with lean production…. you had a client who had 4-billion-dollar, production program of a new hospitals… a big powerful client who said i want this, i want more value from my book”. this shows that learning from project-related failures is not only a responsibility of the contractor but all key stakeholders. use of lessons from failure and associated barriers to encourage learning from project-related failures, and further review the influence of institutions on learning, participants were asked to state their use of lessons from failure. most participants indicated a lack of use of lessons from failures. instead, failures are used to assess the performance of suppliers (including subcontractors) and individuals. for instance, participant 6 echoed that “project managers can come up and see what people have scored and what their ratings are… i wouldn’t use them if they have got a low score”. thus, the typical response to failures, instead of learning from such experiences, is ‘who to fire or blame’. in addition, though participants referred to a sectoral level of learning, most learning occurs at pbo level. reasons advanced for such responses, which may also hinder the effectiveness of the institutional field of learning from failure, are summed up in the following themes: chiponde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024173 • theme 1 – competition: the competitive nature of construction and the negative effect of failure on pbos’ competitiveness was cited as a barrier. participant 2 echoed that “the commerciality of the construction sector means that any business open enough to talk about failure in a direct way risks the opportunity of working with that client again on the next project, because it could be reputational damage for them and the client”. • theme 2 productivity: pbos are not willing to stop construction activities in order to learn from failures. this can be observed from participant 5 who indicated that the sector just wants to see things done by stating that “you are under constant pressure to do something, because construction values doing, movement. if there is a hole fill it, if you have got some concrete foundations, put some brickwork on it. it’s absolutely... [unheard of ] in construction to stop a job and think.” • theme 3 – profitability: profitability and costs were also cited among barriers to learning from project-related failures. for instance, participant 5 indicated that “it’s the cost driven nature as opposed to the value driven nature of the industry; it’s the low profits; not allowing investments in the systems to improve”. • theme 4 – fragmentation: the fragmentation of the sector is another barrier to learning from failure. evidently, participant 14 reasons that “you can have everyone working together but then you still stay in your silo because they want [to] do better than the others at the work center, to be looked at great as an organisation”. from an institutional theory perspective as discussed by ringel, hiller and zietsma (2018) and faulconbridge and muzio (2021), this echoes the importance of making organizational boundaries permeable for effective learning from project-related failures. worth stating is that the above themes of barriers are not exhaustive. other barriers include a lack of acceptance of failure and the perception that learning from failures does not generate income (participant 16 and 19). therefore, to surmount these barriers, sector wide efforts are encouraged such as collaboration instead of relying on learning within individual pbos. discussion and framework for a sector associated with unsatisfied customers and projects repeatedly experiencing failures such as cost and time overruns, learning from project-related failures collectively through a multilevel approach involving several actors such as professional bodies and learning institutions cannot be over emphasized. this aligns with earlier studies such as hannan and freeman (1977), and madsen and desai (2018) who recommend a population level approach to learning since this offers a heterogenous source of lessons and solutions to common problems within the sector. similarly, kortantamer, kalra and vine (2021, p.6) contend that “there is a need to develop reflexive learning skills that move beyond individualised learning from the past… this requires an organisational culture that recognises the benefits of joint problem-solving, strategic envisionment and experimentation”. however, though there has been an increase in parties interacting together, findings show a focus on how to be efficient or work together without discussing or learning from failures. accordingly, this study builds on earlier calls by scholars such as morris and geraldi (2011) and bresnen (2016) who encourage paying attention to the institutional context of project management practices by focusing on the institutional field of learning from project-related failures. consequently the influence of institutions (via the institutional field) for effective learning from project-related failures is crucial via the identified institutional pillars (regulatory and normative) as echoed by dimaggio and powell (1983, p.148) that “strategies that are rational for individual organizations may not be rational if adopted by large numbers. yet the very fact that they are normatively sanctioned increases the likelihood of their adoption”. however, the institutional field is dynamic since this involves temporal teams and organisations that have to reconfigure and restructure depending on the nature of the project (wei and miraglia, 2017). evidently, the chiponde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024174 main barriers to learning from project-related failures revolve around the fragmented sector, time constraint and temporary teams. this further confirms earlier findings by latham (1994) and how these challenges have persisted within the sector. to counter these, the study recommends the following framework based on boundary objects and practices driven by institutional mechanisms. this by building on earlier works of stjerne, soderland and minbaeva (2019) and eggleton (2021). boundary organisations to encourage effective learning from project-related failures, it is worth considering eggleton (2021) who recommends boundary organisations, which are organisations that interact with other firms within the sector by virtue of their authority. from an institutional perspective, the identified boundary organisations, include professional bodies such as ciob, apm (normative-related) and regulatory-related bodies such as the health and safety executive. these interact with other pbos by virtue of their regulatory powers or affiliation of members which presents an opportunity of collecting and sharing lessons from failures. these boundary organisations may assist with legitimizing the lessons (perkman, 2017) and the process of learning from project-related failures. such an example is the ciob’s ‘code of quality’ series of reports and guidelines on how to manage quality on construction projects (flanagan and jewell, 2021). at the organisational level, in agreement with grunberg and pallas (2009), boundary spanning units (e.g., human resource department and project leaders) can be used to share lessons from past and current projects across departments and project teams. boundary documents the sector relies mostly on project reports and lessons learnt reports which in most cases are not used across projects or organisations (sage, dainty and brookes, 2010). therefore, in a bid to encourage learning from project-related failures, ‘boundary documents’ are recommended. these are basically documents that ‘cross boundaries’ (such as cross-organisation, cross-department or cross-project) (newell and edelman, 2008). thus, through the normative or regulatory pillar-related organisations, boundary documents (project progress report, lessons learnt report, annual reports) can be shared and could be produced in different formats (virtually, podcasts, online reports/portals). boundary practices – framing realising the temporal nature of construction project teams, worth considering is ‘framing’ which stjerne, soderland and minbaeva (2019) refer to as extending the time horizon for interorganisational collaboration. relying on the normative and regulatory pillars, this could be achieved via contractual clauses or guidelines which encourage project parties to commit to future learning beyond project completion. this may be motivated by sharing future opportunities for suppliers or contractors by the client. in addition, the culturalcognitive pillar via establishing networks between peer pbos for purposes of sharing lessons is encouraged. other boundary practices to consider include the need to adopt technological advancements as echoed by supporters of new institution as a way of making the boundary between organisations permeable (ringel, hiller and zietsma, 2018). boundary practices should also be supported by ‘trust’ and ‘collaboration’ instead of competitive tendencies. importantly, blaming should be avoided whilst clients are encouraged to reduce their power by treating all project parties as equals (stjerne, soderland and minbaeva, 2019). thus, instead of focusing on the negative side of the institutional field, a balanced approach which appreciates opportunities (solutions and lessons from failure from respective institutional field organisations) is encouraged. the framework is summarised in table 2. chiponde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024175 table 2. opportunities and barriers associated with institutional field parts institutional part associated barriers to learning from project-related failures associated opportunities for learning from projectrelated failures mechanism/influence regulatory pillar-related – regulatory bodies, government not part of the learning process (limited social contact with pbos). failure identification, creating psychological safety for the pbos. act as boundary organization; produce boundary documents. avoiding the blame game. normative related – professional bodies competence and practice oriented; failure perceived as non-conformance. interact with several parties via affiliation; legitimizing learning from project-related failures. act as boundary organizations, e.g. apm; produce boundary documents (reports and guidelines). cultural cognitiverelated – suppliers, subcontractors. engage temporal teams; involve diverse professionals; competition oriented. valuable alternative source of lessons; improves wider supply chain – leverage on long term relations. produce boundary documents e.g. reports, lessons learnt; cross organizational learning. to actualise learning from project-related failures, boundary organisations such as professional bodies, such as apm, rics and ciob, are further encouraged to work together instead of operating in isolation. in addition, much of the resources are accessible only to members of such professional bodies which acts as a barrier to sharing lessons sector wide. thus, cross professional body research and production of boundary documents on failure is encouraged. a good example of such is the ciob’s ‘code of quality’ guidelines (flanagan and jewell, 2021). in addition, since project parties are guided by contractual clauses, ensuring that learning from project-related failures and production of such boundary documents are part of the contract may motivate teams to learn from failures. this aligns with pemsel, söderlund and wiewiora (2018) who call for new forms of contracts in order to encourage learning from failures on mega projects. this further reinforces the influence of institutions (through the regulatory pillar) on learning from projectrelated failures. conclusions reflecting on the main research question (who are the actors involved in the institutional field of learning from project-related failures?) it is acknowledged that learning should include key players within the sector such as professional bodies and regulatory bodies instead of focusing on individual pbos. this is based on the understanding that lessons from failure reside across various types of organisations and communities such as pbos, academia, regulatory bodies and end users (perkman, 2017). furthermore, reflecting question the other research question (how do actors in the institutional field of learning from project-related failures influence learning from failure?) regulatory-related organisations, such as the government, may use coercion (contractual clause, policies, and regulations/guidelines) to influence learning from failure. normative organisations may also influence learning from project-related failures via accreditation and legitimizing the process and content of learning from failures. however, even with associated benefits of learning from such as improving team members’ resilience, pbos rarely engage in cross-organisational learning from chiponde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024176 project-related failures due to the competitive and fragmented nature of the sector. to mitigate some of these barriers, project actors are encouraged to build trust, networks and long-term relationships for collaborative purposes within pbos and across the sector. in addition, instead of perceiving parties within the institutional field as competitors, these should be viewed as sources of valuable lessons on failure. for researchers, since majority of research on learning from project-related failures focuses more on learning mechanisms (e.g. lessons learnt meetings), without elucidating its benefits, the academia are encouraged to conduct more research on how pbos may benefit from learning from project-related failures. with regards to practice, professional bodies within the sector should act as ‘boundary spanners’ since they interact with multiple organisations (and individuals) within the sectors. this is by hosting events (workshop, seminars) and producing documents (reports, guidelines) on failure instead of focusing on sharing good practice. worth noting is that these findings are limited due to the small number of participants. hence, future studies are encouraged to take a larger sample size. in addition, to understand the role of key participants within the institutional field, future studies may focus on the role and influence of clients on learning from project-related failures. in addition, since parties and activities on a construction project a guided by contractual clauses, future studies by focus on analysing the influence of standard forms of contracts on learning from project-related failures. references argote, l., mcevily b. and reagans r., 2003. introduction to the special issue on managing knowledge in organizations: creating, retaining, and transferring knowledge. management science, 49(4) pp.v-viii. https://doi. org/10.1287/mnsc.49.4.0.14421 anandayuvaraj, d., thulluri, p., figueroa, j., shandilya, h. and davis, j.c., 2023. incorporating failure knowledge into design decisions for iot systems: a controlled experiment on novices. in: proceedings 2023 ieee/acm 5th international workshop on software engineering research and practices for the iot, (serp4iot 2023). ieee, pp.33–37. https://doi.org/10.1109/serp4iot59158.2023.00011 barnett, r., 1994. the limits of competence. bristol: open university press. biesenthal, c., clegg, s., mahalingam, a. and sankaran, s., 2018. applying institutional theories to managing megaprojects. international journal of project management, 36(1), pp.43–54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2017.06.006 braun, v. and clarke, v., 2006. applied qualitative research in psychology. applied qualitative research in psychology, [e-journal] 3(2), pp.77–101. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-35913-1 bresnen, m., 2016. institutional development, divergence and change in the discipline of project management. international journal of project management, 34(2), pp.328–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.03.001 bryman, a., 2012. social research methods. 4th ed. oxford: oxford university press. cannon, m.d. and edmondson, a.c., 2005. failing to learn and learning to fail (intelligently): how great organizations put failure to work to innovate and improve. long range planning, 38(2005), pp.299–319. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.lrp.2005.04.005 catino, m. and patriotta, g., 2013. learning from errors: cognition, emotions and safety culture in the italian air force. organization studies, [e-journal] 34(4), pp.437–67. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840612467156 chiponde, d.b., gledson, b. and greenwood, d., 2022a. contrasting perceptions of construction managers and project managers around failure in light of morris and geraldi’s institutional context. engineering project organization journal, [e-journal] 11(1), pp.1–20. https://doi.org/10.25219/epoj.2022.00102 chiponde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024177 https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.49.4.0.14421 https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.49.4.0.14421 https://doi.org/10.1109/serp4iot59158.2023.00011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.06.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.06.006 https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-35913-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.03.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2005.04.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2005.04.005 https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840612467156 https://doi.org/10.25219/epoj.2022.00102 chiponde, d.b., gledson, b. and greenwood, d., 2022b. organisational learning from failure and the needs-based hierarchy of projectbased organisations. frontiers in engineering and built environment, [e-journal] 2022(march 12), pp.1–12. https://doi.org/10.1108/febe-10-2021-0051 danneels, e. and vestal, a., 2020. normalizing vs. analyzing: drawing the lessons from failure to enhance firm innovativeness. journal of business venturing, 35(1), p.105903. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2018.10.001 dille, t. and söderlund, j., 2011. managing inter-institutional projects: the significance of isochronism, timing norms and temporal misfits. international journal of project management, 29(4), pp.480–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2011.02.007 dimaggio, p.j. and powell, w.w., 1983. ‘the iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. american sociological review, 48(2), pp.147–60. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101 edmondson, a.c., 2004. learning from failure in health care: frequent opportunities, pervasive barriers. quality and safety in health care, [e-journal] 13(suppl. 2), pp.3–9. https://doi.org/10.1136/qshc.2003.009597 eggleton, d., 2021. knowledge is power. project association for project management, pp.50–52. engwall, m., 2003. no project is an island: linking projects to history and context. research policy, 32(2003), pp.789– 808. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0048-7333(02)00088-4 escandon-barbosa, d. and salas-páramo, j., 2022. the role of informal institutions in the relationship between innovation and organisational learning in export performance: a bidirectional relation?. asia pacific management review, [e-journal] 28(2), pp.185–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmrv.2022.08.001 faulconbridge, j. and muzio, d., 2021. field partitioning: the emergence, development and consolidation of subfields. organization studies, [e-journal] 42(7), pp.1053–83. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840619855745 flannagan, r. and jewell, c., 2021. guide to quality management in construction: site production and assembly. uk: chartered institute of building. flyvbjerg, b., 2022. heuristics for masterbuilders: fast and frugal ways to become a better project leader, said business school working paper. university of oxford. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4159984 frese, m. and keith, n., 2015. action errors, error management, and learning in organizations. annual review of psychology, [e-journal] 66(6), pp.661–87. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015205 greenwood, r., suddaby, r. and hinings, c.r., 2002. theorizing change: the role of professional associations in the transformation of institutionalized fields. academy of management journal, [e-journal] 45(1), pp.58–80. https://doi. org/10.2307/3069285 grunberg, j. and pallas, j., 2009. barbarians at the gates? organizations protecting and promoting their (non)technical cores through institutional boundary-spanning. in: wedlin, l., sahlin, k. and grafsrom, m., eds. exploring the worlds of mercury and minerva: essays for lars engwall. uppsala: uppsala univeristy press, pp.1–18. hall, d.m. and scott, w.r., 2019. early stages in the institutionalization of integrated project delivery. project management journal, [e-journal] 50(2), pp.128–43. https://doi.org/10.1177/8756972818819915 hannan, m.t. and freeman, j., 1977. the population ecology of organizations. american journal of sociology, 82(5), pp.929–64. https://doi.org/10.1086/226424 hartmann, a. and dorée, a., 2015. learning between projects: more than sending messages in bottles. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 33(2015), pp.341–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.07.006 hu, z., wu, g., zheng, j., zhao, x. and zuo, j., 2023. unravelling effects of project complexity on project success and project management success: a meta-analytic review. journal of civil engineering and management, [e-journal] 29(6), pp.542–60. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2023.19553 chiponde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024178 https://doi.org/10.1108/febe-10-2021-0051 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2018.10.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.02.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.02.007 https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101 https://doi.org/10.1136/qshc.2003.009597 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0048-7333(02)00088-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmrv.2022.08.001 https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840619855745 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4159984 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-010814-015205 https://doi.org/10.2307/3069285 https://doi.org/10.2307/3069285 https://doi.org/10.1177/8756972818819915 https://doi.org/10.1086/226424 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.07.006 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2023.19553 jugdev, k. and muller, r., 2005. a retrospective look at our evolving understanding of project success. project management journal, 36(4), pp.19–31. https://doi.org/10.1177/875697280503600403 khanna, r., guler, i. and nerkar, a., 2016. fail often, fail big, and fail fast? learning from small failures. academy of management journal, 59(2), pp.436–59. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.1109 kortantamer, d., kalra, j. and vine, r., 2021. rethinking capabilities: lessons for policy, scholarship and practice. london, uk: association for project management. available at: https://www.apm.org.uk/v2/media/lzjcpn3q/apm-researchreport-rethinking-capabilities2409.pdf. latham, m., 1994. constructing the team: joint review of procurement and contractual arrangements in the united kingdom construction industry. final report. london, uk: hmso. lau, k.w., lee, p.y. and chung, y.y., 2019. a collective organizational learning model for organizational development. leadership & organization development journal, [e-journal] 40(1), pp.107–23. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-06-20180228 levinthal, d.a. and march, j.g., 1993. the myopia of learning. strategic management journal, [e-journal] 14(2 s), pp.95–112. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250141009 levitt, r.e. and scott, w.r., 2016. global projects: institutional and political challenges. in: flyvbjerg, b., ed. global projects: institutional and political challenges. oxford, uk: oxford university press, pp.1–23. lindkvist, l., 2005. knowledge communities and knowledge collectivities: a typology of knowledge work in groups. journal of management studies, 42(6 september), pp.1189–210. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14676486.2005.00538.x macpherson, a. and clark, b., 2009. islands of practice: conflict and a lack of “community” in situated learning. management learning, [e-journal] 40(5), pp.1350–5076. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507609340810 madsen, p.m. and desai, v., 2018. no firm is an island: the role of population-level actors in organizational learning from failure. organization science, [e-journal] 29(4), pp.739–53. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2017.1199 malterud, k., siersma, v.d. and guassora, a.d., 2016. sample size in qualitative interview studies: guided by information power. qualitative health research, [e-journal] 26(13), pp.1753–60. https://doi. org/10.1177/1049732315617444 meyer, j.w. and rowan, b., 1977. institutionalized organizations: formal structure as myth and ceremony. american journal of sociology, 83(2), pp.340–63. https://doi.org/10.1086/226550 min, j., 2018. no pain, yet gain?: learning from vicarious crises in an international context. journal of business research, [e-journal] 97( june 2017), pp.227–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.05.009 morris, p.w.g. and geraldi, j., 2011. managing the institutional context for projects. project management journal, [e-journal] 42(6), pp.20–32. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.20271 müller, r. and jugdev, k., 2012. critical success factors in projects: pinto, slevin, and prescott – the elucidation of project success. international journal of managing projects in business, 5(4), pp.757–75. https://doi. org/10.1108/17538371211269040 national audit office (nao), 2019. completing crossrail report by the comptroller and auditor general. available at: https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/completing-crossrail.pdf. newell, s. and edelman, l.f., 2008. developing a dynamic project learning and cross-project learning capability: synthesizing two perspectives. information systems journal, [e-journal] 18(6), pp.567–91. https://doi.org/10.1111/ j.1365-2575.2007.00242.x north, d.c., 1991. institutions. journal of economic perspectives, 5(1), pp. 97–112. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.5.1.97 chiponde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024179 https://doi.org/10.1177/875697280503600403 https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2013.1109 https://www.apm.org.uk/v2/media/lzjcpn3q/apm-research-report-rethinking-capabilities2409.pdf https://www.apm.org.uk/v2/media/lzjcpn3q/apm-research-report-rethinking-capabilities2409.pdf https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-06-2018-0228 https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj-06-2018-0228 https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.4250141009 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2005.00538.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2005.00538.x https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507609340810 https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2017.1199 https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732315617444 https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732315617444 https://doi.org/10.1086/226550 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.05.009 https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.20271 https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371211269040 https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371211269040 https://www.nao.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/completing-crossrail.pdf https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2575.2007.00242.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2575.2007.00242.x https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.5.1.97 nowell, l.s., norris, j.m., white, d.e. and moules, n.j., 2017. thematic analysis: striving to meet the trustworthiness criteria. international journal of qualitative methods, [e-journal] 16(1), pp.1–13. https://doi. org/10.1177/1609406917733847 oliver, d.g., serovich, j.m. and mason, t.l., 2005. constraints and opportunities with interview transcription: towards reflection in qualitative research. social forces, 84(2), pp.1273–89. https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2006.0023 pemsel, s., söderlund, j. and wiewiora, a., 2018. contextualising capability development: configurations of knowledge governance mechanisms in project-based organizations. technology analysis and strategic management, [e-journal] 30(10), pp.1226–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537325.2018.1459538 perkman, m., 2017. how boundary organizations facilitate collaboration across diverse communities. in: tell, f., berggren, c., brusoni, s. and van de ven, a., eds. managing knowledge integration across boundaries. oxford: oxford university press. pp.155–70. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198785972.003.0010 qiu, y. and chen, h., 2022. a systematic review of the knowledge domain of institutional theory in construction project management. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 30(6), pp.2523–44. https://doi. org/10.1108/ecam-08-2021-0754 ringel, l., hiller, p. and zietsma, c., 2018. toward permeable boundaries of organizations?. research in the sociology of organizations, [e-journal] 57(october), pp.3–28. https://doi.org/10.1108/s0733-558x20180000057001 roberts, j., 2006. limits to communities of practice. journal ofmanagement studies, 43(3), pp.623–39. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2006.00618.x sage, d.j., dainty, a.r.j. and brookes, n.j., 2010. who reads the project file? exploring the power effects of knowledge tools in construction project management. construction management and economics, 28(6), pp.629–39. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446191003725154 saunders, m., philip, l. and thornhill, a., 2009. research methods for business students. 5th ed. london: prentice hall. schmidt, j., 2023. mitigating risk of failure in information technology projects: causes and mechanisms. project leadership and society, [e-journal] 4(august), p.100097. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2023.100097 scholten, k., sharkey scott, p. and fynes, b., 2019. building routines for non-routine events: supply chain resilience learning mechanisms and their antecedents. supply chain management, [e-journal] 24(3), pp.430–42. https://doi. org/10.1108/scm-05-2018-0186 scott, r.w., 2014. crafting an analytic framework: three pillars of institutions. in: institutions and organizations. london: sage publications, pp.55–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-2373(97)89895-7 sense, a.j., 2007. stimulating situated learning within projects: personalizing the flow of knowledge.. knowledge management research & practice, [e-journal] 5(1), pp.13–21. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.kmrp.8500124 shepherd, d.a. and cardon, m.s., 2009. negative emotional reactions to project failure and the self-compassion to learn from the experience. journal of management studies, [e-journal] 46(6), pp.923–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14676486.2009.00821.x stjerne, i.s., söderlund, j. and minbaeva, d., 2019. crossing times: temporal boundary-spanning practices in interorganizational projects. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 37(2), pp.347–65. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2018.09.004 tao, x., robson, p. and wing, w., 2023. to learn or not to learn from new product development project failure. the roles of failure experience and error orientation. structural engineer, 127(2023), p.5. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. technovation.2023.102830 chiponde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024180 https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917733847 https://doi.org/10.1177/1609406917733847 https://doi.org/10.1353/sof.2006.0023 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537325.2018.1459538 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198785972.003.0010 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2021-0754 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2021-0754 https://doi.org/10.1108/s0733-558x20180000057001 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2006.00618.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2006.00618.x https://doi.org/10.1080/01446191003725154 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446191003725154 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2023.100097 https://doi.org/10.1108/scm-05-2018-0186 https://doi.org/10.1108/scm-05-2018-0186 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-2373(97)89895-7 https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.kmrp.8500124 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2009.00821.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6486.2009.00821.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2018.09.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2018.09.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2023.102830 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2023.102830 ulitzsch, e., ulitzsch, v., he, q. and ludtke, o., 2023. a machine learning-based procedure for leveraging clickstream data to investigate early predictability of failure on interactive tasks. behavior research methods, [e-journal] 55(3), pp.1392–412. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-022-01844-1 uriarte, s., espinoza-benavides, j. and ribeiro-soriano, d., 2023. engagement in entrepreneurship after business failure. do formal institutions and culture matter? international entrepreneurship and management journal, [e-journal] 19(4) pp.941-73. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-023-00829-6 wang, g., zhou, k., wang, d., wu, g. and xie, j., 2021. tensions in governing megaprojects: how different types of ties shape project relationship quality? international journal of project management, [e-journal] 39(7), pp.799–814. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2021.08.003 wang, h., lu, w., soderlund, aj. and chen, k., 2018. the interplay between formal and informal institutions in projects: a social network analysis. project management journal, [e-journal] 49(4), pp.20–35. https://doi. org/10.1177/8756972818781629 wei, y. and miraglia, s., 2017. organizational culture and knowledge transfer in project-based organizations: theoretical insights from a chinese construction firm. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 35(4), pp.571–85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.02.010 chiponde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024181 https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-022-01844-1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11365-023-00829-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2021.08.003 https://doi.org/10.1177/8756972818781629 https://doi.org/10.1177/8756972818781629 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.02.010 construction economics and building vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022 © 2022 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: boadu, e. f., sunindijo, r. y., wang, c. c., frimpong, s. y. 2022. health and safety integration into the procurement stages of public construction projects in developing countries: a case of ghana. construction economics and building, 22:3, 43–64. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v22i3.8136 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article health and safety integration into the procurement stages of public construction projects in developing countries: a case of ghana elijah frimpong boadu1,*, riza yosia sunindijo1, cynthia changxin wang1, samuel yaw frimpong1 1 school of built environment, the university of new south wales, sydney, nsw 2052, australia, b.frimpong@unsw.edu.au (e.f.b.); r.sunindijo@unsw.edu.au (r.y.s.); cynthia.wang@unsw.edu.au (c.c.w.), s.frimpong@unsw.edu.au (s.y.f.) corresponding author: elijah frimpong boadu, school of built environment, the university of new south wales, sydney, nsw 2052, australia, b.frimpong@unsw.edu.au doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.8136 article history: received: 27/03/2022; revised: 06/07/2022 & 21/07/2022; accepted: 28/7/2022; published: 20/09/2022 abstract the potential to promote health and safety (h&s) through public procurement has resulted in increased expectation for public sector clients to integrate h&s matters into their procurement decisions and practices. developing countries are however far behind in this endeavour. using qualitative research, therefore, this study explored how public clients integrate h&s into the procurement of public works. data was collected through semi-structured interviews with 20 contractors and public sector clients who have vast experience in the procurement of public works. the data was analysed using both inductive and deductive thematic analyses. the findings show that the extent of h&s integration into the procurement process depended on the funding source(s) for public projects. h&s matters are generally overlooked in the various procurement stages for public projects funded by the government, while in those funded by international development agencies, h&s matters are prioritized, and therefore, given considerable attention. the research contributes to construction h&s improvement research in developing countries by giving insight into the extent of h&s integration into public declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 43 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.8136 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.8136 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:b.frimpong%40unsw.edu.au?subject= mailto:r.sunindijo@unsw.edu.au mailto:cynthia.wang@unsw.edu.au mailto:s.frimpong@unsw.edu.au mailto:b.frimpong@unsw.edu.au https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.8136 procurement. it also contributes to the understanding of the influence of funding sources on the extent to which h&s matters are integrated into public procurement in developing countries. keywords health and safety; construction industry; integration; public projects; construction procurement; developing countries introduction health and safety (h&s) record in the construction sector in developing countries is widely acknowledged to be poor. for instance, in ghana, the ghana statistical service [gss] (2016) reported that, in 2015, occupational injuries occurred at a frequency of 43 per 1,000,000 hours worked; incidence rate of 63 injuries per 1,000 workers and severity rate of 418 days lost per 1,000,000 hours. to put this into context, workrelated accident fatality rate in ghana is 21.1 per 100,000 workers (hämäläinen, takala and kiat, 2017), while that of the uk and germany are 0.55 and 0.81 per 100,000 workers respectively (health and safety executive [hse], 2017). considering that many non-fatal accidents in workplaces go unreported (colak, etiler and bicer, 2004), the actual accident and fatality rates are likely to be higher in developing countries such as ghana. without a doubt, these statistics and situations call attention to the need to improve the h&s implementation within the construction industry in developing countries. this poor performance has been attributed to unique industry characteristics such as labour-intensive work, the use of hazardous materials, long work hours, workers exposure to harsh weather conditions (international labour organization [ilo], 2018), poor government commitment and inadequate regulatory regimes in developing countries (eyiah, kheni, and quartey, 2019). many studies have concluded that one of the ways to improve h&s outcomes on public projects is by integrating h&s issues into the construction procurement process (boadu, et al., 2022; boadu, sunindijo and wang, 2021a; worksafe victoria, 2017; votano and sunindijo, 2014; wells and hawkins, 2011). the sheer size and importance of public procurement in the delivery of infrastructure endows it with the capacity to influence markets and improve h&s standards (lingard, wakefield and walker, 2020). the critical leadership role of public sector clients in incorporating h&s requirements into the procurement of public construction projects has been emphasised (lingard, wakefield and walker, 2020). clients have enormous influence over the way their projects are run because they have substantial contractual control (health and safety commission [hsc], 2007). for instance, clients appoint project teams, and assign duties to them (hsc, 2007). such decisions within the construction procurement process have consequences for h&s implementation on projects (gibb, et al., 2014). while public clients, especially in the developed countries are successfully reforming their procurement systems to incorporate h&s considerations, the opposite exists in the case of developing countries (wells and hawkins, 2011; boadu, et al., 2021). several studies focusing on h&s promotion in public construction procurement in the developing countries’ context (e.g., boadu, et al., 2022; benviolent and smallwood, 2016; boadu, sunindijo and wang, 2021b) have indicated that public clients are yet to fully integrate h&s considerations in public procurement. where this has been done, h&s issues are assigned low priority in the process. previous studies, including boadu, et al. (2022) and benviolent and smallwood (2016) have emphasised the need to integrate h&s into procurement decisions, however, none considered the impact of the funding sources on the extent of h&s consideration in public works procurement. the need to address this problem notwithstanding, research on h&s integration into public works procurement in the developing countries’ context are scarce (umeokafor, windapo and olatunji, 2020). this has obscured an understanding of critical issues surrounding h&s integration in public procurement. using ghana as a case study to represent the developing countries, this research aims to assess the extent to which boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202244 h&s matters are integrated into each stage of the construction procurement process for public projects. specific attention was given to funding sources because this appears to be a major factor influencing the integration level. ghana is an ideal case for this study because it has the major features of the construction industry in developing countries (boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2020). first, its partnership with developed economies and international organisations on investments in the delivery of public infrastructure is growing rapidly (economic corporate network, 2015; frimpong, sunindijo and wang, 2020). second, as a middleincome country, ghana exhibits the economic, political, and social characteristics associated with developing countries. these characteristics include rapid urbanization, huge deficit in infrastructure, large informal sector participation, youthful population, among others (world bank, 2016). this study, therefore, can help to identify and understand some of the critical issues that must be considered by government, international private and public investors, donors, and construction firms when preparing to engage in publicly procured projects in developing countries. it is acknowledged that many public projects in developing countries are funded by multi-lateral public-private partnership arrangements (organization for economic cooperation and development [oecd], 2012; osei-kyei and chan, 2018). often, these arrangements must meet the internal social and safety standards of the different partner organisations (e.g., development banks, private donors, and governments) as well as the policies of international bodies (e.g., the ilo and who) responsible for the promotion of occupational h&s (dansoh, frimpong and oppong, 2020). this study assesses the level of h&s integration into public works procurement, either funded by government or international partners; thereby ascertaining the commitment of government and international partners to construction h&s. recommendations from this study are also useful to procurement agencies for developing strategies to enhance h&s integration in public procurement. promoting h&s through public procurement as a public administration tool, public procurement has been used as a vehicle for achieving socioeconomic objectives, such as minimising unemployment, providing opportunities for small and local businesses, and improving working conditions (mccrudden, 2004). typically, a large percentage of public sector spending goes into public procurement, demonstrating its huge economic significance. globally, public procurement amounts to us$ 11 trillion, and contributes at least 13 percent of global gdp (ali, 2020). in africa, it accounts for over 15 percent of gdp (world bank, 2013). in respect of ghana, it accounts for around 17 percent of gdp each year (public procurement authority, 2013). in relation to h&s in construction, public procurement provides opportunity to promote h&s beyond the statutory requirements and drive h&s improvements through procurement practices (cidb, 2011). for example, ju and rowlinson (2020) commented that in hong kong, public sector clients have spearheaded the implementation of systematic management of h&s within the construction industry through public procurement. this has been made possible through their choice of procurement strategies, contractual requirements, and monitoring of contract implementation. however, to date, little attention has been paid to determining the extent of h&s integration into the procurement of public works, particularly in developing countries. in the uk, hse (2007) and hse (2011) examined h&s in public works procurement with the aim of assessing how well public clients fulfil their h&s obligations within the procurement process. a survey (hse, 2007) and interviews (hse, 2011) revealed that most public clients in the uk reasonably considered h&s during the procurement of their projects. also, lingard, oswald and le (2019) explored the approaches used by public clients in australia to drive h&s performance improvements on public infrastructure projects. further, a number of reports issued by several government agencies in developed countries including the australian government’s office of the federal safety commissioner [ofsc] boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202245 (2008), work safe victoria (2017), the australian safety and compensation council [ascc] (2006), and the government health and safety lead (2019) provided practical guidance for integrating h&s matters into public procurement. these studies and reports focused on developed countries with established h&s regulatory, enforcement and guidance systems. on developing countries, studies such as benviolent and smallwood (2016), and donkor, adinyirah and aboagye-nimo (2015) evaluated the implications of decisions and practices in public procurement on h&s implementation in zimbabwe and ghana, respectively. also, umeokafor, windapo and olatunji (2020), explored the opportunities, barriers, and strategies for integrating h&s into labour-only procurement system, while boadu, et al. (2021) delved into the factors constraining the integration of h&s matters into public procurement in developing countries. table 1 compares these existing studies across multiple dimensions including location, methods, context, and findings. generally, these studies emphasised the need to integrate h&s into procurement decisions but did not provide the extent to which h&s is integrated into each stage of construction procurement. boadu, sunindijo and wang (2021b) addressed this research gap by providing an evidence-based assessment of the extent of h&s consideration in decision-making and activities in each stage of the procurement process for public projects in ghana. their research identified that unlike the findings in the uk context (hse, 2007; hse, 2011), h&s matters are accorded low priority and therefore, not adequately integrated into decision-making and practices in public procurement. boadu, sunindijo and wang (2021b) specifically found that within the construction procurement process for public works, h&s objectives are not clearly set, and consequently, public clients do not usually consider h&s matters in each stage of the procurement process. nonetheless, the use of a quantitative survey approach by boadu, sunindijo and wang (2021b) retained the limitation of being unable to obtain an in-depth exploration of the critical issues underlying the phenomenon of low h&s integration in the public procurement process. this study therefore seeks to address this issue through a qualitative research approach. table 1. summary of studies on h&s in public works procurement study location method context findings hse (2007) uk survey h&s in public sector construction procurement found that many public sector clients performed reasonably well in meeting their h&s obligations during the procurement of construction, however, there is more that could be done. hse (2011) uk interview h&s in public sector construction procurement (a follow-up study to the hse (2007) above) similarly found that while some public clients performed reasonably well in meeting their h&s obligations during the procurement of public works, there remains more that could be done. lingard, oswald and le (2019) australia interview approaches of public clients to drive h&s performance improvements in public projects. found that client behaviour was consistent with elements of new public management (npm) and reflected a managerialist logic in the pursuit of efficiency, the use of targets, incentives, and performance measurement. boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202246 study location method context findings benviolent and smallwood (2016) zimbabwe survey assessed the implications of public sector procurement on h&s management in zimbabwe the study found that traditional factors such as bid amount, financial status, and project delivery time are given preference ahead of h&s when procuring contractors for public sector projects. donkor, adinyirah and aboagyenimo (2015) ghana interview explored practical measures to improve construction h&s through public works procurement the findings showed that h&s does not form part of the criteria for evaluating tenders, and the public procurement act (act 663) has no clause that addresses construction h&s. boadu, et al. (2021) developing countries/ ghana mixed methods (interview & survey) identified factors constraining the promotion of h&s in public works procurement in developing countries the following were identified as constraints to promoting h&s in public works procurement; regulatory, budgetary, human resource constraints, lack of management commitment, lack of h&s knowledge and education, unethical procurement practices, political influence, absence of guidance materials, and poor attitude towards h&s. boadu, sunindijo and wang (2021b) ghana survey evaluated the extent of h&s consideration in the procurement of public projects found that h&s matters are accorded low priority and therefore, not adequately integrated into decisionmaking and practices in public procurement. research methods data collection qualitative research approaches are explanatory and exploratory in nature and aim principally to answer the how and why questions (creswell, 2014). thus, this method affords researchers the opportunity to obtain better insights into a situation from the perspective of research participants (saunders, lewis and thornhill, 2016). within the realm of qualitative research, this research adopted semi-structured interviews to seek detailed insights into the extent to which h&s matters are integrated into the procurement of public works. the semi-structured interviews were appropriate for this study because though a schedule of predetermined topics were to be explored, there was also the need for the exploration of spontaneous or unexpected issues that may emerge from the discussions (berg, 2009). table 1. continued boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202247 interview participants were selected through a purposive sampling technique, a non-random sampling technique widely used for the identification and selection of experienced, knowledgeable, and informationrich participants (creswell, 2014). the interviewees were carefully chosen on the basis of their clear and active participation in the procurement of public projects in ghana and in other developing countries. this ensured that a correct picture of the level of h&s integration into public works procurement was provided to a reasonable degree, thereby guarantying data validity. a total of 20 interviews, comprising 10 each from public sector clients and contractors were conducted face-to-face. the profile of interviewees is shown in table 2. the number of interviewees (i.e., 20) are typically adequate to ensure a thorough coverage of the issues and reach saturation of data (galvin, 2015). also, on average, the participants in this research have over 20 years work experience in the construction industry. this ensured that these sampled participants could give better insights and rich perspectives in the study. table 2. profile of interview participants code job title/ position industry experience (years) contractors co1 health and safety officer 19 co2 quantity surveyor 16 co3 project engineer 14 co4 civil engineer & ceo 13 co5 project manager 32 co6 quantity surveyor & managing director 24 co7 civil engineer & ceo 13 co8 quantity surveyor & ceo 17 co9 project engineer 15 co10 project manager 17 public clients pc1 head of civil works dept. 29 pc2 principal consultant, buildings 26 pc3 head of structural eng. and safety 25 pc4 municipal roads engineer 24 pc5 senior quantity surveyor 20 pc6 contracts manager 21 pc7 snr. works & development officer 15 pc8 principal quantity surveyor 28 pc9 head of works procurement 16 pc10 snr. works & development officer 18 average industry experience 20.1 boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202248 the questions for the interviews were designed to delve into how h&s matters are integrated into decisions and actions within the procurement process. the questions focussed on: • setting and communicating project objectives relating to h&s. sample questions were: “does your organisation set clear h&s targets or objectives for its projects? if yes, what are some of the specific h&s objectives set? how are these h&s objectives/ targets communicated/emphasised to prospective contractors? at which stages of procurement are these objectives communicated? • how h&s issues are integrated into decisions and practices at each stage of construction procurement (see figure 1). sample questions were: how much weight do you assign to h&s against other tender evaluation criteria? how do you treat tender offers that make little or no provisions for h&s implementation? describe the h&s requirements in the contract document(s) that your organisation adopt for its projects. in what ways do you track and monitor h&s implementation during the construction phase of your projects? objectives and planning tendering tender evaluation contract award and conditions contract administration & monitoring post contract review figure 1. stages of construction procurement (adapted from boadu, sunindijo and wang, 2021b) considering that public clients and contractors play different roles within the procurement process, there was the need to have two different sets of questions; one set was for public clients while the other was for contractors. for instance, public clients could be asked about the factors that influence the choice of procurement or tendering methods for their projects. such a question cannot be answered correctly by contractors because they are not normally involved in the planning phase of projects. all interviews were digitally recorded and ranged between 30-50 minutes. also, the data was collected and analysed simultaneously until additional data did not produce new information, suggesting data saturation has been reached (boadu, et al., 2022). before the interviews, participants were contacted, either physically or by phone to arrange for appropriate date, time, and place for the interview. several days prior to the interview, the interview questions and other information were sent to the participants. this ensured that participants had the basic information and the context of the interview. moreover, in line with research ethics, participants were briefed about the research, and informed consent was sought before any interview. during the interviews, steps were taken to ensure any possible biases were avoided. these steps include (patton, 2014) (i) asking one question at a time; (ii) remaining neutral as far as possible by trying not to show strong emotional reactions to responses, for instance; and (iii) taking control of the interview by sticking closely to questions of interest. data analysis data were manually analysed, beginning with a verbatim transcription of each interview recording. followups were made with interviewees, ensuring that the transcripts fit their stories. after, the transcripts were expanded, cross-compared, and merged into a single master transcript, thereby enhancing the descriptive and interpretative data validity (krueger and casey, 2009). the master transcript was subjected to thematic analysis in accordance with the six stages recommended by braun and clarke (2006) viz: data familiarisation; generating initial codes; searching for themes; boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202249 reviewing themes; defining, and naming themes; and writing up. thematic analysis was adopted because of its ability to produce detailed, rich, and nuanced qualitative data analysis. the themes were generated both deductively and inductively. first, a pre-set format involving each stage of construction procurement was applied to analyse the data (see figure 1). however, though the themes were deductively linked to the stages of construction procurement, inductively, other themes were allowed to directly emerge from the data. stage one, data familiarisation involved reading the master transcript several times to get a clearer understanding of the data and the overall picture it painted about the issues under investigation. in the second stage, generating initial codes, the basic labels, or codes into which data would be categorised were developed both intuitively and from the predetermined structure (see figure 1). stage three, searching for themes, was undertaken by examining the text line-by-line, extracting relevant participants’ statements, and assigning each to the specific code to which they were related. after populating the codes, stage four, reviewing themes, was undertaken by grouping similar codes into a single category. codes that added significant information to at least one of the main issues in the analytical framework were retained. additionally, those that contradicted the general picture were also retained and clustered under new categories. table 3 presents examples of the themes and some of the related quotes. the next stage (stage five) was defining and naming themes. in this stage, similar categories were merged under respective themes, and a thematic map was developed as shown in figure 2. relevant quotes from participants were edited and used to support each of the categories under a specific theme. table 3. examples of themes and related quotes s/n theme description example quotes 1 h&s in evaluation criteria quote 1a: having evaluated tenders for many public projects, i can tell you that h&s is usually not evaluated at all. as i said, it is mostly not a requirement in public projects, so there is no basis for evaluating it. quote 1b: on state-funded projects, we normally do not consider h&s as a priority, so it accounts for less than 5% of weighted criteria. on the other hand, on the donor-funded projects, h&s accounts for between 15-20% of the weighted criteria because premium is placed on it. quote 1c: honestly, even when h&s is considered in our tender evaluation, it weighs little (less than 5%) 2 ramifications for h&s implementation quote 2a: for the normal public projects, there are no explicit penalty but sometimes our engineers and consultants can give warnings to contractors who fail to put in place h&s measures during the construction period. quote 2b: on the dfp, the conditions of contracts make provisions for graduated penalties, including formal warnings, withholding payments, forfeiting performance security to contract termination, but this is usually not the case for normal sfp quote 2c: on the sfp, no penalty or incentive are given for h&s but on the dfp, the conditions of contract prescribe some penalties for h&s breaches. boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202250 setting prioritisation communication procurement method requirements tendering methoddesign options monitoring reportingprovisions ramificationsweightage evaluation criteria h&s objectives h&s in planning stage h&s in tendering stage h&s in tender evaluation stage h&s in conditions of contract h&s in contract admin. and monitoring h&s in post contract review figure 2. thematic map showing themes and related sub-themes. finally, stage six was writing up. after developing, naming, and thoroughly revising all the themes, a write up was produced by summarising all the key issues emerging from the thematic analysis. multiple validation procedures were employed at this stage to ensure soundness and objectivity of the results (creswell, 2014). first, two researchers analysed the data to balance out the subjective influences of individuals (flick, 2018). second, the results were reviewed by one of the researchers who was not involved in data collection and analysis, in order to provide fresh perspective and new insights (boadu, et al., 2022). subsequently, follow-ups were made with three participants to validate how precisely the draft report reflected their accounts. few and minor changes were made based on their feedback. results and discussion the interviews revealed that within the context of public projects, two distinctions could be made depending on the source of project funding. these are the public projects funded by the government, either through the local or central government (herein referred to as state-funded public projects [sfp]), and those funded by foreign donor agencies or international development partners such as the world bank and united nations development programme (undp) (herein referred to as donor-funded public projects [dfp]). setting h&s objectives on sfp the responses suggested that project objectives and targets related to h&s are mostly not set. one participant stated “frankly, h&s has never been considered as a key objective on our projects. in fact, most of the contracts i have worked on previously had nothing on h&s, right from the planning stage and throughout the whole procurement process” (pc2). another public client also asserted “we do not explicitly set h&s objectives or targets on our projects” (pc10). the non-setting of explicit objectives relating to h&s on projects has been linked to the low priority given to construction h&s (boadu, sunindijo and wang, 2021b; alkilani, jupp and sawhney, 2013). the responses implied that public clients are mostly concerned with delivering their projects within budget, time, and performance parameters, and thus, treat h&s as an add-on (sunindijo, 2015). the non-prioritisation of h&s objectives could be attributed to the inadequate h&s provisions in the governing instrument for public procurement. this was succinctly put forward by one participant who stated, “as an architect, i know boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202251 that my designs must be safe and meet the standards specified in the applicable design codes and manuals. however, h&s issues are not expressed in the available tender specifications and documents that we work with” (pc7). further, all the contractors interviewed made it clear that there are no h&s targets to achieve on public projects. for instance, co2 said “safety targets are not set for us, but as a company we strive to achieve the best in terms of h&s.” another contractor stated that “no, there are no targets on h&s. in fact, issues of h&s may come up only when someone dies on the job, or a serious accident happens” (c10). without setting clear h&s objectives, the expectations for public clients to satisfactorily integrate h&s into the subsequent procurement decisions would be farfetched. on dfp contrary to the conditions on sfp, the participants mentioned that the dfp usually express a significant level of h&s objectives. one public client answered, “usually, we set clear h&s objectives for our projects which are funded by donor partners ... on the other hand, we generally overlook h&s matters when it comes to the projects which are funded purely from the government coffers” (pc6). this situation was corroborated by some of the contractors. for instance, co7 stated “… on the projects funded by international partners, mostly targets like zero harm or zero-tolerance for accidents are specified and, they usually refer you to abide by some international standards”. according to the participants, the h&s objectives are communicated in many ways, including, notices to tenderers, during pretender meetings, through the conditions of contract and emphasised during site meetings. interestingly, some public institutions administer both the sfp and dfp. therefore, it was quite curious that h&s issues are considered differently on these projects. one public client vividly explained: usually, the dfp come with their own conditions and specific procurement requirements and procedures, and the implementing institution will have to strictly abide by the conditions. in fact, if these conditions are not complied with, the donor partners would not release the funds for the project. so, although the same public institution implements both the sfp and dfp, the difference is the premium which is placed on h&s by the donor partners. also, because h&s is a priority for the donor partners, they allocate budget to implement it, but on sfp, we try to reduce cost by not spending on matters such as h&s (pc6). quartey, et al. (2011) support this position highlighting that most donor-funded programmes and projects in ghana are driven by key decisions on requirements, scheduling and procedures taken at the donor partner’s headquarters. presumably, the priority given to h&s by the donor partners may have been influenced by their policies in their respective countries. planning stage in the selection of procurement method, h&s matters are not considered. the traditional procurement method is the primary method of procurement, primarily due to the promotion of this method by the procurement act. one participant attested “the main reason is that the traditional method is firmly rooted and dictated by the public procurement act…” (pc7). in corroborating the above, pc6 mentioned “basically, the regulation we work with promotes the use of the traditional method…”. the demand for openness and public accountability in public projects, and the familiarity of the traditional procurement system have resulted in an overwhelming use of the traditional procurement method (boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2020). boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202252 other peripheral reasons such as the need for cost certainty, price competition, need to get value for money, the need for quality, capacity of local contractors and the availability of key personnel were also outlined for the dominance of the traditional procurement method. conspicuously, the need to promote h&s on the project was not mentioned. the traditional procurement method has adverse implications for h&s because it tends to isolate the designers as a stand-alone party and therefore, the designers assume that there is no direct benefit to them from making their designs safer (boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2020). consequently, h&s risks that could have been dealt with during the design stage, only surface during the construction, operation, and maintenance phases of the project (boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2020). furthermore, consideration of h&s in the choice of design options has been acknowledged to have a considerable impact on reducing construction site injuries and fatalities (lingard, et al., 2014). however, the responses revealed that h&s was not one of the priority criteria in selecting design options. pc2 explained “generally, the most influential criterion is the project cost …”. also, one participant retorted “…in my honest opinion, cost has always been the major driving force for the choice of our design options” (pc7). the focus on cost is understandable given the budgetary constraints faced by public institutions, yet the neglect of h&s in the choice of design options could result in accidents and poor constructability, which can have detrimental impact on construction and maintenance costs, and other project objectives. tendering stage tendering method the responses indicated that h&s matters are not considered in the selection of tendering method and competitive tendering is mostly used for procuring public projects in ghana because the method is promoted by the procurement act. according to pc5 “the default method per the legal regime is the national open competitive tendering”. generally, the law requires (except in exceptional situations) that all public sector contracts be awarded through competitive tendering with a focus on tender price, because this method is deemed to promote accountability and eliminate favouritism. though it is the default per the law, there is a counter argument that competitive tendering may have a detrimental effect on h&s (smallwood, 1996; boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2020). competitive tendering creates a fierce competition among contractors, compelling some to under-price their bids. likely, contractors who under-price their bids may, in part, intend not to comply with labour or h&s laws (asian development bank, 2018). h&s considerations in tendering tendering typically provides opportunity for clients to secure suitable contractor(s) to undertake the proposed works to achieve the set objectives. best practice indicates that tenders for high-risk works set out requirements for h&s and call for tenderers to demonstrate their h&s competence. on sfp the responses reveal that on sfp, h&s requirements are mostly not specified, and prospective tenderers are barely required to demonstrate their h&s competence at the tendering stage. for instance, pc10 explained “we do not have separate requirement for h&s as a stand-alone requirement; the closest we come to requiring contractors to address h&s is the provision of contractor’s all-risk insurance”. the contractors among the interview participants shared the same view. one contractor explained “... we have never been asked to demonstrate our safety competence before getting a government construction project. during tendering, the emphasis is mostly on cost, i can say that h&s is not on their minds” (co9). due to intense competition for projects, contractors are already unwilling to make the necessary allocations in their tender submissions to manage h&s. therefore, if there is no requirement for them to boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202253 demonstrate their h&s capabilities, they will simply overlook the h&s aspects of tender submissions. this has the tendency to negatively impact on h&s implementation during the construction stage, as the needed resources are not allocated prior to its commencement. on dfp contrary to the practice in sfp, tender conditions in dfp mostly require tenderers to clearly demonstrate theirs h&s competence. for instance, co1 stated “in my experience of tendering and working on public project, no such demand to show h&s competence has been made on our company; however, on some public projects which were funded by international organisations such as danida, eu, the world bank, etc., h&s is a strict requirement” (co1). evidently, for the dfp, public clients attach importance to h&s and emphasises it in the invitation to tender by setting out detailed requirements in the terms of reference. also, the pretender meetings afford the clients another opportunity to stress on the h&s requirement at the tendering stage. tender evaluation it was found that the common criteria for evaluating tenders included tender price, past performance and experience, financial capabilities, managerial and technical resources, construction period, and quality assurance. h&s competence of contractors does not play a key role in the process. the choice of the evaluation criteria is reinforced by the public procurement law (act 663 and 914) which provides the basis for the qualification and evaluation criteria for public projects. unfortunately, h&s is not explicitly stated in any of the qualification or evaluation criteria, and thus, it does not play a key role in the evaluation. having found that h&s was not a key tender evaluation criterion for public projects, it was important to ascertain whether h&s is considered at all in any way in the evaluation process, and to what extent. the participants were asked to provide the average weight given to h&s criterion (if any) in tender evaluation and, explain the consequences of a tenderer failing to make the necessary allocations for h&s in their tender submission. on sfp on the sfp, usually h&s criterion is neither a mandatory criterion nor a weighted criterion. even in the instances where h&s is set as one of the evaluation criteria, it is usually given little weighting. for instance, pc7 mentioned, “to be frank, it is less than 5%, that is even when provision is made for h&s in the evaluation criteria, because h&s is mostly not a requirement”. pc8 corroborated by stating, “i am not aware of any instance in our tender evaluation where h&s was given any weightage. it is mostly not part of our requirements.” these statements attest to the fact that h&s is neglected at the tender evaluation stage of procurement for sfp. this finding supports harding (2014) and okorie, et al. (2014) who remarked that the h&s criterion is mostly overlooked when choosing a contractor for projects. on dfp the extent of h&s consideration in tender evaluation for dfp was higher than that of the sfp. the responses showed that there is a significant weight allocation to h&s. for instance, pc6 stated that “we normally do not consider h&s in our normal projects but on the donor-funded projects, h&s accounts for between 15-20% of the weighted criteria because premium is placed on it”. another interviewee asserted that “…on large scale projects and those funded by donor agencies, h&s weighs between 10-15% during evaluation” (pc6). some of the interview participants confirmed that sometimes h&s is made a mandatory criterion and therefore failure to address it disqualifies a tenderer from further consideration. co1 attested to this practice boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202254 by saying that “when we work on projects funded by international partners, it is necessary that we make adequate allocations for h&s because it is a requirement and mostly specified in the boq. if you fail to do that you will be disqualified.” this in line with best practice guidelines, as it offers the client the opportunity to assess tenderers’ h&s competence and their understanding of the project’s h&s requirements (wells and hawkins, 2011). conditions of contract standard contract documents and h&s provisions the use of standard forms of contract is a common practice in construction works procurement because the standardisation makes them suitable for different types of projects (murdoch and hughes, 2007). the participants were emphatic that they commonly use the standard forms of contract provided by the public procurement authority. however, their subsequent responses indicated that the h&s provisions are inadequate. for instance, pc6 stated “the h&s provisions are highly inadequate. although, it refers that the contractor has a duty to ensure the safety of its workers, it falls short of making a comprehensive provision including providing minimum standards and making provisions for consequences for poor h&s on projects.” the findings are consistent with sharkey, et al. (2014), wells and hawkins (2011), and office of the federal safety commissioner [ofsc] (2008), who concluded that most standard forms of contract do not have adequate provisions for h&s. even the standard forms of contracts that make some provisions for h&s do not establish specific h&s requirements beyond compliance with relevant h&s legislation (ofsc, 2008). for this reason, the h&s clauses in many standard forms of contract used in the australian construction industry are amended to deal with the project h&s requirements (sharkey, et al., 2014). best practice suggests that clients could add project specific conditions of contract to promote h&s. the responses indicated that special conditions of contract related to h&s are rarely developed, but some interviewees made an exception for dfp. for instance, co8 stated “…the contracts for the international donors… usually have additional attachments like addendum which talk about h&s matters into detail, but you do not see that with the government-funded projects”. the lack of h&s specifications in contracts for public projects implies that contractors are not contractually required to implement h&s measures besides those obliged by h&s legislations. unfortunately, the existing h&s laws in ghana are described as generic, fragmented, inadequate, and limited in scope (annan, addai and tulashie, 2015; boadu, wang, and sunindijo, 2021). also, there are no h&s legislations developed specifically for the construction sector in ghana. this situation suggests that the h&s legislation cannot be relied upon as they do not provide adequate h&s specifications and standards for construction activities. considering the high-risk nature of construction projects, the failure of public clients to specify h&s requirements in contracts can have negative implications for h&s implementation. contractual ramifications for h&s implementation with respect to h&s, the failure to perform to the agreed h&s standard or specification may constitute a breach. it is acknowledged that the punitive clauses in contracts are aimed at ensuring that the contracting parties perform to the terms of the contract. on sfp the conditions of contract for sfp hardly specify any consequence with respect to h&s. the contracts do not make provision for incentives for better h&s implementation either. the participants argued that boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202255 the lack of comprehensive h&s specifications in the contracts makes it practically impossible to prescribe penalties or incentives. however, some participants added that although the contract conditions do not make explicit provisions for penalties for h&s breaches, there are usually implicit ramifications for poor h&s. a contractor’s failure to perform the work safely may have a ripple effect on other areas such as quality, schedule, and cost; thus, applying penalties for the effect of poor h&s in those areas implies an indirect punishment for poor h&s. pc10 explained “indirectly there can be penalties for poor h&s. for instance, if an accident results in project delay or rework, the contractor may not be granted an extension of time, and this may result in liquidated damages.” research shows that there is significant relationship between h&s performance and other project objectives like time, cost, and quality (wanberg, et al., 2013). however, clear and specific provisions relating to potential ramifications for h&s breaches would send a strong signal to the contractor about the need to work safely. on dfp participants indicated that usually the contract conditions for dfp specify ramifications for h&s performance. for example, pc6 mentioned “… but on the donor-funded projects, the conditions of contract prescribe some penalties for h&s breaches”. generally, the responses revealed that the sanctions or remedies are varied, depending on the type, frequency and the severity of the violations. pc6 explained “on the donor-funded projects, normally the conditions of contracts make provisions for graduated penalties, including formal warnings, withholding payments, forfeiting performance security, and even contract termination”. one contractor interviewee corroborated this by stating “yes, some of the sanctions include fines, suspension of contract and even termination of contract” (co1). contract administration and monitoring in construction contracts, best practice indicates that contractors’ implementations should be monitored to be assured that their performances are satisfactory and all requirements in the contract are being met. one valuable tool used in contract monitoring is appraising the contractor’s reports and documentations such as progress reports, shop drawings, and construction blueprints (office of federal procurement policy, 1994), because they help to uncover potential problems. thus, it was important to ascertain whether public clients require contractors to periodically submit reports to enable them to appraise their h&s performance. on sfp the responses showed that submitting periodic h&s reports is not a requirement on sfp. one public client stated “we do not take specific reports relating to h&s... on some occasions the contractors may decide to add a few h&s issues” (pc3). this was confirmed by contractor co2 “i do not remember a situation where we had to submit periodic reports on safety for public projects.” this finding is supported by donkor, adinyirah and aboagye-nimo (2015) who asserted that clients do not usually concern themselves with h&s issues when managing and monitoring contractors. on dfp on dfp, periodic h&s reports are required. for example, co7 stated “when we worked on public projects funded by foreign donors, they took regular safety reports from us”. another contractor (co1) corroborated that “yes, it is done on donor-funded projects but not on the pure public project. … we are required to provide periodic reports and the clients monitor and carry out h&s audits to assess our h&s performance and provide recommendations.” further, the findings suggested that the reports are collected on monthly basis, particularly during site meetings. typically, the report includes both the leading and lagging indicators. this best practice allows boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202256 for the contractor’s h&s implementations to be monitored, which helps to uncover potential problems in the h&s implementation so that corrective actions can be taken. moreover, apart from assisting the public client to track h&s performance against the set objectives, the reports may also serve as evidence in situations where there is a breach of h&s requirements. evaluation/ post contract review best practices suggest that the post contract review should evaluate how the h&s requirements of the contract were delivered and how the contractor implemented their h&s management systems (ascc, 2006). in this regard, the study sought to find out whether public clients conduct post contract evaluations, particularly on the h&s implementations. on sfp the responses showed that post contract evaluation is not carried out on public projects. many of the participants from government organisations (pc1, pc2, pc3, pc5, pc7 and pc10) confessed that, as far as they are aware their organisations never undertook post-contract evaluation on any of their sfp. even on the public projects where post-contract reviews were carried out, the client failed to evaluate the h&s issues. pc8 explained “mostly the reviews are along the lines of cost, time, quality, and scope. in fact, we have never considered any h&s aspect in our project reviews.” according to hse (2011), many public clients fail to undertake post contract reviews, and recommended that such reviews, including h&s performance, should be undertaken for each public project, regardless of size. on dfp unlike the situation on sfp, post contract evaluation is usually carried out on dfp. attesting to this position, pc6 explained “on projects financed by foreign agencies like the world bank, we do comprehensive evaluation of all aspects of the project including h&s and submit those reports to the financiers”. this presents a good practice situation because h&s issues are addressed in the final report. since many dfp are mostly subject to financial and technical reviews, these reviews should include special sections to report on h&s (wells and hawkins, 2011). typically, the review involves comparing the client’s pretender expectations and performance indicators against the contractor’s actual performance on the project (griffith and watson, 2004). consequently, the result of this evaluation process may advise the client on the suitability of the contractor for future projects. summary of findings overall, the extent of h&s consideration in public procurement was found to depend on the source of project funding, that is, state-funded or donor-funded. the extent of h&s consideration in sfp differed significantly from those funded by international donor agencies or development partners. table 4 summarises the findings of the study across the two different types of projects. implications this study provides an understanding of the key issues that ought to be given critical attention by public clients, international development partners, and foreign investors in the development of h&s management strategies during the procurement process of public projects in developing countries. generally, this research has revealed that h&s is not a priority when public clients are making decisions in the procurement of public works in ghana, which is consistent with the practices in many other developing countries. for instance, mwanaumo, thwala and pretorious (2014) remarked that in botswana, h&s matters are usually boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202257 not incorporated into project planning, while smallwood (1996) noted that in south africa, contractors who make allocations for h&s in tenders do not gain any competitive advantage. likewise, alkilani, jupp and sawhney (2013) revealed that h&s objectives are usually given low priority in works procurement in jordan. given that the client’s procurement strategies have influence on h&s implementation (gibb, et al., 2014), the inadequate integration of h&s matters into the procurement process may have undesirable consequences for h&s on projects. in contrast, the findings reveal that on public projects which are funded by foreign partners (mostly based in developed countries), h&s matters are taken seriously. this demonstrates the influence and table 4. summary of findings stage of procurement on state-funded projects on donor-funded projects objectives and planning h&s objectives and targets are seldom set for projects h&s objectives and targets are usually set for projects h&s is accorded low priority h&s is considered important the impact of procurement methods and design options on h&s is overlooked h&s is sometimes considered in the selection of designers and design options there is a limited, if any, budget allocation to manage h&s allocations are normally made within project budget to manage h&s tendering h&s requirements are not clearly specified in tenders. h&s requirements are usually specified in tenders. tenderers often are not required to demonstrate their h&s competence tenderers are required to demonstrate their h&s competence tender evaluation h&s does not have adequate weight in the tender selection criteria h&s is assigned adequate weight in the tender selection criteria h&s submissions do not play a role in a tenderer winning a bid h&s submissions can contribute to a tenderer winning a bid contract award and conditions of contract additional project specific conditions of contract to manage project h&s risks are nonexistent or very limited additional project specific conditions of contract are usually provided to manage project h&s risks contract conditions do not usually prescribe penalty clauses for poor h&s performance contract conditions prescribe penalty clauses for poor h&s performance contract administration and monitoring periodic reports on h&s are rarely collected to track h&s implementation during the construction phase periodic reports on h&s are collected during the construction phase to track h&s implementation evaluation/ post contract review h&s implementations are seldom reviewed at the end of projects h&s implementations are usually reviewed at the end of projects boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202258 commitment of the funding agency to h&s in public procurement. this commitment stems from the wellestablished h&s regulatory, enforcement and guidance systems that may exist in their respective countries. for instance, in the uk, under the construction (design and management) regulations 2015, clients are required to consider and make appropriate arrangements for h&s by making the necessary allocations within the procurement process. therefore, though the developed countries may have the same procurement methods, it leads to better h&s implementation, due to the existence of appropriate legal, guidance, and support systems. in response to the various h&s legislations in their respective developed countries, these foreign partners have established policies and systems to ensure that h&s is taken seriously on projects in which they fund, including those in developing countries. also, because poor h&s performance on projects they sponsor may impact negatively on their reputation, the foreign agencies make allocations to cater for h&s implementation. thus, to fully comply with their established policies and maintain their reputation, foreign agencies sponsoring public projects in developing countries may need to always allocate budget for h&s implementation and ensure that adequate consideration of h&s in the procurement process becomes a key condition for accessing project funding. furthermore, the consideration given to h&s on dfp suggests that developing countries, with the right incentives and motivators can successfully institutionalise the integration of h&s within public procurement. for instance, as mentioned earlier, the foreign donors who fund public projects usually budget for h&s implementation and ensure that the conditions for the release of project funds include satisfactory h&s considerations within the procurement process. this suggests that with the right motivators, such as appropriate legislation, guidance, budgeting, and conditions for project funding, it is possible to afford h&s issues the required priority in public procurement in developing countries. typically, public clients have both legal and ethical obligations to ensure that their projects are delivered safely. thus, it is important for them to adequately consider h&s throughout the procurement process and allocate sufficient resources to h&s implementation. for instance, objectives give clients something to work towards, and direct their energy and efforts, suggesting that setting clear h&s objectives would ensure that the client’s decisions and actions within the subsequent stages would consider h&s matters (boadu, sunindijo and wang, 2021a). further, at the planning stage, it is essential to identify the h&s risks associated with the project and subsequently make all planning stage decisions such as choice of procurement method, and design options by considering the h&s risks associated with the project. unlike countries such as the uk and australia which have regulations and policy initiatives relating to design for safety, the construction industry in many developing countries such as ghana is noted for limited implementation of design for safety by designers (abueisheh, et al., 2020). this requires that clients carefully select competent designers and ensure that safety issues are taken seriously in their project designs. furthermore, in the tender and tender evaluation stages, it is important for clients to explicitly specify h&s requirements in the tender documents and make h&s a mandatory criterion and/or a significant weighted criterion in tender evaluation, and ultimately select contractor(s) who can execute the project to the required h&s standard. unfortunately, the findings show that the standard conditions of contract used for public projects in ghana usually do not make adequate provisions for h&s implementation. also, the h&s legislations are inadequate to deal with h&s matters in the construction industry. therefore, it is critical for public clients to develop project specific conditions of contract to adequately specify h&s requirements. the h&s requirements may be based on the project h&s objectives/targets, and the kind of risks identified. to further emphasise the importance of h&s on projects, the contract conditions could specify penalties for poor h&s performance and/or payment of bonuses for better performance. boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202259 contract administration and monitoring provides clients with the opportunity to ensure that all parties comply with their contractual responsibilities. clients should collect and appraise contractor’s reports and documentations to ensure that the h&s responsibilities of the contracting parties as provided in the contract reflect in the h&s implementation on the construction site. finally, once the project is completed, clients should conduct a detailed review to evaluate how h&s matters were effectively integrated into the various stages of the procurement process in order to gain valuable lessons. conclusion and recommendations the practices and decisions made by clients at each stage of construction procurement have implications for the management of project h&s. given that public sector clients constitute major procurers of construction projects, they are well positioned to use their enormous procuring power to drive improvement in construction h&s through their decisions and practices in the procurement process. based on these, the current study explored the extent of h&s integration into the procurement of public projects in ghana. this study fills a critical gap in the literature by identifying and providing an in-depth understanding on the influence of funding sources and the existence of legal and guidance frameworks that influence the extent of h&s integration into the procurement process. while h&s matters are generally overlooked in the various procurement stages for sfp, the findings suggest that on dfp, h&s is prioritised in the procurement process. further, because of the absence of legal frameworks and proper guidance, public clients’ have the propensity to omit h&s requirements to reduce project cost. to enhance their reputation and h&s outcomes in developing countries, foreign project actors (e.g., international development partners and foreign investors) must strengthen the mechanisms for prioritising h&s integration as a funding condition for the procurement of public projects. local procurement agencies should develop legal and guidance frameworks that are not just punitive, but innovative enough, to prevent public clients and project contractors from sacrificing h&s requirements as a means to cost cutting during the procurement of public projects. there are few research limitations worth acknowledging. the findings of this study are primarily based on the viewpoint of the industry professionals in ghana. only five of the participants have experience in public work procurement in other developing countries. thus, although the construction industries in developing countries have comparable characteristics, the findings should be generalised carefully. further research, especially multi-country studies, is therefore recommended. also, the study did not explore guidelines for integrating h&s matters into public works procurement. these limitations notwithstanding, this study provides a strong basis for understanding the practices and constraints affecting the extent of h&s integration at each stage of procurement for public construction projects. it is recommended that future research can seek to build on this by exploring the key barriers constraining public clients from adequately considering h&s in state-funded projects. references abueisheh, q., manu, p., mahamadu, a-m. and cheung, c., 2020. design for safety implementation among design professionals in construction: the context of palestine. safety science, [e-journal] 128(2020), https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ssci.2020.104742 ali, n.i., 2020. can public procurement bring socio-economic empowerment policies into implementation? world bank blogs, [blog] 10 november. available at: https://blogs.worldbank.org/governance/can-public-procurement-bring-socioeconomic-empowerment-policies-implementation [accessed 24 may 2021]. boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202260 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2020.104742 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2020.104742 https://blogs.worldbank.org/governance/can-public-procurement-bring-socio-economic-empowerment-policies-implementation https://blogs.worldbank.org/governance/can-public-procurement-bring-socio-economic-empowerment-policies-implementation alkilani, s.z., jupp, j. and sawhney, a., 2013. issues of construction health and safety in developing countries: a case of jordan. australasian journal of construction economics and building, 13(3), pp.141-56. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v13i3.3301 annan, j.s., addai, e.k. and tulashie, s.k., 2015. a call for action to improve occupational health and safety in ghana and a critical look at the existing legal requirement and legislation. safety and health at work, [e-journal] 6(2), pp.146–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2014.12.002 asian development bank, 2018. abnormally low bids: guidance note on procurement. philippines: asian development bank. australian safety and compensation council (ascc), 2006. guidance on occupational health and safety in government procurement. australian safety and compensation council. canberra act: ascc. benviolent, c. and smallwood, j., 2016. assessing the implications of public sector procurement on construction health and safety management in zimbabwe. in: windapo, a.o, odediran, s.j and adediran, a., eds. proceedings of the 9th cidb conference. emerging trends in construction organisational practices and project management knowledge areas. university of cape town, south africa, 2-4 february 2016. cape town: dcem university of cape town. berg, b.l., 2009. qualitative research methods for the social sciences. boston, usa: allyn and bacon. boadu, e.f., sunindijo, r.y. and wang, c.c., 2021a. promoting health and safety in construction through the procurement process. buildings, [e-journal] 11(10), p.437. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11100437 boadu, e.f., sunindijo, r.y. and wang, c.c., 2021b. health and safety consideration in the procurement of public construction projects in ghana. buildings, [e-journal] 11(3), p.128. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11030128 boadu, e.f., wang, c.c, and sunindijo, r.y., 2021. challenges for occupational health and safety enforcement in the construction industry in ghana. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 21(1), pp.1–21. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7482 boadu, e.f., sunindijo, r.y., wang, c.c. and frimpong, s., 2021. factors constraining the promotion of health and safety in public works procurement in developing countries. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1990716 boadu, e.f., sunindijo, r.y., wang, c.c. and frimpong, s., 2022. client-led promotion of health and safety through the procurement process on public construction projects in developing countries. safety science, [e-journal] 147, p.105605. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105605 boadu, e.f, wang, c.c and sunindijo, r.y., 2020. characteristics of the construction industry in developing countries and its implication for health and safety; an exploratory study in ghana. international journal of environmental research and public health. [e-journal] 17(11), p.4110. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17114110 braun, v. and clarke, v., 2006. using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), pp.77101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa colak, b., etiler, n. and bicer, u., 2004. fatal occupational injuries in the construction sector in kocaeli, turkey, 19902001. industrial health 42, pp.424-430. https://doi.org/10.2486/indhealth.42.424 construction industry development board (cidb), 2011. delivery management guidelines: practice guide 2 – construction procurement strategy. cidb. pretoria. creswell, j. w., 2014. research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches (4th ed.). thousand oaks, ca: sage boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202261 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i3.3301 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i3.3301 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2014.12.002 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11100437 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11030128 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7482 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7482 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1990716 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105605 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17114110 https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa https://doi.org/10.2486/indhealth.42.424 dansoh a., frimpong s., and oppong, g.d., 2020. exploring the dimensions of traditional authority influencing stakeholder management at the pre-construction stage of infrastructure projects. construction management and economics 38(2), pp.189–206. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1589647 donkoh, d., adinyirah, e. and aboagye-nimo, e., 2015. an exploratory study into promoting construction health and safety in ghana through public works procurement. in benefitting workers and society through inherently safe(r) construction (behm m and mcaleenan c (eds) cib, belfast, uk, pp. 289–297. economic corporate network (ecn), 2015. spanning africa’s infrastructure gap: how development capital is transforming africa’s project build-out. available from: http://ftp01.economist.com.hk/ecn_papers/infrastructureafrica [accessed 12 jan 2019]. eyiah, a.k., kheni, n.a. and quartey, p.d., 2019. an assessment of occupational health and safety regulations in ghana: a study of the construction industry. journal of building construction and planning research, 7(2), pp.11-31. https://doi.org/10.4236/jbcpr.2019.72002 flick, u., 2018. an introduction to qualitative research. 6th ed. sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529716641 frimpong, b.e., sunindijo, r.y., wang, c., 2020. towards improving performance of the construction industry in ghana: a swot approach. civil engineering dimension 22 (1), pp37–46. https://doi.org/10.9744/ced.22.1.37-46 galvin, r., 2015. how many interviews are enough? do qualitative interviews in building energy consumption research produce reliable knowledge? journal of building engineering, 1, pp. 2-12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2014.12.001 ghana statistical service, 2016. 2015 labour force report. ghana statistical service, accra. gibb, a., lingard, h., behm, m. and cooke, t., 2014. construction accident causality: learning from different countries and differing consequences. construction management and economics, 32(5), pp.446–459. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446 193.2014.907498 government health and safety lead, 2019. health and safety: a good practice procurement guide for improving health and safety. government health and safety lead, new zealand. griffith a. and watson p., 2004. post-contract review. in: construction management. palgrave, london. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-0-230-50021-1_12 hämäläinen, p., takala, j. and kiat, t.b., 2017. global estimates of occupational accidents and work-related illnesses. workplace safety and health institute, ministry of manpower services centre: singapore. (accessed on 28 march 2020) available online: http://www.icohweb.org/site/images/news/pdf/report%20global%20estimates%20 of%20occupational%20accidents%20and%20work-related%20illnesses%202017%20rev1.pdf harding, t., 2014. procurement and health and safety: has health and safety been forgotten in all the bureaucracy. public services group and yorkshire branch joint networking event, iosh. health and safety commission, 2007. managing health and safety in construction. construction (design and management) regulations 2007. approved code of practice. health and safety commission, norwich. health and safety executive, 2007. health and safety in public sector construction procurement. health and safety executive, london. health and safety executive, 2011. health and safety in public sector construction procurement, a follow-up study. health and safety executive, london. health and safety executives, 2017. european comparison; summary of uk performance; health and safety executives: bootle, uk. international labour organization (ilo), 2018. improving the safety and health of young workers. geneva: international labour office. boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202262 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1589647 http://ftp01.economist.com.hk/ecn_papers/infrastructure-africa http://ftp01.economist.com.hk/ecn_papers/infrastructure-africa https://doi.org/10.4236/jbcpr.2019.72002 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781529716641 https://doi.org/10.9744/ced.22.1.37-46 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2014.12.001 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.907498 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.907498 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-50021-1_12 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-230-50021-1_12 http://www.icohweb.org/site/images/news/pdf/report%20global%20estimates%20of%20occupational%20accidents%20and%20work-related%20illnesses%202017%20rev1.pdf ju, c. and rowlinson, s., 2020. the evolution of safety legislation in hong kong: actors, structures and institutions. safety science, 124, 104606. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2020.104606 krueger, r. and casey, m., 2009. focus groups: a practical guide for applied research. sage publications, thousand oaks, ca. lingard, h., oswald, d. and le, t., 2019. embedding occupational health and safety in the procurement and management of infra-structure projects: institutional logics at play in the context of new public management. construction management and economics, 37, pp.567–583. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2018.1551617 lingard, h., wakefield, r. and walker, d., 2020. the client’s role in promoting work health and safety in construction projects: balancing contracts and relationships to effect change. construction management and economics, 38(11), pp.9931008. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1778758 lingard, h., piezadeh, p., harley, j., blismas, n. and wakefield, r., 2014. safety in design; rmit: melbourne, australia. mccrudden, c., 2004. using public procurement to achieve social outcomes. natural resources forum 28, pp.257–267. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-8947.2004.00099.x murdoch, h. and hughes, w., 2007. construction contracts. 3rd ed. routledge, pp.101-117. mwanaumo, e., thwala, w.d. and pretorious, j., 2014. assessing health and safety requirements in construction contracts in botswana. journal of economics and behavioral sciences, 6(1), pp. 37-43. https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs. v6i1.468 office of federal procurement policy (ofpp), 1994. a guide to best practices for contract administration. washington, dc. (available at https://www.gsa.gov/cdnstatic/best-practices-contract-administration-ofpp.pdf, accessed on 25 march 2021) office of the federal safety commissioner, 2008. the model client framework: the model client: promoting safe construction. office of the federal safety commissioner. australia. okorie, v., emuze, f., smallwood, j. and van wyk, j., 2014. the influence of clients’ leadership in relation to construction health and safety in south africa. acta structilia, 21(2), pp. 44-68. organization for economic cooperation and development (oecd), 2012. mapping support for africa’s infrastructure investment, nepad-oecd africa investment initiative report. osei-kyei r., and chan, a.p.c., 2018. comparative study of governments’ reasons/motivations for adopting publicprivate partnership policy in developing and developed economies/countries. international journal of strategic property management, 22(5), pp.403–441. https://doi.org/10.3846/ijspm.2018.5223 patton m.q., 2014. qualitative research and evaluation methods. 4th ed. sage publications, thousand oaks, ca: 2002. public procurement authority (ppa), 2013. building a resilient private sector. the procurement digest. ppa. accra. quartey, p., ackah, c., dufe, g. and agyare-boakye, e., 2011. evaluation of the implementation of the paris declaration on aid effectiveness: phase ii. ghana country report. available on https://www.oecd.org/countries/ ghana/47651795.pdf (accessed 16 february 2021). saunders, m., lewis, p., and thornhill, a., 2016. research methods for business students (7th ed). england: pearson education limited. sharkey, j.a.m, bell, m., jocic, w. and marginean, r., 2014. standard forms of contract in the australian construction industry: research report. the university of melbourne. available on https://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/ assets/pdf_file/0007/1686265/research-report-standard-forms-of-contract-in-the-australian-construction-industry. pdf (accessed on 11 september 2020) boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202263 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2020.104606 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2018.1551617 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1778758 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1477-8947.2004.00099.x https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs.v6i1.468 https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs.v6i1.468 https://www.gsa.gov/cdnstatic/best-practices-contract-administration-ofpp.pdf https://doi.org/10.3846/ijspm.2018.5223 https://www.oecd.org/countries/ghana/47651795.pdf https://www.oecd.org/countries/ghana/47651795.pdf https://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/1686265/research-report-standard-forms-of-contract-in-the-australian-construction-industry.pdf https://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/1686265/research-report-standard-forms-of-contract-in-the-australian-construction-industry.pdf https://law.unimelb.edu.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/1686265/research-report-standard-forms-of-contract-in-the-australian-construction-industry.pdf smallwood j.j., 1996. the role of project managers in occupational health and safety. in dias, l.a. and coble, r.j.(ed). proceedings of the first international conference of cib working commission w99 implementation of safety and health on construction sites, lisbon, portugal, pub balkema, rotterdam. pp. 227-236. sunindijo. r.y., 2015. improving safety among small organisations in the construction industry: key barriers and improvement strategies. procedia engineering 125, pp. 109 – 116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.11.017 umeokafor, n., windapo, a. and olatunji, o., 2020. integrating health and safety into labour-only procurement system: opportunities, barriers and strategies. in: manu, p., emuze, f., saurin, t. and hadikusumo, b. h. w., (eds.). construction health and safety in developing countries. abingdon, u.k., routledge, pp. 140-151. https://doi. org/10.1201/9780429455377-10 votano, s. and sunindijo, r. y., 2014. client safety roles in small and medium construction projects in australia. journal of construction engineering and management. 140(9), https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000899 wanberg, j., harper, c., hallowell, m. and rajendran, s., 2013. relationship between construction safety and quality performance. journal of construction engineering and management. 139. 04013003. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0000732 wells, j. and hawkins, j., 2011. briefing: promoting construction health and safety through procurement. proceedings of the institution of civil engineers – management, procurement and law. 164(4): pp.165–168. https://doi.org/10.1680/ mpal.10.00001 worksafe victoria, 2017. a handbook for the public sector. health and safety in construction procurement. 2nd ed. worksafe victoria. australia. world bank, 2013. ghana’s comprehensive approach to public procurement reform. http://www.worldbank.org/ en/news/feature/2013/02/04/ghana-8217-s-comprehensive-approach-to-public-procurement-reform (accessed april 1, 2019). world bank, 2016. gni per capita, atlas method (current us$). available from http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ ny.gnp.pcap.cd. (accessed 6 march 2019). boadu, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202264 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.11.017 https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429455377-10 https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429455377-10 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000899 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000732 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000732 https://doi.org/10.1680/mpal.10.00001 https://doi.org/10.1680/mpal.10.00001 http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/02/04/ghana-8217-s-comprehensive-approach-to-public-procurement-reform http://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2013/02/04/ghana-8217-s-comprehensive-approach-to-public-procurement-reform http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ny.gnp.pcap.cd http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/ny.gnp.pcap.cd construction economics and building vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023 © 2023 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: mahmud, a. t., ogunlana, s. o., hong, w. t., wuni, i. y., akoh, s. r. 2023. adopting qualitative data in conceptual system dynamic modelling: a focus on road infrastructure projects in nigeria. construction economics and building, 23:3/4, 71–86. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v23i3/4.8625 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article adopting qualitative data in conceptual system dynamic modelling: a focus on road infrastructure projects in nigeria abba tahir mahmud1,*, stephen o. ogunlana2, w. t. hong3, ibrahim yahaya wuni4, sani rueben akoh5 1 school of civil engineering and surveying, university of portsmouth, uk 2 elim project systems limited, edinburgh, uk 3 school of energy, geoscience, infrastructure and society, heriot-watt university – malaysia campus, putrajaya, malaysia 4 department of architectural engineering and construction management, king fahad university of petroleum and minerals, dhahran, saudi arabia 5 school of science, engineering and environment, university of salford, manchester, uk corresponding author: dr abba tahir mahmud, university of portsmouth, uk, abba.mahmud@port.ac.uk doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8625 article history: received 26/04/2023; revised 19/11/2023; accepted 22/11/2023; published 23/12/2023 abstract qualitative data is pivotal in system dynamics (sd) modelling, especially during model conceptualization. while various forms of data exist, the mental databases of stakeholders, accessible through interviews, are considered most crucial. nevertheless, a structured and systematic interview and data analysis process is imperative. while most established methods for systematically analysing qualitative data rely on grounded theory approach, this study introduces an innovative coding technique. this method combines the principles of thematic analysis, saliency analysis (an extension of thematic analysis) framework, case study approach, and key features of existing coding methods. this proposed approach emphasizes (i) coding data across all stakeholder groups, (ii) determining causal relationships from stakeholders’ causal attributions and transforming these relationships into causal maps, and (iii) establishing and maintaining explicit links between causal maps and their data source through a data source reference table and declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 71 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8625 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8625 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:abba.mahmud@port.ac.uk https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8625 software. to demonstrate the practical application of this coding approach, it was applied to a study focusing on the cost performance of road infrastructure projects in nigeria, where 16 semi-structured interviews were analysed. the findings indicate that the formulated coding approach provided a comprehensive, rigorous, and well-documented framework for coding qualitative data. this facilitated the development of a data-driven conceptual model that captures the intricate interplay of key determinants leading to cost overruns in road infrastructure projects in nigeria. keywords system dynamics; coding framework; model conceptualization; qualitative data; road infrastructure project; dynamic modelling introduction qualitative data is crucial in system dynamics (sd) modelling efforts (kim and andersen, 2012). the significance of this data is profound. as highlighted by forrester (1992) and sterman (2000), a vast amount of the information needed sd model development is derived from both mental and written databases of stakeholders. conversely, the numerical database provides only a small fraction of this data. luna‐reyes and andersen (2003) noted that qualitative data can be instrumental across all stages of the modelling process: conceptualisation, formulation, testing and implementation. interviewing stakeholders is one of the primary techniques for gathering qualitative data, especially for problem identification and model conceptualisation (dicicco‐bloom and crabtree, 2006; eker and zimmermann, 2016). as emphasized by luna‐reyes and andersen (2003), valuable insights about a problem can be obtained from stakeholders’ mental databases. however, the manner in which these interviews are conducted varies. for instance, stakeholders might initially be presented with preliminary causal loop diagrams (clds), to set the stage for further discussion or to be used in a non-confirmatory manner. they could also be directly asked about causal relationships to aid in developing clds, or more importantly, to inform the conceptualisation of a model (eker and zimmermann, 2016). among the available interview techniques, semi-structured interviews offer an opportunity to elicit rich qualitative data about the interviewees’ mental models and underlying narratives, allowing them the freedom to elaborate on the topic of interest. before the studies of eker and zimmermann (2016), kim and andersen (2012), turner, et al. (2013), and yearworth and white (2013), numerous techniques were established for analysing qualitative data and extracting causal structures directly from data during the sd modelling conceptualisation phase (kim and andersen, 2012). yet, a clear formal coding method that described and documented the systematic coding processaimed at identifying causal structures from qualitative data to promote the generation of clds as a foundational step in sd modellingwas lacking (eker and zimmermann, 2016). the approaches adopted by eker and zimmermann (2016), kim and andersen (2012), and turner, et al. (2013) were inspired by grounded theory and its associated data coding techniques, and also compatible with a particular research design considering some key elements of the research process. their inclination towards the grounded theory approach emerged from its ability to develop a theory inductively, from qualitative data, through a well-structured process (eker and zimmermann, 2016). moreover, these approaches have been systematically applied in diverse sectors, including land use (turner, et al., 2013), decision making in the uk housing sector (eker and zimmermann, 2016), and decision making in the united states financial sector (kim and andersen, 2012). in this study, an alternative coding method was proposed, inspired by the principles of thematic analysis, saliency analysis (an extension of thematic analysis) framework and case study approach, and a synthesis of the core strengths of existing techniques, aiming to address their shortcomings. this newly devised mahmud et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202372 method emphasizes (i) coding data across all stakeholder groups, (ii) determining causal relationships from stakeholders’ causal attributions and transforming these relationships into causal maps, and (iii) establishing and maintaining explicit links between causal maps and their data sources through a data source reference table and software. the application of this coding approach was then demonstrated in a study focusing on the cost performance of road infrastructure projects in nigeria, where transcribed qualitative interview data were analysed to understand the primary determinants influencing poor cost performance. literature review case study: cost performance of road infrastructure projects in nigeria the construction industry, both globally and especially in the developing world, plays a crucial role in bolstering developmental and economic activities. in particular, roads contribute significantly to the gross domestic product (gdp) of nigeria by harnessing diverse clusters of economic activities. federal roads are the most preferred means of transportation in many emerging countries. in nigeria, while they constitute only about 18% of the total national road network, they are responsible for the transportation of approximately 95% of all freight, vehicles, and people (ogbu and adindu, 2019). road infrastructure construction remains one of the primary areas of construction investment in nigeria. for example, about 229 federal road projects, worth over ₦2.361 trillion, are currently ongoing across nigeria (federal ministry of works nigeria, 2019). despite the importance of roads and the significant financial commitment by the public sector, road projects in nigeria are infamous for exceeding their planned cost and duration. many of these projects, in all areas of the country, have experienced cost overruns ranging from 23.6% to about 199% (federal ministry of works nigeria, 2019). review of existing coding frameworks the purpose of the coding framework, and its structured process, is to identify themes and their causal relationships from qualitative data, and eventually transform the causal relations into a cld, and relate the cld directly to the data source (ds). the linkage between the cld and the ds is considered a very important element of the coding process, and of the development of a conceptual model, because it allows for explicit, reflective, and rigorous transformation of data segments into causal links, and eventually a cld (eker and zimmermann, 2016). according to eker and zimmermann (2016), a systematic and rigorous method for analysing qualitative data for a conceptual sd model helps to add rigour to the resultant model, by preserving linkages between the cld and the ds, which is an important step for building confidence in a model. eker and zimmermann (2016) also advocated the use of caqdas to make the link between the cld and the ds more transparent. however, one limitation of caqdas is that external reviewers cannot access the database, making it challenging to access the researchers’ work. accordingly, kim and andersen (2012) contended that there is a need to establish a link between the ds and the cld, using a ds reference table to ensure transparency in the process. yearworth and white (2013), kim and andersen (2012), and nguyen, beeton and halog (2015) stressed that the identification of a causal relationship should be grounded by a statement explicitly or implicitly showing the occurrence of a relationship between two codes/themes within the same paragraph in the ds. with this, you can easily see how the themes are potentially related by the paragraph context (yearworth and white, 2013; nguyen, beeton and halog, 2015). furthermore, eker and zimmermann (2016) suggested that, as well as having a statement within a paragraph revealing a causal relationship, indicators such as “because”, “if ”, “so as”, and “then” should be considered, in order to establish causal relationships amongst codes/themes within a segment of data, and also the researcher’s understanding of an expressed causal relationship. mahmud et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202373 the use of coding to develop sd models was originally illustrated by repenning and sterman (2002). later, a formal coding technique, centred on the grounded theory approach, was introduced to the academic community of system dynamitists by kim and andersen (2012), and demonstrated the use of a systematic and rigorous process for the generation of clds based on qualitative textual data which is grounded in data. this technique has been methodically applied in numerous realms of studies, such as: land use (turner, et al., 2013), decision making in the uk housing sector (eker and zimmermann, 2016), and environmental adaptation in industry (nguyen, beeton and halog, 2015). however, the method advocated by kim and andersen (2012) was designed for coding and analysing synchronous data, which is based on shared context opinions from a group discussion. the coding approach is comprised of five main steps: (i) open coding for identification of themes from the data, (ii) identification of individual causal relationships, (iii) visualising the causal relationships in word and arrow diagrams, (iv) using axial coding to generalise and simplify the word and arrow diagrams, and (v) explicitly recording the links between the final cld and the ds in a ds reference table. the technique helps in analysing the data systematically, and adds rigour by preserving the link between the cld and the ds. later on, turner, et al. (2013) modified the method of kim and andersen to overcome the long process of generating a causal model, and also to create an alternative design that would be compatible with other forms of data, e.g. asynchronous data. the method advocated by turner, et al. (2013) was used to analyse asynchronous interview data, which is based on individual opinions. turner, et al. (2013) combined steps (i) and (iv) of kim and andersen’s approach, and derived aggregated causal relationships from various stakeholder groups (i.e., groups based on stakeholders’ categorisation, instead of the individual causal relationships in kim and andersen’s method), to shorten the process of identifying variables. furthermore, the approach omits the step of creating a ds reference table (which explicitly records the link between the causal relationships and the data source, and forms an essential step in kim and andersen’s method for building confidence in the model), contending that it is not critically important if the researcher is responsible for data collection (interviewer) and the coding process (coder), because he/she is in direct contact with the ds and can probe the interviewees’ intent during the interview process, and thus reduce the risk of bias (turner, kim and andersen, 2013). yearworth and white (2013) also introduced a method for developing clds using textual data. this method relies on the utilisation of computer aided qualitative data analysis (caqdas) software to maintain close links between the causal relationships and the ds. this approach also suggests establishing a causal relationship when two codes or themes coexist within the same paragraph of the ds. also, eker and zimmermann (2016) formulated a method of developing clds explicitly from qualitative textual data. the approach synthesised the key strengths of the three (3) coding approaches advocated by kim and andersen (2012), yearworth and white (2013), and turner, et al. (2013), which have previously been described. the method advocated by eker and zimmermann (2016) focused on: establishing a causal relationship from the preliminary stages of coding, creating a generalized and simplified cld without recording individual relationships to reduce time consumption during the process, and maintaining links between the final cld and the ds by using caqdas. in conclusion, while the reviewed coding approaches (though limited) focused on principles of grounded theory, there is a discernible gap in evaluating other theory-building paradigms, notably case study approach supported by thematic analysis framework. this consideration becomes salient in contexts like construction management. mahmud et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202374 research methodology in the methods section, the data collection method is outlined. additionally, the alternative coding framework formulated and employed to analyse transcribed qualitative data is described, as illustrated in a study on the cost performance of road infrastructure projects in nigeria. data collection the data collection process aligned with the approach used by eker and zimmermann (2016), as it leverages the diverse perspectives of stakeholders with a broad spectrum of experience and expertise in road development within nigeria. this inclusive strategy enhances the information by capturing a comprehensive range of insights and reflections on the problem (mahmud, ogunlana and hong (2020a); mahmud, ogunlana and hong (2020b)). the qualitative data was collected using interviews. specifically, qualitative data were collected through 16 semi-structured interviews with interdisciplinary stakeholders from the client, contractor, and consultant organisations involved in road infrastructure development in nigeria, each having between 10 years and over 20 years of experience. sampling of respondents and interview process the approach for selecting interview participants was influenced by similar technique adopted by mahmud, ogunlana and hong (2020a) and mahmud, ogunlana and hong (2020b). interviewees were specifically chosen for their depth of experience and knowledge in the provision of road projects. the approach combined purposive sampling with a snowballing technique, aiming to access stakeholders that can provide the requisite information and ensuring diverse representation of stakeholders from different background. the purposive sampling method was preferred due to its ability to target stakeholders based on their specific expertise in road project development. however, some stakeholders were unreachable due to bureaucratic obstacles and other impediments (mahmud, ogunlana and hong (2020a); mahmud, ogunlana and hong (2020b). to overcome this challenge, snowballing approach was adopted as a complementary strategy to contact inaccessible stakeholders through referrals from those in the client and contractor organisations as suggested by datta, et al. (2023). to collect data, semi-structured interviews were adopted. these interviews followed a structured protocol, aligned with best practices for conducting qualitative based research as outlined by (kvale and brinkmann, 2009). this rigorous approach aimed to ensure the reliability and trustworthiness of the study’s findings (sa’id, 2019). the interview protocol comprised of four main sections, exploring into: the nature of the prevailing problem, participants’ role within their organisations, their experiences in the realm of road infrastructure development, and their insights into the cost performance challenges facing road projects as detailed in table 1. participants were encouraged to shed light on the challenges facing road projects table 1. interview protocol theme interview question interviewee what is your role in your organisation? organisation what is the nature of your organisation and how successful is your organisation in delivery of road projects? working experience how long have you been involved in highway project development? cost performance challenges what are the challenges facing cost performance of road projects? can you tell me based on your experience? mahmud et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202375 in nigeria, drawing upon their firsthand experiences. additional probing questions were formulated in response to their initial answer, facilitating the identification of codes, themes and determination of causal attributions. each interview, lasting between 40 minutes to 1hr and 20 minutes, was audio recorded and subsequently transcribed, providing the foundational textual data for the overall analysis process. table 2 illustrates the distribution of participants across different organisations: 3 from the contractor organisation, 7 from the client organisation, and 6 from the consultant organisation. each interview adhered to the same procedure and protocol, but additional probing was employed to gain clearer insights on relevant issues. table 2. summary of interviewees’ background information s/no type of organisation no of interviewees range of years of working experience 01 contractor 03 10-22 years 02 client 07 10-20 years 03 consultant 06 10-19 years formulated coding framework the objective of the formulated coding method is to directly link the cld to the ds. such a connection is essential in the coding process, allowing the researcher to transform qualitative data extracts into causal links and subsequently into clds with clarity, reflectiveness and rigor. furthermore, it helps readers to evaluate the work of the researcher by examining the cld, the ds and the entire process and thus gain some insights into their mental processes and indeed the conceptual modelling process. the developed coding approach is based on the coding framework proposed by turner, et al. (2013), which is adaptable with asynchronous data. however, slight modifications were made to better align with its fundamental elements. additionally, the coding approach integrates key aspects of coding frameworks proposed by kim and andersen (2012), eker and zimmermann (2016), and yearworth and white (2013). for instance, a computer aided qualitative data analysis software (caqdas), specifically nvivo 12, was used to ensure that references between the final cld and the original data sources were maintained, in line with the approaches of eker and zimmermann (2016), and yearworth and white (2013). furthermore, a ds reference table was also incorporated to strengthen the connection between the causal links, subsequent cld and the ds, similar to the approach of kim and andersen (2012). to understand and elucidate the slight deviations and synthesis from the adopted coding approaches that formed the basis for the formulation of the new coding method, the framework advocated by turner, kim and andersen (2013) and eker and zimmermann (2016) was adopted. this framework emphasizes six fundamental research design dimensions inessential when formulating an alternative coding approach. the modifications of the adopted coding approach (i.e., turner, et al. (2013)) and the synthesis of other coding methods (i.e., eker and zimmermann (2016), kim and andersen (2012), and yearworth and white (2013)), reflect the research design for the formulated coding framework, as presented in table 3. the first two dimensions focus on the characteristics of the stakeholder categories. in this study, communication was asynchronous as each stakeholder is interviewed independently, and multiple stakeholder groups, including clients, contractors, and consultants were represented. with these two dimensions, causal links were established, and clds were constructed from the collective interviews across all stakeholders and not from a specific group. this means that all interviews, regardless of the stakeholder groups, are considered in the coding process. also, causal relationships were identified by assessing statements that reflects participants’ mental models expressing causal relations between two codes/themes mahmud et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202376 within the same paragraph in a data item. the causal links derived from all the data items (individual interviews) were then merged to produce clds of different categories of determinants. these were subsequently integrated into a composite cld illustrating the links between the various categories. with regards to the two dimensions related to data collection, both the context setting, and data collection were conducted by the first author. the context was established through structured interview questions, allowing each interviewee the freedom to share their knowledge and insights on the problem context. information relevant to the problem was extracted, while information beyond the scope of the study was discarded, based on steps (iii) and (iv) of the thematic analysis framework and elements of saliency analysis framework. collecting the data by the first author facilitated a deeper understanding of the context. as for the coder characteristics, the first author, who was also responsible for data collection analysed all the data. to minimize the risk of bias by a single coder and to ensure accurate data analysis, the second author reviewed the coding process. moreover, the use of caqdas (i.e., nvivo 12) allowed for clear referencing to the data sources and recording of the coders’ assumptions, enabling traceability of the coders’ interpretation of the data when required. during the coding process, caqdas (nvivo 12) was employed to code qualitative data from various sources (interview transcripts) into nodes (codes). nvivo 12 facilitates the formation of relationships between different codes/themes and the linkage of these relationships to their data sources; thus, it records the causal relationships between different codes/themes and the codes/themes defining these relationships within the software’s database. unlike adopting the grounded theory approach (such as eker and zimmermann (2016), kim and andersen (2012) and turner, et al. (2013)), the developed coding approach is grounded in the principles of thematic analysis, saliency analysis (an extension of thematic analysis), and case study approach (which is also oriented towards theory building) (eisenhardt, 1989; braun and clarke, 2006), to analyse the transcribed interview data through the process of coding and retrieval of causal relationships explicitly from data. thematic analysis, as advocated by braun and clarke (2006) relies on ‘coding’ of transcribed interview data and involves six main steps: (i) familiarising yourself with the data, (ii) generating the initial codes, (iii) searching for themes in the data, (iv) reviewing the themes, (v) defining and naming the themes, and (vi) producing a report (braun and clarke, 2006). initially, codes are generated independently (in steps i and ii); later, in the second phase (i.e., steps iii-v of the coding process), related codes are organised into themes as patterns emerge (rabinovich and kacen, 2010). the case study approach, suitable for theory testing and theory development (eisenhardt, 1989; bryman, 2012), aligns with sd model conceptualisation (ullah, 2012; turner, et al., 2013; mahmud, ogunlana and hong, 2020b). table 3. research design dimensions for an alternative coding approach characteristics research design dimension adopted dimension group characteristics synchronous vs asynchronous communication asynchronous one group vs many groups many groups data collection characteristics context set by the researcher vs. by participants researcher data collected by the researcher or not researcher coder characteristics one coder vs. many coders one coder coder engaged in data collection or not coder engaged in data collection note: 1: turner, kim and andersen (2013); 2: eker and zimmermann (2016) mahmud et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202377 the formulated coding method incorporates steps i-v of thematic analysis. it begins with the identification of the problem and establishing the system boundary through the generation of codes, the categorisation of these codes into themes, further analysis of the data to identify the key themes and the causal statements that reflect the mental models of the stakeholders (steps i-iv), and defining and naming the themes, i.e., identifying the essence of what the theme is about and identifying and establishing any relationships between the various themes (step v). table 4 outlines the coding steps of the formulated coding process, reflecting the thematic analysis core steps. the process begins with coding individual data items from all stakeholder groups to define the problem and establish the system’s boundary, generate codes and have a preliminary idea of the potential themes. in the second step, the codes generated are aggregated into refined themes, supported by relevant data extracts. important themes are identified by considering both prevalence of occurrence and importance of information, using saliency analysis framework, to ensure that only information relevant to the problem is considered. in the third step, causal relationships are defined between themes/codes based on a causal statement between two codes/themes within the same paragraph originating from a stakeholder’s mental model. this step also generates coding charts from the identified causal relationships. nvivo 12 was used to define the relationships and maintain references to the data. the fourth step entails transforming the coding table 4. summary of the formulated coding approach description of the process main tool input output identifying codes and discovering themes in the data steps i, ii, and iii of thematic analysis framework and caqdas raw text of individual transcript data definition of the problem and establishment of system boundary, generation of codes and preliminary idea of themes and corresponding codes and coded extracts. categorizing and aggregating codes into refined themes from all interview data steps iv and v of thematic analysis framework, and caqdas preliminary idea of themes and corresponding codes and coded extracts list and categories of themes and supporting data extracts identifying causal relationships between aggregated themes steps iv and v of thematic analysis framework, causal links and caqdas categories of themes, further analysis of data extracts to identify causal relationships among the codes coding charts of each causal relationship, list of relationships with references to the data (coding dictionary) and causal relationships data extracts transforming the coding charts into clds clds and vensim software coding charts individual clds and final cld retaining links between clds and data source clds, data source id and reference id codes, and coding dictionary final cld and coding charts data source reference table and caqdas mahmud et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202378 charts into causal links, and subsequently into individual clds and a composite cld. finally, this step also creates a ds reference table to establish and maintain a link between the cld and the ds. results in this section, the formulated coding framework is applied to analyse data from 16 stakeholders involve in road projects development in nigeria. this is to understand the intricacies of cost overrun risk determinants. the coding approach has been previously implemented in studies by mahmud, ogunlana and hong (2020a) and mahmud, ogunlana and hong (2020b). identifying codes and discovering themes in the data this phase aligns with steps i, ii and iii of the thematic analysis framework introduced by braun and clarke (2006). it is instrumental in defining the problem and establishing the system’s boundary. an essential part of this step is to ensure that implicit concepts within the data extracts are coded, encompassing the entire scope of the dataset. during this phase, interview data is meticulously coded to identify the information relevant to the problem. the identified codes represent both verbatim terms from the interview transcripts and inferred concepts grounded in literature, leading to a comprehensive range of codes. for instance, an excerpt such as: “you know the project has been on and off for quite a few times, it really affected the progress of the project because the client is committed to a lot of ongoing projects all over the country. this is something that is peculiar to almost all public sector financed projects” is coded as “uncertainty in progress” denoting “delay in progress of work”. conversely, some statements do not disclose a concept with clear references, prompting the derivation of concepts/codes from the existing empirical literature. for instance, the excerpt: “the contractors often have to keep to their commitment with other indirect costs and when they returned to site after a while, things have changed, the client then have to agree to review the contract so as to accommodate the significant changes to the prices of materials, labour and even equipment spare parts. all these have to be factored into the reviewed contract “is coded as “reviewing contract terms” which indicate upward revision of project contract due to pricing, aligning with the theme “variation”. as the analysis unfolds, patterned relationship of the various codes or codes of similar status begin to emerge, giving the coder preliminary insights into the potential themes. this process is iterative, with codes being revisited and refined to distil the core information that will inform subsequent stages of analysis. in doing so, the researcher/coder develops a preliminary understanding of the causal connections expressed by participants, a crucial step for identifying causal relationship in later stages. the coding process is facilitated by caqdas tools such as nvivo 12, which provides robust features to link coded extracts with their respective codes reliably. this capability ensures traceability from the raw data to the emergent analytical constructs. categorising and aggregating codes into refined themes from all interview data this stage aligns with steps iv and v of the thematic analysis framework introduced by braun and clarke (2006). it involves reviewing the codes generated in the initial step (step 1) to determine if they form a distinct theme. the codes and themes are organised hierarchically across three levels. the primary level, or parent node, represents the categories of the determinants of cost overrun such as the different determinant groups. the secondary level comprises child nodes that entails specific themes like “delay in payment to contractors”. the third level comprises sub-group of the child nodes which represents the coded information. in other words, the coded information referring to a concept such as “contractors financial challenges”, “inconsistent payment to contractors” and “untimely payment of completed works” are grouped to form a theme such as “delay in payment to contractors” (i.e., child nodes in secondary level) mahmud et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202379 as depicted in figure 1. moreover, the related child nodes such as “delay in payment to contractors”, “delay in progress of work” etc. are clustered to form parent nodes that categorize the types of determinants, like “project management related determinants. the coding tree is developed iteratively, as illustrated in table 5. additionally, the codes and data extracts are continually revised, leading to the creation of refined themes from the aggregated relevant coded information. figure 1. nvivo screen that shows hierarchical grouping of themes in the developed approach, saliency analysis framework advocated by buetow (2010) was adopted to ensure that the analysis incorporates information that is both salient and frequent in the data. this aid in the identification of themes that are important and prevalent. for instance, statements (coded information) that highlighted the importance of a concept or issue such as “this is a major challenge”, “the main reason” and “this is a very big problem” are considered salient and highly important, regardless of their frequency of occurrence within the data. consequently, codes that emerge frequently are noted as frequent. in contrast, themes that were not salient or prevalent were not considered for further analysis. an illustration of such emphasis on the theme “communities’ opposition to projects” is presented by the following statement: “one of the major challenges we are facing is the resistance from some communities. some of the communities are not happy with the idea of providing some of the additional structures because they feel that their communities, properties and even their livelihood will be affected”. identifying causal relationships between aggregated themes this phase aligns with steps iv and v of thematic analysis framework as outlined by braun and clarke (2006). it involves a detailed articulation of causal relationships from interviewees mental model, with the data undergoing thorough analysis to document any causal connections referenced within the ds. when determining a causal relationship between aggregated themes, a unit of analysis was considereda distinct statement in the ds indicating a causal link between two codes, reflective of the participant’s mental model within the same paragraph. such statements, usually providing insight into the system’s behaviour, is not constrained by the category of the determinants but is identified based on clear causal attributions present mahmud et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202380 in the data. for instance, a causal relationship could be between a societal related theme and those related to project management, macroeconomic or leadership. to establish and document the causal relationships and their connection to the ds, caqdas, specifically nvivo 12 was used. this tool ensures that both the causal relationships and their associated data source references are preserved with the software. such as organisation facilitates easy conversion of causal relationships to causal links and ultimately clds in the subsequent phase. furthermore, nvivo 12 is crucial for validating the representation of participants’ mental models through these identified relationships. during the coding process, the researcher/coder identified indicators within the dataterms like “because”, “then”, “if ”, “so”, and “so as” which suggest causality related to the system’s behaviour, complemented by the researcher/coder’s overall understanding of the causal relationships articulated by the participants. for instance, a statement with indicators that infer a causal relationship (between project duration and fluctuation in prices of materials, labour and equipment) is shown below. “participant 05” represents interviewee number 5 from a contractor organisation, and “pdn-fpmle” represents the causal relationship between “project duration and fluctuation in prices of materials, labour and equipment”. “whenever we have significant time lag which often happen on most of the projects, we usually experience a rise in the prices of the resources because of the accompanying extension of time of delivering the project” [participant 05_co: pdnfpmle]. table 5. coding tree for the theme “delay in payment to contractors” coded theme coded data extracts example project management related determinants delay in payment to contractors financial challenges of contractors mostly, payments to the contractors’ is always an issue in publicly funded infrastructure projects. you see contractors complete significant portion of the work, but the payment takes time to be settled. this is a very serious problem for the contractors because it impacts on their ability to pay their workers and meet their own financial obligations. inconsistent contractor payment this payment issue is really affecting us as an organisation. you see, the public sector agency responsible for making these payments do not have a definitive period to pay us even if they have made all the valuations. sometimes, it may take months for the payments to come to us which has made us as an organisation to struggle in meeting our needs. untimely payment of completed works we have been having problem of funding for some time now. most of the time, the funding is not available and anytime there is no available funds to pay for the work that have been executed by the contractor, it affects the contractor’s performance too. so, you see, mostly we don’t pay them on time which is an issue to them and us because the contractor will not be able to perform their contractual obligations as required. mahmud et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202381 in addition to recording causal relationships with nvivo 12, coding charts were developed based on the established causal relationships after further data analysis. each chart was assigned a reference identification codes (ric), denoting thematic categories and associated causal themes), along with data source identification (ds id) codes, correlating to the causal relationships of the themes. additionally, each chart lists the relevant information to the respective interviewee(s). using these charts, data was broken down into segments, each encapsulating a single causal relationship within the same paragraph, along with supporting data extracts. this process reinforces the validity and transparency of the coding process. an example of such chart, illustrating the relationship between “adverse weather and delay in progress of work” along with ric and ds id code, and the data extracts that support the causal relationship, is presented in table 6. “participant 08_cl”, the eight (8) interviewee from a client organisation, is associated with a code “pm: -aw-dpw”, signifying the identified causal connection between “adverse weather and delay in progress of work” within the category of project management related determinants. table 6. coding chart data source id: [participant 08_cl] ric: pm: -aw-dpw main statement: there is always an impact on the progress of work whenever the rainy season sets in because there is the need to halt site operation to allow for the wet surface to dry off. causal structure cause variable: adverse weather project management related determinants effect variable: delay in progress of work relationship type: positive variable behaviour cause variable adverse weather effect variable further delay information source: comments observed from all the interviewees relevant to the causal relationship about the project management related determinants of cost overrun with indicators such as “then”, and the general understanding of a causal expression by the interviewee. themes: adverse weather, delay in progress of work supporting data extract “the weather, even though in some regions like the south-west and south-south, slows the pace of work on site because, once it is raining particularly the kind of heavy downpour we experience when on site, there is no possible way we can lay the asphalt and in most cases this rain comes in heavily and can last for a day or more. that alone is a serious problem. it has significant impact on the project. anytime it rains, then of course, we have to halt work at the site for that period even though, we projected and accommodated the likely impact of the rainy season earlier on” [participant 08_cl: aw-dpw]. transforming the coding charts into clds this phase involves converting the coding charts from step 3 into visual representations of causal links and, eventually clds. it is important to recognize that caqdas tools like nvivo 12 do not facilitate the visualization of these relationships. therefore, we utilize system dynamics modelling software such as vensim, for this purpose. the coding charts, which detail individual causal relationships from the data., are methodically transformed into causal links. these links are then connected to create clds that encapsulated insights into the system’s structure and behaviour. to achieve this, each causal relationship mahmud et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202382 defined in the coding charts is scrutinized individually to construct the individual causal links. these links, representing cause and effect relationships regardless of the determinant category, encapsulate the aggregated interpretations of the individual mental models regarding the determinants that influence cost overruns. for instance, table 7 illustrates the conversion of coding charts into causal links that depict the relationship between “community opposition to projects and stakeholder involvement”. table 7. transformation of coding charts into causal links (community opposition to projects and stakeholder involvement) causal links community opposition to projects stakeholder involvement additionally, figure 2 illustrates the resultant cld, focusing on societal related determinants. it is noteworthy that the dotted line connections in the diagrams signify interactions across different categories of determinants. figure 2. transformation of causal links into cld (societal related determinants) subsequently, a composite cld is created by merging all the cause-and-effect representations, to understand the overall determinants influencing cost overrun in road infrastructure projects in nigeria, as illustrated in figure 3. this integrated network of relationships produced six feedback loops: four reinforcing (positive) loops and two balancing (negative) loops. for instance, balancing loop b1 demonstrates the dynamics between deficiency in financial source and alternative government funding. this loop act to counteract the effect of reinforcing loop r3, which suggests that funding issues associated will be significantly improved. loop b1 captures how funding challenges, intensified by a combination of backlog of contractors’ outstanding liabilities and political interference, creates a demand for alternative government funding the budgetary allocation to improve project financing. the need becomes especially pertinent when the government are inclined to provide financial support. consequently, the introduction of this alternative funding source tends to alleviate the financial constraints of projects, thereby effectively closing the loop. retaining links between clds and data source this final phase involves linking the cld, created in step 4, to the relevant data sources. to establish a strong connection between the cld and the ds, a ds reference table was created. this table reinforce + mahmud et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202383 the validity of the cld by preventing any disconnection due to the data’s transformation into causal links and, subsequently clds. this phase is supported by initially establishing relationships in nvivo 12 and associating them with the data sources, thereby maintaining consistent references. rics are assigned to each data segment denoting a causal relationship, and ds id codes are linked to the corresponding causal relations derived from the participants’ mental models. subsequently, a ds reference table is created with columns representing all causal relationships, paired with their corresponding ds id codes and rics. this arrangement allows for the cross-referencing of causal links with their ds id codes and rics. although, there is no single best practice for constructing this table, ensuring transparent and systematic linkages is essential. to trace the origins of a cld segment back to the ds, one would start with, identifying the causal relationship and category of determinants. then, by referring to the ds id code, the original data segment from the participant’s contribution can be located. such a ds reference table not only guides to the specific data extracts that contributed to the cld but also proves invaluable for tracking the representation of particular data segments within the cld. for instance, table 8 illustrates a ds reference table that details the causal connection between “adverse weather” and “delay in progress of work”, along with the relevant rics and ds id codes. table 8. data source reference table cause variable relationship type effect variable data source identification code ric (reference identification code) adverse weather increase/+ delay in progress of work [participant 08_cl] pm: -aw-dpw conclusion this study presents an innovative coding approach for sd model conceptualisation, which integrates the principles and elements of established coding frameworks, thereby harnessing their strengths. this approach figure 3. composite cld mahmud et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202384 anchors its coding process in the principles of thematic analysis, augmented by saliency analysis and case study approach to extract causal relationships explicitly from qualitative data and used caqdas and a ds reference table to ensure a transparent and strong linkage between the resultant cld and original data sources. the framework was subsequently applied to analyse qualitative data from interviews with multidisciplinary stakeholders involved in road project development in nigeria. this analysis facilitated the extraction of causal relationships, and thus develop a conceptual model capturing the intricate interplay of key determinants contributing to cost overrun in nigerian road infrastructure projects. the developed coding approach offers systematic, rigorous, and well-documented framework for coding qualitative data during model conceptualisation. it provides a transparent process by explicitly detailing how each data segment connects with the causal relationships and structures derived from it. this transparent connectivity between the ds and resultant cld augments the credibility of the conceptual model, positioning it as a foundational step in the formal sd modelling process. in the broader realm of knowledge contribution, the methodological rigor of the data analysis, utilizing the bespoke coding framework, offers a solid foundation for developing a credible theoretical model from qualitative data. this is achieved by a rigorous coding procedure that identifies causal attributions, and ultimately links the developed causal model directly to its originating data. however, it is vital to acknowledge that this framework is specifically tailored for analysing qualitative data aimed at model conceptualisation. future work will aim to extend its application to diverse sectors within nigeria and internationally, applying the same coding framework to identify any parallels or disparities with this study’s findings. additionally, this research direction aims to encourage the use of alternative theory-building approaches within the construction management research domain. references braun, v. and clarke, v., 2006. using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), pp.77101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa bryman, a., 2012. social research methods 4th ed. oxford: oxford university publishing. buetow, s., 2010. thematic analysis and its reconceptualization as ‘saliency analysis’. journal of health services research & policy, 15(2), pp.123-25. https://doi.org/10.1258/jhsrp.2009.009081 datta, s.d., sobuz, m.h.r., nafe assafi, m., sutan, n.m., islam, m.n., mannan, m.b., akid, a.s.m. and hasan, n.m.s., 2023. critical project management success factors analysis for the construction industry of bangladesh. international journal of building pathology and adaptation, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print. https://doi. org/10.1108/ijbpa-01-2022-0006 dicicco‐bloom, b. and crabtree, b.f., 2006. the qualitative research interview. medical education, 40(4), pp.314-21. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2929.2006.02418.x eisenhardt, k.m., 1989. building theories from case study research. the academy of management review, 14(4), pp.532-50. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1989.4308385 eker, s. and zimmermann, n., 2016. using textual data in system dynamics model conceptualization. systems, 4(3), p.28. https://doi.org/10.3390/systems4030028 federal ministry of works nigeria, 2019. list of ongoing federal highway projects. nigeria: federal ministry of power works and housing nigeria. https://worksandhousing.gov.ng/management/uploads_images/1562351340.pdf. [accessed 19 september 2020]. forrester, j.w., 1992. policies, decisions and information sources for modeling. european journal of operational research, 59(1), pp.42-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/0377-2217(92)90006-u mahmud et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202385 kim, h. and andersen, d.f., 2012. building confidence in causal maps generated from purposive text data: mapping transcripts of the federal reserve. system dynamics review, 28(4), pp.311-28. https://doi.org/10.1002/sdr.1480 kvale, s. and brinkmann, s., 2009. interviews: learning the craft of qualitative research interviewing. thousand oaks, ca: sage. luna‐reyes, l.f. and andersen, d.l., 2003. collecting and analyzing qualitative data for system dynamics: methods and models. system dynamics review, 19(4), pp.271-96. https://doi.org/10.1002/sdr.280 mahmud, a.t., ogunlana, s.o. and hong, w.t., 2020a. understanding the driving factors of cost overrun in highway projects in nigeria: a systems thinking approach. in: a. damci, c. budayan and s. ulubeyli, 6th international project and construction management conference (e-ipcmc2020). istanbul technical university, istanbul, turkey, 12-14 november, 2020. mahmud, a.t., ogunlana, s.o. and hong, w.t., 2020b. understanding the dynamics of cost overrun triggers in highway infrastructure projects in nigeria. journal of financial management of property and construction, in press. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-07-2020-0051 nguyen, n., beeton, r. and halog, a., 2015. a systems thinking approach for enhancing adaptive capacity in small and medium-sized enterprises: causal mapping of factors influencing environmental adaptation in vietnam’s textile and garment industry. environment systems and decisions, 35(4), pp.490-503. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10669-015-9570-5 ogbu, c.p. and adindu, c.c., 2019. direct risk factors and cost performance of road projects in developing countries. journal of engineering, design and technology, 18(2), pp.326-42. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-05-2019-0121 rabinovich, m. and kacen, l., 2010. advanced relationships between categories analysis as a qualitative research tool. journal of clinical psychology, 66(7), pp.698-708. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.20693 repenning, n.p. and sterman, j.d., 2002. capability traps and self-confirming attribution errors in the dynamics of process improvement. administrative science quarterly, 47(2), pp.265-95. https://doi.org/10.2307/3094806 sa’id, a.n., 2019. a framework for collaborative costing in the uk construction industry. phd, nottingham trent university. sterman, j.d., 2000. business dynamics: systems thinking and modeling for a complex world. new york, usa: mcgrawhill. turner, b., tedeschi, l., gates, r., nichols, t., wuellner, m. and dunn, b., 2013. investigation into land use changes and consequences in the northern great plains using systems thinking and dynamics. in: r. eberlin and i.j. martinez-moyano, 31st international conference of the system dynamics society. cambridge, ma, usa, 21-25 july, 2013: system dynamics society. turner, b.l., kim, h. and andersen, d.f., 2013. improving coding procedures for purposive text data: researchable questions for qualitative system dynamics modeling. system dynamics review, 29(4), pp.253-63. https://doi. org/10.1002/sdr.1506 ullah, m., 2012. enhancing the understanding of corruption through system dynamics modelling: a case study analysis of pakistan. phd, department of information systems and operations management, university of auckland. yearworth, m. and white, l., 2013. the uses of qualitative data in multimethodology: developing causal loop diagrams during the coding process. european journal of operational research, 231(1), pp.151-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ejor.2013.05.002 mahmud et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202386 construction economics and building vol. 22, no. 4 december 2022 © 2022 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: schnell, p. 2022. examination of the communication strategy based on company straplines: a case study of german construction companies. construction economics and building, 22:4, 81–97. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v22i4.8078 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article examination of the communication strategy based on company straplines: a case study of german construction companies peter schnell institute of construction management, university of stuttgart, pfaffenwaldring 7, germany, peter.schnell@ibl.uni-stuttgart.de corresponding author: peter schnell, institute of construction management, university of stuttgart, pfaffenwaldring 7, germany, peter.schnell@ibl.uni-stuttgart.de doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i4.8078 article history: received 29/01/2022; revised 16/08/2022; accepted 12/09/2022; published 15/12/2022 abstract a target group-oriented communication strategy is decisively responsible for a company’s success. consequently, addressing the potential target group in all communication sectors could enable a valuable competitive advantage. to verify if companies within the german construction industry follow this theory, a study was conducted. in this study, the communication strategy of the 50 largest german construction companies was examined, based on their company straplines. the following article presents the results. as a research method, both a content analysis was conducted and the basic principles of the “zurich model of social motivation” of psychologist norbert bischof and the archetype theory based on carl gustav jung were applied. the current challenges in the construction industry require a high focus on customer-centricity and collaboration. the study revealed that most of the analysed company straplines are addressed rather to the competitors than to the customers and partners. as a result, the straplines should be rethought and adapted to the customers’ needs and current market requirements. keywords communication strategies; marketing of construction companies; archetypes in the german construction industry; strapline analysis of construction companies 81 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i4.8078 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i4.8078 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i4.8078 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:peter.schnell@ibl.uni-stuttgart.de mailto:peter.schnell@ibl.uni-stuttgart.de https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i4.8078 introduction as a result of the corona pandemic in germany, competition in the construction industry has further intensified. construction companies are currently facing increasing business rivalry (welter and luban, 2022). therefore, customer acquisition is more difficult and must be carried out uniformly in all parts of the company. as a result, acquisition experts are increasingly in demand. however, at the same time, the shortage of qualified workers and the number of job advertisements, especially for apprentices, is increasing (bahr and laszig, 2021; soka-bau, 2020). brucker juricic, galic and marenjak (2021) note that germany has the most job vacancies each year across europe. a literature search has shown that there are various reasons for this shortage. a study by bahr and laszig (2021) shows that the shortage of qualified workers and the average age is rising mainly because of the lack of young labourers. nowadays, especially these employees have the expectation and need to identify more with their job or the final product of their work (gabrielova and buchko, 2021; leslie, et al, 2021). the increasing importance of work identity over the last decade is also highlighted in the literature review by miscenko and day (2015). the increasing need for qualified workers, especially in the field of acquisition, and the current shortage of these workers shows the necessity to review the communication strategy of german construction companies. as buildings are a piece of planned work that is completed over a period of time and intended to achieve a particular aim, they are products by definition (cambridge university press, 2022). in contrast to other industries, such as the automotive industry, the final products in the construction industry do not embody the brand’s corporate identity. for example, a product built by the car manufacturer land rover is predominantly attributed with a “discovery feeling”. this perception of brand identity is accomplished by both specific design characteristics and targeted corporate communication ( jaguar land rover limited, 2022). in the construction business, buildings only slightly reflect the character of the customer, the building owner, or the operator. this applies to both the business-to-business (b2b) and the business-to-customer (b2c) building business. therefore, buildings do not function directly as advertising objects and do not represent touchpoints with potential customers (esch, et al., 2016). only by an action, such as research by interested parties, the product ‘building’ is perceived as a reference. thus, the brand character of construction companies is rather shaped by the communication strategy of the companies than by the created buildings. accordingly, the communication strategies of construction companies must be geared even more towards the target group. however, the predominant problem of the construction industry is that often no specific target groups are defined. in this case, customer characteristics cannot be considered in the communication strategy. it is ambiguous whether the current communication strategies of the key construction companies simply reflect their self-perception or whether the communication strategies successfully reach the target groups. a target group-oriented communication strategy is decisive for the company’s success and can thus represent a valuable competitive advantage (zerfaß, et al., 2018). shlepneva and maletina (2021) note that marketing is an important element in the activities of a construction company. in construction companies, marketing is predominantly seen as the marketing of a product or project, whereas the communication strategy is not considered (e.g., drugova, et al., 2021; shlepneva and maletina, 2021). however, marketing is currently either misunderstood or neglected in many construction companies as mokhtariani, sebt and davoudpour (2017) describe. moreover, the nature of the industry often makes it difficult to easily adapt marketing theories and techniques (e.g., yisa, ndekugri and ambrose, 1995; polat, 2010). the number of studies that attempt to apply traditional marketing theories is very small. (e. g. dikmen, talat birgonul and ozcenk, 2005; arditi, polat and makinde, 2008; polat, 2010; polat and donmez, 2010). despite the awareness of the importance of marketing, few studies specifically address the characteristics of marketing in the construction industry (mokhtariani, sebt and davoudpour, 2017). the study by mokhtariani, sebt and davoudpour (2017) is worth mentioning here, who on the one schnell construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202282 hand investigated the marketing character of the construction industry and on the other hand developed a reference framework for construction marketing. furthermore, there are no known studies that methodically apply carl gustav jung´s archetype theory or the “zurich model of social motivation” of psychologist norbert bischof to the construction industry. literature review communication strategy and corporate communication the corporate identity of a company serves to convey an image or the company’s brand character to the public (winkelmann, 2012). corporate identity can be divided into the areas of corporate behaviour, corporate design, and corporate communication. corporate behaviour comprises the rules of conduct for employees. corporate design serves to create a uniform image of the company. corporate communication is the implementation of the corporate identity, especially the corporate design, by various communication instruments (berndt, 2005). according to zerfaß, et al., a significant part of the strategic success of a company can be attributed to corporate communication because it is the only direct link between the brand and the customer (zerfaß, et al., 2018). the communication strategy is therefore fundamental for the achievement of corporate goals and is considered an important and decisive success factor, which is essential for sustainable customer awareness. berndt (2005) has observed that in addition to the conviction of the product itself, the name, the logo, the strapline, and the packaging design must be coordinated and aptly designed for successful positioning. a strapline represents the culture, identity and personality of a brand and therefore is a key component of corporate communication. the strapline should convey descriptive and emotional content to increase awareness. a holistic and consistent use is advantageous (berndt, 2005). in contrast to company names and logos, straplines are questioned and revised in shorter intervals. for these reasons, the study focuses on the comparison and analysis of straplines. likewise, no further consideration is given to the packaging design due to the general conditions of the construction industry. archetype theory and human motive systems through communication tools such as the company strapline, the customers’ awareness and needs are triggered, and certain behaviours are evoked (scheier and held, 2018). the zurich model of psychologist norbert bischof identifies three motivational systems the security system, the arousal system, and the autonomy system (bischof, 2020; schneider, 2001). a high level of one system implies a lower level of the others. the perception of products and brands is determined by the individual characteristics of the motivational systems of the respective customers. accordingly, it is imperative to adapt the communication strategy with specific communication instruments to the customers. for this purpose, comprehensive knowledge of the target group is indispensable. in developing the zurich model, the disciplines of behavioural research, brain research, and psychology were integrated among others. today, the model serves as the basis for further research, such as the limbic map by hans-georg häusel, which is extensively disseminated in the marketing practice (scheier and held, 2018). likewise, the archetype theory according to carl gustav jung correlates with the motivational systems developed by norbert bischof ( jung, 1968). archetypes are defined as characters that are always described with the same emotions and behaviour, regardless of the observer. the 12 jungian archetypes were developed to describe these different behavioural patterns. although the archetype theory according to carl gustav jung has been criticised in the past, since 2000 many marketing science theories regarding brand personalities and positioning approaches are predominantly based on it (balmer, 1972; holzhey-kunz, 2002; roesler and vogel, 2016). the first internationally recognised model related to the jungian archetypes appeared in 2001. mark and pearson schnell construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202283 applied the theory to the topic of brand management which served as a basis for many subsequent models (mark and pearson, 2001). in 2018, pätzmann and hartwig developed the currently most promising model which focuses on the adaptation of gender-neutral and contemporary terms for individual archetypes and reinforced its practical application (pätzmann and adamczyk, 2020). the archetypes which were used for the present study are based on the model according to pätzmann and hartwig and supplemented with norbert bischof ’s motive systems (pätzmann and hartwig, 2018). amplifiers are groupings of archetypes in which the same motivational system is most pronounced. since straplines are intended to stimulate the motivational systems positively, only the positive amplifiers are used in the following. positive amplifiers are binding, curiosity, and assertion. the relation of motivational systems, amplifiers, and archetypes is shown in figure 1 by the example of the motivational system autonomy. archetype amplifier motivational system autonomy assertion (positive amplifier) genius mentor ... subjection (negative amplifier) idiot avenger ... figure 1. relation of motivational system, amplifiers, and archetypes by the example of the motivational system autonomy (own representation) table 1 presents the archetypes and positive amplifiers according to pätzmann and hartwig and the motivational systems according to bischof ( jung, 1968; pätzmann and adamczyk, 2020). table 1. archetypes, positive amplifiers, and motivational systems motivational system positive amplifier archetype characteristics of the archetypes security binding mother (ger. mutter) caring, protective, encouraging, sincere, comforting, loving friend (ger. freund) helpful, reliable, honest, loyal, conciliatory, cooperative mother earth (ger. mutter erde) respectful, peace-loving, communicative, environmental, constructive, appreciative schnell construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202284 motivational system positive amplifier archetype characteristics of the archetypes arousal curiosity angel (ger. engel) innocent, empathic, pure, approachable, bona fide, open-minded artist (ger. künstler) unique, creative, tolerant, extravagant, spectacular, inventive beauty (ger. schönheit) sensual, passionate, desirable, charming, glamorous, attractive cheerful nature (ger. frohnatur) robust, humorous, optimistic, cheerful, carefree, positive discoverer (ger. entdecker) wishful, curious, euphoric, dedicative, romantic, ambitious autonomy assertion genius (ger. genie) intellectual, logical, analytical, astute, literate, talented mentor (ger. mentor) wise, inspirational, visionary, experienced, forward-looking, deep leader (ger. anführer) pioneering, assertive, confident, adored, dignified, relevant amazon (ger. amazone) self-determined, emancipated, strong, independent, sovereign, powerful model student (ger. musterschüler) inquisitive, enthusiastic, tidy, disciplined, obedient, decent all all hero (ger. held) sacrificial, brave, determined, resilient, fair, selfless methodology the selection of the 50 largest german construction companies was based on a company list from july 2021, compiled by the hauptverband der deutschen bauindustrie e.v., (2021) (main association of the german construction industry). the data collection of this study focused on online research of both company websites and company pages on the social networks linkedin and xing, of the 50 largest german construction companies. in addition to the straplines, information about the active sub-branches, the range of services, and the predominant type of business relationships were identified via the mentioned websites. the research can be divided into the following three steps: 1. analysis of the mentioned websites 2. assignment of the archetypes based on the company straplines (research method: content analysis) 3. derivation of the predominant archetypes, the human motivational systems, and the amplifier analysis table 2 presents the identified straplines for each company. four companies for which no clear company strapline was identified are not included in the further exploration. table 1. continued schnell construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202285 table 2. straplines of the 50 largest german construction companies company name company strapline adolf lupp, nidda over 100 years of quality and competence in construction (ger. über 100 jahre qualität und kompetenz am bau) aug. prien, hamburg expertise in all areas of construction (ger. kompetenz in allen baubereichen) bauer, schrobenhausen passion for progress (ger. begeistert für fortschritt) berger group, passau developing an innovative and creative future (ger. zukunft innovativ und kreativ erschließen) bickhardt, kirchheim the full-service provider in the field of traffic route engineering (ger. der komplettanbieter im verkehrswegebau) bremer, paderborn concrete construction to your specs (ger. wir bauen wünsche aus beton!) depenbrock, stemwede always ahead (ger. immer besser) deutsche fertighaus, simmern welcome home (ger. willkommen zuhause) diringer & scheidel, mannheim tradition and future united! (ger. tradition und zukunft vereint!) eiffage infra-bau, düsseldorf we build with passion. (ger. wir bauen mit leidenschaft.) karl bachl, röhrnbach creating value together. (ger. gemeinsam werte schaffen.) gallinger, zwiesel no clear company strapline was identified geiger, oberstdorf supply, construction, rehabilitation and waste management (ger. wir liefern, bauen, sanieren und entsorgen) goldbeck, bielefeld building excellence günter papenburg, hannover a network full of energy because we build on experience and precision. (ger. ein netzwerk voller energie – denn wir bauen auf erfahrung und präzision.) heberger, schifferstadt we do more! (ger. wir leisten mehr!) hochtief, essen we are building the world of tomorrow. (ger. wir bauen die welt von morgen.) hülskens, wesel creating habitats (ger. lebensräume gestalten) implenia germany, raunheim implenia thinks and builds for life. (ger. implenia denkt und baut fürs leben.) johann bunte, papenburg no clear company strapline was identified josef rädlinger, cham no clear company strapline was identified kaefer isoliertechnik, bremen when it counts. (ger. wenn´s drauf an kommt.) schnell construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202286 company name company strapline kemna bau andreae, pinneberg building the future together (ger. zukunft gemeinsam bauen) köster, osnabrück the experts for individual buildings (ger. die experten für individuelle bauwerke) leonhard weiss, göppingen experience the joy of construction (ger. freude am bauen erleben) lindner, arnstorf lindner as a strong partner for interior construction (ger. lindner als starker partner für den innenausbau) list, nordhorn real people real estate ludwig freytag, oldenburg planning. building. maintaining. (ger. planen. bauen. betreuen.) matthäi, verden/aller what connects us is our goal (ger. uns verbindet das ziel) max bögl, sengenthal progress is built on ideas (ger. fortschritt baut man aus ideen.) mbn, georgsmarienhütte building is a matter of trust (ger. bauen ist vertrauenssache) mensching, isernhagen no clear company strapline was identified otto wulff, hamburg we create habitats that make people happier. (ger. wir schaffen lebensräume, die menschen glücklicher machen.) peter gross, st. ingbert responsible and reliable (ger. verantwortungsvoll und zuverlässig) porr germany, münchen intelligent building connects people. (ger. intelligentes bauen verbindet menschen.) richard schulz neuburg/ donau we create new ways (ger. wir schaffen neue wege) schwörer haus, hohenstein here i am at home (ger. hier bin ich daheim) spitzke, großbeeren creating connected dimensions. (ger. gestalten in vernetzten dimensionen.) strabag, köln teams work. swietelsky, traunstein building on ideas (ger. baut auf ideen) thomas group, simmern with passion into a secure future (ger. mit leidenschaft in eine sichere zukunft) michael klebl, neumarkt the construction partner in germany (ger. der baupartner in deutschland) vinci germany ludwigshafen for a sustainable world (ger. für eine nachhaltige welt) w. markgraf, bayreuth we build for the future (ger. wir bauen für die zukunft) table 2. continued schnell construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202287 company name company strapline wayss & freytag, frankfurt connections for life (ger. verbindungen fürs leben) wbv, rastatt with excitement into the future (ger. mit begeisterung in die zukunft) wolf system, osterhofen your specialist for halls, stables, containers and houses! (ger. ihr spezialist für hallen, ställe, behälter und häuser!) wolff & müller, stuttgart building with excitement. (ger. bauen mir begeisterung.) zech group, bremen planning. building. management. (ger. planen. bauen. betreiben.) züblin, stuttgart teams work. in practice, companies combine several archetypes when creating brand personalities and brand values to create a character that is as specific and suitable as possible (pätzmann and hartwig, 2018). for example, the strapline of the thomas group ‘with passion into a secure future’ (ger. ‘mit leidenschaft in eine sichere zukunft’) (thomas beteiligungen gmbh, 2022) trivially contains per definition the two amplifiers curiosity and binding with the characteristics of the archetypes beauty and mother (see table 1). in this study, three different archetypes from table 1 were assigned to each company strapline within a three-step procedure. 1. in the first step, the lexemes of the defined adjectives per archetype were compared with the individual company strapline. if correlations were detected, the corresponding archetypes were assigned to the strapline. for example, the company berger group with the strapline ‘developing an innovative and creative future (ger. ‘zukunft innovativ und kreativ erschließen’) was assigned the archetype artist, since the term ‘creative’ corresponds to a characteristic of the archetype artist. 2. further research was carried out to find synonyms for the individual terms of the strapline. for example, wolff & müller’s strapline ‘building with excitement’ (ger. ‘bauen mit begeisterung.’), was assigned to the archetype model student since the term ‘excitement’ is synonymous with the characteristic ‘enthusiastic’. 3. if less than three different archetypes could be assigned with the first two steps, the strapline was considered as a whole, and an adjective was assigned that was most similar to the strapline or a part of it. for example, the strapline ‘planning. building. management.’ (ger. ‘planen. bauen. betreiben.’) of zech group was assigned to the archetype amazon. the three terms of the strapline symbolise that the complete life cycle of a building is covered by the company as a service, which is aptly reflected by the amazon characteristics ‘independent’, ‘sovereign’ and ‘powerful’. table 3 shows the allocated archetypes for each construction company. table 3. allocated archetypes for each construction company according to the straplines of table 2 company name allocated archetypes (01) adolf lupp, nidda mentor amazon leader (02) aug. prien, hamburg friend artist genius table 2. continued schnell construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202288 company name allocated archetypes (03) bauer, schrobenhausen beauty discoverer mentor (04) berger, passau amazon beauty leader (05) bickhardt, kirchheim amazon mentor leader (06) bremer, paderborn friend hero mother earth (07) depenbrock, stemwede discoverer leader model student (08) deutsche fertighaus, simmern mother angel mother earth (09) diringer & scheidel, mannheim amazon artist beauty (10) eiffage infra-bau, düsseldorf cheerful nature amazon beauty (11) gallinger, zwiesel friend artist mother earth (12) geiger, oberstdorf amazon model student mentor (13) goldbeck, bielefeld artist amazon model student (14) günter papenburg, hannover mentor model student friend (15) heberger, schifferstadt discoverer leader model student (16) hochtief, essen artist friend mentor (17) hülskens, wesel artist mentor mother (18) implenia germany, raunheim mentor artist genius (19) kaefer isoliertechnik, bremen friend hero amazon (20) kemna bau andreae, pinneberg amazon friend mentor (21) köster, osnabrück genius cheerful nature mother (22) leonhard weiss, göppingen cheerful nature friend beauty (23) lindner, arnstorf amazon friend leader (24) list, nordhorn genius mentor beauty (25) ludwig freytag, oldenburg artist amazon model student (26) matthäi, verden/aller friend mentor hero (27) max bögl, sengenthal genius artist mentor (28) mbn, georgsmarienhütte friend mother earth angel (29) otto wulff, hamburg cheerful nature artist friend (30) peter gross, st. ingbert friend mentor mother earth (31) porr germany, münchen genius hero mother earth table 3. continued schnell construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202289 company name allocated archetypes (32) richard schulz neuburg/donau artist leader mentor (33) schwörer haus, hohenstein mother angel mother earth (34) spitzke, großbeeren artist mother earth friend (35) strabag, köln friend hero mentor (36) swietelsky, traunstein mentor genius artist (37) thomas group, simmern mentor beauty mother (38) michael klebl, neumarkt friend leader mentor (39) vinci germany ludwigshafen friend leader mentor (40) w. markgraf, bayreuth mother leader mentor (41) wayss & freytag, frankfurt friend leader mother (42) wbv, rastatt beauty leader mentor (43) wolf system, osterhofen artist leader mentor (44) wolff & müller, stuttgart model student mentor beauty (45) zech group, bremen amazon model student mentor (46) züblin, stuttgart genius amazon hero results as described in table 2, no clear company strapline can be assigned to four companies. with the resulting 46 analysed company straplines, the total number of assigned archetypes is 138 (3 archetypes multiplicated with 46 company straplines). figure 2 shows the archetypes according to the number of times they were classified per amplifier. according to pätzmann and hartwig (2018), the archetype hero has a special role because, unlike the other archetypes, it can be assigned equally to all three amplifiers. to ensure a percentage comparison between the amplifiers, the total number of the archetype hero was divided between the three amplifiers. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 binding mother friend mother earth hero curiosity angel artist beauty cheerful nature discoverer hero assertion genius mentor leader amazon model student hero figure 2. number of mentions for the amplifiers and each archetype table 3. continued schnell construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202290 as figure 2 shows, the archetypes of the amplifier assertion are predominant with about 50% (67 mentions) which derives finding a. the archetypes of the amplifier binding were assigned 33 times and those of the amplifier curiosity 32 times. the archetype mentor of the amplifier assertion was assigned 27 times and thus with more than half of the company straplines (finding b). the archetypes friend (18 mentions; amplifier bonding) and artist (13 mentions; amplifier curiosity) represent the predominant archetypes of the other two amplifiers. it is notable that the other archetypes (leader: 14 mentions and amazon: 12 mentions), which have more than ten mentions, are assigned to the amplifier assertion. next to the straplines, the sub-sectors, the service ranges, and the types of customers were identified. the companies can be subdivided into the sub-sectors of building engineering, tunnel/bridge/etc. engineering, infrastructural engineering, and hydraulic engineering. most of the companies operate in the field of building engineering. it is also evident that most companies are not only active in one sub-sector. likewise, a breakdown can be made according to the scope of services provided by total contractors (tc), general contractors (gc), project developers (pd), facility managers (fm), and public-private partnerships (ppp), as well as according to the business-to-business (b2b), business-to-customer (b2c) and business-toadministration (b2a) relationships. the predominant services performed by the companies are both total and general contractor services. the dominant type of business relationships is b2b. figure 3, figure 4 and figure 5 show the respective breakdown according to the three amplifiers. 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 buildinge eng. tunnel eng., bridge eng. , etc. infrastructure eng. hydraulic eng. binding curiosity assertion figure 3. differences in the sub-sectors 0 10 20 30 40 tc gc pd fm ppp binding curiosity assertion figure 4. differences in the scope of services provided schnell construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202291 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 b2b b2c b2a binding curiosity assertion figure 5. differences in the business relationships in each sub-sector, the amplifier assertion is consistently the most strongly represented. in all sub-sectors, the amplifiers binding, and curiosity are almost consistently exceeded by 100%. this confirms the previously mentioned finding a and shows that there are no significant differences within the individual sub-sectors. according to figure 4, for construction companies that offer total contractor services, the amplifier assertion predominates. for companies that are general contractors, this amplifier is just as predominant. it must be annotated that for companies with services in project development, facility management, and ppp the amplifier binding and curiosity play a more significant role. the classification according to business relationships shows clear differences. the dominance of the amplifier assertion is particularly significant in companies with b2b relationships. the dominance is reduced for companies with b2a relationships. in the case of b2c relationships, the amplifier binding is predominant, followed by the amplifier curiosity. the following further findings can be derived from the different classifications of the archetypes: a) in total, assertion is the predominant amplifier. b) in total, mentor is the predominant archetype. c) assertion is not predominating within services that are dependent on customer binding. d) assertion is not predominating within b2c relationships discussion the four findings (a-d) show that the amplifier assertion has great significance within the construction industry. in addition, the image of construction companies is very much shaped by the characteristics of the archetype mentor. the individual findings can be substantiated as follows. a) in total, assertion is the predominant amplifier. archetypes are used to arouse specific emotions in customers due to their characteristics. the study shows that construction companies most often use the amplifier assertion. thereby, a feeling of competence and strength is created, which can be described by the expression of influence and authority (pätzmann and genrich, 2020). this is also shown by the fact that construction companies attach great importance to reference projects during tendering. furthermore, the finding reflects the high significance of monetary decision-making reasons, e.g., in the tender negotiation since this competition is predominantly made through strength and authority. the construction industry, and in particular the building engineering sector, is a polypolistic market in which the price is determined by the supply and demand of many buyers and schnell construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202292 sellers. the number of demanders in the sub-sectors of tunnel/bridge/etc. engineering is slightly lower, which is defined as a demand oligopoly. however, the increased dominant behaviour to stand out from competitors is consistent in the clarity of the amplifier assertion (pätzmann and hartwig, 2018; schumann, 2011). b) in total, mentor is the predominant archetype. the archetype mentor combines the desire to share the wealth of experience and to strive for new knowledge. the mentor is assigned forward-looking and morally conscious. in the construction industry, the archetype embodies traditional and long-established companies on the one hand. on the other hand, it also illustrates the future orientation that is expressed by new technologies such as building information modelling. the two strengths of the mentor, experience paired with the visionary view of the future, therefore appropriately reflect the construction companies. c) assertion is not predominating within services that are dependent on customer binding. in contrast to the range of services of general and total contractors, the amplifier assertion does not predominate in the service spectra of project developers and facility managers, as well as companies active in the ppp projects (see figure 4). this is because in these sub-sectors the attention of both existing customers and partnerships is of great importance. the services of gc and tc consist mainly of coordinating and realising the construction of planned projects. the services of pd include tasks in early project stages, such as feasibility studies. since the projects are not fully designed yet, pd services can rather be assigned to the amplifier curiosity. the services of fm include the administration and management of completed buildings over a period that usually lasts several years. also, ppp projects last over a long period, which needs stronger customer binding. for both fm and ppp, the pursuit of reliability and long-term commitment can be assigned to the amplifier binding. d) assertion is not predominating within b2c relationships. in contrast to both b2b and b2a relationships, the amplifier assertion is not dominant in b2c relationships (see figure 5). in the construction industry, b2c relationships mainly appear in the sector of residential buildings. a special characteristic of b2c relationships is the high involvement of the customers. in the fulfilment of future plans, such as a homestead, customers deal with the product “building” in-depth whereby the decision-making process can last a long period (bechler, 2019). therefore, the reliability, as well as the design and build guarantee provided by the building company, is of great importance, which the archetypes of the amplifier binding represent. self-realisation is additionally satisfied with the amplifier curiosity (pätzmann and genrich, 2020). the two amplifiers thus stimulate the customers’ exploratory drive on the one hand and at the same time provide a feeling of comfort and trust on the other hand (pätzmann and hartwig, 2018). as a result, the amplifiers curiosity and binding dominate in b2c relationships. relation between findings and current challenges of the construction industry the corporate strapline is an important component of corporate communication to convey the brand character to the public (zerfaß, et al., 2018). an accurate perception of a company strengthens its position in the market (esch, et al., 2016). however, the straplines of the 46 analysed german construction companies primarily convey feelings of assertion, such as competence and authority. moreover, for most of the analysed companies, there is almost no focus on increasingly critical partnership aspects. for those companies that provide services with closer customer contact or those who are active in the b2c business schnell construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202293 sector, the conveying of partnership awareness is more trivial. therefore, it is comparatively implemented more strongly. the current challenges of the construction industry are next to digitalisation and automation, topics around sustainability goals and solutions for the shortage of skilled workers (hauptverband der deutschen bauindustrie e.v., 2020; hauptverband der deutschen bauindustrie e.v., 2021b). for several years, possible solutions for these challenges were detected in sub-topics such as lean construction, building information modelling, or integrated project delivery models. it has been shown that especially cooperation and collaboration are essential components in all sub-topics. the satisfaction of customer needs constantly counts as an essential target figure, which also intensifies the importance of partnership-based solutions. for example, value creation processes are optimised with the involvement of all participants in the sense of the lean philosophy, building information modelling focuses on a central and common data model, and integrated project delivery models rely on collaborative and transparent project execution. straplines are based on a composition of several archetypes to achieve accurate target group-specific communication. this communication can reach a holistic awareness in case the customer’s needs are triggered. however, by analysing the straplines of the german construction industry, it is notable that for the most used amplifier assertion particularly the partnership approach only plays a minor role. assertion arouses competence, authority, and strength, which may influence the perception of competitors. however, it could reduce an external effect on potential partners, employees, or customers (pätzmann and genrich, 2020). the industry challenges reinforce the need for solid experience paired with the drive for new technologies much more than the single aspect of competence. it is significant that unfortunately 21 of the 46 straplines were not assigned to the archetypes of the amplifier binding. thus, a partnership and collaborative awareness of these companies are improbable. conclusions corporate communication will play an even bigger role in the increasingly digital world and should accurately reflect the value of the company. the analysed straplines should be rethought to adapt to the current challenges of both society and the construction industry. special attention should be paid to target group analysis to understand the customers’ needs and consequently to obtain the correct external perception of the company. the self-perception must be subordinated to the perception of customers and partners. the company strabag se can be mentioned as a positive example. with the change of the strapline in 2014 to ‘teams work’ strabag se (2022), the contemporary and present orientation of the company was taken up in corporate communication. the beneficial and ambiguous effect of the strapline, which can be found in almost every press release and at every construction site, should be emphasised. thus, it has an above-average level of recognition. in addition to the recommendation to companies to regularly update the straplines, the study shows that there is also a need for action on the research side. the linking of psychological aspects or the adaptation of psychological models in the construction industry is currently almost non-existent. likewise, the linking of topics from the field of marketing and the circumstances of the construction industry has hardly been researched. therefore, interdisciplinary research is necessary to transfer the advantages of psychological approaches or marketing methods to the construction industry. in particular, carl gustav jung´s archetype theory can be applied in various areas and can contribute to the success of a company. based on this study, it is necessary to uncover intercultural aspects and differences between individual countries. an equally interesting study could explore what adjustments need to be made by companies that operate internationally. another scarcely researched area is the investigation of the customer side and the discovery of recurring patterns among customers. here it is particularly interesting to see whether there are dependencies between individual needs and the present characteristics of the customer. as mentioned in the introduction, the schnell construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202294 conducted study is an essential basis for further research, for example in the area of employee acquisition. in the next step, it would be necessary to analyse the straplines in terms of their attractiveness for potential new employees. the goal should be to develop a holistic concept with which customers and potential employees can be enthused in the long term through corporate communication. acknowledgements the authors report there are no competing interests to declare. references arditi, d., polat, g. and makinde, s.a., 2008. marketing practices of u.s. contractors. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 24(4), pp.255–64. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2008)24:4(255) bahr, m. and laszig, l., 2021. productivity development in the construction industry and human capital: a literature review. civil engineering and urban planning, [e-journal] 8(1), pp.1-15. https://doi:10.5121/civej.2021.8101 balmer, h.h., 1972. die archetypentheorie von c. g. jung: eine kritik, 1st ed. berlin, heidelberg: springer. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-642-65370-4_1 bechler, g., 2019. nachfrageorientierte produktlinienoptimierung: der einfluss von präferenzen für kompromissalternativen, 1st ed. wiesbaden heidelberg: springer gabler. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-25542-8_1 berndt, r., 2005. marketingstrategie und marketingpolitik, 4th ed. berlin, heidelberg: springer. strabag se, 2022. teams. nr. 01 2014 das magazin der strabag se. [online] available at: https://www.strabag.com/ databases/internet/_public/files.nsf/searchview/55b1e600795e6146c1257eec00548265/$file/stra_01_14_ teams_final_dt_stranet_r12.pdf?openelement [accessed 28 january 2022]. bischof, n., 2020. das rätsel ödipus: die biologischen wurzeln des urkonfliktes von intimität und autonomie. gießen: psychosozial-verlag. https://doi.org/10.30820/9783837976595 brucker juricic, b., galic, m. and marenjak, s., 2021. review of the construction labour demand and shortages in the eu. buildings, [e-journal] 11(1), pp.1-17. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11010017 cambridge university press, 2022. cambridge dictionary. [online] available at: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/ dictionary/english/product [accessed 28 january 2022]. dikmen, i., talat birgonul, m. and ozcenk, i., 2005. marketing orientation in construction firms: evidence from turkish contractors. building and environment, [e-journal] 40(2), pp.257–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. buildenv.2004.07.009 drugova, e.s., zhelnovakova, m.f., pomuleva1, y.a. and kazorina1, a.v., 2021. specifics of advertising communication in the construction sector: features, ways to attract attention and directions of functioning. iop conference series: earth and environmental science 751(1):012142. irkutsk, russian federation, 4 december 2020. bristol: iop publishing. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/751/1/012142 esch, f.-r., klein, j.f., knörle, c. and schmitt, m., 2016. strategie und steuerung des customer touchpoint management. in: esch, f.-r., langner, t. and bruhn, m., eds. handbuch controlling der kommunikation: grundlagen – innovative ansätze – praktische umsetzungen, springer reference wirtschaft. wiesbaden: springer fachmedien, pp.329– 50. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-8349-3857-2_15 gabrielova, k. and buchko, a.a., 2021. here comes generation z: millennials as managers. business horizons, [e-journal] 64(4), pp. 489-99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2021.02.013 schnell construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202295 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2008)24:4(255 https://doi:10.5121/civej.2021.8101 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65370-4_1 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-65370-4_1 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-25542-8_1 https://www.strabag.com/databases/internet/_public/files.nsf/searchview/55b1e600795e6146c1257eec00548265/$file/stra_01_14_teams_final_dt_stranet_r12.pdf?openelement https://www.strabag.com/databases/internet/_public/files.nsf/searchview/55b1e600795e6146c1257eec00548265/$file/stra_01_14_teams_final_dt_stranet_r12.pdf?openelement https://www.strabag.com/databases/internet/_public/files.nsf/searchview/55b1e600795e6146c1257eec00548265/$file/stra_01_14_teams_final_dt_stranet_r12.pdf?openelement https://doi.org/10.30820/9783837976595 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11010017 https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/product https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/product https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2004.07.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2004.07.009 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/751/1/012142 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-8349-3857-2_15 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2021.02.013 hauptverband der deutschen bauindustrie e.v., 2020. bauen statt streiten – partnerschaftsmodelle am bau. [online] available at: https://www.bauindustrie.de/themen/news-detail/bauen-statt-streiten-partnerschaftsmodelle-am-bau [accessed 28 january 2022]. hauptverband der deutschen bauindustrie e.v., 2021a. die 50 größten bauunternehmen. [online] available at: https:// www.bauindustrie.de/zahlen-fakten/die-50-groessten-bauunternehmen [accessed 28 january 2022]. hauptverband der deutschen bauindustrie e.v., 2021b. bi trifft am nachmittag: mittelstand im austausch mit der politik. [online] available at: https://www.bauindustrie.de/themen/news-detail/bi-trifft-am-nachmittag-mittelstand-imaustausch-mit-der-politik [accessed 28 january 2022]. holzhey-kunz, a., 2002. das subjekt in der archetypenlehre c.g. jungs. analytical psychology [e-journal] 33, pp.159– 74. https://doi.org/10.1159/000064895 jaguar land rover limited, 2022. our vehicles. [online] available at: https://www.landrover.co.uk/index.html [accessed 28 january 2022]. jung, c.g., 1968. the archetypes and the collective unconscious. translated from german by r.f.c. hull. london: routledge. leslie, b., anderson, c., bickham, c., horman, j., overly, a., gentry, c., callahan, c. and king, j., 2021. generation z perceptions of a positive workplace environment. employee responsibility and rights journal, [e-journal] 33, pp.171–87. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-021-09366-2 mark, m. and pearson, c.s., 2001. the hero and the outlaw: building extraordinary brands through the power of archetypes. new york: mcgraw hill book co. miscenko, d. and day, d.v., 2015. identity and identification at work. organizational psychology review, [e-journal] 6(3) pp.215–47. https://doi.org/10.1177/2041386615584009 mokhtariani, m., sebt, m.h. and davoudpour, h., 2017. construction marketing: developing a reference framework. advances in civil engineering, [e-journal] 2017, pp.1-14. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/7548905 pätzmann, j.u. and adamczyk, y., 2020. customer insights mit archetypen: wie sie mit archetypischen metaphern zielgruppen besser definieren und verstehen können, 1st ed. wiesbaden heidelberg: springer gabler. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-658-30748-6_1 pätzmann, j.u. and genrich, r., 2020. employer branding mit archetypen: der archetypische persönlichkeitstest zum finden von markenkonformen mitarbeitern, 1st ed. wiesbaden heidelberg: springer gabler. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-65831290-9_1 pätzmann, j.u. and hartwig, j., 2018. markenführung mit archetypen: von helden und zerstörern: ein neues archetypisches modell für das markenmanagement, 1st ed. wiesbaden heidelberg: springer gabler. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-65823088-3_1 polat, g., 2010. using anp priorities with goal programming in optimally allocating marketing resources. construction innovation, [e-journal] 10(3), pp.346–65. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171011060114 polat, g. and donmez, u., 2010. anp-based marketing activity selection model for construction companies. construction innovation, [e-journal] 10(1), pp.89–111. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171011017590 roesler, c. and vogel, r.t., 2016. das archetypenkonzept c. g. jungs: theorie, forschung und anwendung, 1st ed. w. stuttgart: kohlhammer gmbh. scheier, c. and held, d., 2018. wie werbung wirkt: erkenntnisse aus dem neuromarketing. freiburg münchen stuttgart: haufe-lexware. https://doi.org/10.34157/9783648109052 schnell construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202296 https://www.bauindustrie.de/themen/news-detail/bauen-statt-streiten-partnerschaftsmodelle-am-bau https://www.bauindustrie.de/zahlen-fakten/die-50-groessten-bauunternehmen https://www.bauindustrie.de/zahlen-fakten/die-50-groessten-bauunternehmen https://www.bauindustrie.de/themen/news-detail/bi-trifft-am-nachmittag-mittelstand-im-austausch-mit-der-politik https://www.bauindustrie.de/themen/news-detail/bi-trifft-am-nachmittag-mittelstand-im-austausch-mit-der-politik https://doi.org/10.1159/000064895 https://www.landrover.co.uk/index.html https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-021-09366-2 https://doi.org/10.1177/2041386615584009 https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/7548905 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-30748-6_1 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-30748-6_1 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-31290-9_1 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-31290-9_1 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-23088-3_1 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-23088-3_1 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171011060114 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171011017590 https://doi.org/10.34157/9783648109052 schneider, m.e., 2001. motivational development, systems theory of. in: smelser, n.j. and baltes, p.b. eds. international encyclopedia of the social & behavioral sciences. pergamon, oxford, pp.10120–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/ b0-08-043076-7/01661-2 schumann, j., 2011. grundzüge der mikroökonomischen theorie, 9th ed. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-64221225-3 shlepneva, t.o. and maletina, t.a., 2021. marketing in construction, as a systematic approach to managing the activities of a construction organization. iop conference series: earth and environmental science 751(1):12176. irkutsk, russian federation, 4 december 2020. bristol: iop publishing. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/751/1/012176 soka-bau, 2020. ausbildungsund fachkräftereport der bauwirtschaft. [online] available at: https://www.soka-bau. de/fileadmin/user_upload/dateien/unternehmen/ausbildungs-und-fachkraeftereport_2020.pdf [accessed 28 january 2022]. thomas beteiligungen gmbh, 2022. thomas gruppe. [online] available at: https://www.thomas-gruppe.de/ [accessed 28 jan 2022]. welter, r. and luban, k., 2022. baubranche – corona-krise: der anfang vom ende? in: luban, k. and hänggi, r., eds. erfolgreiche unternehmensführung durch resilienzmanagement. wiesbaden: springer fachmedien, pp.139–56. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-64023-4_10 winkelmann, p., 2012. marketing und vertrieb: fundamente für die marktorientierte unternehmensführung, 2nd ed. münchen: de gruyter oldenbourg. yisa, s.b., ndekugri, i.e. and ambrose, b., 1995. marketing function in u.k. construction contracting and professional firms. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 11(4), pp.27–33. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742597x(1995)11:4(27) zerfaß, a., bentele, g., schwalbach, j. and sherzada-rohs, m., 2018. unternehmenskommunikation aus der perspektive von top-managern und kommunikatoren. in: hoffmann, o. and seidenglanz, r., eds. allmächtige pr, ohnmächtige pr: die doppelte vertrauenskrise der pr. wiesbaden: springer fachmedien, pp.197–221. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-658-18455-1_9 schnell construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202297 https://doi.org/10.1016/b0-08-043076-7/01661-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/b0-08-043076-7/01661-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21225-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-21225-3 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/751/1/012176 https://www.soka-bau.de/fileadmin/user_upload/dateien/unternehmen/ausbildungs-und-fachkraeftereport_2020.pdf https://www.soka-bau.de/fileadmin/user_upload/dateien/unternehmen/ausbildungs-und-fachkraeftereport_2020.pdf https://www.thomas-gruppe.de/ https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-64023-4_10 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(1995)11:4(27 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(1995)11:4(27 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-18455-1_9 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-18455-1_9 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: dolla, t., thounaojam, n., devkar, g., laishram, b. 2025. proactive contract theory-based resilience framework development for public– private partnerships. construction economics and building, 25:2, 253–275. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i2.9273 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article proactive contract theory-based resilience framework development for public–private partnerships tharun dolla1*, nicola thounaojam 2, ganesh devkar 3 and boeing laishram4 1 department of civil engineering, gitam deemed to be university, visakhapatnam, india, tdolla@gitam.edu 2 department of civil engineering, indian institute of technology guwahati, guwahati, india, nicola@iitg.ac.in 3 faculty of technology, cept university, ahmedabad, india, ganesh.devkar@cept.ac.in 4 department of civil engineering, indian institute of technology guwahati, guwahati, india, boeing@iitg.ac.in 253 corresponding author: tharun dolla, department of civil engineering, gitam deemed to be university, visakhapatnam, india, tdolla@gitam.edu doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9273 article history: received 02/08/2024; revised 08/03/2025; accepted 16/04/2025; published 08/08/2025 abstract public–private partnerships (ppps) are long-term contracts spanning many decades and are susceptible to failure due to dynamic changes such as crises within the contract period. the impending need to incorporate resilience to sustain the impacts of unexpected events on projects and contractual structures compelled this review of the ppp literature. this is to understand and unravel how and in what manner ppps are undergirded by resilience. using a systematic literature review methodology, a critical search from 1997 to 2023 for relevant publications in the scopus and web of science databases yielded 71,601 papers. further screening using filtering criteria and selection from 12 leading journals in ppp studies resulted in a final set of 116 publications, which were then analysed using nvivo. this analysis led to the organisation of contained knowledge to form a resilience framework based on proactive-preventive contract theory. the findings revealed that the primary layer of resilience focuses on keeping the cause of the problem from arising in the first place through flexible contract mechanisms, declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9273 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9273 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9273 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:tdolla@gitam.edu mailto:nicola@iitg.ac.in mailto:ganesh.devkar@cept.ac.in mailto:boeing@iitg.ac.in mailto:tdolla@gitam.edu https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9273 concession period optimisation, and governance strategies; the secondary resilience intends to interrupt the cause and effect through revenue guarantee options, financial viability and capital structure, and risk allocation and management; and the tertiary resilience is about minimising the damage of any unwanted occurrences such as crisis through conflict and resolution mechanisms and the renegotiation framework. this review synthesised the accumulated ppp resilience knowledge to be used by practitioners while handling the projects—both procured and in pipeline—through the reviewed suggestions and strategies. keywords proactive-preventive contract theory; public–private partnerships (ppps); resilience, covid-19 introduction the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic has caused disruption, which can be seen in the economic, social, and even political spheres, affecting governments, financial institutions, project companies, and users (castelblanco, et al., 2022b) as well as infrastructure project delivery. the global economy suffered a significant and unforeseen blow due to the covid-19 pandemic, resulting in challenges for public– private partnership (ppp) infrastructure projects in all areas and stages, from the design phase to the operation phase (pplrc, 2020). in this study, ppp is a contractual arrangement model in which the private sector delivers public infrastructure through an appropriate risk allocation mechanism (dolla and laishram, 2021a). the design phase required integration of new health protocols, increasing design complexity, cost, and timelines. the procurement and construction phases were disrupted by economic instability, reduced ppp stakeholder participation (guevara, et al., 2024), supply chain issues, and worker practice restrictions (akomea-frimpong, et al., 2021), while the operational phase experienced revenue shortfalls due to decreased traffic volumes and strained public finances. these aspects may result not only from covid-19related disruptions (dolla, 2025) but also from other crises such as political unrest and financial instability. resilience is increasingly becoming a radical alternative that introduces critical modes of thought into conventional governance processes and has taken diverse perspectives, including individual, organisational, and supply chain standpoints, with concepts focusing on behaviour and dynamics, capabilities, strategy, and performance, among others (bhamra, et al., 2011). among these, the ecological and psychological use of the term “resilience” has long been accepted. resilience is defined as “… the capability and ability of an element to return to a stable state after disruption” (bhamra, et al., 2011). according to sutcliffe and vogus (2003), every threat would have two responses. one is a rigid response, typically a negative adjustment such as narrow information processing, tightening of control, or conservation of resources. there could be an alternative that is a more resilient response, which is typically a positive adjustment such as broader information processing, loosening control, and utilisation of slack capabilities (ram and dolla, 2023). several reviews on ppps have been published. these studies (ke, et al., 2009; zhang, et al., 2020b) have conducted systematic reviews with diverse objectives, such as understanding the research trends and identifying research directions. a few lacked the needed comprehensiveness to study the resilience dimension. the disruption caused by the covid-19 pandemic in the ppp projects underscored the critical need to embed resilience into the design, procurement, construction, and operation of such projects. this disruption also highlighted limitations in traditional contract law for managing uncertainties, prompting a focus on alternative approaches prioritising proactive resilience-building strategies. in this context, it is imperative to systematically review the existing literature to explore how resilience has been conceptualised and addressed in ppps, particularly through the lens of proactive contracting. such an effort will not only provide a foundation for advancing research in this area but also support the development of more robust and adaptive ppp contractual frameworks. for example, castelblanco, et al. (2022b) focused on the global dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025254 financial crisis of 2008 and posited the suggestion of resilience for road infrastructure ppp projects. to address the challenges of any crisis on ppps, it would be pertinent and useful to understand the discourse on the resilience of ppp models. therefore, in light of the increasing vulnerability of ppp projects, this study aims to develop a conceptual ppp resilience framework to explore and evaluate mechanisms that enable effective management of uncertainties across the project life cycle. to guide the development and application of this framework, the following research questions are posed: 1. how has the research on ppp resilience evolved over time, and what emerging perspectives have shaped its trajectory? 2. what are the methodological approaches, theoretical lenses, geographical distribution, and sectoral focus in ppp resilience studies? 3. what are the key research themes within ppp resilience literature, and how do these align with the principles of proactive contract theory? this systematic review synthesises the existing ppp studies on prospective measures for managing uncertainties in ppps, offering insights into both academic research and practical advancements. specifically, it provides insights into how these measures can be effectively incorporated into ppp contracts and governance arrangements to enhance their resilience and adaptability. resilience will be a necessary capacity to face dangers both retrospectively (after they manifest) and prospectively (before they manifest) (sutcliffe and vogus, 2003). the article is organised as follows. it begins with an overview of proactive contract theory, followed by the research methodology section. this is followed by the findings and discussion sections. finally, the last section summarises the study’s contributions and limitations and suggests future research directions and practical implications. proactive contract theory and resilience contracts are bestowed with expressive and regulatory power. in the context of law and contracts, the definition of resilience from a normative approach would mean desirable flexibility over the long term. this would include actions that can help prepare or adapt to the changing conditions so that the lawbased contract can still withstand the disruptions and recover from the effects. this is consistent with the fundamental premise of proactive contracting theory, which is the conscious use of contracts and contracting processes to enable the success of projects (haapio, 2007). law and contracts can exhibit resilience in two ways (berger-walliser, 2012; garmestani, et al., 2013). first is the conventional approach of law, where legal thought is oriented to the past and the correction of risk. the second is the proactive preventive law approach, which typically concerns measures that can avoid the risk of emergence. the concept is based on the notion that the sooner a conflict or a possible issue is handled, the greater the likelihood that a fair and timely solution can be found. this results in less cost. the proactive preventive law approach of resilience is initiated and extensively discussed in works such as brown (1983). while traditional legal thought is oriented to the past, proactive law is oriented towards future work (berger-walliser, 2012). the systems and processes of procuring a project through the ppp mode are more on the side of standardisation across many countries. therefore, in the context of the ppp model, institutional arrangements in public infrastructure procurement play a crucial role in federal systemic resilience. project organisations have adopted many ad hoc and short-term measures to address the pandemic’s impact on ppps. for instance, drawing on customary and typical contractual relief mechanisms such as force majeure, ppp contracts have created temporary arrangements between parties to offer feasible solutions and avoid dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025255 disputes (pplrc, 2020). however, law and contracts are among the areas that are slow to embrace the resilience phenomenon (farca and dragos, 2020). a comprehensive outlook of mechanisms that are flexible enough to address the shortcomings in ppp contract arrangements impacted by crisis scenarios is lacking. adding to the criticism of ppps for infrastructure delivery, ppp contracts are argued to lack the principles and mechanisms required to minimise unforeseen disturbance and successfully complete the charted concession period. in other words, resilience in the ppp model holds the key to ensuring the successful delivery of its projects, and thus, attention is needed. thus, there has been a new added focus on contract resilience in recent times, emphasising formulations and optimisations for economic benefit through the use of contracts to improve their resilience (eldosouky, et al., 2021). this marks a shift from other resilience dimensions such as engineering, organisational, psychological, socioecological, ecological, physical, disaster recovery, and supply chain (see bhamra, et al., 2011). this provides a new way of looking into the ppp model, thereby helping policymakers and practitioners apply the available resilience mechanisms. according to the proactive preventive law framework for contractual projects, a framework conceptualised by haapio (2007) and further developed by berger-walliser (2012), projects (including ppp concessions) are to become successful with their intended goals and effective contract management. this must be handled at three levels of resilience. first, the proactive preventive law handles the primary causes related to the dimension of resilience called primary prevention (berger-walliser, 2012; haapio, 2007). these are required to promote successful performance and eliminate causes of negative surprises, problems, and failure planning, contracting for successful performance and good relationships. it intends to plan and contract for performance, recognise, align, and manage expectations, communication, and coordination strategies. second, the proactive preventive law concerns the secondary effects related to the dimension of resilience called secondary prevention (berger-walliser, 2012; haapio, 2007). these resilience aspects focus on minimising problems and harmful effects through planning and contracting primarily from risk and contingency perspectives. these resilience-focused aspects are contract terms dealing with failure, risk allocation, force majeure, liabilities, indemnities, and remedies. third, proactive preventive law concerns the tertiary consequences from the perspective of contractual resilience called tertiary prevention (bergerwalliser, 2012; haapio, 2007). these include managing conflict, avoiding litigation, and minimising cost and loss planning using dispute resolution and alternative dispute resolution methods through planning, incorporation, and contracting. overall, this theory tries to prevent the occurrence of undesirable events and dangers. building on this foundation, this study seeks to frame the key themes in ppp resilience research by aligning them with the framework’s preventive, responsive, and adaptive dimensions. by synthesising these insights, the study can contribute to a deeper understanding of resilience in ppps and offer guidance for enhancing contractual effectiveness in complex and uncertain environments. research methodology a systematic literature review entails adhering to specific procedures to report existing knowledge in an unbiased and structured manner. in contrast to a non-structured review procedure, a systematic review is considered a well-defined protocol to search and the fundamental scientific procedure essential for conducting a literature review (tranfield, et al., 2003). thus, the study adopted a systematic methodology to ensure that the results were sufficiently robust according to three stages of methodology. stage 1: planning the review a critical search for relevant publications was conducted in two of the most prominent databases, scopus and web of science, until 2023. the search was based on a search string developed using an extensive list dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025256 of search terms related to ppp, resilience, crisis, and associated terms. the search string that was used to conduct the systematic literature review is as follows: [title-abs-key (“uncertain*” or “cris*s” or “shock” or “stress” or “disaster” or “disrupt*” or “catastroph*” or “failure” or “recess*” or “force majeure” or “covid 19” or “bankrupt*” or “pandemic” or “war” or “recall” or “strike” or “massacre” or “terroris*” or “scandal*” or “turbulen*” or “resilien*” or “flexib*” or “adaptab*”) and (“ppp” or “public‒private partnership” or “private finance initiatives” or “pfi” or “build operate transfer” or “bot” or “transfer operate transfer” or “tot” or “build operate own transfer” or “boot”)] stage 2: conducting the review the search relied on a predefined search string and led to a total of 71,601 research articles from the two databases (figure 1). to ensure that the search captured all relevant data, there was no start date during the search process. accordingly, the first publication is observed in 1997, corroborating that interest is due to the asian financial crisis. the search strategy and its comparison with published literature are shown in table 1. final set 116 research papers 01 search in selected database using keywords scopus wosc 11986 papers (+) 59615 papers (+) 02 initial screening of papers based on exclusion criteria non-english articles, book reviews, book chapters, conference or seminar reports, editorials, short survey, and letters were excluded 71601 research papers 6266 papers (-) 65080 papers (-) 79 papers (-) 03 final screening of papers 176 research papers articles with unrelated titles (e.g., robotics) 5 papers (-) 9 papers (-) 46 papers (-) articles not published in 12 top-tier construction journals duplicates article that vaguely related to ppp resilience and crisis (abstract analysis) articles with insufficient information on uncertainty, crisis, and resilience of ppp (full manuscript analysis) figure 1. research paper selection process (source: authors’ work). out of the initial search results, non-english articles, book reviews, book chapters, conference or seminar reports, and editorials were excluded from the analysis, resulting in 65,335 papers (after removing 6,266 papers). further, existing systematic reviews on ppps were analysed to identify a list of leading dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025257 journals. based on the impact factors of these journals and their relevance to ppp studies, articles (255 papers) were subsequently curated from 12 top journals. notably, these journals were also utilised in previous systematic reviews on ppps, ensuring consistency with the established methodologies (ke, et al., 2009; zhang, et al., 2020b). in addition, 79 duplicates were identified and removed, resulting in 176 papers. further screening resulted in a final set of 116 research papers. table 1. search strategy and comparison with previous studies. step our study castelblanco, et al. (2022b) akomea-frimpong, et al. (2022) keywords and boolean expression new unique terms: • uncertain* • shock • stress • disaster • disrupt* • catastroph* • failure • bankrupt* • war • recall • strike • massacre • terroris* • scandal* • turbulen* • flexib* • adaptab* [title-abs-key (“public private partnership” or “public private partnerships” or “build operate transfer” or “build-operate-transfer” or “build/operate/transfer” or “private finance initiative” or “concession” or “pfi” or “ppp/pfi” or “pfi/ppp” or “toll road” or “p3” or “ppp”) and (“covid” or “covid-19” or “pandemic” or “coronavirus” or “recession” or “crisis” or “bailout” or “force majeure”)] (title-abs-key (“publicprivate partnerships” or “public private partnership” or “ppp” or “ppps” or “public-private partnership projects” or “public-finance initiative” and “covid-19” or “coronavirus” or “covid-19 pandemic” or “sars-cov-2”)) timespan 1997–2023 2008–2020 2020–2021 sector multiple road infrastructure general database scopus and web of science scopus and web of science scopus, web of science, and pubmed search final paper sample 116 24 papers initially and snowball process (final sample is not clear) 29 analysis type content and thematic analysis community-based analysis and semantic network analysis content analysis source: authors’ work. stage 3: analysing, synthesising, and reporting review to begin the analysis, a data extraction form was created in excel to collate relevant information from the final set of 116 selected publications. initially, this facilitated a broad content analysis to map key characteristics and research trends across the articles. building on this, the study progressed to a thematic analysis to explore deeper patterns and meanings within the data. thematic analysis is “a method of dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025258 identifying, analysing, and reporting patterns in the data” (braun and clarke, 2006). the study followed six steps outlined by braun and clarke (2006): (1) becoming familiar with the data by reading through the selected papers, (2) generating a coding framework, (3) reading through the selected papers and coding the contents based on the coding framework, and (4) charting the coded data and analysing by constructing themes from these emergent ideas and concepts in an interpretive stage where findings from the selected papers were integrated into coherent themes. these steps align with other established qualitative research practices (miles, et al., 2014). coding was performed in the nvivo version 1.5.1 software (for mac). furthermore, following the suggestion of kuhrmann, et al. (2017) to involve multiple authors to minimise the risk of subjectivity in publication selection since individual interpretation can influence the process, two authors conducted this exercise independently. the final decisions were made based on the authors’ mutual agreement. the number of publications from each of the top 12 journals is counted and presented in table 2. table 2. paper publications across journals. journals if* no. of papers frequency engineering, construction and architectural management 3.6 26 22.41 journal of construction engineering and management 4.1 24 20.69 journal of management in engineering 5.3 21 18.10 construction management and economics 3.0 21 18.10 international journal of project management 7.4 8 6.90 international journal of construction management 3.4 4 3.45 journal of civil engineering and management 4.3 4 3.45 ksce journal of civil engineering 1.9 3 2.59 automation in construction 9.6 2 1.72 habitat international 6.5 1 0.86 project management journal 5.1 1 0.86 ieee transactions on engineering management 4.6 1 0.86 total no. of papers 116 100% *if: impact factor of the journal (2023). source: authors’ work. findings chronological trend the study conducted chronological analysis to identify the temporal distribution of articles and the evolution of themes leading to the understanding of emergent perspectives in ppp resilience research. figure 2 shows the evolution of research and highlights key themes, including conflict and resolution mechanisms (crm), revenue guarantee options (rg), renegotiation framework (rf), concession period optimisation (cpo), governance strategies (gs), flexible contract mechanisms (fcm), financial viability dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025259 and capital structure (fvcs), and risk allocation and management (ram). these themes will be explored in detail in the subsequent sections. the bubble size (figure 2) represents publications. it can be seen that there is a consistent increase in publications in the three epochs found in the literature. the temporal classification of papers shows a growing academic interest in this domain based on the number of papers, with peaks of sustained increase in 2006 and 2014. most of the studies have been conducted since 2011. this demonstrates the issue’s rising prominence across countries, governments, and initiatives. 1. 1997–2006: the asian financial crisis happened in 1997, so the focus started then. 2. 2007–2014: since the global financial crisis (gfc) occurred in 2008, there has been a spike in research focus since 2009. 3. 2015–2024: emergence of flexible contracts. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 19 96 19 97 19 98 19 99 20 00 20 01 20 02 20 03 20 04 20 05 20 06 20 07 20 08 20 09 20 10 20 11 20 12 20 13 20 14 20 15 20 16 20 17 20 18 20 19 20 20 20 21 20 22 20 23 20 24 crm rg rf cpo gs fcm fvcs ram figure 2. research themes and their evolution. (source: authors’ work. note: the two vertical arrows indicate the increase in number of publications). during 1997–2006, governance mechanisms pertaining to force majeure risk and political risk in contract clauses were some of the key issues discussed. some areas for improvement in the clauses were suggested, including government-supported refinancing options with direct financial assistance or insuring political risk obtained from the multilateral investment guarantee agency (wang, et al., 2000). several shortcomings of classic quantitative capital budgeting methodologies, such as internal rate of return (irr), accounting rate of return (arr), and net present value (npv), are highlighted during this time period (ho and liu, 2002). modern financial theory using an option pricing framework was introduced in the ppp resilience literature during this period (ho and liu, 2002). when the projects faced disruption, little was reported about how ppp suffered, tolerated, and withstood the financial crisis. however, there is a start of attraction to and inception of resilience focus for improved performance, but from political and financial perspectives. further to that, from 2007 to 2014, ppp faced another momentous, invigorated interest in resilience. this period captures 27% of the total papers reviewed. the areas of flexible contract mechanisms and ppp failure dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025260 factors were introduced in the ppp resilience literature midway through this period (cruz and marques, 2013). the majority of the papers during this period dealt with revenue guarantees and risk management ( jin and doloi, 2008). however, theories such as transaction cost economics (tce), the resource-based view (rbv), and real option (ro) theory have gained popularity in applications related to minimum revenue guarantees, risk allocation, and procurement options analysis ( jin and doloi, 2008; ashuri, et al., 2012). the data, however, show that ro theory was scarcely applied in infrastructure projects at this time. this period also marks the introduction of studies on asset pricing mechanisms (liu et al., 2017) and the growing importance of studies on concession period optimisation (guo et al., 2021). during 2015–2024, studies were published primarily to study and investigate various failure determinants and failure mechanisms that may lead to the premature cancellation of ppp projects in situations of crisis (song, et al., 2018) and mechanisms associated with public and private partners’ roles in times of financial burden (zhang and soomro, 2016). the importance of flexible contract mechanisms justifies scholars’ growing attention to the resilience of ppps, particularly in handling uncertainties through developments such as the dynamic incentive model (zhang, et al., 2020a) and joint-contract functions (cheng, et al., 2021). this period also marks the recognition of the need to allow renegotiation to counter, such as the incompleteness of ppp contracts and their rigidity (chen, et al., 2022), mainly to deal with both rigid and flexible contracts (feng, et al., 2022), readjust contract variables (sharafi, et al., 2021), and improve the tender pricing mechanism by ex-ante consideration of expenses and gains of renegotiations (xiong, et al., 2017). apart from these attributes, researchers also focused on governance strategies, financial viability, concession period optimisation, and asset pricing during this period. furthermore, ro theory was increasingly applied to understand or solve different kinds of ppp problems related to renegotiation (xiong, et al., 2017), asset pricing and valuation (liu, et al., 2017), and concession period optimisation (zhang, et al., 2016a). this period also witnessed the growth of other theories, such as game theory (sharafi, et al., 2021) and contract theory (dolla and laishram, 2020). the use of system dynamics, nash negotiation, and binomial lattice models appeared to be significant in studies related to asset pricing, capital structuring, and renegotiation in ppp projects (chen, et al., 2022). methodological classification a methodology-based categorisation was performed on the publications to comprehend the methodological progression in the studies. out of the 116 papers examined, only 4.31% were of a conceptual or theoretical nature, while the remaining 95.69% were empirical research papers, as shown in table 3. the empirical papers employed quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods research designs, with the quantitative papers having the majority at approximately 70%. the qualitative research methodology papers focused mainly on surveys based on interviews, while the quantitative papers increasingly used mathematical modelling, constituting approximately 59% of the total repository analysed. mixed research methods have been employed recently, but the numbers are small, accounting for only approximately 9% of the total research repository. among the empirical papers, 98 papers used primary data collection methods, where mathematical modelling dominated the category, with 58 out of 95 papers (61%). the remaining 32 articles relied on questionnaire surveys, case studies, and interviews. a few studies (nine papers) used literature and publicly available data to leverage secondary data. theoretical lenses for examining ppps and resilience table 4 shows the theories that are used when resilience has been the focus. in the ppp resilience literature, findings show that ro theory has been extensively used. other theories, apart from those shown in table 4, dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025261 table 4. theories used in ppps and resilience studies. theory no. of papers real option theory 15 transaction cost economics (tce) 6 fuzzy set theory 4 game theory 5 bargaining game theory 3 resource-based view (rbv) 3 systems theory 2 probability theory 2 capital structure theory 2 incomplete contracts theory 2 principal–agent theory 2 other theories (occurring only once) 10 source: authors’ work. ppps, public–private partnerships. table 3. methodological classification. research method no. of papers % of papers sample papers theoretical/conceptual 5 4.31 regan, et al. (2011); vassallo, et al. (2012) empirical 111 95.69 ho and liu (2002); jin and doloi (2008) quantitative 77 69.37 huang and pi (2014); wang and jin (2019) qualitative 21 18.92 eshun, et al. (2021); mostaan and ashuri (2017) mixed methods 13 11.71 delhi and mahalingam (2020); zhang and soomro (2016) primary data mathematical modelling 64 57.66 chen, et al. (2012); cruz and marques (2013); guo, et al. (2021); zhang, et al. (2020a); zhang, et al. (2016b) questionnaire 21 18.92 cheng, et al. (2021); tariq and zhang (2021) case study 6 5.41 jie (2009) interview 7 6.31 mostaan and ashuri (2017); song, et al. (2018) secondary data 13 11.71 castelblanco, et al. (2022b); devkar, et al. (2020); eshun, et al. (2021) source: authors’ work. dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025262 are contract theory, institutional theory, cumulative prospect theory, option pricing theory, structuration theory, decision theory, nash negotiation theory, agency theory, and incomplete contracts theory. geographical distribution to track the spatial distribution of research in terms of where the study was carried out, a geographical distribution analysis was conducted. the research works were from (but not restricted to) china, australia, the usa, india, malaysia, the uk, canada, and hong kong. studies from china had a maximum contribution of 40%, and studies from africa and europe together constituted 43% of the studies. this revealed that scarce research on ppp resilience has been conducted in european and american projects compared to other projects in other geographical areas. figure 3 shows the geographical distribution of the reviewed studies. figure 3. geographical distribution (source: authors’ work). sector-wise distribution according to the sector distribution, 28% (30 articles) of the publications were identified to be broad across the sector (figure 4). the review found that 64 papers appeared from the transportation sector, including road, transport (in general), metro and high-speed rail, tunnel, airport, bridge, and port. the remaining papers were spread across water, energy, housing, healthcare, solid waste, and industrial parks. the highest contributions appeared in the road sector (36 papers), followed by water (14 papers). ppp resilience framework the reviewed literature can be broadly classified into eight themes: crm, rg, rf, cpo, gs, fcm, fvcs, and ram. figure 2 shows these research themes and their temporal evolution. a deeper analysis of these dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025263 studies, guided by the proactive preventive law framework (berger-walliser, 2012), led to the development of a ppp resilience framework, which organises the insights into three layers of resilience: primary, secondary, and tertiary. this framework is significant because it integrates both pragmatic and theoretical approaches to demonstrate how ppps can anticipate, absorb, and adapt to disruptions over their long life cycles. the primary layer focuses on preventing disruptions (or keeping the cause of the problem from arising in the first place) through mechanisms such as flexible contracting, concession period optimisation, and governance strategies. the second layer aims at mitigating the impact of emerging issues (or interrupting the cause and effect) through responsive measures such as revenue-sharing adjustments and clear risk allocation. the tertiary layer represents the last line of defence (or minimising the damage of any unwanted occurrences), where formal and often institutionalised mechanisms like renegotiation frameworks or conflict and resolution mechanisms are employed to manage crises. organised in a pyramid-like structure (figure 5), this framework also aligns with three levels of governance: relational, normative, and regulative. these correspond to how partnerships in ppps are expected to evolve under stress. at the base of the pyramid lies relational governance, which serves as the first line of defence against project disruptions. stakeholders initially engage in informal negotiations and cooperative engagement, embodying the true spirit of partnership that underpins ppp arrangements. when such relational efforts are insufficient to resolve the issue, the response escalates to the second layer (normative governance), where structured tools such as risk-sharing adjustments, performance incentives, or revenue redistribution mechanisms are activated to manage the disruption. if these measures fail to resolve the balance, stakeholders then turn to the apex of the framework (regulative governance). this layer comprises formal instruments like renegotiation frameworks, which are typically invoked only as a last resort. by situating resilience as a dynamic and layered process rooted in the partnership ethos of ppps, the framework provides a nuanced understanding of how public and private actors collaboratively manage disruptions. it underscores that resilience is not merely about surviving shocks but about enabling sustained figure 4. sector-wise distribution. (source: authors’ work). dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025264 performance and trust over time through an escalating set of responses tailored to the severity of the disruption and more adaptive and robust ppp contracts. discussion the following section discusses the nine themes identified from the literature, structured according to the three layers of the framework discussed above. primary resilience flexible contract mechanisms during the last decade, studies on flexibility have gained prominence across finance, management, and operations research (cruz and marques, 2013). in ppp research, scholars have emphasised incorporating contractual flexibility to address demand fluctuations and other project risks. given the inevitable uncertainties and lengthy concession periods, feng, et al. (2022) pointed out that flexibility in ppp contracts allows adaptation to unforeseen events. eshun, et al. (2021) advocated shifting from rigid to flexible contracts, while cheah and liu (2006) stressed that flexibility in ppp design and implementation enhances value due to the irreversible nature of the economic element. in this context, jie (2009) identified concession length, competitiveness, and unit price as three dynamic and adjustable contract conditions for ppps. chen, et al. (2012), using a game theory model, showed that developers adjust post-award contract terms strategically to sustain their competitive advantage. in addition, cruz and marques (2013), through a healthcare project in portugal, quantified the economic gains of flexibility in ppp contracts and warned against limiting managerial discretion. moreover, zhang, et al. (2020a) proposed a dynamic incentive model enabling flexibility via a supervision mechanism, thus avoiding renegotiation. the conflicting interests of ppp parties, i.e., the pursuit of the public sector for socioeconomic multiplier benefits and the financial interests of the private sector, are to be managed through appropriate reward-penalty scenarios. flexible contract mechanisms (fcm) concession period optimisation (cpo) governance strategies (gs) revenue guarantee options (rg) financial viability & capital structure (fvcs) risk allocation & management (ram) conflicts and resolution mechanisms (crm) renegotiation frameworks (rf) tertiary resilience secondary resilience primary resilience figure 5. ppp resilience framework based on the theory of proactive preventive law. note: developed by authors based on the works of berger-walliser (2012), haapio (2007), and hietanen-kunwald and haapio (2021), and the systematic review results; ppp: public–private partnership dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025265 castelblanco, et al. (2022a) recommended integrating flexibility, adaptability, and changeability into the ppp procurement process to avoid ex-post renegotiations and boost resilience. furthermore, robust ex-ante planning and coordinated execution are critical alongside contract flexibility for project success (delhi and mahalingam, 2020). concession period optimisation the concession period is a critical component of ppp contracts, delineating the powers, obligations, and benefits shared between public and private sectors, and is thus central to contract success (carbonara, et al., 2014). over time, researchers have proposed various methods to determine the optimum concession length, influenced by project type, traffic volume, investment returns, income, and risk allocation (guo, et al., 2022). models using monte carlo simulation have been applied to account for uncertainties in build-operate-transfer (bot) ports (carbonara, et al., 2014) and transport projects ( jin, et al., 2020). in contrast, khanzadi, et al. (2012) employed fuzzy-system dynamics to address ambiguity in influencing factors, predicting mutually agreeable concession periods in a highway project, and reducing renegotiation failures. in addition, zhang, et al. (2016b), applying their model to the hong kong tunnel project, showed that concession length can be estimated prior to inviting bids by accounting for the net social benefits of the project and the life span of the project. this model helped to delink the prevalent uncertainty and make ppps financially resilient, particularly concerning the revenues during the concession period. governance strategies ppp projects involve a wide variety of uncertainties that impact planning and management processes. these uncertainties have the potential to increase the project value, performance risks, or both. effective governance mechanisms are essential to address these uncertainties. during unprecedented times such as economic recessions, ppp concessions may require contract restructuring and revised funding models, along with navigating unforeseen legal and legislative challenges (dewulf and garvin, 2020; vassallo, et al., 2012). devkar, et al. (2020) highlighted that trust, shared commitment, and collaboration between public and private agencies enhance the ability to manage such complexities. for instance, in spain’s 2008 recession, subordinated public participation loans (sppls) were used to pay cost overruns and prevent concessionaires’ bankruptcies (vassallo, et al., 2012). similarly, many relational mechanisms also emerged during the project as a response to unforeseen events. it can even be to the extent of adding “contract review” clauses to the agreement (dewulf and garvin, 2020). therefore, there is a need for responsiveness and complementarity of contractual and relational mechanisms in ppps. moreover, ampratwum, et al. (2024) highlighted that ppp resilience requires a stable political environment and clear legal and regulatory frameworks, while subsequent policy shifts, particularly driven by electoral motives, create investment uncertainty. political risk insurance, such as that offered by international financial institutions, effectively covers uncertainties like wars, civil disturbances, or legal changes. furthermore, casady and baxter (2020) called for force majeure contract terms led by sustainability and resilience measures, stressing the importance of rapid trust-building between parties during a crisis. secondary resilience revenue guarantee options traditionally, revenue shortfall renegotiation strategies in ppps include increasing service charges, extending concession periods, or providing lump sum payments. to control and minimise revenue risk and incorporate contractual flexibilities, several scholars have used the ro method, which differs significantly from npv models (ashuri, et al., 2012). cheah and liu (2006) conceptualised contractual elements as a form of ros, incorporating their value into the negotiation framework to stabilise risk and return. ashuri, et al. dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025266 (2012) proposed combining minimum revenue guarantees with traffic revenue caps to mitigate uncertainty in traffic forecasts. similarly, carbonara, et al. (2014) used ro-based models to incorporate fairness and determine optimum revenue caps to safeguard private sector interests. guo, et al. (2021) advocated for ro analysis to optimise profit-sharing mechanisms in ppps. due to the uncertainty and irreversibility inherent in ppps, governments often offer excessive guarantees. in this regard, buyukyoran and gundes (2018) demonstrated that a toll road ro model with fair lowerand upper-income guarantees significantly alters risk profiles compared to scenarios without guarantees. in addition, attarzadeh, et al. (2017) modelled a valuation method for early fund generation options that can mitigate financial fluctuations and applied it to a power plant ppp project. furthermore, chen, et al. (2018) modelled a toll-adjustment mechanism as a ro, highlighting its role in preventing opportunistic behaviours, ensuring reasonable profits, and preserving public interest through toll-adjustment mechanism-related clauses. financial viability and capital structure privately built public infrastructure projects often face uncertain financial viability due to their scale, long contract durations, nonrecourse financing, and complexity despite being technically feasible. as such, improved financial engineering techniques are required. in this sense, ho and liu (2002) addressed bankruptcy risk by modelling financial viability using ro pricing of government debt and developer negotiation options. similarly, jeong, et al. (2016) combined ro valuation with discounted cash flow analysis to better capture future uncertainties in bot projects. wang and jin (2019) identified the impact of unpredictable factors such as debt service coverage ratio, npv, capital cost rate, return on equity, and debt sustainability ratio on the formulation of the bot project’s optimal capital structure, proposing the interval number method to assess financial feasibility. furthermore, hou and wang (2022) introduced a markov model to optimise capital structure under dynamic maintenance demands, reducing refinancing needs and improving economic value. regan, et al. (2011) highlighted the need for alternative financing mechanisms integrating stringent sustainability standards and life cycle costs to stabilise the capital market. risk allocation and management risk allocation in ppps is often one-sided, creating an imbalance between private and public entities. given the complex characteristics of ppp projects, including long contract periods, high capital costs, and uncertainties, they are prone to risk, which is sometimes catastrophic. ineffective risk management is a major cause of ppp failures, heightening the need for robust risk assessment and fair allocation (eshun, et al., 2021). jin and doloi (2008) observed that risk transfer is shaped more by tce than by actual risk management capabilities. in a similar study, xiong, et al. (2017) emphasised the need for ex-post risk management alongside ex-ante measures in highly complex projects. models incorporating risk impact evaluation and enforcement of ex-post responses are in renegotiation and early termination scenarios (osei-kyei, et al., 2023). furthermore, akomea-frimpong, et al. (2021) identified financial risks as key barriers in ppps, especially in developing economies, calling for further research into emerging risks such as sustainability demands, carbon regulations, trade sanctions, and regional competitiveness. similarly, ppp project valuation is also challenged by future uncertainties that may prompt abandonment or early termination of projects (huang and pi, 2014). flexibility in asset pricing and valuation is thus essential. real option theory has attracted considerable attention in valuation methods, particularly for multistage bot projects using sequential compound call options and performance bonding (huang and pi, 2014). this approach enhances concessionaires’ ability to manage market risks, potentially increasing project value, although sanctions may constrain flexibility. in addition, liu, et al. (2017) developed an early termination pricing model under two scenarios of excessively high and low cash flows, allowing public and private parties to anticipate and manage termination-related financial risks. dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025267 tertiary resilience conflict and resolution mechanisms anticipating the reasons for past conflicts and failures is central to proactive preventive contract law (hietanen-kunwald and haapio, 2021). conflicts in ppps often arise from misaligned stakeholder expectations, ambiguous responsibility allocation, unclear contract terms, and communication gaps (ampratwum, et al., 2024). a persistent challenge is the misalignment of public and private interests, particularly regarding risk allocation, financial viability, and performance expectations. tariq and zhang (2021) highlighted that socioeconomic (related to local economic circumstances and conditions such as citizens’ low purchasing power), macroeconomic (related to national and global financial situations such as a nation’s economic depression), and socio-political (related to social systems affected by political influences) factors often create tensions. these factors typically intersect, making private sector failure a multifaceted issue. song, et al. (2018) identified market and regulatory changes as major causes of conflicts, leading to early termination. to mitigate such conflicts, osei-kyei, et al. (2023) advocated for strong legal and institutional frameworks that clarify stakeholder roles, support structured conflict resolution, and establish mechanisms for accountability. renegotiation framework renegotiation is a prevalent and recurring feature of ppp projects, particularly during economic crises. it serves as a contractual adjustment mechanism to mitigate the financial impact of unforeseen events and enhance value for money. researchers have examined various dimensions of renegotiation processes in ppps. feng, et al. (2022) highlighted the increasing frequency of renegotiations, often driven by contractual inadequacies, financial uncertainties, and regulatory changes. as noted by eshun, et al. (2021), renegotiable contracts uphold the win–win principle by enabling adjustments in response to uncertainties during the construction and operation stage. a key trigger for renegotiation in user-pay ppps is the uncertainty in revenue, primarily stemming from fluctuations in user volumes, which threatens project profitability. xiong and zhang (2016) pointed out the challenges in applying ro theory due to the difficulty of establishing a nash equilibrium in renegotiation bargaining scenarios. to address this, bae, et al. (2019) developed a renegotiation framework based on npv equivalency, allowing parties to reclaim losses during the mid-concession period through a minimum revenue guarantee clause. their case application to south korea’s incheon airport highway demonstrated that alternative renegotiation paths could sustain the npv of the private sector while limiting government financial exposure. jin, et al. (2020), using bargaining and coalitional game theory, further argued that renegotiation can be an optimal response even in excessively profitable circumstances for private investors. similarly, sharafi, et al. (2021) proposed a model to strategically revise key contract conditions such as concession length, government subsidies, and availability payment to facilitate strategic renegotiations fairly and effectively. recognising the limitations of existing models, chen, et al. (2022) introduced a renegotiation framework that integrates perceptions of fairness, thereby enhancing the psychological legitimacy and practical acceptance of renegotiated outcomes. implications the findings of this study have significant implications for both policy and practice in enhancing the resilience of ppps. practical implications from a practical standpoint, the study provides actionable insights for contract design and ppp implementation. ppp success depends not only on effective risk allocation but also on the contract’s ability dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025268 to adapt to unforeseen changes over a long concession period. importantly, contracting is not an end in itself but a means to ensure sustained performance throughout the concession period. in this context, resilience can be seen as a close ally of proactive preventive contracting. the proposed ppp resilience framework offers a strategic guide to answer the question: how far are we in drafting resilient ppp contracts? proactive contract design should incorporate mechanisms that anticipate and respond to disruptions, including flexible clauses, concession period adjustments, and structured renegotiation processes. practitioners are encouraged to adopt a tiered governance approach, where the primary resilience focuses on keeping the cause of the problem from arising in first place through fcm, cpo, and gs; the secondary layer of resilience intends to interrupt the cause and effect through rg, fvcs, and ram; and the tertiary layer of resilience is about minimising the damage of any unwanted occurrences such as crises through crm and rf. these insights suggest that ppp contracts should move beyond static agreements to incorporate flexible, multi-layered resilience strategies. this proactive approach ensures that ppps remain viable and effective, even in the face of major disruptions like the covid-19 pandemic. policy implications the sceptics of ppps continue to argue about the validity and rationality of using ppps (see sherratt, et al., 2020). however, these arguments still do not address the holistic development agenda or the immediate needs of emerging economies that perhaps only ppp can solve. this still holds true even when today’s expenditure is necessarily (helplessly) pushed to tomorrow’s exchequer (dolla and laishram, 2021b). if there is anywhere that proactive contracting theory is vigorously attempted, it is in the ppp concessions. ppp concessions are the highest cooperative transaction model in all possible types of contracting for building civil infrastructure. a key policy implication emerging from this study is the growing relevance of proactive contract theory in shaping the resilience of ppp arrangements. recent trends have suggested that ppps are increasingly embracing alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, which align with the tertiary layer of resilience under the proactive preventive law framework. this shift reflects a broader policy movement from reactive dispute settlement towards preventive legal design. proactive law, underpinned by principles of legal certainty, legal literacy, and cross-professional collaboration (berger-walliser, 2012), provides a valuable foundation for framing ppp contracts that can withstand complex and long-term uncertainties. policymakers are thus encouraged to integrate proactive legal principles into ppp regulatory frameworks, mandating structured negotiation protocols, promoting early warning systems, and institutionalising capacity-building efforts. recognising that resilience is not an inherent characteristic of ppps but rather a product of deliberate contractual, financial, and governance design, this study calls for reorienting policy priorities towards embedding resilience thinking in the legal architecture of public–private collaborations. conclusions and recommendations this research sought to systematically review the resilience perspective of ppp models in response to the documented challenges posed by the covid-19 pandemic on the ppp procurement model. while there is diversity in sectors of usage, success, terminologies, and even models, ppps remain the go-to model to procure many infrastructure projects that otherwise would not be procured. the resilience of the ppp model literature, as reviewed in this paper, shows that while it is growing, many of the crucial insights are disseminated in diverse disciplinary domains and across a few infrastructure sectors. research has been categorised based on three levels of resilience according to proactive preventive contract law (theory). at the primary level of ppp resilience, the framework has fcm, cpo, and gs, and these focus on keeping the cause of the problem from arising in the first place. at the secondary level of resilience, the framework has dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025269 rg, fvcs, and ram, which is about interrupting or breaking the link between the cause and effect. at the tertiary level of resilience for ppps, the framework has crm and an rf, which minimises the damage of unwanted occurrences such as crises. this study discussed the reviewed literature in these three layers. thus, this study consolidates and distils the ppp literature so that resilience can be modelled into future projects if it is not the case. this study also explicates best practices to enhance the ppp model’s resilience to future crises, including pandemics like covid-19. based on a systematic literature review, this study extends proactive contract theory to analyse and assimilate the resilience modalities of the ppp model, which is novel. despite the contributions of this study, several limitations should be acknowledged to guide future research. first, the framework requires empirical validation. future research should conduct in-depth case studies of ppp projects across diverse industries and regions to evaluate the implementation and effectiveness of the proposed resilience strategies. second, given that resilience is not inherent but built through legal, financial, and governance mechanisms, future studies could investigate regulatory reforms needed to institutionalise proactive contracting practices. on the practice front, research should further explore how flexible, multi-layered contractual designs, such as flexible mechanisms, risk allocation strategies, and dispute resolution processes, are operationalised. understanding how proactive elements have evolved over time will provide insights into their role in enhancing project resilience and success. third, future research would benefit from integrating social and environmental dimensions, thereby broadening its scope to address the impacts of ppps on communities, ecosystems, and climate change (akomea-frimpong, et al., 2023). researchers could also examine how ppp contracts may be structured to ensure social fairness alongside resilience (osei-kyei, et al., 2023). finally, the role of digital technologies in enhancing ppp resilience is an important avenue for future research (ampratwum, et al., 2024). technologies such as building information modelling (bim), artificial intelligence (ai), and blockchain could significantly improve risk management, monitoring, and collaboration in ppp projects. addressing these gaps will deepen the understanding of resilience in ppps and strengthen the practical application of the proposed framework. references akomea-frimpong, i., dzagli, j. r. a. d., eluerkeh, k., bonsu, f. b., opoku-brafi, s., gyimah, s., asuming, n. a. s., atibila, d. w. and kukah, a. s., 2023. a systematic review of artificial intelligence in managing climate risks of ppp infrastructure projects. engineering, construction and architectural management, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2023-0016 akomea-frimpong, i., jin, x. and osei-kyei, r., 2021. a holistic review of research studies on financial risk management in public–private partnership projects. engineering, construction and architectural management, 28(9), pp. 2549-2569. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2020-0103 akomea-frimpong, i., jin, x., osei-kyei, r. and tumpa, r. j., 2022. a critical review of public–private partnerships in the covid-19 pandemic: key themes and future research agenda. smart and sustainable built environment, aheadof-print(ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-01-2022-0009 ampratwum, g., osei-kyei, r. and tam, v. w. y., 2024. development of a risk assessment model for adopting public–private partnership in building ghana’s critical infrastructure resilience against unexpected events. smart and sustainable built environment, ahead-of-print(ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-04-2024-0109 ashuri, b., kashani, h., molenaar, k. r., lee, s. and lu, j., 2012. risk-neutral pricing approach for evaluating bot highway projects with government minimum revenue guarantee options. journal of construction engineering and management, 138(4), pp. 545-557. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000447 dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025270 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2023-0016 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2020-0103 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-01-2022-0009 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-04-2024-0109 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000447 attarzadeh, m., chua, d. k. h., beer, m. and abbott, e. l. s., 2017. options-based negotiation management of ppp– bot infrastructure projects. construction management and economics, 35(11-12), pp. 676-692. https://doi.org/10.10 80/01446193.2017.1325962 bae, d. s., damnjanoic, i. and kang, d. h., 2019. ppp renegotiation framework based on equivalent npv constraint in the case of bot project: incheon airport highway, south korea. ksce journal of civil engineering, 23(4), pp. 1473-1483. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-019-1444-9 berger-walliser, g., 2012. the past and future of proactive law: an overview of the proactive law movement. in: berger-walliser, g. and østergaard, k. (eds.) proactive law in a business environment. denmark: djøf publishing. pp. 13-31. bhamra, r., dani, s. and burnard, k., 2011. resilience: the concept, a literature review and future directions. international journal of production research, 49(18), pp. 5375-5393. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2011.563826 braun, v. and clarke, v., 2006. using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), pp. 77101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa brown, l. m., 1983. manual for periodic legal checkup. oxford, uk: butterworth legal publishers. buyukyoran, f. and gundes, s., 2018. optimized real options-based approach for government guarantees in ppp toll road projects. construction management and economics, 36(4), pp. 203-216. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2017. 1347267 carbonara, n., costantino, n. and pellegrino, r., 2014. revenue guarantee in public-private partnerships: a fair risk allocation model. construction management and economics, 32(4), pp. 403-415. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.20 14.906638 casady, c. b. and baxter, d., 2020. pandemics, public-private partnerships (ppps), and force majeure | covid-19 expectations and implications. construction management and economics, 38(12), pp. 1077-1085. https:// doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1817516 castelblanco, g., guevara, j. and mendez-gonzalez, p., 2022a. in the name of the pandemic: a case study of contractual modifications in ppp solicited and unsolicited proposals in covid-19 times. in: jazizadeh, f., shealy, t. and garvin, m. j. (eds.) construction research congress 2022: project management and delivery, controls, and design and materials. ch.6, pp. 50-58. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784483978.006 castelblanco, g., guevara, j. and salazar, j., 2022b. remedies to the ppp crisis in the covid-19 pandemic: lessons from the 2008 global financial crisis. journal of management in engineering, 38(3). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) me.1943-5479.0001036 cheah, c. y. j. and liu, j., 2006. valuing governmental support in infrastructure projects as real options using monte carlo simulation. construction management and economics, 24(5), pp. 545-554. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446190500435572 chen, c., lv, l., wang, z. and qiao, r., 2022. bargaining optimization model for risk renegotiation with fairness concerns in infrastructure ppp projects. engineering, construction and architectural management, ahead-ofprint(ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-11-2021-1006 chen, q., shen, g., xue, f. and xia, b., 2018. real options model of toll-adjustment mechanism in concession contracts of toll road projects. journal of management in engineering, 34(1), p. 04017040. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)me.1943-5479.0000558 chen, t. c., lin, y. c. and wang, l. c., 2012. the analysis of bot strategies based on game theory case study on taiwan’s high speed railway project. journal of civil engineering and management, 18(5), pp. 662-674. https://doi.org/ 10.3846/13923730.2012.723329 dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025271 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2017.1325962 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2017.1325962 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-019-1444-9 https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2011.563826 https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2017.1347267 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2017.1347267 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.906638 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.906638 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1817516 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1817516 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784483978.006 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0001036 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0001036 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190500435572 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190500435572 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-11-2021-1006 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000558 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000558 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2012.723329 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2012.723329 cheng, m., liu, g. and xu, y., 2021. can joint-contract functions promote ppp project sustainability performance? a moderated mediation model. engineering, construction and architectural management, 28(9), pp. 2667-2689. https:// doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2020-0419 cruz, c. o. and marques, r. c., 2013. flexible contracts to cope with uncertainty in public-private partnerships. international journal of project management, 31(3), pp. 473-483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.09.006 delhi, v. s. k. and mahalingam, a., 2020. relating institutions and governance strategies to project outcomes: study on public-private partnerships in infrastructure projects in india. journal of management in engineering, 36(6), p. 04020076. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000840 devkar, g., palliyaguru, r. and oyegoke, a. s., 2020. the effects of institutional frameworks on implementation of ppp projects: a comparative perspective in australia and india. international journal of construction management, 20(6), pp. 720-736. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1769255 dewulf, g. and garvin, m. j., 2020. responsive governance in ppp projects to manage uncertainty. construction management and economics, 38(4), pp. 383-397. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1618478 dolla, t. and laishram, b., 2020. bundling in public–private partnership projects – a conceptual framework. international journal of productivity and performance management, 69(6), pp. 1177-1203. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ijppm-02-2019-0086 dolla, t. and laishram, b., 2021a. effect of energy from waste technologies on the risk profile of public-private partnership waste treatment projects of india. journal of cleaner production, 284(xxxx), pp. 124726-124726. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124726 dolla, t. and laishram, b., 2021b. infrastructure development governance: taking stock of emerging policy issues. in: zafarullah, h. and huque, a. s. (eds.). edward elgar publishing. pp. 192-204. https://doi. org/10.4337/9781839100871.00024 dolla, t. (2025), “exploring the legal perspective of the impacts of covid-19 on the public–private partnership procurement model”, journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, vol. 17 no. 2. https://doi.org/10.1061/jladah.ladr-1142 eldosouky, a., saad, w. and mandayam, n., 2021. resilient critical infrastructure: bayesian network analysis and contract-based optimization. reliability engineering & system safety, 205, p. 107243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ress.2020.107243 eshun, b. t. b., chan, a. p. c. and osei-kyei, r., 2021. conceptualizing a win–win scenario in public–private partnerships: evidence from a systematic literature review. engineering, construction and architectural management, 28(9), pp. 2712-2735. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2020-0533 farca, l. a. and dragos, d., 2020. resilience in times of pandemic: is the public procurement legal framework fit for purpose? transylvanian review of administrative sciences, 16(si), pp. 60-79. https://doi.org/10.24193/tras. si2020.4 feng, x., cao, j., wu, g. and duan, k., 2022. a critical review of studies on renegotiation within the public-private partnerships (ppps) scheme. engineering, construction and architectural management, ahead-of-print(ahead-ofprint). https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2021-0790 garmestani, a. s., allen, c. r. and benson, m. h., 2013. can law foster social-ecological resilience? ecology and society, 18(2), p. 37. https://doi.org/10.5751/es-05927-180237 guevara, j., rojas, d., khallaf, r. and castelblanco, g., 2024. navigating ppp renegotiations in the wake of covid-19: insights from a toll road program. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 16(1), p. 05023007. https://doi.org/10.1061/jladah.ladr-1082 dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025272 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2020-0419 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2020-0419 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.09.006 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000840 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1769255 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1618478 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-02-2019-0086 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-02-2019-0086 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124726 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.124726 https://doi.org/10.4337/9781839100871.00024 https://doi.org/10.4337/9781839100871.00024 https://doi.org/10.1061/jladah.ladr-1142 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2020.107243 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ress.2020.107243 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2020-0533 https://doi.org/10.24193/tras.si2020.4 https://doi.org/10.24193/tras.si2020.4 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2021-0790 https://doi.org/10.5751/es-05927-180237 https://doi.org/10.1061/jladah.ladr-1082 guo, j., chen, j. and xie, y., 2022. determining a reasonable concession period for risky transportation bot projects with government subsidies based on cumulative prospect theory. engineering, construction and architectural management, 29(3), pp. 1396-1426. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-11-2019-0612 guo, k., zhang, l. and wang, t., 2021. concession period optimisation in complex projects under uncertainty: a public–private partnership perspective. construction management and economics, 39(2), pp. 156-172. https://doi.org/1 0.1080/01446193.2020.1849752 haapio, h., 2007. an ounce of prevention—contracting for project success and problem prevention. in: pmi, global congress 2007—north america, atlanta, ga. newtown square, pa: project management institute. hietanen-kunwald, p. and haapio, h., 2021. effective dispute prevention and resolution through proactive contract design. journal of strategic contracting and negotiation, 5(1-2), pp. 3-23. https://doi. org/10.1177/20555636211016878 ho, s. p. and liu, l. y., 2002. an option pricing-based model for evaluating the financial viability of privatized infrastructure projects. construction management and economics, 20(2), pp. 143-156. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446190110110533 hou, w. and wang, l., 2022. research on the refinancing capital structure of highway ppp projects based on dynamic capital demand. engineering, construction and architectural management, 29(5), pp. 2047-2072. https://doi. org/10.1108/ecam-05-2020-0321 huang, y. l. and pi, c. c., 2014. real-option valuation of build-operate-transfer infrastructure projects under performance bonding. journal of construction engineering and management, 140(5). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0000821 jeong, j., ji, c., hong, t. and park, h. s., 2016. model for evaluating the financial viability of the bot project for highway service areas in south korea. journal of management in engineering, 32(2), p. 04015036. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000396 jie, l. i., 2009. dynamic contract conditions for built operation transfer (bot) projects in china. international journal of construction management, 9(2), pp. 55-64. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2009.10773129 jin, h., liu, s., li, j. and liu, c., 2020. a game-theoretic approach to developing a concession renegotiation framework for user-pays ppps. international journal of construction management, 20(6), pp. 642-652. https://doi.org/10.1080/15 623599.2020.1738003 jin, x. h. and doloi, h., 2008. interpreting risk allocation mechanism in public–private partnership projects: an empirical study in a transaction cost economics perspective. construction management and economics, 26(7), pp. 707721. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190801998682 ke, y., wang, s., chan, a. p. and cheung, e., 2009. research trend of public-private partnership in construction journals. journal of construction engineering and management, 135(10), pp. 1076-1086. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(2009)135:10(1076) khanzadi, m., nasirzadeh, f. and alipour, m., 2012. integrating system dynamics and fuzzy logic modeling to determine concession period in bot projects. automation in construction, 22, pp. 368-376. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2011.09.015 kuhrmann, m., fernández, d. m. and daneva, m., 2017. on the pragmatic design of literature studies in software engineering: an experience-based guideline. empirical software engineering, 22(6), pp. 2852–2891. https://doi. org/10.1007/s10664-016-9492-y dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025273 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-11-2019-0612 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1849752 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1849752 https://doi.org/10.1177/20555636211016878 https://doi.org/10.1177/20555636211016878 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190110110533 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190110110533 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2020-0321 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2020-0321 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000821 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000821 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000396 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000396 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2009.10773129 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1738003 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1738003 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190801998682 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2009)135:10(1076 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2009)135:10(1076 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2011.09.015 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2011.09.015 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-016-9492-y https://doi.org/10.1007/s10664-016-9492-y liu, j., gao, r. and cheah, c. y. j., 2017. pricing mechanism of early termination of ppp projects based on real option theory. journal of management in engineering, 33(6), p. 04017035. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.19435479.0000556 miles, m. b., huberman, a. m. and saldana, j., 2014. qualitative data analysis. london, uk: sage publications. mostaan, k. and ashuri, b., 2017. challenges and enablers for private sector involvement in delivery of highway public-private partnerships in the united states. journal of management in engineering, 33(3). https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000493 osei-kyei, r., tam, v. w. y., komac, u. and ampratwum, g., 2023. review of the relationship management strategies for building flood disaster resilience through public–private partnership. sustainability, 15(13), p. 10089. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151310089 pplrc, 2020. ppp legal framework practice note: post-covid-19. [online] world bank group. available through: https://ppp.worldbank.org/public-private-partnership/sites/ppp.worldbank.org/files/2021-05/ppp_legal_ frameworks_post-covid-19.pdf ram, j. and dolla, t., 2023. investigating the leadership and visionary capabilities to make projects resilient: processes, challenges, and recommendations. project management journal, 54(5), pp. 523-542. https://doi. org/10.1177/87569728231164353 regan, m., smith, j. and love, p. e. d., 2011. impact of the capital market collapse on public-private partnership infrastructure projects. journal of construction engineering and management, 137(1), pp. 6-16. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000245 sharafi, a., amalnick, m. s. and taleizadeh, a. a., 2021. outcome of financial conflicts in the operation phase of public-private partnership contracts. journal of construction engineering and management, 147(6), p. 04021047. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002011 sherratt, f., sherratt, s. and ivory, c., 2020. challenging complacency in construction management research: the case of ppps. construction management and economics, 38(12), pp. 1086-1100. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.174 4674 song, j., hu, y. and feng, z., 2018. factors influencing early termination of ppp projects in china. journal of management in engineering, 34(1). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000572 sutcliffe, k. m. and vogus, t. j., 2003. organizing for resilience. in: cameron, k., dutton, j. e. and quinn, r. e. (eds.) positive organizational scholarship. san francisco: berrett-koehler. ch.7, pp. 94-110. tariq, s. and zhang, x., 2021. socioeconomic, macroeconomic, and sociopolitical issues in water ppp failures. journal of management in engineering, 37(5). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000947 tranfield, d., denyer, d. and smart, p., 2003. towards a methodology for developing evidence-informed management knowledge by means of systematic review. british journal of management, 14(3), pp. 207-222. https:// doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375 vassallo, j. m., ortega, a. and baeza, m. d. l. á., 2012. impact of the economic recession on toll highway concessions in spain. journal of management in engineering, 28(4), pp. 398-406. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.19435479.0000108 wang, s. q., tiong, r. l. k., ting, s. k. and ashley, d., 2000. evaluation and management of political risks in china’s bot projects. journal of construction engineering and management, 126(3), pp. 242-250. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(2000)126:3(242) dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025274 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000556 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000556 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000493 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000493 https://doi.org/10.3390/su151310089 https://ppp.worldbank.org/public-private-partnership/sites/ppp.worldbank.org/files/2021-05/ppp_legal_frameworks_post-covid-19.pdf https://ppp.worldbank.org/public-private-partnership/sites/ppp.worldbank.org/files/2021-05/ppp_legal_frameworks_post-covid-19.pdf https://doi.org/10.1177/87569728231164353 https://doi.org/10.1177/87569728231164353 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000245 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000245 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002011 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1744674 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1744674 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000572 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000947 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000108 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000108 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2000)126:3(242 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2000)126:3(242 wang, y. and jin, x., 2019. determine the optimal capital structure of bot projects using interval numbers with tianjin binhai new district metro z4 line in china as an example. engineering, construction and architectural management, 26(7), pp. 1348-1366. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2018-0259 xiong, w. and zhang, x., 2016. the real option value of renegotiation in public–private partnerships. journal of construction engineering and management, 142(8), p. 04016021. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0001130 xiong, w., zhao, x., yuan, j.-f. and luo, s., 2017. ex post risk management in public-private partnership infrastructure projects. project management journal, 48(3), pp. 76-89. https://doi.org/10.1177/875697281704800305 zhang, h., yu, l. and zhang, w., 2020a. dynamic performance incentive model with supervision mechanism for ppp projects. engineering, construction and architectural management, 27(9), pp. 2643-2659. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ecam-09-2019-0472 zhang, s., chan, a. p. c., feng, y., duan, h. and ke, y., 2016a. critical review on ppp research – a search from the chinese and international journals. international journal of project management, 34(4), pp. 597-612. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.02.008 zhang, x., bao, h., wang, h. and skitmore, m., 2016b. a model for determining the optimal project life span and concession period of bot projects. international journal of project management, 34(3), pp. 523-532. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.01.005 zhang, x. and soomro, m. a., 2016. failure path analysis with respect to private sector partners in transportation public-private partnerships. journal of management in engineering, 32(1), p. 04015031. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)me.1943-5479.0000384 zhang, y.-c., luo, w.-z., shan, m., pan, d.-w. and mu, w.-j., 2020b. systematic analysis of ppp research in construction journals: from 2009 to 2019. engineering, construction and architectural management, 27(10), pp. 33093339. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-03-2020-0178 dolla et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025275 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2018-0259 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001130 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001130 https://doi.org/10.1177/875697281704800305 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2019-0472 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2019-0472 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.02.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.02.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.01.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.01.005 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000384 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000384 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-03-2020-0178 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: savikko, h., hokkanen, j., metsäranta, h., honkatukia, j., haapanen, m., tohmo, t., pongracz, e. 2025. a methodological framework to assess the employment impacts of transport infrastructure construction. construction economics and building, 25:2, 143–167. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i2.8894 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article a methodological framework to assess the employment impacts of transport infrastructure construction heikki savikko1,2,*, joonas hokkanen2, heikki metsäranta2, juha honkatukia3, mika haapanen4, timo tohmo4, eva pongracz1 1 university of oulu, p.o.box 8000, fi-90014 university of oulu, finland 2 ramboll finland oy, kansikatu 5b, 33100 tampere, finland 3 merit economics, ristiretkeläistenkatu 16 a 3, 00710 helsinki, finland 4 jyväskylä university school of business and economics, p.o. box 35, fi-40014 university of jyväskylä, finland corresponding author: heikki savikko, heikki.savikko@student.oulu.fi doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.8894 article history: received 02/11/2023; revised 13/11/2024; accepted 07/04/2025; published 08/08/2025 abstract the aim of this study was to suggest a methodological evaluation framework for assessing the employment impacts of transport infrastructure construction. the applicability and usability of different ex-ante employment impact assessment methods were evaluated. commonly, the employment impacts during construction are used as a justification for investment decisions. in this study, we tested three commonly used methods to estimate the employment impacts during the construction of three real-life case studies and compared the results to the known impacts of these projects. the results indicate that transport infrastructure construction is not an effective means of employment policy nationwide. this is partly due to insufficient labor supply in the infrastructure engineering and construction industries. a higher employment rate on a national level would require an increase in labor supply instead of an increase in labor demand. however, even though the national net impact on employment was close to zero, the gross regional impact on employment would still be useful information in project planning. the methodological framework, presented in this paper, helps to manage the employment impacts of transport infrastructure construction in a proper context. 143 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding this research was funded by the prime minister’s office of finland via the government’s analysis, assessment, and research activities grant [vn/23483/2020]. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.8894 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.8894 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.8894 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:heikki.savikko@student.oulu.fi https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.8894 jel classification l74 construction; j23 labor demand; j21 labor force and employment, size, and structure; c67 input–output models; c68 computable general equilibrium models keywords infrastructure construction; impact assessment; employment effects; employment policy; employment evaluation framework introduction transport infrastructure enables accessibility, which is a vital function in a society. infrastructure projects are often justified based on their direct, indirect, and induced gross employment effects during construction, and have traditionally been seen as good economic policy tools. however, in the european commission’s guidelines for the cost-benefit analysis of investments projects (2014), labor during construction is considered a cost, not a benefit. there are also different methods to evaluate employment impacts during construction, but the topic has received relatively little attention in the literature, which tends to focus on post-construction impacts (purwanto et al. 2017; laird and venables, 2017, de rus et al., 2022) and gross changes, i.e., the jobs created or saved (wilson, 2012), or has used methods not suitable for ex-ante evaluations (garin, 2019; alloza and sanz, 2021). in this study, we examine the gross and net employment effects during construction of transport infrastructure and their relationship to economic and industry cyclical conditions and transport project characteristics. this is done by using three commonly used ex-ante evaluation methods: labor input coefficients, static input–output (io) model, and computable general equilibrium (cge) model. the methods are demonstrated on three real-life cases: a railway project, a highway project, and a road investment program. after the ex-ante assessment, we compare the results to the known impacts of the three projects. ultimately, we outline a methodological framework for selecting suitable ex-ante evaluation methods to assess the employment impacts of transport infrastructure investments during construction. by employment impact, we refer to the change in employment caused by the project or other measure under assessment, measured in terms of the number of people employed or the number of person-years of work. gross change in employment refers to the demand for labor generated directly or indirectly by the project, without considering whether the labor required comes from outside the existing workforce, for example, from the unemployed or students, or whether it is a shift from other jobs. the net employment impact refers to the change in the employment rate in the economy. the study focuses only on the construction period, and pays no attention to the employment impact of transport system efficiency and accessibility improvements. the main finding is that the type of information needed on employment impacts determines the selection of assessment tool. if information is needed to help the timing of projects in different regions, or to examine the demand for labor and skills in the future, labor input coefficients and input–output models are suitable methods. if we need to determine the net employment effects on a regional or national level, a computable general equilibrium model is the most suitable method. however, it will require an assessment of the labor market situation and labor supply before modeling. based on the results of this study, we also recommend that the assessment of labor needs is to be added to the project appraisal of transport infrastructure investments, to provide a more detailed analysis of the cost estimate. by considering project-specific data needs, the methodological framework proposed by this study aims to save time and costs while effectively allocating valuable resources in the project development phase. savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025144 the rest of the study is organized as follows: the next section is the review of relevant literature. materials and methods describes the used evaluation methods and the three cases. under this section, the evaluation of the case studies using the three methods and the uncertainty related to employment impacts and economic cyclical trends are also covered. next, we have the results and discussion sections, which also describes the suggested methodological framework. lastly, the final section provides the conclusions. the study was commissioned by the prime minister’s office of finland. literature review research on the employment effects of transport infrastructure projects during the construction phase is limited, and impact assessments are rare in practice, even for nationally significant projects (wang, 2015). recent studies have focused on methods that are not directly applicable to ex-ante evaluations, or on impacts based on transport system efficiency and accessibility improvements. in the existing literature on ex-ante assessments of transport infrastructure construction, there is also often a lack of distinction between gross and net employment effects, which entails the risk of confusing the effort required with the benefits that will be accrued because of the project. garin (2019) utilized the difference-in-difference (did) method to analyze the impacts of a $27 billion highway infrastructure project in the united states. the study found that while construction activities positively affected direct employment in the local construction sector, net employment effects were nearly zero both regionally and locally. notably, the construction of transportation infrastructure did not displace local labor from other construction activities, suggesting that the direct workforce was drawn from other sectors rather than a construction sector. similarly, alloza and sanz (2021) employed the did evaluation method to assess the impacts of spain’s economic and employment recovery plan, which allocated approximately €13 billion to public investments at the municipal level. their findings indicate that the recovery program generated 5.2 jobs per million euros invested, 8 months after the demand shock, with cumulative unemployment reductions of 6.5 person-years per million euros over 2 years. based on that, the net effects were 1.25 times greater than the gross effects. the did method used by garin, as well as alloza and sanz, is not suitable for ex-ante evaluations, but based on the results of their studies; it is possible to develop labor input coefficients for similar projects. dimitriou and sartzetaki (2022) evaluated the socioeconomic impacts of a new regional airport in greece using io framework. over the 5-year construction period, one direct job supports 1.0 job in other sectors. in a similar vein, pienaar (2024) applied an io model to assess the impact of rural road provision on employment in south africa, finding that one direct job created during construction supports 2.3 jobs in the country. lieuw-kie-song et al. (2019) analyzed the employment impacts of public expenditure on different types of infrastructure in rwanda’s construction sector using established multiplier analysis combined with an employment satellite account. they concluded that most of the additional employment created is within the construction sector itself, and on average, one job in the construction sector creates another job in other industries. all three ex-ante studies focused solely on gross employment effects, neglecting net employment impacts although lieuw-kie-song et al. suggested that additional employment sometimes manifests as an increase in total working hours rather than changes in employment or unemployment rates. dimitriou and sartzetaki also seem to have confused the efforts required with the benefits that will be accrued from the project in their policy recommendations. langston and crowley (2021) measured the success of the gold coast light rail (glcr) transport infrastructure project stages 1 and 2. their approach to facilitating decision-making in ex-ante evaluations involves the i3d3 model, a modern form of multi-criteria decision-making (mcdm). this model allows for the comparative assessment of various projects, ranking them from best to worst alternatives. their approach savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025145 serves as a valuable addition to traditional evaluation models, where technical expertise is essential. they also highlight challenges associated with traditional evaluation methods, noting that these processes are timeconsuming, expensive, and open to manipulation. their findings indicate a need for concrete frameworks for traditional evaluation methods to clarify assessments. the need to clarify the use of different evaluation methods also arises from the teo et al. (2022) study, where they reviewed economic impact assessment methods adopted in construction-related projects. they noted that most economic analyses are based on io tables, even when the focus is on a specific sector, industry, or local region. they suggested that utilizing a detailed cost breakdown of projects and using multipliers to estimate impacts could provide more accurate assessments if the point of view is micro-level. based on the existing scientific literature, there is no clear consensus on which evaluation methods should be used when assessing ex-ante employment impacts during construction. different methods have their own benefits, applications, and limitations, which should be considered when selecting the method to be used. this study aims to narrow this research gap by outlining a methodological framework for selecting suitable ex-ante evaluation methods to assess the employment effects of transport infrastructure investments during construction. materials and methods international evaluation guidelines regularly analyze the employment impacts of construction as follows (ernst and marianela, 2015; moszoro, 2021; world bank, 2021): 1. direct employment: construction, design, or other work for a contractor or sub-contractor on a project. 2. indirect employment: work done in the production of intermediate products for construction. the impact is spread across a range of industries, typically in sectors such as construction equipment and transport services. 3. induced employment: the increase in consumption resulting from the additional income of the people directly and indirectly employed by the project will further increase the demand for goods and services in different sectors. 4. net employment: the change in the employment rate in the economy brought by the project, considering the crowding out effect of additional labor demand on the existing labor force and employment developments in the absence of the project being evaluated. in the case studies carried out in this study, the employment effects were examined according to the same classifications using labor input coefficients, the static input–output model, and the computable general equilibrium model. input–output models static input–output (io) models describe the structure of the economy at a given point in time as a crosssection over 1 year. using input–output model to evaluate employment impacts, the results can be examined by industry and, depending on the model, sometimes also broken down by regions if the used model is a multi-region static input–output model (mrio model). the mrio model is an extension of the traditional io model and considers the production structures of different regions and the trade flows between them. the inclusion of regional specificities in the model makes it a useful tool for testing national measures and regional economic resilience (anagnostou and gajewski, 2021). the interdependencies between sectors and the coefficients describing them are fixed in io models, so that the economy is examined based on different scenarios (miller and blair, 2009). savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025146 in an io context, the economy is divided into n number of industries. if total output in industry i is given as xi and final demand for industry i is given as yi, a simple equation can be written to show how the products of industry i are distributed to other industries and to final consumption (miller and blair, 2009). ( )= = + + + + + = + = …∑1 1 1, ,i i ij in i ij i n j x x x x y x y i n  (1) in the equation, the term xij describes the intermediate consumption of industries between industries and yi denotes the final consumption of industry i. the input coefficients can be calculated from the input– output table: =ij ij j x a x (2) the input coefficient aij expresses how much output is needed in industry j to produce one unit of output in industry i. the production model can now be constructed by substituting the input equation for intermediate demand into the balance equation (1) = ∗ij ij jx a x (3) obtained from the definition of the input coefficients (2). the production model is: ( )= ∗= + = …∑ 1 1, , n i ij j i j x a x y i n (4) and in models that have a regional extension (mrio models), industries are considered by region g and the production model can be represented as (leontief and strout, 1963): ( ) ( )=  = ∗ + = … = … ∑, , , , 1 1, , , 1, , n i g ij g j g i g j x a x y i n g m (5) the production model is: = +x x ya when matrix entries are used                        = = =                             1 1 11 12 1 2 2 21 22 2 1 2 , , n n n n n n nn x y a a a x x y y a a a x y a a a          a the production model has as many linear equations as there are variables to solve. the output of industries can be calculated separately in terms of the known demand for final products at any given time and region. however, it is more appropriate to calculate the equation group ( )− =x yi a (6) a general solution: ( )−= − 1x yi a (7) savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025147 then, employment (l) is obtained by the formula (markaki and belegri-roboli, 2010): ( )−= − 1l e i a y , (8) where e is the industry-specific direct labor input coefficient. the static io model used in this study was an mrio model, where the model describes the economic activity in finland and the interactions between different actors. the model was based on the nuts-2 (nomenclature of territorial units for statistics) classification system of the european union of five large areas of finland, and it is a regionalized extension from the finnish io tables provided by statistics finland (ofs, 2021a). regionalization based on existing statistics and using location quotients has been described in our previous works (savikko, 2014; hokkanen et al., 2017; savikko et al., 2021). using the io model gives a picture of the distribution of employment across industries and regions. this is possible by considering the increase in consumption resulting from the change in the earned income of those employed and the employment it continues to generate (miller and blair, 2009). therefore, induced employment can be estimated as an increased consumer demand in different industries using the same formulas as presented previously. labor input coefficients the labor input coefficient determines the number of person-years or person-hours spent per input produced in different industries. labor input coefficients distinguish between direct impacts and total impacts. direct impacts refer to the use of labor input in the sector concerned. total impacts also include the use of labor input in the production of intermediate goods in other sectors serving the industry under consideration, but the results cannot be examined by industries. the labor input coefficients also do not consider the increase in consumption resulting from the change in the earned income of those employed and the employment that it continues to generate. using labor input coefficients, the direct employment (li) on industry i is: = ,i direct i il e x , (9) and total employment (l) can be presented as: = ,tot i il e x , (10) where edirect,i is the industry-specific direct labor input coefficient and etot,i is the industry-specific total labor input coefficient. for this study, the labor input coefficients were based on the coefficient for the year of project implementation and were obtained directly from finland’s national input–output statistics (osf, 2021a). computable general equilibrium models computable general equilibrium (cge) models describe the economy in terms of decisions taken by households, firms in different sectors, and the public sector. consumption and saving decisions and labor supply are key household decisions. these decisions are described in national economic models based on historical consumption patterns, which also consider the evolution of relative commodity prices and household disposable income. firms decide on the use of inputs—labor, capital, and intermediate inputs— to maximize the margin of production and investment according to the evolution of profit expectations in different industries relative to their historical growth rate and rate of return on capital. the functioning of the public sector is mainly determined by the structure of taxation and the transfers of income to savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025148 households and other public actors. foreign countries are mainly considered from the perspective of exports and imports, but the evolution of the external debt and wealth of the economy is also monitored and, in the long run, the external balance becomes dominant in the equations of the model. in cge models, supply and demand are balanced through price mechanisms. when the cge model calculates scenarios of future development prospects, many of the key drivers of economic growth are defined outside the model, and the model’s task is then to calculate scenarios for the development of economic factors that depend on these external factors. for finland, the modeling assumptions for economic growth come from outside the model from statistics finland’s population projections. in the cge model, economic theory provides the framework within which history is interpreted, and economic trends and projected population growth derived from history provide the framework within which economic agents make their decisions. in this study, computable general equilibrium modeling was performed using the finage/refinage model (honkatukia et al., 2019), which has been developed from the vattage (honkatukia, 2009) and verm models (honkatukia, 2013). the model relates labor market equations to the population and the working age population, from which unemployment rates are determined based on labor supply and demand. the finage/refinage model operates on nuts 3 level, where finland is divided into 19 regions. in dynamic simulations, labor supply comes as an exogenous variable, while wages adjust gradually, and unemployment is determined endogenously. the basic structure of the anonymous 1 model is based on the idea that wages can be centralized at the national level, since in a dynamic environment, the adjustment of real wages is a slow element. the model assumes that real after-tax wages change slowly in the short run and are flexible in the long run. in this labor market specification, new shocks cause short-term changes in total employment and long-term changes in real wages. algebraically, it is assumed that: w w old w w old w w old t t t t t t, , ,                         1 1 11 1 1 1 1                    e e old t t , 1 2 , (11) where old is the predictive value of the base case. wt,old and et,old are the real wage and employment rate in year t in the base case projections and wt and et are the real wage and employment rate in year t in the shock simulation. according to this definition, real wage adjustment depends on deviations from expected real wage growth and employment deviations from expected employment growth. the rate of adjustment is controlled by parameter α1, while α2 determines whether employment returns to the expected growth path after the shock. the real wage equation is close to the nairu unemployment theories (dixon and jorgenson, 2012), and its parameters for finland have been estimated from previous studies as alho (2002) and mcmorrow and roeger (2000). cases we tested the previously presented evaluation methods to estimate the employment impacts during the construction in three real-life project and compared the results to the known impacts of these projects. since the aim of the study was to outline a methodological framework for selecting suitable ex-ante evaluation methods to assess the employment effects of transport infrastructure investments during construction, we compared different cases, in terms of their size and type, to illustrate the applicability of different evaluation methods. in the evaluation of employment impacts using labor input coefficients, the employment impacts were derived by multiplying the investment by the labor input coefficient of the construction industry. labor input coefficients included separate values for direct impacts and total impacts that included direct savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025149 and indirect employment impacts. it was assumed that the investment would be fully allocated to the construction industry. when evaluating employment impacts using the io model, it was also assumed that the investment would be fully allocated to the construction industry. the cost corresponding to the investment was allocated as new demand to the construction industry of the region or regions under review. based on the io model, direct and indirect employment impacts were evaluated. the io model also accounts for changes in wages, which were used to calculate induced employment effects. changes in wages of employees working on value chain of construction industry were distributed as new demand across various industries and savings based on household consumption statistics. after that, induced employment impacts were evaluated similar to direct and indirect employment impacts. in the cge model, the evaluation of employment impacts differs from the other methods. the investments of the evaluated projects are directly allocated to the investments in the industry responsible for transport infrastructure, with their costs reflected in the government’s budget. employment impacts are determined through the labor demand of industries producing transport investments, as the investment levels change, and a new equilibrium is calculated for the economy. the employment impacts are compared to the actual development, under the assumption that the case projects would not have been realized. the difference in employment is the net employment effect. direct employment impacts were estimated by assuming that the employment impacts in the construction industry within the investment region are direct impacts. the key indicators of the three cases have been summarized in table 1. table 1. information concerning the data cases. case 1 case 2 case 3 country finland finland finland investment €74.60 million €21.35 million €325.00 million region of direct impacts at nuts 3 level central finland and pirkanmaa (see figure 1) northern ostrobothnia (see figure 2) whole finland (see figure 3) time period of data 2015–2017 2015–2017 2016–2018 data source finnish transport infrastructure agency, 2017 finnish transport infrastructure agency, 2021 finnish transport agency, 2017 case 1: äänekoski railway project. in the äänekoski project, the railway connections in central finland were overhauled to meet the increased transport needs resulting from the investment in a new biofuel plant. the railway project was implemented under an alliance model, with the finnish transport infrastructure agency as the contracting party and vr track oy as the service provider. the project started in october 2015 and was completed in august 2017 (finnish transport infrastructure agency, 2017). the main work phases of the project included electrification of the jyväskylä–äänekoski section, replacement of the track superstructure, improvement of drainage, improvement of safety at level crossings, and renovation of the kangasvuori tunnel. geographical location of the äänekoski railway project is presented in figure 1. the project was implemented at a total cost of €74.6 million. savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025150 figure 1. geographical location of case 1: the äänekoski railway project (modified from finnish transport infrastructure agency, 2017). case 2: highway 8 between pyhäjoki and liminka. between 2015 and 2018, highway 8 was improved in several places between himanka, pyhäjoki, and liminka (figure 2). the main content of the project was the construction of a road connection to the area of the planned nuclear power plant in pyhäjoki and the improvement of traffic capacity and traffic safety on the kalajoki-liminka section of highway 8. the finnish parliament decided to fund the project in spring 2015, and the construction work was carried out between 2015 and 2017. the cost estimate of the project package estimated here was €21.35 million (ely centre, 2015; finnish transport infrastructure agency 2021). case 3: road repair debt program 2016–2018. the road repair debt program 2016–2018 was a road investment program implemented with additional funding of €595 million granted by the government to the finnish transport agency (finnish transport agency, 2017). the program consisted mainly of road, rail, and waterway rehabilitation projects, the aim of which was to halt the deterioration of the roads and the increase in the repair debt. the repair debt is the amount of money needed to bring the state’s roads, railways, and waterways up to current standards. the program also funded, for example, the development of a digital road infrastructure and a test site for automated traffic in lapland. the case evaluation considered the repair debt program projects on the road network, which was €325 million (figure 3). results from the cases, gross labor input requirements were estimated using the previously described labor input coefficients, the io model, and the cge model. the net employment effects were estimated using a cge model with two different assumptions—with regional and national labor markets. this modeling approach enables comparisons of the meaning of the initial data and assumptions needed in modeling. savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025151 by analyzing the model-specific results of the different case projects and comparing the results with each other and with the reported project results, the advantages and limitations of the different evaluation methods were identified. the analyses were used to define a theoretical and methodological framework for assessing the employment effects of transport infrastructure investments during construction. case 1: äänekoski railway project the äänekoski railway project was implemented as an alliance project, and therefore, it was reported more comprehensively than a basic project in terms of the need for labor. the final report of the project, published by the finnish transport infrastructure agency (2017), states that the number of staff, at approximately 170, remained stable throughout the project. the project trained 1,230 people and 539,452 person-hours were worked by the end of the implementation phase alliance agreement. the data in the final project report can be derived in person-years by using the duration of the project and the average number of staff. the duration of the chipping was 22 months, with a direct employment impact of around 312 person-years based on the average number of people employed. however, the actual project data only reflect direct impacts and do not consider the indirect, induced, or net employment impacts that arise through other channels in addition to the direct impacts. table 2 shows the data on the employment impacts of the äänekoski railway project obtained by different evaluation methods. figure 2. geographical location of case 2: highway 8 between pyhäjoki and liminka (modified from finnish transport infrastructure agency, 2021). savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025152 table 2. actual data on the äänekoski project and the employment impact (in terms of personyears) obtained by different evaluation methods. the reference period is approximately 2 years. äänekoski railway project actual labor input coefficients static io cge, regional labor market cge, national labor market direct employment 312 469 379 384 387 indirect employment not known 405 484 cannot be presented cannot be presented induced employment not known cannot be counted 234 cannot be presented cannot be presented net employment not known requires separate assessment requires separate assessment 631 −151 figure 3. costs of road projects by region in case 3: repair debt program 2016–2018. savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025153 evaluated direct employment impacts are greater than the actual impacts in all assessment methods, with overestimations ranging from 21% to 50%, depending on the assessment method. actual indirect, induced, or net employment effects are not known, but when comparing the indirect employment impacts calculated with labor input coefficients and with the io model, the indirect employment impacts are higher when evaluated using the io model compared to labor input coefficients. however, the sum of direct and indirect employment impacts differs only by 1%. with the io model, it was also possible to capture the multiplier effects of consumption, induced employment, which were approximately 75% of the actual direct employment impacts. however, the io model does not consider the crowding out effect, and all employment effects are gross effects. when modeling with the cge model, it is significant what is assumed about the labor markets. the net employment effects vary significantly based on labor market assumptions, ranging from more than double the actual direct impacts to nearly 0.5 times negative. if the availability of labor is assumed to be mainly regional, the effects will mainly be on the provinces of central finland and pirkanmaa. in this case, changes in labor demand are mainly reflected in the regional employment rate. if, however, the labor market is national, migration balances the effects. with a regional labor market assumption, the effects will mainly be in the construction and trade sectors but, if the labor market is national, with migration, the effects will also be more on the processing industries. the labor market is always caseand region-specific and should be evaluated before modeling with a cge model. case 2: highway 8 between pyhäjoki and liminka for the project on highway 8 between pyhäjoki and liminka, there were performance data for six different contract areas (a–f), for all of which the costs (€) and working hours (h) per contract area were reported separately. the actual data also included person-years worked by region based on hours worked, as well as labor input coefficients (table 3). table 3. actual data on direct impacts by project area. period under examination: 3 years. project area cost, € hours worked, h person-years labor input coefficient a 1,276,617 9,970 6 4.9 b 10,670,528 92,979 58 5.4 c 1,804,842 17,670 11 6.1 d 206,000 700 0 2.1 e 5,069,647 46,420 29 5.7 f 2,321,250 29,806 19 8.0 total 21,348,884 197,545 123 5.8 by comparing the project’s actual direct employment impacts with the results obtained using different evaluation methods, the direct impacts estimated using the labor input coefficients and the io model are very close to the reported actual impacts, only 5% higher. the impacts estimated using the cge model focus mainly on net employment impacts, and the direct gross employment impacts derived from the modeling results differ from the other evaluation methods. direct employment impact evaluated with the cge model was 68 jobs in both regional and national labor market situations, which is only 55% of actual impacts (table 4). savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025154 table 4. actual data on highway 8 between the pyhäjoki and liminka project and the employment impact (in terms of person-years) obtained by different evaluation methods. period under examination: 3 years. highway 8 between pyhäjoki and liminka actual labor input coefficients static io cge, regional labor market cge, national labor market direct employment 123 129 129 68 68 indirect employment not known 111 137 cannot be presented cannot be presented induced employment not known cannot be counted 69 cannot be presented cannot be presented net employment not known requires separate assessment requires separate assessment 88 −50 in the cge model, evaluated change is allocated to investments, and the effects on employment are determined through the labor demand of industries producing transport infrastructure investments. in northern ostrobothnia, the share of construction in road maintenance investments in the public sector is higher than the average for the entire country, so the direct employment impacts appear to be smaller than realized. comparing the indirect employment impacts calculated with labor input coefficients and with the io model, the sum of direct and indirect employment impacts differs by 10%, being estimated higher by the io model. induced employment effects were approximately 56% of the actual direct employment impacts. the net employment effects vary based on labor market assumptions, ranging from 0.7 to 0.4 times negative from the actual direct employment impacts. if the labor market is assumed to be national, the effects at the level of the entire country would have been negative, as the project would have displaced labor from the growth centers of southern finland. case 3: road repair debt program 2016–2018 there is no measured and reported performance data on the road repair debt program. however, when estimated using different evaluation methods, the direct gross employment impacts are all the same order of magnitude, and the modeling results are quite close to each other (table 5). comparing employment impacts evaluated with different evaluation methods, the highest direct employment impacts were calculated with labor input coefficients in cases 1 and 2. direct employment impacts evaluated with the io model were 93%, with the cge model using regional labor market assumption 89%, and the cge model using national labor market assumption 89% of the highest direct employment impacts evaluated by labor input coefficients. comparing the indirect employment impacts calculated with labor input coefficients and with the io model, the sum of direct and indirect employment impacts differs by 7%, with that estimated by the io model being higher. induced employment effects were approximately 58% of the direct employment impacts evaluated with the io model. the net employment effects vary based on labor market assumptions, ranging from 1.1 to 0.02 times negative from the direct employment impacts evaluated with the io model. savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025155 the third case differs from the first two cases because it was aimed at all regions in finland and, by default, the implementation of the repair debt program has taken place nationwide. the biggest employment effects on all regions come from the construction industries. if the labor markets were regional, the effects would be almost entirely positive and higher than in the case of the national labor market. in the case of the national labor market, many other industries suffer because resources have been committed to construction and the net employment effects are close to zero. uncertainty related to employment impacts and economic cyclical trends for all the evaluation methods used, the employment effects depend essentially on the sector-specific labor input coefficients [see equation (8)]. the values of direct labor input coefficients have fluctuated in recent decades (table 6). in finland, labor input coefficients in construction have ranged between 5.50 and 6.45 between 2000 and 2018. similarly, they have varied between 5.86 (2018) and 7.72 (2002) in central finland and between 5.03 (2018) and 6.97 (2002) in north ostrobothnia regions. some of the variation in labor input coefficients over time can be explained by the economic cycle, but they are also significantly affected by changes in production technology, regional production structures in the economy, and raw material prices, among other factors. labor input coefficients in construction show a long-term downward trend in the regions concerned, reflecting the rise in labor productivity in the 2000s. the change in the labor input coefficient in central finland negatively correlates with the change in total output in the region (figure 4). in 2009−2010, central finland was in recession, yet construction employed more people in the region than in previous years, especially in 2009 measured by the labor input coefficient, which is a sign of declining labor productivity (output per labor input) in the construction sector. central finland was also hit by the recession in 2012−2013. the labor input coefficient in construction also increased strongly in 2012, compared to the previous year. similarly, in 2016−2017, labor input coefficients fell as the economy grew strongly. it is also worth remembering that projects can be different in upturns and downturns, and the impact on employment can also be different in different cycles for this reason. in addition, the saving rate of workers is higher in a downturn than in a boom (adema and pozzi, 2015), which may lead to lower multiplier effects of consumption (local and national) in a downturn. table 5. actual data on the road repair debt program and the employment impact (in terms of person-years) obtained using different evaluation methods. period under examination: 3 years. road repair debt program 2016–2018 actual labor input coefficients static io cge regional labor market cge national labor market direct employment not known 1,870 1,738 1,603 1,661 indirect employment not known 1,633 2,026 cannot be presented cannot be presented induced employment not known cannot be counted 1,012 cannot be presented cannot be presented net employment not known requires separate assessment requires separate assessment 1,918 −26 savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025156 production in the region of north ostrobothnia reduced in 2009 and between 2013 and 2015. in the construction industry in north ostrobothnia, similar behavior can be observed as in central finland (figure 5). labor input coefficients and changes in total output vary over the period, but a negative correlation can be seen between them. changes in the regions can be expected to be larger than on a national level. in addition, variations may be more apparent in percentages than in absolute figures. figure 6 shows changes in labor input coefficients and total output in the whole economy in finland between 2000 and 2018. during the economic boom in the early 2000s, labor input coefficients in construction in finland declined for several years in a row. as a result of the 2009 recession, labor input coefficients rose, reflecting a fall in labor productivity. the fall in labor productivity may also be due to the implementation of more labor-intensive projects. if raw material prices fall and this lowers the “price” of output, less output is produced for the same amount of labor. at the level of the economy, the variation table 6. labor input coefficients in the construction sector (person-years/€ million) by region and year-on-year change in total output (in € million) 2000−2018. year change in production in finland labor input coefficient in the construction sector finland central finland north ostrobothnia 2000 6.34 7.25 6.79 2001 1,423 6.24 7.38 6.85 2002 1,169 6.45 7.72 6.97 2003 4,359 6.44 6.96 6.41 2004 19,117 6.12 6.73 5.96 2005 16,790 5.91 6.65 5.77 2006 22,763 5.85 6.59 5.97 2007 21,739 5.50 6.37 5.33 2008 4,904 5.54 5.94 5.28 2009 −45,071 5.99 6.29 5.76 2010 13,841 5.98 6.40 5.63 2011 13,786 5.93 6.19 5.51 2012 −4,651 5.91 6.90 5.97 2013 −6,313 6.07 6.87 5.83 2014 −2,363 6.23 7.01 6.20 2015 1,149 6.16 6.93 5.79 2016 7,773 5.90 6.41 5.57 2017 18,354 5.70 5.95 5.44 2018 15,739 5.60 5.86 5.03 the figures in the table are calculated using statistics finland’s regional accounts data on production and employment (osf, 2021b). changes in production are calculated compared to the previous year’s values. savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025157 -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 ch an ge , % year change in labour input coefficient % (construc�on) change in total output % (north ostrobothnia) figure 5. change in labor input coefficients of construction and total output of the region compared to the previous year (%) in north ostrobothnia 2000–2018. -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 ch an ge , % year change in labour input coefficient % (construc�on) change in total output % (central finland) figure 4. change in labor input coefficients of construction and total output of the region compared to the previous year (%) in central finland 2000–2018. savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025158 in labor input coefficients has been smaller than at the regional level in central finland or northern ostrobothnia. -12 -10 -8 -6 -4 -2 0 2 4 6 8 10 ch an ge , % year change in labour input coefficient % (construc�on) change in total output % (finland) figure 6. change in labor input coefficients of construction and total output of the regions compared to the previous year (%) in finland 2000–2018. figure 7 shows the relationship between labor input coefficients and changes in total output for the whole country, central finland, and north ostrobothnia. the correlation is negative in all regions, i.e., labor input coefficients have fallen when the economy has grown and vice versa. the association between labor input coefficients and changes in output is strongest at the level of whole economy in finland (explanation level r2 = 0.72). in central finland and north ostrobothnia, the negative association between these factors is weaker (r2 = 0.26−0.33). there is considerable variation in labor input coefficients between years. economic cycles explain only part of the variation. at the regional level, a significant part of the variation is not explained by the economic cycle. although it is often difficult to predict future coefficients, historical data and expert opinion can be used to anticipate these changes. technical progress will continue to improve labor productivity in the future, which is why labor input coefficients can be expected to fall. as labor input coefficients fall, an ever-smaller share of the transport infrastructure construction budget is spent on labor costs. therefore, the relative employment effects of projects can also be expected to decline in the long term. similar observations have been made in sweden, where the magnitude of the employment effects of road investments during construction has been found to depend on the labor capacity of the construction sector (trafikanalys, 2012a; trafikverket, 2015; 2017). public investment in infrastructure during a boom will crowd out or postpone other public and private investments. at full employment, the labor input required to implement a road investment is completely taken out of alternative use, i.e., the road project crowds out other construction. the use of foreign labor reduces the crowding out effect but, at the same time, it also reduces the effects channeled through changes in domestic consumption demand. however, according to savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025159 buchheim and watzinger (2017), the impact of transport infrastructure projects on other sectors is felt more slowly in the economy than investment in buildings. there is a clear difference between small investments in repair and maintenance and large investments in infrastructure in terms of counterbalancing the cycles (trafikanalys, 2012b). on average, low-cost projects are more likely to employ the local businesses and manpower on which they are intended to have an employment impact. in large infrastructure projects, contractors are more often large national companies that subcontract from local companies and employ less local labor on average. discussion based on the results, we can assert that before choosing an evaluation method (labor input coefficients, input–output model, or computable general equilibrium model), it is essential to define the perspective to be considered and to determine the questions that modeling is intended to answer. gross employment effects can be estimated with all evaluated assessment methods; however, utilizing the cge model or labor input coefficients requires multiple modeling iterations or further refinement of results. the cge model does not directly yield gross effects, as it focuses on economic equilibrium and net employment impacts. consequently, gross effects necessitate a separate analysis of the model’s intermediate results and require external assumptions from the user, making the cge model less user-friendly for evaluation purposes. in the three assessed case studies, it was also not feasible to estimate gross effects with the cge model with a reasonable workload. on the other hand, labor input coefficients are not suitable for estimating employment impacts arising from consumption demand, as they do not reveal the wages generated within the value chain of construction and the resulting consumption demand. the evaluated case projects demonstrated that induced employment impacts were 56% to 75% of direct effects; thus, these can be added to the gross effects using a separate coefficient, which can be derived from other studies if necessary. y = -0.9795x + 0.9825 r² = 0.7166 y = -0.4315x + 0.5776 r² = 0.3329 y = -0.3932x + 0.8476 r² = 0.2604 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 -15 -10 -5 0 5 10 15 raey suoiverp ot derap moc noitcudorp ni egnahc change in labour coefficient for construc�on, % finland north ostrobothnia central finland figure 7. year-on-year change in construction labor input coefficients and total output (%) in central finland, north ostrobothnia, and finland 2000–2018. savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025160 the conducted case studies revealed that all evaluation models tend to overestimate direct employment impacts with variations depending on the case and evaluation method ranging from 5% to 50%. actual direct employment impacts were closest to the results estimated by the io model in every case, varying between 5% and 21% of the actual direct impacts. when assessed using labor input coefficients, the direct employment impacts were greater than those estimated by the io model. conversely, the indirect employment effects were smaller in all evaluation cases. the sum of direct and indirect employment impacts between the labor input coefficients and the io model varied by 1% to 10% across all evaluation cases. examining the realized development of labor input coefficients in the construction sector in finland in the 2000s, it was observed that the labor input coefficient fluctuated annually across all evaluation regions, with variations from the previous year, between −10.8% and +11.6%. based on this and the accuracy of different models on ex-ante evaluations, it is crucial to assess the magnitude of the employment impacts generated by transportation infrastructure projects during construction rather than to focus on exact numerical values. therefore, it is important to choose the most suitable evaluation method based on the need for knowledge to save resources and allocate available planning resources productively rather than trying to model exact employment effects with different models when we know there is some uncertainty. in principle, if the focus of the study is construction of transport infrastructure and what happens in its production chain, the use of labor input coefficients or io model is justified and more straightforward than the use of the cge model. in this case, the modeling results are gross employment effects, i.e., they do not consider the crowding-out effect of the project, but rather the labor demand generated by the projects for the construction itself and other sectors in the value chains. if the overall results are sufficient and there are limited resources available for evaluation, the use of labor input coefficients is justified. if the results are to be examined by industry, the io model provides additional information, as the results can usually be broken down to the 30–180 industries and induced employment impacts are included in the analysis. in addition, if regional allocations and their structural characteristics are of interest, it is justified to use the mrio model, where modeling is done at regional levels. if the research questions are related to the labor markets and, in particular, to the net employment effects, the cge model provides more answers than labor input coefficients or io models. the employment effects obtained from input labor coefficients and io models are gross employment effects and can be further refined to net employment effects by estimating based on assumptions of the kind of labor; e.g., existing labor, unemployed labor, new labor/students, and foreign labor will cover the demand for labor. the assessment can use separate information on the business cycle and regional and national labor markets, using scenario techniques and expert judgment. however, these are based on separate estimates, where resource constraints and the allocation of displacement effects to different regions are not the result of modeling but a given input. the advantage of the cge model is its ability to take account of resource constraints, allowing the model to estimate the crowding-out effects of projects on other sectors and regions, subject to predefined parameters and constraints. however, using the cge model to estimate net employment effects requires an estimate of the labor reserve before modeling, and whether the labor market in the construction of transport infrastructure project area is regional or national, or something in between, related to construction activities and their servicing. in the case projects, the net employment effects depend on the choice of labor market analysis between regional and national analysis. if the labor market is assumed to be regional, the net employment effect is 1.2−1.6 times higher than the direct gross employment effect and 0.7 to 2.0 times higher than realized actual direct employment impacts. if the labor market is assumed to be national, the project will displace labor from other regions and sectors and the net effect will be even slightly negative. in both cases where actual direct employment impacts were known, net employment impacts with national labor market assumptions were 0.4 to 0.5 times negative from the realized actual direct employment impacts. savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025161 traditionally, construction of transport infrastructure has been thought of as a good cyclical policy tool. however, this study concludes that this is not always the case, and the net effect can also be negative even if the gross impact on employment is large. the assessed case study shows that, in a national labor market context, the net employment effects of transport infrastructure investments during construction are small or even negative, unless there is a massive free workforce on the market. this is because the net employment effects depend mainly on the labor reserve, i.e., whether the project has the necessary labor available. if there is a labor reserve, then the increase in investment volume will reduce unemployment and generate a net increase in employment during the construction period. if the skilled labor force is fully employed, the labor force of the new transport infrastructure project is excluded from the labor force of other regions and industries, i.e., the project displaces other productive uses of labor. therefore, the net effect on employment can be negative if the labor input of the investment displaced by the project under assessment is greater than the labor input of the project itself. also, the medium-term economic projections assume that, over a 4-year horizon, labor supply will settle into an equilibrium growth path and that significant cyclical changes will always come unexpectedly. therefore, there is no justification for examining transport infrastructure investment as a cyclical policy tool. additionally, obtaining more accurate information on net employment effects—that cannot be obtained by commonly used methods—is not necessary for policymaking, as transport infrastructure should be built because of the need for better connections, not because of an employment policy. based on the results of this study, a theoretical and methodological framework was developed for choosing the most suitable evaluation method for assessing the employment effects of transport infrastructure investments during construction. the evaluation framework outlines eight steps through which the construction of transport infrastructure progresses in the economy, simultaneously generating employment effects as well as four more steps to be considered when evaluating net employment impacts. additionally, the framework specifies which assessment methods can be used to evaluate which impacts. the evaluation framework does not consider possibilities of multiple modeling iterations or further refinement of evaluation results because this would significantly reduce the usability of the models and the comparability of the results (figure 8). figure 8. a conceptual evaluation framework for assessing the employment effects of transport infrastructure projects during construction. savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025162 the assessment of employment impacts during construction begins with the construction project itself (1), which is the primary activity generating change in the evaluations. the construction project creates investment demand for the construction sector (2), which also requires labor (3). additionally, various raw materials, intermediate products, and services are required to facilitate the construction process (4). this, in turn, demands labor across multiple industries (5). as a result of the original construction project, both direct (3) and indirect (5) labor demands are generated, which can be estimated using labor input coefficients derived from national accounts. the investment demand leads to the payment of wage compensations for the work performed, which generates new consumption demand (6), as a significant portion of the wages paid circulates back into the economy through employee consumption. consumption demand is directed toward various products and services, which again require different raw materials, intermediate products, and labor (7). the employment effects resulting from consumption encompass both direct and indirect employment impacts. by summing the labor demands generated through the various channels (3, 5, and 7), the total gross employment effect of the construction project can be estimated (8). total gross employment effect can be assessed using the io model, which describes the interdependencies between industries and the allocation of household consumption across various goods to the industries. to evaluate net employment effects, a comparative scenario without the project in question is required (9), typically defined as business-as-usual (bau) scenario or the expected trajectory of economic development with existing policy measures (wem). when assessing net employment effects using the cge model, the equilibrium state of the economy in the comparative scenario (10) is analyzed to determine the employment in the comparative situation and sectoral distribution (11), reflecting the anticipated economic development without the evaluated construction project. by subtracting the employment in the comparative scenario (11) from the gross employment effects of the construction project (8), the net employment effect of the project becomes evident (12). the suitability and usability of the methods, as well as the need for prior information, have been summarized in table 7, rated on likert scale of poor– moderate–good. table 7. suitability and usability of the methods, and the need for prior information, rated on a likert scale of poor–moderate–good. labor input coefficients input–output model computable general equilibrium model suitable to evaluate overall gross employment effects moderate good poor suitable to evaluate overall net employment effects poor poor good suitable to evaluate employment effects by industry poor good good suitable to evaluate employment effects by regions poor good good ease of use and comprehension good moderate poor no need for prior data good moderate poor net employment effects are examined at both the industry and regional levels, allowing for individual job movements between different companies and sectors, which may be positive for some and negative savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025163 for others, even if this is not reflected in the overall impacts. the cge model is the only one among the evaluated models that allows for the estimation of net employment effects through modeling, rather than relying on scenarios defined outside the models, which always involve uncertainties and challenges in presenting them consistently. there are no restrictions on the use of the evaluation framework based on the size or type of projects; however, the key limitations relate to the availability of data on regional and national labor markets and labor mobility. as observed in the case projects, the cge model is quite sensitive to labor market assumptions, meaning that incorrect labor market assumptions can significantly affect net employment impacts. if sufficient information on labor markets is not available, it may be prudent to focus solely on determining the magnitude of gross employment effects, as future labor demand is also crucial information when planning various projects. conclusions the objective of this research was to outline a methodological framework for selecting suitable ex-ante evaluation methods to assess the employment impacts of transport infrastructure investments during construction. based on literature and real case projects, this study developed a framework that helps to define the right evaluation methods based on the needed knowledge and perspectives. each modeling approach presented in the framework has its own advantages and limitations, with decision-making situations and perspectives determining which is the preferred way to provide additional information to support decision-making. the amount of labor required for construction of transport infrastructure projects can be estimated with sufficient accuracy using the input–output statistics’ labor input coefficients. however, it is useful to consider the changing environment by including a range for the labor input factor in the assessment based on time series. the investment in on-site labor and intermediate manufacturing is a feature of the project, alongside the cost estimate. the presentation of labor needs alongside the cost estimate would be potentially useful in two ways. first, it would put the gross employment impact of the project during construction in its proper context, i.e., as a cost-dependent labor input. this would avoid confusing the effort required with the benefits that will be accrued because of the project. second, an estimate of labor needs can be a useful input for programming the timing of transport infrastructure projects in different regions, if at the same time, estimates of employment in infrastructure engineering and related industries in different regions are available. it is recommended that the assessment of labor needs is added to the project appraisal of transport infrastructure investments as a more detailed analysis of the cost estimate, based on statistical data. it offers opportunities to examine the demand for labor in the future, for example, in terms of skills and resources. if the need for knowledge is related to net employment effects, a computable general equilibrium model is the most suitable method, but it requires an assessment of the labor market situation and labor supply before modeling. the net employment effects can also be evaluated based on coefficients or a static input–output model, but additional information is needed to further refine the modeling results into net employment effects. even then, the impacts are based on scenario techniques and assumptions about the channels through which employment demand will be met. references adema, y. and pozzi, l. 2015. business cycle fluctuations and household saving in oecd countries: a panel data analysis. european economic review, 79, pp. 214-233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2015.07.014 savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025164 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.euroecorev.2015.07.014 alho k. 2002. the equilibrium rate of unemployment and policies to lower it: the case of finland. no 839, discussion papers from the research institute of the finnish economy. https://econpapers.repec.org/ repec:rif:dpaper:839 alloza, m. and sanz, c. 2021. jobs multipliers: evidence from a large fiscal stimulus in spain. the scandinavian journal of economics, 123(3), pp. 751-779. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjoe.12428 anagnostou, a. and gajewski, p. 2021. multi-regional input-output tables for macroeconomic simulations in poland’s regions. economies, 9(4), pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.3390/economies9040143 buchheim, l. and watzinger, m. 2017. the employment effects of countercyclical infrastructure investments. social science research network. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2928165 dimitriou, d. and sartzetaki, m. 2022. assessment of socioeconomic impact diversification from transport infrastructure projects: the case of a new regional airport. transportation research record, 2676(4), pp. 732-745. https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981211064999 dixon, p and jorgenson, d. 2012. handbook of computable general equilibrium modeling. 1st ed edition, volume 1a. north holland. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-444-59568-3.00062-6 ely centre. 2015. pyhäjoen ydinvoimalan edellyttämät tieinvestoinnit: hankearviointi [road investments required for the pyhäjoki nuclear power plant: project evaluation]. north ostrobothnia centre for economic development, transport and the environment. reports 37/2015. https://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-952-314-253-4 ernst, c. and marianela s. 2015. the role of construction as an employment provider: a world-wide input-output analysis. ilo working papers 994891843402676, international labour organization. https://econpapers.repec.org/ paper/iloilowps/994891843402676.htm european commission (2014). guide to cost-benefit analysis of investment projects, economic appraisal tool for cohesion policy 2014–2020. https://doi.org/10.2776/97516 finnish transport agency. 2017. perusväylänpito ja liikenneväylien korjausvelkaohjelma 2016–2018 [basic road maintenance and road repair deck programme 2016–2018]. interim report 6/2017 finnish transport agency finnish transport infrastructure agency. 2017. äänekosken biotuotetehtaan liikenneyhteydet [transport links to the äänekoski bioproduct plant]. tampere-jyväskylä-äänekoski railway project. the final results of the project. 15.8.2017. finnish transport infrastructure agency. vr track oy. finnish transport infrastructure agency. 2021. vt 8 pyhäjoki liminka. [online] available at https://vayla.fi/ vt8pyhajoki. [accessed 8 november 2021]. garin, a. 2019. putting america to work, where? evidence on the effectiveness of infrastructure construction as a locally targeted employment policy. journal of urban economics, 111, pp. 108-131. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jue.2019.04.003 hokkanen, j., savikko, h., känkänen, r., sirkiä, a., virtanen, y., katajajuuri, j-m. and sinkko, t. 2017. 27. a regional resource flow model for promoting a circular economy at the regional level. in the book: ludwig, c., matasci, c. (eds.) world resource forum. boosting resource productivity by adopting the circular economy. pp 205 – 209. isbn 978-3-9521409-7-0. available: https://www.wrforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/ludwig_2017_wrf_book_ final.pdf honkatukia, j. 2009. vattage a dynamic, applied general equilibrium model of the finnish economy. research reports 150, vatt institute for economic research. available: https://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-951-561-875-7 honkatukia, j. 2013. the vattage regional model verm a dynamic, regional, applied general equilibrium model of the finnish economy. vatt research reports no. 171, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2284665 savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025165 https://econpapers.repec.org/repec:rif:dpaper:839 https://econpapers.repec.org/repec:rif:dpaper:839 https://doi.org/10.1111/sjoe.12428 https://doi.org/10.3390/economies9040143 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2928165 https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981211064999 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-444-59568-3.00062-6 https://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-952-314-253-4 https://econpapers.repec.org/paper/iloilowps/994891843402676.htm https://econpapers.repec.org/paper/iloilowps/994891843402676.htm https://doi.org/10.2776/97516 https://vayla.fi/vt8pyhajoki https://vayla.fi/vt8pyhajoki https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2019.04.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jue.2019.04.003 https://www.wrforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/ludwig_2017_wrf_book_final.pdf https://www.wrforum.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/ludwig_2017_wrf_book_final.pdf https://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-951-561-875-7 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2284665 honkatukia j., lehtomaa, j., alimov, n., huovari, j. and ruuskanen, o-p. 2019. alueellisen taloustiedon tietokanta [regional economic database]. publications of the government´s analysis, assessment and research activities 41:2019. available: http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-952-287-753-6 langston, c. and crowley, c. 2021. evaluation of transportation infrastructure: a case study of gold coast light rail stage 1 and 2. construction economics and building, 21(4), pp. 1-20. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7738 laird, j. j. and venables, a. j. 2017. transport investment and economic performance: a framework for project appraisal. transport policy, 56, pp. 1-11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2017.02.006 leontief, w. and strout, a. 1963. multiregional input-output analysis. in: barna, t. (ed.) structural interdependence and economic development. palgrave macmillan, london. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-81634-7_8 lieuw-kie-song, m., abebe, h., sempundu, t. and bynens, e. 2019. employment impact assessments analysis of the employment effects of infrastructure investment in rwanda using multiplier analysis of construction subsectors. ideas working paper series from repec. markaki, m. and belegri-roboli, a. 2010. employment determinants in an input-output framework: structural decomposition analysis and production technology. bulletin of political economy. 4. pp. 145-156. mcmorrow k.c. and roeger, r. 2000. time-varying nairu/nawru. estimates for the eu’s member states. economic papers 145, ecfin. https://aei.pitt.edu/34753/1/ep145.pdf miller, r. e. and blair, p. d. 2009. input-output analysis foundations and extensions. 2nd edition. cambridge. cambridge university press. 784 p. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511626982 moszoro, m. 2021. the direct employment impact of public investment. imf working paper fiscal affairs department. working paper no. 2021/131. https://doi.org/10.5089/9781513573793.001 osf 2021a. official statistics of finland (osf): input-output [e-publication]. issn=1799-201x. helsinki: statistics finland [referred: 18.10.2021]. available: http://www.stat.fi/til/pt/index_en.html osf 2021b. official statistics of finland (osf): regional accounts [e-publication] helsinki: statistics finland [accessed: 16.11.2021]. available: http://www.stat.fi/til/altp/meta.html pienaar, w. j. 2024. impact of rural road provision on employment. south african journal of industrial engineering, 35(1), pp. 31-40. https://doi.org/10.7166/35-1-2912 purwanto, a., heyndrickx, c., kiel, j., betancor. o., socorro m. p, hernandez, a., eugenio-martin, j.l, pawlowska, b., przemyslaw, b. and fiedler, r. 2017. impact of transport infrastructure on international competitiveness of europe. transportation research procedia (online), 25. pp. 2877–2888. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2017.05.273 de rus, g., socorro, m. p., valido, j. & campos, j. 2022. cost-benefit analysis of transport projects: theoretical framework and practical rules. transport policy, 123, pp. 25-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2022.04.008 savikko, h. 2014. alueelliset resurssivirrat jyväskylän seudulla [regional resource flows in the jyväskylä region]. master’s thesis, tampere university of technology, department of industrial management. savikko, h., hokkanen, j., metsäranta, h., sirkiä, a., ilomäki, r. 2021. polttoaineen hinnannousun yritysvaikutukset [the effects on businesses of the rise in fuel price]. government reports of prime minister’s office of finland, 2021:5. available: http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe2021101851335 teo, p., gajanayake, a., jayasuriya, s., izaddoost, a., perera, t., naderpajouh, n. and wong, p. s. 2022. application of a bottom-up approach to estimate economic impacts of building maintenance projects: cladding rectification program in australia. engineering, construction, and architectural management, 29(1), pp. 333-353. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ecam-10-2020-0802 savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025166 http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-952-287-753-6 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7738 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2017.02.006 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-81634-7_8 https://aei.pitt.edu/34753/1/ep145.pdf https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511626982 https://doi.org/10.5089/9781513573793.001 http://www.stat.fi/til/pt/index_en.html http://www.stat.fi/til/altp/meta.html https://doi.org/10.7166/35-1-2912 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2017.05.273 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2022.04.008 http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi-fe2021101851335 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2020-0802 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2020-0802 trafikanalys (2012a). anläggningsbranschen – utveckling, marknadsstruktur och kon-junkturkänslighet [the construction industry – development, market structure, and sensitivity to economic cycles]. trafikanalys pm 2012:1. trafikanalys (2012b). infrastrukturåtgärder som stabiliseringspolitiskt instrument – redovisning av ett regeringsuppdrag [infrastructure measures as a stabilization policy instrument – reporting on a government assignment]. trafikanalys rapport 2012:1. trafikverket (2015). krav på sysselsättning i upphandlingar, redovisning av ett regeringsuppdrag [requirements for employment in procurement, reporting on a government assignment.]. trafikverket. trv 2015/57193. trafikverket (2017). teoretiska utgångspunkter för koppling mellan åtgärder i nationell plan och sysselsättning [theoretical foundations for the connection between measures in the national plan and employment]. pm till nationell plan för transportsystemet 2018-2029. trafik-verket. trv 2017/32405. wang, b. 2015. estimating economic impacts of transport investments using tredis: a case study on a national highway upgrade program. paper presented at australasian transport research forum 2015, 30 september – 2 october 2015, sydney, australia, available at: https://australasiantransportresearchforum.org.au/wp-content/ uploads/2022/03/atrf2015_resubmission_180.pdf (accessed 4 april 2025). wilson, d. j. 2012. fiscal spending jobs multipliers: evidence from the 2009 american recovery and reinvestment act. american economic journal. economic policy, 4(3), pp. 251-282. https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.4.3.251 world bank (2021). jobs and distributive effects of infrastructure investment. © world bank. available at: https:// documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/721891623745711077/pdf/jobs-and-distributive-effects-of-infrastructureinvestment-the-case-of-argentina.pdf savikko et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025167 https://australasiantransportresearchforum.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/atrf2015_resubmission_180.pdf https://australasiantransportresearchforum.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/atrf2015_resubmission_180.pdf https://doi.org/10.1257/pol.4.3.251 https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/721891623745711077/pdf/jobs-and-distributive-effects-of-infrastructure-investment-the-case-of-argentina.pdf https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/721891623745711077/pdf/jobs-and-distributive-effects-of-infrastructure-investment-the-case-of-argentina.pdf https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/721891623745711077/pdf/jobs-and-distributive-effects-of-infrastructure-investment-the-case-of-argentina.pdf construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: chiadighikaobi, p. c., ubani-wokoma, b. c. 2025. suitability of basalt textilereinforced granite–periwinkle shell concrete for sustainable construction in nigeria. construction economics and building, 25:1, 171–202. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i1.8757 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article suitability of basalt textile-reinforced granite–periwinkle shell concrete for sustainable construction in nigeria paschal chimeremeze chiadighikaobi1,*, blossom chinazor ubani-wokoma2 1 afe babalola university, ado-ekiti, ekiti state, nigeria, chiadighikaobi.paschalc@abuad.edu.ng 2 afe babalola university, ado-ekiti, ekiti state, nigeria, blossomuw@gmail.com corresponding author: paschal chimeremeze chiadighikaobi, department of civil engineering, afe babalola university, ado-ekiti, ekiti state, nigeria, chiadighikaobi.paschalc@abuad.edu.ng doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8757 article history: received 05/08/2023; revised 25/09/2024; accepted 05/10/2024; published 31/03/2025 abstract multiple construction methods have been researched and implemented to reduce the harmful effects of construction on society such as using alternative strengthening materials and aggregates in concrete. this study investigates the suitability of granite (g)–periwinkle shell (ps) as coarse aggregate in concrete for construction. the objectives of this study are to determine the mechanical properties of g–ps concrete confined and not confined in basalt textile (bt), the possibility of achieving lightweight concrete, the durability of the g–ps concrete, and the impact of bt and ps on the construction economy. slump, density, compressive strength, split tensile, modulus of elasticity, and water absorption tests were conducted on 108 concrete cubes and 180 concrete cylinders and analyzed to determine the behavior of the concrete. from the experiments, the workability of the concrete mix, density, and mechanical properties of the concrete reduced with a decrease in the percentages of granite and an increase in the percentages of pss. the concrete with 100%g and 0%ps had the highest slump value of 7 cm while the concrete with 0%g and 100%ps recorded the lowest slump value of 2.5 cm. confining bt on the concrete cylinders improved their mechanical properties. although concrete with 100%g and 0%ps proved to have the best strength, this study concludes that ps concrete is suitable for light constructions and load-bearing structural members as the strength of concrete having some percentages of ps proved to be good and even better when confined in bt. it was also observed in a discussion that this concrete type is economical 171 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8757 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8757 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8757 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:chiadighikaobi.paschalc@abuad.edu.ng mailto:blossomuw@gmail.com mailto:chiadighikaobi.paschalc@abuad.edu.ng https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8757 and easy to manage in construction. it is recommended that this type of concrete be implemented in the construction of structural members because the properties of this concrete are suitable for the nigerian environment, and incorporating pss in construction is a sustainable means and a way to facilitate the actualization of the sustainable development goal of “sustainable cities and communities and responsible production and consumption”. keywords lightweight concrete; periwinkle shell concrete; basalt textile confined concrete; sustainable cities and communities (sdg 11); responsible production and consumption (sdg 12) introduction the building sector is expected to utilize more resources and energy in the future due to megatrends such as the growing global population, urbanization, and quantity of occupied living space per inhabitant (world economic forum, 2016). if the rate of building construction continues at such a high speed, global raw material extraction might increase by more than double by the year 2050 (sameer and bringezu, 2019). according to manjunatha, et al. (2021), it is impossible to overstate the significance of concrete in almost every aspect of civil engineering practice and other various building projects. concrete is extensively and massively employed practically anywhere infrastructure is needed by humans. concrete is used more often than all other building materials combined, including wood, steel, glass, plastics, aluminum, and iron. although concrete is a practical and widely used construction material, the need to develop concrete with low-carbon materials and materials that involve less carbon dioxide emission during production is necessary to achieve sustainable construction. the construction sector is a vital component of the global economy as it makes up 13% of the world’s gross domestic product and 7.6% of all employed people worldwide [infrastructure and cities for economic development (iced), n.d.; scheurer, et al., 2023]. concurrently, the construction industry accounts for over 40% of the world’s raw material consumption, roughly 33% of the world’s energy consumption, and roughly 40% of the world’s solid waste production (choi, 2019; backes and traverso, 2021). as a result, the building industry will need to be included in any endeavor to decrease greenhouse gas emissions globally (scheurer, et al., 2023). these statistics and numbers illustrate the significance of a paradigm shift in the building sector. inevitably, there will be more development due to the growing global population; therefore, environmental issues must be resolved quickly and thoroughly. authorities in several nations are preparing to implement regulations, or have already done so, to restrict the use of resources and energy in the building sector (pasanen, et al., 2021). sustainable construction is the implementation of a healthy environment rooted in ecological principles. sustainable construction focuses on six principles: conserve, reuse, recycle, renew, protect nature, and create nontoxic and high-quality materials (akadiri, chinyio and olomolaiye, 2022). sustainable development uses locally available, energy-efficient, and sustainable building materials. this allows occupants to live in a healthy and comfortable environment throughout the life cycle of the building. the life cycle comprises material production, planning, design, construction, operation, and maintenance processes (patil and patil, 2017). typical negative impacts of construction activities include waste production, mud, dust, soil, and water contamination and damage to public drainage systems, destruction of plants, visual impact, noise, traffic, increased parking space shortage, and damage to public space (kaja and goyal, 2023). the federal government of nigeria has pressed on the issue of sustainable construction and encouraged stakeholders to adopt sustainable development methods in the country (oke, et al., 2023). the clamor by stakeholders chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025172 for sustainable development in nigeria is only relatively recent. before 1989, policies governing the environment were fragmented into different government agencies’ documents (ogunkan, 2022). this policy was revised once and environmental regulations are only being formulated recently (nwachukwu, 2024). the federal government of nigeria (fgn) reiterated that stakeholders must make constant efforts for sustainable development to be adopted in the nation (isang, 2023). these needs gave rise to sustainability becoming an increasingly important topic for construction research in nigeria. in many ways, sustainability in nigeria has reached an unprecedented peak. unheard of decades ago, much research has been conducted to create awareness and facilitate the implementation of sustainable construction in nigeria. various building techniques, such as the use of substitute strengthening materials and aggregates in concrete, have been studied and put into practice to lessen the negative impacts of construction on society and solve the issues brought about by the absence of sustainable construction (althoey, et al., 2023; nilimaa, 2023; rivera-lutap, et al., 2024). one way to lessen the impact of the construction sector is to employ novel materials that need less energy, and materials that emit fewer greenhouse gases. many researchers have focused on the usefulness of periwinkle shells (pss) as an alternative material for concrete aggregates. the suitability of ps as a replacement for gravel in concrete production has been investigated by agbede and manasseh (2009). in their research, coarse aggregate was replaced at 1:0, 1:1, 1:3, 3:1, and 0:1 ps to g by weight. concrete cubes with 100% ps were lighter and had lower compressive strength than those containing g. the 28-day density and compressive strength of ps were 1,944 kg/m3 and 13.05 n/mm2, respectively. sustainable construction and materials sustainable construction is regarded as the future of structural design. it follows the fundamental principle that says the depletion of energy and resources due to the construction and operation of a structure must be minimized (mavi, et al., 2021). this principle concerning concrete can be implemented by using materials in the most efficient way possible with consideration of their strength and durability (akadiri, chinyio and olomolaiye, 2022). this can be done using lightweight concrete (lwc), which is regarded as sustainable concrete and by using alternative strengthening materials. a popular method of producing lwc is by replacing the normal aggregates with waste materials (ting, et al., 2019). incorporating waste materials into concrete provides a solution for the management and diversion of waste products while minimizing the use of normal aggregates, which are obtained in a harmful manner, or minimizing the depletion of natural resources (tavakoli, hashempour and heidari, 2018). past research has determined that materials such as pss (omisande and onugba, 2020), palm kernel shells (oyejobi, et al., 2020; ifeanyi, chima and chukwudubem, 2023), and bamboo chippings (park, et al., 2019) can be used to develop concrete with properties that make it suitable for use in construction. periwinkle shell concrete periwinkle shells (pss) have gained the interest of many researchers as an alternative coarse aggregate in concrete. for more than two decades, there have been multiple research papers done to determine the suitability of ps as a coarse aggregate in concrete (agbede and manasseh, 2009; omisande and onugba, 2020). it was determined that pss can be used to produce structural lwc. the study by olugbenga (2016) gave an analysis of the possibility of producing lwc with pss. from this research, it was concluded that a 20%–30% replacement of coarse aggregates with pss would result in lwc. also, the study by osarenmwinda and awaro (2009) researched the potential of ps concrete concerning compressive strength (fc). from the result of their experiment, it was concluded that the strength values determined met the astm c330/c330m17a recommended minimum strength for structural lwc. the study by umasabor (2019) analyzed the mechanical properties of ps concrete and its advantages. palm kernel shells (pks) also chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025173 received notable attention from researchers on its possibility as a material used for the replacement of coarse aggregates in concrete. multiple studies have been carried out to determine the mechanical properties of pks concrete (emiero and oyedepo, 2012; oyedepo, olanitori and olukanni, 2015). lwc is not a recent development in the field of construction. for over 2,000 years, lwc has been used in the construction of various structures. the most popular example of this is the pantheon in rome, italy, which was built in ca. 128 ad (thienel, haller and beuntner, 2020). as time passed and research developed, many varying definitions for lwc concerning density, strength, and type of lwc emerged. jihad and ali (2014) simply defined lwc as concrete with a dry density of 300 to 2,000 kg/m³ and a cube fc of 1 to 60 mpa. lwc has a higher strength-to-weight ratio than conventional concrete, better thermal and sound insulation, and less dead load in the structure resulting in fewer structural elements and less steel reinforcement (mohammed and hamad, 2014). lwc has three methods of production: using lightweight aggregates (lwa), inducing bubble voids within concrete, and using only coarse aggregates. the resulting concretes are known as lightweight aggregate concrete (lwac), aerated lightweight concrete (alwc), and no-fine concrete, respectively ( jihad and ali, 2014). examples of lwa used in the production of lwc are shale, clay, shells, and slate. with further research, it was discovered that agro waste has the potential to be used as lwa (emeghai and orie, 2021). due to the availability and accessibility of lwa, periwinkle shells can be sourced without causing harm to the environment. periwinkle is a small marine snail belonging to the family littorinidae (class gastropoda, phylum mollusca). in nigeria, they inhabit the riverine and coastal areas of nigeria, i.e., the niger delta area and lagos lagoon. ps (figures 1 and 2) is a waste material obtained after the consumption of the organism known as a periwinkle. the shell is usually greenish blue or dark gray and has a spiral rough appearance (dahiru, yusuf and paul, 2018). the size of a ps ranges from 10 to 30 mm (elegbede, et al., 2023). ps is usually difficult to dispose and when dumped, the environment becomes polluted. the use of pss in concrete also solves environmental problems that might arise from dumping pss (ugwu and egwuagu, 2022). a solution to this problem was obtained when it became a viable material for the replacement of coarse aggregates in concrete. for about three decades, a particular state in nigeria known as rivers state has made use of periwinkle shell concrete for construction (agbede and manasseh, 2009). figure 1. periwinkle shells. source: authors’ own work. chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025174 figure 2. the appearance of the periwinkle shell. source: osadebe and ibearugbulem (2009) and omisande and onugba (2020). ps is used as a partial replacement for coarse aggregate in concrete (tongbram, singh and devi 2023). generally, 70%–80% of the volume of normal concrete is taken up by coarse aggregates, and that value is notably affected by the type of coarse aggregate (falade, ikponmwosa and ojediran, 2010; sulaiman and olatunde, 2019). ps weighs significantly less than normal granites. its bulk density is 60% less than the bulk density of normal granite; thus, its use results in the reduction of the weight and density of the concrete. therefore, the concrete produced with these ps can be classified as lwc. however, it is to be noted that the production of lwc with ps depends on the quantity of ps used. the periwinkle shells have been categorized by osadebe and ibearugbulem (2009) as lightweight coarse aggregates in compliance with astm concrete specifications. periwinkle shells have also been investigated by aliyu, kwami and sani (2022) as potential coarse aggregates, and it has been found that concrete constructed with them is within the category of lightweight concrete. the workability of concrete is affected by the addition of ps. from previous research, the workability of the concrete decreases with an increase in the replacement of the normal aggregates with the pss. the poor workability of the concrete is linked to the structural and textural qualities of the ps. researchers (agbede and manasseh, 2009) noted that rough-textured, angular, and elongated aggregates (figure 2) require more water in the cement to produce workable concrete than smooth and rounded aggregates. they also noted that it is expected for aggregates’ rough textures and angular form to have good bonding properties with the cement and improve the properties of the concrete. another factor that affects concrete workability is the hollow parts of the ps. they capture the cement paste and deprive the other constituents of the sufficient materials needed for bonding (eboibi, akpokodje and uguru, 2022). from previous research, it is concluded that the fc of concrete reduces with an increase in ps content. the study by sulaiman and olatunde (2019) explained that as the quantity of pss increases, the quantity of cement becomes inadequate to form an effective bond with the coarse aggregate. this is attributed to the higher effective surface area of the pss. although the strength of concrete is reduced with the addition of pss, the values obtained in their research range from 17 n/mm2 to 25 n/mm2 and are correlated with the astm c330/c330m17a. omisande and onugba (2020) determined that with the addition of pss to concrete, for all curing ages, the split tensile strength reduces and is lower in comparison to normal concrete. in the study by aboshio, shuaibu and abdulwahab (2018), the researchers partially and fully replaced the concrete coarse aggregate (granite) with pss by 0%, 30%, 40%, 50%, and 100%. the results showed that the density of the concrete with ps replacement of granite is less than normal (granite) concrete. the concrete fc and splitting tensile strength (fsts) decreased with an increase in the percentages of ps. the prospect of ps as coarse aggregate in concrete production was investigated by osarenmwinda and awaro (2009). the results showed that concretes produced with 1:1:2, 1:2:3, and 1:2:4 concrete mixes provide concrete compressive strengths of 35.67, 19.50, and 19.83 n/mm2 at 28 days, respectively. chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025175 these strength values met the astm c330/c330m17a suggested minimum strength of 17 n/mm2 for structural lwc. research on making lwc from pss and recycled plastic waste was studied by ede et al. (2021). according to the review, the use of ps is advantageous for satisfactory strengths for normal aggregate concrete and lwc, as well as for good heat resistance and economics, while the use of a lower percentage of waste plastic in concrete results in acceptable strengths for lwc. the mechanical characteristics of concrete made from palm kernel shells (pkss) and pss were compared by eziefu, opara, and anya (2017). the water-to-cement ratio was 0.5, and the concrete mix ratio was 1:2:4. three sets of concrete mixtures were tested, one with 100% pkss, one with 100% pss, and one with 100% granite as the control. at curing days 7, 14, 21, and 28, the concrete cubes were tested for bulk density and fc, respectively. both the ps concrete and the pks concrete satisfied the bulk density and fc requirements for lwac. the results showed that for all curing ages, the ps concrete had a higher fc and a lower bulk density than the pks concrete. the bulk density and fc of the 28-day pks concrete were 1,840 kg/m3 and 14.02 n/mm2, respectively; those for the ps concrete were 1,936 kg/m3 and 16.90 n/mm2, and those for granite concrete were 2,496 kg/m3 and 25.95 n/mm2, respectively (eziefu, opara and anya, 2017). in a recent study, ogundipe, et al. (2021) suggested that lightweight structural concrete could be made from both pss and pkss. in the interim, dauda, et al. (2018) believed that ps residues could be pozzolanic cement and were useful as a stabilizing agent for improving soil, while odeyemi, et al. (2020) suggested using sawdust and periwinkle shells to make high-quality particle boards with sufficient strength. table 1. physical properties of periwinkle shell. properties references osei and jackson (2012) osadebe and ibearugbulem (2009) yang, et al. (2010) size 10–20 specific gravity 1.73 1.44–2.65 density 619.90 694.44 517–1,243 water absorption 25 12.99 12.99 moisture content 8.32 8.32 impact value 65% durability 83 fineness modulus 12.99 uniformity coefficient 1.23 source: omisande and onugba (2020). in this study, the workability, density, and fc of periwinkle concrete improved with an increasing percentage of gravel. the reduction in the density of concrete produced with ps can be seen in table 1, and it justifies the explanation for its usage in coastal states as construction material (dahiru, yusuf, and paul, 2018). many states in the coastal space of african nations (niger delta, nigeria), for example, have adopted its usage in concrete for over 20 years. due to its abundance in these areas, its usage has influenced the value of concrete while not compromising the properties of concrete. chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025176 in the findings by ruslan, et al. (2021), the researchers suggested a high prospect of using ps as coarse aggregate in concrete production. moreover, several researchers have discovered that the integration of ps was accountable for the decline of the compressive strength of the concrete principally at full granite replacement, and this was presumably a result of weak bonding between ps and the matrix of cement (osadebe and ibearugbulem, 2009). the compressive strength of most, 25 mpa, is realizable through the complete substitution of coarse ingredients by ps in concrete. concrete’s resistance to elastic deformation is gauged by its elastic modulus. the volume of the component aggregates in the concrete and their elastic modulus has an impact on the e-value of the material. when shells partially replaced cement or aggregates in concrete or mortar, the majority of researchers found that the e-value of the materials decreased (zhu, et al., 2024). the study by ahsan, et al. (2022) discovered that adding seashell aggregates to concrete did not significantly lower its elastic modulus. this was primarily because the disintegration of the shells decreased the pore pressure created in the matrix, thereby preserving the elastic modulus. periwinkle shell lightweight concrete (pslwc) is beneficial as a structural material for multiple reasons. it makes use of a locally sourced material that reduces construction costs, promotes infrastructural development, and brings about sustainable structural engineering. it is used in the construction of nonload-bearing walls, nonstructural floors, strip footings, footbridges, lintel-wearing courses, and other light structures. this study focused on developing lightweight periwinkle concrete that can withstand heavier loads. for this purpose, a low moisture content mix ratio containing basalt textile (bt) as reinforcement was developed and used. the literature search for this study revealed insufficient information regarding the tensile properties of concrete embedded in basalt textiles. highlighting this knowledge gap, this study exploited it to investigate the effect of basalt textiles on the properties of concrete. pslwc like every other concrete is brittle. this brittleness is a major problem in concrete that causes cracks and finally the collapse of structural concrete members. many researchers have investigated the use of reinforcement materials. these reinforcement materials in different forms and patterns are used in concrete in different ways to achieve different reinforcement methods. one possible novel material combination, which has been researched since the late 1990s, is textile-reinforced concrete. this research study implements the use of basalt textile confined concrete. basalt textile confined concrete along with the use of waste products, alternative strengthening materials are also considered for the production and reinforcement of concrete. bt, also known as basalt fiber (bf) cloth or basalt woven textile, is a novel material that is currently undergoing research as a suitable material for the reinforcement of concrete. it is a man-made material that is formed from a combination of fine fibers of basalt. basalt fibers are made from raw basalt rock. other textiles for the reinforcement of concrete are available such as carbon textiles and alkali-resistant (ar)-glass textiles. its recyclability, heat resistance, and durability make it an excellent candidate for the development of sustainable infrastructure (park, park and hong, 2020). as bt is still a new innovative material, there is still not enough research on its overall behavior when used as confinement for different types of concrete. concrete being a brittle material needs to be strengthened to achieve a durable and sustainable construction material. to improve the strength of concrete, the use of reinforcement is employed, although the strength of concrete can also be enhanced by including some additives in the concrete mix (ramadan, et al., 2023). the most common ways of improving concrete strength are the use of reinforcing materials like fibers that are used in concrete mix for interior and exterior reinforcement (mukhopadhyay and shruti, 2015; mujalli, et al., 2022), the use of reinforcement bars in the concrete or as jacketing (chalioris, et al., chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025177 2013; mahmoud, sallam and ibrahim, 2022), and the use of mesh and textiles as jacketing or confinement of the concrete (koutas and bournas, 2020). all these methods have their function in reducing the brittleness of the concrete. these reinforcement materials are produced from different materials like basalt, glass, plastic, steel, carbon, and asbestos, among others. research into advanced construction technology with the benefits of sustainability and efficiency has led to the recognition of textile-reinforced concrete (trc) as a possible alternative to normal concrete. trc is a form of concrete where the steel bars are removed and the concrete is confined within textile reinforcement (venigalla, et al., 2022). trc is regarded as sustainable concrete because of certain qualities. it offers the possibility to use a significantly smaller amount of material in the production of concrete composites. its use results in structures that have a longer service life than structures constructed with conventional concrete (alexander and shashikala, 2020). composite materials such as fiber-reinforced polymer (frp) jackets have been successfully used to confine cylindrical prisms and columns under monotonic and cyclic loading. although limited studies have been conducted to date, all of them reached similar conclusions; confinement was more effective in increasing the compressive strength and ultimate axial strain in concrete (koutas and bournas, 2020; skyrianou, koutas and papakonstantinou, 2022). the increase in frp layers further enhanced both the compressive strength and ultimate axial strain (raffoul, et al., 2017; youssf, hassanli and mills, 2017). among all jacketing techniques, the use of frps has gained increasing popularity in the civil engineering community due to the favorable properties possessed by these materials, namely, extremely high strengthto-weight ratio, corrosion resistance, ease and speed of application, and minimal change in the geometry (d’anna, et al., 2021). since this research paper employed basalt textiles to confine the concrete, most discussions would focus on using basalt textiles in concrete. bt (figure 3) is woven from bf, which is an innovative product derived from a natural resource known as basalt rock. bt is a man-made material that is formed from the interweaving of fine fibers of basalt. the first patent detailing its method of production was developed by a french scientist named paul dhe’ in 1923 and a closed scientific research program on it began in the union of soviet socialist republic (ussr) (kumbhar, 2014). in 1990, the ussr was dismantled so the techniques and research became available to everyone. the two main techniques used to manufacture the basalt textile are the spinneret technology and junker’s technology. the spinneret technique involves uniformly heating the basalt rocks at temperatures between 1,200 and 1,500°c and passing it through platinum-rhodiumheated bushing to form the fine fibers. junker’s technique, which is primarily used to produce short basalt fibers, is a melt-blowing technique (chowdhury, pemberton and summerscales, 2022). the bt has gained the attention of researchers because of its many beneficial mechanical properties (liu, et al., 2021). most research on bt has centered on bt as an additional structural reinforcement for concrete members by determining the mechanical properties of concrete confined in it. figure 3. basalt textile. source: authors’ own work. chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025178 bt is resistant to fire and thermal insulation because of its mineral composition and many micropores (pareek and saha, 2019). the tensile strength of bf varies between 3,000 and 4,840 mpa, which is higher than glass fibers. in comparison to e-glass textiles, basalt textile has higher stiffness and strength (kumbhar, 2014) and no reactions with air, gases, or water. its hardness varies from 5 to 9 on mohr’s scale (tavadi, et al., 2021). bt has better split tensile strength than the e-glass textile, greater failure strain than the carbon textile, and good resistance to chemical attack, impact load, and fire with less poisonous fumes. from these advantages, the applicability of bt as a structural strengthening material is highly expected (zhang, et al., 2020; natarajan, et al., 2024). the study by kumbhar (2014) compared the mechanical properties of bf to other fibers (table 2). in a crushed state, the basalt rock has been used for surfacing and filling in roads, tiling in construction, and lining material for pipes carrying high-temperature fluids. table 2. comparison of the mechanical properties of basalt fiber to its fiber counterparts. capability basalt fiber e-glass fiber s-glass fiber polyamide fiber carbon fiber tensile strength, mpa 3,000– 4,840 3,100– 3,800 4,040– 4,650 2,900– 3,450 3,500– 6,000 elastic modulus, gpa 79.3–93.1 72.5–75.5 83–86 70–140 230–600 elongation of break, % 3.1–6 4.7 5.3 2.8–3.6 1.5–2.0 specific gravity 2.65–2.8 2.5–2.62 2.46 1.44 1.75–1.95 diameter of filament, mµ 6–21 6–21 6–21 5–15 the temperature of application, ºc −260 to +500 −50 to +380 −50 to +300 −50 to +290 −50 to +700 melting temperature, ºc 1,450 1,120 1,550 price, rs./kg 150 90 120 1,500 1,800 source: kumbhar (2014). gopinath, et al. (2015) studied the behavior of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with bt. the study gave a comparison of the ultimate load-bearing capacity, ductility, and energy absorption of the bt-strengthened reinforced beams and normal reinforced concrete beams. this study also mentioned the need for more experiments to check the applicability of bt as a strengthening material. zhang, et al. (2023) studied the axial compressive qualities of concrete columns confined in bt. from previous research, it is observed that concrete strengthened with basalt textile exhibits improved load-bearing capacity. tests carried out by previous researchers present that there is a 35%–47% increase in the ultimate load-bearing capacity of concrete with the addition of bt. the number of textiles affects these values with the increase in the ultimate bearing capacity being directly proportional to the increase in the number of layers (zhang, et al., 2023). it also determined that there is an increase in the fsts of concrete strengthened with bt. this research notes that the study of basalt textile reinforced concrete (btrc) columns is relatively lacking. the study also noted the effect of multiple layers of bt on the mechanical properties of concrete and showed the behavior of concrete strengthened with bt. multiple factors were considered for determining the mechanical properties of the btrc beam and basalt textile mortar (btm) like the number of textile layers and mesh size (shamseldein, elgabbas and elshafie, 2022). these studies captured the possibility of bt as a strengthening material for concrete and areas that need more investigation. chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025179 the study by chiadighikaobi, et al. (2022) analyzed the properties of lightweight concrete reinforced with chopped basalt fiber and confined in basalt fiber polymer. the experimental study compared conventional lightweight concrete to reinforced lightweight concrete. the results demonstrated that expanded clay concrete reinforced with chopped basalt fiber and contained in basalt fiber-reinforced polymer had the best porosity index, fc, and modulus of elasticity (moe). the quarrying of stones and rocks to obtain crushed stones and granites has left the environment at risk. this process causes heavy vibration in the soil, which causes serious cracks in the soil and earth structures. in the quest to solve the problems and achieve sustainable construction, this paper implements the use of periwinkle shells as a partial and full replacement for granite. though periwinkle shell makes concrete structural construction more sustainable, the brittle nature of concrete persists; therefore, this paper implements the use of basalt textiles as confinement to concrete. the use of steel reinforcement materials as a product hurts the environment. the manufacturing process of the steel is harmful to the environment and its inhabitants. the emission of carbon monoxide during steel production is a thing of concern, hence the use of basalt textile, the production of which is not harmful, thereby making it a more sustainable method. the need to achieve lightweight concrete for construction is very important as it reduces the self-weight of the structural member where it is used. the need for upgrading existing structures has been tremendous in the past couple of decades, both in non-seismic areas, due to the deterioration or the introduction of more stringent design requirements, and in seismic areas, where structures designed according to old seismic codes must meet performance levels required by current seismic design standards. one of the most common upgrading techniques for reinforced concrete structures involves the use of jackets, which are aimed at increasing the confinement action in either the potential plastic hinge regions or over the entire member. during the review of previous works related to this experimental research, it was discovered that there is not enough information available on the effects of basalt textiles on the split tensile strength of concrete. also, no research was found on the confinement or wrapping of periwinkle shell concrete with basalt textiles. therefore, this research study provides new information assessing the effects of basalt textiles on the split tensile strength of concrete specimens and the effect of basalt textile wrapping on periwinkle shell concrete. this research study aims to investigate the suitability of granite–periwinkle shells as coarse aggregate in concrete for construction. the objectives of this study are as follows: i. to check the workability of granite–periwinkle shell concrete. ii. to achieve lightweight concrete. iii. to investigate the durability of the granite–periwinkle shell concrete. iv. to determine the mechanical properties of granite–periwinkle shell concrete confined/not confined in basalt textile. v. to identify the modulus of elasticity of the concrete. vi. to briefly discuss the economic impact of basalt textile and periwinkle shells on managing construction in nigeria. methods and materials experimental materials for this research to achieve the objectives of this research, some laboratory experiments were conducted. these experiments required the use of materials and aggregates. the materials used in producing the concrete types needed for this research are discussed below. cement. the cement used as the binder for the concrete work was dangote 3x grade 42.5r portland cement, and it is conformed to bs en 197-1:2011 at 700 kg/m3. the 3x stands for xtra strength, xtra life, chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025180 and xtra yield. the chemical composition of dangote cement used in this study, compared with the bs limit, is given in table 3. table 3. chemical composition of dangote cement, %. chemical composition cao sio2 fe2o3 al2o3 mgo k2o so3 na2o percentages current study 61.20 18.12 2.73 4.91 1.93 0.14 1.39 0.41 bs en 197-1:2011 58.67– 63.90 17.46– 21.59 1.21– 3.76 3.29– 6.14 0.61– 3.30 source: authors’ own work. silica sand as fine aggregates. silica sand contains a high proportion of silica (normally, but not exclusively, more than 95% sio2). silica sand is a granular material and contains quartz, minute amounts of coal, and clay, and it has minerals in it sometimes. it was purchased from a construction site in lagos state, nigeria. the sand was purchased dry. the sand of fraction 0.6 to 1 mm was used in the concrete mix at 416 kg/m3. the chemical composition of silica sand is provided in table 4. the properties of silica include both physical and chemical properties like hardness, color, melting, and boiling point. i. silica is a solid crystallized mineral under normal conditions of temperature and pressure and is relatively hard. ii. pure silica is colorless, but it may be colored if contaminants are present in a sample of quartz. iii. silica has very high melting and boiling points—at 3,110°f and 4,046°f, respectively. iv. to make glass, it takes a big hot furnace to melt silica. table 4. chemical composition of silica sand. chemicals sio2 cao feo al2o3 mgo percentages, % 96.62 0.57 1.02 1.54 0.57 source: murthy and rao (2016). crushed granite as coarse aggregates at 416 kg/m3. the coarse aggregates of crushed granite were obtained from a dealer in ado-ekiti, ekiti state, nigeria. granite of size 5 to 10 mm was used as the coarse aggregate in the concrete. the 416 kg/m3 volume is split according to the variation percentages between granite and periwinkle shells. periwinkle shell (ps) as coarse aggregate. the quantity of periwinkle shell taken is equal by volume to that of granite. periwinkle shells of length 20 mm and diameter 5 mm were used as partial and full replacement for granite in the concrete at 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100% replacement. the shells were obtained locally from the bonny river in rivers state, nigeria. the periwinkle shells were obtained after removing the periwinkle meat from the inside of the periwinkle shells manually with the help of a hook, then the shells were soaked in water chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025181 for 24 h and washed four times in four different sets of drinkable water. after washing, the periwinkle shells were spread on a dry surface at room temperature of 22 ± 5°c and then packed for use. the 416 kg/m3 volume is split according to the variation percentages between granite and periwinkle shells. super plasticizer. the superplasticizer used was sika visco-create 2000 at 14 kg/m3. sika viscoflow®-2000 (gb) is a liquid admixture for concrete based on unique polycarboxylate polymer technologies. sika viscoflow®-2000 (gb) is designed as a high-range water reducer or superplasticizer. it is particularly suited for use in concretes that require low water/cement ratios and/or high-water reductions with excellent workability retention properties of up to 3 h. sika viscoflow®-2000 (gb) meets the requirements of en 934-2:2009+a1:2012. corn starch: the corn starch was procured from a local food vendor in rivers state, nigeria. it was dried at a room temperature of 22 ± 5°c to remove moisture content. this is because the batching by mass method was adopted for the experiment. the quantity of corn starch incorporated in the concrete mix is 10.5 kg/m3. the properties of native corn starch used in this study are given in table 5. table 5. properties of native corn starch from various sources. starch source granule diameter (µm) lipid (wt%) protein (wt%) phosphorus (wt%) amylopectin (%) amylose dp gelation temperature (°c) paste viscosity ucs (mpa) corn 32 0.53 0.33 0.04 27 80 78 medium 2.24 ± 0.62 dp denotes the degree of polymerization. source: authors’ own work. water. clean tap water for mixing the concrete aggregates at 277 kg/m3 was used. for concrete reinforcement, basalt textile also known as basalt fiber cloth or basalt woven textile was used for the concrete confinement. basalt textile (bt). bt is a sustainable material obtained by the melting and roving of the raw material known as basalt rock. this material was purchased in russia. bt is woven from continuous-filament basalt. bt are yarns manufactured to varying thickness, weight, weave pattern, and weaving technique according to end-use requirements with the following properties. the physical and mechanical properties of basalt textiles are indicated in table 6. i. good adhesion characteristics for coatings ii. non-combustible and fire-resistant iii. excellent tensile strength iv. maintains integrity at temperatures up to 982°c v. resistant to electromagnetic radiation vi. bt for high performance. table 6. physical and mechanical properties of bt. brand fabrics superficial density, g/m2 thickness, mm fabric density threads/cm breaking load n (kgf), not less than name weave the basis ducks the basis ducks bt-5 160±15 0.15±0.015 10+1 5±1 882 (90) 539 (55) linen 1/1 source: naftaros (n.d.). chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025182 experimental procedures to investigate some of the properties of lightweight periwinkle shell basalt textile confined concrete (lwpsbtcc), a series of mechanical and physical tests were carried out on the concrete specimens. the tests carried out were slump test, density test, compressive strength test, split tensile test, and water absorption test. they were carried out to determine the workability (w), density (ρ), compressive strength (fc), split tensile strength (fst), and water absorption rate (war) of the concrete specimen. to investigate the properties of this concrete type, 6 (six) concrete mix series were prepared. the coarse aggregate (10 mm fraction size granite) was replaced gradually by volume with periwinkle shells and cast. due to the replacement, the percentage of granite (g) to periwinkle shells (ps) for each variation that made up the six concrete mix series is shown in table 7. table 7. coarse aggregates for concrete mix series. coarse aggregate percentages coarse aggregate denotation 100%g–0%ps gps 1 80%g–20%ps gps 2 60%g–40%ps gps 3 40%g–60%ps gps 4 20%g–80%ps gps 5 0%g–100%ps gps 6 source: authors’ own work. this variation was made to determine the percentage replacement value that produced the lightest and strongest mix. a total number of 108 concrete cubes and 180 concrete cylinders were cast from the six concrete mix series. from each of the mix series, 18 concrete cube specimens of dimensions 100 × 100 × 100 mm were cast. ninety concrete cylinders from the 180 cylinders of 0100 × 100 × 200 mm height were confined in basalt textile (bt) while the other 90 concrete cylinders that were not confined in bt were regarded as control specimens. this was done to accurately determine the effect of bt on the pslwc. for each of the two sets of concrete cylinders (confined concrete cylinder and non-confined concrete cylinder), 15 concrete cylinders from each of the concrete mix series were prepared and cast. during the batching process, slump tests were carried out on all six concrete mix series to determine the effect of the periwinkle shells on the w of the concrete. the ρ tests were carried out on the concrete cubes 48 h after casting. the concrete mixes prepared were cast into metallic molds at room temperature (22 ± 5°c). after the concrete mix had been prepared to derive concrete paste for each mix series, some paste samples from each concrete mix series were poured in a slump cone to determine the concrete workability and then the concrete mix was poured inside a metallic mold (cubes and cylinders not confined in bt) based on their individual purposes. after pouring the paste into the cube molds, the individual molds were manually vibrated and then stored in a dry environment in the laboratory at a temperature of 22 ± 5°c. after 24 h from the casting hour, the hardened cubes were removed from the molds and cured in a curing tank until the individual testing day. the aim was to ensure a sufficient bond between the concrete and the basalt textile by ensuring the basalt textile was overlapped for a length equal to 1/3 of the circumference of the cylinder (d’anna, et al., 2021). equation (1) was employed to achieve this aim. overlap length   1 3 2 rh (1) chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025183 where r is the radius of the cylinder and h is the height of the cylinder. to achieve the bond between the concrete and the bt, the bt was folded to fit the height of the cylinder and the length of the bt to be inserted inside the cylindrical mold was made to match the circumference of the cylinder plus the overlap length according to equation (2). length of bt cylinder rap    1 3 2 2 rh rh (2) after the bt had been wrapped inside the cylinder mold with the bt length from equation (2), the concrete mixture was poured inside the mold and manual vibration was conducted on it to remove excessive pores. after this, the mold containing the concrete paste was stored in the laboratory at a temperature of 22 ± 5°c for 48 h before removing the hardened cylindrical concrete from the mold. the hardened cylindrical concrete (figure 4) was stored in a curing bath until the individual testing day. a single layer of bt was used in the confinement. figure 4. periwinkle shell lightweight concrete cylinder confined in basalt textile. source: authors’ own work. for the mechanical properties, the compressive strength (fc) and split tensile strength (fst) were tested. the fc tests were carried out on the concrete cubes and cylinders on days 7, 14, and 28 from the casting day. three concrete cubes and three concrete cylinders were tested on the respective days for fc. the fst was carried out on days 7 and 28 from the casting day. three concrete cubes and three concrete cylinders were tested on the respective days for fst. then, the water absorption of the concrete specimen for each aggregate percentage variation was determined using three cubes. the moe was then determined for the cubes, the cylinders confined in basalt textile, and the control specimen on day 28 using equation (3) according to aci 318-19. e w fc c c 1 5 0 043. . (3) where ec is the modulus of elasticity in gpa, wc is its density in kg/m³, and fc is the square of the compressive strength in mpa. results and analysis the results from the laboratory experiments and the numerical analysis done using the data from the experiments are discussed in this section. granite–periwinkle shell concrete workability slump tests were conducted on the six different concrete mix series. the variation in the percentages of granite and periwinkle shells is indicated in table 7. it was discovered in the slump value results (table 8) chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025184 that gps 1 has the highest slump value while gps 6 has the lowest slump value. from the results, there was a 66.67% reduction in the slump value of the concrete mix series when compared between gps 1 and gps 6. the increase in the percentage of periwinkle shells and the decrease in the percentage of granite caused the workability of the concrete to reduce, which is linked to the structural and textural qualities of the periwinkle shell, confirming some research (agbede and manasseh, 2009; eboibi, akpokodje and uguru, 2022), which noted that based on the structural and textural qualities of the periwinkle shells, the ps requires more water in the cement to produce workable concrete than smooth and rounded aggregates, which also give ps good bonding properties with the cement and improve the properties of the concrete. table 8. slump value of the different concrete mix series at different percentages of coarse aggregates. percentage variation gps 1 gps 2 gps 3 gps 4 gps 5 gps 6 slump value (cm) 7.5 6.5 4 3.5 3 2.5 source: authors’ own work. granite–periwinkle shell concrete density results of the densities of the different concrete mix series are given in table 9. the densities of the concrete cubes produced with periwinkle shells were affected by the increase in the percentages of ps and the decrease in the percentages of granite. as presented in the results, there is a gradual reduction in the density of the concrete cube specimens as the content of periwinkle shells increased along with the decrease in the percentage of granite. it was observed that the variations gps 1, gps 2, and gps 3 did not achieve the status of lwc but rather fell into the category of normal-weight concrete. this is because its densities were more than 2,000 kg/m³ while the variations gps 4, gps 5, and gps 6 achieved densities of less than 2,000 kg/m³ and therefore can be classified as lightweight concrete according to standards (bs en 206:2013). the density of concrete mix with gps 6 was 1,740 kg/m³, which is 22.74% lower than the density of concrete mix with gps 1. this corresponds with the range identified in the study by jihad and ali (2014) where the researchers simply defined lwc as concrete with a dry density of 300 to 2,000 kg/m³ and a cube compressive strength of 1 to 60 mpa. lightweight periwinkle shell concrete can be used as a replacement for normal concrete. the concrete produced during this experiment falls under the description of lightweight concrete and normal-weight concrete depending on the density. also, the concrete demonstrated excellent load-bearing capacity. table 9. the density of the different concrete mix. percentage variation gps 1 gps 2 gps 3 gps 4 gps 5 gps 6 density, kg/m³ 2,252 2,158 2,057 1,983 1,833 1,740 source: authors’ own work. water absorption table 10 and figure 5 show the rate of water absorption (%) for the concrete cube specimens at different aggregate variations. from the results, it is observed that the rate of water absorption varies depending on the concrete mix. the concrete containing more periwinkle shell, that is, concrete with gps 5 and gps 6, has a higher rate of absorption at 4.89% and 4.18%, respectively. the concrete that had lower rates of water absorption were the ones that contained little or no periwinkle shells such as the variations gps 1 and gps chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025185 2 at 1.89% and 2.38%, respectively. this can be attributed to the texture and structure of the periwinkle shell as noted in the study by eboibi, akpokodje and uguru (2022). table 10. the water absorption rate of concrete cube specimens at different mix series. percentage variation dry weight, kg/m³ wet weight at 24 h, kg/m³ rate of absorption, % gps 1 2.324 2.368 1.89 gps 2 2.182 2.234 2.38 gps 3 2.068 2.124 2.71 gps 4 1.94 2.002 3.2 gps 5 1.82 1.896 4.18 gps 6 1.76 1.846 4.89 source: authors’ own work. 0.00% 1.00% 2.00% 3.00% 4.00% 5.00% 6.00% gps 1 gps 2 gps 3 gps 4 gps 5 gps 6 w at er a bs or pt io n ra te , % coarse aggregate variations water absorption rate, % figure 5. rate of water absorption of concrete cube specimen. source: authors’ own work. mechanical properties of the granite–periwinkle shell concrete table 11 shows the compressive strength (fc) and split tensile strength (fst) of the concrete cubes and concrete cylinders confined (wrapped) and not wrapped in basalt textile. the fc tests were conducted on days 7, 14, and 28 after casting while the fst tests were conducted on days 7 and 28 after casting. compressive strength of the concrete cubes. figure 6 displays the relationship between the compressive strength (fc) of the concrete cubes and the percentage variation of aggregates on the 7th, 14th, and 28th days after casting. it is observed that an increase in the quantity of ps replacement of g resulted in a decrease in the fc of the cubes. this is consistent for the 7th, 14th, and 28th days after casting for all coarse aggregate percentage variations in the concrete. it is observed that the concrete mix that obtained the highest strength on the 28th day is gps 1 at the strength of 37 n/mm2. among the variations that contain periwinkle shells, the gps 2 obtained the highest strength of 33 n/mm2 on the 28th day. these results conform with the research study (aboshio, shuaibu and abdulwahab 2018; dahiru, yusuf and paul, 2018). chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025186 split tensile strength of the concrete cubes. figure 7 illustrates the relationship between the split tensile strength (fsts) of the concrete cubes and the different mix variations on the 7th and 28th day after casting. an increase in the quantity of periwinkle shell replacement of granite resulted in the gradual reduction of the fst of the cubes. this is consistent for all testing days after casting for the mix variations. from the results, the concrete mix variation gps 1, which contains no periwinkle shells, obtained the highest fsts of 6.12 n/mm2. among the variations that contain periwinkle shells, gps 2 obtained the highest fsts of 5.58 n/mm2 on the 28th day. the research study by omisande and onugba (2020) confirms the results of this study. compressive strength of the concrete cylinders unconfined in basalt textiles. in figure 8, the fc values of the concrete cylinder control specimen are illustrated. it is observed that the fc of the specimen reduces with the increase of periwinkle shells as a replacement for granite. the variation that achieved the highest fc of 32 n/mm² is gps 1, which contains no periwinkle shells. the remaining variation achieved fc values of 29, 26, 21, 19, and 16 n/mm2, respectively, with the variation gps 2 obtaining the highest fc among the variations containing percentages of periwinkle shells. these results conform with those of other research studies (aboshio, shuaibu and abdulwahab 2018; dahiru, yusuf and paul, 2018). table 11. concrete compressive and split tensile strength results. coarse aggregate variation curing period concrete cubes concrete cylinders not confined in bt (control specimen) cylinders (confined in basalt textile) fc, n/mm2 fst, n/mm2 fc, n/mm2 fst, n/mm2 fc, n/mm2 fst, n/mm2 gps 1 7th 26 4.03 23 3.46 30 4.33 14th 33 29 39 28th 37 5.72 32 4.9 43 6.12 gps 2 7th 24 3.25 21 3.15 27 3.95 14th 30 26 35 28th 33 4.61 29 4.46 38 5.58 gps 3 7th 21 2.9 18 2.84 25 3.56 14th 27 24 32 28th 30 4.15 26 4.03 35 5.03 gps 4 7th 19 2.54 15 2.62 20 3.27 14th 24 19 25 28th 27 3.65 21 3.7 28 4.62 gps 5 7th 17 2.19 13 2.30 18 2.88 14th 22 17 23 28th 25 3.12 19 3.26 25 4.08 gps 6 7th 15 1.7 11 1.92 16 2.41 14th 19 14 20 28th 21 2.41 16 2.72 22 3.4 source: authors’ own work. chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025187 figure 9 shows the pattern at which the concrete cylinder not confined in basalt textile failed under compressive test. it is observed that the concrete did not show much noticeable fatigue, but a gradual crack cut growth. compressive strength of concrete cylinders confined in basalt textile. the fc values of the concrete cylinders confined in bt are illustrated in figure 10. this was done to show the relationship between the aggregate percentage variations and the fc. it was observed that the fc of the concrete specimens reduced gradually as the percentage of pss increased. it was also observed that the concrete increased in fc on the 7th, 14th, and 28th day after casting. this increase was seen in variations of the concrete mix. the variation 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 gps 1 gps 2 gps 3 gps 4 gps 5 gps 6 sp lit t en si le s tr en gt h, n /m m ² coarse aggregate variations 7 days 28 days figure 7. split tensile strength (n/mm2) against percentage variation (%) for cube specimens. source: authors’ own work. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 gps 1 gps 2 gps 3 gps 4 gps 5 gps 6 co m pr es si ve s tr en gt h, n /m m ² coarse aggregate variations 7 days 14 days 28 days figure 6. compressive strength (n/mm2) against percentage variation (%) for cube specimens. source: authors’ own work. chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025188 that obtained the highest fc was the gps 1, which contained no periwinkle shells. among the variations containing periwinkle shells, the specimen with gps 2 obtained the highest fc of 43 n/mm2. the variation that obtained the lowest fc was the variation gps 6 with a compressive strength of 22 n/mm2. these findings support the results of the study by zhang, et al. (2023), which stated that confining basalt textile on concrete improved the compressive strength of the concrete. the split tensile strength of the concrete cylinders unconfined in basalt textiles. figure 11 shows the relationship between the fsts and the aggregate percentage variation of the concrete cylinders not confined to basalt textiles. it was observed that there was a gradual decrease in the fsts of the concrete cylinders as the percentage of pss increased. this trend is consistent for both the 7th and 28th day after casting. for the 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 gps 1 gps 2 gps 3 gps 4 gps 5 gps 6 co m pr es si ve s tr en gt h, n /m m ² coarse aggregate variations 7 days 14 days 28 days figure 8. compressive strength (n/mm2) against percentage variation (%) for cylinders without confinement (control specimens). source: authors’ own work. figure 9. failure pattern of the basalt textile not confined concrete cylinder under compressive test. source: authors’ own work. chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025189 variations gps 1, gps 2, gps 3, gps 4, gps 5, and gps 6, the fsts obtained was 4.9, 4.46, 4.03, 3.7, 3.26, and 2.72 n/mm2 respectively. the study by omisande and onugba (2020) confirms the results of this study. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 gps 1 gps 2 gps 3 gps 4 gps 5 gps 6 sp lit t en si le s tr en gt h, n /m m ² coarse aggregate variations 7 days 28 days figure 11. split tensile strength (n/mm2) against percentage variation (%) for cylinders without confinement (control specimen). source: authors’ own work. split tensile strength of the concrete cylinders confined with basalt textile. figure 12 shows the failure pattern of the concrete cylinder confined basalt textile where the concrete did not split completely, and the cut developed gradually. during the failure of the specimen under the split tensile test, it was observed that the main crack became wider on one side than the other, resulting in the specimen failure. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 gps 1 gps 2 gps 3 gps 4 gps 5 gps 6 co m pr es si ve s tr en gt h, n /m m ² coarse aggregate variations 7 days 14 days 28 days figure 10. compressive strength (n/mm2) against percentage variation (%) for cylinders confined in basalt textile. source: authors’ own work. chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025190 figure 12. failure pattern of the basalt textile-confined concrete under tensile test. source: authors’ own work. the fst of the concrete confined in bt on the 7th and 28th day after casting are illustrated in figure 13 for all variations of the aggregate percentages. the fst of the concrete cylinders reduced with an increase in the replacement of granite with periwinkle shells. the gps 1 variation obtained the highest fst of 6.12 n/mm2 while the gps 6 variation obtained the lowest fst of 3.4 n/mm2. the variation containing periwinkle shells that obtained the highest fst on the 28th day after casting is gps 2 with a value of 5.58 n/ mm2. the research results presented in the study conducted by zhang, et al. (2023) support the results of this current study. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 gps 1 gps 2 gps 3 gps 4 gps 5 gps 6 sp lit t en si le s tr en gt h, n /m m ² coarse aggregate variations 7 days 28 days figure 13. split tensile strength (n/mm2) against percentage variation (%) for cylinders confined in basalt textile. source: authors’ own work. to understand the effect of bt on the strength of the different concrete mix series in hardened concrete cylinders, comparisons of the fc and fsts are given in table 12 and figure 14 for fc and in table 13 and figure 15 for fsts. figure 14 shows the fc comparing the concrete cylinder confined and unconfined in bt at 28 days. the comparison is done for the cylinders for all the variations of the concrete mix. it was observed that the concrete cylinders confined in bt obtained a considerably higher fc than the concrete cylinders unconfined in bt (control specimen). the percentage increases in the fc of the cylinders confined in bt are given in table 12. from the table, the aggregate percentage variations gps 1, gps 2, gps 3, gps 4, gps 5, and chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025191 gps 6 experienced a 34, 31, 34, 42, 31.5, and 37.5 percentage increase of the fc for the concrete cylinders confined in bt as compared to the control specimen (concrete cylinder unconfined in bt), respectively. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 gps 1 gps 2 gps 3 gps 4 gps 5 gps 6 co m pr es si ve s tr en gt h, n /m m ² coarse aggregate variations cylinders (not confined in basalt textile) cylinders (confined in basalt textile) figure 14. comparison of compressive strength of cylinders (control specimen) and cylinders confined in basalt textile on day 28. source: authors’ own work. figure 15 shows a comparison of the fsts of the concrete control specimen cylinders and concrete cylinders confined in bt. the comparison is done for all the variations of the concrete mix on the 28th day after casting. from the figure, it is observed that the cylinders confined in bt obtained a higher fsts than the control specimen. the percentage increases in fsts of the cylinders confined in bt are shown in table 13. from the table, the aggregate percentage variations gps 1, gps 2, gps 3, gps 4, gps 5, and gps 6 experienced a 24.9, 25.11, 24.81, 24.86, 25.15, and 25 percentage increase in the fsts of the cylinders confined in bt as compared to the control specimen, respectively. table 12. compressive strength comparison between concrete confined and unconfined in bt on day 28. variation (%) fc, n/mm2 strength increase (%) concrete unconfined in bt concrete confined in bt gps 1 32 43 34 gps 2 29 38 31 gps 3 26 35 34 gps 4 21 28 42 gps 5 19 25 31.5 gps 6 16 22 37.5 source: authors’ own work. chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025192 modulus of elasticity to determine the modulus of elasticity, equation (3) was solved for concrete mix bearing their individual coarse aggregate variation percentages. hence, table 14 and figure 16 show the moe of concrete cube specimens, while table 15 shows the moe of the concrete cylinders all at different coarse aggregate variation percentages. the modulus of elasticity against fc of concrete cube specimens on the 28th day after casting is illustrated in figure 16. from the graph plotted, it is observed that a reduction in the fc of the concrete resulted in a reduction of the modulus of elasticity, indicating that the growth in the percentages of periwinkle shells with a decrease in the percentages of granite caused the reduction in the modulus of elasticity. the results of the modulus of elasticity obtained in this study conform to the analysis of previous research (ahsan, et al., 2022; zhu, et al., 2024). 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 gps 1 gps 2 gps 3 gps 4 gps 5 gps 6 sp lit t en si le s tr en gt h, n /m m ² coarse aggregate variations cylinders (not confined in basalt textile) cylinders (confined in basalt textile) figure 15. comparison of split tensile strength of concrete cylinder (control specimen) and cylinders confined in bt. source: authors’ own work. table 13. split tensile strength comparison between concrete confined and unconfined in bt on the 28th day. variation (%) fsts, n/mm2 strength increase (%) concrete unconfined in bt concrete confined in bt gps 1 4.9 6.12 24.9 gps 2 4.46 5.58 25.11 gps 3 4.03 5.03 24.81 gps 4 3.7 4.62 24.86 gps 5 3.26 4.08 25.15 gps 6 2.72 3.4 25 source: authors’ own work. chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025193 the densities and moe of concrete cylinders are presented in table 15. the data show that the concrete cylinder that obtained a lower fc also obtained lower density and moe. the observable trend from the results is that with a decrease in the fc of the concrete cylinders, there was a decrease in the density and moe of the respective concrete cylinders. the moe percentage increases of each unconfined concrete cylinder to bt-confined concrete cylinder are given in table 15. concrete cylinders with variation percentages of gps 6 had the highest increase of moe between the control specimen and the bt-confined concrete at 17.9%. according to the experimental study by chiadighikaobi, et al. (2022), confining concrete in basalt fiberreinforced polymer improved the modulus of elasticity of the concrete, which conforms with the results of this current study. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 8.8 7.8 6.9 6.2 5.3 4.5 a ve ra ge c om pr es si ve s tr en gt h, n /m m ² modulus of elasticty, n/mm² x 10^ -10 day 28 figure 16. relationship graph between average compressive strength (n/mm²) and modulus of elasticity (n/mm²) of cubes. source: authors’ own work. table 14. modulus of elasticity of concrete cube specimens at 28 days. % variation σ (kg/mm³) average fc (n/mm²) moe (n/mm²) gps 1 0.000002252 37 8.83938e−10 gps 2 0.000002158 33 7.83074e−10 gps 3 0.000002057 30 6.94833e−10 gps 4 0.000001983 27 6.23928e−10 gps 5 0.000001833 25 5.33559e−10 gps 6 0.00000174 21 4.52274e−10 source: authors’ own work. chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025194 economic impact of the use of basalt textile and periwinkle shell on managing the construction of concrete structures in nigeria basalt textile compared to conventional steel reinforcement the potential and properties of basalt textiles have been established in literature reviews and in this study. basalt textile originates from a volcanic rock known as basalt rock. the production process of basalt textile is free from any additives and it is ecologically friendly. the cost of basalt materials is cheaper than that of steel materials (adejuyigbe, chiadighikaobi and okpara, 2019). our rationale for proposing basalt is that due to the numerous industrial functions that have contributed to environmental pollution worldwide, including the fusion that results from the production of structural steel, sustainable and environmentally friendly materials that are better able to lower the rate of environmental pollution should be considered when replacing older ones. in the event of a disaster like an earthquake, the rate at which structures will sustain damage can be reduced by using basalt textiles as reinforcement in concrete. this capability represents a cost–benefit innovation that can promote sustainable environmental practices in structures by enabling better structural repair. periwinkle shell compared to granite and crushed stone natural aggregates are expected to run out soon due to the building industry’s rapid expansion, which will drive up the price of concrete materials. because of the inadequacy of these traditional building materials— granite, crushed stone, cement, etc.—and the fact that local demand for these materials far outpaces local supply, the cost of construction projects in nigeria—such as buildings, roads, pavements, etc.—has been steadily rising. waste is generally of lesser economic value unless recycled. hence, periwinkle shell, a by-product readily available locally and with little economic value, has a greater economic impact in concrete production than conventional concrete coarse aggregates. using periwinkle to make concrete lowers production costs while conserving natural resources and safeguarding the environment. the experimental analysis conducted in this study has proven that using periwinkle shells in concrete reduces the density of the concrete, hence creating a lightweight concrete that has a greater positive economic impact than the normal-weight concrete. table 15. modulus of elasticity of concrete cylinders on the 28th day. % variation concrete cylinders σ (kg/mm³) average fc, (n/mm²) moe (n/mm²) moe increase (%) control specimens confined with bt control specimens confined with bt control specimens confined with bt gps 1 0.000002261 0.000002262 32 43 8.26979e−10 9.58636e−10 15.6 gps 2 0.00000215 0.00000217 29 38 7.35103e−10 8.41474e−10 13.5 gps 3 0.00000206 0.00000207 26 35 6.4827e−10 7.52148e−10 15.4 gps 4 0.000001981 0.000001983 21 28 5.49837e−10 6.34897e−10 14.5 gps 5 0.000001839 0.000001841 19 25 4.68194e−10 5.37055e−10 14.9 gps 6 0.000001737 0.000001738 16 22 3.94097e−10 4.6212e−10 17.9 source: authors’ own work. chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025195 furthermore, the cost analysis showed that using 100% periwinkle shell as a coarse aggregate would result in a cost saving of 24%, and using 30% instead of granite as a coarse aggregate would result in a cost saving of 6.8% (soneye, et al., 2016). conclusions from the experimental study and analysis, it was discovered that: 1. the results from the slump tests revealed that the concrete mix series with 100%g and 0%ps had more slump value while 0%g and 100%ps had the lowest slump value. this shows that the increase in the quantity of periwinkle and the decrease in the quantity of granite caused a reduction in the workability of the concrete. this conforms with research reports (agbede and manasseh, 2009; eboibi, akpokodje and uguru 2022) that noted that based on the structural and textural qualities of the periwinkle shells, the ps requires more water in the cement to produce workable concrete than smooth and rounded aggregates, which also give ps good bonding properties with the cement and improve the properties of the concrete. 2. as the percentages of periwinkle shells increase with a decrease in the percentages of granite in the concrete series, the density of the concrete is reduced. this corresponds with the range identified in jihad and ali (2014), where the researchers simply defined lwc as concrete with a dry density of 300 to 2,000 kg/m³ and a cube compressive strength of 1 to 60 mpa. 3. the durability of the concrete was checked by analyzing the rate of water absorption. it was discovered that an increase in the percentage of periwinkle shells and a decrease in the percentage of granite increased the rate of water absorption. hence, gps 1 had the lowest rate of water absorption, while gps 6 had the highest rate of water absorption at 1.89% and 4.89%, respectively. this can be attributed to the texture and structure of the periwinkle shell, as noted in the study by eboibi, akpokodje and uguru (2022). 4. during this research study, the mechanical properties of lightweight periwinkle shell concrete confined in basalt textiles were investigated and determined. through a series of mechanical tests, the mechanical properties were obtained and analyzed to determine the suitability of the concrete for construction. it was discovered that as the percentages of the periwinkle shells increased with the decrease in the percentages of granite, the compressive strength of the concrete decreased and these results conform with aboshio, shuaibu and abdulwahab (2018), while the split tensile strength of the concrete decreased under the same condition as the compression tests. the research by omisande and onugba (2020) confirms the results of this current study. when the concrete cylinders were wrapped with basalt textile, the hardened concrete’s compressive strength and split tensile strength increased. this supports the findings of the study by zhang, et al. (2023). 5. this study showed a decrease in the modulus of elasticity of the concrete as the percentages of the periwinkle shells increased while the percentages of granite decreased. the modulus of elasticity obtained in this study supports the analysis of previous research (zhu, et al., 2024; ahsan, et al., 2022). however, when concrete was wrapped with basalt fiber textile, an increase in the modulus of elasticity was achieved on the individual hardened mix series. this supports the findings of chiadighikaobi, et al. (2022). according to the results obtained in this study, it can be concluded that the periwinkle shell concrete produced with periwinkle shells can be labeled as lightweight concrete depending on the amount of granite replaced. furthermore, it was determined that the pslc did not attain a higher compressive and split tensile strength than normal aggregate concrete. regardless, its strength still makes it applicable for chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025196 construction purposes. the effects of basalt textile on the pslc were also found to be beneficial, as it increased the load-bearing capacity of the concrete. pslc is suitable for structural construction, and the study determined that periwinkle shells can be used to produce structural lwc, where an analysis of the possibility of producing lwc with periwinkle shells was given. the adoption of use of periwinkle shells will result in the reduction of the use of natural resources and provide a method of disposal for the periwinkle shells that heavily litter the environment. moreover, by adopting the use of pslc confined in basalt textiles, another avenue for its use is obtained. this is because concrete confined in basalt textile can be used for the repair of structures. it would be beneficial to both the economy and the environment to embrace this concrete to promote the development and construction of sustainable infrastructure in nigeria due to the economic and structural potentials of bt and ps on the concrete. acknowledgments this research and publication did not receive any funding. references aboshio, a., shuaibu, h.g. and abdulwahab, m.t., 2018. properties of rice husk ash concrete with periwinkle shell as coarse aggregates. nigerian journal of technological development, 15(2), p.33. https://doi.org/10.4314/njtd.v15i2.1 aci committee 318, 2019. aci 318-19: building code requirements for structural concrete and commentary, usa. adejuyigbe, i.b., chiadighikaobi, p.c. and okpara, d.a., 2019. sustainability comparison for steel and basalt fiber reinforcement, landfills, leachate reservoirs and multi-functional structure. civil engineering journal, [online] 5(1), pp.172–180. https://doi.org/10.28991/cej-2019-03091235 agbede, o.i. and manasseh, j., 2009. suitability of periwinkle shell as partial replacement for river gravel in concrete. leonardo electronic journal of practices and technologies, 15(2), pp.59-66 ahsan, m.h., siddique, m.s., farooq, s.h., usman, m., ul aleem, m.a., hussain, m. and hanif, a., 2022. mechanical behavior of high-strength concrete incorporating seashell powder at elevated temperatures. journal of building engineering, [online] 50, p.104226. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2022.104226 akadiri, p.o., chinyio, e.a. and olomolaiye, p.o., 2022. design of a sustainable building: a conceptual framework for implementing sustainability in the building sector. buildings, [online] 2(2), pp.126–152. https://doi.org/10.3390/ buildings2020126 alexander, a.e. and shashikala, a.p., 2020. sustainability of construction with textile reinforced concrete-a state of the art. in iop conference series: materials science and engineering, 936(1), p.012006. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757899x/936/1/012006 aliyu, s.i., kwami, i.a. and sani, a., 2022. developed prediction models for compressive strength of periwinkle shell concrete using ultrasonic pulse velocity test. african journal of advanced sciences and technology research, 4(1), pp.39-49. https://publications.afropolitanjournals.com/index.php/ajastr/article/view/157/94 althoey, f., ansari, w.s., sufian, m. and deifalla, a. f., 2023. advancements in low-carbon concrete as a construction material for the sustainable built environment. developments in the built environment, 16, 100284. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.dibe.2023.100284 astm international [astm], 2017. standard specification for lightweight aggregates for structural concrete (astm c330/c330m17a). west conshohocken, pa: astm international chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025197 https://doi.org/10.4314/njtd.v15i2.1 https://doi.org/10.28991/cej-2019-03091235 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2022.104226 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings2020126 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings2020126 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/936/1/012006 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/936/1/012006 https://publications.afropolitanjournals.com/index.php/ajastr/article/view/157/94 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dibe.2023.100284 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dibe.2023.100284 backes, j.g. and traverso, m., 2021. application of life cycle sustainability assessment in the construction sector: a systematic literature review. processes, 9(7), p.1248. https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9071248 bs en 197-1, 2011. cement. composition, specifications and conformity criteria for common cements. bs en 206, 2013. concrete specification, performance, production and conformity (+a2:2021). chalioris, c.e., papadopoulos, c.d., pourzitidis, c.n., fotis, d. and sideris, k.k., 2013. application of a reinforced self-compacting concrete jacket in damaged reinforced concrete beams under monotonic and repeated loading. journal of engineering, 2013, 912983. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/912983 chiadighikaobi, p.c., muritala, a.a., abu mahadi, m.i., abd noor, a.a., ibitogbe, e.m., & niazmand, a.m., 2022. mechanical characteristics of hardened basalt fiber expanded clay concrete cylinders. case studies in construction materials, 17, e01368. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cscm.2022.e01368 choi, j., 2019. strategy for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from maintenance and rehabilitation of highway pavement. journal of cleaner production, 209, pp.88–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.10.226 chowdhury, i.r., pemberton, r. and summerscales, j., 2022. developments and industrial applications of basalt fibre reinforced composite materials. journal of composites science, 6(12), p.367. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs6120367 d’anna, j., amato, g., jian fei chen, minafò, g. and lidia la mendola., 2021. experimental investigation on bfrcm confinement of masonry cylinders and comparison with bfrp system. construction and building materials, 297, 123671–123671. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.123671 dahiru, d., yusuf, u.s. and paul, n.j., 2018. characteristics of concrete produced with periwinkle and palm kernel shells as aggregates. futy journal of the environment, 12(1), pp.42-61. dauda, a.m., akinmusuru, j.o., dauda, o.a., durotoye, t.o., ogundipe, k.e. and oyesomi, k.o., 2018. geotechnical properties of lateritic soil stabilized with periwinkle shells powder. international journal civil engineering technology, 10, pp.2014–2025. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201811.0100.v1 eboibi, o., akpokodje, o.i. and uguru, h., 2022. evaluation of organic enhancer on the mechanical properties of periwinkle shells concrete. journal of engineering innovations and applications, 1(1), pp.13-22. https://doi.org/10.31248/ jeia2022.020 ede, a.n., gideon, p.o., akpabot, a.i., oyebisi, s.o., olofinnade, o.m. and nduka, d.o., 2021. review of the properties of lightweight aggregate concrete produced from recycled plastic waste and periwinkle shells. key engineering materials, 876, pp.83–87. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/kem.876.83 elegbede, i.o., lawal-are, a., oloyede, r., sanni, r.o., jolaosho, t.l., goussanou, a. and ngo-massou, v.m., 2023. proximate, minerals, carotenoid and trypsin inhibitor composition in the exoskeletons of seafood gastropods and their potentials for sustainable circular utilisation. scientific reports, [online] 13(1), p.13064. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598023-38345-w emeghai, j.c. and orie, o.u., 2021. mechanical properties of concrete with agricultural waste as a partial substitute for granite as coarse aggregate. pakistan journal of engineering and technology, 4(2), pp.5-12. https://doi.org/10.51846/ vol4iss2pp5-12 emiero, c. and oyedepo, o.j., 2012. an investigation on the strength and workability of concrete using palm kernel shell and palm kernel fibre as a coarse aggregate. international journal of scientific & engineering research, 3(4), pp.1-5. en 934-2:2009+a1:2012(main). admixtures for concrete, mortar and grout part 2: concrete admixtures definitions, requirements, conformity, marking and labelling. eziefu, u.g., opara, h.e. and anya, c.u., 2017. mechanical properties of palm kernel shell concrete in comparison with periwinkle shell concrete. malaysian journal of civil engineering, 29(1), pp.1-14. https://www.researchgate.net/ chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025198 https://doi.org/10.3390/pr9071248 https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/912983 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cscm.2022.e01368 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.10.226 https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs6120367 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2021.123671 https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201811.0100.v1 https://doi.org/10.31248/jeia2022.020 https://doi.org/10.31248/jeia2022.020 https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/kem.876.83 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-38345-w https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-38345-w https://doi.org/10.51846/vol4iss2pp5-12 https://doi.org/10.51846/vol4iss2pp5-12 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318590102_mechanical_properties_of_palm_kernel_shell_concrete_in_comparison_with_periwinkle_shell_concrete publication/318590102_mechanical_properties_of_palm_kernel_shell_concrete_in_comparison_with_periwinkle_ shell_concrete https://doi.org/10.11113/mjce.v29.15585 falade, f., ikponmwosa, e.e., and ojediran, n.i., 2010. behaviour of lightweight concrete containing periwinkle shells at elevated temperature. journal of engineering science and technology, 5(4), pp.379–390. gopinath, s., murthy, a.r., iyer, n.r. and prabha, m., 2015. behaviour of reinforced concrete beams strengthened with basalt textile reinforced concrete. journal of industrial textiles, 44(6), pp.924-933. https://doi. org/10.1177/1528083714521068 iced, n.d. construction sector employment in low-income countries: size of the sector. [online] available at: http:// icedfacility.org/resource/construction-sector-employment-low-income-countries-size-sector/ ifeanyi, o.e., chima, a.d. and chukwudubem, n.j., 2023. structural behavior of concrete produced using palm kernel shell (pks) as a partial substitute for coarse aggregate. american journal of innovation in science and engineering, 2(1), pp. 1–7. https://doi.org/10.54536/ajise.v2i1.1228 isang, i.w., 2023. a historical review of sustainable construction in nigeria: a decade of development and progression. frontiers in engineering and built environment, 3(2), pp.1-15. https://doi.org/10.1108/febe-02-2023-0010 jihad, h.m. and ali, j.h., 2014. a classification of lightweight concrete: materials, properties and application review. international journal of advanced engineering applications, 7(1), pp.52-57. kaja, n. and goyal, s., 2023. impact of construction activities on environment. international journal of engineering technologies and management research, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.29121/ijetmr.v10.i1.2023.1277 koutas, l.n. and bournas, d.a., 2020. confinement of masonry columns with textile-reinforced mortar jackets. construction and building materials, 258, p.120343. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.120343 kumbhar, v.p., 2014. an overview: basalt rock fibers-new construction material. acta engineering international, 2(1), pp.11-18. liu, s., wang, x., rawat, p., chen, z., shi, c. and zhu, d., 2021. experimental study and analytical modeling on tensile performance of basalt textile reinforced concrete. construction and building materials, 267, p.120972. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.120972 mahmoud, k.m., sallam, e.a. and ibrahim, h.m.h., 2022. behavior of partially strengthened r.c. columns from two or three sides of the perimeter. case studies in construction materials, e01180. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cscm.2022. e01180 manjunatha, m., preethi, s., malingaraya, mounika, h.g., niveditha, k.n. and ravi., 2021. life cycle assessment (lca) of concrete prepared with sustainable cement-based materials. materials today: proceedings., 47, pp.3637–3644. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.01.248 mavi, r.k., gengatharen, d., mavi, n.k., hughes, r., campbell, a. and yates, r., 2021. sustainability in construction projects: a systematic literature review. sustainability, [online] 13(4), p.1932. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041932 mohammed, j.h. and hamad, a.j., 2014. materials, properties and application review of lightweight concrete. technical review of the faculty of engineering university of zulia, 37(2), pp.10-15. mujalli, m.a., dirar, s., mushtaha, e., hussien, a. and maksoud, a., 2022. evaluation of the tensile characteristics and bond behaviour of steel fibre-reinforced concrete: an overview. fibers, 10(12), p.104. https://doi.org/10.3390/ fib10120104 mukhopadhyay, s. and shruti k., 2015. a review on the use of fibers in reinforced cementitious concrete. journal of industrial textiles, 45(2), p.239–264. https://doi.org/10.1177/1528083714529806 chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025199 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318590102_mechanical_properties_of_palm_kernel_shell_concrete_in_comparison_with_periwinkle_shell_concrete https://www.researchgate.net/publication/318590102_mechanical_properties_of_palm_kernel_shell_concrete_in_comparison_with_periwinkle_shell_concrete https://doi.org/10.11113/mjce.v29.15585 https://doi.org/10.1177/1528083714521068 https://doi.org/10.1177/1528083714521068 http://icedfacility.org/resource/construction-sector-employment-low-income-countries-size-sector/ http://icedfacility.org/resource/construction-sector-employment-low-income-countries-size-sector/ https://doi.org/10.54536/ajise.v2i1.1228 https://doi.org/10.1108/febe-02-2023-0010 https://doi.org/10.29121/ijetmr.v10.i1.2023.1277 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.120343 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.120972 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2020.120972 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cscm.2022.e01180 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cscm.2022.e01180 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2021.01.248 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13041932 https://doi.org/10.3390/fib10120104 https://doi.org/10.3390/fib10120104 https://doi.org/10.1177/1528083714529806 murthy, i.n. and rao, j.b., 2016. investigations on physical and chemical properties of high silica sand, fe-cr slag and blast furnace slag for foundry applications. procedia environmental sciences, 35, pp.583–596. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. proenv.2016.07.045 naftaros, n.d. basalt fibers, fabrics, mesh. available at: http://naftaros.ru/articles/21/index.html (accessed: 24th may, 2023) natarajan, e., sekar, s.m., markandan, k., ang, c.k. and franz, g., 2024. tailoring basalt fibers and e-glass fibers as reinforcements for increased impact resistance. journal of composites science, 8(4), pp.137–137. https://doi.org/10.3390/ jcs8040137 nilimaa, j., 2023. smart materials and technologies for sustainable concrete construction. developments in the built environment, 15, p.100177. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dibe.2023.100177 nwachukwu, o., 2024. (nesrea) and the challenges of environmental regulation in nigeria. british journal of mass communication and media research, 4(1), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.52589/bjmcmr-fljqlr8s odeyemi, s.o., abdulwahab, r., adeniyi, a.g. and atoyebi, o.d., 2020. physical and mechanical properties of cement-bonded particle board produced from african balsam tree (populous balsamifera) and periwinkle shell residues. results in engineering, 3, p.100126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2020.100126 ogundipe, k.e., ogunbayo, b.f., olofinnade, o.m., amusan, l.m. and aigbavboa, c.o., 2021. affordable housing issue: experimental investigation on properties of eco-friendly lightweight concrete produced from incorporating periwinkle and palm kernel shells. results in engineering, 9, p.100193. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2020.100193 ogunkan, d.v., 2022. achieving sustainable environmental governance in nigeria: a review for policy consideration. urban governance, 2(1), pp.212–220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ugj.2022.04.004 oke, a.e., aliu, j., odia, o.a., aigbavboa, c.o., jamir singh, p.s., awuzie, b.o. and samsurijan, m.s., 2023. a quantitative assessment of key drivers for environmental economic practices adoption for sustainable development. sustainable development, 31(5), pp.3579–3594. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2612 olugbenga, j.o., 2016. evaluation of the properties of lightweight concrete using periwinkle shells as a partial replacement for coarse aggregate. journal of applied sciences and environmental management, 20(3), p.498. https://doi. org/10.4314/jasem.v20i3.2 omisande, l.a. and onugba, m.a., 2020. sustainable concrete using periwinkle shell as coarse aggregate–a review. journal of mechanical and civil engineering (iosr-jmce), 17(6), pp.17-22. osadebe, n.n. and ibearugbulem o.m., 2009. application of scheffe’s simplex model in optimizing compressive strength of periwinkle shell granite concrete. the heartland engineer, 4(1), pp.27–38. osarenmwinda, j.o. and awaro, a.o., 2009. the potential use of periwinkle shell as coarse aggregate for concrete. advanced materials research, 62, pp.39-43. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.62-64.39 osei, d.y. and jackson, e.n., 2012. experimental study on palm kernel shells as coarse aggregates in concrete. international journal of scientific and engineering research, 3(8), pp.1-6. oyedepo, o.j., olanitori, l.m. and olukanni, e.o., 2015. investigation of palm kernel shell as partial replacement for aggregate in asphaltic concrete. malaysian journal of civil engineering, 27(2), pp.223-234. https://doi.org/10.11113/ mjce.v27.15921 oyejobi, d.o., jameel, m., sulong, n.h.r., raji, s.a. and ibrahim, h.a., 2020. prediction of optimum compressive strength of light-weight concrete containing nigerian palm kernel shells. journal of king saud university engineering sciences, 32(5), pp.303-309. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2019.04.001 chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025200 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proenv.2016.07.045 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proenv.2016.07.045 http://naftaros.ru/articles/21/index.html https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs8040137 https://doi.org/10.3390/jcs8040137 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dibe.2023.100177 https://doi.org/10.52589/bjmcmr-fljqlr8s https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2020.100126 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2020.100193 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ugj.2022.04.004 https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.2612 https://doi.org/10.4314/jasem.v20i3.2 https://doi.org/10.4314/jasem.v20i3.2 https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.62-64.39 https://doi.org/10.11113/mjce.v27.15921 https://doi.org/10.11113/mjce.v27.15921 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2019.04.001 pareek, k. and saha, p., 2019. basalt fiber and its composites: an overview. in proceedings of national conference on advances in structural technologies (coast-2019), 1, p.3. department of civil engineering national institute of technology silchar. park, j., park, s.-k. and hong, s., 2020. experimental study of flexural behavior of reinforced concrete beam strengthened with prestressed textile-reinforced mortar. materials, 13(5), p.1137. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ma13051137 park, s.s., hou, y.l., lee, j.c. and jeong, s.w., 2019. mechanical properties of concrete with bamboo chips. applied sciences, 9(16), p.3367. https://doi.org/10.3390/app9163367 pasanen, p., tikka, s., le gouvello, l., koukoulopoulos, k., kalfountzos, v. and bounds, l., 2021. decarbonizing construction: guidance for investors and developers to reduce embodied carbon. world business council for sustainable development. geneva, switzerland. patil, k.m. and patil, m.s., 2017. sustainable construction materials & technology in context with sustainable development. international journal of engineering research and technology, 10(1), pp.112-117. https://www.ripublication. com/irph/ijert_spl17/ijertv10n1spl_18.pdf raffoul, s., garcia, r., escolano-margarit, d., guadagnini, m., hajirasouliha, i. and pilakoutas, k., 2017. behaviour of unconfined and frp-confined rubberised concrete in axial compression. construction and building materials, 147, pp.388-397. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.04.175 ramadan, r., jahami, a., khatib, j., el-hassan, h. and elkordi, a., 2023. improving structural performance of reinforced concrete beams with phragmites australis fiber and waste glass additives. applied sciences, 13(7), p.4206. https://doi.org/10.3390/app13074206 rivera-lutap, j.a., cruz, jacinto, j.m., mae, l. and muhi, m.m., 2024. alternative building materials for a sustainable built environment: a literature review. environmental science and engineering, pp.235–246. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-031-48204-5_20 ruslan, h.n., muthusamy, k., syed mohsin, s.m. and kirgiz, m.s., 2021. periwinkle shell as mixing ingredient in concrete: a review. construction, 1(2), pp.21–30. https://doi.org/10.15282/construction.v1i2.6499 sameer, h. and bringezu, s., 2019. life cycle input indicators of material resource use for enhancing sustainability assessment schemes of buildings. journal of building engineering, 21, pp.230–242. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jobe.2018.10.010 scheurer, m., friese, d., penzel, p., dittel, g., bhat, s., overhage, v., hahn, l., heins, k., cherif, c. and gries, t., 2023. current and future trends in textiles for concrete construction applications. textiles, 3(4), pp.408–437. https://doi. org/10.3390/textiles3040025 shamseldein, a., elgabbas, f. and elshafie, h., 2022. tensile behavior of basalt textile-reinforced mortar (btrm). ain shams engineering journal, 13(1), p.101488. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2021.05.003 skyrianou, i., koutas, l.n. and papakonstantinou, c.g., 2022. mechanical properties of rubberised concrete confined with basalt-fibre textile-reinforced mortar jackets. construction materials, 2(3), pp.181-199. https://doi.org/10.3390/ constrmater2030013 soneye, t., ede, a.n., bamigboye, g.o. and olukanni, d.o., 2016. the study of periwinkle shells as fine and coarse aggregate in concrete works. 3rd international conference on african development issues (cu-icadi). ota, nigeria, pp.361–364. https://eprints.covenantuniversity.edu.ng/6719/1/icadi16pp361-364.pdf sulaiman, a.o. and olatunde, o.a., 2019. study on the use of palm kernel shell and periwinkle shell as coarse aggregates in concrete. international journal of engineering and applied science technology, 4(3), pp.454-460. https://doi. org/10.33564/ijeast.2019.v04i03.071 chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025201 https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13051137 https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13051137 https://doi.org/10.3390/app9163367 https://www.ripublication.com/irph/ijert_spl17/ijertv10n1spl_18.pdf https://www.ripublication.com/irph/ijert_spl17/ijertv10n1spl_18.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2017.04.175 https://doi.org/10.3390/app13074206 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48204-5_20 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-48204-5_20 https://doi.org/10.15282/construction.v1i2.6499 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2018.10.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2018.10.010 https://doi.org/10.3390/textiles3040025 https://doi.org/10.3390/textiles3040025 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2021.05.003 https://doi.org/10.3390/constrmater2030013 https://doi.org/10.3390/constrmater2030013 https://eprints.covenantuniversity.edu.ng/6719/1/icadi16pp361-364.pdf https://doi.org/10.33564/ijeast.2019.v04i03.071 https://doi.org/10.33564/ijeast.2019.v04i03.071 tavadi, a.r., naik, y., kumaresan, k., jamadar, n.i. and rajaravi, c., 2021. basalt fiber and its composite manufacturing and applications: an overview. international journal of engineering, science and technology, 13(4), pp.5056. https://doi.org/10.4314/ijest.v13i4.6 tavakoli, d., hashempour, m. and heidari a., 2018. use of waste materials in concrete: a review. pertanika journal of science and technology, 26(2), pp.499–522. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325296325_use_of_waste_ materials_in_concrete_a_review thienel, k.c., haller, t. and beuntner, n., 2020. lightweight concrete-from basics to innovations. materials (basel, switzerland), 13(5), p.1120. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13051120 ting, t.z.h., rahman, m.e., lau, h.h. and ting, m.z.y., 2019. recent development and perspective of lightweight aggregates based self-compacting concrete. construction and building materials, 201, pp.763–777. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.12.128 tongbram, b.d., singh, h.k. and devi, v.v., 2023. a comparative study on partial replacement of coarse aggregates in concrete with sustainable waste materials. materials today: proceedings. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2023.08.134 ugwu, j.n. and egwuagu, o., 2022. compressive strength of concrete made with mashed periwinkle shell as fine aggregate for disaster mitigation. fudma journal of sciences, 6(5), pp.1–7. https://doi.org/10.33003/fjs-2022-0605-1082 umasabor, r.i., 2019. evaluation of curing methods and periwinkle shell concrete using response surface methodology. sn applied sciences, 1(7), p.771. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-019-0794-8 venigalla, s.g., nabilah, a.b., mohd nasir, n.a., safiee, n.a. and abd aziz, f.n.a., 2022. textile-reinforced concrete as a structural member: a review. buildings, 12(4), p.474. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12040474 world economic forum, 2016. industry agenda shaping the future of construction a breakthrough in mindset and technology prepared in collaboration with the boston consulting group. [online] world economic forum. available at: https://www3.weforum.org/docs/wef_shaping_the_future_of_construction_full_report__.pdf yang, e.i., kim, m.y., park, h.g. and yi, s.t., 2010. effect of partial replacement of sand with dry oyster shell on the long-term performance of concrete. construction and building materials, 24(5), pp.758-765. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. conbuildmat.2009.10.032 youssf, o., hassanli, r. and mills, j.e., 2017. mechanical performance of frp-confined and unconfined crumb rubber concrete containing high rubber content. journal of building engineering, 11, pp.115-126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jobe.2017.04.011 zhang, q., li, s., gong, s., zhang, g., xi, g. and wu, y., 2020. study on flexural properties of basalt fiber textile reinforced concrete (btrc) sheets including short ar-glass fibers. frontiers in materials, 7. https://doi.org/10.3389/ fmats.2020.00277 zhang, q., yang, q., gu, x. and jiang, y., 2023. study on axial compression properties of concrete columns wrapped with basalt textile-reinforced fine concrete (btrc) jackets. construction and building materials, 363, p.129809. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2022.129809 zhu, y., chen, d., yu, x., liu, r. and liao, y., 2024. properties of cementitious materials utilizing seashells as aggregate or cement: prospects and challenges. materials, [online] 17(5), p.1222. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ma17051222 chiadighikaobi and ubani-wokoma construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025202 https://doi.org/10.4314/ijest.v13i4.6 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325296325_use_of_waste_materials_in_concrete_a_review https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325296325_use_of_waste_materials_in_concrete_a_review https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13051120 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.12.128 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.12.128 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2023.08.134 https://doi.org/10.33003/fjs-2022-0605-1082 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-019-0794-8 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12040474 https://www3.weforum.org/docs/wef_shaping_the_future_of_construction_full_report__.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2009.10.032 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2009.10.032 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2017.04.011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2017.04.011 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmats.2020.00277 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmats.2020.00277 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2022.129809 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2022.129809 https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17051222 https://doi.org/10.3390/ma17051222 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: lahdenperä, p. 2024. design– build with a development phase: an initiation and the first trials. construction economics and building, 24:4/5, 18–42. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v24i4/5.8471 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article design– build with a development phase: an initiation and the first trials pertti lahdenperä vtt technical research centre of finland ltd corresponding author: pertti lahdenperä, vtt technical research centre of finland ltd, pertti.lahdenpera@vtt.fi doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8471 article history: received 01/12/2022; revised 21/09/2023; accepted 29/09/2024; published 23/12/2024 abstract design– build (db) is a muchused project delivery system with operational variations for different needs and situations. yet, novel applications have to be strived for as all current applications have some drawbacks. accordingly, by means of a constructive research approach, this study focuses on a db procedure that exploits the parties’ collaboration in order to improve the economic efficiency of construction projects. it is called “design– build with a development phase” (dbd). in the procedure, the owner and the selected contractor continue the development of the project solution in cooperation, adhering to the principle of benefit sharing, which is enabled by preagreed rules and the benchmark solution, formed as a result of priceinclusive contractor selection. more precisely, this paper presents the dbd procedure and how it was initially constructed and eventually applied in some road infrastructure projects. the paper also reports the related experiences, which were positive based on the improved value for money in the trial projects. thus, the paper offers a novel option for the industry to improve its performance and contributes by disproving the dominant view, which has been guiding the formulation and use of the current project delivery practices, that priceinclusive competition and collaborative development thereafter could not be matched successfully. keywords design– build; development phase; collaboration; public procurement; project delivery systems 18 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the article is largely based on a development project funded by the finnish transport infrastructure agency, infra contractors association in finland and kehto forum (formed by major finnish cities/municipalities). https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8471 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8471 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:pertti.lahdenpera@vtt.fi https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8471 introduction the project delivery system (pds) determines the division of labour and related allocation of risks and contractual and operational relations between the major players of a project, as well as the scope of the related competition (lahdenperä, 2020). pdss that confine themselves to the realization of a construction project have conventionally been classified as the constructonly or design– bid– build, managementtype and design– buildtype methods on the roughest level of examination (see for example, love, skitmore and earl, 1998; dorsey, 1997; konchar and sanvido, 1998; masterman, 1992; chang and ive, 2011). a more recent addition to the owner’s range of instruments is project alliance either applied to the letter (department of treasury and finance, 2006; walker and hampson, 2003; hauck, et al., 2004) or as applied within an integrated project delivery framework (american institute of architects, 2007; national association of state facilities administrators, 2010). in design– build (db), a single contractor or consortium (the designbuilder) under contract to the project owner is responsible for the project’s design and construction as an entity whereas in other presented pdss, the owner assumes liability for design alone or jointly with the service providers. correspondingly, db is commonly used when the owner wants to transfer the bulk of the risks to a service provider and when there is a need for a speedy delivery and/or cost certainty but no need to influence all the details of the design. according to alleman, nevett and goodrum (2018), the top reasons for selecting db are schedule acceleration, innovation, and risk management. the speed of delivery, in particular, has been shown to be the strength of db by a plethora of (meta) studies carried out to compare the performance of db with that of other pdss, although db is, in general, also competitive in terms of other measures (e.g., sullivan, et al., 2017; nikou goftar, el asmar and bingham, 2014; shrestha, o’connor and gibson, 2012; tran, diraviam and minchin, 2018; chen, et al., 2015; antoine, alleman and molenaar, 2018; choi, et al., 2020; nguyen, tran and bypaneni, 2021). however, due to variation in results, other strong generalizations may not be reasonable. variation in relative performance exists not only because of contingency and varying projects and conditions, but also due to the different variations of db (chen, et al., 2015; ramsey, el asmar and gibson, 2016; el wardani, messner and horman, 2006). db is also actively used in finland. however, at the same time, attention has been focused on how to make it even better. the competition procedure is laborious since contractors have to include the project’s technical design in their tender while the owner has to analyse the different solutions in a hurry before making the procurement decision. for public owners, fair and nondiscriminatory treatment of tenderers increases the challenge. further, the secretive procedure does not encourage the development of a project solution in collaboration, and after entering in the contract, there are hardly any prerequisites for development. this is why a group of public infrastructure owners and contractors (and the vtt technical research centre of finland as a consultant) launched a joint project to search for possibilities to improve the performance of db projects. in addition to the experienced deficiencies, special emphasis was given to the means of exploiting the parties’ cooperation more widely than in an ordinary db project. this is largely due to fact that project alliancing has been actively applied in finland (lahdenperä, 2019) and successful results (see, e.g., lahdenperä, 2016; 2017; finnish transport agency, 2018) have made parties value its collaborative approach. yet not all projects call for an alliance’s joint organization and risk sharing if it can be expected that the uncertainty related to the project can largely be mitigated prior to entering into the implementation. the joint effort resulted in the “design– build with a development phase” (dbd) procedure. the lower case “d” attached to the db initialism indicates that a specific joint development effort is included in the duties preceding a usual db package, and, correspondingly, specifies the db variation in question. in the lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202419 procedure, the owner and the selected contractor continue the development of the project solution in co operation, adhering to the principle of benefit sharing, which is enabled by preagreed rules on stepwise development and the determination of allotments, and by the benchmark solution, formed as a result of priceinclusive contractor selection. yet, the procedure does not require the inclusion of the design solution in the proposal. instead, the owner ensures that the design solution of the chosen contractor meets the set requirements during the contractual development phase that precedes the realization. the development phase ends when the owner decides about exercising its option for the implementation phase, which follows the usual db contracting practice. this paper reports the joint development effort in its entirety. accordingly, the aim of the study reported in the paper is to develop an application for db projects that will guide the parties in collaborating more extensively than the norm and, as a result, improve the economics of projects and deliver better value for money. the work covers the creation and construction of the application and testing it in a few road projects in accordance with the constructive research approach. although cooperation has been highlighted as a means of development, the work is limited to those processes and rules that create the basis for building effective cooperation. the paper proceeds as follows. the next section briefly introduces the current db modes of operation and their main variations. then the study paradigm and methods are explored. this is followed by a section that eventually presents the developed dbd approach, preceded by a review of the experienced problems that led to the new application. then the pilot projects and gained experiences are presented in detail. the paper ends with a discussion and conclusions. different db practices db is not a standardized procedure; there are numerous possibilities to apply the general principle. xia, et al. (2012b) offered a broad outlook for numerous concepts describing db variations and outlined a classification framework for the db variants. the classification criteria include the proportion of design undertaken by the owner and the scope of services, the possible application of novation in which the design contract is transferred from the owner to the designbuilder, and the contractor procurement method and the degree of competition. accordingly, xia, chan and yeung (2011) emphasized the proportionofdesign view when differentiating between variations. xia, et al. (2012a) continued with the proportionofdesign view, but also determined the variants of contractor selection methods (qualificationbased, bestvalue, and lowestprice methods), the procurement process (one or twostep selection), and contract type (with or without a guaranteed maximum price) more concretely. the authors also added that the bestvalue selection of designbuilders is the preferred approach, typically combined with the twostep selection process. chen, et al. (2015) completed the list of variations (with infrequently used ones), but the bestvalue method (typically combined with discussions) was found to be the dominant selection method, and a lump sum was the most frequently used contract method. these two methods, the bestvalue and lumpsum method, also appear in parallel while civil infrastructure is especially strongly oriented towards these methods in db projects (adamtey, 2020). in the singlestep selection procedure offerors submit full technical and price proposals as a first response to the owner’s request, which potentially allows an unlimited number of companies to compete in the award stage, whereas in the twostep procedure (or twophase procedure according to migliaccio, gibson and o’connor, (2009)) offerors submit qualifications information first, and then, based on these qualifications, the owner shortlists the most qualified offerors, who are subsequently invited to submit full technical and price proposals for the project (ramsey, el asmar and gibson, 2016). el wardani, messner and horman (2006), again, shed light on alternative selection methods and the related selection criteria with references to beard, loulakis and wundram (2001). in addition to lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202420 sole source– selection based on an established relationship, there are a few more competitive methods. in qualificationbased selection the team is selected primarily based on qualitative criteria, such as past performance, designbuilder reputation, technical competence, and financial stability. bestvalue selection includes a submission of more comprehensive proposals that are evaluated based on the technical aspects together with the associated cost of the project. in lowbid selection the owner primarily selects the db team based on the project value and related cost items. although proponents typically need to respond to the owner’s preset requirements in their proposals, a variation of bestvalue selection allows proposers to request that the owner modifies the contract requirements, specifically for that proposer’s use in gaining competitive benefit (gransberg, loulakis and gad, 2014; gad, gransberg and loulakis, 2015). such a procedure then results in alternative technical concepts (atcs) to improve the owner’s baseline design solution (gad, loulakis and gransberg, 2019). the owner also often pays stipends to unsuccessful proposers and, by doing so, acquires the right to use their atcs in later design activities (migliaccio, gibson and o’connor, 2009). maintaining confidentiality in the process is critical and sometimes legally binding agreements are made between the owner and proposers due to oneonone meetings in order to respect confidentiality, intellectual property, and commercially sensitive information (london underground, 2014). further, another application of db is socalled progressive db, where the owner involves a designer builder in order to develop a project early in the process by using qualificationbased selection, and pays for these services (gad, et al., 2019; gransberg and molenaar, 2019). the aim is to continue onto construction with the same designbuilder, but if the completed proposal’s price negotiations (that are based on open book pricing) are unsuccessful, the owner has an offramp clause in their preconstruction services contract that allows the owner to withdraw from the cooperative relationship (alleman and tran, 2019; gransberg and molenaar, 2019). in some cases, even two separate designbuilders may be involved in contractbased development in order to maintain competitive pressure in the development (department of infrastructure and regional development, 2015). these processes are also referred to as early contractor involvement (eci). as for the contract or payment methods touched on above, chen, et al. (2015) brought forward the lumpsum, costplusfee, and guaranteedmaximum price (gmp) methods. in the costplusfee method, the owner reimburses the contractors for the cost and fee according to actualization, and the gmp method follows the practice, but only until a stipulated price. yet, if the costs are less than the agreedon amount, then the owner and contractor will usually share the savings per contract terms (kaplanogu and arditi, 2009; chan, et al., 2011). the gmp method can be regarded as a specialized form of a more general target cost (tc) contract method, where both cost over and underruns are shared between the contracting parties (chan, et al., 2011). methods the research approach this research aims to improve db practices and thus the valueformoney ratio attained in projects. the challenge is approached from the practice point of view and a heuristic element is in a central position in finding a solution in accordance with the constructive research approach (originally kasanen, lukka and siitonen, 1993; lukka, 2000). the aim of the approach is to ensure the relevance of the research results, which is not always the case when following the traditional ideal of science. the constructive approach begins with a practicallyrelevant problem and proceeds onto an innovate solution idea (i.e., a construct) based on a comprehensive understanding of the topic (kasanen, lukka and siitonen, 1993); the construct is also the key component differentiating the approach from action research lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202421 (kasanen, lukka and siitonen, 1993; jones, gold and claxton, 2022). the approach also requires that, first, the functioning of the solution can be demonstrated and, second, the theoretical connections and the research contribution of the solution concept can be shown. the approach is often paralleled (see, e.g., da rocha, et al., 2012; chynoweth, 2013; da rocha and kemmer, 2018) with the betterknown design science approach (hevner, et al., 2004; kuechler and vaishnavi, 2008; johannesson and perjons, 2014). in addition to other domains, the research approaches have also been recognized and applied by the construction management community (e.g., koskela, 2008; voordijk, 2009; oyegoke and kiiras, 2009; da rocha, et al., 2012; chynoweth, 2013; kanjanabootra, 2016, zegarra and alarcón, 2019, abdelmegid, et al., 2023). on top of these studies, papers on research strategy have focused explicitly on the constructive research approach and encourage its application more generally in organizational research ( jones, gold and claxton, 2022) and in construction/projectmanagement research (oyegoke, 2011). from these two different (at least in name) research approaches, the heuristic or creative element is more obvious in the constructive approach (piirainen and gonzalez, 2013; sbiti, et al., 2022), but then it is also stricter in requiring successful instantiation (or implementation) of the developed solution (piirainen and gonzalez, 2013) by adhering to the pragmatist notion of truth with reference to james (1955). the application in trial projects gets a great deal of attention here so that the constructive research approach determines the approach of this study. the development and trial of the procedure the development work started at an orientation/ideation workshop with fortyfive experts in infrastructure as participants. the participants represented the owner and contractor organizations participating in the overall development project: the finnish transport infrastructure agency (ftia) (accounting for about half of the participants), municipalities and general contractors (each accounting for about one fourth of the participants). the workshop started with an introduction to all the participants to stimulate conversation, after which it continued in groups. the groups were asked to create or modify a proposal outline for an operating model that could be used as a starting point for further development work. these process outlines (including also other than db solutions) were presented to the participants who then voted on which ones should be prioritized for further work. after the orientation workshop, the development work of the db procedure continued in working groups for just over three months during six development workshops. each development workshop typically had about ten participants, although the number of participating owner and contractor representatives was nearly double that in total. the working groups resulted in a basic description of the application, i.e., dbd. after the basic description of the dbd procedure was completed, documentary work was initiated with the aim of testing the model in a few ftia road projects. the first project (hwy 4 kello– räinänperä, project a) mainly evaluated the process and documents as there were few development opportunities there (therefore the project is not reviewed in the study). subsequently, the first project was followed by three other projects (projects b– d below) whose acquisitions were initiated almost simultaneously. in these projects, the project solution was also altered as a result of the development phase, and the experiences gained from the projects constitute the starting point for assessing the functionality of the dbd procedure. assessment of functionality the starting point for the evaluation of the dbd performance is the fact that it is impossible to make an indisputable outcomebased comparison of different projects that considers all the different aspects (costs, lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202422 usability, maintainability, safety, etc.) of various parts in a commensurable way. therefore, the study assesses the results achieved in relation to what can be expected to be achieved with conventional db. as a first measure, the study delves into the three most important alterations to the project solution made in each pilot project and evaluates whether or not the alterations can be considered to have improved value for money. this kind of minicase study is, however, also subject to the abovementioned challenge of mutual valuation, which even concerns practical decisionmaking, where the valuing is largely based on decision makers’ expertise and not concretized then or ever after. it is not transparent or traceable. therefore, in order to overcome obscurity, the study aims to capture the indepth understanding of the actors involved in the projects. taking this approach, the interviewee is left with the task of evaluating the different types of effects and their relative importance, which is more likely to reflect the decision criteria used in the decision making of the project. this approach was first adopted in order to communicate the order of magnitude of the aggregated benefit (or lack thereof ) in comparison with conventional db practice: relative net benefit and the likelihood of adoption (estimated by project key members) formed the starting point for this (i.e., the second assessment view). next, the project participants were asked to comment on the success of the project from the perspective of general performance indicators (cost, quality, schedule, etc.) as complementary measures since the aggregated benefit gives no proper information about the different indicators (i.e., the third view). the success criteria used in the study correspond to those used in general, as shown by chan, scott and lam (2002) and lam, chan and chan (2007). the fourth view of the functionality assessment was the general acceptability and usability of the process and its various partial solutions. this, again, was to reveal any experienced obstacles to or preconditions for the use of the dbd procedure since any negation could make the use of the practice impossible, even if proved profitable. in other words, the assessment tries to find out if practitioners support the idea of applying the procedure in future projects and, if so, under what conditions. finally, as a fifth element of assessment, the study reviews dbd project evaluations that have applied the infrastructure project assessment tool (ipat). the objective of the ipat is to assess the totality of management quality relating to the project (netlipse, 2017). in the case of targeted projects, the evaluations are thirdparty assessments, conducted by a team of qualified foreign expertslate in the project’s execution phase. conclusions on the dbd procedure’s functionality are eventually drawn based on triangulation of all the five partial assessment views and sources of data. implementation of interviews the project participants were asked to assess the project in interviews. the interviews were conducted after the projects’ development phase when the realization phase had already begun as it is justified to assume that the development of the dbd project solution actualizes particularly during the development phase. interviews were conducted with designated key persons, the owner’s and contractor’s project leaders and principal designers for each pilot project, which meant nine primary informants at this stage. the first group represented the ftia, and the rest represented private enterprises. as can be judged by the person’s senior positions, all the interviewees have extensive experience (measured in decades) in the infrastructure sector and comparable projects. it is also notable that the group of interviewees included only one participant from the previous dbd development workshops. this contributes to the reliability of results as the means of improvement were planned by different experts to those making the assessment. the semistructured interviews were organized around approximately 50 questions, some of which were targeted towards scale estimates. the interviews were mostly between 2.0 and 2.5 hours long, with two lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202423 longer exceptions. these were preceded by factfinding sessions with owner representatives in order to figure out the more detailed contents and impacts of the alterations as well as the procedures followed to ensure a full, deep enough understanding of the underlying factors, which may have not been obvious on the basis of project documents that were also studied as appropriate. renewal of the process this section presents the constructed dbd procedure in relation to conventional db practice. this approach is selected to demonstrate the novelty, while it also reveals the underlying way of thinking (including mobilizing problems) and, therefore, also justifies the emerging construct. conventional db practice as to designbuilder selection (for ftia projects), it is conventionally based on the restricted procedure of the european public procurement legislation (european union, 2014), which is similar to the two step procedure described above (see, e.g., ramsey, el asmar and gibson, 2016) by only allowing a certain number of the best prequalified offerors to make full proposals. design proposals are to be included in proposal packages, in addition to management plans and price quotes, but alternative technical concepts (cf. gransberg, loulakis and gad, 2014) are not allowed. accordingly, the criteria used for the evaluation of proposals are diverse so that it is a question of bestvalue selection (cf. el wardani, messner and horman, 2006). the contract made with the proposer with the economically most advantageous offer is typically a fixed price contract in the main line. there are temporal limitations and preconditions (as to the readiness of the design) for the beginning of construction works, but the aim is to proceed in accordance with the proposed solution in as straightforward a way as is generally possible. change drivers the db procedure also includes some challenges that were highlighted in the workshops. contractors have to include the project’s technical design in their tender, but planning is labourintensive and expensive. the workload is emphasized when only one offeror is chosen as the contractor of a project. many offerors’ prepared tenders are wasted work from their perspective, even though they provide a valuable comparison to the owner. the laborintensiveness of preparing tenders may limit the contractors’ willingness to tender, which may appear to the owner as a lack of competition. when technical designs are included in tenders, it is natural that the owner has to assess and analyse the different solutions before making the procurement decision. this becomes a challenge in processes with tight schedules. another risk related to public procurement is that the overall best option will be eliminated from the competition due to small formalities as it is impossible to postpone even the smallest improvements until after the procurement decision. the possibilities for appeals are emphasized in competition with a design proposal. striving for a generally competitive offer drives actors to consider the acceptability of different solutions, which may make it necessary to request the owner’s interpretation of the matter. however, the concern is that competitors will be able to identify a new type of solution merely on the basis of the owner’s positive opinion since equal treatment of the offerors requires that all competitors be informed of the interpretation. in this case, the contractor is not incentivized to ask for the owner’s interpretation in advance and opts to wait until the potential contract is signed before presenting the development idea. however, the normal preparation phase for construction is too short in the case that an idea creates dialogue and subsequent alterations require replanning, a compliance review, or official decisions. the lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202424 preconditions for the profitable introduction of ideas are already significantly weakened, and the difficulty of economic negotiations can make the situation even worse. therefore, the original owner requirements are left without critical economic assessment. a project solution implemented in this way is not as costeffective as it could be. this may lead to the parties proceeding with the implementation without having been able to eliminate all ambiguities, contradictions, and shortcomings in the documents or having planned the production with sufficient accuracy. this results in various surprises, many of which lead to difficult discussions about additional work and alterations, and unfortunately, often disputes. the planning of production lacks a sufficiently proactive approach, and management is more focused on reacting to and tackling challenges. consequently, the challenge of developing a db project is to take some weight off the competition phase and to delay some of the design work until after a contract has been made. at the same time, the procedure must enable further development of the tendered solution so that the parties have a shared interest in finding better implementation solutions through cooperation, even by questioning the original design criteria. it is also necessary to reserve time for project development both in terms of the project process and resource allocation. renewed procedure the dbd procedure, intended to rise to the challenges of conventional db practice, consists of the competition, development, and realization phases (see figure 1). the publication of a procurement notice launches the competition phase (task 1). the request for proposals describes aspects such as the product/ functionality requirements for the project solution and the boundary conditions for the realization. potential offerors submit a request to participate (task 2) to the owner, as specified by the procurement notice. in the request, the offerors demonstrate that they are suitable for implementing the project (in terms of the fulfilment of legal and financial obligations, and in terms of technical performance). the owner assesses the suitability of the candidate companies (task 3) and, if necessary, determines their superiority and selects the predetermined number of best contractors as offerors. formally, this is a restricted procedure, referred to in legislation and european directives (european union, 2014). candidates selected as offerors are asked to submit a proposal containing the price (task 4) for the implementation of a solution that corresponds to the request for proposals. the request for proposals may be further specified along with the dialogue with the offerors. the written tender includes the specified prices and the contractor’s assurance that it will realize the contract at the offered price in accordance with the requirements laid down in the request for proposals as no technical plans are attached to the tender (task 5). in addition, various actions may be required to assess the organization’s capability (in terms of organizational structure and staffing, selection workshops, action plans, etc.). the owner compares the proposals (task 6), and the contractor who has submitted the most economically efficient proposal is selected as the implementer (task 7). the selection criterion is either the lowest price or the price– quality ratio referred to in legislation (european union, 2014). the owner’s procurement is conditional so that, in case of a potential disruption of cooperation, the owner can determine that the original procurement decision has lapsed (and turn to the offeror who was in second place in the original tendering process). the owner and the selected contractor conclude a contract on the development of the project, including the owner’s option to realize it (task 8). the contract specifies the work to be conducted during the development phase and the terms and conditions of the compensation that may be paid for it, as well as the principles for allocating the benefits from the development of the project solution by means of different type cases and examples. the development phase starts with a presentation of the proposed solution (task 9) and its review (task 10). the owner assesses the conformity of the tendered solution with the requirements, and endeavours to lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202425 specify any alterations required to meet the requirements (task 11). at the same time, the purpose is to start a dialogue between the owner and the contractor that continues alongside the development of the plans (task 12) as the owner and the contractor work together to improve the project solution (even though the actual planning work is the contractor’s responsibility). it is expected that the contractor, especially, is active in presenting development ideas (task 13), as the owner has already influenced the planning of the previous phase. in addition to structural solutions, implementation details, such as the working order and traffic arrangements during construction, for instance, are issues to be examined during the development phase of a road project. the development phase ends when the parties have taken the minimum measures defined for the development phase and find that continuing development is no longer economically meaningful (task 14). at the end of the development phase, the contractor hands over a preliminary technical design to the owner, and the owner decides about the transition to the realization phase (or the discontinuation of cooperation) (task 15). the owner makes a unilateral decision about whether or not to exercise the option for construction, and a positive decision initiates the realization phase. the contract is updated or supplemented so that it considers the work conducted at the development phase and corresponds to the plans at the time (task 16). the contractor will typically implement the solution defined at the development phase of the project at a fixed price (task 17). the project now proceeds as a normal db contract from the owner’s perspective (task 18). however, regarding the allocation of benefits, the same principles are applied to possible alterations during the realization period as stated above, in connection with alterations during the development phase. upon completion of the construction work, the owner receives the resulting structure, and this takeover initiates the warranty phase (task 19). ow ne r de si gn -b ui ld er 19. taking over the resulting structur e 8. d ev el op m en t c on tr ac t i nc l. a co ns tr . o pt io n 17. execution of construction works 18. supervision of / contribution to construction competition phase realization phase 2. submission of a request to participate n 4. request for proposals to tenderers 5. submission of a proposal (price; excl. design) 10. review of the tendered solution 9. pr esentation of the tendered solution 7. making the decision on the contract award 6. assessment/ comparison of tenders ≤n 3. ver ification of the required qualifications 16 . u pd at e of / su pp le m en t t o th e co nt ra ct 15. decision on the exercising of the option 11. ver ification of conformity with requirements 1 development phase 12. development of the project solution 13. pr esentation of ideas for development 14. closing the development phase 1. publication of a procurement/ contract notice # number of candidates/ contractors figure 1. the dbd (i.e., “design– build with a development phase”) process the upgrade in short in a dbd contract, the preparation of project documents preceding the tendering process, as well as the realization phase of construction, largely follow the practices of a conventional db contract. the main differences lie in the selection of the contractor and the new development phase immediately thereafter. participation in the tendering does not then require submitting a design proposal, nor is it a selection criterion for the contractor. secondly, unlike usual db procedures, the selection and the resulting contract lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202426 do not necessarily lead to implementation if it appears that the tendered technical solution is not compliant, and the contractor does not amend it to be compliant at the tendered price or if the parties do not otherwise reach an agreement on the solution to be implemented. the purpose of the development phase is to enable the development of the project implementation solution in cooperation between the owner and the contractor so that the alterations made improve the technical and economic efficiency of the project. this can be achieved by developing qualitatively better solutions compared with basic solutions or cheaper solutions that are qualitatively equivalent or even solutions that are of slightly lower quality if the cost or other benefits gained from them are significant in relation to the alteration. risk elimination and proactive planning are also part of the range of tools used during development. joint development generates new practices that will also change a project’s contracts. in addition to the option for realization, these include the organization, minimum measures, and the operating model of the development phase. the gradual nature of alteration planning (preliminary, outline and completed proposals stages) and the resolution of related financial issues are also key factors related to the definition of the operating model. owner’s acceptance is needed to step from one stage to the next one. an example of more concrete rules is that the acceptation transfers more cost risk to the owner if it later dismisses the planned alteration. on the other, if the benefits available from an alteration decrease from those presented by the designbuilder in a previous stage, the difference primarily burdens the designbuilder. these and other pre agreed rules direct actors toward careful, open and sincere collaboration. moreover, successful development work leads to a distribution of benefits, which also requires a framework that has been agreed upon. this framework and the proportional shares or their ranges, naturally vary depending on the type of alteration. the owner’s share is generally bigger, when an alteration is enabled by an easement of a requirement, whereas alterations to administrative plans from a previous design stage creates a more equal situation. regarding the determination of gained benefits (and possible disbenefits), there is also a systematics set up for the impact assessment including different views (scope, quality standard, usability of the product, maintenance need, service life, risks, etc.). case examples have also been attached to the contract for reference. application projects and their results the content and scope of projects initially, the dbd procedure was tested in a few stateowned road projects (by the ftia). the procurements of the three primary pilot projects were initiated almost simultaneously in may 2018. these projects are: rd 132 klaukkala bypass (project b). the contract involves constructing a stretch of nearly eight kilometres of a novel single carriageway road in a new terrain corridor. it is a road that bypasses an urban centre, and it involves the implementation of four interchanges and the road and street arrangements they require. the contract also includes the improvement of pedestrian routes and public transport stop arrangements in the area and the construction of noise barriers. the value of the realization phase contract is eur 25 million. hwy 4 kirri– tikkakoski (project c). the contract involves constructing a stretch of about 17 kilometres of motorway. almost one third of this will be constructed in a new terrain corridor. the rest involves upgrading the current road into a motorway, which entails constructing new lanes alongside the current road. a pedestrian route will be built for the road network. the contract also includes the lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202427 construction of five new interchanges as well as updating one existing interchange. the value of the realization phase contract is eur 122 million. e18 turku ring road, kausela– kirismäki (phase 1; project d). the contract involves expanding the existing twolane ring road into four lanes; the first phase will cover nearly half of the entire 10 km road section (the southeast part). the contract also includes removing old interchanges and replacing them with a new interchange and an overbridge. in addition, a network of parallel roads and a pedestrian traffic system will be built alongside the ring road and noise barriers will be improved. the value of the first phase contract is eur 36 million. the projects were already fundamentally different in terms of technical content and conditions, but there were many differences in their practices as well. the most significant difference was pricing. in most projects, the tender was presented as a fixed price and the price was changed on the basis of the alterations made during the development phase, based on casespecific cost calculations and the allocation criteria defined for each alteration category. conversely, in project c, the tender was based on unit prices for the goods/materials and services concerning the road area and road structures; however, a fixed price quote was still determined for the project level items (joint site costs, central office, fees) included in the contract price in the due course. the contract price was fixed at the end of the development phase in accordance with the volumes and unit prices at the time. the reason for using the unit price procedure was that the road plan for the project (prior to the selection of the contractor) was not prepared with a similar level of detail/diligence as the plans of the other projects under consideration. the plan was also partly outdated due to issues such as regulatory changes since the completion of the plan. competition phase the interactive competition phase (ranging from the procurement notice to entering into the development phase contract) in project c lasted four months, while the same phase lasted a couple of weeks longer for the other projects. in most projects, the difference between the cheapest two offers was at most 2% or 3%, but in project d, the cheapest offer that was selected was significantly cheaper than the other offers. it is possible that one key factor that explains the difference, especially in this project, is the successful development of the solution at the competition phase. no complaints were made regarding the procurements. alterations during the development phase the duration of the development phase (ranging from the contract to exercising the construction option) was slightly less than three months in projects b and d and six months in project c. in project b, the results of the development phase were made concrete in an appendix to the contract agreement that specified ten alterations. five of these alterations specified the impact on the amount of the contract in euros, and the rest determined the principle of the allocation of benefits that would be followed after the more detailed cost impact of the alterations had been determined. the three most significant alterations (on which the functionality assessment is to be based) are presented in more detail at the top of table 1 in the order of their benefit, assessed by the owner’s project manager. while two of the alterations (b1, b2) reach savings in the range of eur 0.1 million, safety and the minimization of disturbances (traffic redirection and stops) were still more significant factors in the planning of the former. with regard to these two alterations (b1, b2), the benefits are distributed equally between the owner and the contractor, but the third alteration (b3), which reduces the scope of the project, mostly brings savings to the owner. all three alterations recorded in the table required changes to the owner’s requirements. lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202428 table 1. major alterations in the development phase of projects b to d. description of alteration benefits achieved project b (rd 132 klaukkala bypass) b1. edge blasting at the interchange the road section is connected to the existing highway with an interchange, where the road area is narrowed partly to reduce the amount of blasting. due to the narrowing, road railings will be built for this section. the project produces excess blasted stone, and the alteration brings cost savings. blasting in the vicinity of the road that is in use is reduced, as are interruptions to traffic. there is a positive safety impact. b2. underpass alteration the cantilever slab bridge to be cast on site is altered to be a prefabricated arch bridge. implementation of the alteration requires a more general typeapproval for the bridge type; there are no known obstacles to this. the alteration brings cost savings. a prefabricated arch bridge is also more aesthetically pleasing, and the disturbance to traffic caused by its construction is shorter. the type approval also serves other projects. b3. alterations to private roads the municipality is in the process of procuring land and plans a road network in the area. several private roads connected to the planned road are removed from the plan as they are estimated to become unnecessary. the alterations create concrete cost savings in the implementation of the project. project c (hwy 4 kirri– tikkakoski) c1. interchange arrangements in the road plan, the planned motorway is crossed by a perpendicular road. the crossing road is moved below the motorway, which traverses in the rock cutting. this reduces excavation while increasing noise protection. the amount of rock to be excavated is significantly reduced, and the repositioning of the crossing road facilitates land use in the area. (the blasted rock for building a parallel road is now acquired from outside the project; see c2.) c2. traffic arrangements during construction the motorway requires the construction of a parallel road on a certain section. with reduced excavation (see c1), the blasted stone for the parallel road is purchased from outside the project, so it can be built right at the start of the project. with no bypassing traffic, work on the site is easier, and the roadway located in the construction area does not require constant adjustments. safety is improved and construction as a whole is significantly faster. lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202429 c3. pedestrian routes and private roads two waterway bridges are located within one kilometre of each other. a private road has been planned in connection to one and a pedestrian route to the other. a new underpass is made between the bridges to connect these routes. the new underpass serves the flow of pedestrian traffic better than the original solution. traffic does not interfere with the construction of the bridges. the water bridges are shortened, which compensates for the additional costs of the underpass. project d (e18 turku ring road, kausela– kirismäki, phase 1) d1. placement of blasted rock in later stage structures the project produces excess blasted stone. instead of the planned intermediate storage, the surplus is placed in the structures of a road in a followup project. transfers are only made in due course in the case of overfilling due to subsidence. the constructed embankment promotes the subsidence of the soil, and extensive ground reinforcement measures are not needed. transport is reduced in the followup phase. the alteration results in additional costs, but the net savings are high. d2. increasing the underpass height of a bridge a bridge’s underpass height is raised to allow for larger outsize loads on the ring road. due to provisions on the longitudinal gradients of the crossing road, this had not succeeded in the past. the bridge in question is critical as it is not possible to go around it using interchange ramps like with other bridges; oversize transports would have had to use the road and street network of the area otherwise. d3. traffic arrangements during construction with a change in requirements, the speed limit of a site’s temporary routes is reduced, making it possible to design an alternative route to be built outside the road area and have it corresponded to the selected speed category. the construction of a detour outside the road area becomes profitable and a certain part of the construction site can be closed off from passing traffic entirely. this reduces risks and improves safety. the three most significant alterations in the development phase of project c are described in the middle of table 1. the redesign of the interchange (c1) is the most significant one. in the variable terrain, the solution represents the optimization of excavation and filling, within the permissible longitudinal gradients of a motorway as well as the optimization of land use as the area surrounding the intersection is intended to become a business and industrial area. the alteration results in a more functional way to access the area. the alteration is linked to the construction of a parallel road (c2) that is located fairly far away from the interchange area, which would have made the use of its blasted stone difficult. the parallel road can now be finished quickly with purchased blasted stone, which facilitates the implementation of the rest of the project. this results in additional costs, but the project will probably be ready for traffic almost one year earlier with these alterations. the underpass alteration (c3) is an improvement from the perspective of future use, but it also avoids the construction of roads alongside waterways, shortens the corresponding bridges that will be built as part of the project, and improves user safety during work with regard to pedestrian traffic. table 1. continued lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202430 three of the many development ideas in project d progressed into alterations (table 1, the bottom part). the most significant alteration concerns the placement of the surplus blasted stone off the current phase of the project. the blasted stone was meant to be taken to the area of the second phase being constructed later under a different contract (project f below) in order to meet its blasted stone needs. by making excavations and placing blasted stone directly in the future structure, extensive subgrade reinforcements are avoided due to the preloading of the base with the early placement of the blasted stone. in the overall review of the phases, the net savings are on the scale of eur 1 million, even though a new railing solution is required since the location is close to the current road. the alteration to the underpass height of the bridge (d2) is mainly functional and is achieved with a very small additional investment. new traffic arrangements (d3) provide safe and functional conditions for both traffic and construction with virtually no cost impacts. two of the alterations made in the projects (c1 and c3) were so significant that they required a change in the administrative road plan and making the plan available to the public as well. otherwise, the alterations mainly consisted of matters that were within the owner’s decisionmaking power. exercising the realization option the owner exercised the realization option in all the projects and the projects progressed to the realization phase. the realization phase was estimated to last more than two and a half years in projects b and d and four and a half years in project c. in most of the projects (b and d) it was obvious early on that the owner would exercise the option to realize the project and therefore it was a natural continuation of successful work done during the development phase. the realized duration of the development phase, just under three months, was essentially what had been planned for these projects. however, the situation was more challenging for project c than for the other projects. the planning of the project did not proceed as hoped, partly due to its delayed start, the challenging nature of the initial data, major alterations, and insufficient resourcing. there were major challenges in the submission of the preliminary technical design and, correspondingly, in the calculation of sufficiently unambiguous quantity data. in this project, the owner also had to question whether they wanted to exercise the realization option, which was why the service provider’s resourcing was also adjusted. in the end, the realization option was exercised, but instead of the planned development period of about four months, the phase lasted six months. the duration of the phase had no impact on alternative implementation resources as the development phase agreement concluded for this project had already ended the validity of other tenders. functionality assessment this section first presents the results of the three interview assessment rounds in the same order that they were dealt with in the methods section above (in the subsection, “assessment of functionality”). these are followed by a review of thirdparty assessments. itemized alterations the functioning of the dbd procedure was assessed by examining the alterations made during the development phase. the three most significant alterations of each project were examined (see table 1), and the interviewees were asked to consider what kinds of conditions would have allowed their implementation in a conventional db project. the interviewees were asked to give a numerical assessment to two aspects: the likelihood of adoption. how likely is it that the alteration in question would have been implemented in a conventional db process? the value 0% indicates the certainty that the alteration would not have been implemented and 100% indicates the certainty for the opposite; all intermediate values are in use. lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202431 relative net benefit. what would have been the net benefit achieved by the owner in a conventional db process (taking all impacts into account) in relation to the net benefit achieved now? the value 100% refers to the benefits of the dbd project; more than 100% is also possible in this instance. summaries of the responses are presented in figure 2, where each individual value always represents the average of nine responses calculated in the following alternative ways: by party (owners, contractors, designers), encompassing all responses by an actor in a certain role regardless of alterations’ ranking and project. by project (project b, etc.), encompassing all responses for a certain project regardless of alterations’ ranking and role of a respondent. by alteration (alteration 1, etc.), encompassing all responses for a certain ranking of alterations regardless of project and role of a respondent. there is a great deal of variation in the likelihood of adoption. for one alteration (c1; table 1), the interviewees strongly believed that the alteration would not have been implemented in a conventional db process. one significant factor of an alteration like this is whether the alteration is a prerequisite for another one, as was the case here (c1 → c2). on the other hand, even the top three alterations of each project contained an alteration where at least one of the respondents assessed that it would have been implemented in a conventional db project as well. however, the respondents only agreed on the implementation of one alteration out of the nine (d3; table 1). when asked about the obstacles to implementation, respondents mentioned project scheduling; in a conventional db project, it is no longer possible to consider major alterations in the realization phase. the expected allocation of benefits may also have the effect that contractors do not present their ideas if it is assumed that the entire benefit will be directed to the owner. for relative net benefit, the responses did not vary as much as the responses to the likelihood of adoption. if adoption is possible, conventional db contracts will not necessarily fall far behind the owner benefit generated by the dbd procedure. however, the actual impact varies greatly case by case, as there are many variables. the distribution of benefits in a unitpriced contract may also differ significantly from the distribution of benefits in a fixed price contract. in terms of relative net benefit, the views expressed by representatives of each role are consistent. yet, contractors estimated the likelihood of adoption to be smaller than others. on the other hand, the contractors’ views should be emphasized because, when assessing the initiative behind the alterations, the contractors clearly raised novel ideas more often than other parties. there were more differences between the projects, which is natural because of the differences between the projects and the alterations made in them. when assessed by alteration (in order of importance), there is specifically a difference in how likely the alterations would be implemented in a conventional db project. figure 3 illustrates the expected benefits of a conventional db contract (as a percentage of the 100% benefit achieved with the dbd procedure) as the product of relative net benefit and likelihood of adoption. as a whole, there is no major difference between the parties other than what is directly caused by the contractors’ lower assessments of the likelihood of adoption. the comparison of projects highlights largescale alterations in project c, whose preconditions for implementation in a conventional db project are relatively low. further, the analysis by alteration on the righthand side of the figure indicates the most important thing: the more significant and more useful alteration one aims for, the more important it is to use the dbd procedure instead of the conventional db process. lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202432 70% 80% 90% 100% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% owners contractors designers project b project c project d alteration 1 alteration 2 alteration 3 the likelihood of adoption re la tiv e ne t b en ef it figure 2. assessments of the likelihood and relative net benefit of adoption figure 3. expected relative benefit for a conventional db project general effects the interviewees were also asked to rate the impact of the procedure on the achievement of general performance targets (see figure 4). these ratings concerned the realization of the application project under review (project realization in the figure). in addition, interviewees were asked to separately assess how the established use of the dbd procedure will improve the overall valueformoney output in the future (established use in the figure). in all cases, the reference was the result of a conventional db procedure and the rating scale ranged from a significant negative impact (“significantly weakens / adds / slows down”) to a significant positive effect (“significantly improves / decreases / speeds up”) without headlining intermediate levels. figure 4 reports the number of responses per rate and target while the size (area) of a bubble illustrates the number. lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202433 different aspects were emphasized in different projects, but the alterations can generally be seen to have produced some savings that subsequently improve the quality and the life cycle economy through reinvestments. the interviewees felt that additional planning, better risk management, and clarifying objectives with mutual interaction had a positive impact on many aspects. in fact, all the respondents’ assessments were neutral or positive in terms of targets other than speed. thus, in projects b and d, the impact on speed remained unclear, but the alterations made in project c may have sped up the completion of the project, even though the start of construction was delayed compared with the conventional db procedure (due to the preceding development phase). it is also noteworthy that the contractor cannot make binding procurements at the development phase before the realization option decision, so some opportunities may be lost. in general, the effect of the realized projects was not considered strong, although it was positive as a whole. yet, the actual extent of the effect remains unclear since it is always about the images given by the scales and (translated) rate definitions, so the result is indicative at most. it also has to be noted that the rating fails to convey all the perceived benefits as the reduction of uncertainty and better predictability were considered to form a major benefit although the survey ignores this benefit (i.e., the fact that various negative surprises in the implementation stage are less likely due to combined competence in development). figure 4. assessments of the realization of the general performance targets (projects b– d) lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202434 the question of the overall functionality of the procedure included the presumption that the procedure was already well established, which was intended to ignore the potential challenges related to the early adoption of the procedure. it was also assumed that the dbd procedure would be used consistently in projects where it was appropriate. a summary of the answers to the question is found under the value for money section in figure 4. the potential was seen to be slightly higher than the experienced benefit in the implemented projects since the refinement of operational processes, realizing purpose and potential, and cultural changes often require time. experiences in general the parties’ interviews did not reveal any significant opposition to the application of the procedure even though the interviews addressed various factors much more extensively than is possible in this summary that focuses on the general eligibility of the model. exclusion of technical design from the proposal and reviewing it based on the principal solutions does not make it more difficult to select a contractor, and the practice is particularly preferred by contractors. in the absence of a complete design, the motivation for alteration planning is also maintained, and at best, the result is a development effort where both parties work together. in this way, there is higher confidence in the project solution and its feasibility at the time of the final contract (exercising the realization option). the realization option procedure is a safeguard for the owner, and as a result, the owner is now consulted more readily than in a conventional db contract. the need for resourcing and commitment to a prolonged uncertain situation (the development phase) appears challenging for the contractors, but it is partly compensated for by the less labourintensive tender. companies are particularly interested in projects where the offer is based on unit prices as this will further reduce the workload of preparing the offer as it leaves out quantity surveying as well as the related risk analysis and determination of a contingency reserve. the uncertainty of progressing to the realization phase is also somewhat limited so that it does not become an overall steering factor. having progressed to the development phase, the owner has a strong interest in implementing the project and, for public sector projects in particular, discontinuing cooperation is only a real threat in cases where the service provider is unable to fulfil their basic obligations, that is, they are unable to allocate competent resources to the project, to participate in discussions with the owner in order to move the development forward, and are unable to supplement their tender solution with regard to further planning. moreover, the development phase does not significantly increase the experienced workload as it now largely consists of the work that has traditionally been done at the competition phase. of course, the owner’s involvement and more extensive examinations of alternative solutions are a new element, but these additional tasks are mainly only conducted if there are improvement opportunities whose realization benefits both parties. however, anticipating the amount of work is now more challenging than in the traditional process. participants also did not feel that the completion of the project was slowed down by a separate development phase. the development phase takes months of dedicated time, perhaps even slightly longer than the shortest instances in the pilot projects. however, a significant amount of time is only used up when there are meaningful improvements to explore; in large complex projects, these improvements will often speed up the realization phase more than the delay caused by the development phase. so, the development phase is a small investment since altering solutions may speed up the deployment of a facility significantly. it is also clear that there were more development ideas presented now and/or the ideas concerned more significant alterations than before (in conventional db). naturally, there were differences between the projects. in addition to clear technical alterations, the work done during the development phase also lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202435 improves the manageability of the project’s realization. good advance planning frees up some of the site management’s capacity to prepare future tasks when work is being conducted. instead of a reactive approach, the likelihood of more proactive management is now greater. thirdparty assessments a thirdparty assessment has been conducted on three of the ftia’s dbd projects now. project c is the only one where the assessment object matches with the entity examined in this paper (netlipse, 2022c). it concludes the following: “applying the development phase as an extension of the design & build contract is a smart and novel practice and was beneficial to the project (…). also, in the development phase some flaws and missing items were discovered (…).;” and “the dbd contract showed to be flexible enough to manage scope changes that come up during the project.” overall, the assessment concludes that “this method of contracting seems to have yielded added value” and “the project shows an early delivery.” the only negative comments related to dbd can be found from the assessment connected to project d. according to the assessment (netlipse, 2022a), “it could have been more beneficial to take a bit more time in (…) the development phase.” and “the development phase has not been used to its full potential.” yet, the assessors recognized that even now “the development phase has allowed the contractor to reduce their risks and find optimizations, which has benefitted both the contractor and ftia.” thus, even the negative comments presented turn to support dbd. on the other hand, it must be noted that project d, examined in this paper, is phase 1 of this project entity, while the assessment (mainly) focused on its phase 2 (which is the sixth dbd project by the ftia in its order: project f), where there was “political pressure to start construction” at the time of a funding decision (netlipse, 2022a). the third completed ipat assessment (netlipse, 2022b) focused on the ftia’s fifth dbd project (hwy 3 hämeenkyrönväylä, project e) that is not studied in this paper. however, the report shares the supportive opinion of the other assessments by concluding that “dbd allowed for a joint understanding and collaborative working in interpreting the functional specification into a preliminary design, including the ability to incorporate the relevant technology and material requirements into the design approach.” discussion the study developed and evaluated a db application referred to as dbd that combines priceinclusive designbuilder selection and a detached joint development phase between the owner and the selected designbuilder, followed by the owner’s separate decision on whether or not to continue to construction. the dbd procedure was pretty much created from scratch, utilized in a few projects, and reviewed in regard to the experiences gained in those projects. although it is impossible to briefly review the overall dbd practice in relation to all existing db variations, the recognition of the joint development activity offers a shortcut to focus on its novelty. first, a sort of joint development exists in projects where the alternative technical concepts presented by proposers in the competition phase are taken into final design with the selected designbuilder (gransberg, loulakis and gad, 2014), but such a process involves the utmost laborious competition phase, which is totally different from the purposefully lightened competition of the dbd process, for instance. excessive laboriousness also troubles joint development with two competing designbuilders (department of infrastructure and regional development, 2015), although the challenge is now postponed in the process. in addition to the latter (department of infrastructure and regional development, 2015), a joint development phase with a deferred final decision about the continuation to the construction phase by the owner also exists in socalled progressive db (alleman and tran, 2019; and other similar practices, e.g., rosander and kadefors, 2019, 2023, and engebø, 2022), but there, just one designbuilder continues to the lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202436 development phase, although the preceding competition does not include a guaranteed price or strong price benchmark for the owner. therefore, the owner is exposed to the principalagency problematics with the more knowledgeable designbuilder as regards pricing. in most projects, this is something the owner strives to avoid. therefore, a similar approach with the same rationality is not known to have been used and has not been brought forward in research. this indicates that the dbd approach is likely to be novel and it is reasonable to make it known to a wider audience for further assessment and research. the dbd procedure was also evaluated in three road projects where it was considered an improvement in comparison with the former practice by the parties involved in the pilot projects as well as external assessors. it was reckoned to have led to better value for money, and it was easily usable and efficient in using resources while also fixing the experienced deficiencies of the conventional practice. side effects, if any, tend to be positive in regard to maintaining competition and streamlining the implementation phase. the study itself does not extend to a detailed postcompletion analysis, but in this regard, the deferred completion of the paper has made is possible to ensure that improvements made during the development phase have now been realized and the projects have been completed with success. all this also supports the more general validity of dbd as a competitive procedure considering that the point of reference was previously considered the most appropriate practice as a result of the preceding evolution of db in the target market. moreover, since the benchmark application (i.e., db involving a two step procedure, bestvalue selection with design proposal, etc.) strongly resembles the db practices actively used elsewhere, the results of the study may potentially be of a greater significance than can be deducted directly from the success in the pilot projects. in other words, if some finnish construction owners have stepped forward away from the solutions used elsewhere, it would be surprising if actors in other countries did not find dbd meaningful. on the other hand, the limitation of the study is that the performance assessment is rather imprecise and limited to only a few road projects where it is largely subject to the assessment of the involved key professionals. further, initial experiments in an industry accustomed to another kind of operating culture may not give a complete picture of how the dbd procedure works as an established course of action. therefore, more experiments of various types in different regions with proper validation and congruent results are required for generalization and to shed light on the usability of the procedure in the long term. however, an indication of the procedure’s generalizability has also evolved with the postponement because the ftia has launched a few more dbd projects (in addition to the six projects listed above) since the completion of the empirical part of this paper. some finnish municipalities have also followed the trend and, in addition to infrastructure, dbd has found its way into building construction. however, this does not mean that dbd will outstrip other db variations or be worth using in any circumstances since that is not a reasonable expectation. instead, dbd should be recognized as an alternative to the other current variations in certain cases. for instance, progressive db or other socalled early involvement practices may better serve demanding projects that involve a lot of uncertainty and unsolved issues at the time of designbuilder selection, which makes commitment to a certain price impractical. on the other hand, if external uncertainty is manageable, if an exceptional project involves extensive innovation potential, and if the owner considers industrywide ideation worthwhile, a process based on alternative technical concepts may well be preferable over dbd. furthermore, the practice referred to as conventional db in this paper is more for straightforward projects with unambiguous requirements that are inflexible and not likely to change. application areas for dbd can most likely be found between these extremes: a wideranging design competition is unlikely to pay for the effort but, in contrast, involving a very capable designbuilder brings needed knowhow to develop a project when external uncertainties are modest, and the project scope and lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202437 requirements can be determined for (more straightforward) competition (although not necessarily in their final form). the need to improve the project may also be related to the owner’s envisaged requirements changes and partly outdated plans, while parallel design commissioning no longer make sense. conclusions overall, it can be concluded that a novel dbd process has been created and the experiments in the realized projects legitimize the recognition of the dbd procedure as a valid db practice when adhering to the pragmatist notion of truth. the paper contributes to the body of knowledge, first by disproving the dominant view (which has been guiding the formulation and use of the current project delivery practices) that priceinclusive competition and collaborative development thereafter could not be matched successfully and, second, by offering a novel option for the industry to improve its performance accordingly. acknowledgements the starting point of the article is a mandate funded by the finnish transport infrastructure agency, infra ry (infra contractors association in finland) and kehtoforum (major finnish cities/municipalities). references abdelmegid, m., gonzález, v., o’sullivan, m., walker, c., poshdar, m. and alarcón, l., 2023. exploring the links between simulation modelling and construction production planning and control: a case study on the last planner system. production planning & control, [e-journal] 34(5), pp.459-76. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2021.1934588 adamtey, s.a., 2020. an empirical study to assist owners in selecting the right procurement method for design-build projects. international journal of construction education and research, [e-journal] 18(1), pp.67-84. https://doi.org/10.108 0/15578771.2020.1786482 alleman, d. and tran, d., 2019. challenges of implementing progressive design-build in highway construction projects. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, [e-journal] 12(1), 04519036. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000327 alleman, d., nevett, g. and goodrum, p., 2018. design-build performance over the years: an exploration into colorado’s experience. in: construction research congress 2018. new orleans (la), united states, 2-4 april 2018. reston (va): american society of civil engineers (asce). https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784481271.033 american institute of architects (aia), 2007. integrated project delivery: a guide. sacramento (ca): aia national and aia california council. antoine, a.l.c., alleman, d. and molenaar, k.r., 2018. examination of project duration, project intensity, and timing of cost certainty in highway project delivery methods. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 35(1), 04018049. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000661 beard, j., loulakis, m. and wundram, e., 2001. design-build: planning through development. new york (ny): mcgrawhill. chan, a.p.c., scott, d. and lam, e.w.m., 2002. framework of success criteria for design-build projects. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 18(3), pp.120-28. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2002)18:3(120) chan, d.w.m., chan, a.p.c., lam, p.t.i. and wong, j.m.w., 2011. an empirical survey of the motives and benefits of adopting guaranteed maximum price and target cost contracts in construction. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 29(5), pp.577-90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.04.002 lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202438 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2021.1934588 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2020.1786482 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2020.1786482 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000327 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000327 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784481271.033 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000661 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2002)18:3(120 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.04.002 chang, c.-y. and ive, g., 2011. selecting procurement systems for capital projects: a transaction cost perspective. advances in business and management, 2, pp.125-37. chen, q., jin, z., xia, b., wu, p. and skitmore, m., 2015. time and cost performance of design-build projects. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 142(2), 04015074. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0001056 choi, k., jung, i., yin, y., gurganus, c. and jeong, h.d., 2020. holistic performance evaluation of highway designbuild projects. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 36(4), pp.1-11. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) me.1943-5479.0000781 chynoweth, p., 2013. a taxonomy of research styles for the chartered surveying profession: research into practice, for practice, and through practice. in: proceedings of the royal institution of chartered surveyors construction, building, and real estate conference (cobra), new delhi, india, 10-12 september 2013. da rocha, c., formoso, c., tzortzopoulos-fazenda, p., koskela, l. and tezel, a., 2012. design science research in lean construction: process and outcomes. in: proceedings for the 20th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, san diego (ca), united states, 18–20 july 2012. da rocha, c. and kemmer, s., 2018. integrating product and process design in construction. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 36(9), pp.535-43. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2018.1464198 department of infrastructure and regional development, 2015. national alliance contracting guidelines. guidance note 6: early contractor involvement and other collaborative procurement methods. canberra (act): australian government, department of infrastructure and regional development. department of treasury and finance, 2006. project alliancing: practitioners’ guide. state of victoria, melbourne (vic): the department of treasury and finance. dorsey, r., 1997. project delivery systems for building construction. washington dc: associated general contractors of america. el wardani, m.a., messner, j.i. and horman, m.j., 2006. comparing procurement methods for design-build projects. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 132(3), pp.230-38. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(2006)132:3(230) engebø, a., 2022. collaborative project delivery methods. phd. trondheim: norwegian university of science and technology, department of civil and environmental engineering. european union, 2014. directive 2014/24/eu of the european parliament and of the council of 26 february 2014 on public procurement and repealing directive 2004/18/ec. official journal of the european union l 94, volume 57, 28 march 2014, pp.65-242. finnish transport agency, 2018. rantatunneli: value for money report. helsinki, finland: finnish transport agency. gad, g.m., davis, b., shrestha, p.p. and harder, p., 2019. lessons learned from progressive design-build implementation on airport projects. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, [e-journal] 11(4), 04519020. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000320 gad, g.m., gransberg, d.d. and loulakis, m., 2015. submittal and evaluation procedures for alternative technical concepts. transportation research record, [e-journal] 2504(1), pp.10-18. https://doi.org/10.3141/2504-02 gad, g.m., loulakis, m.c. and gransberg, d., 2019. confidentiality issues with alternative technical concepts during design-build project procurement. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, [e-journal] 12(1), 04519034. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000345 lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202439 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001056 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001056 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000781 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000781 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2018.1464198 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:3(230 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:3(230 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000320 https://doi.org/10.3141/2504-02 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000345 gransberg, d.d. and molenaar, k.r., 2019. critical comparison of progressive design-build and construction manager/ general contractor project delivery methods. transportation research record, [e-journal] 2673(1), pp.261-68. https://doi. org/10.1177/0361198118822315 gransberg, d.d., loulakis, m. and gad, g.m., 2014. alternative technical concepts for contract delivery methods (nchrp synthesis 455). washington dc: the national academies press. https://doi.org/10.17226/22419 hauck, a., walker, d., hampson, k. and peters, r., 2004. project alliancing at national museum of australia– collaborative process. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 130(1), pp.143-52. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:1(143) hevner, a., march, s., park, j. and ram, s., 2004. design science in information systems research. mis quarterly, [e-journal] 28(1), pp.75-105. https://doi.org/10.2307/25148625 james, w., 1955. pragmatism and four essays from the meaning of truth. cleveland (oh): the world publishing company. johannesson, p. and perjons, e., 2014. an introduction to design science. cham: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3319-10632-8 jones, o., gold, j. and claxton, j., 2022. an exposition of the constructive research approach: a tactical treatise for addressing methodological and practical issues in organisational research. international journal of organizational analysis, [e-journal] ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoa-03-2022-3212 kanjanabootra, s., 2016. design science method and theory in a construction and engineering context: ‘a phronetic tale of research.’ engineering project organization journal, [e-journal] 6(2-4), pp.64-77. https://doi.org/10.1080/21573727.2 016.1260549 kaplanogu, s.b. and arditi, d., 2009. pre-project peer reviews in gmp/lump sum contracts. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 16(2), pp.175-85. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980910938046 kasanen, e., lukka, k. and siitonen, a., 1993. the constructive approach in management accounting research. journal of management accounting research, 5(fall), pp.243-64. konchar, m. and sanvido, v., 1998. comparison of u.s. project delivery systems. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 124(6), pp.435-44. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1998)124:6(435) koskela, l., 2008. which kind of science is construction management? in: proceedings for the 16th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. manchester, united kingdom, 16-18 july 2008. kuechler, b. and vaishnavi, v., 2008. on theory development in design science research: anatomy of a research project. european journal of information systems, [e-journal] 17(5), pp.489-504. https://doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2008.40 lahdenperä, p., 2016. towards quantification of the economic efficiency advantage of alliancing in complex infrastructure projects. in: saari, a. and huovinen, p., eds. proceedings of the cib world building congress 2016 intelligent built environment for life. may 30-june 3, 2016, tampere, finland. volume iii. tampere university of technology, department of civil engineering, construction management and economics. report 18 (pp.496-509). http://urn.fi/ urn:isbn:978-952-15-3743-1 lahdenperä, p., 2017. towards a coherent theory of project alliancing: discovering the system’s complex mechanisms yielding value for money. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 17(2), pp.41-61. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v17i2.5292 lahdenperä, p., 2019. a longitudinal view of adopting project alliancing: case finland. in lill, i. and witt, e., eds. 10th nordic conference on construction economics and organization (emerald reach proceedings series, vol. 2). bingley: emerald publishing limited. pp.129-36. https://doi.org/10.1108/s2516-285320190000002053 lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202440 https://doi.org/10.1177/0361198118822315 https://doi.org/10.1177/0361198118822315 https://doi.org/10.17226/22419 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:1(143 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:1(143 https://doi.org/10.2307/25148625 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10632-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10632-8 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijoa-03-2022-3212 https://doi.org/10.1080/21573727.2016.1260549 https://doi.org/10.1080/21573727.2016.1260549 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980910938046 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1998)124:6(435 https://doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2008.40 http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-952-15-3743-1 http://urn.fi/urn:isbn:978-952-15-3743-1 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i2.5292 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i2.5292 https://doi.org/10.1108/s2516-285320190000002053 lahdenperä, p., 2020. impact of market fluctuation on relative advantageousness of project delivery systems. engineering project organization journal, [e-journal] 9. https://doi.org/10.25219/epoj.2020.00102 lam, e.w.m., chan, a.p.c. and chan, d.w.m., 2007. benchmarking the performance of design-build projects: development of project success index. benchmarking, [e-journal] 14(5), pp.624-38. https://doi. org/10.1108/14635770710819290 london underground, 2014. innovative contractor engagement: project report on the implementation of innovative contractor engagement for the appointment of a design and build contractor for the bank station capacity upgrade scheme. london: london underground. love, p., skitmore, m. and earl, g., 1998. selecting a suitable procurement method for a building project. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 16(2), pp.221-33. https://doi.org/10.1080/014461998372501 lukka, k., 2000. the key issues of applying the constructive approach to field research. in: management expertise for the new millennium. turku: turku school of economics and business administration a-1 (pp.113-28). masterman, j., 1992. an introduction to building procurement systems. london: e & fn spon. migliaccio, g.c., gibson, g.e. and o’connor, j.t., 2009. procurement of design-build services: two-phase selection for highway projects. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 25(1), pp.29-39. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0742-597x(2009)25:1(29) national association of state facilities administrators, 2010. integrated project delivery for public and private owners. lexington (ky): national association of state facilities administrators (nasfa), construction owners association of america (coaa), the association of higher education facilities officers (appa), associated general contractors of america (agc) and american institute of architects (aia). netlipse, 2017. ipat assessors manual. baarn: netlipse – networking knowledge of large infrastructure projects in europe. (version 3.0.). netlipse, 2022a. ipat assessment report, e18 turku ring road kausela-kirismäki. baarn: netlipse – networking knowledge of large infrastructure projects in europe. netlipse, 2022b. ipat assessment report, main road 3 hämeenkyrönväylä project. baarn: netlipse – networking knowledge of large infrastructure projects in europe. netlipse, 2022c. ipat assessment report, main road 4 kirri-tikkakoski. baarn: netlipse – networking knowledge of large infrastructure projects in europe. nguyen, p.h.d., tran, d.q. and bypaneni, s.p.k., 2021. exploring the impact of project size on design-bid-build and design-build project delivery performance in highways. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 39(11), 879-93. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2021.1993289 nikou goftar, v., el asmar, m. and bingham, e., 2014. a meta-analysis of literature comparing project performance between design-build (db) and design-bid-build (dbb) delivery systems. in: construction research congress 2014. atlanta (ga), united states, 19-21 may 2014. reston (va): american society of civil engineers (asce). https://doi. org/10.1061/9780784413517.142 oyegoke, a., 2011. the constructive research approach in project management research. international journal of managing projects in business, [e-journal] 4(4), pp.573-95. https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371111164029 oyegoke, a. and kiiras, j., 2009. development and application of the specialist task organization procurement approach. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 25(3), pp.131-42. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742597x(2009)25:3(131) lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202441 https://doi.org/10.25219/epoj.2020.00102 https://doi.org/10.1108/14635770710819290 https://doi.org/10.1108/14635770710819290 https://doi.org/10.1080/014461998372501 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2009)25:1(29 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2009)25:1(29 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2021.1993289 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413517.142 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413517.142 https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371111164029 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2009)25:3(131 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2009)25:3(131 piirainen, k. and gonzalez, r., 2013. seeking constructive synergy: design science and the constructive research approach. in: vom brocke, j., hekkala, r., ram, s. and rossi, m., eds. design science at the intersection of physical and virtual design. proceedings, 8th international conference, desrist. helsinki, finland, 11–12 june 2013. berlin/ heidelberg: springer-verlag (pp.59–72). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38827-9_5 ramsey, d., el asmar, m. and gibson, g.e., 2016. quantitative performance assessment of single-step versus two-step design-build procurement. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 142(9), 04016033. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001145 rosander, l. and kadefors, a., 2019. from project to policy: implementing a collaborative procurement strategy in a public client organization. in: gorse, c. and neilson, c.j., eds. proceedings of the 35th annual arcom conference, 2-4 september 2019, leeds, uk (pp.750–59). https://www.arcom.ac.uk/-docs/archive/2019-indexed-papers.pdf rosander, l. and kadefors, a., 2023. implementing relational contracting in a public client organization: the influence of policy clashes, resources and project autonomy. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 41(8), pp.651-69. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2023.2190992 sbiti, m., beladjine, d., beddiar, k. and mazari, b., 2022. leveraging quantity surveying data and bim to automate mechanical and electrical (m & e) construction planning. applied sciences, [e-journal] 12(9), 4546. https://doi. org/10.3390/app12094546 shrestha, p.p., o’connor, j.t. and gibson, g.e., 2012. performance comparison of large design-build and design-bidbuild highway projects. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 138(1), pp.1-13. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000390 sullivan, j., el asmar, m., chalhoub, j. and obeid, h., 2017. two decades of performance comparisons for design-build, construction manager at risk, and design-bid-build: quantitative analysis of the state of knowledge on project cost, schedule, and quality. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 143(6), 4017009. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001282 tran, d.q., diraviam, g. and minchin, r.e., 2018. performance of highway design-bid-build and design-build projects by work types. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 144(2), 04017112. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001437 voordijk, h., 2009. construction management and economics: the epistemology of a multidisciplinary design science. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 27(8), pp.713-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190903117777 walker, d. and hampson, k., eds., 2003. procurement strategies. a relationship-based approach. oxford: blackwell science. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470690635 xia, b., chan, a.p.c. and yeung, j.f.y., 2011. developing a fuzzy multicriteria decision-making model for selecting design-build operational variations. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 137(12), pp.117684. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000381 xia, b., chan, a., molenaar, k. and skitmore, m., 2012a. determining the appropriate proportion of owner-provided design in design-build contracts: content analysis approach. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 138(9), pp.1017-1022. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000522 xia, b., chan, a., skitmore, m. and dean, a., 2012b. a classification framework for design-build variants from an operational perspective. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 12(3), pp.85-99. https://doi.org/10 .1080/15623599.2012.10773196 zegarra, o. and alarcón, l., 2019. coordination of teams, meetings, and managerial processes in construction projects: using a lean and complex adaptive mechanism. production planning & control, [e-journal] 30(9), pp. 736-63. https://doi. org/10.1080/09537287.2019.1578905 lahdenperä construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202442 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-38827-9_5 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001145 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001145 https://www.arcom.ac.uk/-docs/archive/2019-indexed-papers.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2023.2190992 https://doi.org/10.3390/app12094546 https://doi.org/10.3390/app12094546 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000390 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000390 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001282 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001282 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001437 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001437 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190903117777 https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470690635 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000381 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000522 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2012.10773196 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2012.10773196 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2019.1578905 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2019.1578905 construction economics and building vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022 © 2022 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: moshood, t. d., rotimi, f. e., rotimi, j. o. b. 2022. an integrated paradigm for managing efficient knowledge transfer: towards a more comprehensive philosophy of transferring knowledge in the construction industry. construction economics and building, 22:3, 65–98. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v22i3.8050 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article an integrated paradigm for managing efficient knowledge transfer: towards a more comprehensive philosophy of transferring knowledge in the construction industry taofeeq d. moshood1,*, funmilayo ebun rotimi2, james o. b. rotimi1, 1 school of built environment, massey university, new zealand 2 built environment engineering, school of future environments, auckland university of technology, new zealand corresponding author: taofeeq d. moshood, school of built environment, massey university, new zealand, tmoshood@massey.ac.nz or taofeeqmoshood@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.8050 article history: received: 06/01/2022; revised: 10/03/2022 & 04/06/2022 & 02/07/2022; accepted: 04/07/2022; published: 20/09/2022 abstract the efficient knowledge transfer among project group members can help those individuals do their jobs more successfully. however, there are challenges with effective and efficient knowledge transfer within the construction industry. past research has assumed that all information can be articulated and codified, thus focusing on the transfer that generates the supply of knowledge. there seems not to be a comprehensive strategy for dealing with reverse, intra-firm information transfer that considers several elements and the interconnections between them. the current study developed a conceptual framework that comprehensively overviews knowledge transmission variables. a total of 128 papers from scopus and web of science and publisher databases like taylor & francis, elsevier, emerald insight, and google scholar were evaluated between 1990 and 2021. the data were evaluated using atlas.ti 9 software tool. the study contributed significantly to the impression of knowledge transfer by the construction industry. it also suggests that organisations should inspire and increase the involvement and evaluation of knowledge dissemination. in addition, a set of factors for efficient information transfer was identified and described in detail. effective communication strategies should include establishing regular and efficient communication, creating a community of practice with common declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 65 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.8050 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.8050 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:tmoshood@massey.ac.nz mailto:taofeeqmoshood@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.8050 goals, creating a sense of urgency and connection to the challenge, and continuously transferring information amongst organisation members. keywords knowledge transfer; barriers; knowledge sharing; knowledge management; construction industry introduction in the last few decades, scholars (shin, holden and schmidt, 2001; liyanage, et al., 2009; de luca and rubio, 2018) have indicated that knowledge is an essential resource for organisations’ ability to compete. knowledge aids the creation of value-adding goods and services and improves the efficiency of operational activities ( shin, holden and schmidt, 2001). for example, while having a good understanding of an organisation’s clients helps in addressing present and future clients’ demands, in the same manner having a good understanding of a company’s rival helps a company to properly position itself for any form of competition. similarly, bacon, williams and davies, (2019) believe that knowing how to do things better and more efficiently increases production and improves the final output. an organisation’s performance will be strongly influenced by its employees’ capacity for knowledge development and efficient application (tafkov, towry and zhou, 2022). using knowledge successfully will provide organisations with long-term competitive benefits, primarily if replicating or transferring information is not challenging (liyanage, et al., 2009; north and kumta, 2018b). therefore, knowledge is an essential resource due to its inherent benefits. goh (2002) states that knowledge management is critical for organisational success and competitive advantage. however, organisations have substantial obstacles to effective knowledge management. goh (2002) asserts that knowledge transfer and the ability of organisations to share information are crucial in knowledge management. most organisations have well-defined procedures for knowledge transfer (zhou, et al., 2020). however, merely implementing a knowledge transfer method will not be sufficient to ensure success in knowledge transfer (ferrer-serrano, fuentelsaz and latorre-martinez, 2021). instead, organisations must be proactive in implementing such formal procedures (lópez-sáez, et al., 2021). numerous scholars acknowledge that organisational culture is one of the most significant obstacles to knowledge transfer in projects (ajmal and koskinen, 2008; wiewiora, et al., 2013). according to ajmal and koskinen (2008), organisational culture impacts project team members’ decisions with regard to sharing and exchanging project-related knowledge. however, there is still a lack of a specific and comprehensive understanding of how such influence occurs. furthermore, organisational culture frequently hinders the transfer of learning lessons and the replication of innovative strategies (eskerod and skriver, 2007). the primary objective of the current study is to emphasize the importance of effective knowledge transfer within construction organizations. in construction, projects are delivered by temporary project organizations, formed by integrating different subgroups such as design and construction teams to deliver the project. pathirage, amaratunga, and haigh (2007) suggest that this is the intrinsic characteristic of construction and the industry, distinguishing it from other sectors with its much greater concentration of smaller firms. therefore knowledge in the construction industry is more likely to be dependent, situational, and otherwise confined to individual and local practices (styhre and gluch, 2010). as a result of this distinctiveness and short-term focus, temporary project organizations have challenges in knowledge management, which might impede the development of procedures and organizational learning. lombardi (2019) states that even if knowledge is preserved within an organisation, it must be transferred to create value. effective knowledge transfer contributes to successful knowledge transfer (zimpel-leal and lettice, 2021), which in turn enhances innovation (cohen and levinthal, 1990), improves operational process effectiveness (north and kumta, 2018b), and reduces the danger of “reinventing the wheel” (pandey, 2016). therefore, ensuring effective and efficient transfer of knowledge within construction organisations moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202266 is the main concern of this study (brown, sharpe and andrews, 2020). knowledge transfer research in the construction sector has focused on organisational culture (ajmal and koskinen, 2008; wiewiora, et al., 2013) and its contextual impact on organisations. other articles have focused on the influence of knowledge transfer on a company’s success (kamara, et al., 2002; van egmond and erkelens, 2007; castro, et al., 2012) and on construction business (costa, et al., 2006; maurer, bartsch and ebers, 2011). therefore, this study addresses two objectives. firstly, the study seeks to establish the obstacles to successful knowledge transfer in the construction sector. secondly, it seeks to establish how motivation and willingness influence knowledge transfer and sharing in the construction sector. it is hoped that the study recommendations would bridge knowledge gaps surrounding knowledge transfer within the construction industry. previous works on knowledge transfer within organisations are reviewed in the following section. knowledge and information knowledge is a broad notion that may be interpreted in various ways. pathirage, et al., (2007) opine that knowledge ranges from practical to conceptual and philosophical approaches; the scope ranges from narrow to broad. knowledge justifies genuine belief (nonaka, 1994; artemov, 2018). although it justifies true belief, it does not inevitably lead to new knowledge when truth’s constructive nature is considered (artemov, 2018). thus, a statement must be true for it to be believed, so believing in the truth of a statement is justified. milton (2007) suggests that several descriptions of knowledge include a highly organized type of information, what it takes to think like an expert, distinguishing factors of professionals from nonprofessionals, and what is required to carry out complicated activities. on the other hand, north and kumta (2018a) describe information and knowledge as using symbols, which are the essential building elements of communication. rules are required to make meaning of the symbols, and they refer to these rules as syntactic rules, which combine with symbols to form data. thereafter, information is gleaned by giving the raw data some context. ‘information is organized data that adds significance to communication’ (north and kumta, 2018a). various people regard this information differently depending on their background, previous experience, and expectations. historical context, expertise, and expectations contribute to the understanding obtained from the material. in this investigation, north and kumta’s (2018b) concept of knowledge will be adopted: knowledge refers to a person’s understanding of connections between objects, whether implicit or explicit. routines for carrying out tasks, organisational structures, procedures, and ingrained ideas and behaviours contribute to it. to have the knowledge, one must be able to link inputs and outputs, recognize trends in information, codify, explain, and finally make predictions. dimensions of knowledge transfer information processing comprises reordering, quantifying, qualifying, grouping, and learning (ashok, et al., 2021): these processes enable humans to generate deeper relationships between information and actions depending on reactions to information (li, et al., 2021). knowledge is kept in an organization’s documents and storage systems and through everyday work procedures, implementation, and specifications (kavalić, et al., 2021). the two types of knowledge are tacit and explicit. in literature, knowledge is tacit and explicit (magnier-watanabe and benton, 2017; zebal, ferdous and chambers, 2019; shao and ariss, 2020). explicit knowledge is described by north and kumta (2018a) as formal and organized, and it may be conveyed by codification or transferred through the use of formal systematic language. furthermore, explicit information may be preserved in various media other than the brain (zhao, et al., 2020). on the other hand, tacit knowledge is defined as the accumulation of experience earned through the execution of tasks or projects and the insights gained via problem resolution (north and kumta, 2018a). moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202267 tacit knowledge is highly individual, context-specific, and sometimes unconscious, making it difficult to formalize and convey. tacit knowledge is based on an individual’s education, ideals, beliefs, and emotional state of mind as it is firmly embedded in the acts and experiences of an individual (north and kumta, 2018a). within construction project-based environments, the tacit dimension of knowledge is the hardest to manage because it is embedded within individuals, thus making it impossible to be formally communicated (pathirage, et al., 2007). subjective and substantive information not expressible in words or phrases is referred to as tacit knowledge (vlajčić, et al., 2019). on the other hand, explicit knowledge is objective and metaphysical information that can be described in words and numbers. it is personal, difficult to codify, and deeply rooted in individual acts and experiences, personal ideas, beliefs, and inner sentiments. it may be communicated and disseminated easily utilizing specialized resources, scientific formulas, established methods, and general concepts (ashok, et al., 2021). however, valuable human and knowledge resources could be wasted unless organisations make an effort to properly manage tacit knowledge in the construction industry (pathirage, et al., 2007). both tacit and explicit knowledge is acquired through a continuous flow of information, such as drawing on personal experiences of family and friends, observing and trying to imitate the states of others, knowledge being passed from teachers to students in schools, knowledge being passed from senior employees to junior employees at a company, and companies having meetings to announce modifications to the existing rules. these are all processes of knowledge transfer. knowledge acquisition, organization, structural reconstructions, storing, memory, and final assembly for deployments and distribution. szulanski (2000) describes knowledge transfer as the flow of information among organizational members or the normal interchange of information between knowledge suppliers and receivers to operate individuals’ abilities and social institutions. according to davenport, de long and beers, (1998), this process involves transmission and absorption, where transmissions refer to knowledge being transferred to potential receivers and absorption refers to people receiving approved knowledge. knowledge transfer fails if receivers do not absorb the information; this highlights the significance of contact between knowledge producers and receivers since knowledge can only be transmitted if both parties are eager to give and receive information (oliva and kotabe, 2019). organizations must provide fundamental construction skills that facilitate knowledge transfer and generate incentives for individuals, teams, divisions, and lines of business to collaborate toward common goals. due to the unique and temporary nature of construction projects, as well as the involved multidisciplinary teams, much of the gained knowledge and learned lessons are dispersed at the end of projects (kivrak, et al., 2008), especially when not well documented or shared properly (fong and wong, 2005; kazi and koivuniemi, 2006; patel, et al., 2016). generally, since most know-how, know-what, and experiences are in people’s minds capturing tacit knowledge of construction practitioners and reusing these on future projects may be difficult for organisations (woo, et al., 2004; lin, et al., 2005; ajmal and koskinen, 2008). lee and al-hawamdeh (2002) and shao and ariss (2020) demonstrated that because people know more than they can convey, this situation makes it difficult for tacit knowledge to be formalized. this suggests that explicit information has an advantage over tacit knowledge since it is easier to transfer between persons and contexts than tacit knowledge (bacon et al., 2019). overview of knowledge transfer in the construction industry an organisation’s ability to transfer and manage knowledge provides a competitive advantage (halila, et al., 2017). however, knowledge management in construction is relatively difficult (riggio, alhariri and hansen, 2020). studies have analysed an organisation’s knowledge transfer and management process when purchasing new technology or creating new business operations (sergeeva and duryan, 2019). however, moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202268 little is known regarding construction organisations’ knowledge transfer efficiency. managing various other variables has made the fragmented nature of the construction sector obvious. consequently, a higher level of coordination is required for these temporary organisations, which may be working on many projects simultaneously (castro, et al., 2012; huang and yang 2019). it is well known that construction projects consume a lot of time (uusitalo and lavikka, 2021) because of the many critical decisions to take. therefore, knowledge management remains critical to the success of activities on site (halila, et al., 2017). castro, et al., (2012) argue that a unified strategy for knowledge management is lacking in the construction sector. knowledge management is only seen as an ideal, not a reality. nevertheless, construction organisations can still benefit from the proactive transfer of knowledge across their various projects, create synergies within their organisations, and learn from the past experiences and successes of others for increased performance and productivity (williams, fugar and adinyira, 2021). these are only possible if construction organizations can devise means for collecting, storing, transmitting, and repurposing knowledge as a priority (berg, et al., 2012). furthermore, the construction sector offers enormous, expensive, custom-built structures to complete a building project. it is a powerful, knowledge-based industry that primarily relies on the knowledge contribution of various project team members (sun, ren and anumba, 2019). some components of knowledge management have been present for a long time, such as the attempt in the 1980s to capture tacit knowledge in expert systems and knowledge-based systems. however, these have limited effectiveness in specific areas, such as determining the origin of moisture in structures (carrillo, et al., 2004). this method of capturing personal experiences in information technology (it) systems failed miserably. technology has progressed to the point that it is now widely recognised that it is a facilitator, not a knowledge management system (wei and miraglia, 2017). there are several steps to completing a building job. it necessitates the development of a virtual, temporary, interdisciplinary organisation comprised of customer and supply chain representatives. architects, consulting engineers, general contractors, specialised subcontractors, material suppliers, and other experts in the supply chain may all be employed by separate firms (wang, et al., 2021). after completing a project, these virtual teams typically disperse without performing post-project reviews or spreading the lessons learned. this implies that positive and negative team and individual learning experiences are not shared (owusu-manu, et al., 2018). as a result, knowledge and information sharing are required between comparable initiatives done by an organisation and between the many enterprises that make up the supply chain (wang, et al., 2021). the spectrum of tacit to explicit knowledge should be addressed properly in the management of building project knowledge. throughout the project life cycle, from design to usage, the construction industry depends largely on its expertise in specialised fields (owusu-manu, et al., 2018). infrastructure is needed to provide access to this tacit expertise through networks, discussion forums, mentorship, or other methods. similarly, it promotes the global exchange of explicit information via intranets, knowledge portals, and other means (ren, deng and liang, 2018). with its focus on collaborative working, information sharing, and building new networks to boost competitiveness and profitability, knowledge transfer is especially important to the construction sector (moodley, 2017). carrillo, et al. (2004), citing poor levels of firm profitability, compelled several construction companies to rethink how they run their businesses and the role of learning and knowledge in meeting performance goals. due to the long-term nature of the relationships between the members of the workforce and the repetitive nature of some of the projects, relatively new forms of procurement, such as partnering and public-private partnerships (which fund schools, hospitals, prisons, and roads), can benefit from better knowledge asset management. knowledge transfer can immediately enhance a number of the performance parameters now utilised by the construction industry (cost, time, safety, flaws, and predictability). these gain from knowledge captured and disseminated from previous project stages as well as from other projects. moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202269 methodology search string the data for this study was gathered systematically from reputable sources. according to saunders (2011), a systematic review starts with introducing acceptable keywords that can be used to find literature from databases. a systematic review aims to discover gaps and limitations in the current body of knowledge (tranfield, denyer and smart, 2003). through the review, the study intends to make recommendations for future research (seuring, et al., 2005). the current study adopts a systematic approach to investigate knowledge transfer, knowledge sharing, and impediments to knowledge transfer related to the construction industry. aggregator databases, such as scopus and web of science, and publisher databases, such as taylor & francis, elsevier, emerald insight, and google scholar, were used to find and extract articles relevant to the research with the use of the google chrome browser operator. table 1 shows keywords used during the search. table 1. search engines, scholarly databases, phrases used and keywords search engines and database key words search engines google scholar knowledge transfer and construction; knowledge sharing and construction; knowledge transfer barriers and construction; effective knowledge transfer and construction; willingness to share knowledge and construction. academic research databases scopus web of science title-abs-key (“knowledge and transfer” and “construction” and “knowledge and sharing” and “construction”) and (limit-to (pubyear, 2021) or limitto (pubyear, 1990)). “effective and knowledge” and “transfer and construction” and “willingness to share” and “knowledge and construction” and “motivation to transfer and knowledge.” taylor & francis, elsevier, emerald insight knowledge transfer and construction; knowledge sharing and construction; knowledge transfer barriers and construction; successful knowledge transfer and construction; effective knowledge transfer and construction; willingness to share knowledge and construction. since there was a link between the two levels of the domain, the aggregate searches used in collecting all relevant information from the literature were validated by utilising this level of granularity (aggregator and publisher level) (bastas and liyanage, 2018). the first search result returns conference papers, book chapters, and articles. as a result, the search was restricted to only ‘article’ results to eliminate books, conference papers, and magazines from the collection. only 128 articles were included in the study, and academic areas were scrutinized alongside the most trustworthy materials and publications with management impact (thornhill, saunders and lewis, 2009). only articles written in english were included in the search. the search period for this analysis was between 1990 and 2021, based on the most significant breakthroughs moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202270 in knowledge transfer, information sharing, knowledge transfer hurdles, and collecting state-of-the-art publications. analysis process this study adopted several steps involved in preparing and investigating knowledge transfer. each stage of the evaluation phase was grouped around the procedures, results, and discussion sections, allowing the reader to better understand how the data were reviewed to follow the implications of the process and the resultant data for each stage of the phase. after the specified systematic literature review procedure (as seen in figures 1 and 2), an iterative selection technique was adopted to screen, filter, and verify the articles to ensure that they matched the criteria for inclusion in the study. keyword selection: knowledge transfer, knowledge sharing, barriers to knowledge transfer, successful knowledge transfer, effective knowledge transfer, willingness to share knowledge, motivation to transfer knowledge, knowledge transfer framework, and distance barriers. collecting the searched articles shortlisting of articles database selection: scopus, web of science, and publishing databases like elsevier, taylor & francis, emerald insight. reviewing the articles the articles' scope and content identifying the gaps future research stage 1: article collection stage 4: literature analysis stage 2: inclusion/exclusi on criteria stage 3: reviewing the articles stage5: future research direction figure 1. literature review methodology moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202271 the process of analysis included the following: the elimination of duplicates, the verification of eligibility from abstracts, and the review of the complete content of an outstanding paper in the context of the study to make a final decision on the knowledge transfer, areas under investigation, and other factors (moher, et al., 2015). the study, therefore, verifies that the data has been obtained from reputable sources. these databases are also excellent for generalizability since they index journals from other important databases such as elsevier, emerald, taylor and francis, and many others. in order to convey insights and future research directions, however, the data must originate from an even more credible source than before. identification search 1 search 2 search 3 search 4 search 5 search 6 identified through database searching screening post removal of duplicates eligibility post-abstract review included taylor & francis elsevier emerald web of science scopus google scholar post-full-text review 81 85 77 43 55 20 19 35 35 32 26 31 13 30 18 17 11 25 27 23 79 33 27 25 figure 2. overview of paper identification, selection, and inclusion process the original papers identified from databases include 420 articles. these articles were screened (identified through database searching, 420 papers) and re-screened (after eliminating duplicates, 174 papers remain). further screening for eligibility (after abstract review, 145 papers remain) and validation for inclusion in the research were done (post-full-text review, 128). afterward, the 128 systematically reviewed articles were evaluated for validity. this study adopted a methodological approach established by scholarly works published in previous studies. for instance, descriptive analysis was adopted to describe the characteristics of the relevant parameters. these are potential modifications to knowledge transfer intended to improve service efficiency in the construction sector, raise effectiveness, detect prospective advances, eliminate impediments to knowledge transfer, and promote the desire to transfer, as shown in this paper. analysis of the findings knowledge transfer articles in the construction sector are examined in this research to determine the relationships and correlations of keywords. several classifications were developed based on the 128 reviewed publications. as a result of multiple rounds of recoding and code merging in atlas.ti 9, the final indicators revealed seven primary patterns and relationships. moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202272 atlas.ti 9 software in systematic reviews the atlas.ti 9 software package was considered adequate for storing, categorizing, and evaluating evidence in this study (moshood, et al., 2021). it is regarded as a powerful workbench for qualitative analysis where large bodies of textual, graphical, audio, and video data are involved (https://atlasti.com/ product/what-is-atlas-ti/). an advantage of atlas.ti 9 is that it enables easy access to keywords, subjects, relationship maps, and other analytical features by using quotes as search terms. its use in this study is described alongside explaining the systematic review process. the current review follows four out of six taxonomies presented by cooper (1988). these four are purpose, concentration, point of view, and layout. the purpose of the review is to give insight into the existing growth and ultimate potential of knowledge transfer in the construction sector. the research concentrates on the features of knowledge transfer in the construction industry. thirdly, the point of view of the analysis is taken from a neutral stance. finally, the layout follows the logical linking of keywords after the articles are sorted. this approach comprehensively addressed the literature (chang and hsieh, 2020). figure 3. word cloud information on knowledge transfer and knowledge sharing figure 3 is a word cloud utilized as a starting point to give a snapshot of terms connected to knowledge transfer and knowledge sharing. because word clouds are limited in application, atlas.ti 9 capabilities were used to manually mix and show the words of several papers in a lengthy word cloud. therefore, the articles had a clearer structure that allowed for apparent variances and similarities in word usage. nonaka (1994) created a cyclic socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization (seci) model, which has served as a reference to represent a preliminary study into how knowledge management ideas are used in an organization (kahrens and früauff, 2018). tactic and explicit knowledge are presented as a conversation in nonaka’s knowledge generation spiral, showing the four ways in which knowledge is created (crupi, et al., 2020). thus, four knowledge transformations are presented in the models expressed in figures 4 and 5. figures 4 and 5 display a network view, illustrating how the eight primary concerns (socialisation “tacit to tacit,” internalisation “explicit to tacit,” externalisation “tacit to explicit,” and combination “explicit to explicit”) that emerged from the review of knowledge transfer among construction workers are related to data codes. in order to recognize and mark as quotes, all components of the knowledge organisation in which atlas.ti 9 software was applied; the usage of atlas.ti 9 software, and the auto-code breakthrough for the main analysis phase were recognized and marked as quotations (moshood, nawanir moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202273 https://atlasti.com/product/what-is-atlas-ti/ https://atlasti.com/product/what-is-atlas-ti/ and mahmud, 2022). they were thereafter grouped into distinct assessment records, and the quotations were then studied as part of the study’s process. the research subject necessitated a thorough reading and explanation of all papers to identify recurring patterns and concepts (paulus and bennett, 2017). figure 4. atlas.ti network view on the (seci) model of knowledge transfer moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202274 three different sorts of reports were intended to be produced using the materials acquired. 1) comprehensive report: their investigations first defined the publications that were suggested to describe the basic purpose of the literary evaluation. 2) detailed description: this paper concerns general knowledge transfer among construction employees. the received papers were divided into eight categories. in order to provide detailed information on the things acquired, their relationship to the study’s aims and procedures, as well as their productivity and value in terms of technology, were addressed. 3) in conclusion, interaction analysis is a statement regarding the transmission of information among construction workers to complement the previous statement. also, additional options such as knowledge transfer, knowledge sharing, roadblocks in the process of knowledge transfer, successful knowledge transfers, efficient knowledge transfers, willingness to share knowledge, and incentives for knowledge transfer (amongst others) were discussed. figure 5. literature review map distinguishing between knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer as previously stated, the process of establishing and separating the many domains under knowledge management is time-consuming, and knowledge transfer has always been against this principle. for example, paulin and suneson, (2015) discuss how the two phrases, knowledge sharing, and knowledge transfer, are sometimes used synonymously. however, their definitions and meanings slightly differ depending on how various writers approach and interpret the concepts. in addition, liyanage, et al., (2009) point out that the two phrases are frequently discussed together by numerous writers and academics, as they consider. while knowledge sharing, according to liyanage, et al., (2009), is a two-way process between individuals exchanging information. knowledge transfer extends beyond simply utilizing existing knowledge to include how it should be acquired and stored to increase efficiency, effectiveness, and productivity. furthermore, they continue their reasoning by referring to argote and ingram, (2000), who asserted that knowledge transfer extends beyond the scope of information sharing to cover the transfer of knowledge moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202275 across groups, departments, and divisions, among other things (latilla, et al., 2018). the transmission of information among the construction industry workers is the primary focus of this investigation. knowledge sharing knowledge can only be used better when individuals share what they know and build on what they have learned from others (ipe, 2003). sharing knowledge is making information available to others in the organisation. to add to this definition, ipe (2003) says that knowledge sharing is “the process via which a person’s information is translated into a form that other people can understand, absorb and apply.” according to bartol and srivastava (2002), knowledge sharing is about individuals sharing organisationally relevant information, suggestions, ideas, and expertise with one another (senaratne, jin and denham, 2021). the recipient must develop knowledge before it can be sent to another person. nonaka and takeuchi, (1996) seci model describes the transmission and generation of knowledge. nonaka and takeuchi’s model explains how explicit and implicit information might be conveyed as modes (kahrens and früauff, 2018). socialization, combination, externalization, and internalization are the four operating modes discussed below. if regarded as a spiral of organisational knowledge development, the model may be used in various ways, generating knowledge by interacting between the many modes (nonaka, 1994). tactic and explicit knowledge are considered independently, with the idea that they may be changed in four distinct ways. figure 6 shows the differences between tacit and explicit knowledge, while figure 7 shows the knowledge creation modes. figure 6. the differences between tacit and explicit knowledge nonaka (1994) describes socialization as the process of transferring tacit knowledge between people. it involves interactions such as observation, imitation, and practice, all of which are conversion methods. the converting procedure does not need the usage of any language. the creation of tacit knowledge by the receiver is the primary purpose of gaining shared experience. the author defines combination as the act of bringing together separate people’s explicit knowledge to produce new explicit knowledge (nonaka, 1994). new explicit knowledge may be created by categorizing, augmenting, and re-contextualizing previously communicated knowledge. individuals can exchange explicit information via holding meetings or talking on the phone. as outlined by nonaka, the conversions between tacit and explicit knowledge are referred to as externalization and internalization. when tacit information becomes explicit, it is referred to as externalization. when tacit knowledge becomes explicit, it is referred to as internalization (nonaka, 1994). moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202276 in the process of passing on information, externalization is initially accomplished by the knowledge source, followed by the knowledge recipient’s internalization (tan, 2015). consequently, the recipient will develop new information and distribute it to the participants. knowledge transfer varying stages of knowledge transfer have been described in great detail in the literature. these different levels are classified by duan, nie, and coakes (2010) into four broad categories: knowledge transfer at the global scale, knowledge transfer between organisations, knowledge transfer inside organisations, and information transfer at the individual scale (thomas, 2019; renukappa, suresh and alosaimi, 2021). the major concern of this work is intra-organisational knowledge transfer, which can be described as the accessibility to a resource that a company already has, such as internal knowledge (perrin and rolland, 2007). perrin and rolland (2007) offer a similar definition, claiming that knowledge transfer in organisations is “the procedure by which one unit (e.g. group, division, or department) is impacted by the experience of another,” which can be either overtly or implicitly (secundo, et al., 2018). it is also possible to observe the intra-organisational knowledge transfer process from an individual level that argote and ingram (2000) described as having the influence that expertise in one activity has on the execution of another. a knowledge transfer framework researchers have made efforts in this study area to continually produce new models and explanations that would better describe the process from different viewpoints on knowledge transfer (wei and miraglia, 2017). it has been suggested by bacon, williams, and davies (2019) that the knowledge transfer method is composed of four separate elements: the player’s engagement (both the source and the receiver), the context in which interaction occurs, and the transfer of knowledge among individuals, and the transfer method. according to previous studies, the exchange of information and knowledge absorption are independent activities in the knowledge transfer process (davenport and prusak, 1998; perrin and rolland, 2007). as a result, perrin and rolland (2007) and davenport and prusak (1998) argued that information that had not • explicit knowledge • tacit knowledge • explicit knowledge • tacit knowledge socialization tacit knowledge is created through empathy and shared experiences. externalization when tacit knowledge is communicated, it becomes explicit knowledge. combination explicit knowledge is being reviewed, connected, and organised. internalization explicit knowledge becomes tacit knowledge as a result of practise and review. figure 7. modes of the knowledge creation moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202277 been digested had not been conveyed. according to cummings and teng (2003), knowledge transfer is only successful if the recipient retains the knowledge shared. in this research, the concept of effective transferring of knowledge includes the absorption and utilization of new knowledge, which is an important point to accept. several existing frameworks have been reviewed to find a suitable model for use in this study. several requirements must be met while choosing a theoretical framework. high validity and consistency are required for a framework. it should reflect intra-organisationally transferred knowledge, adherence to the terms defined above, and the study’s application to perform a thorough analysis. cummings and teng’s (2003) theory of transferring knowledge met all requirements, making it the ideal foundation for our investigation. two goals of presenting this model are understanding the notion of knowledge transfer and gaining insight into the components, actions, and mechanisms that comprise the knowledge transfer procedure. figure 8 depicts cummings and teng’s (2003) redesigned and simplified view of the knowledge transfer procedure. knowledge to be transferred articulability embeddedness source knowledge context knowledge needed learning culture priority recipient recipient context distances organizational physical knowledge norm relational context activity context transfer activity people rou�nes tools people rou�nes tools figure 8. the model of transfer success with nine key factors affecting knowledge by cummings and teng (2003) here is a simplified version of cummings and teng’s (2003) depiction of knowledge transfer, which is based on several different streams of research (davenport and prusak, 1998; cummings and teng, 2003). there are four areas in which cummings and teng have defined the process: knowledge context, activity context, relational context, and receiver context. various elements influence the success of knowledge transfer in each of these categories. as a result of the model, knowledge transfer is viewed as a collection of interrelated domains and elements that have a cumulative impact on the process’s performance. szulanski (2000) argues that addressing knowledge transfer as a process instead of an event is critical if the model accounts for the associated issues. to put it in another way, seeing the transfer as a whole process makes it possible to see how problems develop along with the procedure. additionally, it encourages the creation of organizational strategies that would aid in transferring knowledge (tornjanski, petrovic and nesic, 2020). the framework depicted in the figure considers several critical context-specific aspects. as a tool for understanding how knowledge gets transferred in the specific setting of this study, the broader concept is briefly outlined below. moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202278 knowledge context for successful knowledge transfer, cummings and teng (2003) recommend that source and receiver have a common understanding of how and where the necessary knowledge may be made available to each other. the authors then go on to describe how the embeddedness and artic lability of the transmitted information is included in this first area (hwang, 2022). prior studies suggest that knowledge is primarily entrenched in people, tools, and routines, as well as the accompanying subnetworks concerning the former (argote and ingram, 2000; cummings and teng, 2003). furthermore, the ability to express information significantly influences the success of knowledge transmission. relational context the model combines four relational domain aspects that might significantly influence successful knowledge transfer (hamdoun, jabbour and othman, 2018). the first thing to consider is the distance between units in relation to organisational integration. second, ‘the difficulty, time demand, and complexity of communicating and coming together face-to-face’ is represented as the physical distance between the transmitter and recipient participating in the process. the ‘degree whereby the source and recipient hold identical information’ is the third element impacting the success of knowledge transmission (cummings and teng, 2003). finally, the ultimate norm distance is defined as the degree to which the values and organisational culture of the source and recipient are aligned. recipient context project priorities and learning culture both play a role in this situation. according to cummings and teng (2003), these characteristics may impact knowledge transfer success in the way initiatives are prioritised, resources are given, and how much learning is prioritised by both the source and receiver. success is partly determined by how well the organisation facilitates and encourages learning if enough activities and procedures facilitate organisational learning (cummings and teng, 2003). activity context cummings and teng’s final domain captures the importance of knowledge transfer activities necessary to achieve effectiveness in knowledge transfer: the total number of activities in place and the frequency with which they are used. according to cummings and teng (2003), organizational learning and knowledge transfer are intertwined, and organisations with a strong learning culture must adhere to higher criteria in their knowledge transfer efforts. as a result, cummings and teng's (2003) perspective on knowledge transfer integrates findings from several study areas to provide a holistic picture of how information is transmitted from a source to a recipient or from one entity to the other. this section’s model makes it easier to grasp what goes on in a knowledge transfer process and sets the stage for the rest of the chapter. knowledge transfer strategies and mechanisms knowledge transfer is described by albino, garavelli and schiuma (1998) as a communication process involving information processing activities, where the engaged players can transmit knowledge via an appropriate channel ( jasimuddin, 2007). according to jasimuddin (2007), personalization and codification are the two most important methods when it comes to information transfer. according to jasimuddin (2007), implementing an effective knowledge transfer plan would help ensure the process works smoothly. according to hansen, nohria, and tierney (2013), personalization or codification should be utilized as the primary technique while the other strategy should back it up. according to hansen, nohria, and tierney (2013), a company’s codification strategy focuses on centralizing information in databases to be readily available to all employees. the authors call this strategy moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202279 a “people-to-documents” method since it allows users to reuse information without contacting the original creators of the publications. additionally, they discuss how easily codifiable knowledge can frequently be. rather than formalizing and transmitting, tacit knowledge is, as defined earlier, personal and difficult to formalize and convey (hansen, nohria, and tierney, 2013). as a result, organisations that rely on tacit knowledge should adopt a personalization strategy emphasising exchanging information via direct personal contact. that is, a “person-to-person” approach relates to personalization. codified knowledge only helps to educate people before they directly have contact with the original source of the knowledge. documentation, technologies, and face-to-face contact are the three most often employed strategies for transferring information, according to perrin and rolland (2007). ipe (2003) distinguishes both formal and informal options for knowledge transfer and exchange inside organisations from a broader viewpoint. according to ipe (2003), formal procedures are best for transmitting explicit information. such structured methods give the means for transferring data and the tools to do it. other methods of sharing tacit information, such as informal networks and personal connections, are more suited for face-to-face communication since they entail informal channels for transferring knowledge (yoo, 2020). furthermore, knowledge transfer procedures are classified in the literature as either organized knowledge transfer or unstructured knowledge transfer. it is calculative design and control, referred to as structured knowledge transfer (shen, li and yang, 2015). calculative design and control are defined as “regularizing the transfer operations inside an organisation so that they are consistent with the expectations established in policies, plans, and objectives.” it is a systematic and planned process that results in codification that is guided by rules, processes, and formal structures. direct knowledge transfer is a component of structured knowledge transfer (lombardi, 2019). bacon, williams, and davies (2019) describe control as bureaucratic and normative, with people’s conduct and performance monitoring to prevent opportunistic behaviour. structured knowledge transfer, on the other hand, may operate as a deterrent to spontaneous and active learning. an unstructured knowledge transmission process is an informal, unorganized process comprising identifying opportunities for knowledge transfer, providing alternatives for information sharing, and maintaining the availability of knowledge transfer channels (boatca, draghici and carutasu, 2018). it is obvious that different knowledge transfer techniques must be employed flexibly and simultaneously since the knowledge transferred might have various complementing types and/or features (shen, li and yang, 2015). because some organisational structures are more suited to specific knowledge qualities than others, organisations should have a wide range of transfer methodologies and corporate settings that are accessible (argote and ingram, 2000). when providing a more equitable distribution of information, credibility of knowledge transfer, and support for socialization, evidence suggests that organized and unstructured knowledge transfer are essential drivers (shen, li and yang, 2015). developing organisational knowledge transfer efficacy has become dependent on the transfer procedures, centred on the structural arrangement, normalization, control, and processes centred on social knowledge transfer. table 2 presents a comparison between structured and unstructured knowledge transfer. structured knowledge transfer ensures that information is shared between those who can effectively use it. structured processes like document transfers, problem-solving sessions, shared technical training, and periodic cultural training may help organisations transfer knowledge (shen, li and yang, 2015). as a result, the fundamental principle of structured knowledge transfer can be rephrased as follows: regulating human behaviour by rational planning is the complete technique of conveying information (froese, et al., 2021). knowledge sharing and transfer are more likely when people have more influence and authority over how events play out. organized knowledge transmission is characterized by formalization, specialization, standardization, and a preference for a structured, predictable sequence. these strategies necessitate logical behaviour from the start and so necessitate well-managed organisations, such as professional leadership and rationalization of the administrative structure (cristofaro, et al., 2021). a “relatively small window of opportunity to fix unanticipated difficulties” may be created using structured knowledge transfer to build moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202280 more reliable, standardized, and organized information dissemination protocols. structured knowledgesharing reduces the costs of the intra-organisational transaction by preventing future problems or occurrences from causing intra-transactional transaction costs (rotsios, sklavounos and hajidimitriou, 2021). table 2. knowledge transfer processes items structured knowledge transfer unstructured knowledge transfer strength reduced information costs: capacity to create massive systems through intricate articulation and carefully regulated complexity. rapid infusion and dissemination of significantly new viewpoints via individuals in social groups; enabling individuals to perform independently; may present unanticipated chances to improve workers’ desire to transmit information; more likely to keep more flexibility in conveying, relating, and understanding information. weakness competence traps are created by a growth route that is excessively constricted. the development path is skewed towards institutional structures, resulting in strategic vulnerability. because of the limitations on the socialization process, it takes a long time to learn new information; it is difficult to transmit knowledge on a wide scale because of the dependence on smaller societies, human fatigue, and lack of general management by the organisation. specific contents policies and procedures of management; leadership; structure of the organisation; design of the organisation; assistance with information technology. social connections; corporate socialization; community of practice; centre of excellence. management processes there is no place for anarchy; thus, top management serves as a monitor and allocator. leaders are commanders who rely on information processing to make decisions. a catalyst, an architect, and a guardian are all roles played by the top management; leaders operate as catalysts and sponsors, and a focus is placed on combinations and temporary constellations. transferred knowledge knowledge may be found in various formats, such as written documentation, structured information saved in online databases, formalized human knowledge saved in knowledge-based systems, documented organisational rules and processes, and tacit knowledge gained by individuals and networks. information can be explicitly documented in a digital or another way. culture of the organisation; changes (production processes and work procedures) tacit knowledge comes in many shapes and sizes. moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202281 a social or cultural connection system is used for unstructured knowledge transfer. staff can have access to various interpretations, some of which are at odds with one another (katila and ahuja, 2002), while still adhering to the values and goals of their organisation, allowing them to act in concert with each other (de luca and rubio, 2018). unstructured knowledge transfer is less formal and more informal than structured knowledge transfer, yet it can limit widespread diffusion. knowledge dissemination through social processes necessitates the use of unstructured knowledge sharing. for unstructured knowledge transfer to occur, employees must be willing to share and transmit their expertise, necessitating developing social connections, values, and socialization processes that facilitate knowledge transfer (giuri, et al., 2019). it is also possible for unstructured knowledge transfer to encourage informal discussions and interactions within businesses, which can be crucial for enhancing knowledge flow (gupta and govindarajan, 2000). individuals from various organisational sub-units and individuals with remote, informal, unstructured interactions may enable information dispersion and sharing so as to boost knowledge transfer efficacy (cristofaro, et al., 2021). barriers to knowledge transfer knowledge transfer barriers can be categorised as elements that raise the complexity and difficulty of transferring knowledge within an organisation. in the field of evaluating knowledge transfer, there are both challenges and possibilities to be explored. this section addresses the different barriers to knowledge transfer. innovations that have the potential to provide alternative measures are also presented. distance barriers according to cummings and teng (2003), possible constraints associated with distances have been identified through a mix of multiple study streams. organisational, knowledge, physical, and norm distance are the four types of distance. organisational distance in intra-organisational relationships, organisational distance refers to how the involved people are integrated into the larger organisation. according to cummings and teng (2003), the power of social links, the easy flow of information, the consistency of administrative regulations, and the amount of confidence between the source and the receiver all play a significant role in overcoming this barrier to the exchange. in the study of wall and lippel (2020), their findings suggest that the efficacy of information transmission rises when the link between the source and the receiver is closer to the recipient. an improved organisational distance between the source and the receiver arises due to a lower level of integration. as a result, successful knowledge transfer is less likely to take place. physical distance athanassiou and nigh (2000) have proven that face-to-face interactions outperform alternative transfer modes and media, such as efficacy, depth, and tactfulness of knowledge. when a greater distance separates participants, communication becomes more complex, time-consuming, and expensive, making it harder to facilitate face-to-face discussion (cummings and teng, 2003). as a result, cummings and teng argue that when strong interaction is required, units involved in the transfer process must be located adjacent to one another. then distance can act as a barrier to the exchange of information. knowledge distance the knowledge gap is a third possible obstacle. according to cummings and teng's (2003) findings, information transmission is more accessible when the source and receiver have comparable backgrounds. according to their findings, knowledge distance has an inverse connection with transfer success, indicating that as knowledge distance increases, so does the degree of success in transferring information. the learning capacity is also hindered when the disparity in knowledge is too high between source and receiver moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202282 (thörnberg and dusén, 2021). ‘the recipient’s absorption capacity, which refers to the ability to apply new knowledge, is dependent on the recipient’s present stock of knowledge and abilities,’ giving origin to the phrase ‘absorptive capacity’ (szulanski, 2000). norm distance the last barrier is known as the norm distance, which measures how well the source and receiver organisations share the same culture and values and how well they comprehend the knowledge transfer process as a whole (cummings and teng, 2003). according to dhanaraj, et al. (2004), who originated the term “relational embeddedness,” a link between actors may be defined in terms of the depth of their social interactions, their level of trust, and the degree to which they share similar processes and values. as a result, high levels of relational embeddedness promote information interchange, appropriate knowledge transmission, and the development of accepted norms (dhanaraj, et al., 2004). organisational culture mcdermott and o’dell (2001) emphasize that organisational culture significantly impacts how a business successfully transmits information. this is particularly true when it comes to the transfer of new technologies. goh (2002), for example, emphasizes the need to foster a learning-centred organisational culture to enhance the flow of knowledge. if cummings and teng (2003) are correct, then not having an educationally oriented work environment might result in a loss of information that cannot be adequately cultivated or transferred. for this reason, they support the theory that recipients in a culture of continuous improvement with the ability and routines to support the whole knowledge-transfer process are more likely to succeed. to ensure efficient knowledge transfer, goh (2002) says that a collaborative working culture with a high degree of trust is required, where people perceive it as natural, rather than a duty, to exchange information to achieve mutual success. language barrier when collaborating across borders, disparities in a shared language have been cited as a possible obstacle in literature (montelius, 2018). translation can be problematic when conveying information between people who speak different languages. welch and welch (2008) have reported using a common organisational language (typically english) to promote efficient modalities of information transmission. although this might improve information transmission, it could also bring new forms of obstacles, given that employees have varying degrees of english proficiency and that they may be influenced by their native language when speaking english, resulting in their utilizing the same language in communication (duan, nie and coakes, 2010). there is no need to move to a common language because the swedish and danish are mutually understandable (gooskens, et al., 2010). according to montelius (2018), danes are better at understanding swedes than swedes are at understanding swedes. despite this, the languages are similar enough for communication to take place in the native tongues of the various personnel. leadership and management another possible roadblock is leadership, which may significantly impact organisational culture and the relative importance of different projects and tasks to different personnel. according to warrick (2017), ‘organisational cultures essentially mirror their leaders.’ according to davenport, de long, and beers (1998), senior management support contributes to knowledge project success. they explain that senior managers significantly impact an organisation’s degree of knowledge orientation. davenport, de long, and beers (1998) identified three key facilitators of effective knowledge management projects based on their thorough analysis of knowledge management projects. they transmit data that knowledge leadership and operational learning are vital to firm performance and effective knowledge management projects. moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202283 they also provide infrastructure money and other resources, outlining the most valuable knowledge to the business (fernández-esquinas, et al., 2021). according to these findings, management is critical to attaining successful knowledge management because it provides employees with clear direction and the necessary resources to move in that direction while also incorporating the value of knowledge management into the organisation’s culture (anand et al., 2021). transfer activities according to al‐salti and hackney (2011), knowledge transfer needs various activities that enable knowledge exchange. increasing the quantity and types of transfer activities increases the recipient’s possibility of internalizing the information, which adds to knowledge transfer success. according to cummings and teng (2003), knowledge transfer activities are divided into three categories: those based on evaluating the structure and embeddedness of the knowledge; those aimed at creating and controlling an administration system through which differences and difficulties between the parties may be accommodated and decreased; and those centred on transferring knowledge (wall and lippel, 2020). evaluating the form of knowledge refers to identifying the tastiness of the knowledge and developing and maintaining an administrative structure related to establishing the information’s tastiness. focusing on all three knowledge transfer activities is critical since they are interdependent (cummings and teng, 2003). ignoring one or more activity areas might make it more difficult to transfer knowledge, thus producing a barrier in the process. employee turnover al‐salti and hackney (2011) emphasize the repercussions of staff turnover, mainly when there is insufficient handover. they feel that limiting the risks connected with this element is essential for firms wishing to transfer successful knowledge. if workers leave the organisation without passing on their expertise to a new employee or existing colleagues, a knowledge gap is immediately generated, resulting in the disappearance of both explicit and tacit information from the company. according to droege and hoobler (2003), when people leave a company, the company does not run the danger of losing codified knowledge. this, however, is only acceptable if the information in question has been adequately documented, which is not always the case. it should be noted that even if such information is conveyed in papers, as described by one of the academics, the ease of access and usage becomes critical. it can be troublesome if the organisation lacks the appropriate infrastructure (wall and lippel, 2020). in this scenario, the danger of losing tacit knowledge when staff leave is potentially more severe because the effectiveness of the information transfer depends on the individual’s expertise. so, it is expected that a thorough handover that emphasizes socialization would considerably increase the retention and use of tacit knowledge – which will be extremely beneficial to the knowledge transfer process. furthermore, because it takes time to connect with new workers and learn about their abilities and set of skills, staff turnover contributes to a decline in knowing who understands what within departments. this, as claimed, would further impede efficient knowledge transfer across departments dependent on one another and where the transmission of information should ideally involve the employees with the necessary knowledge base. motivational factors the elements that influence motivation may be split into two categories: external forces and internal ones. ipe (2003) characterizes them as follows: ‘external elements include the relationship with the receiver and benefits for sharing’ while ‘internal aspects include the felt power tied to the information and the reciprocity that arises from sharing.’ liu and fang (2010) define an external motivation as something a person undertakes to obtain something desired or avoid something uncomfortable. for example, money, promotion, or a prize are all examples of external motivators. internal motivators generally derive from personal moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202284 interests, job pleasure, and the job’s difficulty in question (al‐salti and hackney, 2011). examples of internal motivators include the desire to solve an issue no one else has solved before and the recognition of one’s own efforts. according to hau et al., (2013), external motivators’ effects vary, with some data indicating they are beneficial. although some research has demonstrated that external influences might inspire knowledge sharing, others have found that external motivators can negatively impact information-sharing behaviour. according to bacon, williams and davies (2019), internal variables have consistently demonstrated a favourable influence on sharing information. hendriks (1999) posits that hertzberg’s two-factor approach is useful in identifying the motivating elements that drive information sharing. hertzberg’s two-factor theory distinguishes between two variables: hygiene factors and motivation factors. when hygiene factors are present, they do not affect behaviour (alshmemri, shahwan-akl and maude, 2017). however, when hygiene aspects are lacking, they will still induce dissatisfaction and lower motivation (al‐salti and hackney, 2011). examples of such factors are salary, status, and corporate policies. among the things that hertzberg considers to be motivators are the following five: a sense of accomplishment, a sense of responsibility, acknowledgment for a job well done, promotional prospects, and the task’s difficulty. according to hendriks (1999), the need for operational autonomy is a sixth motivational element that has been shown to be important in previous research. a rise in motivation is a result of the presence of the motivators in a situation. because of this, the previously observed boost in motivation is not sustained or further developed, and the situation returns to the prior state. however, when the motivators are gone, there is no increase in unhappiness. the link between the hygienic components, the motivating elements, and behaviour is depicted in figure 9. figure 9. herzberg’s two-factor theory modified by hendriks (1999). hendriks (1999) believes that when considering why employees share information, one should look at motivating factors rather than hygienic criteria. for example, bonuses are unlikely to increase knowledge sharing itself, and partly because, for example, knowledge holding indicates status where knowledge sharing is less likely to occur. furthermore, hendriks goes on to say that the motivators appear to be the ones that cause information sharing. finally, he argues that distinct motivational variables influence the willingness of knowledge suppliers and knowledge users to participate in information sharing (abbate, cesaroni and presenza, 2021). knowledge sources may be expected to be recognized and given advertising chances, or they may feel obligated to offer their expertise first-hand. furthermore, they may share because they anticipate or aspire for reciprocity, whereas knowledge recipients may seek operational autonomy, a challenging job, or advancement prospects (he, et al., 2022). moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202285 another study by liu and fang (2010) examined the relationship between several environmental, internal, and hygienic aspects and the desire and behaviour to share information. their descriptions of internal and external motivating elements were comparable to those in this study, citing herzberg’s behaviour-based hygiene factors (alshmemri, et al., 2017). the study’s findings revealed a substantial and positive correlation among knowledge-sharing willingness and behaviour and motivation and altruistic features of internal motivation and reputation and mutual benefits. but only sharing behaviour was linked significantly with hygienic elements of external incentive, not ready to share (sanjeev and surya, 2016). these findings made the authors of this research (sanjeev and surya, 2016) conclude that fostering an altruistic mentality among employees and increasing the desire and behaviour to share information will increase productivity. these features will also help people who participate in knowledge sharing build a favourable reputation by demonstrating a desire and behaviour to gain from sharing information (alrawahi, et al., 2020). furthermore, hygienic elements such as prizes will focus people’s attention on and encourage information-sharing behaviour, but they will have little effect on people’s desire to share their knowledge. willingness to share according to ajzen (1991), anticipating people’s behaviour is challenging. however, according to wehn and montalvo (2018), people’s intents, objectives, and plans are one factor that affects their behaviour. individuals who have formed a goal are more likely to behave in a way that helps them achieve it. since most human behaviour is goal-directed, it is possible to forecast a person’s behaviour by looking at their intents, objectives, and plans in a particular setting (wehn and montalvo, 2018). figure 10 illustrates how figure 10. a model of applied knowledge transfer moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202286 the model is applied in a knowledge transfer environment, as wehn and montalvo (2018) demonstrated in their modified version of ajzen’s (1991) theory of planned behaviour model. for example, the model shows that knowledge transfer behaviour can be characterized by three components: attitudes towards knowledge transfer, social norms, and control over that process. these aspects add up to a compounded desire to transmit information. as observed, unlike the other elements, controlling the information transfer process can directly result in the transmission of knowledge itself. the actual nature of the relationships in ajzen’s theory of planned behaviour model is still unknown, even though ajzen (1991) stated that empirical data strongly supports his theory. so, this ambiguity and practical data should apply to wehn and montalvo’s model, too. wehn and montalvo (2018) further claim that the model may be used in both inter and intraorganisational situations. according to wehn and montalvo (2018), attitude is defined as “the degree to which people have a favourable judgment or appraisal of a certain behaviour.” as a result, the degree to which an employee participates in knowledge transfer activities serves as a barometer for their perceptions of the benefits and drawbacks of their participation. accumulated knowledge transfer beliefs are composed of salient beliefs and relevant facts about whatever topic is being transferred. according to wehn and montalvo (2018), employees’ normative attitudes about how they should or shouldn’t behave are formed by their accumulation of perceived social norms, the second aspect of engaging in information transfer. in the context of knowledge transmission, this refers to whether or not they should participate in the knowledge transfer activity. finally, control of the information transfer process is determined by the perceived ease or difficulty of acting in accordance with a particular habit (wehn and montalvo, 2018). the assumption about how simple or difficult it is to obtain the desired result through knowledge transfer is based on prior experience or second-hand information, for example. perceived behavioural control over the knowledge transfer process by an employee is a good indicator of whether or not the resources and opportunities necessary to carry out the transfer of information are there or unavailable (pietruszka-ortyl, 2018). the model also includes various categories of general incentives (social outcome as well as economic and strategic outcome), pressures (financial, institutional and organisational), and capabilities (organisational, technological, and institutional) that have an impact on the sources and recipients of the resources (wehn and montalvo, 2018). the factors that impact each category differ based on the source and recipient’s context. they might go beyond the recommended incentives, pressures, and capacities contained in the model to influence each category differently. discussion the purpose of this study was to establish the obstacles to successful knowledge transfer and how motivation and willingness impact knowledge transfer and sharing in the construction sector. the study starts by discussing knowledge management and knowledge transfer in the construction industry and then assesses the existing research. the information was gathered from reputable databases. the study adds fresh pieces to the puzzle of effective knowledge transfer by providing new insights and illuminating information for future research. this literature study, as a result, provides a synopsis of current research, a critical argument, and a scientific strategy for transferring knowledge in the construction business. the use of organisational knowledge transfer as a theoretical lens for our discussion contributes to contemporary knowledge management research. as was previously alluded to in the opening paragraphs, knowledge transfer is crucial in construction organisations because of the fragmented nature of the industry and the temporal nature of its services and products. knowledge transfer serves as a critical connection within and outside of an organization, which, if effective, could be transformed into economic and market value for organisations, as stated by hendriks (1999). construction organisations hold enormous knowledge assets moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202287 that must be harnessed because separating information into silos will be inefficient (lee and al-hawamdeh, 2002). this undertaken review has shown that information must be shared among the organization’s members to function well. information exists in both tacit and explicit forms, with the explicit being more easily transmitted to others and the tacit being more challenging to express. socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization are all concepts that are presented in the (seci) model developed by nonaka and takeuchi (1995) to explain how conversion between two forms of knowledge might occur. construction organisations must consistently focus on both tacit and explicit knowledge preservation to minimize the risks associated with employee turnover. for instance, employees must be encouraged to transfer the information they have amassed to other colleagues before departing. tactic information should be discussed and passed on to others through socialization rather than being kept secret. as a result, knowledge transmission should be carried out using a codification technique backed up by personalization. e-storage technologies could facilitate the storage and embedding of knowledge. operations and technical standards that are essential for new workers to learn from should be updated regularly to prevent their loss. therefore, increased attention to knowledge preservation could improve the successful transfer of knowledge. knowledge may be conveyed through meetings and networks, mentorship, and on-the-job training. employees can also be moved around (working together). information is complicated, and as a result, there are obstacles and impediments to the transmission and exchange of knowledge. according to the reviewed literature for this study, the most significant challenges are those related to the organization’s knowledge transfer strategy (financial barriers are also associated with this factor), organizational and national cultures, their differences, and language barriers and cultural differences. the organization must have a knowledge transfer plan that is consistent with its overall strategy. knowledge transfer across borders can be made more difficult by variations in organizational culture across nations and disparities in organizational culture within a country. the organisational culture should recognise the potential variations in cultural and tacit knowledge that may exist within organizations. for instance, obstacles may arise regarding differing objectives amongst partner organisations on a construction project, which should not be disregarded. this study’s findings have highlighted some management aspects that could facilitate efficient knowledge transfer within the construction sector. some of these facilitators include the following: organizational cultures that are open and transparent (knowledge transfer is highly motivated internally); ensuring a good match between resources and objectives for knowledge transfer; and ensuring effective (by keeping physical distance to a minimum) regular communication. furthermore, the study has found that all construction parties must share objectives that permit connection to common problems. knowledge transfer thrives where organisations pull and push towards similar goals in the same direction. because of the greater sense of dependency and responsibility that comes with a stronger sense of community, it is reasonable to predict that employees will feel more pressure to participate actively in knowledge transfer activities. furthermore, considering that knowledge is strategically vital for a competitive organisational edge (shao and ariss, 2020), organizations should make an effort to recruit highly valued skills so they can benefit from their expertise. individual knowledge capital should be evaluated to determine their trustworthiness and harness this for effective knowledge transfers. in accordance with the concept presented by vance and mcnulty, (2014), it is vital to develop appropriate strategies for obtaining brilliant individuals and set up and continue to maintain an efficient local support structure. organizations need to give serious consideration to acquiring the talent and management personnel needed for overseas postings from existing employees of the company as well as from potential local hires whose services have become available as a result of the expatriation decisions they have made in the past. these approaches are significant within the construction sector context considering the persistence of skill shortages. from artisans to supervisory moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202288 and to managerial roles, turnover issues pervade the construction industry; hence it is not uncommon to experience regular knowledge losses. additionally, to ensure the efficacy of worker knowledge transfer, workers must be placed in positions where their expertise may be used to the greatest advantage of organisations. organizations should consistently channel employees’ talent with the construction industry’s needs (doherty and dickmann, 2013). furthermore, firms should foster an organisational culture that encourages people to learn and implement their newfound knowledge. the assignment of individuals responsible for recognizing new information imparted by employees and then encouraging other employees to use it is one feasible solution. for businesses to effectively utilize workers’ knowledge, they must first have a significant capacity to absorb information and adopt a set of procedures and processes to properly exploit and integrate new knowledge. conclusion based on the findings of this study, the authors have identified criteria for successful knowledge transfer among construction industry personnel. in order to facilitate effective knowledge transfer and achieve successful knowledge transfer, it is critical to have an organisational culture that promotes knowledge transfer, a common goal, interconnectivity, commitment, and responsibility, as well as regular, efficient communication among teams. knowledge must be proactively managed throughout organizations. resources must be sufficiently matched with demands as well as established knowledge transfer objectives. knowledge transfer processes need to be clearly provided to all involved parties. all knowledge transfer activities must take cognizance of the intrinsic characteristics of the construction industry. the industry is highly fragmented and fraught with adversarial relationships; therefore, approaches to acquiring and retaining its knowledge capital must be pursued conscientiously. finally, the study concludes that obstacles to effective knowledge transfer can be overcome through certain management aspects (facilitators) previously explained. construction organisations must be willing and motivated to transfer knowledge because of its inherent benefits. this study has emphasized the correlations between knowledge transfer and competitive advantages. as a result of this study, various gaps in the literature were identified, which might be further investigated by academics. a study directed at enterprises in the construction industry, for example, might shed insight on the success of existing technologies and practices applied in businesses in order to acquire, exchange, transmit, and store knowledge. investigating the quality of the information that has been exploited may also be an intriguing topic. investigating the observable advantages of knowledge transfer in the building project is a more ambitious strategy that should be considered. a future study might examine the opportunity costs of the ineffective addressing of knowledge management in the workplace by comparing studies with other productive industries. examples should include process improvement benchmarking studies in manufacturing from a quality standpoint or the measurement of long-term cost reductions in the construction industry due to the transfer of solutions that have already been implemented in the workplace. the preservation of knowledge across organisations might be further studied by doing comparable research that includes various case studies across diverse sectors. for example, corporate or human resource policies or the establishment of new standards and procedures to be applied after people leave the organisation could be examined as possible avenues for additional exploration. references abbate, t., cesaroni, f. and presenza, a., 2021. knowledge transfer from universities to low-and medium-technology industries: evidence from italian winemakers. the journal of technology transfer, [e-journal] 46(4), pp.989-1016. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s10961-020-09800-x moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202289 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-020-09800-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-020-09800-x ajmal, m.m. and koskinen, k.u., 2008. knowledge transfer in project-based organizations: an organizational culture perspective. project management journal, [e-journal] 39(1), pp.7-15. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.20031 ajzen, i., 1991. the theory of planned behavior. organizational behavior and human decision processes, [e-journal] 50(2), pp.179–211. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-t al‐salti, z. and hackney, r., 2011. factors impacting knowledge transfer success in information systems outsourcing. journal of enterprise information management, [e-journal] 24(5), pp.455-68. https://doi. org/10.1108/17410391111166521 albino, v., garavelli, a.c. and schiuma, g., 1998. knowledge transfer and inter-firm relationships in industrial districts: the role of the leader firm. technovation, [e-journal] 19(1), pp.53–63. https://doi.org/10.1016/s01664972(98)00078-9 alrawahi, s., sellgren, s.f., altouby, s., alwahaibi, n. and brommels, m., 2020. the application of herzberg’s twofactor theory of motivation to job satisfaction in clinical laboratories in omani hospitals. heliyon, [e-journal] 6(9), p.e04829. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04829 alshmemri, m., shahwan-akl, l. and maude, p., 2017. herzberg’s two-factor theory. life science journal, [e-journal] 14(5), pp.12–16. https://doi.org/10.7537/marslsj140517.03 anand, a., muskat, b., creed, a., zutshi, a. and csepregi, a., 2021. knowledge sharing, knowledge transfer and smes: evolution, antecedents, outcomes and directions. personnel review, [e-journal] 50(9), pp.1873-93. https://doi. org/10.1108/pr-05-2020-0372 argote, l., ingram, p., levine, j.m. and moreland, r.l., 2000. knowledge transfer in organizations: learning from the experience of others. organizational behavior and human decision processes, [e-journal] 82(1), pp.1-8. https://doi. org/10.1006/obhd.2000.2893 artemov, s., 2018. constructive knowledge and the justified true belief paradigm. indagationes mathematicae, [e-journal] 29(1), pp.125-34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indag.2017.09.012 ashok, m., al badi al daheri, m.s.m., madan, r. and dzandu, m.d., 2021. how to counter organisational inertia to enable knowledge management practices adoption in public sector organisations. journal of knowledge management, [e-journal] 25(9), pp. 2245-73. https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-09-2020-0700 athanassiou, n. and nigh, d., 2000. internationalization, tacit knowledge and the top management teams of mncs. journal of international business studies, [e-journal] 31(3), pp.471-87. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave. jibs.8490917 bacon, e., williams, m.d. and davies, g.h., 2019. recipes for success: conditions for knowledge transfer across open innovation ecosystems. international journal of information management, [e-journal] 49, pp.377-87. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.07.012 bartol, k.m. and srivastava, a., 2002. encouraging knowledge sharing: the role of organizational reward systems. journal of leadership & organizational studies, [e-journal] 9(1), pp.64-76. https://doi. org/10.1177/107179190200900105 bastas, a. and liyanage, k., 2018. sustainable supply chain quality management: a systematic review. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 181, pp.726-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.01.110 berg, s., legnerot, c., lindström, a., nilsson, m., bosch-sijtsema, p.m. and gluch, p., 2012. knowledge transfer within and across organizational boundaries: a case study in the construction industry. in arcom 28th annual conference, edinburgh, 3-5 september 2012. moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202290 https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.20031 https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-5978(91)90020-t https://doi.org/10.1108/17410391111166521 https://doi.org/10.1108/17410391111166521 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0166-4972(98)00078-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0166-4972(98)00078-9 http://https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e04829 https://doi.org/10.7537/marslsj140517.03 https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-05-2020-0372 https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-05-2020-0372 https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.2000.2893 https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.2000.2893 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indag.2017.09.012 https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-09-2020-0700 https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490917 https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8490917 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.07.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.07.012 https://doi.org/10.1177/107179190200900105 https://doi.org/10.1177/107179190200900105 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.01.110 boatca, m.e., draghici, a. and carutasu, n., 2018. a knowledge management approach for ergonomics implementation within organizations. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, [e-journal] 238, pp.199-206. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2018.03.024 brown, a., sharpe, s. and andrews, d., 2020. supporting ‘successful knowledge transfer’for early childhood professionals–an emerging conceptual framework in an australian context. early years, [e-journal] pp.1-16. https://doi. org/10.1080/09575146.2020.1856045 carrillo, p., robinson, h., al-ghassani, a. and anumba, c., 2004. knowledge management in uk construction: strategies, resources and barriers. project management journal, [e-journal] 35(1), pp.46-56. https://doi. org/10.1177/875697280403500105 castro, a.l., yepes, v., pellicer, e. and cuéllar, a.j., 2012. knowledge management in the construction industry: state of the art and trends in research. revista de la construcción, 11(3), pp.62-73. https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718915x2012000300006 chang, y.t. and hsieh, s.h., 2020. a review of building information modeling research for green building design through building performance analysis. journal of information technology in construction (itcon), [e-journal] 25, pp.140. https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2020.001 cohen, w.m. and levinthal, d.a., 1990. absorptive capacity: a new perspective on learning and innovation. administrative science quarterly, [e-journal], pp.128-52. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393553 cooper, h.m., 1988. organizing knowledge syntheses: a taxonomy of literature reviews. knowledge in society, [e-journal] 1(1), pp.104-26. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03177550 costa, d.b., formoso, c.t., kagioglou, m., alarcón, l.f. and caldas, c.h., 2006. benchmarking initiatives in the construction industry: lessons learned and improvement opportunities. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 22(4), pp.58-167. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2006)22:4(158) cristofaro, c.l., melina, a.m., vesperi, w. and reina, r., 2021. knowledge management and mentoring in public organizations: a narrative case study. in: eckm 2021, 22nd european conference on knowledge management (p. 225). academic conferences limited. crupi, a., del sarto, n., di minin, a., phaal, r. and piccaluga, a., 2020. open innovation environments as knowledge sharing enablers: the case of strategic technology and innovative management consortium. journal of knowledge management, [e-journal] 25(5), pp.1263-86. https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-06-2020-0419 cummings, j.l. and teng, b.s., 2003. transferring r&d knowledge: the key factors affecting knowledge transfer success. journal of engineering and technology management, [e-journal] 20(1-2), pp.39-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/ s0923-4748(03)00004-3 davenport, t.h., de long, d.w. and beers, m.c., 1998. successful knowledge management projects. mit sloan management review, 39(2), p.43. davenport, t.h. and prusak, l., 1998. working knowledge: how organizations manage what they know. boston, massachusetts: harvard business school press. de luca, p. and rubio, m.c., 2018. the curve of knowledge transfer: a theoretical model. business process management journal, [e-journal] 25(1), pp.10-26. https://doi.org/10.1108/bpmj-06-2017-0161 dhanaraj, c., lyles, m.a., steensma, h.k. and tihanyi, l., 2004. managing tacit and explicit knowledge transfer in ijvs: the role of relational embeddedness and the impact on performance. journal of international business studies, [e-journal] 35(5), pp.428-42. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400098 moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202291 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2018.03.024 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2018.03.024 https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2020.1856045 https://doi.org/10.1080/09575146.2020.1856045 https://doi.org/10.1177/875697280403500105 https://doi.org/10.1177/875697280403500105 https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-915x2012000300006 https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-915x2012000300006 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2020.001 https://doi.org/10.2307/2393553 http://https://doi.org/10.1007/bf03177550 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2006)22:4(158 https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-06-2020-0419 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0923-4748(03)00004-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0923-4748(03)00004-3 https://doi.org/10.1108/bpmj-06-2017-0161 https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400098 doherty, n. and dickmann, m., 2013. self-initiated and assigned expatriates: talent management and career considerations. in: talent management of self-initiated expatriates (pp.234-55). london: palgrave macmillan. https:// doi.org/10.1057/9780230392809_11 droege, s.b. and hoobler, j.m., 2003. employee turnover and tacit knowledge diffusion: a network perspective. journal of managerial issues, pp.50-64. duan, y., nie, w. and coakes, e., 2010. identifying key factors affecting transnational knowledge transfer. information & management, [e-journal] 47(7-8), pp.356-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2010.08.003 eskerod, p. and skriver, h.j., 2007. organizational culture restraining in-house knowledge transfer between project managers a case study. project management journal, [e-journal] 38(1), pp.110-22. https://doi. org/10.1177/875697280703800111 fernández-esquinas, m., sánchez-rodríguez, m.i., pedraza-rodríguez, j.a. and muñoz-benito, r., 2021. the use of qca in science, technology and innovation studies: a review of the literature and an empirical application to knowledge transfer. scientometrics, [e-journal] 126(8), pp.6349-82. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04012-y ferrer-serrano, m., fuentelsaz, l. and latorre-martinez, m.p., 2021. examining knowledge transfer and networks: an overview of the last twenty years. journal of knowledge management. [e-journal] https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-04-20210265 fong, p.s. and wong, k.c., 2005. capturing and reusing building maintenance knowledge: a socio-technical perspective. in: knowledge management in the construction industry: a socio-technical perspective (pp.67-89). igi global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-59140-360-9.ch005 froese, f.j., stoermer, s., reiche, b.s. and klar, s., 2021. best of both worlds: how embeddedness fit in the host unit and the headquarters improve repatriate knowledge transfer. journal of international business studies, [e-journal] 52(7), pp.1331-49. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-020-00356-4 giuri, p., munari, f., scandura, a. and toschi, l., 2019. the strategic orientation of universities in knowledge transfer activities. technological forecasting and social change, [e-journal] 138, pp.261-78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. techfore.2018.09.030 goh, s.c., 2002. managing effective knowledge transfer: an integrative framework and some practice implications. journal of knowledge management, [e-journal] 6(1), pp.23-30. https://doi. org/10.1108/13673270210417664 gooskens, c., van heuven, v.j., van bezooijen, r. and pacilly, j.j., 2010. is spoken danish less intelligible than swedish? speech communication, [e-journal] 52(11-12), pp.1022-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2010.06.005 gupta, a.k. and govindarajan, v., 2000. knowledge management’s social dimension: lessons from nucor steel. mit sloan management review, 42(1), p.71. halila, f., tell, j., hoveskog, m. and lu, q., 2017. the diffusion of green innovation technology in the construction industry: european passive house knowledge transfer to china. progress in industrial ecology, an international journal, 11(2), pp.164-81. https://doi.org/10.1504/pie.2017.088867 hansen, m.t., nohria, n. and tierney, t., 2013. what’s your strategy for managing knowledge? in: the knowledge management yearbook 2000-2001 (pp.55-69). routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780080941042 hau, y.s., kim, b., lee, h. and kim, y.g., 2013. the effects of individual motivations and social capital on employees’ tacit and explicit knowledge sharing intentions. international journal of information management, [e-journal] 33(2), pp.356-66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2012.10.009 moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202292 https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230392809_11 https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230392809_11 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2010.08.003 https://doi.org/10.1177/875697280703800111 https://doi.org/10.1177/875697280703800111 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-021-04012-y https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-04-2021-0265 https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-04-2021-0265 https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-59140-360-9.ch005 https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-020-00356-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.09.030 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2018.09.030 https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270210417664 https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270210417664 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.specom.2010.06.005 https://doi.org/10.1504/pie.2017.088867 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780080941042 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2012.10.009 he, x., kothari, s.p., xiao, t. and zuo, l., 2022. industry-specific knowledge transfer in audit firms: evidence from audit firm mergers in china. the accounting review, [e-journal] 97(3), pp.249-77. https://doi.org/10.2308/tar-20180651 hendriks, p., 1999. why share knowledge? the influence of ict on the motivation for knowledge sharing.” knowledge and process management, [e-journal] 6(2), pp.91-100. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1441(199906)6:2<91::aidkpm54>3.0.co;2-m huang, y.h. and yang, t.r., 2019. exploring on-site safety knowledge transfer in the construction industry. sustainability, [e-journal] 11(22), p.6426. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11226426 hwang, s., 2022. sharing tacit knowledge in small-medium regional construction companies in the us: the current status and the impact of organizational ecology. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(9), pp.1746-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1742628 ipe, m., 2003. knowledge sharing in organizations: a conceptual framework. human resource development review, [e-journal] 2(4), pp.337-59. https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484303257985 jasimuddin, s.m., 2007. exploring knowledge transfer mechanisms: the case of a uk-based group within a hightech global corporation. international journal of information management, [e-journal] 27(4), pp.294-300. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2007.03.003 kahrens, m. and früauff, d.h., 2018. critical evaluation of nonaka’s seci model. in: the palgrave handbook of knowledge management (pp.53-83). palgrave macmillan, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71434-9_3 kamara, j.m., augenbroe, g., anumba, c.j. and carrillo, p.m., 2002. knowledge management in the architecture, engineering and construction industry. construction innovation, [e-journal] 2(1), pp.53-67. https://doi. org/10.1108/14714170210814685 katila, r. and ahuja, g., 2002. something old, something new: a longitudinal study of search behavior and new product introduction. academy of management journal, [e-journal] 45(6), pp.1183-94. https://doi.org/10.5465/3069433 kavalić, m., nikolić, m., radosav, d., stanisavljev, s. and pečujlija, m., 2021. influencing factors on knowledge management for organizational sustainability. sustainability, [e-journal] 13(3), p.1497. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su13031497 kazi, a.s. and koivuniemi, a., 2006. sharing through social interaction: the case of yit construction ltd. in: a.s. kazi and p. wolf, eds. real-life knowledge management: lessons from the field. knowledgeboard in collaboration with vtt technical research centre of finland, pp.65-78. kivrak, s., arslan, g., dikmen, i. and birgonul, m.t., 2008. capturing knowledge in construction projects: knowledge platform for contractors. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 24(2), pp.87-95. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0742-597x(2008)24:2(87) latilla, v.m., frattini, f., petruzzelli, a.m. and berner, m., 2018. knowledge management, knowledge transfer and organizational performance in the arts and crafts industry: a literature review. journal of knowledge management, [e-journal] 22(6), pp.1310-31. https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-08-2017-0367 lee, c.k. and al-hawamdeh, s., 2002. factors impacting knowledge sharing. journal of information & knowledge management, [e-journal] 1(01), pp.49-56. https://doi.org/10.1142/s0219649202000169 li, j., saide, s., ismail, m.n. and indrajit, r.e., 2021. exploring it/is proactive and knowledge transfer on enterprise digital business transformation (edbt): a technology-knowledge perspective. journal of enterprise information management, [e-journal] 35(2), pp.597-616. https://doi.org/10.1108/jeim-08-2020-0344 moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202293 https://doi.org/10.2308/tar-2018-0651 https://doi.org/10.2308/tar-2018-0651 https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1441(199906)6:2<91::aid-kpm54>3.0.co;2-m https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1441(199906)6:2<91::aid-kpm54>3.0.co;2-m https://doi.org/10.3390/su11226426 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1742628 https://doi.org/10.1177/1534484303257985 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2007.03.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2007.03.003 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71434-9_3 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170210814685 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170210814685 https://doi.org/10.5465/3069433 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031497 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031497 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2008)24:2(87 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2008)24:2(87 https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-08-2017-0367 https://doi.org/10.1142/s0219649202000169 https://doi.org/10.1108/jeim-08-2020-0344 lin, y.c., wang, l.c., tserng, h.p. and jan, s.h., 2005. enhancing knowledge and experience exchange through construction map-based knowledge management system. in: construction research congress 2005: broadening perspectives (pp. 1-10). https://doi.org/10.1061/40754(183)84 liu, w.c. and fang, c.l., 2010. the effect of different motivation factors on knowledge-sharing willingness and behavior. social behavior and personality: an international journal, [e-journal] 38(6), pp.753-58. https://doi.org/10.2224/ sbp.2010.38.6.753 liyanage, c., elhag, t., ballal, t. and li, q., 2009. knowledge communication and translation–a knowledge transfer model. journal of knowledge management, [e-journal] 13(3), pp.118-31. https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270910962914 lombardi, r., 2019. knowledge transfer and organizational performance and business process: past, present and future researches. business process management journal, [e-journal] 25(1), pp.2-9. https://doi.org/10.1108/bpmj-02-2019-368 lópez-sáez, p., cruz-gonzález, j., navas-lópez, j.e. and del mar perona-alfageme, m., 2021. organizational integration mechanisms and knowledge transfer effectiveness in mncs: the moderating role of crossnational distance. journal of international management, [e-journal] 27(4), p.100872. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. intman.2021.100872 magnier-watanabe, r. and benton, c., 2017. management innovation and firm performance: the mediating effects of tacit and explicit knowledge. knowledge management research & practice, [e-journal] 15(3), pp.325-35. https://doi. org/10.1057/s41275-017-0058-6 maurer, i., bartsch, v. and ebers, m., 2011. the value of intra-organizational social capital: how it fosters knowledge transfer, innovation performance, and growth. organization studies, [e-journal] 32(2), pp.157-85. https://doi. org/10.1177/0170840610394301 mcdermott, r. and o’dell, c., 2001. overcoming cultural barriers to sharing knowledge. journal of knowledge management. 5(1), pp.76-85. https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270110384428 milton, n.r., 2007. knowledge acquisition in practice: a step-by-step guide. london, uk: springer-verlag. moher, d., shamseer, l., clarke, m., ghersi, d., liberati, a., petticrew, m., shekelle, p. and stewart, l.a., 2015. preferred reporting items for systematic review and meta-analysis protocols (prisma-p) 2015 statement. systematic reviews, [e-journal] 4(1), pp.1-9. https://doi.org/10.1186/2046-4053-4-1 montelius, s., 2018. knowledge transfer within an international consultancy company a case study in a scandinavian context. master›s. chalmers university of technology. moodley, s., 2017. the effect of contextual business attributes on the transfer of tacit knowledge in family firms. phd. university of pretoria. moshood, t.d., nawanir, g., mahmud, f., sorooshian, s. and adeleke, a.q., 2021. green and low carbon matters: a systematic review of the past, today, and future on sustainability supply chain management practices among manufacturing industry. cleaner engineering and technology, [e-journal] 4, p.100144. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. clet.2021.100144 moshood, t.d., nawanir, g. and mahmud, f., 2022. sustainability of biodegradable plastics: a review on social, economic, and environmental factors. critical reviews in biotechnology, [e-journal] 42(6), pp.892-912. https://doi.org/10 .1080/07388551.2021.1973954 nonaka, i. and takeuchi, h., 1996. the knowledge-creating company: how japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. long range planning, 4(29), p.592. https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-6301(96)81509-3 nonaka, i., 1994. a dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. organization science, 5(1), pp.14-37. https:// doi.org/10.1287/orsc.5.1.14 moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202294 https://doi.org/10.1061/40754(183)84 https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2010.38.6.753 https://doi.org/10.2224/sbp.2010.38.6.753 https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270910962914 https://doi.org/10.1108/bpmj-02-2019-368 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2021.100872 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.intman.2021.100872 http://https://doi.org/10.1057/s41275-017-0058-6 http://https://doi.org/10.1057/s41275-017-0058-6 https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840610394301 https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840610394301 https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270110384428 https://doi.org/10.1186/2046-4053-4-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clet.2021.100144 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clet.2021.100144 https://doi.org/10.1080/07388551.2021.1973954 https://doi.org/10.1080/07388551.2021.1973954 https://doi.org/10.1016/0024-6301(96)81509-3 https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.5.1.14 https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.5.1.14 north, k. and kumta, g., 2018a. knowledge in organisations. in: knowledge management (pp. 33-66). springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59978-6_2 north, k and kumta, g., 2018b. knowledge management: value creation through organizational learning. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59978-6 oliva, f.l. and kotabe, m., 2019. barriers, practices, methods and knowledge management tools in startups. journal of knowledge management, [e-journal] 23(9), pp.1838-56. https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-06-2018-0361 owusu-manu, d.g., edwards, d.j., pärn, e.a., antwi-afari, m.f. and aigbavboa, c., 2018. the knowledge enablers of knowledge transfer: a study in the construction industries in ghana. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 16(2), pp.194-210. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-02-2017-0015 pandey, k.n., 2016. paradigms of knowledge management: with systems modelling case studies-volume 60. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2785-4 patel, b., guo, m., izadpanah, a., shah, n. and hellgardt, k., 2016. a review on hydrothermal pre-treatment technologies and environmental profiles of algal biomass processing. bioresource technology, [e-journal] 199, pp.288-99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2015.09.064 pathirage, c.p., amaratunga, d.g. and haigh, r.p., 2007. tacit knowledge and organisational performance: construction industry perspective. journal of knowledge management, [e-journal] 11(1), pp.115-26. https://doi. org/10.1108/13673270710728277 paulin, d. and suneson, k., 2015. knowledge transfer, knowledge sharing and knowledge barriers–three blurry terms in km. leading issues in knowledge management, 2(2), pp.73-94. paulus, t.m. and bennett, a.m., 2017. i have a love–hate relationship with atlas. ti’™: integrating qualitative data analysis software into a graduate research methods course. international journal of research & method in education, [e-journal] 40(1), pp.19-35. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743727x.2015.1056137 perrin, a. and rolland, n., 2007. mechanisms of intra-organisational knowledge transfer: the case of a global technology firm. m@n@gement, 10(2), pp.25-47. https://doi.org/10.3917/mana.102.0025 pietruszka-ortyl, a., 2018. the challenges of knowledge transfer in organizations in poland–discussion on empirical study. in: verica babic, ed.2018. contemporary issues in economics, business and management. serbia: faculty of economics, university of kragujevac. ch.39. ren, x., deng, x. and liang, l., 2018. knowledge transfer between projects within project-based organizations: the project nature perspective. journal of knowledge management, [e-journal] 22(5), pp.1082-1103. https://doi.org/10.1108/ jkm-05-2017-0184 renukappa, s., suresh, s. and alosaimi, h., 2021. knowledge management-related training strategies in kingdom of saudi arabia construction industry: an empirical study. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 21(7), pp.713-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1580002 riggio, m., alhariri, n. and hansen, e., 2020. paths of innovation and knowledge management in timber construction in north america: a focus on water control design strategies in clt building enclosures. architectural engineering and design management, [e-journal] 16(1), pp.58-83. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2019.1617672 rotsios, k., sklavounos, n. and hajidimitriou, y., 2021. successful knowledge transfer in ijvs: the role of trust, partner compatibility and expected benefits. european journal of international management, [e-journal] 15(4), pp.595–614. https://doi.org/10.1504/ejim.2021.114625 sanjeev, m.a. and surya, a.v., 2016. two factor theory of motivation and satisfaction: an empirical verification. annals of data science, [e-journal] 3(2). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40745-016-0077-9 moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202295 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59978-6_2 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-59978-6 https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-06-2018-0361 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-02-2017-0015 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2785-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biortech.2015.09.064 https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270710728277 https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270710728277 https://doi.org/10.1080/1743727x.2015.1056137 https://doi.org/10.3917/mana.102.0025 http://https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-05-2017-0184 http://https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-05-2017-0184 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1580002 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2019.1617672 https://doi.org/10.1504/ejim.2021.114625 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40745-016-0077-9 sapta, i.k.s., sudja, i.n., landra, i.n. and rustiarini, n.w., 2021. sustainability performance of organization: mediating role of knowledge management. economies, [e-journal] 9(3), p.97. https://doi.org/10.3390/ economies9030097 saunders, m., 2011. research methods for business students. 5th ed. london, england: pearson education limited. secundo, g., toma, a., schiuma, g. and passiante, g., 2018. knowledge transfer in open innovation: a classification framework for healthcare ecosystems. business process management journal, [e-journal] 25(1), pp.144-63. https://doi. org/10.1108/bpmj-06-2017-0173 senaratne, s., jin, x. and denham, k., 2021. knowledge sharing through social networks within construction organisations: case studies in australia. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 1-10. https://doi. org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1966578 sergeeva, n. and duryan, m., 2019. knowledge management as an enabler of sustainable innovation across supply chain in the construction industry. in: proceedings of the xxx ispim innovation conference: innovation 2019. 16-18 june 2019. florence, italy: ispim. seuring, s., müller, m., westhaus, m. and morana, r., 2005. conducting a literature review the example of sustainability in supply chains. research methodologies in supply chain management, [e-journal] pp.91-106. https://doi. org/10.1007/3-7908-1636-1_7 shao, j.j. and ariss, a.a., 2020. knowledge transfer between self-initiated expatriates and their organizations: research propositions for managing sies. international business review, [e-journal] 29(1), p.101634. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ibusrev.2019.101634 shen, h., li, z. and yang, x., 2015. processes, characteristics, and effectiveness: an integrative framework for successful knowledge transfer within organizations. journal of organizational change management, [e-journal] 28(3), pp.486503. https://doi.org/10.1108/jocm-12-2013-0251 shin, m., holden, t. and schmidt, r.a., 2001. from knowledge theory to management practice: towards an integrated approach. information processing & management, [e-journal] 37(2), pp.335-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/s03064573(00)00031-5 styhre, a. and gluch, p., 2010. managing knowledge in platforms: boundary objects and stocks and flows of knowledge. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 28(6), pp.589-99. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446190903450061 sun, j., ren, x. and anumba, c.j., 2019. analysis of knowledge-transfer mechanisms in construction project cooperation networks. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 35(2), p.04018061. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)me.1943-5479.0000663 szulanski, g., 2000. the process of knowledge transfer: a diachronic analysis of stickiness. organizational behavior and human decision processes, [e-journal] 82(1), pp.9-27. https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.2000.2884 tafkov, i., towry, k. and zhou, f.h., 2022. the impact of knowledge transfer on investment in knowledge creation in firms. contemporary accounting research, [e-journal] 39(2), pp.1260-96. https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.12738 tan, w., 2015. knowledge management in the construction industry: the strategy of singapore. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 15(1), pp.10-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2015.1012138 thomas, n., 2019. two aspects of knowledge transfer: what every manager should know about using analogy and narrative. development and learning in organizations: an international journal, [e-journal] 33(1), pp.12-15. https://doi. org/10.1108/dlo-04-2018-0046 moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202296 https://doi.org/10.3390/economies9030097 https://doi.org/10.3390/economies9030097 https://doi.org/10.1108/bpmj-06-2017-0173 https://doi.org/10.1108/bpmj-06-2017-0173 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1966578 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1966578 https://doi.org/10.1007/3-7908-1636-1_7 https://doi.org/10.1007/3-7908-1636-1_7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2019.101634 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ibusrev.2019.101634 https://doi.org/10.1108/jocm-12-2013-0251 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0306-4573(00)00031-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0306-4573(00)00031-5 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190903450061 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190903450061 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000663 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000663 https://doi.org/10.1006/obhd.2000.2884 https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.12738 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2015.1012138 https://doi.org/10.1108/dlo-04-2018-0046 https://doi.org/10.1108/dlo-04-2018-0046 thörnberg, m. and dusén, a., 2021. knowledge transfer & role identity: a case study within the client-consultant relationship. available at: https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf ?pid=diva2%3a1559917&dswid=-7061 thornhill, a., saunders, m. and lewis, p., 2009. research methods for business students. pearson education ltd. tornjanski, v., petrovic, d. and nesic, s., 2020. effectiveness of knowledge transfer between project team members in digitally disrupted organizations. management: journal of sustainable business and management solutions in emerging economies, [e-journal] 25(2), pp.1-14. https://doi.org/10.7595/management.fon.2018.0034 tranfield, d., denyer, d. and smart, p., 2003. towards a methodology for developing evidence‐informed management knowledge by means of systematic review. british journal of management, [e-journal] 14(3), pp.207-22. https://doi. org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375 uusitalo, p. and lavikka, r., 2021. technology transfer in the construction industry. the journal of technology transfer, [e-journal] 46(5), pp.1291-1320. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-020-09820-7 van egmond, e. and erkelens, p., 2007. technology and knowledge transfer for capacity building in the ghanaian construction building. in: proceedings of the cib world building congress, cape town, south africa. pp.14-17. vance, c.m. and mcnulty, y., 2014. why and how women and men acquire global career experience: a study of american expatriates in europe. international studies of management & organization, [e-journal] 44(2), pp.34-54. https://doi.org/10.2753/imo0020-8825440202 vlajčić, d., caputo, a., marzi, g. and dabić, m., 2019. expatriates managers’ cultural intelligence as promoter of knowledge transfer in multinational companies. journal of business research, [e-journal] 94, pp.367-77. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.01.033 wall, a. and lippel, r., 2020. knowledge transfer success-how to facilitate effective knowledge transfer to prevent recurring quality issues. available at: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12380/300674. wang, q.e., zhao, l., chang-richards, a., zhang, y. and li, h., 2021. understanding the impact of social capital on the innovation performance of construction enterprises: based on the mediating effect of knowledge transfer. sustainability, [e-journal] 13(9), p.5099. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095099 warrick, d.d., 2017. what leaders need to know about organizational culture. business horizons, [e-journal] 60(3), pp.395-404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2017.01.011 wehn, u. and montalvo, c., 2018. knowledge transfer dynamics and innovation: behaviour, interactions and aggregated outcomes. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 171, pp.s56-s68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.198 wei, y. and miraglia, s., 2017. organizational culture and knowledge transfer in project-based organizations: theoretical insights from a chinese construction firm. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 35(4), pp.571-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.02.010 welch, d.e. and welch, l.s., 2008. the importance of language in international knowledge transfer. management international review, [e-journal] 48(3), pp.339-60. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11575-008-0019-7 wiewiora, a., trigunarsyah, b., murphy, g. and coffey, v., 2013. organizational culture and willingness to share knowledge: a competing values perspective in australian context. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 31(8), pp.1163-74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.12.014 williams, j., fugar, f. and adinyira, e., 2021. exploring enablers of health and safety knowledge transfer from construction companies to project host communities. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] pp.19. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.2006417 moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202297 https://www.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3a1559917&dswid=-7061 https://doi.org/10.7595/management.fon.2018.0034 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-020-09820-7 https://doi.org/10.2753/imo0020-8825440202 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.01.033 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.01.033 https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.12380/300674 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13095099 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2017.01.011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.198 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.02.010 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11575-008-0019-7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.12.014 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.2006417 woo, j.h., clayton, m.j., johnson, r.e., flores, b.e. and ellis, c., 2004. dynamic knowledge map: reusing experts’ tacit knowledge in the aec industry. automation in construction, [e-journal] 13(2), pp.203-07. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2003.09.003 yoo, t., 2020. how to use language agents for knowledge transfer? evidence from translators and multinational organizations in korea. journal of knowledge management, [e-journal] 24(4), pp.899-919. https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm09-2019-0498 zebal, m., ferdous, a. and chambers, c., 2019. an integrated model of marketing knowledge a tacit knowledge perspective. journal of research in marketing and entrepreneurship, [e-journal] 21(1), pp.2-18. https://doi.org/10.1108/ jrme-03-2018-0018 zhao, s., jiang, y., peng, x. and hong, j., 2020. knowledge sharing direction and innovation performance in organizations: do absorptive capacity and individual creativity matter? european journal of innovation management, [e-journal] 24(2), pp.371-94. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejim-09-2019-0244 zhou, q., deng, x., hwang, b.g. and ji, w., 2020. integrated framework of horizontal and vertical cross-project knowledge transfer mechanism within project-based organizations. journal of management in engineering, 36(5), pp.115. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000828 zimpel-leal, k. and lettice, f., 2021. generative mechanisms for scientific knowledge transfer in the food industry. sustainability, [e-journal] 13(2), p.955. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020955 moshood, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202298 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2003.09.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2003.09.003 https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-09-2019-0498 https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-09-2019-0498 https://doi.org/10.1108/jrme-03-2018-0018 https://doi.org/10.1108/jrme-03-2018-0018 https://doi.org/10.1108/ejim-09-2019-0244 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000828 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020955 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: oo, b. l. and lim, b. t. h. 2021. changes in job situations for women workforce in construction during the covid-19 pandemic. construction economics and building, 21:2, 34–57. http://dx.doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i2.7526 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 2 june 2021 research article changes in job situations for women workforce in construction during the covid-19 pandemic bee lan oo1, benson teck heng lim2 1 school of built environment, university of new south wales, australia, bee.oo@unsw.edu.au 2 school of built environment, university of new south wales, australia, b.lim@unsw.edu.au corresponding author: bee lan oo, school of built environment, university of new south wales, australia, bee.oo@unsw.edu.au doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i2.7526 article history: received: 30/11/2020; revised: 28/03/2021; accepted: 13/04/2021; published: 15/06/2021 abstract the covid-19 pandemic has introduced unique circumstances to women workforce in construction including the need to work from home, changes in job situations and family responsibilities following the lockdowns. this exploratory study was conducted around six months into the pandemic in examining the changes of their job situations, and their perceptions of career aspects during the pandemic. the results show that most respondents were employed full-time at the time of survey, and that there were profound changes to their work location and working hours including working from home and worked more hours than usual. their perceived negative impacts of the pandemic on their capacity to engage in paid work activities due to caring responsibilities, pay or earnings, job security, and career progression and advancement are modest. they were also seemingly confident in staying in their job in the next 12-month. their perceptions have been found significantly associated with their age, education level, and years of experience in the industry. these findings provide a critical insight on women’s job situations in the industry during the pandemic, with implications for human resource practices towards addressing the challenges in retention of women workforce during and post covid-19 pandemic. keywords career; construction industry; covid-19; employment; women 34 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i2.7526 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i2.7526 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:bee.oo@unsw.edu.au mailto:b.lim@unsw.edu.au mailto:bee.oo@unsw.edu.au http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i2.7526 introduction the covid-19 pandemic is raging worldwide and causing unprecedented disruptions to much of the population globally in many aspects. as countries around the world are taking steps to respond to the pandemic, the literature on the pandemic is exploding to document its impacts on public heath, economic, political, education, and many other societal aspects. a search on the google scholar search engine using ‘covid’ as the keyword had returned a total of 1.77 million results as the time of writing (november, 2020). one of the focuses of these vast number of publications is on the consequences of the pandemic on the labour market and people’s employment in different countries (e.g., borland and charlton, 2020: lemieux, et al., 2020; mayhew and anand, 2020). some authors have adopted a gender lens on this subject area and found that women suffer more than men in their employment due to the pandemic (e.g., alon, et al., 2020; kristal and yaish, 2020; qian and fuller, 2020; rapid research information forum, 2020; reichelt, makovi and sargsyan, 2020). gausman and langer (2020) urge that it is a matter of urgency to adopt a gender lens to study the impacts of the pandemic including the policies and actions that are put into place at the global, country, and local levels. they pointed out that gender consideration in study design is of especially importance in disadvantaged populations and resource-poor communities, where women are especially vulnerable. the focus of this exploratory study is on women workforce in the construction industry. the construction industry is one of the most male-dominated industries with greatest degree of gender segregation (ness, 2012). there is a large collection studies on barriers faced by women and strategies aimed at improving their retention and career progression in the industry (navarro-astor, román-onsalo and infante-perea, 2017). moreover, the recruitment of women into the industry has always been a challenge as demonstrated by previous studies that attempted to explore this subject area with the focus set on attracting and retaining female students in construction management undergraduate degree program (e.g., bigelow, saseendran and elliott, 2018; escamilla, ostadalimakhmalbaf and bigelow, 2016; oo, li and zhang, 2018). it is hoped that if female enrolment and retention in construction management programs increased, so would the female participation in the construction industry (bigelow, et al., 2015; moore and gloeckner, 2007). despite of their underrepresentation and barriers in their construction career, previous findings on women’s job satisfaction in the industry are rather mixed. on one hand, there are evidence of their dissatisfaction with their construction career along with reported high intention to leave the industry (e.g., dainty, neale and bagilhole, 1999; dabke, et al., 2008; hee and ling, 2011). on the other hand, it is encouraging that some recent studies have reported a rather high level of job satisfaction among women workforce in the industry (e.g., malone and issa, 2013; oo, lim and feng, 2020; oo, liu and lim, 2020). nonetheless, the covid-19 pandemic has introduced unique circumstances and challenges to women workforce in construction, these include the need to work from home, changes in job situations, changes in housework, childcare and home-schooling following the covid lockdowns. while little is known about their employment and other aspects of their overall livelihood during the covid-era, the focus on this exploratory study is, however, on (i) the changes of their job situations, and (ii) their perceptions of career aspects and job prospects during the pandemic. the findings provide an understanding that is critical to addressing the challenges and difficulties in retention of women workforce in the industry during and post covid-19 pandemic. this understanding brings with it some important implications for construction employers, especially the formulation and development of respective human resource practices to better cater for the needs of women workforce in their organization due to the changes in job situations that are associated with covid-19. in addition, this study contributes to the knowledge area on gender equality in the construction industry by providing an initial insight on women’s experiences of job situation during a pandemic time. oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202135 women in construction and the covid-19 pandemic the literature is ripe with studies on women workforce in the construction industry. oo, liu and lim (2020) asserted that the underrepresentation of women and the underutilization of women’s abilities and talents are compelling reasons for researchers to examine the attraction, retention and experiences of women in the industry. a major collection in the literature is on the barriers faced by women workforce in the industry, and it is rather common for researchers to identify a long list of barriers (e.g., menches and abraham, 2007; navarro-astor, román-onsalo and infante-perea, 2017; lekchiri and kamm, 2020). in navarro-astor, román-onsalo and infante-perea’s (2017) systematic literature review of 60 publications between 2000 and 2015 on career barriers affecting women in construction, difficulty with work-life (or work-family) balancing ranked 1st with 32 (i.e., 53%) literature examined cited this barrier. most of the respective literature found that multiple role conflict and the need to balance personal life with work are still a problem almost exclusive to women. for example, the women architects from the uk and spain in caven and navarro-astro (2013) feel that they still need to choose between family and career. however, in another study that involved construction employees in australia, lingard and francis (2004) found that there is no significant difference in work-life experiences between men and women if their work location (i.e., office and site-based) has been considered. they claimed that work-family experiences appear to be more closely related to the nature of employees’ job conditions, as indicated by work location and number of working hours. on the other hand, malone and issa (2013) found that flexibility and balance between work and personal time is a top ranked factor affecting women’s organizational commitment and desire to stay with their employers in the us construction industry. indeed, the recruitment and retention of women workforce in the industry has been very challenging (morello, issa and franz, 2018) since there are many other barriers on different aspects of their construction career. these include (navarro-astor, román-onsalo and infante-perea, 2017): (i) working conditions that require long working hours and presenteeism; (ii) lack of promotion opportunities and slow career progression; (iii) receiving less pay that male counterparts for equivalent work; and (iv) allocation of tasks that favouring male workforce. navarro-astor, román-onsalo and infante-perea (2017) further pointed out that career barriers are multi-level, interdependent and can reinforce each other, and that individual women are differentially affected by barriers related to their career. moreover, the covid-19 pandemic could make an already challenging situation more complex for women in the industry. since the outbreak of covid-19, countries around the world are taking steps to respond to the pandemic by implementing a series of physical distancing and isolation measures to varying degree (biddle, et al., 2020). these include imposing ‘lockdowns’ (i.e., including restrictions on non-essential travel, closing schools and non-essential businesses) and issuing ‘stay-at-home’ orders. more than four out of five people (81%) in the global workforce of 3.3 billion were affected by full or partial workplace closures (ilo, 2020). working from home (wfh) became a ‘new normal’ for a large population of employees since it represents the only option to both continue working and minimise the risk of virus exposure (bonacini, gallo and scicchitano, 2020). it is noted that some recent studies have focused on wfh phenomenon because of its sudden growth of prominence, and there is increasing literature on the impacts of the pandemic on the labour market in different countries. while the wfh policies apply to both male and female workforces, it is expected the pandemic would disproportionately affect women compared to men (alon, et al., 2020). early evidence suggests that women suffer more than men in their employment and well-being, especially working mothers (e.g., alon, et al., 2020; cortes and forsythe, 2020; etheridge and spantig, 2020; kristal and yaish, 2020; qian and fuller, 2020; rapid research information forum, 2020; reichelt, makovi and sargsyan, 2020). most of these studies asserted that this could be due to the increasing demand for unpaid work (care and housework) at home among women following the covid lockdowns, while also managing their paid workload. with sample respondents in the us, germany, and singapore, reichelt, makovi and sargsyan (2020) found that transitions to unemployment, reductions in working hours and transitions to oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202136 wfh have been more frequent for women than for men, but to varying extent across the three countries. in the australian context, the australian bureau of statistics (abs) has a range of new statistics on the economic, social, household, employment and industry impacts due to the pandemic. one of the key abs statistic releases is the household impacts of covid-19 survey series which mainly examine its impacts on jobs, hours worked, lifestyle and well-being of the general population on a fortnightly or monthly basis (abs, 2020a). changes in job situations have been widely reported in this series including changes in employment status, work location (i.e., wfh) and hours worked. in another study which examined the initial impacts of the pandemic using data collected from over 3000 australians in april 2020, biddle, et al. (2020) found that their respondents’ perceived levels of job insecurity were very high along with reported loss of jobs, and that women and those born in non-english speaking countries experienced largest reductions in hours worked. using a gender lens, rapid research information forum (2020) has reported early evidence that women in the science, technology, engineering and maths (stem) workforce in australia face disproportionate increases in caring responsibilities and disruptions to working hours, job security and paid work capacity, and that this situation is most acute for those with children under twelve. as for construction workforces who work in project-based setting, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no study that examined the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on their employment and other aspects of their overall livelihood. while the pandemic has made significant impacts across all workforces in the construction industry, and indeed people from all walks of life globally, the focus of this exploratory study is, however, on the women workforce in the australian construction industry. they are minority group in the industry who have already faced barriers related to their career in pre-covid era (lingard and francis, 2004; oo, liu and lim, 2020). the covid-19 outbreak in australia and construction businesses as this exploratory study was conducted around six months into the covid-19 pandemic, this review section highlights the key responses of the australian government to the pandemic over this period. it can help shed light on the possible impacts on the pandemic on household, employment, industry and many other aspects of livelihood. in australia, significant measures to limit the spread of covid-19 were initiated in early february with the first travel restrictions. following that, widespread physical distancing and isolation measures were progressively implemented from mid-march. the easing of restrictions in all states and territories were implemented from mid-may. table 1 shows the key measures by the government between march and september 2020; and highlights the impacts of the pandemic on construction businesses (in italic font). based on the findings in abs’s (2020b) survey on the impacts of covid-19 on businesses in australia, most construction businesses were operating as normal or under modified conditions during the pandemic period. construction businesses have had faced different challenges including cash flow and reduced demand for product or services due to the pandemic. in addition, individual businesses had different perceptions and business sentiments on different aspects including business prospects, cash flow and financial commitments. it should be noted that this series of survey by abs (2020b) has focussed on different topics in each monthly release to maintain relevance in a changing environment during the pandemic. research method this exploratory study adopted a survey design in achieving the research objectives. it is an efficient research design to examine specific aspects of research interest of a given population. the targeted population is women workforce (i.e., professional women, tradeswomen and women labourers) in the australian construction industry who are at least 18 years old. data was collected using an online structured survey questionnaire to reach the prospective survey respondents based in different states and territories in oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202137 table 1. the australian government measures in response to covid-19 pandemic and its impacts on construction businesses month (2020) key measures and impacts on construction businesses march • introduction of international travel restrictions. • shutting down of non-essential services (22 march). • first announcement of an economic stimulus package (12 march) • social distancing rules and additional shutdown restrictions (20 to 30 march). • jobkeeper payment announcement (30 march). • 45% of businesses in construction reported that they had experienced adverse business impacts and 95% anticipated impacts over the coming months. april • free childcare for working parents (2 april). • some states and territories announced learning from home arrangements for most school students. • 94% of businesses in construction were operating. • 52% of businesses made changes to the work arrangements (reduced hours worked, changed work location -wfh, placed staff on paid leave). • 74% of businesses in construction reported that reduction in demand for product and services had an adverse impact on operations. • 77% of businesses in construction reported that reduced cash flow had an adverse impact on operations. • 45% of businesses in construction reported that government restrictions had had an adverse impact on operations. • 80% of businesses in construction had registered or intend to register for the jobkeeper payment scheme. may • slight easing of restrictions in some states and territories (1 to 12 may). • federal government three-stage plan to begin easing restrictions (8 may). • easing of restrictions in all states and territories from mid-may. • 35% of businesses in construction were operating as normal. • 65% of businesses in construction were operating under modified conditions. june • easing of restrictions in all states and territories from mid-may. • 56% of businesses in construction reported that revenue had decreased compared to the same time last year. • 46% of businesses in construction reported that their currently available cash on hand would support more than three months on operation. july • restrictions reinstated in regions of victoria (1 july). • free childcare for working parents ended (12 july). • 9% of businesses in construction experienced difficulties in negotiating changes to rates of pay. august • melbourne moved to stage 4 restrictions and regional victoria moved to stage 3 (5 aug). • 28.4% of businesses in construction expected difficulty in meeting financial commitments over the next three months. oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202138 australia in a timely manner. the online survey link using the qualtrics survey platform was distributed via emails and social media by professional bodies and women’s networks in construction between august and september 2020. unfortunately, it was not possible to keep track of number of surveys sent because of the use of social media, and the researchers had no access to email address books of the supporting organizations. for the design of the survey questionnaire, the survey respondents were asked to indicate their job situations in terms of employment status, work location and working hours preand during the covid pandemic. noting that the who declared covid-19 as pandemic on 11 march 2020 (who, 2020a), the measurements of job situations were thus based on four time points to enable an examination on the changes in the respondents’ job situations, namely 1st week of february (pre-covid time period), 1st week of april, 1st week of june and last working week at the time of completing the survey (duringcovid time periods). open-ended questions were also included to explore the reasons for changes in job situations. next, they were asked to indicate their perceptions of the impacts of the pandemic on their career aspects and job prospects in the industry, mainly using a 5-point likert scale (for e.g., 1 = not at all and 5 = a great deal). with very limited or no literature on the impact of the pandemic on women in construction, the measurement items in the questionnaire were adapted from relevant studies on this subject matter (e.g., abs, 2020a; biddle, et al., 2020; rapid research information forum, 2020). in addition, the logic functions in qualtrics were utilized to ensure the flow of questions for individual respondents considering the different characteristics and personal circumstances of the prospective respondents. in terms of analysis, a one-sample kolmogorov-smirnov test was performed to test on the normality of data of quantitative nature. the test results show that the observed variables failed the normality assumption, and thus nonparametric statistical tests were used for the data analysis. the first test is one-sample wilcoxon signed rank test (i.e., the non-parametric equivalent of the one-sample t-test) for examining whether the sample median is equal to a test value of three (i.e., the mid-point of the five-point likert scale). this test allows to test the hypothesis whether the respondents’ perceptions on the measurement items are lower or greater than the neutral level. next, mann-whitney u-test (i.e., the non-parametric equivalent of the two-sample t-test) was used for testing the difference in distribution of the respondents’ perceptions between two groups of respondents according to their caring responsibilities and income support for their family. that is, the hypothesis whether there is statistical difference in distribution between the two groups of respondents. the qualitative responses from the open-ended questions, on the other hand, were analysed in identifying the key themes within the data. results and discussion there were 102 sets of usable survey responses collected over a six-week period. while the number of responses is considerably low for a survey with its recruitment via professional bodies and women’s networks month (2020) key measures and impacts on construction businesses september • many states and territories were in the final stage of easing restrictions, but progress had slowed in some areas due to the situation in victoria. • a roadmap for reopening restrictions in victoria commenced from 13 september. • 33% of employing businesses in construction expected change in the number of hours worked by staff once covid-19 restrictions are lifted and conditions stabilise. source: abs (2020a) household impacts of covid-19 survey; abs (2020b) business indicators, business impacts of covid-19 table 1. continued oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202139 in construction, one important factor to consider is that the emergency of the covid-19 pandemic has placed considerable strain on people from all walks of life globally. indeed, there is a great interest among the respondents to obtain a copy of the research findings where more than 70% of the respondents have provided their email address for this purpose. this seemingly reflects their willingness and seriousness to share their experiences on a voluntary basis in the present study. thus, their responses are useful to reveal some key insights on their employment in the industry during the pandemic times. based on the respondents’ self-classification of professions, 98 sets were completed by professional women, 4 sets by tradeswomen and there is no response from women labourers in the industry. with the very low number of responses from tradeswomen, the analysis was thus focussing on the 98 professional women working across different states and territories in australia. table 2 show the demographic profiles of the respondents with the majority (70.4%) of them aged between 26 and 45 years old. a similar percentage of respondents were born in australia. on level of education, the percentage of respondents with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees is as high as 82.6% (i.e., 81 out of 98). this finding echoes that of the latest australian 2016 census where number of people with undergraduate and postgraduate degree qualifications have table 2. the demographic profiles of the respondents profiles freq. percent age 18 25 7 7.1 26 35 41 41.8 36 45 28 28.6 46 55 19 19.4 56 and above 3 3.1 country of birth australia 69 70.4 overseas 29 29.6 highest level of education secondary 1 1.0 certificate 6 6.1 advanced diploma/ diploma 10 10.2 undergraduate degree 50 51.0 postgraduate degree 31 31.6 your income is the primary source of support for your family yes 53 54.1 no 45 45.9 caring responsibilities yes (parents, children and others) 40 40.8 no 58 59.2 oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202140 increased significantly compared to year 2011, and the gap in educational attainment between men and women has narrowed in the past 10 years (abs, 2017). in terms of family commitments, slightly more than half (54.1%) of the respondents were primary income earners in their family, and about 41% respondents have caring responsibilities. overall, the respondents have different personal circumstances including caring responsibilities and income support for their family, and these may shape their response to the pandemic. the association between the respondents’ role as primary income earner and caring responsibilities was further examined in table 3 using a cross tabulation. a chi-square test of independence shows that there is no statistical significance association between their role as primary income earner and caring responsibilities (i.e., x(1) = 0.026, p = 0.794). this means those respondents who were primary income earners for their family may or may not have caring responsibilities, and vice versa. however, the cross-tabulation shows that there is a group of 21 respondents (i.e., 21.4% of total respondents) who were primary income earners and had caring responsibilities for their family. this prompts the need to investigate if there are significance differences in their perceptions of career aspects and job prospects in the subsequent analysis considering the responsibilities shouldered by this group of respondents. table 3. cross-tabulation of the respondents’ role as primary income earner and caring responsibilities income as the primary source of support for family caring responsibilities total yes no yes 21 32 53 (54.1%) no 19 26 45 (45.9%) total 40 (40.8%) 58 (59.2%) 98 turning into the respondents’ employment profiles, table 4 shows that about a quarter (28.5%) of them have had up to five years of experience in the industry. the other major group (25.5%) was with between six and ten years of experience. almost all respondents (94.9%) were employed at the time of survey and they worked across different australian states and territories. the percentages of respondents who worked in the two major states of new south wales and victoria are 42.9% and 26.7%, respectively. about 65% of the respondents worked in an office environment before the pandemic, providing indicative evidence where women tend to be allocated with office-based tasks as reported in the literature (e.g., ling and poh, 2004; lingard and francis, 2004; oo, lim and feng, 2020). next, on their pre-tax annual income, as high as above 50% of the respondents earned above a$ 100,000, and of these, close to 38% earned above a$ 120,000. these income levels suggest that the respective respondents had a decent income based on a broad comparison to the full-time adult average weekly total earnings in australia in may 2020 that was $1,771.20 per week or $92,102 annually (abs, 2020c). other than those preferred not to answer the question on their income level, the respective respondents with lower range income were either working part-time or casual as indicated in the changes of their employment status (see figure 1). changes in job situations figure 1 shows the respondents’ employment status, work location and working hour preand during the pandemic across the four time points using the 100% stack bar chart. in terms of employment status, it is heartening to note that most respondents were working full-time, part-time or casual during the pandemic times. on average, 96% of them were employed for the three time points during pandemic (i.e., 1st week of april till the time of survey). this could partly be explained by the fact that most construction businesses oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202141 table 4. the employment profiles of the respondents profiles freq. percent years of experience in the industry less than 1 year 2 2.0 1 5 26 26.5 6 10 25 25.5 11 15 16 16.3 16 20 12 12.2 21 25 9 9.2 25 and over 8 8.2 current employment status self-employed 3 3.1 employed by an organization (private or public sector) 88 89.8 family business 2 2.0 do not have a paid job 5 5.1 current job position architect 7 7.5 qs/ cost engineer/ cost planner/ estimator 11 11.8 administrator/ contract administrator 13 14.0 project director/ project manager/ construction manager 18 19.4 director/ manager (account, hr, marketing, business mgmt) 23 24.7 site supervisor/ site engineer 8 8.6 engineer (civil and building services) 9 9.7 cadet/ graduate positions 4 4.3 current state or territory of workplace a nsw 45 42.9 qld 12 11.4 vic 28 26.7 act 10 9.5 nt 0 0.0 sa 4 3.8 wa 6 5.7 tas 0 0.0 oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202142 were operating during the pandemic period, and that 80% of businesses had registered or intend to register for the jobkeeper payment scheme in april 2020 (abs, 2020a). the jobkeeper payment scheme is an australian government subsidy for eligible businesses which have been significantly affected by the covid-19 pandemic to continue paying their employees (australian taxation office, 2020). however, a small number of respondents lost their job during the pandemic, ranging between 3 to 6%. next, a more profound change has been found for work location during the pandemic times mainly due to the covid lockdowns. according to the nsw government covid safety plan (2020), employer must allow an employee to work at the person’s place of residence where it is reasonably practicable to do so. similarly, the department of health and human services (2020) in the victoria state has the same advice for businesses who have employees wfh. the respondents who were wfh has increased significantly, from about 6% of respondents in the pre-covid period to close to 55% in the 1st week of april. the percentages of wfh recorded for the subsequent two time points have reduced since increasing number of respondents had went back to normal workplace or worked partly in normal workplace and partly from home since 1st week of june following the easing of restrictions in all australian states and territories from mid-may (abs, 2020b). indeed, the percentages of respondents who went back to normal workplace at the time of survey (between august and september 2020) is slightly more than half of the number recorded pre-covid, which are 42.9% and 82.7%, respectively. on the respondents’ working hours, there were changes recorded for the three time points during the pandemic. on average, about 8.5% of the respondents worked less hours than usual for these three time points, which suggest that most respondents had not experienced large reductions in hours worked as reported in biddle, et al. (2020) back in april. on the other hand, a much larger group of about onethird of the respondents had worked more hours than usual for these three time points, ranging between 27.6% and 34.7% of respondents for the same time periods. however, corresponding to changes noted for work location during these time points, the changes in working hours are less salient even though higher percentages of respondents had changed their work location. for example, in the 1st week of april, as high as 74.5% of respondents had changed their work location to either wfh or partly in normal workplace and profiles freq. percent workplace before the covid-19 pandemic office 65 66.3 construction site 26 26.5 others (office and construction site) 7 7.1 current annual job income (before tax) 41k 60k 6 6.1 61k 80k 13 13.3 81k 100k 11 11.2 101k 120k 14 14.3 121k and above 37 37.8 prefer not to answer 12 12.2 do not have a paid job 5 5.1 a there are six respondents worked in at least two states and territories table 4. continued oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202143 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 1st wk feb 1st wk apr 1st wk june at survey time changes in employment status full-time part-time casual do not have a paid job 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 1st wk feb 1st wk apr 1st wk june at survey time changes in work location normal workplace part work/ part home fully from home do not have a paid job 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% 1st wk feb 1st wk apr 1st wk june at survey time changes in working hour worked same hours as usual worked less hours than usual worked more hours than usual do not have a paid job figure 1. the respondents’ employment status, work location and working hour preand during the covid-19 pandemic oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202144 partly from home, and only 54.1% had worked same hours as usual despite the changes. the percentages of respondents who worked same hours as usual have also increased modestly from 1st week of june. this can partly be explained by the fact that increasing number of respondents had went back to normal workplace or worked partly in normal workplace and partly from home as reported earlier. it should also be noted that some respondents had indicated they had worked more hours than usual even in the pre-covid period on the 1st week of february, which seemingly indicates the nature of jobs in the industry that require long working hours (lingard and francis, 2004; lekchiri and kamm, 2020). however, to further shed light on these changes in work location and working hour, the respondents were asked to indicate their reasons for not being able to wfh, and the reasons why they had been required to work less (or more) hours preand during the pandemic times as examined next. table 5 shows the reasons why the respondents were not able to work from home (partly or fully) during the pandemic time periods. there were given the ‘other, please specify’ option for this question and the additional reasons specified are shown in italic font. the most common cited reason is the nature of the job they had (i.e., 65.3% of the affected respondents). it is expected that the majority of these respondents had to work on construction sites and/or at their normal workplace in accessing the required resources. the next most cited reason is their employer not offering the option of wfh, which to some extent associated to the ‘workplace culture that discourages wfh’ specified by the respondents. it is hopefully that their employers of those affected have followed the guidelines on wfh issued by the authorities, especially their duty of care for the health and safety of their employees and others at the workplace that extends to identifying and managing the risks of exposure to the covid-19 virus (nsw government, 2020). table 5. the reasons why the respondents were not able to work from home (partly or fully) during the covid-19 pandemic time periods reasons freq.* percent the nature of job you had 49 65.3 your employer not offering the option of working from home 12 16.0 your home situation was not being conducive for work 6 8.0 your home lacking access to the internet and other proper equipment 2 2.7 workplace culture that discourages working from home 4 5.3 personal preference to work in the office 2 2.7 total 75 100.0 given the high possibility of different reasons, the respondents were required to state the reasons why they had been required to work less (or more) hours than usual preand during the pandemic time periods in open-ended questions. it should be noted that some respondents had stated few reasons in their responses, and thus the frequency counts are differing from those reported in figure 1. their qualitative responses were analysed and tabulated in table 6. the identified reasons can be broadly classified into joband personal-related reasons. for the reported situation of working more hours than usual even in the pre-covid pandemic period (see figure 1), increased workload has been identified as the main reason. some respondents had specifically mentioned the nature of the additional workload including the need to meet project deadline and they were working on new project and/or tender. these reasons are not likely to be associated with the covid-19 pandemic. however, one respondent had stated that longer working hours was a strategic preparation of response to the covid-19. it is noted that the outbreak was declared oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202145 a public health emergency of international concern in jan 2020 (who, 2020b). during the pandemic times, on the other hand, most of the identified reasons are related to covid-19, especially the identified personal-related reason where some respondents were home-schooling their children during the lock-down period. indeed, the home-schooling responsibility has been identified as the only personal-related reason for (i) working less hours by taking time off from work, or (ii) more hours than usual while still working fulltime hours during the pandemic time periods. in terms of job-related reasons, the main reason for working less hours among those affected is due to reduced workload following a downturn in business in their organization. for those who worked more hours than usual, by contrast, had claimed increased workload as the main reason (i.e., 33 out of 40 identified reasons). it is clear that most of the stated reasons for increased workload are associated with the pandemic and changes in work location with wfh arrangement, including additional managerial duties and coordination works, the need to cover for wfh colleagues with caring responsibilities, and reduction in staff numbers. interestingly, there is a job-related reason that appears on both list of reasons for working less or more hours during the pandemic, i.e., improved work efficiency with less distraction. the respective respondents were able to better focus on their works following the change of work location and the stated reasons include less commuting time and interference from colleagues. indeed, the respondents in baudot and kelly (2020) perceived improvements in their work productivity when working remotely during the covid-19 lockdowns. table 6. the reasons why the respondents had been required to work less (or more) hours than usual preand during the covid-19 pandemic time periods reasons freq.* percent pre-covid-19 working more hours job-related reasons increased workload 6 35.3 increased workload because of: the need to meet project deadline 6 35.3 new project and/or tender 4 23.5 strategic preparation of response to the covid-19 1 5.9 total 17 100.0 during covid-19 pandemic working less hours job-related reasons pay cut with reduced working days 3 20.0 asked to take leave 2 13.3 improved work efficiency with less distraction 2 13.3 reduced workload because of: downturn in business 6 40.0 no interstate travel 1 6.7 oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202146 reasons freq.* percent personal-related reasons home schooling of children 1 6.7 total 15 100.0 working more hours job-related reasons difference time zone with overseas project team members 1 2.5 different time zone due to working remotely 1 2.5 improved work efficiency with less distraction 1 2.5 work stress to meet task deadline 2 5.0 increased workload 2 5.0 increased workload because of: additional managerial duties due to wfh 6 15.0 new project and/or tender 5 12.5 additional coordination works due to wfh 5 12.5 reduction in staff numbers 4 10.0 the need to meet project deadline 4 10.0 covered for wfh colleagues with caring responsibilities 2 5.0 changes in job routines 1 2.5 greater expectation on work output than usual 1 2.5 the need to be multi-tasking 1 2.5 to keep works on program under the covid-19 conditions 1 2.5 work shift arrangement 1 2.5 personal-related reasons home schooling of children 2 5.0 total 40 100.0 * only those respondents who were affected had been asked to respond to this question and some respondents have stated multiple reasons. perceptions of career aspects and job prospects the respondents’ perceptions of their career in the construction industry during the pandemic were examined in two parts. first, all respondents were asked about their perceptions of the impacts of the pandemic on different career aspects (table 7). this was followed by questions for those who remained employed at the time of survey on their perceptions of their job prospects (table 8). for the four measurement items (p1 to p4) in table 7, the frequency distribution shows that most respondents (between table 6. continued oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202147 50 and 67.3%) perceived negative impacts of the pandemic are below the moderate level (i.e., the midpoint of the five-point likert scale). it is also noted that the percentages of respondents at the extreme end of scale (i.e., ‘a great deal’ group) for p1 to p4 are all below 10% (ranging between 5 and 8.2%), signifying that only a small group of respondents perceived great potential negative impacts of the pandemic on their career aspects. this observation is consistent with the reported changes in which loss of job and pay cut with reduced working days had affected a small number of respondents only. while there is a rather widespread in the respondents’ responses as demonstrated by the high standard deviations, the corresponding mean scores for all items are below the moderate level (i.e., below 3). of these, their perceived negative impact on their pay and earnings (p2) recorded the lowest mean value of 1.99, which can be partly explained by its frequency distribution where as high as 52% of respondents had rated the pandemic had no impact on this measurement item at all. on the other hand, for those with caring responsibilities, their perceived negative impact on their capacity to engage in paid work activities due to caring responsibilities (p1) recorded the highest mean value of 2.60 as 75.0% of them rated the impact as slight-to-moderate. for further testing, the one-sample wilcoxon signed rank test results show that the median values of all four items are statistically significantly below three. these findings provide strong evidence that the respondents were optimistic about the potential negative impacts of the pandemic on their capacity to engage in paid work activities due to caring responsibilities (p1, only for those who had caring responsibilities), pay or earnings (p2), job security (p3), and career progression and advancement (p4). among the 93 respondents who remained employed at the time of survey, table 8 shows that the frequency distributions of their perceptions of job prospects are rather mixed. considering the responses of highest frequencies for the three measurement items, about 40% of respondents perceived it is unlikely that they would be losing job at some stage over the next 12-month (p5). while about one-third perceived it is likely they would not be able to find and accept a job that meet their job expectations if they were to lose their job at some stage over the next 12-month (p6), it is unlikely that they would leave their profession in the construction industry and work in other industries (p7). it is also noted a considerably percentage of respondents scored neutral for items p5 to p7, and this neutral group recorded the second highest frequencies for all three items. next, while the corresponding mean scores for all three items are below the neutral level (i.e., below 3), the one-sample wilcoxon signed rank test results show that only the median value of p5 are statistically significantly below three (p < 0.05). this seemingly suggests that the respondents were confident that they would be able to stay in their job in the next 12-month. it is indeed relieving to note the optimism among the respondents since it has been reported that australian respondents in biddle, et al. (2020) had very high job insecurity. for items p6 and p7 with the corresponding mean scores of 2.989 and 2.806 that are very close to 3 suggest that the respondents were neutral and uncertain about their job prospects at the time of survey if they were to lose their job at some stage over the next 12-month. this observation can largely be explained by the fact that the covid-19 pandemic has presented unprecedented challenges and uncertainties to the world community. table 9 shows the further analysis results in investigating if there are significant differences in the respondents’ perceptions according to the grouping based on their role as primary income earner and career responsibilities. item p1 has been excluded as it was only answered by the respondents who had caring responsibilities. the focus is on the group of 21 respondents who were primary income earners and had career responsibilities in their family (see table 3) versus the remaining ‘others’ respondents. for both groups, there is a rather widespread in the respondents’ responses as demonstrated by the high standard deviations. with the exception of item p6 (mean = 3.055) for ‘others’ group, the mean scores for all items in both groups are below the moderate or neutral level (i.e., below 3). this trend of descriptive statistics is consistent with the analysis that based on the total sample size (see tables 7 and 8). fortunately, the mean value of the perceived negative impact on pay and earnings (p2) for the ‘carer and primary income earner’ group (mean = 1.571) is considerably lower than those of the total sample (mean = 1.990, see table 7) oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202148 ta bl e 7. th e re sp on de nt s’ p er ce pt io ns o f t he im pa ct s of th e co vi d -1 9 pa nd em ic o n th ei r ca re er a sp ec ts p er ce pt io ns fr eq ue nc y (% ) m ea n s td . d ev . s ig .a n ot a t a ll s lig ht ly m od er at el y c on si de ra bl y a g re at d ea l p 1 th e ex te nt to w hi ch c o vi d -1 9 pa nd em ic ne ga ti ve ly a ff ec te d yo ur ca pa ci ty to e ng ag e in p ai d w or k ac ti vi ti es d ue to y ou r ca ri ng r es po ns ib ili ti es (n = 4 0) . 4 (1 0. 0) 16 (4 0. 0) 14 (3 5. 0) 4 (1 0. 0) 2 (5 .0 ) 2. 60 0 0. 98 2 0. 02 0 p 2 th e ex te nt to w hi ch c o vi d -1 9 pa nd em ic ne ga ti ve ly a ff ec te d yo ur p ay or e ar ni ng s (n = 9 8) . 51 (5 2. 0) 15 (1 5. 3) 20 (2 0. 4) 6 (6 .1 ) 6 (6 .1 ) 1. 99 0 1. 23 9 0. 00 0 p 3 th e ex te nt to w hi ch c o vi d -1 9 pa nd em ic ne ga ti ve ly a ff ec te d yo ur jo b se cu ri ty (n = 9 8) . 29 (2 9. 6) 34 (3 4. 7) 15 (1 5. 3) 12 (1 2. 2) 8 (8 .2 ) 2. 34 7 1. 25 3 0. 00 0 p 4 th e ex te nt to w hi ch c o vi d -1 9 pa nd em ic ne ga ti ve ly a ff ec te d yo ur ca re er p ro gr es si on a nd ad va nc em en t ( n = 9 8) . 35 (3 5. 7) 24 (2 4. 5) 16 (1 6. 3) 17 (1 7. 3) 6 (6 .1 ) 2. 33 7 1. 29 2 0. 00 0 a o ne -s am pl e w ilc ox on s ig ne d r an k te st fo r m ed ia n eq ua ls 3 (i .e ., th e m id -p oi nt le ve l); s ca le : 1 to 5 (n ot a t a ll to a g re at d ea l). oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202149 ta bl e 8. th e pe rc ep tio ns o f r es po nd en ts w ho r em ai ne d em pl oy ed o n th ei r jo b pr os pe ct s p er ce pt io ns fr eq ue nc y (% ), to ta l n = 9 3 m ea n s td . d ev . s ig .a e xt rm ly un lik el y u nl ik el y n eu tr al li ke ly e xt rm ly lik el y p 5 th e ch an ce s of y ou lo si ng jo b at s om e st ag e ov er th e ne xt 1 2m on th . 12 (1 2. 9) 38 (4 0. 9) 28 (3 0. 1) 11 (1 1. 8) 4 (4 .3 ) 2. 53 8 1. 00 6 0. 00 0 p 6 if y ou w er e to lo se y ou r jo b at s om e st ag e ov er th e ne xt 12 -m on th , t he c ha nc es th at th e jo b yo u ev en tu al ly fi nd an d ac ce pt w ou ld b e ab le to m ee t y ou r jo b ex pe ct at io ns . 7 (7 .5 ) 25 (2 6. 9) 27 (2 9. 0) 30 (3 2. 3) 4 (4 .3 ) 2. 98 9 1. 03 7 0. 88 2 p 7 if y ou w er e to lo se y ou r jo b at s om e st ag e ov er th e ne xt 12 -m on th , t he c ha nc es th at y ou e ve nt ua lly le av e yo ur p ro fe ss io n in th e co ns tr uc ti on in du st ry a nd w or k in o th er in du st ri es . 13 (1 4. 0) 31 (3 3. 3) 20 (2 1. 5) 19 (2 0. 4) 10 (1 0. 8) 2. 80 6 1. 22 7 0. 15 7 a o ne -s am pl e w ilc ox on s ig ne d r an k te st fo r m ed ia n eq ua ls 3 (i .e ., th e m id -p oi nt le ve l); s ca le : 1 to 5 (e xt re m el y un lik el y to e xt re m el y lik el y) . oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202150 and ‘others’ group (mean = 2.104). given the responsibilities shouldered by this former group, it would be rather depressing if their pay and earnings have been badly impacted during the pandemic times. however, a further test using the mann-whitney u-test shows that there is no statistically significant difference in distribution between both groups for their perceptions of items p2 to p7 at p < 0.05 level. this could possibly be explained because the perceived negative impacts of the covid-19 pandemic are modest among the respondents, even though some had greater family responsibilities. table 9. the respondents’ perceptions according to grouping based on the respondents’ role as primary income earner and caring responsibilities perceptions primary income earner with caring responsibility (n = 21) others sig.a mean std. dev. mean std. dev. p2 1.571 1.028 2.104 1.273 0.072 p3 2.381 1.322 2.338 1.242 0.975 p4 2.381 1.532 2.325 1.229 0.868 primary income earner with caring responsibility and remained employed (n = 20) others p5 2.800 1.152 2.649 1.222 0.481 p6 2.750 1.251 3.055 0.970 0.231 p7 2.900 1.210 2.781 1.239 0.686 a mann-whitney u-test for comparing two groups having found that there is no statistically significant difference in distribution according to the grouping, table 10 shows the correlation tests between the respondents’ profile characteristics and their perceptions of career aspects and job prospects using the total sample. as expected, there is a positive correlation between age and years of experience in the industry (r = 0.687, p < 0.01). however, the results also show some interesting correlations between age and perceptions of job security (p3, r = 0.200) and chances of losing job (p5, r = 0.199). these positive correlations are statistically significant, suggesting that the perceived negative impacts of the pandemic on job security and chances of losing job increase with age. this may be explained because older workers experienced a sense of ontological precarity because of their worries about the longterm sustainability of their jobs, and there might be limited alternative sources of retirement income (lain, et al., 2019). for women, lain, et al. (2019) further pointed out that household circumstances play a role in their sense of precarity. however, while one’s self-perceived job security is likely to vary across different institutional, economic, and cultural contexts, older workers may still be psychologically and socially less equipped than their younger counterparts to cope with the perceived threats of job loss (hank and erlinghagen, 2010). the next statistically significant correlation is between education level and perception of pay or earnings p2, r = 0.244). the results show the perceived negative impact of the pandemic on pay or earnings increase with education level. a plausible explanation is that people with a higher education level have higher income level (cuñado and de gracia, 2012; manna, et al., 2018), and it is not surprising that they would be affected because of a pay cut and/ or salary freeze in response to the pandemic. it should be noted that it is not feasible to test the correlation between the education and income levels (as well as the perceptions oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202151 examined) here because about 12% of respondents preferred not to answer the question on their current annual job income (see table 4). on the last profile characteristic – the respondents’ years of experience in the industry, it has been found statistically negatively correlated with their perceived chances of leaving their profession in the construction industry and work in other industries if they were to lose their job at some stage over the next 12-month (p7, r = -0.234, p < 0.05). this suggests that the longer they are in the industry, the lower the likelihood of leaving the industry. indeed, similar findings have been reported in morello, issa and franz (2018) where women in older age groups were less likely to leave their construction career as compared to those in younger age groups. it is recognized that personal-related factors play an important role if women workforce would leave their construction careers (oo, liu and lim, 2020). turning into the correlations between the perceptions examined in this study, items p2, p3, p4 and p5 are all statistically correlated with each other positively. it follows that if the respondents perceived a greater negative impact of the pandemic on their career aspects (p2 to p4), they perceived the chances of losing job (p5) are higher, and vice versa. of these, the positive correlations among perceived negative impacts of job security (p3), career progression and advancement (p4) and chances of losing job over the next 12-month (p5) are moderate to high (correlation coefficients are between 0.501 and 0.715). lastly, on the correlations between perceptions of job prospects (p5 to p7), the only statistically significant correlation is between p5 and p7 which is rather weak (r = 0.215, p < 0.05). these insignificant (or weak) correlations can largely be explained by the neutral responses (and uncertainties) observed among the respondents in the descriptive statistics (see table 8). in summary, with no exception to women workforce in construction, changes and challenges in employment are inevitable under the measures enacted to contain the pandemic with reported loss of jobs and reductions in hours worked in the literature (e.g., biddle, et al., 2020; borland and charlton, 2020). fortunately, while the respondents had experienced profound changes of work location and working hours, most were employed full-time at the time of survey (i.e., around six months into the pandemic). in addition, their perceived negative impacts of the pandemic are modest among the respondents, even though some had greater family responsibilities. nonetheless, the exploratory study provides a critical insight on women’s job situations in the industry during the pandemic. these findings have implications for human resource practices to better address the changes experienced by women workforce, especially with the reported table 10. correlations between the respondents’ profile characteristics and perceptions age edu level yrs of exp. p2 p3 p4 p5 p6 p7 age 1.000 edu level 0.025 1.000 yrs of exp. 0.687** -0.006 1.000 p2 0.050 0.244* -0.024 1.000 p3 0.200* 0.154 0.049 0.496** 1.000 p4 0.063 -0.061 0.051 0.305** 0.668** 1.000 p5 0.199* 0.080 0.040 0.303** 0.715** 0.501** 1.000 p6 0.036 0.060 0.108 -0.159 -0.133 -0.027 -0.140 1.000 p7 0.024 -0.143 -0.234* 0.138 0.171 0.062 0.215* -0.161 1.000 * correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed) ** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed) oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202152 increased workload due to the covid lockdowns with the need for wfh. under the uncertainty about the duration of the pandemic and future contagion waves, the development of human resource protocols such as flexible working arrangements could better support women workforce now or in the future. it is noted that a hybrid model of working some time at the office (or normal workplace) and some time at home has been seen as a ‘new’ normal with covid-19 (e.g., bonacini, gallo and scicchitano, 2020; green, tappin and bentley, 2020; hite and mcdonald, 2020). this model may be an option for employing organizations in construction businesses, in addressing the challenges of retention of women workforce in the industry, which has always been challenging because of its entrenched gender stereotypes. conclusions this exploratory study was conducted around six months into the covid-19 pandemic. majority of professional women participated in the study are with high level of education, and they were employed full-time in the construction industry and earned a decent income at the time of survey. the results show that there are changes to their job situations during the covid-19 pandemic times, with more profound changes of work location and working hours among most of the respondents. these changes are mainly due to the covid lockdowns with the need for wfh. a considerably large group of respondents indicated that they had worked more hours than usual during the pandemic due to job-related reasons associated with covid-19. however, there are signs that increasing number of respondents had went back to normal workplace and worked same hours as usual between august and september 2020. in terms of their perceptions of career aspects and job prospects following the pandemic, the results show that there is no statistically significant difference between two groups of respondents who were grouped based on their role as primary income earner and had career responsibilities for their family. in general, the perceived negative impacts of the pandemic are modest among the respondents, even though some had greater family responsibilities. they were optimistic about the potential negative impacts of their pandemic on their career aspects, namely: capacity to engage in paid work activities due to caring responsibilities, pay or earnings, job security, and career progression and advancement. while the respondents seemingly appear to be confident in staying in their job in the next 12-month, they were uncertain about their job prospects in terms of (i) finding a job that meet their job expectations, and (ii) leaving their profession in the construction industry and work in other industries if they were to lose their job at some stage over the next 12-month. there are statistically significant associations between their profile characteristics (age, education level, and years of experience in the industry) and perceptions of some career aspects. these findings have implications for human resource practices to better address the changes experienced by women workforce in the industry that are associated with covid-19. in particular, for the human resource practices that address their unique circumstances and challenges including childcare and home schooling of children. the respective practices help addressing the challenges and difficulties in retention of women workforce in the industry during and post covid-19 pandemic. there are limitations in this exploratory study given a small sample size. in addition, the focus here is on professional women in the industry, with insufficient or no responses from construction tradeswomen and women labourers to enable a more complete overview on the subjects of this study. it is learnt that recruitment of respondents to voluntarily participate in research is a very challenging and difficult task during the covid-19 pandemic, notwithstanding the supports from professional bodies and women’s networks in construction in the present study. further studies should consider adopting different research design and data collection techniques to better reaching the respective groups of women workforce in the industry. indeed, the covid-19 pandemic affects different cohorts of workforce in the industry (regardless of gender), further study could thus consider focussing on different cohorts of interest. it is also recognized that there are challenges associated with the changes in job situations following the pandemic, and the oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202153 respective strategies adopted in overcoming the challenges. this could be a potential area for further studies to explore on the challenges and strategies in responding to the covid-19 pandemic. acknowledgements the authors would like to thank the respondents who took time to complete the online questionnaire survey during the pandemic times. grateful thanks are due to national association of women in construction (nawic), tradeswomen australia and women in trades network for supporting this study by assisting with the distribution of the questionnaire via emails and/or social media. references alon, t., doepke, m., olmstead-rumsey, j. and tertilt, m., 2020. the impact of covid-19 on gender equality. working paper 26947 national bureau of economic research. cambridge, ma: nber. https://doi.org/10.3386/w26947 australian bureau of statistics, 2017. australians pursuing higher education in record numbers. available at: [accessed 20 nov 2020]. australian bureau of statistics, 2020a. household impacts of covid-19 survey. available at: [accessed 19 nov 2020]. australian bureau of statistics, 2020b. business indicators, business impacts of covid-19. available at: [accessed 19 nov 2020]. australian bureau of statistics, 2020c. average weekly earnings, australia, cat. no. 6302.0. available at: [accessed 22 nov 2020]. australian taxation office, 2020. jobkeeper payment. available at: [accessed 20 nov 2020]. baudot, l. and kelly, k., 2020. a survey of perceptions of remote work and work productivity in the united states during the covid-19 shutdown. available at ssrn [accessed 20 nov 2020]. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3646406 biddle, n., edwards, b., gray, m. and sollis, k., 2020. hardship, distress, and resilience: the initial impacts of covid-19 in australia. anu centre for social research and methods. canberra: anu. bigelow, b.f., saseendran, a. and elliott, j.w., 2018. attracting students to construction education programs: an exploration of perceptions by gender. international journal of construction education and research, 14(3), pp.179-97. https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2017.1280101 bigelow, b.f., bilbo, d., mathew, m., ritter, l. and elliott, j.w., 2015. identifying the most effective factors in attracting female undergraduate students to construction management. international journal of construction education and research, 11(3), pp.179-95. https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2014.1002639 bonacini, l., gallo, g. and scicchitano, s., 2020. working from home and income inequality: risks of a ‘new normal’with covid-19. journal of population economics, pp.1-58. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-020-00800-7 borland, j. and charlton, a., 2020. the australian labour market and the early impact of covid‐19: an assessment. australian economic review, 53(3), pp.297-324. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8462.12386 caven, v. and navarro-astor, e., 2013. the potential for gender equality in architecture: an anglo-spanish comparison. construction management and economics, 31(8), pp.874-82. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.766358 oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202154 https://doi.org/10.3386/w26947 https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbyreleasedate/1533fe5a8541d66cca2581bf00362d1d> https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbyreleasedate/1533fe5a8541d66cca2581bf00362d1d> https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/household-impacts-covid-19-survey> https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/household-impacts-covid-19-survey> https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/business-indicators/business-indicators-business-impacts-covid-19> https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/business-indicators/business-indicators-business-impacts-covid-19> https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/earnings-and-work-hours/average-weekly-earnings-australia> https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/labour/earnings-and-work-hours/average-weekly-earnings-australia> https://www.ato.gov.au/general/jobkeeper-payment> https://www.ato.gov.au/general/jobkeeper-payment> https://ssrn.com/abstract=3646406> https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3646406 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2017.1280101 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2014.1002639 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-020-00800-7 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8462.12386 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.766358 cortes, g.m. and forsythe, e., 2020. the heterogeneous labor market impacts of the covid-19 pandemic. upjohn institute working paper 20-327. kalamazoo, mi: w.e. upjohn institute for employment research. https://doi.org/10.17848/ wp20-327 cuñado, j. and de gracia, f.p., 2012. does education affect happiness? evidence for spain. social indicators research, 108(1), pp.185-96. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-011-9874-x dabke, s., salem, o., genaidy, a. and daraiseh, n., 2008. job satisfaction of women in construction trades. journal of construction engineering and management, 134(3), pp.205-16. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2008)134:3(205) dainty, a.r., neale, r.h. and bagilhole, b.m., 1999. women’s careers in large construction companies: expectations unfulfilled? career development international, 4(7), pp.353-58. https://doi.org/10.1108/13620439910295709 department of health and human services, 2020. working from home information for business. victoria government. available at: [accessed 20 nov 2020]. escamilla, e., ostadalimakhmalbaf, m. and bigelow, b.f., 2016. factors impacting hispanic high school students and how to best reach them for the careers in the construction industry. international journal of construction education and research, 12(2), pp.82-98. https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2015.1077296 etheridge, b. and spantig, l., 2020. the gender gap in mental well-being during the covid-19 outbreak: evidence from the uk. iser working paper series 2020-08. institute for social and economic research. covid economics, 33, pp.4672. gausman, j. and langer, a., 2020. sex and gender disparities in the covid-19 pandemic. journal of women’s health, 29(4), pp.465-66. https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2020.8472 green, n., tappin, d. and bentley, t., 2020. working from home before, during and after the covid-19 pandemic: implications for workers and organisations. new zealand journal of employment relations, 45(2), pp.5-16. https://doi. org/10.24135/nzjer.v45i2.19 hank, k. and erlinghagen, m., 2011. perceptions of job security in europe’s ageing workforce. social indicators research, 103(3), pp.427-42. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-010-9710-8 hite, l.m. and mcdonald, k.s., 2020. careers after covid-19: challenges and changes. human resource development international, 23(4), pp.427-37. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2020.1779576 hee, c.h.s. and ling, y.y., 2011. strategies for reducing employee turnover and increasing retention rates of quantity surveyors. construction management and economics, 29(10), pp.1059–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.63756 9 ilo, 2020. ilo: covid-19 causes devastating losses in working hours and employment. [online] available at: [accessed 16 nov 2020]. kristal, t. and yaish, m., 2020. does the coronavirus pandemic level gender inequality curve? (it doesn’t). research in social stratification and mobility, 100520. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2020.100520 lain, d., airey, l., loretto, w. and vickerstaff, s., 2019. understanding older worker precarity: the intersecting domains of jobs, households and the welfare state. ageing and society, 39(10), pp.2219-41. https://doi.org/10.1017/ s0144686x18001253 lekchiri, s. and kamm, j.d., 2020. navigating barriers faced by women in leadership positions in the us construction industry: a retrospective on women’s continued struggle in a male-dominated industry. european journal of training and development, 44(6/7), pp.575-94. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejtd-11-2019-0186 oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202155 https://doi.org/10.17848/wp20-327 https://doi.org/10.17848/wp20-327 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-011-9874-x https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:3(205 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:3(205 https://doi.org/10.1108/13620439910295709 https://www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au/working-home-information-business> https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2015.1077296 https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2020.8472 https://doi.org/10.24135/nzjer.v45i2.19 https://doi.org/10.24135/nzjer.v45i2.19 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-010-9710-8 https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2020.1779576 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.637569 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.637569 https://www.ilo.org/global/about-theilo/newsroom/news/wcms_740893/lang--en/index.htm https://www.ilo.org/global/about-theilo/newsroom/news/wcms_740893/lang--en/index.htm https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2020.100520 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0144686x18001253 https://doi.org/10.1017/s0144686x18001253 https://doi.org/10.1108/ejtd-11-2019-0186 lemieux, t., milligan, k., schirle, t. and skuterud, m., 2020. initial impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on the canadian labour market. canadian public policy, 46(s1), pp.s55-s65. https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2020-049 ling f.y.y. and poh y.p., 2004. encouraging more female quantity surveying graduates to enter the construction industry in singapore. women in management review, 19(8), pp.431-36. https://doi.org/10.1108/09649420410570234 lingard, h. and francis, v., 2004. the work‐life experiences of office and site‐based employees in the australian construction industry. construction management and economics, 22(9), pp.991-1002. https://doi. org/10.1080/0144619042000241444 malone, e.k. and issa, r.r., 2013. work-life balance and organizational commitment of women in the us construction industry. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 139(2), pp.87-98. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)ei.1943-5541.0000140 manna, r., ciasullo, m.v., cosimato, s. and palumbo, r., 2018. interplaying ecosystems: a mega-level analysis of education and labour ecosystems. the tqm journal, 30(5), pp.572-88. https://doi.org/10.1108/tqm-11-2017-0139 mayhew, k. and anand, p., 2020. covid-19 and the uk labour market. oxford review of economic policy, 36(1), pp.s215-s224. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/graa017 menches, c.l. and abraham, d.m., 2007. women in construction tapping the untapped resource to meet future demands. journal of construction engineering and management, 133(9), pp.701-07. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2007)133:9(701) moore, j.d. and gloeckner, g.w., 2007. a theory of women’s career choice in construction management: recommendations for academia. international journal of construction education and research, 3(2), pp.123-39. https:// doi.org/10.1080/15578770701429472 morello, a., issa, r.r. and franz, b., 2018. exploratory study of recruitment and retention of women in the construction industry. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 144(2), p.04018001. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000359 navarro-astor, e., román-onsalo, m. and infante-perea, m., 2017. women’s career development in the construction industry across 15 years: main barriers. journal of engineering, design and technology, 15(2), pp.199-221. https://doi. org/10.1108/jedt-07-2016-0046 ness, k., 2012. constructing masculinity in the building trades: ‘most jobs in the construction industry can be done by women’. gender, work and organization, 19(6), pp.654-76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2010.00551.x nsw government, 2020. covid safety plan. [online] available at: [accessed 20 nov 2020]. oo, b.l., liu, x. and lim, b.t.h., 2020. the experiences of tradeswomen in the australian construction industry. international journal of construction management. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1717106 oo, b.l., li, s. and zhang, l., 2018. understanding female students’ choice of a construction management undergraduate degree program: case study at an australian university. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 144(3), p.05018004. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000365 oo, b.l., lim, t.h.b. and feng, s., 2020. early career women in construction: are their career expectations being met? construction economics and building, 20(3). https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i3.6867 qian, y. and fuller, s., 2020. covid-19 and the gender employment gap among parents of young children. canadian public policy, 46(s2), pp.s89-s101. https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2020-077 oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202156 https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2020-049 https://doi.org/10.1108/09649420410570234 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619042000241444 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619042000241444 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000140 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000140 https://doi.org/10.1108/tqm-11-2017-0139 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/graa017 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:9(701) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:9(701) https://doi.org/10.1080/15578770701429472 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578770701429472 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000359 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000359 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-07-2016-0046 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-07-2016-0046 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2010.00551.x https://www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19/covid-safe> https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1717106 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000365 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i3.6867 https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2020-077 rapid research information forum, 2020. the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on women in the stem workforce. canberra: australian academy of science. [online] available at: . reichelt, m., makovi, k. and sargsyan, a., 2020. the impact of covid-19 on gender inequality in the labor market and gender-role attitudes. european societies, 23(1), pp.s228-s245. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2020.1823010 who, 2020a. who director-general ’s opening remarks at the media briefing on covid-19. [online] available at: [accessed 20 may 2020]. who, 2020b. statement on the second meeting of the international health regulations (2005) emergency committee regarding the outbreak of novel coronavirus (2019-ncov). [online] available at: [accessed 20 may 2020]. oo and lim construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202157 https://www.science.org.au/covid19/women-stem-workforce> https://www.science.org.au/covid19/women-stem-workforce> https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2020.1823010 https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020> https://www.who.int/director-general/speeches/detail/who-director-general-s-opening-remarks-at-the-media-briefing-on-covid-19---11-march-2020> https://www.who.int/news/item/30-01-2020-statement-on-the-second-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)> https://www.who.int/news/item/30-01-2020-statement-on-the-second-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)> https://www.who.int/news/item/30-01-2020-statement-on-the-second-meeting-of-the-international-health-regulations-(2005)-emergency-committee-regarding-the-outbreak-of-novel-coronavirus-(2019-ncov)> construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: cakmak, p. i., akturk, b. 2024. an in-depth investigation of digital construction technologies from a building economics perspective. construction economics and building, 24:3, 40–75. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v24i3.8835 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article an in-depth investigation of digital construction technologies from a building economics perspective pinar irlayici cakmak*, berkay akturk faculty of architecture, istanbul technical university, istanbul, türkiye corresponding author: pinar irlayici cakmak, faculty of architecture, istanbul technical university, irlayici@itu.edu.tr doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.8835 article history: received 26/09/2023; revised 29/12/2023; accepted 23/01/2024; published 01/07/2024 abstract while initial costs in building economics cover a small portion of the costs incurred during its life cycle, most occur in construction, operation, and subsequent processes. despite its numerous contributions to building economics, the construction industry is slowly adapting to digital technologies. to overcome the barriers and crown the assets with their proper management, dynamic applications of digital tools and techniques of industry 4.0 need to emerge in the construction industry. therefore, this study aims to present an integrative approach that combines quantitative and qualitative analysis techniques to critically review the available literature on the potential contributions of digital construction technologies to building economics through the post-design phases of the life cycle. the primary focus of the investigation is how digital technologies can overcome prevalent problems and how they can impact building economics. the study contributes to the field by providing an awareness that will inform researchers and practitioners of the trends, gaps, and more profound exchange of ideas in future research efforts. keywords building economics; construction; digital technologies; post-design phases declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 40 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.8835 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.8835 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:irlayici@itu.edu.tr https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.8835 jel classification l74 construction; o32 management of technological innovation and r&d; q55 technological innovation introduction the global economy depends heavily on the construction industry, which contributed around 6% of the world’s gdp in 2018 and is predicted to grow to about 14.7% by 2030 (ye, zeng and könig, 2022). a 1% increase in productivity globally might reduce building costs by $100 billion annually, improving a nation’s competitiveness and sustainable development (craveiro, et al., 2019). however, the industry is seen as primarily low-tech, still reliant on traditional techniques, with a poor reputation for performance and productivity (choudhry, 2017; li, greenwood and kassem, 2019; opoku, et al., 2021). many industries have significantly improved by adopting emerging technologies to increase efficiency and productivity (lu, et al., 2015; li, greenwood and kassem, 2019). although digital technologies have significantly transformed various industries, the construction industry has still been criticised for being one of the least digitised industries since it shows a slower adoption of innovative tools (craveiro, et al., 2019; jang, et al., 2021; ye, zeng and könig, 2022; jiang, messner and matts, 2023). digital technologies have recently proliferated in the construction industry, and digitisation has become an attractive subject for the construction research discipline. while numerous studies have been conducted on integrating digital technologies into building life cycle processes, most of them have concentrated on the uses and benefits through the design phase (opoku, et al., 2021; ozturk, 2021; shahzad, et al., 2022). since digital technologies significantly contribute to building economics, further research is needed to review the potential of digital construction technologies from the standpoint of building economics. correspondingly, this paper aims to provide further research by presenting an integrative approach by critically reviewing published research on digital construction from a building economics perspective. the paper investigates how digital technologies can overcome prevalent problems and how they can impact building economics. the findings present a quantitative evaluation of trends, keywords, clusters and citations of selected publications. followingly, digital technologies are categorised and analysed under eight main groups: “ai and data processing technologies”, “building information modelling”, “iot devices and data communication technologies”, “wearable technologies”, “augmented reality”, “robotics”, “image-based technologies”, and “blockchain”. the paper demonstrates the contribution of the analysed digital construction technologies to building economics through the post-design stages of the life cycle by revealing their areas of use, the problems they eliminate and the positive outcomes they provide. the outcomes of the paper are expected to contribute to construction professionals and academicians by presenting a comprehensive guideline for digital technologies considering building economics through the post-design phases. this paper can also be a reference point by providing awareness of potential directions for future research efforts. the remainder of this paper is organised as follows: in the next section, an overview of the interaction between the construction industry and industry 4.0 technologies is presented. next, the research methodology and data collection setup are described. results and discussions are then presented together for both bibliometric and content analysis. while the first part presents the findings of trends of publications, keyword, cluster, and citation analyses, the second part presents the in-depth investigation of digital technologies in categories to make it more understandable and readable for readers. finally, conclusions are drawn, and future research directions are outlined. digital construction technologies the main idea of the current industrial revolution, also known as industry 4.0, is linking physical settings with digital ecosystems (sepasgozar, 2021; akturk, 2022). the digital technologies accompanying industry 4.0, such cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202441 as the internet of things, machine learning, cloud computing, big data, robotics, virtual and augmented reality and many others, have the capability of transforming the operational productivity of industries universally (oke, et al., 2023a; oke, et al., 2023b). however, in the construction industry, lack of digital skills and reluctance to implement new technologies can result in cost overruns, inadequate project quality, delays, wrong decisions, and limited productivity performance (singh, et al., 2023). the entire construction workforce spends over 35% of their working time on non-productive activities like scrutinizing project information, resolving conflicts, waiting for instructions or squandering time on poorly planned assignments, leaving the industry stuck at a 43% productivity rate and causing it to fall behind other industries such as manufacturing, which has more than twice the productivity at a rate of 88% (slaton, hernandez and akhavian, 2020). to overcome longstanding construction industry challenges such as schedule conflicts and budget overruns, integrating the right industry 4.0 tools and technologies can become digital construction technologies and significantly increase productivity and safety throughout a project (slaton, hernandez and akhavian, 2020). for instance, advances in image-based and sensor-based technologies such as global positioning systems, radio frequency identification, ultra-wideband, scanners, cameras, and inertial measurement units have begun to replace human observers of the industry, which are dependent on manual inspection and evaluation (sanhudo, et al., 2021). thus, by automating tasks, site safety increases, costs decrease, planning is supported, field monitoring improves, errors are eliminated, quality increases, and resources are optimized (oke, et al., 2023a). along with these, artificial intelligence, data processing and communication technologies, building information modelling, the internet of things, wearables, augmented reality, and robotics are other digital construction technologies that have various application areas in the industry and will be discussed in this paper. research methodology this paper adopts an integrative approach consisting of bibliometric analysis and content analysis to assess and examine the existing literature on the potential of digital construction technologies from the viewpoint of building economics. the research exclusively focused on the analysis of the literature of digital construction technologies. no human participants were involved in the research process, and thus, human research ethics clearance (hrec) was not applicable. the study employed bibliometric analysis and content analysis to gather and analyze data. bibliometric analysis helps quantitatively investigate the literature using mathematical and statistical methods (wang, et al., 2021). the following step involves conducting a content analysis that adds a qualitative layer to the quantitative analysis using bibliometric data (rodrigo, et al., 2023). accordingly, the research methodology process applied in this paper can be seen in figure 1. figure 1. the research methodology process cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202442 among several data sources, scopus was selected for data acquisition since it performs better with broader coverage of scientific publications than other databases (falagas, et al., 2008; chadegani, et al., 2013; akinlolu, et al., 2022). a comprehensive search was conducted under the “title/abstract/keyword” field, with the search query consisting of three parts: (1) construction industry, (2) building economics, and (3) digital technologies. the search query can be seen in table 1. similar keywords referring to building economics were identified and searched with the help of boolean operators “and” and “or”. likewise, a comprehensive list of digital technologies that cover a broad range of techniques was involved in the query (adapted from dobrucali, et al., 2023). the * character was used to represent any number of characters to cover spelling variations and related words. table 1. the search query (1) construction industry (“construction industry”) (2) building economics (“financ*” or “investment” or “resourc*” or “material” or “labo*r” or “equipment” or “cost” or “time” “econom*” or “productivity” or “efficiency” or “monetar*”) (3) digital technologies (“information technolog*” or “information and communication technology” or “digital tech*” or “digiti*ation” or “industry 4.0” or “construction 4.0” or “construction tech*” or “automation” or “building automation system” or “autonomous construction” or “building information model*” or “bim tech*” or “digital twin” or “virtual twin” or “robot*” or “robotic*” or “simulation” or “virtual reality” or “augmented reality” or “augmented virtual*” or “immersive media” or “mixed reality” or “internet of thing*” or “big data” or “3d print*” or “wearable device*” or “e-hard hat” or “artificial intelligence” or “machine learn*” or “deep learn*” or “cloud tech*” or “cloud comput*” or “blockchain” or “ultra wideband” or “ultra-wide band” or “ultra-wideband” or “geographic information system*” or “global position* system*” or “remote sens*” or “sens* tech*” or “sensor” or “wireless tech*” or “wireless network” or “wireless local area network” or “wireless sensor network” or “wifi” or “internet of service*” or “web service*” or “automatic identification system*” or “4d visual* tech*” or “photogrammetry” or “image process*” or “video” or “camera” or “virtuali*ation” or “barcod*” or “mobile comput*” or “bluetooth” or “unmanned aerial” or “drone*” or “laser detection and ranging” or “laser scan*” or “3d scan*” or “point cloud” or “radio frequency identification” or “4d model*” or “real-time” or “real time” or “early warn*” or “object recognition” or “object identif*” or “mobile device*” or “cyber physical system” or “embedded system*”) the research boundaries were determined concerning the publication date, the publication type, the subject area, and the publication language. since the construction industry shows a slow adoption of digitalisation and is at a rather beginner stage in applying digital technologies to building life cycle processes, the publication date range was set from 2012 to 2023. the publication type was set to “article”, as journal articles are known as the most reliable and significant sources of knowledge (santos, costa and grilo, 2017). all documents with a core subject of building economics but not relevant to digital cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202443 technologies were left out of the review. the publication language was restricted to english. accordingly, the search was conducted on the 18th of july 2023, and 654 publications were retrieved from the scopus database. a preliminary screening was further conducted to remove the publications that were not within the scope of the research. the authors reviewed the titles and abstracts of the 654 publications to ensure that only papers on digital technologies in the construction industry from a building economics perspective were included in the study. after the review, a total of 336 publications remained. the bibliometric data was downloaded in suitable formats, pre-processed, and modified to suit the analysis with bibliometric tools. prior to analysis, similar words with different versions were standardised to obtain more precise results. the final files were transmitted to vosviewer and bibliometrix r software package tools. these two tools helped to improve the bibliometric analysis by scientifically mapping the existing literature and visually assessing the prominent research outlets. results and discussion this section presents the findings of analyses performed to address the study’s objectives. first, several bibliometric analyses were conducted to reveal the progress of the related studies. next, an in-depth investigation of key digital technologies was presented based on the content analysis of studies. bibliometric analysis trend of publications analysis figure 2 illustrates the yearly publication trend of publications on digital technologies in the construction industry from a building economics perspective between 2013 and 2023 (until the 18th of july 2023). it can be seen from the graph in figure 2 that with 20 publications more in 2019 than in 2018, there has been a noticeable increase. likewise, the number of studies has expanded steadily throughout the following years, and the research subject has generated significant attention in the past three years. it can be noted that the increasing trend is parallel to the advancement and uptake of digital technologies in the construction industry. 11 12 4 9 14 18 38 29 48 84 69 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 n um be r o f p ub lic at io ns year figure 2. the number of publications by year cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202444 figure 3 displays the top leading journals based on the production over time. these journals have made a substantial contribution by the publication of 52% of the total articles. automation in construction has published 26% of all the articles among them. this is followed by buildings (12.1%), journal of building engineering (10.4%), engineering construction and architectural management (9.8%), and journal of construction engineering and management (9.2%). 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023 n um be r o f p ub lic at io ns year automation in construction 45 buildings 21 journal of building engineering 18 engineering construction and architectural management 17 journal of construction engineering and management 16 journal of information technology in construction 16 construction innovation 12 international journal of construction management 10 advanced engineering informatics 10 journal of computing in civil engineering 8 figure 3. the number of publications by journals keyword analysis keywords are crucial components in identifying the study’s essence and focus. the keyword analysis was conducted to see the frequency of keywords co-occurrence in publications and to determine the main clusters in digital technologies from the viewpoint of building economics research. in the analysis, a total of 1,104 keywords were identified. the analysis was conducted for a minimum threshold of five keywords, and 36 keywords met the threshold. figure 4 illustrates the keywords co-occurrence map, where the size of the nodes denotes the frequency of occurrences, and the thickness of the links between keywords denotes connections. the most frequently occurring keywords were “building information modelling” (98 occurrences), “construction industry” (39), “construction” (33), “productivity” (25), “construction management” (23), “sustainability” (19), “safety” (15). seven clusters were identified, each depicted by a different colour. the data of 36 keywords were tabulated and shown in table 2, along with their clusters, occurrence values, link strengths and ranks. these keywords indicate research areas that have attracted much attention and are closely related to other keywords. it is not surprising that “building information modelling” ranked first with the highest values since it has become widely accepted in the industry by bringing a new method of collaboration and improving productivity. due to their presence in the search query, “construction industry”, “construction”, and “productivity” showed high co-occurrence values. other high-ranked keywords associated with the practices of digital technologies to contribute to building economics are “blockchain”, “machine learning”, “construction 4.0”, “deep learning”, “internet of things”, and “robotics”. cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202445 table 2. keywords with the highest co-occurrence clusters keywords occurrences total link strength rank cluster 1 (red coded) artificial intelligence 5 8 31 augmented reality 5 7 32 construction 33 52 3 construction management 23 34 5 construction safety management 8 6 20 internet of things 9 13 14 machine learning 12 14 11 safety 15 21 7 cluster 2 (green coded) building 9 8 15 building information modelling 98 90 1 circular economy 12 16 10 life cycle assessment 6 4 27 sustainability 19 31 6 sustainable construction 5 10 30 virtual reality 5 4 35 figure 4. keywords co-occurrence map cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202446 clusters keywords occurrences total link strength rank cluster 3 (blue coded) blockchain 13 13 9 construction 4.0 11 13 12 construction industry 39 48 2 innovation 5 7 33 supply chain management 7 10 24 technology 7 11 22 cluster 4 (yellow coded) computer vision 8 6 21 deep learning 11 11 13 digital twin 6 6 26 energy efficiency 8 10 18 object detection 5 6 34 productivity 25 32 4 cluster 5 (purple coded) 3d printing 7 11 23 additive manufacturing 8 14 16 automation 14 22 8 prefabrication 6 10 25 robotics 8 9 19 cluster 6 (cyan coded) cost 5 14 28 planning 5 13 29 simulation 8 14 17 cluster 7 (orange coded) point cloud 5 2 36 cluster analysis cluster analysis was done by mapping digital technologies literature based on the keywords via the bibliometrix r software package tool. as represented in figure 5, a thematic map was created based on the clusters’ degree of development (density) and relevance (centrality). the thematic map was divided into four zones: basic themes, emerging or declining themes, motor themes, and niche themes. each theme included clusters covering a group of keywords that appeared together. basic themes covered cooccurrences with a high degree of relevance but a low degree of development, suggesting that the topics are significant and cover general issues from several fields. not surprisingly, under basic themes, the most frequent keywords appeared as “building information modelling”, “construction industry”, “construction”, “construction management”, and “sustainability” in the first cluster. the second cluster included “automation”, “construction 4.0”, “additive manufacturing”, “energy efficiency”, and “robotics”. emerging or declining themes specified co-occurrences with low degrees of relevance and development, covering less table 2. continued cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202447 developed and insignificant topics. the third cluster, including “deep learning”, “computer vision”, “object detection”, and “activity analysis”, and the fourth cluster with “point cloud” were positioned under emerging or declining themes. niche themes had a high degree of development but low relevance, indicating that while they are well-developed, their significance is relatively low. in the fifth cluster, “construction waste” and “recycling” were prevalent under the niche themes. additionally, “circular economy”, “building”, “life cycle assessment”, “sustainable construction”, and “virtual reality” were common keywords under the sixth cluster. motor themes included co-occurrences with high degrees of development and relevance, indicating significant and well-developed topics in the area. the seventh cluster, under motor themes, covered the most frequent keywords as “blockchain”, “supply chain management”, “innovation”, “cloud computing”, and “smart contract”. the last cluster focused on “productivity”, “machine learning”, “action recognition”, and “accelerometer”. figure 5. keywords cluster analysis citation analysis to understand the evolution of the research area, it is essential to discover the papers with the highest impact that influenced later studies. accordingly, a citation analysis was conducted to identify the leading publications in the field. the average number of citations of 336 publications was calculated as 4.41. table 3 listed the most influential ten papers and their research focus based on the number of total citations. as shown, the most influential publication was “building information modeling (bim) partnering framework for public construction projects” by porwal and hewage (2013), with 28.9 citations per year. in-depth investigation of digital technologies a content analysis was conducted by adding a qualitative layer to the bibliometric analysis to investigate the digital technologies in depth. first, the 336 publications were grouped based on the bibliometric cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202448 table 3. the most influential papers based on citations author(s) & year publication title journal research focus tc tc/y porwal and hewage (2013) building information modeling (bim) partnering framework for public construction projects automation in construction proposes a bim partnering-based public procurement framework to ensure best value in construction projects 318 28.9 li, greenwood and kassem (2019) blockchain in the built environment and construction industry: a systematic review, conceptual models and practical use cases automation in construction analyses the current state of dlt intending to develop a coherent approach to support its adoption in the construction industry 265 53.0 camacho, et al. (2018) applications of additive manufacturing in the construction industry–a forwardlooking review automation in construction provides a review and identifies the trend of am processes, discusses related methods of implementing am and potential advancements of am 227 37.8 de soto, et al. (2018) productivity of digital fabrication in construction: cost and time analysis of a robotically built wall automation in construction provides a case study of additive dfab using on-site robotic fabrication technology to map an innovative construction process and evaluate the impact on construction productivity 216 36.0 golparvarfard, heydarian and niebles (2013) vision-based action recognition of earthmoving equipment using spatio-temporal features and support vector machine classifiers advanced engineering informatics presents a new computer visionbased algorithm for recognizing single actions of earthmoving construction equipment 206 18.7 mechtcherine, et al. (2019) large-scale digital concrete construction– conprint3d concept for on-site, monolithic 3d-printing automation in construction evaluates the state-of-the-art and presents the conprint3d concept for on-site, monolithic 3d-printing 173 34.6 cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202449 analysis results. accordingly, topics that were positioned under niche themes such as “construction waste”, “recycling”, “circular economy”, “building”, “life-cycle assessment”, “sustainable construction”, and “virtual reality” were not included for in-depth analysis. then, the contents of the papers were qualitatively analysed to investigate digital technologies and how they bring advantages for building economics through the postdesign phases of the life cycle. analysis of studies resulted in the emergence of main categories as: “ai and data processing technologies”, “building information modelling”, “iot devices and data communication technologies”, “wearable technologies”, “augmented reality”, “robotics”, “image-based technologies”, and “blockchain”. author(s) & year publication title journal research focus tc tc/y akhavian and behzadan (2016) smartphone-based construction workers’ activity recognition and classification automation in construction evaluates the performance of an activity analysis framework for recognition and classification of various construction worker activities using smartphone built-in sensors 171 21.3 cheng, et al. (2013) automated tasklevel activity analysis through fusion of real time location sensors and worker’s thoracic posture data automation in construction presents an original approach to automatically assess labour productivity 151 13.7 santos, et al. (2019) integration of lca and lcc analysis within a bim-based environment automation in construction explores the potential of bim as a repository for the lca and lcc information and how that information should be used for an environmental and economic analysis 146 29.2 liu, meng and tam (2015) building information modelling based building design optimization for sustainability energy and buildings develops a bimbased multi-objective optimization model, facilitating designers to identify and choose the optimal carbon emission and cost trade-off design scheme 124 13.7 table 3. continued cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202450 ai and data processing technologies cloud computing, edge computing, big data, machine learning, computer vision, nlp artificial intelligence (ai) is the ability of a computer to perform and simulate the processes or tasks that human intelligence is related to. the main advantage of ai is that it will lighten the workload on timeconsuming tasks that require a human to think, calculate, and control. (akturk, 2022). therefore, various subdomains of ai like machine learning (ml), computer vision (cv), natural language processing (nlp), classification algorithms, fuzzy logic, etc., have started to be scrutinized frequently in the construction industry as well as in many other industries to support decision-making processes, productivity, and efficiency (singh, et al., 2023). alternatively, sometimes, to generate a solution in a niche problem area, rahimian, et al. (2022) implemented an ai model, increasing the quality of communication between employees to improve conflict resolution and team development. ml and vision-based monitoring systems mainly focus on productivity analysis and safety management by detecting construction objects in a cost-effective manner (chen, et al., 2022; fang, et al., 2020; jiang, messner and matts, 2023; xiao, et al., 2021). not limited to these two, singh, et al. (2023) compiled other notable ml applications in the construction literature, such as site monitoring, automated detection, facility management, supply chain management, risk management, and logistics. moreover, for computer vision applications, jiang, messner and matts (2023) referred to progress monitoring, inspection, and robotic applications. dong, chen and lu (2022) referred to facility management, subsurface mapping, and urban analytics differently. excavator productivity, for instance, can be calculated in earthmoving operations by detecting excavators and dump trucks (xiao and kang, 2020), human motion detection (chen, yabuki and fukuda, 2023), action classification (lin, chen and hsieh, 2021), measuring crew productivity, calculating idling time, and monitoring cyclic operations (xiao and kang, 2021) or a real-time warning system can be devised to avoid potential hazards with workers and machinery (son, et al., 2019). for example, tian, et al. (2023) monitored the status of machinery and determined their dynamic hazardous proximity zones in real-time, which can be considered a risk and a safety management application. peng, et al. (2023) developed deep learning, a subset of ml, which reduces construction noise pollution that threatens workers’ health, lowers productivity and increases costs due to legal proceedings with neighbours. by using a machine to replace the human eye for measurement and judgment, vision-based ai can manage the safety of construction sites more effectively and smoothly (zhang, 2021). computer vision can identify dangerous locations at the construction site (fang, et al., 2018), control helmets and safety vests, fire detection, and monitor worker posture (tian, et al., 2023). yu, et al. (2019a) developed a workload assessment method that automatically collects worker posture data to solve the workload assessment problem at the construction site by integrating sensor technologies. jacobsen and teizer (2022) specified applications that directly contribute to the construction economy, such as cost estimation, material selection, success prediction, project selection, automated scheduling and schedule prediction, in addition to the ones above. to exemplify, liu, et al. (2020) proposed analytics to quantify the life-cycle cost of heavy equipment. slaton, hernandez and akhavian (2020) proposed a more cost-effective and safer method to track resources and activities than other technological options, with the partnership of deep-learning models and sensors. considering that on-site construction component rehandling works significantly affect construction costs, li, luo and skibniewski (2019) developed a real-time storage area planning and management model that is dynamically updated according to construction activities. lin, chen and hsieh (2021) detected irregular activities to comply with the planned schedule by presenting an image analytics approach to site managers. sanhudo, et al. (2021) automatically collected and classified worker data by integrating wearable technologies with ml. automated worker monitoring improves worker productivity and site safety, supports decision-making, and enhances overall project management regarding schedule and resource control. cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202451 neural network applications have been studied to lower costs by reducing skilled human dependency on detecting defects such as cracks, erosion, and concrete delamination in maintenance works (kruachottikul, et al., 2021). zhong, et al. (2019) proposed an nn-based classification approach to mitigate the traditional process of quality complaint classification, which is labour-intensive, time-consuming, and error-prone. wang, et al. (2018) proposed a quality problem predicting model based on text big data generated by the construction process. hong, et al. (2023), by adapting graph cnns, reduced the discrepancy between actual and planned schedules. moreover, nns are used to solve construction site layout problems by analysing the critical aspects of the site layout and creating advanced construction logistics plans (li, luo and skibniewski, 2019). nlp applications also support construction management in various aspects in the post-design phases of the building life cycle. nabavi, et al. (2023) built a platform that simplifies the time-consuming and difficult processes for non-expert stakeholders in the construction phase by extracting information from the bim model: productivity, coordination, and communication improved. mo, et al. (2020) reduced processing time and the management team’s workload by automating decision-making processes for staff assignment. nlp has safety and risk applications in the literature, such as analysing injury and accident reports, preventing on-site safety failures, avoiding risks, and developing site practices (nabavi, et al., 2023). considering all this data exchange, traditional databases are no longer sufficient, mainly due to the volume of new data sources. technologies for big data, including cloud storage, newsql and nosql databases, and distributed file systems (dfs), are currently gaining popularity. in the construction industry, big data can be utilized to enhance project management, safety, energy management, decision-making, resource management, as well as overall cost control and project scheduling (kruachottikul, et al., 2021). it can monitor progress/performance, track and visualise site conditions, improve resource utilization efficiency, overall time and cost management (ismail, bandi and maaz, 2018), facilitate real-time decision-making, and develop knowledge based on data modelling and analytics (wang, hu and zhou, 2017). additionally, big data adds new opportunities to the quality management perspective by transforming the decision-making process from being dependent on experienced and judgmental people to a digital process (ma, et al., 2021). ma, et al. (2021) proposed a quality inspection model using big data to decrease the workload of managers and time spent on diagnosing and stated four key benefits as follows: (1) overcoming human dependency, (2) cutting down the heavy inspection work, (3) accelerating the quality inspection, and (4) creating a visual quality database. you and wu (2019) provided supply chain and cost management improvements by proposing an erp model for managing business and project management data for construction companies with the help of big data technology. as data processing technologies have gained ground in the industry, cloud computing has also attracted the attention of professionals. according to abedi, et al. (2014), enhanced performance and cost reduction are among the main benefits of cloud computing. the authors also stated that cloud computing can respond to supply-chain problems such as poor planning and scheduling, late lead time, faulty deliveries, and weak on-site coordination. cloud computing and big data can augment the effectiveness of adopting product-service system solutions for the management of building equipment (fargnoli, et al., 2019). on the other hand, edge computing has been steadily accepted in industries where decision-making is crucial because it offers real-time responses, lowers ingress bandwidth into the cloud, lowers latency, and reduces data storage and computational burden (satyanarayanan, 2017). working on real construction projects and safety accidents, chen (2020) revealed three main safety application scenarios with edge computing: (1) control of unauthorized site access, (2) monitoring of poor site environment, and (3) prevention of on-site unsafe actions. the author also summarized work in the construction industry literature as video analytics and communication, process documentation, health monitoring of structures and workers, and lastly behavioural analysis, monitoring and assessment of building components. cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202452 building information modelling bim, serving as a platform and not actually a technology, is a method of using a digital 3d representation of a structure to facilitate the management of itself and all its assets throughout all construction processes. bim empowers the life-cycle monitoring of buildings by inserting physical and functional attributes of components and systems related to project cost, schedule, specification, and maintenance (akanmu, anumba and ogunseiju, 2021). it provides many benefits through post-design life-cycles of a facility like enhanced quality (ma, et al., 2021; rui, yaik-wah and siang, 2021), effective collaboration and communication (chen, et al., 2023; honic, et al., 2019), improved clash detection (moon, dawood and kang, 2014), automated, accelerated, efficient and productive processes (al-ashmori, et al., 2020; mesároš, mandičák and behúnová, 2022), improved logistics (karmakar, singh and kumar, 2022), safer construction site (hire, et al., 2021), augmented data management (wang, 2021), seamless handover (pakhale and pal, 2020), and reduced project schedule (barlish and sullivan, 2012; magill, et al., 2022; martins, et al., 2022a), as well as the control of life-cycle costs and increased profitability (hire, et al., 2021; khodabakhshian and toosi, 2021; kisel, 2021). research in this domain covers various applications that impact building economics. by analysing construction processes, error reduction and efficient practices, streamlining team communication, evaluating resources, and using visual planning for temporary installation and equipment, it saves cost, time, effort and resources, facilitates the planning process, enhances project performance and productivity, and allows for assertive decision-making and on-time delivery (chen, et al., 2023; hosny, ibrahim and nabil, 2023; martins, et al., 2022; mesároš, mandičák and behúnová, 2022; rui, yaik-wah and siang, 2021; veerendra, et al., 2022). it hosts profitable construction site applications such as automatic cost breakdown structure (khodabakhshian and toosi, 2021) and creating quantity take-offs to offer better cost estimates and overcome trade problems and conflicts (bakchan, faust and leite, 2019; chen, et al., 2023). stanley and thurnell (2014) have agreed that 5d bim improves cost management by providing visualization, collaboration, efficient take-offs and cost planning, risk identification and resolving rfis as benefits and applications. it also enables an automated scheduling application by evaluating work packages by providing access to the related data of the building components (park and cai, 2017; wang and rezazadeh azar, 2019). in addition to offering quality managers applications such as customized checklists, queries, and real-time quality monitoring, it can also be used with gis to locate and predict damages caused by urban environments, floods, etc. (ma, et al., 2021). tao, et al. (2022) developed a bim-based dynamic site layout planning model, facilitating resource, space and schedule control and reducing transaction costs. bim detects workspace clashes (moon, dawood and kang, 2014) and offers site route and layout planning (karmakar, singh and kumar, 2022) in the construction site, creating an optimal schedule and logistics management while reducing safety risks. site layout applications of bim could also be used to enhance supply chain integration (li, luo and skibniewski, 2019; santos, et al., 2019). by establishing an integrated construction supply-chain logistics model with 4d bim, magill, et al. (2022) optimized the laydown zone options and workforce requirements in the site for materials and equipment, preventing conflicts and avoiding production interruptions. disputes are prevented in bim-adapted procurement processes, and the management of preand post-contract transaction costs is facilitated (bean, mustapa and mustapa, 2019). safety is another significant application area of bim. it overcomes the limitations of traditional strategies, which are labour-intensive, often time-consuming, and rely on the expertise of professionals (hire, et al., 2021). it grants hazard recognition, awareness and communication (kim, cho and zhang, 2016; okpala, nnaji and karakhan, 2020), and risk-indicating systems to prevent specific hazards like falling from heights causing monetary and human loss (rodrigues, baptista and pinto, 2022; tariq, et al., 2023), which empowers key stakeholders to carry out safety standards and make effective and timely decisions. cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202453 bim is also used for facility management applications (chen, et al., 2018; nicał and wodyński, 2016; zhou, 2022). becerik-gerber, et al. (2011) have divided the applications of bim in the operation and maintenance phase into ten subgroups as follows: locating resources, instant data access, visualization and marketing, maintenance scheduling, inventory management, demolition and reconstruction, emergency management, energy monitoring, and labour education. application of bim during the maintenance phase reduces time and labour costs, and the economy of material costs takes place (kisel, 2021). fargnoli, et al. (2019) realized the maintenance activities faster and more effectively by including bim in a maintenance model integrated with the manufacturers of the products and reduced costs for both the service provider and the building manager. santos, et al. (2019) also stated that if manufacturers integrated economic data into the bim process, a fluent life-cycle-cost analysis could be carried out automatically. additionally, kim, et al. (2023) stated that cost and time-effective facility management can be applied to existing buildings without having technological infrastructure using scan-to-bim. iot devices and data communication technologies (rfid, sensors, imu, gps, mobile devices, smartphones, uwb, 5g, wifi, bluetooth) in addition to monitoring the condition of the as-built throughout the life cycle of the constructed building, sensors grant access to information about resources and processes employed in the construction (akanmu, anumba and ogunseiju, 2021). iot represents the network in which physical objects (mechanical or digital tools, living beings, objects, etc.) are supported by sensors connected and exchanged data via the internet or other connection types. dilakshan, rathnasinghe and seneviratne (2021) described “things” as smart devices connected to a network that conduct most of their communication with little human interaction. finding their places in construction, operation and maintenance, and demolition phases of the building life cycle, sensors’ contribution to the building economy have been extensively studied in the literature. iot, sensors and data connection technologies enable construction projects to be completed on time and in good quality through the evaluation of employees’ productivity by modelling and classifying activities, achieving a project’s best performance (calvetti, et al., 2020), automated and cost-effective construction resource monitoring (slaton, hernandez and akhavian, 2020), reducing risks and providing accurate risk assessment, active and effective response strategies (xie and yang, 2021). for example, john, et al. (2023) proposed a real-time monitoring system of plastic shrinkage from the concrete pouring to its final setting. thus, the need for more costly repairs is prevented. john, sarkar and davis (2022) developed a quality monitoring application that measures concrete compressive strength using long range (lora) technology, making the dismantling of moulds safer and faster. the authors also mentioned the benefits in the logistics, decision-making, and asset management fields. kang, et al. (2021) developed a real-time automated monitoring system called monvid to measure noise, vibration and dust with a sensor network. the authors stated that the system improved project economics compared to conventional measurement systems by providing better reliability, usability, efficiency and superior technical performance. imu, gps, wlan, rfid and uwb-based methods are used as solutions for various aspects such as exposure estimation model (tian, et al., 2023) and measuring cycle times (lin, chen and hsieh, 2021) for heavy equipment, identifying building components and store a maintenance history (sanhudo, et al., 2021), a dynamic material layout evaluation model that integrated space and time to improve material accessibility and reduce time waste (li, luo and skibniewski, 2019), and monitoring the location of resources in harsh construction environments (cheng, et al., 2011). wang, hu and zhou (2017) stated that rfid is mainly used in the construction field to facilitate the management of quality control, inspection and logistics. it allows for the tracking of workers’ job status and the progress of operations, the screening of activities by having workers wear rfid-tag-embedded helmets, and the location of tools with embedded tags on construction sites (sanhudo, et al., 2021). uwb, as an active rfid technology, can create a data fusion system to analyse a worker’s productivity and ergonomics and present their real-time location and physiological state (cheng, cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202454 et al., 2013a; sanhudo, et al., 2021). also, with uwb, ergonomics can be monitored (akhavian and behzadan, 2016), and productive and non-productive activities, including wrench, material travelling and rest time can be classified and measured (cheng, et al., 2013b). additionally, integrating barcoding and scanners, rfid tags, image processing sensors, and geographic information systems into the supply chain process has been extensively studied in the literature (adedeji, et al., 2020). for example, rfid provides real-time supply chain visibility through its many advantages, including less inventory, operating and transaction costs, information transparency, increased coordination, and less operational errors (wang, hu and zhou, 2017). using bim as a database allows the iot to provide managers with real-time quality monitoring and advanced schedule management (han, et al., 2022). the integration of rfid’s ability to track activities and related site spaces with bim allows site layout plans to be created automatically (akanmu, et al., 2015). katiyar and kumar (2022) used ultrasonic and tilt switch sensors in conjunction with bim to monitor the project’s progress. moreover, gps’s ability to collect position data of moving equipment for accurate spatial reference also allows site layout planning to be real-time and automated by integration with rfid and bim (li, luo and skibniewski, 2019). gps measurement provides project quality improvement, process guarantee and cost control by maintaining information support for decision-makers at every stage of construction (hu, 2022). such features are provided through built-in sensors in most smartphones, pdas, and mobile devices. these devices eliminate delays between outdoor sites and indoor offices and present many use cases. for example, akhavian and behzadan (2016) used the data obtained from smartphones with the help of artificial intelligence algorithms to monitor and classify worker activities and reveal the application areas of productivity measurement, progress evaluation, safety and health management. accelerometers also have much construction research on worker monitoring, equipment monitoring, and safety risk detection (sanhudo, et al., 2021). many studies investigating the integration of accelerometers with smartphones have revealed many activity recognition applications that classify and analyse employee movements (akhavian and behzadan, 2016). sangchul and tae-hwa (2016) increased productivity with their pda-based system for more efficient schedule management at the construction site and stated the advantages as follows: raw data and site information are obtained more easily, information is directly delivered to manager for timely decisions, and it improved management in material, workforce and safety manners. iot and data processing devices have a wide range of applications in construction safety. the applications of these devices in the construction safety literature can be considered in three categories: (1) tracking and monitoring the location data of workers and machines, (2) identification of unsafe operations and behaviours, and (3) collection of condition data such as the environmental condition of sites or physiological condition of workers (chen, 2020; yang, et al., 2020a). iot is considered a low-cost and affordable safety management technology as it significantly reduces labour costs by overcoming numerous safety managers’ needs (yang, et al., 2020a). it can prevent accidents and improve overall safety management by providing early warnings to managers (lee, et al., 2020), hazardous area identification (kim, et al., 2016), and protective personal equipment wearing detection (yang, et al., 2020b). also, tariq, et al. (2023) and hire, et al. (2021) stated that workers and materials can be positioned using iot and gps technologies, thus increasing the effectiveness of monitoring approaches to reduce safety hazards. to avoid struck-by-vehicle accidents, hallowell, teizer and blaney (2010) used rfid and uwb technologies (kim, et al., 2016). carbonari, giretti and naticchia (2011) created a prototype for proactive safety management and real-time alerting of potential threats using uwb. lee, et al. (2012) developed a method based on location tracking that alerts workers to dangerous areas. additionally, lee, et al. (2014) introduced a location-based system to assist in real-time management and control of direct roots of hazards. chen, yabuki and fukuda (2023) developed a motion recognition method that detects potentially dangerous motions and monitors workers at blind areas of construction sites with deep learning integration. lee, et al. (2020) proposed an audio-based cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202455 safety recognition system that monitors and manages various risks and hazards. the system can not only detect events initiating them and ultimately enable the prompt dispatch of a response team but also be used for prevention. in addition to safety, audio signals are also used in productivity measurement by enabling applications such as cost estimating, project scheduling or preparation of preventive actions (sabillon, et al., 2020) and automated activity analysis to eliminate labour-intensive, time-consuming and error-prone processes (cheng, et al., 2017). wearable technologies (wristbands, exoskeletons, smartwatches, smart helmets, glasses, vests) wearable devices can be inferred as small electronics worn on a worker’s body that is adhered to or concealed within clothing or connected to the ppe of workers (calvetti, et al., 2020). wearable technologies have many applications for personalized construction safety monitoring (awolusi, marks and hallowell, 2018). through efficient data collection, analysis and the provision of real-time information, they can track a worker’s position, physiological state, proximity to machinery or equipment, or environmental status and can alert the victim or other parties involved before an injury occurs (fugate and alzraiee, 2023). chen (2020) presented examples of the use of wearable technologies, such as a wristband-type sensor to monitor workers’ heart rates to prevent fatigue (hwang, et al., 2016) and infrared temperature sensors and electroencephalograms to assess their physiological well-being (aryal, ghahramani and becerikgerber, 2017; lee, et al., 2017a). hwang and lee (2017) stated that wristbands are feasible and useful for continuously monitoring the physical demands of workers to balance various workloads with a consideration of diverse working situations and individual physical inequalities. the use of wearable devices integrating imu sensors for construction activity monitoring has gained greater attention, especially for ergonomic assessment of workers, measurement of their motions in various construction activities, and detection of their unsafe postures such as stooping with back bending (ryu, et al., 2019; valero, et al., 2016; yu, et al., 2019b). yan, et al. (2018) proposed an imu-based wearable ppe for monitoring and warning rebar workers about the risks associated with their trunks. exoskeletons are wearable robots designed to augment the user’s body to increase their performance and sturdiness. zhu, dutta, and dai (2021) evaluated how the exoskeleton supports body parts and suggested that more of its benefits in improved productivity and work quality need to be uncovered. for example, an exoskeleton can reduce the physical demand on the wearer’s back by reinforcing the hip or lower spine to support the back muscles, which can be a solution for rebar workers who are injured four times more than other workers (gonsalves, et al., 2021). it allows disabled or injured workers to carry and lift heavier objects on construction sites and helps keep workers out of dangerous areas and complete tasks in less time (oke, et al., 2023a). thus, it reduces the task completion time and improves the performance. wearable devices’ offerings to the construction industry are not limited to the safety field. they also can be used to increase construction productivity and communication (fugate and alzraiee, 2023). it is possible to define, analyse and classify construction activities with sensor-integrated wearable devices for automatic productivity analysis (gong, et al., 2022; ryu, et al., 2019). augmented reality augmented reality overlays virtual content over the user’s view of their physical environment. ar has several use cases for building economics in different building life-cycle phases, such as inspections and monitoring applications, visualization, training and education, and safety (el asmar, et al., 2021). for example, karmakar, singh and kumar (2022) supported decision-making to plan site layout with comprehensive viewpoint sharing between stakeholders with the help of ar. katiyar and kumar (2022) used it to inspect facilities and stated that it is faster and easier than traditional systems. even that, it allows vision for facilities and installations that are not readily visible, such as wires inside a wall or buried pipelines (liu and seipel, 2018). using ar, liu and seipel (2018) were able to alleviate the workload experienced cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202456 by participants monitoring “as built” progress against “as planned” on site. ratajczak, riedl and matt (2019) proposed a bim-based ar application enabling site managers to monitor and control construction tasks in distant locations while performing site analysis. the application can detect scheduling anomalies by visualizing construction progress in ar, providing daily progress and performance data of construction work, and information on scheduled tasks. using ar with the help of ai and uav technologies, wang, et al. (2022) proposed a vision-based productivity analysis model for heavy equipment, eliminating timeconsuming, tedious and subjective traditional processes and ensuring quality, reducing costs, and optimising construction progress. tavares, et al. (2019) proposed a robotic integrated ar system that overlays alignment information into the physical environment to help the operator tack weld the beam attachments. to ensure resilience during assembly while also improving the overall productivity and construction quality since the operator no longer needs to rely on error-prone measurement procedures. additionally, although vr is excluded from the scope of this paper, the uses of mixed reality -which emerged from the joint use of ar and vrin the production industry can be exemplified as follows: visualizing a building model and hidden in its physical location, visualizing hidden items, augmenting bim content, monitoring and documentation of construction processes, detection of failures, improving safety, and reducing risk factors (chalhoub and ayer, 2018). robotics (automated heavy equipment, on-site general robots, robots for special tasks) robotic solutions that offer process efficiency in a wide range of applications, such as in automating repetitive tasks and working in harsh conditions, have gained importance in industrial scenarios and have attracted the attention of researchers lately. (tavares, et al., 2019). by using robotics, labour-intensive processes can be automated, creating cost-saving options for construction professionals (ojha, et al., 2022), increasing safety and reducing reliance on skilled workers (reichenbach and kromoser, 2021; wu, et al., 2023). robotic applications in construction tasks have proven to be more efficient than traditional approaches in technical and economical manners (skibniewski, 1988; najafi and fu, 2017; de soto, et al., 2018). kumar, balasubramanian and raj (2016) performed and evaluated the cost and efficiency analysis of various robotic applications, stated that the average time loss of robotic applications was reduced by 57.85%, working costs by 51.67% and rework and scrap costs by 66.76%, and the quality output was improved. wu, et al. (2023) divided current robotic studies in the construction industry into three types according to the application scenarios: automation of heavy equipment, special robots designed for specific tasks, and on-site general robots. oke, et al. (2023a) have compiled some robot application examples and their benefits in the construction literature: demolition robots are more efficient and safe in the demolition of structures and vertical transportation of heavy materials; by using forklift robots, horizontal transportation of heavy objects can be conducted easily, preventing workers from undertaking risky tasks; bricklaying robots also save time, decrease overall construction duration, and enhance the safety, productivity, quality and efficiency of construction sites. such applications have found their place in the literature. for example, de soto, et al. (2018) constructed a complex concrete wall with robotics and observed time and cost improvements over traditional processes. oh, et al. (2009) developed a cv-integrated robotic inspection system to detect and trace the defects (de soto, et al., 2018). they can be used for site planning, on-site assembly and 3d printing (melenbrink, werfel and menges, 2020). tehrani, buhamdan and alwisy (2022) stated that for on-site installation works, robotic arms are used in applications such as welding, fabricating non-standard structures, installing heavy-duty components, and demolishing works; mobile robots are used for inspection, surveying and pile driving; and special robots are used for specific tasks such as fitting large glass windows on the construction site. the authors also added that these robotic applications prevented the problem of labour shortage by achieving high production quality and workplace safety at the construction site. kasperzyk, kim and brilakis (2017) presented a system that can disassemble and reconstruct a prefabricated structure according to the new design, providing cost and productivity improvements. they also mentioned cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202457 commercial robotic projects that lay bricks approximately three times faster than humans, constructing whole structures and enabling the production of various forms with layer-by-layer 3d printing. kumar, balasubramanian and raj (2016) used drones for load carrying to reduce time duration and occurrence of accidents. researchers have automated risky and complex manual construction tasks in their studies, where they developed a robotic beam assembly system (chu, et al., 2013; jung, chu and hong, 2013). bahrin, et al. (2016) used autonomous robots in areas where human effort could be risky, providing precision production with safety, flexibility and versatility while also preventing the problem of death and injury by reducing human intervention. aghimien, et al. (2020) stated that robotics has become widespread in earth and foundation operations where worker safety cannot be ensured due to excavation work carrying a high safety risk in the construction site due to contact with live electrical underground cables. jin, et al. (2021), with the help of cameras and robots for rebar binding, reduced the labour requirement and improved safety by reducing the requirement for human quality to access hazardous work areas for binding. leng, et al. (2023) achieved improved production time, safety and security, the margin of error, and reduced labour costs by proposing a human-robot interaction method combining manual and automated robotic construction advantages. image-based technologies (cameras, uavs, laser scanners) image-based technologies, also called non-contact sensors, are rapidly increasing to capture daily images or videos from construction sites ( jiang, messner and matts, 2023). additionally, the benefits of these technologies are being extensively researched (cheng, et al., 2013b) since they can efficiently reduce transportation, safety, communication, and documentation costs in construction projects (xiao, et al., 2021). for example, by adapting and integrating image-based technologies, golabchi, et al. (2018) created safer and more productive construction sites by gathering information about job site conditions, worker tasks, and human movements and enabling action recognition. using cameras, bügler, et al. (2017) created a 3d point cloud of the site space to analyse and estimate the productivity of heavy equipment by detecting, identifying and tracking resources, which led to quality-insured tasks and a cost-effective and safer workplace. omar, mahdjoubi and kheder (2018) proposed an automated photogrammetry-based approach for monitoring and controlling construction site activities to support decision-makers. depth cameras, thermopile sensors, and laser scanners are frequently used measurement tools in construction (yang, et al., 2020b; zhang and arditi, 2013). visual measurement systems can evaluate worker productivity, reduce the time spent, monitor and interpret project status and performance, thus supporting control of cost and schedule (bügler, et al., 2017). according to katiyar and kumar (2022), remote-controlled cameras can be used to monitor projects for outdoor construction, and photogrammetry and lidar are better alternatives for automated progress monitoring in terms of cost and time savings. in the past, bosché (2010) built a 3d point cloud model with laser scanning and compared it with the as-planned bim model to perform automated progress monitoring. on the other hand, golparvar-fard, et al. (2009) combined ar technology for it (omar, mahdjoubi and kheder, 2018). zhang and arditi (2013) monitored and calculated construction progress in terms of completion percentage with daily point cloud data placed on the 4d model. additionally, intending to compare with as-planned models, braun, et al. (2015) used laser scanners, and tuttas, et al. (2015) used cameras to create as-built point clouds (conde, garcía-sanz-calcedo and rodríguez, 2020). laser scanning technology also reduces labour costs by automating conventional quality assessment processes based on manual measurements, which are time-consuming, inefficient, subjective, error-prone and unreliable (guo, yuan and wang, 2020; tang, et al., 2022). guo, yuan and wang (2020) proved that quality assessment can be done cheaper and twice as fast with ls and is economical. using laser scanners, lee, et al. (2017b) proposed reverse engineering to prevent reconstruction and ensure quality control. tehrani, buhamdan and alwisy (2022) navigated and scanned indoor construction environments. yen, lasky and ravani (2014) presented a cost-benefit analysis of terrestrial laser scanning for infrastructure cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202458 applications considering asset management, preservation, maintenance and operational planning. they observed that savings could range from $1.3 million to $6.1 million based on a 6-year life cycle. vinod, et al. (2022) summarized the applications of image-based technologies in the operation and maintenance phase, such as damage identification, connection tightness control, and comparing as-built and input images. the authors developed a cost-effective, reliable and safer system with processor-supported cameras for checking missing bolts in steel structures. additionally, they have attracted the academy’s attention with many safety applications, such as identifying hazards and the absence of safety tools, tracking resources, and posture analysis, especially with the emergence of the -previously mentionedcv (yang, et al., 2020b). by enabling visual tracking, potential struck-by accidents and construction progress and process can be observed, failures of heavy equipment can be checked and their productivity can be analysed, workplace safety can be ensured (xiao and zhu, 2018), workers’ postures can be analysed to identify any potential ergonomic risks, their skeleton structure can be extracted, and unsafe predefined motions can be detected (sanhudo, et al., 2021). uav-driven automation significantly influences productivity, lowering costs and scheduling overruns (alrushood, et al., 2023). uavs can collect high-quality visual data with high-resolution images. equipped with downward-facing sensors or cameras, such as rgb, thermal or lidar, they gather meaningful aerial data quickly (aiyetan and das, 2022; motayyeb, et al., 2023). while uavs can be used to inspect and survey the construction site, generate progress reports, track resources, and conduct security surveillance, they are also valuable for monitoring hostile site areas where factors such as altitude, radiation and wind can lead to accidents among workers (aghimien, et al., 2022; oke, et al., 2023a). additionally, they can be used for several purposes, which include earthmoving operations, quality control, evaluation of structural damage, risk and safety assessment of the site, and damage assessment. (aiyetan and das, 2022; moon, et al., 2019; yang, et al., 2020b). they can capture accurate and comprehensive data during construction, and it can be synchronized into bim and used to manage the entire project (oke, et al., 2023a). while compiling the roles of uavs throughout the project life cycle, alrushood, et al. (2023) also mentioned that -in addition to the above applicationsthey support supply chain management and provide project data that helps facilitate the final handover. to significantly impact the supply chain and improve inventory accuracy, leading to faster and more cost-effective building projects, the authors also stated that uavs can be used with iot, robotics, ai, and gps. according to aiyetan and das (2022), the most important factor affecting the use of uavs is their cost savings compared to traditional methods. as this paper and associated literature commonly state, the integration and co-use of technologies results in new advantages and application areas. image-based technologies and iot, two of the three main approaches to construction monitoring, can provide greater benefits when used together (slaton, hernandez and akhavian, 2020). for example, kim, et al. (2021) and golabchi, et al. (2016) monitored construction operations for cycle time estimation and efficiency evaluation with motion data gathered from sensors and cameras. using cameras with artificial intelligence to evaluate labour productivity supports detection accuracy, improves time-consuming and labour-intensive processes (chen, yabuki and fukuda, 2023), and augments visual tracking applications (xiao and zhu, 2018). yu, et al. (2019b) prevented safety risks by making automated and detailed ergonomic assessments of construction workers by integrating image-based technologies and ai. with the integration of point clouds and web technologies with bim, geometric defects and their locations caused by human errors or technical issues can be observed for improved quality monitoring and a seamless handover process (ma, et al., 2021). also, realistic construction progress predictions can be made (bügler, et al., 2017). estimating the dimensions with geometry anomalies, measuring and assessing the quality of precast concrete panels, and automatically and precisely assessing the key quality checklist are also possible (guo, yuan and wang, 2020). by using bim to collect data with image-based technologies, conde, garcía-sanz-calcedo and rodríguez (2020) improved measuring, support decision-making processes and productivity, exceeding 27% in time savings compared to standard cad methodology. additionally, lu and lee (2017) stated that using image-based technologies to create cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202459 an as-is bim model to be used in the operation and maintenance phases is the most cost-effective and economical solution, as well as being convenient, efficient and accurate. blockchain payment uncertainty adversely affects construction, including excessive costs, schedule delays, project deficits, and cash flow difficulties (ameyaw, et al., 2023). with this, the industry is frequently criticized for its lack of trust and adversarial relationship, resulting in claims, opportunism, risk aversion, inadequate quality, excessive cost, poor value for money, and other non-productive outcomes (lu, wu and zhao, 2023). insufficient incentives, poor information sharing, poor traceability, a single point of failure, tampering, privacy leaks, and manual processing are among the problems lu, wu and zhao (2023) listed as things blockchain will fix with trust. they also listed its applications in smart contracts, accounting, procurement and supply chain management, and asset management. blockchain is an emerging technology that improves information traceability, transparency, security and sustainability ( jiang, et al., 2021). mahmoudi, sadeghi and naeni (2023) identified ten features for blockchain: (1) cost efficiency, (2) quality management, (3) time efficiency and increased speed, (4) reliability, (5) risk mitigation, (6) sustainability performance, (7) agility and flexibility, (8) transparency and trust, (9) simplicity, and (10) collaboration and communication. these features have led researchers to apply it in various fields and investigate its benefits. for example, according to gurgun, et al. (2022), blockchain can improve financial issues, make payments easier and secure, and guarantee the validity of long payment plans in the industry. dakhli, lafhaj and mossman (2019) discovered that using blockchain in construction projects can reduce costs by 8.3%. it can enhance real-time information sharing between stakeholders and privacy, secure project records by keeping them across various locations, prevent construction data tampering using hash algorithms, and automate processes using smart contracts (lu, wu and zhao, 2023). through pre-coded contract terms, payment plans, and automated protocols, blockchain-based smart contracts can automate interactions between parties to a contract and pay suppliers, contractors, and subcontractors in full or in part after the completion of work (ameyaw, et al., 2023). yang, et al. (2020) eliminated payment delays and disputes by implementing a smart contract to supply expensive equipment for a construction project. automating contract processes with blockchain, gupta and jha (2023) defined the benefits of the system they developed in six items as follows: (1) transaction time and costs are decreased; (2) security is provided; (3) trust is distributed uniformly among stakeholders; (4) payments are automatic and straightforward dependent on performance; (5) risk distribution is standardised throughout design; and (6) data is trackable in delay claims and concurrent delays. jiang, et al. (2021) mentioned various blockchain research in construction literature, such as creating a prefabricated supply chain including production, logistics and on-site assembly; improving existing contract management, supply chain management and equipment rental processes; ensuring the security of timely and transparent payment without the burden of administrative costs and trusted intermediaries. the authors also proposed a blockchain platform to support data integration and sharing between stakeholders and address information fragmentation and discontinuity. ibrahim, et al. (2022) created a prototype that focuses on the payment terms in the building contract as well as guarantees the security of financial transactions. to increase trust and lessen possible delays by frequently monitoring payments and disputes via unchangeable records, celik, petri and rezgui (2023) proposed a blockchain-integrated bim model to enhance collaboration, eliminate external parties, and ensure that transactions are exceedingly safe, transparent, and trackable. conclusion this paper assessed and examined the existing literature on the potential of digital construction technologies from a building economics perspective. accordingly, a bibliometric analysis was conducted cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202460 to quantitatively evaluate the trends, keywords, clusters, and citations of the selected publications. next, a qualitative content analysis was carried out for the in-depth investigation of digital technologies. digital construction technologies contributing to building economics were identified, and their use cases and benefits were discovered. correspondingly, these technologies were grouped under eight categories: “ai and data processing technologies”, “building information modelling”, “iot devices and data communication technologies”, “wearable technologies”, “augmented reality”, “robotics”, “image-based technologies”, and “blockchain”. ai and data processing technologies, which support construction professionals in their decision-making processes, find their place in applications that alleviate the time-consuming workload. this allows those technologies in this category to contribute to the building economy in a broader variety of areas than other digital construction technologies. they stand out by providing a cost-effective way to control productivity and safety on construction sites, with monitoring and real-time evaluation of all types of resources. these technologies mitigate errors and lower costs by reducing human dependency in managing energy, facilities, supply chain and construction sites. also, various time and cost management techniques and simulations provide project managers with more realistic plans. the second category, bim, provides a 3d representation of the structure. it creates a database for the implementation of other technologies at first and serves as an effective means of collaboration and communication for all relevant stakeholders. extensively studied in the literature, 4d and 5d bim provide better cost estimations, resource, space and schedule control, along with error-reducing opportunities such as conflict detection, creating quantity take-offs, risk identification, optimizing laydown zone options, etc. in addition to the applications, it offers with cost and planning data, safety and facility management are other areas where it stands out with its significant impact on building economics. third, iot devices and data collection technologies enable achieving a project’s best performance by allowing the observation of project insights by measuring and evaluating the performance of the desired asset. they offer activity and resource monitoring applications for quality, productivity, risk, and logistics management. they improve cost control and schedule management by empowering stakeholders with real-time, error-free measurements and information on construction sites. using this monitoring feature to prevent accidents that cause significant financial losses on construction sites is presented with comprehensive and practical examples in the literature. wearable technologies, as the fourth category, have appeared in the construction literature mainly with practices on collecting and analysing data on construction workers’ physical and psychological well-being. they improve performance by reducing the completion time of projects and ensuring that employees work in healthy and ergonomic conditions. however, together with augmented reality, considered the fifth category, it can be stated that these technologies have a relatively weaker effect on building economics and are usually used just as an assistive technology in applications where they find a place. still, due to the vision it provides, ar can be considered a technology that should be kept in the memory of construction practitioners for education, inspection, monitoring, and controlling works. robotic technologies are a good solution in activities that are unsafe for workers or where safety is difficult to ensure and for providing better quality and timeefficient results. they also provide a significant economic contribution compared to traditional methods in repetitive tasks and lower labour costs in general. this paper examined laser scanners, cameras, drones and all other technologies that use visual data under the seventh category, image-based technologies. with their fulfilling monitoring opportunities, they make significant contributions to building economics with practical applications for measurement, supply-chain, quality assessment, resource tracking, risk and safety assessment. many researchers have shown that these technologies can effectively reduce costs by evaluating worker productivity, reducing the time spent, supporting schedule control and providing a safer workplace. finally, blockchain enables contractual and financial processes to occur in a more decent framework where stakeholders can trust each other. it has been observed to significantly contribute to the building economy by eliminating problems that lead to financial and time losses, such as payment uncertainty, privacy cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202461 leaks, opportunism, poor information sharing, conflicts, and disputes, which we are familiar with in the construction industry. the analyses showed that digital technologies added value to building economics with their applications, primarily in measuring and monitoring construction resources and activities. these technologies are often used for productivity analysis and health and safety management, such as idle time calculation, motion detection, activity recognition, anomaly detection, resource tracking, and identification of hazardous areas. consequently, adopting digital technologies instead of traditional methods provides cost-effective and beneficial results in cost control, scheduling, quality assessment and quality control, procurement, logistics, facility and asset management, and risk management. the most significant part of the literature analysing digital technologies’ impact on building economics is aimed at investigating what benefits are obtained from these technologies through the project process. however, it is important and valuable to explore the impact of digital technologies on building economics from a macroeconomic perspective as well. the integration of digital construction technologies discussed in this paper can be considered to be an “engine” for economic development, leading to increased productivity, sustainability, and innovation. adopting these technologies will result in streamlined workflows, quicker project delivery, cost savings, and improved construction management, which can contribute to economic growth by creating new markets, attracting investment, achieving macroeconomic stability, and enhancing competitiveness on a global scale. even though digital technologies are seen as a solution to the non-productive and low-profitable construction industry, their adaptation is relatively slow and mostly concentrated on the early phases of the building life cycle. therefore, this study fills this gap by contributing to a better understanding of digital construction technologies and their benefits for building economics through the post-design phases by using an integrative approach, which is limited in the literature. besides, the study’s findings are expected to benefit construction professionals and academicians by presenting a comprehensive guideline for digital technologies considering building economics. however, while this study adds to the body of knowledge, attention has to be made to generalising its results as data gathered from only the scopus database. further research is needed to explore the challenges and barriers to faster adaptation to digital technologies and to find the best course of action to overcome these barriers. overall, future research can also focus on the significant impact of digital technologies on building economics from a macroeconomic perspective, emphasizing the transformative effect of digitalisation on economic growth, productivity, and enhanced competitiveness on a global scale. references abedi, m., rawai, n.m., fathi, m.s. and mirasa, a.k., 2014. cloud computing as a construction collaboration tool for precast supply chain management. jurnal teknologi, [e-journal] 70(7), pp.1-7. https://doi.org/10.11113/jt.v70.3569 adedeji, a.o., abraham yewande, s. and oluwafikunmi, a., 2020. web-based material requisition system in the supply chain of construction businesses. international journal of electrical and computer engineering, [e-journal] 11(2), pp.153138. https://doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v11i2.pp1531-1538 aghimien, d.o., aigbavboa, c.o., oke, a.e. and thwala, w.d, 2020. mapping out research focus for robotics and automation research in construction-related studies: a bibliometric approach. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 18(5), pp.1063-79. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-09-2019-0237 aghimien, d., ikuabe, m., aliu, j., aigbavboa, c., oke, a.e. and edwards, d.j, 2022. empirical scrutiny of the behavioural intention of construction organisations to use unmanned aerial vehicles. construction innovation, [e-journal]. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-04-2022-0088 cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202462 https://doi.org/10.11113/jt.v70.3569 https://doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v11i2.pp1531-1538 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-09-2019-0237 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-04-2022-0088 aiyetan, a.o. and das, d.k, 2022. use of drones for construction in developing countries: barriers and strategic interventions. international journal of construction management, [e-journal]. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.21 08026 akanmu, a., olatunji, o., love, p.e.d., nguyen, d. and matthews, j., 2015. auto-generated site layout: an integrated approach to real-time sensing of temporary facilities in infrastructure projects. structure and infrastructure engineering, [e-journal] 12(10), pp.1243-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/15732479.2015.1110601 akanmu, a.a., anumba, c.j. and ogunseiju, o.o., 2021. towards next generation cyber-physical systems and digital twins for construction. journal of information technology in construction, [e-journal] 26, pp.505-25. https://doi. org/10.36680/j.itcon.2021.027 akhavian, r. and behzadan, a.h., 2016. smartphone-based construction workers’ activity recognition and classification. automation in construction, [e-journal] 71, pp.198-209. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2016.08.015 akinlolu, m., haupt, t.c., edwards, d.j. and simpeh, f., 2022. a bibliometric review of the status and emerging research trends in construction safety management technologies. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(14), pp.2699-2711. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1819584 akturk, b., 2022. digital twin for enhanced construction project management during construction. msc. istanbul technical university. al-ashmori, y.y., othman, i., rahmawati, y., amran, y.h.m., sabah, s.h.a., rafindadi, a.d. and mikić, m., 2020. bim benefits and its influence on the bim implementation in malaysia. ain shams engineering journal, [e-journal] 11(4), pp.1013-19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2020.02.002 alrushood, m.a., rahbar, f., selim, s.z. and dweiri, f., 2023. accelerating use of drones and robotics in postpandemic project supply chain. drones, [e-journal] 7(5), 313. https://doi.org/10.3390/drones7050313 ameyaw, e.e., edwards, d.j., kumar, b., thurairajah, n., owusu-manu, d.g. and oppong, g.d., 2023. critical factors influencing adoption of blockchain-enabled smart contracts in construction projects. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 149(3), 04023003. https://doi.org/10.1061/jcemd4.coeng-12081 aryal, a., ghahramani, a. and becerik-gerber, b., 2017. monitoring fatigue in construction workers using physiological measurements. automation in construction, [e-journal] 82, pp.154-65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2017.03.003 awolusi, i., marks, e. and hallowell, m., 2018. wearable technology for personalized construction safety monitoring and trending: review of applicable devices. automation in construction, [e-journal] 85, pp.96-106. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.10.010 bahrin, m.a.k., othman, m.f., azli, n.h.n. and talib, m.f., 2016. industry 4.0: a review on industrial automation and robotic. jurnal teknologi, [e-journal] 78(6-13), pp 137-43. https://doi.org/10.11113/jt.v78.9285 bakchan, a., faust, k.m. and leite, f., 2019. seven-dimensional automated construction waste quantification and management framework: integration with project and site planning. resources, conservation and recycling, [e-journal] 146, pp.462-74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.02.020 barlish, k. and sullivan, k., 2012. how to measure the benefits of bim a case study approach. automation in construction, [e-journal] 24, pp.149-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.02.008 bean, t.k., mustapa, f.d. and mustapa, m., 2019. unbundling transaction cost components in building information modeling adoption procurement. international journal of recent technology and engineering, [e-journal] 8(2 special), pp.333-38. https://doi.org/10.35940/ijrte.b1077.0982s919 cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202463 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2108026 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2108026 https://doi.org/10.1080/15732479.2015.1110601 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2021.027 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2021.027 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2016.08.015 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1819584 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2020.02.002 https://doi.org/10.3390/drones7050313 https://doi.org/10.1061/jcemd4.coeng-12081 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.03.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.03.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.10.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.10.010 https://doi.org/10.11113/jt.v78.9285 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.02.020 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.02.008 https://doi.org/10.35940/ijrte.b1077.0982s919 becerik-gerber, b., jazizadeh, f., li, n. and calis, g., 2011. application areas and data requirements for bim-enabled facilities management. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 138(3), pp.431-42. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000433 bosché, f., 2010. automated recognition of 3d cad model objects in laser scans and calculation of as-built dimensions for dimensional compliance control in construction. advanced engineering informatics, [e-journal] 24(1), pp.107-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2009.08.006 braun, a., tuttas, s., borrmann, a. and stilla, u., 2015. a concept for automated construction progress monitoring using bim-based geometric constraints and photogrammetric point clouds. journal of information technology in construction, [e-journal] 20(5), pp.68-79. http://www.itcon.org/2015/5. bügler, m., borrmann, a., ogunmakin, g., vela, p.a. and teizer, j., 2017. fusion of photogrammetry and video analysis for productivity assessment of earthwork processes. computer-aided civil and infrastructure engineering, [e-journal] 32(2), pp.107-23. https://doi.org/10.1111/mice.12235 calvetti, d., mêda, p., gonçalves, m.c. and sousa, h., 2020. worker 4.0: the future of sensored construction sites. buildings, [e-journal] 10(10), 169. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings10100169 camacho, d.d., clayton, p., o’brien, w.j., seepersad, c., juenger, m., ferron, r. and salamone, s., 2018. applications of additive manufacturing in the construction industry-a forward-looking review. automation in construction, [e-journal] 89, pp.110-19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.12.031 carbonari, a., giretti, a. and naticchia, b., 2011. a proactive system for real-time safety management in construction sites. automation in construction, [e-journal] 20(6), pp.686-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2011.04.019 celik, y., petri, i. and rezgui, y., 2023. integrating bim and blockchain across construction life-cycle and supply chains. computers in industry, [e-journal] 148, 103886. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2023.103886 chadegani, a.a., salehi, h., yunus, m.m., farhadi, h., fooladi, m., farhadi, m. and ebrahim, n.a., 2013. a comparison between two main academic literature collections: web of science and scopus databases. asian journal of social science, [e-journal] 9(5), pp.18-26. chalhoub, j. and ayer, s.k., 2018. using mixed reality for electrical construction design communication. automation in construction, [e-journal] 86, pp.1-10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.10.028 chen, w., chen, k., cheng, j.c.p., wang, q. and gan, v.j.l., 2018. bim-based framework for automatic scheduling of facility maintenance work orders. automation in construction, [e-journal] 91, pp.15-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2018.03.007 chen, k., 2020. enhancing construction safety management through edge computing: framework and scenarios. journal of information technology in construction, [e-journal] 25, pp.438-51. https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2020.025 chen, c., gu, h., lian, s., zhao, y. and xiao, b., 2022. investigation of edge computing in computer vision-based construction resource detection. buildings, [e-journal] 12(12), 2167. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12122167 chen, t., yabuki, n. and fukuda, t., 2023. motion recognition method for construction workers using selective depth inspection and optimal inertial measurement unit sensors. civil engineering, [e-journal] 4(1), pp.204-23. https://doi. org/10.3390/civileng4010013 chen, s., zeng, y., majdi, a., salameh, a.a., alkhalifah, t., alturise, f. and ali, h.e., 2023. potential features of building information modelling for application of project management knowledge areas as advances modeling tools. advances in engineering software, [e-journal] 176, 103372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advengsoft.2022.103372 cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202464 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000433 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000433 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2009.08.006 http://www.itcon.org/2015/5 https://doi.org/10.1111/mice.12235 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings10100169 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.12.031 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2011.04.019 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2023.103886 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.10.028 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.03.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.03.007 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2020.025 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12122167 https://doi.org/10.3390/civileng4010013 https://doi.org/10.3390/civileng4010013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.advengsoft.2022.103372 cheng, t., venugopal, m., teizer, j. and vela, p.a., 2011. performance evaluation of ultra wideband technology for construction resource location tracking in harsh environments. automation in construction, [e-journal] 20(8), pp.117384. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2011.05.001 cheng, t., migliaccio, g.c., teizer, j. and gatti, u.c., 2013a. data fusion of real-time location sensing and physiological status monitoring for ergonomics analysis of construction workers. journal of computing in civil engineering, [e-journal] 27(3), pp.320-35. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000222 cheng, t., teizer, j., migliaccio, g.c. and gatti, u.c., 2013b. automated task-level activity analysis through fusion of real time location sensors and worker’s thoracic posture data. automation in construction, [e-journal] 29, pp.24-39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.08.003 cheng, c.f., rashidi, a., davenport, m.a. and anderson, d.v., 2017. activity analysis of construction equipment using audio signals and support vector machines. automation in construction, [e-journal] 81, pp.240-53. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.06.005 choudhry, r.m., 2017. achieving safety and productivity in construction projects. journal of civil engineering and management, 23(2), pp.311-18. https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2015.1068842 chu, b., jung, k., lim, m.t. and hong, d., 2013. robot-based construction automation: an application to steel beam assembly (part i). automation in construction, [e-journal] 32, pp.46-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.12.016 conde, a.j.l, garcía-sanz-calcedo, j. and rodríguez, a.m.r., 2020. use of bim with photogrammetry support in small construction projects. case study for commercial franchises. journal of civil engineering and management, [e-journal] 26(6), pp.513-23. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2020.12611 craveiro, f., duarte, j.p., bartolo, h. and bartolo, p.j., 2019. additive manufacturing as an enabling technology for digital construction: a perspective on construction 4.0. automation in construction, [e-journal] 103, pp.251-67. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.03.011 dakhli, z., lafhaj, z. and mossman, a., 2019. the potential of blockchain in building construction. buildings, [e-journal] 9(4), 77. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings9040077 de soto, b.g., agustí-juan, i., hunhevicz, j., joss, s., graser, k., habert, g. and adey, b.t., 2018. productivity of digital fabrication in construction: cost and time analysis of a robotically built wall. automation in construction, [e-journal] 92, pp.297-311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.04.004 dilakshan, s., rathnasinghe, a.p. and seneviratne, l.d.i.p., 2021. potential of internet of things (iot) in the construction industry. world construction symposium, [e-journal] pp.445-57. https://doi.org/10.31705/wcs.2021.39 dobrucali, e., sadikoglu, e., demirkesen, s., zhang, c., tezel, a. and kiral, i.a., 2023. a bibliometric analysis of digital technologies use in construction health and safety. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal]. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2022-0798 dong, z., chen, j. and lu, w., 2022. computer vision to recognize construction waste compositions: a novel boundary-aware transformer (bat) model. journal of environmental management, [e-journal] 305, 114405. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.114405 el asmar, p.g., chalhoub, j., ayer, s.k. and abdallah, a.s., 2021. contextualizing benefits and limitations reported for augmented reality in construction research. journal of information technology in construction, [e-journal] 26, pp.720-38. https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2021.039 falagas, m.e., pitsouni, e.i., malietzis, g.a. and pappas, g., 2008. comparison of pubmed, scopus, web of science, and google scholar: strengths and weaknesses. the faseb journal, [e-journal] 22(2), pp.338-42. https://doi. org/10.1096/fj.07-9492lsf cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202465 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2011.05.001 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000222 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.08.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.06.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.06.005 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2015.1068842 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.12.016 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2020.12611 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.03.011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.03.011 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings9040077 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.04.004 https://doi.org/10.31705/wcs.2021.39 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2022-0798 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.114405 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.114405 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2021.039 https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.07-9492lsf https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.07-9492lsf fang, w., ding, l., luo, h. and love, p.e.d., 2018. falls from heights: a computer vision-based approach for safety harness detection. automation in construction, [e-journal] 91, pp.53-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.02.018 fang, w., ding, l., love, p.e.d., luo, h., li, h., peña-mora, f., zhong, b. and zhou, c., 2020. computer vision applications in construction safety assurance. automation in construction, [e-journal] 110, 103013. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.103013 fargnoli, m., lleshaj, a., lombardi, m., sciarretta, n. and di gravio, g., 2019. a bim-based pss approach for the management of maintenance operations of building equipment. buildings, [e-journal] 9(6), 139. https://doi. org/10.3390/buildings9060139 fugate, h. and alzraiee, h., 2023. quantitative analysis of construction labor acceptance of wearable sensing devices to enhance workers’ safety. results in engineering, [e-journal] 17, 100841. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2022.100841 golabchi, a., han, s.u., abourizk, s. and kanerva, j., 2016. micro-motion level simulation for efficiency analysis and duration estimation of manual operations. automation in construction, [e-journal] 71, pp.443-52. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2016.08.028 golabchi, a., guo, x., liu, m., han, s., lee, s. and abourizk, s., 2018. an integrated ergonomics framework for evaluation and design of construction operations. automation in construction, [e-journal] 95, pp. 72-85. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.08.003 golparvar-fard, m., peña-mora, f., arboleda, c.a. and lee, s., 2009. visualization of construction progress monitoring with 4d simulation model overlaid on time-lapsed photographs. journal of computing in civil engineering, [e-journal] 23(6), pp.391-404. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3801(2009)23:6(391) golparvar-fard, m., heydarian, a. and niebles, j.c., 2013. vision-based action recognition of earthmoving equipment using spatio-temporal features and support vector machine classifiers. advanced engineering informatics, [e-journal] 27(4), pp.652-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2013.09.001 gong, y., yang, k., seo, j.o. and lee, j.g., 2022. wearable acceleration-based action recognition for long-term and continuous activity analysis in construction site. journal of building engineering, [e-journal] 52, 104448. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jobe.2022.104448 gonsalves, n.j., ogunseiju, o.r., akanmu, a.a. and nnaji, c.a., 2021. assessment of a passive wearable robot for reducing low back disorders during rebar work. journal of information technology in construction, [e-journal] 26, pp.93652. https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2021.050 guo, j., yuan, l. and wang, q., 2020. time and cost analysis of geometric quality assessment of structural columns based on 3d terrestrial laser scanning. automation in construction, [e-journal] 110, 103014. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2019.103014 gupta, p. and jha, k.n., 2023. a decentralized and automated contracting system using a blockchain-enabled network of stakeholders in construction megaprojects. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 39(4), 04023021. https://doi.org/10.1061/jmenea.meeng-5366 gurgun, a.p., genc, m.i., koc, k. and arditi, d., 2022. exploring the barriers against using cryptocurrencies in managing construction supply chain processes. buildings, [e-journal] 12(3), 357. https://doi.org/10.3390/ buildings12030357 hallowell, m.r., teizer, j. and blaney, w., 2010. application of sensing technology to safety management. construction research congress 2010: innovation for reshaping construction practice, [e-journal] pp.31-40. https://doi. org/10.1061/41109(373)4 cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202466 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.02.018 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.103013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.103013 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings9060139 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings9060139 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2022.100841 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2016.08.028 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2016.08.028 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.08.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.08.003 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3801(2009)23:6(391 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2013.09.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2022.104448 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2022.104448 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2021.050 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.103014 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.103014 https://doi.org/10.1061/jmenea.meeng-5366 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12030357 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12030357 https://doi.org/10.1061/41109(373)4 https://doi.org/10.1061/41109(373)4 han, t., ma, t., fang, z., zhang, y. and han, c., 2022. a bim-iot and intelligent compaction integrated framework for advanced road compaction quality monitoring and management. computers and electrical engineering, [e-journal] 100, 107981. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2022.107981 hire, s., sandbhor, s., ruikar, k. and amarnath, c.b., 2021. bim usage benefits and challenges for site safety application in indian construction sector. asian journal of civil engineering, [e-journal] 22(7), pp.1249-67. https://doi. org/10.1007/s42107-021-00379-8 hong, y., xie, h., agapaki, e. and brilakis, i., 2023. graph-based automated construction scheduling without the use of bim. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 149(2), 05022020. https://doi.org/10.1061/ jcemd4.coeng-12687 honic, m., kovacic, i., sibenik, g. and rechberger, h., 2019. dataand stakeholder management framework for the implementation of bim-based material passports. journal of building engineering, [e-journal] 23, pp.341-50. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2019.01.017 hosny, s., ibrahim, a.h. and nabil, y., 2023. reducing reinforced concrete materials waste in construction projects using building information modeling in egypt. journal of information technology in construction, [e-journal] 28, pp.33245. https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2023.017 hu, x., 2022. application of gps measurement technology and computer technology in visual construction simulation of construction engineering. mobile information systems. [e-journal]. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/8374901 hwang, s., seo, j.o., jebelli, h. and lee, s.h., 2016. feasibility analysis of heart rate monitoring of construction workers using a photoplethysmography (ppg) sensor embedded in a wristband-type activity tracker. automation in construction, [e-journal] 71, pp.372-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2016.08.029 hwang, s. and lee, s.h., 2017. wristband-type wearable health devices to measure construction workers’ physical demands. automation in construction, [e-journal] 83, pp.330-40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.06.003 ibrahim, r., harby, a.a., nashwan, m.s. and elhakeem, a., 2022. financial contract administration in construction via cryptocurrency blockchain and smart contract: a proof of concept. buildings, [e-journal] 12(8), 1072. https://doi. org/10.3390/buildings12081072 ismail, s.a., bandi, s. and maaz, z.n., 2018. an appraisal into the potential application of big data in the construction industry. international journal of built environment and sustainability, [e-journal] 5(2). https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes. v5.n2.274 jacobsen, e.l. and teizer, j., 2022. deep learning in construction: review of applications and potential avenues. journal of computing in civil engineering, [e-journal] 36(2), 03121001. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.19435487.0001010 jang, y., kim, k., leite, f., ayer, s. and cho, y.k., 2021. identifying the perception differences of emerging construction-related technologies between industry and academia to enable high levels of collaboration. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 147(10), 06021004. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0002156 jiang, y., liu, x., kang, k., wang, z., zhong, r.y. and huang, g.q., 2021. blockchain-enabled cyber-physical smart modular integrated construction. computers in industry, [e-journal] 133, 103553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. compind.2021.103553 jiang, z., messner, j.i. and matts, e., 2023. computer vision applications in construction and asset management phases: a literature review. journal of information technology in construction, [e-journal] 28, pp.176-99. https://doi. org/10.36680/j.itcon.2023.009 cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202467 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compeleceng.2022.107981 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42107-021-00379-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42107-021-00379-8 https://doi.org/10.1061/jcemd4.coeng-12687 https://doi.org/10.1061/jcemd4.coeng-12687 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2019.01.017 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2019.01.017 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2023.017 https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/8374901 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2016.08.029 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.06.003 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12081072 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12081072 https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v5.n2.274 https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v5.n2.274 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0001010 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0001010 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002156 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002156 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2021.103553 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2021.103553 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2023.009 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2023.009 jin, j., zhang, w., li, f., li, m., shi, y., guo, z. and huang, q., 2021. robotic binding of rebar based on active perception and planning. automation in construction, [e-journal] 132, 103939. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2021.103939 john, s.t., sarkar, p. and davis, r., 2022. energy-efficient long range wide area network for construction industry applications. automation in construction, [e-journal] 136, 104150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104150 john, s.t., philip, m.s., agarwal, s., sarkar, p. and davis, r., 2023. iot-enabled real-time monitoring system for plastic shrinkage of concrete. journal of infrastructure systems, [e-journal] 29(3), 06023001. https://doi.org/10.1061/jitse4. iseng-2022 jung, k., chu, b. and hong, d., 2013. robot-based construction automation: an application to steel beam assembly (part ii). automation in construction, [e-journal] 32, pp.62-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.12.011 kang, h., sung, s., hong, j., jung, s., hong, t., park, h.s. and lee, d.e., 2021. development of a real-time automated monitoring system for managing the hazardous environmental pollutants at the construction site. journal of hazardous materials, [e-journal] 402, 123483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.123483 karmakar, a., singh, a.r. and kumar, v.s., 2022. automated route planning for construction site utilizing building information modeling. journal of information technology in construction, [e-journal] 27, pp.827-44. https://doi. org/10.36680/j.itcon.2022.040 kasperzyk, c., kim, m.k. and brilakis, i., 2017. automated re-prefabrication system for buildings using robotics. automation in construction, [e-journal] 83, pp.184-95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.08.002 katiyar, a. and kumar, p., 2022. automated construction progress monitoring of prefabricated concrete structures using building information modeling and internet of things. international journal on recent and innovation trends in computing and communication, [e-journal] 10(7), pp.14-18. https://doi.org/10.17762/ijritcc.v10i7.5560 khodabakhshian, a. and toosi, h., 2021. residential real estate valuation framework based on life cycle cost by building information modeling. journal of architectural engineering, [e-journal] 27(3), 04021020. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)ae.1943-5568.0000479 kim, k., cho, y. and zhang, s., 2016. integrating work sequences and temporary structures into safety planning: automated scaffolding-related safety hazard identification and prevention in bim. automation in construction, [e-journal] 70, pp.128-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2016.06.012 kim, h., lee, h.s., park, m., chung, b. and hwang, s., 2016. automated hazardous area identification using laborers’ actual and optimal routes. automation in construction, [e-journal] 65, pp.21-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2016.01.006 kim, j., golabchi, a., han, s. and lee, d.e., 2021. manual operation simulation using motion-time analysis toward labor productivity estimation: a case study of concrete pouring operations. automation in construction, [e-journal] 126, 103669. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2021.103669 kim, s., kim, h., lee, j., hong, t. and jeong, k., 2023. an integrated assessment framework of economic, environmental, and human health impacts using scan-to-bim and life-cycle assessment in existing buildings. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 39(5), 04023034. https://doi.org/10.1061/jmenea.meeng-5600 kisel, t., 2021. cost efficiency of building information modeling use at the stage of real estate object maintenance. international journal of technology, [e-journal] 12(7), pp.1468-78. https://doi.org/10.14716/ijtech.v12i7.5382 kruachottikul, p., cooharojananone, n., phanomchoeng, g., chavarnakul, t., kovitanggoon, k. and trakulwaranont, d., 2021. deep learning-based visual defect-inspection system for reinforced concrete bridge substructure: a case of thailand’s department of highways. journal of civil structural health monitoring, [e-journal] 11(4), pp.949-65. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s13349-021-00490-z cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202468 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2021.103939 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2021.103939 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104150 https://doi.org/10.1061/jitse4.iseng-2022 https://doi.org/10.1061/jitse4.iseng-2022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.12.011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2020.123483 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2022.040 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2022.040 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.08.002 https://doi.org/10.17762/ijritcc.v10i7.5560 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000479 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000479 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2016.06.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2016.01.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2016.01.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2021.103669 https://doi.org/10.1061/jmenea.meeng-5600 https://doi.org/10.14716/ijtech.v12i7.5382 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13349-021-00490-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s13349-021-00490-z kumar, v.p., balasubramanian, m., and raj, s.j., 2016. robotics in construction industry. indian journal of science and technology, [e-journal] 9(23), pp.1-12. https://doi.org/10.17485/ijst/2016/v9i23/95974 lee, h.s., lee, k.p., park, m., baek, y. and lee, s., 2012. rfid-based real-time locating system for construction safety management. journal of computing in civil engineering, [e-journal] 26(3), pp.366-77. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) cp.1943-5487.0000144 lee, k.p., lee, h.s., park, m., kim, h. and han, s., 2014. a real-time location-based construction labor safety management system. journal of civil engineering and management, [e-journal] 20(5), pp.724-36. https://doi.org/10.384 6/13923730.2013.802728 lee, w., lin, k.y., seto, e. and migliaccio, g.c., 2017a. wearable sensors for monitoring on-duty and off-duty worker physiological status and activities in construction. automation in construction, [e-journal] 83, pp.341-53. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.06.012 lee, m., lee, s., kwon, s. and chin, s., 2017b. a study on scan data matching for reverse engineering of pipes in plant construction. ksce journal of civil engineering, [e-journal] 21(6), pp.2027-36. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-0160929-z lee, y.c., shariatfar, m., rashidi, a. and lee, h.w., 2020. evidence-driven sound detection for prenotification and identification of construction safety hazards and accidents. automation in construction, [e-journal] 113, 103127. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103127 leng, y., shi, x., hiroatsu, f., kalachev, a. and wan, d., 2023. automated construction for human-robot interaction in wooden buildings: integrated robotic construction and digital design of ismart wooden arches. journal of field robotics, [e-journal] 40(4), pp.810-27. https://doi.org/10.1002/rob.22154 li, j., greenwood, d. and kassem, m., 2019. blockchain in the built environment and construction industry: a systematic review, conceptual models and practical use cases. automation in construction, [e-journal] 102, pp.288-307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.02.005 li, k., luo, h. and skibniewski, m.j., 2019. a non-centralized adaptive method for dynamic planning of construction components storage areas. advanced engineering informatics, [e-journal] 39, pp.80-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. aei.2018.12.001 lin, z.h., chen, a.y. and hsieh, s.h., 2021. temporal image analytics for abnormal construction activity identification. automation in construction, [e-journal] 124, 103572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2021.103572 liu, s., meng, x. and tam, c., 2015. building information modeling based building design optimization for sustainability. energy and buildings, [e-journal] 105, pp.139-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2015.06.037 liu, f. and seipel, s., 2018. precision study on augmented reality-based visual guidance for facility management tasks. automation in construction, [e-journal] 90, pp.79-90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.02.020 liu, c., abourizk, s., morley, d. and lei, z., 2020. data-driven simulation-based analytics for heavy equipment lifecycle cost. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 146(5), 04020038. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)co.1943-7862.0001816 lu, y., li, y., skibniewski, m., wu, z., wang, r. and le, y., 2015. information and communication technology applications in architecture, engineering, and construction organisations: a 15-year review. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 31(1), a4014010. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000319 lu, q. and lee, s., 2017. image-based technologies for constructing as-is building information models for existing buildings. journal of computing in civil engineering, [e-journal] 31(4), 04017005. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) cp.1943-5487.0000652 cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202469 https://doi.org/10.17485/ijst/2016/v9i23/95974 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000144 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000144 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2013.802728 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2013.802728 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.06.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.06.012 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-016-0929-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-016-0929-z https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103127 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103127 https://doi.org/10.1002/rob.22154 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.02.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2018.12.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2018.12.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2021.103572 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2015.06.037 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.02.020 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001816 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001816 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000319 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000652 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000652 lu, w., wu, l. and zhao, r., 2023. rebuilding trust in the construction industry: a blockchain-based deployment framework. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 23(8), pp.1405-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/15 623599.2021.1974683 ma, g., wu, m., wu, z. and yang, w., 2021. single-shot multibox detectorand building information modeling-based quality inspection model for construction projects. journal of building engineering, [e-journal] 38, 102216. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.102216 magill, l.j., jafarifar, n., watson, a. and omotayo, t., 2022. 4d bim integrated construction supply chain logistics to optimise on-site production. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(12), pp.2325-34. https:// doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1786623 mahmoudi, a., sadeghi, m. and naeni, l.m., 2023. blockchain and supply chain finance for sustainable construction industry: ensemble ranking using ordinal priority approach. operations management research, [e-journal]. https://doi. org/10.1007/s12063-023-00374-z martins, s.s., evangelista, a.c.j., hammad, a.w.a., tam, v.w.y. and haddad, a., 2022. evaluation of 4d bim tools applicability in construction planning efficiency. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(15), pp.2987-3000. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1837718 mechtcherine, v., nerella, v.n., will, f., näther, m., otto, j. and krause, m., 2019. large-scale digital concrete construction-conprint3d concept for on-site, monolithic 3d-printing. automation in construction, [e-journal] 107, 102933. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.102933 melenbrink, n., werfel, j. and menges, a., 2020. on-site autonomous construction robots: towards unsupervised building. automation in construction, [e-journal] 119, 103312. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103312 mesároš, p., mandičák, t. and behúnová, a., 2022. use of bim technology and impact on productivity in construction project management. wireless networks, [e-journal] 28(2), pp.855-62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11276-020-02302-6 mo, y., zhao, d., du, j., syal, m., aziz, a. and li, h., 2020. automated staff assignment for building maintenance using natural language processing. automation in construction, [e-journal] 113, 103150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2020.103150 moon, h., dawood, n. and kang, l., 2014. development of workspace conflict visualization system using 4d object of work schedule. advanced engineering informatics, [e-journal] 28(1), pp.50-65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2013.12.001 moon, d., chung, s., kwon, s., seo, j. and shin, j., 2019. comparison and utilization of point cloud generated from photogrammetry and laser scanning: 3d world model for smart heavy equipment planning. automation in construction, [e-journal] 98, pp.322-31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.07.020 motayyeb, s., samadzedegan, f., dadrass javan, f. and hosseinpour, h., 2023. fusion of uav-based infrared and visible images for thermal leakage map generation of building facades. heliyon, [e-journal] 9(3). https://doi.org/10.1016/j. heliyon.2023.e14551 nabavi, a., ramaji, i., sadeghi, n. and anderson, a., 2023. leveraging natural language processing for automated information inquiry from building information models. journal of information technology in construction, [e-journal] 28, pp.266-85. https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2023.013 najafi, f.t. and fu, x., 2017. economic evaluation of robots in construction. 9th isarc international symposium on automation and robotics in construction, [e-journal] pp.201-07. https://doi.org/10.22260/isarc1992/0027 nical, a.k. and wodyński, w., 2016. enhancing facility management through bim 6d. procedia engineering, [e-journal] 164, pp.299-306. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.623 cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202470 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1974683 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1974683 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.102216 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.102216 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1786623 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1786623 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12063-023-00374-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s12063-023-00374-z https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1837718 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.102933 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103312 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11276-020-02302-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103150 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103150 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2013.12.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.07.020 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14551 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e14551 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2023.013 https://doi.org/10.22260/isarc1992/0027 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.623 oh, j.k., jang, g., oh, s., lee, j.h., yi, b.j., moon, y.s., lee, j.s. and choi, y., 2009. bridge inspection robot system with machine vision. automation in construction, [e-journal] 18(7), pp.929-41. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2009.04.003 ojha, a., habibnezhad, m., jebelli, h. and leicht, r., 2022. barrier analysis of effective implementation of robotics in the construction industry. construction research congress 2022: computer applications, automation, and data analytics, [e-journal] pp.661-69. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784483961.069 oke, a.e., aliu, j., oluwasefunmi fadamiro, p., akanni, p.o. and stephen, s.s., 2023a. attaining digital transformation in construction: an appraisal of the awareness and usage of automation techniques. journal of building engineering, [e-journal] 67, 105968. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2023.105968 oke, a.e., aliu, j., jamir singh, p.s., onajite, s.a., shaharudin samsurijan, m. and azura ramli, r., 2023b. appraisal of awareness and usage of digital technologies for sustainable well-being among construction workers in a developing economy. international journal of construction management, [e-journal]. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2023.21796 28 okpala, i., nnaji, c. and karakhan, a.a., 2020. utilizing emerging technologies for construction safety risk mitigation. practice periodical on structural design and construction, [e-journal] 25(2), 04020002. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) sc.1943-5576.0000468 omar, h., mahdjoubi, l. and kheder, g., 2018. towards an automated photogrammetry-based approach for monitoring and controlling construction site activities. computers in industry, [e-journal] 98, pp.172-82. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.compind.2018.03.012 opoku, d.g.j., perera, s., osei-kyei, r. and rashidi, m., 2021. digital twin application in the construction industry: a literature review. journal of building engineering, [e-journal] 40, 102726. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.102726 ozturk, g.b., 2021. digital twin research in the aeco-fm industry. journal of building engineering, [e-journal] 40, 102730. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.102730 pakhale, p.d. and pal, a., 2020. digital project management in infrastructure project: a case study of nagpur metro rail project. asian journal of civil engineering, [e-journal] 21(4), pp.639-47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42107-020-00224-4 park, j. and cai, h., 2017. wbs-based dynamic multi-dimensional bim database for total construction as-built documentation. automation in construction, [e-journal] 77, pp.15-23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.01.021 peng, z., kong, q., yuan, c., li, r. and chi, h.l., 2023. development of acoustic denoising learning network for communication enhancement in construction sites. advanced engineering informatics, [e-journal] 56, 101981. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2023.101981 porwal, a. and hewage, k. n., 2013. building information modeling (bim) partnering framework for public construction projects. automation in construction, [e-journal] 31, pp.204-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2012.12.004 rahimian, a., hosseini, m.r., martek, i., taroun, a., alvanchi, a. and odeh, i., 2022. predicting communication quality in construction projects: a fully-connected deep neural network approach. automation in construction, [e-journal] 139, 104268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104268 ratajczak, j., riedl, m. and matt, d.t., 2019. bim-based and ar application combined with location-based management system for the improvement of the construction performance. buildings, [e-journal] 9(5), 118. https://doi. org/10.3390/buildings9050118 reichenbach, s. and kromoser, b., 2021. state of practice of automation in precast concrete production. journal of building engineering, [e-journal] 43, 102527. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.102527 cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202471 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2009.04.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2009.04.003 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784483961.069 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2023.105968 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2023.2179628 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2023.2179628 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)sc.1943-5576.0000468 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)sc.1943-5576.0000468 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2018.03.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2018.03.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.102726 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.102730 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42107-020-00224-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.01.021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2023.101981 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2023.101981 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.12.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.12.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104268 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings9050118 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings9050118 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.102527 rodrigo, n., omrany, h., chang, r. and zuo, j., 2023. leveraging digital technologies for circular economy in construction industry: a way forward. smart and sustainable built environment, [e-journal]. https://doi.org/10.1108/ sasbe-05-2023-0111 rodrigues, f., baptista, j.s. and pinto, d., 2022. bim approach in construction safety-a case study on preventing falls from height. buildings, [e-journal] 12(1), 73. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12010073 rui, y., yaik-wah, l. and siang, t.c., 2021. construction project management based on building information modeling (bim). civil engineering and architecture, [e-journal] 9(6), pp.2055-61. https://doi.org/10.13189/cea.2021.090633 ryu, j., seo, j., jebelli, h. and lee, s., 2019. automated action recognition using an accelerometer-embedded wristbandtype activity tracker. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 145(1), 04018114. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001579 sabillon, c., rashidi, a., samanta, b., davenport, m.a. and anderson, d.v., 2020. audio-based bayesian model for productivity estimation of cyclic construction activities. journal of computing in civil engineering, [e-journal] 34(1), 04019048. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000863 sangchul, k. and tae-hwa, j., 2016. an application of pda in building construction project for enhancing productivity. indian journal of science and technology, [e-journal] 9(41). https://doi.org/10.17485/ijst/2016/v9i41/103953 sanhudo, l., calvetti, d., martins, j. p., ramos, n.m.m., mêda, p., gonçalves, m.c. and sousa, h., 2021. activity classification using accelerometers and machine learning for complex construction worker activities. journal of building engineering, [e-journal] 35, 102001. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.102001 santos, r., costa, a.a. and grilo, a., 2017. bibliometric analysis and review of building information modelling literature published between 2005 and 2015. automation in construction, [e-journal] 80, pp.118-36. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.03.005 santos, r., costa, a.a., silvestre, j.d. and pyl, l., 2019. integration of lca and lcc analysis within a bim-based environment. automation in construction, [e-journal] 103, pp.127-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.02.011 satyanarayanan, m., 2017. the emergence of edge computing. computer, [e-journal] 50(1), pp.30-39. https://doi. org/10.1109/mc.2017.9 sepasgozar, s.m.e., 2021. differentiating digital twin from digital shadow: elucidating a paradigm shift to expedite a smart, sustainable built environment. buildings, [e-journal] 11(4), 151. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11040151 shahzad, m., shafiq, m.t., douglas, d. and kassem, m., 2022. digital twins in built environments: an investigation of the characteristics, applications, and challenges. buildings, [e-journal] 12(2), 120. https://doi.org/10.3390/ buildings12020120 singh, a., dwivedi, a., agrawal, d. and singh, d., 2023. identifying issues in adoption of ai practices in construction supply chains: towards managing sustainability. operations management research, [e-journal]. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s12063-022-00344-x skibniewski, m.j., 1988. framework for decision making on implementing robotics in construction. journal of computing in civil engineering, [e-journal] 2(2), pp.188-201. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)08873801(1988)2:2(188) slaton, t., hernandez, c. and akhavian, r., 2020. construction activity recognition with convolutional recurrent networks. automation in construction, [e-journal] 113, 103138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103138 son, h., seong, h., choi, h. and kim, c., 2019. real-time vision-based warning system for prevention of collisions between workers and heavy equipment. journal of computing in civil engineering, [e-journal] 33(5), 04019029. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000845 cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202472 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-05-2023-0111 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-05-2023-0111 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12010073 https://doi.org/10.13189/cea.2021.090633 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001579 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001579 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000863 https://doi.org/10.17485/ijst/2016/v9i41/103953 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.102001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.03.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.03.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.02.011 https://doi.org/10.1109/mc.2017.9 https://doi.org/10.1109/mc.2017.9 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11040151 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12020120 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12020120 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12063-022-00344-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s12063-022-00344-x https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3801(1988)2:2(188 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3801(1988)2:2(188 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103138 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000845 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000845 stanley, r. and thurnell, d., 2014. the benefits of, and barriers to, implementation of 5d bim for quantity surveying in new zealand. australasian journal of construction economics and building, [e-journal] 14(1), pp.105-17. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i1.3786 tang, x., wang, m., wang, q., guo, j. and zhang, j., 2022. benefits of terrestrial laser scanning for construction qa/qc: a time and cost analysis. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 38(2), 05022001. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0001012 tao, g., feng, h., feng, j. and wang, t., 2022. dynamic multi-objective construction site layout planning based on bim. ksce journal of civil engineering, [e-journal] 26(4), pp.1522-34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-022-0708-y tariq, a., ali, b., ullah, f. and alqahtani, f.k., 2023. reducing falls from heights through bim: a dedicated system for visualizing safety standards. buildings, [e-journal] 13(3), 671. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13030671 tavares, p., costa, c.m., rocha, l., malaca, p., costa, p., moreira, a.p., sousa, a. and veiga, g., 2019. collaborative welding system using bim for robotic reprogramming and spatial augmented reality. automation in construction, [e-journal] 106, 102825. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.04.020 tehrani, b.m., buhamdan, s. and alwisy, a., 2022. robotics in assembly-based industrialized construction: a narrative review and a look forward. international journal of intelligent robotics and applications, [e-journal]. https://doi. org/10.1007/s41315-022-00257-9 tian, z., yu, y., xu, f. and zhang, z., 2023. dynamic hazardous proximity zone design for excavator based on 3d mechanical arm pose estimation via computer vision. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 149(7), 04023048. https://doi.org/10.1061/jcemd4.coeng-13071 tuttas, s., braun, a., borrmann, a. and stilla, u., 2015. validation of bim components by photogrammetric point clouds for construction site monitoring. isprs annals of the photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciences, [e-journal] 2, pp.231-37. https://doi.org/10.5194/isprsannals-ii-3-w4-231-2015 valero, e., sivanathan, a., bosché, f. and abdel-wahab, m., 2016. musculoskeletal disorders in construction: a review and a novel system for activity tracking with body area network. applied ergonomics, [e-journal] 54, pp.120-30. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2015.11.020 veerendra, g.t.n., dey, s., manoj, a.v.p. and kumaravel, b., 2022. life cycle assessment for a suburban building located within the vicinity using revit architecture. journal of building pathology and rehabilitation, [e-journal] 7(1), 56. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41024-022-00199-6 vinod, s., shakor, p., sartipi, f. and karakouzian, m., 2022. object detection using esp32 cameras for quality control of steel components in manufacturing structures. arabian journal for science and engineering, [e-journal]. https://doi. org/10.1007/s13369-022-07562-2 wang, z., hu, h. and zhou, w., 2017. rfid enabled knowledge-based precast construction supply chain. computeraided civil and infrastructure engineering, [e-journal] 32(6), pp.499-514. https://doi.org/10.1111/mice.12254 wang, d., fan, j., fu, h. and zhang, b., 2018. research on optimization of big data construction engineering quality management based on rnn-lstm. complexity, [e-journal]. https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/9691868 wang, z. and rezazadeh azar, e., 2019. bim-based draft schedule generation in reinforced concrete-framed buildings. construction innovation, [e-journal] 19(2), pp.280-94. wang, j., cheng, r., liu, m. and liao, p. c., 2021. research trends of human-computer interaction studies in construction hazard recognition: a bibliometric review. sensors, [e-journal] 21(18), 6172. https://doi.org/10.3390/ s21186172 cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202473 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i1.3786 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i1.3786 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0001012 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0001012 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-022-0708-y https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13030671 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.04.020 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41315-022-00257-9 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41315-022-00257-9 https://doi.org/10.1061/jcemd4.coeng-13071 https://doi.org/10.5194/isprsannals-ii-3-w4-231-2015 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2015.11.020 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2015.11.020 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41024-022-00199-6 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-022-07562-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-022-07562-2 https://doi.org/10.1111/mice.12254 https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/9691868 https://doi.org/10.3390/s21186172 https://doi.org/10.3390/s21186172 wang, y., 2021. bim + vr technology in construction management of construction engineering. journal of physics: conference series, [e-journal] 2037(1). https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2037/1/012083 wang, d., wang, x., ren, b., wang, j., zeng, t., kang, d. and wang, g., 2022. vision-based productivity analysis of cable crane transportation using augmented reality-based synthetic image. journal of computing in civil engineering, [e-journal] 36(1), 04021030. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000994 wu, h., li, h., chi, h.l., peng, z., chang, s. and wu, y., 2023. thermal image-based hand gesture recognition for worker-robot collaboration in the construction industry: a feasible study. advanced engineering informatics, [e-journal] 56, 101939. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2023.101939 xiao, b. and zhu, z., 2018. two-dimensional visual tracking in construction scenarios: a comparative study. journal of computing in civil engineering, [e-journal] 32(3), 04018006. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000738 xiao, b. and kang, s.c., 2020. vision-based method integrating deep learning detection for tracking multiple construction machines. journal of computing in civil engineering, [e-journal] 35(2), 04020071. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)cp.1943-5487.0000957 xiao, b. and kang, s.c., 2021. development of an image data set of construction machines for deep learning object detection. journal of computing in civil engineering, [e-journal] 35(2), 05020005. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) cp.1943-5487.0000945 xiao, b., zhang, y., chen, y. and yin, x., 2021. a semi-supervised learning detection method for vision-based monitoring of construction sites by integrating teacher-student networks and data augmentation. advanced engineering informatics, [e-journal] 50, 101372. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2021.101372 xie, h. and yang, z., 2021. the risk management mode of construction project management in the multimedia environment of internet of things. mobile information systems, [e-journal]. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/1311474 yan, x., li, h., zhang, h. and rose, t.m., 2018. personalized method for self-management of trunk postural ergonomic hazards in construction rebar ironwork. advanced engineering informatics, [e-journal] 37, pp.31-41. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2018.04.013 yang, r.j., gunarathna, c.l., mcdermott, v., lingard, h., zhao, h. and liu, c., 2020a. opportunities for improving construction health and safety using real-time h&s management innovations: a socio-technical-economic perspective. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 20(5), pp.534-54. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018 .1490866 yang, x., yu, y., shirowzhan, s., sepasgozer, s. and li, h., 2020b. automated ppe-tool pair check system for construction safety using smart iot. journal of building engineering, [e-journal] 32, 101721. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jobe.2020.101721 yang, r., wakefield, r., lyu, s., jayasuriya, s., han, f., yi, x., yang, x., amarasinghe, g. and chen, s., 2020c. public and private blockchain in construction business process and information integration. automation in construction, [e-journal] 118, 103276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103276 ye, x., zeng, n. and könig, m., 2022. systematic literature review on smart contracts in the construction industry: potentials, benefits, and challenges. frontiers of engineering management, [e-journal] 9(2), pp.196-213. https://doi. org/10.1007/s42524-022-0188-2 yen, k.s., lasky, t.a. and ravani, b., 2014. cost-benefit analysis of mobile terrestrial laser scanning applications for highway infrastructure. journal of infrastructure systems, [e-journal] 20(4), 04014022. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) is.1943-555x.0000192 you, z. and wu, c., 2019. a framework for data-driven informatization of the construction company. advanced engineering informatics, [e-journal] 39, pp.269-77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2019.02.002 cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202474 https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/2037/1/012083 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000994 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2023.101939 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000738 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000957 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000957 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000945 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000945 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2021.101372 https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/1311474 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2018.04.013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2018.04.013 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1490866 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1490866 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101721 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101721 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103276 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42524-022-0188-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42524-022-0188-2 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000192 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000192 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2019.02.002 yu, y., li, h., umer, w., dong, c., yang, x., skitmore, m. and wong, a.y.l., 2019a. automatic biomechanical workload estimation for construction workers by computer vision and smart insoles. journal of computing in civil engineering, [e-journal] 33(3), 04019010. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000827 yu, y., yang, x., li, h., luo, x., guo, h. and fang, q., 2019b. joint-level vision-based ergonomic assessment tool for construction workers. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 145(5), 04019025. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001647 zhang, c. and arditi, d., 2013. automated progress control using laser scanning technology. automation in construction, [e-journal] 36, pp.108-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2013.08.012 zhang, y., 2021. safety management of civil engineering construction based on artificial intelligence and machine vision technology. advances in civil engineering, [e-journal]. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/3769634 zhong, b., xing, x., love, p., wang, x. and luo, h., 2019. convolutional neural network: deep learning-based classification of building quality problems. advanced engineering informatics, [e-journal] 40, pp.46-57. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.aei.2019.02.009 zhou, z., 2022. an intelligent bridge management and maintenance model using bim technology. mobile information systems, [e-journal]. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/7130546 zhu, z., dutta, a. and dai, f., 2021. exoskeletons for manual material handling a review and implication for construction applications. automation in construction, [e-journal] 122, 103493. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2020.103493 cakmak and akturk construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202475 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000827 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001647 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001647 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2013.08.012 https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/3769634 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2019.02.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2019.02.009 https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/7130546 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103493 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103493 construction economics and building vol. 20, no. 4 december 2020 © 2020 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: skitmore, m., xiong, b., xia, b., masrom, a., and newton, s. 2020. relationship between contractor satisfaction and project management performance . construction economics and building, 20:4, 1-24. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v20i4.7366 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article relationship between contractor satisfaction and project management performance martin skitmore1*, bo xiong2, bo xia3, asrul masrom4 and sidney newton5 1 school of built environment, queensland university of technology, brisbane, australia 2 luohu district land and space resources research center, shenzhen, china 3 school of built environment, queensland university of technology, brisbane, australia 4 department of construction management, faculty of technology management and business, universiti tun hussein onn malaysia (uthm), 86400 parit raja, batu pahat, johore, malaysia 5 school of built environment, university of technology sydney, sydney, new south wales, australia *corresponding author: martin skitmore, school of built environment, queensland university of technology, brisbane, australia. e-mail: rm.skitmore@qut.edu.au doi: 10.5130/ajceb.v20i4.7366 article history: received 12/08/2020; revised 21/10/2020; accepted 24/10/2020; published 07/12/2020 abstract despite the fast growth of project-based companies and industries, studies of the satisfactionperformance (s-p) nexus of project participants are lacking. this study aims to explore the role of contractor satisfaction in affecting contractor project management performance along with considering external effects from other key participants. two broad dimensions of satisfaction toward noneconomic factors and economic factors were used to develop hypothesized models. structural equation modelling techniques were applied with data collected from 117 projects, showing that it is insufficient to simply conclude that contractor satisfaction influences project managerial performance and vice versa, and that satisfaction disaggregation is necessary. additionally, it was found that noneconomic satisfaction contributes to performance, which in turn contributes to economic satisfaction. the theoretical and practical implications are further discussed. keywords: contractor satisfaction, performance, project management, structural equation modelling. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the second author was financially supported by a qut hdr sponsorship from the research project “ber-cam” funded by the commonwealth of australia represented by the department of education. 1 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i4.7366 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i4.7366 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i4.7366 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:rm.skitmore@qut.edu.au http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i4.7366 introduction research into the possible connection between job satisfaction and job performance has been an important topic for academics and organization managers since the hawthorne studies and the human relations movement ( judge et al., 2001; organ, 1988). initially assumed in the 1930s and 40s that worker job satisfaction affects worker performance (e.g. brayfield and crockett, 1955), by the 1960s this had been reversed to assume that satisfaction was induced by rewards from good performance (lawler and porter, 1967). although the lack of empirical support for either assumption has left the satisfaction-performance (s-p) nexus uncertain and even denigrated as simple ‘folk wisdom’ by some researchers (e.g. fisher, 2003), others have turned to explore common antecedent variables for the s-p nexus ( judge et al., 2001; schwab and cummings, 1970), and disaggregate satisfaction into sub-dimensions (lai, 2007; nerkar, mcgrath and macmillan, 1996), to uncover many convincing results. the notion of project participant satisfaction has been widely accepted, with the emergence of stakeholder theory (freeman, 1984) and the increasing popularity of such project-based industries as construction, real-estate, offshore engineering, and software development – one fifth of the world’s economic activity is organized as a project (esenduran, hall and liu, 2015). more stable owner-contractor relationships have been proposed to improve life cycle costing, contracting processes, risk management, teamwork, trust, and cooperation in construction work (dozzi et al., 1996). in addition to the ‘iron triangle’ measures of cost, schedule, and quality, satisfaction has been recognized as another effective measure of project performance (ibbs and ashley, 1987; toor and ogunlana, 2010; li, ng and skitmore, 2013; ha et al., 2017). studies of construction project participant satisfaction have become increasingly prominent over the past decade, with a positive change in focus from individual performance to a greater emphasis on stakeholder interests (toor and ogunlana, 2010; hosseini, chileshe and zillante, 2014; ibiyemi et al., 2014; el-sawalhi and salah, 2015; forsythe, 2015; ujene and edike, 2015; andriof et al., 2017; mok, shen and yang, 2017; xio, liu and pang, 2019). additionally, project participant satisfaction provides an early sign of the likely outputs in executing complex projects (williams et al., 2012; xiong et al., 2014). despite the wide acknowledgment and study of the individual satisfaction-performance (s-p) nexus, its counterpart nexus between organizational satisfaction and performance has received little attention. pearsall and ellis’s (2006) command-control simulation study, for example, examined the effects of critical team member assertiveness on team performance and team satisfaction. chiu and ng’s (2013, 2015) questionnaire surveys of quantity surveyors in hong kong found job satisfaction and organisational commitment improved through work group identification and working relationships. panahi et al.’s (2016) questionnaire survey of professional construction consultants in malaysia investigating the potential effect of value conflicts on the stakeholders’ job satisfaction, revealed the importance of the interaction between personal and organizational values in construction organizations. jaafar and radzi’s (2013) questionnaire survey of various construction industry players in malaysia found levels of satisfaction to be related to the procurement systems used. xio, liu and pang (2019) identified the competencies needed of chinese real-estate project managers needed to guarantee the smooth implementation of projects. similarly, ingle and mahesh’s (2020) study of indian construction projects identified the main factors affecting project performance, which include stakeholder satisfaction. however, none have specifically considered the s-p nexus. one approach to understanding the s-p nexus of project companies has been to follow the various studies that have been made at the individual level and assume that there skitmore, xiong, xia, masrom and newton construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 20202 is an overall s-p nexus with a complex relationship between performance and satisfaction divided into sub-dimensions. a few extant studies of contractor satisfaction, such as xiong et al. (2014), have highlighted the different effects of external factors on contractor economic satisfaction (es) and production-related satisfaction (ps). the nexus between contractor satisfaction and contractor performance is still unknown, however, which is identified here as the research gap. in response to the research gap, this study aims to investigate the nature of the satisfactionperformance (s-p) nexus of construction contractors. the findings could be critical for researchers and practitioners to understand internal relationships and better decision-making. the results of a survey of 117 construction contractors’ satisfaction and performance pertaining to their recent project work are analyzed through the development and comparison of two series of structural equation models. the first group of models treats contractor satisfaction as a holistic concept in examining the s-p nexus (i.e., combining economic-related satisfaction and production-related satisfaction). in carrying out a detailed analysis of contractor satisfaction, the second group of s-p models provides significantly improved explanatory power by dividing contractor satisfaction into two facets of (ps). literature review satisfaction has been defined as a response function of the discrepancy between ‘how much is there?’ and ‘how much should there be?’ (wanous and lawler, 1972). early research in industrial settings mainly refers to satisfaction as job satisfaction. this became a popular term with the hawthorne studies in emphasizing linkages between employees’ job satisfaction and their performance – a relationship described as the ‘holy grail’ by industrial-organizational researchers ( judge et al., 2001). however, the weak empirical evidence relating to the individual s-p nexus prompted some researchers (e.g. judge et al., 2001) to argue that the unsatisfactory outcomes in s-p linkage research have been mainly caused by the ambiguity in defining satisfaction, although some measures of job satisfaction have been developed, such as the job descriptive index ( jdi) (smith, kendall and hulin, 1969; onukwube, 2012) and minnesota satisfaction questionnaire (msq) (weiss, dawis and england, 1967). analysis should also treat economic satisfaction separately, since it is highly related to such pay factors as pay equity (brown, 2001). significantly, lai (2007) divided satisfaction into social satisfaction and economic satisfaction when investigating the mediating effects of satisfaction in the taiwanese motor industry, finding noneconomic satisfaction to be much more important than economic satisfaction in influencing performance. a project is a natural and an ideal organizational form for developing products facing increasing product complexity, changing markets, cross-functional expertise cooperation, customer-oriented innovation, and technological uncertainty (hobday, 2000). for many cross-functional projects, it is the collaboration of participating project organizations rather than the routine practices of workers in assembly lines that produce the final product (turner, 2014). for projects, both external factors and perceived satisfaction affect the performance of participating companies (soetanto and proverbs, 2002; mellado, lou and becerra, 2019; nugraha and putranto, 2019; olugboyega and windapo, 2019; yakubu, ogunsanmi and yakubu, 2019).the best-value (bv) procurement process proposes to use other key factors as well as bid price in the evaluation and choice of the best-performing contractor (elyamany and abdelrahman, 2010). as freeman’s (1984) stakeholder theory holds, stakeholder satisfaction management is useful for solving corporate social-related issues effectively and generating good business performance (porter and kramer, 2006). in many cases, the relationship between contractor satisfaction and project management performance construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 20203 perception of success for complex projects has little to do with whether they are completed on time, at cost, and with the desired quality, but the achievement of the desired objectives of different stakeholders (turner and zolin, 2012; el-sawalhi and salah, 2015; ujene and edike, 2015; mok, shen and yang, 2017). many accept participant satisfaction as a new dimension of project success (e.g. serrador and turner, 2015) and a new approach for use as an early warning sign (xiong et al., 2014). with the increasing popularity of project economics and stakeholder theory, project participant satisfaction has become an emergent area of study (orlitzky and swanson, 2012). also studied by some researchers are the organizational satisfaction levels of companies taking part in construction projects, such as clients and contractors (e.g. masrom, skitmore and bridge, 2013). for example, a criterion for defining success especially regarded by some researchers is client satisfaction (munns and bjeirmi, 1996). in exploring problems of the design and construction phases of the green-building project delivery process, dissatisfaction of the owner, and dissatisfaction of the general contractor due to “problems with material availability” can negatively affect the value and quality of the project in terms of cost and time of the project. (seyis, ergen and pizzi, 2016). however, previous studies have focused on measuring and exploring the driving factors of participant satisfaction (leung, ng and cheung, 2004; li, ng and skitmore, 2013), contractor satisfaction (soetanto and proverbs, 2002; masrom, skitmore and bridge, 2013; xiong et al., 2014), and client satisfaction (yang and peng, 2008). geyskens, steenkamp and kumar’s (1999) meta-analysis of 71 studies of satisfaction in marketing relationships, for example, resonated with lopez’s (1982) results in demonstrating the need to distinguish between economic and noneconomic satisfaction as distinct constructs with different causes and consequences. likewise, rodríguez, agudu and gutierrez (2006) demonstrated the necessity of such a categorization by examining the determinants of economic and noneconomic satisfaction in manufacturer-distributor relationships. in addition to the supply-chain, such a separation of organizational satisfaction is also applicable to construction projects. for example, xiong et al. (2014) obtained a similar outcome in examining the effects of other key project participants’ performance on the economic satisfaction (es) and production satisfaction (ps) of construction contractors. therefore, this study aims to explore the nexus between satisfaction and performance of construction contractors by taking sub-dimensions of contractor satisfaction into account. conceptual models and hypotheses the combined efforts of different project participants generate project outcomes, and contractors − as key performance assessors − have their own psychological interpretation of other participants’ performance (soetanto and proverbs, 2002). clients and designers are another two key participants in construction contracts (lai and lam, 2010). in examining the influence of other project participants, wang and huang’s (2006) survey of construction supervising engineers in china found client performance to be significantly correlated with project success. a major contributing factor seems to be client-led changes in project scope, which cause up to 70% of poor schedule performance in saudi arabian projects for example (assaf and al-hejji, 2006). poor designer performance also contributes significantly to delayed government projects in malaysia, where defective designs account for most quality problems (sambasivan and soon, 2007). ling et al. (2008) explored the project management practices of foreign architectural, engineering, and construction (aec) companies in china, finding that project management performance is critical in predicting project outcomes in terms of cost skitmore, xiong, xia, masrom and newton construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 20204 performance, time performance, quality performance, owner satisfaction, and profit margins. design ability has been found to be important to ensure the speedy completion of projects (ling et al., 2004). consistent with previous studies (e.g. soetanto and proverbs, 2002; assaf and al-hejji, 2006; yang and peng, 2008; xiong et al., 2014), the contractor s-p nexus is explored by including the influences of the performance of clients and designers in terms of the client’s clarity of objectives (oc), and designer performance (dp) in terms of carefulness in the design of products or services to meet those needs. puzzled by the weak empirical evidence concerning both directional s-p links at the individual level, schwab and cummings (1970) pointed out ambiguity in defining job satisfaction may be a cause. this study disaggregated satisfaction into two parts – economic satisfaction (es) and production satisfaction (ps). the performance part was restricted to contractor project management performance. although some researchers followed this in exploring the relationships between disaggregated satisfaction components and performance (e.g. lai, 2007), these studies assumed that all disaggregated satisfaction facets share the same unidirectional relationship with performance. if such an assumption is correct and these studies obtained significant results, the link between holistic satisfaction and performance should also be significant, which would not be consistent with the conclusions reached to date. to test the s-p nexus of construction contractors, therefore, it is proposed that different directional relationships exist between performance and each satisfaction sub-dimension. two conceptual models describing the relationship between contractor satisfaction (cos) and contractor project management performance (cpmp) are developed to test these assumptions as follows. conceptual model 1 the development of conceptual model 1 assumed that cos is a holistic concept comprising economic-related satisfaction (es) and production-related satisfaction (ps) as suggested by xiong et al. (2014). in this context, es refers to contractor satisfaction, with such economic issues as cost, profitability, and potential business opportunities arising from current business activities. in contrast, ps refers to contractor satisfaction with production and service quality (xiong et al., 2014). consistent with earlier studies (e.g. soetanto and proverbs, 2002; lai, 2007; xiong et al., 2014), the following hypotheses were proposed: h1 concerns the relationships between the performance of customers and designers separate from the performance and satisfaction of the organization. h2 concerns the linkage between contractor satisfaction and performance, with h2a and h2b indicating that cos affects cpmp and cpmp affects cos respectively (h2a and h2b are contained in two separate, but otherwise identical, models named model 1a and model 1b). hypothesis 1a: oc has a positive direct effect on cos hypothesis 1b: oc has a positive direct effect on cpmp hypothesis 1c: oc has positive effects on dp hypothesis 1d: dp has a positive direct effect on cos hypothesis 1e: dp has a positive direct effect on cpmp hypothesis 2a: cos has a positive direct effect on cpmp hypothesis 2b: cpmp has a positive direct effect on cos relationship between contractor satisfaction and project management performance construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 20205 figure 1 conceptual model 1 conceptual model 2 similar to conceptual model 1, the influences of oc and dp are considered as antecedent variables in exploring the contractor s-p nexus. a difference here is that satisfaction is divided into es and ps, prompted by geyskens, steenkamp and kumar (1999), rodríguez, agudu and gutierrez (2006), lai (2007), and xiong et al. (2014) as leading examples. unlike these earlier studies, also included are the different directional relationships that es and ps may have with performance. as suggested by the previous literature, this research proposes that ps has a positive effect on cpmp and cpmp has a positive effect on es. the hypotheses are as follows: h3 concerns the relationships between the performance of customers and designers separate from the performance and satisfaction of the organization. h4 concerns the linkage between the two facets of contractor satisfaction and performance. hypothesis 3a: oc has a positive direct effect on es hypothesis 3b: oc has a positive direct effect on cpmp hypothesis 3c: oc has a positive direct effect on ps hypothesis 3d: oc has a positive direct effect on dp hypothesis 3e: dp has positive direct effects on cpmp hypothesis 3f: dp has positive effects on ps hypothesis 4a: ps has a positive direct effect on cpmp hypothesis 4b: cpmp has a positive direct effect on es skitmore, xiong, xia, masrom and newton construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 20206 figure 2 conceptual model 2 methodology questionnaire survey the contributory factors of construction project situations to cos and their degree of influence were identified on a five-point likert scale questionnaire survey by masrom (2012). the questionnaire consists of general information concerning the construction contractors, respondents, and specific questions in relation to the cos dimensions and their contributory factors. the questionnaire was sent to 300 construction contractors registered with the malaysian construction industry development board (cidb) to provide feedback based on the company’s most recent construction project. of the 136 contractors’ responses, 117 usable responses (i.e. a valid net response rate of 39%) were used. these contractors are evenly distributed in terms of size, with 53.0% being large companies (g7) and 47.0% small to medium companies (g1-g6), categorized by company size and permitted tendering capability (masrom, 2012). of the respondents (the company representatives), 93.2% have a diploma or higher degree and 82.9% have more than 5 years’ working experience, indicating good ability to understand the questions and provide reasonable feedback. table 1 summarizes the basic information concerning the construction projects involved. table 1 description of projects project characters groups frequency percent cumulative percent client type federal government 40 34.19% 34.19% state or local authority 30 25.64% 59.83% private sector 38 32.48% 92.31% other 9 7.69% 100.00% procurement method design-bid-build 75 64.10% 64.10% relationship between contractor satisfaction and project management performance construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 20207 project characters groups frequency percent cumulative percent management contract 12 10.26% 74.36% design and build 25 21.37% 95.73% other 5 4.27% 100.00% project duration < 1 year 59 50.43% 50.43% 1-2 year 35 29.91% 80.34% 2-3 year 14 11.97% 92.31% > 3 year 9 7.69% 100.00% the sample size here exceeds the recommended number of 100 cases suggested by bagozzi and yi (2012) for structural equation modelling (sem) and is comparable with previous sem studies in the construction industry (xiong, skitmore and xia, 2015). for example, cheung and chow (2011) analyzed 103 responses to explore the underlying factors contributing to withdrawal in construction project dispute negotiations; and wong and lam (2011) used 107 responses to investigate the effect of organization learning and unlearning on the performance of construction organizations. in addition to the comparatively simple model structure, each construct contains at least three variables, which assures model identification of each measurement construct and allows a smaller sample size for fitting the model (e.g. xiong, skitmore and xia, 2015). to test the conceptual models and hypotheses, the measurement framework in table 2 was built based on kline’s (2015) three-variable principle, where three observed variables are used to reflect a latent variable. to do this, the observed variables were extracted from masrom’s (2012) questionnaire. company size was used as a control variable in model development, with 0 = small/medium and 1 = large contractors. table 2 measurement constructs and items constructs no. items main sources which performance level would you rate? (1=very bad, 5=very good) client’s clarity of objectives (oc) q1 quality of project brief (e.g. needs and requirements) soetanto and proverbs (2002, 2004); assaf and al-hejji (2006); park (2009); masrom (2012)q2 completeness of project brief q3 certainty of project brief designer performance (dp) q4 design constructability cidb (2006); yang and peng (2008); park (2009); masrom (2012) q5 comprehensiveness of design q6 flexibility of design to accommodate changes table 1 continued skitmore, xiong, xia, masrom and newton construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 20208 constructs no. items main sources contractor project management performance (cpmp) q7 productivity of project manpower munns and bjeirmi (1996); soetanto and proverbs (2004); wang and huang (2006); yang and peng (2008); park (2009); q8 twoway communication between participants and your project team q9 collaborative work between participants and your project team q10 quality of relationship between subcontractors and your project team which satisfaction level would you rate? (1=very dissatisfied, 5=very satisfied) productionrelated satisfaction (ps) q11 schedule performance (actual vs budget) schwab and cummings (1970); geyskens et al (1999); rodríguez, et al. (2006); lai (2007); masrom (2012); masrom, skitmore and bridge (2013); xiong et al (2014) q12 construction product quality performance q13 safety of worksite economic-related satisfaction (es) q14 project cost management performance (actual vs budget) q15 project profitability q16 potential business development in future structural equation modelling: cb-sem and pls-sem sem is widely accepted and used in exploring and testing relationships between different constructs in the social science disciplines – its evolution being regarded as the most important statistical progress in social sciences in recent decades (hair et al., 2012). its particular applications in recent construction/project management studies include qureshi and kang (2015), eriksson, larsson and pesamaa (2017), hong et al. (2019), lew et al. (2018) and abulhakim and adeleke (2019). a structural equation model includes observed variables and latent variables that are hard to observe directly due to their abstract character and are represented using several observed variables (byrne, 2016). a structural equation model generally comprises a structural component (consisting of the relationships between the latent variables) and several measurement components (consisting of the measurement errors of the measurement variables, and the relationships between the observed variables and represented latent variable) (washington et al., 2020). compared with such first-generation models as principle component analysis and linear regression, sem is a second-generation multivariate analysis method (fornell and larcker, 1982). it has many strengths, such as enabling the use of one model to explore an entire set of complex relationships, or the use of several observable items to represent ambiguous constructs (kline, 2015; cho, hong and table 2 continued relationship between contractor satisfaction and project management performance construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 20209 hyun, 2009). additionally, the availability of many sem software packages offering graphical interfaces for model development (xiong, skitmore and xia, 2015) enhances the popularity of sem. there are two types of sem approaches: covariance based (cb-sem) and partial least squares based (pls-sem). cb-sem is appropriate for confirming theoretical hypotheses, as it focuses on minimizing the difference between the model-implied covariance matrix and the sample covariance matrix and obtaining accurate parameter estimates. in contrast, plssem is preferred in prediction, as it focuses on maximizing the explained variance of targeted constructs (hair, ringle and sarstedt, 2012). cb-sem is more popular in theoretical studies for its stricter rules concerning data and sample size and accurate estimates of parameters, while pls-sem has recently increased in popularity due to its ability to provide accurate predictions of target variables with a comparatively small sample size. additionally, plssem can accommodate both reflective measurement constructs and formative measurement constructs, while cb-sem can only accommodate the reflective measurement construct (ringle, sarstedt and straub, 2012). in reflective constructs, changes in latent variables lead to changes in observed variables but not vice versa, which is important for explaining the selected latent variable when deleting an observed variable. in formative constructs, the opposite is the case, with changes in observed variables leading to changes but not vice versa, which changes the theoretical meaning significantly when deleting an observed variable ( jarvis, mackenzie and podsakoff, 2003). in the current context, organizational satisfaction is represented by contractor satisfaction (cos), which is composed of economic-related satisfaction (es) and production-related satisfaction (ps), with both es and ps being reflected by several observed variables, which means that cos in conceptual model 1 is a second order reflective-formative model and therefore more suitable for pls-sem (becker, klein and wetzel, 2012). however, as hair, ringle and sarstedt (2012) argue, cb-sem and pls-sem have different advantages and should be complementary rather than conflicting. in this case, both methods were used – pls-sem for developing conceptual model 1 and cb-sem for developing conceptual model 2, with the software smartpls 2.0 (ringle, wende and will, 2005) and spss amos 21.0 used for developing the models accordingly. model development and results reliability test cronbach’s alpha value is used to test the reliability of the hypothesized construct based on the data, where a value exceeding 0.7 is taken as indicating the received data is acceptable for meeting the consistency requirement (cho, hong and hyun, 2009; lai, 2007). as presented in table 3, the items are measured in five variables and the overall constructs are sufficiently satisfied. table 3 reliability test variables all16 q1-3 q4-6 q7-110 q11-13 q14-q16 cronbach’s alpha value 0.914 0.874 0.85 0.805 0.753 0.806 skitmore, xiong, xia, masrom and newton construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 202010 conceptual model 1 pls-sem has become a popular sem method in recent years for its ability to accommodate both reflective and formative measurement constructs (becker, klein and wetzel, 2012; ringle, sarstedt and straub, 2012). for this study, satisfaction was divided into economic-related satisfaction and noneconomic satisfaction that is specific to production-related satisfaction. that is, contractor satisfaction is a formative-reflective construct. to test h2a and h2b separately, two models were constructed. each contains three latent variables (oc, dp, and cpmp) with corresponding reflective indicators, one second-order hierarchical latent variable (cos) and two first order (reflective) constructs that form the second order (formative) construct. the repeated indicator approach was used for the conceptual model due to its comparatively high reliability and wide applications in reflective-formative construct problems (chin, 2010; becker, klein and wetzel, 2012; ringle, sarstedt and straub, 2012). for this approach, a higher-order latent variable comprising lower-order latent variables could be constructed by representing all the observed variables belonging to the lower-order latent variables. this approach can estimate scores of latent variables simultaneously instead of estimating different order constructs separately, and then uses the needed construct scores to test the proposed relationships as a separate step (ringle, sarstedt and straub, 2012; hair et al., 2017). model fit evaluation to validate the measurement components, three types of validity were assessed: internal consistency reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity. compared with cronbach’s alpha values presented in table 4, values of composite reliability are preferred in the testing of internal consistency reliability, as such measures do not assume that the observed variables share the same out-loadings (hair et al., 2017). the average variance extracted (ave) was used to test convergent validity. as table 4 indicates, the values of composite reliability and ave are greater than the required 0.7 and 0.5 respectively (hair et al., 2017); all factor loadings of the observed variables on latent variables are significant at the 0.01 level; the discriminant validity is satisfactory, as the square root of the average variance extracted for each construct is more than the maximum correlations with other constructs (fornell and larcker, 1981); and the loadings are greater than the cross loadings by 0.1 as required (hair et al., 2017). table 4 validity test results latent variables cr ave correlations between constructs oc dp cpmp es ps oc 0.923 0.800 0.894 dp 0.909 0.769 0.531 0.877 cpmp 0.872 0.631 0.499 0.635 0.795 es 0.887 0.724 0.500 0.530 0.411 0.851 ps 0.861 0.674 0.480 0.484 0.469 0.640 0.821 cos 0.889 0.572 n/a n/a n/a n/a n/a note: bold numbers in the diagonal row are the square roots of the average variance extracted. although the results presented are generated in model 1a, the values of cr and ave in model 1b are the same to within 0.001 and the differences in correlations between the two models to within 0.005. relationship between contractor satisfaction and project management performance construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 202011 in addition to validity assessment, multicollinearity issues were checked for relatively high correlations between some variables in table 4 (e.g. a correlation of 0.640 between es and ps). with ranges of 1.457 to 2.044 for model 1a and 1.458 to 2.044 for model 1b, the values of the variance inflation factor (vif) for all first-order constructs are acceptable. model development having confirmed their validity, the results of developing conceptual model 1 are presented in figs 3 and 4 respectively to test h2a and h2b. cos is a second order latent variable consisting of es and ps, and the relationships between the three variables are calculated by the repeated indicator approach. the non-significant low r2 results indicated the lack of a strong enough relationship should be considered further. since other satisfactory results were achieved, only the links between the three latent variables of oc, dp, and cpmp, and the second order cos are presented. as the company size control variable has a weak and insignificant effect in both models 1a and 1b, its results are not presented. figure 3 model 1a testing h2a: cos affects cpmp figure 4 model 1b testing h2b: cpmp affects cos note for figs 3 and 4: the values shown above the arrows are the path coefficients validated by bootstrapping. the t-statistics are shown in parentheses and their significance at the 1% (***)/ 5% (**) level with values greater than 2.58/1.96. n.s below the arrows means the relationship is not significant at the 5% level. skitmore, xiong, xia, masrom and newton construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 202012 these show that both coscpmp and cpmpcos are highly significant at the 0.1 level (t-statistic=1.64), but still far from significant at the 0.05 level (t-statistic=1.96). these results are generally consistent with many earlier studies of the s-p relationship, in that they are positive but weak. table 5 summarizes the results of the hypothesis tests table 5 results of hypothesis tests hypotheses model 1a model 1b h1a: oc has a positive direct effect on cos supported supported h1b: oc has a positive direct effect on cpmp not supported not supported h1c: oc has positive effects on dp supported supported h1d: dp have positive direct effects on cos supported supported h1e: dp has a positive direct effect on cpmp supported supported h2a: cos causes cpmp not supported n/a h2b: cpmp causes cos n/a not supported conceptual model 2 the results gained in conceptual model 1 indicate the potential benefits of satisfaction disaggregation. in developing model 2, although pls-sem is used to obtain the significance of the links and coefficients, cb-sem is preferred for its ability to provide more accurate parameter estimates for the first-order reflective constructs (hair, ringle and sarstedt, 2012). a two-step modelling method is often used when applying cb-sem, (byrne, 2016; anvuur and kumaraswamy, 2012; xiong, skitmore and xia, 2015). this involves firstly carrying out a confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) from the correlations of all the latent variables and then, if the model fit results of the cfa are acceptable, changing these to propose directional relationships for further analyses. confirmatory factor analysis table 6 shows the standardized regression weights and squared multiple correlations (smcs) for each observed item. all the regression weights (factor loadings) range from 0.627 to 0.894 and, being above 0.5, are therefore highly significant (anvuur and kumaraswamy, 2012). the smcs range from 0.393 to 0.799 (mean=0.600, sd=0.113). the average smcs of the items in the measurement models are the ave of the latent variables and, ranging from 0.510 to 0.759, are all greater than the 0.5 threshold. in terms of goodness of fit as presented in table 7, χ2 = 187.214 (df = 170, χ2/df = 1.101, p=0.174) for the cfa phase, the χ2/df value of less than 2 indicating a good fit (xiong, skitmore and xia, 2015). table 6 standardized regression weights and smcs item standardized regression weights smc oc dp cpmp ps es q1 0.894a 0.799 q2 0.836 0.699 relationship between contractor satisfaction and project management performance construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 202013 item standardized regression weights smc oc dp cpmp ps es q3 0.882 0.778 q4 0.836 0.698 q5 0.852 0.727 q6 0.740a 0.548 q7 0.627a 0.393 q8 0.721 0.519 q9 0.748 0.560 q10 0.762 0.581 q11 0.718a 0.516 q12 0.707 0.500 q13 0.717 0.514 q14 0.768 0.590 q15 0.797 0.635 q16 0.732a 0.536 structural equation modelling as a good model fit was obtained in the cfa phase, the correlations between the latent variables are replaced by the hypothesized directional relationships of conceptual model 2. fig. 5 shows the final model. company size was excluded for being highly insignificant and weak. the observed variables q1 to q16, measurement errors, and connections of items are omitted due to space limitations. figure 5 model 2 testing h4a and h4b table 6 continued skitmore, xiong, xia, masrom and newton construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 202014 table 7 goodness of fit goodness of fit measure criteria cfa sem χ2/df <5.0 1.101 1.294 absolute fit rmsea <0.08 0.021 0.036 srmr <0.08 0.0466 0.0619 rmr <0.05 0.031 0.044 incremental fit cfi >0.9 0.991 0.973 tli >0.9 0.987 0.962 parsimonious fit pnfi >0.5 0.646 0.648 pgfi >0.5 0.573 0.574 table 8 hypothesis direct effects hypotheses model 2 h3a: oc has a positive direct effect on es supported h3b: oc has a positive direct effect on cpmp not supported h3c: oc has a positive direct effect on ps supported h3d: oc has a positive direct effect on dp supported h3e: dp have positive direct effects on cpmp supported h3f: dp has positive effects on ps. supported h4a: ps has a positive direct effect on cpmp supported h4b: cpmp has a positive direct effect on es supported table 8 presents the results of testing the hypothesis direct effects. the smc of es is 0.485, which indicates that 48.5% of the variance in es is explained by both direct effects from oc and cpmp and indirect effects from oc, dp, and ps. this is similar for cpmp and ps with smcs of 0.685 and 0.462, respectively. following anvuur and kumaraswamy (2012), the bias-corrected bootstrap approach was used with 500 resamples and maximum likelihood estimation to provide a robust test of the significance of the indirect effects (see awang, afthanorhan an asri, 2015; hox and bechger, 1998). this indicates the significance to range from 0.002 to 0.050. for example, the indirect effect of dp on cpmp via the mediation of ps is 0.337×0.388=0.131, with a 95% confidence interval of (0.000, 0.322), p=0.045. the total effects are the sum of the direct effects and indirect effects. fig. 5 shows the standardized direct effects, and table 9 provides the standardized indirect effects and total effects. to maintain consistency, and as the effects of the insignificant oc-cpmp link are small, table 9 shows the influencing effects on the dependent variables without deleting this link. relationship between contractor satisfaction and project management performance construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 202015 table 9 standardized direct/indirect/total effects effects variables oc dp ps cpmp direct effects dp 0.626 ps 0.416 0.337 cpmp -0.091 0.601 0.388 es 0.455 0 0 0.34 indirect effects dp 0 ps 0.211 0 cpmp 0.62 0.131 0 es 0.179 0.249 0.132 0 total effects dp 0.626 ps 0.627 0.337 cpmp 0.528 0.732 0.388 es 0.634 0.249 0.132 0.34 discussion recognizing sub-dimensions of contractor satisfaction this paper explored the project participant satisfaction-performance nexus with empirical evidence from malaysian construction contractors. this was partially inspired by the question proposed by judge et al. (2001) for future research of whether the s-p relationship will be stronger at group or organization level? with this concern in mind, two satisfaction subdimensions comprising economic-related satisfaction (es) and production-related satisfaction (ps) were introduced in the context of construction projects. two series models were developed to test the s-p nexus of construction contractors. when satisfaction was seen as the usual holistic concept, the relationship between satisfaction and performance was weak – similar to previous studies at the individual level. the good fit of model 2 demonstrated the benefit of satisfaction disaggregation and the new s-p relationships proposed in this study. recognizing different directional relationships between contractor satisfaction sub-dimensions and contractor performance the development of the first conceptual model gave a similar result to previous research at the individual level, in that the linkage of satisfaction and performance was positive but weak. although organ (1988) found a high probability of the existence of a functional s-p relationship, and judge et al. (2001) obtained a 0.30 mean true correlation by conducting a meta-analysis, significant evidence of both directional models was still lacking. our findings for this model to test the s-p links of construction contractors were similarly insignificant. however, these results are sufficiently counterintuitive for research to continue in the measurement and estimation of project participant satisfaction in order to improve satisfaction (e.g. soetanto and proverbs, 2002; leung, 2004; li, ng and cheung, 2013; masrom, 2013; skitmore, xiong, xia, masrom and newton construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 202016 xiong et al., 2014). this suggests the solution to the s-p problem is more complex than previously realized. therefore, unlike previous empirical work, which assumed that all satisfaction facets share common unidirectional relationships with performance (e.g. lai, 2007), the model 2 presented here hypothesizes that ps had a positive effect on cpmp and cpmp positively affected es. in addition to providing a satisfactory r2 explanatory ability of model 2, the hypothesized paths were significant. the conflicting relationships of the two satisfaction dimensions on performance validated here may also explain some of the previous findings at the individual level. for example, lai (2007) found noneconomic satisfaction to be much stronger than economic satisfaction in determining the influence of decision strategies on performance. this suggests that a key problem of the theoretical debate on the s-p nexus to be the conflicting dimensions of satisfaction, which has important implications for future research at both individual and organizational levels. conclusions the nature of the nexus between satisfaction and performance has been debated for decades without a satisfactory resolution. this paper provided results of the empirical validation of the hypothesized conceptual models among construction project participants. the results demonstrated that the definitions of satisfaction and performance should be more specific when discussing the s-p nexus. the findings of the disaggregated sub-dimensions of contractor satisfaction and the different directional relationships between contractor satisfaction sub-dimensions and contractor performance offered an innovative and reasonable way to understand the s-p nexus among project participants, which has significant implications for future research and practice. this study was consistent with findings of previous studies in that other participant performance factors are critical to contractor performance. in addition, production-related satisfaction (ps) was found to mediate the effects of the factors on contractor performance. future similar studies are encouraged to identify common antecedent variables (e.g. oc and dp) of the s-p nexus, as well as critical factors to ps (e.g. safety climate). contractor performance could be improved by improving these aspects. a further contribution was the comprehensive use of cb-sem and pls-sem in solving the research problem. although cb-sem and pls-sem are increasingly used in social science studies, they are rarely used together in the same research (hair, ringle and sarstedt, 2012). this study combined the advantages of both approaches to provide a suitable model development procedure for testing the formative-reflective construct in the first step and then disaggregating the formative component in the second step. this can be seen as a good demonstration of using both methods simultaneously and provides a reference for similar future research. being a pioneer study of the organizational satisfaction-performance nexus, the research was limited by the measures for satisfaction and performance being less well established than such widely used scales as jdi and msq for individual satisfaction. building a comprehensive analysis framework (e.g., considering organizational citizenship behaviour, further classifying project quality into project quality and process quality, and considering the dimension of relational satisfaction) will be beneficial for further studies, otherwise the inconsistency of measures may lead to a significant bias and difficulty in conducting comprehensive analyses (e.g. meta-analysis). the framework also needs to be sufficiently flexible since the items to measure noneconomic satisfaction may be different for different industries and working roles. relationship between contractor satisfaction and project management performance construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 202017 this study contributed to this aspect by demonstrating the necessity to distinguish between economic and noneconomic dimensions. another limitation is that, although two antecedent variables and one control variable were considered here, some potential moderators may exist between satisfaction and performance. for example, for trust among project participants, one possible situation is that when trust is high, the positive link between noneconomic satisfaction and performance will be larger, and vice versa. similarly, design errors are likely to have an influencing role. additionally, public/private sector differences, industry differences, cultural differences, and country differences are also possible as well as changes over time. future research will therefore benefit from identifying the influence of potential antecedents, mediators, and moderators. although the hypotheses were verified by evidence at the time of the research from the malaysian construction industry, which is typical of the construction industries in most market economies, the relevance of our results to other industries and other countries is uncertain: more empirical studies are needed of different industries, contexts and time periods to understand the bigger picture. similarly, the effects of stakeholders other than owners and designers are in need of further investigation; it would be beneficial to test the hypothesis that noneconomic satisfaction positively affects performance, and performance positively affects economic satisfaction at the individual level; and it would be interesting to investigate the use of the pls and cb models in a single research to see how they complement each other and which offers a more accurate predictive power. finally, this study only focused on the relationships between satisfaction and performance of project participating companies. further studies are needed to explore such cross-level influences as the impact of perceived organizational economic/noneconomic satisfaction on individual performance, organizational performance on individual satisfaction, and vice versa. additional work is also needed to understand on how these findings could be of practical benefit in creating harmonious relationships between participants. despite this study being derived in the context of the malaysia construction industry, the models developed, and findings provided are likely to be useful for other industries and countries in understanding and improving project planning, implementation, and outcome assessments. acknowledgement the second author was financially supported by a qut hdr sponsorship from the research project “ber-cam” funded by the commonwealth of australia represented by the department of education. declaration of interest there are no conflicts of interest. data availability the data are available from the authors. references abulhakim, n. and adeleke, a. q., 2019. the factors contributing to accident occurrence on malaysia building projects through partial least square structural equation modeling. social science and humanities journal, 4(1), pp.1096-1106. skitmore, xiong, xia, masrom and newton construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 202018 andriof, j., waddock, s., husted, b., and rahman, s. s., 2017. unfolding stakeholder thinking: theory, responsibility and engagement. routledge. anvuur, a., and kumaraswamy, m., 2012. measurement and antecedents of cooperation in construction. journal of construction engineering and management, 138(7), pp.797-810. doi: 10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0000498 assaf, s.a., and al-hejji, s., 2006. causes of delay in large construction projects. international journal of project management, 24(4), pp.349-57. doi: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.11.010 awang, z., afthanorhan, a. and asri, m.a.m., 2015. parametric and non-parametric approach in structural equation modeling (sem): the application of bootstrapping. modern applied science, 9(9), pp.58. doi: 10.5539/mas.v9n9p58 bagozzi, r.p., and yi,y., 2012. specification, evaluation, and interpretation of structural equation models. journal of the academy of marketing science, 40(1), pp.8-34. doi: 0.1007/s11747-011-0278-x becker, j.-m., klein, k., and wetzels, m., 2012. hierarchical latent variable models in pls-sem: guidelines for using reflective-formative type models. long range planning, 45(5), pp.359-94. doi: 10.1016/j.lrp.2012.10.001 brayfield, a.h., and crockett, w.h., 1955. employee attitudes and employee performance. psychological bulletin, 52(5), pp.396. doi: 10.1037/h0045899 brown, m., 2001. unequal pay, unequal responses? pay referents and their implications for pay level satisfaction. journal of management studies, 38(6), pp.879-86. doi: 10.1111/1467-6486.00263 byrne, b.m., 2016. structural equation modeling with amos: basic concepts, applications, and programming. new york: routledge. cheung, s.o., and chow, p.t., 2011. withdrawal in construction project dispute negotiation. journal of construction engineering and management, 137(12), pp.1071-9. doi: 10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0000388 chin, w.w., 2010. how to write up and report pls analyses. in vinzi, v. e., chin, w. w., henseler. j and wang. h. (eds), handbook of partial least squares, berlin: springer berlin heidelberg, 655-690. chiu, w.y.b., and ng, f.f., 2013. improvement of job satisfaction and organisational commitment through work group identification: an examination of the quantity surveyors in hong kong. construction economics and building, 13(3), pp.80-95. doi: 10.5130/ajceb.v13i3.3316 chiu, w.y.b., and ng, f.f., 2015. the mediation influence of job satisfaction on organisational commitment amongst quantity surveyors. construction economics and building, 15(1), pp.56-74. doi: 10.5130/ajceb.v15i1.4304 cho, k., hong, t., and hyun, c., 2009. effect of project characteristics on project performance in construction projects based on structural equation model. expert systems with applications, 36(7), pp.10461-70. doi: 10.1016/j.eswa.2009.01.032 dozzi, p., hartman, f., tidsbury, n., and ashrafi, r., 1996. more-stable owner-contractor relationships. journal of construction engineering and management, 122(1), pp.30-5. doi: 10.1061/(asce)07339364(1996)122:1(30) el-sawalhi, n.i. and salah, h.., 2015. factors affecting stakeholder management in construction projects in the gaza strip. international journal of construction management, 15(2), pp.157-69. doi: 10.1080/15623599.2015.1035626 relationship between contractor satisfaction and project management performance construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 202019 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000498 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000498 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.11.010 http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/mas.v9n9p58 http://dx.doi.org/0.1007/s11747-011-0278-x http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2012.10.001 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0045899 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00263 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000388 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000388 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i3.3316 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i1.4304 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2009.01.032 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1996)122:1(30) http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1996)122:1(30) http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2015.1035626 elyamany, a., and abdelrahman, m., 2010. contractor performance evaluation for the best value of superpave projects. journal of construction engineering and management, 136(5), pp.606-14. doi: 10.1061/ (asce)co.1943-7862.0000158 eriksson, p.e., larsson, j., and pesämaa, o., 2017. managing complex projects in the infrastructure sector—a structural equation model for flexibility-focused project management. international journal of project management, 35(8), pp.1512-23. doi: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.08.015 esenduran, g., hall, n.g., and liu, z., 2015. environmental regulation in project‐based industries. naval research logistics (nrl), 62(3), pp.228-47. doi: 10.1002/nav.21625c fisher, c.d., 2003. why do lay people believe that satisfaction and performance are correlated? possible sources of a common-sense theory. journal of organizational behavior, 24(6), pp.753-77. doi: 10.1002/ job.219 fornell, c., and larcker, d., 1982. a second generation of multivariate analysis: an overview. in: fornell. c. (ed.), a second generation of multivariate analysis. new york: praeger, pp.1-21 fornell, c., and larcker, d.f., 1981. evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. journal of marketing research, 18(1), pp.39-50. doi: 10.1177/002224378101800104 forsythe, p., 2015. monitoring customer perceived service quality and satisfaction during the construction process. construction economics and building, 15(1), pp.19-42. doi: 10.5130/ajceb.v15i1.4172 freeman, r.e., 1984. strategic management: a stakeholder approach. boston: pitman/ballinger. geyskens, i., steenkamp, j.-b.e., and kumar, n., 1999. a meta-analysis of satisfaction in marketing channel relationships. journal of marketing research, 36(2), pp.223-38. doi: 10.1177/002224379903600207 ha, m.h., yang, z., notteboom, t., ng, a.k., and heo, m.w., 2017. revisiting port performance measurement: a hybrid multi-stakeholder framework for the modelling of port performance indicators. transportation research part e: logistics and transportation review, 103, pp.1-16. doi: 10.1016/j. tre.2017.04.008 hair, j.f., hult, g.t.m., ringle, c.m. and sarstedt, m. (2017), a primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem), 2nd ed., sage, thousand oaks, ca. hair, j.f., ringle, c.m., and sarstedt, m., 2012. partial least squares: the better approach to structural equation modeling? long range planning, 45(5), pp.312-9. doi: 10.1016/j.lrp.2012.09.011 hobday, m., 2000. the project-based organisation: an ideal form for managing complex products and systems? research policy, 29(7), pp.871-83. doi: 10.1016/s0048-7333(00)00110-4 hong, y., hammad, a.w., sepasgozar, s. and akbarnezhad, a., 2019. bim adoption model for small and medium construction organisations in australia. engineering, construction and architectural management, 26(2), pp.154-83. doi: 10.1108/ecam-04-2017-0064 hosseini, m.r., chileshe, n., and zillante, g., 2014. investigating the factors associated with job satisfaction of construction workers in south australia. the australasian journal of construction economics and building, 14(3), pp.1-17. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i3.4154 hox, j.j. and bechger, t.m., 1998. an introduction to structural equation modeling. family science review, 11, pp.354-73. skitmore, xiong, xia, masrom and newton construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 202020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000158 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000158 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.08.015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/nav.21625c http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.219 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/job.219 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800104 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i1.4172 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/002224379903600207 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2017.04.008 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2017.04.008 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2012.09.011 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/s0048-7333(00)00110-4 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-2017-0064 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i3.4154 ibbs, c.w., and ashley, d.b., 1987. impact of various construction contract clauses. journal of construction engineering and management, 113(3), pp.501-21. doi: 10.1061/(asce)07339364(1987)113:3(501) ibiyemi, a., adnan, y.m., daud, m.n., and adenipekun, m., 2014. an examination of the structure of sustainable facilities planning scale for user satisfaction in nigerian universities. the australasian journal of construction economics and building, 14(3), pp.58-73. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i3.4157 ingle, p.v., and mahesh, g., 2020. construction project performance areas for indian construction projects. international journal of construction management, doi: 10.1080/15623599.2020.1721177 jaafar, m., and radzi, n.m., 2013. level of satisfaction and issues with procurement systems used in the malaysian public sector. the australasian journal of construction economics and building, 13(1), pp.50-65. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i1.2830 jarvis, c.b., mackenzie, s.b., and podsakoff, p.m., 2003. a critical review of construct indicators and measurement model misspecification in marketing and consumer research. journal of consumer research, 30(2), pp.199-218. doi: 10.1086/376806 judge, t.a., thoresen, c.j., bono, j.e., and patton, g.k., 2001. the job satisfaction–job performance relationship: a qualitative and quantitative review. psychological bulletin, 127(3), pp.376. doi: 10.1037/0033-2909.127.3.376 kline, r.b., 2015. principles and practice of structural equation modeling. new york: guilford press. lai, c.s., 2007. the effects of influence strategies on dealer satisfaction and performance in taiwan’s motor industry. industrial marketing management, 36(4), pp.518-27. doi: 10.1016/j. indmarman.2005.08.015 lai, i., and lam, f.k.s., 2010. perception of various performance criteria by stakeholders in the construction sector in hong kong. construction management and economics. 28(4), pp.377-91. doi: 10.1080/01446190903521515 lawler, e.e., porter, l.w., 1967. the effect of performance on job satisfaction. industrial relations: a journal of economy and society, 7(1), pp.20-8. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-232x.1967.tb01060.x leung, m.y., ng, s.t., and cheung, s.o., 2004. measuring construction project participant satisfaction. construction management and economics, 22(3), pp.319-31. doi: 10.1080/01446190320000000000 lew, y.l., hassim, s., muniandy, r. and hua, l.t., 2018. structural equation modelling for subcontracting practice: malaysia chapter. engineering, construction and architectural management, 25(7), pp.835-60. doi: 10.1108/ecam-04-2017-0073 li, t.h., ng, s.t., and skitmore, m., 2013. evaluating stakeholder satisfaction during public participation in major infrastructure and construction projects: a fuzzy approach. automation in construction, 29, pp.123-35. doi: 10.1016/j.autcon.2012.09.007 ling, f.y.y., chan, s.l., chong, e., and ee, l.p., 2004. predicting performance of design-build and design-bid-build projects. journal of construction engineering and management, 130(1), pp.75-83. doi: 10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:1(75) ling, f.y., sui, p.l., wang, s.q., and egbelakin, t., 2008. models for predicting project performance in china using project management practices adopted by foreign aec firms. journal of construction engineering and management, 134(12), pp.983-90. doi: 10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:12(983) relationship between contractor satisfaction and project management performance construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 202021 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1987)113:3(501) http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1987)113:3(501) https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i3.4157 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1721177 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i1.2830 http://dx.doi.org/10.1086/376806 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.127.3.376 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2005.08.015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2005.08.015 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190903521515 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-232x.1967.tb01060.x http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446190320000000000 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-2017-0073 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.09.007 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:1(75) http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:12(983) lopez, e.m., 1982. a test of the self-consistency theory of the job performance-job satisfaction relationship. academy of management journal, 25(2), pp.335-48. doi: 10.5465/255995 masrom, m.a.n., 2012. developing a predictive contractor satisfaction model (cosmo) for construction projects. unpublished phd thesis, queensland university of technology, brisbane. masrom, m.a.n., skitmore, m., and bridge, a., 2013. determinants of contractor satisfaction. construction management and economics, 31(7), pp.761-79. doi: 10.1080/01446193.2013.814919 mellado, f., lou, e.c., and becerra, c.l.c., 2019. synthesising performance in the construction industry. engineering, construction and architectural management, 27(2), pp.579-608. doi: 10.1108/ ecam-09-2018-0419 mok, k.y., shen, g.q., and yang, r.j., 2017. a network theory-based analysis of stakeholder issues and their interrelationships in large construction projects: a case study. international journal of construction management, 17(3), pp.210-27. doi: 10.1080/15623599.2016.1187246 munns, a., and bjeirmi, b.f., 1996. the role of project management in achieving project success. international journal of project management, 14(2), pp.81-7. doi: 10.1016/0263-7863(95)00057-7 nerkar, a.a., mcgrath, r.g., and macmillan, i.c., 1996. three facets of satisfaction and their influence on the performance of innovation teams. journal of business venturing, 11(3), pp.167-88. doi: 10.1016/0883-9026(96)00002-x nugraha, a.s., and putranto, l.s., 2019, october. the effect of heavy equipment management on the performance of the construction project and the construction company. in iop conference series: materials science and engineering (vol. 650, no. 1, pp.012019). iop publishing. doi: 10.1088/1757899x/650/1/012019 olugboyega, o., and windapo, a., 2019, july. a building information modelling-integrated model of construction project performance indicators. in construction industry development board postgraduate research conference (pp.144-57). springer, cham. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-26528-1_15 onukwube, h.n., 2012. correlates of job satisfaction amongst quantity surveyors in consulting firms in lagos, nigeria. construction economics and building, 12(2), pp.54-70. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v12i2.2460 organ, d.w., 1988. a restatement of the satisfaction-performance hypothesis. journal of management, 14(4), pp 547-57. doi: 10.1177/014920638801400405 orlitzky, m., and swanson, d.l., 2012. assessing stakeholder satisfaction: toward a supplemental measure of corporate social performance as reputation. corporate reputation review, 15(2), pp.119-37. doi: 10.1057/crr.2012.3 panahi, b., moezzi, e., preece, c.n., and wan zakaria, w.n., 2016. personal-organisational value conflicts and job satisfaction of internal construction stakeholders. construction economics and building, 16(1), pp.1-17. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i1.4811 park, s.h., 2009. whole life performance assessment: critical success factors. journal of construction engineering management, 135(11), pp.1146–61. doi: 10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000090 pearsall, m.j., and ellis, a.p., 2006. the effects of critical team member assertiveness on team performance and satisfaction. journal of management, 32(4), pp.575-94. doi: 10.1177/0149206306289099 porter, m.e., and kramer, m.r., 2006. the link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility. harvard business review, 84(12), pp.78-93. skitmore, xiong, xia, masrom and newton construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 202022 http://dx.doi.org/10.5465/255995 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.814919 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2018-0419 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2018-0419 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1187246 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(95)00057-7 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0883-9026(96)00002-x http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/650/1/012019 http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/650/1/012019 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26528-1_15 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v12i2.2460 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v12i2.2460 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/014920638801400405 http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/crr.2012.3 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i1.4811 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000090 http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0149206306289099 qureshi, s.m., and kang, c. 2015. analysing the organizational factors of project complexity using structural equation modelling. international journal of project management, 33(1), pp.165-76. doi: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.04.006 ringle, c.m., wende, s., and will, a., 2005. smartpls 2.0 (beta). hamburg, germany. ringle, c., sarstedt, m., and straub, d., 2012. editors comments: a critical look at the use of pls-sem in mis quarterly. mis quarterly, 36(1), pp.iii-xiv. rodríguez, i.r.d.b., agudo, j.c., and gutiérrez, h. s. m., 2006. determinants of economic and social satisfaction in manufacturer–distributor relationships. industrial marketing management, 35(6), pp.66675. doi: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2005.05.006 sambasivan, m., and soon, y.w., 2007. causes and effects of delays in malaysian construction industry. international journal of project management, 25(5), pp.517-26. doi: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.11.007 schwab, d.p., and cummings, l.l., 1970. theories of performance and satisfaction: a review. industrial relations: a journal of economy and society, 9(4), pp.408-30. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-232x.1970. tb00524.x serrador, p., and turner, r., 2015. the relationship between project success and project efficiency. project management journal, 46(1), pp.30-9. doi: 10.1002/pmj.21468 seyis, s., ergen, e., and pizzi, e., 2016. identification of waste types and their root causes in greenbuilding project delivery process. journal of construction engineering and management, 142(2), art. 04015059. doi: 10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001038 smith, p.c., kendall, l.m., and hulin, c.l., 1969. the measurement of satisfaction in work and retirement. chicago: rand mcnally. soetanto, r., and proverbs, d. 2002. modelling client satisfaction levels: the impact of contractor performance. construction economics and building, 2(1), pp.13-27. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v2i1.2883 toor, s.r., and ogunlana, s.o., 2010. beyond the iron triangle: stakeholder perception of key performance indicators (kpis) for large-scale public sector development projects. international journal of project management, 28(3), pp.228-36. doi: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.05.005 turner, r., and zolin, r., 2012. forecasting success on large projects: developing reliable scales to predict multiple perspectives by multiple stakeholders over multiple time frames. project management journal, 43(5), pp.87-99. doi: 10.1002/pmj.21289 turner. j.r., 2014. the handbook of project-based management: leading strategic change in organizations. 4th ed. us: mcgraw-hill professional. ujene, a.o., and edike, u.e., 2015. relationships among internal stakeholders in construction projects: a cognitive evaluation for sustainable team integration in nigeria. international journal of construction management, 15(1), pp.71-81. doi: 0.1080/15623599.2015.1012142 wang, x., and huang, j., 2006. the relationships between key stakeholders project performance and project success: perceptions of chinese construction supervising engineers. international journal of project management, 24(3), pp.253-60. doi: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.11.006 wanous, j.p., and lawler, e.e., 1972. measurement and meaning of job satisfaction. journal of applied psychology, 56(2), pp.95-105. doi: 10.1037/h0032664 relationship between contractor satisfaction and project management performance construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 202023 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.04.006 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2005.05.006 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.11.007 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-232x.1970.tb00524.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-232x.1970.tb00524.x http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21468 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001038 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v2i1.2883 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v2i1.2883 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.05.005 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21289 http://dx.doi.org/0.1080/15623599.2015.1012142 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.11.006 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/h0032664 washington, s., karlaftis, m.g., mannering, f., and anastasopoulos, p., 2020. statistical and econometric methods for transportation data analysis. crc press. weiss, d.j., dawis, r.v., and england, g.w., 1967. manual for the minnesota satisfaction questionnaire. minnesota studies in vocational rehabilitation: xxii. minneapolis: university of minnesota. industrial relations center work adjustment project. williams, t., jonny klakegg, o., walker, d.h., andersen, b., and morten magnussen, o., 2012. identifying and acting on early warning signs in complex projects. project management journal, 43 no.), pp.37-53. doi: 10.1002/pmj.21259 wong, p.s.p., and lam, k.y., 2011. facing turbulence: driving force for construction organizations to regain unlearning and learning traction. journal of construction engineering and management, 138(10), pp.1202-11. doi: 10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000523 xiao, y., liu, j., and pang, y., 2019. development of a competency model for real-estate project managers: case study of china. international journal of construction management, 19(4)), pp.317-28. doi: 10.1080/15623599.2018.1435237 xiong, b., skitmore, m., and xia, b., 2015. a critical review of structural equation modeling applications in construction research. automation in construction, vol 49(part a)), pp.59-70. doi: 10.1016/j. autcon.2014.09.006 xiong, b., skitmore, m., xia, b., masrom, m.a., ye, k., and bridge, a., 2014. examining the influence of participant performance factors on contractor satisfaction: a structural equation model. international journal of project management, 32(2), pp.482-91. doi: 10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.06.003 yakubu, g.a., ogunsanmi, o.e., and yakubu, a.o., 2019. influences of communication problems on project performance in nigeria. african journal of engineering research, 7(3), pp.74-84. doi: 10.30918/ ajer.73.15.017 yang, j.b., and peng, s.c., 2008. development of a customer satisfaction evaluation model for construction project management. building and environment, 43(4), pp.458-68. doi: 10.1016/j. buildenv.2006.07.044 skitmore, xiong, xia, masrom and newton construction economics and building, vol. 20, no. 4, december 202024 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21259 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000523 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1435237 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2014.09.006 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2014.09.006 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.06.003 http://dx.doi.org/10.30918/ajer.73.15.017 http://dx.doi.org/10.30918/ajer.73.15.017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2006.07.044 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2006.07.044 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: gunathilaka, s. 2025. enabling team resilience against calamities through sensemaking in global construction engineering projects. construction economics and building, 25:3/4, 163–185. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i3/4.9095 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article enabling team resilience against calamities through sensemaking in global construction engineering projects sarath gunathilaka department of construction management, school of architecture, design and the built environment, nottingham trent university, nottingham, united kingdom corresponding author: sarath gunathilaka, sarath_gunathilaka@yahoo.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9095 article history: received 31/03/2024; revised 12/01/2025; accepted 18/07/2025; published 05/12/2025 abstract the work teams in global construction engineering projects (gceps) tend to face various natural and manmade calamities that can catastrophically influence their performance; thus, enabling team resilience becomes vital. the literature shows noteworthy evidence identifying collective sensemaking as a key enabler to achieving team resilience, but this has still not been empirically confirmed and creates a knowledge gap. the global construction organizations also argue whether these teams actually need collective sensemaking for this purpose since team members will not have facetoface interactions during times of calamities as they reside in different countries and work via virtual mode. with the results of a questionnaire survey among 52 gcep teams, this paper concludes the positive and significant relationship between collective sensemaking and team resilience, confirming that the teams need collective sensemaking to become resilient. this finding makes an original contribution to the theory and practice in the gcep sector and highlights the importance of muchneeded attention from these teams to create collective sensemaking to become resilient against calamities. a recommendation is made for revealing practical ways of achieving this in a future study. keywords collective sensemaking; global construction engineering projects; project calamities; project teams; team resilience 163 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9095 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9095 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9095 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9095 introduction enabling team resilience is vital for the teams in global construction engineering projects (gceps) because they face performance challenges from time to time due to calamities in their volatile project environments. volatility is referred to as the difficulty in understanding the outcome of a complexity (mack et al., 2016). the gcep environment is always volatile due to many complexities and calamities such as climate change (röser, 2024), terrorism (aho and lehtinen, 2024), economic fluctuations and political shifts (alparslan, 2024), and rapid technological advancements (alparslan, 2024; röser, 2024). such volatilities can disrupt the level of team performance, creating numerous risks (röser, 2024). among these volatilities, calamities become significant performance issues and challenges. a calamity is a serious accident or a bad event causing damage or suffering according to the online cambridge dictionary. for example, the recent covid19 pandemic was a calamity that created damage and suffering to all industries around the world (nurizzati and hartono, 2023). there are two categories of calamity as accepted by the united nations (green, 1993). the first category is natural calamities that are exogenous and nonhuman immediate causes, whereas the second category is manmade disasters such as war (grenn, 1993). some examples of natural calamities are blizzards (cappucci, 2024; halverson, 2024), cyclones (forbis et al., 2024), earthquakes (qiu et al., 2024; zei et al., 2024), flood (dharmarathne et al., 2024), hurricanes (comola et al., 2024), landslides (sharma et al., 2024; svennevig et al., 2024), tornadoes (forbis et al., 2024; strader et al., 2024), tsunamis (iwachido, kaneko and sasaki, 2024), volcanic eruptions (bilbao et al., 2024; lin and su, 2024), and wildfires (ferreira, sotero and relvas, 2024). manmade calamities include disasters such as arson (ribeiro et al., 2024), biological/chemical threat (reddy, 2024), civil disorder (braha, 2024), crime (davies and malik, 2024), cyberattacks (teichmann and boticiu, 2024), terrorism (kanwar and sharma, 2024), and war (wilson, 2024). because a project environment can be volatile, gcep teams can encounter both types of calamity that can influence their performance. thus, they should have the ability to enable team resilience for the mitigation of risks regardless of calamities they encounter for them to operate smoothly within the expected level of performance ( júnior, frederico and costa, 2023). literature provides noteworthy evidence to identify collective sensemaking as an exclusive construct that can enable team resilience (e.g., talat and riaz, 2020). the meaning of collective sensemaking is the process of generating and evaluating a shared understanding among a group of people connected by a common environment, such as a construction project, in response to complex challenges like calamities. for example, when a calamity is identified across, a team should immediately detect the risk, and the message about the danger is to be communicated among all team members instantly. generally, all team members in the gceps are not colocated and they work virtually and remotely, residing in different locations and countries. there are occasional remote and virtualworking situations for team members in any work team nowadays, but this situation is permanent in gcep teams. owing to their virtual team setup, these team members do not have facetoface interactions in close proximity. hence, making collective sense is practically difficult although this is needed for them to become resilient against calamities. thus, there is a contemporary debate among global construction organizations over whether these teams actually need collective sensemaking to become resilient. this has still not been confirmed through research, and thus, creates a knowledge gap. there is no empirical evidence on deciding the relationship between collective sensemaking and team resilience in gcep teams. in a recent study, malla and delhi (2022) highlighted the importance of identifying the crucial barriers in large infrastructure construction projects to interface best management practices. in most cases, gceps are largescale infrastructure projects. this paper aims to fill the knowledge gap by confirming the relationship between collective sensemaking and team resilience in gcep settings through a quantitative study. the findings will help gcep teams understand the importance of collective sensemaking to maintain performance resilience against calamities. gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025164 literature review team resilience as discussed in the introduction, team resilience is needed for maintaining the existing level of team performance against calamities in a volatile business or project environment such as a gcep (hartmann et al., 2020). as team resilience is a key construct in this paper, it is important to derive its definition for the context of gceps. the teams in gceps face significant challenging situations to manage, for example, the recent calamity of covid19 pandemic. these challenging situations are called “perturbations” that are defined as the major external or internal spikes in the pressure beyond the normal range of variability (gallopın, 2006). therefore, withstanding or recovering from perturbations is part of team resilience. when the working situation in a project is changed and the performance is adversely affected beyond the normal level of control, the project teams need enabling resilience to reset the original or appropriate level of performance (castka et al., 2001). thus, setting back to the original or appropriate level of performance is part of team resilience. anvuur (2008) viewed this as a quick recovery by lowering the sensitivity to shocks and stresses in the work environment. alliger et al. (2015) defined team resilience as the capacity of a team to withstand and overcome stressors in a manner that could enable sustained performance. this asserts that team resilience helps the teams to handle and bounce back from challenges that can endanger their cohesiveness and performance. according to the view of pavez et al. (2021), team resilience is the ability of a team to prosper despite adverse conditions such as high degrees of stress. taken together, team resilience for the context of gceps is defined as the capacity of a team to withstand or recover from perturbations due to challenges and disasters such as shocks, pressure, stresses, and calamities by lowering their sensitivity to such occurrences and set back to the original or appropriate level of performance (castka et al., 2001; gallopın, 2006; anvuur, 2008; alliger et al., 2015; pavez et al., 2021). literature shows that identifying the vulnerability of team members in the project environment is important before and when they become resilient teams (ionescu et al., 2009; alliger et al., 2015; fisher, lenoble and vanhove, 2023). being able to identify vulnerability in team members means being capable of keeping an eye on prevailing circumstances and being able to assess limitations that might affect performance (alliger et al., 2015). addressing vulnerabilities is important for the teams in gceps concerning both natural and manmade calamities, but most significant for resilience against natural calamities. ionescu et al. (2009) highlighted the importance of accurate communication and elimination of misunderstanding to address vulnerabilities on natural calamities such as climate changes. furthermore, fisher, lenoble and vanhove (2023) viewed that the capacity to acknowledge vulnerability was needed for teams to become resilient. moreover, alliger et al. (2015) highlighted the importance of the application of “minimizing” strategy at the earliest stage to plan contingencies before the arrival of problems such as calamities for the project teams to become vulnerable. another aspect that is needed for the project teams to become resilient is transformability (alliger et al., 2015; roy, 2022; iaojörgensen, 2023). transformability is the ability to recognize significant changes in one’s environment and respond to them successfully, often by creating a new system. it enables individuals, teams, companies, or societies to better cope with uncertainties by reshaping themselves in response to a changed environment. in gceps, transformability can help them become resilient, depending on prevailing circumstances. for example, iaojörgensen (2023) highlighted the strategy of transformative resilience against external project disruptions during the covid19 pandemic. the literature also shows that project teams need persistency to become resilient (hamel and valikangas, 2003; alliger et al., 2015; skalski et al., 2022). generally, persistency refers to continuous attempts to manage challenging situations regardless of the prevailing strength of a team. this is needed for the teams in gceps to become resilient against both natural and manmade calamities. persistency creates a positive association of mental resilience and wellbeing and, thus, this is helpful when dealing with calamities gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025165 (skalski et al., 2022). however, persistent thinking of team members does not always lead to team resilience, and it depends on the context of the calamity. for example, skalski et al. (2022) argued that persistent thinking might be dysfunctional for mental health because it had inflated the anxiety and disrupted well being during the covid19 pandemic. adaptability is also needed for the project teams to become resilient (gallopin, 2006; alliger et al., 2015; prasetyo et al., 2022; roy, 2022). adaptability is applicable mostly toward achieving team resilience against manmade calamities that are encountered in gceps, but it depends on the nature of the calamities. for example, roy (2022) viewed that adaptability to climate change would enable project resilience and, eventually, this idea could be extended toward team resilience due to the interchangeable nature of project and team contexts. prasetyo et al. (2022) also empirically illustrated the positive relationship between adaptability and organizational resilience that could also be extended to team resilience due to the interchangeable nature of the two. the coping ability of team members is also an important aspect for them to achieve a resilient status (groesbeck and aken, 2001; alliger et al., 2015). coping ability is the strength of the teams to withstand project changes in a way that does not allow the creation of adverse performance issues. groesbeck and aken (2001) illustrated the aspect of strong team wellness for coping with changes to become resilient in team settings. chai and park (2022) highlighted the strategy of virtual and remote working to maintain team wellness and coping ability during the covid19 pandemic. according to this analysis, the variables of vulnerability, transformability, persistency, adaptability, and coping ability should be considered in developing team resilience. collective sensemaking the concept and theory development relating to collective sensemaking were initiated at the end of the 20th century (e.g., weick, 1993). however, this has been an evolving research theme over the last three decades (e.g., bitencourt and bonotto, 2010; klein, wiggins and dominguez, 2010; bietti, tilston and bangerter, 2019; pham et al., 2023; knight et al., 2024). as defined in the literature, collective sensemaking is the assignment of meanings to issues or events that cause the current state of the world to become different from the expected (cristofaro, 2022). for example, when a calamity occurs in a gcep, the entire team needs to make sense of its occurrence in advance or instantly in order to take precautions for it not to influence team performance. some authors viewed collective sensemaking an intangible human characteristic (e.g., klein, wiggins and dominguez, 2010). this is the reason for the difficulty in understanding and measuring collective sensemaking in team settings. prior researchers in this area stated that sensemaking was an individual cognitive activity that was influenced by the position of an individual in a social system on the individual perspectives (e.g., maitlis, vogus and lawrence, 2013; zhang and soergel, 2014). however, collective sensemaking in team settings is difficult to accomplish and more critical because it poses team coordination requirements that can easily break down (klein, wiggins and dominguez, 2010). generally, collective sensemaking in the team environment is a process created in the mind of every individual (bitencourt and bonotto, 2010). this is the reason for the difficulty in creating collective sensemaking in team settings when calamities are encountered in the gceps because team members are virtually dispersed across different locations and countries. as collective sensemaking is also a key construct in this paper, it is necessary to establish its definition for the context of gcep. some authors identified collective sensemaking as a goaloriented collective activity (e.g., stensaker, falkenberg and grønhaug, 2008; bietti, tilston and bangerter, 2019). some other authors argued that collective sensemaking is made with the contribution of all individuals in a team by influencing each other (e.g., weick, 1993; frohm, 2002; boreham, 2004; gray, 2007). however, collective sensemaking is not an aggregation of individual sensemaking because if team members make individual sense of a prevailing situation, the teamrole structure will be disintegrated and the ability to make sense will be lost (frohm, 2002). according to klein, wiggins and dominguez (2010), collective sensemaking is a macrocognitive and collective team function that helps to understand the current situation and gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025166 anticipate the future against uncertain and ambiguous conditions. further research evidence shows that collective sensemaking does not always happen through every team member contribution; rather, it is the team’s capacity to integrate and build up shared mental models to create collective knowledge (akgün et al., 2012). further evidence indicates that communication, reflection, and social cognition are the elements of collective sensemaking to create such mental models (talat and riaz, 2020), and these are to be made at a particular point in time and space (varanasi et al., 2023). the teams should have analytical capacity, synthesizing and interpreting the situation to share appropriate narratives to build up such social cognition to make sense collectively (neill, mckee and rose, 2007; klein, wiggins and dominguez, 2010; akgün et al., 2012). taken together, collective sensemaking is defined as a goaloriented ongoing process in a team that involves exchanging of provisional understanding or connecting of cues and trying to agree on consensual interpretations through information gathering and reinterpretation of narratives and/or a course of analytical actions that are developed through shared mental models for creating knowledge to identify what is going to occur at a particular point in time and space (weick, 1993; frohm, 2002; boreham, 2004; gray, 2007; neill, mckee and rose, 2007; stensaker, falkenberg and grønhaug, 2008; klein, wiggins and dominguez, 2010; akgün et al., 2012; bietti, tilston and bangerter, 2019; talat and riaz, 2020; varanasi et al., 2023). there is a view that collective sensemaking is needed for the teams to become resilient against calamities. managing calamities appropriately is very important for the teams in gcep settings and, thus, whether collective sensemaking can enable team resilience against calamities in such a virtual team setting is worth investigating. the rest of this paper focuses on exploring the relationship between collective sensemaking and team resilience in gcep team settings. hypothesis literature shows noteworthy evidence to postulate the hypothesized relationship between collective sensemaking and team resilience in figure 1 for the teams in gceps. for example, boreham (2004) stated that collective sensemaking was needed for identifying and resolving problematic situations or events in a workplace. the workplace in the context of this paper is a gcep. applying the view of this author to the gcep context, it can be stated that a team in a gcep needs collective sensemaking to identify problematic situations or events such as calamities that they come across in their projects. identifying problematic situations is the vulnerability reviewed earlier in this paper as part of team resilience (ionescu et al., 2009; alliger et al., 2015; fisher, lenoble and vanhove, 2023). this means that collective sensemaking is needed for the teams in gecps to become resilient. then, they can show resilience by taking immediate actions to prevent the influence of such problems or adverse events and come back to the normal or appropriate level of performance (castka et al., 2001). for the teams in gceps, making sense in this manner is very important due to the turbulent nature of the volatile global project environment that can cause simultaneous calamities. the literature shows evidence of disasters due to the failure of making collective sense to become resilient in team settings such as the mann gulch disaster reviewed by weick (1993). this disaster happened due to the team’s failure to engage in collective sensemaking to become resilient in order to avoid the disaster. this analysis provides compelling evidence to predict the positive relationship between collective sensemaking and team resilience in gcep team settings. in a recent study, varanasi et al. (2023) also supported the positive relationship of collective sensemaking to team resilience during calamities such as the covid19 pandemic. although this finding is not related to the gcep sector, this view can be extended. murphy and devine (2023) also confirmed that sensemaking could help in adapting to the situations of crisis and changes such as the covid19 pandemic in a primary school environment. although the focused environment by these authors is different from the gcep environment, applying this finding to predict the positive and significant relationship between collective sensemaking and team resilience in gcep team settings is valid in the same context. moreover, talat and riaz (2020) also gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025167 confirmed the direct impact of team sensemaking on team resilience for the work teams in the information and communication technology projects that can also be extended to the gceps, as above. thus, for the gcep team settings, the following can be expected. h1: collective sensemaking will positively and significantly influence team resilience. this paper tests this hypothesis using the primary data collected from the teams in gcep settings through a quantitative questionnaire survey. the next section describes the research design and methodology adopted to test this hypothesis. method research design the research design of a study depends on the research questions (bryman, 2015; bryman and bell 2015; saunders et al., 2016). the research study related to this paper investigated the research question of what the relationship between collective sensemaking and team resilience is in the gceps. to answer this question, h1 is postulated with the help of the literature as shown in the conceptual research framework in figure 1. the questions about the assumptions made for developing this conceptual research framework by the researcher regarding how gcep teams work illustrate the ontological philosophical position of the research (saunders et al., 2016). as the scope of the study was investigating the hypothesized relationship in the gcep context, literature alone was insufficient due to limited available sources. thus, a quantitative research approach was more appropriate to test the hypothesis (creswell, 2014; saunders et al., 2016). this means that, epistemologically, this study was of the belief that complex interactions among the various team members in gceps could be explored through a systematic and simplified approach adopting positivist perspectives of the acceptable knowledge on the gcep teams that is constituted through direct observable variables that can be quantifiable (bryman, 2015; bryman and bell, 2015). hence, a questionnaire survey among team members in gceps was adopted. as the conceptual research framework was at the team level, only teamlevel data were necessary to test the hypothesis. therefore, the respondents were asked to provide teamlevel data on the basis that the individuals were nested in teams and, thus, they could provide team level information. h1collective sensemaking team resilience no of team functions team size no of virtualworking countries cumulative teamwork duration project environment nature physical project location project value figure 1. conceptual research framework gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025168 measures the first step of the questionnaire survey was developing the survey instrument. generally, if the survey instruments are available in the literature, researchers will not need to develop new instruments. accordingly, the existing survey instruments were used with slight minor modifications of the texts to suit with the gcep context. each item scale in the survey instruments utilized a fivepoint likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) in a way that matched with the data analyzing strategy discussed below. extra care was taken to select item scales that had known and validated psychometric properties to minimize the risk of selecting incompatible survey instruments and to ensure that the research was free from bias. for this purpose, existing item scales were checked in terms of three theoretical methods used in quantitative research (field, 2009). data for applying these validity tests were taken from the results of papers that the item scales were adapted from as well as subsequent studies that the item scales were used. in the first method, the item scales with loading factors below 0.5 were reduced using the available exploratory factor analysis (efa) results in the literature. second, the item scales in components were reduced using the basis of composite reliability or cronbach’s alpha below 0.7. in the third method, the group of items with negligible percentage of loading compared to the total item scale were reduced as this is a common method used in quantitative research. collective sensemaking was measured with the 31item scale of akgün et al. (2012). the original study was on team sensemaking and, thus, the survey instrument aligned with the context of the study. the item scale represents six dimensions with valid psychometric properties: internal communication (α = 0.84), external communication (α = 0.77), information gathering (α = 0.84), information classification (α = 0.89), building shared mental models (α = 0.89), and experimental action (α = 0.92). none of the items could be deduced according to the three methods described above using existing data analysis results in literature and, thus, all 31 items were used. akgün et al. (2012) adapted sevenitem scales for internal communication from neill, mckee and rose (2007) and park, lim and philip (2009); fouritem scales for external communication from chang and cho (2008); fiveitem scales for information gathering from moorman (1995); fiveitem scales for information classification from akgün et al. (2006); fiveitem scales for building shared mental models from lynn, reilly and akgün (2000); and experimental action through fiveitem scales from bogner and barr (2000). team resilience was measured adapting the 40item scales developed by alliger et al. (2015) in their conceptual literature review paper. this survey instrument was matched with the context of team resilience in this paper. however, there was no evidence of data analysis results of this survey instrument in the literature and, thus, there was no psychometric evidence to reduce the item scales. therefore, all 40item scales were used for the survey. sample selection after developing the questionnaire, the sample population was decided on. the survey was conducted among team members in gceps, and the teams were selected from anywhere in the world through international contacts, networking, and also with the input received from a few professional bodies and global collaborative organizations. data were collected from randomly selected individuals in each team following the method of simple random sampling. a key contact person was appointed for each agreed participant team to select random respondents and to coordinate the communications. the first criterion for the sample selection was geographical dispersion of team members in two or more countries in order to make sure that the data were collected from global virtual teams. generally, such global teams may have a combination of team members from different organizations. therefore, in order to acquire a specific sample, selection was limited to the teams with team members from a single organization as the second criterion. gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025169 no restrictions were imposed in terms of the nature, the sector, and the value of the projects as well as the functions and sizes of the teams because the research question does not depend on these factors. the adopted data analyzing strategy consists of several methods as discussed in the next section and the sample size was decided accordingly because this is very important in quantitative research. the minimum threshold limit was set as 150 responses for the efa (field, 2009) and 50 teams for the ordinary least squares (ols) regression analysis (maas and hox, 2005). satisfaction of the sample size for the spearman correlation test was also checked using the equation given by bonett and wright (2000). data analyzing strategy the data analyzing strategy consists of applying analyses in two stages. the first stage is the data preparation and the second stage tests h1. the purpose of carrying out the data analysis in two stages is to acquire strong and validated results for making research conclusions. the first step in the first stage of data analysis was conducting missing data analysis. this was conducted both manually and with the ibm spss software. the second step in stage 1 was conducting the efa. this analysis examines the underlying patterns and relationships for a large number of variables in a dataset and determines whether the information can be condensed or summarized in a smaller set of factors or components (field, 2009). although existing survey instruments in the literature have been used, the purpose of applying the efa was to test the suitability of item scales for the gcep context and also for the item reduction by examining the dimensionality and reliability of all measures. this test was performed with the help of ibm spss software using principal component analysis (pca) with varimax rotation. the pca is a multivariate data analyzing technique that is used to extract important information from a large data table. this is carried out by means of a smaller set of new orthogonal variables called principal components that displays the pattern of similarity of observations and variables as points in maps (abdi and williams, 2010). this is a versatile statistical technique that can be used to reduce casesbyvariables in a data table into principal components (greenacre et al., 2022). to apply pca with appropriate rotation, most researchers employ factor loading using the varimax rotation to adjust the components in a way that makes the loadings either high positive, negative, or zero while components are kept uncorrelated or orthogonal (corner, 2009). similarly, the pca with varimax rotation was selected as the appropriate method for this study. statistical validation of the results was tested with the thresholds of the 0.5 kaiser– meyer– olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy (field, 2009; napitupulu, kadar and jati, 2017) and composite reliability of 0.7 cronbach’s alpha. the pca seeks to explain the total variance including specific and error variance in the correlation matrix. the communality in a factor matrix is referred to as the sum of the squared loadings for a particular item that indicates the proportion of variance for the given item that is explained by the factors (tavakol and wetzel, 2020). communalities provide information on how much variance that the variables have in common or share, and sometimes indicate how highly predictable variables are form from one another (pruzek, 2005). if the communality value is higher, the more the extracted factors will explain the variance of the item (tavakol and wetzel, 2020). generally, most studies use either 0.3 or 0.4 but, due to the relatively small sample size, only the communalities that were greater than 0.5 were selected (field, 2009). the data aggregation test was conducted as the third step because teamlevel (higher level) data were collected from a few individuals selected from each team (lower level) as no directly available indices to measure the higherlevel variables (lebreton, moeller and wittmer, 2023). the purpose was to check whether the results represent the team level without deviations outside the accepted ranges. the precondition for the aggregation test is that the group mean provides an adequate representation of the individual values (cohen et al., 2001). for the aggregation test, the within group agreement index of rwg( j) developed by james et al. (1984) was applied. the ruleofthumb applied was that the values of these indices were greater than 0.70 for sufficient homogeneity to warrant aggregation (cf. harvey and gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025170 hollander, 2004). in order to further test the validity of the data, bivariate correlations among the team level variables were also tested as the fourth step in data preparation. the threshold range of 0.3 to 0.9 was adopted to decide the validity (field, 2009). thereafter, the second stage of data analysis to test h1 was performed. both ols regression analysis (parametric test) and spearman correlation analysis (nonparametric test) were performed because two methods could give strong results in terms of methodological triangulation. as the survey variables were measured on a likert scale, their normalities were checked using the shapiro– wilk test, and a diagnostic check was also conducted as part of applying the ols regression analysis. the first method applied to test h1 was ols regression analysis. regression is a way of predicting an outcome variable (dependent variable) from one or several predictor variables (independent variables) in a relationship (field, 2009). the relationship in h1 is a simple regression because it has only one predictor variable as well as one outcome variable (field, 2009) as shown in figure 1. the survey instrument includes seven teamlevel control variables relating to the demographic information of the responding teams and their working environment in gceps (see figure 1). these variables represent the complexity and the nature of the work environment in gceps. although there were no direct influences identified in the literature, these control variables were included in the analysis due to their possible confounding effects on the hypothesized relationship. this predictor model is fitted with data in the regression and the method of least square is used to establish the line that best describes the data collected; the regression coefficient is its gradient (field, 2009). the regression coefficient is used to assess the relationship where zero means no relationship whereas a positive or negative relationship depends on the positive or negative regression coefficient (field, 2009; hair et al., 2010). the method of predictor selection is crucial in the regression analysis. the most common methods used in research are the hierarchical, forced entry, and stepwise methods in either forward or backward ways. as the relationship in h1 was at the single level, a combination of the hierarchical and forcedentry methods was employed. the control variables were forced entered (en bloc) as the first step and then the second step involved forced entry of the predictor variable with the control variables (en bloc) to determine its independent effects on the outcome variable. in ols regression analyses, assumptions are made to determine the regression model fit as well as generalizing to a specific population (field, 2009). accordingly, this study made four assumptions suggested by hair et al. (2010). they were the linearity of the phenomenon measured, homoscedasticity, independence of the error terms, and normality of the error term distribution. to assess the violation of the assumptions, researchers carry out some diagnostic checks to test how well or badly the regression model fits with the data (field, 2009). as suggested by hair et al. (2010), this study ran several diagnostic checks. the first was the plot of the residuals that represents the difference between the predicted and observed values for the outcome variable. the second was the scatter plot. these plots could be used to assess the violation of the assumptions of linearity and homoscedasticity. the third diagnostic test was the durbin– watson test to test the correlation between errors; the test statistics could vary between 0 and 4, with a value of 2 meaning that the residuals were uncorrelated (field, 2009). the fourth diagnostic test was the histogram plot of the residuals that were visually checked for normal distribution (hair et al., 2010) because the data were collected using a fivepoint likert scale. moreover, the fratio is the ratio of the average variability in the data that a given model can use to explain the average variability unexplained by the same model, and a good model should have an fratio greater than at least 1 (field, 2009). this rule was adopted as the fifth diagnostic test to assess the fit of the model considered to test the hypothesis. if all diagnostic checks are satisfactory, the goodness of the fit of the regression model will be ascertained. the second method applied for testing h1 was spearman correlation analysis. this is a nonparametric test commonly used in quantitative research and a distribution free test that does not require assumptions about the underlying population or the distribution of data. the spearman’s correlation coefficient gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025171 determines a simple linear relationship between two variables and measures without dimensions (al hameed, 2022). results survey respondents the survey was conducted among team members in gceps, and a total of 165 responses were received from 64 teams. however, the final sample after completing data preparation and validation checks (discussed below) included 163 respondents for the efa and 52 teams for the ols regression and spearman correlation analyses. the final sample consisted of 79% males and 21% females; 87% in the age range of 30– 60 years; 94% with the education of a degree or above; 33% from the uk, 18% from europe, and 33% from asian countries; 84% at managerial level or above; 78% with more than 5 years of global project experience; and 56% from projects over usd 50 million. stage 1 data analysis as the first step in stage 1 for data preparation, missing data analysis was conducted. initially, the responses were checked manually and one response was dropped due to missing some key information. thereafter, the missing value analysis option in spss was conducted (cf. hair et al., 2010). the purpose was to determine whether the remaining pattern of missing data after deleting the cases was missing completely at random (mcar). it was confirmed that the missing data pattern was mcar because little’s overall test of missing data was not significant (little’s mcar test: chisquare = 8,351.938, df = 9,296, sig. = 1.000). the remaining sample after these data preparation actions was 163 responses. thereafter, the efa was conducted using pca with varimax rotation in the ibm spss software. the kmo measures of sampling adequacy for collective sensemaking and team resilience were 0.882 and 0.911, respectively, and, thus, the selected sample fulfilled the threshold of 0.5 (field, 2009). scree plots that show the fulfilled results of pca for both collective sensemaking and team resilience are shown in figures 2 and 3, respectively. all item scales were loaded meaningfully and the variables/items that had not been loaded properly were dropped. the communalities of efa results are shown in tables 1 and 2 for collective sensemaking and team resilience, respectively. the final survey instruments used for testing h1 after dropping items according to threshold limits mentioned in the data analyzing strategy consisted of 19 and 36item scales for collective sensemaking and team resilience, respectively; they show strong cronbach’s alphas that are greater than the threshold limit of 0.7 (see tables 1 and 2). next, the aggregation test was conducted. the results indicated that both mean and median of teamlevel rwg( j) for the full sample were above 0.8 and satisfied the validation threshold limit of 0.7 (cf. harvey and hollander, 2004). however, responses from one team were dropped during this analysis because the results did not fulfill the validation check. in order to test the validity of data further, bivariate correlations among the teamlevel variables were also tested. none of the correlations among the variables was outside the adopted threshold range of 0.3 to 0.9 (field, 2009). overall, data from the sample fulfilled the requirement for testing the hypothesis. stage 2 data analysis the first method applied to test the hypothesis in stage 2 was the ols regression analysis in the ibm spss software. before conducting the ols regression, the normality was checked. although the dependent variable was measured as nonparametric using a likert scale, its normality check using the shapiro– wilk test had shown that the construct was normal, giving a pvalue of 0.239 (>0.05). the construct was measured gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025172 figure 2. pca scree plot of collective sensemaking table 1. efa results of collective sensemaking item scale communalities team members conduct frequent informal communications at lunch or after work 0.713 team members conduct frequent formal communications through team meetings 0.759 our team systematically acquires external technological and industry information 0.646 our team consults regularly with outside experts 0.511 team has the ability to collect information about relevant public than clients/ competitors 0.723 team has the ability of collecting information from external experts such as consultants 0.811 information collected is coded and sorted to be understood easily by team members 0.632 team members have a shared vision of the project 0.753 team members educate each other during the project 0.604 cost, time, and schedule information is organized in meaningful ways 0.531 technical information is summarized to reduce complexity 0.502 cost, time, and schedule information is summarized to reduce its complexity 0.590 gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025173 table 2. efa results of team resilience item scale communalities team monitors own personal readiness to meet upcoming challenges anticipated/unanticipated 0.709 team members communicate with one another so that team members know each other’s current capacity level 0.804 team maintains awareness of the team’s overall readiness and vulnerabilities 0.753 team addresses known vulnerabilities 0.774 team quickly and honestly assesses, communicates, and responds to challenges 0.878 team huddles as a team to diagnose unexpected challenges/stressors and consciously generates alternative approaches/solutions 0.724 team ensures that all team members know when the team is moving from normal to emergency mode 0.726 team quickly identifies what is not working in managing a challenging situation and makes realtime adjustments 0.824 team identifies any longstanding stresses that cannot be avoided, and establishes plans for managing them as best as possible 0.766 team clarifies whether and how the team situation has changed 0.823 team does a quick postevent pulse check to identify where the team may need to recover 0.721 team monitors individual team members for signs of postevent stresses 0.787 item scale communalities team has a shared understanding of the project users 0.521 team lets clients inspect prototypes/work in progress before the project is completed 0.530 team finishes the design of the project only after taking feedback from the client 0.552 team conducts systematic benchmarking 0.625 team has the ability of continuously collecting information from clients 0.686 team has the ability of continuously collecting information about competitors 0.712 team has the ability of continuously reexamining information in previous projects 0.546 item scale’s cronbach’s alpha 0.740 table 1. continued gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025174 item scale communalities team works through friction points that may have emerged between team members as a result of the stressful experience 0.807 team reestablishes relationships with those outside the team that might have been strained by the challenge 0.790 team communicates appreciation for helpful actions taken by team members during a stressful event 0.817 team members thank people outside the team for their help and support 0.617 team ensures that all team members are comfortable speaking when they need help 0.624 team members promptly ask for and seeks assistance 0.587 team provides timely ongoing status updates to team members as a challenging situation develops 0.725 team reduces stresses and addresses threats by using standard operating procedures and known solutions 0.669 team continues constructive routines in the face of stress 0.624 team defers to team members with the most relevant expertise and experience 0.621 team conducts a team debrief to identify lessons learned and how they want to work together going forward 0.704 team confirms followup actions and responsibilities to address resource or health concerns and ensure ongoing viability 0.763 team helps individual team members who are adversely affected by the challenging event or stresses 0.689 team makes adjustments to processes, procedures, resources, etc., so we feel prepared to handle future challenges 0.534 team understands any nearterm pending challenges that are likely to stress the team 0.612 team identifies the types of situations with which the team would have difficulty coping, and how best to prepare for them 0.730 team conducts whatif discussions to clarify how to handle likely and/or critical challenges 0.776 team anticipates likely potential risks to cohesion or performance 0.809 team identifies ways the team could avoid being surprised by a sudden demand/crisis 0.780 team members voice early alerts of potential problems 0.713 team ensures that warnings about potential problems are not dismissed 0.653 table 2. continued gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025175 using an item scale of 40, and the calculated mean values with two decimal places were used for the analysis; thus, the normality check was fulfilled. thereafter, the ols regression analysis in spss was performed. all control variables (en bloc) were run at the beginning (model 1; table 3). none of the control variables indicated either significant positive or negative relationships with team resilience (see table 3). however, a reasonable positive relationship was shown between cumulative teamwork duration and team resilience (β = 0.21, p < 0.1), but it was not significant. thereafter, at the second step, collective sensemaking and all control variables (en bloc) were run together (model 2; table 3). a positive and significant relationship between collective sensemaking and team resilience was found (β = 0.59, p < 0.01). as diagnostic checks, figures 4 and 5 show the satisfactory residual plot and the scatter plot. they were used to assess the violation of the assumptions relating to linearity and homoscedasticity. the durbin– watson test that was used to test the correlation between errors was also satisfactory, showing the value of 2.52 that is between the accepted levels of 0 to 4 (field, 2009). although the normality check was carried out before running ols regression, the histogram plot was also checked (see figure 6) and the normal distribution was reconfirmed (cf. hair et al., 2010). the average variability check fratio had also shown a satisfactory result of 3.64 that was greater than the minimum threshold of 1 (field, 2009). the regression coefficient and all diagnostic checks are satisfactory; thus, h1 is supported. the second test, spearman correlation analysis, also supported this hypothesis, giving a positive and significant relationship at the 0.01 level (twotailed), resulting in a spearman’s rank correlation coefficient of 0.561 at <0.001 significance (twotailed), as shown in table 4. thus, h1 is confirmed empirically. item scale communalities team prepares team members to recognize the signs of a potential challenge/problem 0.724 team identifies and documents backup responsibilities that team members can enact when needed 0.705 team establishes a process for assessing and communicating the nature and potential impact of a developing situation/challenge 0.767 item scale’s cronbach’s alpha 0.906 table 2. continued figure 3. pca scree plot of team resilience gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025176 discussion of findings the main finding in this study is the confirmation of the hypothesized relationship (h1) between collective sensemaking and team resilience for the gcep team context, giving credibility to the authors who provided noteworthy evidence in the literature to postulate this hypothesis (e.g., weick, 1993; castka, et al. 2001; boreham, 2004; ionescu et al., 2009; alliger et al., 2015; talat and riaz, 2020; fisher, lenoble and vanhove, 2023; murphy and devine, 2023; varanasi et al., 2023). this means that team resilience can be figure 4. residual plot of regression analysis figure 5. scatter plot of regression analysis gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025177 enabled through collective sensemaking in gcep team settings regardless of whether team members are virtually dispersed across different locations and countries so that they do not have facetoface interactions. this confirms that collective sensemaking is needed for them to know what is going on in their project figure 6. histogram of team resilience table 3. results of ols regression analysis variable team resilience model 1 model 2 number of team functions team size number of virtualworking countries cumulative teamwork duration project environment nature physical project location project value collective sensemaking 0.04 0.04 −0.08 0.21† 0.03 0.05 0.01 0.04 0.04 −0.08 0.21† 0.03 0.05 0.01 59** r2 δr2 f change durban– watson test anova (f) adjusted r2 variance of individual predictor variable 0.07 0.07 0.49 2.26 0.49 −0.08 0.07 0.40 0.40 3.64** 2.52 3.64** 0.29 0.33 *p < 0.05; **p < 0.01; ***p < 0.001; and †p < 0.10 gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025178 environment and to take preventive or corrective actions immediately when they face or are going to face problematic situations such as calamities. the findings highlight the importance of creating collective sensemaking in gcep settings to know what is going on to become vulnerable and resilient against calamities in order to prevent disasters like the mann gulch event described by weick (1993). the findings also confirm two survey instruments for the gcep context. collective sensemaking was confirmed with 19item scales giving credibility to the authors who initially developed the survey instrument (moorman, 1995; bogner and barr, 2000; lynn, reilly and akgün, 2000; akgün et al., 2006; neill, mckee and rose, 2007; chang and cho 2008; park, lim and philip, 2009; akgün et al., 2012). similarly, acknowledging the original contribution of alliger et al. (2015), the team resilience was confirmed with 36item scales. confirming these item scales will be helpful not only for future researchers to use in their studies but also for the teams in gceps to understand the important aspects to prioritize in their projects. because of the volatile nature in the gecps, knowing these aspects is helpful for them to apply appropriate preventive or corrective teamperformance practices to face these challenges. for example, they may be able to use an integrated software to communicate instant warning messages on calamities to all virtually dispersed team members. however, revealing how these teams create collective sensemaking to manage calamities is not within the scope of this paper, and this is to be explored in a future study. conclusions this paper concluded the positive and significant relationship between collective sensemaking and team resilience in the gcep team settings, and achieved the aim and the objective. this conclusion was made empirically confirming h1 that was postulated drawing from the literature. this conclusion confirms that the teams in gcep settings need to create collective sensemaking to enable team resilience against calamities regardless of the fact that team members work virtually and remotely, residing in different locations and countries without having facetoface interactions. this conclusion was extended by confirming the survey instruments of collective sensemaking and team resilience with 19 and 36item scales, respectively, for the gcep context. this may help these teams to identify what aspects are to be prioritized for becoming resilient through collective sensemaking, but revealing these practices has not been addressed in this paper. concluding this relationship represents a significant contribution because the findings provide several crucial implications to the gcep sector. although a holistic approach focusing on every construct to enable team resilience in this context was not the focus of this paper, the empirically validated and confirmed relationship highlights an important aspect to be focused on (i.e., collective sensemaking). this finding table 4. results of spearman correlation analysis team resilience mean collective sensemaking mean team resilience mean correlation coefficient 1.000 0.561** sig. (twotailed) <0.001 n 52 52 collective sensemaking mean correlation coefficient 0.561** 1.000 sig. (twotailed) <0.001 n 52 52 **correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (twotailed). gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025179 provides clear evidence and much needed clarity on the importance of applying best practice in creating collective sensemaking in these project settings to become resilient against calamities. this is important because these team members work permanently in virtual team settings. the originality of this finding is noteworthy and is one of the first research attempts to confirm the relationship between collective sensemaking and team resilience in gcep team setting. this finding is a significant theoretical contribution as well as an original contribution to the body of knowledge in the construction management research domain; therefore, evidence for the confirmed relationship is no longer anecdotal. this paper also contributes to the knowledge in terms of methodological standpoint through the identification and validation of two item scales for measuring collective sensemaking and team resilience in gcep team settings. future studies can employ these survey instruments. this paper, thus, advocates coherent theories in the construction management research domain. this research had two limitations. the first was due to the difficulty in the sampling of gceps because no information was available in a single place. therefore, extra care was taken to distribute the survey among teams in gecps across the world, although teams were found with the help of international contacts, professional bodies, and global collaborative organizations. the second limitation was the scope of this paper, which only revealed the relationship between collective sensemaking and team resilience in the gcep team settings. therefore, a recommendation is made to reveal how collective sensemaking is created to become resilient against calamities in the gcep team settings in a future study. references abdi, h. and williams, l.j. 2010. principal component analysis. wiley interdisciplinary reviews: computational statistics, 2(4), pp.433-459. https://doi.org/10.1002/wics.101 aho, a.m. and lehtinen, s. 2024. global professionals in the turbulent world: a multi-case study on self-initiated expatriates in the interconnected external environment. akgün, a.e., keskin, h., lynn, g. and dogan, d. 2012. antecedents and consequences of team sensemaking capability in product development projects. r&d management, 42(5), pp.473-493. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14679310.2012.00696.x akgün, a.e., lynn, g.s., and yılmaz, c. 2006. learning process in new product development teams and effects on product success. industrial marketing management, 35, pp.210-224. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2005.02.005 al-hameed, k.a.a. 2022. spearman’s correlation coefficient in statistical analysis. international journal of nonlinear analysis and applications, 13(1), pp.3249-3255. alliger, g.m., cerasoli, c.p., tannenbaum, s.i. and vessey, w.b. 2015. team resilience. organizational dynamics, 44, pp.176-184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2015.05.003 alparslan, f.f. 2024. adapting strategies and operations: how mnes navigate a volatile international business environment. available at ssrn 4851180. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4851180 anvuur, a.m. 2008. cooperation in construction projects, phd thesis, the university of hong kong. bietti, l.m., tilston, o. and bangerter, a. 2019. storytelling as adaptive collective sensemaking. topics in cognitive science, 11(4), pp.710-732. https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12358 bilbao, r., ortega, p., swingedouw, d., hermanson, l., athanasiadis, p., eade, r., devilliers, m., doblas-reyes, f., dunstone, n., ho, a.c. and merryfield, w. 2024. impact of volcanic eruptions on cmip6 decadal predictions: a multimodel analysis. earth system dynamics, 15(2), pp.501-525. https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-501-2024 gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025180 https://doi.org/10.1002/wics.101 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9310.2012.00696.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9310.2012.00696.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2005.02.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orgdyn.2015.05.003 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4851180 https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12358 https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-15-501-2024 bitencourt, c.c. and bonotto, f. 2010. the emergence of collective competence in a brazilian petrochemical company. management revue, 21(2), pp.174-192. https://doi.org/10.5771/0935-9915-2010-2-174 bogner, w.c. and barr, p.s. 2000. making sense in hypercompetitive environments. organization science, 11(2), pp.212226. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.11.2.212.12511 bonett, d.g. and wright, t.a. 2000. sample size requirements for estimating pearson, kendall and spearman correlations. psychometrika, 65, pp.23-28. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02294183 boreham, n. 2004. a theory of collective competence: challenging the neo‐liberal individualisation of performance at work. british journal of educational studies, 52(1), pp.5-17. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8527.2004.00251.x braha, d. 2024. phase transitions of civil unrest across countries and time. npj complexity, 1(1), p.1. https://doi. org/10.1038/s44260-024-00001-3 bryman, a. 2015. social research methods. oxford university press, uk. bryman, a. and bell, e. 2015. business research methods. oxford university press, uk. cappucci, m. 2024. new storm to bring blizzard and more tornadoes: city-by-city forecasts. the washington post. castka, p., bamber, c., sharp, j. and belohoubek, p. 2001. factors affecting successful implementation of high performance teams. team performance management, 7(7/8), pp.123-134. https://doi.org/10.1108/13527590110411037 chai, d.s. and park, s. 2022. the increased use of virtual teams during the covid-19 pandemic. human resource development international, 25(2), pp.199-218. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2022.2047250 chang, d.r. and cho, h. 2008. organizational memory influences new product success, journal of business research, 61 (1), pp.13–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2006.05.005 cohen, a., doveh, e. and eick, u. 2001. statistical properties of the rwg( j) index of agreement, psychological methods, 6 (3), pp.297-310. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989x.6.3.297 corner, s. 2009. choosing the right type of rotation in pca and efa. jalt testing & evaluation sig newsletter, 13(3), pp.20-25. comola, f., märtl, b., paul, h., bruns, c. and sapelza, k. 2024. impacts of global warming on hurricane-driven insurance losses in the united states. https://doi.org/10.31223/x5gq4h cristofaro, m. 2022. organizational sensemaking: a systematic review and a co-evolutionary model, european management journal, 40(3), pp.393-405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2021.07.003 davies, j. and malik, h. 2024. the organisation of crime and harm in the construction industry. taylor & francis. https:// doi.org/10.4324/9781003167990 dharmarathne, g., waduge, a.o., bogahawaththa, m., rathnayake, u. and meddage, d.p.p. 2024. adapting cities to the surge: a comprehensive review of climate-induced urban flooding. results in engineering, p.102123. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.rineng.2024.102123 ferreira, v., sotero, l. and relvas, a.p. 2024. facing the heat: a descriptive review of the literature on family and community resilience amidst wildfires and climate change. journal of family theory & review, 16(1), pp.53-71. https:// doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12551 field, a. 2009. discovering statistics using spss. 3rd ed. sage publications. fisher, d.m., lenoble, c.a. and vanhove, a.j. 2023. an integrated perspective on individual and team resilience. applied psychology, 72(3), pp.1043-1074. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12419 gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025181 https://doi.org/10.5771/0935-9915-2010-2-174 https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.11.2.212.12511 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02294183 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8527.2004.00251.x https://doi.org/10.1038/s44260-024-00001-3 https://doi.org/10.1038/s44260-024-00001-3 https://doi.org/10.1108/13527590110411037 https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2022.2047250 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2006.05.005 https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989x.6.3.297 https://doi.org/10.31223/x5gq4h https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2021.07.003 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003167990 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003167990 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2024.102123 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2024.102123 https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12551 https://doi.org/10.1111/jftr.12551 https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12419 forbis, d.c., patricola, c.m., bercos-hickey, e. and gallus jr, w.a. 2024. mid-century climate change impacts on tornado-producing tropical cyclones. weather and climate extremes, 44, p.100684. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. wace.2024.100684 frohm, c. 2002. collective competence in an interdisciplinary project context, phd thesis. linköpings university. sweden. gallopın, g.c. 2006. linkages between vulnerability, resilience, and adaptive capacity. global environmental change, 16(3), pp.293-303. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.02.004 gray, s.l. 2007. a grounded theory study of the phenomenon of collective competence in distributed, interdependent virtual teams, phd thesis, university of phoenix, usa. greenacre, m., groenen, p.j., hastie, t., d’enza, a.i., markos, a. and tuzhilina, e. 2022. principal component analysis. nature reviews methods primers, 2(1), p.100. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-022-00184-w green, r.h. 1993. calamities and catastrophes: extending the un response. third world quarterly, 14(1), pp.31-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/01436599308420312 groesbeck, r. and van aken, e.m. 2001. enabling team wellness: monitoring and maintaining teams after start‐up. team performance management: an international journal. 7(1/2), pp.11-20. https://doi.org/10.1108/13527590110389556 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., anderson, r.e. and tatham, r.l. 2010. multivariate data analysis, 7th ed. pearson. new jersey. halverson, j.b. 2024. an introduction to severe storms and hazardous weather. taylor & francis. https://doi. org/10.4324/9781003344988 hamel, g. and välikangas, l. 2003. the quest for resilience. harvard business review, 81(9), pp.52-63. hartmann, s., weiss, m., newman, a. and hoegl, m. 2020. resilience in the workplace: a multilevel review and synthesis, applied psychology, 69(3), pp.913-959. https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12191 harvey, r.j. and hollander, e. 2004. benchmarking rwg interrater agreement indices: let’s drop the .70 rule-of-thumb, paper presented at the annual conference of the society for industrial and organizational psychology, chicago. https://doi.org/10.1037/e518632013-233 iao-jörgensen, j. 2023. antecedents to bounce forward: a case study tracing the resilience of inter-organisational projects in the face of disruptions. international journal of project management, 41(2), p.102440. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2023.102440 ionescu, c., klein, r.j.t., hinkel, j., kavi kumar, k.s. and klein, r. 2009. towards a formal framework of vulnerability to climate change. environmental modelling and assessment, 14(1), pp.1-16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10666-008-9179-x iwachido, y., kaneko, m. and sasaki, t. 2024. mixed coastal forests are less vulnerable to tsunami impacts than monoculture forests. natural hazards, 120(2), pp.1101-1112. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-023-06248-8 james, l. r., demaree, r. g. and wolf, g. 1984. estimating within-group interrater reliability with and without bias, journal of applied psychology, 69(1), pp.85-98 https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.69.1.85 júnior, l.c.r., frederico, g.f. and costa, m.l.n. 2023. maturity and resilience in supply chains: a systematic review of the literature. international journal of industrial engineering and operations management, 5(1), pp.1-25. https://doi. org/10.1108/ijieom-08-2022-0035 kanwar, s. and sharma, p.k. 2024. overall construction safety and terror management. in aip conference proceedings, 2986(1), aip publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0195565 gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025182 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wace.2024.100684 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wace.2024.100684 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2006.02.004 https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-022-00184-w https://doi.org/10.1080/01436599308420312 https://doi.org/10.1108/13527590110389556 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003344988 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003344988 https://doi.org/10.1111/apps.12191 https://doi.org/10.1037/e518632013-233 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2023.102440 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2023.102440 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10666-008-9179-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-023-06248-8 https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.69.1.85 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijieom-08-2022-0035 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijieom-08-2022-0035 https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0195565 klein, g., wiggins, s. and dominguez, c.o. 2010. team sensemaking. theoretical issues in ergonomic science, 11(4), pp.304-320. https://doi.org/10.1080/14639221003729177 knight, e., lok, j., jarzabkowski, p. and wenzel, m. 2024. sensing the room: the role of atmosphere in collective sensemaking. academy of management journal. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2021.1389 lebreton, j.m., moeller, a.n. and wittmer, j.l. 2023. data aggregation in multilevel research: best practice recommendations and tools for moving forward, journal of business and psychology, 38(2), pp.239-258. https://doi. org/10.1007/s10869-022-09853-9 lin, e.r. and su, s. 2024. causal inference and machine learning in climate studies. predicting carbon emissions and assessing, 7th international conference on artificial intelligence and big data (icaibd), pp.17-20. ieee. https:// doi.org/10.1109/icaibd62003.2024.10604636 lynn, g.s., reilly, r.r. and akgün, a.e. 2000. knowledge management in new product teams. ieee transactions on engineering management, 47(2), pp.221-231. https://doi.org/10.1109/17.846789 maas, c. j. and hox, j. j. 2005. sufficient sample sizes for multilevel modelling. methodology: european journal of research methods for the behavioral and social sciences, 1(3), p.86. https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-2241.1.3.86 mack, o., khare, a., krämer, a. and burgartz, t. (eds.) 2016. managing in a vuca world, springer international publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16889-0 maitlis, s., vogus, t.j. and lawrence, t.b. 2013. sensemaking and emotion in organizations. organizational psychology review, 3(3), pp.222-247. https://doi.org/10.1177/2041386613489062 malla, v., & delhi, v. s. k. 2022. determining interconnectedness of barriers to interface management in large construction projects. construction economics and building, 22(2). https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i2.7936 moorman, c. 1995. organizational market information processes. journal of marketing research, 32, pp.318-335. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224379503200307 murphy, g. and devine, d. 2023. sensemaking in and for times of crisis and change: irish primary school principals and the covid-19 pandemic. school leadership & management, pp.1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2022.21642 67 napitupulu, d., kadar, j.a. and jati, r.k. 2017. validity testing of technology acceptance model based on factor analysis approach. indonesian journal of electrical engineering and computer science, 5(3), pp.697-704. https://doi.org/10.11591/ ijeecs.v5.i3.pp697-704 neill, s., mckee, d. and rose, g.m. 2007. developing the organization’s sensemaking capability. industrial marketing management, 36(6), pp.731-744. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2006.05.008 nurizzati, a. and hartono, b. 2023. team resilience of construction projects: a theoretical framework. in aip conference proceedings, aip publishing llc, 2654(1). https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0118964 park, m.h., lim, j.v. and philip, h.b. 2009. the effect of multi-knowledge individuals on performance in crossfunctional new product development teams. the journal of product innovation management, 26, pp.86-96. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1540-5885.2009.00336.x pavez, i., gómez, h., laulié, l. and gonzález, v.a. 2021. project team resilience: the effect of group potency and interpersonal trust. international journal of project management, 39(6), pp.697-708. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2021.06.004 pham, c.h., nguyen, t.v., bach, t.n., le, c.q. and nguyen, h.v. 2023. collective sensemaking within institutions: control of the covid‐19 epidemic in vietnam. public administration and development, 43(2), pp.150-162. https://doi. org/10.1002/pad.1996 gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025183 https://doi.org/10.1080/14639221003729177 https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2021.1389 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-022-09853-9 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-022-09853-9 https://doi.org/10.1109/icaibd62003.2024.10604636 https://doi.org/10.1109/icaibd62003.2024.10604636 https://doi.org/10.1109/17.846789 https://doi.org/10.1027/1614-2241.1.3.86 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16889-0 https://doi.org/10.1177/2041386613489062 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i2.7936 https://doi.org/10.1177/002224379503200307 https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2022.2164267 https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2022.2164267 https://doi.org/10.11591/ijeecs.v5.i3.pp697-704 https://doi.org/10.11591/ijeecs.v5.i3.pp697-704 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2006.05.008 https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0118964 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5885.2009.00336.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5885.2009.00336.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2021.06.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2021.06.004 https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1996 https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1996 prasetyo, a., mursitama, t.n., simatupang, b. and furinto, a. 2022. enhancing mega project resilience through capability development in indonesia. international journal of economics and finance studies, 14(3), pp.1-21. pruzek, r. 2005. factor analysis: exploratory. encyclopedia of statistics in behavioral science. https://doi. org/10.1002/0470013192.bsa211 qiu, h., su, l., tang, b., yang, d., ullah, m., zhu, y. and kamp, u. 2024. the effect of location and geometric properties of landslides caused by rainstorms and earthquakes. earth surface processes and landforms, 49(7), pp.20672079. https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5816 reddy, d.s. 2024. progress and challenges in developing medical countermeasures for chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear threat agents. journal of pharmacology and experimental therapeutics, 388(2), pp.260-267. https://doi. org/10.1124/jpet.123.002040 ribeiro, r., teles, d., proença, l., almeida, i. and soeiro, c. 2024. a typology of rural arsonists: characterising patterns of criminal behaviour. psychology, crime & law, pp.1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316x.2025.2564365 röser, m. 2024. more certainty in uncertainty: a special life-cycle approach for management decisions in volatile markets. journal of management control, pp.1-33. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00187-023-00364-z roy, s. 2022. integrating resilience through adaptability and transformability. in resilient and responsible smart cities, cham: springer international publishing, 2, pp.31-41. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86499-6_3 saunders, m.n., lewis, p. and thornhill, a. 2016. research methods for business students, 7th ed. pearson education, harlaw, england. sharma, a., sajjad, h., roshani and rahaman, m.h. 2024. a systematic review for assessing the impact of climate change on landslides: research gaps and directions for future research. spatial information research, 32(2), pp.165-185. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41324-023-00551-z skalski, s.b., konaszewski, k., büssing, a. and surzykiewicz, j. 2022. resilience and mental well-being during the covid-19 pandemic. frontiers in psychiatry, 12, p.810274. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.810274 stensaker, i., falkenberg, j. and grønhaug, k. 2008. implementation activities and organizational sensemaking. the journal of applied behavioral science, 44(2), pp.162-185. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886307313794 strader, s.m., gensini, v.a., ashley, w.s. and wagner, a.n. 2024. changes in tornado risk and societal vulnerability leading to greater tornado impact potential. npj natural hazards, 1(1), p.20. https://doi.org/10.1038/s44304-02400019-6 svennevig, k., koch, j., keiding, m. and luetzenburg, g. 2024. assessing the impact of climate change on landslides near vejle, denmark, using public data. natural hazards and earth system sciences, 24(6), pp.1897-1911. https://doi. org/10.5194/nhess-24-1897-2024 talat, a. and riaz, z. 2020. an integrated model of team resilience: exploring the roles of team sensemaking, team bricolage and task interdependence. personnel review, 49(9), pp.2007-2033. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-01-2018-0029 tavakol, m. and wetzel, a. 2020. factor analysis: a means for theory and instrument development in support of construct validity. international journal of medical education, 11, p.245. https://doi.org/10.5116/ijme.5f96.0f4a teichmann, f.m. and boticiu, s.r. 2024. adequate responses to cyber-attacks. international cybersecurity law review, 5(2), pp.337-345. https://doi.org/10.1365/s43439-024-00116-2 varanasi, u.s., leinonen, t., sawhney, n., tikka, m. and ahsanullah, r. 2023. collaborative sensemaking in crisis, in proceedings of the 2023 acm designing interactive systems conference, pp.2537-2550. https://doi. org/10.1145/3563657.3596093 gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025184 https://doi.org/10.1002/0470013192.bsa211 https://doi.org/10.1002/0470013192.bsa211 https://doi.org/10.1002/esp.5816 https://doi.org/10.1124/jpet.123.002040 https://doi.org/10.1124/jpet.123.002040 https://doi.org/10.1080/1068316x.2025.2564365 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00187-023-00364-z https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-86499-6_3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41324-023-00551-z https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.810274 https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886307313794 https://doi.org/10.1038/s44304-024-00019-6 https://doi.org/10.1038/s44304-024-00019-6 https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-1897-2024 https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-24-1897-2024 https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-01-2018-0029 https://doi.org/10.5116/ijme.5f96.0f4a https://doi.org/10.1365/s43439-024-00116-2 https://doi.org/10.1145/3563657.3596093 https://doi.org/10.1145/3563657.3596093 weick, k.e. 1993. the collapse of sensemaking in organizations: the mann gulch disaster. administrative science quarterly, pp.628-652. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393339 wilson, a. 2024. ukraine at war: baseline identity and social construction. nations and nationalism, 30(1), pp.8-17. https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.12986 zei, c., tarabusi, g., ciuccarelli, c., burrato, p., sgattoni, g., taccone, r.c. and mariotti, d. 2024. cfti landslides, italian database of historical earthquake-induced landslides. scientific data, 11(1), p.834. https://doi.org/10.1038/ s41597-024-03692-4 zhang, p. and soergel, d. 2014. towards a comprehensive model of the cognitive process and mechanisms of individual sensemaking. journal of the association for information science and technology, 65(9), pp.1733-1756. https://doi. org/10.1002/asi.23125 gunathilaka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025185 https://doi.org/10.2307/2393339 https://doi.org/10.1111/nana.12986 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03692-4 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-024-03692-4 https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23125 https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23125 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: kapogiannis, g., palaios, p., sawhney, a. 2024. digital construction led growth asymmetries in europe: the need for collaborative culture. construction economics and building, 24:1/2, 50–76. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v24i1/2.8866 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article digital construction led growth asymmetries in europe: the need for collaborative culture georgios kapogiannis1 (orcid-id: 0000-0002-1738-6734), panagiotis palaios2,* (orcid id: 0000-0003-1806-3344), anil sawhney3 (orcid-id: 0000-0002-4988-4893) 1 afg college with the university of aberdeen (qatar) building 98, zone 40 ali bin abi talib street, 820 doha, qatar, georgios.kapogiannis@afg-aberdeen.edu.qa 2 school of business and economics, deree the american college of greece, 6 gravias st., aghia paraskevi, athens 15342, greece, ppalaios@acg.edu 3 knowledge and practice directorate, royal institution of chartered surveyors, 250 park avenue, 7th floor, new york, ny 10177, usa, asawhney@rics.org corresponding author: panagiotis palaios, school of business and economics, deree the american college of greece, 6 gravias st., aghia paraskevi, athens 15342, greece, ppalaios@acg.edu doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8866 article history: received 15/10/2023; revised 22/01/2024; accepted 02/03/2024; published 01/07/2024 abstract this study delves into the exploration of asymmetries in the field of digital economics (de) and specifically, within the digital construction sector, unravelling intricate relationships that guide its evolutionary journey. to unveil the complex relationship between gdp growth rates and digital construction (dc) we leverage the digital economy and society index (desi), employing a panel dataset encompassing 27 european union (eu) countries over the period 2017-2022. as a foundational tool for our empirical analysis, we perform quantile via moments regression, thus introducing this novel methodology to digital construction research. the findings reveal a consistent and statistically significant positive impact of dc on gdp growth rates, across the entire spectrum of economic conditions, but the effect is more pronounced at the upper quantiles of output. this result implies that stronger economies can use more efficiently the benefits of the digital construction compared to the weaker economies, thus signalling the need of the latter for structural reforms, to improve the integration rate of digitalization in the construction sector. the declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 50 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8866 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8866 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8866 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:georgios.kapogiannis@afg-aberdeen.edu.qa mailto:ppalaios@acg.edu mailto:asawhney@rics.org mailto:ppalaios@acg.edu https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8866 pronounced influence of the human capital component of dc underscores the pivotal role of nurturing human skills to effectively integrate digital construction techniques into infrastructure development, within a collaborative culture. by fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration and enabling the integration of digital construction techniques, the weaker economies can position themselves for higher growth rates and competitiveness in an ever-changing world. keywords digital construction; digital economics; gdp growth; collaborative culture; asymmetries; infrastructure; circular economy jel classification c31; l74; m14; o18; o31 introduction one of the main challenges that the construction sector faces is the adoption and integration of digital technologies. setaki and van timmeren (2022) mention that the building industry is the most wasteful industry worldwide (especially the construction and demolition phases) and very conservative in adopting new technologies, mainly in the initial construction stages. in addition, as sawhney et al. (2014) mention, even the information and communication technology (ict) sector for construction faces numerous challenges as it is characterized by fragmentation. in 2021, construction activities rebounded back to prepandemic levels in most major economies and as a result buildings energy demand increased by around 4 per cent from 2020 which is the largest increase in the last 10 years (unep, 2022). further, according to the same source, buildings and construction sector is not on track to achieve decarbonization by 2050. the above findings are also in line with a survey conducted by deloitte (2019), according to which even though digital construction (dc), namely the utilization of digital technologies to construct more efficiently and with higher level of quality, can be the answer to major challenges like climate change, sustainability, lagging productivity and financial pressure, the construction industry has underinvested in technology. it’s worth mentioning that only 1.2% of the sector’s revenue is allocated for information technology (it), as opposed to 3.5% on average for the rest industrial sectors (deloitte, 2019). despite the slow pace of the progress observed in the adoption and integration of digital technologies in the construction sector, a growing number of researchers has focused on examining the importance of digitalization in the construction sector, as a key element to promote the circular economy (ce). the bibliometric analysis of the literature review conducted by rodrigo, et al. (2023) revealed that the vast majority of publications (91%) took place after 2018, while the increase in the number of publications reached 370% during the period 2019-2022. this evidence shows a growing research interest, from academic, public and private institutions, for the impact of digital construction on the economy in general and specifically on the circular economy. among them, kpmg’s (2021) comprehensive analysis on the “value of data in construction” provides a detailed examination of how data-driven approaches are shaping the sector. equally noteworthy is the exploration of “information management,” a report that delves into the effective handling and utilization of information within the construction context (kpmg, 2021). the royal institute of chartered surveyors (rics, 2022) contributes significantly with their report on “digital twins,” shedding light on the innovative concept of creating virtual replicas of physical structures and their implications for the industry. additionally, the european union’s report on “budgeting in the digital construction” offers a valuable perspective on financial planning and management within the digital construction realm (bim summit, 2021). moreover, european commission collects valuable data concerning the desi index (digital economy and society index), which is a composite index that summarizes relevant indicators on europe’s kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202451 graph 1. european union-desi overall index, calculated as the weighted average of the four main desi dimensions. graph 2. european union-desi dimensions (human capital-hc, connectivity-con, integration of digital technology-idt, digital public services-dps) kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202452 digital performance and tracks the evolution of eu member states, across different digital dimensions: connectivity, human capital, integration of digital technology and digital public services (graphs 1-2). collectively, these indispensable reports cast a spotlight on the multifaceted impact of building information modelling (bim) led digital transformation on both societal and technological dimensions (sawhney, et al., 2014). however, a notable void exists in the landscape of research – the scarcity of a comprehensive report that meticulously dissects the intricate economic effects of the broader digital construction landscape on a nation’s gross domestic product (gdp). aim, objectives, and contribution therefore, the focal research inquiry of this paper revolves around an in-depth exploration of the multifaceted elements that encompass the domain of digital construction. additionally, the study aims to delve into the intricacies of lead growth asymmetries within this context. furthermore, the overarching objective of this research endeavour is twofold: firstly, to establish a robust foundation underscoring the significance of digital construction; and secondly, to expound upon the consequential policy implications stemming from its integration. in essence, this paper embarks on a comprehensive journey to encompass led growth asymmetries – an area of paramount importance within the digital construction landscape. by scrutinizing these imbalances, the study strives to uncover critical insights into the factors influencing disparities in progress and development. further, our paper extends its reach to various contributing factors that shape the realm of digital construction. it seeks to shed light on the intricate dynamics that underlie the field, encompassing technological advancements, collaborative frameworks, and transformative processes. beyond this analytical exploration, the research is committed to casting digital construction in its rightful significance. it seeks to construct a compelling narrative that underscores the pivotal role of digital construction in reshaping traditional paradigms, enhancing efficiency, and fostering innovation within the construction sector. through a meticulous review of existing literature and empirical evidence, we endeavour to establish a compelling rationale for the integration of digital construction practices. lastly, the paper pivots towards the practical realm by examining the policy implications inherent in the digital construction arena. by extrapolating from the insights gained, the study aims to offer strategic recommendations and guidelines that could potentially guide policymakers, industry stakeholders, and decision-makers towards a more informed and effective approach to digital construction implementation. thus, the research not only aims to enrich academic discourse but also to serve as a compass for informed decision-making in the realm of construction’s digital transformation. the paper’s research question is poised to unveil the intricacies of digital construction, and it aspires to contribute substantively by delving into lead growth asymmetries and offering a comprehensive perspective on the significance and policy ramifications of digital construction within the broader construction landscape. our contribution to the literature is as follows: firstly, this research introduces a pioneering approach by utilizing quantile via moments regressions (machado and santos silva, 2019) within a panel setting in the realm of digital construction. to the best of current knowledge, this innovative methodology has not been previously applied within the context of digital construction research. this novel analytical framework enables a deeper exploration of the complex interactions among variables, transcending conventional methodologies and offering fresh insights. secondly, a distinctive focal point of this investigation is the exploration of asymmetries within the digital construction sector. this study uniquely addresses this aspect, shedding light on the intricate relationships that govern the sector’s evolution. by empirically substantiating the presence of non-gaussian effects resulting from the impact of digital construction on gdp growth rates, which is more pronounced in the richer countries, this research challenges established assumptions and contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the economic implications of digital construction. kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202453 third, this study makes a significant contribution to an underrepresented area of research by substantially expanding the limited literature concerning the nexus between digitalization and economic performance (context of digital construction). through meticulous analysis of empirical data, we provide valuable insights and empirical evidence that enrich our comprehension of how digitalization shapes and influences economic outcomes. by delving into this complex relationship, this study enhances the broader understanding of the mechanisms that drive economic growth within the context of digital construction. the subsequent structure of this paper is delineated as follows: in section 3, a succinct yet comprehensive review of pertinent literature is presented, with a focal emphasis on the impact of digitalization on economic growth and the effects of collaborative culture in taking full advantage of the benefits of digitalization in the construction sector, thereby situating the research within the broader academic dialogue. section 4 subsequently elucidates the intricacies of the data employed and explicates the econometric methodology employed, laying the foundational groundwork for the ensuing presentation of empirical findings. section 5 serves as the locus for the unveiling and contemplative analysis of results, engendering insightful discussions that elucidate the implications of the findings. section 6 encapsulates the study’s essence by offering a succinct synthesis of its pivotal findings and contributions, culminating in a conclusive wrap-up that encapsulates the broader ramifications of the study and potentially illuminates avenues for future exploration. further, in this very section, we provide policy implications and strategic guidelines for practitioners, by imparting judicious policy recommendations derived from empirical insights, effectively bridging the research with real-world applications. lastly, section 7 summarizes the results and concludes. literature review as revealed by several studies (table 1), digital technologies in construction are leading to significant changes in productivity, cost efficiency, safety, resource management, energy efficiency, and error reduction. mckinsey and company (2023) found that the use of advanced analytics in an oil and gas company improved productivity in engineering functions by 20-25%. deloitte insights (2023) highlighted a case where digital modelling and prefabrication reduced construction time by over six months compared to traditional methods. techgig (2023) noted the implementation of ai and machine learning for safety monitoring, along with clash detection tools and on-site sensors, can reduce workplace accidents and save table 1. major digital construction reports impact area description source increase in productivity advanced analytics improved productivity by 2025% in engineering functions. mckinsey and company, 2023 cost reduction and efficiency digital modelling and prefabrication reduced construction time by over six months. deloitte insights, 2023 improved safety and reduced accidents ai, machine learning, and sensor technologies reduce accidents and related costs. techgig, 2023 resource management and inventory control iot and nfc technologies, including rfid tracking, enhance inventory management and reduce costs. mckinsey and company, 2023 energy efficiency building analytics improve energy efficiency, leading to long-term cost savings. techgig, 2023 reduction in rework and errors a mobile app for defect tagging in bim models led to a 12% decrease in rework hours. mckinsey and company, 2023 kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202454 costs. additionally, mckinsey and company (2023) emphasized the role of iot and nfc technologies in improving inventory management and reducing costs through rfid tracking. building analytics, part of digital construction, are also key in enhancing energy efficiency, leading to long-term cost savings for building operators and owners (techgig, 2023). finally, the introduction of a mobile app for defect tagging against bim models led to a 12% reduction in rework hours at a construction site (mckinsey and company, 2023). reports from rics (2023) and hitachi (2023), along with krysten’s (2020) earlier analysis, have broadly emphasized the added value of digital construction in the architecture, engineering, construction, and operations (aeco) sector. this perspective offers a more encompassing view of the transformative impact digital technology has on the industry. these insights are drawn from an extensive examination of the evolving landscape in construction, as thoroughly documented in the detailed reports and studies by techgig (2023), mckinsey and company (2023), and deloitte insights (2023). these sources collectively provide a nuanced understanding of how digital advancements are reshaping the aeco sector. concerning the impact of various factors of digital economy on the economic growth, zhang, et. al. (2022) examine the impact of digital economy on the economic growth of a panel of countries along the “belt and road” before the covid-19 pandemic (2009-2019) as well as the impact of the pandemic on the digital industry and trade pattern. they find empirical evidence of regional imbalances concerning the stage of digital economy’s development along the examined countries with west asia (except for israel), central asia, and south asia lagging. further, they find that digital economy has a statistically significant effect on the economic growth, mainly through the channel of promoting industrial structure upgrading, the total employment and restructuring of employment, and that the pandemic increased the demand for digital industries more that the corresponding supply. mura and donath (2023) examine the impact of digitalization on economic growth in the european union, using a sample of balanced panel data including 28 cross-sections during the period 2000-2021. to account for the impact of digitalization of economic growth they use the desi (digital economy and society index) index. in line with the results of zhang, et al. (2022), they find a statistically significant and positive impact if digitalization on economic growth. wu and yu (2022) examine the contribution of digital economy on economic growth of china as well as on the total factor productivity. their results show that digital economy has been the most significant contributor in the country’s economic growth over the past two decades. concerning the economy of china, zhang, et al. (2021) also find evidence that digital infrastructure, digital industry and digital fusion positively affect the regional total factor productivity. in the study by yousefi (2011), the focus centres on examining the influence of digitalization on the economic growth trajectories of 62 countries spanning the timeframe of 2000 to 2006. the findings of this research reveal a notable and intriguing pattern: an asymmetric impact of digitalization on economic growth is discerned across distinct income categories within the countries under investigation. specifically, the study highlights a compelling distinction—while information and communication technology (ict) emerges as a catalyst for bolstering economic growth within the high and upper-middle income echelons, its contribution does not extend to fostering growth in the lower-middle income group of countries. this outcome engenders a notable shift in perspective, challenging the previously held notion that the varying levels of investment in digitalization were the primary underlying cause for sluggish growth rates observed in lower-middle developing countries. by elucidating this nuanced and complex relationship between digitalization and economic growth, the study underscores the multifaceted nature of developmental dynamics within different income strata, thereby enriching the understanding of the intricate forces at play in shaping global economic outcomes. several other studies focus on the asymmetric impact of various determinants on economic growth. for example, ali, et al. (2018) perform asymmetric ardl econometric method to examine the dynamics between economic growth and overseas investment, using time series annual data from china during the period 1982-2015. contrary to previous studies, they find kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202455 empirical evidence that changes in outward foreign direct investments, both increases and decreases, have a statistically significant positive impact on economic growth in china. chen, et al. (2020) focus on the asymmetric effects of financial development on economic growth in kenya, over the period 1972-2017, using a model augmented with inflation and government expenditure asymmetries to inform model specification. they conclude that appropriate policies that favour low inflation and reduced government spending, expansion of feasibly reformed financial institutions, capital accumulation, and increased resource mobilization should be applied to achieve economic growth. further, balsalobre-lorente, et al. (2021) find an asymmetric long-run effect of air transport on economic growth of spain during the period 1970-2015. lolos, palaios and papapetrou (2021) investigates empirically the tourism-growth relationship in greece, over the period 1960-2020, performing a quantile regression analysis. they find that the impact of tourism remains positive across the output distribution, but the effect is more pronounced at the lower quantiles of output while at the higher quantiles of output it becomes weaker and statistically insignificant. in contrast, within the realm of digital construction, an analogous exploration of the interplay between technological advancements and economic growth unveils a distinct narrative. while information and communication technology (ict) emerges as a potent catalyst for driving economic expansion in high and upper-middle income countries, the dynamics shift when examined through the lens of digital construction’s impact on economies at different income levels. just as in the case of ict, digital construction’s transformative potential is evidenced by its significant contribution to fostering growth in high and upper-middle income economies. however, what sets digital construction apart is its potential to transcend the previous limitations observed within the lower-middle income bracket. in contrast to the observed asymmetry in ict’s effects, digital construction presents a more equitable and inclusive paradigm by offering promising avenues for enhancing economic growth across a broader spectrum of countries, including those within the lower-middle income range. this juxtaposition underscores the nuanced and evolving nature of the relationship between technology-driven sectors like digital construction and economic progress, while also accentuating the potential for digital construction to serve as a more universally accessible driver of growth across varying income categories. furthermore, the research conducted by abendin and duan (2021) provides valuable insights into the intricate relationship between the digital economy, international trade, and africa’s economic growth. their study encompasses an extensive dataset comprising annual panel data from 53 countries, spanning the period from 2000 to 2018. the empirical findings of their investigation unveil a compelling narrative— the digital economy assumes a pivotal role in promoting economic growth across the african continent. particularly noteworthy is the study’s revelation that international trade exhibits a synergistic relationship with the digital economy, enhancing its impact on growth. this captivating discovery underscores a crucial dynamic: the intertwined nature of digitalization and international trade as dual drivers of economic progress. considering these findings, the authors offer a salient policy recommendation, advocating that governments prioritize the development of the digital economy as a strategic avenue for harnessing the full growth potential of international trade. this strategic alignment resonates with the research by aghaei and rezagholizadeh (2017), which similarly demonstrates the positive influence of digitalization on economic growth, with effects permeating both the demand and supply sides of economies. collectively, these scholarly contributions coalesce to reinforce the imperative role of the digital economy in shaping economic trajectories, while also underscoring the symbiotic relationship it shares with international trade in driving holistic and sustainable growth (adeleye and eboagu, 2019; czernich, et al., 2011; ehigiamusoe and lean, 2018; nkikabahizi, et al., 2018). in a comprehensive study by bulturbayevich and jurayevich (2020), the critical significance of the digital economy is delineated within the context of the republic of uzbekistan’s growth trajectory. the authors aptly underscore the integral role of digitalization in propelling growth rates within the nation. notably, the study highlights a pivotal realization—the process of digitizing all sectors of the economy is undoubtedly kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202456 complex and challenging; however, it stands as an imperative step. the research elucidates a compelling reality: the integration of digitization is not merely advantageous but rather imperative for the republic of uzbekistan to forge connections and pathways into the global economy. a fundamental assertion surfaces— one that firmly establishes that without the embrace of digitization, the prospect of integrating into the world economy becomes an unattainable aspiration. undoubtedly, the study unveils a thought-provoking conclusion, wherein it asserts that the construction sector stands among those pivotal sectors that demand comprehensive digitization. within the broader context of uzbekistan’s growth ambitions, this finding underscores the transformative potential held within the integration of digital technologies within the construction domain. by advocating for the full digitization of the construction sector, bulturbayevich and jurayevich offer a prescient directive—one that resonates with the overarching theme of digitization’s vital role in underpinning economic expansion. ultimately, their research not only underscores the importance of the digital economy but also pinpoints a specific sector, construction, where digitization’s infusion can potentially yield transformative outcomes for the republic of uzbekistan’s economic trajectory. pradhan, et al. (2019) undertake a comprehensive exploration that delves into the intricate interconnections existing among venture capital investment, information and communication technology (ict) infrastructure, and economic growth. anchored in a dataset comprising annual data gleaned from 25 european nations over the span of 1989 to 2016, the study unfurls a compelling narrative that underscores the existence of a robust and enduring relationship—cointegration—between these aforementioned variables. when the focus shifts to the short-term horizon, the research unfurls a captivating revelation: a dynamic synergy unfolds among the development of ict infrastructure, the infusion of venture capital, and the trajectory of economic growth. in most instances examined, the symbiotic relationship becomes evident as these elements interplay to reinforce each other’s impact. this symbiosis within the short-term realm accentuates the interconnected nature of these key drivers, suggesting a reciprocal influence wherein the progression of ict infrastructure and venture capital infusions catalyses and augments economic growth, and vice versa. ultimately, the study by pradhan, et al. (2019) not only provides empirical validation for the existence of a long-term relationship among venture capital, ict infrastructure, and economic growth but also unveils the intricate and mutually reinforcing dynamics at play within the short-run timeframe. these findings collectively underscore the pivotal role of technology-driven investments and infrastructure in shaping economic trajectories, offering a nuanced perspective that illuminates the interwoven fabric of progress within a technologically evolving landscape. wang, et al. (2022) examine another important aspect of digitalizing the economy, namely the impact, among other megatrends, on transforming career management thus providing a competent approach to the labour market in asian countries. the main conclusion of the research is that, taking for granted that asian countries possess a highly skilled young workforce, policymakers should match educational approaches to the new digital era in order to prepare young students for the requirements and challenges of the digital economy. economic digitalization also affects the economic performance through the channel of tourism. tang, cai and xu (2022) focus on the impact of digital economy on the urban development using the digital economy index and urban tourism development. an interesting feature of this research paper is that the authors constructed a digital index that considers digital infrastructure, digital industry development and inclusive digital finance. their econometric methodology is based on panel threshold as well as spatial durbin model, including a panel data sample of 284 prefecture level and above chinese cities during the period 2011-2019. their results are in line with the conclusion that digital economy drives urban tourism development. further, they find geographical asymmetries as the positive impact of digitalization is more intense in mid – western, non – tourist and low – level cities of china. kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202457 setaki and van timmeren (2022) examine the intersection of circular economy, disruptive technologies and the building industry. they mention eight disruptive technologies that if integrated by the building industry can improve data management from the phase of design to fabrication and demolition. the technologies, that by definition are digital technologies, are the following: internet of things (iot), building information modelling (bim), robots, artificial intelligence (ai), 3d printing, blockchain, drones, augmented reality (ar). the authors note that the implementation of the above technologies is still in a preliminary phase, not practically tested and thus not yet assess when it comes to their business usefulness and viability. ionescu-feleagă, ionescu and stoica (2023) analyse the relationship between digitalization and sustainable development in the european union (eu) countries, between 2019 and 2021, before and during the covid-19 pandemic. therefore, they study the correlations between digital economy and society index (desi), on one side, and sustainable development goal index (sdg index) and spillover index (ss index), on the other side. the empirical results provide evidence in favour of a positive relationship between desi index and sdg index, as well as geographical asymmetries with a larger effect in the northern and western region, while there exists a negative relationship between desi and spillover index, with the latter being statistically significant only during the period 2019-20. rodrigo, et al. (2023) provide a review of the literature related to the use of digital technologies in the construction industry to enhance circular economy. their sample includes 365 publications, distinguished between two main categories, namely digitalization and advanced technologies and sustainable and construction technologies. the two categories are further classified into eight subcategories, namely machine learning technologies, artificial intelligence, deep learning, big data analysis, object detection and computer vision, when it comes to the former category and internet of things, blockchain technology and bim for the latter category. further, their literature review revealed nine challenged that pose important obstacles in adopting and integrating digital technologies in the construction sector (digital construction – dc), namely resistance to change, skills gap, implementation costs, data privacy and security concerns, lack of standardisation, limited scalability, lack of data interoperability, regulatory challenges and limited availability of data. the same conclusions are extracted by the literature review of limna, kraiwanit and siripipatthanakul (2022), which states that digital economy is a powerful tool to promote economic growth and development. another important aspect of digitalization in the economy is privacy protection, in the sense of accountability in management of digital personal data. therefore, countries have started, gradually, taking legal actions towards the direction of protecting citizens’ rights, like the eu general data protection regulation (gdpr). rosadi, et al. (2023) evaluate the personal data protection bill introduced by the indonesian communication ministry and conclude that it meets the international privacy standards. within the context of digital construction, the international organization for standardization (iso) has introduced an influential framework known as iso 19650. this framework is designed to revolutionize and streamline the processes involved in the management of information and data throughout the lifecycle of construction projects. iso 19650 places a comprehensive emphasis on building information modelling (bim) and digital technologies, aiming to enhance collaboration, efficiency, and interoperability among various stakeholders within the construction industry. by establishing standardized guidelines and protocols for the organization, exchange, and utilization of digital information, iso 19650 facilitates a seamless integration of digital tools and methodologies, ultimately fostering improved decision-making, reduced errors, and optimized project outcomes. as the construction industry increasingly embraces digitalization, iso 19650 serves as a fundamental cornerstone, guiding practitioners towards a cohesive and standardized approach to harnessing the transformative potential of digital technologies within construction processes. moreover, the icis (2022) offers a comprehensive analysis of the current state and evolving trends in building information modelling (bim) education worldwide. this report provides valuable insights into the integration of bim within higher education, technical training institutions, and vocational programs kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202458 across diverse countries and regions, focusing on the issues of (a) varied implementation levels and sophisticated content, (b) multidisciplinary approach and vocational training, (c) challenges and progress, (d) certification and industry collaboration, (e) global pandemic impact and adaptation and (f ) comprehensive bim education. based on the icis (2022) that offers a comprehensive overview of the current landscape and trends in building information modelling (bim) education worldwide aligns with the broader digital construction transformation, the report highlights the integration of sophisticated bim elements, multidisciplinary approaches, and industry collaboration. the challenges and adaptability observed in bim education resonate with the dynamic shift towards digital construction, where overcoming resistance, resource limitations, and standardization hurdles mirrors the journey toward embracing digital tools and methodologies in construction practices. the report’s emphasis on certification and collaboration reflects the global drive to validate digital competence. ultimately, this report serves as a valuable guide for fostering a digitally ready workforce, bridging theoretical knowledge with practical application in the digital construction era. consequently, the prominence of technological innovation, particularly the integration of diverse technologies, underscores an equally crucial need to elevate and augment human capital. moreover, the pressing requirement to effectively capture real-time data streams from construction sites accentuates the indispensability of a robust connectivity infrastructure. this encompasses ensuring a seamless continuum encompassing data collection, transfer, storage, and processing operations. moreover, the call to harness real-time data streams from construction sites underscores the critical importance of establishing resilient connectivity infrastructure. this encompasses ensuring the seamless progression of data collection, transfer, storage, and processing. connectivity has emerged as a central driving force propelling digital construction forward, aligning seamlessly with latham’s proposition of bolstering data accuracy to minimize errors and embracing lean principles (koskela, 1992), systematic methodologies, and agile approaches. the establishment of connectivity bridges the gap between people, processes, and technology. in essence, connectivity serves as a linchpin, propelling the construction sector closer to comprehensive digitalization, where the synergy of human expertise, streamlined processes, and cuttingedge technology converge for transformative outcomes. this symbiotic relationship between connectivity and digital construction resonates with the overarching principles of industry 4.0, where the integration of cyber-physical systems enhances operational efficiency and innovation (lee, kao and yang, 2015). thus, by fostering connectivity, the construction industry is poised to embrace a new era of data-driven decisionmaking, enhanced collaboration, and optimized project outcomes. as connectivity becomes the backbone of data-driven decision-making and collaboration in construction (kapogiannis and sherratt, 2018), it similarly empowers the evolution of digital public services, leading to more citizen-centric, responsive, and effective governance (world bank, 2020). in the dynamic interplay between technological advancement and economic growth, the emergence of digital construction introduces a new dimension, potentially yielding both symmetrical and asymmetrical effects on countries’ gdp. while previous research has shed light on regional disparities within the impact of the digital economy (zhang, et al., 2022) and geographical asymmetries in digitalization’s influence (ionescu-feleagă, ionescu and stoica, 2023), the present focus lies in unexplored territory—the intricate relationship between digital construction and economic development. this investigation aims to uncover possible asymmetries in the implementation of digital construction across diverse nations, pinpointing the types of countries where such disparities may arise, and proposing actionable policy measures to address them. by delving into this uncharted realm, this study presents an original inquiry into the potential asymmetrical effects of digital construction on countries’ gdp growth rates, contributing to the broader understanding of the multifaceted interplay between technological evolution and economic progress. overall, while the existing literature delves extensively into the social and technological aspects, a comprehensive analysis of the economic contributions of digital construction to a nation’s economic growth is conspicuously absent. the above literature review revealed the need for a more in-depth analysis of the kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202459 linkages between construction sector and specifically digital construction (dc) and economic growth. it is evident that the current literature has not focus on the above relationship and the existence of possible asymmetries. further, the review has also revealed the need to pay attention to the role of collaborative culture in mitigating the difficulties arising from the limited ability of some countries to translate digital technology into growth. data statistical properties and econometric methodology in this section we examine the statistical properties of our data and then we describe the main econometric methodology that we perform in section 5. the methodological steps that we perform are the following: step 1: we report the variables and the corresponding sources of the variables (section 4.1-table 2). step 2: we present and analyse the summary statistics (section 4.1-table 3). we conclude that we have strong evidence in favour of nonlinearities and non-normal distribution in our variables, with non-gaussian features arising at the tails of the series. step 3: we conduct panel unit root tests to examine the order of integration of our variables (section 5.1-table 4). step 4: we apply cross sectional independence test and slope homogeneity tests (section 5.1 – table 5). step 5: having detected nonlinear features in our data (step 2) as well slope heterogeneity (step 4), we choose to perform the quantile via moments methodology (machado and santos silva, 2019) that accounts for slope heterogeneity and offers a more robust econometric technique in the presence of conditional heterogeneity and departures from the gaussian conditions. the econometric methodology is reported in section 4.2 and the empirical application of it, as well as a discussion of the results are reported in section 5.2 (tables 6, 7). step 6: we provide policy implications and guidelines for practitioners (section 6). data sources and statistical properties of variables the empirical investigation of the relationship between gdp growth rates and digital construction is carried out using panel data consisting of 27 eu countries, over the period 2017-20221. availability of desi index (digital economy and society index) determines the empirical analysis since it is not available prior to 2017. desi index is a composite index that summarizes relevant indicators on europe’s digital performance and tracks the evolution of eu member states, across different dimensions: connectivity, human capital, integration of digital technology and digital public services. each of the dimensions are of equal importance, reflected in the equal weights of each dimension in the aggregate desi index. the human capital dimension assesses both internet user skills of citizens and advanced skills of specialists. connectivity considers both fixed and mobile broadband, with indicators measuring the supply and the demand side as wells as retail prices. integration of digital technology dimension considers digital intensity, take-up of selected technologies by enterprises and e-commerce. finally, the digital public services dimension describes the demand and supply of e-government as well as open data policies. each of the above dimensions consists of sub-dimensions2. 1 austria, belgium, bulgaria, croatia, republic of cyprus, czech republic, denmark, estonia, finland, france, germany, greece, hungary, ireland, italy, latvia, lithuania, luxembourg, malta, netherlands, poland, portugal, romania, slovakia, slovenia, spain and sweden. 2 human capital sub-dimensions (weights are in parentheses): internet user skills (50%), advances skills and development (50%). connectivity sub-dimensions: fixed broadband take-up (25%), fixed broadband coverage (25%), mobile broadband (40%), broadband prices (10%). integration of digital technology sub-dimensions: digital intensity (15%), digital technologies for businesses (70%), e-commerce (15%). digital public services sub-dimensions: e-government (100%). kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202460 table 2 reports the variables of our model and the corresponding source for each of them. to account for the digital construction effects on gdp growth rate (gdpg) we create a composite variable, called digital construction variable (dci), which consists of the different specifications of desi index (decii), as the digital proxy and gross fixed capital formation (gfcf ), as a proxy for the construction of infrastructure activity. i denotes the different dimension of the digital construction variable, as mentioned in table 2. to account for omitted variable bias we also use a set of control variables, which includes components of aggregate demand, namely annual % growth rate of household and npishs final consumption expenditure (c ), annual % growth of general government final consumption expenditure (g ), annual % growth of net exports of goods and services (nx). further, considering that both public and private investments in infrastructure are the most volatile component of the aggregate demand we introduce in our model an economic policy uncertainty variable (epu). table 2. variables and sources of variables notation variable source gdpg gdp growth (annual %) world bank national accounts data, and oecd national accounts data files deciagg digital economy and society index, where i denotes different specifications of the desi index: deciagg (aggregate score), decihc (human capital), decicon (connectivity), deciidt (integration of digital technology), decidps (digital public services) https://digital-agenda-data.eu/ datasets/desi/indicators gfcf gross fixed capital formation (constant lcu) world bank national accounts data, and oecd national accounts data files dci digital construction, where i denotes different specifications, according to the desi index, namely dcagg, dchc, dccon, dcidt, dcdps dci = gfcf × decii epu global economic policy uncertainty https://www.policyuncertainty.com/ c household and npishs final consumption expenditure (annual % growth) world bank national accounts data, and oecd national accounts data files g general government final consumption expenditure (annual % growth) world bank national accounts data, and oecd national accounts data files nx net exports of goods and services (annual % growth) world bank national accounts data, and oecd national accounts data files table 3 presents the summary statistics for the variables along with their skewness and kurtosis. skewness is a measure of the symmetry of the probability distribution of a variables about its mean. when the value of skewness is zero, then the distribution of the variable is normal (symmetrical). according to our data, the distribution of our variables, except for the epu which is fairly symmetrical, is either moderately (dcagg , dchc , dcidt , dcdps , nx ) or highly skewed (gdpg , dccon , c, g ). kurtosis is a measure of the tail heaviness of the distribution, as it measures the weight of the tails relative to the rest of distribution. in kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202461 https://digital-agenda-data.eu/datasets/desi/indicators https://digital-agenda-data.eu/datasets/desi/indicators https://www.policyuncertainty.com/ practical terms, kurtosis measures the outliers of the distribution. according to our data, except for the dcagg variable, which exhibits mesokurtic distribution, the distribution of the rest variables is either platykurtic (dchc, epu) or leptokurtic (gdpg , dccon , dcidt , dcdps , c, g, nx ). overall, we conclude that we have strong evidence in favour of nonlinearities and non-normal distribution in our variables, with non-gaussian features arising at the tails of the series. table 3. summary statistics variable no. of obs. mean median standard deviation min max skewness kurtosis gdpg 162 2.758 3.038 4.212 -11.325 13.588 -0.809 4.551 dcagg 162 1062.92 1043.817 282.671 494.904 1876.253 0.427 3.021 dchc 162 285.264 280.850 64.008 175.242 441.348 0.459 2.467 dccon 162 235.975 223.203 86.323 75.308 521.530 0.841 3.607 dcidt 162 184.528 178.256 68.566 59.738 392.327 0.632 3.326 dcdps 162 357.151 366.032 105.157 47.275 574.332 -0.480 3.163 epu 162 238.872 235.391 50.518 175.645 318.38 0.241 1.678 c 162 2.300 2.924 4.478 -12.238 11.566 -1.047 4.343 g 162 2.559 2.059 3.060 -4.282 15.791 1.252 6.091 nx 162 -0.543 -0.745 4.637 -30.475 22.416 -0.469 18.123 econometric methodology the previous data analysis revealed the existence of possible asymmetric features in the panel which indicates the need for applying econometric techniques that allows us to examine the impact of digital construction not only in the mean, but across the gdp distribution. however, in order to be able to choose the proper estimation methodology, as well as the modelling specification, we must first test some additional statistical properties of our variables. consequently, we frame our econometric methodology as follows: first, we conduct panel unit root tests to examine the order of integration of our variables, which is of vital importance for determining the proper modelling specification. second, we apply cross sectional independence test and slope homogeneity tests, which will determine the econometric technique that we will apply. third, considering the results of the data analysis as well as the unit root tests and the cross sectional and slope homogeneity tests, we apply the quantile via moments methodology of machado and santos silva (2019), by developing a location – scale model of the following form: gdp a x z ug it it i it itit = + ′ + ′+β δ γ( ) (1) where pr{ } ( , ), , , ,  i it i iz a i n     0 1 1and capture the individual i fixed effects and z is vector of known differentiable transformations of x. the sequence {xit} is strictly exogenous, i.i.d for any fixed i and independent across i and denotes a vector of the independent variables, among the digital construction (dci ) and its dimensions as well as the control variables, uit are i.i.d., statistically independent t of xit and normalized to satisfy that e u e u( ) ( ) . 0 1and | | given the above assumptions, equation (1) gives that: kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202462 q dc a q x z qgdp it i i it itg ( ) ( ) ( )τ δ τ β γ τ/ = +( ) + ′ + ′ (2) in equation (2) the quantile – t fixed effect for individual i is given by the coefficient a a qi i i( ) ( )τ δ τ≡ + and can be estimated as follows: a gdp x q t r zg it t t it it t t it     ( ) ( )          1 1 1 1  (3) where, r denote the estimated residuals r̂ it = gdpgit − âi − x'it β̂ . it should be noted that in our empirical analysis we use alternative specifications of the above model with respect to the use of the dependent and the independent variables. the main advantages of the above methodology are the following: first, in general, quantile regression analysis provides a more comprehensive description of the conditional distribution than the ordinary mean approach and it offers a more robust econometric technique in the presence of conditional heterogeneity and departures from the gaussian conditions as in palaios and papapetrou (2019) and lolos, palaios and papapetrou (2023). second, the quantile via moments methodology accounts for possible cross-sectional dependence and slope heterogeneity as well. finally, the main advantage of this methodology is that it allows the use of methods that are only valid in the estimation of conditional means, while still providing information on how the regressors affect the entire conditional distribution (machado and santos silva, 2019). empirical analysis and discussion the empirical analysis is structured as follows: the initial phase encompasses preliminary findings, entailing unit root tests, cross-sectional independence assessments, and slope homogeneity tests. subsequently, the focus transitions to the core analysis, where the quantile via moments econometric technique is employed to delve into the main investigation. this structured approach enables a comprehensive exploration of the research objectives, culminating in a nuanced understanding of potential asymmetries in the relationship between digital construction and gdp growth rates. preliminary results to examine the stationarity properties of our variables, which allow to choose the proper model specification, we apply the fisher type (p-perron) unit root test and the hadri lm stationarity test. the results are presented in table 4. the former unit root test assumes as the null hypothesis that the panels include a unit root (non-stationary data). fisher-type tests approach testing for panel-data unit roots from a meta-analysis perspective, namely they conduct unit-root tests for each panel individually and then combine the p-values from these tests to produce an overall test. to mitigate the impact of possible cross-sectional dependence we follow levin, lin and chu’s (2002) procedure which, for each time period, computes the mean of the series across panels and subtracts this mean from the series. the null hypothesis of non-stationarity is rejected in all cases. next, we apply the hadri (2000) lm test which assumes as the null hypothesis that all the panels are stationary. according to hadri (2000) the classical hypothesis testing requires strong evidence to the contrary to reject the null hypothesis. therefore, the advantage of his tests is that the null and alternative hypotheses are reversed, which allows to test the validity of the results of the fisher-type p-perron test that was conducted under the null hypothesis of non-stationarity. in addition, the hadri lm test requires that the panels be strongly balanced, an assumption which perfectly fits our data. our results show that we cannot reject the null hypothesis of stationarity. therefore, we have strong evidence that our data is characterized by constant properties (mean reversion), namely it is stationary. kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202463 table 4. panel data unit root tests variable fisher type (p-perron) test hadri lm stationarity test gdpg 71.827* -0.374 dcagg 203.441*** 1.057 dchc 187.788*** -0.465 dccon 57.467 0.966 dcidt 358.685*** 2.450* dcdps 89.8896 *** 0.311 epu 15.4395 -0.1935 c 132.780*** 0.593 g 280.547*** 0.964 nx 100.603*** -2.061 notes: p values are in parentheses. *, **, *** denote significance at 10%, 5% and 1% level, respectively. the subsequent stage involves the execution of cross-sectional independence tests, aimed at scrutinizing the hypothesis asserting the independence of error terms across diverse cross-sectional units. this step constitutes a crucial component of the analytical process, contributing to the rigorous evaluation of the research framework and its underlying assumptions. according to chudik and pesaran (2013) ignoring cross-sectional dependence of errors leads to serious consequences while the empirical experience shows that cross sectional dependence in economics in usually the rule rather than the exception. on the issue of the causes of cross-sectional dependence, de hoyos and sarafidis (2006) mention that it may be due to the presence of common shocks and unobserved components that become part of the error term. when it comes to the negative effects of a possible interdependence among the error terms of cross-sections, phillips and sul (2003) state that they may lead to a decrease in estimation efficiency. while breusch and pagan (1980) test is valid in cases of panel data with large time periods and small number of cross sections, it is inappropriate in the context of small time periods and large sections, as it holds in our case. therefore, to account for the above-mentioned issues, we choose to perform two semi-parametric cross sectional independence tests, namely the friedman (1937) test and the frees (1995) test. both of them assume cross-sectional independence as the null hypothesis. our results, reported in the second and third column of table 5, show that the null hypothesis of cross-sectional interdependence cannot be rejected. further, we test for slope homogeneity. in the case of a model that consists of heterogeneous slopes, imposing slope homogeneity yields inconsistent and biased results. we perform a test that is a standardized version of swamy’s (1970) test for slope homogeneity presented by pesaran and yamagata (2008). a main advantage of the test is that it can be used for both balanced and unbalanced panels. the null hypothesis of the model assumes slope homogeneity across cross-sectional units, namely the slope coefficients are identical. it should be noted that we use the specification of the heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent (hac) test statistic of blomquist and westerlund (2013) and in addition, following andrews and monahan (1992), we also perform prewhitening to reduce small-sample bias in hac estimation. our results, reported in the fourth column of table 5, show that, in all cases, the null hypothesis of slope homogeneity is rejected. kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202464 table 5. cross sectional independence test and slope homogeneity test variable cross sectional independence slope homogeneity friedman test frees test pesaran and yamagata test specification: aggregate 17.392 (0.402) 0.187 (0.402) 8.117*** specification: human capital 13.392 (0.408) 0.239 (0.408) 4.731*** specification: connectivity 14.471 (0.399) 0.280 (0.399) 15.907*** specification: integration of digital technology 19.889 (0.419) 0.684** (0.419) 6.384*** digital public services 17.836 (0.404) 0.479* (0.404) 12.198*** notes: average absolute values of the off-diagonal elements are in parentheses of the cross-sectional independence tests. *, **, *** denote significance at 10%, 5% and 1% level, respectively. main results: quantiles via moments analysis having detected the nonlinear features of our data (section 4.1), it becomes essential to perform an econometric technique that provides a more comprehensive description of the conditional distribution than the ordinary mean approach. further, as it is evident from the pesaran and yamagata (2008) test, the null hypothesis of slope homogeneity is rejected in all cases. therefore, we choose to perform the quantile via moments methodology (machado and santos silva, 2019) that account for slope heterogeneity and offers a more robust econometric technique in the presence of conditional heterogeneity and departures from the gaussian conditions. tables 6 present the estimation results for the specification of the aggregate digital construction (dcagg ) variable, with fixed effects. the first column shows the specification of our model when it comes to the independent variables. column 2 displays the estimates of the parameters in the location function (mean approach). columns (3) – (11) show the estimated coefficients for each quantile. following lolos, palaios and papapetrou (2021), we categorize the quantiles into threes regimes, namely a bearish economy [t = (0.10, 0.20, 0.30)], a normal economy [t = (0.40, 0.50, 0.60)] and a flourishing economy [t = (0.70, 0.80, 0.90)]. according to our results for the aggregate digital construction (dcagg ) variable we observe that its impact on gdp growth rates is positive and statistically significant along the entire conditional distribution. we also find evidence that the impact of the dcagg variable increases in absolute terms as we move from the lower (bearish economy) to the upper (flourishing economy) quantiles. specifically, in the case of a bearish economy the quantile coefficients of digital construction are qdcagg = (0.0353, 0.0402, 0.0428), in the case of normal economy the quantile coefficients are qdcagg = (0.0458, 0.0485, 0.0519) and in the case of a flourishing economy the coefficients are qdcagg = (0.0546, 0.0569, 0.0604). further, the signs of the rest control variables are as expected. the impact of epu variable, representing economic policy uncertainty, is negative indicating that, as expected, higher economic policy uncertainty is associated with lower gdp growth rates. as expected, the coefficients of private final consumption expenditure, c and government spending, g, and net exports, nx indicate a positive impact on gdp growth rates. kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202465 table 7 presents the estimation results for the rest specifications (subdimensions) of the digital construction variable. each specification explores the relationship between different dimensions of digital construction (dc) and various economic indicators across different quantiles of the gdp distribution. the estimated coefficients of the dimensions follow the same path, namely there are positive and their impact increases as we move from a bearish to a flourishing economy. in addition, we observe that the most influential digital construction subdimension is that of the human capital (dchc ), which signals the need for more investments in the human factor to be able to integrate digital construction techniques in developing infrastructure. specifically, when it comes to the impact of the dimension of human capital the data suggests that as the level of dchc increases there is a positive, statistically significant and more pronounced impact on gdp growth rates. this implies that investing in human skills and capabilities within the construction industry, which is the human capital component of dc, is associated with higher economic growth rates across different economic conditions. for the dimension of connectivity, dc_con, similar trends emerge, where higher levels of dc_con in the construction sector are associated with increased gdp growth rates, particularly in higher quantiles. this indicates that advancements in connectivity through digital construction techniques contribute positively to economic growth, especially in more favourable economic conditions. the analysis of integration of digital technology, dc_idt, also reveals a positive impact on gdp growth rates across quantiles, reinforcing the importance of adopting digital technologies in construction for sustained economic expansion. lastly, in terms of digital public services the data showcases that, higher levels of dc_dps are linked to increased gdp growth rates, particularly in the upper quantiles. this suggests that embracing digitalization in public services within the construction sector can contribute positively to economic growth, especially during more prosperous economic periods. the study’s findings align with the seminal work of yousefi (2011), whose comprehensive examination encompassed 62 countries during the 2000-2006 timeframe. notably, yousefi’s analysis revealed an intriguing pattern—a nuanced and asymmetric correlation between digitalization and economic growth across distinct income strata. high and upper-middle income economies exhibited a notable positive correlation between information and communication technology (ict) adoption and economic growth, whereas such a correlation was notably absent in lower-middle income countries. the interpretation of the above findings according to yousefi (2011) is that the level of investment in digitalization is not the cause of slow growth in lower-middle developing countries as previously thought, because it fails to contribute to the growth of the lower-middle income group countries. yet, an alternative interpretation emerges within the current study’s framework, a perspective congruent with the viewpoints endorsed by a majority of scholars (pradhan, et al., 2019; setaki and van timmeren, 2022; wang, liu and li, 2022; tang, he and hong, 2022). this outlook contends that digitalization’s potential to stimulate growth extends even to economies characterized by lower income levels. this potential, however, hinges on the implementation of strategic measures that adeptly harness its beneficial economic impacts (adeleye and eboagu, 2019; czernich, et al., 2011; ehigiamusoe and lean, 2018; nkikabahizi, et al., 2018). consequently, the observed attenuated coefficient reflecting digitalization’s influence on economic growth need not signify an intrinsic incapacity to drive expansion. rather, it serves as an indicator prompting nations with subdued growth rates to institute targeted structural reforms. these reforms, aimed at optimizing digitalization’s integration, hold the promise of unleashing its full potential to invigorate growth trajectories. this revaluation underscores the paramount importance of proactive policy interventions tailored to extract the transformative potential of digitalization, guiding countries toward a path of robust and equitable economic progress. the significance of these findings unfolds on a dual plane. initially, they underscore a pivotal realization— the potential benefits of digital construction are more pronounced within robust economies, accentuating the imperative for targeted interventions to bolster technology integration in weaker economies (zhang, et al., 2022; ionescu-feleagă, ionescu and stoica 2023). this clarion call for practical solutions emerges as a strategic kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202466 imperative, aiming to enhance the pace of digital technology assimilation within the construction domain of economically challenged nations. moreover, the results carry profound implications on a secondary level. they illuminate a pathway characterized by positive outcomes stemming from digital reforms, advanced technology adoption, fortified digital infrastructure, and heightened investments in human capital (pradhan, et al., 2019; bulturbayevich and jurayevich, 2020; setaki and van timmeren, 2022). these affirmative dynamics are poised to exert a dominant influence, amplifying the developmental trajectory of already established economies. the cumulative effect is poised to usher in a phase of heightened development, bolstered by the synergistic interplay of these transformative factors (wang, liu and li, 2022; tang, he and hong, 2022). in summary, the empirical results underscore the positive association between various dimensions of dc and gdp growth rates across different economic conditions. this emphasizes the importance of ongoing innovation and integration of digital technologies in the construction industry to foster sustained economic expansion and capitalize on the benefits of digitalization. further, our findings underscore digital construction’s potential, advocating tailored integration strategies in less developed economies. hence, the research underscores the significant role of digital construction in influencing gdp growth rates across different economic conditions. the study’s findings advocate for tailored interventions to bolster technology integration in less developed economies while highlighting the potential for enhanced growth through advanced digital reforms. the positive outcomes resulting from technology adoption, fortified digital infrastructure, and investments in human capital offer a dual pathway—one for the development of weaker economies and another for the amplification of already established ones. these dynamics hold the promise of ushering in a phase of heightened and equitable economic progress, propelled by the synergistic interplay of transformative factors. table 6. estimation results (quantiles via moments) for the aggregate digital construction (dc_agg) index, with fixed effects. dependent variable is gdpg. mean approach bearish economy normal economy flourishing economy (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11) location qtile_10 qtile_20 qtile_30 qtile_40 qtile_50 qtile_60 qtile_70 qtile_80 qtile_90 dcagg 0.0485*** 0.0353** 0.0402*** 0.0428*** 0.0458*** 0.0485*** 0.0519*** 0.0546*** 0.0569*** 0.0604*** (0.0011) (0.0014) (0.0012) (0.0011) (0.0011) (0.0011) (0.0012) (0.0012) (0.0013) (0.0014) epu -0.0230*** -0.0229*** -0.0229*** -0.0230*** -0.0230*** -0.0230*** -0.0230*** -0.0230*** -0.0230*** -0.0231*** (0.0041) (0.0055) (0.0048) (0.0041) (0.0042) (0.0041) (0.00423) (0.0044) (0.0046) (0.0051) c 0.599*** 0.684*** 0.652*** 0.636*** 0.617*** 0.599*** 0.577*** 0.560*** 0.545*** 0.523*** (0.0581) (0.0704) (0.0622) (0.0616) (0.0599) (0.0590) (0.0596) (0.0612) (0.0622) (0.0669) g 0.0984 0.0694 0.0801 0.0859 0.0925 0.0985 0.106* 0.112* 0.117* 0.125 (0.0601) (0.0648) (0.0599) (0.0592) (0.0591) (0.0603) (0.0636) (0.0670) (0.0704) (0.0777) nx 0.215*** 0.209*** 0.212*** 0.213*** 0.214*** 0.215*** 0.217*** 0.218*** 0.219*** 0.220*** (0.0454) (0.0408) (0.0412) (0.0421) (0.0436) (0.0454) (0.0482) (0.0507) (0.0530) (0.0571) cons. 1.585** 1.097 1.278* 1.374* 1.485** 1.587** 1.714** 1.811** 1.898** 2.028** (0.670) (0.882) (0.764) (0.714) (0.678) (0.671) (0.697) (0.739) (0.793) (0.880) obs. 162 162 162 162 162 162 162 162 162 162 notes: robust standard errors in parentheses. *, **, *** denote significance at 10%, 5% and 1% level, respectively. kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202467 table 7. estimation results (quantiles via moments) for the subcomponents of desi index, with fixed effects. dependent variable is gdpg. location qtile_10 qtile_20 qtile_30 qtile_40 qtile_50 qtile_60 qtile_70 qtile_80 qtile_90 specification: human capital dchc 0.0481*** 0.0344* 0.0395** 0.0427*** 0.0452*** 0.0482*** 0.0518*** 0.0546*** 0.0571*** 0.0611*** epu -0.0201*** -0.0209*** -0.0206*** -0.0204*** -0.0202*** -0.0201*** -0.0198*** -0.0197*** -0.0195*** -0.0193*** c 0.634*** 0.694*** 0.672*** 0.658*** 0.647*** 0.633*** 0.618*** 0.605*** 0.594*** 0.576*** g 0.102* 0.119* 0.113* 0.109* 0.106* 0.102* 0.0979 0.0945 0.0914 0.0865 nx 0.224*** 0.223*** 0.223*** 0.223*** 0.224*** 0.224*** 0.224*** 0.224*** 0.224*** 0.224*** cons. -7.778** -5.556 -6.378* -6.903** -7.297** -7.790** -8.369** -8.820** -9.229** -9.878** specification: connectivity dccon 0.0091*** 0.0061** 0.0073*** 0.0079*** 0.0085*** 0.0091*** 0.0098*** 0.0105*** 0.0112*** 0.0117*** epu -0.0198*** -0.0199*** -0.0198*** -0.0198*** -0.0198*** -0.0198*** -0.0198*** -0.0197*** -0.0197*** -0.0197*** c 0.619*** 0.701*** 0.669*** 0.654*** 0.637*** 0.619*** 0.599*** 0.582*** 0.563*** 0.547*** g 0.116* 0.0712 0.0883 0.0967* 0.106* 0.115* 0.126* 0.136* 0.146* 0.154* nx 0.214*** 0.207*** 0.210*** 0.212*** 0.213*** 0.214*** 0.216*** 0.218*** 0.219*** 0.221*** cons. 3.719*** 2.622*** 3.045*** 3.253*** 3.474*** 3.712*** 3.983*** 4.213*** 4.463*** 4.670*** specification: integration of digital technology dcidt 0.0207*** 0.0112 0.0146** 0.0164*** 0.0188*** 0.0207*** 0.0232*** 0.0247*** 0.0273*** 0.0296*** epu -0.0212*** -0.0198*** -0.0203*** -0.0206*** -0.0209*** -0.0212*** -0.0216*** -0.0218*** -0.0222*** -0.0225*** c 0.620*** 0.708*** 0.677*** 0.660*** 0.638*** 0.620*** 0.597*** 0.583*** 0.559*** 0.538*** g 0.0821 0.0843 0.0835 0.0831 0.0825 0.0821 0.0815 0.0812 0.0806 0.0801 nx 0.217*** 0.209*** 0.212*** 0.214*** 0.216*** 0.217*** 0.220*** 0.221*** 0.223*** 0.225*** cons. 2.489*** 1.946** 2.138*** 2.244*** 2.381*** 2.490*** 2.633*** 2.718*** 2.870*** 3.000*** specification: digital public services dcdps 0.0152*** 0.0103** 0.0121*** 0.0130*** 0.0141*** 0.0152*** 0.0166*** 0.0174*** 0.0184*** 0.0193*** epu -0.0223*** -0.0213*** -0.0217*** -0.0218*** -0.0221*** -0.0223*** -0.0226*** -0.0228*** -0.0230*** -0.0232*** c 0.612*** 0.704*** 0.669*** 0.653*** 0.633*** 0.611*** 0.586*** 0.570*** 0.552*** 0.534*** g 0.0890 0.0825 0.0850 0.0861 0.0875 0.0891 0.0909 0.0920 0.0933 0.0946 nx 0.219*** 0.216*** 0.217*** 0.217*** 0.218*** 0.219*** 0.220*** 0.220*** 0.221*** 0.221*** cons. 1.150 0.694 0.869 0.947 1.048 1.158 1.281 1.361 1.450 1.540 obs. 162 162 162 162 162 162 162 162 162 162 notes: robust standard errors in parentheses. *, **, *** denote significance at 10%, 5% and 1% level, respectively. policy implications and guidelines for practitioners in an era marked by the relentless march of technological progress, the role of digital technologies in shaping economic landscapes has become increasingly profound. at the forefront of this transformative wave stands digital construction (dc), an innovative fusion of cutting-edge digital tools and traditional construction practices. as nations strive to foster sustainable growth, enhance infrastructure, and navigate kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202468 the complexities of global challenges, an intricate web of policy implications emerges from the examination of dc’s impact on gdp growth rates. the empirical analysis undertaken herein reveals a captivating narrative: a resounding and statistically significant correlation between dc and gdp growth across the entire spectrum of economic conditions. this compelling finding unveils a remarkable constancy in the influence of dc, steadfastly bolstering economic growth irrespective of prevailing circumstances—be they subdued, stable, or soaring. such a revelation not only reinforces prior research positing a symbiotic relationship between digital technologies and economic progress but also beckons policymakers to contemplate profound ramifications for future development strategies. this observation is in line with previous research that has shown a positive relationship between digital technologies and economic growth (aghaei and rezagholizadeh, 2017; pradhan, et al., 2019; zhang, et al., 2021). yet, the story gains complexity as the economic journey traverses diverse quantiles, each reflecting distinctive degrees of prosperity. herein lies the revelation that the transformative impact of dc on gdp growth burgeons with the ascent from lower to upper quantiles—a testament to the amplification of its efficacy with economic improvement. this echoes akin observations in the literature, where digitalization’s fruits tend to ripen more profoundly amidst the flourishing vistas of burgeoning economies. as the economy transitions from lower quantiles (reflecting less favourable economic conditions) to upper quantiles (indicative of more favourable economic conditions), the impact of dc on gdp growth becomes increasingly pronounced. this indicates that the positive effect of dc on economic growth strengthens as the overall economic situation improves. similar findings have been reported in the literature, where the benefits of digitalization tend to amplify as economies progress (limna, kraiwanit and siripipatthanakul 2022; machado and santos silva, 2019). this result implies that stronger economies can use more efficiently the benefits of the digital construction compared to the weaker economies, thus signalling the need of the latter for practical solutions, to improve the integration rate of digitalization in the construction sector. as this exploration delves deeper, a luminary amidst the diverse dimensions of dc comes to the fore: the human capital component, which stands out as the most influential. the singular impact of this facet underscores the pivotal role played by the development of human skills and acumen in effectively embedding digital construction techniques within the tapestry of infrastructure advancement. a resounding message resonates—an investment in honing the expertise of individuals within the construction domain emerges as the bedrock upon which the edifice of digitalization’s benefits is erected. this resonates harmoniously with the wisdom of koskela (1992), who eloquently articulated the centrality of human factors in the context of novel production paradigms. recent scholarly endeavours further underscore the pressing significance of continuous skills development within the digital epoch. this finding underscores the critical role of investing in human skills and capabilities to effectively incorporate digital construction techniques into infrastructure development. the implication is that nurturing and enhancing the expertise and knowledge of individuals within the construction industry plays a pivotal role in leveraging the benefits of digitalization for economic growth. this aligns with the argument made by koskela (1992) regarding the importance of human factors in the context of new production philosophies, as well as recent studies emphasizing the significance of skills development in the digital era (setaki and van timmeren, 2022; wang, et al., 2022). against this backdrop, a probing question resounds—does the tapestry of innovation warrant incessant weaving? the mosaic of evidence woven from this study emphatically nods in affirmation, beckoning forth the imperative of ceaseless innovation, particularly within the realm of digital construction and its intricate dance with economic growth. the rationale for perpetuating innovation finds firm ground on a series of 7 pillars (figure 1) that could beckoning governments to embrace the digital frontier in governance strategies. these are: a. promoting innovation for sustainable economic growth: policymakers should recognize the consistent and significant impact of digital construction (dc) on gdp growth rates. to sustain economic expansion, kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202469 governments and industries should prioritize investments in research, development, and innovation within the digital construction sector. this could involve funding research projects, supporting startups, and facilitating collaboration between academia, industry, and government agencies. b. investment in human capital development: given the central role of the human capital subdimension in driving the impact of dc on economic growth, policymakers should emphasize the importance of continuous skill development, education, and training in the construction industry. developing and nurturing a skilled workforce equipped with digital competencies will be crucial for effective integration of digital construction techniques. c. fostering digital inclusion and government innovation: to maximize the benefits of digitalization, governments need to innovate their digital strategies and ensure inclusive access to digital tools and services. policymakers should develop and implement policies that promote digital inclusion, support digital literacy programs, and create an enabling environment for the adoption of digital construction technologies by various segments of society. d. capitalizing on global megatrends: policymakers should recognize the influence of global megatrends, such as the digital economy and challenges like the covid-19 pandemic. they should proactively adapt policies to align with these trends and leverage opportunities for growth and innovation. this could involve creating agile regulatory frameworks and providing incentives for businesses to adopt and integrate digital construction techniques. e. integration of circular economy principles: the intersection of the circular economy with digitalization in the building industry presents a unique opportunity for sustainable growth. policymakers should figure 1. seven pillars guiding policy implications for digital construction” kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202470 encourage the integration of circular economy principles into digital construction practices, promoting resource efficiency, reduced waste, and environmental sustainability. f. supporting infrastructure development: continuous innovation in digital construction techniques is essential for enhancing infrastructure development and meeting the demands of a rapidly evolving global landscape. policymakers should prioritize investments in smart and resilient infrastructure and create regulatory environments that facilitate the adoption of advanced digital technologies in construction. g. public service enhancement: governments should innovate their digital government strategies to enhance public services and improve efficiency. policymakers should collaborate with relevant stakeholders to develop and implement digital solutions that streamline processes, enhance transparency, and improve service delivery in the construction and infrastructure sectors. conclusions. so, do we need to keep innovating? the findings of this study emphasize the ongoing need for innovation in the context of digital construction and its impact on economic growth. continual innovation is crucial for several reasons, as supported by various scholarly works mentioned in our study. in the contemporary landscape of technological advancement, the symbiotic relationship between digital construction (dc) and economic growth resonates as a beacon of progress. this connection is vividly illustrated by the consistent and statistically significant impact of dc on gdp growth rates, reinforcing the potential for innovation in this domain to underpin sustained economic expansion. however, the impact of dc on economic growth is asymmetric. as economic conditions ascend toward prosperity, the mounting influence of dc on gdp growth magnifies, beckoning forth the imperative of continuous innovation to fully unlock the transformative potential of digital technologies. this result implies that stronger economies can use more efficiently the benefits of the digital construction compared to the weaker economies, thus signalling the need of the latter for structural reforms, to improve the integration rate of digitalization in the construction sector. it also advocates for tailored interventions to bolster technology integration in less developed economies while highlighting the potential for enhanced growth through advanced digital reforms. the positive outcomes resulting from technology adoption, fortified digital infrastructure, and investments in human capital offer a dual pathway—one for the development of weaker economies and another for the amplification of already established ones. amidst this intricate tapestry, the prominence of human capital emerges as a central theme—highlighting the pressing need for perpetual innovation in skill development, education, and training. by cultivating human capabilities and facilitating the seamless integration of digital construction techniques, innovation in this dimension emerges as a linchpin for catalysing progress (kapogiannis and sherratt, 2018; setaki and van timmeren, 2022). additionally, the convergence of the circular economy with digitalization within the construction realm beckons innovative approaches that harmonize sustainability aspirations with technological progress, propelling the industry towards a more resilient and environmentally conscious future. as the foundation of infrastructure development shifts to meet the demands of an ever-evolving global landscape, ongoing innovation in digital construction techniques stands as an imperative for both enhancing infrastructure and maintaining competitiveness (unep, 2022). the journey towards public service enhancement and effective digital inclusion follows a similar course, necessitating a continual evolution of digital government strategies to optimize service delivery and societal engagement (world bank, 2020). the narrative woven by the intricate interplay of dc, innovation, and economic growth forms a tapestry of progress. the symphony of sustained expansion, optimization of digitalization, nurturing of human capital, adaptation to megatrends, fusion of sustainability, fortification of infrastructure, and augmentation of public services underscores the enduring role of innovation. guided by these resonant principles, policymakers and stakeholders are poised to shape a dynamic and prosperous future by fostering a culture kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202471 of unceasing innovation in the realm of digital construction. to ensure the continued positive impact of dc on economic growth, stakeholders must prioritize ongoing innovation and investment in human capital. sustained efforts in research, development, and implementation of cutting-edge digital construction technologies will be essential to drive economic growth, enhance productivity, and remain competitive in a rapidly changing world, especially in countries characterized by lower economic performance. finally, the findings of this study fill a significant research gap in literature by highlighting the importance of digital construction led growth asymmetries, namely the need of weaker countries to promote structural reforms and enduring innovation in order to improve the integration rate of digitalization in the construction sector, and thus to achieve a higher economic growth. policymakers must prioritize investments in research, human capital development, inclusive digital strategies, and alignment with global trends to ensure sustained economic expansion, maximize the benefits of digitalization, and address emerging challenges. by fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration and enabling the integration of digital construction techniques, economies can position themselves for continued growth and competitiveness in an ever-changing world. author contributions the authors have equally contributed to all parts of this paper. all the authors have read and approved the final manuscript. data availability statement the data employed in this research paper and the codes to replicate the results are available upon request. declarations consent for publication this study presents original material that has not been published elsewhere. disclosure statement the authors declare that they have no competing interests, or other interests that might be perceived to influence the results and/or discussion reported in this paper. references abendin, s. and duan, p., 2021. international trade and economic growth in africa: the role of the digital economy. cogent economics and finance, [e-journal] 9(1), 1911767. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322039.2021.1911767 adeleye, i.n. and eboagu, c.a., 2019. ict, financial development, and economic growth in sub-saharan africa. telecommunications policy, [e-journal] 43(4), pp.328-41. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1017-6772.2004.00098.x aghaei, m. and rezagholizadeh, m., 2017. the impact of information and communication technology (ict) on economic growth in the oic countries. economic and environmental studies, [e-journal] 2(42), pp.257-76. https:// www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=581701. https://doi.org/10.25167/ees.2017.42.7 ali, u., shan, w., wang, j.j., and amin, a., 2018. outward foreign direct investment and economic growth in china: evidence from asymmetric ardl approach. journal of business economics and management, [e-journal] 19(5), pp.70621. https://doi.org/10.3846/jbem.2018.6263 kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202472 https://doi.org/10.1080/23322039.2021.1911767 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1017-6772.2004.00098.x https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=581701 https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=581701 https://doi.org/10.25167/ees.2017.42.7 https://doi.org/10.3846/jbem.2018.6263 andrews, d.w. and monahan, j.c., 1992. an improved heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent covariance matrix estimator. econometrica: journal of the econometric society, [e-journal] pp.953-66. https://doi. org/10.2307/2951574 balsalobre-lorente, d., driha, o.m., bekun, f.v., and adedoyin, f.f., 2021. the asymmetric impact of air transport on economic growth in spain: fresh evidence from the tourism-led growth hypothesis. current issues in tourism, [e-journal] 24(4), pp.503-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2020.1720624 bim summit, 2021. cost benefit analysis for the use of bim: user handbook. [online] available at: http://www.eubim.eu/ wp-content/uploads/2021/05/cost-benefit-analysis-for-the-use-of-bim_user-handbook.pdf [accessed 22 september 2023]. blomquist, j. and westerlund, j., 2013. testing slope homogeneity in large panels with serial correlation. economics letters, [e-journal] 121(3), pp.374-78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2013.09.012 breusch, t.s. and pagan, a.r., 1980. the lagrange multiplier test and its applications to model specification in econometrics. the review of economic studies, [e-journal] 47(1), pp.239-53. https://doi.org/10.2307/2297111 bulturbayevich, m.b. and jurayevich, m.b., 2020. the impact of the digital economy on economic growth. international journal of business, law, and education, [e-journal] 1(1), pp.4-7. https://doi.org/10.56442/ijble.v1i1.2 chen, h., hongo, d.o., ssali, m.w., nyaranga, m.s., and nderitu, c.w., 2020. the asymmetric influence of financial development on economic growth in kenya: evidence from nardl. sage open, [e-journal] 10(1). https://doi. org/10.1177/2158244019894071 chudik, a., and pesaran, m.h., 2013. large panel data models with cross-sectional dependence: a survey. cafe research paper, [e-journal] 13(15). https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2316333. https://doi. org/10.2139/ssrn.2316333 czernich, n., falck, o., kretschmer, t. and woessmann, l., 2011. broadband infrastructure and economic growth. the economic journal, [e-journal] 121(552), pp.505-32. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2011.02420.x de hoyos, r.e. and sarafidis, v., 2006. testing for cross-sectional dependence in panel-data models. the stata journal [e-journal] 6(4), pp.482-96. https://doi.org/10.1177/1536867x0600600403 deloitte, 2019. point of view on digital construction, the business case of incorporating digital technologies into the construction industry [online] available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/nl/documents/energyresources/deloitte-nl-eri-point-of-view-digital-construction.pdf [accessed 2 june 2023]. deloitte insights, 2023. digitalizing the construction industry [online] available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/ [accessed 28 december 2023]. ehigiamusoe, k.u. and lean, h.h., 2018. financial development, ict diffusion, and economic growth: evidence from 48 african countries. economic modelling, [e-journal] 70, pp.288-305. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2012.12.004 frees, e.w., 1995. assessing cross-sectional correlation in panel data. journal of econometrics, [e-journal] 69(2), pp.393414. https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-4076(94)01658-m friedman, m., 1937. the use of ranks to avoid the assumption of normality implicit in the analysis of variance. journal of the american statistical association, [e-journal] 32(200), pp.675-701. https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1937.10503522 hadri, k., 2000. testing for stationarity in heterogeneous panel data. the econometrics journal, [e-journal] 3(2), pp.14861. https://doi.org/10.1111/1368-423x.00043 hitachi solutions, 2023. what is digital construction? 7 best practices. hitachi solutions [online] available at: https:// global.hitachi-solutions.com/ [accessed 28 december 2023]. kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202473 https://doi.org/10.2307/2951574 https://doi.org/10.2307/2951574 https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2020.1720624 http://www.eubim.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/cost-benefit-analysis-for-the-use-of-bim_user-handbook.pdf http://www.eubim.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/cost-benefit-analysis-for-the-use-of-bim_user-handbook.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.econlet.2013.09.012 https://doi.org/10.2307/2297111 https://doi.org/10.56442/ijble.v1i1.2 https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019894071 https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244019894071 https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2316333 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2316333 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2316333 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0297.2011.02420.x https://doi.org/10.1177/1536867x0600600403 https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/nl/documents/energy-resources/deloitte-nl-eri-point-of-view-digital-construction.pdf https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/deloitte/nl/documents/energy-resources/deloitte-nl-eri-point-of-view-digital-construction.pdf https://www2.deloitte.com/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.telpol.2012.12.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/0304-4076(94)01658-m https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.1937.10503522 https://doi.org/10.1111/1368-423x.00043 https://global.hitachi-solutions.com/ https://global.hitachi-solutions.com/ icis, 2022. bim education – global – 2022 update report [online] available at: https://www.icis.org/wp-content/ uploads/2022/05/bim-education-global-2022-update-report-v9.0.pdf [accessed 2 november 2023]. ionescu-feleagă, l., ionescu, b.ș. and stoica, o.c., 2023. the link between digitization and the sustainable development in european union countries. electronics, [e-journal] 12(4), p.961. https://doi.org/10.3390/ electronics12040961 kapogiannis, g. and sherratt, f., 2018. impact of integrated collaborative technologies to form a collaborative culture in construction projects. built environment project and asset management, [e-journal] 8(1), pp.24-38. https://doi. org/10.1108/bepam-07-2017-0043 koskela, l. 1992. application of the new production philosophy to construction. stanford: stanford university. kpmg, 2021. the value of information management in the construction and infrastructure industry [online] available at: https://kpmg.com/uk/en/home/insights/2021/06/the-value-of-information-management-in-the-construction-andinfr.html [accessed 2 december 2023]. krysten, s., 2020. the 2020 digital construction playbook, digital builder [online] available at: https://www.autodesk. com/blogs/construction/digital-construction-playbook/ [accessed 28 december 2023]. lee, j., kao, h.a., and yang, s., 2015. service innovation and smart analytics for industry 4.0 and big data environment. procedia cirp, [e-journal] 16, pp.3-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2014.02.001 levin, a., lin, c.f. and chu, c s.j., 2002. unit root tests in panel data: asymptotic and finite-sample properties. journal of econometrics, [e-journal] 108(1), pp.1-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0304-4076(01)00098-7 limna, p., kraiwanit, t. and siripipatthanakul, s., 2022. the growing trend of digital economy: a review article. international journal of computing sciences research, [e-journal] 6, pp.1-11. www.stepacademic.net/ijcsr/article/view/347. lolos, s., palaios, p. and papapetrou, e., 2021. the greek tourism-led growth revisited: insights and prospects. bank of greece working paper, [e-journal] no.289. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4142528 lolos, s., palaios, p. and papapetrou, e., 2023. tourism-led growth asymmetries in greece: evidence from quantile regression analysis. portuguese economic journal, [e-journal] 22, pp.125-48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10258-021-001957 machado, j.a., and santos silva, j., 2019. quantiles via moments. journal of econometrics, [e-journal] 213(1), pp.145-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2019.04.009 mckinsey and company, 2023. walking the talk: best practices for digital construction, mckinsey [online] available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/ [accessed 28 december 2023]. mura, p.o. and donath, l.e., 2023. digitalisation and economic growth in the european union. electronics, [e-journal] 12(7), p.1718. https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12071718 nkikabahizi, f., djekoto, g.b., habonimana, r. and masso, c., 2018. does ict diffusion affect economic growth? evidence from sub-saharan africa. telecommunications policy, [e-journal] 42(10), pp.812-28. https://link.springer.com/ chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-04980-4_3. palaios, p. and papapetrou, e., 2019. asymmetric dynamics in the social contributions and social benefits nexus in greece. economic change and restructuring, [e-journal] 52, pp.327-49. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10644-018-9234-9 pesaran, m.h. and yamagata, t., 2008. testing slope homogeneity in large panels. journal of econometrics, [e-journal] 142(1), pp.50-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2007.05.010 phillips, p.c. and sul, d., 2003. dynamic panel estimation and homogeneity testing under cross section dependence. the econometrics journal, [e-journal] 6(1), pp.217-59. https://doi.org/10.1111/1368-423x.00108 kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202474 https://www.icis.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/bim-education-global-2022-update-report-v9.0.pdf https://www.icis.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/bim-education-global-2022-update-report-v9.0.pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12040961 https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12040961 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-07-2017-0043 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-07-2017-0043 https://kpmg.com/uk/en/home/insights/2021/06/the-value-of-information-management-in-the-construction-and-infr.html https://kpmg.com/uk/en/home/insights/2021/06/the-value-of-information-management-in-the-construction-and-infr.html https://www.autodesk.com/blogs/construction/digital-construction-playbook/ https://www.autodesk.com/blogs/construction/digital-construction-playbook/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2014.02.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0304-4076(01)00098-7 http://www.stepacademic.net/ijcsr/article/view/347 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4142528 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10258-021-00195-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10258-021-00195-7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2019.04.009 https://www.mckinsey.com/ https://doi.org/10.3390/electronics12071718 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-04980-4_3 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-04980-4_3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10644-018-9234-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2007.05.010 https://doi.org/10.1111/1368-423x.00108 pradhan, r.p., arvin, m.b., nair, m., bennett, s.e. and bahmani, s., 2019. short-term and long-term dynamics of venture capital and economic growth in a digital economy: a study of european countries. technology in society, [e-journal] 57, pp.125-34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2018.11.002 rics, 2022. digital twins: from design to handover of constructed assets [online] available at: https://www.rics. org/news-insights/research-and-insights/digital-twins-from-design-to-handover-of-constructed-assets [accessed 25 october 2023]. rics, 2023. digitalisation in construction report 2023 rics [online] available at: https://www.rics.org/news-insights/ digitalisation-in-construction-report [accessed 28 december 2023]. rodrigo, n., omrany, h., chang, r. and zuo, j., 2023. leveraging digital technologies for circular economy in construction industry: a way forward. smart and sustainable built environment, [e-journal] 13(1), pp.85-116. https:// doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-05-2023-0111 rosadi, s.d., noviandika, a., walters, r. and aisy, f.r., 2023. indonesia’s personal data protection bill, 2020: does it meet the needs of the new digital economy? international review of law, computers and technology, [e-journal] 37(1), pp.78-90. https://doi.org/10.1080/13600869.2022.2114660 sawhney, a., mukherjee, k., rahimian, f. and goulding, j., 2014. scenario thinking approach for leveraging ict to support smes in the indian construction industry. procedia engineering, [e-journal] 85, pp.446-53. issn 1877-7058. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.10.571 setaki, f. and van timmeren, a., 2022. disruptive technologies for a circular building industry. building and environment, [e-journal] 223, 2022, p.109394. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.109394 swamy, p.a., 1970. efficient inference in a random coefficient regression model. econometrica: journal of the econometric society, [e-journal] 38(2), pp.311-23. https://doi.org/10.2307/1913012 tang, h., cai, c. and xu, c., 2022. does the digital economy improve urban tourism development? an examination of the chinese case. sustainability, [e-journal] 14(23), p.15708. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142315708 tang, h., he, d. and hong, q., 2022. does the digital economy drive the urban development? evidence from digital economy index and urban tourism development. technological forecasting and social change, [e-journal] 175, p.121319. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142315708 techgig, 2023. how digital technology is changing the construction industry [online] available at: https://content.techgig. com/technology/how-digital-technology-is-changing-the-construction-industry/articleshow/82303187.cms [accessed 28 december 2023]. unep, 2022. global status report for buildings and construction: towards a zeroemission, efficient and resilient buildings and construction sector [online] available at: https://www.unep.org/resources/publication/2022-global-status-reportbuildings-and-construction [accessed 20 december 2023]. wang, y., jiang, s., wu, c., cai, x. and wang, f., 2022. impact of the global megatrends, covid-19, and digital economy on professional career management transformation in asian countries. sustainability, [e-journal] 14(17), p.10981. https://doi.org/10.3390/su141710981 wang, s., liu, j. and li, j., 2022. the effect of digital economy development on career management in asia. technological forecasting and social change, [e-journal] 173, p.121157. world bank., 2020. digital government: the path to digital inclusion and effective public service [online] available at: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/digitalgovernment [accessed 20 october 2023]. wu, h.x. and yu, c., 2022. the impact of the digital economy on china’s economic growth and productivity performance. china economic journal, [e-journal] 15(2), pp.153-70. https://doi.org/10.1080/17538963.2022.2067689 kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202475 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2018.11.002 https://www.rics.org/news-insights/research-and-insights/digital-twins-from-design-to-handover-of-constructed-assets https://www.rics.org/news-insights/research-and-insights/digital-twins-from-design-to-handover-of-constructed-assets https://www.rics.org/news-insights/digitalisation-in-construction-report https://www.rics.org/news-insights/digitalisation-in-construction-report https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-05-2023-0111 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-05-2023-0111 https://doi.org/10.1080/13600869.2022.2114660 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.10.571 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.109394 https://doi.org/10.2307/1913012 https://doi.org/10.3390/su142315708 https://doi.org/10.3390/su142315708 https://content.techgig.com/technology/how-digital-technology-is-changing-the-construction-industry/articleshow/82303187.cms https://content.techgig.com/technology/how-digital-technology-is-changing-the-construction-industry/articleshow/82303187.cms https://www.unep.org/resources/publication/2022-global-status-report-buildings-and-construction https://www.unep.org/resources/publication/2022-global-status-report-buildings-and-construction https://doi.org/10.3390/su141710981 https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/digitalgovernment https://doi.org/10.1080/17538963.2022.2067689 yousefi, a., 2011. the impact of information and communication technology on economic growth: evidence from developed and developing countries. economics of innovation and new technology, [e-journal] 20(6), pp.581-96. https:// doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2010.544470 zhang, w., zhao, s., wan, x. and yao, y., 2021. study on the effect of digital economy on high-quality economic development in china. plos one, [e-journal] 16(9), e0257365. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257365 zhang, j., zhao, w., cheng, b., li, a., wang, y., yang, n. and tian, y., 2022. the impact of digital economy on the economic growth and the development strategies in the post-covid-19 era: evidence from countries along the “belt and road”. frontiers in public health, [e-journal] 10, p.856142. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.856142 kapogiannis et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202476 https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2010.544470 https://doi.org/10.1080/10438599.2010.544470 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0257365 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.856142 © 2022 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: o’leary, t. r. 2022. contract administration for construction professionals. construction economics and building, 22:1, 70–73. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v22i1.8111 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 22, no. 1 march 2022 book review contract administration for construction professionals coggins, j., schwarz, s., davies, m., and ma, t. contract administration for construction professionals. lexisnexis australia at www.lexis.com.au, 2022. isbn/issn 978-0-4093-5083-8 (paperback, 588 pp) aud 95, e-book, isbn/issn 978-090435084-5 timothy r. o’leary faculty of architecture, building and planning, the university of melbourne, australia corresponding author: timothy r o’leary, faculty of architecture, building and planning, the university of melbourne, australia, oleary.t@unimelb.edu.au doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.8111 article history: received: 21/01/2022; revised: 24/02/2022; accepted: 02/03/2022; published: 21/03/2022 the principal objective of this book is to provide a comprehensive examination of the administration of building contracts as an antipodean contribution to construction law. the contributing authors represent construction academics and legal practitioners in construction law in australia. they have pooled their collective knowledge and experience in the fields of professional contract administration and contracts management, quantity surveying, and construction law to draft an invaluable text for both construction professionals and students alike. the blending of this experience provides insightful commentary, reliable instruction and thorough analysis across the terms and operation of construction contracts. the book is comprised of thirteen chapters: 1. an introduction to forms of construction contract 2. security 3. subcontracting 4. latent conditions 5. people, property and the works 6. quality and defective work declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 70 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.8111 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.8111 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.8111 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb http://www.lexis.com.au mailto:oleary.t@unimelb.edu.au https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.8111 7. time 8. variations 9. payment under the contract 10. security of payment legislation 11. termination of contract 12. insolvency 13. claims and dispute resolution the book includes extracts from materials based on the australian national capital works: ncw4 standard form of construction contract along with standards australia as 2124 -1992 and as 4000 – 1997 and the abic medium works (mw) 2018 standard form of construction contract. home building contracts for residential projects such as housing industry association (hia) contracts are not a feature of this text given the small project size and value and lack of role of a contract administrator on such contracts. underlying the very comprehensive approach taken by the authors is a case list of more than 100 actual cases dealing with the issues that have led to a court ruling and a list of relevant building statutes over some 8 pages. chapter 1 sets an overview and introduction of forms of construction contract, the relevant documentation that supports the formation of a construction contract, such things as regulatory standards, notices, licences, bills of quantities and schedules as well as addressing the ambiguities and discrepancies that can arise in contracts and amendments to contracts. chapters 2 to 6 deal with the provision of security, the risk of latent conditions and defective works as well as covering various contracting chains that arise from the prevalence of subcontracting and novation in the industry. also, in this section of the book a separate chapter is devoted to the protection of people and property and work health and safety. it is the unfortunate case that defective, unsafe and dangerous construction work has received much media attention and industry angst in the past few years in australia and this text whilst not directly dealing with the responses of regulators and legislators comprehensively examines contract provisions for identification and rectification of unsatisfactory work. the various forms of indemnities, insurances and guarantees are examined as well as discussion on keystone issues of governance, risk management and remedies going beyond any contract into the law of torts. as in other chapters, this section of the book provides highly relevant case law judgements and summary of industrial, commercial and a few residential construction disputes that have been through the courts. chapters 7 and 8 deal with all important time considerations and the impact of variations to the original agreed construction plan. the authors note the considerable financial impact which delay can have on a project and that time is perhaps the most disputed contractual issue and issues around time are the subject of major arbitration and court cases. the concept of time is presented as a technically complex matter on a construction project and that understanding the time provisions of a contract is paramount. it is evident in the text and a credit to the authors they have in clear terms explained programming of the works which on large construction projects is a specialist role beyond that of a contract administrator. the intertwining complexity around time and progress requiring differing protocols is thoroughly examined, relevant contract clauses are identified, and guidance is provided on such matters as the application of ‘show cause’ notices where rate of progress becomes an issue. the many reasons why a construction contract will have variations are outlined and the processes to deal with these under different contracts are comprehensively discussed. chapters 9 and 10 discuss payments and the legislation around security of payment that can invoke different legal frameworks due to state jurisdictional differences. the importance of cash flow which makes payment procedures so critical on construction projects is outlined with suitable references to case law. there is room even for a quotation of the influential english judge lord denning made famous by the sheer weight of judgements he delivered on commercial disputes and contractual matters involving payment. o’leary construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202271 the provisional nature of payments adopted by construction contracts is thoroughly examined with clear references to the timing of progress claims, work related to provisional sums and prime cost sums. provisions with respect to payment for unfixed plant and materials, operation of ‘rise and fall’ clauses, conditions under which a payment ‘set-off ’ might apply and at completion a final account certificate agreed amongst parties, are all discussed. the procedures in preparing a construction progress claim under the standard forms of contract are explained and a ‘model’ suggested format for setting out a progress claim is presented with annotations to help the reader. older contract administration texts that have served in the past as key readings would not have as the text does, an up-to-date examination of the differing approaches adopted across by states and territories in security of payment terms and obligations making this a timely publication serving this gap. the final chapters 11 to 13 discuss the ultimate failure of a project delivery should serious matters arise leading to termination, disputed claims, insolvency and recourse to arbitration and the courts. all of these are of course costly in terms of money, time and reputations and leading to a common belief across the construction industry that disputes are inevitable. it is noted by the authors that insolvency is unfortunately a common occurrence in the construction industry clearly citing australian insolvency statistics from the australian securities and investment commission (asic). the authors comprehensively set out the actions and remedies when managing construction projects and the conflicts that arise out of them, to reduce the risk of disputes or the escalation of a risk to dispute resolution. while most construction contract administrators and project managers may never work with all forms of contracting this book covers, this book provides both students contemplating a career in this area and existing professionals practising construction contract administration with the essential content and knowledge to do so. the issues presented and the discussions that follow are applicable to any size project. the book is written in plain english not ‘legalese’, presenting contract terminology in a logical unambiguous style. clauses from four australian standard forms of construction contract along with relevant case law and legislation are reviewed and explained in a practical and accessible manner to give readers a full understanding of each topic. summary lists of strategies and procedures to follow are listed across chapters that follow an intuitive flow. tutorial and multiple-choice questions for students are included for each chapter, making the book a complete resource to support teaching and learning. the construction law research community will find this text brings to the fore more recent developments in australian contracts. there are numerous references throughout the book to research in this area, for example a research report from the melbourne law school by sharkey et. al (2014), which seeks to explain how familiarity with standard forms is by far the most important factor in explaining why the industry in australia chooses to use standard forms. the authors reference some of their own research findings around the case for regulating unfair contract terms and for limiting the common practice of making amendments to standard forms. power imbalances in the processes of bargaining around contract terms are highlighted with appropriate references to studies and common practices. the text does not however delve deeply into research on client-side considerations, such as findings in recent texts e.g. construction contract administration for project owners (lancome, 2017) that for most clients their primary business is not design and construction of buildings placing them at a disadvantage when negotiating, drafting, and administering design agreements and construction contracts, whereas designers and contractors use these documents every day. this is a student friendly text and would be highly recommended for courses and subjects at both undergraduate and post graduate level. the inclusion of multiple-choice questions and case study style tutorial questions for each chapter will assist both students and tutors immensely. this book would be one to consider for graduate university courses in construction and project management and allied architectural and engineering. students mastering its lessons will be better prepared for a life’s work in construction. o’leary construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202272 starting this learning early such as in undergraduate courses or a cadetship makes sense since it takes many years to gain the experience to manage construction projects in the real world. in this fast-paced world of modern construction and regulations around contracting and business relationships it would be anticipated that in the future any major changes in standard forms of contract or legislation would be incorporated into future editions. for any professional who will be managing a project or student preparing for a career in construction, this book is one to study, to refresh prior knowledge and expanding thinking. references lancome, c. g. (2017). construction contract administration for project owners. 1st ed., routledge, uk. https://doi. org/10.4324/9781315277004 sharkey, j., bell, m., jocic, w. and marginean, r. (2014). standard forms of contract in the australian construction industry, melbourne law school, university of melbourne, australia. available at https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu. au/handle/11343/297170. accessed: 03/03/2022 o’leary construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202273 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315277004 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315277004 https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/handle/11343/297170 https://minerva-access.unimelb.edu.au/handle/11343/297170 construction economics and building vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 2023 © 2023 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: suriyanon, n., sutheerawatthana, p., kaewmoracharoen, m., klansai, v. 2023. the utility and value of contract terms: a case study on interior contractors. construction economics and building, 23:1/2, 77–94. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v23i1/2.8532 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article the utility and value of contract terms: a case study on interior contractors natee suriyanon1,*, pitch sutheerawatthana2, manop kaewmoracharoen3, veera klansai4 1 department of civil engineering, chiang mai university 2 department of civil engineering, king mongkut’s university of technology thonburi 3 department of civil engineering, chulalongkorn university 4 department of civil engineering, mahanakorn university of technology corresponding author: natee suriyanon, ph.d. department of civil engineering, chiang mai university, natee.suriyanon@cmu.ac.th doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8532 article history: received 31/01/2023; revised 29/04/2023; accepted 29/04/2023; published 31/07/2023 abstract this study applied the conjoint analysis technique to appraise the utility of interior contractors’ contract terms and project price conditions. the sample group comprised 112 interior contractors working in 12 shopping centers of a public company in thailand. the results showed that the advance payment term, the period of an interim payment term, the period to make a payment term, and the project price conditions had average utility ratios (ratio of its utility to the total utility) of 28.23%, 20.03%, 20.20%, and 27.72%, respectively. these results confirmed that each of these three contract terms is as important to interior contractors as the project price condition when the proposed amount is not reduced by 5%. this study also valued the three contract terms by comparing their utility with the utility of the project price condition. the values of the advance payment term, the period of the interim payment term, and the period to make a payment term varied between 0.00–8.75 %, 1.00–8.33%, and 2.00–11.67% of the proposed price, respectively. the value of all three contract terms varied between 10.00–20.00% of the proposed price. the insights provided by this study into the utility and value of these three contract terms could aid project owners or tenants of shopping centers in project price negotiations. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 77 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8532 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8532 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8532 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:natee.suriyanon@cmu.ac.th https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8532 keywords contract term; conjoint analysis; project price; contract term utility; contract term value introduction a project owner should consider offering a contractor better contract terms in exchange for a price reduction. the contractor must consider various factors, such as the scope of the work, contract terms, quality of work, and project duration, when finalizing the project cost with the owner. the contract terms are among the most critical factors, so contractors pay a great deal of attention to them when pricing a project (upson, 1987; shash, 1993; lowe and parvar, 2004; jarkas, 2013; smirnov and fedoseev, 2013; yosr, et al., 2019). the duties and responsibilities between a contractor and the project owner are defined via contract terms. consequently, if contractors are potentially faced with additional liabilities, costs, and risks, they will mitigate these risks by quoting higher prices to the project owner (clough and sears, 1994; march, 2009; sanni, adebiyi and okorie, 2020). conversely, the project owner will try to persuade the contractor to lower the proposed project price during the project price negotiating process. demanding that the contractor reduce their project price without offering any benefit in exchange is usually not an effective way to negotiate, as receiving a lower contract price decreases the contractor’s utility on the project. moreover, if the contractor’s utility on a project is already approaching its lowest acceptable level, the contractor is likely to insist on the recently proposed price or only lower the project price marginally. conversely, a project owner could offer a contractor better contract terms in exchange for a project price reduction—examples of such contract terms include providing advance payments to the contractor or shortening the payment period. the net result is that contractors tend to lower the project price if they receive more favourable terms, as accepting such contract terms increases their utility on the project, compensating for the project price reduction. determining the utility and value of each contract term can provide helpful guidance in the price negotiations between an owner and the interior contractors. currently, residential and commercial buildings are shrinking due to increased construction and land costs. consequently, interior designers use limited spaces more functionally (dhankhar, 2015). in the shopping center business, project owners and tenants hire interior contractors to decorate various areas at the beginning of the project. moreover, once a shopping center has been in operation for some time, it may require renovations. consequently, for project owners and tenants of shopping centers, having information on the utility and value of each contract term from an interior contractor’s point of view could be beneficial, allowing them to negotiate prices with interior contractors more effectively. for example, if a project owner or tenant of a shopping center knows that the interior contractor is willing to reduce the proposed price by 5.61% and 4.13% in exchange for receiving a 30% advance payment or shortening the payment term from 30 to 14 days, respectively, they know that they could expect a 9.74% reduction in the project price by offering to adjust both contract terms. an intensive literature review found that studies on the estimation of the utility and value of contract terms, particularly from the perspective of interior contractors working in shopping centers, are scarce. this research aims to address this gap by applying a conjoint analysis to evaluate the utility of each selected contract term and the project price condition. the value of each selected contract term was also determined by comparing its utility with that of the project price condition. literature review past research on contract terms has often focused on contract clauses, highlighting their completeness, coverage, and ambiguity, and comparing clauses between contracts to identify their similarities and differences. for example, zhang, zhang and gao (2006) compared the risk allocation clauses in fidic suriyanon, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202378 (fédération internationale des ingénieurs-conseils) contract conditions for construction and in china’s standard construction contract form; tochaiwat and chovichien (2008) analysed the contract clauses related to claims in thai public construction contracts by comparing them with those of the aia’s a201 (1997) and fidic’s construction contracts (1999); zolkafli, zakaria and salleh (2011) compared the fidic red book and public works contracts in malaysia in terms of their liabilities, expressed and implied duties, risk allocations, conditions, procedures, and dispute resolution methods; and lee, et al. (2018) reviewed the general conditions of contracts affecting the extension of time claims in the malaysian construction industry and determined the extent of ambiguity of various contract forms using a comparative study. another way of identifying ambiguous contract clauses is through the analysis of court disputes, as done by lee, et al. (2020), who examined construction-related law cases to determine the ambiguity of extension of time clauses in the malaysian standard forms of contract. however, research on contract terms is not limited to the study of the completeness, coverage, and clarity of contract clauses. contract terms define the duties and obligations of the owner and contractor, which greatly influence the contract price. in negotiating the duties and obligations of both parties, one should have information on the utility and value of the various contract terms from the other party’s perspective. having such information, one can more effectively negotiate with the other party. suriyanon and chovichien (2009) examined the utility and value of contract terms regarding restrictions to contractors’ rights to claim compensation, sampling with a group of representatives of thai government organizations who are major construction project owners. their research results showed that thai government organizations preferred to restrict the contractor’s rights to claim for an increase in direct and overhead costs due to force majeure, an increase in overhead costs due to the employer’s ineffective performance, an increase in direct and overhead costs due to the employer’s interference, and an increase in overhead costs due to differing site conditions. in exchange for restricting each of these six types of claim rights, they were willing to pay 0.210%, 0.164%, 0.090%, 0.087%, 0.132%, and 0.199% of the value of the work, respectively. klahan and suriyanon (2021) assessed the utility and value of contract terms from a labour-only painting subcontractor’s perspective. their research showed that five contract terms greatly affected the painting subcontractor’s job-taking decision, namely, the unit rate, extra money, retention period, period of interim payment, and amount of work per contract. moreover, extra money, retention period, period of interim payment, and amount of work per contract terms were valued at 0.08–0.15, 0.03–0.15, 0.00–0.03, and 0.00–0.08 usd/m2, respectively. conjoint analysis technique green, krieger and wind (2001) have identified conjoint analysis as the most widely used marketing research technique for analysing consumer trade-offs. this technique was developed to evaluate the level of satisfaction of people with specific product attributes. the data obtained from such analysis includes the utility value of every level of each attribute. a unique feature of conjoint analysis is that the researcher creates a series of real or hypothetical objects by combining different levels of each attribute, resulting in a design that is presented to the respondents as a set of proposals. the respondents are then asked to evaluate the overall appeal of the objects without providing feedback on the importance of specific attributes or attribute levels. this approach enables the researcher to determine the impact and value of each attribute on the utility judgment of the respondents (hair et al., 2006). the conjoint analysis technique has been recently used in the fields of construction engineering and management. examples of this research include: identifying the utility and value of the contractor’s right to claim compensation (suriyanon and chovichien, 2009), of various contract terms from a labour-only painting subcontractor’s perspective (klahan and suriyanon, 2021), and of the benefits provided by a company to engineers working on newer asean (association of southeast asian nations) member countries—that is, cambodia, laos, myanmar, and vietnam (clmv) (chitchamnong and suriyanon, 2019); examining the relative importance and their interaction of price and trust in subcontractor selection suriyanon, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202379 (hartmann and caerteling, 2010); and assessing how contracting parties trade-off and value relationship quality attributes against each other ( jelodar, yiu and wilkinson, 2016; jelodar, yiu and wilkinson, 2017). this study utilized ranking-based conjoint analysis to investigate the preferences of interior contractors regarding contract terms and project pricing conditions and determine the utility values of those terms and conditions. utility values represent an individual’s personal and subjective assessment of the worth or desirability of a particular object. in conjoint analysis, it is assumed that the total utility of each proposal is determined by combining the utility estimated for each attribute using an additive model, which is also known as part-worth values. to calculate the utility values, a modified analysis of variance (anova) was applied to ensure that the rank order of the total utility estimated for each proposal closely correlates with the observed rank order of the proposals. in this study, each contract term/project price condition was assigned to either the standard or superior level. the utility value for each contract term/project price condition refers to the utility obtained when adjusting each contract term/project price condition from the standard to the superior level. these values were obtained through a conjoint analysis. the equation used to calculate the total utility of each proposal is expressed as follows: utn = c + u1 × x1n + u2 × x2n + u3 × x3n + u4 × x4n+… + ui × xin (1) where utn denotes the total utility of the nth proposal, c denotes a constant value known as the basic utility, ui denotes the utility value of the ith contract term/project price condition, and xin represents the nominal variable of the ith contract term/project price condition of the nth proposal. the value of xin is 0 or 1 depending on whether the level of the ith contract term/project price condition of the nth proposal is standard or superior, respectively. methodology to evaluate the utility and value of contract terms, this study applied the following six steps: 1. identification of contract terms. a literature review, examination of contracts, and interviews with interior contractors were conducted to compile a list of contract terms that directly impacted the pricing of interior contractor projects. additionally, the level of each contract term and the project price at which the interior contractor might negotiate with the project owner were gauged from the interviews. 2. first round of data collection. based on the list of contract terms compiled in the first step, sample data were collected to determine the importance of each contract term and project pricing condition. respondents were asked to rank all the listed contract terms and project price conditions according to the level of importance they assigned to each. 3. selection of contract terms for conjoint study. the three contract terms that were most significant to the contractors were identified based on the data collected during the first round. these three contract terms, along with the project price condition, were utilized as attributes for designing the proposal in step 4. 4. design of proposals. a set of proposals was created for the conjoint analysis experiment, following the orthogonal design concept and considering the specific number and levels of attributes identified in the study. 5. second round of data collection. the participants were requested to rank all the designed proposals from the most to the least satisfactory. the results obtained from this step were used to evaluate the utility and value of contract terms in step 6. suriyanon, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202380 6. data analysis. 6.1 utility of each attribute level. a statistical computer program was used to evaluate the utility of each attribute level based on the ranking patterns obtained in step 5. 6.2 ratio of utility to maximum possible utility. the utility ratios, representing the level of importance of each contract term or the project price condition for the interior contractor, were calculated in this step. the utility ratio of each attribute was determined by dividing its utility value by the maximum possible utility value of the proposal, which occurred when all proposal attributes were at the superior level. 6.3 value of the three contract terms. the value of each contract term was calculated by dividing its utility by the utility of the project price condition and then multiplying the result by the value of the project price considered in the study. identified contract terms a literature review, examination of contracts, and interviews with interior contractors were conducted to identify all contract terms that have a direct impact on the pricing of interior design projects. during the contract examination phase, ten interior contractors were contacted and asked to submit their most recent contract for the study, as well as invited to participate in individual interviews. however, only five of the contacted contractors responded and agreed to be interviewed. the results of these processes yielded a list of six contract terms that directly influenced the contractor’s project pricing, which are listed in table 1. the interview findings also suggest that interior contractors may not be willing to lower their proposed price by more than 5% during price negotiations if the owner does not offer any flexibility in the contract terms. the level of each contract term and the project price (proposal attributes) at which the interior contractor might negotiate with the project owner, according to the interviews, are also shown in table 1. table 1. contract terms and project price and their levels contract terms and project price level of contract terms and project price standard level superior level 1 advance payment none 30% of the contract price (repaid through 30% deduction from each progress payment) 2 period of an interim payment 30 d 14 d 3 period to make a payment 30 d 14 d 4 time to release retention. (given retention amount is 5% of the project price) 12 mo after project completion 3 mo after project completion 5 amount of liquidated damages (per day) specified in the contract 0.10% of the project price 0.01% of the project price 6 time to fix damage occurring during defect notification period 7 d 15 d 7 project price 5% reduction of the proposed price contractor proposed suriyanon, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202381 first round of data collection the first round of sample data collection was conducted to determine the relative importance of the six identified contract terms and the project price condition. the sample group was asked to consider the standard and superior levels of each contract term and project price condition. they were then asked to evaluate their satisfaction with receiving an adjustment in each contract term and the project price condition from the standard to the superior level. finally, they were asked to rank the six contract terms together with the project price condition based on their level of satisfaction. this first round of data collection was conducted between september and october 2020. the process involved selecting and contacting a thai public company that owned shopping centers, followed by identifying all their shopping centers located in the bangkok metropolitan region. subsequently, the facility manager of each shopping center was asked to provide a list of interior contractors who had at least one year of experience working on projects worth more than 1,000,000 thb (30,000 usd) per year. all 240 interior contractors on the resulting list were contacted and invited to participate in the survey. however, only representatives who were responsible for contract negotiation were eligible to participate in the study, and each participating contractor was limited to one representative. a total of 118 of the contacted contractors responded to the survey. table 2 presents data from the first survey round, including the averages of the rank values assigned to the different contract terms and the project price condition. these averages were used to determine the overall ranking, which is also presented in table 2. table 2. ranking of the contract terms/project price condition resulting from the first round of data collection no. contract terms and project price rank (number of the samples selected) ranking position 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 total average sd 1 advance payment 11 71 32 4 0 0 0 118 2.25 0.67 1 2 period of an interim payment 4 6 71 25 2 10 0 118 3.38 1.05 3 3 period to make a payment 4 8 12 73 9 12 0 118 3.94 1.08 4 4 time to release retention (given retention amount is 5% of the project price) 24 1 2 11 66 14 0 118 4.15 1.71 5 5 amount of liquidated damages (per day) specified in contract 7 16 1 2 18 56 18 118 5.10 1.82 6 6 time to fix damage occurs during the defect notification period 0 0 0 0 0 18 100 118 6.85 0.36 7 7 project price 68 16 0 3 23 8 0 118 2.33 1.85 2 suriyanon, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202382 the data in table 2 show that the sample group members have different opinions about the project price. only 68 of the 118 respondents think the 5% project price reduction is the most critical issue for them. moreover, 16, 3, 23, and 8 respondents indicate that it is the 2nd, 4th, 5th, and 6th most important issue for them, respectively, suggesting that 42% of the sample group gives more weight to the contract terms than to the 5% project price reduction. the average rank value of the project price reduction is 2.33, which is more than that of the advance payment term (2.25), broadly confirming that the project price reduction issue is not the only factor that interior contractors consider during contract negotiations. contract terms, especially advance payment terms, also strongly influence their decisions. selection of contract terms used in the conjoint analysis to apply the conjoint analysis technique for assessing the utility and value of contract terms, the level of satisfaction of the sample group with the set of created proposals was required. the attributes that the sample group had to consider in each proposal were the studied contract conditions and the project price. the number of proposals that needed to be created for the sample group to evaluate varied directly with the number of proposal attributes and their levels. if the number of contract conditions increased, the number of proposals that needed to be evaluated and compared increased proportionally, making the evaluation and comparisons of too many proposals an increasingly heavier burden for the participants. the considerable differences between proposals could also be confusing. in this study, three contract terms were studied along with the project price. consequently, the sample group had to consider four attributes on each proposal. the levels of each proposal attribute were also set to the two mentioned earlier. thus, the total number of possible proposals was 16 (2 × 2 × 2 × 2 proposals). based on the set number of attributes and their levels, if the orthogonal design principle was applied to the proposal design process, the number of proposals that need to be considered and ordered by the sample group could be reduced to just eight, a reasonable number that would not be a burden to the participants nor confuse them. based on the results shown in table 2, the top three most important contract terms to the contractor are as follows: 1. advance payment term: receiving an advance payment of 30% of the contract price, repaid through 30% deductions from each progress payment. 2. period of an interim payment term: adjusting the period of an interim payment term from 30 to 14 d. 3. period to make a payment term: adjusting the period to make a payment term from 30 to 14 d. therefore, the conjoint analysis used these three contract terms and the project price condition as the proposal attributes. all proposals were designed based on these attributes. advance payment advance payment is the money a project owner pays before receiving construction services from a contractor. the contractor may use this advance in various ways. for example, at the beginning of a project, the advance may be spent on purchasing materials. it may also be used to alleviate cash-flow problems due to delayed payments during construction (hussin and omran, 2009). past research has shown that receiving advance payments from a project owner positively affects the contractors’ net cash flow. it also influences the cost and time performance of the project (aje and adedokun, 2018). suriyanon, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202383 table 3. proposals created in this study no. proposal attribute proposal p. 1 p. 2 p. 3 p. 4 p. 5 p. 6 p. 7 p. 8 1 advance payment none 30% none none none 30% 30% 30% 2 period of an interim payment 14 d 30 d 14 d 30 d 30 d 14 d 30 d 14 d 3 period to make a payment 14 d 14 d 14 d 30 d 30 d 30 d 14 d 30 d 4 project price 5% reduction in the proposed price 5% reduction in the proposed price as proposed 5% reduction in the proposed price as proposed 5% reduction in the proposed price as proposed as proposed period of interim payment interim or progress payment is the money a project owner pays the contractor for the work completed in each pre-specified period. the contractor is under less financial pressure in terms of project cash flow should interim payments be received from the project owner (kenley, 2003). the period of interim payment varies by project as specified in its contractual conditions (ansah, 2011). the more frequently the contractor is allowed to submit requisitions for interim payments, the less financial pressure they must bear. period to make a payment after the contractor submits the final payment request, the project owner requires a period to evaluate the proposed amount and prepare the money transfer to the contractor. this period should not be overly long. the longer the project owner requires to make a payment, the more financial pressure the contractor must bear. past research has shown that the period to make a payment greatly influences a contractor’s cash flow and project profitability (adjei, et al., 2018). consequently, the period to make a payment term is among the most critical factors affecting the contractor’s bid/no bid decision (enshassi and mohamed, 2010). project price contractors certainly want to win projects at the highest possible price, as they seek to maximize their project margins. since the probability of winning a project is inversely proportional to the proposed project price, the contractor must consider the trade-offs between the level of expected profit (based on the project price) and the probability of winning the project when they price it (akintoye and skitmore, 1990). proposal design this study employed the principles of orthogonal design to create a set of independent proposals. orthogonal design is a type of fractional factorial design that allows the main effects of all attributes in a conjoint study to be estimated while using fewer profiles or proposals. this design assigns a balanced subset of profiles or proposals to every level of each attribute. catalogues of potential designs and statistical computer programs are available for generating orthogonal designs with a variable number of attributes and attribute levels (rao, 2014). as indicated in the previous section, the proposals developed in this study comprised four attributes: advance payment term, period of interim payment term, period to make a payment term, and project price. suriyanon, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202384 each proposal attribute included two levels: standard and superior. following the principles of orthogonal design and considering the specific number of attributes and levels, eight proposals were created for the conjoint analysis experiment. the proposals generated using the orthogonal design command in the spss software are described in table 3. second round of data collection between november and december 2020, the 118 participants who had responded to the first-round survey were contacted to participate in the conjoint analysis study. out of these, 112 individuals responded and completed the second round of surveys. characteristics of the samples the characteristics of the organization representatives and their respective organizations are presented in table 4. table 4. characteristics of the sample group respondents representative characteristics no. % organization characteristics no. % gender type of the organization male 104 92.86 limited company 72 64.29 female 8 7.14 limited partnership 40 35.71 age age of the organization ≤ 30 yr 14 12.50 ≤ 10 yr 37 33.04 31–40 yr 55 49.11 10–20 yr 41 36.61 > 40 yr 43 38.39 > 20 yr 34 30.36 area of education types of service decorative arts and architecture 51 45.54 construction service only (no design service provide) 32 25.89 engineering 39 34.82 design and construction service only (no construction service for work that the company does not design) 27 23.21 business administration and others 22 19.64 both types of service 59 50.89 level of education average contract price bachelor’s degree and lower 83 74.11 ≤ 5 m thb (≤ 150,000 usd 84 75.00 master’s degree and higher 29 25.89 5–10 m thb (150,000–300,00 usd) 28 25.00 years of experience in the interior project average annual income. ≤ 10 yr 43 38.39 ≤ 20 m thb (≤ 605,000 usd) 30 26.79 suriyanon, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202385 representative characteristics no. % organization characteristics no. % 10–20 yr 55 49.11 20–40 m thb (605,000–1,210,000 usd) 33 29.46 > 20 yr 14 12.50 > 40 m thb (> 1,210,000 usd) 49 42.75 current position expected profit (% of the total project cost) proprietor 28 25.00 ≤ 47.25% 42 37.50 director 14 12.50 47.26–67.25% 46 41.07 manager 40 35.71 > 67.25% 24 21.43 engineer 30 26.79 ranking order of the proposals the sample group of the second-round survey were asked to rank the eight designed proposals from one to eight, with one meaning “most satisfied” and eight meaning “least satisfied.” among the numerous possible ways of arranging the eight proposals, the sample group only arranged them into eight distinct patterns. the details of which and the number of samples arranged in each pattern are shown in table 5. table 5. ranking of the eight proposals pattern ranking of each proposal samples arranged in each pattern p.1 p.2 p.3 p.4 p.5 p.6 p.7 p.8 no. percentage 1 4 5 2 8 7 6 1 3 9 8.04 2 2 5 1 8 7 6 3 4 5 4.46 3 5 6 1 8 7 4 2 3 22 19.64 4 6 5 3 8 7 4 2 1 25 22.32 5 6 4 3 8 7 5 2 1 14 12.50 6 5 4 3 8 7 6 2 1 19 16.97 7 7 3 4 8 6 5 2 1 7 6.25 8 6 3 4 8 7 5 2 1 11 9.82 utility of each attribute level the participants in the study were categorized into eight groups, based on their distinct patterns of ranking the designed proposals. the ranking patterns for each group were used as input for the conjoint analysis. the utility for each attribute level obtained for each sample group was analysed using the spss program, and the results are presented in table 6. additionally, kendall’s tau coefficient value and its level of statistical significance are also shown in table 6. kendall’s tau coefficient of all groups is between 0.857 and 1.000, and its level of statistical significance is between 0.000 and 0.001. these results show that the ranking order of the proposals identified was highly table 4. continued suriyanon, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202386 correlated with those predicted from the model developed using conjoint analysis, and that this correlation is statistically significant. the predicted ranking order of the proposals for each sample can be identified by ranking the predicted total utility of each proposal, in ascending order. moreover, the predicted total utility of each proposal can be calculated from a model developed using data obtained from the conjoint analysis, as shown in table 6. table 6. utility of each attribute level and kendall’s tau correlations per sample group attributes level of attribute utility (util.) g. 1 g. 2 g. 3 g. 4 g. 5 g. 6 g. 7 g. 8 constant (basic utility) 0.25 0.75 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.25 0.75 0.50 advance payment none 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 30% of the project price 1.50 0.00 1.50 3.00 3.00 2.50 3.50 3.50 period of an interim payment 30 d 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 14 d 1.50 2.50 2.50 2.00 1.50 1.50 0.50 1.00 period to make a payment 30 d 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 14 d 3.00 3.50 2.00 1.00 1.50 2.00 1.00 1.50 project price 5% reduction in the proposed price 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 as proposed 2.50 1.50 2.50 2.50 2.50 2.50 2.50 2.00 correlations kendall’s tau 0.964 1.000 0.857 1.000 0.964 0.857 0.909 0.909 sig. 0.001* <0.001* 0.001* <0.001* 0.001* <0.001* 0.001* 0.001* based on table 6, the utility value for each contract term and the project price can be computed by comparing the utility value of its superior level to its standard level. the utility value for each contract term and the project price is calculated as follows: ui = uisp uist (2) where ui, uisp, and uist are the utility value, the utility value of the superior level, and the utility value of the standard level of the ith contract term/project price condition, respectively. for example, for sample group no. 4, the utility value of the advance payment term is 3.00 util. (uasp =3.00 util., uast = 0.00 util.; 3.00 util. – 0.00 util.). once the utility value of each contract term and the project price have been determined, the total utility for each sample group can be estimated by developing a model and applying equation (1). in this section, a model for estimating the total utility of sample group no. 4 was created as an example of model development from the data shown in table 6. this total utility model can be expressed as follows: utn = 0.250 + 3.0 × xan+ 2.0 × xin + 1.0 × xmn + 2.5 × xpn (3) suriyanon, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202387 where utn denotes the total utility of the nth proposal of sample group no. 4. xan denotes the nominal variable of the advance payment term of the nth proposal. xan is 0 when no advance payment is provided and 1 when 30% of the project price is provided as advance payment. xin, the nominal variable of the period of an interim payment term of the nth proposal, is 0 when the period of an interim payment is 30 d and 1 when the period of an interim payment is 15 d. xmn, the nominal variable of the period to make the payment term of the nth proposal, is 0 when the period to make the payment is 30 d and 1 when the period to make the payment is 15 d. xpn, the nominal variable of the project price condition of the nth proposal, is 0 when the project price is reduced by 5% of the proposed price and 1 when the project price is the same as proposed by the contractor. the total utility of sample group no. 4 on proposal no. 3 can be determined by using eq. (3) to calculate the total utility of each proposal. for sample group no. 4, proposal no. 3 has a total utility equal to 5.75 util. (xan = 0, xin = 1, xmn = 1, xpn =1; 0.25 util. + 3.00 util.× (0) + 2.00 util. × (1) + 1.00 util.× (1) + 2.50 util.× (1) = 5.75 util.). utility ratio to the maximum possiblity utility to determine the relative importance of each contract term and project price, it is necessary to calculate the ratio of their utility value to the maximum possible utility of the proposal, as the utility value of each term and project price is an absolute value and cannot express their relative importance. these ratios provide a measure of the relative importance of each contract term and the project price condition to the interior contractor. the maximum possible utility of the proposal is the utility to the contractor when receiving the most desirable proposal—that is, when the level of all the proposal attributes is superior. 1. 30% of the project price is provided as an advance payment, 2. the period for an interim payment is 14 d, 3. the period to make the payment is 14 d, and 4. the project price is as the contractor proposed. to calculate the maximum possible utility of the proposal, the following expression can be used: umax = c +ua+ ui + um + up (4) where umax denotes the maximum possible utility of the proposal, c denotes a constant value known as the basic utility, and ua, ui, um, and up are the utility values of an advance payment condition, an interim payment condition, the period to make the payment condition, and the project price condition, respectively. the equation used to calculate the utility ratio is as follows: uri = ui / umax (5) where uri denotes the ratio of the ith contract term/project price condition to the maximum possible utility, ui represents the utility of the ith contract term/project price condition, and umax is the maximum possible utility. the utility ratio of the project price of sample group no. 4 is calculated and shown as an example of using equation (4) and (5). the utility of the project price of sample group no. 4 is 2.50 util. (upsp = 2.50 util., upst = 0.00 util.; 2.50 util. – 0.00 util.). the maximum possible utility of sample group no. 4 is 8.75 util. (c = 0.25 util., ua = 3.00 util., ui = 2.00 util., um = 1.00 util., up = 2.50 util.; 0.25 util. + 3.00 util. + 2.00 util. + 1.00 util. + 2.50 util.). the utility ratio of the project price (urp) of sample group no. 4 is then 0.2857 (up =2.50 util., umax = 8.75 util.; 2.50 util./ 8.75 util.). suriyanon, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202388 in this study, the utility ratios of each contract term and the project price of each contractor group were calculated. subsequently, the average utility ratios of each contract term and the project price could be calculated. the average utility ratio was calculated by weighting the utility of each group by its population. the rankings of the contract term and the project price based on their relative importance can then be obtained by comparing their utility ratios, as shown in table 7. table 7. ranking of the contract terms/project price condition based on their utility proposal attributes the utility ratio of each contract term and the project price (ranking position) u/r to u/r of project price g. 1 g. 2 g. 3 g. 4 g. 5 g. 6 g. 7 g. 8 average basic utility 0.0286 0.0909 0.0286 0.0286 0.0286 0.0286 0.090 0.0588 0.0382 advance payment 0.1714 (3.5) 0.0000 (4) 0.1714 (4) 0.3429 (1) 0.3429 (1) 0.2857 (1.5) 0.4242 (1) 0.4118 (1) 0.2823 (1) 1.0182 period of an interim payment 0.1714 (3.5) 0.3030 (2) 0.2857 (1.5) 0.2286 (3) 0.1714 (3.5) 0.1714 (4) 0.0606 (4) 0.1176 (4) 0.2003 (4) 0.7226 period to make a payment 0.3429 (1) 0.4243 (1) 0.2286 (3) 0.1142 (4) 0.1714 (3.5) 0.2286 (3) 0.1212 (3) 0.1765 (3) 0.2020 (3) 0.7287 project price 0.2857 (2) 0.1818 (3) 0.2857 (1.5) 0.2857 (2) 0.2857 (2) 0.2857 (1.5) 0.3030 (2) 0.2352 (2) 0.2772 (2) 1.0000 table 7 provides valuable information, as summarized below. 1. the advance payment term has an average utility ratio of 28.23% and a maximum utility ratio of 42.42% (sample group no. 7). 2. the period of an interim payment term has an average utility ratio of 20.03% and a maximum utility ratio of 30.30% (sample group no. 2). 3. the period to make a payment term has an average utility ratio of 20.20% and a maximum utility ratio of 42.43% (sample group no. 2). 4. the project price condition has an average utility ratio of 27.72% and a maximum utility ratio of 30.30% (sample group no. 7). 5. the average utility ratio of each term compared to the average utility ratio of the project price is between 0.7226 (0.2003/0.2772; period of an interim payment) to 1.0182 (0.2823/0.2772; advance payment). these results confirm that the project price condition is not the only single important factor for interior contractors to consider—that is, the three contract terms examined in this study are essential to them too. value of the three selected contract terms the utility of the contract term is the utility of receiving an adjustment of the term from the standard level to the superior level. the value of the contract term is the equivalent fraction of the project price (as a percentage of the proposed project price) that provides utility to the interior contractor equal to that of the contract term. the value of each contract term can be determined by dividing the utility of each contract term by the utility of the project price condition and multiplying it by the value of the project price used in the study. the equation for calculating the value of each contract term is expressed as follows: suriyanon, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202389 vi = (ui / up ) × δ (6) where vi represents the value of the ith contract term, ui denotes the utility of the ith contract term, up is the utility value of the project price condition, and δ represents the value of the project price considered, which in this study is equivalent to 5% of the project price, since the proposed amount will not be reduced by 5%. the advance payment term value of sample group no. 4 can be calculated from utility data in table 6 as an example of using equation (6). for sample group no. 4, the utility of the advance payment term (ua) is 3.00 util. (uasp = 3.00 util., uast = 0.00 util.; 3.00 util.– 0.00 util.). the utility of the project price condition (up) is 2.50 util. (upsp = 3.00 util., upst = 0.00 util.; 2.50 util. – 0.00 util.). thus, the utility of the advance payment term equal to 6% of the proposed project price (ua = 3.00 util., up = 2.50 util., δ = 5% of the proposed project price; (3.00 util./2.50 util.)* 5% of the proposed project price). table 8 presents the values of each contract term that have been calculated using the utility data from table 6, as well as the average values of each contract term, which have been computed by weighting the value of each contract term of each group by their population. table 8. values of the contract terms contract term the value of the contract terms (in % of the proposed project price) g. 1 g. 2 g. 3 g. 4 g. 5 g. 6 g. 7 g. 8 average advance payment 3.00 0.00 3.00 6.00 6.00 5.00 7.00 8.75 5.06 period of an interim payment 3.00 8.33 5.00 4.00 3.00 3.00 1.00 2.50 3.68 period to make a payment 6.00 11.67 4.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 2.00 3.75 3.78 sum of the three clauses 12.00 20.0 12.00 12.00 12.00 12.00 10.00 15.00 12.53 values for each contract term from table 8 were rearranged in table 9. for each term, the values of each group were sorted from highest to lowest. the population of each group was used to calculate the cumulative population (as a percentage of the total population) that the value of the contract term was greater than or equal to the specified value. the calculated data are shown in table 9. the contract term values and their cumulative population listed in table 9 were then plotted, the results of which are shown in figure 1. data presented in table 8, table 9, and figure 1 provide the following insights. the value of the advance payment term to the interior contractor ranges from 0.00–8.75 % of the proposed price, the average value being 5.06% of it. more than 95.89% of the population value advance payment term is equal to (or more than) 6.00% of the proposed price. the value of the period of an interim payment term to the interior contractor ranges from 1.00–8.33% of the proposed price, the average value being 3.68% of it. more than 83.93% of the population value advance payment term is equal to (or more than) 3.00% of the proposed price. suriyanon, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202390 table 9. the sorted contract term values from highest to lowest and its cumulative population no. advance payment period of an interim payment period to make a payment sum of the three terms grp no. value acc. pop. (%) grp no. value acc. pop. (%) grp no. value acc. pop. (%) grp no. value acc. pop. (%) 1 8 8.75 9.82 2 8.33 4.46 2 11.67 4.46 2 20.00 4.46 2 7 7.00 16.07 3 5.00 24.11 1 6.00 12.50 8 15.00 14.28 3 4 6.00 38.39 4 4.00 46.43 3 4.00 32.14 1 12.00 22.32 4 5 6.00 50.89 1 3.00 54.6 6 4.00 49.11 3 12.00 41.96 5 6 5.00 67.86 5 3.00 66.96 8 3.75 58.93 4 12.00 64.29 6 3 3.00 87.50 6 3.00 83.93 5 3.00 71.43 5 12.00 76.79 7 1 3.00 95.54 8 2.50 93.75 4 2.00 93.75 6 12.00 93.75 8 2 0.00 100.00 7 1.25 100.00 7 2.00 100.00 7 10.00 100.00 figure 1. contract term values and its cumulative population the value of the period to make a payment term to the interior contractor ranges from 2.00–11.67 % of the proposed price, the average value being 3.78% of it. more than 58.93% of the population value advance payment term is equal to (or more than) 3.75% of the proposed price. the value of the three contract terms to the interior contractor ranges from 10.00–20.00% of the proposed price, the average value being 12.53% of it. more than 93.78% of the population value advance payment term is equal to (or more than) 12.00% of the proposed price. suriyanon, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202391 the findings of this study offer valuable insights to shopping center project owners and tenants, allowing them to negotiate prices more effectively with interior contractors. for instance, as illustrated in figure 1, if a shopping center owner or tenant can revise the interim payment term from 30 days to 14 days, they may expect a project price reduction of between 1.25% and 8.33%. additionally, the data suggests a 50% confidence level for a potential 4% decrease in the project price. armed with this information, project owners and tenants can gain a better understanding of the value of each contract term and negotiate more favourable terms with the contractor, resulting in substantial cost savings for the project. conclusions in this study, the conjoint analysis technique was applied to appraise the utility of three contract terms and the project price condition to interior contractors, the three contract terms being: 1. advance payment term (receiving an advance payment of 30% of the contract price (repaid through 30% deductions from each progress payment)). 2. period of an interim payment term (adjusting period of an interim payment term from 30 d to 14 d). 3. period to make a payment term (adjusting period to make a payment term from 30 d to 14 d). the project price condition considered is that the proposed amount will not be reduced by 5%. the contribution of this research pertains to three areas. firstly, results from this research showed that the average utility ratio of each term compared to the average utility ratio of project price ranged from 0.7226 –1.0182, suggesting that the three contract terms studied in this research are as essential to interior contractors as the project price condition. secondly, the values of the three contract terms calculated based on their utility were presented. the average value of the advance payment term, the period of an interim payment term, and the period to make a payment term were 5.06%, 3.68%, and 3.78% of the proposed price, respectively. moreover, the average value of the three contract terms was 12.53% of the proposed price. this information should be helpful to project owners and tenants of shopping centers in their project price negotiations. finally, the results proved that the conjoint analysis technique could be effectively used to appraise the utility and value of contract terms. future researchers could apply the analytical methods used in this research as a guideline to appraise the utility and value of other contract terms. limitations of the research given that this study’s sample group was limited to interior contractors working in 12 shopping centers owned by a public company in thailand, it is important to exercise caution when applying the findings to negotiations with interior contractors in other shopping centers, particularly in estimating the utility value and value of the three contract terms for negotiating the contract price with contractors on projects outside of thailand. moreover, the variability in defining the scope and contract terms of interior projects across different countries, as well as differences in the attitudes of interior contractors towards project pricing, may limit the generalizability of this research to other contexts. furthermore, the unique characteristics of interior work, such as its complexity, short contract time, and high profit margin, distinguish it from other types of construction work. consequently, the findings of this research may not be directly applicable for negotiating with other types of construction contractors in thailand or for interior projects in other countries. suriyanon, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202392 references adjei, e.a.g., fugar, f.d.k., adinyira, e., edwards, d.j. and pärn, e.a., 2018. exploring the significant cash flow factors influencing building projects profitability in ghana. international journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 7(1), pp.35-46. https://doi.org/10.5923/j.ijcem.20180701.04 aje, i.o. and adedokun, o.a., 2018. an investigation into the sustainability of advance payment on public construction projects delivery. in: 1st african conference proceedings. international conference on industrial engineering and operations management. pretoria/johannesburg, south africa, 29 october–1 november 2018. akintoye, a.s. and skitmore, m., 1990. a conceptual model of construction contractors’ pricing strategies. in: baxendale, a. ed. proceedings 6th annual conference, association of researchers in construction management, pp.31-47, salford university. american institute of architects (aia), 1997. american institute of architects document a201: general conditions of the construction contract. new york. ansah, s.k., 2011. causes and effects of delayed payments by clients on construction projects in ghana. journal of construction project management and innovation, 1(1), pp.27–45. chitchamnong, p. and suriyanon, n., 2019. allowance rates and utility of benefits for working in new asean countries. engineering journal of research and development, 30(4), pp.105–109. clough, r.h. and sears, g.a., 1994. construction contracting. new york: johan wiley & sons inc. dhankhar, s.s., 2015. career options in interior designing. in: k.d. rana, surender s. eds. interior decoration [e-journal] pp.95-99. https://doi.org/10.13140/rg.2.2.21797.09443 enshassi, a. and mohamed, s., 2010. factors affecting the bid/no bid decision in the palestinian construction industry. journal of financial management of property and construction, [e-journal] 15(2), pp.118-42. https://doi. org/10.1108/13664381011063421 federation internationale des ingenieurs-conseils (fidic), 1999. conditions of contract for construction, first edition, lausanne. green, p.e., krieger, a.m. and wind, y., 2001. thirty years of conjoint analysis: reflections and prospects. interfaces, [e-journal] 31(3), s56–s73. https://doi.org/10.1287/inte.31.3s.56.9676 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., anderson, r.e. and tatham, r.l., 2006. multivariate data analysis. sixth ed. upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice hall. hartmann, a. and caerteling, j., 2010. subcontractor procurement in construction: the interplay of price and trust. supply chain management: an international journal, [e-journal] 15(5), pp.354-62. https://doi. org/10.1108/13598541011068288 hussin, a.a. and omran, a., 2009. advance payment: to what extend it “save” the construction works. the international conference on economics and administration, faculty of administration and business, university of bucharest, romania, 14-15 november 2009. jarkas, a.m., 2013. primary factors influencing bid mark‐up size decisions of general contractors in kuwait. journal of financial management of property and construction, [e-journal] 18(1), pp.53-75. https://doi. org/10.1108/13664381311305078 jelodar, m.b., yiu, t.w. and wilkinson, s., 2016. relationship-quality judgment model for construction project procurement: a conjoint measurement. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 142(7), p.04016012. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001104 suriyanon, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202393 https://doi.org/10.5923/j.ijcem.20180701.04 https://doi.org/10.13140/rg.2.2.21797.09443 https://doi.org/10.1108/13664381011063421 https://doi.org/10.1108/13664381011063421 https://doi.org/10.1287/inte.31.3s.56.9676 https://doi.org/10.1108/13598541011068288 https://doi.org/10.1108/13598541011068288 https://doi.org/10.1108/13664381311305078 https://doi.org/10.1108/13664381311305078 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001104 jelodar, m.b., yiu, t.w. and wilkinson, s., 2017. assessing contractual relationship quality: study of judgment trends among construction industry participants. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 33(1), p.04016028. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000461 kenley, r., 2003. financing construction: cash flows and cash farming. london, uk: routledge. https://doi. org/10.4324/9780203467398 klahan, c. and suriyanon, n., 2021. order of importance and value of hiring conditions affecting job taking decisions of labor only paining subcontractor in subdivision housing projects. engineering journal of research and development, 32(1), pp.21-36. lee, k.h., gan, s.y., mohd-danuri, m.s. and zolkafli, u.k., 2020. ambiguity extension of time provisions in standard forms of contract: an analysis of pam 2018 contract. malaysian construction research journal, 9(1), pp.208-27. lee, k.h., gan, s.y. mohd-danuri, m.s. and zolkafli. u.k, 2018. comparative study on the extension of time provisions in standard forms of local construction contract in malaysia. in: 1st asean post graduate conference, kuala lumpur, malaysia. 15 november 2018, university malaya. lowe, d.j. and parvar, j., 2004. a logistic regression approach to modelling the contractor’s decision to bid. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 22(6), pp.643-53. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190310001649056 march, c., 2009. finance and control for construction. abingdon, oxon: taylor & francis. https://doi. org/10.4324/9780203928042 rao, v.r., 2014. applied conjoint analysis. berlin: springer science & business media. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3540-87753-0 sanni, a., adebiyi, o. and okorie, n., 2020. residual risks of payment provisions in fidic and jct conditions: a quantity surveyor’s view. open journal of physical science (issn: 2734-2123), 1(1), pp.26-40. https://doi.org/10.52417/ ojps.v1i1.87 shash, a.a., 1993. factors considered in tendering decisions by top uk contractors. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 11(2), pp.111-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446199300000004 smirnov, e. and fedoseev, i., 2013. principles of construction cost assessment during preparation for tender. world applied sciences journal, [e-journal] 23(13), p.133. https://doi.org/10.5829/idosi.wasj.2013.23.pac.90027 suriyanon, n. and chovichien, v., 2009. applying conjoint analysis to study attitudes of thai government organisations. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 9(1), pp.45-54. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v9i1.3014 tochaiwat, k. and chovichien, v., 2008. improving construction claim provisions: a case study of thai public construction contract. the 13th national convention on civil engineering (ncce13), pattaya, thailand. upson, a., 1987. financial management for contractors. london, uk: blackwell science limited. yosr, s., abd-elrashed, i., mahdi, i. and elmikawi, m., 2019. a construction bid’s markup factors identification in egypt. al-azhar university civil engineering research magazine (cerm), 41(1), pp.41-48. zhang, s., zhang, l. and gao, y., 2006. risk allocations in construction contracts:a comparison of china’s standard form of construction contract and fidic conditions of contract for construction. surveyors times, 15(5), pp.35-41. zolkafli, u.k., zakaria, n. and salleh, h., 2011. the comparative study of international standard form of building contract (fidic conditions of contracts for construction -the new red book 1999) and malaysian’s standard form of building contract (pwd 203a). international conference on engineering education, madinah al-munawarah, kingdom of saudi arabia, 25–27 december 2011. suriyanon, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202394 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000461 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000461 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203467398 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203467398 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190310001649056 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203928042 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203928042 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87753-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-87753-0 https://doi.org/10.52417/ojps.v1i1.87 https://doi.org/10.52417/ojps.v1i1.87 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446199300000004 https://doi.org/10.5829/idosi.wasj.2013.23.pac.90027 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v9i1.3014 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v9i1.3014 construction economics and building vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023 © 2023 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: manoharan, k., dissanayake, p., pathirana, c., deegahawature, d., silva, r. 2023. a new productivity benchmarking system connected to well-designed labour apprenticeship framework for construction projects. construction economics and building, 23:3/4, 125–142. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v23i3/4.8780 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article a new productivity benchmarking system connected to well-designed labour apprenticeship framework for construction projects kesavan manoharan1,*, pujitha dissanayake2, chintha pathirana2, dharsana deegahawature3, renuka silva4 1 department of construction technology, faculty of technology, wayamba university of sri lanka, kuliyapitiya, sri lanka 2 department of civil engineering, university of peradeniya, peradeniya, sri lanka 3 department of industrial management, wayamba university of sri lanka, kuliyapitiya, sri lanka 4 centre for quality assurance, wayamba university of sri lanka, kuliyapitiya, sri lanka corresponding author: kesavan manoharan, department of construction technology, faculty of technology, wayamba university of sri lanka, kuliyapitiya, sri lanka, kesavan@wyb.ac.lk doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8780 article history: received 01/10/2022; revised 24/06/2023; accepted 23/08/2023; published 23/12/2023 abstract this study primarily identifies the knowledge gaps that must be filled to apply conceptualised methods for raising and benchmarking productivity levels of various construction operational tasks. accordingly, this study intended to evaluate labour productivity in relation to labour performance using potential apprenticeship instruments and systems. comprehensive literature analysis and expert consultations were carried out to create a new mechanism with the collection of potential models, methods and systems connected to labour training, performance evaluation and productivity measurements. a total of 23 construction projects in sri lanka employed the created approach methodically. the results demonstrate the precise patterns of substantial shifts in labour productivity and performance index values, which have sparked new conceptual mechanisms for construction project planning methods. the outcomes demonstrate that the suggested approach can be used in a way that is reliable, generalisable, productive and sustainable. the study provides project managers, planners and engineers with a new road map and helpful techniques to raise the standard for measuring labour productivity levels across declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 125 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8780 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8780 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8780 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:kesavan@wyb.ac.lk https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8780 a variety of jobs. the overall study outcomes strengthen the chain relationship among the training elements, labour skills, performance and productivity. though the study findings were limited to the construction industry and sri lankan context, the study outcomes are expected to make a significant impact on the current practices of various industry sectors in many developing countries for achieving higher productivity levels in work operations. this paper discusses some more implications and future scopes of the study elaborately. keywords construction workers; productivity measurements; benchmarking; productivity index; performance index introduction construction has been one of the most demanding sectors that contribute to the national socio-economic goals of a country (silva, warnakulasuriya and arachchige, 2018). the construction sector accounts for a considerable proportion of gross domestic product in different countries – for instance, 9% in oman, 6.1% in the uk and 5.5% in japan (umar, 2021). the continuous development of the construction industry is essential for the growth of employability since it claims one of the leading industries that make huge impacts on employability (umar, 2021). the expenditure in the construction sector is expected to rise to 14 trillion us$ in 2025, whereas it was notably 9.5 trillion us$ in 2014 (umar, et al., 2020). in general, the construction industry involves a variety of resources in a wide range of construction projects such as the construction of buildings, roads/highways, water supply work, etc. the sustainability of the construction industry mainly depends on the productivity of labour (sally, et al., 2000; onyekachi, 2018; dinh and nguyen, 2019). labour productivity is a physiological measure of labour performance in construction operations, and it can be expressed in terms of the ratio between the amount of work performed and the labour hours (onyekachi, 2018). sangole and ranit (2015) state that productivity is related in an important way to the inputs, outputs and processes of work operations. higher labour productivity ensures the long-term growth and viability of construction firms linked to cost-effectiveness, competitiveness and implementation of major stakeholder proposals (sally, et al., 2000). it is also a key contributor to reducing delays in construction projects (kesavan, et el., 2014). problem statement and knowledge gap construction organisations encounter difficulties linked to time overruns, cost overruns, quality issues and unsafe practices as a result of the lower productivity of labour (dinh and nguyen, 2019; mistri, patel and pitroda, 2019). recent studies have found that labour productivity issues in several developing nations, including sri lanka, have caused such difficulties for many construction organisations (shahab and audrius, 2019; dinh and nguyen, 2019; manoharan, et al., 2022; onyekachi, 2018; silva, warnakulasuriya and arachchige, 2018). this leads to significant changes in various construction processes associated with project scopes, planning, monitoring, resource controlling, operational management and stakeholder agreement aspects (dinh and nguyen, 2019; mistri, patel and pitroda, 2019). even though various factors like project delays, difficulties in obtaining permits, ineffective planning and scheduling, market inflation, lengthy dispute settlements and poor site management practices result in productivity loss, the most crucial reason behind the low levels of labour productivity is the industry’s lack of understanding of how to apply productivity benchmarking techniques linked to apprenticeship and performance evaluation procedures at construction sites (tvec, 2017; ojha, et al., 2020; manoharan, et al., 2021a). the current study has found a lack of studies that intended to address such a knowledge gap in the industry systematically. manoharan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023126 the study aim and its significance based on the significance of the problematic aspects associated with the above-stated knowledge gap, this study aims to evaluate labour productivity and benchmarking techniques in a variety of construction project operations compared to labour performance differences by methodically implementing labour apprenticeship components. accordingly, the study objectives mainly focus on measuring performance and productivity index values of labour, performing the necessary comparisons by implementing workintegrated learning approaches and developing guidelines for upgrading the organisational policies and site management practices associated with productivity benchmarking procedures. notably, the discussions with the industry sector experts underscored how critical it is to close this knowledge gap in construction projects because these kinds of initiatives are essential to bolstering the economic foundation of an emerging nation like sri lanka. the study also focuses on ways of implementing effective labour rewarding mechanisms based on the changes in labour performance and productivity levels due to the application of training practices. the study further evaluates how satisfied construction organisations, trainers and workers are with productivity enhancement approaches and results connected to labour training components. this could result in the development of fresh productivity-boosting techniques for planning and managing construction projects. importance of effective supervision practices for improving the performance and productivity of labour in construction the supervision of labour is one of the significant factors that influence labour performance in construction projects (montaser, et al., 2018; onyekachi, 2018; dinh and nguyen, 2019; manoharan, et al., 2020). a good understanding between construction supervisors and labourers results in a reduction of wrong construction methods as well as higher labour motivation and engagement towards higher quality and productivity of work outputs (onyekachi, 2018; murari and joshi, 2019). delivery of work-based training components for labourers through effective supervision practices will be able to make significant changes to labour work outputs at construction sites (manoharan, et al., 2021a, 2021b). with the direct scope of driving labour performance and productivity through supervision practices, a guide model was presented by manoharan, et al. (2021b) to systematically design new construction supervisory training programmes. importantly, this guide model consists of a set of construction supervisors’ competencies that are significant for improving the performance and productivity of construction labour operations. it highlights the importance of the following elements of competencies among construction supervisors to provide labour training exercises and evaluate labour skills in construction. • describing the importance of a training needs assessment; describing the steps needed to plan for training implementation; summarising how to conduct a training needs assessment; developing training plans, course materials and training needs assessments; demonstrating a variety of advanced brainstorming techniques and competency-based training techniques to construction labourers; demonstrating basic theories and applications of the construction related works to construction labourers; providing experiential learning exercises to construction labourers; maintaining proper records of the labour training exercises; assessing the performance of labourers in construction works; implementing the possible labour rewarding mechanisms in the construction sector competencies of construction labourers influencing the productivity of labour operations recent studies highlight that the poor competencies of labourers have significantly contributed to various challenges related to productivity faced by construction firms in many countries, including egypt (montaser, manoharan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023127 et al., 2018), india (mistri, patel and pitroda, 2019), nigeria (onyekachi, 2018), south africa (windapo, 2016), sri lanka (silva, warnakulasuriya and arachchige, 2018; manoharan, et al., 2021c) and vietnam (dinh and nguyen, 2019). the progress of many construction projects has been significantly affected due to the labourers’ poor cognitive skills in construction methods/technologies and health and safety practices in many countries (montaser, et al., 2018; mistri, patel and pitroda, 2019; manoharan, et al., 2021a). poor health and safety practices incur work-related injuries among labourers that put them out of work for a period and also affect their quality of work outputs. notably, the deaths of more than a hundred thousand construction workers are reported every year due to poor occupational safety and health conditions, whereas this is nearly 30% of all occupational deadly injuries (international labour organisation, 2015). umar and egbu (2017) reveal that a significant proportion of work-related injuries arise from the workers’ faults compared with the factors related to equipment, materials, environment and management. poor learning abilities have been the major resistance for indian (mistri, patel and pitroda, 2019), south african (windapo, 2016) and sri lankan (silva, warnakulasuriya and arachchige, 2018) labourers to gain new experiences in handling a wide range of challenges and opportunities in job-related tasks. on the other hand, poor self-management skills of construction labourers have created various conflicts among project participants in construction projects in many countries, including nigeria (onyekachi, 2018), sri lanka (fernando, fernando and gunarathna, 2016) and vietnam (dinh and nguyen, 2019). commitment, participation and punctuality are the key self-management skills essential for labourers to establish their reputation in the job environment (hickson and ellis, 2013). taking on the sri lankan construction sector, the technical skills of labourers in bar bending, carpentry, plumbing, painting and electrical works were identified by fernando, fernando and gunarathna (2016) that need to be specifically improved. fernando, fernando and gunarathna (2016) also highlight the need for improving the punctuality of sri lankan labourers in the construction industry. manoharan, et al. (2021c) point up the importance of developing technical skills of sri lankan labourers in concreting, bar bending, plastering, tiling, welding, electrical work and equipment handling, also their self-management skills related to commitment, punctuality, participation, self-motivation and problem-solving to fill out the gaps compared with the levels of leading foreign labour forces. training tools associated with labour performance evaluations and productivity assessments a forward-thinking strategy for personnel planning in the developing construction sector was created by uwakweh and maloney (1991), emphasising the need to create a pool of supervisory strategies and paths through improving training implementation procedures. the primary weakness of this model is the absence of productivity-enhancing traits associated with supervisory attributes or tactics. the findings of serpell and ferrada (2006), who proposed a realistic competency framework for supervisors of construction sites operating in underdeveloped nations, must also be taken into consideration. in order to coordinate and organise the execution of essential operational processes in accordance with project plans to achieve higher productivity gains, serpell and ferrada (2006) place a substantial focus on the work characteristics among the supervisory job positions. although the serpell and ferrada (2006) framework discusses parts of productivity development, its biggest flaw is the lack of labour competency qualities and labour performance evaluation procedures linked to supervisory attributes. additionally, in order for the construction industry in the member states of the european union to recover from the effects of the global financial crisis and meet the challenges posed by digitalisation, sustainability and environmental requirements, akyazi, et al. (2020) have developed a model that places an emphasis on competent and multi-skilled workforces. but when considering the current practices related to technology and financial issues, a thorough examination of the model’s contents reveals certain limitations regarding its application in many developing nations, such manoharan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023128 as sri lanka. reviewing various other workforce competency framework models revealed similar problems (detsimas, et al., 2016; moon, abd-karim and danuri, 2018; vaz-serra and mitcheltree, 2020). the importance of the tools/models/systems developed by manoharan, et al. (2021a, 2022) is highlighted for assessments of potential apprenticeship models in light of the shortcomings, restrictions and research gaps connected with the application of the competency framework models outlined above. significantly, the findings of manoharan, et al. (2021a, 2022) offer useful strategies that may be appropriate and applicable to the objectives of the current investigation. it is important to note that manoharan, et al. (2021a) included a set of developed labour training exercises (lbexs), whereas manoharan, et al. (2022) comprehensively developed a set of labour training elements of outcomes (lbeos) relative weights based on the objectives of labour training exercises to guide the training delivery and assessment components relating to work operations. manoharan, et al. (2022) have introduced a labour performance score system (lbps), which offers a systematic framework for performance assessments and performance-based classifications for construction labourers, as part of their thorough examination of these lbexs and lbeos. the additional recommendation of manoharan, et al. (2021a) is to monitor the continuous work productivity of trained labourers on job sites to determine the physiological measure of labour performance. as a result, these systems can help to modify behavioural construction techniques for improving the effectiveness and productivity of work outputs. it is also crucial to note that the models and systems developed by manoharan, et al. (2021a, 2022) do not contain the restrictions and gaps mentioned in the preceding paragraph. methodology figure 1 illustrates how the study methodology was designed based on the identified knowledge gap and the study objectives. importantly, the expert reviews and discussions verified this mechanism by evaluating several areas related to the usefulness, applicability and organisational features for bridging the knowledge gap identified. both potential academic specialists and industry professionals (project directors, project managers, civil engineers and senior technical officers) were involved in these consultations and the validation process. in accordance with the procedures outlined in the following paragraphs, a number of processes were systematically carried out with the aid of possible instruments based on the mechanism depicted in figure 1. selection of projects for the delivery of labour training exercises, the proposals were called from the construction projects, where the course followers (construction supervisory workers) were working. initially, the proposals were received from 31 construction projects, but 23 projects (building – 9; roads/highway – 9; water supply – 4; others – 1) were selected through interviews and discussions conducted among the construction supervisory workers and other members of each project team by assessing their current practices and needs. importantly, the following questions were also considered key elements in the selection of projects. • do you think that  the training exercises can be delivered to the labourers through the work operations at the selected project/site for 6-10 months?  the project team may be transferred from the selected project/site to another during the labour training period? (if ‘yes’, specify the actions/alternative methods to be taken/arranged)  the labourers may be transferred from the selected project/site to another during the labour training period? (if ‘yes’, specify the actions/alternative methods to be taken/arranged) manoharan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023129  the skills of labourers can be continuously assessed at the project/site during the labour training period?  the labour profiles and records can be continuously maintained throughout the labour training?  the possible rewarding mechanisms can be implemented for the labourers at the selected project/ site? after the completion of the project selections, the data was collected for each selected project through direct visits, document reviews, interviews and discussions with the construction management teams (cmts) of those projects under the following topics/areas. overall, a total of 296 labourers (buildings – 111; roads/ highway – 113; water supply and others – 72) were identified to be trained from the selected projects at the initial stage. • background details of the selected construction project/site; details of the current/previous practices, working patterns and problematic areas related to labour (current behaviour of labourers and their working pattern; labourers’ technical/soft skills and their educational qualifications; problematic practices resulting in poor labour performance); importance of labour training practices for the selected projects/sites (how the labour training practices will be playing a key role in the selected project?); planning the steps and methods to conduct the labour training at the selected project/site. figure 1. study methodology manoharan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023130 preparing construction supervisors regular lectures, meetings and group discussions were conducted for the construction supervisors, as per the guidelines mentioned in the course unit ‘training of trainers project on labour training exercises’. with the focus on the elements of competencies highlighted in the guide model of manoharan, et al. (2021b), the construction supervisors were trained to improve their cognitive, transferable and self-management skills, considering the following aspects. • leading activities that reinforce learning among labourers; presenting information effectively; explaining clearly to the questions getting from labourers; maintaining good eye contact; listening and making accurate observations; assisting labourers to link the training tasks to their jobs; keeping a positive attitude; speaking in a clear voice; gesturing appropriately; maintaining interest and dispelling confusion; having excellent communication skills with high motivation, dedication, commitment and integrity. delivery of labour training exercises and measuring the labour performance scores according to the recommendations made by manoharan, et al. (2021a), the seven competency factors listed below were the main focus of these labour training components. • enhancing the soft skills required for construction labourers in work-related tasks • enhancing the knowledge and use of fundamental scientific and technological principles by construction labourers • enhancing the knowledge and use of basic engineering and technology concepts by construction labourers in work-related tasks • enhancing the performance of construction labourers in terms of their knowledge and usage of the technological methods/procedures utilised in construction tasks • enhancing the performance of construction labourers in handling materials and tools associated with construction operations • enhancing the performance of construction labourers in applying green concepts in work-related tasks • enhancing the needed skills/abilities of construction labourers associated with fundamental level management processes subsequently, monthly performance evaluations were carried out for each of the seven categories listed above in accordance with the guidelines given by manoharan, et al. (2021a) on the basis of the level descriptors of the sri lankan national vocational qualification framework. as a result, the weights of lbexs and lbeos created by manoharan, et al. (2021a) were used to determine the monthly performance scores for each labourer. productivity measurements the productivity measurements were continuously recorded for the following labour works throughout the delivery of the labour training project at the selected projects/sites. the productivity measurement values were recorded for only the tasks where the labourers (who followed the labour training) were mainly involved in the selected projects during the reporting period. it should be considered that there were some other labourers (who were not in the labour training circle) also involved with them in some tasks several manoharan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023131 times. but, the majority were the labourers (who followed the labour training), and they were the main contributors to the recorded tasks. • building project works (conventional slab formwork; conventional column formwork; reinforcement laying for slab; reinforcement laying for beam; reinforcement laying for columns; concreting (ready mix) for slab and beams; concreting (site mixing and placement) for slabs and beams; concreting (site mixing and placement) for columns; brick wall partition work internal; brick wall partition work external; plastering work internal; plastering work external) • road project works (aggregate base course laying; asphalt (wearing course) laying; concrete pavement laying; road marking; shoulder work) • water supply works (supplying and fixing pipes; water leak repairing; fixing new connections; defected water meter replacement) the productivity levels in the above-mentioned labour works were compared with the improved performance of labour. as recommended by nasir, et al. (2015), equation (1) was used to measure the productivity index values for each type of construction task. the cmts of all the selected projects revealed that no productivity benchmark or baseline values had been previously used in their usual practice. through the discussions with the cmts, it was decided to consider the mean between the previous monthly average productivity levels for the baseline productivity values. accordingly, the baseline productivity values were updated every month. according to haake, foster and james (2014), similar approaches were used to determine labour performance improvement index values. productivity index actual productivity baseline productivit = yy (1) labour rewarding and reporting the labour rewarding mechanisms were mainly processed by implementing the recognition for prior learning (rpl) methods at the selected construction sites. the rpl is the quick process that determines how well the individual has achieved the required competencies according to the national skill standards of the national vocational qualification (nvq) framework. at the end of the training period, each labourer can be recommended by the career guidance unit or other relevant division of the construction firm for a suitable nvq level based on his/her performance values. the grading system recommended by manoharan, et al. (2022) was used to assign each labourer to compare with the nvq levels. the individual performance report of each labourer was presented to the cmts with the overall variations in the monthly labour performance score values and productivity measurements to take necessary steps for the rpl implementation. furthermore, a series of interviews were also conducted among the trained labourers to assess their satisfaction levels with the impacts of the training outcomes. results and discussions the list of the selected projects for the labour training delivery is shown in table 1. in total, 200-300 labourers were involved in the apprenticeship components of this study. it is noteworthy that the selected organisations had not implemented any suitable procedures or activities to offer apprenticeship facilities and assess how the labourers performed in tasks related to construction. there had been no mechanisms used in those projects to keep track of productivity measurements. the cmts of the selected projects, except for r2, r7, r9 and o1, agreed to perform productivity measurements for the relevant tasks in their project operations. manoharan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023132 table 1. list of the selected projects for the labour training delivery project code project name number of labourers selected b1 construction of a two-storied university auditorium building complex, trincomalee 11 b2 construction of a three-storied public library building complex, batticaloa 30 b3 construction of a two-storied office building for provincial land commissioner sector, kilinochchi 11 b4 construction of a two-storied school building complex, badulla 15 b5 construction of a crematorium, monaragala 07 b6 construction of crematorium, badulla 10 b7 construction of a two-storied residential building, kalutara 10 b8 construction of a three-storied residential building, badulla 07 b9 construction of a restaurant building, colombo 10 r1 iroad project tr2, trincomalee 15 r2 iroad project am5, ampara 16 r3 iroad project bt1, batticaloa 11 r4 implementation of 100,000 km alternative road system – road segments of batticaloa 21 r5 rehabilitation of punnakudah road, batticaloa 08 r6 rehabilitation / improvements of roads for thiraimadu housing project, batticaloa 17 r7 construction of road and bridge, mee oya, puttalam 10 r8 rehabilitation of sembiyampatru – thalaiyadi road, kilinochchi 07 r9 implementation of 100,000 km alternative road system: road segments of peradeniya – delthota – rikillagaskada, kandy 08 w1 supplying and laying of water distribution network in jaffna city area, jaffna 20 w2 pipe laying project for the southern road connectivity rehabilitation of a004 road selections from gonapola to pokunuwita junction, kalutara 15 w3 thennakubura / haragama water supply scheme, kandy 14 w4 maintenance works of ambatale new water treatment plant, colombo 13 o1 improvement of gregory park, nuwara eliya 10 manoharan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023133 notably, project b9 was stopped for a long time of period due to the above-mentioned problems. hence, it was decided not to continue the labour training exercises for project b9 from the end of the second month. in addition, the labour training exercises were not conducted in project r7 for the third month since long weeks of shutdowns were implemented during this period. but the labour training exercises were resumed from the fourth month onwards and processed smoothly. figure 2. variations in monthly average productivity levels figure 2. variations in monthly average productivity levels (continued) manoharan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023134 productivity levels figure 2 illustrates the monthly average productivity levels for the tasks mentioned in the methodology, considering each project category. figure 2. variations in monthly average productivity levels (continued) figure 2. variations in monthly average productivity levels (continued) overall, the study reports a remarkable improvement in the productivity levels of the labour works in the selected projects during the labour training period. the results show that there was a notable drop in the productivity levels of most of the tasks in most projects during the early stages, especially in november and december. most of the projects experienced labour shortages during this period due to various reasons (as described above). in addition, the bad weather conditions forced the discontinuity of tasks in some projects during the period. these can be the major reasons for the productivity losses in the projects during the early stages of the labour training period. however, the productivity levels of all the work categories gradually and considerably increased during the middle and end stages of the labour training in the vast majority of the selected projects. the cmts of all the selected projects confirmed that no other specific practices manoharan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023135 figure 3. variations in productivity index values and performance improvement index values were newly applied to the construction practices rather than the labour training tasks during these six month periods. the labour trainers (construction supervisors) revealed that they have observed a significant improvement in the speed and quality of work outputs of the labour operations. they highlighted that the labour training components have played a significant role in improving the competencies of labourers in a wide range, and this has resulted in a notable increase in the productivity levels of various construction tasks. in spite of that, the following list of factors might also have some influence on the productivity levels shown in figure 2. • site layout working at different floor levels, material storage and delivery facilities • availability of materials, material characteristics and size • usage of equipment/tools and their qualities and capacities • dimensions of structures and other features • size and quality of work outputs • weather conditions; site management policies/practices • organisational policies and interventions comparison of productivity levels with performance improvement; a new roadmap for fixing/updating productivity benchmark levels the variations in productivity index values and performance improvement index values are illustrated in figure 3. since the monthly average productivity levels increased in most of the construction tasks (illustrated in figure 2), the baseline productivity values also increased for each task in respective projects every month accordingly. though the results show lower productivity index values at the earlier stages of labour training (less than 1 for most of the tasks), productivity index values of all the tasks in all the projects increased during the middle stage (greater than 1 for all the tasks), as illustrated in figure 3. the productivity index values reached to peak level and started to drop during the end stages of labour training. manoharan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023136 the study recommends that the productivity measurement processes can be continued in the same way till the productivity index values reach 1 in respective tasks. considering the updated baseline productivity values (obtained at the points where the productivity index values reach 1), the productivity benchmark values can then be finalised for the respective tasks in every project. the variations of the labour performance index values indicate that there are ways still to improve the performance of labour in most projects. the differences between the variations of performance index and productivity index values refer to the impacts of the factors influencing productivity levels shown above. figure 3. variations in productivity index values and performance improvement index values (continued) figure 3. variations in productivity index values and performance improvement index values (continued) manoharan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023137 labour rewarding and reporting the meetings were held among the career guidance representatives (cgrs) of each selected project for the above-reported improvements in labour performance and productivity levels project-wise. the detailed records of the labour training delivery, labour skill assessment sheets, labour performance score profiles and productivity measurements were checked by the cgrs and revealed their satisfaction with the improved labour performance and productivity levels. in particular, the cmts stated that they have experienced significant changes in their construction practices during the completion stage of labour training components such as improvement in the labour morale and work commitment, higher quantity and quality of work outputs, reduction in reworks and material wastage, effective working patterns among crews and well-improved labour resources to handle the modern technologies. overall, the vast majority of the cmts agreed to provide possible rewarding facilities for their labourers such as salary increments, promotion and career upgrading opportunities. a number of nvq assessors also participated in these meetings to discuss the procedure for the process of rpl implementation. based on the procedures mentioned in nvq circular 02/2021, the steps were taken to conduct the rpl assessments individually and group-wise in most of the projects with the support of the cmts to award the nvq certifications to the labourers for their performance levels. some organisations stated that this will be processed in the near future stages since they had some financial difficulties in funding the rpl assessment fee at that stage. furthermore, the interviews with the trained labourers have revealed their highlevel satisfaction with the impacts of the application of training components on their needs, lifestyles, job standards, financial status and career development opportunities. discussions with past studies the results ensure that the current study has satisfactorily addressed the need for systematic procedures in work-based labour training facilities, evaluation of labour skills, performance assessments and productivity measurements, highlighted by past studies (silva, warnakulasuriya and arachchige, 2018; montaser, et al., 2018; onyekachi, 2018; dinh and nguyen, 2019; mistri, patel and pitroda, 2019; shahab and audrius, 2019). as recommended by dickinson, et al. (2018) and jeelani, et al. (2018) to use digital technologies in work-based training activities, the developed practices of the current study can be tested or upgraded with the digital technologies for further reinforcement of labour training delivery methods in the near-future stages. the current study outcomes may contribute to filling the gaps highlighted by recent studies between the industry’s requirements and the curricula of vocational training programmes (fernando, fernando and gunarathna, 2016; tvec, 2017; onyekachi, 2018; manoharan, et al., 2020). the study outcomes are also expected to make an impact in upgrading industry practices to address the challenges highlighted by recent studies (tvec, 2017; silva, warnakulasuriya and arachchige, 2018; manoharan, et al., 2021c) on the growth of foreign labour in the sri lankan construction sector. considering these aspects, the study findings will go a long way for the construction sector of many countries in making significant changes in training development practices that will benefit the reinforcement of construction planning and operational management processes. conclusion the overall study findings display the variations in the productivity levels of labour work due to the application of work-based training practices. this has led the study to present a systematic generalised mechanism for reporting the training outcomes to the organisation level and then taking the steps to reward labourers. the study outcomes reinforce the chain relationships among the training elements, labour skills, labour performance and productivity levels leading to construction firms achieving organisational goals and sustaining the ‘new normal’ situations. the findings underline the significance of effective work-based manoharan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023138 training and skill assessment practices for making organisations experience well-improved performance and work qualities of labour with higher productivity levels of work operations. this will build up good bonds between the workers and the employers by filling the unnecessary gaps between management policies and labour operations. as a result, labourers may receive salary increments, promotion opportunities and career development benefits, leading to an uplift in their motivation levels, the fulfilment levels of needs and lifestyles. this may further result in a dramatic increase in the skilled workforce in the industry, as well as the labourers transferring from their casual appointments to permanent appointments in construction firms. accordingly, this study unlocks the potential hurdles to expanding the local labour supply while controlling the excessive inclination of local firms towards foreign labour. the study findings importantly show a new template that pushes construction firms to revise their productivity benchmark levels for the different types of construction works. in this study, despite the work-based training practices playing a key role in achieving higher levels of productivity of labour, some other factors might also influence the results (as described in the results and discussion section). the characteristics and impacts of those factors may differ between the organisations, industry sectors and countries. this study is expected to contribute to revising the organisational policies and construction management practices for taking possible steps to control the negative influences of those factors. though the construction supervisory workers are directly involved in the applications of the labour training components at worksites, this study also contributes to polishing the characteristics of the job roles of engineers and project managers for further reinforcing the generalisability of the work-based labour training components and applications. accordingly, the training institutions may introduce new continuing professional training programmes for engineers and project managers. though the contractors’ registration grades of construction industry development authority (cida), financial capabilities, resource availabilities, project scopes and past experience varied in a wide range among the construction firms where the labour training components were applied, the results show similar patterns in the variations in the performance and productivity levels of labour with small marginal differences among all the selected projects. this ensures the generalisability of the developed labour training components for the construction industry. the overall study outcomes provide a bridge that combines various industry practices leading to driving improvement of the overall quality of the workforce capacity involving professional, technical and vocational competence in the industry. although the scope of the study was limited to the sri lankan context, the study findings can make a significant contribution to upgrading the construction and operational management practices associated with vocational training development in many countries. the study delivers some generalised mechanisms and procedures that can be used or tested in similar ways for improving the productivity and quality of workforce operations not only in the construction sector but also in other developing sectors in many countries. accordingly, the study recommends future studies focus on developing new training models as well as assessing the training outcomes, considering the characteristics of different trades or industry sectors in different contexts. the study also recommends future studies focus on testing necessary digital technologies in the application of the developed labour training mechanisms and practices for further reinforcement of training delivery methods to the next normal. the study opens a new window to developing new mobile application tools for performing labour training components within the proposed framework. this may provide further better ways to apply the proposed mechanisms and practices in a large number of projects nationally and internationally, and also further strengthen the generalisation of the proposed labour training components. accordingly, the impacts of the study outcomes significantly contribute to reinforcing the industry’s focus on reskilling and upskilling to successfully face the challenges and opportunities related to productivity and technological advancement. manoharan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023139 references akyazi, t., alvarez, i., alberdi, e., oyarbide-zubillaga, a., goti, a. and bayon, f., 2020. skills needs of the civil engineering sector in the european union countries: current situation and future trends. applied sciences, [e-journal] 10(20), pp.1–24. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10207226 detsimas, n., coffey, v., sadiqi, z. and li, m., 2016. workplace training and generic and technical skill development in the australian construction industry. journal of management development, [e-journal] 35(4), pp.486–504. https://doi. org/10.1108/jmd-05-2015-0073 dinh, t.h. and nguyen, v.t., 2019. analysis of affected factors on construction productivity in vietnam. international journal of civil engineering and technology, 10(2), pp.854–64. fernando, p.g.d., fernando, n.g. and gunarathna, m.a.c.l., 2016. skills developments of labourers to achieve the successful project delivery in the sri lankan construction industry. civil and environmental research, 8(5), pp.86–99. haake, s.j., foster, l.i. and james, d.m., 2014. an improvement index to quantify the evolution of performance in running. journal of sports sciences, [e-journal] 32(7), pp.610–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2013.841974 hickson, b.g. and ellis, l., 2013. factors affecting construction labour productivity in trinidad and tobago. the journal of the association of professional engineers of trinidad and tobago, 42(1), pp.4–11. international labour organisation, 2015. construction: a hazardous work. available at: http://www.ilo.org/safework/ areasofwork/hazardous-work/wcms_356576/lang--en/index.htm [accessed 12 march 2022] jeelani, i., albert, a., azevedo, r. and jaselskis, e.j., 2017. development and testing of a personalized hazardrecognition training intervention. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 143(5), pp.04016120.1–11. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001256 kesavan, m., gobidan, n.n., gobishanker, r. and dissanayake, p.b.g. 2014. proper project planning in avoiding construction project delays. proceedings of the special sessions on sustainable design and construction, 5th international conference on sustainable built environment 2014, kandy, sri lanka, 12-15 december 2014. pp.77–84. manoharan, k., dissanayake, p., pathirana, c., deegahawature, d. and silva, r., 2020. assessment of critical factors influencing the performance of labour in sri lankan construction industry. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] pp.1–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1854042 manoharan, k., dissanayake, p., pathirana, c., deegahawature, d. and silva, r., 2021a. a competency-based training guide model for labourers in construction. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] pp.1–11. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1969622 manoharan, k., dissanayake, p., pathirana, c., deegahawature, d. and silva, r., 2021b. a curriculum guide model to the next normal in developing construction supervisory training programmes. built environment project and asset management, [e-journal] pp.1–31. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-02-2021-0038 manoharan, k., dissanayake, p., pathirana, c., deegahawature, d. and silva, r., 2021c. comparison of skills between sri lankan and foreign construction labour. proceedings of the 9th world construction symposium, colombo, sri lanka, 09-10 june 2021. pp.208–20. https://doi.org/10.31705/wcs.2021.18 manoharan, k., dissanayake, p., pathirana, c., deegahawature, d. and silva, r., 2022. a labour performance score and grading system to the next normal practices in construction. built environment project and asset management, [e-journal] pp.1–20. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2021-0125 mistri, a., patel, c.g. and pitroda, j.r., 2019. analysis of causes, effects and impacts of skills shortage for sustainable construction through analytic hierarchy process. international journal of technical innovation in modern engineering & science, 5(5), pp.168–76. manoharan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023140 https://doi.org/10.3390/app10207226 https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd-05-2015-0073 https://doi.org/10.1108/jmd-05-2015-0073 https://doi.org/10.1080/02640414.2013.841974 http://www.ilo.org/safework/areasofwork/hazardous-work/wcms_356576/lang--en/index.htm http://www.ilo.org/safework/areasofwork/hazardous-work/wcms_356576/lang--en/index.htm https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001256 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1854042 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1969622 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-02-2021-0038 https://doi.org/10.31705/wcs.2021.18 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2021-0125 montaser, n.m., mahdi, i., mahdi, h.a. and rashid, i.a., 2018. factors affecting construction labour productivity for construction of pre-stressed concrete bridges. international journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 7(6), pp.193–206. https://doi.org/10.5923/j.ijcem.20180706.01 moon, c.a., abd-karim, s.b. and danuri, m.s.m., 2018. the need for a competencies’ assessment framework for the malaysian construction project managers. journal of surveying, construction and property, [e-journal] 9(1), pp.57–74. https://doi.org/10.22452/jscp.vol9no1.6 murari, s.s. and joshi, a.m., 2019. factors affecting labour productivity in precast construction industry. proceedings of fourth national conference on road and infrastructure, rasta center for road technology, bangalore, india, 4-5 april 2019. pp.163–69. nasir, h., haas, c., caldas, c. and goodrum, p., 2015. an integrated productivity-practices implementation index for planning the execution of infrastructure projects. journal of infrastructure systems, [e-journal] 22(2), pp.1-11. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000275 ojha, a., seagers, j., shayesteh, s., habibnezhad, m. and jebelli, h., 2020. construction safety training methods and their evaluation approaches: a systematic literature review. proceedings of the 8th international conference on construction engineering and project management, hong kong, 7-8 december 2020. pp.188–97. onyekachi, v.n., 2018. impact of low labour characteristics on construction sites productivity in ebonyi state. international journal of advanced research in science, engineering and technology, 5(10), pp.7072–87. sally, w.f., adelaide, w.k., sarah, j. and marsh, b.v., 2000. beyond products: new strategic imperatives for developing competencies in dynamic environments. journal of engineering and technology management, [e-journal] 17(3–4), pp.357–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0923-4748(00)00029-1 sangole, a. and ranit, a., 2015. identifying factors affecting construction labour productivity in amravati. international journal of science and research, 4(5), pp.1585–88. serpell, a. and ferrada, x., 2006. construction in developing economies: new issues and challenges. proceedings of cib w107 construction in developing countries international symposium, pp.1–8. shahab, s. and audrius, b., 2018. application of fuzzy fault tree analysis to identify factors influencing construction labor productivity: a high-rise building case study. journal of civil engineering and management, [e-journal] 25(1), pp.41–52. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2019.7785 silva, g.a.s.k., warnakulasuriya, b.n.f. and arachchige, b.j.h., 2018. a review of the skill shortage challenge in construction industry in sri lanka. international journal of economics, business and management research, 2(1), pp.75–89. tvec (tertiary and vocational education commission of sri lanka), 2017. construction industry sector training plan 2018 – 2020. sri lanka: tvec. umar, t. and egbu, c., 2017. causes of construction accidents in oman. middle east journal of management, [e-journal] 5(1), pp.21–33. https://doi.org/10.1680/jmuen.16.00032 umar, t., 2021. key factors influencing the implementation of three-dimensional printing in construction. proceedings of the institution of civil engineers – management, procurement and law, [online] 174(3), pp.104–17. https://doi. org/10.1680/jmapl.19.00029 umar, t., egbu, c., honnurvali, m.s., saidani, m. and al-mutairi, m., 2020. an assessment of health profile and body pain among construction workers. proceedings of the institution of civil engineers – municipal engineer, [online] 173(3), pp.125–35. https://doi.org/10.1680/jmuen.18.00019 manoharan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023141 https://doi.org/10.5923/j.ijcem.20180706.01 https://doi.org/10.22452/jscp.vol9no1.6 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000275 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000275 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0923-4748(00)00029-1 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2019.7785 https://doi.org/10.1680/jmuen.16.00032 https://doi.org/10.1680/jmapl.19.00029 https://doi.org/10.1680/jmapl.19.00029 https://doi.org/10.1680/jmuen.18.00019 uwakweh, b.o. and maloney, w.f., 1991. conceptual model for manpower planning for the construction industry in developing countries. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 9(5), pp.451–65. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446199100000034 vaz-serra, p. and mitcheltree, h., 2020. understanding the key master of construction project management graduate competencies required to meet industry needs in australia. international journal of construction education and research, [e-journal] 17(3), pp.222–41. https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2020.1739177 windapo, a.o., 2016. skilled labour supply in the south african construction industry: the nexus between certification, quality of work output and shortages. sa journal of human resource management, [e-journal] 14(1), pp.1–8. https://doi. org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.750 manoharan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023142 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446199100000034 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446199100000034 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2020.1739177 https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.750 https://doi.org/10.4102/sajhrm.v14i1.750 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: oo, b. l., lim, t. h. b., and zhang, y. 2021. women workforce in construction during the covid-19 pandemic: challenges and strategies. construction economics and building, 21:4, 38–59. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v21i4.7643 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021 research article women workforce in construction during the covid-19 pandemic: challenges and strategies bee lan oo1,*, teck heng benson lim1, yixi zhang1 1 school of built environment, university of new south wales, sydney, australia corresponding author: bee lan oo, school of built environment, university of new south wales, sydney, australia, bee.oo@unsw.edu.au doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7643 article history: received: 23/03/2021; revised: 23/09/2021 & 15/10/2021; accepted: 16/10/2021; published: 20/12/2021 abstract changes and challenges in employment are inevitable under the measures enacted to contain the covid-19 pandemic. early evidence suggests that the pandemic would disproportionately affect women compared to men. focussing on women workforce in construction, this exploratory study examines the challenges associated with changes in their job situations, the adopted strategies in addressing the challenges and their opinions on employment situation of women workforce during the pandemic. results of a content analysis show that the top ranked challenges are: (i) overworked; (ii) working space; (iii) social interactions; (iv) collaboration; and (v) parenting. the most cited strategies in addressing these challenges are: (i) increased visual communication; (ii) a dedicated workspace; (iii) self-scheduling; (iv) flexible working arrangements; and (v) breaking out work time and personal time. the evidence is suggestive that most challenges are interrelated, and the strategies adopted by the respondents are multi-level and interdependent. the results also show that the most mentioned opinion is the increased caring and domestic responsibilities among women workforce. under the uncertainty about the duration of the pandemic and future contagion waves, these findings are critical in informing employing organizations’ human resource management challenges to better support their female employees during pandemic time and beyond. keywords covid-19; challenges; construction industry; strategies; women declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 38 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7643 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7643 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7643 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:bee.oo@unsw.edu.au http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7643 introduction countries around the world have implemented a series of measures including physical distancing, selfisolation and imposed lockdowns to varying degree in response to the covid-19 pandemic (biddle et al. 2020). craig and churchill (2021) asserted that the pandemic and the corresponding measures enacted to contain it have affected both how people spent their time and where they spent it. on one hand, government-imposed workplace lockdowns in many countries have provoked a sudden transition to a new unplanned work setting for many for the first time, i.e., switching to working from home (wfh). according to international labour organization (2020), more than four out of five people (81%) in the global workforce of 3.3 billion were affected by full or partial workplace closures. in addition, school closures and health fears increased the need for family care, and blurred the temporal and spatial boundaries between paid work and caring for others (craig and churchill 2021). on the other hand, changes and challenges in employment are inevitable with loss of jobs and reductions in hours worked reported in the literature that examined the impacts of the pandemic on the labour market in different countries (e.g., borland and charlton 2020; lemieux et al. 2020; mayhew and anand 2020). early evidence suggests that the pandemic would disproportionately affect women compared to men, especially working mothers who have experienced increasing demand for unpaid work (care and housework) due to the covid lockdowns (e.g., alon et al. 2020; qian and fuller 2020; rapid research information forum 2020; reichelt, makovi and sargsyan 2020). the literature is ripe with studies on career barriers faced by women workforce in the construction industry in the pre-covid area. in addition, their underrepresentation in the industry and the welldocumented underutilization of women’s abilities and talents are compelling reasons for researchers to use a gender lens in examining the attraction, retention and experiences of women in the industry (oo, liu and lim 2020). it is noted that there are limited publications on proposed strategies or guidance on women’s career progression in the industry (menches and abraham 2007; francis 2017), and that the advice and recommendations shared by authors are based on the knowledge accumulated before the covid-19 pandemic. with no exception, the pandemic has introduced unique circumstances and challenges to women workforce in construction, these include the need to work from home, changes in job situations, changes in housework, childcare and home-schooling following the covid lockdowns (oo and lim 2021). gausman and langer (2020) urge that it is a matter of urgency to adopt a gender lens to study the impacts of the pandemic on disadvantaged populations and resource-poor communities, where women are especially vulnerable. focussing on women workforce in the australian construction industry, this study explores: (i) the challenges associated with changes in their job situations; (ii) the adopted strategies in addressing the challenges; and (iii) their opinions on employment situation of women workforce during the covid-19 pandemic. under the uncertainty about the duration of the pandemic and future contagion waves, this knowledge base is critical in informing employing organizations’ human resource management challenges to better support their female employees during pandemic time and beyond. literature review women’s career in construction in pre-covid-19 era as a minority group in one of the most male-dominated industries with high degree of gender segregation (ness 2012; oo, liu and lim 2020), it is not hard to find evidence that women workforce in construction have faced barriers related to their career in pre-covid era. in a systematic literature review, navarroastor, roman-onsalo and infante-perea (2017) have included as many as 60 publications between 2000 and 2015 on career barriers affecting women in construction. their review found that the most cited barriers include: difficulty of balancing work and family, gender stereotypes, and the lack of professionalism in oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202139 construction organisations’ human resource management practices. they further pointed out that human resource management practices that hinder women’s career in the industry include: (i) the allocation of positions and work tasks that favouring male workforce both at management level and on-site trades; (ii) paternalism where women are allocated to certain positions (e.g., office-based support services) and men are allocated to others (e.g., site management and site supervisor), thus limiting access opportunities and career progression of women; and (iii) promotion practices that discriminate women which limit their career advancement. moreover, the industry’s culture of presenteeism and long work hours, together with the need of frequent relocations due to its project-based nature have considerable potential to interfere with employees’ family lives in a negative way (lingard and francis 2004, francis, fulu and lingard 2009). it is noted that the literature on barriers faced by women in construction is growing in recent years (e.g., barreto et al. 2017; ibáñez 2017; oo, feng and lim 2019; regis et al. 2019; oo, liu and lim 2020), this can partly be explained because women are seen as an untapped resource to meet the workforce demand for both professional roles and skilled tradesmen in the industry (fielden et al. 2000; berik and bilginsoy 2006; menches and abraham 2007). needless to say, women in construction would have to face various challenges and difficulties in addressing career barriers, which are generally presented in a long list in the literature. correspondingly, researchers have examined the various strategies to overcome career barriers and success factors for women’s career in the construction industry (e.g., fernando, amaratunga and haigh 2014; francis 2017; rosa et al. 2017; lekchiri and kamm 2020). however, there are relatively fewer studies on proposed strategies and/or guidance on career progression compared to a large collection of literature on career barriers (menches and abraham 2007). francis (2017) asserted that the limited guidance on career progression in the literature gives the dominant impression that construction is difficult for all women. the recruitment and retention of women workforce in the industry has been very challenging (morello, issa and franz 2018). fortunately, some recent studies have reported a rather high level of job satisfaction among women workforce in the industry (e.g., malone and issa 2013; oo, feng and lim 2020; oo, liu and lim 2020), which seemingly suggest some women are advancing in today’s construction industry (francis 2017). above all, it is clear from the literature that individual women are differentially affected by barriers and challenges related to their career in construction in pre-covid era. the covid-19 pandemic has, however, introduced unique circumstances and challenges to a large population of employees globally, which could make an already challenging situation more difficult for women workforce in the construction industry. job situation changes and associated challenges during the covid-19 pandemic there is increasing literature on the impacts of the pandemic on the labour market in different countries with some using a gender lens in their study design. these studies provide early evidence that women suffer more than men in their employment and well-being, especially working mothers (e.g., alon et al. 2020; cortes and forsythe 2020; etheridge and spantig 2020; kristal and yaish 2020; qian and fuller 2020). most of these studies show that this gender difference could be due to the increasing demand for unpaid work (care and housework) at home among women following the covid lockdowns, while also managing their paid workload. reichelt, makovi and sargsyan (2020) found that transitions to unemployment, reductions in working hours and transitions to wfh have been more frequent for women than for men, but to varying extent among their sample respondents in the us, germany, and singapore. based on a survey on general population of australia, biddle et al. (2020) found that their respondents’ perceived levels of job insecurity were very high along with reported loss of jobs, and that women and those born in non-english speaking countries experienced largest reductions in hours worked. in another australia-based study, craig and churchill (2021) reported changes of work status and work location for both fathers and mothers in their study focussing on dual-earner couples with children. while the majority (92%) of their respondents oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202140 managed to keep their job position and were wfh, their paid work time was slightly lower and unpaid work time (active care, supervisory care, housework and household management) was very much higher during the lockdowns, especially for mothers. as highlighted above, a particular major disruption to job situations during the pandemic is the sudden transition to a new workplace setting, i.e., mainly wfh due to the lockdowns. bonacini, gallo and scicchitano (2021) asserted that wfh became a ‘new normal’ for a large population of employees since it represents the only option to both continue working and minimise the risk of virus exposure. it is noted that there is a spike in publications on wfh phenomenon because of its sudden growth of prominence. researchers have explored wfh (or known as remote working and telework) from different perspectives including its advantages and disadvantages, its impacts on productivity, and the challenges, opportunities and implications of wfh during and post-covid era (e.g., arntz, yahmed and berlingieri 2020; baudot and kelly 2020; butler and jaffe 2020; cserháti 2020; ford et al. 2020; green, tappin and bentley 2020; rudnicka et al. 2020; raišienė et al. 2020; bonacini, gallo and scicchitano 2021). in terms of challenges associated with the change of normal workplace to wfh during the pandemic, the top ranked challenges in ford et al. (2020) are: missing social interactions, lack of work-life boundary; poor ergonomics; less awareness of colleagues’ work and less physical activity. in butler and jaffe (2020), the top challenges are: having too many meetings, feeling overworked, and physical and mental health. raišienė et al. (2020), on the other hand, identified a long list of 29 challenges associated with telework. these include: lack of face-to-face interaction with colleagues; blurred boundaries between work and personal life; lack of inspirational work atmosphere; self-motivation-related challenges and distractions by other household members. however, it is noted that little has been reported on the strategies adopted by both employers and employees in addressing wfh challenges due to the pandemic. some of the few noted are the provision of information technology support, rescheduling of meeting times and implementing no meeting on friday by employer (butler and jaffe 2020). while there is no study, to the authors’ knowledge, that specifically focuses on construction workforce, the identified pandemic-specific challenges and strategies in the literature may be shared across different professions. ford et al. (2020) opined that it is important to keep in mind that remote work during a pandemic is not the same as regular remote work. it could be expected that the former presents a different set of challenges to those who experienced the sudden transition to new workplace setting. for construction workforce, the rate of regular and planned remote work (or wfh) as a flexible work option has been considerably low given the industry’s culture of presenteeism and long work hours. indeed, the teleworkable ratio (i.e., the measurement of the extent of work that can be performed at home) for construction occupations is less than 25%, similar to those in other industries such as agriculture, manufacturing and retail trades (dingel and neiman 2020). thus, the sudden shift to wfh (i.e., change of work location) would present challenges to women workforce in construction. this present study has explored the challenges associated with changes of their job situations, the adopted strategies in addressing the challenges and their views on employment situation of women workforce during the covid-19 pandemic. australian government response to covid-19 and construction businesses as a context for the research findings, this section presents a brief overview of the australian government response to covid-19 and the impacts of the pandemic on construction businesses. australia had a swift and aggressive government response to the pandemic including national and state border closures and strict workplace lockdowns, which were supported with government income maintenance for many whose jobs were lost or threatened (craig and churchill 2021). the australian government announced the jobkeeper payment scheme on 30 march 2020, which is a government subsidy for eligible businesses which have been significantly affected by the pandemic to continue paying their employees (australian taxation office 2020). oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202141 another remarkable scheme was free childcare for working parents for the period between 6 april and 12 july 2020 as part of its economic response to the pandemic (klapdor 2020). for school-aged children, some states and territories announced learning from home arrangements for most school students in april 2020 (abs 2020a). the relatively early strict lockdown had so far contained the spread of the disease and easing of restrictions in all states and territories began from mid-may 2020. however, restrictions reinstated in regions of victoria in july 2020 due to the second wave of the pandemic in the state. in examining the impacts of covid-19 on businesses in australia, the abs’s (2020b) survey has focussed on different topics in each monthly release to maintain relevance in a changing environment during the pandemic. table 1 summarizes the key findings in abs (2020b) between march and september 2020, i.e., around six months into the pandemic when this study was conducted. it was found that most construction businesses were operating as normal or under modified conditions during the pandemic period, and that they have had faced different challenges including government restrictions on the business operation, cash flow problems, reduced revenue and demand for product or services due to the pandemic. table 1. the impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on construction businesses month (2020) impacts on construction businesses march • 45% of businesses reported that they had experienced adverse business impacts and 95% anticipated impacts over the coming months. april • 94% of businesses were operating. • 52% of businesses made changes to the work arrangements (reduced hours worked, changed work location -wfh, placed staff on paid leave). • 74% of businesses reported that reduction in demand for product and services had an adverse impact on operations. • 77% of businesses reported that reduced cash flow had an adverse impact on operations. • 45% of businesses reported that government restrictions had had an adverse impact on operations. • 80% of businesses had registered or intend to register for the jobkeeper payment scheme. may • 35% of businesses were operating as normal. • 65% of businesses were operating under modified conditions. june • 56% of businesses reported that revenue had decreased compared to the same time last year. • 46% of businesses reported that their currently available cash on hand would support more than three months on operation. july • 9% of businesses experienced difficulties in negotiating changes to rates of pay. august • 28.4% of businesses expected difficulty in meeting financial commitments over the next three months. september • 33% of employing businesses expected change in the number of hours worked by staff once covid-19 restrictions are lifted and conditions stabilise. source: abs (2020b) business indicators, business impacts of covid-19 oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202142 research method the present exploratory study is part of a large study on women’s job situations in the construction industry during the covid-19 pandemic, which has been conducted around six months into the pandemic (i.e., between august and september 2020). it adopted a survey design to reach the targeted population women workforce in the australian construction industry who are at least 18 years old in a timely and efficient manner. data was collected using an online survey questionnaire, which was distributed via emails and social media by professional bodies and women’s networks in construction. this purposive sampling process helped to ensure the reliability of data by only approaching women workforce in the industry. open-ended questions were used in the online survey questionnaire that allow the respondents to answer and provide in-depth responses without the bias associated with restricting responses to predefined alternatives (zhou et al. 2017). this question type is of practical importance in this study with the intention to explore the subject matters of interest following the unprecedented disruptions caused by the pandemic. first, the respondents were asked to specify the key challenges associated with the changes in their employment status, work location and working hours (q1). this was followed by questions on the strategies they adopted to overcome the respective key challenges (q2). lastly, they were asked to share their opinions on the employment situation of women workforce during the pandemic (q3). thematic analysis was conducted to identify, analyse, and report patterns (themes) within the data (braun and clarke 2006). this analytical method suits questions related to people’s experiences, or people’s views and perceptions (braun and clarke 2019), which are the focus of the present study. its selection is further justified by its flexibility that allows emergent themes which can provide a rich and detailed account of the data (braun and clarke, 2006), and its ability to capture possible unexpected responses from the respondents in the covid-19 pandemic era. the six-phase process in braun and clarke (2006) were adopted in the analytical process where the authors independently reviewed and analyzed the qualitative data to identify key themes within the data. these phases involved familiarization with the dataset, coding, generating initial themes, reviewing themes, defining and naming themes and reporting of results. the analysis itself was a recursive process, with movement back and forth between different phases to facilitate a rigorous process of data interrogation and engagement (braun and clarke, 2006). if the authors did not agree on the themes, these were discussed until consensus was reached. results profile of the respondents a total of 80 respondents had responded to the open-ended questions in the online questionnaire survey. it was not possible to keep track of number of surveys sent because of the use of emails and social media and the fact that researchers had no access to email address books of the supporting organizations. while the number of responses is considerably low for a survey with this recruitment method, it is recognized that the covid-19 pandemic has placed considerable strain on people from all walks of life globally that could justify the response rate. it should be noted that the respondents were given an option not to answer the open-ended questions. nonetheless, it is encouraging to note that there are instances where some respondents specify multiple key challenges and/or strategies in their responses, along with their opinions women’s employment situation during the pandemic, providing a rich qualitative dataset for the analysis. indeed, the response rate for open-ended questions could be very low (zhou et al. 2017), the respondents’ willingness to spend time on the optional open-ended questions seemingly reflects their interest and seriousness to share their experiences on a voluntary basis. thus, their responses are useful and relevant to this exploratory study. table 1 shows the profile of the respondents with the majority (72.5%) of them aged between 26 and 45 years old. above 70% of the respondents were born in australia and the percentage of oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202143 table 2. the respondents’ profile profile freq. percent age 18 25 6 7.5 26 35 34 42.5 36 45 24 30.0 46 55 13 16.3 56 and above 3 3.8 country of birth australia 57 71.3 overseas 23 28.8 highest level of education secondary 1 1.3 certificate 6 7.5 advanced diploma/ diploma 7 8.8 undergraduate degree 40 50.0 postgraduate degree 26 32.5 years of experience in the industry less than 1 year 2 2.5 1 5 21 26.3 6 10 20 25.0 11 15 11 13.8 16 20 12 15.0 21 25 7 8.8 25 and over 7 8.8 current employment status self-employed 1 1.3 employed by an organization (private or public sector) 73 91.3 family business 1 1.3 do not have a paid job 5 6.3 current working locationa nsw 39 45.3 qld 10 11.6 vic 19 22.1 oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202144 respondents with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees is as high as 82.5%. about 90% of respondents were employed at the time of survey and they worked across different australian states and territories. in terms of working experience, above 70% of them have had above five years of experience in the industry. sixty percent of the respondents were primary income earners in their family, and 40% of respondents have caring responsibilities. challenges table 3 shows the challenges associated with three categories of changes in the respondents’ job situations, i.e., employment status, work location and working hours during the pandemic. the identified challenges were ranked from the highest to the lowest based on frequency counts in individual categories. it should be noted this frequency count is not the number of respondents since some respondents had stated multiple challenges. also, some challenges are identical to one or more changes in job situations. for example, most of the challenges associated with changes in work location are applicable to changes in working hours. for changes in employment status, the most cited challenge is to deal with job loss during the pandemic, which had affected a small number of respondents. next, changes in work location recorded the highest total (n = 47) of which the three most cited challenges are working space, social interactions and collaboration profile freq. percent act 10 11.6 nt 0 0.0 sa 3 3.5 wa 5 5.8 tas 0 0.0 current annual job income (before tax) 41k 60k 5 6.3 61k 80k 11 13.8 81k 100k 7 8.8 101k 120k 12 15.0 121k and above 32 40.0 prefer not to answer 8 10.0 do not have a paid job 5 6.3 your income is the primary source of support for your family yes 48 60.0 no 32 40.0 caring responsibilities yes (parents, children and others) 32 40.0 no 48 60.0 a. there are six respondents worked in at least two states and territories table 2. continued oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202145 (or communication). eight challenges, on the other hand, were associated with changes in working hours. overworked ranks top in this respective list of challenges with a frequency count as high as 19 (out of 37). overall, these findings provide suggestive evidence that challenges associated with changes in work location are more profound than the other two categories during the pandemic. table 3. the challenges associated with the changes in the respondents’ job situations during the pandemic challenges freq. n* changes in employment status loss of job 5 less income (or pay cut) 2 went from full-time to part-time 1 total 8 changes in work location working space 10 social interactions 9 collaboration/ communication 7 children/ parenting 6 work stress 4 motivation 3 distractions 3 physical/ mental health 2 work-life balance 2 overworked 1 total 47 changes in working hours overworked 19 less income (or pay cut) 6 work-life balance 4 physical/ mental health 3 social interactions 2 children/ parenting 1 work stress 1 working space 1 total 37 *some respondents have stated multiple challenges. oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202146 strategies table 4 shows the strategies adopted by the respondents to overcome the challenges associated with the changes in their job situations during the pandemic. these strategies have been ranked based on the respective frequency count in individual categories. similar to that of identified challenges, some strategies adopted by them are applicable to one or more changes in job situations. for example, the strategies of flexible working arrangements, breaking out work time and personal time and self-scheduling have been adopted by the respondents in response to challenges associated with changes in work location and working hours. for the small group of respondents who were dealing with job loss, pay cut and reduced hours worked, the adopted strategies are rather straightforward, involving job hunting and job change. corresponding to the number of identified challenges in table 3, the recorded total count is highest for changes in work location category (n = 52) and followed by changes in working hours (n = 22). however, there is a lack of evidence to suggest that there exists prominent strategies for these two categories given that the frequency distribution of the adopted strategies is somewhat scattered. here, the top five strategies are: (i) increased visual communication; (ii) dedicated workspace; (iii) self-scheduling; (iv) flexible working arrangements; and (v) breaking out work time and personal time. opinions on women’s employment situation the 80 respondents had shared their opinions with a total count of over 5000 words for this third openended question, further demonstrating their seriousness in completing the survey and the relevance of their responses. table 5 shows the respondents’ opinions, totalling 147 on women’s employment situation during the pandemic as many of them stated more than one opinion in their responses. as expected, individual respondents would have different personal opinions, and their opinions were grouped into seven categories. for the first category of neutral opinion (n = 11), the respective respondents had specifically stated that they were not able to share their opinions because no changes had occurred in their employment situation and/or they were not aware of others’ employment situation. also, the next category of opinions is that the pandemic has little to no impact on women’s employment situation (n = 17). for the remainder five categories, the respective frequency distribution ranges between 22 and 29. of these, the most mentioned opinions are in the category of increased caring and domestic responsibilities among women workforce in the industry (i.e., c7). while the respondents’ opinions were rather focussed on the impacts of the pandemic (i.e., c3 to c5), it is interesting to note that their opinions are divided between those who opined that the pandemic affects women more than men (c4), and others who believed that the pandemic affects women and men equally (c5). the remarks made by the respondents have been included in the discussion section in revealing the foundations of their opinions. discussion the demographic profiles of the respondents suggest that most of them are experienced workforce with post-secondary education. while most were employed at the time of the survey, the respondents have different personal circumstances including caring responsibilities and income support for their family, and these may shape their response to the pandemic. the results show that most challenges and adopted strategies associated with changes in the respondents’ employment status, work location and working hours are interrelated and/or identical, especially for the last two categories. moreover, the strategies adopted by the respondents are multi-level, interdependent and can reinforce each other. these similarities, interrelations and/or interdependence are rather simple and logical as evidenced in many instances. first, on the challenges of job loss, pay cut or reduced hours worked, while job hunting, it is expected that the oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202147 table 4. the strategies adopted to overcome the challenges associated with the changes in the respondents’ job situations during the pandemic strategies freq. n* changes in employment status looking for new job 3 changed job 2 negotiated redundancy 1 total 6 changes in work location increased visual communication 13 dedicated working space 7 working space setup 6 maintain strong and consistent connections with project team 5 flexible working arrangements 4 breaking out work time and personal time 4 self-scheduling 3 learning new technologies and took on the opportunity for skills development 3 self-adaptation 2 balancing caring responsibilities and work 2 organised virtual work socialisation 2 practising stress reduction techniques 1 total 52 changes in working hours self-scheduling 5 flexible working arrangements 4 budgeting expenses 4 breaking out work time and personal time 3 practising stress reduction techniques 3 increased visual communication 1 self-adaptation 1 learning new technologies and took on the opportunity for skills development 1 total 22 *some respondents have stated multiple strategies. oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202148 respondents would budget their expenses due to the challenge of loss or reduced income. this combination of interrelated challenges and strategies is evident in the current findings. next, on the similarities of challenges and adopted strategies for both changes in work location and working hours, this can partly be explained because work location and number of working hours are highly interrelated. in the construction industry, for example, site-based employees work longer, more irregular hours than office-based employees (lingard and francis 2004). thus, in the context of the present study, change in work location due to the pandemic (i.e., wfh and working partly in normal workplace and partly from home) is greatly associated with the respondents’ hours worked (von gaudecker et al. 2020). indeed, lingard and francis (2004) found that construction employees’ work-life experiences appear to be more closely related to the nature of employees’ job conditions, as indicated by work location and number of working hours. another possible explanation for the similarities is that the pandemic has provoked a sudden transition to a new unplanned work setting for many for the first time. for a large population of employees who normally worked in normal workplaces (for e.g., office and site-based for construction employees), this sudden transition may contribute to the blurring lines of differences between challenges (and the respective strategies) associated with work location and working hours. it is noted that few recent studies that examined the challenges associated with change of work location (i.e., wfh) have not attempted to distinguish between work location and working hours (e.g., ford et al. 2020, rudnicka et al. 2020). however, despite the observed similarities in the present study, the findings provide an insight that is refreshing to better reflect the personal experiences of dealing with challenges associated with changes in work location and working hours due to the covid lockdowns. having discussed the observed similarities and interdependence of the wide range of challenges and strategies shared by the respondents, the subsequent discussion focusses on the top ranked challenges associated with both categories of changes in work location and working hours and the respective strategies in addressing these challenges. the ranking was performed by summing up the frequency counts of individual challenges from both categories. of all the challenges, the top five challenges are overworked (n = 20), working space (n = 11), social interactions (n = 11), collaboration (or communication, n = 7) and children (or parenting, n = 7). this is followed by discussion on the respondents’ opinions on women’s employment situation during the pandemic. an attempt was made to include verbatims from the respondents in revealing the scale at which these experiences exist. table 5. the respondents’ opinions on women’s employment situation during the pandemic opinions freq.* c1 neutral opinion 11 c2 covid-19 has little to no impact on women's employment situation 17 c3 covid-19 has negative impacts on women's job security and career progression 22 c4 covid-19 has negative impacts on women's employment situation more than men 22 c5 covid-19 impacts women's and men's employment situation equally 23 c6 changes of working arrangement (wfh, flexible working arrangement) 23 c7 increased caring and domestic responsibilities 29 total 147 oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202149 overworked the most cited challenge is overworked, which includes increased workload, too many virtual meetings, working longer and more irregular hours later into the evening or at night and weekend. some remarks include: not finding time for self-care. everything is urgent and it is expected that i am available all the time. excessive workload; required to work at night and over weekends. longer hours; crammed diary [with] back-to-back virtual meetings. many respondents have attempted multiple strategies in addressing this challenge through self-scheduling. their self-scheduling strategies include: “structuring my day to sit at the computer between set hours, and create routine to my day.”, “trying to keep same routine as for pre-covid (getting up at same time, etc.).” and “plan my day with lists.” other interdependent strategies shared by the respondents include breaking out work time and personal time and adopting flexible working arrangements, while trying to balance caring responsibilities and work. some of them made comments such as: turn computer off as soon as office hours are complete. packing up workstation and leaving the house (even if it’s just outside the house). i will work longer into evening as i often take more breaks during the day to get me out of the apartment when i am feeling cooped up. i have made an effort to start the workday a bit later to compensate for the late hours that occur regardless of what time i start work. patience, flexibility [and] recovering work hours at night after kids went to bed. working in different locations, taking short breaks and keeping the children occupied. working space with a sudden transition to a new workplace setting (mainly wfh), it is not surprising to find that working space is another most cited challenge. some respondents were not prepared to work from home, and they seek assistance from it team in their company. also, they have commented on the lack of access to information technology resources including printer and monitor screen. for some, the experience was rather negative, one said, “no home office; isolation; mental health and less productive.” this expression, although without much elaboration, clearly indicate the complexity of multiple challenges involved. another respondent captures her experiences, saying: it is particularly challenging spending majority of time at work at a time when everybody else is at home. it’s an additional struggle when there are less social outings to provide a reprieve from the intense work environment. the respondents have adopted different strategies in addressing working space related issues via setting up their dedicated working space including a new working space at home. some remarks include: oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202150 dedicated working spaces for me and each child so that meetings could be held [and to] avoid noise contamination. needed a wi-fi booster at home. set up home office [and] all meetings [go]virtual. more meetings with my team for morale or support. set up a better working from home setup [and] tried to catch up socially with people via video conferencing or outdoor activity. social interactions it is evident from the respondents’ remarks that wfh is highly associated with lack of social interactions. indeed, missing social interactions topped the list of twenty challenges faced by a large cohorts of software engineers who were wfh (ford et al. 2020). with the nature of construction jobs that require long working hours and presenteeism, a sudden transition to wfh was a new experience for many. some remarks include: meetings are conducted online. no real connections to people… working 100% from home was lonely… lack of interaction with colleagues… not having direct access to team members and being able to meet in person. increased visual communication was cited most frequently as the key strategy where the respondents have been sending more emails, making more phone calls and organizing extra virtual meetings and team chats to maintain strong and consistent connections with project team. various virtual meeting applications cited include microsoft teams, zoom and skype. some have taken additional steps in increasing interactions by organizing virtual socialisation, such as “friday online drinks.”, “extra activities and team quizzes etc.” and “daily 9am with team.” collaboration (or communication) the next top challenge associated with the sudden transition to a new workplace setting is the collaboration or communication issues. given the project-based setting for construction projects, the respondents shared their difficulties in dealing with project collaboration or communication. some commented that it has become difficult “to communicate with other team members, [thus] affecting productivity.”, “to remain engaged with team and keeping up project support.” and “to manage team remotely.” the adopted strategies are rather interdependent, i.e., by increasing visual communication and maintaining strong and consistent connections with project team. some shared their strategies including: i have been using microsoft teams and online applications more actively to ensure team members are engaged and responsive. increased team engagement via skype etc., [and] lots more deliberate remote meetings. [having] extra virtual meetings [and] implementing strategies to keep teams connected. oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202151 children (or parenting) caring for children or parenting was a key challenge for the respondents with caring responsibilities. some said it was challenging to balance parenting and work commitments, suggesting these two challenges are interrelated. rudnicka et al. (2020) asserted that caring for children was both the most common distraction and most taxing added responsibility for their respondents, and that those with caring responsibilities rarely have time to reflect on their work-life balance. also, there are hard aspects of parenting during the covid lockdowns, especially the challenge of home-schooling children while fulfilling their paid workload. another hard aspect of parenting was the fact that younger children did not understand the changes in job situations of their parents. some remarks include: working from home whilst children were learning from home. having to get children to understand that staying in their rooms whilst teleconferencing. the key strategies adopted by the respondents include: setting up dedicated working spaces for themselves (and children), adopting flexible working arrangements in their attempts to balance caring responsibilities and work, as remarked above. also, one said she “used the daycare option.” another respondent tried “organising food deliveries, routines, and stopping personal activities.” in addition to the top five challenges and the associated strategies, it is worth noting that other challenges and strategies shared by the respondents do provide some additional insight on the diversity of their experiences. for example, on physical or mental health challenge which is likely to be associated with overworked, lack of social interactions, and the demanding nature of work and family responsibilities, some have practiced stress reductions techniques including reaching out to friends, having daily walk and taking a break from work. however, there are some exceptions. first, while some have mentioned their strategies using a generic term such as self-adaptation, there are a few respondents (n = 4) who commented that there was no resolution yet at the time of the survey. this seemingly suggest this respective group could have faced more complex challenges for some reasons. next, it is noted that some of the identified challenges were seen as benefits for some, for example, some took on the opportunity for skills development, and some enjoyed the flexibility associated with wfh and claimed that they worked more efficiently with less distractions and commuting. these differential experiences were indeed reported in ford et al. (2020), which they opined that these experiences were driven by individual personal contexts and characteristics of their work. the respondents’ opinions on employment situation on the negative impacts of the pandemic on women’s job security and career progression (c3), some commented on high job insecurity, less job opportunities due to a slow down in construction demand; and that the pandemic hindered their career progression. their remarks include: the working situation during covid is concerning as it can add to career stagnation. the pandemic has definitely slowed or stopped opportunities for career advancement. i do worry a bit for the future and feel like it will be harder for me to progress and experience pay rises as there is less work and companies tighten their spending. next, on the divided opinions on the impacts of the pandemic on women and men (c4 and c5), it is rather surprising that some respondents stated that the pandemic impacts women and men equally when they were specifically asked about the employment situation of women during the pandemic. some commented that: as a pm, i don’t think a female would be let go ahead of a male counterpart. oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202152 some companies i know have made redundancies and had pay cuts but from what i’ve heard this hadn’t been gender focussed. haven’t seen a difference between male or female employment during this time. if anything, more men are losing their jobs as they are the majority of workers in the sector. as a construction supervisor…i see the struggles my workforce is going through. the industry is quiet, which is causing hours to have to be split between people who would normally working full time. this, however, is not gender-related from what i have seen myself. for those who believed that the pandemic has negative impacts on women’s employment situation more than men, the foundations of their opinions were mostly based on their personal experiences in their workplace. some remarks include: for my experience women have been hit harder by the consequences of covid-19 (e.g., in my office the majority of people that had their working hours reduced were women). in my organization, women have been affected disproportionately, with more women losing their jobs than men. i was the only female working in a construction firm, and the first to be put onto jobkeeper in spite of half of our office [staff ] being at the same level or being in the same position or more junior than myself. i ended up changing career as this was basically the last straw for me in relation to my experience in the construction industry. we have been sourcing some junior staff since july [2020], my observation is i have never had so many female candidates. most lost their jobs in november or december [2019] and march or april [2020] and all were overqualified for the role. turning into the respondents’ opinions on changes of working arrangement and increased caring and domestic responsibilities (c6 and c7), on one hand, some respondents shared that the downsides of wfh are mainly on increased caring and domestic responsibilities experienced by women as claimed in the literature (e.g., alon et al. 2020; etheridge and spantig 2020). on the other hand, there are respondents who welcomed flexible working arrangement associated with wfh despite the associated challenges, and they were looking forward to flexible working arrangement in post-covid era. they commented that: hoping that flexible working supports better diversity in the future. i think that [the pandemic] has provided alternative working arrangements, and shown that ‘working from home’ is a viable option, and made all the ‘non-believers’ be forced into trialling how the system would work. if people want to work, they will do whatever they can, when they can, if they are allowed flexibility. a lot of roles can provide this, but just needed a bit more of an open mind to allow it to occur. i hope the flexibility employers have had to show during this time can continue. i’ve needed to work flexibly but i’ve still met all deliverables and client expectations. i don’t need to be in an office [and] in front of the managers for me to show i’m effective at my job. i think [the pandemic] has shown a light on flexible working arrangements, the days of white-collar construction professionals being chained to their desks 6 days a week are not necessary, nor sustainable. businesses will attract and retain employees by adapting flexible working arrangements, including working offsite from business premises. oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202153 summary in summary, while there is no similar study on this subject area among construction professions for comparisons, many of the challenges and strategies emerged from this study aligned with those studies that involved other professions during the pandemic (e.g., ford et al. 2020, butler and jaffe 2020). also, it is recognized that some of the challenges and strategies (such as overworked, work-life balance and breaking out work time and personal time) are not unique and have been reported in previous construction workforce studies in pre-covid era (e.g., lingard and francis 2004; navarro-astor, roman-onsalo and infanteperea 2017; oo, liu and lim 2020). however, given the unique circumstances associated with a sudden change in job situations following the pandemic, most challenges (such as working space, parenting and social interactions) and the respective strategies in the present study are specific to the pandemic. these pandemic-related challenges are consistent with early evidence on the possible negative impacts of the pandemic on women workforce in terms of caring responsibilities, disruptions to working hours and paid work capacity, especially working mothers (e.g., alon et al. 2020, rapid research information forum 2020; reichelt, makovi and sargsyan 2020). indeed, other than negative impacts of the pandemic on women’s employment situation, the most mentioned opinion in the present study is the increased of their caring and domestic responsibilities. above all, both shared and divergent experiences and opinions among the respondents are expected given their varied personal circumstances (including family responsibilities), work location and job characteristics before and during the pandemic. research implications the findings from this exploratory study have practical implications to employing organizations. for employers and managers, knowing that ‘one size does not fit all’ is critically important for supporting their employees’ employment and well-being in response to a pandemic. with the covid-19 pandemic, by firstly understanding the challenges female employees have had faced, and that there are possible strategies for addressing the challenges, they could develop protocols to better support their female employees now or in the future. the divergent experiences and opinions revealed could also be considered in the development of the respective protocols including wfh and/or flexible working arrangements. green, tappin and bentley (2020) opined that the change to wfh forced by the covid-19 could indeed be used as an opportunity to simulate innovation and development to enhance organizational capabilities including the development of sustainable wfh protocols for possible disruptive events in future. this is particularly applicable in the case of the covid-19 pandemic if restrictions have to be reapplied in response to future contagion waves. indeed, a hybrid model of working some time at the office (or normal workplace) and some time at home has been seen as a ‘new’ normal with covid-19 (e.g., green, tappin and bentley 2020; hite and mcdonald 2020; bonacini, gallo and scicchitano 2021), which may give rise to an opportunity for employing organizations to consider it an option towards greater retention of women workforce in the industry as opined by some of the respondents. conclusions the professional women in construction participated in this exploratory study shared the challenges associated with changes in their job situations, the strategies they adopted in addressing the challenges, and their opinion on women’s employment situation in the industry during the covid-19 pandemic. most of them had experienced multiple challenges and the evidence is suggestive that most challenges are interrelated. likewise, the strategies adopted by the respondents are multi-level and interdependent. results of a content analysis show that the top ranked challenges are: (i) overworked; (ii) working space; (iii) social interactions; (iv) collaboration; and (v) parenting. the most cited strategies in addressing these challenges are: (i) increased visual communication; (ii) a dedicated workspace; (iii) self-scheduling; (iv) flexible working oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202154 arrangements; and (v) breaking out work time and personal time. while the respondents highlight the increased caring and domestic responsibilities among women workforce, it is important to recognize there exists divergent experiences and opinions among the respondents given their varied personal circumstances (including family responsibilities), work location and job characteristics before and during the pandemic. unfortunately, given the fact that the pandemic will not end in the short term and some countries are grappling with contagion waves, changes and challenges in employment are inevitable and may continue for some time. thus, an understanding the challenges employees have had faced due to disruptive changes during the pandemic, and an insight into the possible strategies are critical in addressing human resource management challenges. the findings have implications for employing organizations in construction businesses on how to better support women workforce in their organization during a pandemic through the development of appropriate protocols. the divergent experiences and opinions revealed could also be considered in the development of sustainable protocols on wfh and/or flexible working arrangements for possible disruptive events in future. indeed, under the uncertainty about the duration of the pandemic and future contagion waves, it is logical to suggest that these protocols are deemed necessary in addressing the challenges of retention of women workforce during and post covid-19 pandemic. there are limitations in this exploratory study. the focus here is on professional women in the construction industry and the sample size is rather small due to difficulties faced in recruitment of respondents during a pandemic outbreak. while it is felt that the present findings are useful and relevant to provide the first insight into experiences of women in construction on the subject matter, future study should include other cohorts of interest including construction tradeswomen and women labourers. indeed, the divided opinions observed in the current study on the impacts of the pandemic on women and men have prompted the need of further study on its impacts on construction workforce regardless of gender or role. the other limitation is the limited scope of this exploratory study. there are many other aspects that future studies could consider including the relevance of wfh and/or flexible working arrangements from the employers and employees’ perspectives, changes in employers and employees’ attitudes and preferences towards wfh and/or flexible working arrangements, the relationship between employees’ personal circumstances, work productivity, work-life balance and well-being with wfh and/or flexible working arrangements. a collection of future studies that capture all these possible aspects would contribute towards the development of conceptual frameworks on the impacts of the pandemic on construction workforces. future studies should also consider different research design including using focus group methods to gather evidence in building on the knowledge base on this subject area. acknowledgements sincere thanks are due to respondents who took time to complete the online questionnaire survey during the pandemic times. the undertaking of the online questionnaire survey required considerable supports from organizations supporting women in the industry by assisting with the distribution of the questionnaire via emails and/or social media. grateful thanks are due to national association of women in construction (nawic), tradeswomen australia and women in trades network. references alon, t.m., doepke, m., olmstead-rumsey, j. and tertilt, m., 2020. the impact of covid-19 on gender equality. covid economics: vetted and real-time papers, issue 4, london: cepr press. https://doi.org/10.3386/ w26947 arntz, m., yahmed, s.b. and berlingieri, f., 2020. working from home and covid-19: the chances and risks for gender gaps. intereconomics, 55(6), pp.381-386. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10272-020-0938-5 oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202155 https://doi.org/10.3386/w26947 https://doi.org/10.3386/w26947 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10272-020-0938-5 australian bureau of statistics (abs), 2020a. household impacts of covid-19 survey. available at https://www.abs. gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/household-impacts-covid-19-survey [accessed 19 nov 2020]. australian bureau of statistics (abs), 2020b. business indicators, business impacts of covid-19. available at https:// www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/business-indicators/business-indicators-business-impacts-covid-19 [accessed 19 nov 2020]. australian taxation office, 2020. jobkeeper payment, [accessed 20 nov 2020]. https://www.ato.gov.au/general/ jobkeeper-payment. barreto, u., pellicer, e., carrión, a. and torres-machí, c., 2017. barriers to the professional development of qualified women in the peruvian construction industry. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 143(4), p.05017002. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000331 baudot, l. andkelly, k., 2020. a survey of perceptions of remote work and work productivity in the united states during the covid-19 shutdown, available at ssrn https://ssrn.com/abstract=3646406 [accessed 20 nov 2020]. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3646406 berik, g. andbilginsoy, c., 2006. still a wedge in the door: women training for the construction trades in the usa. international journal of manpower, 27(4), pp.321–341. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720610679197 biddle, n., edwards, b., gray, m. and sollis, k., 2020. hardship, distress, and resilience: the initial impacts of covid-19 in australia. anu centre for social research and methods, canberra: anu. bonacini, l., gallo, g. and scicchitano, s., 2021. working from home and income inequality: risks of a ‘new normal’ with covid-19. journal of population economics, 34(1), pp. 303-360. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-020-00800-7 borland, j. and charlton a., 2020. the australian labour market and the early impact of covid‐19: an assessment. australian economic review, 53(3), pp. 297-324. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8462.12386 braun, v. and clarke, v., 2006. using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2):77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa braun, v. and clarke, v., 2019. answers to frequently asked questions about thematic analysis. available at: https://cdn. auckland.ac.nz/assets/psych/about/our-research/documents/answers%20to%20frequently%20asked%20questions%20 about%20thematic%20analysis%20april%202019.pdf [accessed 20 sep 2021] butler, j.l. and jaffe, s., 2020. challenges and gratitude: a diary study of software engineers working from home during covid-19 pandemic,” in new future of work 2020. available at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/ prod/2020/07/nfw-butler-jaffe.pdf [accessed 20 nov 2020]. https://doi.org/10.1109/icse-seip52600.2021.00047 cortes, g.m. and forsythe, e., 2020. the heterogeneous labor market impacts of the covid-19 pandemic. upjohn institute working paper 20-327. kalamazoo, mi: w.e. upjohn institute for employment research. https://doi. org/10.17848/wp20-327 craig, l. and churchill, b., 2021. dual‐earner parent couples’ work and care during covid‐19. gender, work & organization, 28(s1): pp. 66-79. https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12497 cserháti, i., 2020. “business is unusual”–remote work after covid-19. köz-gazdaság, 15(2), pp.38-53. https://doi. org/10.14267/retp2020.02.04 dingel, j.i. and neiman, b., 2020. how many jobs can be done at home?. nber working papers 26948, national bureau of economic research, inc. https://doi.org/10.3386/w26948 etheridge, b. and spantig, l., 2020. the gender gap in mental well-being during the covid-19 outbreak: evidence from the uk. paper no. 2020-08. institute for social and economic research. oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202156 https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/household-impacts-covid-19-survey https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/people-and-communities/household-impacts-covid-19-survey https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/business-indicators/business-indicators-business-impacts-covid-19 https://www.abs.gov.au/statistics/economy/business-indicators/business-indicators-business-impacts-covid-19 https://www.ato.gov.au/general/jobkeeper-payment https://www.ato.gov.au/general/jobkeeper-payment https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000331 https://ssrn.com/abstract=3646406 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3646406 https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720610679197 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-020-00800-7 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8462.12386 https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa https://cdn.auckland.ac.nz/assets/psych/about/our-research/documents/answers%20to%20frequently%20asked%20questions%20about%20thematic%20analysis%20april%202019.pdf https://cdn.auckland.ac.nz/assets/psych/about/our-research/documents/answers%20to%20frequently%20asked%20questions%20about%20thematic%20analysis%20april%202019.pdf https://cdn.auckland.ac.nz/assets/psych/about/our-research/documents/answers%20to%20frequently%20asked%20questions%20about%20thematic%20analysis%20april%202019.pdf https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prod/2020/07/nfw-butler-jaffe.pdf https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/uploads/prod/2020/07/nfw-butler-jaffe.pdf https://doi.org/10.1109/icse-seip52600.2021.00047 https://doi.org/10.17848/wp20-327 https://doi.org/10.17848/wp20-327 https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12497 https://doi.org/10.14267/retp2020.02.04 https://doi.org/10.14267/retp2020.02.04 https://doi.org/10.3386/w26948 fernando, n.g., amaratunga, d. andhaigh, r., 2014. the career advancement of the professional women in the uk construction industry. journal of engineering, design and technology, 12 (1), pp. 53-70. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt04-2012-0018 fielden, s.l., davidson, m.j., gale, a.w. and davey, c.l., 2000. women in construction: the untapped resource. construction management and economics, 18(1), pp.113–121. https://doi.org/10.1080/014461900371004 ford, d., storey, m.a., zimmermann, t., bird, c., jaffe, s., maddila, c., butler, j.l., houck, b. and nagappan, n., 2020. a tale of two cities: software developers working from home during the covid-19 pandemic. available at: https://arxiv. org/abs/2008.11147[accessed 20 nov 2020]. francis, v., 2017. what influences professional women’s career advancement in construction?. construction management and economics, 35(5), pp.254-275. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1277026 francis, v., fulu, e. andlingard, h., 2009. is it a problem? in: h. lingard and v. francis, eds. managing work-life balance in construction. 1-37. oxon: spon press. gausman, j. and langer, a., 2020. sex and gender disparities in the covid-19 pandemic. journal of women’s health, 29(4), pp. 465-466. https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2020.8472 green, n., tappin, d. and bentley, t., 2020. working from home before, during and after the covid-19 pandemic: implications for workers and organisations. new zealand journal of employment relations, 45(2). https://doi. org/10.24135/nzjer.v45i2.19 hite, l.m. and mcdonald, k.s., 2020. careers after covid-19: challenges and changes. human resource development international, 23(4), pp.427-437. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2020.1779576 ibáñez, m., 2017, women in the construction trades: career types and associated barriers. women’s studies international forum, 60, pp.39-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2016.12.001 international labour organization, 2020. covid-19 causes devastating losses in working hours and employment, available at: https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/wcms_740893/lang--en/index.htm. [accessed 16 nov 2020]. klapdor, m., 2020. covid-19 economic response -free childcare. canberra: parliament of australia,. available at: https://www.aph.gov.au/about_parliament/parliamentary_departments/parliamentary_library/flagpost/2020/april/ coronavirus_response-free_child_care [accessed 8 dec 2020] kristal, t. and yaish, m., 2020. does the coronavirus pandemic level gender inequality curve? (it doesn’t). research in social stratification and mobility, 68, p. 100520. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2020.100520 lekchiri, s. and kamm, j.d., 2020. navigating barriers faced by women in leadership positions in the us construction industry: a retrospective on women’s continued struggle in a male-dominated industry. european journal of training and development, 44 (6/7), pp. 575-594. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejtd-11-2019-0186 lemieux, t., milligan, k., schirle, t. andskuterud, m., 2020. initial impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on the canadian labour market. canadian public policy, 46(s1), pp.s55-s65. https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2020-049 lingard, h. and francis, v., 2004. the work‐life experiences of office and site‐based employees in the australian construction industry. construction management and economics, 22(9), pp. 991-1002. https://doi. org/10.1080/0144619042000241444 malone, e.k. and issa, r.r., 2013. work-life balance and organizational commitment of women in the us construction industry. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 139(2), pp.87-98. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)ei.1943-5541.0000140 oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202157 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2012-0018 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2012-0018 https://doi.org/10.1080/014461900371004 https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.11147[accessed https://arxiv.org/abs/2008.11147[accessed https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1277026 https://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2020.8472 https://doi.org/10.24135/nzjer.v45i2.19 https://doi.org/10.24135/nzjer.v45i2.19 https://doi.org/10.1080/13678868.2020.1779576 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2016.12.001 https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/wcms_740893/lang--en/index.htm https://www.aph.gov.au/about_parliament/parliamentary_departments/parliamentary_library/flagpost/2020/april/coronavirus_response-free_child_care https://www.aph.gov.au/about_parliament/parliamentary_departments/parliamentary_library/flagpost/2020/april/coronavirus_response-free_child_care https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rssm.2020.100520 https://doi.org/10.1108/ejtd-11-2019-0186 https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2020-049 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619042000241444 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619042000241444 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000140 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000140 mayhew, k. and anand, p. 2020. covid-19 and the uk labour market. oxford review of economic policy, 36(supplement_1): s215-s224. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/graa017 menches, c.l. and abraham d.m., 2007. women in construction—tapping the untapped resource to meet future demands. journal of construction engineering and management, 133(9), pp. 701–707. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(2007)133:9(701) morello, a., issa, r.r. andfranz, b., 2018. exploratory study of recruitment and retention of women in the construction industry. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 144(2), p. 04018001. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000359 navarro-astor, e., roman-onsalo, m. and infante-perea, m., 2017. women’s career development in the construction industry across 15 years: main barriers. journal of engineering, design and technology, 15(2), pp.199–221. https://doi. org/10.1108/jedt-07-2016-0046 ness, k., 2012. constructing masculinity in the building trades: ‘most jobs in the construction industry can be done by women’. gender work & organization, 19(6), pp.654–676. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2010.00551.x oo, b.l., feng, x. and lim, b.t.h., 2019. early career women in construction: career choice and barriers. in iop conference series: materials science and engineering, 601(1), p. 012021. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757899x/601/1/012021 oo, b.l., feng, x. and lim, b.t.h., 2020. early career women in construction: are their career expectations being met? construction economics and building, 20(3), pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i3.6867 oo, b.l. and lim, b.t.h., 2021. changes in job situations for women workforce in construction during the covid-19 pandemic. construction economics and building, 21(2), pp.34-57. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v21i2.7526 oo, b.l., liu, x. and lim, b.t.h., 2020. the experiences of tradeswomen in the australian construction industry. international journal of construction management, pp. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1717106 qian, y. and fuller, s., 2020. covid-19 and the gender employment gap among parents of young children. canadian public policy, 46(s2), pp. s89-s101. https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2020-077 raišienė, a.g., rapuano, v., varkulevičiūtė, k. and stachová, k., 2020. working from home—who is happy? a survey of lithuania’s employees during the covid-19 quarantine period. sustainability, 12(13), pp. 5332. https://doi. org/10.3390/su12135332 rapid research information forum, 2020. the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on women in the stem workforce. canberra: australian academy of science. available at: https://www.science.org.au/covid19/women-stemworkforce [accessed 20 nov 2020]. regis, m.f., alberte, e.p.v., dos santos lima, d. and freitas, r.l.s., 2019. women in construction: shortcomings, difficulties, and good practices. engineering, construction and architectural management, 26(11), pp. 2535-2549. https:// doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2018-0425 reichelt, m., makovi, k. and sargsyan, a., 2020. the impact of covid-19 on gender inequality in the labor market and gender-role attitudes. european societies, pp.1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2020.1823010 rosa, j.e., hon, c.k., xia, b. and lamari, f., 2017. challenges, success factors and strategies for women’s career development in the australian construction industry. construction economics and building, 17(3), pp. 27-46. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5520 oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202158 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/graa017 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:9(701) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:9(701) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000359 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000359 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-07-2016-0046 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-07-2016-0046 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2010.00551.x https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/601/1/012021 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/601/1/012021 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i3.6867 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i2.7526 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i2.7526 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1717106 https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2020-077 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12135332 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12135332 https://www.science.org.au/covid19/women-stem-workforce https://www.science.org.au/covid19/women-stem-workforce https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2018-0425 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2018-0425 https://doi.org/10.1080/14616696.2020.1823010 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5520 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5520 rudnicka, a., newbol, j.w., cook, d., cecchinato, m.e., gould, s. andcox, a.l., 2020. eworklife: developing effective strategies for remote working during the covid-19 pandemic. in eworklife: developing effective strategies for remote working during the covid-19 pandemic. the new future of work online symposium. von gaudecker, h.m., holler, r., janys, l., siflinger, b.and zimpelmann, c., 2020. labour supply in the early stages of the covid-19 pandemic: empirical evidence on hours, home office, and expectations. iza discussion paper no. 13158, iza institute of labor economics. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3579251 zhou, r., wang, x., zhang, l. and guo, h., 2017. who tends to answer open-ended questions in an e-service survey? the contribution of closed-ended answers. behaviour & information technology, 36(12), pp. 1274-1284. https://doi.org/1 0.1080/0144929x.2017.1381165 oo, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 202159 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3579251 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929x.2017.1381165 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929x.2017.1381165 construction economics and building vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022 © 2022 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: yousif, o. s., zakaria, r. 2022. a framework for integrating green highway performance data with the carbon footprint calculator in malaysia. construction economics and building, 22:2, 102–120. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i2.8012 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article a framework for integrating green highway performance data with the carbon footprint calculator in malaysia omar sedeeq yousif 1,*, rozana zakaria1 1 school of civil engineering, faculty of engineering, universiti teknologi malaysia, johor bahru 81310, malaysia corresponding author: omar sedeeq yousif, school of civil engineering, faculty of engineering, universiti teknologi malaysia, johor bahru 81310, malaysia, omar.ameen93@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i2.8012 article history: received: 09/12/2021; revised: 10/03/2022 & 24/04/2022; accepted: 04/05/2022; published: 20/06/2022 abstract highway concessionaires in malaysia spend considerable assets in collecting, analysing and controlling different forms of data during highway projects’ life cycle. considering this massive investment, nowadays the data use and information system reliability is becoming the key concern in terms of delivering value to consumers as opposed to the amount generated. the data generated is extensive and heterogeneous. this paper provides a new paradigm for integrating green highway performance data with carbon footprint data for green highway assessment. this framework is used to improve the active use of data in the generation of information and to assist comprehensively in decision-making at all levels of management. the network approach used in this study is the main component for interlinking data with knowledge and decisions, identifying the parameters of data integration for green highway assessment, determining the criteria data for integration, and assessing the overall performance of data usage. real-time green highway data scenarios are used to demonstrate the applicability of this framework. a new monitoring performance measure called the myghi-dashboard is proposed to control green highway assessment processes and evaluate the level of data usage, which will serve as a green highway performance scorecard. through data-driven insights, this new paradigm can be used as a benchmarking model by highway authorities to make efficient and accurate decisions. this study is expected to become the central reference to mitigate the challenge associated with the use of highway performance data in real-time for malaysian highway development. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 102 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7842 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7842 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:omar.ameen93@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7842 keywords big data integration; carbon footprint; decision making; framework development; green highway rating system introduction malaysia together with other world leaders adopted the 2030 agenda for sustainable development, the agenda has highlighted the importance of sustainability in infrastructure (mahidin, 2016). besides that, with the revolution of industry 4.0 has emerged the advancement of technology which offers advanced data storage, management, and analysis (prabowo, rustendi and nurbaiti, 2020; yousif, et al., 2022b). with the extensive use of recent technology, the amount of data produced by the construction industry increased significantly. the massive explosion of information, therefore, leads to the trend of big data integration which is intended to reshape the construction like never before (wang and kim, 2019). as the industry is focused on increasing efficiency and sustainable practices, despite the value it provides, there is a certain appeal to accept data integration (ismail, bandi and maaz, 2018). malaysia has become a high-income nation, so national development strategies and plans must be synchronized and driven with the global major wave, especially climate change (wahid, et al., 2019). research aimed at contributing to the country's rewards in particular towards the country's carbon reduction, which was expected to reduce by 45% by 2030 (yousif, et al., 2018). with increasing urbanization and living standards of people in malaysia, there is a certainty that there will be a substantial increase in human activities hence mobility via highway networks (ramlia, et al., 2019). highways are among the country's most crucial infrastructures, and they play a critical function in a country's social and economic growth. malaysian highway authority (mha) is the highways authority served under the government and is committed to contributing to the government’s target for greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions reductions (mohamed, et al., 2017). the introduction of the “malaysian green highway index (myghi scoring)” in 2014 outlines in-depth the scope of points for sustainable practices. however, mha, concessionaire, and university technology malaysia (utm) extend their study to a holistic assessment of the impact of malaysian highways on the environment. they establish the carbon footprint calculator (cfc) to calculate the greenhouse gases emissions and to assess the impact on the national environment. in 2017, 150 governments signed the paris climate agreement. this proves that environmental awareness and preservation have become the agenda in developed countries. these initiatives have been adopted in line with the national green technology strategy to ensure that the path to sustainable growth will make substantial progress in addition to the existing reforms, especially in the construction industry (wahid, et al., 2019). highways are also among the facilities that help with human mobility. malaysia has 31 tolled highways with an overall length of 1,988.6 kilometres, according to statistics provided by the (mha, 2016). to meet the growing demand from road users, it is expected that the number of highways and overall length covered would expand, resulting in an increase of highway building operations and corresponding additional carbon emissions in the environment. once the number of building projects increased over time, a large amount of data was generated. because the data from myghi scoring and cfc are varied and extensive, evidence suggests they need to be integrated, managed, and analysed (yousif, et al., 2022a). data integration and its implementation are among the fastest-growing developments in many sectors (guo, et al., 2021). data integration can be described as a set of digital technology that can manage, analyse, and maintain more data than was previously managed. with this innovative new generation, data can be effectively collected and analysed (sjarov and franke, 2022). the adoption of data integration technologies in an optimum manner would yousif and zakaria construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022103 indisputably be the next frontier of innovation in the construction industry. it is difficult to manage these data efficiently using the current data collection and processing techniques, hence data integration technology needs to be implemented (foote, 2019). recently, the digital technology boom has reached malaysia. subramaniam, ismail and mohd rani (2021) suggest this has encouraged the government to ensure that malaysia will be one of the world's biggest information systems competitors during the next century. in this era, the accelerated advancement of information and communication technology (ict) is very important due to the growing number of users sharing data (yousif and zakaria, 2022a). the construction industry transformation plan 20162020 defines the malaysian construction industry's scope, aiming to increase productivity via the use of data technologies. consequently, this author notes the need for substantial research in this field. despite its importance, data analytics and integration are still novel, expanding topics in the architecture, engineering, and construction (aec) industry. with the growing digitalization of sustainable construction projects, data integration and analytics are unavoidable in the aec to reap the full advantages of digitization initiatives. historically, the aec industry has struggled with several barriers to the implementation of information technology solutions, including cultural resistance to change, cost, and data-sharing concerns (elhendawi, et al., 2019). dealing with the data for both projects myghi scoring and cfc from the thirty-one highway concessionaires is dealing with substantial heterogeneous data. the data from concessionaires regarding co2 emissions from each element of cfc plus the scoring obtained for each category, criterion, subcriteria, and super sub-criteria of myghi scoring, are all individual and not easy nor simple to access. as a result, both projects are independent of each other and work as separate entities, despite the need to work as a single entity. therefore, data integration and visualization will be a critical organizational issue to derive benefit from the data. this research aims to integrate myghi scoring and cfc for green highway performance management. to achieve the research aim, the following objectives have been set: identify the parameters of data integration for green highway assessment, determine the criteria data for integration from myghi scoring and the cfc, and establish the framework of green highway data integration for web-based programming development. this data integration would include insight on ghg pollution levels to enable the establishment of a stronger pollution management strategy. the data integration for myghi scoring and cfc is useful for highway assessment and visualizing performance. it has the power to manage highway data efficiently and has the potential to further reduce energy and carbon emissions. furthermore, if implemented, it will help to monitor the amount of carbon emission before and after the reduction action. background of research trustworthy, high-quality, integrated data is now needed to comply with malaysia’s construction industry development board (cidb, 2016) initiatives and the construction industry transformation program (citp) aspiration (portela, lima and santos, 2016). climate change has been recognized as a global problem that requires a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment. this is likely to contribute significantly to the high risk of carbon emission and a big amount of disparate data (rehman, et al., 2021). the industry manages important data from various fields during the project life cycle. the primary issue and concerns are, what the definition of this data is, where to extract them, how to process them, and finally how to represent them so that they may be integrated into one platform. what metrics may be used to evaluate this data integration? the capacity to manage vast volumes of data and derive relevant insights from it has transformed society and innovation, resulting in long-term growth. the use of big data analysis in the construction sector is not uncommon, but the use of these technologies in this sector is still in its infancy and lags the widespread use of such technologies in other sectors (bilal, et al., 2016). yousif and zakaria construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022104 continuous access to reliable project data is critical to project success. changing the method of data and information exchange between users is essential for the success of any project. a highway construction project produces a massive amount of complicated, detailed, and professional data. while much effort has been made to address these problems, weak coordination and information uncertainty in the construction industry remains an unsolved issue (yousif, et al., 2018). this time of uncertainty has led to increasing calls to put forth data management for malaysian highway as a core development concern. in these emerging days of technological achievement, it is mandatory to develop data-driven decision-making and green assessment tools for highway projects by using the data integration framework. the current scenario of the type of problems that related to data management in highway projects is the lack of data storage, management, and analysis for the past decade. there have been several suggested ways to organize data for decision-making benefit (ekambaram, et al., 2018; abdul rahman, et al., 2022). according to burger (2019), data processing inefficiencies are related to the restricted capacity of working with unstructured data. that is where data integration can be the key to enhancing data use. to this regard, this research focuses on a framework for data integration of the two green highway assessment tools (myghi scoring and cfc). malaysian green highway rating system on the journey to achieve a green highway, research and efforts to identify the relevant green highway elements and the possibility to apply the green concept in highway development have been undertaken. there are several green rating systems developed like green roads, leadership in energy and environmental design (leed), illinois liveable and sustainable transportation (i-last) and green leadership in transportation environmental sustainability (greenlites), (fmlink, 2012). in addition, malaysia conjointly has the green road rating system that is malaysian green highway index (myghi scoring). it is the rating system that proposed sustainable highways and an assessment framework to measure the green performance of highways (zakaria, et al., 2012). the tool also covers the fundamental elements of green highway development that are suitable for the tropical region. ismail et al. (2013) investigated the essential aspects of malaysia’s green highway. twenty-five green highway elements were identified and grouped in six categories, these being energy efficiency, water preservation, waste minimization, materials, landscaping, and ecology. the formation of myghi scoring in 2014 was well-suited to the situation and attributes of malaysian highways, as it compensates for other global highway green tools. malaysia’s highway authority has achieved a significant move forward in green technology by launching a series of projects aimed at making highways more sustainable (gara, et al., 2021). there are five main categories in myghi scoring: energy efficiency, social and safety, environmental and water management, sustainable design and construction activities, and material and technology. the establishment of the scorecard certification and the carbon footprint calculator may be used to assess the green performance of the highway (seng, 2018). data management is an indispensable requirement to enhance the evaluation of data efficiency. at present, myghi scoring data in different structural forms are stored in different databases, including formatted report data stored in the system, text data stored on the computer, tabular data, picture data, and various project data stored in papers (adzar, et al., 2019b). this assessment uses a different procedure than cfc, is presented in a hard copy format, and takes a long time to complete. the evaluation documents, as well as all other information, must be completed in both hardcopy and softcopy and delivered to the authorities. malaysian highway carbon footprint calculator a carbon footprint calculator is commonly used to calculate the total amount of carbon dioxide (co2). it can be defined as the total amount of ghgs (direct and indirect) emitted over the life cycle of the highway yousif and zakaria construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022105 (asian development bank, 2010). carbon dioxide is considered a dominant factor in climate change (hulail, ayob and omar, 2016). the transport industry releases significant volumes of ghg during the life cycle of highway projects, including the manufacture of materials, construction, operation, and maintenance of the highways. the emission of these gases is caused by human activities that are intensely harmful to the environment such as the burning of fossil fuels to produce new material, transportation fuel combustion, and electricity generation (chen, et al., 2017). carbon footprint technology is still emerging as a means of benchmarking and comparison, especially regarding the precision of calculations and the consistency of measurement methods (li, et al., 2021; vallsval and bovea, 2021). nevertheless, the implications of personal decisions must be discussed in further depth until a normative definition of responsible action towards emission reductions is developed (kar, et al., 2015). the cfc will calculate carbon footprint pollution in the unit of tons of equivalent carbon dioxide (t co2-eq / km-lane). this instrument will also provide a viewpoint on ghg pollution trends that can be used to develop a better strategy for managing green highways in malaysia (adzar, et al., 2019a). various strategies for lowering pollutant emissions such as the use of eco-tax and carbon tax have been introduced in different countries to encourage low environmental impact practices. such methods of reducing emissions require accurate calculation (chong and wang, 2017). therefore, the development of myghi scoring and the cfc tools allow each participant (investor, concessionaire, and authority) to measure, manage and obtain reports on their highways’ green performances. in this regard, mha is becoming more accountable for the social and environmental issues that arise as a result of its concessionaire’s and subcontractors’ operations inside the logistics chain. globalization and industrialization are continually rising, putting substantial pressures on ecological and sustainable logistics. nowadays, the focus is mostly on minimizing the carbon footprint of the highway lifecycle to enhance supply chain performance (ren, et al., 2020). an example of sustainable logistics is the analysis and support of sustainable initiatives, sustainable transportation, sustainable construction, sustainable operation, reverse logistics, and design and control of sustainable supply chain activities (wang, et al., 2018). green logistics is the key feature and primary structure of the circular economy. green logistics is a paradigm that integrates resources with projects, as well as projects with customers. integrating green logistics with digitization would result in the country’s long-term growth, with benefits such as minimizing carbon emissions and more effective data optimization. digital logistics is an effective and risk-free approach to incorporating sustainability components into highway development supply chain management (richnák and gubová, 2021) and construction management. data integration of green highway assessment understanding and evaluating data relationships by integration, is important because the use and meaning of data and information often intersect and are used interchangeable. hence the need to make a distinction in the research should be addressed. data hierarchy, often recognized as the data, information, knowledge and wisdom is among the crucial systems used in the literature on data and information management. it explains the hierarchical and practical relationship between data and information with the simple premise that data is the backbone to produce information, and therefore information is utilized to produce knowledge. consequently, in effect, knowledge finally establishes wisdom (lytras, et al., 2021). depending on the definition of the structure of knowledge adapted from peiffer (2016); berengueres (2020); yasaka (2020), the hierarchy of information in this research is adjusted into three categories, as shown in table 1. a three-tiered structure is built using the categories above to clarify the principle of data integration in the processing and analysis of data relationships, by combining and integrating data into tangible information and insights. this in turn encourages decision-making in a series of graded steps. the structure comprises tier i raw data (d), tier ii information (i), and tier iii decisions (dm). these three categories yousif and zakaria construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022106 are combined and analysed using centralized collaboration and integrated relationships based on the criteria of the decision-makers. analysing these categories causes active routes that indicate the extensive use of data that is now being used by highway concessionaires for information generation and decision making. during analyses, a “bottom-up” and “top-down” approach is applied to evaluate the system using indicators. a bottom-up technique is used as an internal metric to give visibility into how the three-tiered system integrates raw data, sets of information, and decisions. the top-down technique is utilized as an external metric to clarify the entire system and can be indicative of the nature of the data and information route. the technique will define and evaluate the overall content of the process for data and information by recognizing the interrelation of the routes as one system. based on this framework and using the routes defined from data and information analysis and integration system, a performance metric, the myghi dashboard, was developed. this dashboard assists strategic decision-makers at the management level, and users, to determine the efficiency of data use and envision the overall system. this research strategically implements the network approach as an analytical tool for experimentally evaluating the relationships and their related advantages and influencing data and information for green highway assessment to eventually find solutions to improve decision-making system efficiency and green performance through data-driven perspectives. the research can help determine the most important facts and information or important participant in the decision-making system, analyse the connections and evaluate the green data on highway management. in the truest sense, data integration requires the deliberate and methodical combining of data from multiple sources, making it more usable and beneficial than ever (pastore y piontti, et al., 2019). ibm offers a clear concept that data integration is a mixture of technology and processes utilized to integrate data from different sources into practical and useful information (ibm, 2020). the main concept is that data is transformed into usable and useful information. it is not just about transferring data from one location to another or dumping many avenues of data into a single database. this is about making the data accessible and more functional. parameters identification of data integration data integration is a little more involved, as it entails making the data useful and common throughout the process. usually, data ingestion, cleansing, and standardization integrate the data into the process (sharma, kumar and kaswan, 2021; yousif, et al., 2021). data integration has five parameters: • data velocity: refers to the rate at which new data is produced and the speed at which data flows. this flow can be huge or constant. velocity indicates the rate of incoming data demanding to be processed. table 1. information hierarchy entities data information decision primary data is obtained during a highway project's life cycle and preserved in datasets. data is transmitted, organized, and produced by the standard methods of data analytics. the key performance indicator or extracted results from data analysis is defined as the information. the process of selecting or deciding the collection methods builds on the "datadriven" approach, using specific data gathered and information produced from relevant data. yousif and zakaria construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022107 data integration now enables data to be analysed while it is being generated, without ever being placed into databases. • data veracity: refers to the messiness or trustworthiness of the data. with many forms of data, quality and accuracy are less controllable, but data integration and analytics technology now provides the confidence to work with this type of data. • data volume: refers to the vast amounts of data generated. the volume of this data is measured in terabytes, zettabytes, and exabytes. such significantly large data sets are difficult to preserve and analyse using conventional database technologies. using data integration technologies, enables the preservation and utilization of these data sets using distributed systems, where bits of the data are processed through various locations and software platforms. • data variety: refers to the different types of useable data, whether structured, semi-structured or even unstructured data formats. many sorts of data can now be harnessed and combined with more conventional, organized data using data integration technologies. • data value: refers to the importance of data to the company. the ultimate objective of any data integration project should be to generate value for the company through the analysis. given the above parameters, consideration must be given to the method of integration and type of database that will be dealt with. database integration alternatives include two main approaches, the first one is a fused database and the second is interoperable databases. the first option, the integration approach leads to the establishment of a single database containing all the integrated data; second, the current or newly established databases are connected, and the integration of the data is accomplished using queries offering a view of the connected data. selection between the two integration approaches is based on several factors and the choice must be made exclusive according to the characteristics of each data integration project. the factors to be addressed include, but according to durham, ashuri and shannon (2018), are not limited to: • intentional use of integrated data (to who and to what use). • features in current databases and/or information systems. • data form and quantity to be integrated. • information technology is today available. • the extent of information technology worker's experience work. • distribution of resources that will be allocated to the project. • organizational architecture (functional organizational structure). another benefit of database integration and consistency is the use of widely agreed data descriptions and standardized system-wide formats. regardless of the integration approach implemented, a common data dictionary or global standard for data interpretation, representation, distribution, and communication may be essential for data integration (karanam, et al., 2021). nonetheless, concessionaires have found several problems in creating and applying data standards and adapting existing legacy data to these new standards. such challenges include deciding on appropriate data formats, templates, and protocols as there is significant variation in existing databases; getting help from the concessionaire's staff and getting people to adhere to the new standard; and minimizing as much time and money as possible, and enforcing the standards. data integration architecture and process the issues of data integration can be properly understood using a layered architecture. the architecture of data integration consists of various layers, so each layer executes a particular function (vetova, 2021). data integration architecture comprises 6 layers: yousif and zakaria construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022108 • ingestion layer: data is given priority and classified in this layer. this layer maintains data flows seamlessly in the layers below. • collector layer: this layer carries data from the ingestion layer to the remainder of the data system. • processing layer: within this layer, data is interpreted to direct the information towards the intended location. • storage layer: the data being analysed is housed in this layer. • query layer: the effective analytical analysis occurs in this layer. this layer simply helps to collect the information from the data. • visualization layer: users discover the true value of data in this layer through the display method. the mha and highway concessionaires play a significant role in collecting and analysing data by conducting research and designing programs to support decisions in highway management. for example, malaysian green highway index is one of the prominent studies carried out by mha and utm (mha, 2014). the system provides a guideline for collection or main actions to be implemented in the collection, storage, and management of data to help decisions making. as part of data integration, the process sums up five primary tasks and these steps are most compatible with this project as shown in figure 1. this process has proven its suitability for highway data integration from case studies in the united state of america (usa) (woldesenbet, jeong and park, 2016). requirement analysis modelling data and process flow description, assessment, and selection of alternative solutions specifications and architecture of database development, testing and implementation figure 1. data integration process (adapted from woldesenbet, jeong and park, 2016) determination of criteria data for integration the approach to achieving the determination is demonstrated by assessing real data management. the study utilizes myghi scoring and cfc data, information obtained from such data, and green highway management decisions as a conceptual decision-making mechanism for the highway infrastructure. development of the integration system and research by mha and concessionaires together with industry experts, academics, and engineering companies will encourage the mha to store and maintain highway data. for malaysian highways authority, green highway data management systems encompass two programs (myghi scoring and cfc). each one of them is unique and both obtain their characteristics, spreadsheets, and databases using conventional and computerized data gathering over the management of the highway infrastructure. the highway concessionaire collects many sorts of data during the project lifecycle. these data are used for green highway assessment and are generally gathered and analysed by the mha management system as part of the highway management scheme. the analysis was done by identifying the criteria data of malaysia's green highway index and cfc. by comparative review, the green assessment data that are relevant to the green highway have been identified in this research. the content analysis was done to understand the variety of data and information on green highway assessment. yousif and zakaria construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022109 in this study, 34 sub-elements of data from myghi scoring and cfc were classified into 8 main categories of data sources. a range of information and a representative decision such as project selection, technology implementation, project prioritization, budget allocation, new policies, etc. are listed as possible players in the myghi fundamental framework. figure 2 and figure 3 show a summarized overview of the data managed by mha. in green highway management, these green assessment data will be translated into a functional form and accurate information. the functional form of this information is to assist in the decision-making process and monitor green performance to guide appropriate actions after green initiatives have been implemented. many of these types of data include the amount of ghg emission, source of emission, the technology utilized in highway construction, sustainable design implementation, and environmental management. such information is used to help several decisions at different stages and phases during a highway project's life cycle. accordingly, after identifying the parameters of data integration and determining the criteria data for integration, the next phase of the research is to establish the framework for integrating green highway data. figure 2. data for integration from myghi scoring the framework of green highway data integration at the time of writing, diverse data are gathered through project life cycles, placed in various databases, and handled by several highway divisions. moreover, different forms of decisions are taken through various hierarchies of decision-making and various stages of the project. meanwhile, data are generated and yousif and zakaria construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022110 processed by various divisions or users to match the needs of specific divisions or departments, which causes data and information to be dispersed and sometimes lost or unidentified. however, this research describes the data by its relationships, how the data is linked to other data, whether and how it connects with information in a network system instead of a private network where data are no longer recognized to be autonomous. the data connection can be acquired and evaluated by data integration and visualization with processes of information and decision making. to clarify the principle of data integration in communication and data analysis, and to support the decision-making process, a three-tiered system for linking and transforming data into useful information is established. the three tiers framework comprises data, information, and decision-making. using hierarchical collaboration and inclusive relations based on decision makers’ requirements, these levels are integrated and interlinked as indicated in figure 4. once these three levels of linking entities have been set up, the framework is utilized as a principle for evaluating the concessioner’s highway green performance. as an internal indicator, a bottom-up method is used to get information into how specific data and information are integrated into the framework. this method identifies users' requirements at various levels through the definition of the application and significance of data in enhancing the process of decision making. once data are collected and stored, the next step is to accurately analyse and treat them to meet their purpose. data is intended to create information and take decisions throughout the project's life. this purpose can be reinforced by using applicable and efficient data analysis techniques (yousif and zakaria, 2022b). highway information comprises pavement assessment, financial assessment, carbon footprint, and more (ait-lamallam, et al., 2021). table 2 shows a variety of highways information generated from raw data along with project life. figure 3. data for integration from cfc yousif and zakaria construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022111 table 2. example entities of highway infrastructure information phase information planning carbon footprint, capacity analysis, financial assessment, transportation traffic assessment, ecological assessment, etc. design design evaluation, safety and risk assessment, budget allocation, etc. construction quality assurance, machinery usage, productivity rates, progress reports, variations, etc. operation & maintenance green performance, electrical consumption, water consumption, pavement assessment, expenses assessment, benefit assessment, etc. the information is obtained from highways data, for use in decision support. the principles of decisionmaking commence with the determination of ways to enhance the highway network by the implementation of green strategies. vital factors vary, however the growth of the economy, population, transportation, and carbon footprint, are the basis for highway designs. these factors are transformed into long and short highway plans based on available data and information. malaysia's national goal from 2016 to 2020 is the construction industry transformation program (citp). its strategic directions are quality, safety, professionalism, environmental sustainability, productivity, and internationalization, all of which are aimed at transforming the construction sector. in this process, the mha and concessioners make various decisions ranging from carbon emissions reduction plans to the application of sustainable practices and many more, too extensive to list for their diversity and details. the illustration of decisions made through the highway's project lifetime can be shown in figure 5. the decisions vary depending on the phase of the project, ranging from the planning phase to the maintenance and operation phase. to understand the entire integration process, a top-down method is utilized as an external indicator capable of analysing the complexities of the data and information paths. the method is used as a key tool to determine and evaluate the actual performance of the data integration framework by recognizing the interrelationship and connection of the routes as a unified network. a performance indicator, the myghi figure 4. data, information and decision-making integration framework yousif and zakaria construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022112 dashboard, has been established based on the framework developed. myghi dashboard can support the decisions process, efficiently manage highway information, and provide a visualizer to display highway green performance. this dashboard is an information management tool that visually tracks, analyses, and displays key performance indicators, metrics, and key data points to monitor the highway performance, department, or specific process. it is customizable to meet the specific needs of the malaysian highways authority to effectively manage the green highway development. data-driven decision-making through the integration of both projects is the catalyst of making organizational decisions based on actual data rather than intuition or observation alone. when used, the data and information integration will lead to a solid decision through the project lifecycle as shown in figure 6. figure 6. project data information decision making cycle figure 5. highway development decisions map yousif and zakaria construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022113 the framework also covers data management strategies to aid decision-making, as well as best practices and guidelines for data governance, performance metrics, and dashboard creation. each facet of performance evaluation, such as data quality, data administration, analytic tools and methodologies, distribution, and application in the business operations, is critical to the effort's overall success. figure 7 depicts the existing data flow of the myghi performance measures data system as well as the proposed setup for the future. figure 7. myghi performance measures data system configuration this diagram shows how the bottom-up data system configuration, and its elements, correspond to specific performance measures under both current and future configuration conditions. for the current condition, data flows from all criteria and elements of both projects. all these feed data into various spreadsheets and reports. for the recommended future configuration, again working from the bottom up, data flows directly into the dashboard. assessment and validation this section addresses the validity of the framework, using a particular data management system as a case study. in this research, green highway assessment real data from myghi scoring and carbon footprint data were used to assess the effectiveness of the data integration framework. the main task of the case study is to specify the data and information to be used in the framework. data analysis is performed to interlink yousif and zakaria construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022114 the components. this helps identify the relationship between the existing green performance assessment by applying the integration system. the network approach is utilized to determine the data and information and execute the integration parameters in the framework. the foundation stone was laid to develop the myghi dashboard to evaluate green performance of the highway system. diverse decisions are taken throughout the project's life that can affect the project's budget, program, productivity, and integrity. such decisions vary from the identification of viability choices and allocation of funds at a structural level to the identification of design solutions and project-specific decision details. various construction management plans, waste management, air pollutant control, innovation, quality management, energy management policy, energy efficiency performance, environmental management system, business enhancement, intelligent traffic systems, and renewable energy sources and fuel consumption are also some of the decisions made through highway lifecycle. to make accurate decisions these decisions need specific types of information as feedback. in addition, these types of information need specific data as inputs. the data from myghi scoring and cfc were classified into two parts to avoid confusion between the data, where each has its unique characteristics and has its evaluation method. myghi, evaluates multiple criteria and then gives points (ratings) for each criterion achieved, while cfc, calculates the amount of carbon dioxide emissions from the activities along the project's lifetime. leveraging this combination of classifications, allowed for collection and storage in one database, which was then analysed and integrated to finally be displayed in one interface, thus providing a comprehensive platform for evaluating green highway performance. based on the network approach, the conceptual design of data integration in figure 8 has been validated through an expert group discussion with highway professionals from the industry and academia. by following this flowchart users can view and navigate between all parts of the application and get a comprehensive view of the evaluation process. integrated myghi-cfc framework myghi-cfc big data analysis select concessioner myghi score real-time visualization decision support system cfc select concessioner assessment criteria, sub-criteria & super-sub-criteria for the categories: • sustainable design and construction activities-sdca • energy efficiency-ee • environmental and water management-ewm • material and technology-mt • social and safety-ss assessment elements: • scope 1 • scope 2 • scope 3 • total emission stages construction o&m design plus, skve, laksa, lekas, etc. plus, skve, laksa, lekas, etc. figure 8. conceptual design of the integration dashboard yousif and zakaria construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022115 based on the integration system architecture, it was found that such data are used specifically as sources in the decision-making process since there is no application developed to monitor the green performance of each concessioner in terms of the score of green points that were achieved in every evaluation criterion of myghi scoring. at the same time, monitoring the amount of carbon dioxide emissions during the planning, construction and operation phases of the project for each concessioner was undertaken separately. this proposed framework will achieve two key objectives: first of all, the administrative users or informed decision-makers in the highway industry can evaluate the data needs of future users for enhancing information processing and offering decision support by finding new connections among data and information; and second, authorized users will be willing to determine the state of the concessioner's data collection and processing initiatives by evaluating the difference between current data processing state and optimal data processing, which may act as a frequent report-card for data integration. as stakeholders, government and society have the right to understand how the highway performs and what its environmental impact is; they also have the right to know the plans and investments made in this sector and whether they are supported by affective and sufficient data. this integration will also achieve that aim by assisting to validate the effectiveness of data management processes and create trust in the decision-making processes of concessionaires. it must be remembered that the degree of sophistication of the data collection system ranges from a concessioner to the other concerning the volume, nature, and degree of complexity of the data gathered in addition to the technology and processing techniques used to help decisions. anecdotal evidence suggests, with the industry's new transition toward investment management and performance-based program, highway concessionaires need to assess their success and clarify how decisions are taken. data plays a crucial role in the accountability and integrity of performance assessment and decision-making frameworks. a concessionaire with such a high degree of success or a concessioner who has reached the optimal data usage outcomes could be a possible source of experience and good practices for other concessionaires. this will potentially increase the transparency and sharing of data. the data will remain stored in the databases of the highway authority, as the governing body for all data, characterized by its high level of security. finally, the development of visualization technologies aims at anticipating the growth of data. large volumes of data are collected, processed, and exchanged between stakeholders as part of highway construction. for design, estimation, and operation, even small businesses and projects might generate gigabytes of data. as the scope of the initiatives expands, so does the amount of data associated with it. effective predictive analytics and web-based data visualization technologies are necessary to extract valuable insights from the data. the new developed visualization dashboard provides several advantages, including performance evaluation and multidimensional data representation. it also provides a real-time solution and strength. to assure the accuracy and completeness of the new established dashboard, it has been presented to the authorities to check the user acceptance (uat) to assure that users can view and navigate between all parts of the application and get a comprehensive view of the evaluation process easily and effectively. these web-based applications are expected to increase the level of confidence in terms of web-aided decision making which can reflect positively on comprehensive data analysis, data diagnosis, and data assessments and treatment. conclusion this research provides a new framework that will consistently combine and connect green data with information to generate decisions on highways by incorporating a creative and constructive technique for performance evaluation. the methodology utilized mixing of “top-down” and “bottom-up” techniques by integrating quantitative and specific approaches for interlinking, with analysing data and information yousif and zakaria construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022116 to enable evaluating the efficiency of data employed in highway decision making. the research uses data integration parameters as primary dimensions for the implementation of this framework. its application is used to determine data and information by defining the link among them to maximize the degree of data use and enhance the decision process. a concessioner's real-time green performance and carbon footprint data for the highway management system are utilized to clarify the implementation of the framework. the developed myghi dashboard will visualize green highway performance and work as a decisions support system that can serve as a real-time monitoring system. this research built a bridge between the myghi scoring and the cfc and works as an important decision support system. the decisions that will be aided are wide-ranging; from implementing green initiatives to help reduce the ghgs emissions from highways lifecycle, to strategies to increase their green scores for all myghi criteria. the benefits of this framework include a better understanding of the return on investment for concessionaires' efforts to collect and analyse data. currently, many concessionaires may fail to substantiate and demonstrate to their managers the reasons why modern it and data analysis and integration techniques should be applied. by specifying the data and information relationships and what decisions will gain from this implementation, the framework will assist concessionaires to protect their data collection initiatives and reduce expenditures. this new framework would greatly enhance how data is gathered, analysed, and controlled. it can also be used to improve decision-making systems for concessionaires and fulfil their sustainable targets by addressing the demands of authorities and the goals of governments. this research can be extended in the future to integrate green highway assessment data with highway traffic management systems as well as with the pavement management system, to have a fully comprehensive monitoring dashboard for better highway management. references abdul rahman, m.f., zakaria, r., shamsudin, s.m., aminudin, e. and yousif, o.s., 2022. (in press) the importance of life cycle costing (lcc) components for emerging green costs incurred in the green highway budget preparation decision-making. in: 5th international conference on research methodology for built environment and engineering (icrmbee 2021). shah alam, malaysia, 10 november 2021: iop conf. ser.: earth environ. sci., iop publishing (accepted for publication november 2021). adzar, j., zakaria, r., aminudin, e., rashid, m., munikanan, v., shamsudin, s., rahman, m. and wah, c., 2019a. development of operation and maintenance sustainability index for penarafan hijau jabatan kerja raya (phjkr) green road rating system. in: 11th international conference on geotechnical engineering in tropical regions (geotropika) and 1st international conference on highway and transportation engineering (ichitra). kuala lumpur, malaysia, 27–28 february 2019: iop conference series: materials science and engineering. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757899x/527/1/012058 adzar, j., zakaria, r., aminudin, e., rashid, m.a., munikanan, v., shamsudin, s., sooria, s. and hassan, m., 2019b. sustainable operation and maintenance criteria for non-toll road green rating system. in: 7th international conference on euro asia civil engineering forum. stuttgart, germany, 30 september 2 october 2019: iop conference series: materials science and engineering, iop publishing. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/615/1/012128 ait-lamallam, s., sebari, i., yaagoubi, r. and doukari, o., 2021. ifcinfra4om: an ontology to integrate operation and maintenance information in highway information modelling. isprs international journal of geo-information, 10(5), p.305. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi10050305 asian development bank, 2010. methodology for estimating carbon footprint of road projectscase study: india. mandaluyong, philippines, 978-92-9092-028-1. yousif and zakaria construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022117 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/527/1/012058 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/527/1/012058 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/615/1/012128 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijgi10050305 berengueres, j., 2020. case studies of data visualization in agile policy making. college of it, uae university. bilal, m., oyedele, l.o., qadir, j., munir, k., ajayi, s.o., akinade, o.o., owolabi, h.a., alaka, h.a. and pasha, m., 2016. big data in the construction industry: a review of present status, opportunities, and future trends. advanced engineering informatics, 30(3), pp.500-21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2016.07.001 burger, r., 2019. how the construction industry is using big data. thebalance. chen, j., zhao, f., liu, z., ou, x. and hao, h., 2017. greenhouse gas emissions from road construction in china: a province-level analysis. journal of cleaner production, 168, pp.1039-47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.08.243 chong, d. and wang, y., 2017. impacts of flexible pavement design and management decisions on life cycle energy consumption and carbon footprint. the international journal of life cycle assessment, 22(6), pp.952-71. https://doi. org/10.1007/s11367-016-1202-x cidb, c.i.d.b., 2016. malaysian carbon reduction and environmental sustainability tool durham, s.a., ashuri, b. and shannon, l., 2018. development of implementation plan for gdot e-construction program. office of performance-based management & research, department of transportation, georgia, usa: federal highway administration. ekambaram, a., sørensen, a., bull-berg, h. and olsson, n.o., 2018. the role of big data and knowledge management in improving projects and project-based organizations. procedia computer science, 138, pp.851-58. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.procs.2018.10.111 elhendawi, a., omar, h., elbeltagi, e. and smith, a., 2019. practical approach for paving the way to motivate bim non-users to adopt bim. international journal of bim and engineering science, 2(2), pp.1-22. https://doi.org/10.54216/ ijbes.020201 fmlink, 2012. a comparison of the world's various green rating systems. facility management news & resources from the mcmorrow report. foote, k.d., 2019. big data integration, the fundamentals of data integration. gara, j.a., zakaria, r.b., aminudin, e., adzar, j.a. and yousif, o.s., 2021. the development of real-time integrated dashboard: an overview for road construction work progress monitoring. journal of hunan university natural sciences, 48(5), pp.127-37. guo, y., zhang, y., lyu, t., prosperi, m., wang, f., xu, h. and bian, j., 2021. the application of artificial intelligence and data integration in covid-19 studies: a scoping review. journal of the american medical informatics association, 28(9), pp.2050-67. https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocab098 hulail, z.a., ayob, a. and omar, w.m.s.b.w., 2016. carbon footprint of road pavement rehabilitation: case study in sungai petani, kedah. international journal of applied environmental sciences, 11(5), pp.1285-302. ibm, 2020. data integration. ismail, s.a., bandi, s. and maaz, z.n., 2018. an appraisal into the potential application of big data in the construction industry. international journal of built environment and sustainability, 5(2), pp.145-54. https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes. v5.n2.274 kar, s.s., behl, a., shukla, a. and jain, p., 2015. estimation of carbon footprints of bituminous road construction process. journal of civil & environmental engineering, 5(6), p.1000198. karanam, s.d., kamath, r.s., kulkarni, r.v.r. and pai, b.h.s.k., 2021. big data integration solutions in organizations: a domain-specific analysis. in: s.k. balan ed. data integrity and quality. london: intechopen. pp.1152. yousif and zakaria construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022118 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2016.07.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.08.243 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-016-1202-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-016-1202-x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2018.10.111 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2018.10.111 https://doi.org/10.54216/ijbes.020201 https://doi.org/10.54216/ijbes.020201 https://doi.org/10.1093/jamia/ocab098 https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v5.n2.274 https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v5.n2.274 li, z.-z., li, r.y.m., malik, m.y., murshed, m., khan, z. and umar, m., 2021. determinants of carbon emission in china: how good is green investment? sustainable production and consumption, 27, pp.392-401. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.spc.2020.11.008 lytras, m.d., visvizi, a., chopdar, p.k., sarirete, a. and alhalabi, w., 2021. information management in smart cities: turning end users’ views into multi-item scale development, validation, and policy-making recommendations. international journal of information management, 56, p.102146. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102146 mahidin, m.u., 2016. big data for measuring and achieving the 2030 agenda for sustainable development goals in malaysia/dr. mohd uzir mahidin. in: national conference on population and sustainable development goals. dewan perdana nur, kpwkm, malaysia, 20 july 2016: national population and family development board. mha, 2014. lauching of malaysia green highway index manual. malaysia highway authority. mha, 2016. tolled highways operating in malaysia with and total length malaysia highway authority. mohamed, a., yusof, z.m., mohamed, s.f., misnan, m.s. and islam, r., 2017. a framework and evaluation technique for project’s viability of privatization highway projects in malaysia. international journal of engineering and technology, 9(6). https://doi.org/10.21817/ijet/2017/v9i6/170906027 pastore y piontti, a., perra, n., rossi, l., samay, n. and vespignani, a., 2019. data, data, and more data. in: a. pastore y piontti et al. eds. charting the next pandemic: modeling infectious disease spreading in the data science age. cham: springer international publishing. pp.11-28. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93290-3_2 peiffer, e., 2016. 3 concepts that will shape the future of construction. portela, f., lima, l. and santos, m.f., 2016. why big data? towards a project assessment framework. procedia computer science, 98, pp.604-09. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2016.09.094 prabowo, f.h.e., rustendi, e. and nurbaiti, a., 2020. the selection of public transportation modes in industrial era 4.0. jurnal manajemen, 12(1), pp.49-55. ramlia, m.r., noorb, z.z., aminudina, e., hainina, m.r., zakariaa, r., zina, r.m., majida, m.z.a., yousif, o.s., wahida, c.m.f.h.c. and neardeya, m., 2019. carbon footprint assessment at rest and service area of malaysia highway. chemical engineering, 72. rehman, a., ma, h., ahmad, m., irfan, m., traore, o. and chandio, a.a., 2021. towards environmental sustainability: devolving the influence of carbon dioxide emission to population growth, climate change, forestry, livestock and crops production in pakistan. ecological indicators, 125, p.107460. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.107460 ren, r., hu, w., dong, j., sun, b., chen, y. and chen, z., 2020. a systematic literature review of green and sustainable logistics: bibliometric analysis, research trend and knowledge taxonomy. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010261 richnák, p. and gubová, k., 2021. green and reverse logistics in conditions of sustainable development in enterprises in slovakia. sustainability, 13(2). https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020581 seng, f.k., 2018. development of a computer based green highway energy efficiency index assessment for malaysia. phd thesis, civil engineeirng, universiti teknologi malaysia. sharma, s., kumar, n. and kaswan, k.s., 2021. big data reliability: a critical review. journal of intelligent & fuzzy systems, 40, pp.5501-16. https://doi.org/10.3233/jifs-202503 sjarov, m. and franke, j., 2022, dresden, germany, 28 september 1 october 2021: springer, cham. subramaniam, c., ismail, s. and mohd rani, w.n.m.w., 2021. project communications management in malaysian construction industry. project management practices: the malaysian insights and trends, pp.34-47. yousif and zakaria construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022119 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2020.11.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2020.11.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2020.102146 https://doi.org/10.21817/ijet/2017/v9i6/170906027 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-93290-3_2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2016.09.094 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2021.107460 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17010261 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020581 https://doi.org/10.3233/jifs-202503 valls-val, k. and bovea, m.d., 2021. carbon footprint in higher education institutions: a literature review and prospects for future research. clean technologies and environmental policy, 23(9), pp.2523-42. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10098-021-02180-2 vetova, s., 2021. big heterogeneous data integration and analysis. in: thermophysical basis of energy technologies (tbet 2020). tomsk, russia, 28–30 october 2020: aip publishing. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0043627 wahid, c.m.f.h., aminudin, e., abd majid, m.z., hainin, m.r., mohd satar, m.k.i., mohd warid, m.n., zakaria, r., ramli, m.r., zin, r.m., noor, z.z., mazlan, a.n., yousif, o.s., neardey, m., jais, a.m., abdullah, r., mohd yazid, y.s. and ahmad, n.f., 2019. carbon footprints calculator of highway pavement rehabilitation: the quantification of carbon emissions per unit activity. in: 10th malaysian road conference & exhibition. selangor, malaysia, 29 31 october: iop publishing. wang, d.-f., dong, q.-l., peng, z.-m., khan, s.a. and tarasov, a., 2018. the green logistics impact on international trade: evidence from developed and developing countries. sustainability, 10(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072235 wang, q. and kim, m.-k., 2019. applications of 3d point cloud data in the construction industry: a fifteen-year review from 2004 to 2018. advanced engineering informatics, 39, pp.306-19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2019.02.007 woldesenbet, a., jeong, h.d. and park, h., 2016. framework for integrating and assessing highway infrastructure data. journal of management in engineering, 32(1), p.4015028. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000389 yasaka, n., 2020. global knowledge management of suspicious transaction reporting system in japan. journal of money laundering control, 23(1), pp.55 63. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmlc-04-2019-0032 yousif, o.s., majid, m.z.a., aminudin, e., zakaria, r., wahid, c.m.f.h.c., neardey, m. and ramli, m.r., 2018. energy and economic benefits of led adoption in malaysia highway lighting system. in: 4th international conference on low carbon asia. johor, malaysia: iclca. yousif, o.s. and zakaria, r., 2022a. (in press) web-based dashboard of data integration for green highway performance management. journal of engineering research (accepted for publication march 2022). https://doi.org/10.36909/jer.15477 yousif, o.s. and zakaria, r., 2022b. web-based big data integration visualization solutions. in: m.f.m. din et al. eds. sustainability management strategies and impact in developing countries. bingley: emerald publishing limited. pp.103-17. https://doi.org/10.1108/s2040-726220220000026009 yousif, o.s., zakaria, r., aminudin, e., shamsudin, s.m., abdul rahman, m.f., gara, j. and ahmad, n.f., 2022a. (in press) integration method for web based visualization framework of green highway index and carbon footprint calculator. in: 5th international conference on research methodology for built environment and engineering (icrmbee 2021). shah alam, malaysia, 10 november 2021: iop conf. ser.: earth environ. sci., iop publishing (accepted for publication november 2021). yousif, o.s., zakaria, r.b., aminudin, e., yahya, k., mohd sam, a.r., singaram, l., munikanan, v., yahya, m.a., wahi, n. and shamsuddin, s.m., 2021. review of big data integration in construction industry digitalization. frontiers in built environment, 7(159). https://doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2021.770496 yousif, o.s., zakaria, r.b., wahi, n., aminudin, e., abdul tharim, a.h., gara, j.a., umran, n.i.l., khalid, r.m. and ismail, n., 2022b. monitoring the construction industry towards a construction revolution 4.0. international journal of sustainable development and planning, 17(2), pp.633-41. https://doi.org/10.18280/ijsdp.170228 zakaria, r., majid, m., zin, r., hainin, m., puan, o. and yaacob, h., 2012. identification of energy efficiency criteria for malaysia green highway. in: proceedings of the 8th asia pacific structural engineering & construction conference & 1st international conference of civil engineering research. surabaya indonesia, 2 4 october 2012: faculty of civil engineering, universiti teknologi malaysia. yousif and zakaria construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022120 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-021-02180-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-021-02180-2 https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0043627 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072235 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2019.02.007 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000389 https://doi.org/10.1108/jmlc-04-2019-0032 https://doi.org/10.36909/jer.15477 https://doi.org/10.1108/s2040-726220220000026009 https://doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2021.770496 https://doi.org/10.18280/ijsdp.170228 construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: almunifi, a. a., and almutairi, s. 2021. lessons learned framework for efficient delivery of construction projects in saudi arabia. construction economics and building, 21:4, 115–141. http://dx.doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7858 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article lessons learned framework for efficient delivery of construction projects in saudi arabia abdullatif a. almunifi1,2,* and saud almutairi1 1 dept. of civil engineering, college of engineering-unaizah, qassim university, ksa 2 dept. of civil engineering, faculty of engineering, sana’a university, yemen corresponding author: abdullatif a. almunifi, dept. of civil engineering, college of engineering-unaizah, qassim university, ksa, a.almunifi@qu.edu.sa doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7858 article history: received: 13/08/2021; revised: 29/10/2021 & 03/12/2021; accepted: 04/12/2021; published: 20/12/2021 abstract the kingdom of saudi arabia (ksa) has the largest construction market in the gulf region. nevertheless, the sector faces issues related to inefficiency and ineffectiveness in project delivery. this research aims to explore the impact of current practices across projects lifecycles, and to utilize findings to develop an integrated strategic construction project management framework (iscpmf) that may pave the way to efficient and effective project implementation. to achieve this objective, the authors have traced the implementation processes of nine projects for data collection. this was based on a deductive approach with preconceived themes. within-case and cross-case analysis was conducted. the data was complemented by holding three separate focus-group discussions with a total of nineteen participants, and the initial findings were cross-checked with six experts. the deficiencies that surround the pre-construction phase and disconnected activities that are carried out in different timespans represent the first barrier to implement projects successfully. this is coupled with low capacities contractors and non-proactive construction teams that lack a management toolbox to alleviate accumulated issues and control project progress. the unavailability of infrastructure and utilities did not ease construction nor made inspection possible, which led to late occupancy of facilities, waste of resources and failure to deliver the desired benefits effectively. the adoption of iscpmf will institutionalize and bridge project phases. this may play a vital role in implementing projects efficiently and effectively and building data to benefit future projects. though the declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 115 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7858 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7858 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:a.almunifi@qu.edu.sa http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7858 research is limited to higher education facilities, the findings may be generalized to public construction projects. keywords saudi construction sector; inefficient and ineffective processes; strategic management framework introduction the ksa has the largest construction market in the region with more than 33% of the total market share. according to fay, et al. (2019), saudi arabia is one of the ten countries in which 73% of the world’s construction and infrastructure investment exists. in line with the kingdom’s vision 2030, there is an ongoing trend towards modernization of construction through renovation and new construction to meet the development needs and population growth. while reports show that the ksa remains the most active construction market in the region, a significant number of projects are running years behind their original schedules and billions of dollars over budget. many projects were either suspended or halted by ministries. as this research will focus mainly on the status of education projects, recent reports from the ministry of education (moe) on pre-university education projects show that in mid-2020, the moe withdrew 355 projects (delayed or stalled). similarly, in 2019, the moe withdrew 305 projects, cancelled 266 contracts, and in 2021 dealt with 452 stalled projects (moe, 2021). a strong case to show the inefficiency and ineffectiveness in project implementation is the sar 2.0 billion contract. signed in july 2009 with a foreign construction company, the contact was to construct 200 schools within 14 months, to accommodate 150 thousand students (tatweer building company, 2020). after ten years had elapsed, i.e., in 2019, the moe decided to cancel the contract and to withdraw the uncompleted projects. the situation in post-secondary education projects is much more complicated due to the size and systems involved in constructing universities and technical institutes. for years, the ksa government authorities have been complaining about delayed, incomplete, and halted projects. nonetheless these projects exist and operate in environments that may have been influenced by them. the organizational culture, structure, governance, employee capability, along with the organizational process assets, influence the management of the projects (pmi, 2017). successful projects begin with the owner as highlighted by asce (2013). the saudi construction sector faces chronic challenges, some of which are the regulatory framework, delays in payments, low capacities of contractors, unskilled labor force, traditional construction methods, reliance on old equipment, and limited access to new construction technology (us-sabc, 2018). the proliferation of construction projects post-2000 according to mitra and wee kwan tan (2012) has seen an explosion in non-standard, ad hoc methods and tools being used in construction. they found that there is an acute shortage of experienced and quality project manpower and contractors in the ksa construction industry. the outbreak of the coronavirus in 2020 has shown how fragile the construction contractor companies are. a recent survey of 600 saudi contractors by the saudi contractors authority (2020) revealed that the largest percentage of companies declaring bankruptcy are construction companies. it is predicted that after the pandemic, contractors will face unstable demand with a different mix of buildings and new building techniques that require technology adoption. digital transformation is a reality, even while many of the contractors still use traditional paper-based processes. the fact of the matter is that the constrained capacity the sector suffered from has resulted in difficulties in implementing projects efficiently and effectively. while a number of researchers have identified and have listed major sources of project overruns and defined the burden of each key player (alzara, et al., 2018, mahmid, 2013, gopang, et al., 2020, simushi, 2017) the root causes of the problem have not been diagnosed. these causes are the organizational setup, the old-fashioned regulations, and pre-construction almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021116 procedures that yield issues for project implementation throughout the project’s lifecycle. these problems, along with the absence of a strategic project management framework, create barriers to alleviating issues in a timely manner. efficiency and effectiveness in construction projects both efficiency and effectiveness are an integral part of successful management. project management literature agreed on the definition of efficiency and effectiveness. zwikael, et al. (2014), yamin and sim, (2016) and zidane and olsson (2017) define construction project efficiency as the extent to which the project is meeting both time and budget expectations. in comparison, effectiveness is the degree to which project specifications and beneficiary requirements are satisfied. the well-known and most cited criteria in literature to judge a project success (on time, to budget, to specification) were the highest ranked success criteria identified through the survey carried out by white and fortune (2002). however, the fit between the project and organization as well the influence of the project on the business performance were also reported as important criteria, i.e., the need to meet organizational objectives and to minimize business disruption. many organizations enter into projects without fully understanding how they should be managed, and the techniques required to ensure a project delivers according to expectations, (pinto, 2010). love, et al. (2009) suggested that there could be some inefficiency in project organization that promotes the occurrence of overruns rather than inhibits them, such as the actions of the project team members in the project organization (love, ahiaga-dagbui and irani, 2016). reviewing previous studies on delays in completing projects in the ksa and their ensuing consequences, almutairi and almunifi (2020) concluded that most of these studies somehow linked delays to management inefficiency which results in an unsatisfactory final product that fails to deliver its intended purpose. this is confirmed by turner and zolin (2012) who stated that projects have been completed on time and at cost (efficient) but have left their investors dissatisfied because they have failed to deliver the desired benefits (ineffective). the saudi construction sector faces issues related to inefficient and ineffective implementation of projects that undoubtedly results in waste of resources and damage to the image of the country’s investment environment. as will be discussed hereafter, while sources of project overruns and key players have been identified by researchers, the root causes of the problem have not been diagnosed. the big picture has not yet been introduced to researchers and practitioners. this research is an attempt to formulate a good understanding of the culture dominating the construction sector in the ksa. this will be elaborated on through exploring current practices across projects lifecycle, from initiation to facility operation and evaluation. real data from case studies that are in different states of implementation (bidding, ongoing, completed and in operation, completed but not operational) will be utilized. projects may have been completed on time and within budget (efficient) but failed to deliver the desired benefits (ineffective). this is another dimension of this study that has not been tackled by previous researchers. the findings are utilized to develop an integrated strategic construction project management framework (iscpmf) that may pave the way to efficient and effective project implementation. the findings and recommendations might fill the research gap and be of added value. research questions to address and tackle the chronic issues that adversely impact the performance of construction projects in the ksa, we pose the following questions. why and how do construction projects perform poorly throughout project phases from initiation to handover and operation? how does poor performance lead to inefficient and ineffective project implementation? how would the existence of an iscpmf ensure that a project meets its time schedule, is completed within the allocated funds, and according to specifications and almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021117 professional standards, and most crucially, how the framework would ensure that the project output achieves the functionality objectives over different timescales, as appreciated by stakeholders, especially end users. research objective the large investment in the ksa construction sector has not been accompanied by reforming project governance to create an enabling environment including regulations as well as capacity building. based on the previously stated questions, the current research aims to study issues in-depth to determine the sources of poor performance, and then use the findings to propose an iscpmf that may lead to efficient and effective implementation of construction projects. the sections of the research are structured as follows. a brief introduction on the current state of the saudi construction industry, and the definition of efficiency and effectiveness in construction project management literature. the literature review covers the main principals and definitions of projects governance and its pertinence in the ksa, as the organizational culture has a major impact on the construction industry’s efficiency. the relationship between project management methodologies and project success is addressed, as well. the main elements of the research methodology are outlined. an in-depth look at raw data from nine case studies, and systematic analysis through the different project phases is carried out. this is followed by an explanation of the acquired research results that is cross-referenced with focus-group discussions and structured interviews. the findings from the mixed method approach are triangulated to enhance and discuss results, and to build conclusions and recommendations. in light of new driving forces and rapid changes in the country, particularly in the management of the construction industry, this study will be of high value and importance to decision makers in the country, as well as to practitioners and academics. literature review projects governance the ksa government has introduced several initiatives to improve project governance. recently, the government passed a law to set up a network of program management offices (pmos) with the aim to oversee public sector projects. it is an attempt to find an efficient and standardized approach to project management. however, from the authors’ observations and communication with earlier established pmos, there are limited opportunities of success unless there is a parallel reform to the organizational culture. organizational culture is acknowledged to have a major impact on the construction industry’s efficiency. teräväinen, junnonen and ali-löytty (2018) investigated the presumptive correlation between construction project culture and efficiency in the finnish construction industry. they found that projects with the highest performance and customer satisfaction levels seemed to identify their project culture as stronger than low level performing projects. based on a face-to-face questionnaire survey on project governance among chinese project management professionals, li, akintoye and holt (2017) concluded that without effective organizational governance and management systems support, project governance and management cannot operate effectively. systemic project failure is a failure of organizational governance (too and weaver, 2014). ward (2018) emphasized that project management is a multidisciplinary process that creates complex relationships and a matrix organizational structure to achieve a satisfactory end result. projects lacking effective senior management support cannot deliver the expected business benefits to an organization. the support from senior management, according to white and fortune (2002), is one of the most frequently mentioned critical factors for successful project management. almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021118 contributors to poor project delivery the pmi (2017) informs that poorly managed projects may result in missed deadlines, cost overruns, poor quality, and rework. in spite of continuous growth of literature in the knowledge management processes, tools and techniques, researchers and professionals indicate that projects completion in a timely manner within the allocated budget and according to the contracted terms and specifications have not significantly improved. the vast majority of research on time and cost overruns in the ksa construction sector have adopted a systematic approach of categorizing and dispersing responsibilities of the overrun occurrences among the main players. reviewing existing literature in africa, asia and the middle east, simushi (2017) found that time and cost overruns in the middle east were viewed to be mostly caused by the client through design changes, late payments to the contractor, and delays in decision making. the top five main delay factors as identified by gopang, imran and nagapan (2020) in their attempt to assess delay factors in saudi arabia metro construction projects, are “client's decision-making process, design errors, labour skills level, design changes by client or consultant and issues related to permissions/ approvals from other stakeholders”. mahamid (2013), in his aim to investigate the contributors to delays from owners’ viewpoint, identified other top contributors to schedule delays, namely: poor site management, poor communication and coordination between construction parties, payments delay, poor labour productivity and rework. contracting with the lowest bidder was also found to be one of the top contributors to schedule delays in public construction projects in saudi arabia. alzara, et al. (2018) analysed cost overruns in the construction of a higher education institute in saudi arabia and found that bids submitted by construction companies who eventually succeeded in getting the contract, were much lower than the market project costs. this was remediated through variation and change orders that led to cost overruns. despite the fact that several studies have examined the factors influencing delays in public construction projects in saudi arabia, alotaibi, sutrisna and chong (2016) found in their review paper that little attention has been paid to how project management tools and methods have made an impact to the incidence of project delays. although authors identified major sources of project delays and assigned delay factors to key players, nonetheless, they have not approached the role of professional management teams in alleviating them as stated by almutairi and almunifi (2020). professional management-related factors such as poor planning and scheduling, poor site management and poor resource management were found by mahamid (2016) to be a severe source that contributes to poor performance of construction projects in saudi arabia. this is supported by assaf, hassanain and mughal (2014) who have undertaken an empirical assessment of the linkages between team effectiveness and project success in the saudi construction industry, where results showed a positive and high correlation between team effectiveness and project success. beyond the overruns issue, there were a number of projects completed nearly on time and within the budget, but the organizational development objectives had not been achieved. clients were also not satisfied, especially in higher education facilities, where operational requirements are high. it is a research gap that begs the question; is meeting time, budget and scope an ideal measure of project success? williams (2016) illustrated the increasingly recognized nature of project success as being multi-dimensional, with different criteria, only some clearly measurable. though the three criteria used for judging project success were also the highest ranked success criteria identified through the survey carried out by white and fortune (2002), the fit between the project and the organization and the consequences of the project for the performance of the business were also reported as important criteria, i.e., the need to meet organizational objectives and to minimize business disruption. drawing from empirical data on project management professionals working in uae project-based organizations, mir and pinnington (2013) demonstrated that project management performance is correlated to project success within organizations, and by paying greater attention to this almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021119 relationship, organizations can increase their rate of project success. pirotti, et al. (2020) found a significant positive relationship between top management, project mission, personnel, communication, and project success. thinking about how well the final product (the facility) will be operated is not a concern in some organizations, where senior management considers the issues of delay in completing projects and the incurred cost overruns as the most recurring problems, until the end-user, starts suffering from the low standards of project execution. this is another dimension of the current study that has not been discussed in-depth in previous researches. turner and zolin (2012) state that project efficiency is an important contributor to stakeholder satisfaction and overall project success and concluded that the iron triangle is an indicator of project performance but not the best measure of project success. serrador and turner (2015) investigated to what extent project efficiency is correlated with stakeholder satisfaction and overall project success. they found that project efficiency is 60% correlated with stakeholder satisfaction and 56% with overall project success. to contribute to improving clients’ satisfaction in construction projects in saudi arabia, alshihre, et al. (2020) identified prominent factors that impact clients’ satisfaction: effective financial management, use of skilled workers, use of advanced technology, customer relation, and time management. effective team leadership, project monitoring, communication and adequate knowledge and skills contribute to clients’ satisfaction. bubshait, siddiqui and al-buali (2014) revealed that communication and coordination are key factors in successful project management. based on their findings on project critical success factors, mathar, et al. (2020) recommend that stakeholders should have accurate and clear channels of communication, in order to avoid any possibility of misunderstanding, mistakes, and consequently loss of time and money. building on the previous efforts of researchers in the subject area, we concluded that there is a need to study in-depth the culture dominating the construction project implementation in the ksa, to be able to address the chronic issues that adversely impact project performance and lead to inefficient and ineffective project delivery. research methodology research design the type of research questions determined the appropriate research method which is the qualitative approach. consequently, the design of the current research benefitted from concepts developed on the qualitative research, which according to denzin and lincoln (2018) involves a set of interpretive material. first, nine case studies were conducted to collect facts and knowledge about operational processes over time which led to cost and time overruns, as explained by yin (2018). following that, focus group discussions and interview techniques with projects managers and practitioners were adopted to gain a deeper understanding. triangulation adds depth to the data that is collected. denzin (2012) sees triangulation as a strategy on the road to a deeper understanding of an issue under study, and it is focused on combining various qualitative approaches where the issue under study makes it necessary, as emphasized by flick (2018). triangulation, as suggested by love, ahiaga-dagbui and irani (2002) is an appropriate research approach if construction management researchers are to effectively solve the problems that the industry faces, and to adopt a robust research methodology to better understand the phenomena that influence organizational and project performance in construction. in this context, the researchers present the findings from the mixed research methods; a comprehensive systematic literature review, sites visit, case study research, focus group discussions, meetings and interviews, through triangulation approach, as illustrated in figure 1. almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021120 figure 1. the research methodology framework data collection from case studies selection of case studies development and maintenance of infrastructure is one of the strategic objectives of a large public educational institute. to achieve this objective, a portfolio that includes a number of programs and projects is underway including construction of college buildings. an exploratory survey on ongoing projects was carried out to collect basic data and to establish criteria for case studies selection. therefore, out of twelve case studies of construction projects, nine were selected based on the current status of the projects (bidding, ongoing, completed and in operation, completed but not operational), and proximity for regular visits. each case study also gives additional information and at the same time different dimensions to the efficiency and effectiveness issue, the research subject matter. almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021121 within-case analysis and findings an extensive and thorough review of relevant contractual documents and a good number of unpublished reports and communications was carried out. the case studies that had been monitored by the researchers for two years are peculiar in terms of size, project implementation phase, and issues. some were near completion and investigated during inspection, commissioning, operation, and maintenance. others have already been handed over, but not operated. others completed but need investment and rework to accommodate new purpose for use. table 1 presents within-case analysis and findings. cross-case analysis and findings many similarities were observed throughout the in-depth study and analysis of case studies, as listed in table 1. issues such as change to construction sites, change in scope, design alteration, deficiencies in design documents, errors in boqs, inexperienced contactor, lack of infrastructure and utilities to occupy and operate the building, and change in the purpose that it is built for, are cross-cutting. the researchers found that there was a need to enhance and complement findings through focus-group discussions and structured interviews with experts. a set of research axes were developed. the themes for focus-group discussions were developed based on best practices and standardized construction management processes, as well as the identified main phases that public construction projects go through in the ksa. the headlines and contents of axes reflect subproject phases, as illustrated in fig. 2, under which questions on issues that projects faced across their life cycle were outlined for focus-group discussions. these include the project alignment with the strategic and implementation plan of the organization; procedures for contracting an engineering design firm; how they work with clients through stages of preparing tender documents and invitations to bid; the contracting and preparation for project execution; handing-over, commissioning and building occupancy. profiles of participants in focus-group discussions three sessions of focus-group discussions took place at projects sites of the most problematic and available cases. the profiles of participants in focus-group discussions are shown in table 2. for completed projects that are currently in operation, deanship, teaching staff, administrators and contractor’s site engineer were met with as part of the discussions. for ongoing projects where changes occurred, the formal project manager, current project manager, and current contractor engineers were useful sources of data. the discussions with those professionals gave the researchers a clear view on issues projects faced across the life cycle, and to what extent there exists a clear mandate for implementing management processes, and the causes of the inefficient and ineffective project implementation from the different parties’ viewpoints. as a matter of fact, it was concluded that the under-consideration construction projects faced problems from their initiation until present time. having in hand the data from case studies and focus group discussions as well as the results of the analysis, the researchers shared initial findings with experts that were purposely selected and individually met with. they are the most experienced and were part of the focus group discussions acting as heads of teams from their organizations, as illustrated in table 3. the findings were enhanced by their valuable input. promoting ethical and participatory research to best protect the interest of participants and avoid any social and ethical implications that may result from the participants’ engagement in this research, the researchers made pre-arranged official visits to the projects directorate and sites to meet participants and hold focus-group meetings. the researchers identified themselves and the purposes of research. it has been a policy to repeat in all meetings that information gathered will be used for research purposes only confirming ethical issues, anonymity and confidentiality. almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021122 table 1. within-case analysis and findings case study description d at e of c on tr ac t si gn in g c on tr ac t d ur at io n in d ay s d at e to b e co m pl et ed p ro gr es s in % a s of m id -2 01 9 p ro gr es s in % a s of d ec . 2 02 0 within-case analysis a three-story reinforced concrete building with annexes to accommodate 3850 students and 180 staff. the contact value is sar130.0 million may 2012 1260 dec. 2015 66 57.7* it reflects the non-involvement of the beneficiary in the preconstruction phase. the beneficiary decided to change construction site, at the time where site handing over is to take place, to another plot of land outside the campus master plan with different topography that varies from the one designs were tailored for. the beneficiary also requested some alteration to the design documents at the time the contract with the engineering design firm came to end years before. the contractor had to carry out the required alterations to the design documents. the cost of these changes in the structural works amounts to more than 20% of the total cost of structural components. these enormous changes and other issues have also caused delays. the project should be completed almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021123 case study description d at e of c on tr ac t si gn in g c on tr ac t d ur at io n in d ay s d at e to b e co m pl et ed p ro gr es s in % a s of m id -2 01 9 p ro gr es s in % a s of d ec . 2 02 0 within-case analysis and handed over to the owner by the end of 2015. today after exceeding another extra time period of 42 months the project is still not completed and the percentage of progress as of end of 2020 is only 60%. additionally, there is a lack of infrastructure for building occupancy after completion. this is also a case to show the waste of investment. once the project completed and closed out, the plan is to use the facility not for the purpose for which it is built. a cluster of three-story reinforced concrete buildings to accommodate 1200 students. the contract value is sar15.5 million jun. 2014 408 july 2015 75 81 in spite of the project being just lecture halls without any complicated systems, the very low technical and financial capacity of the contractor coupled with project poor management resulted in tremendous delays. again, it will time to equip the project area with infrastructure and utilities for building occupancy after completion. table 1. continued almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021124 case study description d at e of c on tr ac t si gn in g c on tr ac t d ur at io n in d ay s d at e to b e co m pl et ed p ro gr es s in % a s of m id -2 01 9 p ro gr es s in % a s of d ec . 2 02 0 within-case analysis a three-story reinforced concrete building to accommodate 3600 male students of arts & sciences. the contract value is sar122.2 million. may 2010 900 dec. 2012 prelim. hand over plan for final hand over this project should be completed and handed over to the owner by the end of 2014. since the preliminary handover in 2018, the facility was not occupied due to the lack of infrastructure and utilities. the owner decided to change the facility users which required more spaces as well as alterations in many aspects including the use of labs rooms as lecture halls, building boundary walls, and adding an annex building to serve as labs. the facility is in use since beginning of 2020 a three-story facility to accommodate vocational training students. the contract value is sar111 million. feb. 2010 900 sep. 2012 prelim. hand over plan for final hand over the use of the facility has been changed completely. the investment to establish a vocational college went astray. the facility spaces, labs and workshops transformed to lecture halls. alterations had been carried out to serve higher education humanities programs table 1. continued almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021125 case study description d at e of c on tr ac t si gn in g c on tr ac t d ur at io n in d ay s d at e to b e co m pl et ed p ro gr es s in % a s of m id -2 01 9 p ro gr es s in % a s of d ec . 2 02 0 within-case analysis a cluster of two-story reinforced concrete buildings to accommodate 1200 students. the contract value is sr14.2 million apr. 2014 289 feb. 2015 62 71 in spite of the project being just lecture halls without any complicated systems, the very low technical and financial capacity of the contractor coupled with project poor management resulted in tremendous delays. again, it will time to equip the project area with infrastructure and utilities for building occupancy after completion. this facility was originally eight singlestory reinforced concrete units for the amount of sr13.0million april 2013 420 june 2014 handed over in 2018. it is in use with ongoing corrective measures & maintenance in use a facility that originally designed to be composed of eight one-story reinforced concrete units. at the time of the site handover to contractor, it was found that the available plot of land is inadequate to accommodate the eight units. consequently, the owner suspended the project for 6 months to change the type of structures and construction materials for some units from concrete table 1. continued almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021126 case study description d at e of c on tr ac t si gn in g c on tr ac t d ur at io n in d ay s d at e to b e co m pl et ed p ro gr es s in % a s of m id -2 01 9 p ro gr es s in % a s of d ec . 2 02 0 within-case analysis to steel. unqualified contractor particularly to the new type of structure and poor supervision resulted in a poorquality work and substantial delays in project completion. the final product can barely carry out its intended purpose. many operational issues appeared, and it took about 20 months to remedy while the facility is in operation. these changes among other notable risks that adversely affected the project, such as, delays at the beginning of the project, owner tardiness in decision making, and scope changes, resulted in a substantial delay in the completion date of the project that exceeded three years. moreover, the final product can merely perform for the purpose that built for. table 1. continued almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021127 case study description d at e of c on tr ac t si gn in g c on tr ac t d ur at io n in d ay s d at e to b e co m pl et ed p ro gr es s in % a s of m id -2 01 9 p ro gr es s in % a s of d ec . 2 02 0 within-case analysis residential villas for the academic staff for the amount of sr323.5 million. sep. 2009 1080 sep. 2012 plan for final hand over plan for final hand over the contract for constructing accommodation for the academic staff signed in 2009. since the preliminary handover mid-2015, the campus not in use until date, and may need at the present costly maintenance. 2. lack of infrastructure and utilities to occupy the building. networks services, such as electricity, water, waste drainage systems are lacking. it is a wasted investment as of mid-2021 the facility still not yet in use. conferences and multipleuse buildings for an amount of about sr200.0 million. dec. 2012 1080 dec. 2015 60 71 it is intended to be a multiple use facility and consequently a good time invested in design to bring the final product up to at least local standards. the construction site handed over to contractor in december 2012 and expected to complete works by the end of 2015. because of shortage in financing the project, the works commenced only in three buildings instead of table 1. continued almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021128 case study description d at e of c on tr ac t si gn in g c on tr ac t d ur at io n in d ay s d at e to b e co m pl et ed p ro gr es s in % a s of m id -2 01 9 p ro gr es s in % a s of d ec . 2 02 0 within-case analysis five with changes in design. the inexperience contractor in similar construction, poor supervision and weak safety culture resulted in a major accident, the collapse of large under construction floor killing 10 people. the owner decided to withdraw the project in sep. 2018, where work progress did not exceed 41%. the second contactor in the list took over and progressing very slow. the project is still not completed and the progress as in 2020 is only 66%. new building to accommodate engineering students in the tender. process design documents were developed in 2014, the initial cost estimate at that time was sr100.00 million. in december 2018, after five years had elapsed, the invitation to bid was issued using the same tendering documents. as of mid-2021, bids evaluation and negotiation continues, and the contract not yet been awarded. *the % of progress went down due to a request for additional works, i.e., infrastructure. table 1. continued almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021129 table 2. profiles of participants in focus-group discussions organization role experience in years case 1 case 5 case 8 client project manager 15 10 12 former project manager 20 engineer 6 5 17 supervising consulting firm senior engineer 16 site engineer 8 5 contractor project manager 22 25 planning manager 15 site engineer 10 5 15 benficiery/end user department head 4 teaching staff 6 adminstrative staff 8 table 3. profiles of experts organization position experince in years client portfolio director 15 former project manager 20 supervising consulting firm senior engineer 16 contractor project manager 22 benficiery/end user vice-dean 6 teaching staff 8 analysis, findings and discussion the data collection process that was based on a deductive approach that implied pre-established and preconceived structured themes (fig.2), has simplified the integration of data for analysis, interpretation, and results presentation. the first step was to examine the data contents that were in the arabic language, then to retrieve and tabulate responses according to the pre-established themes. the researchers then translated the responses verbatim into english. the analytical technique which was followed is the deductive content analysis that is based on earlier identification of main issues throughout project implementation phases. triangulation of findings according to oesterreich and teuteberg (2016), triangulation offers to researchers the opportunity of viewing and analysing the research topic from different perspectives. as a result, the research questions can be better answered because researchers can put together the different findings from the various methods almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021130 and produce more consistent and convergent results. the benefits of using a mixed method research design (abowitz and toole, 2010) is that they are especially applicable to areas of construction research that align with the social sciences, and involve human actions in construction processes, such as leadership, innovation, and planning. this approach enabled researchers to triangulate the collected data to enhance results and findings. data from field visits, direct observation, contractual documents analysis, case studies, focus groups discussions and interviews have been used to formulate an understanding of the culture dominating the construction project implementation in the ksa. figure 2 serves as a reference point for this discussion. figure 2. phases and sub-phases of construction project life cycle pre-construction phase walking with participants through the observed issues in the case studies, and after cross-checking findings with experts, it was easy to grasp the sources of barriers and snags that show up throughout the projects lifecycle. most of these issues can be prevented during pre-construction according to autodesk (2020a) by having an integrated preconstruction strategy. project initiation the process of building sufficient data with which owners can address risk and make decisions to commit resources in order to maximize the potential for a successful project is not a practice. it is obvious that there are missing learning opportunities for ksa construction sector that can be gained through projects final review and evaluation, which would benefit similar future projects. this is supported by algahtany, alhammadi and kashiwagi (2016) who found that decision making is based on lack of information. project estimates are not based on accurate calculations but retrieved from outdated and limited similar projects data that misinform budget allocations. “the initial project cost estimate is not based on accurate calculations, and the annual allocation for ongoing projects is inaccurate” a statement that was agreed upon on in focus group discussions. it is in line with alsehaimi, et al. (2013), mahamid (2016) and almutairi and almunifi (2020) who confirm that poor planning and scheduling is one of the top severe factors contributing to inefficient implementation and to not achieving the project development goals. the research findings prove that there are a number of disconnected activities, and crystal-clear weaknesses in the pre-construction planning (pcp) or front-end planning defined by the construction industry institute (2012), as there is no pre-construction team to handle this phase. even the “project manager is appointed after contract awarding” as quoted by a pm. almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021131 one of the main findings is that there is a disconnect between projects’ phases and people. the construction phase is not integrated into the pre-construction phase. therefore, the final product could differ widely from what had been initially planned. the inefficient and ineffective project implementation is a result of traditional regulations as well as poor management practices; either those of the owner’s organization, the pre-construction team or the construction team, as referred to by gopang, imran and nagapan (2020), mitra and wee kwan tan (2012), simushi (2017), alofi, kashiwagi and kashiwagi (2016) and alzara, et al. (2018). the project manager as a focal point is appointed after the contract awarding. the construction team is unaware and not involved in pre-construction activities. the hand-off from preconstruction to the construction team is a critical aspect of the preconstruction process to ensure that the construction team knows where all of the critical construction challenges are (autodesk, 2020a). it is crucial to define the project scope (fageha and aibinu, 2014) at the earliest stage and involve all stakeholders, and in particular, the end-user. the cases 1 & 2 are exemplary cases for not involving endusers in project initiation and design. “they do not consult us”, a former college dean complained. this resulted in lack of ownership or exaggerations in showing ownership by imposing changes to designs and construction sites that were costly and exposed the projects to overruns from the very beginning, as can be read in the case studies, and in line with mitra and wee kwan tan (2012) and alshihre, et al. (2020). design documents preparation the weaknesses in engineering practices and standards that organize the profession is one of the major issues in the ksa construction industry. recruiting a design engineering firm that has no specific experience in the organization business has serious consequences, as it is one the most significant causes of deficiencies in design documents (assaf, hassanain and abdallah, 2018), such as producing identical designs for facilities that run completely different educational programs. “it is not stated clearly in the rfp that the edcf must have experience in designing educational facilities” as quoted by one pm. the lack of partnership with owners characterizes the design firms work. it was found that no conceptual design is presented, with few exceptions, to be discussed with the owner and beneficiary, and to get the necessary approvals. the same applies to architectural and structural designs. by all means, it is akin to having no partner from the owner side. there is a capacity issue in the project management directorates. however, there is also a belief that the design firm is the most knowledgeable and nobody can sound the alarm or comment on their work. under time-bounded contract, the designer works in one direction characterized by a disconnect between inter-relational design activities as illustrated below. it was also found that it is not a practice to have a peer design firm to review design documents and run value engineering, nor constructability analysis in the production of the design documents. this is in line with findings from assaf, hassanain and abdallah (2018) and love, ahiaga-dagbui and irani (2013). to protect professional liability, the designer should avoid any conflict between construction specifications and drawings and should work toward limiting the number of errors and omissions to produce accurate cost and time estimates. in traditionally procured projects as is the case of this research, drawings contain the highest number of errors, followed by the bill of quantities and specifications (dosumu, 2018). the owner relies completely on the design firm, and the lack of interest by approving authorities to carefully check the design is one of the top causes of discrepancies ( chaudary et al., 2017). almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021132 procurement: invitation to bid and contracting when a budget is allocated for a project, things then move very hastily without updating the tender technical documents that were developed years prior, as the main focus at this stage is to use the allocated funds. the time gap between producing design documents, bid invitation and construction, which is referred to by love, holt and li (2002) as “procurement gap”, is one of the reasons for design alterations and variation orders. this is valid in almost all case studies, and particularly in case 9. a supervision engineer expressed frustration: “the design documents of the project that i monitor were prepared 7 years ago and have not yet been contracted to start execution”. he added: “the project is just announced for tendering without any reviewing and updating design documents.” the traditional procurement method, design-bid-build, dominates and is extensively practiced in the ksa. this method lacks innovation and does not make use of new developments in design, materials, and construction approaches, and constitutes a potential cause of projects poor performance (simushi, 2017; alofi, kashiwagi and kashiwagi, 2016; alzara, et al., 2018). procurement is more important than the construction phase according to kabirifar and mojtahedi (2019). the lengthy procedures and deficiencies in tender documents along with payments delay are risks that are priced by bidders. data from case studies show that unit cost is higher in governmental projects than in non-governmental projects. this is in line with almunifi and alameri (2019) who found that contractors add up to 20% for the client’s procurement procedure, approvals and payment cycle. in the absence of the inadequate attention to the technical and financial capacities of the bidders, the data collected from the nine case studies show that the outcome of the evaluation process of bids was in favour of lowest price bid (alzara, et al., 2018). this was also the participants’ common concern. construction phase project management team the management team, the supervision consultant and the contractor constitute the construction team that is disconnected from the pre-construction work. while the team’s mandate is to ensure efficient project execution, enormous challenges stand before them from day one. the roots of the ensuing complications in the construction phase can be clearly seen. it was found that there are considerable delays in all projects. none of the case studies projects were completed or are expected to be completed according to the contracted time period. there is a capacity issue, lack of knowledge and leadership that would enable the pm to take on the role of managing all parties. this may result in high-level accidents as stated by wu, li and fang (2017) and demonstrated in case 8. the findings show that there is neither a setup and competitive process to appoint the management team nor a set of criteria to monitor the management team performance. having a formal management system for developing and updating kpis can impact team performance and project efficiency (mir and pinnington, 2013; arditi and alavipour, 2019). site delivery: the readiness of the construction site: it is common that construction sites are not delivered to contractors within the period specified in the contract documents. a pm stated: “the timeframe is two weeks, but usually it takes longer”. the noninvolvement of the beneficiary in the pre-construction phase worsens the situation. the findings show that either designs did not fit on the assigned construction site, or the beneficiary moved the project to a site that differed in topography and soil conditions. this results in alteration of project scope, design, type of structural system as well as construction materials. any alteration to design documents was carried out by the contractor as the design firm contract had already ended. these changes complicated the situation almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021133 and resulted in change orders and project overruns as supported by gopang, imran and nagapan (2020) and assaf, hassanain and abdallah (2018). it was found that the wasted time for handling such changes exceeded a year. mobilization plan and time schedule the findings show that there are no obligatory regulations to command contractors to submit site mobilization plans. “it is the contractor’s business to handle site” quoted a site manager. it is completely left up to the contractor to manage site mobilization and de-mobilization. some contractors used to develop suitable time schedules and update them frequently using planning software. they recruited skilled workers that contributed to timely project completion and led to owner satisfaction (alshihre, et al., 2020). on the other hand, others just utilized a very simple tool, gantt chart with bulk activities. nevertheless, project time schedule is not respected by key players. monitoring & controlling of project execution in the absence of an integrated project planning document that identifies and schedules all resources to be used for efficient implementation of a project, it is normal that such project will be uncontrollable. the poor projects performance at the construction stage relates closely to ksa construction sector issues, such as drawbacks of the construction firms in term of the inefficient use of construction technology, advanced building materials and equipment (sayyed, hatamleh and alaya, 2021) and management weaknesses in implementing the knowledge management processes, construction planning, risk management, monitoring and controlling of time, cost and scope (alotaibi, sutrisna and chong, 2016). the findings also show that project management teams do not lead, they just manage the work of contractors. the issues that have accumulated from the pre-construction phase coupled with lack of a timely response from the supervisor engineer to the contractor quarries and claims, certificate approval and disbursement, require a very proactive and decision-making management as also concluded by assaf, hassanain and mughal (2014). preliminary handover and building occupancy it is a crucial phase of the project in which project outsiders inspect if the product is truly what has been designed, and test if the facility works and delivers services that it has been built for. therefore, it is essential for the project team to have all documents, such as as-built drawings, certificates and reports of systems testing and commissioning, operation and maintenance manuals, health and safety manuals, well-preserved and easy to access by the handover committees, owner and operation teams. nonetheless, this phase is not given as much weight as other phases by most of the project stakeholders, which leads to information gaps between the project construction and post-occupancy phases (tan, zaman and sutrisna, 2018). the findings show that the issues that govern the project performance throughout the construction phase have their negative consequences on facility operation. these can be seen through defects and re-work required after handover in almost all completed facilities. the findings also show a wide variation between the final product and initial design that is very relevant to poor planning in the pre-construction phase. there is a waste of investment where facilities remain idle for years after handover due to either alteration requirements or lack of infrastructure and utilities suitable for building occupancy. final handover and closeout the especially important question that arises after the elapsed maintenance period (12 months) from the preliminary handover is: has the facility satisfied the user requirements? the closeout phase includes a variety of activities requiring careful attention not only from the operation team but also from the management and contractor team who are now busy with new projects. nonetheless and according almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021134 to demarco (2011) it is most often miscalculated. this phase involves a number of tasks and presents learning opportunities for the organization through the project final review and audit report that would benefit similar future projects. this is because it is an opportunity for post-occupancy evaluation, the implementation of which still faced barriers in the saudi construction industry (hassanain, et al., 2020). the future is built on data (autodesk, 2020b). therefore, planning for future construction projects will draw upon the massive amounts of data collected from previous projects. this is a missed opportunity as the findings confirm. as it can be read in table (1), many facilities are not operated on a timely manner; neither are lessons documented for future use. conclusions the first research question is, why construction projects perform poorly throughout project phases, and how does this lead to inefficient and ineffective project implementation? the research design, methodology and data collection, helped in answering the questions. assuming that a project goes through the major phases shown in the following diagram: 1. the pre-construction phase is not well-established in the ksa construction projects. few disconnected activities are carried out in different time spans. the deliverables of these activities may collect dust on a shelf somewhere for years until funds are allocated. even the last sub-phase of pre-construction, namely the contracting, may take years as clearly indicated in one of the case studies. the outdated designs, materials, specification, estimates, and even contractor quotations represent the first barrier in the road to implement projects efficiently and effectively. therefore, it can be concluded that there is a very foggy pre-construction phase, and projects start at the construction phase as illustrated hereunder. 2. the non-existence of a pre-construction team to hand-off to the newly formed construction team is a challenge to the management team and supervision consultant. what has been practiced until signing a construction contract seems irrelevant to the construction site. therefore, problems start immediately with site delivery to contractor, the unavailability of infrastructure and utilities, and in some cases the interventions of the beneficiary. the current practices do not challenge contractors to submit along with their offers proposed methods of construction, type of equipment, and personnel qualifications. mobilization plans, and in several cases, even time schedules were not provided and, it appears, were not a requirement. monitoring and controlling is very weak. there is a lack of management toolbox and pmts are not proactive enough. they react to problems instead of acting proactively to avoid these problems before they occur. the pmts must be challenged and encouraged, and at the same time should be held accountable. a set of kpis to measure the management performance would challenge project managers. projects that are completed on time are usually not because they were managed well, but as a result of the contractor’s technical and financial capability. those very few contractors do the best not to gain a bad reputation. at the end, most of the failed projects are assigned to those contractors. almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021135 3. the unavailability of utilities (electricity, water, and telecommunication networks) makes testing of systems impossible. a preliminary handover is based on superficial inspection and a report is issued with minor remarks. figure 3. an integrated strategic construction project management framework almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021136 4. most of the facilities have not been operational after the preliminary handover for a number of reasons. buildings stand idle for years as shown in table 1, either because no infrastructure and utilities exist, or the beneficiary is not satisfied and attempts to avoid the moving problems. the future usage of the facility may differ from the purpose for which it was built. then alterations start to adapt to the new requirements. in some cases, the facility failed to deliver the desired benefits effectively and additional investment is needed to treat deficiencies. the second research question is, how an in-place iscpmf would ensure efficient and effective project implementation. having in mind the current practices and overall challenges facing the saudi construction sector, the researchers propose an iscpmf (figure 3), which incorporates the findings of the present work as it benefited from best practices in the construction project management. the framework calls for institutionalization of projects phases by setting up for each sub-phase a matrix of objectives, deliverables, milestones activities and composition of responsible teams. it is expected that the sets of structured tasks that extend over the project lifecycle would ensure a well-established pre-construction team that will successfully accomplish activities in a timely manner from project identification to construction contract signing, and hand-off to the construction team. this will in turn ensure project execution and collaboration with beneficiaries for timely handover and facility occupation. the foggy pre-construction phase should be given great attention to overcome issues listed earlier. five project sub-phases are named, and each one has an objective and an output that should be produced by a pre-construction team in a timely manner and endorsed by the organization. this will ensure a smooth and successful transfer to the construction phase. the main actors of the pre-construction team are now part of the construction team. the proposed tasks under the three-project construction sub-phases will alleviate poor current practices that have been elaborated in the findings and discussion section and will definitely lead to an efficient project implementation. to overcome the waste of investment by not operating facilities immediately after the handover, two sub-phases are named with proposed activities and teams that would result in effective project delivery. it is of great importance to conduct a project final review and evaluation and document lessons to be learned to benefit future projects. future research the adoption of the iscpmf will greatly improve projects delivery. evaluation and enhancement by researchers and practitioners should continue. the cost of investment in projects that take more than double the contacted period as well as the price of not using facilities that stand idle for years without operation, are areas to be explored. the outbreak of covid-19 pandemic has maximized the saudi construction sector challenges. the performance of the saudi construction sector amid coronavirus pandemic in particular, and the capability of the sector to face such crises, needs to be investigated. references abowitz, d. and toole, t., 2010. mixed method research: fundamental issues of design, validity, and reliability in construction research. engineering and management, [e-journal] 136(1), pp.108-16. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0000026 algahtany, m., alhammadi, y. and kashiwagi, d., 2016. introducing a new risk management model to the saudi arabian construction industry. procedia engineering, [e-journal] 145, pp.940-947. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. proeng.2016.04.122 almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021137 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000026 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000026 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.04.122 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.04.122 alofi, a., kashiwagi, j. and kashiwagi, d., 2016. the perception of the government and private sectors on the procurement system delivery method in saudi arabia, procedia engineering, [e-journal] 145, pp.1394-1401. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.04.175 alotaibi, n., sutrisna, m. and chong, h., 2016. guidelines of using project management tools and techniques to mitigate factors causing delays in public construction projects in kingdom of saudi arabia. journal of engineering, project, and production management, [e-journal] 6(2), pp.90-103. https://doi.org/10.32738/jeppm.201607.0003 alsehaimi, a., koskela, l. and tzortzopoulos, p., 2013. need for alternative research approaches in construction management: case of delay studies. the journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 29(4), pp.407-413. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000148 alshihre, f., chinyio, e., nzekwe-excel, c. and daniel, e.i., 2020. improving clients’ satisfaction in construction projects: the case of saudi arabia. built environment project and asset management, [e-journal] 10(5), pp.709-723. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-12-2019-0140 alzara, m., kashiwagi, j., kashiwagi, d. and al-tassan, a., 2018. analysis of cost overruns in saudi arabia construction projects: a university case study. journal for the advancement of performance information and value,[ejournal] 10(1). https://doi.org/10.37265/japiv.v10i1.24 american society of civil engineers, 2013. quality in the constructed project: a guide for owners, designers, and constructors. 3rd ed. virginia, usa. almunifi, a. and alameri, i. (2019). the impact of design approach and contracting practices on cost and execution period of school buildings. challenge journal of structural mechanics, [e-journal] 5 (3), pp. 85-95. https://doi. org/10.20528/cjsmec.2019.03.002 almutairi, s. and almunifi, a. (2020). the effects of poor management practices on projects performance. proceedings of international structural engineering and construction. holistic overview of structural design and construction, [e-journal]. https://doi.org/10.14455/isec.res.2020.7(1).cpm-02 arditi, d. and alavipour, s., 2019. trends in expectations about duties and responsibilities of construction managers. j. constr. eng. manage, [e-journal] 145(7): 04019037. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001661 assaf, s., hassanain, a. and mughal, h., 2014. effectiveness of project teams and their impact on the performance of saudi construction projects. research journal of applied sciences, engineering and technology, [e-journal] 7(24): 51485156. https://doi.org/10.19026/rjaset.7.911 assaf, s., hassanain, m. and abdallah, a., 2018. review and assessment of the causes of deficiencies in design documents for large construction projects. international journal of building pathology and adaptation, [e-journal] 36(3), pp.300-317. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-10-2017-0050 autodesk, 2020a. winning in preconstruction. autodesk construction cloud. available at autodesk website [accessed 4 february 2021] autodesk, 2020b. the ultimate guide to leveraging data in your construction lifecycle. available at autodesk website [accessed 4 february 2021] bubshait, a., siddiqui, m. and al-buali, a., 2014. "the role of communication and coordination in project success: a case study." j. perform. constr. facil., [e-journal] 04014107-1. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cf.1943-5509.0000610 choudhry, r., gabriel, h., khan, m. and azhar, s., 2017. causes of discrepancies between design and construction in the pakistan construction industry. journal of construction in developing countries, [e-journal] 22(2), pp.1–18. https:// doi.org/10.21315/jcdc2017.22.2.1 construction industry institute, 2012. cii best practices guide: improving project performance. version 4.0. almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021138 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.04.175 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.04.175 https://doi.org/10.32738/jeppm.201607.0003 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000148 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000148 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-12-2019-0140 https://doi.org/10.37265/japiv.v10i1.24 https://doi.org/10.20528/cjsmec.2019.03.002 https://doi.org/10.20528/cjsmec.2019.03.002 https://doi.org/10.14455/isec.res.2020.7(1).cpm-02 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001661 https://doi.org/10.19026/rjaset.7.911 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-10-2017-0050 https://construction.autodesk.com/resources/winning-in-preconstruction-and-beyond-with-bim/ https://construction.autodesk.com/resources/winning-in-preconstruction-and-beyond-with-bim/ https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cf.1943-5509.0000610 https://doi.org/10.21315/jcdc2017.22.2.1 https://doi.org/10.21315/jcdc2017.22.2.1 demarco, a., 2011. project management for facility constructions. © springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-64217092-8 denzin, n. and lincoln, y., 2018. the sage handbook of qualitative research. 5th ed. sage publications inc. denzin, n., 2012. triangulation 2.0. journal of mixed methods research, [e-journal] 6(2), pp.80-88. https://doi. org/10.1177/1558689812437186 dosumu, o. s., 2018. perceived effects of prevalent errors in contract documents on construction projects. construction economics and building, [e-journal]18(1), pp.1-26. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i1.5663 fageha, m. and aibinu, a., 2014. prioritizing project scope definition elements in public building projects. construction economics and building, [e-journal]14(3), pp.18-33. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i3.4155 flick, u., 2018. triangulation. the sage handbook of qualitative research. ed. denzin, n. & lincoln, y. sage publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526416070.n34 fay, m., lee, h., mastruzzi, m., han, s. and cho, m., 2019. hitting the trillion mark: a look at how much countries are spending on infrastructure. available at the world bank website. https://openknowledge.worldbank. org/handle/10986/31234 [accessed december 2020] https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-8730 gopang, m., imran, r. and nagapan, s., 2020. assessment of delay factors in saudi arabia railway/metro construction projects. international journal of sustainable construction engineering and technology, [e-journal]11(2), pp.225-233. retrieved from https://publisher.uthm.edu.my/ojs/index.php/ijscet/article/view/7405. https://doi. org/10.30880/ijscet.2020.11.02.028 hassanain, m., alamoudi, a., al-hammad, a. and abdallah, a., 2020. barriers to the implementation of poe practices in the saudi arabian building industry. architectural engineering and design management, [e-journal]16(2), pp.150-165. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2019.1706440 kabirifar, k. and mojtahedi, m., 2019. the impact of engineering, procurement and construction (epc) phases on project performance: a case of large-scale residential construction project. buildings, [e-journal] 9(15). https://doi. org/10.3390/buildings9010015 li, b., akintoye, a. and holt, g., 2017. empirical study of project governance among chinese project management professionals. international journal of architecture, engineering and construction, [e-journal] 6(2), pp.29-39. https://doi. org/10.7492/ijaec.2017.009 love, p., holt, g. and li, h., 2002. triangulation in construction management research. engineering construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 9, pp.294-303. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-232x.2002.00226.x love, p., lopez, r. and edwards, d., 2013. reviewing the past to learn in the future: making sense of design errors and failures in construction. structure and infrastructure engineering, [e-journal] 9(7), pp.675-688. https://doi.org/10.1080/1 5732479.2011.605369 love, p., edwards, d., irani, z. and walker, d., 2009. project pathogens: the anatomy of omission errors in construction and resource engineering project. in ieee transactions on engineering management, [e-journal] 56(3), pp.425-435. https://doi.org/10.1109/tem.2008.927774 love, p., ahiaga-dagbui, d. and irani, z., 2016. cost overruns in transportation infrastructure projects: sowing the seeds for a probabilistic theory of causation. transportation research part a: policy and practice, [e-journal] (92), pp.184194. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2016.08.007 mahamid, i., 2013. contributors to schedule delays in public construction projects in saudi arabia: owners’ perspective. journal of construction project management and innovation, [e-journal] 3(2), pp.608–619. https://doi. org/10.36615/jcpmi.v3i2.46 almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021139 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17092-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-17092-8 https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689812437186 https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689812437186 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i1.5663 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i3.4155 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781526416070.n34 https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/31234 https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/31234 https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-8730 https://publisher.uthm.edu.my/ojs/index.php/ijscet/article/view/7405 https://doi.org/10.30880/ijscet.2020.11.02.028 https://doi.org/10.30880/ijscet.2020.11.02.028 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2019.1706440 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings9010015 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings9010015 https://doi.org/10.7492/ijaec.2017.009 https://doi.org/10.7492/ijaec.2017.009 https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-232x.2002.00226.x https://doi.org/10.1080/15732479.2011.605369 https://doi.org/10.1080/15732479.2011.605369 https://doi.org/10.1109/tem.2008.927774 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2016.08.007 https://doi.org/10.36615/jcpmi.v3i2.46 https://doi.org/10.36615/jcpmi.v3i2.46 mahamid, i., 2016. factors contributing to poor performance in construction projects: studies of saudi arabia. australian journal of multi-disciplinary engineering, [e-journal] 12(1), pp.27-38. https://doi.org/10.1080/14488 388.2016.1243034 mathar, h., assaf, s., hassanain, m., abdallah, a. and sayed, a., 2020. critical success factors for large building construction projects: perception of consultants and contractors. built environment project and asset management, [e-journal] 10 (3), pp.349-367. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-07-2019-0057 ministry of education, kingdom of saudi arabia (2021). available at the moe website https://www.moe.gov.sa/ar/ mediacenter/moenews/pages/pr-1442-452.aspx.[accessed 27 june 2021]. mir, f. and pinnington, a., 2013. exploring the value of project management: linking project management performance and project success. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 32 (2), pp.202-217. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.05.012 mitra, s. and wee kwan tan, a., 2012. lessons learned from large construction project in saudi arabia. benchmarking: an international journal, [e-journal] 19 (3), pp.308-324. https://doi.org/10.1108/14635771211242978 oesterreich, t. and teuteberg, f., 2016. understanding the implications of digitization and automation in the context of industry 4.0: a triangulation approach and elements of a research agenda for the construction industry. computers in industry, [e-journal] 83, pp.121-139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2016.09.006 pinto, j. k., 2010. project management: achieving competitive advantage. 2nd ed. upper saddle river: pearson. pirotti, a., keshavarzsaleh, a., mohd rahim, f. and zakaria, n., 2020. effective factors on project success in malaysian construction industry. journal of engineering, project, and production management, [e-journal] 10(1), pp.1-10. https://doi.org/10.2478/jeppm-2020-0001 pmi, 2017. a guide to the project management body of knowledge – 6th ed. newtown square, pa, usa. saudi contractors authority, 2020. covid-19 impact on the contracting sector in saudi arabia building resilience in a turbulent environment. available at the sca website, sca.sa/16052020091859.pdf. [accessed 20 august 2020] sayyed, y., hatamleh, m. and alaya, a., 2021. investigating the influence of procurement management in construction projects on the innovation level and the overall project performance in developing countries. international journal of construction management, [e-journal]. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1889088 serrador p and turner r., 2015. the relationship between project success and project efficiency. project management journal, [e-journal] 46(1), pp.30-39. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21468 simushi, s.j., 2017. an integrated management strategy to reduce time and cost overruns on large projects. phd dissertation, stellenbosch university of stellenbosch. available at website, http://scholar.sun.ac.za/bitstream/ handle/10019.1/102691/simushi_integrated_2017.pdf?isallowed=y&sequence=1. [accessed 20 may 2020] tan, a.z.t., zaman, a. and sutrisna, m., 2018. enabling an effective knowledge and information flow between the phases of building construction and facilities management. facilities, [e-journal] 36(3/4), pp. 151-170. https://doi. org/10.1108/f-03-2016-0028 tatweer building company, 2020. available at tatweer website, https://www.tbc.sa/library/. [accessed 27 june 2021] teräväinen, v. j., junnonen, j. m., and ali-löytty, s. 2018. organizational culture: case of the finnish construction industry. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 18(1), pp.48-69. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i1.5770 too, e. and weaver, p., 2014. the management of project management: a conceptual framework for project governance. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 32 (8), pp.1382-1394. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2013.07.006 almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021140 https://doi.org/10.1080/14488388.2016.1243034 https://doi.org/10.1080/14488388.2016.1243034 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-07-2019-0057 https://www.moe.gov.sa/ar/mediacenter/moenews/pages/pr-1442-452.aspx https://www.moe.gov.sa/ar/mediacenter/moenews/pages/pr-1442-452.aspx https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.05.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.05.012 https://doi.org/10.1108/14635771211242978 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2016.09.006 https://doi.org/10.2478/jeppm-2020-0001 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1889088 https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21468 http://scholar.sun.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10019.1/102691/simushi_integrated_2017.pdf?isallowed=y&sequence=1 http://scholar.sun.ac.za/bitstream/handle/10019.1/102691/simushi_integrated_2017.pdf?isallowed=y&sequence=1 https://doi.org/10.1108/f-03-2016-0028 https://doi.org/10.1108/f-03-2016-0028 https://www.tbc.sa/library/ https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i1.5770 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.07.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.07.006 turner, r. and zolin, r., 2012. forecasting success on large projects: developing reliable scales to predict multiple perspectives by multiple stakeholders over multiple time frames. project management journal, [e-journal] 43(5) pp.87-99. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21289 u.s.-saudi arabian business council report, 2018. infrastructure sector: overview and commercial prospects in saudi arabian and u.s. construction, real estate, and transport. available at the usa-saudi business council website, https://ussaudi.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/constructionindustryreport2017_final.pdf. [accessed 10 july 2020] ward, g., 2018. effective project management: guidance and checklists for engineering and construction. j.w.&sons ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119469322 white, d. and fortune, j., 2002. current practice in project management – an empirical study. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 20(1), pp.1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(00)00029-6 williams t., 2016. identifying success factors in construction projects: a case study. project management journal, [e-journal] 47(1), pp.97-112. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21558 wu, c., li, n. and fang, d., 2017. leadership improvement and its impact on workplace safety in construction projects: a conceptual model and action research. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 35(8), pp.1495-1511. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.08.013 yamin, m. and sim, a.k.s., 2016. critical success factors for international development projects in maldives: project teams’ perspective. international journal of managing projects in business, [e-journal] 9(3), pp. 481-504. https://doi. org/10.1108/ijmpb-08-2015-0082 yin, r.k., 2018. case study research and applications: design and methods. 6th ed. sage publication inc. zidane, y.j. and olsson, n.o.e., 2017. defining project efficiency, effectiveness and efficacy. int’l journal of managing projects in business, [e-journal] 10(3), pp. 621-641. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-10-2016-0085 zwikael, o., pathak, r., singh, g. and ahmed, s., 2014. the moderating effect of risk on the relationship between planning and success. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 32(3), pp. 435-441. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.07.002 almunifi and almutairi construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 4 december 2021141 https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21289 https://ussaudi.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/constructionindustryreport2017_final.pdf https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119469322 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(00)00029-6 https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21558 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.08.013 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-08-2015-0082 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-08-2015-0082 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-10-2016-0085 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.07.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.07.002 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: alkhard, a. 2024. enhancing asset management through integrated facilities data, digital asset management, and metadata strategies. construction economics and building, 24:3, 76–94. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v24i3.8741 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article enhancing asset management through integrated facilities data, digital asset management, and metadata strategies ahmed alkhard king abdul aziz university, jeddah, kingdom of saudi arabia corresponding author: ahmed alkhard, king abdul aziz university, jeddah, kingdom of saudi arabia, aalkhard@kau.edu.sa doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.8741 article history: received 29/07/2023; revised 08/01/2024; accepted 10/03/2024; published 01/07/2024 abstract this research explores the potential of digital asset management (dam) to enhance asset management practices through the utilization of facility data. the study specifically investigates the integration of metadata sourced from 2,340 facility-related issues reported at a public school in saudi arabia. data spanning a two-year period was extracted from the school’s system and subjected to quantitative data analysis to assess the frequency and significance of reported facility issues. this analysis, conducted on data extracted from the school’s system in .xls format, aimed to identify patterns and trends in problem types, severity, and reported frequency, offering insights into prevalent challenges encountered in asset management and informing the research objectives. furthermore, a thorough review of existing literature on digital asset management and metadata integration in asset information modeling (aim) was conducted. this review involved creating a mind map to organize and visualize key concepts, themes, and relationships identified in the literature. insights derived from the mind map and broader literature review served as the groundwork for comprehending current practices, challenges, and potential solutions in dam and aim. the study aims to identify and evaluate key challenges in asset management based on the analysed facility data, devise a strategic framework for integrating metadata into aim analysis, with a focus on effective metadata management practices, and design an advanced digital asset management system to integrate facility data and enhance decision-making in asset and declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 76 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.8741 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.8741 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:aalkhard@kau.edu.sa https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.8741 facility management. notably, the research proposes a strategic framework for metadata integration in aim analysis, highlighting effective metadata management practices such as defining metadata requirements, establishing standards, and optimizing capture, storage, and governance practices. the framework also advocates for leveraging metadata for continuous analysis and improvement. anticipated outcomes encompass improved decision-making in asset and facility management, leading to heightened operational efficiency and effectiveness. this research seeks to contribute to advancements of asset management and optimized metadata usage, ultimately setting a new standard for excellence through the better use of facilities data. keywords digital asset management (dam); metadata integration; asset information model (aim); effective metadata management; asset management; facilities data introduction asset management is a systematic approach to efficiently operate, maintain, enhance, and dispose of various assets as per støre-valen and lohne (2016). the perception of buildings and physical assets, including plant and equipment, has gradually evolved. professionals and scholars in built asset management (bam) now recognize that assets should provide value beyond merely maintaining their physical condition as per støre-valen and lohne (2016). rics (2021) defines public sector bam as a structured process that ensures the best value for money from property assets, serving the strategic needs of public sector organizations. in the context of healthcare buildings, value is defined as the ability of hospital buildings to create optimal conditions for effective healthcare service delivery as per støre-valen and lohne (2016). similarly, organizations increasingly acknowledge that buildings are critical assets for fulfilling strategic objectives, rather than mere shelters for people and activities (iyer-raniga, huovila and erasmus, 2021). bam should encompass strategically driven processes throughout the entire building life cycle, including planning, acquisition, maintenance, and disposal or replacement. while planning, acquisition, and replacement involve significant capital investments, often supported by external grants, maintenance activities rely on internal organizational revenue. however, the allocation of budgets for bam tends to be arbitrary, often reflecting available organizational funds rather than strategic needs. this may be attributed to a lack of understanding of maintenance science, leading organizations to adopt the philosophy of “if it isn’t broken, don’t fix it.” this philosophy was initially articulated by thomas bertram, director of the office of management and budget during the carter administration in 1977. consequently, many organizations perceive the maintenance of built assets as a cost burden rather than a value addition as jones and sharp (2007) state. one of the reasons for this perception is the lack of evidence and business tools to align bam activities with organizational performance. while capital investments in nhs organizations in england are supported by best practice guidance, such as the nhs england business case approvals process and the capital investment manual, there is limited national-level guidance for optimizing day-to-day maintenance activities within estates and facilities divisions. as a result, bam priorities are often compromised during financially challenging times, leading to the accumulation of maintenance backlogs (garratt, 2021). to defend maintenance budgets and prioritize bam activities, asset managers require decision support tools that can prioritize activities and analyse maintenance patterns within buildings. this paper introduces a conceptual framework that utilizes building information modelling (bim) to integrate interdepartmental information streams and align bam decisions with organizational performance. the framework proposes a cloud-based bim application specifically developed for healthcare organizations. adding value through bam involves considering life cycle costs, adaptability, and the strategic involvement of facilities alkhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202477 management, all of which contribute to the overall value for healthcare organizations (støre-valen and lohne, 2016). however, aligning bam activities with organizational performance is challenging and necessitates understanding the relationships between key performance indicators (kpis) and bam plans. an effective performance measurement system should be multidimensional and capable of measuring performance across organizational functions and hierarchies (neely, et al.,1997). various performance measurement frameworks are available to assess organizational success. keegan, eiler and jones (1989) emphasized the integration of cost and non-cost dimensions, as well as internal and external dimensions, into an organization’s performance model. the balanced scorecard framework developed by kaplan and norton (1992) identified four perspectives for evaluating performance: financial, customer, internal business, and innovation and learning. brown (1996) proposed a macro process model that measures organizational performance across five stages: inputs, processing systems, outputs, outcomes, and goals. this model is particularly suitable for complex healthcare organizations with diverse services (støre-valen and lohne, 2016). integrating bim into bam processes can support the alignment of bam decisions with organizational performance by providing comprehensive data and metadata. bim’s data-driven approach enables asset managers to access detailed information about the physical assets, maintenance activities, and associated costs throughout the building life cycle. by incorporating metadata, such as asset attributes, maintenance history, and performance indicators, asset managers can make informed decisions and prioritize maintenance activities based on strategic objectives. however, in asset and facilities management, the integration of facilities data with building information modeling (bim) asset information modeling (aim) stands as a catalyst for optimizing the lifecycle management of buildings and infrastructure projects. this synergy facilitates a seamless transition of data from the construction phase into the operational phase, enriching the bim/aim with detailed operational, maintenance, and management insights. such integration not only streamlines the flow of information, ensuring the accuracy and contemporaneity of data used in facility management but also enhances decision-making processes by providing a comprehensive view of asset performance, maintenance history, and operational needs. the fusion of facilities data into bim/aim supports operational efficiency, simplifies maintenance workflows, and underpins data-driven decision-making, thereby enabling more strategic asset management approaches. it aids in proactive maintenance planning, energy usage optimization, and compliance management, ultimately elevating the asset’s performance, sustainability, and compliance posture throughout its lifecycle. this integrated approach exemplifies how leveraging digital twins in the form of bim/aim, enriched with real-time and historical facilities data, can revolutionize asset management strategies, offering a blueprint for future advancements in the construction and infrastructure sectors. furthermore, bim facilitates the integration of various software applications, such as computer-aided facility management (cafm) systems and computerized maintenance management systems (cmms), to enhance data sharing and analysis. this integration allows for the development of intelligent tools capable of analysing data and generating multi-criteria models for informed decision-making. with the support of bim and metadata, asset managers can effectively analyse the interaction between bam resource consumption, component/unit performance, and overall organizational performance. in summary, the rationalization of asset management involves aligning decisions related to building asset management (bam) with organizational performance by utilizing both data and metadata. integrating building information modeling (bim) into bam processes and facilities data enables asset managers to access comprehensive information about physical assets, maintenance activities, and associated costs. the inclusion of metadata facilitates informed decision-making and prioritization of maintenance activities based on strategic objectives. moreover, through the integration of software applications and the development of intelligent tools, data analysis can be enhanced, leading to the generation of multicriteria models for effective decision support. this facilities data-driven approach enhances the overall alkhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202478 understanding of how to manage assets in a more comprehensive and low-risk manner. to investigate the effectiveness of such an approach, the researcher conducted a study in the kingdom of saudi arabia to examine how asset data could be better analysed to support improved decision-making, prompt responses, and, ultimately, more effective and efficient asset management. moreover, the following section discusses studies research methodology. literature review asset information modeling and management asset information modeling and management (aimm) has emerged as a significant advancement in the construction and infrastructure industry, transforming the way assets are managed across their lifecycle (smith, johnson and brown, 2017). aimm leverages the power of building information modeling (bim) to create a comprehensive framework that combines data, collaboration, and advanced management practices (lu, lai and tse, 2018). bim serves as a digital twin of physical assets, capturing both geometric and non-geometric information, thus providing a collaborative and data-rich environment for stakeholders involved in asset design, construction, and operation (abbasnejad, et al., 2021). this integration of bim in aimm enables seamless information flow and enhances decision-making at every stage of the asset’s lifecycle (abbasnejad, et al., 2021). within the aimm framework, the utilization of bim extends beyond design and construction, encompassing the entire asset lifecycle, including operation and maintenance (salama, et al., 2018). by capturing and managing asset-related information, such as specifications, warranties, maintenance schedules, and performance data, aimm ensures that assets are optimally utilized and maintained throughout their lifespan (abbasnejad, et al., 2021). this data-driven approach facilitates effective asset management, reduces downtime, and improves operational efficiency that aligns to meet projects key performance indicators as per (bhatti, awan and razaq, 2014). aimm comprises two essential components: the base model and the operation model (frança, et al., 2021). the base model captures the initial asset design and construction information, while the operation model records actions and updates made during the project lifecycle, providing an accurate representation of the asset’s current state (eastman, et al., 2011). this integration of base and operation models enables seamless coordination between the design and operation stages, ensuring that the asset model effectively supports operational requirements and data are shared ( dc hub, 2021). information management plays a pivotal role in aimm, empowering stakeholders to access accurate and up-to-date data, thus facilitating informed decisions, improving productivity, and minimizing risks (eastman, et al., 2011). moreover, the integration of aimm with advanced technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, enhances data analysis capabilities, enabling predictive maintenance and performance optimization (wanigarathna, et al., 2019). the literature extensively highlights the benefits of aimm and bim, including improved collaboration, enhanced quality delivery, strengthened security, fostered innovation, built trust, facilitated information sharing, effective problem-solving, creation of immutable solutions, improved data accuracy, materialized asset-related information, and application of cryptography techniques to secure asset data (pan and zhang, 2023). furthermore, the coexistence of aimm with digital asset management (dam) expands the capabilities of asset management systems, allowing efficient organization and utilization of digital assets alongside the bim model (pan and zhang, 2023). in summary, aimm stands as a transformative concept in the construction and infrastructure industry, leveraging bim to enable effective asset management throughout the asset lifecycle. by harnessing data and advanced technologies, aimm empowers organizations to make informed decisions, optimize asset performance, and drive operational excellence, alkhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202479 while the integration with dam further enhances digital asset management capabilities, providing a comprehensive solution for organizations to maximize the value of their assets (pan and zhang, 2023). future research in aimm and dam integration holds the potential to unlock even greater efficiencies and effectiveness in asset management practices, propelling the industry towards new heights of excellence and innovation. digital asset management digital asset management (dam) is an emerging field that encompasses the organization, retrieval, and utilization of digital assets for various purposes. in recent years, asset information modeling and management (aimm) has gained prominence in the construction and infrastructure industry as a framework for managing assets throughout their lifecycle. this literature review aims to provide a comprehensive overview of dam and aimm, including their concepts, principles, and applications. the review draws on relevant literature from reputable sources, including standards, books, and research articles, to highlight the key aspects of dam and aimm, their benefits, challenges, and future directions. the findings of this review can serve as a valuable resource for researchers, practitioners, and decision-makers in the field of dam and aimm. digital asset management (dam) has emerged as a critical field for managing digital assets, which include digital media files such as images, videos, audio, documents, and other multimedia content (schleicher and bach, 2016). dam involves the organization, storage, retrieval, and utilization of these digital assets, enabling efficient and effective management of digital content for various purposes, including marketing, branding, content creation, distribution, and archiving (gartner, 2019). dam has gained increasing importance in today’s digital era, where the volume and complexity of digital assets are growing exponentially, and organizations are faced with the challenge of managing these assets in a structured and efficient manner. digital asset management (dam) encompasses a set of concepts and principles aimed at effectively managing digital assets throughout their lifecycle (re cecconi, et al., 2020). key concepts and principles of dam include asset organization, storage, retrieval, utilization, preservation, and analytics. proper organization of digital assets through the creation of metadata, tags, and categories enables efficient asset discovery and utilization, reduces duplication of assets, and ensures consistency and accuracy of asset information (gartner, 2019). dam requires the storage of digital assets in a secure and scalable manner, considering factors such as storage capacity, backup and recovery strategies, and access control mechanisms to ensure data integrity, confidentiality, and availability. efficient retrieval of digital assets through search functionality, filtering, and browsing options, along with advanced features such as artificial intelligencebased asset recognition and recommendation, enhances productivity and ensures the right assets are used for the right purposes (re cecconi, et al., 2020). effective utilization of digital assets involves features such as asset sharing, collaboration, versioning, and rights management to ensure appropriate use and compliance with copyrights, licenses, and legal requirements. long-term preservation of digital assets through strategies such as format migration, metadata preservation, and adherence to digital preservation standards safeguards assets from obsolescence and data loss. asset analytics, through data visualization, reporting, and analytics tools, provides insights into asset usage, performance, and return of investment (roi), aiding decisionmaking, content optimization, and performance evaluation. these key concepts and principles of dam are crucial for organizations to effectively manage their digital assets, ensuring efficient and compliant use of assets for various purposes. the concept and principles of digital asset management encompass various aspects to effectively organize, store, retrieve, utilize, preserve, and analyse digital assets within an organization (buildingsmart international, 2020). asset organization involves a structured approach that utilizes metadata, tags, and alkhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202480 categories, making it easy to retrieve digital assets when needed (re cecconi, et al., 2020). secure and scalable storage of digital assets, including backup, recovery, and access control, falls under the asset storage principle (rashmi, et al., 2023). to ensure efficient retrieval, asset retrieval encompasses features such as search, filtering, and browsing options (rashmi, et al., 2023). asset utilization focuses on appropriate sharing, collaboration, versioning, and rights management to make the most of digital assets. long-term preservation of digital assets for accessibility, authenticity, and usability is addressed by the asset preservation principle (zhou, 2023). asset analytics provide valuable insights into asset usage, performance, and return on investment through dedicated analytical features (mckinsey & company, 2019). asset governance is crucial for establishing policies and processes to effectively manage digital assets within an organization (xu, et al., 2024). for collaborative work, asset collaboration facilitates activities like review, approval, commenting, and annotations among team members and stakeholders (wanigarathna, et al., 2019). finally, asset integration ensures seamless integration of digital assets with other systems and tools within an organization’s digital ecosystem (eastman, et al., 2011). by adhering to these concepts and principles, organizations can efficiently manage their digital assets and harness their full potential to achieve their objectives (gartner, 2019). benefits of digital asset management implementing dam can provide numerous benefits for organizations. some of the key benefits of dam according to the literature review include: improved efficiency: dam streamlines the process of asset organization, storage, retrieval, and utilization, leading to improved efficiency in managing digital assets. with proper metadata, tagging, and categorization, assets can be easily searched, retrieved, and shared, reducing the time spent searching for assets and improving productivity (gartner, 2019). enhanced collaboration: dam enables effective collaboration among team members and stakeholders by providing a central repository for storing and managing digital assets. this allows team members to access, review, and collaborate on assets in real-time, facilitating seamless teamwork and reducing communication gaps (schleicher and bach, 2016). brand consistency: dam helps organizations maintain brand consistency by providing a central repository for storing approved brand assets, such as logos, images, and videos. this ensures that only authorized and up-to-date assets are used, reducing the risk of inconsistent branding across different channels and touchpoints (ibm, 2020). asset reusability: dam allows organizations to easily repurpose digital assets across different channels and campaigns, maximizing the value of assets and reducing the need for redundant content creation. this leads to cost savings, improved content consistency, and faster time to market (gartner, 2019). compliance and rights management: dam provides features for managing copyrights, licenses, and usage rights for digital assets, ensuring compliance with legal and regulatory requirements. this helps organizations avoid legal issues, penalties, and reputational risks associated with unauthorized use of assets (allen, et al., 2020). data-driven decision making: dam can provide analytics and reporting features that enable organizations to gain insights into asset usage, performance, and roi. this data-driven approach to asset management allows organizations to make informed decisions on asset utilization, content optimization, and performance evaluation, leading to better overall outcomes and improved return on investment (roi) (re cecconi, et al., 2020). scalability and flexibility: dam systems are designed to handle large volumes of digital assets, making them scalable and flexible to accommodate the growing needs of organizations. as the volume and complexity of digital assets increase, dam allows organizations to efficiently manage and scale their asset management processes without sacrificing performance or usability (schleicher and bach, 2016). alkhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202481 disaster recovery and data security: dam includes features such as backup, recovery, and access control mechanisms to ensure data integrity, confidentiality, and availability. this helps organizations protect their digital assets from data breaches, loss, and other security risks, ensuring the long-term preservation and accessibility of valuable digital assets (gartner, 2019). in summary, digital asset management (dam) is a crucial component of modern organizations’ digital strategy. it encompasses various processes, including asset organization, storage, retrieval, utilization, preservation, and analytics. implementing dam can provide organizations with numerous benefits, including improved efficiency, enhanced collaboration, brand consistency, asset reusability, compliance and rights management, data-driven decision making, scalability, and data security. by effectively managing digital assets, organizations can optimize their content creation, distribution, and utilization processes, leading to better outcomes, increased productivity, and improved roi. as the volume and complexity of digital assets continue to grow, dam becomes an essential tool for organizations to effectively manage their digital assets and maximize their value. further research and advancements in dam technologies are needed to address the evolving needs of organizations in the digital era. case studies can provide real-world examples of how digital asset management (dam) and asset information modeling and management (aimm) have been implemented in organizations to achieve tangible benefits. in the pursuit of organizational excellence, technology has emerged as a transformative force, driving a myriad of advantages across various industries. this academic study presents a comprehensive comparative analysis of four industry-specific use cases, showcasing the remarkable impact of technology adoption on key organizational aspects. coca-cola enterprises, operating in the beverage industry, implemented technology-driven solutions to achieve consistent brand messaging, improved collaboration, increased operational efficiency, and reduced content creation costs (puravanjkara, 2007). the metropolitan museum of art in the arts and culture domain efficiently organized, stored, and retrieved digital assets, leading to enhanced access and utilization of their collection and facilitating digital preservation efforts through robust metadata management and version control (zhou, 2023). in the transportation sector, the port authority of new york and new jersey benefited from real-time asset monitoring, proactive maintenance planning, improved asset performance, reduced maintenance costs, and enhanced safety and security (wsp, n.d.). getty images, operating in the media industry, capitalized on technology for efficient organization, cataloguing, and distribution of digital assets. they further improved operational efficiency, accelerated content delivery, and enhanced customer experiences through robust metadata management, version control, and rights management. these industry-specific use cases underscore the transformative potential of technology adoption in organizations. the efficient organization, retrieval, and utilization of digital assets enhance productivity and resource management. the facilitated digital preservation and robust metadata management contribute to long-term knowledge retention and accessibility. real-time asset monitoring and proactive maintenance planning optimize asset performance and reduce operational costs. furthermore, streamlined content distribution and enhanced customer experiences foster brand loyalty and competitive advantage. this study highlights the critical importance of embracing technology-driven strategies to achieve organizational success in today’s dynamic and competitive landscape and serves as a valuable reference for scholars and practitioners seeking to harness the benefits of technological innovations. these case studies illustrate how dam and aimm have been implemented in diverse industries, including marketing, art and culture, transportation, and media, to achieve benefits such as improved operational efficiency, collaboration, content creation, preservation, and compliance. these real-world examples highlight the value of dam and aimm in effectively managing digital and physical assets, leading to tangible outcomes for organizations. alkhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202482 research methodology the research used quantitative data analysis and a review of existing literature to provide insights into digital asset management and metadata integration. the research objectives were formulated based on insights from the data analysis and literature review, guiding the development of an advanced digital asset management system and supporting metadata in asset information modeling analysis. in particular, an extensive literature review was conducted, delving deep into existing research and best practices in digital asset management, metadata integration, and asset information modelling. the nature of reported asset problems and their potential impact on asset management practices (smith, johnson and brown, 2017). the literature review helped contextualize the research within the broader academic and practical landscape and provided a foundation for developing the research objectives and the proposed integrated strategy based on the findings from the data analysis and the literature review, the research objective was formulated. the research methodology also addressed potential limitations and considerations related to the dataset, data analysis techniques, and the generalizability of the findings these factors were considered to ensure the robustness and reliability of the research outcomes. current trends and challenges in digital asset management: the review explored recent advancements, focusing on how modern technologies are reshaping asset management practices. it examined how digitalization and automation are influencing the management of physical assets and the associated metadata. metadata integration techniques and their effectiveness: the literature review scrutinized various methodologies employed in integrating metadata within asset management systems. it critically analysed different integration models, their scalability, and efficiency in various operational contexts. digital asset management and asset information modeling (aim): the study reviewed existing frameworks and standards in aim, emphasizing how they are being utilized in different industries. the review also highlighted gaps in current aim practices, particularly in handling complex metadata structures. case studies and best practices: drawing on relevant case studies, the review identified best practices and common pitfalls in asset management and metadata integration. it also included a comparative analysis of asset management strategies across different sectors. in addition, the case study highlights the transformative potential of leveraging real asset facilities management data from a school in the kingdom of saudi arabia to enhance the domain of asset management. it underscores the transition from traditional to digital facilities and asset management methods, emphasizing the necessity for modernization in this field. the primary aim is to shed light on the benefits and requirements of digitalization in managing assets and facilities, rather than establishing the reliability or validity of the findings. a noted limitation of this study is the absence of validation for the proposed digital asset management strategy, indicating a need for further research to solidify these approaches. this study analyse and integrate metadata from 2,340 reported facilities issues, spanning from 2019 to 2022. the goal is to enhance decision-making processes, shorten response times, and boost the overall efficiency and effectiveness of asset management practices, utilizing metadata derived from facilities management data. this dataset included facilities specifications, maintenance schedules, performance data, and other relevant details. a meticulous harmonization process was undertaken to ensure data coherence, consistency, and the elimination of discrepancies, data quality issues, and duplicate entries. the techniques were used to analyse the data are: trend analysis (the study involved analysing time-based trends in the reported asset problems, plotting monthly and annual frequencies to uncover patterns or seasonal variations), cluster analysis (this method grouped similar asset problems to identify common categories, aiding in targeted maintenance strategies development) and anomaly detection (identifying outliers and anomalies, including the removal of duplicate entries and recognizing unusual frequencies of occurrences that might indicate systemic issues). alkhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202483 contribution to knowledge: the significant contribution of this research lies in its exploration of more effective ways to utilize facilities data, thereby enhancing asset management practices. by integrating facilities data with digital asset management and metadata strategies, this study aims to optimize the management of assets across their lifecycle. facilities data encompasses a wide range of information related to the physical attributes, usage patterns, maintenance records, and operational metrics of assets. by harnessing this data alongside digital asset management tools and robust metadata strategies, organizations can gain deeper insights into asset performance, improve decision-making processes, and enhance overall operational efficiency. through the integration of facilities data into digital asset management systems, organizations can ensure a comprehensive understanding of asset conditions, usage patterns, and maintenance needs. this allows for proactive maintenance planning, optimized resource allocation, and improved asset performance. furthermore, leveraging metadata strategies enables the effective organization, retrieval, and utilization of both facilities data and digital assets. metadata provides essential context and structure to the vast amount of data associated with assets, facilitating easier access, analysis, and decision-making. hence, by adopting an integrated approach that combines facilities data, digital asset management, and metadata strategies, organizations can unlock new opportunities for enhancing asset management practices. this includes streamlining workflows, improving collaboration between stakeholders, and maximizing the value of assets throughout their lifecycle. overall, this research seeks to provide practical insights and strategies that enable organizations to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness in asset management. a case study data analysis in the process of data integration, several noteworthy observations were made, each holding practical implications for asset management practices. notably, the researchers identified instances of duplicated data and records within the repository. such redundancy can lead to inefficiencies and inaccuracies in asset management decisions, emphasizing the necessity for de-duplication measures and streamlined data handling procedures. furthermore, incomplete or inaccurate entries were prevalent in the data, raising concerns about the reliability and efficacy of asset information. addressing this challenge entails adopting rigorous data validation processes to ensure the completeness and accuracy of asset-related records. language issues were also uncovered in the metadata, indicating the significance of standardized terminologies and clear communication channels to establish a common understanding of asset problems and associated matters. timely reporting of asset problems emerged as a critical area of improvement. encouraging prompt reporting mechanisms can enhance responsiveness and enable timely resolution of asset issues, mitigating potential downtime and minimizing disruptions to operations. the absence of status reports for certain assets was highlighted as another practical concern. implementing a robust status reporting system can offer real-time insights into asset conditions, empowering decision-makers with upto-date information for proactive asset management. moreover, the study identified confusion between asset and facilities data, emphasizing the need for precise categorization and classification of information to foster clear distinction and facilitate efficient asset management. by addressing these practical challenges and implementing effective metadata management strategies, asset managers can elevate the accuracy, reliability, and utility of asset information. a comprehensive and cohesive digital asset management approach, enriched with accurate metadata, can facilitate informed decision-making, optimize operational efficiency, and maximize the value of assets alkhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202484 throughout their entire lifecycle. these findings offer valuable guidance for practitioners and scholars seeking to enhance asset management practices in the dynamic landscape of digital asset management. moreover, the identified problems in the integration of metadata from the repository of reported asset problems can have significant consequences on asset management practices. considering the literature review the consequences can be seen below: redundant data: the presence of duplicated data and records can lead to inefficiencies and inaccuracies in asset management decision-making. it can result in redundant efforts, wasted resources, and confusion among stakeholders. according to neely, et al. (1997), redundant data can distort performance measurement and undermine the effectiveness of management decisions. incomplete/inaccurate data: incomplete or inaccurate data can negatively impact the reliability and efficacy of asset information. it may lead to incorrect assumptions and suboptimal asset management strategies. nguyen and tran (2024) emphasize the significance of accurate data for successful asset management and highlight that inaccurate data can lead to poor performance and increased costs. language issues: language discrepancies in metadata can create communication barriers and hinder effective collaboration among stakeholders. a standardized terminology is crucial to ensure a common understanding of asset-related matters. hire, et al. (2021) discuss the importance of clear communication in construction safety management and how language issues can lead to misunderstandings and safety risks. lack of timely reporting: delayed reporting of asset problems can result in prolonged downtime and maintenance delays, impacting operational efficiency. jones and sharp (2007) stress the importance of timely reporting for effective asset maintenance and argue that delays can lead to increased repair costs and decreased asset reliability. absence of status reports: the absence of status reports for certain assets can hinder visibility into their condition and performance. this lack of information may lead to missed opportunities for preventive maintenance and performance optimization. wanigarathna, et al. (2019) advocate for regular status reporting to improve building performance evaluation and facility management. confusion between asset and facilities data: misclassification of data between assets and facilities can cause confusion and mismanagement of resources. clear categorization is essential for making informed decisions about asset maintenance and resource allocation. wsp (n.d.) highlight the importance of effective asset information management to streamline operations and optimize resources. based on the study a graph presents the data issues ranked by importance level for asset management as per the case study, with the most impactful issues at the top (figure 1). this ranking is designed to help prioritize actions and focus on the most significant areas for improvement in asset management practices. figure 1. the frequency/importance of problems identified in the case study alkhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202485 the bar graph prioritizes the various data issues according to their importance in the context of asset management, offering a clear visualization to aid in strategic decision-making. at the top of the graph, “incomplete/inaccurate data” is identified as the most critical issue, emphasizing its significant impact on decision-making accuracy and operational effectiveness. close behind, “redundant data” and “absence of status reports” are also highlighted as highly impactful, pointing to their roles in causing inefficiencies and obscuring asset performance visibility. lower on the scale, “lack of timely reporting” and “confusion between asset and facilities data” are still notable concerns, as they can lead to maintenance delays and resource misallocation. finally, “language issues,” while having the least impact among the issues listed, is recognized as a potential barrier to clear communication and effective collaboration among stakeholders. this graph is intended to serve as a tool for managers and decision-makers, guiding them to allocate resources and attention efficiently by tackling the most significant data quality issues first. by addressing these issues in order of importance, organizations can systematically enhance their asset management processes, thereby improving overall asset life cycle performance and reducing associated costs. hence, addressing these consequences requires a robust metadata management strategy, encompassing data validation processes, standardized terminologies, prompt reporting mechanisms, comprehensive status reporting, and precise categorization of information. by implementing these measures, organizations can enhance the accuracy and reliability of asset information, leading to more efficient asset management practices and improved overall performance. hence, the following two sessions aim to capture the literature review in the aforementioned domains. findings and discussion according to the literature review, facilities data plays a crucial role in advancing asset management by serving as a foundational element for asset information modeling and management (aimm), a significant innovation within the construction and infrastructure sector. aimm enhances the management of assets across their lifecycle by integrating building information modeling (bim) to create a comprehensive framework that combines data, collaboration, and advanced management practices. facilities data, encapsulating specifications, warranties, maintenance schedules, and performance data, enriches the bim model, transforming it into a digital twin that mirrors the physical assets with both geometric and nongeometric information. this integration ensures a collaborative, data-rich environment for stakeholders at every stage of an asset’s lifecycle, from design through construction to operation. by leveraging facilities data within the aimm framework, asset management is significantly enhanced as this data-driven approach facilitates effective management, reduces downtime, and improves operational efficiency. the aimm model, comprising both a base and an operation model, captures the initial design and construction information and records updates made throughout the asset’s lifecycle. this dual-model approach enables seamless coordination between the design and operational phases, ensuring the asset model accurately supports operational requirements and reflects the current state of assets. furthermore, facilities data within aimm allows for the exploitation of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, enhancing data analysis capabilities for predictive maintenance and performance optimization. the integration of facilities data in aimm empowers organizations to make informed decisions, optimize asset performance, and drive operational excellence by providing a detailed and accurate representation of assets’ current and projected states. this is further bolstered by the coexistence of aimm with digital asset management (dam), expanding asset management capabilities to efficiently organize and utilize digital assets alongside the bim model. in essence, facilities data is instrumental in improving asset management by ensuring the aimm framework is grounded in accurate, comprehensive, and actionable information. this facilitates a more alkhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202486 strategic, efficient, and effective approach to managing the lifecycle of assets, thereby propelling the construction and infrastructure industry towards higher standards of excellence and innovation. figure 2. aimm and digital asset management integration mind map based on facilities data the mind map (figure 2) above visually represents the integration of asset information modeling and management (aimm) and digital asset management (dam), outlining key components and their interrelations. this map highlights the foundational role of aimm and dam in lifecycle management, bim integration, and leveraging facilities data, all aimed at achieving operational excellence through advanced technologies, predictive maintenance, and performance optimization. additionally, it underscores the contributions of dam in enhancing collaboration and ensuring compliance, collectively driving datadriven decision-making and operational efficiency. however, to integrate meta data for better asset information modelling analysis then a meta data integration for enhanced asset management is proposed (digital asset management). integrating facilities data into the proposed metadata integration strategy for enhanced asset information modeling (aim) analysis further enriches the asset management process. this integration is seamlessly woven into each of the nine key stages, emphasizing the pivotal role of facilities data in augmenting metadata’s value and utility within the aim framework (figure 3). the enhanced strategy is articulated as follows: define asset management metadata requirements with facilities data: the initial stage involves a comprehensive identification of metadata requirements, now explicitly incorporating facilities data. this includes the types of facilities data to be captured, such as physical characteristics, usage patterns, maintenance records, and operational data, ensuring a detailed understanding of both aim and facilities data for a holistic analysis approach. establish asset management metadata standards for facilities data: following the definition of metadata requirements, the strategy progresses to establish standards that encompass facilities data. these standards ensure the structured, consistent capture and interoperability of facilities data within the metadata framework, based on industry practices and data modelling standards pertinent to facilities management. implement metadata capture and storage processes for facilities data: this stage delineates the processes for capturing and storing metadata, now with an emphasis on including facilities data. by integrating these alkhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202487 processes into existing asset management workflows or creating new ones, the strategy ensures the comprehensive documentation, version control, and reliability of metadata, including facilities data. integrate facilities data into the aim model: the root of the strategy lies in integrating metadata, enriched with facilities data, into the aim model. this involves associating detailed facilities data with relevant assets within the model, enhancing the aim’s analytical capabilities and providing a richer, data-driven understanding of asset performance and management needs. establish metadata governance including facilities data: to maintain the integrity and quality of metadata, including facilities data, governance procedures are put in place. these include data quality checks specific to facilities data, ensuring its accuracy, consistency, and relevance within the aim analysis. utilize facilities data-enriched metadata in aim analysis: leveraging the enriched metadata for aim analysis becomes pivotal, utilizing facilities data to enhance analytical depth. this includes using facilities data for asset management, predictive maintenance, performance analysis, and strategic decision-making, offering a comprehensive view of asset utilization and management. update facilities data within metadata as needed: recognizing the evolving nature of facilities management, the strategy includes regular updates to metadata to incorporate new facilities data. this ensures the aim model reflects the latest data, supporting dynamic asset management strategies. train and educate stakeholders on facilities data integration: training programs are expanded to cover the integration and management of facilities data within metadata. stakeholders are educated on the significance of facilities data, its capture, storage, and utilization within the aim framework, promoting informed asset management practices. monitor and improve the strategy with facilities data feedback: continuous monitoring and improvement of the strategy now include a focus on facilities data integration. regular audits, stakeholder feedback, and reviews of facilities data integration practices guide the strategy’s evolution, optimizing its effectiveness and efficiency in asset management. by weaving facilities data throughout the metadata integration strategy, the approach not only enriches the aim analysis but also ensures a more nuanced, comprehensive understanding of asset management requirements, facilitating informed decision-making and operational excellence in asset management practices. figure 3. enhanced aim analysis with facilities data integration alkhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202488 on this basis, effective data analysis and understanding of asset information management (aim) heavily rely on well-defined data types, formats, and levels of detail for analysis (chen, et al., 2017). establishing data standards is crucial to ensure consistency and accuracy in the structure, syntax, and semantics of metadata. to achieve this, organizations need to define and implement processes for capturing, storing, and documenting metadata across the aim model. this involves associating metadata with relevant assets or elements within the model, enabling seamless data retrieval and analysis (vnuk, koronios and gao, 2012). governance procedures play a pivotal role in maintaining the accuracy, consistency, and integrity of metadata (guillen, et al., 2016). regular reviews and updates of metadata become essential as new data becomes available or changes occur within the aim framework. leveraging metadata becomes paramount in filtering, sorting, searching, or aggregating data for aim analysis, allowing organizations to extract valuable insights efficiently (vnuk, koronios and gao, 2012). to ensure successful implementation and maintenance of metadata practices, organizations must invest in training programs to raise awareness and knowledge among employees about metadata’s significance. this empowers the workforce to understand the relevance of metadata and its impact on data analysis and decision-making processes. continuous monitoring, evaluation, and optimization of the metadata strategy ensure its alignment with evolving business needs and technological advancements (centre for international governance innovation, 2018). henceforth, a well-structured strategy is crucial for the success of aim data analysis aiming to have a better digital management of the asset. it involves defining data types, formats, and levels of detail, as well as establishing data standards, implementing robust processes, and maintaining governance procedures. by adopting such a strategy, organizations can effectively leverage metadata to enhance their aim capabilities, leading to informed decision-making and sustainable growth. however, it is equally important to acknowledge and understand the limitations of this approach to ensure its effective implementation and avoid potential challenges in utilizing metadata for aim analysis. on this basis, the researcher created a heatmap provides a visual comparison, mapping each data issue to relevant strategic steps in asset management metadata. the presence of a ‘1’ indicates the importance of addressing the specific data issue within the corresponding strategic step. this representation helps to understand where efforts should be focused to improve asset management metadata practices as per research’s findings. figure 4. a heatmap between problems and the proposed strategy for enhanced asset management alkhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202489 for instance, “redundant data” is crucial to address when defining requirements, establishing governance, and throughout the utilization, update, training, and monitoring phases. similarly, “incomplete/ inaccurate data” has been marked as critical across multiple strategic steps, emphasizing the need for thorough data quality management processes. this heatmap serves as a strategic tool for decision-makers, indicating the areas that require immediate attention and the steps that can mitigate the impact of each data issue on asset management. the potential limitations of implementing the proposed strategy, as identified from the literature review, could be summarized as follows: subjectivity and interpretation: the process of defining metadata requirements and establishing standards can be influenced by subjective decision-making and interpretations. according to johnny and trovati (2019), metadata definitions can vary among different stakeholders, leading to inconsistencies and discrepancies in data representation and analysis. this subjectivity can impact the accuracy and reliability of aim analysis results. implementation challenges: the implementation of metadata capture and storage processes can be complex, particularly for large and diverse datasets. according to charles, et al., (2013), organizations often face challenges in integrating metadata into existing systems and databases, requiring additional efforts for data mapping and alignment. these implementation challenges may lead to delays and resource-intensive tasks. data volume and complexity: as data volume and complexity increase, maintaining accurate and up-todate metadata becomes challenging scikiq (2023). state that organizations dealing with vast amounts of data may struggle to keep metadata synchronized with real-time changes. the lack of updated metadata may hinder the accuracy of aim analysis and decision-making processes that is critical. governance and enforcement: while defining governance procedures for metadata accuracy and consistency is crucial, ensuring adherence to these procedures can be difficult. as noted by scikiq (2023), organizations may encounter difficulties in enforcing governance policies across various departments and stakeholders, resulting in inconsistent metadata practices. limited stakeholder awareness: despite implementing training programs, stakeholders may still lack a comprehensive understanding of metadata’s importance and its impact on aim analysis. however, it is suggested that insufficient stakeholder education can lead to underutilization of metadata capabilities, limiting the potential benefits it offers (gartner, 2012). resource constraints: continuous monitoring and improvement of the metadata strategy require dedicated resources and expertise. smaller organizations or those with limited budgets may face challenges in allocating sufficient resources for metadata management and optimization, as highlighted by (gartner, 2012). integration with legacy systems: organizations with legacy systems may struggle to integrate metadata practices seamlessly. according to kitchin, lauriault and mcardle (2015), retrofitting metadata requirements into existing systems may require significant modifications and investments, potentially leading to compatibility issues and delays. scalability and flexibility: the metadata strategy should be scalable and flexible enough to accommodate future data requirements and evolving analysis goals. however, xie, et al. (2021) suggests that achieving full scalability and flexibility can be challenging, especially when dealing with rapidly changing business needs and data sources. data privacy and security: the inclusion of metadata in aim analysis raises data privacy and security concerns. as highlighted by munier, et al. (2014), metadata may contain sensitive information that requires protection to prevent unauthorized access or potential misuse, necessitating robust data security measures. addressing these limitations requires organizations to be proactive kapogiannis, fernando and alkhard (2021) in formulating metadata governance policies, providing comprehensive training to stakeholders, and adopting advanced technologies for efficient metadata management and integration. moreover, continuous research and innovation in metadata practices can lead to more effective solutions for overcoming these challenges in the context of advocating for a strategic integration of facilities data with asset information modeling (aim) and digital asset management (dam). alkhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202490 conclusion in conclusion, the research underscores the critical shift from traditional to digital asset and facilities management, advocating for a strategic integration of facilities data with asset information modeling (aim) and digital asset management (dam). this integrated approach emphasizes the crucial role of effective metadata management in enhancing aim analyses and leveraging facilities data. by systematically defining metadata requirements, establishing comprehensive metadata standards, refining metadata capture and storage processes, integrating metadata into the aim model, implementing stringent metadata governance, utilizing metadata to enrich aim analysis, updating metadata to reflect current data, educating stakeholders on metadata’s importance, and continuously refining the metadata strategy, organizations can significantly improve the precision, reliability, and consistency of their asset management efforts. this holistic strategy promises to improve decision-making processes in asset and facility management, thereby boosting operational efficiency and effectiveness. the successful application and ongoing research into this strategy are poised to make substantial contributions to advancing aim analysis and optimizing metadata use, setting a new benchmark for asset management excellence in the dynamic landscape of the construction and infrastructure sectors. ethical considerations in this study conducted at a public school in the kingdom of saudi arabia, specific steps were undertaken to address ethical considerations while maintaining confidentiality. due to privacy concerns, the school’s name has been withheld, highlighting a commitment to protect its identity. although the study deviates from the conventional research ethics procedures observed in many academic settings, ethical integrity has been insured through the acquisition of written permission from the department head. this approval process, albeit less formal than those seen with institutional review boards or ethics committees, serves as a crucial ethical safeguard. it reflects the adaptability and context-specific nature of ethical oversight in academic research, emphasizing the importance of institutional approval in ensuring responsible and respectful research conduct. references abbasnejad, b., nepal, m.p., ahankoob, a., nasirian, a., and drogemuller, r., 2021. building information modelling (bim) adoption and implementation enablers in aec firms: a systematic literature review. architectural engineering and design management, [e-journal] 17(5–6), pp.411–33. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2020.1793721 allen, g., rauchs, m., blandin, a., bear, k., 2020. legal and regulatory considerations for digital assets. ccaf publications, 2020, available at: ssrn: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3712888 [accessed 14 january 2024]. bhatti, m., awan, h.m. and razaq, z., 2014. the key performance indicators (kpis) and their impact on overall organizational performance. quality & quantity [e-journal] 48, pp.3127–43. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-0139945-y brown, m.g., 1996. keeping score: using the right metrics to drive world-class performance. new york: quality resources. buildingsmart international, 2020. information management (im) and building information modeling (bim) standard: part 1 concepts and principles. available at: https://www.buildingsmart.org/standards/bsi-standards [accessed 14 january 2024]. centre for international governance innovation, 2018. data series special report. available at: https://www.cigionline. org/sites/default/files/documents/data%20series%20special%20report.pdf. [accessed 19 may 2024]. alkhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202491 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2020.1793721 https://ssrn.com/abstract=3712888 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-013-9945-y https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-013-9945-y https://www.buildingsmart.org/standards/bsi-standards https://www.cigionline.org/sites/default/files/documents/data%20series%20special%20report.pdf https://www.cigionline.org/sites/default/files/documents/data%20series%20special%20report.pdf charles, v., isaac, a., tzouvaras, v. and hennicke, s., 2013. mapping cross-domain metadata to the european data model (edm). in: aalberg, t., papatheodorou, c., dobreva, m., tsakonas, g. and farrugia, c.j., eds. research and advanced technology for digital libraries. tpdl 2013. lecture notes in computer science, (8092). berlin, heidelberg: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40501-3_68 dc hub, 2021. benefits of data-sharing in construction. available at: https://dchub.me/digital-construction/strategyplanning/eight-reasons-data-sharing-is-transforming-the-design-process. [accessed 19 may 2024]. eastman, c., teicholz, p., sacks, r. and liston, k., 2011. bim handbook: a guide to building information modeling for owners, managers, designers, engineers and contractors. 2nd ed. hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. frança, w.t., barros, m.v., salvador, r., francisco, a.c., moreira, m.t. and piekarski, c.m., 2021. integrating life cycle assessment and life cycle cost: a review of environmental-economic studies. international journal of life cycle assessment, [e-journal] 26, pp.244–74. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-020-01857-y gartner, 2012. overcoming the challenges to implementing enterprise metadata management across the organization. available at: https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/2120315. [accessed 19 may 2024]. gartner, 2019. hype cycle for digital asset management. available at: https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3956115/ hype-cycle-for-digital-asset-management-2019. [accessed 20 january 2024]. guillen, a.j., crespo, a., gómez, j., gonzález-prida, v., kobbacy, k. and shariff, s., 2016. building information modeling as asset management tool. ifac-papersonline, [e-journal] 49(28), pp.191-96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ifacol.2016.11.033 hire, s., ruikar, k., sandbhor, s. and amarnath, c.b., 2021. a critical review on bim for construction safety management. in: the 6th pmi research and academic conference 2021, 4 – 6 march, indian institute of technology bombay (iitb), mumbai. pp.176-93. jones, k. and sharp, m., 2007. a new performance‐based process model for built asset maintenance, facilities, [e-journal] 25(13/14), pp.525-35. https://doi.org/10.1108/02632770710822616 ibm, 2020. what is digital asset management? [online] available at: https://www.ibm.com/topics/digital-assetmanagement. [accessed 19 may 2024]. kaplan, r.s. and norton, d., 1992. the balanced scorecard: measures that drive performance. us: harvard business review press. kapogiannis, g., fernando, t. and alkhard, a.m., 2021. impact of proactive behaviour antecedents on construction project managers’ performance. construction innovation, [e-journal] 21(4), pp.708-22. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-022020-0029 keegan, d.p., eiler, r.g. and jones, c.r., 1989. are your performance measures obsolete? management accounting, 70(12), pp.45-50. kitchin, r., lauriault, t.p. and mcardle, g., 2015. smart cities and the politics of urban data. in: simon marvin, andres luque-ayala and colin mcfarlane, eds. smart urbanism utopian vision or false dawn. 1st ed. london and ny: routledge. iyer-raniga, u., huovila, p. and erasmus, p., 2021. sustainable buildings and construction: responding to the sdgs. in: leal filho, w., azul, a.m., brandli, l., özuyar, p.g. and wall, t., eds. sustainable cities and communities. encyclopedia of the un sustainable development goals. cham: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71061-7_611 lu, w., lai, c.c. and tse, t., 2018. bim and big data for construction cost management. 1st ed. london: routledge. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781351172325 alkhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202492 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40501-3_68 https://dchub.me/digital-construction/strategy-planning/eight-reasons-data-sharing-is-transforming-the-design-process https://dchub.me/digital-construction/strategy-planning/eight-reasons-data-sharing-is-transforming-the-design-process https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-020-01857-y https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/2120315 https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3956115/hype-cycle-for-digital-asset-management-2019 https://www.gartner.com/en/documents/3956115/hype-cycle-for-digital-asset-management-2019 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2016.11.033 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ifacol.2016.11.033 https://doi.org/10.1108/02632770710822616 https://www.ibm.com/topics/digital-asset-management https://www.ibm.com/topics/digital-asset-management https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-02-2020-0029 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-02-2020-0029 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71061-7_61-1 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71061-7_61-1 https://doi.org/10.1201/9781351172325 munier, m., lalanne, v., ardoy, py. and ricarde, m., 2014. legal issues about metadata data privacy vs information security. in: garcia-alfaro, j., lioudakis, g., cuppens-boulahia, n., foley, s. and fitzgerald, w., eds. data privacy management and autonomous spontaneous security. dpm setop 2013. lecture notes in computer science, 8247. berlin, heidelberg: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54568-9_11 mckinsey & company, 2019. advanced analytics in asset management: beyond the buzz. global wealth and asset management practice. [online] available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/financial%20 services/our%20insights/advanced%20analytics%20in%20asset%20management%20beyond%20the%20buzz/ advanced-analytics-in-asset-management-vf.pdf. [accessed 19 february 2024]. garratt, p., 2021. nhs providers growing maintenance backlog across the nhs estate. [online] available at: https:// www.nationalhealthexecutive.com/articles/nhs-providers-growing-maintenance-backlog-estate. [accessed 19 may 2024]. neely, a., richards, h., mills, j., platts, k. and bourne, m., 1997. designing performance measures: a structured approach. international journal of operations and production management, [e-journal] 17(11), pp.1131-52. https://doi. org/10.1108/01443579710177888 nguyen, t.a. and tran, t.v., 2024. building information modeling (bim) for construction project schedule management: a review. engineering technology applied sciences research, 14(2), pp.13133–42. pan, y. and zhang, l., 2023. integrating bim and ai for smart construction management: current status and future directions. archives of computational methods in engineering, [e-journal] 30, pp.1081–10. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s11831-022-09830-8 re cecconi, f., dejaco, m.c., moretti, n., mannino, a. and blanco cadena, j.d., 2020. digital asset management. in: daniotti, b., gianinetto, m., della torre, s., eds. digital transformation of the design, construction and management processes of the built environment. research for development. cham: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-335700_22 royal institution of chartered surveyors (rics), 2021. strategic public sector property asset management. 3rd ed. london, uk: rics. johnny, o. and trovati, m., 2019. big data inconsistencies: a literature review. in: xhafa, f., barolli, l. and greguš, m., eds. advances in intelligent networking and collaborative systems. incos 2018. lecture notes on data engineering and communications technologies, (23). cham: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98557-2_45 rashmi, m., william, p., yogeesh, n. and girija, d.k., 2023. blockchain-based cloud storage using secure and decentralised solution. in: chaki, n., roy, n.d., debnath, p. and saeed, k., eds. proceedings of international conference on data analytics and insights, icdai 2023. singapore: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3878-0_23 schleicher, j. and bach, p.m., 2016. digital asset management: content architectures, project management, and creating order out of media chaos. 2nd ed. burlington, ma: focal press. smith, a., johnson, r. and brown, t., 2017. automated metadata extraction for digital asset management: a case study. journal of asset information management, 12(4), pp.345-61. støre-valen, m. and lohne, j., 2016. analysis of assessment methodologies suitable for building performance. facilities, [e-journal] 34. pp.726-47. https://doi.org/10.1108/f-12-2014-0103 wanigarathna, n., jones, k., bell, a. and kapogiannis, g., 2019. building information modelling to support maintenance management of healthcare-built assets. facilities, [e-journal] 37. https://doi.org/10.1108/f-01-2018-0012 wsp, 2024. enterprise asset management for the port of new york and new jersey. [online] available at: https://www.wsp. com/en-us/projects/enterprise-asset-management-for-the-port-of-new-york-and-new-jersey. [accessed 19 may 2024]. alkhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202493 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-54568-9_11 https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/financial%20services/our%20insights/advanced%20analytics%20in%20asset%20management%20beyond%20the%20buzz/advanced-analytics-in-asset-management-vf.pdf https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/financial%20services/our%20insights/advanced%20analytics%20in%20asset%20management%20beyond%20the%20buzz/advanced-analytics-in-asset-management-vf.pdf https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/industries/financial%20services/our%20insights/advanced%20analytics%20in%20asset%20management%20beyond%20the%20buzz/advanced-analytics-in-asset-management-vf.pdf https://www.nationalhealthexecutive.com/articles/nhs-providers-growing-maintenance-backlog-estate https://www.nationalhealthexecutive.com/articles/nhs-providers-growing-maintenance-backlog-estate https://doi.org/10.1108/01443579710177888 https://doi.org/10.1108/01443579710177888 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11831-022-09830-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11831-022-09830-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33570-0_22 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33570-0_22 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98557-2_45 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-3878-0_23 https://doi.org/10.1108/f-12-2014-0103 https://doi.org/10.1108/f-01-2018-0012 https://www.wsp.com/en-us/projects/enterprise-asset-management-for-the-port-of-new-york-and-new-jersey https://www.wsp.com/en-us/projects/enterprise-asset-management-for-the-port-of-new-york-and-new-jersey vnuk, l., koronios, a. and gao, j., 2012. managing metadata towards enhanced data quality in asset management. in: mathew, j., ma, l., tan, a., weijnen, m. and lee, j., eds. engineering asset management and infrastructure sustainability. london: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-493-7_76 puravanjkara, d., 2007. strategic analysis of the coca-cola company. mba. simon fraser university. scikiq, 2023. the rise of active metadata: enhancing decision-making in real-time. [blog] available at: https://scikiq. com/blog/the-rise-of-active-metadata-enhancing-decision-making-in-real-time. [accessed 19 may 2024]. zhou, d., 2023. research on intelligent digital management model of metropolitan museum of art in the era of “cloud exhibition-visit.” in: li, x., yuan, c. and kent, j., eds. proceedings of the 6th international conference on economic management and green development. applied economics and policy studies. singapore: springer. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-981-19-7826-5_92 xu, t., shi, h., shi, y. and you, j., 2024. from data to data asset: conceptual evolution and strategic imperatives in the digital economy era. asia pacific journal of innovation and entrepreneurship, [e-journal] 18(1), pp.2-20. https://doi. org/10.1108/apjie-10-2023-0195 alkhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202494 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-85729-493-7_76 https://scikiq.com/blog/the-rise-of-active-metadata-enhancing-decision-making-in-real-time https://scikiq.com/blog/the-rise-of-active-metadata-enhancing-decision-making-in-real-time https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7826-5_92 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-7826-5_92 https://doi.org/10.1108/apjie-10-2023-0195 https://doi.org/10.1108/apjie-10-2023-0195 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: pasqual, i. r., ekanayake, l. 2025. win– win approach to subcontracting in building construction: sri lankan perspective. construction economics and building, 25:3/4, 339–357. hhttps://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v25i3/4.9573 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article win– win approach to subcontracting in building construction: sri lankan perspective imasha r. pasqual1,2,*, lesly ekanayake3 1 department of civil engineering, university of moratuwa, sri lanka, irpasqual@gmail.com 2 department of civil engineering, sri lanka institute of information technology, sri lanka, imasha.p@sliit.lk 3 department of civil engineering, university of moratuwa, sri lanka, lesly@uom.lk corresponding author: imasha r. pasqual, department of civil engineering, sri lanka institute of information technology, sri lanka, imasha.p@sliit.lk doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9573 article history: received 29/01/2025; revised 22/09/2025; accepted 13/10/2025; published 05/12/2025 abstract subcontracting has long been studied due to subcontractors’ critical role in construction. however, significant issues persist, especially in developing countries like sri lanka, impacting project performance. these issues between main contractors and subcontractors stem from a lack of mitigation methods incorporating relationship management into traditional practices. furthermore, most prior mitigation strategies are not favorable to both parties. this research aims to develop a “win– win” approach to subcontracting, focusing on relationship and performance management, specifically applicable to building construction. a mixedmethod research approach was employed, involving literature review, questionnaire survey, and semistructured interviews. quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, while qualitative data were analyzed thematically. findings reveal that effectively managing critical factors that influence both subcontracting relationships and subcontractor performance can lead to mutually beneficial outcomes. the study identified critical factors affecting the subcontracting relationship as mutual trust, good communication, and a clear understanding of the work scope by the subcontractor, while for subcontractor performance, the critical factors include time and cost management capabilities of the subcontractor, the availability of finance and working capital for both parties, and issues such as material price increase and inflation rate when subcontractors supply materials. the findings emphasize that prioritizing mutual satisfaction throughout the subcontracting 339 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i4.8078 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9573 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9573 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:irpasqual@gmail.com mailto:imasha.p@sliit.lk mailto:lesly@uom.lk mailto:imasha.p@sliit.lk https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9573 process is essential for implementation. recommendations provided in this study aim to improve these critical factors, offering practical solutions to enhance project efficiency and individual performance. this research provides valuable insights for developing organizational policies or industry guidelines, particularly for the unique challenges being faced in developing countries. keywords developing countries; construction project management; performance management; relationship management; subcontractor partnership introduction subcontractors have emerged as pivotal stakeholders in the construction industry, with main contractors being increasingly reliant on their specialized expertise and resources. the complex and dynamic nature of modern construction projects renders it inefficient and economically impractical for general contractors to maintain a fulltime workforce of skilled workers or possess the specialized equipment required for every task (de graaf et al., 2023). as a result, subcontracting has become a strategic imperative to optimize resource allocation, reduce costs, and enhance operational flexibility (mahmoudi and javed, 2022). the significance of subcontracting is particularly pronounced in contexts like sri lanka, where labor shortages pose substantial challenges to project timelines and budgets (manoharan et al., 2020). moreover, the inherent volatility of the construction sector necessitates strategic partnerships to mitigate risks associated with market fluctuations (shishehgarkhaneh et al., 2024). subcontractors have thus evolved into the most important resource available to main contractors, contributing significantly to project success over the past decade ( jin et al., 2013). given the increasing substantial role of subcontractors, many studies have examined the dynamics of the main contractor– subcontractor relationship in recent decades (chiang, 2009; tan et al., 2017). these studies have found numerous issues that continue to affect the subcontracting landscape in construction (arditi and chotibhongs, 2005; martin and benson, 2021). however, previous research has often proposed unilateral solutions that fail to adequately address the complex interplay of interests between the two parties. prior studies have established the critical influence of the main contractor– subcontractor relationship on overall project performance (abeysekara and mclean, 2001; choudhry et al., 2012; inayat et al., 2015; tan et al., 2017; mudzvokorva et al., 2020). consequently, comprehending and managing the factors that shape this relationship is essential for achieving project objectives. however, traditional performance management approaches have fallen short in fostering mutually beneficial subcontract relationships. this may explain why, despite extensive research on subcontract management since the early 1990s, significant grievances between the two parties persist in the construction industry to this date. accordingly, recent research highlights the need for a balanced approach that integrates relationship management and performance management. this study aims to address this gap by developing a win– win approach that prioritizes the interests of both main contractors and subcontractors. drawing on a conceptual framework proposed in prior literature, the research investigates the critical factors influencing their relationship and performance to provide actionable insights for enhancing collaboration and project outcomes. in order to gain a more holistic understanding, a mixedmethod research approach was employed for this study, encompassing a literature review, a questionnaire survey, and semistructured interviews. the findings of this study are expected to contribute to the advancement of construction management practices in developing countries like sri lanka, where the construction sector plays a vital role in economic growth (lewis, 2008). by fostering stronger and more productive main contractor– subcontractor relationships, this research intends to enhance project delivery, reduce costs, and ultimately contribute to pasqual and ekanayake construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025340 strengthening the national economy of developing countries through improvement in the construction sector. literature review the complexities of subcontractor management the construction industry has a long history of employing subcontractors, but the nature of these relationships has evolved over time. traditionally, subcontracting was characterized by adversarial dynamics, with main contractors holding significant power over subcontractors (shimizu and cardoso, 2002). one of the earliest studies by hinze and tracey (1994) found that subcontractors often felt that the main contractors did not have the best interests of the subcontractors in mind. however, another perspective emerges in a subsequent study by kale and arditi (2001), who revealed that the main contractors have a favorable view of maintaining highquality relationships with subcontractors. while these contrasting views highlight the complexities of subcontracting, the challenges are particularly pronounced in developing countries like sri lanka, where the subcontracting environment remains largely informal. a study conducted by chamara, et al. (2015) revealed a significant gap existing between the required level of performance and the current performance level of subcontractors. more recently, deep, et al. (2023) discovered that relationships between main contractors and subcontractors still remain at arm’s length. accordingly, when proposing a “win– win” approach to subcontracting, it is pertinent to consider the complex nature of subcontract management. the evolution of subcontractor management research has extensively explored various aspects of subcontractor management to address prevalent industry challenges (olsson, 1998; loosemore and andonakis, 2007; enshassi et al., 2008; piasny and pasławski, 2015; rodrigo and perera, 2016; assaad et al., 2020). traditionally, a performancebased approach dominated subcontractor management strategies. however, a growing body of research has emphasized the importance of relationship management alongside performance metrics (manu et al., 2015; fagbenle et al., 2018). thomas and flynn (2011) were among the first to propose a dualpronged approach, encompassing both work and people management, to manage subcontractors effectively. the construction industry has increasingly recognized the value of relationship management, particularly considering its correlation with project performance (meng, 2012). while performance metrics remain crucial, relationshipdriven management fosters collaboration and productivity. meng (2012) further suggested that performance management is frequently used at the operational level, while relationship management is helpful at a strategic level. this integrated approach surpasses traditional project management methodologies. strategic partnering has emerged as a complementary strategy to relationship management to enhance project outcomes (meng, 2012). partnering is defined as a strategic, longterm collaboration focused on cost reduction and efficiency (harris et al., 2021). while early research suggested a general industry willingness to embrace partnering (black et al., 2000), challenges such as differing perspectives and traditional, arm’s length relationships have hindered its widespread implementation (dainty et al., 2001; greenwood, 2001). however, partnering has gained traction in the construction industry in recent years due to its perceived organizational advantages (elsayegh and eladaway, 2021). its effectiveness, nonetheless, remains dependent upon mutual trust and understanding. despite these obstacles, the potential benefits of partnering make it a valuable component when developing a “win– win” approach to subcontracting. pasqual and ekanayake construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025341 risk management in subcontracting risk management has emerged as a critical component of effective subcontractor management due to the inherent uncertainties within construction projects. research has examined the relationship between risk management and subcontractor performance, highlighting its potential to mitigate challenges and foster positive relationships (perera et al., 2016; lee et al., 2018). a balanced approach that considers the perspectives of both main contractors and subcontractors is essential for equitable risk allocation. lee, et al. (2018) proposed a win– win strategy for a sustainable relationship between the main contractor and the subcontractor based on the identified subcontracting risks related to the partnership and performance. the “win– win” strategy is a wellknown negotiation philosophy in which all parties to an agreement or a deal stand to realize their fair share (<100%) of the benefits and/or profits. the xaxis of the proposed win– win strategy matrix was the partnership degree, while the yaxis was the subcontractor’s performance in terms of cost, time, and quality of a project. it was portrayed from this matrix that to achieve a “win– win” outcome, both the partnership and the performance need to be positive. this proposed strategy matrix also illustrated three other possibilities in addition to the “win– win” quartile. when both the performance and partnership were weak, it produced the worstcase scenario where both parties lost. if only the performance were strong, then the relationship would be projectbased and would not last beyond the specific project. if only the relationship were strong, then the project performance would suffer. therefore, lee, et al. (2018) stated that both parties must focus on the lacking factor to improve both projectbased and relationbased scenarios. however, this study has one significant limitation. it investigated a win– win strategy solely based on the view of the subcontractor. since the main contractor traditionally holds the position of power in subcontracting ( jin et al., 2013), and still continues to do so a decade later, validating the findings from the main contractors is important for this study to be more meaningful and reliable. therefore, this research study intends to develop this existing concept built on the foundation of risk management by integrating key concepts discussed in this literature review, such as relationship management and performance management, while prioritizing the mutual benefits of both parties. research methodology scope of the study prior studies have employed diverse classification schemes for subcontractors (shimizu and cardoso, 2002; tesha and luvara, 2017). in this study, the term “subcontractor” is used to represent nonspecialized civil subcontractors carrying out basic activities of a building project, such as formwork, masonry, and concrete work. no other distinctions, such as domestic, nominated, and named subcontractors, were made. as the findings of the study by lee, et al. (2018) established the perceptions of the subcontractors for a “win– win” strategy in subcontracting, this study focused on the view of the main contractors to validate and further develop this concept for subcontracting. in sri lanka, all contractors involved in construction are required to register with the construction industry development authority (cida), which grades them primarily on their financial capacity. accordingly, sri lankan contractors with a high cida grading (c1 to cs2) for buildings were approached for the questionnaire on the basis that they were predominantly involved in building projects as main contractors. at the time of the study, 38 such organizations were eligible to participate. since the representatives of the main contractor based in the head office and site may have varying opinions about subcontracting, this study tried to examine the opinions of both decisionmakers at the head office and project managers at the site. pasqual and ekanayake construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025342 research approach and design of study to achieve the objective of this study, the survey method has been predominantly adopted in this mixed method research design. first, an extensive review of prior literature was carried out. figure 1 presents the key concept of the “win– win” approach to subcontracting, adapted from lee, et al. (2018) to the context of the sri lankan construction industry. certain terms and labels were modified to reflect local terminology. as aforementioned, the three scenarios outside the win– win quadrant of the matrix are neither sustainable nor beneficial for the project and both parties: the main contractor and subcontractor. this framework guided the development of the questionnaire and semistructured interview guide, particularly in identifying and categorizing factors affecting relationship and subcontractor performance. figure 1. key concept of the “win– win” approach to subcontracting thereafter, the preliminary questionnaire was designed by referring to the previous research relevant to this study (perera et al., 2016; lee et al., 2018). the questionnaire was then refined through a pilot study involving five industry experts representing diverse roles in project management, quantity surveying, and civil engineering. their feedback led to the removal of factors deemed irrelevant to the sri lankan context, rewording of items to reflect local terminology, and explicit clarification of terms such as “win– win outcome”, “bid shopping”, and “subcontractor”. to enhance comprehension, plain english was used, several items were combined to reduce respondent fatigue, and the questionnaire structure was reorganized for better flow. these refinements ensured clarity, contextual relevance, and practicality of the final questionnaire distributed in the study. the finalized questionnaire was developed using google forms. it comprised four sections, including respondent demographics, the ranking of identified factors on a 5point likert scale separately for relationship and subcontractor performance, overall opinions on the win– win approach proposed in this study, and perceptions regarding its potential implementation in the industry. the questionnaire was pasqual and ekanayake construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025343 distributed online via email to 38 eligible organizations. to minimize potential bias, decisionmakers representing diverse backgrounds from the head offices of participating organizations were invited to respond to the questionnaire at this stage. each organization was encouraged to nominate at least two employees, aiming for a total of 76 responses. followup reminders were sent to maximize participation. due to its anonymous nature, it was not possible to determine which organizations had responded; however, the number of responses indicated that some organizations submitted multiple entries while others did not respond. data collection was closed when a 58% response rate was achieved, exceeding the 35% benchmark that baruch (1999) suggested for studies involving top management. the responses were organized in excel and analyzed using the spss software. the questionnaire was administered before the semistructured interviews to identify and prioritize key factors through quantitative ranking, thereby providing a structured basis for the subsequent qualitative phase. the ranking of the identified factors informed the flow of the interviews, where the interview guide was organized according to the relative criticality of factors revealed from the quantitative analysis. according to saunders, et al. (2009), semistructured interviews provide opportunities to “probe” answers and, therefore, can add significance and depth to the data obtained from the questionnaire. the outline of the semistructured interview had openended questions, as they encouraged interviewees to provide developmental answers. moreover, according to easterbysmith, et al. (2021), open questions can assist in avoiding bias. interviewees were shown the categorization of the identified factors into least critical, less critical, critical, more critical, and most critical categories by the questionnaire respondents separately for relationship and subcontractor performance. then, they were encouraged to give their opinion regarding the categorization, how these factors can be improved at the site, and any other remarks they may have. the overall opinion of the interviewee regarding the proposed “win– win” approach to subcontracting was also explored, together with their opinion on the possibility of implementation and ways to improve the implementation process. although a common outline was followed, the semistructured format allowed flexibility for deeper exploration, and both english and sinhala were used based on interviewee preference. managers generally prefer to be interviewed rather than complete a questionnaire, especially when the interview topic is relevant and interesting to their current work (saunders et al., 2009). moreover, fewer participants are considered satisfactory when testing the applicability of an existing theory in order to develop it to better suit the testing surroundings through interviews (saunders et al., 2009). accordingly, the same 38 organizations were contacted to request interviews with their project managers. from the organizations that responded, five project managers were selected to represent the population, taking into account logistical considerations and time constraints. the interviews were audiorecorded and transcribed verbatim. the qualitative data were then analyzed using thematic analysis, a widely accepted method for identifying, coding, and categorizing patterns and themes within qualitative data (braun and clarke, 2006). transcripts were manually reviewed, coded, and sorted to identify recurring themes and insights related to the research objectives. while the analysis was performed manually, it followed a systematic approach consistent with qualitative research standards. for transparency, coding was crosschecked and organized in microsoft excel, facilitating the grouping of responses under thematic categories. accordingly, both quantitative and qualitative data were collected and analyzed separately in this research study. results and discussion demographics the demographic profiles of the questionnaire respondents and the interviewees of semistructured interviews are presented in table 1. this information helped understand the characteristics of study pasqual and ekanayake construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025344 table 1. characteristics of the study participants question response percentage questionnaire respondents cida grading (for buildings) of the affiliated organization cs2 50 cs1 5 c1 45 work experience in building construction (years) <5 14 5– 10 27 >10 59 experience as a subcontractor in building construction yes 59 no 41 educational background civil engineering 39 quantity surveying 18 project management 18 accounting/finance 11 architecture 7 construction law 7 current designation chairman/director 13 contract manager 7 construction manager 34 finance manager 10 chief quantity surveyor 14 design manager 7 general manager 14 interview participants cida grading (for buildings) of the affiliated organization cs2 60 c1 40 total experience (years) <10 40 10– 20 20 >20 40 pasqual and ekanayake construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025345 participants and how they may have impacted the findings while also indicating diverse backgrounds representative of the broader population of industry professionals. questionnaire findings first, a reliability analysis was conducted to find the internal consistency of factors included in the questionnaire by calculating cronbach’s alpha (cronbach, 1951) as shown in table 2. since the values of both questionnaire sections exceeded 0.7, the factors chosen for the survey were internally consistent (nunnally and bernstein, 1978). table 2. reliability analysis of the questionnaire section of questionnaire no. of factors cronbach’s alpha internal consistency what factors critically affect the relationship between main contractors and subcontractors? 15 0.909 excellent what factors critically affect the performance of the subcontractors? 15 0.863 good thereafter, the relative importance index was calculated following the methodology adapted from gündüz and özdemir (2013). the factors were then categorized into five sections using quintilebased classification, as illustrated in figures 2 and 3. notably, the questionnaire respondents perceived the performance factors as more critical than the relationship factors. this quintile categorization of the 15 factors, as seen in table 3, formed the basis for the outline of the semistructured interview. all questionnaire respondents unanimously agreed that the management of factors affecting the relationship between the main contractor and subcontractor, as well as the performance of the subcontractor, would result in a “win– win” outcome, which validates the basis of this research study. in the concluding remarks, questionnaire respondents stated that, according to their experience, it is possible to implement this approach in the building construction industry of sri lanka. however, two respondents noted that implementation is difficult because of the prevalent attitude in the industry and poor understanding among the main contractors and subcontractors. these statements were examined in detail during the semistructured interviews to obtain a better understanding. question response percentage work experience in sri lanka (years) <10 40 10– 20 40 >20 20 experience as a subcontractor in building construction yes 100 educational background civil engineering 100 note: cida, construction industry development authority. table 1. continued pasqual and ekanayake construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025346 semistructured interview findings according to the comments made by the interviewees, the criticality of the factors was revised, as seen in figures 4 and 5. some factors deemed less than critical were excluded, while factors closely associated were combined after the interview findings. the subsequent sections of the semistructured interviews included an indepth exploration of these factors, along with recommendations from experienced project managers in the sri lankan construction figure 2. relative importance index of factors critical for the subcontracting relationship figure 3. relative importance index of factors critical for the performance of the subcontractor pasqual and ekanayake construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025347 table 3. categorization as per questionnaire respondents factor rii rank categorization what factors critically affect the relationship between main contractors and subcontractors? 1 fairness when the main contractor is selecting the subcontractor 0.63 6 less critical 2 main contractor engaging in the practice of bid shopping 0.48 1 least critical 3 the type of subcontract (measure and pay, lump sum, etc.) and payment conditions 0.59 3 least critical 4 conditions regarding the retention in the subcontract 0.60 5 less critical 5 timeliness of progress payments to the subcontractor 0.70 10 more critical 6 fairness in profit sharing from variations and extra work 0.71 12 more critical 7 clear understanding of the work scope by the subcontractor 0.72 13 most critical 8 clear distribution of responsibilities during subcontracting 0.68 9 critical 9 adequate distribution of authority during subcontracting 0.60 5 less critical 10 flexibility and cooperation of the main contractor during subcontracting 0.71 12 more critical 11 active participation of the main contractor during subcontracting 0.68 9 critical 12 differences in business management styles between the main contractor and the subcontractor 0.49 2 least critical 13 management capability of the main contractor 0.67 7 critical 14 good communication between the main contractor and the subcontractor 0.74 15 most critical 15 mutual trust between the main contractor and the subcontractor 0.74 15 most critical what factors critically affect the performance of the subcontractors? 1 political support for the main contractor and the project 0.50 1 least critical 2 legislation and policy changes in sri lanka 0.67 5 less critical 3 fluctuation of the inflation rate when the material is supplied by the subcontractor 0.72 8 critical 4 price increase of materials when the material is supplied by the subcontractor 0.79 13 most critical 5 adequate bid preparation time given to the subcontractor 0.69 6 less critical 6 unforeseen weather conditions 0.67 5 less critical 7 unforeseen geotechnical conditions 0.64 3 least critical pasqual and ekanayake construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025348 industry on how they could be effectively managed at project sites. the recommendations obtained are summarized in tables 4 and 5. apart from the aforementioned critical factors, project managers highlighted additional considerations for successful subcontracting in building construction projects in sri lanka. the importance of selecting factor rii rank categorization 8 availability of finance/working capital for the main contractor and subcontractor 0.81 14 most critical 9 design errors, late design changes, specialized design, etc., in the project 0.78 12 more critical 10 time and cost management capability of the subcontractor 0.84 15 most critical 11 document management capability of the subcontractor 0.72 8 critical 12 expertise of the subcontractor staff 0.76 11 more critical 13 use of new technology/methods by the subcontractor 0.73 10 more critical 14 adequate claim and arbitration provisions in the subcontract 0.63 2 least critical 15 safety management capability of the subcontractor 0.72 8 critical note: rii, relative importance index. table 3. continued •mutual trust between the main contractor and the subcontractor. •good communication between the main contractor and the subcontractor. •clear understanding of the work scope by the subcontractor. most critical •flexibility, cooperation and active participation of the main contractor during subcontracting. •fairness in profit sharing from variations and extra works. •timeliness of progress payments to the subcontractor. more critical •clear distribution of responsibilities during subcontracting. •management capability of the main contractor. critical figure 4. critical factors for the subcontracting relationship pasqual and ekanayake construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025349 table 4. recommendations for managing critical factors affecting the relationship factor recommendations most critical factors mutual trust between the main contractor and the subcontractor. • paying the subcontractor on time as agreed. • taking a humane approach regarding the financial issues of the subcontractor. • initiating and building a sustainable relationship with the subcontractor. good communication between the main contractor and the subcontractor. • scheduling regular facetoface briefings for the subcontractor. • encouraging the subcontractor to communicate any concerns they may have. • being cautious when communicating technical information. • intercepting direct communication between the client and the subcontractor. clear understanding of the work scope by the subcontractor. • clearly defining the scope and requirements (especially regarding safety, quality, site cleaning, etc.). • including the scope clearly in the contract, especially when the scope is complex. • explaining the scope verbally in detail to the subcontractor from the beginning. •time and cost management capability of the subcontractor. •availability of finance/working capital for main contractor and subcontractor. •price increase of materials and fluctuation of inflation rate when material is supplied by the subcontractor. most critical •design errors, late design changes, specialised design, etc., in the project. •expertise of the subcontractor staff. •use of new technology/methods by the subcontractor. more critical •document management capability of the subcontractor. •safety management capability of the subcontractor. critical figure 5. critical factors for the performance of the subcontractor pasqual and ekanayake construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025350 a suitable subcontractor cannot be overstressed, as it is the first step in building a good relationship between the main contractor and the subcontractor. once the relationship is initiated, top priority should be given to financial aspects when building a sustainable relationship, as it is a motivating factor for the subcontractors. timely payments and fair compensation for idle time are crucial for fostering positive subcontractor relationships. while unforeseen circumstances can impact project timelines, subcontractors should not be expected to bear the financial burden disproportionately. main contractors must prioritize the financial wellbeing of subcontractors, recognizing their limited capacity to absorb additional costs. this factor recommendations more critical factors flexibility, cooperation, and active participation of the main contractor during subcontracting. • scheduling regular progress review meetings to discuss ongoing issues and to set targets. • monitoring a weekly program through daily meetings. • assigning one supervisor to closely monitor and aid the subcontractor. • providing material, labor, or equipment in a flexible manner if the subcontractor is struggling to meet the targets. • implementing a site policy to manage the subcontracting relationship, similar to a qa/qc policy. fairness in profit sharing from variations and extra work. • discussing conditions regarding variations and extra work at the beginning. • including the agreed conditions in the contract. • considering the cost related to the subcontractor when the main contractor is submitting rates to the client. • assuring a fair return from variations and extra work for the subcontractor. • both parties being reasonable about the profit from variations and extra work. timeliness of progress payments to the subcontractor. • refraining from using backtoback payment conditions to delay payments to the subcontractor. • taking all possible measures, such as providing material, to relieve the subcontractor if payments to the subcontractor are delayed. critical factors clear distribution of responsibilities during subcontracting. • explaining the responsibilities verbally at the beginning. • including a precise distribution of responsibilities in the contract. • using daily meetings to closely monitor until they fully understand their responsibilities. • giving the subcontractor the required rights to execute the responsibilities. management capability of the main contractor. • planning for the whole project and giving directions to subcontractors to stay ahead of the program. • establishing a system to manage the subcontractors. • training the staff of the main contractor on managing subcontractors. table 4. continued pasqual and ekanayake construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025351 table 5. recommendations for managing critical factors affecting the performance factor recommendations most critical factors time and cost management capability of the subcontractor. • monitoring financial and physical progress through regular progress review meetings. • stepping in with instructions if the subcontractor is not meeting the targets. • assisting financially if the reasons for lapses of the subcontractor are tied to financial issues. • arranging training for subcontractors to improve technical aspects that are helpful for time and cost management. availability of finance/ working capital for the main contractor and subcontractor. • establishing a system with the cooperation of relevant authorities to provide a source of finance for subcontractors through banks or micro loan schemes. price increase of materials and fluctuation of the inflation rate when material is supplied by the subcontractor. • giving the subcontractor compensation received by the client through a price adjustment. • if price adjustment is not included in the main contract, keeping an allowance when submitting rates to the client to compensate the subcontractor in case of a price increase. • reasonably compensating the subcontractor in the event of an unforeseen price increase. more critical factors design errors, late design changes, specialized design, etc., in the project. • compensating the subcontractor for idling due to design issues by including a minimum standing fee in the contract. • assigning alternative work during idling times. • claiming for time and cost from the client and giving a fair share of compensation to the subcontractor. expertise of subcontractor staff. • focusing on improving the leadership skills of the subcontractor in addition to expertise. • closely supervising subcontractor staff initially to improve their expertise. use of new technology/methods by the subcontractor. • introducing new technology to subcontractors, especially time saving methodologies. • being cautious of the cost aspect of the new methods introduced. • paying attention to knowledge transfer. critical factors document management capability of the subcontractor. • explaining the importance of document management to the subcontractors. • introducing simple formats for weather charts, daily records, etc., that are suitable and relevant to the level of the subcontractor. • assigning one capable supervisor from the subcontractor staff for recordkeeping. • training and guiding the assigned supervisor to manage documents. • providing the subcontractor with an office space and stationery at the site. pasqual and ekanayake construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025352 includes avoiding practices that shift costs to subcontractors, such as delaying payment claims, to maintain a cordial relationship with the client. a win– win approach necessitates mutual understanding and respect, with main contractors recognizing that their relationships with both the client and the subcontractor are equally important. implementing regular rate adjustments for subcontractors can help mitigate the impact of inflation and encourage lasting relationships in developing countries like sri lanka. it is also critical to never assume that subcontractors have the same practices and the same level of knowledge as the main contractor. many issues can be avoided throughout the project by clearly explaining what is expected from the subcontractor. in developing countries, due attention must also be given to the contract between the main contractor and subcontractor. it can be observed that many subcontractors are not employed under a formal contract in sri lanka, although having a detailed contract is helpful to both parties. it may encourage the subcontractor to formalize the subcontracting relationship if a system is established by the relevant government institutions, departments in universities, and construction associations to provide free legal consultations for the subcontractor when drawing up contracts. furthermore, similar to the questionnaire respondents, interviewees also agreed that it is possible to implement a “win– win” approach to subcontracting to building construction projects in sri lanka if some challenges are overcome. they stated that the way main contractors treat the subcontractors in the industry is changing, primarily due to the high demand for subcontractors. therefore, main contractors are trying to retain the subcontractors by building sustainable relationships. they also noted that it is important that the subcontractor reciprocates and makes an effort to maintain the relationship with the main contractor. thus, the approach developed in this research study can be implemented step by step in the industry. conclusions the findings of this study underscore the equally critical role of effective relationship management and performance management in achieving a win– win scenario for both main contractors and subcontractors in developing countries like sri lanka. the identified critical factors and the recommendations in the study contribute to the existing body of knowledge and can act as a catalyst to change the subcontracting landscape of developing countries like sri lanka. by fostering strong, collaborative relationships, both main contractors and subcontractors can reap substantial benefits. this proposed approach not only enhances project efficiency but also drives individual performance improvement. thus, it can be used not only as a framework for planning but also as an assessment tool for subcontracting. it can also be further developed as a policy to be adapted for subcontracting by an organization or as guidance for the relevant authorities to formalize subcontracting. factor recommendations safety management capability of the subcontractor. • explain safety requirements to the subcontractor at the beginning. • including a safety allowance in the subcontractor rates. • regularly conveying the importance of safety at toolbox meetings. • arranging for monthly safety training. • implementing motivation methods like a zeroaccident bonus and reward system for exemplary laborers. • encouraging good housekeeping, cleanliness, good behavior, etc. • enforcing penalties if motivation methods are not effective. table 5. continued pasqual and ekanayake construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025353 main contractors must recognize the importance of subcontractor development as a catalyst for long term success. conversely, subcontractors must demonstrate reliability and a shared commitment to project success. this win– win dynamic is predicated on trust and respect. when taking any measures to manage any factor that affects the relationship or the performance of subcontractors, both the main contractor and the subcontractor must consider the other party’s satisfaction. this is the core principle of the proposed “win– win” approach to subcontracting. as discovered in this study, implementing this approach requires an attitude change and a cultural shift toward a collaborative relationship throughout the industry. while survey responses suggest that performance is still considered more important than relationships, it is also crucial to reiterate that this “win– win” approach necessitates equal emphasis on both parameters. since this study focused only on building projects in sri lanka, further studies are required to test the applicability of this approach to other sectors of construction. it is also important to conduct additional studies to gather the opinions of different types of subcontractors in construction regarding this approach. in addition, it would also be beneficial to conduct indepth research on how to manage each identified critical factor in accordance with the proposed “win– win” approach and follow up with case studies that implement the recommendations given in this research study. addressing these limitations in future studies would greatly benefit in further developing the practicality of the “win– win” approach proposed in this study for construction in developing countries like sri lanka. references abeysekera, v., & mclean, c. (2001). project success and relationships from a stakeholder perspective: a pilot study. in proceedings of the 17th annual arcom conference, 5-7. salford: association of researchers in construction management. https://www.arcom.ac.uk/-docs/proceedings/ar2001-485-494_abeysekera_and_mclean.pdf arditi, d., & chotibhongs, r. (2005). issues in subcontracting practice. journal of construction engineering and management, 131(8), 866-876. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:8(866) assaad, r., elsayegh, a., ali, g., el-adaway, i., & nabi, m. a. (2020). understanding the sub-contractual relationship for proper management of construction projects. in proceedings of construction research congress 2020, 1119-1128. reston: american society of civil engineers. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784482889.119 baruch, y. (1999). response rate in academic studies: a comparative analysis. human relations, 52(4), 421–438. https:// doi.org/10.1177/001872679905200401 black, c., akintoye, a., & fitzgerald, e. (2000). an analysis of success factors and benefits of partnering in construction. international journal of project management, 18(6), 423-434. https://doi.org/10.1016/s02637863(99)00046-0 braun, v., & clarke, v. (2006). using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa chamara, h. w. l., waidyasekara, k. g. a. s., & mallawaarachchi, h. (2015). evaluating subcontractor performance in the construction industry. in proceedings of the 6th international conference on structural engineering and construction management, 137-147. kandy: international conference on structural engineering and construction management. chiang, y. h. (2009). subcontracting and its ramifications: a survey of the building industry in hong kong. international journal of project management, 27(1), 80-88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.01.005 choudhry, r., hinze, j., arshad, m., & gabriel, h. (2012). subcontracting practices in the construction industry of pakistan. journal of construction engineering and management, 138(12), 1353-1359. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0000562 pasqual and ekanayake construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025354 https://www.arcom.ac.uk/-docs/proceedings/ar2001-485-494_abeysekera_and_mclean.pdf https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:8(866 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784482889.119 https://doi.org/10.1177/001872679905200401 https://doi.org/10.1177/001872679905200401 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(99)00046-0 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(99)00046-0 https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.01.005 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000562 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000562 cronbach, l. j. (1951). coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. psychometrika, 16(3), 297-334. https://doi. org/10.1007/bf02310555 dainty, a. r. j., briscoe, g. h., & millett, s. j. (2001). subcontractor perspectives on supply chain alliances. construction management and economics, 19(8), 841-848. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190110089727 de graaf, r., pater, r., & voordijk, h. (2023). level of sub-contracting design responsibilities in design and construct civil engineering bridge projects. frontiers in engineering and built environment, 3(3), 192-205. https://doi. org/10.1108/febe-12-2022-0045 deep, s., gajendran, t., jefferies, m., & jha, k. n. (2023). developing subcontractor–general contractor relationships in the construction industry: constructs and scales for analytical decision making. journal of construction engineering and management, 149(12), 04023136. https://doi.org/10.1061/jcemd4.coeng-13630 easterby-smith, m., jaspersen, l. j., thorpe, r., & valizade, d. (2021). management and business research. sage. elsayegh, a., & el-adaway, i. h. (2021). holistic study and analysis of factors affecting collaborative planning in construction. journal of construction engineering and management, 147(4), 04021023. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0002031 enshassi, a., choudhry, r. m., mayer, p. e., & shoman, y. (2008). safety performance of subcontractors in the palestinian construction industry. journal of construction in developing countries, 13(1), 51-62. fagbenle, o., joshua, o., afolabi, a., ojelabi, r., fagbenle, o., fagbenle, a., & akomolafe, m. (2018). a framework for enhancing contractor-subcontractor relationships in construction projects in nigeria. in proceedings of construction research congress 2018, 305-314. new orleans: american society of civil engineers. https://doi. org/10.1061/9780784481271.030 greenwood, d. (2001). subcontract procurement: are relationships changing?. construction management and economics, 19(1), 5-7. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190010003380 gündüz, m., nielsen, y., & özdemir, m. (2013). quantification of delay factors using the relative importance index method for construction projects in turkey. journal of management in engineering, 29(2), 133-139. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000129 harris, f., mccaffer, r., baldwin, a., & edum-fotwe, f. (2021). modern construction management. wiley. hinze, j., & tracey, a. (1994). the contractor-subcontractor relationship: the subcontractor’s view. journal of construction engineering and management, 120(2), 274-287. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(1994)120:2(274) inayat, a., melhem, h., & esmaeily, a. (2015). critical success factors in an agency construction management environment. journal of construction engineering and management, 141(1), 06014010. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0000921 jin, x. h. s., zhang, g. k., xia, b., & feng, y. (2013). relationship between head contractors and subcontractors in the construction industry: a critical review. in proceedings of the 7th international conference on construction in the 21st century: changes in innovation, integration and collaboration in construction and engineering, 1-8. north carolina: east carolina university. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/281236 kale, s., & arditi, d. (2001). general contractors’ relationships with subcontractors: a strategic asset. construction management and economics, 19(5), 541-549. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2001.9709630 lee, j. k., han, s. h., jang, w., & jung, w. (2018). win-win strategy for a sustainable relationship between general contractors and subcontractors in international construction projects. ksce journal of civil engineering, 22(2), 428-439. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-017-1613-7 pasqual and ekanayake construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025355 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02310555 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02310555 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190110089727 https://doi.org/10.1108/febe-12-2022-0045 https://doi.org/10.1108/febe-12-2022-0045 https://doi.org/10.1061/jcemd4.coeng-13630 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002031 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002031 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784481271.030 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784481271.030 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190010003380 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000129 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000129 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1994)120:2(274 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1994)120:2(274 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000921 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000921 https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/281236 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2001.9709630 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-017-1613-7 lewis, t. m. (2008). quantifying the gdp–construction relationship. in economics for the modern built environment, (54-79). routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203938577.ch2 loosemore, m., & andonakis, n. (2007). barriers to implementing ohs reforms: the experiences of small subcontractors in the australian construction industry. international journal of project management, 25(6), 579-588. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.01.015 mahmoudi, a., & javed, s. a. (2022). performance evaluation of construction sub‐contractors using ordinal priority approach. evaluation and program planning, 91, 102022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2021.102022 manoharan, k., dissanayake, p., pathirana, c., deegahawature, d., & silva, r. (2020). assessment of critical factors influencing the performance of labour in sri lankan construction industry. international journal of construction management, 23(1), 144–155. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1854042 manu, e., ankrah, n., chinyio, e., & proverbs, d. (2015). trust influencing factors in main contractor and subcontractor relationships during projects. international journal of project management, 33(7), 1495-1508. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.06.006 martin, l., & benson, l. (2021). relationship quality in construction projects: a subcontractor perspective of principal contractor relationships. international journal of project management, 39(6), 633-645. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2021.05.002 meng, x. (2012). the effect of relationship management on project performance in construction. international journal of project management, 30(2), 188-198. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.04.002 mudzvokorwa, t., mwiya, b., & mwanaumo, e.m. (2020). improving the contractor-subcontractor relationship through partnering on construction projects in zambia. kicem journal of construction engineering and project management, 10(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.6106/jcepm.2020.10.1.001 nunnally, j. c. & bernstein, i. h. (1978). psychometric theory. 2nd ed. new york: mcgraw-hill. olsson, r. (1998). subcontract coordination in construction. international journal of production economics, 56–57, 503509. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0925-5273(97)00024-8 perera, k.r.s., gunatilake, s., vijerathne, d.t., & wimalasena, n.n. (2016). risk allocation between main contractors and subcontractors in building projects in sri lanka. in proceedings of the 5th world construction symposium 2016: greening environment, eco innovations and entrepreneurship, colombo: ceylon institute of builders and department of building economics, university of moratuwa, 408-419. piasny, j., & pasławski, j. (2015). selection of subcontractors as the quality improvement tool in housing construction. procedia engineering, 122, 274-281. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.10.036 rodrigo, m.n.n., & perera, b.a.k.s. (2016). selection of nominated subcontractors in commercial building construction in sri lanka. in proceedings of the 2016 moratuwa engineering research conference (mercon), moratuwa: institute of electrical and electronics engineering, 210-215. https://doi.org/10.1109/mercon.2016.7480141 saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2009). research methods for business students. uk: prentice hall. shimizu, j.y., & cardoso, f.f. (2002). subcontracting and cooperation network in building construction: a literature review. in proceedings of the 10th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, gramado: the international group for lean construction. shishehgarkhaneh, m. b., moehler, r. c., fang, y., aboutorab, h., & hijazi, a. a. (2024). construction supply chain risk management. automation in construction, 162, 105396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2024.105396 pasqual and ekanayake construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025356 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203938577.ch2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.01.015 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evalprogplan.2021.102022 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1854042 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.06.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.06.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2021.05.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2021.05.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.04.002 https://doi.org/10.6106/jcepm.2020.10.1.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0925-5273(97)00024-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.10.036 https://doi.org/10.1109/mercon.2016.7480141 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2024.105396 tan, y., xue, b., & cheung, y.t. (2017). relationships between main contractors and subcontractors and their impacts on main contractor competitiveness: an empirical study in hong kong. journal of construction engineering and management, 143(7), p.05017007. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001311 tesha, d.n.g.a.k., & luvara, v.g.m. (2017). main contractors’ strategies in managing construction quality of subcontracted works in tanzania. international research journal of engineering and technology, 4(6), 1-17. thomas, h.r., & flynn, c.j. (2011). fundamental principles of subcontractor management. practice periodical on structural design and construction, 16(3), 106-111. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)sc.1943-5576.0000087 pasqual and ekanayake construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025357 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001311 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)sc.1943-5576.0000087 construction economics and building vol. 17, no. 4 december 2017 © 2017 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: mat isa, c.m.b., saman, h.m., and preece, c.n 2017. development of oli+s entry decision model for construction firms in international markets . construction economics and building, 17:4, 66-91. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v17i4.5573 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | ajceb.epress. lib.uts.edu.au research article development of oli+s entry decision model for construction firms in international markets che maznah binti mat isa*1, hamidah mohd saman1, christopher nigel preece2 1 faculty of civil engineering, universiti teknologi mara, shah alam, selangor, malaysia 2 college of engineering, abu dhabi university, united arab emirates *corresponding author: che maznah mat isa, faculty of civil enginering, universiti teknologi mara, shah alam, selangor, malaysia; chema982@uitm.edu.my doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i4.5573 article history: received 13/06/2017; revised 15/07/2017; accepted 18/11/2017; published 07/12/2017 abstract the paper aims to provide a holistic approach to address how construction firms make decisions covering all three domains (location, timing and mode) across country, market, firm and project factors within the ownership, locational and internalisation plus specialty (oli+s) paradigm. questionnaires were administered to 62 project managers based on a sampling frame provided by the construction industry development board malaysia. the findings provide empirical and theoretical insights on how the oli+s model addresses firms’ entry decisions to penetrate international markets. it suggests that the ownership-entry decision factors focus on firms’ internal transferable advantages. the locational-entry decision factors emphasise attractiveness of certain locations where firms decided to invest and operate. the internalisation– entry decision factors emphasise the extent to which firms were able to manipulate their internal competitive assets (firm’s resources and capabilities). finally, the specialty-entry decision factors emphasise on firms’ competency in project management and specialist expertise to handle complex projects based on their previous project experience. an example of construction firms’ unique characteristics, namely, specialty advantages based on the original dunning’s oli eclectic paradigm has been adopted. the established oli+s entry decision model could be investigated to further refine other related internationalisation theory. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 66 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i4.5573 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i4.5573 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i4.5573 http://ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au http://ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au maito:chema982@uitm.edu.my http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i4.5573 keywords construction firms, international markets, entry decision model. introduction the dunning’s eclectic paradigm, or known as the ownership, locational and internalization (oli) theory (dunning, 1988; dunning, 1995; dunning, 2001) has been the subject of extensive interest in the strategy literature in the past decades. the oli theory’s first evolution was in the mid-1950s and suggested that the entry decisions into international markets are influenced by the oli advantages (dunning, 2001). subsequently, low and jiang (2004) have incorporated a “specialty” or s-advantages into their research framework known as ownership, locational and internalization plus specialty or oli+s framework which became the basis of this study. within the context of this paper, the oli theory states that a firm’s decision to internationalize and to choose the entry mode are motivated by the ownership, locational and internalization advantages, which reflect the entry timing, location and mode decisions by firms in international markets, respectively. when construction firms decided to enter a specific location in international markets, they must then decide a suitable timing and an appropriate mode of entry to be adopted in their operations. thus, assessing these three decisions is a continuous process and has important implications on the long-term and short-term financial positions of the firms. even though many international construction researchers have incorporated the oli eclectic paradigm which include seymour (1987), cuervo and pheng (2003), low, jiang and leong (2004), rahman (2014), wong and abdul‐aziz (2009), abdul-aziz and awil (2010), abdul aziz et al. (2011) and gabriel (2014), they did not consider the specialty advantages in their studies as introduced by low and jiang (2004). there are different combinations of entry decision models developed and proposed by previous researchers. koch (2001a; 2001b) proposed a market entry and mode selection (mems) model which combined the entry location and mode decisions to accommodate various business contexts, meanwhile zhu, et al. (2012) demonstrated the patterns of the entry location and timing decisions for service sectors, such as hotel and banking. in addition, somlev and hoshino (2005) found that entry locational factors have strong predictive power for mode of establishment and ownership choice of a sample of manufacturing subsidiaries of japanese multi-national enterprises (mnes). sivakumar (2002) developed a mathematical modelling for companies going abroad that integrates simultaneous entry timing and mode decisions through numerical simulations instead of an empirical research. using four portugal construction contractors, neves and bugalho (2008) studied to entry mode decision or autonomy of local subsidiaries and the entry location decision based on the effectiveness of localization which have positively influenced the contractors’ performance. ling, ibbs and cuervo (2005) focused only on entry mode as one of the business strategies of firms in china, while jung, et al. (2012) analysed the effects of entry mode (strategic alliance) on korean contractors’ international performance. other studies have incorporated all three entry decisions in their models but not as simultaneous decisions (alcácer, dezső, and zhao, 2015; che senik, et al., 2010; ellis, 2007; gabriel, 2014; gallego, et al., 2009; huang and sternquist, 2007; tjosevik and refsland, 2012). even though the studies by gallego et al. (2009) and tjosevik and development of oli+s entry decision model for construction firms in international markets construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201767 refsland (2012) incorporated all three decisions for general firms and high-technology firms, respectively, they only proposed the conceptual models with no empirical evidence provided. alcácer, dezső, and zhao (2015) local learning, and global learning. three equilibrium strategies arise: accommodate, marginalize, and collocate. we identify how these strategies emerge depending on the tradeoff between the opportunity costs of absence (giving competitors a lead in a market developed a similar model to the gallego et al.’s model, but only explained the impacts of the entry location decision on the entry timing and mode decisions and did not consider any common or shared factors influencing all three entry decisions. using a comprehensive two-stage qualitative approach, che senik (2010) studied 70 malaysian small and medium enterprises (smes) steps toward internationalization focusing more on the entry location and mode with less attention in entry timing decision. in most of the past research, the entry location, timing and mode decisions were often studied in silo or combinations of the three entry decisions. explicit views that suggest these three decisions as parts of one simultaneous decision process are not empirically visible. currently there is no theoretical model that allows for the independent variables within the oli+s advantages that significantly explains the entry location, timing and mode simultaneous decisions as the dependent variables.this clearly requires an integrated framework incorporating all three simultaneous entry decision factors to be established for construction firms. literature review the following sub-section explains further on international construction entry decisions adopting the oli theory. international construction entry decisions (location, timing and mode) in relation to oli theory many previous researchers explain situations associated with international market entry decisions using variables namely; entry location, timing and mode decisions (abdul aziz and wong, 2010; asgari, ismail and ahmad, 2009; rahman (2014); fosfuri, lanzolla, and suarez, 2013; kaur and sandhu, 2014; liu, low, and niu, 2011; manley, mcfallan, and kajewski, 2009; musso and francioni, 2009). there were also studies that include both construction and non-construction research have adopted the oli theory to explain the entry location, timing and mode decisions by firms in international markets. (abdul-aziz, 1995; abdul aziz and wong, 2010; cantwell, 2014; jin and deng, 2012; li, 2010; low and jiang, 2004, 2006; tallman, 1993; wong and abdul aziz, 2009; wymbs, 2001; yang and lu, 2013). for example, cantwell (2014) applied the oli eclectic paradigm in relation to building new capabilities which were derived from an interaction between the ownership and locational capabilities due to firm and its home country institutions and also due to other actors in host country at other locations there were also other significant empirical studies relating to the application of the oli eclectic paradigm in international construction (seymour, 1987; abdul aziz and awil, 2010; abdul aziz et al., 2011; rahman, 2014; cuervo and low, 2003; low and jiang, 2006; low and jiang, 2004). these studies examined firms in construction industry in a country or region by identifying their respective oli advantages.an important study was carried out by low and jiang (2006), in which a comparison between chinese isa, saman, and preece construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201768 international and local contractors was made. they found that an international firm is likely to perform well in terms of its ownership advantages when it has a significant advantage on its reputation and its accessibility to resources when compared to local contractors. rahman (2014) deployed the eclectic paradigm of internationalization in their study on the determinants of multinational contractors’ willingness to bid for australian public sector major infrastructure projects. the ownership-advantages are related to the firm specific advantages in its domestic market before contemplating foreign direct investment (fdi), while the locational-advantages includes the size of the market; host governments’ attitudes, polices and regulatory framework; industrial structure; resource and manpower quality and availability; costs of doing business; research and development (r&d) factors and project factors. finally, the internalization-advantages include a more permanent entry mode that naturally occurs in their operations. wong and abdul aziz (2009) established the e3r (relationship, resource and regional factors) model for malaysian construction firms as a holistic approach by consolidating various theories and models including the oli eclectic paradigm focusing on entrepreneurship dimensions.using the eclectic theory, abdul aziz and awil (2010) proposed the locational disadvantages construct to study the challenges related to the demand-related factors faced by malaysian housing developers as the market-seeking firms in international markets. various o-, land iadvantages and disadvantages were found related to different dimensions and constructs (country, market, firm, and project factors) such as regional, home and host country, market demand, market size, policies and regulations, firm’s capabilities, business strategies, networking, resources, research and development, reputation, project performance, etc. the following sub-section focuses on the oli+s advantages with respect to the construction firm’s entry decisions into international markets. enhancement of oli theory oli+s advantages a study that enhanced the oli theory for construction industry was proposed by low, jiang and leong (2004) who incorporated a “specialty” or s-advantages into the (o-irtr), international business distribution (l-ibd), overseas management structure (i-oms) and involvement with specialized fields (s-isf). by estimating the international revenue to total revenue (o-irtr), they found that firms from countries with a relatively small domestic market, (e.g., the framework. the s-advantages relate to the market involvement of a firm among different specialized fields. the proposed oli+s model was only applied to measure the degree of internationalization of multi-national corporations (mncs) using secondary data from the engineering news records (2003)to estimate the firm’s revenue, international business distribution, overseas management structure and specialized fields.the proposed model estimated four different aspects of firm’s internationalization process in terms of the ratio of international revenue to total revenue netherlands and sweden) are more likely to venture into overseas markets to generate revenues to overcome the constraints of their small domestic market and to optimize the use of their ownership advantages.in general, this oli+s model demonstrates that firms under different nationalities exhibit very different patterns in the internationalization process depending on their business strategies, indigenous market situations and historical factors. zhengxing, shengyue and lianwei (2005) have also considered specialty by their engineering technicians and professionals of domestic construction enterprises which development of oli+s entry decision model for construction firms in international markets construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201769 improved their capabilities in international markets. in addition, ling, ibbs and hoo (2006) considered specialty/niche service/product as one of the singaporean construction firms’ business strategies in international markets. however, these studies did not contribute oli+s advantages. recently, liu et al. (2011)adopted the oli+s theory to determine empirically, the challenges and opportunities for cross-border acquisitions that involved 34 chinese construction firms. the findings were based on the objectives, intentions, preparations and impediments of chinese construction enterprises for cross-border acquisitions as the independent variables but did not specifically consider any entry location, timing and mode decision dimension as compared to the current study. in an earlier study, low and jiang (2004) recommended that the proposed oli+s model be adopted for strategic planning and resources at both the country and firm level. thus, to address the gap from the previous study, the current study is carried out on how construction firms make strategic planning and entry market decisions covering all three domains (location, timing and mode) across country, market, firm and project factors within the oli+s paradigm. figure 1 shows a conceptual framework for an integrated decision model for the current study. it is proposed based on the combinations of entry decisions models that were compared and discussed. there are three dependent variables namely: (1) entry location (el) decision to determine the firm’s international business locations (asean and non-asean regions); (2) entry timing (et) decision (either as an early or a late mover to penetrate the chosen market or country) and; (3) entry mode (em) decisions that involve the selection of entry mode adopted (equity and non-equity modes). figure 1 a proposed conceptual framework for eletem decision model a review of the available literature was undertaken to identify the significant factors (independent variables)that influence international market entry decisions of malaysian construction firms. most of the forty-four (44) identified factors are drawn largely from the studies conducted at the developed countries with some from developing countries.these factors were then grouped under four themes: country, market, firm and projects factors that were used in the questionnaire survey are shown in table 1. isa, saman, and preece construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201770 table 1 forty-four (44) identified factors based on previous studies theme factors (authors) c ou nt ry f ac to rs (1 1) attitude and intervention of host governments (owhoso, gleason, mathur, and malgwi, 2002), similarity to host country/market in terms of social, cultural and religious (javernick-will and scott, 2010), proximity to host country (ahmad and kitchen, 2008a), anticipated non-economic risk such as political, technological etc. (he and wei, 2011), anticipated economic risks such as currency fluctuation, interest rate, etc.(zaradiah, 2008), other foreign competitors in the host country (ramayah, mohamad, jaafar, abdul aziz, and wong, 2010), promotion of export efforts of home government (abdul aziz et al., 2011), financial support from home country banks (mat isa, mohd saman, and preece, 2014), trade relationship between two countries (braunerhjelm, oxelheim, and thulin, 2005), diplomatic relationship between two countries (chen, 2005), host government control on licensing, restrictions and other fdi requirements (ozorhon et al., 2010). m ar ke t f ac to rs (6 ) market profit potential/attractiveness (quer, claver, and rosario, 2007), market intensity of competition (gallego et al., 2009), product/ service market growth (korkmaz and messner, 2008), market entry barriers (asgari, ahmad, and gurrib, 2010), availability of innovative and entrepreneurial opportunities in market (schwens and kabst, 2011), construction market demand for finance, labour, material, transport and other utilities (ahmad and kitchen, 2008b) . fi rm f ac to rs (1 4) firm’s size (cuervo-cazurra, 2011), firm’s ability to assess market signals and opportunities (preece, et al., 2016), international experience (majocchi, bacchiocchi, and mayrhofer, 2005), long-term and strategic management orientation/objectives (ozorhon, et al., 2008), superior management and organizational dynamic capabilities (garcía-villaverde, ruiz-ortega, and parra-requena, 2012), financing capacity (chen, 2005), competencies (project management, specialist expertise and technology) (isik, et al., 2010), resources (level of knowledge, and research and development) (abu bakar, razak, and yusof, 2011) , management of risk attitude (chelliah, sulaiman, and pandian, 2010), management of quality (product, service, human resource) (ling and lim, 2010), firm’s performance (profit targets return on investment/sales/assets) (chen, 2005), firm’s performance (knowledge and international experience) (quer, claver, and rosario, 2007), uncertainty avoidance (ozorhon et al., 2008) and international business network (strong relationship with foreign partners in host countries) (forsgren, 2002). p ro je ct f ac to rs (1 3) product differentiation (strong brand name) (fahy, 2002), reputation, track record/competitive advantage (cuervo and low, 2003), project size, project types (building, manufacturing) (han, et al., 2010), technical complexity of projects (tan and ghazali, 2011), type of clients (public vs. private) (scherer and kruglianskas, 2009), availability of funds for projects (ozorhon, dikmen, and birgonul, 2007), contract types or procurement methods (lump sum, cost-plus, design and build) (zhengxing et al., 2005), experience of firm in similar works (chen, 2005), existence of strict time limitations, existence of strict quality requirements (ozorhon et al., 2007) and availability of partner/alliance (benjamin levi, 2006). development of oli+s entry decision model for construction firms in international markets construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201771 thus, there is a need to understand the influential factors for a construction firm’s entry decisions from a highly developing country, such as malaysia. as compared to most research on other topics, only few empirical research exist on a comprehensive model or framework on the relationships between country, market, firm and project factors and the three simultaneous entry decisions for construction firms that wish to internationalize, are in the process or already in international markets. in the proposed conceptual framework, the influence of factors on the three entry decisions are determined empirically through a threestep approach or stages as described in the following section. in the current study, the oli+s advantage model provides a comprehensive platform as a unifying theoretical framework to identify and analyse various factors influencing the construction firms’ entry decisions into international markets. research method this study adopts a mixed methods research. the main reasons for a mixed method was first, to conduct quantitative research to identify and quantify the significant factors, before using qualitative research to explore particular issues and further define major themes through interviews ( johnson and onwuegbuzie, 2009). the strategy used in this study is sequential where the process started a quantitative method to test the theory, followed by a qualitative method to add depth of understanding (creswell, 2003).thus, the managers from construction firms were targeted to enquire their opinions and perceptions of their firms’ entry location, timing and mode decisions in international markets. then, a few of the highly experienced managers were interviewed to obtain their specific language and voices about the strategies and to validate the proposed oli+s entry decision model. hence, validity and reliability issues counterbalanced each other to triangulate on the “true” results. this approach has being widely accepted by many researchers in studies related to internationalization and market entry strategies (abdul aziz and awil, 2010; abdul aziz et al., 2011; abdul aziz, azmi, law, and ngau, 2013; maqsoom, charoenngam, masood, and awais, 2014). in this study, the quantitative method outweighed the qualitative method. the survey generated quantitative data for identifying important factors, measuring relationships among variables, while interviews collected richer, qualitative details and at the same time validated the quantitative findings and the proposed oli+s entry decision model. however, due to the page and word limitations this paper presents only on the quantitative findings and does not include the findings from the interview sessions research population, sampling design and instrument design this research used a sampling frame provided by the construction industry development board (cidb) malaysia. based on a formal registry of malaysian construction firms, the cidb malaysia (2013) record indicated that only 115 firms were registered under class a and grade 7, as global players operating in more than 50 countries. these construction firms have the capability in tendering for projects within the area of expertise without any capacity limitation. in a globalized world, this aspect can be regards as an advantage to other international construction firms seeking to enter the malaysian construction markets. currently, many foreign firms have penetrated malaysian markets, especially from china. a probability sampling method is used as a sampling technique in this study. in survey research, a probability sampling method is generally more appropriate than a nonisa, saman, and preece construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201772 probability one because the resulting sample is likely to provide a representative crosssection of the whole. thus, the units of analysis are the construction firms that engage in international business activities and have foreign market experience. their involvement in international projects includes various sectors, such as buildings, infrastructure, branches of engineering in mechanical and electrical, power transmission and plant facilities, and oil and gas. out of 115 firms, sixty-two (62)firms have responded to the self-administered questionnaire survey. the survey was followed by semi-structured interviews with 13 experts selected based on their international experience and expertise involving international projects. for the rasch model analysis, the minimum sample size for most purposes is 50 samples as recommended by linacre (1994). in addition, with 99% confidence, 61 samples are adequate for + 1.0 logit. thus, a sample of 62 participating managers is within the acceptable limit recommended. the questionnaires consist of 4 sections: section a enquires the respondent’s background information. section b consists of three parts where the respondents were required to choose the international business location, to indicate their firm’s entry timing choices being as a late or early mover, and to determine the entry modes that they adopted in their international projects. definitions for the entry location, timing and mode decisions are provided in the questionnaires to ensure that the respondents understand their choices section c contains three parts that require the respondents to evaluate the factors influencing their entry location, timing and mode decisions, respectively. the data from section c was analysed using rasch model analysis and presented in this paper to develop the oli+s eletem decision model. finally, in section d, respondents were encouraged to state any comments relevant to the scope of study. the survey ended with a thank you note expressing appreciation for the respondents’ time and consideration. figure 2 shows the following percentages: vice president (3.2%), general manager (4.8%), managing/project/technical director (12.9%), senior project manager (4.8%), senior project engineer (3.2%), project coordinator (3.2%), project manager/planner (9.7%), project engineer (24.2%), contract/quantity surveyor/ financial manager (14.5%), other managers (19.4%). these managers were directly involved in their firm’s operations and acquired international experience in planning, managing and controlling construction projects in international figure 2 percentage distribution of respondents based on their designations development of oli+s entry decision model for construction firms in international markets construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201773 markets. thus, this profile indicates a diverse background of top managers and professionals involved in international operations in this study. figure 3 depicts the percentage distribution of respondents based on number of years of international experience.it shows that 26% of the respondents have acquired more than 10 years of international experience, 29% of the respondents have experience between 5 to 10 years and 45% of the respondents have experience between 1 to 5 years. figure 3 percentage distribution of respondents based on number of years of international experience based on their number of years of experience and from performing different leading positions within their firms, respondents were all knowledgeable about international operations. thus, the respondents have gained the necessary international construction background to participate and give reliable opinions in the questionnaire survey for this study. the following section explains the development of the oli+s entry decision model using rasch model analysis. oli+s entry decision model development using rasch model analysis the oli+s entry decision model was developed based on 62 responses from malaysian construction companies. the current study applies the underlying theory adopted known as the oli eclectic paradigm in context of the current academic knowledge together with the enhancement of the oli theory was proposed by low and jiang (2004) with an additional advantage (specialty). rasch model analysis was adopted to integrate all three entry decision constructs to determine the oli+s entry decisions factors using a three-stage approach as shown in figure 4. there are three constructs (domains) namely entry location (el) decision, entry timing (el) decision and entry mode (em) decision. under each construct or domain, there are four themes namely: country, market, firm and project. under each theme, there are 11 county factors, 6 market factors, 14 firm factors and 13 project factors giving the total number of 44 items in each construct (domain). isa, saman, and preece construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201774 figure 4 proposed integrated eletem decision model stage 1 is based on the preliminary framework that involves the rasch model “analysis-byconstruct” on each of the three constructs: (1) el decision (44 items), (ii) et decision (44 items) and (iii) em decision (44 items) constructs. in stage 2, an “overall-analysis” using the rasch model analysis was carried out by integrating all three constructs (el, et and em decisions) to determine the common shared factors known as the mutually inclusive and significant factors influencing location, timing and mode decisions. in this stage, the oli+s decision model was generated based on 132 items. next, the item fit analysis was carried out to identify any misfit items. by deleting the misfit items, a better fit and valid instrument for the final eletem decision model was constructed, where all required parameters are met. finally, in stage 3, an item fit analysis was carried out prior to item redundancy analysis. the following section presents the results and discussion on the entry location, timing and mode decisions based on the rasch model analysis. results and discussions an appraisal of the eletem decision data was carried out as a means of observing the extent that the managers’ responses to each entry decision factor is consistent with the response to other factors on the assessment. table 1 summarizes the statistics of the survey development of oli+s entry decision model for construction firms in international markets construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201775 instrument for 132 measured items, which were generated from 62 persons using a total of 8184 (132 x 62) data points. table 1 summary statistics for 132 measured items total model infit outfit score count measure error mnsq zstd mnsq zstd mean 225.9 62.0 .05 .16 .91 -.6 .90 -.6 s.d. 10.8 .0 .27 .00 .20 1.2 .21 1.2 max. 252.0 62.0 .81 .17 1.48 2.5 1.55 2.7 min. 194.0 62.0 -.65 .15 .51 -3.4 .50 -3.4 real rmse .16 true sd .22 separation 1.65 item reliability .73 model rmse .16 true sd .22 separation 1.77 item reliability .76 s.e. of item mean = .02 it shows an item reliability of 0.73 (model = 0.76) (>0.7) indicating sufficiency of the items spread along the continuum (fisher, 2005). this allows further investigation to be conducted (bond and fox, 2012). it also indicates that the probability of the difficulty levels of every item remain the same if the instrument was given to a different group of managers of the same size (bond and fox, 2012). the results indicate that the instrument has a good measurement model error of + 0.16 logit (fisher, 2005). table 2 shows the summary statistics for 62 measured managers. table 2 summary statistics for 62 measured persons total model infit outfit score count measure error mnsq zstd mnsq zstd mean 742.0 202.0 .94 .09 1.01 -.5 1.00 -.6 s.d. 113.4 .0 .92 .02 .44 4.6 .43 4.6 max. 984.0 202.0 3.99 .20 2.00 8.1 2.00 8.2 min. 422.0 202.0 -1.25 .08 .08 -9.9 .09 -9.9 real rmse .10 true sd .91 separation 9.07 person reliability .99 model rmse .09 true sd .91 separation 9.82 person reliability .99 s.e. of person mean = .12 an excellent person reliability of 0.99 indicates that the instrument is capable to categorize and distinguish the level of ed factors endorsed by the managers. a comparison between the person maximum measure and the item maximum measure determined that the instrument contains sufficient items to measure the managers’ latent trait (endorsing the entry decision factors). a mean-square fit (mnsq) statistic shows the size of the randomness, i.e. the amount of distortion of the measurement system. in the rasch model context, 1 is the expected value where “observed” is divided by “expected” (linacre, 1994). the results show that for item: mnsq = 0.91; zstd = -0.6, and isa, saman, and preece construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201776 for person: mnsq = 1.01; zstd = -0.5. the mnsq for both item and person are close to 1, which are the expected values as stipulated by the quality item criteria. furthermore, the mean z standardized (zstd) infit and outfit values are expected to be 0.0. this indicates a good sign of a fit and valid instrument, which can measure what is intended. thus, the data for this study does fit the rasch model reasonably well and the analysis conducted reflected the outcome of this research. therefore, the overall findings show that the survey instrument is validated and reliable to be used in the eletem decision model development. stage1 is not explained in this paper since it involved preliminary analysis for individual entry decisions. stage 2: item factor analysis the eletem decision model is developed based on 132 items representing the factors influencing eletem decisions. table 3 shows an excerpt from the analysis on the measure order of the firm’s eletem simultaneous decision factors before the misfit items are identified and deleted. table 3 measure order of 132 items for eletem decision en tr y n u m b er to ta l sc o r e to ta l c o u n t m ea su r e m o d el s .e . infit outfit pt-measure exact match item m n sq zs td m n sq zs td c o r r . ex p. o b s% ex p % 49 194 62 .81 .15 .96 -.2 .98 .0 .46 .60 40.3 43.2 lc3_proximity 48 195 62 .78 .15 1.02 .2 1.04 .3 .35 .60 45.2 43.3 lc2_similarity 92 210 62 .44 .15 .90 -.6 .90 -.5 .68 .58 51.6 45.1 mc2_similarity 52 211 62 .42 .15 1.12 .7 1.21 1.2 .33 .58 51.6 45.1 lc6_competitors 85 248 62 -.53 .17 1.25 1.3 1.20 1.1 .63 .53 46.8 49.3 lp39_proj_fund 69 252 62 -.65 .17 1.11 .7 1.09 .5 .55 .52 59.7 49.6 lf23_finance_cap mean 225.9 62.0 .05 .16 .91 -.6 .90 -.6 53.4 46.3 s.d. 10.8 .0 .27 .00 .20 1.2 .21 1.2 7.1 1.3 as highlighted, the most significant eletem decision factor is item 69: lf23_ finance_cap (-0.65 logit), while the least significant eletem decision factor is item 49: lc_proximity (+0.81 logit). in the item factor analysis, the misfits’ pattern is observed based on a three-step comparison procedure namely; (1) point measure correlation (pmc); 0.4 trust and transparency 0.280 0.031 8.931 0.000* 0.223 0.345 ethical and integrity issues -> trust and transparency 0.280 0.029 9.693 0.000* 0.227 0.342 project-specific and security concerns -> trust and transparency 0.268 0.029 9.464 0.000* 0.216 0.328 technological and operational challenges -> trust and transparency 0.311 0.027 11.637 0.000* 0.261 0.363 cross-validated predictive ability test (cvpat) average loss difference t p trust and transparency -0.384 23.547 0.000* overall -0.384 23.547 0.000* bello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202416 impact of the identified factors on trust and transparency in the nigeria construction industry the interplay between “communication and information sharing,” “ethical and integrity issues,” “projectspecific and security concerns”, and “technological and operational challenges” significantly influences trust and transparency in the nigerian construction industry. by recognising the interconnected nature of these factors and addressing them holistically, stakeholders can cultivate a culture of trustworthiness, accountability, and openness, ultimately enhancing project outcomes and industry reputation. i. effective communication and information sharing in the nigerian construction industry are pivotal in fostering trust and transparency among stakeholders. clear and transparent communication channels facilitate the exchange of critical project information, ensuring that all parties are adequately informed about project objectives, progress, and potential challenges. trust can erode when communication is lacking or ambiguous, leading to misunderstandings, delays, and conflicts. moreover, transparent information sharing promotes accountability and visibility, enhancing stakeholders’ confidence in project management processes and decision-making. conversely, poor communication practices can create a perception of opacity and distrust, hindering collaboration and jeopardising project outcomes. ii. ethical considerations and integrity issues significantly influence trust and transparency within the nigerian construction industry. stakeholders’ adherence to ethical standards and integrity principles is essential for building trust and maintaining transparency throughout project lifecycles. ethical misconduct, such as bribery, corruption, or fraudulent practices, undermines trust relationships and compromises the integrity of project processes and outcomes. by contrast, a commitment to ethical conduct fosters an environment of trustworthiness and openness, where stakeholders feel confident in the integrity of their counterparts and the fairness of project transactions. addressing ethical challenges head-on and promoting a culture of honesty and integrity can strengthen trust bonds and enhance transparency in the construction industry. iii. project-specific factors and security concerns also have significant implications for trust and transparency in construction projects in nigeria. each project’s complexity and unique characteristics can influence stakeholders’ perceptions of trust and transparency. project scope, budget, timeline, and resource allocation can impact stakeholders’ confidence in project management capabilities and the likelihood of achieving project objectives. moreover, security concerns, including theft, vandalism, and cybersecurity threats, pose risks to project assets, data, and stakeholder trust. proactive risk management strategies and robust security measures are essential for mitigating these threats and maintaining transparency regarding project security protocols and incidents. when stakeholders feel assured about the safety and security of project resources and information, trust levels can increase, fostering a more transparent and collaborative project environment. iv. technological and operational challenges further shape trust and transparency dynamics in the nigerian construction industry. rapid technological advancements offer opportunities to streamline project processes, improve efficiency, and enhance transparency through digital platforms, building information modelling (bim), internet of things (iot), blockchain technology (bt) and project management software. blockchain technology is emerging as a transformative force in the nigerian construction industry, offering decentralised, immutable ledgers that bolster trust and transparency. its rising adoption mirrors the industry’s recognition of the need for enhanced transparency amidst regional trust challenges. blockchain’s impact lies in its ability to provide tamper-proof records and enforce smart contracts, streamlining operations and reducing disputes. by digitising processes like payments and material tracking, blockchain enhances efficiency, fosters collaboration, and addresses longstanding industry challenges. despite potential regulatory and technological hurdles, blockchain bello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202417 offers a decentralised platform to overcome collaboration and information sharing barriers. in embracing blockchain, nigerian construction stakeholders can establish a more equitable, transparent ecosystem founded on verifiable data and automated processes, paving the way for innovation and sustainable development. however, technological innovations also introduce challenges such as data privacy concerns, interoperability issues, and skill gaps among stakeholders. addressing these challenges requires investment in digital literacy, cybersecurity measures, and infrastructure development to ensure that technological solutions contribute positively to trust and transparency goals. additionally, operational inefficiencies, such as delays, cost overruns, and quality issues, can strain trust relationships and hinder transparency efforts. by addressing operational challenges and embracing technological innovations responsibly, stakeholders can build trust through improved project performance and enhanced transparency in the nigerian construction industry. kruskal wallis (k-w) this study examines the variations in the respondents’ opinions based on two core components: the location and profession of respondents using the k-w technique, as shown in table 4. the k-w test result indicated that all the measurements are above the p = 0.005 value threshold. they indicate that there is no significant difference among the respondents’ opinions. this means that even though the respondents have different professions and operate in different regions, they experience similar factors that affect trust and transparency in their region of operation. table 6. analysis of variance code location profession kruskalwallis h df asymp. sig. kruskalwallis h df asymp. sig. cis1 29.556 4 0.055 15.989 4 0.383 cis2 16.713 4 0.635 14.409 4 0.196 cis3 13.730 4 0.312 8.531 4 0.074 cis4 32.610 4 0.417 26.692 4 0.286 cis5 75.300 4 0.333 20.034 4 0.192 eii1 12.578 4 0.235 82.601 4 0.330 eii2 18.672 4 0.079 12.830 4 0.516 eii3 13.256 4 0.110 6.530 4 0.163 eii4 13.893 4 0.220 21.693 4 0.500 eii5 21.884 4 0.086 18.133 4 0.118 eii6 19.154 4 0.098 7.503 4 0.286 eii7 12.956 4 0.054 15.798 4 0.089 psc1 9.779 4 0.069 16.006 4 0.153 psc2 15.230 4 0.420 11.294 4 0.216 psc3 17.777 4 0.169 17.881 4 0.487 bello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202418 code location profession kruskalwallis h df asymp. sig. kruskalwallis h df asymp. sig. psc4 17.487 4 0.128 7.353 4 0.118 toc1 15.906 4 0.079 9.278 4 0.059 toc2 4.231 4 0.376 9.795 4 0.426 toc3 17.520 4 0.157 9.060 4 0.060 toc4 19.435 4 0.096 6.468 4 0.167 toc5 17.007 4 0.246 12.038 4 0.382 toc6 17.040 4 0.088 7.378 4 0.117 toc7 8.695 4 0.163 17.282 4 0.204 toc8 9.305 4 0.308 6.435 4 0.169 toc9 23.406 4 0.101 9.983 4 0.418 strategies for improving trust and transparency in the construction industry table 7 presents the thematic outcome of the various strategies from the professionals through interview sessions to enhance trust and transparency in the construction industry. encouraging transparent communication through regular meetings, as suggested by participant p-1-8-4-13-17, facilitates the dissemination of accurate information, fostering a culture of openness and accountability among stakeholders. upholding moral values in decision-making processes, as emphasised by participants p-1-2-711-13, instils confidence in the integrity of the construction practices, thus enhancing trust between project participants. integrating advanced technology for streamlined operations, advocated by participants p-13-9-18, enables efficient data management and real-time monitoring, promoting transparency in project execution and resource utilisation. table 7. strategies for improving trust and transparency participants (p) communication and information sharing participant (p) ethical and integrity issues participant (p) technological and operational challenges participant (p) project-specific and security concerns p-1-8-413-17 encouraging transparent communication through regular meetings p-1-2-711-13 upholding moral values in all decisionmaking processes p-1-3-918 integrating advanced technology for streamlined operations p-1-4-813-14-17 implementing strict security measures in construction sites p-3-6-9-18 establishing efficient channels for sharing project updates p-4-1014-15 ensuring ethical compliance in all contractual agreements p-2-4-711 investing in innovative technological solutions for project management p-2-3-616 prioritising security protocols to mitigate potential risks table 6. continued bello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202419 participants (p) communication and information sharing participant (p) ethical and integrity issues participant (p) technological and operational challenges participant (p) project-specific and security concerns p-7-2-1116 fostering an open communication culture to enhance collaboration p-6-3-517 enforcing ethical codes of conduct in procurement processes p-6-1013-16-17 training staff on the latest technological advancements in the field p-5-1811-15 implementing robust security systems for safeguarding project data p-10-5-1214-15 utilising digital platforms for real-time information dissemination p-8-9-1216-18 incorporating ethical guidelines into daily business operations p-5-8-1214-15 adopting emerging technologies to improve operational efficiency p-7-9-1012 implementing stringent security measures for safeguarding project resources additionally, the implementation of strict security measures in construction sites, as highlighted by participants p-1-4-8-13-14-17, ensures the protection of sensitive project data, mitigating potential risks and bolstering the confidence of stakeholders in the project’s security framework. by fostering a culture of open communication, enforcing ethical codes of conduct, investing in staff training, and adopting robust security systems, the strategies suggested in the table collectively contribute to a more transparent and trustworthy construction environment, facilitating smoother collaboration, minimising unethical practices, ensuring operational efficiency, and safeguarding critical project information. discussion of results the nigerian construction industry grapples with challenges that significantly impede trust and transparency an issue well-substantiated in contemporary scholarly discourse. among these challenges, effective communication and information sharing have emerged as paramount concerns, as highlighted by mashali, et al. (2023), who emphasise the detrimental repercussions of inadequate information exchange on crucial decision-making processes and stakeholder relationships. in light of this, the proposition to encourage transparent communication through regular meetings, as advocated by participants (p-1-84-13-17), resonates powerfully with the perspectives of mashali, et al. (2023) and wilkinson (2021). these scholars emphasise the indispensable role of well-defined communication protocols in facilitating seamless information flow and alleviating potential misunderstandings within the construction ecosystem. additionally, the consensus among participants (p-3-6-9-18) to establish an efficient channel for sharing project updates and cultivating an open communication culture to foster collaboration (p-7-2-11-16) is a crucial strategy to surmount the prevailing communication barriers. in line with these measures, the participants’ view (p-10-5-12-14-15) on adopting digital platforms for real-time information dissemination represents a promising avenue to address the intricacies associated with communication and information sharing in the nigerian construction landscape. ethical lapses and conflicts of interest represent recurring themes in the scholarly discourse, significantly eroding trust within the construction industry. the works of ghahari, et al. (2023), soni and smallwood (2023) and adibfar, costin and issa (2020), collectively underscore the detrimental consequences of ethical transgressions, such as bribery and corruption, on stakeholder relationships and the industry’s overall reputation. correspondingly, this study’s proposal to uphold moral values (p-1-2-7-11-13), enforce ethical compliance (p-4-10-14-15), and incorporate ethical codes of conduct in procurement processes table 7. continued bello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202420 (p-6-3-5-17), as well as the integration of ethical guidelines into daily business operations (p-8-9-1216-18), aligns seamlessly with the literature’s resounding call for a more robust ethical framework. these strategies are envisioned to ensure equitable practices and cultivate trust among stakeholders, echoing the scholarly emphasis on the necessity of an ethical compass to guide the construction industry toward a more transparent and trustworthy trajectory. furthermore, it is crucial to acknowledge the well-documented resistance to technological advancements and the ensuing operational challenges within the nigerian construction sector. as ebekozien and samsurijan (2022) have astutely observed, the industry’s gradual technology adoption has adversely affected operational efficiency. in light of these issues, this study’s proposal to integrate advanced technology (p-13-9-18) for streamlined operations aligns seamlessly with the imperatives of addressing the technological constraints in the literature. beyond this, various participants have put forth a spectrum of strategies, including investing in innovative technological solutions for project management (p-2-4-7-11), providing training for staff on the latest technological advancements in the field (p-6-10-13-16-17), and embracing emerging technologies to enhance operational efficiency (p-5-8-12-14-15). these multifaceted approaches are designed to propel the construction industry toward a more technologically adept and efficient future, reconciling the literature’s concerns regarding the sector’s technological inertia and the subsequent impediments to trust and transparency. moreover, the works of turk, et al. (2022) and imoni, et al. (2023) underscore the vulnerability of project data and the pervasive lack of transparency in procurement processes, both of which significantly undermine trust and transparency within the construction industry. to address these concerns, the implementation of strict security measures, as agreed by the participants (p-1-4-8-13-14-17), as a strategy closely aligns with the literature’s persistent call for the establishment of robust security systems to safeguard project data and ensure transparency in procurement processes. furthermore, the study suggests prioritising security protocols to mitigate potential risks (p-2-3-6-16), implementing robust security systems for safeguarding project data (p-5-18-11-15) and enforcing stringent security measures to protect project resources (p-79-10-12). these multifaceted strategies collectively work toward creating a more secure and trustworthy construction environment, in line with the literature’s concerns regarding the susceptibility of project data and the necessity for enhanced security measures to foster an environment of transparency and trust. conclusion and implications conclusion this study examines the factors influencing trust and transparency in the nigerian construction industry, highlighting critical communication, ethics, technology, and security issues. through an in-depth analysis, it became evident that the lack of effective communication channels, ethical lapses, technological constraints, and security vulnerabilities collectively create an environment of mistrust among stakeholders, ultimately impeding the sector’s growth and efficiency. the result of the pls-sem shows that the factors impact trust and transparency in the construction industry. based on the findings and triangulation with existing literature, it is clear that fostering transparent communication, upholding ethical standards, embracing technological advancements, and implementing stringent security measures are pivotal steps toward fostering trust and transparency in the nigerian construction landscape. encouraging transparent communication through regular meetings, enforcing ethical compliance in all processes, integrating advanced technology for streamlined operations, and implementing robust security systems emerged as indispensable strategies for addressing the identified challenges. while the study provided empirical evidence and practical recommendations to mitigate the identified issues, it also underscored the significance of collective action and industry-wide collaboration by emphasising the need for a bello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202421 comprehensive and holistic approach. the study encourages the stakeholders, policymakers, and industry players to work hand in hand to implement the proposed strategies effectively. this is supported by the kruskal-wallis result, which reveals the professionals have similar opinions on the factors affecting trust and transparency in the nigeria construction industry. by prioritising these measures, the nigerian construction industry can aspire to foster a culture of trust, integrity, and transparency, thus paving the way for sustainable growth and development in the industry. moreover, all stakeholders need to remain committed to the principles of open communication, ethical conduct, technological innovation, and robust security practices, as these pillars will be instrumental in shaping a more resilient and transparent construction industry that can effectively meet future challenges. by collectively embracing these recommendations, the nigerian construction industry can aim for a more transparent, efficient, and collaborative ecosystem that inspires confidence and trust among all stakeholders involved. ultimately, this study serves as a roadmap for stakeholders to navigate the intricate landscape of the nigerian construction industry, offering practical solutions to enhance trust and transparency, thereby fostering a more resilient and robust construction sector for the future. implications theoretical implications this study contributes to the theoretical understanding of trust and transparency in the context of the nigerian construction industry. it highlights the multifaceted nature of challenges that impede trust, emphasising the significance of effective communication, ethical integrity, technological advancements, and security measures. by triangulating empirical data with existing literature, the study reinforces the interconnectedness of these factors and their influence on stakeholder relationships and industry dynamics. moreover, the study’s identification of specific strategies provides a nuanced understanding of how these theoretical concepts can be practically applied to enhance trust and transparency in construction management. practical implications by implementing the suggested strategies for transparent communication, ethical compliance, technological integration, and robust security measures, industry practitioners can effectively mitigate the challenges that undermine trust and transparency. encouraging transparent communication protocols and leveraging digital platforms for information dissemination can improve collaboration and streamline project operations. prioritising ethical values and enforcing codes of conduct in procurement processes can foster a culture of fairness and accountability. embracing technological advancements and stringent security measures will enhance operational efficiency and safeguard critical project data, fostering a more secure and trustworthy construction environment. managerial implications for industry managers and policymakers, this study provides valuable insights into fostering a more transparent and trustworthy construction industry. by prioritising implementing the recommended strategies, managers can cultivate a culture of open communication, ethical compliance, technological innovation, and robust security protocols within their organisations. the managerial implications underscore the critical role of proactive measures in cultivating nigeria’s sustainable and resilient construction industry. bello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202422 recommendations, future studies directions, and limitations this study recommended that stakeholders in the nigerian construction industry prioritise the establishment of clear communication protocols, including regular meetings and utilising digital platforms, to ensure efficient information sharing and mitigate misunderstandings. additionally, there is a pressing need to strengthen the industry’s ethical frameworks and compliance measures to foster transparency and accountability, thereby mitigating the risks associated with conflicts of interest and ethical lapses. embracing technological advancements and investing in training programs to enhance technological literacy within the workforce should be pivotal to facilitate the integration of advanced technology for streamlined operations and improved project management efficiency. moreover, robust security protocols should be implemented to safeguard project data and resources, ensuring the integrity and confidentiality of sensitive information and fostering a secure and trustworthy construction environment while mitigating potential risks associated with data breaches and security vulnerabilities. future research should include a comparative analysis of trust and transparency issues in the construction industries of different countries, considering cultural, legal, and economic factors. strategies developed in this study should be subjected to quantitative research to gain insights from a broader range of professionals on how the strategies can enhance trust and transparency in the nigerian construction industry. longitudinal studies are essential to evaluate the long-term impact of implemented strategies on trust and transparency within the nigerian construction industry, providing insights into their sustainability over time. comprehensive stakeholder perception studies would offer a deeper understanding of stakeholders’ attitudes, facilitating a holistic approach to addressing trust and transparency challenges. the study’s primary limitation lies in its limited sample size, which hinders the broader applicability of findings within the nigerian construction industry. a constrained sample raises concerns of underrepresentation and oversimplification of industry complexities. although the study’s insights hold value, they must be validated through more comprehensive sampling methods in future research to ensure their relevance and reliability across the construction industry. references abougamil, r.a., thorpe, d. and heravi, a., 2023. investigating the source of claims with the importance of bim application on reducing construction disputable claims in ksa. buildings, 13(9), p.2219. https://doi.org/10.3390/ buildings13092219 aderibigbe, a., umeokafor, n. and umar, t., 2023. is integrated project delivery sufficient to reduce adversarialism in the uk construction industry? 11th world construction symposium, 21–22 july, colombo, sri lanka. pp.634-44. https:// doi.org/10.31705/wcs.2023.52 adeyemi, b.s. and aigbavboa, c.o., 2022. an evaluation of the impacts of construction professionals’ conflict on performance in the nigerian construction industry. international journal of building pathology and adaptation [e-journal] (published ahead of print 11 january 2022). https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-09-2021-0124 adibfar, a., costin, a. and issa, r.r., 2020. design copyright in architecture, engineering, and construction industry: review of history, pitfalls, and lessons learned. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 12(3), p.04520032. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000421 adindu, c., diugwu, i., yusuf, s. and musa, m., 2020. issues of corruption in construction projects and infrastructure development in nigeria: an empirical approach. supporting inclusive growth and sustainable development in africavolume i: sustainability in infrastructure development, pp.191-200. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41979-0_14 bello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202423 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13092219 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13092219 https://doi.org/10.31705/wcs.2023.52 https://doi.org/10.31705/wcs.2023.52 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-09-2021-0124 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000421 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-41979-0_14 aka, a., bello, a.o., bamgbade, a.a. and bilau, a.a., 2024. age-performance consideration in the recruitment of tradespeople in nigerian construction industry. engineering, construction and architectural management, 31(1), pp.386404. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2022-0430 akinrata, e.b., ogunsemi, d.r. and akinradewo, o.f., 2019. outcomes of unethical practices by quantity surveyors in nigerian construction industry. international journal of applied research in social sciences, 1(3), pp.84-94. https://doi. org/10.51594/ijarss.v1i3.23 ayodele, t.o. and kajimo-shakantu, k., 2021. the fourth industrial revolution (4thir) and the construction industrythe role of data sharing and assemblage. in: iop conference series earth and environmental science, [e-journal] 654(1), p.012013. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/654/1/012013 bello, a.o., eje, d.o., idris, a., semiu, m.a., and khan, a.a., 2023a. drivers for the implementation of modular construction systems in the aec industry of developing countries. journal of engineering, design and technology (published ahead of print). https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-11-2022-0571 bello, a.o., khan, a.a., idris, a. and awwal, h.m., 2023b. barriers to modular construction systems implementation in developing countries’ architecture, engineering and construction industry. engineering, construction and architectural management (published ahead of print). https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2022-1001 bodunde, f.i., akinrata, e., oke, a.e. and babalola, a., 2020. strategic alliance in the construction industry: barriers facing its implementation in an emerging market. journal of construction project management and innovation, 10(2), pp.65-78. https://doi.org/10.36615/jcpmi.v10i2.391 collins, h., 2018. creative research: the theory and practice of research for the creative industries. london: bloomsbury publishing. https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474247115 creswell, j.w., 2021. a concise introduction to mixed methods research. sage publications [online] available at: https:// au.sagepub.com/en-gb/oce/a-concise-introduction-to-mixed-methods-research/book266037. deep, s., gajendran, t., jefferies, m. and davis, p., 2018. an analytical literature review of risks in collaborative procurement. in: the royal institution of chartered surveyors-annual construction, building and real estate research conference, london, uk. available at: http://www.rics.org/documents/cobra (202018). derigent, w. and thomas, a., 2016. end-of-life information sharing for a circular economy: existing literature and research opportunities. in: borangiu, t., trentesaux, d., thomas, a. and mcfarlane, d., eds. service orientation in holonic and multi-agent manufacturing. studies in computational intelligence. (640), pp.4150. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-31930337-6_4 dikmen, s. and çiçek, h.g., 2023. fighting against corruption and bribery in public procurements during the covid-19 pandemic. in: the ethics of bribery: theoretical and empirical studies, pp.309-28. cham: springer international publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17707-1_18 dimuna, k., 2023. corruption and the challenges of infrastructural development in developing countries: nigeria in perspective. african journal of environmental research, 4(1), pp.41-62. ebekozien, a., 2020. corrupt acts in the nigerian construction industry: is the ruling party fighting corruption? journal of contemporary african studies, 38(3), pp.348-65. https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2020.1758304 ebekozien, a. and samsurijan, m.s., 2022. concession of public infrastructure: pitfalls and solutions from construction consultants’ perspective. asian journal of civil engineering, 23(5), pp.753-64. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42107-02200455-7 ebekozien, a., samsurijan, m.s., amadi, g.c., awo-osagie, a.i. and ikuabe, m., 2022. moderating effect of anticorruption agencies on the relationship between construction corruption forms and projects delivery. international planning studies, 27(4), pp.336-53. https://doi.org/10.1080/13563475.2022.2099354 bello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202424 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2022-0430 https://doi.org/10.51594/ijarss.v1i3.23 https://doi.org/10.51594/ijarss.v1i3.23 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/654/1/012013 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-11-2022-0571 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2022-1001 https://doi.org/10.36615/jcpmi.v10i2.391 https://doi.org/10.5040/9781474247115 https://au.sagepub.com/en-gb/oce/a-concise-introduction-to-mixed-methods-research/book266037 https://au.sagepub.com/en-gb/oce/a-concise-introduction-to-mixed-methods-research/book266037 http://www.rics.org/documents/cobra https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30337-6_4 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-30337-6_4 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17707-1_18 https://doi.org/10.1080/02589001.2020.1758304 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42107-022-00455-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42107-022-00455-7 https://doi.org/10.1080/13563475.2022.2099354 elbashbishy, t.s., ali, g.g. and el-adaway, i.h., 2022. blockchain technology in the construction industry: mapping current research trends using social network analysis and clustering. construction management and economics, 40(5), pp.406–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2022.2056216 emaminejad, n., kath, l. and akhavian, r., 2023. assessing trust in construction ai-powered collaborative robots using structural equation modeling. journal of computing in civil engineering, 38(3), p.04024011. https://doi. org/10.1061/jccee5.cpeng-5660 evans, m., farrell, p., elbeltagi, e., mashali, a. and elhendawi, a., 2020. influence of partnering agreements associated with bim adoption on stakeholder’s behaviour in construction mega-projects. international journal of bim and engineering science, 3(1), pp.1-20. https://doi.org/10.54216/ijbes.030101 fidic (international federation of consulting engineers). 2017. conditions of contract for construction. 2nd ed. geneva: thomas telford. available at: https://fidic.org/books/construction-contract-2nd-ed-2017-red-book. fitriani, h. and ajayi, s., 2023. barriers to sustainable practices in the indonesian construction industry. journal of environmental planning and management, 66(10), pp.2028-50. https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2022.2057281 flanagan, h., haak, l.l. and paglione, l.d., 2021. approaching trust: case studies for developing global research infrastructures. frontiers in research metrics and analytics, [e-journal] 6, p.746514. https://doi.org/10.3389/ frma.2021.746514 folarin, s., 2021. corruption, politics and governance in nigeria. in: ajayi, r., fashagba, j.y., eds. nigerian politics. advances in african economic, social and political development. springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-03050509-7_21 fornell c. and larcker d.f., 1981. evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. journal of marketing research, [e-journal] 18(1), pp.39–50. https://doi.org/10.2307/3151312 ghahari, s.a., queiroz, c., labi, s. and mcneil, s., 2023. corruption propensity and mitigation at different phases of infrastructure development. public works management and policy, 29(1), pp.5-44. https://doi. org/10.1177/1087724x231162544 godge, m.a., gandal, j. and kumar, a., 2023. impact of real estate regulatory authority (rera) act 2016. the online journal of distance education and e-learning, 11(1), pp.252-56. gupta, p. and jha, k.n., 2023. a decentralised and automated contracting system using a blockchain-enabled network of stakeholders in construction megaprojects. journal of management in engineering, 39(4), p.04023021. https://doi.org/10.1061/jmenea.meeng-5366 hair jr, j.f., matthews, l.m., matthews, r.l. and sarstedt, m., 2017. pls-sem or cb-sem: updated guidelines on which method to use. international journal of multivariate data analysis, 1(2), pp.107-23. https://doi.org/10.1504/ ijmda.2017.10008574 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., anderson, r.e. and tatham, r., 2006. multivariate data analysis. 7th ed. uppersaddle river, nj, us: pearson education. hair, j.f., hult, g.t.m., ringle, c.m. and sarstedt, m., 2022. a primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem). thousand oaks, ca: sage. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80519-7 henseler, j., ringle, c.m. and sarstedt, m., 2015. a new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. journal of the academy of marketing science, 43, pp.115-35. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s11747-014-0403-8 hoe, s.l., 2016. defining a smart nation: the case of singapore. journal of information, communication and ethics in society, 14(4), pp.323-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/jices-02-2016-0005 bello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202425 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2022.2056216 https://doi.org/10.1061/jccee5.cpeng-5660 https://doi.org/10.1061/jccee5.cpeng-5660 https://doi.org/10.54216/ijbes.030101 https://fidic.org/books/construction-contract-2nd-ed-2017-red-book https://doi.org/10.1080/09640568.2022.2057281 https://doi.org/10.3389/frma.2021.746514 https://doi.org/10.3389/frma.2021.746514 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50509-7_21 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-50509-7_21 https://doi.org/10.2307/3151312 https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724x231162544 https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724x231162544 https://doi.org/10.1061/jmenea.meeng-5366 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijmda.2017.10008574 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijmda.2017.10008574 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80519-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8 https://doi.org/10.1108/jices-02-2016-0005 hood, c., 2006. transparency in historical perspective. in: hood, c. and heald, d., eds. transparency: the key to better governance? proceedings of the british academy, 135. oxford: oxford university press, pp.3–24. https://doi.org/10.5871/ bacad/9780197263839.003.0001 hulland, j., 1999. use of partial least squares (pls) in strategic management research: a review of four recent studies. strategic management journal, 20(2), pp.195-204. https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(199902)20:2<195::aidsmj13>3.0.co;2-7 imoni, s., akande, e.o., jiya, v.h., onuzulike, c. and tiza, m.t., 2023. a comprehensive review of engineering, procurement, and construction in nigeria. journal of management studies and development, 2(03), pp.226-49. https:// doi.org/10.56741/jmsd.v2i03.382 infrastructure and projects authority, 2016. government construction strategy (gcs) 2016-2020. [pdf ] available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-construction-strategy-2016-2020. ivić, i. and cerić, a., 2023. risks caused by information asymmetry in construction projects: a systematic literature review. sustainability, 15(13), p.9979. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15139979 kock, n., 2015. common method bias in pls-sem: a full collinearity assessment approach. international journal of e-collaboration, 11(4), pp.1-10. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijec.2015100101 lehto, a. and aaltonen, k., 2021. cultural change in the construction industry: the role of project alliance organisational culture. [pdf ] available at: https://oulurepo.oulu.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/30024/nbnfi-fe2021110453900. pdf?sequence=1 andisallowed=y. li, y., he, n., li, h., liu, z. and qi, j., 2021. influencing factors on inter-organisational trust asymmetry behavior in construction projects: evidence from china. engineering, construction and architectural management, 28(1), pp.308-31. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2019-0256 lu, p., guo, s., qian, l., he, p. and xu, x., 2015. the effectiveness of contractual and relational governances in construction projects in china. international journal of project management 33(1), pp.212-22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2014.03.004 luo, m., hwang, b.g., deng, x., zhang, n. and chang, t., 2022. major barriers and best solutions to the adoption of ethics and compliance program in chinese international construction companies: a sustainable development perspective. buildings, 12(3), p.285. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12030285 mahat, n.a.a., alwee, s.n.a.s., adnan, h. and hassan, a.a., 2019. propelling green building technologies adoption in malaysia construction industry. in: iop conference series: earth and environmental science, 233(2), p.022032. https://doi. org/10.1088/1755-1315/233/2/022032 mashali, a., elbeltagi, e., motawa, i. and elshikh, m., 2023. stakeholder management challenges in mega construction projects: critical success factors. journal of engineering, design and technology, 21(2), pp.358-75. https://doi.org/10.1108/ jedt-09-2021-0483 mayer, r.c., davis, j.h. and schoorman, f.d., 1995. an integrative model of organisational trust. academy of management review, 20(3), pp.709-34. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1995.9508080335 mazzoli, c., iannantuono, m., giannakopoulos, v., fotopoulou, a., ferrante, a. and garagnani, s., 2021. building information modeling as an effective process for the sustainable re-shaping of the built environment. sustainability, 13(9), p.4658. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094658 neupane, a., soar, j., vaidya, k. and yong, j., 2012. role of public e-procurement technology to reduce corruption in government procurement. in: ippc5 proceedings of the 5th international public procurement conference. seattle, usa, 1719 august 2012. part ii paper 8. available at: https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q17y5/role-of-public-e-procurementtechnology-to-reduce-corruption-in-government-procurement. bello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202426 https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197263839.003.0001 https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197263839.003.0001 https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(199902)20:2<195::aid-smj13>3.0.co;2-7 https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(199902)20:2<195::aid-smj13>3.0.co;2-7 https://doi.org/10.56741/jmsd.v2i03.382 https://doi.org/10.56741/jmsd.v2i03.382 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/government-construction-strategy-2016-2020 https://doi.org/10.3390/su15139979 https://doi.org/10.4018/ijec.2015100101 https://oulurepo.oulu.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/30024/nbnfi-fe2021110453900.pdf?sequence=1 https://oulurepo.oulu.fi/bitstream/handle/10024/30024/nbnfi-fe2021110453900.pdf?sequence=1 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2019-0256 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.03.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.03.004 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12030285 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/233/2/022032 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/233/2/022032 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-09-2021-0483 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-09-2021-0483 https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1995.9508080335 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094658 https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q17y5/role-of-public-e-procurement-technology-to-reduce-corruption-in-government-procurement https://research.usq.edu.au/item/q17y5/role-of-public-e-procurement-technology-to-reduce-corruption-in-government-procurement nunnally j.c. and bernstein i., 1978. the role of university in the development of entrepreneurial vocations: a spanish study. in: psychometric theory. new york: mcgraw-hill, pp.387-405. ojo, l.d., oladinrin, o.t. and obi, l., 2021. critical barriers to environmental management system implementation in the nigerian construction industry. environmental management, 68(2), pp.147-59. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-02101473-y okereke, r.a., pepple, d. and eze, e., 2022. design and pre-contract delay and its impact on construction project delivery in nigeria. chsm journal, 2(1), pp.1-20. https://doi.org/10.22452/jpmp.vol2no1.2 olanrewaju, o.i., kineber, a.f., chileshe, n. and edwards, d.j., 2022. modelling the relationship between building information modelling (bim) implementation barriers, usage and awareness on building project lifecycle. building and environment, 207, p.108556. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108556 oluyemi-ayibiowu, b.d., aiyewalehinmi, o.e. and omolayo, o.j., 2019. most critical factors responsible for cost overruns in nigeria building construction industry. journal of multidisciplinary engineering science studies, 5, pp.2500-08. qian, x. and papadonikolaki, e., 2021. shifting trust in construction supply chains through blockchain technology. engineering, construction and architectural management, 28(2), pp.584-602. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-20190676 downey, r., ros, c. and devereux, m., 2023. what’s all the buzz?’ drones in the construction industry. construction law international, 18(2), p.38. russell, e., lee, j., and clift, r., 2018. can the sdgs provide a basis for supply chain decisions in the construction sector? sustainability, 10(3), p.629. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10030629 saunders, m., lewis, p. and thornhill, a., 2016. research methods for business students. harlow, england: pearson. shergold, p. and weir, b., 2018. building confidence: improving the effectiveness of compliance and enforcement systems for the building and construction industry across australia. [online] available at: https://apo.org.au/node/314175. shmueli, g., ray, s., estrada, j.m.v. and chatla, s.b., 2016. the elephant in the room: predictive performance of pls models. journal of business research, 69(10), pp.4552-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.03.049 shmueli, g., sarstedt, m., hair, j.f., cheah, j.h., ting, h., vaithilingam, s. and ringle, c.m., 2019. predictive model assessment in pls-sem: guidelines for using pls predict. european journal of marketing, 53(11), pp.2322-47. https:// doi.org/10.1108/ejm-02-2019-0189 soni, m.s. and smallwood, j.j., 2023. perceptions of corruption in the south african construction industry. international journal of construction education and research, 20(1), pp.1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2023.21 79138 strahorn, s., brewer, g. and gajendran, t., 2017. the influence of trust on project management practice within the construction industry. construction economics and building, 17(1), pp.1-19. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5220 strahorn, s., gajendren, t. and brewer, g., 2015. the influence of trust in traditional contracting: investigating the “lived experience” of stakeholders. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 15(2), pp.81-101. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i2.4408 tang, h.l., abdul majid, a.s. and aziz, n.m., 2023. challenges of legal intermediaries in construction litigation. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 15(2), p.04523009. https://doi. org/10.1061/jladah.ladr-944 tavakol, m. and sandars, j., 2014. quantitative and qualitative methods in medical education research, amee guide no 90: part ii. medical teacher, 36(10), pp.838-48. https://doi.org/10.3109/0142159x.2014.915297 bello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202427 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-021-01473-y https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-021-01473-y https://doi.org/10.22452/jpmp.vol2no1.2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108556 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2019-0676 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2019-0676 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10030629 https://apo.org.au/node/314175 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.03.049 https://doi.org/10.1108/ejm-02-2019-0189 https://doi.org/10.1108/ejm-02-2019-0189 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2023.2179138 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2023.2179138 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5220 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i2.4408 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i2.4408 https://doi.org/10.1061/jladah.ladr-944 https://doi.org/10.1061/jladah.ladr-944 https://doi.org/10.3109/0142159x.2014.915297 turk, ž., de soto, b.g., mantha, b.r., maciel, a. and georgescu, a., 2022. a systemic framework for addressing cybersecurity in construction. automation in construction, 133, p.103988. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2021.103988 tuuli, m.m., adaku, e., banye, e.z. and tettey, a.s., 2023. project scope management in developing countries. in: george ofori, ed. building a body of knowledge in project management in developing countries. london: world scientific. ch.5. pp.141-178. https://doi.org/10.1142/9789811224720_0005 usmen, m.a., mamman, d., kazan, e. and singh, k., 2009. a critical review of ethics issues and corrupt practices in the global construction industry. in: fifth international conference on construction in the 21st century (citc-v) “collaboration and integration in engineering, management and technology.” istanbul, türkiye, 20-22 may. pp.975-83. walker, d.h. and lloyd-walker, b.m., 2016. understanding the motivation and context for alliancing in the australian construction industry. international journal of managing projects in business, 9(1), pp.74-93. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ijmpb-07-2015-0065 wilkinson, p., 2021. communicating in the construction industry. in: bolpagni, m., gavina, r., ribeiro, d., eds. industry 4.0 for the built environment: methodologies, technologies and skills. [online] available at: https://link.springer. com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-82430-3_26. pp.609-30. winders, d.j., 2018. administrative law enforcement, warnings, and transparency. [pdf ] in: friends of the earth, inc. v laidlaw environmental services (toc) inc., 528 us 167, 186 (2000). available at: https://heinonline.org/hol/ landingpage?handle=hein.journals/ohslj79&div=23&id=&page=. yap, j.b.h. and lim, s.y., 2023. collaborative project procurement in the construction industry: investigating the drivers and barriers in malaysia. journal of construction in developing countries, 28(1), pp.171-92. https://doi. org/10.21315/jcdc-10-21-0157 bello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202428 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2021.103988 https://doi.org/10.1142/9789811224720_0005 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-07-2015-0065 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-07-2015-0065 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-82430-3_26 https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-82430-3_26 https://heinonline.org/hol/landingpage?handle=hein.journals/ohslj79&div=23&id=&page= https://heinonline.org/hol/landingpage?handle=hein.journals/ohslj79&div=23&id=&page= https://doi.org/10.21315/jcdc-10-21-0157 https://doi.org/10.21315/jcdc-10-21-0157 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: dhanasekar, y., anandh, k. s. 2025. gender’s moderating effect on perceived organizational politics and withdrawal dimensions among construction professionals. construction economics and building, 25:2, 69–88. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i2.9358 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article gender’s moderating effect on perceived organizational politics and withdrawal dimensions among construction professionals yuvaraj dhanasekar, anandh ks* department of civil engineering, faculty of engineering and technology, srm institute of science and technology, kattankulathur, india corresponding author: anandh ks, anandh.ks@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9358 article history: received 24/09/2024; revised 11/11/2024; accepted 02/02/2025; published 08/08/2025 abstract the current study, supported by equity theory of motivation, explores how gender moderates perceived organizational politics effects on psychological and physical organizational withdrawal behaviors of professionals within the construction sector, a field characterized by a challenging work environment and high employee turnover. quantitative data were collected from 318 construction professionals and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem). the findings reveal that perceived organizational politics significantly and positively impacts both psychological and physical withdrawal behaviors among construction professionals. further, gender moderates this relationship, with female professionals showing a greater tendency to disengage compared to their male counterparts. this research contributes to the construction management literature by highlighting the gender effects of organizational politics on employee withdrawal, a previously underexplored area. the study underscores the critical need for organizations to address political dynamics in the workplace to foster a fair and supportive environment, ultimately enhancing employee well-being and organizational performance. keywords perceived organizational politics; organizational withdrawal; psychological withdrawal; physical withdrawal; construction industry 69 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9358 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9358 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9358 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:anandh.ks@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9358 introduction the construction industry (ci), a key contributor to global economic and infrastructure development, is structured by complex dynamics and strenuous working conditions (rajprasad, thamilarasu and mageshwari, 2018; anandh, gunasekaran and mannan, 2020). despite its significance, the industry grapples with high employee turnover, which is often assessed by attrition rates or intention to leave and is defined as the rate at which individuals voluntarily leave an organization. according to the bureau of labor statistics report, the average attrition rate of employees in the united states during 2022 was 53% (hansen, 2024). similarly, the sector in india experienced a 13.3% voluntary turnover rate in 2017–2018 (pathan and vinay, 2021). this trend is further exacerbated by factors such as gender bias, low work-life balance, and hazardous conditions, making it even more crucial to address these concerns in order to retain talented workforce in this competitive sector (morello, issa and franz, 2018). despite extensive research on employee turnover intention (abdolmaleki, et al., 2024), a significant gap exists in construction management literature on organizational politics (op), an antecedent of employee turnover (burakova, mcdowall and bianvet, 2022). this study thus aims to address this gap by focusing on how perceived organizational politics (pop) influences organizational withdrawal (ow) among indian construction professionals, with an emphasis on gender. with its extensive and diverse workforce (dhanasekar, anandh and szóstak, 2023), the indian ci provides a distinctive setting for investigating these dynamics. despite being a substantial employment generator and on track to become the third-largest construction market globally (edison, 2020), there is a lack of empirical evidence in the indian setting, necessitating further research to understand the relationship between organizational withdrawal behaviors and op perceptions of construction professionals. ow, which encompasses absenteeism, tardiness, and turnover intention (laczo and hanisch, 1999), is a pressing concern across industries, including construction. these behaviors impact individual well-being and significantly affect organizational productivity and performance (abourizk, et al., 2010; zhang, et al., 2023). while research has linked ow to stress, pay dissatisfaction, organizational support, and limited growth opportunities (beehr and gupta, 1978; park, et al., 2016; pepple, akinsowon and oyelere, 2023), the role of op in the construction context remains under-explored. pop, the subjective perception of op (ferris and kacmar, 1992), can create feelings of injustice, mistrust, and job insecurity, influencing ow behaviors (chang, rosen and levy, 2009; meisler, drory and vigoda-gadot, 2020). thus, knowledge about the role of pop in ow is significant for a healthy and efficient work climate acquisition. despite substantial evidence linking pop to turnover intention (harris, harris and harvey, 2007; sexton and zhang, 2022; de clercq, khan and haq, 2023), focusing solely on turnover intention may not fully capture disengagement. ow offers a broader perspective by identifying disengagement behaviors that precede turnover, encompassing physical and psychological withdrawal dimensions (erdemli, 2015). examining pop’s influence on ow provides a more comprehensive understanding, enabling early intervention to prevent turnover. therefore, the study’s first objective is to investigate how pop impacts physical and psychological ow dimensions among construction professionals. given the ci’s male-dominated nature (norberg and johansson, 2021), gender is considered a potential moderator in the pop–ow relationship. research indicates that women may be more sensitive to political environments and perceive op more strongly than men (rosen, levy and hall, 2006; snipes, et al., 2023), potentially due to societal norms, organizational culture, and power dynamics. these gender differences may lead to varied experiences and responses to op. acknowledging these nuances is crucial for developing strategies to mitigate pop’s effects. thus, the second objective is to determine whether gender moderates the relationship between pop and physical and psychological ow. prior research on pop has employed various theoretical frameworks, including equity theory, perceived organizational support theory, conservation of resources theory, and social exchange theory (rashid, islam dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202570 and ahmer, 2019; jeong and kim, 2022; rughoobur-seetah, 2022; kaur and kang, 2023). the current study is supported by adams’ equity theory of motivation (adams, 1963) in examining how employees’ fairness perceptions affect organizational politics and disengagement with gender moderation. the theory explains how perceived unfairness, especially in politically sensitive circumstances, might cause employees to disconnect psychologically or physically. the subsequent sections provide a detailed theoretical background, hypothesis development, methodology, analysis, and interpretation of results, along with practical implications, limitations, and suggestions for future research. theoretical background and hypotheses development perceived organizational politics op is common in the workplace, where individuals or organizations employ power and influence to achieve their objectives (mintzberg, 1983). according to goo, et al. (2019), it refers to the deliberate actions or behaviors that promote or safeguard one’s self-interest at the expense of others or organizational goals in the workplace. the concept of pop arises from the perception of the workplace as inequitable and discriminatory by employees in political environments (cho and yang, 2018; dhanasekar and anandh, 2025). it refers to the individual’s subjective perception of the self-serving behaviors occurring within their workplace. these self-serving behaviors frequently involve using power, influence, and manipulation to achieve personal or organizational goals (kacmar and carlson, 1997; ferris and treadway, 2012). it substantially impacts employees’ attitudes and behaviors toward the organization (ferris, et al., 1989). pop includes three primary dimensions: general political behavior (gpb), go along to get ahead (gaga), and pay and promotion policies (ppp) (kacmar and ferris, 1991; kacmar and carlson, 1997). gpb involves perceived politically motivated behaviors, fostering a sense of workplace politics, leading to stress and reduced trust (ferris, et al., 1989; kacmar and ferris, 1991; vigoda, 2000). gaga reflects conforming to political norms for career advancement, even compromising personal values (kacmar and carlson, 1997; landells and albrecht, 2019). ppp emphasizes political influence in professional progression and rewards, which can lower satisfaction and raise turnover intentions (kacmar and carlson, 1997; vigoda, 2000). understanding the consequences of pop is of both academic and practical importance, as it significantly influences an employee’s emotional, mental, and behavioral responses. previous studies have consistently demonstrated a negative association between pop and key organizational metrics, including, job satisfaction, commitment, work engagement, performance, and employee well-being (karatepe, 2013; asrarul-haq, et al., 2019; ullah, et al., 2019). conversely, a positive correlation has been observed with turnover intention (de clercq, khan and haq, 2023). organizational withdrawal ow is an essential facet of organizational behavior encompassing behaviors indicative of an employee’s disengagement (spendolini, 1985; hanisch and hulin, 1990). it is explained in two primary forms: physical and psychological withdrawal (lehman and simpson, 1992; mirsepasi, et al., 2012; erdemli, 2015). physical withdrawal (pw) is a condition that is defined by absenteeism and turnover, which leads to the physical separation of an employee from their employment (lehman and simpson, 1992; mirsepasi, et al., 2012; erdemli, 2015). in contrast, psychological withdrawal (psw) is the process by which employees mentally disengage from their work despite their physical presence. this encompasses non-work-related activities and dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202571 minimal effort in allotted duties, which suggest that personal interests are prioritized over organizational objectives (lehman and simpson, 1992; erdemli, 2015; aggarwal, et al., 2020). withdrawal behaviors often stem from job dissatisfaction, low commitment, and perceived injustice (brunetto, et al., 2012; khalid, et al., 2022). organizational factors also exacerbate disengagement, including inadequate communication, recognition, and development opportunities (kanungo and mendonca, 2002; newman, et al., 2020). furthermore, the susceptibility to ow is influenced by work-life imbalance and individual characteristics such as personality and stress management capabilities, which significantly influence how employees respond to workplace stressors (peng and li, 2023). the consequences of ow are significant, affecting both individuals and organizations through decreased productivity, increased costs, and decreased job satisfaction (alexander, 2016). apart from the loss of investment, existing employees may be demotivated, and their morale may be adversely affected by the withdrawal of an employee (asrar-ul-haq, et al., 2019). perceived organizational politics and organizational withdrawal the association between pop and ow is well-established, with research suggesting that increased political perceptions may exacerbate withdrawal behaviors (ferris, et al., 1989; vigoda, 2000). employees who perceive their work environment as unjust or dominated by politics frequently disengage, demonstrating behaviors such as turnover intentions, absenteeism, and psychological withdrawal (cropanzano, et al., 1997; abbas, et al., 2014; landells and albrecht, 2019; atshan, et al., 2022; singh and randhawa, 2022). recent research has shed light on the nuanced ways pop impacts ow. meisler (2022) underscores the role of fear in the exacerbation of ow due to pop, particularly within the public sector. the study implies that employees’ fear of negative consequences resulting from political maneuvering can elicit withdrawal behaviors. additionally, sabo bello, et al. (2021) found a negative correlation between pop and organizational commitment, implying that a political climate can erode employees’ sense of loyalty and belonging, potentially contributing to withdrawal. furthermore, while pop has been linked to both physical and psychological withdrawal, vigoda (2000) posits that psychological withdrawal is more prevalent in environments with high exit costs, such as the public sector. this implies that employees may choose psychological disengagement as a coping mechanism in response to perceived political behavior when they anticipate that leaving the organization will be difficult or expensive. drawing upon the extant literature, the following hypotheses are put forth. hypothesis 1: null hypothesis (h0): there is no significant positive relationship between pop and psw among construction professionals. alternate hypothesis (h1): a significant positive relationship exists between pop and psw among construction professionals. hypothesis 2: null hypothesis (h0): there is no significant positive relationship between pop and pw among construction professionals. alternate hypothesis (h2): a significant positive relationship exists between pop and pw among construction professionals. dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202572 gender as a moderator the role of gender in moderating the pop–ow relationship is crucial, especially in the male-dominated ci (norberg and johansson, 2021). research suggests that pop may adversely affect women due to societal expectations, gender stereotypes, and potential discrimination (eagly and karau, 2002; landells and albrecht, 2019). snipes, et al. (2023) found in a recent study that female employees’ job satisfaction is significantly impacted by political actions compared to their male counterparts. this heightened sensitivity to perceived injustice can lead to stronger withdrawal behaviors among women, particularly psychological withdrawal, as a coping mechanism in response to perceived inequities (vigoda, 2002; sabo bello, et al., 2021). moreover, the greater perceived costs of changing jobs in male-dominated industries such as construction may encourage women to opt for psychological rather than physical withdrawal (vigoda, 2002). it is important to comprehend these gender dynamics to create interventions to reduce this phenomenon’s negative effects on female employees in the ci. given these considerations, the following hypotheses are framed for the current study. hypothesis 3: null hypothesis (h0): gender does not significantly moderate the positive relationship between pop and psw among construction professionals. alternate hypothesis (h3): gender significantly moderates the positive relationship between pop and psw among construction professionals. hypothesis 4: null hypothesis (h0): gender does not significantly moderate the positive relationship between pop and pw among construction professionals. alternate hypothesis (h4): gender significantly moderates the positive relationship between pop and pw among construction professionals. theoretical support: equity theory of motivation adams’ equity theory of motivation (adams, 1963), provides a framework for understanding the relationship between pop and ow. according to this theory, individuals evaluate fairness in the workplace by comparing what they contribute, such as effort and skill, with the rewards or recognition they receive, especially in relation to others (adams, 1963; griffeth and gaertner, 2001). in environments where pop is prevalent, rewards and promotions may appear unmerited, disturbing this balance and violating fairness principles. such perceived inequity can result in diminished job satisfaction, decreased productivity, and increased voluntary turnover (greenberg, 1990; snipes, et al., 2023). when employees perceive inequitable treatment, they may opt to disengage from their positions to cope with the resultant stress (adams, 1963, 1965). griffeth and gaertner (2001) emphasize that employees’ perceptions of equity substantially impact their job satisfaction and turnover intentions, which further supports the relevance of equity theory in the comprehension of withdrawal behaviors in politicized work environments. figure 1 depicts the conceptual model, which proposes that pop, the independent variable, impacts the withdrawal dimensions psw and pw, the dependent variables. hypotheses h1 and h2 propose that pop positively influences psw and pw. additionally, the model introduces gender as a moderating variable. hypotheses h3 and h4 examine the interaction effects of gender in the relations of pop and each of the two withdrawal dimensions. the conceptual framework provides a clear perspective on the direct and moderated relationships among variables. dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202573 figure 1. conceptual model. methodology the study employed a quantitative survey methodology to collect data from full-time construction professionals in private construction firms across india, covering on-site and office roles. a quantitative survey method was chosen as it allows for efficient data collection from large and diverse samples, enabling robust statistical analyses to uncover significant relationships (adhikari and timsina, 2024). this sample was selected to capture the diverse experiences of construction professionals and provide a comprehensive understanding of workplace dynamics across different roles. full-time professionals, being directly influenced by organizational policies and workplace politics, were ideal respondents for investigating how pop influences ow dimensions. by including respondents regardless of their current involvement in withdrawal behaviors, the study ensured a broader and more inclusive understanding of the impact of pop on employees in the ci. survey instrument survey questionnaires are a valuable tool for systematically collecting data from diverse respondents. within the field of construction management, these questionnaire surveys are particularly effective in capturing industry practitioners’ opinions and perspectives (radzi, et al., 2024). the questionnaire is divided into two sections: the first assesses pop and ow dimensions, while the second collects demographic information of the respondents. pop is evaluated using 12 items from kacmar and ferris’s (1991) perceptions of organizational politics scale (pops), covering gpb, gaga, and ppp. the current study used the scale as a unidimensional measure, a method validated in several studies (malik, et al., 2019; riaz, batool and saad, 2019; karim, et al., 2021). an example item from this scale is, “sometimes it is easier to remain quiet than to fight the system”. participants indicated their responses using a 5-point likert scale, where 1 represented strong disagreement and 5 represented strong agreement. ow dimensions, psw and pw, were measured using the withdrawal behavior scale developed by erdemli (2015). the scale consists of six psw items and nine pw items, with responses ranging from 1 (never) to 5 (always). the items of the original scale were modified to fit the context of the ci. sample items include “being occupied with irrelevant things during working hours” and “constantly checking the time”. dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202574 sample and data collection snowball sampling, a nonprobability approach employed in construction management research, was used to acquire target samples through referrals (prakash and phadtare, 2018; rastogi and singla, 2023; radzi, et al., 2024). questionnaires were circulated to 400 professionals chosen through this method, and 318 responded, resulting in a 79.5% response rate above the average of 68% (holtom, et al., 2022). the respondents represent a range of professional roles within the indian ci, including senior project managers, engineering managers, project managers, site engineers, design engineers, detailing engineers, modelers, and quality control engineers. hair, et al. (2021) recommend that a sample size of at least 150 is sufficient for models with up to seven constructs, each with more than three items. therefore, the 318 responses were adequate for structural equation modeling. ethical considerations were addressed with approval from the institutional ethics committee (ec no. 8776/iec/2024). respondents were informed about the purpose of the study, nature of the data, and intended use. the study adhered to the guidelines of podsakoff, et al. (2012) to reduce common method bias (cmb) by assuring confidentiality, clarifying that no responses were correct or incorrect, and reverse-scoring specific items. harman’s single-factor test indicated that cmb was not a significant issue, as a single factor accounted for only 32.5% of the variance below the 50% threshold (podsakoff and organ, 1986). the demographic profile in figure 2 shows a diverse sample with 58.8% male and 41.2% female. the majority, 56.6%, are aged 29–38, indicating experienced yet youthful professionals. nearly 70% hold undergraduate degrees, highlighting an educated workforce. figure 2. demographic profile of the respondents. dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202575 analysis and results the study utilized spss v23.0 for descriptive statistics and correlation analysis. smartpls 4.1.0.0 was used for instrument validation and hypothesis testing. partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem) is a statistical technique well-suited for complex models, which are characterized by multiple latent variables, a high number of observed indicators and moderating or mediating relationships. it applies particularly to studies with small to medium sample sizes, where conventional covariance-based sem may be unsuitable (akter, fosso wamba and dewan, 2017). the conceptual model in this study is classified as complex due to the presence of three latent variables, pop, psw, and pw, each of which is measured by multiple observed indicators, with gender as the moderating variable. also, with a sample size of 318, plssem proved appropriate, as it can yield reliable results even with samples as low as 100 to 150 participants. it minimizes unexplained variance in dependent variables while maximizing explained variance from independent variables (hair, et al., 2021). the pls-sem process involves two stages: assessing the measurement model and evaluating the structural model to analyze and interpret research findings. descriptive statistics and correlation matrix the descriptive statistics, including the mean and standard deviation (sd) of the study variables and the correlation matrix between them, are presented in table 1. the mean values for pop, psw, and pw are 3.155, 2.586, and 2.268, respectively. the data reveal a strong positive correlation between pop and the withdrawal dimensions, psw (r = 0.655, p < 0.01) and pw (r = 0.705, p < 0.01). this suggests that an increase in the level of pop is associated with an increase in both psychological and physical withdrawal behaviors. moreover, a strong positive correlation exists between psw and pw (r = 0.817, p < 0.01), suggesting that these two dimensions of withdrawal are closely interrelated. table 1. descriptive statistics and correlation matrix of the variables. variable mean sd pop psw pw pop 3.155 0.741 1 psw 2.586 0.624 0.655** 1 pw 2.268 0.652 0.705** 0.817** 1 note: **correlation is significant at the 0.01 level. measurement model the reliability and validity of the model’s items concerning their constructs were calculated and are shown in table 2. all item loadings surpassed the threshold value of 0.6 (chin, gopal and salisbury, 1997; karim, et al., 2021). the composite reliability estimates (cr), average variance extracted values (ave), and alpha coefficients (ca and rho_a) exceeded their respective threshold values of 0.7, 0.5, and 0.7 (hair, et al., 2021). the uniqueness of the constructs was evaluated using discriminant validity, which was assessed through the heterotrait–monotrait ratio (htmt). the htmt values between the constructs were below the maximum threshold value of 0.85 (hair, et al., 2019), satisfying the criteria for discriminant validity. structural model the study’s structural model was assessed using bootstrapping with 5,000 resamples to analyze path coefficients (β) and coefficient of determination (r²) (hair, et al., 2021). the model fit indices indicated a dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202576 table 2. measurement model. constructs item outer loadings ca rho_a cr ave discriminant validity (htmt matrix) pop psw pw pop pop1 0.914 0.933 0.966 0.969 0.723 pop2 0.749 pop3 0.827 pop4 0.930 pop5 0.873 pop6 0.852 pop7 0.888 pop8 0.902 pop9 0.813 pop10 0.697 pop11 0.857 pop12 0.871 psw psw1 0.916 0.943 0.958 0.955 0.779 0.708 psw2 0.905 psw3 0.873 psw4 0.841 psw5 0.827 psw6 0.930 pw pw1 0.897 0.957 0.965 0.964 0.741 0.752 0.841 pw2 0.891 pw3 0.862 pw4 0.827 pw5 0.845 pw6 0.839 pw7 0.857 pw8 0.870 pw9 0.878 dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202577 good model fit, with the standardized root mean square residual (srmr) at 0.0748, the d_uls at 0.628, the d_g at 0.944, and the normed fit index (nfi) at 0.984. these values align with established standards, wherein an srmr below 0.08 and nfi above 0.90 indicate a good model fit (henseler, et al., 2014). table 3 indicates that the null hypotheses (h0) for h1 and h2 were rejected, whereas the alternate hypotheses were accepted. for h1, which tested the relationship between pop and psw, the path coefficient (β) was 0.623 (t = 14.617, p < 0.01), indicating a significant positive association. for h2, which examined the relationship between pop and pw, the path coefficient was 0.696 (t = 16.903, p < 0.01), also showing a significant positive association. from the r² values of 0.530 and 0.542, pop explains 53.0% and 54.2% of the variation in psw and pw, respectively. this significant variation shows the model’s strong explanatory power for these variables (cohen, 1992). further, the large effect sizes (f ²) of these paths, 0.522 and 0.668 (cohen, 1992), confirm the significant impact of pop on both psw and pw. table 3. structural model outcomes. hypothesis paths path coefficient (β) standard deviation t-statistics p-value r2 f 2 result h1 pop → psw 0.623 0.043 14.617 0.000** 0.530 0.522 alternate hypothesis accepted h2 pop → pw 0.696 0.041 16.903 0.000** 0.542 0.668 alternate hypothesis accepted h3 gender × pop → psw 0.300 0.070 4.275 0.000** 0.136 alternate hypothesis accepted h4 gender × pop → pw 0.468 0.072 6.493 0.000** 0.091 alternate hypothesis accepted note: **p-value significance at the 0.01 level. furthermore, hypotheses h3 and h4 explored the moderating role of gender on the relationship between pop–psw and pop–pw, respectively. the null hypotheses (h0) for h3 and h4 were also rejected and the alternate hypotheses were accepted with significant path coefficients of 0.300 (t = 4.275, p < 0.01) and 0.468 (t = 6.493, p < 0.01), indicating that gender moderates the relationship between pop and psw and pop and pw. the interaction effect of gender and pop on psw yielded a medium effect size (f² = 0.136) (cohen, 1992), indicating that this interaction explains a moderate amount of additional variance in psw. the interaction effect of gender and pop on pw had a smaller effect size (f² = 0.091) (cohen, 1992), suggesting a less pronounced but still significant moderating role of gender in the pop–pw relationship. the structural model in figure 3 shows the path coefficients, their p-values, and the factor loadings of the indicators. the slope analysis shown in figures 4 and 5 was conducted using the recommendations by aiken and west (1991) and dawson (2014), where low pop refers to one standard deviation below the mean (-1 sd) and high pop refers to one standard deviation above the mean (+1 sd). the path coefficients of the indicators were used to perform the analysis. the study reveals that psw and pw increase for both genders as the pop level increases from low to high, with a notably steeper rise for female professionals. dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202578 this suggests that females are more sensitive to pop changes, highlighting gender-specific dynamics in ci where op disproportionately affects women. discussion in the ci, characterized by hierarchical structures and traditionally male-dominated environments (fielden, et al., 2000), the interplay of pop and its impact on ow represents a critical yet underexplored area of research. this study addresses this gap by investigating the influence of pop on ow among construction professionals such as project managers, site engineers, and design engineers, including both psychological and physical withdrawal behaviors, while also determining the moderating role of gender in these relationships. consistent with prior research (ferris and kacmar, 1992; cropanzano, et al., 1997; rosen, levy and hall, 2006; chang, rosen and levy, 2009; landells and albrecht, 2019; sabo bello, et al., 2021), the current study supports the positive relationship between pop and both psychological and physical withdrawal behaviors. the acceptance of the alternate hypotheses of h1 and h2 underscores the significance of op perceptions as a stressor contributing to psychological and physical withdrawal behaviors among construction professionals. figure 3. structural model. dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202579 drawing upon adams’ equity theory of motivation (adams, 1963), the study demonstrates that employees’ perceptions of op generate feelings of unfairness and inequity, prompting them to resort to withdrawal behaviors as coping mechanisms (griffeth and gaertner, 2001; lau and scully, 2015). in construction, where project success often hinges on collaborative effort and trust (soundarya, et al., 2024), pop can be especially destructive. when employees perceive that political maneuvering, rather than merit, dictates rewards and recognition, it breeds frustration and dissatisfaction (vigoda, 2002), resulting in them withdrawing both psychologically and physically from the organization. psw manifested through decreased figure 4. moderation effect of gender on pop and psw. figure 5. moderation effect of gender on pop and pw. dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202580 motivation, commitment, and job satisfaction, can lead to reduced productivity and increased turnover intention (kiazad, seibert and kraimer, 2014). similarly, pw, such as absenteeism and tardiness, can occur when employees choose to physically disengage from the workplace to cope with the stress and negativity associated with op (cropanzano, et al., 1997). in construction, where tight deadlines and high-pressure environments are common, these behaviors can affect productivity, morale, and ultimately, project outcomes (abourizk, et al., 2010). pop has the potential to negatively impact workplace equity by encouraging self-serving behaviors that are detrimental to peers within the ci. this may decrease employee engagement and increase employee withdrawal (rughoobur-seetah, 2022). when promotions or rewards are granted on political grounds without transparency, employees experience feelings of injustice, which diminishes their motivation and accelerates turnover rates. this political climate also exacerbates feelings of exclusion and disengagement by fostering the perception that management prioritizes certain individuals’ ideas or input (atshan, et al., 2022). additionally, the study examined the potential influence of gender on the relationship between pop and ow, which is especially pertinent in the traditionally male-dominated ci. the findings confirmed that gender significantly influences the pop–psw and pop–pw relationships (h3 and h4), with female professionals in the ci being more susceptible to the adverse effects of pop on their withdrawal dimensions. this is consistent with the existing literature indicating that women perceive op as a masculine strategy that impedes their career advancement, exacerbating feelings of alienation and discouragement (snipes, et al., 2023; dhanasekar and anandh, 2025). numerous factors contribute to the increased susceptibility of female professionals to the adverse effects of pop. the impact of pop on women’s withdrawal behavior is exacerbated by the gender stereotypes and biases that are prevalent in the ci, which contribute to increased scrutiny, exclusion, and marginalization of women (galea and chappell, 2022). furthermore, the perception of op among female construction professionals is substantially enhanced by political maneuvering, resulting in biased promotions and rewards. this is worsened by the industry’s extant gender disparities, including the persistent pay gap and limited career advancement opportunities (blau and devaro, 2007). the lack of female representation and support networks in leadership positions increases feelings of powerlessness and disillusionment (norberg and johansson, 2021), thereby worsening the detrimental effects of pop on job satisfaction and commitment. furthermore, female professionals in the ci found themselves in a double bind due to societal norms that dictate varying expectations for men and women. men are characterized by assertiveness and competition, whereas women are characterized by collaboration and nurturing (dalton, 2019). the pressure to exhibit masculine traits to achieve career success while adhering to traditional feminine norms further increases women’s sensitivity to pop. this internal conflict between professional aspirations and societal expectations exacerbates the perceived inequity of op, which ultimately results in disengagement from work through withdrawal behaviors. practical implications the results of this study provide valuable guidance for policymakers and practitioners in the ci to mitigate the adverse effects of pop and reduce ow. to mitigate the detrimental effects of pop, organizations should prioritize transparency in their decision-making processes, guaranteeing that rewards and recognitions are equitable and based on objective performance indicators, including safety standards, client satisfaction, and project milestones. this can be accomplished by implementing transparent communication of performance criteria, regular feedback sessions, and anonymous surveys to assess employees’ perceptions of fairness. managers must be consistent and equitable in their decision-making to mitigate the perceptions of bias and favoritism. open communication channels, in which employees feel comfortable expressing dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202581 their concerns without fear of retribution, can also mitigate the adverse effects of pop. further, targeted interventions such as mentorship and leadership programs, especially for women, can help them traverse political environments. diversity and inclusivity measures, such as leadership equity and diversity training, help balance power and develop a sense of belonging among all employees. these proactive initiatives can boost employee engagement, prevent withdrawal, and make the industry more sustainable and prosperous. limitations and future research directions this study, while insightful, has limitations. the current study, centered on india’s ci, investigates the influence of gender on the relationship between pop and ow dimensions. however, its regional focus and cross-sectional design, which collects data at a single point in time, may limit the findings’ generalizability and causal interpretation. future research could expand to diverse cultures and employ longitudinal designs that track changes in perceptions and behaviors over time for deeper insights. moreover, while quantitative data provide valuable insights, qualitative methods like interviews could offer a richer and more comprehensive understanding. additionally, the complex pop–ow relationship could be better understood by incorporating a multidimensional pop measure and additional demographic variables. this dynamic could be further elucidated by examining potential mediators such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment. conclusion the current study illustrates the significant influence of pop on the behaviors of ow among construction professionals, with a more pronounced effect on female employees. these results indicate that addressing gender-specific vulnerabilities is vital to establishing a more inclusive and equitable work environment. the study not only confirms the negative impact of pop on psychological and physical withdrawal but also highlights the necessity of a gender-sensitive approach toward managing political climates. organizations can mitigate the detrimental consequences of pop by cultivating open communication and setting up transparent, merit-based reward systems. moreover, gender disparities can be mitigated through targeted mentorship and leadership programs designed for female professionals. thus, this study promotes proactive organizational interventions that mitigate employee withdrawal and improve overall productivity and gender equity in the construction industry. references abbas, m., raja, u., darr, w. and bouckenooghe, d. (2014) ‘combined effects of perceived politics and psychological capital on job satisfaction, turnover intentions, and performance’, journal of management, 40(7), pp. 1813–1830. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206312455243 abdolmaleki, g., naismith, n., ghodrati, n., poshdar, m. and babaeian jelodar, m. (2024) ‘an analysis of the literature on construction employee turnover: drivers, consequences, and future direction’, construction management and economics, 42(9), pp. 822–846. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2024.2337084 abourizk, h., lee, s., gellatly, i.r. and fayek, a.r. (2010) ‘understanding withdrawal behavior in the construction industry’, in construction research congress 2010. reston, va: american society of civil engineers, pp. 809–816. https://doi.org/10.1061/41109(373)81 adams, j.s. (1963) ‘towards an understanding of inequity’, journal of abnormal and social psychology, 67(5), pp. 422–436. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040968 adams, j.s. (1965) inequity in social exchange, advances in experimental social psychology. edited by l. berkowitz. new york: academic press. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60108-2 dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202582 https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206312455243 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2024.2337084 https://doi.org/10.1061/41109(373)81 https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040968 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0065-2601(08)60108-2 adhikari, r. and timsina, t.p. (2024) ‘an educational study focused on the application of mixed method approach as a research method’, ocem journal of management, technology & social sciences, 3(1), pp. 94–109. https://doi. org/10.3126/ocemjmtss.v3i1.62229 aggarwal, a., chand, p.k., jhamb, d. and mittal, a. (2020) ‘leader–member exchange, work engagement, and psychological withdrawal behavior: the mediating role of psychological empowerment’, frontiers in psychology, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00423 aiken, l.s. and west, s.g. (1991) ‘multiple regression: testing and interpreting interactions.’, multiple regression: testing and interpreting interactions. thousand oaks, ca, us: sage publications, inc, pp. xi, 212–xi, 212. akter, s., fosso wamba, s. and dewan, s. (2017) ‘why pls-sem is suitable for complex modelling? an empirical illustration in big data analytics quality’, production planning & control, 28(11–12), pp. 1011–1021. https://doi.org/10.1 080/09537287.2016.1267411 alexander, j.f. (2016) mitigating the effects of withdrawal behavior on organizations. available at: https://proquest.com anandh, k.s., gunasekaran, k. and mannan, m.a. (2020) ‘investigation on the factors affecting lifestyle of professionals in the construction industries (kerala and tamil nadu)’, international journal of integrated engineering, 12(9). https://doi.org/10.30880/ijie.2020.12.09.029 asrar-ul-haq, m., ali, h.y., anwar, s., iqbal, a., iqbal, m.b., suleman, n., sadiq, i. and haris-ul-mahasbi, m. (2019) ‘impact of organizational politics on employee work outcomes in higher education institutions of pakistan: moderating role of social capital’, south asian journal of business studies, 8(2), pp. 185–200. https://doi.org/10.1108/ sajbs-07-2018-0086 atshan, n.a., al‐abrrow, h., abdullah, h.o., khaw, k.w., alnoor, a. and abbas, s. (2022) ‘the effect of perceived organizational politics on responses to job dissatisfaction: the moderating roles of self‐efficacy and political skill’, global business and organizational excellence, 41(2), pp. 43–54. https://doi.org/10.1002/joe.22141 beehr, t.a. and gupta, n. (1978) ‘a note on the structure of employee withdrawal’, organizational behavior and human performance, 21(1), pp. 73–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(78)90040-5 blau, f.d. and devaro, j. (2007) ‘new evidence on gender differences in promotion rates: an empirical analysis of a sample of new hires’, industrial relations: a journal of economy and society, 46(3), pp. 511–550. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1468-232x.2007.00479.x brunetto, y., teo, s.t.t., shacklock, k. and farr‐wharton, r. (2012) ‘emotional intelligence, job satisfaction, well‐ being and engagement: explaining organisational commitment and turnover intentions in policing’, human resource management journal, 22(4), pp. 428–441. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2012.00198.x burakova, m., mcdowall, a. and bianvet, c. (2022) ‘are organisational politics responsible for turnover intention in french firefighters?’, european review of applied psychology, 72(5), p. 100764. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. erap.2022.100764 chang, c.h., rosen, c. and levy, p. (2009) ‘the relationship between perceptions of organizational politics and employee attitudes, strain, and behavior: a meta-analytic examination’, academy of management journal, 52(4), pp. 779– 801. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2009.43670894 chin, w.w., gopal, a. and salisbury, w.d. (1997) ‘advancing the theory of adaptive structuration: the development of a scale to measure faithfulness of appropriation’, information systems research, 8(4), pp. 342–367. https://doi. org/10.1287/isre.8.4.342 cho, h.-t. and yang, j.-s. (2018) ‘how perceptions of organizational politics influence self-determined motivation: the mediating role of work mood’, asia pacific management review, 23(1), pp. 60–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. apmrv.2017.05.003 dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202583 https://doi.org/10.3126/ocemjmtss.v3i1.62229 https://doi.org/10.3126/ocemjmtss.v3i1.62229 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.00423 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2016.1267411 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2016.1267411 https://proquest.com https://doi.org/10.30880/ijie.2020.12.09.029 https://doi.org/10.1108/sajbs-07-2018-0086 https://doi.org/10.1108/sajbs-07-2018-0086 https://doi.org/10.1002/joe.22141 https://doi.org/10.1016/0030-5073(78)90040-5 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-232x.2007.00479.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-232x.2007.00479.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2012.00198.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erap.2022.100764 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.erap.2022.100764 https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2009.43670894 https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.8.4.342 https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.8.4.342 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmrv.2017.05.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmrv.2017.05.003 de clercq, d., khan, m.a. and haq, i.u. (2023) ‘perceived organizational politics and turnover intentions: critical roles of social adaptive behavior and emotional regulation skills’, journal of management & organization, 29(2), pp. 247–265. https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2021.26 cohen, j. (1992) ‘a power primer.’, psychological bulletin, 112(1), pp. 155–159. https://doi.org/10.1037/00332909.112.1.155 cropanzano, r., howes, j.c., grandey, a.a. and toth, p. (1997) ‘the relationship of organizational politics and support to work behaviors, attitudes, and stress’, journal of organizational behavior, 18(2), pp. 159–180. https://doi.org/10.1002/ (sici)1099-1379(199703)18:2<159::aid-job795>3.0.co;2-d dalton, d. (2019) how double bind bias impacts women leaders. available at: https://3plusinternational.com/2019/08/ how-double-bind-bias-imapcts-women-leaders/ (accessed: 20 july 2024) dawson, j.f. (2014) ‘moderation in management research: what, why, when, and how’, journal of business and psychology, 29(1), pp. 1–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-013-9308-7 dhanasekar, y. and anandh, k.s. (2025) ‘deciphering the role of age and gender in perceiving organizational politics in construction’, built environment project and asset management, ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ bepam-01-2024-0011 dhanasekar, y., anandh, k.s. and szóstak, m. (2023) ‘development of the diversity concept for the construction sector: a bibliometric analysis’, sustainability, 15(21), p. 15424. https://doi.org/10.3390/su152115424 eagly, a.h. and karau, s.j. (2002) ‘role congruity theory of prejudice toward female leaders.’, psychological review, 109(3), pp. 573–598. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.109.3.573 edison, j.c. (2020) ‘infrastructure development and construction management’, infrastructure development and construction management [preprint]. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003055624 erdemli, ö. (2015) ‘teachers’ withdrawal behaviors and their relationship with work ethic’, eurasian journal of educational research, 15(60), pp. 201–220. https://doi.org/10.14689/ejer.2015.60.12 ferris, g.r., harris, j.n., russell, z.a. and maher, l.p. (1989) ‘politics in organizations’, in r.a. giacalone and p. rosenfeld (eds) impression management in the organization, pp. 143–170. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473914957.n21 ferris, g.r. and kacmar, k.m. (1992) ‘perceptions of organizational politics’, journal of management, 18(1), pp. 93–116. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639201800107 ferris, g.r. and treadway, d.c. (2012) ‘politics in organizations: theory and research considerations’, politics in organizations: theory and research considerations, pp. 1–656. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203197424 fielden, s.l., davidson, m.j., gale, a.w. and davey, c.l. (2000) ‘women in construction: the untapped resource’, construction management and economics, 18(1), pp. 113–121. https://doi.org/10.1080/014461900371004 galea, n. and chappell, l. (2022) ‘male‐dominated workplaces and the power of masculine privilege: a comparison of the australian political and construction sectors’, gender, work & organization, 29(5), pp. 1692–1711. https://doi. org/10.1111/gwao.12639 goo, w., choi, y. and choi, w. (2019) ‘coworkers’ organizational citizenship behaviors and employees’ work attitudes: the moderating roles of perceptions of organizational politics and task interdependence’, journal of management & organization, 28(5), pp. 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2019.26 greenberg, j. (1990) ‘employee theft as a reaction to underpayment inequity: the hidden cost of pay cuts’, journal of applied psychology, 75, pp. 561–568. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315193854-6 griffeth, r.w. and gaertner, s. (2001) ‘a role for equity theory in the turnover process: an empirical test.’, journal of applied social psychology, 31(5), pp. 1017–1037. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2001.tb02660.x dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202584 https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2021.26 https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155 https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155 https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199703)18:2<159::aid-job795>3.0.co;2-d https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1099-1379(199703)18:2<159::aid-job795>3.0.co;2-d https://3plusinternational.com/2019/08/how-double-bind-bias-imapcts-women-leaders/ https://3plusinternational.com/2019/08/how-double-bind-bias-imapcts-women-leaders/ https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-013-9308-7 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-01-2024-0011 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-01-2024-0011 https://doi.org/10.3390/su152115424 https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.109.3.573 https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003055624 https://doi.org/10.14689/ejer.2015.60.12 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473914957.n21 https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639201800107 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203197424 https://doi.org/10.1080/014461900371004 https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12639 https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12639 https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2019.26 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315193854-6 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1559-1816.2001.tb02660.x hair, j.f., hult, g.t.m., ringle, c.m. and sarstedt, m. (2021) a primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling. 2nd edn. los angeles: sage publications inc. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80519-7 hair, j.f., risher, j.j., sarstedt, m. and ringle, c.m. (2019) ‘when to use and how to report the results of pls-sem’, european business review, 31(1), pp. 2–24. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-11-2018-0203 hanisch, k.a. and hulin, c.l. (1990) ‘job attitudes and organizational withdrawal: an examination of retirement and other voluntary withdrawal behaviors’, journal of vocational behavior, 37(1), pp. 60–78. https://doi.org/10.1016/00018791(90)90007-o hansen, j. (2024) understanding employee turnover rates (and how to improve them). available at: https://www.award. co/blog/employee-turnover-rates (accessed: 21 february 2024). harris, r.b., harris, k.j. and harvey, p. (2007) ‘a test of competing models of the relationships among perceptions of organizational politics, perceived organizational support, and individual outcomes’, the journal of social psychology, 147(6), pp. 631–656. https://doi.org/10.3200/socp.147.6.631-656 henseler, j., dijkstra, t.k., sarstedt, m., ringle, c.m., diamantopoulos, a., straub, d.w., ketchen, d.j., hair, j.f., hult, g.t.m. and calantone, r.j. (2014) ‘common beliefs and reality about pls’, organizational research methods, 17(2), pp. 182–209. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428114526928 holtom, b., baruch, y., aguinis, h. and a ballinger, g. (2022) ‘survey response rates: trends and a validity assessment framework’, human relations, 75(8), pp. 1560–1584. https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267211070769 jeong, y. and kim, m. (2022) ‘effects of perceived organizational support and perceived organizational politics on organizational performance: mediating role of differential treatment’, asia pacific management review, 27(3), pp. 190– 199. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmrv.2021.08.002 kacmar, k.m. and carlson, d.s. (1997) ‘further validation of the perceptions of politics scale (pops): a multiple sample investigation’, journal of management, 23(5), pp. 627–658. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639702300502 kacmar, k.m. and ferris, g.r. (1991) ‘perceptions of organizational politics scale (pops): development and construct validation’, educational and psychological measurement, 51(1), pp. 193–205. https://doi. org/10.1177/0013164491511019 kanungo, r.n. and mendonca, m. (2002) ‘employee withdrawal behavior’, in, pp. 71–94. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0599-0_4 karatepe, o.m. (2013) ‘perceptions of organizational politics and hotel employee outcomes’, international journal of contemporary hospitality management, 25(1), pp. 82–104. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596111311290237 karim, d.n., abdul majid, a.h., omar, k. and aburumman, o.j. (2021) ‘the mediating effect of interpersonal distrust on the relationship between perceived organizational politics and workplace ostracism in higher education institutions’, heliyon, 7(6), p. e07280. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07280 kaur, n. and kang, l.s. (2023) ‘perception of organizational politics, knowledge hiding and organizational citizenship behavior: the moderating effect of political skill’, personnel review, 52(3), pp. 649–670. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-082020-0607 khalid, s., hashmi, h.b.a., abbass, k., ahmad, b., khan niazi, a.a. and achim, m.v. (2022) ‘unlocking the effect of supervisor incivility on work withdrawal behavior: conservation of resource perspective’, frontiers in psychology, 13. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.887352 kiazad, k., seibert, s.e. and kraimer, m.l. (2014) ‘psychological contract breach and employee innovation: a conservation of resources perspective’, journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 87(3), pp. 535–556. https:// doi.org/10.1111/joop.12062 dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202585 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-80519-7 https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-11-2018-0203 https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(90)90007-o https://doi.org/10.1016/0001-8791(90)90007-o https://www.award.co/blog/employee-turnover-rates https://www.award.co/blog/employee-turnover-rates https://doi.org/10.3200/socp.147.6.631-656 https://doi.org/10.1177/1094428114526928 https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267211070769 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmrv.2021.08.002 https://doi.org/10.1177/014920639702300502 https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164491511019 https://doi.org/10.1177/0013164491511019 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0599-0_4 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0599-0_4 https://doi.org/10.1108/09596111311290237 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07280 https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-08-2020-0607 https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-08-2020-0607 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.887352 https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12062 https://doi.org/10.1111/joop.12062 laczo, r.m. and hanisch, k.a. (1999) ‘an examination of behavioral families of organizational withdrawal in volunteer workers and paid employees’, human resource management review, 9(4), pp. 453–477. https://doi. org/10.1016/s1053-4822(99)00029-7 landells, e.m. and albrecht, s.l. (2019) ‘perceived organizational politics, engagement, and stress: the mediating influence of meaningful work’, frontiers in psychology, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01612 lau, c.m. and scully, g. (2015) ‘the roles of organizational politics and fairness in the relationship between performance management systems and trust’, behavioral research in accounting, 27(1), pp. 25–53. https://doi. org/10.2308/bria-51055 lehman, w.e.k. and simpson, d.d. (1992) ‘employee substance use and on-the-job behaviors’, journal of applied psychology, 77(3), pp. 309–321. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.77.3.309 malik, o.f., shahzad, a., raziq, m.m., khan, m.m., yusaf, s. and khan, a. (2019) ‘perceptions of organizational politics, knowledge hiding, and employee creativity: the moderating role of professional commitment’, personality and individual differences, 142, pp. 232–237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.05.005 meisler, g. (2022) ‘fear and emotional abilities in public organizations: a sectorial comparison of their influence on employees’ well-being’, international public management journal, 25(4), pp. 544–565. https://doi.org/10.1080/10967494. 2020.1720051 meisler, g., drory, a. and vigoda-gadot, e. (2020) ‘perceived organizational politics and counterproductive work behavior: the mediating role of hostility’, personnel review, 49(8), pp. 1505–1517. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-122017-0392 mintzberg, h. (1983) power in and around organizations. prentice hall. mirsepasi, n., memarzadeh, g., alipour, h. and feizi, m. (2012) ‘citizenship and withdrawal behaviors in contingency cultures’, journal of basic and applied scientific research, 2(9), pp. 9398–9406. available at: www.textroad. com morello, a., issa, r.r.a. and franz, b. (2018) ‘exploratory study of recruitment and retention of women in the construction industry’, journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 144(2). https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000359 newman, a., le, h., north-samardzic, a. and cohen, m. (2020) ‘moral disengagement at work: a review and research agenda’, journal of business ethics, 167(3), pp. 535–570. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04173-0 norberg, c. and johansson, m. (2021) ‘“women and ‘ideal’ women”: the representation of women in the construction industry’, gender issues, 38(1), pp. 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-020-09257-0 park, j.h., newman, a., zhang, l., wu, c. and hooke, a. (2016) ‘mentoring functions and turnover intention: the mediating role of perceived organizational support’, the international journal of human resource management, 27(11), pp. 1173–1191. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1062038 pathan, s.s. and vinay, r. (2021) ‘employee turnover and attrition in india: an overview’, allana management journal of research, pune, 11, pp. 19–21. peng, p. and li, x. (2023) ‘the hidden costs of emotional labor on withdrawal behavior: the mediating role of emotional exhaustion, and the moderating effect of mindfulness’, bmc psychology, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-02301392-z pepple, d.g., akinsowon, p. and oyelere, m. (2023) ‘employee commitment and turnover intention: perspectives from the nigerian public sector’, public organization review, 23(2), pp. 739–757. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-02100577-7 dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202586 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(99)00029-7 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1053-4822(99)00029-7 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01612 https://doi.org/10.2308/bria-51055 https://doi.org/10.2308/bria-51055 https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.77.3.309 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2018.05.005 https://doi.org/10.1080/10967494.2020.1720051 https://doi.org/10.1080/10967494.2020.1720051 https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-12-2017-0392 https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-12-2017-0392 http://www.textroad.com http://www.textroad.com https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000359 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000359 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-019-04173-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12147-020-09257-0 https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1062038 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-023-01392-z https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-023-01392-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-021-00577-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-021-00577-7 podsakoff, p.m., mackenzie, s.b. and podsakoff, n.p. (2012) ‘sources of method bias in social science research and recommendations on how to control it’, annual review of psychology, 63(1), pp. 539–569. https://doi.org/10.1146/ annurev-psych-120710-100452 podsakoff, p.m. and organ, d.w. (1986) ‘self-reports in organizational research: problems and prospects’, journal of management, 12(4), pp. 531–544. https://doi.org/10.1177/014920638601200408 prakash, a. and phadtare, m. (2018) ‘service quality for architects: scale development and validation’, engineering, construction and architectural management, 25(5), pp. 670–686. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-03-2017-0046 radzi, a.r., k. s., a., alias, a.r., algahtany, m. and rahman, r.a. (2024) ‘modeling the factors affecting workplace well-being at construction sites: a cross-regional multigroup analysis’, journal of engineering, design and technology [preprint]. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-07-2023-0322 rajprasad, j., thamilarasu, v. and mageshwari, n. (2018) ‘role of crisis management in construction projects’, international journal of engineering and technology(uae), 7, pp. 451–453. https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i2.12.11515 rashid, m.a., islam, t. and ahmer, z. (2019) ‘how organizational politics impact workers job related outcomes?’, journal of political studies, 26(1), p. 205. rastogi, a. and singla, h.k. (2023) ‘exploration of exhaustion in early-career construction professionals in india’, engineering, construction and architectural management [preprint]. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2022-0938 riaz, a., batool, s. and saad, m.s.m. (2019) ‘the missing link between high performance work practices and perceived organizational politics’, revista de administração de empresas, 59(2), pp. 82–94. https://doi.org/10.1590/s0034759020190202 rosen, c.c., levy, p.e. and hall, r.j. (2006) ‘placing perceptions of politics in the context of the feedback environment, employee attitudes, and job performance.’, journal of applied psychology, 91(1), pp. 211–220. https://doi. org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.1.211 rughoobur-seetah, d.s. (2022) ‘assessing the outcomes of organizational politics on employees work behaviors’, journal of african business, 23(3), pp. 676–693. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228916.2021.1910785 sabo bello, m., gaji, a.a., madaki, a.a. and hussaini, i. (2021) ‘antecedents of perceived organisational politics and psychological withdrawal’, original research article [preprint], (august). https://doi.org/10.36349/easjebm.2021. v04i07.001 sexton, c. and zhang, j. (2022) ‘reducing harassment for women in the professional construction workplace with zerotolerance and interventionist policies’, construction research congress 2022: health and safety, workforce, and education selected papers from construction research congress 2022, 4-d(5), pp. 376–385. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144 6193.2016.1277026 singh, s. and randhawa, g. (2022) ‘do perceptions of organizational politics influence turnover intentions? organizational cynicism as a potential mediator’, development and learning in organizations: an international journal, 36(1), pp. 8–10. https://doi.org/10.1108/dlo-02-2021-0025 snipes, r.l., pitts, j.p., bryant, p.c., huning, t.m. and snipes, a. (2023) ‘job satisfaction and politics in the modern workplace: an empirical examination of the moderating effects of gender and age on the perception of organizational politics-job satisfaction relationship’, employee responsibilities and rights journal [preprint]. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s10672-023-09449-2 soundarya, s.p., k.s, a., rajendran, s. and sen, k.n. (2024) ‘the role of psychological contract in enhancing safety climate and safety behavior in the construction industry’, journal of engineering, design and technology [preprint]. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-07-2023-0315 dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202587 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100452 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-120710-100452 https://doi.org/10.1177/014920638601200408 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-03-2017-0046 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-07-2023-0322 https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i2.12.11515 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2022-0938 https://doi.org/10.1590/s0034-759020190202 https://doi.org/10.1590/s0034-759020190202 https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.1.211 https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.1.211 https://doi.org/10.1080/15228916.2021.1910785 https://doi.org/10.36349/easjebm.2021.v04i07.001 https://doi.org/10.36349/easjebm.2021.v04i07.001 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1277026 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1277026 https://doi.org/10.1108/dlo-02-2021-0025 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-023-09449-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-023-09449-2 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-07-2023-0315 spendolini, m.j. (1985) employee withdrawal behavior: expanding the concept (turnover, absenteeism). university of california, irvine. ullah, s., hasnain, s.a., khalid, a. and aslam, a. (2019) ‘effects of perception of organizational politics on employee’s well-being: the mediating role of trust and interpersonal conflicts’, european online journal of natural and social sciences, 8(1), pp. 1–14. available at: http://european-science.com/eojnss_proc/article/view/5637 vigoda, e. (2000) ‘organizational politics, job attitudes, and work outcomes: exploration and implications for the public sector’, journal of vocational behavior, 57(3), pp. 326–347. https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1999.1742 vigoda, e. (2002) ‘stress-related aftermaths to workplace politics: the relationships among politics, job distress, and aggressive behavior in organizations’, journal of organizational behavior, 23(5), pp. 571–591. https://doi.org/10.1002/ job.160 zhang, j., su, d., smith, a.p. and yang, l. (2023) ‘reducing work withdrawal behaviors when faced with work obstacles: a three-way interaction model’, behavioral sciences, 13(11), p. 908. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs13110908 dhanasekar and anandh construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202588 http://european-science.com/eojnss_proc/article/view/5637 https://doi.org/10.1006/jvbe.1999.1742 https://doi.org/10.1002/job.160 https://doi.org/10.1002/job.160 https://doi.org/10.3390/bs13110908 construction economics and building vol. 17, no. 4 december 2017 © 2017 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: durdyev, s., mohamed, s., lay, m.l., and ismail, s. 2017. key factors affecting construction safety performance in developing countries: evidence from cambodia. construction economics and building, 17:4, 48-65. http://dx.doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i4.5596 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | ajceb.epress. lib.uts.edu.au research article key factors affecting construction safety performance in developing countries: evidence from cambodia serdar durdyev1*, sherif mohamed2, meng leang lay3, syuhaida ismail4 1 department of engineering and architectural studies, ara institute of canterbury, 130 madras street, christchurch, new zealand. 8023 2 griffith school of engineering, griffith university, gold coast campus, qld 4222, australia 3 department of civil engineering, zaman university, st.315, phnom penh, cambodia 12510 4 utm razak school of engineering and advanced technology, university teknologi malaysia, jalan sultan yahya petra, 54100 kuala lumpur, malaysia corresponding author: serdar durdyev, department of engineering and architectural studies, ara institute of canterbury, 130 madras street, christchurch, new zealand. 8023; durdyevs@ara.ac.nz doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i4.5596 article history: received 28/06/2017; revised 01/09/2017 & 23/09/2017; accepted 29/09/2017; published 07/12/2017 abstract although proper safety management in construction is of utmost importance; anecdotal evidence suggests that safety is not adequately considered in many developing countries. this paper considers the key variables affecting construction safety performance in cambodia. using an empirical questionnaire survey targeting local construction professionals, respondents were invited to rate the level of importance of 30 variables identified from the seminal literature. the data set was subjected to factor analysis. correlations between the variables show that five key factors underlie the challenges facing the local industry; management and organisation, resources, site management, cosmetic and workforce. it is found that the forefront construction professionals (top management and government authorities) should take more responsibilities for further improvements in safety performance on project sites. findings and recommendations of this study may be useful to construction professional who are seeking ways to improve safety records in developing countries. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 48 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i4.5596 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i4.5596 http://ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au http://ajceb.epress.lib.uts.edu.au mailto:durdyevs@ara.ac.nz http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i4.5596 keywords safety performance; osh; construction site; cambodia; construction safety. introduction the construction industry is the second most dynamic driver of the cambodian economy. according to the macroeconomic report by the ministry of economy and finance (mef, 2016), the construction industry contributes 9 to 10% annually to the country’s gross domestic product. moreover, it seems that investor appetite for construction projects is remaining strong, especially for residential and commercial buildings, as seen in the acceleration of construction project approval value to reach us$8.5 billion in 2016, compared with us$3.3 billion in 2015 (hawkins and sek, 2017). paradoxically, notwithstanding its economic and employment contribution (durdyev and ismail, 2016), the sector is affected by issues such as the lack of a professionally qualified workforce, low construction productivity, and low health and safety standards. b2b cambodia (2015) reported that cambodia’s construction labour standards and site conditions remain low, which is reflected in the country’s poor construction safety performance ( jokkaw and tongthong, 2016). for instance, according to decent work country programme cambodia (2011–2015), in 2009, more than 1,500 labourers died because of occupational accidents on construction sites, as stated by the ministry of labour and vocational training (mlvt, 2011). however, because of inadequate reporting and nondisclosure of incidents, the number of reported accidents remains limited. with the largest proportion of capital investment in the construction sector going to development projects (durdyev, omarov and ismail, 2017), improvement in the occupational safety and health (osh) performance of the industry is essential to establish a more comprehensive knowledge base for preventative measures and a more conducive environment for enforcing osh standards in the workplace. because construction is one of the most hazardous industries ( jannadi and bu-khamsin, 2002) and the labour-intensive nature of construction operations (lessing, thurnell and durdyev, 2017) identifying and addressing osh-limiting factors is a fundamental approach to enhancing the safety performance of the construction industry (abdul-rashid, bassoni and bawazeer, 2007). construction safety research has received significant attention and several studies have investigated the factors affecting construction safety performance in other countries (sawacha, naoum and fong, 1999; tam, zeng and deng, 2004; abdulrashid, 2007; cheah 2007; enshassi, risqa and arain, 2014). however, no notable research or industry initiatives had been undertaken in cambodia until the commencement of this scoping study. moreover, the industry operators and authorities responsible for safety have limited resources to address the myriad construction safety factors presented in the literature. thus, of strategic importance is identifying the fewest number of factors that have the greatest influence on construction safety performance. this way, stakeholders can focus their efforts and available resources on addressing the most influential factors to ensure safe and efficient construction projects. most of construction safety-limiting factors are industry specific because of differences in the sociocultural, legislative and regulatory environments within which construction operations are undertaken. thus, studies from other countries may not be entirely applicable in the cambodian construction industry context. in the absence of empirical studies on construction safety-limiting factors in cambodia, this study aims to contribute to filling an important key factors affecting construction safety performance in developing countries: evidence from cambodia construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201749 knowledge gap by researching this subject, using the construction projects (residential and hospitality projects) as a starting point. to achieve this aim, this study was undertaken with the following objectives: 1. to identify the key factors limiting safety performance in the cambodian construction industry 2. to establish the principal factors affecting construction safety performance from the identified sets of variables. literature review because of its unique nature, construction is considered one of the most hazardous industries (fang and wu, 2013). it comprises a wide range of activities (both construction and repair) that rely intensively on labourers, heavy machinery and equipment. construction workers engage in many activities that may expose them to serious hazards, such as falling from rooftops, encountering unguarded machinery, and being struck by heavy construction equipment (popov, lyon and hollcroft, 2016). therefore, safety procedures related to the construction industry or project sites have been established in different countries (muiruri and mulinge, 2014) to ensure that construction sites or the industry are not the cause of immediate danger to the public or workers at a project site. construction safety regulations are also useful for ensuring that every finished product meets the required safety standards. various researchers have conducted studies regarding the safety of the construction industry, and identified factors causing poor performance on construction projects, as well as critical success factors influencing safe program implementation ( jazayeri and dadi, 2017). for instance, liu, jazayeri and dadi, (2017) introduced a weighted rating model to investigate the construction clients’ (regardless the type of the construction project) influence on safety performance of any project site. the results show that the construction clients are not exempted from safety responsibility and their involvement obviously contributes to the overall construction safety performance. from the contractors’ perspectives, jannadi and bu-khamsin (2002) researched the key elements of safety performance in saudi arabian construction projects. the most significant factors were management involvement, personal protective equipment, emergency/disaster planning and preparation, ionisation radiation, scaffolding and ladders, crane and lifting equipment, fire prevention, electrical equipment, excavation, trenching and shoring, and mechanical equipment. further, tam, zeng and deng (2004) investigated the factors affecting construction safety performance in china, and found that the priority issues were poor safety awareness among the firm’s top leaders, lack of training, poor safety awareness among project managers, reluctance to input resources for safety, and reckless operations. ng, cheng and skitmore (2005) emphasised several predominant factors affecting construction safety performance at the organisational and project levels, of which 13 related to the organisational level, while 18 related to the project level. based on mean scores and mean ratings, the study identified the following construction safety factors: implementation of a safety management system in accordance with legislation and compliance with osh legislation, codes and standards at the organisation level, and provision of a safe working environment at the project level. further, abdul-rashid, bassoni and bawazeer, (2007) identified the factors affecting construction safety performance of large contractors in egypt, including safety awareness among the company’s top management, safety awareness among project managers, and safety inspections by safety supervisors. durdyev, mohamed, lay, and ismail construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201750 by adopting the analytical hierarchy process technique and pareto principle, al haadir and panuwatwanich (2011) indicated the critical success factors influencing safety program implementation in saudi arabia, including management support, clear and reasonable objectives, personal attitudes, teamwork, effective enforcement, safety training and suitable supervision. moreover, hinze, hallowell and baud (2013) analysed 22 safety practices implemented on construction sites for safety performance improvement. the results of an empirical data analysis revealed that the following safety activities differentiate safety performance: worker observation programs, worker safety perception surveys, tracking of first-aid injuries, supervisor involvement in policy making, active owner involvement in safety, site-specific safety training for managers, adequate safety staffing, and other practices. further, liu et al., (2015) developed a model for construction professionals by investigating the implications of the operational excellence concept through behavioural and cultural elements influencing the construction safety performance. from a more structured perspective, gunduz, birgonul and ozdemir (2017) assessed the construction safety performance in turkey by establishing a fuzzy structural equation model, and further classified the 30 most important observable variables under seven dimensions: demolition works, working at height and protection against falling, welding works, personal protective equipment, lighting and electricity, workers, and ladders and stairs. based on the review of related literature, several studies from various perspectives have reported elements of a poor construction safety performance. however, the identification of the fewest number of elements causing poor construction safety performance is of strategic importance for the construction stakeholders in cambodia. the first objective of this study was to identify the factors influencing safety performance in construction projects in the cambodian context. an in-depth review of the relevant literature was undertaken to identify the factors limiting construction project safety performance. thirtysix factors were identified that provided the basis for designing a preliminary questionnaire. to refine the factors, pilot interviews were undertaken as described under the research method section. during the pilot interview phase of the study, 30 factors of the 36 sourced from the literature were identified as the most relevant to the cambodian construction industry. the results of this exercise, produced a list of 30 project safety factors was included in the final version of the questionnaire as discussed in the research method section later. as depicted in table 1, these project safety factors were identified in previous studies, which provided a basis for the efforts to identify the key factors constraining construction safety performance, with a robust literature backing. table 1 factors affecting construction safety performance in cambodia no. factors affecting construction safety performance relevant literature 1 lack of training ng, cheng and skitmore (2005) 2 reckless operations kadiri et al. (2014) 3 lack of skilled labour abdul-rashid, bassoni and bawazeer (2007) key factors affecting construction safety performance in developing countries: evidence from cambodia construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201751 no. factors affecting construction safety performance relevant literature 4 poor equipment sawacha, naoum and fong (1999) 5 low educated workers enshassi, risqa and arain (2014) 6 lack of personal protective equipment jannadi (1996) 7 lack of technical guidance abdul-rashid, bassoni and bawazeer (2007) 8 lack of experienced project managers chinda and mohamed (2008) 9 excessive overtime work tam, zeng and deng (2004) 10 insufficient promotion of safety awareness jokkaw and tongthong (2016) 11 ineffectiveness of current safety policies ng, cheng and skitmore (2005) 12 tight schedule zhang et al. (2015) 13 workers’ physical fatigue hsu et al. (2008) 14 financial pressure enshassi, risqa and arain (2014) 15 lack of management commitment to safety programs shapira and lyachin (2009) 16 lack of inspection procedures onsite terwel and vambersky (2013) 17 lack of safe construction site environment sawacha, naoum and fong (1999) 18 lack of safety supervisor onsite abdul-rashid, bassoni and bawazeer (2007) 19 lack of worker compensation insurance jokkaw and tongthong (2016) 20 poor safety awareness among top management tam, zeng and deng (2004) 21 poor selection and control of subcontractors ng, cheng and skitmore (2005) 22 poor legislation, codes and standards tam, zeng and deng (2004) 23 lack of emergency plan and procedures abdul-rashid, bassoni and bawazeer (2007) 24 poor weather conditions shapira and lyachin (2009) 25 lack of monitoring the compliance of safety measures kadiri et al. (2014) 26 insufficient safety budget chinda and mohamed (2008) 27 lack of protection in material transportation enshassi, risqa and arain (2014) 28 reluctance to input resources for safety tam, zeng and deng (2004) 29 poor accident record keeping and reporting system jannadi (1996), ng, cheng and skitmore (2005) 30 overlapping activities mitropoulos and namboodiri (2011) durdyev, mohamed, lay, and ismail construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201752 research method this study adopted a questionnaire survey technique to investigate the key factors influencing construction safety performance in cambodia, which has been encouraged and justified by various studies (tam, zeng and deng, 2004; abdul-rashid, bassoni and bawazeer, 2007; enshassi, risqa and arain, 2014) that aimed to gather responses from the appropriate respondents to achieve their objectives. based on the findings of the review of relevant literature, the questionnaire has been designed by comprising the key construction safety factors, which are depicted in table 1. the questions were outlined as simple as possible so that the respondents can understand the relationship of those factors with construction safety performance and easily rate their relative influence. a five-point likert scale from ‘1 = very low’ to ‘5 = very high’ was adopted for guiding the respondents to seek for their feedback with different levels of impact. prior to the second-stage quantitative data gathering, this study conducted semi-structured informal interviews (pilot survey) with five contractors and five safety engineers – with at least ten years of the industry experience – to test the feasibility and clarify the concept and design of the intended questionnaire. this helped improve the relevance and workability of the questions in the construction safety context of cambodia (tavakol and dennick, 2011). the open-ended section of the questionnaire served to explore further factors that were not included in the subsets of variables for rating. this study hand-distributed and collected the survey from the target respondents, as well as using an online survey method, as the appropriate methods of distributing the questionnaire survey forms. this method of questionnaire distribution enabled direct access to respondents to ensure that the questionnaire requirements were clear. in addition, it helped enhance the respondents’ interest in answering the questionnaire in detail. the questionnaires were administered to the frontline stakeholders responsible for construction safety performance at various levels of construction firms that operated mainly in phnom penh city (home to most of the construction projects), as well as to authorities at the ministry of land management, urban planning and construction (mlmupc), which is responsible for construction safety in cambodia. to collect an adequate number of responses throughout cambodia, additional approaches were taken to obtain the membership directories of the cambodia constructors association (cca) and board of engineers cambodia (bec). data analysis the research aim focused primarily on evaluating the measures of association between the underlying variables that were identified during the pilot interviews as having a potential influence on safety in construction projects. ultimately, this study aimed to evaluate whether the set of variables were sufficiently inter-correlated and conceptually meaningful. if so, variables were grouped into a (relatively) small number of principal factors that could be useful to demonstrate the relationships among the set of correlative variables. consequently, these principal factors were recommended as the focus for stakeholders’ efforts and resources to enhance the safety performance of cambodia’s construction industry. thus, factor analysis was adopted as an appropriate analytical method, which was consistent with the aim and empirical data for the study (durdyev and mbachu, 2017). tests of reliability for this study comprised cronbach’s alpha test, bartlett’s test of sphericity and the kaiser-meyer-olkin key factors affecting construction safety performance in developing countries: evidence from cambodia construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201753 (kmo) test, which were undertaken using the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) (field, 2009). research findings and discussion survey results the questionnaires were administered to the frontline stakeholders responsible for construction safety performance at various levels in construction firms that operated mainly in phnom penh city, as well as authorities at the mlmupc, which is responsible for construction safety in cambodia. to collect an adequate number of responses throughout cambodia, additional approaches were taken to obtain the membership directories of the cca and bec. invitations to participate in the survey were extended to the 114 key construction safety stakeholders that comprised the three sampling frames for the study—namely, eight authorities at the mlmupc, 84 contractors (operating mainly in phnom penh city) registered with the cca, and 22 construction safety engineers registered with the bec. by the cut-off date for the survey, 92 usable responses were received. this represented an approximate 81% usable response rate, with most responses (67%) from contractors. detailed analysis (refer to table 2) of the demographic profiles of the respondents indicated that the clear majority (73%) occupied high-ranking positions in their organisations, with an average of nine years of work experience in the construction industry. the status and experience of many respondents added to the feedback quality and reliability of the study findings. table 2 demographic profiles of the respondents quantity percentage (%) questionnaire distributed 114 100 valid 92 81 participants contractor 62 67 mlmupc member 8 9 construction safety engineer 22 24 position in the organization director/executive director 23 25 manager/associate director 49 53 team leader / supervisor 14 15 general foreman/ sectional head 6 7 principal factors affecting construction safety performance in cambodia the second objective of the study was to establish the principal factors from the identified factors that could significantly express the observed and correlated variables. spss was used to perform an exploratory factor analysis of the respondents’ ratings of the 30 factors identified in the pilot interview stage of the study. the spss-based results (scree plot and total variance explained output table) indicated five principal factors extracted from the 30 items. the first principal factor (with an initial durdyev, mohamed, lay, and ismail construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201754 eigenvalue of 14.22) explained 21.05% of the variance, while factors 2, 3, 4 and 5 (with initial eigenvalues of 12.25, 9.96, 7.62 and 4.14, respectively) explained 18.13%, 14.75%, 11.28% and 6.13%, respectively, of the variance. thus, these five principal factors explained just over 71% of the variance in the 30 safety factors. table 3 presents several very significant results from the factor analysis, which are kmo, measures how suited the questionnaire survey data are for factor analysis and the bartlett’s sphericity test. table 3 kmo and bartlett’s test results kmo measure of sampling adequacy 0.908 bartlett’s test of sphericity approx. chi-square 2,395.244 sig. 0.000 kmo test results the results of the kmo test showed a coefficient value of 0.908, which was greater than the threshold coefficient of 0.7 (durdyev and mbachu, 2017). thus, this result indicated a strong measure of sampling adequacy and demonstrated that the partial correlations or multicollinearity structures between the variables were sufficient to justify aggregating the items into related sets for the purposes of extracting the principal factors. bartlett’s test of sphericity ibm (2015) recommended using bartlett’s test of sphericity to test the null hypothesis, which assumes that the extracted principal factors do not make unique contributions to the outcome being investigated or are significantly correlated with each other. in this study, the results of the bartlett’s test of sphericity were found to be significant (see table 3). this led to the conclusion that the extracted principal factors contributed uniquely to the construction safety performance outcomes. the bartlett’s test results also indicated that varimax rotation was the most appropriate method for factor extraction (bryman and cramer, 2011). thus, the results reinforced the reliability and validity of the five principal factors extracted from the 30 safety factors. factor loadings table 4 presents spss-based pattern matrix output. the table shows the five extracted principal factors and the variables that loaded on them. the results indicated that all item correlations were higher than 0.3, which indicated strong inter-item correlations within each principal factor. it also demonstrated a strong representation of the items by the extracted factors (tabachnick and fidell, 2007). table 3 indicates that most items loaded strongly and positively on factor 1. based on the nature of the underlying constructs and a reasonable interpretation of what they were measuring (bryman and cramer, 2011), the principal factor was labelled ‘management and organisation’. the second (labelled ‘resources’) and third (labelled ‘site management’) principal factors received seven and five of the 30 items, respectively. four of the remaining items loaded on the fourth principal factor (labelled ‘cosmetic’), while the fifth factor (labelled ‘workforce’) received the least of the total number of items. key factors affecting construction safety performance in developing countries: evidence from cambodia construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201755 table 4 pattern matrix output showing item loadings on the components no eigenvalue % of variance principal factor item factor loading 1 14.22 21.05 management and organisation poor safety awareness of top management 0.838 insufficient promotion of safety awareness 0.788 lack of management commitment to safety programs 0.743 lack of training 0.696 lack of monitoring the compliance of safety measures 0.681 reluctance to input resources for safety 0.663 poor selection and control of subcontractors 0.650 lack of protection in material transportation 0.596 lack of emergency plan and procedures 0.593 tight schedule 0.502 overlapping activities 0.480 2 12.25 18.13 resources lack of experienced project managers 0.831 lack of personal protective equipment 0.716 poor equipment 0.629 lack of skilled labour 0.606 low educated workers 0.582 insufficient safety budget 0.548 financial pressure 0.471 durdyev, mohamed, lay, and ismail construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201756 no eigenvalue % of variance principal factor item factor loading 3 9.96 14.75 site management lack of safe construction site environment 0.71 lack of technical guidance 0.678 lack of safety supervisor onsite 0.663 lack of inspection procedures onsite 0.572 poor accident record keeping and reporting system 0.569 4 7.62 11.28 cosmetic ineffectiveness of current safety policies 0.807 poor legislation, codes and standards 0.652 poor weather conditions 0.574 lack of worker compensation insurance 0.433 5 4.14 6.13 workforce reckless operations 0.820 excessive overtime work 0.636 workers’ physical fatigue 0.589 cronbach’s alpha test once the principal factors were classified and titled, the cronbach’s alpha coefficient was further calculated (presented in table 5) to verify the internal consistency of the items in each principal factor. the ‘alpha if item removed’ option helped check whether removal of any item improved the reliability of a specific principal factor that showed an unsatisfactory cronbach’s alpha value (durdyev, ismail and kandymov, 2017). it was observed that removal of any item under the principal factor resulted in a lower cronbach’s alpha value, which indicated no reason to remove any item, as they all measured the same construct (tabachnick and fidell, 2007). at the broad category level, a cronbach’s alpha coefficient greater than 0.7 is considered high ( jang et al., 2011); hence, it was internally consistent. table 5 results of cronbach’s alpha test principal factor cronbach’s alpha result management and organisation 0.893 > 0.7 (internally consistent) resources 0.815 site management 0.836 cosmetic 0.803 workforce 0.756 key factors affecting construction safety performance in developing countries: evidence from cambodia construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201757 discussion principal factor #1: management and organisation the results depicted in table 4 show that issues pertinent to management and organisation explained most of the identified safety factors. this was also justified by this principal factor explaining 21.05% of the total variance among the 30 safety items. thus, addressing the primary factors with accordance to their relative loading scores could result in construction safety performance enhancement for most residential projects and the overall construction industry in cambodia. it is obvious that attitude (teo, ling and chong, 2005) and support (herrero et al. 2006) from the top management of an organisation play a significant role in cultivating a good safety culture, which will subsequently lead to efficient and effective construction safety performance. however, with cost, time and quality the main targets to achieve in construction projects, safety-related issues are not a priority of contractors. therefore, construction safety stakeholders in cambodia are recommended to commit to safety programs (mohamed, 2002) and devote attention to ensure safety management provide regular training (rowlinson, 2003), allocate sufficient resources (rechenthin, 2004) and monitor (to improve) compliance with safety measures (zohar, 2000). in addition, detailed pre-construction planning (endroyo, guraji and besari, 2017) would play a significant role in avoiding a tight schedule and overlapping activities, which may cause safety-related problems. some benefits of these implementations include increased labour productivity, lower construction site accidents, and ultimately improved industry reputation ( jaselskis, anderson and russell, 1996). principal factor #2: resources (men, materials, machinery, money and method) resources accounted for 18.13% of the total variance among the 30 safety items, and comprised approximately one-fourth of the items. in accordance with their item loadings, the factors influencing construction safety performance under this cluster perceived by the respondents were ‘lack of experience project management’, ‘lack of personal protective equipment’, ‘poor equipment’, ‘lack of skilled labour’, ‘low educated labour’, ‘insufficient safety budget’ and ‘financial pressure’. these results are justified because any well-performed construction safety program cannot be achieved without adequate resources (rechenthin, 2004; aksorn and hadikusumo, 2008). therefore, top management commitment in construction projects in cambodia will play a significant role in providing the required resources at an appropriate level, including an experienced and skilled workforce at various levels and sufficient financial support (money), facilities and machines (rollenhagen and kahlbom, 2001; abudayyeh et al. 2006). moreover, personal protective equipment must be available onsite, as the simple use of this equipment can protect labourers from the shortand long-term effects of construction worksite hazards. principal factor #3: site management as depicted in table 4, safety items under the site management cluster comprised five of the 30 items, and explained about 15% of the total variance among the items. the effect of site management on safety performance was evident in cooper (2010), who found that top management commitment affects the behaviours of middle managers, who affect the behaviours of construction site managers, who subsequently affect workforce behaviour regarding construction safety. in this principal factor, the most prominent construction durdyev, mohamed, lay, and ismail construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201758 safety item in cambodia is lack of safe construction site environment. in 2008, building and woodworkers international conducted a survey, and over 70% of the workforce in cambodia responded that their workplace lacked any safety committee (sopheana, 2012). this result aligns with the findings of abdelhamid and everett (2000), who stated that one of the main causes of construction accidents is unsafe working conditions. the second and third most influential construction safety items within the site management cluster were ‘lack of technical guidance’ and ‘lack of safety supervisor onsite’, respectively. the respondents’ perceived that construction safety performance could be achieved through periodic training programs for workers to improve their safety skills on the job site, which was also supported by fang, chen and wong (2006). however, the spss-based result indicated that appropriate supervision must be provided onsite by employing a relevant supervisor, who can act as a job site trainer by assigning tasks in line with labourers’ ability. moreover, onsite supervisors can set a good example by following the safety rules and correcting safety issues when required (stranks, 2000). principal factor #4: cosmetic being loaded by only four items, ‘cosmetic’—the fourth principal factor—accounted for about 11% of the total variance among the 30 safety items. this principal factor was labelled ‘cosmetic’ because the relevant items are beyond the contractor’s influence or control, including (according to their loadings): the ineffectiveness of current safety policies; poor legislation, codes and standards; poor weather conditions; and lack of worker compensation insurance. this result was justified because construction safety performance can only be achieved through effective guidance from safety policies. therefore, as indicated by the survey results, government authorities have a central responsibility not only for improving current safety policies, but also for increasing their effectiveness (thomas, 2012). in his study, cheah (2007) recommended external pressure in the form of tighter and harsher legislation, which was also perceived to be the second prominent factor constraining construction safety performance in cambodia. however, the major reasons for the inconsistent enforcement of safety policies and poor legislation are the lack of experienced staff, equipment and safety training (sopheana, 2012). the third safety item within the cosmetic cluster was ‘poor weather conditions’. the most severe influence of this factor was felt when the project frontline stakeholders were found to be negligent for not taking all necessary measures. in their study, kartam, flood and koushki (2000) concluded that, because of cambodia’s extreme weather conditions—including the heavy rainy season from june to november, and the extremely hot weather from march to may (felt temperature of about 40°c—labourers’ state of mind and attention may be adversely affected. because of the poor weather conditions between march and november, contractors plan their activities intensively (excessive overtime work) to be completed during the good weather season, which leads to 2.5 times more accidents on a project site (king and hudson, 1985). principal factor #5: workforce the principal factor related to workforce received the least factor loading, with three of the 30 safety items. this principal factor accounted for only 6% of the total variance among the 30 items. the most influential safety item within the workforce cluster was ‘reckless operations’, which had the second highest factor loading among the 30 items. the main causes of reckless key factors affecting construction safety performance in developing countries: evidence from cambodia construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201759 operations on construction sites are economic conditions (low wages) (pinto, nunes and ribeiro, 2011) low level of education and skills (cooper and cotton, 2000), pressure to work overtime (also the cause of workers’ physical fatigue) (caruso et al., 2004) and lack of safety training (toole, 2002). in cambodia, construction workers generally come from poor provinces, and are unskilled, uneducated and untrained. therefore, it is evident that the main causes of poor construction safety performance mentioned above are applicable in the cambodian construction industry context (sopheana, 2012). considering the labour-intensive nature of construction projects (durdyev and mbachu, 2011), labourers perform a great diversity of construction project activities and are directly exposed to the associated risks of each activity (pinto, nunes and ribeiro, 2011). therefore, the safety of construction labourers is a significant issue during the project implementation process. it is recommended that construction safety authorities take effective action to enable further improvement in labour wages, education and skill levels. perhaps workforcerelated principal factors ranked lower than management-related factors because effective management (at various levels) avoids most labour-related safety issues on construction sites in cambodia. conclusion numerous studies have been published on the various factors affecting the safety performance of the construction industry. however, in the absence of empirical studies on construction safety-limiting factors in cambodia, this study has explored the principal factors influencing construction safety performance in residential building projects. a questionnaire survey was designed by including the factors affecting construction safety performance reported in the relevant literature. only 92 usable responses (of 114 distributed) were received from the construction professionals (contractors, safety engineers and government authorities) responsible for the safety performance of the industry before the cut-off date. the collected data from respondents were rated using the terms ‘least important’, ‘slightly important’, ‘of average importance’, ‘important’ and ‘most important’ for the factors affecting construction safety performance, and were expressed in concrete numbers using a likert scale. to determine the appropriate principal safety factors for residential building projects, exploratory factor analysis was performed. five principal construction safety factors of 30 variables were extracted from the spssbased analysis of the feedback from a survey of the industry’s safety authorities. these principal factors were: (1) management and organisation, (2) resources, (3) site management, (4) cosmetic and (5) workforce. according to their influence, these principal factors explained approximately 21%, 18%, 15%, 11% and 6%, respectively, of the variance that described poor construction safety performance in the industry. the results of the kmo (measure of sampling adequacy), bartlett’s test (sphericity) and cronbach’s alpha (internal consistency) confirmed the reliability and validity of the design and findings. in the management and organisation principal factor, the leading safety items were poor safety awareness among top management and insufficient promotion of safety awareness. in the resources factor, the most influential safety items were lack of experienced project managers and lack of personal protective equipment. in the site management factor, the most prominent safety items were provision of a safe site environment and lack of technical guidance. in the cosmetic factor, the leading safety item was ineffectiveness of current safety policies. in the workforce factor, the most influential safety item was reckless operations. durdyev, mohamed, lay, and ismail construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201760 based on the research outcomes, it can be inferred that the forefront construction professionals (top management and government authorities) are responsible for safety performance on project sites. thus, the practical implication of these research outcomes is that top management’s attitude towards the significance of construction safety must be strengthened, as it will influence the lower level workforce within the project team. further, the construction management team is recommended to invest greater efforts into pre-construction planning by considering safety issues. despite the lack of professional ‘certified’ safety training and effective national safety standards, in collaboration with the department of occupational health and safety from the ministry of labour and vocational training, industry operators must invest more effort and resources to providing basic safety training for workers at various levels prior to starting construction projects. further, provision of a safe site environment and personal protective equipment is essential, which will help stem avoidable work-related fatalities and injuries. in the booming cambodian construction industry, while there is an urgent need for further improvements and increased (practical) effectiveness in current safety standards, industry operators must also comply with the country’s current safety standards. this study was limited to identifying the principal construction safety factors in residential building projects in cambodia. expansion of this scope in future research towards other types of construction projects (such as infrastructure projects) is recommended, as every construction project is unique because of its distinct organisational, operational and physical characteristics. moreover, feedback from construction clients is recommended in future research, as these clients are key influencers of decisions and outcomes in the project delivery process. in conclusion, to prevent cambodian workers from continuing to risk their lives for lower than us$10/day, it is recommended that construction professionals (contractors and subcontractors) on the frontline of project activities, as well as government authorities, must input the available resources and invest their efforts into identified principal factors of this study, based on their levels of influence. by doing so, it is hoped that construction safety performance in cambodia can be significantly improved to enable safe delivery of construction projects with fewer injuries and fatalities. acknowledgment the support of the department of engineering and architectural studies, ara institute of canterbury and the research office of zaman university are acknowledged. appreciation is given to the construction professionals in cambodia for providing their opinions, support and assistance. references abdelhamid, t.s. and everett, j.g., 2000. identifying root causes of construction accidents. journal of construction engineering and management, 126(1), pp.52-60. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2000)126:1(52). abdul-rashid, i., bassioni, h. and bawazeer, f., 2007. factors affecting safety performance in large construction contractors in egypt. in: boyd, d. ed. proceedings of 23rd annual arcom conference. 3-5 september 2007, belfast, uk: association of researchers in construction management, pp.661-70. abudayyeh, o., fredericks, t.k., butt, s.e., shaar, a., 2006. an investigation of management’s commitment to construction safety. international journal of project management, 24 (2), pp.167-74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.07.005. key factors affecting construction safety performance in developing countries: evidence from cambodia construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201761 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2000)126:1(52) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2000)126:1(52) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.07.005 aksorn, t. and hadikusumo, b.h.w., 2008. critical success factors influencing safety program performance in thai construction projects. safety science, 46(2008), pp.709-27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ssci.2007.06.006. al haadir, s. and panuwatwanich, k., 2011. critical success factors for safety program implementation among construction companies in saudi arabia. procedia engineering, 14, pp.148-55. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.proeng.2011.07.017. b2b cambodia, 2015. construction safety standards still poor. [online] available at: https://www.b2bcambodia.com/articles/safety-standards-still-poor-in-construction-industry/ [accessed 1 august 2016]. bryman, a. and cramer, d., 2011 quantitative data analysis with ibm spss: a guide for social scientists. new york: routledge. caruso, c.c., hitchcock, e.m. dick, r.b., russo, j.m. and schmit, j.m., 2004. overtime and extended work shifts: recent findings on illnesses, injuries, and health behaviors, u.s. department of health and human services. [online] available at: https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2004-143/pdfs/2004-143.pdf [accessed: 15 may 2017]. cheah, c.y.j., 2007. construction safety and health factors at the industry level: the case of singapore. journal of construction in developing countries, 12(2), pp.81-99. chinda, t. and mohamed, s., 2008. structural equation model of construction safety culture. engineering, construction and architectural management, 15(2), pp.114-31. http://dx.doi. org/10.1108/09699980810852655. cooper, d., 2010. safety leadership: application in construction site. supplemento a, psicologia, 32(1), pp.a18-a23. cooper, m. and cotton, d., 2000. safety training: a special case? journal of european industrial training, 24(9), pp.481-90. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090590010358205. durdyev, s. and ismail, s., 2016. the build-operate-transfer model as an infrastructure privatisation strategy for turkmenistan. utilities policy, 48, 195-200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2016.12.002. durdyev, s., ismail, s. and kandymov, n., 2017. structural equation model of the factors affecting construction labor productivity. journal of construction engineering and management, (in print). doi: https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001452. durdyev, s. and mbachu, j., 2011. on-site labour productivity of new zealand construction industry: key constraints and improvement measures. construction economics and building, 11(3), pp.18-33. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v11i3.2120. durdyev, s. and mbachu, j., 2017. key constraints to labour productivity in residential building projects: evidence from cambodia. international journal of construction management, (in print). http://dx.doi.org/ 10.1080/15623599.2017.1326301. durdyev, s., omarov, m. and ismail, s., 2017. causes of delay in residential construction projects in cambodia. cogent engineering, 4(1), pp.1-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311916.2017.1291117. endroyo, b., suraji, a. and besari, m.s., 2017. model of the maturity of pre-construction safety planning. procedia engineering, 171, pp.413-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.01.351. enshassi, a., risqa, e. and arain, f., 2014. factors affecting safety performance in repair, maintenance, alteration and addition (rmaa) projects. international journal of sustainable construction engineering and technology, 5 (2), pp.25-38. durdyev, mohamed, lay, and ismail construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201762 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2007.06.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2007.06.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2011.07.017 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2011.07.017 https://www.b2b-cambodia.com/articles/safety-standards-still-poor-in-construction-industry/ https://www.b2b-cambodia.com/articles/safety-standards-still-poor-in-construction-industry/ https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/docs/2004-143/pdfs/2004-143.pdf http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09699980810852655 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/09699980810852655 https://doi.org/10.1108/03090590010358205 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2016.12.002 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001452 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v11i3.2120 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1326301 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1326301 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311916.2017.1291117 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.01.351 fang, d.p., chen, y. and wong, l., 2006. safety climate in construction industry: a case study in hong kong. journal of construction engineering and management, 132(6), pp.573-84. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(2006)132:6(573). fang, d. and wu, h., 2013. development of a safety culture interaction (sci) model for construction projects. safety science, 57(2013), pp.138-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2013.02.003. field, a.p., 2009. discovering statistics using spss. 4th ed. london, uk:. sage publications. gunduz, m., birgonul, m.t. and ozdemir, m., 2017. fuzzy structural equation model to assess construction site safety performance. journal of construction engineering and management, 143(4), pp.116. http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001259. hawkins, h. and sek, o., 2017. construction investment skyrockets in 2016. the cambodia daily. [online] available at: https://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/construction-investment-skyrocketsin-2016-123668/ [accessed 30 april 2017]. herrero, s.g., saldana, m.g.m., campo, m.a.m. and ritzel, d.o., 2006. a model for the improvement of occupational safety management. journal of safety health and environmental research, 3(3), pp.1-21. hinze, j., hallowell, m and baud, k., 2013. construction-safety best practices and relationships to safety performance. journal of construction engineering and management, 139(10), pp.1-9. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000751. hsu, s.h., lee, c.c., wu, m.c. and takano, k., 2008. a cross-cultural study of organizational factors on safety: japanese vs. taiwanese oil refinery plants. accident analysis & prevention, 40(1), pp.24-34. http:// dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2007.03.020. ibm. 2015 statistical package for the social sciences (spss). ibm corporation jang, h., kim, k., kim, j. and kim, j., 2011. labour productivity model for reinforced concrete construction projects. construction innovation, 11(1), pp.92-113. http://dx.doi. org/10.1108/14714171111104655. jannadi, o.a., 1996. factors affecting the safety of the construction industry. building research & information, 24(2), pp.108-12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09613219608727510. jannadi, o.a. and bu-khamsin, m.s., 2002. safety factors considered by industrial contractors in saudi arabia. building environment, 37(5), pp.539-47. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0360-1323(01)00056-7. jaselskis, e.j., anderson, s.d. and russell, j.s., 1996. strategies for achieving excellence in construction safety performance. journal of construction engineering and management, 122(1), pp.61-70. http://dx.doi. org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1996)122:1(61)#sthash.ijubr7jw.dpuf. jazayeri, e. and dadi, g.b., 2017. construction safety management systems and methods of safety performance measurement: a review. journal of safety engineering, 6(2), pp.15-28. http://dx.doi. org/10.5923/j.safety.20170602.01. jokkaw, n. and tongthong, t., 2016. factors influencing on safety management status and evaluation of safety management status in construction projects in cambodia, asean engineering journal part c, 5(1), pp.34-48. kadiri, z.o., nden, t., avre, g.k., oladipo, t.o., edom, a., samuel, p.o. and ananso, g.n., 2014. causes and effects of accidents on construction sites (a case study of some selected construction firms in abuja, fct nigeria). iosr journal of mechanical and civil engineering ii (5), pp.66-72. key factors affecting construction safety performance in developing countries: evidence from cambodia construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201763 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:6(573) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:6(573) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2013.02.003 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001259 https://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/construction-investment-skyrockets-in-2016-123668/ https://www.cambodiadaily.com/business/construction-investment-skyrockets-in-2016-123668/ https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000751 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000751 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2007.03.020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2007.03.020 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14714171111104655 http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/14714171111104655 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09613219608727510 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0360-1323(01)00056-7 http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1996)122:1(61)#sthash.ijubr7jw.dpuf http://dx.doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1996)122:1(61)#sthash.ijubr7jw.dpuf http://dx.doi.org/10.5923/j.safety.20170602.01 http://dx.doi.org/10.5923/j.safety.20170602.01 kartam, n.a., flood, i. and koushki, p., 2000. construction safety in kuwait: issues, procedures, problems, and recommendations. safety science, 36(3), pp.163-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/s09257535(00)00041-2. king, r. and hudson, r., 1985. construction hazards and safety handbook. 1st ed. oxford, uk: butterworth-heinemann. lessing, b., thurnell, d. and durdyev, s., 2017. main factors causing delays in large construction projects: evidence from new zealand. journal of management, economics, and industrial organization, 1(2), pp.63-82. liu, h., jazayeri, e. and dadi, g.b., 2017. establishing the influence of owner practices on construction safety in an operational excellence model. journal of construction engineering and management, 143(6), pp.1-9. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001292. maloney, w.f. and cravey, k.j., 2015. development of an operational excellence model to improve safety for construction organizations. in: proceedings of the 5th international/11th construction specialty conference. vancouver, british columbia, 8-10 june 2015. ministry of economy and finance (mef), 2016. cambodia macroeconomic monitor mid-year assessment 2016. [online] available at: http://www.mef.gov.kh/documents/shares/cmm_mid-2016assessment-english-version.pdf. [accessed 15 march 2017]. ministry of labour and vocational training (mlvt), 2011. the overview of occupational safety and health in cambodia. [online] available at: http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/--protrav/---safework/documents/policy/wcms_187746.pdf. [accessed 20 march 2017]. mitropoulos, p. and namboodiri, m., 2011. new method for measuring the safety risk of construction activities: task demand assessment. journal of construction engineering and management, 137(1), pp.3038. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000246. mohamed, s., 2002. safety climate in construction site environment. journal of construction engineering and management, 128(5), pp.375-84. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2002)128:5(375). muiruri, g. and mulinge, c., 2014. health and safety management on construction projects sites in kenya a case study of construction projects in nairobi county. in: proceedings of fig congress: engaging the challenges – enhancing the relevance. kuala lumpur, malaysia, 16-21 june 2014. ng, s.t., cheng, k.p. and skitmore, r.m., 2005. a framework for evaluating the safety performance of construction contractors. building environment, 40(10), pp.1347-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. buildenv.2004.11.025. pinto, a., nunes, i.l. and ribeiro, r.a., 2011. occupational risk assessment in construction industry overview and reflection. safety science, 49(5), pp.616-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2011.01.003. popov, g., lyon, b.k. and hollcroft, b., 2016. risk assessment: a practical guide to assessing operational risks, 1st ed. australia: wiley. rechenthin, d., 2004. project safety as a sustainable competitive advantage. journal of safety research, 35(3), pp.297-308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2004.03.012. rollenhagen, c. and kahlbom, u., 2001. towards a model for the assessment of safety activities and their associated organization context. in: proceedings of the 4th international workshop on human error, safety and system development, linkoping, sweden, 11–12 june. durdyev, mohamed, lay, and ismail construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201764 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0925-7535(00)00041-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0925-7535(00)00041-2 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001292 http://www.mef.gov.kh/documents/shares/cmm_mid-2016-assessment-english-version.pdf http://www.mef.gov.kh/documents/shares/cmm_mid-2016-assessment-english-version.pdf http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---safework/documents/policy/wcms_187746.pdf http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_protect/---protrav/---safework/documents/policy/wcms_187746.pdf https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000246 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2002)128:5(375) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2004.11.025 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2004.11.025 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2011.01.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2004.03.012 rowlinson, s., 2003. hong kong construction: safety management and law, 2nd ed. hong kong: sweet and maxwell asia. sawacha, e., naoum, s. and fong, d., 1999. factors affecting safety performance on construction sites. international journal of project management, 17(5), pp.309-315. https://doi.org/10.1016/s02637863(98)00042-8. shapira, a. and lyachin, b., 2009. identification and analysis of factors affecting safety on construction sites with tower cranes. journal of construction engineering and management, 135(1), pp.24-33. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2009)135:1(24). sopheana, b., 2012. invisible victims of development. hong kong: asia monitor resource centre. [online] available at: http://www.amrc.org.hk/sites/default/files/cambodia_1.pdf. [accessed 12 may 2017]. stranks, j., 2000. the handbook of health and safety practice, 5th ed. london: prentice hall. tabachnick, b.g. and fidell, l.s., 2007. principal components and factor analysis. in: b.g. tabachnick ed., using multivariate statistics, 5th ed., pp.582-633. boston, ma: pearson/allyn & bacon. tam, c.m., zeng, s.x. and deng, z.m., 2004. identifying elements of poor construction safety management in china. safety science, 42(7), pp.569-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2003.09.001. tavakol, m. and dennick, r., 2011. making sense of cronbach’s alpha. international journal of medical education. 2, pp.53-55. [online] available at: http://www.ijme.net/archive/2/cronbachs-alpha.pdf. teo, e.a.l., ling, f.y.y. and chong, a.f.w., 2005. framework for project managers to manage construction safety. international journal of project management, 23(4), pp.329-41. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.09.001. terwel, k. and vambersky, j., 2013. possible critical structural safety factors: a literature review. 6th congress on forensic engineering, san francisco, usa, october 31 – november 3, 2012. https://doi. org/10.1061/9780784412640.044. thomas, m.j.w., 2012. a systematic review of the effectiveness of safety management system. australian transport safety bureau – transport safety report. [online] available at: https://www.atsb.gov.au/ media/4053559/xr2011002_final.pdf. [accessed: 12 may 2017]. toole, t.m., 2000. construction safety roles. journal of construction engineering and management, 128(3), pp.203-10. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2002)128:3(203). zhang s., teizer, j., pradhananga n. and eastman c.m., 2015. workforce location tracking to model, visualize and analyse workspace requirements in building information models for construction safety planning. automation in construction, 60, pp.74-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.09.009. zohar, d., 2000. a group-level model of safety climate: testing the effect of group climate on micro accidents in manufacturing jobs. journal of applied psychology, 85(4), pp.587-96. https://doi. org/10.1037//0021-9010.85.4.587. key factors affecting construction safety performance in developing countries: evidence from cambodia construction economics and building, vol. 17, no. 4, december 201765 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(98)00042-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(98)00042-8 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2009)135:1(24) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2009)135:1(24) http://www.amrc.org.hk/sites/default/files/cambodia_1.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2003.09.001 http://www.ijme.net/archive/2/cronbachs-alpha.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.09.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.09.001 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784412640.044 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784412640.044 https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/4053559/xr2011002_final.pdf https://www.atsb.gov.au/media/4053559/xr2011002_final.pdf https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2002)128:3(203) https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.09.009 https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.85.4.587 https://doi.org/10.1037//0021-9010.85.4.587 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: dang, c. n., le-hoai, l., and peansupap, v. 2021. effect of encouragementbased management mechanism on construction firms’ manpower development: an empirical study from vietnam. construction economics and building, 21:2, 58–80. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v21i2.7564 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 2 june 2021 research article effect of encouragement-based management mechanism on construction firms’ manpower development: an empirical study from vietnam chau ngoc dang1, long le-hoai2,3, vachara peansupap4 1 faculty of civil engineering, van lang university, ho chi minh city, vietnam 2 faculty of civil engineering, ho chi minh city university of technology, ho chi minh city, vietnam 3 vietnam national university ho chi minh city (vnu-hcm), ho chi minh city, vietnam 4 department of civil engineering, faculty of engineering, chulalongkorn university, bangkok, thailand corresponding author: long le-hoai, faculty of civil engineering, ho chi minh city university of technology, ho chi minh city, vietnam, lehoailong@hcmut.edu.vn doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i2.7564 article history: received: 06/01/2021; revised: 15/05/2021; accepted: 18/05/2021; published: 15/06/2021 abstract the construction industry should seek to enrich its workforces due to the increasing lack of trained and skilled employees. this study attempts to investigate the relationship between encouragement-based management mechanism (emm) and manpower development (md) in construction firms and examine the moderating effect of firm size on this relationship by conducting bivariate pearson correlation and hierarchical multiple regression analyses to analyse empirical data collected from 79 construction firms in vietnam. the results show that emm positively affected md, and this positive effect was stronger in small/medium-sized construction firms than in large firms. the findings could provide construction firms in vietnam, as well as other developing countries, with a better understanding of the effect of emm on md. hence, they could establish appropriate and wise encouragement-based strategies to enhance their manpower. this study could contribute to the extant literature on construction manpower development by providing empirical evidence of the emm−md relationship in the context of construction firms. 58 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding this research was funded by vietnam national university ho chi minh city (vnu-hcm) under grant number b2021-20-08. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i2.7564 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i2.7564 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i2.7564 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i2.7564 keywords construction firm; construction industry; manpower development; management mechanism; encouragement introduction in developing countries, the construction industry can significantly contribute to any economic development (nguyen et al., 2004a; illankoon et al., 2019), as construction works are among the major economic activities (tam et al., 2007). such industry plays a vital role in enhancing people’s life quality and meeting any society’s needs (tam et al., 2012). the success of construction projects (e.g., residential/transportation projects) becomes very important. however, this is not an easy task for construction firms, because of the fragmented, task-oriented and project-based nature of construction-related works (forcada et al., 2013). beside high-cost pressure and shortened project cycles (ribeiro, 2009), construction firms may face many challenges in satisfying construction clients, who become more sophisticated and usually require more units of construction but fewer units of expenditure (engwall, 2003). similar to those in other developing countries, such challenges could also be difficult for construction firms in vietnam, whose construction industry is criticized for its weakness and inefficiency (le-hoai et al., 2010), owing to bureaucracy (nguyen et al., 2004b; le-hoai et al., 2010), complexity of legal and institutional frameworks (le-hoai et al., 2010), lack of modern equipment and plant (nguyen et al., 2004b), lack of advanced design and construction knowledge (ling et al., 2009), lack of project management ability (ling et al., 2009) and lack of financial capacity (ling et al., 2009; le-hoai et al., 2010). thus, construction firms in vietnam are attempting to seek new directions in business operations to cope with new threats and challenges of today’s fast changing environment (dave and koskela, 2009). nowadays, construction projects are increasingly complex and dynamic (nguyen et al., 2004a; ribeiro, 2009). to implement such projects successfully, possessing many qualified employees during project implementation processes is vital. however, the expensive costs of attracting and retaining such employees may be a financial burden for most construction firms (kamara et al., 2002). the challenges of how to maintain enough manpower in construction projects are becoming more difficult because of construction employees’ high mobility (dang et al., 2018). accordingly, construction firms with stable manpower will have competitive advantages (kale and karaman, 2012). nevertheless, developing countries are frequently facing multiple unexpected criticisms about human-related problems, and vietnam is no exception (lehoai et al., 2010). specifically, despite labour redundancy (ho et al., 2007), trained and skilled employees, which are essential to construction firms’ survival and performance ( jones et al., 2010), are increasingly lacking in many developing countries, including vietnam (nguyen et al., 2004b). thus, a study, which focuses on exploring how to develop construction manpower effectively, is useful to practitioners (e.g., project and firm managers) in vietnam, as well as other developing countries. currently in vietnam, construction firms are trying to widely apply some innovative techniques (e.g., building information modelling (bim), virtual reality (vr) and 3d laser scanning) in major and complex construction projects (nguyen et al., 2020). however, this is not an easy task for construction firms due to such techniques’ advanced characteristics. specifically, to deploy any advanced technique (e.g., bim) effectively and successfully, construction firms need to have enough awareness about its applications (e.g., bim awareness) and comprehensive assessments about its helpfulness, flexibility and friendliness (e.g., awareness assessment or awareness identify). for this reason, together with various applied science and technology labs in engineering/technology universities, many construction firms are establishing their own bim/vr departments to study how to effectively apply technological approaches (e.g., bim or vr) in practice. as such, construction firms should seek to enrich their firm managers (e.g., bim managers) and project participants (e.g., bim coordinators and engineers) in terms of professionalism, technological dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202159 capabilities and management skills (nguyen and hadikusumo, 2018). accordingly, manpower development (md) is considered as a crucial strategy (harrison, 2000). although encouragement-based management mechanism (emm) could be a right direction to develop organizational manpower (schneider and bowen, 1995), there is still a lack of empirical studies which focus on examining the effect of emm on md in both construction and other engineering industries. generally, previous studies just attempted to explore the link of rewards and/or recognition with employee motivation (e.g., danish and usman, 2010; hafiza et al., 2011), employee satisfaction (e.g., yusuf et al., 2007; turkyilmaz et al., 2011), employee commitment (e.g., nazir et al., 2016) and job satisfaction (e.g., kim et al., 2009; bustamam et al., 2014). to fill the gap of research, this study mainly aims to investigate the relationship between emm and md in construction firms. to achieve this purpose, this study conducts a questionnaire-based survey to collect empirical data from construction firms in vietnam. this study’s purpose also responds to the call for more new research to investigate encouragement-related issues and address their effects on various organizations’ performance (russell and stone, 2002). in addition, this study’s findings comply with nguyen and hadikusumo’s (2018) suggestion that firms must endeavour to establish comprehensive human resource development strategies to fully enhance the workforce’s competencies and satisfy the job requirements. furthermore, it is expected that this study could provide construction firms in vietnam, as well as other developing countries, with a better understanding of the effect of emm on md. such understanding may be very useful to develop organizational manpower (e.g., young engineers) of construction firms in developing countries including vietnam, whose construction industry is still a labour-intensive industry (chih et al., 2018), but usually faces a high employee turnover rate (chih et al., 2016). theoretical background vietnam’s construction industry and firms vietnam is currently an emerging market, which has had high gross domestic product growth rates in recent decades (nguyen et al., 2004b) and is attracting many global investors’ attention (ling and bui, 2009). with the increasing construction investments (nguyen et al., 2004b), the construction industry plays a vital role in contributing to vietnam’s socio-economic development so as to meet the needs of infrastructure development and urbanization (le-hoai et al., 2010). nevertheless, vietnam’s construction industry, which is still a labour-intensive industry (nguyen et al., 2004b), is not as advanced as neighbouring countries’ counterparts (ho et al., 2007). thus, the vietnamese construction industry is seeking to reduce its inefficiency and weakness in order to increase its competitiveness with its counterparts (chou et al., 2013). in vietnam, apart from micro enterprises (≤ 10 employees, which was not the target of this study’s survey), construction firms are usually categorized as follows: small (10-200 employees), medium (200300 employees) and large (> 300 employees). in general, small/medium-sized construction firms are less resourceful than large firms (dang et al., 2020) and, therefore, confront many difficult challenges in their business operations. after vietnam became a member of the world trade organization, such firms even face more intense competition from both domestic large competitors and foreign counterparts (ling and bui, 2009). as compared with foreign firms, vietnamese construction organizations, especially small/ medium-sized firms, are lagging behind in financial capacity, project management ability, knowledge in advanced design and construction technologies, and experience in complex projects (ling et al., 2009). to survive and develop in today’s high-risk, competitive and opportunistic construction environment, vietnamese construction firms are trying to seek effective and wise strategies to improve their competencies (le-hoai et al., 2010) and competitiveness (ling et al., 2009). dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202160 encouragement-based management mechanism in construction firms literature has proposed various encouragement-related definitions. dinkmeyer and losoncy (1996) supposed encouragement as a process of facilitating the development of a person’s inner resources and courage toward positive movement. amabile (1997) defined organizational encouragement as an organization’s culture which encourages creativity through reward and recognition for creative works; organizational mechanisms for developing new ideas, fair and constructive judgments of ideas and active flows of ideas; and shared visions towards organizational objectives and missions. fu (2001) considered encouragement mechanism as a process which could help to arouse people’s motive, strengthen people’s will and improve people’s knowledge. na-nan et al. (2016) described an organization’s encouragement as its encouragement of employee values or concern about good living conditions and promotion. it can be seen that so far, emm has been ambiguously defined, indicating the need for more research about emm in different organizations. especially, in the construction field, as yet there have been no studies which focus on emm and its effects on various organizational performance. thus, exploring emm in construction firms, which play a major role in the construction industry, is vital. recently, drawing from amabile’s (1997) definition, dodge et al. (2017) have suggested three dimensions for measuring organizational encouragement: (1) encouraging people to solve problems creatively, (2) developing good mechanisms for generating creative ideas and (3) encouraging people to express unusual ideas without any fear of being called stupid. based on the same organizational encouragement definition of amabile (1997) and building upon dodge et al.’s (2017) suggestion, this study proposes three more specific emm contributors—including incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement—which construction firms can use to stimulate employees’ enthusiasm about work (e.g., encourage employees to work or solve problems creatively), generate creative and useful ideas and have good teamwork and communication (e.g., share ideas, knowledge and information), respectively. in addition to their appropriateness with the context of construction environments, these emm constructs were selected because they were frequently emphasized in project-based settings by project/firm management scholars (e.g., teerajetgul and charoenngam, 2006; teerajetgul et al., 2009; park et al., 2010). specifically, due to hard construction works, construction firms should provide incentives to meet employees’ needs and, therefore, increase employees’ motivation and satisfaction. in construction projects, incentives could significantly affect work productivity and employee performance (teerajetgul and charoenngam, 2006). indeed, incentives’ power is immense and pervasive in many hard and high-risk work settings, including construction environments (thwala and monese, 2006). this is consistent with previous studies (e.g., pham and swierczek, 2006; teerajetgul et al., 2009; teo and ling, 2009; lai et al., 2011; abdulsalam et al., 2012; tserng et al. 2016), which recognized incentives as an important managerial scheme in project-based organizations. in such organizations, professional knowledge is also majorly embedded in employees implementing project tasks; thereby, it is necessary to provide various opportunities for employees’ continuous learning (i.e., knowledge improvement) and informal and formal collaborations (i.e., knowledge exchange) (wei and miraglia, 2017; ghosh et al., 2013). in today’s fast changing environment, learning is an important driver of innovation to maintain long-term competitive advantages of project-based organizations (robinson et al., 2005; park et al., 2010). it is no surprise because learning is a process of acquiring knowledge in which learners (i.e., employees) assimilate new ideas critical for innovation and performance ( johnson and sohi, 2003). besides, employees’ voluntary development and continuous learning are critical to organizational effectiveness (noe and wilk, 1993). in addition, collaboration encouragement could also be necessary in today’s construction environment, which requires team members to collaborate by being rational towards each other (e.g., good teamwork and communication) (teerajetgul and charoenngam, 2006). this is because construction is a project-based dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202161 industry, where each project is unique and brings many practitioners collaborating with each other at various stages during its lifecycle (dave and koskela, 2009; tserng et al., 2010). furthermore, collaboration may result in resource integration and new high potential service offers (melton and hartline, 2013). collaborative capabilities (e.g., collaboration across functional areas) could also support to build absorptive competence, which is necessary for any firm to comprehend external environment trends (lusch et al., 2007). manpower development in construction firms nowadays, manpower (also known as workforce and human resource) is becoming one of the most valuable resources (danish and usman, 2010), which is a key determinant of sustaining the success of any firm (brammer et al., 2007). this is why md is increasingly considered as a vital aspect of organizational performance in most firms (swart et al., 2005). especially, in today’s highly competitive business environment, md could not only support a firm’s business operations, but also play a pivotal role in shaping its business strategies (torraco and swanson, 1995). without exception, md is also necessary for construction firms, as manpower occupies a key role in determining the success of most construction projects (nguyen et al., 2004a). thus, a number of research efforts have been devoted to understanding the concept of md. literature has proposed various md-related definitions. however, md is still vaguely defined, because it is not easy to explain md adequately (kumpikaite, 2008). in other words, there is no single agreement on the definitions of md (dilworth, 2003). pace et al. (1991) described md as the individual, career and organizational development roles to achieve maximum productivity, quality, opportunity and fulfillment for organizational members when they work to accomplish their organization’s goals. swanson (1996) assumed md as the development of human expertise through organizational development and personnel training and development. kumpikaite (2004) supposed that md could help to improve personal and teamwork performance, which combines organizational and personal employees’ objectives and needs, as well as allows employees to develop continuously. wilson (2005) considered md as an influential and growing discipline which is increasingly crucial to the survival and success of multiple organizations. it is observed from these various definitions that md involves both individual (e.g., improving employee skills) and organizational (e.g., improving organizational manpower) development, which could significantly contribute to organizations’ survival and success. for construction firms, this indicates the need to acquire strong and stable manpower. unsurprisingly, to have such manpower, construction firms can recruit new experienced and skilled employees. however, the recruitment of these employees is usually time-consuming (e.g., spending much time for multiple interviews) and even costly (e.g., paying high salaries to attract new good employees/engineers). on the other hand, it also takes much time for new employees to adapt to construction firms’ working environment and/or organizational culture. as such, in order to reduce these unexpected problems, construction firms need to exploit their own personnel by improving professional skills of current employees and developing young employees. owing to the high turnover rate in today’s construction industry (chih et al., 2016), enhancing employee retention (e.g., increasing employees’ satisfaction and long-term working commitment) could also be crucial to maintain construction firms’ competitiveness (kyndt et al., 2009) and business operations. taking these altogether, in order to maintain superior md performance without much pressure of new recruitment, construction firms should focus on improving professional skills of employees (anantatmula, 2007; dang et al., 2019), increasing employee retention (kyndt et al., 2009; chih et al., 2018; dang et al., 2019) and developing young employees (dang et al., 2018; dang and le-hoai, 2019). dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202162 research model and hypotheses based on the above discussions, this study investigates the effect of emm—including incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement—on md in construction firms. taking the view that “one size does not fit all” (shenhar, 2001), this study further examines the moderating effect of firm size on this emm−md relationship. figure 1 presents the research hypotheses, followed by detailed discussions. encouragement-based management mechanism (emm) manpower development (md) h2 h2a h2b incentives learning encouragement collaboration encouragement firm size h2c encouragement-based management mechanism (emm) manpower development (md) h2 h2a h2b incentives learning encouragement collaboration encouragement firm size h2c figure 1. theoretical framework and research hypotheses encouragement-based management mechanism and manpower development given the important role in improving productivity and performance, employee encouragement may significantly support organizational improvement (talib et al., 2011). employee encouragement could also motivate employees to perform better (talib et al., 2010) and, therefore, enhance client satisfaction (tarí, 2005), which is a major goal for any firm’s survival and development (fečiková, 2004). nevertheless, prior literature has just attempted to investigate two common forms of employee encouragement: reward and recognition. more specifically, observing a number of previous relevant studies in this regard (table 1) reveals that there is very little research focusing on organizational performance (e.g., yusuf et al., 2007) when compared with employee-related performance (e.g., yusuf et al., 2007; kim et al., 2009; danish and usman, 2010; hafiza et al., 2011; turkyilmaz et al., 2011; bustamam et al., 2014; nazir et al., 2016). these altogether indicate the need to explore more about employee encouragement and its effect on various firmlevel performance aspects (e.g., md). in construction, there is still a lack of studies which focus on the field of employee encouragement. especially, as yet the effect of employee encouragement on md has not been investigated for architecture, engineering and construction (aec) organizations, including construction firms. to bridge the gap of research, this study attempts to investigate the relationship between emm and md in construction firms. besides, in order to verify the importance of the proposed emm contributors (i.e., incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement), the individual effects of these constructs on md should also be investigated. thus, this study hypothesizes that: h1: emm—including incentives (h1a), learning encouragement (h1b) and collaboration encouragement (h1c)—is positively related to md in construction firms. potential moderating role of firm size firm size is acknowledged as a good proxy for multiple organizational attributes (zhang et al., 2019). firm size may reflect the development of organizational routines for interactions across different functions or dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202163 within individual functions in a firm (dougherty and hardy, 1996) and facilitate/constrain organizational activities (zona et al., 2013). thus, firm size is a vital factor in management activities of different-sized firms (li and chen, 2018). a literature study which focused on firm size was conducted. several studies attempted to understand the moderating role in various organizational issues. lin et al. (2012) found that organizational size moderated the relationship between disclosure of human capital information and firm performance of public companies. gong et al.’s (2013) study in high-technology firms presented that the relationship between employee creativity and relative firm performance was moderated by firm size. li and chen’s (2018) study revealed that firm size moderated the impact of board gender diversity on firm performance of non-financial firms. in addition, some other endeavours focused on investigating the moderating effect of firm size towards innovation-related issues. zona et al. (2013) found that firm size moderated the effects of board size, outsider ratio and board diversity on firm innovation. prasad and junni (2017) explored that organizational size moderated the effect of ceo psychological characteristics on firm innovativeness. yu and lee (2017) revealed that firm size was a moderator in the relationship between collaboration with research organizations and innovation performance in manufacturing firms. petruzzelli et al.’s (2018) study in biotechnology firms showed that there was a moderating effect of firm size on the relationship between knowledge maturity and innovation value. in sum, firm size, as a moderator variable, has recently table 1. summary of employee encouragement-related studies in prior literature previous study field of research summary of research finding yusuf et al. (2007) manufacturing and service companies reward and recognition were positively related to employee satisfaction and organizational performance kim et al. (2009) hotels rewards displayed a positive effect on employee job satisfaction danish and usman (2010) different types (e.g., financial service, telecommunication, education and manufacturing) reward and recognition had a great impact on employee motivation hafiza et al. (2011) non-profit organizations there was a direct relationship between extrinsic rewards and employee motivation turkyilmaz et al. (2011) public insurance company reward and recognition could significantly affect employee satisfaction bustamam et al. (2014) hotels rewards were positively and significantly associated with job satisfaction nazir et al. (2016) different types (i.e., banking, education, hospitality, health care and telecommunication) extrinsic, social and intrinsic rewards were significantly related to affective and normative employee commitment dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202164 received much attention from multiple researchers. however, various implications of firm size have not been investigated expansively (zhang et al., 2019). especially, in the construction field, very little research has focused on examining the moderator role of firm size in terms of management-related issues. this indicates the need to investigate the moderating effect of firm size in this regard, because aec firm size significantly varies in the construction industry. compared with small/medium-sized counterparts, large construction firms are associated with morebureaucratic organization and more-complicated structure (hartono et al., 2019). this may cause many challenges in learning across disciplines (serenko et al., 2007), communication and collaboration (blau, 1972). furthermore, large construction firms also have a larger number of employees with various levels of education and capabilities, making it difficult to improve their manpower quality comprehensively by using encouragement-based strategies widely. in contrast, small/medium-sized construction firms with a limited number of employees often operate streamlined organizations and, therefore, could be more conducive to deploy personnel-oriented schemes. based on these arguments, this study attempts to explore the moderating effect of firm size in terms of md by examining the following hypotheses: h2: the positive effect of emm—including incentive (h2a), learning encouragement (h2b) and collaboration encouragement (h2c)—on md is stronger in small/medium-sized construction firms than in large firms. research method sample and procedure a questionnaire survey was conducted to collect data from the vietnamese construction industry. specifically, this study established a list of 283 construction firms in vietnam based on multiple sources: e.g., postgraduate programs of construction management/ civil engineering/ bridge and road construction; alumni networks of construction engineering programs; road and bridge association; bridge, road and port association; and civil engineering association. contact information of potential respondents (managers or key personnel) working for each firm was also identified. when multiple eligible potential respondents were listed for a firm, the one whose position was highest ranked would be selected. furthermore, to increase the reliability and accuracy of the survey responses, the targeted respondents had over three years of experience in construction (i.e., to have sufficient knowledge about the organizational management issues, as well as the research matters of this study) and had worked in their firms for at least one year (i.e., to have an adequate understanding of the surveyed firms). to list emm-related and md measuring items, this study focused on prior management-related literature on project-based organizations/environments and/or developing countries, as there have been no previous studies specifically on emm and its effect on aec firm performance in the construction field. this approach could help to ensure the measuring items’ reliability (as they were identified carefully and empirically in previous related studies) and their applicability to this study’s context (as construction firms are among main project-based organizations in the construction industry and vietnam is an emerging economy among developing countries). next, a questionnaire with the self-report format was designed for data collection. accordingly, respondents were requested to rate their firms’ emm-related and md measuring items and provide their answers for multiple questions about personal information of respondents (e.g., position) and firm characteristics (e.g., firm size). before the official survey, the preliminary questionnaire (including 16 emm measuring items and 3 md measuring items) was pilottested by seven experienced professionals (two senior firm managers, three functional managers and two project/site managers; they all were working for construction firms and had over 10 years of industry experience) in order to not only ensure the clarity and goodness of the questionnaire characteristics (e.g., dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202165 table 2. sample profile category number percent (%) firm size small/medium 42 53.2 large 37 46.8 origin of organization vietnamese construction firms 73 92.4 foreign construction firms 6 7.6 main field of construction civil and industrial construction 57 72.2 transportation construction 17 21.5 other 5 6.3 years of industry experience 3–5 years 4 5.1 6–10 years 29 36.7 11–15 years 28 35.4 16 years or more 18 22.8 position senior firm manager 23 29.1 functional manager 20 25.3 project/site manager 25 31.6 team leader 11 13.9 education level bachelor 42 53.2 postgraduate (e.g., master or higher) 37 46.8 total number of valid responses 79 100 adequacy and appropriateness of measuring items, clarity of questions, measurement scale and questionnaire structure), but also reduce the possibility of missing some important data. specifically, regarding emm’s measuring items, these professionals suggested excluding various inappropriate items, modifying several items for better applicability to vietnam-based construction firms and also adding some items based on their experience. about md’s measuring items, no modifications were proposed by any professional. the modified questionnaire was also sent back to these professionals for further review/checking. after generally agreed by most professionals, the questionnaire, which consisted of 13 measuring items (to be presented more specifically in a later section), was finalized and used for the survey. the questionnaire was distributed to the targeted respondents using private-emailing and hand-delivery methods. after about three months, among 283 distributed questionnaires, 79 valid responses were received dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202166 after data verification (i.e., checks for adequacy, appropriateness and accuracy). the survey’s response rate was approximately 27.92%, which might be resulted from two possible causes: (1) the strong inertia forces against scientific research in the vietnamese culture (le-hoai et al., 2010) and (2) the relatively strict criteria of respondent selection as mentioned above. although this response rate was not so high, it was still considered to be acceptable in the construction industry, where average response rates of 20-30% were found for many questionnaire-based surveys (akintoye, 2000). regarding firm size, 53.2% were from small/ medium-sized construction firms and 46.8% were from large firms. relating to the origin of organization, 92.4% and 7.6% were from vietnamese and foreign construction firms, respectively. noticeably, most of the respondents had much experience in construction and managerial positions (table 2), thereby could provide reliable and valuable data for this study. these altogether imply that the collected data, though relatively small, could also considered to be representative for the whole vietnamese construction industry. measures the following measures were used in this study. unless otherwise specified, all items were measured based on a 5-point likert scale (1 = “very low” to 5 = “very high”). to check the reliability of such items’ measurement, cronbach’s alpha (α), whose coefficient of 0.7 or larger is generally assumed to be acceptable (hair et al., 2010), was used (tam et al., 2012; tam and zeng, 2014). table 3. list of emm-related measuring items description reference incentives providing monetary incentives liska and snell (1992), teerajetgul and charoenngam (2006), teerajetgul et al. (2009) providing non-monetary incentives (e.g., promotion opportunities) fagbenle et al. (2004), teerajetgul and charoenngam (2006), teerajetgul et al. (2009) providing rewards for employees with high accomplishments learning encouragement encouraging employees to attend workshops and symposia lee and choi (2003), teerajetgul and charoenngam (2006), teerajetgul et al. (2009) organizing skills training courses or formal training programs for employees lee and choi (2003), teerajetgul and charoenngam (2006), teerajetgul et al. (2009) encouraging individuals’ self-learning facilitating employees’ experiential learning collaboration encouragement encouraging employees to collaborate with others lee and choi (2003), teerajetgul and charoenngam (2006), teerajetgul et al. (2009) encouraging employees to support others lee and choi (2003), teerajetgul and charoenngam (2006), teerajetgul et al. (2009) appreciating employees’ willingness to take responsibility in coordination dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202167 emm (α = 0.917) was measured with 10 items (table 3). specifically, emm includes incentives (three items; α = 0.753), learning encouragement (four items; α = 0.861) and collaboration encouragement (three items; α = 0.910). md (α = 0.887) was measured with three items, which rated construction firms’ performance with regard to improving professional skills of employees (dang et al., 2019), employee retention (kyndt et al., 2009; chih et al., 2018) and developing young employees (dang et al., 2018; dang and le-hoai, 2019). in line with previous studies (e.g., leal-rodríguez et al., 2015), this study measured firm size based on the number of employees. specifically, construction firms with less than 300 employees were categorized as small (10-200 employees)/medium (200-300 employees) firms while large firms had more than 300 employees (dang et al., 2018). data analysis inferential statistics—including bivariate pearson correlation analysis and hierarchical multiple regression analysis—are used to test the research hypotheses. these analysis methods were selected because they were widely used to investigate the relationships of independent and moderator variables with a dependent variable in many previous studies (e.g., chih et al., 2016; chih et al., 2017; nguyen et al., 2019), which is similar in nature to this study’s research objectives. in addition to this reason, the sample size of the collected data (i.e., 79 valid responses) was also considered to be more appropriate with these analysis methods than structural equation modelling, which usually requires a larger sample size (i.e., at least 100 for results to be reasonably reliable and above 200 to avoid the risk of sample non-normality; bagozzi and yi, 2012). specifically, bivariate pearson correlation analysis, which could measure the linear correlation between a pair of study variables (nguyen et al., 2019), is used to test the possible correlations of emm, incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement with md stated in h1, h1a, h1b and h1c, respectively. then, to further confirm these hypotheses, the compound effect of incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement on md was investigated using hierarchical multiple regression analysis, which allows to assess the incremental explanatory power of study variables in each block (cohen et al., 2003). this regression approach was also used to test h2, h2a, h2b and h2c, which hypothesized that the positive effects of emm, incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement, respectively, on md are stronger in small/medium-sized construction firms than in large firms. several regression models are built by adding each independent variable (e.g., emm or firm size) and the multiplicative interaction of these independent variables to a previous model. this analysis is mainly to show whether these independent variables could explain a statistically significant amount of variance in the dependent variable (i.e., md). the interaction effect is further assessed using the process macro, developed by hayes (2017). specifically, moderation analysis is performed to examine how the effects of emm-related variables (emm, incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement) on md depend on firm size as the third moderator variable. in analysis of the interaction effect, aiken and west (1991) define low value/high value as –1 sd/+1 sd from the mean (average) for the independent variables. similarly, the process output reports mean and –1 sd/+1 sd for the independent variables (nguyen et al., 2019). in this study, emm-related variables are considered as the independent variables, whose “low implementation”, “average implementation” and “high implementation” levels are represented by –1 sd, mean and +1 sd, respectively. dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202168 results effect of encouragement-based management mechanism on manpower development table 4 presents the results of bivariate pearson correlation analysis. as expected, the correlation coefficient between emm and md was significantly positive (r = 0.716, p = 0.000), thereby supporting h1 and confirming that emm was positively related to md. further, the analysis results supported h1a, h1b and h1c, meaning that, individually, each of the proposed emm constructs (i.e., incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement) could also have a positive effect on md. table 4. results of pearson correlation analysis hypothesis study variable md note r p-value h1 emm 0.716 0.000 support h1a incentives 0.593 0.000 support h1b learning encouragement 0.682 0.000 support h1c collaboration encouragement 0.610 0.000 support note: r: correlation coefficient in addition, the possible compound effect of individual emm constructs on md was investigated using hierarchical multiple regression analysis. this analysis also included firm size as a control variable to avoid the possible variables-omitted bias, because the survey responses were provided by different-sized construction firms (i.e., small/medium vs large). specifically, firm size, incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement, in turn, were entered in each step to build models 1, 2, 3 and 4. except model 1 with only one variable (firm size), model 4 includes all four variables (firm size, incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement), while models 2 and 3 involve two (firm size and incentives) and three (firm size, incentives and learning encouragement) variables, respectively. as shown in table 5, all models were significant. the f statistics of models 1, 2, 3 and 4 are 11.862, 28.633, 29.282 and 24.821, respectively, with all p-values ≤ 0.001. the values of δr2 are all significant, specifically: (i) model 2 (δr2 = 0.296, p = 0.000) with the presence of incentives accounted for significantly more variance than just firm size alone (model 1); (ii) model 3 (δr2 = 0.110, p = 0.000) with the inclusion of learning encouragement accounted for significantly more variance than firm size and incentives (model 2); and (iii) model 4 (δr2 = 0.034, p = 0.018), where collaboration encouragement was added, accounted for significantly more variance than firm size, incentives and learning encouragement (model 3). this implies that there would be a compound effect of incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement on md, thereby confirming the importance of the proposed emm constructs and their significant compound contribution to md in construction firms. these results provide further evidence supporting h1, h1a, h1b and h1c. dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202169 table 5. compound effect of incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement on md study variable statistics model 1 model 2 model 3 model 4 firm size beta 0.365d 0.283c 0.226c 0.243c incentives beta — 0.550d 0.230b 0.130 learning encouragement beta — — 0.471d 0.361c collaboration encouragement beta — — — 0.264b r2 0.133 0.430 0.539 0.573 δr2 0.133d 0.296d 0.110d 0.034b f 11.862d 28.633d 29.282d 24.821d notes: beta: standardized coefficient; ap ≤ 0.1; bp ≤ 0.05; cp ≤ 0.01; dp ≤ 0.001 moderating effect of firm size hierarchical multiple regression analysis was used to examine the moderating effect of firm size. in the first step (model 1), two variables were included: (i) each of emm-related variables (table 4) and (ii) firm size (size). in the second step (model 2), the multiplicative interaction terms between each of emmrelated variables and size (the moderator variable) were computed and entered into the regression equation. specifically, with the case of “emm” (considered as a typical example), model 1 involves “emm” and “size”, while model 2 includes “emm”, “size” and “emm × size” (i.e., the interaction term between emm and size). to reduce multicollinearity, all study variables were mean-centred (aiken and west, 1991). table 6 presents the summary results of hierarchical multiple regression analysis. table 6. results of hierarchical moderated regression analysis hypothesis study variable statistics model 1 model 2 note h2 emm beta 0.672d 1.275d support firm size (size) beta 0.242c 1.207d two-way interaction (emm × size) beta — −1.243c r2 0.570 0.608 δr2 0.570d 0.039c f 50.277d 38.855d h2a incentives (in) beta 0.550d 1.046d support firm size (size) beta 0.283c 1.003b two-way interaction (in × size) beta — −0.947a r2 0.430 0.455 δr2 0.430d 0.025a f 28.633d 20.846d dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202170 hypothesis study variable statistics model 1 model 2 note h2b learning encouragement (le) beta 0.632d 1.153d support firm size (size) beta 0.224c 0.889c two-way interaction (le × size) beta — −0.947b r2 0.513 0.541 δr2 0.513d 0.028b f 39.957d 29.443d h2c collaboration encouragement (ce) beta 0.583d 1.143d support firm size (size) beta 0.316d 1.219c two-way interaction (ce × size) beta — −1.118b r2 0.471 0.508 δr2 0.471d 0.037b f 33.877d 25.832d h2* incentives (in) beta 0.130 −0.044 support learning encouragement (le) beta 0.361c 0.599a collaboration encouragement (ce) beta 0.264b 0.853b firm size (size) beta 0.243c 1.232c two-way interaction (in × size) beta — 0.311 two-way interaction (le × size) beta — −0.395 two-way interaction (ce × size) beta — −1.179a r2 0.573 0.621 δr2 0.573d 0.049b f 24.821d 16.652d notes: *: testing simultaneous interaction effect; beta: standardized coefficient; ap ≤ 0.1; bp ≤ 0.05; cp ≤ 0.01; dp ≤ 0.001 as shown in table 6, model 1 in four regression analyses showed that firm size and each of four emm-related variables (i.e., emm, incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement) accounted for a significant amount of variance in md. specifically, when observing the case of “emm”, model 1 had f = 50.277, p = 0.000. model 2 with the interaction between “emm” and “size” accounted for significantly more variance than “emm” and “size” (f = 38.855, p = 0.000). the result of δr2 = 0.039, δf = 7.462, p = 0.008 indicated that there was a potentially significant moderation between emm and firm size on md. in order words, the effect of emm on md depends significantly on firm size. figure 2 further illustrates the effect of emm on md with the interaction of firm size. the figure shows a buffering effect, whereby: (i) md increases as the implementation level of emm increases and (ii) the degree of md (i.e., slope) is more considerable in small/medium-sized construction firms than in large firms. similar results were also observed for the cases of incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement. these findings altogether support h2, h2a, h2b and h2c, confirming that the positive effect of emm— table 6. continued dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202171 including incentive, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement—on md is stronger in small/medium-sized construction firms than in large firms. this study finally assessed the simultaneous interaction effect of three emm constructs and firm size on md following the aforementioned regression approach. specifically, in model 1, three emm constructs (incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement) and firm size (size) were involved. after that, to develop model 2, the multiplicative interaction terms between these emm constructs and the moderator variable (size) were simultaneously added into the regression equation. accordingly, while model 1 contained four variables (incentives, learning encouragement, collaboration encouragement and size), model 2 included seven variables (incentives, learning encouragement, collaboration encouragement, size, in × size, le × size and ce × size). the analysis results (table 6) showed that model 2 (with the simultaneous interaction of incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement with size; f = 16.652, p = 0.000), together with model 1 (f = 24.821, p = 0.000), was significant. the result of δr2 = 0.049, δf = 3.033, p = 0.035 further indicated a significant moderation of incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement with firm size on md. this implies that in construction firms, the effects of incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement (as three specific constructs of emm) on md were simultaneously moderated by firm size. these results provide additional evidence to support h2, h2a, h2b and h2c. figure 2. effect of emm on md with the interaction of firm size discussion the research result (table 4) showed that emm was positively related to md (h1), implying that construction firms with better emm is more likely to have superior md performance. this may be because good development of emm can allow construction firms to create good working environments (e.g., encouraging and favourable environments) and, thence, would not only enable them to promote employees’ skills, knowledge and values, but also enhance employees’ satisfaction and long-term working commitment. this finding could provide useful empirical evidence to improve construction firms’ md performance (i.e., a critical, yet unexplored, aspect of firm-level performance) via capitalizing on appropriate and wise applications of emm. such evidence can further contribute to the extant literature, although remains very limited, which reported the significant links of several other encouragement-related issues (e.g., reward and/ dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202172 or recognition) with other performance aspects [e.g., employee creativity (amabile et al., 1996), employee satisfaction (yusuf et al., 2007) or quality performance (talib et al., 2010)]. the analysis results (tables 4 and 5) also revealed that the proposed emm constructs (i.e., incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement), individually and simultaneously, have significantly positive effects on md in construction firms (h1a, h1b and h1c). in general, this implies that these constructs would lead to better md performance in construction firms, if applied properly. noticeably, as compared with incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement, respectively, were found to have more significantly positive correlation with md (table 4); thereby, could be considered as important managerial schemes of construction firms in vietnam (i.e., a fast-growing and emerging market economy), as well as other developing countries. this finding is also consistent with chow’s (2012) study, which emphasized the importance of learning intention and collaborative culture in today’s highly competitive knowledge economy. accordingly, this finding may be useful and practical to the vietnamese construction industry, given the increasing importance of improving its workforces (nguyen and hadikusumo, 2018). specifically, the implication of this finding is that construction firms in vietnam, which usually focus more on using incentive schemes, but still pay little attention to other encouragement schemes [e.g., providing few training activities for employees (le-hoai et al., 2010)], could make various appropriate and effective encouragement-based improvements on management-oriented approaches to enhance their manpower. in addition, this study found the interaction effect of emm and firm size on md performance (h2, h2a, h2b and h2c). firm size moderated the relationship between emm—including incentives, learning encouragement and collaboration encouragement—and md in construction firms (table 6). this result could also support namasivayam and denizci’s (2006) study, which indicated that firm size was crucial to service organizations’ human capitals. furthermore, the degree of md is more considerable in small/ medium-sized construction firms than in large firms (figure 2), implying that small/medium-sized construction firms could benefit significantly from developing their emm. specifically, small/medium-sized construction firms generally have a small number of qualified employees. due to their limited capacities of new recruitment as compared with other large counterparts and the construction industry’s high turnover rate (chih et al., 2016), small/medium-sized construction firms may face more human-related difficulties (e.g., lack of manpower for construction projects) when employees stop working for them. improved emm practices may be considered as a potential solution to overcome such difficulties. thus, small/medium-sized construction firms’ managers and policy makers could establish reasonable and wise encouragement-based management strategies to develop their manpower, which is vital to project success (nguyen et al., 2004a) and firm success (brammer et al., 2007). conclusions given the importance of strong and stable manpower to organizational competitiveness (kale and karaman, 2012), the construction industry should seek to improve its workforces. based on empirical data collected from 79 construction firms, this study explored the relationship between emm and md. accordingly, this study could provide some significant implications in both theoretical and practical aspects. theoretically, this present research is among the first attempts to investigate the role of firm size in the emm−md relationship. the effect of emm on md depends significantly on firm size. specifically, the positive effect of emm on md is stronger in small/medium-sized construction firms as compared with their large counterparts, meaning that small/medium-sized construction firms could benefit significantly from developing their emm. practically, this study provides construction firms with empirical evidence of the effects of various encouragement-related schemes on md. hence, they could establish appropriate and wise encouragement-based strategies to enhance their manpower. dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202173 despite the aforementioned contributions, some limitations of this study should also be noted. industry-related and country-specific findings may be one of the possible limitations. the encouragementrelated variables and their relationship with md were identified for construction firms in vietnam and, therefore, cannot be used automatically for other firm types and/or in other countries without extra data collection. accordingly, to ascertain generalizability, the present theoretical hypotheses should be further tested in project-based organizations (e.g., aec firms) in other countries. future studies should also be conducted on examining the relationships between other encouragement-related variables (e.g., extrinsic, intrinsic and social rewards) and employee-level (e.g., career satisfaction) and firm-level (e.g., marketbased organizational performance, firm growth and firm innovativeness) performance aspects in projectbased environments and/or in other countries. such relationships, once identified, can be of great use for improving firms’ organizational mechanisms effectively, thereby enhancing their organizational business operations in today’s fast changing and dynamic environment. acknowledgement this research was funded by vietnam national university ho chi minh city (vnu-hcm) under grant number b2021-20-08. references abdulsalam, d., faki, a.i. and dardau, a.a., 2012. impact assessment of incentive schemes for the sustainable development of nigerian construction industry. journal of civil engineering and architecture, 6(9), pp.1194-1201. https://doi.org/10.17265/1934-7359/2012.09.011 aiken, l.s. and west, s.g., 1991. multiple regression: testing and interpreting interactions, sage publications, ca. akintoye, a., 2000. analysis of factors influencing project cost estimating practice. construction management and economics, 18(1), pp.77-89. https://doi.org/10.1080/014461900370979 amabile, t.m., conti, r., coon, h., lazenby, j. and herron, m., 1996. assessing the work environment for creativity. academy of management journal, 39(5), pp.1154-1184. https://doi.org/10.5465/256995 amabile, t.m., 1997. motivating creativity in organizations: on doing what you love and loving what you do. california management review, 40(1), pp.39-58. https://doi.org/10.2307/41165921 anantatmula, v.s., 2007. linking km effectiveness attributes to organizational performance. vine, 37(2), pp.133-149. https://doi.org/10.1108/03055720710759928 bagozzi, r.p. and yi, y., 2012. specification, evaluation, and interpretation of structural equation models. journal of the academy of marketing science, 40(1), pp.8-34. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2fs11747-011-0278-x https:// doi.org/10.1007/s11747-011-0278-x blau, p.m., 1972. interdependence and hierarchy in organizations. social science research, 1(1), pp.1-24. https://doi. org/10.1016/0049-089x(72)90055-5 brammer, s., millington, a. and rayton, b., 2007. the contribution of corporate social responsibility to organizational commitment. international journal of human resource management, 18(10), pp.1701-1719. https://doi. org/10.1080/09585190701570866 bustamam, f.l., teng, s.s. and abdullah, f.z., 2014. reward management and job satisfaction among frontline employees in hotel industry in malaysia. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 144, pp.392-402. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.07.308 dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202174 https://doi.org/10.17265/1934-7359/2012.09.011 https://doi.org/10.1080/014461900370979 https://doi.org/10.5465/256995 https://doi.org/10.2307/41165921 https://doi.org/10.1108/03055720710759928 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2fs11747-011-0278-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-011-0278-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-011-0278-x https://doi.org/10.1016/0049-089x(72)90055-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/0049-089x(72)90055-5 https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190701570866 https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190701570866 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.07.308 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2014.07.308 chih, y.y., kiazad, k., zhou, l., capezio, a., li, m. and restubog, s.l.d., 2016. investigating employee turnover in the construction industry: a psychological contract perspective. journal of construction engineering and management, 142(6), pp.1-9. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001101 chih, y.y., kiazad, k., cheng, d., capezio, a. and d. restubog, s.l., 2017. does organizational justice matter? implications for construction workers’ organizational commitment. journal of management in engineering, 33(2), pp.110. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000490 chih, y.y., kiazad, k., cheng, d., emamirad, e. and restubog, s.l., 2018. interactive effects of supportive leadership and top management team’s charismatic vision in predicting worker retention in the philippines. journal of construction engineering and management, 144(10), pp.1-10. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001553 chou, j.s., irawan, n. and pham, a.d., 2013. project management knowledge of construction professionals: crosscountry study of effects on project success. journal of construction engineering and management, 139(11), pp.1-15. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000766 chow, i.h.s., 2012. the role of social network and collaborative culture in knowledge sharing and performance relations. sam advanced management journal, 77(2), pp.24-37. https://www.proquest.com/docview/1027234876?pq-ori gsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true cohen, j., cohen, p., west, s.g. and aiken, l.s., 2003. applied multiple regression/correlation analysis for the behavioral sciences, 3rd ed., lawrence erlbaum, nj. dang, c.n., le-hoai, l. and kim, s.y., 2018. impact of knowledge enabling factors on organizational effectiveness in construction companies. journal of knowledge management, 22(4), pp.759-780. https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-08-20160350 dang, c.n. and le-hoai, l., 2019. relating knowledge creation factors to construction organizations’ effectiveness: empirical study. journal of engineering, design and technology, 17(3), pp.515-536. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-012018-0002 dang, c.n., le-hoai, l. and peansupap, v., 2019. linking knowledge enabling factors to organizational performance: empirical study of project-based firms. international journal of construction management, earlycite, pp.1-14. https://doi. org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1637097 dang, c.n., chih, y.y., le-hoai, l. and nguyen, l.d., 2020. project-based a/e/c firms’ knowledge management capability and market development performance: does firm size matter. journal of construction engineering and management, 146(11), pp.1-13. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001918 danish, r.q. and usman, a., 2010. impact of reward and recognition on job satisfaction and motivation: an empirical study from pakistan. international journal of business and management, 5(2), pp.159-167. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm. v5n2p159 dave, b. and koskela, l., 2009. collaborative knowledge management − a construction case study. automation in construction, 18(7), pp.894-902. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2009.03.015 dilworth, l., 2003. searching for the future of hrd. advances in developing human resources, 5(3), pp.241-244. https://doi.org/10.1177/15234223030053001 dinkmeyer, d. and losoncy, l., 1996. the skills of encouragement: bringing out the best in yourself and others, crc press, fl. dougherty, d. and hardy, c., 1996. sustained product innovation in large, mature organizations: overcoming innovation-to-organization problems. academy of management journal, 39(5), pp.1120-1153. https://doi. org/10.5465/256994 dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202175 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001101 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000490 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001553 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000766 https://www.proquest.com/docview/1027234876?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true https://www.proquest.com/docview/1027234876?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-08-2016-0350 https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-08-2016-0350 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-01-2018-0002 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-01-2018-0002 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1637097 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1637097 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001918 https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v5n2p159 https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v5n2p159 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2009.03.015 https://doi.org/10.1177/15234223030053001 https://doi.org/10.5465/256994 https://doi.org/10.5465/256994 dodge, r., dwyer, j., witzeman, s., neylon, s. and taylor, s., 2017. the role of leadership in innovation: a quantitative analysis of a large data set examines the relationship between organizational culture, leadership behaviors, and innovativeness. research technology management, 60(3), pp.22-29. https://doi.org/10.1080/08956308.2017.1301000 engwall, m., 2003. no project is an island: linking projects to history and context. research policy, 32(5), pp.789-808. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0048-7333(02)00088-4 fagbenle, o.i., adeyemi, a.y. and adesanya, d.a., 2004. the impact of non‐financial incentives on bricklayers’ productivity in nigeria. construction management and economics, 22(9), pp.899-911. https://doi. org/10.1080/0144619042000241262 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619042000241262 fečiková, i., 2004. an index method for measurement of customer satisfaction. the tqm magazine, 16(1), pp.57-66. https://doi.org/10.1108/09544780410511498 forcada, n., fuertes, a., gangolells, m., casals, m. and macarulla, m., 2013. knowledge management perceptions in construction and design companies. automation in construction, 29, pp.83-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2012.09.001 fu, x., 2001. on the operation mode and implement means of the encouragement mechanism in library management. library and information service, available at: http://en.cnki.com.cn/article_en/cjfdtotal-tsqb200109024.htm (accessed march 14, 2019). ghosh, s., amaya, l. and skibniewski, m.j., 2012. identifying areas of knowledge governance for successful projects. journal of civil engineering and management, 18(4), pp.495-504. https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2012.700642 gong, y., zhou, j. and chang, s., 2013. core knowledge employee creativity and firm performance: the moderating role of riskiness orientation, firm size, and realized absorptive capacity. personnel psychology, 66(2), pp.443-482. https://doi. org/10.1111/peps.12024 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j. and anderson, r.e., 2010. multivariate data analysis, 7th ed., pearson prentice hall, upper saddle river, nj. hartono, b., sulistyo, s.r., chai, k.h. and indarti, n., 2019. knowledge management maturity and performance in a project environment: moderating roles of firm size and project complexity. journal of management in engineering, 35(6), pp.1-17. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000705 hafiza, n.s., shah, s.s., jamsheed, h. and zaman, k., 2011. relationship between rewards and employee’s motivation in the non-profit organizations of pakistan. business intelligence journal, 4(2), pp.327-334. http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/ viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.472.8414&rep=rep1&type=pdf#page=130 harrison, r., 2000. employee development, 2nd ed., institute of personnel and development, london. hayes, a.f., 2017. introduction to mediation, moderation, and conditional process analysis: a regression-based approach, 2nd ed., guilford press, ny. ho, c., nguyen, p.m., and shu, m.h., 2007. supplier evaluation and selection criteria in the construction industry of taiwan and vietnam. information and management sciences, 18(4), pp.403-426. https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/ supplier-evaluation-and-selection-criteria-in-the-ho-nguyen/17953e02260648fe03f90b6f75417bf86a2a6d94 illankoon, i.m.c.s., tam, v.w., le, k.n. and ranadewa, k.a.t.o., 2019. causes of disputes, factors affecting dispute resolution and effective alternative dispute resolution for sri lankan construction industry. international journal of construction management, earlycite, pp.1-11. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1616415 johnson, j.l. and sohi, r.s., 2003. the development of interfirm partnering competence: platforms for learning, learning activities, and consequences of learning. journal of business research, 56(9), pp.757-766. https://www. sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s0148296301002600 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0148-2963(01)00260-0 dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202176 https://doi.org/10.1080/08956308.2017.1301000 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0048-7333(02)00088-4 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619042000241262 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619042000241262 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619042000241262 https://doi.org/10.1108/09544780410511498 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.09.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.09.001 http://en.cnki.com.cn/article_en/cjfdtotal-tsqb200109024.htm https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2012.700642 https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12024 https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12024 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000705 http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.472.8414&rep=rep1&type=pdf#page=130 http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.472.8414&rep=rep1&type=pdf#page=130 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/supplier-evaluation-and-selection-criteria-in-the-ho-nguyen/17953e02260648fe03f90b6f75417bf86a2a6d94 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/supplier-evaluation-and-selection-criteria-in-the-ho-nguyen/17953e02260648fe03f90b6f75417bf86a2a6d94 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1616415 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s0148296301002600 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/s0148296301002600 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0148-2963(01)00260-0 jones, s.m., ross, a. and sertyesilisik, b., 2010. testing the unfolding model of voluntary turnover on construction professionals. construction management and economics, 28(3), pp. 271-285. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446191003587737 kamara, j.m., augenbroe, g., anumba, c.j. and carrillo, p.m., 2002. knowledge management in the architecture, engineering and construction industry. construction innovation, 2(1), pp.53-67. https://doi. org/10.1108/14714170210814685 kale, s. and karaman, a.e., 2012. benchmarking the knowledge management practices of construction firms. journal of civil engineering and management, 18(3), pp.335-344. https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2012.698910 kim, h.j., tavitiyaman, p. and kim, w.g., 2009. the effect of management commitment to service on employee service behaviors: the mediating role of job satisfaction. journal of hospitality and tourism research, 33(3), pp.369-390. https:// doi.org/10.1177/1096348009338530 kumpikaite, v., 2004. evaluation of the personnel development system: summary of doctoral dissertation. kaunas university of technology, kaunas, lithuania. kumpikaite, v., 2008. human resource development in learning organization. journal of business economics and management, 9(1), pp.25-31. https://doi.org/10.3846/1611-1699.2008.9.25-31 kyndt, e., dochy, f., michielsen, m. and moeyaert, b., 2009. employee retention: organisational and personal perspectives. vocations and learning, 2(3), pp.195-215. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-009-9024-7 lai, d.n., liu, m. and ling, f.y., 2011. a comparative study on adopting human resource practices for safety management on construction projects in the united states and singapore. international journal of project management, 29(8), pp.1018-1032. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.11.004 leal-rodríguez, a.l., eldridge, s., roldán, j.l., leal-millán, a.g. and ortega-gutiérrez, j., 2015. organizational unlearning, innovation outcomes, and performance: the moderating effect of firm size. journal of business research, 68(4), pp.803-809. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.11.032 lee, h. and choi, b., 2003. knowledge management enablers, processes, and organizational performance: an integrative view and empirical examination. journal of management information systems, 20(1), pp.179-228. https://doi. org/10.1080/07421222.2003.11045756 le-hoai, l., lee, y.d. and son, j.j., 2010. partnering in construction: investigation of problematic issues for implementation in vietnam. ksce journal of civil engineering, 14(5), pp.731-741. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205010-0916-8 li, h. and chen, p., 2018. board gender diversity and firm performance: the moderating role of firm size. business ethics: a european review, 27(4), pp.294-308. https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12188 lin, l.s., huang, i.c., du, p.l. and lin, t.f., 2012. human capital disclosure and organizational performance: the moderating effects of knowledge intensity and organizational size. management decision, 50(10), pp.1790-1799. https:// doi.org/10.1108/00251741211279602 ling, f.y.y. and bui, t.t.d., 2009. factors affecting construction project outcomes: case study of vietnam. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 136(3), pp.148-155. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.19435541.0000013 ling, f.y.y., pham, v.m.c. and hoang, t.p., 2009. strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats for architectural, engineering, and construction firms: case study of vietnam. journal of construction engineering and management, 135(10), pp.1105-1113. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000069 dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202177 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446191003587737 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446191003587737 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170210814685 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170210814685 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2012.698910 https://doi.org/10.1177/1096348009338530 https://doi.org/10.1177/1096348009338530 https://doi.org/10.3846/1611-1699.2008.9.25-31 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-009-9024-7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.11.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.11.032 https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2003.11045756 https://doi.org/10.1080/07421222.2003.11045756 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-010-0916-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-010-0916-8 https://doi.org/10.1111/beer.12188 https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741211279602 https://doi.org/10.1108/00251741211279602 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000013 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000013 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000069 liska, r.w. and snell, b., 1992. financial incentive programs for average-size construction firm. journal of construction engineering and management, 118(4), pp.667-676. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1992)118:4(667) lusch, r.f., vargo, s.l. and o’brien, m., 2007. competing through service: insights from service-dominant logic. journal of retailing, 83(1), pp.5-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2006.10.002 melton, h.l. and hartline, m.d., 2013. employee collaboration, learning orientation, and new service development performance. journal of service research, 16(1), pp.67-81. https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670512462139 namasivayam, k. and denizci, b., 2006. human capital in service organizations: identifying value drivers. journal of intellectual capital, 7(3), pp.381-393. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930610681465 na-nan, k., panich, t., thipnete, a. and kulsingh, r., 2016. influence of job characteristics, organizational climate, job satisfaction and employee engagement that affect the organizational citizenship behavior of teachers in thailand. social sciences, 11(18), pp.4523-4533. https://doi.org/10.36478/sscience.2016.4523.4533 nazir, s., shafi, a., qun, w., nazir, n. and tran, q.d., 2016. influence of organizational rewards on organizational commitment and turnover intentions. employee relations, 38(4), pp.596-619. https://doi.org/10.1108/er-12-20140150 nguyen, l.d., ogunlana, s.o. and lan, d.t.x., 2004a. a study on project success factors in large construction projects in vietnam. engineering, construction and architectural management, 11(6), pp.404-413. https://doi. org/10.1108/09699980410570166 nguyen, l.d., ogunlana, s., quang, t. and lam, k.c., 2004b. large construction projects in developing countries: a case study from vietnam. international journal of project management, 22(7), pp.553-561. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2004.03.004 nguyen, h.t. and hadikusumo, b.h., 2018. human resource related factors and engineering, procurement, and construction (epc) project success. journal of financial management of property and construction, 23(1), pp.24-39. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-05-2016-0023 nguyen, l.d., le-hoai, l., tran, d.q., dang, c.n. and nguyen, c.v., 2019. effect of project complexity on cost and schedule performance in transportation projects. construction management and economics, 37(7), pp.384-399. https:// doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2018.1532592 nguyen, t.a., nguyen, p.t. and do, s.t., 2020. application of bim and 3d laser scanning for quantity management in construction projects. advances in civil engineering, 2020, pp.1-10. https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ ace/2020/8839923/. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8839923 noe, r.a. and wilk, s.l., 1993. investigation of the factors that influence employees’ participation in development activities. journal of applied psychology, 78(2), pp.291-302. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.2.291 pace, r.w., 1991. human resource development: the field. the prentice hall series on human resource development. prentice hall inc., nj. park, m., lee, h.s. and kwon, s., 2010. construction knowledge evaluation using expert index. journal of civil engineering and management, 16(3), pp.401-411. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2010.46 petruzzelli, a.m., ardito, l. and savino, t., 2018. maturity of knowledge inputs and innovation value: the moderating effect of firm age and size. journal of business research, 86, pp.190-201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.02.009 pham, n.t. and swierczek, f.w., 2006. facilitators of organizational learning in design. the learning organization, 13(2), pp.186-201. https://doi.org/10.1108/09696470610645502 prasad, b. and junni, p., 2017. a contingency model of ceo characteristics and firm innovativeness: the moderating role of organizational size. management decision, 55(1), pp.156-177. https://doi.org/10.1108/md-02-2016-0071 dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202178 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1992)118:4(667 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2006.10.002 https://doi.org/10.1177/1094670512462139 https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930610681465 https://doi.org/10.36478/sscience.2016.4523.4533 https://doi.org/10.1108/er-12-2014-0150 https://doi.org/10.1108/er-12-2014-0150 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980410570166 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980410570166 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.03.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.03.004 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-05-2016-0023 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2018.1532592 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2018.1532592 https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ace/2020/8839923/ https://www.hindawi.com/journals/ace/2020/8839923/ https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8839923 https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.78.2.291 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2010.46 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.02.009 https://doi.org/10.1108/09696470610645502 https://doi.org/10.1108/md-02-2016-0071 ribeiro, f.l., 2009. enhancing knowledge management in construction firms. construction innovation, 9(3), pp.268284. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170910973493 robinson, h.s., carrillo, p.m., anumba, c.j. and al-ghassani, a.m., 2005. knowledge management practices in large construction organisations. engineering, construction and architectural management, 12(5), pp.431-445. https://doi. org/10.1108/09699980510627135 russell, r.f. and stone, a.g., 2002. a review of servant leadership attributes: developing a practical model. leadership and organization development journal, 23(3), pp.145-157. https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730210424 schneider, b. and bowen, d.e., 1995. winning the service game, harvard school press, ma. serenko, a., bontis, n. and hardie, t., 2007. organizational size and knowledge flow: a proposed theoretical link. journal of intellectual capital, 8(4), pp.610-627. https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930710830783 shenhar, a.j., 2001. one size does not fit all projects: exploring classical contingency domains. management science, 47(3), pp.394-414. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2661507. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.47.3.394.9772 swanson, r.a., 1996. in praise of the dependent variable. human resource development quarterly, 7(3), pp.203-207. https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.3920070302 swart, j., mann, c., brown, s. and price, a., 2005. human resource development: strategy and tactics, elsevier butterworth-heinemann, oxford. talib, f., rahman, z. and qureshi, m.n., 2010. the relationship between total quality management and quality performance in the service industry: a theoretical model. international journal of business, management and social sciences, 1(1), pp.113-128. https://ssrn.com/abstract=2725176 talib, f., rahman, z. and qureshi, m.n., 2011. prioritising the practices of total quality management: an analytic hierarchy process analysis for the service industries. total quality management and business excellence, 22(12), pp.13311351. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2011.625192 tam, v.w., shen, l.y., fung, i.w. and wang, j.y., 2007. controlling construction waste by implementing governmental ordinances in hong kong. construction innovation, 7(2), pp.149-166. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170710738522 tam, v.w., hao, j.l. and zeng, s.x., 2012. what affects implementation of green buildings? an empirical study in hong kong. international journal of strategic property management, 16(2), pp.115-125. https://doi.org/10.3846/164871 5x.2011.645559 tam v.w.y. and zeng s.x., 2014. employee job satisfaction in engineering firms. engineering, construction and architectural management, 21(4), pp.353-368. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2012-0098 tarí, j.j., 2005. components of successful total quality management. the tqm magazine, 17(2), pp.182-194. https://doi. org/10.1108/09544780510583245 teerajetgul, w. and charoenngam, c., 2006. factors inducing knowledge creation: empirical evidence from thai construction projects. engineering, construction and architectural management, 13(6), pp.584-599. https://doi. org/10.1108/09699980610712382 teerajetgul, w., chareonngam, c. and wethyavivorn, p., 2009. key knowledge factors in thai construction practice. international journal of project management, 27(8), pp.833-839. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.02.008 teo, e.a.l. and ling, f.y.y., 2009. enhancing worksite safety: impact of personnel characteristics and incentives on safety performance. international journal of construction management, 9(2), pp.103-118. https://doi.org/10.1080/156235 99.2009.10773133 dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202179 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170910973493 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980510627135 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980510627135 https://doi.org/10.1108/01437730210424 https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930710830783 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2661507 https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.47.3.394.9772 https://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.3920070302 https://ssrn.com/abstract=2725176 https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2011.625192 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170710738522 https://doi.org/10.3846/1648715x.2011.645559 https://doi.org/10.3846/1648715x.2011.645559 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2012-0098 https://doi.org/10.1108/09544780510583245 https://doi.org/10.1108/09544780510583245 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980610712382 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980610712382 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.02.008 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2009.10773133 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2009.10773133 thwala, w.d. and monese, l.n., 2006. motivation as a tool to improve productivity on the construction site. proceedings of the 5th post graduate conference on construction industry development with a theme: construction as a cornerstone for economic growth and development, pp.139-145, bloemfontein, south africa. torraco, r.j. and swanson, r.a., 1995. the strategic roles of human resource development. human resource planning, 18(4), pp.10-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/13678860801932998 tserng, h.p., yin, s.y.l. and lee, m.h., 2010. the use of knowledge map model in construction industry. journal of civil engineering and management, 16(3), pp.332-344. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2010.38 tserng, h.p., lee, m.h., hsieh, s.h. and liu, h.l., 2016. the measurement factor of employee participation for knowledge management system in engineering consulting firms. journal of civil engineering and management, 22(2), pp.154-167. https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2014.897963 turkyilmaz, a., akman, g., ozkan, c. and pastuszak, z., 2011. empirical study of public sector employee loyalty and satisfaction. industrial management and data systems, 111(5), pp.675-696. https://doi.org/10.1108/02635571111137250 wei, y. and miraglia, s., 2017. organizational culture and knowledge transfer in project-based organizations: theoretical insights from a chinese construction firm. international journal of project management, 35(4), pp.571-585. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.02.010 wilson, j.p., 2005. human resource development: learning & training for individuals & organizations, kogan page publishers, london. yu, g.j. and lee, j., 2017. when should a firm collaborate with research organizations for innovation performance? the moderating role of innovation orientation, size, and age. journal of technology transfer, 42(6), pp.1451-1465. https://doi. org/10.1007/s10961-016-9469-4 yusuf, y., gunasekaran, a. and dan, g., 2007. implementation of tqm in china and organisation performance: an empirical investigation. total quality management, 18(5), pp.509-530. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783360701239982 zhang, b., chen, j., tian, a., morris, j. and fan, h., 2019. industry capital intensity and firms’ utilization of hcws: does firm size matter?. personnel review, 48(2), pp.492-510. https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-03-2017-0069 zona, f., zattoni, a. and minichilli, a., 2013. a contingency model of boards of directors and firm innovation: the moderating role of firm size. british journal of management, 24(3), pp.299-315. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14678551.2011.00805.x dang, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202180 https://doi.org/10.1080/13678860801932998 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2010.38 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2014.897963 https://doi.org/10.1108/02635571111137250 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.02.010 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-016-9469-4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10961-016-9469-4 https://doi.org/10.1080/14783360701239982 https://doi.org/10.1108/pr-03-2017-0069 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2011.00805.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.2011.00805.x construction economics and building vol. 22, no. 3 september 2022 © 2022 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: ibrahim, f. s., esa, m., kamal, e. m. 2022. strategies to minimise the impact of covid-19 on the construction industry: a case study of construction site clusters in malaysia. construction economics and building, 22:3, 21–42. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v22i3.8064 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article strategies to minimise the impact of covid-19 on the construction industry: a case study of construction site clusters in malaysia farah salwati ibrahim1, muneera esa2,* ernawati mustafa kamal3 1 construction project management, school of housing, building and planning, universiti sains malaysia, 11800 gelugor, penang, malaysia, farahsalwati@gmail.com 2 construction project management, school of housing, building and planning, universiti sains malaysia, 11800 gelugor, penang, malaysia, muneera_esa@usm.my 3 construction project management, school of housing, building and planning, universiti sains malaysia, 11800 gelugor, penang, malaysia, ernamustafa@usm.my corresponding author: muneera esa, construction project management, school of housing, building and planning, universiti sains malaysia, 11800 gelugor, penang, malaysia, muneera_esa@usm.my doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.8064 article history: received: 20/01/2022; revised: 05/06/2022 & 29/07/2022; accepted: 01/08/2022; published: 20/09/2022 abstract malaysia has seen the third wave of infection since the start of the global covid-19 pandemic, with approximately 103 construction sites involving over 14,677 workers reported from april 2020 to february 2021. this has led to limited progress in construction projects or a complete halt, resulting in late project delivery. the purpose of this paper is to investigate the factors influencing the spread of covid-19 and the strategies taken by the affected construction sites to mitigate the spread of the outbreak. the researchers adopted a case study approach with a multiple-case design and discusses the use of an in-depth interviewing method to collect rich data on the studied phenomenon. data collected from three construction sites. the sites were mixed development projects in nature and provided in-depth, rigorous, and robust information. based on the results, two categories of factors influencing the spread of covid-19 were established. these are primary and secondary factors, such as workers’ mobilisation, uncontrolled movement of workers, and the limited practice of social distancing. furthermore, evidence suggests that the strategies adopted to control the effects of the pandemic were a combination of 21 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding ministry of higher education malaysia for fundamental research grant scheme with project code: frgs/1/2019/tssi11/usm/02/1. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.8064 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.8064 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.8064 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:farahsalwati@gmail.com mailto:muneera_esa@usm.my mailto:ernamustafa@usm.my mailto:muneera_esa@usm.my https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i3.8064 government enforcement and initiatives taken by construction companies. this paper concludes that an early identification of the causes of the spread will enable appropriate implementation strategies to control the outbreak. this study is an attempt to present the experiences of one developing country as an example of a means of dealing with unexpected pandemics or other intractable diseases that can affect project delivery. keywords covid-19; malaysian construction industry; construction site; influencing factors; strategies introduction approximately a year after the global struggle against the covid-19 pandemic began, its impact on the world has grown increasingly significant, not only from the perspective of health and safety but also in terms of the global key economic indicators. during this study period (april 2020–february 2021), there have been 115 million confirmed covid-19 cases and nearly 2.55 million people have died due to the outbreak, and these numbers continue to grow every day (who, 2021). due to the threat posed by the pandemic, governments throughout the world have imposed lockdowns to prevent the spread of the virus. during the lockdown period, most businesses were forced to close; international travel became very limited; and individuals faced restrictions on performing their normal working, physical, and social activities. these containment measures have resulted in severe economic disruptions. as reported by the world economic outlook (imf, 2020), the unprecedented pandemic has negatively impacted global health and the economy, particularly in the second quarter of 2020 (imf, 2020). similar to many other industries, the construction industry has also been adversely affected (vitner, dougherty and honnold, 2020; raoufi and fayek, 2021). the pandemic has impacted the industry in many aspects of its operations and also the construction work environment (raoufi and fayek, 2021). most construction activities face suspension and cancellation due to shortages of construction materials, labour, equipment, and machinery components due to the lockdowns, which have impeded the progress of construction activities, making it impossible to meet project deadlines (vitner, dougherty and honnold, 2020). additionally, governments are obligated to enact new regulations and site operating procedures or standard operating procedures (sop) as needed. the sop and new regulations must be implemented to lessen the impact and spread of covid-19 in the construction industry. in most countries, there are six main aspects emphasised in the sop for the construction industry, namely health screening for workers, providing hygienic facilities for workers (workers’ residential, toilets, rest areas, cafeterias, etc.), physical distancing by minimising the number of workers, transportation for workers, regularly sanitising the work areas, and performing covid-19 tests (miti and cidb, 2020; kpmg, 2020; clc, 2021; stiles, golightly and ryan, 2021). there are some other aspects of the sop that vary slightly based on each country’s policy and construction environment. china and india, for example, used technology intervention to combat the covid-19 pandemic (kpmg, 2020; apec, 2021). the technology intervention consists of the implementation of artificial intelligent (ai), the internet of things (iot), and other digital technologies ( javaid, et al., 2020; ebekozien and aigbavboa, 2021). building information modelling (bim), drones, gps, real-time virtual reality, and remote cameras are all examples of technological interventions that can be used to reduce physical interaction among construction workers during a pandemic. however, their application has been limited due to inadequate awareness and expertise (kpmg, 2020; apec, 2021; tang, et al., 2019; ibrahim, esa and rahman, 2021). the malaysian government has made compliance with the sop compulsory for all construction sites. however, the transmission of the virus at construction sites still occurs. the number of cases involving construction sites in malaysia has been rising, with more than 100 construction sites affected and more ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202222 than 14,000 construction workers having tested positive for covid-19 (moh, 2021b). due to the gravity of the situation, many construction sites have been directed to close for disinfection and quarantine (moworks, 2020). thus, project timelines are disrupted and impeded as a longer period of shutdown inevitably leads to more delays and an increment in the construction cost (gamil and alhagar, 2020). to reduce the negative effects, construction companies should manage the pandemic situation effectively and resume operations as usual. numerous studies have discussed covid-19 from the perspective of the construction industry, most of them focusing on the impact of covid-19 on the economy, health and safety, standards of operation, construction activities, and worker’s on-site activities during the pandemic (al amri and marey-pérez, 2020; al-deen bsisu, 2020; umar, 2022; ebekozien and aigbavboa, 2021; apec, 2021; alsharef, et al., 2021; gamil and alhagar, 2020). to the author’s best knowledge, no studies were reported during that critical period on the factors influencing the spread of covid-19 and the strategies taken by the affected construction sites to mitigate the spread of the outbreak. therefore, two research questions are raised in the present study. these are as follows: • what are the factors influencing the spread of covid-19 at construction sites and how do these factors affect project delivery? • how are the mitigation strategies performed to control the outbreak during the peak time of this viral infection? this study is significant as it examines the precautionary principle in managing infectious diseases and links it to the identified strategies. the following sections provide more extensive insights on the factors influencing the spread of covid-19 and strategies implemented by affected construction sites when operating in current circumstances. in accordance with this issue, the following sections describe the construction industry’s current scenario faced in the midst of the pandemic, followed by the methodology adopted, findings, discussions, and conclusions. literature review the implications of the pandemic for the construction industry worldwide since december 2019, industries worldwide, including the construction industry, have been facing adversities due to the breakout of the covid-19 pandemic. the economy in most countries deteriorated in the second quarter of 2020, with many countries’ gross domestic product (gdp) falling as key economic indicators failed to create profits. global economic growth declined by 4.9% in 2020, falling short of the world economic outlook’s april 2020 prediction (imf, 2020). due to reduced and postponed building spending during the pandemic crisis, the construction sector in several developed and developing countries saw a drop in gdp in the second quarter of 2020 (schober, 2021; bea, 2020; ihs markit, 2020; may, 2020). based on the 2020 global economic report, the main causes of the contraction in the global economy were directly attributed to the covid-19 pandemic, which saw most countries impose lockdowns, community quarantines, stay-at-home orders, temporary business closures, and travel restrictions or prohibitions in order to stop the spread of the virus (imf, 2020; dosm, 2021). in the next paragraph, discussions are centred on the examples of countries that fall into the top ten economies in which the pandemic has severely affected the construction industry. for example, in the united states of america (usa), gdp dropped by 5% in the first quarter of 2020 and deteriorated even further in the second quarter of 2020 to -31.4%, following the government’s issuance of a “stay at home” order in march 2020 to curb the spread of covid-19. the construction industry is one ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202223 of twenty-two key economic indicators that contribute to the gdp of the usa. fortunately, due to a large number of key economic indicators that contribute to the gdp, the impact on the construction industry was slightly lower at -0.08%, and was found to be the gdp’s second-lowest impacted indicator (bureau of economic analysis, 2021). meanwhile, in the united kingdom (uk), the contraction in annual gdp growth was recorded at 9.8%, the worst in uk history after the economic recession in 2009. the pandemic has greatly impacted the construction industry, where the gdp value for the construction sector was shown to have decreased by 64.9% in the second quarter of 2020 (mayrick, 2021). turning to asia, covid-19 has also affected world-leading economies such as china. the pandemic has slowed china’s construction development, but the market has shown signs of a slow recovery since may 2020 (congressional research service, 2021). china has forced its economy, especially the construction industry, to shift into digital technology in order to make way for economic growth despite the pandemic. china is focusing on digitalising the construction industry by incorporating advanced construction technology into its infrastructure projects. these technologies include building information modelling (bim), 3d printing, green concrete, modular construction technologies, and bcore cts technology, as part of the efforts to push the construction sector to contribute to the country’s gdp growth (rudykh, shilova and khomich, 2021). from the above discussion, it is clear that the global construction industry has been greatly impacted by the covid-19 pandemic. in the first and second quarters of 2020, the industry clearly experienced great challenges. however, the strategies to overcome the situation during the pandemic are significant to ensure that the outbreak can be contained and that the industry will be allowed to operate. there are clearly lessons to be learned from the pandemic and china’s construction industry; improvements in construction technology will help to reduce the number of people on site during the pandemic while allowing construction work to continue as usual in order to minimise losses. the scenario of the malaysian construction industry (mci) during the pandemic in malaysia, from march 2020 to date, two phases of lockdown (i.e., movement control order (mco)) have been implemented. within this mco period, the government has imposed a tight sop on all industries, inclusive of the construction industry. the department of statistics malaysia (2021) stated that the gdp of malaysia decreased by 5.6% compared to by 4.3% in 2019, with the construction industry recording a 19.4% contraction. in mco 1.0, all construction sites were directed to close for approximately six weeks, and only critical projects were allowed to continue work. the mco also disrupted project timelines, which in turn affected the availability of suppliers, materials, machinery, and skilled personnel, while also delaying project progress (esa, ibrahim and mustafa kamal, 2020). meanwhile, during mco 2.0, all types of construction work were permitted to operate upon obtaining approval from the ministry of international trade and industry (miti), subject to strict implementation of the sop on site (moworks, 2021). according to data reported on the covid-19 website by the ministry of health malaysia (moh, 2021b), only five construction sites were affected in the first half of 2020, with only 150 cases recorded. however, starting in november 2020, there was a massive jump in the number of cases at various construction sites, which formed a large number of covid-19 “construction site clusters.” subsequently, an additional ninety-eight construction site clusters were identified, where 14,677 workers (both local and foreign) were found to have been infected. table 1 shows the tabulation of the construction site clusters in malaysia from april 2020 to february 2021. ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202224 table 1. tabulation of construction site clusters in malaysia from april 2020 to february 2021. no. month no. of construction site clusters positive cases (site workers) 1 april 2020 1 28 2 may 2020 3 119 3 june 2020 1 3 4 july 2020 1 3 5 november 2020 6 3,728 6 december 2020 33 5,461 7 january 2021 26 2,536 8 february 2021 32 2,799 total 103 14, 677 source: information retrieved from the ministry of health malaysia (moh, 2021b) due to the significant increase in the number of cases related to construction sites, the government collaborated with the construction industry development board (cidb) and the malaysian national security council (nsc) to introduce a tightened sop and conduct regular site inspections at all registered construction sites within malaysia. as recorded through the cidb telegram channel, from 13th january to 22nd february 2021, 99% or 1,261 construction sites were found to have complied with the sop, while 1% or 10 construction sites were instructed to close due to non-compliance with the sop. however, cases related to construction sites are still being reported despite the imposition of a strict sop and regular inspection of construction sites conducted by the government. thus, to minimise the exacerbation of covid-19 cases at construction sites, the government and relevant agencies should holistically investigate the root causes of the spread of the pandemic at construction sites, taking into account both explicit and implicit factors. by addressing the root of the problem, the influencing factors and the risks can be managed more effectively. factors influencing the spread of covid-19 at construction sites covid-19 has been widely transmitted on construction sites due to several causes. the ministry of health (moh) identified elements such as crowded and cramped workers’ housing facilities, lack of physical distancing practices, and unsatisfactory personal and environmental hygiene practices among construction workers, especially foreign workers (moh, 2019; moworks, 2021). as of 30th june 2019, most of the construction workers at construction sites in malaysia are from countries such as indonesia, myanmar, bangladesh, nepal, india, pakistan, philippines, vietnam, china, thailand, sri lanka, cambodia, and laos, with a total number of employees estimated at 435,002; it is also noted that the level of hygiene practices among them is very low (hassan, et al., 2018; arif shah, 2020; wahab, 2020). the situation becomes worse when the workers are placed in temporary shelters made up of small cabins with minimal facilities and utilities, each of which houses more than ten workers. as a result, good hygiene and social distancing practices are difficult for workers to adopt, contributing to the faster virus transmission. these areas need to be sanitised every day, while commonly used areas are recommended to be sanitised at least three times per day. additionally, there is a need to limit the number of workers in one place at any given time (cidb, 2020). ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202225 another factor identified is the mobilisation of construction workers from one site to another upon the completion of a project (hasnan, 2020; moworks, 2021). as mentioned by the ceo of cidb, datuk ir. ahmad asri abdul hamid, in a press conference regarding the damanlela construction site cluster in klang valley, it was affirmed that asymptomatic workers had been unconsciously carrying around and spreading the virus when they were mobilised from one site to another, and this had caused more than 2,000 workers to be infected (krishnan, 2020). according to the chronology of these cases, the main transmitter would be a foreign worker showing no symptoms, but the fact that he had been infected would have been detected only after undergoing a covid-19 health screening at the construction site (krishnan, 2020). furthermore, ineffective implementation of the sop at construction sites has also contributed to the widespread transmission of the virus (moworks, 2021). this reflects a lack of awareness and understanding regarding the importance of complying with the sop, which can be attributed to the language barrier and lack of knowledge. another contributing factor is the contractors’ failure to monitor and enforce sop compliance on-site during working hours. among the sop breaches recorded include not wearing face masks, failure to maintain good hygiene, body temperature not being monitored, and not practising physical distancing (alagesh, 2020). it is also noted that direct contact with infected people has also contributed to the spread of covid-19 (bernama, 2021). evidence shows that transmission can happen either consciously or unconsciously. to explain, transmission can happen consciously when workers are directly exposed to a “person under investigation (pui).” on the other hand, the workers may get infected unconsciously during their outing days when they meet friends or acquaintances who are not in the construction industry. strategies to curb the spread of covid-19 at construction sites the government has created numerous strategies to serve as preventive measures in order to limit covid-19 transmission at construction sites. these strategies have been tabled and approved with the consensus of various parties, including the moh, the nsc, and the moworks (moworks and cidb, 2020). a total of 15 protocols are listed as the main strategies in the sop (nsc, 2021). due to the huge rise in the number of construction site clusters, the government has tightened the sop by amending several protocols to require strict control and monitoring based on factors identified by the moh and the moworks (nsc, 2021). failure to comply with the strategies and the sop can cause contractors to be held liable under section 34 (b)(c) and section 34 (c) of the malaysian construction industry development act 1994 (act 520) (zainuddin, 2020). meanwhile, under the amended workers’ minimum standards of housing and amenities act 1990 (act 446), the government has also tightened the regulations regarding workers’ housing facilities by making it compulsory for contractors to provide safe, comfortable, and clean accommodation. thus, this should enable physical distancing to be practiced. disciplinary action such as suspension or cancellation of the contractor’s registration will be imposed by the cidb upon those who fail to comply with these rules (moworks, 2020b; cidb, 2020). in addition, the moh develops and updates the covid-19 management guidelines in malaysia no.5/2020 from time to time (moh, 2021a). with these steps in place, contractors will suffer losses if their site is ordered to be shut down until it is declared safe for operation. moreover, contractors or developers will also have to bear the cost of the workers’ medical bills, including the cost of swab tests and quarantine fees (krishnan, 2020). in addition, if proven guilty of violating the sop, contractors will have to face serious consequences such as license termination and no allowance for extension of time. meanwhile, regular checking and on-site monitoring by the contractors and safety and health officers are compulsory to ensure that the workers and staff strictly adhere to the sop (sulaiman, 2021). wearing face masks, practising self-hygiene (washing hands with soap), tracking workers’ body temperatures, minimising ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202226 the number of workers on site for physical distance, and controlling the movement of workers in and out of site are all important sops that must be monitored for compliance. the contractor must also regularly supervise the sanitation process to ensure that the site is fully sanitised according to schedule. the workers’ facilities and commonly used areas also need to be regularly monitored and checked as the hygiene level of site workers is typically very low, particularly when involving foreign workers (hassan, et al., 2018). the banning of workers’ mobilisation from one site to another is another strategy imposed by the cidb to control the covid-19 outbreak (cidb, 2021). furthermore, controlling the movement of workers on-site, namely from the construction site to the centralised labour quarters (clq) and then from the clq back to the construction site, must also be carefully planned for execution. for example, if a 7-seater vehicle is used, only five workers should be travelling in it at any one time, whilst a 40-seater bus can only load up to half or two-thirds of the number of seats to promote social distancing among the workers. all the workers’ movements must be recorded for future reference. research methodology this section offers an explanation of how the study was conducted and the mechanism to ensure the validity and reliability of the study. research approach and strategies a qualitative research approach was adopted in this study. a qualitative approach is commonly used to explore and acquire an in-depth understanding as well as to develop a better interpretation of the issue at hand from the perspective of the people involved and as understood by them (saunders, lewis and thornhill, 2019). as a research strategy, a case study was adopted to achieve the objectives of this study. according to yin (2018), a case study is typically used when the boundaries between the phenomena being studied and the context in which they are studied are blurred. therefore, it is rational for this study to use this strategy in order to have a broad overview of the unpredictable phenomenon of covid-19 in the context of mci, by having an in-depth study of a real-life case. selection of case studies the case study is a suitable method to attentively observe data in a specific context in a small geographic area, with a small number of individuals as study participants (zainal, 2007). in a case study, there are usually two designs used by the researchers. however, in this study, the multiple-case design was adopted because it involves real-life situations that consist of evidence through replication. by replicating the case, pattern matching is utilised as a technique that links some information from the same case to some theoretical proposition, which can enhance and support the research outcome (campbell, 1975). besides, the use of multiple-case design is often considered more compelling, so it should be more robust in identifying the influencing factors of the spread and the strategies taken. the chosen cases are the covid-19 construction site cluster cases, which is the unit of analysis in this study. the case studies were chosen from a list of 103 construction site clusters reported by the moh. several criteria were considered when selecting the case studies. the selection was based on the criteria such as mixed development, located in kuala lumpur, a large number of workers affected, and repeat cases. to explain further, the construction site cluster should be determined by the following: it should be currently active, with new daily cases recorded as of 28th february 2021; it should be located in kuala lumpur; it should be classified as a workplace infection; it has the highest numbers and percentage of workers who have tested positive for covid-19; it has the highest numbers of current screened workers; the timeline of the outbreak must be more than two months; and the construction site should still be closed due to cases ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202227 being continuously recorded. hence, the progress and delivery of the projects are significantly affected by the closure of the construction site, and most workers are still under the surveillance of the moh. from among these 103 construction site clusters, only three sites fulfilled the criteria that had been set and were selected as the potential case studies in this study. below are the summarised respondent selection criteria. • it is located in kuala lumpur. • the construction project is limited to mixed development, which involves a large capacity of workers. • it is classified as a workplace infection. • it affects a large number of workers—more than eight hundred workers. • it involves repeat cases or clusters of outbreaks. • the timeline of the outbreak must be more than two months. according to yin (2018), in a multiple-case design that uses replicating cases, the researcher can use two or more cases that are believed to be literal replications, and the “how” and “why” objectives have been implemented smoothly. furthermore, the selection of the case study is also based on the availability and willingness of participants to participate in this study. the three selected case studies fulfil all the criteria that have been mentioned above. table 2 shows the details of the construction site clusters selected for the purposes of this study. table 2. background of selected case studies cluster a cluster b cluster c location kuala lumpur kuala lumpur kuala lumpur type of development mixed development cluster type workplace workplace workplace first outbreak start 7th november 2020 4th december 2020 18th december 2020 first outbreak end 13th march 2021 3rd april 2021 19th march 2021 second outbreak start 6th july 2021 8th june 2021 25th june 2021 second outbreak end no record positive covid-19 workers (1st outbreak) 2,785 workers 2,323 workers 817 workers positive covid-19 workers (2nd outbreak) 630 workers 33 workers 28 workers no. of screened workers (until 28th february 2021) 4,525 workers 5,761 workers 1,008 workers percentage of workers found to be positive for covid-19 61.35% 40.15% 81.1% source: information retrieved from the ministry of health malaysia (moh, 2021b) participants the participants in this study were divided into two groups. they were chosen based on their position (person in charge) and their first-hand experience dealing with the issue. the first group was made up ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202228 of representatives from the ministry of health (moh) and government agencies, namely the crisis preparedness and response centre (cprc), which is responsible for recording the daily covid-19 cases, investigating the factors influencing the covid-19 spread and tracing pui, and the construction industry development board (cidb), the party responsible for checking the compliance with the sop at construction sites. thus, these three entities are responsible for investigating the factors influencing the spread of covid-19 at the construction site clusters. the second group consists of the project managers from the three (3) affected construction site clusters. they are interviewed in order to explore the strategies taken by the affected organisations to curb the spread of covid-19 at their respective construction sites. table 3 and table 4 set out the profiles of participants taking part in the interview sessions for phase one and phase two, respectively, while ensuring that their anonymity is preserved (upon request by the said participants). five (5) participants from phase one and three (3) participants from phase two were interviewed using a semi-structured format, bringing the total number of interviews to eight (8). table 3. profile of participants taking part in phase one interviews (government entities) government entities code position roles and responsibilities ministry of health (moh) ga1 doctors (in-charge of treating the covid-19 patients) • manage and treat covid-19 patients (including from the construction site clusters) • conduct swab tests and update the results • update daily reports of covid-19 cases ga2 crisis preparedness and response centre (cprc) ga3 cprc representative • placed under the surveillance section of the disease control division, ministry of health malaysia • manage disasters, outbreaks, crises, and emergencies (doce) related to health • monitor the identified doce in active surveillances, including covid-19 clusters. • trace close contacts in existing and new covid-19 clusters construction industry development board (cidb) ga4 cidb enforcement officers • an agency under the ministry of works, responsible for managing, controlling, and monitoring the performance and activities of the construction industry • responsible for checking the on-site sop compliance and workers’ facilities • conduct site inspections • issue notices of closure for construction sites that do not comply with the sop ga5 in terms of data validation, the information obtained from the second group was verified by the cidb enforcement officers. this is to ensure that the strategies taken by the affected construction site clusters are valid. the cidb enforcement officers were selected as the expert validators because once the affected construction site has recovered and is allowed to operate again, cidb will closely monitor compliance with ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202229 the sop and any additional strategies taken by the construction site will be recorded. thus, the validation from these agencies can be trusted as the process is exhaustive. data collection and analysis as the case study protocol is a wide data collection plan, a multi-method data collection technique was used in this study, which included document analysis and semi-structured interviews. these strategies are important to synchronise beneficial information for this study. there are two categories of relevant documents examined. the first category comprises the government’s announcements regarding regulations, sop, initiatives, and lockdowns. the second category of documents involves analysis of the statistics on daily covid-19 cases, consisting of the number of workers affected, newly listed construction site clusters, the current status of the existing construction site clusters (still active or recovered), the number of sites allowed to operate, and the number of sites ordered to be closed (including the reasons). next, the semi-structured interviews were conducted to retrieve actual information from the three selected case studies. the interviews sought to identify the key factors influencing the spread at each site and the strategies taken by each of the affected construction site clusters. the effectiveness of the different strategies taken by the construction site clusters to reduce the number of affected workers at each site was compared. due to the covid-19 situation, the researcher was not allowed to travel; therefore, the interviews had to be conducted over the telephone, as requested by the participants. all the information from the interviews was transcribed and analysed using nvivo 12 plus software. the “thematic analysis” was used to discover the frequency of a theme in the interview transcript as well as to assess its flexibility and ability to be applied in a wide variety of theoretical frameworks and research interests that would be useful for this research (clarke and braun, 2013; alhojailan, 2012; salman, et al., 2021). additionally, this study has placed emphasis on the abductive approach, which allows the researcher to inductively explore the factors influencing the spread of covid-19 and strategies taken according to the emerging themes and compare the trend of the constructs found deductively during the literature review. results and findings in this section, the relevant themes that are considered important to this research outcome have been identified and analysed. table 5 shows the themes that have been generated from the interviews. factors influencing the spread of covid-19 based on table 6, the factors influencing the spread can be divided into two categories: primary and secondary. the factors influencing the spread in the primary category are caused by the main transmission of covid-19, as recorded by the moh. meanwhile, in the secondary category, the factors influencing the spread are identified from the input given by the cidb and the project managers. table 4. profile of participants taking part in phase two interviews (affected construction site clusters) case study code type of organisation position years of experience cluster a ca main contractor project manager 12 cluster b cb main contractor project manager 10 cluster c cc main contractor project manager 15 ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202230 table 5. themes generated from the interviews themes categories government affected construction site clusters ga1 ga2 ga3 ga4 ga5 ca cb cc factors influencing the spread of covid-19 workers’ mobilisation / / / / / uncontrolled movements of workers / / / / non-compliance with the sops / / / / / / unhygienic housing facilities/ dormitories / / / / / / / / crowded and cramped housing areas / / / / / / / / workers’ lack of awareness and inadequate knowledge of covid-19 / / / / / / / / language barriers (for sop compliance) / / / / the attitudes of the workers / / / / / / / unavailability of covid-19 health coordinators / / / unscheduled disinfection in common areas / / / / / limited isolation centres / / / / / / / / strategies taken by the affected construction site clusters (to ensure they can resume the work at the site again) sop compliance / / / / / / / / initiative budget (for covid-19 tests) / / / / / / / / providing adequate and proper centralised labour quarters (clq) / / / / / special isolation centres / / / / / work arrangements / / / / / human resource/workers management / / / / / appointing a language translator among the workers (for foreign workers) / / / appointing a covid-19 health supervisor / / / ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202231 primary category the factors influencing the spread in the primary category of virus transmission at construction sites (as explained by the ga1, ga2, ga3, ga4, and ga5) are listed in the moh and the cidb records. these factors are workers’ mobilisation, uncontrolled movement of workers, and non-compliance with the sop. the problem with workers’ mobility occurs when foreign workers who work under subcontractors are transferred from one site to another, skipping covid-19 screening tests and quarantine procedures. this lack of monitoring has resulted in a higher number of asymptomatic carrier cases being recorded at the construction sites. consequently, the late detection and assessment of the covid-19 infection caused the spread of the virus to a larger group of people, especially at the workers’ dormitories. subsequently, the participants also stated that the uncontrolled movement of workers in and out of the construction site and the failure to record the workers’ movements became among the factors influencing the spread on site. an episode recorded in cluster c illustrated how a worker who had been affected by the virus during an outing unintentionally transmitted the virus to his dorm mates as well as other close contacts at the construction site, which resulted in a significantly high number of positive cases being recorded, affecting 817 workers. as such, this finding is proof that stricter movement control is necessary to curb the spread of covid-19. it can be said that the root cause of the spread can chiefly be attributed to a lack of compliance with the sop imposed for the construction sites. the affected construction site clusters failed to adequately keep track of workers’ movements, either manually or through the mysejahtera application. furthermore, it is noted that the workers’ daily body temperature readings were also not appropriately recorded. “as what we found in these construction sites, they do not properly comply with the sop, especially the worker’s movement, where most of them do not record their movement even manually, in addition to poor housing facilities, unhygienic construction areas, and so on. if we use a scale, these three construction sites only get 3 to 4 points out of ten points in terms of compliance with the sop. so, it is not surprising to see the large number of workers affected by covid-19 here” [ga3, ga4, ga5] secondary category in the secondary category, five factors which contributed to the higher number of construction site clusters have been identified. among them are poor living conditions, with overcrowded and stuffed workers, and limited practice of social distancing. the situation is also made worse by poor hygiene practices, as mentioned earlier. “the housing conditions are really bad. sometimes we feel sad looking at their houses, with bad smells, a lot of rubbish, cramped, and with limited water supply.” [ga3, ga4, ga5] in addition, a lack of knowledge and awareness among the construction workers about covid-19 has contributed to the low implementation of sop. according to the project managers, it was a difficult process to educate the foreign workers on the sop and covid-19 as they were unfamiliar with the procedures, leading to undisciplined attitudes. the language barrier also posed a serious problem. furthermore, the participants also highlighted the need for a covid-19 health coordinator to be available on site to impart knowledge and create awareness regarding the sop. “we have problems with the foreign workers regarding compliance with the sop because they do not understand the situation and they are also stubborn, which means that sometimes we need to force them to wear the face mask, to keep the area clean, to practice physical distancing and many more.” [ga4, ga5, ca1, ca2] ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202232 “….. some of the workers do not understand what we are talking about during the toolbox meeting when we try to explain about the sop and the dangers of covid-19, this is due to the different language…we do have a safety and health officer (sho) on site but not specifically as a covid-19 sho.” [ga4, ga5, ca2] other than that, the unscheduled disinfection at the construction sites, commonly used areas, and workers’ facilities has also contributed to the spread of covid-19 at the construction sites. meanwhile, isolation centres are limited and sometimes even unavailable at the construction sites. “we admit that in the early days of the pandemic situation, we did not regularly sanitise our site. that is due to our carelessness.” [ca1, ca2, ca3] “the isolation centres are only available when we transfer the workers to clq. before this, we did not provide any isolation centres and it was a new requirement imposed by the government.” [ca1, ca2, ca3] based on the findings, greater involvement of all parties, especially the top management, can contribute to minimising the effects of covid-19 through strict adherence to the sop. table 6 shows the summary of the findings. table 6. the primary and secondary categories case studies primary category secondary category cluster a the initial case was reported following the workers’ screening at the workplace, where the infected worker worked under a subcontractor and was transferred from one site to another after a project had been completed. initial case: *15 workers infected * all were foreign workers • social contact with infected workers. • crowded and cramped conditions in workers’ housing facilities resulted in the inability to practise physical distancing. • lack of understanding of covid-19 and sop. • lack of hygiene (both in housing and site areas). • uncontrolled workers’ movements (inside and outside). • the workers did not undergo covid-19 screening before entering the construction site – some are illegal workers. • self-isolation was not implemented for new workers. • sanitation was not regularly implemented. cluster b transmission of workers from one site to another site after the project is completed. initial case: *11 workers infected * all were foreign workers • social contact with infected workers. • crowded and cramped conditions in workers’ housing facilities resulted in the inability to practise physical distancing. • the workers did not undergo covid-19 screening before entering the construction site. • self-isolation was not implemented for new workers before working on-site. • lack of awareness and knowledge about the sop. • difficulty in getting workers accustomed to the sop, especially in wearing face masks, sanitising hands regularly, and practising physical distancing. ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202233 case studies primary category secondary category cluster c a worker was infected during an outing to buy groceries, and in turn he infected close contacts in the dormitories. initial case: * 20 workers infected * all were foreign workers • social contact with infected workers. • crowded and cramped conditions in workers’ housing facilities resulted in the inability to practise physical distancing. • lack of awareness and knowledge about the sop. • lack of understanding of covid-19 (foreign workers). • lack of hygiene (both in housing and site areas). • undisciplined attitude (i.e., not wearing face mask during working hours). strategies to curb the spreading of covid-19 the strategies taken by the affected construction site clusters to minimise the spread of covid-19 were categorised into two groups. the first group consists of strategies based on government enforcement, and the second group sets out the initiatives taken by the affected construction companies. government enforcement from the perspective of government enforcement, all the participants (namely ga1, ga2, ga3, ga4, and ga5) have explained that the implementation of all the protocols in the sop and regulations is compulsory. most of the construction projects implement the sop and regulations imposed on them by the government to ensure that their projects can run smoothly without any suspension due to breach of the sop. the government has initiated a special task force to monitor the level of sop compliance at construction sites. by conducting site inspections, the government identified several factors that cause the spread of covid-19 in such places, as discussed in the previous section. in response, the government has to tighten the sop and regulations based on the factors that have been identified. “for the cidb, it is our responsibility to conduct site inspections for all registered construction sites. currently, we have conducted 15,985 inspections involving 9,049 construction sites, with 99% appearing to comply well with the sop and only 1% found to be non-compliant with the sop, and these sites were consequently ordered to be closed.” [ga4, ga5] “cprc works closely with moh to identify active cases, new cases, and clusters, as well as to identify the close contacts and puis for the recorded cases.” [ga3] “besides treating the covid-19 patients, the moh is also responsible for updating the patients’ data to the cprc and top management for the daily cases, updating information on the new variant if detected, doing the swab tests and site inspection if a big cluster is detected, like in construction sites and prisons.” [ga1 and ga2] at the same time, the government has also granted several initiative funds to facilitate and lessen the burden among the construction companies and employees under the protection of the economy and the people of malaysia (perlindungan ekonomi and rakyat malaysia, permai) assistance package. this is intended to combat the covid-19 outbreak, safeguard the welfare of the people, and support business continuity. apart from providing free screening tests to local workers, the government also initiated the covid-19 table 6. continued ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202234 screening programme for all registered foreign workers under the social security organisation (socso), whereby the cost of the test kits will be fully borne by the socso. similarly, the cidb also subsidised rm7 million for the covid-19 screening test for registered foreign workers under the cidb construction personnel. this test is important to identify covid-19 clusters in the workplace, especially in high-risk zones. for local workers, the screening test is free and can be done at government hospitals if requested by the contractors or the developers. initiatives taken by affected construction site clusters the second group of strategies consists of the initiatives taken by the affected construction site clusters to overcome the spread of covid-19 at their construction sites after they were severely hit by the pandemic. the initiatives had been created and implemented during the closure to convince the authorities to allow them to continue construction work on site. from the case studies, three self-initiatives have been identified as important strategies that can be applied to improve the level of security and protection of their construction sites against covid-19. the three strategies are to raise awareness and understanding regarding covid-19 and the sop among the construction site workers; to build a proper clq or a proper housing facility with adequate utilities and comfort for construction site workers, complete with an isolation centre; and to rearrange the work schedule and workers on-site (work planning and human resource management). table 7 shows the strategies taken by the affected construction site clusters in these three case studies. although the construction sites are closed to date, in accordance with the cidb’s orders, the workers are directed to clean the site, complete critical parts of the current project, and make small repairs to their housing facilities within the construction site compound. to increase awareness and understanding of the sop during the pandemic, a covid-19 health supervisor was appointed at the construction sites, assisted by two or three language translators among the workers, who are normally chosen based on the language mainly spoken by the workers. the language translator was chosen based on their understanding of english or the malay language to ensure that they could accurately convey and explain the information to their team. this initiative was taken to guarantee that the workers are able to comprehend the pertinent issues. “we used one of our workers as the translator to translate the sop and other important information to their team using their native language because they could understand it better. yes, we still appointed an sho for our site to monitor the covid-19 situation, but it is very helpful to also utilise the language translator.” [ca1, ca3]. additionally, the sites also utilised speakers to amplify any reminder announcements to the workers as part of the efforts to ensure that they comply with the sop. the announcements reminded them to wear their face masks, wash their hands, avoid gathering, and maintain physical distance. “it’s difficult to monitor all the workers on site, so what we do is, we will play a recording of sop using a speaker that we place in selected areas every 2 to 3 hours to make sure they are always alert and remember their responsibilities to prioritise their safety and health.” [ca1, ca2, ca3]. as for housing facilities, the contractors and developers have taken the initiative to move some of their workers to more appropriate housing facilities either on site or outside the construction area. a construction company with enough budget would move its workers into a paid facility like the clq. however, contractors with a tight budget would attempt to manage the existing workers’ housing facilities by reducing the number of workers working on-site in the same shift. the contractors rearranged and rescheduled the workload according to the availability of the skilled and unskilled workers. this can reduce the number of workers working in the same shift, promoting physical distancing. ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202235 “we manage our housing facilities by minimising the number of workers staying at the facility and designating an area to provide an isolation room. the number of workers at the site is limited according to the work schedule because we don’t have the budget to rent another place.” [ca2, ca3]. “…. most of our workers are staying outside the construction area with a proper clq, and we hired a contractor to manage the clq and isolation room for our workers…. we also provide transportation for our workers to travel from site to clq and so on with a tight sop in place…. yes, we minimise the number of workers as required by the sop in order to promote physical distancing.” [ca1] in this section, it is evident that the government’s tight enforcement and monitoring are extremely significant in ensuring that the sop and regulations are adhered to by the construction players. contractors and developers should, however, take additional steps to prevent virus transmission on construction sites and, as a result, reduce the number of construction site clusters. table 7 shows a summary of the findings. table 7. the strategies implemented by the affected construction sites case studies strategies implemented by the affected construction sites cluster a • site sanitations are scheduled (daily, weekly, and monthly). • workers’ dormitories are upgraded to clq and daily sanitisation is performed. • workers’ shifts are rearranged without overlapping the previous team’s shift. • all the workers, including the ones under subcontractors, must be tested for covid-19 before being allowed to work on-site. • the regular rapid test is carried out for all staff and workers, including those of subcontractors. • workers are always reminded about the risks and the preventive measures that should be practiced. • workers who show symptoms are isolated. cluster b • all workers must take the covid-19 test and must be certified negative; the test is to be repeated every 2 weeks. • transportation is provided for workers to travel from the site to their housing facilities. • all workers are relocated to a proper clq. • an on-site covid-19 health supervisor is hired. • a self-isolation centre is provided for new workers before allowing them to work on-site, as well as for infected workers and their close contacts. • the working areas are regularly sanitised. • the number of workers in one working area is minimised. • hygiene around the construction site and clq is improved. • awareness and knowledge about covid-19 and its preventive measures are promoted to the workers every day. ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202236 case studies strategies implemented by the affected construction sites cluster c • all on-site workers are monitored by health supervisors and the moh. • sanitation is done regularly. • the covid-19 test is made compulsory for all workers, especially foreign workers. • the number of on-site workers is minimised. • an isolation room is provided for infected workers and their close contacts. • awareness and understanding regarding the sop and prevention of covid-19 infection are promoted to the workers. discussion covid-19 is potentially the worst global pandemic in world history. it has not only caused grave harm from the perspective of health and safety, but it has also crippled many sectors in the global economy, including the construction sector. most of the construction companies are facing losses due to the temporary closure of construction sites following the lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, where only a limited number of workers are allowed on-site to prevent the spread of the virus (imf, 2020; imf, 2020; dosm, 2021). such circumstances have contributed to the suspension and delay of projects while also affecting project operation costs. in malaysia, after the first lockdown ended and the economic sectors began to open up again, the second and third waves of covid-19 occurred. during the first wave, the number of cases related to construction sites was quite low, but the numbers increased tremendously during the second and third waves of the pandemic. as humans become the main agents of the spread of covid-19 (araya, 2021), it is important to explore the factors influencing the spread that increase the transmission and analyse how the impact on the affected construction companies can be reduced. information from the right parties involved in the situation is important to ensure the authenticity of the information and to give a bigger picture regarding the real situation at the construction sites. the use of two entities in this study, from different backgrounds and which play different roles in managing the pandemic situation, is seen to be relevant. from the perspective of the government entities, they are responsible for ensuring that every rule and instruction set out in the sop are properly adhered to at the construction sites in order to curb the spread of covid-19. meanwhile, the affected construction sites are being used as case studies to see how they deal with the scenario that arose due to non-compliance with the sop and inadequate management of the covid-19 risk at the construction site. based on the study conducted, most of the factors influencing the spread have to do with poor construction-site planning and management, lack of awareness and knowledge, and poor human resource management by the construction companies. construction site planning management does not only involve planning the project life cycle itself but also the planning of the entire construction site, including site management, site planning, site cleanliness (i.e., waste management), risk management, logistics management, compliance with regulations, health and safety, and others ( jimoh, 2012). proper management and planning are crucial, especially in a pandemic situation, to ensure that the construction site remains a safe environment and that construction activities can be performed with a minimum risk of spreading covid-19 (araya, 2021). effective site management planning is important to ensure continuity of the project life cycle (mohd zain, et al., 2018) and promote sustainable construction (ochieng, et al., 2014). poor site planning and management have contributed to the high number of covid-19 infections on construction sites due to the lack of a proper schedule for disinfection, no physical distancing, and the absence of proper hygienic on-site accommodation for the workers. table 7. continued ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202237 furthermore, from the perspective of awareness and knowledge, communication is the most important element, because without a clear understanding of covid-19, how it can be transmitted, and how it can be avoided, construction companies will not be able to effectively curb the spread of covid-19 at construction sites. therefore, the role of a health officer or health supervisor is an important one and having a trusted translator from among the workers will ensure that the correct information about covid-19 reaches all the workers and they are able to properly understand the information as well as the sop that must be strictly followed. a two-way communication with the management at the site is also important to ensure sop compliance, and the top management must be made aware if the site is not effectively managed or if elements in the sop are left unaddressed. the attitude of the workers can also be managed once they understand the impact and consequences they will face should the sop be ignored. the third perspective related to the main outcome of this study is human resource management. human resource management concerns the management of workers, and this includes the arrangement of workers in performing construction activities based on their skills, working hours/shift, accommodation, welfare, and mental healthcare. improper housing facilities, which are crowded and cramped, and workers’ unhygienic living conditions portray the construction company’s irresponsibility as an employer which fails to protect the welfare of its employees, especially foreign workers. the construction company should provide a proper clq with comfortable housing, adequate utilities, and facilities. the government has subsidised some of the initiatives for the foreign workers, such as bearing the cost of the covid-19 swab tests and treatment, to help the construction companies reduce their financial burden during challenging times. construction companies are more likely to take covid-19 risk management and sop compliance seriously if they have to deal with strict enforcement and hefty fines. it can be concluded that sop compliance is the key to curbing the spread of covid-19 on construction sites. according to esa, ibrahim, and mustafa kamal (2020), the sop has already included all the important elements that need to be prioritised during the construction activities, such as guidelines for workers’ movement, workers’ accommodation, workers’ travel, and so on. all these elements are covered in order to minimise the factors influencing the spread. somehow, lack of discipline and carelessness on the part of both employers and employees have led to construction sites forming the biggest cluster of covid-19 infections, hence contributing to the high number of cases in malaysia. as time goes on, strict adherence to the sop and a number of actions taken by the construction companies can help other construction sites create a risk management plan that can be used to reduce the risk of covid-19 infection at construction sites. conclusion first, it is important to identify all the potential factors, both internal and external, that resulted in the spread of covid-19 at construction sites. in essence, early identification of the factors influencing the spread enables the right strategies to be implemented by the government entities and the construction company itself to manage the cases effectively and prevent any further infection. apart from government enforcement, contractors and developers should conduct their own initiatives to curb the spread of the virus. therefore, this is the right time for the mci to improve and create a better construction environment through the following recommendations: (1) providing adequate housing and improved health care for workers; (2) investing in ongoing education and training on effective construction site management; and (3) implementing new technologies on construction sites in tandem with construction 4.0. one limitation of this study pertains to the data collected between april 2020 and february 2021, which was the peak of the pandemic. the central aim of this study is to document the factors influencing the spread of covid-19 and strategies adopted by a developing country as an example of a means of dealing with unexpected ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202238 pandemics or other intractable diseases (in the future) that affect project delivery during the peak of a pandemic. this study does not cover the post-pandemic period. further work can be done to continue additional investigation in this research area, such as exploring the implications of introducing new construction technologies as a new norm to minimise open social interaction within the construction industry. additionally, cross-sectional studies can also be conducted in other countries to analyse other applicable strategies to overcome the exacerbation of covid-19 cases in the construction industry of the respective countries. moreover, a longitudinal study of changes in combating viral pandemics may enrich theory and guide prevention and intervention strategies for the construction industry. it is hoped that this will encourage the construction industry to devise a workable strategic framework that can effectively manage the work at construction sites, even when covid-19 has become endemic. acknowledgments acknowledgment to “ministry of higher education malaysia for fundamental research grant scheme with project code: frgs/1/2019/tssi11/usm/02/1”. references al-deen bsisu, k., 2020. the impact of covid-19 pandemic on jordanian civil engineers and construction industry. international journal of engineering research and technology, [online] 13(5), pp.828–30. available at: https:// www.ripublication.com/irph/ijert20/ijertv13n5_01.pdf. https://doi.org/10.37624/ijert/13.5.2020.828-830 alagesh, t., 2020. cidb get tough to avert covid-19 outbreak at pahang construction sites. new straits time. [online] 1 dec. available at: . alsharef, a., banerjee, s., uddin, s.m.j., albert, a. and jaselskis, e., 2021. early impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on the united states construction industry. international journal of environmental research and public health, [e-journal] 18(4), pp.1–21. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041559 alhojailan, m.i., 2012. thematic analysis : a critical review of its process and evaluation. west east journal of social sciences, 1(1), pp.39–47. al amri, t. and marey-pérez, m., 2020. impact of covid-19 on oman’s construction industry. technium social sciences journal, [e-journal] 9( june), pp.661–70. https://doi.org/10.47577/tssj.v9i1.1021 apec, 2021. china ‘ s practice of enhancing work safety and promoting work resumption , and case study of construction enterprises under covid-19. [online] available at: . araya, f., 2021. modeling the spread of covid-19 on construction workers: an agent-based approach. safety science, [e-journal] 133(september 2020), p.105022. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2020.105022 arif shah, n.a., 2020. situasi pekerja bukan warganegara di malaysia. putrajaya. bernama, 2021. covid-19: tempat kerja ‘lubuk’ penularan koronavirus maut di malaysia. astro awani. [online] available at: . bureau of economic analysis, 2020. gross domestic product (third estimate), corporate profits (revised), and gdp by industry, second quarter 2020. [online] u.s bureau of economic analysis. available at: [accessed 6 march 2021]. bureau of economic analysis, 2021. gross domestic product (thirdestimate), corporate profits, and gdp by industry, fourth quarter and year 2020. u.s bureau of economic analysis. campbell, d.t., 1975. iii. “degrees of freedom” and the case study. comparative political studies, [e-journal] 8(2), pp.178–93. https://doi.org/10.1177/001041407500800204 cidb, 2020. heights construction from a new angle. cidb malaysia, pp.1–60. cidb, 2021. laporan sektor pembinaan sepanjang pkp 2.0. [online] available at: . clarke, v. and braun, v., 2013. teaching thematic analysis: overcoming challenges and developing strategies for effective learning. the psychologist, 26(2), pp.120–23. congressional research service, 2021. china’s economy : current trends and issues. [online] available at: . construction leadership council, 2021. construction sector site operating procedures protecting your workforce during coronavirus (covid-19). available at: . dosm, 2021. press release malaysia economic performance fourth quarter 2020. department of statistics malaysia, available at: . ebekozien, a. and aigbavboa, c., 2021. covid-19 recovery for the nigerian construction sites: the role of the fourth industrial revolution technologies. sustainable cities and society, [e-journal] 69(december 2020), p.102803. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.102803 esa, m., ibrahim, f.s. and mustafa kamal, e., 2020. covid-19 pandemic lockdown: the consequences towards project success in malaysian construction industry. advances in science, technology and engineering systems, [e-journal] 5(5), pp.973–983. https://doi.org/10.25046/aj0505119 gamil, y. and alhagar, a., 2020. the impact of pandemic crisis on the survival of construction industry: a case of covid-19. mediterranean journal of social sciences, [e-journal] 11(4), pp.122–28. https://doi.org/10.36941/mjss-20200047 hasnan, h.a., 2020. covid-19: pergerakan pekerja antara tapak bina jadi punca peningkatan kes. astro awani. [online] 24 november available at: . hassan, s.h., mat daud, n., fauzi, m.a. and abd halim, m.z., 2018. development of cleanliness framework for malaysian construction industry. esteem academic journal, 14, pp.51–62. ibrahim, f.s., esa, m. and rahman, r.a., 2021. the adoption of iot in the malaysian construction industry: towards construction 4.0. international journal of sustainable construction engineering and technology, [e-journal] 12(1), pp.56– 67. https://doi.org/10.30880/ijscet.2021.12.01.006 ihs markit, 2020. survey-record decline in construction work amid site closures due to covid-19 pandemic. london, united kingdom. imf, 2020. world economic outlook update june 2020. [online] world economic outlook, available at: . ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202240 https://www.bea.gov/news/blog/2020-09-30/gross-domestic-product-third-estimate-corporate-profits-revised-and-gdp https://doi.org/10.1177/001041407500800204 https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4074125125955528&id=116228488411898 https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=4074125125955528&id=116228488411898 https://crsreport.congress.gov https://crsreport.congress.gov https://www.constructionleadershipcouncil.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/site-operating-procedures-version-7.pdf https://www.constructionleadershipcouncil.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/site-operating-procedures-version-7.pdf https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/pdfprev&id=su85rzf6tjnqdwjqutd1rg9xegf5dz09 https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/pdfprev&id=su85rzf6tjnqdwjqutd1rg9xegf5dz09 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.102803 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.102803 https://doi.org/10.25046/aj0505119 https://doi.org/10.36941/mjss-2020-0047 https://doi.org/10.36941/mjss-2020-0047 https://www.astroawani.com/berita-malaysia/covid19-pergerakan-pekerja-antara-tapak-bina-jadi-punca-peningkatan-kes-269969 https://www.astroawani.com/berita-malaysia/covid19-pergerakan-pekerja-antara-tapak-bina-jadi-punca-peningkatan-kes-269969 https://doi.org/10.30880/ijscet.2021.12.01.006 https://www.imf.org/en/publications/%0aweo/issues/2020/06/24/weoupdatejune2020 https://www.imf.org/en/publications/%0aweo/issues/2020/06/24/weoupdatejune2020 javaid, m., haleem, a., vaishya, r., bahl, s. and suman, r., 2020. industry 4.0 technologies and their applications in fighting covid-19 pandemic. diabetes & metabolic syndrome: clinical research & reviews, 14, pp.419–22. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.032 jimoh, r., 2012. improving site management practices in the nigerian construction industry: the builders’ perspective. ethiopian journal of environmental studies and management, [e-journal] 5(4). https://doi.org/10.4314/ ejesm.v5i4.5 kpmg, 2020. covid-19: construction workplace safety. kpmg, [online] (may). available at: . krishnan, d.b., 2020. cidb: construction site clusters due to workers moving between sites. new straits time. [online] 16 november. available at: . may, r., 2020. gdp quarterly national accounts, uk: april to june 2020. [online] office for national statistics, available at: . mayrick, r., 2021. gdp quarterly national accounts, uk: october to december 2020. [online] office for national statistics. available at: [accessed 24 june 2021]. miti and cidb, 2020. standard operating procedure for construction industry to operate during movement control period (mco). available at: . mills, a. j., durepos, g. and wiebe, e., 2010. encyclopedia of case study research (vols. 1-0). thousand oaks, ca: sage publications and [online] https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412957397 moh, 2019. press statement ministry of health malaysia updates on the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid19) situation in malaysia. ministry of health malaysia, available at: . moh, 2021a. covid-19 management guidelines in malaysia no.5/2020. [online] ministry of health malaysia. available at: [accessed 14 march 2021]. moh, 2021b. distribution of covid-19 cases in malaysia according to date of confirmation. [online] ministry of health malaysia. available at: [accessed 31 january 2021]. mohd zain, a.f., hasmori, m.f., nagapan, s., abdullah, a.h. and yunus, r., 2018. a review of construction management practices in minimizing on-site construction waste. journal of advanced research in dynamical and control systems, 10(6), pp.9–14. moworks, 2020. press statement: response on new covid-19 cluster at construction site in kl. kuala lumpur, malaysia. moworks, 2021. critical construction work can continue throughout mco. available at: . moworks and cidb, 2020. garis panduan amalan langkah pencegahan covid-19 di tapak bina (dokumen 2). [online] available at: . nsc, 2021. standard of procedure for construction sector. [online] available at: [accessed 3 june 2021]. ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202241 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.032 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dsx.2020.04.032 https://doi.org/10.4314/ejesm.v5i4.5 https://doi.org/10.4314/ejesm.v5i4.5 https://home.kpmg/in/covid-19 https://home.kpmg/in/covid-19 https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2020/11/641624/cidb-construction-site-clusters-due-workers-moving-between-sites https://www.nst.com.my/news/nation/2020/11/641624/cidb-construction-site-clusters-due-workers-moving-between-sites https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/bulletins/quarterlynationalaccounts/apriltojune2020 https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/bulletins/quarterlynationalaccounts/octobertodecember2020 https://www.ons.gov.uk/economy/grossdomesticproductgdp/bulletins/quarterlynationalaccounts/octobertodecember2020 https://www.zulrafique.com.my/article-sample.php?id=1086 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412957397 https://covid-19.moh.gov.my/terkini/052020/situasi-terkini-26-mei-2020/kenyataan akhbar kpk covid-19 (26 mei 2020) en.pdf https://covid-19.moh.gov.my/terkini/052020/situasi-terkini-26-mei-2020/kenyataan akhbar kpk covid-19 (26 mei 2020) en.pdf http://covid-19.moh.gov.my/garis-panduan/garis-panduan-kkm http://covid-19.moh.gov.my/ https://www.cidb.gov.my/sites/default/files/2021-01/en_kenyataan akhbar_pkp sektor pembinaan_12012020_7.pdf https://www.cidb.gov.my/sites/default/files/2021-01/en_kenyataan akhbar_pkp sektor pembinaan_12012020_7.pdf https://notification.miti.gov.my/docs/2. garis panduan amalan langkah pencegahan di tapak bina (dokumen 2).pdf https:/t.me/mknrasmi ochieng, e., wynn, t., zuofa, t., ruan, x., price, a. and okafor, c., 2014. integration of sustainability principles into construction project delivery. architectural engineering technology, [e-journal] 3(1), pp.1–5. https://doi. org/10.4172/2168-9717.1000116 raoufi, m. and fayek, a.r., 2021. identifying actions to control and mitigate the effects of the covid-19 pandemic on construction organizations: preliminary findings. public works management and policy, [e-journal] 26(1), pp.47–55. https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724x20969164 rudykh, l.g., shilova, o.s. and khomich, n.v, 2021. problems and prospects of the chinese construction industry. iop conference series: earth and environmental science, [e-journal] 751(1), p.012172. https://doi.org/10.1088/17551315/751/1/012172 salman, a., jaafar, m., mohamad, d. and malik, s., 2021. ecotourism development in penang hill: a multi-stakeholder perspective towards achieving environmental sustainability. environmental science and pollution research. [e-journal] https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13609-y saunders, m.n.k., lewis, p. and thornhill, a., 2019. research methods for business students. 8th ed. harlow, united kingdom: pearson education limited. schober, k-s., 2021. what the new normal could look like in construction. [online] roland berger. available at: [accessed 4 march 2021]. stiles, s., golightly, d. and ryan, b., 2021. impact of covid-19 on health and safety in the construction sector. human factors and ergonomics in manufacturing & services, [e-journal] (august 2020), pp.1–13. https://doi. org/10.1002/hfm.20882 sulaiman, n.a., 2021. gagal patuh sop, 15 tapak pembinaan ditutup. berita harian online. [online] available at: . tang, s., shelden, d.r., eastman, c.m., pishdad-bozorgi, p. and gao, x., 2019. a review of building information modeling ( bim ) and the internet of things ( iot ) devices integration : present status and future trends. automation in construction, [e-journal] 101, pp.127–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.01.020 umar, t., 2022. the impact of covid-19 on the gcc construction industry. international journal of service science, management, engineering, and technology, [e-journal] 13(2), pp.1–17. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijssmet.20220301.oa1 vitner, m., dougherty, c. and honnold, m., 2020. covid-19 to hammer construction industry. available at: . wahab, a., 2020. the outbreak of covid-19 in malaysia: pushing migrant workers at the margin. social sciences & humanities open, [e-journal] 2(1), p.100073. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2020.100073 who, 2021. who coronavirus disease (covid-19) dashboard. [online] available at: [accessed 23 february 2021]. yin, r.k., 2018. case study research and applications: design and methods. 6th ed. sage publication [online] https://doi. org/10.1177/109634809702100108 zainal, z., 2007. the case study as a research method. jurnal kemanusiaan, [e-journal] (9), pp.1–6. https://doi. org/10.4135/9781473915480.n2 zainuddin, m.z., 2020. syarikat binaan perlu patuh sop atau dikenakan tindakan cidb. berita harian online. [online] 21 december. available at: . ibrahim, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 3 september 202242 https://doi.org/10.4172/2168-9717.1000116 https://doi.org/10.4172/2168-9717.1000116 https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724x20969164 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/751/1/012172 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/751/1/012172 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13609-y https://www.rolandberger.com/en/insights/publications/what-the-new-normal-could-look-like-in-construction.html https://www.rolandberger.com/en/insights/publications/what-the-new-normal-could-look-like-in-construction.html https://doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20882 https://doi.org/10.1002/hfm.20882 https://www.bharian.com.my/berita/nasional/2021/02/786323/gagal-patuh-sop-15-tapak-pembinaan-ditutup https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.01.020 https://doi.org/10.4018/ijssmet.20220301.oa1 https://externalcontent.blob.core.windows.net/pdfs/construction-spending-20200401.pdf https://externalcontent.blob.core.windows.net/pdfs/construction-spending-20200401.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2020.100073 https://covid19.who.int/table https://doi.org/10.1177/109634809702100108 https://doi.org/10.1177/109634809702100108 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473915480.n2 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781473915480.n2 https://www.bharian.com.my/bisnes/lain-lain/2020/12/767415/syarikat-binaan-perlu-patuh-sop-atau-dikenakan-tindakan-cidb https://www.bharian.com.my/bisnes/lain-lain/2020/12/767415/syarikat-binaan-perlu-patuh-sop-atau-dikenakan-tindakan-cidb construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: rajala, p., yläkujala, a., sinkkonen, t., kärri, t. 2025. operational effectiveness in building renovation business: best practices for profitable execution. construction economics and building, 25:1, 97–121. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v25i1.8912 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article operational effectiveness in building renovation business: best practices for profitable execution pekka rajala1,*, antti ylä-kujala2, tiina sinkkonen3, timo kärri4 1 lut university, lappeenranta, finland, pekka.rajala@student.lut.fi 2 lut university, lappeenranta, finland, antti.yla-kujala@lut.fi 3 lut university, lappeenranta, finland, tiina.sinkkonen@lut.fi 4 lut university, lappeenranta, finland, timo.karri@lut.fi corresponding author: pekka rajala, lut university, lappeenranta, finland, pekka.rajala@student.lut.fi doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8912 article history: received 14/01/2023; revised 04/07/2024; accepted 17/09/2024; published 31/03/2025 abstract many building renovation (br) companies struggle with profitability, which is an unresearched area in the br business at the company level. this is worrying since br companies are becoming increasingly important due to the growth of br needs, like energy efficiency improvements to existing buildings. this study examines the br business and profitability from an operational perspective, focusing on daily activities involved to complete renovations. the study reviews the operational effectiveness of br companies, aiming to enhance understanding of how it influences profitability and to identify best practices contributing to profitability. methodologically, the multiple case study design was used with two cases, high profitability (hp) and low profitability (lp), each consisting of smalland medium-sized (sme) br companies. to review the operational effectiveness, semi-structured interviews were used with two frameworks: operational excellence through the 4p model and a model developed in this research, critical operational key elements (coke) in the br business. the findings show that operational effectiveness was seen similarly in both cases, but there were differences in execution. the hp case unconsciously possesses certain mainstreams of lean principles, also visible in the four identified best practices: focus on customers, business orientation, striving for simplicity and clarity, and treasuring employees and subcontractors. the 97 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8912 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8912 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:pekka.rajala@student.lut.fi mailto:antti.yla-kujala@lut.fi mailto:tiina.sinkkonen@lut.fi mailto:timo.karri@lut.fi mailto:pekka.rajala@student.lut.fi https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8912 findings provide new insights into how operational effectiveness affects br companies’ profitability, and practitioners can utilize them for profitability improvements. the coke model contributes to further research of the operational core of the br business and can be applied in the business development of br companies. keywords construction industry; building renovation; operational effectiveness; profitability; best practices introduction building renovation (br), briefly described, includes renovation works aimed at improving the condition of existing buildings ( jensen and maslesa, 2015). the importance of br as a sector has increased in recent years, especially in developed countries (ec, 2020). aging dwelling stocks combined with neglect in renovation works and a willingness to cut co2 emissions by improving energy efficiency in old buildings boost the sector ( jensen, et al., 2022). for example, the european commission (2020) has—as a part of a strategy program “a renovation wave for europe”—decided on an unprecedented stimulus package for energy renovations; the package aims to, at the minimum, double renovation rates in europe in the next 10 years. from the br companies’ perspective, the growing market most likely means that current companies can grow fast, mergers and acquisitions are probable, and totally new actors can enter the sector, further increasing competition in an already highly competitive market ( jensen, et al., 2017). this is critical since br companies are already struggling to make a profitable business, and, for example, bankruptcies are not rare (shehu, et al., 2014; bilal, et al., 2019). the br industry simply cannot afford to lose companies because they are increasingly needed to tackle the growing renovation needs. profitability plays an important role in this equation since it is a basic requirement for companies to remain operational (škuflić, et al., 2018). slightly aggravated, but if we do not have enough br companies, who will do the supplementary insulation and fit more energy-efficient windows for old buildings? with this introduction, we come to the research gap: already approximately a decade ago, a research gap was detected in the research on br companies and the profitability of their business (vainio, 2011; henn and hoffman, 2013). since then, research in the br sector seems to have focused on themes related to improving energy efficiency in existing buildings (khadra, et al., 2020). these—for sure also important— themes appear to have taken precedence over the profitability research. the research gap in profitability has only slightly narrowed, mostly at the project level and regarding companies’ financial ratios (bilal, et al., 2019; sahlberg, et al., 2021; rajala, et al., 2023). in order to improve br companies’ profitability, the business elements that influence it should be researched and understood comprehensively. we see this as the research problem. for example, when focusing only on the project level, many important aspects, such as company-level relationships with various customers and their impact on profitability, are ignored. in addition, knowing the ratios does not directly contribute to profitability improvements—various actions are needed to do that. there are both strategic and operational elements that influence companies’ profitability in the construction industry (sarvari, et al., 2021). both are important and worthy of research, but for the following reasons, the focus of this study is on operational elements in the br sector. namely, it is presented that compared to new construction business, br includes more complexity, uncertainty, negative surprises, and cost overruns—and the business has lower levels of earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (ebitda) and profit margin than new construction business (bilal, et al., 2019; rajala, et al., 2022). for these issues and lower absolute profitability, there are certain operational reasons that have been rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202598 raised in the scientific literature, such as design challenges concerning renovation targets and processes (ali, 2010) as well as poor contractual practices (zolkafli et al., 2012). including the above-presented design challenges and the poor contractual practices, this study presents 10 typical operational challenges for the br business. these 10 challenges are based on our thorough literature review, and compared to the new construction business, they are recognized as more challenging and profitability-wise more critical for the br business—or connect mainly to the br sector as its special features. through these challenges, this study presents 10 critical operational key elements (coke) of the br business: 1) contracts, 2) cooperation with buyer organizations, 3) coordinating work with building users, 4) demolition, 5) design, 6) material sourcing, 7) on-site logistics, 8) site surveys, 9) understanding the restrictions of regulation, and 10) work processes. before delving into coke, this study examines the operational elements of the companies more broadly by applying a concept of operational excellence (opex). there are various definitions for opex (found, et al., 2018), and one very practical version—the 4ps—is seen as the most suitable to be utilized in this study. in the 4ps, opex includes “excellent people, who establish excellent partnerships in order to achieve excellent processes to produce excellent products, which are able to delight the customers” (dahlgaard and dahlgaard, 1999). the 4p model also has a fifth element that lays the foundation for the 4ps: leadership. profitability, opex, and coke form the conceptual core of this study. opex comprises the overarching elements of the operational activities, while coke dives into the finer details specific to the br sector. profitability emerges in two cases: the case of high profitability (hp) and the case of low profitability (lp), which both consist of five br companies. by utilizing semi-structured interviews, the study compared how these extreme cases value and execute the elements of coke and opex. in this way, the study delved into the research problem, and the objective was to enrich knowledge and understanding of how operational effectiveness influences the profitability of the br companies and to ascertain the best practices of operational effectiveness that contribute to a profitable br business. the research questions that this study answers are as follows: when examining operational effectiveness through the elements of opex and coke, 1. which elements do the hp and lp cases value and in which ways? 2. what best practices emerge from the hp case when compared to the lp case? after the introduction, the research is organized as follows. the section literature review opens up the opex perspective and the background for coke. after that, the section research design presents the methodology and research data. the section findings and discussion presents the results and found best practices. the last section, conclusions, brings together the theoretical and practical contributions as well as limitations and suggestions for future research. literature review background for opex opex has many definitions, one of them being describing the highest quality and performance in all business operations that a company executes (found, et al., 2018). over the years, opex has gained various forms, and in recent years, discussion around the topic has increased significantly (found, et al., 2018; sony, 2019). sony (2019), for example, developed the theoretical framework for sustainable opex; sehnem, et al. (2019) approached opex from the perspective of supply chains; and mcdermott, et al. (2021) explored the topic from the perspectives of healthcare systems and pandemics. rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202599 the roots of opex go back to the late 1980s and lean thinking (found, et al., 2018). lean thinking in its original form can be summarized as being focused on value creation for customers as smoothly as possible while simultaneously striving for perfection (sony, 2019). in many ways, similar features can be seen in opex; in 1995, the first time the term opex was mentioned in scientific literature by treacy and wiersema, the term was connected to product leadership and customer intimacy (found, et al., 2018). quite often, the history and models of opex have also been linked to six sigma, the quality control model that eliminates defects and therefore improves business processes (found, et al., 2018; sony, 2019). the model of opex that was applied in our study, the 4ps, was presented in 1999 (dahlgaard and dahlgaard). the first of the 4ps, people, highlights the importance of employees. the second p, partnerships, includes both internal and external partners—like departments of a company, suppliers, and customers— and underlines their importance in terms of the performance of the company. by utilizing the excellent first two ps, it would be possible to create the excellent third p, processes. the processes include, for example, key business and management processes. the fourth p, excellent products, is the result of the first three ps. eventually, in order to achieve all of the 4p elements, the model highlights that its fifth element, leadership, has a notable impact on the opex as a whole. the model emphasizes the importance of recruiting—and training—leaders with the right values and competencies. the 4p model was chosen to be applied in this study because the model combines soft and hard, subjective and objective, and individual and organizational aspects (dahlgaard, et al., 2013). pimentel and major (2016)—similar to our study—utilized the 4p model and a case study approach when they identified public sectors’ key elements for the successful implementation of quality management processes. lai and yang (2017) also used the 4p model in their study; through the model, they assessed healthcare organizations and their management. in turn, andriamanampisoa, et al. (2021) applied the 4p model when they assessed lean six sigma’s opportunities as a business excellence improver. opex in the construction industry: previous studies and the research gap the concept of opex has gained minor attention in the scientific literature considering the construction industry (liu, et al., 2015; zhang and yong, 2017), and from the perspectives of the renovation sector and profitability, publications were not detected. in general, smalland medium-sized (sme) companies—of which the construction industry mainly consists (ec, 2020)—are an unresearched area from the perspective of opex (wahab, et al., 2022). however, a few studies considering the opex and construction industry in general were found. liu, et al. (2015) utilized the concept of opex to be able to improve safety performance. in turn, vaidyanathan and mundoli (2014) presented the process and technology improvements in order to achieve opex. what is the most promising is that when zhang and yong (2017) reviewed the role of opex in the construction industry, they stated that construction companies have good premises to utilize the best models of opex concepts in order to develop their businesses. according to zhang and yong, the good premises are due to the feature that, in recent decades, especially the productivity challenges of the construction industry have been researched extensively; this is also reflected in the companies in the industry, as many of them have thus focused on improving at least some of the elements of opex. background for coke the construction industry in general is known as a complex business where delays and cost overruns often cause profitability issues for the companies in the business (bilal, et al., 2019). from an operational perspective, there are numerous researched challenges behind the delays and cost overruns, like a lack of competence of project managers and poor coordination between various actors and multiple work stages (arditi, et al., 2000; tripathi and jha, 2018). rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025100 the mentioned challenges usually concern a significant part of the construction industry, the br sector. it is presented that the br sector also has its own special challenges that have turned out to be crucial to manage in terms of successful execution in the br business (arain, 2005; singh, et al., 2014; konstantinou, 2021). in this study, we used the scoping review method to be able to identify all significant challenges in the br business and to create the coke model. we ended up applying the scoping review method since it is described as a useful literature review method for identifying key characteristics related to the researched concept (pham et al., 2014). we used google scholar to find academic literature across an array of databases and publishing formats. the timeframe for the searched publications was 2000–2022. in the scoping review, we proceeded with four steps: 1) identified the research question of what the challenges in the br business are, 2) identified and selected the relevant studies, 3) charted and gathered the data, and 4) summarized the data and reported the key challenges. when the challenges were identified through the scoping review, we changed the core ideas of each challenge into critical operational key elements (coke). the identified challenges and the elements of coke are presented in figure 1. it is reasonable to open up certain not-so-self-evident challenges more precisely. for example, buyer organizations’ inexperience is seen as typical among customers, such as housing companies, because they are seen as one-time buyers in large projects who do not know the practices of the construction industry (d’oca, et al., 2018; rajala, et al., 2023). the feature can cause various issues, and therefore, the briefing of the buyer organization is vital. strict regulation in terms of modifications of old buildings is a challenge that can slow down the project or otherwise cause extra costs (zolkafli, et al., 2012; singh, et al., 2014). for example, updated building regulations by authorities can cause cost overruns due to corrections that need to be made in design (and eventually on the site) to be able to obey the regulations. design challenges arise due to weak or wrong base data, and matching the design with existing buildings causes difficulties (arain, 2005; noori, et al., 2016). information outages between contractors and designers are also typical, and digitalization has not yet been fully utilized (ali, 2010; aldanondo, et al., 2014). a challenge that is closely related to design is incomplete site surveys. site surveys often provide a basis for design or at least complement the base data used in design (singh, et al., 2014). typically, problems in site surveys are observed in the poor quality or deficient extent of the survey (arain, 2005; zolkafli, et al., 2012; noori, et al., 2016). in many cases—and especially before the project has started—structures, for example, can even be inaccessible, thus complicating surveys. material challenges in turn are underlined by the fact that existing buildings require materials to be replaced or adapted to them (noori, et al., 2016). that can be difficult from a sourcing perspective, as the materials can be hard to find, and they can be more expensive than expected (arain, 2005; singh, et al., 2014; uotila, et al., 2020). another revealed challenge, negative surprises in the demolition phase, is typical in br projects (singh, et al., 2014). the demolition turns out to be more difficult than expected; for example, hazardous materials that complicate demolition are revealed, causing extra expenses for waste management (buser and boschsijtsema, 2018). coke: previous studies and the research gap as presented above, scientific literature has comprehensively delved into challenges—and therefore into clear focus areas—in the br business. three of the studies had a similar approach to figuring out the key elements for successful performance in the br business as in our study. zolkafli, et al. (2012) presented and analyzed risks in refurbishment projects. they also identified several operational elements that contractors should concentrate on to be able to reduce risks in projects. for example, standardized contract forms and rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025101 poor contractual practices • costing practices • responsibilities • content of work identified challenges elements of coke references arain 2005 zolkafli et al. 2012 noori et al. 2016 kemmer 2018 coordinating work with building users buyer organizations’ inexperience • the practices of the construction industry are unfamiliar arain 2005 ali 2010 zolkafli et al. 2012 d’oca 2018 rajala et al. 2022 simultaneous use of the building by both contractors and users • limited working times and work areas arain 2005 kemmer & koskela 2012 singh et al. 2014 shiue et al. 2019 uotila et al. 2020 negative surprises in the demolition phase • hazardous materials • other retarders singh et al. 2014 yu et al. 2021 sobotka et al. 2017 buser & bosch-sijtsema 2018 design design challenges • weak base data • matching the design with existing buildings • information outages arain 2005 ali 2010 zolkafli et al. 2012 aldanondo et al. 2014 noori et al. 2016 elagiry et al. 2017 kemmer 2018 material challenges • adaptation to existing buildings • sourcing difficulties arain 2005 zolkafli et al. 2012 singh et al. 2014 noori et al. 2016 uotila et al. 2020 on-site logistical constraints • limited spaces for logistics • users of the buildings need to be considered kemmer & koskela 2012 singh et al. 2014 noori et al. 2016 uotila et al. 2020 tetik et al. 2021 incomplete site surveys • quality is weak • structures are inaccessible zolkafli et al. 2012 ali 2010 arain 2005 noori et al. 2016 strict regulation in terms of modifications of old buildings • off-budget solutions can be required ali et al. 2010 zolkafli et al. 2012 singh et al. 2014 kemmer 2018 unstandardized work processes • projects and renovation targets vary • prefabricated solutions are difficult to apply zolkafli et al. 2012 kemmer & koskela 2012 vareilles et al. 2013 aldanondo et al. 2014 d’oca et al. 2018 pikas et al. 2021 site surveys material sourcing demolition on-site logistics understanding the restrictions of regulation contracts work processes cooperation with buyer organization figure 1. identified challenges in the br business and the elements of coke. br, building renovation; coke, critical operational key elements rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025102 inclusive surveys about the sites were some of these. arain (2005) reviewed the barriers in the management of refurbishment projects that may cause delays and cost overruns. in addition to contractual practices and site surveys, arain presented that, for example, design, concurrent operation by owners, and cooperation between all project participants are the key elements that all project participants should focus on in order to avoid escalated costs and delays in projects. singh, et al. (2014) also identified the operational key elements, but the main focus of their study was to develop a performance measurement system for br projects. the mentioned three studies present the operational key elements to focus on in order to better execute br projects. however, here, we again come to the research gap presented in the introduction: these three studies focused on performance in general, at the project level or from the perspective of the customer of the project. none of the studies focused, like our study, on the critical operational key elements that affect especially the profitability of br companies. research design overview of methodology the main research method in this study was the multiple case study design including two cases. this qualitative design is seen as a good way to compare various objects with each other through discovered contrasts and similarities (gustafsson, 2017). in addition, campbell and ahrens (1998) presented that the multiple case study design compared to the single case study design has the same advantages as the single case study design in capturing reality contexts, but it also enriches the validity and generalizability of the results. in this study, the data for the cases were collected using semi-structured interviews. this method was chosen since the questions in the interviews were typically connected to the themes, but the nature of the questions was open-ended, and the focus was on subjective experiences offered by the interviewees (blandford, 2004). in this way, we aimed to bring forth all essential information, not confined solely to the themes. although semi-structured interviews bring flexibility, they still have a clear agenda that allows consistent comparisons between the answers of the respondents (belina, 2023). for analyzing the interviews, a comparative research approach was used by applying an analytical content analysis technique. saunders, et al. (2015) presented that content analysis is a technique where systematic coding is used to reduce the many words of a text into fewer content categories in order to identify various trends of patterns from comparable data sources. we considered it important for our study that saunders, et al. also presented that the method is well suited to organizational research. it is worth mentioning that the financial statement analysis and the scoping review method have also had a significant role in this research. the use of the scoping review method was opened up while presenting the coke model. financial statement analysis has been utilized when selecting the companies for the cases. the method was a clear choice for our research since it is a method for reviewing the economic condition of companies through financial statements and financial ratios (fridson and alvarez, 2011). before going more into the details of the above-presented main methodologies and research data, let us summarize how the methods overall relate to each other as part of the analyses. the summary is presented in figure 2. the cases this study has two cases: br companies with hp and br companies with lp. the five top-profit companies provide data for the hp case, while the five lowest-profit companies provide data for the lp case. five companies per case were selected to ensure an in-depth understanding of the cases while also allowing for rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025103 the timely completion of the interviews and analysis within a reasonable workload. extremes were chosen since extreme cases can provide a deeper insight into a researched phenomenon than average or typical cases (chen, 2015). the companies for the cases were selected from a group of 59 finnish br companies (the selection process is presented in appendix 1), which represent the european commission’s definition (ec, 2003) of sme companies. the companies for the cases were selected using financial statement analysis. the selected profitability ratios were ebitda margin and return on assets (roa)—the formulas for the ratios are also presented in appendix 1. since ebitda measures absolute profitability and roa relative profitability, the chosen ratios complement each other and strengthen the profitability analysis (gedviliene and giliuviene, 2017). the data to calculate the ratios were collected from the companies’ financial statements. the research timeframe covered 6 years (2017– 2022). we will also review how a particularly turbulent business environment affects the two cases’ focus areas on coke and opex and whether there are differences between the hp and lp cases. the years 2017–2019 represent relatively steady times, and the years 2020–2022 represent particularly turbulent times. the bases for the definition of turbulent years were the covid-19 pandemic and the russian invasion of ukraine in 2022 with all the consequences they led to. the pandemic, for example, caused lockdowns (possible impacts on br companies’ work processes), and both crises caused inflation (possible difficulties, for example, for material sourcing) (nickel, et al., 2022). table 1 presents the details of the profitability levels of the companies in the cases and how the levels relate to the whole group of the 59 br companies. table 1 also presents the focus areas of the companies in the cases regarding work and project types, as well as their profitability rankings among the 59 companies. the companies of the cases were ranked among the 59 br companies, as follows: for both ebitda and roa, top rankings based on 5-year means (financial statements from year 2022 were not yet completely available) were listed, and the lists were combined. to be able to consider ebitda and roa equally on the combined list, the ranking of the company on the combined list was defined by calculating weighted averages of ebitda and roa rankings. all 59 br companies were included in the rankings. however, micro-sized companies were excluded from the cases because, during financial statement analysis, we detected that micro companies—due to their size compared to projects—often had exceptionally strong variations in annual revenues and profitability ratios. in addition, the companies that became bankrupt during or after the research timeframe were also excluded from the cases. similarly, one company declined financial statement analysis groundwork multiple case study design scoping review the main part of the research the semi-structured interviews which are built around the opex and coke model selection of the companies for the cases based on financial statement analysis the base data and complements for the data creation of the coke model figure 2. a summary of the applied methods. rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025104 to be interviewed. one company, which had just started its business at the beginning of the research timeframe, was also excluded—in the cases, we aimed to include companies that had established their presence on the market for a longer period of time. for these reasons, the companies selected for the cases do not strictly adhere to the ranking order (e.g., the companies ranked no. 2, 53, etc., are missing), but they still clearly represent the extremes of the profitability ranking. table 1. ebitda and roa values, profitability rankings, and focus area of the cases. cases and companies ebitda mean roa mean profitability ranking company size founded **focus area *total (59) 5.7 16.8 hp 17.1 34.8 h1 24.8 40.3 1 small 1992 wide h2 20.9 33.2 3 1990 pipe renovations h3 12.1 35.5 4 1999 wide h4 9.7 37.8 6 medium 2012 h5 18.0 27.3 7 small 1988 lp −7.1 −1.6 l1 −4.3 −6.6 56 small 2007 wide l2 −0.9 −5.9 55 2008 modification works l3 −32.5 −1.8 54 1993 pipe renovations l4 −0.7 0.1 52 1994 modification works l5 3.1 6.3 48 medium 1997 pipe renovations note. ebitda, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization; roa, return on assets. wide = many kinds of works and projects; modification works = mainly premises and apartments modifications; pipe renovations = mainly refurbishing plumbing systems and bathrooms in apartment buildings. *nine companies include only a 4-year mean for ebitda and roa. for eight of these companies, there were no financial statements available for the year 2021, and one of the years for one company was seen as an outlier. in addition, one company became bankrupt in 2019. details of the interviews the main data of this research consist of semi-structured interviews. the primary selection criterion for the interviewees was to represent a company in either the hp or lp cases. the secondary criterion was the selection of the right individuals within the respective companies; we prioritized executives who had worked for the company they represented throughout the entire research timeframe and consistently held leadership roles during that period. more details considering the interviewees are presented in table 2. the interviews were steered by following the interviewing forms. the opex part (appendix 2) was covered first, followed by the coke part (appendix 3). in both parts, the interviewees were at first familiarized with the topic, and after that, they were asked to rank the elements of opex and coke. the given rankings were utilized as the basis for the next step, the actual questions of the semi-structured interviews. overall, the opex and coke frameworks formed the themes for the interviews and the basis for the questions presented in the interviews. rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025105 the analyses of the interviews were carried out separately for the cases. in the analysis, keywords and phrases considering the research question and the themes were discovered. these discoveries included, for example, various attitudes, opinions, and operation practices of the companies. the discovery proceeded through three stages: 1) using reduction, the keywords and phrases of the data were identified and written in a more concise form. 2) the main findings obtained from the reduction were grouped into subcategories, and the subcategories were titled descriptively. 3) the subcategories were combined into conclusions. the final step in the analysis process was to compare the results of the cases; the focus was on discovering similarities and differences between the cases. in addition to the analyses of the interviews, we calculated the relative importance index (rii) for the ranked opex and coke elements. as the cases covered only five companies each, a reliable statistical analysis through rii was not reasonable. still, the rii results support the study well. these results serve as a compass in the result analysis, providing a broad overview that is further explored through the analysis of the interviews. findings and discussion general observations the analyses of the interviews combined with the calculated rii provide various interesting general observations. first, let us show through the rii how the hp and lp cases ranked the elements of opex and coke in the total research timeframe (table 3). the closer the rii is to 1, the better (kassem, et al., 2020). as table 3 presents, both the hp and lp cases valued the elements of opex and coke similarly. regarding opex, partnerships and people were ranked as the most important ones, followed by products table 2. details of the interviewees. cases and companies position experience in years years in the case company date of the interview hp h1 ceo 31 31 6/4/2023 h2 24 10 3/4/2023 h3 41 23 11/4/2023 h4 11 10 15/3/2023 h5 45 35 2/3/2023 lp l1 ceo 30 15 1/3/2023 l2 23 23 16/3/2023 l3 50 30 29/3/2023 l4 27 12 6/4/2023 l5 ceo/coo 44/22 33/2 21/3/2023 note: ceo, chief executive officer; coo, chief operating officer. rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025106 and processes as the least important ones. the result is not a surprise if we look at the current nature of the construction industry. as akinwale and olusanya (2020) summed up, the importance of different skills at different times in the construction project makes subcontractors key actors in the construction industry. in addition, the br business is stated to be an especially labor-intensive sector in the construction industry, highlighting the importance of people (rajala, et al., 2022). considering coke rankings, for example, cooperation with buyer organizations, coordinating work with building users, and design have been ranked among the most important elements. arain (2005) presented similar elements as the most important ones in order to avoid escalated costs and delays in projects. both hp and lp cases highlighted in the interviews that elements ranked as the least important ones are also meaningful, but the companies have usually not been able to influence those elements, or they have not been an issue for them. site surveys are an interesting example of this since zolkafili, et al. (2012) stated that site surveys should be the contractors’ focus area in order to reduce risks in projects. however, they also raised contracts as an important operational element for contractors, and it is seen as quite important in the cases of our study. the only substantial difference between the cases appears in understanding the restrictions of regulation. the lp case has ranked the element as more important compared to the hp case. this result reflects the table 3. a summary of the rii for opex and coke. opex (4ps) *rii hp lp people 0.75 0.70 partnerships 0.80 0.75 processes 0.45 0.48 products 0.50 0.58 coke cooperation with buyer organization 0.93 0.90 understanding the restrictions of regulation 0.33 0.60 design 0.80 0.83 site surveys 0.40 0.33 material sourcing 0.73 0.80 demolition 0.53 0.53 on-site logistics 0.53 0.63 coordinating work with building users 0.87 0.77 contracts 0.73 0.63 work processes 0.80 0.70 note: rii, relative importance index; opex, operational excellence; coke, critical operational key elements; hp, high profitability; lp, low profitability. *rii = σw/(a*n), where w is the weighting given to each element by the companies, a is the highest weight, and n is the total number of the companies per case. there were no significant changes in the values between the steady and turbulent times, and thus, the calculated rii values are average values for both timeframes. rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025107 observation we made in analyzing the interviews; in particular, two of the lp companies—the two least profitable ones—emphasized that they operate in a complicated sector within the br business, and it is essential to understand the restrictions of regulation. the complexity of projects was also brought up by the third company in the lp case (l5) when the element on-site logistics was dealt with. even though it has been presented that niche and thus often complicated renovations can be more profitable compared to more general renovations (rajala, et al., 2023), the complexity can also jeopardize profitability in project businesses if project management efforts are lacking (kaufmann and kock, 2022). table 3 states that there were no significant changes in the rii values between the steady and turbulent times. however, there was a certain variation in the rankings for steady and turbulent years regarding the lp case; for opex, there were a total of 9/20 changes, and for coke, 8/50. in the hp case, all rankings remained the same despite the timeframe. the finding of variation in the lp case describes the challenges that the lp companies brought up in the interviews. comments like “there just has not been time for putting effort into processes…until we understood that we actually need to do something to be able to run a profitable business (l2)” were not exceptional among the lp companies. they have had to adjust their operations to be able to keep their business running. based on the interviews, the variation was partially a consequence of the turbulent times but mainly due to internal issues within the companies, like changes in personnel or similar. in turn, the finding that the rankings of the hp case were unchanged in both timeframes strengthens the image that we obtained in the interviews: the hp companies have been able to focus on their refined operations, which have not really been disturbed by the turbulent times or any other distractions. noteworthy is that the focus areas of the companies’ service specialization (presented in table 1) can, on the one hand, slightly influence the ranking variety of the lp case, and on the other hand, the stability of the hp case. four out of five hp companies have a wide focus area, while four out of five lp companies have a specialized focus area. rajala, et al. (2023) presented in their study that more specialized companies can suffer from the small market segment during turbulent times, while companies with wider focus areas are more capable of running their business as usual. as stated in the literature review, opex has its roots in lean thinking. lean principles have also been applied more and more in the construction industry in recent decades (babalola, et al., 2019). the principles are diverse, but the following ones are commonly recognized also in the construction industry: simplicity in operations, time and cost-effectiveness, and continuous flow (sarhan, et al., 2017; hopp and spearman, 2020). interestingly, we found that the hp companies unconsciously possess almost exactly these lean principles. they seem to be more straightforward, concrete, and business-oriented compared to the lp companies. these features came up in the interviewees’ verbal communication but also in a few more concrete ways. the interviews with the companies of the hp case were on average 18% shorter, and the answers included 28% fewer words compared to the companies of the lp case. nevertheless, we detected a nearly equal number (hp 35 and lp 36) of cost-, profitability-, and overall business-related sentences from both cases—meaning that the hp case used more business-related sentences. the sentences were, for example, “as a labor-intensive industry, you either lose money or make money on a construction site (h5)” and “you also need to understand that if people are expenses, they also need to bring money (h3).” detailed observations of opex as presented, both cases ranked the importance of opex elements similarly. however, the interviews revealed clear differences in how the cases perceive and consider the elements in their businesses. the most relevant of these differences are presented in figure 3. in the figure, the size of the observation box always describes the number of companies in which the observation was found. rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025108 figure 3. the most relevant similarities and differences of opex between the cases. opex, operational excellence the challenges of the lp case are clearly visible in the opex. partnerships were the only element of opex where the lp case’s challenges did not occur significantly. still, when reviewing the results by the element—and overlooking the challenges perceived in them—we can see a couple of interesting findings. regarding people, both cases seem to respect their personnel, but it is more visible in the hp case. the companies of the hp case said, for example, that “this will not work without people…people are our business cards (h3)” and “people are our brand and the face of our company (h4).” in the hp case, there were also practical examples of how to recognize employees. for example, one company said that by offering partner positions, senior salaried employees are committed to the company. one interesting observation that we made regarding the hp case and people is what we describe as cunning. the feature relates to the ways the companies of the hp case plan their work and how they communicate to their employees—in fact, how they identify and utilize the best qualities of their people. these appeared, for example, through the following comments: “some people just know what they are doing, and the rest need to be told what to do” and “we have committed people and partners whose strengths and weaknesses we know extremely well (h5).” the latter comment especially goes together with the definition of opex presented here: by utilizing the excellent first two ps (people and partnerships), it would be possible to create the excellent third p, processes. the observation regarding cunning is also in line with the publication of buckingham (2005), who presented that knowing the strengths and weaknesses of employees and utilizing this knowledge is the key to success. in partnerships, both cases emphasize the importance of subcontractors. in terms of partnerships, the lp case seems to have a strong focus on the quality of work of their subcontractors. the observation is interesting since it brings out a feature that was detected in many parts of the interviews: at times, the lp companies seem to value the quality of work higher than a well-performing business. one company, for example, stated “we invest in quality, and it even comes before the financial side (l2).” in partnerships, the clearest difference between the cases is that the companies of the hp case bring the customers to the forefront. one company summarized it by saying that “partnerships are important, first of all, because they include customers (h1).” in the hp case, this customer focus—and especially cooperation with the customers—is also visible in processes as the following citations present: “we get projects via framework contracts, and often these are such projects that they are not yet even designed. the customers just need something, and we start to rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025109 progress these needs together (h1).” and “with certain customers, we are looking for new ways of retaining the quality to a faster pace (h4).” the importance of customer orientation, and especially cooperation with customers in terms of success, has been highlighted in several studies considering the construction industry (sarvari, et al., 2021). one observation in processes, which appears in the hp case but not in the lp case, is ensuring the schedules. we detected comments like “already 2 or 3 weeks before the handover to the customer, we try to finish the works and have a quality check for ourselves (h1)” and “the schedules go immediately awry if a stakeholder cannot do their stage of the work. it is important that every single step is done on time (h5).” in the construction industry, keeping to the deadlines has typically been one of the aspects behind profitable business (tripathi and jha, 2018). in terms of products, the importance of quality arises in both the hp and lp cases. another matter that arises regarding products is cost efficiency. however, cost efficiency is more visible among the companies in the hp case (5/5) than in the lp (2/5) case. the observation is not surprising; cost efficiency is undoubtedly one of the prerequisites for a profitable business in the construction industry (rajguru and mahatme, 2015). with that notion, we come back to the observations that we presented in the section general observations: hp companies seem to be more business-oriented, which shows up here through cost consciousness— which again goes to the core of lean principles and the roots of opex. finally, a few words about leadership. the interviews showed us that there is no one and only way to lead a company to success or failure when it comes to profitability. in this sense, we came across the same phenomenon that rehn (2018) wrote about. rehn stated that leadership is a paradox; it is a diverse phenomenon in many ways, in different places and times. regarding this, we noticed that in the leadership question, four out of five companies in the lp case highlighted some difficult periods that they had experienced in the research timeframe. one company stated: “in different timeframes, leadership has been different, not because of the turbulent times, but because of the company’s internal issues (l2).” difficulties in profitability have definitely affected leadership, and for sure, vice versa, leadership has also affected poor profitability. in the hp case, only one company stated that their leadership has slightly changed in the research timeframe and that it has been because of the turbulent times. despite the various answers regarding leadership, there were two interesting observations that emerged in the interviews, the first in the hp case and the second in the lp case. in the lp case, the freedom of the construction sites was somewhat emphasized. for example, one lp company stated “we have given the sites a lot of freedom and the project managers have been allowed to manage their sites at their own pace (l5).” regarding the hp case and leadership, low hierarchy emerged clearly. the picture that we obtained from these observations in the interviews is that, even though the freedom of construction sites can be beneficial, the lp companies have not managed to support their sites enough. low hierarchy among the hp case instead has supported the sites; the sites have known that the backup is there if needed. one of the hp companies, for example, stated: “we give a lot of responsibility, and we expect employees to take responsibility. in turn, we want to offer a backup, and, for example, i (ceo) always keep my door open for questions from all employees, this is not hierarchical. we encourage employees to ask about matters that they do not know, but we also proclaim that there is no need to be afraid of mistakes (h4).” a similar observation was presented by diamantidis and chatzoglou (2019), who showed that managers providing the right balance of giving support and responsibility are important in terms of positive employee performance. detailed observations of coke in the detailed analysis of coke, we want to bring out four elements. these elements did not differ much between the cases in the rankings, but these were the ones where we found the most significant differences in the analysis of the interviews. rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025110 cooperation with buyer organization is important for both cases. in terms of the hp companies, three out of five companies present concrete actions of cooperation with the buyer organization. for example, quick reactions to customer needs and joint development work with customers in alliance projects arise from the interviews. similar concrete examples were not detected in the lp case. three of the lp companies seem to focus on a certain kind of customer probing to set the base for the cooperation. by probing, we mean that the companies evaluate what kind of customer they are facing and what kind of operating methods could work with them. this feature addresses the matter observed in the detailed observations of opex: the hp companies have a more customer-centric approach to the business—and therefore more long-term customers compared to the lp companies. thus, hp companies know their customers better, and similar probing is not needed. in fact, it is presented that maintaining loyal, long-term customer relationships is generally crucial for running a profitable business (hoe and mansori, 2018). four of the lp companies ranked design among the most important elements of coke. in three of these, design challenges and questioning of designers were unifying features in the responses of the interviews. one company expressed these challenges as follows: “designs for the renovations are deficient. designing competence is needed on the site, since designing unintendedly tends to turn into the responsibility of the site. we have to instruct designers and a lot of designs need to be redone (l3).” three of the hp companies ranked design among the most important elements, and two of those companies had a somewhat different approach to design compared to the lp companies. in their answers, these two companies emphasized the desire for solutions in problem cases and ways to adapt their work to the designs in the best possible way. these solution-centric features appear among the hp companies also regarding the element coordinating work with building users. three hp companies, which had ranked this element among the most important ones, pointed out that the works need to be coordinated so that they will not disrupt the building users, but equally important is that “our employees have a calm working environment so that they can work smoothly (l5).” as shown in the sections above, the hp case’s features—the ability to cooperate, business orientation, and support for employees—are visible here as well. finally, we present an observation regarding contracts. even though, for example, suriyanon, et al. (2023) underlined the importance of contracts in the construction industry, there were only two companies that ranked this element of coke high. however, these two were very profitable companies (h1 and h3), and for them, the contracts have had an essential role in their operations. both companies presented that they have long-term framework agreements with certain customers. the projects for these customers keep business—and cash flow—fairly stable. on top of this base, the companies seek suitable projects on a tendering basis. since the construction industry is known as a cyclical business (rajala, et al., 2022), these kinds of customer strategies can be a workable solution for balancing different cycles and operational execution. that is actually in line with what fernández-lópez and coto-millán (2015) have pointed out. they stated that construction companies should adapt their business strategies to economic predictions. summary and best practices this section presents a synthesis of the opex and coke findings and discussions presented above. to be able to present the synthesis in an effective and memorable way, we have evolved the main findings as the four best practices of operational effectiveness in the br business (figure 4). obviously, the best practices come from the hp case and can thus be seen as a basis for a profitable br business. since the presented research gap concerns profitability research regarding br companies and their business, there really are no studies to compare to our best practices of br companies. however, as we have shown alongside the findings, in the construction industry in general, there are aligning observations made in the studies about the operational focus areas that can have a positive influence on companies’ business performance. in addition, zhang and yong (2017), who delved into the numerous opex-related studies in rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025111 the construction industry, also showed similar guidelines as the presented best practices in this study. these include trust and collaboration between various stakeholders, efficient utilization of human resources, strong customer focus, cost efficiency, waste minimization, and effective management. if there are many similarities to previous research, there is also one clear difference. the utilization of digitalization, which is often raised positively in the research on operational effectiveness in the construction industry (hossain and nadeem, 2019), did not end up in the best practices. the utilization of digitalization was actually not emphasized at all among the hp or lp companies, and it is one possible development target for br companies. finally, when comparing the best practices beyond industry boundaries, we come back to the similarities. namely, the clearest similarities with the best practices can be seen when reviewing the roots of opex: lean principles. we presented in the literature review and general findings that lean principles cover simplicity in operations (very similar with strive for simplicity and clarity), time and cost efficiency (be businessoriented), and a continuous flow through which value creation for customers is created (focus on customers). regarding treasuring employees and subcontractors, the lean principles that we presented do not match immediately. however, this best practice could also be connected to lean thinking. hopp and spearman (2020) presented that it is people working within organizations who develop and oversee systems so that lean principles can be utilized. if we think about how the presented best practices can be utilized in the organizations, we see that it is indeed people who will play an important role in that as well. hence, the next step regarding the best practices would be implementing and testing them, for example, in unprofitable companies. conclusions scientifically, the study narrows the detected research gap regarding the profitability of the br business by presenting new insights into how operational effectiveness affects the profitability of br companies and which elements can lead to a profitable br business. in addition, coke provides academia with a comprehensive model for studying the br-specific operational elements even more profoundly and from figure 4. best practices of operational effectiveness in the br business. br, building renovation rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025112 various perspectives. in this study, the perspective was on the profitability of br companies, and coke was seen as a great asset specifically for delving into the operational core characteristics of the br sector. as practical implications, this study presents four best practices for operational effectiveness in the br business. the best practices are a synthesis of the concrete operational actions, which were presented alongside the findings and discussion section, and which emerged from the sme hp br companies. we believe that by directing operations toward the best practices and by utilizing concrete examples of operational actions, many sme br companies with low profitability could improve their profitability. that is how, in the best case, for example, bankruptcies in the growing industry can be avoided. in addition to the best practices, the coke model also provides implications for the br industry and its actors. this is the first research that investigated how companies in the br industry perceive br-specific operational fundamentals from a business standpoint using the coke model. this new information is something that companies can utilize in general, but the coke model also has the potential to be used in a few concrete ways for business development. namely, we see coke as a base for developing a verification tool for the planning phases of a project to ensure that the most central br-specific elements are sufficiently considered and in order before the project starts. by summarizing a company’s projects, this verification tool can also be used at the company level to assess and improve the company’s overall approach to br-specific planning and execution. regarding the company level, we also see coke as a framework for evaluating a company’s br-specific operational strengths and weaknesses. for example, executives can gather information from projects regarding how coke has been realized: whether there have been problems with the same elements in unprofitable projects or whether certain elements have been especially invested in profitable projects. based on the information, companies and their executives can revamp operations. moreover, while we look into topics for further research, we also recognize the limitations of this study. coke focuses on operational challenges that when compared to the new construction business, are recognized as more challenging for the br business, or are its special features. thus, there can be some relevant operational elements that are excluded from the model. for example, tender calculation could be one of those elements that we, in this case, saw as equally important for both the new construction and the br sectors. for further research, it would be reasonable to also research the effect of such elements on the operational effectiveness and profitability of br companies—at that stage, it would make sense to expand the research to larger companies and different countries. furthermore, as we had a strong operational focus in the study, it would be interesting to expand a similar research setting to the strategic side, for example, to strategic management. finally, as we already mentioned when presenting the best practices, testing them in companies is important, and this also applies to coke in business development usage. such research could include guidance and possible implementation success stories. appendix appendix 1. background of the base data (59 companies) and formulas for the ratios. background of the company selection process the company selection process was originally presented in the publication of rajala, et al. (2022). figure 1a below presents the details of the process. new building construction companies (nb) were a part of the original research and are therefore also presented in figure 1a. in this study, we only focused on br companies. the research timeframe for the background study was 2005–2019. therefore, we supplemented the calculated profitability ratios for the years 2020–2021. one company from the original group became bankrupt before 2017 and was therefore excluded. rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025113 398 companies were found from sources:  cfci’s public statistics covering 2010–2018  rakennuslehti’s public annual company rankings from 2016, 2017 and 2019 329 companies were excluded:  151 companies were very specialized and worked in both fields (for example bricklayers or floor contractors)  178 companies were focused on building construction but worked in both sectors  33 companies were found to be specialized in br and 36 in nb the sample size appeared to be quite narrow for statistical analysis; therefore, the company groups were supplemented from another source (finder):  in total 71 companies specialized in br and 70 in nb were selected going forward financial statements of the companies were collected, and ratios calculated data collection and sorting determination of variables timeframe and company size groups were determined, excluding still more companies:  finally, 60 br and 59 nb companies ended up in the research determination of ratios figure 1a. main stages of the company selection process. formulas for the selected ratios the formulas (table 1a) for the ratios are calculated based on the definitions of the committee for corporate analysis (2009). table 1a. the selected ratios and formulas for the ratios. ratio calculation method ebitda margin ebitda (turnover + other operating incomes) * 100% roa (net profit + financial expenses + taxes) average adjusted balance sheet in accounting period * 100% appendix 2. the interview form for opex evaluation and questions of opex rank the above-presented elements of opex on a scale of 1–4 based on what have been your company’s focus areas in business. 4 = the most important … 1 = the least important rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025114 each of the four numbers needs to be filled in for both timeframes. the elements of opex according to the 4ps the years 2017–2019 (steady years) the years 2020–2022 (turbulent years due to the covid-19 pandemic and the russian invasion of ukraine in 2022 with their consequences) people (a) partners (b) processes (c) products (d) 1. you ranked a, b, c, or d as the most important element in the steady years and a, b, c, or d as the most important element in the turbulent years—why? how were these elements considered in your business? 2. the same question as above, but regarding the elements that you ranked as second important in both timeframes? 3. the same question as above, but regarding the elements that you ranked as third important in both timeframes? 4. the same question as above, but regarding the elements that you ranked as fourth important in both timeframes? 5. how would you describe leadership in your company considering the total research timeframe 2017–2022? what kind of factors have your company focused on in leadership and what kind of possible differences have there been between the steady and turbulent years? appendix 3. the interview form for coke evaluation and questions of coke from both presented timeframes, select three elements of coke that your company has focused on the most and three elements that your company has focused on the least. the most focused elements will be marked with number 3 and the least focused with number 1. the elements that are left blank are marked with number 2, as moderately focused elements. critical operational key elements (coke) the years 2017–2019 (steady years) the years 2020–2022 (turbulent years) cooperation with buyer organization understanding the restrictions of regulation design site surveys material sourcing rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025115 critical operational key elements (coke) the years 2017–2019 (steady years) the years 2020–2022 (turbulent years) demolition on-site logistics coordinating work with building users contracts work processes 6. you ranked x, x, or x as the most important elements in the steady years and x, x, or x as the most important elements in the turbulent years—why? how were these elements considered in your company’s business? 7. you ranked x, x, or x as the least important elements in the steady years and x, x, or x as the least important elements in the turbulent years—why? how were these elements considered in your company’s business? references akinwale, a. a., & olusanya, o. a., 2020. influence of subcontracting processes on wages and workloads in the building construction industry in nigeria. journal of construction business and management, [e-journal] 4(2), pp.1–10. https://doi.org/10.15641/jcbm.4.2.788 aldanondo, m., barco, a. f., vareilles, e., falcon, m., gaborit, p. & zhang, l., 2014. towards a bim approach for a high performance renovation of apartment buildings. ifip advances in information and communication technology, [e-journal] 442, pp.21–30. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-45937-9_3 ali, a.s., 2010. design information in managing refurbishment projects in malaysia. international journal of the physical sciences, 5(6), pp.768–773. available: http://www.academicjournals.org/ijps ali, a.s., che-ani, a.i. & wan yusoff, w. z., 2010. uncertainty of building regulation for refurbishment projects malaysia. construction, building and real estate research conference of the royal institution of chartered surveyors, paris, france, september 2010. available: https://eprints.um.edu.my/11312/1/uncertainty_of_building_regulation_for_ refurbishment_projects_in_malaysia.pdf andriamanampisoa, t. a., ravalison, f. a. & ward, a., 2021. the fields of interest of lean six sigma through pdca cycle and 4p excellence model. international journal of progressive sciences and technologies, [e-journal] 30(1), pp.523– 536. https://doi.org/10.52155/ijpsat.v30.1.3929 arain, f.m., 2005. potential barriers in management of refurbishment projects. journal of independent studies and research, [e-journal] 3(1), pp.22–31. https://doi.org/10.31384/jisrmsse/2005.03.1.5 arditi, d., koksal, a. & kale, s., 2000. business failures in the construction industry. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 7(2), pp.120–132. https://doi.org/10.1108/eb021137 babalola, o., ibem, e.o., & ezema, i.c., 2019. implementation of lean practices in the construction industry: a systematic review. building and environment, [e-journal] 148, pp.34–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.10.051 belina, a. 2023. semi-structured interviewing as a tool for understanding informal civil society. voluntary sector review, 14(2), 331–347. https://doi.org/10.1332/204080522x16454629995872 rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025116 https://doi.org/10.15641/jcbm.4.2.788 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-45937-9_3 http://www.academicjournals.org/ijps https://eprints.um.edu.my/11312/1/uncertainty_of_building_regulation_for_refurbishment_projects_in_malaysia.pdf https://eprints.um.edu.my/11312/1/uncertainty_of_building_regulation_for_refurbishment_projects_in_malaysia.pdf https://doi.org/10.52155/ijpsat.v30.1.3929 https://doi.org/10.31384/jisrmsse/2005.03.1.5 https://doi.org/10.1108/eb021137 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.10.051 https://doi.org/10.1332/204080522x16454629995872 bilal, m., oyedele, l., kusimo, h., owolabi, h., akanbi, l., ajayi, a., akinade, o. & delgado, j.m., 2019. investigating profitability performance of construction projects using big data: a project analytics approach. journal of building engineering, [e-journal] 26, pp.1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2019.100850 blandford a. 2004. semi-structured qualitative studies. in: soegaard m, dam rf, eds. the encyclopedia of humancomputer interaction, 2nd edition. aarhus: the interaction design foundation. available: http://www.interaction-design. org/encyclopedia/ buckingham, m., 2005. what great managers do. engineering management review, 33(2), pp.3–10. https://doi. org/10.1109/emr.2005.26742 buser, m. & bosch-sijtsema, p., 2018. attributing value to waste: the difficult road to efficient waste management for renovation projects. proceeding of the 34th annual arcom. available: http://www.arcom.ac.uk/-docs/ proceedings/3aef71790824d36ea972343962ac838c.pdf campbell, r. & ahrens, c. e. 1998. innovative community services for rape victims: an application of multiple case study methodology. american journal of community psychology, 26, pp.537–571. https://doi. org/10.1023/a:1022140921921 chen, k. k. 2015. using extreme cases to understand organizations. in handbook of qualitative organizational research, routledge, pp.33–44. committee for corporate analysis, 2009. yritystutkimuksen tilinpäätösanalyysi. tampere: gaudeamus. 105p. dahlgaard, j.j. & dahlgaard, p.s.m., 1999. integrating business excellence and innovation management: developing a culture for innovation, creativity and learning. total quality management, 10(4–5), pp.465–471. https://doi. org/10.1080/0954412997415 dahlgaard, j.j., chen, c.k., jang, j.y., banegas, l.a. & dahlgaard-park, s.m., 2013. business excellence models: limitations, reflections and further development. total quality management & business excellence, [e-journal] 24(5–6), pp.519–538. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2012.756745 diamantidis, a. d. & chatzoglou, p., 2019. factors affecting employee performance: an empirical approach. international journal of productivity and performance management, [e-journal] 68(1), pp.171–193. https://doi. org/10.1108/ijppm-01-2018-0012 d’oca, s., ferrante, a., ferrer, c., pernetti, r., gralka, a., rizal, s. & op ‘t veld, p., 2018. technical, financial, and social barriers and challenges in deep building renovation: integration of lessons learned from the h2020 cluster projects. buildings, [e-journal] 8(12), pp.1–25. https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201809.0261.v1 european commission (ec), 2003. entrepreneurship and small and medium-sized enterprises (smes). available: https://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/sme-definition_en european commission (ec), 2020. the commission’s strategy program a renovation wave for europe. available: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/txt/?qid=1603122220757&uri=celex:52020dc0662 fernández-lópez, x. l & coto-millán, p., 2015. from the boom to the collapse: a technical efficiency analysis of the spanish construction industry during the financial crisis. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 15(1), pp.104–117. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i1.4168 found, p., lahy, a., williams, s., hu, q. & mason, r., 2018. towards a theory of operational excellence. total quality management & business excellence, [e-journal] 29(9–10), pp.1012–1024. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2018.14865 44 fridson, m. s. & alvarez, f., 2011. financial statement analysis: a practitioner’s guide. new jersey: john wiley & sons. 396p. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119201489 rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025117 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2019.100850 http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/ http://www.interaction-design.org/encyclopedia/ https://doi.org/10.1109/emr.2005.26742 https://doi.org/10.1109/emr.2005.26742 http://www.arcom.ac.uk/-docs/proceedings/3aef71790824d36ea972343962ac838c.pdf http://www.arcom.ac.uk/-docs/proceedings/3aef71790824d36ea972343962ac838c.pdf https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1022140921921 https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1022140921921 https://doi.org/10.1080/0954412997415 https://doi.org/10.1080/0954412997415 https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2012.756745 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-01-2018-0012 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-01-2018-0012 https://doi.org/10.20944/preprints201809.0261.v1 https://ec.europa.eu/growth/smes/sme-definition_en https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/txt/?qid=1603122220757&uri=celex:52020dc0662 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i1.4168 https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2018.1486544 https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2018.1486544 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119201489 gedviliene, n. & giliuviene, v., 2017. the theoretical aspect of profit and profitability analysis. humanities bulletin of zaporizhzhe state engineering academy, 71(2017), pp.164–171. https://doi.org/10.30839/2072-7941.2017.124920 gustafsson, j., 2017. single case studies vs. multiple case studies: a comparative study. literature review. academy of business, engineering and science, halmstad university, halmstad, sweden. henn, r. & hoffman, a., 2013. constructing green: the social structures of sustainability. cambridge: mit press. 403p. https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262019415.001.0001 hoe, l. c. & mansori, s., 2018. the effects of product quality on customer satisfaction and loyalty: evidence from malaysian engineering industry. international journal of industrial marketing, [e-journal] 3(1), pp.20–35. https://doi. org/10.5296/ijim.v3i1.13959 hopp, w. & spearman, m., 2020. the lenses of lean: visioning the science and practice of efficiency. journal of operations management, [e-journal] 67(5), pp.610–626. https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.1115 hossain, m. a. & nadeem, a. 2019. towards digitizing the construction industry: state of the art of construction 4.0. in proceedings of the isec, 10, pp.1–6. https://doi.org/10.14455/isec.res.2019.184 jensen, p., johansen, j. b. & thuesen, c., 2017. prerequisites for successful strategic partnerships for sustainable building renovation. in proceedings of the 9th nordic conference on construction economics and organisation, chalmers university of technology, gothenburg, sweden, june 2017. jensen, p. & maslesa, e., 2015. value based building renovation – a tool for decision-making and evaluation. building and environment, [e-journal] 92, pp.1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.04.008 jensen, p., thuvander, l., femenias, p. & visscher, h., 2022. sustainable building renovation – strategies and processes. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 40(3), pp.157–160. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2022.20457 17 kassem, m., khoiry, m. a. & hamzah, n., 2020. using relative importance index method for developing risk map in oil and gas construction projects. jurnal kejuruteraan, [e-journal] 32(3), pp.85–97. https://doi.org/10.17576/ jkukm-2020-32(3)-09 kaufmann, c. & kock, a., 2022. does project management matter? the relationship between project management effort, complexity, and profitability. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 40(6), pp.624–633. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2022.05.007 kemmer, s., 2018. development of a method for construction management in refurbishment projects. doctoral thesis. university of huddersfield. kemmer, s. & koskela, l. 2012. developing a lean model for production management of refurbishment projects. the 20th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, san diego, usa, july 2012. khadra, a., hugosson, m., akander, j., & myhren, j. a. 2020. development of a weight factor method for sustainability decisions in building renovation. case study using renobuild. sustainability, 12(17), pp.7194. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su12177194 konstantinou, t., prieto, a. & armijos-moya, t., 2021. renovation process challenges and barriers. environmental sciences proceedings, [e-journal] 11(6), pp.1–5. https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2021011006 lai, w. & yang, h., 2017. analyzing influential factors of lean management. international business research, [e-journal] 10(3), pp.20–32. https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v10n3p20 liu, h., jazayeri, e., dadi, g. b., maloney, w. f. & cravey, k. j., 2015. development of an operational excellence model to improve safety for construction organizations. the 5th international/11th construction specialty conference, canadian society for civil engineering, montreal, canada, june 2015. rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025118 https://doi.org/10.30839/2072-7941.2017.124920 https://doi.org/10.7551/mitpress/9780262019415.001.0001 https://doi.org/10.5296/ijim.v3i1.13959 https://doi.org/10.5296/ijim.v3i1.13959 https://doi.org/10.1002/joom.1115 https://doi.org/10.14455/isec.res.2019.184 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.04.008 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2022.2045717 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2022.2045717 https://doi.org/10.17576/jkukm-2020-32(3)-09 https://doi.org/10.17576/jkukm-2020-32(3)-09 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2022.05.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2022.05.007 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12177194 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12177194 https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2021011006 https://doi.org/10.5539/ibr.v10n3p20 mcdermott, o., antony, j. & douglas, j., 2021. exploring the use of operational excellence methodologies in the era of covid-19: perspectives from leading academics and practitioners. tqm journal, [e-journal] 33(8), pp.1647–1665. https://doi.org/10.1108/tqm-01-2021-0016 nickel, c., koester, g. & lis, e. 2022. inflation developments in the euro area since the onset of the pandemic. intereconomics, 57(2), pp.69–75. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10272-022-1032-y noori, a., saruwono, m., adnan, h. & rahmat, i., 2016. conflict, complexity, and uncertainty in building refurbishment projects. conference on international civil and infrastructure engineering, singapore. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-981-10-0155-0_24 pham, m. t., rajić, a., greig, j. d., sargeant, j.m., papadopoulosa, a. & mcewen, s. a., 2014. a scoping review of scoping reviews: advancing the approach and enhancing the consistency. research synthesis methods, [e-journal] 5, pp.371–85. https://doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1123 pikas, e., seppänen, o., koskela, l. & peltokorpi, a., 2021 challenges in industrialized renovation of apartment buildings. the 29th annual conference of the international group for lean construction (iglc29), lima, peru, july 2021. https://doi.org/10.24928/2021/0155 pimentel, l. & major, m., 2016. key success factors for quality management implementation: evidence from the public sector. total quality management and business excellence, [e-journal] 27(9), pp.997–1012. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783 363.2015.1055239 rajala, p., ylä-kujala, a., sinkkonen, t. & kärri, t., 2023. building renovation business: the effects of specialization on profitability. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 41(8), pp.687–702. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193 .2023.2192040 rajala, p., ylä-kujala, a., sinkkonen, t. & kärri, t., 2022. profitability in construction: how does building renovation business fare compared to new building business. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 40(3), pp.223– 237. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2022.2032228 rajguru, a & mahatme, p., 2015. effective techniques in cost optimization of construction project: a review. international journal of research in engineering and technology, [e-journal] 4(3), pp.464–469. https://doi.org/10.15623/ ijret.2015.0403078 rehn, a. 2018. johtajuuden ristiriidat. jyväskylä, finland: docendo. 183p. sahlberg, j., lehtovaara, j. & seppänen, o., 2021. implementing takt production in renovation projects. 29th annual conference of the international group for lean construction (iglc29), lima, peru, pp.677–686. https://doi. org/10.24928/2021/0113 sarhan, j.g., xia, b., fawzia, s. & karim, a., 2017. lean construction implementation in the saudi arabian construction industry. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 17(1), pp.46–69. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v17i1.5098 sarvari, h., chan, d. w. m., alaeos, a. k. f., olawumi, t. o. & abdalridah aldaud, a. a., 2021. critical success factors for managing construction small and medium-sized enterprises in developing countries of middle east: evidence from iranian construction enterprises. journal of building engineering, [e-journal] 43(103152), pp.1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.103152 saunders, m. n. k., lewis, p. & thornhill, a., 2015. research methods for business students. harlow, essex: pearson education. 741p. rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025119 https://doi.org/10.1108/tqm-01-2021-0016 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10272-022-1032-y https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0155-0_24 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0155-0_24 https://doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1123 https://doi.org/10.24928/2021/0155 https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2015.1055239 https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2015.1055239 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2023.2192040 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2023.2192040 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2022.2032228 https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2015.0403078 https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2015.0403078 https://doi.org/10.24928/2021/0113 https://doi.org/10.24928/2021/0113 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5098 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5098 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.103152 sehnem, s., jabbour, c.j.c, pereira, f. & de sousa jabbour, a.b.l., 2019. improving sustainable supply chains performance through operational excellence: circular economy approach. resources, conservation & recycling, [e-journal] 149, pp.236–248. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.05.021 shehu, z. & endut r.i. & akintoye a. & holt, g. 2014. cost overrun in the malaysian construction industry projects: a deeper insight. international journal of project management, 32:1471–1480. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2014.04.004 shiue, f.j., zheng, m.c., lee, h.y., khitam, a.f., li, p.y. & li, l., 2019. renovation construction process scheduling for long-term performance of buildings: an application case of university campus. sustainability, [e-journal] 11(19),5542. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195542 singh, y., abdelhamid, t., mrozowski, t. & el-gafy, m.a., 2014. investigation of contemporary performance measurement systems for production management of renovation projects. journal of construction engineering, [e-journal] 417853, pp.1–9. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/417853 škuflić, l., mlinarić, d. & družić, m., 2018. determinants of construction sector profitability in croatia. zbornik radova ekonomskog fakulteta u rijeci, [e-journal] 36(1), pp.337–354. https://doi.org/10.18045/zbefri.2018.1.337 sobotka, a., sagan, j., baranowska, m. & mazur, e. 2017. management of reverse logistics supply chains in construction projects. procedia engineering, [e-journal] 208, pp.151–159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.11.033 sony, m., 2019. implementing sustainable operational excellence in organizations: an integrative viewpoint. production & manufacturing research, [e-journal] 7(1), pp.67–87. https://doi.org/10.1080/21693277.2019.1581674 suriyanon, n., sutheerawatthana, p., kaewmoracharoen, m. & klansai, v., 2023. the utility and value of contract terms: a case study on interior contractors. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 23(1/2), pp.77–94. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8532 tripathi, k. & jha, k., 2018. application of fuzzy preference relation for evaluating success factors of construction organisations. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 25(6), pp.758–779. https://doi. org/10.1108/ecam-01-2017-0004 uotila, u., saari, a. & junnonen, j.-m., 2020. uncertainty in the early phase of a municipal building refurbishment project—a case study in finland. buildings, [e-journal] 10(137), pp. 1–18. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings10080137 vaidyanathan, k. & mundoli, r.s., 2014. achieving operational excellence in construction projects through process and technology alignment. the 19th annual convention & national seminar on information technology & cad in construction industry for indian buildings congress, february 2014. vainio, t., 2011. building renovation – a new industry? conference on management and innovation for a sustainable built environment. amsterdam, netherlands, 20–23 june, 2011. vareilles, e., santa, a.b., falcon, m., aldanondo, m. & gaborit, p., 2013. configuration of high performance apartment buildings renovation: a constraint based approach. proceeding of ieee international conference on industrial engineering and engineering management, bangkok, thailand, pp.684–688. https://doi.org/10.1109/ ieem.2013.6962498 wahab, m. h. al-a. a., ibrahim, n., yaacob, a. a., ismail, m., muhayiddin, m. n., ab rahman, s. m., & osman, a. a., 2022. the internal environmental factors and operational excellence: the moderating effect of external environmental factor in smes manufacturing sectors. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, [e-journal] 12(5), pp.1448–1459. yu, a.t.w., wong, i. & mok, k.s.h., 2021. effectiveness and barriers of pre-refurbishment auditing for refurbishment and renovation waste management. environmental challenges, [e-journal] 5(2021),100231. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. envc.2021.100231 rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025120 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.05.021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.04.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.04.004 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11195542 https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/417853 https://doi.org/10.18045/zbefri.2018.1.337 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.11.033 https://doi.org/10.1080/21693277.2019.1581674 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8532 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8532 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2017-0004 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2017-0004 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings10080137 https://doi.org/10.1109/ieem.2013.6962498 https://doi.org/10.1109/ieem.2013.6962498 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2021.100231 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2021.100231 zhang, c. & yong, z., 2017. role of operational excellence in construction industry: a review. international journal of engineering and applied sciences, 4(5). available: https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/257470-role-ofoperational-excellence-in-constr-c3ee387d.pdf zolkafli, u.k., zakaria, n., yahya, z., ali, a.s., akashah, f.w., othman, m. & hock, y.k., 2012. risks in conservation projects. journal design + built, 5, pp.1–10. rajala et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025121 https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/257470-role-of-operational-excellence-in-constr-c3ee387d.pdf https://media.neliti.com/media/publications/257470-role-of-operational-excellence-in-constr-c3ee387d.pdf construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: hong, j., akotia, j., egbu, c. 2024. virtual reality in construction activities: barriers for adoption in china. construction economics and building, 24:1/2, 77–93. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v24i1/2.8784 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article virtual reality in construction activities: barriers for adoption in china jingqing hong1,*, julius akotia2, charles egbu3 1 department of real estate and construction, faculty of architecture, the university of hong kong, 5/f, knowles building, the university of hong kong, pokfulam road, hong kong 2 school of business, leeds trinity university, horsforth, leeds, west yorkshire, england 3 vice chancellor, leeds trinity university, horsforth, leeds, west yorkshire, england corresponding author: jingqing hong, department of real estate and construction, faculty of architecture, the university of hong kong, 5/f, knowles building, the university of hong kong, pokfulam road, hong kong, gloria.hong@connect.hku.hk doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8784 article history: received 07/09/2023; revised 02/11/2023; accepted 13/02/2024; published 01/07/2024 abstract the paper presents a study of the barriers that hamper industry adoption of virtual reality (vr) for construction activities in china. a qualitative research methodology was adopted, using semi-structured interviews to collect data from participants. the initial set of codes was established through an open coding method for the subsequent content analysis of data. the findings obtained identified the economic issue as the main barrier impeding the adoption of vr to deliver construction projects in china. other barriers identified include insufficient technical depth and awareness, and the fragmented nature of the supply chain within the industry. the study proposed recommendations on raising awareness, setting up workflows and government support to mitigate the limiting barriers. the findings of the study provide valuable insights to researchers and chinese construction industry practitioners to better understand and promote vr in the delivery of construction projects. keywords barriers; construction; technology adoption; virtual reality declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 77 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8784 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8784 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8784 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:gloria.hong@connect.hku.hk https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8784 introduction the construction industry contributes to about 7% of china’s gross domestic product (gdp) and its economic development (the national bureau of statistics, 2022). vr is one of the new emerging technologies identified since 2018 (cearley, et al., 2016). with the ability to offer multi-sensory experience in the three-dimensional (3d) environment, vr fulfills the high requirement for visual communications during the construction process and other aec activities (kim, et al., 2013). the prospect of vr adoption in construction has attracted extensive attention and its advantages have been widely acknowledged in various countries around the world, e.g., in asia (pan, shi and lu, 2000), europe (national infrastructure commission, 2018), as well as the u.s (ozcan-deniz, 2019). the development and research work on vr within china’s aec organisations and academia started in the early 1990s (pan, shi and lu, 2000). however, to date, in china, vr technology is still having an extremely low industry adoption level (kim, et al., 2013). hence, vr application needs to overcome the hype phase and provide benefits in practice. to better promote vr application and explore its full potential, it is necessary to investigate the barriers that impede its practical adoption in the construction industry environment. as part of digital reform, the chinese government has published tentative policies and strategies to encourage vr development in various industries (e.g., national development and reform commission, 2019; ministry of industry and information technology, 2018). many researchers in china are also currently making efforts to study the barriers to vr adoption in construction (yang and zhong, 2020). issues such as missing unified standards and routines ( ji, 2018), poor communication among various stakeholders (huang, 2010), and the requirements for massive capital support (tian, 2010) have been studied in recent times within china’s construction industry. however, most of these studies still stopped at expounding the practical advantages of vr application, particularly in the aec industry sector in china (e.g., lu and su, 2007; wang and hu, 2009; li, 2005). few studies have investigated concrete limitations of large-scale adoption in the industry, much less of them among practical practitioners. however, there has not been any in-depth study that has examined the key barriers of vr application within the construction industry in china. the main objective of this paper is to explore the barriers that are hampering the adoption of vr technologies in the delivery of construction projects in china’s construction industry. the study sets out to address the following research question: how are the current barriers impeding the adoption of vr in china’s construction industry? to achieve this, the paper adopted a qualitative research methodology with semi-structured interviews to collect data from 11 key experts/participants involved in the construction activities in china’s construction industry. it starts with an introduction to vr technology applications, followed by literature review, methodology, discussion of the findings, and finally presents a conclusion. literature review virtual reality technology development with the advent of digital transformation of the construction industry’s activities, immersive technologies such as vr have been gaining prominence and are being adopted by many construction organizations across the world (hajirasouli, et al., 2022). vr is seen as a technology that can create multisensory virtual 3d environments using computer science. it allows information exchange between virtual and reality by providing immersive experience and interaction for users (li, ding and wang, 2006; zhu and fan, 2016). based on its main characteristics of immersion, interactivity, and imagination, vr has been applied in a vast range of fields (shan, 2019; lu and davis, 2018). initially, it was adopted in the entertainment sector, extending to marketing, tourism, sports, and education (gawai, ingole and dahane, 2022; delgado, et al., hong et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202478 2020). exploration of vr applications in the aec area began in the 1990s (mcmillan, 1994; pan, shi and lu, 2000). architects first identified the advantages of adopting vr technologies in architectural engineering. however, currently, vr has experienced an increasing application by other construction practitioners in all areas of the construction industry, covering the life cycle of architecture, engineering, construction, and facilities management. in china, for instance, the development and application of vr technology have continued to gain attention from aec organisations. however, despite the relatively mature manufacturing chain, applications in specific areas such as the aec industry are still insufficient. the central and local governments have introduced numerous policies and strategies in recent years to promote vr development as well as vr applications to support other industries (e.g., institutional education, media and entertainment, health care, trade and exhibition, etc.). yet, only a few of them are aimed at the aec industry sector. a number of these policy initiatives and strategies have largely focused on building and construction materials production sector, resulting in the adoption of vr in the aec industry of china to be lagging its comprehensive development and application in the delivery of construction projects. benefits of vr application in construction as an area where various stakeholders are supposed to communicate regularly and actively in a dynamic project management environment, the aec industry highly relies on visual communication. vr application could be seen as a solution to the current barriers to communication by providing a platform for collaboration among stakeholders (gawai, ingole and dahane, 2022; zhang, et al., 2020) working on numerous aec projects. it is regarded as one of the major technologies in industry 4.0 and 5.0 for the digitalization of construction activities and processes towards the successful delivery of aec projects (wen and gheisari, 2020). because of the covid-19 pandemic, telework demand has been notably increasing and vr products have continued to surge. hence, its advantages in the aec field could be seen to be inevitable. specifically, vr applications involve various departments and processes in the whole lifecycle of projects in the aec industry. in the design stage, vr technology supports immersive design drafting and design review. in construction, vr facilitates all planning, monitoring, safeguarding, safety education and operative phases of aec projects (gawai, ingole and dahane, 2022). in construction planning, vr supports complex construction tasks during the planning, layout, and decision-making activities and processes. it can support the implementation of remote monitoring, particularly for dangerous sites. rahimian, et al. (2020) proposed an integrated approach of bim models and as-built image data in unity to achieve progress monitoring in a virtual environment. alam, et al. (2017) presented a vr-based internet of things (iot) platform, monitoring extreme environment work to improve safety and reduce errors. vr also supports teleoperation, mainly in demolition tasks in a dangerous environment (delgado, et al., 2020). in construction safety, vr can contribute to training and education on health and safety, and hazard identification and inspection of construction professionals (gawai, ingole and dahane, 2022). for instance, zhang, et al. (2019) developed a crowdsourcing application based on bim, and vr which can be used to conduct fire safety inspections for commercial buildings. in the post-construction phase, some scholars have indicated that integrating facility asset data and the reality mesh can help to visualize construction activities such as maintenance scheduling decisions and improve maintenance resource distribution ( jiang, messner and dubler, 2017). vr can also improve precise evaluation for disaster scenarios, such as earthquakes or fires (cao, et al., 2019). besides construction activities associated with the delivery of construction projects, vr can facilitate stakeholders’ engagement in various real estate walkthroughs (pratama and dossick, 2019), such as campus virtual walkthroughs hong et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202479 (xia, 2013) and facilitate shared immersive experience and project communication in an interactive vr environment (du, et al., 2018a). barriers to adoption of vr in construction previously, scholars from various countries including china have discussed some challenges to vr adoption in construction activities within the aec industry. most vr devices were developed for the entertainment sector, lacking capabilities for application in the engineering and construction sectors (delgado, et al., 2020). pham, et al. (2018) noted battery limitations as vr technology has enormous energy consumption and intensive computation, generating multiple workloads. in china, wang (2018) stated that most vr products circulating on the chinese market were at the “low end”. besides hardware, li (2005) identified vr technology lacking consistent interfaces and open technical standards, causing interoperability and data-sharing issues among different platforms and software. currently, in china, there is a lack of trained workforce who are accustomed to vr applications on the market (delgado, et al., 2020). there is also lack of awareness, making practitioners to be aversive or reluctant to adopt the vr (teixeira, et al., 2021). similarly, practitioners are still used to the traditional technology in the construction process and management, lacking the understanding and expertise about the content, advantages, and approaches of vr application (li, 2005). besides, the aec industry in china is highly fragmented and involves various stakeholders, bringing high requirements for communication and coordination. there are also challenges such as legal, institutional, and ethical issues, vr adoption is likely to generate in terms of data privacy and ownership when an open-access model is applied to projects or production (boyes, 2015). for the aforementioned legal, institutional, and ethical issues, china lacks laws, guidelines, and regulations regarding ethics and integrity regarding new digital technologies in the construction industry about vr technology (li, 2005; li, et al., 2024). also, the governmental approval process for new technologies such as vr has not been updated regularly nor in a timely fashion (wang, 2018). finally, vr applications require massive capital investment and support. besides vr devices and extra training costs, additional investment is also required to provide spaces or dedicated rooms in which to set up the vr equipment (teixeira, et al., 2021). similarly, the hardware and software development of vr technology in china is still lagging, requiring huge financial resources for vr technology to be imported from foreign countries at a relatively high price (huang, 2010), and this is also limiting the adoption of vr technology within the aec sector. methodology this study adopted a qualitative research methodology using semi-structured interviews to collect primary data from experts within china’s construction industry. the semi-structured interview technique was adopted because it allowed a richer and deeper exploration and understanding of the issues from the experts. a qualitative research approach with a semi-structured interview method is seen as the most suitable way to explore issues in-depth to understand experts’ opinions, behaviours and experiences about vr application in china (creswell, 2003). another major advantage associated with the qualitative research approach includes its ability to produce more detailed explanations of human phenomena. it also allows in-depth data to be collected from selected experts in a natural setting where the phenomenon under investigation is being experienced (creswell, 2003). this leads to ensuring the trustworthiness of the findings. according to lincoln and guba (1985) and levitt, et al. (2018), trustworthiness (which involves credibility, dependability, confirmability, and transferability) is a significant component of qualitative research. hence, for the researchers, trustworthiness of the findings was an important objective for the selection of a qualitative methodology for the study. hong et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202480 data collection process sampling is fundamental to any research work as it enables researchers to estimate, identify and obtain detailed information from experts within a targeted population. the sample size, if rightly estimated, enables researchers to draw inferences from the study population and ensure the reliability and validity of their findings. the study adopted a purposive sampling technique through the identification and selection of key experts involved in the use of vr technology in china’s construction industry. the rationale for adopting a purposive sampling approach was to enable data to be collected from key professionals who have expertise in the subject matter being investigated (benoot, hannes and bilsen, 2016). the participants for the study were purposefully identified (via direct industry e-magazine and personal contact) and selected for the study to enable the researchers to explore the issues in-depth (creswell, 2003). similarly, for the research findings to be considered trustworthy, the issue of methodological integrity (which outlines research processes from the selection of participants to the presentation of the findings) is also very crucial. therefore, to ensure methodological integrity, the researchers gave careful consideration to the selection of participants, the data collection, data analysis, and the presentation processes for the study (levitt et al., 2018). all participants came from organisations in the construction industry, including construction companies and organisations’ activities related to the construction industry. initially, 15 experts were sampled and invited to participate in the study. however, 11 experts finally agreed to participate in the study. according to polkinghorne (1989), cited in creswell (2016), a sample size of between 5 -25 interviews with participants (experienced in a particular phenomenon) is appropriate to investigate a phenomenon for qualitative research. the sample size (of 10-15 experts) used for the study was in line with the aforementioned sample size and also with the analogous number of experts for similar studies carried out by whyte (2003), and teixeira, et al. (2021) who have conducted between 10-15 interviews with experts to investigate various issues relating to vr with compelling outcomes. the selection criteria were mainly based on their knowledge and working experiences in the construction industry and their involvement in the use of vr at the technical or management level (middle to senior level managers) of vr and digital intelligence technology as shown in table 1. p1-11 provides the list/ background of interviewees for the study. although gender was not the objective of the selection criteria, it is worth noting that there was only one female who participated in this study. the unbalanced ratio of gender can be due to the construction industry which is still one of the most male-dominated sectors, while women remain under-represented (sang and powell, 2012). table 1. the list of the participants interviewed with their information no. organization gender position relevant experience (years) p1 construction company male commercial engineer 3 p2 construction company male head engineer 23 p3 construction company male technology head 13 p4 water company female technology director 25 p5 construction technology agent male engineer 6 p6 academy of building research male engineer 8 p7 design company male head architect 13 hong et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202481 no. organization gender position relevant experience (years) p8 construction company male general manager 14 p9 construction company male vr technology group member 7 p10 construction company male construction management director 24 p11 construction technology agent male sales manager 5 to begin the qualitative data collection process, all the selected experts were invited through formal letters to participate in the study. they were informed about the rationale of the study and the mode of data collection was agreed on (akotia and opoku, 2018). telephone in-depth semi-structured interviews were then conducted with the practitioners, each interview lasting between 40-90 minutes in an interactive and open manner. a semi-structured interview was chosen as it allowed a flexible approach to be adopted by the researchers to probe deeper into the issues requiring further explanations and clarification from interviewees. a deeper understanding of the participants’ responses was developed during the interviews. the interview questions explored the current vr application situation and the core barriers to industrial adoption in construction activities in china. data saturation was reached at the 11th semi-structured interview conducted with the experts. a review of other seminal works by boddy (2016, p.429) has found data saturation to be “evident at six in-depth interviews and definitely evident at 12 in-depth interviews” with participants. the three main points explored were the technical barriers, social limitations and economic limitations. some of the key questions that were explored included the level of vr adoption/application in their organisations’ practices and the current barriers that were impeding the adoption/application of vr in their organisations’ practices. all the semi-structured interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. each interviewee was assigned a code number (e.g., p1, p2...). the transcribed data was manually examined, sentence by sentence, establishing the initial set of codes through an open coding method for the subsequent thematic content analysis. specific text segments identified as crucial with consistent meanings were also coded as quotations. these were used to highlight references in the analysis and discussion processes. qualitative data coding and synthesis according to creswell (2003, p.189), it is useful to present the findings for a qualitative study in a “chronology of events, the detailed discussion of several themes… with subthemes, specific illustrations, multiple perspectives from individuals, and quotations” to enhance the understanding of the findings. the transcripts were initially reviewed to extract terms and establish open coding in the 1st-order analysis. after that, codes were further refined to form descriptive concepts in the 2nd-order analysis. codes were first condensed into several categories that were identified in the literature as existing concepts. then, other codes that were not mentioned in the existing literature formed the new concepts. they were given extra attention to present specific phenomena in the circumstances. all the existing and new concepts constituted the 2nd-order themes, which can explain the situation observed in the industry. finally, the emergent 2nd-order codes were distilled into 2nd-order ‘aggregate dimensions’. the 1st-order, 2nd-order codes and the aggregate dimensions were used to summarise the findings. in the summary, barriers were ranked based on the level table 2. continued hong et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202482 of importance interviewees attached to each barrier. the qualitative data collection and coding process is shown in figure 1. figure 1. the qualitative data collection and coding process. results and discussion vr current level of adoption from the findings obtained, eight of the eleven interviewees have varied level of knowledge and understanding of the basic concepts and applications of vr. surprisingly, p3 who is the head of technology for a construction company, for instance, stated that he hardly encounters or uses vr technology in his daily working environment, neither its concepts nor its application. the construction company where p3 works remains at a lower level of digitization and largely relies on conventional 2d cad tools in its workflow from building design to construction. similarly, p10 (construction management director), who works for one subsidiary of a business group, mentioned that he only uses user-friendly vr devices, but knew nothing about vr concepts and software. the reason can be the small-scale nature of their organizations and the uncomplicated nature of the projects their company has been undertaken. in addition, p10 is not equipped with vr knowledge on the technological level since he works in the sales department. eight of the participants’ cognition of vr use in construction focuses on the application. they seldom received vr documentation learning or training in the working scenario but learned from other fields in their daily life, such as gaming, medicine, and film industry. in construction, their understanding of vr is limited compared to bim technology. most of them consider vr applications as an extension of bim functions. however, three participants p6, (engineer) p7 (head architect) and p9 (vr technology group member) showed a deeper understanding and application of vr, including application development and technical support. hong et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202483 there are mainly three ways these organisations apply vr, showing a step-up maturity level of specialized vr adoption, namely, outsourcing, subdivision of bim departments and specialized vr departments. in the first case, p4 (technology director) for instance noted that they solicit third-party services provided by mature technology outsourcers in the market. while the company of p5 (engineer) as a technology agent purchases vr products, then sells them to construction companies, and provides simple training for use. in the second case, p1 (commercial engineer), p2, (head engineer) p8 (general manager) mentioned that they had bim departments or professional bim groups in their organisations involved in vr applications development and use. for the specialized vr department, p6 (engineer), p7 (head architect), p11 (sales manager) indicated that they have special vr technology departments or groups equipped with professional technicians in their company for vr applications development. in china, vr applications in construction currently focus on two aspects, i.e. (1) construction safety; (2) immersive experience for users. among five participants directly involved in construction activities, p2, and p8 noted that they have equipped facilities with virtuality environment systems on some of their sites. the facilities simulated safety risks in the construction environment to conduct safety education and training for workers, mainly including falling objects or deep foundation pit dropping risks, and the arrangement of construction emergency platform and safety rope. p3, whose company remains at a lower level of digitization also admitted the potential application prospect of vr safety education. as he observed: “we put safety first (in construction activities). safety is greater than anything today, and related investment will be relatively large ... vr technology certainly helps in safety and efficiency”. another application of vr is to provide immersive experiences, presenting the progress or outcome of projects to supervisors and clients, especially when “higher-ups are coming for inspection work” (p4). p5 confirmed that 70-80% of their clients purchase the vr construction safety service. large enterprises such as state-owned and better-performing private companies also purchase vr immersive presentation applications. besides, the government may require and demand vr applications in some essential infrastructure or public building projects. participants also mentioned some other areas of vr application on a deeper level. for instance, vr can support the city 3d models in urban planning and traffic evaluation to better display ground information rather than only geographic information generated in the geographic information system (p6). vr is also used in remote construction (p6). relevant applications have been developed and put into service since 2016 (p7). nevertheless, vr applications in construction activities in china, arguably, remain shallow. p2 stated that the vr simulation on their site was not very deep: “now vr can only simulate the simplest scenarios. the content given is not so complicated and is limited.” p7 told the researchers that though their organisation had developed various vr applications on a deeper level for construction activities, it was hard to promote and popularize these products to the market. besides, general commercial or residential projects tend to adopt the traditional construction process. only megaprojects as landmark buildings, large event centres and airport projects tend to be equipped and use vr applications. as he opined: “we’ve been promoting for a long time, but people don’t want to pay for it.” vr adoption barriers lack of practical benefits when the question was put to the interviewees about the practical benefits of adopting vr in china’s construction industry, all interviewees agreed that there were limited practical benefits that vr application hong et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202484 brings to construction activities, especially economic profit. it was identified as one of the main barriers for vr adoption. when requested to rank the barriers according to how the barriers impacted the adoption in the interview, all participants put the economic issues on the top and emphasized its primary status. in the view of economic benefits in current construction projects, p1 commented: “i can’t see what vr can bring to the projects.” while p4 stated: “vr only emphasizes a kind of immersion experience, rather than solves problems in projects. it cannot improve our management.” and p8, who provides services for a private construction enterprise, explained: “vr technology currently does not match our business. we have not yet found a suitable application point.” in other words, vr applications are currently regarded as hype, instead of creating practical benefits or profits. vr is used for “presentation” in situations of awards application, head-ups visiting or responding to the government’s innovation agenda. however, it is considered to barely improve the process and management of construction. the study also revealed that organisations and individuals in this industry put profits and practical benefits on top, while vr application has still not been designed or perfected for such a core need. it can be said that the full benefits of vr applications can be realised when construction industry practitioners, particularly in china understand the core values and benefits associated with the adoption and implementation of vr in its totality. massive investment requirement further exploration of the barriers with the interviewees during the interview revealed that interviewees were concerned with the massive investment associated with the vr application on their projects. according to them, compared to the low benefits identified with vr its adoption requires a massive investment which construction companies, especially the small to medium ones, are unable to afford. for the organizations that independently develop vr, the high investment cost first comes from the hardware. vr application development has a high demand for computer configuration. as p2 stated the barrier to hardware cost for promoting vr within the company: “although the head company has purchased advanced computer configuration, many of our project departments at the lower level will consider the cost and not invest in configured high-end mainframe computers. then, they cannot adopt vr applications on-site.” another issue is the frequent update rate in software and hardware. p1 mentioned that: “the vr equipment usable these days is likely to be obsolete in a few years.” additionally, vr devices easily wear and tear on-site, where the environment is very harsh with many uncontrollable factors (p11). in the case of purchasing outsourcing services, vr services and equipment provided by construction technology agents are costly as well. and with the large population involved in construction activities, it requires massive head-mounted displays in each project. another practitioner, p8 noted that a containersize safety construction vr experience facility they equipped on-site needed a building cost of around 100,000 chinese yuan (approximately 11,110 pounds). hong et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202485 according to p5 who happens to be an engineer also lamented on high cost of vr on the market, which was impacting construction companies’ ability to acquire vr technology for their projects. p5 intimated that it was a kind of excessive pricing: “there are not enough companies to do vr services development. so outsourcing services can be quite expensive.” the responses from participants also showed other kinds of input, such as human resources and time cost. in practice, dedicated teams are required to support the implementation and maintenance of vr applications. as p2 described: “in a complex airport project we recently delivered, we configured a team of about seventy staff for solely finishing the modelling and animation demonstration work. it was quite a huge input.” this barrier is closely connected to the small benefits brought by vr in practice. the massive investment further decreases the final profits china’s construction industry practitioners gain, making it harder to adopt vr applications in their construction activities. at the same time, financial investment acts as a threshold, excluding small and medium-sized companies without abundant resources. the above findings corroborated the recent work of teixeira, et al., (2021). lack of business model another barrier correlated to high cost is that there is a lack of business models currently for construction companies to adopt vr, neither are there successful business cases to learn from. this became evident during the interview as some interviewees identified the lack of business model which has led some organizations to aim at a high-end application with vr at first and put massive investments, such as building a digital platform. as p2 for instance stated: “there are no business models to amplify the advantages of vr application with the construction industry. we need something customized to guide our construction companies in the application of vr on their projects”. lack of client requirements delgado, et al. (2020) mentioned that a lack of client requirements also impedes vr adoption in construction activities. from the findings, it is revealed that most business owners are not willing to pay for vr applications in projects with high costs and slender profits. this is more so in small projects of commercial and residential buildings in china. this was corroborated by a response from p7: “owners won’t pay a cent. they do not have the actual demands for vr.” according to p6, either property developers or the governments can require contractors to adopt traditional construction methods to achieve the project performance without paying extra millions of chinese yuan. hence, contractors cannot gain extra payment from the owner when adding vr applications to the construction process but only increase their costs. the lack of practical benefits has an impact on this barrier. neither contractors nor owners want to be responsible for the massive investment/cost relating to vr adoption. insufficient technical depth in market circulation further exploration of the findings indicated an interesting gap between technology developers and users in vr applications in construction activities. all interviewees in non-technology positions/domain who hong et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202486 participated in the semi-structured interview agreed that the current vr applications on the market were of insufficient depth. notably, p4 described it as “in an embarrassing state”. other interviewees such as, p2, p4 and p8 all stated that the current vr technology was unable to bring much improvement to the management and performance of projects, while they had no access to more high-tech applications. moreover, p4 and p10 for instance deemed that bim can completely replace the existing functions of vr in construction activities, which is much more mature and cheaper. p6 was of the view that the construction industry had been equipped with a certain level of technical abilities, however: “technology is available but not required in engineering and construction.” the reason leading to this finding is likely to be explained by cost. the desired effect cannot be achieved at a lower price when applying vr in construction activities. in other words, the industry now lacks a template or assembly line to generate vr products. although technology companies can develop vr products at the high end, it is hard to promote its application, while construction companies cannot purchase high-tech vr applications at an acceptable price. this situation further leads to inadequate vr products at high-end in market circulation. most construction industry user groups have little access to deep vr technology, and neither do they feel its development. as p11 mentioned: “it is a deadlock.” nevertheless, p7 admitted that it would be easier to promote vr applications if the technology were soaring to another height. p7 further noted: “if vr reaches the technological level like the science fiction film industry, it can be totally different.” “but that was not the current situation about its application in china’s construction industry.” awareness of vr issues further analysis of the findings indicated that there is also a polarization in the awareness of technology innovation in the construction industry of china. most of the interviewees, particularly from the small and medium enterprises (smes) who participated in the interview regarded the lack of awareness and understanding as a significant barrier to vr adoption in construction activities. this was obvious in one of the responses provided by p3 who is one of the senior technology managers: “people can use something only when they have a basic understanding of it. otherwise, the forced introduction will cause aversion”. and p2 also agreed with p3’s views by noting: “when the traditional process can achieve the goal, people are not willing to take risks and additional cost to attempt a new technology”. however, it can be observed that the large-scale private and state-owned aec companies generally keep an open mind to vr adoption. because these large-scale companies can be seen to have some level of financial resource to purchase the technology associated with vr, and this has enabled these companies to create awareness of the vr application. many organisations and groups in china are researching vr applications and leading the way in scientific and technological innovation and this will help to create awareness of the value and benefits of the vr technology and application. hong et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202487 participant feelings and health issues the findings also revealed that health and safety was a major concern for the adoption of vr by construction industry organisations on their projects. during the interview discussion, p4, for instance, reflected on several health and safety problems associated with vr facilities with respect to user feelings: p4 noted that the vr facilities such as the head-mounted displays and vr goggles, were heavy and uncomfortable to wear. p4 also indicated that these vr facilities were not portable to use as users had to stand in some cases for long hours in a fixed position to use these facilities, and this made some users to feel dizzy and nauseous in a situation of immersive spatial simulation. from the above views, it can be said that the promotion and adoption of vr can only be achieved when adequate attention is given to tackling these health and safety-related issues. adequate safety and safety training and education can also help to enhance the knowledge and understanding of health and safety issues related to the use of vr facilities and applications. this will also help to promote construction industry practitioners’ willingness to use vr devices. fragmented nature of construction activities in the construction industry another barrier identified from the analysis of the findings of vr adoption is the fragmented nature of china’s construction delivery/activities of the construction industry (huang, 2010). during the interview, p5 mentioned the lack of a coherent system and the interrupted nature of construction activities which does not allow companies to apply vr in their next projects, as commented: “due to the fragmented nature of the construction activities, once projects are completed, vr service is not recycled and reused for the next project. in most cases, they are discarded or just thrown away.” p5 further opined that construction companies were short of holistic management in vr adoption and that staff were commonly seconded to operate vr applications. and this was having an impact on promoting the continuous application of vr technology for the projects. summary of the findings the interview data revealed the dominating barriers to vr adoption in the construction industry of china. figure 2 provides the summary of the main issues explored, the first (1st) and second (2nd) coding/grouping of the responses from the interviewees. overall, there are linkages between the three main issues (technical, economic and social limitations) that were explored by the study. these three main issues are interactive and inseparable. the lag in technological development has an impact on social and economic constraints, while the lack of economic profits also has a knock-on impact on technological development. however, the dominant barrier to vr adoption in construction activities in china can be seen to be the economic limitations. it is rational, as the primary goal of enterprises is to make profits, especially in a developing country like china where the construction industry is still developing at a progressing rate. hence, the issues of high cost associated with the development and acquisition of vr technology need to be given serious attention by policymakers. the government is encouraging new technologies to be developed and applied in the construction industry, but the impact and benefits of vr are yet to be felt and realised. this is further exacerbated by the lack of regulation and legislation to make vr adoption and application mandatory/obligatory. although some digital technologies are being used on construction on-site, e.g., digital-clock-in/out systems, there are still difficulties in adopting vr as a key technology for the delivery of construction projects. embracing digital technology such as vr is the way construction companies and the whole industry can be seen addressing the technological gap required to meet the needs of industry 4.0 and 5.0. requirements. these findings provide useful information for the construction practitioners and policymakers in china in their quest towards the development and adoption of vr technology within china’s construction industry. hong et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202488 research limitation while the findings of the study can be seen to be compelling, nevertheless, there are some limitations in the study. the current study only focused on the construction activities and companies within the chinese construction industry, hence future research could include other construction-related areas and consider the whole project lifecycle of construction projects: from design through to the demolition phases, including owners and other stakeholders in the wider aec sectors. future studies could also use focus group interviews with practitioners to explore the application of vr barriers in the chinese construction industry further. a questionnaire could also be used to collect data (together with interviews) to support the qualitative analysis to further affirm, rank, and categorize the barriers. conclusions this study explored the barriers to vr adoption in the construction industry in china through qualitative research. the findings revealed that economic issue was the primary barrier to vr adoption in china’s construction industry. other notable barriers identified include insufficient technical depth and awareness, and the fragmented nature of the construction activities within the industry. the findings of the study provide valuable information for policymakers and aec industry practitioners to understand the barriers are associated with the adoption and implementation of vr in the construction industry of china. the figure 2. summary of the findings. hong et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202489 findings will also serve as a reference document for future studies and academic work. based on the findings the authors propose the following recommendations: (1) raise awareness of the importance and benefits of vr application to address the technological gap between the construction industry and other industries. doing so will also enhance the understanding and knowledge of practitioners and encourage practitioners to promote its benefits and application. (2) enhance government support. there should be adequate funding support and incentive mechanisms in place by the central/local government to develop vr technology to make it cheaper and available to encourage practitioners within china’s construction industry to adopt vr in their construction projects. doing so will also help to address other key barriers identified in this study. references akotia, j and opoku, a., 2018. sustainable regeneration project delivery in uk a qualitative analysis of practitioners’ engagement. journal of facilities management, [e-journal] 16(1), pp.87-100. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-05-2017-0024 alam, m.f., katsikas, s., beltramello, o. and hadjiefthymiades, s., 2017. augmented and virtual reality-based monitoring and safety system: a prototype iot platform. journal of network and computer applications, [e-journal] 89, pp.109–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2017.03.022 benoot, c, hannes, k. and bilsen, j., 2016. the use of purposeful sampling in a qualitative evidence synthesis: a worked example on sexual adjustment to a cancer trajectory. bmc medical research methodology, [e-journal] 16(21). https://doi. org/10.1186/s12874-016-0114-6 boddy, c.r., 2016. sample size for qualitative research. qualitative market research: an international journal, [e-journal] 19(4), pp.426-32. https://doi.org/10.1108/qmr-06-2016-0053 boyes, h., 2015. security, privacy, and the built environment. it professional, [e-journal] 17(3), pp.25–31. https://doi. org/10.1109/mitp.2015.49 cao, l., lin, j. and li, n., 2019. a virtual reality-based study of indoor fire evacuation after active or passive spatial exploration. computers in human behavior, [e-journal] 90, pp.37–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.08.041 cearley, d., burke, b., searle, s. and walker, m. j., 2016. top 10 strategic technology trends for 2018, [pdf ] available at: http://brilliantdude.com/solves/content/gartnertrends2018.pdf [accessed 28 january 2024]. creswell, j.w., 2016. qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches. [e-book] usa: sage publications. available through: google scholar [accessed 28 january 2024]. creswell, j.w., 2003. research design: qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods approaches. 2nd ed. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. delgado, d. j. m., oyedele, l., beach, t. and demian, p., 2020. augmented and virtual reality in construction: drivers and limitations for industry adoption. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 146(7), 04020079. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001844 du, j., shi, y., zou, z. and zhao, d., 2018a. covr: cloud-based multiuser virtual reality headset system for project communication of remote users. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 144(2), 04017109. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001426 du, j., zou, z., shi, y. and zhao, d., 2018b. zero latency: real-time synchronization of bim data in virtual reality for collaborative decision-making. automation in construction, [e-journal] 85, pp.51–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2017.10.009 gawai, v.n., ingole n.w. and dahane, r.a., 2022. adoption of survey methods and future of virtual reality in construction project and management. international journal of engineering technology research & management, [e-journal] 6(6), pp.62-71. available through: google scholar [accessed 28 january 2024] hong et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202490 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-05-2017-0024 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jnca.2017.03.022 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-016-0114-6 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12874-016-0114-6 https://doi.org/10.1108/qmr-06-2016-0053 https://doi.org/10.1109/mitp.2015.49 https://doi.org/10.1109/mitp.2015.49 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.08.041 http://brilliantdude.com/solves/content/gartnertrends2018.pdf https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001844 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001426 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.10.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.10.009 hajirasouli, a., banihashemi, s., drogemuller r., fazeli, a. and mohandes, s.r., 2022. augmented reality in design and construction: thematic analysis and conceptual frameworks. construction innovation, [e-journal] 22(3), pp. 412-43. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-01-2022-0007 huang, h., 2010. introducing virtual reality technology into building construction (in chinese). city construction, [e-journal] 10(7), pp.150. available through: baidu scholar [accessed 28 january 2024]. ji, s., 2018. vr application and prospect in construction technology (in chinese). construction materials decoration, [e-journal] 18(8), pp.150–51. available through: baidu scholar [accessed 28 january 2024]. jiang, z., messner, j. i. and dubler, c.r., 2017. defining a taxonomy for virtual 3d city model use cases with a focus on facility asset management—a virtual campus case study. computing in civil engineering 2017, [e-journal] 2017, pp.43–50. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784480823.006 kim, m., wang, x., love, p., li, h. and kang, s.-c., 2013. virtual reality for the built environment: a critical review of recent advances. journal of information technology in construction, [e-journal] 13(18), pp.279–305. http://hdl.handle. net/20.500.11937/48139. levitt, h.m., creswell, j.w., josselson, r., bamberg, m., frost, d.m. and suárez-orozco, c., 2018. journal article reporting standards for qualitative primary, qualitative meta-analytic, and mixed methods research in psychology: the apa publications and communications board task force report. american psychological association, [e-journal] 73(1), pp.26. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000151 li, y., 2005. application of it technology to reform the traditional building industry (in chinese). china civil engineering journal, [e-journal] 02(4), pp.07-10. available through: baidu scholar [accessed 28 january 2024]. li, h., sun, y., zhang, j., liu, d., han, z. and li, y., 2024. critical uncertainty analysis of the application of newgeneration digital technology in china’s construction industry—a study based on the lda-dematel-ism improvement model. applied science, [e-journal] 14(1), pp.57. https://doi.org/10.3390/app14010057 li, g.c., ding, l.y and wang, j.t., 2006. construction project control in virtual reality: a case study. journal of applied sciences, [e-journal] 6(13), pp.2724-32. https://doi.org/10.3923/jas.2006.2724.2732 lincoln, y.s. and guba, e.g., 1985. naturalistic inquiry. [e-book] newbury park, ca: sage publications. available through: google scholar [accessed 28 january 2024]. lu, j. and su, t., 2007. virtual reality application technology on landscape design (in chinese). journal of nanjing forestry university, [e-journal] 50(06), pp.139. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.jssn.1000-2006.2007.06.034 lu, x. and davis, s., 2018. priming effects on safety decisions in a virtual construction simulator. engineering, construction and architectural management. [e-journal] 25(2), pp.273-94. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-20160114 mcmillan, k., 1994. virtual reality: architecture and the broader community. [online] available at: http://www.arch.unsw. edu.au/subjects/arch/specres2/mcmillan/vr-arch.htm [accessed april, 1997]. ministry of industry and information technology., 2018. guidance for the ministry of industry and information technology on accelerating the development of the vr industry (december 25, 2018) (in chinese). [online] available at: https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2018-12/31/content_5442943.htm [accessed 28 january 2024]. national development and reform commission, 2019. catalogue of guidance for industrial restructuring (october 30, 2019) (in chinese). [online] available at: https://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2019-11/06/content_5449193.htm [accessed 28 january 2024]. hong et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202491 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-01-2022-0007 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784480823.006 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/48139 http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/48139 https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000151 https://doi.org/10.3390/app14010057 https://doi.org/10.3923/jas.2006.2724.2732 https://doi.org/10.3969/j.jssn.1000-2006.2007.06.034 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2016-0114 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2016-0114 http://www.arch.unsw.edu.au/subjects/arch/specres2/mcmillan/vr-arch.htm http://www.arch.unsw.edu.au/subjects/arch/specres2/mcmillan/vr-arch.htm https://www.gov.cn/zhengce/zhengceku/2018-12/31/content_5442943.htm https://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2019-11/06/content_5449193.htm national infrastructure commission, 2018. data for the public good. [pdf ] available at: https://nic.org.uk/app/uploads/ data-for-the-public-good-nic-report.pdf [accessed 28 january 2024]. ozcan-deniz, g., 2019. expanding applications of virtual reality in construction industry: a multiple case study approach. journal of construction engineering, management & innovation, [e-journal] 2(2), pp.48-66. https://doi. org/10.31462/jcemi.2019.02048066 pan, z., shi, j and lu, q., 2000. virtual reality and its applications in china: an overview. the international journal of virtual reality, [e-journal] 4(3), pp.1-20. https://doi.org/10.20870/ijvr.2000.4.3.2645 pham, h.c., dao, n.-n., kim, j.-u., cho, s. and park, c.-s., 2018. energy-efficient learning system using web-based panoramic virtual photoreality for interactive construction safety education. sustainability, [e-journal] 10(7), pp.2262. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072262 polkinghorne, d.e., 1989. phenomenological research methods. [e-book] boston, ma: springer us. available through: google scholar [accessed 28 january 2024]. pratama , l.a. and dossick, c.s., 2019. workflow in virtual reality tool development for aec industry. advances in informatics and computing in civil and construction engineering, springer, [e-journal] 2019, pp.297–306. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-030-00220-6_36 rahimian, f.p., seyedzadeh, s., oliver, s., rodriguez, s. and dawood, n., 2020. on-demand monitoring of construction projects through a game-like hybrid application of bim and machine learning. automation in construction, [e-journal] 110, pp.103012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.103012 shan, y., 2019. virtual reality in china: is there a sustainable business model for virtual reality content enterprises? cultural science journal, [e-journal] 11(1), pp. 54–67. https://doi.org/10.5334/csci.123 sang, k. and powell, a., 2012. gender inequality in the construction industry: lessons from pierre bourdieu. management, [e-journal] 2012, pp.237-47. available through: google scholar [accessed 28 january 2024]. teixeira, m.b.f., pham, k., caldwell, g., seevinck, j., swann, l., rittenbruch, m., kelly, n., santo, y., garcia hansen, v. and volz, k., 2021. a user-centred focus on augmented reality and virtual reality in aec: opportunities and barriers identified by industry professionals. projections: proceedings of the 26th international conference of the association for computer-aided architectural design research in asia (caadria) 2021, volume 2, the association for computer-aided architectural design research in asia, [e-journal] 2021, pp.273–83. available through: google scholar [accessed 28 january 2024]. tian, g., 2010. application and prospect of virtual simulation technology in construction engineering (in chinese). construction materials decoration, [e-journal] 14, pp.226–27. available through: baidu scholar [accessed 28 january 2024]. the national bureau of statistics., 2022. china statistical yearbook 2022 (in chinese). [online] available at: http://www. stats.gov.cn/sj/ndsj/2022/indexch.htm wang, k. and hu, z., 2009. application study of virtual reality in real estate industry. proceedings of the 3rd wseas international conference on computer engineering and applications, [e-journal] pp.247–51. https://dl.acm.org/doi/ abs/10.5555/1519432.1519480 wang, y., 2018. engineering quality control and management based on bim technology and vr technology (in chinese). ph. d. yunnan university. available through: baidu scholar [accessed 28 january 2024]. wen, j. and gheisari, m., 2020. using virtual reality to facilitate communication in the aec domain: a systematic review. construction innovation. [e-journal] 20(3), pp.509-42. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-11-2019-0122 hong et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202492 https://nic.org.uk/app/uploads/data-for-the-public-good-nic-report.pdf https://nic.org.uk/app/uploads/data-for-the-public-good-nic-report.pdf https://doi.org/10.31462/jcemi.2019.02048066 https://doi.org/10.31462/jcemi.2019.02048066 https://doi.org/10.20870/ijvr.2000.4.3.2645 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072262 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00220-6_36 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00220-6_36 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.103012 https://doi.org/10.5334/csci.123 http://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/ndsj/2022/indexch.htm http://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/ndsj/2022/indexch.htm https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.5555/1519432.1519480 https://dl.acm.org/doi/abs/10.5555/1519432.1519480 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-11-2019-0122 whyte, j., 2003. innovation and users: virtual reality in the construction sector. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 21(6), pp.565-72. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000113690 xia, s.a., 2013. design and implementation of campus 3d virtual walkthrough system-take hunan science and technology university as an example. applied mechanics and materials, [e-journal] 268, pp.1926–29. https://doi. org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.268-270.1926 yang, q. and zhong, s., 2020. a study on the development of virtual reality technology in china: review and prospect (in chinese). scientific management research, [e-journal] 05, pp.20–26. available through: baidu scholar [accessed 28 january 2024]. zhang, d., zhang, j., xiong, h., cui, z. and lu, d., 2019. taking advantage of collective intelligence and bim-based virtual reality in fire safety inspection for commercial and public buildings. applied sciences, [e-journal] 9(23), pp.5068. https://doi.org/10.3390/app9235068 zhang, y., liu, h., kang, s.-c. and al-hussein, m., 2020. virtual reality applications for the built environment: research trends and opportunities. automation in construction, [e-journal] 118, pp.103311. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2020.103311 zhu, w. and fan, g., 2016. application of computer virtual reality technology in virtual tour. international journal of advanced media and communication, [e-journal] 6(2-4), pp.273–82. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijamc.2016.080973 hong et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202493 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000113690 https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.268-270.1926 https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amm.268-270.1926 https://doi.org/10.3390/app9235068 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103311 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103311 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijamc.2016.080973 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: stefańska, a., cygan, m., batte, k., and pietrzak, j. 2021. applications of timber and woodbased materials in architectural design using multiobjective optimisation tools. construction economics and building, 21:3, 105– 121. http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v21i3.7642 issn 2204 9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021 article (peer reviewed) applications of timber and woodbased materials in architectural design using multiobjective optimisation tools anna stefańska1,*, marta cygan2, kinga batte2, joanna pietrzak3 1 engineering design studio, faculty of architecture, białystok university of technology, poland, email: a.stefanska@pb.edu.pl 2 faculty of architecture, warsaw university of technology, poland, email: {marta.cygan.stud, kinga.batte.stud}@pw.edu.pl 3 department of structure design, construction and technical infrastructure, faculty of architecture, warsaw university of technology, poland, email: joanna.pietrzak@pw.edu.pl corresponding author: anna stefańska, engineering design studio, faculty of architecture, białystok university of technology, poland, a.stefanska@pb.edu.pl doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7642 article history: received: 24/03/2021; revised: 15/06/2021 & 04/08/2021; accepted: 09/08/2021; published: 10/09/2021 abstract digital fabrication leads architects and structural engineers to modify the design optimisation methodology. the designers, as never before, are facing new technologies developed in the search for new materials based, among others, on wood components and the improvement of manufacturing methods at the same time. in this process, the material and manufacturing technology adjustment to desired aesthetic outcomes is possible not only by the material used but also by the selforganisation of the structure’s optimisation. new fabrication techniques linked with topology optimising software change traditional loadbearing systems designing using timber and woodbased materials. multiobjective optimisation research indicates that timber might be a comprehensive material based on various applications from lowtech to cuttingedge contemporary fabrication technologies. the article presents new tools and methods for the optimisation of structural elements. a case study based on interdisciplinary architectural and structural optimisation suggests the possible effective researchbased design. comparing contemporary buildings with wood loadbearing structures explains timber usage’s diversity and characteristics in modern design. 105 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7642 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7642 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:a.stefanska@pb.edu.pl mailto:joanna.pietrzak@pw.edu.pl mailto:a.stefanska@pb.edu.pl http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7642 keywords architectural design optimization; digital fabrication; folding; generative design; timber manufacturing; woodbased materials introduction digital fabrication is prompting architects and structural engineers to modify their design optimisation methodologies. designers, as never before, are faced with the development of new technologies in the search for new materials based on timber components and the improvement of manufacturing methods while adapting the material and manufacturing technology to the desired aesthetic effects. at the same time, it is possible by adjusting the material characteristics accordingly, but also by selforganising design optimisation. new manufacturing techniques combined with optimisation software change the traditional way of designing loadbearing structures made of timber and woodbased materials. research on multivariant optimisation indicates that timber can be a versatile material with a wide range of applications from lowtech to advanced systems using additive fabrication from the woodbased composite filament. influence of environmental requirements (design according to international organisations’ strictures related to sustainable development), technological development of woodbased construction materials (micro laminated and clt), and development of modern tools (generative software, structural analysis, computer controlled fabrication) resulted in a return of interest in timber and woodbased materials and their reuse as effective solutions (e.g., in highrise buildings, largesurface coverings or freeform complex geometries) (larabocanegra, et al., 2014). the paper presents new tools and optimisation methods using these materials as structural elements and structural optimisation of freeform canopy pavilions. sustainable design visible changes in the construction sector are dictated by regulations, including those of the european union. e.u. development strategy “europe 2020” and earlier conventions: in arhus, helsinki, and convention on biological diversity indicate the need for building industry to adapt to sustainable development goals. it is required to improve the efficiency of energy consumption and reduce the consumption of greenhouse gases. it is estimated that concrete production is responsible for 8% of global anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions to the atmosphere(pantazis and gerber, 2019). about 30% of the earth’s surface is now forested, with almost half of all forests located in developed countries. during growth, trees convert carbon dioxide into oxygen through photosynthesis so that even with the highly energyintensive wood processing, the final wood components are lowenergy and have a positive carbon footprint( joseph, 2008; padillarivera, amor and martin, 2018). the drive to minimise nonenvironmental materials, increase renewable materials, stabilise the building process, and tighten regulations to follow sustainability guidelines significantly influences many kinds of research for materials and technologies to use wood as a construction material. literature review digitisation of the design method has changed the boundary conditions shaping architectural and structural design. a common computerbased platform that combines digital tools for design, optimisation, pre production, and fabrication enables models with a complete crosssection of information (klinger, 2013). however, while allowing for the exchange of interdisciplinary information, the bim platform’s use still does not provide the ability to shape the aesthetic expression of free forms. greater design freedom and design differentiation are achieved using an interdisciplinary architectural and structural environment, including fembased structural calculations, which allow continuous surfaces to be discretised into a finite stefańska, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021106 number of interdependent nodes (tamke, 2015). current research on timber and woodbased materials is mainly based on two research assumptions, looking for the work’s structural logic and tectonics. the second research assumption is to look for wood materials’ characteristics and shape structural elements using them (weinand, 2017). researchbased review contemporary architectural design with the use of digital tools is increasingly associated with concepts such as “new structuralism” and “nonstandard architecture” (leichuan and shanyau, 2012; monier, bignon and duchanois, 2013). the use of irregular structural forms has given cause for interdisciplinary explorations at the intersections of morphology in architecture, structural optimisation, material engineering, and fabrication technology (nilsson, 2007). the use of wood and woodbased materials and composites, with their help, is a solution that is increasingly common in research projects. striving for the benefit of materials under the way a structure works is not a new issue. innovative research is mainly based on choosing the material properties and manufacturing to use the most effective. examples of prefabricated timber elements in the construction sector include crosslaminated timber (clt) as a monolithic material (the glue content is about 0.6% of the element’s total weight). inspiration from active forms, such as cable, membrane, or arch constructions, is used to search for formfinding using timber as a flexible material and adapts to the structure’s forces (bletzinger, et al., 2010). examples of studies that used optimisation based on bendingactive segments include the 2010 and 2015/16 icd/itke experimental pavilions (sonntag, bechert and knippers, 2017; nabaei,baravel and weinand, 2013). the optimisation of spatial structures using wooden material can be seen in the search for geometries in which it is possible to minimise the intricate structural details connecting the elements. an example of such examination is traditional construction patterns, e.g., wicker baskets (figure.1). the old japanese art of basket weaving kagome, which consists of interweaving symmetrically arranged in a triangular or triangularhexagonal grid, has become an inspiration for the search for architectural objects of both small scale and large scale objects such as, e.g., centre pompidou metz in france (ayres, martin and zwierzycki, 2018). research on the use of wood as a construction material and applying suitable manufacturing load bearing elements was also conducted during the exhibition pavilion project in landesagrtenshau, germany (schwinn, 2017), where a 50 mm thick structure was used. the supporting structure consisted of flat, figure 1. kagome, a system of weaving elements without the need to use complicated connection details, a basic kagome pattern consisting of three main directions of braided elements, courtesy: marius tsiliakos stefańska, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021107 mainly hexagonal panels (of irregular shape) optimised concerning shape and fabrication. the panels were connected by finger joints, cut out by a kuka robot, and secured against shifting with nails in specially shaped sockets. the walls of the pavilion, as a yearround object, were designed as threelayer, consisting of a loadbearing part (plywood with a thickness of 50 mm), the insulation part (35 mm wood fibreboard), and the outer finishing layer (plywood with a thickness of 10 mm). the use of modern fabrication technologies in wooden structures was also the inspiration for designing the buga summer pavilion. the research objective was to develop an architecturally aesthetic and structurally logical biomimetic timber shell. according to the principle, the structure based on three end supports, with a span of 30 m, assumed the minimisation of material: “materials are expensive, and shape is cheap” (pawlyn, 2016). each wooden segment comprises two thin panels covered by a ring of edge beams at the top and bottom to minimise material and weight, creating largescale hollow wood boxes with polygonal forms. a large opening in the bottom panel provides a distinctive architectural element and access to hidden connections during assembly. the lightweight building components are connected by finger joints that mimic the morphological principles of the anatomical features found on the sea urchin panels’ edges. in its assembled state, the shell acts as a formactive structure through its expressive doublecurved geometry. designbased in the servicecultural architecture of the 20th and 21st centuries, experimental buildings based on free form algorithms characterise the spectacular realisations of leading architects. the search for patterns that minimise material use in nature while achieving significant efficiency has become a marker of biomimicry and sustainable development guidelines. the search for unique forms is increasingly being combined in practical design with the search for optimal material. respect for the environment, minimising carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions directed designers’ attention to searching for construction materials in natural wood and conglomerates with wood and woodbased materials. a twopronged search is evident: in the use of wood as a construction material in traditional construction, e.g., residential buildings (single family houses built using wooden structures produce several times less carbon dioxide than reinforced concrete structures), and the use of wood in unique structures. freeform structures made of glulam like the metropol parasol in seville are a freestanding structure with an area of 12,670 m2 and a height of 28.50 m and is an important tourist attraction the main viewpoints. mayer architects’ structure incorporates commercial and recreational functions, housing market halls, cafés, restaurants, and an observation deck. the architects shigeru ban and kengo kuma gained their recognition thanks to, among others, the use of wood as the primary material in their objects. in their projects, they both look for unique forms based on the principles of geometric divisions of spatial grids, and their structures often gain lightness precisely thanks to the use of, among others, laminated wood structures. an example of europe’s largest freeform, timberframed building is the headquarters of swatch and omega. the structure with a total area of 25,000 m2 is designed as a supportfree hall with a quadrilateral glulam grid structure made of 7, 700 unique elements. multiobjective optimisation techniques the formulation of tasks applies to the transfer of information, analysis, and conclusions on the achievements of architecture based on new solutions, both in terms of aesthetic and function, economic and practice aspects, as a result of the continuous development and innovative technological solutions, practical demonstration of their growing influence on the architectural and structural works. knowledge and understanding of the issues traditionally associated with architectural and urban design, such as technical infrastructure, communication, natural environment, landscape architecture necessary for social, economic, ecological, biotechnological, historical, cultural, legal, and other conditions of engineering activity are stefańska, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021108 fundamental skills. due to the increasing requirements in environmental protection, the presentation of new technologies should be a comprehensive sustainable development circle, not only the design, maintenance, and monitoring of the condition of facilities. multiobjective architectural optimisations consist of many architectural factors, such as social, economic, ecological, biotechnological, historical, cultural, legal, and other conditions, but cannot be limited to them. new possibilities in designing technologies require material engineering, digital fabrication, topological optimisation, often beyond architects’ knowledge and interests. during recent technological development, the designing process undergoes reformulation (oxman, 2017). architectural design optimization utilises parametric script language ( jabi, et al., 2017), topological and generative methods (aish and woodbury, 2005), and changing designing conditions. review and comparative analysis of selected contemporary fabrication techniques figure 2. timber based structural designing, a) lookout tower helsinki finland, avanto architects, 2001, courtesy: avanto architects, photo: jussi tiainen, b) sunny hills minato japan, kengo kuma & associates, 2013, courtesy: kengo kuma and associates, c) pudelma pavilion turku, finland, rosenfield k., 2011, courtesy: taavi henttonen, d) botanical pavilion, melbourne, australia, tom ross, 2020, courtesy: tom ross modern digital fabrication allows structural components to be made with unprecedented precision. an advantage of these technologies is that the representation of structural elements becomes redundant in technical drawing documentation. a cad/cam collaboration allows both smallerscale working models and finished products to be produced using filetofactory technology. essential details of connections in wooden structures, using precision cnc milling machines, allow minimising additional joining elements, using the structure’s work and the links, such as the finger joint. stefańska, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021109 table 1. examples of selected contemporary fabrication techniques rok author location material, technology, and algorithm 2020 kengo kuma geoff nees botanical pavilion, melbourne, australia timber elements overlapped like a jigsaw puzzle without the need for metalog brackets. an algorithm was developed to combine small pieces into a structural whole. (figure 2d). 2019 voll arkitekter mjøstårnet brumuddal norway cross laminated timber (clt) the 85.4 m high timber tower’s main body comprises largescale glulam trusses along the facades, internal columns, and beams. the trusses provide the required stiffness and also transfer global vertical and horizontal forces. 2019 icd research building /prototypes urbach tower urbach germany bentwood components. industrial standards for technical drying were developed. this project uses natural deformation caused by moisture and the drying process. in contrast to the bending process (which is mechanical and has been known for centuries), this method programs the wooden elements to transform themselves into predetermined shapes. 2019 hanaa dahy, piotr baszyński, jan petrš university of stuttgart experimental biocomposite pavilion stuttgart germany doublecurved, parametrically designed segmental shell. three curved, crossed wood beams support single curvature wood and biocomposite elements. natural fibrereinforced polymers (nrfp) were used for research and education. 2018 efilena baseta klaus bollinger university of applied arts vienna selfformation of mesh coatings, vienna, austria the twowire bar structure uses active bending work. the elements were created by an industrial computerised numerical control (cnc) milling process of wooden strips. 2017 icd/itke university of stuttgart sewn timber shell research pavilion stuttgart ncn milling is a manufacturing technique for thin plywood sheets. a custom digital modelling design tool was used to derive a threelayer system that integrates material properties, manufacturing considerations, and assembly sequence. 2016 shop architects 3d printed bamboo pavilion for design miami, usa the pavilion was printed from biodegradable bamboo felt. almost 5500 kg of pla reinforced with bamboo was used. picture: university’s website, 2016, description of the sewn timber shell viewed 20 march 2021, stefańska, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021110 rok author location material, technology, and algorithm 2015 timber construction laboratory ibois, epfl interlocking folded plate lausanne switzerland origami was the inspiration for the panel pavilion design based on folding, built from laminated wood panels. the assembly of the doublebent folding panels required multiple edges of each element to be joined simultaneously, which impacted the rigidity of the geometry and the whole object and the panel joints. 2013 kengo kuma & associates sunny hills minato japan wooden elements 60 x 60 mm it was constructed using the “jigokugumi” joining system, a traditional method used in japanese wooden architecture. (figure 2b) 2012 politecnico di torino university of torino fractal forest monalisa pavilion madeexpo2012 milan, italy the fractal algorithm represents a growing poplar tree from the seed to the tree. computational and parametric techniques were used to realise the concept in design form. 2011 columbia university, university of oulu aalto university pudelma pavilion turku, finland woven wood construction kertowood glued in layers. (figure 2c) 2011 icd research building/ prototype research pavilion stuttgart germany robotically manufactured timber structures. flexibly bendable, tongueandgroove jointed wood panels. using a sevenaxis robot helped create efficient monomaterial joints for structural components connecting wood panels at different angles. 2001 avanto architects lookout tower helsinki finland lattice construction of 72 glulam slats, bent and twisted in place from seven preformed types. (figure 2a) the characteristics of manufacturing fabrication methods of timber and woodbased materials cnc technologies subtractive fabrication allows the use of technologically and economically affordable materials based mainly on flat or single curved structural elements (sonntag, bechert and knippers, 2017). splitting a continuous structure requires connecting elements that can change the way forces propagate in the structure. however, this allows for economical solutions, smaller working areas, and significant waste elements when shaping freeform structures. table 1. continued stefańska, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021111 3d printing in the 20th century has become one of the tools to produce structural components; however, most 3d printing materials so far have been based on environmentally unfriendly petroleumbased products such as thermosets, thermoplastic polymers, and their composites. the apparent trend of searching for sand, clay, or soil has started using environmentally friendly biomaterials. while optimising the material used, additive technologies remain the most efficient, using up to 100% of the material. widely used in the construction industry, nfpc (natural fibre plastic composites) are easily moldable materials, which is why they have become the basis for research on 3d printing using fibres from wood processing waste. depending on the given elements’ purpose, various admixtures are used to stiffen the finished product, and the primary bonding material is bioplastic polylactide (pla)(tan, et al., 2017). technical aspects and materials specification of woodbased materials as a natural material and the construction material, wood neutralises a significant amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during growth. wood in its natural anisotropic state is characterised by compressive and tensile strength, depending on its position relative to the grain. at the microscale, in the form of fibres, its material properties remain unchanged. the use of threads in combination with plastic allows the precise design of the composite’s characteristics and parameters, which can be seen in the broad application of both the felt for printing and elements prepared in the form of glued boards (plywood, clt). figure 3. timber fibres composites, a) woodbased fibres typically combine a pla base material with wood dust, cork, and other pulverised wood derivatives (tao et al., 2017), courtesy: jeremie francois, b) the ilf process, 3d printing with wood fibre composites, courtesy: klaudius henke. research methodology the technologies and materials presented in the previous chapters are currently used to design small scale objects, such as canopies, small pavilions, or small architectural and seasonal buildings. the use of contemporary rapid prototyping techniques combines with the inspiration of structures taken from the natural world. however, natural patterns are not often directly implementable in structures. recent interdisciplinary research creates new research tasks: searching for implementation methods of bionic structures, lightweight and durable systems (aziz and el sherif, 2016; mizobuti and vieira junior, 2020). engaging in using timber as a construction material are structures with plate arrangements, found, among others, in folding. following meyer, et al., “the fold is becoming a conceptual tool to address the realm of contexts and perspectives in architecture” (meyer, duchanois and bignon, 2015, p.447). based on the literature of the stefańska, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021112 table 2. examples of wood and woodbased materials used in subtractive and additive technologies material technology subtractive technologies cnc subtractive cnc technologies involve removing, cutting/milling unwanted material to obtain the required form. subtractive technologies are relatively inexpensive and make it possible to produce significant unitsized elements, generating quite a large percentage of waste. lvl laminated veneer lumber it has applications in load bearing structures and uses multiple layers of thin wood bonded together with adhesives. it is typically used for face members, beams, rim plates, and edge moulding materials. lvl offers several advantages over typical milled lumber: made in the factory under controlled conditions, it is more robust, straighter, and more uniform. its composite nature is much less likely to warp, twist, bow, or shrink than regular lumber. lvl is a type of composite structural lumber comparable to glulam but with higher allowable stresses. clt cross laminated timber (falk, von buelow and kirkegaard, 2012) it consists of wooden boards glued lengthwise and crosswise (wood 99%, glue 1%) with a maximum of 3, 25 x 16 m. adhesives used for gluing the panels do not contain formaldehyde and are entirely ecological. cross gluing gives mechanical strength. structural elements are monolithic, which means that they can withstand high loads in different directions. components glued in this way do not crack or shorten. clt panels can be used for both exterior and interior walls, as well as ceilings and roofs (buck, et al., 2016). additive technologies cnc in additive technologies, cnc involves adding material in layers to achieve the required shape. additive technologies are relatively expensive and mostly rely on polymers. current research into adapting cnc machines to print structural components and materials such as concrete, steel, and biodegradable wood fibre composites suggests that this technology will compete with subtractive technologies. ilf individual layer fabrication (henke, et al., 2021) in the ilf process, threedimensional parts are printed and then laminated, unlike lom (laminated object manufacturing), where pieces are created by printing in layers rather than cutting out parts and then laminating them (henke, et al., 2021) (figure 3b). pla (polylactic acid filament) woodbased fibres typically combine a pla base material with wood dust, cork, and other pulverised wood derivatives (tao, et al., 2017) (figure 3a). high performance cellulosic fibres cellulose is an organic compound that is a major structural component of green plants. chitin, a longchain polymer, is the primary component of the exoskeletons of shrimp and fungal cells. as extremely abundant and renewable materials, both substances are attractive alternatives to synthetic polymers, especially those made with fossil fuels such as abs. their natural composition also makes chitin and cellulose a viable option for biomedical research. stefańska, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021113 subject (sonntag, bechert and knippers, 2017; stefańska, 2020; grey, scarpa and chenk, 2019), and in particular, geometries on the shape of origami (curletto and gambarotta, 2016; cehula and průša, 2020; schenk and guest, 2011), the analysis of the pavilion canopy open using folding techniques was adopted as the object of research in this paper. following liu and paulino, bar structures were analysed to frame the triangular panels that form the canopy (liu and paulino, 2017). with a simplified function and form, the structural system was analysed for the structure’s total weight. the literature review indicates that wood materials in structures with complex forms are becoming more popular, thanks to the developing fabrication technologies and multiobjective optimisation tools and techniques. the presented research aims to search for pavilion roofing shape using structural elements made of glued laminated timber in topological transformations to optimise the used material at the preliminary design stage. analysis of architectural objects and technological possibilities allowed observing how important topological shaping of loadbearing structures shapes contemporary forms. multivariate optimisations serve to minimise the production time or the amount of used material and the applied technology. the primary optimisation parameters indicate the need to integrate interdisciplinary research teams, particularly the possibility to optimise the structure already in the preliminary design phase. topological optimisations were performed using glulam rods with a variable crosssection (vcc) as the structural material to minimise the material usage. the initial geometry of the structural mesh divisions was designed so that the mesh’s subsequent transformations would allow the nodes’ location to change only in the zaxis. this allowed the effectiveness of the applied principal curves forming the freeform structure geometry to be tested. the structures were based on folded plates structures existing in architectural designing, such as yokohama international passenger terminal, designed by foreign office architects (foa) in 1995 (moussavi and polo, 1995), timber construction laboratory, and vidylausanne timber pavilion in switzerland, design by yves weinand architectures sarl and atelier cube in 2017. form finding testing was carried out using the early designing stage tools (grasshopper/rhinoceros), while geometry dimensioning was carried out in the robot structural analysis tool. material technology additive technologies flamfungal line adhesive material (sanandiya, et al., 2018) flam is a fully biodegradable and, therefore, ecofriendly material. it consists of a combination of cellulose and chitin, the two most common natural polymers. the cost of producing this material is meagre ($2/kg). as a material that can be used, 3d printing is characterised by high strength and stiffness. currently, its technical parameters are comparable to highend, rigid polyurethane foam, e.g., pcf30 used to produce, among others, synthetic bones. continuous timber fibre placement, solidwood monofilament (dawod, et al., 2019) the primary material in the production of this filament is annual willow shoots. their main property is their considerable flexibility. after mechanical cutting of shoots into elements with a thickness of about 0.7 1.4 mm and a length of 1.2 1.4 m, they are subjected to gluing and spatial bonding to form a continuous fibre. table 2. continued stefańska, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021114 the study was based on the following designing assumptions – set as multiobjective optimisation factors, presented in the optimisation flowchart (figure. 5): • a pavilion shape canopies were based on rectangular geometry, each with the covering area of 400 m2; • each structure had four supports at its corners; the systems were statically determined; • solid gluelaminated timber (g.l. 22c) bars were used as a homogeneous material; • each structure was loaded with the same combination of loads (dead load, service load, snow, and wind load) according to e.c.; • according to aesthetical results, the pavilion canopies’ total height was restricted to 4.0 – 8.0 m, the entrance height in all variants was limited to 3.0 – 7.0 m (one meter less than the full height). a base geometry consists of a triangular mesh; all the joints’ x and y coordinates remain the same (figure 6). the variable coordinates on zaxis depend on the total height of a pavilion canopy and principal arch curvature. twostage analyses of various reticulated canopy pavilions were carried out: adopting freeform structures to various curvatures, based on catenary (figure 4a), paraboloid (figure 4b) and segment of a circle (figure 4c) arches. adjusting folding plate heights to structural optimisation. the analysed structures were designed as homogenous gluelaminated timber bars with the properties of g.l. 22c material. due to polycarbonate as a covering material and variable geometry, acceptable global deformations were set as 8 cm, developed in detail in individual variants. in the conducted analyses, the adopted optimisation criteria were the minimum total weight [kg]. figure 4. different arch curvatures as the base geometries of the structures: a) catenary arch, b) paraboloid arch, c) segment of a circular arch figure 5. formfinding analysis flowchart stefańska, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021115 figure 6. folding adjustments analysis findings the determining parameter in geometry optimisation was the minimisation of the total weight of the whole structure. in the case study, a population of geometries with a height between 4.0 and 8.0 m was calculated. only resultant characteristic geometries with a height change of 1.0 m were presented in the tables (table 1 and table 2). the results show a tendency in structure behaviour, two parameters in each resulting variant were calculated: changeable weight of the whole structure and a factor of weight divided by the canopy’s total area. factor k=1,0 presented the first analysed geometry (variant: catenary arch with a total height of 4.0 m). a factor ki defines the proportion of the weight of particular geometries to the first variant, according to the formula: ki = kn kref where: kiweight factor of the tested variant (unitless) krefweight of variant: catenary arch with a total height of 4.0 m [kg] kn weight of structures of the nvariant in kg the second factor analysed in the study mi represents the dependence of the structures’ total weight with the variable area of the canopy of each variant studied (variable depending on the full height of the pavilion and the folding used). the smaller the factor is, the least material is needed to fabricate the canopy. study iadopting freeform structures to various curvatures, based on catenary, paraboloid, and the segment of a circle arches comparing all the variants in study i (table 1) indicates the tendency that the best structures were found among paraboloidbased arches in all the height types of the structures, with the best variant with the curvature height of the structures 8.0 m. higher than 8.0 m structures were not analysed because of aesthetic and functional reasons. stefańska, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021116 study ii adjusting folding plates heights to structural optimisation table 4. results of various folding sizes adapted to the initial grid (author’s compilation) factors the total height of the structure 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 basic arch geometry: catenary, main arches raised by 20cm weight factor of the tested variants ki (unitless) 0.97 0.84 0.78 0.75 0.78 weight to the total area of the canopy in the variants mi kg/m2 10.97 9.09 8.19 7.68 7.55 basic arch geometry: paraboloid, main arches raised by 20cm weight factor of the tested variants ki (unitless) 0.82 0.74 0.73 0.69 0.62 weight to the total area of the canopy in the variants mi kg/m2 9.27 8.09 7.77 7.08 6.10 basic arch geometry: the segment of a circle, main arches raised by 20cm weight factor of the tested variants ki (unitless) 0.95 0.96 1.03 1.05 1.19 weight to the total area of the canopy in the variants mi kg/m2 10.76 10.43 10.66 10.31 11.02 study ii (table 2) aimed to identify the beneficial aspects of folded plate systems in the freeform structures. comparing all variants indicates that folding systems show no improvement in mass minimisation results in structures based on circle segments. in catenary archbased structures both ki and mi table 3. results of various curvatures adopted to the initial grid (author’s compilation) factors the total height of the structure 4.0 5.0 6.0 7.0 8.0 basic arch geometry: catenary weight factor of the tested variants ki (unitless) 1.0 0.94 0.74 0.70 0.87 weight to the total area of the canopy in the variants mi kg/m2 11.35 10.21 7.83 7.13 8.03 basic arch geometry: paraboloid weight factor of the tested variants ki (unitless) 0.75 0.73 0.76 0.79 0.62 weight to the total area of the canopy in the variants mi kg/m2 8.51 8.04 8.14 8.15 6.11 basic arch geometry: the segment of a circle weight factor of the tested variants ki (unitless) 0.94 0.83 0.98 1.12 1.12 weight to the total area of the canopy in the variants mi kg/m2 10.71 9.05 10.26 11.01 10.44 stefańska, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021117 improvement to a certain extent is visible. variants based on paraboloid arches remain the most effective, as in the previous study. however, improved performance is only seen in structures with higher overall heights. based on contemporary interdisciplinary design trends, the research conducted in this paper indicates the need for multivariate optimisation, especially freeform structures. in the initial design phase, introducing interdisciplinary dependencies allows recognising several dependencies assigned to a given structural system’s boundary conditions. the research indicates that architecturalstructural research’s suggested direction should be continued, using algorithmic design with simultaneous structural analysis of objects searching for materialcost and timeefficient architectural buildings. the research results on freeform structures shaped by different curves (catenary, paraboloid, and segmentofacircle arches) indicate significant efficiency of systems based on parabolic arches. the search for material minimalization visible in nature becomes an essential structural and architectural optimisation aspect in the xxi century (dixit, stefańska and musiuk, 2020). structural transformations based on natural patterns such as folding systems (patil and vaijapurkar, 2007; mousanezhad, kamrava and vaziri, 2017; kresling, 2012) remain an amusing aspect of designing both in architectural aesthetic and structural logic. the case study results indicate that structural efficiency becomes more efficient while organising the structural curvature at first. the final efficiency remains optimal while the initial force flow is designed according to the architectural formfolding systems. the future perspective to more indepth optimisation processes could be a task to better understand nature pattern implementations into the structural and architectural designing process and fabrication techniques. the challenging requirements in such processes are still understanding rapid prototyping procedures and implementing still nonstructural timber material variables into standard architectural designing. structural and architectural optimisations in terms of free form designing become the significant aspect of efficient designing. the paper research results indicate that small algorithmic changes in generative designing scripts might improve the structure’s weight by up to 40%. a presented case study favours forms based on paraboloid arches as a nonobvious choice in architectural practice nowadays (figure 7). figure 7. the most lightweight variant is the structure shape scheme after fullshape optimisation in the robot structural analysis program, a) plan, b) 3d view. conclusion the practical use of cnc tooling achieves unprecedented precision while saving time and material. in addition to the economic factor (dixit, et al., 2019; dixit and sharma, 2020), the manufacturing process stefańska, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021118 considers sustainable construction to reduce carbon footprint and ecological considerations and achieve the highest sustainable construction standard through precision manufacturing. proenvironmental solutions based on nature patterns are becoming an essential link for interdisciplinary collaboration, especially with renewable materials like wood and its composites. currently, digital fabrication is a costly and labour intensive phenomenon, requiring researchers experienced in working with specific prototyping methods. in contrast, emergent structures fabricated in an interdisciplinary environment can yield significant savings in the future, and ongoing research brings us closer to a deeper understanding of these complex processes. the timber uses as a nonhomogeneous material has allowed research into the complex fabrication of structural elements, materials design to meet production technology demands, and complex freeform architectural forms. the interdisciplinarity of the issues undertaken in the research work, supported by several multivariate optimisations, allows achieving architectural objects that imitate visual patterns borrowed from nature and how they work under given loads, thus improving efficiency and reducing the cost of construction of unique individualised architectural forms. references aish, r. and woodbury, r., 2005. multilevel interaction in parametric design. in: butz a., fisher b., krüger a. and olivier p. eds. smart graphics. sg 2005. lecture notes in computer science, 3638. springer, berlin, heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/11536482_13 ayres, p., martin, a.g. and zwierzycki, m., 2018. beyond the basket case : a principled approach to the modelling of kagome weave patterns for the fabrication of interlaced lattice structures using straight strips. in: hesselgren, l., kilian, a., malek, s., olsson, k.g., sorkinehornung, o. and wiliams, c. eds. advances in architectural geometry 2018. chalmers university of technology, pp.72– 93. aziz, m.s. and el sherif, a.y., 2016. biomimicry as an approach for bioinspired structure with the aid of computation. alexandria engineering journal, [ejournal] 55(1), 707– 14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2015.10.015 bletzinger, ku., firl, m., linhard, j. and wüchner, r., 2010. optimal shapes of mechanically motivated surfaces. computer methods in applied mechanics and engineering. [ejournal] 199, pp.324– 333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. cma.2008.09.009 buck, d., wang, x., hagman, o. and gustafsson, a., 2016. bending properties of cross laminated timber (clt) with a 45° alternating layer configuration. bioresources [ejournal] 11, 4633– 44. https://doi.org/10.15376/ biores.11.2.46334644 cehula, j. and průša, v., 2020. computer modeling of origamilike structures made of lightactivated shape memory polymers. international journal of engineering science, [ejournal] 150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijengsci.2020.103235 curletto, g. and gambarotta, l., 2016. design of a composed origamiinspired deployable shelter: modeling and technological issues. in: proceedings of the iass annual symposium 2016 “spatial structures in the 21st century,” 26– 30 september, 2016, tokyo, japan. dawod, m., deetman, a., akbar, z., heise, j., bohm, s., klussmann, h. and eversmann, p., 2019. continuous timber fibre placement towards the design and robotic fabrication of highresolution timber structures pp.1– 13. https://doi. org/10.13140/rg.2.2.31569.68963 dixit, s., mandal, s.n., thanikal, j.v. and saurabh, k., 2019. evolution of studies in construction productivity: a systematic literature review (2006– 2017). ain shams engineering journal, [ejournal] https://doi.org/10.1016/j. asej.2018.10.010 stefańska, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021119 https://doi.org/10.1007/11536482_13 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2015.10.015 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cma.2008.09.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cma.2008.09.009 https://doi.org/10.15376/biores.11.2.4633-4644 https://doi.org/10.15376/biores.11.2.4633-4644 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijengsci.2020.103235 https://doi.org/10.13140/rg.2.2.31569.68963 https://doi.org/10.13140/rg.2.2.31569.68963 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2018.10.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2018.10.010 dixit, s. and sharma, k., 2020. an empirical study of major factors affecting productivity of construction projects. in: select proceedings of the international conference on emerging trends in civil engineering (icetce 2018), pp.121– 29. https://doi.org/10.1007/9789811514043_12 dixit, s., stefańska, a. and musiuk, a., 2020. architectural formfinding in arboreal supporting structure optimisation. ain shams engineering journal, [ejournal] 12, pp.2321– 29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2020.08.022 falk, a., von buelow, p. and kirkegaard, p.h., 2012. folded plate structures as building envelopes. world conference on timber engineering, wcte 2012, 1619 july, auckland, new zealand. 4, pp.155– 64. https://doi. org/10.13140/2.1.4897.9848 grey, s.w., scarpa, f. and schenk, m., 2019. strain reversal in actuated origami structures. physical review letters, [ejournal] 123(2), p.25501. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.123.025501 henke, k., talke, d., bunzel, f., buschmann, b. and asshoff, c., 2021. individual layer fabrication (ilf): a novel approach to additive manufacturing by the use of wood. european journal of wood and wood products, [ejournal] 79, pp.74548. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00107020016462 jabi, w., soe, s., theobald, p., aish, r. and lannon, s., 2017. enhancing parametric design through nonmanifold topology. design studies, [ejournal] 52, pp.96– 114. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2017.04.003 joseph, k., 2008. systems in timber engineering: loadbearing structures and component layers. walter de gruyter gmbh, berlin. klinger, k., 2013. relations: information exchange in designing and making architecture, in: kolarevic, b. and klinger, k. (eds.), manufacturing material effects. taylor & francis, pp. 29– 40. https://doi.org/10.4324/97813158811717 kresling, b., 2012. origamistructures in nature: lessons in designing “smart” material. mrs online proceedings library [ejournal] 1420, pp. 42– 54. https://doi.org/10.1557/opl.2012.536 larabocanegra, a.j., vena, a.r., dominguezsanchezdelablanca, i. and peresdelama, j., 2014. educational innovation in the architectural design of timber structures : an experience at the digital fabrication laboratory, in: 7th international conference of education, research and innovation. seville, spain. lei chuan, l. and shanyau w., 2012. analysis of the life cycle trend of the export market of the taiwanese bicycle industry. ieee international conference on industrial engineering and engineering management. pp.2165– 2168. https:// doi.org/10.1109/ieem.2012.6838130 liu, k. and paulino, g.h., 2017. nonlinear mechanics of nonrigid origami: an efficient computational approach. proceedings of the royal society a mathematical, physical and engineering sciences. [ejournal] 473, pp.20170348. https:// doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2017.0348 meyer, j., duchanois, g. and bignon, j.c., 2015. analysis and validation of the digital chain relating to architectural design process achievement of a folded structure composed of wood panels, in: caad futures 2015. sao paulo, brazil, pp.447 mizobuti, v. and vieira junior, l.c.m., 2020. bioinspired architectural design based on structural topology optimisation. frontiers of architectural research. [ejournal] 9, pp.264– 276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2019.12.002 monier, v., bignon, j. and duchanois, g., 2013. use of irregular wood components to design nonstandard structures. advanced materials research. [ejournal] 671– 674, pp.2337– 2343. https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific. net/amr.671674.2337 mousanezhad, d., kamrava, s. and vaziri, a., 2017. origamibased building blocks for modular construction of foldable structures. scientific reports. [ejournal] 7, https://doi.org/10.1038/s4159801713654z stefańska, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021120 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-1404-3_12 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2020.08.022 https://doi.org/10.13140/2.1.4897.9848 https://doi.org/10.13140/2.1.4897.9848 https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevlett.123.025501 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00107-020-01646-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2017.04.003 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315881171-7 https://doi.org/10.1557/opl.2012.536 https://doi.org/10.1109/ieem.2012.6838130 https://doi.org/10.1109/ieem.2012.6838130 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2017.0348 https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2017.0348 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2019.12.002 https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.671-674.2337 https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.671-674.2337 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-13654-z moussavi, f. and polo, a.z., 1995, passenger shipping terminal in yokohama, in: schittich, c. (ed.), detail building skins. birkhäuser basel, pp.178– 181. https://doi.org/10.1007/9783764382445_29 nabaei, s.s., baravel, o. and weinand, y., 2013. mechanical formfinding of the timber fabric structures with dynamic relaxation method. international journal of space structures. [ejournal] 28, pp.197– 214. https://doi. org/10.1260/02663511.28.34.197 nilsson, f., 2007. new technology, new tectonics? on architectural and structural expressions with digital tools, tectonics making meaning. conference proceedings. the eindhoven university of technology. oxman, r., 2017. thinking difference: theories and models of parametric design thinking. design studies. [ejournal] 52, pp.4– 39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2017.06.001 padillarivera, a., amor, b. and blanchet, p., 2018. evaluating the link between low carbon reductions strategies and its performance in the context of climate change: a carbon footprint of a woodframe residential building in quebec, canada. sustainability. [ejournal] 10, pp.1– 20. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082715 pantazis, e.and gerber, d.j., 2019. beyond geometric complexity: a critical review of complexity theory and how it relates to architecture engineering and construction. architectural science review. [ejournal] 62, pp.371– 388. https://doi. org/10.1080/00038628.2019.1659750 patil, h.s. and vaijapurkar, s., 2007. study of the geometry and folding pattern of leaves of mimosa pudica. journal of bionic engineering. [ejournal] 4, pp.19– 23. https://doi.org/10.1016/s16726529(07)600080 pawlyn, m., 2016. biomimicry in architecture, 2nd ed. riba publishing, london. sanandiya, n.d., vijay, y., dimopoulou, m., dritsas, s. and fernandez, j.g., 2018. largescale additive manufacturing with bioinspired cellulosic materials. scientific reports. [ejournal] 8. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598018269852 schenk, m. and guest, s.d., 2011. origami folding: a structural engineering approach, in: wangiverson, p., lang, r.j., yim, m. (eds.), origami 5. taylor & francis, pp.291– 303. https://doi.org/10.1201/b1097128 schwinn, t., 2017. landesgartenshau exhibition hall, in: menges, a., schwinn, t. and krieg, o.d. (eds.), advancing wood architecture. routledge, pp.111– 124. https://doi.org/10.4324/97813156788259 sonntag, d., bechert, s. and knippers, j., 2017. biomimetic timber shells made of bendingactive segments. international journal of space structures. [ejournal] 32, pp.149159. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266351117746266 stefańska, a., 2020. reticulated roof structures optimisation based of triangular and quadrilateral planar panels. proceedings of the creative construction econference 2020, pp.27– 32. https://doi.org/10.3311/ccc2020014 tamke, m., 2015. aware design models, proceedings of the symposium on simulation for architecture and urban design (simaud) 2015. washington dc, usa. pp.137144 tan, r., sia, c.k., tee, y.k., koh, k. and dritsas, s., 2017. developing composite wood for 3dprinting. in: janssen,p., loh, p., raonic, a., and schnabel m.a.(eds.), protocols, flows and glitches, proceedings of the 22nd international conference of the association for computeraided design research in asia (caadria) 2017, pp.831– 840. tao, y., wang, h., li, z., li, p., and shi, s.q., 2017. development and application of wood flourfilled polylactic acid composite filament for 3d printing. materials. [ejournal] 10, pp.1– 6. https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10040339 weinand, y., 2017. timber fabric structures, in: menges, a., schwinn, t. and krieg, o.d. (eds.), advancing wood architecture. routledge, pp. 61– 72. https://doi.org/10.4324/97813156788255 stefańska, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021121 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7643-8244-5_29 https://doi.org/10.1260/0266-3511.28.3-4.197 https://doi.org/10.1260/0266-3511.28.3-4.197 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2017.06.001 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10082715 https://doi.org/10.1080/00038628.2019.1659750 https://doi.org/10.1080/00038628.2019.1659750 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1672-6529(07)60008-0 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-018-26985-2 https://doi.org/10.1201/b10971-28 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315678825-9 https://doi.org/10.1177/0266351117746266 https://doi.org/10.3311/ccc2020-014 https://doi.org/10.3390/ma10040339 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315678825-5 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: paul, c. a., aghimien, d. o., ibrahim, a. d., and ibrahim, y. m. 2021. measures for curbing unethical practices among construction industry professionals: quantity surveyors’ perspective. construction economics and building, 21:2, 1–17. http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v21i2.7134 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 2 june 2021 research article measures for curbing unethical practices among construction industry professionals: quantity surveyors’ perspective christiana ada paul1, douglas omoregie aghimien2, ahmed doko ibrahim3, yahaya makarfi ibrahim4 1 department of quantity surveying, kaduna state university, kaduna, nigeria, christiana.paul@kasu.edu.ng 2 cidb centre of excellence, university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa, aghimiendouglas@yahoo.com 3 department of quantity surveying, ahmadu bello university, zaria, nigeria, adibrahim2@yahoo.com 4 department of quantity surveying, ahmadu bello university, zaria, nigeria, makarfi@gmail.com corresponding author: christiana ada paul, department of quantity surveying, kaduna state university, kaduna, nigeria, christiana.paul@kasu.edu.ng doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i2.7134 article history: received: 12/04/2020; revised: 02/03/2021 & 11/03/2021; accepted: 19/04/2021; published: 15/06/2021 abstract unethical practices have been a reoccurring menace in the construction industry globally, with its negative impact reported in existing studies. while several studies have explored issues touching on ethics, ethics compliance and unethical practices within the construction industry, the problems persist especially in developing countries. it is based on this notion that this study assessed the possible measures that could help curb unethical practices in the construction industry with specific reference to quantity surveyors (qs). the study adopted a quantitative approach with structured questionnaires used to garner information from registered qs in nigeria. data analysis was done using relevant descriptive and multivariate analysis. the reliability of the instrument used was also tested using cronbach alpha test. the findings revealed that while qs are no strangers to unethical practices, most cases are not reported to the appropriate authorities. the most prevalent of these practices are payment-related and contract-related. to curb these practices, random inspections and development of ethical 1 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i2.7134 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i2.7134 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:christiana.paul@kasu.edu.ng mailto:aghimiendouglas@yahoo.com mailto:adibrahim2@yahoo.com mailto:makarfi@gmail.com mailto:christiana.paul@kasu.edu.ng http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i2.7134 compliance, ensuring a good reporting and punishment system, and increase ethical awareness through qs organised programmes are needed. the findings of this study would assist the professional bodies and organisations within the industry to effectively enforce ethical conduct among their members and staff. keywords professional ethics; construction industry; questionable practices; unethical practices; quantity surveyors introduction the construction industry contributes economically to the development of the economy of countries through the provision of infrastructure and the creation of job opportunities (hassim, kajewski and trigunarsyah, 2010; adnan, et al., 2012; aigbavboa, oke and tyali, 2016). just like every other developing country, this industry is seen as one of the most important industries as it provides buildings and infrastructure to every sector of the nigerian economy (oke, aghimien and aigbavboa, 2017). more so, the industry contributes significantly to the country’s gross domestic product (gdp) and employment rate (saka and lowe, 2010). unfortunately, the construction industry, particularly in developing countries has been characterised by poor services as a result of several challenges facing the industry. significant of these challenges is the questionable behaviour of the industry’s practitioners (ho, 2011; hosseini, et al., 2019; ikuabe, 2015; sohail and cavill, 2008; yap, et al., 2020). these questionable behaviours are unethical practices that contradict the norms of the different professions represented in the industry (wold, lædre and lohne, 2019). according to adnan, et al. (2012) and shah and alotaibi (2017), the industry can only thrive and perform optimally when good ethical practices are put in place. however, this is not the situation as a high prevalence of unethical practices within the construction industry has been noted in past studies (ho, 2011; shah and alotaibi, 2017). unethical practices are reportedly detrimental not just to the industry but also to the economy and human resources of countries worldwide (aigbavboa, oke and tyali, 2016; olatunji, et al., 2016; oyewobi, et al., 2011). maseko (2017) reported that unethical practices tend to give the industry a bad reputation. furthermore, olatunji, et al. (2016) reported that such practices distort the entire construction process, hinder free play of market forces and discourages investors from investing in the industry. as a result, there has been a call for ethical practices within the industry (vee and skitmore, 2003). by nature, the construction industry is unique with a complex and fragmented structure involving various professionals working together to execute projects (behm, 2008; chartered institute of building, 2013). this nature of the industry has led to competitive behaviour among construction participants. although several reasons have been propounded for the unethical behaviour of these industry participants in past studies (adnan, et al., 2012; aigbavboa, oke and tyali, 2016; adeniyi, adegbembo and ojo, 2018; yap, et al., 2020), the fact remains that construction participants, especially the professionals are expected to deliver projects with a high level of professionalism (inuwa, usman and dantong, 2015). unfortunately, this is not the case in the industry as despite the extant laws, regulations, guidelines and code of ethics to guide the conduct of construction professionals, unethical practices still abound in the industry (vee and skitmore, 2003; chilipunde and kaima, 2015). the occurrence of these unethical practices has been reported both in developed countries like australia and the united kingdom (vee and skitmore, 2003; ciob, 2013; brown and loosemore, 2015) and developing countries such as malaysia (adnan, et al., 2012), saudi arabia (shah and alotaibi, 2017), south africa (aigbavboa, oke and tyali, 2016), bostwana (legae and adeyemi, 2017), zambia (mukumba and muya, 2013; zulu and muleya, 2019) and kenya (mathenge, 2012). the situation is no different in nigeria where the significant occurrence of unethical practices has been observed within the construction industry (oyewobi, et al., 2011; adeyemo and amade, 2016; ameh, 2018). paul, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 20212 one crucial profession that has gained significant attention within the construction industry is the quantity surveying profession. quantity surveyors (qs) are always expected to exhibit ‘top-notch’ professionalism rooted in sincere ethical conduct (olatunji, et al., 2016). this expectation is not unconnected with the qs involvement with the financial aspect of construction projects. despite this expectation, the profession is not free of questionable practices. while the profession has gained some attention in past research in nigeria, most of these studies have been on the implementation of code of ethics, and the prevalence, effects, and outcome of unethical practices within the industry (olatunji, et al., 2016; oke, aghimien and aigbavboa, 2017; akinrata and ogungbile, 2018; akinrata, ogunsemi and akinradewo, 2019; akpomiemie, adedokun and aje, 2018). in a quest to see the reduction of unethical practices within the nigerian construction industry, this study explored the occurrence of unethical practices among qs, the most prevalent unethical practices, and the possible measures needed to curb these unethical practices. the study makes a significant contribution to the existing body of knowledge as it adopts a first-generation multivariate analysis in giving a clear view of the prevalent unethical practices and the measures needed to curb these unethical practices. the findings provide a reasonable insight needed by the quantity surveying professional body to effectively enforce its code of ethical conducts on its members. it also serves as an ideal platform for researchers who wish to explore this area of research further. the following sections of the paper include the review of related studies, the research methods, analysis and discussion, discussion of main findings and the conclusion drawn from the study’s findings. theoretical background unethical practice is an act that has harmful effects on others and is legally and morally unacceptable to a broader community (gino, 2015). while several studies on unethical practices express it in different terms, the idea remains the same. ciob (2013), stansbury and stansbury (2018), vee and skitmore (2003), and zou (2006) all portrayed unethical practices as corruption in their studies. according to stansbury and stansbury (2018), unethical practices are not restricted to certain countries or projects; but cut across all countries and construction projects. lee and cullen (2018) noted that the construction industry is the most fraudulent and corrupt globally. this is because construction projects are generally significant, complex and involve large amounts of funding. unethical practices occur at all stages of construction projects – planning and design, pre-qualification and tender, project execution, operation and maintenance (adnan, et al., 2012; ciob, 2013; stansbury and stansbury, 2018). however, ameh (2018) further stressed that the contractor pre-qualification, tendering procedure and award of contract stages are the construction project stages most prone to unethical practices. the qs has been noted to be the most susceptible to unethical conduct within the construction industry. this is because they are responsible for delivering construction projects within the estimated budget (ameh and odunsami, 2010; ameh, 2018). they attract lots of attention within the construction industry and are expected to display professionalism founded on ethical conduct (olatunji, et al., 2016). unfortunately, qs are not immune to the unethical practices prevalent within the industry. this has been attributed to issues such as excessive love for money, unrealistic performance target and economic hardship (adeniyi, adegbembo and ojo, 2018). within the broader construction industry, unethical practices exist due to several factors such as greed (aigbavboa, oke and tyali, 2016), conflict of interest among construction professionals and stakeholders (shah and alotaibi, 2017), cultural practices and the economic climate (sohail and cavill, 2008), nepotism and self-interests (auoad, 2018). past studies have revealed some of the unethical practices prevalent within the construction industry of most developing countries. bowen, edwards and cattell (2012) noted unethical practices such as collusive tendering, bribery, professional negligence, fraudulent behaviour, dishonesty and unfairness behaviour to be common within the construction industry in south africa. in malaysia, adnan, et al. (2012) noted issues paul, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 20213 such as cover pricing, which involves a contractor bidding for a job with the intent of losing it. other issues such as late and short payments, and unfair treatment of contractors in negotiations were also highlighted. in saudi arabia, shah and alotaibi (2017) observed issues bordering on bribery, receiving gifts and conflicts of interest. the story is not different in zambia as issues such as fraudulent qualifications, prequalification manipulation, disclosure of lowest quotation, use of poor-quality materials, and increased variation claims are all evident in the country’s construction industry. a similar observation was made by zulu and muleya (2019), who noted unethical issues such as bribery and corruption. concerning qs, ferrell and weaver (1978) have earlier noted that qs tends to reveal trade secret in exchange for personal gains and exaggerate their professional services to potential clients for better pay. olatunji (2007) noted that some qs go as far as releasing confidential contract secrets in return for personal gain. issues such as consulting qs pricing bill of quantities for contractors to bid and cover-up of corrupt practices of senior colleagues are evident within the profession. furthermore, olatunji et al. (2016) highlighted issues such as deliberate concealment of errors, doctoring of contract figures, and falsification of reports. in the same vein, ameh (2018) noted that qs tends to over-measure quantities, inflate the cost, and also over-measure day works and variations. based on the preceding, the unethical practices in table 1 relating to quantity surveying profession were evaluated in this study. table 1. unethical practices of qs unethical practices authors deliberate concealment of errors olatunji, et al. (2016) conflict of interest shah and alotaibi (2017) doctoring contract figures olatunji (2007); olatunji, et al. (2016) falsification of reports or records olatunji (2007); aigbavboa, oke and tyali (2016); olatunji, et al. (2016) receiving gifts to compromise legae and adeyemi (2017); shah and alotaibi (2017) conniving with unscrupulous contractors mcdonald and zepp (1988); vee and skitmore (2003); olatunji (2007); usman, et al. (2012) exaggerating services for better payment from clients ferrell and weaver (1978) providing trade secrets for personal gain ferrell and weaver (1978); mukumbwa and muya (2013) protecting the illegal acts of other consultants olatunji (2007); olatunji, et al. (2016) claiming for under-performed works lee and cullen (2018) over-pricing or under-pricing bill of quantities vee and skitmore (2003); ciob (2013); shah and alotaibi (2017) submission of inflated variation mukumbwa and muya (2013) submission of false quotation lee and cullen (2018) incompetent professional advice ferrell and weaver (1978) paul, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 20214 to put a check on some of these unethical practices, several suggestions have been put forward in past studies. for instance, aouad (2018) and stansbury and stansbury (2018) stressed that leaders of governments, professional institutions, contractors, consultants, and organisations working within the construction industry need to show the necessary leadership and implement the necessary preventive measures against unethical practices. curbing unethical practices also requires a dogged political will by the government of nations, considering that several trillions of dollars are spent annually worldwide to procure construction works (ciob, 2008). also, professional bodies instituted within the construction industry must play the role of enhancing construction professionals’ integrity and respectability as they practice their trade (vee and skitmore, 2003). they can do this by enacting laws to discipline erring members (oyewobi, et al., 2011) and prioritise ethical discourse at technical sessions, public lectures, and seminars (akpomiemie, adedokun and aje, 2018; olatunji, et al., 2016). other measures advocated include transparency, codes of conduct, civil society participation, whistle-blower protection, reducing incentives for corruption, conflict of interest rules, integrity pacts and debarment, and rigorous prosecution (oyewobi, et al., 2011). adeniyi, adegbembo and ojo (2018) and akinrata and ogungbile (2018) further recommended that strict discipline such as banishment from practice be meted out on construction professionals caught in unethical practices. ameh and odusami (2010) stressed prompt and adequate remuneration for services rendered by construction professionals. aigbavboa, oke and tyali (2016) and shah and alotaibi (2017) recommended reviewing, monitoring and reporting unethical practices, developing honest and ethical construction culture, initiating constant and random ethics checks, constant supervision of ethics, verbal promotion of ethical environment, and increasing employees’ benefits. based on the identified measures, the possible ways of curbing unethical practices among qs were assessed using the variables in table 2. table 2. measures for curbing unethical practices of qs measures authors leadership by example aouad (2018); stansbury and stansbury (2018) discipline erring qs oyewobi, et al. (2011) organise technical sessions, public lectures and seminars on qs code of ethics olatunji, et al. (2016); akpomiemie, adedokun and aje (2018) good whistle-blowing mechanism oyewobi, et al. (2011) development of ethical compliance culture by niqs aigbavboa, oke and tyali (2016); shah and alotaibi (2017) ban from practice adeniyi, adegbembo and ojo (2018); akinrata and ogungbile (2018) random and regular checks of quantity surveyors involved in construction projects aigbavboa, oke and tyali (2016); shah and alotaibi (2017) verbally promote an ethical environment aigbavboa, oke and tyali (2016); shah and alotaibi (2017) increase quantity surveyors benefits ameh and odusami (2010); aigbavboa, oke and tyali (2016); shah and alotaibi (2017) consistent training and retraining of professionals on current trends in ethical issues olatunji (2007) paul, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 20215 research method in unearthing the measures needed in curbing unethical practices among construction professionals regarding qs as a case study, this study took a positivist stance that informed the use of a quantitative approach. the data collection instrument was a structured questionnaire designed using the unethical practices and measures identified from the literature review. the choice of a questionnaire was based on its ability to cover a broader range of participants within a short period. moreover, this instrument allows objectivity and quantifiability to be achieved in most social science research (tan, 2011; sekaran and bougie, 2016). furthermore, this data collection method was adopted as it provides a high level of anonymity for respondents to respond to sensitive issues like ethics (lee and cullen, 2018). the first section of the questionnaire assessed the background of the respondents. the answers gathered were used to evaluate the response of the respondents in the other sections. section two explores the occurrence of unethical practices among these set of professionals. the respondents were required to assess the occurrence of unethical practice within their organisations and how such an incident was addressed. section three assessed the most prevalent unethical practices, while the last section sought answers to the measures needed to curb these unethical practices. the study population was registered qs in the federal capital territory (abuja) and lagos. the choice of using both areas in the country lies in the fact that while abuja is the administrative centre, lagos is a commercial centre of the country. both locations house most construction companies and professional bodies in the country, with many construction projects being executed regularly (aghimien, oke and aigbavboa, 2018). due to the difficulty in getting the total number of registered professionals from the registration body, a snowball and convenience sampling approach was adopted. the snowball approach, based solely on referrals (heckathorn, 2011), was adopted to help locate registered qs within the two locations. also, due to the sensitivity of the topic under review, the convenience sampling technique was used based on the availability, accessibility and willingness of the identified respondents to participate in the study. the respondents were assured that data from the study would be strictly confidential with no personal details such as names required. based on the approach adopted, the exact number of questionnaire distributions becomes difficult, making calculating a total response rate practically impossible (chan, darko and ameyaw, 2017; oke et al., 2020). a total of 40 responses were retrieved from respondents and usable for analysis. this low response rate aligns with the study conducted by tow and loosemore (2009) in lee and cullen (2018), who reported difficulty obtaining high response rates on research in ethics as several respondents were unwilling to respond to questions on ethics. data gathered was analysed using percentage and frequency for the background information and the occurrence of unethical practices among quantity surveyors. the sections on the most prevalent unethical practices and the measures needed in curbing the occurrence of these unethical practices were first analysed using shapiro-wilks (s-w) test to determine the normality of the data gathered and the type of analysis to be conducted. this test was adopted against the kolmogorov-smirnov (k-s) as the sample size falls below 2000. ghasemi and zahediasl (2012) have earlier suggested that the s-w test is most suitable when the sample is below 2000, while k-s is suitable when the sample size is larger than 2000. the analysis revealed a significant p-value of below 0.05 for all variables under both sections, implying that the data gathered is non-normal. thus, only analysis that does not require the data to be normally distributed can be used for further analysis. aside from the normality test, the validity of the research instrument was also tested using cronbach alpha test. moser and kalton (1999) have noted that the closer an alpha value is to 1, the more reliable the research instrument. the alpha value of 0.806 and 0.784 was derived for the unethical practices and the measures. this result implies that the questionnaire used was reliable. since the questionnaire used was reliable and the data gathered are not normally distributed, a non-parametric test was conducted to see if there is any significant difference in quantity surveyors’ perspective depending on the type of organisation they are employed in. this was done based on the assumption that respondents are from different organisations (consulting, contracting, and public service); hence, there is a tendency to be paul, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 20216 influenced by respondents’ type of organisation in their rating of the variables under assessment. kruskalwallis h-test, which is a non-parametric test used in determining the significant difference in the response of 3 or more groups, was employed. the assumption for this test is that when the derived p-value is above 0.05, there is no significant difference in the view of the three groups of respondents. however, when the derived p-value is less than or equal to 0.05, a significant difference exists among the respondents in the rating of that variable. table results of this test are given in tables 4 and 5. since the study assessed fourteen different unethical practices and ten possible measures for curbing them, the study employed exploratory factor analysis (efa) to outline the most common unethical practices and measures needed by grouping the assessed variables into more manageable subscales. field (2000) has described efa as the process of identifying the best fitting group of variables to define a phenomenon clearly. the use of this type of first-generation multivariate analysis in most construction-related research has become common in recent times due to its ability to create factor reduction and clustering, thereby giving valuable insight to data (brown, 2015) as against the use of just mean item score. one of the significant challenges of conducting efa identified by past studies is the sample size required. while some have advocated a large sample (norris and lecavalier, 2010; tabachnick and fidell, 2007), others have noted that with a good kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo), a significant p-value for bartlett test of sphericity, and high communalities, the sample size might not be overly relevant (field, 2000; preacher and maccallum, 2002). the kmo test conducted gave a value of 0.847 and 0.631 above the 0.6 thresholds needed for suitable efa data. the bartlett test revealed both objectives are significant at 0.000 while their communalities ranged from 0.509 to 0.866 for the unethical practices and 0.437 to 0.795 for the measures for curbing unethical practices. these results, coupled with the high cronbach alpha values generated, revealed that the data gathered irrespective of the sample was suitable for efa to be conducted. based on this notion, efa was conducted through principal component analysis (pca) using varimax rotation. analysis and findings respondent’s background information the analysis of the data gathered on the background of the respondents revealed that more male qs (82.5%) participated in the study, with only 17.5% being female. this result further affirms the prevalence of male qs in the industry (okeke, et al., 2018). the average age of these respondents is calculated as 37.2 years. the majority of the respondents work for consultancy firms (45%), while 32.5% and 22.5% work for contracting firms and government establishments, respectively. in terms of years of experience, only 12.5% have below five years, while 87.5% have above five years in the industry. on average, the respondents possess 10.7 years of working experience in the construction industry. based on the result gathered, it is evident that the different types of organisations wherein qs function are well represented in the survey. these respondents are well equipped as they are all registered members of the profession and have worked within the industry for a considerable long time. thus, the response gathered can be relied upon as they were given based on experience. unethical practices among quantity surveyors in exploring the occurrence of unethical practices among qs in the study area, the result in table 3 revealed that 90% of the respondents (36) reported that they had witnessed at least a form of unethical practice in the cause of executing their professional duties. only 10% (4) have not experienced such scenarios. out of the 90% of professionals that have witnessed some form of unethical practices, only 20% (8) claimed the unethical practice was reported. the remaining 70% (28) noted that these unethical behaviours were never reported to the appropriate authorities. one respondent claimed the incident was reported to the paul, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 20217 professional body. the remaining cases were reported to the management of the organisation wherein the affected qs works. in response, in two of the cases reported, the culprits were punished, while in the remaining five, the culprits were sensitised on the qs ethics, while no action was taken in one. table 3. experiencing a form of unethical practice freq. % experiencing a form of unethical practice yes no total 36 4 40 90.0 10.0 100.0 reporting unethical practices yes no total 8 28 36 20.0 70.0 90.0 authority reported to organisation where the quantity surveyor works nigerian institute of quantity surveyors never reported total 7 1 28 36 17.5 2.5 70.0 90.0 the outcome of the cases of unethical practices reported the offender was penalised or punished the offender was sensitised on qs ethics no action was taken on the offender total 2 5 29 36 5.0 12.5 72.5 90.0 prevalent unethical practice witnessed among quantity surveyors in assessing the unethical practices that are most common among qs in the study area, 14 practices were identified from the review of extant literature. they were presented to the respondents to rate on a 5-point likert scale based on the level of occurrence. since these respondents were from different types of organisation, kruskal-wallis h-test was used to assess the difference in their view. the result in table 4 revealed no significant difference in the view of the qss from consulting, contracting and public services in the rating of 12 out of the 14 unethical practices assessed. however, there is a disparity in their view regarding the occurrence of qs conniving with contractors and exaggerating services for better payment from clients. this is because a significant p-value of less than 0.05 was derived for both variables. this implies that these respondents view the occurrence of these two unethical practices differently. the factorability test conducted revealed a kmo value of 0.846 and a significant bartlett test, thus confirming the suitability of efa for the data gathered. using pca through varimax rotation, the result revealed two extractions with eigenvalue of 1 and above. both extractions account for 70.4% of the total variance explained. this is higher than the 50% threshold suggested by stern (2010). to further affirm the number of factors to retain, studies have suggested a look at the scree plot to determine the point of change in the shape of the graph (pallant, 2005; norris and lecavalier, 2010). figure 1 revealed that only two factors are worth retaining as a change in the elbow can be seen at the second factor. as seen in table 4, the first extracted principal component accounts for 61.3% of the total variance explained, thus implying that the variables under this factor are the most occurring unethical practices among qss in the study area. these variables are submission of inflated variation, claiming for underperformed works, protecting other consultants’ illegal acts, submitting a false quotation, and over-pricing or under -pricing bill of quantities. this component was subsequently named “payment-related issues” due to the similarity in the variables. the second principal component accounts for just 9.1% of the total variance explained. the components have variables such as doctoring contract figures, conflict of interest, providing paul, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 20218 trade secrets for personal gain, deliberate concealment of errors, conniving with unscrupulous contractors, falsification of reports or records, exaggerating services for better payment from clients, incompetent professional advice, and receiving gifts to compromise. based on the similarity in these variables, this component was subsequently named “contract-related issues”. table 4. rotated component component cumm. k-w unethical practices 1 2 extract. x2 sig. submission of inflated variation 0.901 0.866 3.154 0.207 claiming for under-performed works 0.874 0.841 2.711 0.258 protecting the illegal acts of other consultants 0.845 0.777 0.576 1.103 submission of false quotation 0.767 0.788 2.887 0.236 over-pricing or under-pricing bill of quantities 0.758 0.760 2.692 0.260 doctoring contract figures 0.815 0.693 1.147 0.564 conflict of interest 0.804 0.666 1.188 0.552 providing trade secrets for personal gain 0.747 0.697 1.553 0.460 deliberate concealment of errors 0.689 0.634 1.442 0.486 conniving with unscrupulous contractors 0.662 0.776 6.263 0.044** falsification of reports or records 0.639 0.629 0.447 0.800 exaggerating services for better payment from clients 0.613 0.509 1.640 0.441** incompetent professional advice 0.601 0.669 2.220 0.330 receiving gifts to compromise 0.537 0.553 1.789 0.409 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 e ig en va lu e component number figure 1. scree plot for unethical practices of qs paul, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 20219 component cumm. k-w unethical practices 1 2 extract. x2 sig. cronbach alpha 0.806 kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy. 0.847 bartlett’s test of sphericity approx. x2 462.55 df 91 sig. 0.000 ** sig at p=0.05; x2 = chi sq.; cumm = communalities; k-w = kruskal-wallis extraction method: principal component analysis. rotation method: varimax with kaiser normalization. measures used in curbing unethical practices among quantity surveyors in a bid to proffer possible solutions towards curbing unethical practices of qs, ten measures were extracted from the literature review. they were presented to the respondents to rate on a 5point likert scale based on their significance level. kruskal-wallis htest revealed no significant difference in the respondents’ view from the three different types of organisation. this is because all the assessed measured had a significant p-value of above 0.05, thus implying a convergent view among the respondents (see table 5). furthermore, the factorability test revealed a kmo value of 0.631 and a significant bartlett test, thus confirming the suitable of efa for the data gathered. efa analysis revealed three extractions with eigenvalue of 1 and above. all three extractions account for 68.2% of the total variance explained. furthermore, a look at the scree plot in figure 2 revealed that only three factors should be retained as the curve tends to flatten after the third factor. 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 e ig en va lu e component number figure 2. scree plot for measures for curbing unethical practices of qs as seen in table 5, the first extracted principal component accounts for 37.2% of the total variance explained. this component has four variables loading on it, and these are random and regular checks of qs involved in construction projects, niqs development of ethical compliance culture, increase qs benefits, and consistent training and retraining of professionals on current trends in ethical issues. this table 4. continued paul, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202110 component is seen as “random inspections and development of ethical compliance”. the second principal component accounts for 17.7% of the total variance explained with variables such as punish/prosecute erring qs, suitable whistle-blowing mechanism, and ban from practice. based on these variables’ similarity, the component was subsequently named “ensuring good reporting and punishment system”. the last extracted components account for 13.2% of the total variance explained and have three loading variables. these variables are organising technical sessions, public lectures and seminars on qs code of ethics, verbally promote an ethical environment, and leadership by example. this component was subsequently named “increase ethical awareness through qs organised programmes.” table 5. rotated component component cumm. k-w measures 1 2 3 extract. x2 sig. random and regular checks of qs involved in construction projects 0.838 0.789 0.139 0.933 niqs development of ethical compliance culture 0.836 0.643 5.499 0.052 increase qss benefits 0.762 0.615 0.217 0.897 consistent training and retraining of professionals on current trends in ethical issues 0.570 0.629 1.859 0.395 punish/prosecute erring qs 0.871 0.783 2.827 0.243 good whistle-blowing mechanism 0.846 0.771 1.926 0.382 ban from practice 0.647 0.639 0.281 0.869 organise technical sessions, public lectures and seminars on qs code of ethics 0.890 0.795 2.412 0.299 verbally promote an ethical environment 0.553 0.722 4.073 0.131 leadership by example 0.526 0.437 5.847 0.054 cronbach alpha 0.784 kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy. 0.631 bartlett’s test of sphericity approx. x2 152.44 df 45 sig. 0.000 ** sig at p=0.05; x2 = chi sq.; cumm = communalities; k-w = kruskal-wallis extraction method: principal component analysis. rotation method: varimax with kaiser normalization paul, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202111 discussion of main findings based on the analysis of the data gathered, it is evident from the study that the qs profession is not exempted from unethical practices. this is because the majority of the professionals in the study have witnessed one form of unethical practice or the other. this finding further affirms the submissions of ehsan, et al. (2009) and vee and skitmore (2003) that it is rare to see a construction professional that has not experienced or witnessed a form of unethical practice. unfortunately, most of these unethical issues are not reported and as such, appropriate approach is not engaged. from the findings of this study, most of the cases reported were handled through sensitising the culprits on the ethics of the profession. this could be seen as a mere “slap on the wrist”, and the possibility of future involvement of these set of qs in unethical practices is unsure. the most prevalent unethical practices in the profession can be seen as payment-related and contractsrelated issues. the issue of corruption, most especially concerning payment, has been noted in past studies (vee and skitmore, 2003; ciob, 2013). therefore, it is not surprising to see payment related issues emanating as a key aspect of unethical practices of qs in the study area. recall that qs are prone to unethical practices due to their involvement in the financial aspect of construction (ameh and odunsami, 2010). the findings of this study further confirm the submission of ameh (2018) that qs have the tendency to inflate project cost. the findings are also in line with mukumbwa and muya (2013), who noted the issue of inflation of variation cost in zambia; and lee and cullen (2018), who noted the submission of false quotation and claiming for under-performed works in the united kingdom. furthermore, in confirmation of olatunji et al.’s (2016) submission, the finding of this study observed that qs tend to protect other colleagues’ corrupt acts. while payment related issues seem to be the most occurring unethical practices, issues relating to contracts also abound within the profession. for instance, crucial factors such as the doctoring of contract figures, concealment of errors, and falsification of reports identified in olatunji (2007) and olatunji, et al. (2016) are part of the critical issues under contract related factors. the findings further affirm the submissions of ferrell and weaver (1978) and mukumbwa and muya (2013); who noted that some professionals can go to the extent of divulging trade secrets for personal gains. the findings revealed that random inspections and development of ethical compliance, ensuring a good reporting and punishment system, and increasing ethical awareness through qs organised programmes need to be given adequate attention to ensure the reduction of these unethical practices. this key finding follows the submissions of aigbavboa, oke and tyali (2016) and shah and alotaibi (2017), who advocated initiating constant and random ethics checks on professionals. the nigerian institute of quantity surveyors (niqs) can achieve this through the delegation of special task force saddled with the responsibility of routine check-up of members. organisations can also benefit from the adoption of this practice in a bid to keep their workers in check. oyewobi et al. (2011) advocated the punishment of erring professional. the finding of this current study is in line with this submission as ensuring a good reporting and punishment system is seen as a significant measure that can help curb unethical practices. however, while banning defaulting qs from practising as suggested by chilipunde and kaima (2015) might prove too stiff a price, ensuring proper punishment such as suspension, pay deductions, demotions and the likes can go a long way in instilling caution in the offender. the role of ethical awareness cannot be overemphasised as past studies have shown the need for continuous enlightening of professionals regarding ethical conducts. findings of this study reveal the need to increase ethical awareness through organised programmes to reduce questionable behaviours among qs (aigbavboa, oke and tyali, 2016; olatunji, et al., 2016; shah and alotaibi, 2017; akpomiemie, adedokun and aje, 2018). paul, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202112 conclusions in the quest to find a way to curb the unethical practices of construction professionals, this study explored the occurrence of unethical practices among qs in the nigerian construction industry. the study also assessed the prevalent unethical practices and the measures needed for curbing these unethical practices. using data gathered from registered qs, the study concludes that qs in nigeria are no strangers to unethical practices. unfortunately, most of the cases observed are not reported to the right authorities. the implication of this result is the continuous spread of unethical practices by unscrupulous qs within the industry. the most prevalent questionable practice of these sets of professionals can be seen to relate to payment and contract issues. since qs are involved in the financial dealings of construction projects and in contract administration, falling prey to unethical behaviours is not unlikely. to curb these unethical practices, random inspections and development of ethical compliance, ensuring a good reporting and punishment system, and increased ethical awareness through qs organised programmes are necessary. it is believed that the findings will assist both the quantity surveying professional body (niqs) and other professional bodies in the industry in effectively enforcing their ethical conducts among their members. by revealing the major unethical practices that these professionals are involved in, adequate measures identified can be applied accordingly. furthermore, the study has revealed that unethical practices are not reported in most cases. therefore, organisations and professional bodies will need to put systems in place to ensure proper reporting is done. this can be achieved through employing proper whistle-blowing mechanisms as well as sensitising the industry participants on the need to uphold good ethical standards and report anyone failing in this regard. while this study contributes significantly to the body of knowledge, care must be taken in generalising its findings. for example, while the study was conducted in two major states of the country, future studies would benefit more from a broader coverage which will invariably lead to much larger sample size than what is seen in the study. also, this study adopted a quantitative approach; future studies adopting a qualitative or a mixed-method approach can be conducted to give a more robust research approach to the subject. references adeniyi, o., adegbembo, t.f. and ojo, l.d., 2018. assessment of factors influencing ethical behaviour of quantity surveyors in nigeria. in: egbu, c. and ofori, g., eds. proceedings of the international conference on professionalism and ethics in construction, london, united kingdom, 21-22 november 2018, pp.201-09. adeyemo, a.a. and amade, b., 2016. corruption and construction projects in nigeria: manifestations and solutions. pm world journal, 5(10), pp.1-14. adnan, h., hashim, n., yusuwan, n.m. and ahmad, n., 2012. ethical issues in the construction industry: contractor’s perspective. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 35, pp.719–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. sbspro.2012.02.142 aghimien, d.o., oke, a.e. and aigbavboa, c.o., 2018. barriers to the adoption of value management in developing countries. engineering, construction and architectural management, 25(7), pp.818-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam04-2017-0070 aigbavboa, c., oke, a. and tyali, s., 2016. unethical practices in south african construction industry. in: emuze, f., ed. proceedings of the 5th construction management conference, port elizabeth, south africa, 28-29 november 2016, pp.15-22. akinrata, e.b. and ogungbile, a.j., 2018. appraisal of measures in enhancing professionalism and ethical conducts among quantity surveyors in nigerian construction industry. proceedings of the international conference on industrial paul, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202113 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.02.142 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.02.142 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-2017-0070 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-2017-0070 engineering and operations management, pretoria/johannesburg, south africa, 29 october – 1 november 2018, pp.58894. akinrata, e.b., ogunsemi, d.r. and akinradewo, o.f., 2019. outcome of unethical practices by quantity surveyors in nigerian construction industry. international journal of applied research in social sciences, 1(3), pp.84-94. https://doi. org/10.51594/ijarss.v1i3.23 akpomiemie, c.o., adedokun, a.o. and aje, i.o., 2018. quantity surveyors’ compliance with the ethical standards. in: egbu c. and ofori, g., eds. proceedings of the international conference on professionalism and ethics in construction, london, united kingdom, 21-22 november 2018, pp.349-62. ameh, o., 2018. ethical ideology and nigerian building professionals’ ambivalence towards ethical issues. in: egbu c. and ofori, g., eds. proceedings of the international conference on professionalism and ethics in construction, london, united kingdom, 21-22 november 2018, pp.286-95. ameh, o.j. and odusami, k.t., 2010. professionals’ ambivalence toward ethics in the nigerian construction industry. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, pp.9-16. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)10523928(2010)136:1(9) aouad, g., 2018. leadership and ethics in construction: cultural differences. in: egbu, c. and ofori, g., eds. proceedings of the international conference on professionalism and ethics in construction. london, united kingdom, 21-22 november 2018, pp.15-19. behm, m., 2008. rapporteur’s report: construction sector. journal of safety research, 39(2), pp.175-78. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jsr.2008.02.007 bowen, p., edwards, p. and cattell, k., 2012. corruption in the south african construction industry: a mixed methods study. in: simon d smith, ed. proceedings of the 28th annual arcom conference, edinburgh, united kingdom, 3-5 september 2012, pp.521-31. brown, j. and loosemore, m., 2015. behavioural factors influencing corrupt action in the australian construction industry. engineering, construction and architectural management, 22(4) pp.372-89. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-032015-0034 brown, t.a., 2015. confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. 2nd ed. new york: the guilford press. chan, a.p.c., darko, a. and ameyaw, e.e., 2017. strategies for promoting green building technologies adoption in the construction industry – an international study. sustainability, 9(6), pp.1-18. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9060969 chartered institute of building (ciob), 2008. uk policy handbook. berkshire: chartered institute of building ciob. chartered institute of building (ciob), 2013. corruption in the uk construction industry. available at: [accessed 17 september 2019] chilipunde, r.l. and kaima, a.k., 2015. ethics and professional conduct for sustainable development: a case of malawian construction industry. journal of business and economics, 6(2), pp.401-13. https://doi.org/10.15341/jbe(21557950)/02.06.2015/018 ehsan, n., anwar, s. and talha, m., 2009. professional ethics in construction industry of pakistan. world congress on engineering, 2176(1), pp.729-33. ferrell, o.c. and weaver, k.m., 1978. ethical beliefs of marketing managers. journal of marketing, 42, pp.69-73. https:// doi.org/10.1177/002224297804200313 field, a., 2000. discovering statistics using spss for windows. london: sage publications. ghasemi, a. and zahediasl, s., 2012. normality test for statistical analysis: a guide for non-statisticians. international journal of endocrinology and metabolism, 10(2), pp. 486-489. https://doi.org/10.5812/ijem.3505 paul, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202114 https://doi.org/10.51594/ijarss.v1i3.23 https://doi.org/10.51594/ijarss.v1i3.23 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2010)136:1(9 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2010)136:1(9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2008.02.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2008.02.007 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-03-2015-0034 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-03-2015-0034 https://doi.org/10.3390/su9060969 https://policy.ciob.org/research/corruption-in-the-uk-construction-industry/> https://policy.ciob.org/research/corruption-in-the-uk-construction-industry/> https://doi.org/10.15341/jbe(2155-7950)/02.06.2015/018 https://doi.org/10.15341/jbe(2155-7950)/02.06.2015/018 https://doi.org/10.1177/002224297804200313 https://doi.org/10.1177/002224297804200313 https://doi.org/10.5812/ijem.3505 gino, f. 2015. understanding ordinary unethical behaviour: why people who value morality act immorally. behavioural sciences, 3, pp.107-11 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2015.03.001 hassim a., kajewski s., and trigunarsyah b., 2010. factors contributing to ethical issues in project procurement planning: a case study in malaysia. proceedings of the 8th international conference on construction and real estate management, 1-3 december, brisbane, queensland. heckathorn, d.d., 2011. comments: snowballing vs respondent-driven sampling. sociological methodology, 41(1), pp.355-66 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9531.2011.01244.x ho c.m., 2011. ethics management for the construction industry. engineering, construction and architectural management, 18(5), pp.516-37. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111165194 hosseini, m.r., martek, i., banihashemi, s., chan, a.p.c., darko, a., and tahmasebi, m., 2019. distinguishing characteristics of corruption risks in iranian construction projects: a weighted correlation network analysis. science and engineering ethics, 26, pp. 205–31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-019-00089-0 ikuabe, m.o., 2015. unethical practices and construction project cost performance in nigeria. in: ogunsemi, d.r., awodele, o.a. and oke, a.e., eds. proceedings of the 2nd nigerian institute of quantity surveyors research conference, akure, nigeria, pp.622-28. inuwa, i.i., usman, n.d. and dantong, j.s.d., 2015. the effects of unethical professional practice on construction projects performance in nigeria. in: mojekwum, j.o.a., ed. african journal of applied research (ajar) journal, 1(1), pp.72-88. lee, c.c.t. and cullen, d., 2018. an empirical comparison of ethical perceptions among the consultant’s quantity surveyor and contractor’s quantity surveyor in the uk construction industry. proceedings of the construction, building and real estate research conference, london, united kingdom, 23-24 april 2018. legae, o. and adeyemi, a.y., 2017. a survey of the prevalent forms of corruption in the construction industry in botswana. journal for the advancement of performance information and value, 9(1), pp.67-85. https://doi.org/10.37265/ japiv.v9i1.36 maseko, c., 2017. literature on theory and practice on unethical practices in the construction of projects: a case of an emerging economy. risk governance and control: financial markets and institutions, 7(4), pp.214-24. https://doi. org/10.22495/rgc7i4c2art4 mathenge, g.d., 2012. ethical issues in the construction industry in kenya: a critical analysis of the professional conduct in engineering technology management. industrial engineering letters, 2(7), pp.1-11. mcdonald, g.m., and zepp, r.a, 1988. ethical perceptions of hong kong chinese business managers. journal of business ethics, 8, pp. 835-45. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00383046 moser, c.a. and kalton, g., 1999. survey methods in social investigation. aldershot: gower. mukumbwa, b. and muya, m., 2013. ethics in the construction industry in zambia. international journal of construction management, 13(2), pp.43-65. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2013.10773211 norris, m., and lecavalier, l., 2010. evaluating the use of exploratory factor analysis in developmental disability psychological research. journal of autism and developmental disorders, 40(1), pp.8–20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803009-0816-2 oke, a.e., aghimien, d.o. and aigbavboa, c.o., 2017. effects of codes of ethics on quantity surveying practices in ondo state, nigeria. in: ibrahim, y., gambo, n. and katun, i., eds. proceedings of the 3rd nigerian institute of quantity surveying research conference, abuja, nigeria, 25-27 september 2017, pp.144-55. paul, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202115 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2015.03.001 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9531.2011.01244.x https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981111165194 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-019-00089-0 https://doi.org/10.37265/japiv.v9i1.36 https://doi.org/10.37265/japiv.v9i1.36 https://doi.org/10.22495/rgc7i4c2art4 https://doi.org/10.22495/rgc7i4c2art4 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00383046 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2013.10773211 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0816-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-009-0816-2 oke, a.e., aghimien, d.o., aigbavbia, c.o., and akinradewo, o., 2020. appraisal of the drivers of smart city development in south africa. construction economics and building, 20(2), pp.109-26. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v20i2.6632 okeke, f.n., nnadi, e.o.e., and okereke, j., 2018. assessment of women quantity surveyors’ participation in construction industry in nigeria. research journal of the environment, 1, pp.39-43 https://doi.org/10.36265/ rejoen.2018.01015 olatunji, o., 2007. conflict of interest within construction practitioners: quantity surveying, case study. surveying and built environment, 18(1), pp. 32-50. olatunji, s.o., oke, a.e., aghimien, d.o. and ogunwoye, o.s., 2016. implementation of code of ethics among quantity surveying firms in nigeria. developing country studies, 6(5), pp.71-76. oyewobi, l.o., ganiyu, b.o., oke, a.a., ola-awo, a.w. and shittu, a.a., 2011. determinants of unethical performance in nigerian construction industry. journal of sustainable development, 4(4), 175-82. https://doi. org/10.5539/jsd.v4n4p175 pallant, j., 2005. spss survival manual: a step-by-step guide to data analysis using spss for windows (version 12). 2nd ed. crow’s nest nsw, australia: allen and unwin. preacher, k.j. and maccallum, r.c., 2002. exploratory factor analysis in behaviour genetics research: factor recovery with small sample sizes. behaviour genetics, 32(2), pp.153-61. https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015210025234 saka, n. and lowe, j., 2010. an assessment of linkages between the construction sector and other sectors of the nigerian economy. the construction, building and real estate research conference of the royal institution of chartered surveyors, dauphine université, paris, 2-3 september 2010. sekaran, u. and bougie, r. 2016. research methods for business: a skill building approach. uk: john wiley and sons. shah, r.k. and alotaibi, m., 2017. a study of unethical practices in the construction industry and potential preventive measures. journal of advanced college of engineering and management, 3, pp.55-77. https://doi.org/10.3126/jacem. v3i0.18905 sohail, m. and cavill, s., 2008. accountability to prevent corruption in construction projects. journal of construction engineering and management, 134(9), pp.729-38. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:9(729) stansbury, c. and stansbury, n., 2018. preventing corruption in the construction sector. in: egbu, c. and ofori, g., eds. proceedings of the international conference on professionalism and ethics in construction, london, united kingdom, 21-22 november 2018, pp.30-38. stern, l., 2010. a visual approach to spss for windows: a guide to spss 17.0. 2nd ed. boston: allyn and bacon. tabachnick, b.g. and fidell, l.s., 2007. using multivariate statistics. 5th ed. boston: pearson education. tan, w.c.k., 2011. practical research methods. singapore: pearson custom. tow, d. and loosemore, m., 2009. corporate ethics in the construction and engineering industry. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 1(3), pp.122-29 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) la.1943-4170.0000012 usman, n.d., inuwa, i.i. and iro, a.i., 2012. the influence of unethical professional practices on the management of construction projects in north eastern states of nigeria. international journal of economic development research and investment, 3(2), pp.124-29. vee, c. and skitmore, r., 2003. professional ethics in the construction industry. engineering construction and architectural management, 10(2), pp.117-27. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980310466596 paul, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202116 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6632 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6632 https://doi.org/10.36265/rejoen.2018.01015 https://doi.org/10.36265/rejoen.2018.01015 https://doi.org/10.5539/jsd.v4n4p175 https://doi.org/10.5539/jsd.v4n4p175 https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1015210025234 https://doi.org/10.3126/jacem.v3i0.18905 https://doi.org/10.3126/jacem.v3i0.18905 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:9(729 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000012 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000012 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980310466596 wold, j., lædre, o. and lohne, j., 2019. questionable practice in the processing of building permits in norway. in: pasquire c. and hamzeh, f.r., eds. proceedings of the 27th annual conference of the international. group for lean construction, dublin, ireland, pp.1151-62. https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0214 yap, j.b.h., lee, k.y., rose, t. and skitmore, m., 2020. corruption in the malaysian construction industry: investigating effects, causes, and preventive measures. international journal of construction management. https://doi.org /10.1080/15623599.2020.1728609 zou, p., 2006. strategies for minimising corruption in the construction industry in china. journal of construction in developing countries, 11(2), pp.15-29. zulu, s. and muleya, f., 2019. student perspective of ethics in the zambian construction industry. journal of engineering, design and technology, 17(2), pp.266-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2018-0074 paul, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 2 june 202117 https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0214 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1728609 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1728609 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2018-0074 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: getvoldsen, k., chandragiri, a., khalafallah, a., belizaire, m., weirs, j., raheem, h. j., gerges, m., butt, t. 2024. sustainability’s three principal dimensions versus climate change act 2008: a retrospective numerical modelling. construction economics and building, 24:3, 4–22. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v24i3.9008 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article sustainability’s three principal dimensions versus climate change act 2008: a retrospective numerical modelling k. getvoldsen1, a. chandragiri2a, 2b, a. khalafallah3, m. belizaire4, j. weirs2, h. j. raheem5a,5b, m. gerges6, t. butt*,2 1 morganstone ltd. morganstone house, llys aur, llanelli gate, llanelli, sa14 8lq. wales, uk 2a railway project services, unit 2, brook park offices, gaddesby ln, rearsby, leicester, e7 4yl. england, uk 2, 2b faculty of engineering & environment, northumbria university, newcastle upon tyne, ne1 8st. england, uk 3 department of civil and environmental engineering, pennsylvania state university, university part, pennsylvania, usa 4 maryland department of housing and community development, 7800 harkins road, lanham, md (maryland) 20706, usa 5a department of city & regional planning, university of engineering and technology, lahore. post code: 54890. punjab, pakistan 5b project management cell (pmc), archisustain solutions, lahore. post code: 54000. punjab, pakistan 6 faculty of science and engineering, university of wolverhampton, wulfruna street, wv1 1ly, england, uk corresponding author: t. e. butt, faculty of engineering & environment, northumbria university, newcastle upon tyne, ne1 8st. england, uk, t.e.butt@northumbria.ac.uk doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.9008 article history: received 31/08/2023; revised 13/10/2023; accepted 13/06/2024; published 01/07/2024 abstract sustainability continues to be a key field of study, encapsulating three principal dimensions: social, economic and environmental, which are also found within the context of climate change. however, there appears to be limited literature drawing upon the between sustainability and climate change. relationship, particularly in connection to declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 4 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.9008 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.9008 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.9008 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:t.e.butt@northumbria.ac.uk https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.9008 carbon emissions and energy management. these issues have already been the subject of legislation in different countries, though still, predominantly individually rather than from an integrated perspective. the climate change act (2008) provides a platform through which the relationship between sustainability and climate change can be considered. this paper establishes this relationship aspects of this relationship by employing the increased use of insulation within the uk housing stock to contribute to achieving the carbon reduction set by the act. taking a retrospective view through theoretical numerical modelling, this paper demonstrates that co2 reductions were achievable. the results demonstrate that links can be drawn between sustainability and climate change and identifies that significant co2 savings, through robust energy management of the uk housing stock, these results can be achieved. it is also suggested that the theoretical mole developed can be reproduced to consider climate change targets and provide benchmarks, not only in the uk but in other countries. keywords energy efficiency; energy management; sustainable development; climate change act 2008; carbon emissions introduction background greenhouse gases (ghgs) are considered to be an influential anthropogenic activity associated with climate change and one of twelve sustainable development indicators in the united kingdom (uk) (defra, 2013). the generation of carbon dioxide (co2) is one of the most significant ghgs, produced during the combustion of fossil fuels during the exothermic chemical process (butt, giddings and jones, 2012). since the industrial revolution in the 1900’s, the production of co2 has continued to increase (cdp, 2010; butt, giddings and jones, 2012). the realisation of this led the uk to implement the climate change act in 2008, in an effort to reduce ghg emission to net zero by 2050 (dbeis, 2021a). figure 1 below illustrates this increase and demonstrates how, by 1985, the safety limit was exceeded and, since then, has continued to increase and, by june 2023 had broken through the 420.2 ± 0.5 ppm and was, as such, significantly above the anticipated concentration. (co2.earth, 2023). the green house gass effect can be described as the accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and trapping heat near the earth’s surface to cause warming (li, et al., 2021) and is closely associated with climate change (aresta and dibenedetto, 2021). the relationship between sustainability and the climate change is therefore closely linked to carbon emissions. sustainable development indicators (sdis) represent a collection of metrics that demonstrate the extent of advancement towards a more sustainable economy, society, and environment. within the uk’s sustainability framework, there exist 12 primary indicators. among the principal 12 indicators is the assessment of greenhouse gas emissions and co2 generation linked to energy consumption. one of the key indicators relate to uk co2 emissions by sector, including the residential sector. the energy efficiency of the uk’s residential sector therefore serves as a key indicator, covering existing and new housing developments (defra, 2013; ons, 2015). recent policy developments have concentrated on programs which enhance domestic energy efficiency, are economically feasible, curtail emissions, and tackle issues such as fuel poverty (katris and turner, 2021). as zuo and zhao (2014) suggest, buildings contribute to ghg’s emissions and, as such, contribute to global warming. it is estimated that buildings contribute to approximately one third of global greenhouse gas emissions, predominantly through fossil fuel-based energy generation (huovila, et al., 2009) it is getvoldsen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 20245 therefore suggested that it becomes imperative to evaluate the influence of the uk housing stock on climate change and its sustainable development strategy in reducing energy consumption in buildings ( janda, 2011). the climate change act (2008) (cca) established a legislative framework to reduce ghg’s emissions by setting targets for carbon reduction and promoting actions that mitigate atmospheric emissions (uk government, 2008). the formulation of the cca targets is grounded in the kyoto protocol and worldwide efforts to ensure the global warming threshold remained below 20c (ccc, 2015; giddens, latham and liddle, 2009). the three key targets set for the reduction in uk carbon emissions were: compliance with the 1997 kyoto protocol to achieve a target reduction of 12.5% by 2012; setting an interim goal of a 34% reduction by 2020; and a 100% reduction by 2050 (dbeis, 2021a). these targets reference the baseline year of 1990 when uk carbon emissions amounted to 778 million tonnes (beales, 2014). these targets continue to serve as key performance indicators in monitoring the uk’s progress in reducing carbon emissions (decc, 2015). as part of the cca they hold legal status and must be considered in all energy efficiency enhancement projects related to uk properties (curtis, 2010). sustainable development is typically conceptualized across three primary dimensions: social/ethical, economic, and environmental (moldan, janoušková and hák, 2012). there is a lack in literature on the relationship between sustainable development and climate change along these three dimensions individually and yet simultaneously (i.e., in one single study) while specifically focusing on mapping sustainability implications to the legal targets of the climate change act (see literature matrix below). this knowledge gap is the focus of this study. aim and objectives based on the implications of energy-saving/energy efficiency, carbon-cuts, cost-savings, pay-back periods of a typical insulation technology; the study aims to produce and apply an innovative and numerical conceptual model of energy to map the links between the sustainability philosophy and climate change at social/ethical, economic and environmental fronts. thereby, this study specifically employs the uk housing sector as a usefigure 1. atmospheric co2 concentration (co2.earth, 2023) getvoldsen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 20246 case and using the legal carbon cut targets of the uk climate change act (2008) as benchmarks for the year 2020 in a retrospective context. this aim is managed via the following key objectives: 1. establish group types and the size of each group type of dwellings in the uk, as well as energy consumption/losses in them. 2. calculate the corresponding potential savings in energy and cost for a typical insulation technology, if applied to each of the group types of the housing stock. 3. map the calculated potential savings of energy on to the legal carbon cut targets of the act, and estimate how far these legal targets could be achieved in the residential/housing sector, while considering the period 2016-2020, in retrospect; and 4. overlay the findings from objectives 2 and 3 on the three individual principal dimensions of the sustainability philosophy to establish mutual implications between the concepts of sustainable development and climate change. research methodology and limitations the research methodology is depicted via a flowchart in figure 2 below. a literature review is carried out based on not only refereed academic journals but also government reports and legislation documents. this leads to establish knowledge and secondary quantitative data around existing housing stock and characterisation, global and uk energy situation, domestic energy demand and typical heat losses, typical insulation technology and application formats, and cost implications. the literature review also assisted in more clearly identify and determine knowledge gaps to refine the problematisation. benchmarks also established, particularly from the climate chage act to inform the quantitative estimation and evaluation of the potential carbon footprint reduction in the existing uk housing stock. a numerical model is developed to simulate the potential impact of increased insulation on the achievement of carbon-cut targets in retrospect for 2020. the model considers various parameters such as the diversity of uk housing types, different insulation methods, potential energy savings, associated carbon emission reductions, and alike. in the scenario analysis of the model, multiple limitations and characteristics are considered as follows: • out of a several insulation types, a typical one is considered. • for benchmarks, climate change act targets are considered, i.e., a 34% reduction at the base level of 1990. • residential housing stock in the uk is divided in five types of dwellings i.e., detached, semidetached, mid terrace, bungalow, and flat). • the focus is retrofitting potential of insulation, so, operational energy is counted for, not the embodied energy. • the geographic remit is only the uk. • all the three principal dimensions of sustainability philosophy are included – social, economic, and environmental. literature review the uk housing stock it is estimated that 50% of the total energy consumed in uk is by buildings in use (fathi, et al., 2020; cotgrave and riley, 2012) with the uk housing stock alone responsible for 29% of the total uk co2 emissions (green, et al., 2020; ons, 2018; decc, 2013). the construction of new homes has contributed to the reduction of these emissions as building regulation requirements in terms of energy efficiency have getvoldsen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 20247 tightened. part l of the building regulations state that heat loss through the fabric of a building should be limited (cotgrove and riley 2013). however, a large proportion of the uk population still live in older, less efficient homes. it has been estimated that between 70% and 86% (baeli, 2019; gillott and spataru, 2010; milner, 2008) of the current housing stock will still exist in 2050. therefore, the onus of carbon emissions control appears to lie more with the existing housing stock rather than the new. approximately 40% of the uk housing stock was built before 1945 (ehcs, 2009), with 28% built before 1919 (ihbc, 2019), when energy efficiency was much less of a concern. therefore, as baeli (2019) identifies, there are a substantial number of the uk housing stock which can be considered less energy efficient than the newer built stock. as a result, to address and improve energy efficiency and reduce energy usage and co2 emissions, there is a substantial retrofitting programme required (giesekam, et al., 2014). energy consumption fossil fuels and non-fossil fuels the demand for energy has significantly increased to meet the growing population needs worldwide (iea, 2020; eia, 2019; eia, 2020). it is argued that even were all the renewable resources deployed, they would existing knowledge literature review research theme (climate change act) knowledge gaps & problamitization bench marks (carbon emission reduction) numerical analysis calculations results discussion and concluding remarks data collection figure 2. research methodology flowchart getvoldsen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 20248 still not meet the worldwide demand for energy and, as such, there is still a reliance on fossil fuels (wec, 2013). figures 3a and 3b below show the percentage distribution of global energy consumption. figure 3a. global energy consumption 2013 (mearns, 2014) figure 3b. global energy consumption as of june 2023 (wed, 2023) while the uk still reflects the global perspective, with 85% of total energy consumption being derived from fossil fuels, it has made significant progress in reducing the use of fossil fuels by a move towards more renewable energy (see figures 4a and 4b below). figure 4a. uk energy consumption 2014 (mearns, 2013) figure 4b. uk energy consumption 2023 (mackenzie, 2023) whilst this change is welcomed, the use of fossil fuels for heating remains the largest consumer of energy consumption within the uk housing stock. to address this issue, it is argued that this can be tackled by improving insulation in homes. of the uk energy consumption in various sectors, the domestic sector is the second largest at around 40 million tonnes of oil equivalent, as shown below in figure 5. getvoldsen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 20249 figure 5. uk energy consumption by sector, 2020 (dbeis, 2021b) by focusing on this sector would address a significant percentage of the uk housing energy consumption. figure 6 identifies the areas in where energy is consumed in a typical domestic setting and shows space heating as being the largest energy consumer, contributing to over a half of the total energy used in a typical dwelling. figure 6. energy use breakdown of a typical house (dclg, 2006) by addressing the energy use in this area will have a positive, direct impact, not only on energy use and cost savings but also on achieving the targets set by the climate change act. a current trend in building construction is to move towards zero energy buildings, in an attempt to reduce the total energy consumption and so the impact on the environment buildings have over its lifecycle (syngros, balaras and koubogiannis, 2017). as such, this paper focuses on heat losses in the domestic residential sector in connection to space heating. domestic heat loss heat moves from a warmer space to a cooler space, with this movement taking place through heat transfer in three forms: conduction (heat transfer through a solid), convection (heat transfer through fluid or gas), and radiation (heat transfer through empty space) ( janna, 2009). one method of reducing this heat transfer is in the placement of the insulation, installed as a continuous barrier within, the building envelope to act as getvoldsen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202410 a barrier between the interior and exterior of the property. the building envelope includes the flooring, walls, windows, doors and the roof. the approximate heat loss from these elements is shown in figure 7 below. figure 7. building elements through which energy is lost in space heating (anderson and kahya, 2011) this study is specifically focused on wall insulation and heat transfer through the walls of a house. there are different types of insulation including rigid foam and spray foam; however, the most used insulation in domestic properties is fibreglass batt insulation and injected insulation. a property, once insulated and heated, will experience a significant reduction in the amount of heat lost it is also important however, when insulating properties that a degree of ventilation is provided to maintain air quality and to ensure that a build-up of condensation does not occur and cause potential damage the building structure. summary of relevant studies table 1 summarizes the literature review in a matrix that demonstrates that the closest possible matches to the scope of this study. the marked cells demonstrate that there are literature focusing either on climate change (such as crawley, 2008; šimko, et al., 2018), sustainability (such as baeli, 2019; cvelbar and dwyer, 2013; moldan, janoušková and hák, 2012; eakin, lemos and nelson, 2014), energy distribution and consumption, and carbon foot-print (goodchild and walshaw, 2011), residential (çomaklı and yüksel, 2003). whereas there is a lack of literature which is ticking all the boxes. in other words, no evidence has been found of literature which integrates all these angles together under one umbrella in which the insulation technology could be used to relate to climate change adaptation and mitigation, simultaneously and yet focusing on the residential, space heating, carbon footprint, fossil fuel and renewable energy. this knowledge gap is the focus of this study. conceptual model & calculations background data the uk housing stock falls into five categories as shown in figure 8 below. using the theoretical numerical model, the average energy-saving and carbon-reduction in each of the five categories is shown in table 2. this is for two ways of the application of a typical wall insulation i.e., external, and internal. average values are employed in the study in terms of size, shape, orientation, materials, location, and those that are gas heated and completely un-insulated. (est, 2016). getvoldsen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202411 table 1. literature matrix key literaure/ publication sustainability fo ss il fu el e ne rg y r en ew ab le e ne rg y g en er at io n e ne rg y d is tr ib ut io n e ne rg y c on su m pt io n c ar bo n fo ot -p ri nt r es id en ti al /h ou si ng s ec to r s d g s space heating climate change brief remarks e nv ir on m en t e co no m ic al s oc ia l in su la ti on (w al l) o th er s m it ig at io n a da pt at io n author ye ar baeli 20 19 x x x x x x this paper covers carbon footprint and residential however climate change and space heating is not covered. šimko, et al. 20 18 x x x x x x x x this paper covers energy, space heating using insulation, climate change and residential however other sustainable aspects are not covered. eakin, lemos and nelson 20 14 x x x x x x this paper covers sustainable aspects, sdg and climate change, however energy, space heating is not covered. giesekam, et al. 20 14 x x x x x this paper covers sustainability in terms of environmental and economical, residential however space heating is not covered. cvelbar and dwyer 20 13 x x x x x this paper covers sustainable aspects and energy however climate change and space heating is not covered. moldan, janoušková and hák 20 12 x x x this paper covers sustainable aspects and energy however climate change and space heating is not covered. goodchild and walshaw 20 11 x x x x x x x x x x this paper does not cover fossil fuel energy, sdh and space heating. bilen, et al. 20 08 x x x x x x x this paper covers sustainable aspects and energy however carbon footprint, climate change and space heating is not covered. crawley 20 08 x x x x x x x x x this paper covers energy, space heating using insulation, climate change and residential however other sustainable aspects are not covered. çomaklı and yüksel 20 03 x x x x x this paper covers energy, space heating via insulation walls and residential however other sustainable aspects are not covered. getvoldsen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202412 carbon cuts based on table 2 and figure 7, potential of carbon cuts is calculated as shown in the box below for each of the five group types of the uk housing stock: carbon cut = number of dwellings x carbon cut per year for each dwelling type (kg/year) detached carbon cut = 1,900 x 4,580,000 = 8.702x109 kgco2/year 8,702 mtco2/year semi-detached carbon cut = 1,100 x 7,090,000 = 7.799x109 kgco2/year 7,799 mtco2/year mid terrace carbon cut = 740 x 7,560,000 = 5.594x109 kgco2/year 5,594 mtco2/year bungalow carbon cut = 750 x 2,380,000 = 1.785x109 kgco2/year 1,785 mtco2/year flat carbon cut = 610 x 4,980,000 = 3.037x109 kgco2/year 3,037 mtco2/year total carbon cut of the residential sector = 26,917 mtco2 / year table 2. estimated figures based on insulating a gas-heated home (est, 2016) detached semidetached mid terrace bungalow flat carbon dioxide cuts (kgco2/year) 1,900kg 1,100kg 720kg 740kg 610kg fuel bill savings (£/year) £455 £260 £175 £180 £145 typical insulation cost internal wall insulation: £3,000 to £14,000; avg. = £8500 external wall insulation: £5,000 to £18,000; avg. = £11500 figure 8. housing group types in the uk residential sector in millions (decc, 2012) getvoldsen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202413 table 3. the uk and residential emissions and percentage reduced from baseline (decc, 2015) year uk total emission (mtco2e) residential (mtco2e) 1990 777 80.0 2010 598 89.0 2015 550 74.0 2020 435 67.0 2035 352 73.0 five years scenario – 2020 the calculations are based on 5-year temporal window stretching between 2015 and 2020 i.e. starting from 01/01/2016 and ending at 31/12/2020 without insulation: carbon emissions in 5 years = 74 x 5 = 370 mtco2 eq a1 the value 74 comes from table 3 presuming it remains the same from 2015 to 2020, especially when the carbon emissions are going to creep back to nearly the same value in 2035 as table 3 suggests. with insulation: carbon emissions in 5 years = 26.917 x 5 = 134.59 mtco2 eq a2 carbon cut in 5 years = eq a1 – eq a2 = 370 – 134.59 = 235.41 mtco2 carbon emissions in percentage = eq a1 – eq a2/eq a1 x 100 = 370 – 134.59/370 x 100 = 63.6 % this figure is almost double the carbon cut target of 34% by 2020 by just applying the wall insulation technology alone. these calculations regard a retrospective scenario of 2020 temporal target of the climate change act 2008. the period considered is from january 2015 to december 2020 i.e., five years, as if the insulation was applied to entire the residential sector at the start of the duration. irrespective of this, it is demonstrated that in 5 years, the legal climate change target is achievable. so still, if this wall insulation approach was applied, even then the 2020 target could have been achieved by 2 years or so late. if this is supported further by insulations of other area such as roofs and floors, the carbon cut could be increased. the numerical model presented in this study also indicates the potential that in addition to the introduction of insulation, by applying in-situ renewable technologies such as solar panels and micro wind turbines, the reduction in carbon emissions can be significantly increased. by applying energy efficiency measures such as insulation and renewable energy generation on site, it is possible to achieve carbon neutral or zero carbon footprints in future. cost analysis the advantage of internal wall insulation is its overall cost-effectiveness. however, a drawback is that it reduces the internal space of the existing property or the room where it is applied. as it would be applied to all four walls of a given room, reduction in the space of the room would be twice as much on either side, that is both length and breadth. on the positive side, internal insulation remains protected from external environmental factors, contributing to its longevity. on the other hand, external wall insulation is more expensive, resulting in a longer payback period. however, it does not reduce the internal room space as it is applied externally. the trade-off is that external insulation is exposed to external weather conditions, getvoldsen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202414 potentially leading to damage over time. the increased expense of external wall insulation is partly due to the need for more resilient materials to withstand weather conditions, as well as the larger quantity of materials required for external application as opposed to the internal one. further research would be required to explore various materials, application methods, and other implications. however, such detailed investigations are beyond the scope of this study. table 4. cost analysis of wall insulation scenarios (referring table 2) solid wall insulation detached semidetached mid terrace bungalow flat fuel bill savings (£/year per dwelling) £455 £260 £175 £180 £145 internal walls typical insulation cost (£) min. £3,000 £3,000 £3,000 £3,000 £3,000 payback period (years) *6.59 11.54 17.14 16.67 20.69 typical insulation cost (£) avg. 8,500 8,500 8,500 8,500 8,500 payback period (years) 18.68 32.69 48.57 47.22 58.62 typical insulation cost (£) max. £14,000 £14,000 £14,000 £14,000 £14,000 payback period (years) 30.77 53.85 80.00 77.78 96.55 external walls typical insulation cost (£) min. £5,000 £5,000 £5,000 £5,000 £5,000 payback period (years) 10.99 19.23 28.57 27.78 34.48 typical insulation cost (£) avg. 11,500 11,500 11,500 11,500 11,500 payback period (years) 25.27 44.23 65.71 63.89 79.31 typical insulation cost (£) max. £18,000 £18,000 £18,000 £18,000 £18,000 payback period (years) 39.56 69.23 102.86 100.00 124.14 *note: the formula applied is as follows: typical insulation cost (£)/fuel bill savings (£/year) = 3000/455 = 6.59 years. in the same manner, other payback periods are calculated for other scenarios in the table. sustainability and the climate change targets – analyses and syntheses based on the results above, this section of the paper maps the legal climate change targets on various aspects of the sustainability philosophy along each of its three principal dimensions (getvoldsen, et al., 2018): getvoldsen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202415 social aspects the legislative framework of a nation constitutes a social and ethical concern, as it stems from the public through democratic processes within the parliament. consequently, adhering to the established laws of the country holds both social and ethical significance. this fact is quantitatively illustrated in the “theoretical model and calculations” section, wherein it is shown that by focusing on insulating just the walls of uk residential properties, the potential exists to move towards the requirements of the climate change act 2008. predictions relating to climate change indicate a potential annual temperature rise of 1 to 3.5 degrees celsius in the coming decades. in addition, due to the concentration of industrial infrastructure, buildings, and transportation, urban heat islands are becoming more prevalent (hulme, et al., 2002; crawley, 2003, 2008). the issue of energy efficiency, ghg emissions, carbon reduction and addressing fuel poverty, are crucial social facets relating to climate change, explicitly addressed within the uk’s national sustainability strategy. using the theoretical model presented in this paper, it is argued that progress across key sustainability indicators and measures can be made., including the specific sustainability objective of conserving energy and reducing reliance on fuels. the issue of human comfort relating to indoor air quality, humidity levels, and ventilation within a dwelling relates specifically to the social facet of sustainability with the insulation of housing effectively enhancing this comfort. heat naturally flows from warmer to cooler areas, but insulating properties will slow the rate of heat transfer from warm, interior parts of a property to the colder exterior. similarly, in warmer weather, insulation can reduce the entry of external warmer air into the cooler interior of the property (kdb insulation ireland ltd., 2013). in this context, insulation can contribute to maintaining a comfortable indoor temperature (a social aspect of sustainability) during both extreme cold and extreme heat, without requiring excessive energy consumption for either space heating or air conditioning. (wec, 2013). economic aspects affordability in the maintenance and operation of a household can be recognized as an economic dimension within the sustainable development paradigm, specifically encompassing expenditure on gas and electricity. these costs continue to rise, bringing more households into fuel poverty. it is therefore argued that widespread insulation of the uk residential sector can contribute to a reduction in gas and electricity bills and help alleviate financial hardships, a key economic metric in the national sustainability agenda (defra, 2013). households with lower incomes are often found to reside in less energy-efficient homes. as such, access to government subsidy initiatives for residential insulation projects can help address this issue. for instance, in england and wales, eligible homeowners had access to a total of £540 million in financial assistance for several years (straus, 2014). certain households could even qualify for up to £7,600 to enhance their energy efficiency, with an additional £500 available for those who had moved within the last 12 months (straus, 2014). financial incentives in the form of tax credits, rebates, and grants provide innovative solutions that remove barriers to implementing energy efficiency upgrades. such outcomes can contribute to shaping policies and aligning with national sustainability objectives. the widespread application of insulation technologies and techniques (for instance, across the entire housing sector of the uk) can usher in fresh economic opportunities within the country, thereby contributing to the gross domestic product (gdp). this, in turn, directly aligns with the sustainability headline measure of economic prosperity (defra, 2013). a case in point is the passive house standard, which relies on advanced insulation to regulate housing thermal performance. by 2010, more than 15,000 buildings in europe had been constructed or retrofitted to meet the passive house standard. this approach, getvoldsen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202416 characterised by airtight construction and intelligent insulation, reduces energy loss, operational expenses, and benefits the environment (brindle, 2011). environmental aspects fossil fuels offer a range of valuable products and services, with energy generation being the foremost and most substantial contribution. the combustion of fossil fuels for energy production yields significant quantities of undesirable co2 emissions, thus playing a pivotal role in global warming. this leads to a number of effects, including extreme weather events, heightened frequency and intensity of rainfall, droughts, glacier melting, acid rain, ocean acidification, and rising sea levels (butt, giddings and jones, 2012; ccc, 2015). hr wallingford (2014) predict that the uk will experience significant increases in heatwaves, floods, and water shortages that could damage infrastructure in the years to come. this underscores the pressing need to curtail anthropogenic co2 emissions. consequently, the control of greenhouse gas (ghg) and carbon emissions, particularly within the housing sector – known for its significant contributions – has been recognized as both headline and supplementary indicators in the national sustainability strategy. in 2011, fossil fuels accounted for approximately 83% of the world’s energy consumption. global carbon dioxide emissions reached a record high in 2012, totalling 34.5 billion tonnes (mcgrath, 2013). while many european union countries were lowering their emissions, the uk witnessed an increase in energy emissions in 2012 compared to the previous year, prompting concerns within the uk government about securing a low-carbon future (evans, 2017). this study underscores the substantial potential of residential sector insulation to facilitate sustainable energy consumption, thereby reducing carbon emissions – an essential measure for mitigating climate change. air quality and human health are not only key components of sustainability but are also closely intertwined. in the realm of air quality, carbon emissions, regardless of their source, stand out as significant contributors that compromise air quality. poor air quality adversely impacts human health, safety, wellbeing, as well as associated ecological systems, habitats, and biodiversity (defra, 2013; ccc, 2015). the reduction of carbon emissions from the residential sector can substantially contribute to the overall decrease in ghgs and specifically in carbon emissions in the atmosphere, constituting an environmental sustainability measure. this, in turn, can slow down the pace of global warming, a primary manifestation of climate change. moreover, carbon reduction efforts would also effectively contribute to the mitigation of other threats to environmental sustainability such as glacier melting; adverse effects on ecological systems both habitat and species like polar bears; rising sea levels; increase in mobility of pollutants of contaminated sites due to water regime changing; acid rain; ocean acidification; geographical and temporal changes in precipitation patterns in term of intensity, duration, and frequency; increased frequency and intensity of flooding; and alike. discussion and concluding remarks through the lens of energy use and co2 production, this paper has explicitly explored and presented the high degree of multiand inter-disciplinarity of sustainability and climate change, drawing links between the two. it has presented the idea that they can be tackled and managed simultaneously, rather than individually in the context of energy use. to demonstrate this, an innovative, numerical, theoretical model has been designed, developed and applied by employing a practicable and visualize-able’ case study. the case study used is the existing housing sector in the uk in a retrospective manner. whereas the residential sector is a main contributor and constituent of the built environment, it is argued that the innovative model presented, can be extrapolated in future studies to address other sectors of the built environment e.g. commercial buildings and infrastructure. getvoldsen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202417 in terms of benchmarks, legal carbon reduction targets set by the climate change act 2008 have been employed. the calculations in the model are founded on the temporal targets to the year 2020, which in future can be expanded both temporally (e.g. 2030, 2050, and 2090) and geographically in other countries around the globe. this will further add an ‘internationalisation’ aspect to the research with 2030 being the global development agenda, 2050 the climate change act agenda and 2100 as one of the projections of ipcc (collins, et al., 2013). the climate change projections predicting the future from the worst-case scenario through a range of average and most-likely scenarios. can be considered and the model presented in this paper applied to various countries to draw country-specific results. this demonstrates the flexibility and reproduceable nature of the numerical model. the paper has distinctly identified a range of headline and supplementary indicators and measures within the national sustainability agenda, which directly align with the mandated carbon reduction targets set by the climate change act. the paper has concisely presented several innovative insights and implications on how these sustainability measures can be aligned with climate change considerations, specifically focusing on carbon emissions. moreover, the paper has undertaken this alignment across each of the three primary dimensions of the sustainable development framework. adhering to legal obligations signifies the fulfillment of the social facet of sustainable development. enhancing comfort in the face of extreme weather events through insulation also constitutes a social benefit. the reduction of energy consumption not only fosters societal comfort but also decreases the uk’s reliance on energy, thereby aiding in addressing energy demand, security, and scarcity concerns. realizing savings on energy bills directly translates into economic advantages for the uk population, especially amid substantial energy price escalations over the past two decades. energy conservation, such as through insulation as explored in this study, results in reduced oil imports, yielding positive economic effects for the uk. from an environmental standpoint, reduced energy consumption leads to lower carbon emissions, contributing to a healthier atmosphere for both humans and other species. this, in turn, curbs ghg emissions and the subsequent greenhouse effect, which can be seen as an approach to climate change mitigation. additionally, the control of global warming, achieved through energy conservation in part via insulation as proposed in this study, can have a positive impact on numerous environmental aspects, such as the preservation of habitats, ecological systems, and biodiversity. the innovative mathematical model developed and presented in this paper addresses the uk housing sector only. however, it is recognised that the model can be used in other areas of the built environment. it has included factors such as energy savings and carbon reduction as well as cost savings and pay-back periods. finally, the three studies can be amalgamated to estimate potential impact of the idea of the current study for the whole of the uk’s built environment. further studies are also required to recognise adverse environmental impacts, if any, for the retrospective application of the insulation technology on the massive scale of entire uk residential and other sectors. this may include waste arisings due to ‘reconstruction;’ transport; and other factors of the life cycle of the insulation materials. this study has not only combined sustainability with climate change in an overall manner, but also integrated along a number of other facets or layers such as temporal deadlines of sustainability and climate change mitigation, numeric/calculations, legislative implications e.g. legal carbon cut targets, air quality, etc. this way, both, the study itself and model produced as a main output, are multiand inter-faceted. however, further and future studies can be carried out on methods and technologies of energy conservation and management, other than the insulation approach employed in this study to demonstrate the application aspects of the model. this can be enhanced even further by employing technologies and techniques regarding digital engineering of construction which can assist to carry out and/or informed cost analyses of insulation scenarios. these scenarios include internal or external wall insulation options cavity wall insulation and the thermal mass of insulation material. in summary, the industry 4.0 has potential waiting getvoldsen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202418 to be unlocked in order to contribute to the delivery of net zero carbon agenda, thereby more effectively decarbonize both the existing built environment and the future one as well. note: there are no human research ethics clearance (hrec) issues to report at all. furthermore, no direct involvement of human participants occurred, and data were obtained from publicly available sources. concepts and ideas presented in this paper may not necessarily represent those of the employer organisations of the authors. references anderson, r. and kahya, d., 2011. saving money through energy efficiency. bbc news online, [online] 16 november. available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15431389 [accessed 12 june 2016]. aresta, m., dibenedetto, a., 2021. the atmosphere, the natural cycles, and the “greenhouse effect”. in: the carbon dioxide revolution: challenges and perspectives for a global society. cham: springer international. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-030-59061-1_3 baeli, m., 2019. residential retrofit: twenty case studies, 1st ed. [e-book] london: riba publishing. https://doi. org/10.4324/9780429347719 beales, c., 2014. uk emission targets. [online] (21 october 2017) available at: https://static.chrisbeales.net/ environment/file.php?source=emissions_uk%20targets.html. bilen, k., ozyurt, o., bakırcı, k., karslı, s., erdogan, s., yılmaz, m. and comaklı, o., 2008. energy production, consumption, and environmental pollution for sustainable development: a case study in turkey. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, [e-journal] 12(6), pp.1529-61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2007.03.003 brindle, b., 2011. 10 benefits of a passive house. [online] (28 march 2011) available at: https://home.howstuffworks. com/home-improvement/construction/green/10-benefits-of-a-passive-house.htm [accessed 25 april 2018]. butt, t.e., giddings, r.d. and jones, k.g., 2012. environmental sustainability and climate change mitigation—ccs technology, better having it than not having it at all. environmental progress & sustainable energy, [e-journal] 31(4), pp.642-49. https://doi.org/10.1002/ep.10590 carbon disclosure project (cdp), 2010. the carbon chasm—based on carbon disclosure project 2008 responses from the world’s 100 largest companies. [pdf ] london: cdp. https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/cdp2010-g500.pdf co2.earth, 2023. keeling curve monthly. [online] available at: https://www.co2.earth/keeling-curve-monthly. collins, m., knutti, r., arblaster, j., dufresne, j.l., fichefet, t., friedlingstein, p. and booth, b.b., 2013. long-term climate change: projections, commitments and irreversibility. in: climate change 2013: the physical science basis. contribution of working group i to the fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. cambridge uk: cambridge university press, pp.1029-1136. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781107415324.024 çomaklı, k. and yüksel, b., 2003. optimum insulation thickness of external walls for energy saving. applied thermal engineering, 23(4), pp.473-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1359-4311(02)00209-0 committee on climate change (ccc), 2015. reducing emissions and preparing for climate change: 2015 progress report to parliament. [pdf ] available at: https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/6.738_ccc_ execsummary_2015_final_web_250615.pdf. cotgrave, a. and riley, m., eds., 2012. total sustainability in the built environment. london: macmillan international higher education. [online] available through: https://books.google.com.pk/books/about/total_sustainability_in_the_ built_enviro.html?id=nd9geaaaqbaj&redir_esc=y. getvoldsen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202419 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15431389 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59061-1_3 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-59061-1_3 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429347719 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429347719 https://static.chrisbeales.net/environment/file.php?source=emissions_uk%20targets.html https://static.chrisbeales.net/environment/file.php?source=emissions_uk%20targets.html https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2007.03.003 https://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/construction/green/10-benefits-of-a-passive-house.htm https://home.howstuffworks.com/home-improvement/construction/green/10-benefits-of-a-passive-house.htm https://doi.org/10.1002/ep.10590 https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/cdp-2010-g500.pdf https://www.circleofblue.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/cdp-2010-g500.pdf https://www.co2.earth/keeling-curve-monthly https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781107415324.024 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1359-4311(02)00209-0 https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/6.738_ccc_execsummary_2015_final_web_250615.pdf https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/6.738_ccc_execsummary_2015_final_web_250615.pdf https://books.google.com.pk/books/about/total_sustainability_in_the_built_enviro.html?id=nd9geaaaqbaj&redir_esc=y https://books.google.com.pk/books/about/total_sustainability_in_the_built_enviro.html?id=nd9geaaaqbaj&redir_esc=y crawley, d.b. 2008. estimating the impacts of climate change and urbanization on building performance. journal of building performance simulation, [e-journal] 1(2), 91–115. https://doi.org/10.1080/19401490802182079 crawley, d.b., 2003. impact of climate change on buildings. in: proceedings of the cibse/ashrae international conference. edinburgh, scotland, 24-26 september 2003. available through: https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/228553732_impact_of_climate_change_on_buildings. curtis, r., 2010. climate change and traditional buildings: the approach taken by historic scotland. journal of architectural conservation, [e-journal] 16(3), pp.7–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/13556207.2010.10785073 cvelbar, l.k. and dwyer, l., 2013. an importance–performance analysis of sustainability factors for long-term strategy planning in slovenian hotels. journal of sustainable tourism, [e-journal] 21(3), pp.487–504. https://doi.org/10.1080/096 69582.2012.713965 department for business, energy & industrial strategy (dbeis), 2021a. digest of uk energy statistics 2020. [online] available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/digest-of-uk-energy-statistics-dukes-2021 [accessed 8 october 2021]. department of business, energy & industrial strategy (dbeis), 2021b. uk energy statistics, q1 2020. [online] available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/894920/ press_notice_june_2020.pdf [accessed 8 october 2021]. department of communities & local government (dclg), 2006. review of sustainability of existing buildings – the energy efficiency of dwellings – initial analysis. london: hmso. available at: https://www.thenbs.com/ publicationindex/documents/details?pub=dclg&docid=280595. department of energy & climate change (decc), 2012. policies. [online] available at: https://www.gov.uk/ government/policies/helping-households-to-cut-their-energy-bills/supporting-pages/energy-companies-obligation-eco [accessed 15 january 2015]. department of energy & climate change (decc), 2013. uk energy in brief 2013. [online] available at: https://assets. publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c9107e5274a0bb7cb7e6c/uk_energy_in_brief_2013.pdf. department of energy & climate change (decc), 2015. uk progress towards ghg emissions reduction targets. [online] available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a80e3c2e5274a2e8ab52bd8/20150319_progress_to_ emissions_reductions_targets_final.pdf. department of environment, food & rural affairs (defra), 2013. sustainable development indicators. [online] available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c8b74ed915d6969f45a07/0_sdis_final__2_.pdf. eakin, h.c., lemos, m.c. and nelson, d.r., 2014. differentiating capacities as a means to sustainable climate change adaptation. global environmental change, [e-journal] 27, pp.1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.04.013 energy information administration (eia), 2019. international energy outlook 2021 narrative with projections to 2050. washington, dc: u.s. department of energy. https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/ieo/pdf/ieo2021_narrative.pdf. energy information administration (eia), 2020. u.s. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, 2019. washington, dc: u.s. department of energy. energy saving trust (est), 2016. solid wall. [online] available at: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/homeinsulation/solid-wall [accessed 12 june 2016]. english house condition survey (ehcs), 2009. [online] available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/ media/5a789b49e5274a2acd18860c/1851086.pdf. evans, s., 2017. analysis: uk carbon emissions fell 6% in 2016 after record drop in coal use. [online] (6 march 2017) available at: https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-cuts-carbon-record-coal-drop/. getvoldsen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202420 https://doi.org/10.1080/19401490802182079 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228553732_impact_of_climate_change_on_buildings https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228553732_impact_of_climate_change_on_buildings https://doi.org/10.1080/13556207.2010.10785073 https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2012.713965 https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2012.713965 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/digest-of-uk-energy-statistics-dukes-2021 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/894920/press_notice_june_2020.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/894920/press_notice_june_2020.pdf https://www.thenbs.com/publicationindex/documents/details?pub=dclg&docid=280595 https://www.thenbs.com/publicationindex/documents/details?pub=dclg&docid=280595 https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/helping-households-to-cut-their-energy-bills/supporting-pages/energy-companies-obligation-eco https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/helping-households-to-cut-their-energy-bills/supporting-pages/energy-companies-obligation-eco https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c9107e5274a0bb7cb7e6c/uk_energy_in_brief_2013.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c9107e5274a0bb7cb7e6c/uk_energy_in_brief_2013.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a80e3c2e5274a2e8ab52bd8/20150319_progress_to_emissions_reductions_targets_final.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a80e3c2e5274a2e8ab52bd8/20150319_progress_to_emissions_reductions_targets_final.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a7c8b74ed915d6969f45a07/0_sdis_final__2_.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.04.013 https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/ieo/pdf/ieo2021_narrative.pdf http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/home-insulation/solid-wall http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/home-insulation/solid-wall https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a789b49e5274a2acd18860c/1851086.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a789b49e5274a2acd18860c/1851086.pdf https://www.carbonbrief.org/analysis-uk-cuts-carbon-record-coal-drop/ fathi, s., srinivasan, r., fenner, a. and fathi, s., 2020. machine learning applications in urban building energy performance forecasting: a systematic review. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, [e-journal] 133, p.110287. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2020.110287 getvoldsen, k.s., butt, t.e., house, c., ferreira, f., 2018. sustainable development and climate change. in: leal filho, w., ed. handbook of sustainability science and research. world sustainability series. cham: springer. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-319-63007-6_27 giddens, a., latham, s. and liddle, r., eds., 2009. building a low-carbon future: the politics of climate change. london: policy network. giesekam, j., barrett, j., taylor, p. and owen, a., 2014. the greenhouse gas emissions and mitigation options for materials used in uk construction. energy and buildings, [e-journal] 78, pp.202-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. enbuild.2014.04.035 gillott, m. and spataru, c., 2010. materials for energy efficiency and thermal comfort in the refurbishment of existing buildings. in: hall, m.r., ed. materials for energy efficiency and thermal comfort in buildings. cambridge, uk: woodhead publishing. ch.26, pp.649-80. https://doi.org/10.1533/9781845699277.3.649 goodchild, b. and walshaw, a., 2011. towards zero carbon homes in england? from inception to partial implementation. housing studies, [e-journal] 26(6), pp.933–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2011.593132 green, e., lannon, s., patterson, j., varriale, f. and iorwerth, h., 2020. decarbonising the welsh housing stock: from practice to policy. buildings and cities, [e-journal] 1(1), p.277–92. https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.19 hulme, m, jenkins, g.j., lu, x., turnpenny, j.r., mitchell, t.d., jones, r.g., lowe, j., murphy, j.m., hassell, d., boorman, p., mcdonald, r. and hill, s., 2002. climate change scenarios for the united kingdom: the ukcip02 briefing report. norwich: tyndall centre for climate change research, school of environmental sciences, university of east anglia. [online] available at: https://artefacts.ceda.ac.uk/badc_datadocs/link/ukcip02_tech.pdf. huovila, p., ala-juusela, m., melchert, l., pouffary, s., cheng, c.c., ürge-vorsatz, d. and graham, p., 2009. buildings and climate change: summary for decision-makers. paris, france: unep. [online] available at: https://www.uncclearn.org/ wp-content/uploads/library/unep207.pdf. institute of historic building conservation (ihbc), 2019. english housing stock age. [online] (22 october 2020). available at: https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/english_housing_stock_age [accessed 20 december 2019]. international energy agency (iea), 2020. key world energy statistics 2020. [online] (august 2020). available at: https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/1b7781df-5c93-492a-acd6-01fc90388b0f/key_world_energy_ statistics_2020.pdf [accessed november 2021]. janda, k.b., 2011. buildings don’t use energy: people do. architectural science review, [e-journal] 54(1), pp.15–22. https://doi.org/10.3763/asre.2009.0050 janna, w.s., 2009. engineering heat transfer, 3rd ed. boca raton: crc press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781439883143 katris, a. and turner, k., 2021. can different approaches to funding household energy efficiency deliver on economic and social policy objectives? eco and alternatives in the uk. energy policy, [e-journal] 155, p.112375. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112375 kdb insulation ireland ltd., 2013. history of insulation. [online] available at: http://www.kdbinsulation.com/historyof-insulation/ [accessed 12 june 2016]. uk government, 2008. climate change act 2008, chapter 27. london, uk: hmso. [online] available at: https:// www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/27/pdfs/ukpga_20080027_en.pdf. getvoldsen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202421 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2020.110287 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63007-6_27 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-63007-6_27 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2014.04.035 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2014.04.035 https://doi.org/10.1533/9781845699277.3.649 https://doi.org/10.1080/02673037.2011.593132 https://doi.org/10.5334/bc.19 https://artefacts.ceda.ac.uk/badc_datadocs/link/ukcip02_tech.pdf https://www.uncclearn.org/wp-content/uploads/library/unep207.pdf https://www.uncclearn.org/wp-content/uploads/library/unep207.pdf https://www.designingbuildings.co.uk/wiki/english_housing_stock_age https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/1b7781df-5c93-492a-acd6-01fc90388b0f/key_world_energy_statistics_2020.pdf https://iea.blob.core.windows.net/assets/1b7781df-5c93-492a-acd6-01fc90388b0f/key_world_energy_statistics_2020.pdf https://doi.org/10.3763/asre.2009.0050 https://doi.org/10.1201/9781439883143 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112375 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2021.112375 http://www.kdbinsulation.com/history-of-insulation/ http://www.kdbinsulation.com/history-of-insulation/ https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/27/pdfs/ukpga_20080027_en.pdf https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/27/pdfs/ukpga_20080027_en.pdf li, f., penman, d., planavsky, n., knudsen, a., zhao, m., wang, x. and shen, b., 2021. reverse weathering may amplify post-snowball atmospheric carbon dioxide levels. precambrian research, [e-journal] 364, p.106279. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.precamres.2021.106279 mackenzie, s., 2023. what does the uk’s current energy mix look like today – and in the future? [online] (20 april 2023). available at: https://www.bigissue.com/news/environment/earth-day-inside-the-renewables-revolution/. mcgrath, m., 2013. report suggests slowdown in co2 emissions rise. bbc news online. 31 october 2013. available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-24742770. mearns, e., 2013. brave green world and the cost of electricity. energy matters [blog] 13 december. available at: http://euanmearns.com/brave-green-world-and-the-cost-of-electricity/ [accessed 12 june 2014]. mearns, e., 2014. global energy trends–bp statistical review 2014. energy matters [blog] 17 june. available at: http://euanmearns.com/global-energy-trends-bp-statistical-review-2014/. milner, m., 2008. brand new 1930s house is built to test energy efficiency. the guardian. [online] (22 april 2008). available at: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/apr/21/construction.energyefficiency. moldan, b., janoušková, s. and hák, t., 2012. how to understand and measure environmental sustainability: indicators and targets. ecological indicators, [e-journal] 17, pp.4-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2011.04.033 office for national statistics (ons), 2015. sustainable development indicators july 2015. london: ons. [online] available at: https://backup.ons.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/07/sustainable-development-indicatorsjuly-2015.pdf. office for national statistics (ons), 2018. uk local authority and regional carbon dioxide emissions national statistics: 2005 to 2016. [online] available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-local-authority-and-regional-carbondioxide-emissions-national-statistics-2005-2016 [accessed 1 september 2021]. šimko, m., krajčík, m., šikula, o., šimko, p. and kalús, d., 2018. insulation panels for active control of heat transfer in walls operated as space heating or as a thermal barrier: numerical simulations and experiments. energy and buildings, [e-journal] 158, pp.135-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.10.019 straus, r.r., 2014. want double glazing and new doors but don’t want to pay for it? the energy efficiency measures you can get for free—and how to get hold of them. this is money, 23 june 2014. available at: http://www.thisismoney. co.uk/money/bills/article-2663470/the-energy-efficiency-measures-for-free-hold-them.html [accessed 12 june 2016]. syngros, g., balaras, c.a. and koubogiannis, d.g., 2017. embodied co2 emissions in building construction materials of hellenic dwellings. procedia environmental sciences, [e-journal] 38, pp.500-08. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. proenv.2017.03.113 hr wallingford, 2014. indicators to assess the exposure of critical infrastructure in england to current and projected climate hazards: final report. oxfordshire, uk: hr wallingford ltd. [online] may 2014. available at: https://www. theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/5-mcr5195-rt003-r05-00.pdf. world energy council (wec), 2013. world energy scenarios: composing energy futures to 2050. london, uk: world energy council [online] available at: https://www.worldenergy.org/assets/downloads/world-energy-scenarios_ composing-energy-futures-to-2050_full-report1.pdf. world energy data (wed), 2023. trends and impacts of the world energy system, 2023. world final energy july 2023. [online] available at: https://www.worldenergydata.org/world-final-energy/ [accessed july 2023]. zuo, j. and zhao, z.y., 2014. green building research–current status and future agenda: a review. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, [e-journal] 30, pp.271-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.10.021 getvoldsen et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202422 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2021.106279 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.precamres.2021.106279 https://www.bigissue.com/news/environment/earth-day-inside-the-renewables-revolution/ https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-24742770 http://euanmearns.com/brave-green-world-and-the-cost-of-electricity/ http://euanmearns.com/global-energy-trends-bp-statistical-review-2014/ https://www.theguardian.com/business/2008/apr/21/construction.energyefficiency https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2011.04.033 https://backup.ons.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/07/sustainable-development-indicators-july-2015.pdf https://backup.ons.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/3/2015/07/sustainable-development-indicators-july-2015.pdf https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-local-authority-and-regional-carbon-dioxide-emissions-national-statistics-2005-2016 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/uk-local-authority-and-regional-carbon-dioxide-emissions-national-statistics-2005-2016 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.10.019 http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-2663470/the-energy-efficiency-measures-for-free-hold-them.html http://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/bills/article-2663470/the-energy-efficiency-measures-for-free-hold-them.html https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proenv.2017.03.113 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proenv.2017.03.113 https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/5-mcr5195-rt003-r05-00.pdf https://www.theccc.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/5-mcr5195-rt003-r05-00.pdf https://www.worldenergy.org/assets/downloads/world-energy-scenarios_composing-energy-futures-to-2050_full-report1.pdf https://www.worldenergy.org/assets/downloads/world-energy-scenarios_composing-energy-futures-to-2050_full-report1.pdf https://www.worldenergydata.org/world-final-energy/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.10.021 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: khan, i. h., munawer, t. 2024. a systematic review of economic sustainability of vertical greenery systems in buildings. construction economics and building, 24:1/2, 119–143. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v24i1/2.8710 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article a systematic review of economic sustainability of vertical greenery systems in buildings irfan haider khan1,2,*, taiyaba munawer1 1 department of architecture, jamia millia islamia, new delhi, india 2 central public works department, ministry of housing and urban affairs, govt. of india corresponding author: irfan haider khan, central public works department, ministry of housing and urban affairs, govt. of india, irfan.haider@gov.in doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8710 article history: received 14/07/2023; revised 05/11/2023; accepted 20/02/2024; published 01/07/2024 abstract urban areas have been significantly affected by climate change, leading to an increase in global temperatures. nature-based solutions, including vertical greenery systems (vgss), are gaining increasing importance as means of mitigating the effects of climate change. despite showing significant benefits, the adoption of vgs has been limited, primarily because of the high costs associated with it. this study assessed the economic feasibility of using vgss to reduce the effects of climate change and enhance urban sustainability. 17 studies were evaluated in accordance with the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (prisma) guidelines to determine various costs, benefits, and economic indicators associated with vgs. additionally, the net present value, internal rate of return, and payback period were thoroughly evaluated to gain insight into their long-term economic sustainability. the results show that, although the initial cost of vgs may be high, it can provide long-term financial benefits to building owners and operators through energy savings, increased property values, and reduced operational expenses. nevertheless, the extended payback period and negative net present values for certain vgs types make them economically unsustainable. this review provides evidence-based guidelines and suggestions for the successful implementation of sustainable vgs. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 119 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8710 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8710 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:irfan.haider@gov.in https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8710 keywords vertical greenery system; living walls; green facades; vgs benefits; economic sustainability; economic performance introduction urbanization is a critical issue for cities today and is expected to continue to grow. by 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population will live in urban areas (khor, et al., 2022). rapid urbanization is increasing people’s vulnerability to adverse effects of climate change. urban areas are more susceptible to extreme weather events, such as heatwaves, due to climate change (seneviratne, et al., 2021). human-caused emissions have already increased the global temperature by 1.1°c compared to pre-industrial levels, and it is predicted to reach 1.5°c in the coming decades (ipcc, 2021). this can have a significant impact on health and cities, thereby posing economic risks. existing efforts to combat climate change have been inadequate. research has shown that proven climate actions can address this issue (project drawdown, 2020). it is crucial to identify areas for improvement and implement stringent measures to reduce emissions, as buildings are a major source of energy consumption and emissions that cause climate change (iea, 2022; lucon, et al., 2014). however, buildings also offer an opportunity to reduce the impacts of climate change (united nations environment programme, 2021). nature-based solutions, including vertical greenery systems, are being investigated as potential solutions to address climate change issues in cities, as they can reduce carbon emissions, store carbon, and have positive indirect and behavioural impacts (pan, et al., 2023). vertical greenery systems (vgss) are building facades that are covered by vegetation, either partially or completely. these systems integrate living plants into building envelopes and can take a variety of forms. the terminology used for each type varies across studies, primarily because of the contexts and systems employed (radić, dodig and auer, 2019). although their ability to mitigate climate change-related issues may vary across vgs types, they have been proven to contribute significantly to climate change mitigation (andric, kamal and al-ghamdi, 2020). therefore, a holistic analysis of the vgss is required. the intergovernmental panel on climate change (ipcc) recognizes vgs in buildings as a potential climate mitigation measure but marks them as “controversial” due to a lack of literature on their long-term performance in different climates and regions (cabeza, et al., 2022). this indicates a research gap in the economic sustainability of vgs despite the rising interest in vertical greenery in buildings as a sustainable urban development approach. substantial literature exists on the environmental advantages of vgs (pan and chu, 2016; perini, et al., 2021; qurraie and kıraç, 2023; zhang, et al., 2019). however, the economic benefits and challenges of vgs remain unclear. the lack of clarity regarding the economic implications of vgs hinders its successful adoption and sustainability. vgs requires a large initial investment but can offer long-term economic advantages. for instance, haggag, hassan and elmasry (2014) found that vgs led to up to 20.5% annual energy savings in hot, arid climates. vgs can also filter greywater, reducing costs for activities requiring low-quality water (e.g., wc flushing and irrigation) in areas with increasing water demand (masi, et al., 2016). vgs may also raise property value and reduce building maintenance costs (perini and rosasco, 2013). sustainable infrastructure incentives or regulations can further encourage the implementation of vgs (shazmin, et al., 2017). iea (2023) reported that vgs are a “high-priority measure” to reduce air-conditioning demands, but affordability must be addressed before wider adoption. the economic viability of vgs is often questioned because of the installation and maintenance costs. the aim of this review is to examine the viability of vgs as a solution to climate-related challenges faced by buildings, with a focus on their economic sustainability. this study aimed to identify the factors that khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024120 influence the adoption of vgs and address the knowledge gaps in the literature. the findings of this review will contribute to the development of evidence-based guidelines for the successful implementation of vgs in buildings and will promote their long-term sustainability. methods the review followed the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (prisma) guidelines for systematic literature reviews, which are widely recognized standards for such reviews (moher, et al., 2009). search strategy to identify relevant articles, a comprehensive search was conducted between november 2022 and march 2023 using major academic databases including scopus, web of science, and science direct. these databases screened and searched the titles, abstracts, and keywords of indexed studies. the search used a combination of keywords and controlled vocabulary terms related to vgs and economic sustainability. the keywords were refined after the initial searches of these databases and the process was repeated multiple times to improve the search results. a keyword search was independently performed by both authors to eliminate bias and to expand the search results. the final keyword strings used were: ((“vertical greenery*” or “green wall” or “green facade” or “building-integrated vegetation” or “living wall” or “living facade”) and (“economic sustainability” or “financial feasibility” or “cost-benefit analysis” or “return on investment” or “life cycle cost*” or “economic analysis”)). eligibility criteria the study selection process involved screening the titles and abstracts of retrieved articles according to the inclusion and exclusion criteria. the inclusion criteria were peer-reviewed empirical studies that evaluated the economic performance of vgs and reported quantitative data. only studies reporting the financial costs associated with vgs were included. studies that evaluated green roofs or reported only qualitative data were excluded. reviews, editorials, opinion papers, grey literature, and articles published in languages other than english were also excluded. data extraction and analysis a standardized data extraction form was used to collect the title, author(s), year of publication, methodology, type of vertical greenery system, economic sustainability indicators, and main findings from the selected articles. narrative synthesis was used to summarize the main findings and compile them in ms excel. patterns and themes related to the economic sustainability of vgs were identified. to conduct a comprehensive cost analysis, this review converts the costs from the original articles into inflation-adjusted us$ values to compare the lifecycle costs across studies. these inflation-adjusted costs (as of 1 january 2023) were calculated for the values reported in the reviewed studies using eq. (1). this accounts for annual inflation based on the overall consumer price index (cpi) for the base year 2010 for different countries, as in the reviewed literature (imf, 2023). although this value may not truly reflect current prices, given the nuanced nature of inflation, it helps in comparing the present value of reported lifecycle costs. ci,2023 = cb * (cpi2023 / cpib) eq. (1) khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024121 where ci,2023 is the inflation-adjusted cost as of 1 january 2023, cb is the cost in base year as reported in literature, cpi2023 is the consumer price index for the particular country as on january 01, 2023, and cpib is the consumer price index for the base year. the calculated inflation-adjusted costs in the base currency are then converted to us$ values, using the conversion rates (for instance, 1 eur = 1.0727 usd) as of 1 january 2023 available from google finance (google, n.d.). this approach accurately and comparably evaluates vgs costs by providing decision makers with valuable information for vgs implementation. quality assessment the quality of the selected articles was assessed using a critical appraisal approach to evaluate their internal and external validity and reporting quality. both authors independently screened articles based on the inclusion and exclusion criteria. discrepancies during the selection process, data extraction, and quality assessment were resolved through discussions and consensus. limitations this systematic literature review has language limitations and excludes unpublished studies, grey literature, and non-peer-reviewed articles. these limitations may have led to the exclusion of relevant studies from the analysis. however, we believe that the selection criteria used in this review resulted in a thorough and highquality analysis of the available literature on the economic feasibility of using vgs in buildings. results study selection an initial database search returned 179 articles. after removing duplicates (n=25) and screening titles and abstracts, 67 articles were sought for retrieval. six articles could not be retrieved and were excluded. 61 studies were evaluated for inclusion after full-text review. 23 of these studies focused on green roofs or other nature-based solutions; therefore, they were excluded. 21 articles discussed vgs but did not assess their economics. the review excluded studies that did not report vgs costs and those that only reported ‘willingness to pay’ (wtp), as wtp is not a measure of economic performance and is based on user perceptions. duplicate studies from the same research group were excluded from this review. the database search used language filters (english); however, one non-english article still remained and was therefore removed. after screening the results for inclusion/exclusion criteria by all the authors, 15 articles from the search results and two from the reference lists (17 in total) were included in the review. figure 1 shows the study selection process (prisma flow diagram). characteristics of included studies a summary of the characteristics of the included studies is shown in table 1. all reviewed studies were published in the last decade (2012-2021) and most of these were published recently (2019-2021). this helps establish a state-of-the-art review. of the 17 articles reviewed, 16 were journal articles and one was a book chapter. most of the reviewed studies were conducted in temperate climates (according to the köppen geiger classification) in italy (n=4), portugal (n=3), austria (n=1), france (n=1), spain (n=1), and sweden (n=1). the research designs employed in these studies include case studies, life cycle cost analysis, and costbenefit analysis. the studies varied in terms of the type and scale of vgs evaluated, covering a diverse range of systems such as direct and indirect green facades, living walls (indoor and outdoor), and felt-based green walls. this aids in the holistic appraisal of the diverse types of vgs suited to different contexts and climates. khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024122 economic costs of vertical greenery systems most studies evaluated in this review assessed the economic costs associated with vgs throughout their lifespan. these costs are divided into three life cycle stages: (i) initial costs, (ii) maintenance costs, and (iii) disposal and/or replacement costs. the costs reported in the articles are based on the literature, including case studies, bills of quantities, and manufacturers’ technical reports. among the 17 studies reviewed, only four reported cost data from live projects (haggag and hassan, 2015; hollands and korjenic, 2021; huang, et al., 2019; rosasco and perini, 2018). additionally, two studies (akinwolemiwa, et al., 2018; riley, et al., 2019) presented findings from prototype testing projects aimed at reducing the cost of vgs in buildings. the literature indicates that vgs life cycles range from 10-15 years to 50 years, with variations likely stemming from distinct materials, designs, and maintenance approaches. direct green facades feature plants growing directly on a building surface, whereas indirect green facades employ separate supporting structures, such as steel or high-density polyethylene (hdpe). perini and rosasco (2013) and matos silva, et al. (2019) demonstrated that both direct and indirect green facades can exhibit lifecycles of up to 50 years. records identified from: scopus (n=26) web of science (n=19) sciencedirect (n=134) total records 179 records removed before screening: duplicate records removed (n=25) records screened (n=154) records excluded (n=87) titles and abstracts screening reports sought for retrieval (n=67) reports not retrieved (n = 6) reports assessed for eligibility (n=61) reports excluded: not focused on vgs (n=23) no economic assessment (n=21) duplicate study (n=1) language not english (n=1) studies from database search (n=15) studies extracted from references of other studies (n = 2) total no. of studies included in review – 17 identification of studies via databases id en tif ic at io n sc re en in g in cl ud ed figure 1. prisma flow-diagram for selection of studies from databases khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024123 table 1. overview of characteristics of reviewed articles source region, climate type1 vgs type methods2 reported costs3 reported benefits i m d veisten, et al. (2012) unspecified living wall cba   acoustic comfort, aesthetic improvement perini and rosasco (2013) genoa, italy, csb green facade, living wall cba    energy savings, rental income, cladding longevity, haggag and hassan (2015) al-ain, uae, bwh living wall cs   energy savings, rental income perini and rosasco (2016) genoa, italy, csb green façade cba    energy savings, rental income, cladding longevity serrano-jimenez, barrios-padura and molinahuelva (2017) seville, spain, csa green facade cs   energy savings shazmin, et al. (2017) kulai, johor, malaysia, af living wall cba  energy savings akinwolemiwa, et al. (2018) lagos, nigeria, aw green fa cade cs   job creation, thermal comfort, income from plants rosasco and perini (2018) genoa, italy, csb green facade cba    energy savings, rental income, cladding longevity, tax reduction, biomass production huang, et al. (2019) singapore, af green facade, living wall lcca    energy savings, water savings matos silva, et al. (2019) lisbon, portugal, csa green facade, living wall cba    improved aesthetics, air quality, acoustic comfort, job creation, user satisfaction riley, et al. (2019) lyon, france, cfb living concrete cs  santi, et al. (2019) italy, unspecified green facade, living wall cs   energy savings khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024124 in contrast, huang, et al. (2019) reported shorter life cycles of 10-15 years for indirect green facades. the extended life cycles observed for some direct green facades could be due to a reduced need for maintenance and component replacement compared to the more intricate support structures of indirect green facades. the costs associated with the three stages of vgs lifespan are discussed in detail below. the initialization stage includes the acquisition and preparation of different components of the vgs that are performed off-site, whereas installation involves on-site processes, such as transportation costs for materials, labour, and workforce, among others (huang, et al. 2019). however, segregation of costs and processes into two stages has been reported in only two studies (huang, et al. 2021; 2019). most of the articles reviewed herein reported these costs together under one head, such as initial costs (perini and rosasco, 2013) or production/installation costs (melo, et al. 2020; almeida, et al. 2021). for comparison, all costs were clubbed together under the ‘initial costs’ in this review. an overview of the components accounting for the initial costs of vgs in the reviewed studies is presented in table 2. the initial costs for direct green facades vary between €30/m2 and €45/m2 (perini and rosasco, 2013; santi, et al., 2019), whereas indirect green facade costs are in the range of €38.58/m2 (¥290/m2, dong and huang, 2021) up to €335.48/m2 (rosasco and perini, 2018). the cost of indirect green facades depends on the material of the support structure; €218.72/m2 for hdpe with planter boxes and €293.93/m2 for steel with planter boxes (perini and rosasco, 2013). in all the studies, initial costs were the second highest source region, climate type1 vgs type methods2 reported costs3 reported benefits i m d melo, et al. (2020) lisbon, portugal, csa green facade, living wall cba    cladding longevity, improved aesthetics, air quality, acoustic comfort almeida, et al. (2021) lisbon, portugal, csa green facade, living wall cba    cladding longevity, improved aesthetics, air quality, acoustic comfort dong and huang (2021) china, unspecified green facade, living wall lcca   hollands and korjenic (2021) vienna, austria, cfb living wall cba   improved hygrothermal comfort huang, et al. (2021) singapore, af green facade, living wall lcca    1 köppen-geiger classification – af: rainforest, aw: tropical savanna, bwh: hot desert, cfb: temperate oceanic, csa: hot-summer mediterranean, csb: warm-summer mediterranean 2 cba – cost-benefit analysis, cs – case study, lcca – lifecycle cost analysis 3 i – initial costs, m – maintenance costs, d – disposal costs table 1. continued khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024125 contributor to life cycle costs, except in the case of indirect green facades reported by rosasco and perini (2018) and santi, et al. (2019), owing to the reduced life span of 25 and 15 years, respectively (see table 3). table 2. overview of initial cost components of vgs in reviewed studies cost component description sources manpower costs salary of workers in nursery, for transportation, preparation and installation of the system shazmin, et al. (2017), akinwolemiwa, et al. (2018), huang, et al. (2019, 2021), riley, et al. (2019) design costs fees for designers, architects, service providers, horticulturists perini and rosasco (2016), akinwolemiwa, et al. (2018) material costs structure, plant species, digging, pots, panels, planter boxes, growing media, waterproofing, irrigation system, drainage system, fertilizers perini and rosasco (2013. 2016), haggag and hassan (2015), shazmin, et al. (2017), akinwolemiwa, et al. (2018), rosasco and perini (2018), huang, et al. (2019, 2021), riley, et al. (2019), santi, et al. (2019), melo, et al. (2020), dong and huang (2021) utilities cost electricity, water, equipment haggag and hassan (2015), huang, et al. (2019, 2021) transportation cost transportation of materials perini and rosasco (2013, 2016) akinwolemiwa, et al. (2018), rosasco and perini (2018), huang, et al. (2019, 2021) production costs atmospheric emissions melo, et al. (2020) living wall systems exhibited a wider range of initial costs, as shown in table 4. santi, et al. (2019) reported a wide range of initial costs (€100 – 1,200/m²), accounting for up to 84.21% of the total lifecycle costs, constituting a considerable portion of the overall expenses. in contrast, perini and rosasco (2013) reported an outdoor living wall system with an initial cost of €314.83/m², representing only 13.28% of the total lifecycle costs. this could be attributed to the fact that perini and rosasco (2013) reported a detailed analysis of life cycle costs, whereas santi, et al. (2019) did not account for all the components and only reported lumpsum costs and an assumed life cycle of 15 years, which led to a reduced component of costs across the life span of the system. the costs of living walls also vary according to their use (indoors or outdoors). for instance, matos silva, et al. (2019) presented a living wall system for both indoor and outdoor use with an initial cost of €600/ m², or 16.21% of the total lifecycle costs. in contrast, for the same climate type and location, melo, et al. (2020) compared two living wall systems: an outdoor system with initial costs of €100.10/m² (4.21% of total lifecycle costs) and an indoor system at €615.10/m² (23.52% of total lifecycle costs). additionally, hollands and korjenic (2021) investigated two indoor living wall systems, the trough system and fleece system, with initial costs in the range of €1,033 – 1,265/m² (29.24 – 33.87% of total lifecycle costs) and €1,262 – 2,589/ m² (24.26 – 39.29% of total lifecycle costs), respectively. the substantial difference in the initial costs khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024126 between indoor and outdoor systems highlights the importance of considering the intended application of living wall systems when selecting the most appropriate option. in contrast to the studies in tables 3 and 4, akinwolemiwa et al. (2018) and riley, et al. (2019) reported the costs of vgs prototypes, particularly focusing on cost-effectiveness, whereas shazmin, et al. (2017) reported vgs costs in the context of tax incentives for these systems. akinwolemiwa, et al. (2018) presented multiple vgs prototypes in a study conducted in nigeria. the initial costs (including material, transportation, labour, and plants) reported were – ₦10,328.40/m2 (inflation-adjusted us$ equivalent $39.84/m2) for the hdpe prototype, and ₦3,540/m2 ($13.66/m2) for the bamboo prototype. riley, et al. (2019) reported a unique prototype created by integrating greenery within the concrete that could be used for the building envelope. the living concrete’s cost was €120/m2 ($138.33/m2). these values were substantially lower than those of conventional vgs reported in other studies. the initial costs of vgs are influenced by numerous factors, including system type, location, and context. as demonstrated by the reviewed studies, costs can vary significantly even within the same type of system. although initial investment in vgs is often a key focus, maintenance costs significantly affect the long-term sustainability and cost-effectiveness of vgs. these costs include regular upkeep activities such as watering, fertilizing, pruning, pest control, and repair or replacement of damaged or malfunctioning components or plant species. in addition, the costs associated with ongoing monitoring and inspection, including labour and materials, also contribute to the overall maintenance expenses (huang, et al. 2019). as shown in tables 3 and 4, maintenance costs accounted for a substantial portion of the total lifecycle costs, underscoring the importance of considering these expenses when evaluating the economic sustainability of vgs. maintenance costs for direct green facades are relatively lower compared to other vgs types because the only expenditure is the cost of regular pruning of the plants. the higher maintenance costs of €1,353.61/ m2 (94.88% of total lifecycle costs) reported by perini and rosasco (2013) are due to the one-time cladding renovation costs included in the maintenance costs. if cladding renovation costs were excluded, the effective maintenance costs for direct green facades would be €129.26/m2 (68% of the total lifecycle costs), which is much lower than the maintenance costs for other vgs types reported in this review. only two studies (from the same research group) accounted for the costs incurred in renovating a building facade owing to the impact of vgs (perini and rosasco, 2013, 2016), resulting in increased maintenance costs. the costs of indirect green facades are more commonly reported and are found to be slightly higher than those for direct green facades but comparatively lower than those for living walls. perini and rosasco (2013) reported a variation in the maintenance costs of indirect green facades owing to different support structures. for hdpe and steel, these costs were similar (€884.65/m2); for hdpe with planter box systems, they were approximately €1,243.67/m2 (74.69%of the lifecycle costs). considerably lower maintenance costs of €45/m2 (santi, et al., 2019) and ¥30 – 50/m2/yr. (dong and huang, 2021) were reported for indirect green facades, whereas matos silva, et al. (2019) reported maintenance costs of €650/m2 (79.75% of the total lifecycle costs) for similar indirect green facades. this not only highlights the difference in costs due to different contexts but also a clear lack of standardization in cost reporting. for community-driven vertical greenery prototypes, akinwolemiwa, et al. (2018) reported maintenance costs, including irrigation, water, security, weeding, cropping, and replacing/replanting, of ₦37,037/m2/yr. (inflation-adjusted us$ value: $142.87/m2/yr.). two of the reviewed studies did not report the maintenance costs (shazmin, et al. 2017; riley, et al. 2019) however, they acknowledged that maintenance costs account for a considerable portion of the total life cycle costs. maintenance costs generally constitute a sizeable portion of total lifecycle costs, highlighting the importance of considering long-term maintenance expenses when evaluating the economic feasibility of green facades and living walls. khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024127 table 3. summary of costs associated with green facades as reported in articles reviewed source life cycle (years) type of vgs initial1 maintenance disposal total lifecycle costs2 adjusted lifecycle costs3 (us$/m2) perini and rosasco (2013) 50 direct green façade €41.96/m2 (2.94%) €1,353.61/m2 (94.88%) €31.10/m2 (2.18%) €1,426.66/m2 (100 %) 1,738.43 hdpe indirect green facade €176.02/m2 (13.99%) €884.65/m2 (70.32%) €197.40/m2 (15.69%) €1,258.07/m2 (100%) 1,532.99 steel indirect green facade €215.08/m2 (16.44%) €884.65/m2 (68.08%) €199.74/m2 (15.37%) €1,299.47/m2 (100%) 1,583.43 hdpe indirect green facade with planter boxes €218.72/m2 (13.14%) €1,243.67/m2 (74.69%) €202.69/m2 (12.17%) €1,665.08/m2 (100%) 2,028.94 steel indirect green facade with planter boxes €293.93/m2 (17.63%) €1,167.17/m2 (70%) €206.20/m2 (12.37%) €1,667.3/m2 (100%) 2,031.64 perini and rosasco (2016) 50 indirect green façade €212.15/m2 (33.36%) €373.83/m2 (58.78%) €50.04/m2 (7.87%) €636.02/m2 (100%) 773.57 indirect green façade with planter box €252.05/m2 (26.52%) €638.75/m2 (67.22%) €59.45/m2 (6.26%) €950.25/m2 (100%) 1,155.75 serranojimenez, barriospadura and molinahuelva (2017) 30 green façade unspecified €350/m2 (9.74%) €3,243.6/m2 (90.26%) not reported €3,593.60/m2 (100%) 4,396.09 rosasco and perini (2018) 25 indirect green façade €335.48/m2 (43.22%) €307.28/m2 (39.59%) €133.4/m2 (17.19%) €776.16/m2 (100%) 922.09 50 indirect green façade €335.48/m2 (28.55%) €641.28/m2 (54.57%) €198.39/m2 (16.88%) €1,175.15/m2 (100%) 1,396.09 huang, et al. (2019) 30 indirect green facade s$220/m2 (24.86%) s$652/m2 (73.67%) s$13/m2 (1.47%) s$885/m2 (100%) 715.37 khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024128 source life cycle (years) type of vgs initial1 maintenance disposal total lifecycle costs2 adjusted lifecycle costs3 (us$/m2) matos silva, et al. (2019) 50 indirect green facade €90/m2 (11.04%) €650/m2 (79.75%) €75/m2 (9.20%) €815/m2 (100%) 954.54 santi, et al. (2019) 15 (assumed) direct green facade €30 – 40/m2 (38.36 – 47.05%) €45/m2 (52.94 – 60%) not reported €75 – 85/m2 (100%) 88.56 – 100.37 indirect green facade €40 – 75/m2 (47.05 – 62.5%) €45/m2 (37.5 – 52.94%) not reported €85 – 120/m2 (100%) 100.37 – 141.70 melo, et al. (2020) 50 indirect green facade €100.06/m2 (13.34%)4 €530/m2 (70.66%) €120/m2 (16%) €750.06/m2 (100%) 878.59 dong and huang (2021) 40 climbing vertical green wall ¥122 290/m2 (9.23 – 12.67%) ¥30 – 50/m2/yr. (87.33 – 90.77%) not reported ¥1,322 – 2,290/m2 (100%) 195.47 – 338.60 almeida, et al. (2021) 50 indirect green facade €100/m2 (11.76%) €600/m2 (70.59%) €150/m2 (17.65%) €850/m2 (100%) 983.21 huang, et al. (2021) 10-15 indirect green facade s$14.45/m2/yr. s$180.62/m2 (30.65%) s$30.97/m2/yr. s$387.12/m2 (65.70%) s$1.72/m2 s$21.5/m2 (3.65%) s$47.15/m2/yr. (100%) lcc – s$589.38/m2 466.52 1 some of the articles reported separate costs for initialization and installation whereas some articles did not report a clear division between costs. therefore, all the costs reported whether under initialization, installation or initial costs are reported together here. 2 total life cycle costs are extracted from the data reported by the studies. the costs are as reported in the year of publication and have not been adjusted for inflation. 3 adjusted life cycle costs have been calculated by first adjusting the reported costs for inflation as on january 01, 2023, and then conversion to us dollar as per international market exchange rates on january 01, 2023. the adjusted costs help in a direct comparison of vgs costs around the globe. 4 melo, et al. (2020) reported pollutant emission costs involved in the production of vgs and are therefore included in the initial costs. table 3. continued disposal costs refer to the various expenses associated with the removal, dismantling, and discarding of vgs at the end of its life. cycle. these costs include expenses incurred on labour and equipment, transportation, and/or recycling of components (huang, et al. 2019). at the end of the life cycle, some components can either be demolished or recycled/replaced (almeida, et al. 2021). three reviewed studies reported replacement costs in addition to disposal costs (almeida, et al. 2021; melo, et al. 2020; matos silva, et al. 2019). however, demolition and disposal are the most common ends of a vgs, as reported in other studies. therefore, for comparison, only the disposal costs are analysed in tables 3 and 4. disposal costs constitute only a small percentage of total lifecycle costs, ranging from 1.47% to 17.65%. for example, perini and rosasco (2013) found disposal costs for direct green facades to be 1.88% (€31.10/ m2) of the total costs. in contrast, the disposal costs for the hdpe indirect green facade system were higher at 4.59% (€197.40/m2) of the total life cycle costs. on the other hand, almeida, et al. (2021) reported that the disposal costs for indirect green facades were 17.65% of the total cost (€150/m2). khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024129 table 4. summary of costs associated with living walls as reported in articles reviewed source life cycle (years) type of green facade initial1 maintenance disposal total lifecycle costs2 adjusted lifecycle costs3 (us$/m2) veisten, et al. (2012) 10 unspecified outdoor green wall €56.91/m2 (18.54%) €250/m2 (81.46%) not reported €306.91/m2 (100%) 389.70 perini and rosasco (2013) 50 outdoor living wall €314.83/m2 (13.28%) €1,837.96/m2 (77.51%) 218.56 €/ m2 (9.22%) €2,371.35/m2 (100%) 2889.54 haggag and hassan (2015) 15 (assumed) outdoor living wall $250/m2 (86.81%) $13.5/m2 (13.19%) not reported $288/m2 (100%) 309.58 huang, et al. (2019) 30 living wall – planter system s$699/m2 (18.46%) s$3,058/m2 (80.77%) s$29/m2 (0.77%) s$3,786/m2 (100%) 3,060.33 living wall – carrier system s$758/m2 (15.41%) s$4,125/m2 (83.88%) s$35/m2 (0.71%) s$4,918/m2 (100%) 3,975.36 matos silva, et al. (2019) 50 living wall – indoor & outdoor €600/m2 (16.21%) €2,900/m2 (78.38%) €200/m2 (5.41%) €3,700/m2 (100%) 4,333.50 santi, et al. (2019) 15 (assumed) living wall with planters €100 – 800/ m2 (40 – 84.21%) €150/m2 (15.78 – 60%) not reported €250 – 950/m2 (100%) 295.20 – 1,121.76 living wall with panels €400 – 1,200/ m2 (51.6176.19%) €375/m2 (23.80 – 48.39%) not reported €775 – 1,575/m2 (100%) 915.12 – 1,859.75 melo, et al. (2020) 50 living wall –outdoor €100.10/m2 (4.19%)4 €2,090/m2 (87.44%) €200/m2 (8.37%) €2,390.10/m2 (100%) 2,799.67 living wall –indoor €615.10/m2 (13.34%)4 2090 €/m2 (71.94%) €200/m2 (6.88%) €2,905.10/m2 (100%) 3,402.92 hollands and korjenic (2021) 10 (assumed) indoor living wall – trough system €1,033 – 1,265/m2 (29.24 – 33.87%) €2,470 – 2,500/m2 (66.13 – 70.76%) not reported €3,533 – 3,754/m2 (100%) 4,113.76 – 4,371.09 indoor living wall – fleece system €1,262 – 2,589/m2 (24.26 – 39.29%) €3,940 – 4,000/m2 (60.71 – 75.74%) not reported €5,202 – 6,589/m2 (100%) 6,057.12 – 7,672.11 dong and huang (2021) 40 blanket vertical green wall ¥645 – 4,220/ m2 (9.15 – 9.54%) ¥160 – 1,000/ m2/yr. (90.46 – 90.85%) not reported ¥7,045 – 44,220/m2 (100%) 1,041.69 – 6,538.44 khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024130 similar to green facades, the disposal costs for living walls are a small percentage of the total lifecycle costs, ranging from 0.71% to 9.22%. huang, et al. (2019) found that the disposal costs for living walls with planter systems were 0.77% (s$29/m2) and 0.71% (s$35/m2) for carrier systems. on the higher end, perini and rosasco (2013) reported that the disposal cost for outdoor living walls was 9.22% (€218.56/m2) of the total lifecycle costs. matos silva, et al. (2019) reported similar costs (€200/m2) for both indoor and outdoor living walls, accounting for 5.41% of the total lifecycle costs. the disposal costs for different vgs types vary, with living walls generally incurring higher disposal costs than their counterparts. understanding and considering these disposal costs are crucial for evaluating the economic viability and sustainability of vgs implementation. it is important to note that only eight of the 17 reviewed articles reported disposal costs. further research in this area can contribute to optimizing disposal strategies and minimizing the environmental impact of vgs at the end of its life cycle. source life cycle (years) type of green facade initial1 maintenance disposal total lifecycle costs2 adjusted lifecycle costs3 (us$/m2) pocket-style vertical green wall ¥310 – 2,390/ m2 (7.20 – 10.67%) ¥100 – 500/ m2/yr. (89.32 – 92.80%) ¥4,310 – 22,390/m2 (100%) 637.28 – 3,310.62 hanging containers vertical green wall ¥345 – 2,570/ m2 (7.94 – 17.64%) ¥100 300/ m2/yr. (82.36 – 92.05%) ¥4,345 – 14,570/m2 (100%) 642.46 – 2,154.34 modular containers vertical green wall ¥360 – 2,740/ m2 (5.32 – 12.05%) ¥160 – 500/ m2/yr. (87.95 – 94.67%) ¥6,760 – 22,740/m2 (100%) 999.54 – 3,362.37 almeida, et al. (2021) 50 living wall – indoor & outdoor €550/m2 (19.30%) €2,175/m2 (76.32%) €125/m2 (4.39%) €2,850/m2 (100%) 3,296.66 huang, et al. (2021) 10-15 living wall – planter system s$38.45/ m2/yr. s$480.62/m2 (21.19%) s$140.23/ m2/yr. s$1,752.86/m2 (77.29%) s$2.765/m2 s$34.56/m2 (1.52%) s$181.44/m2/yr. (100%) lcc – s$2,268/m2 1,795.25 living wall – carrier system s$47.89/ m2/yr. s$598.62/m2 (26.20%) s$132.83/ m2/yr. s$1,660.38/m2 (72.67%) s$2.065/m2 s$25.81/m2 (1.13%) s$182.79/m2/yr. (100%) lcc – s$2,284.88/m2 1,808.61 1 some of the articles reported separate costs for initialization and installation whereas some articles did not report a clear division between costs. therefore, all the costs reported whether under initialization, installation or initial costs are reported together here. 2 total life cycle costs are extracted from the data reported by the studies. the costs are as reported in the year of publication and have not been adjusted for inflation. 3 adjusted life cycle costs have been calculated by first adjusting the reported costs for inflation as on january 01, 2023, and then conversion to us dollar as per international market exchange rates on january 01, 2023. the adjusted costs help in a direct comparison of vgs costs around the globe. 4 melo, et al. (2020) reported pollutant emission costs involved in the production of vgs and are therefore included in the initial costs. table 4. continued khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024131 economic benefits of vertical greenery systems a balanced understanding of both the costs and benefits is essential for evaluating the economic feasibility and long-term sustainability of vgs in urban settings (ghazalli, et al., 2019). vgs offers several benefits, such as energy savings, increased property value, cost savings through stormwater management, and enhanced productivity due to health benefits (pérez, et al. 2014). however, there are other benefits that cannot be easily quantified and, thus, are not included in most cost-benefit analyses (melo, et al. 2020). this review included only studies that reported quantifiable benefits and equivalent cost values. table 1 presents an overview of the numerous benefits reported in the reviewed studies. this section discusses relevant studies that quantify the economic benefits of vgss and the factors that may affect their realization in different contexts to help policymakers, urban planners, and other stakeholders understand their potential role in promoting sustainable urban development and informing decision-making. table 5 presents a summary of the cost savings owing to economic benefits of vgs, as reported in the literature. the potential of vgs to regulate the thermal performance of a building envelope is among the most documented benefits of vgs. the articles reviewed here emphasize the potential for energy savings in buildings because of the insulating properties of vgs, which can lead to reduced heating and cooling costs. perini and rosasco (2013) compared vgs types, reporting the highest energy savings in living walls (€2,036.17/yr.), followed by direct green facades (€1,337.41/yr.), and indirect green facades (€1,160.41/yr.). indirect green facades with planters demonstrated slightly lower savings of €1,045.67/year. haggag and hassan (2015) assessed living walls and reported savings between $88 and $133.32 per year. shazmin, et al. (2017) reported modest savings of $37/year for outdoor living walls; however, their study did not include a detailed analysis of the costs or other co-benefits. it is clear that vgs shows significant potential for energy savings in buildings, leading to cost reductions and emphasizing the benefits of incorporating them for sustainable design. studies have also shown that incorporating vgs into buildings can augment their market value, thereby affecting the rental income of building owners (table 5). living walls can add to the annual rent by up to €2,036 (perini and rosasco (2013)) while for green facades, this could go up to €1,951 (rosasco and perini (2018)). for commercial properties (offices), the rental market is more significant than the sales market; therefore, attention to aesthetic and functional qualities due to vgs may increase rental income (perini and rosasco, 2013). this increase in rental income can offset the initial investment in vgs and lead to higher profits for property owners in the long run. although vgs cannot extend the life of a building envelope, it can reduce the annual maintenance and repair costs of building facades by providing an additional layer of protection (perini and rosasco, 2013). cladding longevity cost savings refers to the expenses that building owners typically allocate for facade maintenance and repair, which can be reduced or avoided through the incorporation of vgs. the reviewed literature suggests that these systems can contribute to significant cost savings across the lifespan (see table 5). rosasco and perini (2018) demonstrated that the benefits of vgs in terms of cladding longevity become more pronounced over time. melo, et al. (2020) reported higher cladding longevity cost savings for indoor vgs types (€20,760) than for outdoor applications (€13,500). in contrast, almeida, et al. (2021) reported lower cladding longevity cost savings for outdoor indirect green facades and living walls compared with other studies. this suggests that variations in installation methods, location, or vgs design might influence the extent of cladding longevity cost savings. vegetation can also improve urban acoustics through three key mechanisms, namely sound absorption, diffusion, and reflection (veisten, et al. 2012). the acoustic comfort-related benefits of vgs are quantified based on the comfort of the building occupants as well as the expenses saved on interventions used for noise reduction (melo, et al., 2020). table 5 shows that the reviewed literature reports benefits related to acoustic comfort of up to €1,652,216/yr. for transportation infrastructure (melo, et al., 2020), €476,429 khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024132 table 5. economic benefits of vgs as reported in literature source vgs type annual energy savings annual rental income cladding longevity aesthetics acoustic comfort job creation perini and rosasco (2013) direct green facades €1,337.41 €1,264 €61,164 indirect green facades €1,160.41 €1,264 €107,354 indirect green facade with planters €1,045.67 €1,281 €113,236 living walls €2,036.17 €2,036 €133,793 haggag and hassan (2015) living walls $88 – 133.32 perini and rosasco (2016) indirect green facades €908.94 €843.40 €14,196.06 indirect green facades with planters €1,180.87 €20,826.25 shazmin, et al. (2017) outdoor living wall $37 rosasco and perini (2018) indirect green facades (25 yr.) €1,873 €1,951 €20,686 indirect green facades (50 yr.) €22,919 huang, et al. (2019) indirect green facades s$93.20 -230 living wall – planter system living wall carrier system santi, et al. (2019) direct green facades €1,163.43/ m2 indirect green facades living wall with planters €979.25/m2 living wall with panels €1,868.60/m2 veisten, et al. (2012) living wall €423,852.5 €184,650 khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024133 for an outdoor living wall for primary school case studies reported by almeida, et al. (2021), and €184,650 for residential towers (veisten, et al. 2012). studies have shown that the acoustic benefits of implementing a vgs can be significant for user comfort, particularly in spaces with a high influx of people, such as train stations and transport systems. vgss are known to remove pollutants and filter air, thereby improving air quality (matos silva, et al., 2019). to compute monetary benefits, studies used the equivalent carbon dioxide price found in the european union emissions trading scheme (melo, et al. 2020; almeida, et al. 2021; matos silva, et al. 2019). while several studies have reported the direct benefits of vgs in improving air quality, only three of the reviewed studies quantified the benefits and their monetary equivalents (see table 5). matos silva, et al. (2019) reported that outdoor indirect green facades contributed benefits equivalent to €136.80/yr. for air quality improvement, whereas indoor indirect green facades provided a slightly higher improvement of €273.60/yr. melo, et al. (2020) reported minimal air quality improvement for indoor indirect green facades, amounting to just €0.06/yr. both studies reported data on transport infrastructure. similarly, for school buildings, almeida, et al. (2021) compared both outdoor and indoor vgs, revealing that outdoor indirect green facades and outdoor living walls each contributed €9.912/yr. to improve air quality. for indoor source vgs type annual energy savings annual rental income cladding longevity aesthetics acoustic comfort job creation akinwolemiwa, et al. (2018) indirect green facade hdpe ₦14,000 indirect green facade bamboo ₦72,000 indirect green facade – timber ₦52,500 matos silva, et al. (2019) outdoor indirect green facade €50,700/yr. €6363.50 /yr. outdoor living wall €72,429/yr. €1897.88/yr. indoor indirect green facade €76,124.70/yr. €437,940 €6363.50/yr. indoor living wall €110,199/yr. €109,110 €1,897.88/yr. melo, et al. (2020) outdoor indirect green facade €13,500 €6,6150 €1,405,660/ yr. outdoor living wall €13,500 €6,6150 indoor indirect green facade €20,760 €1,652,216/ yr. indoor living wall €20,760 €140,035/yr. almeida, et al. (2021) outdoor indirect green facade €6,142.50 €268,894 €190,787 outdoor living wall 6,142.50 € €312,565 €476,429 indoor indirect green facade €196,247 indoor living wall €266,334 table 4. continued khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024134 systems, the study found that indirect green facades and living walls offered similar benefits, with both systems improving air quality by €6.804/yr. the available data highlight the potential of various vgs types to improve air quality, with differences in the extent of improvement depending on the specific system and its indoor or outdoor application. living walls are often complex systems that require specialized professionals and labour. this helps to create employment opportunities for skilled workers. only two of the reviewed studies reported data on job creation resulting from vgs installation. hiring skilled labourers adds to installation and maintenance costs, but also offers indirect benefits to those employed in these jobs (matos silva, et al. 2019). it can be observed from table 5 that the job creation benefits of vgs can reach up to €6,363.50/yr. for vgs installed in rail stations (matos silva, et al., 2019) depending on the scale and type of vertical greenery. on the other hand, akinwolemiwa, et al. (2018) reported data from their case study on installing affordable vgs, which led to the creation of jobs benefiting the local community. they include carpenters, horticulturists, welders, and plumbers. the prototypes resulted in job creation benefits of ₦14,000 for hdpe indirect green facades, ₦72,000 for bamboo indirect green facades, and ₦52,500 for precast timber green facades. these are significant for low-income communities and help with the adoption of vgs on a larger scale (akinwolemiwa, et al. 2018). other co-benefits of vertical greenery systems some studies have also reported the indirect benefits of vgs, which can be utilized for a more comprehensive cost-benefit analysis of these systems. these studies employ various methodologies to quantify these benefits and ascribe them monetary value. certain countries across the globe provide tax benefits for installing green systems in buildings, such as green roofs, photovoltaics, and vertical greenery (shazmin, et al. 2017). these benefits can be provided either in the form of tax reduction, in which beneficiaries can pay a reduced tax to install these systems, or in the form of tax exemptions, where the amount spent on green systems can be exempted (partially or fully). rosasco and perini (2018) reported that although there are currently no tax benefits for vertical greenery in italy, such benefits exist for green roofs. the study reported a tax reduction of up to €2,647/yr. equivalent to 50% of the installation costs for green facades. similarly, shazmin, et al. (2017) reported that installing living walls could lead to tax exemptions of $8/yr. for a typical residence (900 sq. ft. area) in malaysia. this study also reports that similar property tax assessment incentives can help in the adoption of green systems to ensure sustainability. vgs can also filter grey water to an acceptable quality for irrigation. this translates into cost savings for the water used for irrigation. depending on the type of vgs and filtration mechanism, water saving benefits up to s$27-200/yr. (indirect green facade), s$446-894/yr. (living wall – planter systems) and s$224-620/yr. (living wall – carrier system) has been achieved (huang, et al. 2019). evaluating the impact of vgs installation in a train station, matos silva, et al. (2019) highlighted that user satisfaction, and new spaces result in higher returns owing to the users’ appreciation of the infrastructure. the study reported a monetary benefit of €6,996/yr. on account of the user satisfaction. benefits equivalent to €75,710.40/yr. are attributed to rental income from the creation of new spaces because of indirect green facades in the indoor environment of a train station. on the other hand, akinwolemiwa, et al. (2018) developed vgs prototypes using both medicinal and edible plants. therefore, these systems can generate revenue from selling these plants, thereby creating steady income for building owners. an income of ₦40200 – 251400/yr. for bamboo-type indirect green facades and ₦37800– 146600/ yr. for precast timber green facades was reported in their study. this is significant for low-income economies like nigeria. khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024135 hollands and korjenic (2021) reported that vgs installation improves hygrothermal comfort, thereby reducing the number of sick leaves consumed by office employees. the study reported a cost savings of €440.43/person/yr. for the trough-type indoor living wall and €349.93/person/yr. for the fleece system. furthermore, rosasco and perini (2018) also accounted for the biomass produced (700 kg) due to the pruning of plants over the vgs lifecycle. the monetary benefits are computed based on ‘the repurchase price of energy produced from renewable resources’ in italy. however, these benefits are exceptionally low (€2.09/yr.) compared to the lifecycle costs of these systems, and therefore have a negligible impact on the overall costs. these co-benefits add to the value of vgss and advocate their sustainable use. economic indicators of vertical greenery systems the evaluation of the economic sustainability of vgs is based on economic indicators from the reviewed literature. some studies have reported data on the internal rate of return (irr), net present value (npv), and payback period. while the benefit-cost (bc) ratio has not been reported in most studies, it has been calculated based on reported costs and benefits. the reviewed literature indicates that the economic sustainability of vgs is highly dependent on the specific vgs type, materials used, and the context in which they are implemented. benefit – cost (bc) ratios are useful for comparing the economic feasibility of these systems, with higher values indicating greater benefits relative to costs. figure 2 presents an overview of the cost-benefit analysis based on the literature. most reported cases of vgs are profitable in the long term because the bc ratio is greater than 1. the bc ratios calculated for vgs reported by perini and rosasco (2013) for both green facades and living walls were less than one, indicating that these systems are not economically viable in the long run. in contrast, huang, et al. (2019) reported bc ratios in the range of 4.07 14.57 for indirect green facades and up to 8.90 for living walls. santi, et al. (2019) reported much higher bc ratios than those reported in other studies (205.311 and 145.429 for direct and indirect green facades, respectively). however, this is primarily due to the non-reporting of all the associated maintenance and disposal costs. green facades have higher bc ratios than living walls, as the benefits provided by green facades outweigh the costs when compared to living walls. shazmin, et al. (2017) only accounted for energy savings and tax exemption benefits for living wall systems in malaysia, resulting in the lowest bc ratio of 0.14. this could be attributed to the non-reporting of other co-benefits of vgs; however, this also indicates that these systems are expensive and may not be economically feasible. similarly, haggag and hassan (2015) reported a bc ratio of 0.875 to 1.111 for outdoor living wall systems when including only energy savings and rental benefits. bc ratios were calculated from the costs and benefits reported in the literature. it is important to note that these may vary when discount rate and npv are considered. for example, almeida, et al. (2021) reported bc ratios of up to 34.99 for indirect green facades and up to 7.75 for living walls, considering a discount rate of 6.67%. the net present value (npv) helps determine whether an investment will generate positive returns over time. a positive npv indicates that the investment is expected to create value, whereas a negative npv suggests that the investment will result in a net loss (perini and rosasco, 2013). only 3 of the reviewed studies reported npv data for vgs. in their studies conducted for an office building in genoa, italy, an npv of 49.68 €/m2 for indirect green facades and 17.02 €/m2 for indirect green facades with planters was reported by perini and rosasco (2016), while another study conducted in 2018 by the same research group reported an npv of –43.94 €/m2 for indirect green facades with a life of 25 years when economic incentives (tax reduction) were not factored in, and 202.93 €/m2 for indirect green facades with 50 years lifecycle and considering economic incentives (rosasco and perini, 2018). perini and rosasco (2013) also reported a negative npv for living walls khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024136 (-271.231 €/m2) and indirect green facades with steel support and planter boxes (-101.653 €/m2), whereas a high npv for direct green facades (133.951 €/m2) and hdpe indirect green facades (65.391 €/m2) was reported. in all scenarios, the living walls were reported to have a negative npv, indicating that these systems are economically unsustainable. on the other hand, an investment is deemed sustainable when its internal rate of return (irr) is at least as high as the minimum acceptable value. this ensures that the project’s returns cover the financing costs (rosasco and perini, 2018). perini and rosasco (2013) reported irr of 10.7%, 5.8%, and 4.5% for direct green facades, hdpe indirect green facades, and indirect green facades with planter boxes, respectively. the same study found that steel indirect green facades with planter boxes and living walls were economically unsustainable, as they reported a negative npv and, thereby, 0% irr. in another study by the same group, 0.14 9.33 218.14 132.67 0 1 10 100 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% v ei ste n et a l. (2 01 2) l iv in g w al l pe rin i & r os as co (2 01 3) d ire ct g re en fa ca de s pe rin i & r os as co (2 01 3) in di re ct g re en fa ca de pe rin i & r os as co (2 01 3) in di re ct w ith p la nt er s pe rin i & r os as co (2 01 3) l iv in g w al ls h ag ga g & h as sa n (2 01 5) l iv in g w al ls pe rin i & r os as co (2 01 6) in di re ct g re en fa ca de s pe rin i & r os as co (2 01 6) in di re ct w ith p la nt er b ox sh az m in e t a l. (2 01 7) o ut do or l iv in g w al l a ki nw ol em iw a et a l. (2 01 8) i nd ire ct h d pe a ki nw ol em iw a et a l. (2 01 8) i nd ire ct ba m bo o a ki nw ol em iw a et a l. (2 01 8) i nd ire ct – ti m be r p re ca st ro sa sc o & p er in i ( 20 18 ) i nd ire ct g re en fa ca de s ( 25 y) ro sa sc o & p er in i ( 20 18 ) i nd ire ct g re en fa ca de s ( 50 y) h ua ng e t a l. (2 01 9) in di re ct g re en fa ça de h ua ng e t a l. (2 01 9) l iv in g w al l – pl an te r s ys te m h ua ng e t a l. (2 01 9) l iv in g w al l c ar rie r s ys te m m at os s ilv a et a l. (2 01 9) o ut do or in di re ct g re en fa ca de m at os s ilv a et a l. (2 01 9) o ut do or l iv in g w al l m at os s ilv a et a l. (2 01 9) in do or in di re ct g re en fa ca de m at os s ilv a et a l. (2 01 9) in do or l iv in g w al l sa nt i e t a l. (2 01 9) d ire ct g re en f ac ad e sa nt i e t a l. (2 01 9) in di re ct g re en f aç ad e sa nt i e t a l. (2 01 9) l iv in g w al l w ith p la nt er s sa nt i e t a l. (2 01 9) l iv in g w al l w ith p an el s m el o et a l. (2 02 0) o ut do or in di re ct g re en fa ca de m el o et a l. (2 02 0) o ut do or l iv in g w al l m el o et a l. (2 02 0) in do or in di re ct g re en fa ca de m el o et a l. (2 02 0) in do or l iv in g w al l a lm ei da e t a l. (2 02 1) o ut do or in di re ct g re en fa ca de a lm ei da e t a l. (2 02 1) o ut do or l iv in g w al l a lm ei da e t a l. (2 02 1) in do or in di re ct g re en fa ça de a lm ei da e t a l. (2 02 1) in do or l iv in g w al l h ol la nd s & k or je ni c (2 02 1) in do or – tr ou gh h ol la nd s & k or je ni c (2 02 1) in do or – fl ee ce be ne fit -c os t ( bc ) r at io pe rc en ta ge sh ar e of li fe cy cl e c os ts /b en ef its lifecycle costs lifecycle benefits bc ratio figure 2. cost-benefit analysis of vgss reported in literature reviewed khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024137 it was reported that indirect green facades with a lifespan of 25 years had an acceptable irr (>5%, 8.5 12/6%) when economic incentives (tax reduction) were considered, whereas when lifespan of 50 years was considered, the irr was in the range of 5.8-11.1%. the payback period is the time required to recover the cost of an investment or reach the break-even point (perini and rosasco, 2016). only five studies in the reviewed literature reported the payback period. the review found that the costs of direct green facades can be paid back within 16-24 years, whereas indirect green facades can have a payback period ranging from 16 to 50 years, depending on the material of the support structure and vgs type. the payback period for living walls can exceed 50 years (perini and rosasco, 2013). another study reported a payback period of 8-21 years for indirect facades when the lifespan of the vgs was 25 years and 9-23 years when it was 50 years (rosasco and perini, 2018). payback periods of 17 and 27 years for indirect green facades and indirect green facades with planter boxes, respectively, were reported by perini and rosasco (2016). although haggag and hassan (2015) reported a payback period of 13-17 years for living walls, they noted that this was a lengthy period; therefore, these systems could not be economically sustainable. huang, et al. (2019) reiterates that the vgs costs for both indirect green facades and living walls cannot be repaid within the lifecycle of the systems. discussion and conclusion the comprehensive analysis conducted in this review offers valuable insights into the economic feasibility of using vgs in buildings. in general, the reviewed studies provide a compelling case for vgs, owing to its numerous benefits. however, despite the numerous environmental, economic, and social benefits of vgs, high initial and maintenance costs discourage decision makers (huang, et al., 2021). the literature quantifies several economic benefits of vgs, which, when considered over the lifetime of these systems, can compensate for their high initial costs and assist users in adopting vgs in buildings. green facades cost less than living walls because of the complexity and presence of additional components in living wall systems as the primary contributors to higher costs. maintenance costs contributed the most to lifecycle costs, followed by initial and disposal costs, for both green facades (figure 3) and living walls (figure 4). this is because maintenance costs are recurring expenses incurred throughout the vgs lifetime, whereas the initial and disposal costs are one-time expenditures. the replacement and pruning of plants are primary contributors to maintenance costs (huang, et al., 2019). analysing and comprehending the elements of each phase of the vgs lifecycle are essential for making informed decisions. this could also help optimize systems for greater economic efficiency. existing literature on vgs suggests that the economic sustainability of these systems is largely dependent on the typology, climate, and location. in general, vgs that are more complex and require more maintenance are less likely to be economically sustainable. however, a vgs, which is simple to install and maintain, can be economically sustainable in a variety of climates and locations. the success and potential economic returns of vgs are highly context-dependent and require careful consideration of design, installation, operation, and maintenance costs. economic analysis revealed that the bc ratios for various vgs types varied, but green facades generally exhibited higher bc ratios. most vgs cases were profitable because the bc ratio was greater than 1, however, a realistic analysis is only possible when both costs and benefits are reported in depth, which was lacking in most of the studies reviewed. when co-benefits and tax incentives are considered, the vgs’s payback period can be as low as eight years (rosasco and perini, 2018), but it usually exceeds the lifespan of the system (huang, et al., 2019; perini and rosasco, 2013). the vgs design, implementation, and optimization capacity affect the payback period. living wall systems have higher costs, and the realization of their benefits takes a long time, resulting in an unfavourable npv and irr. this, combined with the higher payback periods, indicates that these systems are economically unsustainable. however, the higher efficiency of living wall systems to capture pollution khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024138 16.4% 20.0% 16.4% 13.1% 17.6% 38.3% 28.9% 9.7% 43.2% 28.6% 24.9% 11.0% 42.7% 54.8% 13.3% 11.0% 11.8% 30.7% 81.8% 65.4% 68.2% 74.7% 70.0% 56.8% 64.3% 90.3% 39.6% 54.6% 73.7% 79.8% 57.3% 45.2% 70.7% 89.1% 70.6% 65.7% 1.9% 14.6% 15.4% 12.2% 12.4% 4.9% 6.8% 17.2% 16.9% 1.5% 9.2% 16.0% 17.7% 3.7% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% perini & rosasco, 2013 (direct) perini & rosasco, 2013 (hdpe) perini & rosasco, 2013 (steel) perini & rosasco, 2013 (hdpe w/planters) perini & rosasco, 2013 (steel w/planters) perini & rosasco, 2016 (indirect) perini & rosasco, 2016 (indirect w/planters) serrano-jimenez et al., 2017 rosasco & perini, 2018 (lcc-25y) rosasco & perini, 2018 (lcc-50y) huang et al., 2019 matos silva et al., 2019 santi et al., 2019 (direct) santi et al., 2019 (indirect) melo et al., 2020 dong & huang, 2021 almeida et al., 2021 huang et al., 2021 initial maintenance disposal figure 3. distribution of initial, maintenance and disposal costs of green facades 18.5% 13.3% 86.8% 18.5% 15.4% 16.2% 62.1% 63.9% 4.2% 13.3% 31.6% 31.8% 9.3% 8.9% 12.8% 8.7% 19.3% 21.2% 26.2% 81.5% 77.5% 13.2% 80.8% 83.9% 78.4% 37.9% 36.1% 87.4% 79.8% 68.4% 68.2% 90.7% 91.1% 87.2% 91.3% 76.3% 77.3% 72.7% 9.2% 0.8% 0.7% 5.4% 8.4% 6.9% 4.4% 1.5% 1.1% 0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100% veisten et al., 2012 perini & rosasco, 2013 haggag & hassan, 2015 huang et al., 2019 (planters) huang et al., 2019 (carriers) matos silva et al., 2019 santi et al., 2019 (planters) santi et al., 2019 (panels) melo et al., 2020 (outdoor) melo et al., 2020 (indoor) hollands & korjenic, 2021 (trough) hollands & korjenic, 2021 (fleece) dong & huang, 2021 (blanlet) dong & huang, 2021 (pocket) dong & huang, 2021 (hanging) dong & huang, 2021 (modular) almeida et al., 2021 huang et al., 2021 (planters) huang et al., 2021 (fleece) initial maintenance disposal figure 4. distribution of initial, maintenance and disposal costs of living walls khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024139 and reduce emissions compared to green facades could make them a viable option to address climate change-related issues in buildings. therefore, it is important to weigh and analyse economic sustainability and its potential to mitigate climate change. this review also establishes the need for precise and standardized financial data to provide clarity. studies often omit costs, making economic data comparisons challenging. for instance, the maintenance costs reported by santi, et al. (2019) are lower because of assumptions rather than actual project data, and details of life cycle costs are not provided. similarly, haggag and hassan (2015) only considered irrigation and electricity costs, neglecting regular maintenance expenses and resulting in a higher proportion of the initial costs. data reporting also lacks clarity regarding the vgs typology. for instance, dong and huang (2021) reported costs without adequately describing specific typologies, such as ‘climbing vertical green wall’ and ‘blanket vertical green wall,’ making it difficult to determine the vgs type. the absence or ambiguity of the vgs descriptions can lead to misinterpretation of the data. as advocated by radić, dodig and auer (2019), establishing a standardized framework is crucial for facilitating future research and ensuring clarity. this review presents a detailed analysis of the economic viability of vgs as a practical means to mitigate the effects of climate change on urban environments. the findings suggest that although the initial investment in vgs may be high, it can provide long-term financial benefits to building owners and operators in the form of energy savings, increased property value, and reduced maintenance costs. the vgs type and context affect economic viability and sustainability. therefore, stakeholders should carefully consider the unique elements of each case when evaluating the feasibility and financial viability of vgs implementation. in addition, the assessment of economic sustainability can be improved if all possible cobenefits of vgs are quantified and analysed to provide a comprehensive understanding of these systems. future research should focus on context-specific studies, particularly in underrepresented regions, to better understand the potential for mitigating climate change and improving urban sustainability. this would boost vgs adoption and create greener, healthier, and more sustainable cities. references akinwolemiwa, o.h., bleil de souza, c., de luca, l.m. and gwilliam, j., 2018. building community-driven vertical greening systems for people living on less than £1 a day: a case study in nigeria. building and environment, [e-journal] 131(october 2017), pp.277–87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.01.022 almeida, c., teotónio, i., silva, c.m. and cruz, c.o., 2021. socioeconomic feasibility of green roofs and walls in public buildings: the case study of primary schools in portugal. engineering economist, [e-journal] 66(1), pp.27–50. https://doi. org/10.1080/0013791x.2020.1748255 andric, i., kamal, a. and al-ghamdi, s.g., 2020. efficiency of green roofs and green walls as climate change mitigation measures in extremely hot and dry climate: case study of qatar. energy reports, [e-journal] 6, pp.2476–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2020.09.006 cabeza, l.f., bai, q., bertoldi, p., kihila, j.m., lucena, a.f.p., mata, é., mirasgedis, s., novikova, a. and saheb, y., 2022. buildings. in: p.r. shukla, j. skea, r. slade, a. al khourdajie, r. van diemen, d. mccollum, m. pathak, s. some, p. vyas, r. fradera, m. belkacemi, a. hasija, g. lisboa, s. luz and j. malley, eds. climate change 2022: mitigation of climate change. contribution of working group iii to the sixth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. cambridge, uk and new york, ny, usa: cambridge university press. pp.954–1048. https://doi. org/10.1017/9781009157926.011 dong, n. and huang, f., 2021. high-rise buildings cost analysis of vertical greenery in urban complex. international journal of high-rise, [e-journal] 10(1), pp.29–34. https://doi.org/10.21022/ijhrb.2021.10.1.29 khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024140 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.01.022 https://doi.org/10.1080/0013791x.2020.1748255 https://doi.org/10.1080/0013791x.2020.1748255 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egyr.2020.09.006 https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157926.011 https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157926.011 https://doi.org/10.21022/ijhrb.2021.10.1.29 ghazalli, a.j., brack, c., bai, x. and said, i., 2019. physical and non-physical benefits of vertical greenery systems: a review. journal of urban technology, [e-journal] 26(4), pp.53–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2019.1637694 google, 2023. google finance stock market prices, real-time quotes & business news. [online] available at: https:// www.google.com/finance/ [accessed 18 october 2023]. haggag, m. and hassan, a., 2015. cost-benefit analysis of living wall systems on school building skins in a hot climate. in: energy and sustainability v: special contributions. [online] wit press. pp.3–11. https://doi.org/10.2495/ess140011 haggag, m., hassan, a. and elmasry, s., 2014. experimental study on reduced heat gain through green façades in a high heat load climate. energy and buildings, [e-journal] 82, pp.668–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2014.07.087 hollands, j. and korjenic, a., 2021. indirect economic effects of vertical indoor green in the context of reduced sick leave in offices. sustainability (switzerland), [e-journal] 13(4), pp.1–19. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042256 huang, z., lu, y., wong, n.h. and poh, c.h., 2019. the true cost of “greening” a building: life cycle cost analysis of vertical greenery systems (vgs) in tropical climate. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 228, pp.437–54. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.275 huang, z., tan, c.l., lu, y. and wong, n.h., 2021. holistic analysis and prediction of life cycle cost for vertical greenery systems in singapore. building and environment, [e-journal] 196(november 2020), p.107735. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.107735 iea, 2022. buildings. [online] paris. available at: https://www.iea.org/reports/buildings [accessed 13 july 2023]. iea, 2023. sustainable, affordable cooling can save tens of thousands of lives each year. [online] paris. available at: https://www.iea.org/reports/sustainable-affordable-cooling-can-save-tens-of-thousands-of-lives-each-year [accessed 13 july 2023]. imf, 2023. consumer price index. [online] international monetary fund. available at: https://data.imf. org/?sk=4ffb52b2-3653-409a-b471-d47b46d904b5 [accessed 19 october 2023]. ipcc, 2021. climate change 2021: the physical science basis. contribution of working group i to the sixth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. cambridge, united kingdom and new york, ny, usa: cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157896 khor, n., arimah, b., otieno, r., van oostrum, m., mutinda, m., martins, j.o., arku, g., broto, v.c., chatwin, m., dijkstra, l., joss, s., sharifi, a., sverdlik, a., simon, d., florio, p., freire, s., kemper, t., melchiorri, m., schiavina, m., alessandrini, a., natale, f., ghio, d., draily, o., westman, l., huang, p., robin, e. and unnikrishnan, h., 2022. world cities report 2022: envisaging the future of cities. nairobi, kenya. lucon, o., ürge-vorsatz, d., ahmed, a.z., akbari, h., bertoldi, p., cabeza, l.f., eyre, n., gadgil, a., harvey, l.d.d., jiang, y., liphoto, e., mirasgedis, s., murakami, s., parikh, j., pyke, c. and vilariño, m. v, 2014. buildings. in: o. edenhofer, r. pichs-madruga, y. sokona, e. farahani, s. kadner, k. seyboth, a. adler, i. baum, s. brunner, p. eickemeier, b. kriemann, j. savolainen, s. schlömer, c. von stechow, t. zwickel and j.c. minx, eds. climate change 2014: mitigation of climate change. contribution of working group iii to the fifth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. cambridge, united kingdom and new york, ny, usa: cambridge university press. pp.671–738. masi, f., bresciani, r., rizzo, a., edathoot, a., patwardhan, n., panse, d. and langergraber, g., 2016. green walls for greywater treatment and recycling in dense urban areas: a case-study in pune. journal of water, sanitation and hygiene for development, [e-journal] 6(2), pp.342–47. https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2016.019 matos silva, c., serro, j., dinis ferreira, p. and teotónio, i., 2019. the socioeconomic feasibility of greening rail stations: a case study in lisbon. engineering economist, [e-journal] 64(2), pp.167–90. https://doi.org/10.1080/001379 1x.2018.1470272 khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024141 https://doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2019.1637694 https://www.google.com/finance/ https://www.google.com/finance/ https://doi.org/10.2495/ess140011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2014.07.087 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042256 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.275 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.275 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.107735 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.107735 https://www.iea.org/reports/buildings https://www.iea.org/reports/sustainable-affordable-cooling-can-save-tens-of-thousands-of-lives-each-year https://data.imf.org/?sk=4ffb52b2-3653-409a-b471-d47b46d904b5 https://data.imf.org/?sk=4ffb52b2-3653-409a-b471-d47b46d904b5 https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157896 https://doi.org/10.2166/washdev.2016.019 https://doi.org/10.1080/0013791x.2018.1470272 https://doi.org/10.1080/0013791x.2018.1470272 melo, c., teotónio, i., silva, c.m. and cruz, c.o., 2020. what’s the economic value of greening transport infrastructures? the case of the underground passages in lisbon. sustainable cities and society, [online] 56(february), p.102083. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102083 moher, d., liberati, a., tetzlaff, j. and altman, d.g., 2009. preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and metaanalyses: the prisma statement. bmj, [e-journal] 339(7716), pp.332–36. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.b2535 pan, h., page, j., shi, r., cong, c., cai, z., barthel, s., thollander, p., colding, j. and kalantari, z., 2023. contribution of prioritized urban nature-based solutions allocation to carbon neutrality. nature climate change, [e-journal] 13(8), pp.862–70. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01737-x pan, l. and chu, l.m., 2016. energy saving potential and life cycle environmental impacts of a vertical greenery system in hong kong: a case study. building and environment, [e-journal] 96, pp.293–300. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. buildenv.2015.06.033 pérez, g., coma, j., martorell, i. and cabeza, l.f., 2014. vertical greenery systems (vgs) for energy saving in buildings: a review. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 39(november 2014), pp.139-65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. rser.2014.07.055 perini, k., magrassi, f., giachetta, a., moreschi, l., gallo, m. and del borghi, a., 2021. environmental sustainability of building retrofit through vertical greening systems: a life-cycle approach. sustainability (switzerland), [e-journal] 13(9). https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094886 perini, k. and rosasco, p., 2013. cost–benefit analysis for green façades and living wall systems. building and environment, [e-journal] 70, pp.110–21. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2013.08.012 perini, k. and rosasco, p., 2016. is greening the building envelope economically sustainable? an analysis to evaluate the advantages of economy of scope of vertical greening systems and green roofs. urban forestry and urban greening, [e-journal] 20, pp.328–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2016.08.002 project drawdown, 2020. the drawdown review: climate solutions for a new decade. [pdf ] available at: https:// drawdown.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/thedrawdownreview%e2%80%932020%e2%80%93download.pdf. qurraie, b.s. and kıraç, b., 2023. evaluation of energy efficiencies of double skin façade systems and double skin green façade systems in turkey. international journal of environmental studies, [e-journal] 80(3), pp.777–91. https://doi.org/10 .1080/00207233.2022.2115202 radić, m., dodig, m.b. and auer, t., 2019. green facades and living walls-a review establishing the classification of construction types and mapping the benefits. sustainability (switzerland), [e-journal] 11(17), p.4579. https://doi. org/10.3390/su11174579 riley, b., de larrard, f., malécot, v., dubois-brugger, i., lequay, h. and lecomte, g., 2019. living concrete: democratizing living walls. science of the total environment, [e-journal] 673, pp.281–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. scitotenv.2019.04.065 rosasco, p. and perini, k., 2018. evaluating the economic sustainability of a vertical greening system: a cost-benefit analysis of a pilot project in mediterranean area. building and environment, [e-journal] 142, pp.524–33. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.06.017 santi, g., bertolazzi, a., croatto, g. and turrini, u., 2019. vertical turf for green façades: a vertical greenery modular system integrated to the building envelope. journal of green building, [e-journal] 14(4), pp.111–32. https://doi. org/10.3992/1943-4618.14.4.111 seneviratne, s.i., zhang, x., adnan, m., badi, w., dereczynski, c., di luca, a., ghosh, s., iskandar, i., kossin, j., lewis, s., otto, f., pinto, i., satoh, m., vicente-serrano, s.m., wehner, m. and zhou, b., 2021. weather and climate extreme events in a changing climate. in: v. masson-delmotte, p. zhai, a. pirani, s.l. connors, c. péan, s. berger, khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024142 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102083 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.b2535 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-023-01737-x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.06.033 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2015.06.033 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.07.055 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2014.07.055 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13094886 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2013.08.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2016.08.002 https://drawdown.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/thedrawdownreview%e2%80%932020%e2%80%93download.pdf https://drawdown.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/thedrawdownreview%e2%80%932020%e2%80%93download.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/00207233.2022.2115202 https://doi.org/10.1080/00207233.2022.2115202 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11174579 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11174579 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.065 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.04.065 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.06.017 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.06.017 https://doi.org/10.3992/1943-4618.14.4.111 https://doi.org/10.3992/1943-4618.14.4.111 n. caud, y. chen, l. goldfarb, m.i. gomis, m. huang, k. leitzell, e. lonnoy, j.b.r. matthews, t.k. maycock, t. waterfield, o. yelekçi, r. yu and b. zhou, eds. climate change 2021: the physical science basis. contribution of working group i to the sixth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. cambridge, united kingdom and new york, ny, usa: cambridge university press. pp.1513–1766. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157896.013 serrano-jimenez, a., barrios-padura, a. and molina-huelva, m., 2017. towards a feasible strategy in mediterranean building renovation through a multidisciplinary approach. sustainable cities and society, [e-journal] 32(may), pp.532–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2017.05.002 shazmin, s.a.a., sipan, i., sapri, m., ali, h.m. and raji, f., 2017. property tax assessment incentive for green building: energy saving based-model. energy, [e-journal] 122, pp.329–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2016.12.078 united nations environment programme, 2021. 2021 global status report for buildings and construction: towards a zero-emissions, efficient and resilient buildings and construction sector. [online] nairobi. available at: https://globalabc. org/sites/default/files/2021-10/gabc_buildings-gsr-2021_book.pdf [accessed 1 september 2022]. veisten, k., smyrnova, y., klæboe, r., hornikx, m., mosslemi, m. and kang, j., 2012. valuation of green walls and green roofs as soundscape measures: including monetised amenity values together with noise-attenuation values in a cost-benefit analysis of a green wall affecting courtyards. international journal of environmental research and public health, [e-journal] 9(11), pp.3770–78. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph9113770 zhang, l., deng, z., liang, l., zhang, y., meng, q., wang, j. and santamouris, m., 2019. thermal behavior of a vertical green facade and its impact on the indoor and outdoor thermal environment. energy and buildings, [e-journal] 204, p.109502. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.109502 khan and munawer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024143 https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009157896.013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2017.05.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2016.12.078 https://globalabc.org/sites/default/files/2021-10/gabc_buildings-gsr-2021_book.pdf https://globalabc.org/sites/default/files/2021-10/gabc_buildings-gsr-2021_book.pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph9113770 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2019.109502 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: adebowale, o. j., agumba, j. n. 2024. a systematic review of challenges undermining the efficacy of construction health and safety regulations in major african countries. construction economics and building, 24:4/5, 1–24. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v24i4/5.9059 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article a systematic review of challenges undermining the efficacy of construction health and safety regulations in major african countries oluseyi julius adebowale1,*, justus ngala agumba2 1 tshwane university of technology, pretoria west, south africa, adebowaleoluseyi@gmail.com 2 tshwane university of technology, pretoria west, south africa, agumbajn@tut.ac.za corresponding author: oluseyi julius adebowale, adebowaleoluseyi@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9059 article history: received 02/03/2024; revised 11/05/2024; accepted 26/09/2024; published 23/12/2024 abstract construction operations in most african countries are marred by accidents and fatalities, resulting in significant human casualties and financial setbacks. these issues stem, in part, from shortcomings in the construction health and safety regulations in the region. while existing research on construction health and safety regulations in african countries predominantly focused on individual nations, there is a conspicuous dearth of studies examining these regulations across african countries collectively. this research investigated the primary obstacles impeding the efficacy of construction health and safety regulations across five major african countries. the study addressed the gap in existing research by offering a comprehensive understanding of the broader african context concerning challenges that undermine the effectiveness of health and safety regulations, rather than solely focusing on individual countries. adhering to the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and metaanalysis (prisma) guidelines, an extensive literature search was conducted in scopus, web of science, and the journal of safety research databases. initial screening identified a total of 198 articles, of which 51 were published between 2014 and 2023. these 51 articles were considered and reviewed. the research findings underscored social, political, legal, and environmental factors as the main barriers to effective construction health and safety practices in representing african countries. a significant challenge lies in the fragmented nature of safety regulations, with the african nations often lacking dedicated legislation or operating under disjointed laws, thereby impeding adherence to global best practices. the insights gleaned from 1 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the authors acknowledge the funding support from the department of building sciences and faculty of engineering and the built environment, tshwane university of technology, south africa. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9059 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9059 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9059 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:adebowaleoluseyi@gmail.com mailto:agumbajn@tut.ac.za mailto:adebowaleoluseyi@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9059 this study are imperative for policymakers to devise targeted strategies aimed at bolstering health and safety practices on construction sites, thereby curtailing both human and financial costs. the research findings are limited to the five african countries studied, while future research should ensure the inclusion of more african countries to compare results and justify the generalizability of the research findings. keywords african countries; construction; health and safety; legislation; regulations introduction the construction sector, employing 7% of the global workforce (nyaruai, kinyua and gathu, 2016), faces significant challenges in health and safety (h&s). the industry, known for its hazards (babalola, et al., 2015), poses one of the highest risks to workers (elsebaei, et al., 2022), with traumatic injuries and fatalities more prevalent among construction workers (mersha, mereta and dube, 2017; manu, et al., 2021). the “fatal four” – falls, being struck by an object, electrocution, and being caught in or between objects – are leading causes of occupational fatal injuries (kinteh and bass, 2023). additional hazards include ergonomic issues, irregular work situations, and handling bulky equipment (kukoyi and adebowale, 2021). construction h&s is a lasting global concern (babalola, et al., 2015), as many countries are confronted with occupational h&s (ohs) issues, partly due to poor commitment to and/or inadequate regulatory frameworks (okonkwo and wium, 2020). compared to manufacturing, construction workers face 2.5 to 5 times higher risks of serious injury and death (yosef, sineshaw and shifera, 2023). the international labor organization estimates 60,000 construction site fatalities yearly, constituting 11% of all occupational injuries and 20% of deaths (oza, 2017). this alarming frequency implies an accident every ten minutes in construction, causing absenteeism, turnover, and significant societal losses (abdelwahed and soomro, 2023). this is enough evidence to state that existing construction accident prevention strategies have not yielded the desired improvements (abdalfatah, elbeltagi and abdelshakor, 2023). direct and indirect costs of construction injuries total around $13 billion annually (tadesse and israel, 2016), representing up to 6% of the gross domestic product in some countries (kinteh and bass, 2023). the high direct and indirect costs of construction injuries validate poor occupational h&s practices in the construction sector. although many african countries have regulatory frameworks governing their construction sectors, significant challenges persist. for instance, in nigeria, the construction sector operates under the governance of the federal ministry of labour and employment’s factory act and the national building code (ogunbiyi, 2014). similarly, in south africa, the occupational h&s act is the primary legislation (department of labour, 2007), while in ghana, regulations are guided by the factories, offices, and shops act and the construction industry development authority (kheni and afatsawu, 2022). despite these regulatory frameworks, construction accidents remain disproportionately high in african countries compared to their counterparts in developed economies (boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2021). in egypt, work injuries are reported at 46.2%, while in kenya, the figure stands at 74%, with ethiopia at 38.3% (yosef, sineshaw and shifera, 2023). shockingly, about 13% of workrelated deaths occur in the egyptian construction industry (lette, et al., 2018), with ugandan and ghanaian construction reporting approximately 59% of occupational injuries (kinteh and bass, 2023). workers in less industrialized nations face h&s risks 10 to 20 times more severe than those in industrialized countries (yosef, sineshaw and shifera, 2023), indicating a significant performance gap. adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 20242 the persistent accidents on construction sites in this region suggest several issues, including problems with the efficacy of regulatory frameworks (eze, ayuba and shittu, 2018) and noncompliance by construction stakeholders (elsebaei, et al., 2022). poor compliance undermines h&s standards, contributing to escalating accident costs (manu, et al., 2019). additionally, factors such as contractors’ poor attention to worker safety further exacerbate the situation (kinteh and bass, 2023). despite increasing investments by african countries to address infrastructure deficits (elsebaei, et al., 2022), the construction sector continues to face challenges with h&s practices (aka, et al., 2023; ibrahim, simpeh and adebowale, 2023a). existing research primarily focuses on individual countries, highlighting a gap in understanding h&s regulations across african countries collectively. this research aims to fill this gap by investigating the primary obstacles impeding the effectiveness of construction h&s regulations across five major african countries. it offers a comprehensive understanding of the broader african context concerning challenges undermining h&s regulations, rather than solely focusing on individual countries. the study identifies major challenges within the political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal (pestel) frameworks and seeks to inform policymaking for improved h&s practices in selected countries and beyond. construction health and safety in african countries construction health and safety in egypt the construction industry in egypt stands out as one of the fastestgrowing sectors, making a substantial contribution to economic returns (abdelwahed and soomro, 2023). despite constituting around 5% of the gross domestic product (gdp), the egyptian construction industry has faced a concerning trend, ranking thirdhighest in the number of site accidents, reporting 539, 645, and 634 accidents in 2015, 2016, and 2017, respectively. this alarming scenario is poised to worsen without urgent intervention to address the root causes of these accidents (elsebaei, et al., 2022). key influencers of safety performance in egyptian construction projects include safety awareness among top management, project managers, and safety inspections by supervisors (abdalfata, elbeltagi and abdelshako, 2023). organizational factors, rather than projectrelated ones, exert a more substantial impact on safety performance in the egyptian construction context (abdalfata, elbeltagi and abdelshako, 2023). identified leading causes of site accidents include poor housekeeping and inadequate governmental safety inspections (elsebaei, et al., 2022). the egyptian construction industry is characterized by a low level of supervision and accountability for safety (abdalfata, elbeltagi and abdelshako, 2023). unfortunately, a prevalent issue is the limited interest from management in organizing training sessions for employees, managers, or supervisors on safety policies and procedures, with periodic reviews of training requirements often overlooked (abdalfata, elbeltagi and abdelshako, 2023). the regulatory landscape for h&s in egypt is primarily governed by four key legislations: law no. 12 (2003) and ministerial decrees no. 211, 126, and 134 (elsebaei, et al., 2021). law no. 12 (2003) specifically addressed ohs, emphasizing the working environment and issues related to occupational h&s. ministerial decree no. 211 (2003) focused on safety precautions and conditions to prevent various hazards, outlining safety practices for different risks. ministerial decree no. 126 (2003) described various types of accidents and included a unified manual application for reporting specific incidents. ministerial decree no. 134 (2003) is directed at organizing ohs in organizations (ata and nahmias, 2005). while these laws aim to regulate industrial safety, including the construction sector, there is a notable absence of constructionspecific regulations aimed at ensuring the welfare, health, and wellbeing of construction workers. adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 20243 construction health and safety in ghana the ghanaian construction sector is experiencing a high prevalence of occupational injuries and illnesses (boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2021). workers in the industry frequently face industrial accidents leading to injuries and fatalities (kheni and afatsawu, 2022). despite a notable awareness of the concept of design for safety in ghanaian construction, its practical implementation among architects remains low (manu, et al., 2021). recent statistics reveal that accidents in the ghanaian construction sector constituted 11.33% of total accidents across all industries, with 25% of these accidents resulting in fatalities (kheni and afatsawu, 2022). the fatality rate in ghana’s construction work surpasses expected estimates for developing countries by the international labor organization (ilo) and is significantly higher than in more developed countries (boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2021; ibrahim, simpeh and adebowale, 2023b). unfortunately, in ghana, the prioritization of the high cost of training over the safety and health of employees by construction organizations contributes to the prevalence of accidents in workplaces (segbenya and yeboah, 2022; eyiah, kheni and quartey, 2019). regulatory institutions in the country face challenges such as inadequate labour, meagre funding, limited resources, noncompliance, and noncollaboration from construction firms, hindering the achievement of effective h&s practices (kheni and afatsawu, 2022; eyiah, kheni and quartey, 2019). the impacts of accidents and hazards in the ghanaian construction sector are significant, leading to a slowdown in work, increased project costs, and poor work performance (oseiasibey, et al., 2023). an effective safety program can significantly reduce accidents by creating a safe working environment (boakye, et al., 2023; famakin, aigbavboa and molusiwa, 2023). factors negatively influencing the performance of safety programs in ghanaian construction projects include insufficient communication, lack of workers’ self protection and awareness, contractors overlooking safety due to project schedule pressures, poor personal attitudes toward safety, ineffective laws, and lack of enforcement (agyekum, simons and botchway, 2018). ghana has enacted various regulations to safeguard the h&s of workers, but these regulations face limitations (boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2021). several legislations, such as the factories, offices, and shops act of 1970, the mining and minerals regulations 1970 li 665, the workman’s compensation law 1987, the ghana health services and teaching hospital act 526 (1999), the ghana labor act 2003 (act 651), the radiation protection instrument li 1559 of 1993, the environmental protection agency act 1994 (act 490), the pesticide control and management act 1996 (act 528), and the national road safety commission act 1999 (act 567), have been enacted (annan, addai and tulashie, 2015; agyekum, simons and botchway, 2018; segbenya and yeboah, 2022). despite having more than 37 construction h&s laws and regulations, stakeholders in ghana often struggle to educate themselves on these regulations, and the existing occupational h&s legal and regulatory framework is deemed barely effective (eyiah, kheni and quartey, 2019). contractors, consultants, and suppliers have limited knowledge of the numerous laws, leading to noncompliance and a lack of regularity in effective h&s delivery (oseiasibey, et al., 2021a; eyiah, kheni and quartey, 2019). the absence of a specific legal framework for monitoring and ensuring implementation poses a major challenge to effective h&s practices in the ghanaian construction sector (kheni and afatsawu, 2022). enforcement of ohs regulations is impeded by inadequate ohs policies, lack of ohs campaigns and education, and infrequent instances of sanctions or prosecution for ohs breaches (boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2021). unlike the ghanaian mining sector, the construction sector lacks specific h&s legislation developed for it (agyekum, simons and botchway, 2018; segbenya and yeboah, 2022). construction health and safety in kenya there is the perceived comprehensiveness of occupational safety and health regulations in kenya. however, the directorate of h&s conducts infrequent safety inspections and audits, contributing to alarming rates of adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 20244 accidents at construction sites (kemei, kaluli and kabubo, 2016). both workers and employers exhibit low perceptions and poor attitudes toward risks, resulting in inadequate safety measures such as poor material storage practices, insufficient improvised stepping items and working platforms, and a lack of harnesses when working on roofs (nyaruai, kinyua and gathu, 2016). inadequate monitoring and law enforcement further lead to minimal investments in preventive and protective measures, exposing construction workers to safety and health hazards (olutende, et al., 2021). recommendations include the government of kenya playing an oversight role by providing technical, financial, and material support to the directorate of ohs (otieno, onditi and monari, 2019). in kenya, the construction industry accounts for 16% of fatal accidents and 7% of nonfatal cases across all sectors (kemei, kaluli and kabubo, 2016). common incidents involve being hit by falling objects and falling from heights, contributing to approximately 32% of all construction site accidents. there is a lack of documentation on relevant activities and issues, such as accidents or injuries, medical records, and inspections on kenyan construction sites (olutende, et al., 2021). many workers suffer permanent disability or lose their lives due to constructionrelated injuries. a majority of construction companies either do not allocate a specific budget for h&s, or if they do, they allocate less than 1% of the project budget to h&s, revealing a lack of clear policy on budgetary provisions for h&s in the construction industry (kemei, kaluli and kabubo, 2016). the utilization of injury and accident protection measures, such as ppe and preventive structures, is notably deficient, standing at 45.9% (nyaruai, kinyua and gathu, 2016). the absence of legal guidelines for becoming a contractor contributes to a situation where most contractors lack qualifications in building construction and, consequently, are not attentive to the safety and health of workers (olutende, et al., 2021). the enactment of the occupational safety and health act (osha) 2007 marked a significant development in administering occupational safety services in kenya, including all workplaces (kemei, 2019). osha 2007 requires all industries to formulate strategies and rules aimed at promoting and instilling a safety culture among the kenyan workforce (nyabioge, wachiratowey and ralwala, 2022). the work injury benefits act (wiba) 2007, another critical law governing occupational safety in kenya, provides compensation to workers for jobrelated injuries and illnesses occurring during their employment (nyabioge, wachiratowey and ralwala, 2022). the directorate of occupational safety and health services (doshs) manages both osha 2007 and wiba 2007 (nyabioge, wachiratowey and ralwala, 2022). construction health and safety in nigeria construction workers in nigeria face significant h&s issues, impacting productivity in the construction industry, which contributes 1.4% of the nation’s gdp (aka, et al., 2023). the reliance on approximately 50% manual labour in the sector increases the vulnerability of nigerian construction workers to accidents, injuries, and diseases (tanko, abdullah and ramly, 2017). officially adopted in 2006, the national building code (nbc) of nigeria was developed (ogunbiyi, 2014). section 13 of nbc was developed to address h&s and the general welfare of the public (nbc, 2006). it outlines requirements for structural integrity, fire safety, sanitation, and accessibility, among other aspects (yakubu and agapiou, 2016). despite this important document, there are high rates of accidents and fatalities, and statistics of occupational accidents in nigerian construction projects are not adequately documented (onubi, et al., 2021). some of these failures have contributed to the continued call for an effective national building code (osuizugbo, 2018). the leading categories of accidents in nigerian construction include contact with working tools, vehiclerelated incidents, slips and trips, and falls (williams, hamid and misnan, 2019). noncompliance of contractors with established h&s regulations, lack of effective monitoring, reporting, and control practices contribute to these accidents (okoye, ezeokonkwo and ezeokoli, 2016). clients’ lack of financial provision for h&s from the inception stage of projects is a notable barrier, and this is not a legal requirement in nigeria (aka, adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 20245 et al., 2023; umeokafor, 2017). the absence of h&s legislation specifying client roles and responsibilities further hampers clients’ involvement in h&s in nigerian construction (umeokafor, 2017). there is a significant difference in the level of awareness and compliance with h&s policies between foreign/multinational and indigenous construction firms, with indigenous companies showing lower compliance (ameh and farinde, 2020; ebekozien, 2022). although the nbc mandates compliance with relevant h&s laws and standards, aiming to ensure the wellbeing of occupants and workers during construction and throughout the lifespan of buildings, there is poor compliance with ppe in nigeria, especially in indigenous construction companies, due to lax monitoring and enforcement by government regulatory agencies (ebekozien, 2022). lack of awareness, ignorance of the economic and social benefits of h&s, and clients’ lack of trust in contractors contribute to clients not committing resources to h&s (umeokafor, 2017; onubi, et al., 2021). compliance with h&s regulations is reportedly low in nigeria, with poor safety attitudes and behaviour among construction workers limiting their ability to comply with safety regulations (umeokafor, umeadi, and isaac, 2014; zailani, et al., 2023). the inadequate implementation of h&s programs during project execution is identified as a major factor contributing to drawbacks in the nigerian construction industry (tanko, abdullah and ramly, 2017). the industry is considered selfregulated, adopting h&s legislation and standards from developed countries with implementation, enforcement, and monitoring at the discretion of the adopters (umeokafor, 2016). construction health and safety in south africa the south african construction industry, a significant contributor to the nation’s economy, constituting about 6% of the gdp (famakin, aigbavboa and molusiwa, 2023), continues to face critical challenges in h&s. the south african department of labor (2017) reported a persistent rate of h&s fatalities estimated between 1.5 to 2.5 per week. construction h&s experts in south africa, including emuze (2023), rantsatsi, musonda and agumba (2023), and smallwood and haupt (2007), have highlighted the high incidence of accidents in the sector. the leading causes of incidents resulting in injuries and fatalities include a lack of supervision, commitment by management, and poor workmanship (south african department of labor, 2017). fulele and kadama (2016) identified the lack of effective enforcement of ohs standards by inspectors as a significant factor disrupting h&s in the south african construction industry. lukhele, botha and mbanga (2023) argued that the general attitude of construction workers and managers towards h&s is not impressive, and h&s professionals are often inadequately prepared to submit successful tender documentation based on functionality criteria due to incompetence. an investigation by the south african department of labor (2017) revealed that the responsibility for h&s at different stages of construction work was often handled by incompetent individuals lacking sufficient knowledge of h&s regulations. while south africa has enacted numerous legislative frameworks to enhance h&s in construction projects, challenges persist in enforcement due to unethical behaviour and attitudes of certain employers (lukhele, botha and mbanga). the overall compliance with h&s regulations in the south african construction industry is reportedly low and unacceptable (emuze and smallwood, 2012; fulele and kadama, 2016), with reports suggesting a compliance rate of less than 50% with h&s standards (naidoo, et al., 2015; adebowale, et al., 2020). unsafe workplaces, inadequate supervision, negligence, and intoxication are identified as leading causes of safety violations during construction in south africa (emuze, 2023). inspections reveal that about 53% of recently inspected construction sites were found to be noncompliant with h&s regulations (lukhele, botha and mbanga, 2023). despite its relatively robust legislative framework in africa, h&s incidents persist in the south african construction industry (construction industry development board (cidb) 2020). adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 20246 methods article search and selection this systematic review adhered to the methodological standards of the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and metaanalysis guidelines for systematic review and metaanalysis (ang, et al., 2019). a systematic literature search was conducted on scopus (www.scopus.com) and web of science (wos) (www.webofscience.com) databases from september 1, 2023, to september 20, 2023, to obtain studies on construction h&s in african countries. scopus and wos are multidisciplinary databases that cover a wide range of research areas. scopus and wos contain scholarly articles, conference proceedings, and citation data, making them valuable resources for finding articles in the field of construction h&s. however, only journal articles written in the english language were included, while conference papers and other sources were excluded. this is because journal articles generally provide more credible research data. the inclusion criteria comprised terms such as construction, h&s, regulations, legislation, africa, and articles published in or after 2014, while the exclusion criteria included terms like covid, mental, medicine, and articles published before 2014. defining these criteria in rayyan resulted in highlighting inclusion variables in green and exclusion variables in red, serving as a guide for article selection. an advanced search was also applied to explore the journal of safety research database, a journal specifically dedicated to safetyrelated publications. the queries used to perform the scopus and wos database searches included the following: “construction sector” or “construction industry” and “health and safety regulations” or “health and safety legislation” or “health and safety practices” and “africa”; “building sector” or “building industry” and “health and safety regulations” or “health and safety legislation” or “health and safety practices” and “africa”; “construction sector” or “construction industry” and “incidents” or “accidents” or “fatalities” or “injuries” or “death” and “africa”; “building sector” or “building industry” and “incidents” or “accidents” or “fatalities” or “injuries” or “death” and “africa”. the queries used to search the journal of safety research database include “construction health and safety regulation” and “incidents” or “accidents” or “fatalities” or “injuries” or “death” and “africa.” these search queries were chosen due to their relevance to the research focus and scope. figure 1 presents the prisma flow diagram of the literature search. article screening and quality assessment the screening for article eligibility and quality assessment was conducted between september 22, 2023, and october 16, 2023. rayyan software facilitated the screening process of the articles. articles obtained from the three databases were imported into rayyan software in ris format. the initial screening involved requesting rayyan to detect duplicate articles within the pool acquired from the three databases. among the duplicates identified (39 articles), duplicates were removed, retaining one copy of each article. the subsequent screening involved utilizing rayyan to perform title and abstract screenings to eliminate articles that did not align with the study objectives. defining the criteria in rayyan resulted in highlighting inclusion variables in green and exclusion variables in red, serving as a guide for article selection. the lead author, via rayyan software, invited the research collaborator online through email to participate in assessing the quality of the research articles and deciding on inclusions and exclusions based on predetermined criteria. the assessments were independently carried out by the authors. in cases of conflicting opinions on articles, the lead author made the final decision. after eliminating duplicates and screening title and abstract, out of the initial 198 articles, 124 articles were excluded, leaving 74 articles. a new review was created in rayyan for the fulltext review, where the full text of the 74 articles was scrutinized in line with adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 20247 http://www.scopus.com http://www.webofscience.com the study’s objectives. the evaluation considered the relevance of the research to the study objectives, the quality of the articles in terms of research design rigor, and articles published in the last ten years (2014 2023). consequently, 23 of the remaining 74 articles that did not meet these criteria were excluded from consideration, while the remaining 51 articles were deemed eligible and included in the study for review and analysis. figure 1: prisma flow diagram of literature search scopus (n=96), wos (n=64), journal of safety research (38) (96+64+38) n = 198) records of duplicates (n=39) records after first screening (139‐124) n=74) records excluded (39+47+38) n=124) full‐text eligible (74‐23) n=51) full‐text excluded for not meeting inclusion criteria (n=23) articles included for review (n=51) id en tif ic at io n sc re en in g el ig ib ili ty in cl ud ed records of articles from countries outside africa (n=47) records of articles outside the study scope (n=38) figure 1. prisma flow diagram of literature search source: authors adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 20248 data synthesis and analysis relevant data were extracted from the selected articles using a structured data extraction table. this process aimed to organize the extracted data efficiently, providing a concise and accessible summary of the evaluated studies. the analysis of the obtained data employed content analysis, a widely accepted method for qualitative data analysis (sundler, et al., 2019). the data extraction table specifically focused on challenges undermining the effectiveness of construction h&s regulations. these challenges were systematically categorized into predetermined pestel frameworks. the pestel framework, which considers various macroenvironmental factors, was chosen for its applicability to research with a broader environmental outlook (alaloul, et al., 2020). challenges affecting the efficacy of construction h&s regulations were extracted from the 51 reviewed articles and further organized within the pestel framework. the synthesis of research data aimed to derive meaningful insights and conclusions. in determining the leading challenges, only issues mentioned in a minimum of 5 articles were considered, while challenges reported in fewer than 5 articles were excluded. the synthesized findings are visually represented in an explanatory diagram (figure 4), developed using vensim software. this diagram serves as a visual aid to enhance the clarity and accessibility of the results, illustrating the interactions identified in the research findings. the research outcomes provide valuable insights for policymakers seeking to promote improved h&s practices in african countries. results articles distribution the research on construction h&s in african countries reveals a significant volume of scholarly investigations. table 1 presents an overview of the research efforts dedicated to construction h&s over the past decade. while the initial literature search was not geographically restricted to the five african countries ultimately represented in this study, the chosen databases, coupled with the established inclusion and exclusion criteria, resulted in a selection of articles originating from these five countries. this phenomenon might be attributable to either a higher prevalence of construction activity within these specific regions or a greater volume of construction h&s research initiatives. among the fiftyone articles published in this research domain during the last ten years, ghana and nigeria are notable contributors, presenting fifteen and thirteen articles, respectively. following closely, kenya and south africa made substantial contributions, each contributing six articles. a quantitative research approach was predominant among the majority, with a total of thirtyfour articles, employed to address specific aspects of construction h&s. meanwhile, fifteen articles opted for a qualitative research methodology, showcasing a diverse array of investigative methods. two articles adopted a mixedmethods approach, demonstrating a combination of both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies to address challenges related to construction h&s. bibliometric networks of health and safety research the bibliometric networks of the most cooccurring keywords in the scopus and wos databases are presented in figures 2 and 3, aiming to gain insights into the primary research areas of construction h&s regulations. data from these databases were imported into vosviewer software, and subsequent analysis was conducted to generate the network. in the scopus database, the minimum threshold for the number of cooccurring keywords in articles was set at 3. out of the total 330 keywords, 26 keywords met this threshold. however, two keywords, namely “design/methodology/approach” and “survey,” were considered irrelevant and subsequently removed. the remaining 24 keywords underwent bibliometric network analysis, revealing three clusters in the network (figure 2). clusters in bibliometric networks indicate the adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 20249 table 1. overview of construction health and safety research (20142023) s/n country focus method author year 1 egypt safety performance evaluation quantitative abdalfatah, et al. 2023 2 egypt site accidents quantitative elsebaei, et al. 2022 3 egypt occupational safety quantitative abdelwahed, et al. 2023 4 egypt health and safety regulations quantitative elsebaei, et al. 2021 5 ethiopia occupational injuries quantitative mersha, mereta and dube 2017 6 ethiopia health and safety practice quantitative fekele, et al. 2016 7 ethiopia occupational injuries quantitative tadesse and israel 2016 8 ethiopia occupational injuries quantitative yosef, sineshaw and shifera 2023 9 ethiopia workrelated injuries quantitative lette, et al. 2018 10 gambia occupational injuries quantitative kinteh and bass 2023 11 ghana design for safety quantitative manu, et al. 2021 12 ghana occupational health and safety enforcement quantitative boadu, wang and sunindijo 2021 13 ghana health and safety compliance quantitative kheni, et al. 2022 14 ghana technologies for health and safety quantitative agyekum, et al. 2022 15 ghana performance of safety programs quantitative agyekum, simons and botchway 2018 16 ghana health and safety compliance model quantitative mustapha 2016 17 ghana effect of occupational health and safety quantitative segbenya and yeboah 2022 18 ghana health and safety performance quantitative boakye, et al. 2023 19 ghana occupational safety management qualitative sherratt and aboagye nimo 2022 20 ghana framework for improving construction health and safety qualitative oseiasibey, et al. 2021a 21 ghana construction health and safety implementation quantitative agyekum, et al. 2021 22 ghana accidents and hazards qualitative oseiasibey, et al. 2023 23 ghana occupational health and safety legal requirements and legislation qualitative annan, et al. 2015 24 ghana construction health and safety laws and regulations qualitative oseiasibey, et al. 2021b 25 ghana occupational health and safety regulations qualitative eyiah, kheni and quartey 2019 26 kenya assessment of occupational safety and health quantitative kemei, et al. 2016 27 kenya management of safety and health quantitative nyaruai, et al. 2016 28 kenya occupational health and safety management practices quantitative olutende, et al. 2021 29 kenya occupational accidents quantitative otieno, et al. 2019 30 kenya occupational health and safety practices quantitative omweri and ombui 2018 31 kenya accidents and safety regulations requirements qualitative nyabioge, et al. 2022 32 morocco occupational health and safety diagnosis qualitative tarik and adil 2018 adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202410 interconnectedness of variables, with the size of nodes representing the extent of occurrence of variables within the network (adebowale and agumba, 2023). based on the articles extracted from the scopus database, the leading trends in construction h&s regulation research include accident prevention, law and legislation, risk assessment, building codes, accidents, hazards, and regulatory compliance. these keywords are indicative of the predominant concerns in construction h&s within african countries. regarding the wos, a similar approach was taken with a minimum threshold of 3 for cooccurring keywords in articles. out of a total of 335 keywords, 22 keywords met this threshold. the resulting network of these 22 keywords is illustrated in figure 3, revealing three clusters. in concordance with the scopus database, south african studies predominantly focus on design and management for incident prevention, while studies from nigeria concentrate more on h&s challenges and frameworks. the emerging keywords in these clusters include management, design, and prevention s/n country focus method author year 33 nigeria health and safety programs mixed aka, et al. 2023 34 nigeria contractors’ compliance with health and safety insurance policies quantitative ameh and farinde 2020 35 nigeria health and safety risk quantitative okoye 2018 36 nigeria client involvement in health and safety quantitative umeokafor 2017 37 nigeria construction site health and safety induction training qualitative okorie and musonda 2020 38 nigeria construction safety improvement quantitative onubi, et al. 2021 39 nigeria personal protective equipment qualitative ebekozien 2022 40 nigeria construction accidents quantitative williams 2019 41 nigeria workers’ health and safety knowledge and compliance quantitative okoye, et al. 2016 42 nigeria health and safety selfregulation mixed umeokafor 2016 43 nigeria compliance with health and safety regulations qualitative umeokafor 2014 44 nigeria health and safety regulations quantitative famakin, aigbavboa and molusiwa 2023 45 nigeria antecedents of noncompliance to safety regulations quantitative zailani, et al. 2023 46 south africa professional ethics and occupational health and safety qualitative lukhele, botha and mbanga 2023 47 south africa compliance with occupational health and safety qualitative fulele and kadama 2016 48 south africa performance of construction health and safety agents quantitative smallwood and deacon 2017 49 south africa safety violations on construction sites qualitative emuze 2023 50 south africa health and safety performance quantitative rantsatsi, et al. 2023 51 south africa health and safety management systems qualitative okonkwo and wium 2020 source: authors table 1. continued adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202411 (cluster 1), regulations, safety, framework (cluster 2), and risk, productivity, and occupational health (cluster 3). table 2 outlines the classification of challenges undermining the effectiveness of construction h&s regulations in five african countries. these challenges were initially sorted into the pestel framework, considering their relevance to political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal categories. to identify significant challenges, inclusion criteria required factors to be featured in a minimum of three articles. factors that appeared in less than three articles were excluded and not deemed major challenges affecting the efficacy of construction h&s regulations. consequently, the economic and technological challenges were eliminated as the challenges identified in these categories fell below the threshold. specifically, inadequate funds for h&s were featured in two articles under the economic category, and resistance to technological improvement under technological challenges was mentioned in only one article. given the similar situation for other factors in these two categories, they were excluded from the pestel framework. furthermore, challenges under the remaining four categories that did not meet the inclusion criteria were similarly removed. the social category emerged as predominant, featuring seven challenges compromising the effectiveness of construction h&s regulations. this was followed by the political category with two challenges, while the environmental and legal categories each featured one challenge. discussion of the research findings political factors capacity of government regulatory agencies for inspection and enforcement the first significant political factor is the deficiency in the capacity of government regulatory agencies responsible for inspecting and enforcing construction h&s regulations. prior research, including studies by eyiah, kheni and quartey (2019), boadu, wang and sunindijo (2021), elsebaei, et al. (2022), kheni and figure 2. network of most occurring keywords in scopus source: authors adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202412 table 2. data presentation pestel challenges and number of appearances source political lack of capacity of government regulatory agencies for inspection and enforcement x9 (fulele and kadama, 2016; kemei, et al., 2016; omweri and ombui, 2018; eyiah, kheni and quartey, 2019; boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2021; ebekozien, 2022; elsebaei, et al., 2022; kheni and afatsawu, 2022; emuze, 2023). lack of comprehensive national ohs legislation x3 (umeokafor, et al., 2014; umeokafor, 2017; kheni and afatsawu, 2022). social inadequate safety campaigns, training programs, and awareness initiatives x21 (fekele, et al., 2016; kemei, et al., 2016; mersha, mereta and dube, 2017; umeokafor, 2017; agyekum, simons and botchway, 2018; lette, et al., 2018; omweri and ombui, 2018; eyiah, kheni and quartey, 2019; ameh and farinde, 2020; okorie and musonda, 2020; onubi, et al., 2021; boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2021; manu, et al., 2021; olutende, et al., 2021; oseiasibey, et al., 2021a; nyabioge, et al., 2022; segbenya and yeboah, 2022; abdalfatah, et al., 2023; abdelwahed, et al., 2023; emuze, 2023; yosef, sineshaw and shifera, 2023). inadequate management commitment x9 (nyaruai, et al., 2016; umeokafor, 2017; okorie and musonda, 2020; onubi, et al., 2021; olutende, et al., 2021; oseiasibey, et al., 2021b; boakye, et al., 2023; emuze, 2023; famakin, aigbavboa and molusiwa, 2023). not using personal protective equipment x8 (nyaruai, et al., 2016; tadesse and israel, 2016; mersha, mereta and dube, 2017; lette, et al., 2018; oseiasibey, et al., 2021b; ebekozien, 2022; abdalfatah, et al., 2023; yosef, sineshaw and shifera, 2023). lack of priority for occupational health and safety x6 (fulele and kadama, 2016; kemei, et al., 2016; eyiah, kheni and quartey, 2019; abdelwahed, et al., 2023; boakye, et al., 2023; emuze, 2023). poor safety attitudes of workers x4 (kemei, et al., 2016; agyekum, simons and botchway, 2018; oseiasibey, et al., 2021a; zailani, et al., 2023). working overtime x3 (mersha, mereta and dube, 2017; lette, et al., 2018; kinteh and bass, 2023). intoxication x3 (fulele and kadama, 2016; emuze, 2023; kinteh and bass, 2023). environmental poor working environment x5 (oseiasibey, et al., 2021a; abdalfatah, et al., 2023; abdelwahed, et al., 2023; emuze, 2023; famakin, aigbavboa and molusiwa, 2023). adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202413 afatsawu (2022), and emuze (2023), have consistently underscored the importance of robust regulatory bodies. within the african context, the lack of adequate resources, trained personnel, and advanced technology within regulatory agencies hampers their ability to conduct thorough inspections and enforce compliance effectively (agyekum, et al., 2022). the consequences of this capacity deficit are farreaching. it not only compromises the timely identification of safety violations but also disrupts the deterrent effect of enforcement measures. without a robust inspection mechanism, the construction industry would largely operate with reduced accountability, heightening the risk of accidents and injuries on construction sites (ebekozien, 2022). addressing this challenge requires a concerted effort to invest in the training of regulatory personnel, provide them with the necessary tools and technology, and establish transparent reporting mechanisms. partnerships with international bodies that specialize in ohs can also offer valuable insights and support in building the capacity of these agencies. figure 3. network of most occurring keywords in web of science source: authors pestel challenges and number of appearances source legal lack of a welldefined safety regulations framework x9 (umeokafor, et al., 2014; annan, et al., 2015; fekele, et al., 2016; agyekum, simons and botchway, 2018; boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2021; onubi, et al., 2021; olutende, et al., 2021; kheni and afatsawu, 2022; abdelwahed, et al., 2023; aka, et al., 2023; famakin, aigbavboa and molusiwa, 2023). source: authors table 2. continued adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202414 comprehensive national ohs legislation the absence of comprehensive national ohs legislation is a pivotal political factor constituting a challenge to construction h&s. studies by famakin, aigbavboa and molusiwa (2023), aka, et al. (2023), olutende, et al. (2021), and onubi, et al. (2021) underscored the importance of a legal framework that considers all aspects of ohs. the lack of comprehensive legislation in many african countries results in a fragmented regulatory landscape, making it difficult to establish standardized practices across the construction industry. this fragmentation not only leads to confusion among stakeholders but also creates loopholes that can be exploited, ultimately undermining the efficacy of safety regulations (kheni and afatsawu, 2022; umeokafor, 2017). policymakers must prioritize the development and implementation of comprehensive national ohs legislation. this legislation should cover a spectrum of safety aspects, including but not limited to compulsory h&s specifications and plans, provisions for h&s costs, risk assessments, safety files, periodic h&s audits, and the provision of adequate training and protective equipment. the national ohs legislation in every country must cater to every aspect of construction project procurement, from preconstruction to postconstruction without leaving any loopholes. drawing on successful models from other regions, such legislation should be tailored to the specific needs and challenges of each african country while maintaining alignment with international best practices prescribed by the international labor organization. social factors safety campaigns, training programs, and awareness initiatives a critical social factor contributing to the challenges in construction h&s is the inadequacy of safety campaigns, training programs, and awareness initiatives. this factor is reported in twentyone articles, including manu, et al. (2021), segbenya and yeboah (2022), abdalfatah, et al. (2023), abdelwahed, et al., (2023), and yosef, sineshaw and shifera (2023), which highlighted its significance to h&s performance. this result underscores the essential role of education and awareness in fostering a safetyconscious culture within the construction industry. the lack of comprehensive safety campaigns and training programs leaves construction workers illequipped to identify and address potential hazards, increasing the likelihood of accidents and injuries on construction sites. there is a pressing need for targeted safety campaigns, regular training sessions, and increased awareness programs. the synergy between industry stakeholders, educational institutions, and governmental bodies is essential to developing and implementing effective strategies that resonate with the diverse workforce in different african country. inadequate management commitment the inadequacy of management commitment was found to be a critical social factor influencing construction h&s. famakin, aigbavboa and molusiwa (2023) underscored the importance of strong leadership in driving a safetycentric culture within the construction industry. in instances where management fails to prioritize safety measures, a trickledown effect is observed, impacting the entire workforce. the lack of commitment is reflected in insufficient resource allocation, minimal support for safety initiatives, and a failure to integrate safety considerations into decisionmaking processes. addressing this challenge requires a fundamental shift in organizational culture, emphasizing leadership that champions and actively participates in h&s initiatives. personal protective equipment the widespread noncompliance with ppe guidelines is another social factor that poses a challenge to construction h&s. some authors (oseiasibey, et al., 2021b; ebekozien, 2022; abdalfatah, et al., 2023; yosef, sineshaw and shifera (2023) have expressed concerns about the outright disregard for ppe guidelines on construction projects. yosef, sineshaw and shifera (2023) emphasized that it is becoming adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202415 a cultural norm among workers to neglect the use of essential protective gear. the failure to use ppe not only jeopardizes the safety of individual workers but also undermines the effectiveness of broader safety regulations. reasons for noncompliance may range from discomfort to a lack of understanding regarding the lifesaving potential of ppe. this issue is also connected to safety campaigns, training programs, and awareness initiatives, which could help educate construction workers on the need to consistently embrace the culture of using ppe on construction sites. besides the perceived discomfort of using ppe, some construction workers derive their confidence from previous compromises that did not result in accidents. for instance, workers operating at heights might consider safety harnesses as unnecessary. addressing this challenge requires a multifaceted approach, including rigorous enforcement of ppe regulations, education on the importance of each equipment type, and the provision of comfortable and culturally appropriate protective gear for construction operations. priority for occupational health and safety the pervasive negligence and the lack of priority given to ohs are crucial social factors influencing construction h&s. this suggests the need for a cultural shift in the perception of safety within the construction sector. the prevalent attitude of neglecting safety measures and viewing them as impediments to productivity (adebowale and smallwood, 2020), hinders the successful implementation of h&s regulations (abdelwahed, et al., 2023; boakye, et al., 2023; emuze, 2023). a deliberate effort is required to instil a safetyfirst mindset at all levels of the construction industry. this involves fostering a culture that values the wellbeing of workers and recognizes the longterm benefits of a safe working environment. poor safety attitudes of workers the prevailing poor safety attitudes among construction workers represent a significant social factor hindering the effectiveness of h&s regulations. to improve h&s performance in construction, zailani, et al. (2023) emphasized the need for management to understand and transform workers’ attitudes toward safety. negative attitudes toward safety practices contribute to noncompliance, increased risktaking behaviour, and ultimately, a higher likelihood of accidents. addressing this challenge requires interventions focused on fostering a positive safety culture through ongoing training, motivational programs, and creating an environment where workers feel empowered to voice safety concerns without fear of reprisal. working overtime another social factor that undermines construction h&s is the prevalent practice of working overtime. kinteh and bass (2023) highlighted that extended working hours increase fatigue among construction workers, leading to a higher probability of errors and accidents. the pressure to meet tight deadlines often results in extended shifts, compromising the mental and physical wellbeing of workers. mitigating this challenge involves a reassessment of project timelines, improved project management strategies, and the establishment of regulations limiting overtime hours. additionally, creating a culture that prioritizes the wellbeing of workers over strict timelines is essential for fostering a safer working environment. intoxication the issue of intoxication among construction workers is a critical social factor impacting h&s. the detrimental effects of alcohol and substance abuse on construction site safety are widespread (emuze, 2023). intoxication significantly impairs judgment, coordination, and reaction times, increasing the risk of accidents and injuries (kinteh and bass, 2023; fulele and kadama, 2016). addressing this challenge involves implementing strict substance abuse policies, regular testing, and providing support services for workers dealing with addiction. collaborative efforts between employers, industry associations, and health professionals are essential to create a supportive framework for those struggling with substance abuse. adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202416 environmental factor working environments the construction sector has one of the most dangerous working environments (elsebaei, et al., 2022). poor working conditions persist as a longstanding issue in the construction sector. several authors have highlighted the direct correlation between working conditions and the overall safety of construction sites. an effective safety program can substantially reduce accidents by creating a secure working environment (boakye, et al., 2023; famakin, aigbavboa and molusiwa,2023). inadequate safety infrastructure, poor housekeeping, and exposure to extreme weather conditions contribute to heightened risks for construction workers. poor working environments can increase the occurrence of avoidable h&s incidents. this underscores the need for a comprehensive evaluation of working conditions, focusing on improving safety infrastructure, ensuring proper housekeeping, and implementing measures to mitigate the impact of adverse weather. policymakers must consider partnerships between regulatory bodies, employers, and environmental experts as essential to creating a safer and more conducive working environment. legal factor welldefined safety regulations framework the legal factor constituting a challenge to construction h&s is the absence of a welldefined safety regulations framework. numerous studies have reported this factor as a major barrier to construction h&s performance (famakin, aigbavboa and molusiwa, 2023; annan, et al., 2015; aka, et al., 2023). some studies have emphasized that a robust legal framework is foundational to effective safety governance within the construction industry (abdelwahed, et al., 2023; kheni and afatsawu, 2022; boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2021; onubi, et al., 2021). the lack of clarity in safety regulations creates ambiguity, making it challenging for construction companies to comply with standards and for regulatory bodies to enforce them. there is a pressing need for comprehensive legislation that clearly outlines safety requirements, procedures, and consequences for noncompliance. policymakers should collaborate with legal experts, industry stakeholders, and international bodies to develop a framework that aligns with global best practices while considering the unique challenges faced by each african country. government commitment comprehensive ohs legislation and regulatory framework+ capacity of regulatory agency for inspection and enforcement + management commitment safety attitudes of workers + + safety campaigns, training programs, and awareness initiatives + priority for occupational health and safety + working environment working overtime + + + intoxi cation personal protective equipment + + + + + + figure 4. construction health and safety regulations challenges source: authors. figure 4 illustrates the perceived relationships among the research findings. according to the figure, enhanced commitment to construction h&s by national governments would positively impact the formulation of comprehensive ohs legislation and regulatory frameworks, as well as strengthen the adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202417 capacity of regulatory agencies to inspect and enforce safety regulations. the improvement in inspection and enforcement would compel construction organizations and other key stakeholders in construction projects to improve their commitment to h&s practices. however, a notable challenge faced by regulatory agencies, exemplified in south africa, is their understaffing (emuze, 2023), compromising the efficacy of safety regulation inspection and enforcement not only in south africa but also in other african countries. for the government’s commitment to h&s in these african countries to be effective, considerations must include adequate staffing, comprehensive training programs, and the incorporation of innovative technology to aid regulatory agencies in executing their duties. a heightened commitment from construction organizations and key stakeholders would prompt increased safety campaigns, training initiatives, and awareness programs. these efforts aim to educate construction stakeholders, especially workers, on crucial h&s protocols during project execution. the commitment, coupled with effective project management, would help alleviate schedule pressures that often necessitate overtime work. strengthened management commitment and robust h&s campaigns would encourage construction workers to prioritize their h&s. the resultant positive safety attitude among workers, influenced by ongoing safety campaigns, training programs, and awareness initiatives, is anticipated to enhance the utilization of ppe and contribute to a safer working environment. fostering a good safety attitude among workers could play a role in mitigating substance abuse within the construction workforce. addressing substance abuse is imperative, as addiction poses an increased risk of accidents, especially during overtime work. conclusion despite the existence of construction h&s regulations, developing countries, particularly in africa, experience significantly higher rates of h&s incidents compared to developed nations. this study conducted a review of existing literature on h&s regulations in five leading african countries: egypt, ghana, kenya, nigeria, and south africa. the literature reveals several critical issues disrupting the effectiveness of h&s regulations in these countries. for example, ghana lacks dedicated constructionspecific legislation, while nigerian construction organizations reportedly rely heavily on selfregulatory practices. furthermore, south africa’s regulatory agency faces understaffing challenges, impacting inspection and enforcement efforts. these and other factors contribute to a fragmented regulatory framework that hinders the pursuit of a safe and healthy construction environment. the persistent h&s incidents in the construction sector have resulted in devastating consequences, including loss of lives, injuries, and substantial financial losses for contractors, totalling billions of dollars. this study identifies the key factors undermining the efficacy of construction h&s regulations in these african countries through a systematic review of literature across three databases: wos, scopus, and journal of safety research. the study concludes that the most significant factors subverting construction h&s in the countries are social, political, legal, and environmental. the study’s implications are significant for theory. the complex array of challenges undermining construction h&s regulations reported in this study can advance theoretical understanding by revealing the multiple challenges within regulatory frameworks. practically, policymakers and regulatory agencies can use these insights to enact targeted reforms. addressing issues such as the lack of dedicated legislation, reliance on selfregulation, and enforcement challenges due to understaffing can lead to a safer construction environment. by implementing evidencebased interventions, organizations can reduce accidents, protect workers, and contribute to financial gains. the research underscores the urgent need for comprehensive reforms in construction h&s regulations, not only in the countries represented in this study but across other african countries. this will not only help to mitigate the devastating impact of h&s incidents but also contribute to the overall economic wellbeing of these major african countries by reducing the financial losses incurred due to these incidents. the research findings are limited to the five african countries studied, as enough evidence was not obtained to generalize the findings to other african countries. consequently, further studies are needed to gather evidence from countries across the five regions of africa (central adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202418 africa, east africa, north africa, southern africa, and west africa) to ensure the generalizability of the study’s findings to the entire african continent and compare them with the results of this study. future studies should scientifically select countries to represent each region, unlike in this study where equitable representation of the entire african region was lacking due to the systematic review employed. acknowledgement the authors acknowledge the funding support from the department of building sciences and faculty of engineering and the built environment, tshwane university of technology, south africa. references abdalfatah, z., elbeltagi, e. and abdelshakor, m., 2023. safety performance evaluation of construction projects in egypt. innovative infrastructure solutions, 8(9), pp.1-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41062-023-01181-y abdelwahed, n.a.a. and soomro, b.a., 2023. factors impacting occupational safety among women engineers. safety, 9(2), p.38. https://doi.org/10.3390/safety9020038 adebowale, o.j. and agumba, j.n., 2023. a scientometric analysis and review of construction labour productivity research. international journal of productivity and performance management, [e-journal] 72(7), pp.1903-23. https://doi. org/10.1108/ijppm-09-2021-0505 adebowale, o., kukoyi, p.o., olagoke, i.m. and ademola, b., 2020. towards improving project performance indicators in the south african construction sector. journal of construction, 12(4), pp.1-12. https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs. v12i4( j).3079 adebowale, o.j. and smallwood, j.j., 2020. contractors’ perceptions of factors affecting construction labour productivity in south africa. journal of contemporary management, 17(2), pp.326-46. https://doi.org/10.35683/jcm20028.78 agyekum, k., ghansah, f.a., tetteh, p.a. and amudjie, j., 2021. the role of project managers (pms) in construction health and safety implementation in ghana. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 19(1), pp.245-62. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2020-0122 agyekum, k., pittri, h., botchway, e.a., amudjie, j., kumah, v.m.a., kotei-martin, j.n. and oduro, r.a., 2022. exploring the current technologies essential for health and safety in the ghanaian construction industry. merits, [e-journal] 2(4), pp.314-30. https://doi.org/10.3390/merits2040022 agyekum, k., simons, b. and botchway, s.y., 2018. factors influencing the performance of safety programmes in the ghanaian construction industry. acta structilia, 25(2), pp.39-61. https://doi.org/10.18820/24150487/as25i2.2 aka, a., awuzie, b., emuze, f. and shittu, a.a., 2023. evaluating the effectiveness of strategies for implementation of health and safety programs on construction sites in nigeria: a mixed-method study. journal of safety research, [e-journal] 85, pp.6-32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2023.02.001 alaloul, w.s., liew, m.s., zawawi, n.a.w.a. and kennedy, i.b., 2020. industrial revolution 4.0 in the construction industry: challenges and opportunities for stakeholders. ain shams engineering journal, [e-journal] 11(1), pp.225-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2019.08.010 ameh, o.j. and farinde, o.m., 2020. construction contractors’ compliance with health and safety insurance policies in lagos state. journal of construction innovation and cost management, 1(1), pp.81-92. ang, b.h., oxley, j.a., chen, w.s., yap, k.k., song, k.p. and lee, s.w.h., 2019. to reduce or to cease: a systematic review and meta-analysis of quantitative studies on self-regulation of driving. journal of safety research, [e-journal] 70, pp.243-51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2019.07.004 adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202419 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41062-023-01181-y https://doi.org/10.3390/safety9020038 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-09-2021-0505 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-09-2021-0505 https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs.v12i4(j).3079 https://doi.org/10.22610/jebs.v12i4(j).3079 https://doi.org/10.35683/jcm20028.78 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2020-0122 https://doi.org/10.3390/merits2040022 https://doi.org/10.18820/24150487/as25i2.2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2023.02.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2019.08.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2019.07.004 annan, j.s., addai, e.k. and tulashie, s.k., 2015. a call for action to improve occupational health and safety in ghana and a critical look at the existing legal requirement and legislation. safety and health at work, [e-journal] 6(2), pp.14650. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2014.12.002 ata, g.a. and nahmias, m., 2005. occupational safety and health in egypt: a national profile. who and ilo-safe work guidelines’ series. [pdf ] available at: https://www.emro.who.int/images/stories/occupational/documents/ occupational_safety_and_health_in_egypt.pdf?ua=1 babalola, h.i., oluwatuyi, o.e., akinloye, l.a. and aiyewalehinmi, e., 2015. factors influencing the performance of construction projects in akure, nigeria. international journal of civil engineering, construction and estate management, 3(4), pp.57-67. boadu, e.f., wang, c.c. and sunindijo, r.y., 2021. challenges for occupational health and safety enforcement in the construction industry in ghana. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 21(1), pp.1-21. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7482 boakye, m.k., adanu, s.k., adzivor, e.k., coffie, g.h. and ayimah, j.c., 2023. factors influencing health and safety performance at construction sites in ghana: the perspective of building artisans. international journal of occupational safety and ergonomics, [e-journal] 29(3), pp.1121-27. https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2022.2112444 construction industry development board (cidb), 2020. construction health and safety in south africa. [online] available at: http://www.cidb.org.za/publications/pages/health-and [accessed 9 november 2023]. department of labour, 2017. labour on injuries and fatalities in sa construction sector. [online] available at: https://www. gov.za/speeches/sa-construction-sector-9-mar-2017-0000 [accessed 9 november 2023]. ebekozien, a., 2022. construction companies’ compliance to personal protective equipment on junior staff in nigeria: issues and solutions. international journal of building pathology and adaptation, [e-journal] 40(4), pp.481-98. https://doi. org/10.1108/ijbpa-08-2020-0067 elsebaei, m.a., elnawawy, o., othman, a.a.e. and badawy, m., 2021. a framework to activate the health and safety regulations in the egyptian construction industry. journal of engineering, design and technology, 19(5), pp.1158-91. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-05-2020-0194 elsebaei, m., elnawawy, o., othman, a.a.e. and badawy, m., 2022. causes and impacts of site accidents in the egyptian construction industry. international journal of construction management, 22(14), pp.2659-70. https://doi.org/1 0.1080/15623599.2020.1819523 emuze, f., 2023. operational analysis for controlling safety violations on construction sites in south africa. in: proceedings of the institution of civil engineers-forensic engineering, 176(2), pp.46-53. https://doi.org/10.1680/ jfoen.22.00015 emuze, f. and smallwood, j.j., 2012. perspectives on health and safety in construction and design. in: proceedings of the institution of civil engineers-management, procurement and law, 165(1), pp. 27-34. https://doi.org/10.1680/ mpal.2012.165.1.27 eyiah, a.k., kheni, n.a. and quartey, p.d., 2019. an assessment of occupational health and safety regulations in ghana: a study of the construction industry. journal of building construction and planning research, [e-journal] 7(2), pp.11-31. https://doi.org/10.4236/jbcpr.2019.72002 eze, c.j., ayuba, p. and shittu, a.a., 2018. assessment of accidents hazard impact in nigerian building industry. centre for human settlement and urban development journal (chsudj), 7(1), pp.208-26. famakin, i.o., aigbavboa, c. and molusiwa, r., 2023. exploring challenges to implementing health and safety regulations in a developing economy. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 23(1), pp.89-97. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1850201 adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202420 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2014.12.002 https://www.emro.who.int/images/stories/occupational/documents/occupational_safety_and_health_in_egypt.pdf?ua=1 https://www.emro.who.int/images/stories/occupational/documents/occupational_safety_and_health_in_egypt.pdf?ua=1 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7482 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i1.7482 https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2022.2112444 http://www.cidb.org.za/publications/pages/health-and https://www.gov.za/speeches/sa-construction-sector-9-mar-2017-0000 https://www.gov.za/speeches/sa-construction-sector-9-mar-2017-0000 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-08-2020-0067 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-08-2020-0067 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-05-2020-0194 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1819523 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1819523 https://doi.org/10.1680/jfoen.22.00015 https://doi.org/10.1680/jfoen.22.00015 https://doi.org/10.1680/mpal.2012.165.1.27 https://doi.org/10.1680/mpal.2012.165.1.27 https://doi.org/10.4236/jbcpr.2019.72002 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1850201 federal republic of nigeria, 2006. national building code. 1st ed. butterworths, south africa: lexis nexis. fekele, l., quezon, e.t. and macarubbo, y.c., 2016. evaluation of health and safety practice in building construction: a case study in addis ababa. international journal of scientific & engineering research, 7(10), pp.122-31. fulele, c. and kadama, f.r.k., 2016. compliance with occupational health and safety in the construction industry in a selected district. journal of contemporary management, 13(1), pp.506-30. ibrahim, k., simpeh, f. and adebowale, o.j., 2023a. benefits and challenges of wearable safety devices in the construction sector. smart and sustainable built environment, [e-journal] pp.1-22. https://doi.org/10.1108/ sasbe-12-2022-0266 ibrahim, k., simpeh, f. and adebowale, o.j., 2023b. awareness and adoption of wearable technologies for health and safety management in the nigerian construction industry. frontiers in engineering and built environment, [e-journal] pp.1-14. https://doi.org/10.1108/febe-11-2022-0041 kemei, r.k., 2019. occupational safety and health in construction sites in nairobi county. [published master’s thesis]. jomo kenyatta university of agriculture and technology. kemei, r.k., kaluli, j.w. and kabubo, c.k., 2016. assessment of occupational safety and health in construction sites in nairobi county, kenya. association of engineers of kenya, pp.1-13. kenya law reports, 2012. work injury benefits act, 2007. national council for law reporting. kinteh, b. and bass, p., 2023. prevalence and factors associated with occupational injuries among building construction workers in the gambia. injury prevention, [e-journal] pp.1-6. https://doi.org/10.1136/ip-2023-044958 kheni, n.a. and afatsawu, p.k., 2022. a study of challenges faced by regulatory authorities for implementing health and safety compliance in the ghana construction industry context. international journal of management & entrepreneurship research, 4(7), pp.315-33. https://doi.org/10.51594/ijmer.v4i7.353 kukoyi, p.o. and adebowale, o.j., 2021. impediments to construction safety improvement. journal of engineering, project, and production management, [e-journal] 11(3), pp.207-14. https://doi.org/10.2478/jeppm-2021-0020 lette, a., ambelu, a., getahun, t. and mekonen, s., 2018. a survey of work-related injuries among building construction workers in southwestern ethiopia. international journal of industrial ergonomics, [e-journal] 68, pp.57-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ergon.2018.06.010 lukhele, t.m., botha, b. and mbanga, s., 2023. exploring the nexus between professional ethics and occupational health and safety in construction projects: a case study approach. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 23(12), pp.2048-57. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2033498 manu, p., poghosyan, a., agyei, g., mahamadu, a.m. and dziekonski, k., 2021. design for safety in construction in sub-saharan africa: a study of architects in ghana. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 21(4), pp.382-94. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1541704 manu, p., poghosyan, a., mshelia, i.m., iwo, s.t., mahamadu, a.m. and dziekonski, k., 2019. design for occupational safety and health of workers in construction in developing countries: a study of architects in nigeria. international journal of occupational safety and ergonomics, [e-journal] 25(1), pp.99–109. https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2018.148 5992 mersha, h., mereta, s.t. and dube, l., 2017. prevalence of occupational injuries and associated factors among construction workers in addis ababa, ethiopia. journal of public health and epidemiology, 9(1), pp.1-8. https://doi. org/10.5897/jphe2016.0883 mustapha, z., 2016. revised health and safety compliance model for the ghanaian construction industry. international journal of engineering, science and technology, [e-journal] 8(2), pp.46-51. https://doi.org/10.4314/ijest.v8i2.4 adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202421 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-12-2022-0266 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-12-2022-0266 https://doi.org/10.1108/febe-11-2022-0041 https://doi.org/10.1136/ip-2023-044958 https://doi.org/10.51594/ijmer.v4i7.353 https://doi.org/10.2478/jeppm-2021-0020 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ergon.2018.06.010 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2033498 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1541704 https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2018.1485992 https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2018.1485992 https://doi.org/10.5897/jphe2016.0883 https://doi.org/10.5897/jphe2016.0883 https://doi.org/10.4314/ijest.v8i2.4 naidoo, d., brand, a., harrison, a., raghuber, b. and botes, d., 2015. sa construction. available at: www.pwc.co.za/ construction [accessed 19 february 2018]. nyabioge, b.m., wachira-towey, i.n. and ralwala, a.o., 2022. safety in building construction works: a review of the causes of accidents and safety regulations requirements in kenya. journal of the kenya national commission for unesco. nyaruai, m.n., kinyua, r. and gathu, r., 2016. factors affecting management of safety and health in the building construction industry in nakuru county, kenya. international journal of innovation and applied studies, 18(1), p.83. ogunbiyi, m.a., 2014. the national building code and the construction industry professionals in nigeria. international journal of social sciences and entrepreneurship, 1(12), pp.937-48. okonkwo, p.n. and wium, j., 2020. health and safety management systems within construction contractor organizations: case study of south africa. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 146(5), pp.22-37. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001833 okorie, v.n. and musonda, i., 2020. an investigation on supervisor’s ability and competency to conduct construction site health and safety induction training in nigeria. international journal of construction management, 20(5), pp.357-66. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1531808 okoye, p.u., 2018. occupational health and safety risk levels of building construction trades in nigeria. construction economics and building, 18(2), pp.92-109. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5882 okoye, p.u., ezeokonkwo, j.u. and ezeokoli, f.o., 2016. building construction workers’ health and safety knowledge and compliance on site. journal of safety engineering, [e-journal] 5(1), pp.17-26. https://doi.org/10.5923/j. safety.20160501.03 olutende, m., wamukoya, e.k., wanzala, m. and wabuyabo, i.k., 2021. predictors of occupational health and safety management practices in the building construction industry, kakamega kenya. journal of nursing and health science, 10(2), pp.43-57. omweri, e.o. and ombui, d.k., 2018. effect of occupational health and safety practices on performance of building construction industry in nakuru county, kenya. international journal of novel research in humanity and social sciences, 5(5), pp.361-75. onubi, h.o., yusof, n.a., hassan, a.s. and bahdad, a.a.s., 2021. analyzing the mediating effect of economic performance on the relationship between green construction practices and health and safety performance in nigeria. environmental science and pollution research, 28(27), pp.36598-610. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13334-6 osei-asibey, d., ayarkwa, j., acheampong, a., adinyira, e. and amoah, p., 2021a. stakeholders’ compliance with existing construction health and safety-related laws and regulations in ghana. journal of building construction and planning research, [e-journal] 9(2), pp.138-59. https://doi.org/10.4236/jbcpr.2021.92010 osei-asibey, d., ayarkwa, j., acheampong, a., adinyira, e. and amoah, p., 2021b. framework for improving construction health and safety on ghanaian construction sites. journal of building construction and planning research, [e-journal] 9(2), pp.115-37. https://doi.org/10.4236/jbcpr.2021.92009 osei-asibey, d., ayarkwa, j., acheampong, a., adinyira, e. and amoah, p., 2023. impacts of accidents and hazards on the ghanaian construction industry. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 23(4), pp.708-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1920161 osuizugbo, i.c., 2018. builder’s view on the incessant building failures and collapse in nigeria: a call for an effective national building code. american journal of engineering research, 7(10), pp.173-80. adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202422 http://www.pwc.co.za/construction http://www.pwc.co.za/construction https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001833 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1531808 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5882 https://doi.org/10.5923/j.safety.20160501.03 https://doi.org/10.5923/j.safety.20160501.03 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13334-6 https://doi.org/10.4236/jbcpr.2021.92010 https://doi.org/10.4236/jbcpr.2021.92009 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1920161 otieno, j.o., onditi, a. and monari, f., 2019. influence of occupational accidents moderated by occupational health and safety policy regulations on performance of firms in kenya. journal of human resource management, [e-journal] 7(4), pp.99-107. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jhrm.20190704.14 oza, a.s., 2017. strong framework of occupational health & safety plays a vital role in economic growth. journal of human and social science, 22(11), pp.34-42. rantsatsi, n.p., musonda, i. and agumba, j., 2023. construction health and safety agent collaboration and its influence on health and safety performance in the south african construction industry. safety, [e-journal] 9(1), p.8. https://doi. org/10.3390/safety9010008 segbenya, m. and yeboah, e., 2022. effect of occupational health and safety on employee performance in the ghanaian construction sector. environmental health insights, [e-journal] 16. https://doi.org/10.1177/11786302221137222 sherratt, f. and aboagye-nimo, e., 2022. decolonizing occupational safety management: the case of construction site safety culture in ghana. safety science, [e-journal] 151, p.105732. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2022.105732 sundler, a.j., lindberg, e., nilsson, c. and palmér, l., 2019. qualitative thematic analysis based on descriptive phenomenology. nursing open, 6(3), pp.733-39. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.275 smallwood, j.j. and deacon, c., 2017. the performance of construction health and safety agents. in: proceedings of the 9th international structural engineering and construction conference, valencia, spain, july 2429, 2017. pp.1174-80. https://doi.org/10.14455/isec.res.2017.43 smallwood, j.j. and haupt, t.c., 2007. impact of the south african construction regulations on construction health and safety: architects’ perceptions. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 5(1), pp.23-34. https://doi. org/10.1108/17260530710746588 tadesse, s. and israel, d., 2016. occupational injuries among building construction workers in addis ababa, ethiopia. journal of occupational medicine and toxicology, 11, pp.1-6. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12995-016-0107-8 tanko, b.l., abdullah, f. and ramly, z.m., 2017. stakeholders’ assessment of constraints to project delivery in the nigerian construction industry. international journal of built environment and sustainability, 4(1), pp.56-62. https://doi. org/10.11113/ijbes.v4.n1.160 tarik, b. and adil, h.a., 2018. occupational health and safety in the moroccan construction sites: preliminary diagnosis. international journal of metrology and quality engineering, 9, p.6. https://doi.org/10.1051/ijmqe/2018005 umeokafor, n., 2016. approaches, drivers and motivators of health and safety self-regulation in the nigerian construction industry: a scoping study. architectural engineering and design management, [e-journal] 12(6), pp.460-75. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2016.1195332 umeokafor, n., 2017. an appraisal of the barriers to client involvement in health and safety in nigeria’s construction industry. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 15(4), pp.471-87. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-062016-0034 umeokafor, n., isaac, d. and umeadi, b., 2014. determinants of compliance with health and safety regulations in nigeria’s construction industry. journal of construction project management and innovation, 4(1), pp.882-99. williams, o.s., hamid, r.a. and misnan, m.s., 2019. causes of building construction-related accidents in the southwestern states of nigeria. international journal of built environment and sustainability, [e-journal] 6(1), pp.14-22. https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v6.n1.313 yakubu, s.u.n. and agapiou, a., 2016. factors affecting the development & implementation of the structural aspects of the nigeria building code amongst the stakeholders within the house building construction sector in the lokoja adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202423 https://doi.org/10.11648/j.jhrm.20190704.14 https://doi.org/10.3390/safety9010008 https://doi.org/10.3390/safety9010008 https://doi.org/10.1177/11786302221137222 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2022.105732 https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.275 https://doi.org/10.14455/isec.res.2017.43 https://doi.org/10.1108/17260530710746588 https://doi.org/10.1108/17260530710746588 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12995-016-0107-8 https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v4.n1.160 https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v4.n1.160 https://doi.org/10.1051/ijmqe/2018005 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2016.1195332 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-06-2016-0034 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-06-2016-0034 https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v6.n1.313 municipality. in: cib world building congress 2016 creating built environments of new opportunities. tampere, finland, 30 may 3 jun 2016. 1, p.250. yosef, t., sineshaw, e. and shifera, n., 2023. occupational injuries and contributing factors among industry park construction workers in northwest ethiopia. frontiers in public health, 10, p.1060755. https://doi.org/10.3389/ fpubh.2022.1060755 zailani, b.m., moda, h., ibrahim, y.m. and abubakar, m., 2023. improving the antecedents of non-compliance to safety regulations toward an optimized self-regulated construction environment in nigeria. international journal of occupational safety and ergonomics, [e-journal] 29(3), pp.1212-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2022.2115657 adebowale and agumba construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202424 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1060755 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1060755 https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2022.2115657 construction economics and building vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023 © 2023 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: al omari, r., sweis, g., abu-khader, w., sweis, r. 2023. barriers to the adoption of digitalization in the construction industry: perspectives of owners, consultants, and contractors. construction economics and building, 23:3/4, 87–106. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v23i3/4.8636 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article barriers to the adoption of digitalization in the construction industry: perspectives of owners, consultants, and contractors rawan al omari1, ghaleb sweis1, waleed abu-khader2,*, rateb sweis3 1 the university of jordan, department of civil engineering, amman, amman, jo 2 university of delaware, department of civil & environmental engineering, newark, de, usa 3 the university of jordan, business management department, amman, amman, jo corresponding author: waleed abu-khader, university of delaware, department of civil & environmental engineering, newark, de, usa, waleedak@udel.edu doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8636 article history: received 15/05/2023; revised 09/09/2023; accepted 27/10/2023; published 23/12/2023 abstract construction organizations are moving toward adopting digitalization in response to industry 4.0. however, the slow adoption of digitalization has been observed. this study aimed to assess the level of digitalization adoption and evaluate the barriers to adopting digitalization in the jordanian construction industry by all project parties in the public and private sectors. data was collected from 438 replies from construction practitioners through a structured questionnaire. the study targets were achieved by analysing data using spss software through the following statistical tests: normality test, mann-whitney u, kruskal-wallis h, and exploratory factor analysis (efa). most respondents used software at the design stage, and less than half did not use any software during the finishing stage. regarding the barriers, twenty barriers to adopting digitalization were identified and grouped into five factors according to their importance: barriers related to the nature and system of the construction company, barriers related to the project parties, financial barriers, barriers related to system characteristics, and barriers related to construction project characteristics. decision-makers should take the necessary measures to overcome such barriers depending on their importance. previous studies have focused on the contractor’s adoption of digitalization while neglecting other parties. this contributed to the full adoption of digitalization from the contractor side, with a declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 87 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8636 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8636 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:waleedak@udel.edu https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8636 noticeable delay from other project parties. this study focused on revealing the most critical barriers to adopting digitalization in the jordanian construction industry from all project parties’ perspectives based on their ranks. furthermore, the study recommends effective strategies to overcome barriers as an update of past research. keywords industry 4.0; construction 4.0; digitalization; barriers; adoption; jordan introduction the construction sector is an influential support in the jordanian economy (khlaifat, et al., 2019). its participation rate in the gross domestic product (gdp) has increased to 7%, at the end of january 2022 according to the hashemite kingdom of jordan department of statistics dos in 2022. however, the jordanian economy has faced many challenges lately, especially during covid-19: similar, to the global economy. the biggest challenge is attempting to revive the economy (al-lozi and hamed, 2021). considering the recent global experience and the need to improve the management of construction projects, it is necessary to search for successful solutions. one of the proposed solutions is the shift toward digitalization (weisner, cawley and sindlinger, 2017), which represents a response to the fourth industrial revolution (alaloul, et al., 2020). understanding the importance of digital transformation, the jordanian government has made strategies to establish the idea of such transformation in most sectors since 2016. the strategies aimed to reach full adoption by 2025 (adaileh and alshawawreh, 2021). attempts to adopt digitalization have faced many international barriers that prevent its implementation. it should be noticed here that most studies (nitithamyong and skibniewski, 2006; dossick and sakagami, 2008; lu, et al., 2014; sweis, 2015) have focused on the contractor’s adoption while neglecting other project parties ( jahanger, et al., 2021a; 2021b). based on that, research must be continued to reveal the critical barriers from all project parties’ perspectives, especially in countries such as jordan, which has a recent experience in digitalization. this encourages the research goals of this paper, which are to assess the level of digitalization adoption and identify barriers that prevent the adoption of digitalization in the jordanian construction industry by the construction project’s major players. this paper defines barriers as any restriction, challenge, or limitation that could affect digitalization adoption in construction. the paper focuses on the four phases of the project to reach full digitalization adoption in construction. based on a sequence of statistical analyses performed on a structured questionnaire, data were collected from the practitioners of jordanian construction companies. a general agreement was noticed about the importance of digitalization barriers between the project parties, with slight differences. accordingly, the most significant barriers were identified and ranked. these results can guide the jordanian construction industry’s attempt to implement digitalization. this paper consists of six sections: the first section clarifies the research background, objectives, and significance; the second section reviews digitalization literature; the third section shows the systematic methodology used; the fourth section presents and analyzes research results, the fifth section discusses research results, and the last section ends the paper with a set of conclusions and recommendations. literature review background and overview of the construction industry centuries ago, construction was seen as a craft, but it became a systematic sector with a set of rules in the 1900s (chinowsky and diekmann, 2004). in the early fifties of the last century, project management al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202388 emerged as an administrative position (alshawi and ingirige, 2003). however, several challenges hinder the development of the construction sector (schöberl, et al., 2020). traditional management practices in construction projects face challenges such as the efficiency of the construction work, time and cost, and coordination between parties (amusan, et al., 2018). the jordanian construction industry has been exposed to many impediments due to the covid-19 lockdown. social distancing and public safety obligations affected construction (bsisu, 2020) the world has recently reached the fourth industrial revolution, which is based on three basic concepts: activating automation, adopting digitalization, and using information and communication technology (ict) (alaloul, et al., 2020). many sectors adopted the main principles of the fourth industrial revolution, where digitalization is one of its most important concepts (sriram and vinodh, 2021). the fourth industrial revolution is called industry 4.0 (wang, et al., 2021), and the adoption of industry 4.0 technologies in the construction sector is called construction 4.0 (kozlovska, klosova and strukova, 2021; osunsanmi, et al., 2020; perrier, et al., 2020). digitalization in construction is defined as improving various phases of the construction project by utilizing digital tools and techniques (aghimien, aigbavboa and oke, 2019). such techniques can be adopted in any part of the delivery or management process. the required software for this digital transformation is divided into: (1) electronic document management systems (edmss) such as doc express and 2) construction management software (cms), such as primavera p6 (shah, et al., 2017). unfortunately, the construction sector suffers from a noticeable delay in the adopting digitalization compared to other sectors (aghimien, et al., 2021). the jordanian construction sector also experiences such delays in implementing digitalization (alabbadi, 2022; alweshah, 2022). however, it is necessary to identify such obstacles that limit digitalization implementation ( jahanger, et al., 2021b). technology adoption in the construction industry as part of the shift toward digitalization the research process to determine the benefits, challenges, and barriers of various technological methods have begun in the past 20 years, leading to the digitalization trend lately. studies’ different experiences are discussed chronologically. much research appeared in australia regarding ict implementation in construction. peansupap and walker (2005) clarified that using ict has improved communication between project parties and has contributed to enhancing the effectiveness of many construction processes. generally, there is a lack of research related to technology adoption in the construction industry of middle eastern countries. ahmad and zink (1998) studied information technology (it) adoption in the public sector in jordan. results were promising as they indicated that most companies use computers in their work. it should also be noted that the research on the use of it in the saudi construction sector began early. shash and al-amir (2006) indicated a need for the saudi construction sector to adopt it in response to population growth. rezgui and zarli (2006) identified a set of limitations that prevent the effective implementation of ict. most of the identified limitations arose from insufficient technological support. while nitithamyong and skibniewski (2006) identified a set of factors that could influence the success of web-based project management system (wpms) implementation, such as workforce, and project features. dossick and sakagami (2008) showed that the complexity of the construction project and project type are the main obstacles that prevent the use of wpms in construction. chen and kamara (2008) focused on mobile computing in construction project management, where mobile computer type and storage were considered as the potential factors that affected mobile computing adoption. therefore, lam, wang and tse (2009) focused on the barriers that prevent the practical application of ict in construction project al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202389 management in hong kong. it technical support and the absorptive capability of the system in transferring information were the most significant barriers. wong and lam (2010) studied the difficulties that prevent the successful implementation of ict in construction projects. the results showed that end-users accepted the use of ict. however, their institutions did not provide sufficient support for this issue. in response and as a development of previous research, chen and kamara (2011) provided a framework for effectively implementing mobile computing in construction projects through technical and application models. however, there is a need to develop research in this field and evaluate the validity of previous studies. doloi (2014) focused on highlighting the need to rationalize the web-based project management (wbpm) implementation in construction projects based on two main factors: information streamlining and project complexity. thus, lu, et al. (2014) covered all aspects of ict adoption in construction projects. the importance of ict adoption lies in enhancing work efficiency and improving communication. martínezrojas, marin and vila (2015) indicated that enabling ict from project data will positively impact controlling and managing project costs. hasan, et al. (2019) explained that the tendency of the construction sector to adopt ict in managing construction projects must be justified. improving work planning and decreasing time waste are the main results of adopting ict. highlighting the middle east once again, alsahli (2011) studied factors that may affect the use of it in construction. the most important factors can be categorized as follows: the readiness of the organization, available resources, financial readiness, and institutional laws. as for jordan, sweis (2015) studied the reasons behind delays in adopting it in jordanian construction. frequent changes at relatively late stages in the design and continuous attempts to reduce the schedule were considered the main factors that limit and influence it adoption. as previously mentioned, digitalization is one of the essential concepts of construction 4.0. several studies revealed the hurdles to adopting construction 4.0 principles. osunsanmi, et al. (2020) considered the costs of implementing construction 4.0 and the nature of the construction industry as the most critical hurdles. zabidin, belayutham and ibrahim (2021) clarified the impact of the financial and knowledge constraints in adopting construction 4.0. demirkesen and tezel (2022) indicated that the financial costs, poor understanding of technology features, and construction project characteristics are the main difficulties in implementing construction 4.0. digitalization involves using software in construction work, document management, monitoring construction activities (asce grand challenge, 2017; abu-khader, 2023). jahanger, et al. (2021a) identified the positive results of owner adoption of digital construction-phase information management dcim: improving transparency and credibility of project data and managing documents efficiently. however, it is necessary to identify the factors that limit the successful implementation of dcim. considering this, jahanger, et al. (2021b) identified a series of factors that hinder the implementation of dcim. adequate support from institutions, the system’s adequacy to business needs, the degree of the project’s complexity, and financial requirements were the main factors behind dcim delay implementation. schöberl, et al. (2020) clarified three main aims to achieve digitalization in the construction industry as follows: connecting and automating construction equipment with auxiliary systems, digitalizing the infrastructure and any process associated with it, and digitalizing all construction processes with a tracking system. therefore, bajpai and misra (2021) studied digitalization obstacles in indian construction. the study resulted in 14 obstacles related to training, management skills, and legislation. al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202390 there is no doubt about digitalization’s importance in construction. sanchez-riofrio, et al. (2020) studied the impact of marketing digitalization on improving the performance of companies. the study showed that many institutions failed to benefit from market digitalization which was negatively reflected in their performance. by contrast, aghimien, et al. (2021) evaluated the risks of digitalizing the construction sector. the study showed the following five fundamental factors related to digitalization: financial and human factors, safety and legal factors, technological factor, operation factors, and socioeconomic factors. in particular, the middle east and jordan, many studies have focused on the positive impact and challenges of adopting construction 4.0. improving performance, controlling the schedule, and improving labour efficiency were the most important benefits of adopting construction 4.0. costs and workforce were the most formidable challenges (alabbadi, 2022; alweshah, 2022). both studies paved the way for the current study, which is concerned with an essential concept of construction 4.0 digitalization. barriers of adopting digitalization in the construction industry the main objective of the previous section is to review the past literature on digitalization barriers in construction to fill the gaps and complete the research. table 1.a, and 1.b shows the most critical extracted barriers preventing the adoption of digitalization in construction, their reference citation, and their frequency percentages. digitalization barriers are presented in descending order according to their frequency. the inefficiency of training systems associated with the use of digitalization software barrier got the highest percentage in frequency. table1.a. barriers with their reference citation reference country barriers b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 b7 b8 b9 b10 b11 b12 b13 b14 b15 b16 b17 b18 b19 b20 demirkesen and tezel (2022) usa x x x zabidin, belayuthin and ibrahim (2021) malaysia x x bajpai and misra (2021) india x x x x x x x x jahanger, et al. (2021b) usa x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x osunsanmi, et al. (2020) south africa x x sweis (2015) jordan x doloi (2014) australia x alsahali (2011) saudi arabia x x x x x chen and kamara (2011) uk x x wong and lam (2010) hong kong x x x x x x x al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202391 reference country barriers b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 b7 b8 b9 b10 b11 b12 b13 b14 b15 b16 b17 b18 b19 b20 lam, wong and tse (2009) hong kong x x x x x x x x dossick and sakagami (2008) usa japan x x rezgui and zarli (2006) europe x x x x x x x nitithamyong and skibniewski (2006) usa x x x x x x x x x x peansupap and walker (2005) australia x x x x x x x x percentage % 60 47 47 47 40 33 33 27 27 27 27 27 20 20 20 20 13 13 13 6 table 1.b. digitalization barriers b barrier 1 the inefficiency of training systems associated with the use of digitalization software 2 inadequateness of the purchased software to meet the expected business needs 3 characteristics of the project in terms of its complexity, location, costs, and implementation period 4 lack of financial resources 5 legal issues 6 insufficient support from service providers 7 internet speed and wireless access 8 ineffective return on investment 9 the lack of an effective it department to implement, follow up and develop digitalization 10 organizational environment and culture 11 quality of outcomes 12 insufficient support from top management 13 incompatibility of new software with existing tools and systems 14 the type of project contract concluded between the parties 15 dual system 16 technology features 17 lack of proficiency in the use of computers by different project members table 1.a. continued al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202392 b barrier 18 the dissatisfaction of digitalization software users 19 old computing devices 20 refusal the project funder to adopt digitalization gaps and limitations in previous studies over the past 20 years, many studies have focused on the adoption of modern technologies in construction; examples of such technologies include it, ict, wpms, mobile computing, and the internet. these studies mentioned the positive results of adopting such techniques and the challenges and difficulties that could be faced. a group of gaps was identified in previous studies as follows: • most of these studies were limited to a specific player in the construction project; contractor in specific, ignoring the role of both the consultant and the owner in construction (nitithamyong and skibniewski, 2006; dossick and sakagami, 2008; lu, et al., 2014; sweis, 2015) • a limited number of studies on digitalization barriers in the construction industry have been conducted in the middle east, africa, and some parts of asia. reviewing digitalization studies in the construction sector, the following are summarized: a. as for bajpai and misra (2021) study in india, its limitations were represented by the number of respondents and its need for statistical analysis. b. jahanger, et al. (2021a, b) studies were limited to the public owner. c. schöberl (2020) pointed to the lack of digitalization studies in germany, with recommendations to intensify the research. without revealing the critical barriers of digitalization. d. aghimien, et al. (2021) and sanchez-riofrio, et al. (2020) have taken new research directions that focus on the need to rationalize digitalization adoption according to the circumstances and the results obtained from following it. therefore, the construction sector is witnessing a noticeable delay in keeping pace with modern technology (aghimien, et al., 2021). based on the above and the need for such studies in the middle east, there is an urgent need to conduct a comprehensive study focused on digitalization barriers to construction and including all project parties (contractor, owner, and consultant) at all stages of construction work. this study contributed to expanding the knowledge of existing literature on digitalizing construction globally. for jordan in particular, it provides a precise understanding of the digitalization implementation situation and offers an effective strategy to overcome digitalization barriers. research methodology research approach and strategy this study aimed to assess the level of digitalization adoption and evaluate the barriers to the adoption of digitalization in the jordanian construction industry by all project parties in the public and private sectors. accordingly, a structured questionnaire was used as a quantitative approach to achieve the desired goals. table 1.b. continued al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202393 the research methodology consisted of three main stages: data collection, data analysis, with results and discussion in sections 4 and 5. data collection questionnaire design and piloting questionnaires are commonly used because they offer efficient, easy, fast, and inexpensive methods of collecting data. a precise procedure was adopted, where the research process started by examining papers with keywords similar to industry 4.0, building 4.0, digitalization, and barriers. the highly ranked journals according to the scientific journal ranking (sjr) containing the desired papers were reviewed to check the purpose compatibility with the research in construction. furthermore, the publisher’s reputation was confirmed with a turn to prestigious publishing houses such as emerald and asce. then, extracting hundreds of barriers and challenges from the selected papers; most cited in previous studies, filtering barriers by removing repetitive or one-meaning barriers to reach a hundred, and finally grouping by categorizing the barriers into main twenty barriers. the study questionnaire included three sections. section one specified the demographic data of the respondents. it contained seven items: gender, age, years of experience, work field, work sector, educational degree, and the number of employees in the company; demographic data were used to assess the extent of agreement and disagreement among the population about digitalization barriers in construction. section two assessed the extent to which the jordanian construction industry has adopted digitalization in the various stages of the project. in this section, the choices were limited to yes or no. section three identified the most critical barriers preventing the adoption of digitalization in the construction industry. this was achieved by asking questions about the respondents’ opinions on the importance of these barriers. the questions represented digitalization barriers shown in table 1. for each question, the respondent was asked to rate the importance of each barrier on a 5-point likert scale, from 1 (not important) to 5 (extremely important). the reason behind choosing a 5-point likert scale in section three was its wide use in the quantitative approach, and the literature already established its efficiency ( jahanger, et al., 2021a, b). the survey was designed on google forms and distributed via e-mail and linkedin. the pilot study was conducted on a small sample subjected to the application of the questionnaire in advance. this helped discover any confusion or errors and modify them (connelly, 2008). the pilot study involved a group of jordanian construction experts holding master’s degrees in engineering management. study population the jordanian public and private construction sectors; consisting of the three major players (contractor, consultant, and owner), were selected as the target population using systematic sampling. the number of civil engineers in jordan is 56,609 ( jordan engineers association, 2022), which constitutes the population. it should be noted here that the civil engineer occupies several roles as an owner, consultant, or contractor in the public and private construction sectors. accordingly, systematic sampling was adopted to distribute surveys to all target groups without being biased toward a certain group. the convenience sample can be calculated according to israel (1992) as follows: =n z pq e0 2 2 (1) where: n0: the needed sample size. z2: the required value to reach the level of confidence; at 95%, z will be 1.96. al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202394 p: the assumed percentage of a specific attribute in the population, p is equal to 0.5. q: 1-p. e: chosen level of precision; the margin of error, e equals 0.05. after substituting the variables into the equation, = =n 1.96 * 0.5 * 0.5 0.05 3840 2 2 required samples; 438 valid answers were obtained. the data was collected through the respondents’ replies. the questionnaire was distributed to the target population. electronic copies were sent via e-mail, linkedin, and social media to a group of civil engineers working in jordan. furthermore, hard copies were distributed to practitioners involved in construction projects. the questionnaire was distributed randomly to all jordanian construction industry stakeholders according to different factors, ensuring that the questionnaire covered all study groups, which confirms the representation of the population accurately. data analysis content, face, and construct validity the content validity of this study was validated by reviewing previous literature to identify the most critical barriers that prevent the adoption of digitalization in the construction industry. face validity was verified by presenting the questionnaire to a group of experts for assessment regarding translation correctness and clarity. factor analysis is one of the most common techniques used to check construct validity in studies (goodwin, 1999). exploratory factor analysis summarizes the data by specifying the factors in terms of type and number based on the collected data ( jamil, et al., 2014). the kaiser–meyer–olkin (kmo) test explains the proportion of variance in variables caused by the underlying factors. accordingly, values close to 1.0 confirm the adequacy of the data for factor analysis. bartlett’s test of sphericity is used to measure the correlation between variables. both tests were checked before conducting efa (field, 2013). reliability one of the most popular approaches to check the internal consistency of the results is cronbach’s alpha coefficients. a value of cronbach’s alpha of 0.6 or higher indicates that the questionnaire has a high degree of internal consistency, that is, reliability (huck, 2007). cronbach’s alpha was 0.88, which indicated a high degree of consistency. analysis methods data were analysed using spss software version 23.0. data normality was verified using the kolmogorov– smirnov and shapiro–wilk tests. data are not normally distributed; p-value equals 0.00, which is less than α, and α equals 0.05 at the 95% confidence level. mann–whitney test was used to check if there is a significant difference between the binary groups and kruskal–wallis test was used to compare three groups or more. since these tests are nonparametric, they make fewer assumptions about the data than their parametric equivalent tests. they are powerful nonparametric tests and are an alternative to the t-test when the data is non-normal. the relative importance index was used to rank digitalization barriers in the questionnaire using the following equation: ∑= ×rii w an 100% (2) al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202395 where: rii: the relative importance index n: the total number of respondents w: the weight given to each barrier by the respondent. a: the highest weight, depending on the questionnaire and using the 5-point likert scale, a=5. rii identified the most important barrier based on participants’ replies; it is a suitable tool to prioritise barriers when using likert scales. it is easy technique to rank and compare the barriers and it can be used with non-parametric data. however, using rii may exploit skewed data; in other words, the ranking is influenced by the extreme values. despite all, rii remains an appropriate technique of analysis when using surveys for collecting data (tholibon, et al., 2021). results respondents’ demographic information demographic data divided respondents into categories according to gender, age, years of experience, work field, work sector, educational degree, and the number of employees in the company. this division contributed to realizing the extent of agreement and disagreement between the groups regarding the study’s main objectives. among the respondents, 60.73% were male, 66.9% were between the ages of 20 and 30 years, 53.88% had less than 5 years of experience,39.95% were consultants, 82.19% belonged to the private table 2. demographic profile of the respondents item respondents (percentage %) gender male female 60.73 39.27 work sector public private 17.81 82.19 age-years 20-30 31-40 41-50 > 50 66.90 24.20 5.25 3.65 work field owner contractor consultant others 14.38 34.25 39.95 11.42 educational level -degree diploma bachelor’s master’s doctoral 0.46 79.91 18.49 1.14 company size number of employees <5 5-25 26-50 <50 17.80 29.68 12.56 39.96 experienceyears less than 5 5-10 11-15 16-20 > 20 53.88 26.94 10.50 3.20 5.48 al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202396 sector, 72.46% had a bachelor’s degree, and 39.96% worked in companies with more than 50 employees. table 2 shows the demographic profile of the respondents. extent to which digitalization is used in the jordanian construction industry a group of questions was asked about using any software in the four phases of the project to measure the extent of using digitalization in the jordanian construction industry. 79.68% of the respondents confirmed that they had used software in the design phase. table 3 shows the extent to which digitalization software is used in the jordanian construction industry. table 3. extent to which digitalization is used in the jordanian construction industry yes/no percentage % planning design construction finishing yes 73.06 79.68 72.15 54.34 no 26.94 20.32 27.85 45.66 barriers to adopting digitalization in the construction industry a set of questions was asked about the importance of some barriers in hindering the adoption of digitalization in the jordanian construction industry using a 5-point likert scale. to rank the barriers, the rii method was used. insufficient support from top management for the adoption and use of digitalization software had the highest rii. table 4 displays the digitalization barriers in construction and the rii value for each barrier. table 4. ranking of barriers to adopting digitalization barriers rii rank insufficient support from top management for the adoption and use of digitalization software 0.8110 1 lack of financial resources to purchase, update, and develop software and train manpower 0.7910 2 organizational environment and culture in terms of adopting new systems 0.7850 3 characteristics of the project in terms of its complexity, location, costs, and implementation period 0.7610 4 the lack of an effective it department to implement, follow up, and develop digitalization 0.7590 5 the inefficiency of training systems associated with the use of digitalization software 0.7550 6 barriers associated with technology features 0.7520 7 lack of proficiency in the use of computers by different project members 0.7490 8 dual system 0.7440 9 insufficient support from service providers 0.7430 10 al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202397 barriers rii rank old computing devices available in the organization to adopt and use digitalization programs 0.7390 11 barriers related to internet speed and wireless access 0.7280 12 incompatibility of new software with existing tools and systems 0.7190 13 barriers related to the type of project contract concluded between the parties 0.7130 14 refusal of the project funder to adopt digitalization techniques in construction projects 0.7100 15 inadequateness of the purchased software to meet the expected business needs 0.7050 16 fear of legal issues related to digitalizing the construction work and its documentation 0.6980 17 ineffective return on investment 0.6780 18 low quality of outcomes obtained from adopting digitalization software 0.6740 19 the dissatisfaction of digitalization software users 0.6580 20 barriers among countries this study showed that insufficient support from top management barrier had the highest rii, followed by the financial barrier. in the united state of america (usa), most studies highlighted the role of the financial and project characteristics barriers in hindering the adoption of digitalization and its related technologies, while in the united kingdom (uk), studies referred to the role of digitalization outputs in the extent of their adoption. in australia, india, and hong kong, several studies showed that the suitability of training systems has been the main driver for the adoption of digitalization and its related technologies. differences between respondents on digitalization barriers in the construction data normality was verified using the kolmogorov–smirnov, and shapiro–wilk tests in the spss software to measure the differences between respondents on digitalization barriers in construction. data are not normally distributed; p-value equals 0.0000, less than α, and α equals 0.0500 at the 95% confidence level. the mann–whitney, and kruskal–wallis tests were conducted on data to check if there was a significant difference between the groups; the classified groups according to the study variables: gender, age, years of experience, work field, work sector, educational degree, and the number of employees in the company. significant differences between respondents according to gender, age, experience, work sector, and the number of employees in the company in which the respondents worked were found. factor analysis of barriers to adopting digitalization in the construction industry the efa was used to group the twenty barriers into a representative factor. the use of oblique rotation initially showed no correlation between variables; accordingly, orthogonal rotation was used. kmo value is 0.895, higher than 0.8, which indicates a very approving value for efa in terms of the sample size (field, 2013). bartlett’s test of sphericity shows that the chi-square value was 2661.5200 at 190 df, and the p-value table 4. continued al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202398 was 0.0000 at a 95% confidence level, which indicates a correlation between variables with a significant difference from the identity matrix. the value of the correlation matrix determinate |r| was 0.0020, higher than 0.00001, representing the acceptance criteria for the multicollinearity check. in addition, it has been confirmed that there is no high correlation between variables, that is, a correlation coefficient higher than 0.8000. eigenvalues were determined during the application of efa to determine the number of extracted factors. therefore, all barriers with eigenvalues greater than one were retained. barriers related to the nature and system of the construction company � old computing devices , lf=0.637 � insufficient support from service providers, lf=0.696 � barriers related to internet speed and wireless access, lf=0.758 � dual system, lf=0.572 � technology features, lf=0.705 barriers related to project parties financial barriers barriers related to system characteristics barriers related to construction project characteristics � barriers related to the type of project contract concluded between the parties, lf=0.782 � fear of legal issues related to digitalizing the construction work, lf=0.695 � refusal of the project funder to adopt digitalization techniques in construction projects, lf=0.666 � insufficient support from top management , lf=0.805 � characteristics of the project, lf=0.482 � lack of financial resources, lf=0.584 � lack of an effective it department ,lf=0.473 � organizational environment and culture in terms of adopting new systems, lf=0.614 � incompatibility of new software with existing tools and systems, lf=0.663 � the inefficiency of training systems associated with using digitalization software, lf=0.709 � lack of proficiency in using computers by different project members, lf=0.645 � dissatisfaction with digitalization software users, lf=0.40 � characteristics of the project , lf=0.575 � ineffective return on investment, lf=0.647 � dissatisfaction of digitalization software users , lf=0.545 � inadequateness of the purchased software to meet the expected business needs, lf=0.479 � low quality of outcomes obtained from adopting digitalization software, lf=0.619 figure 1. loading factor (lf) for each barrier. al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202399 barriers were divided into five main factors according to the barriers’ loading factor, as shown below in figure 1, where barriers with a loading factor of less than 0.4 were removed. in general, factor loadings of 0.3 or lower are considered poor and factor loadings greater than 0.4 are considered stable (samuels, 2017). the reliability of the measuring tools was verified using cronbach’s alpha test. all cronbach’s alpha values were higher than 0.6, indicating a high degree of internal consistency, that is, reliability (huck, 2007). table 5 displays cronbach’s alpha values for each factor. table 5. cronbach’s alpha value for each factor factor cronbach’s alpha 1 0.7720 2 07090 3 0.7060 4 0.7090 5 0.7080 cronbach’s alpha values for each factor were calculated if a particular barrier was omitted. a decrease in cronbach’s alpha value was observed. therefore, all barriers are retained according to their distribution on the factors and their role and weight in the overall reliability (bonett and wright, 2015). spss software arranged the factors according to the highest explained variance, which represents a descending order of the factors from the highest to the lowest importance as follows: barriers related to the nature and system of the construction company, barriers related to the project parties, financial barriers, barriers related to system characteristics, and barriers related to construction project characteristics. discussion extent to which digitalization is used in the jordanian construction industry results showed that the majority, 79.68%, have used software at the design stage. however, less than half, 45.66%, did not use any software during the finishing stage. these results are expected, most jordanian construction companies tend to rely entirely on software at the design stage when issuing drawings, which is a prerequisite to obtaining approval from the jordan engineers association. however, the finishing phase depends on the supervising engineers who do not use the software. accordingly, laws that enforce using the software at all stages must be legislated. barriers to adopting digitalization in the jordanian construction industry table 4 shows the importance of twenty barriers that hinder the adoption of digitalization in the jordanian construction industry. these barriers should be considered during digitalization adoption based on their significance ranks. figure 1 summarizes these twenty barriers into five factors according to their importance. the jordanian construction industry should pay attention to each factor and sub-barriers it contains from the construction company and the project parties’ perspectives to reach full adoption in construction. al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023100 classification of digitalization barriers in the jordanian construction industry twenty barriers were ranked according to their rii values. insufficient support from top management for the adoption and use of digitalization software ranked first in limiting digitalization adoption. this is primarily due to the role of top management in deciding the use of modern technologies in institutions. accordingly, administrative policies must be taken to encourage and support digitalization implementation in construction. jahanger, et al. (2021b) considered the factors based on the organization as the most crucial factors that should focus on adopting and implementing digitalization in construction. bajpai and misra (2021) considered that the absence of management commitment toward adoption and implementation had the highest impact on the rest of the barriers and adoption of digitalization in construction. this was confirmed by the results of this study on the top management support barrier. wong and lam (2010) ranked hindrances based on their means. they found that the lack of self-discipline had the highest value, with a mean of 3.31 out of five. this confirms the role of upper management in providing adequate support and legislating the regulations and laws which enforce self-discipline. agreement and differences between respondents’ opinions regarding the importance of digitalization barriers in the jordanian construction industry respondents’ opinions were studied through a set of variables to determine the agreement and differences regarding the importance of digitalization barriers in the jordanian construction industry. significant differences were found between respondents according to gender, age, experience, work sector, and the number of employees in the respondent’s company. the existence of differences between groups regarding digitalization barriers results from the extent to which the different groups are exposed to challenges in their attempts to adopt and implement digitalization. the age and experience factors play a major role in digitalization implementation; the more practical experience and age, the greater the practice and implementation of digitalization, which increases the observed barriers. this step contributed to selecting the appropriate strategies to overcome digitalization barriers for each category according to the identified influencing factors. bajpai and misra (2021) explained the role of the age factor as a significant influence on various digitalization barriers. this is consistent with the study results; the age factor must be addressed when structuring digitalization adoption strategies. conclusions and recommendations conclusions the main goals of the study were achieved: • firstly, assessing the extent to which digitalization was used in the jordanian construction industry by distributing the questionnaire to practitioners in jordanian construction. the results show that most companies tend to rely entirely on software. the majority of respondents confirmed the use of software in the design phase rather than in the finishing phase. this is due to institutional legislation. approximately one-third of the respondents did not use any software during some phases of construction work. this indicates promising signs for expanding its use in the coming years and raising the usage percentage at all stages of construction projects by implementing an integrated framework for the adoption of digitalization techniques in the sector. al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023101 • secondly, barriers to the adoption of digitalization in the construction industry were identified in terms of their importance to the respondents; through the third section of the questionnaire. the results showed that the importance of barriers ranged from important to extremely important in hindering digitalization adoption. this confirms the need to be aware of these barriers to overcome them and achieve effective implementation of digitalization. there were significant differences between respondents according to gender, age, experience, work sector, and the number of employees in the company in which the respondents work because of time and location factors; such influencing factors should be taken into consideration when adopting digitalization. the twenty barriers were grouped into five main factors according to their importance: barriers related to the nature and system of the construction company, barriers related to the project parties, financial barriers, barriers related to system characteristics, and barriers related to construction project characteristics. the geographical area and the extent to which it adopts digitalization play a major role in identifying digitalization barriers. most studies around the world are similar to jordan in terms of financial barriers. recommendations it is crucial to adopt an integrated framework between all project parties to digitalize the construction industry. this can be done by imposing laws from the concerned authorities, such as the jordan engineers association by linking the required permits for building to the extent of adopting digitalization techniques during all stages of the project by all project parties. furthermore, addressing the barriers related to the nature and system of the construction company and their sub-barriers is of significant importance because of their essential role in impeding the adoption of digitalization in the jordanian construction industry. finally, it is necessary to develop educational programs in jordanian universities construction and offer appropriate training opportunities on digitalizing construction. subsequently, plan a case study to assess the actual implementation and adoption of digitalization. limitations and further research this study focused on adopting digitalization in all construction project phases, and further studies should be conducted on specific phases. in addition, this study was limited by using questionnaires for data collection; further studies can be performed using interviews or case studies; conducting interviews with specialists in adopting digitalization techniques will expose more hidden barriers and the case study will realistically reveals the incentives and barriers of adopting of digitalization. finally, this study was restricted to jordan; further studies can be performed including the surrounding countries. references abu-khader, w., 2023. construction progress monitoring of masonry walls using bim-computer vision models interaction. masters, university of delaware. adaileh, m. and alshawawreh, a., 2021. measuring digital transformation impact in jordan: a proposed framework. journal of innovations in digital marketing, 2(1), pp.15-28. https://doi.org/10.51300/jidm-2020-32 aghimien, d.o. aigbavboa, c.o. and oke, a.e., 2019. viewing digitalisation in construction through the lens of past studies. advances in ict in design, construction, and management in architecture, engineering, construction and operations (aeco). in: proceedings of the 36th cib w78 2019 conference, northumbria university at newcastle, 18-20 september, pp.84-93. al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023102 https://doi.org/10.51300/jidm-2020-32 aghimien, d., aigbavboa, c., meno, t. and ikuabe, m., 2021. unravelling the risks of construction digitalisation in developing countries. construction innovation, 21(3), pp.456–75. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-02-2020-0026 alabbadi, a., 2022. enhancing performance within the jordanian construction industry utilizing construction 4.0. masters, university of jordan, jordan. ahmad, a.a.a. and zink, s.d., 1998. information technology adoption in jordanian public sector organizations. journal of government information, 25(2), pp.117–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1352-0237(97)00094-4 alaloul, w.s., liew, m.s., zawawi, n.a.w.a. and kennedy, i.b., 2020. industrial revolution 4.0 in the construction industry: challenges and opportunities for stakeholders. ain shams engineering journal, 11(1), pp.225–30. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.asej.2019.08.010 al-lozi, b. and hamed, s., 2021. challenges facing the emerging economy during covid-19: the case of jordan. european journal of business and strategic management, 6(2), pp.21–29. https://doi.org/10.47604/ejbsm.1435 alsahli, a., 2011. a framework for successful implementation of it for the construction organizations in saudi arabia. phd. university of salford. alshawi, m. and ingirige, b., 2003. web-enabled project management: an emerging paradigm in construction. automation in construction, 12(4), pp.349–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0926-5805(03)00003-7 alweshah, z., 2022. willingness and challenges to adopt construction 4.0 technologies in the construction industry: the case of jordan. masters. university of jordan, jordan. amusan, l.m., oloniju, l.i., akomolafe, m., makinde, a., peter, n.j., farayola, h. and osawaru, f., 2018. adopting information and communication technology in construction industry. international journal of mechanical engineering and technology (ijmet), 9(1), pp.739-46. asce grand challenge, 2017. managing construction electronically [online]. available at: https://collaborate.asce.org/ ascegrandchallenge/resources/focusareas/focus-lcca/managing-construction-electronically [accessed october 20, 2021]. bajpai, a. and misra, s.c., 2021. barriers to implementing digitalization in the indian construction industry. international journal of quality and reliability management. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijqrm-09-2020-0318 bonett, d. g. and wright, t. a., 2015. cronbach’s alpha reliability: interval estimation, hypothesis testing, and sample size planning. journal of organizational behavior, 36(1), pp. 3-15. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1960 bsisu, k.a.d., 2020. the impact of covid-19 pandemic on jordanian civil engineers and construction industry. international journal of engineering research and technology, 13(5), pp.828-830. https://doi.org/10.37624/ ijert/13.5.2020.828-830 chen, y. and kamara, j.m., 2008. using mobile computing for construction site information management. engineering, construction and architectural management, 15(1), pp.7–20. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980810842034 chen, y. and kamara, j.m., 2011. a framework for using mobile computing for information management on construction sites. automation in construction, 20(7), pp.776–788. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2011.01.002 chinowsky, p.s. and diekmann, j.e., 2004. construction engineering management educators: history and deteriorating community. journal of construction engineering and management, 130(5), pp.751–758. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:5(751) connelly, l.m., 2008. pilot studies. medsurg nursing, 17(6), pp.411. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2008.17.7.29056 demirkesen, s. and tezel, a., 2022. investigating major challenges for industry 4.0 adoption among construction companies. engineering, construction and architectural management, 29(3), pp.1470-1503. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ecam-12-2020-1059 al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023103 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-02-2020-0026 https://doi.org/10.1016/s1352-0237(97)00094-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2019.08.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2019.08.010 https://doi.org/10.47604/ejbsm.1435 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0926-5805(03)00003-7 https://collaborate.asce.org/ascegrandchallenge/resources/focusareas/focus-lcca/managing-construction-electronically https://collaborate.asce.org/ascegrandchallenge/resources/focusareas/focus-lcca/managing-construction-electronically https://doi.org/10.1108/ijqrm-09-2020-0318 https://doi.org/10.1002/job.1960 https://doi.org/10.37624/ijert/13.5.2020.828-830 https://doi.org/10.37624/ijert/13.5.2020.828-830 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980810842034 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2011.01.002 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:5(751 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2004)130:5(751 https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2008.17.7.29056 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2020-1059 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2020-1059 doloi, h., 2014. rationalizing the implementation of web-based project management systems in construction projects using pls-sem. journal of construction engineering and management, 140(7). https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)co.1943-7862.0000859 dossick, c.s. and sakagami, m., 2008. implementing web-based project management systems in the united states and japan. journal of construction engineering and management, 134(3), pp.189–196. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(2008)134:3(189) field, a., 2013. discovering statistics using ibm spss statistics. sage publications. goodwin, l. d., 1999. the role of factor analysis in the estimation of construct validity. measurement in physical education and exercise science, 3(2), pp.85-100. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327841mpee0302_2 hasan, a., baroudi, b., elmualim, a., and rameezdeen, r., 2018. factors affecting construction productivity: a 30-year systematic review. engineering, construction and architectural management, 25(7), pp.916–937. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ecam-02-2017-0035 hasan, a., ahn, s., rameezdeen, r., and baroudi, b., 2019. empirical study on implications of mobile ict use for construction project management. journal of management in engineering,35(6). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) me.1943-5479.0000721 huck, s. w., 2007. reading statistics and research. united states of america, allyn and bacon. israel, g. d., 1992. determining sample size. jamil, n. i., baharuddin, f. n., maknu, t. s. r., sulaiman, t., rosle, a. n., and harun, a. f., 2014. exploratory factor analysis. jahanger, q.k., louis, j., pestana, c., and trejo, d., 2021a. potential positive impacts of digitalization of constructionphase information management for project owners. journal of information technology in construction, 26, pp.1–22. https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2021.001 jahanger, q.k., louis, j., trejo, d., and pestana, c., 2021b. “potential influencing factors related to digitalization of construction-phase information management by project owners. journal of management in engineering, 37(3). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000903 jordan engineers association., 2021. available at: https://www.jea.org.jo/ar/newsdetails/ةرشنلا_ردصت_نيسدنهملا_ .[accessed august 17, 2022] ةيسدنهلا_تاصصختلل_ةرشع_ةيناثلا_ةيداشرالا khlaifat, d. m., alyagoub, r. e., sweis, r. j., and sweis, g. j., 2019. factors leading to construction projects’ failure in jordon. international journal of construction management, 19(1), pp.65–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.138 2092 kozlovska, m., klosova, d., and strukova, z., 2021. impact of industry 4.0 platform on the formation of construction 4.0 concept: a literature review. sustainability, 13(5). https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052683 lam, p.t.i., wong, f.w.h., and tse, k.t.c., 2009. effectiveness of ict for construction information exchange among multidisciplinary project teams. journal of computing in civil engineering, 24(4), pp.365–376. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000038 lu, y., li, y., skibniewski, m., wu, z., wang, r., and le, y., 2014. information and communication technology applications in architecture, engineering, and construction organizations: a 15-year review. journal of management in engineering, 31(1). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000319 martínez-rojas, m., marín, n., and vila, m.a., 2015. the role of information technologies to address data handling in construction project management. journal of computing in civil engineering, 30(4). https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000538 al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023104 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000859 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000859 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:3(189 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:3(189 https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327841mpee0302_2 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2017-0035 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2017-0035 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000721 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000721 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2021.001 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000903 https://www.jea.org.jo/ar/newsdetails/المهندسين_تصدر_النشرة_الارشادية_الثانية_عشرة_للتخصصات_الهندسية https://www.jea.org.jo/ar/newsdetails/المهندسين_تصدر_النشرة_الارشادية_الثانية_عشرة_للتخصصات_الهندسية https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1382092 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1382092 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052683 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000038 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000038 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000319 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000538 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000538 nitithamyong, p. and skibniewski, m.j., 2006. success/failure factors and performance measures of web-based construction project management systems: professionals’ viewpoint. journal of construction engineering and management, 132(1), pp.80–87. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:1(80) osunsanmi, t. o., aigbavboa, c.o., emmanuel oke, a., and liphadzi, m., 2020. appraisal of stakeholders’ willingness to adopt construction 4.0 technologies for construction projects. built environment project and asset management, 10(4), pp.547-565. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-12-2018-0159 peansupap, v. and walker, d.h., 2005. factors enabling information and communication technology diffusion and actual implementation in construction organizations. j. inf. technol. constr, 10(14), pp.193-218. perrier, n. bled, a., bourgault, m., cousin, n., danjou, c., pellerin, r., and roland, t., 2020. construction 4.0: a survey of research trends. journal of information technology in construction, (itcon), 25(24), pp.416-437. https://doi. org/10.36680/j.itcon.2020.024 rezgui, y. and zarli, a., 2006. paving the way to the vision of digital construction: a strategic roadmap. journal of construction engineering and management, 132(7), pp.767–776. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2006)132:7(767) rubino, m., viola, f., reimo, n., and garcia-sanchez, i.m., 2020. cross-country differences in european firms’ digitalisation: the role of national culture. management decision, 58(8), pp.1563–1583. https://doi.org/10.1108/md-082019-1120 samuels, p., 2017. advice on exploratory factor analysis. sanchez-riofrio, a.m., lupton, n.c., and rodríguez-vásquez, j.g., 2022. does market digitalization always benefit firms? the latin american case. management decision, 60(7), pp.1905-1921. https://doi.org/10.1108/md-01-20210117 schöberl, m., cai, z., fischer, a., and kessler, s., 2020. current research and developments for civil engineering in germany. current trends in civil & structural engineering, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.33552/ctcse.2020.05.000601 shash, a.a. and al-amir, m., 2006. information technology in contractors’ firms in saudi arabia. construction management and economics, 15(2), pp.187-200. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446199700000006 shelbourn, m., bouchlaghem, n.m., anumba, c., and carrillo, p. 2007. planning and implementation of effective collaboration in construction projects. construction innovation, 7(4), pp.357–377. https://doi. org/10.1108/14714170710780101 shah, k., mitchell, a., lee, d., and mallela, j., 2017. report no. fhwa-hif-17-028: addressing challenges and return on investment (roi) for paperless project delivery (e-construction). sriram, r.m. and vinodh, s., 2021. analysis of readiness factors for industry 4.0 implementation in smes using copras. international journal of quality and reliability management, 38(5), pp.1178–1192. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ijqrm-04-2020-0121 sweis, r., 2015. an investigation of failure in information systems projects: the case of jordan. journal of management research, 7(1), pp.173. https://doi.org/10.5296/jmr.v7i1.7002 tatari, o., castro-lacouture, d., and skibniewski, m.j., 2007. current state of construction enterprise information systems: survey research. construction innovation, 7(4), pp.310–319. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170710780075 the hashemite kingdom of jordan department of statistics (dos)., 2022. tholibon, d.a., nujid, m.m., mokhtar, h., rahim, j.a., aziz, n.f.a., and tarmizi, a.a.a., 2021. relative importance index (rii) in ranking the factors of employer satisfaction towards industrial training students. online submission, 2(4), pp.493-503. https://doi.org/10.46966/ijae.v2i4.187 al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023105 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:1(80 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-12-2018-0159 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2020.024 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2020.024 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:7(767 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:7(767 https://doi.org/10.1108/md-08-2019-1120 https://doi.org/10.1108/md-08-2019-1120 https://doi.org/10.1108/md-01-2021-0117 https://doi.org/10.1108/md-01-2021-0117 https://doi.org/10.33552/ctcse.2020.05.000601 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446199700000006 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170710780101 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170710780101 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijqrm-04-2020-0121 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijqrm-04-2020-0121 https://doi.org/10.5296/jmr.v7i1.7002 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170710780075 https://doi.org/10.46966/ijae.v2i4.187 weisner, k., cawley, b., and sindlinger, a., 2017. the age of e-construction. public roads, 81(1). wang, j., cheng, r., liu, m., and liao, p.c., 2021.research trends of human–computer interaction studies in construction hazard recognition: a bibliometric review. sensors, 21(18). https://doi.org/10.3390/s21186172 wong, f.w.h. and lam, p.t.i., 2010. difficulties and hindrances facing end users of electronic information exchange systems in design and construction. journal of management in engineering, 27(1), pp.28–39. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000028 zabidin, n.s. belayutham, s. and ibrahim, c.k.i.c., 2021. awareness and barriers of industry 4.0 and education 4.0 between construction players and academicians in malaysia. journal of technology management and business, 8(2), pp.26-37. https://doi.org/10.30880/jtmb.2021.08.02.003 al omari et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023106 https://doi.org/10.3390/s21186172 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000028 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000028 https://doi.org/10.30880/jtmb.2021.08.02.003 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: opoku, a. 2025. a new era of transformation for “construction economics and building”. construction economics and building, 25:1, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v25i1.9668 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb editorial a new era of transformation for “construction economics and building” alex opoku college of engineering, university of sharjah, uae corresponding author: alex opoku, department of architecture, college of engineering, university of sharjah, uae, aopoku@sharjah.ac.ae doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9668 article history: received 12/03/2025; revised 12/03/2025; accepted 12/03/2025; published 31/03/2025 as i step into the role of editor-in-chief for the “construction economics and building” journal, i wish to express our heartfelt appreciation to dr graham brewer for his exemplary leadership over the years. under his leadership, the journal has established itself as the journal of choice for many built environment academics seeking open-access publication without article processing charges (apc). this has been made possible through financial support from the australian institute of building(aib) and the australian institute of quantity surveyors(aiqs). i am honoured by the opportunity to guide this esteemed journal into the future, even though my current role is to take care of the transition period, as the journal’s financial sponsors take stock of the past and plan for the long-term strategic direction of the journal. the global community is in a moment where the convergence of technological innovation, economic volatility, and sustainability imperatives demands a renewed focus on rigorous and impactful research for the built environment. since its establishment, the journal has evolved into a dynamic platform for insightful research discussions. the journal’s present q2 rating on scopus (citescore: 3.8 & sjr: 0.411) reflects our authors’ diligent contributions, reviewers’ thorough efforts, and readers’ unwavering support. our strategic goal is to work towards achieving q1 status and expand indexing services to include engineering index (ei) and science citation index (sci). to achieve this goal, i have put together a diverse team of editors to support me in my role, and these include dr yaning qiao (china university of mining and technology, china), dr patrick o’donnell 1 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9668 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9668 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:aopoku@sharjah.ac.ae https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9668 (analytikk consultant services, australia), dr riza yosia sunindijo (university of new south wales, australia) and dr chioma okoro (university of johannesburg, south africa). the construction industry is the cornerstone of many global economies and is undergoing a profound transformation with the rise of digital twins, modular construction, and advanced materials, all promising to reshape how we design, build, and manage infrastructure. again, the industry is grappling with pressing global challenges, including the urgent need to decarbonize the built environment. the construction economics and building journal is an important platform for disseminating cuttingedge research that bridges the gap between theory and practice and addresses the current global challenges. the journal, therefore, encourages research that integrates perspectives from economics, engineering, management, architecture, and social sciences. notable topics of interest may include emerging and advanced technologies such as digital transformation, automation, blockchain, artificial intelligence (ai), and immersive technologies in the context of the built environment. additionally, sustainability and decarbonisation are high on the agenda of many academics and would encourage research that explores sustainable technologies and circular economy toward decarbonisation and achieving a net-zero carbon built environment. this first issue of the 2025 volume of the journal brings together ten (10) papers under these three (3) main themes; sustainable project management the first paper by akotia and awuzie explore the promotion of social sustainability factors in the delivery of sustainable regeneration projects in the uk. the results reveal that health and safety issues were the most promoted among the other six key social sustainability drivers. the findings indicate that various efforts and legislations initiated by the uk government to improve health and safety practices within the construction industry have played a key role in promoting health and safety issues in the delivery of sustainable construction projects. weerasuriya et al. examine construction projects’ issues and appropriate solutions related to quality, progress, and payment certifications through a systematic literature review and recommend using blockchain and smart contracts as technological solutions to overcome certification-related challenges in construction projects. okello et al. discuss the role of project delivery methods on the execution of construction projects using the case of kenyan judiciary construction projects funded by the world bank. the study shows that project delivery methods significantly influenced the execution of construction projects regarding quality, cost, and site disputes and further highlights the need for flexible, context-specific project delivery approaches. construction business performance several construction industry reports, such as latham, egan, farmer’s review, etc., all raised the issue of performance in the construction industry. huynh et al. propose a support tool for labour productivity management in construction and this tool offers a structured and informative approach to assessing and enhancing labour productivity in construction projects. the research contributes to the ongoing efforts to address labour productivity challenges in the construction industry. rajala et al. examine the building renovation (br) business and profitability from an operational perspective, focusing on daily activities involved in completing renovation works. the findings provide insight into how operational effectiveness affects building renovation companies’ profitability. opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 20252 pramudya et al. examine the influence of project characteristics on the likelihood of claims and quantify these characteristics to help calculate the premium value of the contractor’s all-risk (car) insurance. the study maps the contractor’s all-risk insurance risks based on historical data from the policies and claims of two major indonesian insurance firms and showed that risks causing substantial claims are attributed to natural and man-made disasters. building construction and technology alnaqbi et al. presents machine learning applications for predicting longitudinal cracking in continuously reinforced concrete pavement. the study illustrates the shortcomings of traditional regression models and the benefits of adopting machine learning methods for identifying intricate nonlinear correlations. it demonstrates that pavement age, traffic loads, and environmental factors, specifically temperature and precipitation, considerably impact longitudinal cracking. chiadighikaobi et al. examine the mechanical properties of granite–periwinkle shell (g–ps) concrete confined and not confined in basalt textile (bt), the possibility of achieving lightweight concrete, the durability of the g–ps concrete, and the impact of bt and ps on the construction economy. the study observed that this concrete type is economical and easy to manage in construction and recommended that this type of concrete be implemented in the construction of structural members due to its properties and suitability for the nigerian environment. sistos-sescosse et al. question how the decision-making process for building information modeling–life cycle assessment (bim–lca) can be improved using a case study on the comparative analyses of specific flooring systems, such as hardwood and nylon-based carpets. the study provides insights for clients and permits approval teams to proactively ensure project environmental sustainability. the last paper by sabet et al. investigate the innovative simultaneous interactions of building information modeling (bim) and off-site manufacturing (osm) in the australian construction industry. the study concludes that systematically implementing bim–osm interactions could improve key productivity indicators and overall project performance. finally, i sincerely thank the active community of professionals who have helped the journal over the years. i look forward to working with all of you. prof. alex opoku (phd, msc, bsc(hons), fhea, mciob, frics) editor-in-chief (construction economics and building) professor of sustainable built environment university of sharjah, uae opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 20253 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: brewer, g. 2024. editorial: passing the baton. construction economics and building, 24:4/5, 1–2. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v24i4/5.9488 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb editorial editorial: passing the baton graham brewer construction economics and building, uts epress corresponding author: graham brewer, school of architecture and built environment, university of newcastle, callaghan, nsw2308, australia. graham.brewer@newcastle.edu.au doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9488 article history: received 10/12/2024; revised 10/12/2024; accepted 10/12/2024; published 23/12/2024 let me begin by announcing that this will be my last issue as editorinchief, since i am about to commence a yearlong sabbatical devoted to reacquainting myself with traditional wooden boatbuilding, something that i taught in a former life. i am delighted to say that my deputy, dr alex opoku, has kindly agreed to step into this role, so you can be assured that the journal’s commitment to quality will continue seamlessly. as we rush towards the conclusion of 2024 is my pleasure to present a widereaching collection of research articles addressing the complexities of managing the construction process. these papers variously address critical industry challenges, present innovative methodologies, and reveal emerging trends, reflecting the journal’s commitment to advancing construction management as both a scholarly and professionally relevant domain. these contributions research the pursuit of efficiency, sustainability, and inclusivity, though each presents a unique perspective on these overarching themes. innovation and efficiency efficiency in project delivery emerges as a significant theme, with several papers proposing novel frameworks and tools. lindhard’s exploration of budget applications among danish contractors underscores the role of hierarchical structures in optimising cost management. complementing this focus on managerial efficiency, lahdenperä introduces a design– build approach with a development phase, showcasing how collaborative principles in the early project stages can achieve greater value for money in infrastructure projects. similarly, the integration of lean principles is a recurring focus. power et al. demonstrate how combining takt and last planner® systems in residential construction can streamline 1 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9488 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9488 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9488 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:graham.brewer@newcastle.edu.au https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9488 schedules and foster collaboration, while fuentesdelburgo et al. highlight the migration of kanban from manufacturing to construction, identifying its adaptability and potential for enhancing project coordination and supply chain management. sustainability and technological advancements the pursuit of sustainability through innovative practices is wellarticulated. akindeinde et al. examine the benefits of modular integrated construction (mic) in nigeria, revealing its capacity to improve environmental, economic, and social performance metrics. a complementary perspective is provided by adebowale and agumba, who systematically review health and safety challenges in african construction, highlighting the necessity of cohesive regulatory frameworks to mitigate human and financial losses. the role of technology in advancing construction processes is another critical aspect. kanban’s evolution towards ekanban and its integration with building information management (bim) systems, as noted by fuentesdelburgo et al., underscores the industry’s gradual shift towards digitalisation. this theme is echoed in osuizugbo et al.’s bibliometric analysis of early contractor involvement (eci), which identifies collaborative and relational contracting theories as foundational to innovation and communication within the industry. diversity, inclusivity, and strategic alignment addressing the human dimension, rotimi et al. confront the persistent challenges faced by women in new zealand’s construction industry, calling for targeted initiatives to address sexism and job condition related barriers. diversity and inclusion are presented not only as ethical imperatives but also as untapped opportunities for talent enrichment. from a strategic perspective, asante et al. highlight the underdevelopment of market intelligence within ghanaian construction companies, advocating for a structured approach to leverage market insights. rasheed et al. extend this theme by examining risk allocation criteria in new zealand’s publicprivate partnerships (ppps), providing actionable insights into equitable risk distribution. final words the papers contribute to the field by bridging research gaps, particularly in underexplored academic research areas and geographical regions in developing and middleincome nations, offering actionable insights for practitioners and policymakers: i believe they exemplify the journal’s value as a respected platform for scholarly discourse. i also feel they provide justification for this journal’s ongoing commitment to diamond standard open access publication– free to authors/free to readers – as the most equitable path to broader public and academic engagement. arguably, this is the most difficult publication path to maintain, since it relies entirely upon the commitment of volunteers at all stages of the publication process to do their work diligently and speedily, for very little reward, and increasingly as a hobby/labour of love/commitment to advancement of the profession through research. after all, what is a profession without its own developing body of knowledge, revealed and ratified through quality peerreviewed research? as i leave this publication, i urge you all to consider what more you might be able to contribute to the journal, so that it thrives for a further 20 years! stay safe, be well. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 20242 brewer construction economics and building vol. 22, no. 4 december 2022 © 2022 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: gajanayake, a., iyer-raniga, u. 2022. infrastructure financing for climate change adaptation in australia: practitioners’ perspectives. construction economics and building, 22:4, 1–16. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v22i4.8184 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article infrastructure financing for climate change adaptation in australia: practitioners’ perspectives akvan gajanayake*, usha iyer-raniga school of property, construction and project management, rmit university, australia corresponding author: akvan gajanayake, school of property, construction and project management, rmit university, australia, akvan.gajanayake@rmit.edu.au doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i4.8184 article history: received 16/05/2022; revised 29/08/2022 & 25/10/2022; accepted 31/10/2022; published 15/12/2022 abstract with increased climate-related risks and natural disasters, impacts on infrastructure assets are intensifying. as the need for adaptation actions increase, how finance is used to enable adaptation plays a vital role in the resilience of infrastructure. this research aims to understand how infrastructure adaptation measures are carried out, focusing on how financing is used to aid such efforts. exploratory interviews with infrastructure and finance practitioners from a broad range of organisations were conducted to understand the dynamics of how infrastructure adaptation occurs. the findings reveal that infrastructure agencies conduct adaptation activities to maintain the serviceability of assets under climate change risks, with most climate financing targeting mitigation rather than adaptation. most actions are taken at individual asset or agency level with little collaboration across agencies and sectors. the results illustrate a need for a more holistic, systems-level approach to adaptation across the infrastructure sector in australia. keywords climate adaptation; climate finance; infrastructure resilience; natural hazards; sustainable infrastructure 1 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding this research was supported by a research grant from the economic research institute for asean and east asia (eria). https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i4.8184 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i4.8184 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:akvan.gajanayake@rmit.edu.au https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i4.8184 introduction with increased climate impacts felt around the globe, attention paid to impacts on infrastructure systems due to extreme weather and climatic events has increased over time. extreme weather events and gradual climatic change, like sea level rise, can cause physical damage to infrastructure assets resulting in high financial impacts. failing to invest significantly in the resilience of cities by 2030, is estimated to cost $314 billion (usd) and subject approximately 77 million people to poverty due to the effects of climate change and natural disasters (world bank, 2016). the latest ipcc report found that cascading natural disasters will impact cities and infrastructure in low-lying areas in australia and of a high possibility that institutions and governance systems will not be able to manage climate risks (hennessy, lawrence and mackey, 2022). this highlights the critical need for incorporating adaptation actions within infrastructure systems for the wellbeing of human society. with the inevitability of climate change, the need for including adaptation techniques in infrastructure assets is vital for their serviceability in the long run. infrastructure asset owners at all levels of government are faced with competing priorities in the adaptation area, with limited availability of funds, especially with temporally more pressing issues such as those observed during the covid pandemic. this can result in lower levels of funding being allocated to climate adaptation, which is considered a longer-term issue (iyerraniga and gajanayake, 2021). research on climate adaptation of infrastructure typically takes a disciplinefocused approach, either looking at engineering solutions for adaptation of infrastructure or an economics and finance approach studying the most optimal mechanisms to fund such adaptation techniques. although engineering solutions can be used effectively for adaptation, their implementation depends heavily on the political, social and economic factors in the different regions. in this light, it is vital to understand the interplay between these factors and the intricacies that play a role in financing infrastructure adaptation. infrastructure adaptation varies between the global north and south, predominantly due to the type of funding allocated both for infrastructure as well as climate adaptation. although australia is considered a forerunner within the infrastructure sector, it is a laggard in the climate mitigation and adaptation sectors, falling behind its peers in climate-related actions (hurlimann, warren-myers and browne, 2019). studying infrastructure adaptation for climate change within the australian context is important given the increased climate events and natural disasters that have impacted the country within the last few decades. therefore, understanding how infrastructure adaptation is carried out and how it is financed within australia, can shed light on areas for improvement and any best practices that could be adopted in other regions. for the purpose of this study, the term infrastructure is used in reference to engineered infrastructure as opposed to natural infrastructure such as forests, wetlands and rivers (bennett, cassin and carroll, 2016). engineered infrastructure includes both economic and social infrastructure such as transport, communication, utilities and health infrastructure (ng and loosemore, 2007), as well as public infrastructure designed specifically to reduce the impacts of climate change, such as coastal protection infrastructure. infrastructure plays a significant role in the australian economy with the infrastructure sector accounting for 9.4% of the gdp, with nearly half of new construction being transport-related infrastructure (bureau of infrastructure, 2019). australia has close to 900,000 kilometres of roads, 35,000 kilometres of rail track, over 40 airports and 25 seaports (bureau of infrastructure, 2019). as a high proportion of the australian population lives close to the coast, most of the transport infrastructure is situated in coastal regions. coastal infrastructure is prone to hydro-meteorological disasters, which are exacerbated due to climate change. the major categories of infrastructure prone to climate-related damages are coastal protection infrastructure, transport infrastructure and utilities (nccarf, 2013). this study builds on previous research conducted by the authors (iyer-raniga and gajanayake, 2021), which analysed different financing mechanisms used for infrastructure adaptation in australia and found that optimal financing relies heavily on the socio-political factors within the sector. the aim of this gajanayake and iyer-raniga construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 20222 paper is to understand the nuanced socio-political factors impacting climate financing, which are often overlooked when a discipline-focused engineering or economic lens is used. therefore, this study takes an interdisciplinary approach, which helped in understanding the financial, socio-political and infrastructure management-related factors whilst also identifying enablers and barriers to effective infrastructure adaptation. literature review climate finance has two main components, as articulated in the lima call for climate action a) mobilization of public and private finance towards mitigation and adaptation measures and b) provisioning of public finance from developed to developing countries, also known as the north-south transfer (unfccc, 2017). the expansion of climate finance has increasingly targeted the increase of the northsouth transfer and the avenues to access private sector financing (moser, et al., 2019). although both these components are vital for the resilience of communities, climate finance research tends to focus more on providing finance through official development assistance (oda) from developed to developing nations (pickering, betzold and skovgaard, 2017; singh and jayaram, 2021). current funding and aid are heavily allocated to emergency response and reconstruction projects, predominately in middle-income countries, where fractional amounts are earmarked for vulnerable countries and even less for disaster risk reduction (kellett and caravani, 2013). the difference between the amount of finance required for adaptation and the actual amounts invested is commonly referred to as the climate finance gap (fankhauser, et al., 2016). climate adaptation is defined as adjustments in natural or human systems in response to actual or expected climatic stimuli or their effects, which moderates harm or exploits beneficial opportunities (ipcc, 2007). within human systems, adaptation policies focus on making social systems more resilient to the effects of climate change. in contrast, climate mitigation aims to mitigate the occurrence of climate risks and focuses on greenhouse gas emission strategies (pielke jr, 2004). adaptation strategies accept the inevitability of the effects of climate change and aim to build more resilient systems to deal with such effects (eisenack and stecker, 2012). adaptation actions may be distinguished between anticipatory and reactive actions based on the temporal dimensions of the actions taken. anticipatory adaptation takes place before an event occurs and responds to assumptions about the future such as climate change projections or scenarios (eisenack and stecker, 2012). reactive adaptation in contrast relies on resources and adaptive capabilities available after an event (gajanayake, et al., 2018). three broad categories of adaptation actions could be identified in the literature as technological, institutional and knowledge (pielke jr, 2004; eisenack and stecker, 2012; biagini, et al., 2014). climate financing options are considered a stimulator to enhance adaptation actions and not a direct action. the cost of adaptation activities could be categorised based on the type of action and the type of infrastructure: • cost of adapting (or replacing) existing operations and infrastructure; • cost of building infrastructure that is needed to adapt to climate change such as coastal protection; and • the additional costs of climate-proofing new infrastructure investments (parry, et al., 2009). reconstruction of damaged infrastructure typically aims at minimising financial costs, while strengthening assets is often assumed to be the best approach to increase road infrastructure resilience (gajanayake, khan and zhang, 2021). literature on infrastructure project sustainability generally focuses on much broader sustainability-related factors with less focus on financing adaptation measures (okoro, gajanayake and iyer-raniga construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 20223 musonda and agumba, 2019). however, as most infrastructure assets are intended to last for many decades, and the long timeframes required to design and build them, the need for incorporating climate adaptation into such assets is vital (hallegatte, 2009). in addition to safeguarding infrastructure, building stocks are also affected by climate change, as adaptation measures are required to maintain indoor comfort with rising average temperatures (nguyen, ding and runeson, 2020). barriers to effective climate change adaptation can be classified into three groups; social and cultural; information and technological; financial and market-related (waters, barnett and puleston, 2014). financial and market-related barriers are considered the most significant. although adaptation-related costs can be relatively high, such costs are often underestimated and incomplete, while the data suggests that adaptation actions are extremely cost-effective in contrast to inaction (ekstrom and heitsch, 2018). a country’s socio-political factors also affect the financial and market-related barriers to adaptation, which has a greater effect on bilateral climate finance (peterson and skovgaard, 2019). investments in green infrastructure have been found to be undermined by the lack of organisational understanding of the associated financial and social value and a historical reluctance by decision-makers (mell, 2021). as the majority of engineered infrastructure is publicly provisioned, or heavily regulated, governmental policy and institutional behaviour play a critical role in infrastructure financing decisions (owusu-manu, et al., 2021). investment in climate mitigation also has its own barriers, such as commercialization risk and the fact that financial and public institutions are designed for different investment needs (granoff, hogarth and miller, 2016). climate finance literature also focuses on understanding pricing models based on environmental economic principles and how they can be used to pay for infrastructure adaptation. a variety of options such as user fees (edwards, 2009), general revenue of local or state governments (kriesel, keeler and landry, 2004), hedonic pricing-based levies (morgan and hamilton, 2010) and the use of insurance premiums to finance adaptation (keenan, 2018) have been studied. these studies typically take an economics and finance approach to analyse the efficacy of different financing options. however, it is argued that public policies and financial markets can be misaligned leading to disincentivising the required level of adaptation practices (cleveland, et al., 2019). private financing in adaptation actions has been found to target areas where high returns on investment may be earned and not necessarily where most areas of investment are needed (bisaro and hinkel, 2018). much of the climate adaptation literature in australia focuses on coastal infrastructure, most likely due to the higher risk such infrastructure face due to extreme weather events (harvey, 2019). two main methods have been identified for financing adaptation for coastal infrastructure; funded through government revenues or by imposing charges on the beneficiaries of the infrastructure (ware, et al., 2015). the use of private financing for adaptation was found to be limited, which was mainly due to the lack of available funding and not the lack of access to capital from governments. most of the literature uses a case study approach to understand how climate financing has been used within different areas, either through government funding (ware and banhalmi-zakar, 2020) or private financing (pauw, et al., 2016; stoll, et al., 2021). financing of infrastructure adaptation needs to be analysed from a holistic view, considering the multiple stakeholders involved in decision-making (hafezi, et al., 2017). this is vital as climate adaptation must be paid for irrespective of the financing method (ware, et al., 2015). however, grounded research that takes into consideration holistic, stakeholder perspectives is limited. studies that use such methods have focused on expert interviews with development banks and agencies to understand the intricacies of oda-related climate financing (pauw, 2017). there is a lack of research that focuses on understanding how infrastructure adaptation in the global north is financed and how adaptation financing could be improved. this paper aims to fill this gap in research, by conducting interviews with a multitude of infrastructure practitioners in australia to understand how climate financing of infrastructure occurs in practice. note that in this context, gajanayake and iyer-raniga construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 20224 australia being a developed nation refers to the global north, even though it is part of the southern hemisphere. this research is underpinned by the hypothesis that the lack of infrastructure adaptation within australia is due to top-down political thinking that underestimates the severity of climate impacts (unsworth and fielding, 2014). however, it could be argued that inaction can be due to top-down as well as bottomup psychological factors, such as ego, group, and system justification ( ( jacquet, dietrich and jost, 2014; leviston and walker, 2014). the interviews aimed at eliciting information from participants not only on the financial and engineering factors influencing adaptation but also the more nuanced political and organisational factors as identified in previous literature (mell, 2021; owusu-manu, et al., 2021). the findings provide insights into a broad range of systemic barriers to implementing adaptation within the infrastructure sector and propose recommendations to overcome them as is explained in further detail in the forthcoming sections of the paper. methodology this research used a qualitative research design. the research aimed to understand the practical nature of climate financing of infrastructure in australia. a qualitative approach was suitable as it helps to obtain a holistic view of a complex system and to investigate social phenomena in a practical context (karlsson, et al., 2007). qualitative research aims to formulate meaning, examines contradictions in real life, and puts an organising framework around it to interpret these contradictory phenomena in a meaningful way (braun and clarke, 2013). exploratory interviews aid in conducting an in-depth analysis of the complex human and cultural dynamics that influence decision-making (akotia, et al., 2020). so, an in-depth exploratory study of the practical aspects of climate financing of infrastructure was undertaken by using interviews. interview design in-depth interviews among selected participants were carried out as it was the most appropriate method to obtain relevant information regarding individual experiences and practical knowledge, which was the focus of the research (holstein, gubrium and pames, 2003). exploratory interviews also aided in following new dimensions of research that came up in specific interviews, which previous respondents did not reveal and in developing broader themes and ideas based on them (oppenheim, 2000). semi-structured interviews were designed, with interview questions developed with a clear theme and with open-ended questions. the interview questions were designed to obtain information under the broad themes of; current practices in climate adaptation of infrastructure, barriers to implementing climate adaptation and possible future directions and opportunities. this approach was ideal for identifying gaps between the policy-level procedures set out in climate change strategies and real-life implementation. interview participants a diverse group of practitioners ranging from federal to state governments, infrastructure asset owners and representatives from peak industry bodies were selected for the interviews. a theoretical sampling method was used to recruit interview participants. the participants were selected based on their involvement in financing and decision-making related to climate change adaptation of infrastructure. a list of organisations involved in the infrastructure and climate finance sectors was identified in the initial desktop review stage of the project (iyer-raniga and gajanayake, 2021). participants were recruited by cold calling the identified organisations. professional networks of the research team and snowball sampling were also used to reach more relevant participants. a total of 18 participants representing 17 organisations were interviewed (table 1). the number of participants interviewed was deemed suitable as there was a saturation of ideas received from the respondents. gajanayake and iyer-raniga construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 20225 table 1. interview participants code type of org industry/sector type of operation region p1 government entity finance infrastructure financing national p2 private company energy infrastructure infrastructure delivery national p3 government entity public admin infrastructure delivery international p4 government entity public admin infrastructure financing international p5 private company transport infrastructure sea port operation state p6 private company transport infrastructure sea port operation state p7 professional association urban planning advocacy national p8 participant information withdrawn p9 government entity public admin infrastructure advisory national p10 government entity water infrastructure utilities delivery state p11 industry association built environment advocacy state p12 government entity public admin infrastructure advisory state p13 industry association infrastructure sustainability rating international p14 industry association finance sustainable investment international p15 industry association building and construction sustainability rating/advocacy national p16 government entity public health infrastructure delivery state p17 government partnership infrastructure infrastructure advisory international p18 government partnership infrastructure infrastructure advisory international gajanayake and iyer-raniga construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 20226 interview process and analysis all interviews were conducted online using the recording and auto transcription function on ms teams and were typically 60 minutes long. the transcripts were analysed using a qualitative thematic analysis approach. the qualitative analysis helped as an in-depth understanding of the infrastructure financing processes was required to identify underlying themes and differences in practice among participants. coding of the transcripts was conducted manually by the main interviewer while listening to the recordings so that any emotional overtones and nuances captured in the interviews were not lost. the manual coding helped identify nuances and overtones in the wording used by participants in the interviews, which would have been lost if automatic coding was conducted. a total of 437 coding points were noted, and coding words were selected from a phrase or word from the transcript. an inductive coding approach was used to create the specific codes, where codes are determined progressively during data collection and analysis (miles, huberman and saldana., 2014), while pre-determined codes were avoided to reduce interviewer bias in the coding process. the codes and relevant quotes from the transcripts were entered into an excel sheet. the codes were then used to generate 40 pattern codes, which were used to form themes emanating from the interviews. initial results of the thematic analysis and specific quotes selected were shared with the participants, to validate and ensure that quotes had not been taken out of context. this step increased the objectivity of the results and reduced researcher bias in the analysis process. it also allowed the interviewees to reconsider the words and phrases used and to make any changes to reflect their thinking. results and findings this section presents the main findings based on the thematic analysis that was carried out and is structured according to the main themes that were identified. the discussion is also supported by specific quotations selected from the interviews, to highlight important ideas mentioned by some of the participants. adaptation cost factored into project costs a common theme from the interviews was that no separate cost allocation was available for infrastructure adaptation measures. interviewees mentioned that adaptation measures were included in the project during the design stage and the cost of such measures was part of the entire project cost. adaptation measures were seen as part of the inherent engineering techniques used to ensure that the infrastructure met its long-term functionality. one participant mentioned that it was difficult to say whether such measures were “purely an adaptation response” as it was difficult to distinguish between project risk and climate adaptation. however, it was noted that this was not the case for infrastructure such as flood walls, which are designed purely as an adaptation response. applying a “climate filter” was a common method that practitioners used to factor in climate adaptation measures for projects at the design stage. although this was common practice among organisations involved with oda of infrastructure, this was not as common among internal infrastructure organisations focusing on local infrastructure financing. it was noted that adaptation activities would increase if projects were assessed against such climate standards during infrastructure prioritisation assessments within australia. “we don’t have specific, hard requirements around climate [and] resilience assessment” p9 a recurrent theme in the interviews (n=7) was the limitation of current decision-making methods for assessing the viability of infrastructure projects. the current approaches focused more on the socioeconomic benefits of new projects, while climate and disaster risk assessments of projects were optional. this shortcoming was seen to be prevalent across a broad range of methods such as procurement models, funding gajanayake and iyer-raniga construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 20227 models, financial modelling tools, risk assessment and economic assessment frameworks. it was highlighted that current methods focus on “the economic benefit that derives from a piece of infrastructure, not the economic benefit [of ] the disaster avoided”. other factors that rendered current models insufficient were discount factors used in financial modelling, accounting for slow-moving changes and trying to assign monetary values to climate benefits. differences between mitigation and adaptation activities a common view among participants was that more work was being done on mitigating climate change rather than adaptation practices. mitigation activities were predominantly identified as actions to reduce carbon emissions and included a move towards net zero emissions and energy efficiency. a range of reasons was identified for this focus on mitigation in contrast to adaptation such as mandatory/regulatory focus on mitigation, mitigation being considered as the first step towards resilience and carbon emission targets being easier to understand the most significant factor was the clear financial benefits to be gained by mitigation activities. some participants opined that mitigation and adaptation should go together, which would be a “no regrets pathway”, and was especially important as they believed that mitigation targets might not be met. “i thought we’d all be about resilience now, but everyone’s still trying to… meet carbon reduction targets” p15 adaptation was identified as a nebulous concept where “there is [a] fear of this mysterious extra cost”. mitigation was seen as a more straightforward concept to grasp as mitigation measures could be quantified through carbon emissions targets and have direct financial benefits linked to such activities. this preference for actions that have a clear, quantifiable impact may be associated with the prevalence of such practices in the engineering field. in addition, the abundance of engineering professionals within the infrastructure sector may cause more work done on the mitigatory front. “i’m an engineer, so i want measurable targets, for example so many grams per year. targets [need] to be agreed on and recorded in black and white” p6 this factor may be further amplified by the quantitative decision-making tools widely used within the infrastructure sector. as highlighted in section 3.1, such tools tend to discount the benefits of adaptation actions. this can be further exacerbated, as the benefits of adaptation do not necessarily accrue to the infrastructure owner but to the broader community. it may also be that infrastructure planning requires a nuanced approach to a range of likely climate risks/hazards, with solutions arising depending on the type of hazard. all solutions may not necessarily consider the same set of priorities. there was common agreement amongst most of the participants on how linking financial incentives to adaptation activities would increase their use in infrastructure projects. it was mentioned that the best method would be to include climate risks and adaptation benefits in the business case for a project. this could be done in multiple ways according to the type of infrastructure and climate risks. some of these methods identified by participants were demonstrating the expected return on investment, reduction in insurance premiums and factoring in community costs. this quantification and monetisation of adaptation seem to focus on how best to work within the current decision-making processes without consideration of the difficulty (or even the impossibility) of converting such impacts to be measurable within those processes. whole of life approach is not considered another theme from the interviews was that climate adaptation was factored into designing new infrastructure projects, while adaptation measures for existing infrastructure were limited. as a result, most of the infrastructure adaptation was seen as piggybacking on broader infrastructure growth. including gajanayake and iyer-raniga construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 20228 adaptation measures in existing infrastructure was identified as expensive and hard to justify, especially when the existing infrastructure is more likely to be knocked down and rebuilt in the near future. this was a more significant issue in overseas infrastructure assistance, as oda is predominantly provided for new infrastructure development, coupled with the lack of maintenance in some developing countries where assistance was being provided. the focus on new infrastructure was evident not only for adaptation activities but for mitigation activities as well. it was mentioned that most carbon emissions targets focus on the operational phase of the infrastructure, with embodied emissions not being considered. it was identified that focusing on reducing operational emissions, without considering embodied emissions and emissions during decommissioning and disposal of existing infrastructure can lead to an “artificial preference” towards new builds. another aspect that was raised was that considering whole-of-life impacts in decision-making could justify the better use of existing assets. “better using what we’ve got… in many instances [is] going to be less emissions intensive.” p12 whole-of-life planning was considered an important aspect that would help build and maintain more resilient infrastructure. this was vital as the life of infrastructure assets is typically longer than other investments, especially under a scenario where climate impacts would become significant in the longer term. idiosyncrasies of the infrastructure sector participants also identified how the evolution of the infrastructure sector in australia played a part in the industry’s hesitancy to adopt more innovative adaptation actions. it was explained that most infrastructure organisations are public entities or were public entities that were privatised recently. one participant mentioned that the level of ambition in these organisations was low and that bureaucratic structures are set up based on historical precedence while dealing with legacy revenue and tariff structures, which are not optimal for including adaptation measures. some participants also identified the cultural aspect of pricing as a reason for resistance within the infrastructure sector. this was especially the case for transport infrastructure, with many public-private partnerships exhibiting demand-driven pricing structures. “it’s just that it challenges established responsibilities and established views” p12 the ownership of infrastructure and who pays for adaptation costs was identified as a challenge to incorporating resilience measures in infrastructure. most infrastructure assets are owned by state and territory governments, who are responsible for their operation and maintenance. the resilience of those structures to climate change impacts falls on the agencies that own and manage them. however, it was noted that funding for the repair and reconstruction of infrastructure after major disaster events was primarily obtained from the federal government. this has led to a misalignment of risks and costs between the states as asset owners and the federal government, which operates as the de facto insurer of last resort. federally funded disaster reconstruction work was identified to have a build-back-better component, where resilience measures can be promoted. however, it was identified that damage to assets due to events that were not considered major disaster events did not receive such funding. therefore, the adaptation measures of such assets were limited. this was also the case with the new development of smaller infrastructure assets, as generally, a proportion of the asset value is set aside for adaptation work. this leads to smaller projects not being as resilient as bigger infrastructure projects. the financing processes used currently were also identified as playing a role in this, as there were thresholds for infrastructure advisory services both at the state and federal government level and the use of “capex as a proxy for risk” of assets. some participants mentioned how such thresholds have recently increased, thereby leading to mediumsized projects not having the same level of built-in adaptation mechanisms. gajanayake and iyer-raniga construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 20229 systems thinking a need for systems thinking approach was identified as a way forward by several participants (n=7). although none of the participants used the specific term systems thinking, the participants alluded to terms such as “systems nature of infrastructure”, “holistic planning”, “system level benefits”, “big picture level” and “integrated policies”. many participants identified that the current practice of building resilience into individual infrastructure assets was not the most optimal method, given the interdependencies between infrastructure systems and the wider socio-environmental systems. one participant provided an example by mentioning that the amalgamation of all transport infrastructure divisions in one state had led to broader adaptation work across the sector. most agreed that the complex nature of infrastructure systems means that individual adaptation work done by one agency will not be enough to counter system-wide climate change impacts. some participants believed that fundamental changes at a systems level were needed by building in modularity, behavioural change and nature-based solutions, which are not typically practised within the infrastructure sector at present. “people are so focused on their own tiny little area that they… just don’t look at the broader picture and understand how everything works together or needs to work together.” p11 it was identified that agencies tend to work in their silos with little to no collaboration, which needs to be changed. it was also mentioned that a more holistic approach was needed even at the policy level as policies are developed and implemented in siloes. this is further exacerbated by the shared decisionmaking processes seen across different levels of government and the lack of alignment between policies and organisations. although most agreed that adaptation considered at the big picture level would be helpful, it was also noted that location-specific risks needed to be considered in decision-making processes. government involvement federal government the government’s role and how it can aid in adaptation activities across the infrastructure sector was also discussed by participants. the role of government funding was identified as an enabler for climate adaptation activities, with funds being used to help the early adoption of new technologies. it was noted by some participants that government funding should not crowd out private investments but be used to “crowd in” private investments by providing funds for areas where private funding is deemed to be too risky. “it is less about a funding need in infrastructure, it is more about pushing change through the use of [government] money” p1 it was also noted that most of the mitigation work was led by the private sector, where there was a financial incentive for such investments. as such, some participants believed that the private sector should lead adaptation activities with the right regulatory guidance provided by the government. an overwhelming majority of the participants (n=15) mentioned that better legislation and government commitment would aid climate change mitigation and adaptation within the infrastructure sector. a clear policy position, targets and regulatory requirements were seen as imperative for infrastructure agencies and the private sector to take bold steps towards building climate resilience. although a majority of participants (n=9) agreed that increased federal government commitment would be helpful, some participants noted that this was less of an issue in the infrastructure sector, as infrastructure was owned by state and territory governments. “infrastructure is state-funded, so [the] federal quagmire does not have as bad an impact as it seems” p13 gajanayake and iyer-raniga construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202210 state and territory governments the lack of federal government commitment was understood to have caused a “bottom-up revolution”, where individual organisations and state and territory governments are driving the change. some of the work being done in organisations was identified as a necessity so as not to lose their “social license to operate”, and such work was undertaken more as the ‘right thing to do’ rather than a ‘must-have’. one of the participants shared an interesting viewpoint, where healthcare practitioners were pushing for climate resilience as they saw how it could impact the health and safety of communities in the longer term. another shared that the defence establishment was aware of the national security implications of climate and disaster resilience. “[australian government] policy is probably behind… what shareholders and community want to a certain extent” p2 a majority of the participants (n=11) also saw the need for clear standards and guidelines that could be used to model climate impacts on infrastructure. such standards could help decision-makers include adaptation measures and account for any risks posed to the operation of the assets. it was illustrated that integrating existing climate scenarios into local and state-level standards was critical. this level of modelling would help forecast specific risks and impacts to different types of infrastructure. it was agreed that such standard tools need to be developed at federal level, providing consistency across different infrastructure asset classes and state jurisdictions. discussion the interviews illustrated a growing need for collaboration among agencies, across different infrastructure sectors and between the infrastructure and environment sectors. collaboration between different infrastructure asset owners could increase the impact of adaptation measures and lead to spill-over benefits across the economy. institutional fragmentation has often been identified as a significant impediment to effective climate finance (pickering, betzold and skovgaard, 2017). collaboration across jurisdictional zones is essential, given that most adaptation activities, especially coastal protection, are carried out at the local government level. collaboration across jurisdictions has been found to smoothen the complex pattern of individual state-based policies (harvey, 2019). an integrated approach to adaptation is vital as climate risks do not conform to man-made geo-political boundaries. such collaboration should encompass more than just adaptation but provide a holistic view, as both public and private actors are often unfamiliar with the concept of adaptation (pauw, 2017). sustained partnerships and collaboration across institutions to better coordinate adaptation efforts have a better chance of creating long-standing patterns of thinking and habitual behaviour and breaking typical organizational silos (moser, et al., 2019). the current study found that the majority of the practitioners working on climate activities do this on top of their day-to-day work responsibilities and that there was no specific person responsible for climate action in organisations. the lack of leadership at higher levels of government and the ambiguity on who shoulders responsibility for adaptation has been identified as a barrier to adaptation across australia (waters, barnett and puleston, 2014). similar to previous research, it was found that the lack of top-down commitment had resulted in more bottom-up action being implemented (unsworth and fielding, 2014) and that system justification, especially in the economic domain, was a major factor influencing the bottomup actions seen within organisations ( jacquet, dietrich and jost, 2014; leviston and walker, 2014). the lack of clear accountability was visible across agencies, where there wasn’t one central authority overlooking climate adaptation. this bodes a point on whether it is necessary to have an overall government department overseeing climate change impacts, which also has an overview across the other sections of government. the need for private finance to be channelled to adaptation activities was an aspect that came up during the interviews. although the use of private finance for adaptation activities is minimal, there are examples of gajanayake and iyer-raniga construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202211 cooperation between public and private organisations to leverage adaptation finance (pauw, 2017). however, over-reliance on private finance may not be optimal as climate adaptation is typically a public good, with positive externalities. it should also be noted that resilience may not be achieved simply by expanding private finance, as this has been argued to be a narrow search for solutions (moser, et al., 2019). in instances where the private sector has invested in adaptation, it has been a reactive form of adaptation, which illustrates that adaptation from the private sector addresses internal business risks rather than risks to the community (hess, 2021). therefore, it may be unlikely that private institutions will invest the required sums needed for adaptation. these findings are similar to previous research which found that private financing can have unintended negative consequences on adaptation behaviour (cleveland, et al., 2019). to overcome these barriers further government intervention is required to correct market failures and incentivise private finance, so it is channelled to areas of highest need. this research illustrated that most climate finance is directed at mitigation activities rather than adaptation. this finding is consistent with that of granoff, hogarth and miller (2016), which found that climate investment in infrastructure tends to focus narrowly on the project costs of lowversus high-carbon options. the skew towards mitigation, specifically on reducing carbon emissions, can be exacerbated if climate finance is private sector-centric (samuwai and hills, 2018), where private finance is provisioned based on returns on investment (bisaro and hinkel, 2018). even as climate science shows that climate change is inevitable and adaptation needs to be incorporated, this focus on mitigation could be due to the quantifiable aspect of carbon emission reductions and the resulting ease of ascribing monetary values. quantifiable indicators and metrics tend to drive society to ascribe a higher value to such impacts (mau, 2020); hence mitigation can take centre stage at a socio-political level. however, adaptation activities are not easily quantifiable to a single value. hence this could influence the ambiguity among practitioners on the most appropriate use of finance for adaptation. a reductionist approach of using narrow metrics to aid decision-making to solve complex, wicked problems such as climate resilience will not be optimal. conclusion this research aimed at understanding how infrastructure financing for climate change adaptation occurs in australia, focusing on the socio-political and organisational factors influencing decision-making. qualitative data were gathered through in-depth interviews with practitioners in the infrastructure financing and adaptation sectors, followed by a thematic analysis of the data. the results show that adaptation within the infrastructure sector relies heavily on economic justification of decisions, with quantifiable indicators playing a big influence on decision-making. the reliance on quantifiable metrics has resulted in more work on the mitigation aspect in contrast to climate adaptation, which is comparatively harder to quantify and monetise. the findings illustrate that infrastructure adaptation is carried out in a siloed manner, either based on expertise or institutional fragmentation. overall, this study strengthens the idea that more holistic, systembased approaches need to be adopted. these findings suggest several factors that need to be considered by practitioners and policymakers. designing in transdisciplinary approaches aimed at solving system-level problems is vital. this could be done both at inter-organisational and interpersonal levels by fostering collaboration among diverse participants. including social scientists and ecologists in decision-making can aid the ideation of diverse solutions. the role of non-engineering solutions such as behaviour change, optimising existing assets and environmentally adaptive behaviour needs to be considered. such solutions are typically overlooked with the saturation of personnel with engineering thinking within teams and organisations. a limitation of this study is the lack of contextualisation of the findings to a specific region within australia or to specific types of infrastructure. as the aim was to gain a broad understanding of the infrastructure sector within australia, it was not possible to focus on specific types of infrastructure or asset gajanayake and iyer-raniga construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202212 classes. an issue that was not addressed in this study was the specific engineering or financial mechanisms that were used for adaptation and their suitability within a given context. although the current research is based on a small sample of participants, the findings shed light on how adaptation is carried out within the infrastructure sector and the challenges faced. further research in this area could focus on contextualising these findings to specific types of infrastructure or specific regions within australia. comparative analyses of how adaptation is practised among the different states within australia or across different sectors and organisations can help researchers understand best practices and how to duplicate them across the broader infrastructure sector. as climate financing models typically focus on mitigation activities, economics and finance-related research can examine developing different financing models that could aid in adaptation actions. discounted cash-flow techniques, which are commonly used in infrastructure decision-making, discount impacts occurring in the future and therefore tend to disregard long-term climate impacts. further research could analyse how current financial modelling techniques could be improved to incorporate slow-moving and long-term climatic changes. given the current spate of disasters in australia, this is an area of urgent need. acknowledgments the authors wish to thank the interview participants for the time taken to share their thoughts and expertise for the purpose of this study and ojaswi baidya for proofreading the final manuscript. this research was supported by a research grant from the economic research institute for asean and east asia (eria). references akotia, j., manu, e., opoku, a. and sackey, e., 2020. the role of built environment practitioners in driving the socioeconomic sustainability aspects of sustainable regeneration. construction economics and building, 20(2), pp.89-108. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.7145 bennett, g., cassin, j. and carroll, n., 2016. natural infrastructure investment and implications for the nexus: a global overview. ecosystem services, 17, pp.293-97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2015.05.006 biagini, b., bierbaum, r., stults, m., dobardzic, s. and mcneeley, s.m., 2014. a typology of adaptation actions: a global look at climate adaptation actions financed through the global environment facility. global environmental change, 25, pp.97-108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.01.003 bisaro, a. and hinkel, j., 2018. mobilizing private finance for coastal adaptation: a literature review. wiley interdisciplinary reviews: climate change, 9(3), p.e514. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.514 braun, v. and clarke, v., 2013. successful qualitative research: a practical guide for beginners: sage. bureau of infrastructure, t.a.r.e.b., 2019 yearbook 2019: australian infrastructure statistics.canberra, act: bitre. cleveland, j., crowe, j., debacker, l., munk, t. and plastrik, p., 2019. hunting for money: us cities need a system for financing climate resilience and adaptation. federal reserve bank of san francisco’s community development innovation review, 14(1), pp.71-78. edwards, p.e., 2009. sustainable financing for ocean and coastal management in jamaica: the potential for revenues from tourist user fees. marine policy, 33(2), pp.376-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2008.08.005 eisenack, k. and stecker, r., 2012. a framework for analyzing climate change adaptations as actions. mitigation and adaptation strategies for global change, 17(3), pp.243-60. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-011-9323-9 ekstrom, j.a. and heitsch, s., 2018. adaptation finance challenges: characteristic patterns facing. gajanayake and iyer-raniga construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202213 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.7145 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2015.05.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.01.003 https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.514 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2008.08.005 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11027-011-9323-9 fankhauser, s., sahni, a., savvas, a. and ward, j., 2016. where are the gaps in climate finance? climate and development, 8(3), pp.203-06. https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2015.1064811 gajanayake, a., khan, t. and zhang, g., 2021. a decision-making tool to assess external costs of disaster induced bridge failure. international journal of disaster risk reduction, 64, p.102506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102506 gajanayake, a., mohseni, h., zhang, g., mullett, j. and setunge, s., 2018. community adaptation to cope with disaster related road structure failure. procedia engineering, 212, pp.1355-62. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2018.01.175 granoff, i., hogarth, j.r. and miller, a., 2016. nested barriers to low-carbon infrastructure investment. nature climate change, 6(12), pp.1065-71. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3142 hafezi, m., sahin, o., stewart, r., ware, d. and mackey, b., 2017. participatory dynamic modelling approach for adaptation planning needs focusing on small islands developing states. in: 12th conference on sustainable development of energy, water and environment systems. dubrovnik, croatia. . hallegatte, s., 2009. strategies to adapt to an uncertain climate change. global environmental change, 19(2), pp.240-47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2008.12.003 harvey, n., 2019. protecting private properties from the sea: australian policies and practice. marine policy, 107, p.103566. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2019.103566 hennessy, k., lawrence, j. and mackey, b., 2022. ipcc sixth assessment report (ar6): climate change 2022 impacts, adaptation and vulnerability: regional factsheet australasia. . ipcc. hess, j.s., 2021. private sector climate change adaptation of accommodation suppliers in the small island of koh tao, thailand. asian geographer, pp.1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/10225706.2021.1981956 holstein, j., gubrium, j. and pames, a., 2003. qualitative interviewing and grounded theory analysis. inside interviewing, pp.311-31. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412984492 hurlimann, a.c., warren-myers, g. and browne, g.r., 2019. is the australian construction industry prepared for climate change? building and environment, 153, pp.128-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.02.008 ipcc, 2007. impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. contribution of working group ii to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. cambridge university press, cambridge, united kingdom/new york, ny, usa: intergovernmental panel on climate change. iyer-raniga, u. and gajanayake, a., 2021. infrastructure financing for climate change adaptation: chapter 8-australia. available at ssrn 4189988. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4189988 jacquet, j., dietrich, m. and jost, j.t., 2014. the ideological divide and climate change opinion:“top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches. frontiers in psychology, 5, p.1458. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01458 karlsson, l., dahlstedt, å.g., regnell, b., och dag, j.n. and persson, a., 2007. requirements engineering challenges in market-driven software development–an interview study with practitioners. information and software technology, 49(6), pp.588-604. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2007.02.008 keenan, j.m., 2018. regional resilience trust funds: an exploratory analysis for leveraging insurance surcharges. environment systems and decisions, 38(1), pp.118-39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10669-017-9656-3 kellett, j. and caravani, a., 2013. financing disaster risk reduction: a 20 year story of international aid. global facility for disaster reduction and recovery. kriesel, w., keeler, a. and landry, c., 2004. financing beach improvements: comparing two approaches on the georgia coast. coastal management, 32(4), pp.433-47. https://doi.org/10.1080/08920750490487467 gajanayake and iyer-raniga construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202214 https://doi.org/10.1080/17565529.2015.1064811 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102506 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2018.01.175 https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3142 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2008.12.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpol.2019.103566 https://doi.org/10.1080/10225706.2021.1981956 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412984492 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.02.008 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4189988 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01458 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2007.02.008 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10669-017-9656-3 https://doi.org/10.1080/08920750490487467 leviston, z. and walker, i., 2014. system legitimacy and support for climate change policy in australia. in: biennial conference of the international society of justice research. new york, ny, june 19-22. mau, s., 2020. numbers matter! the society of indicators, scores and ratings. international studies in sociology of education, 29(1-2), pp.19-37. https://doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2019.1668287 mell, i., 2021. ‘but who’s going to pay for it?’contemporary approaches to green infrastructure financing, development and governance in london, uk. journal of environmental policy & planning, 23(5), pp.628-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 1523908x.2021.1931064 miles, m.b., huberman, a.m. and saldana., j., 2014. qualitative data analysis: an expanded sourcebook: sage. morgan, o.a. and hamilton, s.e., 2010. estimating a payment vehicle for financing nourishment of residential beaches using a spatial-lag hedonic property price model. coastal management, 38(1), pp.65-75. https://doi. org/10.1080/08920750903398287 moser, s., ekstrom, j., kim, j. and heitsch, s., 2019. adaptation finance archetypes: local governments’ persistent challenges of funding adaptation to climate change and ways to overcome them. ecology and society, 24(2). https://doi. org/10.5751/es-10980-240228 nccarf, 2013. policy guidance brief: climate proofing australia’s infrastructure. national climate change adaptation research facility. ng, a. and loosemore, m., 2007. risk allocation in the private provision of public infrastructure. international journal of project management, 25(1), pp.66-76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.06.005 nguyen, d.m., ding, g. and runeson, g., 2020. energy and economic analysis of environmental upgrading of existing office buildings. construction economics and building, 20(4), pp.82-102. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i4.7239 okoro, c.s., musonda, i. and agumba, j.n., 2019. validity and reliability of a transportation infrastructure sustainable performance framework: a study of transport projects in south africa. construction economics and building, 19(2), pp.126-43. oppenheim, a.n., 2000. questionnaire design, interviewing and attitude measurement: bloomsbury publishing. owusu-manu, d.-g., edwards, d., ghansah, f.a., asiedu, r.o., tagoe, d.s.n. and birch, t., 2021. assessing the policy provisions and institutional behavioral factors influencing rail infrastructure financing in developing countries. journal of infrastructure systems, 27(2), p.05021004. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000610 parry, m.l., arnell, n., berry, p., dodman, d., fankhauser, s., c, h., kovats, s., nicholls, r., satterthwaite, d., tiffin, r. and wheeler, t., 2009. assessing the costs of adaptation to climate change: a review of the unfccc and other recent estimates. london, 1843697459. pauw, w.p., 2017. mobilising private adaptation finance: developed country perspectives. international environmental agreements: politics, law and economics, 17(1), pp.55-71. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-016-9342-9 pauw, w.p., klein, r.j., vellinga, p. and biermann, f., 2016. private finance for adaptation: do private realities meet public ambitions? climatic change, 134(4), pp.489-503. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-015-1539-3 peterson, l. and skovgaard, j., 2019. bureaucratic politics and the allocation of climate finance. world development, 117, pp.72-97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.12.011 pickering, j., betzold, c. and skovgaard, j., 2017. managing fragmentation and complexity in the emerging system of international climate finance: springer. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-016-9349-2 pielke jr, r.a., 2004. what is climate change? energy & environment, 15(3), pp.515-20. https://doi. org/10.1260/0958305041494576 gajanayake and iyer-raniga construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202215 https://doi.org/10.1080/09620214.2019.1668287 https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908x.2021.1931064 https://doi.org/10.1080/1523908x.2021.1931064 https://doi.org/10.1080/08920750903398287 https://doi.org/10.1080/08920750903398287 https://doi.org/10.5751/es-10980-240228 https://doi.org/10.5751/es-10980-240228 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.06.005 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i4.7239 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000610 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-016-9342-9 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-015-1539-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2018.12.011 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10784-016-9349-2 https://doi.org/10.1260/0958305041494576 https://doi.org/10.1260/0958305041494576 samuwai, j. and hills, j.m., 2018. assessing climate finance readiness in the asia-pacific region. sustainability, 10(4), p.1192. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10041192 singh, s. and jayaram, r., 2021. climate finance: a systematic literature review. international journal of economic policy in emerging economies, 14(5-6), pp.566-80. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijepee.2021.118977 stoll, p., pauw, w., tohme, f. and gruening, c., 2021. mobilizing private adaptation finance: lessons learned from the green climate fund. climatic change, 167(3), pp.1-19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03190-1 unfccc, 2017. lima call for climate action. united nations framework convention on climate change. unsworth, k.l. and fielding, k.s., 2014. it’s political: how the salience of one’s political identity changes climate change beliefs and policy support. global environmental change, 27, pp.131-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. gloenvcha.2014.05.002 ware, d. and banhalmi-zakar, z., 2020. strategies for governments to help close the coastal adaptation funding gap. ocean & coastal management, 198, p.105223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2020.105223 ware, d., colleter, g., carley, j. and cox, r., 2015. an overview of financing models for coastal protection in australia. in: australian coasts and ports 2015 conference. auckland, new zealand, 15-18 september. waters, e., barnett, j. and puleston, a., 2014. contrasting perspectives on barriers to adaptation in australian climate change policy. climatic change, 124(4), pp.691-702. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-014-1138-8 world bank, 2016. investing in urban resilience: protecting and promoting development in a changing world. world bank group. gajanayake and iyer-raniga construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 4 december 202216 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10041192 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijepee.2021.118977 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03190-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.05.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2014.05.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2020.105223 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-014-1138-8 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: sabet, p., jonescu, e., chong, h-y., ramanyaka, c. e. 2025. interacting possibilities between building information modelling and off-site manufacturing for performance improvement. construction economics and building, 25:1, 221–243. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i1.8928 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article interacting possibilities between building information modelling and off-site manufacturing for performance improvement pejman sabet1,*, emil jonescu2, heap-yih chong3, chamil erik ramanyaka4 1 civil construction department, acknowledge education, melbourne, australia, pejman.sabet@ae.edu.au 2 research and development, hames sharley, perth, australia, e.jonescu@hamessharley.com.au 3 school of design and built environment, curtin university, perth, australia, heap-yih.chong@curtin.edu.au 4 school of engineering and technology, central queensland university, rockhampton, australia c.ramanayaka@cqu.edu.au corresponding author: pejman sabet, civil construction department, acknowledge education, melbourne, australia, pejman.sabet@ae.edu.au doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8928 article history: received 25/11/2023; revised 04/03/2024; accepted 22/08/2024; published 31/03/2025 abstract many studies have examined building information modelling (bim) and off-site manufacturing (osm) as separate concepts, yet few have examined their applications in a hybrid approach. to fill this literature gap, this study investigates the innovative simultaneous interactions of bim and osm in the australian construction industry. another aspect motivating this study is that the application of this novel approach in the global construction industry environment is considered equally crucial for advancing research in this sector. covariance-based structural equation modelling was applied to investigate complex relationships between dependent and independent variables. for this empirical study, 105 academic publications were reviewed to build a solid foundation for achieving the research aims. the findings show that osm and bim are not widely used in australia. individually, these capabilities have had no considerable impact on the overall project performance, but bim and osm have constructively interacted when applied concurrently. the study concludes that the systematic implementation of bim–osm interactions could improve key productivity indicators, and subsequently, overall project 221 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8928 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8928 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8928 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:pejman.sabet@ae.edu.au mailto:e.jonescu@hamessharley.com.au mailto:heap-yih.chong@curtin.edu.au mailto:c.ramanayaka@cqu.edu.au mailto:pejman.sabet@ae.edu.au https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8928 performance. this bim–osm hybrid approach that aligns with the diffusion of innovation theory is best implemented at the planning and managerial stages to ensure a practical project operating system in osm-based projects supported by bim. keywords hybrid approach; project performance; diffusion of innovation; interaction introduction the continued demand for increased construction productivity has prompted management to investigate consistent approaches for achieving this goal. consequently, the emergence of advanced approaches has provided construction industry authorities with opportunities to mitigate the productivity decline in this sector (dolage and chan, 2013). many companies have found that inefficient information flows between project parties adversely affect project performance at both the design and construction stages. however, modern construction techniques may be used to remedy problematic systems to improve construction productivity (rathnayake and middleton, 2023). further, improved monitoring and control measures over project progress are additional considerations that promise increased productivity on dynamic construction sites (kenley, 2014). in addition, off-site manufacturing (osm) has been identified as a potential technique for upgrading the construction industry (oti-sarpong, et al., 2022). the osm approach was created to improve efficiency in the built environment (ziwen, bon-gang and minghan, 2023) by optimising resource usage, safety and quality control and accelerating project progress. notably, fragmented stakeholders, design inefficiencies, and inconsistent details about prefabricated components have been flagged as the root causes of poor productivity in osm-based projects (shahpari, et al., 2020). in this regard, the quality of communication between a project’s stakeholders is critical to its success (hosseini, maghrebi, et al., 2016). constructive collaboration originates from the presence of a forum for reliable information sharing and the ongoing capacity to view the project status via building information modelling (bim) (hosseini, maghrebi, et al., 2018). therefore, bim has been highlighted as a reinforcer for osm in addressing issues. while neither of these techniques has been able to satisfy all performance criteria in isolation, when used concurrently, a variety of interactions between them can accomplish the aims of both approaches (lee, j. and kim, 2017). this hybrid bim–osm technique requires a hybrid team capable of recognising and practising any constructive opportunities (bim–osm interactions) from such integration that is intended to resolve various productivity-related challenges in construction. a hybrid team consists of the planner, designer, contractor and manufacturer as project stakeholders in a building project (hosseini, banihashemi, et al., 2018). sabet and chong (2019) discussed that both bim and osm have been highlighted as groundbreaking methodologies that can tackle challenges to construction productivity. however, the adoption of osm and bim differs across geographies. in particular, gelic, neimann and wallwork (2016) noted the slow adoption of bim in australia, and hosseini, pärn, et al. (2018) stated that bim maturity must be accelerated in the country. furthermore, given the limited success of osm (duc, forsythe and orr, 2014) and the lack of a planned transition from on-site building to osm in australia, its adoption rate of osm lags behind that of other countries that have innovated and implemented osm (khalfan and maqsood, 2014). these difficulties may limit the effectiveness of the individual implementation of the approaches, and they also prevent bim application in osm-based projects as a hybrid approach in australia from progressing beyond its infancy. in addition, yin, et al. (2019) identified a range of research gaps regarding the application of bim in osm. although vernikos, et al. (2014) highlighted that bim can improve osm, its use in osm has been minimal. construction professionals and clients have long been cited as being unwilling to use bim to its maximum potential in osm owing to the lack of evidence on its possible benefits (abanda, tah and sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025222 cheung, 2017). according to yin, et al. (2019, p. 84), “bim-based generative design for prefabrication” is one of the topics on which more research is needed. this gap in current knowledge can be identified by the lack of a road map that systematically shows areas in which these interactions can be practised. to fill this knowledge gap, this study evaluates the impact of bim–osm interactions on construction project performance. accordingly, the objectives set against the aim of this study are (a) to evaluate the effects of the bim and osm capabilities separately on project performance via key productivity indicators (kpris), (b) to identify any bim–osm interactions that mediate between the two approaches and (c) to determine the degree of effectiveness of bim capabilities that guarantee the promised benefits of osm for project performance. to achieve these objectives, covariance-based structural equation modelling (cbsem) was used to analyse data. data were collected through a survey. the participants in this study were australian construction professionals with experience in implementing or background knowledge of bim and osm. the results of this study demonstrate the practicality of bim–osm interactions that encourage construction professionals and clients to adopt bim–osm projects. the study also includes technical information applicable to the planning stages of a project to better implement the hybridisation of bim–osm project management processes. the remainder of this paper is organised as follows. section 2 presents a literature review focused on project performance and the adoption of bim and osm techniques individually and concurrently. section 3 develops the hypotheses, and section 4 discusses the research methodology. section 5 describes the data analyses and findings. section 6 discusses the results and the contributions of this study. last, section 7 concludes the paper. literature review the distinction between performance and productivity was delineated by sabet and chong (2018), who argued that performance goals may be reached through improved indicators of productivity. improved control over activities is another means of eliminating likely inefficiencies in dynamic environments, such as complex construction sites (kenley, 2014). the successful elimination of inefficiencies in a functioning system may be subject to innovation and its effective diffusion. gambatese and hallowell (2011) supported rogers’s (1995) finding that the successful diffusion of innovation needs three critical aspects: idea development, opportunity creation and innovation practice. “diffusion”, as described by kale and arditi (2010, p. 330), is “the process by which an invention is conveyed among and practised by the members of a society over time via certain routes”. diffusion theory aims to explain the processes, reasons, and trends underlying the spread of new concepts and technologies. the diffusion of technological innovations is a slow process that requires tangible evidence of the actual beneficial application of these new approaches. implementation attempts for bim and osm have far fallen short of their aims because of a dearth of studies on their systematic adoption. the usa and the uk have adopted legislation and standards to encourage bim implementation and have thus demonstrated its application (lea, et al., 2015). furthermore, the uk government has stipulated that all public sector projects apply a minimum level 2 bim (ullah, lill and witt, 2019). in contrast, osm still faces a lack of more regulatory standards for the work environment and requires greater uniformity across construction components. many scholars have highlighted the capabilities of these techniques to encourage potential beneficiaries. for instance, ezcan, isikdag and goulding (2013) created an enhanced bim-based model to address shortcomings in osm projects, such as insufficient connectivity across technology, processes and people. in addition, nawari (2012) revealed that bim connects the stages of design, manufacture, and construction, allowing all stakeholders to access pertinent data. these connections have altered traditional construction processes. sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025223 moreover, abanda, tah and cheung (2017) emphasised that projects based on bim–osm have significant advantages over traditional building projects. project performance nassar (2009) developed a combined framework that includes the scope of performance in construction projects. the framework reflects cost, quality, time, safety, and shareholder satisfaction as the main considerations for performance assessment. incorporating and measuring these dimensions are considered imperative to the operational monitoring of project performance. the ongoing demand for improved construction methods emerges from the need to ensure profitability for stakeholders, clients, and end users. however, the dynamic and agile nature of the construction sector tests the flexibility of these methods. it also raises questions about a technique’s ability to function within a system (ferrada, serpell and skibniewski, 2013). holton and burnett (2005) asserted that constantly changing environments may also impede project execution by disrupting stakeholder communication and information flow. consequently, cost, quality, time, and safety inefficiencies may be inevitable when new techniques are first implemented until their application is calibrated and optimised. the resulting dissatisfaction among project parties may give rise to disagreements during projects, which further obstruct the achievement of improved project performance. according to walker and daniels (2019), a cooperative environment is important for improving the performance levels of a project. moreover, jha and iyer (2006) believed that shareholder satisfaction can also contribute to improving project performance. dozzi and abourizk (1993) stated that the terms “performance” and “productivity” are used interchangeably in project performance literature and clarified that the two concepts are complementary. background on osm off-site manufacturing has been recognised as a viable solution for meeting the demands of increased construction complexity (hou, et al., 2020). the invention of osm, through which standardised construction elements are manufactured, distributed and installed at construction sites, has been welcomed as a breakthrough in construction innovation (arashpour, et al., 2020). this method could lead to construction efficiencies and increased productivity (wasim, serra and ngo, 2020). for the betterment of the industry and its collective understanding of osm, it is important to recognise and be cognisant of the further terms of reference used to describe this technique, such as “industrialised building” and “prefabrication” (khalfan and maqsood, 2014). osm products include volumetric and non-volumetric items, as well as organised concrete and steel structural components, wall panels, electrical and mechanical elements, and full units that are preassembled for various phases of construction (elnaas, gidado and ashton, 2014). a wide range of joinery components are also available for assembly in construction projects (blismas and wakefield, 2009). according to the sustainable built environment national research centre (2017), a regulated environment can help limit the possibility of negative consequences associated with inefficient material use or scheduling, as well as safety and quality concerns. eliminating unfavourable influences that contribute to rework increases productivity (hughes and thorpe, 2014). osm reduces not only waste but also the expenditure and time required because fewer resources are committed to waste management. the use of preassembled modules enhances quality, minimises resources, improves safety and risk outcomes, boosts collaboration among project parties, and reduces total project/product costs (arif and egbu, 2010). according to duc, forsythe and orr (2014), the restricted osm market in australia is due to a paucity of high-quality prefabricated items. such challenges jeopardise the timeliness and cost-effectiveness of osm-based developments. the uk, malaysia, hong kong, china and australia have all given significant attention to osm (li, et al., 2014). numerous studies have been conducted on osm over the past decade, sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025224 but there is still potential for improvement in terms of operational, management, and strategic concerns in order to make osm more useful to the construction sector (hossieni, martek, et al., 2018). background on bim bim has been considered a management tool for fostering stakeholder collaboration (liu, van nederveen and hertogh, 2017). the integration of graphical and non-graphical information in a bim approach allows project stakeholders to communicate more efficiently throughout the project life cycle (pezeshki, soleimani and darabi, 2019). bim is a significant innovation that has been widely adopted in architecture, engineering, and construction management (issa and olbina, 2015). it enables service time reduction across a variety of disciplines, including for facility managers, cost management consultants, building services designers, and principal contractors (fox and hietanen, 2007). bim has been identified and recommended by several governments as a viable method to counter poor construction productivity. the uk, as a bim pioneer, has enforced the use of level 2 bim in government projects (kassem, et al., 2015). level 2 bim creates a collaborative environment in which all project participants can share their three-dimensional (3d) models (e.g., models for architecture, structure, and services) (edirisinghe and london, 2015). bim capabilities include component specification identification, material quantification and project estimation, 3d visualisation, site accessibility, planning and scheduling, and progress monitoring, all of which contribute directly to the effective use of material, equipment and human resources ( jung and joo, 2011). bim adoption has accelerated and diversified the implementation of bim in businesses in proportion to their expertise and customer demand ( jung and lee, 2015). according to aibinu and papadonikolaki (2020, p. 1), “in order to obtain good results with bim, adopters must choose the most effective implementation plan that is economically viable”. the information management capabilities of bim reinforce other creative approaches and construction processes (ezcan, isikdag and goulding, 2013; abanda, tah and cheung, 2017). when bim is used in conjunction with another methodology, their capabilities may overlap and accordingly augment the functionality of both. the integration of bim with other techniques is likely to accelerate its adoption and expand its operational and strategic reach in sustainable development (manzoor, et al., 2021). for instance, bim can be used in conjunction with lean building techniques to create a collaborative ecosystem (sacks, et al., 2010). in addition, ghalenoei, et al. (2022) emphasised bim’s information flowing capability in osm. however, singh, sawhney and borrmann (2019) stated that rule-based scrips should be created to improve practitioners’ bim integration with other methodologies. gelic, neimann and wallwork (2016) found that bim adoption in australia remains low despite its status as an influential technique. the high cost of hiring bim-proficient teams and the limits of current software (alwisy, et al., 2019) and contracting (migilinskas, et al., 2013) may jeopardise project cost performance and justify bim’s low adoption. from the perspective of bim’s influencing qualities, its function and implementation are worthy of additional examination from the standpoint of the diffusion of innovation theory (hosseini, banihashemi, et al., 2016). interaction between bim and osm although the performance of osm-based housing has been discussed to be superior to that of more traditional housing (pervez, et al., 2022), several obstacles such as “lack of experience, poor communication, budgetary constraints, and stakeholder limits” (hu, et al., 2019, p. 8) have remained impediments to osm adoption. according to mostafa, et al. (2020, p. 1), bim can help eliminate “design flaws and discrepancies in final product models between designers and manufacturers”, as well as some other hurdles. a bim element model offers designers many of the components’ necessary product details. these considerable benefits may contribute to the components’ constructability and usage on the building site (khanzadi, sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025225 sheikhkhoshkar and banihashemi, 2020). gade, et al. (2019) discovered that bim may play a mediating function through its collaborative sharing platform, therefore optimising functionality. according to wynn, et al. (2013), the information technology-based characteristics of bim can help improve the efficiency of osm. according to ezcan, isikdag and goulding (2013, p. 7), the most useful features of bim in osmbased projects include “offering an enhanced design, promoting cooperation, and covering accurate and large amounts of information”. sabet and chong (2019) emphasised the possibility of integrating the two techniques, which would lead to faster construction; improved quality, cost and safety control; and minimisation of rework on site, or, more broadly, a more sustainable project from conception through to completion. these possibilities are referred to as bim–osm interactions, which comprise a road map that identifies the capabilities of osm and bim that could be paired to maximise the effectiveness of one another. nevertheless, given the lack of empirical research on the use of bim in osm, the link between the two techniques is questionable (tang, chon and zhang, 2019). according to nawari (2012), bim standards and regulations built entirely for osm can ensure productivity and efficiency in osm-based projects. as osm–bim interactions have not been investigated in australia, a road map to show how to practise these interactions is lacking, which has encouraged this research. therefore, an in-depth literature review is performed in this research for four primary reasons. the first is to clarify project performance, the second is to depict the capabilities of bim and osm, the third is to highlight the extent of bim in osm, and the fourth is to define existing opportunities through the concurrent adoption of the two techniques. hypothesis development the first stage of this study focused on identifying existing evidence to establish a foundation for this research. relevant publications were collected by assessing their abstracts. keywords in the searches included construction, productivity growth/improvement, construction performance, bim capabilities, osm capabilities, bim in construction, osm in construction, and bim in osm. the examination of the theoretical framework required an empirical study. to ensure a solid hypothetical model, the research team conducted a pilot study in which they approached several leading scholars and construction industry representatives, both in person and virtually. these individuals were project managers, supervisors, quantity surveyors, project and site engineers, and architects with professional and academic bim and osm backgrounds. the research team discussed the research aim with these participants and collected feedback on the research method. the hypotheses and the research model were narrowed down after a few rounds of pilot studies. the first and second rounds focused on collecting the basis of the hypotheses and construct validity, respectively. to ensure construct validity, the research team conferred with the industry and academic leaders of the first round and verified the measurement constructs. in the pilot studies, the team created statements that highlighted the possible relevance of the interactions and capabilities to ensure content validity. the pilot study participants confirmed that the claims were worded in an easily comprehensible manner, which made them more capable of precisely measuring the objectives. then, the hypotheses were developed via the discussions about each, as explained in the following. bim and project performance ghaffarianhoseini, et al. (2017) examined the capabilities of bim at various stages, including model explanation, on-site coordination, buildability assessment, quantification and estimation, model unification and clash detection, sequential clarification, and data collection and transmission, based on existing literature. sabet and chong (2019) argued that in addition to these benefits, bim can regulate safety sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025226 considerations, which can significantly boost project productivity. consequently, extant literature suggests that an in-depth examination is warranted to gain a comprehensive picture of how well bim capabilities align with the performance scope of projects. a section of this study highlights the implementation of bim from the standpoint of productivity. to evaluate this assertion in conjunction with hypothesis 6, the following hypothesis was developed: h1: bim has considerable influence on the overall project performance. osm and project performance osm has created significant opportunities for the construction sector to enhance project performance (choi, chen and kim, 2019). by reviewing relevant literature, sabet and chong (2018) identified the major osm capabilities as automation and serial manufacturing, improved working conditions, earlier return on investment, sustainability outcomes, and safer operations. the capabilities and potential advantages of osm have raised demand for its application, which is expected to continue to grow internationally. it has been suggested that australia expedited the deployment of osm to boost its domestic property market (sustainable built environment national research centre, 2017). however, concerns about osm application have hindered such deployment (wynn, et al., 2013), and further study into ways to increase its applicability is necessary to confirm its advantages. given that osm appears capable of improving productivity indicators, research that quantifies the effectiveness of its capabilities in improving project performance may contribute to more complete knowledge of its applicability. to aid in the commercial acceptance of osm, the following hypothesis was developed: h2: osm has considerable influence on the overall project performance. bim–osm interactions and project performance as aforementioned, sabet and chong (2019) evaluated prior literature on the integration of bim in osm, and they drew attention to 12 possible osm–bim interactions that can enhance kpris and lead to optimised performance. they called for further studies to improve the understanding of the viability of these interactions. site allocation and accessibility, safety, planning and scheduling, procurement and contracts, sustainability, value engineering, information flow, interface management, sequencing, location management and concurrent engineering are all examples of possible interconnections. the following hypotheses were established for examination using the cb-sem method to investigate the correlation between these two approaches that may positively affect these variables and the overall project performance: h3: bim has considerable influence on osm. h4: osm has considerable influence on bim–osm interactions. h5: bim has considerable influence on bim–osm interactions. h6: bim–osm interactions have considerable influence on the overall project performance. given the scarcity of studies that measure the interactions between bim, osm and kpris, the present study built a hypothetical model encompassing four components (see figure 1). as shown in figure 1, the standalone capabilities of the two techniques, as well as their interactions, serve as independent factors in the research, while the overall project success (as measured by kpris, as already stated) serves as the dependent variable. sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025227 figure 1. hypothetical research model. research methodology the steps of this investigation are depicted in figure 2. this study had two main stages. the first was a comprehensive literature review to identify the research gap, which was found to be the lack of a road map on how to systematically apply bim in osm. this gap motivated the research team to develop a theoretical framework and then conduct an empirical study in the second stage to evaluate the relationships between the variables in the research model. a scoping review approach was implemented in the literature review. pham, et al. (2014) stated that this type of review approach provides the basis of any potential synergies between research variables. peters, et al. (2015) asserted that such an approach is supportive to new systems on which there is insufficient literature. 1. literature review and gap identification 3. development of observable variables and data collection tool 2. hypothetical model 4. survey, and data collection 5. data analysis 6. model confirmation/revision reliability examination hypotheses testing figure 2. flowchart of research stages. the comprehensive literature review and the pilot studies revealed that quantitative research using a questionnaire would be most suitable for this research. therefore, the need to conduct quantitative research was the basis for the selection and development of a questionnaire as the data collection instrument. the pilot study participants advised the research team to design a straightforward, effective questionnaire that could motivate respondents to complete and return it. most of those participants suggested that a 5-point likert scale be used. in quantitative research, the identification of capable respondents is important in the design of a reliable research tool. in addition, the sampling strategy has a clear, direct relationship with the reliability and accuracy of outcomes in quantitative research (holton and burnett, 2005). the steps in the sampling strategy applied in this study included selecting the target population, ensuring the accessibility of the population, finalising the eligibility criteria, outlining the sampling plan and recruiting the sample. morse sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025228 (1991, p. 127) stated that “purposeful sampling” needs to be followed in the data collection stage, which involves selecting informants who are best able to meet the informational needs of the study. as aforementioned, six hypotheses were developed to build a hypothetical model for quantifying the correlations between osm, bim, bim–osm interactions and the overall project performance. this model contains four variables. the individual capabilities of the two approaches, as well as their interactions, were independent variables, whereas the overall project success was the dependent variable. the capabilities of the two techniques were “observable criteria” for assessing the practicality of osm and bim. in addition, observable factors for evaluating the viability of bim–osm interactions included a variety of descriptions. table 1 shows the various pathways and hypothesised effects between variables. table 1. hypothesised effects between variables. paths hypotheses involved variables potential overall influence path1 (via v1 and v4) h1 v1 independent and v4 dependent direct path2 (via v2 and v4) h2 v2 independent and v4 dependent direct path3 (via v1 and v2) h3 v1 independent and v2 dependent direct path4 (via v2, v3 and v4) h4 and h6 v2 independent, v3 dependent on v2 and v4 dependent on v3 indirect path5 (via v1, v3 and v4) h5 and h6 v1 independent, v3 dependent on v1 and v4 dependent on v3 indirect table 2 lists the constructions and the observable variables that may be used to quantify the latent variables. the elements that influence the choice of an appropriate research technique include constraints such as financial and time constraints, research potential and the willingness of (human) participants (brannen, 2005). a hypothetical model was developed using the hypotheses (h1–h6) and was assessed using the cb-sem technique via the amos software to analyse the relationships between variables in the research model. data reliability was assessed using cronbach’s alpha. in addition, regression tests were applied to detect potential associations and degrees of influence between the variables in this model. last, the findings of the hypothesis testing revealed whether the model was valid or required revision. data analysis and findings data collection first, a link to the questionnaire was sent via qualtrics to construction professionals with relevant skills and experience, and an additional paper questionnaire was also circulated. engineers australia made a substantial contribution to this study. the survey was formally announced to its participants, who were encouraged to participate. next, the research team contacted those practitioners via linkedin and informed them of the study. the team found linkedin to be the most useful site for learning about potential participants’ backgrounds. based on their experience, the research team targeted practitioners who were sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025229 table 2. sem measurement. latent variable abbrev. capabilities/interactions (observable variables) sources contributing to development of indicators building information modelling (bim) 3d 3d modelling azhar (2011) ca constructability assessment fadoul, et al. (2017) me measurement/estimation wu, et al. (2014) cd clash detection wang, et al. (2016) sc sequence clarification w. lee, et al. (2015) smb safety management martinez-aires, et al. (2018) ps planning and scheduling kiani, et al. (2015) sc site coordination azhar (2011) off-site manufacturing (osm) ap automation and series production eastman and sacks (2008); tibaut, et al. (2016) smo safety management pan, et al. (2012); sustainable built environment national research centre (2017) sto sustainability boyd, et al. (2013) fr faster investment return elnaas, et al. (2009) wc working conditions zhai, reed and mills (2014) marketing eastman and sacks (2008) bim–osm i1slm1 sequence and location management sabet and chong (2018); r. santos, et al. (2019) i1slm2 babič, podbreznik and rebolj (2010) i1slm3 i2,3ps1 planning and scheduling utiome and drogemuller (2013) i2,3ps2 bortolini, formoso and viana (2019) i4sm1 safety management yeoh, wong and peng (2016) i4sm2 shang and shen (2016) i4sm3 zhang, et al. (2015) i5,6,7st1 sustainability abanda, tah, and cheung (2017); juszczyk, et al. (2015) i5,6,7st2 liu, et al. (2011) i8im1 interface management nath, et al. (2015) i8im2 woo (2006) sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025230 skilled in implementing or had knowledge of osm and bim. the scope for this study was australia, and the research team intended to generalise the outcome to the entire country. the data collection period was longer than initially anticipated because a limited number of responses were obtained. the main reason was that practitioners lacked sufficient experience in using either bim or osm. in all, 687 questionnaires were circulated. studies on the adoption of innovative techniques and the implementation of innovations in the construction sector frequently have a low response rate (ahankoob, et al., 2018). for instance, the response rate for ling’s (2003) survey on construction innovations was just 6%. contacting a representative (i.e., one who represents a group of practitioners) of firms and organisations is an effective way of encouraging professionals to engage. representatives were requested to answer the questionnaire based on the background of their knowledge, project experience and learnings through careful reviewing of project reports. the respondents rated the observable variables on a 5-point likert scale. their responses were analysed using sem. a bootstrapping technique was also used to improve the accuracy of data analysis. the response rate was low, and only 77 valid returned questionnaires out of the 687 circulated questionnaires were included in the data analysis. reliability and validity of constructs cronbach’s alpha (with a coefficient greater than 0.7) was used to assess the reliability of scales (santos, 1999). the questionnaire’s reliability was confirmed using cronbach’s alpha, which yielded a coefficient of 0.94. thus, the dependability of the data was established. given these arguments, the validity and reliability of the results produced from valid content and constructs followed by reliable surveys are acceptable. latent variable abbrev. capabilities/interactions (observable variables) sources contributing to development of indicators i9cc1 contract condition chao-duivis (2011); luth, et al. (2014) i9cc2 fan, et al. (2019) i10it1 information technology sabet and chong (2019) i10it2 sabet and chong (2019) i10it3 martinez, et al. (2019) i11ve1 value engineering jrade and lessard (2015); abanda, tah, and cheung (2017) i11ve2 i12ce concurrent engineering farnsworth, et al. (2015) project performance quality j. lee and kim (2017) cost ocheoha and moselhi (2018) time arashpour, et al. (2020) safety abanda, tah, and cheung (2017) sts stakeholder satisfaction abanda, tah, and cheung (2017) table 2. continued sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025231 table 3 presents the factor loadings for each observed variable, which represent an appropriate correlation coefficient (>0.3). in other words, each variable contributed suitably to the questionnaire’s competence for measuring the construct intended to be measured. table 3. measurement scale and properties of constructs. construct observed variable (abbrev.) correlation coefficient (factor loading) cronbach’s alpha if item deleted building information modelling (bim) 3d 0.46 ca 0.54 0.94 me 0.54 cd 0.35 sc 0.53 smb 0.61 ps 0.45 off-site manufacturing (osm) sc 0.48 ap 0.48 smo 0.48 sto 0.38 fr 0.36 wc 0.39 mkt 0.48 interactions i1 slm1 0.32 slm2 0.58 slm3 0.60 i2,3 ps1 0.46 ps2 0.58 i4 sm1 0.60 sm2 0.61 sm3 0.68 i5,6,7 st1 0.49 st2 0.76 i8 im1 0.60 i9 cc1 0.65 cc2 0.46 sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025232 construct observed variable (abbrev.) correlation coefficient (factor loading) cronbach’s alpha if item deleted i10 it1 0.60 it2 0.38 it3 0.57 i11 ve1 0.47 ve2 0.46 i12 ce 0.61 project performance time 0.53 cost 0.62 quality 0.68 safety 0.65 satisfaction 0.54 hypothesis assessment and interpretation the hypotheses were tested using cb-sem with bootstrapping. using the amos software, the standardised path coefficient (β) was determined via sem. the p-values of the first two pathways were greater than 0.05, as shown in table 4. this means that osm and bim did not have a major impact on the overall project performance. therefore, h1 and h2 were not supported. the findings of this study on individual osm and bim applications in australia are consistent with prior findings on the limited success of osm (duc, forsythe and orr, 2014) and immature bim adoption (gelic, neimann and wallwork, 2016). as can be observed from the results in the third row of table 4, bim had a substantial impact on osm (β = 0.4, p = 0.05). these results supported h3. furthermore, both osm (β = 0.79, p = 0.05) and bim (β = 0.40, p = 0.05) had a substantial impact on the osm–bim interactions. this means that each method can interact with the other. these results supported h4 and h5. last, the interaction between bim and osm table 3. continued table 4. hypothesis assessment results. hypothesis path path coefficient (β) p-value interpretation h1 project performance < bim 0.00 0.279 not supported h2 project performance < osm 0.49 0.175 not supported h3 osm < bim 0.31 0.003 supported h4 bim–osm interactions < osm 0.79 0.015 supported h5 bim–osm interactions < bim 0.40 0.009 supported h6 project performance < bim–osm interactions 0.86 0.000 supported sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025233 influenced the overall project performance considerably (β = 0.86, p = 0.05). in other words, the capabilities of each approach resulted in positive osm–bim interactions, which improved the kpris and contributed to the predicted performance of projects. thus, h6 was supported. the path coefficients (regression weights) of each approach’s capabilities, as well as the relationships between osm and bim, are shown in figure 3. for example, the regression weight of 3d bim was 0.68, that of osm automation and series production was 1, and that of concurrent engineering (i12ce) was 0.72. the weight of the interface management, comprised i8im1 (1.00) and i8im2 (0.87). in terms of their direct influence on the overall project performance, the weights of osm and bim were 0.49 and 0.00, respectively. the bim weight of 0.00 shows that the respondents were uncertain whether the individual application of bim has a direct, positive impact at this point of practice in australia. this ambiguous position of bim may stem from its low adoption in australia (gelic, neimann and wallwork, 2016), which has resulted in its immaturity in the australian market (hosseini, pärn, et al., 2018). most interactions were given a weight of 0.70 or higher, but osm and bim were each given a weight of 0.40 for their direct influence on interaction formation. for their direct impact on the overall project performance, the bim– osm interactions received a weight of 0.89. the indirect effects of osm and bim on the overall project performance were 0.68 (0.79 * 0.86) and 0.35 (0.40 * 0.86), respectively. figure 3. path coefficients (sem model). sem, structural equation modelling discussion and contributions the feasibility of the individual capabilities of bim and osm approaches—and the feasibility of their combined capabilities, referred to as bim–osm interactions—were assessed in this study. complicated correlations between the interrelated variables were tested to quantify the feasibility of combining the capabilities of these two approaches. this measurement allowed respondents in this study to assess the capabilities of the strategies in relation to their prospective interactions. the evaluation of the hypothetical model resulted in the rejection of two hypotheses out of the six tested. in other words, this study clarified sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025234 that the individual application of osm or bim does not affect the overall project performance, but their concurrent application can significantly affect the project performance dimensions. first, this study contributes to the literature by indicating that a range of theoretical collaborative opportunities, referred to as interactions between osm and bim, are mediators that improve kpris and thus the overall project performance. in addition to revealing the effects of these interactions, this study suggested how and when these should be used throughout a project. thus, this study shows that the interactions found have practical consequences for planning and management. for instance, an expanded bim model accurately specifies the needed technical parameters for building components. these requirements significantly reduce the possibility of construction errors. meanwhile, osm allows automation and series manufacturing, both of which contribute greatly to a more rapid flow of advancement and more rapid progress of construction projects. as a result, a bim–osm system may give precise technical requirements for a building project. this is critical to the project’s success in serial production since correcting manufacturing faults consumes time and money, which can undermine initiatives. these skills can aid in the management of interfaces and satisfy stakeholders in a bim–osm-based project. to base this interactive approach, three critical aspects of innovation—idea development, opportunity creation, and diffusion—were defined. this hybrid system could be counted as a unique method for ensuring the entire project performance that may be extensively implemented in the industry. this study discussed that the implementation of innovation and the development of coordination between novel techniques in real-life situations are fundamental to accelerating the evolution of, and addressing future demand in, the construction industry. it emphasised that the success rate of innovation requires a systematic implementation of new techniques. thus, second, this study satisfies the objective of the diffusion of innovation theory, as the research outcomes are consistent with the principle of this theory. conclusion the links between bim, osm, bim–osm interactions, and the overall project performance were investigated in this study. cb-sem was used to analyse the data and test the hypotheses, with bootstrapping added to improve the accuracy of the data analysis. the findings reveal that bim and osm capabilities have not been systematically implemented in australia and that the capabilities of osm and bim as singular methods had no significant impact on the overall project performance when applied individually in a project. however, bim was found to substantially influence osm, which implies the presence of symbiotic capabilities, and to accordingly optimise each other’s effectiveness. this study demonstrates the degree of influence of each method (regression weight) and the approach (direct and indirect effects) on the overall project performance (see figure 3). the development of their interactions suggests a positive association in the systematic implementation of these approaches. by improving kpris, these interactions are capable of optimising the performance scopes of projects, such as time, cost, quality, safety, and stakeholder satisfaction, suggesting that productivity increase is followed by improved project performance in a bim–osm-based project. the implementation of osm and bim in a hybrid system could allow the identified interactions to fulfil the objectives of both techniques. the prominent output of this study is a road map, as the empirical contribution, which shows how effective bim–osm interactions can be applied in the planning and management of osm-based projects. therefore, this hybrid system represents an innovative process for overall project performance, which can be widely applied in the industry and added to the body of knowledge on the concurrent implementation of osm and bim. the study findings may encourage clients and stakeholders to adopt hybrid bim–osm projects to improve the overall project performance. nevertheless, the findings cannot be applied to other countries, as the research scope was limited to australia. moreover, the outputs of this study align with the diffusion sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025235 of innovation theory, as this study illustrated idea development, opportunity creation, and practice of innovation. limitations of the study this study has some limitations. the first is the lack of projects that fully applied bim or osm techniques or of case studies that reported the combined application of the two techniques. a report detailing a bim–osm-based project could serve as a theoretical benchmark and help evaluate the concept. the second limitation is the lack of professionals with experience in using both techniques. the third is that the contractors and clients approached for this study showed no interest in adopting new methods. thus, practitioners should be educated on the benefits of a hybrid bim–osm system to foster more collaborative research. data availability statement the corresponding author can make available data, models or codes that support the findings of this study upon reasonable request. references abanda, f., tah, j. and cheung, f., 2017. bim in off-site manufacturing for buildings. journal of building engineering, [e-journal] 14, pp.89–102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2017.10.002 ahankoob, a., manley, k., hon, c. and drongemuller, r., 2018. the impact of building information modelling (bim) maturity and experience on contractor absorptive capacity. architectural engineering and design management, [e-journal] 14(5), pp.363–80. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2018.1467828 aibinu, a.a. and papadonikolaki, e., 2020. conceptualizing and operationalizing team task interdependences: bim implementation assessment using effort distribution analytics. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 38(5), pp.420–46. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1623409 alwisy, a., hamdan, s.b., barkokebas, b., bouferguene, a. and al-hussein, m.a., 2019. bim-based automation of design and drafting for manufacturing of wood panels for modular residential buildings. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 19(3), pp.187–205. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1411458 arashpour, m., heidarpour, a., nezhad, a.a., hosseinifard, z., chileshe, n. and hosseini, r., 2020. performancebased control of variability and tolerance in off-site manufacture and assembly: optimization of penalty on poor production quality. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 38(6), pp.502–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144 6193.2019.1616789 arif, m. and egbu, c., 2010. making a case for offsite construction in china. engineering. construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 17(6), pp. 536–48. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981011090170 azhar, s., 2011. building information modeling (bim): trends, benefits, risks, and challenges for the aec industry. leadership and management in engineering, 11(3), pp. 241–52. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)lm.19435630.0000127 babič, n.č., podbreznik, p. and rebolj, d., 2010. integrating resource production and construction using bim. automation in construction, 19(50), pp.539–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2009.11.005 blismas, n. and wakefield, r., 2009. drivers, constraints and the future of offsite manufacture in australia. construction innovation, 9(1), pp. 72–83. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170910931552 sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025236 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2017.10.002 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2018.1467828 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1623409 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1411458 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1616789 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1616789 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981011090170 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)lm.1943-5630.0000127 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)lm.1943-5630.0000127 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2009.11.005 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170910931552 bortolini, r., formoso, c.t. and viana, d.d., 2019. site logistics planning and control for engineer-to-order prefabricated building systems using bim 4d modeling. automation in construction, 98, pp.248–64. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.11.031 boyd, n., khalfan, m. m. and maqsood, t., 2013. off-site construction of apartment buildings. journal of architectural engineering, 19(1), pp.51–57. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000091 brannen, j., 2005. mixing methods: the entry of qualitative and quantitative approaches into the research process. international journal of social research methodology, 8(3), pp.173–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/13645570500154642 chao-duivis, m., 2011. some legal aspects of bim in establishing a collaborative relationship. in: the management and innovation for a sustainable built environment, misbe 2011, amsterdam, the netherlands, 20–23 june 2011, delft university of technology. choi, j.o., chen, x.b. and kim, t.w., 2019. opportunities and challenges of modular methods in dense urban environment. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 19(2), pp.93–105. https://doi.org/10.1080/1 5623599.2017.1382093 dolage, d. and chan, p., 2013. productivity in construction-a critical review of research. journal of the institution of engineers, 46(4), pp.31–42. https://doi.org/10.4038/engineer.v46i4.6808 dozzi, s.p. and abourizk, s.m.,1993. productivity in construction. ottawa: institute for research in construction, national research council ottawa. duc, e., forsythe, p. and orr, k., 2014. is there really a case for off-site manufacturing? in: the 31st international symposium on automation and robotics in construction and mining, isarc 2014-proceedings. sydney: faculty of design, architecture and building, university of technology. pp.238–246. https://doi.org/10.22260/isarc2014/0032 eastman, c.m., and sacks, r., 2008. relative productivity in the aec industries in the united states for on-site and off-site activities. journal of construction engineering and management, 134(7), pp.517–526. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(2008)134:7(517) edirisinghe, r. and london k., 2015. comparative analysis of international and national level bim standardization efforts and bim adoption. in: proceedings of the 32nd cib w78 conference. eindhoven, the netherlands: eindhoven university of technology. pp.149–158, cib. elnaas, h., ashton p. and gidado, k., 2009. decision making process for using off-site manufacturing systems for housing projects. in: the 25th annual arcom conference, nottingham, uk, 7–9 september 2009. reading, uk: association of researchers in construction management. elnaas, h., gidado, k., and ashton, p., 2014. factors and drivers effecting the decision of using off-site manufacturing (osm) systems in house building industry. journal of engineering, project, and production management, 4(1), pp.51–58. https://doi.org/10.32738/jeppm.201401.0006 ezcan, v., isikdag, u. and goulding, j., 2013. bim and off-site manufacturing: recent research and opportunities. in: proceedings of the 19th cib world building congress, brisbane, australia: queensland university of technology. available at: https://wbc2013.apps.qut.edu.au/papers/cibwbc2013_submission_118.pdf. fadoul, a., tizani, w. and koch, c., 2017. constructability assessment model for buildings design. in: c. koch, w. tizani and j. ninic, eds. proceedings of the 24th eg-ice international workshop on intelligent computing in engineering 2017, nottingham, uk: european group for intelligent computing in engineering. pp.86–95. fan, s.l., chong, h.y., liao, p.c. and lee, c.y., 2019. latent provisions for building information modeling (bim) contracts: a social network analysis approach. ksce journal of civil engineering, 23(4), pp.1427–35. https://doi. org/10.1007/s12205-019-0064-8 sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025237 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.11.031 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.11.031 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000091 https://doi.org/10.1080/13645570500154642 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1382093 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1382093 https://doi.org/10.4038/engineer.v46i4.6808 https://doi.org/10.22260/isarc2014/0032 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:7(517 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:7(517 https://doi.org/10.32738/jeppm.201401.0006 https://wbc2013.apps.qut.edu.au/papers/cibwbc2013_submission_118.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-019-0064-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-019-0064-8 farnsworth, c.b., beveridge, s., miller, k.r., and christofferson, j.p., 2015. application, advantages, and methods associated with using bim in commercial construction. international journal of construction education and research, 11(3), pp.218–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2013.865683 ferrada, x., serpell, a. and skibniewski, m., 2013. selection of construction methods: a knowledge-based approach. the scientific world journal, 2013, p.938503. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/938503 fox, s. and hietanen, j., 2007. interorganizational use of building information models: potential for automational, informational and transformational effects. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 25(3), pp.289–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190600892995 gade, p.n., gade a.n., otrel-cass, k. and svidt, k., 2019. a holistic analysis of a bim-mediated building design process using activity theory. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 37(6), pp.336–50. https://doi.org/10.1 080/01446193.2018.1533644 gambatese, j.a., and hallowell, m., 2011. enabling and measuring innovation in the construction industry. construction management and economics, 29(6), pp.553–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.570357 gelic, g., neimann, r. and wallwork, a., 2016. what you need to know about bim in australia. ipwea blogs, [blog], 2 august. available at: https://www.ipwea.org/blogs/intouch/2016/08/01/what-you-need-to-know-about -bimin-australia [accessed 9 january 2018]. ghaffarianhoseini, a., tookey, j., ghaffarianhoseini, a., naismith, n., azhar, s., efimova, o. and raahemifar, k., 2017. building information modelling (bim) uptake: clear benefits, understanding its implementation, risks and challenges. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 75, pp.1046–53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.083 ghalenoei, k.n., jelodar, b.m., paes, d. and sutrisna, m., 2022.challenges of offsite construction and bim implementation: providing a framework for integration in new zealand. smart and sustainable built environment, [e-journal], 13(4), pp.780–808. https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-07-2022-0139 holton, e.f. and burnett, m.f., 2005. the basics of quantitative research. in: r.a. swanson and e.f. holton, eds. research in organizations: foundations and methods of inquiry. san fransico: berrett-koehler publishers. pp.29–44. hosseini, m.r., banihashemi, s., chileshe, n., namzadi, m. o., udaeja, c., rameezdeen, r., & mccuen, t., 2016. bim adoption within australian small and medium-sized enterprises (smes): an innovation diffusion model. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 16(3), 71–86. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i3.5159 hosseini, m.r., banihashemi, s., martek, i., golizadeh, h. and ghodoosi, f., 2018. sustainable delivery of megaprojects in iran: integrated model of contextual factors. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 34(2), pp.1–12. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000587 hosseini, m.r., maghrebi, m., akbarnezhad, a., martek, i. and arashpour, m., 2018. analysis of citation networks in building information modeling research. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 144(8). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001492 hosseini, m.r., maghrebi, m., chileshe, n. and waller, s.t., 2016. an investigation into the perceived quality of communications in dispersed construction project teams. in: j.l. perdomo-rivera, a. gonzáles-quevedo, c.l. del puerto, f. maldonado-fortunet, o.i. molina-bas, eds. construction research congress 2016. reston, va: asce. pp.1813–22. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784479827.181 hosseini, m.r., martek, i., zavadskas, e.k., aibinu, a.a., arashpour, m. and chileshe, n., 2018. critical evaluation of off-site construction research: a scientometric analysis. automation in construction, 87, pp.235–47. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.12.002 sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025238 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2013.865683 https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/938503 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190600892995 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2018.1533644 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2018.1533644 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.570357 https://www.ipwea.org/blogs/intouch/2016/08/01/what-you-need-to-know-about https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.083 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-07-2022-0139 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i3.5159 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000587 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001492 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784479827.181 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.12.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.12.002 hosseini, m.r., pärn, e., edwards, d., papadonikolaki, e., and oraee, m., 2018. roadmap to mature bim use in australian smes: competitive dynamics perspective. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 34(5). https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000636 hou, l., tan, y., luo, w., xu, s., mao, c. and moon, s., 2020. towards a more extensive application of off-site construction: a technological review. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(11), pp.2154–65. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1768463 hu, x., chong, h.y., wang, x. and london, k., 2019. understanding stakeholders in off-site manufacturing: a literature review. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 145(8). https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)co.1943-7862.0001674 hughes, r. and thorpe, d., 2014. a review of enabling factors in construction industry productivity in an australian environment. construction innovation, [e-journal] 14(2), pp.210–28. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-03-2013-0016 issa, r.r. and olbina, s. eds., 2015. building information modeling: applications and practices. reston, va: asce. https:// doi.org/10.1061/9780784413982 jha, k.n. and iyer, k.c., 2006. critical determinants of project coordination. international journal of project management, 24(4), pp.314–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.11.005 jrade, a. and lessard, j., 2015. an integrated bim system to track the time and cost of construction projects: a case study. journal of construction engineering, [e-journal]. https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/579486 jung, w. and lee, g., 2015. the status of bim adoption on six continents. international journal of civil, environmental, structural, construction and architectural engineering, 9(5), pp.444–48. jung, y. and joo, m., 2011. building information modelling (bim) framework for practical implementation. automation in construction, 20(2), pp.126–133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.09.010 juszczyk, m., výskala, m., and zima, k., 2015. prospects for the use of bim in poland and the czech republic: preliminary research results. procedia engineering, 123, 250–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.10.086 kale, s. and arditi, d., 2010. innovation diffusion modeling in the construction industry. journal of construction engineering and management, 136(3), pp.329–40. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000134 kassem, m., kelly, g., dawood, n., serginson, m. and lockley, s., 2015. bim in facilities management applications: a case study of a large university complex. built environment project and asset management, [e-journal] 5(3), pp.261–77. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-02-2014-0011 kenley, r., 2014. productivity improvement in the construction process. construction management and economics, 32(6), pp.489–94. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.930500 khalfan, m. and maqsood, t., 2014. current state of off-site manufacturing in australian and chinese residential construction. journal of construction engineering, [e-journal]. https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/164863 khanzadi, m., sheikhkhoshkar, m., banihashemi, s., 2020. bim applications toward key performance indicators of construction projects in iran. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 20(4), pp.305–20. https://doi. org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484852 kiani, i., sadeghifam, a.n., ghomi, s.k. and marsono, a.k.b., 2015. barriers to implementation of building information modeling in scheduling and planning phase in iran. australian journal of basic and applied sciences, 9(5), pp.91–7. lea, g., ganah, a., goulding, j. and ainsworth, n., 2015.identification and analysis of uk and us bim standards to aid collaboration. wit transactions on the built environment, [e-journal] 149, pp.505–16. https://doi.org/10.2495/ bim150411 sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025239 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000636 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000636 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1768463 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001674 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001674 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-03-2013-0016 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413982 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413982 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.11.005 https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/579486 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.09.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.10.086 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000134 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-02-2014-0011 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.930500 https://doi.org/10.1155/2014/164863 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484852 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484852 https://doi.org/10.2495/bim150411 https://doi.org/10.2495/bim150411 lee, j. and kim, j., 2017. bim-based 4d simulation to improve module manufacturing productivity for sustainable building projects. sustainability, [e-journal] 9(3), p.426. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9030426 lee, w., kang, s., moh, r., wu, r., hsieh, h. and shu, z., 2015. application of bim coordination technology to hsr changhua station. visualization in engineering, [e-journal] 3(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40327-014-0008-9 li, z., shen, g.q., and xue, x., 2014. critical review of the research on the management of prefabricated construction. habitat international, [e-journal] 43, 240–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2014.04.001 ling, f.y.y., 2003. managing the implementation of construction innovations. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 21(6), pp.635–49. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000123725 liu, y., van nederveen, s. and hertogh, m., 2017. understanding effects of bim on collaborative design and construction: an empirical study in china. international journal of project management, 35(4), pp.686–98. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.06.007 liu, z., osmani, m., demian, p. and baldwin, a.n., 2011. the potential use of bim to aid construction waste minimalisation. in: the cib w78-w102 2011: international conference. sophia antipolis, france, 26-28 october 2011, paper 53, loughborough university. luth, g.p., schorer, a. and turkan, y., 2014. lessons from using bim to increase design-construction integration. practice periodical on structural design and construction, 19(1), pp.103–10. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) sc.1943-5576.0000200 manzoor, b., othman, i., gardezi, s.s.s. and harirchian, e., 2021. strategies for adopting building information modeling (bim) in sustainable building projects: a case of malaysia. buildings, [e-journal] 11, p.249. https://doi. org/10.3390/buildings11060249 martinez, p., ahmad, r. and al-hussein, m., 2019. automatic selection tool of quality control specifications for offsite construction manufacturing products: a bim-based ontology model approach. in: m. al-hussein, ed. modular and offsite construction (moc) summit proceedings. alberta: university of alberta. pp. 141–148. https://doi.org/10.29173/ mocs87 martinez-aires, m.d., lopez-alonso, m. and martinez-rojas m., 2018. building information modeling and safety management: a systematic review. safety science, [e-journal] 101, pp.11–18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.08.015 migilinskas, d., popov, v., juocevicius, v. and ustinovichius, l., 2013. the benefits, obstacles and problems of practical bim implementation. procedia engineering, [e-journal] 57(1), pp.767–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2013.04.097 morse, j.m.,1991. strategies for sampling. in: j.m. morse, ed. qualitative nursing research: a contemporary dialogue. london: sage. pp.127–45. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483349015.n16 mostafa, s., kim, k.p., tam, v.w. and rahnamayie zekavat, p., 2020. exploring the status, benefits, barriers and opportunities of using bim for advancing prefabrication practice. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 20(2), pp.146–56. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484555 nassar, n.k., 2009. an integrated framework for evaluation of performance of construction projects. in: pmi® global congress, north america, orlando, florida, 10–13 october 2009. newtown square, pa: project management institute. nath, t., attarzadeh, m., tiong, r.l., chidambaram, c. and yu, z., 2015. productivity improvement of precast shop drawings generation through bim-based process re-engineering. automation in construction, 54(6), pp.54–68. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.03.014 nawari, n.o., 2012. bim standard in off-site construction. journal of architectural engineering, [e-journal] 18(2), pp.107–13. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000056 sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025240 https://doi.org/10.3390/su9030426 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40327-014-0008-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2014.04.001 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000123725 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.06.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.06.007 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)sc.1943-5576.0000200 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)sc.1943-5576.0000200 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11060249 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11060249 https://doi.org/10.29173/mocs87 https://doi.org/10.29173/mocs87 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.08.015 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2013.04.097 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483349015.n16 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484555 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.03.014 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.03.014 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000056 ocheoha, i.a. and moselhi, o., 2018. a bim-based supply chain integration for prefabrication and modularization. in: m. al-hussein, ed. modular and offsite construction (moc) summit proceedings. alberta: university of alberta. https:// doi.org/10.29173/mocs35 oti-sarpong, k., shojaei, r.s., dakhli, z., burgess, g. and zaki, m., 2022. how countries achieve greater use of offsite manufacturing to build new housing: identifying typologies through institutional theory. sustainable cities and societies, [e-journal] 76. p.103493. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.103403 pan, w., gibb, a.g. and dainty, a.r., 2012. strategies for integrating the use of off-site production technologies in house building. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 138(11), pp.1331–40. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000544 pervez, h., ali, y., pamucar, d., garai-fodor, m. and csiszárik-kocsir, á., 2022. evaluation of critical risk factors in the implementation of modular construction. plos one, [e-journal] 17(8), p.e0272448. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal. pone.0272448 peters, m.d., godfrey, c.m., khalil, h., mcinerney, p., parker, d., & soares, c.b., 2015. guidance for conducting systematic scoping reviews. international journal of evidence-based healthcare, 13(3), 141–46. https://doi.org/10.1097/ xeb.0000000000000050 pezeshki, z., soleimani, a. and darabi, a., 2019. application of bem and using bim database for bem: a review. journal of building engineering, [e-journal] 23, pp.1–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2019.01.021 pham, m.t., rajić, a., greig, j.d., sargeant, j.m., papadopoulos, a. and mcewen, s.a., 2014. a scoping review of scoping reviews: advancing the approach and enhancing the consistency. research synthesis methods, [e-journal] 5(4), pp.371–85. https://doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1123 rathnayake, a. and middleton, c., 2023. systematic review of the literature on construction productivity. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 149(6). https://doi.org/10.1061/jcemd4.coeng-13045 rogers, e.m., 1995. diffusion of innovation, 4th ed. new york: free press. sabet, p. and chong, h.y., 2018. a conceptual hybrid osm-bim framework to improve construction project performance. in: k. do, m. sutrisna, b. cooper-cooke and o. olatuji, eds. proceedings of the educating building professionals for the future in the globalised world. perth: curtin university. pp. 204–13. sabet, p. and chong, h.y., 2019. interactions between building information modelling and off-site manufacturing for productivity improvement. international journal of managing projects in business, [e-journal] 13(2), pp.233–55. https:// doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-08-2018-0168 sacks, r., koskela, l., dave, b.a. and owen, r., 2010. interaction of lean and building information modeling in construction. journal of construction engineering and management, 136(9), pp.968–80 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0000203 santos, j.r.a., 1999. cronbach’s alpha: a tool for assessing the reliability of scales. journal of extension, 37(2), pp.1–5. santos, r., costa, a.a., silvestre, j.d. and pyl, l., 2019. informetric analysis and review of literature on the role of bim in sustainable construction. automation in construction, [e-journal] 103, pp.221–34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2019.02.022 shahpari, m., mehdizadeh, f., pishvaee, m.s. and piri, s., 2020. assessing the productivity of prefabricated and insitu construction systems using hybrid multi-criteria decision-making method. journal of building engineering, 27(6), p.100979. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2019.100979 sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025241 https://doi.org/10.29173/mocs35 https://doi.org/10.29173/mocs35 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.103403 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000544 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000544 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272448 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272448 https://doi.org/10.1097/xeb.0000000000000050 https://doi.org/10.1097/xeb.0000000000000050 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2019.01.021 https://doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1123 https://doi.org/10.1061/jcemd4.coeng-13045 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-08-2018-0168 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-08-2018-0168 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000203 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000203 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.02.022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.02.022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2019.100979 shang, z. and shen, z., 2016. a framework for a site safety assessment model using statistical 4d bim-based spatial-temporal collision detection. in: j.l. perdomo-rivera, a. gonzáles-quevedo, c.l. del puerto, f. maldonado-fortunet, o.i. molina-bas, eds. construction research congress 2016. reston, va: asce. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784479827.218 singh, m.m., sawhney, a. and borrmann, a., 2019. integrating rules of modular coordination to improve model authoring in bim. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 19(1), pp.15–31. https://doi.org/10.108 0/15623599.2017.1358077 sustainable built environment national research centre, 2017. accelerating the mainstreaming of building manufacture in australia. final industry report project 1.42. perth: sustainable built environment national research centre. tang, x., chon, h.y. and zhang, w., 2019. relationship between bim implementation and performance of osm projects. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 35(5). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.19435479.0000704 tibaut, a., rebolj, d. and perc, m.n., 2016. interoperability requirements for automated manufacturing systems in construction. journal of intelligent manufacturing, [e-journal] 27(1), pp.251–62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10845-0130862-7 ullah, k., lill, i. and witt, e., 2019. an overview of bim adoption in the construction industry: benefits and barriers. in: i. lill and e. witt, ed. 10th nordic conference on construction economics and organization (emerald reach proceedings series, vol. 2), leeds: emerald. pp.297–303. https://doi.org/10.1108/s2516-285320190000002052 utiome, e. and drogemuller, r., 2013. an approach for extending building information models (bim) to specifications. in: z. ma, z. hu, h. guo and j. zhang, eds. proceedings of the 30th cib w78 international conference on applications of it in the aec industry. tsinghua, china: tsinghua university. pp.290–99. vernikos, v.k., goodier, c.i., broyd, t.w., robery, p.c. and gibb, a.g., 2014. building information modelling and its effect on off-site construction in uk civil engineering. proceedings of the institution of civil engineering-management, procurement and law, 167(3), pp.152–59. https://doi.org/10.1680/mpal.13.00031 walker, g.b. and daniels, s.e., 2019. collaboration in environmental conflict management and decision-making: comparing best practices with insights from collaborative learning work. frontiers in communication, [e-journal] 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2019.00002 wang, j., wang, x., shou, w., chong, h.y. and guo, j., 2016. building information modeling-based integration of mep layout designs and constructability. automation in construction, [e-journal] 61, pp.134–46. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.10.003 wasim, m., serra, p.v. and ngo, t.d., 2020. design for manufacturing and assembly for sustainable, quick and costeffective prefabricated construction–a review. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(15), pp.3014–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1837720 woo, j.h., 2006. building information modeling and pedagogical challenges. in: t. sulbaran and g. cummings, eds. 2007. proceedings of the 43rd asc national annual conference: loveland, co: associated schools of construction. pp.12–14. wu, s., wood, g., ginige, k. and jong, s. w., 2014. a technical review of bim based cost estimating in uk quantity surveying practice, standards and tools. journal of information technology in construction (itcon), 19: 534–62. available at: http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/22902. wynn, m.t., ouyang, c., low, w.z., kanjanabootra, s., harfield, t. and kenley, r., 2013. a process-oriented approach to supporting off-site manufacture in construction projects. in: k. manley, k. hampson, and s. kajewski, eds. proceedings organisation and management of construction: selected papers presented at the cib world building congress – sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025242 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784479827.218 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1358077 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2017.1358077 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000704 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000704 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10845-013-0862-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10845-013-0862-7 https://doi.org/10.1108/s2516-285320190000002052 https://doi.org/10.1680/mpal.13.00031 https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2019.00002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.10.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.10.003 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1837720 http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/id/eprint/22902 construction and society [cib publication 384]. delft, the netherlands: international council for research and innovation in building and construction, pp. 13-25. yeoh, j.k.w., wong, j.h. and peng, l., 2016. integrating crane information models in bim for checking the compliance of lifting plan requirements. in: isarc. proceedings of the international symposium on automation and robotics in construction, vol. 33, p.1. iaarc publications. https://doi.org/10.22260/isarc2016/0116 yin, x., liu, h., chen, y. and al-hussein, m., 2019. building information modelling for off-site construction: review and future directions. automation in construction, [e-journal] 101, pp.72–91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2019.01.010 zhai, x., reed, r. and mills, a., 2014. embracing off-site innovation in construction in china to enhance a sustainable built environment in urban housing. international journal of construction management, 14(3), pp.123–33. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/15623599.2014.922727 zhang, s., sulankivi, k., kiviniemi, m., romo, i., eastman, c.m. and teizer, j., 2015. bim-based fall hazard identification and prevention in construction safety planning. safety science, [e-journal] 72, pp.31–45. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ssci.2014.08.001 ziwen, l., bon-gang, h. and minghan, l., 2023. prefabricated and prefinished volumetric construction: assessing implementation status, perceived benefits, and critical risk factors in the singapore built environment sector. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 39(6). https://doi.org/10.1061/jmenea.meeng-5455 sabet et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025243 https://doi.org/10.22260/isarc2016/0116 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.01.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.01.010 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2014.922727 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2014.922727 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2014.08.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2014.08.001 https://doi.org/10.1061/jmenea.meeng-5455 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: brewer, g. 2024. the value of open access research in the age of opinion-based decisionmaking. construction economics and building, 24:1/2, 1–2. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v24i1/2.9205 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb editorial the value of open access research in the age of opinion-based decision-making graham brewer school of architecture and built environment, university of newcastle, callaghan, nsw 2308, australia corresponding author: graham brewer, school of architecture and built environment, university of newcastle, callaghan, nsw2308, australia, graham.brewer@newcastle.edu.au doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.9205 article history: received 27/06/2024; accepted 27/06/2024; published 01/07/2024 back in march 2024, dr cathy foley, australia’s chief scientist took aim at australia’s academic publications model, proposing a nationwide deal that would democratise public access to research literature through a single relationship with all publishers (cassidy, 2024). the benefits would include making current research findings available to decision-makers to inform their actions, and to the public to assist them in their democratic actions. as a provider of high quality, free-to-all research papers, being produced at a time of unparalleled stress in the higher education sector, we at construction economics and building recognise the time and emotional commitment required by academics – from postgraduate students to vice chancellors -to generate the publications that are its lifeblood, matched by nameless others who deliver the quality reviews that are its oxygen. the papers that make up this issue, together with its companion special issue, should therefore be essential reading for decisionmakers in our industry and the government departments that regulate it: our open access commitment should mean that there is no impediment for them to do so. in this issue they would read: the construction industry worldwide faces numerous challenges, from trust and transparency issues in nigeria to health and safety concerns in india, and the need for digital and technological advancements across various regions. in an article that presages the special issue (published simultaneously with this one), kapogiannis, panagiotis and sawhney examine digital construction’s impact on gdp growth rates in the eu, demonstrating the sector’s potential. however, they reveal that stronger declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 1 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.9205 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.9205 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:graham.brewer@newcastle.edu.au https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.9205 economies benefit more from digital construction, suggesting that weaker economies need structural reforms to integrate digitalisation effectively. they highlight the essential role of human capital in adopting digital construction techniques, emphasising innovation and collaboration for competitive growth. hong, akotia and egbu explain that china’s construction industry faces significant barriers in adopting virtual reality (vr), primarily due to economic issues, technical knowledge gaps, and a fragmented supply chain. addressing these through raised awareness, workflow establishment, and government support could pave the way for vr’s broader adoption, enhancing project outcomes. bello, abdulraheem, afolabi, aka and gbenga describe a study of the nigerian construction industry, which underscores the critical need for clear communication protocols, reinforced ethical standards, and technological integration to foster a culture of trust and transparency. similarly, in india, the research of upadhyaya and malek highlights subpar health and safety standards, proposing a robust categorised into management, worker, workplace, and government factors to enhance safety measures on construction sites. learning from past project failures remains crucial for construction firms, with a focus on broader institutional contexts rather than just internal mechanisms. chiponde, gledson and greenwood suggest that fostering better networks and collaboration through professional and regulatory bodies can enhance learning and improve project delivery outcomes. by addressing these multifaceted challenges, the construction industry can advance towards more efficient, transparent, and innovative practices. barajel, kusi, ackon, osman, mohammed, simpeh and gyimah emphasise external environment, project management and procurement-related factors playing a significant role in the success or otherwise of consultant selection, emphasising the path dependency of early decision-making on eventual project success. in managing large industrial capital projects, the development of a standardised project success framework for integrated project delivery by wood, ghimire, kim, barutha and jeong has shown promise. by incorporating machine learning tools, this framework offers a practical approach for evaluating ipd’s efficacy, aiding in the selection of optimal strategies and fostering successful project outcomes. khan and munawer remind us that successful projects delivering urban sustainability hinge on innovative solutions like vertical greenery systems, which, despite high initial costs, offer long-term financial benefits through energy savings and increased property values. however, their extended payback periods and occasional negative net present values challenge their economic feasibility, necessitating effective implementation guidelines. i hope you enjoy reading this issue and its companion, and reflect on your contribution as a member of the academic community to research-based decision-making both by those in government and the electors who put them in place. lastly, i trust you will be sympathetic to our future review requests; i am all too aware of the price you pay to support the work of this journal and am deeply grateful when you answer the call. graham brewer, editor-in-chief reference cassidy, caitlin. 2024. australia’s chief scientist takes on the journal publishers gatekeeping knowledge. the guardian. sunday 10 march 2024. available at https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/10/australias-chief-scientist-istaking-on-the-journal-publishing-monopoly-gatekeeping-knowledge?cmp=gtau_email#top brewer construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 20242 https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/10/australias-chief-scientist-is-taking-on-the-journal-publishing-monopoly-gatekeeping-knowledge?cmp=gtau_email#top https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/10/australias-chief-scientist-is-taking-on-the-journal-publishing-monopoly-gatekeeping-knowledge?cmp=gtau_email#top construction economics and building vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022 © 2022 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: oke, a. e., atofarati, j. o., bello, s. f. 2022. awareness of 3d printing for sustainable construction in an emerging economy. construction economics and building, 22:2, 52–68. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v22i2.8015 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article awareness of 3d printing for sustainable construction in an emerging economy ayodeji emmanuel oke1, john oluwatosin atofarati2,* and sherifat folasade bello1 1 department of quantity surveying, federal university of technology, akure, nigeria 2 department of urban and regional planning, federal university of technology, akure, nigeria corresponding author: john oluwatosin atofarati, department of urban and regional planning, federal university of technology, akure, nigeria; joatofarati@gmail.com orcid ayodeji oke: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6551-8634 atofarati john: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8871-5929 doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i2.8015 article history: received: 13/12/2021; revised: 08/03/2022; accepted: 06/05/2022; published: 20/06/2022 abstract 3d printing has been popular in the manufacturing industry as a means of automating processes, speeding up production, and reducing waste. it is frequently seen as a relatively new technology, even though it has been in use for more than three decades. this article aims to analyse 3d printing awareness in an emerging economy towards sustainability in the construction industry. a survey research design was used to obtain primary data from the respondents using structured questionnaires. the sample frame for the research survey comprises professionals in construction and consultancy firms such as architects, quantity surveyors, projects managers, and engineers. mean item score, standard deviation, and factor analysis were used to analyse the data. the findings from this study show that majority of the professionals acknowledged that they were aware of the existence of 3d printing, but most of them attested that they had not utilized this technology before the survey. the study reveals that the professionals in the construction industry of the emerging economy have low awareness of 3d printing technology, therefore its practices in the construction industry of the study area are significantly low. more awareness of 3d printing technology should be raised by bodies shouldered with management and regulation of the construction industry to increase professionals' declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 52 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7842 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:joatofarati@gmail.com http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6551-8634 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8871-5929 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7842 awareness and enlighten them on the benefits of adopting the technology towards sustainable construction. keywords 3d printing; construction 4.0; construction industry; digital construction; sustainable construction introduction the construction industry suffers from time overruns, project delays, and abandonment, as well as safety issues, budget overruns, inefficiency, design inflexibility, material waste, and a slew of other issues brought on by a lack of essential information. (kadiri and shittu, 2013). growing populations have wreaked havoc on housing for middleand lower-income families. only the affluent and powerful can afford homes where they have total influence over the project's design and implementation (mehar, et al., 2020). in the construction industry, the development of three-dimensional printing (3d printing) ushered in a new age. 3d printing has been popular in the manufacturing industry as a means of automating processes, speeding up production, and reducing waste (perkins and skitmore, 2015). 3d printing is an automated production technique with layer-by-layer control that has seen significant progress over time, most notably in the manufacturing business for decades, but more recently in the construction industry, to print houses and villas (wu, wang and wang, 2016). 3d printing is an additive manufacturing technique that involves the layer-by-layer fabrication of threedimensional structures. information is taken from a computer-aided design (cad) file and translated to a stereolithography (stl) file in additive manufacturing techniques. the drawing created in cad software is approximated by triangles and slices holding the information for each layer that will be printed during the process (wong and hernandez, 2012). a 3d printer, according to bogue (2013), is an automated additive manufacturing system that can print 3d solid items using computer-aided design (cad). major developments, primarily led by the creation of new, advanced, highly functional, and 3d printable materials, were beginning to lead the technology away from one-off prototypes, models, guides, and other products made of simple plastics and metals, to mass production of complex products, as the technology began to receive full attention from industry, academia, and government ( jakus, 2019). as technology has progressed, 3d printing has expanded to accommodate construction products other than ceramic in recent years. in construction projects, 3d printers can currently produce plastic and nylon components such as plug fixtures, window frame fixtures, and plumbing fittings (alzarrad and elhouar, 2019). the discovery of the 3d printer ushered in a new construction method known as 3d printing building technology. contour crafting is a potential process that could transform the construction business soon, according to the latest technology (hager, golonka and putanowicz, 2016). there are numerous advantages to this technology, including cost and time savings, fewer pollutants, and a reduction in casualties. according to teizer, et al. (2016), the construction sector has lately effectively implemented industrial uses of the technology in a variety of domains, including consecutive layers of concrete. furthermore, 3d printing's core idea is that the 3d volume is reduced in the computer to large-scale printing of complicated geometric shapes in a sequence of 2d layers. although 3d printing has been present since the late 1970s, it is only recently becoming well-known in the second decade of the twenty-first century. due to a combination of media interest and the growing availability of consumer-level technology, 3d printing has recently spurred a lot of "futuring" activity (stein, 2017). because of the sudden and rapid increase in awareness of 3d printing during the fourth period (2005-2012), as well as a lack of understanding of its history, 3d printing is commonly seen as a new technology, even though it has been in use for more than three decades ( jakus, 2019). according to oke, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202253 teizer, et al. (2016), 3d has recently attracted a lot of public attention and has become a popular topic of discussion. this technique, which is more efficient in the development of 3d building models and is generally thought to be more efficient than traditional approaches, is so underutilized in construction (teizer, et al., 2016). until recently, 3d printing has received a warm welcome in industrialized countries, resulting in its expansion and improvement in the building industry over time. this article aims to analyse 3d printing awareness in an emerging economy towards sustainable construction in the construction industry. literature review begić and galić (2021) noted that construction 4.0 was initially mentioned in 2016, mostly based on construction companies' recognition of the necessity of digitization in the industry. the rapid improvement of 3d printing technology, which is one of the construction 4.0 technologies, according to mehar, et al. (2020), has changed people's thinking regarding using concrete as a 3d printable material on its own. according to kothman and faber (2016), 3d printing concrete can effectively provide several improvements in manufacturing performance, such as shorter lead times, function integration, and material usage reduction, potentially rendering production steps within the construction supply chain obsolete while reducing logistical and production efforts. wu, et al. (2018) noted that despite the numerous advantages that 3d printing can provide, construction has a lower adoption rate than other industries. teizer, et al. (2016) said that the current public awareness of 3d printing helps in pushing it to the forefront, where building corporations begin to investigate alternate construction processes. furthermore, jakus (2019) reiterated that the quick spread and mass awareness of 3d printing was mostly due to the alignment of key legal and social events/groups, rather than any big technological breakthrough. one of the arsenic and the 2030 agenda for sustainable development is that, by 2030, it must be ensured that people everywhere have the relevant information and awareness for sustainable development and lifestyles in harmony with nature ( johnston, 2016). oke, et al. (2018) stated that government loans, adequate power supply, lowering the cost of digital tools, ensuring that every department develops and manages a computerized information system, raising awareness about the use of technology, and promoting local research and development are all seen as critical to strengthening digital technology and encouraging collaboration. perhaps as a result of increased global awareness of the technology, as well as what could be considered inaccurate exaggerations about the ability to make anything, 3d printing technology began to be quickly adopted by academic and clinical research institutions, resulting in it becoming not only a vital tool to aid in existing research but also the subject of research itself ( jakus, 2019). awareness of 3d technologies there are several techniques for 3d printing including stereolithography, fused deposition modelling, contour crafting, among others. these technologies are further explained. stereolithography (sla), according to teizer, et al. (2016), is a process that requires repeatedly lowering a platform into a bath of synthetic resin (polymer-hybrid). the largest machines can hold up to two cubic meters of material. as a result, this technology lends itself well to the creation of architectural models. according to chen, et al. (2017), despite the benefits of sla technology, it has two major disadvantages: processing time and part performance (thermo-mechanical), the latter of which is the focus of this study. sla-printed goods cannot achieve the mechanical properties of their molecular counterparts due to the method's layer-by-layer structure. oke, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202254 fused deposition modelling (fdm) which is another 3d technology is a process that includes extruding classifiable building material through a heated nozzle (teizer, et al., 2016). the materials that can be employed in this approach include plastic, wax, concrete paste, and ceramic paste. according to rett, et al. (2021), fdm, an extrusion-based 3d technology, is a well-known and widely used 3d method since it is low-cost, low-maintenance, and open source. contour crafting, according to khoshnevis (2004), is a variant of this process in which the material is stopped from flowing out freely by an adjustable outside rim. the nozzle is surrounded by a ring made up of parallel slabs or strips that can spin around it. according to tay, et al. (2017), contour crafting has been in the works for a while and is based on the extrusion of cement-based paste against a trowel to provide the printed object with a smoother surface finish. according to teizer, et al. (2016), a construction industry expert, for a client to approve concrete walls, the final surface quality must be within millimetres. 3d concrete printing (3dcp) employs a combination of digital technology and new materials science insights to enable cost-effective freeform construction without the use of costly formwork. by separating the cost of fabricating a structural component from its shape, the freeform construction would encourage architectural expression while also allowing for greater design flexibility (nematollahi, xia and sanjayan, 2017). digital light processing is another 3d technology that can be used to make projectors and 3d printers, among other things. digital micromirrors are laid out on a semiconductor chip in dlp technology. dlp creates 3d models that are more robust and have a higher resolution. it also requires less material, which reduces expenses and waste (alzarrad and elhouar, 2019). for constructing a single layer of a 3d object by spatially controlled solidification using a projector light, the digital light processing (dlp) technology employing photocurable resins is fascinating (either uv or white light). this approach makes it simple to make a layer (stansbury and idacavage, 2016). another type of 3d technologies is stick dispenser. a depth camera and a projector guide the stick dispenser in real-time. by projecting a basic colour code, both of these technologies assist in notifying where the chopsticks will be placed. to operate the projector, printing must be done in low-light situations (tay, et al., 2017). powder injection moulding (pim) is a known technique for mass-producing metal and ceramic components. pim eliminates the machining stage, cutting overall production costs (basso, et al., 2019). pim's potential lies in its ability to combine plastic injection moulding's design flexibility with powder metallurgy's nearly endless material alternatives, allowing several elements to be created. the digital construction platform (dcp) is a compound robotic arm system that combines a 5-axis altec hydraulic mobile boom arm and a 6-axis kuka robotic arm in development. using rapid cure polyurethane foam, insulative formwork in double-curved geometry may be produced quickly and without the usage of support material. early foam strength, print speeds, resolution, and preliminary economic statistics have all validated the project's promise (keating, et al., 2014). the wasp 2040 is a 3d printer that uses material extrusion (bhardwaj, et al., 2019). this printer's build volume was cylindroconical in shape. the cylindrical component measured 200mm in diameter and 400mm in height. at the top of the construction volume, the distance between the bottom of the cylinder and the tip of the cone was 430mm. a 3-litre material container with a compressed air-operated plastic piston was provided with the printer. the g-code for printing was generated using the cura software. to address this demand, several am technologies that can produce ceramic parts are currently available (travitzky, et al., 2014). d-shape is a method that employs a binder to selectively spray on the printing material, similar to inkjet powder beds. d-shape is a powder-bed 3d printer with a production gantry that can produce architectural structures up to 6 x 6 x 6 meters long. compressive strengths of goods printed using the d-shape technique range from 235 to 242mpa (wu, wang and wang, 2016). d-shape technology was created primarily for oke, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202255 the manufacture of structural elements with complicated geometry in the factory (off-site) (gosselin, et al., 2016). since the 1990s, rapid prototyping technique (rp) methods have been used in medicine to create complicated 3d models (swan, 1996). medical diagnosis and surgical treatment planning are now both aided by the rp model. wax patterns for prostheses, all-ceramic crowns, metal prostheses (in clouding fpds and framework for removable partial dentures), and prosthetic casts are all covered in this review. (sun and zhang, 2012). the virtual phase (modelling and simulating) and the physical phase (building) are the only two phases of rp (fabrication), according to wang and shaw (2006). the practice of building a model through a dynamic, interactive simulation is known as virtual prototyping. the development of a physical model begins with the creation of a 3d physical model using cad software. the flow-based fabrication process is a patented extrusion-based additive manufacturing technique for yield stress material that is constantly reinforced. as a result, it is possible to build a part layer by layer using a continuous deposition of material along a specific robotic path based on the geometry of the finished part. bi-extrusion and pultrusion are the two primary alternatives. the method for applying the mechanical force required for continuous reinforcing deposition is the key distinction (ducoulombier, et al., 2020). a welding robot (an articulated arm mounted on a track) was utilized to build a steel net that could be used as a permeable formwork for concrete that would be poured later [hac 14, hac 15]. this method is intriguing because it allows for the production of steel-reinforced wall parts that behave similarly to regular reinforced concrete (perrot and amziane, 2019). the mesh increases the concrete's tensile strength, making it a viable alternative to standard steel reinforcement (tay, et al., 2017). minibuilders has presented a novel method for creating three-dimensional concrete. the system employs three small mobile robots. the first robot follows a specified course while laying the concrete foundation with the help of a sensor. the second robot is put on the foundation and grasped with rollers before printing further concrete layers and building the structure. the final robot uses suction cups and pressurized air to print vertically up the printed structure and strengthen it, which was previously just horizontally stacked (zhang, et al., 2018). standard tessellation language format is a 3d printing technology. the three-dimensional representation of the surface geometry, also known as stereolithography, gives birth to unimportant information for printing such as texture or colour, resulting in its popularity in the industry (sakin and kiroglu, 2017). standard tessellation language, as defined by alharbi, et al. (2016), is a format for 3d digital files that be scanned and exported utilizing 3d systems into 3d printers. summary of 3d printing technologies this section highlighted and discussed existing studies on 3d printing technologies. the summary is made in table 1. research method for this study, a quantitative research approach was used. through the use of structured questionnaires, a survey research approach was employed to acquire primary data from the respondents, which included several project players in lagos state, nigeria (an economically growing area in west africa). the survey's sample frame includes experts from construction and consulting firms in lagos, such as architects, quantity surveyors, project managers, and engineers. table 2 shows an overview of the sample size for the study. convenient sampling was used to choose one hundred and seventy-one (171) respondents where respondents were picked based on convenience considering their availability, accessibility and proximity. the sampling size for this study was obtained using the yamane formula adopted by olatunji, et al. (2014) for each of the sample frames. oke, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202256 ta bl e 1. va ri ab le s an d co de d au th or s on a w ar en es s of 3 d p ri nt in g te ch ni qu es in th e co ns tr uc tio n in du st ry s /n a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z a a a b a c a d a e tl 1 3d c on cr et e pr in ti ng ✓ ✓ 2 2 c on to ur c ra ft in g ✓ ✓ ✓ 3 3 w a s p ✓ ✓ 2 4 s te ro lit ho gr ap hy ✓ ✓ 2 5 fu se d de po si ti on m od el lin g ✓ ✓ ✓ 3 6 d sh ap e te ch no lo gy ✓ ✓ ✓ 3 7 r ap id p ro to ty pi ng ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ 4 8 s ta nd ar d te ss el la ti on la ng ua ge fo rm at ✓ ✓ 2 9 d ig ita l l ig ht p ro ce ss in g ✓ ✓ 2 10 d ig ita l c on st ru ct io n pl at fo rm ✓ ✓ 2 11 fl ow -b as ed fa br ic at io n ✓ 1 12 m es hm ou ld ✓ ✓ 2 13 m in ib ui ld er s ✓ 1 14 s ti ck d is pe ns er ✓ ✓ 2 15 in je ct p ow er p ri nt in g ✓ ✓ ✓ 3 a (n em at ol la hi , e t a l., 2 01 7) ; b (g ar di ne r, 2 01 1) ; c (k ho sh ne vi s, 2 00 4) ; d (t ay , e t a l., 2 01 6) ; e (t ei ze r, e t a l., 2 01 6) ; f (b ha rd w aj , e t a l., 2 02 0) ; g (t ra vi tz ky , e t a l., 2 01 4) ; h (c he n, et a l., 2 01 7) ; i (p an ne rs el va m , r ag hu ra m an a nd k ri sh na n, 2 02 1) ; j (r et t, tr ao re a nd h o, 2 02 1) ; k (w u, w an g an d w an g, 2 01 6) ; l (l im , e t a l., 2 01 2) ; m (g os se lin , e t a l., 2 01 6) ; n - (s w an , 1 99 6) ; o (z ha ng , 2 01 2) ; p (s un a nd z ha ng , 2 01 2) ; q (w an g an d sh aw , 2 00 6) ; r (s ak in a nd k ir og lu , 2 01 7) ; s (a lh ar bi , o sm an a nd w is m ei je r, 2 01 6) ; t (a lz ar ra d, e t a l., 2 01 9) ; u (s ta ns bu ry , e t a l., 2 01 6) ; v (k ea tin g, 2 01 2) ; w (s au lt er s an d sc ar r, 1 98 5) ; x (d uc ou lo m bi er , e t a l., 2 02 0) ; y (p er ro t a nd a m zi an e, 2 01 9) ; z (y i w ei , e t a l., 2 01 7) ; a a (z ha ng , e t a l., 20 18 ); ab (y os hi da , e t a l., 2 01 5) ; a c (a lb er to , e t a l., 2 01 9) ; a d (h au sn er ov á, 2 01 1) ; a e (t an do n, 2 00 8) oke, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202257 table 2. sampling size of the respondent. respondents sample frame sample size retrieved architects 1700 43 12 builders 700 42 31 engineers 1850 43 13 quantity surveyors 1080 43 17 total 5330 171 73 source: nigerian institute of quantity surveyors (niqs), nigerian institute of architects (nia), nigerian society of engineers (nse), nigerian institution of building (niob), 2020 questionnaires in hard copy printed forms were distributed to the respondent accordingly for proper assessment. of the 171 questionnaires distributed to the professionals in the construction industry who have limited time and organized office in the study area, 73 were retrieved. this was due to many forms being misplaced, while other respondents were lost track of. the retrieved forms were used for the analysis of this research work. data was collected and analysed using descriptive statistics, which was done with the help of a statistical package for social science (spss). the data were analysed using mean item score, standard deviation, and factor analysis. results in this section, the data collected from the field survey were systematically presented, analysed with inferences made in a bid to assess the level of awareness of 3d printing towards sustainable construction in lagos, a city with an emerging economy. background information of the respondents this section reveals the general statistical information of the targeted respondents used for this research. the result of the survey presented in table 3 shows the numbers of qualified professionals certified and registered according to the principles and guidelines of the professions with qsrbn having 30 frequency and 41.1% of the data collected, arcon having the frequency of 17 and 23.3% of the respondents, corbon having 13 frequency and 17.8 % of the respondents, coren having respondents of 13 and 17.8 percent of the data collected and professionals with no professional qualifications amount to the frequency of 18 and 17.3% of the population. this result shows that all the respondents are certified and registered members of a professional body. the result of the analysis presented in table 3 shows the highest level of academic qualification attained by each of the respondents. from the result, the majority (54.8%) of the respondents are bachelor’s degree holders, while some of them (34.2%) have attained a master's degree from their university of choice, with few (6.8%) having obtained a higher national diploma (hnd) from a polytechnic. meanwhile, 2.7% of the respondents have attained a phd in their area of specialization, while 1.4% of the respondents had a national diploma certificate to practice their profession the result of the survey carried out on the years of experience of the respondents is presented in table 3. from the result, it can be deduced that most of the professionals (61.6%) had between 5 to 10 years of professional experience, while 32.9% of the respondents had 11 to 15 years of professional experience in their respective professions. furthermore, 2.7% of the respondents who are professionals in the construction oke, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202258 industry had less than 5 years of professional, 2.7% had long years of experience between 16 to 20 years respectively. awareness of 3d printing in the construction industry the result of the survey carried out to inquire if the respondents are aware of 3d printing in the construction industry is presented in table 4. according to the results, 65.8% of respondents said they were aware of 3d printing in the construction business. alternatively, 24.7 percent of respondents were unaware of 3d printing, while 9.6 percent were unsure whether or not they were aware. the findings indicate that certain construction industry experts in the research region were unaware of 3d printing. table 3. demographic characteristics of the respondents variables characteristics frequency percentage (%) professional qualification architects registration council of nigeria (arcon) 17 23.3 council of registered builders of nigeria (corbon) 13 17.8 the council for the regulation of engineering in nigeria, coren 13 17.8 quantity surveyors registration board of nigeria (qsrbn) 30 41.1 highest education attained national diploma (nd) 1 1.4 higher national diploma (hnd) 5 6.8 bachelor’s degree (b.sc/b.tech) 40 54.8 master’s degree (m.sc/m.tech) 25 34.2 doctor of philosophy (phd) 2 2.7 years of experience less than 5 years 2 2.7 5 to 10 years 45 61.6 11 to 15 years 24 32.9 16 to 20 years 2 2.7 table 4. awareness of 3d printing variables response frequency percentage (%) aware of 3d printing? yes 48 65.8 no 18 24.7 maybe 7 9.6 participated in 3d printing? yes 26 35.6 no 28 38.4 maybe 19 26.0 oke, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202259 further analysis reveals that 35.6% of the respondents had participated in 3d printing while others had not participated, although 26% of the respondents were not sure whether they had participated or not. from the result, it can be deduced that the participation of professionals in the construction industry in 3d printing is low. level of awareness of 3d printing technologies table 5 shows the reliability statistics of the 5-point likert scale from “very low” to “very high” was used for the survey. from the result, the cronbach's alpha is 0.930 which indicates a very high level of internal consistency for the scale of the items of the level of awareness of 3d printing technologies. table 5. reliability statistics cronbach's alpha cronbach's alpha based on standardized items no of items 0.930 0.930 15 table 6 shows the analysis of the item-total statistics of the level of awareness of 3d printing technologies. column 5 present the value that cronbach's alpha would be if that particular variable was deleted from the scale. from the result, we can see that removal of any variable would result in a lower cronbach's alpha. therefore, we would not want to remove any of the variables. table 6. item-total statistics variables scale mean if item deleted scale variance if item deleted corrected item-total correlation squared multiple correlation cronbach's alpha if item deleted 3d concrete printing 35.22 78.562 0.701 0.655 0.925 contour crafting 35.58 80.692 0.591 0.440 0.928 wasp 35.22 80.785 0.602 0.538 0.927 stereolithography 35.42 76.331 0.720 0.616 0.924 fused deposition modelling 35.53 77.252 0.701 0.715 0.925 d-shape technology 35.40 81.187 0.576 0.520 0.928 rapid prototyping technique 35.51 77.281 0.722 0.663 0.924 standard tessellation language format 35.51 78.753 0.651 0.610 0.926 digital light processing 35.53 78.780 0.692 0.702 0.925 oke, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202260 variables scale mean if item deleted scale variance if item deleted corrected item-total correlation squared multiple correlation cronbach's alpha if item deleted digital construction platform 35.40 81.021 0.604 0.562 0.927 flow-based fabrication 35.42 79.414 0.645 0.657 0.926 mesh-mould 35.29 77.263 0.696 0.640 0.925 minibuilders 35.30 79.991 0.615 0.504 0.927 stick dispenser 35.62 78.351 0.690 0.679 0.925 inject powder printing 35.29 77.958 0.701 0.692 0.925 table 7 shows the results of a survey conducted to determine the respondents' level of awareness about 3d printing processes in the construction industry. with a mean of 2.73, the majority of the respondents are mainly aware of wasp and 3d concrete printing as some of the 3d printing techniques employed in the construction industry, indicating that it is of great relevance to the construction industry. some respondents are familiar with injection powder printing and mesh-mould, each with a mean value of 2.66 and very high importance. table 7. level of awareness of 3d printing variable mean std. deviation rank wasp 2.73 0.804 1 3d concrete printing 2.73 0.870 2 inject powder printing 2.66 0.916 3 mesh-mould 2.66 0.975 4 minibuilders 2.64 0.856 5 digital construction platform 2.55 0.782 6 d-shape technology 2.55 0.800 7 flow-based fabrication 2.52 0.868 8 stereolithography 2.52 1.015 9 standard tessellation language format 2.44 0.913 10 rapid prototyping technique 2.44 0.943 11 digital light processing 2.41 0.863 12 fused deposition modelling 2.41 0.969 13 table 6. continued oke, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202261 table 9. 3d printing awareness of total variance explained component initial eigen values extraction sums of squared loadings total % of variance cumulative % total % of variance cumulative % 1 7.614 50.761 50.761 4.807 32.047 32.047 2 1.348 8.985 59.747 4.155 27.699 59.747 3 0.937 6.247 65.994 4 0.822 5.483 71.477 5 0.688 4.584 76.06 6 0.591 3.939 79.999 7 0.586 3.907 83.906 8 0.508 3.385 87.291 9 0.47 3.134 90.425 10 0.359 2.392 92.817 11 0.281 1.876 94.693 12 0.263 1.754 96.447 13 0.233 1.553 98 14 0.176 1.173 99.173 15 0.124 0.827 100 variable mean std. deviation rank contour crafting 2.37 0.825 14 stick dispenser 2.33 0.898 15 the use and importance of digital construction platforms, d-shape technology, stereolithography, flow-based fabrication, standard tessellation language format, rapid prototyping technique, and digital light processing can be considered to be averagely aware by the respondents. while stick dispensers can be considered to be low awareness in the construction industry in the study area. table 8. kmo and bartlett's test for awareness of 3d printing kmo and bartlett's test kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy 0.871 bartlett's test of sphericity approx. chi-square 642.448 df 105 sig. 0.00 table 7. continued oke, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202262 the data received were enough for factor analysis, according to the kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy (kmo), and bartlett's test of sphericity for correlation adequacy between the variables was very significant, as shown in table 8. a data collection or sample can be utilized for factor analysis if it passes bartlett's test of sphericity. the kaiser-mayer-olkin sample adequacy test (kmo = 0.871) revealed that 87.1 percent of the data was eligible for factor analysis. with a degree of freedom of 66 and chi-square of 642.488, it also demonstrates that the p-value utilized is less than 0.05, meaning that the data is appropriate for factor analysis. according to bartlett's test (p-value = 0.000), the correlation is an identity matrix, meaning that the correlation matrix of all the items presented has a significant correlation at the 5% level, and so exploratory component analysis is suitable in table 6. variance in the total principal component analysis (pca) found the presence of four components with eigen values greater than one, accounting for 32.04 percent and 27.69 percent of the variance, respectively, in the areas of application of 3d printing in the construction industry. figure 1 shows a scree plot of the loading of awareness in the construction industry. after the second component, there was a noticeable split in the scree plot. the number of factors that should be created by the analysis is indicated by the point where the slope of the curve begins to level out. the rotated component matrix was used to conduct further analysis on 3d printing awareness in the construction business, and the results are provided in table 10. the results demonstrate that a model with two applications may be sufficient to represent 3d printing awareness in the construction industry of figure 1. the scree plot of loading of the awareness in the construction industry oke, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202263 emerging economies. table 8 shows the factor grouping based on the varimax rotation, and each variable has a strong influence on only one of the tool groups. it is necessary to name these factors before interpreting the four major categories. table 11 shows the factor analysis, 15 items in factor influencing the awareness of 3d printing which results in a two-factor solution that is digital and technical in which optimism cannot be analysed because it’s a single variable. the kaisermeyer – olkin (kmo) value is 0.871 and bartlett’s test of sphericity is significant (p =0.000). discussion the awareness and knowledge of 3d printing technology are grouped into two major groups based on the data analysis of this study: digital and technical. the findings from this study show that majority of the professionals acknowledged that they were aware of the existence of 3d printing, but the majority of them attested that they had not utilized 3d printers before the survey. this finding corroborates xu, et al., (2017) findings that the use of 3d printers in the construction industry is still limited. the low usage of 3d printing technology could be a result of the lack of exposure of the construction industry in developing countries to new technologies and their adoption. furthermore, the potential challenges and risks envisaged by the professionals seem to have overshadowed the potential benefits of adopting this technology. more findings of the awareness and usage of the listed 3d printers brought into light that the professionals are not satisfactorily aware of 3d printers and have not been utilizing 3d printers for their table 10. awareness of 3d printing rotated component matrix f1 f2 digital light processing 0.848 0.165 inject powder printing 0.761 0.276 flow-based fabrication 0.757 0.200 mesh-mould 0.693 0.344 stereolithography 0.665 0.408 d-shape technology 0.651 0.219 3d concrete printing 0.604 0.450 minibuilders 0.578 0.357 wasp 0.573 0.348 standard tessellation language format 0.220 0.803 digital construction platform 0.183 0.777 fused deposition modelling 0.349 0.731 rapid prototyping technique 0.392 0.711 stick dispenser 0.372 0.691 contour crafting 0.256 0.679 oke, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202264 day-to-day operation. it could be concluded from the research of chen, et al. (2017), tay et al. (2017), teizer, et al. (2016) and wu, et al. (2016), that 3d printing has been underutilized in the construction industry in the emerging economy compared to its prominence in the manufacturing and health industry. the finding of this study in this section aligns with the positions of the reviewed researchers, as this could be as a result of so many factors such as the immaturity of the industry, unavailability of the technology, poor technological advancement, poor research and development team. from the results of the factor analysis, the first awareness group is labelled ‘digital’ which accounts for about 32.05% of the observed total variance and contains nine 3d printers which are: digital light processing, jet power printing, flow-based fabrication, mesh-mould, stereolithography, d-shape technology, 3d concrete printing, minibuilders, and wasp. the printers discovered in this study have a low awareness and are not in use by the professionals in the construction industry of the study area. this can be attributed to the lack of exposure and immaturity of the professionals in the construction industry when it comes to technological innovations adoption. this finding aligns with the positions of chen, et al. (2017), tay, et al. (2017), teizer, et al. (2016) and wu, et al. (2016). the second awareness group is labelled ‘technical’ which accounts for about 27.70% of the observed total variance and contains six 3d printers which are: standard tessellation language format, digital construction platform, fused deposition modelling, rapid prototyping technique, stick dispenser, and contour crafting. the printers as identified in this study have a low awareness and have not been used by the construction professionals. this finding aligns with the positions of chen, et al. (2017), tay, et al. (2017), teizer, et al. (2016) and wu, et al. (2016). table 11. related component of the awareness of 3d printing awareness of 3d printing (kmo= 0.871) nature item description factor loading digital 1 digital light processing 0.848 2 jet power printing 0.761 3 flow-based fabrication 0.757 4 meshmould 0.693 5 stereolithography 0.665 6 dshape technology 0.651 7 3d concrete printing 0.604 8 minibuilders 0.578 9 wasp 0.573 technical 10 standard tessellation language format 0.803 11 digital construction platform 0.777 12 fused deposition modelling 0.731 13 rapid prototyping technique 0.711 14 stick dispenser 0.691 15 contour crafting 0.679 oke, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202265 conclusion the degree of knowledge of 3d printing in the developing economy's construction industry was disclosed in this study. according to the findings, several construction industry experts were unaware of 3d printing. 3d concrete printing and wasp are two 3d printing technology often employed in the construction sector, according to some of the respondents. as a result of the limited understanding of 3d printing technology among professionals in the developing economy's construction industry, the use of this technology in the construction industry is extremely low. the implication of this is that it will impede the rate of acceptance and integration in the developing economy. therefore, more awareness of 3d printing technology should be raised to increase the awareness of the professionals and enlighten them on the benefits of adopting it into the construction industry. all stakeholders, professional bodies in the construction industry, and government agencies are to provide an enabling environment for adequate training and sensitization of all the parties in the construction industry about 3d printing towards sustainable construction in the emerging economy. the limitation encountered in the study is the discouraging attitude of some of the professionals towards the administration of questionnaires which led to most of the questionnaires not being attempted in the study area. this research has shown the level of awareness of 3d printing among professionals towards sustainable construction in the construction industry. some of the techniques of 3d printing are known to some of the professionals in the industry. the awareness of 3d printing in the construction industry will bring about its understanding, appreciation, and appropriate implementation, with a resultant sustainable construction in an emerging economy. acknowledgments the authors gratefully acknowledge the contribution of their respondents, while retaining responsibility for any errors or omissions in this paper. disclosure statement no potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors. references alharbi, n., osman, r. and wismeijer, d., 2016. factors influencing the dimensional accuracy of 3d-printed fullcoverage dental restorations using stereolithography technology. the international journal of prosthodontics, 29(5), pp.503–10. https://doi.org/10.11607/ijp.4835 alzarrad, m.a. and elhouar, s., 2019. 3d printing applications in construction from the past and into the future. in: creative construction conference 2019, pp.754–60. https://doi.org/10.3311/ccc2019-103 basso, a., mendez ribo, m., halina danielak, a., yang, b., kjeldsteen, p., valler, p., bue pedersen, d. and zhang, y., 2019. 3d printed mold for powder injection molding process. in: proceedings of the joint special interest group meeting between euspen and aspe advancing precision in additive manufacturing (2019) publication, pp.71–74. available at: www.euspen.eu. begić, h. and galić, m., 2021. a systematic review of construction 4.0 in the context of the bim 4.0 premise. buildings, 11(8), p.337. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11080337 bhardwaj, a., kalantar, n., molina, e., zou, n. and pei, z., 2019. extrusion-based 3d printing of porcelain: feasible regions. in: volume 1: additive manufacturing; manufacturing equipment and systems; bio and sustainable manufacturing. american society of mechanical engineers. https://doi.org/10.1115/msec2019-3004 oke, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202266 https://doi.org/10.11607/ijp.4835 https://doi.org/10.3311/ccc2019-103 http://www.euspen.eu https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11080337 https://doi.org/10.1115/msec2019-3004 bogue, r., 2013. 3d printing: the dawn of a new era in manufacturing? assembly automation, 33(4), pp.307–11. https:// doi.org/10.1108/aa-06-2013-055 cameli, s. a., 2019. 3d printing of cities: is urban planning ready? planning theory and practice, 20(5), pp.776–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2019.1660075 chen, q., xu, r., he, z., zhao, k. and pan, l., 2017. printing 3d gel polymer electrolyte in li-ion microbattery using stereolithography. journal ofthe electrochemical society, 164(9), pp.a1852–a1857. https://doi.org/10.1149/2.0651709jes ducoulombier, n., demont, l., chateau, c., bornert, m., and caron, j. f., 2020. additive manufacturing of anisotropic concrete: a flow-based pultrusion of continuous fibers in a cementitious matrix. procedia manufacturing, 47(2019), pp.1070–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2020.04.117 gosselin, c., duballet, r., roux, p., gaudillière, n., dirrenberger, j. and morel, p., 2016. large-scale 3d printing of ultra-high performance concrete – a new processing route for architects and builders. materials & design, 100, pp.102– 09. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2016.03.097 hager, i., golonka, a. and putanowicz, r., 2016. 3d printing of buildings and building components as the future of sustainable construction? procedia engineering, 151, pp.292–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.07.357 jakus, a. e., 2019. an introduction to 3d printing d past , present , and future promise, 3d printing in orthopaedic surgery. elsevier inc. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-323-58118-9.00001-4 johnston, r., 2016. arsenic and the 2030 agenda for sustainable development. in: arsenic research and global sustainability proceedings of the 6th international congress on arsenic in the environment, as 2016, pp.12–14. https://doi. org/10.1201/b20466-7 kadiri, d. s. and shittu, a.a., 2013. causes of time overrun in building projects in nigeria: contracting and consulting perspectives. journal of chemical information and modeling, 53(9), pp.1689–99. keating, s., spielberg, n.a., klein, j. and oxman, n., 2014. digital construction platform : a compound arm approach. robotic fabrication in architecture, art and design, (november 2014), pp.99–110. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-319-04663-1_7 khoshnevis, b., 2004. automated construction by contour crafting related robotics and information technologies. automation in construction, 13(1), pp.5–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2003.08.012 kothman, i. and faber, n., 2016. how 3d printing technology changes the rules of the game: insights from the construction sector. journal of manufacturing technology management, 27(7), pp.932-43. https://doi.org/10.1108/ jmtm-01-2016-0010 mehar, p., khobragade, p., mendhe, m., bhada, s., singh, v. and salodkar, p., 2020. 3d printing trends in building and construction industry. international journal of scientific research in science and technology, 7(3), pp.2395–6011. https:// doi.org/10.32628/ijsrst207342 nematollahi, b., xia, m. and sanjayan, j., 2017. current progress of 3d concrete printing technologies. isarc 2017 proceedings of the 34th international symposium on automation and robotics in construction, (may 2020), pp.260–67. https://doi.org/10.22260/isarc2017/0035 oke, a.e., aghimien, d.o., aigbavboa, c.o. and koloko, n., 2018. challenges of digital collaboration in the south african construction industry. proceedings of the international conference on industrial engineering and operations management, 2018-march, pp.2472–82. olatunji, s.o., oke, a.e. and owoeye, l.c., 2014. factors affecting performance of construction professionals in nigeria. international journal of engineering and advanced technology (ijeat), 3(6), pp.76–84. oke, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202267 https://doi.org/10.1108/aa-06-2013-055 https://doi.org/10.1108/aa-06-2013-055 https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2019.1660075 https://doi.org/10.1149/2.0651709jes https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2020.04.117 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matdes.2016.03.097 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.07.357 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-323-58118-9.00001-4 https://doi.org/10.1201/b20466-7 https://doi.org/10.1201/b20466-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04663-1_7 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-04663-1_7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2003.08.012 https://doi.org/10.1108/jmtm-01-2016-0010 https://doi.org/10.1108/jmtm-01-2016-0010 https://doi.org/10.32628/ijsrst207342 https://doi.org/10.32628/ijsrst207342 https://doi.org/10.22260/isarc2017/0035 perkins, i. and skitmore, m., 2015. three-dimensional printing in the construction industry: a review. international journal of construction management, 15(1), pp.1–9. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2015.1012136 perrot, a. and amziane, s., 2019. 3d printing in concrete: general considerations and technologies. in: 3d printing of concrete. hoboken, nj, usa: john wiley & sons, inc., pp.1–40. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119610755.ch1 rett, j.p., traore, y.l. and ho, e.a., 2021. sustainable materials for fused deposition modeling 3d printing applications. advanced engineering materials, 23(7), pp.1–8. https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.202001472 sakin, m. and kiroglu, y.c., 2017. 3d printing of buildings: construction of the sustainable houses of the future by bim. energy procedia, 134, pp.702–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.09.562 stansbury, j.w. and idacavage, m.j., 2016. 3d printing with polymers: challenges among expanding options and opportunities. dental materials, 32(1), pp.54–64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dental.2015.09.018 stein, j.a., 2017. the political imaginaries of 3d printing : prompting mainstream awareness of design and making the political imaginaries of 3d printing : prompting mainstream awareness of design and making. design and culture, 7075(february), pp.1–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/17547075.2017.1279941 sun, j. and zhang, f.q., 2012. the application of rapid prototyping in prosthodontics. journal of prosthodontics, (21)8, pp.641–644. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-849x.2012.00888.x swann, s., 1996. integration of mri and stereolithography to build medical models. a case study. rapid prototyping journal, (2)4, pp.41–46. https://doi.org/10.1108/13552549610153398 tay, y.w.d., panda, b., paul, s.c., noor mohamed, n.a., tan, m.j. and leong, k.f., 2017. 3d printing trends in building and construction industry: a review. virtual and physical prototyping, 12(3), pp.261–76. https://doi.org/10.1080 /17452759.2017.1326724 teizer, j., blickle, a., king, t., leitzbach, o. and guenther, d., 2016. large scale 3d printing of complex geometric shapes in construction. in: 33rd international symposium on automation and robotics in construction. isarc publications. https://doi.org/10.22260/isarc2016/0114 travitzky, n., bonet, a., dermeik, b., fey, t., filbert-demut, i., schlier, l., schlordt, t. and greil, p., 2014. additive manufacturing of ceramic-based materials. advanced engineering materials, 16(6), pp.729–54. https://doi. org/10.1002/adem.201400097 wang, j.w. and shaw, l.l., 2006. fabrication of functionally graded materials via inkjet color printing. journal of the american ceramic society, (89)10, pp.3285–89. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1551-2916.2006.01206.x wong, k.v. and hernandez, a., 2012. a review of additive manufacturing. isrn mechanical engineering, 2012, pp.1–10. https://doi.org/10.5402/2012/208760 wu, p., zhao, x., baller, j.h. and wang, x., 2018. developing a conceptual framework to improve the implementation of 3d printing technology in the construction industry. architectural science review, 61(3), pp.133–42. https://doi.org/1 0.1080/00038628.2018.1450727 wu, p., wang, j. and wang, x., 2016. a critical review of the use of 3-d printing in the construction industry. automation in construction, (68), pp.21–31. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2016.04.005 xu, j., ding, l. and love, p.e.d., 2017. digital reproduction of historical building ornamental components: from 3d scanning to 3d printing. automation in construction, 76, pp.85–96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.01.010 zhang, x., li, m., lim, j.h., weng, y., tay, y.w.d., pham, h., and pham, q.c., 2018. large-scale 3d printing by a team of mobile robots. automation in construction, 95, pp.98–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.08.004 oke, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202268 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2015.1012136 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119610755.ch1 https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.202001472 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2017.09.562 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dental.2015.09.018 https://doi.org/10.1080/17547075.2017.1279941 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-849x.2012.00888.x https://doi.org/10.1108/13552549610153398 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452759.2017.1326724 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452759.2017.1326724 https://doi.org/10.22260/isarc2016/0114 https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.201400097 https://doi.org/10.1002/adem.201400097 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1551-2916.2006.01206.x https://doi.org/10.5402/2012/208760 https://doi.org/10.1080/00038628.2018.1450727 https://doi.org/10.1080/00038628.2018.1450727 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2016.04.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.01.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.08.004 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: kapogiannis, g. and palaios, p. 2024. economics of digital construction. construction economics and building, 24:3, 1–3. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v24i3.9185 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/ journals/index. php/ajceb editorial economics of digital construction georgios kapogiannis1*, panagiotis palaios2 1afg college with the university of aberdeen (qatar) 2school of business and economics, deree the american college of greece corresponding author: georgios kapogiannis, afg college with the university of aberdeen (qatar), georgios.kapogiannis@afg-aberdeen.edu.qa doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.9185 article history: received 17/05/2024; revised 07/06/2024; accepted 10/06/2024; published 01/07/2024 welcome to this special issue of our ceb journal, dedicated to exploring the multifaceted economic dimensions of digital construction within the architecture, engineering, construction, and operation (aeco) sector. as digital technologies increasingly spread throughout this sector, they bring about transformative impacts not only on how projects are designed and managed but also on the broader economic landscape. the rapid adoption of technologies like building information modelling (bim) and digital asset management systems has set a new paradigm in project efficiency and data utilisation. these advancements promise substantial economic benefits, ranging from increased productivity to enhanced decision-making capabilities, which, in turn, can spur significant growth in the broader economy. however, efficient and fair distribution and diffusion of these benefits in society is not always given, as stronger economies can more efficiently utilise the benefits of digital construction compared to weaker economies. consequently, there is a need signaled for structural reforms in the latter, to improve the rate of integration of digitalisation in the construction sector (kapogiannis, et al., 2023). climate change is also a factor that now poses challenges for the construction sector, with digitalisation a key element able to address these challenges. our focus in this issue is diverse. we begin by setting the stage with a retrospective on the initial economic evaluations of bim, highlighting foundational reports such as those by schulz, et al. (2013) and the influential construction 2025 report by the united kingdom government, which mandated bim usage for public projects over a certain financial threshold. these foundational insights have shaped policies and practices that aim to harness the economic potential of digital technologies. however, challenges persist, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (smes) coping with the demands of digital transformation. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 1 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:georgios.kapogiannis@afg-aberdeen.edu.qa https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.9185 the insights from oecd reports and european union analyses in 2021 remind us that while the path forward is promising, it is strewn with hurdles that require strategic consideration and policy intervention. henceforth, this issue features a diverse collection of articles from around the world (mainly africa, asia and europe) that provide a deeper dive into these topics. cakmak and akturk assess the existing literature on the potential of digital construction technologies from a building economics perspective, identifying digital construction technologies that contribute to building economics. the analysis showed that despite the added value of digital technologies to building economics, primarily in measuring and monitoring construction resources and activities, adoption is relatively slow and mostly concentrated on the early phases of the building life cycle. therefore, alkhard, focusing on digital asset management (dam), highlights the need for transition from traditional to digital facilities and asset management methods, emphasising the necessity for modernisation in the construction sector. this research, conducted in a saudi arabian public school, demonstrates the practical implications of digital technologies in asset management, and shows how datadriven approaches can revolutionise traditional practices, leading to improved operational efficiency and strategic asset management in governance practices. despite digitalisation in the construction sector being a sine qua non prerequisite for economic efficiency, the wealth redistribution impact of new technologies should also be considered. the afolayan and ajibowu article on gentrification and housing policies in lagos, nigeria, offers an investigation and understanding of the socio-economic impacts of digital construction technologies. the study highlights the sustainability of public policy efforts at subsidising low-income housing and their eventual beneficiaries, thus shedding light on the broader socio-economic dynamics and policy efficacy within digitally evolving urban environments. it also mentions the importance of possible administrative, legal and taxation measures to achieve sustainable subsidy practices in future projects. it becomes evident that the new digitalised era in the construction sector requires an appropriate institutional framework. in that sense, sood and laishram provide a systematic review on the implementation of 7d-bim for infrastructure asset management, illustrating the critical challenges and potential solutions of adopting bim across different stages of project lifecycles. this comprehensive analysis not only highlights technological impediments but also suggests how policy frameworks and governmental support can play pivotal roles in overcoming potential obstacles. there are numerous benefits to digitalisation in the construction sector. however, as climate change poses new challenges for humanity, technology should inevitably strengthen sustainability. getvoldsen, et al. consider the sustainability dimensions, aligning the principles of sustainability with the climate change act 2008 through detailed numerical modelling of insulation improvements in uk housing. this study bridges the gap between digital construction, sustainability, and legislative frameworks, demonstrating the potential for significant co2 savings through integrated approaches. this special issue, therefore, not only emphasises the economic benefits and challenges of digital construction but also explores its broader implications on society and policy. by investigating into these varied themes, we aim to foster a clearer understanding of how digital construction can drive economic and societal advancements. taking for granted the usual tradeoff between efficiency and fairness in economics, our goal is to inspire our readers—whether policymakers, practitioners, or researchers—to actively engage with these insights and to consider how digital construction can be leveraged to achieve not only economic efficiency but also societal well-being and sustainable growth. through collaborative efforts and continued dialogue, we can ensure that digital transformation of the aeco sector remains a cornerstone of innovative economic development and social progress. kapogiannis and palaios construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 20242 the editorial team dr georgios kapogiannis dr panagiotis palaios kapogiannis and palaios construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 20243 references schultz, a., essiet, u. m., souza de souza, d. v., kapogiannis, g. and ruddock, l. (2013). the economics of bim and added value of bim to the construction sector and society, cib publication 395/isbn 978-90-6363-084-3 kapogiannis, g., lu, n., augusto, c., sudhir, t., misalimov, r., novianti, and yang, t. (2023). an integrated and intelligent information model-based smart university campus and its digitalization process. https://doi.org/10.1007/978981-99-6391-1_12 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-6391-1_12 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-6391-1_12 blank page construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: sharma, r., bhalla, n. 2025. enlightening the critical factors affecting the solvency of indian construction industry: an empirical analysis using multivariate discriminant analysis and logistic regression. construction economics and building, 25:2, 276–302. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v25i2.8752 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article enlightening the critical factors affecting the solvency of indian construction industry: an empirical analysis using multivariate discriminant analysis and logistic regression rakesh kumar sharma1,*, neba bhalla2 1 school of humanities and social sciences, thapar institute of engineering and technology (deemed to be university), patiala 147004 punjab 2 school of business, upes (university of petroleum and energy studies), kandoli, dehradun, uttarakhand 276 corresponding author: rakesh kumar sharma, department of humanities & social sciences, thapar institute of engineering & technology (deemed to be university), patiala 147004 punjab, rakesh.kumar@thapar.edu doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.8752 article history: received 03/08/2023; revised 02/12/2023; accepted 01/01/2024; published 08/08/2025 abstract the present research work aimed to examine the vital factors that affect the solvency of the indian construction sector. the two different parameters of solvency, namely, debt to total assets (dta) and cash flow to total liabilities (cftl), were used in the present study. these two solvency indicators were categorized using zero and one numerical values. one indicates financially sound companies, and zero indicates weak companies with poor solvency ratios. the different financial ratios, namely, profitability, liquidity, leverages, and turnovers, were used as predictors or explanatory variables of insolvency of indian construction companies. the study employs multivariate discriminant analysis (mda) and binary logistic regression to predict the factors accountable for the insolvency of the indian construction sector. the empirical findings of mda and logistic regression show significant discrimination in the solvency position of construction companies according to their different financial performance parameters, namely, profitability, liquidity, and leverage. the empirical findings suggest that in the first case, the critical indicators predicting solvency are turnover, liquidity, and leverage ratios. in the second measure of solvency (cftl), profitability significantly discriminates solvency of companies. overall, the findings declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.8752 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.8752 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:rakesh.kumar@thapar.edu https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.8752 of mda and logistic regression are consistent with each other. the outcomes of the study will be helpful to policymakers’ different stakeholders. keywords solvency ratios; profitability ratios; activity ratios; leverage; multivariate discriminant analysis jel classification g33, g32, g17, g01, c3 introduction the construction industry in india has become the second-largest employer and foreign direct investment (fdi) recipient in 2020–2021 and the third-largest market globally. india’s construction industry attracted nearly 5 billion usd of investment in 2020, leading to predicted average growth of 7% every year until 2025 (rani, 2021). the sector that contributes directly to the country’s overall development is the construction sector. according to statista research department, in july 2020, the indian construction industry was worth over 1.3 trillion indian rupees (statista, 2024). the nature of the construction sector is a project-based industry under which different parties like contractors, clients, and consultants have to work collectively to complete a project. the failure or success of the construction sector notably affects the other sectors associated with them. the construction sector’s performance can affect the national budget, so there is a need to develop proficient planning in executing the projects. hence, the project manager should look for efficient tools and techniques. in india, real estate is forecast to stretch out to 650 billion usd, exhibiting 13% of india’s gross domestic product (gdp) by 2025. the government of india has allowed fdi of 100% for townships and settlements. india’s real estate attracted over 6.06 billion usd in investment in india. the role of the construction sector is significant in the indian economy. from the financial year 2010 to the financial year 2015, the growth rate of this sector was up at 2.95%, and the growth rate of the construction sector across india was evaluated to be 5.65% from the financial year 2015 to 2022 (statista, 2024). however, after the global financial crisis, the asian financial crisis in 2014, the introduction of demonetization and goods and services tax in 2017, and the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic in 2020 have been worrying for the indian economy. subsequently, india’s gdp has declined to 10.29% from 8.0%. therefore, there is an urgent requirement that the government and related stakeholders examine the critical factors that influence the financial state of indian construction companies. there is a need to conduct a detailed analysis of the essential factors affecting the solvency of the indian construction industry. muresan and wolitzer (2004) described financial ratio analysis as being helpful over the years to give a holistic stance of a company’s financial position at any point or period. financial ratios are significant numerical values extracted from accounting statements to obtain relevant information about a company. traditionally, financial ratios are categorized mainly into current, solvency, profitability, and activity ratios (paramasivan and subramanian, 2008). to check whether a company has sufficient cash flow or not to manage its debt liabilities that are due, solvency ratios play a significant role. another name for the solvency ratio is the leverage ratio. a company with a low solvency ratio signifies more risk of fulfilling its debt obligation and vice versa. in the presence of a large number of companies in a particular sector, it is impractical to examine all the ratios every time to determine an industry’s financial state. moreover, no one ratio describes the complete information about the company, whereas the random combination of ratios may lead to redundancy in the report. thus, there is a sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025277 need to find out the significant ratios of the indian construction companies and consequently discover the critical factors that influence the financial health of the indian construction companies. literature review financial ratio analysis is one of the most important and common ways to examine the economic progress and growth of companies in the construction industry in different countries (kim and zhang 2014). balatbat, siew, and carmichael (2020), and rajala, et al. (2022) all included financial ratios in their research. each researcher can apply specific financial ratios and factors that signify the research objectives they aim to achieve for a certain number of years. profitability and liquidity ratios such as the net profit margin and current ratio are used in various studies (wang and lee, 2008; niemann, schmidt, and neukirchen, 2008; sansusi, et al., 2017). moyer (1990) explained financial ratios for three purposes. the first is to measure the firm’s feasibility and identify the weaknesses and strengths of the firm. second, in planning to achieve the company’s goals, financial ratios play an essential role, and third is to ensure the company objectives are well suited to its resources. with the help of financial ratios, a market analyst can compare a firm’s financial condition with that of other firms over time. vibhakar, et al. (2023) also investigated that financial ratios compare a company’s financial performance over time with itself and with that of other firms within the same industry. pamulu, kajewski and betts (2007) examined the financial ratios of indonesian firms in the construction sector. the results reveal that indonesian companies are financially sound, whereas profits and returns produced from construction works are quite satisfactory. suber (2011) analyzed the financial health of malaysian construction firms with the help of financial ratio analysis to examine the performance and compare the company’s performance with that of other companies and industries; the research found that a weak liquidity ratio, cash, and capital would be inadequate to finance construction projects. it is a vital sign that companies are undercapitalized and can face financial problems in the future. the most common criteria employed to determine the financial performance of construction firms are return on investment, turnover, profit, etc. a construction project is deemed successful if it is done within specifications and without cost overruns (tripathi and jha, 2018; dong, et al., 2022). however, construction firms having an excellent track record of successful projects do not always guarantee the success of the construction organization. despite its projects’ success, construction organizations can even fail or become insolvent due to the high risk in the business ( jha, 2015). success can be expressed as the point at which the expectations and objectives of a company are fulfilled. in contrast, the failure of a company is caused by its inefficacy to complete its commitment when it is due (arslan and kivrak, 2008). de franco, kothari and verdi (2011) investigated to recognize the critical financial points. the results show factor analysis on 44 financial ratios to reduce them to 25 important variables, categorized into eight sets for the indian cement industry. they analyzed eight significant factors: short-term liquidity, return on investment and profitability, long-term solvency, cash position, asset and material management, dividend policy, capital structure, and working capital productivity. they applied multiple regression analysis between the factor scores and constituent variables to exclude the statistically insignificant variables. javalagi and bhushi (2007) also analyzed the financial performance of the indian industry by implementing factor analysis to recognize the six financial factors, i.e., cash to current liabilities, working capital, retained profits, financial leverage, inventory, and profitability. chan and au (2009) examined the financial health of different parties or contractors during the asian economic turbulence. they tried to assess and monitor financial well-being by applying the accounting ratios with the help of altman’s distress models. tsolas (2011) investigated the achievement of construction companies registered in the athens exchange, evaluated the financial soundness in terms of effectiveness and profitability, and outlined a new structure that united ratio analysis and data envelopment analysis (dea). sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025278 chen (2011) analyzed macroeconomic and financial points to predict sales of construction companies. in contrast, kehinde and mosaku (2006) used ratio analysis to analyze medium-sized construction companies’ assets in nigeria. niemann, schmidt and neukirchen (2008) applied financial ratios for rating prediction models for multinational corporations. horta, et al. (2013) came up with a quantitative approach to examine construction firms’ financial strength and discover the factors that promote innovation and performance improvements using data envelopment analysis and regression analysis. ramalho and da silva (2013) analyzed the fraction regression model, features of tobit models, and econometric assumptions to give a conceptual basis for their application in the regression study of various leverage ratios. investors use the solvency ratios and liquidity ratios as tools to make their investment decisions. solvency ratios assess the firm’s ability to meet its financial obligation when it is outstanding. most empirical studies evidence the relationship between liquidity, activity, profitability, and leverage with the solvency of a firm. the following literature provides a deeper insight into the relationship of all the variables that impact the solvency of a firm. relationship with profitability good performance and financial position are needed for business entities to operate in the future ( jeon, amekudzi, and guensler, 2010). profitability and solvency are often exercised as a benchmark to measure financial position and performance (kiyosaki and lechter, 2003). profitability analysis is an essential instrument for decision-making and management planning, as it generates value for the firm (penman, 2007). vieria (2011) stated that the evaluation of profitability is generally done with the help of return on equity and return on assets. khalid and rehman (2014) examined a negative relationship between profitability inconsistency and solvency. less profitable firms delay the payment of routine expenses of the company. a study conducted in ghana by addae, nyarko-bassi, and hughes (2013) stated a positive relationship between short-term debt and profitability compared to long-term debts. moreover, a positive relationship occurs between the solvency levels per the pecking order theory. a profitable firm can survive in any adverse situation and use its retained earnings well (arvanitis, et al., 2012). bordeleau and graham (2010) stated that at some point over, liquidity had reduced the profitability level of firms. mohanty and mehrotra (2018) stated a significant relationship between profitability and return on assets (roa) and not a statistically significant relationship between solvency and return on equity (roe). solvency has no impact on profitability, but liquidity negatively impacts it (dahiyat, weshah and aldahiyat, 2021). h1: the different measures of profitability can distinguish between strong solvent and weak solvent indian construction companies. relationship with liquidity a company’s capacity to fulfill its short-term obligations and manage the cash requirements to operate the business smoothly is measured through liquidity ratios (hayes, 2019). the liquidity position is a measure to analyze the company’s capacity to discharge its current liabilities with current assets. the company’s liquidity position is considered better if higher (loncan and caldeira, 2014). working capital management is essential, as it directly affects its solvency (singh and pandey, 2008). the working capital directly influences the solvency of a firm. negative working capital leads a firm to bankruptcy (panigrahi, 2014). the financial structure is directly associated with high profitability, liquidity, and solvency. here, financial structure is implied by working capital management (guimaraes and nossa, 2010). khalid and rehman (2014) stated that the higher the quick and current ratio is, the more the company can easily handle the cash troubles. sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025279 moorthi, et al. (2012) stated that liquidity plays an essential role in the existence of a business. it affects solvency, i.e., the ability to survive in the long run. silva (2019) stated that too much liquidity has a negative implication on the solvency of a firm. research conducted in saudi arabia by eljelly (2004) analyzed that profitability is assessed by the cash conversion cycle and the current ratio and identified a link between profitability and the solvency of a firm. carslaw and mills (1991) stated that cash flow is used to ascertain short-term financial stability. it is an indicator used to measure a firm’s financial risk. ben, olubukunola and uwuigbe (2013) and ademola, et al. (2020) examined the nigerian stock exchange and stated that the current liquidity ratio is positively related to profitability. it helps to ascertain the solvency position of a firm. a study on the malaysian manufacturing sector measured liquidity using the working capital and current ratio to total asset ratio. it states that a positive relationship prevails between the profitability and liquidity of a firm (zainudin, et al., 2017). h2: liquidity of selected companies can discriminate them into very healthy and unhealthy indian construction companies. relationship with activity ratios activity ratios are the performance measuring tools of a firm and express the organization’s operational capabilities. a higher ratio means better utilization of the resources. financial challenges have been a significant worry since the financial crisis of 2008. activity ratios help in evaluating financial efficiency and performance. a study showed the direct relationship of activity and profitability ratios with the solvency of the firms (rawat, et al., 2022). the serbian enterprise study uses cash flow investing margin and cash flow operating margin as liquidity yardsticks. the cash flow operating margin shows a negative impact, and the cash flow investing margin has a positive repercussion. the indicator used for the cash flow investing margin is the cash invested in a firm’s fixed assets . drobetz, et al. (2013) stated that organizations having a higher ratio of fixed to total assets bear low financial distress. there is less chance of them suffering higher losses at times of insolvency or bankruptcy. the turnover ratios analyze the enterprise’s sales ability; the higher the turnover ratio, the higher the benefit for the firm (xia, et al., 2023). the analysis of activity ratios helps to improve operational efficiency (zhu, et al., 2019). h3: the different measures of activity ratios can distinguish between strong solvent and weak solvent indian construction companies. relationship with leverage ratios a company’s survival depends on its capital structure and not just its earning potential. leverage ratios tell the proportion of debt used in the firm’s capital structure. pandey and bhat (1990) and bhat, chanda and bhat (2023) examined the financial leverage of indian manufacturing industries. they employed various factors such as firm dividend payout ratio, income variability, size, and growth. their studies deduced that a firm’s size is not related to financial leverage. however, a firm is riskier in terms of solvency when it is likely to employ more percentage of debt in comparison with financial leverage and earnings before interest and tax (ebit). abey and velumurugan (2019) stated that capital structure determines the company’s survival in the future and long-term solvency. their study used the variables of return on investment, size of the company, and asset structure to determine the financial leverage of the indian automobile industry. yeo (2016) stated that leverage is closely and directly related to solvency. a firm should only accelerate the intake of debts when it is affirmative to get higher returns. moreover, the study identified that variables like profitability and size of the firm also influence the leverage level. durand (2019) stated that capital positively impacts financial stability in terms of solvency sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025280 at a low level. however, when the capital increases, the solvency of a firm becomes weaker. the financial leverage ratio helps to measure the financial performance of operations. it is of great value to investors, creditors, and managers in the long run (andrew, damitio, and schmidgall, 2007). the turnover ratios give a comprehensive approach to analyzing the solvency position of the firms (kajananthan and velnampy, 2014). a study on manufacturing companies in nigeria showed that solvency in terms of credit policies, cash conversion, and earnings plays an essential role in corporate profitability (owolabi and obida, 2012). in their study, graham and leary (2011) stated that firms with lower bond ratings and more debt are more prone to insolvency and financial distress. bonaccorsi di patti, et al. (2015) stated the two-fold impact of leverage on firms. first, firms default during economic contractions. second, leverage increases the sensitivity of the firm. h4: leverage ratios of selected companies can separate them into very healthy and unhealthy indian construction companies. research design or research methods this study was carried out by procuring the different explanatory and dependent variables from prowess, the centre for monitoring indian economy (cmie). the study period was from the last 10 years, from 2011 to 2020. the two different solvency parameters used in the study were cash profit after tax to total liabilities and debt to total assets of indian construction sector companies. there cannot be a single reason for insolvency; by keeping this in mind, the study included the different financial ratios as explanatory variables. these ratios deal with profitability, shortand long-term financial position, and managerial efficiency or activity ratios of the indian construction companies. at the initial stage, data on a total of 3,947 companies were procured. however, the companies that shut down their business during the study period were excluded from the sample. similarly, the companies whose complete data set of the last 10 years of different explanatory and dependent variables were not available were also dropped from the sample size. at last, a sample of 148 construction companies was taken. data of all the variables as mentioned earlier were collected for the time of 2011 to 2020. multivariate discriminant analysis (mda) and binary logistic regression are used to predict the solvency of selected indian construction companies. the methods adopted to conduct the research are mda and binary logistic regression as explained in section 3.1 and 3.2. furthermore, the variables for each financial ratio selected for evaluating the solvency ratios are specified in section 3.3 multivariate discriminant analysis (mda) multivariate discriminant analysis is identical to multiple regression analysis. the only point of distinction is that in the case of mda, the dependent variable is qualitative, whereas in the case of multiple regressions, this variable is quantitative. in multiple regressions, there is more than one independent variable. there is also more than one independent variable in mda. there is a single dependent variable in the multiple regressions, whereas the dependent variable is categorical in the case of mda. in the present paper, the dependent variables were the different categories of the solvency ratio of selected companies. these different solvency indicators were categorized using two numerical values: one and zero (refer to figure 1). one indicates that those companies with a sound financial position and overall health are very good; zero reflects that companies having poor solvency ratios are weak companies. the different financial ratios, viz., profitability, liquidity, leverage, and activity, were used as predictors or explanatory variables of the insolvency of indian construction sector companies. sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025281 the discriminant equation in the present study is as follows: z = β0 + β1 (profitability) + β2 (liquidity) + β3 (leverage) + β4 (activity) + ε, 1 where z is the latent categorical variable. profitability, liquidity, leverage, and activity ratios are the explanatory variables. β0 is the intercept or constant. β1, β2, β3, and β4 are the coefficients to calculate the discriminant score. ε is the error term. idv-liquidity and leverage idv-ac�vity ra�os idv-profitability ra�os dv-solvency: 1. strong 0. weak figure 1. mda variables. source: authors’ compilation binary logistic regression (blr) furthermore, binary logistic regression was used in the current study to authenticate mda results. in the case of binary logistic regression, the dependent variable was the two categories of companies: strong solvent companies and weak solvent companies. these companies were categorized using binary numbers, where one indicates strong solvent and zero weak solvent companies. the study used a forward logistic regression (lr), and the forward lr is similar to stepwise multiple regression. it adds the significant independent variables in each subsequent stage. forward lr (xie, et al., 2013) removes explanatory variables that are not significant. the remaining independent variables are the significant independent variables used to calculate the discriminant score. like multiple regression, binary logistic regression also measures the cause-andeffect relationship among independent and dependent variables by converting the explanatory variables to probability scores, i.e., zero and one. in the logit model, the odds ratio is expressed as the probability of a high impact to a low impact (i.e., no impact) or p(h)/1 − p(h). the model under logit regression is expressed as a linear function of the company’s predictor variables. log p h p h x xi n in          1 0 1 1  . (1) sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025282 where p(h) is the probability of having a high impact on the ith construction companies: a0 is an intercept; x1 − xn are the latent variables; a1 − an are the coefficients of the nth latent variables. liao (1994) opined that equation (1) could be changed into a description of the logistic regression model of event probability. calculating p(h) through equation (1), the expected probability of having a high impact is described as follows: p h e z      1 1 , z x xi n in      0 1 1  . in the above equation, the base of the natural logarithm is “e”. the present logistic model uses different financial ratios associated with leverage, profitability, liquidity, and turnovers as predictor variables. these ratios are assumed to split the companies into strong solvent and weak solvent companies. the respective logit equation for business performance (operational performance, cost, and profitability) is as follows: p h e z      1 1 , where z               1 1 2 2 3 3 4leverage profitability liquidity t i i i uurnover ratios i   4 ε binary logistic regression has been used to predict different financial ratios affecting business solvency. values zero (for weak solvent companies) and one (for strong solvent companies) are assigned to dependent variables: solvency. the average is calculated based on the measuring scale used for each dependent variable. accordingly, values zero and one are assigned as shown in table 3 to measure the impact using logistic regression. dependent and independent variables this section highlights the variables selected as dependent and independent variables for financial ratios to predict the solvency of indian construction companies as stated in table 1. analysis and interpretation the current study used the mda section 4.1 and the logistic technique (section 4.2) to evaluate the solvency of indian construction companies. multivariate discriminant analysis table 2 shows the categorization of the strong and weak solvent positions of the companies. for a strong position, value 1 was assigned a dta ratio of more than 0.60. likewise, to evaluate the position based on cash profits, the value 1 was assigned a ratio of more than 0.15. table 3 reports the results of wilks’ lambda value, f statistics, and corresponding p-value. wilks’ lambda was applied in multivariate analysis of variance to know whether a difference exists in group means of indistinguishable groups’ area under discussion with a blend of dependent variables. later, the value of wilks’ lambda statistic was transformed into f distribution or analysis of variance (anova) value to know the significant difference among the groups’ means. the p-value < significance level indicates the rejection of sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025283 null and acceptance of alternate hypotheses. in the case of the first indicator of solvency debt to total assets (dta), the two variables, namely, current ratio (cr) and total asset turnover ratio (tatr), were statistically significant at the 5% level. the current asset turnover ratio (catr) was statistically significant at the 1% level. table 1. definition of different independent and dependent variables. ratios calculation references profitability ratios net profit ratio (npr) net profit/net sales jeon, amekudzi and guensler (2010); kiyosaki and lechter (2003); penman (2007); vieria (2011); khalid and rehman (2014); addae, nyarkaobassi and hughes (2013); arvanitis, et al. (2012); bordeleau and graham (2010); mohanty and mehrotra (2018); dahiyat, weshah and al-dahiyat (2021) profit before tax ratio (pbtr) pbt/net sales profit after tax ratio (patr) pat/net sales cash profit ratio (cpr) profit after tax + noncash expenses – noncash incomes/net sales return on assets (roa) ebit/total assets return on equity (roe) pat − preference dividend (if any)/equity shareholders’ funds return on sales or operating profit ratio (ros) operating profit/net sales liquidity ratio current ratio current assets/current liabilities loncan and calderia (2014); singh and pandey (2008); panigrahi (2014); khalid and rahman (2014); moorthi, ramesh and bhanupriya (2012); silva (2019); eljelly (2004); carslaw and mills (1991); ben, olubukunola and uwuigbe (2013) and ademola, et al. (2020);zainudin, et al., 2017 guimaraes and nossa (2010) activity ratios total asset turnover net sales/total assets drobetz, et al. (2013); zhu, et al. (2019) fixed asset turnover net sales/fixed assets working capital asset turnover net sales/net working capital current asset turnover net sales/current assets sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025284 the second measure of solvency cash flow to total liabilities (cftl) results was quite different from the earlier measure. the variables, namely, roa and tatr, were significant at 1%. the significant variables indicate that there is a considerable difference in group means. table 4 shows the canonical correlation between discriminant functions and wilks’ lambda. since there were only two categorical variables of each measure of solvency in the present study, one discriminant function was created for each measure. the first function of dta’s (solvency indicator) corresponding ratios calculation references leverage financial leverage debt to equity ratio bhat, chanda and bhat (2023); abey and velumurugan (2019); yeo (2016); durand (2019); andrew and schmidgall (1993); kajananthan and velnampy (2014); owolabi and obida (2012); patti, et al. (2015) earnings before interest and tax/earning before tax total debt to sales solvency ratios debt to total liabilities (dtl) debts/total liabilities cook, et al. (2014); yeo (2016); hayes (2019); mohanty and mehrotra (2018); silva (2019); xia (2023); (yeo, 2018) durand (2019). total shareholders’ funds to total assets (etta) total shareholders’ funds/total assets long-term debt to total liabilities (dta) total long-term debts/ total liabilities cash flows after tax to total liabilities profit after tax + noncash expenses – noncash incomes/total liabilities source: authors’ compilation. table 1. continued table 2. categorization of companies as per solvency ratios. debt to total assets (dta) no. of companies cash flow to total liabilities (cftl) no. of companies references ratio category ratio category strong solvent position <0.60 1 126 >0.15 1 93 corporate financial institute report (2021); accounting tools (2021); mills and yamamura (1998); denise (2021) very weak solvent position >0.60 0 22 <0.15 0 56 source: authors’ compilation. sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025285 eigenvalue was 0.394, which corresponds to 100% of the explained variance. canonical correlation analysis (cca) measures the degree of linear association among two sets of variables. it is the multivariate extension of multiple correlation analysis (tabachnick and fidell, 1989) and ranges from 0 to 1. cca analyzes the linear relationship between latent variables that represent multiple variables in multivariate analysis. a latent variable is a variable that is not directly observed (statistics solution, 2018). for the discriminant function of dta, the associated cca value was 0.532. a higher value of cca is considered as good in multivariate analysis. the cca value of 0.532 indicates a 53.2% degree of linear relationship among the latent variables representing multiple variables. the associated wilks’ lambda and chi-square values of the discriminant function of dta were 0.717 and 47.848, respectively. the corresponding p-value was significant (<0.05); this shows that this function significantly discriminates the two groups of the solvency of dta. similarly, the discriminant function of the second measure of solvency (cash flow to total liabilities) reflected an eigenvalue of 0.297 and a canonical correlation of 0.478. compared to the former measure of solvency (dta), the eigenvalue and cca were low in the case of cftl. in the second measure of solvency (cftl), the discriminant function’s associated values of wilks’ lambda and chi-square were 0.771 and 37.694, respectively. since the significance value of the discriminant function was <0.05, this function also significantly gives to the group differences. table 5 exhibits the coefficients of the discriminant function of dta and cftl. coefficients of discriminant functions were used to calculate a discriminant or z score. the calculated discriminant score table 3. tests of equality of group means. debt to total assets (dta) cash flow to total liabilities (cftl) wilks’ lambda f sig. wilks’ lambda f (sig.) roe 0.999 0.136 0.713 0.995 0.660 0.418 roa 1.000 0.003 0.955 0.825 31.056 0.000* ros 0.999 0.165 0.685 0.997 0.430 0.513 patr 0.999 0.165 0.685 0.997 0.430 0.513 pbtr 0.999 0.151 0.698 0.997 0.379 0.539 cpr 0.999 0.166 0.684 0.997 0.424 0.516 cr 0.958 6.366 0.013** 0.999 0.092 0.762 fatr 0.993 1.025 0.313 0.991 1.363 0.245 tatr 0.968 4.761 0.031** 0.893 17.559 0.000* catr 0.934 10.277 0.002* 0.986 2.147 0.145 wctr 1.000 0.024 0.878 0.986 2.120 0.148 dfl 1.000 0.015 0.902 0.998 0.336 0.563 tdts 0.941 9.233 0.003* 0.991 1.344 0.248 source: authors’ calculations. * significant at 1% level. ** significant at 5% level. sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025286 or z score was similar to what we calculated in the case of multiple regression analysis using the value of coefficients of explanatory variables. in the present study, stepwise multivariate discriminant analysis was used. the variables mentioned in table 5 of both the solvency measures (dta and cftl) are significant, and these variables are used for discriminant scores. for both the measures of solvency, the discriminant score can be calculated in the following manner: dta discriminant score = −0.457 + 0.146 (cr) − 1.781 (tatr) + 0.852 (catr) + 0.011 (tdts) cftl discriminant score = −0.602 + 10.762 (roa) + 1.298 (tatr) we can see that the catr in the discriminant function of dta is significantly larger than the coefficients for the other three variables. thus, this variable has a substantial impact on the function’s discriminant score. the tatr had the highest negative coefficient value in the discriminant function table 4. summary of discriminant functions for both dependent variables (dta and cftl). debt to total assets (dta) cash flow to total liabilities (cftl) functions 1 1 eigenvalue 0.394 0.297 % of variance 100 100 cumulative % 100 100 canonical correlation 0.532 0.478 wilks’ lambda 0.717 0.771 chi-square 47.848 37.694 degrees of freedom 4 4 sig. 0.000 0.000 source: own calculation using spss. table 5. canonical discriminant function coefficients. debt to total assets (dta) cash flow to total liabilities (cftl) function function 1 1 roa 10.762 cr 0.146 tatr −1.781 1.298 catr 0.852 tdts 0.011 (constant) −0.457 −0.602 source: own calculations using spss. sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025287 of dta. this case of the second measure of solvency was cftl roa, which had the highest positive coefficient value as compared to a second significant variable (tatr). thus, this variable had a high impact on the function’s discriminant score of cftl. table 6 shows that the results obtained from the discriminant analysis are approximately similar to the extraction of function and several additional plots. the structure matrix (table 6) displays the within-group association of each independent variable with the canonical discriminant function. in the first measure of insolvency dta, the catr (0.423) and total debt to total sales (tdts) (0.401) had the highest positive correlation with the discriminant function as compared to the other two significant variables (cr and tatr). the remaining variables were not used in the analysis, and these were not found significant to calculate a discriminant score. in the second measure of solvency (cftl), the roa (0.846) had a strong positive association with discriminant function as compared to tatr (0.636). the remaining 11 variables were not used in the analysis, as these were not found significant to calculate the discriminant score of cftl. table 6. structure matrix. debt to total assets (dta) cash flow to total liabilities (cftl) function function 1 1 catr 0.423* roa 0.846 tdts 0.401* tatr 0.636 cr 0.333 catra 0.306 tatr −0.288 fatra 0.099 fatra 0.052 wctra 0.048 roaa −0.039 roea −0.042 dfl −0.037 cra −0.041 wctra 0.028 pbtra −0.008 roea 0.024 cpra −0.006 pbtra 0.020 rosa −0.005 cpra 0.017 patra −0.005 patra 0.015 tdtsa 0.002 rosa 0.015 dfla 0.001 source: authors’ calculations using spss. a these variables were not used in the analysis. * significant at 1% level. table 7 shows the group centroids for combined groups for discriminant analysis. the term centroids was used for mean in the case of multivariate analysis. functions at group centroids were the means of the discriminant function scores by the group for each function calculated. sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025288 if we calculate the discriminant function scores for every group, they appear to be at the means of the scores by group. the companies in the first group (weak solvent position) in the case of dta had a mean of 1.492. the companies in the second group (strong solvent position) had a mean of −0.261. table 7. functions at group centroids. debt to total assets (dta) cash flow to total liabilities (cftl) function function 1 1 0 1.492 −0.296 1 −0.261 0.991 source: authors’ calculations using spss. table 8 reports the function coefficients of the two categories of companies based on their solvency position. in the present study, discriminant analysis involves two companies and 13 explanatory variables associated with different financial ratios. through fisher’s linear function, we not only wanted to determine if the categories differ significantly on the 13 continuous variables, but we were also interested in predicting variety classification for an unknown variable. we used stepwise multivariate discriminant analysis (mda) in the current study. table 8. fisher’s linear discriminant functions. debt to total assets (dta) cash flow to total liabilities (cftl) 0 1 0 1 roa ----−3.948 9.897 cr 0.492 0.236 ----tatr −0.908 2.213 2.079 3.749 catr 1.795 0.302 ----tdts 0.024 0.004 ----(constant) −3.415 −1.535 −1.072 −2.294 source: own calculations using spss. function coefficients reported in table 8 are only the coefficients of significant variables. weak solvent position (dta) = intercept + b1 (cr) + b2 (tatr) + b3 (catr) + b4 (tdts) weak solvent position (dta) = −3.415 + 0.492 (cr) − 0.908 (tatr) + 1.795 (catr) + 0.024 (tdts) high solvent position (dta) = intercept + b1 (cr) + b2 (tatr) + b3 (catr) + b4 (tdts) high solvent position (dta) = −1.535 + 0.236 (cr) + 2.213 (tatr) + 0.302 (catr) + 0.004 (tdts) sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025289 in the present study, b1 to b4 were the regression coefficients of associated explanatory variables. the interpretation of a two-group problem results is straightforward and closely follows the logic of multiple regressions. weak solvent position (cftl) = intercept + b1 (roa) + b2 (tatr) weak solvent position (cftl) = −1.072 − 3.948 (roa) + 2.079 (tatr) high solvent position (cftl) = intercept + b1 (roa) + b2 (tatr) high solvent position (cftl) = −2.294 + 9.897 (roa) + 3.749 (tatr) according to dta, for companies with a strong solvent position (group 1), the variable tatr has the highest positive value of regression coefficient followed by catr. the weak solvent companies’ regression coefficients of catr and cr show high positive values. the tatr shows a high negative coefficient value. according to the debt to total assets (cftl) criterion, the companies with a strong solvent position have higher value regression coefficients, namely, roa. the companies with weak solvent positions have highly positive and negative values of regression coefficients: tatr and roa. the variables with the largest (standardized) positive regression coefficients are the ones that contribute most to the prediction of a group membership. similarly, negative values of regression coefficients show negative involvement in predicting group membership. analysis and interpretation of binary logistic regression the study employed the forward lr model, also known as stepwise binary logistic regression. in the case of forward lr, in each subsequent step, a new significant variable is added. in the current study, three steps were carried out, and three variables were used in the third step. at the initial stage of this section, the model’s goodness of fit was analyzed and interpreted using hosmer–lemeshow and omnibus tests. later, analysis and interpretation of the wald test were carried out to explain the significant variables to be used in the model. omnibus test the omnibus test (table 9) was applied to check whether the stepwise binary logistic (forward lr) is a good fit or not. this test is commonly known as the test of goodness of fit. does it mean how well the model can predict the results and risks of the company (pallant, 2009)? in the first measure of solvency (dta), the associated chi-square distribution test value at step 3 was 29.639, and the significance value or p-value < 0.05. it specifies the general fitness of the model for the first measure of solvency (dta). similarly, for the second measure of solvency (cftl), the associated chi-square distribution test value was higher at 147.865 (at step 3) at 3 degrees of freedom. the significance value or p-value < 0.05 points out that the model was well-fitted and accurate in predicting the solvency of indian construction companies (table 9). hosmer–lemeshow (hl) test use the hl test (table 10) was also applied to check the goodness-of-fit model in binary logistic regression. this test reports how accurate the lr model is to predict the outcomes. in other words, we can say how close the expected and actual frequencies are by using the lr model. this test is more reliable in checking the predictability capability of the lr model. sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025290 furthermore, this test compares the actual and expected values and investigates whether there is statistical significance between both values. the acceptance of the null hypothesis of this test shows that there is no significant difference between actual and predicted values, and the model is well fitted. the alternate hypothesis indicates that statistically, a significant difference exists between the actual and predicted values, and the lr model is poorly fitted (zenzerović and perusko, 2006). table 10. hosmer–lemeshow test. debt to total assets (dta) step chi-square df sig. 1 5.475 8 0.706 2 10.887 8 0.208 3 14.262 8 0.075 cash flow to total liabilities (cftl) step chi-square df sig. 1 8.966 8 0.345 2 14.134 8 0.078*** 3 24.251 8 0.002* source: authors’ calculations using spss. * significant at 1% level. *** significant at 10% level. table 9. omnibus test of model coefficients. debt to total assets (dta) chi-square df sig. step 3 step 5.613 1 0.018** block 29.639 3 0.000* model 29.639 3 0.000* cash flow to total liabilities (cftl) chi-square df sig. step 3 step 3.032 1 0.082*** block 147.865 3 0.000* model 147.865 3 0.000* source: authors’ calculations using spss. * significant at 1% level. ** significant at 5% level. *** significant at 10% level. sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025291 table 11. solvency prediction models of indian construction companies at step 3 using forward logistic regression. step 3 model using debt to total assets (dta) as the dependent variable b se wald df sig. exp(b) cr −0.140 0.064 4.856 1 0.028** 0.869 tatr 3.277 1.198 7.483 1 0.006* 26.492 catr −1.062 0.291 13.320 1 0.000* 0.346 constant 2.058 0.487 17.832 1 0.000* 7.832 step 3 model using cash flow to total liabilities (cftl) as the dependent variable b se wald df sig. exp(b) roa 211.965 51.116 17.195 1 0.000* 1.135e fatr −0.061 .029 4.414 1 0.036** 0.941 tatr 3.739 1.474 6.434 1 0.011** 42.045 constant −1.235 .581 4.513 1 0.034** 0.291 source: authors’ calculations using spss. * significant at 1% level. ** significant at 5% level. in the present study, the goodness of fit of the lr model was further checked by using the hl test. the findings of this test indicate how accurately the current lr model can predict indian construction companies. the outputs of this test are reported in table 10. the first measure of solvency (dta), step 3 of forward lr, reflects that the chi-square (χ2) value was 14.262 at 8 degrees of freedom and the significance value >0.05. it means that the null hypothesis is accepted, and the present lr model is well fitted. the findings of the hosmer–lemeshow test for the second measure of solvency (cftl) indicate that at step 3 of forward lr, the associated chi-square value was 24.251. the associated significance value was less than 0.05 (p-value < 0.05), which means that the second solvency model finds a significant difference between actual and expected values (table 10). wald test the wald test is used in logistic regression to check the statistical significance of different predictor variables and the statistical significance regression ratio (suzić, 2007). the null hypothesis of this test reflects that different predictor variables do not significantly contribute to the prediction of dependent variables; the alternate hypothesis demonstrates that predictor variables significantly contribute to the dependent variable’s prediction. in the present study, the outputs of the wald test indicated whether different financial ratios significantly contributed to the prediction of the solvency of the indian construction industry or not. the associated significance value or p-value < 0.05 of different predictor variables specified that these variables significantly contributed to the dependent variable’s forecast. the coefficient of these variables helped to predict the dependent variable. the current study used forward lr or stepwise binary logistic regression. table 11 reports the statistically significant predictor variables at step 3 for both the measures of solvency (dta and cftl). in the first measure of solvency (dta), the three variables (cr, catr, and tatr) were significant. these three variables were statistically significant to distinguish the indian construction sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025292 companies into strong solvent and weak solvent companies. tatr and catr were significant at the 1% significance level, and cr was significant at the 5% significance level. therefore, these three models were included to predict the solvency of the indian construction industry (zenzerović, 2011). similarly, in the case of the second measure of solvency (cftl), three variables were statistically significant. these variables were return on assets (roa), fixed asset turnover ratio (fatr), and total asset turnover ratio (tatr). roa was statistically significant at the 1% level. the remaining two variables were significant at the 5% level. pseudo-r-square in the case of multiple regressions, the r-square tells the variance of the dependent variable as correctly explained by different significant predictor variables. the dependent variance as correctly explained by different predictor variables is checked using the pseudo-r-square in the logistic regression. the value of the pseudo-r-square ranges from 0 to 1 (braun, muller and schmeiser, 2013). the pseudo-r-square value near 1 indicates that different significant variables explain the higher variance. the exact 1 value of the pseudor-square reflects that the different predictor variables correctly elucidate 100% variance. in the logistic regression model (lr), the two standard measures of the pseudo-r-square are the cox and snell r2 test and nagelkerke r2. table 12 reports the pseudo-r-square of the present lr models. in the first measure of solvency (dta), the cox and snell r-square and nagelkerke r-square values were 0.181 and 0.319 (table 12). it means that the three significant variables (cr, catr, and tatr) explained 18.1% and 31.9% of the dependent variable (solvency) variance. in the case of the second measure of solvency (cftl), the values of cox and snell r-square and nagelkerke r-square were quite higher (0.624 and 0.852). it means that three significant variables (roa, fatr, and tatr) explained 62.4% and 85.2% of the variance. a higher variance explained by the lr model was considered good. according to pseudo-r-square criteria, the second model of solvency (cftl) was superior to the first model (dta) (table 12). table 12. summary statistics of the models dta and cftl. debt to total assets (dta) step −2 log likelihood cox and snell r-square nagelkerke r-square 1 117.280 0.047 0.083 2 100.400 0.150 0.264 3 94.787 0.181 0.319 cash flow to total liabilities (cftl) step −2 log likelihood cox and snell r-square nagelkerke r-square 1 60.794 0.600 0.819 2 54.309 0.617 0.842 3 51.278 0.624 0.852 source: authors’ calculations using spss. table 13 reports the classification table of the findings of a fitted lr model. it reveals how the lr model is a good interpreter of the solvency of the indian construction industry. table 13 demonstrates how accurately the lr model developed in the third step and predicted each case category. sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025293 the first measure of solvency (dta) correctly classified 36.4% of weak solvent companies and 97.6% of solid solvent companies. the number of accurately classified (expected) weak solvent indian construction companies or “unhealthy” companies was 8. the number of inaccurately classified weak solvent indian construction companies was 14. the number of inaccurately classified strong solvent companies was three, and the number of correctly classified strong solvent companies was 123. the overall percentage of correctly classified companies using dta as a solvency measure was 88.5%. overall percentage of correctly classified companies (dta) = 8 + 123/148 * 100 = 88.5% table 13. classification table of dta and cftl. solvency: debt to total assets (dta) observed solvency predicted debt to total assets total percentage correct weak solvent strong solvent step 3 solvency: debt to total assets weak solvent 8 14 22 36.4 strong solvent 3 123 126 97.6 overall percentage 88.5 cash flow to total liabilities solvency predicted cash flow to total liabilities total percentage correct weak solvent strong solvent cash flow to total liabilities weak solvent 49 6 55 89.3 strong solvent 3 90 93 96.8 overall percentage 93.9 source: own calculations using spss. the lr model developed to predict solvency using the second measure (cftl) correctly classified 89.3% weak solvent and 96.8% strong solvent indian construction companies. the number of accurately classified (forecasted) weak solvent indian construction companies or “unhealthy” companies was 49, and the number incorrectly classified was 6. similarly, the incorrectly classified strong solvent position indian construction companies were three, and the correctly classified companies were 90. the overall percentage of correctly classified companies using cftl as a solvency measure was 93.9%. overall percentage of correctly classified companies (cftl) = 49 + 90/148 * 100 = 93.9% sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025294 table 14 elaborates on the acceptance and rejection of hypotheses table 14. acceptance and rejection of hypotheses. decision h1: the different measures of profitability can distinguish between strong solvent and weak solvent indian construction companies. partially accepted h2: liquidity of selected companies can discriminate them into very healthy and unhealthy indian construction companies. rejected h3: the different measures of activity ratios can distinguish between strong solvent and weak solvent indian construction companies. accepted h4: leverage ratios of selected companies can separate them into very healthy and unhealthy indian construction companies. rejected source: authors’ compilation. conclusion and discussion the present work investigated the critical factors affecting the solvency of the indian construction sector. the secondary data of the necessary financial ratios were procured from the prowessiq, cmie database. these ratios were related to the liquidity, profitability, leverage, and activity or managerial efficiency of indian construction companies. later, these ratios were classified as predictors or explanatory variables for predicting the solvency of indian construction companies. the two different solvency parameters were used in the present study. these parameters were dta and cash flow to total liabilities. the construction companies were categorized based on these two solvency ratios. these parameters indicate the crucial financial aspects that affect the health of indian construction companies. the companies with a dta ratio of more than 0.60 were treated as weak solvent companies and less than 0.60 as strong solvent companies. according to the second measure of solvency (cftl), companies with a ratio greater than 0.15 were treated as strong solvent companies and less than 0.15 as weak solvent companies. these two solvency indicators categorize indian construction companies using two numerical values, zero and one. one indicates financially sound companies, and zero indicates weak companies with poor solvency ratios. these have been proven instrumental in assessing the financial state of the companies (mills and yamamura, 1998; denise, 2021). the study employed stepwise mda and forward lr to predict the factors responsible for the solvency position of the indian construction industry. these two statistical techniques were used to examine whether strong solvent and weak solvent indian construction companies can be distinguished based on different financial ratios used as predictor variables. the empirical findings of mda and logistic regression show significant discrimination in the solvency position of construction companies according to their different financial performance indicators, specifically, liquidity ratios, profitability ratios, leverage ratios, and activity ratios. the same results are shown in dahiyat, weshah and al-dahiyat (2021) and sharma, bhalla and goyal (2022). the study by bhat, chanda and bhat (2023) used all the stated factors except for the size of the firms that showed insignificant results related to the firm’s solvency position. in the case of the mda, if there were g groups, then g-1 discriminant functions were created. there were two categories or groups of companies in the current study, so only one discriminant function was created using both solvency measures (dta and cftl). the discriminant functions were significant at the 1% level in both the solvency measures. since we used stepwise mda, only four financial ratios related to liquidity (cr), leverage (tdts), and activity (catr and tatr) were found to be significant in the case of the first measure of solvency (dta). the coefficients of these ratios are recommended to calculate sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025295 the canonical discriminant function score. in another way, we can say that these ratios can discriminate the indian construction companies into strong solvent and weak solvent categories. the findings of mda indicate that in the case of the second parameter of solvency (cftl), profitability (roa) and management efficiency (tatr) significantly discriminate between strong solvent and weak solvent indian construction companies. the empirical findings of logistic regression show that in the case of the first parameter of solvency (dta), liquidity (cr) and management efficiency (catr and tatr) significantly discriminate the solvency of two sets of companies. the results of the second measure of solvency (cftl) indicate that profitability (roa) and management efficiency (fatr and tatr) can separate indian construction companies into strong solvent and weak solvent categories. the other associated statistical tests of binary logistic regression (omnibus and hosmer–lemeshow) demonstrated that the model developed for both solvency measures is a good-fit model. the classification table of dta and cftl reflects that in both solvency measures, the overall percentage of correctly classified companies was 88.5% and 93.9%, respectively. overall, the findings of mda and logistic regression were consistent with each other. the different ratios expressing liquidity, profitability, and leverage were found significant in predicting the insolvency of companies (altman, 1968). in our study, all these ratios were also significant, along with turnover ratios to distinguish indian construction companies into strong solvent and weak solvent categories. furthermore, the study conducted by xia, et al. (2023) used financial ratios as explanatory variables. it inferred the strong relationship between the total asset turnover ratio and working capital ratio with the solvency position of companies. in contrast, liang, et al. (2016) pointed out that leverage and profitability are the most significant ratios to predict the company’s solvency. mironiuc and taran (2015) used financial and non-financial information to detect insolvency risk. they found that roa and other ratios were significant in predicting the insolvency of companies. in their study, hamid and rohani (2018) found that liquidity, profitability, and leverage are significant ratios to predict pakistan-listed companies’ financial distress. there are plenty of studies that documented the importance of profitability in predicting the insolvency of companies and suggested that the company with higher profitability faces lower chances of bankruptcy in the near future (beaver, 1966; ohlson, 1980; hill, perry and andes, 1996; xu, et al. 2014; altman, et al., 2017). in contrast, a large pool of studies opined that liquidity plays a significant role in predicting companies’ financial health. companies with high liquidity ratios face less possibility of insolvency (campbell, hilscher, and szilagyi, 2008; ijaz, et al., 2013; manab, theng, and md-rus, 2015; chiaramonte and casu, 2017). some studies predicted a significant positive impact of leverage to predict the solvency of companies (altman, 1968; shumway, 2001; bandyopadhyay, 2006; xu, et al., 2014). the two different solvency parameters were used in the present study. these parameters were dta and cash flow after tax to total liabilities (cftl). the companies with a dta ratio of more than 0.60 were treated as weak solvent companies and less than 0.60 as strong solvent companies. according to the second measure of solvency (cftl), companies with a greater than 0.15 value were treated as solid solvent companies and less than 0.15 value as weak solvent companies. these two solvency indicators categorize indian construction companies using two numerical values, zero and one. one indicates financially sound companies, and zero indicates weak companies with poor solvency ratios. these have been proven instrumental in assessing the financial state of the companies (corporate financial institute report, 2021; accounting tools, 2020. implications of the study the variables discovered in this study are strongly recommended while predicting the indian construction companies’ solvency. the study will be helpful to policymakers and different stakeholders. society will sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025296 benefit by knowing the critical factors responsible for companies likely to become insolvent. accordingly, the policymakers may issue financial assistance, subsidies, and advice to concerned companies. moreover, different stakeholders or societies will benefit from knowing the study’s outcomes and formulating a future strategy to deal with these companies. the outcomes of the study will be helpful to concerned authorities to take necessary actions to revive the companies that are likely to fail in the upcoming period. policymakers will also benefit from knowing the critical factors responsible for companies that are likely to become bankrupt. accordingly, the policymakers may issue financial assistance, subsidies, and advice to concerned companies. moreover, different stakeholders or societies will benefit from knowing the outcomes of the study and formulating a future strategy to deal with these companies. references abey, j. and velmurugan, r., 2019. financial leverage: a study based on indian automobile industry. int. j. manag. bus. res, 9(1), pp.108-114. accounting tools, 2020, available from website: https://www.accountingtools.com/ addae, a.a, nyarko-bassi, m., and hughes d., 2013. the effects of capital structure on profitability of listed firms in ghana. european journal of business and management, 31(5), pp. 215-19. ademola, a.o., ben-caleb, e., madugba, j.u., adegboyegun, a.e. and eluyela, d.f., 2020. international public sector accounting standards (ipsas) adoption and implementation in nigerian public sector. international journal of financial research, 11(1), pp.434-444. altman, e. i., 1968. financial ratios, discriminant analysis, and the prediction of corporate bankruptcy. the journal of finance, 23(4), pp. 589–609. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.1968.tb00843.x altman, e. i., iwanicz-drozdowska, m., laitinen, e. k., & suvas, a., 2017. financial distress prediction in an international context: a review and empirical analysis of altman’s z-score model. journal of international financial management & accounting, 28 (2), pp. 131–171. https://doi.org/10.1111/jifm.12053 andrew, w.p., damitio, j.w. and schmidgall, r.s., 2007. financial management for the hospitality industry (pp. 91-152). upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice hall. andrew, w. p., & schmidgall, r. s. (1993). financial management for the hospitality industry. mi: educational institute of the american hotel & motel association. arslan, g. and kivrak, s., 2008. critical factors to company success in the construction industry. world academy of science, engineering and technology, 45(1), pp.43-46. arvanitis, s., tzigkounaki, i., stamatopoulos, t.v. and thalassinos, e.i., 2012. dynamic approach of capital structure of european shipping companies. international journal of economic sciences and applied research, 5(3), pp.33-63. balatbat, m.c. siew, r.y., and carmichael, d.g., 2020. the relationship between sustainability practices and financial performance of construction companies. smart and sustainable built environment, 2(1), pp.6-27. https://doi. org/10.1108/20466091311325827 bandyopadhyay, a., 2006. predicting probability of default of indian corporate bonds: logistic and z-score model approaches. the journal of risk finance, 7(3), pp. 255–272. https://doi.org/10.1108/15265940610664942 beaver, w. h., 1966. financial ratios as predictors of failure. journal of accounting research, 4, pp. 71–111. https://doi. org/10.2307/2490171 sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025297 https://www.accountingtools.com/ https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.1968.tb00843.x https://doi.org/10.1111/jifm.12053 https://doi.org/10.1108/20466091311325827 https://doi.org/10.1108/20466091311325827 https://doi.org/10.1108/15265940610664942 https://doi.org/10.2307/2490171 https://doi.org/10.2307/2490171 ben-caleb, e., olubukunola, u. and uwuigbe, u., 2013. liquidity management and profitability of manufacturing companies in nigeria. iosr journal of business and management ,9(1), pp. 13-21. https://doi. org/10.9790/487x-0911321 bhat, d.a., chanda, u. and bhat, a.k., 2023. does firm size influence leverage? evidence from india. global business review, 24(1), pp.21-30. https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150919891616 bonaccorsi di patti, e., d’ignazio, a., gallo, m. and micucci, g., 2015. the role of leverage in firm solvency: evidence from bank loans. italian economic journal, 1, pp.253-286. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40797-015-0014-7 bordeleau, é. and graham, c., 2010. the impact of liquidity on bank profitability (no. 2010-38). bank of canada. braun, a., muller, k., & schmeiser, h., 2013. what drives insurers’ demand for cat bond investments? evidence from a pan-european survey. geneva papers on risk & insurance – issues & practice, the international association for the study of insurance economics, 38(3), pp.580–611. https://doi.org/10.1057/gpp.2012.51 campbell, j. y., hilscher, j., & szilagyi, j., 2008. in search of distress risk. the journal of finance, 63(6), pp.2899–2939. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.2008.01416.x carslaw, c. a. & mills, j. a., 1991. developing ratios for effective cash flow statement analysis. journal of accountancy, 172(5), pp. 63-70. corporate finance institute report 2021, available at the website: https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/ accounting/analysis-of-financial-statements/ chan, e.h. and au, m.c., 2009. factors influencing building contractors’ pricing for time-related risks in tenders. journal of construction engineering and management, 135(3), pp.135-145. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2009)135:3(135) chen, h.l., 2011. an empirical examination of project contractors’ supply-chain cash flow performance and owners’ payment patterns. international journal of project management, 29(5), pp.604-614. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2010.04.001 chiaramonte, l., & casu, b., 2017. capital and liquidity ratios and financial distress. evidence from the european banking industry. the british accounting review, 49(2), pp138–161. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2016.04.001 cook, d.o, fu, x. and tang, t., 2014. the effect of liquidity and solvency risk on the inclusion of bond covenants. journal of banking and finance, 48, pp.120-136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2014.07.004 dahiyat, a.a., weshah, s.r. and al-dahiyat, m., 2021. liquidity and solvency management and its impact on financial performance: empirical evidence from jordan. the journal of asian finance, economics and business, 8(5), pp.135-141. de franco, g., kothari, s.p. and verdi, r.s., 2011. the benefits of financial statement comparability. journal of accounting research, 49(4), pp.895-931. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-679x.2011.00415.x denise, elizabeth p., 2021. solvency ratio. retrieved from the fundsnet. available at the website: https:// fundsnetservices.com/solvency-ratio dong, b., liu, y., mu, w., jiang, z., pandey, p., hong, t., olesen, b., lawrence, t., o’neil, z., andrews, c. and azar, e., 2022. a global building occupant behavior database. scientific data, 9(1), pp.369-72. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597022-01475-3 drobetz, w., gounopoulos, d., merikas, a. and schröder, h., 2013. capital structure decisions of globally-listed shipping companies. transportation research part e: logistics and transportation review, 52, pp.49-76. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.tre.2012.11.008 durand, p., 2019. on the impact of capital and liquidity ratios on financial stability. sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025298 https://doi.org/10.9790/487x-0911321 https://doi.org/10.9790/487x-0911321 https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150919891616 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40797-015-0014-7 https://doi.org/10.1057/gpp.2012.51 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6261.2008.01416.x https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/accounting/analysis-of-financial-statements/ https://corporatefinanceinstitute.com/resources/accounting/analysis-of-financial-statements/ https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2009)135:3(135 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2009)135:3(135 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.04.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.04.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bar.2016.04.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2014.07.004 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-679x.2011.00415.x https://fundsnetservices.com/solvency-ratio https://fundsnetservices.com/solvency-ratio https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01475-3 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01475-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2012.11.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tre.2012.11.008 eljelly, a.m., 2004. liquidity‐profitability tradeoff: an empirical investigation in an emerging market. international journal of commerce and management, 14(2), pp.48-61. https://doi.org/10.1108/10569210480000179 graham, j.r. and leary, m.t., 2011. a review of empirical capital structure research and directions for the future. annu. rev. financ. econ., 3(1), pp.309-345. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-financial-102710-144821 guimaraes, a. and nossa, v., 2010. working capital, profitability, liquidity and solvency of healthcare insurance companies. bbr-brazilian business review, 7(2), pp.37-59. https://doi.org/10.15728/bbr.2010.7.2.3 hayes, 2019. debt and solvency. corporate finance and accounting. available at the website http//www.investopedia. com hayes, m.g., 2019. the liquidity of money. cambridge journal of economics, 42(5), pp.1205-1218. https://doi. org/10.1093/cje/bey018 hill, n. t., perry, s. e., & andes, s., 1996. evaluating firms in financial distress: an event history analysis. horta, i.m., camanho, a.s. and lima, a.f., 2013. design of performance assessment system for selection of contractors in construction industry e-marketplaces. journal of construction engineering and management, 139(8), pp.910917. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000691 ijaz, m. s., hunjra, a. i., hameed, z., & maqbool, a., 2013. assessing the financial failure using z-score and current ratio: a case of sugar sector listed companies of karachi stock exchange. javalagi, c. m., and u. m. bhushi. 2007. an overview of application of system dynamics modeling for analysis of indian sugar industry. ieee international conference on industrial engineering and engineering management, pp. 1828–1832. https://doi.org/10.1109/ieem.2007.4419508 jeon, c.m., amekudzi, a.a. and guensler, r.l., 2010. evaluating plan alternatives for transportation system sustainability: atlanta metropolitan region. international journal of sustainable transportation, 4(4), pp, 227-47. https:// doi.org/10.1080/15568310902940209 jha, s. (2015). financial asset holdings and political attitudes: evidence from revolutionary england. the quarterly journal of economics, 130(3), 1485-1545. https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjv019 kajananthan, r. and velnampy, t., 2014. liquidity, solvency and profitability analysis using cash flow ratios and traditional ratios: the telecommunication sector in sri lanka. research journal of finance and accounting, 5(23), pp.163170. kehinde, j.o. and mosaku, t.o., 2006. an empirical study of assets structure of building construction contractors in nigeria. engineering, construction and architectural management, 13(6), pp.634-644. https://doi. org/10.1108/09699980610712418 khalid, s. and rehman, m.u., 2014. impact of directors’ remuneration on financial performance of a firm. international journal of information, business and management, 6(1), pp.180-200 kim, j.b. and zhang, l., 2014. financial reporting opacity and expected crash risk: evidence from implied volatility smirks. contemporary accounting research, 31(3), pp.851-875. https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.12048 kiyosaki, r., and lechter, s. (2003). the cash flow quadrant. new york: grand central publishing. liang, et.al 2016. financial ratios and corporate governance indicators in bankruptcy prediction: a comprehensive study. european journal of operational research, 252, pp.561-572. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2016.01.012 liao, f.t. 1994. interpreting probability models: logit, probit and other generalized linear models, 101, quantitative applications in the social sciences. sage publications, london. sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025299 https://doi.org/10.1108/10569210480000179 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-financial-102710-144821 https://doi.org/10.15728/bbr.2010.7.2.3 http://www.investopedia.com http://www.investopedia.com https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/bey018 https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/bey018 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000691 https://doi.org/10.1109/ieem.2007.4419508 https://doi.org/10.1080/15568310902940209 https://doi.org/10.1080/15568310902940209 https://doi.org/10.1093/qje/qjv019 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980610712418 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980610712418 https://doi.org/10.1111/1911-3846.12048 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2016.01.012 loncan, t.r. and caldeira, j.f., 2014. capital structure, cash holdings and firm value: a study of brazilian listed firms. revista contabilidade & finanças, 25, pp.46-59. https://doi.org/10.1590/s1519-70772014000100005 manab, n. a., theng, n. y., & md-rus, r., 2015. the determinants of credit risk in malaysia. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 172, pp 301–308. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.368 mills, john r., and yamamura, jeanne h, 1998. the power of cash flow ratios. journal of accountancy, available from the journal of accountancy website: https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/1998/oct/mills.html mironiuc, m., taran, a., 2015. the significance of financial and non-financial information in insolvency risk detection. procedia economics and finance, 26, pp. 750-756. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00834-5 mohanty, b. and mehrotra, s., 2018. relationship between liquidity and profitability: an exploratory study of smes in india. emerging economy studies, 4(2), pp.169-181. https://doi.org/10.1177/2394901518795069 moorthi, et al. 2012. international journal of management research and review. moyer, s.e., 1990. capital adequacy ratio regulations and accounting choices in commercial banks. journal of accounting and economics, 13(2), pp.123-154. https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-4101(90)90027-2 muresan, e. and wolitzer, p., 2004. organize your financial ratios analysis with palms. https://doi.org/10.2139/ ssrn.375880 niemann, m., schmidt, j.h. and neukirchen, m., 2008. improving performance of corporate rating prediction models by reducing financial ratio heterogeneity. journal of banking & finance, 32(3), pp.434-446. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jbankfin.2007.05.015 niemann, m., schmidt, j.h. and neukirchen, m., 2008. improving performance of corporate rating prediction models by reducing financial ratio heterogeneity. journal of banking & finance, 32(3), pp.434-446. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jbankfin.2007.05.015 ohlson, j. a., 1980. financial ratios and the probabilistic prediction of bankruptcy. journal of accounting research, 18, pp. 109–131. https://doi.org/10.2307/2490395 owolabi, s.a. and obida, s.s., 2012. liquidity management and corporate profitability: case study of selected manufacturing companies listed on the nigerian stock exchange. business management dynamics, 2(2), pp.10-25. pallant, j., 2009. spss: priručnik za preživljavanje [spss: guide for survival]. belgrade: mikro knjiga. pamulu, m.s., kajewski, s. and betts, m., 2007. evaluating financial ratios in construction industry: a case study of indonesian firms. proceedings 1st international conference of european asian civil engineering forum (eacef), jakarta, indonesia. pandey, i.m. and bhat, r., 1990. financial ratio patterns in indian manufacturing companies: a multivariate analysis. decision, 17(1), p.33-50 panigrahi, c.m.a., 2014, january. impact of negative working capital on liquidity and profitability: a case study of acc limited. in international conference, prestige institute of management & research, indore during (pp. 30-31). https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2398413 paramasivan, c. and subramanian, t., 2008. financial management. new delhi: new age international publishers. p. 21. penman, s.h., 2007. financial statement analysis and security valuation, new york: mc graw hill. rajala, p., ylä-kujala, a., sinkkonen, t. and kärri, t., 2022. profitability in construction: how does building renovation business fare compared to new building business. construction management and economics, 40(3), pp.223-237. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446193.2022.2032228 sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025300 https://doi.org/10.1590/s1519-70772014000100005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.01.368 https://www.journalofaccountancy.com/issues/1998/oct/mills.html https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00834-5 https://doi.org/10.1177/2394901518795069 https://doi.org/10.1016/0165-4101(90)90027-2 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.375880 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.375880 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2007.05.015 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2007.05.015 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2007.05.015 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbankfin.2007.05.015 https://doi.org/10.2307/2490395 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2398413 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2022.2032228 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2022.2032228 ramalho, j.j. and da silva, j.v., 2013. functional form issues in the regression analysis of financial leverage ratios. empirical economics, 44, pp.799-831. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181-012-0564-6 rani, m. j. ,2021. indian construction industry progress since 1995. in construction industry advance and change: progress in eight asian economies since, pp. 43-62. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-504-920211003 rawat, r., sarangi, s.k., rimal, y.n., william, p., dahima, s., gupta, s. and sankaran, k.s., 2022. malware threat affecting financial organization analysis using machine learning approach. international journal of information technology and web engineering (ijitwe), 17(1), pp.1-20. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijitwe.304051 sanusi, k.a., meyer, d. and ślusarczyk, b., 2017. the relationship between changes in inflation and financial development. polish journal of management studies, 16(2), pp.253-265. https://doi.org/10.17512/pjms.2017.16.2.22 sharma, r. k., bhalla, n., & goyal, a., 2022. investigating critical factors that encourage public‐private partnership in infrastructure projects in emerging economies: evidence from the republic of india. journal of public affairs, 22(4), e2713. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2713 shumway, t., 2001. forecasting bankruptcy more accurately: a simple hazard model. the journal of business, 74(1), pp. 101–124. https://doi.org/10.1086/209665 silva, a.f., 2019. strategic liquidity mismatch and financial sector stability. the review of financial studies, 32(12), pp.4696-4733. https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhz044 singh, j.p. and pandey, s., 2008. impact of working capital management in the profitability of hindalco industries limited. icfai journal of financial economics, 6(4), pp. 24-37 statistics solution, 2018. conduct and interpret a canonical correlation. retrieved from the statistics solution website: https://www.statisticssolutions.com/canonical-correlation/ statista, 2024. growth rate of construction industry across india from financial year 2010 to 2015 with an estimate for financial year 2020. retrieved from the statista website:https://www.statista.com/statistics/878482/india-growth-rateof-construction-industry/ stevanovic, s., minovic, j. and ljumovic, i., 2019. liquidity profitability trade-off: evidence from medium enterprises. management: journal of sustainable business and management solutions in emerging economies, 24(3), pp.71-81. https:// doi.org/10.7595/management.fon.2019.0004 suber, p. (2011). open access in 2010. sparc open access newsletter. suzić, n., 2007. primijenjena pedagoška metodologija [applied pedagogical methodology]. banja luka: xbs tabachnick, b. g. and fidell, l. s., 1989. using multivariate statistics. harper collins publishers, california. tripathi, k.k. and jha, k.n., 2018. application of fuzzy preference relation for evaluating success factors of construction organisations. engineering, construction and architectural management, 25(6), pp.758-779. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ecam-01-2017-0004 tsolas, i.e., 2011. modelling profitability and effectiveness of greek-listed construction firms: an integrated dea and ratio analysis. construction management and economics, 29(8), pp.795-807. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.610 330 vibhakar, n.n., johari, s., tripathi, k.k. and jha, k.n., 2023. development of financial performance evaluation framework for the indian construction companies. international journal of construction management, 23(9), pp.15271539. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1983929 vieria, s., 2011. an index number decomposition of profit change in two australian fishing sectors. sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025301 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00181-012-0564-6 https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-504-920211003 https://doi.org/10.4018/ijitwe.304051 https://doi.org/10.17512/pjms.2017.16.2.22 https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2713 https://doi.org/10.1086/209665 https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhz044 https://www.statisticssolutions.com/canonical-correlation/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/878482/india-growth-rate-of-construction-industry/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/878482/india-growth-rate-of-construction-industry/ https://doi.org/10.7595/management.fon.2019.0004 https://doi.org/10.7595/management.fon.2019.0004 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2017-0004 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2017-0004 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.610330 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.610330 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1983929 wang, y.j. and lee, h.s., 2008. a clustering method to identify representative financial ratios. information sciences, 178(4), pp.1087-1097. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2007.09.016 waqas, h. and md-rus, r., 2018. predicting financial distress: importance of accounting and firm-specific market variables for pakistan’s listed firms. cogent economics & finance, 6(1), pp. 25-35. https://doi.org/10.1080/23322039.201 8.1545739 xia, y., xu, t., wei, m.x., wei, z.k. and tang, l.j., 2023. predicting chain’s manufacturing sme credit risk in supply chain finance based on machine learning methods. sustainability, 15(2), p.1087. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021087 xie, g., zhao, y., jiang, m., & zhang, n., 2013. a novel ensemble learning approach for corporate financial distress forecasting in fashion and textiles supply chains. mathematical problems in engineering, 1–9. https://doi. org/10.1155/2013/493931 xu, et al. 2014. financial ratio selection for business failure prediction using soft set theory. knowledge-based systems, 63, pp. 59–67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.knosys.2014.03.007 yeo, h., 2016. solvency and liquidity in shipping companies. the asian journal of shipping and logistics, 32(4), pp.235241. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajsl.2016.12.007 yeo, h.j., 2018. role of free cash flows in making investment and dividend decisions: the case of the shipping industry. the asian journal of shipping and logistics, 34(2), pp.113-118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajsl.2018.06.007 zainudin, et al. 2017. debt and financial performance of reits in malaysia: an optimal debt threshold analysis. jurnal ekonomi malaysia, 51(2), pp.73-85. https://doi.org/10.17576/jem-2017-5001-6 zenzerovic r., and perusko, t., 2006. kratki osvrt na modele za predvidanje stecaja [short retrospection on bankruptcy prediction models]. economic research, 19(2), pp. 131-151 zenzerović, r., 2011. credit scoring models in estimating the creditworthiness of small and medium and big enterprises. croatian operational research review (crorr), 2, pp.143–158. zhu, y., zhou, l., xie, c., wang, g.j. and nguyen, t.v., 2019. forecasting smes’ credit risk in supply chain finance with an enhanced hybrid ensemble machine learning approach. international journal of production economics, 211, pp.2233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2019.01.032 sharma and bhalla construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025302 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ins.2007.09.016 https://doi.org/10.1080/23322039.2018.1545739 https://doi.org/10.1080/23322039.2018.1545739 https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021087 https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/493931 https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/493931 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.knosys.2014.03.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajsl.2016.12.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ajsl.2018.06.007 https://doi.org/10.17576/jem-2017-5001-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2019.01.032 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: demirkesen, s., sadikoglu, e., and jayamanne, e. 2021. assessing psychological safety in lean construction projects in the united states. construction economics and building, 21:3, 159– 175. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v21i3.7657 issn 2204 9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021 article (peer reviewed) assessing psychological safety in lean construction projects in the united states sevilay demirkesen1, emel sadikoglu2, eshan jayamanne3 1 department of civil engineering, gebze technical university, 41400, kocaeli, turkey, demirkesen@gtu.edu.tr 2 department of civil engineering, gebze technical university, 41400, kocaeli, turkey, esadikoglu@gtu.edu.tr 3 production engineer, strategic project solutions, san francisco, ca, 9411, ejayamanne@spsinc.net corresponding author: sevilay demirkesen, department of civil engineering, gebze technical university, 41400, kocaeli, turkey, demirkesen@gtu.edu.tr doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7657 article history: received: 30/03/2021; revised: 24/06/2021 & 20/07/2021; accepted: 20/07/2021; published: 10/09/2021 abstract the construction industry is hazardous, which requires careful consideration of occupational health and safety measures. among various strategies that are proposed to enhance construction safety, lean construction practices were widely implied and proved to be effective. however, the link between lean implementation and construction safety has not been completely studied yet in previous research in terms of psychological safety context. this study implies that psychological safety is of utmost importance in terms of explaining the association between lean and safety. lean implementation elements such as respect for people, trust, leadership, and continuous improvement positively affect employees’ psychological safety. in this context, semistructured interviews and a survey were conducted with employees working in u.s. construction companies. the interviews provided that the majority of the construction employees do not feel psychologically safe at their workplaces either in traditional or lean construction projects due to a number of reasons such as heavy workload, and deadline pressures. however, it was found that construction workers feel safer psychologically in lean construction projects compared to traditional projects. according to the interview results and literature review, a conceptual model was proposed. therefore, this study can contribute to the research area of psychological safety in the construction industry. 159 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7657 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7657 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7657 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:demirkesen@gtu.edu.tr mailto:esadikoglu@gtu.edu.tr mailto:ejayamanne@spsinc.net mailto:demirkesen@gtu.edu.tr http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7657 keywords psychological safety; lean construction; respect for people; continuous improvement; construction safety introduction the construction industry is one of the most hazardous industries and it is highly prone to accidents, injuries, and safety risks (khosravi, et al., 2014; li, et al., 2015; yiu, et al., 2019; demirkesen, 2020). according to the report of the u.s. bureau of labor statistics, 5,333 fatal occupational injuries in the private sector were reported in 2019 and 1,061 of those occurred in the construction industry (us department of labor, 2020). this tragedy continues to occur despite the efforts for promoting construction safety. occupational safety is a significant concern that construction companies need to pay attention to sensitively. hence, investigating the root causes of accidents, which help to prevent accidents, is sometimes troublesome (khosravi, et al., 2014). several studies implied that the majority of accidents occur because of the unsafe behaviour of human (li, et al., 2015). an extensive literature review conducted by khosravi et al. (2014) specified various key factors leading to unsafe behaviour and eventually to accidents in the construction industry. these factors were found to be associated with “individual characteristics, workgroup, supervision, project management, site condition, contractor, organization, society” (khosravi, et al., 2014). effective safety management in construction projects helps to prevent accidents and injuries in addition to maintaining occupational health and safety (loushine, et al., 2004). besides, it results in improved morale of employees, safety awareness, highquality project processes, increased productivity, and less direct and indirect costs (levitt and samelson, 1993; yiu, et al., 2019). the construction firms completing projects with no workrelated accidents or a low rate of accidents are likely to be recognized in the industry as trustworthy and highly reputed firms (chileshe and dzisi, 2012). this increases their chance of awarding more projects with a good record of safety performance (levitt and samelson, 1993). the construction companies are seeking ways to improve their safety performance (goh, et al., 2012). as a result, various strategies and techniques are proposed (gambatese, pestana and lee, 2017). among those, going lean is of critical importance (antillón, et al., 2011). the impact of lean practices in promoting occupational health and safety has already been implied in various studies (schafer, et al., 2008; nahmens and ikuma, 2009; howell, ballard and demirkesen, 2017; moaveni, banihashemi and mojtahedi, 2019; demirkesen, 2020). for example, the use of last planner system, a lean technique, was proposed for promoting safety planning (saurin, et al., 2001). moreover, saurin, formoso and cambraia (2006) considered the application of autonomation and visual management to safety management. mitropoulos, cupido and namboodiri (2007) examined lean practices and concluded that they decrease the likelihood of accidents by reducing uncertainty, rework and matching competency, and task demand. even though previous studies proposed valid and appropriate implications, there is a missing link that mediates the relationship between lean implementation and occupational health and safety. a major portion of studies mentioned that safetyrelated problems result in waste from the lean perspective (antillón, et al., 2011; moaveni, banihashemi and mojtahedi, 2019). however, this is not the only synergy between lean construction and safety. gambatese, pestana and lee (2017) emphasized that lean construction and safety management practices differ in terms of worker behaviour, which is emphasized as a gap in between. therefore, this study hypothesizes that the missing link is the psychological safety of the construction workers. in order to hypothesize these relations, the association between lean implementation and psychological safety is examined. the study proposed that lean implementation promotes psychological safety. further, psychological safety and construction safety are studied and proposed to be positively related. the aim of this study is to inspect the relationship of lean implementation, psychological safety, and occupational health and safety in the construction industry context. in this respect, the objectives demirkesen, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021160 of the study are to assess the level of psychological safety in lean and nonlean construction projects through interviews and a questionnaire, provide insights from the industry employees and develop strategies accordingly, and reveal different levels of psychological safety with respect to various categories such as age, position, gender, and lean vs. traditional (nonlean) projects. the main contribution of this study is to create awareness for psychological safety and encourage employers to address concerns for not feeling safe at work. research background based on an extensive literature review, psychological safety concept and related studies in the construction industry are presented. moreover, relationships among psychological safety, lean construction, and safety are investigated with respect to previous studies. psychological safety psychological safety was defined as “feeling able to show and employ one’s self without fear of negative consequences to selfimage, status, or career” by kahn (1990, p. 708). being as a seminal work, edmondson (1999, p. 350) expressed psychological safety as a “shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risktaking”. psychological safety facilitates the expression of ideas freely, speaking up about concerns, mistakes, and errors without fear (edmondson, 2018). in the existing literature, three levels of psychological safety were studied namely the organizational level, team level, and individual (dyadic) level (newman, donohue and eva, 2017). even though psychological safety has several levels, it is identified to be more important and meaningful at the team level (newman, donohue and eva, 2017). because, each team has different relationships among individuals which are mostly influenced by leaders within an organization (edmondson, 2018). an extensive literature review conducted by edmondson (2018) specifies that previous studies can be grouped under different categories in terms of psychological safety. some studies emphasized the lack of psychological safety leading to failures in the organizations (carmeli and gittell, 2009; o’donovan and mcauliffe, 2020). several studies revealed the positive relationship between psychological safety and organizational performance (baer and frese, 2003; edmondson, 2004). a large number of studies investigated the effect of psychological safety on learning and found a positive relation (edmondson, 2004; carmeli and gittell, 2009; nembhard and edmondson, 2012; kumako and asumeng, 2013; ortega, et al., 2014; roussin, maclean and rudolph, 2016; frazier, et al., 2017; kim, lee and connerton, 2020). moreover, psychological safety was found to result in knowledge sharing, learning from failures, employee satisfaction, engagement, commitment, and creativity (may, gilson and harter, 2004; carmeli and gittell, 2009; bornemisza, 2013; ulusoy et al., 2016; frazier et al., 2017). besides, there are other studies identifying the role of psychological safety that weakens or strengthens other relationships (edmondson, 2018). ortega et al. (2014) investigated the mediator role of psychological safety for assessing the relation between changeoriented leadership, team learning, and team performance. carmeli and gittell (2009) revealed the mediating role of psychological safety between good relationships and learning from failures. to measure psychological safety, edmondson (2018) created a scale consisting of 7 items. in the previous studies, the scale of edmondson (1999) was employed most often (bornemisza, 2013; kumako and asumeng, 2013; ortega, et al., 2014; roussin, maclean and rudolph, 2016). in some studies, modified versions of the scale were utilized (henrichs, 2009; bilstad, 2016). some other studies made modifications to measure organizational level psychological safety (baer and frese, 2003). on the other hand, several other studies developed their own scales (may, gilson and harter, 2004). considering the wide and common use of edmonson’s scale, this study measures the psychological safety of construction employees in construction projects with an adapted version of this scale. seven items were assessed to measure psychological safety. demirkesen, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021161 a sample item is ‘it is safe to take a risk on your team’. responses were scored with a fivepoint scale from ‘never’ to ‘always’, where never=1 and always=5. high scores indicate that individuals feel comfortable with taking risks and do not fear being judged or isolated. psychological safety in the construction industry psychological safety is valuable and essential especially for risky and hazardous workplaces, where the safety of employees and customers is critical. it is important to decrease errors and increase occupational safety at work (newman, donohue and eva, 2017). the significance of psychological safety was articulated by edmondson (2018, p. xv) as “psychological safety can make the difference (…) between a near miss and a catastrophic industrial accident or between strong business performance and dramatic, headlinegrabbing failure”. psychological safety was studied in various industries such as health care, manufacturing and aviation. similar to these industries, the construction industry is also hazardous and accidentprone, where safety is of critical importance. the main reason behind many of the accidents in the construction industry is reported as human behaviour (li, et al., 2015). accordingly, several researchers investigated behaviourbased safety during the past decades (guo, goh and le xin wong, 2018). these studies assessed the role of human behaviour in accidents and aimed to eliminate unsafe behaviour (li, et al., 2015). even though psychological safety considers the human aspect, it rather investigates people’s perceptions of risks in sharing their ideas and disclosing errors. in this respect, one may assert that the number of studies related to psychological safety is limited (gomez, et al., 2019, 2020) and more research needs to be developed (xie, et al., 2020). on the other hand, the construction industry involving the riskiest task demands needs psychologically safer workplaces to improve productivity and reduce occupational health and safety risks. this in turn creates a research gap in the literature. the construction industry is highly labourintensive. hence, the performance of construction projects depends on construction employees’ productivity adding value to the process. in order to increase value, it is important to make employees feel psychologically safe (gomez, et al., 2020). the latent but more important impact of psychological safety can be understood from the following statement of edmondson (2018, p. 71) “a lack of psychological safety can create an illusion of success that eventually turns into serious business failures”. a large number of studies examined the psychological safety climate in the construction industry. xie et al. (2020) approached psychological safety climate based on job demands and resources model. they used an existing psychological safety climate scale including four dimensions which are “management support, management priority, organizational communication and organizational participation” (xie, et al., 2020). they compared two construction projects and found that in megaprojects psychological safety climate level is higher than in ordinary projects. on the other hand, they did not observe a statistically significant difference in the responses when compared in terms of position, age, gender, and marital status. shen et al. (2015) investigated the contributors to psychological safety climate on a model, which is composed of “structural, perceptual, interactive and cultural perspectives” (shen, et al., 2015, p.223) and further implied that the individual level has been examined rarely despite some studies are available on the subject matter. most of the studies referred to psychological safety climate as “employee’s perception of the value or priority of safety at his or her workplace” (morrow, et al., 2010, p. 1461). however, psychological safety and psychological safety climate should be distinguished. psychological safety climate refers to the perceptions of employees about workplace safety (schwatka, hecker and goldenhar, 2016), where psychological safety is more of like how employees feel about disclosing their opinions. the literature shows that very similar concepts have been investigated, however, psychological safety was not the main subject as a distinct concept. demirkesen, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021162 psychological safety, lean construction and construction safety reviewing studies that investigate psychological safety and lean construction reveals the significant relation between them (schafer, et al., 2008; howell, ballard and demirkesen, 2017; gomez, et al., 2019, 2020). lean philosophy values people and puts them in the core (liker and convis, 2011). this shows respect for people which is one of the most significant elements of lean implementation. howell, ballard and demirkesen (2017) proposed that respect for people promotes psychological safety in lean construction. edmondson (2018, p. 18) also supported this view by stating that “psychological safety thrives in an environment of mutual respect.” in addition to mutual respect, trust also has a positive impact on psychological safety (edmondson, 2004; may, gilson and harter, 2004; cauwelier, ribière and bennet, 2016; frazier, et al., 2017). communication is a source of motivation in lean construction projects, where a collaborative environment is created through lean philosophy and lean tools such as the last planner system. at the same time, communication helps to increase psychological safety (edmondson, 2018). carmeli and gittell (2009) implied that highquality relationships are significantly related with psychological safety. for the management of relations among team members, lean leadership plays an important role. lean leadership helps to implement lean principles, enhance communication and collaboration, promote culture of continuous improvement (sadikoglu, et al., 2020). team leader behaviour is also an antecedent to psychological safety and lean leadership has potential to promote psychological safety (cauwelier, ribière and bennet, 2016). schöttle, christensen and arroyo (2019) investigated the inclusiveness during decision making process through a case study in a lean construction project. they proposed that choosing by advantages (cba) method promotes inclusiveness, avoids group thinking, and develops psychological safety. problemsolving is another important aspect of lean culture. in lean philosophy, root cause analysis helps to tackle problems at the root before they turn into mistakes and continuous improvement helps to sustain the improvement. similarly, a psychologically safe work environment helps to reduce workarounds, which are temporary solutions to problems. teams with high psychological safety analyse problems and improve the processes to prevent them to occur again rather than relying on workarounds (edmondson, 2018). continuous improvement is a cornerstone in lean philosophy that helps to consider the room for improvement (liker and convis, 2011). considering a psychologically safe environment, sharing and discussing new ideas may help to achieve better ways of implementation leading to continuous improvement. hence, one might conclude that psychologically safe employees can be motivated to adopt lean concepts and apply tools and techniques for better performance. in that way of thinking, lean thinking and psychological safety can be considered as mutually supporting concepts. in lean construction, people oftentimes act with selfconfidence knowing that the responsibility is shared in case of success and failure. this is possible with no blame culture, where responsibility is shared among team members and team members feel safe about disclosing their ideas without the fear of being judged. this also coincides with some characteristics of a psychologically safe work environment, mentioned by edmondson (2018). error reporting and feeling safe to speak about mistakes help to learn from mistakes. removing factors causing fear enhances learning and cooperation (edmondson, 2018). hence, it can be stated that the environment created by lean philosophy helps to increase psychological safety. value creation and waste elimination are the main objectives of lean construction. waste is identified as anything that does not create value. along with seven wastes of ohno, (1988) namely “waiting, moving, transporting, inventory, overprocessing, overproduction, defective production”, loss of human potential was also considered as waste (macomber and howell, 2004). “not listening” and “not speaking” were identified as two great wastes by macomber and howell (2004). in lean culture, value is considered to be created primarily by employees. considering the view of lean in terms of human potential, value creation, and waste elimination can be associated with psychological safety. given this background, the essentials of demirkesen, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021163 lean construction are emphasized. on the other hand, traditional construction projects oftentimes struggle with poor communication and collaboration, teams with a lack of problemsolving skills, and low respect for people. koskela, et al. (2002) implied that conventional project management in construction fails to create value for the customer since it does not rely on a transformationflowvalue framework. love, et al. (2018) further mentioned that successful safety management is strongly related to reducing rework, which is possible through early identification and elimination of errors. this becomes easier when communication channels are open between team members and adopting a ‘no blame’ culture by the organization. hence, a shift in focus is required. this study investigates psychological safety in lean construction projects in the u.s. the u.s. was selected as the region of origin for the study for a number of reasons. firstly, u.s. contractors are highly experienced in lean construction and psychological safety studies are broad in the u.s. (edmondson and lei, 2014). hence, u.s. contractors are more familiar with the concept than other contractors in other regions worldwide. below hypotheses were developed based on these findings. hypothesis development through the indepth analysis of past studies and comparative assessment of findings of previous research, three hypotheses were developed. the first hypothesis proposed that lean implementation has a positive impact on psychological safety. the second hypothesis proposed that psychological safety promotes construction safety. the third hypothesis reveals that psychological safety acts as a partial mediator between lean implementation and construction safety. hypothesis 1: lean implementation positively affects psychological safety through respect for people, trust, communication, lean leadership, problemsolving, continuous improvement, no blame culture, value creation, and waste elimination. in the construction industry, most of the incidents are caused by organizational, cultural, and humanrelated factors (duryan, et al., 2020). to eliminate these factors, learning behaviour can have a critical role in enhancing construction safety. duryan, et al., (2020) concluded that learning from previous events, managing and transferring the knowledge help to enhance health and safety performance in the construction companies. on the other hand, most of the psychological safety studies implied that a psychologically safe work environment facilitates learning (edmondson, 1999, 2018; kumako and asumeng, 2013; ortega, et al., 2014; cauwelier, ribière and bennet, 2016). edmondson, (1999, p. 351) mentioned some learning behaviours which are “sharing information, seeking feedback, asking for help, talking about errors and experimenting”. these learning practices may help to reveal and discuss improper implementations, avoid errors, learn more about the way work is done, and develop new and better ways of work. in that sense, it can be proposed that psychological safety can promote construction safety through learning. this is in line with the proposition of howell, ballard and demirkesen, (2017). they concluded that learning behaviour enhances occupational safety and the work performance of the team. further, gomez, et al. (2019) revealed that building a psychologically safe environment results in better team performance, high quality, and safety in construction projects. along with these studies, the below hypothesis was developed, as follows. hypothesis 2: psychological safety promotes construction safety through learning. there are plenty of studies examining the impact of lean construction on construction safety (schafer, et al., 2008; nahmens and ikuma, 2009; howell, ballard and demirkesen, 2017; moaveni, banihashemi and mojtahedi, 2019; demirkesen, 2020). the main feature of this study that distinguishes it from other studies investigating the relation between lean construction and construction safety is considering the worker aspects in terms of psychological safety. given this background, psychological safety is placed at the intersection of lean construction and construction safety. the study proposes the below hypothesis to locate psychological safety in lean construction and construction safety. demirkesen, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021164 hypothesis 3: psychological safety acts as a partial mediator in the relationship between lean implementation and construction safety. methodology the extensive review of literature provided that the number of studies investigating psychological safety in the lean construction context is limited. hence, this study aims to provide a basis for this research area. newman, donohue and eva (2017) inspected in their systematic literature review that qualitative studies contribute to the explanation of the reasoning and mechanism of psychological safety, and its effects and outcomes. hence, a qualitative approach is adopted in the scope of this study to better understand psychological safety in the construction industry context. in this respect, semistructured interviews were conducted with construction employees, which is a common research technique in qualitative research. following semistructured interviews, a complementary quantitative survey was distributed to the same group of construction employees, who are experienced both in lean and nonlean construction projects. the data was collected from u.s. contractors that have a broader experience with lean construction and psychological safety than other contractors operating in different locations worldwide. the u.s. contractors’ experience and familiarity with lean implementation methods also fostered researchers to conduct interviews with them to have more comprehensive responses. moreover, the questionnaire survey was also sent out to the u.s. contractors that might provide more reliable responses regarding their work environment, which has already been familiar with both the psychological safety and lean. this study employed both qualitative and quantitative data collection to analyse results. in their systematic review of psychological safety literature, newman, donohue and eva (2017) implied that qualitative research was used to explain the antecedents and outcomes of psychological safety. on the other hand, quantitative research helps understand the strength of the relations between them. in this study, hypotheses were tested using complementary qualitative and quantitative data. for instance, cauwelier, ribière and bennet (2016) similarly utilized mixed method research using structured interviews and a quantitative instrument to investigate the links between psychological safety, learning behaviour, and team performance. even though hypothesis testing with qualitative data is somewhat controversial, chigbu (2019) provides evidence from the literature and reveals using qualitative data in hypotheses testing. hence, the study rather adopted a mixed method of research. semistructured interviews and questionnaire study semistructured interviewing provides information that can be compared through identical questions; however, it also gives the flexibility to collect other significant information through additional questions according to the flow of the conversation (saunders, lewis and thornhill, 2009). this method allows respondents to express themselves in a free environment, speak freely and open room for discussion. in this study, originally, facetoface semistructured interviews were planned. however, due to covid19 regulations, a selfadministered interview methodology was employed. even though there is a risk of a low response rate with this method, it may give more privacy to respondents (amoah and simpeh, 2020). for the interviewees, a prior investigation was collected to come up with a stratified sample. interviews were conducted with the construction employees working at u.s. construction companies. the interviewees were selected among construction workers, engineers, architects, and managers (top, middle, and front). the interview consisted of three sections as general information about the interviewee, general information about the organization, and openended questions for psychological safety. a total of 17 interviews were conducted to evaluate the impact of psychological safety in lean construction projects. even though the sample size is not large, it can be considered satisfactory for a qualitative study. several studies report a saturation point where additional answers do not provide a demirkesen, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021165 significant increase in information. guest, bunce and johnson (2006) reached saturation point after 12 interviews which explained 92% of total produced codes in qualitative data analysis. further, amoah and simpeh (2020) reported the 14th interview as a saturation point. the saturation point for this study was observed after 12th interview. according to interview data, it was found that the average interviewee age was 37. it was observed that 65% of the interviewees were male, where 35% were female. the majority of the interviewees hold a bsc degree (70%). in terms of experience in the construction industry, it was revealed that the average experience was 12 years in the industry, where average experience in lean construction was 4 years. moreover, average experience in the current organization was found to be 9 years. considering the current role of the interviewees in their organizations, the majority of the interviewees were workers (37%), where a considerable portion was engineers (30%). in table 1, detailed information regarding interviewees can be seen. all participants were experienced in both traditional and lean construction projects. hence, they were able to compare lean and nonlean construction projects. table 1. general information regarding interviewees interviewee role experience (number of years) in the construction industry in lean construction in the current organization 1 project manager 17 8 10 2 worker 28 9 17 3 civil engineer 13 4 10 4 worker 16 6 14 5 worker 12 5 8 6 architect 18 7 14 7 general manager 16 4 12 8 project manager 8 2 6 9 civil engineer 10 2 8 10 civil engineer 17 3 15 11 worker 6 1 5 12 lean leader 8 7 3 13 architect 5 3 3 14 civil engineer 9 2 7 15 production engineer 5 2 4 16 worker 10 7 5 17 worker 5 2 3 in the second part of the interview, information regarding the organizations that interviewees work in was collected. according to the data, it was detected that the average experience of the organizations in the construction industry was found to be 52 years, where the average experience of the organization with lean demirkesen, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021166 construction was determined as 8 years. this shows that the responding companies are highly experienced in both the construction industry and lean construction. the third part of the interviews consisted of openended questions related to psychological safety at work. team level psychological safety was studied with the help of items created by edmondson (1999). these items were converted into questions to make room for further investigation. for instance, the item “if you make a mistake on this team, it is often held against you” was asked as “when you do a mistake, how your team members react to you?”. further, interviewees were asked to give examples that they did or did not feel safe to speak up (edmondson, 2018). the main reasons of not speaking up were questioned and the potential consequences of speaking up that hindering them were discussed. the environment that makes them psychologically safe was enquired. besides, the effect of psychological safety on productivity and construction safety performance was examined. moreover, the relationship between lean philosophy and psychological safety was evaluated. in addition to the semistructured interviews, a quantitative questionnaire was administered to same sample of respondents. the reason the research employed a mixed method of research rather than using qualitative or quantitative data only was to ensure comprehensiveness and reliability of findings. previous research has already justified the use of mixed method of research in terms of comprehensiveness, enhanced confidence in research findings, facilitating one method over the other through sampling guidance, and increase reliability (o’cathain, murphy and nicholl, 2007). further, the quantitative survey helps researcher contextualize qualitative findings and enhance interpretations (frels and onwuegbuzie, 2013). a total of seven items were composed to measure psychological safety. some of the items were ‘when you make a mistake, your team members negatively react to you’ and ‘members of your team can bring up problems and tough issues’. the respondents were asked to assess these items on a fivepoint scale, where 1=never and 5=always. the responses to the questionnaire are presented in the findings section. findings the first question was “when you do a mistake at work, how your team members react to you? (negative or positive)”. this question was perceived differently based on the current role of the interviewees. for example, the majority of the workers responded that their team members react in a bad manner when they commit an error at work. one worker expressed this as ‘‘i carry the feeling of being judged when i am about to speak up the errors i detect, this makes me feel very demotivated to talk about errors and findings ways to solve them with my colleagues. i also have the fear of losing my job in case i cannot fix my error if i am the responsible one for the error’’. the second question of the interview was “do team members of your team can bring up problems and tough issues?”. most of the interviewees said no to this question indicating that their team members oftentimes avoid bringing tough issues into question. one interviewee expressed this as ‘‘making things appear is sometimes misperceived in our organizations as if we are looking for a promotion or a reward by the top management. the essential purpose is to fix problems in the processes’’. the third question of the interview was ‘‘do people on your team isolate others for being different?’’. the answers differed to this question. one interviewee having a manager role replied to this question as ‘‘this is quite rare in my organization. in general, people value others’ thoughts and opinions. being different is not a matter of fact, where the essential purpose is to fix problems together.’’ on the other hand, an interviewee working as an architect expressed those isolations sometimes happen when defending his ideas aloud. one other question in the interviews aimed to reveal whether it is safe to take a risk on the team. the majority of the interviewees implied that risktaking behaviour mostly depends on the specific case. they further emphasized that it is sometimes possible to take a risk knowing the noblame culture exists in the team, whereas it is sometimes not quite easy to take a risk in cases relating to serious risk potential. demirkesen, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021167 a couple of interview questions aimed to reveal whether interviewees feel comfortable when asking their team members for help and whether the team members undermine their efforts. almost half of the interviewees implied that they feel comfortable asking for help but also stated that this relies on team member’s position from whom they asked for help. three interviewees expressed that some of their team members act in a way undermining their efforts to favour themselves. some other interview questions aimed to gather information about cases when team members benefit from their colleagues’ expertise and experience. almost all interviewees listed cases, where team members benefit from their expertise. further, another interview question was posed to the interviewees asking cases, where interviewees did not feel comfortable to speak up to their managers and reasons for the discomfort. the interviewees further explained that trust and motivation are two important things that make them comfortable speaking up about errors at work. similarly, gomez, et al., (2019) reported that construction workers feel safe in cases of good communication and behaviour of people. the interviewees mentioned that psychological safety affects their performance and motivation at work implying that a psychologically safe environment makes them feel confident. they emphasized that lean principles contribute to psychological safety especially respect for people and no blame culture. finally, the same interviewees working in traditional construction projects expressed more concerns related to psychological safety as opposed to ones working in lean projects. members of lean construction projects expressed that they feel safer in their work environment. finally, the quantitative survey resulted in important findings in terms of the psychological safety level of construction professionals for age, gender, position, and project type (lean vs. traditional). the respondents were asked to rate the seven items developed adopting edmondson’s (1999) study. the average values were derived for each category. table 2 presents this comparison concerning mentioned variables. table 2. comparison of psychological safety levels concerning age, gender, position, and lean vs. traditional projects category psychological safety level (average) age 2535 yrs 3545 yrs 4555 55 and more 4.56 4.78 3.90 4.01 gender male female 3.85 3.60 position engineer architect project manager general manager lean leader worker 3.15 3.02 4.06 4.51 4.70 2.89 type of project lean traditional 4.10 2.71 demirkesen, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021168 conceptual model according to the interview results and the extensive literature review, a conceptual model was proposed introducing factors affecting psychological safety and its possible outcomes in lean construction projects. figure 4 presents the conceptual framework developed in this context. three hypotheses are shown on the model. according to this figure, it is observed that respect for people, trust, communication, leadership, problemsolving, continuous improvement, no blame culture, value creation, and waste elimination are essential and explanatory elements of lean implementation impacting psychological safety. it is further indicated that psychological safety positively affects construction safety, which comprises elements like risktaking behaviour, safety awareness, motivation, planning, and work safe culture context. the explanatory items of lean implementation and construction safety were developed based on the most cited indicators in the literature. the conceptual model developed was composed based on the insights provided by the interviewees and feedback provided by the participants was aligned with the findings of previous studies. figure 4. conceptual framework analysis and discussion of hypotheses this study aimed to explain how psychological safety and lean construction principles are interrelated in the construction safety context. it further aimed to reveal why construction workers may not feel psychologically safe in traditional construction projects, as opposed to feeling safer in lean construction projects. this might be well explained with the hypothesis that lean implementation positively affects psychological safety through respect for people, trust, communication, lean leadership, problemsolving, continuous improvement, no blame culture, value creation, and waste elimination. as the interviewee emphasized, lean implementation focuses on process improvement, which potentially encourages workers to use their problemsolving skills and make errors visible through enhanced communication and trust. to assess the relations behind that, semistructured interviews were conducted with construction industry members. the interviews were inspected in several aspects. for example, the interviewees were detected to answer interview questions differently especially based on their positions at their organizations. gomez, et al., (2020) mentioned that differences in hierarchy and status might affect employees the way to speak up and disclose concerns. lowerstatus employees are likely to feel less psychologically safe than higher status employees in the organization’s hierarchical structure. people may hesitate to reveal their opinions, consciously or unconsciously to protect their image, prevent negative career consequences (edmondson, 2018). demirkesen, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021169 most of the interviewees reported that they stayed silent in the case of detecting errors or unwanted cases. on the other hand, staying silent is very common, even if the idea or question is important (edmondson, 2018). the main reasons for silence are thinking that it is not necessary to embarrass others and be worried about being perceived as negative (edmondson, 2018). employees are likely to think that being quiet is safer than speaking up; since “no one was ever fired for silence” (edmondson, 2018, p. 34). the interview results further indicated that employees consider being silent depending on their status as well. higher status employees raised fewer concerns about staying silent, where lower status employees emphasized that they mostly stay silent in serious cases, which might cause them to be fired if they speak up about the errors. this also shows that the level of psychological safety affects the level of employee satisfaction (edmondson, 2018). may, gilson and harter (2004) revealed that psychological safety is associated with job enrichment and work role. they further implied that supportive supervisor relations and rewarding employees are positively associated with psychological safety. this finding might be attributed to the hypothesis that psychological safety promotes construction safety through learning. in a psychologically safe environment, people are more willing to disclose errors and ask for help in a more comfortable way. this in turn leads to enhanced construction safety through learning, where a safe environment is key to conceive and practice things. further analysis of the interview results indicated that the majority of the interviewees do not feel safe to raise concerns about upperlevel managers’ errors or organizationrelated problems. they also added that they oftentimes hesitate to speak up about the ideas for improvement. milliken, morrison and hewlin’s (2003) study mentioned that silence is related to a set of organizational issues and respondents of this study mostly emphasized that they were not comfortable with raising concerns and speaking about those to the people above them. female interviewees of this study even raised more concerns for the reason of silence because they might be exposed to ‘mobbing’ for voicing errors observed by them. this might be attributed to the hypothesis that psychological safety acts as a partial mediator in the relationship between lean implementation and construction safety. the essential value in lean implementation is to create a collaborative environment for making errors visible, which reinforces the safety perception of construction employees. interviews were also inspected in terms of respondent’s age. young interviewees were detected to have more courage for uttering what they see wrong, whereas middleaged or old employees feel more fear about losing their job for disclosing mistakes. this might stem from the fact that young employees feel more comfortable raising concerns knowing that they are at the beginning of their career journey, where middle aged or old employees whose status is upper are more concerned with losing their jobs. hence, psychological safety was observed to be higher for the young employees. moreover, thirteen employees working in lean construction projects implied that they feel safer in their projects, where respect for people is the organization’s vision and continuous improvement is the main motivation. on the other hand, four employees, who worked in nonlean projects before mentioned that traditional construction has several drawbacks such as heavy workload, unorganized workplace, and deadline pressures which might result in increased workplace accidents. conclusions this study investigated the interaction between lean principles, psychological safety, and occupational health and safety in construction projects. in this context, the study provides a basis for psychological safety in the construction industry. the interactions among lean, psychological safety, and occupational health and safety were hypothesized. to assess the level of psychological safety in lean and nonlean projects and assessing the effect of psychological safety on occupational health and safety practices, interviews and a survey with construction employees were conducted. the major takeaways from the interviews were that demirkesen, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021170 more psychological safety is observed in lean projects, where lean principles play a major role in improved occupational health and safety practices. moreover, it was detected that psychological safety perceptions were different for male and female employees, where female employees feel more pressure at work. another important finding was that lowerstatus employees feel less psychologically safe than their upperstatus colleagues. this might require that organizations consider different strategies to assess psychological safety in terms of employment status. this study presented empirical evidence that psychological safety is problematic within teams in the construction industry. both the interviews and the quantitative survey indicated that awareness must be developed regarding psychological safety in construction. moreover, the study provides insights for companies to lead them in terms of measuring psychological safety for better managing its impacts and develop actions accordingly. moreover, the study proves that companies adopting the lean philosophy are more successful in managing psychological safety through integrating the core values of lean with psychological safety. on the other hand, the study had some limitations such as sample size, lack of previous studies on the topic, and time constraints. the study reflected the data collected from a small sample of u.s. construction industry practitioners. hence, the results may not be representative for other countries. moreover, the relatively low sample size may lead to less reliable conclusions. more empirical studies are needed to validate and generalise the findings of this study. therefore, a mixed method of research could at least help compare the responses gathered through interviews and the questionnaire to come up with better arguments. this study may lead to further research to reveal the strength of the relations between psychological safety and other concepts. being one of the most referenced relations, the effect of psychological safety on performance may be investigated. the main limitation of this study was the relatively low sample size for the interviews. hence, future studies may investigate the effect of psychological safety on other concepts such as employee satisfaction, engagement, or creativity by using quantitative data with a larger sample size, in the construction industry. moreover, construction companies are recommended to develop departments for assessing psychological safety with its considerable importance in construction safety and learning. the construction sector might benefit from the integration of lean and psychological safety to achieve process improvement and employee satisfaction. the sector might also benefit from the findings of this study to revisit and reshape their strategies for psychological safety. references amoah, c. and simpeh, f., 2020. implementation challenges of covid19 safety measures at construction sites in south africa. journal of facilities management, [ejournal] 19(1), pp.111– 28. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm08 20200061 antillón, e.i., alarcón, l.f., hallowell, m.r. and molenaar, k.r., 2011. a research synthesis on the interface between lean construction and safety management. in: proceedings of the 19th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. lima, peru, 1315 july 2011, pp.615– 25. baer, m. and frese, m., 2003. innovation is not enough: climates for initiative and psychological safety, process innovations, and firm performance. journal of organizational behavior, [ejournal] 24(1), pp.45– 68. https://doi. org/10.1002/job.179 bilstad, j.b., 2016. the relationshiop between team psychological safety and team effectiveness in management teams:the mediating effect of dialogue. msc thesis, university of oslo. bornemisza, a., 2013. creativity and psychological safety: a proposed model on the links between psychological safety, ambiguity tolerance, playfulness and creativity. msc thesis, lund university. demirkesen, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021171 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-08-2020-0061 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-08-2020-0061 https://doi.org/10.1002/job.179 https://doi.org/10.1002/job.179 carmeli, a. and gittell, j.h., 2009. highquality relationships, psychological safety, and learning from failures in work organizations. journal of organizational behavior, 30(6), pp.709– 29. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.565 cauwelier, p., ribière, v.m. and bennet, a., 2016. team psychological safety and team learning: a cultural perspective. learning organization, [ejournal] 23(6), pp.458– 68. https://doi.org/10.1108/tlo0520160029 chigbu, u.e., 2019. visually hypothesising in scientific paper writing: confirming and refuting qualitative research hypotheses using diagrams. publications, [ejournal] 7(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/publications7010022 chileshe, n. and dzisi, e., 2012. benefits and barriers of construction health and safety management (hsm): perceptions of practitioners within design organisations. journal of engineering, design and technology, [ejournal] 10(2), pp.276– 98. https://doi.org/10.1108/17260531211241220 demirkesen, s., 2020. measuring impact of lean implementation on construction safety performance: a structural equation model. production planning and control, [ejournal] 31(5), pp.412– 33. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2019 .1675914 duryan, m., smyth, h., roberts, a., rowlinson, s. and sherratt, f., 2020. knowledge transfer for occupational health and safety: cultivating health and safety learning culture in construction firms. accident analysis and prevention, [e journal] 139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2020.105496 edmondson, a., 1999. psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. administrative science quarterly, [e journal] 44(2), pp.350– 83. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999 edmondson, a., 2004. psychological safety, trust, and learning in organizations: a grouplevel lens. in: kramer, r.m. and cook, k.s., eds. organizations: dilemmas and approaches. russell sage foundation, pp.239– 72. available at: www.jstor.org/stable/10.7758/9781610443388.13. edmondson, a.c. and lei, z. 2014. psychological safety: the history, renaissance, and future of an interpersonal construct. annual review of organizational psychology and organizational behavior, [ejournal] 1(1), pp.23– 43. https:// doi.org/10.1146/annurevorgpsych031413091305 edmondson, a., 2018. the fearless organization: creating psychological safety in the workplace for learning, innovation and growth. nj: john wiley& sons. frazier, m.l., fainshmidt, s., klinger, r.l., pezeshkan, a. and vracheva, v., 2017. psychological safety: a meta analytic review and extension. personnel psychology, [ejournal] 70(1), pp.113– 65. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12183 frels, r.k. and onwuegbuzie, a.j., 2013. administering quantitative instruments with qualitative interviews: a mixed research approach. journal of counseling & development, 91(2), pp.18494. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.15566676.2013.00085.x gambatese, j.a., pestana, c. and lee, h.w., 2017. alignment between lean principles and practices and worker safety behavior. journal of construction engineering and management, [ejournal] 143(1). https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)co.19437862.0001209 goh, y.m., love, p.e., stagbouer, g. and annesley, c., 2012. dynamics of safety performance and culture: a group model building approach. accident analysis and prevention, 48, pp.11825. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2011.05.010 gomez, s., ballard, g., arroyo, p., hackler, c., spencley, r. and tommelein, i.d., 2020. lean, psychological safety, and behaviorbased quality: a focus on people and value delivery. in: proceedings of the 28th annual conference of the international group for lean construction (iglc), berkeley, ca, 612 july 2020, pp.97– 108. https://doi. org/10.24928/2020/0056 demirkesen, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021172 https://doi.org/10.1002/job.565 https://doi.org/10.1108/tlo-05-2016-0029 https://doi.org/10.3390/publications7010022 https://doi.org/10.1108/17260531211241220 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2019.1675914 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2019.1675914 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2020.105496 https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999 http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7758/9781610443388.13 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091305 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091305 https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12183 https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2013.00085.x https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2013.00085.x https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001209 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001209 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2011.05.010 https://doi.org/10.24928/2020/0056 https://doi.org/10.24928/2020/0056 gomez, s., bishop, b., ballard, g., saenz, m. and tommelein, i., 2019. an active caring approach through psychological safety in construction projects. in: proceedings of the 27th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, (iglc), dublin, ireland, 17 july 2019, pp.1037– 48. https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0207 guest, g., bunce, a. and johnson, l., 2006. how many interviews are enough?: an experiment with data saturation and variability. field methods, [ejournal] 18(1), pp.59– 82. https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822x05279903 guo, b.h.w., goh, y.m. and le xin wong, k. 2018. a system dynamics view of a behaviorbased safety program in the construction industry. safety science, [ejournal] 104, pp.202– 15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.01.014 henrichs, b.c., 2009. psychological safety as a mediator of relational coordination in interdisciplinary hospital care units. msc thesis, marquette university. howell, g., ballard, g. and demirkesen, s., 2017. why lean projects are safer? in: proceedings of the 25th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, heraklion, greece, 912 july 2017, pp.895– 901. https://doi. org/10.24928/2017/0116 kahn, w.a., 1990. psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. academy of management journal, [ejournal] 33(4), pp.692– 724. https://doi.org/10.2307/256287 khosravi, y., asilianmahabadi, h., hajizadeh, e., hassanzadehrangi, n., bastani, h. and behzadan, a.h., 2014. factors influencing unsafe behaviors and accidents on construction sites: a review. international journal of occupational safety and ergonomics, [ejournal] 20(1), pp.111– 25. https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2014.11077023 kim, s., lee, h. and connerton, t.p., 2020. how psychological safety affects team performance: mediating role of efficacy and learning behavior. frontiers in psychology, [ejournal] 11, pp.1– 15. https://doi.org/10.3389/ fpsyg.2020.01581 koskela, l., howell, g., ballard, g. and tommelein, i., 2002. the foundations of lean construction. in: design and construction: building in value. oxford, uk: butterworth heinemann. pp.21126. kumako, s.k. and asumeng, m.a., 2013. transformational leadership as a moderator of the relationship between psychological safety and learning behaviour in work teams in ghana. sa journal of industrial psychology, [ejournal] 39(1), pp. 1– 9. https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1036 levitt, r.e. and samelson, n.m., 1993. construction safety management. 2nd ed. new york: john wiley & sons. li, h., lu, m., hsu, s.c., gray, m. and huang, t., 2015. proactive behaviorbased safety management for construction safety improvement. safety science, [ejournal] 75, pp.107– 17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2015.01.013 liker, j.k. and convis, g.l., 2011. the toyota way to lean leadership: achieving and sustaining excellence through leadership development. new york: mcgraw hill. loushine, t.w., hoonakker, p., carayon, p. and smith, m.j., 2004. the relationship between safety and quality management in construction. in: proceedings of the human factors and ergonomics society annual meeting, 48(16), pp.2060– 64. https://doi.org/10.1177/154193120404801658 love, p.e., teo, p., ackermann, f., smith, j., alexander, j., palaneeswaran, e. and morrison, j., 2018. reduce rework, improve safety: an empirical inquiry into the precursors to error in construction. production planning and control, 29(5), pp.35366. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2018.1424961 macomber, h. and howell, g., 2004. two great wastes in organizations. in: proceedings of the 12th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, helsingør, denmark, 35 august 2004, pp.1– 9. may, d.r., gilson, r.l. and harter, l.m. 2004. the psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability and the engagement of the human spirit at work. journal of occupational and organizational psychology, [ejournal] 77(1), pp.11– 37. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317904322915892 demirkesen, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021173 https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0207 https://doi.org/10.1177/1525822x05279903 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.01.014 https://doi.org/10.24928/2017/0116 https://doi.org/10.24928/2017/0116 https://doi.org/10.2307/256287 https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2014.11077023 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01581 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01581 https://doi.org/10.4102/sajip.v39i1.1036 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2015.01.013 https://doi.org/10.1177/154193120404801658 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2018.1424961 https://doi.org/10.1348/096317904322915892 milliken, f.j., morrison, e.w. and hewlin, p.f., 2003. an exploratory study of employee silence: issues that employees don’t communicate upward and why. journal of management studies, 40(6), pp.1453– 76. https://doi. org/10.1111/14676486.00387 mitropoulos, p., cupido, g. and namboodiri, m., 2007. safety as an emergent property of the production system: how lean practices reduce the likelihood of accidents. in: proceedings of the 15th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, east lansing, michigan, 1820 july 2007, pp.282– 93. moaveni, s., banihashemi, s.y. and mojtahedi, m., 2019. a conceptual model for a safetybased theory of lean construction. buildings, [ejournal] 9(1), p.23. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings9010023 morrow, s.l., mcgonagle, a.k., dovesteinkamp, m.l., walker, c.t., marmet, m. and barnesfarrell, j.l., 2010. relationships between psychological safety climate facets and safety behavior in the rail industry: a dominance analysis. accident analysis and prevention, [ejournal] 42(5), pp.1460– 67. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2009.08.011 nahmens, i. and ikuma, l.h., 2009. an empirical examination of the relationship between lean construction and safety in the industrialized housing industry. lean construction journal, pp.1– 12. nembhard, i.m. and edmondson, a., 2012. psychological safety: a foundation for speaking up, collaboration, and experimentation in organizations. in: spreitzer, g.m. and cameron, k.s., eds. the oxford handbook of positive organizational scholarship. https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199734610.013.0037 newman, a., donohue, r. and eva, n., 2017. psychological safety: a systematic review of the literature. human resource management review. [ejournal] 27(3), pp.521– 35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2017.01.001 o’cathain, a., murphy, e. and nicholl, j., 2007. why, and how, mixed methods research is undertaken in health services research in england: a mixed methods study. bmc health services research, 7(1), pp.111. https://doi. org/10.1186/14726963785 o’donovan, r. and mcauliffe, e., 2020. exploring psychological safety in healthcare teams to inform the development of interventions: combining observational, survey and interview data. bmc health services research, [ejournal] 20(1), pp.1– 16. https://doi.org/10.1186/s1291302005646z ohno, t., 1988. toyota production system: beyond largescale production. boca raton, fl: productivity press. ortega, a., van den bossche, p., sánchezmanzanares, m., rico, r. and gil, f., 2014. the influence of change oriented leadership and psychological safety on team learning in healthcare teams. journal of business and psychology, [ejournal] 29(2), pp.311– 21. https://doi.org/10.1007/s1086901393158 roussin, c.j., maclean, t.l. and rudolph, j.w., 2016. the safety in unsafe teams: a multilevel approach to team psychological safety. journal of management, [ejournal] 42(6), pp.1409– 33. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314525204 sadikoglu, e., demirkesen, s., oprach, s., baier, c., jäger, j. and haghsheno, s., 2020. current practice of lean leadership in construction – an empirical study. in: proceedings of the 6th international project and construction management conference (eipcmc2020), istanbul, turkey, 1214 november 2020, pp.75– 85. saunders, m., lewis, p. and thornhill, a., 2009. research methods for business students. 5th ed. pearson education. saurin, t.a., formoso, c.t. and cambraia, f.b., 2006. towards a common language between lean. in: proceedings of the 14th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, santiago, chile, 2527 july 2006, pp.483– 95. saurin, t.a., formoso, c.t., guimarães, l.b.m. and soares, a.c., 2001. integrating safety into production planning and control: an empirical study in the refurbishment of an industrial building. in: rowlinson, s. ed. construction safety management systems. london: spon press, pp.181– 95. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203493960 demirkesen, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021174 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00387 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00387 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings9010023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2009.08.011 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199734610.013.0037 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2017.01.001 https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-7-85 https://doi.org/10.1186/1472-6963-7-85 https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05646-z https://doi.org/10.1007/s10869-013-9315-8 https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314525204 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203493960 schafer, d., abdelhamid, t.s., mitropoulos, p. and howell, g.a., 2008. resilience engineering: a new paradigm for safety in lean. in: proceedings of the 16th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, manchester, uk, 1618 july 2008, pp.723– 33. schöttle, a., christensen, r. and arroyo, p., 2019. does choosing by advantages promote inclusiveness in group decisionmaking? in: proceedings of the 27th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, dublin, ireland, 17 july 2019, pp.797– 808. https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0209 schwatka, n.v., hecker, s. and goldenhar, l.m., 2016. defining and measuring safety climate: a review of the construction industryliterature. annals of occupational hygiene, [ejournal] 60(5), pp.537– 50. https://doi.org/10.1093/ annhyg/mew020 shen, y., tuuli, m.m., xia, b., koh, t.y. and rowlinson, s., 2015. toward a model for forming psychological safety climate in construction project management. international journal of project management, [ejournal] 33(1), pp.223– 35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.04.009 ulusoy, n., mölders, c., fischer, s., bayur, h., deveci, s., demiral, y. and rössler, w., 2016. a matter of psychological safety: commitment and mental health in turkish immigrant employees in germany. journal of crosscultural psychology, [ejournal] 47(4), pp.626– 45. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022115626513 us department of labor, 2020. national census of fatal occupational injuries in 2019. bureau of labor statistics, (202), pp.1– 9. available at: https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf. xie, l., lin, g., hon, c., xia, b. and skitmore, m., 2020. research into the psychosocial safety climate of engineering construction projects’. in: mounir, e.a., grau, d. and thang, p., eds. construction research congress 2020: safety, workforce, and education selected papers from the construction research congress 2020. american society of civil engineers, united states of america, pp.231– 38. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784482872.026 yiu, n.s.n., chan, d.w.m., shan, m. and sze, n.n., 2019. implementation of safety management system in managing construction projects: benefits and obstacles. safety science, [ejournal] 117, pp.23– 32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ssci.2019.03.027 demirkesen, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021175 https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0209 https://doi.org/10.1093/annhyg/mew020 https://doi.org/10.1093/annhyg/mew020 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.04.009 https://doi.org/10.1177/0022022115626513 https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/cfoi.pdf https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784482872.026 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.03.027 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.03.027 © 2022 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: christermaller, f., che ibrahim, c. k. i., manu, p., belayutham, s., mahamadu, a.-m., yunusa-kaltungo, a. 2022. implementation of design for safety (dfs) in construction in developing countries: a study of designers in malaysia. construction economics and building, 22:2, 1–26. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v22i2.8105 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 22, no. 2 june 2022 research article implementation of design for safety (dfs) in construction in developing countries: a study of designers in malaysia fazlynna christermaller1, che khairil izam che ibrahim2,*, patrick manu3, sheila belayutham4, abdul-majeed mahamadu5, akilu yunusa-kaltungo6 1 department of mechanical, aerospace and civil engineering, the university of manchester, united kingdom, fazlynna.christermaller@student.manchester.ac.uk 2 school of civil engineering, universiti teknologi mara, shah alam, selangor, malaysia, chekhairil449@uitm.edu.my 3 department of mechanical, aerospace and civil engineering, the university of manchester, united kingdom, patrick.manu@manchester.ac.uk 4 school of civil engineering, universiti teknologi mara, shah alam, selangor, malaysia, sheila6913@uitm.edu.my 5 the bartlett school of sustainable construction, university college london, united kingdom, a.mahamadu@ucl.ac.uk 6 department of mechanical, aerospace and civil engineering, the university of manchester, united kingdom, akilu.kaltungo@manchester.ac.uk corresponding author: che khairil izam che ibrahim, school of civil engineering, universiti teknologi mara, shah alam, selangor, malaysia, chekhairil449@uitm.edu.my doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i2.8105 article history: received: 24/02/2022; revised: 28/05/2022; accepted: 29/05/2022; published: 20/06/2022 abstract design for safety (dfs) is a concept that emphasises eliminating health and safety hazards to construction workers in the design phase. however, despite the importance of dfs implementation, there are limited studies on dfs in developing countries, including malaysia. this research, therefore, investigates dfs implementation among design professionals in the malaysian construction industry through a questionnaire survey. the response was analysed by conducting descriptive analyses and inferential statistical tests. the findings revealed a high implementation of dfs practices among designers parallel with having high awareness of dfs concept and a positive attitude towards 1 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7842 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7842 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:fazlynna.christermaller@student.manchester.ac.uk mailto:chekhairil449@uitm.edu.my mailto:patrick.manu@manchester.ac.uk mailto:sheila6913@uitm.edu.my mailto:a.mahamadu@ucl.ac.uk mailto:akilu.kaltungo@manchester.ac.uk mailto:chekhairil449@uitm.edu.my https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7842 dfs implementation. however, the engagement in dfs professional training is low, despite the fact that the designers showed a high interest in dfs professional training. while the findings revealed limited association between the implementation of dfs practices and designers’ professional body membership, designers’ professional role, and the size of designers’ organisation, the findings also showed that dfs awareness and dfs training were associated with greater implementation of dfs practices. furthermore, the design professionals perceive dfs education, client’s influence and dfs legislation as being the most important factors that affect dfs implementation in malaysia. this study adds to the current dfs body of knowledge by providing deeper insights into the current state of designer awareness, education training, influencing factors, and dfs engagement, especially when dfs legislative framework is in place. such findings could serve as a guide for other countries in the event of future developments related to dfs implementation. keywords design; design for safety; construction; construction safety; malaysia introduction it is well acknowledged that although the construction sector plays an essential role in the socio-economic development of a country, it is also one of the significant contributors to occupational accidents. the construction industry in great britain accounted for 79,000 work-related sicknesses, 30 fatal injuries and 54,000 non-fatal injuries in 2018/2019 (health and safety executive, 2019). these occupational injuries and illnesses in great britain resulted in economic cost in excess of £1billion in 2017/18 (health and safety executive, 2018). in 2019, the malaysia construction sector accounted for 84 fatalities, 15 permanent disabilities and 227 non-permanent disabilities (department of occupational safety and health (dosh), 2020a). considering that the data is only based on investigated cases, the actual number may be higher than reported. an investigation of 100 construction accidents in great britain carried out by haslam, et al. (2005) indicates that permanent work design contributed to the occurrence of almost 30% of the accidents. this highlights the significance of the concept of ‘design for safety’ (dfs) in construction. the concept of dfs has been widely accepted and implemented in several developed countries such as in the uk and australia. the regulations regarding dfs in the uk is construction (design and management) regulations (cdm) which has been in effect since 1995 and recently revised in 2015 as construction (design and management) regulations 2015 (health and safety executive, 2015). in australia, the national occupational health and safety commission (nohsc) initiated a safe design project in 1998/1999 to provide guidelines for designers, manufactures, importers and suppliers, to reduce risks and hazards. however, there is limited research and insights regarding dfs in developing countries (manu, et al., 2018a; 2019a), and this includes malaysia. in the context of malaysia, the extent of awareness of dfs, dfs education and training, as well as the implementation of dfs practices among designers, are unknown. considering the impact of design as a contributing factor in accident occurrence, an investigation into dfs in malaysia would assist in generating insights that could help in improving the poor health and safety performance in construction, as part of the construction industry development board (cidb)’s strategic plan (csp) 2021-2025. also, due to the recent introduction of dfs-based guideline, i.e., occupational safety and health in construction industry (management) (oshci(m), along with the growing dfs engagement initiative/activities in malaysia (che ibrahim and belayutham, 2020), the need to understand the current dfs landscape in the industry, particularly in regard to designers is timely and significant. despite the growing interest in dfs practice in malaysia, past studies have only focused on certain areas (e.g., current practices (wan azmi, et al., 2017), knowledge, attitude and practice (che ibrahim and belayutham, 2020; che ibrahim, christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 20222 et al., 2022b), education (che ibrahim, et al., 2021), none of these studies have captured the level of dfs engagement among wider construction designers. in fact, recent local studies mainly focused on capturing the opinion on the awareness and understanding among the practitioners and academics in relation to the dfs concept rather than capturing their understanding on the dfs engagement. as oshci(m) is currently running on a voluntary basis (che ibrahim and belayutham, 2020), such insight is critical to the development of oshci(m) towards having mandated legislation, through the advancements of existing dfs practical modules and the development of dfs curricula in tertiary education. consequently, it is imperative to address the abovementioned gaps based on empirical evidence by addressing the question what is the current state of dfs awareness, education training among the designers in malaysia?, what are the factors influencing dfs implementation in malaysia?, and what is the current state of dfs engagement among the designers? consequently, building upon previous dfs studies in developing countries by manu, et al. (2018a; 2019a), this study aims to investigate dfs implementation among design professionals in the malaysian construction industry. it is worth highlighting that even though there are studies related to dfs engagement in other developing countries such as nigeria (manu, et al., 2019a; umeokafor, et al., 2021), ghana (manu, et al., 2018a) and palestine (abueisheh, et al., 2020), the aforementioned countries have yet to establish any dfs-related policies or legislative framework or dfs-related initiatives. the lack of institutional pressures could hinder the progress of dfs development at the national level (che ibrahim and belayutham, 2020; ndekugri, ankarah and adaku, 2021). previous studies have shown that government policy initiatives and legislation can be a major driver of health and safety improvements in the construction industry (manu et al., 2018b). in contrast with the afore-mentioned countries, since malaysia has introduced oshci(m) and dfs initiatives (i.e., dfs seminar, dfs hands on workshops, pilot dfs projects), providing insights from the malaysian context would further contribute to the dfs body of knowledge related to the construction industry of developing countries. the succeeding sections of the paper commence with an overview of the health and safety performance in the malaysian construction sector. this is followed by a review of design for safety literature and the articulation of the knowledge gap pertaining to developing countries, particularly malaysia. the research approach used in addressing the knowledge gap is then presented. subsequently, the research findings, the discussion of the findings and conclusions are presented. literature review design for safety in construction previous studies have indicated that the design professionals are responsible for the decisions made at the beginning, from the design stage until post-project implementation. safety is associated with quality and hence, this requires quality management to consider health and safety in the design stage (gambatese, behm and hinze, 2005). it is generally understood that there is a higher opportunity to mitigate and eliminate risks during the design phase, rather than dealing with the risk during the construction phase. in an analysis of 450 reports of occupational injuries and deaths, it was found that one-third of the cases could have been mitigated and eliminated with dfs implementation (behm, 2006). 42% of the fatal accidents could have been reduced by modifying the permanent works design (behm, 2005). in a study identifying contributing factors to 100 constructional accidents, it was shown that the changes made in the permanent work design could have reduced the frequency of construction accidents (haslam, et al., 2005). a study in australia indicates that 44% of life-threatening accidents were caused by the design of the structure, plant and temporary works (driscoll, et al., 2008). all these studies signify the importance of the design stage to the health, safety and wellbeing of construction workers. christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 20223 design for safety (dfs) is a concept that integrates the health, safety and wellbeing of the workers in the design of a construction project (toole and gambatese, 2008; gambatese, 2019). the concept emphasises the elimination and reduction of construction site hazards in the design stage (behm, 2005). the concept is also known as ‘prevention through design’, ‘safety in design’, ‘safety by design’, ‘health and safety by design’, ‘safe design’, ‘design risk management’, ‘construction design management’ and ‘construction hazards prevention through design’ (poghosyan, et al., 2018). the idea of dfs in construction industry emerged from the fact that the design of a project is a major contributing factor in the occurrence of injuries and fatalities. regarding the concept of dfs, it is anticipated that the decisions made during the design stage would be able to significantly eliminate, or at least mitigate, health and safety risks during the construction stage (gambatese, 2019). this is done by identifying any possible hazards on a site, high-risk procedures or in maintenance tasks throughout the project (gambatese, 2019). the idea of dfs also aligns with the ‘hierarchy of control’, which indicates that the most effective ways of controlling or managing hazards are elimination and substitution (the national institute for occupational safety and health, 2015). by prioritising the safety of construction workers, the implementation of dfs is believed to be able to increase the productivity of the workers, reducing the frequency of injuries and fatalities which in return increase the quality of the work (gambatese, 2019). as the collaboration between the designers and the contractors continues to grow with the implementation of this concept, the safety of the operations and maintenance tasks will improve and hence prevent any delays in project delivery (toole, heckel and hallowell, 2013; gambatese, 2019). knowledge gap regarding (dfs) in the construction literature the subject of dfs in the construction domain has gained growing interest among scholars in both developed and developing countries. recent reviewed dfs studies (see che ibrahim, et al., 2022a) have indicated that a significant increase of dfs research can be found from 2015. however, the intention here is not to review the broader literature on dfs in construction but rather to focus on recent research (from 2015 onwards) that focuses on capturing the context of dfs knowledge and practice in various geographical contexts (see table 1). for example, in developed countries, studies mainly sourced from the uk, australia, new zealand, south korea and cover wide-ranging dfs perspectives. in particular, bong, et al. (2015) found that ability to have specific dfs guidelines could facilitate the education of designers on safety-related design requirement. also, they emphasised that procurement arrangements and codes of practice should be integrated with the regulation to ensure effectiveness of dfs implementation. this is supported by findings from guo, et al. (2021) where more dfs details should be incorporated in the legislations to act as a force mechanism in enhancing dfs knowledge. furthermore, because dfs practise necessitates the collaboration of many teams and stakeholders, previous researchers have highlighted the complexities of different professionals' perspectives on dfs implementation. according to studies conducted in the united states (e.g., gambatese, et al. 2017a; tymvios and gambatese, 2016), dfs practise is viewed as adding value to existing design practise, despite the fact that aspects of legal (e.g., regulations, contractual), economic (e.g., professional fees, cost), and training (e.g., practical, digital technologies) need to be significantly improved. similarly, previous researchers in the united kingdom (e.g., sacks, et al., 2015; morrow, et al., 2016) and south korea (soh, et al., 2020) have emphasised that such aspects should be prioritised to frame and facilitate designers' dfs understanding and appreciation for safety and health. the dfs subject has also seen some significant interest among scholars in developing countries. the fact that the fatalities in the construction industry in this region are among the highest (manu, et al., 2018b; che ibrahim and belayutham, 2020), governments are initiating an innovative approach to improve the osh in the construction sector. for instance, studies by goh, and chua (2016) and toh, et al. (2017) in singapore found that although the implementation of dfs regulation in the country has gained positive supports from wider stakeholders, the need for improvement on knowledge-based initiatives is significant to christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 20224 further enhance the industry dfs knowledge and practices. additionally, significant increase of dfs research in malaysia has been noted for the past years mainly due to the introduction of oshci(m). studies mainly focus on capturing the awareness and readiness of stakeholders towards dfs; for instance, the readiness of designers towards safety and health (wan azmi, et al., 2017), dfs knowledge, attitude and practice (che ibrahim and belayutham, 2020) and dfs designer competence (ismail, et al., 2021). other researchers, in particular in sub-saharan african (i.e., ghana and nigeria), palestine and kuwait have also shown interest in dfs practice in the construction sector. the aforementioned studies found a similar pattern of low dfs engagement due to a lack of institutional pressure, particularly mandated regulations. in addition, the findings suggested that the absence of regulations must be supplemented by significant collaboration efforts among stakeholders to ensure their ongoing commitment. despite the fact that the importance of dfs has been highlighted around the world, the limitations of dfs studies in developing countries remain significant; for example, a review by manu, et al. (2019) found that more than half of the 97 dfs journal articles they reviewed were related to the uk and usa, while a recent review study by samsudin, et al. (2022) discovered that only 16 out of 218 (7 percent) dfs articles were focused on the developing context. furthermore, despite the fact that research in malaysia is expanding significantly in a variety of areas (e.g., kap, education, and awareness), studies focusing on capturing the wider dfs context and dfs engagement through the use of a psychological measurement remain elusive. such knowledge could aid in better understanding of dfs implementation, particularly in meeting malaysia's oshci(m) requirements. table 1. the example of dfs studies (from 2015 onwards) in the construction domain. countries examples of authors focus findings usa gambatese, et al. (2017); tymvios and gambatese (2016) dfs motivation; dfs improvement most stakeholders viewed dfs as a positive enhancement to design practice (long-term impact on maintenance and operation), collaboration, and safety and health practices. united kingdom sacks, et al. (2015); morrow, et al. (2016) dfs concept; dfs application different opinions among designers on how they understand the term health and safety. the use of ict could enhance their knowledge and attitude towards dfs australia bong, et al. (2015) dfs responsibilities dfs guidelines able to facilitate the designers’ understanding on the safetyrelated design requirements new zealand guo, et al. (2021) dfs kap despite current legislation encouraging collaborative dfs engagement and fostering a positive dfs attitude, more efforts towards enhancing dfs knowledge is needed. south korea soh, et al. (2020) dfs process and improvement differences among professionals on how the dfs improvements should be prioritised in order to improve its engagement christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 20225 countries examples of authors focus findings singapore goh and chua (2016); toh, et al. (2017) dfs kap high support from wide ranging stakeholders in the industry but dfs knowledge and practice need further improvement malaysia wan azmi, et al. (2017); che ibrahim and belayutham (2020); ismail, et al. (2021) dfs kap; dfs competence majority of construction key stakeholders has been very supportive, but dfs knowledge, attitude and practice still requires improvement through several mechanisms nigeria manu, et al. (2019); umeokafor, et al. (2021); umeokafor, et al. (2022); dfs implementation; dfs barriers; dfs statutory and workability positive opportunities to further enhance dfs knowledge, skills and attitude due to high interest but the current dfs engagement is low. ghana manu, et al. (2018a) dfs implementation dfs engagement is low although awareness and interest are high. palestine abueisheh, et al. (2020) dfs implementation dfs readiness and engagement is very low owing to wide-ranging of local barriers / challenges. kuwait sharar, et al. (2022) dfs implementation the frequency of dfs engagement is generally moderate research strategy in view of the research aim to obtain a generalised understanding of issues pertaining to the afore-described knowledge gap on dfs implementation among designers in malaysia’s construction industry, a quantitative research strategy, which is a survey, was used. the survey approach is suitable for eliciting the perception of stakeholders against particular attributes (fellows and lui, 2015; creswell and creswell, 2018), and this is further corroborated by its use in other developing countries to investigate the status of dfs implementation among design professionals in construction (see manu, et al., 2018a; 2019a; abueisheh, et al., 2020). questionnaire design a questionnaire was designed for the survey and it consisted of the following sections: section 1: this section captured the background information of the respondents including their role in the construction industry, experience in the current role and in the industry. this section also requested information on the level of education of the respondents, their professional body membership and the type and size of the respondents’ firm. the questionnaire did not capture any personal identifiable information about participants and therefore was completely anonymous. section 2: this section gathered the information related to dfs. the questions used in this section included yes/no questions, likert scale questions, single answer questions and open-ended questions. table 1. continued christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 20226 • the respondents were asked about their awareness of the concept of dfs prior to participating in this study. • the engagement of the respondents in 15 dfs practices was assessed using a 5-point likert scale (1=never, 2=rarely, 3=sometimes, 4=often, 5=always). the 15 dfs practices were adopted from previous dfs studies (manu, et al., 2018a; 2019a; abueisheh, et al., 2020). • the attitude of the respondents regarding the importance of dfs implementation was assessed using a 5-point likert scale (1=not important, 2=low importance, 3=moderate importance, 4=high importance, 5=very high importance). the respondents were also asked whether they would implement dfs in their design work if given the choice. • the respondents were asked to rate the extent to which they perceive several factors would influence the implementation of dfs. the influence of the factors was rated using a 5-point likert scale (1=not at all, 2=low, 3=moderate, 4=high, 5=very high). • the respondents were also asked to provide responses regarding their education and training in relation to dfs, their interest in attending training related to dfs and the preferred method of training. questionnaire administration the respondents for this research are the design professionals in the malaysian construction industry, in particular architects and engineers. design professionals were targeted because the study’s focus is to examine dfs implementation among this group of construction professionals. due to the difficulty in obtaining participation in construction safety research surveys (see manu, et al., 2014), a pragmatic approach was used to help achieve a good response. as there is no accessible record of all design professionals in the malaysia construction industry, the initial plan was to have a list of design firms (as a means to reach design professionals) from yellow pages malaysia online directory, board of engineers malaysia, board of architects malaysia and the malaysian institute of architects. the intention was that from these sources a sampling frame could be designed. however, the information from the stated sources proved to be limited as they only show the list of engineering companies and architectural firms (i.e., 161 engineering companies and 327 architectural firms, making a total of 488 design companies). as a result, industry contacts known to the researchers as well as linkedin was used as a potential source to assist in reaching design professionals in malaysia. from all the mentioned sources, a list of design companies and potential design professionals was created to serve as a sampling frame for administering the questionnaire via online survey tools. the link to the survey was emailed in a cover letter to the list of design companies and design professionals. in the cover letter/email, the receiver was also asked to forward the survey link to other design professionals know within their company or professional network. this approach was to enable a snowballing effect of questionnaire distribution (manu, et al., 2018a) in order to improve the number of responses to be obtained. when the online survey closed, 172 response cases were obtained. the data from the online questionnaire survey was exported to csv (excel) format. data screening was conducted to remove response cases with excessive missing data as well as for respondents who are not designers. the data screening exercise resulted in 118 useable response cases. data analyses using microsoft excel, the screened data were coded into numerical data and subsequently exported to ibm statistical package for social sciences (spss) 23 software for quantitative analyses, including descriptive analysis and inferential statistical tests. the descriptive statistical analysis included frequencies, means and standard deviation (creswell and creswell, 2018). on the other hand, inferential statistical tests included one sample t-test, and independent christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 20227 samples t-test (creswell and creswell, 2018). the one sample t-test was used to test whether there is a significant difference between a sample mean and a test-value. the test-value of 3.5 (see mahamadu, et al., 2018) was used based on the expectation that the level of implementation/engagement in dfs practices should be at least ‘often’ given the importance of dfs in the prevention of accidents (manu, et al., 2018a; 2019a; abueisheh, et al., 2020). in the questionnaire, a 5-point likert scale was used to assess the extent/ level of designers’ engagement in the dfs practices. the test-value of 3.5 approximate to the scale point of “4” which is interpreted as “often”. additionally, the one sample t-test was used to analyse the perceptions of the designers regarding the extent to which several factors would influence the implementation of dfs. a test value of 3.5 was used. thus, based on the 5-point likert scale, a factor is deemed to have at least a “high” influence if its mean score is significantly greater than 3.5 (which approximates to 4 i.e., “high” influence on the likert scale). furthermore, independent samples t-test and analysis of variance (anova) was also used to explore associations between the extent/level of designers’ engagement in the dfs practices and their demographic characteristics. overall, the fact that this study consist of variety, (the structure of data, the distribution of the data, and variable type), such variety of analysis is critical to show whether an observed pattern in relation to dfs implementation (understanding, factors, engagement) is due to intervention or chance. results the results of the analysis of data are presented in the subsequent sub-headings. the demographic information of the research participants table 2 indicates the respondents’ background information, such as their professional role, the highest level of education and membership of a professional body. most of the respondents are civil/structural engineer (i.e., 82.2%). regarding their highest level of education, 69.5% of the respondents have bachelor’s degree. the table also indicates that 78% of the respondents are members of a professional body. (e.g., malaysian institute of architects; the board of architects malaysia; the institution of engineers malaysia; and board of engineers malaysia). table 2 also presents the respondents’ experience in the construction industry and in their current role. a majority of the respondents have experience of over 10 years in the construction industry (i.e., 42.4%). the respondents have a mean score of 11.5 years of experience (standard deviation= 8.93) in the construction industry and 10.4 years of experience (standard deviation= 7.66) in the current role. the results shows that a large proportion of the respondents (i.e., 30.5%) work in medium size firms (i.e., 50-249 employees). the results also shows that most of the respondents (i.e., 22%) work in a general building/civil engineering contractor firm. this is followed by general building/civil engineering contractors (22%), government agencies (20%), architectural and engineering firms (19%). the attitude of designers towards design for safety the findings from the questionnaire survey show that the respondents acknowledge the importance of dfs implementation on construction projects. as shown in table 3, majority of the respondents (i.e., 50.8%) rated the importance of dfs implementation as “very high importance”. table 3 also indicates that the respondents have high interest and would apply dfs in their works if they were given a choice. this signifies a positive attitude from the respondents regarding dfs implementation. christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 20228 table 2. general background information of the respondents. demographic characteristic frequency percentage professional role architect 17 14.4 civil/structural engineer 97 82.2 other (mechanical and electrical engineer, interior designer, formwork designer, and site engineer) 4 3.4 highest level of education diploma 1 0.8 bachelor’s degree 82 69.5 master’s degree 32 27.1 phd degree 3 2.5 professional body membership yes 92 78.0 no 26 22.0 respondents' experience 0-5 years 37 31.4 6-10 years 33 28.0 over 10 years 47 39.8 no response 1 0.8 type of organisation government agencies 24 20 general building / civil engineering contractors 26 22 architectural & engineering firm 22 19 architectural firm 14 12 project management consultancy 9 8 housing / real estate developer 5 4 others 18 15 size of the respondents' organisation. micro (1-9) 25 21.2 small (10-49) 27 22.9 medium (50-249) 36 30.5 large (over 250) 24 20.3 no response 6 5.1 christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 20229 table 3. the importance, interest and factors influencing the dfs implementation element frequency percentage importance not important 0 0 low importance 1 0 moderate importance 11 9.3 high importance 46 39 very high importance 60 50.8 interest yes 118 100 no 0 0 factors influencing level of importance dfs lessons in formal education 4.19 client’ influence 4.17 legislation 4.08 industry guidelines 4.01 professional development training 3.92 ict software applications 3.69 design for safety awareness, education and training among designers as shown in table 4, the majority of the respondents (90.7%) have awareness of the dfs concept. 68.6% of the respondents have taken dfs lessons as part of the formal education and 44.9% of the respondents have undertaken dfs professional development training. the results show that 94.9% of the respondents have an interest in undertaking dfs professional development training. concerning the respondents’ preferred methods for undertaking the dfs professional development training, 51.7% of the respondents prefer to have an online course or study materials. 74.6% of the respondents prefer to attend a seminar or workshop. factors that affect the implementation of design for safety based on the reviews of literature, various factors (see table 3) have been captured and discussed regarding the dfs implementation in the construction industry. in the questionnaire survey using a 5-point likert scale (1= not at all; 2= low; 3= moderate; 4= high; 5= very high), the respondents were required to rate the extent to which six different factors influence dfs implementation. as shown in table 3, the respondents ranked dfs lessons in formal education as the most influential factor in dfs implementation. however, availability of ict software applications was ranked to be among the least influential factors. one sample t-test was conducted to identify which of the factors have a mean value that is significantly greater than 3.5 (p (1-tailed) < 0.05), which approximates to 4 (i.e., high influence) christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202210 on the 5-point likert scale. the results, as shown in table 5, indicates that the respondents consider all the six factors to have at least a high influence on dfs implementation. designers’ engagement in design for safety practices the extent of engagement in the 15 dfs practices investigated among the respondents was captured and rated using a 5-point likert scale. as shown in table 6, more than 50% of the respondents engage in 11 out of 15 practices, in which the respondents undertake them as “often” or “always”. as mentioned previously, the designers are expected to engage at least “often” in the dfs practices by reason of the significance of dfs to improving the status of health and safety in the construction industry. one sample t-test was conducted to determine whether the mean frequencies of the engagement in dfs practices can be considered as being at least “often” (manu et al., 2018a; 2019a). the one sample t-test was conducted based on a t-value of 3.5 because the rounding up of 3.5 equals to 4 and this corresponds to “often” on the likert scale. to put it concisely, the dfs practice that has a mean value of greater than 3.5 (p (1-tailed) ≤ 0.05) is considered being implemented “often” by the respondents. as shown in table 7, there are 11 (i.e., 73%) of the 15 dfs table 4. design for safety awareness, education and professional development training item frequency percentage (%) awareness of the dfs concept yes 107 90.7 no 11 9.3 received dfs lessons as part of formal education yes 81 68.6 no 36 30.5 no response 1 0.8 received professional development training regarding dfs yes 53 44.9 no 64 54.2 no response 1 0.8 interest in dfs professional development training yes 112 94.9 no 5 4.2 no response 1 0.8 preferred method of dfs professional development traininga online course/study materials 61 51.7 attending seminar/workshop 88 74.6 no response 5 4.2 anote: multiple preferences in dfs professional development training leads to a total percentage of more than 100% christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202211 practices that can be considered as being implemented “often” by the respondents. this reflects a high and positive level of engagement in dfs practices. the results of the independent samples t-test the independent samples t-test was carried out to explore associations between the extent of engagement in dfs practices by the designers and other variables including their demographic characteristics and dfs awareness, training and education. this study, therefore, explored whether there is a significant difference in engagement in dfs practices between the following groups: • participants who have dfs awareness vs. participants who do not. • participants who are associated to a professional body vs. participants who are not. • participants who have received dfs lessons as a part of formal education vs. participants who have not. • participants who have received dfs training vs. participants who have not. • participants who are working as architects vs. participants who work as civil/structural engineers. • participants who are working in micro, small and medium organisation vs. participants who are working in large organisation. the following subsection only shows the dfs practices for which significant outcomes were obtained (p (2-tailed) ≤ 0.05). the results are summarised in table 8 to table 11. based on the independent samples t-test, the results indicate that awareness of dfs has an effect on the implementation of dfs practices, given that significant outcomes were obtained for 9 out of the 15 (i.e., over half of the) dfs practices (as shown in table 8). table 5. one sample t-test for the factors affecting dfs implementation. factors n mean std. deviation std. error mean test value = 3.5 t df sig. (1-tailed) mean difference 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper dfs lessons in formal education 117 4.19 1.11 0.10 6.730 116 0.000 0.688 0.49 0.89 clients' influence 117 4.17 1.147 0.106 6.328 116 0.000 0.671 0.46 0.88 legislation 117 4.08 0.832 0.077 7.500 116 0.000 0.577 0.42 0.73 industry guidelines 117 4.01 0.836 0.077 6.583 116 0.000 0.509 0.36 0.66 professional development training 117 3.92 0.811 0.075 5.642 116 0.000 0.423 0.27 0.57 ict software applications 118 3.69 0.824 0.076 2.458 117 0.008 0.186 0.04 0.34 christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202212 table 6. the level of engagement of the respondents in dfs practices code representing design for safety practice design for safety practicesa frequency of engagement in design for safety practice never (%) rarely (%) sometimes (%) often (%) always (%) often and always (%) dfs. p1 i design to avoid construction operations that create hazardous fumes, vapour and dust (e.g., disturbance of existing asbestos and cutting blockwork and concrete). 9.3 7.6 18.6 7.6 56.8 64.4 dfs. p2 i specify materials that require less frequent maintenance or replacement. 3.4 3.4 19.5 14.4 59.3 73.7 dfs. p3 i specify materials that are easier to handle such e.g., light weight blocks. 2.5 12.7 32.2 13.6 39 52.6 dfs. p4 i design to take into account safe movement of site workers, plants, & equipment on a project site during construction. 1.7 5.9 13.6 17.8 61 78.8 dfs. p5 i specify materials that have less hazardous chemical constituents. 4.2 6.8 28.8 16.9 43.2 60.1 dfs. p6 i eliminate materials that could create a significant fire risk during construction. 5.1 7.6 19.5 19.5 48.3 67.8 dfs. p7 i design to position buildings/ structures to minimise risks from buried services and overhead cables. 4.2 5.1 17.8 17.8 55.1 72.9 dfs. p8 i design to mitigate possible adverse impact a project could have on safe movement of the general public during construction. 3.4 5.1 11 17.8 62.7 80.5 dfs. p9 i design elements (e.g., walls, floors, etc.) so that they can be prefabricated offsite. 5.9 9.3 52.5 11 21.2 32.2 christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202213 the independent samples t-test based on designers’ professional body membership yielded no significant result. the independent samples t-test based on receipt of dfs lessons indicated that receipt of dfs lessons as part of formal education had a limited effect on the implementation of dfs practices, given that only two practices (i.e., less than a quarter of the 15 practices) showed a significant outcome (as shown in table 9). regarding the participation in dfs training, the results show that participation in dfs training has an effect on the implementation of dfs practices, given that 10 practices (i.e., over half of the dfs practices) showed significant outcomes (as shown in table 10). code representing design for safety practice design for safety practicesa frequency of engagement in design for safety practice never (%) rarely (%) sometimes (%) often (%) always (%) often and always (%) dfs. p10 i design to minimise or eliminate the need to work at height. 9.3 17.8 36.4 11 25.4 36.4 dfs. p11 i design to minimise or eliminate the need for workers to work in confined space. 7.6 11 36.4 13.6 31.4 45.0 dfs. p12 i highlight unusual construction considerations that have safety implications to the contractor e.g., key sequence of erecting/ construction. 4.2 5.1 28.8 11 50.8 61.8 dfs. p13 i follow a structured/ systematic procedure for undertaking design health and safety risk assessment e.g., using a tool, template or form for design health and safety risk assessment. 6.8 7.6 17.8 11.9 55.9 67.8 dfs. p14 i produce designs that enable ease of building/constructing. 4.2 1.7 17.8 11.9 64.4 76.3 dfs. p15 i prepare hazard identification drawings which show significant hazards that may not be obvious to a contractor. 16.9 16.9 27.1 8.5 30.5 39.0 anote: design for safety practices were adopted from manu, et al. (2018a; 2019a) and abueisheh, et al. (2020) table 6. continued christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202214 the independent samples t-test based on professional role, which compared architects and civil/structural engineers, showed that there is no significant difference. the result for independent samples t-test based on designers’ organisation, which compared micro, small and medium organisations to the large organisation yielded no significant outcomes. regarding the participants’ highest level of education, the result indicates that highest level of designers’ education has a minimal effect on the implementation of dfs practices, given that only one practice (i.e., less than a quarter of the 15 practices) showed a significant outcome (as shown in table 11). results of anova one-way anova test with a bonferroni correction (i.e., bonferroni post hoc test) was undertaken to explore the association between the engagement in the dfs practices and respondents’ years of experience in their professional role (grouped as 1-5 years; 6-10 years; and over 10 years). tables 12 and 13 show the significant outcomes for three out of the 15 practices (i.e., dfs. p4, dfs. p6, and dfs. p7). overall, the anova results indicate that years of experience in design role has a limited effect on implementation of dfs practices, given that only three practices (i.e., less than a half of the 15 practices) showed a significant outcome. table 7. results for one sample t-test for the frequency of engagement in dfs practices. code representing design for safety practice n mean std. deviation std. error mean test value = 3.5 t df sig. (1-tailed) mean difference 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper dfs. p8 118 4.31 1.076 0.099 8.215 117 0.000 0.814 0.62 1.01 dfs. p4 118 4.31 1.025 0.094 8.529 117 0.000 0.805 0.62 0.99 dfs. p14 118 4.31 1.090 0.100 8.023 117 0.000 0.805 0.61 1.00 dfs. p2 118 4.23 1.089 0.100 7.268 117 0.000 0.729 0.53 0.93 dfs. p7 118 4.14 1.142 0.105 6.127 117 0.000 0.644 0.44 0.85 dfs. p13 118 4.03 1.291 0.119 4.422 117 0.000 0.525 0.29 0.76 dfs. p12 118 3.99 1.180 0.109 4.524 117 0.000 0.492 0.28 0.71 dfs. p6 118 3.98 1.205 0.111 4.354 117 0.000 0.483 0.26 0.70 dfs. p1 118 3.95 1.383 0.127 3.529 117 0.000 0.449 0.20 0.70 dfs. p5 118 3.88 1.171 0.108 3.539 117 0.000 0.381 0.17 0.59 dfs. p3 118 3.74 1.180 0.109 2.185 117 0.015 0.237 0.02 0.45 dfs. p11 118 3.50 1.252 0.115 0.000 117 0.500 0.000 -0.23 0.23 dfs. p9 118 3.32 1.093 0.101 -1.769 117 0.040 -0.178 -0.38 0.02 dfs. p10 118 3.25 1.276 0.117 -2.093 117 0.019 -0.246 -0.48 -0.01 dfs. p15 118 3.19 1.461 0.135 -2.331 117 0.011 -0.314 -0.58 -0.05 christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202215 table 9. independent samples t-test based on receipt of dfs lessons as part of formal education. code representing design for safety practice received dfs lessons as part of formal education n mean std. deviation std. error mean t-test for equality of means t df sig. (2-tailed) mean difference std. error difference 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper dfs. p9 yes 81 3.49 1.062 0.118 2.865 115 0.005 0.605 0.211 0.187 1.023 no 36 2.89 1.036 0.173 dfs. p13 yes 81 4.19 1.216 0.135 2.141 115 0.034 0.546 0.255 0.041 1.052 no 36 3.64 1.397 0.233 table 8. independent samples t-test based on dfs awareness. code representing design for safety practice awareness of dfs n mean std. dev. std. error mean t-test for equality of means t df sig. (2-tailed) mean diff. std. error diff. 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper dfs. p1 yes 107 4.07 1.294 0.125 3.197 116 0.002 1.347 0.422 0.513 2.182 no 11 2.73 1.679 0.506 dfs. p3 yes 107 3.86 1.094 0.106 3.705 116 0.000 1.314 0.355 0.612 2.017 no 11 2.55 1.368 0.413 dfs. p5 yes 107 3.96 1.098 0.106 2.399 116 0.018 0.872 0.363 0.152 1.591 no 11 3.09 1.578 0.476 dfs. p6 yes 107 4.08 1.125 0.109 2.931 116 0.004 1.084 0.370 0.352 1.817 no 11 3.00 1.549 0.467 dfs. p8 yes 107 4.42 0.942 0.091 2.232 11 0.048 1.148 0.514 0.011 2.284 no 11 3.27 1.679 0.506 dfs. p9 yes 107 3.42 1.037 0.100 3.170 116 0.002 1.057 0.333 0.397 1.717 no 11 2.36 1.206 0.364 dfs. p11 yes 107 3.58 1.213 0.117 2.183 116 0.031 0.852 0.390 0.079 1.625 no 11 2.73 1.421 0.428 dfs. p12 yes 107 4.07 1.135 0.110 2.154 116 0.033 0.793 0.368 0.064 1.522 no 11 3.27 1.421 0.428 dfs. p14 yes 107 4.44 0.953 0.092 4.500 116 0.000 1.439 0.320 0.806 2.073 no 11 3.00 1.483 0.447 christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202216 table 10. independent samples t-test based on dfs training. code representing design for safety practice participation in dfs training n mean std. deviation std. error mean t-test for equality of means t df sig. (2-tailed) mean difference std. error difference 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper dfs. p1 yes 53 4.26 1.077 0.148 2.426 111.734 0.017 0.592 0.244 0.109 1.076 no 64 3.67 1.554 0.194 dfs. p3 yes 53 3.98 0.990 0.136 2.212 114.450 0.029 0.466 0.210 0.049 0.882 no 64 3.52 1.285 0.161 dfs. p4 yes 53 4.53 0.846 0.116 2.292 113.942 0.024 0.419 0.183 0.057 0.781 no 64 4.11 1.129 0.141 dfs. p6 yes 53 4.42 0.949 0.130 3.655 114.233 0.000 0.743 0.203 0.340 1.146 no 64 3.67 1.248 0.156 dfs. p7 yes 53 4.51 0.800 0.110 3.489 107.029 0.001 0.681 0.195 0.294 1.068 no 64 3.83 1.292 0.161 dfs. p9 yes 53 3.62 1.004 0.138 2.946 115 0.004 0.576 0.195 0.189 0.963 no 64 3.05 1.090 0.136 dfs. p10 yes 53 3.53 1.203 0.165 2.279 115 0.025 0.528 0.232 0.069 0.988 no 64 3.00 1.285 0.161 dfs. p11 yes 53 3.83 0.995 0.137 2.861 113.167 0.005 0.627 0.219 0.193 1.061 no 64 3.20 1.371 0.171 dfs. p12 yes 53 4.25 1.054 0.145 2.072 115 0.041 0.448 0.216 0.020 0.877 no 64 3.80 1.250 0.156 dfs. p14 yes 53 4.55 0.774 0.106 2.113 108.473 0.037 0.391 0.185 0.024 0.758 no 64 4.16 1.211 0.151 table 11. independent samples t-test based on the highest level of education. code representing design for safety practice highest education n mean std. deviation std. error mean t-test for equality of means t df sig. (2-tailed) mean difference std. error difference 95% confidence interval of the difference lower upper dfs. p15 up to undergraduate degree 83 3.36 1.402 0.154 2.030 116 0.045 0.590 0.291 0.014 1.166 postgraduate degree 35 2.77 1.536 0.260 christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202217 discussion of results the findings from the questionnaire survey provide information regarding the status of dfs in malaysia construction industry. the questionnaire survey also captured factors that may influence the dfs implementation in malaysia construction industry. the designers in malaysia construction industry portray a very high level of awareness and positive attitude towards the dfs concept (shown in table 3 and 4). the high awareness and positive attitude towards dfs are also reflected by the high engagement in dfs implementation (shown in table 6 and table 7). despite the fact that studies in other developing countries (e.g., nigeria, ghana, palestine, and kuwait) have shown that high awareness does not necessarily reflect dfs engagement, previous scholars in the united states (e.g., gambatese, behm and hinze, 2005; gambatese, et al., 2017b) found that designers' dfs awareness and attitude have a direct impact on dfs engagement. the findings of this research regarding the designers’ dfs awareness (table 3), dfs attitude (table 3) and extent of engagement in dfs practices (tables 6 and 7) align with this claim, especially given that dfs awareness was also associated with a significantly greater implementation of 9 out of 15 practices, as shown in table 8. the respondents ranked dfs lessons in formal education as the most influential factor in dfs implementation (table 4). this is supported by che ibrahim and belayutham (2020) where having formal education could facilitate the development of dfs knowledge and attitude of graduates. while it is well acknowledged that client is the greatest motivator (see goh and chua, 2016; che ibrahim and belayutham, 2020), having legislative framework (such as oshci(m)) and comprehensive dfs code of practice and guidelines could also act as the enabler for dfs diffusion. such mechanisms have been identified as a potential enabler in facilitating dfs implementation in countries such as the united kingdom (morrow, et al., 2016) and new zealand (guo, et al., 2021), though a study in australia (bong, et al., 2015) revealed that stakeholders are still unconvinced that the practice will be promoted through regulation. in contrast, the availability of ict software applications was ranked to be among the least influential factors. the initiative towards adopting table 12. anova results based on designers' years of experience in role. code representing design for safety practice comparison sum of squares df mean square f sig. dfs. p4 between groups 9.837 2 4.918 4.975 0.008 within groups 112.693 114 0.989 total 122.530 116 dfs. p6 between groups 15.859 2 7.930 5.906 0.004 within groups 153.064 114 1.343 total 168.923 116 dfs. p7 between groups 12.895 2 6.447 5.444 0.006 within groups 135.020 114 1.184 total 147.915 116 dfs. p8 between groups 7.882 2 3.941 3.572 0.031 within groups 125.776 114 1.103 total 133.658 116 christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202218 disruptive technologies (e.g., bim) in the local construction industry is relatively new (che ibrahim and belayutham, 2020), whilst the capability of construction stakeholders in embracing these technologies is still growing, resulting in widely unexplored territory between technologies and safety. as presented in table 6 and table 7, the designers show a high level of engagement in dfs practices. the high implementation of dfs practices in the malaysia construction industry contradicts with previous dfs implementation research in other developing countries (i.e., ghana; nigeria; and palestine) where a low level of engagement in dfs practices by designers (probably due to the lack of early education in the curricula) was observed (umeokafor, et al., 2022). a key difference between the previous contexts and malaysia is that malaysia has recently introduced dfs regulatory guidelines (i.e., the oshci(m)), and there is none known of in the table 13. anova post hoc test (multiple comparisons bonferroni) dependent variable (i) experience in role category (j) experience in role category mean difference (i-j) std. error sig. 95% confidence interval lower bound upper bound dfs. p4 0-5 years 6-10 years -.472 .238 .150 -1.05 .11 more than 10 years -.683* .219 .007 -1.21 -.15 6-10 years 0-5 years .472 .238 .150 -.11 1.05 more than 10 years -.211 .226 1.000 -.76 .34 more than 10 years 0-5 years .683* .219 .007 .15 1.21 6-10 years .211 .226 1.000 -.34 .76 dfs. p6 0-5 years 6-10 years -.483 .277 .253 -1.16 .19 more than 10 years -.875* .255 .002 -1.49 -.26 6-10 years 0-5 years .483 .277 .253 -.19 1.16 more than 10 years -.392 .263 .417 -1.03 .25 more than 10 years 0-5 years .875* .255 .002 .26 1.49 6-10 years .392 .263 .417 -.25 1.03 dfs. p7 0-5 years 6-10 years -.749* .261 .015 -1.38 -.12 more than 10 years -.686* .239 .015 -1.27 -.10 6-10 years 0-5 years .749* .261 .015 .12 1.38 more than 10 years .063 .247 1.000 -.54 .66 more than 10 years 0-5 years .686* .239 .015 .10 1.27 6-10 years -.063 .247 1.000 -.66 .54 *. the mean difference is significant at the 0.05 level. christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202219 other developing countries. as reflected by the respondents’ perceptions in table 4 regarding the influence of dfs legislation, the introduction of the recent oshci(m) in malaysia, which places a requirement for designer to eliminate, reduce or control risk during design, could be a plausible explanation for the observed high level of engagement in dfs practices among the designers in malaysia. the respondents that have received dfs lessons and undertaken dfs professional development training were expected to have higher engagement in dfs practices than those that have never received lessons and training regarding dfs. the expectation is based on the claim that education has high importance in dfs implementation (gambatese, behm and hinze, 2005; che ibrahim and belayutham, 2020). this is also supported by the results in table 5. from table 4, most of the respondents have received dfs lessons as part of their education. however, the independent sample t-test based on receipt of dfs lessons showed that dfs lesson had a limited association with the respondents’ level of engagement in dfs practices. the results of the independent samples t-test based on receipt of dfs lesson (see table 9) appear to contradict the results regarding the influence of the six factors (see table 5), which show that dfs education has a high influence on dfs implementation. however, the results of the independent samples t-test (see table 9) could possibly be a reflection of the level of quality and adequacy of the dfs lessons received, rather than an indication of the general importance of dfs education to dfs implementation. this suggests that while dfs education has an effect on dfs implementation (as shown by table 5), this effect may be mediated by other factors or variables such as the quality and adequacy of the education and subsequent dfs continuous professional development training to ensure the currency and relevance of designers dfs competence. a mix of practical methodology (e.g., guidelines, tools, and case studies) is needed to improve the training process and ensure the practicality and quality of the training (toole, 2017). regarding the effect of dfs professional training on implementation of dfs practices, the results (shown in table 10 where over half of the 15 dfs practices indicated the presence of significant difference) indicate that dfs training has an effect on the level of engagement in dfs practices among the designers in malaysia construction industry. the impact of dfs professional training is also corroborated by table 5 which shows that the designers perceive dfs training to have at least a high impact of dfs implementation. studies by gambatese, et al. (2005), and öney-yazıcı and dulaimi (2015) emphasised the importance of education and knowledge in dfs implementation. this is supported by the previous findings where the lack of knowledge and skills among designers related to safety and health is significant regardless the status of the dfs legislative frameworks. this is the basis of the first expectation above. the basis of the second expectation is that larger firms consider safety more often than the smaller firms (goh and chua, 2016). in general, the independent samples t-tests revealed that the designers’ professional body membership, designers’ professional role, and the size of the designers’ organisation have no significant influence on dfs implementation. additionally, the independent samples t-tests (table 11) also showed that level of designers’ education has a very limited effect on the implementation of dfs practices. however, such influence may change in a few years as dfs implementation becomes more mature among stakeholders, as evidenced by recent findings in south africa, where organisational characteristics may have a direct influence on dfs characteristics (che ibrahim, et al., 2022c). although there is a high interest among the respondents in undertaking professional development training relating to dfs (i.e., 94.9% as shown in table 3), there is low participation in dfs professional development training (i.e., 44.9% of the respondents have undertaken training as shown in table 4). the hindrance may include less availability of dfs training due to the influence of social, political, and economic situations in local construction context (abueisheh, et al., 2020; manu, et al., 2019a). as for the preferred method of dfs professional development training, the designers portray more interest in attending seminars and workshops (i.e., 74.9%) and less interest in online courses (i.e., 51.7%). this finding shows similarity to previous studies in developing countries: ghana, nigeria and palestine (manu, et al., 2018a; 2019a; abueisheh, et al., 2020). however, given the impact of the covid-19 pandemic which resulted in greater christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202220 online engagement/interaction in place of face-to-face, this phenomenon of online engagement/interaction might also eventually drive a greater preference for online dfs training courses among designers. overall, the findings suggest that having institutional pressure (i.e., legislative framework, code of practice and guidance) and wider dfs engagement (e.g., seminars, hands-on workshops, industry focus groups and pilot projects) could facilitate the positive diffusion of dfs. this is supported by the common pattern found in the previous dfs studies in both developed and developing countries. it is worth noting that, despite current differences in dfs legislative framework implementation, the roles of stakeholders, dfs-related initiatives, and the current culture and mindset of designers on osh in different geographical contexts are critical to ensuring the effectiveness of dfs implementation. in malaysia, as the current landscape of the local industry lacks collective efforts, such efforts are needed to ensure the success of dfs implementation. this has been the case in the us, where having a collaborative mechanism, particularly in procurement, has been seen as one of the key enablers to facilitate dfs implementation (see gambatese, 2019). also, the common belief by the local industry that collaboration only occurs after mandatory legislation, rather than being proactive in nurturing the collaborative culture prior to any initiative such as oshci(m) also affects the deployment of dfs. as compared to the other developing countries, these key differences (i.e., institutional pressure and wider dfs engagement) could act as a point of discussion for other developing countries which have similar pattern of construction osh performance (see manu, et al., 2018b) to initiate the dfs initiative. during this transition period, practical module and code of practice related to dfs have been developed, followed by continuous engagements through seminars and practical workshops. also, as part of the initiative and demonstration of the approach to the industry, dosh has initiated ten oshci(m) pilot projects comprised of public and private projects from ‘champion’ companies (i.e., developers, designers, and contractors) in the industry (dosh, 2019). the ability to provide tangible evidence to the industry based on established players could facilitate faster dfs implementation at all levels. another initiative to ensure wider dissemination of oshci(m) made by the dosh is the appointment of dfs professionals and the establishment of certified dfs learning centers at educational institutions. similar to previous studies (e.g., che ibrahim, et al., 2022b, sharar, et al., 2022) continous learning is critical to ensure the sustainability of dfs knowledge for future graduates and current practitioners. such collaboration could further enhance the collaborative activities not only between the authorities and educational institutions, but also between the construction stakeholders on their cognitive, affective, and psycho-motor domain (through more collaborative workshops and seminars). moreover, efforts towards nurturing dfs culture has taken place through direct engagement activities not only with the industry, but also with academics across the country. the impact attributed to these initiatives signals that a purposeful, collaborative and integrated effort at all levels, from early education to real case studies, could be an effective stimulus for improving osh in the construction industry. limitation of the study in this research, the respondents were expected to draw on their industry experiences and current practices to provide an unbiased view of their extent of engagement in dfs practices. while the researchers perceive that this was the case, due to the confidential and anonymous nature of administered survey, there is some possibility that some respondents may have provided responses to portray that they give due consideration to the osh of workers. there is therefore some possibility of induced socially desirable responses whereby respondents overstate the extent to which they engage in dfs practices. conclusion while the construction industry is notorious for its poor osh performance, in developing countries such as malaysia, the osh performance of the industry is even worse. it is established that design decisions christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202221 influence the occurrence of accidents on construction sites and this had led to the concept and practice of dfs. however, there are limited studies on dfs within the context of developing countries including malaysia, in spite of the poor osh performance of the construction sector in developing countries and the significance of dfs to osh improvement. this study extends the implementation of dfs practice in developing countries in the context of showing how having dfs-related institutional drivers and initiatives could facilitate dfs implementation and practice. this study has therefore examined several issues regarding implementation of dfs by designers in malaysia’s construction sector. based on the results, the following main conclusions can be drawn: • the designers in malaysia construction industry have high awareness and positive attitude towards the dfs concept. this is further reflected by a high level of engagement in dfs practices. • the level of participation of the designers in dfs professional development training is low, despite the designers having a high interest in participating in dfs training. • the receipt of dfs lessons in formal education by designers appears to be moderate. • in the context of the designers in malaysia (based on the study’s findings), there seems to be no, or limited, relationship between engagement in dfs practices and professional body membership of designers; designers’ professional role; designers’ level of education; size of designers’ organisation; and designers’ years of experience in role. while this outcome does not necessarily mean that these items are not important at all to dfs implementation, it rather suggests that there may be other more dominant factors that affect the implementation of dfs practices among designers in malaysia. • dfs lessons in formal education, influence from clients, legislation are perceived by designers to be among the topmost factors to have a high influence on dfs implementation in the malaysian construction industry. based on the above conclusions, the following recommendations are provided: • the introduction of the guidelines on occupational safety and health in construction industry (management) (oshcim) seem to have contributed towards stimulation of dfs awareness, interest and engagement among designers in malaysia. continuous promotion and effective enforcement of the guidelines by industry stakeholders including the responsible government agency would be useful in stimulating greater dfs implementation by designers in malaysia. with time the government would need to undertake an evaluation of the impact of the guidelines in order to ascertain relevant changes that may be needed to augment the utility of the guidelines. • designers show a high interest in undertaking dfs development training. hence, professional bodies could initiate more opportunities for designers to participate in the dfs training. this could be done by conducting more seminars or workshops related to dfs. however, the prevailing covid-19 crises may imply that online courses would currently be the most viable training route until face-to-face interactions become the norm once again. • the ministry of higher education malaysia (mohe), malaysian qualification agency (mqa), engineering accreditation council (eac) under board of engineers malaysia and educational institutions could work closely to enhance current dfs lessons in formal education. • there is a need to have all the stakeholders (e.g., academics, designers, clients and contractors) understand the benefits of dfs implementation. this would be very important, especially for clients who, this research and several others have shown, have a high influence on dfs implementation. the research findings of this study provide some theoretical contributions. the current dfs literature is dominated by perspectives from developed countries. this paper contributes to the existing literature christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202222 by providing a broader perspective (dfs awareness, education training, influencing factors, and dfs engagement) on designers in developing countries (i.e., malaysia), particularly when the dfs legislative framework is in place. the findings provide a reference point for the current state of the designer's professional capability and improvements to their development in order to ensure the success of dfs implementation. the findings of this study also provide practical implications for managers, particularly those in related design organisations, in terms of refining and facilitating dfs practise among designers, in order to improve safety practise in the early design phase, while also fulfilling their role as duty holders as defined by oshci (m). understanding the current state of dfs practise enables managers to plan a training development programme for designers as well as prepare a mechanism to influence dfs activities within their organisations as a proactive measure to ensure the continuous development and improvement of dfs practise. references abueisheh, q., manu, p., mahamadu, a.m. and cheung, c., 2020. design for safety implementation among design professionals in construction: the context of palestine, safety science, 128, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2020.104742 behm, m., 2005. linking construction fatalities to the design for construction safety concept, safety science, 43, 589–611, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2005.04.002 behm, m., 2006. an analysis of construction accidents from a design perspective. the center to protect workers’ rights. [online]. available at: http://www.elcosh.org/record/document/1424/d000795.pdf (accessed: 13 march 2020). bong, s., rameezdeen, r., zuo, j., man li, r.y. and ye, g., 2015. the designer’s role in workplace health and safety in the construction industry: post-harmonized regulations in south australia, international journal of construction management, 15(4),276–287, https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2015.1094850 che ibrahim, c. k. i., manu, p., belayutham, s., mahamadu, a-m., antwi-afari, m. f., 2022a. design for safety (dfs) practice in construction engineering and management research: a review of current trends and future directions, journal of building engineering, 15, 104352, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2022.104352 che ibrahim, c. k. i., belayutham, s., manu, p., mahamadu, a-m., and cheung, c. m., 2022b. knowledge, attitude and practices of design for safety (dfs): a dynamic insight between academics and practitioners in malaysia, safety science, 146 (2022), 105576, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105576 che ibrahim, c. k. i., belayutham, s., awuzie, b. o., and oke, a. e., 2022c. analysis of designers’ prevention through design (ptd) competence in the construction industry: a study of malaysia, nigeria, and south africa, safety science, 150 (2022), 105710, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2022.105710 che ibrahim, c. k. i., belayutham, s. and mohammad m. z., 2021. prevention through design (ptd) education for future civil engineers in malaysia: current state, challenges, and way forward, journal of civil engineering education, 147(1), 05020007, https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.2643-9115.0000030 che ibrahim, c. k. i., belayutham, s., manu, p., and mahamadu, a-m., 2020. key attributes of designers’ competency for prevention through design (ptd) practices in construction: a review, engineering, construction and architectural management, 28(4), 908-933, https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-2020-0252 che ibrahim, c. k. i. and belayutham, s., 2020. a knowledge, attitude and practices (kap) study on prevention through design: a dynamic insight into civil and structural engineers in malaysia, architectural engineering and design management, 16(2), 131-149, https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2019.1628001 creswell, j.w. and creswell, j.d., 2018. research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches, 5th ed. thousand oaks, california: sage publications. christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202223 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2020.104742 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2005.04.002 http://www.elcosh.org/record/document/1424/d000795.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2015.1094850 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2022.104352 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105576 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2022.105710 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.2643-9115.0000030 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-2020-0252 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2019.1628001 department occupational safety and health (dosh) 2019. keselamatan dan kesihatan pekerjaan industri pembinaan, tapak selamat bil 2/2019. available at: https://www.dosh.gov.my/index.php/list-of-documents/osh-info/ construction-safety/e-buletin/2019-6/3233-tapak-selamat-bil-2-2019/file (accessed 11 april 2021). department occupational safety and health (dosh) 2020a. occupational accidents statistics. available at: https:// www.dosh.gov.my/index.php/statistic-v/occupational-accident-statistics (accessed 8 september 2020). driscoll, t., harrison, j.e., and bradley, c. and newson, r. s., 2008. the role of design issues in work‐related injuries in australia, journal of safety research, 39(2), 209-214, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2008.02.024 fellow, r. and lui, a. 2015. research methods for construction, 4th ed. chichester: wiley. gambatese, j., 2019. prevention through design (ptd) in the project delivery process: a ptd sourcebook for construction site safety. available at: https://designforconstructionsafety.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/ptd-in-theproject-delivery-process.pdf gambatese, j. a., behm, m. and hinze, j. w., 2005. viability of designing for construction worker safety, journal of construction engineering and management, 131(9), 1029–1036, https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2005)131:9(1029) gambatese, j., gibb, a., bust, p. and behm, m., 2017a. expanding prevention through design (ptd) in practice: innovation, change, and a path forward, journal of construction project management and innovation, 7(2), 1995-2006. gambatese, j. a., gibb, a. g., brace, c. and tymvios, n., 2017b. motivation for prevention through design: experiential perspectives and practice, journal practice periodical on structural design and construction, 22(4), https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)sc.1943-5576.0000335 goh, y.m. andchua, s., 2016. knowledge, attitude and practices for design for safety: a study on civil & structural engineers, accident analysis prevention, 93, 260–266, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2015.09.023 guo, b.h.w., weston, r., jianphinitnan, p., liu, w., scheepbouwer, e., van der walt, d. and goh, y.m., 2021. a regulatory perspective on safety in design practices in new zealand, saf. sci. 141 (2021), 105352, https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105352 haslam, r. a., hide, s. a., gibb, a. g. f., gyi, d. e. pavitt, t., atkinson, s. and duff, a. r., 2005. contributing factors in construction accidents, applied ergonomics, 36(4), 401–415, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2004.12.002 health and safety executive 2015. health and safety in construction in great britain, 2014. hse. available at: https://www.greenwoodconsultants.com/app/download/5803938399/hse_healthsafetystatistics_201314_ constructionbreakdown.pdf (accessed: 12 march 2020). health and safety executive (hse) 2018. costs to great britain of workplace injuries and new cases of work-related iii health – 2017/18. available at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/cost.htm (accessed: 11 march 2020). health and safety executive (hse) 2019. construction statistics in great britain, 2019. health and safety executive. available at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/industry/construction.pdf (accessed: 12 march 2020). ismail, s., che ibrahim, c. k. i., belayutham, s. and mohammad, m. z., 2021. analysis of attributes critical to the designer’s prevention through design competence in construction: the case of malaysia, architectural engineering and design management. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2021.1910926. mahamadu, a. m., manu, p., booth, c., olomolaiye, p., coker, a., ibrahim, a., and lamond, j., 2018. infrastructure procurement skills gap amongst procurement personnel in nigeria’s public sector, journal of engineering, design and technology, 16(1), 2-24, https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-09-2017-0089 manu, p., ankrah, n., proverbs, d., and suresh, s., 2014. the health and safety impact of construction project features, engineering, construction and architectural management, 21(1), 65-93, https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2012-0070 christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202224 https://www.dosh.gov.my/index.php/list-of-documents/osh-info/construction-safety/e-buletin/2019-6/3233-tapak-selamat-bil-2-2019/file https://www.dosh.gov.my/index.php/list-of-documents/osh-info/construction-safety/e-buletin/2019-6/3233-tapak-selamat-bil-2-2019/file https://www.dosh.gov.my/index.php/statistic-v/occupational-accident-statistics https://www.dosh.gov.my/index.php/statistic-v/occupational-accident-statistics https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2008.02.024 https://designforconstructionsafety.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/ptd-in-the-project-delivery-process.pdf https://designforconstructionsafety.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/ptd-in-the-project-delivery-process.pdf https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:9(1029 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2005)131:9(1029 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)sc.1943-5576.0000335 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)sc.1943-5576.0000335 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2015.09.023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105352 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105352 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2004.12.002 https://www.greenwoodconsultants.com/app/download/5803938399/hse_healthsafetystatistics_201314_constructionbreakdown.pdf https://www.greenwoodconsultants.com/app/download/5803938399/hse_healthsafetystatistics_201314_constructionbreakdown.pdf https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/cost.htm https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/industry/construction.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2021.1910926 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-09-2017-0089 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2012-0070 manu, p., poghosyan, a., agyei, g., mahamadu, a.-m. and dziekonski, k., 2018a. design for safety in construction in sub-saharan africa: a study of architects in ghana, international journal of construction management, 1–13. https://doi. org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1541704 manu, p., mahamadu, a.-m., phung, v. m., nguyen, t. t., ath, c., heng, a. y. t. and kit, s. c., 2018b. health and safety management practices of contractors in south east asia: a multi country study of cambodia, vietnam, and malaysia, safety science, 107, 188-201, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.07.007 manu, p., poghosyan, a., mshelia, i.m., iwo, s.t., mahamadu, a.m. and dziekonski, k., 2019a. design for occupational safety and health of workers in construction in developing countries: a study of architects in nigeria, international journal of occupational safety and ergonomics, 25(1), 99-109, https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2018.1485 992 manu, p., emuze, f., suarin, t. and hadikusumo, b. w., 2019b. an introduction to construction health and safety in developing countries. in: manu, p., emuze, f., suarin, t. and hadikusumo, b. (eds.) construction health and safety in developing countries. london: taylor & francis. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429455377 morrow, s., hare, b., and cameron, i., 2016. design engineers’ perception of health and safety and its impact in the design process, engineering, construction and architectural management, 23 (1), 40–59, https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam01-2013-0009 ndekugri, i., ankrah, n. a. and adaku, e., 2021. the design coordination role at the pre-construction stage of construction projects, building research & information, in press, https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2021.1971061 öney-yazıcı, e. and dulaimi, m. f., 2015. understanding designing for construction safety: the interaction between confidence and attitude of designers and safety culture’, architectural engineering and design management, 11(5), 325–337, https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2014.895697 poghosyan, a., manu, p., mahdjoubi, l., gibb, a.g.f., behm, m. and mahamadu, a.m., 2018. design for safety implementation factors: a literature review, journal of engineering, design and technology, 16, 783–797, https://doi. org/10.1108/jedt-09-2017-0088 sacks, r., whyte, j., swissa, d., raviv, g., zhou, w. and shapira, a., 2015. safety by design: dialogues between designers and builders using virtual reality, construction management and economics, 33 (1): 55–72. https://doi.org/10.10 80/01446193.2015.1029504 samsudin, n. s., mohammad, m. z., khalil, n., nadzri, n. d., che ibrahim, c. k. i., 2022. a thematic review on prevention through design (ptd) concept application in the construction industry of developing countries, safety science 148 (2022), 105640. sharar, m., agyekum, k., manu, p., che ibrahim, c.k.i., mahamadu, a.-m., antwi-afari, m.f. and danso, f.o., 2022. design for safety in construction: a study of design professionals in kuwait, international journal of building pathology and adaptation, in press, https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-01-2022-0015 soh, j., jeong, j., and jeong, j., 2020. improvements of design for safety in construction through multi-participants perception analysis, applied sciences, 10 (13), 4550. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10134550. the national institute for occupational safety and health (niosh) 2015. hierarchy of controls. available at: https:// www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/hierarchy/default.html (accessed: 02 february 2020). toh, y. z., goh, y. m. and guo, b. h. w., 2017. knowledge, attitude, and practice of design for safety: multiple stakeholders in the singapore construction industry, j. constr. eng. manage, 143 (5), 04016131, https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)co.1943-7862.0001279 toole, m., 2017. adding prevention through design to civil engineering educational programs, journal of civil engineering education and practice 143 (4), 02517005, https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000344 christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202225 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1541704 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1541704 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.07.007 https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2018.1485992 https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2018.1485992 https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429455377 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2013-0009 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2013-0009 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2021.1971061 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2014.895697 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-09-2017-0088 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-09-2017-0088 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2015.1029504 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2015.1029504 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-01-2022-0015 https://doi.org/10.3390/app10134550 https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/hierarchy/default.html https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/hierarchy/default.html https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001279 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001279 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000344 toole, t.m., gambatese, j., 2008. the trajectories of prevention through design in construction. journal of safety research 39, 225–230, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2008.02.026 toole, t.m., heckel, p., hallowell, m., 2013. policy development: a key factor in promoting ptd. professional safety, 58, 41–47. tymvios, n., and gambatese, j. a., 2016. perceptions about design for construction worker safety: viewpoints from contractors, designers, and university facility owners. j. construct. eng. manage. 142 (2), 04015078. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001067 umeokafor, n., okoro, c., diugwu, i. and umar, t., 2021. design for safety in construction in nigeria: a qualitative inquiry of the critical opportunities, international journal of building pathology and adaptation, in press, https://doi. org/10.1108/ijbpa-05-2021-0066 umeokafor, n., windapo, a.o., manu, p., diugwu, i. and haroglu, h., 2022. critical barriers to prevention through design in construction in developing countries: a qualitative inquiry, engineering, construction and architectural management, in press https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-2021-0304 wan azmi, w. f., misnan, m. s. and peli, m., 2017. feasibility of the design for construction safety in malaysian construction industry: the engineers’ perspective, asia international multidisciplinary conference 2017, 1-2 may, universiti teknologi malaysia, johor bahru, malaysia. christermaller, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 2 june 202226 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2008.02.026 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001067 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001067 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-05-2021-0066 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-05-2021-0066 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-2021-0304 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: jackson, e. n., shanmuga priya, t. 2025. identifying critical risk management performance indicators for construction projects in ghana using confirmatory factor analysis. construction economics and building, 25:3/4, 22–42. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i3/4.8973 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article identifying critical risk management performance indicators for construction projects in ghana using confirmatory factor analysis e. n. jackson1,2, t. shanmuga priya3,* 1 research scholar, department of civil engineering, vit university, vellore, india, emmanuelnana.jackson2019@vitstudent.ac.in 2 lecturer, department of construction technology and management, cape coast technical university, cape coast, ghana, emmanuel.jackson@cctu.edu.gh 3 professor, department of civil engineering, vit university, vellore, india, shanmugapriya.t@vit.ac.in corresponding author: shanmuga priya t, shanmugapriya.t@vit.ac.in doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.8973 article history: received 19/12/2024; revised 29/06/2025; accepted 18/07/2025; published 05/12/2025 abstract construction projects in ghana lack critical risk management performance benchmarks for success evaluation, and as such, this study was conducted to identify risk management performance metrics for ghanaian construction projects. using a confirmatory factor analysis model, this study analyzed responses from construction industry stakeholders in ghana. a systematic literature review was carried out to identify risk management performance indicators that can be used to calculate the overall performance of construction projects in ghana. a total of seven grouped critical risk management performance indicators were identified from the literature and through the observation of the outcome of construction projects, which served as a foundation for generating a survey questionnaire. the questionnaire was designed based on the identified risk management performance indicators and distributed to respondents through emails, google forms, and in person. data from the questionnaire responses were analyzed and modeled using descriptive statistics and a confirmatory factor analysis model. the study revealed that 22 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.8973 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.8973 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.8973 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s2405844023001317 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s2405844023001317 mailto:emmanuelnana.jackson2019@vitstudent.ac.in mailto:emmanuel.jackson@cctu.edu.gh mailto:shanmugapriya.t@vit.ac.in mailto:shanmugapriya.t@vit.ac.in https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.8973 all the seven identified risk management performance indicators discovered affect how well ghanaian construction projects perform. nevertheless, the most critical ones are “main stakeholders (clients, consultants, contractors, customers, endusers, investors, etc.) satisfaction (fcrmpi2)”, “completion within budget (cost) and schedule (time) (fcrmpi3)”, “satisfaction with environmental sustainability, quality, scope, and health and safety requirements (fcrmpi6)”, and “contractors’ employees’ job satisfaction (fcrmpi7)”. contribution to knowledge has been made by identifying the key metrics of performance for risk management that ghanaian construction projects could use to measure their success. keywords performance indicators; ghana; project management; risk management; structural equation modeling introduction many economies around the world rely heavily on the construction industry; thus, its expansion is crucial (huang, lan and bai, 2013). the industry has made significant contributions to ghana’s and other nations’ development in respect to gross domestic product (gdp) and employment (mafundu and mafini, 2019; hove and banjo, 2018; gss, 2018; naude and chiweshe, 2017; gss, 2016). irrespective of how it has affected ghana’s socioeconomic development, it suffers from low productivity and underperformance issues, ranging from achievement of project management objectives to stakeholders’ satisfaction (boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2020; oforikuragu, baiden and badu, 2016). perhaps, it may not be far from right to say that its performance is worse as compared to other industries (penzes, 2018). the industry consists of numerous stakeholders with different backgrounds, and that makes the industry extremely risky. alsaadi and norhayatizakuan (2021, p. 4) asserted that construction projects are considered complex, fragmented, novel, and temporary, which in themselves encompass risks. this indicates that risk is very certain in construction projects and no construction project is immune to it. risk management is thus critical to the successful outcome of construction projects (pmi, 2017; chandra, 2015). for instance, chovichien and nguyen (2013, p. 131) indicated that the most suitable benchmarks for assessing project success are the project goals. however, the parameters used to assess a project’s performance differ from one to another due to the variations in complexity, scope, and size of projects (ingle and mahesh, 2020). concerns about the factors that influence a project’s performance or success have generated varied outcries in the research community. earlier research has conceptualized that project performance is measured traditionally by achieving objectives such as cost (budget), quality, and time (schedule) which, hitherto, is referred to as the “iron triangle” or “triple constraints” (chovichien and nguyen, 2013; fortune et al., 2011; pheng and chuan, 2006). other research, however, intimated that the “iron triangle” or “triple constraints” as a performance criterion is oldfashioned and cannot be solely used as a determinant of project performance because of some factors (ingle and mahesh, 2020; toor and ogunlana, 2010; shenhar et al., 2001). these factors may include changes in user needs, increasing environmental legislation, sustainability concerns, and unstable building functions. the construction industry has performance issues as regards cost overruns, quality, scope creep, and time (schedule) overruns. these issues have become a major concern to various stakeholders (muhammad et al., 2021). the paradox of construction projects is that despite their numerous poor performances, they continue to be carried out. in light of this, the essential risk management performance variables for assessing construction project performance must be identified so that more effective management approaches can be established for future projects. concerning this study’s objectives, project performance and project success are used interchangeably. the issue of project performance or success is ambiguous, and this study considers project performance indicators synonymous with effective risk management outcomes. multiple studies have been conducted jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202523 in ghana to enhance the effectiveness of construction projects (oforikuragu, baiden and badu, 2016; yirenkyifianko and chileshe, 2015). the study highlights the lack of a statistically validated risk management performance indicator (rmpi) model for construction firms in ghana. this model could be used to assess the success of construction projects. although a previous study (oforikuragu, baiden and badu, 2016) had created nine performance metrics for assessing the effectiveness of ghanaian building contractors, it only considered a small subset of contractors that were based in the two major cities (accra and kumasi) in the country. they did not include other categories with highrisk and performance issues such as d2k2, d3k3, and d4k4. moreover, out of the 134 questionnaires they distributed, 79 were retrieved. the opinions of these 79 respondents lack generalization. the key performance indicators (kpis) identified by the authors considered only client satisfaction but did not include the satisfaction of other stakeholders such as consultants, project managers, contractors, users, and contractor employees. the need for a more comprehensive model that includes various categories of contractors is highlighted. ingle and mahesh (2020, p. 10) advanced that the lack of performance measuring models and a subpar performance in the construction sector have drawn harsh criticism. considering the various perceptions of project performance criteria, this study aims to establish the most critical risk management performance indicators that could impact the construction project performance in ghana. to achieve this, the following objectives were developed: (1) to identify risk management performance indicators impacting the success of construction projects in the country, and (2) to develop a critical risk management performance model that could be used to measure the performance of construction projects in ghana. literature review risk management of construction projects the performance of construction projects may be strongly impacted by a variety of risks at different points of the project’s life cycle. a construction project is a transient undertaking, just like any other project, executed to generate a distinctive product, outcome, or service (pmi, 2013). construction projects are associated with uncertainties, and according to wu et al. (2017), owing to the inherent uncertainties in construction projects, risks are an indispensable component. a successful risk management strategy must include the four key elements of risk identification, assessment, monitoring, and control (pmi, 2013), and they ensure the performance of projects. construction projects depend heavily on risk management. risk management, as described by pmi (2013), is the process of detecting potential risk factors, categorizing them, and establishing appropriate solutions to mitigate risk outcomes. research indicates that risk management aims to mitigate threats’ negative consequences rather than eliminate uncertainty (renault, agumba, and ansary, 2020; maylor, 2010). baloi and price (2003) hypothesized that risk management correlates with meeting project performance indicators, as risks are assessed based on their potential impact on project goals. risk management, according to wu et al. (2017), is not a tool that automatically guarantees success, but it is a tool that aids in accelerating the likelihood of attaining success. accordingly, ahmadi et al. (2017) agreed that the idea of risk management is proactive rather than reactive. they reported that many construction companies use risk management in their projects as a standard practice to boost output, earnings, and overall business performance. alsaadi and norhayatizakuan (2021) examined how risk management techniques could affect construction project performance in oman. their research suggested that risk management jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202524 approaches considerably improve the efficiency of construction projects. therefore, the need for planning project risks and effectively managing them are critical to successful outcomes (teller, kock and gemünden, 2014). wu et al. (2017) noted that accurate risk factor identification can be challenging, but it is an essential process for project success. consequently, risk management performance factors that are critical to the performance of construction projects in ghana were identified in this study and a model was developed for them. nicholas and steyn (2017) stated that “project management is risk management” to emphasize risk management’s critical role in project success. given this, project management performance indicators can be termed risk management performance indicators. project performance project performance has been perceived differently by various researchers mainly because projects vary in complexity, scope, and size (ingle and mahesh, 2020). its definition is so broad that it means differently across different communities and cultures. for example, oforikuragu, baiden, and badu (2016) argued that the issue of criteria for project performance is countryspecific. also, performance criteria may vary from the perspective of the client, consultants, contractors, and other construction industry stakeholders since every project has its distinctive features and margins. there is no universally accepted definition of project performance criteria, though several attempts have been made to establish them (abalseqan, pokharel and naji, 2023). tripathi, hasan and neeraj jha (2019) suggested that kpis are commonly used to track an organization’s nonfinancial and financial achievements since kpis are considered measures that indicate the performance of a project. ansari et al. (2022) also suggested that kpis ensure the achievement of project goals and objectives by providing critical information for monitoring and controlling projects. numerous construction organizations have introduced performance measurement through kpis, and it is essential that stakeholders of the construction industry in ghana also develop a model that could help measure or assess the performance of projects in the country. cookedavies (2002) distinguished between project performance and project management performance by establishing that the former is typically assessed based on the overall project objectives while the latter is mostly evaluated using the “iron triangle”. de bakker, boonstra and wortmann (2010) maintained that the “iron triangle” was customarily utilized to measure any kind of project success. project performance variables and project performance criteria are distinguished explicitly by de wit (1988). he stated that project performance criteria are standards used to evaluate project results (market value, usage of project deliverables, etc.), whereas project performance variables are actions and components that contribute to project accomplishments (cost, scope, and time). kerzner (2013) defined project performance criteria as principles or standards that are used to judge the success of a project, which is in line with the definition by de wit (1988). however, some principles or standards differ from one nation to another and between individuals even though there are internationally accepted ones. objective and subjective (quantitative and qualitative) metrics were used to categorize the kpis (chan and chan, 2004). some performance metrics, such as cost, time, quality, and safety, can be quantified. oforikuragu, baiden and badu (2016) created nine key performance metrics based on popular ones, from literature, for assessing the effectiveness of ghanaian building contractors using only highclass (d1k1) contractors in accra and kumasi. the variables were ranked and client satisfaction was ranked first. the kpis identified by the authors considered only client satisfaction but did not include the satisfaction of other stakeholders such as consultants, project managers, contractors, users, and contractor employees. it is crucial to update performance indicators regularly to reflect current industry trends. meshram, gitty, and topkar (2020) examined and ranked project performance metrics in mumbai to measure construction performance. according to the findings of their research, cost, time, safety, productivity, satisfaction, quality, knowledge, and service rank as the top kpis for assessing the performance of construction projects. to assess the indian construction organizations’ performance, fuzzy preference relation (fpr) techniques are used by tripathi, hasan, and neeraj jha jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202525 (2019). the research outcome revealed that stakeholder satisfaction is the primary performance indicator for construction projects. heravi and ilbeigi (2012) developed an exhaustive approach for assessing the achievement of construction goals and suggested an environment performance index. they argued that the environment performance index should be considered as a measuring criterion for the construction project performance concerning environmental issues because environmental considerations were not observed throughout the project’s construction. serrador and turner (2015) argued that technical performance, requirements, and the completion of functional goals are all related to quality and that different project stakeholders would have varying opinions on how well these goals have been attained. moradi, ansari and taherkhan (2022) postulated that health and safety, quality, and scope are essential metrics for assessing the effectiveness of construction projects. uddin et al. (2023) concluded that understanding health and safety issues is crucial to addressing some of the significant challenges facing the construction sector. contractors’ employees’ satisfaction is critical in assessing the performance of construction projects (kasabreh and tarawneh, 2019; tayeh et al., 2019; enshassi, arain and tayeh, 2012). it implies that if a person is happy in their position, they will continually want to increase their expertise and apply it to the development of the company. it is in the good interest of every serious organization to retain its experienced workers and this could be done when they are well motivated and satisfied (sun, 2011). again, the issue of worker turnover can be reduced when workers are satisfied because organizations rely on these satisfied workers for maximum productivity, which eventually translates into efficiency and performance of the organization. key performance indicators for project performance are theoretically represented by the framework shown in figure 1. key performance indicators (kpis) cost (budget), time (schedule), quality health and safety objective (quantitative) subjective (qualitative) environmental sustainability and scope requirement, employees’ job satisfaction, main stakeholders’ satisfaction, etc. figure 1. theoretical framework of key performance indicators (adapted from heravi and ilbeigi, 2012) the construction industry in ghana ghana’s socioeconomic development is significantly influenced by the country’s construction industry. approximately 14.34% of the country’s gdp is contributed by construction and real estate (gss, 2018). the industry faces regulatory issues despite its potential (boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2020). as a result, jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202526 it is easy for one to enter and exit the industry, which has contributed to the industry being flooded with small and mediumscale firms (boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2020, owoo and lambonquayefio, 2018; oforikuragu, owusumanu and ayarkwa, 2016). efforts have been made since 2014 to establish the construction industry development authority (cida) that would regulate the activities of the construction industry but has not yet seen daylight (oxford business group, 2014). the ghana government has established two ministries responsible for all building and accompanying minor and other major civil engineering works (anzagira, owusumanu and badu, 2021). they are the ministry of works and housing (mwh) and the ministry of roads and highways (mrh). for instance, the mwh supervises all buildings and accompanied minor civil engineering works and the mrh superintends the construction, maintenance, and rehabilitation of airports, bridges, highways, railways, roads, and other associated civil engineering works. the government of ghana has also established other agencies to supplement the huge workload of mrh in the areas of implementation of projects within the subsector. these agencies include the department of urban roads (dur), ghana highways authority (gha), and the department of feeder roads (dfr). the gha is responsible for trunk roads, the dur is in charge of all roads within the urban areas, and the dfr manages all the feeder roads in ghana. consultants are mainly engaged to supervise the construction works of contractors in ghana. public sector agencies and departments such as the building and road research institute (brri), architectural and engineering services limited (aesl), gha, dur, and dfr, among others, and other private consultancy firms that are members of professional institutions are usually involved in managing construction consultancy services in ghana. procurement of construction project contracts is based on a competitive bidding system, which, construction industry building works civil engineering works ministry of works and housing ministry of roads and highways contractors public and private consultants public and private consultants contractors executing agencies (gha, dur, dfr) figure 2. conceptual framework on the structure of the ghanaian construction industry (adapted from anzagira, owusumanu and badu, 2021) jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202527 as stated in the procurement act, 2003 (act 663), must adhere completely to the rules and regulations of the national procurement law. the traditional competitive bidding process, which is based on the lowest assessed bid price, is the primary method of procurement and, recently, public– private partnership (ppp). the government, as a major client, is duly represented by the mrh (for road works) and the mwh (for building and other projects) in giving out projects. the relationship between these consultants, contractors, and other stakeholders in the industry is shown in figure 2. methodology this research work espoused a philosophy of positivism, coupled with a deductive approach. this is due to its reliance on large samples and measurements to assess a particular dataset, as well as its highly structured nature ( johnson and christensen, 2014). the positivist philosophy is usually quantitative in nature as indicated by saunders, lewis and thornhill (2019, p. 124). a survey grounded on quantitative research, which uses a questionnaire as an instrument for data collection, was considered appropriate for this study. a pilot study of the questionnaire was conducted by distributing the questionnaire to knowledgeable project practitioners in ghana’s construction sector through emails, google forms, and facetoface contacts. this approach is in agreement with the assertion that the combined utilization of multiple response inducing techniques is the most effective strategy for responsiveness (millar and dillman, 2011). the respondents helped to confirm the risk management performance indicators found in the literature that affect construction project performance in the country. according to the respondents, the risk management performance metrics obtained from the literature and the risk management performance indicators to analyze the ghanaian constructions’ project performance are equivalent. the performance metrics (factors) found in the literature were grouped into seven and explicit quantitative variables were developed for this study. the seven grouped components were included in a questionnaire to collect data for the development of a confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) model, as well as to verify their onedimensionality and reliability (creswell and plano clark, 2018). administering of the questionnaire was done using emails, google forms, and in person to the respondents who were contented with the method. the first section of the questionnaire includes an introductory letter describing the study’s goals. the respondents’ fundamental profiles were collected, including their educational background, work experience in the construction field, and class of firms. construction industries in ghana are classified based on their annual turnover, plant and equipment holdings, experience, qualification of personnel, etc. d1k1/a1b1 firms are highclass, and d4k4/a4b4 firms are lowclass. the second part was designed to include the risk management performance indicators found in the literature and through observation of construction projects outcome, and respondents were made to indicate those that could be used to measure project performance in ghana. the most important information on the risk management performance indicators is provided in the third part. in this section, respondents were asked to rank their perceived influence of risk management performance metrics that affect project performance on a fivepoint likert scale (1 = very low, 2 = low, 3 = neutral, 4 = high, and 5 = very high). in order to assess the questionnaire’s validity, the pilot participants were questioned to find out how the questions’ substance aligned with the previously stated goal. the validity of the experts was also examined. using the same fivepoint rating system, 50 professionals (including architects, contractors, engineers, and quantity surveyors) from the ghanaian construction industry were chosen at random from their respective professional associations and asked to rate the questionnaire’s applicability to its goals. there was an average score of 4.58 (sd = 0.26). the outcomes can be deemed sufficient for the study’s objectives. a mean score of 4.40 (sd = 0.655) was also attained for this study. the survey questionnaire with a fivepoint likert scale (1– 5) was chosen because it allows for quantitative data collection and the application of various statistical approaches for data analysis (wu et al., 2017). jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202528 the study’s 6,770 population represented the three main parties involved in the construction sector: consultants, clients, and contractors. architects, contractors, engineers, and quantity surveyors who are in good standing with their respective professional bodies make up the professional breakdown of these stakeholders. this statement consolidated various public opinions, providing credibility, reliability, and validity to the research. the objective of the study was to obtain a unified perception of the research from the respondents, rather than comparing their opinions. the probability sampling technique (simple random sampling without replacement) from the formula below was used to collect sample from the entire population (ruel, wagner and gillespie, 2016; fowler, 2014). despite sample limitations, sampling without replacement is used in the majority of survey research because it yields more accurate estimators (kish, 1995). n n n n n n            ! ! !                 n n n n n n n n 1 2 1 1 2 1 . . where n = population size n = sample size to ensure the generalizability of the study in ghana, a probability technique of sampling was used to draw a sample of 565 from the population of 6,770 construction professionals. the study aimed to obtain a single view from professionals; thus, the sample selection was not proportional and did not compare responses among subpopulations. the size of the sample has become a contentious topic in research. some researchers prefer a larger sample size for generalization to be made and others insist that there is no specific number for sample size (leedy and ormrod, 2018; cohen, manion and morrison, 2017). however, bagozzi and yi (2012) postulate that a sample size above 200 should always be considered for robust and complex models. the study sample resonates with the guidelines proposed by gay, mills and airasian (2012) for the selection of sample size, which indicates that a sample size of 400 is sufficient over a certain threshold (about 5,000), after which the population size is almost irrelevant. in this study, a sample size of 565 was deemed suitable to represent the entire population. to address issues of nonresponses and other infractions that accompany the research survey, the authors chose 165 more samples than the recommended samples by gay, mills and airasian (2012). to choose the subjects of the selected size of the sample, a simple random sampling method was used. the aim was to ensure equal opportunity for all individuals to be selected. all participants for the study were selected sequentially without any replacements. the sample size comprised 166 quantity surveyors, 158 engineers, 49 contractors, and 89 architects. these professionals in the construction industry were selected for this study because they are familiar with the challenges of risk management in this field. based on their practical experience, the researchers aimed to provide industry players with insights into how to improve risk management performance in the ghanaian construction sector. the sample size was increased to improve response rate and generalization. the total number of questionnaires distributed was 565. out of these, 478 responses were retrieved, with 16 outliers. a total of 462 valid responses were used for analysis. the fundamental profiles of the respondents were analyzed using descriptive statistics and in accordance with luciano (2021). the respondents’ level of agreement with the listed parameters and dispersion of the dataset from the mean was assessed using standard deviation (sd) from the formula below: jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202529 sd     i n ix x n 1 2 1 ( ) where xi = value of the ith point in the dataset x = the mean value of the dataset n = the number of data points in the dataset the data were analyzed with structural equation modeling (sem) software, which is a multivariate analysis. this statistical test combines confirmatory factor analysis, exploratory factor analysis (efa), and structural model. these equations illustrated each relationship between the variables used in the analysis. during the sem procedure, the measurement model was assessed to identify the structural relationship between latent variables. the internal consistency of a latent variable, also known as scale reliability, is frequently assessed using cronbach’s alpha coefficient. the scale employed to assess the latent variable was more trustworthy, as indicated by cronbach’s coefficient, which had a minimum value of 0.70. data analysis and results profile of respondents a total of 565 questionnaires were distributed, and 478 of those, together with 16 outliers, were later retrieved from the respondents, representing an overall response rate of 84.6%. moser and kalton (2017) postulated that a survey result with a response rate lower than between 20% and 30% is considered biased, inadequate, and of little significance. a response rate of 84.6% is therefore considered sufficient for this study. table 1 contains each respondent’s background, including their education, work experience in the construction industry, class of firm, and annual turnover/work volume. it should be noted that all the percentage values are approximate. the majority of the respondents (54.3%) had bsc. or btech. as their highest educational qualification at the time of data collection; 34.4% of them had either mtech./msc./mphil. as their highest educational qualification and 7.8% had a diploma; 2.6% had a phd., and 0.9% of the respondents had the least educational qualification of senior secondary or senior high school (ssce/shs). on average, the respondents had high educational qualifications, and therefore, it is hoped that the information they provided would be reliable. the majority of respondents (47.2%) in the construction industry had 6 to 10 years of work experience, followed by 35.5% who had 11 to 15 years of experience, and 9.7% who had 16 to 20 years. again, respondents with between 1 and 5 years of experience made up only 5% (23 out of 462) of the total respondents; thus, their input did not significantly impact the study. of the total respondents, 4.5% reported having 21– 25 years of experience, 1.7% had 26– 30 years of experience, and 1.3% had above 30 years of experience. it was further revealed from table 1 that the bulk (50.9%) of the respondents, which were made up of clients and consulting firms combined, were not classified or categorized as that of the contracting firms. moreover, 18.8% of the contracting firms were d2k2/a2b2, 11.3% were d1k1/a1b1, 10.0% were d3k3/a3b3, and the remaining 9.1% were d4k4/a4b4. regarding the yearly turnover/volume of work, 20.1% of the respondents had managed projects valued between $1.1 million and $5 million, 29.9% had managed projects valued between $501,000 and $1 million, and 26.8% were unaware of the annual turnover/volume of work they had managed. an annual turnover/work volume of $5.1 million to $10 million was reported by 7.8% of the respondents, an annual turnover/work volume of less than $500,000 was reported by 6.7%, an annual turnover/work volume of $10.1 million jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202530 table 1. respondents’ background information educational qualification educational qualification number of respondents % ssce/shs 4 0.9 diploma 36 7.8 bsc./btech. 251 54.3 mtech./msc./mphil. 159 34.4 ph.d. 12 2.6 experience number of years number of respondents % less than 5 years 23 5.0 between 6 and 10 years 205 44.4 between 11 and 15 years 154 33.3 between 16 and 20 years 45 9.7 between 21 and 25 years 21 4.6 between 26 and 30 years 8 1.7 over 30 6 1.3 class of construction firm classification frequency % d1k1/a1b1 52 11.2 d2k2/a2b2 87 18.8 d3/k3/a3b3 46 10.0 d4/k4/a4b4 42 9.1 n/a 235 50.9 annual turnover/work volume (usd) classification frequency % less than 500,000 31 6.7 between 501,000 and 1 million 138 29.9 between 1.1 million and 5 million 93 20.1 between 5.1 million and 10 million 36 7.8 between 10.1 million and 15 million 22 4.8 over 15 million 18 3.9 no idea 124 26.8 total 462 100.0 jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202531 to $15 million was reported by 4.8%, and an annual turnover/work volume of more than $15 million was reported by 3.9%. the information provided by these stakeholders in the construction industry was considered sufficient and reliable for the analysis. mean, standard deviation, and rank of critical risk management performance indicators table 2 shows the grouped critical risk management performance indicators ranked by mean score (ms) and sd. if two or more factors shared the same ms, it was deemed the component with the smaller sd to be more significant (lu, zhang and pan, 2015; wang and yuan, 2011). there was evidence that all the indicators received positive ratings (mean values exceeded 3.00), suggesting that the respondents agreed with the indicators. though there were variations in the responses, they were very low compared to the majority of the respondents who agreed. this is an indication that the respondents firmly believed that good risk management performance indicators ensure the high performance of construction projects. table 2 further revealed that satisfaction with environmental sustainability, quality, scope, and health and safety requirements (m = 4.70; sd = 0.536; rank = 1st), completion within budget (cost) and schedule (time) (m = 4.70; sd = 0.536; rank = 2nd), contractors’ employees’ job satisfaction (m = 4.54; sd = 0.630; rank = 3rd), and main stakeholders (clients, consultants, contractors, customers, endusers, investors) satisfaction (m = 4.42; sd = 0.711; rank = 4th) embody performance indicators. it also affirmed that profitability (m = 4.42; sd = 0.722; rank = 5th), effective communication (m = 4.00; sd = 0.725; rank = 6th), and litigation avoidance (m = 4.00; sd = 0.722; rank = 7th) are indicators of performance that can be used to measure how well construction projects are performing. table 2. risk management performance indicators (rmpi) statements/variables mean sd rank satisfaction with environmental sustainability, quality, scope, and health and safety requirements (rmpi 6) 4.70 0.536 1 completion of project within budget (cost) and schedule (time) (rmpi 3) 4.70 0.536 2 contractors’ employees’ job satisfaction (rmpi 7) 4.54 0.630 3 main stakeholders (clients, consultants, contractors, customers, end users, investors) satisfaction (rmpi 2) 4.42 0.711 4 profitability (rmpi 5) 4.42 0.722 5 effective communication (rmpi 4) 4.00 0.725 6 litigation avoidance (rmpi 1) 4.00 0.725 7 exploratory factor analysis: dimensionality of risk management performance indicator constructs the risk management performance indicators were examined using efa to determine their one dimensionality and reliability. the extraction and rotation method was set to maximum likelihood with varimax rotation (ml varimax). there were seven elements used for assessing the construct. it also agreed with hair et al. (2010), who suggested kaiser– meyer– olkin (kmo) cutoff values of 0.70 and bartlett’s test of sphericity of p < 0.05. the analysis achieved a kaiser– meyer– olkin (kmo) of 0.940 and a bartlett’s test of sphericity of p < 0.000. these findings indicated that factor analysis may be performed using the jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202532 data in table 3. all seven indicators, namely, rmpi 1, rmpi 2, rmpi 3, rmpi 4, rmpi 5, rmpi 6, and rmpi 7, which are expected to measure risk management performance indicators, loaded one component. all items showed a factor loading of more than 0.5 for each component, which is higher than the recommended threshold of 0.4 proposed by field (2005) and hair et al. (2010). table 3. onedimensionality and reliability of performance indicator (rmpi) construct rmpi corrected item– total correlation squared multiple correlation cronbach’s alpha if the item is deleted cronbach’s alpha litigation avoidance (rmpi 1) 0.795 0.644 7.670 0.802 0.835 main stakeholders (clients, consultants, contractors, customers, endusers) satisfaction (rmpi 2) 0.795 0.552 7.984 0.819 completion within budget (cost) and schedule (time) (rmpi 3) 0.776 0.623 8.531 0.810 effective communication (rmpi 4) 0.776 0.644 7.670 0.802 profitability (rmpi 5) 0.628 0.552 7.984 0.819 satisfaction with environmental sustainability, quality, scope, and health and safety requirements (rmpi 6) 0.611 0.623 8.531 0.810 contractors’ employees’ job satisfaction (rmpi 7) 0.611 0.501 8.529 0.825 for the component, all seven indicators noted a threshold greater than 0.5. they are “litigation avoidance”, “stakeholders (clients, consultants, contractors, customers, endusers, investors, etc.) satisfaction”, “completion within budget (cost) and schedule (time)”, “effective communication”, “profitability”, “satisfaction with environmental sustainability, quality, scope, and health and safety requirements”, and “contractors’ employees’ job satisfaction”. these items measure rmpi for construction projects. thus, they will be called financial and construction critical risk management performance indicators (fcrmpi). after conducting exploratory factor analysis, the adjusted item– total correlation for the component’s items was extracted using the designated cutoff value of 0.30. the results showed that the component (fcrmpi) had a satisfactory internal reliability, with a cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.835, indicating that the items were suitable measures for the component. these findings are consistent with nunnally and bernstein’s (1994) recommendations. sem for performance indicator (fcrmpi) construct a cfa was subsequently conducted when the components’ onedimensionality and reliability were sufficiently demonstrated by the efa. three statistical approaches of fit indices were used in the fcrmpi’s goodnessoffit analysis technique for performance indicators (hu and bentler, 1999). with 125 degrees of jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202533 freedom (df ) and a probability of p = 0.0000, the fcrmpi model, which used sample data on performance indicators, generated an sbχ2 of 3.349. this chisquare score revealed that the sample data’s significant departure from the suggested model was a sign of a good fit. the chisquare test is more frequently used as a descriptive index of fit than it is as a statistical test because it is highly sensitive to sample size (kline, 2005). the model is considered to be acceptable because the comparative fit index (cfi) value was found to be 0.927, which was higher than the cutoff value of 0.90. as shown in table 4, the bentler– bonett normed fit index (nfi) value was 0.938, which was within the specified range but less than the specified cutoff value of nfi 0.90. therefore, it is deemed appropriate to use the model. the calculated parsimony normed fixed index (pnfi) value was 0.524, which is also below the threshold value of 0.80. additionally, the goodness offit index (gfi) value of 0.962 is higher than 0.090, and the root mean residual (rmr) value of 0.019 is lower than 0.05. according to these fit indices for the performance indicators (fcrmpi) model, the proposed model fits the sample data well and can therefore be used for the complete latent variable model research. table 4. robust fit index for performance indicator (fcrmpi) construct fit index cutoff value estimate comment sbχ2 3.349 df 0≥ 125 acceptable cfi 0.90≥ acceptable 0.95≥ good fit 0.927 good fit pcfi less than 0.80 0.621 good fit rmsea less than 0.08 0.071 acceptable rmsea 95% ci 0.00– 0.08 “good fit” 0.060– 0.073 acceptable nfi greater than 0.90 “good fit” 0.938 good fit ifi greater than 0.90 “good fit” 0.949 good fit pnfi less than 0.80 0.524 good fit rmr less than 0.05 “good fit” 0.019 good fit gfi greater than 0.90 “good fit” 0.962 good fit the unidimensional model for performance indicator (rmpi) features is presented in figure 3 and table 5. four of the seven indicator variables were obtained and included in the final cfa analysis (byrne, 2006; joreskog and sorbom, 1989). the component realized as a result of the cases examined for this construct consisted of four indicator variables, fcrmpi (fcrmpi2, fcrmpi3, fcrmpi6, and fcrmpi7). discussion of results the study employed three distinct approaches to analyze the data. the first approach involved determining the variability and initial ranking of each rmpi, using mean and standard deviation. the next step involved evaluating the unidimensionality and reliability of the factors in the rmpi followed by verifying the factor structure to determine model fitness. the responses were not widely dispersed from the sample mean as the standard deviations for all variables were less than 1 (sullivan, 2011). according to the initial ranking, jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202534 the three most important indicators are “satisfaction with environmental sustainability, quality, scope, and health and safety requirements (rmpi 6)”, “completion of project within budget (cost) and schedule (time) (rmpi 3)”, and “contractors’ employees’ job satisfaction (rmpi 7)”. the indicator ranked lowest in mean and standard deviation was “litigation avoidance (rmpi 1)”, according to table 2. however, the efa multivariate analysis shows “litigation avoidance (rmpi 1)”, “main stakeholders (clients, consultants, contractors, customers, endusers) satisfaction (rmpi 2)”, and “completion within budget (cost) and schedule (time) (rmpi 3)” as the three most influential indicators. others include “effective communication (rmpi 4)”, “productivity (rmpi 5)”, “satisfaction with environmental sustainability, quality, scope, and health and safety requirements (rmpi 6)”, and “contractors’ employees’ job satisfaction (rmpi 7)” as shown in table 3. all the variables revealed good internal reliability and unidimensionality as indicated by their cronbach alpha of 0.835. the development of the cfa model provided valuable information on the dataset’s fitness. the postulated model fits well because it adequately explains the sample data. the study revealed a onefactor model development with the rmpi variables. the correlation coefficients and outcomes of the statistical table 5. indicators in the final conceptual model for the critical risk management performance indicator (fcrmpi) construct latent component indicator variable measurement variable label rmpi (rmpi 2) stakeholders (clients, consultants, contractors, customers, endusers) satisfaction fcrmpi2 (rmpi 3) completion within budget (cost) and schedule (time) fcrmpi3 (rmpi 6) satisfaction with environmental sustainability, quality, scope, and health and safety requirements fcrmpi6 (rmpi 7) contractors’ employees’ job satisfaction fcrmpi7 figure 3. cfa model for the performance indicator (fcrmpi) construct jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202535 tests are presented in table 6 for the complete onefactor with a fourcausal indicator model. each correlation value fell below 1.00, and each pvalue was below the threshold of 0.05, which is considered significant and shows appropriate signs. therefore, it was decided that the estimations were both realistic and statistically significant. the indicator with variable fcrmpi2 (stakeholders satisfaction) has a parameter coefficient of 0.726, making it the parameter with the highest standardized coefficient. this implies that it is the variable with the strongest influence. this is in agreement with numerous research that indicates that the use of the traditional “iron triangle” alone cannot serve as the overall indicator of performance used to assess the success of construction projects, but other indicators such as stakeholders’ satisfaction should constitute part of the indicators (khatatbeh, 2023; meshram, gitty and topkar, 2020; oforikuragu, baiden and badu, 2016; neyestani, 2016). table 6. performance indicator (fcrmpi) construct factor loading and pvalue hypothesized relationships (path) unstandardized coefficient (λ) standardized coefficient (λ) pvalue r2 significant at the 5% level fcrmpi2 f fcrmpi 1.000 0.726 0.00 0.527 yes fcrmpi3 f fcrmpi 1.232 0.717 0.00 0.514 yes fcrmpi6 f fcrmpi 1.183 0.688 0.00 0.345 yes fcrmpi7 f fcrmpi 0.840 0.535 0.00 0.286 yes one of the key risk management metrics revealed by the study is completing projects on time and within budget (fcrmpi3), which ghanaian construction projects should employ to assess their success. this indicator forms part of the traditional “iron triangle”, and several global research studies (ingle and mahesh, 2020; oforikuragu, baiden and badu, 2016; serrador and turner (2015) have indicated that measurements of the performance of construction projects are incomplete without cost and time requirements. leon et al. (2018, p. 124) also claimed that cost and schedule are a few of the most essential metrics for evaluating the performance of construction projects. based on survey responses, meeting environmental sustainability, quality, scope, and health and safety requirements is critical to the success of construction projects (fcrmpi6). this is in conformance with recent research by banihashemi (2021, p. 14), which suggested that environmental sustainability is a key performance criterion for assessing the performance of building projects. contractors’ employees’ job satisfaction (fcrmpi7) is one of the critical risk management performance indicators for measuring construction project performance in ghana. this aligns with other research studies (kasabreh and tarawneh, 2019; tayeh et al., 2019; enshassi, arain and tayeh, 2012) that indicated that work satisfaction (competent staff on the project, their training, and the evolution of their performance) is one of the key performance factors used to assess the effectiveness of construction projects is. the secret to an organization’s success is its ability to make its employees feel good about their work, which has a cascading effect on many characteristics of the organization (arshad, arshad and zakaria, 2023). it improves the efficiency of the construction firm and helps to boost investor confidence. the study asserts that contractors’ employees’ job satisfaction was essential to an organization’s overall productivity, which has implications for both the employer and the employee. jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202536 conclusion the utmost priority of every construction project is to perform creditably to the satisfaction of all stakeholders. risk factors affecting construction projects should be identified and effectively managed to ensure the construction projects’ performance. the study employed three distinct approaches to analyze the data. the first approach involved determining the variability and initial ranking of each rmpi, using mean and standard deviation. in order to measure the success of construction projects, this study sought to create a unified risk management performance (rmpi) indicator model based on the various perspectives and practices of ghanaian construction stakeholders. to do this, 11 risk management performance indicators were found in the literature, and conclusions were drawn from the observation of construction projects. these were then categorized into seven groups (rmpi1, rmpi2, rmpi3, rmpi4, rmpi5, rmpi6, and rmpi7). the indicators were viewed by the stakeholders as pertinent to their possible influence on construction projects. initially, the mean and standard deviation were used to evaluate the dataset’s variability. since all standard deviations were smaller than 1, it was concluded that there was no significant difference between the responses and the sample mean after examining the mean and standard deviation of each variable (sullivan, 2011). this suggests that the performance of construction projects in ghana might be assessed using each of the seven categorized indicators found in this study. the underlying structure of the indicators was then ascertained, and their correspondence with the hidden variables was confirmed using multivariate statistical analysis. according to the initial ranking, the four most important indicators that could be used to measure the success of construction projects are “satisfaction with environmental sustainability, quality, scope, and health and safety requirements (rmpi 6)”, “completion of project within budget (cost) and schedule (time) (rmpi 3)”, “contractors’ employees’ job satisfaction (rmpi 7)”, and “main stakeholders (clients, consultants, contractors, customers, endusers, investors) satisfaction (rmpi 2)”. the indicator ranked lowest in mean and standard deviation was “litigation avoidance (rmpi 1)” according to table 2. the same indicators were confirmed by the cfa as the critical risk management performance indicators that could be used to measure the success of ghanaian construction projects but in different order of importance. to create a crucial risk management performance indicator model, the study’s cfa made sure that only pertinent criteria were chosen. the computed cronbach’s alpha indicated that the sample data were unidimensional and dependable. the significance of the expected results was validated by the p values and associated values. a fourfactor cfa model that significantly influences risk management performance metrics was identified by this study. the success of construction projects is greatly influenced by standardized coefficients that measure the “satisfaction of key stakeholders (clients, consultants, contractors, customers, and end users) (fcrmp2)”, “completion within budget (cost) and schedule (time) (fcrmpi3)”, “satisfaction with environmental sustainability, quality, scope, and health and safety requirements (fcrmpi6)”, and “job satisfaction of contractors’ employees (fcrmpi7)”. critical risk management performance indicators that potentially impact construction project success and advance the field’s understanding of risk management were discovered in this study. furthermore, the study provides a solid theoretical foundation for future investigations into methods that might be applied to pinpoint the crucial risk management performance metrics that could be employed to gauge the accomplishment of building projects. the study recommends the establishment of a construction industry regulatory board (the building and construction authority in singapore, the construction industry council in the uk, etc.) to oversee the operations of the construction industry in ghana. by explicitly defining construction project performance indicators, the board would be able to assess how well ghanaian construction projects would be performing. moreover, construction stakeholders, contractors who are in charge of carrying out construction projects in particular, should be informed about the performance indicators that could be used to measure the jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202537 effectiveness or success of their projects. this could be spearheaded by the construction industry regulatory board by organizing training programs and workshops for the industry players. the goal is to educate or sensitize them about the importance of the indicators to be used to assess their performance. this could help mitigate some of the construction risks that stakeholders, most especially contractors, encounter in the course of executing construction projects. the study’s findings would serve as a benchmark for project stakeholders in demonstrating their commitment to achieving performance excellence in construction projects in ghana. acknowledgments the authors would like to thank richard sarpong boadi (ph.d.) for taking time out of his busy schedule to proofread and edit this manuscript. your effort to the success of this work is appreciated. references abal-seqan, m.h., pokharel, s. and naji, k.k., 2023. key success factors and their impact on the performance of construction projects: case in qatar. sustainability, 15(4), 3700, p. 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043700 ahmadi, m., behzadian, k., ardeshir, a. and kapelan, z., 2017. comprehensive risk management using fuzzy fmea and mcda techniques in highway construction projects. journal of civil engineering and management, 23(2), p. 300310. https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2015.1068847 alsaadi, n. and norhayatizakuan, n., 2021. the impact of risk management practices on the performance of construction projects. studies of applied economics, 39(4), p. 1-10. https://doi.org/10.25115/eea.v39i4.4164 ansari, r., khalilzadeh, m., taherkhani, r., antucheviciene, j., migilinskas, d. and moradi, s., 2022. performance prediction of construction projects based on the causes of claims: a system dynamics approach. sustainability, 14(7), 4138, p. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14074138 anzagira, c.a., owusu-manu, d. and badu, e., 2021. towards a classification of family-owned construction firms in ghana. european journal of management and marketing studies, 6(4), p. 147-172. https://doi.org/10.46827/ejmms. v6i4.1163 arshad, m.a., arshad, d. and zakaria, n., 2023. mediating role of wellbeing among organizational virtuousness, emotional intelligence and job performance in post-pandemic covid-19. frontiers in psychology, 14: 1105895. https:// doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1105895 bagozzi, r.p. and yi, y., 2012. specification, evaluation, and interpretation of structural equation models, journal of the academy of marketing science, 40 (1), p. 8-34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-011-0278-x baloi, d. and price, a.d., 2003. modelling global risk factors affecting construction cost performance, international journal of project management, 21(4), p. 261-269. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(02)00017-0 banihashemi, s.a., khalilzadeh, m., zavadskas, e.k. and antucheviciene, j., 2021. investigating the environmental impacts of construction projects in time-cost trade-off project scheduling problems with cocoso multi-criteria decision-making method. sustainability, 13(19), 10922. https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910922 boadu, e.f., wang, c.c. and sunindijo, r.y., 2020. characteristics of the construction industry in developing countries and its implications for health and safety: an exploratory study in ghana. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(11), 4110. available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/34053841_characteristics_ of_the_construction_industry_in_developing_countries_and_its_implications_for_health_and_safety_an_ exploratory_study_in_ghana. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17114110 jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202538 https://doi.org/10.3390/su15043700 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2015.1068847 https://doi.org/10.25115/eea.v39i4.4164 https://doi.org/10.3390/su14074138 https://doi.org/10.46827/ejmms.v6i4.1163 https://doi.org/10.46827/ejmms.v6i4.1163 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1105895 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1105895 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-011-0278-x https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(02)00017-0 https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910922 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/34053841_characteristics_of_the_construction_industry_in_developing_countries_and_its_implications_for_health_and_safety_an_exploratory_study_in_ghana https://www.researchgate.net/publication/34053841_characteristics_of_the_construction_industry_in_developing_countries_and_its_implications_for_health_and_safety_an_exploratory_study_in_ghana https://www.researchgate.net/publication/34053841_characteristics_of_the_construction_industry_in_developing_countries_and_its_implications_for_health_and_safety_an_exploratory_study_in_ghana https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17114110 byrne, b.m., 2006. structural equation modeling with eqs and eqs/windows: basic concepts, application and programming. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. chan, a.p. and chan, a.p.l., 2004. key performance indicators for measuring construction success. benchmarking: an international journal, 11(2), p. 203-221. https://doi.org/10.1108/14635770410532624 chandra, h.p., 2015. structural equation model for investigating risk factors affecting project success in surabaya. procedia engineering, 125, p. 53-59. available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/ s1877705815033263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.11.009 chovichien, v. and nguyen, t.a., 2013. list of indicators and criteria for evaluating construction project success and their weight assignment. in: proceedings of the 4th international conference on engineering, project, and production management (eppm 2013), pp. 130-150. available at: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/list-ofindicators-and-criteria-for-evaluating-and--chovichien-nguyen/1a564554f8d59c9895b8cbce 5496d31cda71b09b. https://doi.org/10.32738/ceppm.201310.0011 cohen, l., manion, l. and morrison, k., 2017. research methods in education. 8th ed. london: routledge. https://doi. org/10.4324/9781315456539 cooke-davies, t., 2002. the real success factors on projects. international journal of project management, 20(3), p. 185190. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(01)00067-9 creswell, j.w. and plano clark, v.l., 2018. designing and conducting mixed methods research. 3rd ed. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. de bakker, k., boonstra, a. and wortmann, h., 2010. does risk management contribute to it project success? a metaanalysis of empirical evidence. international journal of project management, 28(5), p. 493-503. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2009.07.002 de wit, a., 1988. measurement of project success. international journal of project management, 6(3), p. 164-170. https:// doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(88)90043-9 enshassi, a., arain, f.m. and tayeh, b., 2012. major causes of problems between contractors and subcontractors in the gaza strip. journal of financial management of property and construction, 17(1), p. 92-112. https://doi. org/10.1108/13664381211211064 field, a., 2005. discovering statistics using spss. 2nd ed. london: sage publication, inc. fortune, j., white, d., jugdev, k. and walker, d., 2011. looking again at current practice in project management. international journal of managing projects in business, 4(4), p. 553-572. https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371111164010 fowler, f.j. 2014. survey research methods, 5th ed. center for survey research, university of massachusetts: sage publications, inc. available at: https://books.google.com.ua/books?id luciano, g., 2021. statistical and multivariate analysis in material science. crc press. https://doi.org/10.1201/b21873 gay, l.r., mills, g.e. and airasian, p., 2012. educational research: competencies for analysis and applications. 10th ed. upper saddle river, nj: pearson available at: https://yuli-elearning.com/pluginfile.php/4831/mod_resource/content/1/ gaye%20book%20educational%20research-2012.pdf ghana statistical service (gss), 2018. provisional 2017 annual gross domestic product. accra, ghana: gss. available at: https://www2.statsghana.gov.gh/docfiles/gdp/gdp2018/2017%20quarter%204%20and%20annual%202017%20 gdp%20publications/annual_2017_gdp_april%202018%20edition.pdf (accessed: 10 december 2023). ghana statistical service (gss), 2016. 2015 labour force report. accra, ghana: gss. available at: https://www2. statsghana.gov.gh/docfiles/publications/labour_force/lfs%20report_fianl_21-3-17.pdf (accessed: 10 december 2023). jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202539 https://doi.org/10.1108/14635770410532624 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s1877705815033263 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/s1877705815033263 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.11.009 https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/list-of-indicators-and-criteria-for-evaluating-and--chovichien-nguyen/1a564554f8d59c9895b8cbce5496d31cda71b09b https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/list-of-indicators-and-criteria-for-evaluating-and--chovichien-nguyen/1a564554f8d59c9895b8cbce5496d31cda71b09b https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/list-of-indicators-and-criteria-for-evaluating-and--chovichien-nguyen/1a564554f8d59c9895b8cbce5496d31cda71b09b https://doi.org/10.32738/ceppm.201310.0011 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315456539 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315456539 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(01)00067-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.07.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.07.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(88)90043-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(88)90043-9 https://doi.org/10.1108/13664381211211064 https://doi.org/10.1108/13664381211211064 https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371111164010 https://books.google.com.ua/books?id https://doi.org/10.1201/b21873 https://yuli-elearning.com/pluginfile.php/4831/mod_resource/content/1/gaye%20book%20educational%20research-2012.pdf https://yuli-elearning.com/pluginfile.php/4831/mod_resource/content/1/gaye%20book%20educational%20research-2012.pdf https://www2.statsghana.gov.gh/docfiles/gdp/gdp2018/2017%20quarter%204%20and%20annual%202017%20gdp%20publications/annual_2017_gdp_april%202018%20edition.pdf https://www2.statsghana.gov.gh/docfiles/gdp/gdp2018/2017%20quarter%204%20and%20annual%202017%20gdp%20publications/annual_2017_gdp_april%202018%20edition.pdf https://www2.statsghana.gov.gh/docfiles/publications/labour_force/lfs%20report_fianl_21-3-17.pdf https://www2.statsghana.gov.gh/docfiles/publications/labour_force/lfs%20report_fianl_21-3-17.pdf hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j. and anderson, r.e., 2010. multivariate data analysis. 7th ed. new york: pearson education limited. heravi, g. and ilbeigi, m., 2012. development of a comprehensive model for construction project success evaluation by contractors. engineering, construction and architectural management, 19(5), p. 526-542. https://doi. org/10.1108/09699981211259603 hove, g. and banjo, a., 2018. perceptions of small business executives on determinants of performance in the construction industry in gauteng, south africa. acta commercii, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v18i1.528 hu, l.t. and bentler, p.m., 1999. cutoff for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. structural equation modeling: a multidisciplinary journal, 6(1), p. 1-55. https://doi. org/10.1080/10705519909540118 huang, y., lan, y., bai, y., 2013. development of the chinese construction industry after the cultural revolution: administration framework, economic growth, and market structure. journal of architectural engineering, 19(1), p. 4150. available at: https://epublications.marquette.edu/civengin_fac/328. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.19435568.0000104 ingle, p.v. and mahesh, g., 2020. construction project performance areas for indian construction projects. international journal of construction management, 22(1). p. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1721177 johnson, r.b. and christensen, l., 2014. educational research: quantitative, qualitative, and mixed approaches. 5th ed. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264274753_ educational_research_quantitative_qualitative_and_mixed_approaches_fifth_edition joreskog, k.g. and sorbom, d., 1989. lisrel 7: a guide to the program and applications. chicago: spss, inc. kasabreh, n.s.s. and tarawneh, s.a., 2019. investigating the impact of contractor’s performance on the success of jordanian residential construction projects. international journal of construction management, 21(5), p. 468-475. https:// doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1560547 kerzner, h.r., 2013. project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling. 11th ed. new york: john wiley. khatatbeh, a.a., 2023. quantifying the impact of iso 9001 standard on the project and engineering management and success factors: a case of construction industry. engineering, construction and architectural management, 30(6), p. 25642581. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2021-0656 kish, l., 1995. survey sampling. hoboken: wiley. kline, r.b., 2005. principles and practice of structural equation modeling. 2nd ed. new york: guilford publications. leedy, d.p. and ormrod, e.j., 2018. practical research: planning and designing. 12th ed. new jersey: pearson education. leon, h., osman, h., georgy, m. and elsaid, m., 2018. system dynamics approach for forecasting performance of construction projects. journal of management in engineering, 34(1) 04017049. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) me.1943-5479.0000575 lu, w., zhang, l. and pan, j., 2015. identification and analyses of hidden transaction costs in project dispute resolutions. international journal of project management, 33(3), p. 711-718. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2014.08.009 mafundu, r.h. and mafini, c., 2019. internal constraints to business performance in black-owned small to medium enterprises in the construction industry. south african journal of entrepreneurship and small business management, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/sajesbm.v11i1.165 maylor, h., 2010. project management. 4th ed. london: prentice hall. jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202540 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211259603 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211259603 https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v18i1.528 https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 https://epublications.marquette.edu/civengin_fac/328 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000104 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000104 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1721177 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264274753_educational_research_quantitative_qualitative_and_mixed_approaches_fifth_edition https://www.researchgate.net/publication/264274753_educational_research_quantitative_qualitative_and_mixed_approaches_fifth_edition https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1560547 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1560547 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2021-0656 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000575 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000575 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.08.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.08.009 https://doi.org/10.4102/sajesbm.v11i1.165 meshram, m., gitty, r. and topkar, v.m., 2020. project performance indicators for measuring construction performance in mumbai. international journal of engineering research & technology, 9(06), p. 911-914. https://doi. org/10.17577/ijertv9is060635 millar, m.m. and dillman, d.a., 2011. improving response to web and mixed-mode surveys. public opinion quarterly, 75(2), p. 249-269. https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfr003 moradi, s., ansari, r. and taherkhan, r., 2022. a systematic analysis of construction performance management: key performance indicators from 2000 to 2020. iranian journal of science and technology, transactions of civil engineering management (ijaiem), 46, p. 15-31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40996-021-00626-7 moser, c.a. and kalton, g., 2017. survey methods in social investigation. london: routledge. https://doi. org/10.4324/9781315241999 muhammad, s., makarfi, i.a., lawal, y.s., abubakar, m. and ishaq, z.h., 2021. impact of risk factors on construction projects’ completion cost in nigeria. lautech journal of civil and environmental studies, 6(2), p. 75-80. https://doi. org/10.36108/laujoces/1202.60.0270 naude, m.j. and chiweshe, n., 2017. a proposed operational risk management framework for small and medium enterprises, south african journal of economic and management sciences, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v20i1.1621 neyestani, b., 2016. impact of iso 9001 certification on the projects’ success of large-scale (aaa) construction firms in philippines. international research journal of management, it & social sciences, 3(11), p. 39-52. https://doi.org/10.21744/ irjmis.v3i11.305 nicholas, j.m. and steyn, h., 2017. project management for business, engineering, and technology: principles and practice. 5th ed. london: routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315676319 nunnally, j.c. and bernstein, i.h., 1994. psychometric theory. 3rd ed. new york: mcgraw-hill. ofori-kuragu, j.k., baiden, b. and badu, e., 2016. key performance indicators for project success in ghanaian contractors. international journal of construction engineering and management, 5(1), p. 1-10. available at: https://www. researchgate.net/publication/291808642_key_performance_indicators_for_project_success_in_ghanaian_contractors ofori-kuragu, j.k., owusu-manu, d. and ayarkwa, j., 2016. the case for the construction industry council, ghana. journal of construction in developing countries, 21(2), p. 131-149. https://doi.org/10.21315/jcdc2016.21.2.7 owoo, n.s. and lambon-quayefio, m.p., 2018. the role of the construction sector in ghana, united nations university world institute for development economics research (unu-wider working paper 2018/119), finland. https://doi.org/10.35188/unu-wider/2018/561-9 oxford business group, 2014. laying the cornerstones: government expenditure is supporting increased activity. available at: https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com (assessed 2 december 2023). penzes, b., 2018. blockchain technology in the construction industry: digital transformation for high productivity. london: institution of civil engineering (ice). pheng, l.s. and chuan, q.t., 2006. environmental factors and work performance of project managers in the construction industry. international journal of project management, 21(1), p. 24-37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2005.06.001 project management institute (pmi), 2013. a guide to the project management body of knowledge (pmbok). 5th ed. newtown square, pa: project management institute inc. available at: https://www.academia.edu/36855830/2013_ project_management_institute_a_guide_to_the_project_management_body_of_knowledge_pmbok_guide_ fifth_edition_5_project_scope_management_5_project_scope_management jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202541 https://doi.org/10.17577/ijertv9is060635 https://doi.org/10.17577/ijertv9is060635 https://doi.org/10.1093/poq/nfr003 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40996-021-00626-7 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315241999 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315241999 https://doi.org/10.36108/laujoces/1202.60.0270 https://doi.org/10.36108/laujoces/1202.60.0270 https://doi.org/10.4102/sajems.v20i1.1621 https://doi.org/10.21744/irjmis.v3i11.305 https://doi.org/10.21744/irjmis.v3i11.305 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315676319 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291808642_key_performance_indicators_for_project_success_in_ghanaian_contractors https://www.researchgate.net/publication/291808642_key_performance_indicators_for_project_success_in_ghanaian_contractors https://doi.org/10.21315/jcdc2016.21.2.7 https://doi.org/10.35188/unu-wider/2018/561-9 https://oxfordbusinessgroup.com https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.06.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2005.06.001 https://www.academia.edu/36855830/2013_project_management_institute_a_guide_to_the_project_management_body_of_knowledge_pmbok_guide_fifth_edition_5_project_scope_management_5_project_scope_management https://www.academia.edu/36855830/2013_project_management_institute_a_guide_to_the_project_management_body_of_knowledge_pmbok_guide_fifth_edition_5_project_scope_management_5_project_scope_management https://www.academia.edu/36855830/2013_project_management_institute_a_guide_to_the_project_management_body_of_knowledge_pmbok_guide_fifth_edition_5_project_scope_management_5_project_scope_management project management institute (pmi), 2017. a guide to project management body of knowledge: pmbok guide. 6th ed. newtown square, pa: project management institute inc. available at: https://www.scirp.org/reference/ referencespapers?referenceid=3400843 renault, b.y., agumba, j.n., and ansary, n., 2020. underlying structures of risk response measures among small and medium contractors in south africa. construction economics and building, 20(1), p. 1-16. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v20i1.6721 ruel, e., wagner, w.e. and gillespie, b.j., 2016. the practice of survey research. theory and applications. sage publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483391700 saunders, m.n.k., lewis, p. and thornhill, a., 2019. research methods for business students. 8th ed. harlow, uk: pearson education limited. serrador, p. and turner, j.r., 2015. the relationship between project success and project efficiency. project management journal, 46(1), p. 30-39. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21468 shenhar, a.j., dvir, d., levy, o. and maltz, a.c., 2001. project success: a multidimensional strategic concept. long range planning, 34(6), p. 699-725. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0024-6301(01)00097-8 sullivan, m., 2011. fundamentals of statistics (sullivan statistics series). 3rd ed. new york: pearson education inc. sun, k.s., 2011. the turnover intentions for construction engineers. journal of marine science and technology, 19(5), p. 550-556. https://doi.org/10.51400/2709-6998.2169 tayeh, b.a., durdyev, s., abuzuhri, i.o., hosseini, m.r. and thurnell, d., 2019. contractors’ attitudes towards the factors affecting sustainability performance: evidence from palestine. business strategy & development, 2(3), p. 173-179. https://doi.org/10.1002/bsd2.51 teller, j., kock, a. and gemünden, h.g., 2014. risk management in project portfolios is more than managing project risks: a contingency perspective on risk management. project management journal, 45(4), p. 67-80. https://doi. org/10.1002/pmj.21431 toor, s.u.r. and ogunlana, s.o., 2010. beyond the ‘iron triangle’: stakeholder perception of key performance indicators (kpis) for large-scale public sector development projects. international journal of project management, 28(3), p. 228-236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.05.005 tripathi, k.k., hasan, a. and neeraj jha, k., 2019. evaluating performance of construction organizations using fuzzy preference relation technique. international journal of construction management, 21(12), p. 1287-1300. https://doi.org/10 .1080/15623599.2019.1613210 uddin, s. m. j., albert, a., pradhananga, n., ganapati, n. e., prajapati, j., 2023. health and safety challenges among post disaster reconstruction workers. construction economics and building, 23:1/2, p. 4-30. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v23i1/2.8441 wang, j. and yuan, h., 2011. factors affecting contractors’ risk attitudes in construction projects: case study from china. international journal of project management, 29(2), p. 209-219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.02.006 wu, z., nisar, t., kapletia, d. and prabhakar, g., 2017. risk factors for project success in the chinese construction industry. journal of manufacturing technology management, 28(7), p. 850-866. https://doi.org/10.1108/jmtm-02-20170027 yirenkyi-fianko, a.b. and chileshe, n., 2015. an analysis of risk administration in practice: the situation of ghana’s building and construction industry. journal of engineering, design and technology, 13(2), p. 240-259. https://doi. org/10.1108/jedt-04-2012-0021 jackson and shanmuga priya construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202542 https://www.scirp.org/reference/referencespapers?referenceid=3400843 https://www.scirp.org/reference/referencespapers?referenceid=3400843 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i1.6721 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i1.6721 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483391700 https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21468 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0024-6301(01)00097-8 https://doi.org/10.51400/2709-6998.2169 https://doi.org/10.1002/bsd2.51 https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21431 https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21431 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.05.005 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1613210 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1613210 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8441 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8441 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.02.006 https://doi.org/10.1108/jmtm-02-2017-0027 https://doi.org/10.1108/jmtm-02-2017-0027 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2012-0021 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2012-0021 construction economics and building vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023 © 2023 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: asadi, r., wilkinson, s., rotimi, j. o. b. 2023. mixed-method approach to evaluate rework provisions within new zealand construction contracts. construction economics and building, 23:3/4, 45–70. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v23i3/4.8617 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article mixed-method approach to evaluate rework provisions within new zealand construction contracts ramin asadi*, suzanne wilkinson, james olabode bamidele rotimi massey university, new zealand corresponding author: ramin asadi, massey university, new zealand, raminasadi2013@yahoo. com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8617 article history: received 13/08/2022; revised 12/09/2023; accepted 27/10/2023; published 23/12/2023 abstract rework in construction contracts is an interesting topic as it influences contractual claims and disputes. changes in design, scope, and construction turn into rework and then affect project completion time, performance, and contract sum. addressing the rework provision in a well-defined contract before the work commences will safeguard the project against unforeseen circumstances contractual rework provisions are difficult to trace as they are often written indirectly or in a complex context. therefore, a list of rework causes from the literature is used in this study to investigate rework clauses and identify the relevant provisions in the general contract conditions. rework provisions in the new zealand standard contract are reviewed first and the identified contract clauses are then evaluated based on the result of the questionnaire survey and professional interviews. the mixed method, both quantitative and qualitative approach, is utilized for data collection and analysis. this research revealed that only five significant causes of rework, involved in the categories of process, materials and equipment, are adequately addressed in the contract conditions, so the remaining causes of rework require further investigation. the result also identified five contract clauses related to rework provisions. the study suggests the contract parties review the rework provisions ahead of time during the negotiation of the contract. this approach enables the parties to manage their obligations under rework events by addressing other causes of rework. properly addressing the causes of rework in the contract provisions reduces contractual claims, disputes, and improves the overall project performance. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 45 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8617 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8617 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8617 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:raminasadi2013@yahoo.com mailto:raminasadi2013@yahoo.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8617 keywords contract; construction; rework; provisions; causes introduction the contract conditions need to be managed and strengthened due to the increasing rate of construction contracts in the next few years (assaad, et al., 2020). the contract conditions govern the relationship between the contract parties, and define their responsibilities, which at the highest level include the client and the contractor. contractual issues such as delay, low quality, cost overruns, claims, and disputes are linked to the improper allocation of risks within the contract conditions (assaad, et al., 2020). the latest reported disputes amount by arcadis (2022) show over 52.6 million us dollars as the global average amount which prolonged the project duration to the additional 15.4 months. according to ( jelodar, yiu and wilkinson, 2016), most construction disputes originate from contract documents and over 16 percent of the construction claims are raised on the basis of the contract documents (al-mohsen, 2012). claim management is an essential part of a successful project (seo and kang, 2020), and effective claim management is achieved if the contract conditions are well defined (zaneldin 2020). poorly written contract clauses and the provisions of the contract are difficult to interpret (el-adaway, vance and abotaleb, 2020), and bespoke provisions increase the tendency for misinterpretation (mendis, hewage and wrzesniewski, 2015). the investigation of contractual claims and disputes has always been a critical issue due to the effects they have on cost and project productivity ( jelodar, yiu and wilkinson, 2016). one of the common causes of contractual claims and disputes is related to rework (palaneeswaran, love and kumaraswamy, 2008; wang, et al., 2019). the risk of claims and disputes is an inherent part of the rework in construction projects (asadi, rotimi and wilkinson, 2022). rework has been regarded as an issue affecting contractual claims in construction projects. rework leads to poor performance (love, irani and edwards, 2003) and contributes to construction disputes (aiyewalehinmi and nkumah, 2019). most construction projects deal with the chronic problem of rework (ma, et. al., 2019), that sometimes costs up to 25 percent of the contract value. such cost is inevitable due to the complex nature of the construction projects (miri and khaksefidi, 2015). the unfair disclaimer clauses in the contract can also create rework in construction projects (mendis, hewage and wrzesniewski, 2015). such evidence confirms the necessity of contractual guidelines to administrate the contract under rework circumstances. rework-related issues require a clear set of responsibilities between the contractual parties to reduce contractual claims and disputes. as such, the contract clauses related to rework issues must be spelled out in the construction contracts. in this study rework is defined as any activities that require to be redone where they are not in compliance with the construction contract (asadi, rotimi and wilkinson, 2023a). the contract parties need to understand how rework leads to contractual claims and how the contract conditions address such issues. the contract parties shall be familiar with rework provisions in the contract. the assessment of provisions allows contract parties to understand relevant conditions under rework events. for example, if rework occurs due to the client’s instruction, the associated cost is compensated as a change order through the variation clause without any conflicts unless there are debates on adjusted time and cost (el-adaway, et al., 2016). as such, it is necessary to monitor the conditions of the contract if rework occurs and generate contractual issues. this statement would be emphasised more if the rework contributes to contractual claims and project cost overruns (love, et al., 2000). most of the previous studies have reviewed the overall conditions of the contract in general terms, and very little, if any research has reviewed the conditions under rework circumstances (asadi, wilkinson and rotimi, 2021). overall, the literature shows that research on the general conditions of the contract is the central aspect of attention worldwide, while in new zealand there very few studies in this field (wright and fergusson, 2009; finnie, 2013; jelodar, yiu asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202346 and wilkinson, 2016). this paper highlights the importance of further investigating the contract conditions in rework situations as stated in previous studies (asadi, rotimi and wilkinson, 2023a; 2023b), and explores the rework provisions in the contract that is used most often in new zealand construction projects. background in terms of the background of this study, a combination of previous research on rework and contractual claims was reviewed to make a new contribution to the body of knowledge. from a systematic point of view, the two concepts of rework and claim can be regarded as cyclical elements that trigger each other. if rework is not managed properly, it may then change to a conflict. if the condition of the contract does not address such conflicts, it will require further litigation that is very costly ( jelodar, yiu and wilkinson, 2016). there are various perspectives on the assessment of contract conditions in the literature; they concern a wide range of factors, from change orders, safety issues, contractual effects, claims, disputes, delays, and some of the conceptual frameworks of contract administrations (asadi, wilkinson and rotimi, 2023). the suggested models and frameworks for contract administration have evolved over the years. for example, a framework consisting of three dimensions of causes, effects, and mitigations was proposed by (hansen, rostiyanti and rif ’at, 2020) to minimise the effects of change orders in construction contracts. in another study the direct and indirect associated costs of change orders have been utilised to examine the relationships between the contract conditions and various variables in four standard contract forms (syal and bora, 2016). these studies revealed that contract management practice needs improvement should change orders occur. some guidelines also have been proposed for different purposes, such as public infrastructure projects (el-adaway, et al., 2018), and safety-related issues under the design-build standard form of contract (nabi, et al., 2020). the extension of time also has been reviewed to present a guideline to administrate delay provisions in six different contract forms, namely fidic, nec, jct, ejcdc, aia, and consensus docs (el-adaway, vance and abotaleb, 2020). assaad, et al. (2020) investigated the back-to-back relationship under standard subcontract agreements to provide a checklist that enables the contract parties to achieve higher project performance. seo and kan (2020) investigated performance indicators for claim management based on various contractual issues. zaneldin (2020) also evaluated the types, causes, and severity of claims in construction contracts in projects in the uae. most of the previous studies have generally reviewed claim processes, not mainly focusing on the claim derivers. overall, while contractual and legal matters such as delay, payments, claims and change orders have been analysed under the various standard forms of the contract, the assessment of contract conditions is silent regarding rework issues. according to ( jelodar, yiu and wilkinson, 2016), rework, claims, and disputes arise from common sources. even though most of the studies have identified the causes of rework and the causes of contractual claims separately, they have yet to examine or investigate the relationship between the rework, and the claims, and disputes (asadi, rotimi and wilkinson, 2022). while many research studies have been conducted to understand the impacts of rework on project performance in the construction industry (love and edwards, 2004; mahamid, 2016), very few have studied the effects of contractual claims originating from rework. mendis, hewage and wrzesniewski (2015) studied the contractual obligations to manage waste, and their findings showed that three clauses of quality, workmanship, and inspections are more prone to generate rework in construction projects. little research, if any, addresses the contractual claim aspects of the rework in construction projects. overall, the evidence shows that the limited research has studied the contract clauses and their interactions and reciprocal actions associated with the rework (mendis, hewage and wrzesniewski, 2015). in addition, the available frameworks in the literature for claims, conflicts and disputes have not adequately addressed the rework issues in the contract conditions. thus, the knowledge gap in this study is the lack of addressing the rework in the contract conditions. asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202347 causes of rework in construction contracts this paper investigates the sources of contractual claims and reworks embedded in the contract’s conditions. the extent to which all identified rework causes are addressed is then extensively assessed in the relevant provisions to determine the contract clauses. as such, a list of rework causes in construction contracts first needs to be identified from the literature to initiate the research. the literature review shows that rework can occur in the contract on both the side of the client and that of the contractor. in a study performed in sweden by josephson, larsson and li (2002), rework was classified in five groups: client, design, workmanship, materials, machines, and production management. changes, errors, and omissions were found as the major associated causes of rework in australia (love, edwards and smith, 2009). generally, rework caused by the contractor will be related to technical factors, quality management factors and human resources factors (oyewobi and ogunsemi, 2010). asadi, rotimi and wilkinson (2023b) classified rework factors into four main groups of process, management and planning, material and equipment, and human resources. in addition, the rework causes that were understood to be related to the contractors included ineffective coordination, poor materials, defective material, and poor safety considerations (ye, et al., 2015). in singapore, the client was found to be more associated with the occurrence of rework. overall, in terms of rework circumstances that were related to the client, there were seven related causes that were identified as: changes in plan, inadequate project objectives, and change in specifications, impediment decisions, replacement of material, obstinate nature, and client’s financial problems (hwang, zhao and goh, 2014). in a study conducted in malaysia, project coordination, project implementation, technology, machines, design process and site workmanship have been found to be significant rework factors (yap, low and wang, 2017). rework causes associated with the client, consultant, and contractor were also examined in the study on the root causes of rework in nigerian building construction projects (eze and idiake, 2018). forcada et al. (2014), in their case studies of highway construction projects in spain, investigated the responsibilities of parties in rework circumstances at three levels of project, organisation and people. they found that the risk is involved with the scope changes, and they advised that the poor skill level and high project complexities are critical in rework management. ndwandwa, simpeh and smallwood (2017), considered the cost and time overruns from rework events in south africa. they found that rework mainly occurs due to factors ranging from design, site, planning and scheduling. in saudi arabia, the relationship between rework and material waste was examined in buildings, and the study added the lack of labor skills and inadequate supervision to the previously identified rework causes (mahamid, 2020). then four more causes under the contract management category of rework were identified through a study in china that included the fuzziness of the project scope, unfulfilled contract, ambiguity, and low contract payment (liu, et al., 2020). according to the research performed by (safapour and kermanshachi, 2019) in the usa, the cost of rework is reduced by implementing constructability and quality management strategies. goals and objectives this study aims to provide evidence by evaluating rework provisions in the general contract conditions of new zealand construction contracts. a similar approach has been used previously to find contract clauses associated to rework and waste in canada (mendis, hewage and wrzesniewski, 2015). the paper’s outcome raises the understanding of the contract provisions related to rework and the associated risks. as such, the results of this paper would improve the party’s ability to manage rework and its impacts in the contract. managing the impacts of rework enhances the performance of the projects. it also offers a better understanding of the rework-related provisions and provides opportunities to suggest guidelines for contract improvement under rework circumstances. therefore, the objectives of the study are to find whether rework asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202348 causes have been addressed adequately in the contract conditions of nzs3910 and which contract clause is related to rework. nzs3910:2013, the standard form of contract in new zealand, was published in 1949 for the first time. the majority of new zealand civil and construction projects use it. the document under the name of nzss 623 was issued and aligned with the standards outlined in act 1941. in 1964 this contract was revised based on the fourth edition of the general conditions of ice and the available issuance of the fidic in 1957 (robertson, 2018). the name of this standard was changed and published under nzs3910, in 1987 there was a significant revision. nzs3910 was revised again in 2003 and 2013 to bring the document’s status to the current plain version in english. the last edition of this contract form is currently used, listed as nzs3910:2013 with the title “conditions of contract for building and civil engineering construction”. the current contract form has been designed to be aligned with the construction contract act 2002 and is intended to be fit for the purpose. thus, the latest version has only been updated based on the limited scope review of the previous issues. this standard document has provided a package that includes all essential commercial provisions to be used for all types of engineering and building work with a variety of administrative arrangements. the contract’s bases are almost the same as nce and the main body of general conditions in nzs3910 comprises 15 clauses, while the condition of other type of contracts such as fidec includes 72 clauses. nzs3910 contract is administered by the engineer to the contract, which is a specified role to inspect, certify and issue notices. the other types of contacts do not specify this role in their conditions. methodology this paper follows a mixed methodological approach that includes of quantitative and qualitative aspects. multiple steps have been taken in this study starting with a list of rework causes from the literature, conducting a questionnaire survey in conjunction with reviewing the nzs3910 contract and professional interviews. a similar approach using a multi-step mixed method has previously been used by (hansen, rostiyanti and rif ’at, 2020) to develop a framework to mitigate contract change orders. from a contract perspective, research on the implications of rework causes is scarce. thus, the qualitative approach is the best way to collect empirical evidence related to this concept ( jelodar, yiu and wilkinson, 2016). according to hansen, rostiyanti and rif ’at (2020) using the qualitative approach is helpful as it is datadriven, exploratory by nature and flexible. in the first step, the causes of rework were utilised based on a comprehensive list of rework causes from two previous studies in new zealand (asadi, rotimi and wilkinson, 2022; 2023a). this comprehensive list was achieved based on a systematic literature review on rework studies and it was customised to new zealand construction contracts. the common causes of rework in new zealand construction contracts were then studied by conducting a survey to understand which rework causes were adequately addressed in the contract conditions. the highly addressed causes of rework from the survey were then reviewed based on the contractual provisions of nzs3910:2013 to validate the result of the survey. the main purpose of the survey was to solicit the construction industry’s opinion on the adequacy of addressing rework in the clauses of the contract. the practical work was observed to assess the conditions of the contract in relation to rework by conducting interviews with construction experts and legal professionals. thus, the survey result was then confirmed by the evidence from the interviews with construction practitioners in the contract field. comparing the expert’s opinion and the survey results helps to understand the rework issues in the contract conditions and gives insight to prevent contractual issues, claims and conflicts. comparison analysis provides a basis for further investigation of rework provisions from a practical perspective. as shown in figure 1, the method used in this study comprises four consecutive stages described in detail as follows. asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202349 figure 1. research methodology theoretical conceptualisation the concept used in this study was based on the relationship between rework and contract clauses. therefore, a theory is required to be developed on how rework is investigated in the contract documents. in this theory a chain of activities are placed to demonstrate the links between rework and contract. the link between these two elements of the study can be achieved by searching a common factor between the two. the established link leads to the identification of relevant contract clauses that can be referenced in the contract provisions. the literature review shows that the causes of rework will result in contractual claims. as such, the relationship between rework and contract conditions can be studied through contractual claims as a common source. overall, the conceptualised theory comprises (1) identifying the causes of rework (2) investigating the relationship between rework causes and contractual claims (3) exploring the relevant provision of the contractual claims (4) detecting contract clauses from the referred provisions. thus, the process is initiated by a list of rework causes from the literature as stated in table 1. conducting survey the quantitative method in research is a deducible approach to connect the theory and objectives and provide confirmation for the research (umar, 2020). following on from identifying the causes of rework from the literature, a quantitative approach was employed through a questionnaire survey that aimed to rank addressed causes of rework in contracts. the questions have been sent to four experienced professors and professionals from academia and the construction industry for their initial review. the criteria for selection of respondents were based on their knowledge, background, and experience in contract management. this initial review improved the quality of questions and ensured the validity of the contents before releasing the questionnaire to the industry. contract plays an important role in the construction industry, and the industry’s view in this study was considered highly significant and used as the main part of the data collection. two questions were included in the survey (1) to establish links between contractual claims and rework causes identified in table 1 and (2) to understand which cause has been addressed in the contract conditions of nzs3910. the measurement of the responses was designed based on the 5-point likert scale from strongly disagree (1) to strongly agree (5) as attached in appendix 1. the questionnaire was distributed online through a link to the selected target companies, including clients, consultants, architects, quantity surveyors, contractors, and legal firms who work consistently with construction projects in new zealand. the selected criterion for including these participants in the study was based on their experience working on construction contracts using the standard form nzs3910. they were identified through the website of relevant associations listed in previous new zealand studies in the same field (asadi, rotimi and wilkinson, 2023b). the link to give access to the survey was shared with selected targets through email. asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202350 to ensure the validity and reliability of the result, the participants were asked to respond if they only use nzs3910 contract in their projects (kisi, et al., 2020). the total number of enterprises in the field of building and construction was 67,239 based on new zealand’s building performance annual report 2021. the minimum sample size of this population is 382 with a 95% confidence level. over the period of six months 81 respondents (21%) answered the survey question through the link on qualtrics software. the response rate of over 20% is the acceptable range for analysis and is considered high for surveys of this nature (hughes and maeda, 2002). review of the contract nzs3910 provisions the contract conditions of nzs3910 comprise 15 clauses, two appendixes, 16 schedules to the general conditions, 14 guidelines and one general aid to the valuation of variations. to verify that the identified significant causes in the survey have been addressed in the conditions of the contract, the related provisions were reviewed under the clauses of nzs3910. analysis of the related clauses was performed using nvivo 12 and coding of provisions based on the selected keywords in each of the rework causes. thus, provisions related to rework and their contract clauses were identified and listed to verify the outcome of the survey and then validated through interview results. professional interviews after identification of the rework provisions stipulated in the contract conditions of nzs3910, the next step involved confirming the initial result through the professionals’ interview. the interviews were exercised to find the industry’s opinion if nzs3910 contract is fit for purpose under rework event. a semi-structured interview was considered an appropriate way for data collection due to the exploratory nature of this research (umar, et al., 2020). the questions for conducting interviews were designed to identify relevant rework contract clauses and provisions. the interviews aimed to understand how rework is addressed within clauses of nzs3910. then, participants were asked about improving contract conditions of nzs3910 under rework events. the answers the participants provided in the interviews are reflected in table 5. as per appendix 2, the main questions for this study were as below: • q1how is rework addressed within clauses of nzs3910? • q2which clauses relate to the causes of rework? • q3do you recommend adding a new clause to cover rework in the contract? the criteria for selecting interviewees were based on years of experience in construction and contract management according to the study’s aim and objectives. participants were selected based on the minimum criteria of having at least 15 years work experience in contract management field and sufficient knowledge using nzs3910 in local projects. only the participants who had construction project experience were listed for this purpose. similar criteria have been practiced in previous studies with the same nature (umar, et al., 2020). a list of experienced professionals in construction dispute resolution was extracted from the available arbitrators and mediators institute of new zealand (aminz) database and new zealand building dispute tribunal. the other experts in the construction industry were identified through top-tier active construction companies in new zealand by field investigation and available contacts listed under companies’ websites, linkedin and the members of civil contractors new zealand (ccnz). a total of 39 people was identified at this stage and they were invited by email to join the interview. the email replies from 15 of invitees were positive and the interviews were scheduled accordingly. three of the participants cancelled their scheduled meetings due to workload and 12 interviews were performed in two forms, in-person and online. all interviews were recorded and transcribed. the interviews result is considered completed when data reached at saturation level ( jelodar, yiu and wilkinson, 2021). the analysis of the interviews with 12 asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202351 participants led to theoretical data saturation. while the numbers of interviews for research with a similar exploratory nature are generally about 20, literature shows that data saturation level may be achieved with fewer responses, for example, 10 in some studies (umar, et al., 2020). analysis and results analysis of the collected data and their results are presented separately in accordance with the methodology used for the study in four steps. previous studies on rework have identified several causes separately in which some are common across their research. part of the identified causes heavily depends on the project type, geographical location, and the economic situation of the construction industry. a systematic literature review to identify rework causes in new zealand construction projects (asadi, rotimi and wilkinson, 2022; 2023a) resulted in a comprehensive list of rework causes as combined in table 1. this table reflects the most common causes of rework in new zealand construction contracts. the comprehensive list indicates 37 root causes in six groups and is used in this study as a basis for further analysis in the contract review, questionnaire survey, and interviews. table 1. the common causes of rework in construction contracts group rework cause code process changes, modification and revisions in design / construction changes p1 error in design, drawings and specifications / construction error p2 incomplete design, any omission in the design or construction process p3 inadequate procurement methods / poor contract execution p4 improper contractor and subcontractor selection p5 lack of document control p6 human resources lack of experience and personal expertise in design and construction h1 inadequate supervision staff h2 inadequate manpower to complete the task h3 insufficient skilled level manpower h4 poor knowledge of team member, lack of education and training h5 lack of employee motivation and rewards, carelessness h6 poor workmanship approach and inappropriate personal attitude h7 the absence of job security and other safety rules h8 labor reallocation, alteration and staff turnover h9 conflict of interests h10 material / equipment defective materials, non-adherence to material specifications m1 poor-quality material or substandard products / prefabrication errors m2 replacement or misplacement of material and equipment m3 inefficient equipment use or altered material m4 untimely deliveries of material and equipment m5 asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202352 group rework cause code technical ineffective use of quality management practices / deviation due to poor monitoring t1 poor technology application and lack of information technology use t2 poor communication system for coordinating between members t3 inefficient management process, poor site management practice t4 poor project documents, unclear instructions, poor contract documents t5 conflicting and incomplete information t6 inadequate planning and poor scheduling of workload t7 general / external financial issues such as lack of funding, low contract or payment fee, delay in payment and cost pressure g1 lack of client involvement g2 unclear line of authority g3 time pressure, schedule acceleration to finish the task, insufficient time to prepare contract documentation g4 lack of constructability g5 damage / defects / deviations in the product due to poor handling and safety considerations g6 governmental regulations / changes and policies g7 environmental conditions, poor site condition g8 unpredictable factors from different sources g9 survey analysis all causes of rework listed in table 1 were assessed by conducting a questionnaire survey and the collected data from the survey was then analysed using mean and standard deviation to rank the most significant causes that have been addressed in the contract conditions. the demographic details of the survey participants are presented in table 2. the level of experience in construction projects and contract management varies among participants. respondents with more than 20 years of experience in construction comprise 43% of the sample size. more than half of the participants, “71.3%” had over ten years of working experience in the contract management field. thus, the reliability of the survey data is considered high with the adequate knowledge and experience of the respondents. moreover, participants were from different types of organisations such as design and architects, project management, construction, design and built companies. therefore, the survey data covers a range of organisations that use nzs3910 in their construction projects. the contract values have also represented the size of projects. it is noted that most participants were involved with projects that were less than 10 million dollars (40 out of 80). also, respondents to the survey questionnaire are from two sides of the contract, comprising 51% client and 49% contractor. table 1. continued asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202353 table 2. respondents and background information description sample size % of respondents profession/job roles of participants project director/project manager 29 36.2% construction/site manager 2 2.5% commercial/contract manager 11 13.8% quantity surveyor 11 13.8% others 27 33.7% year of experience in construction less than 10 years 16 20% between 10 and 20 21 26.2% more than 20 43 53.8% contract experience less than 5 years 16 20% between 5 and 10 7 8.7% more than 10 57 71.3% type of organisation design and architect 14 17.5% project management 13 16.3% construction 24 30% design and built 9 11.2% others 20 25.% value of the involved projects less than 10 million nzd 40 50% between 10 and 50 million nzd 14 17.5% between 50 and 100 million nzd 8 10% more than 100 million nzd 18 22.5% contract sides client 41 51.2% contractor 39 48.7% surveys with a response scale in construction research generally are analysed by ranking the results using either rii (zaneldin, 2020), or frequency analysis through comparing means (beale and smallwood, 2019). the result of the descriptive analysis for rework causes have been presented in table 3, showing the client and contractors’ viewpoints. according to (beale and smallwood, 2019) mean scores over 3.4 are considered significant items with a likert scale of 1 to 5. taking this criterion, the overall ranking of rework causes asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202354 addressed by the contract conditions only covers four causes as the most significant items. since p3 with a mean of 3.39 is very close to the minimum of 3.4, it has also been included in the list of the most addressed significant causes in the contract. according to the demographical survey analysis, the participants’ share from the contractor side is 48.75 % and 51.25% from the client side. thus, the overall ranking in the first column in table 3 is valid for both parties and is considered as the final list for processing to the next stage. table 3. ranking of significant causes of rework addressed in nzs3910:2013 rework cause overall, n=80 client, n=41 contractor, n=39 rank mean sd rank mean sd rank mean sd p1 1 3.83 1.088 1 3.78 1.194 1 3.87 0.978 p2 3 3.50 1.091 4 3.39 1.159 2 3.62 1.016 p3 5 3.39 1.085 4 3.39 1.159 4 3.38 1.016 m1 2 3.55 0.967 2 3.66 0.965 3 3.44 0.968 m2 4 3.43 1.053 3 3.59 0.948 the validity of the answers is verified through a reliability test and for the likert scale questionnaire the cronbach alpha test is generally used. any figure of the cronbach alpha greater than 0.7 approves the internal consistency of the responses (ma, li and cheng, 2020). in this survey with 80 completed responses, the cronbach alpha test resulted in 0.954 among 37 questions which verifies the reliability and allows performing further analysis. survey results the results of the survey revealed five significant addressed causes of rework. the contract provisions to address these rework causes are discussed by highlighting some of the key points that establish a reliable link between rework and the contract clauses. the survey analysis showed that 32 of rework causes fall under the mean of 3.4, confirming that they have not been identified as the significant addressed items in the contract conditions. in other words, the current conditions of nzs3910 contract do not cover all identified causes of rework. it must be noted that none of the causes of rework appeared over the mean 4.2 as the highly significant item. as such, rework as a continuing problem in construction projects needs more investigation within the construction contracts. the five significant addressed causes of rework are listed as: 1. changes, modification and revisions in design / construction changes, (p1) 2. defective materials, non-adherence to material specifications, (m1) 3. error in design, drawings and specifications / construction error, (p2) 4. poor-quality material or substandard products / prefabrication errors, (m2) 5. incomplete design, any omission in the design or construction process, (p3) contract review and analysis the top five significant causes of rework (p1, m1, p2, m2, p3) extracted from the survey were further studied and reviewed in the contract conditions of nzs3910. the keywords of each significant cause were searched in the contract conditions to identify all connections. all identified links were then carefully reviewed to understand the coverage of contract clauses in terms of addressing rework causes. the frequency asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202355 analysis of relevant keywords in nzs3910 revealed that, change with stemmed words (p1) has been used seven times in various clauses of the contract. the conditions of the contract address design and construction changes in sub-clauses 2.3.4, and discuss the identified changes in the special conditions as per sub-clause 2.7.3. the importance of changes has also been highlighted in sub-clause 6.3.3, where it does not allow the engineer’s representative to exercise any changing of the drawings and specifications and only gives such permissions to the engineer to the contract. finally, sub-clauses 9.1.1 and 9.1.2 treat any given direction by the engineer to carry out the work as a variation and define various possible reasons that may lead to a change in the contract. this evidence shows that the first ranked cause is addressed in clauses 2, 6 and 9. analysis of the second addressed causes in the contract showed that defective with stemmed word (m1) has been used 43 times, and the keyword material has been used 60 times within the various clauses. under the sub-clause 6.4.1, the engineer is involved with the process of inspection and test for materials. the contract under sub-clauses of 6.4.2 and 6.5.1 clearly refers to the cost of non-conformance materials. the other parts of the contract have excluded the cost of remedying loss or damage caused by defective material from the coverage of insurance under sub-clauses of 8.3.5 and 8.7.1. sub-clause 10.3.1 refers to the contractors’ entitlement for an extension of time due to the loss or damage to the materials. the contractor shall also remedy defects or damages resulting from defective materials under 11.2.1. this evidence shows that the second ranked cause is addressed in clauses 6, 8, 10 and 11. analysing the keywords in the third ranked cause (p2) showed that, error has been used seven times within various clauses. any fault, defect, error and omission in the design is addressed in the expected risk under sub-clause 5.6.6. sub-clause 5.8.5 addresses the rectification of construction errors and its associated cost. this subclause also states the conditions around how such errors will be treated as variations. insurance clause will not cover the cost of rectifying loss or damage caused by errors in design or construction, as it has been excluded under sub-clauses 8.3.5 and 8.7.1. this evidence shows that the third cause is addressed in clauses 5 and 8.the frequency analysis of the keyword quality with stemmed word (m2) has been used 13 times within various clauses. the contractor under sub-clause 5.1.1 is obligated to provide temporary or permanent materials as per the quality specified in the contract. under 5.6.2, the contractor shall be responsible for the care of materials and under 5.18.2 shall provide a quality plan that describes required procedures for meeting the quality of materials as per 5.9.2 provisions. any change in the character or the quality of material is processed as variation under sub-clause 9.1.1, and subsequently an extension of time shall be granted for loss or damage to the materials under sub-clause 10.3.1 if the contractor is entitled. this evidence shows that the fourth ranked cause is addressed in clauses 5, 9 and 10. even though the word “incomplete” has not been used in the document, “omission” as a keyword in p3 appeared eighteen times in different clauses. omission in the design has been referenced as the expected risks under sub-clauses 5.6.6. the insurance in the sub-clause 8.3.4 needs to be maintained by the contractor for any act or omission arising out of the performance after practical completion. any omission in construction stage is covered under sub-clauses 10.4.1 sub-clause 11.3.1 says that the final competition certificate will be issued when the contractor remedied all minor omissions and defects. making good on the omissions and defects in the remaining contract works has also been addressed under sub-clause 12.3.2. this evidence shows that the fifth ranked cause of rework is addressed in clauses 5, 8, 10, 11, and 12. contract review results overall, the analysis of the significant addressed causes of rework in the contract documents identified nzs3910 clauses and their provisions as the final result of the contract review as listed below. • clause 2, “the contract” and its sub-clauses (a) and (b) • clause 5, “general obligations” and the sub-clauses of (a) general responsibilities, (b) care of the work and site, (c) materials, labour and plant, (d) quality plan asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202356 • clause 6, “engineer’s powers and responsibilities” and the sub-clauses (a) and (b) • clause 8, “insurance” and its sub-clauses (a) and (b) • clause 9, “variations” and its sub-clauses (a) and (b) • clause 10, “time for completion” and the sub-clause of time extension and final completion certificate • clause 11, “defect liabilities” and the sub-clause of time extension and remedying of defects • clause 12, “time for completion” and the sub-clause of retention monies the results of the contract review by providing the above evidence confirmed that the identified rework causes from the survey are adequately addressed in the contract conditions of nzs3910. the results of the contract document review validate the survey results. interview analysis the professional interviews were then performed to identify the various clauses of nzs3910 contract. table 4 shows the basic information about the professionals who attended the interviews for this research. table 4. interviewee profile no interviewee years of experience background meeting duration 1 i.a 45 architect and construction disputes consultant 69 minutes 2 i.b 21 building surveyor, contract engineer 66 minutes 3 i.c 25 consultant and contract engineer 30 minutes 4 i.d 25 construction lawyer, adjudication, panellist of building dispute tribunal 41 minutes 5 i.e 17 commercial manager in construction company 52 minutes 6 i.f 39 dispute board member, arbitrator, adjudicator & commercial mediator 60 minutes 7 i.g 43 senior project director, contract engineer 55 minute 8 i.h 25 commercial manager in construction company 37 minutes 9 i.j 25 quantity surveyortechnical director, consultant company 71 minutes 10 i.k 25 principal consultant, contract engineer 74 minutes 11 i.l 15 projects lawyer, specialist construction 26 minutes 12 i.m 20 registered quantity surveyor, adr practitioner 54 minutes average of experience 27 years note: three of the interviewees were members of the committee for preparing nzs3910 editions of 2003 and 2013. the semi-structured interview covered the questions seeking relations between rework and contract clauses. the content analysis of the recorded and transcribed interviews was then performed using nvivo 12. the professional's opinion regarding rework in the contract conditions was analysed to determine their viewpoints about addressing rework in the contract clauses. table 5 summarises the participants’ opinion asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202357 in responding to three questions in the semi-structured interview. only two participants stated that the contract mostly addresses the causes of rework and others provided comments as follows. table 5. summary report of interviewees opinions no interviewee question 1 question 2 question 3 clause no. nzs3910 clause title 1 i.a no comments clauses 6.4 to 6.8 11 engineer power defects liability no 2 i.b comment 2 clauses 6.4 9 10.3 test and inspection eot variation no 3 i.c no issues not required no 4 i.d mostly addressed clause 6.5 making good no 5 i.e comment 5 clauses 11.2 9 10.3 remedying defect and its provisions eot variation no 6 i.f comment 6 clauses 5 9 10.3 linked to the quality of work eot variation no 7 i.g comment 7 clauses 5 9 11.2 remedying defects variation general obligations no 8 i.h mostly addressed clauses 5 6.5 11.2 remedying defects making good normal completion no 9 i.j comment 9 clauses 6.5 to 6.8 9 making good variation 10 i.k comment 10 clauses 6 9 11 related to the engineer defect liability variation no 11 i.l comment 11 clauses 9 11 – 13 14 defects liability defaults variation disputes 12 i.m comment 12 clauses 5 6 – 10 11 12 general obligations engineer power eot defects liability payments no • comment 2 – “rework is a broad term, which can be a contractor’s fault, client fault, supervisors’ fault, or architects’ fault. the need for more definition of reworks in the contract is important. it would certainly have to be added to the “interpretation section” of the back of the document.” • comment 5 – “the current provisions are not covering rework causes; they are particularly descriptive. it’s not very descriptive as to who’s responsible for what and what’s really fair? where are the tears when a defect occurs? can be repaired rather than replaced, it’s all very reliant on an independent engineer to assess that kind of question.” asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202358 • comment 6 – “rework has no clear definition in the contract.” • comment 7 – “in terms of the conditions of contract, although they don’t specifically address different types of rework, the contract does address whether the contractor is entitled to a variation or whether the contractor is required to rework something to the correct standard or to the great quality at no additional cost to the principle. i would say rework is not being addressed properly because of the lack of skills and lack of supervision within the contract up industry.” • comment 9 – “there is no word of rework in the contract conditions. removal and making good is one of those ones, so probably rework has not been addressed enough to be honest. there’s been discussion around early warning type notifications, and at the moment i think rfis always perceive to be a contract’s ways of letting their design team know that they need more information about rework.” • comment 10 – “no discussion about rework in the contract, and it’s only about defect. there’s a clause that the engineer discovers the defective works, and then there’s a way to deal with rework. this defect is including late defects and defect during notifications period. the defect can be discovered by inspection and if you discover it, which would be rework.” • comment 11 – “i do think the defects liability section really addresses rework and i think we have the defects notification period in the remedying of defects and that’s really where we address the contractor coming back to do rework. to come back and do rework prior to practical completion would need to be in another section of 3910, not in the defect liability section because i think they serve different purposes.” • comment 12 – “nzs 3910 does use generic terminology, it just talks about remedying defects or nonconforming work, and it is quite important because a lot of the wording is deliberately neutral.” interviews results the summarised report in table 5 displays the contract clauses that are related to rework provisions as per participants’ opinion. as shown in the table, eight identified clauses are: • clauses 6, 9 and 11, quoted by seven participants out of 12, • clauses 5 and 10, quoted by four participants out of 12, and, • clauses 12, 13 and 14, quoted by one participant out of 12. the most quoted clauses in the interview are also found in the document review. these contract clauses are in parallel with the results of the contract review representing five common items. therefore, the area with the most potential to investigate rework within the contract conditions are clause 5 (general obligations), clause 6 (engineer power), clause 9 (variation), clause 10 (time for completion), and clause 11 (defect liabilities). any further proposed framework or checklist to administer contracts in rework events will contribute most to the identified provisions in the above mentioned clauses. these clauses are similar to the identified clauses in the contract review results. therefore, the results of the contract review are validated by the identified common clauses from these two stages of the research method. overall, the result of three stages of the survey, document review and professional interviews are in the same streamlines and confirm each other. discussion the significant cause of disputes in new zealand comes from the lack of an independent view of the contract administrator or the lack of independent monitoring of construction projects. rework is one of the issues that may result in conflicts and disputes if it is not managed properly. according to jelodar, yiu and wilkinson (2016), ambiguity in the contract clauses and complexity due to the high number of asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202359 provisions between contract clauses will result in conflict and dispute emergence. the results of the survey and professional interviews revealed that both client and contractor have the same understanding of the contract conditions under rework circumstances. in accordance with the survey results, changes, defective materials, errors, poor quality materials and incomplete design are the main adequately addressed causes of rework in the contract conditions. the survey outcome is supported by previous construction contract study in new zealand which confirms that most of the process-related causes such as changes, errors and other relevant design issues are covered by the contract conditions ( jelodar, yiu and wilkinson, 2016). regardless of the pre-mentioned causes of rework, the survey result indicates that the other rework causes may not be addressed adequately by the contract conditions. generally, if rework occurs due to the significant causes referenced in the contract conditions, a rework claim can suitably be launched by addressing the available contract provisions. otherwise, rework will be managed in a grey area with the possibility of acceptance or rejection by either party. the interview results revealed that there is a similarity in the way professionals understand if it occurs in construction contracts. most of the participants in the interview confirmed that some contract clauses need to be amended or revised to cover rework and its causes. they believe that contractual provisions are essential to reference rework issues. thus, they suggested different strategies to tackle rework in construction projects. although some experts believe that more clarification within the contract provisions is required to address rework adequately, others say that more inter-crossing provisions among various clauses may not be helpful. most of the participants agreed that quality assurance is the solution that has the highest possibility of reducing rework. as such, addressing rework causes would require deciding who is liable for that cause. another contractual point in relation to rework was mainly interconnected to the role of the engineer who facilitates rework processing. thus, to deal with rework causes within the contractual provisions, the overall idea is around the engineer’s role. the engineer must take appropriate action when there is a consequent issue such as a delay (seneviratne and michael, 2020). the overall comments pointed out that while rework needs to be defined clearly in the definition section to recognise it from defects, adding an extra clause would not be a good solution to cover this deficiency. it is evident that the current provisions in the contract conditions are not enough to cover rework sequences before or after project completion. therefore, some relevant clauses require revising accordingly. to generalise comments on rework provisions, it is observed that most participants agree to improve the contract conditions by clarifying rework events and their process within current clauses of the contract. based on the collected data and observations during the conducted survey and interviews, it was evident that apart from the identified clauses in table 5, rework is not adequately covered by the current contract conditions of nzs3910. these outcomes verify that the general conditions of nzs3910 may require a series of changes to address the number of rework causes. research implications the review of rework causes in the contract conditions provides a contractual perspective of the rework that may prevent the occurrences of claims and disputes. the identified rework provisions will help the assessment of the contractual claims, conflicts and disputes related to rework events. if the contract parties’ liabilities are well structured to address rework causes, the subsequent process such as claim handling and dispute resolutions can be appropriately managed. it helps contract parties to understand their responsibilities in rework events. . therefore, both client and contractor can define their rights and responsibilities under potential rework circumstances and raise their concerns about rework issues prior to contract signature. the following list presents the implications of this study based on the presented result and the provided discussion. asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202360 1. providing a checklist to identify risks associated with rework at the early stages of a project. 2. addressing the contract parties’ responsibilities under rework events. 3. improving the contract administration process for rework-related clauses that will lead to fewer claims and disputes. conclusion this study explored the causes of rework in new zealand construction contracts to identify the relevant contract clauses if rework occurs. the employed methodology in the study was initiated by a conceptualised theory followed by conducting a survey, review of the contract and performing the professional interviews. the robust method allowed the practicality of the study based on the selected case of nzs3910 as the contract used most often in new zealand construction projects. the finding of the study contributes to the body of knowledge as it identified rework provisions within various contract clauses. the survey results identified five adequately addressed causes of rework in the contract. the survey results were then verified through the analysis of the rework provision in the contract. evaluating the provisions provided links between the causes of rework and the clauses of the contract. the contract review process identified eight clauses that are related to rework. the identified contract clauses were then investigated by interviewing the professionals. the interview participants responded to the questions by providing evidence from real cases in practical projects. then the interview results completed the process of identifying the rework provisions in the contract. the analysis of the transcribed interviewees revealed the most relevant rework clauses in contract conditions of nzs3910. the identified clauses were (1) general obligations, (2) engineer power, (3) variation, (4) time for completion, and (5) defect liabilities. the interview results verified the previously identified clauses related to rework at the contract review stage, confirming five addressed causes of rework in the contract based on the survey results. however, this outcome addressed the identified knowledge gap; it indirectly indicated that most of the causes of rework are not addressed in the contract conditions of nzs3910. the non-addressed causes of rework in the contract highlighted the need to reorganise rework processing in the contract clauses. thus, construction contracts require improvement by developing a systematic process to manage rework in the contract conditions. this study is limited to a standard form of contract that is commonly used in new zealand and the results are applicable to nzs3910. further studying of contract clauses related to rework in other standard form of contracts worldwide can provide evidence to validate the results of this paper. construction contracts should tentatively be updated and tailored based on the project specification and geographical locations (mendis, hewage and wrzesniewski, 2015). therefore, future research can be carried out based on the ideas provided in the implication section of this study. to generalise results for contract management, comparison with international contracts such as nec, fidic is needed. as such, providing the advantages and disadvantages of each standard form of contract will improve rework management in construction projects. in addition, the paper outcomes are expected to enhance rework provisions within contract clauses to minimise contractual issues such as claims and disputes. while this paper lacks proposing a framework to manage construction contracts under rework events, it is suggested that developing a guideline for mapping rework provisions is required. references aiyewalehinmi, e.o. and nkumah, l., 2019. evaluation of construction contract dispute between the clients and contractors in nigeria (ondo state as a case study). european journal of engineering and technology, 7(3), pp.40-55. al-mohsen, m., 2012. claim analysis of construction projects in oman. international journal on advanced science engineering and information technology, 2(2), pp.73-78. https://doi.org/10.18517/ijaseit.2.2.182 asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202361 https://doi.org/10.18517/ijaseit.2.2.182 arcadis, 2022. global construction disputes report. successfully navigating through turbulent times. [pdf ] australia: arcadis. available at: https://www.arcadis.com/en-au/knowledge-hub/perspectives/global/global-construction-disputesreport. asadi, r., wilkinson, s. and rotimi, j.o.b., 2021. the common causes of rework in construction contracts: a diagnostic approach. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 21(4), pp.1107-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt04-2021-0215 asadi, r., rotimi j.o.b. and wilkinson, s., 2022. investigating the relationship between rework and contractual claims: the salience of contract conditions. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction,14(1), p.04521046. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000519 asadi, r., wilkinson, s. and rotimi, j.o.b., 2023. guidelines for mapping rework in the contract conditions of construction projects. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 15(1), p.04522041. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000563 asadi, r., rotimi, j.o.b. and wilkinson, s., 2023a. rework causes classification model with liable parties of the contract in construction projects. frontiers in built environment, [e-journal] 9(2023), pp.1-20. https://doi.org/10.3389/ fbuil.2023.1143829 asadi, r., rotimi, j.o.b. and wilkinson, s., 2023b. analyzing underlying factors of rework in generating contractual claims in construction projects. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 149(6), pp.1-12. https://doi.org/10.1061/jcemd4.coeng-12141 assaad, r., gasser, a.e., abdul nabi, a.m. and el-adaway, i.h., 2020. back-to-back relationship under standard subcontract agreements: comparative study. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 12(3), p.04520020. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000406 beale, j. and smallwood, j.j., 2019. the potential of industry 4.0 to enhance construction health and safety (h&s) performance. in: proceedings 14th international postgraduate research conference. contemporary and future directions in the built environment. manchester, 16-17 december 2019, pp.233-44. manchester, uk: university of salford. el-adaway, i.h., fawzy, s., allard, t. and runnels, a., 2016. change order provisions under national and international standard forms of contract. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 8(3), p.03716001. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000187 el-adaway, i.h., abotaleb, i.s., eid, m.s., may, s., netherton, l. and vest, j., 2018. contract administration guidelines for public infrastructure projects in the united states and saudi arabia: comparative analysis approach. journal of construction engineering and management, 144(6), p.04018031. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0001472 el-adaway, i.h., vance, r.a. and abotaleb, i.s., 2020. understanding extension of time under different standard design-build forms of contract. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 12(1), p.04519031. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000331 eze, e.c. and idiake, j.e., 2018. analysis of cost of rework on time and cost performance of building construction projects in abuja, nigeria. international journal of built environment and sustainability 5(1), pp.56-67. https://doi. org/10.11113/ijbes.v5.n1.246 finnie, d., 2013. comparison of time adjustment clauses between dz3910, as4000 and stcc’. australasian journal of construction economics and building, 13(1), pp.66-84. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i1.3071 forcada, n., rusinol, g., macarulla, m. and love, p.e.d., 2014. rework in highway projects. journal of civil engineering and management, 20(4), pp.455–65. https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2014.893917 asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202362 https://www.arcadis.com/en-au/knowledge-hub/perspectives/global/global-construction-disputes-report https://www.arcadis.com/en-au/knowledge-hub/perspectives/global/global-construction-disputes-report https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2021-0215 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2021-0215 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000519 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000563 https://doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2023.1143829 https://doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2023.1143829 https://doi.org/10.1061/jcemd4.coeng-12141 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000406 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000187 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001472 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001472 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000331 https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v5.n1.246 https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v5.n1.246 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i1.3071 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2014.893917 hansen, s., rostiyanti, s.f. and rif ’at, a., 2020. causes, effects, and mitigations framework of contract change orders: lessons learned from gbk aquatic stadium project. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 12(1), p.05019008. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000341 hughes, w. and maeda, y., 2002. construction contract policy: do we mean what we say? rics research paper. 4(12), pp.1–25. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511811753.004 hwang, b.g., zhao, x. and goh, k.j., 2014. investigating the client-related rework in building projects; the case of singapore. international journal of project management, 32, pp.698-708. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.08.009 jelodar, m.b., yiu, t.w. and wilkinson, s., 2016. dispute manifestation and relationship quality in practice. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 8(1), p.c4515003. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) la.1943-4170.0000171 josephson, p.e., larsson, b. and li, h., 2002. illustrative benchmarking rework and rework costs in swedish construction industry. journal of management in engineering, 18(2), pp.76-83. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742597x(2002)18:2(76) kisi, k.p., lee, n., kayastha, r. and kovel, j., 2020. alternative dispute resolution practices in international road construction contracts. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction 12(2), p.04520001. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000373 liu, q., ye, g., feng, y., wang, c. and peng, y., 2020. case based insights into rework costs of residential building projects in china. international journal of construction management, 20(4), pp.347-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/1562359 9.2018.1484856 love, p.e.d., mandal, p., smith, j. and li, h., 2000. modelling the dynamics of design error induced rework in construction. construction management and economics, 18(5), pp.567–74. https://doi.org/10.1080/014461900407374 love, p.e.d., irani, z. and edwards, d.j., 2003. learning to reduce rework in projects analysis of firm’s organizational learning and quality practices. project management journal, 34(3), pp.13-25. https://doi. org/10.1177/875697280303400303 love, p.e.d. and edwards, d.j., 2004. forensic project management; the underlying causes of rework in construction projects. civil engineering and environmental systems, 21(3), pp.207-28. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286600412331295 955 love, p.e.d., edwards, d.j. and smith, j., 2009. divergence or congruence: a path model of rework for building and civil engineering projects. journal of performance of constructed facilities, 23(6), pp.480-88. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)cf.1943-5509.0000054 ma, d., li, x. and cheng, c., 2020. the impact of the international construction standard application capability on contractor’s competitiveness: chinese contractors experience. journal of civil engineering and management, 26(8), pp.757–74. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2020.13749 ma, g., jiang, s., zhu, t., and jia, j., 2019. a novel method of developing construction projects schedule under rework scenarios. sustainability, 11, 5710. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11205710 mahamid, i., 2020. impact of rework on material waste in building construction projects. international journal of construction management, 22(8), pp.1500-07. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1728607 mahamid, i., 2016. analysis of rework in residential building projects in palestine. jordan journal of civil engineering, 10(2), pp.197-208. https://doi.org/10.14525/jjce.10.1.3536 asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202363 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000341 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511811753.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.08.009 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000171 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000171 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2002)18:2(76 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2002)18:2(76 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000373 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484856 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484856 https://doi.org/10.1080/014461900407374 https://doi.org/10.1177/875697280303400303 https://doi.org/10.1177/875697280303400303 https://doi.org/10.1080/10286600412331295955 https://doi.org/10.1080/10286600412331295955 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cf.1943-5509.0000054 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cf.1943-5509.0000054 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2020.13749 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11205710 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1728607 https://doi.org/10.14525/jjce.10.1.3536 mendis, d., hewage, k n. and wrzesniewski, j., 2015. contractual obligations analysis for construction waste management in canada. journal of civil engineering and management, 21(7), pp.866–80. https://doi.org/10.3846/13923 730.2014.893907 miri, m. and khaksefidi, m., 2015. cost management in construction projects rework and its effects. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 6(6), s6, pp.209-15. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s6p209 ndwandwa, s., simpeh, e.k. and smallwood, j.j., 2017. factors influencing the occurrence of rework in construction. in: proceedings of international research conference 2017: shaping tomorrow’s built environment. manchester, 11-12 september, pp.757-70. manchester, uk: university of salford. oyewobi, l.o. and ogunsemi, d.r., 2010. factors influencing rework occurrence in construction; a study of selected building projects in nigeria. journal of building performance, 1(1), pp.1-20. palaneeswaran, e., love, p.e.d. and kumaraswamy m.m., 2008. mapping rework causes and effects using artificial neural networks. building research & information, 36(5), pp.450-65. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210802128269 robertson, s., 2018. the engineer to the contract: how the role evolved, and the part played in dispute resolution, society of construction law, new zealand. society of construction law presentation, christchurch and hamilton, nz, 1 march 2018 and 5 april 2018, pp.1-24. aukland, nz: kensington swan. safapour, e. and kermanshachi, s., 2019. identifying early indicators of manageable rework causes and selecting mitigating best practices for construction. journal of management in engineering, 35(2), p.04018060. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000669 seneviratne, k. and michael, g.v., 2020. disputes in time bar provisions for contractors’ claims in standard form of contracts. international journal of construction management, 20(4), pp.335-46. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018. 1484854 seo, w. and kang, y., 2020. performance indicators for the claim management of general contractors. journal of management in engineering, 36(6), p.04020070. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000835 syal, m. and bora, m., 2016. change order clauses in standard contract documents. practice periodical on structural design and construction, 21(2), p.04015021. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)sc.1943-5576.0000281 umar, t., 2020. making future floating cities sustainable: a way forward. in: proceedings of the institution of civil engineers urban design and planning 2020, [e-journal] 173(6), pp.214–37. https://doi.org/10.1680/jurdp.19.00015 umar, t., egbu, c., ofori, g., honnurvali, m.s., saidani, m., shibani, a., opoku, a., gupta, n. and goh, k., 2020. uae’s commitment towards un sustainable development goals. in: proceedings of the institution of civil engineersengineering sustainability, [e-journal] 173(7), pp.325-43. https://doi.org/10.1680/jensu.19.00036 wang, c., yap, j.b.h., wood, l.c. and abdul-rahman, h., 2019. knowledge modelling for contract disputes and change control. production planning & control, 30(8), pp.650-64. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2019.1572247 wright, j.n. and fergusson, w., 2009. benefits of the nec ecc form of contract: a new zealand case study. international journal of project management, 27, pp.243–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.03.005 yap, j.b.h., low, p.l. and wang, c., 2017. rework in malaysian building construction impacts causes and potential solutions. journal of engineering, design and technology, 15(5), pp.591-618. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-01-20170002 ye, g., jin, z., xia, b. and skitmore, m., 2015. analysing causes for reworks in construction projects in china. journal of management in engineering, (31)6, p.04014097. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000347 zaneldin, e.k., 2020. investigating the types, causes and severity of claims in construction projects in the uae. international journal of construction management, 20(5), pp.385-401. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484863 asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202364 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2014.893907 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2014.893907 https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n6s6p209 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210802128269 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000669 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000669 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484854 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484854 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000835 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)sc.1943-5576.0000281 https://doi.org/10.1680/jurdp.19.00015 https://doi.org/10.1680/jensu.19.00036 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2019.1572247 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.03.005 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-01-2017-0002 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-01-2017-0002 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000347 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484863 “questionnaire survey” profile of respondent / organization 1how many years of experience do you have in the construction industry or project management? please tick [�] only one box. 2for how long have you been involved in contractual activities in projects? please tick [�] only one box. 3which of the following best describes your position in the company? please tick [�] only one box. surveyor 4which of the following type of companies describe your organization the most? please tick [�] only one box. 5what is the main activity of your company’s business? management 6what values do your projects mostly engage in? please tick [�] only one box 7please indicate from which side of the contract are you answering the following questions? please tick [�] only one box client-side contractor-side the following items have been identified as rework root causes within the project life cycle. in each question please rate your opinion by tick [�] on the figures between 1 and 5. asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202365 assessing the standard contract documents of nzs3910 to investigate the extent of contract coverage on rework causes and explore the required changes question 1to what extent do you agree that the following rework root causes lead to claims and other contractual issues? 1 2 3 4 5 st ro ng ly di sa gr ee di sa gr ee ne ut ra l ag re e st ro ng ly ag re e p ro ce ss 1.1-changes, modification and revisions in design or construction changes 1.2-error in design, drawings and specifications / error in construction 1.3-incomplete design, any omission in the design or construction process 1.4-inadequate procurement methods / poor contract execution 1.5-improper contractor and subcontractor selection 1.6-lack of document control h u m an r es o u rc es 2.1-lack of experience and personal expertise in design and construction 2.2-inadequate supervision staff 2.3-inadequate manpower to complete the task / staff turnover 2.4-insufficient skilled level manpower 2.5-poor knowledge of team member, lack of education and training 2.6-lack of employee motivation and rewards, carelessness 2.7-poor workmanship approach and inappropriate personal attitude 2.8-the absence of job security and other safety rules 2.9labor reallocation, alteration and staff turnover 2.10-conflict of interests m at er ia l & e q u ip m en t 3.1-defective materials, non-adherence to material specifications 3.2-poor-quality material or substandard products / prefabrication errors 3.3-replacement or misplacement of material and equipment 3.4-inefficient equipment use or altered material 3.5-untimely deliveries of material and equipment t ec h n ic al 4.1-ineffective use of quality management practices / deviation due to poor monitoring 4.2-poor technology application and lack of information technology use 4.3-poor communication system for coordinating between members 4.4-inefficient management process, poor site management practice 4.5-poor project documents, unclear instructions, poor contract documents 4.6conflicting and incomplete information 4.7-inadequate planning and poor scheduling of workload o th er f ac to rs 5.1-financial issues such as lack of funding, low contract or payment fee, delay in payment and cost pressure 5.2-lack of client involvement 5.3-unclear line of authority 5.4-time pressure, schedule acceleration to finish the task, insufficient time to prepare contract documentation 5.5-lack of constructability 5.6damage / defects / deviations in the product due to poor handling and safety considerations 5.7-governmental regulations / changes and policies 5.8-environmental conditions, poor site condition 5.9-unpredictable factors from different sources asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202366 question 2to what extent do you agree that the conditions of contract of nzs3910:2013 adequately address the following rework root causes? 1 2 3 4 5 st ro ng ly di sa gr ee di sa gr ee ne ut ra l ag re e st ro ng ly ag re e p ro ce ss 1.1-changes, modification and revisions in design or construction changes 1.2-error in design, drawings and specifications / error in construction 1.3-incomplete design, any omission in the design or construction process 1.4-inadequate procurement methods / poor contract execution 1.5-improper contractor and subcontractor selection 1.6-lack of document control h u m an r es o u rc es 2.1-lack of experience and personal expertise in design and construction 2.2-inadequate supervision staff 2.3-inadequate manpower to complete the task / staff turnover 2.4-insufficient skilled level manpower 2.5-poor knowledge of team member, lack of education and training 2.6-lack of employee motivation and rewards, carelessness 2.7-poor workmanship approach and inappropriate personal attitude 2.8-the absence of job security and other safety rules 2.9labor reallocation, alteration and staff turnover 2.10-conflict of interests m at er ia l & e q u ip m en t 3.1-defective materials, non-adherence to material specifications 3.2-poor-quality material or substandard products / prefabrication errors 3.3-replacement or misplacement of material and equipment 3.4-inefficient equipment use or altered material 3.5-untimely deliveries of material and equipment t ec h n ic al 4.1-ineffective use of quality management practices / deviation due to poor monitoring 4.2-poor technology application and lack of information technology use 4.3-poor communication system for coordinating between members 4.4-inefficient management process, poor site management practice 4.5-poor project documents, unclear instructions, poor contract documents 4.6conflicting and incomplete information 4.7-inadequate planning and poor scheduling of workload o th er f ac to rs 5.1-financial issues such as lack of funding, low contract or payment fee, delay in payment and cost pressure 5.2-lack of client involvement 5.3-unclear line of authority 5.4-time pressure, schedule acceleration to finish the task, insufficient time to prepare contract documentation 5.5-lack of constructability 5.6damage / defects / deviations in the product due to poor handling and safety considerations 5.7-governmental regulations / changes and policies 5.8-environmental conditions, poor site condition 5.9-unpredictable factors from different sources asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202367 asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202368 establishment of the relations between rework causes and clauses of nzs3910:2013 to explore the recommendations that can be used in contract to address rework (descriptive questions) a survey within new zealand construction projects in the last few months was conducted to investigate which root causes of rework lead to contractual issues and claims and explore if the clauses of nzs3910:2013 adequately address those causes. the initial result of the survey prioritized the causes of rework as the attached list that is used for reference to answer the following interview questions. the interview aims to find whether addressing rework has been stated in the clauses of nzs3910 clearly or not? it would be appreciated to answer the questions based on your best experience and knowledge of nzs3910:2013. question 1. how is rework addressed within clauses of nzs3910? question 2. which clauses relate to the causes of rework? question 3. do you recommend adding a new clause to cover rework in the contract? please recommend any clauses of nzs3910 that can be ammended/changed based on the priority index of the attached reference. asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202369 listed items have been prioritized based on the high generating rate of claims and contractual issues while have not been addressed by nzs3910 clauses adequately. reference list: the importance index of rework causes row root causes of rework category 1 lack of experience and personal expertise in design and construction human resources factor 2 insufficient skilled level manpower human resources factor 3 inadequate supervision staff human resources factor 4 poor knowledge of team member or lack of education and training human resources factor 5 lack of constructability general factors 6 poor workmanship approach and inappropriate personal attitude human resources factor 7 inadequate manpower to complete the task / staff turnover human resources factor 8 inefficient management process and poor site management practice technical factor 9 inadequate planning and poor scheduling of workload technical factor 10 improper contractor/subcontractor selection process factor 11 poor communication system for coordinating between members technical factor 12 time pressure, schedule acceleration to finish the task, insufficient time to prepare contract documentation general factors 13 inadequate procurement methods / poor contract execution process factor 14 lack of document control process factor 15 lack of employee motivation and rewards, carelessness human resources factors 16 ineffective use of quality management practices / deviation due to poor monitoring technical factor 17 poor project documents, unclear instructions and poor contract documents technical factor 18 financial issues such as lack of funding, low contract or payment fee, delay in payment and cost pressure general factors 19 damage / defects / deviations in the product due to poor handling and safety considerations general factors 20 error in design, drawings and specifications / error in construction process factor 21 lack of client involvement general factors 22 incomplete design, any omission in the design or construction process process factor 23 unpredictable factors from different sources general factor 24 poor technology application and lack of information technology use technical factor 25 labor reallocation or alteration and staff turnover human resources factors 26 untimely deliveries of material and equipment material & equipment factor 27 inefficient equipment use or altered material material & equipment factor 28 replacement or misplacement of material and equipment material & equipment factor 29 environmental conditions, poor site condition general factors 30 conflicting and incomplete information technical factor 31 poor-quality material or substandard products / prefabrication errors material & equipment factor 32 defective materials, non-adherence to material specifications material & equipment factor 33 conflict of interests human resources factors 34 changes, modification and revisions in design or construction changes process factors 35 the absence of job security and other safety rules human resources factors 36 governmental regulations / changes and policies general factors 37 unclear line of authority general factors asadi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202370 standardised retraction form reference of the retracted article: risk pricing in construction tenders how, who, what doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v7i2.2987 retraction date: 05 november 2025 day month year retraction requested by (multiple responses allowed): □ all authors □ some of the authors. names:  editor as requested by: editor-in-chief o institution o reader other (details) the association of researchers in construction management (arcom) was developing a database of published abstracts and noticed this duplication as cited below: “i have noticed that one of your journal’s papers was published twice: •https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v7i2.2987 •https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v8i1.2997” □ journal’s owner / publisher date of retraction request 08 08 2025 day month year https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v7i2.2987 standardised retraction form retraction type (multiple responses allowed): invalidating the results* *only one check mark is allowed in this column not invalidating the results □ fraud □ plagiarism □ inconsistent data  overlap □ honest error: □ property or legal concern o irreproducibility □ lack of ethical approval o lab error □ authorship o analytical error  editorial reasons o other (details): □ approval issues (authors, editors) □ compromised peer review □ conflicts of interest history □ history of expression of concern the association of researchers in construction management (arcom) was developing a database of published abstracts and noticed this duplication, as cited below: “i have noticed that one of your journal’s papers was published twice: •https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v7i2.2987 •https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v8i1.2997” there's a major error in the 2007 version of the above-mentioned paper in that it was cut short soon after the standardised retraction form previous incident reference and details: 'risks considered' subheading of the results section, and the text from an entire article from the previous issue was copied in its place. even though the correct version was published in vol. 8 no. 1 (2008), the error wasn’t declared in the 2008 version article or in the editorial, and there's no other indication to a reader that the 2007 version is flawed. □ history of correction. it is recommended that the 2007 version of the paper be retracted. an effort has been made to contact the authors, but unfortunately, my search revealed that the authors have retired and couldn’t have access to the current email addresses of the authors from august 2025 to date. previous incident reference and details: additional comments and details the editor-in-chief and publisher followed cope retraction guidelines (version 3, august 2025). retraction notice text (to be published) retraction notice title: risk pricing in construction tenders how, who, what authors: marcus towner and david baccarini journal: construction economics and building, volume 7, issue 2, 2007, pages 12-25 doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v7i2.2987 reason for retraction: this article has been retracted at the request of the editorin-chief and the publisher. following publication in https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v7i2.2987 standardised retraction form 2007/2008, concerns were raised recently regarding the duplication of the above paper. there's a major error in the 2007 version of the abovementioned paper in that it was cut short soon after the 'risks considered' subheading of the results section, and the text from an entire article from the previous issue was copied in its place. even though the correct version was published in vol. 8 no. 1 (2008), the error wasn’t declared in the 2008 version article or in the editorial, and there's no other indication to a reader that the 2007 version is flawed. an investigation confirmed that portions of the article published in 2008 contained substantial overlap with previously published works by the same authors in 2007 without retracting the first paper published in 2007. unfortunately, the authors could not be contacted to acknowledged these issues and therefore the editor-inchief and the publisher have decided to retract the paper. statement: this retraction serves to maintain the integrity of the scholarly record of the construction economics and building journal and upholds the highest standards of publication ethics. the online version of this article has been marked as “retracted.” date of retraction: 05/11/2025 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: weerasuriya, g. t., perera, s., calheiros, r. n. 2025. technological imperatives for issues in the certification of quality, progress, and payments in construction projects: a systematic review. construction economics and building, 25:1, 25–48. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i1.8680 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb 25 research article technological imperatives for issues in the certification of quality, progress, and payments in construction projects: a systematic review g. thilini weerasuriya1,*, srinath perera2, rodrigo n. calheiros3 1 centre for smart modern construction, school of engineering, design and built environment, western sydney university, t.weerasuriya@westernsydney.edu.au 2 centre for smart modern construction, school of engineering, design and built environment, western sydney university, srinath.perera@westernsydney.edu.au 3 school of computer, data and mathematical sciences, western sydney university, r.calheiros@westernsydney.edu.au corresponding author: g. thilini weerasuriya, school of engineering, design and built environment, western sydney university, t.weerasuriya@westernsydney.edu.au doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8680 article history: received 20/06/2023; revised 06/06/2024; accepted 12/08/2024; published 31/03/2025 abstract construction projects require certification of quality, progress of work, and related payments to ensure successful completion. however, several issues related to quality, progress, and payment certifications exist in the construction industry. therefore, a two-stage systematic review of the literature was conducted with the objective of understanding issues and appropriate solutions related to quality, progress, and payment certifications in construction projects. the literature review, following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (prisma) guidelines, retrieved journal articles in scopus and web of science published between 2008 and 2023. in stage 1, 1,450 records were retrieved through search queries on prevalent issues, and 50 articles were selected after applying inclusion criteria and screening. stage 2 of the review sought technological imperatives that mapped to the pinpointed issues. a total of 1,262 search results were screened using the same criteria as the first stage, producing 45 articles. the studies related to quality and progress certification highlighted issues declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8680 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8680 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8680 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:t.weerasuriya@westernsydney.edu.au mailto:r.calheiros@westernsydney.edu.au mailto:t.weerasuriya@westernsydney.edu.au https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8680 mailto:t.weerasuriya@westernsydney.edu.au mailto:srinath.perera@westernsydney.edu.au such as defects, failures and rework; delayed project completion; and inaccurate documentation and reporting. payment certification-related articles discussed issues like payment delays, nonpayments, payment disputes, and insolvency. building information modelling, artificial intelligence, and blockchain technology and smart contracts were highlighted as the major technological imperatives for solving these issues. these technologies support rigorous inspections, ensure compliance of building materials and products, enable contract fulfilment, and guarantee payments, thereby effectively addressing the issues. the study strongly advocates for blockchain and smart contracts as a comprehensive technological solution to overcome certification-related challenges in construction projects. keywords blockchain; construction; payments; quality; systematic review introduction construction projects are complex and dynamic endeavours that demand the effective coordination of numerous stakeholders. the success of these projects depends on the accurate assurance and certification of the quality and progress of work as well as the certification of related payments. this process is essential for ensuring that the final product aligns with specified requirements and that all parties involved are fairly compensated for their contributions. despite the critical nature of these processes, the industry faces challenges related to the certification of quality, leading to significant compliance failures (maund, sher and naughton, 2014; shergold and weir, 2018; wu, lu and xu, 2022) and a lack of accountability for issues in certification and delays in approval of work (maritz and gerber, 2017). additionally, the construction industry’s cash flow challenges, highlighted by high rates of payment delinquency and bankruptcy (griffiths, lord and coggins, 2017; wang, et al., 2023b) and payment disputes along the construction supply chain (bolton, et al., 2022; francis, ramachandra and perera, 2022), further complicate project execution. quality assurance directly influences progress tracking and, consequently, the certification of payments (ashworth and perera, 2018). hence, the interconnectedness of quality, progress, and payment issues in construction projects requires a comprehensive approach to find effective solutions. the choice of a systematic literature review as the methodology for this study is driven by the need for a structured examination of existing research on these issues. therefore, the objective of this paper is to critically examine the technological imperatives for addressing the pervasive issues related to the certification of quality, progress, and payments in construction projects. by identifying the core problems and the generic solution strategies reported in the literature, this review aims to pinpoint the technological imperatives essential for enhancing certification processes and ensuring the success of construction projects. research methodology the research question for the systematic literature review was this: “what is the current state of research on issues related to certification of quality, progress, and payments in construction projects, and the related solution strategies and technological imperatives for solving these issues?” a comprehensive search was performed in two stages on the scopus and web of science databases to identify relevant literature using the prisma guidelines (page, et al., 2021) to answer this research question. a two-stage review was adopted to address the complex nature of the topic under consideration, enabling a more structured and focused analysis. the first stage of the systematic literature review aimed to identify the issues related to certification and the generic solution strategies. the steps are illustrated in a flow diagram in figure 1 and described subsequently. weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202526 records identified from databases: total = 1450 (scopus = 1112 web of science = 338) duplicate records removed = 97 records excluded from the review = 973 records selected for further review = 477 inclusion criteria applied eligible studies ineligible studies search terms in title, abstract, keywords records included in the review = 50 records manually scanned = 380 inclusion criteria language: english publication year: 2008 – 2023 type: journal article subject area: relevant to scope of the study figure 1. flow diagram for systematic literature review on issues related to quality, progress, and payment certifications. the following advanced search query was used in scopus: title-abs-key (“construction” and (“quality” or “defect*” or “payment” or “progress” or “work” or “inspection”) and (“certification” or “certificate” or “certify*”) and (“issues” or “challenges” or “problems” or “solutions” or “strategies” or “technologies”)). a similar query was used in web of science with the same keywords and logical operators in the title search field. a total of 1,450 records were returned from the search queries, with 1,112 from scopus and 338 from web of science. these studies were screened for inclusion based on the predefined inclusion and exclusion criteria. the inclusion criteria were journal articles that pertain to issues of the certification of quality, progress, and payments in construction projects and relevant solutions published between 2008 and 2023 in english. exclusion criteria were non-english language publications, conference papers, book chapters and grey literature not related to the certification of quality, progress, and payments in construction projects. the 477 records remaining after screening were checked for duplicates, and 97 duplicate papers were removed, producing 380 eligible articles. subsequently, titles and abstracts were manually evaluated to screen articles for in-depth analysis. a total of 50 articles were included in the review, with 35 articles related to quality weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202527 and/or progress certification and 15 on payment certification. the current solution strategies were also extracted according to the two major categories of issues. the second stage of the systematic review aimed to discover technological imperatives for the identified issues (figure 2). the scopus and web of science databases were searched using keywords identified through the previous analysis. inclusion criteria language: english publication year: 2008 – 2023 type: journal article subject area: relevant to scope of the study records identified from databases: total = 1262 (scopus = 895 web of science = 367) duplicate records removed = 115 records excluded from the review = 857 records selected for further review = 405 inclusion criteria applied eligible studies ineligible studies search terms in title, abstract, keywords records included in the review = 45 records manually scanned = 290 figure 2. flow diagram for systematic literature review on technological imperatives related to quality, progress, and payment certifications. the advanced search query on scopus was as follows: (title-abs-key(“defect*” or “failure*” or “rework” or “project delay*” or “inaccurate documentation” or “inadequate documentation” or “conflict of interest” or “accountability” or “payment delay*” or “underpayment” or “nonpayment” or “payment dispute*” or “conflict*” or “poor communication” or “insolvency” or “retention” or “compliance” or “inspection” or “quality management” or “training” or “certification” or “contract*” or “construction guarantee” or “payment guarantee” or “project bank account” or “legislative measure” weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202528 or “legislation” or “regulation” or “regulatory framework” or “defect prevention”) and title-abskey(“construction industry” or “construction project*” or “built environment”)) and title-abskey(“technolog* solution*” or “innovative technolog*” or “digital technolog*” or “smart technolog*” or “information technolog*” or “industry 4.0” or “digitalisation”). the search on web of science used the same keywords and logical operators on the title search field. the search queries produced 1,262 results, with 895 from scopus and 367 from web of science. the inclusion and exclusion criteria used in the previous search were also applied to these results. after the initial screening, 405 records remained, and these were checked for duplicates, with 115 duplicate articles removed. the titles and abstracts of the 290 eligible articles were manually screened to identify 45 articles for review. issues related to quality, progress, and payment certification issues related to quality and progress certification this section examines the issues related to quality and progress certification within the 35 selected articles from stage 1 of the systematic review. these issues are depicted in table 1 and discussed in detail in the subsequent subsections. defects, failures, and rework a “defect” in construction refers to any deviation caused by a technical issue that leads to the misuse of resources or additional costs during the construction process ( jingmond and ågren, 2015). failure usually results from a combination of several interrelated reasons, such as technical issues and unforeseen shortcomings in the performance of materials. human judgement errors, ignorance or greed can cause deficiencies in procedures leading to failures (buys and le roux, 2013). the current methods used in the construction industry to detect defects on a construction site are mainly manual and rely on construction consultants to make assessments based on two-dimensional plans and paper-based drawings (may, et al., 2022). major defects are caused by poor workmanship, low-quality materials and components, and inadequate quality assurance checks of the work done (abdul-rahman, et al., 2014), as well as time limitations, financial limitations on operational expenses, and insufficient training of employees (aljassmi, han and davis, 2016). a study that examined the association between construction inspections and critical defects listed factors such as not implementing quality control checklists, incorrect recording of inspections, failure to inspect construction progress and failure to notify contractors to mitigate defects (lin and fan, 2018). other studies, listed in table 1, also highlighted poor workmanship and the lack of accurate inspections and certifications as factors contributing to construction defects. quality control, time schedules, and collaboration between stakeholders have been identified as factors influencing the number of significant defects at project handover (schultz, et al., 2015). contractors are not usually insured for building defects during the statutory warranty period. they tend to avoid rectifying defects, as the expense cuts into their profits and increases their overhead costs, resulting in poor-quality building works (paton-cole and aibinu, 2021). rework due to defects is a major cause of increase in project costs and delays (kamal, et al., 2022). reasons for rework include defective installation of items, noncompliance with specifications and standards, and insufficient oversight and inspection (love and smith, 2019). previously undiscovered defects can also be exposed during the testing of rework (rahmandad and hu, 2010). weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202529 delayed project completion most construction projects encounter delays in progress, resulting in the late completion of milestones or project delivery (ogbeifun and pretorius, 2022). delays affect clients through cost overruns and delayed realisation of project objectives. delays cause contractors to incur larger overhead costs due to longer working periods, increased costs of material due to inflation and higher labour costs. a critical factor for project delays is the financial constraint, including delays in honouring payment certificates ( jingmond and ågren, 2015). additionally, delays occur due to poor supervision and site management, inefficient and time-consuming site inspections, late delivery of material and material shortages, defects and rework, delays in certification and instructions from consultants, and poor communication and coordination, among others (see table 1 for references). inaccurate and inadequate documentation and reporting determining responsible parties for project non-conformances is difficult due to inaccurate documentation or non-reporting of non-conformance incidents (love, et al., 2018). systems that enable the recording of table 1. issues related to quality and progress certification. issues related to quality and progress certification total references discussing issues references defects, failures, and rework 18 jingmond and ågren (2015), love and smith (2019), buys and le roux (2013), paton-cole and aibinu (2021), may, et al. (2022), abdul-rahman, et al. (2014), aljassmi, han and davis (2016), lin and fan (2018), carretero-ayuso, moreno-cansado and garcía-sanz-calcedo (2017), chang, du and shen (2012), egwunatum, et al. (2022), finger, gonzález and kern (2015), tayeh, et al. (2020), hasan, et al. (2016), yoon, son and kim (2021), zunguzane, smallwood and emuze (2012), schultz, et al. (2015), kamal, et al. (2022), rahmandad and hu (2010) delayed project completion 7 ogbeifun and pretorius (2022), jingmond and ågren (2015), fugar and agyakwah-baah (2010), kwon, park and lim (2014), ogbeifun and pretorius (2022), omar and mahdjoubi (2022), kamal, et al. (2022) inaccurate and inadequate documentation and reporting 12 love, et al. (2018), sheng, et al. (2020), yoon, son and kim (2021), senaratne and mayuran (2015), gharbia, et al. (2023), meacham (2010), lundkvist, meiling and sandberg (2014), lin, chang and su (2016), chang, du and shen (2012), martínez-rojas, marín and vila (2016), mirshokraei, de gaetani and migliaccio (2019), park, et al. (2013), wang, et al. (2015) conflicts of interest and lack of accountability for defects 2 maund, sher and naughton (2014), paton-cole and aibinu (2021) weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202530 project quality data are lacking, and project stakeholders perceive a low level of confidence in the integrity of documentation maintained by contractors (sheng, et al., 2020). defects in all project stages can be ascribed to factors like insufficient communication among project stakeholders, a lack of integrated project quality management (yoon, son and kim, 2021), and deficiencies in documentation (senaratne and mayuran, 2015). ensuring the quality of building materials and products without effective documentation to trace their provenance is challenging (gharbia, et al., 2023). records can also be falsified, causing severe consequences (meacham, 2010). the current process of defect management has issues including being time-consuming, data loss at points of data re-entry, difficulties in monitoring the progress of the construction phase and not having a central defect data repository (lundkvist, meiling and sandberg, 2014). it is also challenging to track the history of defects because of the lack of extensive records on the defects (lin, chang and su, 2016). the progress of project work should be regularly monitored and compared with the plans and corrective actions taken when discrepancies are observed. however, manual methods of data gathering on site do not continuously capture the progress of construction work or details of defects and can have errors in data entry, creating a lack of data for quality management and control (chang, du and shen, 2012; park, et al., 2013; wang, et al., 2015; martínez-rojas, marín and vila, 2016; mirshokraei, de gaetani and migliaccio, 2019). conflicts of interest and lack of accountability for defects most construction work needs to be certified. this involves assessing if proposals are compliant with relevant codes and standards, conducting inspections throughout the construction process and performing a final inspection prior to the building being occupied. accredited building surveyors who serve as certifiers are accountable for fulfilling these responsibilities (maund, sher and naughton, 2014). paton-cole and aibinu (2021) revealed a potential conflict of interest with the role of building surveyors. they are appointed by the builder to supervise their own work while also working independently on behalf of the client. if a building surveyor mistakenly issues a certificate approving defective work, the builder could refuse to take responsibility for the defects. this highlights the need to reconsider the assignment of responsibility for defects among builders, suppliers, and building surveyors to ensure that the public interest is served. issues related to payment certification this section discusses the issues related to payment certification as presented in the 15 papers selected through the first stage of the systematic review. table 2 summarises these issues, and they are detailed in the subsequent subsections. payment delays, underpayment, and non-payment the payment problem is prevalent in the construction industry due to its hierarchical contractual framework (el-adaway, et al., 2017). contractors are paid by their principals and are expected to deliver funds to subcontractors and suppliers in the supply chain. this structure of payment leads to payment issues for two primary reasons. first, the lower-tier contractors and suppliers are susceptible to bankruptcy or poor payment practices of the contractors above them in the chain. second, the principal contractors have a dominant position in the contracting chain, and they can use this position to pressure subcontractors and suppliers into extending credit terms to get an advantage in cash flow and consequently obtain low-cost finance (griffiths, lord and coggins, 2017). a significant factor contributing to underpayment, delayed payment, and non-payment was identified as delayed assessment and certification of interim and final payments (ye and rahman, 2010; azman, et al., weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202531 2014; masrom, et al., 2021). the certification process can be time-consuming and complex, which can lead to delays and added costs. delay in honouring payment certificates is a major contributor to causing delays in construction projects (el-adaway, et al., 2017). delays in payment can lead to interruptions in the delivery of materials, which can, in turn, affect the productivity of labour in the construction sector (fugar and agyakwah-baah, 2010; ramachandra and rotimi, 2015b). contractors’ delay in submitting claims or submitting incomplete payment claims contributes to delays in payment (ye and rahman, 2010). late payments can also result from the need to adjust the payment before it can be processed. these administrative procedures, which can be complex and time-consuming, cause considerable delays in payment processing (wang, et al., 2023b). the construction industry faces cash flow issues due to inadequate management capacity and ineffective utilisation of funds by clients, scarcity of capital to finance projects and poor implementation of processes. furthermore, poor cash flow is caused by deliberate delayed payments to gain financial advantages and delays in releasing retention money to contractors. construction industry participants generally deem that delaying payments for a few days can be accepted (ye and rahman, 2010). contractors’ interim payments could be withheld due to quality-related issues (demachkieh and abdulmalak, 2019). lack of oversight can lead to errors and non-compliance with regulations, subsequently leading to penalties. failure of the contractor to deliver work according to quality requirements will lead to temporary withholding of part of the interim payment (ye and rahman, 2010). the work may be taken over with lower quality if the contractor fails to fully rectify the defects, and a payment set-off would be made (demachkieh and abdul-malak, 2019). payment disputes causes of payment disputes involve factors such as non-payment of certified sums, failure to pay for variations claims, late release of retention money, and valuation of final account (ramachandra and rotimi, 2015a). the certification process may lack transparency, making it difficult for parties to understand the status of payments and disputes. limited ability to enforce contracts can also lead to disputes and delays in the certification process. payment denials are often due to concerns over the legitimacy of progress claims, table 2. issues related to payment certification. issues related to payment certification total references discussing issues references payment delays, underpayment and non-payment 9 el-adaway, et al. (2017), griffiths, lord and coggins (2017), azman, et al. (2014), masrom, et al. (2021), ye and rahman (2010), fugar and agyakwah-baah (2010), ramachandra and rotimi (2015b), wang, et al. (2023b), demachkieh and abdul-malak (2019) payment disputes 2 ramachandra and rotimi (2015a; 2015b) conflict and poor communication 4 demachkieh and abdul-malak (2019), ye and rahman (2010), ramachandra and rotimi, (2015a), sonmez, ahmadisheykhsarmast and güngör (2022) insolvency of construction contracting firms 4 el-kholy and akal (2021), ye and rahman (2010), bolton, et al. (2022), griffiths, lord and coggins (2017) weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202532 work that is incomplete or defective, or the failure to issue payment schedules (ramachandra and rotimi, 2015b). conflict and poor communication certification issues in construction projects can be caused by poor communication and conflicts between the parties involved (demachkieh and abdul-malak, 2019). the client may not trust the consultants responsible for certifying the contractor’s progress claim and variation orders, while the contractor may struggle to understand the client’s requirements for variation of work. difficulty in reaching a settlement and disagreement over the valuation of completed work can contribute to certification problems. varying assessments are caused by different measurement methods for quantity take-off, delays in inspections by consultants, and overstatement of bills of quantities for items (ye and rahman, 2010). a lack of standardisation in the process of certification of payments can also lead to confusion and inconsistencies in its implementation (ramachandra and rotimi, 2015a; sonmez, ahmadisheykhsarmast and güngör, 2022). insolvency of construction contracting firms insolvency of construction contracting firms is largely due to financial causes. the primary reasons are delayed progress payments from clients and the non-payment of interest on delayed certificates (ye and rahman, 2010; el-kholy and akal, 2021). holding retention money for longer than necessary also significantly contributes to bankruptcies in the construction industry (bolton, et al., 2022). payment problems have an impact on both construction projects’ success and the long-term survival of the industry (griffiths, lord and coggins, 2017). solution strategies for issues related to quality, progress, and payment certification this section discusses general solution strategies for certification-related issues presented in the literature. solution strategies for issues related to quality and progress certification the pertinent solution strategies for quality and progress certification-related issues are listed in table 3 and subsequently discussed. strict supervision and regular inspections appointing experienced site managers to oversee the quality of work and provide strict supervision minimises the amount of defective work produced, thereby reducing the need for rework (kamal, et al., 2022). construction quality inspections and certifications should be regularly carried out by consultants such as engineers, architects, and building surveyors (kwon, park and lim, 2014). before the certificate of practical completion is issued, defects should be accurately detected by consultants and rectified by contractors. implementing regular quality controls and inspections during design and construction can reduce or eliminate post-handover defects (love and smith, 2019). strategies to minimise defects also include stakeholders taking responsibility for failures and compliance with specifications (hasan, et al., 2016). ensuring compliance of building materials and products building code compliance of materials and products can be ensured through the following methods: factory self-certification, independent third-party certification, product identification and traceability, industry-led quality assurance systems, product authentication and insurance schemes (gharbia, et al., 2023). weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202533 regulatory frameworks for defect prevention, control, and accountability various countries have introduced regulatory frameworks to prevent and control defects. for example, in australia, the construction process is subject to preand post-construction building regulations, which allow building surveyors to oversee the design and construction process independently. residential construction inspection and certification should comply with the building code of australia, australian standards, guidelines issued by local councils and issued building permits. this is necessary for ensuring structural integrity, compliance with energy efficiency requirements, and health, safety and amenity. the quality assurance checks by the building surveyor must be conducted at specific project milestones (paton-cole and aibinu, 2021). quality management frameworks a proactive defect management framework was proposed by lundkvist, meiling and sandberg (2014), which used the plan-do-check-act theory and continuous improvement. this framework was introduced to mitigate insufficiencies in the current process of defect management. a checklist for engineers was developed by chang, du and shen (2012) based on deficiencies in site visits, types of defects that occur frequently and factors that affect construction productivity. the checklist can be used as a systematic tool to enhance the quality of construction and improve project performance. total quality management (tqm) principles for improving construction quality supervision and monitoring and control of quality were studied by egwunatum, et al. (2022). principles such as guaranteeing material procurement with the specified standards of quality, using a construction quality improvement process in the organisation and responsibility of site management are required during the construction stage to ensure quality standards. training and certification of relevant stakeholders the implementation of licensing is a crucial measure to increase the level of responsibility and accountability among practitioners. various jurisdictions globally already have some form of licensing or certification to establish minimum standards in the industry. for a licensing scheme to be effective in demonstrating table 3. solutions for issues related to quality and progress certification. solution strategies for issues related to quality and progress certification references strict supervision and regular inspections kamal, et al. (2022), kwon, park and lim (2014), love and smith (2019), hasan, et al. (2016) ensuring compliance of building materials and products gharbia, et al. (2023) regulatory frameworks for defect prevention and control and accountability paton-cole and aibinu (2021) quality management frameworks lundkvist, meiling and sandberg (2014), chang, du and shen (2012), egwunatum, et al. (2022) training and certification of relevant stakeholders meacham (2010) weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202534 minimum competency requirements, there must be compulsory standards and continuous professional development. additionally, a clear and effective disciplinary system must be in place to remove unethical practitioners (meacham, 2010). solution strategies for issues related to payment certification table 4 lists the solution strategies for issues related to payment certification. these are described in the following subsections. table 4. solution strategies for issues related to payment certification. solutions for issues related to payment certification references standard forms of contract masrom, et al. (2021), el-adaway, et al. (2017), maritz (2011) construction and payment guarantees maritz (2011) legislative measures uher and brand (2008), bolton, et al. (2022), ramachandra and rotimi (2015b) project bank accounts bolton, et al. (2022), griffiths, lord and coggins (2017) standard forms of contract suitable implementation of standard forms of contract is proposed to mitigate payment default issues (masrom, et al., 2021). payment provisions in seven major standard forms of construction contracts were analysed by el-adaway, et al. (2017). they found that provisions for payments in these standard forms shared many similarities, such as requiring progress payments and specifying payment mechanisms. however, the amount and timing of payments, as well as the procedures for dispute resolution and payment certification, differed. therefore, a better understanding of payment provisions in different standard forms of contracts could help to improve payment practices in the construction industry, reduce payment disputes, and enhance project outcomes. however, regular changes to these forms cause difficulty in interpretation and increase risk for the parties in the contract (maritz, 2011). construction and payment guarantees in some forms of contract, contractors should give a construction guarantee to clients. these on-call or ondemand guarantees state that the client can call in the guarantee by proving their rights with a certificate provided by the principal agent (maritz, 2011). a payment guarantee is a contract between a thirdparty guarantor and a contractor, in which the guarantor promises to pay the contractor the value of the construction work done, up to the amount guaranteed or a percentage of the total price, if the client defaults on their payments. one issue that arises is that contractors want the payment guarantee to be in effect until they receive the final payment certificate, but banks require a specific expiration date. this can be difficult to determine at the start of the construction period (maritz, 2011). legislative measures legislative measures have been introduced in many countries to ensure security of payment. for example, the building and construction industry security of payment act 1999 in new south wales, australia, weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202535 provides a means for claimants to recover payments through an adjudication process (uher and brand, 2008). the uk’s construction act of 2009 aimed to prohibit contract clauses that make payments by the contractor contingent upon the contractor receiving payment first, which would safeguard subcontractors and other supply chain members from late payments or non-payment. nonetheless, smalland mediumsized enterprises in the construction industry reported that clients and primary contractors do not adhere to the regulation and continue to use these clauses (bolton, et al., 2022). ramachandra and rotimi (2015b) reported strategies such as issuing statutory demands, proceedings for bankruptcy, and liquidation to remedy payment problems. project bank accounts project bank accounts (pbas) can address payment delays in the construction industry (bolton, et al., 2022). a pba is a dedicated bank account that is used to make payments to the main contractor and other participants in the supply chain. the main contractor submits a payment claim including a breakdown of payments to each supplier, which is approved by the client. the client pays the total progress payment amount into the pba, and each supplier is paid when both the client and the main contractor agree. this system allows funds to flow more quickly through the supply chain, bypassing the traditional lengthy payment credit terms in subcontracts. however, some contractors may resist pbas because they cannot strategically manage their cash flow, and pbas do not prevent head contractors from disputing payment claims to reduce payments (griffiths, lord and coggins, 2017). technological imperatives for certification of quality, progress, and payments the second stage of the literature review identified several technological imperatives that have emerged to solve the previously discussed issues, with the most prevalent being building information modelling, artificial intelligence, and blockchain technology and smart contracts. these support and augment the general strategies available for issue resolution. table 5 presents the identified literature on these technology solutions. table 5. summary of references on technological imperatives for the certification of quality, progress, and payments. issues solved building information modelling artificial intelligence blockchain technology and smart contracts defects, failures, and rework lin, chang and su (2016), kwon, park and lim (2014), may, et al. (2022), mirshokraei, de gaetani and migliaccio (2019), park, et al. (2013), khalesi, et al. (2020), ma, et al. (2018), asadi, et al. (2019), zhang (2023) pan and zhang (2021), baduge, et al. (2022), braun, et al. (2020), locatelli, et al. (2021), li, cai and kamat (2016) lu, et al. (2021), wang, et al. (2017), lu, et al. (2022) delayed project completion wang, et al. (2015), khalesi, et al. (2020), nafe assafi, et al. (2022), asadi, et al. (2019) chen, et al. (2023), greeshma and edayadiyil (2022), qureshi, et al. (2022) elazhary and hosny (2023) weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202536 issues solved building information modelling artificial intelligence blockchain technology and smart contracts inaccurate and inadequate documentation and reporting wang, et al. (2023a), hijazi, et al. (2023), celik, petri and rezgui (2023) chen, et al. (2023), greeshma and edayadiyil (2022), pan and zhang (2021), locatelli, et al. (2021) perera, et al. (2020), wu, et al. (2022), hijazi, et al. (2023), wang, et al. (2017), gao, et al. (2022), yang, et al. (2020) conflicts of interest and lack of accountability for defects perera, et al. (2020), lu, et al. (2021), wang, et al. (2017) payment delays, underpayment, and nonpayment sarkar, dhaneshwar and raval (2023) ahmadisheykhsarmast and sonmez (2020), tezel, et al. (2021), chong and diamantopoulos (2020), das, luo and cheng (2020), hamledari and fischer (2021), nanayakkara, et al. (2021), sigalov, et al. (2021), sonmez, ahmadisheykhsarmast and güngör (2022), wu, lu and xu (2022) payment disputes chong and diamantopoulos (2020), sonmez, ahmadisheykhsarmast and güngör (2022), saygili, mert and tokdemir (2022) conflict and poor communication wang, et al. (2023a) lu, et al. (2021), yang, et al. (2020), qian and papadonikolaki (2021), teisserenc and sepasgozar (2021) insolvency of construction contracting firms ahmadisheykhsarmast and sonmez (2020), chong and diamantopoulos (2020), das, luo and cheng (2020), hamledari and fischer (2021), nanayakkara, et al. (2021), sigalov, et al. (2021), sonmez, ahmadisheykhsarmast and güngör (2022), wu, lu and xu (2022) table 5. continued weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202537 building information modelling utilising building information modelling (bim) for defect management has been proposed in research, as bim enables effective collaboration among project participants and the incorporation of project data in various project-related activities (lin, chang and su, 2016). furthermore, studies have investigated the integration of bim with augmented reality (ar) for project progress monitoring and defect detection. for example, a framework for bim-ar integration for quality control proposed by mirshokraei, de gaetani and migliaccio (2019) acquired inspection data, processed the results by extracting data from 4d bim models and facilitated collaboration among stakeholders through a web-based checklist and an ar mobile application. ma, et al. (2018) proposed the visualisation of defects on a bim model to be collaboratively viewed by project stakeholders for effective quality inspections. a prototype system by wang, et al. (2015) integrating bim and light detection and ranging (lidar) had a lidar system connected to a quadrotor that flew around the construction site to generate a 3d point cloud model of as-built data in real-time using the data collected from lidar. it synchronised a bim model with the as-built model to calculate the deviations and assess construction quality. a conceptual framework to adopt bim to facilitate dispute management in the construction project life cycle was developed by wang, et al. (2023a). causes of disputes such as design errors and delays could be reduced by improving information management and collaboration through bim in this framework. bim can also be integrated with blockchain technology to give a single source of truth of data in a project and provide a secure, transparent method for multiple stakeholders to use and share data (celik, petri and rezgui, 2023; hijazi, et al., 2023). a prototype that combines bim, internet of things and blockchain was proposed by sarkar, dhaneshwar and raval (2023) to automate project monitoring to effectively manage data and improve payment processes for project contractors and subcontractors. artificial intelligence complex tasks are performed by computers using artificial intelligence (ai) techniques. issues related to construction progress and quality inspections can be solved to a certain extent using ai techniques for automation, computer vision and natural language processing. ai-based solutions drive automation of activities in the construction process to overcome issues related to manual observation, for example, automated capturing of site images, videos and other data through drones and sensors, which are analysed by ai techniques like machine learning to identify defects and monitor progress (pan and zhang, 2021). computer vision is an area of ai that can extract relevant and valuable data from digital images and other forms of visual inputs. attempts are being made to supplement and replace manual visual inspections using computer vision techniques. currently, deep learning algorithms are predominantly used in computer vision to process, analyse, and understand captured data for detection of defects, structural components, and site conditions. for example, concrete cracks are detected from photographs using deep learning classifications (baduge, et al., 2022). 3d point clouds are also used as computer vision image data to evaluate the progress of construction projects (chen, et al., 2023). project progress tracking can also use machine learning and image processing with deep learning models (greeshma and edayadiyil, 2022). computer vision can ensure that construction materials or products meet quality standards, for instance, by checking the dimensions and shape of building components, such as windows or doors, to ensure that they are within acceptable tolerances (braun, et al., 2020). natural language processing (nlp) is a branch of ai that uses computers to process language-related data to comprehend text like a human. nlp techniques can be applied to construction documents such as inspection reports to extract valuable insights and identify patterns to improve quality control processes. weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202538 for example, documents such as building codes can be analysed through nlp techniques to check if bim-based designs meet compliance requirements (pan and zhang, 2021). inspection reports contain information about defects and non-conformities, and by using nlp techniques, the reports are analysed to identify the type, frequency and severity of defects. this enables the identification of root causes of defects and the prevention of similar issues from occurring in the future (locatelli, et al., 2021). blockchain technology and smart contracts a blockchain is a peer-to-peer decentralised digital ledger of data, which contains a cryptographically linked record of all transactions executed within the network (perera, et al., 2020). blockchain technology uses smart contracts, which are tamper-proof digital contracts that are automatically executed and enforce rules that are dependent on distributed consensus within a blockchain (yang, et al., 2020). the architecture of blockchain provides its users with the following key advantages. • decentralisation: allowing peer-to-peer sharing of data removes the need for a central authority to maintain the ledger. this removes the single failure point that would affect a centralised system and creates a more robust system (perera, et al., 2020; wu, et al., 2022). • security and trust: having consensus mechanisms and cryptography promotes security and trust in the blockchain data. data hashing provides assurance against unauthorised data modification. transaction origins can be determined through digital signatures and keys (perera, et al., 2020; qian and papadonikolaki, 2021). • auditability: validation of transactions made on the blockchain is conducted by network nodes, and a timestamp for each transaction is recorded. the transaction and ledger data are available for all authorised users to view. this allows users to trace records through any network node (perera, et al., 2020; gao, et al., 2022). • immutability: the necessity of validating data on the peer-to-peer network and replicating the ledger to all nodes assures the immutability of the data. a block, once added to the blockchain, cannot be removed, thereby preserving all ledger transactions (perera, et al., 2020). the blockchain can store certifications on the quality of materials and products, and the quality and quantity of work progress so that relevant stakeholders know the sources of the information (wang, et al., 2017; lu, et al., 2022). since the records are tamper-proof, it will assist in enforcing compliance of work, and all modifications to data such as bim models and certifications can be stored immutably on the blockchain (hijazi, et al., 2023). a framework to store extension of time requests was proposed by elazhary and hosny (2023) to support delay analysis in construction projects and trace the sources of delays, benefitting the resolution of disputes due to delays. tracing the provenance of products in the construction supply chain is important for quality assurance and compliance purposes when defective products are identified (teisserenc and sepasgozar, 2021). if the full history of product transactions is tracked through the blockchain, it enables the identification of responsible parties and enhances the traceability and transparency of the supply chain (wang, et al., 2017; lu, et al., 2021). managing construction payments through blockchain is proposed by several researchers to provide immutability. for example, a framework by das, luo and cheng (2020) uses smart contracts to automate interim payment conditions by sharing project-level information related to payments. confidentiality of data is also enabled through the management of cryptographic keys. blockchain, through implementing smart contracts, can solve issues related to security of payment (nanayakkara, et al., 2021; wu, lu and xu, 2022). the fund availability can be established through private blockchain networks to reduce concerns regarding non-payment (ahmadisheykhsarmast and sonmez, 2020). storing retention money on a blockchain network has the potential to protect the funds and allow it to be accessed to pay subcontractors weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202539 figure 3. keyword co-occurrence network. upon contractor insolvency. project updates being added as ledger transactions would trigger automatic payments for predefined conditions. this would reduce the issues of late payments or non-payment (chong and diamantopoulos, 2020). investigations on integrating bim with smart contracts proposed improving the administration of progress payments by digitising building elements and using computerised protocols that run on a blockchain to automate payment terms (sigalov, et al., 2021; sonmez, ahmadisheykhsarmast and güngör, 2022). tezel, et al. (2021) researched blockchain-based project bank accounts for payments in the construction supply chain, which would enable quicker payments and continuous, transparent tracking of transactions, thereby reducing disputes and costs. if disputes arise, a decentralised, blockchain-based dispute resolution system proposed by saygili, mert and tokdemir (2022) aims to resolve construction disputes with greater transparency and cost savings. discussion the technological imperatives of bim, artificial intelligence, and blockchain technology and smart contracts solve the issues related to quality, progress, and payment certifications by supporting or directly implementing the general solution strategies. for example, strict supervision and regular inspections can be implemented using automation and computer vision artificial intelligence techniques. bim and blockchain can support the inspection process by storing inspection documentation to trace the history of revisions. the compliance of building materials and products with standards can be identified using computer vision and natural language processing. the provenance of these materials and products can be stored on the blockchain to enable traceability. smart contracts can implement regulatory frameworks for defect prevention, control, and accountability. quality management frameworks are supported by bim and blockchain. relevant stakeholders’ training and certification details can be stored on the blockchain to ensure that they are qualified to engage in project-related activities. blockchain and smart contracts can be implemented to reflect standard forms of contract. natural language processing can identify the fulfilment of contract clauses. construction and payment guarantees and project bank accounts can be implemented on the blockchain and fulfilled using smart contracts. weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202540 a keyword co-occurrence network was developed using the vosviewer software tool, which identified keywords that recurred more than three times. a thesaurus file aggregated synonyms and consolidated the representation of keywords in the network. figure 3 shows the network of 30 recurring keywords, with the keyword blockchain occurring the greatest number of times, followed by smart contracts, bim, construction industry, and construction contract. mitigation of issues related to quality, progress, and payments in construction projects requires a comprehensive technological solution. table 6 summarises the technological imperatives for solving these issues. as seen in the table, blockchain technology and smart contracts can solve all the pinpointed issues due to the advantages presented. table 6. technological imperatives for solving certification-related issues. building information modelling artificial intelligence blockchain technology and smart contracts defects, failures, and rework x x x delayed project completion x x x inaccurate and inadequate documentation and reporting x x x conflicts of interest and lack of accountability for defects x payment delays, underpayment, and nonpayment x x payment disputes x conflict and poor communication x x insolvency of construction contracting firms x conclusions this study evaluated the landscape of quality, progress, and payment certification in construction projects through a two-stage systematic review process, with the objective of critically examining the issues related to certifications and identifying technological imperatives for these highlighted issues. the first stage of the study contributed to revealing the most prominently reported issues related to quality and progress certification as defects, failures, and rework, followed by inaccurate and inadequate documentation and reporting. the prominent issues related to payment certification include payment delays, underpayment, and non-payments; conflict and poor communication; and insolvency of construction contracting firms. general solution strategies for these issues were identified as strict supervision and regular inspections, implementing quality management frameworks, training and certification of relevant stakeholders, using standard forms of contract, providing construction and payment guarantees and implementing legislative measures. however, implementing these solutions with traditional methods is inadequate to solve the prevalent issues. therefore, technology should be used to augment these solutions for more effective issue mitigation. the second stage of the systematic review highlighted that bim, artificial intelligence, and blockchain technology and smart contracts were the major technological imperatives for solving the issues. bim weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202541 enables the digital modelling of construction work and supports collaboration among project stakeholders. bim can also be integrated with other technologies such as augmented reality, lidar, internet of things, and blockchain to solve issues related to project progress monitoring, defect detection, documentation and reporting, and payments. artificial intelligence techniques such as automation, computer vision, and natural language processing are used to automate progress monitoring, identify defects and ensure compliance with standards. the review revealed that blockchain technology and smart contracts are being introduced to solve the highlighted issues related to quality, progress, and payment certifications. construction quality certifications and details of work progress can be stored on the blockchain as a single source of truth about the status of the project. identifying the provenance of products in the construction supply chain is important for quality assurance and compliance purposes. smart contracts can automate payments based on predefined conditions. payment guarantees and project bank accounts implemented on the blockchain can be used to make payments and protect construction stakeholders from late payments or non-payment. the inherent features of blockchain such as decentralisation, security, trust, auditability, and immutability make blockchain an ideal solution for the issues discussed herein. the systematic review was limited to the scopus and web of science databases, which may not capture relevant studies in other journals that are not within the selected indices as well as non-journal publications. further, technologies such as the internet of things and radio frequency identification (rfid) tags were also mentioned in some literature but were not discussed as separate technological imperatives herein because they were used in conjunction with bim, ai, and blockchain solutions. future research can examine applications of the identified technologies in-depth to solve the issues related to quality, progress, and payment certification. references abdul-rahman, h., wang, c., wood, l.c. and khoo, y.m., 2014. defects in affordable housing projects in klang valley, malaysia. journal of performance of constructed facilities, 28(2), pp.272-85. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) cf.1943-5509.0000413 ahmadisheykhsarmast, s. and sonmez, r., 2020. a smart contract system for security of payment of construction contracts. automation in construction, 120(december 2020), p.103401. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103401 aljassmi, h., han, s. and davis, s., 2016. analysis of the complex mechanisms of defect generation in construction projects. journal of construction engineering and management, 142(2), p.04015063. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0001042 asadi, k., ramshankar, h., noghabaei, m. and han, k., 2019. real-time image localization and registration with bim using perspective alignment for indoor monitoring of construction. journal of computing in civil engineering, 33(5). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000847 ashworth, a. and perera, s., 2018. contractual procedures in the construction industry. 7th ed. milton, united kingdom: routledge. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781315529059 azman, m.n.a., dzulkalnine, n., abd hamid, z. and beng, k.w., 2014. payment issue in malaysian construction industry: contractors’ perspective. jurnal teknologi, 70(1). https://doi.org/10.11113/jt.v70.2804 baduge, s.k., thilakarathna, s., perera, j.s., arashpour, m., sharafi, p., teodosio, b., shringi, a. and mendis, p., 2022. artificial intelligence and smart vision for building and construction 4.0: machine and deep learning methods and applications. automation in construction, 141(september 2022), p.104440. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2022.104440 weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202542 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cf.1943-5509.0000413 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cf.1943-5509.0000413 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103401 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001042 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001042 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000847 https://doi.org/10.1201/9781315529059 https://doi.org/10.11113/jt.v70.2804 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104440 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104440 bolton, s., wedawatta, g., wanigarathna, n. and malalgoda, c., 2022. late payment to subcontractors in the construction industry. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 14(4), p.04522018. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000552 braun, a., tuttas, s., borrmann, a. and stilla, u., 2020. improving progress monitoring by fusing point clouds, semantic data and computer vision. automation in construction, 116, p.103210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103210 buys, f. and le roux, m., 2013. causes of defects in the south african housing construction industry: perceptions of built-environment stakeholders: review articles. acta structilia: journal for the physical and development sciences, 20(2), pp.78-99. https://doi.org/10.38140/as.v20i2.141 carretero-ayuso, m.j., moreno-cansado, a. and garcía-sanz-calcedo, j., 2017. an analysis of technical facilities failures in modern spanish houses. building services engineering research and technology, 38(4), pp.490-98. https://doi. org/10.1177/0143624417701802 celik, y., petri, i. and rezgui, y., 2023. integrating bim and blockchain across construction lifecycle and supply chains. computers in industry, 148, p.103886. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2023.103886 chang, a.s., du, s.-j. and shen, f.-y., 2012. engineer self-evaluation checklist for effective site visits. journal of construction engineering and management, 138(10), pp.1220-29. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0000530 chen, g., liu, m., zhang, y., wang, z., hsiang simon, m. and he, c., 2023. using images to detect, plan, analyze, and coordinate a smart contract in construction. journal of management in engineering, 39(2), p.04023002. https:// doi.org/10.1061/jmenea.meeng-5121 chong, h.y. and diamantopoulos, a., 2020. integrating advanced technologies to uphold security of payment: data flow diagram. automation in construction, 114( june 2020), p. 103158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103158 das, m., luo, h. and cheng, j.c., 2020. securing interim payments in construction projects through a blockchainbased framework. automation in construction, 118, p.103284. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103284 demachkieh, f.s. and abdul-malak, m.-a.u., 2019. administration of construction contract interim payments based on earned-value reduction techniques. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 11(4), p.04519023. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000309 egwunatum, s.i., anumudu, a.c., eze, e.c. and awodele, i.a., 2022. total quality management (tqm) implementation in the nigerian construction industry. engineering, construction and architectural management, 29(1), pp.354-82. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2020-0639 el-adaway, i., fawzy, s., burrell, h. and akroush, n., 2017. studying payment provisions under national and international standard forms of contracts. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 9(2), p.04516011. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000200 el-kholy, a. and akal, a., 2021. determining the stationary financial cause of contracting firms failure. international journal of construction management, 21(8), pp.818-33. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1584836 elazhary, m. and hosny, o., 2023. framework for the application of blockchain technology to delay analysis. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 15(2), p.04522063. https://doi.org/10.1061/ jladah.ladr-863 finger, f.b., gonzález, m.s. and kern, a.p., 2015. control of finished work final quality inspection in a social housing project. revista ingenieria de construccion, 30(2), pp.147-53. https://doi.org/10.4067/s071850732015000200006 weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202543 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000552 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103210 https://doi.org/10.38140/as.v20i2.141 https://doi.org/10.1177/0143624417701802 https://doi.org/10.1177/0143624417701802 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2023.103886 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000530 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000530 https://doi.org/10.1061/jmenea.meeng-5121 https://doi.org/10.1061/jmenea.meeng-5121 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103158 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103284 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000309 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2020-0639 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000200 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1584836 https://doi.org/10.1061/jladah.ladr-863 https://doi.org/10.1061/jladah.ladr-863 https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-50732015000200006 https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-50732015000200006 francis, m., ramachandra, t. and perera, s., 2022. disputes in construction projects: a perspective of project characteristics. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 14(2), p.04522007. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000535 fugar, f.d. and agyakwah-baah, a.b., 2010. delays in building construction projects in ghana. australasian journal of construction economics and building, 10(1/2), pp.128-41. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v10i1/2.1592 gao, y., casasayas, o., wang, j. and xu, x., 2022. factors affecting the blockchain application in construction management in china: an anp-swot hybrid approach. architectural engineering and design management, 19(1), pp.1-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2022.2155603 gharbia, m., chang-richards, a., xu, x., höök, m., stehn, l., jähne, r., hall, d., park, k., hong, j. and feng, y., 2023. building code compliance for off-site construction. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 15(2). https://doi.org/10.1061/jladah.ladr-856 greeshma, a.s. and edayadiyil, j.b., 2022. automated progress monitoring of construction projects using machine learning and image processing approach. materials today: proceedings, 65, pp.554-63. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. matpr.2022.03.137 griffiths, r., lord, w. and coggins, j., 2017. project bank accounts: the second wave of security of payment? journal of financial management of property and construction, 22(3), pp.322-38. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-04-2017-0011 hamledari, h. and fischer, m., 2021. construction payment automation using blockchain-enabled smart contracts and robotic reality capture technologies. automation in construction, 132, p.103926. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2021.103926 hasan, m.i.m., abd razak, n.n., endut, i.r., samah, s.a.a., ridzuan, a.r.m. and saaidin, s., 2016. minimizing defects in building construction project. jurnal teknologi, 78(5-2). https://doi.org/10.11113/jt.v78.8494 hijazi, a.a., perera, s., alashwal, a.m. and calheiros, r.n., 2023. developing a bim single source of truth prototype using blockchain technology. buildings, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13010091 jingmond, m. and ågren, r., 2015. unravelling causes of defects in construction. construction innovation, 15(2), pp.198-18. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-04-2014-0025 kamal, a., abas, m., khan, d. and azfar, r.w., 2022. risk factors influencing the building projects in pakistan: from perspective of contractors, clients and consultants. international journal of construction management, 22(6), pp.1141-57. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1683693 khalesi, h., balali, a., valipour, a., antucheviciene, j., migilinskas, d. and zigmund, v., 2020. application of hybrid swara-bim in reducing reworks of building construction projects from the perspective of time. sustainability, 12(21). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12218927 kwon, o.s., park, c.s. and lim, c.r., 2014. a defect management system for reinforced concrete work utilizing bim, image-matching and augmented reality. automation in construction, 46, pp.74-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2014.05.005 li, s., cai, h.b. and kamat, v.r., 2016. integrating natural language processing and spatial reasoning for utility compliance checking. journal of construction engineering and management, 142(12). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0001199 lin, c.-l. and fan, c.-l., 2018. examining association between construction inspection grades and critical defects using data mining and fuzzy logic. journal of civil engineering and management, 24(4), pp.301-17. https://doi. org/10.3846/jcem.2018.3072 weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202544 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000535 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v10i1/2.1592 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2022.2155603 https://doi.org/10.1061/jladah.ladr-856 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2022.03.137 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2022.03.137 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-04-2017-0011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2021.103926 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2021.103926 https://doi.org/10.11113/jt.v78.8494 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13010091 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-04-2014-0025 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1683693 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12218927 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2014.05.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2014.05.005 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001199 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001199 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2018.3072 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2018.3072 lin, y.-c., chang, j.-x. and su, y.-c., 2016. developing construction defect management system using bim technology in quality inspection. journal of civil engineering and management, 22(7), pp.903-14. https://doi.org/10.384 6/13923730.2014.928362 locatelli, m., seghezzi, e., pellegrini, l., tagliabue, l.c. and di giuda, g.m., 2021. exploring natural language processing in construction and integration with building information modeling: a scientometric analysis. buildings, 11(12). https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11120583 love, p.e.d. and smith, j., 2019. unpacking the ambiguity of rework in construction: making sense of the literature. civil engineering and environmental systems, 35(1-4), pp.180-203. https://doi.org/10.1080/10286608.2019.1577396 love, p.e.d., smith, j., ackermann, f., irani, z. and teo, p., 2018. the costs of rework: insights from construction and opportunities for learning. production planning & control, 29(13), pp.1082-95. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2018 .1513177 lu, w., li, x., xue, f., zhao, r., wu, l. and yeh, a.g.o., 2021. exploring smart construction objects as blockchain oracles in construction supply chain management. automation in construction, 129, p.103816. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2021.103816 lu, w., wu, l., xu, j. and lou, j., 2022. construction e-inspection 2.0 in the covid-19 pandemic era: a blockchain-based technical solution. journal of management in engineering, 38(4). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) me.1943-5479.0001063 lundkvist, r., meiling, j.h. and sandberg, m., 2014. a proactive plan-do-check-act approach to defect management based on a swedish construction project. construction management and economics, 32(11), pp.1051-65. https://doi.org/1 0.1080/01446193.2014.966733 ma, z., cai, s., mao, n., yang, q., feng, j. and wang, p., 2018. construction quality management based on a collaborative system using bim and indoor positioning. automation in construction, 92, pp.35-45. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.03.027 maritz, m.j., 2011. doubts raised on the validity of construction and payment guarantees. acta structilia: journal for the physical and development sciences, 18(1), pp.1-26. https://doi.org/10.38140/as.v18i1.109 maritz, m.j. and gerber, s.c., 2017. construction works: defects liability before and after the issuing of the final completion certificate. tydskrif vir hedendaagse romeins-hollandse reg ( journal for contemporary roman-dutch law), 80(1), p.27. martínez-rojas, m., marín, n. and vila, m.a., 2016. the role of information technologies to address data handling in construction project management. journal of computing in civil engineering, 30(4), p.04015064. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000538 masrom, m.a.n., ying, c.b., mohamed, s., yassin, a.m., wee, s.t., haron, r.c. and chan, m., 2021. determining critical contributory factors of payment default in residential construction projects. international journal of integrated engineering, 13(5), pp.200-10. https://doi.org/10.30880/ijie.2021.13.05.021 maund, k., sher, w. and naughton, r., 2014. understanding the building certification system: a need for accreditation reform. australasian journal of construction economics and building-conference series, 2(2), pp.64-71. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb-cs.v2i2.3892 may, k.w., kc, c., ochoa, j.j., gu, n., walsh, j., smith, r.t. and thomas, b.h., 2022. the identification, development, and evaluation of bim-ardm: a bim-based ar defect management system for construction inspections. buildings, 12(2), p.140. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12020140 meacham, b.j., 2010. accommodating innovation in building regulation: lessons and challenges. building research and information, 38(6), pp.686-98. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2010.505380 weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202545 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2014.928362 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2014.928362 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11120583 https://doi.org/10.1080/10286608.2019.1577396 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2018.1513177 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2018.1513177 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2021.103816 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2021.103816 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0001063 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0001063 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.966733 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.966733 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.03.027 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.03.027 https://doi.org/10.38140/as.v18i1.109 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000538 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cp.1943-5487.0000538 https://doi.org/10.30880/ijie.2021.13.05.021 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb-cs.v2i2.3892 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb-cs.v2i2.3892 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12020140 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2010.505380 mirshokraei, m., de gaetani, c.i. and migliaccio, f., 2019. a web-based bim–ar quality management system for structural elements. applied sciences, 9(19), p.3984. https://doi.org/10.3390/app9193984 nafe assafi, m., hossain, m.m., chileshe, n. and datta, s.d., 2022. development and validation of a framework for preventing and mitigating construction delay using 4d bim platform in bangladeshi construction sector. construction innovation, (ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-08-2021-0160 nanayakkara, s., perera, s., senaratne, s., weerasuriya, g.t. and bandara, h.m.n.d., 2021. blockchain and smart contracts: a solution for payment issues in construction supply chains. informatics, 8(2), p.36. https://doi. org/10.3390/informatics8020036 ogbeifun, e. and pretorius, j.h.c., 2022. investigation of factors responsible for delays in the execution of adequately funded construction projects. engineering management in production and services, 14(1), pp.93-102. https://doi. org/10.2478/emj-2022-0008 omar, h. and mahdjoubi, l., 2022. practical solutions for improving the suboptimal performance of construction projects using dubai construction projects as an example. engineering, construction and architectural management, 30(6), pp.2185-205 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2021-0956 page, m.j., mckenzie, j.e., bossuyt, p.m., boutron, i., hoffmann, t.c., mulrow, c.d., shamseer, l., tetzlaff, j.m., akl, e.a., brennan, s.e., chou, r., glanville, j., grimshaw, j.m., hrobjartsson, a., lalu, m.m., li, t., loder, e.w., mayo-wilson, e., mcdonald, s., mcguinness, l.a., stewart, l.a., thomas, j., tricco, a.c., welch, v.a., whiting, p. and moher, d., 2021. the prisma 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. systematic reviews, 10(1), p.89. https://doi.org/10.31222/osf.io/v7gm2 pan, y. and zhang, l., 2021. roles of artificial intelligence in construction engineering and management: a critical review and future trends. automation in construction, 122, p.103517. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103517 park, c.s., lee, d.y., kwon, o.s. and wang, x., 2013. a framework for proactive construction defect management using bim, augmented reality and ontology-based data collection template. automation in construction, 33, pp.61-71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.09.010 paton-cole, v.p. and aibinu, a.a., 2021. construction defects and disputes in low-rise residential buildings. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 13(1). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) la.1943-4170.0000433 perera, s., nanayakkara, s., rodrigo, m.n.n., senaratne, s. and weinand, r., 2020. blockchain technology: is it hype or real in the construction industry? journal of industrial information integration, 17, p.100125. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jii.2020.100125 qian, x.n. and papadonikolaki, e., 2021. shifting trust in construction supply chains through blockchain technology. engineering, construction and architectural management, 28(2), pp.584-602. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-20190676 qureshi, a.h., alaloul, w.s., wing, w.k., saad, s., alzubi, k.m. and musarat, m.a., 2022. factors affecting the implementation of automated progress monitoring of rebar using vision-based technologies. construction innovation, 24(3), pp.770-89. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-04-2022-0076 rahmandad, h. and hu, k., 2010. modeling the rework cycle: capturing multiple defects per task. system dynamics review, 26(4), pp.291-315. https://doi.org/10.1002/sdr.435 ramachandra, t. and rotimi, j.o.b., 2015a. causes of payment problems in the new zealand construction industry. construction economics and building, 15(1), pp.43-55. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i1.4214 weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202546 https://doi.org/10.3390/app9193984 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-08-2021-0160 https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics8020036 https://doi.org/10.3390/informatics8020036 https://doi.org/10.2478/emj-2022-0008 https://doi.org/10.2478/emj-2022-0008 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2021-0956 https://doi.org/10.31222/osf.io/v7gm2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103517 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.09.010 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000433 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000433 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jii.2020.100125 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jii.2020.100125 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2019-0676 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2019-0676 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-04-2022-0076 https://doi.org/10.1002/sdr.435 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i1.4214 ramachandra, t. and rotimi, j.o.b., 2015b. mitigating payment problems in the construction industry through analysis of construction payment disputes. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 7(1), p.a4514005. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000156 sarkar, d., dhaneshwar, d. and raval, p., 2023. automation in monitoring of construction projects through bimiot-blockchain model. journal of the institution of engineers (india): series a, 104, pp.317-33. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s40030-023-00727-8 saygili, m., mert, i.e. and tokdemir, o.b., 2022. a decentralized structure to reduce and resolve construction disputes in a hybrid blockchain network. automation in construction, 134(february 2022), p.104056. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2021.104056 schultz, c.s., jørgensen, k., bonke, s. and rasmussen, g.m.g., 2015. building defects in danish construction: project characteristics influencing the occurrence of defects at handover. architectural engineering and design management, 11(6), pp.423-39. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2014.990352 senaratne, s. and mayuran, j., 2015. documentation management based on iso for construction industries in developing countries. journal of construction in developing countries, 20(2), p.81. sheng, d., ding, l., zhong, b., love, p.e.d., luo, h. and chen, j., 2020. construction quality information management with blockchains. automation in construction, 120, p.103373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2020.103373 shergold, p. and weir, b., 2018. building confidence. improving the effectiveness of compliance and enforcement systems for the building and construction industry across australia. australia: department of industry, innovation and science. sigalov, k., ye, x., könig, m., hagedorn, p., blum, f., severin, b., hettmer, m., hückinghaus, p., wölkerling, j. and groß, d., 2021. automated payment and contract management in the construction industry by integrating building information modeling and blockchain-based smart contracts. applied sciences, 11(16), p.7653. https://doi. org/10.3390/app11167653 sonmez, r., ahmadisheykhsarmast, s. and güngör, a.a., 2022. bim integrated smart contract for construction project progress payment administration. automation in construction, 139, p.104294. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2022.104294 tayeh, b.a., maqsoom, a., aisheh, y.i.a., almanassra, m., salahuddin, h. and qureshi, m.i., 2020. factors affecting defects occurrence in the construction stage of residential buildings in gaza strip. sn applied sciences, 2, pp.1-12. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-020-1959-1 teisserenc, b. and sepasgozar, s., 2021. project data categorization, adoption factors, and non-functional requirements for blockchain based digital twins in the construction industry 4.0. buildings, 11(12). https://doi.org/10.3390/ buildings11120626 tezel, a., febrero, p., papadonikolaki, e. and yitmen, i., 2021. insights into blockchain implementation in construction: models for supply chain management. journal of management in engineering, 37(4). https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000939 uher, t.e. and brand, m.c., 2008. claimants’ view of the performance of adjudication in new south wales. engineering, construction and architectural management, 15(5), pp.470-84. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980810902758 wang, j., sun, w., shou, w., wang, x., wu, c., chong, h.-y., liu, y. and sun, c., 2015. integrating bim and lidar for real-time construction quality control. journal of intelligent & robotic systems, 79, pp.417-32. https://doi. org/10.1007/s10846-014-0116-8 wang, j., wu, p., wang, x. and shou, w., 2017. the outlook of blockchain technology for construction engineering management. frontiers of engineering management, 4(1), pp.67-75. https://doi.org/10.15302/j-fem-2017006 weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202547 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000156 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40030-023-00727-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40030-023-00727-8 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2021.104056 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2021.104056 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2014.990352 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103373 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103373 https://doi.org/10.3390/app11167653 https://doi.org/10.3390/app11167653 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104294 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104294 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-020-1959-1 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11120626 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11120626 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000939 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000939 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980810902758 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-014-0116-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10846-014-0116-8 https://doi.org/10.15302/j-fem-2017006 wang, j., zhang, s., fenn, p., luo, x., liu, y. and zhao, l., 2023a. adopting bim to facilitate dispute management in the construction industry: a conceptual framework development. journal of construction engineering and management, 149(1). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002419 wang, p., wang, k., huang, y., zhu, j., fenn, p. and zhang, y., 2023b. payment issues in china’s construction industry: nature, causes, and a predictive model. journal of construction engineering and management, 149(1), p.04022144. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002422 wu, l., lu, w. and xu, j., 2022. blockchain-based smart contract for smart payment in construction: a focus on the payment freezing and disbursement cycle. frontiers of engineering management, 9(2), pp.177-95. https://doi. org/10.1007/s42524-021-0184-y wu, l., lu, w., zhao, r., xu, j., li, x. and xue, f., 2022. using blockchain to improve information sharing accuracy in the onsite assembly of modular construction. journal of management in engineering, 38(3). https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0001029 yang, r., wakefield, r., lyu, s., jayasuriya, s., han, f., yi, x., yang, x., amarasinghe, g. and chen, s., 2020. public and private blockchain in construction business process and information integration. automation in construction, 118(october 2020), p.103276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103276 ye, k.m. and rahman, h.a., 2010. risk of late payment in the malaysian construction industry. international journal of mechanical and industrial engineering, 4(5), pp.503-11. yoon, s., son, s. and kim, s., 2021. design, construction, and curing integrated management of defects in finishing works of apartment buildings. sustainability, 13(10), p.5382. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105382 zhang, x., 2023. application of information technology in bim monitoring of construction quality of large construction projects. journal of computational methods in sciences and engineering, 23(1), pp.267-84. https://doi. org/10.3233/jcm-226555 zunguzane, n., smallwood, j. and emuze, f., 2012. perceptions of the quality of low-income houses in south africa: defects and their cause. acta structilia: journal for the physical and development sciences, 19(1), pp.19-38. https://doi. org/10.38140/as.v19i1.120 weerasuriya et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202548 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002419 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002422 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42524-021-0184-y https://doi.org/10.1007/s42524-021-0184-y https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0001029 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0001029 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103276 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13105382 https://doi.org/10.3233/jcm-226555 https://doi.org/10.3233/jcm-226555 https://doi.org/10.38140/as.v19i1.120 https://doi.org/10.38140/as.v19i1.120 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: mossman, a., and sarhan, s. 2021. synchronising offsite fabrication with onsite production in construction. construction economics and building, 21:3, 122– 141. http://dx.doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7638 issn 2204 9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021 article (peer reviewed) synchronising offsite fabrication with onsite production in construction alan mossman1,*, saad sarhan2 1 the change business, uk; +44 7968 485627, alanmossman@mac.com, https://orcid.org/00000003-1769-9164 2 school of architecture and the built environment, university of lincoln, lincoln. ln6 7ts uk; +44 (0)1522 835395; ssarhan@lincoln.ac.uk, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0105-2350 corresponding author: alan mossman, principal, the change business, uk; +44 7968 485627, alanmossman@mac.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1769-9164 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7638 article history: received: 20/03/2021; revised: 15/06/2021; accepted: 03/07/2021; published: 10/09/2021 abstract the aim of this study is to explore how offsite fabrication (osf) can be tightly coupled with production and assembly onsite. prefabrication is a production method that has potential to yield significant productivity and sustainability improvements in the construction industry. failure to synchronize production in the factory with onsite production can lead to financial losses for the client/owner, main contractor and subcontractors as well as to delays in the construction schedule. the study draws on two casestudies and the authors’ experiences in the context of a critical review of literature on the concepts of flow and justintime (jit) construction delivery. the findings show the value of a buffer between suppliers, fabricators and the site as a way to help the whole supply team create production flow and more environmentally friendly results. a buffer can help while the team is learning to use collaborative shortterm planning to create predictable production. the paper recommends ways to synchronise osf with onsite production. the paper provides practitioners with ideas to reduce both work waiting for workers (or robots) and workers (or robots) waiting for work – and it contributes to theory by raising more questions for further research. keywords lean construction; sustainability; production; justintime; prefabrication 122 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7638 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7638 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:alanmossman@mac.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1769-9164 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1769-9164 mailto:ssarhan@lincoln.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0105-2350 mailto:alanmossman@mac.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1769-9164 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7638 introduction this paper is about improving the collaboration between offsite fabricators and their customers onsite. late delivery of prefabricated elements leaves people onsite waiting for work. early deliveries get in the way and require multiple handling or add cost as the delivery vehicle waits to be unloaded. although prefabrication has emerged as a potential remedy to low productivity issues in the construction industry, the effective management of prefabrication in construction projects is yet to be explored and developed further ( jang, et al., 2021). prefabrication is not new. william of normandy arrived in england in 1066 with a prefabricated wooden castle. gibb (1999) describes several prefabricated hospitals built over the last two millennia! in each case, the focus is on construction. the focus of this paper is on logistics – the sequence and timing of the arrival of complex, multitrade assemblies at site and what that means for the sequence and time of the fabrication of those assemblies. in the last three decades there has been a determined attempt to move as much construction work as possible into factories that are geared up to produce major multitrade subassemblies that can be simply and quickly installed and connected onsite. growing labour shortages (gibb, 1999), demand for greater safety, quality, rapid completion and cost reduction have all contributed to this. in the uk, government has pushed for the adoption of “modern methods of construction” (a euphemism for offsite fabrication (osf) and prefabrication) to help solve the housing shortage ( jang, et al., 2021). in the us, companies like katerra (while it was still trading), project frog, rad urban, digital building components (hall, whyte and lessing, 2020) and brydon wood in the uk (peltokorpi, et al., 2021) all use prefabrication. their apparent success puts pressure on the sector. a 2017 mckinsey global institute report added to the pressure. the benefits of osf to the construction industry have been widely reported in the literature (see table 1). there are two major types of prefabrication, panelised and volumetric. with the former, a structure is created using combinations of flat panels and, with the latter, the build is assembled from units that enclose usable space generally of room size or part room size as well as volumetric elements such as plant rooms and highly serviced pods that are inserted into a structure. osf makes economic sense when production/ assembly onsite is predictable and flowing (kalsaas and bolviken, 2010). when either production onsite or deliveries of osf subassemblies are unpredictable, workers at site are kept waiting and flow is impeded. traditional project management assumes that variability in workflow is outside management control (ballard and howell, 2003a) yet delays and waiting create no value for the client and noone wants to see workers standing idle. the temptation is to either put them to work doing something out of sequence or to assign them to a different project. work done out of sequence can make subsequent tasks more difficult and it is often difficult to get workers back to site once they have been reassigned. in those circumstances traditional hand building is a better strategy for keeping trade crews busy. in 2005 ballard and matthews described the lean ideal as “to “simplify site installation to final assembly and commissioning”. pursuit of this ideal [they continued] involves every phase in project delivery and in the life of the products that are components of the facility being constructed”. in 2017 ballard noted that prefabrication allows greater concurrency, thus reducing project durations. working in a factory with increased mechanisation, repetition and lean manufacturing principles and methods improves productivity. he went on to say that the timely delivery of unique, engineeredtoorder (eto) and madetoorder products often make or break construction projects. as pressure grows to fabricate ever more significant elements of buildings, fabricators will adopt more and more traditional lean manufacturing methods. realisation of this lean ideal will bring construction closer to series production (i.e., manufacturing). mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021123 table 1. a rapid review of the benefits of prefabrication in construction benefits sources of information s af er work done in relative safety of factory reduces jobsite congestion. less work done at height sites are generally quieter and better for neighbours more standardised procedures à facilitates quality control and site logisticsà less rework and rehandling of materials à reduced fatigue and injuries cleaner and tidier worksites à reduced tripping hazards onsite construction dust reduction mckay, et al. (2005) tam, tam and zeng (2007) lu and liska (2008) soto, hubbard and hubbard (2014) jaillon and poon (2014) killingsworth, mehany and ladhari (2021) jang, et al. (2021) fa st er weather creates fewer delays parallel working offsite and onsite. à significantly faster work better planned à better safety à less accident time less rework less scaffolding and shuttering easier to plan assembly work and logistics reduced use of wet trades gibb and isack (2003) goodier and gibb (2007) lu and liska (2008) ballard (2017) love, matthews and fang (2020) building and construction authority (2020) killingsworth, mehany and ladhari (2021) g re en er decarbonise projects during design, assembly and in use fewer greenhouse gas (ghg) emissions reduced total lifecycle energy consumption reduction in dust and noise improved opportunities to seal the building less physical waste can be used for retrofitting wet trades use reduced à less operational water use gibb (1999) gibb and isack (2003) lu and liska (2008) tam and hao (2014) hong, et al. (2016) sandanayakea, luob and zhangc (2019) building and construction authority (2020) hao, et al. (2020) jang, et al. (2021) b et te r q ua lit y quality consistently better; easier to create quality in factory higher reliability product à easier to maintain à reduced maintenance cost maintenance and assembly process considered from start of design reduced snagging and defects gibb and isack (2003) goodier and gibb (2007) miles and whitehouse (2013) killingsworth, mehany and ladhari (2021) lo w er c os t higher reliability product à reduced maintenance cost reduced manpower and material usage less rework à lower cost fewer accidents à lower cost lower whole lifecycle costs lower insurance costs reduced schedule à reduced indirect costs gibb and isack (2003) goodier and gibb (2007) pan and sidwell (2011) tam, et al. (2015) killingsworth, mehany and ladhari (2021) mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021124 as use of osf continues to grow, it becomes increasingly important to create a smooth flow from raw materials arriving in the factory to the installation of the resulting subassemblies onsite. predictable, justintime ( jit) production in a factory is possibly easier than it is onsite, yet it is far from simple. most factories serve a number of sites; some eto subassemblies will be for a particular project and others, common to a range of projects and/or to a range of settings within a project, will be made to stock (mts) (see e.g., court, 2009). coordinating and synchronising flow in this environment requires meticulous real time production planning. it is this aspect that leads to the primary research question (rq): rq. ‘how can osf be synchronised with predictable production and assembly onsite, so that the site is more likely to be ready to receive each subassembly when it arrives and that site operations are not delayed waiting for delivery of subassemblies?’ to begin to answer this question, the authors critically review the concepts of flow, production planning and control, and jit delivery in construction through the lens of the transformationflowvalue generation (tfv) theory of production. the authors then draw on lessons learned from two case studies to propose a sustainablelean approach for prefabrication in construction. prefabrication and flow – a review as individuals, when we are ‘in the flow’ things are going really well. it is the same on a construction project. on a project using the services of an offsite fabricator, flow happens when both the fabricator and site are in step with each other. if each is moving at its own pace independently of the other, it is highly likely that the site will either have workers waiting for work or that it will not be possible to install the fabrications as they arrive (i.e., work will be waiting for workers to be ready to perform it). both work waiting for workers and workers waiting for work are wasteful and the owner/client usually ends up paying for that wait. in this section, an overview of tfv theory, flow, buffers, capacity utilisation, last planner system and the limitations of the critical path method and justintime are provided. transformation flow value (tfv) theory within the dominant construction paradigm, the focus is on making transformations – transforming a pile of bricks and a bucket of muck into a wall for example. once it is done it can be ticked off. in lean construction the focus is also on ensuring that the transformation creates what the customer(s) want to pay for (i.e., value (womack and jones, 2003)) and that the transformations flow smoothly without interruption. as koskela (1992 and 2000) made clear, if the flow of directives, resources and prior work (shown in figure 1) to the workface is interrupted in some way, the transformation processes will not flow smoothly and the creation of value for the client will be interrupted or slowed. the interruption adds cost as well as delay to the assembly process. flow is discussed next. what is flow? flow comes with endtoend coordination and synchronization of operations process (see e.g., modig and ahlstrom, 2015). there are two principal kinds of physical flow – laminar (or smooth) and turbulent. turbulence in fluids is created by obstacles and obstructions. in construction, these ideas from fluid mechanics are used as a metaphor (kalsaas and bolviken, 2010). liker (2021, p.1312) cautions against confusing “fake flow” with the real thing. on a highway, when one vehicle unexpectedly brakes even a little more than expected, a “ripple” speeds back down the highway as each following driver brakes just a little more to maintain an appropriate distance mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021125 from the vehicle in front (orosz, et al., 2009). sometimes this small perturbation can bring the highway to a complete halt, kilometres down the road even though there has been no accident. in a construction environment, when performers don’t provide what their customers want and there is consequential rework and/or delay, flow in the production process is perturbed. if this happens too often, subsequent crews add a little extra time between the previous crew’s declared finishing time and the time when they plan to start and/or they allow themselves more time to complete (a phenomenon frequently reported by practitioners). in this way, as on the highway, one small delay is magnified. on the road, the journey takes more time. onsite, the project is delayed. in construction variation creates turbulence. variation in dimensions, in delivery, in time, and in quality. while it is generally recognised that, as shewhart said, “there is variation in everything” and that the performance of a production system degrades as variation increases (hopp and spearman, 2000, p.295), much of the focus of lean constructors is taken up with minimising variation and increasing predictability. construction companies are using a number of ways to understand and minimise variation so that construction production becomes more predictable. these generally include a mixture of managing the use of buffers, managing capacity utilization and using the last planner® system to improve workflow. buffers “variation in a production system will be buffered by some combination of inventory, capacity and time” (hopp and spearman, 2000, p. 295). a ‘buffer’ is an extra volume of some resource (e.g., material, time) designed to enable a system to meet expected fluctuations in demand or supply. strategically placed buffers help to ensure smooth workflow. each buffer has a cost and overly large buffers, especially onsite, interrupt flow. for example, materials onsite justincase can be in the way of work that needs to be done and lead to program delay and/or damage to those materials. so, it is important to design buffers carefully and to minimise them. using buffers to create a looser linkage between parts of a production system adds to the cost of the production system. these ‘loose linkages’ are useful as they mean that a temporary problem in one part of the production process doesn’t stop the whole production process. costs include the value of labour and materials in the buffer, the space occupied by each physical buffer, the cost of multiple handling of materials in a buffer – and rework and/or quality control costs if mistakes in preceding steps are not immediately identified as the work waits in a buffer (and further defects are produced until the mistake is identified) as well as the cost of delays incurred by using time buffers (howell, laufer and ballard, 1993). what these costs mean is that buffers should only be used when absolutely necessary. figure 1. eight flows required for work to be successfully done (after mossman, 2020) mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021126 capacity utilisation when traffic starts to build up on highways, it starts to slow down! in so called “rush hours” traffic crawls and can stop! late at night, with few vehicles around, it flows fast and smooth. roads have a finite capacity. at slow speeds drivers are willing to drive nose to tail; as speed increases, drivers, for selfprotection, want more space between their vehicle and the one in front. this means that the capacity of the highway is higher at slower speeds, but it takes longer to get from a to b. getting things done in construction is no different. overloading subcontractor or fabricator crews through acceleration, crashing (winch, 2010, p.291) or other interventions and putting too many workers in a single space onsite is likely to slow or delay production. to prevent this, it is good to ensure that spaces are not allowed to become overcrowded and that the work that trade crews commit to do will not overload the crew (court, 2009). in construction particularly, the capacity utilisation curve (figure 2) can operate in a number of dimensions. a crew of two electricians working in a particular space can do the work that needs to be done in 3 days. if that is not fast enough, the electrical contractor can add an additional person to reduce the delivery time to 2 days. but adding the additional person in the space where the work is to be done may mean that the 3 operatives will get in eachothers way and the actual time to complete the work will be >2 days. figure 2. capacity utilisation curve (after hopp and spearman, 2000). time and/or capacity (people, space and equipment) buffers can contribute to the smooth flow of production provided that the directives (information) and sufficient materials (inventory) are on hand to complete the work ‘right first time’. the last planner® system can help the production team align their aspirations and minimise buffers while agreeing how they will work together to create flow in the production process. the last planner® system lps1 developed by ballard and howell from 1980 (see e.g., ballard, 1994; 1995), lps is a shortterm planning system that aims to create more predictable production in construction and other projectbased production environments. lps has improved significantly since its public launch in the mid1990s (ballard, 2000; 1 last planner, last planner system and lps are all registered trademarks of the lean construction institute. mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021127 ballard and howell, 2003b; mossman, 2020; ballard, et al., 2020; ballard and tommelein, 2021). it has proved itself on projects large and small over the last 25 years. in lps there are at least seven key structured conversations that together make for more predictable production in a projectbased delivery setting: 1. milestone planning — planning the key milestones that the project will need to meet and specifying the conditions of satisfaction for each one; says what should happen 2. phase planning2 — collaboratively creating and agreeing the production sequence and handovers (and compressing it if required in a phase of the project. each phase (usually 23 months long during construction; shorter periods during design) leads to the delivery of a fully specified milestone; says what should happen. 3. look ahead planning — making tasks in the look ahead period ready (i.e., constraint free) so that they can be done when the crew want to do them; prepares what should happen so that it can happen 4. commitment planning— collaboratively agreeing and promising production tasks for the next period (shift, day or week); promises what performers believe will happen 5. operational designs, method studies, first run studies (frs) — this conversation can be done at any time for any activity, particularly those that are repeated, complex, critical or potentially dangerous. it is an opportunity to find the safest, most advantageous method to do any part of the assembly process; it can be seen as a kaizen event. 6. production management — collaboratively monitoring and adjusting production on a daily basis to keep activities on track; looks at and begins to learn from the work that is being done 7. measurement, learning and continual improvement — learning together from what did happen and improving project, planning and production processes every day, every week. three principles are important in thinking about lps: (a) “all plans are forecasts; all forecasts are wrong”; (b) “the longer the forecast, the more wrong it becomes”; and (c) “the more detailed the forecast, the wronger (sic) it is.” with these principles in mind, each of the first four planning conversations chunks activities to a smaller, more manageable level (figure 3) — it is as if you were descending from cruising altitude at 10km where you can only see large objects until, when you have touched down, you can see fine detail. this happens as the date when the work is due to be done gets closer. principle (a) entails acceptance that all plans have the potential to be wrong. this makes it much easier to maintain focus on reality, on what is happening and to adjust the plans to the way things are. notice too, on the left, the planning conversations that precede any promise and how the conversations take what should be done and break it down into smaller chunks, to make the work ready to be done. taskbytask, conversations 3 are about systematically removing constraints associated with any of the flows presented in figure 1 above. once a task is ready (constraint free), crew leaders are able to promise that it will be done in the next period and then do it. conversation 5 is not shown here – like conversations 1 and 2, conversations 5 happen when needed. lps creates the conditions for jit delivery to site and it has successfully helped many projects using osf elements. for example, skanska in scandinavia chose to adopt lps to help make their projects a reliable customer for jit deliveries so that they could use more osf (reported by dr glenn ballard on iglc industry day 2011, lima, peru; hämäläinen, ballard and elfving, 2014). when lps is coupled with building information modelling, the construction process can be simulated to check the feasibility of installing large components and to manage the flow of work. 2 sometimes called collaborative programming, pull scheduling, pull planning, reverse phase scheduling, collaborative mapping, stickynote planning mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021128 increasingly conversation 2: phase planning is being supported by locationbased planning systems and particularly by takt planning. as activities move through the conversations, they move from what should be done, to ensuring they can be done, promising what will be done, to what crews are doing and finally to learning from what the project team did. this is very different from cpm where the focus is on what should be done. critical path method (cpm) vs. lps cpm and lps are very different ways of thinking about scheduling work in projects. cpm focuses on transformations happening in the right sequence (dave, et al., 2015), yet it is blind to what is happening on site. a cpm schedule is a great way to test the feasibility of completing project delivery by a particular date and identifying probable critical paths. that is its real value. lps does not do that. based on what is happening in the present and on an informed view of what will happen in the immediate future, lps is used for shortterm planning. work is pulled into production when the next tradeinline believes it will have everything it needs to work on the preceding trades’ completed work. as figure 1 shows, there are eight flows that need to come together at the workface for successful construction assembly work. cpm ignores most of those flows (winch, 2010, p.291). cpm has been widely criticized as inadequate to the task of controlling work in projects (koskela, et al., 2014; dave, et al., 2015). it is neither a production management nor a production control system. even though many in the industry now recognise that (a)“all plans are forecasts; all forecasts are wrong” and (b) “the longer the forecast, the more wrong it becomes”, cpm is used to manage work in projects by pushing trade crews to deliver work based on a schedule prepared months, or even years, earlier by ‘professional planners’ using assumptions about weather, worker productivity, worker and material availability, among others. if one has not been developed during the design phase, professional planners will often prepare a cpm schedule during the tender or preconstruction period. that schedule becomes enshrined within the contract program and constrains later programmes (winch, 2010, p.292). it is impossible to maintain a complete, uptodate, plan in the way envisaged by the proponents of cpmbased project management (koskela and howell 2002). there is nothing in the cpm schedule that links decisions to the current reality of the project — no information about whether planned work can be done (ballard and howell, 1995; 2003), nothing to ensure that producers and customers have a shared understanding of the conditions of satisfaction for each activity (mossman and ramalingam, 2021), nothing to guarantee that the necessary people, materials and tools, plant and/or equipment are available, let alone whether it is safe to do that work at that time at that workface, and no way to ensure a realistic estimation of crew productivity or time buffers between dissimilar figure 3. level of detail in planning increases as the time for production approaches mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021129 trades ( jaafari, 1984). in cpm, buffers are often implicitly managed in task durations (“justincase” approach), thereby inflating the total duration and cost (winch 2010). the main aim of lps is to reduce the need for buffers – both flow and processtime variability of tasks (koskela, stratton and koskenvesa, 2010). these are all reasons why cpm isn’t appropriate for managing production. in the early days of cpm, kelly and walker noted (1959, p.171) that “the basic assumption that underlies [cpm] … is that adequate resources are available to implement any computed schedule”. cpm is blind to what can be done, particularly when available resources are shared by many projects. cpm leads to unpredictable workflow and as ballard and howell (1998, p.5) stated “when it is impossible to determine what and how much work will be available at a future time, it is impossible to arrange for the specific resources needed, and it is impractical to develop detailed methods and to make detailed preparations for doing what could be widely different types of work. thus, the certainty of workflow from one production unit to the next is a key to productivity.” in design and construction, work is able to flow when everything comes together smoothly at the workface time after time, after time. conversation 3, making tasks ready (i.e., constraint free) so that they can be done when the project team wants to do them is key to making this happen – it moves tasks from what should happen to a state where they can happen. in this way lps creates more predictable workflows than cpm. justintime (jit) kiichiro toyoda is credited with pioneering jit at toyota in the 1930s (fujimoto, 1999, p.58). hopp and spearman (2000) describe how, by the 1970s and 1980s, the japanese had developed a new style of manufacturing and associated techniques that became collectively known as justintime. the way taiichi ohno made this work effectively in the 1950s was by using a simple signalling system (kanban) (fujimoto, 1999, p.59). this connected each step in the jit process and synchronised them. simultaneously it reduces both the volume of inventory in the system and the demand for management work (workers “pull” the materials and subassemblies they need from coworkers earlier in the process without the need for managers to intervene). jit reduces waste by supplying parts only when the assembly process requests them. ohno was working in a manufacturing environment (toyota). as vriehoef and koskela (2005) among others make clear, construction is generally different from manufacturing. ballard and howell (1995) conducted one of the earliest studies of the relevance of jit to construction. lpsmanaged production helps create predictability and flow that supports jit. in construction, kanban requests can go from anyone onsite to whomever is supplying what is required. the aim, in a construction workflow, is for the right parts (eto and mts) to reach the assembly point with all the other ‘flows’ (as in figure 1) at the time, and in the quantity, they are needed. for this flow process to work, it needs to extend back to the supplier of raw materials. how green is jit in osf? the findings of a systematic review of 25 years of iglc published research on lean and sustainable construction by sarhan, et al. (2019) indicated a tradeoff between production and environmental performance in construction. their study also suggested that lean construction theories and strategies need to take a whole projectlife cycle perspective. there is a lack of consensus amongst scholars in literature on whether jit and other lean practices are environmentally friendly or not (for e.g., see sartal, martinezsenra and cruzmachado, 2018; green, et al., 2019; dieste, panizzolo and garzareyes, 2020). a study by bae and kim (2008) was conducted to assess the environmental impacts of a lean supply system through a case study of highrise mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021130 condominium construction in seoul, korea. bae and kim compared the amounts of co2 emission, energy consumption and material loss for two different rebar supply systems — jit and batch. they found that the environmental impact depends on delivery distance and reported: “jit increases energy and co2 emission per rebar consumption during rebar fabrication and transportation, especially when delivery distances are increased. if jit is used in a case where delivery distance is short, it can be an environmentallyfriendly option with decreased inventory loss rate” (p.741). their study took no account, however, of the costs and hassle associated with moving batch delivered rebar stored onsite – examples of what koskela and tommelein (2009) referred to as the ‘means and management of production delivery’ that is often overlooked when comparisons between alternative sustainability options are conducted. gibb (1999) listed potential benefits associated with osf in addition to those mentioned in table 1 above. these include better controls on atmospheric pollution, easier recycling of materials, if a building needs to be demolished or significantly altered it is easier to do with prefabricated elements and it may be possible to reuse them. gibb also suggests less energy is used in transportation – though some would challenge that. as with bae and kim’s study (2008) and particularly with volumetric, it depends on how far the fabrication shop is from the site. wan amstel and postulart (2017) reported that more than 15% of construction costs are transport related and “30% of the commercial traffic in dutch cities is for construction sites more than 200,000 delivery vans and 20,000 trucks on a daily basis”. building on the experience of the hammerby sjostad logistics centre, stockholm, sweden and transport for london in the uk, dutch construction companies and a transport company participated in pilot projects in amsterdam and utrecht. the projects were studied by the netherlands organisation for applied scientific research (tno) and dutch universities. as in the london research a decade earlier (e.g., department for trade and industry, 2004; peter brett associates, 2007), the results are significant: • nearly 70% fewer transport movements to construction sites (reducing vehicle movements improves road safety as well as reducing pollution (davies and white 2015), • nearly 70% fewer co2, nox and particulate emissions, and • up to 40% higher productivity at the site • fewer complaints from people in the surrounding area (van amstel and postulart, 2017) • at least 7% less material losses and damage (transport for london 2016, p.12) • 35% lower construction costs. the cost reduction is equivalent to doubling the profits of some constructors. that alone may be a reason for using a local consolidation centre (cc) even if jit is fully operational on a project. as project supply and delivery teams become more proficient at jit and their trust in each other grows, they will need ever smaller buffers at a cc so the space required will fall. this allows ccs to be smaller or to serve more projects in their locality. this research studied ccs serving projects with very little osf. it does show how jit can help to improve the environmental sustainability of the construction sector. the heathrow terminal 5 (t5) project used a cc about 2km from site as a buffer to ensure jit delivery to site. in the earlier stages of the t5 project, part of the cc was used for producing rebar cages in the warm and dry. this reduced the time taken to create rebar cages, saved materials, was safer and helped speed up the foundation works programme. a cc is a form of buffer. it has both costs and benefits. in order to reduce the costs, it is important to minimise the time that materials and subassemblies spend in the cc. ideally all bulk materials, large items and prefabricated elements will go directly to the site for justintime installation. mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021131 research design and methods this is a conceptual paper that takes a problemfocused approach. the paper is conceptual because it focusses on developing logical arguments and providing novel insights that can be used to inform further research, rather than testing existing concepts or theories empirically (gilson and goldberg, 2015). such papers should be grounded in a clear research design that explicates and explains the theories and key concepts used to generate novel insights ( jaakkola, 2020). this paper considers two case studies and the authors’ experience in the context of a critical review of the literature on flow, capacity, buffers, critical path method, the last planner® system and justintime. the literature review is used to define and explain the conceptual ingredients of the empirical phenomenon in question – how osf can be synchronised with onsite production and assembly. the case studies are used to illustrate specific reallife problems with jit delivery in prefabricated construction, as experienced in two different projects and counties (i.e., the united kingdom and canada). the first author of this study was involved in these projects through observation and/or interaction with the project teams. the two illustrative case studies are analysed using the tfv theory of production as an analytical lens. the lessons from the cases are then used to answer the research question, in the form of proposing a sustainablelean approach for synchronising osf with onsite production in construction and highlighting directions for further inquiry. the researchers’ personal experiences and insights are an important part of the inquiry and critical to understanding the phenomenon (sutton and staw, 1995). this is supported by maslow (1966, p.45) who asserted that “there is no substitute for experience, none at all ’, to point researchers towards the value of using discovery, intuition and thinking as a primary evidence (finlay, 2002). thus, this process influenced this study in three main ways: (1) forming the research question; and (2) identifying and reflecting on lessons from the case studies – this required an understanding of the complex interdependencies and system dynamics; (3) framing the conclusions and developing the propositions. being immersed in one’s own emotions and experiences, though, may lead to bias and skewedness in a research. yet, it is important to stress that “preconceptions are not the same as bias, unless the researcher fails to mention them” (malterud, 2001, p.484). to overcome these challenges, ‘reflexivity’ was employed throughout this study in various ways: • conducting a multiauthored research study – this has helped in fostering reflexive dialogues, peer reviews and critiques, and reliability. • grounding this study on fundamental theories and concepts– this has helped to position the study and inform decision making • explicitly acknowledging the assumptions and preconceptions that the authors brought into the research – this can be useful in terms of establishing trustworthiness in the study. case studies here are two short case studies. in the first, the offsite fabricator set itself up so that the site installation team is the client for the rest of the organisation. this means that the head office and the fabrication shop provide service and support to enable the installation to proceed as planned. in the second, the installation team were using lps, and the factory claimed they were using lean methods and principles. yet the factory did not think of the site installation team as the customer. their focus was on optimising factory throughput. in the process they ignored value to the customer, a key lean principle. case study 1: hathaway roofing this first case illustrates the importance of understanding the different capabilities of each supplier and of trust in the supply chain. mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021132 hathaway roofing switched to jit lean production (figure 4) in the late 1990s so that it could better serve sites. the redesigned factory simplified the production paths for each of their main product types. in the redesigned factory, products flow. most materials are delivered to the start of the production process on a jit basis and never go into stores. at the end of the production process items are shipped to site. figure 4. hathaway roofing factory before switching to jit production (left) and after (right) (source: swain and mossman 2003) london heathrow terminal 5 (t5) client and main contractor, baa plc, the then operator of seven airports in the uk, sought to minimize the risk of delays at site. they chose hathaway roofing to fabricate the 1500 roof panels in the north of england, about 6 hours by truck from the site. the transformed hathaway factory was able to produce in one workday the panels that would be installed during the next workday and ship them to site overnight. they could produce them in the right order for installation. in this case, so that they could have security of supply, baa decided that it wanted all 1500 panels in a warehouse close to site before any work started on the roof. why did they choose to secure their supply in this way? what did they pay for that security of supply? … for that huge buffer? whatever the reason, hathaway management felt that baa did not trust them sufficiently to permit jit delivery. case study 2: hydroelectric project: endtoend coordination and synchronization are critical the second case illustrates why it is important to consider the site as the customer for both jit fabrication and jit delivery of the right components in the right sequence at the right time – the whole system needs to be joinedup. on a remote hydroelectric project in northern ontario the subcontractor responsible for supplying and installing the turbine and the generator used lps at site and (supposedly) lean manufacturing at its production facility, yet it appeared that there was nothing lean about the way the equipment to be installed was shipped to site. the lean team in the european factory produced what was needed at site in a way that optimized their local production system – they saw no reason to consider the needs of their colleagues at mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021133 site. materials were shipped in production order – not in installation order. the major items, the eto parts, were checked prior to shipping but it appears that noone thought to check the mts items such as critical ultrahighstrength bolts of specific lengths. the lack of sufficient bolts to complete the installation added cost and considerable delays as the missing parts made their way from europe along the icebound st lawrence seaway, through customs and along ice bound roads. analysis and discussion: justintime synchronising production onsite and in factories and fabrication shops that supply the site is critical as we saw with the hydroelectric project. both the site and the fabrication shops rely on justintime ( jit) deliveries. together, these help ontime (or better) delivery of the project. in figure 5, a simplified example, the site is supplied directly by some suppliers and by two different fabricators producing eto and mts items. for work at site to flow smoothly and without interruption, the site needs justintime delivery from each of the fabricators and the other suppliers. late delivery to site is clearly a problem – workers must wait for work. figure 5. a simplified constructionprocess it is not just the site that needs jit delivery. each of the fabricators needs jit delivery too. so, in this simple system, signals (kanban) from site could start a production process at each of the fabricators who in turn send signals to each of their suppliers including the haulage company (or internal transport department) that will deliver their fabrications to site. this process will only flow if jit thinking is embedded in the endtoend process. as shown in table 2, there are at least two potential interruptions to flow at each of the lettered locations shown in figure 5. table 2. potential interruptions to flow a: fabricator good inwards: • waiting for raw materials and supplies from suppliers • raw materials and supplies waiting to be used b: fabricator shipping: • subassemblies waiting to be delivered • delivery trucks waiting to take subassemblies to site c: at site: • subassemblies and supplies waiting to be installed • workers waiting for supplies and sub assemblies to arrive each of these waits adds to the time it takes to complete the project and, generally, adds to the price paid by the client. clients and main/general contractors (cm/gcs) want the benefits of prefabrication and associated jit supply, yet, because of traditional procurement strategies, are generally unwilling (or unable) to demand jit supply from their supply chain – they tend to ignore, or be blind to, the effects of the methods used on the outputs delivered as pointed out by koskela and tommelein (2009). this approach to sustainable construction assumes ‘fixed inputoutput relations’ and overlooks the means and management of production delivery (koskela and tommelein, 2009; sarhan, et al., 2019). mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021134 heathrow t5 was a highly collaborative project with its own bespoke contract. hathaway was not one of the companies “in” the collaborative contract – they had a subcontract. the t5 team did not trust them – or acted as if they did not. this underscores the idea that construction is a social process. when a site is kept waiting for eto subassemblies or critical mts items that is a loss for the those waiting to install the subassembly onsite, as well as a delay for the client and cm/gc. if the site is not ready to install a subassembly when it arrives there may be an additional cost (e.g., demurrage) to the haulier, the fabricator and/or the subcontractor (often passed on to the client as was the case with the hathaway roofing elements). if there is laydown space onsite, the subassemblies may be stored where they may: – impede other activities and require moving one or more times – be damaged by weather, site conditions, machines or equipment – or by pilfering. in each instance it is generally the client that pays, even though little or no value has been created. avoiding or reducing all these additional costs requires: • predictable production at site • predictable production of subassemblies by multiple independent offsite fabricators serving a range of unique sites. • predictable logistics connecting the site and the fabrication shops. there are many uncertainties associated with each of these and lps and jit can help to reduce them. lps was developed in the context of designbidbuild (dbb) contracting and cm/gcs do not need client approval to adopt lps. they will need a collaborative culture within their supply team. where jit is not yet working while waiting for supply chain partners to adopt jit principles it is possible for clients and constructors to foster jit production onsite by creating a buffer between the suppliers, fabricators and the site. a consolidation centre at a short distance from the site is one way to do this. this was done for t5 (department of trade and industry, 2004) and for projects in the centre of london (transport for london, 2007; 2016) for example. ideally materials are delivered to a cc no more than 7 days prior to their being required onsite (and preferably less). the cc checks the materials delivered and returns any that are defective. unnecessary packing can be removed before materials are delivered to site (reducing reverse logistics) and sometimes it is possible to minimise packaging at the fabrication shop as the subassembly will be weather protected from factory to site. kanban signals from site trigger the delivery of materials and subassemblies jit so that they can be moved directly to the part of the structure where they will be installed. a cc can provide a kitting service – separate but related items, say for a single space or zone, grouped and delivered together. suggestions for improving production effectiveness in prefabricated construction projects based on the analysis of the two casestudies and reflections on the lessons learned, using tfvtheory as an analytical lens, the answer to the study’s research question (rq) can be summarised in the form of three propositions presented in table 3. mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021135 table 3. propositions for improving production predictability and coordination in prefabricated construction projects current problem proposed alternative why? p1 using cpm planning and scheduling software (e.g., ms project, primavera) create steady predictable flow onsite using the lps and other lean systems the construction sector has been using cpm planning/scheduling for many decades. mckinsey global institute (2017) shows it has not made production more reliable or helped it to flow. lps is already doing that. p2 materials delivered according to suppliers’ schedule, pushing the product to the siteteam allow siteteams to pull product from fabricators and from suppliers jit or, if that is not possible, use a consolidation centre as a buffer so that materials do arrive jit. materials, subassemblies and fabrications moved to site when they are ready à potential costs for the client. site teams using lps can give fabricators and suppliers clear signals about when they will be ready to receive the materials. if that is not possible, a local cc can enable jit delivery. p3 focussing on optimising individual production systems, each separately – optimising local production systems paying attention to the endtoend process so the whole process flows, then begin to increase the flow rate. in traditional construction, each trade or crew tries to optimise its own bit of the construction process and hardly anyone is looking at the effect on wholesystem flow. coupled with takt planning, the structured conversations in lps, can help a wholeteam focus on wholesystem flow. conclusion creating a smooth, predictable flow in construction production with osf requires justintime delivery throughout the endtoend construction supply chain. in practice this level of coordination and synchronisation of operations is not possible with the traditional critical path method. over the last 25 years, the last planner system has shown itself capable of improving the predictability of site operations to a level where mixing onsite and offsite production is a realistic and costeffective option. in the context of osf, this paper has shown that failing to fully implement jit across an entire production system can reduce both productivity and profitability. this has the potential to disappoint clients and slow the uptake by creating poor experiences of using osf, reducing or eliminating expected cost savings and extending anticipated construction times. creating a buffer, such as a consolidation centre, between suppliers, fabricators and the site is one way to help the whole supplyteam learn to create predictable flow. there may even be arguments for doing this anyway as it reduces some of the undesirable externalities associated with construction. as jit proficiency improves consolidation centres can serve more sites. the aim of this study was to generate ideas for empirical examination in future studies. it is suggested that the three propositions offered in this study (in table 2 above) can help clients and the whole supply team improve: production flow, production predictability, trust and collaboration in prefabricated construction projects. in addition, the study provides the following questions and ideas for further research. • designers tend to design for what they think any constructor can build. not all constructors can or want to use osf options, so in dbb procurement, use of osf often requires significant design mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021136 rework. other than integrated project delivery or alliancing, are there ways to reduce that design rework? • what are the advantages of managing logistics at the level of the organisation and at the level of the project? • what are the typical costs of failing to synchronise production on and offsite in terms of e.g.: time lost, financial loss, damage to subassemblies that arrive before the site is ready to install them, sub contractor losses resulting from workers waiting for work, etc. • does jit and osf increase the sustainability of a construction project? • what is the best way to introduce lps to a project? • what is the best way to embed jit thinking and processes in the endtoend supply team? • can lps help to reduce accidents and safety concerns related to osf construction? references bae, j. and kim, y., 2008. assessing the environmental impacts of lean supply system: a case study of highrise condominium construction in seoul, korea. in: tzortzopoulos, p. and kagioglou, m., eds. 16th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. manchester, uk, 1618 jul 2008. pp.735742. [online] available at: https:// iglc.net/papers/details/546. ballard, g. and howell, g., 1994. implementing lean construction: stabilizing workflow. in: luis alarcon, ed. 1997. lean construction. london: crc press. pp.10110. ballard, g. and howell, g., 1995. toward construction jit. in: luis alarcon, ed. 1997. lean construction. london: crc press. pp.291300. ballard, g. and howell, g., 1998. shielding production: essential step in production control. journal of construction engineering and management, 124(1), pp.1117. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(1998)124:1(11) ballard, g. and howell, g., 2003a. competing construction management paradigms. in: proceedings of the construction research congress, american society of civil engineers, honolulu, hawaii, 1921 march 2003. pp.18. https://doi. org/10.1061/40671(2003)39 ballard, g. and howell, g., 2003b. an update on last planner. in: proceedings of the 11th annual conference of the international group for lean construction (iglc). virginia, usa. [online] available at: https://iglc.net/papers/ details/227. ballard, g. and tommelein, i., 2021. 2020 current process benchmark for the last planner® system of project planning and control. available at: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5t90q8q9 [accessed 12 july 2021]. ballard, g., 1994. the last planner. paper to the northern california construction institute, monterey, ca april 2224 ballard, g., 2000. the last planner system of production control. phd thesis. the university of birmingham department of civil engineering. ballard, g., 2017. lean construction, in: netland. t.h. and powell, d.j. (eds.), the routledge companion to lean management, routledge, pp.271285. ballard, g., vaagen, h., kay, w., stevens, b. and pereira, m., 2020. extending the last planner system® to the entire project. lean construction journal 2020, pp.4277, online at leanconstructionjournal.org building and construction authority (bca), singapore, 2020. design for manufacturing and assembly (dfma) prefabricated prefinished volumetric construction guidebook https://bit.ly/ppvcguide construction manager, 2020. client satisfaction dips as 60% of construction projects are delivered late, available at: https://constructionmanagermagazine.com/clie7ntsatisfact4iondips60constru4ction/ [access date: 18feb21] mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021137 https://iglc.net/papers/details/546 https://iglc.net/papers/details/546 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1998)124:1(11) https://doi.org/10.1061/40671(2003)39 https://doi.org/10.1061/40671(2003)39 https://iglc.net/papers/details/227 https://iglc.net/papers/details/227 https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5t90q8q9 https://bit.ly/ppvc-guide https://constructionmanagermagazine.com/clie7nt-satisfact4ion-dips-60-constru4ction/ court, p., 2009. transforming traditional m&e construction into a modern process of assembly engineering doctoral thesis, loughborough university dave, b., hämäläinen, j.p., kemmer, s., koskela, l. and koskenvesa, a., 2015. suggestions to improve lean construction planning. in: proc. 23rd ann. conf. of the int’l. group for lean construction. perth, australia, july 2931, 193202 davies, g. and white, w., 2015. reducing accidents between construction vehicles and cyclists. civil engineering, 168(3), pp.13137. https://doi.org/10.1680/cien.14.00049 department of trade and industry, uk (dti), 2004. construction logistics consolidation centres: an examination of new supply chain techniques. dep’t of trade and industry, london dieste, m., panizzolo, r. and garzareyes, j.a., 2020. evaluating the impact of lean practices on environmental performance: evidences from five manufacturing companies, production planning & control, 31(9), pp.739756. https:// doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2019.1681535 finlay, l., 2002. negotiating the swamp: the opportunity and challenge of reflexivity in practice. qualitative research 2(2) 219231 https://doi.org/10.1177/146879410200200205 fujimoto, t., 1999. the evolution of a manufacturing system at toyota. oup. gibb, a.g.f., 1999. offsite fabrication: prefabrication, preassembly, modularisation. whittles publishing. gibb, a.g.f. and isack, f., 2003. reengineering through preassembly: client expectations and drivers, building research and information, 31(2), pp.146– 60. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210302000 gilson, l.l. and goldberg, c.b., 2015. so, what is a conceptual paper?, group and organization management, 40(2), pp.127– 130 https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601115576425 goodier, c. and gibb, a., 2007. future opportunities for offsite in the uk, construction management and economics ( june 2007) 25, pp.585– 595 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190601071821 green, k.w., inman, r.a., sower, v.e. and zelbst, p.j., 2019. impact of jit, tqm and green supply chain practices on environmental sustainability”, journal of manufacturing technology management, 30(1), pp.2647. https://doi. org/10.1108/jmtm0120180015 hall, d.m., whyte, j.k. and lessing, j., 2020. mirrorbreaking strategies to enable digital manufacturing in silicon valley construction firms: a comparative case study, construction management and economics, 38(4), pp., 322339. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1656814 hämäläinen, j. , ballard, g. and elfving, j., 2014. are tools and training enough an argument for leadership, in:, kalsaas, b. t., koskela, l. and saurin, t. a., proceedings of the 22nd annual conference of the international group for lean construction. oslo, norway, 2527 jun 2014. pp.13571368 https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/980 hao, j.l., cheng, b., lu, w., xuc, j., wang, j., bu, w. and guo. z., 2020. carbon emission reduction in prefabrication construction during materialization stage: a bimbased lifecycle assessment approach, science of the total environment, 723(2020), p.137870 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137870 hong, j., shen, g.o., mao, c., li, z. and li, k., 2016. lifecycle energy analysis of prefabricated building components: an inputoutputbased hybrid model, journal of cleaner production, 112(2016), pp.21982207 https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2015.10.030 hopp, w.j. and spearman., m.l. 2000. factory physics: foundations of manufacturing management; mcgrawhill howell, g., laufer, a. and ballard, g., 1993. interaction between subcycles one key to improved methods, journal of construction engineering and management 119(4), asce https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(1993)119:4(714) mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021138 https://doi.org/10.1680/cien.14.00049 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2019.1681535 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2019.1681535 https://doi.org/10.1177/146879410200200205 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613210302000 https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601115576425 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190601071821 https://doi.org/10.1108/jmtm-01-2018-0015 https://doi.org/10.1108/jmtm-01-2018-0015 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1656814 https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/980 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.137870 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.10.030 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.10.030 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1993)119:4(714) jaafari, a., 1984. criticism of cpm for project planning analysis, journal of construction engineering and management, 110(2), pp.222233. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(1984)110:2(222) jaakkola, e., 2020. designing conceptual articles: four approaches, ams review, 10(1), pp.18– 26 https://doi. org/10.1007/s13162020001610 jaillon, l. and poon, c.s., 2014. life cycle design and prefabrication in buildings: a review and case studies in hong kong, automation in construction, 39(2014), pp.195202 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2013.09.006 jang, j., ahn, s., cha, s.h., cho, k., koo, c. and kim t.w., 2021. toward productivity in future construction: mapping knowledge and finding insights for achieving successful offsite construction projects, journal of computational design and engineering, 8(1), pp. 1– 14 https://doi.org/10.1093/jcde/qwaa071 kalsaas, b. t. and bolviken, t., 2010. the flow of work in construction: a conceptual discussion, in:, walsh, k. & alves, t., 18th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. haifa, israel. pp 5262 https://www. iglc.net/papers/details/718 kelley, j and walker, m., 1959, criticalpath planning and scheduling, proceedings of the eastern joint computer conference https://doi.org/10.1145/1460299.1460318 killingsworth, j., mehany , h.m. and ladhari, h., 2021. general contractors’ experience using offsite structural framing systems, construction innovation, vol. 21(1), pp.4063 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci0520190038 koskela, l., howell, g. , pikas, e. and dave, b., 2014. if cpm is so bad, why have we been using it so long, in:, kalsaas, b. t., koskela, l. and saurin, t. a., proceedings of the 22nd annual conference of the international group for lean construction. oslo, norway, 2527 jun 2014. pp 2737. https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/1018 koskela, l. and howell, g., 2002. the underlying theory of project management is obsolete, paper presented at pmi® research conference 2002: frontiers of project management research and applications, seattle, washington. project management institute koskela, l. and tommelein, i., 2009. the economic theory of production conceals opportunities for sustainability improvement’ in:, cuperus, y.and hirota, e.h., proceedings of the 17th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. taipei, taiwan, 1517 jul. pp.295304 https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/653 koskela, l., 2000. an exploration towards a production theory and its application to construction phd thesis, vtt, finland koskela, l., stratton, r. and koskenvesa, a., 2010. last planner and critical chain in construction management: comparative analysis, in:, walsh, k. and alves, t., proceedings of the 18th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. haifa, israel, 1416 jul 2010. pp 538547 https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/680 liker, j. k., 2021. the toyota way (2e): 14 management principles from the world’s greatest manufacturer. mcgraw hill. love, p., matthews, j. and fang, w., 2020. rework in construction: a focus on error and violation, journal of construction engineering and management, 146(9) asce https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0001901 lu, n. and liska, r., 2008. designers’ and general contractors’ perceptions of offsite construction techniques in the united states construction industry”, international journal of construction education and research, 4(3), pp.177188. https://doi.org/10.1080/15578770802494565 malterud, k., 2001. qualitative research: standards, challenges and guidelines. the lancet, 358, pp.483488. https://doi. org/10.1016/s01406736(01)056276 maslow, a. h., 1966. the psychology of science. new york: harper & row. mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021139 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1984)110:2(222) https://doi.org/10.1007/s13162-020-00161-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13162-020-00161-0 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2013.09.006 https://doi.org/10.1093/jcde/qwaa071 https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/718 https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/718 https://doi.org/10.1145/1460299.1460318 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-05-2019-0038 https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/1018 https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/653 https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/680 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001901 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578770802494565 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(01)05627-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0140-6736(01)05627-6 mckay, l., gibb, a., haslam, r. and pendlebury, m., 2005. health and safety management of offsite construction, how close are we to production manufacturing, 4th triennial international conference rethinking and revitalizing construction safety, health, port elizabeth, south africa, 20 may 2005, pp.432441 mckinsey global institute, 2017. reinventing construction: a route to higher productivity, available at: https://www. mckinsey.com/ [access date: 11/06/2021] miles, j. and whitehouse, n., 2013. offsite housing review. construction industry council, london. available at: https://cic.org.uk/publications/ [access date: 17/03/2021]. modig, n. and ahlstrom, p., 2015. this is lean: resolving the efficiency paradox. lean construction institute, arlington, va. mosey, d., 2019. collaborative construction procurement and improved value. oxford: wiley https://doi. org/10.1002/9781119151951 mossman, a. and ramalingam, s., 2021. “last planner, everyday learning, shared understanding & rework” in proc. 29th annual conf. of the int’l group for lean construction (iglc29), lima, peru, https://www.iglc.net/papers/ details/1911 mossman, a., 2020. last planner: 5 + 1 crucial and collaborative conversations for predictable project production planning. pp.140, available at: http://bit.ly/lpsam2020 [date of access: 16jul2021] orosz, g., wilson, e., szalai, s. and stépán, g., 2009. exciting traffic jams nonlinear phenomena behind traffic jam formation on highways, phys rev e stat nonlin soft matter phys., 80(4 part 2):046205. https://doi.org/10.1103/ physreve.80.046205 pan, w. and sidwell, r., 2011. demystifying the cost barriers to offsite construction in the uk, construction management and economics, 29(11), pp.10811099 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.637938 pasquire c.l. and court, p.f., 2013. an exploration of knowledge and understanding the eighth flow, proceedings of the 21st ann conf. of the int’l group for lean construction, july 2013, forteleza, brazil pasquire, c.l., 2012. the 8th flow a common understanding. proceedings of the 20th ann conf. of the int’l group for lean construction, july 2012, san diego, usa peltokorpi, a., seppänen, o., lehtovaara, j., pikas, e., and alhava, o., 2021. developing a framework for systemic transformation of the construction industry, proc. 29th annual conference of the international group for lean construction (iglc29), lima, peru, pp. 454– 463. https://doi.org/10.24928/2021/0154 https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/1867 peter brett associates, 2007. construction consolidation centres: an assessment of the potential for londonwide use, final report for transport for london, tfl. [no longer available on the web; first author has a copy.] sandanayakea, m., luob, w. and zhangc, g., 2019. direct and indirect impact assessment in offsite construction— a case study in china, sustainable cities and society, 48(2019), p.101520 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101520 sarhan, s., pasquire, c., elnokaly, a. and pretlove, s., 2019. lean and sustainable construction: a systematic critical review of 25 years of experience’, lean construction journal, pp.120, available at: leanconstructionjournal.org sartal, a., martinezsenra, a. and cruzmachado, v., 2018. are all lean principles equally ecofriendly? a panel data study, journal of cleaner production, 177, pp.362370 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.190 soto, s., hubbard, b. and hubbard, s., 2014. exploring prefabrication facility safety in the u.s. construction industry, proc. cib w099 achieving sustainable construction health and safety, lund, sweden, 23 june, pp.98106 sutton, r.i. and staw, b.m., 1995. ‘what theory is not’, administrative science quarterly, 40(3), pp.371384 https://doi. org/10.2307/2393788 mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021140 https://www.mckinsey.com/ https://www.mckinsey.com/ https://cic.org.uk/publications/ https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119151951 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119151951 https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/1911 https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/1911 http://bit.ly/lps-am-2020 https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.80.046205 https://doi.org/10.1103/physreve.80.046205 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.637938 https://doi.org/10.24928/2021/0154 https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/1867 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101520 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.190 https://doi.org/10.2307/2393788 https://doi.org/10.2307/2393788 swain, b. and mossman, a., 2003. smooth and lean, quality world 29(3), pp.2730 tam, v. and hao, j., 2014. prefabrication as a mean of minimizing construction waste onsite, international journal of construction management, 14(2), pp.113121 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2014.899129 tam, v., fung, i., sing, m. and ogunlana, s., 2015. best practice of prefabrication implementation in the hong kong public and private sectors, journal of cleaner production, 109(2015), pp.216231 https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2014.09.045 tam, w.y.v., tam, c.m. and zeng, s.x., 2007. towards adoption of prefabrication in construction, building and environment, 42(10), pp.36423654. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2006.10.003 transport for london (tfl), 2007. construction consolidation centres: an assessment of the potential for london wide use. transport for london. [no longer available on the web; first author has a copy.] transport for london (tfl), 2016. the directory of london construction consolidation centres. transport for london. https://www.clocs.org.uk/casestudies/thedirectoryoflondonconstructionconsolidationcentresv12_final_ webea550c.pdf [date of access: 16jul2021] van amstel, w. p. and postulart, r., 2017. slimme bouwlogistiek houdt steden leefbaar: chaos is een keuze [smart construction logistics keeps cities liveable: chaos is a choice] cobouw. https://www.cobouw.nl/innovatie/ artikel/2017/03/slimmebouwlogistiekhoudtstedenleefbaarchaosiseenkeuze10141879 [accessed 12jul21] english translation at: https://www.civicproject.eu/en/news/smartconstructionlogisticskeepscitieslivablechaoschoice [accessed 12jul21] vrijhoef, r. and koskela, l., 2005. revisiting the three peculiarities of production in construction. proceedings of iglc13, july, sydney, australia. https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/345 winch, graham m., 2010. managing construction projects: an information processing approach. 2e. wileyblackwell. womack, j. and jones, d., 2003. lean thinking: banish waste and create wealth in your corporation. simon & schuster/ free press mossman and sarhan construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021141 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2014.899129 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.045 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.09.045 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2006.10.003 https://www.clocs.org.uk/casestudies/the-directory-of-london-construction-consolidation-centres-v12_final_web-ea550c.pdf https://www.clocs.org.uk/casestudies/the-directory-of-london-construction-consolidation-centres-v12_final_web-ea550c.pdf https://www.cobouw.nl/innovatie/artikel/2017/03/slimme-bouwlogistiek-houdt-steden-leefbaar-chaos-is-een-keuze-10141879 https://www.cobouw.nl/innovatie/artikel/2017/03/slimme-bouwlogistiek-houdt-steden-leefbaar-chaos-is-een-keuze-10141879 https://www.civic-project.eu/en/news/smart-construction-logistics-keeps-cities-livable-chaos-choice https://www.iglc.net/papers/details/345 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: asianoah, r., ayitey, a. f., brink, b. 2025. assessing financial and professional risks on commercial property development and investment in the accra, ghana enclave. construction economics and building, 25:2, 215–234. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i2.9123 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article assessing financial and professional risks on commercial property development and investment in the accra, ghana enclave rexford asianoah1,*, aryee feizel ayitey1, botha brink2 1 faculty of built & natural environment, koforidua technical university, ghana 2 department of construction management, nelson mandela university, south africa corresponding author: rexford asianoah, rasianoah@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9123 article history: received 25/04/2024; revised 07/03/2025; accepted 20/04/2025; published 08/08/2025 abstract commercial property development and investment (cpdi) is considered to be one of the major investments that stimulate economic growth in many countries around the globe. ghana is no exception. cpdi benefits include employment creation, tax revenue to the government, generation of income for investors, and gross domestic product (gdp) contribution. however, cpdi suffers from inherent risks in its planning, execution, and management stages. some of the inherent risks can be identified and assessed prior to execution if effective financial and professional analyses are conducted. hence, the purpose of this study was to critically evaluate financial and professional risks affecting cpdi projects in accra, ghana. based on this, an extensive literature review was conducted on key variables such as pestel (political, economic, social, technology, environment, and legal), strategic factors, project management body of knowledge (pmbok), and financial and professional feasibility. the proposition is that these variables have a significant effect on cpdi projects. quantitative approach was employed to collect field data from property practitioners within the accra enclave as respondents whereby a survey of questionnaires was distributed using the probability random sampling technique. structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data gathered from the 172 respondents out of the 500-target population. this means that a 76% response rate was achieved per the total number of 225 distributed questionnaires. analysis of the data proved that pestel analysis, strategic factors, and pmbok statistically have a 215 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9123 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9123 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:rasianoah@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9123 significant effect on cpdi projects’ risk assessment. the findings of the study indicate that financial and professional feasibility analysis serves as the primary basis for assessing risks in cpdi projects. keywords commercial property development; investment; risk management introduction commercial property development and investment (cpdi) are considered to be one of the major investments that stimulate economic growth in many countries around the globe (brounen and de koning, 2014; caputo, 2013). many countries in africa including ghana have seen growth in the commercial property development sector perhaps due to its political stability over the years. the implementation of commercial property development projects has contributed to the growth of ghana’s gross domestic product (gdp) from 10.8% in 2006 to 13.6% in 2011, and further surged to 17.8% in 2016, according to the cytonn real estate report (2017). generally, cpdi serves to widen employment and business opportunities for both individuals and institutions (khan et al., 2014). apart from the opportunities cpdi provides, it is bound to face risks such as political, economic, social, and construction risks. it is upon this background that this study is necessitated to assess prospective risks associated with cpdi projects and further prescribe solutions that may be employed to manage such risks with the aim of achieving optimum returns in cpdi projects. to assess and manage risks associated with cpdi projects in ghana, researchers explore the effective use of a financial and professional feasibility analysis tool as a proactive approach to identify risks. the term “financial feasibility analysis” in this respect refers to the market and viability reporting standards, and the two words “market” and “viability” sometimes may be used separately, depending on the angle one is looking at (costello and preller, 2010). market analysis is noted not only as a report that generates accounts on the future economic prospects of the development but also to continually re-examine the possibilities and chances whereby property development processes can be affected (archibong and ogunba, 2018; costello and preller, 2010). practically speaking, property investment complexity and its long-term characteristics sometimes result in low returns due to the lack of adequate risk management during the initial stages of the project. this leads investors and developers to incur losses. to address such a phenomenon, there is a need to undertake professional and financial feasibility studies prior to the implementation of the project. in practice, professional feasibility may represent the various practical steps professionals such as construction supervisors and project managers follow to ensure quality during project execution. conducting professional and financial feasibility studies will help commercial property developers and investors to assess and manage risks in cpdi projects properly. to conduct a risk assessment for cpdi projects, existing analytical tools such as pestel (political, economic, social, technology, environment, and legal) and project management body of knowledge (pmbok) as well as strategic factors were adopted as antecedent variables in measuring cpdi. however, financial and professional feasibility were chosen as intervening variables due to their usefulness in decisionmaking. this may help establish a relationship between financial/professional feasibility and effective risk assessment in cpdi projects. asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025216 literature review managing risks in commercial property development and investment projects under this, pestel analysis, pmbok application, strategic factors considerations, and financial and professional feasibility analysis relative to risk assessment/management in commercial property development and investment projects are discussed. pestel analysis risks associated with projects can be assessed with the uses of many frameworks and models, depending on the type of projects one is undertaking. johnson et al. (2011) note that the pestel framework provides a comprehensive list of factors that affect the success or failure of many investment projects. this framework defines the six macro environmental factors, namely, political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal, and how each influences cpdi projects. on the other hand, another analytical framework, the robson risk management model, measures risk based on different variables. in sub-saharan africa, some countries face multiple structural pressures, including conflict due to political instability (bello-schünemann and moyer, 2018). according to the center for strategic and international studies report (2011), ghana has emerged as a paragon of political stability over the past two decades. hence, the country has successively recorded mega commercial property development projects in its capital city (accra) over the last 10 years. among the few ones are the accra mall development, stanbic heights office building development, and west hills mall. economic policies and regulations on mortgage lending affect the housing market (hwang et al., 2013). the fact is that demand and supply for housing and commercial development in particular hinge on economic status. florentino et al., (2014) are of the view that housing development affordability is a socio-economic requirement, and that it improves quality of life in our society. although cpdi projects are capitally expensive, it offers good returns if they are able to meet their target taste and preferences. in the 21st century, commercial property built with technologies such as automation and sensor systems, may cause demand to increase with all things being equal. in the same way, zhao et al. (2019) claim that environmental quality measures how social facilities can be assessed. this means that commercial property location has a significant influence on the rent it generates. in practice, properties found in locations that have easy access and are close to social amenities attract high rent and value. fundamentally, laws governing land acquisition in ghana are an essential factor commercial property developers and investors have to take cognizance of. taking this into consideration will alert developers to conduct extensive research before buying or paying for land, especially within the accra catchment area. adequate legal assessment on the property acquisition stage helps prevent litigation. geipele et al. (2014) are of the view that real estate investment analysis should be designed around economic, political, social, environmental, and technological factors. strategic factor considerations strategic factors may be viewed as factors that organizations or business entities adopt to succeed in achieving their set goals and targets. these factors include the provision of customer satisfaction practices, ensuring employees’ competency and effective marketing, and adopting strategic leadership and management styles. per jabbar and hussein (2017), management for organizations is to set vision, think strategically, plan, and lead to ensure effective operational activities. it follows that developers together with their project managers, property managers, and property marketers have to sharpen their managerial skills. asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025217 this may help to increase performance efficiency in the hopes of performing duties and responsibilities well at all levels of work (de la harpe, mason and peterson, 2011). to achieve an optimum level of success in every project, strategic leadership and management are critical (pournasir, 2013). strategic management is simply described as the process of forming and executing the necessary evaluated changes that put an organization to a sustainable and competitive advantage (pournasir, 2013). commercial property developers and investors may explore this concept by adopting the implementation of strategic factors in an attempt to position their projects on the competitive edge and also to address economic and management risks. the succeeding section explains in detail some of the key strategic factors mentioned in the above paragraph. strategic leadership authors such as setiawan and yuniarsih (2018) and daft (2011) define strategic leadership as the ability of an organization to anticipate and envision the future, become flexible, think ahead, and initiate positive changes that are likely to position an organization on a competitive edge in the future. this definition emphasizes that strategic leadership is all about putting measures in place to ensure organizational posterity and sustainability. this may be uncommon in some organizations. hence, effective strategic leadership appears to be one of the critical challenges some organizations face today. despite several kinds of research on leadership, scholars have only recently begun to single out strategic leadership as a focus for attention (palladan, 2017). according to saunders et at. (2015), strategic leadership is associated with organizational effectiveness. the behavioral complexity of the causal link between moderators and mediators suggests that there is difficulty in obtaining effective leadership (saunders at al., 2015). this is due to the lack of instituting an effective succession plan for organizations. this may indicate that real estate development companies need a leadership succession plan to align their vision and values as steps to continuously set their goals (lear, 2012). as stated earlier, leaders set visions, think strategically, plan, and lead to administer operational activities for followers to emulate. in this vein, property developers together with the project manager, construction manager, site supervisor, property manager, and the property marketer could be classified as leaders and are expected to set the vision and think strategically in the course of executing their commercial real estate projects. furthermore, business leaders are there to boost the morale and spirit of their subordinates by using appropriate leadership strategies. more importantly, they serve as teachers and motivators to their workers (ingason, 2015). motivation, for example, is the process of energizing a person’s drive to work in an effort to achieve the set goals (rey-martí, porcar and mas-tur, 2015). others perceive motivation as the act of encouraging a person to complete a task by himself/herself effectively. lunenburg (2011) believes that goal-setting theory should be the most appropriate theory to explain motivation. however, motivation impacts such as personal fulfillment and personal values put more weight to business performance and productivity (asah et al., 2015). applying motivation as a strategy when supervising real estate projects may influence project completion and cost. the fact is that workers’ attitude, behavior, and input may change positively. it is based on this that leaders need to have a clear mental approach to change their organization’s capabilities (ingason, 2015). strategic leadership with effective strategies usually serves as the fundamental springboard for a fruitful strategic management process to take off (ingason, 2015). proactive leaders are able to expedite action to initiate suitable strategic growth for their organizations by ensuring proper ways of implementing the right strategies. strategic leadership also creates an efficient evaluation system that runs parallel with the implementation of strategies at every stage of the organizational activity and that minimizes risks and lapses in management processes (ingason, 2015). asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025218 strategic managers perform the role of formulating the vision and strategy through the help of a visionary leader by understanding the organization as a whole (laban, 2017). key technical leaders in real estate organizations who spearhead development projects in the same way may need to formulate development visions and strategies that promote cost-effectiveness based on the professional feasibility analysis reports. this action may aid the development team in coming up with viable projects. however, a leader’s adoption of a realistic approach in identifying strategic gaps to employ a good mechanism is quite essential, according to bouhali et al. (2015). however, procedures to implement such a mechanism may be cumbersome. new policy implementation may be effective if leaders introduce the need for change by possibly creating a culture that integrates strategy and operational activities (ingason, 2017). in such instances, effective communication may play a major role. within the leadership communication cycle, behavioral factors such as motivation, power to influence, leading the change, cultivating trust, creating collaboration, leading through crisis and turmoil, mentoring, and discovery of different leadership styles are to be exhibited by the leaders to cause the change (conrad and newberry, 2012). again, leadership driven by sustainable goals requires special attention to promote long-term involvement and value for all stakeholders to keep up with the challenges (popescu et al., 2020). lunenburg (2010) confirms that construction project managers must have leadership skills to perform their functions. effective marketing theurillat (2010) defines marketing as planning and implementing the concept of selling, pricing, promotion, and distribution of information, goods, and services to satisfy individual and organizational goals. baumann and hamin (2011) elaborate that marketing comprises the management of activities and decisions directed to meet opportunities and threats in a dynamic environmental setting to satisfy market offerings for identified consumers. in the world of the estate sector, the term “marketing” is historically and basically related to the use of postcards, a property flyer, and a computer website to market property sales, rent, or lease (florentino et al., 2014). today, many real estate professionals such as property brokers, property developers, property managers, and facility managers have realized the need to incorporate technology to complement their way of conducting business (laban, 2017; florentino et al., 2014). the purpose is to improve efficiency and quality. however, the implementation of technology could primarily increase the cost of operations, and for that matter, cost–benefit analysis has to be conducted to achieve value addition. modern real estate consumers are quite knowledgeable in information and technology and they may know how to access information online. in this regard, commercial real estate professionals may advertise their services and products through the internet (florentino et al., 2014). the reason may be due to convenience and cost-effectiveness. effective advertisement for property offerings to consumers, such as commercial property spaces for rentals, may help minimize vacancy rate while strategic and effective marketing for residential accommodation could shorten the market rental period to a minimum level. buyers and tenants’ trends have evolved, and for that matter, the marketing mix should include multiple listing, databases, and networks to take different forms to be congruent with the changing demand. this demand trend has changed how property brokers communicate with their prospective clients (florentino et al., 2014). offline approach and the use of telephone and internet are some of the strategies marketers adopt to increase sales (kumar et al., 2011). goodwin and stetelman (2013) acknowledge that the use of new technologies and applications such as global positioning system (gps) technology, social networking, tablet computers, and smartphones has come to change the strategies real estate businesses conduct in the 21st century. asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025219 empirical evidence in the market orientation industry shows that the stakeholder orientation construct may pose different relationships with sales results relative to general profit performance (cadogan, 2012; kumar et al., 2011). performance measurement in marketing actually depends on the output of the marketer. under certain market environmental conditions, strategic orientations may be less beneficial due to the changes in conditions (cadogan, 2012). hence, a marketer may have to study environmental conditions influencing the service or product, and this may inform an appropriate marketing strategy to adopt. project management body of knowledge application pmbok is the set of key knowledge areas used and applied by project management professionals as techniques to manage projects effectively (pmbok guide, 2017; liljedahl and möller, 2014). under this section, the key knowledge areas considered in the study literature covered are project cost management, project quality management, and project risk management (prm). risk management is considered in the construction process throughout the project life cycle as an essential element according to many research scholars such as banaitienė et al. (2011) and turskis et al. (2012). literature has broadly acknowledged the positive impact of risk assessment and management in reference to many projects across various fields (de bakker et al., 2014 and de bakker et al., 2012). in practice, it is important to actualize that these project knowledge areas are applied by project managers. these three project knowledge areas are therefore explained below. project cost management (pcm) according to vasista (2017), cost management is the process of controlling project expenses in all the stages, including feasibility to the handing-over stage to ensure that the set budget is relatively kept. by contrast, the project budget increases with no added value if proper control measures are not taken. to conduct efficient and professional cost analysis from the feasibility stage to the completion stage, the project manager ought to work around the clock to manage project cost overrun. professionals who are usually capable of performing such analysis are quantity surveyors and cost engineers (smith, 2014). “cost engineer” is a title used by north and south america, while “construction economist” is used by some european countries, and a “quantity surveyor” is a professional term of uk origin and used in the commonwealth countries at large. these professionals try to use scientific methods to estimate the cost of projects prior to the project commencement and during the execution of the work (tesha, 2018). in practice, a clear definition of work scope serves as the fundamental basis of identifying cost components to determine the total baseline cost for a project, such as constructing a commercial property. a baseline cost therefore is described as a cumulative time scheduled for budget that may be used to measure and monitor current and future cost performance for a proposed project (khamidi et al, 2011). the total baseline cost and the determination of contingency cost have to be technically managed by the cost managers with the aim of minimizing cost overrun (vasista, 2017). project cost management involves planning, estimating, financing, managing, and controlling costs in such a way that projects may be completed as budgeted (pmbok guide, 2017 and artto et al., 2011). it is important to note that cost estimation requires extensive knowledge of the construction principles, materials cost, labor cost, and sound judgment (tesha, 2018). in addition, equipment cost and calculation skills are also vital in cost estimation. project cost management is viewed as a professional expertise and capability in project management that involves estimating project cost, planning, and controlling cost with the sole aim of reducing capital cost swelling during the construction process (tesha, 2018). the process of managing cost in each stage will promote resource optimization (brook, 2016). traditionally, cost managers (cms) are mainly responsible for preparing the bill of quantities and variation certificates for claims. asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025220 however, cms’ functions further extend to the level of advising clients on cost implications of the project with the purpose of better value for money decisions without compromising project quality standards (anifowose et al., 2013). cost managers’ value management performance in construction project delivery plays a pivotal role in the construction team. cost variance in a project may simply be explained as the difference in the value between the work done and the amount of money spent. moreover, cms provide information to the internal stakeholders who need accurate and detailed information for economic decision-making purposes (kujala et al., 2014). the purpose is to tally up the cost with the general project performance. for this reason, khamidi et al. (2011) affirm that effective project management performance control may not be obtained only by monitoring the physical infrastructure but also by managing the spending components of the project. one of the major challenges in pcm in construction projects across the globe is cost overrun and scope creep (smith, 2014). scope creep is any deviation that affects the original scope of the project. this deviation or change sometimes increases the project cost. a global survey of 20 countries from both developed and developing countries indicates a constant substantial cost escalation of construction and infrastructure projects with no exception (flyvbjerg et al, 2009). flyvbjerg et al, (2005) also outline that boston’s central tunnel project had a budget overrun of up to 275%, amounting to us$11 billion. project cost overrun strains clients financially. to this extent, tirole (2014) quantifies cost overrun to be around us$1.7 trillion worldwide, and hence, emphasizes that it is a major global construction industry problem. this shows that academic researchers need to perform several studies to find out how such a problem can be addressed. furthermore, the increasing recognition from financiers and clients’ perspectives on effective pcm and cost control has called for the employment of qualified, specialized, and expert professionals to handle cost management portfolios in order to address cost overrun deficiency in construction and property development projects (smith, 2014). in construction projects, cost overrun is caused by both internal and external factors. these factors include poor construction works that need to be demolished and client instruction to add other features to the existing planned working drawing. however, cost overrun, in general, comprises three parts: the early-stage cost overrun, construction implementation cost overrun, and postconstruction stage cost overrun (larsen et al., 2016). the causes of cost overrun, to a large extent, can be linked to ineffective management of the project scope (brook, 2016). numerous budget cost blowouts affecting major construction projects across the globe have raised concern and attention at both local and international levels (smith, 2014). many governments, financiers, and major private developing entities, including the world bank, the world trade organization, and the united nations, have recognized the importance of effective cost control in construction projects (larsen et al., 2016). large construction project management such as complex office development faces cost management challenges due to an increasing number of factors (iyer and jha, 2005). an economic factor like inflation rate causes materials price increase. in addition, other instances such as wide and varying work scope, multiple specialized machinery usage, and variable technical experts brought on board may pose a cost overrun risk. according to palladan (2017), cost overrun occurs on construction projects due to the following reasons: error in design, changes in project scope, change orders, disputes at the construction site, material price fluctuations, and increase in labor wages. such instances influence the entire project cost to drastically increase. in complex situations, construction companies involved in executing such projects find it difficult to achieve cost efficiency and profitability according to artto et al. (2011). updating cost estimates, forecasting constantly, and evaluating invoices before releasing contingency costs are the steps some cms adopt to monitor the project cost chain. since cost management has become more complicated in this era due to asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025221 technological advancement and shortage of resources, building construction contractors and property developers are inclined to hire cm professionals to manage the costs of running projects (palladan, 2017). the above consideration may help reduce the high cost overrun burden stakeholders experience in most projects. ofori (2013) asserts that a good estimate may not exceed 10% of the actual cost estimate provided there is a limit to the unforeseen circumstances. records indicate that most domestic contractors lack financial management skills (palladan, 2017); hence, they may need to employ professional cms to assist in managing project costs. ofori (2013) suggest that cost management techniques such as cost planning, cost flow forecasting, and cost control are important in managing cost. project quality management project quality management (pqm) is the process of incorporating the organizational quality program with respect to planning, controlling, and managing projects to fulfill stakeholders’ aims and objectives (pmbok guide, 2017). it may be viewed as the management approach that ensures the fundamental quality standards to achieve project goals and objectives. in commercial property development projects, quality standard fulfillment at all levels tends to curb shortand long-term cost. normally, buildings built with quality materials and construction techniques have lower maintenance cost. it is interesting to note that pmbok entails the use of knowledge areas and processes that can actually optimize the allocation of resources based on an inter-connected system of actions purposely designed to achieve some specific objectives set for the projects (cruz and marques, 2013; dominguez et al., 2010). pqm, in simple interpretation, is meant to provide continuous support to improve project activities. on the other hand, quality management (qm) is viewed as a vital and insightful component of the management cycle. it is backed by modern research on different methodologies based on field and theoretical discoveries (taniguchi and onosato, 2018). therefore, qm is relatively known as a discipline in project management and it is carried out by project managers, inspectors, and supervisors involved in managing projects. the fundamental aspects of qm are well described by well-known and accredited international management standards such as iso 9001 and iso 14001 (ingason, 2015). iso 9001 is applicable to many kinds of business organizations worldwide. to ensure the usefulness and recognition of iso 9001, teller et al. (2014) made a remarkable comment on the total number of iso 9001 certificates issued in countries worldwide from 1993 to 2010. it is evident that the issuance of the certificates has increased from more than 46,000 certificates in 60 countries in the year 1993 to 1.1 million certificates in 178 countries in 2010 approximately. based on the numerous quantities of iso 9001 certificates issued worldwide (alolayan, 2014), can one confidently assert that quality management protocols in many operations have also increased? this question leaves a gap in literature and practice, especially in the construction and property development project management industry. alolayan (2014) conducted an extensive literature review on iso 9001 studies, and they were able to analyze 100 research papers in an attempt to establish an overview of iso 9001 certification. in the same way, al‐rawahi and bashir (2011) conducted a comparative analysis of the implementation of iso 9001 in oman. ingason (2015) also followed steps to conduct research about the implementation of iso 9001 in small firms with special emphasis on the benefits. these cases presented different results and outcomes as far as assessing iso 9001 certificates and implementing quality management are concerned. the fundamental proposition of this literature study explores the conceptual meaning of project quality management and how it can be employed in construction and real estate development projects. in the project quality management evaluation process, literature often classifies the process, input, and outcome as performance variables according to bou-llusar et al. (2009). to ensure quality performance in project activities, effective evaluation exercises through the process of various activities should be adhered to. for asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025222 this reason, alolayan (2014) argues that it is insufficient to evaluate the end product alone; the process that produces the product should also be evaluated. quality performance in construction management entails how the project quality and environmental factors are managed appropriately. managing technology, materials, and equipment to improve project quality by employing team members’ knowledge and technical skills capabilities is necessary (halpin, 2017). most organizations in this modern world apply process approach techniques (pats) in their operations to ensure continual quality management in project management (ingason, 2015). the aspect of pat synergy demonstrates how organizations nowadays implement quality management systems in their operations (ingason, 2015). the fact is that the application of pats is massively gaining popularity in many organizations as a solution to the quality management problems in project management. however, there could be other qm techniques that are as equally effective. therefore, the quality management model measures the impact of changes in portfolio success antecedents and validates the construct using a longitudinal sample ( jonas et al., 2012). this could imply that a project portfolio success depends on the quality management mechanism put in place to achieve its outcomes. ofori (2013) declares that quality has two different attributes: subjective and objective. only the project team members can determine the subjectivity quality attribute, while the objectivity quality attribute has been determined by the project’s key stakeholders (ingason, 2015). the key stakeholders for a commercial property project, for example, consist of the client, the property developer, and potential users. quality as a requirement is considered to be one of the important outcomes of a project since performance measurement is usually based on cost, time, and quality (ofori, 2013). another important period to measure quality is at the stage of conducting assessment in the project life cycle. although ogunlana (2010) and heravi et al. (2015) believe that project quality is usually evaluated at the completion stage, it is efficient to evaluate quality period by period during the process of executing the project to minimize major defects at the completion stage. however, it is interesting to note that the most significant time to make quality decisions in a project is during the planning and designing stages (ofori, 2013) because laying a quality foundation through the formulation of specifications and standards at such an initial stage will provide a pathway in achieving quality in all aspects of the project. generally, almost all the quality management efforts are put into the project during the implementation stage (taniguchi and onosato, 2018). in ensuring project quality, the onus lies on the project manager and the frontline team members. ogunlana (2010) brings to light that the main objective of the quality management system is to identify and define techniques that will ensure quality results and products in project execution management processes. project risk management projects are usually exposed to risks. commercial property development projects, for instance, can be affected by economic, engineering, and management risk. therefore, risk management is vital in a project’s process through its life cycle, and many research scholars have analyzed these risks (banaitienė et al., 2011; turskis et al., 2012). literature has broadly acknowledged the positive impact of risk management in an attempt to focus on the project stages across the various sectors (de bakker et al., 2014). in practice, it is important to have a risk management plan for every stage of a project. this may enable implementers to lower the impact of risk at every level of the entire project. many studies continue to show a positive relationship between prm and project success according to teller et al. (2014). however, integrating risk management into the project portfolio management process may encourage portfolio managers to adopt evaluation tools to promote project efficiency. prm assists institutions to minimize the negative impact of uncertainties on the balance of probability while aiming to anticipate the outcomes of the project opportunities (petit, 2012). koul et al. (2018), asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025223 in conjunction with teller et al. (2014), found that the prm process consists of risk identification, risk analysis, risk definition, risk response implementation, and risk monitoring. there are quite a number of approaches a project manager may use to go about ensuring the prm process. for example, a brainstorming approach can identify risks, and the probability matrix approach is usually employed to analyze risks (teller et al., 2014). the decision tree approach may also help to determine a particular risk response to apply. the main primary steps in risk management involve planning, resolution, risk control, and risk monitoring (arias and stern, 2011). experience constantly proves that effective monitoring influences performance. a series of research studies have shown a positive relationship between prm and project success, and a typical study in this regard is khamidi et al. (2011). other studies have confirmed that there is a positive relationship between risk management strategies and the performance of a new product development project in china (bowers and khorakian, 2014). bowers and khorakian (2014) highlight that organizations should not avoid risk as a strategy to avert risks in their operations. rather, they should adopt a project risk diagnosis management plan to adjust and balance success and failure. the extensive application of effective and explicit risk management strategies may decrease failure and expenditure (khamidi et al., 2011). technically, it is notable that an inappropriate risk management strategy could also disturb and stifle innovation (taplin, 2005). hence, there is a need to find a balance. this caution is relevant when running many projects, including construction and real estate projects. on this basis, one may assert that the prm plan should be flexible in the course of application. financial and professional feasibility analyses per this study, financial feasibility analysis views how commercial property development and investment projects can be critically assessed to establish whether a project is viable or not. various calculations such as payback period and net present value (npv) are conducted at the initial stage of the project period. to determine the npv, an appropriate discount rate has to be adopted to discount all the expected incomes year by year, whereby the total figure is obtained for the said project (khamidi et al., 2011). similarly, market research conducted to establish a good location for the proposed project could also be embedded in the financial feasibility analysis report. professional feasibility, on the other hand, endeavors to analyze and discover the possible professional best practices that need to be adopted throughout the development processes of the project with the aim of ensuring efficiency and cost-effectiveness. there may be other analytical exercises that could detail project viability, but these two feasibility analyses mentioned appear to be “y” components needed to secure the success level of a project realization in practice. this study therefore presents the identified factors (pestel analysis, strategic factors, and pmbok application) and evaluates each factor against cpdi risk assessment/risk management through financial and professional feasibility variables. figure 1 proposes a conceptual framework of the study summarizing the identified factors as well as indicating their relationships with financial and professional feasibility vis-à-vis risk assessment and risk management hypothetically. research methodology the study employed a quantitative methodology using a survey of questionnaires to collect data on the identified risk factors (strategic factors, pestel, and pmbok) presumed existing and that influence cpdi projects as far as risk assessment/risk management is concerned. under strategic factors, for example, probable closed-ended questions were set to cover strategic leadership and effective marketing, while similar questions were structured to cover pestel and pmbok applications. copies of the prepared questionnaire were sent to 12 selected commercial property development and investment professionals in accra, ghana for them to answer and review the questions as a source of asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025224 conducting industry testing to establish the relevance and validity of the study instrument. feedback received guided the researcher to modify the set of questions in the study questionnaire and finally adopted it. the target population of the study comprises commercial property developers and investment advisors located in accra because major commercial properties in ghana are found in accra and its surroundings. an estimated population number of 500 for the study was obtained as the key managers from the selected companies based on the lists received from the two major professional bodies (ghana real estate developers association and ghana institution of surveyors-estate division) recognized in ghana. hence, 225 questionnaires were distributed as target sample size respondents according to the krejcie and morgan sampling table by using the probability sampling technique. however, only 172 questionnaires were received from respondents that were deemed as correct and credible for statistical analysis. the effect was that 76% response rate was obtained demonstrating respondents’ readiness and eagerness to participate in the study. structural equation modeling (sem), specifically known as sem-amos 28, was used to analyze this study’s data due to its high level of producing effective results. because the study hinges on hypothesis testing, hair et al. (2017) posit that a cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.7 or greater indicates acceptable internal consistency reliability. however, the cronbach alpha coefficient obtained during the study instrument test was 0.963, which shows that the instrument has demonstrated an adequate level of internal consistency reliability. eight hypotheses were set to establish whether there was a positive relationship between the identified factors and risk assessment/risk management through financial and professional feasibility. the eight hypotheses were as follows: h1: there is a positive relationship between pestel analysis (ps) and professional feasibility (pf). h2: there is a positive relationship between pestel analysis (ps) and financial feasibility (ff). h3: there is a positive relationship between strategic factors (sf) and professional feasibility (pf). h4: there is a positive relationship between strategic factors (sf) and financial feasibility. h5: there is a positive relationship between pmbok application (pm) and professional feasibility (pf). h6: there is a positive relationship between pmbok application (pm) and financial feasibility (ff). antecedent variables intervening variables dependent variables figure 1. conceptual framework of the study. asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025225 h7: there is a positive relationship between financial feasibility (ff) and risk assessment/risk management (ee). h8: there is a positive relationship between professional feasibility (pf) and risk assessment/risk management. results this section provides the results of the study. table 1 shows the results of the hypotheses testing conducted. table 1. results of hypotheses testing. unstandardized estimate coefficient s.e. c.r. p pm  pf 0.192 0.197 0.074 2.601 0.009 ps  pf 0.254 0.290 0.055 4.597 0.000 sf  pf 0.200 0.186 0.092 2.185 0.029 pm  ff −0.288 −0.263 0.065 −4.437 0.000 ps  ff 0.183 0.186 0.050 3.643 0.000 sf  ff 0.119 0.098 0.080 1.490 0.136 pf  ee 0.232 0.208 0.088 2.650 0.008 ff  ee 0.775 0.780 0.094 8.222 0.000 nb: se = standard error, cr = critical ratio, and p = probability value decision rules adopted to evaluate/test the set hypotheses are briefly described below: each study variable is interpreted by considering its p-value (p) and critical ratio (cr) results obtained in table 1. results interpretation shows that any p-value that is less than 0.05 indicates an acceptance decision whereas any p-value greater than 0.05 indicates rejection. for critical ratio, a value less than 1.96 represents rejection, and a value greater than 1.96 indicates acceptance. similarly, when the coefficient value of a variable is positive, a positive relationship is said to be established while a negative coefficient value signifies a negative relationship. the study factors were analyzed below. pestel analysis; h1 and h2 pestel analysis was adopted as one of the factors that may likely be employed to evaluate financial and professional feasibility for cpdi projects relative to risk assessment and risk management. two hypotheses (ps-pf and ps-ff) results were measured using pestel analysis. table 1 findings indicate that the two results tested positive (accepted) with the highest p-value of 0.000 each. critical ratio for ps-ff was 4.597 and that for ps-pf was 3.643. the results could be viewed with the two hypothetical tests confirmed to be true. in this case, the four indicators, which consisted of economic (ps1), social (ps2), technology (ps3), and legal (ps5), proved the acceptance results. the results demonstrate that conducting an effective pestel analysis on a commercial property development has a significant effect on the project’s financial and professional feasibility. asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025226 this indicates that target clients/customers’ income level has to be considered when undertaking commercial property development. furthermore, application of technology in the built environment industry may reduce cost, improve quality, and add value to the development process. strategic factors; h3 and h4 strategic factors may be considered as factors many organizations need to succeed in achieving their set goals and targets. the main factors clustered and tested in this study were strategic leadership and effective marketing. the two hypotheses tested as a result of assessing strategic factors indicated positive (sf-pf and sf-ff) as reported in table 1. p-values obtained were 0.029 and 0.134 for sf-pf and sf-ff, respectively. test results fell within the acceptance threshold. it suggests that there is a positive relationship between strategic factors and financial feasibility as well as professional feasibility. in addition, the result embraces the adoption and implementation of strategic factors such as effective marketing, which can be used as an effective mechanism to enhance project viability. project management body of knowledge application; h5 and h6 the associated hypotheses (h5 and h6) on pmbok application were tested, and the results are presented in table 1 as pm-pf and pm-ff. the purpose was to establish whether the application of pmbok in cpdi projects could have a positive relationship with financial and professional feasibility. according to table 1, pm-ff had a p-value of 0.000 and a coefficient of −0.263, showing that there is a negative but statistically significant influence. pm-pf had a p-value of 0.009 and a coefficient of 0.197, showing that there is a positive relationship existing between pmbok and professional feasibility. discussion pestel analysis; h1 and h2ty pestel analysis was adopted as one of the factors that may likely be employed to evaluate financial and professional feasibility for cpdi projects relative to risk assessment and risk management. it could be viewed as an analytical tool to carry out external macro environmental analyses when assessing opportunities and threats associated with business or project establishments (zafar, rajpoot and khalid, 2014; jurevicius, 2013). results for the two hypotheses (ps-pf and ps-ff) were measured using pestel analysis. table 1 findings indicate that the two results tested positive (accepted) with a highest p-value of 0.000 each. similarly, the critical ratio for ps-ff was 4.597 and that for ps-pf was 3.643. the results could be interpreted as confirming that the two hypothetical tests are true. in this case, the four indicators, which consisted of economic (ps1), social (ps2), technology (ps3), and legal (ps5), proved the acceptance results. these findings suggest that proper assessment of legal requirements governing commercial property development processes such as thorough search for land ownership and type of interest may be essential as part of the measures to address risk in cpdi projects. the proper assessment of legal requirements governing property development process can be ensured through the process of fulfilling all the institutional requirements before a real estate development project commences (the real estate law review eighth edition, 2019). economic indicators, on the other hand, have a huge potential effect on the commercial property development and investment projects (kauškale and geipele, 2017; kauškale and geipele, 2016). that is why kauskale and geipele (2016) argue that economic problems affect the business environment. mulliner, malys and maliene (2016) are also of the opinion that housing affordability is a socio-economic requirement that improves quality of life in every asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025227 society. this could indicate that the target clients/customers’ income level has to be considered when undertaking commercial property development. the built environment is gradually influenced by the rapid and intensive creation of the use of information, knowledge, and automation technologies as decision support systems (kaplinski and tupenaite, 2011). hence, the application of technology in the built environment industry may reduce cost, improve quality, and add value to the development process. the above findings agree with the assertions made by llobera et al. (2015) and mulliner et al. (2016). these authors pointed out that considerations such as innovations and the socio-economic aspect of people’s lives are necessary factors in real estate development. this implies that developers cannot achieve their investment objectives if their products are not patronized by their target customers. strategic factors; h3 and h4 as stated earlier, strategic factors are considered as factors many organizations need to succeed in achieving their set goals and targets (daft, 2011). such factors include effective marketing, partnership, strategic planning, and leadership. besides, strategic management can simply be described as the process of forming and executing the necessary evaluated changes that put an organization on a competitive edge to achieve its long-term goals (pournasir, 2013). to achieve the highest optimum level of success in cpdi projects, strategic leadership and management are critical (pournasir, 2013; daft, 2011). it is for this reason that strategic factors were identified as a construct to be assessed in this study. the hypotheses tested as a result of assessing strategic factors indicated positive (sf-pf and sf-ff) as reported in table 1. this shows that p-values (0.029 and 0.134 obtained from sf-pf and sf-ff test results, respectively) fell within the acceptance threshold. it suggests that there is a positive relationship between strategic factors and financial feasibility as well as professional feasibility. the fundamental strategy to achieve excellence is to employ strategic planning and leadership approach, and this enables a manager to envision the future (setiawan and yuniarsih, 2018; lear, 2012; and daft, 2011). the findings therefore agree with the assertion made by lear (2012), setiawan and yuniarsih (2018), and daft (2011) when it comes to the way of ensuring sustainable growth in cpdi projects. in addition, the adoption and implementation of strategic factors such as effective marketing can be used as an effective mechanism to enhance project viability (goodwin and stetelman, 2013; frost and strauss, 2016). project management body of knowledge application; h5 and h6 as stated earlier, pmbok is the set of key knowledge areas used by project management professionals as a technique to manage projects (pmbok guide, 2017; liljedahl and möller, 2014). in practice, knowledge areas, including project quality management, project cost management, and project risk management are vital. effective application of the knowledge areas could maximize the project’s efficiency. the associated hypotheses (h5 and h6) on pmbok application were tested, and the results are presented in table 1 as pm-pf and pm-ff. the purpose was to establish whether the application of pmbok in cpdi projects could have a positive relationship with financial and professional feasibility. according to table 1, pm-ff had a p-value of 0.000 and a coefficient of −0.263, showing that there is a negative but statistically significant influence. pm-pf had a p-value of 0.009 and a coefficient of 0.197, showing that there is a positive relationship existing between pmbok and professional feasibility. the findings discovered at this stage agree with the fact that the project management discipline has gained remarkable attention over the years due to the increase in the number and size of projects that have been carried out in many sectors (desalegn, 2018). evidence shows that many modern organizations carry out asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025228 their business activities by using the concept of project-based techniques (kerzner, 2018; muszynska et al., 2015). financial and professional feasibility; h7 and h8 financial and professional feasibility were adopted as two intervening variables for the purpose of evaluating the chosen antecedent/independent variables against the dependent variable (risk assessment/ risk management for cpdi projects). financial feasibility analysis needs to be supported with empirical market research even if the financial calculations conducted on the project prove feasible (mintah et al., 2018). hypotheses (h7 and h8) were tested and ff-ee and pf-ee were the results shown in table 1. the table shows that ff-ee has a p-value of 0.000 with a critical ratio of 2.650. this indicates an acceptance relationship between financial feasibility and risk management. pf-ee has a p-value of 0.008 with a critical ratio of 8.222, meaning that there is a positive relationship between professional feasibility and risk management. the finding proves that adequate financial and professional feasibility in cpdi helps to establish project viability (koleda, and oganisjana, 2015). developers and investors can use feasibility recommendations as a guide in addressing risks likely to emerge during the development process. conclusion this study was designed to assess risks associated with cpdi projects in accra, ghana. the selected three antecedent variables, namely, pestel analysis, strategic factors, and pmbok application were set to measure the effective and successful implementation of risk assessment for cpdi through financial and professional feasibility analysis. data gathered from the study respondents were captured into the semamos 28 software to test the eight-hypotheses set for this study. it was evident after testing that all the eight hypotheses showed a significant influence on the key variables of the study (risk assessment and risk management). hence, the following key outcomes were established: majority of the respondents believe that financial and professional feasibility analyses are important assignments to conduct before cpdi projects commence. this may help commercial property developers and investors identify some of the risks that are likely to affect the project and find possible measures to manage them appropriately. the study contributed to the field of cpdi in that it shows there is a need to assess risks at the very beginning of the project. it has been recognized through the study that the effective application of pmbok, the use of pestel analysis, and the employment of strategic factors in cpdi projects are the key elements to consider when conducting risk assessment. recommendation in reference to the above conclusion, it is recommended that commercial property developers and investors take action in developing their professional competencies in the three antecedent variables discussed in this study so that they can apply them when conducting financial and professional analysis. limitation and further research the findings of this study are strictly based on the respondents’ views on and understanding of the identified variables relative to the commercial property development and investment in accra, ghana. further research may be proposed to look into the utilization of financial and professional analysis in commercial real estate returns. asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025229 references alolayan, salah (2014) an assessment of quality management system indicators for the iso 9001:2008 certified work organisations in kuwait. phd thesis, dublin city university. al-rawahi, a., & bashir, h. (2011). on the implementation of iso 9001:2000: a comparative investigation. the tqm journal, 23, 673–687. https://doi.org/10.1108/17542731111175275 anifowose, f. (2013). ensemble learning model for petroleum reservoir characterization: a case of feed-forward back-propagation neural networks. trends and applications in knowledge discovery and data mining lecture notes in computer science, volume 7867. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40319-4_7 anifowose, f. a., labadin, j., & abdulraheem, a. (2013). ensemble model of non-linear feature selection-based extreme learning machine for improved natural gas reserviour characterization. scribd. https://www.scribd.com/ document/467439737/anifowose2015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jngse.2015.02.012 arias, j. c., & stern, r. (2011). review of risk management methods in project development | course hero. https:// www.coursehero.com/file/237640444/serim-article-3pdf/ artto k., martinsuo m., kujala j., 2011. project business. helsinki, finland, http://pbgroup.tkk.fi/en/ , (isbn 978-95292-8535-8) archibong, t.c. and ogunba, o.a., 2018. an appraisal of feasibility and viability studies practice among estate surveyors and valuers in uyo (no. afres 2018_118). african real estate society (afres). asah, f., fatoki, o. o., & rungani, e. (2015). the impact of motivations, personal values and management skills on the performance of smes in south africa. african journal of economic and management studies, 6(3), 308-322. https:// doi.org/10.1108/ajems-01-2013-0009 banaitienė, n., banaitis, a. and norkus, a., 2011. risk management in projects: peculiarities of lithuanian construction companies. international journal of strategic property management, 15(1), 2011 vol 15(1): pp.60-73. https://doi.org/10 .3846/1648715x.2011.568675 bello-schünemann, & moyer, j. (2018, october 2). structural pressures and political instability: trajectories for sub-saharan africa | political settlements research programme x. https://psrpdev.law.ed.ac.uk/psrpx/2018/10/02/ structural-pressures-and-political-instability-trajectories-for-sub-saharan-africa/ bowers, j. and khorakian, a., 2014. integrating risk management in the innovation project. european journal of innovation management, 17(1), 25–40. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejim-01-2013-0010 brook, m. (2016). estimating and tendering for construction work (5th ed.). routledge. https://doi. org/10.4324/9781315734699 caputo, a., 2013. systemic stakeholders’ management for real estate development projects. global business and management research: an international journal. vol. 5, no. 1.pp 66-82. conrad, d. and newberry, r., 2012. identification and instruction of important business communication skills for graduate business education. journal of education for business, 87(2), pp.112-120. https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2 011.576280 costello, g. and preller, f., 2010. property development principles and process–an industry analysis. pacific rim property research journal, 16(2), issn: 1444-5921.vol.16.no.2, pp.171-189. https://doi.org/10.1080/14445921.2010. 11104300 cruz, c.o. and marques, r.c., 2013. flexible contracts to cope with uncertainty in public–private partnerships. international journal of project management, 31(3),vo. 3. pp.473-483. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.09.006 asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025230 https://doi.org/10.1108/17542731111175275 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40319-4_7 https://www.scribd.com/document/467439737/anifowose2015 https://www.scribd.com/document/467439737/anifowose2015 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jngse.2015.02.012 https://www.coursehero.com/file/237640444/serim-article-3pdf/ https://www.coursehero.com/file/237640444/serim-article-3pdf/ http://pbgroup.tkk.fi/en/ https://doi.org/10.1108/ajems-01-2013-0009 https://doi.org/10.1108/ajems-01-2013-0009 https://doi.org/10.3846/1648715x.2011.568675 https://doi.org/10.3846/1648715x.2011.568675 https://psrpdev.law.ed.ac.uk/psrpx/2018/10/02/structural-pressures-and-political-instability-trajectories-for-sub-saharan-africa/ https://psrpdev.law.ed.ac.uk/psrpx/2018/10/02/structural-pressures-and-political-instability-trajectories-for-sub-saharan-africa/ https://doi.org/10.1108/ejim-01-2013-0010 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315734699 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315734699 https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2011.576280 https://doi.org/10.1080/08832323.2011.576280 https://doi.org/10.1080/14445921.2010.11104300 https://doi.org/10.1080/14445921.2010.11104300 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.09.006 cytonn real estate: ‘a golden investment opportunities’ report publication. 2017. accra, ghana. pp.24-45. desalegn, t., 2018. the effect of project integration management process on project success: the case of berhan bank data center project (doctoral dissertation, addis ababa university). de bakker, k., boonstra, a. and wortmann, h., 2014. the communicative effect of risk identification on project success. international journal of project organisation and management, 6(1-2), pp.138-156. https://doi.org/10.1504/ ijpom.2014.059749 de la harpe, b., mason, t. and peterson, f., 2011. reflections on establishing a network to strengthen leadership of learning and teaching in the creative arts. text: special issue website series, (12), pp.1-22. dominguez, c., ribeiro, p., paiva, a. and varajão, j., 2010, july. insights on critical management aspects in construction projects–evidences from large portuguese companies. in proceedings of the 3rd wseas international conference on engineering mechanics, structures, engineering geology (pp. 39-43). world scientific and engineering academy and society (wseas). florentino, t., casaca, j.a. and empresa–universitário, l., 2014. real estate brokers in premium segment-marketing and communication through technologies (no. eres2014-97). european real estate society (eres). flyvbjerg, b., garbuio, m. and lovallo, d., 2009. delusion and deception in large infrastructure projects: two models for explaining and preventing executive disaster. california management review, 51(2), pp.170-194. https://doi. org/10.2307/41166485 goodwin, k. and stetelman, s., 2013. perspectives on technology change and the marketing of real estate. journal of housing research, 22(2), pp.91-108. https://doi.org/10.1080/10835547.2013.12092075 geipele, i., kauskale, l., lepkova, n. and liias, r., 2014. interaction of socio-economic factors and real estate market in the context of sustainable urban development. in environmental engineering. proceedings of the international conference on environmental engineering. icee (vol. 9, p. 1). vilnius gediminas technical university, department of construction economics & property. https://doi.org/10.3846/enviro.2014.117 hair jr, j.f., sarstedt, m., hopkins, l. and kuppelwieser, v.g., 2017. partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem): an emerging tool in business research. european business review. vol.25. no.2. pp. 111-113. halpin, d.w., lucko, g. and senior, b.a., 2017. construction management. john wiley & sons. heravi, a., coffey, v. and trigunarsyah, b., 2015. evaluating the level of stakeholder involvement during the project planning processes of building projects. international journal of project management, 33(5), pp.985-997. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.12.007 hwang, s., park, m. and lee, h.s., 2013. dynamic analysis of the effects of mortgage-lending policies in a real estate market. mathematical and computer modelling, 57(9-10), pp.2106-2120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mcm.2011.06.023 ingason, h.t., 2015. best project management practices in the implementation of an iso 9001 quality management system. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 194(3), pp.192-200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.06.133 iyer, k.c. and jha, k.n., 2005. factors affecting cost performance: evidence from indian construction projects. international journal of project management, 23(4), pp.283-295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.10.003 johnson, g., whittington, r., & scholes, k. 2011. exploring strategy: text & cases (11 ed.). london: pearson education. p 50. jonas, d., kock, a. and gemünden, h.g., 2012. predicting project portfolio success by measuring management quality—a longitudinal study. ieee transactions on engineering management, 60(2), pp.215-226. https://doi. org/10.1109/tem.2012.2200041 jurevicius, o. 2013. strategic management & strategic planning process. strategic management insight, 1-9. asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025231 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpom.2014.059749 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpom.2014.059749 https://doi.org/10.2307/41166485 https://doi.org/10.2307/41166485 https://doi.org/10.1080/10835547.2013.12092075 https://doi.org/10.3846/enviro.2014.117 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.12.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.12.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mcm.2011.06.023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.06.133 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.10.003 https://doi.org/10.1109/tem.2012.2200041 https://doi.org/10.1109/tem.2012.2200041 khan, r.a., liew, m.s. and ghazali, z.b., 2014. malaysian construction sector and malaysia vision 2020: developed nation status. procedia-social and behavioral sciences, 109(2014), pp.507-513. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. sbspro.2013.12.498 kauškale, l. and geipele, i., 2017. integrated approach of real estate market analysis in sustainable development context for decision making. procedia engineering, 172, pp.505-512. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.02.059 kauskale, l. and geipele, i., 2016, april. economic problems of real estate market and its influence on the development of business environment. in economic science for rural development conference proceedings (no. 43). kaplinski, o. and tupenaite, l., 2011. review of the multiple criteria decision making methods, intelligent and biometric systems applied in modern construction economics. transformations in business & economics, 10(1), pp.166-181. kerzner, h., 2018. project management best practices: achieving global excellence. john wiley & sons. https://doi. org/10.1002/9781119470717 khamidi, m.f., waris, a.k. and idrus, a., 2011. the cost monitoring of construction projects through earned value analysis. koul, p., rai, r.s. and ahuja, v., 2018. an integrated approach based structural modelling for developing risk assessment framework for real estate projects in india. technology, 9(13), pp.1721-1736 kujala, j., brady, t. and putila, j., 2014. challenges of cost management in complex projects. international journal of business and management, 9(11), p.48-49. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v9n11p48 kumar, v., jones, e., venkatesan, r. and leone, r.p., 2011. is market orientation a source of sustainable competitive advantage or simply the cost of competing?. journal of marketing, 75(1), pp.16-30. https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.75.1.16 koleda, n. and oganisjana, k., 2015. challenges in learning for company‘s financial viability assessment and management. business: theory and practice, 16, p.195. https://doi.org/10.3846/btp.2015.552 laban, k.n., 2017. integrating gis and real estate management systems to market and manage facilities on the web (doctoral dissertation, university of nairobi). larsen, j.k., shen, g.q., lindhard, s.m. and brunoe, t.d., 2016. factors affecting schedule delay, cost overrun, and quality level in public construction projects. journal of management in engineering, 32(1), p.04015032. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000391 lear, l.w., 2012. the relationship between strategic leadership and strategic alignment in high-performing companies in south africa. university of south africa. liljedahl, h. and möller, j., 2014. success factors in commercial property projects: the contractor’s perspective (master’s thesis). p4. lunenburg, f.c., 2010. formal communication channels: upward, downward, horizontal, and external. focus on colleges, universities, and schools, 4(1), pp.1-7. mintah, k., higgins, d., callanan, j. and wakefield, r., 2018. staging option application to residential development: real options approach. international journal of housing markets and analysis. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ijhma-02-2017-0022 mulliner, e., malys, n. and maliene, v., 2016. comparative analysis of mcdm methods for the assessment of sustainable housing affordability. omega, 59, pp.146-156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omega.2015.05.013 asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025232 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.12.498 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.12.498 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.02.059 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119470717 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119470717 https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v9n11p48 https://doi.org/10.1509/jm.75.1.16 https://doi.org/10.3846/btp.2015.552 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000391 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000391 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhma-02-2017-0022 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijhma-02-2017-0022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.omega.2015.05.013 muszynska, k., dermol, k., trunk, v., ðakovic, a. and smrkolj, g., 2015, may. communication management in project teams–practices and patterns. in joint international conference (pp. 1359-1566). ofori, d.f., 2013. project management practices and critical success factors-a developing country perspective. international journal of business and management, 8(21), p.14. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v8n21p14 ogunlana, s.o., 2010. beyond the ‘iron triangle’: stakeholder perception of key performance indicators (kpis) for large-scale public sector development projects. international journal of project management, 28(3), pp.228-236. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.05.005 palladan, a.a., 2017. effects of strategic leadership, organizational innovativeness, information technology capability on effective strategy implementation (doctoral dissertation, universiti utara malaysia). petit, y., 2012. project portfolios in dynamic environments: organizing for uncertainty. international journal of project management, 30(5), pp.539-553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.11.007 popescu, l., iancu, a., avram, m., avram, d. and popescu, v., 2020. the role of managerial skills in the sustainable development of smes in mehedinti county, romania. sustainability, 12(3), p.1119. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su12031119 pournasir, s., 2013. key success factors of strategic management implementation in smes in iran. journal of international studies, 6(2), pp.65-78. https://doi.org/10.14254/2071-8330.2013/6-2/6 project management body of knowledge (pmbok) guide. eight edition. 2017. pp 15-323. rey-martí, a., porcar, a.t. and mas-tur, a., 2015. linking female entrepreneurs’ motivation to business survival. journal of business research, 68(4), pp.810-814. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.11.033 setiawan, y. and yuniarsih, t., 2018. leaderships strategic and employee performance. the international journal of business review (the jobs review), 1(1), pp.63-72. https://doi.org/10.17509/tjr.v1i2.14529 smith, p., 2014. project cost management-global issues and challenges. selected papers from the 27th ipma (international project management association). pp 54-67. taniguchi, a. and onosato, m., 2018. effect of continuous improvement on the reporting quality of project management information system for project management success. international journal of information technology and computer science (ijitcs), 10(1), pp.1-15. https://doi.org/10.5815/ijitcs.2018.01.01 taplin, r. ed., 2005. risk management and innovation in japan, britain and the usa. routledge. https://doi. org/10.4324/9780203027783 teller, j., kock, a. and gemünden, h.g., 2014. risk management in project portfolios is more than managing project risks: a contingency perspective on risk management. project management journal, 45(4), pp.67-80. https://doi. org/10.1002/pmj.21431 tesha, d.n., 2018. mitigation measures in dealing with delays and cost overrun in public building projects in dares-salaam, tanzania. jongo, js tesha, dngak, kassonga, r., teyanga, jj, and lyimo, ks,(2019), pp.81-96. the real estate law review.2019. eighth edition. p126. turskis, z., gajzler, m. and dziadosz, a., 2012. reliability, risk management, and contingency of construction processes and projects. journal of civil engineering and management, 18(2), vol. 18(2): pp.290-298. https://doi.org/10.3846/139 23730.2012.672931 vasista, t.g.k., 2017. strategic cost management for construction project success: a systematic study. civil engineering and urban planning: an international journal (civej), 4(1), vol.4, no.1. pp.41-52. https://doi.org/10.5121/ civej.2017.4105 asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025233 https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v8n21p14 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.05.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.05.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.11.007 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031119 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12031119 https://doi.org/10.14254/2071-8330.2013/6-2/6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2014.11.033 https://doi.org/10.17509/tjr.v1i2.14529 https://doi.org/10.5815/ijitcs.2018.01.01 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203027783 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203027783 https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21431 https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21431 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2012.672931 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2012.672931 https://doi.org/10.5121/civej.2017.4105 https://doi.org/10.5121/civej.2017.4105 zafar, f., rajpoot, a.a. and khalid, a., 2014. strategic management and its commitment to acquire business excellence through continuous improvement. international journal of advancements in research & technology, 3(1), pp.42-54. zhao, x., tang, y., lu, m. and zhang, x., 2019. foreign direct investment dynamic performance with low-carbon influence: a provincial comparative application in china. international journal of financial studies, 7(3), p.46. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs7030046 asianoah et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025234 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijfs7030046 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: kim, s., yasar, m., shahandashti, m. 2025. the effects of disasters on construction wages: role played by spatial proximity. construction economics and building, 25:3/4, 186–209. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i3/4.9568 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article the effects of disasters on construction wages: role played by spatial proximity sooin kim1,*, mahmut yasar2, mohsen shahandashti3 1 construction management, division of engineering technology, wayne state university, 4885 fourth st., detroit, mi 48201, sooin.kim@wayne.edu 2 department of economics, the university of texas at arlington, 701 s. west street, arlington, tx, 76019, myasar@uta.edu 3 department of civil engineering, the university of texas at arlington, 416 s. yates st., arlington, tx 76010, mohsen@uta.edu corresponding author: sooin kim, sooin.kim@wayne.edu doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9568 article history: received 22/06/2024; revised 03/04/2025; accepted 10/04/2025; published 05/12/2025 abstract natural hazards significantly threaten the built environment and infrastructure, resulting in a sudden and significant increase in reconstruction demand. such an unforeseen postdisaster demand surge for reconstruction can inflate costs up to 50%, impeding prompt and efficient reconstruction efforts. the current study aimed to quantify the effect of disasters on construction wages in three gulf coast states (louisiana, texas, and florida). to accomplish this, spatial durbin models were utilized with a differencein differences specification to allow for feedback and spillover effects across counties. the results show that the impact of a disaster on construction wages works with a lag. natural disasters caused a decrease in construction wages in the impacted counties during the disaster quarter, compared to counties that were not affected. however, construction wages increased one quarter later in the disasteraffected counties compared to the nonaffected counties. the direct, indirect, and total effects of disasters on the counties’ wages indicate significant feedback and spillover effects across counties when a county experiences a disaster. the findings of this study carry significant policy implications for the city’s policymakers and decisionmakers. 186 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding this research was conducted with support from the national science foundation (grant # 2155201). https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9568 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9568 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:sooin.kim@wayne.edu mailto:myasar@uta.edu mailto:mohsen@uta.edu mailto:sooin.kim@wayne.edu https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9568 keywords demand surge; construction wages; differenceindifferences; spatial durbin models; spatial multiple imputation introduction rapid climate changes over recent decades have led to a significant rise in catastrophic events, causing widespread devastation globally (ripple et al., 2024). each year, the united states faces over a hundred natural disasters, resulting in numerous deaths and billions of dollars in damage to property and infrastructure (smith, 2024). the total cost of 400 weather and climaterelated disasters since 1980 in the united states has reached approximately $2.8 trillion (smith, 2020). timely and effective reconstruction and recovery efforts are crucial to ensuring a community’s safety, survival, and longterm resilience in the wake of disasters (mcentire, 2021; zhou, zhang, and evans, 2022; kim, 2023). however, the unanticipated rise in reconstruction costs following disasters often hinders recovery efforts, exacerbating both direct and indirect economic losses (pradhan and arneson, 2021; kim and shahandashti, 2022b; li et al., 2022; kim, shahandashti, and yasar, 2023). the sudden and substantial reconstruction cost inflation in the aftermath of disasters is often explained by the demand surge phenomenon (ahmadi and shahandashti, 2020; kim and shahandashti, 2022a). demand surge is a socioeconomic phenomenon indicating that the reconstruction demand exceeds the regional supply capacity, and subsequently, the reconstruction costs increase after a disaster (olsen and porter, 2013). after hurricane katrina, most construction materials experienced statistically significant price inflation (khodahemmati and shahandashti, 2020). sewer and water tubing pipe costs have increased by 10% following the texas winter storm in 2021 (kim and shahandashti, 2022b). after the 2006 yogyakarta earthquake in indonesia, the wages and employment rate in the construction industry increased the most among industries as the demand for construction labor increased (kirchberger, 2017). similarly, zhu, et al. (2021) reported that meteorological disasters, including floods, typhoons, droughts, and snow, increased wages in china between 2010 and 2018. quantifying the spatiotemporal impact of disasters on reconstruction costs can enhance the accuracy of disaster loss assessments and inform more effective postdisaster recovery planning (markhvida et al., 2020; yabe, zhang, and ukkusuri, 2020). postdisaster demand surges in the construction industry have often been exacerbated by the significant regional labor market disruptions that follow major disasters (ginn, 2022). disasters often create an urgent need for construction workers, resulting in labor shortages that drive up wages (pradhan and arneson, 2021). particularly, the availability of skilled labor is one of the major determinants of postdisaster construction cost inflation (charles, changrichards, and yiu, 2022). following hurricanes katrina and rita in 2005, the influx of federal recovery funds and insurance payouts spurred high demand for construction labor, but a lack of local skilled workers led to significant wage inflation (groen, kutzbach, and polivka, 2020). in addition, workforce migration patterns influence labor supply, as workers move to unaffected regions, exacerbating shortages in disasteraffected areas (agarwal goel et al., 2024). for example, after hurricane katrina struck new orleans in august 2005, more than 100,000 residents moved to houston, texas (davis et al., 2023). döhrmann et al. (2021) found that postdisaster labor market distortions vary by geographic and economic conditions. empirical research has also emphasized that the magnitude and duration of postdisaster construction demand depend on factors such as the severity of damage (mushtaha et al., 2025), government intervention (zhu et al., 2021), and insurance payouts (wedawatta et al., 2023). previous research has analyzed the effects of disasters on the construction industry using a twostep approach: measurement and quantification (ahmadi and shahandashti, 2020; arneson et al., 2020). ahmadi and shahandashti (2020) measured the labor wage changes and then applied spatial panel data kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025187 models using the measured labor wage changes to capture spatial interactions in the postdisaster wage changes across counties. however, this twostep approach can amplify errors or bias, increasing the complexity of the model specification (vella and verbeek, 1999). moreover, ahmadi and shahandashti (2020) omitted missing data in the spatial analysis instead of imputing the missing values. therefore, they consequently ignored many spatial relationships and complexities arising from the missing data (buuren, 2018). the majority of disaster research has emphasized the static impact of disasters on the construction industry during the recovery phase. however, disaster recovery is a dynamic process that evolves over time, involving interactions with surrounding communities and broader economic market conditions both spatially and temporally. the lack of spatiotemporal analysis on the dynamic effects of a disaster on construction wages can challenge reconstruction engineers, policymakers, and disaster mitigation agencies to understand the spatiotemporal dynamics of postdisaster demand surges for construction labor and develop comprehensive disaster management and recovery plans. this study employed spatiotemporal econometric models to analyze the dynamic impact of disasters on construction wages in the gulf coast states from 2015 to 2019. it utilized quarterly data spanning from the first quarter of 2015 to the fourth quarter of 2019 to isolate the effects of natural disasters on construction wages. while the 5year data from 2020 to 2024 are available, the observed fluctuations in construction wages during the pandemic and subsequent economic recession may not be primarily attributed to weather related disasters or shocks. therefore, our primary analysis of the effects of weatherrelated disasters on post disaster construction wages focuses on prepandemic years. the research utilized fixedeffects spatial durbin models with a differenceindifferences (did) specification to assess the spatiotemporal effects on construction wages in a single framework. the did approach examines these effects by comparing changes in average wages before and after the disaster in affected counties (treatment group) with those in unaffected counties (control group). simultaneously, it accounts for timeinvariant, countyspecific factors, common influences, and spatial interactions involving the dependent variable, independent variables, and error terms (hansen, 2022). in doing so, it is found that the wages of the disasteraffected counties (treatment group) depend on their own disaster experience (direct effect of treatment) and the neighboring counties’ disaster experience (indirect effect of treatment). such analysis helps to accurately and reliably quantify the additional changes in wages resulting from both the direct and indirect impacts of disasters, assuming that both the treatment and control groups follow a similar trend (imai and kim, 2021). to the best of our knowledge, this research is the first attempt to quantify the direct, indirect, and total spatiotemporal lag effects of disasters on construction labor wages. by employing spatial durbin models with spatial lags and weight matrices, this study accounts for the dynamic interactions between disasteraffected regions and their neighboring areas over time. this approach allows us to quantify how wage increases in one region can spill over and influence wage patterns in adjacent regions, capturing the full extent of the spatial and temporal dynamics that traditional models may overlook (elhorst, 2014). in addition to addressing spatial dependencies, the research method also controls for a range of endogenous and exogenous factors that could potentially bias the results. using a did specification, we controlled for timevarying factors such as national economic conditions and other external shocks, isolating and estimating the specific effects of disasters on postdisaster construction labor wages. methodology data collection construction industry variables: the magnitude of the demand surge has been estimated by the amount of postdisaster increases in reconstruction costs, such as labor wages and material costs, compared to the pre kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025188 disaster level (olsen and porter, 2011; pradhan and arneson, 2021; kim and shahandashti, 2022b; kim, shahandashti, and yasar, 2023a). construction wage inflation is a driving factor that increases construction costs after a disaster, highlighting the demand surge phenomenon (olsen and porter, 2013; chang richards et al., 2017; kim, chang, and castrolacouture, 2020). construction wages vary more widely than material costs in postdisaster situations due to factors like annual labor agreements and relocation expenses (olsen and porter, 2013; kim and shahandashti, 2022a). therefore, the average weekly wages in the construction industry were selected as a dependent variable for spatiotemporal analysis to estimate the effects of disasters on construction wages. construction wages can be impacted by various factors beyond the extent of postdisaster reconstruction demand growth. for instance, supply chain disruptions due to damaged infrastructure, transportation networks, and manufacturing facilities can lead to logistical challenges, higher transportation costs, and longer lead times, further escalating construction expenses. regulatory and policy changes, such as anti price gouging laws (kim, shahandashti, and yasar, 2023a) and federal motor carrier safety regulation waivers (kim, shahandashti, and yasar, 2023b), also play a critical role in postdisaster construction costs. moreover, broader macroeconomic conditions, such as inflation, interest rates, and fluctuations in material and labor prices, can impact reconstruction expenses regardless of the disaster. (kim and shahandashti, 2022b; castelblanco et al., 2025). if a disaster coincides with a period of economic downturn or supply chain disruptions at a national or global level, the cost of rebuilding may be significantly affected (tang, luo, and walton, 2024). to account for these confounding factors, we included other construction market variables, including the number of employees and the number of establishments in the construction industry, in the analysis (busenbark et al., 2022). additionally, the did specification was implemented to accurately isolate and quantify the effects of disasters on construction costs while controlling for these confounding factors (contat et al., 2024). this statistical technique compares changes over time between affected and unaffected groups, allowing researchers to separate the specific effects of disasters from other external influences (roth et al., 2023). by controlling for endogenous and exogenous factors, such as preexisting economic conditions and regional labor market variations, the spatial durbin models with did specification ensure a more precise and reliable assessment of the effects of disasters on construction cost fluctuations (zhao and wang, 2022). moreover, in our spatial did specification, we included the county fixed effects, which control for time invariant unobserved factors (e.g., geographic features or institutional factors), and the time fixed effects, which control for any factors that vary from time to time but are common to all counties (e.g., business cycles). including these county fixed and time fixed effects controls for various timeinvariant or county invariant confounding factors, both observed and unobserved. it is noteworthy that including time fixed effects will also control for any observed variables that only vary across time (e.g., inflation). thus, when we include these fixed effects, we must not include such variables, as the coefficient on them will be meaningless (imai and kim, 2021). similarly, when we include the county fixed effects, we must not include and try to quantify the impact of observed timeinvariant countylevel variables. furthermore, we focused on the time period between 2015 and 2019, deliberately excluding data from 2020 onward, to isolate and quantify the weatherrelated effects of disasters on construction costs without the confounding influence of pandemicrelated supply chain disruptions ( janz, gassmann, and gayoso de ervin, 2024). the covid19 pandemic broke out in early 2020 and led to unprecedented supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and economic volatility that significantly affected construction costs worldwide (kim, makhmalbaf, and shahandashti, 2024; castelblanco et al., 2025). by focusing our study on the pre pandemic years, we aimed to measure the effects of disasters on construction costs without the confounding impact of pandemicrelated external global shocks ( janz, gassmann, and gayoso de ervin, 2024). kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025189 table 1 shows the data collection of construction industry variables. the employment and establishment count data were included in the analysis as control variables to control for their confounding effects on construction wages (blanchflower and oswald, 1995; barth and daleolsen, 2011; green, heywood, and theodoropoulos, 2021). table 1. data collection of construction industry variables data definition period source dependent variable: construction wages average weekly wages paid during the calendar quarter in the construction industry q1 2015– q4 2019 bureau of labor statistics control variables: employment quarterly number of employees in the construction industry q1 2015– q4 2019 bureau of labor statistics establishment count quarterly number of establishments in the construction industry q1 2015– q4 2019 bureau of labor statistics disasterrelated data: the independent dummy variable for representing a disaster occurrence was selected based on the major disasters declared by the federal emergency management agency (fema). figure 1 describes all the major disaster declarations of hurricanes from 2015 to 2019 in three gulf coast states (louisiana, texas, and florida) that are prone to hurricane strikes. figure 1. major disaster declarations of hurricanes from 2015 to 2019 in the gulf coast states missing data handling data imputation methods have been implemented to resolve missing data problems in quantitative studies. the spatial multiple imputation was carried out in three sequential steps: (1) creating several complete sets by imputing plausible estimates to the missing observations, (2) analyzing the multiple complete datasets using a joint spatial distribution, and (3) aggregating the results from the multiple analyses. differenceindifferences specification the did specification is widely used to estimate a treatment impact on an outcome variable by comparing the differences between the control and treatment groups before and after an intervention. figure 2 illustrates the did specification used in the current research. spatial durbin models with a differenceindifferences specification the spatial durbin models (sdms) with a did specification were developed to quantify the effects of disasters on construction costs. the sdm was chosen over other spatial econometric models because it kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025190 effectively captures both the direct and spillover effects of disasters on construction costs (zhao and wang, 2022). unlike traditional regression models that assume spatial independence, the sdm accounts for spatial dependencies by incorporating both the spatial lag of the dependent variable and the spatially lagged independent variables (nikolaou and dimitriou, 2024). this is crucial in postdisaster construction markets, where cost increases are not confined to directly affected areas but often spread to neighboring regions due to factors such as material shortages, labor migration, and supply chain disruptions (ahmadi and shahandashti, 2020). by including spatial weight matrices and lags, the sdm allows us to measure how cost changes in one region influence cost variations in surrounding areas, providing a more comprehensive assessment of disasterinduced demand surges (elhorst, 2014). equation (1) presents the estimation model for examining the wage effect of disasters. lnwageit = β0 + β1disit + β2empit + β3estit + αi + αt + εit , (1) where wageit denotes the average weekly wage in the construction industry for county i at time t, and disit denotes a binary indicator (dummy variable) set to one if county i experienced a hurricane declared as a major disaster by the fema at time t, and zero otherwise. empit denotes the number of employees in the construction industry in county i at time t, estit denotes the number of establishments in the construction industry in county i at time t, αi denotes the vector of the unobservable timeinvariant fixed effects specific to each county, αt denotes the vector of the unobservable countyinvariant fixed effects specific to each time period, εit denotes the timevarying idiosyncratic error at time t, and disit denotes a binary indicator (dummy variable) set to one if county i experienced a hurricane declared as a major disaster by the fema at time t, and zero otherwise. empit denotes the number of employees in the construction industry in county i at time t, estit denotes the number of establishments in the construction industry in county i at time t, αi denotes the vector of the unobservable timeinvariant fixed effects specific to each county, αt denotes the vector of the unobservable countyinvariant fixed effects specific to each time period, and εit denotes the timevarying idiosyncratic error. there are likely endogenous interaction effects between the counties’ dependent variables, exogenous interactions between the explanatory variables of interest, and interaction effects among the error terms figure 2. differenceindifferences specification kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025191 (elhorst, 2014). thus, to incorporate these spatial dependencies, the dynamic sdm for louisiana was used as presented by equation (2): lnwageit = β0 + τwageit–1 + φwijwagejt–1 + ρwijwagejt + β1disit + β2empit + β3estit + δ1wijdisjt + δ2wijempjt + δ3wijestjt + αi + αt + εit, (2) i = 1, …, 64 and t = 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, where wageit is the average weekly wage in the construction industry in county i at time t, wij is the 64 × 64 spatial weight matrix representing the queen contiguity relationships among the 64 counties in louisiana, wageit–1 is the temporally lagged construction wage, wijwagejt–1 is the temporally and spatially lagged construction wages, wijwagejt is the spatially lagged construction wage, and disit is a binary indicator (dummy variable) set to one if county i experienced a hurricane declared as a major disaster by the fema, and zero otherwise. empit is the number of employees in the construction industry in county i at time t, estit is the number of establishments in the construction industry in county i at time t, ρ is the spatial dependence parameter, αi is the vector of the unobservable timeinvariant fixed effects specific to each county, αt is the vector of the unobservable countyinvariant fixed effects specific to each time period, εit represents the timevarying idiosyncratic error, ρwijwagejt is the endogenous interaction effects, and δ1wijdisjt , δ2wijempjt , δ3wijestjt are the exogenous interaction effects. disaster often has a lagged effect on the postdisaster construction industry (capelleblancard and laguna, 2010; hallegatte et al., 2011; higuchi et al., 2012; naqvi and rehm, 2014; kajitani and tatano, 2018). thus, equation (3) presents the dynamic sdm with a temporally lagged independent variable to examine the lagged effects of disasters on the countylevel construction wages one quarter after the disasters occurred: lnwageit = β0 + τwageit–1 + φwijwagejt–1 + ρwijwagejt + β1disit–1 + β2disit + β3empit + β4estit + δ1wij l.disjt + δ2wij disjt + δ3wij empjt + δ4wij estjt + αi + αt + εit , (3) i = 1, …, 64 and t = 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, where wageit is the average weekly wages in the construction industry in county i at time t, wij is the 64 × 64 spatial weight matrix representing the queen contiguity relationships among the 64 counties in louisiana, wageit–1 is the temporally lagged construction wages, wijwagejt–1 is the temporally and spatially lagged construction wages, wijwagejt is the spatially lagged construction wages, and disit–1 is the temporally lagged disaster binary indicator (dummy variable) set to one if county i at time t − 1 experienced a hurricane declared as a major disaster by the fema, and zero otherwise. disit is a binary indicator (dummy variable) set to one if county i at time t experienced a hurricane declared as a major disaster by the fema, and zero otherwise. empit is the number of employees in the construction industry in county i at time t, estit is the number of establishments in the construction industry in county i at time t, ρ is the spatial dependence parameter, αi is the vector of the unobservable timeinvariant fixed effects specific to each county, αt is the vector of the unobservable countyinvariant fixed effects specific to each time period, εit represents the timevarying idiosyncratic error, ρwijwagejt is the endogenous interaction effects, and δ1wij l.disjt , δ2wij disjt , δ3wij empjt , and δ4wij estjt are the exogenous interaction effects. figure 3 illustrates the research methodology, outlining the key steps involved in the analysis. it illustrates the process from data collection to the development of spatial durbin models with a did specification, highlighting how feedback and spillover effects across counties were accounted for in assessing the impact of disasters on construction wages. kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025192 figure 3. research methodology results results of linear fixedeffects models table 2 presents the results from estimating equation (1) using linear fixedeffects models, both with and without imputing the missing data through spatial multiple imputation methods. the disaster led to a 4% decrease in construction wages in the counties affected by the disaster compared to those unaffected, according to the imputed louisiana dataset. when analyzing the louisiana dataset without imputation, the disaster resulted in a 5% decrease in construction wages. the effect of disasters on construction wages in the quarter when the disaster occurred (hereafter, the disaster quarter) is not statistically significant in texas and florida. the significantly positive relationship between employment and wages in the construction industry holds for counties in all three gulf coast states. these findings align with the results of prior research studies (blanchflower and oswald, 1995; barth and daleolsen, 2011; green, heywood, and theodoropoulos, 2021). results of spatial durbin models table 3 presents the results of spatial durbin fixedeffects models. the effect of a disaster on construction wages in the disaster quarter was estimated to be negative at the 5% significance level based on the imputed panel datasets of louisiana and texas. the construction wages in the louisiana counties struck by a disaster (i.e., disasteraffected counties) were estimated to be 4% lower than those in the nondisasteraffected counties in louisiana. similarly, the construction wages in the kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025193 table 2. the results from linear fixedeffects models with and without spatial imputation state louisiana texas florida missing data handling method with imputation without imputation with imputation without imputation with imputation without imputation variables lnwage lnwage lnwage lnwage lnwage lnwage disaster −0.04* (0.02) −0.05** (0.02) −0.02 (0.02) −0.03 (0.02) 0.00 (0.01) 0.00 (0.01) employment 0.02*** (0.00) 0.09*** (0.02) 0.02*** (0.00) 0.15*** (0.01) 0.092*** (0.01) 0.16*** (0.02) establishment count 0.08** (0.04) −0.01 (0.05) 0.01 (0.01) −0.10*** (0.02) −0.02 (0.03) −0.06 (0.04) constant 6.24*** (0.17) 6.09*** (0.20) 6.51*** (0.04) 6.08*** (0.09) 5.79*** (0.19) 5.48*** (0.20) year_q dummies yes yes yes yes yes yes observations 1,280 1,163 5,080 4,168 1,340 1,317 rsquared 0.24 0.24 0.33 0.35 0.62 0.63 number of counties 64 63 254 227 67 67 notes: robust standard errors in parentheses. *** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, and * p < 0.1. table 3. the results from spatial durbin fixedeffects models with and without spatial imputation state louisiana texas florida missing data handling with imputation without imputation with imputation without imputation with imputation without imputation variables lnwage lnwage lnwage lnwage lnwage lnwage disaster −0.04*** (0.01) −0.02 (0.02) −0.03** (0.01) −0.02 (0.01) 0.00 (0.01) 0.01 (0.01) employment 0.02 (0.02) 0.07 (0.05) 0.02*** (0.00) 0.12*** (0.02) 0.100 (0.07) 0.13 (0.17) establishment count 0.08 (0.09) 0.06 (0.14) 0.01 (0.01) −0.10** (0.04) 0.03 (0.08) 0.02 (0.14) wij inwage (spatially lagged wages) 0.31*** (0.07) 0.30*** (0.08) 0.38*** (0.04) 0.35*** (0.04) 0.30*** (0.08) 0.29*** (0.09) kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025194 disasteraffected counties in texas were measured as 3% lower than the wages in the nondisasteraffected counties in texas. however, such an effect was not significant, both statistically and economically, for the counties in florida. a disaster’s direct, indirect, and total effects on the construction wage were investigated using fixed effects dynamic sdms in table 4. table 4. direct, indirect, and total effects from spatial durbin models (imputed datasets) variables disaster employment establishment count louisiana main −0.0402*** (0.0143) 0.0245 (0.0156) 0.0830 (0.0882) wx 0.0725*** (0.0233) 0.0333** (0.0163) 0.251** (0.101) sr direct −0.0369*** (0.0132) 0.0287* (0.0153) 0.103 (0.0867) indirect 0.0823*** (0.0282) 0.0538** (0.0238) 0.361*** (0.133) total 0.0454* (0.0259) 0.0824** (0.0331) 0.464*** (0.168) lr direct −0.0506*** (0.0189) 0.0439* (0.0226) 0.164 (0.127) indirect 0.130*** (0.0471) 0.0993** (0.0434) 0.640*** (0.231) total 0.0792* (0.0457) 0.143** (0.0583) 0.804*** (0.292) state louisiana texas florida ρ (spatial dependencies) 0.27*** (0.03) 0.26*** (0.04) 0.37*** (0.02) 0.31*** (0.03) 0.49*** (0.04) 0.48*** (0.04) σ 2ε (error variance) 0.01*** (0.00) 0.01*** (0.00) 0.01*** (0.00) 0.01*** (0.00) 0.00*** (0.00) 0.00*** (0.00) year_q dummy yes yes yes yes yes yes observations 1,216 1,007 4,826 3,591 1,273 1,197 rsquared 0.21 0.16 0.65 0.40 0.59 0.62 number of counties 64 53 254 189 67 63 notes: robust standard errors in parentheses. *** p < 0.01 and ** p < 0.05. table 3. continued kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025195 variables disaster employment establishment count texas main −0.0259** (0.0121) 0.0210*** (0.00327) 0.0130 (0.00946) wx 0.00196 (0.0205) −0.00341 (0.00797) −0.0133 (0.0232) sr direct −0.0268** (0.0110) 0.0217*** (0.00320) 0.0122 (0.00938) indirect −0.00955 (0.0267) 0.00650 (0.0120) −0.0144 (0.0334) total −0.0364 (0.0241) 0.0282** (0.0131) −0.00220 (0.0367) lr direct −0.0452*** (0.0173) 0.0364*** (0.00557) 0.0191 (0.0163) indirect −0.0449 (0.0610) 0.0332 (0.0295) −0.0248 (0.0825) total −0.0901 (0.0600) 0.0697** (0.0323) −0.00568 (0.0912) florida main 0.00211 (0.00667) 0.100 (0.0680) 0.0325 (0.0762) wx 0.0130 (0.00919) −0.0740* (0.0390) 0.0594 (0.0749) sr direct 0.00405 (0.00607) 0.0992 (0.0695) 0.0415 (0.0741) indirect 0.0261* (0.0142) −0.0443 (0.0770) 0.145 (0.131) total 0.0302** (0.0143) 0.0549 (0.128) 0.186 (0.168) lr direct 0.00871 (0.00885) 0.144 (0.109) 0.0784 (0.119) indirect 0.0666* (0.0388) −0.0251 (0.230) 0.406 (0.397) total 0.0753* (0.0407) 0.119 (0.320) 0.484 (0.478) notes: robust standard errors in parentheses. sr, shortrun effects; lr, longrun effects. *** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, and * p < 0.1. the main effect of disasters on construction wages in the louisiana panel dataset was estimated to be −4.02%. in other words, the construction wages in disasteraffected counties in louisiana were 4.02% lower than the wages in nondisasteraffected counties in louisiana. this negative effect of a disaster on table 4. continued kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025196 construction wages can be attributed to the shortrun direct effect of −3.69%, the shortrun indirect effect of 8.23%, the longrun direct effect of −5.06%, and the longrun indirect effect of 13%. the louisiana counties’ construction wages decreased by 3.69% in the short run and by 5.06% in the long run in the quarter when the county experienced a disaster. however, the louisiana counties’ construction wages increased by 8.23% in the short run and by 13% in the long run in the quarter when the county’s neighboring county experienced a disaster. in short, the louisiana counties’ own disaster experience (direct effect of treatment) decreased the construction wages in the disasteraffected louisiana counties, while the neighboring counties’ disaster experience (indirect effect of treatment) increased the construction wages in the counties. additionally, the findings indicate that the longterm impact on louisiana counties is greater than the shortterm effect. this indicates that the effects of disasters on construction wages, including direct and indirect effects, can be magnified in the long run. the construction wages in disasteraffected counties in texas were 2.59% lower than those in non disasteraffected counties. the main effects of disasters of −2.59% in texas can be attributed to the short run direct effect of −2.68% and the longrun direct effect of −4.52%. the direct effect of a disaster on construction wages in the disasteraffected texas counties was estimated to be negative. this negative direct effect of a disaster, which was consistently reported in both louisiana and texas, is probably due to the local market system crashing immediately after a disaster (capelleblancard and laguna, 2010; hallegatte et al., 2011; higuchi et al., 2012; naqvi and rehm, 2014; kajitani and tatano, 2018). however, the indirect effect of a disaster on construction wages in louisiana counties was found to be statistically significantly positive. a disaster’s positive indirect effect indicates that the louisiana counties’ construction wages increase when a disaster strikes their neighboring counties. this result seems plausible because the postdisaster surge in construction labor demand can be met by construction labor supply from the adjacent counties, inflating the construction wages in the neighboring disasteraffected county (sadri et al., 2018). the main effect of a disaster on construction wages was not found statistically significant in the florida counties. results of the spatial durbin models with lagged disaster variables the sdms incorporating lagged disaster variables were constructed to investigate the delayed spatiotemporal impacts of disasters on construction wages, taking into account spatial interactions and dependencies between counties. table 5 presents the results of the sdms with the firstlagged disaster variable. while the disaster variable has a negative or insignificant effect on construction wages in three gulf coast states, the firstlagged disaster variable consistently demonstrates a statistically significant positive impact on wages. the disaster decreased the construction wages in the disaster quarter by 3.38% but increased the wages by 4.69% one quarter after the disaster in louisiana. this lagged effect of a disaster on construction wage inflation is attributed to 3.96% of shortrun direct effects, −16% of shortrun indirect effects, 5% of longrun direct effects, and −23.1% of longrun indirect effects in louisiana. the construction wage inflation one quarter after the disaster in louisiana was influenced by both the positive direct effect of a disaster that occurred in a disasteraffected county and the negative indirect effect of a disaster that occurred in the adjacent counties in the short run and long run. the lagged effect of a disaster on construction wage inflation was also reported consistently in the other two states, texas and florida. a disaster decreased the construction wages in the disaster quarter by 2.26% but increased the wages by 4.41% one quarter after the disaster in texas. in florida, a disaster did not significantly affect the wages in the disaster quarter but increased the construction wages by 1.79% one quarter after the disaster. a disaster’s direct and indirect effects were also found to positively influence construction wage inflation one quarter after the disaster in texas and florida. kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025197 table 5. direct, indirect, and total effects from spatial durbin models with firstlagged disaster variable (imputed datasets) variables firstlagged disaster disaster employment establishment count louisiana main 0.0469** (0.0203) −0.0338** (0.0137) 0.0288* (0.0169) 0.0707 (0.0925) sr direct 0.0396** (0.0189) −0.0286** (0.0128) 0.0305* (0.0168) 0.0865 (0.0931) indirect −0.160*** (0.0448) 0.0917*** (0.0267) 0.0376* (0.0213) 0.343*** (0.131) total −0.121*** (0.0409) 0.0631** (0.0253) 0.0682** (0.0320) 0.429** (0.177) lr direct 0.0500** (0.0253) −0.0366** (0.0172) 0.0422* (0.0230) 0.125 (0.127) indirect −0.231*** (0.0652) 0.132*** (0.0392) 0.0604* (0.0330) 0.520*** (0.197) total −0.181*** (0.0617) 0.0952** (0.0385) 0.103** (0.0483) 0.645** (0.264) texas main 0.0441*** (0.0106) −0.0226* (0.0121) 0.0210*** (0.00360) 0.0152 (0.00984) sr direct 0.0450*** (0.0106) −0.0220** (0.0110) 0.0213*** (0.00347) 0.0150 (0.0103) indirect 0.0255*** (0.00630) −0.0123 (0.0281) 0.00683 (0.0120) −0.00644 (0.0359) total 0.0706*** (0.0167) −0.0344 (0.0265) 0.0282** (0.0128) 0.00856 (0.0407) lr direct 0.0742*** (0.0174) −0.0363** (0.0170) 0.0348*** (0.00572) 0.0236 (0.0176) indirect 0.0928*** (0.0246) −0.0451 (0.0623) 0.0317 (0.0282) −0.00397 (0.0855) total 0.167*** (0.0409) −0.0813 (0.0629) 0.0665** (0.0306) 0.0196 (0.0962) florida main 0.0179*** (0.00516) 0.00589 (0.00690) 0.114* (0.0684) 0.0272 (0.0859) sr direct 0.0190*** (0.00528) 0.00877 (0.00646) 0.112 (0.0724) 0.0394 (0.0867) indirect 0.0155*** (0.00470) 0.0273* (0.0152) −0.0569 (0.0658) 0.190 (0.133) total 0.0345*** (0.00963) 0.0361** (0.0165) 0.0548 (0.120) 0.230 (0.179) kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025198 table 6 presents the results of the sdms with the secondlagged disaster variable. the spatiotemporal analysis using the sdms with the secondlagged disaster variable provides mixed results for estimating the effect of disasters on construction wages two quarters after the disaster. table 6. direct, indirect, and total effects from spatial durbin models with secondlagged disaster variable (imputed datasets) variables secondlagged disaster disaster employment establishment count louisiana main −0.0132 (0.0160) −0.0414*** (0.0143) 0.0357* (0.0194) 0.0777 (0.101) sr direct −0.0114 (0.0147) −0.0364*** (0.0132) 0.0386** (0.0197) 0.103 (0.103) indirect 0.0519 (0.0458) 0.0778*** (0.0282) 0.0494** (0.0233) 0.557*** (0.208) total 0.0406 (0.0430) 0.0414 (0.0264) 0.0880** (0.0369) 0.557*** (0.208) lr direct −0.0141 (0.0201) −0.0484*** (0.0182) 0.0557** (0.0279) 0.160 (0.146) indirect 0.0812 (0.0733) 0.116*** (0.0447) 0.0886** (0.0408) 0.751*** (0.258) total 0.0671 (0.0715) 0.0681 (0.0440) 0.144** (0.0612) 0.911*** (0.343) texas main −0.0275** (0.0116) −0.0265** (0.0123) 0.0198*** (0.00346) 0.0168* (0.00954) sr direct −0.0344*** (0.0110) −0.0264** (0.0111) 0.0206*** (0.00348) 0.0162* (0.00986) indirect −0.115*** (0.0275) −0.0170 (0.0279) 0.0149 (0.0129) −0.0131 (0.0403) total −0.149*** (0.0287) −0.0435* (0.0259) 0.0355** (0.0143) 0.00310 (0.0445) variables firstlagged disaster disaster employment establishment count lr direct 0.0289*** (0.00798) 0.0150 (0.00935) 0.157 (0.108) 0.0734 (0.130) indirect 0.0470*** (0.0172) 0.0649* (0.0362) −0.0436 (0.172) 0.443 (0.335) total 0.0758*** (0.0239) 0.0799** (0.0395) 0.113 (0.262) 0.517 (0.422) notes: standard errors in parentheses. sr, shortrun effects; lr, longrun effects. *** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, and * p < 0.1. table 5. continued kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025199 variables secondlagged disaster disaster employment establishment count lr direct −0.0648*** (0.0177) −0.0442** (0.0172) 0.0346*** (0.00598) 0.0253 (0.0173) indirect −0.305*** (0.0712) −0.0632 (0.0646) 0.0527* (0.0313) −0.0182 (0.100) total −0.369*** (0.0763) −0.107* (0.0646) 0.0873** (0.0347) 0.00708 (0.111) florida main −0.0211*** (0.00541) 0.00256 (0.00660) 0.141** (0.0682) −0.00481 (0.0868) sr direct −0.0230*** (0.00560) 0.00477 (0.00624) 0.140* (0.0733) −0.000681 (0.0883) indirect −0.0209*** (0.00539) 0.0174 (0.0166) −0.0568 (0.0747) 0.0967 (0.148) total −0.0440*** (0.0105) 0.0222 (0.0177) 0.0828 (0.138) 0.0960 (0.201) lr direct −0.0350*** (0.00835) 0.00845 (0.00909) 0.196* (0.110) 0.00847 (0.134) indirect −0.0655*** (0.0215) 0.0438 (0.0409) −0.0141 (0.218) 0.228 (0.386) total −0.100*** (0.0278) 0.0522 (0.0444) 0.182 (0.318) 0.237 (0.484) notes: standard errors in parentheses. sr, shortrun effects; lr, longrun effects. *** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, and * p < 0.1. table 7 presents the results of the sdms with the thirdlagged disaster variable. the sdms with the thirdlagged disaster variable were implemented for the spatiotemporal analysis to examine the effect of disasters on construction wages three quarters after the disaster. the disaster variable has a negative or insignificant effect on construction wages in the three gulf coast states in the disaster quarter. the third lagged disaster variable shows an insignificant effect on wages in all three states. it can be implied that a disaster occurrence does not have a statistically significant impact on the construction wages three quarters after the disaster in louisiana, texas, and florida. discussions this study examined the spatiotemporal impact of a disaster on construction wages across three gulf coast states to quantify how demand surges influence the postdisaster labor market. the findings revealed that the spatiotemporal impact on wages evolved over time following the disaster. in the immediate aftermath, during the quarter when the disaster hit, the effect on construction wages in affected communities was either negative or not statistically significant. however, the disaster increased construction wages one quarter after the disaster in all three gulf coast states. the effects of disasters on wages two quarters table 6. continued kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025200 table 7. direct, indirect, and total effects from spatial durbin models with thirdlagged disaster variable (imputed datasets) variables thirdlagged disaster disaster employment establishment count louisiana main 0.00514 (0.0186) −0.0406*** (0.0144) 0.0350* (0.0185) 0.0926 (0.104) sr direct 0.00501 (0.0172) −0.0370*** (0.0135) 0.0364** (0.0184) 0.111 (0.105) indirect 0.0151 (0.0359) 0.0684*** (0.0258) 0.0337* (0.0191) 0.458*** (0.139) total 0.0201 (0.0304) 0.0314 (0.0229) 0.0701** (0.0306) 0.569*** (0.177) lr direct 0.00692 (0.0226) −0.0481*** (0.0178) 0.0490** (0.0246) 0.156 (0.140) indirect 0.0219 (0.0501) 0.0933*** (0.0360) 0.0516* (0.0281) 0.660*** (0.199) total 0.0288 (0.0438) 0.0452 (0.0330) 0.101** (0.0442) 0.816*** (0.256) texas main 0.00622 (0.00884) −0.0212* (0.0118) 0.0196*** (0.00383) 0.0146 (0.00958) sr direct 0.00457 (0.00823) −0.0200* (0.0107) 0.0205*** (0.00383) 0.0127 (0.00985) indirect −0.0253 (0.0210) 0.00301 (0.0254) 0.0177 (0.0125) −0.0376 (0.0385) total −0.0207 (0.0206) −0.0170 (0.0229) 0.0382*** (0.0142) −0.0249 (0.0427) lr direct 0.00564 (0.0124) −0.0306* (0.0158) 0.0325*** (0.00611) 0.0175 (0.0160) indirect −0.0483 (0.0413) −0.00433 (0.0488) 0.0459* (0.0253) −0.0690 (0.0796) total −0.0426 (0.0426) −0.0349 (0.0471) 0.0784*** (0.0287) −0.0515 (0.0886) florida main −0.00646 (0.00729) 0.00541 (0.00688) 0.159** (0.0732) −0.0319 (0.0897) sr direct −0.00851 (0.00652) 0.00879 (0.00640) 0.161** (0.0767) −0.0361 (0.0867) indirect −0.0226** (0.0105) 0.0342*** (0.0132) −0.0124 (0.0720) −0.0290 (0.124) total −0.0311*** (0.00844) 0.0430*** (0.0137) 0.149 (0.141) −0.0651 (0.180) kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025201 after the disaster were found to be negative or insignificant, varying across states. three quarters after the disaster, there was no statistically significant impact on construction wages. this delayed positive impact of a disaster on wage inflation is consistent with the results found in earlier research. kajitani and tatano (2018) reported that price increases occurred 4 months after the great east japan earthquake in 2011. in a case study on copenhagen, the storm surge immediately devastated the production capacity of the overall economic system, and the number of construction jobs started to increase 3 months after the storm (hallegatte et al., 2011). table 8 summarizes the effects of disasters on construction wages over time in louisiana, texas, and florida. the construction wages one quarter after the disaster in the disasteraffected counties were higher than the wages in the nondisasteraffected counties by 4.41%, 4.69%, and 1.79% in louisiana, texas, and florida, respectively. table 8. the effects of disasters on construction wages over time effects of disasters wages in the disaster quarter wages 1q after wages 2q after wages 3q after louisiana −4.02%*** 4.69%** −1.32% 0.51% texas −2.59%** 4.41%*** −2.75%** 0.62% florida 0.21% 1.79%*** −2.11%*** −0.65% notes: *** p < 0.01 and ** p < 0.05. figure 4 illustrates a consistent pattern of spatiotemporal dynamic effects of a disaster on construction wages in louisiana, texas, and florida. in all three states, construction wages increased one quarter after the disaster. however, the effects of disasters on wages became insignificant three quarters after the disaster, implying that the postdisaster construction wages were no longer statistically significantly affected by the disaster (lima and barbosa, 2019). the spatiotemporal analysis, using dynamic sdms, leverages spatial relationships among counties to estimate both shortterm and longterm direct and indirect impacts of a disaster on construction wages. in louisiana, one quarter after the disaster, construction wages in affected counties were 4.69% higher than those in unaffected counties. while the disaster’s direct impact in louisiana led to an increase in construction wages one quarter after the event, its indirect impact resulted in a wage decrease in both the variables thirdlagged disaster disaster employment establishment count lr direct −0.0122 (0.00826) 0.0131 (0.00831) 0.210** (0.103) −0.0484 (0.116) indirect −0.0402** (0.0161) 0.0601** (0.0239) 0.0385 (0.143) −0.0588 (0.222) total −0.0524*** (0.0144) 0.0732*** (0.0256) 0.249 (0.238) −0.107 (0.306) notes: standard errors in parentheses. sr, shortrun effects; lr, longrun effects. *** p < 0.01, ** p < 0.05, and * p < 0.1. table 7. continued kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025202 short term and the long term. this indicates that a disaster occurring in a specific louisiana county i directly raised construction wages within that county, but if the disaster occurred in an adjacent county j, it led to a decrease in construction wages in county i one quarter after the disaster. this negative indirect effect of a disaster has been discussed in previous studies (belasen and polachek, 2009; kellenberg and mobarak, 2011; hornbeck and keniston, 2017; zeenat fouzia, mu, and chen, 2020; tran and wilson, 2022). belasen and polachek (2009) reported that the earnings in the neighboring counties of the disasteraffected counties decreased by 4.51% compared with the earnings in the directly affected counties due to the influx of workers to the neighboring counties from the affected counties. the longrun disaster impact on income per capita was estimated to be positive in the disasteraffected areas and negative in the broader region (tran and wilson, 2022). the construction wage inflation one quarter after the disaster in the disasteraffected counties of texas and florida was attributed to the positive direct and indirect impacts observed in both the short term and the long term. the disaster increased the construction wages not only in the disasteraffected counties but also in the neighboring counties of the disasteraffected counties one quarter after the disaster. the positive direct and indirect effects of a disaster on wages align with the previous findings in disaster studies (fu and gregory, 2019; zeenat fouzia, mu, and chen, 2020; tran and wilson, 2022). the demand surge for post disaster construction resources inflates the prices of reconstruction resources not only in the disasteraffected counties but also in the neighboring counties of the disasteraffected counties (ahmadi and shahandashti, 2020). the findings of this study have several important practical implications for postdisaster recovery efforts, labor market planning, and construction cost management. understanding the delayed impact of disasters on construction wages can help policymakers, contractors, and government agencies anticipate and address workforce shortages, labor cost inflation, and project delays more effectively. one key implication is the potential for project delays due to the temporary stagnation or decline in wages in the immediate aftermath of a disaster. the results suggest that while disasters disrupt the labor market initially, by displacing workers, causing temporary job losses, or creating uncertainty in reconstruction efforts (kim and shahandashti, 2022a), wage increases do not occur until one quarter after the event. this lag in wage growth may indicate a period where construction activity is slower than expected due to difficulties in mobilizing resources, permitting delays, or uncertainty in funding for reconstruction projects. as found in previous studies on japan and denmark, postdisaster economic disruptions often take several months before construction employment and wages start rising (hallegatte et al., 2011; kajitani and tatano, 2018). figure 4. the spatiotemporal dynamic effects of a disaster on construction wages kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025203 from a cost estimation and budgeting perspective, these wage dynamics can significantly impact reconstruction costs (kim, 2023). the increase in wages observed one quarter after a disaster suggests that contractors and developers should expect higher labor costs when bidding on projects in disasteraffected areas (pradhan et al., 2023). for largescale public and private rebuilding projects, failure to account for this delayed wage inflation may lead to underbudgeting, cost overruns, or project delays as labor becomes more expensive than initially projected (kim, abediniangerabi, and shahandashti, 2021). policymakers and funding agencies should consider adjusting financial assistance programs, subsidies, or wage stabilization policies to mitigate the financial burden on rebuilding efforts (davlasheridze and miao, 2021). furthermore, the study highlights the need for strategic workforce planning in disasterprone regions. states and municipalities should consider policies that encourage the retention and rapid deployment of skilled labor in affected areas (kim and shahandashti, 2022a). for instance, state governments could offer temporary wage incentives or workforce training programs in anticipation of labor demand spikes. additionally, construction firms could develop predisaster labor agreements or standby contracts to ensure that skilled workers are available immediately after a disaster, reducing delays in reconstruction efforts. finally, the spatial variations in wage impacts across louisiana, texas, and florida indicate that disaster responses should be tailored to regional labor market conditions. the extent and duration of wage inflation may depend on factors such as the severity of damage, the availability of migrant labor, and the overall economic resilience of the affected region (pradhan et al., 2023). policymakers should consider implementing regionspecific strategies to stabilize labor supply and prevent excessive wage inflation that could hinder equitable reconstruction efforts. conclusions the disaster recovery process is highly associated with the postdisaster construction industry. despite the significance of understanding the postdisaster construction industry to expedite the disaster recovery process, the effects of a disaster on construction wages have not been elucidated. particularly, the spatiotemporal analysis of the effects of a disaster on construction wages is needed to clarify the endogenous and exogenous interaction effects between communities and enhance the understanding of the dynamic process of demand surge in the construction labor market. this study examined the shortterm and long term spatiotemporal dynamic impacts of a disaster on construction wages at the county level across three gulf coast states (louisiana, texas, and florida) by utilizing dynamic sdms with a did framework. to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to examine the spatiotemporal dynamic effects of a disaster on construction wages by employing dynamic sdms with did specifications that enable us to examine the endogenous and exogenous multicounty interaction effects, controlling for the unobserved country heterogeneities at one stage. the dynamic sdms with did allowed us to quantify efficient and consistent estimates of the direct, indirect, and total impacts of a disaster on wages by comparing the changes in average construction wages before and after the disaster in affected counties (treatment group) with those in unaffected counties (control group). simultaneously, the dynamic sdms accounted for time invariant countyspecific factors, shared influences, and spatial dependencies in the dependent variable, exogenous variables, and error term. some caveats are noted to assist disaster recovery practitioners, reconstruction engineers, and disaster mitigation agencies in better understanding the postdisaster dynamics of construction wages and improving their reconstruction strategies and plans. first, the one quarterlagged positive effect of a disaster on construction wages was consistently found in three gulf coast states, presenting recent empirical evidence to a line of disaster studies. it is recommended that disaster recovery practitioners take preemptive actions to increase the construction labor supply in response to the lagged demand surge that occurred one quarter after the disaster. second, the lagged effect of a disaster on wage inflation was attributed to the kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025204 direct and indirect effects of a disaster. also, the endogenous spatial interaction effect of construction wages was positive in all three gulf coast states. the construction wages in county i are positively associated with the wages in the neighboring county j. these endogenous and exogenous spatial interaction effects between communities should be considered for planning and implementing an effective disaster recovery process. although the findings of this research provide detailed and practical insights into the spatiotemporal impacts of a disaster on construction wages, it is worthwhile to discuss the limitations of the research and suggest directions for future research. first, the results of this study are based on the hurricanes that occurred in the u.s. gulf coast states between 2015 and 2019. various disaster types, regional industry compositions, and additional factors may lead to differing outcomes across disasters, regions, and time periods. exploring whether the results of this study remain consistent in other postdisaster contexts would be a compelling area for future studies. second, the indirect effects of a disaster on construction wages were found to be statistically significant but varied across the states. these variations may be influenced by a range of unobserved confounders, including government interventions and insurance policies, which were not fully accounted for in this study. for instance, the timing and scale of disaster relief programs, public spending on reconstruction, and local government wage subsidies could all affect the labor supply and the wages offered in affected areas. similarly, insurance payouts may influence wage dynamics by affecting the speed and scope of reconstruction efforts. disasters often trigger largescale insurance settlements, which can create an influx of funds that drives up demand for construction workers and, consequently, wages. a promising avenue for future research would involve exploring the underlying factors that explain spatial variations in indirect or spillover effects and integrating those factors, such as government policies and insurance settlements, to better understand how these factors influence labor markets after a disaster. this would provide a more comprehensive understanding of the complex relationships between government actions, insurance coverage, and postdisaster wage fluctuations. policymakers and reconstruction engineers could benefit from more granular insights into how construction labor market dynamics evolve over time following a disaster, which would allow for more effective recovery planning and reconstruction strategies. despite the dataset ending in 2019, it is important to note that our findings remain highly relevant to current trends. the observed lagged effect of disasters on construction wages aligns with ongoing discussions about labor market resilience in the face of weatherrelated events (basile et al., 2024; demirci and isik, 2024; kukeli, 2025). the persistence of extreme weather events and their growing frequency due to climate change further highlight the importance of understanding these wage fluctuations. while this study focused on prepandemic data, it can serve as a baseline for future research on the evolving impacts of disasters on construction wages in the context of the postpandemic. future research could expand upon our findings by incorporating post2020 data to examine how the pandemic and more recent disasters have influenced construction wages. it would be interesting to examine whether the post disaster cost inflation has been exacerbated in the postpandemic era. specifically, it would be important to explore whether the ongoing labor shortages and supply chain issues lead to even more pronounced wage increases in disasteraffected areas and how pandemicrelated economic shocks have changed the trajectory of wage fluctuations after a disaster. examining these research questions would provide a more comprehensive understanding of the evolving relationship between disasters and construction wages and offer valuable insights for policymakers and industry stakeholders as they manage recovery efforts in a post pandemic world. references agarwal goel, p., roy chowdhury, j., grover sharma, c., & parida, y. (2024) social impacts of disasters. in p. agarwal goel, j. roy chowdhury, c. grover sharma, & y. parida (eds.), economics of natural disasters (pp. 141–255). springer nature singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-7430-6_3 kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025205 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-7430-6_3 ahmadi, n. and shahandashti, m. (2020) ‘characterizing construction demand surge using spatial panel data models’, natural hazards review, 21(2), p. 04020008. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)nh.1527-6996.0000368 arneson, e. et al. (2020) ‘predicting postdisaster residential housing reconstruction based on market resources’, natural hazards review, 21(1), p. 04019010. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)nh.1527-6996.0000339 barth, e. and dale-olsen, h. (2011) ‘employer size or skill group size effect on wages?’, ilr review, 64(2), pp. 341–355. https://doi.org/10.1177/001979391106400207 basile, r., giallonardo, l., iapadre, p. l., ladu, m. g., & persio, r. (2024) the local labour market effects of earthquakes. regional studies, 58(1), 91–104. https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2023.2187045 belasen, a.r. and polachek, s.w. (2009) ‘how disasters affect local labor markets: the effects of hurricanes in florida’, journal of human resources, 44(1), pp. 251–276. https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.44.1.251 blanchflower, d.g. and oswald, a.j. (1995) ‘an introduction to the wage curve’, journal of economic perspectives, 9(3), pp. 153–167. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.9.3.153 busenbark, j. r., yoon, h. (elle), gamache, d. l., & withers, m. c. (2022) omitted variable bias: examining management research with the impact threshold of a confounding variable (itcv). journal of management, 48(1), 17–48. https://doi.org/10.1177/01492063211006458 buuren, s. van (2018) flexible imputation of missing data, second edition. crc press. capelle-blancard, g. and laguna, m.-a. (2010) ‘how does the stock market respond to chemical disasters?’, journal of environmental economics and management, 59(2), pp. 192–205. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2009.11.002 castelblanco, g., fenoaltea, e. m., de marco, a., & chiaia, b. (2025) influence of macroeconomic factors on construction costs: an analysis of project cases. construction managemnt and economics, 43(3), 196–212. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/01446193.2024.2410872 chang-richards, y. et al. (2017) ‘effects of a major disaster on skills shortages in the construction industry: lessons learned from new zealand’, engineering, construction and architectural management, 24(1), pp. 2–20. https://doi. org/10.1108/ecam-03-2014-0044 charles, s. h., chang-richards, a. y., & yiu, t. w. (2022) a systematic review of factors affecting post-disaster reconstruction projects resilience. international journal of disaster resilience in the built environment, 13(1), 113–132. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijdrbe-10-2020-0109 contat, j. c., doerner, w. m., renner, r. n., & rogers, m. j. (2024) measuring price effects from disasters using public data: a case study of hurricane ian. journal of real estate research, 1–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/08965803.2 024.2391213 davis, c., elliot, d., teles, d., theodos, b., & thomas, k. (2023) labor markets in climate migrant receiving communities. https://search.issuelab.org/resources/43675/43675.pdf davlasheridze, m., & miao, q. (2021) does post-disaster aid promote community resilience? evidence from federal disaster programs. natural hazards, 109(1), 63–88. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-021-04826-2 demirci, f. s., & isik, z. (2024) developing a community responsive resilient contractor selection model for postdisaster reconstruction projects: a build back better approach. engineering, construction and architectural management. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2024-0802 döhrmann, d., gürtler, m., hibbeln, m., & metzler, r. (2021) arising from the ruins: the impact of natural disasters on reconstruction labor wages. international journal of disaster risk reduction, 59, 102210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijdrr.2021.102210 kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025206 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)nh.1527-6996.0000368 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)nh.1527-6996.0000339 https://doi.org/10.1177/001979391106400207 https://doi.org/10.1080/00343404.2023.2187045 https://doi.org/10.3368/jhr.44.1.251 https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.9.3.153 https://doi.org/10.1177/01492063211006458 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeem.2009.11.002 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2024.2410872 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2024.2410872 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-03-2014-0044 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-03-2014-0044 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijdrbe-10-2020-0109 https://doi.org/10.1080/08965803.2024.2391213 https://doi.org/10.1080/08965803.2024.2391213 https://search.issuelab.org/resources/43675/43675.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-021-04826-2 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2024-0802 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102210 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102210 elhorst, j.p. (2014) ‘spatial panel data models’, in elhorst, j. p., spatial econometrics. berlin, heidelberg: springer berlin heidelberg (springerbriefs in regional science), pp. 37–93. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40340-8_3 fu, c. and gregory, j. (2019) ‘estimation of an equilibrium model with externalities: post‐disaster neighborhood rebuilding’, econometrica, 87(2), pp. 387–421. https://doi.org/10.3982/ecta14246 ginn, w. (2022) climate disasters and the macroeconomy: does state-dependence matter? evidence for the us. economics of disasters and climate change, 6(1), 141–161. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41885-021-00102-6 green, c.p., heywood, j.s. and theodoropoulos, n. (2021) ‘hierarchy and the employer size effect on wages: evidence from britain’, economica, 88(351), pp. 671–696. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12364 groen, j. a., kutzbach, m. j., & polivka, a. e. (2020) storms and jobs: the effect of hurricanes on individuals’ employment and earnings over the long term. journal of labor economics, 38(3), 653–685. https://doi. org/10.1086/706055 hallegatte, s. et al. (2011) ‘assessing climate change impacts, sea level rise and storm surge risk in port cities: a case study on copenhagen’, climatic change, 104(1), pp. 113–137. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-010-9978-3 hansen, b. (2022) econometrics. princeton university press. available at: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr= &id=uipxeaaaqbaj&oi=fnd&pg=pp1&dq=time+series+econometrics&ots=jdcirpfdhd&sig=rs0s28js9dfj39 dwybgrsfrq1em (accessed: 14 november 2024). higuchi, y. et al. (2012) ‘the impact of the great east japan earthquake on the labor market—need to resolve the employment mismatch in the disaster-stricken areas’, japan labor review, 9(4), pp. 4–21. hornbeck, r. and keniston, d. (2017) ‘creative destruction: barriers to urban growth and the great boston fire of 1872’, american economic review, 107(6), pp. 1365–1398. https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20141707 imai, k. and kim, i.s. (2021) ‘on the use of two-way fixed effects regression models for causal inference with panel data’, political analysis, 29(3), pp. 405–415. https://doi.org/10.1017/pan.2020.33 janz, t., gassmann, f., & gayoso de ervin, l. (2024) weathering shocks unraveling the effects of short-term weather shocks on poverty in paraguay. world economic outlook. https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/ weo/2021/october/english/text.pdf. https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-10970 kajitani, y. and tatano, h. (2018) ‘applicability of a spatial computable general equilibrium model to assess the shortterm economic impact of natural disasters’, economic systems research, 30(3), pp. 289–312. https://doi.org/10.1080/0953 5314.2017.1369010 kellenberg, d. and mobarak, a.m. (2011) ‘the economics of natural disasters’, annual review of resource economics, 3(1), pp. 297–312. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-073009-104211 khodahemmati, n. and shahandashti, m. (2020) ‘diagnosis and quantification of postdisaster construction material cost fluctuations’, natural hazards review, 21(3), p. 04020019. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)nh.15276996.0000381 kim, s. et al. (2022) ‘improving accuracy in predicting city-level construction cost indices by combining linear arima and nonlinear anns’, journal of management in engineering, 38(2), p. 04021093. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)me.1943-5479.0001008 kim, s. (2023) disaster management and recovery: estimating the disaster impacts on construction costs and evaluating the policy effects on disaster recovery. https://doi.org/10.1061/nhrefo.nheng-1865 kim, s., chang, s. and castro-lacouture, d. (2020) ‘dynamic modeling for analyzing impacts of skilled labor shortage on construction project management’, journal of management in engineering, 36(1), p. 04019035. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000720 kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025207 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-40340-8_3 https://doi.org/10.3982/ecta14246 https://doi.org/10.1007/s41885-021-00102-6 https://doi.org/10.1111/ecca.12364 https://doi.org/10.1086/706055 https://doi.org/10.1086/706055 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-010-9978-3 https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=uipxeaaaqbaj&oi=fnd&pg=pp1&dq=time+series+econometrics&ots=jdcirpfdhd&sig=rs0s28js9dfj39dwybgrsfrq1em https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=uipxeaaaqbaj&oi=fnd&pg=pp1&dq=time+series+econometrics&ots=jdcirpfdhd&sig=rs0s28js9dfj39dwybgrsfrq1em https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=uipxeaaaqbaj&oi=fnd&pg=pp1&dq=time+series+econometrics&ots=jdcirpfdhd&sig=rs0s28js9dfj39dwybgrsfrq1em https://doi.org/10.1257/aer.20141707 https://doi.org/10.1017/pan.2020.33 https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/weo/2021/october/english/text.pdf https://www.imf.org/-/media/files/publications/weo/2021/october/english/text.pdf https://doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-10970 https://doi.org/10.1080/09535314.2017.1369010 https://doi.org/10.1080/09535314.2017.1369010 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-073009-104211 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)nh.1527-6996.0000381 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)nh.1527-6996.0000381 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0001008 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0001008 https://doi.org/10.1061/nhrefo.nheng-1865 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000720 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000720 kim, s., makhmalbaf, a., & shahandashti, m. (2024) diagnosing and quantifying post-covid-19 fluctuations in the architecture billings indices. engineering, construction and architectural management, 31(2), 681–695. https://doi. org/10.1108/ecam-05-2022-0500 kim, s. and shahandashti, m. (2022a) ‘characterizing relationship between demand surge and post-disaster reconstruction capacity considering poverty rates’, international journal of disaster risk reduction, 76, p. 103014. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103014 kim, s. and shahandashti, m. (2022b) ‘diagnosing and quantifying post-disaster pipe material cost fluctuations’, in pipelines 2022. pipelines 2022, indianapolis, indiana: american society of civil engineers, pp. 185–195. https://doi. org/10.1061/9780784484296.022 kim, s., shahandashti, m., & yasar, m. (2023) effect of anti-price gouging law on postdisaster recovery speed: evidence from reconstruction in virginia and maryland after hurricane sandy. natural hazards review, 24(4), 04023045. kirchberger, m. (2017) ‘natural disasters and labor markets’, journal of development economics, 125, pp. 40–58. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.11.002 kukeli, a. (2025) the effects and the macroeconomic dynamics of natural disaster damages: investigation of local evidence. regional studies, regional science, 12(1), 5–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/21681376.2025.2452524 li, h. et al. (2022) ‘a dynamic disastrous cge model to optimize resource allocation in post-disaster economic recovery: post-typhoon in an urban agglomeration area, china’, environmental research letters, 17(7), p. 074027. https:// doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac7733 lima, r.c. de a. and barbosa, a.v.b. (2019) ‘natural disasters, economic growth and spatial spillovers: evidence from a flash flood in brazil’, papers in regional science, 98(2), pp. 905–924. https://doi.org/10.1111/pirs.12380 markhvida, m. et al. (2020) ‘quantification of disaster impacts through household well-being losses’, nature sustainability, 3(7), pp. 538–547. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-0508-7 mcentire, d.a. (2021) disaster response and recovery: strategies and tactics for resilience. john wiley & sons. mushtaha, a. w., alaloul, w. s., baarimah, a. o., musarat, m. a., alzubi, k. m., & khan, a. m. (2025) a decisionmaking framework for prioritizing reconstruction projects in post-disaster recovery. results in engineering, 25, 103693. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2024.103693 naqvi, a.a. and rehm, m. (2014) ‘a multi-agent model of a low income economy: simulating the distributional effects of natural disasters’, journal of economic interaction and coordination, 9(2), pp. 275–309. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11403014-0137-1 nikolaou, p., & dimitriou, l. (2024) spillover effects in transit networks: a parameterized weight matrix spatial lagged approach. journal of urban mobility, 6, 100081. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urbmob.2024.100081 olsen, a.h. and porter, k.a. (2011) ‘on the contribution of reconstruction labor wages and material prices to demand surge’, structural engineering & structural mechanics report series, 81. available at: https://www.sparisk.com/pubs/ olsen-2011-sesm-demand-surge.pdf (accessed: 14 november 2024). olsen, a.h. and porter, k.a. (2013) ‘storm surge to demand surge: exploratory study of hurricanes, labor wages, and material prices’, natural hazards review, 14(4), pp. 247–257. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)nh.15276996.0000111 pradhan, s. and arneson, e. (2021) ‘postdisaster labor-demand surge in the us highways, roads, and bridges construction sector’, journal of management in engineering, 37(1), p. 04020102. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) me.1943-5479.0000869 kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025208 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2022-0500 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2022-0500 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103014 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.103014 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784484296.022 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784484296.022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.11.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2016.11.002 https://doi.org/10.1080/21681376.2025.2452524 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac7733 https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ac7733 https://doi.org/10.1111/pirs.12380 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-020-0508-7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2024.103693 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11403-014-0137-1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11403-014-0137-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.urbmob.2024.100081 https://www.sparisk.com/pubs/olsen-2011-sesm-demand-surge.pdf https://www.sparisk.com/pubs/olsen-2011-sesm-demand-surge.pdf https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)nh.1527-6996.0000111 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)nh.1527-6996.0000111 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000869 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000869 pradhan, s. et al. (2023) how construction and socioeconomic resource availability affected housing recovery after hurricane sandy. natural hazards review, 24(3), 05023004. https://doi.org/10.1061/nhrefo.nheng-1703 ripple, w.j. et al. (2024) ‘the 2024 state of the climate report: perilous times on planet earth’, bioscience, p. biae087. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biae087 roth, j., sant’anna, p. h. c., bilinski, a., & poe, j. (2023) what’s trending in difference-in-differences? a synthesis of the recent econometrics literature. journal of econometrics, 235(2), 2218–2244. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jeconom.2023.03.008 sadri, a.m. et al. (2018) ‘the role of social capital, personal networks, and emergency responders in post-disaster recovery and resilience: a study of rural communities in indiana’, natural hazards, 90(3), pp. 1377–1406. https://doi. org/10.1007/s11069-017-3103-0 smith, a.b. (2020) ‘u.s. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters, 1980 present (ncei accession 0209268)’. noaa national centers for environmental information. https://doi.org/10.25921/stkw-7w73 smith, a.b. (2024) 2023: a historic year of u.s. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters | noaa climate.gov. available at: http://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/2023-historic-year-us-billion-dollar-weather-andclimate-disasters (accessed: 28 june 2024). tang, t., luo, t., & walton, h. (2024) resilience in complex disasters: florida’s hurricane preparedness, response, and recovery amid covid-19. international journal of disaster risk reduction, 102, 104298. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijdrr.2024.104298 tran, b.r. and wilson, d. (2022) ‘the local economic impact of natural disasters’, in. federal reserve bank of san francisco. vella, f. and verbeek, m. (1999) ‘two-step estimation of panel data models with censored endogenous variables and selection bias’, journal of econometrics, 90(2), pp. 239–263. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0304-4076(98)00043-8 wedawatta, g., wanigarathna, n., vijekumara, p. a., & tennakoon, m. (2023) macro level insurance for financing post disaster recovery: the case of national disaster insurance policy in sri lanka. climate economics and finance, 1(1), 13–28. yabe, t., zhang, y. and ukkusuri, s.v. (2020) ‘quantifying the economic impact of disasters on businesses using human mobility data: a bayesian causal inference approach’, epj data science, 9(1), p. 36. https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688020-00255-6 zeenat fouzia, s., mu, j. and chen, y. (2020) ‘local labour market impacts of climate-related disasters: a demand-andsupply analysis’, spatial economic analysis, 15(3), pp. 336–352. https://doi.org/10.1080/17421772.2019.1701699 zhao, c., & wang, b. (2022) how does new-type urbanization affect air pollution? empirical evidence based on spatial spillover effect and spatial durbin model. environment international, 165, 107304. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. envint.2022.107304 zhou, b., zhang, h. and evans, r. (2022) ‘build back better: a framework for sustainable recovery assessment’, international journal of disaster risk reduction, 76, p. 102998. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.102998 zhu, x. et al. (2021) ‘how meteorological disasters affect the labor market? the moderating effect of government emergency response policy’, natural hazards, 107(3), pp. 2625–2640. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-021-04526-x kim et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025209 https://doi.org/10.1061/nhrefo.nheng-1703 https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biae087 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2023.03.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jeconom.2023.03.008 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-017-3103-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-017-3103-0 https://doi.org/10.25921/stkw-7w73 http://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/2023-historic-year-us-billion-dollar-weather-and-climate-disasters http://www.climate.gov/news-features/blogs/beyond-data/2023-historic-year-us-billion-dollar-weather-and-climate-disasters https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2024.104298 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2024.104298 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0304-4076(98)00043-8 https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-020-00255-6 https://doi.org/10.1140/epjds/s13688-020-00255-6 https://doi.org/10.1080/17421772.2019.1701699 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2022.107304 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envint.2022.107304 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2022.102998 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-021-04526-x construction economics and building vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 2023 © 2023 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: debs, l., hubbard, b. 2023. gathering and disseminating lessons learned in construction companies to support knowledge management. construction economics and building, 23:1/2, 56–76. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v23i1/2.8390 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article gathering and disseminating lessons learned in construction companies to support knowledge management luciana debs1,*, bryan hubbard2 1 assistant professor, school of construction management technology, purdue university 2 professor, school of construction management technology, purdue university corresponding author: luciana debs, ph.d., assistant professor, school of construction management technology, purdue university, ldecresc@purdue.edu doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8390 article history: received 11/05/2022; revised 15/02/2023; accepted 17/02/2023; published 31/07/2023 abstract the importance of knowledge management (km) in the architecture, engineering, and construction (aec) industry has risen with the improvement of information and communication technologies. however, the construction industry still struggles to capture and disseminate lessons learned. the present research explores this issue by using interviews and an online questionnaire to provide updated information on lessons learned procedures and their challenges in united states (us) construction companies. to do this, the authors have gathered industry professionals’ perceptions about lessons learned and methods used in their companies for harnessing and disseminating the knowledge generated by them. our findings indicate that post-project evaluations are frequently conducted, utilize a two-step approach (review of materials followed by meetings), and are mainly organized by project managers. most often, only key project team members are present in meetings to create a safe environment for discussion. moreover, our findings echo previous research on the dissemination and reuse of lessons learned, indicating that these procedures are scattered and, most of the time, the information is not effectively reutilized. this suggests that us construction companies still need to revisit how information from lessons learned is currently being harnessed, stored, and especially shared (within and between companies) so that information can be effectively transformed into knowledge that can advance the aec industry’s productivity. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 56 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8390 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8390 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:ldecresc@purdue.edu https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8390 keywords knowledge management; aec industry; lessons learned; project retrospectives; construction industry introduction the architecture, engineering, and construction (aec) industry is known for its fragmented nature and reliance on professionals’ lived experiences (hwang, 2022; forcada, et al., 2013; pathirage, amaratunga and haigh, 2007; saini, arif and kulonda, 2019; vaz-serra and edwards, 2020). this is due mainly to its project-based nature, which can hinder the improvement of knowledge management for the industry as a whole because “there are few incentives to appraise performance, pass learning on and improve overall delivery” (forcada, et al., 2013, p.83). teams of professionals from several disciplines are formed based on the specific needs of the projects, and evolve through the project’s duration, with new team members joining and leaving the process. at the end of the project, the team is dissolved, and members are assigned new projects, which may or may not contain the same professionals from previous projects (hwang, 2022). yet, previous research indicates that the creation and the reuse of knowledge generated in the aec industry is key to improving processes and productivity (rezgui, hopfe and vorakulpipat, 2010; tan, et al., 2007). in addition to the fragmented nature and evolving teams, much knowledge within aec is tacit, meaning it is based on experience over time (hwang, 2022; nesan, 2012; woo, et al., 2004). this reliance on tacit knowledge makes construction a ‘knowledge-intensive’ industry (egbu and robinson, 2005; wang and meng, 2019). in industries that rely heavily on tacit knowledge, professionals with many years of experience have a much broader knowledge base about the industry than early career graduates. as issues arise and are solved within projects, professionals acquire more expertise that will be applied to future projects as needed. previous research has acknowledged the value of knowledge management (km) practices for the aec industry and the challenges of effectively capturing and using km within a project-based industry (hwang, 2022; dave and koskela, 2009; kamara, et al., 2002; saini, arif and kulonda, 2019). recently, due to improvements in information and communication technology (ict) and building information modeling (bim), there has been increased interest in gathering tacit knowledge and creating knowledge databases for aec (yu and yang, 2018). by transforming tacit knowledge into physical (or virtual) information that can be passed to many professionals, that knowledge becomes explicit so it can be easily shared. research conducted in the mid-2000s in the us indicated that learning from previous issues (as knowledge gained through experience) was already current practice in many construction companies (yohe, 2006). this learning practice may have many names, as indicated by disterer (2002), such as debriefing, reflection, and post-project reviews. the present paper will focus on learning after the completion of the project and will use ‘lessons learned’ as a term to designate that process. lessons learned (or project retrospectives) are here defined as a km practice, focused on capturing project-based tacit knowledge and transferring it to other team members and other project teams. however, despite being a quality management procedure conducted by many companies, research indicates that efforts to successfully use previous knowledge to improve a company’s competitive advantage remain low (yap and toh, 2020) and the failure to successfully implement knowledge management systems can frustrate aec professionals (vazserra and edwards, 2020). some of the causes for the ineffective implementation of lessons learned within the construction industry include the industry’s fragmented and project-based nature; increased workload and time constraints, legal issues, lack of trust, cost, and a low perceived value-added for this type of activity (carrillo, ruikar and fuller, 2013; saini, arif and kulonda, 2019; tan, et al., 2007; yap and toh, 2020). particularly the fragmented and temporary nature of the construction industry poses challenges for different stakeholders to learn from their mistakes. for example, contractors may only identify some constructability issues during the construction phase. once the contractor identifies the issue, it is usually debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202357 brought to the designer’s attention. however, the professional from the design side might not necessarily be who originally produced the design documents. given the rise of more collaborative delivery methods, such as design-build and integrated project delivery (mcgraw hill construction, 2014) and the interdependency of industry stakeholders, it is important to understand better the gathering and disseminating of lessons learned more holistically with all aec industry stakeholders (saini, arif and kulonda, 2019). to better understand the challenges of capturing and disseminating km in the aec industry, the present paper focuses specifically on construction professionals’ perspectives related to lessons learned in a project, within and between companies. the choice to focus on lessons learned procedures was done because it is an industry-recognized practice, and it is well-defined in terms of time. the information can help construction companies benchmark their lessons learned procedures against others and provide helpful information to researchers studying ways to improve knowledge harnessing and reuse in the aec industry. background literature first, it is essential to differentiate km from knowledge management systems (kms). alavi and leidner (2001) define km as referring to ‘identifying and leveraging the collective knowledge in an organization to help the organization compete’ (p. 113) and kms as information technology and systems that support the management of that knowledge. the present paper will focus on understanding current aec industry km procedures and not on developing and piloting kms. the advantages of gathering and using previous knowledge in new projects are well established (anumba, egbu and carrillo, 2005; yang, cheng and wang, 2012) and previous research has identified three main points for its effective use within companies (alavi and leidner, 2001): 1. data, information, and knowledge are different constructs – while data refers to the values obtained, information is considered synthesized data, and knowledge is the understanding produced by interpreting the information. some researchers have also included a fourth construct – wisdom – to refer to the deep knowledge to recognize the influence of context and applicability of knowledge (siemieniuch and sinclair, 1999). 2. the transfer of knowledge must take into consideration the need and understanding of the person or people who will be the receivers of the knowledge. 3. a large quantity of information does not necessarily equate to value-added, and that information needs to be reflected on and processed for it to be helpful. in construction, as in other industries, it is essential to avoid pitfalls such as repeating mistakes, reduced project performance, and “reinventing the wheel” (kamara, et al., 2002; vaz-serra and edwards, 2021; woo, et al., 2004; yu and yang, 2018). however, the construction industry struggles to incentivize learning from projects largely due to its temporary, project-based nature with a strong tacit knowledge component (carrillo and chinowsky, 2006; forcada, et al., 2013; nesan, 2012). furthermore, kamara, et al. (2002) also indicate that different managing models (such as procurement and contract methods) influence how knowledge is transferred between the multiple project stakeholders of one project, which also stresses the importance of understanding the impact of the project-based nature of the aec industry. previous research also identified the influence of different managing models (such as procurement, contract methods, and leadership) and trust levels on the transfer of knowledge between multiple project stakeholders (kamara, et al., 2002; saini, arif and kulonda, 2019). this finding also stresses the importance of understanding the impact of the project-based nature of the aec industry in its knowledge management procedures. furthermore, previous research identified three generations of km practices in this industry, emphasizing the importance of understanding km practices in the aec industry. these generations vary according to debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202358 four criteria: icts, socio-technical characteristics, lifecycle focus, and knowledge perspective. specific to the lifecycle focus of each generation, the researchers indicate that the first generation was more focused on software applications, the second generation was focused on specific disciplines, and the third generation focused on the industry as a whole, including integrating km across aec disciplines (rezgui, hopfe and vorakulpipat, 2010). this framework (from rezgui, hopfe and vorakulpipat, 2010) provides a more integrated approach to km in the industry, encompassing not only ict but also sociological and human factors to create value from knowledge. when considering km practices, several techniques can be used to harness knowledge in companies (al-ghassani, et al., 2005), with lessons learned being one of them. lessons learned is a broad term used in this paper to define a gain of knowledge based on a project experience. lessons learned can be obtained at any moment of the project, but the present paper will focus only on post-project learning. there are numerous ways lessons learned can be obtained, and the procedures followed to obtain them can have several names. some of the terms disterer (2002) has identified while studying the evaluation of information technology (it) projects that equate to post-project lessons learned procedures and can be echoed in the construction industry are post-project review, post-project appraisal, project post-mortem, debriefing, reuse planning, cooperative project evaluation, reflection, corporate feedback cycle, and experience factory. though disterer’s (2002) work is in a different industry, it shares a similar concern about the lack of learning or learning gap from previous projects’ experiences. some of the reasons identified for this learning gap relate to time and budget concerns after the end of the project, the dispersion of teams to other new projects, few incentives to document and share lessons learned, and the lack of a trusting and open environment that values learning from failures and mistakes (disterer, 2002). very few research publications focused specifically on lessons learned procedures, therefore the researchers will draw from previous research on lessons learned as well as km in the construction industry. the challenges with the effective use of km, including lessons learned procedures, in the aec industry are not only related to the effective harnessing of knowledge but also sharing, storing, and reusing (deng, et al., 2022; hwang, 2020; saini, arif and kulonda, 2019; yap and toh, 2020). for example, previous research indicates that post-project reviews (ppr) in aec companies are mostly “not properly documented, and if documented they remain locked in archives” (dave and koskela, 2009, p.897), which can lead to much frustration among employees (vaz-serra and edwards, 2021). in fact, some of the km tools perceived in aec as helpful may not be icts, or km technologies, but rather km techniques, for example, small group meetings with stakeholders, communities of practice, training, and inter-and intranets (al-ghassani, et al., 2005; forcada, et al., 2013). management and dissemination for large and geographically dispersed companies are especially challenging (forcada, et al., 2013). furthermore, kamara et al. (2002) indicated that post-project reviews are effective for those in the project to consolidate their learning but not adequate for transferring learning to other projects because there is no assurance that knowledge will, in fact, be transferred. the reuse of information remains an issue and finding better ways to deliver the “right knowledge to the right person at the right time” is key to improving km practices in the construction industry (yap and toh, 2020, p.55). carillo, ruikar, and fuller (2013) studied lessons learned procedures in united kingdom (uk) construction companies using survey procedures (questionnaires, interviews, and focus groups). their results indicate that companies performed lessons learned to avoid repeat mistakes, aiming for competitive advantage, and the content of the lessons learned was mainly related to health and safety, then contractual, environmental, and subcontractor procurement. the main participants of these lessons-learned events were managers (project and contract managers), as well as estimators (quantity surveyors) (carrillo, ruikar and fuller, 2013), with other team members occasionally participating (such as design managers). carrillo, ruikar, and fuller (2013) also showed that the lessons learned documents are not perceived as more useful to others in a company. lesson learned documents ranked sixth place of seven compared to other tacit debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202359 and explicit sharing tools. barriers to effective post-project lessons learned procedures in carrillo, ruikar, and fuller’s (2013) work echoed the ones mentioned by disterer (2002) and included issues with team availability after project completion, lack of a trusting environment, and lack of perceived value. other barriers included issues specific to the aec industry, such as a lack of a culture of lessons learned, internal competition, siloed environment, duplication of workload, and legal issues. recent work on managing km in the construction supply chain in the uk by saini, arif and kulonda (2019) adds to carrillo, ruikar and fuller’s (2013). their research indicated that the inertia mindset, which is “the traditional ways of doing business” (p.28), lack of motivation, lack of knowledge and trust, indirectly, are significant barriers to improving the industry’s knowledge sharing and transfer procedures (saini, arif and kulonda, 2019). in the us context, yohe (2006) conducted an extensive survey of lessons learned procedures in construction (and owner’s) companies in the us. their results indicate that most surveyed companies have lessons-learned procedures in place, though not always formal, and results from these procedures are not always implemented. most of the formal procedures are meant to be company-wide, while informal procedures are more project-specific or department-specific. in terms of content, construction and engineering/design lessons learned are frequently cited categories of lessons learned (yohe, 2006). the collection of lessons learned is mainly performed in meetings and interviews, as well as electronically and frequently at the end of the project, but ‘there is not a general agreement on who manages lessons learned programs’ (yohe, 2006, p.34). moreover, though issues with trust (arif, mohammed and gupta, 2015) and legal risk (carrillo, ruikar and fuller, 2013) have been identified by previous research as concerning for km and lessons learned procedures, in the previous work by yohe (2006) few companies indicated they faced legal issues related to lessons learned, with contractors more concerned about this matter than owners. legal issues, in this sense, is the ability to use formally documented issues as lessons learned in litigation matters (yohe, 2006). findings from a recent research focused on us small and medium regional companies and the sharing of tacit knowledge indicate that, despite having the interest of employees, knowledge-sharing procedures at the company level should be improved (hwang, 2022). this includes more training opportunities, fostering more networking, and establishing more formal procedures (hwang, 2022). furthermore, hwang (2022) suggests that the value of km procedures needs to be internalized by employees so that their participation in sharing their knowledge is voluntary, and that company managers must also recognize that time is necessary for codifying employee knowledge. therefore, though km is perceived as important to increase aec industry productivity, little recent research has been performed on the current state of the practice related to lessons learned within the us, with the exception of hwang (2022). furthermore, given the rise of more collaborative delivery methods, the authors propose an exploration of construction companies to evaluate the sharing of knowledge within companies and between other key stakeholders of the project. this approach is more aligned with the third generation of km in the aec industry, as envisioned by rezgui, hopfe, and vorakulpipat (2010), and also expands on the research by saini, arif and kulonda (2019), who have explored the issue in the uk construction’s supply chain. methodology our goal is to explore current procedures for gathering and disseminating lessons learned in aec companies in the us, as well as the challenges of this process. to achieve our goal, we have used a sequential mixed-methods approach, using interviews (phase 1) and a questionnaire (phase 2). with the sequential approach, the authors were able to utilize findings from the interview to refine the questionnaire in phase 2. additionally, the interviews allowed for a more in-depth discussion about challenges faced by professionals debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202360 during the process of collecting, storing, disseminating, and reusing lessons learned. figure 1 depicts the conceptual framework for the present study. figure 1. conceptual framework findings from both study phases are used in triangulation with previously published literature to answer the following research questions: rq 1: what is the current state of practice of lessons learned procedures in construction companies in the us? rq 2: what are the main challenges to the effective implementation of lessons-learned procedures in construction companies in the us? the study was deemed exempt by the institutional review board (irb) at the authors’ institution under protocol irb-2020-831. phase 1: interviews in this first phase, the authors asked the outreach specialist of their current institutional department to send the invitation email to their contact list. this list included 74 company members of the program’s advisory board and companies that come twice per year to participate in the construction-specific career fair organized by this institution. the companies in this outreach list represent a broad range of company sizes and geographical locations within the us. the authors also sent invitation emails to their professional contacts, including additional construction and design firms. interviews were conducted through phone or videoconferencing (such as webex) and transcribed for analysis. participants were not required to have participated in the gathering of lessons learned to participate in the interview because the authors were also assessing dissemination efforts, which was also part of the interview questions. the interview consisted of one meeting divided into six parts: company details, about yourself, postproject evaluation, processes related to post-project evaluation, dissemination, and personal perspective. the analysis included frequency data related to demographic information (about the company and professionals). the transcript portions related to the lessons learned procedures and dissemination were then coded using two passes – a first pass using structural coding and a second using descriptive coding as described by debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202361 saldaña (2009). frequencies of codes are presented in the results section. when presenting information about lessons learned procedures and dissemination, a few excerpts from interviews are also included to exemplify participants’ narratives. finally, the codes from this qualitative analysis helped identify emerging themes from the interviews used in the discussion of the overall results of the present research. phase 2: online questionnaire in addition to providing emerging themes for discussion, phase 1 (interviews) also supported drafting the questions used in phase 2. the resulting online questionnaire (qualtrics) contained 22 questions and a brief explanation of the focus on post-project lessons learned procedures. questions focused on company information, demographic questions for respondents, and lessons learned procedures, including dissemination. the authors have also included 10 common names for lessons learned procedures based on previous research at the start of the questionnaire. the email invitation with a link to the online questionnaire for phase 2 was sent to design and construction professionals using the authors’ contacts, and the authors’ school’s contacts, and posted by the researchers on their professional linkedin webpage. snowball sampling was used to reach more professionals, in addition to the authors’ contacts. the analysis of this phase included reporting descriptive statistics for aggregated demographic data of participants and their companies, as well as for the main aspects related to lessons learned, such as reasons for conducting project evaluations, participants and tools for this process, content discussed during this process, and dissemination information. finally, emerging themes were identified and discussed by triangulating the findings from the interviews, the online questionnaire, and previous literature. results this section will present the results of our study, starting with results from the interviews, and following with those from the survey of us-based professionals. in both instances, we present a brief overview of the aggregated demographic data and results related to using and disseminating lessons learned procedures for each phase. results phase 1: interviews for this phase, we interviewed 12 industry professionals from construction companies. even though design companies were invited, only two participants were from companies that provided architecture or engineering services (integrated firms). these two participants worked in the construction division of these integrated companies. most interviewees classified their companies (n=8) as general contractors, four mentioned providing construction management services, and two mentioned that their companies provided construction management at-risk services. furthermore, one interviewee mentioned working for a subcontractor company. participants could classify their company into more than one type. three interviewees mentioned their company had an approximate annual revenue ranging from 20 to 60 million dollars, one interviewee mentioned working for a company that had approximately 275 million dollars in revenue, seven others worked for companies that had one billion dollars or more in annual revenue, and one interviewee did not answer this question. in addition, the company size of 7 of the 12 interviewees ranged from 25 to 6,000 employees, while the other five did not provide an estimated number of employees. most companies (n=11) for which interviewees currently worked provided services in several construction segments. only one interviewee worked for a company mainly providing services to the heavy civil and industrial market. figure 2 shows the frequency of responses for the type of construction debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202362 performed by companies where interviewees worked, knowing that participants could mention more than one type of construction. 10 6 6 4 4 3 2 1 1 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 commercial institutional healthcare multi-family industrial laboratories and science buildings hospitality heavy civil / industrial data centers figure 2. distribution of type of work for companies in which phase 1 interviewees worked. interviewees ranged between 5 to 36 years in the construction industry, with an average of 14.3 years. positions occupied by respondents were in the following categories: vice president (n=2), project executive, project manager (n=4), project engineer (n=3), and lean engineer or improvement leader (n=2). following, this section presents the major topics that were discussed during the interviews. these topics help us answer our research question, which is related to the current efforts and major challenges for the effective use of lessons learned in us construction companies. the five major topics are: professionals’ level of awareness about lessons learned procedures and numbers of projects evaluated, factors that influence a company or management to evaluate (or not) projects, the timing of post-project evaluations, a description of how post-project evaluations occur in their companies in their professional experience, and how information gathered during those procedures is stored long-term and disseminated. level of awareness and projects evaluated when asked about their level of awareness of their company’s project evaluation procedures, three participants had little knowledge, one had moderate knowledge, and eight had a high level of awareness about project evaluation procedures in their company. in addition, six participants mentioned their company evaluated all projects; two mentioned their companies evaluated between 75 to 100% of their projects; two mentioned that their companies evaluated 50 to 75% of the projects; one respondent did not provide a clear answer to this question. factors affecting the decision to evaluate or not evaluate projects when asked to provide more information about factors influencing the decision to evaluate or not a project, five respondents mentioned that size influences their decision, with smaller projects being less likely to be evaluated. the size was also understood as project cost, such as the following interviewee indicated: “size would be a factor [for getting evaluated]. i’m going to say it is 20 million [or more will be getting] a postmortem.” one participant mentioned the value of the project for the company, such as when breaking into a new market or working with a new client. two participants mentioned repeated projects as a reason for not evaluating a project: “if it was a repeat project team with a similar project, [project evaluations are] maybe not as important.” finally, one participant mentioned positive and negative performance as decisive factors for conducting evaluations: “[project evaluations are] more likely if something does not go well. but then [the company] is very competitive, so, if something did go well, a project manager will want to have lessons learned [performed]…” to showcase the team’s performance. debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202363 timing of post-project evaluations when asked about the average time gap between project completion and conducting the evaluation, four participants mentioned they collect information about project evaluations in an ongoing manner, as noted by the following excerpt, [i] have been involved in some [projects] where the job is still ongoing, and we are doing a postmortem on some work that has already been completed, but we are still going to do some more of that work in the coming months. you know, if you have several areas within a plan, and this area is done, well, you want to do your lessons-learned in that area, so that you do not repeat your mistakes on the next one. in these cases, it seems that goal of this process is to reuse information in the same project instead of disseminating it to others in the company. five participants mentioned spacing project completion and project evaluation between one to four months, two mentioned a space between six months to one year, and one mentioned less than one month after project completion. one participant provided a rationale for choosing two months after completion: we do not want to do a post-evaluation any sooner than two months after the project is complete. so, the sweet spot is sometime between two and four months after the project is complete. if we do it too early, then sometimes we will miss issues that come up in that first two months of occupancy. post-project evaluations procedures some common tools and procedures used during project evaluations that participants mentioned were templates provided by the company (n=5), continuous evaluation through the project (n=5), personal feedback to project participants (n=3), brainstorming with the project team about performance (n=3), online data collection procedures (n=4), trained facilitators (n=2), and affinity diagrams (n=1). templates included excel spreadsheets, questionnaires, and a template agenda with items to cover during the meeting. participants described the process usually in two steps, a first step collecting information through reports and questionnaires to participants, and a second step utilizing a meeting to discuss major topics. the range of participants in the final meeting varied. however, many participants mentioned it contained the core team (such as a project executive or similar, a project manager, and a superintendent) (n=5), one participant mentioned including “as many people as were able to attend” and included not only the core team mentioned previously but also professionals from accounting, legal, quality assurance and quality control (qaqc) departments of the company. one-third of participants (n=4) stressed that post-evaluation meetings are internal, so design partners or clients do not participate in those debrief meetings. three participants clearly mentioned not involving design partners in the meetings but having separate meetings to provide targeted feedback to designers, two participants mentioned including clients, but only if they requested their participation in the project evaluation meeting, one participant mentioned including designers sometimes, and one participant mentioned always including designers and other stakeholders outside of their company that were involved in the project. two participants explained not inviting stakeholders from outside of the companies because of the possibility of this restricting conversations. a participant explained this issue: “it is meant to be a very open discussion, frank discussion, and bringing consultants from outside of our company would be [like] airing your dirty laundry in front of others.” another participant echoed the ability to conduct safe meetings: “it is a judgment-free zone, and that is the only way we learn: if everybody is honest and open…” finally, one debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202364 participant mentioned that designers would be invited if the project was delivered using a design-build or an integrated project delivery (ipd) approach. eleven of the twelve participants provided a bit more explanation on which topics were included in the project evaluation. though this is not an extensive list, common topics included in project evaluations and mentioned by participants were: comparisons between projected and actual costs (n=7) and schedule (n=4), this may include in-depth discussions by cost category, and profitability of the job; safety (n=3); client satisfaction (n=3); team interaction (n=2); project performance (n=2); personal performance, such as providing feedback to project personnel (n=4); evaluation of trade partners (n=1); and design issues (n=1). one participant clearly mentioned not including safety discussions in the final project evaluation meeting but instead having a separate meeting just for a safety debrief because “[safety] can end up taking the whole meeting time.” long-term storage and dissemination efforts storage of information related to project evaluations varied by company, with participants mentioning its storage in a shared drive (n=3), construction management software (n=2), intranet, or company portal (n=2). three participants mentioned that the information is stored but could not define its location, one participant did not clearly answer this question, and one mentioned no long-term storage. long-term access to the information is available to all employees in the company for half of the participants (n=6), four participants mentioned it was only accessible to the project team and two mentioned only being accessible to the team leaders. one participant mentioned that their company is currently organizing this process, but the data is not yet accessible. active dissemination of information obtained during project evaluations was not performed in the companies of two interviewees. when practiced, information learned through project evaluations is disseminated to other stakeholders in the company beyond the project team mainly through presentations in meetings (n=5), followed by internal newsletters (n=3), printed handouts or reports (n=2), and email (n=1). eight of the twelve participants noted that no information about the project evaluation is shared outside of their company. four interviewees mentioned sharing with stakeholders outside of their companies, especially if it is relevant to those stakeholders. this was not regularly done and was typically used to prevent future similar issues by the repeat trade partners. in summary, during this interview phase, it was noted that many companies conducted project evaluations, though procedures varied greatly. the debriefs focused mainly on cost and schedule but also included more qualitative topics, such as client satisfaction and team interaction. in terms of dissemination, processes seemed scattered, and it was unclear whether information from project evaluations is meaningfully being disseminated and stored for future uses. as explained by one interviewee: “we do not do a great job with doing something [with] the information afterward.” one participant suggests that the uniqueness of each building may make sharing and reusing information more complicated: “every job is so different and [this] makes information sharing so hard.” this was reiterated by another participant commenting on the project-based nature of the industry and the importance of project evaluations: “[lessons learned are] underutilized in the industry in general. i think a lot of times is because people are site-based, and you are just trying to execute one project, you get a little siloed.” finally, most companies emphasized the internal nature of project evaluations, though some mentioned sharing select information with external stakeholders, if this could improve future performance on projects shared with that stakeholder. results phase 2: online questionnaire for phase 2, 78 responses were received, but 38 were returned without any responses after the introductory screen, and one response was received from abroad. therefore, 39 responses were considered for analysis during phase 2. debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202365 in this phase, 30 of our 39 participants were from companies with 500 or fewer employees, while six participants were from companies with 1,000 or more employees. most respondents were from companies with annual revenue of $50 million us dollars or more (n=20, see figure 3) and general contractors or construction management companies (n=21, see figure 4). table 1 presents the delivery methods used by the respondents’ companies. it can be seen that the methods varied considerably, although design-bid-build seemed to be the most prevalent, followed by design-build and construction management at risk. less than $ 2 millions, 3 … ,snoillim 05 dna 2$ neewteb over $50 millions, 20 prefer not to answer, 1 … ton od i figure 3. annual revenue from phase 2 respondents’ companies 21 5 5 4 2 1 1 0 5 10 15 20 general contractor or construction manager subcontractor integrated firm (design-constructor) designer consulting firm real estate developer owner or owner's representative figure 4. type of company of phase 2 respondents table 1. types of delivery methods used in participants’ companies (n=39), in percent type of delivery method mean standard deviation design-bid-build 30.62 30.63 design-build 25.23 26.10 construction management at risk 24.31 27.10 integrated project delivery 8.56 15.13 other 7.15 17.38 construction management agency 5.49 12.05 several respondents were employees with less than three years in their current companies (n=12), and no respondent had between 11 and 15 years of tenure in their current companies, as seen in table 2. furthermore, the current positions of respondents varied greatly, but nearly half were a combination of debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202366 partners, owners, or senior management positions (n=11) and project engineers (n=9), as seen in table 2. most respondents were from the american midwest (n=22), followed by the west (n=8), south (n=7), and northeast (n=2) regions. also, more than half of the respondents (n=24) indicated commercial as one of the top three types of projects they have worked on in their current company, as seen in table 2. table 2. years working and positions held with the current company (n=39) years working in the company frequency position held at current company frequency frequent project types frequency less than 3 years 12 partner, owner, or senior management 11 commercial and retail 24 3 – 5 years 8 project engineer 9 industrial1 15 6 – 10 years 5 architect, designer, or engineer 4 residential2 11 11 – 15 years 0 project executive 2 healthcare 11 16 – 20 years 5 quality or safety-related positions 1 education 11 21 – 30 years 4 other positions 4 government and public assembly 5 31 or more years 5 hospitality 4 sports and recreation 4 data centre 4 infrastructure 2 1includes manufacturing and pharmaceutical. 2includes multifamily projects. following the topics presented in the interview results, we present a similar structure for the survey results. the results are presented first for the survey. following, in each subsection, a brief comparison of the survey results to the interview results is provided. level of awareness and projects evaluated more than half of the respondents were very or extremely familiar with project evaluation procedures in their companies (extremely familiar n=14; very familiar n=12). eleven considered themselves moderately familiar with project evaluation procedures, while one participant was only slightly familiar, and one was not at all familiar with project evaluation procedures in their company. project evaluation procedures largely debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202367 varied per type or sector within a company (n=16) or were standardized within the company (n=10), as seen in figure 5. approximately 76.82% of projects in survey participants’ companies are evaluated (with a standard deviation of 22.79%), ranging from a minimum of 10% to a maximum of 100%. procedures vary per type of project / sector, 16 standard procedures for the whole company, 10 procedures vary per department, 5 procedures vary based on team decisions, 5 procedures vary based on local headquarters definitions, 2 i do not know, 1 figure 5. project evaluation standardization (n=39) for this subsection, the awareness level of participants in both phases about lessons learned procedures within their companies was similar, with survey participants being slightly more informed (n=71.8% very or extremely familiar) than interview participants (n=66.7% highly familiar). furthermore, the average number of projects evaluated in the companies where survey participants worked was slightly lower than the mode from interview participants, with half of them indicating that their companies evaluated all projects. the level of standardization among interview participants was not discussed thoroughly, therefore a separate question about the topic was added to the survey, yielding the specific results presented in figure 5. factors affecting the decision to evaluate or not evaluate projects the condition most frequently mentioned by participants that cause a project to be evaluated was the complexity of the project (n=33), followed by size (n=31), type of project (n=26), and budget of the project (n=24). figure 6 includes the results for all options in this question. furthermore, three participants included additional conditions for projects to be evaluated – two mentioned problems or complications in projects, and one indicated the assessment of company performance. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 complexity size type budget delivery method contractual obligations company policy yes sometimes no figure 6. conditions for project evaluation in this section, findings from the survey seem to provide more depth to the findings from interviews. this is because during the interviews size was most frequently mentioned, but not always well defined by participants, with its meaning varying from physical size to budget size. in addition, it seems complexity may be confounded with physical size and budget, and when included as an option in the survey, it was the most frequently chosen, closely followed by size. factors that lead a project to not be evaluated were not covered in the scope of the survey but were able to be explored in the interview, during which two debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202368 participants mentioned repeat projects (meaning projects that have similar design aspects and similar teams) were less likely to be evaluated after their completion. timing of post-project evaluations several participants mentioned that project evaluations are conducted within one month of substantial completion of a project (n=15), followed by evaluations conducted between three and six months (n=11) and between one and two months after substantial completion (n=9). only three respondents indicated that their companies conduct project evaluations more than six months after project completion, and one participant did not answer this question. moreover, several participants (n=15) mentioned their companies always conduct periodic evaluations of a project, which is while the project is still under construction, followed by participants who mentioned their companies conduct continuous evaluations either half or most of the time (n=12), and then participants who mentioned their companies conduct periodic evaluations sometimes (n=10). two participants mentioned that their companies do not conduct periodic project evaluations. responses on this topic seem to echo the findings from interviews. in interviews, five participants mentioned post-project evaluations being completed between one to six months after project completion. however, the survey allowed more granularity within this space of six months. therefore, the survey results show that a large part of companies performs pos-project evaluations within the first month of a project being completed. furthermore, the survey also included an explicit question about continuous evaluation, which we did not have during the interviews, but emerged as discussion topics for four interview participants and was then added to the survey to reveal that several companies do perform continuous evaluation procedures in most or all of their projects. post-project evaluations procedures most of the time, this evaluation process is organized by the project manager or project executive (n=24). however, seven participants mentioned that their companies did not have a specific department or person to conduct evaluations and disseminate findings. five participants mentioned other departments or persons, including senior management, vice-president of operations, business development, construction administration, and project controls. project evaluations are also either always or primarily conducted through meetings (n=36). when considering all responses, project managers are frequently involved in project evaluations (n=32), followed by project executives, partners, or senior management (n=29). these positions are likely included in most of the participants’ companies. topics frequently discussed during project evaluation include budget (n=32), schedule (n=30), project team collaboration (n=27), stakeholder or subcontractor performance (n=23), design (n=20), safety (n=19), and employee evaluation (n=14). when provided with an open space to add more topics, two participants mentioned problems and outcomes discussions, followed by additional topics suggested by participants (with one mention each): constructability identifying value-added, building performance, and liability issues. focusing on the results of the 31 construction-related companies (general contractor, subcontractor, or integrated firm). in these companies, superintendents participated in project evaluations most of the time for about two-thirds of those companies (n=19). interestingly, quality or safety managers were only mentioned to be present most of the time by eleven construction-related participants. six constructionrelated participants also included other personnel who participate in project evaluations in their companies most of the time; examples of these participants are president, construction manager, design team (mentioned by a participant in an integrated firm), ‘dfo’ (respondent did not explain acronym), estimating, debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202369 and professional engineers (each mentioned once). in these companies, project evaluation also rarely involves stakeholders outside of the company, as seen in table 3. table 3. project evaluations involving stakeholders outside of construction-related companies stakeholder n mean median standard deviation owner 27 1.78 1 0.85 designers, architects, and engineers 26 1.62 1 0.81 subcontractor 27 1.22 1 0.42 answers ranging from ‘rarely’ = 1, ‘about half of the time’=2 and ‘most of the time’ = 3. ‘not applicable’ answers not included. information related to post-project evaluation procedures gathered in the survey mainly focused on the team composition and topics covered, presenting similar results. for example, findings from both phases suggest the core team (composed usually of the project executive, project manager, and superintended assigned to the project) is frequently involved with post-project evaluation, with superintendents being perhaps less involved than project managers and project executives. in terms of topics covered, both phases suggest budget and schedule as main discussion topics for post-project evaluations, though the survey suggests collaboration is also of concern, which was not as frequently mentioned during the interviews. long-term storage and dissemination efforts in construction-related companies dissemination of lessons learned within construction-related companies is more likely to occur by email, shared drive, or in meetings. more information can be found in table 4. moreover, five of the 31 companies that answered this question rarely used any of the dissemination methods, while 24 had at least one method that they used most of the time. this suggests a diversification on the use of media to disseminate information within companies, using methods that ‘push’ information to other employees, such as email and presentations, and others that can be ‘pulled’ by employees, such as shared drive. table 4. methods used to disseminate project evaluations results within companies method n most of the time about half of the time rarely mean median standard deviation email 29 13 6 10 2.10 2 0.90 shared drive 28 12 5 11 2.04 2 0.92 presentations and meetings 29 11 7 11 2.00 2 0.87 printed report 24 9 1 14 1.79 1 0.98 project management software 22 6 4 12 1.73 1 0.88 newsletter 21 2 4 15 1.38 1 0.67 answers ranging from ‘rarely’ = 1, ‘about half of the time’=2 and ‘most of the time’ = 3. ‘not applicable’ answers not included. debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202370 when questioned about the long-term availability of lessons learned information to other employees, responses were scattered. for example, the two most frequent responses of the 31 received indicated either the resulting report from lessons learned being available to all employees (n=8) or not available at all (n=7). other responses also indicated that information was only available for senior management (n=6), employees on the same sector or department (n=5), on the same team (n=4) or depends on the project (n=1). and, similarly to outside-of-company stakeholders involved with project evaluations, the reports produced by those evaluations in construction-related companies are very likely never to be shared outside of the originating organization, as seen in table 5. table 5. outside-company stakeholders with whom project evaluation reports are shared (construction-related respondents) stakeholder n mean median standard deviation customer or owner 27 1.52 1 0.80 engineers 25 1.40 1 0.65 designers 26 1.38 1 0.64 subcontractor 27 1.15 1 0.36 answers ranging from ‘never’ = 1, ‘about half of the time’=2 and ‘most of the time’ = 3. ‘not applicable answers’ in this subsection, we note that both phases stressed that information gathered during post-project evaluations is rarely shared outside of their companies. for dissemination within their companies, email was identified in the survey as the preferred tool for internal dissemination of post-project evaluation, while the interviews indicated it much less frequently. the differences here may be a result of the coding and coverage of the interviews, given that survey participants were able to rate all presented options, while the data from interviews was coded by the researchers based on open-ended questions. finally, seven participants provided additional input in the last open-ended question about project evaluations. among those, select answers include one participant who suggested that evaluations are put on the calendar for thirty days after final completion to keep information fresh on everyone’s mind; one participant mentioned that sometimes project evaluations are conducted randomly by third-party auditors; one participant mentioned that information is collected in a spreadsheet, but the compiled information can be overwhelming, demanding time for people to review it thoroughly. this added time increases the original time planned between project completion and evaluation, or ‘lag’ as mentioned by the participant. one designer mentioned conducting three to four project evaluations – at the end of schematic design, at the end of construction documents, at the end of construction, and four to ten months after the project, close to when warranties expire; furthermore, the same participant mentioned that a midway review, especially during construction, might lead to poor results due to the high stress of other stakeholders (namely contractor and owner) causing an “uneven assessment of the overall project.” finally, one participant mentioned that “standardization of lessons learned will be the key to our future success as our business continues to grow. we have a more informal process now and do not disseminate the results enough.” discussion our findings echo previous research in km that indicates that employees recognize the importance of sharing project information with others for process improvement (hwang, 2022), and that knowledge dissemination remains a challenge (hwang, 2022; saini, arif and kulonda, 2019; yap and toh, 2020). debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202371 moreover, our findings suggest that lessons learned procedures are more often conducted in us construction companies than previously noted (see findings from yohe, 2006), yet continuous project evaluation is not. this happens despite research indicating a rise in the use of lean concepts by american contractors (ghosh and burghart, 2021) and the focus of lean on the use of continuous evaluation improvement procedures (aziz and hafez, 2013). moreover, our analysis resulted in three main topics of discussion specifically related to lessons learned, with one focused more on the specific procedures within us construction companies (typical topics and procedures), one related to km sharing and reuse (barriers to internal and external dissemination) and one related to current km context in the aec industry (lessons learned procedures remain in the first generation of km in aec). typical topics and procedures. based on our findings, lessons learned procedures in construction-related companies are composed of a two-step approach. the process starts with the compilation of different types of information, including forms and reports. then, a meeting is called to debrief the main findings and review more qualitative aspects of the job, such as team performance. this approach seems similar to what was mentioned by yohe (2006), especially concerning the emphasis on people interaction and the use of meetings and interviews for debriefing. post-project evaluations in american aec companies seem to include project managers or project executives and superintendents, but not as many estimating professionals, which is different from carrillo, ruikar, and fuller (2013). our findings indicated that the topics typically included in post-project evaluation meetings were budget, schedule, and team collaboration, which is different from previous research by yohe (2006) and more aligned with hwang (2022), who evaluated km procedures, of which post-project evaluations are a part of. moreover, our findings suggest that the post-project evaluation primarily evaluates budget and schedule concerns and disparities of the project, with a secondary focus on team performance and interaction, and finally design errors and omissions. barriers to internal and external dissemination. even though conducting post-project evaluations seems to happen consistently in most american aec projects, the dissemination of their findings remains low, echoing previous research from yohe (2006), and a challenge, echoing recent research on km in construction (hwang, 2022; vaz-serra and edwards, 2021; yap and toh, 2020). involving outside-ofthe-company stakeholders in the project evaluations is rare mostly because negative findings may reflect poorly on a team, as pointed out by carrillo, ruikar, and fuller (2013), and also related to the lack of trust between project stakeholders (saini, arif and kulonda, 2019). our interview participants mentioned the need to make the post-evaluation meetings a safe environment for participants to share their thoughts and having other stakeholders may bias how they act in those meetings. furthermore, some of our interview participants mentioned having a separate meeting with outside stakeholders, during which topics are targeted and, therefore, fear of negative impressions seems to be reduced. this was done primarily for repeat trade partners or collaborators, stressing the focus on using lessons learned for competitive advantage (forcada, et al., 2013). moreover, our findings indicate that the transformation of post-project evaluation information into knowledge that is reused in other projects is still limited, concurring with previous research in km (hwang, 2022; yap and toh, 2020). two of the three most used dissemination tools (email and presentation and meetings) mentioned in this research are focused on ‘in-the-moment’ information and are difficult to retrieve in the long term. processes undertaken in dissemination seem scattered, and it is unclear how they are being used for the transfer of knowledge or generation of new knowledge, concurring with previous research (carrillo, ruikar and fuller, 2013; vaz-serra and edwards, 2021; yohe, 2006). previous research outlines the drivers for improving knowledge management processes for construction companies and the reliance on a local, departmental-level focus on the sharing of information (hwang, debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202372 2022; kamara, et al., 2002). however, our research also indicated varying levels of sharing of the information, from information being available to all employees to others being available to none. the role of the post-project evaluation organizer in our results seems to rest with project managers. furthermore, during the interviews, no mention was made of a knowledge manager role, a position that some previous researchers have identified in construction companies (see carrillo, ruikar and fuller, 2013; forcada, et al., 2013; tan, et al., 2007). lessons learned procedures remain in the first generation of km in aec. despite recent advances toward more collaborative delivery methods and previous research indicating that the aec industry has the capability, in some aspects, to be on what rezgui, hopfe, and vorakulpipat (2010) indicated as the verge of the third generation of km (knowledge conceptualization and nurturing), our findings place the use of post-project evaluation information as still struggling with knowledge sharing, that is, in the first generation of km in aec. the focus of project evaluations in the surveyed companies of this study remains largely on capturing information for improving their efficiency rather than creating new knowledge or processes (kamara, et al., 2002). this is an interesting finding because, despite improvements in the use of building information modeling (bim) and other ict environments that allow for sharing of information and knowledge across different aec stakeholders (deng, et al., 2022), lessons learned (and the knowledge generated by it) in construction companies remain primarily subject to human interpretation, with little recognition of its value added in the creation of new value. these findings seem to align well with saini, arif and kulonda (2019) who identified issues with moving away from the status quo, the lack of motivation, and lack of knowledge about the importance of km benefits affect the improvement of km within the construction supply chain, which would encompass learning between organizations. taking rezgui, hopfe and vorakulpipat’s (2010) stages of km framework and based on the present findings, the authors question the move to the third generation of knowledge management (knowledge value creation) before moving the management of lessons learned to the second generation of knowledge conceptualization and nurturing; and even question the placement of the construction industry at this second generation. moreover, a question emerges if it would be possible for multiple generations of knowledge management to be present at the same time in the same organization. limitations our work has mainly two limitations. first, even though the researchers would like to provide a more significant aec focus, respondents in both phases were mainly from construction-related companies. therefore, our findings should be interpreted with caution by architecture and engineering companies. following, the researchers also believe that recruitment was affected by covid-19, especially for phase 2 of the study, in which we were hoping to achieve at least fifty completed responses. we note that the recruitment for both phases happened between 2020 and 2021. conclusion the present research has used a mixed-method approach with interviews and an online survey to gather perceptions and current procedures related to gathering and disseminating lessons learned in us aec companies. most respondents were from construction companies; therefore, our findings are primarily skewed toward the construction sector and its practices. two major key points are provided by the current study. the first key point relates to common practices for post-project evaluations and suggests also that those practices are frequently internal to the companies. our findings show that post-project evaluations are frequently conducted in participants’ companies. most frequently, this is a two-step approach with a review debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202373 of documents and then a meeting organized by the project management and involving key stakeholders of the project team (frequently a project executive or senior management and superintendent). reflecting the time-cost focus of the industry, budget and schedule performance are frequently discussed in the meetings, along with team performance. in addition, there is an effort for the meeting to be a ‘safe space’ for participants, thus, only the internal project team is present. very rarely do post-project evaluations involve stakeholders outside of the company, and when they do, they are most likely to be trade partners (designers or subcontractors) that have repeatedly worked with the company, therefore, informing them on lessons learned provides the originating company a competitive advantage for future work. consequently, despite the rise in collaborative delivery methods, knowledge management seems to be focused on individual aec companies, with few exceptions. furthermore, the second key point of our findings confirms previous research indicating that the information generated in post-project evaluations is poorly disseminated and reused by others within the company. this suggests that despite the emergence of new collaborative delivery methods and processes that emphasize the reuse and effective management of information, such as bim and project management systems, lessons-learned procedures are still placed in the first generation of knowledge management, during which the focus is on sharing the knowledge, rather than conceptualizing, nurturing it or creating value from it, which is the ultimate goal of knowledge management processes. the findings support researchers exploring how to improve km harnessing and sharing within and between aec companies; and, from a practitioner’s perspective, it provides a benchmark on current lessons learned procedures in us companies. suggestions for improvement could also focus on exploring the role of bim and icts in improving km harnessing and dissemination within and between aec companies. additionally, further research could take the barriers and limitations outlined in the present research and explore how they affect km harnessing and sharing, such as trust and legal issues; compare different types of km techniques among aec companies; provide focused analysis utilizing inferential statistical tests and a larger sample size; and explore the development of the knowledge manager role within construction companies. references al-ghassani, a., anumba, c., carrillo, p. and robinson, h., 2005. tools and techniques for knowledge management. in: anumba, c. j., egbu, c.o. and carrillo, p.m. eds. 2005. knowledge management in construction. blackwell publishing. ch.6. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470759554.ch6 alavi, m. and leidner, d.e., 2001. knowledge management and knowledge management systems: conceptual foundations and research issues. mis quarterly, [e-journal] 25(1), pp.107-36. https://doi.org/10.2307/3250961 anumba, c., egbu, c. and carrillo, p. m., 2005. concluding notes. in: anumba, c.j., egbu, c.o., carrillo, p.m. and anumba, c.j. eds. 2005. knowledge management in construction. blackwell publishing. ch.13. https://doi. org/10.1002/9780470759554.ch13 arif, m., mohammed, a.-z. and gupta, a.d., 2015. understanding knowledge sharing in the jordanian construction industry. construction innovation, [e-journal] 15(3), pp.333-54. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-03-2014-0018 aziz, r.f. and hafez, s.m., 2013. applying lean thinking in construction and performance improvement. alexandria engineering journal, [e-journal] 52(4), pp.679-95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2013.04.008 carrillo, p. and chinowsky, p., 2006. exploiting knowledge management: the engineering and construction perspective. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 22(1), pp.2-10. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742597x(2006)22:1(2) debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202374 https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470759554.ch6 https://doi.org/10.2307/3250961 https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470759554.ch13 https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470759554.ch13 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-03-2014-0018 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2013.04.008 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2006)22:1(2 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2006)22:1(2 carrillo, p., ruikar, k. and fuller, p., 2013. when will we learn? improving lessons learned practice in construction. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 31(4), pp.567-78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2012.10.005 dave, b. and koskela, l., 2009. collaborative knowledge management—a construction case study. automation in construction, [e-journal] 18(7), pp.894-902. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2009.03.015 deng, h., xu, y., deng, y. and lin, j., 2022. transforming knowledge management in the construction industry through information and communications technology: a 15-year review. automation in construction, [e-journal] 142, 104530, pp.1-20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104530 disterer, g., 2002. management of project knowledge and experiences. journal of knowledge management, [e-journal] 6(5), pp.512-20. https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270210450450 egbu, c. and robinson, h., 2005. construction as a knowledge-based industry. in: anumba, c.j., egbu, c.o. and carrillo, p.m., eds. knowledge management in construction. blackwell publishers. ch.3. https://doi. org/10.1002/9780470759554.ch3 forcada, n., fuertes, a., gangolells, m., casals, m. and macarulla, m., 2013. knowledge management perceptions in construction and design companies. automation in construction, [e-journal] 29, pp.83-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2012.09.001 ghosh, s. and burghart, j., 2021. lean construction: experience of us contractors. international journal of construction education and research, [e-journal] 17(2), pp.133-53. https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2019.1696902 hwang, s., 2022. sharing tacit knowledge in small-medium regional construction companies in the us: the current status and the impact of organizational ecology. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(9), pp.1746-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1742628 kamara, j.m., augenbroe, g., anumba, c.j. and carrillo, p.m., 2002. knowledge management in the architecture, engineering and construction industry. construction innovation, [e-journal] 2(1), pp.53-67. https://doi. org/10.1108/14714170210814685 mcgraw hill construction, 2014. project delivery systems: how they impact efficiency and profitability in the building sector (smart market report). [pdf ] bedford, ma: mcgraw hill construction research & analytics. available at: https:// dbia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/research-project-delivery-systems-smartmarket.pdf [accessed 15 march 2022]. nesan, j., 2012. factors influencing tacit knowledge in construction. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 5(1), pp. 48-57. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v5i1.2943 pathirage, c.p., amaratunga, d.g. and haigh, r.p., 2007. tacit knowledge and organisational performance: construction industry perspective. journal of knowledge management, [e-journal] 11(1), pp.115-26. https://doi. org/10.1108/13673270710728277 rezgui, y., hopfe, c.j. and vorakulpipat, c., 2010. generations of knowledge management in the architecture, engineering and construction industry: an evolutionary perspective. advanced engineering informatics, [e-journal] 24(2), pp.219-28. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2009.12.001 saini, m., arif, m. and kulonda, d.j., 2019. challenges to transferring and sharing of tacit knowledge within a construction supply chain. construction innovation, [e-journal] 19(1), pp.5-33. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-03-20180015 saldaña, j., 2009. the coding manual for qualitative researchers. 3rd ed. thousand oaks, ca: sage publications. debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202375 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.10.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.10.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2009.03.015 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104530 https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270210450450 https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470759554.ch3 https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470759554.ch3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.09.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.09.001 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2019.1696902 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1742628 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170210814685 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170210814685 https://dbia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/research-project-delivery-systems-smartmarket.pdf https://dbia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/research-project-delivery-systems-smartmarket.pdf https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v5i1.2943 https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270710728277 https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270710728277 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2009.12.001 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-03-2018-0015 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-03-2018-0015 tan, h.c., carrillo, p.m., anumba, c.j., bouchlaghem, n., kamara, j.m. and udeaja, c.e., 2007. development of a methodology for live capture and reuse of project knowledge in construction. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 23(1), pp.18-26. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2007)23:1(18) vaz-serra, p. and edwards, p., 2020. addressing the knowledge management “nightmare” for construction companies. construction innovation, [e-journal] 21(2), pp.300-20. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-02-2019-0013 wang, h. and meng, x., 2019. transformation from it-based knowledge management into bim-supported knowledge management: a literature review. expert systems with applications, [e-journal] 121, pp.170-87. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.eswa.2018.12.017 woo, j.h., clayton, m.j., johnson, r.e., flores, b.e. and ellis, c., 2004. dynamic knowledge map: reusing experts’ tacit knowledge in the aec industry. automation in construction, [e-journal] 13(2), pp.203-07. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2003.09.003 yang, l.r., chen, j.h. and wang, h.w., 2012. assessing impacts of information technology on project success through knowledge management practice. automation in construction, [e-journal] 22, pp.182-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2011.06.016 yap, j.b.h. and toh, h.m., 2020, investigating the principal factors impacting knowledge management implementation in construction organisations. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 18(1), pp.55-69. https://doi. org/10.1108/jedt-03-2019-0069 yohe, a.m., 2006. an analysis of lessons learned programs in the construction industry. phd. university of texas at austin. yu, d. and yang, j., 2018. knowledge management research in the construction industry: a review. journal of the knowledge economy, [e-journal] 9(3), pp.782-803. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-016-0375-7 debs and hubbard construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202376 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2007)23:1(18 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-02-2019-0013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2018.12.017 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2018.12.017 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2003.09.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2003.09.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2011.06.016 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2011.06.016 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-03-2019-0069 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-03-2019-0069 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13132-016-0375-7 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: smitha, j. s. and thomas, a. 2021. integrated model and index for circular economy in the built environment in the indian context. construction economics and building, 21:3, 198– 220. http://dx.doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7684 issn 2204 9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021 article (peer reviewed) integrated model and index for circular economy in the built environment in the indian context smitha j.s.1 and albert thomas2,* 1 department of civil engineering, iit bombay, india, 194048003@iitb.ac.in 2 department of civil engineering, iit bombay, india, albert@iitb.ac.in *corresponding author: albert thomas, department of civil engineering, iit bombay, india, albert@iitb.ac.in doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7684 article history: received: 15/04/2021; revised: 03/07/2021, 22/07/2021, 30/07/2021; accepted: 05/08/2021; published: 10/09/2021 abstract sustainable development aims at minimising waste and reducing exploitation of natural resources and energy, so that needs of the future generations are taken care of. circular economy (ce) is a new drift towards sustainability that aims at minimising waste and promoting material reuse, thereby creating a regenerative system. the construction industry is responsible for the extraction of raw materials and generation of waste in large quantities, thereby making it an opportune sector for transition to a circular economy. on account of the complex nature of the built environment comprising various phases and associated actors, a proper framework or indexing for the circular economy is missing at present. this study aims to develop an integrated model of ce in the built environment which considers various construction stages and applicable strategies. an index for measuring the circularity potential in construction materials is also proposed, based on attributes developed from literature review and analysis of questionnaire survey. simple additive weighting method (sawm), an elementary multicriteria decisionmaking method is used for developing the index. it is anticipated that circular economy potential index (cepi) would support decisionmaking in the initial stage of construction projects and help to compare the circularity of materials. keywords circular economy; recycling; integrated model; index; built environment 198 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7684 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7684 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:194048003@iitb.ac.in mailto:albert@iitb.ac.in mailto:albert@iitb.ac.in http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7684 introduction human activities continuously extract resources from nature and dump waste and harmful effluences back to landfills, thereby deteriorating the quality of the environment around us. this awareness induced the need of promoting sustainable development, considering future generations while achieving current growth targets (elia, gnoni and tornese, 2017; govindan and hasanagic, 2018). there is endless exploitation of nature in a linear pattern for which the consequences are resource depletion, pollution of land, water and air, leading to endpoint environmental impacts such as carbon emissions, global warming and climate change (ghisellini, ripa and ulgiati, 2018; foster, 2020). in india, the annual material waste generation is sixtytwo million tons, of which, fortythree million tons are collected, thirtyone million tons are deposited in landfill areas and only twelve million tons are treated (kamble, raju and vishnu, 2020). due to the large volume of construction activities required to support urbanisation, the construction industry is among the topmost in contributing to negative environmental impacts. the built environment is the largest consumer of materials and the highest producer of waste globally, and it is expected to increase steadily in the future (stephan and athanassiadis, 2018). similarly, it is responsible for forty to fifty percent of raw material consumption, thirty to forty percent of energy use, and about thirtyeight percent of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide (seyis, 2020). globally, more than three billion tons of construction and demolition waste is generated every year, which forms about fifty percent of the total solid waste (akhtar and sarmah, 2018). waste is generated during different phases of building construction but is maximum at the end of life when it is demolished and disposed of (benachio, freitas and tavares, 2020). therefore, there is a great potential for converting this waste into new construction materials, which would prevent it from going to landfills, thereby helping to reduce raw material consumption. literature suggests that by promoting recycling, buildings could be considered as a “material bank” that can supply a major part of the construction materials needed for future buildings (minunno, et al., 2018; leising, quist and bocken, 2018). the present linear economy model follows a ‘take make dispose’ pattern that encourages single use of materials followed by disposal after use, without any concern about the environmental impacts (kamble, raju and vishnu, 2020). circular economy (ce) is a school of thought that promotes cyclic use of materials and inspires to extend the useful life of a product. the core idea is to close the loop and to create interlinked systems where the waste output from one organisation becomes the input for another (cheshire, 2019). a change in mindset is inevitable to consider waste as a potential resource and not as a burden to be dumped (ghisellini, ripa and ulgiati, 2018). to enable a systematic shift, knowledge and awareness of ce principles should be imparted to the society, along with guidelines for supporting and monitoring (kirchherr, reike and hekkert, 2017; minunno, et al., 2108). ce is pertinent to all domains of life, whereas it is only widely observed in the case of metals, paper, glass, plastics and water (haas, et al., 2015). the construction industry demands a shift from linear to circular economy whereby materials can be circulated in the system thereby reducing raw material extraction and waste generation. techniques for measuring the extent of circularity are essential to acknowledge the efficiency of circular systems. various studies have proposed indicators or index of circularity, a few of which are ‘end of life recycling efficiency rate’, ‘recycling input rate’ and ‘circularity rates using mass balance’ (rombach, 2013; di maio and rem, 2015; mayer, et al., 2019). overall, defining an index for construction materials, based on ce parameters, would be helpful for material selection and design of structures in line with ce principles. research background several studies have attempted to advance the shift towards a circular economy and explored various theories and strategies in support of ce. the following section provides a quick overview of the various smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021199 dimensions of ce by categorising it into eight major aspects, followed by other dimensions of ce in the built environment and the research motivation. 1. material flows: there are two types of material flows, the biological cycle (socioeconomic loop) consisting of degradable and nontoxic materials that naturally return to the environment, and the technical cycle (ecological loop) comprising of industrial materials that may contain toxic elements and retained within the system by recycling. (haas, et al., 2015; haupt and zschokke, 2017; nuñezcacho, et al., 2018; cheshire, 2019). 2. social, economic and environmental dimensions: most studies on ce consider the environmental impacts and economic gain of implementing ce (ghisellini, ripa and ulgiati, 2018), and it generally targets social welfare through minimising resource use and pollution (pomponi and moncaster, 2016). hence ce has social, economic and environmental implications and the three pillars of sustainability hold good for ce as represented in figure 1, below. figure 1. three pillars of circular economy 3. principles of circular economy: ellen macarthur foundation (2013) proposed principles of ce as ‘designing out waste’, ‘improving resilience by adopting diverse systems’, ‘making use of renewable energy sources’, ‘thinking in systems’ and ‘considering waste as food’. the basic principles of ce shall be listed as (i) design out waste focusing on minimising waste and pollution, (ii) keep materials in use suggesting an extension of the life of products by creating loops and (iii) regenerate natural systems implying restoring materials consumed and using renewable energy (ellen macarthur, 2015). 4. the ‘r’s of circularity: the founding principles of ce are identified as ‘3r’s which are “reduce, reuse and recycle” aiming to overcome environmental challenges (ghisellini, cialani and ulgiati, 2016). an extended framework of ‘9 r’s consider refuse, rethink, reduce, reuse, repair, refurbish, remanufacture, repurpose, recycle and recover (kirchherr, reike and hekkert, 2017; foster, 2020) with an order of preference based on the level of circularity as shown in figure 2, given below. smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021200 figure 2. r’s of circularity 5. circular economy strategies: many strategies were proposed for the implementation of ce in the built environment. ‘design for disassembly’ (dfd) denotes designing building components that can be disassembled at end of life and used without processing (geldermans, 2016) whereas ‘design for adaptability’ (dfa) indicates designing structures that can serve different purposes with slight modification (cheshire, 2019). ‘design for deconstruction’ (dfd) enables recovery of building materials for reuse, recycle or remanufacture (akinade, et al., 2020) while ‘design for reuse’ (dfr) stands for a design that incorporates the use of recovered materials in new structures (ginga, et al. 2020). ‘design for manufacture and assembly’ (dfma) suggests making standardised components and then assembling them at the site (gao, jin and lu, 2020). 6. levels of circular economy: ce can be defined in three different levels, micro, meso and macro where micro considers one product or organisation, meso considers a group of industries and macro considers the city or nation, (elia, gnoni and tornese, 2017; kirchherr, reike and hekkert, 2017; marin and de meulder, 2018) as depicted in figure 3, shown below. 7. shearing layers of building: the fourlayer system of the building was introduced by frank duffy in 1990, based on the expected lifetime of components as ‘shell – the structure with 50 years, services – electrical and plumbing system having 15 years, scenery – partitions and ceiling considering 7 years and set – furniture with a few weeks’ of life expectancy. the concept of ‘six shearing layers’ was proposed by stewart brand in 1994, constituting (i) site – eternal and having no change, (ii) structure – foundation and loadbearing elements 50 to 300 years, (iii) skin – exterior faces of the building 20 to 50 years, (iv) services – 10 to 20 years (v) space – walls, ceiling and floor 3 to 10 years and (vi) stuff – furniture which may change weekly or monthly (pushkar and shaviv, 2016; geldermans, 2016; cheshire, 2019). smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021201 8. life cycle stages for circular economy in the built environment: ce should be considered in different phases of building, starting from raw materials till demolition and circularity should be observed in manufacturing of building materials, construction activities, operation, end of life and project design phase (akanbi, et al. 2019; hossain, et al., 2020; benachio, freitas and tavares, 2020). as described above, even though there is good awareness of ce principles, research on the applicability of ce in the built environment is in its initial stage. however, in the last few years, the literature review shows a steady increase in the number of studies and rising popularity of concepts among practitioners, politicians and academicians (ghisellini, cialani and ulgiati, 2016; levoso, et al., 2020). the origin of ce can be traced back to theories of environmental economy, ecological economy and industrial ecology, while recent refinement of the concept owes to concepts such as cradle to cradle, regenerative design, biomimicry, performance economy and blue economy (ghisellini, cialani and ulgiati, 2016; leising, quist and bocken, 2018; benachio, freitas and tavares, 2020; hossain, et al., 2020). the circular model sustains resources in the economy for a longer time by repeatedly using materials in the same form or different forms, thus increasing its value by extending its utility (cheshire, 2019). the main aspects of ce such as reduce, reuse, repair, recycle and renewable resources are not new ideas, but the ce model provides a framework to tackle the major problems of resource scarcity and waste management (haupt and zschokke, 2017). monitoring tools are required to ensure that ce strategies are environmentally friendly and not just resulting in problem shifting (mayer, et al., 2019). life cycle analysis (lca) and material flow analysis (mfa) are methodologies used to measure environmental performances of ce solutions (pomponi and moncaster, 2016; zanni, et al., 2018; jalaei, zoghi and khoshand, 2019; akanbi, et al., 2018). overall, the ce monitoring framework shall be classified into two as ‘direct ce indicators’ that focus on material resources and waste circulating rates and ‘indirect ce indicators’ that measure subsidiary aspects that help to track ce (moraga, et al., 2019). some of the common circularity indicators used in the literature are the building circularity index, ce indicator, circularity performance indicator, ecoefficient value figure 3. levels of circular economy smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021202 ratio, end of life recycling rates, reuse potential indicator and recycling index (finch, et al., 2021). comprehensively, a ce model should be able to monitor inputs, outputs, resources, production, distribution, consumption, waste management, design and education (suárezeiroa, et al., 2019). ‘economy’ of a nation is defined as a system that facilitates the production and distribution of goods and services, controlling the supply chain and consumption pattern in society, consisting of nongovernment organisations and the government (schiller, 2011; fiksel, sanjay and raman, 2020). while ‘economy’ deals with ‘what to produce, how to produce and for whom to produce’, ce focuses on how to produce without affecting the environment and by maintaining social harmony. ce enables economic growth, reduces ecological footprint, increases community resilience and decreases dependence on raw resources (fiksel, sanjay and raman, 2020). it leads to a regenerative system by imparting selfrenewing capabilities as in the case of using renewable energy sources or returning nutrients to the soil (macarthur, 2013). a regenerative design invokes harmony pattern between the local ecosystem and the built environment, supporting local culture, production and consumption (mang and reed, 2012). in ce, materials are reintroduced into the system to replenish itself, incorporating collaboration among actors and making the system regenerative (cole, 2012). the idea of ‘smart cities’ supports urban regeneration, which is an indicator of sustainable development that in turn drives social and economic development (akotia et al., 2020; de kock and carta, 2020). ce in the construction industry ce is a concept that can be worked out in any industry or society, and it works best when different systems join together as a group to form the loop. the construction industry is huge and diverse, having great potential to accommodate circular principles owing to the availability of large quantities of waste and enormous material requirements associated with it (akanbi, et al., 2019). waste generated during the construction activities and demolition of structures constitute a major portion of municipal waste and they are separately termed as construction demolition waste (cdw). buildings are generally not designed for recycling or material recovery and at present, the most economic method is to demolish buildings and dump the waste in landfills. the building materials remain in the use phase for a long time, and it cannot be assured that they can be recovered at end of life (finch, et al., 2021). current manufacturing methods and practices in the construction sector render recycling and reusing non profitable and this leads to unsustainable landfilling (fini and forsythe, 2020). foreseeing the multifold rise in the built area in india, the government introduced cdw management measures in 2016, to tackle the challenge of meeting the material demand and handling the waste in the construction sector (faruqi and siddiqui, 2020). the composition of cdw in india is recorded as 25% concrete, 30% masonry bricks, 35% sand and soil, 5% metals, 2% wood and 3% other materials (kumar, shrivastava and gupta, 2020). concrete is one of the major contributors to carbon footprint, being the structural element in most of the construction projects (akhtar and sarmah, 2018). a major part of the negative environmental impacts of the construction sector is attributed to cdw and hence many studies are based on the recycling of cdw and recycled additives in concrete ( jalaei, zoghi and khoshand, 2019; jain, singhal and pandey, 2020). various aspects of ce are discussed and established through different studies, but there have been limited efforts in understanding the adaptation levels of ce in the built environment domain. similarly, there are only very few studies that discuss the measurement of ce in the construction sector, especially in the indian context. the report of ellen macarthur foundation (2016) has identified ‘cities and construction’ among the three areas having the highest opportunity for ce in india, along with the agriculture and automobile sectors. therefore, a transition from a linear to circular economy is a need of the hour, which can be accomplished with the active involvement of different stakeholders. once there is more public demand the recycling business encompassing the construction industry will flourish. the built environment has a smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021203 complex structure and consists of different phases involving large quantities of materials and actors. ce strategies applicable to various phases are different, which have been examined separately in the literature. a consolidated picture of ce strategies for different stages of the building is not available. this study, therefore, attempts to frame an integrated model of ce that is applicable in the built environment, illustrating the strategies complying with the different phases of its life cycle. similarly, studies reveal that lack of awareness about the ce approach is one of the barriers in shifting towards a circular system (ghisellini, ripa and ulgiati, 2018; hamid, et al., 2020). hence it is required to survey the general understanding of ce concepts in the construction industry. the popular quote on management, “what gets measured can be managed” implies that to be able to manage and promote circularity, it should be measured first. a proper indexing system for measuring circularity is lacking in the current situation and a scale is advantageous to decide the ce potential. the basic units of buildings are construction materials and therefore, a new indexing method is developed in this study to monitor circularity in construction materials by compiling multiple attributes of ce. methodology the study identifies various aspects of ce discussed in the literature and aims to have a comprehensive picture of ce strategies relevant to the built environment. a survey on awareness about the ce concept in the construction industry is carried out, which contributes to spreading the knowledge. to facilitate measuring and comparison of construction materials, an index is framed based on certain attributes. thus, the study is structured into three parts i. framing an integrated model of ce in the built environment: ii. development and analysis of questionnaire survey iii. framing circular economy potential index for construction materials an integrated model of ce in the built environment the construction industry functions in various phases, starting from planning, design, extraction of raw materials, manufacture of components, construction activity, building maintenance and operation, end of life and demolition. strategies that shall be adopted for the implementation of ce in different phases of construction are represented in a single model. an integrated ce model for the built environment is proposed as shown in figure 4, given below. the design phase is most suitable to introduce the shift to circularity in construction because if ce strategies are incorporated in this initial stage, circularity follows in other phases. ce strategies such as design for adaptability, design for disassembly, design for deconstruction, design for reuse and design for manufacture and assembly should be incorporated in the design phase (akinade, et al., 2020; gao, jin and lu, 2020). in the manufacturing phase of construction materials, waste from construction or other industry shall be used as inputs and recycled content and recyclability potential of each material shall be recorded. strategies such as ‘cleaner production’, ‘pollution prevention’, ‘avoiding toxic contents’ and ‘use of renewable energy’ shall be adopted in this phase (ghisellini, ripa and ulgiati, 2018). in the construction phase, principles of refuse, rethink and reduce should be considered in the entire construction activities, exploring possibilities for zerowaste and zeroenergy construction, optimisation and lean construction techniques (foster, 2020). building in layers allows keeping the layers separate considering their life expectancy (pushkar and shaviv, 2016), while proper maintenance aid in extending the life of the building in the operation phase. here appropriate strategies are reuse, repair, refurbish, remanufacture and use of renewable energy for lighting and heating (minunno, et al., 2108). at the end of the useful life of the smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021204 building, possibilities for ‘repurposing’, ‘adapting for change’ and ‘disassembling’ should be examined before dismantling (foster, 2020). in the demolition phase, careful deconstruction and segregation, recovering and recycling of components should be promoted. questionnaire survey after developing the integrated framework of ce in the built environment, a questionnaire survey was carried out to capture the awareness of the society about ce concepts and recycling practices in the construction industry. it includes (i) questionnaire preparation and distribution and (ii) analysis of the questionnaire responses. questionnaire preparation and distribution the initial step was to develop a questionnaire for collecting data that would provide an insight into general awareness. the questions were framed to provide information on areas where circularity is noticed, materials that are recycled, factors that promote ce and how much each material is recycled. options were provided for questions with quantitative data and short answers were sought for a few questions. the survey was done through ‘google forms’ and circulated to people working in the construction sector and civil engineering students. an introduction to ce was given at the beginning of the questionnaire for better understanding. out of the total twentyfive questions, the first five collected personal details including work experience, questions 6 to 15 intended to check the general awareness on ce, questions 16 to 20 gathered quantitative data on recycling of selected materials and questions 21 to 25 were based on principles of ce. the questionnaire is attached as appendix 1. figure 4. integrated model for ce in the various life cycle stages of the built environment smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021205 analysis of the questionnaire responses the response obtained from the survey were analysed for awareness of ce concepts, factors that promote ce, major constraints and promotion of cdw recycling. a total of 102 responses were obtained from people working in the construction field and civil engineering aspirants in india, apart from five responses of indians working in the uk, uae and qatar. the demography of respondents is shown in table 1 and the responses obtained are summarised below, in table 2. table 1. details of respondents experience percentage of response no of respondents more than 20 years of experience 11% managers (21), estimation engineers (9), site engineers (29), researchers (15), civil engineering students (28) 1020 years of experience 23% 210 years of experience 22% less than 2 years of experience 44% table 2. summary of responses questions responses are you aware of the concept of circular economy? yes 84% no 16% do you think the circular economy should be promoted in the construction industry? not necessary 0% if possible 26% very much required 65% if the owner and builder opt for 9% to what extend is circular economy considered in the construction industry at present? not at all 6% quite less 64% considerably good 18% no idea 12% what is the major constraint in practicing circular economy in construction? lack of environmental awareness 20% lack of technical knowledge 52% lack of data about recyclable materials 21% increase in cost 7% which factor helps in promoting circular economy the most? social awareness 28% government norms 36% certification process 5% new recycling technology 31% what factors help to improve the potential of recycling of construction and demolition waste? incentives for recycling 38% new recycling plants 21% revision in codes 16% change in mindset of society 25% smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021206 circular economy potential index (cepi) meanwhile, this study proposes a new circular economy potential index (cepi) for construction materials using the multicriteriadecisionmaking method, sawm comprising the following steps: i. selecting the construction materials for indexing ii. fixing the attributes that decide circularity iii. assigning points to attributes iv. applying simple additive weighting method for index cepi is developed based on the results of the questionnaire survey which measured the awareness of a selected sample of respondents about the various principles of ce. the below sections talk about the various steps involved in the development of cepi. selecting the construction materials for indexing among the materials used in the indian construction industry, the most common and recyclable construction materials were identified as concrete and steel in structure, brick in masonry, wood in doors and windows, aluminium and glass in windows. these selected construction materials are considered as the alternatives for index calculation by sawm. fixing attributes the dynamic criteria that determine the circularity are referred to as attributes for index calculation. according to the concept of the ‘six shearing layers’ of a building (brand, 1994), the recycling potential of materials varies as per the life expectancy of the building layer in which they are used. from the literature, the principles of ce relevant to the construction sector are minimising waste, minimising pollution, extending of the life of products, regenerating natural systems and use of renewable resources. therefore, the first attribute is the ‘building layer’ and the second attribute is ‘relevance to ce principles’. two other attributes, based on the questionnaire survey results, are ‘recycling percentage’ and ‘awareness of recyclability’. thus, four attributes are fixed to develop an index, combining data obtained from literature and questionnaire responses, as shown in figure 5 below. a ttr ib ut es fo r i nd ex building layers principles of ce percentage recycled awareness on material recycling figure 5. attributes for cepi assigning points to attributes the attributes selected are qualitative and hence for developing the index, points shall be assigned to each of the attributes as mentioned below. smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021207 building layers referring to the ‘six shearing layers’ theory of building, concrete and steel used as structural components are considered under ‘structure layer’ of building. brick masonry used in partition walls is considered under ‘space layer’. doors, windows, or façade made of wood, aluminium and glass forms the external ‘skin layer’ of a building. materials coming under site, services and stuff layers are not considered in this study. the average life of a building is considered as 100 years and life in years of each layer are structure 100, space 30 to 50 and skin 20 to 30. for material in the space layer having a life of 50 years, there is potential for replacement or recycling twice in the life of the building and similarly for material in the skin layer having a life of 30 years, recycling potential is nearly three times. points are assigned for materials considering their useful life in comparison with the life of the building as given in table 3 below. table 3. assigning points based on building layers building material layer calculation points concrete – structural members structure 100/100 1 steel – reinforcement structure 100/100 1 bricks in masonry space 100/50 2 wood – doors and windows skin 100/30 3 aluminium – doors, windows, facade skin 100/30 3 glass doors, windows, facade skin 100/30 3 relevance to principles of ce recycling of selected materials is mapped with the relevance to principles of ce, with a score of ‘1’ for mapping and ‘0’ for not mapping. all these materials map completely for minimising waste and pollution when recycled. extension of the life of products considers whether the material can be reused without any processing at end of life. as concrete and steel reinforcement cannot be reused as such, they score ‘0’ and hence bricks, wooden door frames, shutters, aluminium windows and glass can be segregated carefully and reused, they are assigned a score of ‘1’. regenerating natural systems is mapped if the material can return to nature without causing any harm but nourishing the same and hence wood and bricks score ‘1’ while other materials score ‘0’. wood is considered renewable in developing nations and hence assigned a score ‘1’ table 4. assigning points based on ce principles materials minimising waste minimising pollution extension of life of products by reuse regenerating natural systems use of renewable resources mapping ratio point concrete 1 1 0 0 0 2/5 0.4 steel 1 1 0 0 0 2/5 0.4 bricks 1 1 1 1 0 4/5 0.8 wood 1 1 1 1 1 5/5 1.0 aluminium 1 1 1 0 0 3/5 0.6 glass 1 1 1 0 0 3/5 0.6 smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021208 while other materials have a score ‘0’. for each material, the ratio of mapping criteria to the total number of criteria is calculated to derive points as shown in table 4. percentage recycled table 5 below shows the opinion of questionnaire respondents about the recycling percentage of the selected construction materials. for instance, for concrete demolition waste, 34% of the respondents believe that recycling is not possible. meanwhile, 49% of the respondents believe that about 25% of recycling is possible for concrete demolition waste. the other values in table 5 follow a similar pattern. table 5. survey response on the percentage of materials recycled construction materials no recycling 25% recycling 50% recycling more than 75% of recycling concrete demolition waste 34% 49% 13% 4% steel reinforcement 36% 38% 19% 7% brick/block masonry 27% 48% 22% 3% wood in doors and windows 21% 52% 21% 6% aluminium and glass in windows and façade 27% 43% 16% 14% percentage recycled of these selected materials are used for index calculation after converting it to weighted percentage recycled for each material, as per the equation, weighted percentage = ∑ pq (1) where p is the percentage recycled (0, 25, 50 or 75) and q is the percentage of participants opting for each option as in table 5. awareness of recyclability survey respondents were asked to mention areas and materials in the construction field where circularity was observed. the ratio of the number of times each of the selected materials was mentioned to the total number of responses is used for index calculation. this ratio shows extend of awareness of the recyclability of the material as given in table 6. table 6. awareness of recyclability of materials material no. of responses in favour no. of response/ total response (102) concrete 40 0.39 steel 39 0.38 brick 22 0.22 wood 28 0.27 aluminium 7 0.07 glass 16 0.16 smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021209 simple additive weighting method for indexing a complex system as ce requires a complex decision support system to resolve unstructured issues, thereby enabling integration between various attributes (nurmalini and rahim, 2017). here, the circularity potential of construction materials depends on multiple attributes as mentioned above. hence selection of material based on circularity potential is considered as a multiattribute decisionmaking problem. mathiyazhagan, gnanavelbabu and prabhuraj (2019) proposed an assessment model for selecting sustainable construction materials using hybrid multicriteriadecisionmaking (mcdm) tools. there are various mcdm methods, and the simple additive weighting method (sawm) is one of the widely used methods (afshari, mojahed and yusuff, 2010). sawm is based on the weighted summation of each alternative to find a performance rating. a decision matrix (x) is formed with points assigned for the attributes corresponding to each alternative. subsequently, the decision matrix (x) is normalised to get matrix (r), using the below equation rij = xi j max (xi j) (2) further, the weighted normalised matrix is obtained by multiplying each column by the assigned weight of attributes as wj rij. weightage is assigned to the attributes as follows: shearing layer of the building – 30%, relevance to principles of ce – 30%, percentage of recycling of material as per survey – 20% and awareness of recyclability of material – 20%. finally, preference value matrix (v) is calculated using the equation 3 vi = ∑wj rij (3) thus, the index value for each selected material is obtained based on the points assigned to attributes for each material. this value forms the circular economy potential index (cepi) for that construction material. results based on the analysis of questionnaire survey results and relevant literature review, an index is developed for evaluating the ce potential of construction materials, using the simple additive weighting method described above. first, a decision matrix (x) is formed with the selected attributes and the selected materials as the alternatives, as shown in table 7 below. the points assigned for the attributes are obtained from table 3, table 4, weighted percentage calculated by equation 1 and table 6 respectively. table 7. decision matrix (x) attributes layers of building relevance to principles weighted percentage of % recycled no. of response/ total response weightage 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.2 concrete 1 0.4 21.53 0.39 steel 1 0.4 24.03 0.38 brick 2 0.8 25.43 0.22 wood 3 1 28.23 0.27 aluminium 3 0.6 28.9 0.07 glass 3 0.6 28.9 0.16 smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021210 further, the decision matrix is normalised to obtain the matrix (r) using equation 2 and is shown in table 8 below. normalising the matrix is done by dividing each value in the column by the maximum value in that column. table 8. normalised matrix (r) attributes layers of building relevance to principles weighted percentage of % recycled no. of response/ total response weightage 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.2 concrete 0.33 0.40 0.74 1.00 steel 0.33 0.40 0.83 0.98 brick 0.67 0.80 0.88 0.55 wood 1.00 1.00 0.98 0.70 aluminium 1.00 0.60 1.00 0.18 glass 1.00 0.60 1.00 0.40 the weighted normalised matrix is further obtained by multiplying each element of the normalised matrix by the assigned weight of the corresponding column as given in table 9. table 9. weighted normalised matrix attributes layers of building relevance to principles weighted percentage of % recycled no. of response/ total response weightage 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.2 concrete 0.10 0.12 0.15 0.20 steel 0.10 0.12 0.17 0.20 brick 0.20 0.24 0.18 0.11 wood 0.30 0.30 0.20 0.14 aluminium 0.30 0.18 0.20 0.04 glass 0.30 0.18 0.20 0.08 the preference value matrix (v) is then developed using equation 3 to obtain the index values, which is the sum of elements in a row. this summation of the weighted normalised value of all the attributes is considered as the circular economy potential index (cepi) corresponding to each material as shown in table 10. thus, by adopting the sawm, the circular economy potential index (cepi) is estimated for the selected materials – concrete, steel, brick, wood, aluminium and glass. discussions in this study, a novel methodology is proposed to index and rank the materials according to the circular economy potential. as explained in the initial sections, during the disposal stage most of the materials in a building go to landfill. the results from this study can offer better clarity to understand the circular economy smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021211 potential of various materials from typical buildings and thereby improve the material recycling scenario in the country. the building layers are considered in the study to recognise the fact that different layers have different lifetimes. certain layers require more frequent refurbishment with new materials indicating that there is more chance of old materials ending up in landfills, hence recyclability of materials used in these layers of building is more important. for developing the cepi, attributes considered are qualitative and hence points are assigned to facilitate evaluation, as given in the decision matrix in table 5. points are assigned for each material, relative to the life of buildings and the layer in which it is used. for the next attribute, with relevance to ce principles discussed in the literature, materials are assigned points based on their mapping to principles of ce. attributes concerning awareness of the circularity of construction materials are obtained from analysing the questionnaire survey. points for percentage recycled of the material are calculated as a weighted percentage given by equation 1. it indicates how likely the material is considered for reuse rather than dumping when a building is demolished. the ratio of respondents favouring each material to the total number of respondents represents acceptance of circularity of that material, based on the survey response to identify areas where circularity is noticed in the construction sector. carrying out the sawm offers relative indexing for the selected materials and attributes thereby enabling comparison. according to the analysis, from table 8, it can be inferred that circularity potential for the selected materials is in the order – wood, glass, aluminium, brick, steel and concrete. the cepi value obtained for wood is the maximum, equalling 0.94, which shows its high recyclability and better awareness among people as a recyclable material. wood is renewable, regenerative and decomposes in soil naturally without causing any harmful environmental effects, hence adheres more to the ce principles. concrete has the least index value of 0.57, implying that even though there is good potential for recycling, at present concrete is recycled less and forms the major portion to be dumped in landfills. this points to the requirement of enormous processing required for recycling concrete. concrete and reinforcement steel cannot be reused directly after demolition and hence have a lower score on circularity. doors and windows made of wood or aluminium and glass are dismantled carefully and could be reused in small projects. bricks are also separated from demolished masonry for reuse, at many instances. all metals such as steel and aluminium can indeed be recycled by melting the scrap, but it requires a proper system of segregation, collection and processing for efficient recycling. even if the concrete is considered a sustainable material due to its long life, the possibility of reusing after one life cycle is very limited at present. table 10. preference value matrix attributes layers of building relevance to principles weighted percentage of % recycled no. of response/ total response circular economy potential index (cepi) rank weightage 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.2 concrete 0.10 0.12 0.15 0.20 0.57 6 steel 0.10 0.12 0.17 0.20 0.58 5 brick 0.20 0.24 0.18 0.11 0.73 4 wood 0.30 0.30 0.20 0.14 0.94 1 aluminium 0.30 0.18 0.20 0.04 0.72 3 glass 0.30 0.18 0.20 0.08 0.76 2 smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021212 the ranking of construction materials based on circularity is not discussed much in earlier literature and the indices proposed are mostly ratios of recycled to virgin product, considering any of the units such as mass, volume, energy, carbon footprint or economic value (di maio and rem, 2015). single indicators such as resource productivity, waste generation, energy and ghg emissions, pollution reduction and material flow accounting have also been used to analyse ce through previous studies (elia, gnoni and tornese, 2017). similarly, a collaboration tool for ce in the building sector is developed by leising, quist and bocken (2018) combining literature review and expert interviews based on case studies. these are the efforts that lie close to measuring ce in the built environment but indexing of construction materials using multiple attributes is a novel approach, and the importance of awareness of circularity is established by incorporating it in the index. thus, developing cepi based indexing for construction materials helps to quantify the circularity of materials that aid in the material selection. conclusions a transformation to ce is inevitable in all sectors and is most relevant to the construction industry as it solves multiple problems such as resource scarcity and waste management. the construction industry is complex and functions in different phases, where different ce strategies are applicable. the available literature of ce in the built environment is focused on providing more awareness on ce and confined to discussions on how one or a few strategies support ce but does not discuss the relevance to different construction phases. a major output of this study is an integrated model of ce that comprehensively identifies the strategies applicable to the various stages in the construction sector. a questionnaire survey has been conducted to analyse the awareness of society about the recyclability of construction materials. based on the results from the survey, the index has been developed for construction materials using the multicriteria decisionmaking method, sawm, by considering the multiple attributes that define the circularity of the material. at present, there are no standard tools to measure the circularity potential of construction materials, barring a few limited efforts. even though such studies play a critical role in imparting cerelated knowledge to the industry professionals, a proper scale is currently absent to judge the circularity of construction materials, which would serve as an aid for choosing the right material. therefore, the proposed approach through this study is of much relevance and thereby presents opportunities for further research as well. the study also got few limitations. the study used a survey for analysing the general awareness of ce in the construction sector and the recyclability of building materials and nearly 44% of the respondents had less than two years of experience, including civil engineering students and researchers in this field. one possible impact due to this would be a limited understanding of the percentage of each material recycled in the building demolition stage. however, the survey was primarily intended to capture the general awareness of the society and reflect their view on the possibility of recycling each building material as per their acquired knowledge. further, more attributes endorsing ce may be considered for modifying the index, as circularity is an abstract term and a growing research field. in addition, another interesting dimension to explore would be to develop the index for varying stages in a building’s life cycle. overall, ce is a path leading to sustainable development, by increasing the environmental value while improving social welfare by reducing pollution and generating new job opportunities, at the same time contributing to the economy. the promotion of ce is supported by educating about the benefits and possibilities of circularity. the more the awareness of recycling potential for the construction materials, the less is the chance that the material is dumped in landfills after use. references afshari, a., mojahed, m. and yusuff, r.m., 2010. simple additive weighting approach to personnel selection problem. international journal of innovation, management and technology, 1(5), pp.51115. smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021213 akanbi, l.a., oyedele, l.o., akinade, o.o., ajayi, a.o., delgado, m.d., bilal, m. and bello, s.a., 2018. salvaging building materials in a circular economy: a bimbased wholelife performance estimator. resources, conservation and recycling, [ejournal] 129, pp.17586. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.10.026 akanbi, l.a., oyedele, l.o., omoteso, k., bilal, m., akinade, o.o., ajayi, a.o., delgado, j.m.d. and owolabi, h.a., 2019. disassembly and deconstruction analytics system (ddas) for construction in a circular economy. journal of cleaner production, [ejournal] 223, pp.38696. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.03.172 akhtar, a. and sarmah, a.k., 2018. construction and demolition waste generation and properties of recycled aggregate concrete: a global perspective. journal of cleaner production, [ejournal] 186, pp.26281. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2018.03.085 akinade, o., oyedele, l., oyedele, a., davila delgado, j.m., bilal, m., akanbi, l., ajayi, a. and owolabi, h., 2020. design for deconstruction using a circular economy approach: barriers and strategies for improvement. production planning & control, [ejournal] 31(10), pp.82940. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2019.1695006 akotia, j., manu, e., opoku, a. and sackey, e., 2020. the role of built environment practitioners in driving the socio economic sustainability aspects of sustainable regeneration. construction economics and building, [ejournal] 20(2), pp.89108. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.7145 benachio, g.l.f., freitas, m.d.c.d. and tavares, s.f., 2020. circular economy in the construction industry: a systematic literature review. journal of cleaner production, [ejournal] 260, p.121046. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2020.121046 cheshire, d., 2019. building revolutions: applying the circular economy to the built environment. london: riba publishing. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429346712 cole, r.j., 2012. regenerative design and development: current theory and practice. building research & information, [e journal] 40(1), pp.16. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2012.617516 de kock, p.m. and carta, s., 2020. trojans of ambiguity vs resilient regeneration: visual meaning in cities. construction economics and building, [ejournal] 20(2), pp.624. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6605 di maio, f. and rem, p.c., 2015. a robust indicator for promoting circular economy through recycling. journal of environmental protection, [ejournal] 6(10), p.10951104. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. https://doi. org/10.4236/jep.2015.610096 elia, v., gnoni, m.g. and tornese, f., 2017. measuring circular economy strategies through index methods: a critical analysis. journal of cleaner production, [ejournal] 142, pp.274151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.10.196 ellen macarthur foundation, 2013. towards the circular economy: economic and business rationale for an accelerated transition. cowes, uk: ellen macarthur foundation. ellen macarthur foundation, 2015. towards a circular economy: business rationale for an accelerated transition. cowes, uk: ellen macarthur foundation. ellen macarthur foundation, 2016. circular economy in india: rethinking growth for longterm prosperity. cowes, uk: ellen macarthur foundation. faruqi, m.h.z. and siddiqui, f.z., 2020. a mini review of construction and demolition waste management in india. waste management & research, [ejournal] 38(7), pp.70816. https://doi.org/10.1177/0734242x20916828 fiksel, j., sanjay, p. and raman, k., 2020. steps toward a resilient circular economy in india. clean technologies and environmental policy, [ejournal] pp.116. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098020019820 finch, g., marriage, g., pelosi, a. and gjerde, m., 2021. building envelope systems for the circular economy; evaluation parameters, current performance and key challenges. sustainable cities and society, [ejournal] 64, p.102561. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102561 smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021214 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.10.026 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.03.172 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.03.085 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.03.085 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2019.1695006 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.7145 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121046 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.121046 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429346712 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2012.617516 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.6605 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.4236/jep.2015.610096 https://doi.org/10.4236/jep.2015.610096 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.10.196 https://doi.org/10.1177/0734242x20916828 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-020-01982-0 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2020.102561 fini, a.a.f. and forsythe, p., 2020. barriers to reusing and recycling office fitout: an exploratory analysis of demolition processes and product features. construction economics and building, [ejournal] 20(4), pp.4262. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i4.7061 foster, g., 2020. circular economy strategies for adaptive reuse of cultural heritage buildings to reduce environmental impacts. resources, conservation and recycling, [ejournal] 152, p.104507. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. resconrec.2019.104507 gao, s., jin, r. and lu, w., 2020. design for manufacture and assembly in construction: a review. building research & information, [ejournal] 48(5), pp.53850. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2019.1660608 geldermans, r.j., 2016. design for change and circularity– accommodating circular material & product flows in construction. energy procedia, [ejournal] 96, pp.30111. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2016.09.153 ghisellini, p., cialani, c. and ulgiati, s., 2016. a review on circular economy: the expected transition to a balanced interplay of environmental and economic systems. journal of cleaner production, [ejournal] 114, pp.1132. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.09.007 ghisellini, p., ripa, m. and ulgiati, s., 2018. exploring environmental and economic costs and benefits of a circular economy approach to the construction and demolition sector. a literature review. journal of cleaner production, [e journal] 178, pp.61843. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.11.207 ginga, c.p., ongpeng, j.m.c., daly, m. and klarissa, m., 2020. circular economy on construction and demolition waste: a literature review on material recovery and production. materials, [ejournal] 13(13), p.2970. https://doi. org/10.3390/ma13132970 govindan, k. and hasanagic, m., 2018. a systematic review on drivers, barriers, and practices towards circular economy: a supply chain perspective. international journal of production research, [ejournal] 56(12), pp.278311. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/00207543.2017.1402141 haas, w., krausmann, f., wiedenhofer, d. and heinz, m., 2015. how circular is the global economy? an assessment of material flows, waste production, and recycling in the european union and the world in 2005. journal of industrial ecology, [ejournal] 19(5), pp.76577. https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12244 hamid, s., mat isa, c.m., felix, s.n. and mustaffa, n.k., 2020. sustainable management using recycle and reuse of construction waste materials in malaysia. esteem academic journal, [ejournal] 16, pp.4758. http://ir.uitm.edu.my/ id/eprint/33244. haupt, m. and zschokke, m., 2017. how can lca support the circular economy? — 63rd discussion forum on life cycle assessment, zurich, switzerland, november 30, 2016. the international journal of life cycle assessment, [ejournal] 22(5), pp.83237. https://doi.org/10.1007/s1136701712671 hossain, m.u., ng, s.t., antwiafari, p. and amor, b., 2020. circular economy and the construction industry: existing trends, challenges and prospective framework for sustainable construction. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, [ejournal] 130, p.109948. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2020.109948 jain, s., singhal, s. and pandey, s., 2020. environmental life cycle assessment of construction and demolition waste recycling: a case of urban india. resources, conservation and recycling, [ejournal] 155, p.104642. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.104642 jalaei, f., zoghi, m. and khoshand, a., 2019. life cycle environmental impact assessment to manage and optimize construction waste using building information modeling (bim). international journal of construction management, [e journal] pp.118. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1583850 kamble, c.b., raju, r. and vishnu, r., 2020. an awareness study on circular economy in india. gedrag and organisatie review, 33(2), pp.255969. https://doi.org/10.37896/gor33.02/259 smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021215 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i4.7061 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i4.7061 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.104507 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.104507 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2019.1660608 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2016.09.153 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.09.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.09.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.11.207 https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13132970 https://doi.org/10.3390/ma13132970 https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2017.1402141 https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2017.1402141 https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12244 http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/33244 http://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/33244 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-017-1267-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2020.109948 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.104642 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.104642 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1583850 https://doi.org/10.37896/gor33.02/259 kirchherr, j., reike, d. and hekkert, m., 2017. conceptualizing the circular economy: an analysis of 114 definitions. resources, conservation and recycling, [ejournal] 127, pp.22132. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. resconrec.2017.09.005 kumar, g., shrivastava, s. and gupta, r.c., 2020. paver blocks manufactured from construction & demolition waste. materials today: proceedings, [ejournal] 27, pp.31117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.11.039 leising, e., quist, j. and bocken, n., 2018. circular economy in the building sector: three cases and a collaboration tool. journal of cleaner production, [ejournal] 176, pp.97689. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.010 levoso, a.s., gasol, c.m., martínezblanco, j., durany, x.g., lehmann, m. and gaya, r.f., 2020. methodological framework for the implementation of circular economy in urban systems. journal of cleaner production, [ejournal] 248, p.119227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119227 mang, p. and reed, b., 2012. designing from place: a regenerative framework and methodology. building research & information, [ejournal] 40(1), pp.2338. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2012.621341 marin, j. and de meulder, b., 2018. interpreting circularity. circular city representations concealing transition drivers. sustainability, [ejournal] 10(5), p.1310. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051310 mathiyazhagan, k., gnanavelbabu, a. and prabhuraj, b.l., 2019. a sustainable assessment model for material selection in construction industries perspective using hybrid mcdm approaches. journal of advances in management research. [ejournal] 16(2), pp.23459. https://doi.org/10.1108/jamr0920180085 mayer, a., haas, w., wiedenhofer, d., krausmann, f., nuss, p. and blengini, g.a., 2019. measuring progress towards a circular economy: a monitoring framework for economy‐wide material loop closing in the eu28. journal of industrial ecology, [ejournal] 23(1), pp.6276. https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12809 minunno, r., o’grady, t., morrison, g.m., gruner, r.l. and colling, m., 2018. strategies for applying the circular economy to prefabricated buildings. buildings, [ejournal] 8(9), p.125. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings8090125 moraga, g., huysveld, s., mathieux, f., blengini, g.a., alaerts, l., van acker, k., de meester, s. and dewulf, j., 2019. circular economy indicators: what do they measure? resources, conservation and recycling, [ejournal] 146, pp.45261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.03.045 nuñezcacho, p., górecki, j., molinamoreno, v. and corpasiglesias, f.a., 2018. what gets measured, gets done: development of a circular economy measurement scale for building industry. sustainability, [ejournal] 10(7), p.2340. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072340 nurmalini, n. and rahim, r., 2017. study approach of simple additive weighting for decision support system. international journal of scientific research in science and technology, 3(3), pp.54144. https://doi.org/10.31227/ osf.io/8sjvt pomponi, f. and moncaster, a., 2017. circular economy for the built environment: a research framework. journal of cleaner production, [ejournal] 143, pp.71018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.12.055 pushkar, s. and shaviv, e., 2016. using shearing layer concept to evaluate green rating systems. architectural science review, [ejournal] 59(2), pp.11425. https://doi.org/10.1080/00038628.2014.966051 rombach, g., 2013. raw material supply by aluminium recycling– efficiency evaluation and longterm availability. acta materialia, [ejournal] 61(3), pp.101220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2012.08.064 schiller, b.r., 2011. the macro economy today. new york: tata mcgrawhill education. seyis, s., 2020. mixed method review for integrating building information modeling and lifecycle assessments. building and environment, [ejournal] 173, p.106703. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.106703 smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021216 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.09.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.09.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.11.039 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119227 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2012.621341 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051310 https://doi.org/10.1108/jamr-09-2018-0085 https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12809 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings8090125 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.03.045 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072340 https://doi.org/10.31227/osf.io/8sjvt https://doi.org/10.31227/osf.io/8sjvt https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.12.055 https://doi.org/10.1080/00038628.2014.966051 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actamat.2012.08.064 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.106703 stephan, a. and athanassiadis, a., 2018. towards a more circular construction sector: estimating and spatialising current and future nonstructural material replacement flows to maintain urban building stocks. resources, conservation and recycling, [ejournal] 129, pp.24862. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.09.022 suárezeiroa, b., fernández, e., méndezmartínez, g. and sotooñate, d., 2019. operational principles of circular economy for sustainable development: linking theory and practice. journal of cleaner production, [ejournal] 214, pp.95261. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.271 zanni, s., simion, i.m., gavrilescu, m. and bonoli, a., 2018. life cycle assessment applied to circular designed construction materials. procedia cirp, [ejournal] 69, pp.154159. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2017.11.040 appendix1 questionnaire on circular economy (reusing and recycling) a circular economy is an economic model designed to minimize resource input, as well as waste and emission production. circular economy aims to reach the maximum efficiency in the use of finite resources, the gradual transition to renewable resources, and recovery of the materials and products at the end of their useful life. it is based on three principles: reduce waste and pollution; keep products and materials in use; regenerate natural systems. main idea is to recover waste for reuse or recycling and creating a system to team up. kindly fill up this questionnaire based on your knowledge/experience on circular economy in construction industry. *required 1. email * 2. name * 3. country 4. occupation 5. organisation 6. work experience mark only one oval. less than 2 years 2 – 10 years 10 20 years more than 20 years 7. are you aware of the concept of circular economy? * mark only one oval. yes no 8. do you think circular economy should be promoted in construction industry? * mark only one oval. not necessary if possible smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021217 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2017.09.022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.12.271 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procir.2017.11.040 very much required only if owner and builder opt for it 9. to what extend is circular economy considered in construction industry at present? mark only one oval. not at all quite less considerably good no idea 10. identify areas where you have noticed circularity in construction field. (any three) * 11. what are the materials having possibility of recycling in buildings? (any three) * 12. what is the major constraint in practicing circular economy in construction? * mark only one oval. lack of environmental awareness lack of technical knowledge of recycling process lack of data about recyclable materials increase in cost 13. which factor helps in promoting circular economy the most? * mark only one oval. social awareness government norms certification process new recycling technology 14. do you think certifications such as griha and leed gives enough weightage for circularity for its promotion? * mark only one oval. yes they provide required weightage weightage needs to be increased 15. what factors may help to improve the potential of recycling of construction and demolition waste?* mark only one oval. incentives for recycling new recycling plants revision in codes supported by research change in mindset of society smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021218 16. what is the percentage of concrete demolition waste recycled in your area, to avoid going to landfill * mark only one oval. 0% 25% 50% more than 75% 17. what is the percentage of wooden doors and windows recycled in your area, to avoid going to landfill * mark only one oval. 0% 25% 50% more than 75% 18. what is the percentage of aluminium and glass in windows and façade recycled in your area, to avoid going to landfill * mark only one oval. 0% 25% 50% more than 75% 19. what is the percentage of recycled content in masonry units used in your area * mark only one oval. 0% 25% 50% more than 75% 20. what is the percentage of steel recycled in your area * mark only one oval. 0% 25% 50% more than 75% 21. your suggestions for improving circularity in construction field by reusing * 22. any one suggestion for minimizing waste in construction industry * 23. any one suggestion for minimizing pollution in construction industry * 24. any one suggestion for extension of life of construction materials or products * 25. any one example of use of renewable resources in construction industry * smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021219 26. any one condition that would help in regeneration of natural systems i.e., reusing waste from one system as input for other industry. * thank you thank you very much for sparing your valuable time and putting efforts for reporting the circular economy practices in your area or project smitha and thomas construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021220 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: gunathilaka, s., wijesekara, d., kwok, s. f. 2025. project high performance work system for enabling highperforming teams in construction. construction economics and building, 25:3/4, 43–64. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i3/4.9322 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article project highperformance work system for enabling highperforming teams in construction sarath gunathilaka*, dulanga wijesekara, shing fung kwok department of construction management, school of architecture, design and the built environment, nottingham trent university, nottingham, united kingdom corresponding author: sarath gunathilaka, sarath_gunathilaka@yahoo.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9322 article history: received 01/09/2024; revised 19/01/2025; accepted 20/04/2025; published 05/12/2025 abstract modern construction organizations demand highperforming teams (hpts) in their projects in order to face increasing performance challenges. on the one hand, they face significant performance challenges due to the competition in the industry in many forms, such as competitive bidding to receive projects. on the other hand, they need to manage the performance challenges posed by the complexities of the uncertain and volatile construction project environment to deliver projects successfully and build up strong organizational profiles to face such issues. at the same time, they must also follow the legislative requirements of their countries, which are focused on the big issues and challenges that exist in the contemporary construction industry. in order to enable hpts, they need a highperformance work system (hpws) that can facilitate their projects. however, although literature shows numerous studies on organizational hpwss that consist of human resource management practices, only limited attention has been given to identifying such a system for the project context. this study aimed to fill this knowledge gap through a quantitative research study. the project highperformance work system (phpws) was conceptualized using literature and tested using 221 responses to a questionnaire survey among team members in construction projects. the exploratory factor and confirmatory factor analyses were performed to analyze data to conclude this phpws. the findings facilitate the construction organizations to create the phpws for enabling hpts in their projects and constitute a significant original contribution to the theory and practice in the construction management research domain. 43 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9322 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9322 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9322 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9322 keywords construction projects; highperforming teams; human resource management; project highperformance work system; project team performance introduction the construction industry has been rapidly moving forward with collaboration among project stakeholders (daniel, et al., 2017), and collaboration among project delivery parties, such as teamwork, has become vital compared to other forms. teamwork is still an evolving research theme, although its original contributions go back to the 20th century. accordingly, research on highperforming teams (hpts) has become prominent among academics and industry practitioners nowadays because construction organizations have been continuously demanding hpts in their projects. in general, hpts are the teams that have the capacity to generate superior performance beyond the average level. on the one hand, today’s construction organizations demand hpts to help them face their performance challenges due to increasing competition in the industry. for example, they face competition in many ways, such as bidding for receiving projects (ahmed, eladaway, and caldwell, 2024), branding products and services (anjomshoa, 2024), and improving performance with corporate social responsibility and innovation (zheng, et al., 2024). the challenges also emerged in achieving sustainability requirements in the society (blay jnr, et al., 2023), receiving productive labor that leads to technological progress (bellocchi and travaglini, 2023), and maintaining green innovation as demanded by modern construction clients (lópezmalest, et al., 2024). on the other hand, today’s construction organizations face significant complexity challenges from the uncertain and volatile project environment or the construction industry overall. for example, they face complexity in moving with the modern globalization and liberalization trends (rani, et al., 2023), conflicts due to unsustainable construction practices (omopariola, et al., 2024), digital transformation barriers (chen, et al., 2024), and adverse carbon emissions in projects (liu, et al., 2024). the complexity challenges also emerged due to project size and scope (de valence, 2011), strict legal requirements on the drivers of construction productivity such as safety regulations (chancellor, 2015), and the application of modern technology and methodology such as building information modeling and digital twin (olatunji and sher, 2014; bolton, et al., 2018). in addition to the competition and complexity challenges, today’s construction organizations also have to work in accordance with the legislative frameworks in their countries that are focused on addressing big issues and challenges in the contemporary construction industry. for example, cost minimization in construction projects becomes crucial for the project teams today. the construction industry’s worldwide spending was approximately usd12 trillion with an increasing rate of 3% per annum in 2019 and is anticipated to reach usd19.2 trillion in 2035 (statista, 2019). therefore, the construction industry is experiencing a revolution aimed at reducing cost (deep, et al. 2021). research evidence has shown that the industry needs to pay significant attention to improving the construction practices in terms of investment, project sizes, procurement, construction process, and technology (deep, et al. 2021). furthermore, literature evidence shows that both public and private sector organizations in the industry still have severe shortfalls in their initiatives to achieve the united nations’ 17 sustainable development goals by 2030 (sankaran, müller, and drouin, 2020). therefore, most governments implement legislative requirements in their procurement practices with strict rules and regulations to be followed by the project teams. moreover, if the construction project teams do not perform well, the risk of insolvency of their organizations will be higher because insolvency is a significant issue in the construction sector (coggins, teng, and rameezdeen, 2016). this means that the construction organizations need hpts in their projects in order to face these issues and challenges. gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202544 in order to enable hpts in their projects, the construction organizations should create high performance work systems (hpwss) that consist of systems and practices to facilitate this process. literature shows evidence of such an hpws that consists of human resource management (hrm) practices in the organizational context (e.g., huselid, 1995; bowen and ostroff, 2004; boxall and macky, 2009; takeuchi, et al., 2009; chiang and hsu, 2012; guest and bosnehles, 2013; kehoe and wright, 2013; pak and kim, 2016; shin and konrad, 2017; siddique, procter and gittell, 2019; teo, bentley and nguyen, 2020; estiri, et al., 2021; farrukh, et al., 2021; nassani, et al., 2023). however, among the plethora of such studies on the need to continuously develop hpwss in the organizational context, only marginal attention has been given to exploring such a system in the project context. there are some noteworthy contributions to developing the project hrm system (e.g., bellini and canonico, 2008; bondarouk and ruel, 2008; abuazoom, et al., 2017), but a clear hpws in the project context is inadequately revealed. as the demand for hpts grows in the modern construction industry, unveiling such an hpws to facilitate the enabling process of hpts in the project context is a significant knowledge gap that adversely affects the contemporary construction industry’s performance. as such, this study aimed to fill this knowledge gap by conducting a quantitative research study with the objective of developing the project highperformance work system (phpws) that can enable hpts. accordingly, the paper is structured with the following sections: literature review, research methodology, results, discussion of the findings, and conclusions. the phpws has been developed as a contribution to the study in order to make a difference in the construction industry by indicating the importance of developing such a system in construction projects to enable hpts. literature review organizational highperformance work system as discussed in the introduction, hpwss are needed to facilitate the enabling process of hpts. literature shows that the theory and practice in this research theme have been developing for several years. the highperformance paradigm was the theoretical juncture for starting a highperformance culture in the business industry (danford, et al., 2005; hughes, 2008). this was a managerial approach for driving high performance outcomes, focusing on utilizing mutually reinforced production and labor management practices (hughes, 2008). such a highperformance work culture originated several decades ago with the japanese influence in production and work organizations after world war ii, although it has since been integrated into other sectors (ashton and sung, 2002; danford, et al., 2005; hughes, 2008). the literature shows evidence of research on highperformance work organization as the starting point for developing such a highperformance culture in the industry (huselid, 1995; hughes, 2008; gong, et al., 2010; pak and kim, 2016). thereafter, the idea has moved toward exploring highperformance work practices (hpwps) that consist of hrm practices in terms of developing more effective organizations to achieve high performance (huselid, 1995; hughes, 2008; ogbonnaya, et al., 2017; shin and konrad, 2017). such hpwps promote positive employee outcomes such as trust, commitment, psychological health, and job satisfaction to achieve high performance in organizational work settings (van de voorde, et al., 2012; ogbonnaya, et al., 2017). thereafter, research attention has moved toward hpws in the organizational context. many authors defined the hpws as a set of coherent hrm practices that organizations could implement to facilitate employee skills and motivation for achieving high performance and productivity (e.g., huselid, 1995; bowen and ostroff, 2004; boxall and macky, 2009; takeuchi, et al., 2009; chiang and hsu, 2012; pak and kim, 2016; shin and konrad, 2017; siddique, procter and gittell, 2019). generally, enhancing employee skills makes them comfortable to work with motivation, and, thus, better hrm gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202545 practices facilitate high performance. some researchers view that the hpws in organizations is associated with employee behavior (miao, et al., 2020), while others believe that it facilitates employees’ commitment and empowerment to perform (paragonzález, jiménezjiménez, and martínezlorente, 2019). it is actually not only these aspects, but it is also linked with employee relations as hrm practices. however, although the hpws facilitates the high performance of teams, research evidence shows that this can also exert negative effects (han, sun, and wang, 2020). this may be due to negative hrm practices or the negative influence of hrm practices, but reviewing such practices was outside the scope of this paper. table 1 shows the hrm practices of the hpws in the organizational context. according to this review, there are two categories of the characteristics of the organizational hpws. the first category consists of the characteristics that are related to the general hrm system of the organizations such as job security (teo, bentley and nguyen, 2020), better human resource outcomes (estiri, et al., 2021), employees’ job satisfaction and work engagement (ogbonnaya and valizade, 2018), and employee resilience (cooke, et al., 2019). the second category consists of specific hrm functions. the first hrm function is recruitment and selection, which includes practices such as job role design in terms of employee skills and capabilities (takeuchi, et al., 2007; teo, bentley and nguyen, 2020), selection based on collaboration and teamwork ability (takeuchi, et al., 2007; nassani, et al., 2023), and the job having an uptodate description (teo, bentley and nguyen, 2020). the second hrm function is training and development, which consists of hrm practices such as ensuring that training is continuous to support longterm employee potential (takeuchi, et al., 2007; teo, bentley and nguyen, 2020; farrukh, et al., 2021), emphasizing onthejob experiences (takeuchi, et al., 2007; farrukh, et al., 2021; hassett, 2022), and a positive attitude to develop a committed and competent workforce (farrukh, et al., 2021). the third hrm function is performance management, which consists of hrm practices such as performance appraisal based on quantifiable results (takeuchi, et al., 2007; teo, bentley and nguyen, 2020), compensations including high wages (takeuchi, et al., 2007), and more than one potential position to promote employees (teo, bentley and nguyen, 2020). according to this literature review focusing on research during the last three decades, the organizational hpws is confirmed as a system of hrm practices. the next section reviews how this hpws in the organizational context can be extended to develop the theory and practice of a similar hpws for the project context to facilitate the enabling process of hpts. table 1. the characteristics of organizational hpws category characteristic(s)/variable(s) in literature with author(s) general hrm system hpws is an hrm system that: enhances affective commitment and empowerment of employees to perform (paragonzález, jiménezjiménez, and martínezlorente, 2019), positively affects employees’ organizational citizenship behavior to perform (zhang, et al., 2022), plays a key role in the organization’s psychosocial safety climate for employees to perform (miao, et al., 2020; teo, bentley, and nguyen, 2020), provides job security and guarantees to employees in the job (teo, bentley, and nguyen, 2020), allows employees in the jobs to make decisions and/or engage in decision making participation (teo, bentley, and nguyen, 2020; nassani, et al., 2023), keeps open communications with employees in this job (teo, bentley, and nguyen, 2020), enhances employees’ innovative behavior to perform (miao, et al., 2020), gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202546 category characteristic(s)/variable(s) in literature with author(s) facilitates higher levels of customer orientation to enhance overall service performance (jo, et al., 2023), facilitates better human resource outcomes and enhances performance (estiri, et al., 2021), enhances customer satisfaction (ogbonnaya and valizade, 2018), enhances return on investment (katou, 2011; estiri, et al., 2021), enhances organizational coordination (fu, et al., 2019; estiri, et al., 2021), enhances market share (fu, et al., 2015; bin saeed, et al., 2019; estiri, et al., 2021), enhances workforce productivity (huselid, 1995; macduffie, 1995; guthrie, 2001; datta, et al., 2005; guthrie, et al., 2009; estiri, et al., 2021), influences employees’ job satisfaction and work engagement (ogbonnaya and valizade, 2018), and facilitates employee resilience and engagement (cooke, et al., 2019). specific hrm function hpws is related to recruitment and selection to the extent of: job role design is based on skills and capabilities and gives considerable importance to the staffing process (takeuchi, et al., 2007; teo, bentley, and nguyen, 2020), having a comprehensive selection process with interviews (takeuchi, et al., 2007; teo, bentley, and nguyen, 2020; nassani, et al., 2023), selection is based on collaborative and teamwork ability (takeuchi, et al., 2007; nassani, et al., 2023), selection involves screening many job candidates with very extensive efforts (takeuchi, et al., 2007; teo, bentley, and nguyen, 2020), selection places priority on team member potential to learn (takeuchi, et al., 2007), job has an uptodate description (teo, bentley, and nguyen, 2020), and the job description accurately describes the duties and responsibilities (teo, bentley, and nguyen, 2020). specific hrm function hpws is related to training and development to the extent of: training is continuous to longterm employee potential (takeuchi, et al., 2007; teo, bentley, and nguyen, 2020; farrukh, et al., 2021), training programs are comprehensive and extensive (takeuchi, et al., 2007; teo, bentley, and nguyen, 2020; farrukh, et al., 2021), training programs emphasize onthejob experiences and work engagement (takeuchi, et al., 2007; farrukh, et al., 2021; hassett, 2022), training programs are effective (farrukh, et al., 2021), transmitting a positive attitude about the organization’s desire to develop a committed and competent workforce (farrukh, et al., 2021), and training emphasizes employees’ mindset to motivate them to perform their tasks more flexibly (nassani, et al., 2023). table 1. continued gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202547 category characteristic(s)/variable(s) in literature with author(s) specific hrm function hpws is related to performance management to the extent of: performance appraisal is based on objectives and quantifiable results (takeuchi, et al., 2007; teo, bentley and nguyen, 2020; zhu, gao and chen, 2022), performance appraisals include management by objectives with mutual goal setting and quantifiable objectives (takeuchi, et al., 2007; teo, bentley, and nguyen, 2020), performance appraisals include developmental feedback and learning from mistakes (takeuchi, et al., 2007; akhtar and mittal, 2014; nassani, et al., 2023), incentives are based on team performance (takeuchi, et al., 2007; zhu, gao, and chen, 2022), compensations have a reward system and high wages (takeuchi, et al., 2007; abugre and nasere, 2020), the incentive system is tied to skillbased pay (takeuchi, et al., 2007; zhu, gao, and chen, 2022), having more than one potential position to promote employees to (teo, bentley, and nguyen, 2020), employee appraisals emphasize longterm development, career planning, and groupbased achievements (teo, bentley, and nguyen, 2020; wang, et al., 2021), and giving flexibility in performance appraisals (ni, et al., 2020; nassani, et al., 2023). note. hrm, human resource management; hpws, highperformance work system. project highperformance work system as discussed above, the organizational hpws consists of a system of hrm practices. thus, the phpws can also be predicted as a system of project hrm practices due to the interchangeable nature of both contexts. however, three questions must be answered before conceptualizing this because the organizational and team contexts are two different team performance levels. these questions are as follows: (1) how do we consider a concept of a permanent organizational setting in a similar way to a temporary project setting? (2) can we consider a concept that relates to a team performing in an organizational setting in a similar way to a team performing in a project setting? (3) how does the existing literature on project hrm practices support this argument? the first and second questions can be answered together with the help of the literature on the definition of a project. according to the literature, a project is a temporary project organization (tpo) that has an internal temporary project environment that consists of actions in relation to time, tasks, and teams, as well as the external environment that is linked with making choices relating to the goals, expectations, and control of the permanent organization (miles, 1964; palisi, 1970; goodman and goodman, 1976; goodman, 1981; cleland and kerzner, 1985; lundin and söderholm, 1995; turner and muller, 2003; jacobsson, et al., 2013; marchi and sarcina, 2023). a project is temporary in reality, although both organizations and projects have organizational structures. a project also has the components or variables relating to communication, leadership, and motivation in a similar way to organizations in accordance with the organizational design theories (cyert and march, 1963; packendorff, et al., 1987). the general truth is that the hrm system facilitates employee performance in both organizational and project settings. furthermore, the hrm system generally consists of hrm functions of recruitment and selection, training and development, and performance management in both organizational and project settings. thus, if the hrm system is identified as the hpws in the organizational context, extending the same idea to the gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202548 project context is valid according to these analyses. therefore, the same context of the organizational hpws can be adapted to conceptualize the phpws, keeping the contextuallevel difference. the answer to the third question also supports the above conceptualization. for example, bondarouk and ruel (2008) indicated the influence of a project hrm system on improving the enduser behavior in terms of implementing new software to achieve highperformance information technology projects. bellini and canonico (2008) confirmed the role of the hrm system for the knowledge creation to perform in project settings. furthermore, abuazoom, et al. (2017) also confirmed the theoretical link between the hrm system and enhanced performance in construction projects. the project hrm system enhances performance according to this literature. moreover, the literature provides evidence of three categories of hrm practices that support this argument: the opportunityenhancing hrm practices, such as recruitment and selection; motivationenhancing hrm practices, which comprise activities relating to compensation and incentives for motivating people to perform, such as performance management; and skillenhancing hrm practices, which represent activities relating to enhancing people’s knowledge, skills, and competencies to perform, such as training and development (takeuchi, et al., 2007; jiang, et al., 2012; chowhan, 2016; nelson, et al., 2017). thus, the phpws can be conceptualized as a system of hrm practices similar to the organizational context as the answers to the aforementioned three questions. the next section focuses on the research methodology adopted to test this concept empirically. research methodology research design and strategy this study investigates the research question of what the phpws is for facilitating construction organizations to enable hpts in their construction projects. literature alone was insufficient to answer this question because of the limited available sources, and, thus, it was necessary to collect data from the practical construction industry. generally, the design of a research study depends on the research questions (bryman, 2015; bryman and bell, 2015; saunders, et al., 2016). therefore, it was helpful to identify the aforementioned research question clearly through gaps in the literature in order to adopt an appropriate research methodology. the phpws was adapted through the existing literature on organizational hpwss, as discussed in the literature review section. for this purpose, the assumptions were made about the interchangeable nature of the organizational and project work environments. these assumptions indicate the ontological philosophical position of this study, that is, the nature of the reality of the interchangeable organizational and project environments in which the project teams perform (saunders, et al., 2016). it was necessary to test the model fit of the phpws to confirm this adaptation to the construction project context. accordingly, the variables of the phpws were needed to measure quantitatively for the analysis; hence, it was more appropriate to adopt a quantitative research approach (creswell, 2014; saunders, et al., 2016). accordingly, the phpws variables were measured using a questionnaire survey, based on the belief that its complex teamwork environment in construction projects could be explored through a systematic and simplified approach. this means that the acceptable knowledge on project team performance in the phpws is constituted through direct observable variables that can be quantifiable (bryman, 2015; bryman and bell, 2015). this shows the application of positivist perspectives in terms of the epistemological philosophical position of this research. accordingly, a questionnaire survey among construction project team members was conducted. questionnaire development in order to collect data using the questionnaire survey, the survey instrument had to be developed. if compatible survey instruments are available for the constructs in the related literature, the general research gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202549 practice in the industry will be to use the existing item scales. similarly, the existing survey instrument of the organizational hpws used by takeuchi, et al. (2007) was adapted. the authors’ 21item scale was originally developed by lepak and snell (2002) for the hpws in organizations. as discussed in the literature review, the nature of hrm practices in both organizational and project contexts is similar and interchangeable; thus, it was appropriate to adapt the item scales in the organizational context to the phpws by editing appropriate texts to retain the contextuallevel differences. however, in order to adapt the survey instrument free from bias with validated psychometric properties to minimize the risk, the survey instrument was checked using three theoretical methods used in quantitative research (field, 2009). the existing results of using this survey instrument in the literature were used for this purpose. the first method was to drop the item scales with loading factors below 0.5 using the available exploratory factor analysis (efa) results. accordingly, seven items out of 21 variables were dropped due to loading factors below 0.5 using the results of takeuchi, et al. (2007). generally, researchers used 0.3 or 0.4 as the threshold limit for the item reduction (field, 2009), but 0.5 was used as the threshold limit for this purpose to minimize the risk of adapting the survey instrument from the organizational context to the project. the second test was dropping components for which cronbach’s alpha was below 0.7, but no such components could be found. cronbach’s alpha for the entire survey instrument was (α = 0.90) above the threshold limit of 0.7. the group of items with a negligible percentage of loading compared to the total survey instrument was reduced according to the third method, but no such cases were found either. the final survey instrument to measure the phpws consisted of 14item scales. this was employed with a 5point likert scale ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) in the questionnaire. the final questionnaire also consisted of some demographic questions to collect information on respondents. sample selection the sample selection is very important in a research study in order to have meaningful results to provide valuable implications to the industry. in this study, two selection criteria were used to select a strong sample. the first was the selection of survey respondents who were either working in the construction industry by the time of the survey or had worked in the industry previously, as the research investigation was for developing the phpws for the construction project context. in order to ensure this, the respondents were asked to answer the questions regarding a single construction project and the project team that they were working with at the time of the survey or had previously worked for. if the respondents were outside this scope, they were instructed not to complete the survey before the main questions. the second criterion was the selection of an appropriate sample size for the survey. qualitative research typically focuses on indepth study of relatively small purposeful samples, whereas quantitative methods typically depend on larger random samples (patton, 1990). in terms of quantitative research, the sample size is very important because the strength of the output depends on it (field, 2009). this study used two data analysis methods, the efa and the confirmatory factor analysis (cfa), as discussed in the next section. accordingly, the minimum threshold of 150 responses for both the efa and cfa was decided (guadagnoli and velicer, 1988; field, 2009). in the sample selection, no restrictions were placed on the nature, sector, and value of the projects, or the functions and sizes of the teams, as the research question did not depend on these factors. snowball sampling was used to recruit respondents (naderifar, goli, and ghaljaie, 2017) because no single place was available to undertake sampling of people working in the construction industry around the world. hence, the participants were selected from anywhere in the world through known contacts and networking. gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202550 results survey responses by the time the survey closed, a total of 231 responses were received from the construction industry. thereafter, data screening was conducted in excel with the help of the facility provided by the online survey platform, and data were checked manually. after data preparation activities, as discussed below, the remaining sample for performing both the efa and cfa tests was 221. the final sample consisted of 80% men and 20% women: 97% with educational attainment of a degree or above, 31% from the uk and europe and 61% from asian countries, 42% with more than 5 years of construction industry experience, and 46% working or had worked on projects with a budget of over usd10 million. data analysis strategy the data analysis strategy in this study consisted of three stages. in the first stage, the initial data preparation was undertaken through data screening and missing data analysis. this was carried out manually as well as using the missing data analysis function provided in the ibm spss statistics 28 software (hair, et al. 2010). the efa was employed in the second stage. the efa examines the underlying patterns and relationships of a large number of variables in a dataset and determines whether the information can be condensed or summarized in a smaller set of factors or components (field, 2009). in this study, the phpws was measured using a 14item scale, and 221 responses were used for this test. the item scales of the phpws were adapted from the organizational context. thus, in order to investigate the suitability of variables for the construction project sector, it was appropriate to apply the efa. the researchers also used the efa for item reduction. although the 14item scale that had a reasonably good number of variables was used, the reduction of unloaded items that were not matched with the construction project context was a reason for applying the efa. this test was performed using principal component analysis (pca) with varimax rotation in the ibm spss software. the pca is used in quantitative research to extract important information from a large data table by means of a smaller set of new orthogonal variables called principal components. the displays of the patterns of similarity in these variables can be observed as points in maps in scatter diagrams (abdi and williams, 2010). therefore, the pca can be used to reduce cases by variables in a data table using principal components (greenacre, et al., 2022). the important requirement is applying the pca with appropriate rotation. most researchers undertake factor loading using varimax rotation to adjust the components in a way that makes the loadings either highly positive or negative, or zero, while components are kept uncorrelated or orthogonal (corner, 2009). similarly, the pca with varimax rotation was selected for this study, as it was compatible with the purpose. however, a number of statistical validation checks were conducted to ensure the data validity for drawing research conclusions. the first check was applying the threshold limit of 0.5 kaiser– meyer– olkin (kmo) to measure sampling adequacy to conduct the efa (field, 2009; napitupulu, kadar, and jati, 2017). the second was checking the composite reliability of 0.7 cronbach’s alpha, as this is the common threshold limit used in quantitative research. the communalities in the efa provide information on how much variance the variables have in common or share and sometimes indicate how highly predictable the variables are from one another (pruzek, 2005). the higher the communality value, the more the extracted factors will explain the variance of the item (tavakol and wetzel, 2020). the 0.4 communality threshold limit was used for the item reduction (field, 2009). the third stage of data analysis was conducting the cfa to test the model fit of the phpws with the final item scales remaining after performing the efa. this was conducted using the ibm spss amos 26 graphics software. cfa is a method of uncovering the latent structure between an observed variable and hypothesized underlying constructs (garson 2009). this often involves detecting which variables load onto which factors (kim and mueller, 1978). using the above software, cfa was undertaken to assess the gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202551 goodness of model fit of the phpws. three indices recommended by hu and bentler (1999) and nye (2023) were used to assess the model fit. first, the comparative fit index (cfi) was close to 1.00 (≥0.95), as given by bentler (1990). second, the root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) of browne and cudeck (1993) had a cutoff limit of ≤0.06 or was relaxed to ≤0.1. third, the standardized root mean square residual (srmr) had a cutoff limit of ≤0.06 or was relaxed to ≤0.1. data preparation after data screening with the help of an online survey platform, missing data analysis was conducted. the first step was to manually check in order to drop any response that was missing key demographic information or had a large amount of information. through this manual audit, 10 responses were dropped, and six of them were totally empty. the reason for this may be that the respondents, after reading the initial instructions, abandoned the survey regarding a construction project to which they were linked or they might be from other project sectors. the second step was to use the missing value analysis option in the ibm spss statistics 28 software. in the results, the percentage of missing each item was checked with the threshold limit of dropping items that missed more than 10% of the required information (hair, et al., 2010). none of the items had to be dropped, and the missing percentage was within the range of 0.5% to 1.4% where four items had shown 1.4%. the pattern of missing data was checked using the missing completely at random (mcar) test in the spss software. it was confirmed that the missing data pattern was mcar because little’s overall test of missing data was not significant (little’s mcar test: chi square = 142.290, df = 120, significance = 0.081), showing a score above 0.05 (tabachnick and fidell, 2007). next, data imputation was undertaken using expectation maximization in spss. the remaining sample after completing data preparation for applying the efa was 221 responses. exploratory factor analysis results the efa was conducted using pca with varimax rotation in the ibm spss software. the kmo measure of sampling adequacy for this phpws survey instrument was 0.820, and, thus, the selected sample fulfilled the threshold limit of 0.5 (field, 2009). this means that the data collection sample was sufficient to draw valid conclusions in this study. the scree plot was also satisfactory, as shown in figure 1. the efa results indicated that all item scales were loaded meaningfully, as shown in table 2. two variables that had not been loaded properly were dropped using the threshold limit of 0.4 as used in many quantitative research studies (field, 2009). the final survey instrument of the phpws consisted of 12item scales for the construction project context. the final phpws survey instrument had cronbach’s alpha of 0.804, and this was greater than the 0.7 threshold limit. according to the scree plot (see figure 1), there may be a possibility to identify three components, although the diagram does not show significant differences from the second component onward. the results presented eigenvalues of 4.216 (30.1%), 1.462 (10.4%), and 1.276 (9.1%) for the initial three components in terms of using 1.0 as the threshold limit of an eigenvalue. however, none of them was loaded meaningfully, showing distinctively different components of the phpws due to overlaps between them in both the component matrix and the rotated component matrix, as shown in table 3. therefore, the survey instrument did not confirm meaningful components of the phpws applicable to the construction project sector. thus, the phpws consisting of 12item scales was taken as a single construct without components to test its model fit when applying the cfa. confirmatory factor analysis results the cfa was performed using the ibm spss amos 26 graphics software to test the model fit of the phpws in accordance with the data analysis strategy described above. the test was carried out using the 12item scale of the phpws that remained after the efa. the model fit of the phpws was tested as a gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202552 figure 1. pca scree plot of the phpws. pca, principal component analysis; phpws, project high performance work system. table 2. efa results of the phpws item scale communalities 1. job roles are designed around team members’ skills and capabilities 0.452 2. selection of team members is comprehensive (i.e., uses interviews and tests) 0.522 3. selection emphasizes team members’ ability to collaborate and work in teams 0.578 4. selection involves screening many job candidates 0.334* 5. selection places priority on team members’ potential to learn (e.g., aptitude) 0.431 6. training is continuous 0.464 7. training programs are comprehensive 0.560 8. training programs emphasize onthejob experiences 0.425 9. performance is based on objective, quantifiable results 0.570 10. performance appraisals include management by objective with mutual goal setting 0.662 11. performance appraisals include developmental feedback 0.464 12. incentives are based on team performance 0.337* 13. our compensations include high wages 0.553 14. the incentive system is tied to skillbased pay 0.601 note. efa, exploratory factor analysis; phpws, project highperformance work system. *dropped due to the below threshold limit of 0.4 (field, 2009). gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202553 figure 2. histogram of the phpws. phpws, project highperformance work system. table 3. component matrix and rotated component matrix of efa for the phpws item scale component matrix rotated component matrix component 1 component 2 component 3 component 1 component 2 component 3 1 0.579 −0.342 −0.014 0.518 0.026 0.428 2 0.640 −0.214 −0.257 0.675 0.131 0.220 3 0.493 −0.336 −0.471 0.755 −0.080 0.042 4 0.520 −0.127 −0.218 0.539 0.144 0.151 5 0.574 −0.0140 −0.286 0.624 0.153 0.133 6 0.570 0.290 −0.236 0.446 0.515 −0.024 7 0.647 0.298 −0.230 0.492 0.564 0.015 8 0.649 0.064 0.011 0.415 0.404 0.300 9 0.510 −0.269 0.488 0.119 0.120 0.736 10 0.529 −0.326 0.525 0.128 0.088 0.799 11 0.530 −0.226 0.363 0.201 0.148 0.634 12 0.402 0.333 0.254 −0.001 0.528 0.24 13 0.429 0.599 0.102 0.028 0.743 0.021 14 0.545 0.524 0.171 0.086 0.753 0.163 note. efa, exploratory factor analysis; phpws, project highperformance work system. gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202554 table 4. results of cfa model identification/index model value cutoff value degrees of freedom (df) 55 >0 chisquare test (χ2) 180.257 (χ2 = 0.000) ≥0.05 comparative fit index (cfi) 0.776 ≥0.95 or relaxed to 0.90 tucker– lewis index (tli) 0.731 ≥0.95 or relaxed to 0.90 root mean square error of approximation (rmsea) 0.102 ≤0.06 or relaxed to ≤0.1 standardized root mean square residual (srmr) 0.049 ≤0.06 or relaxed to ≤0.1 note. cfa, confirmatory factor analysis. figure 3. path diagram of cfa. cfa, confirmatory factor analysis. gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202555 single construct because no components could be identified using the efa. the histogram plot was also checked (see figure 2) to confirm the normal distribution before conducting the cfa (hair, et al., 2010). table 4 and figure 3 show the path diagram and the results of this test. according to the results, the degree of freedom was above zero (df > 0). this gave a good sign, indicating that the model could be estimated and that the model fit could be assessed (hu and bentler, 1999; nye, 2023). next, the results of a few model fit indices were checked, rather than being limited to one index (see table 4). the results of the cfi and tucker– lewis index (tli) were close to 1.00 in a reasonably satisfactory way but indicated 0.776 and 0.731, respectively, slightly below the cutoff limit of ≥0.95 or were relaxed to 0.90 (hu and bentler, 1999; nye, 2023). however, the results of the rmsea were marginally satisfactory, showing the value of 0.102, approximately fulfilling the cutoff limit of ≤0.06 or was relaxed to ≤0.1 (hu and bentler, 1999; nye, 2023). the model fit was successfully satisfactory, showing the srmr index value of 0.049, fulfilling the cutoff limit of ≤0.06 or was relaxed to ≤0.1 (hu and bentler, 1999; nye, 2023). the model fit can be confirmed according to these indications. however, these results are further discussed in the discussion of findings section because the cfa model fit indices depend on many factors. discussion of findings the key finding of this study is the confirmation of the phpws as a single construct that consists of variables of hrm practices that are relevant to the construction project context. this lends credibility to the authors who have contributed to developing this concept in the literature (see table 1 and literature review). as discussed in the introduction, there are a plethora of studies in the literature regarding the organizational hpws, but only limited attention has been given to identifying the variables of the phpws, particularly for the construction project context. as such, this study developed the phpws, adapted from the organizational hpws, to be further validated with primary data from practical projects while retaining the contextuallevel difference. as discussed in the literature review, three questions were answered, supporting the concept for this adaptation and giving credibility for the authors who contributed to theory development in terms of tpos and organizational design in the literature (e.g., cyert and march, 1963; miles, 1964; palisi, 1970; goodman and goodman, 1976; goodman, 1981; cleland and kerzner, 1985; packendorff, et al., 1987; lundin and söderholm, 1995; turner and muller, 2003; jacobsson, et al., 2013; marchi and sarcina, 2023). the findings in this study confirm the conceptualization of the phpws as the project hrm system as the same in organizations. this finding adds value to the noteworthy contributions in the literature (e.g., takeuchi, et al., 2007; bellini and canonico, 2008; bondarouk and ruel, 2008; jiang, et al., 2012; chowhan, 2016; abuazoom, et al., 2017; nelson, et al., 2017). the efa results confirmed the phpws as a single construct that consists of 12 variables, acknowledging the original authors who developed or further validated this survey instrument in the literature (lepak and snell, 2002; takeuchi, et al., 2007). although factor rotation through pca indicated the possibility of identifying a few components according to efa results, the factors were not meaningfully loaded to identify distinctively different components due to overlaps between components. this may be due to overlapping management contexts in hrm practices that could be further investigated through future research. although the phpws could be confirmed, the cfa results gave slightly contradictory results regarding the model fit of the phpws with the 12item scale (see table 4). the good indication showed df > 0 by confirming that the model could be estimated and the model fit could be assessed. the results also fulfilled at least two model fit indices, while others were approximately fulfilled or showed better indications. the χ2 = 000 (<0.05) was significant, indicating that the model did not fit the data well. both the cfi and tli were also not within the accepted cutoff limits but approximately close to them. however, both the rmsea and srmr fulfilled either accepted or relaxed cutoff limits, confirming the model fit. although the requirements to fulfill the model fit according to the chisquare test were not met, in practice, this is not gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202556 considered a very useful model fit index by most researchers because it can be affected by several factors, such as sample size, model size, distribution of variables, and omission of variables (hayduk, et al., 2007). therefore, the chisquare index cannot be taken as an indication to decide the model fit of the phpws because this study had a relatively small sample size of 221, although it was above the threshold limit. tli is a relative fit index. according to the above discussion related to the chisquare, tli may also not be a good index for this study because it also depends on the sample size. the cfi is a noncentralitybased index that depends on the sample size, but this is less sensitive to sample size than the chisquare. although the cfi value did not fulfill the cutoff limit, it was approximately 0.9. generally, the cfi value ranges from 0 to 1, with higher values indicating a better model fit. however, both the rmsea and srmr indices fulfilled the cutoff or relaxed cutoff limits, and thus, the model fit can be confirmed. the contradictory cfa results may be due to sample size or overlapping between variables, similar to the above discussion on component identification during the efa, or other reasons, and this could be further investigated in future research. the literature shows that the hpws facilitates the enabling process of hpts, and this is built up with a system of hrm practices in the organizational context. the above findings confirmed the same for the project context. this confirmation also adds value to the noteworthy views in the literature, indicating that the hpws depends on employees’ behavior, commitment, empowerment, and relations because the hrm system is directly linked with these aspects (e.g., paragonzález, jiménezjiménez, and martínezlorente, 2019; miao, et al., 2020). however, investigating other aspects that can facilitate the enabling process of hpts in a general project environment could be a future research direction. conclusions this study concluded that the phpws is a single construct that consists of 12item scales of hrm practices, and this study achieved its aims and objectives. this conclusion was made empirically, confirming the adapted phpws from the organizational hpws in the literature. the efa results supported this conclusion by meaningfully loading the factors. although some model fit indices showed slightly unusual values— due to sample size limitations or other factors— the cfa results indicate that the phpws model has an acceptable fit based on reasonably satisfactory indices. in conclusion, the phpws makes a significant contribution to the construction industry. the construction project organizations can understand the importance of implementing the hrm systems with better hrm practices in their projects to facilitate the enabling process of hpts. thus, this finding provides clear evidence and muchneeded clarity on the importance of a strong project hrm system for enabling hpts in construction projects. this research is one of the first studies confirming the phpws for the context of construction projects and, thus, makes a significant theoretical contribution. from the construction management research perspective, this is also an original contribution to the body of knowledge. evidence of the phpws is no longer anecdotal, and the construction organizations and project team managers can identify what aspects are to be prioritized in their hrm system. this paper also contributes to knowledge on the methodological standpoint by providing an empirically validated phpws as a survey instrument with 12 variables. future studies can employ this survey instrument to develop further theories and practices. however, this study had two limitations. the first limitation was the reasonably small sample size for applying the efa and cfa. however, extra care was taken to apply a sample size above the accepted threshold limit. statistical validation tests to confirm the adequacy of the sample size were also checked and had satisfactory results. however, slightly unusual results in terms of a few model fit indices in the cfa, as well as in the process of identifying the components of the phpws through the efa, were detected. this may be either an implication of the overlapping hrm practices between variables in terms of management perspectives or due to other reasons that are outside the scope of this paper. the second limitation was reviewing only the phpws, which consists of hrm practices to enable hpts, as exploring other project gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202557 environmental aspects for this purpose was outside the scope of this study. it is recommended that future studies explore the overlapping variables in the unsatisfied components of the phpws and identify other project environmental aspects to enable hpts. references abdi, h. and williams, l.j., 2010. principal component analysis. wiley interdisciplinary reviews: computational statistics, 2(4), pp.433-459. https://doi.org/10.1002/wics.101 abuazoom, m. m., hanafi, h. b. and ahmad, z. z., 2017. influence of hrm practices on project performance: conceptual framework. international journal of academic research in business and social sciences, 7(3), pp.47-54. abugre, j.b. and nasere, d., 2020. do high-performance work systems mediate the relationship between hr practices and employee performance in multinational corporations (mncs) in developing economies?. african journal of economic and management studies, 11(4), pp.541-557. https://doi.org/10.1108/ajems-01-2019-0028 ahmed, m.o., el-adaway, i.h. and caldwell, a., 2024. comprehensive understanding of factors impacting competitive construction bidding. journal of construction engineering and management, 150(4), p.04024017. https://doi.org/10.1061/ jcemd4.coeng-14090 akhtar, m., mittal, r.k., 2014. strategic flexibility, information system flexibility and enterprise performance management. in organizational flexibility and competitiveness;, springer: berlin/heidelberg, germany, pp. 41-51. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1668-1_4 anjomshoa, e., 2024. key performance indicators of construction companies in branding products and construction projects for success in a competitive environment in iran. engineering, construction and architectural management, 31(5), pp.2151-2175. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2023-0852 ashton, d. n. and sung, j., 2002. supporting workplace learning for high performance working. international labour organization. bellini, e. and canonico, p., 2008. knowing communities in project driven organizations: analysing the strategic impact of socially constructed hrm practices. international journal of project management, 26(1), pp.44-50. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.08.007 bellocchi, a. and travaglini, g., 2023. a quantitative analysis of the european construction sector: productivity, investment, and competitiveness. in digital transitions and innovation in construction value chains, edward elgar, pp.18-48. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803924045.00009 bentler pm., 1990. comparative fit indexes in structural models. psychol bull, 107(2), pp.238–246. https://doi. org/10.1037//0033-2909.107.2.238 bin saeed, b., afsar, b., shahjehan, a. and imad shah, s., 2019. does transformational leadership foster innovative work behavior? the roles of psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and creative process engagement. economic research-ekonomska istrazivanja, 32(1), pp.254-281. https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677x.2018.1556108 blay jnr, a.v.k., kukah, a.s.k., opoku, a. and asiedu, r., 2023. impact of competitive strategies on achieving the sustainable development goals: context of ghanaian construction firms. international journal of construction management, 23(13), pp.2209-2220. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2048343 bolton, a., butler, l., dabson, i., enzer, m., evans, m., fenemore, t., harradence, f., keaney, e., kemp, a., luck, a. and pawsey, n., 2018. gemini principles. bondarouk, t. v. and ruël, h. j., 2008. hrm systems for successful information technology implementation: evidence from three case studies. european management journal, 26(3), pp.153-165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2008.02.001 gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202558 https://doi.org/10.1002/wics.101 https://doi.org/10.1108/ajems-01-2019-0028 https://doi.org/10.1061/jcemd4.coeng-14090 https://doi.org/10.1061/jcemd4.coeng-14090 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-1668-1_4 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2023-0852 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.08.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.08.007 https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803924045.00009 https://doi.org/10.1037//0033-2909.107.2.238 https://doi.org/10.1037//0033-2909.107.2.238 https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677x.2018.1556108 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2048343 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2008.02.001 bowen, d. e. and ostroff, c., 2004. understanding hrm–firm performance linkages: the role of the “strength” of the hrm system. academy of management review, 29(2), pp.203-221. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2004.12736076 boxall, p. and macky, k., 2009. research and theory on high‐performance work systems: progressing the high‐ involvement stream. human resource management journal, 19(1), pp.3-23. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.17488583.2008.00082.x browne, m.w., cudeck, r., 1993. alternative ways of assessing fit. in bollen ka, long js (eds.). testing structural equation models. sage, thousand oaks, ca, pp.136-162. bryman, a., 2015. social research methods. oxford university press, uk. bryman, a. and bell, e., 2015. business research methods. oxford university press, uk. chancellor, w., 2015. drivers of productivity: a case study of the australian construction industry. construction economics and building, 15(3), pp85-97. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i3.4551 chen, z.s., liang, c.z., xu, y.q., pedrycz, w. and skibniewski, m.j., 2024. dynamic collective opinion generation framework for digital transformation barrier analysis in the construction industry. information fusion, 103, p.102096. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.inffus.2023.102096 chiang, y. h. and hsu, c. c., 2012. perceived high performance work system and individual creativity performance in work teams, management of innovation and technology (icmit), ieee international conference, jun 2012, pp.532537. https://doi.org/10.1109/icmit.2012.6225862 chowhan, j., 2016. unpacking the black box: understanding the relationship between strategy, hrm practices, innovation and organizational performance. human resource management journal, 26(2), pp.112-133. https://doi. org/10.1111/1748-8583.12097 cleland, d. i. and kerzner, h., 1985. a project management dictionary of terms, van nostrand reinhold. coggins, j., teng, b. and rameezdeen, r., 2016. construction insolvency in australia: reining in the beast. construction economics and building, 16(3), pp.38-56. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i3.5113 cooke, f.l., cooper, b., bartram, t., wang, j. and mei, h., 2019. mapping the relationships between high-performance work systems, employee resilience and engagement: a study of the banking industry in china. the international journal of human resource management, 30(8), pp.1239-1260. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1137618 corner, s., 2009. choosing the right type of rotation in pca and efa. jalt testing & evaluation sig newsletter, 13(3), pp.20-25. creswell, j. w., 2014. research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. 4th ed. sage publications. cyert, r.m. and march, j.g., 1963. a behavioral theory of the firm. englewood cliffs, nj: prentice hall. danford, a., richardson, m., steward, p., tailby, s. and upchurch, m., 2005. partnership and the high performance workplace: work and employment relations in the aerospace industry. basingstoke: palgrave macmillan. https://doi. org/10.1057/9780230501997 daniel, e.i., pasquire, c., dickens, g. and ballard, h.g., 2017. the relationship between the last planner system and collaborative planning practice in uk construction. engineering, construction and architectural management, 24(3), pp.407-425. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2015-0109 datta, d.k., guthrie, j.p. and wright, p.m., 2005. hrm and labor productivity: does industry matter. academy of management journal. 48(1), pp.135–145. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2005.15993158 de valence, g., 2011. defining an industry: what is the size and scope of the australian building and construction industry. construction economics and building, 1(1), pp.53-65. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v1i1.2280 gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202559 https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2004.12736076 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2008.00082.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2008.00082.x https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i3.4551 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.inffus.2023.102096 https://doi.org/10.1109/icmit.2012.6225862 https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12097 https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12097 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i3.5113 https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2015.1137618 https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230501997 https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230501997 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-07-2015-0109 https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2005.15993158 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v1i1.2280 deep, s., gajendran, t. and jefferies, m., 2021. a systematic review of enablers of collaboration among the participants in construction projects. international journal of construction management, 21(9), pp. 919–931. https://doi.org/10.1080/1 5623599.2019.1596624 estiri, m., heidary dahooie, j., salar vanaki, a., banaitis, a. and binkytė-vėlienė, a., 2021. a multi-attribute framework for the selection of high-performance work systems: the hybrid dematel-mabac model. economic research-ekonomska istraživanja, 34(1), pp.970-997. https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677x.2020.1810093 farrukh, m., khan, m.s., raza, a. and shahzad, i.a., 2021. influence of high-performance work systems on intrapreneurial behavior. journal of science and technology policy management, 12(4), pp.609-626. https://doi. org/10.1108/jstpm-05-2020-0086 field, a., 2009. discovering statistics using spss. 3rd ed. sage publications. fu, n., bosak, j., flood, p.c. and ma, q., 2019. chinese and irish professional service firms compared: linking hpws, organizational coordination, and firm performance. journal of business research, 95, pp.266–276. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.08.021 fu, n., flood, p.c., bosak, j., morris, t., and o’regan, p., 2015. how do high performance work systems influence organizational innovation in professional service firms. employee relations, 37(2), pp.209-231. https://doi.org/10.1108/ er-10-2013-0155 garson, g.d., 2009. factor analysis from statnotes: topics in multivariate analysis. available at http://faculty.chass. ncsu.edu/garson/pa765/statnote.htm gong, y., chang, s. and cheung, s.y., 2010. high performance work system and collective ocb: a collective social exchange perspective. human resource management journal, 20(2), pp.119-137. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.17488583.2010.00123.x goodman, a. and goodman, l.p., 1976. some management issues in temporary systems: a study of professional development and manpower-the theatre case. administrative science quarterly, 21(3), pp.494-501. https://doi. org/10.2307/2391857 goodman, r.a., 1981. temporary systems: professional development, manpower utilization, task effectiveness, and innovation. new york: praeger. greenacre, m., groenen, p.j., hastie, t., d’enza, a.i., markos, a. and tuzhilina, e., 2022. principal component analysis. nature reviews methods primers, 2(1), p.100. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-022-00184-w guadagnoli, e. and velicer, w.f., 1988. relation to sample size to the stability of component patterns. psychological bulletin, 103(2), p.265. https://doi.org/10.1037//0033-2909.103.2.265 guest, d.e. and bos-nehles, a.c., 2013. hrm and performance: the role of effective implementation. in hrm and performance: achievements and challenges, wiley-blackwell, pp.79-96. guthrie, j.p., 2001. high involvement work practices, turnover and productivity: evidence from new zealand. academy of management journal, 44(1), pp.180-190. https://doi.org/10.2307/3069345 guthrie, j.p., flood, p.c., liu, w. and maccurtain, s., 2009. high performance work systems in ireland: human resource and organizational outcomes. the international journal of human resource management, 20(1), pp.112-125. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802528433 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j., anderson, r.e. and tatham, r.l., 2010. multivariate data analysis, 7th ed. pearson. new jersey. han, j., sun, j.m. and wang, h.l., 2020. do high performance work systems generate negative effects? how and when?. human resource management review, 30(2), p.100699. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2019.100699 gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202560 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1596624 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1596624 https://doi.org/10.1080/1331677x.2020.1810093 https://doi.org/10.1108/jstpm-05-2020-0086 https://doi.org/10.1108/jstpm-05-2020-0086 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.08.021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2018.08.021 https://doi.org/10.1108/er-10-2013-0155 https://doi.org/10.1108/er-10-2013-0155 http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/pa765/statnote.htm http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/garson/pa765/statnote.htm https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2010.00123.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2010.00123.x https://doi.org/10.2307/2391857 https://doi.org/10.2307/2391857 https://doi.org/10.1038/s43586-022-00184-w https://doi.org/10.1037//0033-2909.103.2.265 https://doi.org/10.2307/3069345 https://doi.org/10.1080/09585190802528433 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2019.100699 hassett, m.p., 2022. the effect of access to training and development opportunities, on rates of work engagement, within the us federal workforce. public personnel management, 51(3), pp.380-404. https://doi. org/10.1177/00910260221098189 hayduk, l., cummings, g., boadu, k., pazderka-robinson, h. and boulianne, s., 2007. testing! testing! one, two, three–testing the theory in structural equation models!. personality and individual differences, 42(5), pp.841-850. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.10.001 hu, l. and bentler, p.m., 1999. cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. structural equation modelling, 6 (1), pp.1-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 hughes, j., 2008. the high-performance paradigm: a review and evaluation. learning as work research paper no. 16. cardiff: cardiff university school of social sciences. huselid, m.a., 1995. the impact of human resource management practices on turnover, productivity, and corporate financial performance. academy of management journal, 38, pp.635-672. https://doi.org/10.2307/256741 jacobsson, m., burström, t. and wilson, t.l., 2013. the role of transition in temporary organizations: linking the temporary to the permanent. international journal of managing projects in business, 6(3), pp.576-586 https://doi. org/10.1108/ijmpb-12-2011-0081 jiang, k., lepak, d.p., hu, j. and baer, j.c., 2012. how does human resource management influence organizational outcomes: a metaanalytic investigation of mediating mechanisms, academy of management journal, 55(6), pp.1264-1294. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2011.0088 jo, h., aryee, s., hsiung, h.h. and guest, d., 2023. service-oriented high-performance work systems and service role performance: applying an integrated extended self and psychological ownership framework. human relations, 76(1), pp.168-196. https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267211035656 katou, a., 2011. test of a causal human resource management-performance linkage model: evidence from the greek manufacturing sector. international journal of business science & applied management (ijbsam), 6(1), pp.16-29. https:// doi.org/10.69864/ijbsam.6-1.64 kehoe, r.r. and wright, p.m., 2013. the impact of high-performance human resource practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. journal of management, 39(2), pp.366-391. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310365901 kim, j.o. and mueller, c.w., 1978. factor analysis: statistical methods and practical issues. sage. https://doi. org/10.4135/9781412984256 lepak, d.p. and snell, s.a., 2002. examining the human resource architecture: the relationships among human capital, employment, and human resource configurations. journal of management, 28, pp.517-543. https://doi.org/10.1016/ s0149-2063(02)00142-3 liu, y., gan, l., cai, w. and li, r., 2024. decomposition and decoupling analysis of carbon emissions in china’s construction industry using the generalized divisia index method. environmental impact assessment review, 104, p.107321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107321 lópez-malest, a., gabor, m.r., panait, m., brezoi, a. and veres, c., 2024. green innovation for carbon footprint reduction in construction industry. buildings, 14(2), p.374. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14020374 lundin, r.a. and söderholm, a., 1995. a theory of the temporary organization, scandinavian journal of management, 11(4), pp.437-455. https://doi.org/10.1016/0956-5221(95)00036-u macduffie, j., 1995. human resource bundles and manufacturing performance: organizational logic and flexible production systems in the world auto industry. ilr review, 48(2), pp.197-221. https://doi. org/10.1177/001979399504800201 gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202561 https://doi.org/10.1177/00910260221098189 https://doi.org/10.1177/00910260221098189 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2006.10.001 https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 https://doi.org/10.2307/256741 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-12-2011-0081 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-12-2011-0081 https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2011.0088 https://doi.org/10.1177/00187267211035656 https://doi.org/10.69864/ijbsam.6-1.64 https://doi.org/10.69864/ijbsam.6-1.64 https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206310365901 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412984256 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412984256 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0149-2063(02)00142-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0149-2063(02)00142-3 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eiar.2023.107321 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14020374 https://doi.org/10.1016/0956-5221(95)00036-u https://doi.org/10.1177/001979399504800201 https://doi.org/10.1177/001979399504800201 marchi, s. and sarcina, r., 2023. temporariness in appreciative reflection: managing participatory and appreciative, action and reflection projects through temporary organizations. in enabling reflective learning in lifelong career guidance, routledge, pp.9-26. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003416852-2 miao, r., lu, l., cao, y. and du, q., 2020. the high-performance work system, employee voice, and innovative behavior: the moderating role of psychological safety. international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(4), p.1150. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17041150 miles, m.b., 1964. on temporary systems. in: miles, m. b. (ed.), innovation in education, new york: teachers college press, pp.437-490. naderifar, m., goli, h. and ghaljaie, f., 2017. snowball sampling: a purposeful method of sampling in qualitative research. strides in development of medical education, 14(3). https://doi.org/10.5812/sdme.67670 napitupulu, d., kadar, j.a. and jati, r.k., 2017. validity testing of technology acceptance model based on factor analysis approach. indonesian journal of electrical engineering and computer science, 5(3), pp.697-704. https://doi. org/10.11591/ijeecs.v5.i3.pp697-704 nassani, a.a., hussain, h., rosak-szyrocka, j., vasa, l., yousaf, z. and haffar, m., 2023. analyzing the leading role of high-performance work system towards strategic business performance. sustainability, 15(7), p.5697. https://doi. org/10.3390/su15075697 nelson, s., white, c.f., hodges, b.d. and tassone, m., 2017. interprofessional team training at the prelicensure level: a review of the literature. academic medicine, 92(5), pp.709-716. https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0000000000001435 ni, g.; xu, h.; cui, q.; qiao, y.; zhang, z.; li, h., hickey, p.j., 2020. influence mechanism of organizational flexibility on enterprise competitiveness: the mediating role of organizational innovation. sustainability, 13, p.176. https://doi. org/10.3390/su13010176 nye, c.d., 2023. reviewer resources: confirmatory factor analysis. organizational research methods, 26(4), pp.608-628. https://doi.org/10.1177/10944281221120541 ogbonnaya, c., daniels, k., connolly, s. and van veldhoven, m., 2017. integrated and isolated impact of highperformance work practices on employee health and well-being: a comparative study. journal of occupational health psychology, 22(1), p.98. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000027 ogbonnaya, c. and valizade, d., 2018. high performance work practices, employee outcomes and organizational performance: a 2-1-2 multilevel mediation analysis. the international journal of human resource management, 29(2), pp.239-259. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1146320 olatunji, o. a. and sher, w., 2014. perspectives on modelling bim-enabled estimating practices. construction economics and building, 14(4), pp.32-53. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i4.4102 omopariola, e.d., olanrewaju, o.i., albert, i., oke, a.e. and ibiyemi, s.b., 2024. sustainable construction in the nigerian construction industry: unsustainable practices, barriers and strategies. journal of engineering, design and technology, 22(4), pp.1158-1184. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-11-2021-0639 packendorff, j., lundin, i.r. and packendorff, j., 1987. temporary organizing: integrating organization theory and project management. project management, pp.21-41. pak, j. and kim, s., 2016. team manager’s implementation, high performance work systems intensity, and performance: a multilevel investigation. journal of management. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206316646829 palisi, b. j., 1970. some suggestions about the transitory-permanence dimension of organizations. british journal of sociology, 21, pp.200-206. https://doi.org/10.2307/588408 gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202562 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003416852-2 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17041150 https://doi.org/10.5812/sdme.67670 https://doi.org/10.11591/ijeecs.v5.i3.pp697-704 https://doi.org/10.11591/ijeecs.v5.i3.pp697-704 https://doi.org/10.3390/su15075697 https://doi.org/10.3390/su15075697 https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0000000000001435 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010176 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010176 https://doi.org/10.1177/10944281221120541 https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000027 https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1146320 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i4.4102 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-11-2021-0639 https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206316646829 https://doi.org/10.2307/588408 para-gonzález, l., jiménez-jiménez, d. and martínez-lorente, á.r., 2019. do shrm and hpws shape employees’ affective commitment and empowerment. in evidence-based hrm: a global forum for empirical scholarship, emerald publishing limited, 7(3), pp.300-324. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebhrm-01-2019-0004 patton, m.q., 1990. qualitative evaluation and research methods. sage publications, inc. pruzek, r., 2005. factor analysis: exploratory. encyclopedia of statistics in behavioral science. https://doi. org/10.1002/0470013192.bsa211 rani, n.i.a., ismail, s., mohamed, z. and mat isa, c.m., 2023. competitiveness framework of local contractors in the malaysian construction industry towards globalisation and liberalisation. international journal of construction management, 23(3), pp.553-564. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1895485 sankaran, s., müller, r., and drouin, n., 2020. creating a sustainability sublime to enable megaprojects to meet the united nations sustainable development goals. systems research and behavioral science, 37(5), pp.813–826. https://doi. org/10.1002/sres.2744 saunders, m.n., lewis, p. and thornhill, a., 2016. research methods for business students, 7th ed. pearson education, harlaw, england. shin, d. and konrad, a.m., 2017. causality between high-performance work systems and organizational performance. journal of management, 43(4), pp.973-997. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314544746 siddique, m., procter, s. and gittell, j.h., 2019. the role of relational coordination in the relationship between highperformance work systems (hpws) and organizational performance. journal of organizational effectiveness: people and performance, 6(4), pp.246-266. https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-04-2018-0029 statista., 2019. construction industry spending worldwide from 2014 to 2019, with forecasts from 2020 to 2035. https://www.statista.com/statistics/788128/construction-spending-worldwide/ tabachnick, b.g. and fidell, l.s., 2007. experimental designs using anova, belmont, ca: thomson/brooks/cole. takeuchi, r., chen, g. and lepak, d.p., 2009. through the looking glass of a social system: cross‐level effects of high‐ performance work systems on employees’ attitudes. personnel psychology, 62(1), pp.1-29. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.17446570.2008.01127.x takeuchi, r., lepak, d.p., wang, h. and takeuchi, k., 2007. an empirical examination of the mechanisms mediating between high-performance work systems and the performance of japanese organizations. journal of applied psychology, 92(4), p.1069. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.4.1069 tavakol, m. and wetzel, a., 2020. factor analysis: a means for theory and instrument development in support of construct validity. international journal of medical education, 11, p.245. https://doi.org/10.5116/ijme.5f96.0f4a teo, s.t., bentley, t. and nguyen, d., 2020. psychosocial work environment, work engagement, and employee commitment: a moderated, mediation model. international journal of hospitality management, 88, p.102415. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2019.102415 turner, j.r. and müller, r., 2003. on the nature of the project as a temporary organization. international journal of project management, 21(1), pp.1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(02)00020-0 van de voorde, k., paauwe, j. and van veldhoven, m., 2012. employee well‐being and the hrm organizational performance relationship: a review of quantitative studies. international journal of management reviews, 14(4), pp.391407. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00322.x wang, y., cao, y., xi, n., chen, h., 2021. high-performance work system, strategic flexibility, and organizational performance. the moderating role of social networks, 12, p.670132. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.670132 gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202563 https://doi.org/10.1108/ebhrm-01-2019-0004 https://doi.org/10.1002/0470013192.bsa211 https://doi.org/10.1002/0470013192.bsa211 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1895485 https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.2744 https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.2744 https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314544746 https://doi.org/10.1108/joepp-04-2018-0029 https://www.statista.com/statistics/788128/construction-spending-worldwide/ https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2008.01127.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2008.01127.x https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.92.4.1069 https://doi.org/10.5116/ijme.5f96.0f4a https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2019.102415 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2019.102415 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(02)00020-0 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2370.2011.00322.x https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.670132 zhang, b., liu, l., cooke, f.l., zhou, p., sun, x., zhang, s., sun, b. and ba, y., 2022. the boundary conditions of highperformance work systems-organizational citizenship behavior relationship: a multiple-perspective exploration in the chinese context. organizational psychology, 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.743457 zheng, x., deng, j., song, x., ye, m. and luo, l., 2024. examining the nonlinear relationships of corporate social responsibility, innovation and construction firm performance: the moderating role of construction firms’ competitive position. engineering, construction and architectural management, 31(4), pp.1517-1538. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ecam-03-2022-0286 zhu, f., gao, y. and chen, x., 2022. tough love: impact of high-performance work system on employee innovation behavior. frontiers in psychology, 13, p.919993. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.919993 gunathilaka et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202564 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.743457 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-03-2022-0286 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-03-2022-0286 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.919993 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: zighan, s., and abualqumboz, m. 2021. a project lifecycle readiness approach to manage construction waste in jordan. construction economics and building, 21:3, 58–79. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v21i3.7628 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021 article (peer reviewed) a project lifecycle readiness approach to manage construction waste in jordan saad zighan1, moheeb abualqumboz2 1 faculty of administrative and financial sciences, university of petra, amman, jordan, szighan@uop.edu.jo 2 salford business school, university of salford, manchester, m5 4wt, uk, m.abualqumboz@ salford.ac.uk corresponding author: moheeb abualqumboz, salford business school, university of salford, manchester, m5 4wt, uk, m.abualqumboz@salford.ac.uk doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7628 article history: received: 14/03/2021; revised: 24/06/2021 & 22/07/2021; accepted: 23/07/2021; published: 10/09/2021 abstract the construction industry is wellknown for generating the largest amount of waste amongst other industries, which significantly pollutes the environment. this study, therefore, examines the causes and sources of waste in construction projects, considering activities, inputs, and outputs of each phase of the construction projects’ lifecycle (i.e., concept, definition, deployment, and transition). thirty semistructured interviews were conducted with professionals in construction projects in jordan, including architects, contractors, and project administrators. the findings reveal that waste resulting from construction projects passes across several organized operations from generation to final disposal. furthermore, waste is generated in small amounts at the early stages of the project construction but grows as the project progresses towards the end. this paper’s key contribution is to supplement the literature on waste management solutions by providing a holistic approach to tackling waste at its root by including waste management strategies across the project lifecycle phases, not only during the construction phase. this is done with a management readiness view to develop a suitable strategy for construction waste minimization and improve the management of construction projects. this study’s practical implication is providing a holistic waste management framework for practitioners to adopt in the early stages of the project. 58 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7628 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7628 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7628 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:szighan@uop.edu.jo mailto:m.abualqumboz@salford.ac.uk mailto:m.abualqumboz@salford.ac.uk mailto:m.abualqumboz@salford.ac.uk http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7628 keywords construction projects; waste management; environmental sustainability; sustainable project management; project lifecycle introduction the high volume of waste generated by construction projects is a serious economic, environmental and social challenge (sarhan, et al., 2019). construction waste results from construction activities, such as site mobilization, excavation, new building, renovation, refurbishment, deconstruction, demolition, and destruction (lu, yuan and xue, 2021). it is primarily clustered into physical and nonphysical waste. physical waste is mainly broken concrete, bricks, metals, and other materials. the nonphysical waste includes nonvalueadded activities in the project design, execution, procurement, and material handling (foo, et al., 2013). despite the abundance of research on waste management, construction projects still generate large amounts of waste in different forms, such as wood, plastics, paper, metals, concrete, stone, rubber, and gypsum (tam, soomro and evangelista, 2018; mahpour and mortaheb, 2018). in 2016, the eu generated 2,538 million tons of waste, of which 25%30% was construction waste. in the uk alone, construction waste generated 66 million tons in 2016 (government statistical service, 2019). in jordan, construction projects generated 30 million tons of waste received at the landfills. moreover, the construction sector accounts for 40% of energy consumption and 12% of freshwater usage and produces up to 40% of annual solid waste. a high percentage of this waste might have been seared on location or transported to landfills (alawneh, et al., 2019). the increased interest in construction waste research comes with realizing that construction activities use 50% of natural resources, which comprise 15% of water and up to 45% of power and energy. in addition, around 50% of construction materials are mined from the ground, and 25% of lumber is used in construction projects (yeheyis, et al., 2013). thus, managing construction waste is a critical issue for policymakers, researchers and practitioners worldwide (dolla and laishram, 2019). this paper uses the project lifecycle approach to better manage the waste of construction projects. the project lifecycle provides a structured approach to project progress (association for project management, 2019). despite the interconnection and high dependability between the project lifecycle phases, each phase of the project lifecycle has clearly defined activities, inputs, and outputs (zighan, 2020). each phase of the project lifecycle generates different types of waste for different reasons and from different sources (cf. ding, et al., 2018; tam, et al., 2007). according to akinade, et al. (2018), the main objective of managing construction waste is to use construction materials to their fullest potential, reduce consumption, minimize disposal, and at the same time ensure a proper level of environmental protection and sustainability. in previous years, several research studies on wasteconnected construction have been carried out. osmani (2011) suggests that most of these studies are reactive and oriented toward recycling and reusing waste when it is generated. these studies investigated waste quantification and onsite waste recycling in order to divert construction waste away from landfill. hence, methods, tools, and techniques have been advanced to better handle and deal with the waste of construction projects (akinade, et al., 2018, davis, et al., 2021, ding, et al., 2018). several attempts have also been made to outline construction waste and decode its management practices, intending to minimize the quantity of waste and increase recovery rates (herrera, et al., 2020). mcgrath (2001) proposed a waste minimization instrument known as “smart waste.” this instrument was developed as a standard to review, decrease and mark the waste of construction projects to improve the recovery of construction project materials. (yuan 2013) used swot analysis to analyze construction waste in shenzhen, china, and suggested several strategies to manage waste while considering internal and external factors that contribute zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202159 and/or limit the operability of these strategies. ding, et al. (2018) used a system dynamics approach to assess construction waste reduction during the project design and implementation phases and suggested several practices to alleviate construction waste generation. mak, et al. (2019) used system dynamics to inform policymakers on the optimal charging fees for construction waste disposal. using technological approaches, specifically bim, akinade, et al. (2018) suggested several factors that stakeholders expect from this technology to reduce construction waste. nevertheless, the research trend of construction waste management is mainly directed by the hierarchy values of waste, controlled by the ‘endofpipe’ subject (hamid, skinder and bhat, 2020). some studies also attempted to minimize construction projects’ waste by focusing on preventing waste during the project design phase (cf. mak, et al., 2019; wang, li and tam, 2015). these research endeavours have been focused either on generic construction management and the design phase or a scattered focus on project phases. however, there has been very little research on managing construction waste from the cradle to the grave (from the conception phase to the project’s closing phase). few studies have considered the project’s characteristics, especially the transition of project activities from phase to phase during the project lifecycle i.e., initiating, planning, building, and closing, given that each phase could generate different types of waste for different reasons. for example, osmani (2013) presented a framework detailing sources and causes of waste across the project lifecycle. however, and more importantly, amongst the very few research articles that aimed to provide a project lifecycle approach to waste management, there is no attempt to provide a readiness lens that shows how projects can be prepared at each phase to manage the various types of wastes that may arise and proactively tackle the causes of such wastes. therefore, this study relies on the project management approach to analyze construction waste management across the phases of the project lifecycle to improve the management of construction waste by outlining causes for waste and strategies to tackle them at each phase along the project lifecycle. in determining the scope of this study and guiding the research process, three main questions have been posed. q1: what kind of waste can be produced during the construction project lifecycle? q2: what are the sources of this waste? q3: how can this waste be managed at its various sources? as a response to these questions, qualitativebased research has been adopted. the paper starts with a review of the existing literature; then, the research method is described. the main findings are then presented through an examination of the collected data. finally, the outcomes of this examination will be discussed, the study questions will be answered, and the study’s conclusion will be drawn. in the next section, a brief outline of the construction industry and its characteristics are presented. literature review the lifecycle of the construction project project management is seen as a reflection of management functions, which involve planning, organizing, leading, and controlling the project phases to achieve a specific goal within exact predefined specifications (atkinson, crawford and ward, 2006). each project goes through a chain of recognizable phases, where it is born, develops, and then delivers (zighan, bamford and reid, 2018). while there might be some overlap throughout the phases, the work usually moves from the primary phase to the final phase. one singlephase provides the base for work conducted in the phase that follows the project lifecycle (renuka, umarani and kamal, 2014). in the project management literature, there are various views regarding the number of phases that a project goes through, varying from at least three phases to six phases (zighan, 2020). in such a lifecycle, zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202160 each phase involves a collection of demarcating rituals before it transitions into another phase (van den ende and van marrewijk, 2014). while this linear transition has been criticized for being incapable of dynamically engaging with complex projects, the project lifecycle remains a powerful tool to visualize transitioning projects from concept to handover ( javed, bamford and abualqumboz, 2020). traditionally, a typical construction project consists of four main phases: initiating, planning, construction, and closure. each phase has its own schedule of tasks, resources, characteristics, and purposes, with varying degrees of definition (van den ende and van marrewijk, 2014). figure 1 below shows the different phases of the construction project lifecycle. figure 1. project lifecycle adapted from apm body of knowledge 7th edition (source: association for project management, 2019) construction waste management construction waste arises from renovation, construction, and the demolition actions of public, residential, and industrial construction projects. waste can be classified according to the type of materials used or by the various operational activities in the project (ding, et al., 2018). generally, the term waste refers to a substance or material that is discarded or is to be discarded. waste is also referred to as a byproduct that is removed or rejected due to it being no longer valuable or essential after construction operations have ended (davis, et al., 2021). waste may also take the form of excess and ruined goods and ingredients that result from construction work or materials used temporarily through the process of onsite actions (poon, ann and ng, 2001). from another perspective, waste can also be defined as unnecessary activities, extra effort, unproductive use of time, along with costs or resources that have been expended extravagantly, carelessly, or to no ultimate aim (lu, yuan and xue, 2021). thus, construction waste can be grouped into either physical or nonphysical waste (foo, et al., 2013). physical waste is a combination of noninert and inert materials arising from building, makeovers, excavations, road repairs, destruction, and other constructionrelated actions. for example, some of this waste constitutes actual wreckage, diverse kinds of blocks and bricks, many kinds of plastic materials, tiles, wood, paper, steel reinforcement, and glass, in addition to soil and stones (nagapan, rahman and asmi, 2012). on the other hand, nonphysical waste refers to nonvalueadded actions. the term nonvalueadded actions separates onsite physical construction waste and other waste produced by the project lifecycle and construction preparations (foo, et al., 2013). this kind of waste is also known as imperceptible waste, nonphysical waste, or indirect waste (nagapan, rahman and asmi, 2012). womack and jones (1997) define this waste as any human action that captivates properties but creates no value, such as errors that zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202161 involve alteration, the construction of objects that no one needs, procedure phases that are not required, underutilization of workforces, and time wasted waiting for the conclusion of upstream activities. in order to map waste in construction projects, various techniques have been developed to classify the root causes of construction waste. for example, davis, et al. (2021), using a deep learning tool that scans digital images of construction waste bins, classified construction waste into the operational, design, management of materials, and determining the waste’s origin. saleem, et al. (2018) describe waste in the design phase resulting from errors in contract clauses or due to incomplete contract documents. inefficient procurement management was found to be the primary source of preconstruction waste since it generates the most waste during the construction phase. mak, et al. (2019) identified several causes of table 1. summary of waste management research main focus key findings/main contribution representative research sustainable building introduced sustainable waste control practices, including reduction, recovery, reuse, and recycling lu, et al., 2019; chi, et al., 2020 factors affecting the project’s waste explored the critical waste factors affecting the construction projects performance during the construction phase nikmehr, et al., 2017; yuan, wu and zuo, 2018 using system dynamics the study simulated the environmental benefit assessment of construction waste during design and construction phases ding, et al., 2018 waste quantification models a bimbased waste prediction tool that largely depends on analytical waste quantification models to compute the waste quantity generated from construction projects, mainly during the design phase guerra, et al., 2019 zero waste to landfill an environmentfriendly philosophy involving reducing the amount of waste that ends up in landfills during the construction phase. the zerowaste journey involves a strong commitment to waste eliminating and treating hamid, skinder and bhat, 2020. circular economy better resources management through a regenerative system aiming at keeping materials in a closed loop at their highest value. in this model, materials at the end project should be reused and deconstructed to act as banks of material banks for new projects, keeping the components and materials in a closed loop esa, halog and rigamonti, 2017; mahpour, 2018 lean construction management lean construction is concerned with designing and managing construction projects in reducing waste using continuous improvements and value stream mapping in the construction phase nikakhtar, et al., 2015 critical design factors minimizing waste during the design phase by standardizing the material size and using modern methods of construction. ajayi and oyedele, 2018; akinade, et al., 2018 zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202162 project waste, including construction project complexity and communication and coordination difficulties. these difficulties result from the multipenalizing nature of construction projects where the data that goes to contractors is adjustable and open to misunderstanding, which inevitably generates waste. likewise, osmani, glass and price (2008) stated that ‘waste [is] accepted as inevitable’ and a ‘lack of training’ results in challenges for architects in managing waste. yet, many researchers have barely concentrated on the root causes of waste and its effects in both a holistic and proactive approach (esin and cosgun, 2007; kofoworola and gheewala, 2009; saleem, et al., 2018). besides, prior studies have concentrated on waste administration (e.g., lockrey, et al., 2016) and effectively offered rules for waste recycling and reclaiming as a method of waste administration. nevertheless, they generally focused on rules for handling waste after it has been produced. table 1 below shows that while there have been many studies on construction waste, osmani (2011) could only be noticed to have presented a project lifecycle approach to waste management in the uk. therefore, these research endeavours, while plausible, offered a path for decreasing waste to landfills instead of stopping or proactively reducing waste production. other studies have also studied waste minimization from a quantity perspective, focusing on reducing construction projects’ waste in large quantities (yuan, 2013). therefore, this paper is set to provide a holistic approach to view the causes of waste at project lifecycle multiple phases with a readiness lens that aims to proactively show the key strategic enablers and mitigating actions to tackle those wastes identified at each phase. research methodology in this paper, a qualitative approach was adopted since it provides a detailed account of people’s behaviours and perceptions and facilitates studying their opinions on a particular subject in more detail (sarhan and manu, 2021). as this research is exploratory, a qualitative approach based on interviews was adopted to explore the key causes of construction waste based on the project lifecycle. the study has been conducted in the jordanian construction industry, which faces significant macro level challenges (e.g., socioeconomic problems) and microlevel challenges (e.g., ineffective management) (albalkhy and sweis, 2019). with a population of 10 million and an area of 34,495 sq mi, the jordanian economy is one of the smallest economies in the middle east. the construction industry contributes 4.4% to jordan’s gdp (department of statistics, 2017). jordan has three regions (northern, central, and southern) of which, amman (the capital), irbid, and zarqa are the most populous cities. the construction industry in jordan produces significant amounts of waste (most notably concrete and steel) as a result of poor quality, significant rates of rework, and a shortage of skills (alrifai and amoudi, 2016). recent studies (e.g., sweis, et al., 2021) show that jordanian construction companies do not prioritize construction waste. as the purpose of the study is to elicit expert views on construction waste across phases of the project lifecycle, construction management professionals were approached through a purposive sampling method. this sampling method is appropriate for qualitative research as it allows researchers to effectively choose datarich participants who are likely to have a comprehensive understanding of the topic in question. consequently, the research participants are professionals from contractor and consultant sides alike. the criteria for the research participants were such that (1) the participant must work in the construction industry (e.g., architects, public/operational engineers, subcontractors, contractors, project or construction administrators), (2) their work could be onsite or in office and (3) the individual must have at least 5 years of experience. this criterion was followed to ensure the participants have relevant knowledge and experience in the construction industry. thirty semistructured interviews were conducted with professionals in construction projects, including architects, contracting companies, and project administrators. the research participants have more than 6 years of experience and knowledge in construction projects. further, they have been involved in various zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202163 construction projects in the previous 5 years and have knowledge or experience in reducing waste in construction projects. table 2 below shows the characteristics of the 30 participants based on the type of construction projects they were primarily involved in. table 2. research participants type of construction project no of experts participants general buildings, such as house building projects, commercial building projects, and industrial construction projects. 17 8 architects 2 structural/civil engineers 4 project managers 3 contractors engineered construction projects, i.e., public construction projects that are funded by the jordanian government. 13 4 architects 1 structural/civil engineers 4 project managers 4 contractors data were collected between may 2019 and february 2020 based on semistructured interviews. the interviews were facetoface in the central region due to the high intensity of public and private construction projects in the region. the interview questions were developed to explore the key reasons why construction waste is generated across the different phases of the construction project lifecycle. as shown in the appendix, the interviews comprised 15 questions covering 5 sections background information, construction project lifecycle, waste origin, sources and causes of waste during the project lifecycle, construction waste minimization strategies, and further thoughts and opinions. each interview lasted between 50 minutes and 90 minutes. the entire recorded interview is 10 hours and 24 minutes, while the average for each interview was 1 hour and 8 minutes. data were recorded via digital recorder and transcribed manually by the authors. a thematic analysis approach (braun and clarke, 2006) has analysed the collected data. the initial phase focused on discovering and reading the data to maintain data consistency and isolate discrepancies. this was followed by coding the data and concluded by labelling and segmenting the data scripts. to develop themes, similar codes were gathered before they were carefully examined to check suitability and combine them with interrelated themes (braun and clarke, 2006). the thematic analysis culminated in a basic readiness model (see table 3 below) that captures four levels at which waste minimization strategies have been operationalized and a set of factors that informed the key features of strategy implementation. to establish the credibility of this qualitative study, a triangulation of data analysis (creswell and miller, 2000) has been conducted by using three main tactics to analysing data. firstly, the research team analysed the data separately; then, researchers met and reviewed each other’s suggestions, discussed, defined, and justified their codes, and agreed on initial themes for application to the full dataset. this was to ensure the interviewees’ voices are maintained across the data analysis processes (abualqumboz, et al., 2021). secondly, credibility was also addressed during the data analysis phase by operationalizing an external peer review of themes by one expert academic in the field to address discrepancies in their organization, cross alignment, and trackability (creswell and miller, 2000). the peer reviewer is an expert academic in the built environment and qualitative research methods, who assisted in reviewing the interview guide before the data collection commenced, examined themes and codes after the first iteration of data analysis, and verified the themes matching with interviewees’ transcribed accounts in the final iteration of data analysis. in addition, the research team conducted one zoom call with the expert in august 2020 to discuss any comments, suggestions raised throughout the peer review process to remove any discrepancies and agree on the themes zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202164 and coding structures. finally, the results of data analysis were also sent to the study participants (five participants have agreed to complete this exercise of trustworthiness check) for verification and validation (lincoln and guba, 1985). findings the outcomes of the thematic data analysis concerning the sources and causes of waste throughout the construction project lifecycle are identified and presented below. waste causes and sources during the concept phase the interview questions and the data analysis were oriented toward identifying the causes and sources of construction wastes during the preproject phase. a lack of early collaboration and engagement among the project stakeholders was the most frequently mentioned cause of waste during this phase. table 4 below shows the participants’ perceptions of the most impactful causes of waste during the project’s concept phase (i.e., initiation phase). one of the most critical causes of waste participants focused on in the project’s concept phase was that waste is not a part of project selection’s main criterion. for instance, one architect said that “waste minimization is not one of the main pillars of the project selection process or a main aspect of the project selection criteria.” the participants also mentioned several causes that limit the ability of project management to develop plans and scenarios to manage waste during the project’s concept phase, such as unclear project features throughout this phase. for instance, one architect said, “the quality of instructions that engineers get from a client is normally vague and unstructured at this phase. this makes it very difficult to look at the project waste problem at this point”. participants emphasized issues surrounding the low level of cooperation and table 3. four levels of readiness model level factors environmental (contextual) regulatory requirement riskbased regulations market drivers stakeholder awareness organizational learning and knowledge top management support business strategy competitive advantage project project scope project plan value for money technology ease of use compatibility availability zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202165 communication between the project’s main stakeholders during the concept phase. the client, designer, contractor, and project manager are responsible for reducing the project’s waste. according to one project manager, “the responsibility for managing the project’s waste is a collective effort, and not the individual responsibility of a particular person or group in the project. it requires coherence of effort between all the project stakeholders”. this, according to several respondents, signals the importance of having a coordinated and distributed responsibility among stakeholders to work towards an improved collaborative environment in the early phases of construction projects. the client’s lack of awareness of waste management benefits (particularly those linked with savings from waste minimization) was brought up in the interviews. when respondents were asked to explain the lack of cooperation between engineers and consultants when advising the client regarding waste management, most respondents stressed that engineers are accountable for calculating the benefits of waste management and communicating this to the customer. for instance, one contractor said, “architects have an essential role in informing customers of waste management in order to maintain certain levels of environmental protection.” finally, it is essential to point out that most participants considered waste as an inevitable and natural aspect of construction projects. according to one project manager, “waste is a normal issue in construction projects and is dealt with as one of the project outputs and handled promptly.” waste causes and sources during the definition phase according to the participants, the definition phase (i.e., the design phase) seems to be the primary source of waste in construction projects, affecting the following phases. according to one of the project managers, “the project design is the fundamental aspect for a low or free project. at this phase, the amount of waste is few, but the table 4. participants’ perceptions on waste causes during the project concept phase causes of waste at concept phase details of the cause strategic readiness enablers proactive mitigating actions lack of initial waste minimization and management consideration. • waste minimization has not been established as one of the project’s objections and criteria. • no feasible studies of waste minimization and management have been conducted. • the waste minimization plan is not a requirement for the construction project. environmental: regulatory requirements organizational: business strategy project: project scope • project assessment • stakeholder analysis insufficient incentives and enablers. • inadequate prior communication accompanied by minimal cooperation efforts amongst the project stakeholders. • waste management is not client driven. • the client lacks awareness of waste management benefits. • waste management is not a legislative requirement for designers. environmental: regulatory requirements environmental: stakeholder awareness organizational: top management support • stakeholder analysis • scope monitoring zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202166 table 5. the impactful causes of waste in the definition phase causes of waste at the definition phase detail of causes strategic readiness enabler proactive mitigating actions lack of (or poor) waste management system • no waste management plan environmental: regulatory requirements organization: top management support project: project plan technology: availability • stakeholder consultations • project planning • interface analysis • waste minimization is not one of the project’s main deliverables and is not considered a basic constraint of the project. • a lack of predefined waste minimization targets and no definite governance boundaries of waste management. project documents and contracts • waste management is not included in the contracts. environmental: market drivers organization: business strategy project: project plan technology: compatibility • interface analysis • process improvement (e.g., cause and effect analysis) • configuration management • poorly categorized waste management duties and responsibilities confuse the delivery and accountability of waste management. • waste is not an aspect of the material’s specifications. lack of initial cooperative arrangement • poor clientdesigner coordination. environmental: regulatory requirements organization: top management support project: project plan technology: compatibility • stakeholder consultations • interface management • communication management • poor coordination and communication within the design team • poor communal collaboration and coordination in waste minimization. waste management related knowledge • the ability to specify suitable and compatible materials. environmental: regulatory requirements organization: learning and knowledge project: value for money technology: ease of use • updating industry guidelines • training and workshops • access to industry exhibitions and knowhow repositories • an awareness of the quality and durability of materials. • limited reviews of waste management research and best practice. • insufficient waste management knowhow. • limitedknowledge and guidance. zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202167 reasons for waste arising in the next phases of the project are high”. based on the interviews, several causes were thematized and grouped into five categories which have been divided into subcategories. table 5 below summarized the most impactful causes of waste in the project design phase. the research participants suggested that the project design phase is critical in preventing and reducing waste in construction projects. according to one of the project managers, “considerations in project design and planning toward wastefree construction projects are the basis of waste management.” furthermore, the participants were asked whether waste minimization is considered one of the main construction project’s constraints (i.e., scope, time, and cost) or, at least, if waste is considered a significant component when formulating and planning these three constraints. the data analysis reveals an agreement between nearly all the respondents, that waste is not considered within the project’s three main constraints, and that waste is not usually considered the main component of project planning and design; for instance, one project manager said: …usually, when formulating a project plan to reach the project’s specified goal within specific activities, time and costs, waste is not considered. it is possible to add it to the project’s costs, but there is no advanced plan for waste management similar to other project plans, such as plans for risk management, conflict management or stakeholder management. most participants suggested that wastelinked leadership is needed at the beginning of a project and that this leadership needs to tackle this challenge at its roots. another main issue that participants emphasized is that there are no predefined waste minimization targets and no definite responsibility structure or governance boundaries of waste management. for instance, one project manager said that “waste management duties and responsibilities are poorly categorized, which confuses the delivery and accountability of waste management.” the participants also acknowledged causes of waste at the definition phase detail of causes strategic readiness enabler proactive mitigating actions lack of commitment from architects to waste management • no significant financial incentives for designing a wastefree project. environmental: regulatory requirements organization: top management support project: project plan technology: availability • establishing quality circles • incentivization • promoting professional ethics • waste management is not institutionalized in design regulations. • waste management is not a design priority. • design complexity and limited time. • no assessment of project design on waste generation. • a lack of appreciation of waste generated by poor design. • tight work schedules lead to offtheshelf design solutions. table 5. continued zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202168 that architects have no legal accountability to calculate waste. nevertheless, most contractors and project managers claimed that proactive activities would require architects to go above and beyond their legal obligations. for instance, a project manager said that “waste considerations should be a standard responsibility of architect works with no incentivizing policies.” furthermore, there was a consensus between contractors that design waste resulted from not implementing a waste management plan during the design phase. designers reemphasized the role of communication and cooperation to plan wastefree projects. one architect suggested that “waste management is a chain made up of several stakeholders.” waste causes and sources during the deployment phase the quantity of waste will be at its peak during the deployment phase (e.g., construction phase). reflecting on this, one of the contractors said, “there may be few reasons, but waste is high at this phase.” the main causes and sources of waste during the construction phase, as pinpointed by respondents, are summarized in table 6 below. the majority of the participants contended that the primary source of waste at this phase is the limited use of modern construction methods. according to the participants, waste is twofold, through the use of old or traditional construction methods and/or using old or traditional construction materials. according to one project manager, “works must be carried out using methods and materials that are compatible with the environment and generate less waste. failure to do this is likely to result in a large amount of waste at the end of the project”. thus, the participants were asked why modern construction methods are not used. the data analysis has identified several reasons for this. for instance, one contractor said that “the project design and specifications are not compatible with modern building systems.” further, a project manager said, “…sometimes it is difficult to persuade the client to use modern construction methods and materials, especially if those methods and materials were not presented to the client during the design phase”. another contractor argued that “sometimes the contractor does not know about these modern methods or does not have relevant experience in these methods.” on the other hand, the contractual provisions and the contractors’ dedication to minimizing waste was also emphasized as one of the main pillars of waste minimization during the construction phase. a designer stated that “the lack of contractors’ waste minimization abilities, knowhow, and practices, are the main causes of waste in the construction phase.” here, contractors clarified that architects are in a better position to demonstrate a highlevel engagement waste minimization specific design, resulting in improvements in on site waste management by contractors and subcontractors. waste causes and sources during the transition phase there was agreement among the participants that waste during the transition phase is the product of previous phases’ activities. nevertheless, according to the participants, waste at this phase is usually limited but comes with high risk. a designer said, “the greatest waste at this phase may be in the client’s refusal to receive the project due to different specifications than agreed, or as a result of apparent defects in the quality of works.” according to a project manager, “at this phase, an inspection of the whole building needs to be done. if everything is done correctly, these inspections are fairly simple to pass”. there is also the problem of waste sorting one of the contractors said, “at the end of the project there are two types of waste, reusable materials, which could be used in other projects or recycled to be used in other industries, and nonreusable materials, which cannot be used or recycled and should be moved to landfill.” nevertheless, a project manager argues that “most of the time, these leftover materials that are reusable or nonreusable are sent to the landfill.” according to a project manager, “creating a sorting system from the starting point of the project is essential for the effective management of these materials.” zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202169 table 6. the main causes and sources of waste during the deployment phase causes of waste at the deployment phase detail of causes strategic readiness enabler proactive mitigating actions limited use of modern methods of construction • construction techniques and strategies leading to higher waste projects. environmental: market drivers organization: top management support project: value for money technology: ease of use • onsite management and coordination • proper material selection • training and workshops • lack of knowledge of modern construction methods and sequences. • low deconstruction ability and poor reusability technique. • wasteefficient formworks. • less reliance on prefabrication and offsite production. poor contractual relationships and commitment • a low readiness among contractors for low waste projects. environmental: regulatory requirements organization: competitive advantage project: project scope technology: compatibility • government subsidization • managerial intervention • managing contractual relationships • no thorough check of design information prior to construction. • lack of recommendations related to waste minimization. • oversight of project activities that allow for reusable materials to be used in construction • incompatible project delivery approach to that contracted zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202170 discussion construction projects generate both physical and nonphysical waste during the different phases of the project’s lifecycle. the extant literature provides a plethora of research on waste management but less conclusive studies on a holistic approach of project dynamics (from concept phase to the transition phase) on the origin of the waste, its causes, and key enablers of mitigating actions. these research endeavours have varied both indepth and breadth of analysis. several studies demonstrated an indepth analysis of the waste at a specific project stage, while others spanned more than one phase to engage with various sources of waste; for the definition phase (see, for example, lu, et al., 2019; chi, et al., 2020; guerra, et al., 2019; mahpour, 2018; ajayi, and oyedele, 2018; akinade, et al., 2018); for the deployment phase (see, for example, nikmehr, et al., 2017; yuan, wu and zuo, 2018; nikakhtar, et al., 2015) for the definition causes of waste at the deployment phase detail of causes strategic readiness enabler proactive mitigating actions poor site management procedures • lack of site planning for low waste material environmental: regulatory requirements organization: learning and knowledge project: value for money technology: ease of use • proper transportation of materials • effective control of material usage • kanban boards for materials (dynamic pull planning) • a lack of logistic management and waste segregation strategy. cultural barriers • cultural barriers for driving low waste projects. environmental: regulatory requirements organization: learning and knowledge project: value for money technology: ease of use • resilient team support • training and workshops • promoting sustainable solutions • excessive project interfaces leading to team confusion of requirements • communication gaps between project stakeholders design changes and rework • rework due to mistakes in project design. environmental: regulatory requirements organization: learning and knowledge project: value for money technology: ease of use • training and workshops • onsite management and coordination • improved change management system • rework due to mistakes in project execution. • rework due to dynamic customer needs. table 6. continued zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202171 and deployment phases (see, for example, ding, et al., 2018) and for the full lifecycle (see osmani, 2013). nevertheless, in parallel with extant research (cf. davis, et al., 2021, lu, yuan and xue, 2021, mak, et al., 2019). this paper argues that the sources and causes of construction waste are interconnected and interrelated since the outcome of a previous phase (or phases) affects the next phase (or phases). despite the key contributions that extant research has provided, the results of these studies are disjointed and produce fragmented knowledge that is broken down into several perspectives and did not provide a proactively holistic conceptualization. in response to this gap, this study took a proactively holistic approach to manage construction waste. our study has found that waste has several causes that are predictable, quantifiable, and manageable (ding, et al., 2018; guerra, et al., 2019; and lu, et al., 2019) and accordingly suggested a readiness framework to enable construction projects to tackle construction waste (physical and nonphysical) institutionally and strategically. the findings show that the various participants in construction projects (clients, designers, contractors, and project managers) are responsible for reducing waste throughout the project’s lifecycle. this echoes previous research (e.g., nikakhtar, et al., 2015; ajayi and oyedele, 2018; akinade, et al., 2018) that signposted the need to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of cooperation and collaboration throughout the ongoing construction projects by improving information flow and improved communication between the project’s stakeholders in the project’s early phases. moreover, during such phases, an awareness of the project waste and a consideration of the feasibility of waste management in the project are essential to decrease the waste, which this study found out can be facilitated by the strategic readiness enablers that project stakeholders have. according to osmani (2011), two main causes of waste during the deployment phase (i.e., construction) are ineffective communication amongst project stakeholders and incomplete information and complexity of the design. nevertheless, effective waste management starts at the concept phase and planning out the project waste (mak, et al., 2019). while the definition phase is considered the critical phase to minimize construction waste, the deployment phase is considered the primary phase in which a large amount of waste is generated (ding, et al., 2018). the onsite organization and management were considered the most significant factors that produced waste with the absence of a waste reduction process, given they have no consideration for reducing, recycling, or reusing waste. during the deployment phase of a project, waste can be generated from any inadequacy, resulting in the use of equipment, materials, labour, or capital in larger amounts than those calculated as being necessary for the construction procedure. according to mcgrath (2001), a waste efficient project is characterized by maximizing materials used and reused during construction activities. this requires adopting efficient and modern construction methods, especially an adequate segregation system of different materials (cf. davis, et al., 2021, lu, yuan, and xue, 2021). in fact, efficient and modern construction methods were another key enabler identified by this research as a key underlying strategy for minimizing waste during construction. lu, et al. (2021) argue that prefabrication techniques such as the use of preset modules and parts are more efficient than other techniques in decreasing waste from construction projects. resorting to offsite construction, waste due to bad weather, offcuts, material breakage, and alteration can be avoided (dainty and brooke, 2004). a waste minimization culture that is part of the contractors’ competencies, awareness, and commitment to the project is crucial for driving waste minimization in the construction phase. this agrees with previous studies, for instance, osmani, glass and price (2008) found that the traditional construction culture and opposition to change are obstacles for effective waste minimization. ajayi, et al. (2016) argue that regardless of adopting various waste management methods and introducing several legislative measures, decreasing the amount of waste produced by the industry remains a challenge. this is mainly caused by cultural factors contributing to the industry’s waste intensiveness, thus preventing the effectiveness of zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202172 adopting existing waste management strategies. in line with the above argument, our research suggests that waste management strategies will not be effective without commitment and dedication from all project stakeholders (particularly contractors, as they are more involved in the operations phase). even so, such dedication can be produced by contractual and regulatory requirements that punish and reward waste production and minimization correspondingly. the study has concluded a basic framework (presented below in figure 2) for low waste project strategies for each phase of the construction project. figure 2. low waste project strategies across the project lifecycle this conceptual framework suggests that key measures underlie wasteefficient construction, including coordinating design from the project’s stakeholders and producing coherent and comprehensive design information, respectively, and further produce waste and errorfree design. this can be accomplished through regulation and dimensional cooperation, collaborative design procedures, modern methods of design for construction, and the waste being included as a design certification. other than designer duty capabilities, construction linked knowledge, and interprofessional skills as basic leaders of a lowwaste design, along with designers’ behavioural competency, are seen as the key drivers regarding their efforts in designing ways of avoiding waste. managerial implications the findings of this paper have important implications on construction activities throughout the project’s lifecycle. the paper shows that the definition phase is crucial for waste minimization. this paper also argued that a collaborative culture is vital for provoking waste minimization in construction projects. taking this into consideration, construction companies are encouraged to culturally embed waste management into their design teams. while an interprofessional cooperative capability is mainly required for designers/ architects, construction firms should crucially consider proficiency and fundamentalism in rudimentary design duties and knowledge of construction activities and materials across their design teams. various stakeholders can use the proposed framework to prevent construction waste. it assists in understanding waste sources and making decisions to minimize waste by providing an early warning sign system for waste management strategies during the planning phase of construction projects. conclusion this paper proposes that most construction waste can be avoided by proactively identifying the causes and sources of waste, focusing on value creation either early (or before) waste occurs. the paper presents that this can be done by identifying the key strategic enablers of a set of mitigation actions that tackle the root cause of the waste at each phase of the project management lifecycle. causes of waste are linked to all phases of the project’s lifecycle. therefore, this waste should be managed throughout all phases of the zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202173 project’s lifecycle. this study argues, in line with extant research, that it is crucial to take measures to identify all waste production activities early on in the concept and definition phases to be able to manage the waste during all project phases. however, in addition to key contributions in the field, this study argues that waste management must consider the whole project’s lifecycle and foresee, control, and avoid waste through the strategic readiness enablers of project stakeholders. this study proposes that a particular set of measures are fundamental. this includes intensifying waste avoidance measures during each phase and proactively employing mitigating actions such as project assessment, stakeholder analysis, and scope monitoring that assist more in the early phases. consequently, the involvement and incorporation of stakeholders as early as possible have been noted as critical factors towards solving waste problems fundamentally. factors affecting the application of construction waste management have been identified in this study. the most important elements impacting the application of systematic construction waste management are design, project or corporate culture, regulations, procedural guidelines, and incentives. in concurrence with previous studies, by placing waste in the centre of the definition phase, the focus of addressing waste will move from being an onsite issue to a design issue. this paper makes a number of contributions that can be described as an incremental contribution (nicholson, et al., 2018) to knowledge and practice by spotting neglect in the extant literature on waste management and providing a holistic and proactive approach to waste. firstly, we contribute to knowledge by advancing a lifecycle approach in spotting various causes and sources of waste that span the multiple phases of a project. extant research has focused on an indepth analysis of sources of waste, but this has consequently neglected the breadth of that waste that scatters across the project lifecycle. by shining a spotlight on the strategic readiness enablers, the second contribution is to inform academia and practice on the significance of proactively contemplating the various sources of waste as early as the concept phase and the mitigating actions that can be designed to tackle the waste before it emerges. finally, the third contribution is to inform practitioners on how to create wasteminimal design approaches to minimize waste before it is generated and establish an early warning signs system to tackle waste as soon as it emerges. focusing on the jordanian construction industry as the empirical research setting means that our findings and conclusion are particularly designed for that setting. however, while appreciating generalizations from such research settings is limited, the way the research was conducted may empirically be evaluated in a similar context to either confirm or refute some of the research results and implications. in addition, we are aware that our sample size is small, but this size was decided when we noticed no new information was emerging following the last interviews in order. we are also aware that our sample does not include direct clients. finally, one limitation can be found in the project lifecycle adopted. this paper used a linear project lifecycle due to restrictions of the collected data, and as a result, we focused on the main four phases of projects and agreed to rule out an extended lifecycle that goes beyond the project handover phase`. with these limitations in mind, we suggest a number of future researches. further research could examine the generalizability of the research results by quantitatively examining the causes of waste on a largescale sample (e.g., crosscountry comparison). this may mean crosssectional research settings across jordan’s three regions, segmenting the data collection to a mixture of small, medium, and large construction companies in jordan and include clients and government subjects. in addition, future studies in the jordanian context may investigate variations of waste types and quantities in the different regions of jordan. other studies may investigate the applicability of our framework in comparable contextual settings (e.g., regional, cultural, socioeconomic). likewise, as this study covers construction projects, future studies could specifically examine methods for minimizing waste in particular types of construction projects. for example, future research could focus on variations of construction waste in private/business financed projects against governmentfunded projects to study factors such as compliance, governance, and financing models. this would enable an appraisal of methods of waste minimization between various types of construction zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202174 projects. another future research avenue could be using an extended project lifecycle (including operation, decommissioning, and disposal phases) to provide a more holistic view of waste minimization strategies. references abualqumboz, m., chan, p.w., bamford, d. and reid, i., 2021. temporal dimensions of knowledge exchanges in horizontal knowledge networks. journal of knowledge management, 25(4), pp.899919. https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm05 20200346 alrifai, j.a.r. and amoudi, o., 2016. understanding the key factors of construction waste in jordan. jordan journal of civil engineering, 10(2), pp.244253 https://doi.org/10.14525/jjce.10.1.3540 albalkhy, w. and sweis, r., 2019. assessing lean construction conformance amongst the secondgrade jordanian construction contractors. international journal of construction management, pp.113. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599. 2019.1661571 ajayi, s.o. and oyedele, l.o., 2018. critical design factors for minimizing waste in construction projects: a structural equation modelling approach. resources, conservation and recycling, 137, pp.30213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. resconrec.2018.06.005 ajayi, s.o., oyedele, l.o., akinade, o.o., bilal, m., owolabi, h.a., alaka, h.a. and kadiri, k.o., 2016. reducing waste to landfill: a need for cultural change in the uk construction industry. journal of building engineering, 5, pp.18593. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2015.12.007 akinade, o.o., oyedele, l.o., ajayi, s.o., bilal, m., alaka, h.a., owolabi, h.a. and arawomo, o.o., 2018. designing out construction waste using bim technology: stakeholders’ expectations for industry deployment. journal of cleaner production, 180, pp.37585. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.01.022 alawneh, r., ghazali, f., ali, h. and sadullah, a.f., 2019. a novel framework for integrating united nations sustainable development goals into sustainable nonresidential building assessment and management in jordan. sustainable cities and society, 49, 101612. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101612 association for project management, 2019. apm body of knowledge 7th edition, association for project management. atkinson, r., crawford, l. and ward, s., 2006. fundamental uncertainties in projects and the scope of project management. international journal of project management, 24(8), pp.68798. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2006.09.011 braun, v. and clarke, v., 2006. using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), pp.77101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa chi, b., lu, w., ye, m., bao, z. and zhang, x., 2020. construction waste minimization in green building: a comparative analysis of leednc 2009 certified projects in the us and china. journal of cleaner production, 256, 120749. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120749 creswell, j.w. and miller, d.l., 2000. determining validity in qualitative inquiry. theory into practice, 39(3), pp.12430. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip3903_2 dainty, a.r. and brooke, r.j., 2004. towards improved construction waste minimisation: a need for improved supply chain integration?. structural survey. https://doi.org/10.1108/02630800410533285 davis, p., aziz, f., newaz, m.t., sher, w. and simon, l., 2021. the classification of construction waste material using a deep convolutional neural network. automation in construction, 122, 103481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2020.103481 zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202175 https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-05-2020-0346 https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-05-2020-0346 https://doi.org/10.14525/jjce.10.1.3540 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1661571 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1661571 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.06.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.06.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2015.12.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.01.022 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101612 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.09.011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.09.011 https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.120749 https://doi.org/10.1207/s15430421tip3903_2 https://doi.org/10.1108/02630800410533285 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103481 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103481 department of statistics, 2017. jordan in figures 2016. [pdf ] amman: department of statistics. avaiable at: http:// dosweb.dos.gov.jo/wpcontent/uploads/2017/11/jordaninfigures_2016.pdf [accessed 19 july 2021]. ding, z., zhu, m., tam, v.w., yi, g. and tran, c.n., 2018. a system dynamicsbased environmental benefit assessment model of construction waste reduction management at the design and construction stages. journal of cleaner production, 176, pp.67692. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.101 dolla, t. and laishram, b., 2019. prequalification in municipal solid waste management publicprivate partnerships of india. construction economics and building, 19, id 6431. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i1.6431 esa, m.r., halog, a. and rigamonti, l., 2017. developing strategies for managing construction and demolition wastes in malaysia based on the concept of circular economy. journal of material cycles and waste management, 19(3), 114454. https://doi.org/10.1007/s101630160516x esin, t. and cosgun, n., 2007. a study conducted to reduce construction waste generation in turkey. building and environment, 42(4), pp.166774. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2006.02.008 foo, l.c., rahman, i.a., asmi, a., nagapan, s. and khalid, k.i., 2013. classification and quantification of construction waste at housing project site. international journal of zero waste generation, 1(1), pp.14. government statistical service, 2019. uk statistics on waste. uk: department for environment, food and rural affairs. guerra, b.c., bakchan, a., leite, f. and faust, k.m., 2019. bimbased automated construction waste estimation algorithms: the case of concrete and drywall waste streams. waste management, 87, pp.82532. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.wasman.2019.03.010 hamid, s., skinder, b.m. and bhat, m.a., 2020. zero waste: a sustainable approach for waste management. in: innovative waste management technologies for sustainable development. igi global. pp.13455. https://doi. org/10.4018/9781799800316.ch008 herrera, r.f., mourgues, c., alarcón, l.f. and pellicer, e., 2020. understanding interactions between design team members of construction projects using social network analysis. journal of construction engineering and management, 146(6), 04020053. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0001841 javed, s., bamford, j. and abualqumboz, m., 2020. helping deluxe beds to sleep easy: a case study of agile project management. the international journal of entrepreneurship and innovation, 22(2), pp.13239. https://doi. org/10.1177/1465750320974942 kofoworola, o.f. and gheewala, s.h., 2009. estimation of construction waste generation and management in thailand. waste management, 29(2), pp.73138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2008.07.004 lincoln, y.s., and guba, e.g., 1985. establishing trustworthiness. naturalistic inquiry, 289(331), pp.289327. lockrey, s., nguyen, h., crossin, e. and verghese, k., 2016. recycling the construction and demolition waste in vietnam: opportunities and challenges in practice. journal of cleaner production, 133, pp.75766. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.05.175 lu, w., chi, b., bao, z. and zetkulic, a., 2019. evaluating the effects of green building on construction waste management: a comparative study of three green building rating systems. building and environment, 155, pp.24756. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.03.050 lu, w., lee, w.m., xue, f. and xu, j., 2021. revisiting the effects of prefabrication on construction waste minimization: a quantitative study using bigger data. resources, conservation and recycling, 170, p.105579. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. resconrec.2021.105579 lu, w., yuan, l. and xue, f., 2021. investigating the bulk density of construction waste: a big datadriven approach. resources, conservation and recycling, 169, 105480. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105480 zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202176 http://dosweb.dos.gov.jo/wpcontent/uploads/2017/11/jordaninfigures_2016.pdf http://dosweb.dos.gov.jo/wpcontent/uploads/2017/11/jordaninfigures_2016.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.101 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v19i1.6431 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10163-016-0516-x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2006.02.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2019.03.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2019.03.010 https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-0031-6.ch008 https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-7998-0031-6.ch008 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001841 https://doi.org/10.1177/1465750320974942 https://doi.org/10.1177/1465750320974942 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2008.07.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.05.175 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.05.175 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.03.050 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105579 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105579 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105480 mahpour, a., 2018. prioritizing barriers to adopt circular economy in construction and demolition waste management. resources, conservation and recycling, 134, pp.21627. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.01.026 mahpour, a. and mortaheb, m.m., 2018. financialbased incentive plan to reduce construction waste. journal of construction engineering and management, 144(5), 04018029. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0001461 mak, t.m., chen, p.c., wang, l., tsang, d.c., hsu, s. and poon, c.s., 2019. a system dynamics approach to determine construction waste disposal charge in hong kong. journal of cleaner production, 118309. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118309 mcgrath, c. 2001. waste minimization in practice. resources, conservation and recycling, 32(34), pp.22738. https:// doi.org/10.1016/s09213449(01)000635 nagapan, s., rahman, i.a. and asmi, a., 2012. factors contributing to physical and nonphysical waste generation in construction industry. international journal of advances in applied sciences, 1(1), pp.110. https://doi.org/10.11591/ijaas. v1i1.476 nicholson, j.d., laplaca, p., alabdin, a., breese, r. and khan, z., 2018. what do introduction sections tell us about the intent of scholarly work: a contribution on contributions. industrial marketing management, 73, pp.20619. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2018.02.014 nikakhtar, a., hosseini, a.a., wong, k.y. and zavichi, a., 2015. application of lean construction principles to reduce construction process waste using computer simulation: a case study. international journal of services and operations management, 20(4), pp.46180. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijsom.2015.068528 nikmehr, b., hosseini, m.r., rameezdeen, r., chileshe, n., ghoddousi, p. and arashpour, m., 2017. an integrated model for factors affecting construction and demolition waste management in iran. engineering, construction and architectural management. 24(6), pp.124668. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam0120160015 osmani, m., 2011. construction waste. in: trevor m. letcher and daniel a. vallero, eds. waste, a handbook for management. burlington, ma: academic press. ch.15, pp.20718. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978012381475 3.100154 osmani, m., 2013. design waste mapping: a project life cycle approach. in: proceedings of the institution of civil engineerswaste and resource management, august 2013. [ejournal] 166(3), pp.11427. available at: https://www. icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/pdf/10.1680/warm.13.00013. https://doi.org/10.1680/warm.13.00013 osmani, m., glass, j. and price, a.d., 2008. architects’ perspectives on construction waste reduction by design. waste management, 28(7), pp.114758. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2007.05.011 poon, c.s., ann, t.w. and ng, l.h., 2001. onsite sorting of construction and demolition waste in hong kong. resources, conservation and recycling, 32(2), pp.15772. https://doi.org/10.1016/s09213449(01)000520 renuka, s.m., umarani, c. and kamal, s., 2014. a review on critical risk factors in the lifecycle of construction projects. journal of civil engineering research, 4(2a), pp.3136. saleem, m., chhipishrestha, g., túlio barbosa andrade, m., dyck, r., ruparathna, r., hewage, k. and sadiq, r., 2018. life cycle thinking– based selection of building facades. journal of architectural engineering, 24, 04018029. https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.19435568.0000333 sarhan, s. and manu, e., 2021. when does published literature constitute data for secondary research and how should the data be analyzed? in: e. manu and j. akotia, eds. secondary research methods in the built environment. oxford, uk: routledge. ch.6. https://doi.org/10.1201/97810030005326 sarhan, s., pasquire, c., elnokaly, a. and pretlove, s., 2019. lean and sustainable construction: a systematic critical review of 25 years of iglc research. lean construction journal, (2019), pp.120. zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202177 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.01.026 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001461 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118309 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118309 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0921-3449(01)00063-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0921-3449(01)00063-5 https://doi.org/10.11591/ijaas.v1i1.476 https://doi.org/10.11591/ijaas.v1i1.476 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2018.02.014 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2018.02.014 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijsom.2015.068528 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2016-0015 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-381475-3.10015-4 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-12-381475-3.10015-4 https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/pdf/10.1680/warm.13.00013 https://www.icevirtuallibrary.com/doi/pdf/10.1680/warm.13.00013 https://doi.org/10.1680/warm.13.00013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2007.05.011 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0921-3449(01)00052-0 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000333 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000333 https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003000532-6 sweis, g.j., hiari, a., thneibat, m., hiyassat, m., abukhader, w.s. and sweis, r.j., 2021. understanding the causes of material wastage in the construction industry. jordan journal of civil engineering, 15(2), pp.18092. tam, v., shen, l.y. fung, w.h. and wang, j., 2007. controlling construction waste by implementing governmental ordinances in hong kong. construction innovation, 7(2), pp.14966. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170710738522 tam, v.w., soomro, m. and evangelista, a.c.j., 2018. a review of recycled aggregate in concrete applications (2000– 2017). construction and building materials, 172, pp.27292. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.03.240 van den ende, l. and van marrewijk, a., 2014. the ritualization of transitions in the project life cycle: a study of transition rituals in construction projects. international journal of project management, 32, pp.113445. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.02.007 wang, j., li, z. and tam, v.w., 2015. identifying best design strategies for construction waste minimization. journal of cleaner production, 92, pp.23747. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.12.076 womack, j.p. and jones, d.t., 1997. lean thinking— banish waste and create wealth in your corporation. journal of the operational research society, 48(11), pp.114848. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2600967 yeheyis, m., hewage, k., alam, m.s., eskicioglu, c. and sadiq, r., 2013. an overview of construction and demolition waste management in canada: a lifecycle analysis approach to sustainability. clean technologies and environmental policy, 15(1), pp.8191. https://doi.org/10.1007/s1009801204816 yuan, h., 2013. a swot analysis of successful construction waste management. journal of cleaner production, 39, 18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.08.016 yuan, h., wu, h. and zuo, j., 2018. understanding factors influencing project managers’ behavioral intentions to reduce waste in construction projects. journal of management in engineering, 34(6), 04018031. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) me.19435479.0000642 zighan, s., (in press). motivational paradox: a delphi study to reach a consensus knowledge regarding individual vs. team motivation in the context of projectbased organizations. international journal of project organisation and management. (accepted for publication 2020). https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpom.2020.10031043 zighan, s., bamford, d. and reid, i., 2018. from orderqualifier to orderwinner? servitization value chain and the real estate development projects. journal of modern project management, 6(2), pp.13149. appendix 1. what is your position (job title)? 2. how many years of experience do you have in construction projects? 3. what are the main types of waste in construction projects? 4. what are the main stages of the construction project lifecycle? 5. what are the main sources of construction waste? 6. could you link the sources of construction waste to the project lifecycle? 7. could you link the generated waste to the project lifecycle? 8. what are the main considerations to prevent the waste of construction project? 9. what are the main causes of waste during the project lifecycle? 10. what are the practices and strategies for construction waste minimization at the concept phase? 11. what are the practices and strategies for construction waste minimization at the project definition phase? 12. what are the practices and strategies for construction waste minimization at the project deployment phase? zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202178 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170710738522 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.03.240 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.02.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.02.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.12.076 https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jors.2600967 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-012-0481-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2012.08.016 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000642 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000642 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpom.2020.10031043 13. what are the practices and strategies for construction waste minimization at the project transition phase? 14. do you have further comments or suggestions about the waste origin, causes and sources during the project lifecycle? 15. do you have further comments or suggestions about the practices and strategies for cost minimization? zighan and abualqumboz construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202179 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: wandahl, s., pérez, c. t., salling, s., neve, h. h., lerche, j., and petersen, s. 2021. the impact of construction labour productivity on the renovation wave. construction economics and building, 21:3, 11–32. http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v21i3.7688 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021 article (peer reviewed) the impact of construction labour productivity on the renovation wave søren wandahl1,* cristina t. pérez2, stephanie salling3, hasse h. neve4, jon lerche5, steffen petersen6 1 dept. of civil and architectural engineering, aarhus university, denmark, +45 4189 3216, swa@cae.au.dk, https://orcid.org/0000000187086035 2 dept. of civil and architectural engineering, aarhus university, denmark, +45 2896 6312, cristina.toca.perez@cae.au.dk, https://orcid.org/0000000241821492 3 dept. of civil and architectural engineering, aarhus university, denmark, +45 4119 8402, stsa@cae.au.dk, https://orcid.org/0000000170886458 4 pwc, aarhus, denmark, +45 2879 1838, hasse.hojgaard.neve@pwc.com, https://orcid.org/0000000323113529 5 department of business development and technology, aarhus university, denmark, jon.lerche@btech.au.dk, https://orcid.org/0000000170769630 6 dept. of civil and architectural engineering, aarhus university, denmark, +45 4189 3347, stp@cae.au.dk, https://orcid.org/0000000272306207 corresponding author: søren wandahl, dept. of civil and architectural engineering, aarhus university, denmark, +45 4189 3216, swa@cae.au.dk doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7688 article history: received: 16/04/2021; revised: 05/08/2021; accepted: 07/08/2021; published: 10/09/2021 abstract the european green deal’s renovation wave aims to renovate 35 million energy inefficient buildings to reduce carbon dioxide (co2) emissions by at least 55% by 2030. historically, efforts to reduce co2 emissions focused on operational energy (oe) of the finished buildings. however, in recent years the embodied energy (ee) of the building’s construction process has gained attention because of its essential role in construction renovations projects. in this context, construction efficiency, and more precisely, workers’ efficiency, is a vital catalyst to achieve the european union (eu) targets. to identify the impact of construction labour productivity (clp) on the renovation wave an exploratory case study was adopted as research strategy. data from four domestic housing renovation projects were gathered. three specific research goals are outlined. 11 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding this research was part of the reconcile project, funded by the eu interreg (project grant # nyps 20204782). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7688 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7688 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:swa@cae.au.dk https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8708-6035 mailto:cristina.toca.perez@cae.au.dk https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4182-1492 mailto:stsa@cae.au.dk https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7088-6458 mailto:hasse.hojgaard.neve@pwc.com https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2311-3529 mailto:jon.lerche@btech.au.dk https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7076-9630 mailto:stp@cae.au.dk https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7230-6207 mailto:swa@cae.au.dk http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7688 the first is to demonstrate the effect of the adoption of lean tools and methods to increase clp. the second is to quantify the correlation between improved productivity and the ee emissions saved during the construction phase. the third goal is to estimate the effect the higher productivity has on oe emissions. the results show that the adoption of several lean tools and methods has a potential to improve clp to 45%. this rate of improvement for the 35 million housing units to be renovated could save 6.9 million tonnes co2e from ee and 386 million tonnes co2e from oe. this novelty link between process improvements and reduced energy consumption and emissions can support politicians and infrastructural developers in decisionmaking for a more sustainable construction industry. keywords construction labour productivity (clp); embodied energy (ee); lean construction; renovation wave; carbon dioxide (co2) emissions introduction the energy consumption for establishing, maintaining, and operating buildings accounts for approximately 39% of the world’s total carbon dioxide (co2) emissions (uneiea, 2017). to achieve a full green transition in construction, all phases of the building lifecycle should be examined for possible greenhouse gas (ghg) reductions. historically, efforts to reduce ghg from buildings have mainly been focusing on operational energy (oe) as it constitutes the majority of lifecycle energy use. however, in recent years the emissions due to embodied energy (ee), i.e., the energy used for extraction of raw materials, the processing into building materials, and onsite construction, have gained attention. this also includes endoflife phases with the circular aspect of reuse and recycling. this is because ee and embodied ghg emissions (eeg) due to building construction and civil engineering account for 20% of the entire energy consumption and ghg emissions in the world (yokoo and yokoyama, 2016). as a reply to these challenges, the european union (eu) leaders have agreed on a european green deal that must reduce co2 emission by at least 55% in 2030 and build the foundations for a carbonneutral europe by 2050 (eu, 2020). this deal includes a renovation wave with an objective of renovating 35 million existing energyinefficient buildings by 2030. this effort is essential to reduce emissions as 8595% of current buildings in the eu are expected to be still standing in 2050. the embodied ghg emissions due to construction industries are approximately 5 to 10% of the entire energy consumption in developed countries and 10 to 30% in developing countries (yokoo and yokoyama, 2016). however, the construction process itself has attained little interest in the green transition agenda. furthermore, construction generates billions of tonnes of construction and demolition waste yearly (eea, 2020). besides, resource efficiency is poor, research studies (wandahl, neve and lerche, 2021) report that only about 33% of the operating time is destined on valueadding tasks; consequently, construction processes generally waste twothird of their time on nonvalueadding activities. all these nonvalueadding operations require energy and thus emit unnecessary co2. consequently, today’s tacit acceptance of time and cost overruns in construction is effectively the same as the industry’s acceptance of unnecessarily large co2 emissions. in this context, construction efficiency and more precisely construction labour productivity (clp) is a vital catalyst in order to realize the ambitious targets of the european renovation wave. the necessity to reduce co2 emissions together with the broad problem addressed regarding the lack of previous studies focusing their effort on the efficiency of workers during the construction process for reducing the embodied energy (ee), allowed the authors of this research to identify the knowledge gap in previous work and to state the research question (rq) of this work, which is: wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202112 rq: how could the improvement of construction labour productivity (clp) impact the reduction of both embodied energy (ee) and operational energy (oe) on renovation projects? to address this question, the authors conducted an exploratory case study in four domestic housing renovation projects to quantify the impact of the implementation of lean tools and methods on clp. then, to quantify the correlation between improved productivity and the possible ee and oe savings, the authors adopted several assumptions and values of energy consumption from the existing literature. as the goal of this paper is to understand the impact of the improvement of construction workers’ efficiency on the renovation wave, the scope of this research work is limited to the construction phase, and it does not consider other phases during the case studies. that is why the values of ee collected from the literature only considered the aforementioned phase. literature review renovation projects renovation projects distinguish themselves from other project types by having several unique characteristics. renovation has not been given great attention in past research, however recent works by kemmer (2018), neve, et al. (2020), and tzortzopoulos, kagioglou and koskela (2020) have shed light on renovation and point out that the main challenges are: (1) existing building structure with several unknown characteristics; (2) an often not optimal construction site layout for logistics and material handling; (3) highly specialized tasks and trades, e.g. removing asbestos, etc.; and (4) dealing with occupied buildings and tenants on site. tenants in proximity to ongoing construction work require a high level of protection (e.g., dust, noise) and make the management of the craftsmentenant relationship an additional challenge in renovation. these characteristics of renovation projects furnish a challenging environment to manage. kemmer (2018) reviewed the literature and points out that the traditional project management approach is insufficient in renovation and argues that lean management is superior. ballard (2000) argues that the traditional approach has a toonarrow focus on transformations, whereas lean expands to cover both transformations, flow, and value. according to the lean philosophy, the actions performed along the flow can be classified as valueadding work (vaw) and nonvalueadding work (nvaw) (womack and jones, 2003). in this way, the concept of waste is directly associated with the use of resources that do not add value to the final product. this means that there are two kinds of approaches to improving processes. one is to improve the efficiency of both vaw and nvaw, and the other is to eliminate waste by removing non valueadding activities. this second approach focuses on process improvement and usually results in more dramatic performance improvements (ohno, 1988). kemmer, et al. (2016) demonstrated that significant productivity improvement could, among other methods, be obtained by integrating the last planner system (lps) and renovation production systems. they found that regarding the benefits of utilizing the lps, there is a potential, especially regarding reducing the disruptions onsite and regarding compressing lead time. improvements in project communication and coordination were also noted as a result of the lps adoption. overall, less waste and better flow are the outcomes of implementing lean in renovation projects (e.g., kemmer, et al., 2016; neve, et al. (2020). performance due to the implementation of lean tools, practices, techniques, and methods can be assessed on a range of different key performance indicators (kpis). acknowledging the diverse and complex issues related to renovation, this paper continues with a focus on clp obtained from the ws technique as a kpi. construction labour productivity (clp) and work sampling (ws) clp is usually defined as the gross product output per person employed or personhour worked. despite being a partial factor productivity measure, labour productivity has been widely accepted as a performance wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202113 measure in the construction industry. the emphasis on labour derives from several reasons: labour is the most important factor and most easily quantifiable (lemma, borcherding and tucker, 1986); it is the only factor that has conscious control over its contribution to output (lowe, 1987); its significance for the total project cost (buchan, grant and fleming, 2003; kazaz, manisali, and ulubeyli, 2008); it has a direct impact on the profitability and competitiveness of construction companies (hamza, et al., 2019); among other reasons. regarding this understanding of productivity, the most common clp metrics are unit rate (ratio of labour cost to units of output); labour productivity (ratio of work hours to units of output), and productivity factor (ratio of scheduled or planned to actual work hours) (gouett, et al. 2011). hence, understanding how time is used during the inputtooutput conversion process is also vital to modelling clp; workstudy methods are commonly used for this goal (tsehayae and fayek, 2016). the work sampling (ws) method is a statistical technique based on random observations to investigate how efficiently a workforce uses its work time, and it is the most widely used workstudy method ( josephson and björkman, 2013). ws, originally developed by l.h.c. tippett in 1935, consists of a series of instantaneous, randomly spaced observations of the activities being carried out by the group of workers (or possibly the machines) under study. ws is a factfinding tool based on the laws of probability (fields, 1969). the ws technique can estimate the proportions of the total time spent on a task in terms of various components (barnes, 1968). ws involves taking a small portion or sample of occurrences in the overall activity. a process is observed at intervals so that each activity has an equal chance of being observed. ws establishes the percentage of work time spent on selected work categories. previous studies have shown that the definition of work categories and the subsequent task classifications can significantly affect the different proportions and, hence, their relationships with clp (thomas, 1991). in this research study, the lean work categories of valueadding work (vaw) and nonvalue adding work (nvaw) are adopted. keeping in mind this assumption, the direct work (dw) category represents the proportion of work time spent on vaw. embodied energy (ee) and operational energy (oe) embodied energy (ee) of buildings is commonly measured using lifecycle assessment (lca). in 2011 the european committee for standardization (cen) released a new standard for measuring the environmental sustainability of buildings. figure 1 represents the predominant diagram used for the lca method in ‘en15978:2011 sustainability of construction works’. a1 :r aw m at er ia ls ex tr ac tio n a2 :t ra ns po rt a3 :m an uf ac tu rin g a4 :t ra ns po rt a5 :c on st ru ct io n b1 :u se b2 :m ai nt en an ce b3 :r ep ai r b4 :r ep la ce m en t b5 :r ef ur bi sh m en t b6: operational energy b6: operational water c1 :d eco ns tr uc tio n /d em ol iti on c2 :t ra ns po rt c3 :w as te pr oc es sin g c4 :d isp os al end of life (c1-c4) use (b1-b7) constr. (a4-a5) product stage (a1-a3) figure 1. en15978 system boundaries. wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202114 the ee of buildings refers to the energy used for all other lifecycle phases than the use phase (phase from b1 to b7 in figure 1); however, in this paper, the ee analysis focused on the construction phase (only phase a5 in figure 1). the construction phase, a5, includes all processes carried out onsite from start to end of construction works, as well as the production, transportation, and management of site and construction waste (moncaster and symons, 2013). among widely used methods for embodied energy calculation are processbased, inputoutput (io) based, statistical, and hybrid methods, each of which differs in system boundary coverage as well as the types and sources of data (dixit and singh, 2018). most research on lca phase a5 focuses on actual activities and adopts the io method. reports on research that link embodied energy (ee) to the schedule are scarce (lim, gwak and kim, 2016). however, it is not easy to obtain the necessary data, thus many studies assume that the energy consumption in a5 is limited and, therefore, negligible or underestimate its impacts (hendrickson and horvath, 2000; lemay, 2011). in general, reported research on ee of construction is limited, and when reported, it is often for the accumulated production stage only (a1 to a3) or occasionally as accumulated production and construction (a1 to a5). very few case studies report designated a5 values, cf. table. 1. this lack of data for a5 constitutes a critical knowledge gap in the effort to reduce lifecycle co2 emissions from buildings during the construction phase. table 1. case studies with dedicated values for a5 project type project size [m2] project duration [months] energy use in a5 [kwh/m2] reference dk1 commercial 33,500 33 157 (sommer et al., 2013) dk2 commercial 6,200 14 105 (sommer et al., 2013) dk3 commercial 10,000 11 125 (sommer et al., 2013) dk4 residential 9,000 30 64 (sommer et al., 2013) dk5 commercial 9,000 14 197 (sommer et al., 2013) ty1 residential 410 12** 148 (bozdag and secer, 2007) ty2 residential 450 15** 159 (bozdag and secer, 2007) ty3 residential 100 12** 143 (bozdag and secer, 2007) no1 residential 9,207 24 33 (melvaer, hertwich and houlihan wiberg, 2012) se1 residential 3,982 12 94 (larsson et al., 2016) se2 residential 8,173 24 117 (liljenström et al., 2015) se3 residential 198 12** 146 (fröberg, larsson and mendez, 2018) sp1 residential 17,724 24** 72* (rodríguez serrano and porras álvarez, 2016) sp2 residential 25,932 30** 125* (rodríguez serrano and porras álvarez, 2016) *mj converted to kwh. **not reported, thus assumed by authors. wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202115 research methodology this paper presents a research work classified as an explorative case study (yin, 2003). this research strategy was chosen because it enabled the present authors to investigate a given phenomenon characterized by a lack of detailed preliminary research (yin, 2003). the study’s phenomenon comprises the understanding of how table 2. research design description research goal (rg) source of evidence/ technique/tool/task conducted purpose rg 1: to demonstrate the effect of implementing lean construction tools, practices, techniques, and methods in renovation projects to increase construction productivity direct observation (construction site visits) it allows the authors to identify the main construction activities conducted on sites for each construction process work sampling (ws) it allows the determination of how workers use their time, mainly to determine the time spent on direct work (dw) informal interviews with site engineers and workers it allows to identify the lean tools adopted in each construction project document analysis provides additional information about the adoption of lean tools lean implementation degree (lid) index to identify the number of lean tools implemented on construction projects linear regression analysis to determine the effect of the work sampling size (r) rg 2: to investigate and quantify the correlation between improved productivity and the buildings’ lifetime energy performance literature review of case studies that calculated ee phase a5 in lca to associate the dw obtained from rg1 to the possible embodied energy (ee) savings ee reduction analysis during the a5 stage to identify the possible ee reduction during the construction phase in the eu renovation wave uncertain analysis of the ee to estimate the possible ee reduction considering some uncertainties rg 3: to investigate and estimate the potential indirect effect a more productive renovation process has on reducing operational energy emissions. oe reduction analysis during the a5 stage to identify the possible oe reduction during the construction phase in the eu renovation wave operation energy (oe) saving analysis to estimate the possible indirect oe savings regarding dw measures wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202116 an efficient construction labour production could influence both embodied energy and operational energy reductions in renovation projects. for understanding this phenomenon, three research goals were proposed: (1) to demonstrate the effect of implementing lean construction tools and methods in renovation projects to increase construction productivity; (2) to investigate and quantify the correlation between improved productivity and the buildings’ lifetime energy performance; and (3) to investigate and estimate the potential indirect effect a more productive renovation process has on reducing operational energy emissions. there are several ways to obtain data about a given unit of analysis: observing the phenomenon, asking questions to the stakeholders, and examining written documentary elements. each of these procedures corresponds to a category of research source of evidence: direct observation, interview, and document analysis (yin, 2003). all those sources of evidence were adopted along with other tools for achieving the research goals. the three research goals are outlined and summarized in table 2, together with main research methods, tools, techniques, source of evidence, and tasks conducted. further description is presented in the following subsections. methods for research goal 1 (rg1) to pursue the first goal of this research study, data from four construction projects were gathered. data collection aimed to identify the main characteristics of the four construction projects and to understand how the work time is being used by workers. for that, two variables were collected of each case during construction site visits. the first variable consists of direct work (dw) collected from the work sampling application. the second consists of the lean implementation degree (lid) collected from the quality evaluation of the case studies. case studies the four cases were all domestic housing renovation projects located in denmark. all the cases comprise a similar building structure consisting of multiple similar housing units in 1, 2, or 3 story buildings. case 1 was conducted in a very close collaboration with the contractor company through an actionbased approach. in this case, lean construction tools, practices and methods were implemented to the daily site management, and the effect of the implementation was monitored closely for two years. the main characteristics of the four cases are summarized in table 3. table 3. characterization of the four cases case 1 case 2 case 3 case 4 contract type general turnkey general turnkey project duration 5 years 4 years 4 years 3 years housing units 291 297 601 470 m2 22,800 23,700 46,500 41,000 stories basement to 2 basement to 2 basement to 3 ground to 1 originally built 1950s 1960s 1950s 1970s the cases were all planned to go through deep renovation, including interior, installations, and building envelope. the main construction processes studied during the cases were: demolition of all nonstructural elements; establish new elevators, removal and installation of new façade elements; build new masonry wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202117 walls, install electric, heating and ventilation elements, install new steel profiles for internal walls, renovate bathroom tiles, sink and toilets, plaster and paint, and install floors and new kitchens. work sampling for time study, the work sampling (ws) technique was applied, which in this research consists of the following seven steps: 1. establish the construction processes of the study. 2. clarify the categories of the activities to be measured: in these empirical studies, the activities can be direct work (dw), indirect work (iw), and waste work (ww). 3. develop data collection forms for sampling: as the focus of this investigation is on clp, the worksheet adopted for the work sampling had a detailed breakdown of seven subcategories. thus, the main categories of the activities in the worksheet were: producing as part of the dw category; talking and preparing as part of the iw category; transport, walking, waiting and gone as part of the ww category. 4. select the confidence interval and the accuracy desired. 5. calculate the number of observations needed. the formula that describes the relations between the number of observations needed and the desired accuracy is presented in equation 1. n = p ∙ (1−p) ∙ (σ)² (1) where: n = the total number of observations, named as number of data points p = expected percent of time required by most important category of the study σ = standard deviation percentage 6. collect the data. 7. summarize the results: it focused on identifying the time spent on dw, iw and ww. lean implementation degree (lid) analysis lean methods cover a broad aspect of different tools and different implementation degrees. especially the implementation of lean tools has been widely discussed in literature (e.g., cerveróromero, et al., 2013; kalsaas, skaar and thorstensen, 2009), and it is concluded that different lean tools are implemented differently from case to case, and often implementation does not match the theoretical description of the tool (neve, lerche and wandahl, 2021; wandahl, 2014). a typical reported situation, which was valid for this case, is that the last planner system is only partially implemented (ahiakwo, et al., 2013; lindhard and wandahl, 2013; porwal, fernándezsolís and rybkowski, 2010; viana, et al., 2010). this raises the question of to which degree the implementation of lean methods influences productivity, named in this research works as lean implementation degree (lid). a taxonomy was developed to classify the lid in each case (table 4). the taxonomy is based on several main categories (first column in table 4) and their subcategories (second column in table 4) based on a literature review of previous studies related to lean implementation and by discussions with peers and industry consultants with expertise in lean (table 4). wandahl’s (2014) industry survey of the use of lean in the danish construction industry provided the foundation for the six main categories presented in table 4’s first row. the subcategories of a, b and c were defined according to discussions with academic peers and industry consultants. the remaining subcategories were primarily based on the following literature and supplemented with input from discussions: subcategory d comes from johansen and kraghschmidt (1999), subcategory e is from lindhard and wandahl (2013) and subcategory f is from kenley and seppänen (2009). wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202118 in this research, to classify the four cases according to their lid the likert scale of five points was adopted for measuring their level of adoption of the lean tools, techniques, and methods. hence, the likert scale assumes the following possible classification: 0 for total absence (of e.g., knowledge or training) to 5 for full implementation (of e.g., jit or 5s). table 4. lean implementation degree evaluation form lean implementation degree (lid) lean tools/ practices/methods a: training provided by company 1a general lean 2a justintime 3a last planner system 4a location based planning b: general knowledge meaning 1b general lean 2b justintime 3b last planner system 4b location based planning c: holistic use of bim 1c – jitkanban 2c jit small batches 3c – degree of a lean/kaizen culture d: justintime (jit) 1c jitkanban 2c jitsmall batches 3d – jitsmed 4d jittpm 5d – jitproduction layout 6d – jitscm (material delivery) 7d – jittqmtqc 8d – jitkaizen 9d – jit5s 10d – jita3 e: last planner system (lps) 1e – weekly meetings with foremen 2e – weekly workplan formalized into a plan 3e – process planning/pull planning/takt time 4e – ppc measured on a weekly basis 5e – causes for noncompliance based on ppc 6e – lookahead plan is formalized 7e – workable backlog 8e – learning process/5x why wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202119 lean implementation degree (lid) lean tools/ practices/methods f: location based scheduling (lbs) 1f – overall sequencing/ master plan 2f – progress tracking 3f – forecasting 4f – control action 5f – lookahead planning phase 6f – process planning/pull planning/takt time the lid for each case was evaluated by the authors and industry consultants because it was assessed that the project team in each case did not have the necessary knowledge to do this. this evaluation was conducted through the information and observations obtained during the job site visits and by conversations with the whole project team. calculating the lid average was done by weighing averages from the main 6 categories equally. this was done to avoid that the implementation of e.g., jit becomes more important than e.g., location based scheduling (lbs) due to its lower number of subcategories. direct work (dw) and lean implementation degree (lid) analysis the analysis of dw and lid data was done using linear regression analyses. the regression model was evaluated using a ttest determining the model’s coefficients 95% intervals, analysis of regression coefficients to determine the effect size (r), and predictive capabilities (r2) to investigate the predictive capabilities, and finally an anova analysis to determine the statistical confidence level (pvalue). the r was compared to cohen (1988) and cohen’s (1992) work categorizing effect sizes. the pvalue will be used as a foundation to determine how statistically valid the identified relationship is. no lower limit for neither the rvalue nor pvalue was adopted since the research was explorative and set out to explore a potential relationship on a small data sample. methods for research goal 2 (rg2) to pursue the second goal of this research study, which consists of investigating and quantifying the correlation between improved productivity and the buildings’ lifetime energy performance, the authors conducted three main activities: (1) associating the dw obtained from rg1 with the possible ee savings in phase a5, (2) identifying the possible ee reduction during the construction phase in the eu renovation wave, and (3) estimating the possible ee reduction considering some uncertainties. embodied energy (ee) in phase a5 the present authors conducted a small review to identify a number of cases that could provide insight on ee emissions in phase a5 in order to link with the dw obtained in the four cases studied in this research work. this review was primarily presented in the literature review section (table 1). a summary of the values from the studies identified is presented in table 5. the ee of a5 contains significant variations as energy use varies from 33 to 197 kwh/m2, which is a difference of factor six. for that, in this research the average values of this sample were adopted, those being: μ= 120.4 kwh/m2 and a standard deviation σ=43.7 kwh/m2. table 4. continued wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202120 the causal connection between dw and ee has a logical connection. as dw is improved, the efficiency and productivity of the project are increased. this can impact the project by either achieving the expected result and deadline with fewer resources, or the expected result can be achieved faster with the same resources. based on this review, the potential ee emission saving in phase a5 was linked with dw and quantified. in this way, the co2 equivalents (co2e) saving potential due to improved construction site productivity can be calculated with equation 2 proposed by the present authors: ee = u ∙ a ∙ μ ∙ i (2) where: ee = million tonnes co2e saved [co2] u = number of housing units to be renovated [no of units] a = the average unit size in eu [m2/unit] μ = the mean of potential savings of phase a5 obtained from rg1 [kwh/m2] i= ghg emission intensity of electricity generation [co2e/kwh] ee reduction considering some uncertainties the previous ee estimation is uncertain mainly due to three assumptions: (1) it is uncertain how many of the renovation projects in europe can be expected to optimize productivity by implementing lean construction principles, (2) there are significant uncertainties in the effect improved vaw and dw have on reduced execution times; and (3) the future ghg emission intensity of electricity generation is uncertain. these uncertainties should be taken into consideration as suggested in equation 3. eeu = ee ∙ impu ∙ eu ∙ iu (3) where: eeu = million tonnes co2e saved including estimation uncertainties [co2] ee = million tonnes co2e saved [co2] impu = lean implementation uncertainty [%] eu = execution time uncertainty [%] iu = ghg emission intensity of electricity generation uncertainty [%] methods for research goal 3 (rg3) to pursue the last goal of this research study, the authors calculated the operation energy (oe) emission of each case regarding the direct work (dw) measures of each study. for that, the identified productivity improvement in rg1 was indirectly linked to a potential oe saving occurring as more housing units can be renovated for the same cost. this allows to identify the additional units that can be renovated. to achieve that, the authors proposed the equation 4. however, several assumptions were required to estimate the oe carbon saving on the macroeconomic scale. most significant was the ghg emission intensity of electricity generation, and the difference in energy framework between the current average housing standard and future nzeb standard. table 5. summary of ee in phase a5 obtained from the literature review number of projects min. energy use in a5 [kwh/m2] max. energy use in a5 [kwh/m2] mean [kwh/m2] standard deviation [kwh/m2] 14 33 197 120.4 43.7 wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202121 ∆u = u ∙ impu ∙eu ∙ ∆p (4) where: ∆u = additional units that can be renovated [no of units] u = number of housing units to be renovated [no of units] impu = lean implementation uncertainty [%] eu = execution time uncertainty [%] ∆p = improved productivity [%] finally, these additional energy renovated housing units, ∆u, will have a superior energy performance compared to before renovation, thus the oe will be reduced. to estimate the co2 saved for these additional renovated units, the present authors proposed equation 5. oe = ∆u ∙ ∆oe ∙ y ∙ a ∙ i (5) where: oe = million tonnes co2e saved [co2] ∆u = additional units that can be renovated [no of units] ∆oe = operational energy saving [kwh/m2/year] y = expected lifetime of a renovated building [year] a = the average unit size in eu [m2/unit] i= ghg emission intensity of electricity generation [co2e/kwh] findings the findings section presents the results according to the three main goals of this study. findings for rg1 lean implementation to improve construction efficiency the work sampling results of the four case studies are outlined in table 6. the first row lists the four cases, the second row presents the measured dw levels found from the ws application, and the fourth row gives the total number of data points from the ws study. the table shows that dw levels are lowest in case 1 and increase steadily going towards case 4. table 6 shows the lid being lowest in case 1, increasing steadily going towards case 4. table 6. dw levels from the four studies case 1 case 2 case 3 case 4 dw 26.0% 33.0% 36.0% 40.7% lid 0.35 0.46 0.86 1.99 n 29,884 3,927 13,682 861 figure 2 plots the dw levels and lid from the four cases together using two different yaxes, with the left being in percent reflecting the dw level and the right going from 05 reflecting the lid. figure 2 reveals a seemingly positive linear relationship between the two variables. regression analysis was conducted to assess the correlation. lid was the independent (predictor) variable, and dw was the dependent (response) variable in the regression analysis. wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202122 26.0% 33.0% 36.0% 40.7% 0.35 0.46 0.89 1.99 0 1 2 3 4 5 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% case 1 case 2 case 3 case 4 li d (0 -5 ) d w (% ) dw: direct work (%) lid: lean implementation degree (0-5) figure 2. connected dw and lid values for the four cases. table 7 presents the result of the linear regression with the final model, the number of data points (n), ttest outlining the 95% confidence intervals for the predictor coefficient (a) and constant coefficient (b), effect size (correlation coefficient (r)) predictive capabilities (r2) and the anova analyses giving the statistical significance level. table 7. result of linear regression analysis model y=ax+b n a b r r2 anova pvalue y=7.21x+27.27 4 (4.84;19.26) (13.68;40.87) .876 .768 .124 x=lid, b=constant and y=predicted dw level the regression analysis showed an effect size (r) of .876, which far exceeds .5, which often is the lower limit for large effect size. the predictive capabilities (r2) match well with the coefficient’s confidence intervals. this shows that the lean implementation degree had a large effect on dw and thus clp. the statistical significance level at 87.6% (p=.124) reflects that in 1 out of 8 cases, the dw changes are not explained by lid. this is lower than the 95% (p=.05) statistical confidence level, usually regarded as the lower limit where the risk of a false result is 1 out of 20. this shows that the result is relevant and has an apparent effect, but the regression model included some uncertainty. besides, regression analysis with a low sample size (n=4) should often be interpreted with limitations. this was an explicit limitation in this research and should be kept in mind when interpreting the overall conclusion. to further test lean’s ability to improve construction productivity, case 1 was closely examined. the case was observed three times in total to collect dw data. a baseline when only limited lean methods were implemented was collected 6 months after construction started. it was essential to observe typical construction conditions, and not during start up and learning. a second observation was done after 15 months when some lean methods were initially implemented. the last planner system (ballard 2000) was partially implemented on the site. it was solely the project and site managers who implemented and wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202123 trained superintendents and subcontractors. it was later observed that the lps method was gradually deimplemented, and at year 2, only a weekly meeting was left, and the case did no longer work with the seven flows, lookahead planning, or ppc. however, short daily huddles on the site and weekly whiteboard meetings to identify critical tasks and solve emerging and critical production issues were also implemented. the weekly whiteboard meetings continued through construction. when the site management removed attention from these daily meetings, superintendents and craftsmen soon began to not conduct daily huddles any longer. an additional 9 months later, the third and final observation was carried out. at that time, location based scheduling (lbs) (kenley and seppänen, 2009) and a visible site manager concept were implemented in addition to the above. lbs soon became the dominant scheduling and production update tool and continued to be so until the project was completed. it also changed the weekly meeting, where the process manager was now in charge and navigated through next week’s tasks and locations. in addition, the process manager weekly updated the plan with a 12week look ahead. work sampling was applied during all three construction site visits to gather data to determine how craftsmen used their working hours. the collected ws results are shown in table 8. table 8. ws data collected on case 1 direct work indirect work waste work producing talking preparing transport walking waiting gone baseline (based on n=29,884 observations) p– (%) 26.0% 20.9% 15.7% 7.7% 6.3% 6.7% 16.6% 15 months (based on n=4,507 observations) p– (%) 34.0% 11.0% 20.2% 9.1% 10.5% 3.6% 11.7% 24 months (based on n=1,891 observations) p– (%) 35.1% 10.5% 15.5% 12.4% 11.8% 3.7% 11.0% a significant increase in productive time was observed from the baseline (limited lean implementation) to 24 months later (several lean tools implemented). that the workforce now spent more time on value adding activities did effectively also mean that the productivity was increased respectively. dw was improved by 35% from 26.0% to 35.1%, cf. table 5. this is a significant improvement. improved was, in particular, the talking category, which more than halved, showing that planning and coordination improved, leaving fewer issues to be clarified. the credit for this was mainly the implementation of lps and lbs in combination. waiting and gone categories had also been reduced. waiting time was reduced by 45% as an effect of improved flow. the logistics were an increasing issue during the project. as work progressed, the construction site layout became less and less effective. the distances from worksite to material storage, equipment containers, cars, site offices, and service pavilions increased. only smaller adjustments were possible due to the layout of existing buildings and the infrastructure of the neighbourhood. overall, movement (walking and transporting categories) increased 73% from the baseline to time 24 months. the number of observations was fewer from the first round of construction site visits to the last round of visits for several reasons. firstly, the baseline observation was highly detailed, with observations every 2 minutes from morning to work ends in the later afternoon for 5 days in a row, including observing 5 different trades each of 35 workers. the reason was that the observation was part of a large research project wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202124 set out to understand the renovation as a production system (neve and wandahl, 2018; neve, et al., 2020). the large amount of data in the baseline sample was not needed to obtain a statistically valid sample. further, as ws’s data collection is very resourcedemanding, it was decided to collect fewer data points for the two following samples. visually, the approval of a smaller sample size can be based on a stabilization curve, where one can track the fluctuation in the average dw value as the number of observations grows, cf. figure 4. theoretically, several studies have concluded that at least 510 data points must be collected in a ws sample to obtain a 95% confidence level (gouett, et al. 2011; hwang et al. 2018; thompson, 1987). to validate the third and final observation, the stabilization curve with a 95% confidence level is illustrated in figure 3. 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% 200 400 600 800 1,000 1,200 1,400 1,600 1,800 2,000 d w a ve ra ge in p er ce nt no. of observations dw 95% confidence level figure 3. stabilization curve for dw values of the renovation case. it can be concluded that the amount of data was enough to make a valid conclusion of a productivity increase of 35% due to the implementation of lean methods. besides, on concluding the four case studies, it was clear that there is a relationship between lean implementation and performance increase. research findings showed that it is possible to significantly improve construction efficiency by implementing lean construction tools. the case studies showed that dw could be enhanced by 35%, and potentially even more. if a lid of 2.5 out of 5 is achieved, a dw of 45%, cf. table 7 is achieved. this is significantly higher than typical renovation dw values reported. for further analysis in this research. therefore, an improvement of dw from 31% to 45% is applied, which equals a relative improvement of 45%. in the case that efficiency improvement results in shorter execution times, it is not the improvement of vaw times (the 45% relative improvement) that is relevant, instead, it is the reduction of nvaw. the reduction is from 69% to 55%, which is a 20.3% relative reduction. thus, improving dw by 45% will at a maximum result in a 20.3% shorter execution time. findings for rg2 converting direct work to embodied energy emissions savings the findings of rg1 showed that shorter construction execution time is feasible. shorter project execution times result in a shorter time where the contractor needs to have a production facility, i.e., a construction site. any production facility requires energy to be run. on a construction site, this is typically: (1) energy to run machines and equipment; (2) energy for lighting, heating, and dehumidifying; and (3) energy to site offices. if the execution period is shortened, the energy consumption decreases. wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202125 as outlined in the introduction section, there is an international ambition to reduce ghg emissions due to energy use in the lifecycle of buildings. energy use therefore needs to be converted into ghg emissions which often is expressed in co2e. the conversion of kwh to co2e for a specific case depends largely on the local energy mix, i.e., the mix of various fossil fuels and renewable sources in the energy production. currently, the ghg emission intensity, i,e., of electricity generation is in europe average of i=275 g co2e/ kwh (eea, 2021). however, this is expected to decrease over time to less than 100 g co2e/kwh in the year 2030 due to increased penetration of renewable energy production. the results obtained from the fourcase studied conducted to achieve the first research goal of this work indicated that improving dw by 45% will lead a reduction of a maximum 20.3% of execution time. having this in mind, table 9 illustrates the impact a 20.3% reduction of execution time would have on the ee in phase a5 for each of the cases identified previously in the literature. table 9. possible reduction of ee in a5 size [m2] duration [months] ee in a5 [kwh/month] saved ee in phase a5 if the duration is 80% [kwh/m2] dk1 33,500 33 159,379 31.4 dk2 6,200 14 46,500 21.0 dk3 10,000 11 113,636 25.0 dk4 9,000 30 19,200 12.8 dk5 92,000 14 126,643 39.4 ty1 410 12** 5,057 29.6 ty2 450 15** 5,963 31.8 ty3 100 12** 1,192 28.6 no1 9,207 24 12,660 6.6 se1 3,982 12 31,192 18.8 se2 8,173 24 39,843 23.4 se3 198 12** 2,409 29.2 sp1 17,724 24** 53,172* 14.4 sp2 25,932 30** 135,063* 25.0 *mj converted to kwh. **not reported, thus assumed by authors. the saving potential in table 9 has a large variation, from 6.6 to 39.4 kwh/m2, which is almost a factor of six. the sample has a mean value of μ= 24.1 kwh/m2 and a standard deviation σ=8.7 kwh/m2. outliers are defined as data points that are more than one standard deviation away from the mean, and these are removed from the sample. the mean of the new lean sample is a potential ee saving in phase a5 of μ= 26.4 kwh/m2, and this value is used in the further analysis. the identified saving potential of ee in phase a5 (26.4 kwh/ m2) was converted to co2e, resulting in a saving potential of 7.3 kg co2e/ m2. for an average renovation of a multidwelling residential building of 5,000 m2, the total saving potential is 36.3 tonnes co2e. this is roughly is equivalent to a 135 persons’ airplane oneway flight from frankfurt to madrid and is therefore not immediately a significant impact. wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202126 however, a significant impact arises as a consequence of the scale as the eu has the ambition to renovate 35 million building units. an average housing unit in the eu has a size of 96.4 m2 (eurostat, 2021) thus, the total built residential area to be renovated during the next 10 years in the eu is approximately 3.4 billion square meters. the co2e saving potential due to improved construction site productivity would be 24.6 million tonnes co2e. this value was obtained from equation 2: ee = u ∙ a ∙ μ ∙ i = 24.6 million tonnes co2e (2) where: u = 35,000,000 [no of units] a = 96.4 [m2/unit] μ = 26.4 [kwh/m2] i= 275 [g co2e/kwh] this emission is 0.1% of the world’s annual emission, or in other words, almost equivalent to the national annual co2 emission of denmark. for a better estimation, the following three assumptions were adopted: (1) the number of renovation projects in europe that can be optimized by implementing lean tools and methods is at least 50% of the total renovation projects (impu = 50%); (2) it was considered that at least 75% of the construction process time is reduced by improving vaw and dw (eu = 75%); (3) the future ghg emission intensity of electricity generation is reduced at least 75% (iu = 75%). these uncertainties were considered for calculating eeu in equation 3: eeu = ee ∙ impu ∙ eu ∙ iu = 6.9 million tonnes (3) where: ee = 24.6 million tonnes co2e [co2] impu = 50 [%] eu = 75 [%] iu = 75 [%] hence, the potential co2e saving due to reduced ee in phase a5 as a result of improved construction efficiency for the eu renovation wave is estimated to 6.9 million tonnes of co2. findings for rg3 converting direct work to operational energy emission savings the eu renovation wave target is 35 million housing units. from an environmental perspective, the benefit is that these housing units will have a lower energy consumption after renovation, thus also a lower rate of ghg emissions. the more housing units society can afford to renovate, the better is for the environment with regards to mitigating global warming. improving construction productivity is a valuable catalyst in this effort. improved productivity is equal to producing the same output faster or with less resources. using fewer resources will save costs and realize the target at a lower price. thus, theoretically, society can renovate more housing units at the same cost. considering that dw and productivity improvement result in a 20.3% decrease in resource consumption, a significantly higher number than the targeted 35 million housing units in the renovation wave can be achieved. in fact, 2.67 million (∆u) more units can be renovated in the eu at the same costs, cf. equation 4. ∆u = u ∙ impu ∙eu ∙ ∆p = 2.67 million housing units (4) wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202127 where: u = 35 million [no of units] impu = 50 [%] eu = 75 [%] ∆p = 20.3 [%] these additional energy renovated housing units, ∆u, will have a superior energy performance compared to before renovation, thus the oe will be reduced. an eu average housing unit uses 200 kwh/m2/year (enerdata, 2021), whereas an nzeb building uses around 50 kwh/m2/year (groezinger, et al., 2014). the saved co2 is calculated in equation 5 for an expected 50 years life span. oe = ∆u ∙ ∆oe ∙ y ∙ a ∙ i = 386 million tonnes co2e (5) where: ∆u = 2.67 million [no of units] ∆oe = (20050) [kwh/m2/year] y = 50 [year] a = 96.4 [m2/unit] i= 0.200 [kg co2e/kwh] the indirect potential oe saving of upscaling construction productivity on the european housing renovation market is during the next 50 years 386 million tonnes of co2e. however, this is a potential but indirect benefit of improving construction productivity. the potential oe savings by renovating more housing units are significantly larger than the ee saving of efficient and productive construction processes. however, the assumption is that the resource gains obtained by higher productivity are reapplied to renovate more housing units. conclusion renovating energyinefficient houses plays a vital role in the effort of reducing the co2 emissions and achieve a more sustainable built environment. among the eu leaders, a renovation wave has been agreed that should ensure that 35 million housing units should be renovated by 2030. in this research, the objective was to investigate how and how much an efficient and highly productive construction process can act as a catalyst for reaching even higher co2 savings in the renovation wave effort. the present research aimed to demonstrate that it is possible to improve construction labour productivity by implementing lean tools and methods on renovation projects and that this will reduce both the ee during construction and ensure future oe savings. for that, the authors conducted an exploratory case study in four domestic housing renovation projects. in order to achieve the main goal of this project, three research goals were proposed: (1) to demonstrate the effect of implementing lean tools and methods in renovation projects to increase construction productivity; (2) to investigate and quantify the correlation between improved productivity and the buildings’ lifetime energy performance; and (3) to investigate and estimate the potential indirect effect a more productive renovation process has on reducing operational energy emissions. in research goal 1, the results showed that a causal correlation between lean implementation degree and construction labour productivity exists. a potential construction labour productivity improvement of 45% is demonstrated by the adoption of several lean tools, practices, techniques, and methods. research goals 2 and 3 investigate and quantify the emission savings in both ee and oe this improved productivity can create. the potential ee emission saving in the construction phase is estimated to 7.3 kg co2e/m2. on a wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202128 project level, the ee emission savings can be considered relatively low compared to the overall emission from a construction project. however, if sustainability of scale is considered, and ee emission savings was achieved on all the 35 million housing units to be renovated in the eu renovation wave, the result would be an overall 24.6 million tonnes co2 saving. the potential oe emission saving is only assessed on the macroeconomic scale of the eu renovation wave. the potential longterm oe emission saving is estimated to 386 million tonnes co2e. a number of limitations should be considered when interpreting the emissionsaving results, as a high degree of uncertainty applies to this research. the ee emission saving calculated only considered the construction phase of the buildings, named as phase a5 by the european committee for standardization (cen). few lca studies report ee for phase a5. thus, the data foundation for the eesaving conclusion is weak. the ee emission saving in lca for phase a5 is based on only the 14 case studies identified in the literature. more research should be established in this field. also, the shown oe emission saving potential includes a large assumption. it is assumed that resources saved due to higher productivity is reinvested to conduct additional renovation projects, with additional oe savings as a consequence. nonetheless, the findings are highly relevant to both academia and industry. the link between process improvements and reduced energy consumption and emissions is a focal point worldwide and can support politicians and infrastructural developers in decisionmaking for a more sustainable built environment. references ahiakwo, o., oloke, d., suresh, s. and khatib, j., 2013. a case study of last planner system implementation in nigeria. 21st annual conference of the international group for lean construction. fortaleza, brazil, 312 aug 2013, pp.699707. ballard, g., 2000. the last planner system of production control. ph.d. university of birmingham. barnes, r.m., 1968. motion and time study: design and measurement of work. 6th ed. new york, ny: wiley. bozdag, o. and secer, m., 2007. energy consumption of rc buildings during their life cycle. sb07, torino. available at: [accessed 5 august 2021]. buchan, r., grant, f.e. and fleming, f.w., 2003. estimating for builders & surveyors. 2nd ed. oxford: butterworth heinemann. cerveróromero, f., napolitano, p., reyes, e. and teran, l., 2013. last planner system and lean approach process experiences from implementation in mexico. 21st annual conference of the international group for lean construction. fortaleza, brazil, 29 july 2 aug 2013, pp.64554. cohen, j., 1988. statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. mahwah, nj: lawrence erlbaum associates. cohen, j., 1992. a power primer. psychological bulletin, [ejournal] 112(1), pp.155– 59. https://doi.org/10.1037/0033 2909.112.1.155 dixit, m.k. and singh, s., 2018. embodied energy analysis of higher education buildings using an inputoutputbased hybrid method. energy and buildings, [ejournal] 161, pp.4154. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.12.022 eea, 2020. construction and demolition waste: challenges and opportunities in a circular economy. european environment agency briefing. available at: [accessed 5 august 2021]. eea, 2021. greenhouse gas emission intensity of electricity generation. available at: [accessed 1 april 2021]. wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202129 https://www.irbnet.de/daten/iconda/cib_dc24603.pdf https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155 https://doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.112.1.155 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2017.12.022 https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/construction-and-demolition-waste-challenges/construction-and-demolition-waste-challenges https://www.eea.europa.eu/publications/construction-and-demolition-waste-challenges/construction-and-demolition-waste-challenges https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/daviz/co2-emission-intensity-6#tabgooglechartid_googlechartid_googlechartid_googlechartid_chart_11111 https://www.eea.europa.eu/data-and-maps/daviz/co2-emission-intensity-6#tabgooglechartid_googlechartid_googlechartid_googlechartid_chart_11111 enerdata, 2021. energy efficiency trends in buildings in the eu. available at: [accessed 1 april 2021]. eu, 2020. a renovation wave for europe greening our buildings, creating jobs, improving lives. brussels: european commission. eurostat, 2021. average size of dwelling by household type and degree of urbanisation. available at: [accessed 1 april 2021]. fields, a., 1969. activity sampling, ch. 13 in method study. london: cassell. fröberg, m., larsson, j.h. and mendez, e.t., 2018. life cycle analysis a case study of the climate impact of single family building from a life cycle perspective. bachelor thesis. uppsala university, uppsala. available at: [accessed 5 august 2021]. kemmer, s., biotto, c., chaves, f., koskela, l. and fazenda, p.t., 2016. implementing last planner in the context of social housing retrofit. 24th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. boston, massachusetts, usa, 2022 jul 2016, pp. 83– 92. wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202130 https://www.enerdata.net/ https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=ilc_hcmh02&lang=en) https://appsso.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/nui/show.do?dataset=ilc_hcmh02&lang=en) https:// urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-355294 https:// urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-355294 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000375 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000375 https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/background%20paper%20nzeb.pdf https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/background%20paper%20nzeb.pdf https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1627503 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1627503 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2000)126:1(38) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2000)126:1(38) https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1492664 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2011-0108 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2011-0108 https://doi.org/10.3846/1392-3730.2008.14.4 https://doi.org/10.3846/1392-3730.2008.14.4 https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/161102559.pdf larsson, m., erlandsson, m., malmqvist, t. and kellner, j., 2016. byggeandets klimapåverkan. livscykelberäkning av klimapåverkan för ett nyproducerat flerbostadshus med massiv stomme av trä. ivl svenska miljöinstitutet, stockholm. lemma, g.j., borcherding, j.d. and tucker, r.l., 1986. productive foremen in industrial construction. journal of construction engineering and management, 112(2), pp.192210. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)07339364(1986)112:2(192) lemay, l., 2011. life cycle assessment of concrete buildings. concrete sustainability report. national ready mix concrete association. https://www.nrmca.org/sustainability [accessed 5 august 2021]. liljenström, c., malmqvist, t., erlandsson, m., fredén, j., adolfsson, i., larsson, g. and brogren, m., 2015. byggandets klimapåverkan. livscykelberäkning av klimapåverkan och energianvändning för ett nyproducerat energieffektivt flerbostadshus i betong. ivl svenska miljöinstitutet, stockholm. lim, t., gwak, h. and kim, b., 2016. integrated carbon emission estimation method for construction operation and project scheduling. ksce journal of civil engineering 20, pp.1211– 20. https://doi.org/10.1007/s122050150360x lindhard, s. and wandahl, s., 2013. scheduling of large, complex, and constrained construction projects. an exploration of lps application. international journal of project organisation and management, 6(3), pp.23753. https:// doi.org/10.1504/ijpom.2014.065258 lowe, g., 1987. the measurement of productivity in the construction industry. construction management and economics, 5, pp.10113. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446198700000010 melvaer, m.s., hertwich, e.g. and houlihan wiberg, a.a.m., 2012. lifecycle assessment of a multifamily residence built to passive house standard. trondheim: norwegian university of science and technology. moncaster, a.m., and symons, k.e., 2013. a method and tool for ‘cradle to grave’ embodied carbon and energy impacts of uk buildings in compliance with the new tc350 standards, energy and buildings [ejournal] 66(11), pp. 514523. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2013.07.046 neve, h.h. and wandahl, s., 2018. produktivitet i renovering #spildtid. aarhus: aarhus university. neve, h.h., wandahl, s., lindhard, s., teizer, j. and lerche, j., 2020. learning to see valueadding and nonvalue adding work time in renovation production systems. production planning and control, [ejournal]. https://doi.org/10.108 0/09537287.2020.1843730 neve, h.h., lerche, j. and wandahl, s., 2021. lean construction methods’ impact on construction labour efficiency. in: proceedings of international group of lean construction, iglc2021, lima, peru, 1416 jul 2021, pp 64756. ohno, t., 1988, toyota production system. new york: productivity press. porwal, v., fernándezsolís, j., lavy, s. and rybkowski, z.k., 2010. last planner system implementation challenges. 18th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, haifa, israel, 1416 jul 2010, pp.54856. rodríguez serrano, a.á. and porras álvarez, s., 2016. life cycle assessment in building: a case study on the energy and emissions impact related to the choice of housing typologies and construction process in spain. sustainability, [ejournal] 8(3), 287. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8030287 kenley, r., and seppänen, o., 2009. locationbased management for construction. london: spon press. sommer, j., rose, j., hansen, m.s., kofoed, b. and olesen, k.b., 2013. energisparepotentialer i byggeprocessen [pdf ] available at: https://historisk.bygningsreglementet.dk/file/472561/energisparepotentialer_i_byggeprocessen.pdf. thomas, h., 1991. labour productivity and work sampling: the bottom line. journal of construction engineering and management, 117(3), pp.42344. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(1991)117:3(423) wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202131 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1986)112:2(192) https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1986)112:2(192) https://www.nrmca.org/sustainability https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-015-0360-x https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpom.2014.065258 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpom.2014.065258 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446198700000010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2013.07.046 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2020.1843730 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2020.1843730 https://doi.org/10.3390/su8030287 https://historisk.bygningsreglementet.dk/file/472561/energisparepotentialer_i_byggeprocessen.pdf https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1991)117:3(423 thompson, s.k., 1987. sample size for estimating multinomial proportions. the american statistician, 41(1), pp.42– 46. https://doi.org/10.1080/00031305.1987.10475440 tsehayae, a.a. and fayek, a.r., 2016. system model for analysing construction labour productivity. construction innovation, 16(2), pp.20328. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci0720150040 tzortzopoulos, p., kagioglou, m. and koskela, l., 2020. lean construction – core concepts and new frontiers. london and new york: routledge. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429203732 un environment and international energy agency, 2017. towards a zeroemission, efficient, and resilient buildings and construction sector. global status report, 2017, [pdf ] unep. available at: https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/ documents/gabc_global_status_report_2017.pdf. viana, d.d., mota, b., formoso, c.t., echeveste, m., peixoto, m. and rodrigues, c.l., 2010. a survey on the last planner system. 18th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. haifa, israel, 1416 jul 2010, pp.497507. wandahl, s., 2014. lean construction with or without lean – challenges of implementing lean construction. in: proceedings of 22nd annual conference of the international group for lean construction, oslo, norway, 2527 jun 2014, pp.97108. wandahl, s., neve, h.h. and lerche, j., 2021. what a waste of time. in: proceedings of international group of lean construction, iglc2021, lima, peru, 1416 jul 2021, pp.15766. womack, j.p. and jones, d.t., 2003. lean thinking. new york: simon & schuster. yin, r.k., 2003. case study research: design and methods. thousand oaks, ca: sage. yokoo, n., and yokoyama, k. eds., 2016. evaluation of embodied energy and co2 for building construction (annex 57). overview of annex 57 results. energy in buildings and communities programme. birmingham, uk: institute for building environment and energy conservation. wandahl, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202132 https://doi.org/10.1080/00031305.1987.10475440 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-07-2015-0040 https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429203732 https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/gabc_global_status_report_2017.pdf https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/gabc_global_status_report_2017.pdf construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: rasheed, n., shahzad, w. m., rotimi, j. o. b. 2024. factor analysis of risk allocation criteria (rac) in publicprivate partnership (ppp) projects: a case of new zealand. construction economics and building, 24:4/5, 142–159. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v24i4/5.9021 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article factor analysis of risk allocation criteria (rac) in publicprivate partnership (ppp) projects: a case of new zealand nasir rasheed1,*, wajiha mohsin shahzad2, james olabode bamidele rotimi3 1 school of built environment, massey university, auckland 0745, new zealand, nrasheed@massey.ac.nz 2 school of built environment, massey university, auckland 0745, new zealand, w.m.shahzad@massey.ac.nz 3 school of built environment, massey university, auckland 0745, new zealand, j.rotimi@massey.ac.nz corresponding author: nasir rasheed, school of built environment, massey university, auckland 0745, new zealand, nrasheed@massey.ac.nz doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9021 article history: received 29/01/2024; revised 21/05/2024; accepted 26/09/2024; published 23/12/2024 abstract the utilization of public private partnerships (ppps) has become widely prevalent as an innovative approach for procuring public infrastructure projects. risk transfer/allocation is one of the main reasons for this widespread adoption and considered a critical success factor for a ppp. given the importance of equitable risk allocation, this study identified and analysed 10 key risk allocation criteria. experts with experience in ppp projects in new zealand were surveyed through an empirical questionnaire to obtain industrywide data. mean score analysis and factor analysis were then used to analyse the collected data. in order to ensure the validity of the analysis results, appropriate statistical tests such as cronbach’s alpha, kaisermeyerolkin (kmo) statistic and bartlett’s test of sphericity were conducted. result indicate that the most important criteria for risk allocation are “risk foresight”, “minimize risk loss” and “response to risk”. furthermore, factor analysis showed that the identified rac can be classified into three component groups namely “risk management expertise”, “core risk management capability” and “risk management strategy”. this study aims to provide ppp stakeholders with useful insights into the most 142 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding this research is part of a phd funded by higher education commission of pakistan. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9021 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9021 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:nrasheed@massey.ac.nz mailto:w.m.shahzad@massey.ac.nz mailto:j.rotimi@massey.ac.nz mailto:nrasheed@massey.ac.nz https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.9021 effective measures for achieving equitable risk allocation. to achieve this, the study recommends to consider the risk management capabilities of both the public and private sectors in light of the identified racs/groupings. the results of the study are expected to assist ppp stakeholders in developing strategies that can enhance risk management and achieve a fair distribution of risks. keywords publicprivatepartnerships; risk management; risk allocation criteria; factor analysis introduction a country’s economic growth is highly dependent on its infrastructure. governments all over the world continue to struggle in the provision of infrastructure in face of rising urban populations (kaluarachchi, 2022; oecd, 2012). infrastructure provision requires huge sums of money as well as innovative ways of construction management. public sector is often criticized for struggling to adopt innovation and achieve value for money (ammons, 2019). for these reasons, private sector involvement in infrastructure projects has become normal over recent decades. one of the innovative ways private sector is involved in the provision of public infrastructure projects is publicprivate partnership (ppp/p3) (bayliss & van waeyenberge, 2018; rasheed et al., 2022). there are many evidences that ppps work better than conventional procurement, which depend predominantly on government entities to carry out the project (raisbeck et al., 2010; wang & zhao, 2018). the other aspect of publicprivate partnerships, however, raises the possibility that they are not a panacea because of the intricate nature of financial structure, the expectation of high returns on investment, the lengthier contract terms, and the inherently risky projects procured through this delivery method (carbonara et al., 2015; rybnicek et al., 2020). moreover, inadequate risk management and inefficient risk transfer among the public and private sectors negatively impact project objectives ( jin & zhang, 2011; shrestha et al., 2017). as a result, effective project risk management is essential for ppp project implementation success. researchers have examined the issue of risk transfer and sharing in ppp projects and have found that there is often inefficient risk allocation. many studies have compared the actual risk proportions in ppp projects with allocations based on subject matter expert judgements, often using surveys. these studies have shown a significant mismatch between preferred and actual risk distribution, resulting in inefficiencies in risk allocation. for example, in chinese ppp water supply projects, the private sector was found to bear risks in an inefficient manner (shrestha et al., 2018). more recently, some scholars have proposed best practices that evaluate each party’s capacity to manage identified risks and aim to prevent risk misallocation. these approaches often rely on principle of risk allocation in ppp i.e., “risks should be allocated to a party who is best able to manage it” (ke et al., 2008). while the concept of allocating risks to the party most capable of managing it is logical, implementing this principle can be challenging due to the subjective nature of assessing risk management capability. for this reason, researchers utilized criteria which can reflect risk management capability of participating parties. these criteria are termed as risk allocation criteria (rac). previous ppp studies had a strong emphasis on identifying and evaluating risks. moreover, some attention has been given to the area of risk allocation in ppp. however, focus of risk allocation research in ppp has mainly been on preferred risk allocation where risk allocation preferences of experts are sought; and its comparison with actual allocation of risk. given that risk allocation principle necessitates considering the risk management abilities of all parties involved, it is crucial to conduct research focused on risk management capabilitybased risk allocation. there is a considerable gap in the field of risk allocation derived from risk management competence of public or private sector particularly in social infrastructure projects. therefore, this paper aims to fill this gap in light rasheed et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024143 of the identified rac from literature (as listed in table 1). this study sought to explore key components that could guide rac based risk management in ppp projects. the insights gained could assist practitioners in both the public and private sectors in assessing their risk management capabilities for partnership projects. empirical data through questionnaire from ppp projects in new zealand was collected and analysed using factor analysis to develop factor groups of rac for simplicity. the findings of this study are anticipated to support ppp stakeholders in formulating strategies that enhance risk management and promote an equitable allocation of risks. literature review an overview of risk management in ppp governments’ increasing adoption of ppps has spurred significant academic interest over the past decade (lima et al., 2021). researchers have focused on financing, economic viability, legal issues, risk management, regulations, and success factors relating to ppps (zhang et al., 2016; cui et al., 2018). risk management involves identifying, planning responses to, monitoring, and controlling project hazards (schieg, 2006). the process starts with establishing strategy and stakeholder duties, followed by risk assessment, which must be preceded by thorough risk identification. risks are evaluated based on their likelihood and impact using qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods. costs of managing key project risks are assessed, followed by planning for risk responses such as acceptance, transfer, avoidance, or reduction. proper risk distribution is essential, with specific risks assigned to the most capable parties (karim & alkaf, 2011). continuous monitoring and reevaluation of risks are also necessary. ppps are inherently risky, making risk management crucial (pmi, 2013). effective risk management not only reduces negative impacts but also enhances positive outcomes. traditional risk management, focused before project commencement, is challenging and costly for longterm ppp projects (xiong et al., 2017). thus, improving risk management’s efficacy is vital, leading to increased research on risk identification, evaluation, and allocation (ameyaw & chan, 2015b; liu et al., 2018; osei– kyei et al., 2021; savrukov et al., 2020; zhang, zhao, et al., 2019). besides construction, ppps face risks in funding, operation, and maintenance. stakeholders should be wellinformed about these risks to achieve project milestones (ibrahim et al., 2006). realistic and objective risk assessment methodologies are essential (li & zou, 2011), helping project managers plan corrective actions efficiently (ameyaw & chan, 2015a). risks can be classified by their impact on public or private sectors, divided into national, regional, and project levels (mazher, 2019). akomeafrimpong et al. (2020) categorized ppp project risks into pre construction, construction, operation, maintenance, and market level. bing et al. (2005) highlighted uk pfi project risks, categorized by design, delays, costs, and performance. wu et al. (2018) identified 37 risks in ppps, categorized into construction, operating, maintenance, legal, and economic risks. risk management’s importance in ppps is evident from extensive research on risk identification, assessment, and measures. however, risk transfer and allocation has received less focus. recent efforts aim to address this gap. ppps are costeffective by transferring most risks to private partners better equipped to handle them (wibowo & kochendoerfer, 2010). fair risk transfer enhances performance and project success. risks should be allocated to parties capable of managing them, but this is complex and prone to subjective judgment, leading to misallocation (alonso‐conde et al., 2007). expert opinions have been used to determine preferred risk allocation in previous studies (ke et al., 2010; rafaat et al., 2020). in china’s ppp projects, most risks were shared between public and private sectors, revealing inconsistencies between preferred and actual risk distribution (ke, wang, and chan, 2010). implementing risk allocation in real projects is challenging, supported by literature documenting inadequate risk distribution (ameyaw & chan, 2016; mazher et al., 2019). evaluating a party’s ability to handle risk rasheed et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024144 depends on external factors, including bargaining power, stakeholder concerns, and financial arrangements (ng & loosemore, 2007). inefficient risk allocation has been examined in ppp projects. ke et al. (2013) found that risk misallocation leads to poor project performance in chinese ppp projects, particularly regarding government action, land acquisition, and approvals. shrestha et al. (2018) found inefficiencies in risk allocation in chinese ppp water supply projects, with external risks largely absorbed by the private sector despite limited table 1. rac identified from literature rac description of the criteria other examples in literature risk foresight ability of the party to identify and assess risk by predicting the probability of occurrence and the impact if that risk occurs. (mazher, 2019, ameyaw and chan, 2016, lam et al., 2007, thomas et al., 2003, loosemore and mccarthy, 2008) response to risk ability of the party to minimize the probability and impact of risk before it takes place. (mazher, 2019, ameyaw and chan, 2016, lam et al., 2007, thomas et al., 2003, loosemore and mccarthy, 2008) minimize risk loss ability of the party to minimize the loss/reduce the impact of the risk in case it occurs. (mazher, 2019, ameyaw and chan, 2016, lam et al., 2007, loosemore and mccarthy, 2008) absorb risk impact the ability of the party to sustain the impact of the risk based on their experience. (mazher, 2019, ameyaw and chan, 2016, lam et al., 2007, thomas et al., 2003, irwin, 2007) low risk cost the ability of the party to manage risk in the least possible cost. (mazher, 2019, ameyaw and chan, 2016, irwin, 2007) obtain risk premium the ability to receive compensation of a loss borne as a result of risk occurrence. (mazher, 2019, ameyaw and chan, 2016, lam et al., 2007) exploit risk to take advantage of certain risks due to an organization’s capability and experience of dealing with that risk exceptionally well. (mazher, 2019, ameyaw and chan, 2016, lam et al., 2007, loosemore and mccarthy, 2008) risk attitude the attitude of a party towards risk management i.e. risk averse/seeker/ neutral/transfer. (mazher, 2019, ameyaw and chan, 2016, chung et al., 2010) bargaining power/ negotiation tactics the relative strength or influence of party in negotiating and executing the terms of the partnership agreement. (xu et al., 2010, thomas et al., 2003, arndt and maguire, 1999) experience the level of knowledge, skills, technical/financial capacity and track record of party in executing and managing ppp projects. (xu et al., 2010, zhu et al., 2007, jin and doloi, 2008) (adopted with permission from: (rasheed et al., 2022)) rasheed et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024145 capacity to manage them. scholars have developed best practices to evaluate each party’s capacity to manage identified risks, typically based on risk allocation criteria (ameyaw & chan, 2016). risk allocation criteria risk allocation criteria are used to determine the “what, which, and how” of risk allocation, or what risks to assign to which parties and how to accomplish allocation. for their broad application in ppp research, these standards taken from the contemporary literature have been included in table 4.1. rac evaluates a party’s capacity to successfully manage such risks. risk allocation has traditionally been done through negotiations between players in the public and private sectors. risk specialists from the public and commercial sectors form a risk allocation agreement. the value of negotiating in ppps cannot be understated. it isn’t generally thought of as the ideal instrument for risk allocation practise, though. as one side may have more influence over the project than the other depending on its stage. for instance, the public sector has more power than the private parties during the procurement stage, which gives it more negotiating leverage. in the past, there have been instances where the private sector has been burdened with risks beyond its capacity, indicating a misuse of this approach (loosemore & mccarthy, 2008; xu et al., 2011). hence, to better reflect the ppp’s risksharing principle, which specifies that responsibility for managing the risk should be placed with the party most qualified to do so, the ability of each party to handle risk may be taken into consideration to improve risk allocation, which will ultimately lead to effective risk allocation. given there is a significant gap in understanding the risk management competence of the public and private sectors, research on risk allocation based on the risk management abilities of involved parties is crucial, and this paper aims to address this gap. research methodology every research study necessitates a welldefined research methodology, serving as a roadmap that directs the inquiry from inception to completion. (akomeafrimpong, jin and oseikyei, 2020). this study utilizes deductive reasoning approach using quantitative data collected through a questionnaire survey and collected data was analysed through statistical means. an extensive literature review was used to identify and develop a list of 10 rac. however, a pilot research was carried out among four experts (two industry professionals and two academics) to determine the applicability and usefulness of the resulting rac. the relevance and usefulness of the set of criteria were validated and reinforced by the experts, with just a few minor phrasing changes proposed and suggestion of removing one criterion for lack of clarity and redundancy. a questionnaire for the study was created using the finalized set of criteria using an online data gathering tool qualtrics. questionnaire survey was adopted for its widespread use in the area of construction management research (wahid et al., 2023). the nine criteria are shown in table 1 together with the corresponding definitions. questionnaire was divided into two parts. first part corresponded to the respondent’s profile which was designed to assess whether they possessed appropriate experience and knowledge of ppp projects. questions were asked about respondent’s experience in ppp project, type of project they worked on, their sector of association and position in their organization. these questions were important as they established credibility of the collected data, given the scarcity of ppp projects in new zealand. second part of the questionnaire was designed to understand the importance of the identified rac and perceived risk management capability of the respondent’s organization for each rac. a fivepoint likert (1 = least important and 5 = most important) scale was adopted to assess the importance of rac and ability of respondent’s organization to deal with risks in terms of identified rac. a no idea (ni) option was also provided to respondents in case they felt they were not experienced enough to answer any of the questions. after refining the questionnaire with the help of pilot study, the primary data for this study was gathered through an industry wide survey in new zealand. all decisionmakers and professionals from public and rasheed et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024146 private sector who have been involved in ppp initiatives in new zealand were the survey’s target audience. a combination of two nonprobability sampling techniques, convenience and judgement, was used to approach respondents as opposed to random sampling as the exact population wasn’t available. an ongoing ppp initiative was approached for initial group of responders. given their degree of ppp scene experience, it was anticipated that they would know other possible responders as well, therefore they were asked to share the survey form link with their network as well. however, this approach wasn’t fruitful and did not achieve the desired number of responses. therefore, additional steps were taken to increase the survey responses. in doing so, all the relevant ppp projects in new zealand were identified to obtain of list major stakeholders. these stakeholders were then contacted through academic connections to participate in the survey. additionally, professionals from ppp organizations who worked on these projects were contacted individually through email and linkedin connections to distribute the survey. the collected data from questionnaire survey was subjected to various statistical analysis techniques such as mean score analysis, reliability analysis and exploratory factor analysis using latest versions of microsoft excel and statistical package for social sciences (spss). mean score ranking was used to establish the importance of rac along with standard deviation of each rac. factor analysis was performed in spss using principle component analysis with varimax rotation to obtain factor loadings of the 9 rac. suitability of these two analysis techniques was also considered through various tests such as cronbach’s alpha, internal consistency reliability, correlation matrix, kaisermeyerolkin (kmo), and bartlett’s test of sphericity given their widespread use in other ppp studies involving factors, such as critical success factors (babatunde et al., 2016), risk factors (mazher et al., 2018) and critical success criteria (oseikyei and chan, 2021). more detail on these tests is provided in the result section of this paper. factor analysis operates on the fundamental principle that observable variables can be condensed into a smaller collection of underlying variables that exhibit shared variance, a process known as dimensionality reduction (yong and pearce, 2013). the relevance of factors is determined by their eigenvalues, with only factors having an eigenvalue higher or equivalent to 1 being considered in analysis (hsueh & chang, 2017; oseikyei and chan, 2021). a n x n correlation matrix “a” will have “n” number of eigenvalues (λ1, λ2,…, λn) given by equation 1, where i represent the identity matrix of a. since each eigenvalue correspond to variances of the factors. taking a percentage of eigenvalue of each factor to the total number of factors resulted in the total variance explained by each factor. | a – λi | = 0 (1) results and discussion a total of fiftyone responses were deemed valid, and based on the comparison with other similar studies that utilized questionnaire surveys, the sample size was deemed adequate for further analysis, (oseikyei and chan, 2021) collected 48 responses, ameyaw and chan (2015c) obtained 35 responses and jin, zhang and yang (2012) obtained 44 responses in their respective studies. additionally, given the small number of ppp projects present in new zealand and study area being somewhat advanced 51 responses were considered sufficient. table 2 displays a comprehensive overview of the background information of the participants. as indicated in table 2, the majority of respondents (63%) possess over five years of experience working on ppp projects. the mean scores of the nine rac were used to identify rac groups (racgs) through the factor analysis (fa) technique. typically, a recommended variable to sample size ratio of 1:5 is followed prior to conducting fa (lingard & rowlinson). given the sample size of 51 against nine rac, the fa technique is deemed suitable and appropriate for the data set. however, to confirm the suitability of the technique for this study, various preliminary tests such as internal consistency reliability, correlation matrix, kaisermeyer rasheed et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024147 olkin (kmo), and bartlett’s test of sphericity were also conducted (norusis, 2008; oseikyei and chan, 2021). initially, a reliability test was performed using the cronbach’s alpha model. the primary objective of the test is to verify if the factors and their corresponding likert scale accurately measure the intended construct. the cronbach’s alpha coefficient, which can range from 0 to 1, is commonly used to assess internal consistency. as a general guideline, george and mallery (2021) proposed that a score of at least 0.7 is the minimum threshold, while a score of 0.8 or higher is considered an excellent indicator of internal consistency. the overall alpha value for the nine rac was found to be 0.721, which exceeds the recommended threshold, suggesting a good level of consistency in the survey responses. table 2. background information of survey participants item type frequency percentage (%) public central government 5 10 local government 6 12 private main contractor 19 37 consultant 4 8 subcontractor 8 15 others 9 18 100 position project director 3 6 construction manager 6 12 project manger 9 18 project engineer 5 10 quantity surveyor 7 13 planning engineer 4 8 others (supervisor, contract administrator, area manager etc.) 17 33 100 experience up to 5 years 19 37 510 years 17 33 1115 years 9 18 over 15 years 6 12 100 in addition, the correlation matrix was used to evaluate the relationships among the factors by calculating the partial correlation coefficients. the resulting matrix showed strong correlations among the nine rac, as their correlation coefficients exceeded 0.30 for more than one other variable (li et al., 2005; norusis, 2008; oseikyei and chan, 2021). output rotated component matrix from spss is tabulated in table 3 below. rasheed et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024148 furthermore, to check the adequacy of applying fa, kmo statistic and bartlett’s test of sphericity were performed (table 4). the kmo test is used to assess the degree of partial correlation among variables and its strength. a kmo value closer to 1.0 is considered to be ideal, while values below 0.5 are deemed unacceptable (tang and shen, 2013). however, many researchers have suggested value of greater than 0.7 to be desirable. shrestha (2021) reported that for sample sizes below 100, a value exceeding 0.6 is considered acceptable. results of this study revealed a kmo value of 0.687, indicating a significant overlap of information among the variables or the presence of strong partial correlation. this suggests that conducting a factor analysis is a plausible approach. table 3. rotated component matrix of rac rotated component matrix component 1 2 3 rac3 0.792 rac9 0.779 rac4 0.777 rac6 0.72 rac1 0.824 rac8 0.765 rac5 0.671 rac7 0.81 rac2 0.75 the bartlett’s test of sphericity is a statistical tool used to examine the null hypothesis that the correlation matrix is an identity matrix, indicating that the variables are independent and not suitable for factor analysis (norusis, 2008). if the statistical test produces a significant result, typically less than 0.05, it means that the correlation matrix is not an identity matrix and the null hypothesis can be rejected. the bartlett’s test of sphericity produced a large value (chisquare = 133.653) and a significance value of less than 0.05 (p = 0.00), suggesting that the population correlation matrix is not an identity matrix (ibid.). table 5 presents the analysis of the mean values of nine rac along with factor loadings, eigenvalues, percentage of variance explained and cumulative percentage of variance. the mean values, ranging from 4.34 (indicating high importance) to 3.52 (important), and the standard deviation values (sd) ranging from 0.53 to 0.94 are shown in the table. it is noteworthy that only three criteria are considered to be of very high importance in evaluating risk allocation decision in ppp projects. these criteria are “risk foresight” (ms = 4.34), “response to risk” (4.12) and “minimize risk loss” (ms = 4.08). as mentioned earlier, to investigate the underlying relationships among nine rac, factor analysis was employed. this analysis holds importance as it condenses the factors into smaller clusters, facilitating practitioners in pinpointing the essential practices required to meet the criteria within these clusters. rasheed et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024149 additionally, by employing factor analysis, practitioners gain insights into the interconnections among various criteria within each grouping. a threefactor solution was obtained using principal factor extraction with varimax rotation, which had eigenvalues exceeding 1.0 (see table 5). varimax rotation was preferred because it simplifies the interpretation process by representing the principal component factor with a small number of easily interpretable variables (oseikyei et al., 2017). all variables had factor loadings at or above 0.50, with seven of them exceeding 0.69, as shown in table 5. this once again confirms the suitability of the survey data for factor analysis (oseikyei, tam and ma, 2021). table 5 presents the extracted factors, with their eigenvalues being greater than 1. additionally, the three major factors account for 64.21% of the total cumulative variance, indicating the sufficiency of the three factors in representing the 10 rac. these three major components are labelled as follows: 1. racg1 – risk management expertise. 2. racg2 – core risk management capability. 3. racg3 – risk management strategy. table 4. results of reliability tests kmo and bartlett’s test kaisermeyerolkin measure of sampling adequacy. .687 bartlett’s test of sphericity approx. chisquare 93.063 df 36 sig. .000 figure 1. scree plot from analysis rasheed et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024150 the three primary components/groups were named according to the subfactors’ loadings, meaning that subfactors with higher absolute loading values had a greater impact on the naming of their respective rac. it’s important to note, however, that this naming process can also be considered theoretical, subjective, as discussed in a previous study by oseikyei et al., 2023. racg1: risk management expertise explaining 31.09% of the variance the first group was called “risk management expertise”. this group consists of four rac: rac3 “absorb risk impact”; rac9 “experience”; rac4 “exploit risk” and rac6 “bargaining power/negotiation tactics” with factor loading of 0.792, 0.779, 0.777 and 0.720, respectively. notably, these four sub criteria mainly relate to the past experience of a party in ppp project to implement valuable lessons learned and insights that can be used to inform future risk management practices. the rac3 exhibits the highest factor loading value, indicating that the ability of a party to absorb the risk impact is a noteworthy criterion to take into account when allocating risks of the project. shrestha et al. (2018) and ameyaw and chan (2016) also stress the importance of this in their studies that the party responsible for managing the risk should possess the ability to minimize the costs. it is important to note that bargaining power/negotiation tactics with a factor loading of 0.72 is an important criterion. rasheed et al. (2022) stress the importance of understanding the negotiating power of each party at the time of allocating risks, as this can lead to unequitable allocation of risks at negotiation stage of the project. with a mean score of 3.84, this group ranked third in the mean score ranking of groups. however, still signifies table 5. mean scores, s.d., factor groups and eigenvalues of rac no. rac mean score std. dev. factor loading eigen value % of variance cum. % of var. racg1 risk management expertise 3.84 2.799 31.09 31.09 rac3 absorb risk impact 3.81 0.932 0.792 rac9 experience 3.96 0.946 0.779 rac4 exploit risk 3.74 0.813 0.777 rac6 bargaining power/ negotiation tactics 3.86 0.903 0.720 racg2 core risk management capability 4.04 1.846 20.508 51.604 rac1 response to risk 4.12 0.606 0.824 rac8 minimize risk loss 4.08 0.866 0.765 rac5 low risk cost 3.92 0.868 0.671 racg3 risk management strategy 3.93 1.135 12.612 64.215 rac7 risk attitude 3.52 0.640 0.810 rac2 risk foresight 4.34 0.535 0.750 rasheed et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024151 importance on the mean score scale used in this study. moreover, with an eigenvalue of 2.799 this group explains the most percentage of variance equal to a value of 31.09. risk management expertise plays a critical role in the successful execution of publicprivate partnership (ppp) projects. it involves the knowledge, skills, and capabilities of the project stakeholders in identifying, assessing, mitigating, and managing risks throughout the project lifecycle. in ppp projects, several factors come into play when considering risk management expertise, including the experience of the partnering entities, their ability to absorb risk impacts, their capacity to exploit risks for mutual benefit, and their bargaining power. experience of a partner: with a mean score of 3.96, this criterion ranked top of the group in terms of mean score ranking, however in terms of factor loading which can be interpreted as correlation of each criteria with the group ranked 2nd with a value of 0.779. the experience of a partner, whether it is a public authority or a private company, greatly influences their risk management expertise. a partner with prior experience in ppp projects brings valuable knowledge of potential risks, effective risk mitigation strategies, and best practices. they are better equipped to anticipate and address projectspecific risks, drawing from lessons learned in previous ventures. this experience enhances their ability to navigate complexities, make informed decisions, and effectively manage risks throughout the project lifecycle. absorbing risk impact: this criterion ranked 1st in terms of factor loading with a value of 0.792, however ranked 3rd on mean score ranking with a value of 3.81 within the group. risk management expertise in ppp projects includes the capacity to absorb and manage the impact of risks. partners need to assess their financial strength, organizational resilience, and risk appetite to determine their ability to withstand the consequences of potential risks. a partner with robust financial resources and risk management systems is better positioned to absorb unexpected costs, delays, or other adverse events. this ability to absorb risk impacts reduces the potential negative consequences on the project’s overall objectives and ensures its long term viability. exploiting risks: with a factor loading of 0.777 this criterion ranked 3rd and on mean score ranking ranked last within the group. risk management expertise in ppp projects extends beyond risk mitigation to also encompass the identification and exploitation of potential opportunities. effective risk management involves recognizing risks that may present opportunities for value creation, innovation, or improved project outcomes. partners with strong risk management expertise possess the capability to identify and assess these risks, develop strategies to exploit them, and derive mutual benefits from the project. this proactive approach to risk management can lead to enhanced project performance, increased efficiency, and better outcomes for both parties. bargaining power of a party: this criterion ranked 2nd in terms of mean score with a value of 3.86 and ranked last in factor loading with a value of 0.72 having least amount of correlation with the principle component withing the group. the bargaining power of a party in a ppp project can significantly influence risk management expertise. a partner with stronger bargaining power may have greater leverage to negotiate risk allocation, risksharing mechanisms, and contractual provisions that favor their risk management strategies. this includes negotiating favorable terms related to risk transfer, insurance coverage, dispute resolution mechanisms, and performance guarantees. the ability to assert bargaining power effectively can help optimize risk management arrangements and align them with the party’s risk appetite and capabilities. in summary, risk management expertise in ppp projects encompasses the experience of partners, their ability to absorb risk impacts, their capacity to exploit risks for mutual benefit, and their bargaining power. by leveraging their experience, partners can apply effective risk management practices, anticipate challenges, and implement mitigation strategies. the capacity to absorb risk impacts ensures the project’s financial viability and resilience. identifying and exploiting risks as opportunities can lead to improved project rasheed et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024152 outcomes. finally, effective bargaining power enables partners to negotiate risk allocation and contractual provisions that align with their risk management strategies. by considering these factors, partners can enhance their risk management expertise, increasing the likelihood of successful outcomes in ppp projects. racg2: core risk management capability core risk management capability explained variance of 20.58% against an eigenvalue of 1.846 and combined with racg1 explained 51.604% of cumulative variance. furthermore, it ranks first amongst the group on mean score rank with a mean value of 4.04 representing high importance. it consists of three rac, namely, rac1 “response to risk”; rac8 “minimize risk loss” and rac5 “low risk cost”. the risk allocation criterion in this group mainly relate to the efficiency of risk response in ppp projects. response to the risk should be such that not only does it minimize the impact of the risk, but also does it in a cost effective way. rac 1 and rac8 corresponding to high importance with values of 4.12 and 4.08 ranked 1st and 2nd within the group. rac1 also achieved the highest value (0.824) of factor loading not only in this group but amongst all other criterion as well. in the context of publicprivate partnerships (ppps), risk response refers to the actions taken by project stakeholders to address and mitigate risks throughout the various phases of the project’s lifecycle. the goal of risk response in ppps is to either avoid risks altogether or minimize the likelihood and impact of their occurrence. risk response in ppps involves proactive measures aimed at identifying potential risks and implementing strategies to prevent them from materializing or to mitigate their consequences. this proactive approach is crucial because ppp projects often span long periods, involve multiple stakeholders, and carry inherent complexities and uncertainties. one aspect of risk response in ppps is risk avoidance. this approach seeks to eliminate or bypass risks by making strategic adjustments to project plans, designs, or methodologies. for example, if a particular risk is identified during the planning phase of a road infrastructure project, the project stakeholders might choose to alter the route to avoid environmentally sensitive areas or to mitigate potential geological risks. risk mitigation is another key component of risk response in ppps. it involves implementing measures to reduce the likelihood or impact of identified risks. this can include the use of advanced technology, robust safety protocols, contingency plans, or alternative construction methods. for instance, in a ppp project involving the construction of a highrise building, the project team might employ stateoftheart fire suppression systems and emergency evacuation procedures to mitigate the risk of fire incidents. furthermore, risk transfer is a strategy commonly utilized in ppps. it involves the allocation of specific risks to the party best equipped to manage them. for example, the private sector partner in a ppp project may assume certain construction or operational risks based on their expertise, experience, and access to specialized resources. this transfer of risks allows each party to focus on areas where they have a comparative advantage, leading to more efficient risk management. it is important to note that risk response in ppps requires a collaborative approach and clear contractual agreements. the responsibilities and obligations of each party regarding risk management should be clearly defined and communicated. this ensures that risk response measures are properly implemented and that there is a shared understanding of risk allocation and mitigation strategies. by focusing on risk response throughout the lifecycle of a ppp project, stakeholders can enhance the project’s resilience, optimize performance, and safeguard the interests of all involved parties. effective risk response contributes to a more sustainable and successful delivery of infrastructure projects under the ppp framework. rasheed et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024153 racg3: risk management strategy “risk management strategy” obtained 12.615% of the variance explained with an eigenvalue of 1.135 and consists of two subfactors, namely, rac7 “risk attitude”; and rac2 “risk foresight” with factors loadings of 0.810 and 0.750, respectively. the overall mean score of the group was 3.93 deeming this group important. these two criteria relate more with the approach and behaviour of risk management in an organization. risk management approach can be traditional, agile, enterprise, resilience, collaborative or a combination of these. similarly risk behaviour can be risk seeking, risk averse or risk neutral. overall, these factors can greatly influence the way risk managers foresee and predict the risk probability and impact of a risk. the relevance of these items is also welldocumented in literature (akintoye, beck and hardcastle, 2008; jin, zhang and yang, 2012; nisar, 2007). risk management strategy in publicprivate partnership (ppp) projects involves the systematic approach adopted by parties to identify, assess, mitigate, and monitor risks throughout the project lifecycle. several factors, including the risk attitude and risk foresight of a party, play a crucial role in shaping the risk management strategy in ppp projects. risk attitude: this criterion obtained the least mean score among all the criteria with a value of 3.52 and was considered least important in respondents’ opinions. risk attitude refers to a party’s willingness to take on risks and their approach to managing them. different parties may have varying risk attitudes, ranging from riskaverse to riskseeking. a riskaverse party is cautious and prefers conservative risk management strategies, aiming to minimize potential negative impacts. on the other hand, a riskseeking party is more willing to accept higher levels of risk in pursuit of potential rewards. understanding the risk attitude of each party involved in the ppp project is essential for developing a risk management strategy that aligns with their preferences and objectives. the risk attitude of a party influences various aspects of risk management, including risk allocation, risk sharing mechanisms, and the level of contingency planning. for example, a riskaverse public authority may seek to transfer significant construction risks to the private partner through a robust contractual framework, while a riskseeking private partner may be more willing to accept such risks in exchange for potential financial gains. by considering the risk attitude of each party, the risk management strategy can be tailored to strike a balance between risk mitigation and risksharing, ensuring a mutually acceptable approach. risk foresight: with a mean score of 4.34, this criterion ranked 1st among all of the criteria representing high importance. risk foresight refers to the ability of a party to anticipate and identify potential risks that may arise during the course of the ppp project. it involves a proactive approach to risk management, whereby parties actively assess and analyze future uncertainties and emerging risks. effective risk foresight requires a thorough understanding of the project’s context, the industry, and the specific risks associated with the project’s scope and objectives. parties with strong risk foresight capabilities engage in comprehensive risk assessments, scenario planning, and use predictive models to anticipate potential risks. by identifying risks in advance, parties can incorporate appropriate risk mitigation measures into the project’s design, planning, and contractual arrangements. this proactive approach helps to minimize the potential negative impacts of risks and enhances the overall risk management strategy. risk foresight also enables parties to make informed decisions about risk allocation, contractual provisions, and the selection of risk management tools and techniques. for example, if a party identifies a potential risk related to environmental regulations, they may incorporate strict environmental standards into the project’s requirements or engage in early stakeholder consultation to mitigate the risk of public opposition. by considering both risk attitude and risk foresight, parties can develop a comprehensive risk management strategy in ppp projects. this strategy should encompass risk identification, risk assessment, rasheed et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024154 risk allocation, risk mitigation measures, and ongoing monitoring and control. effective risk management strategies align with the parties’ risk preferences, anticipate future risks, and enable proactive measures to minimize negative impacts. through a welldefined risk management strategy, parties can enhance the project’s resilience, protect their interests, and improve the chances of successful project outcomes in ppp projects. conclusion ppps have been increasingly adopted by governments worldwide as a preferred procurement approach for public infrastructure projects. in such projects, private sectors are often required to take on many of the risks that have traditionally been borne by governments. although risk transfer is a key factor in achieving valueformoney, its implementation has been criticized as contentious and challenging. as such, achieving the optimal allocation of risks is crucial to ensuring the success of ppp projects. the traditional approach of allocating risks through negotiation have been criticized for its lack of objectivity. this study investigated nine rac identified from previous literature to determine capabilitybased risk management. data was gathered thorough a questionnaire survey from ppp projects in new zealand. mean score tanking was utilized to understand importance ranking of criterion and factor analysis was used to understand the underlying relation among the criteria and resulted in three factor groupings. core risk management capability of a party was found to be the most significant of groups with the highest eigenvalue and percentage of variance explained. mean score analysis results show that three criteria namely risk foresight, response to risk and minimize risk loss were considered of high importance with values of 4.34, 4.12 and 4.08 respectively. risk attitude was considered least important with a mean score value of 3.52. risk group “risk management expertise”, comprising of four criteria explained most amount of variance (31.09%) with an eigenvalue of 2.79. the research findings may be limited in their generalizability for several reasons. firstly, the number of responses received was relatively low despite all efforts made to increase it. however, the sample size was considered adequate when compared to similar studies, and meaningful conclusions can still be drawn for future practice and reference. secondly, the less common mode of ppps in new zealand, dbfmo, and the fact that survey participants were involved in various types of ppps (such as transport, schools, and prisons) may limit the generalizability of the results to other regions of the world. nevertheless, given the unique nature of ppps in new zealand, the research findings remain valuable for guiding future research and informing international policy practices. the results of this study provide a foundational framework that governments and private developers can employ to achieve more effective risk allocation. in addition, these findings will enable researchers to undertake similar empirical studies on the subject of capabilitybased risk allocation in other types of ppp projects be it in terms of the model employed such as bot, boot etc or type of infrastructure delivered i.e. transport or power and social. future research can also be focused on drawing comparisons between different types of ppp models based on the result from this study. acknowledgments the authors express gratitude to the professionals from the industry who contributed to this study, as well as to the editors and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments that enhanced the overall quality of this paper. references akintoye, a., beck, m. and hardcastle, c., 2008. public-private partnerships: managing risks and opportunities. john wiley & sons. rasheed et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024155 akomea-frimpong, i., jin, x. & osei-kyei, r. 2020. a holistic review of research studies on financial risk management in public–private partnership projects. engineering, construction and architectural management. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ecam-02-2020-0103 alonso‐conde, a. b., brown, c. & rojo‐suarez, j. 2007. public private partnerships: incentives, risk transfer and real options. review of financial economics, 16, 335-349. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rfe.2007.03.002 ameyaw, e. e. & chan, a. p. 2015a. evaluation and ranking of risk factors in public–private partnership water supply projects in developing countries using fuzzy synthetic evaluation approach. expert systems with applications, 42, 51025116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2015.02.041 ameyaw, e. e. & chan, a. p. 2015b. risk ranking and analysis in ppp water supply infrastructure projects: an international survey of industry experts. facilities, 33, 428-453. https://doi.org/10.1108/f-12-2013-0091 ameyaw, e. e. & chan, a. p. 2016. a fuzzy approach for the allocation of risks in public–private partnership waterinfrastructure projects in developing countries. journal of infrastructure systems, 22, 04016016. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)is.1943-555x.0000297 ameyaw, e. e. & chan, a. p. c. 2015c. risk allocation in public-private partnership water supply projects in ghana. construction management and economics, 33, 187-208. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2015.1031148 ammons, d. n. 2019. productivity barriers in the public sector. public productivity handbook. crc press. arndt, r. & maguire, g. 1999. private provision of public infrastucture: risk identification and allocation project, department of treasury & finance and department of civil enfironmental …. babatunde, s. o., perera, s., zhou, l. & udeaja, c. 2016. stakeholder perceptions on critical success factors for public-private partnership projects in nigeria. built environment project and asset management, 6, 74-91. https://doi. org/10.1108/bepam-11-2014-0061 bayliss, k. & waeyenberge, e. v. 2018. unpacking the public private partnership revival. the journal of development studies, 54, 577-593. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2017.1303671 bing, l., akintoye, a., edwards, p. j. & hardcastle, c. 2005. the allocation of risk in ppp/pfi construction projects in the uk. international journal of project management, 23, 25-35. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.04.006 carbonara, n., costantino, n., gunnigan, l. & pellegrino, r. 2015. risk management in motorway ppp projects: empirical-based guidelines. transport reviews, 35, 162-182. https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2015.1012696 chung, d., hensher, d. a. & rose, j. m. 2010. toward the betterment of risk allocation: investigating risk perceptions of australian stakeholder groups to public-private-partnership tollroad projects. research in transportation economics, 30, 43-58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2010.10.007 cui, c., liu, y., hope, a. & wang, j. 2018. review of studies on the public–private partnerships (ppp) for infrastructure projects. international journal of project management, 36, 773-794. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2018.03.004 froud, j. 2003. the private finance initiative: risk, uncertainty and the state. accounting, organizations and society, 28, 567-589. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0361-3682(02)00011-9 hartono, b., ghifari, m. d. a. & dianita, o. 2021. risk allocation preferences in indonesian electricity publicprivate partnership projects: a conjoint analysis. ieee engineering management review. https://doi.org/10.1109/ emr.2021.3087809 ibrahim, a. d., price, a. d. f. & dainty, a. r. j. 2006. the analysis and allocation of risks in public private partnerships in infrastructure projects in nigeria. journal of financial management of property and construction, 11, 149-164. https:// doi.org/10.1108/13664380680001086 rasheed et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024156 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2020-0103 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2020-0103 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rfe.2007.03.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2015.02.041 https://doi.org/10.1108/f-12-2013-0091 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000297 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000297 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2015.1031148 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-11-2014-0061 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-11-2014-0061 https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2017.1303671 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.04.006 https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2015.1012696 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2010.10.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2018.03.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2018.03.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0361-3682(02)00011-9 https://doi.org/10.1109/emr.2021.3087809 https://doi.org/10.1109/emr.2021.3087809 https://doi.org/10.1108/13664380680001086 https://doi.org/10.1108/13664380680001086 irwin, t. 2007. government guarantees: allocating and valuing risk in privately financed infrastructure projects, world bank publications. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-6858-9 jin, x. h. & doloi, h. 2008. interpreting risk allocation mechanism in public-private partnership projects: an empirical study in a transaction cost economics perspective. construction management and economics, 26, 707-721. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446190801998682 jin, x. h. & zhang, g. 2011. modelling optimal risk allocation in ppp projects using artificial neural networks. international journal of project management, 29, 591-603. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.07.011 jin, x. h., zhang, g. & yang, r. j. 2012. factor analysis of partners’ commitment to risk management in public-private partnership projects. construction innovation, 12, 297-316. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171211244550 kaluarachchi, y. 2022. implementing data-driven smart city applications for future cities. smart cities, 5, 455-474. https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities5020025 karim, a. & alkaf, n. 2011. risk allocation in public private partnership (ppp) project: a review on risk factors. international journal of sustainable construction engineering technology, 2. ke, y., wang, s. and chan, a.p., 2010. risk allocation in public-private partnership infrastructure projects: comparative study. journal of infrastructure systems, 16(4), pp.343-351. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000030 ke, y., wang, s., chan, a. p. & lam, p. t. 2010. preferred risk allocation in china’s public–private partnership (ppp) projects. international journal of project management, 28, 482-492. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.08.007 ke, y., wang, s. & chan, p. c. 2008. revelation of the channel tunnel’s failure to risk allocation in public-private partnership projects. china civil engineering journal. 41, 97-102. ke, y., wang, s. q. & chan, a. p. c. 2013. risk misallocation in public-private partnership projects in china. international public management journal, 16, 438-460. https://doi.org/10.1080/10967494.2013.825508 lam, k. c., wang, d., lee, p. t. & tsang, y. t. 2007. modelling risk allocation decision in construction contracts. international journal of project management, 25, 485-493. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.11.005 li, b., akintoye, a., edwards, p. j. and hardcastle, c., 2005. critical success factors for ppp/pfi projects in the uk construction industry. construction management and economics, 23(5), pp.459-471. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446190500041537 li, j. & zou, p. x. 2011. fuzzy ahp-based risk assessment methodology for ppp projects. journal of construction engineering and management, 137, 1205-1209. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000362 lima, s., brochado, a. & marques, r. c. 2021. public-private partnerships in the water sector: a review. utilities policy, 69, 101182. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2021.101182 liu, y., sun, c., xia, b., liu, s. & skitmore, m. 2018. identification of risk factors affecting ppp waste-toenergy incineration projects in china: a multiple case study. advances in civil engineering, 2018. https://doi. org/10.1155/2018/4983523 loosemore, m. & mccarthy, c. 2008. perceptions of contractual risk allocation in construction supply chains. journal of professional issues in engineering education practice, 134, 95-105. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)10523928(2008)134:1(95) mazher, k. m. 2019. risk assessment and allocation model for public-private partnership infrastructure projects in pakistan. the hong kong polytechnic university. mazher, k. m., chan, a. p. c., zahoor, h., ameyaw, e. e., edwards, d. j. & osei-kyei, r. 2019. modelling capabilitybased risk allocation in ppps using fuzzy integral approach. canadian journal of civil engineering, 46, 777-788. https:// doi.org/10.1139/cjce-2018-0373 rasheed et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024157 https://doi.org/10.1596/978-0-8213-6858-9 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190801998682 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190801998682 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.07.011 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171211244550 https://doi.org/10.3390/smartcities5020025 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000030 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2009.08.007 https://doi.org/10.1080/10967494.2013.825508 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.11.005 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190500041537 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190500041537 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000362 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2021.101182 https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/4983523 https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/4983523 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2008)134:1(95 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2008)134:1(95 https://doi.org/10.1139/cjce-2018-0373 https://doi.org/10.1139/cjce-2018-0373 mazher, k. m., chan, a. p. c., zahoor, h., khan, m. i. & ameyaw, e. e. 2018. fuzzy integral-based risk-assessment approach for public-private partnership infrastructure projects. journal of construction engineering and management, 144. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001573 nisar, t. m., 2007. risk management in public–private partnership contracts. public organization review, 7, pp.1-19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-006-0020-1 ng, a. & loosemore, m. 2007. risk allocation in the private provision of public infrastructure. international journal of project management, 25, 66-76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.06.005 norusis, m., 2008. spss 16.0 statistical procedures companion. prentice hall press. oecd. 2012. strategic transport infrastructure needs to 2030. paris, france: oecd publishing. osei-kyei, r., chan, a. p. and ameyaw, e. e., 2017. a fuzzy synthetic evaluation analysis of operational management critical success factors for public-private partnership infrastructure projects. benchmarking: an international journal, 24(7), pp.2092-2112. https://doi.org/10.1108/bij-07-2016-0111 osei-kyei, r. & chan, a. p. 2021. model for assessing the success index of public-private partnership projects. international best practices of public-private partnership: insights from developed & developing economies. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6268-0 osei-kyei, r., narbaev, t., atafo-adabre, m., chileshe, n. and ofori-kuragu, j. k., 2023. critical success criteria for retirement village public–private partnership housing. construction innovation, 23(5), pp.1018-1037. https://doi. org/10.1108/ci-11-2021-0206 osei–kyei, r., tam, v. & ma, m. 2021. risk assessment of retirement village public-private partnership homes. journal of aging and environment. https://doi.org/10.1080/26892618.2021.1932010 pmi. 2013. a guide to the project management body of knowledge (pmbok guide). newton square, pa. project management institute. raisbeck, p., duffield, c. & xu, m. 2010. comparative performance of ppps and traditional procurement in australia. construction management and economics, 28, 345-359. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190903582731 rasheed, n., shahzad, w., khalfan, m. & rotimi, j. o. b. 2022. risk identification, assessment, and allocation in ppp projects: a systematic review. buildings, 12, 1109. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12081109 rasheed, n., wahid, i., shahzad, w. & rotimi, j. o. b. understanding the factors critical to success of ppps in new zealand: public and private sector standpoint. proceedings–new zealand built environment research symposium, 2020. 13. rybnicek, r., plakolm, j. & baumgartner, l. 2020. risks in public–private partnerships: a systematic literature review of risk factors, their impact and risk mitigation strategies. public performance & management review, 43, 1174-1208. https://doi.org/10.1080/15309576.2020.1741406 savrukov, a. n., savrukov, n. t. & kozlovskaya, e. a. 2020. risk assessment of public-private partnership in russia based on the fuzzy logic method. voprosy ekonomiki, 2020, 132-143. https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2020-10132-143 schieg, m. 2006. risk management in construction project management. journal of business economics management, 7, 77-83. https://doi.org/10.3846/16111699.2006.9636126 shrestha, a., chan, t. k., aibinu, a. a. & chen, c. 2017. efficient risk transfer in ppp wastewater treatment projects. utilities policy, 48, 132-140. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2017.03.003 rasheed et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024158 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001573 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-006-0020-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2006.06.005 https://doi.org/10.1108/bij-07-2016-0111 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-6268-0 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-11-2021-0206 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-11-2021-0206 https://doi.org/10.1080/26892618.2021.1932010 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190903582731 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12081109 https://doi.org/10.1080/15309576.2020.1741406 https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2020-10-132-143 https://doi.org/10.32609/0042-8736-2020-10-132-143 https://doi.org/10.3846/16111699.2006.9636126 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2017.03.003 shrestha, a., chan, t. k., aibinu, a. a., chen, c. & martek, i. 2018. risk allocation inefficiencies in chinese ppp water projects. journal of construction engineering and management, 144. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0001457 shrestha, n. 2021. factor analysis as a tool for survey analysis. american journal of applied mathematics and statistics, 9, 4-11. https://doi.org/10.12691/ajams-9-1-2 tang, l. & shen, q. j. 2013. factors affecting effectiveness and efficiency of analyzing stakeholders’ needs at the briefing stage of public private partnership projects. international journal of project management, 31, 513-521. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.10.010 thomas, a. v., kalidindi, s. n. & ananthanarayanan, k. a. b. t. 2003. risk perception analysis of bot road project participants in india. construction management and economics, 21.4, 393-407. https://doi. org/10.1080/0144619032000064127 wahid, i., shahzad, w., rasheed, n. & rotimi, j. o. b. 2023. analysis of theoretical viewpoints explaining the performance differentials of construction firms. international journal of construction education and research, 1-24. https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2023.2172108 wang, y. & zhao, z. j. 2018. performance of public–private partnerships and the influence of contractual arrangements. public performance and management review, 41, 177-200. https://doi.org/10.1080/15309576.2017.1400 989 wibowo, a. & kochendoerfer, b. 2010. selecting bot/ppp infrastructure projects for government guarantee portfolio under conditions of budget and risk in the indonesian context. journal of construction engineering and management, 137, 512-522. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000312 wu, y., xu, c., li, l., wang, y., chen, k. & xu, r. 2018. a risk assessment framework of ppp waste-to-energy incineration projects in china under 2-dimension linguistic environment. journal of cleaner production, 183, 602-617. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.02.077 xiong, w., zhao, x., yuan, j.-f. & luo, s. 2017. ex post risk management in public-private partnership infrastructure projects. project management journal, 48, 76-89. https://doi.org/10.1177/875697281704800305 xu, y., chan, a. p. c. & yeung, j. f. y. 2010. developing a fuzzy risk allocation model for ppp projects in china. journal of construction engineering and management, 136, 894-903. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0000189 xu, y., yang, y., chan, a. p., yeung, j. f. & cheng, h. 2011. identification and allocation of risks associated with ppp water projects in china. international journal of strategic property management, 15, 275-294. https://doi.org/10.3846/16 48715x.2011.617867 zhang, l., zhao, z., chai, j. & kan, z. 2019. risk identification and analysis for ppp projects of electric vehicle charging infrastructure based on 2-tuple and the dematel model. world electric vehicle journal, 10. https://doi. org/10.3390/wevj10010004 zhu, l., yuan, j. & du, j. 2007. the study of administration right of government base on ppp contract. construction economics, 10, 54-57. rasheed et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024159 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001457 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001457 https://doi.org/10.12691/ajams-9-1-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.10.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.10.010 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000064127 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000064127 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2023.2172108 https://doi.org/10.1080/15309576.2017.1400989 https://doi.org/10.1080/15309576.2017.1400989 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000312 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.02.077 https://doi.org/10.1177/875697281704800305 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000189 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000189 https://doi.org/10.3846/1648715x.2011.617867 https://doi.org/10.3846/1648715x.2011.617867 https://doi.org/10.3390/wevj10010004 https://doi.org/10.3390/wevj10010004 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: upadhyaya, d., malek, m. s. s. 2024. an exploratory factor analysis approach to investigate health and safety factors in indian construction sector. construction economics and building, 24:1/2, 29–49. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v24i1/2.8867 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article an exploratory factor analysis approach to investigate health and safety factors in indian construction sector deep upadhyaya1 and mohammedshakil malek2,* 1 research scholar, gujarat technological university, gj sh 41, near visat three roads, nigam nagar, chandkheda, ahmedabad, gujarat, india382424, deep.upadhyaya@gtu.edu.in 2 principal, f. d. (mubin) institute of engineering and technology, bahiyal, dahegam, gujarat, india382308, shakil250715@yahoo.co.in for mod 2x eqs corresponding author: mohammed shakilmalek, f. d. (mubin) institute of engineering and technology, bahiyal, dahegam, gujarat, india382308, shakil250715@yahoo.co.in doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8867 article history: received 15/10/2023; revised 27/10/2023, 13/12/2023, 11/03/2024; accepted 14/03/2024; published 01/07/2024 abstract construction sites require heightened safety measures due to hazardous working conditions. health and safety (h&s) standards in the indian construction sector are notably subpar. despite this stark reality, indian researchers have paid scant attention to h&s concerns. recognizing the critical dimensions is pivotal for enhancing on-site h&s. thus. this study endeavours to identify the key aspects and factors influencing h&s at job sites within the indian construction industry to prompt similar investigations in other developing countries. the research employed a pilot-tested questionnaire survey methodology to validate dimensions derived from existing literature. following the compilation of a final set of 61 dimensions, exploratory factor analysis (efa) was applied for analysis. among the original 61 dimensions, 35 were identified as significant and categorized into four main factors: management regulatory factor (mrf), worker’s self-regulatory factor (wsrf), workplace regulatory factor (wrf), and government regulatory factor (grf) with cronbach’s alpha 0.946, 0.892, 0.782 and 0.773 showing reliability level of excellent, good, acceptable and acceptable respectively which provides a theoretical framework. the study’s outcomes can aid decision-makers, top management, and workers in comprehending h&s and its practical implementation. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 29 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8867 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8867 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:deep.upadhyaya@gtu.edu.in mailto:shakil250715@yahoo.co.in mailto:shakil250715@yahoo.co.in https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8867 additionally, the results may encourage developing countries to institute h&s governance for on-site safety. for future studies in the indian construction sector, exploring these factors through confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) is recommended. based on the dimensions and factors identified in this research, a model utilizing structural equation modelling (sem), or a path model could be devised. it is also advised that emerging nations conduct further research in this direction. keywords h&s; construction; dimensions; factors; efa introduction on-site health and safety (h&s) are a social responsibility and preventing zero building accidents worldwide is tough (uddin, et al., 2023). developing countries need to tackle h&s concerns adequately (salvi, 2021). consequently, h&s-related research provides evidence of initiatives to enhance h&s aspects of the construction industry (upadhyaya and malek, 2023a). unfortunately, the sector continues to struggle with h&s issues, resulting in high death rates in construction activities (newaz, et al., 2021). india’s construction sector employs 51 million people, second only to agriculture (bandyopadhyay, 2022). construction has a higher death rate than other indian industries. its mortality rate is 50 times higher than the us (incidents per 1,000 employees per year) (chellappa, srivastava and salve, 2021). one in two thousand indian construction workers is injured daily (mahalingam and levitt, 2007). this fact shows that the indian construction sector has opportunities for h&s improvement. contractors in india are always looking for ways to save money, and the cost of buying protective gear for all of their workers is much higher than the money they give to injured workers as compensation. indian contractors and employees feel safety precautions are only needed in extreme situations (patel, kikani and jha, 2016). in india, most construction projects operate without a safety strategy (chellappa, srivastava and salve, 2021). industry operators and h&s-responsible agencies need more resources to manage h&s in construction. thus, it is crucial to identify the fewest dimensions and factors most affecting construction safety performance (yang, kim and go 2021). in this approach, those involved in the building project may direct their attention and available resources where they will have the most impact on ensuring the project’s success in terms of h&s. because construction activities are conducted in a variety of sociocultural, legal, and regulatory contexts, most h&s characteristics are country specific. because of this, research conducted in other nations may not be relevant to the conditions of the indian building sector (upadhyaya and malek, 2023b). this research intends to fill the gap left by inadequate empirical investigations on the factors and dimensions that significantly impact health and safety on building sites in india. the twofold aims were set for the research to help accomplish this: (1) to identify the most critical sets of dimensions influencing construction h&s performance in india, and (2) to use the exploratory factor analysis (efa) approach to analyse the most influential dimensions influencing construction h&s performance. this research fills in the blanks by highlighting the primary dimensions and crucial factors contributing to h&s within the indian construction industry. literature review health is not merely the absence of disease; it is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being. this dynamic concept includes freedom from illness, the ability to engage in daily activities, mental stability, and supportive social connections. beyond disease avoidance, health emphasizes overall quality of life and adaptability to challenges (mccartney, et al., 2019). safety entails protection from harm, danger, or injury upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202430 through measures designed to minimize risks. it applies to personal, workplace, product, and community contexts (aven, 2014). the concept of h&s in construction refers to the systematic efforts and measures undertaken to protect the well-being of individuals involved in construction activities. it encompasses a comprehensive approach to identifying, assessing, and mitigating potential risks, hazards, and factors associated with construction sites, materials, equipment, and processes. the primary goal is to create a safe and secure working environment that minimizes the likelihood of accidents, injuries, and adverse health effects. collaboration between workers, contractors, and regulatory bodies is crucial to fostering a safety culture that prioritizes the protection of individuals and the prevention of occupational incidents. overall, the concept of health and safety in construction seeks to ensure the physical and mental well-being of everyone involved in construction activities, promoting a secure and productive work environment (lingard, 2013). progressive approaches for the study: kukoyi and adebowale (2021) collected data via a questionnaire survey and, with the help of efa, classified 21 hurdles to construction accident prevention into four variables and graded them based on the average score for the nigerian construction sector. buniya, et al. (2021) started with interviews; questionnaires were used to collect data, and exploratory factor analysis was used to classify 25 aspects of iraq’s building safety and categorized them into four categories. ajith, sivapragasam and arumugaprabu (2019) used a questionnaire with a 5-point likert scale and the relative importance index (rii) to figure out the most important safety factors that affected how dangerous the work was. through a literature review, newaz, et al. (2021) did a systematic review and critical content analysis of the research literature to find five future research trends, gaps, and guidelines for construction safety management. they proposed a shift in research focus from physical safety issues to organizational and culture-related aspects that could improve safety effectiveness. the time series (ts) approach was used by cao and goh (2019) to find critical metrics of construction accidents. three ts models were built for forecasting accident occurrences, and the vector error correction method was shown to be the most effective. conventional approaches for the study: obolewicz and dąbrowski (2018) in poland, laws governing h&s were determined, a questionnaire survey was conducted, and pareto charts were constructed to show that construction site managers’ and employees’ understanding of laws and regulations and their behaviour significantly impact osh in small, medium, and large firms. yiu, et al. (2018) identified key features and essential success criteria in hong kong by surveying the profession’s status and structural interviews. the findings revealed a safety management system’s advantages and possible implementation challenges. chan, et al. (2017) noted three elements, namely: (a) “safety management commitment, safety resources, and safety communication;” (b) “employee’s involvement and coworkers’ influence;” and (c) “perception of safety rules, procedures, and risks.” they claimed this research could be used to plan efficient safety management strategies for better safety outcomes. akroush and el-adaway (2017) showed that more prominent companies used leading indicators for their safety policies and plans. instead of the system and policy-based hands, smaller organizations used straightforward, well-liked metrics like ppe use and housekeeping. enshassi, ayyash and choudhry (2016) said that the most critical bim safety applications to improve construction safety are “hazard detection and reduction” and “safety training and education.” guo and yiu (2016) resulted in 32 highly rated indications and claimed that the primary indicators could not be considered separately when assessing the overall safety of a building project. according to questionnaire data, fang, et al. (2015) found that reactive and encouraging action affect worker safety behaviour but not safety climate. training and preventative activity may increase construction site safety more than reactive and supportive steps by affecting the supervisory atmosphere and worker engagement. mouleeswaran (2015), with the help of a questionnaire survey and the safety performance index, found that the level of safety in the erode region needs to be improved. hinze, hallowell and baud (2013) identified a wide range of safety procedures employed in the united states building industry through questionnaires, interviews, and site visits. agumba and haupt (2012) using a questionnaire survey upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202431 and the delphi method, researchers in south africa found 62 predictors with a high potential to boost h & s performance when taken into account. el-mashaleh, et al. (2010) used a literature review and data envelopment analysis (dea) to benchmark safety performance. they found that the dea method works well to fill gaps and evaluate contractors’ safety performance. research gap based on the literature, it is evident that numerous researchers have contemplated the evolution and transformation of h&s management within their respective countries’ construction sectors. safety management practices in the construction industry are predominantly tailored to each country, with varying implementation requisites and methods across nations. notably, the major problem is that safety performance benchmarking remains unexplored in india, leaving a void in determining the safety standards of the indian construction industry. efa is notably absent in the indian context, contrasting with other publications that have employed more limited dimensions. exploration of dimensions an in-depth investigation was conducted to examine the various dimensions influencing h&s within the construction industry, drawing upon a comprehensive literature review spanning the last two decades. based on a literature study, 61 variables were identified as influencing the h&s performance on-site in the indian setting, as shown in table 1. the researcher then addressed the explored dimensions with seven experts, three from academia and four from industry, with more than 25 years of expertise in this area tripathi and jha (2018), to ensure that no relevant variables pertinent to the indian context were overlooked. table 1. explored dimensions for h&s in construction from the literature sr. no. dimensions for h&s in construction references 1 safety training & safety related educational programs [3], [5], [6], [7], [9], [10], [11], [12], [14], [15], [16], [18], [19], [20]. 2 safety incentives/safety motivation / safety promotional activities [2], [5], [6], [7], [8], [10], [11], [12], [14], [15], [16], [18], [19]. 3 communication channels/systems [1], [2], [4], [6], [9], [10], [13], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19]. 4 management commitment for h&s [1], [2], [7], [10], [12], [13], [14], [16], [17], [18], [19]. 5 risk assessment/ hazard identification/ analysis/ job safety analysis [5], [6], [7], [10], [12], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19]. 6 onsite safety meetings [2], [6], [7], [11], [12], [13], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19]. 7 onsite toolbox talk [2], [6], [7], [11], [12], [13], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19]. 8 worker’s/employee’s involvement/ participation in h&s aspects [1], [6], [10], [11], [12], [13], [14], [17], [18], [19]. 9 accident investigation [5], [7], [12], [14], [15], [16], [17], [18], [19], [20]. upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202432 sr. no. dimensions for h&s in construction references 10 unsafe attitudes/behaviours [1], [2], [7], [8], [9], [13], [15], [16], [20]. 11 h&s inspections [6], [7], [11], [12], [15], [16], [18], [20]. 12 h&s performance monitoring system/ evaluation/measurement/ assessment [6], [7], [9], [11], [14], [15], [18], [20]. 13 h&s organization/safety committee [5], [6], [7], [10], [11], [14], [15], [20]. 14 h&s plan [6], [7], [11], [14], [15], [17], [18], [20]. 15 safety budget [2], [6], [7], [12], [15], [16], [20]. 16 safety policy [5], [6], [12], [15], [16], [17], [19]. 17 supply of ppe for workers [5], [6], [8], [11], [15], [17], [19]. 18 safety rules [1], [5], [9], [13], [15], [16], [19]. 19 safety audits by outside auditors [6], [7], [10], [12], [15], [18], [19]. 20 emergency plan [5], [7], [12], [14], [17], [19], [20]. 21 accident reporting system [5], [10], [15], [18], [19], [20]. 22 housekeeping/ drinking water/ latrines & urinals/sanitation/ accommodation/ drug & alcohol testing/ healthcare facilities & canteen facilities [5], [6], [7], [8], [15], [19]. 23 peer & time pressure [1], [9], [13], [14], [16], [19]. 24 accident report analysis system [5], [7], [11], [17], [18], [20]. 25 safety leadership [2], [8], [10], [16], [18]. 26 working environment [4], [10], [13], [16], [20]. 27 instructional manuals for h&s [6], [13], [15], [16], [19]. 28 h&s lesion learning & sharing [2], [5], [8], [9], [11]. 29 unsafe working conditions [2], [5], [8], [9], [11]. 30 current h&s rules ®ulations [3], [4], [20]. 31 worker’s suggestions & feedback [6], [7], [18]. 32 workplace layout considering h&s aspects [5], [6], [8]. 33 fire control measures/ electrical safety precautions/machine guarding [5], [7], [20]. 34 absence of safety provisions in contractual clauses [4], [10], [19]. 35 records keeping [7], [11], [20]. table 1. continued upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202433 sr. no. dimensions for h&s in construction references 36 provision of insurance for labour [3], [15], [19]. 37 training for special operations [5], [19], [20]. 38 worker’s right to refuse potentially unsafe work & unhealthy conditions [6], [7], [8]. 39 influence of drug/alcohol/injury on work efficiency [6], [7], [8]. 40 usage of ppe & correct method of using ppe [17], [19]. 41 risk-taking behaviours [1], [9]. 42 ppe & other safety equipment inspection & maintenance policy [5], [7]. 43 teamwork of employees [2], [10]. 44 induction training programs [5], [15]. 45 lack of accident data management system [3], [7]. 46 safety awareness [3], [16]. 47 shift pattern & overtime [3], [7]. 48 contractor & subcontractor selection criteria [2], [3]. 49 worker’s age [2], [6]. 50 extensive use of migrating labour [3] 51 lack of certifying authority to the h&s management system [2] 52 lack of onsite inspections by government authorities [6] 53 insufficient penalties [3] 54 inadequate support for innovation, research & technology [3] 55 contractors’ negligence toward safety [4] 56 safe operating procedures [5] 57 outdated procedures [5] 58 worker’s education & skill [3] 59 identification of implementation of h&s legislation [4] table 1. continued upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202434 sr. no. dimensions for h&s in construction references 60 negligence of work due to simplicity & repetitiveness [5] 61 worker’s sincerity & professionalism [2] references are as follows: [1]= (chan, et al., 2017); [2]= (yiu, sze and chan, 2018); [3]= (alkilani, jupp and sawhney, 2013); [4]= (cheah, 2007); [5]= (raja prasad and reghunath, 2011); [6]= (agumba and haupt, 2012); [7]= (akroush and eladaway, 2017); [8]= (guo and yiu, 2016); [9]= (wu, et al., 2015); [10]= (karakhan, et al., 2018); [11]= (alruqi and hallowell, 2019); [12]= (pereira, et al., 2018); [13]= (alruqi, hallowell and techera, 2018); [14]= (bavafa, mahdiyar and marsono, 2018); [15]= (manu, et al., 2018); [16]= (mohammadi, tavakolan and khosravi, 2018); [17]= (tremblay and badri, 2018); [18]= (stemn, et al., 2019); [19]= (zahoor, et al., 2016); [20]= (tong, et al., 2018). research methodology following the research flow shown in figure 1, an understanding of on-site h&s concepts was acquired through a comprehensive literature review. the study delved into potential factors influencing h&s, and expert perspectives specific to the indian context were sought. in this study, data was collected through a questionnaire survey using a likert scale with five points. a questionnaire survey was used by buniya, et al. (2021), liang, et al. (2019), and choudhry, fang, and lingard (2009) to investigate h&s issues on construction sites. the method used depends on what is being studied, and one of the benefits of questionnaire surveys is that data can be collected quickly (kukoyi and adebowale, 2021). according to zahoor, et al. (2017), a questionnaire survey is an excellent way to determine people’s feelings. for this type of study, several researchers, trinh, feng and mohamed (2019), newaz, et al. (2019), bayram, ünğan and ardıç (2017), and ajith, sivapragasam and arumugaprabu (2019) used a likert scale with five points. the data collected underwent initial processing in the pre-processing block. subsequently, the dimensions of the pre-processed dataset were further reduced, and the efa method was employed to cluster these dimensions. review of existing literature and identification of research deficits exploration of dimensions and expert opinion for the indian context questionnaire design and pretesting pilot testing and finalization of the questionnaire sample design and data collection reliability and validity by data pre-processing apply efa to reduce dimensions and group them into factors. figure 1. research flow of the study questionnaire survey the questionnaire comprised two sections: section a had basic information about the respondent, and section b contained 61 statements based on dimensions explored in the research topic on a five-point likert scale from 1 to 5, where 1 means strongly disagree, and 5 means strongly agree. the pilot version of the questionnaire was filled out by 25 academicians and 25 industry professionals from all over india who work in civil engineering and have at least 20 years of experience. this data is not included in the final upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202435 dataset. the questionnaire was evaluated for its reliability, usefulness, effectiveness, content validity, structural validity, offensiveness, unidirectionality, and unidimensionality. their comments were utilized to amend the questionnaire. the finalized questionnaire was distributed to the population. to ensure the credibility of our findings, we need a significant sample size because civil engineering professionals from across india are hard to predict. the computation of sample size is detailed in depth in the next section. sample size two comparisons were used to determine the sample size. first, equation (1), given by bartlett ii, kotrlik and higgins (2001) was considered. n      ( ) ( ) ( ) ( . ) ( . ) ( . ) . . . t s d 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 96 0 8333 0 15 3 841 0 694 0 022 1121 18.  122 (1) where n= sample size, t= value of selected alpha level (significance). the alpha level represents the researcher’s confidence in a margin more significant than the minimum allowed margin of error. the alpha level is 5% for social science, engineering, management, etc., which is 0.05 & while the alpha level for medical studies is 1%, which is 0.01.t value for alpha level 0.05 is 1.96, s= variance estimation, range of likert scale = 6 * s for 5 points likert scale 5 6 5 6 0 8333  s, .s= , d= acceptable margin of error which is considered 3% for the likert scale, d= no. of the point on the scale * acceptable margin of error, 5 * 0.03 = 0.15 considering equation (1), the sample size would be 122 for this study. estimating a suitable sample size may also be obtained from (malek and bhatt, 2023; 2023a). they claim that a ratio of 5:1 between the sample size and the number of questionnaire statements is necessary for normal distribution. in light of this criterion, our sample size should be 305 since there are a total of 61 statements in our questionnaire. we acquired a sample size 305 using the second method, up from the 122 we got with the first. it was decided that a sample size of 335 would be appropriate, according to bartlett ii, kotrlik, and higgins (2001), with 10% oversampling to account for the fact that the two methods had different results. the kmo value, as shown in table 3, is equal to 0.949, well above the acceptable threshold, indicating that the sample size is appropriate. sampling method the adoption of non-probability sampling methods, specifically purposeful/judgmental sampling, clusters of academics and industry professionals, and snowball sampling, is logically justified in the context of the impossibility of encompassing the entire population of civil engineering personnel in india for this study. given the practical constraints of studying such a diverse and expansive population, non-probability sampling provides a pragmatic and efficient approach to gathering representative data. purposeful/ judgmental sampling allows for the intentional selection of participants based on their relevance and expertise, ensuring that the chosen clusters of academics and industry professionals possess valuable insights into the intricacies of health and safety within the construction sector. snowball sampling further enhances the sample’s diversity by leveraging the networks and recommendations of initial participants, contributing to a more comprehensive understanding of the subject matter. overall, the application of non-probability sampling methods aligns with the study’s practical considerations, maximizing the efficiency and feasibility of data collection while maintaining a representative and knowledgeable sample. data collection to cover all of india, five data collection zones were set up: north india, east india, south india, west india, and central india. eight states were evaluated in north india, ten states were evaluated in east india, upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202436 five states were evaluated in south india, four states were evaluated in west india, and three states were considered in central india. following table 2, created by the researchers of this paper, 335 responses were collected by considering the zone-wise area, development, and construction activities. table 2. zoning of the entire india for data collection no. and name of zone states considered under the zone no. of responses collected zone-1: north india jammu & kashmir, himachal pradesh, punjab, uttarakhand, haryana, delhi, uttar pradesh, and bihar. 60 (18% of total responses) zone-2: east india arunachal pradesh, assam, nagaland, manipur, mizoram, tripura, meghalaya, sikkim, west bengal, and odisha. 50 (15% of total responses) zone-3: south india telangana, karnataka, andhra pradesh, kerala, and tamil nadu. 57 (17% of total responses) zone-4: west india rajasthan, gujarat, maharashtra, and goa. 114 (34% of total responses) zone-5: central india madhya pradesh, chhattisgarh, and jharkhand. 54 (16% of total responses) total responses collected 335 (100%) characteristics of respondents responses were collected from academicians and industry professionals, considering their qualifications. in india, academicians are qualified with post-graduation or phd degrees, while in most cases, diploma holders and graduates join the construction industry. in this research, 43% of respondents were academicians, and 57% of respondents were industry professionals. among the 57% of industry professionals, a detailed analysis shows that 6% were owners or developers, 12% were contractors, 11% were project managers, 12% were safety officers, 11% were site engineers, and 5% were government-department civil engineers. data pre-processing pre-processing the data is crucial for ensuring the accuracy of the final results (soewin and chinda, 2018). in this research, the data acquired from the survey questionnaire are pre-processed in two steps: data coding and data cleaning. in data coding, statements were encoded to facilitate easy comprehension and software implementation. during the data cleaning process, each answer was looked at to see if there were any missing values. it was found that no statement had a missing value. the standard deviation of each respondent was also worked out to see if any answers were from people who were not interested. there are 35 replies with a standard deviation of 1, indicating that respondents selected any one number on the likert scale throughout the questionnaire without reading or comprehending the statement. finally, the dataset of 300 was accepted for analysis. data analysis the adoption of exploratory factor analysis (efa) in this study is logically justified as it stands as the predominant and widely accepted statistical approach for identifying health and safety (h&s) factors within quantitative data, according to the work of choudhry, fang and lingard (2009). efa systematically upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202437 reduces dimensions and pinpoints relevant factors, providing a structured means to extract insights from complex datasets. principal component analysis (pca) supplements our analysis by organizing dimensions based on correlations, enhancing our understanding of variable relationships (malek and gundaliya, 2020). varimax rotation further refines the factor structure interpretation by maximizing variance in factor loadings. the establishment of a 0.50 threshold for minimal factor loading, as suggested by gao, et al. (2016), ensures the retention of dimensions with substantial relationships with an eigenvalue greater than 1, following the recommendation of malek and zala (2021), adds a logical criterion for factor significance. this methodological sequence ensures our findings’ precision, relevance, and practical applicability in unravelling the critical dimensions influencing h&s in the indian construction industry. result and discussion factor analysis the efa approach decreased the dimensions and retrieved the significant factors from those that remained. ibm’s spss for windows 25.0 software suite performed the efa. according to choudhry, fang and lingard (2009), the kaiser meyer olkin (kmo) value (a measure of sampling adequacy) should be greater than the acceptable threshold of 0.5 and a value greater than 0.6 is mediocre, >0.7 is middling, >0.8 is meritorious, and >0.9 is excellent for an efa to proceed. in this study, the kmo value was equal to 0.949, well above the acceptable threshold, indicating that the data were appropriate for efa. the correlation matrix was considered an identity matrix, so barlett’s test for sphericity was used to see if this was true. in this case, the value of the test statistic for sphericity is significant (chi-square value = 5934.736). the associated significance level is trim (p-value = 0.000), which means that the population correlation matrix is not an identity matrix (george and mallery, 2019). an efa would not mean anything if the population correlation matrix was an identity matrix. a significance value <0.05 indicates that the data do not produce an identity matrix or differ significantly from identity. the results of kmo and bartlett’s test are as per table 3. table 3. kmo and bartlett’s test kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy 0.949 bartlett’s test of sphericity approx. chi-square 5934.736 df 595 sig. 0.000 the kmo measure and barlett’s test of sphericity were satisfied; hence, this study will apply efa for dimension reduction and factor clustering. further steps for efa analysis are as per the below sequence. in the next step, the anti-image correlation matrix was checked to identify each dimension’s kmo value, which should be >0.6 according to choudhry, fang and lingard (2009), and found >0.6 for all 61 statements. the number of statements was then reduced from 61 to 48 by merging some based on their similarity and the value of the rotated component matrix. the values of communality, which should be >0.4, were also examined (costello and osborne, 2005). in our study, we explored two assertions with communality values below 0.4 and had to eliminate them. as per malek, saiyed and bachwani (2021), 11 statements were taken out of the study because their factor loading values were less than 0.5. a complete-dimension reduction process is as per figure 2. as a result of applying this process, 35 statements remained for further study. upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202438 61 statements 48 statements retained 02 statements removed 11 statements removed 35 statements retained initially explored by merging based on the rotated component matrix based on communality based on factor loading finally retained figure 2. dimension reduction after the statements have been whittled down and polished, the next stage is to divide the 35 statements into factors. a scree plot graphic helps to count the possible ways that sentences might be split apart (choudhry, fang and lingard, 2009). figure 3 shows a scree plot, which shows the elbow shape and suggests that the plot becomes flat after component 4, which means that the dimensions can be split into four groups. figure 3. scree plot of the 35 dimensions as per table 4, for the four factors, the eigenvalue for factor 1 is 14.013; for factor 2, it is 2.204; for factor 3, it is 1.993; and for factor 4, it is 1.491. the eigenvalue is greater than 1 for all four factors, upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202439 which shows that the grouping is correct. the total cumulative variance explained in table 4 is 40.036%, 46.333%, 52.028%, and 56.288% for factors 1, 2, 3, and 4, respectively. by observing the scree plot diagram figure 3 and the total variance explained in table 4, the 35 retained dimensions were distributed into four key factors. the factor matrix after rotation is as per table 4. table 4. grouping results after rotated component matrix for factors dimension factors 1. mrf 2. wsrf 3. wrf 4. grf emergency plan 0.792 safety meetings, induction training, and other safety measures 0.745 health and safety plans 0.707 hazard identification 0.691 management commitment and implementation of legislation 0.682 safety audits 0.677 accident report analysis considering teamwork and instructional manuals 0.675 safety performance monitoring and record keeping 0.672 accident investigation 0.668 safety training and training for special operations 0.661 accident recording and reporting system 0.657 safe operating procedures 0.655 safety budget for personal protective equipment 0.648 on-site health and safety inspections 0.611 labor welfare facilities 0.569 health and safety organization and safety committee 0.554 worker’s unsafe attitudes and unsafe behavior 0.708 proper usage of personal protective equipment 0.700 risk-taking behaviours of workers 0.676 upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202440 dimension factors 1. mrf 2. wsrf 3. wrf 4. grf employee’s involvement in health and safety aspects 0.655 workers’ right to refuse potentially unsafe work 0.626 unsafe working conditions 0.568 workers’ sincerity and professionalism 0.558 workers’ suggestions & feedback 0.515 outdated procedures 0.713 shift patterns and overtime 0.618 the age of workers 0.617 peer pressure and time pressure 0.610 extensive involvement of migrated labour 0.593 lack of awareness and negligence of health and safety aspects during repetitive and simple work 0.555 lack of on-site inspections by government authorities 0.769 lack of certifying authority to health and safety management system 0.712 the absence of health and safety provisions in contractual clauses 0.700 inadequate government support for innovation and research 0.683 lack of accident data management system 0.600 eigenvalue 14.013 2.204 1.993 1.491 total variance explained (%) 40.036 6.297 5.695 4.260 total cumulative variance explained (%) 40.036 46.333 52.028 56.288 cronbach’s alpha for factors reliability test 0.946 0.892 0.782 0.773 reliability level excellent good acceptable acceptable table 4. continued upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202441 cronbach’s coefficient alpha was used to analyse the four factors’ reliability. it evaluates the internal consistency of a set of variables to measure a single factor. factors typically simplify many dimensions. inferring the component from other variables is necessary as the factor cannot be calculated directly. this study’s characteristics make cronbach’s alpha test suitable for assessing factor grouping. according to pereira, et al. (2018), a group is excellent, good, acceptable, questionable, poor, or unacceptable if cronbach’s alpha is > 0.90, between 0.80 and 0.89, between 0.70 and 0.79, between 0.60 and 0.69, between 0.50 and 0.59, and < 0.59, respectively. as per table 4, we have achieved values for all four factors higher than the acceptable value of > 0.7. discussion table 4 shows h&s factors by their reliability level. a new underlying factor was named after its dimensions. the recommended factor term is subjective. thus, other studies may use a different label (choudhry, fang and lingard, 2009). however, the four named underlying factors are as follows. factor 1: management regulatory factor factor 1 comprises 16 different dimensions that are all related to the management of the construction industry. the management of the building firm must control these factors. before commencing work, managers must prepare health and safety plans and emergency plans and identify potential hazards (tong, et al., 2018). for the same thing to happen, the management must be committed and check the implementation of h&s legislation (cheah, 2007). management should prioritize h&s training, induction programs, special operations training, and safety meetings to inform personnel of safe operating procedures (zahoor, et al., 2016). management must schedule frequent h&s audits and inspections by outside auditors (agumba and haupt, 2012). management should establish an internal safety committee (manu, et al., 2018). mohammadi, tavakolan and khosravi (2018) say that each project should have enough money for safety, including personal protective equipment. management should establish a mechanism for accident recording, inquiry, and report analysis that considers whether teamwork and instructional manuals were followed (newaz, et al., 2021). management should offer appropriate housing and sanitation with housekeeping, drinking water, a canteen, healthcare, and drug and alcohol testing to promote labourers’ health (akroush and el-adaway, 2017). management must monitor safety performance (alruqi and hallowell, 2019). factor 2: worker’s self-regulatory factor factor 2 has 08 self-protection parameters that workers can only regulate. the employee is responsible for controlling their attitude and behaviour since unsafe attitudes and behaviours might result in health risks and accidents (chan, et al., 2017). workers may value and use ppe properly to avoid accidents (tremblay and badri, 2018). some jobs require risk-taking, but employees must be mature and follow all safety procedures before beginning (wu, et al., 2015). on-site personnel should know they may reject risky activities (guo and yiu, 2016). identifying unsafe working conditions requires sincerity and professionalism. since they work on-site, employees’ suggestions and feedback may enhance h&s (yiu, sze and chan, 2018). factor 3: workplace regulatory factor factor 3 consists of 06 dimensions that are highly influenced by the workplace. sometimes, outdated procedures are followed at the workplace, which may not be compatible with new technologies and lead to upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202442 accidents (raja prasad and reghunath, 2011). shift patterns may need to be corrected, and workers may not have a chance to talk about work that has been done, work that still needs to be done, or any ongoing operations or processes that could be dangerous (alkilani, jupp and sawhney, 2013). there must be a limit for overtime. laborers are poor and often work more hours than they can manage, which can harm their health or cause accidents. hence, there must be some specific workplace overtime rules (akroush and el-adaway, 2017). the age of labour directly affects work efficiency. older labourers may have many health issues and need more work efficiency. considering this in the construction industry, there should also be age restrictions for labourers. zahoor, et al. (2016) say that accidents on the job site can be caused by peer pressure and the need to finish the work quickly. in the construction industry, specialized labourers for particular operations are unavailable. hence, to execute such operations, labourers are migrated from other locations. working with migrated labourers is very much complex in many aspects. due to misunderstandings in language and communication, workplace hazards and accidents are taking place (alkilani, jupp and sawhney, 2013). negligence of h&s aspects during repetitive and straightforward work and awareness is also a vital issue considering under the umbrella of workplace regulatory factor. factor 4: government regulatory factor factor 4 consists of 05 dimensions that directly deal with the government’s actions. the government should be considered central or state, whichever is the appropriate government. the government should set up a body that certifies projects, not companies or contractors, by ensuring that their h&s management systems follow the law. only frequent government on-site inspections can enforce h&s legislation (elsebaei, et al., 2020). it might be challenging to improve the performance of h&s when there is neither an independent certifying body nor regular on-site inspections by government agencies. since each construction project is unique, contractual clauses should include project-specific h&s requirements for on-site implementation (ndegwa, et al., 2014). failure to achieve h&s in the construction sector may also result from a lack of accident data management systems and insufficient government support for innovation and research in construction. theoretical implications the identification of 61 dimensions and the subsequent refinement to 35 through efa underscores the nuanced nature of h&s concerns in construction settings. this recognition is theoretically significant as it contributes to a more comprehensive understanding of the multifaceted factors influencing on-site h&s. the categorization of the 35 dimensions into four distinct factors (management regulatory factor, worker’s self-regulatory factor, workplace regulatory factor, and government regulatory factor) provides a theoretical framework for understanding the interplay of various elements in influencing h&s outcomes. this categorization aids in conceptual clarity and lays the groundwork for future theoretical developments in the field. the acknowledgement of limited attention given to h&s concerns in the indian construction sector by researchers highlights an academic gap in the existing literature. this study fills this void by emphasizing the importance of investigating and addressing h&s issues within india’s construction industry. using a pilot-tested questionnaire survey methodology and subsequent application of efa demonstrates a robust and replicable research methodology. the theoretical implication lies in the potential adaptation and application of similar methods in diverse settings, contributing to the development of standardized approaches for studying h&s in construction. the study’s theoretical implications extend to emerging nations, urging them to undertake further research to understand and improve h&s in their construction sectors. this speculative call to action encourages the global academic community to contribute to a more robust theoretical foundation for h&s management in diverse contexts. upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202443 practical implications the results of this study fill a gap in the literature by providing new information on h&s in india’s construction sector. the results also provide direction to industry practitioners and india’s central and state governments on the critical dimensions and factors that should be considered to boost h&s performance. decision-makers, upper management, and workers on the project may all embrace the study’s results better to grasp the significance of h&s and its successful implementation. the upper management of all the indian construction firms is recommended to address and enhance the management regulatory factor. the workers are encouraged not to neglect the worker’s self-regulatory factor. the dedicated teams within construction companies should focus on overseeing the workplace regulatory factor. it is recommended that the central and state governments across india carefully consider, amend, and effectively implement government regulatory factors. in addition, a manual outlining the h&s attainment methods for the identified variables that would improve ongoing and future building projects may be compiled. conclusion globally, the building industry grapples with the pervasive challenge of suboptimal h&s performance. while strides have been made in the industrialized world, where noteworthy advancements in h&s have yielded tangible and gratifying results, developing nations must catch up due to their predominant focus on economic priorities. to delve deeper into the complexities of workplace h&s, this study conducted an extensive literature search, identifying a comprehensive list of 61 dimensions influencing h&s within the construction sector. subsequent to collecting questionnaire data, an efa was employed to streamline the dimensions, resulting in a refined set of 35 dimensions. these dimensions were then categorized into four distinct factors: the management regulatory factor, the worker’s self-regulating factor, the workplace regulatory factor, and the government regulatory factor. it’s crucial to note that the respondents in this study were exclusively selected from within india. consequently, the scope of this research is confined to the indian construction sector, which has long grappled with issues such as an absence of safety culture and limited safety research. to address these concerns and contribute to policy enhancement, this study concentrates on identifying, reducing, and organising h&s dimensions within the indian construction context. by elucidating the intricacies of these dimensions and their alignment with regulatory frameworks, this research aims to provide valuable insights for refining policies, rules, regulations, and laws about h&s in the construction sector. the ultimate goal is to bolster safety performance within the indian construction industry. moreover, the findings of this study are poised to serve as a blueprint for other developing nations facing similar challenges, encouraging them to view h&s management as a viable avenue for overall improvement. ultimately, this research not only uncovers and categorizes critical dimensions influencing h&s within the indian construction sector but also aims to contribute to the broader discourse on global h&s management practices. by doing so, it aspires to inspire positive change, fostering a safer and more secure working environment in india and developing nations worldwide. future scope the present study achieved its aims and produced a few ideas for further investigation. confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) can be used to verify the reliability of the measuring scale and examine the correlations between the factors and model by structural equation modelling (sem), or a path model can be developed in future studies for the indian construction sector using the dimensions and extracted factors described upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202444 in this work. the scope of this research was confined to the indian construction industry. hence, it is recommended that a similar study be extended to include other emerging countries. references agumba, j. and haupt, t., 2012. identification of health and safety performance improvement indicators for small and medium construction enterprises: a delphi consensus study. mediterranean journal of social sciences, 3, pp.545–57. https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2012.v3n3p545 ajith, s., sivapragasam, c. and arumugaprabu, v., 2019. quantification of risk and assessment of key safety factors for safe workplace in indian building construction sites. asian journal of civil engineering, 20(8), pp.693–702. https://doi. org/10.1007/s42107-019-00136-y akroush, n.s. and el-adaway, i.h., 2017a. utilizing construction leading safety indicators: case study of tennessee. journal of management in engineering, 33(5), pp.1–15. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000546 akroush, n.s. and el-adaway, i.h., 2017. utilizing construction leading safety indicators: case study of tennessee. journal of management in engineering, 33(5), pp.1–15. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000546 alkilani, s.z., jupp, j. and sawhney, a., 2013. issues of construction health and safety in developing countries: a case of jordan. australasian journal of construction economics and building, 13(3), pp.141–56. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v13i3.3301 alruqi, w.m. and hallowell, m.r., 2019. critical success factors for construction safety: review and meta-analysis of safety leading indicators. journal of construction engineering and management, 145(3), pp.1–11. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001626 alruqi, w.m., hallowell, m.r. and techera, u., 2018. safety climate dimensions and their relationship to construction safety performance: a meta-analytic review. safety science, 109(may), pp.165–73. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ssci.2018.05.019 aven, t., 2014. what is safety science? safety science, 67, pp.15–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2013.07.026 bandyopadhyay, o., 2022. construction in india: a dangerous business’, safety management magazine [preprint]. available at: https://www.britsafe.in/publications-and-blogs/safety-management-magazine/safety-managementmagazine/2022/construction-in-india-a-dangerous-business/ bartlett ii, j.e., kotrlik, j.w. and higgins, c.c., 2001. organizational research: determining appropriate sample size in survey research. information technology, learning, and performance journal, 19(1), pp.43–50. available at: https:// www.researchgate.net/publication/200824035_organizational_research_determining_appropriate_sample_size_in_ survey_research bavafa, a., mahdiyar, a. and marsono, a.k., 2018. identifying and assessing the critical factors for effective implementation of safety programs in construction projects. safety science, 106(6), pp.47–56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ssci.2018.02.025 bayram, m., ünğan, m.c. and ardıç, k., 2017. the relationships between ohs prevention costs, safety performance, employee satisfaction and accident costs. international journal of occupational safety and ergonomics, 23(2), pp.285–96. https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2016.1226607 buniya, m.k., othman, i., durdyev, s., sunindijo, r.y., ismail, s. and kineber, a.f., 2021. safety program elements in the construction industry: the case of iraq. international journal of environmental research and public health, 18(411), pp.1–13. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020411 upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202445 https://doi.org/10.5901/mjss.2012.v3n3p545 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42107-019-00136-y https://doi.org/10.1007/s42107-019-00136-y https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000546 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000546 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i3.3301 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i3.3301 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001626 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001626 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.05.019 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.05.019 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2013.07.026 https://www.britsafe.in/publications-and-blogs/safety-management-magazine/safety-management-magazine/2022/construction-in-india-a-dangerous-business/ https://www.britsafe.in/publications-and-blogs/safety-management-magazine/safety-management-magazine/2022/construction-in-india-a-dangerous-business/ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/200824035_organizational_research_determining_appropriate_sample_size_in_survey_research https://www.researchgate.net/publication/200824035_organizational_research_determining_appropriate_sample_size_in_survey_research https://www.researchgate.net/publication/200824035_organizational_research_determining_appropriate_sample_size_in_survey_research https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.02.025 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.02.025 https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2016.1226607 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020411 cao, h. and goh, y.m., 2019. analyzing construction safety through time series methods. frontier of engineering and management, 6(2), pp.262–74. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42524-019-0015-6 chan, a.p.c., wong, f.k.w., hon, c.k.h., lyu, s. and javed, a.a., 2017. investigating ethnic minorities’ perceptions of safety climate in the construction industry. journal of safety research, 63, pp.9–19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jsr.2017.08.006 cheah, c.y.j., 2007. construction safety and health factors at the industry level: the case of singapore. journal of construction in developing countries, 12(2), pp.81–99. available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/43245381_ construction_safety_and_health_factors_at_the_industry_level_the_case_of_singapore chellappa, v., srivastava, v. and salve, u.r., 2021. a systematic review of construction workers’ health and safety research in india. journal of engineering, design and technology, 19(6), pp.1488–1504. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt08-2020-0345 choudhry, r.m., fang, d. and lingard, h., 2009. measuring safety climate of a construction company. journal of construction engineering and management, 135(9), pp.890–99. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000063 costello, a.b. and osborne, j.w., 2005. best practices in exploratory factor analysis: four recommendations for getting the most from your analysis. practical assessment, research and evaluation, 10(7), pp.1–9. https://doi.org/10.7275/jyj14868 el-mashaleh, m.s., al-smadi, b.m., hyari, k.h. and rababeh, s.m., 2010. safety management in the jordanian construction industry. jordan journal of civil engineering, 4(1), pp.47–54. elsebaei, m.a., elnawawy, o., othman, a.a.e. and badawy, m., 2020. a framework to activate the health and safety regulations in the egyptian construction industry. journal of engineering, design and technology, 19(5), pp.1158–91. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-05-2020-0194 enshassi, a., ayyash, a. and choudhry, r.m., 2016. bim for construction safety improvement in gaza strip: awareness, applications and barriers. international journal of construction management, 16(3), pp.249–65. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/15623599.2016.1167367 fang, d., wu, c. and wu, h., 2015. impact of the supervisor on worker safety behavior in construction projects. journal of management in engineering, 31(6), pp.1–12. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000355 gao, r., chan, a.p.c., wahyudi, p. and zahoor, h., 2016. multilevel safety climate and safety performance in the construction industry: development and validation of a top-down mechanism. international journal of environmental research and public health, 13(1100), pp.1–14. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13111100 george, d. and mallery, p., 2019. ibm spss statistics 26 step by step: a simple guide and reference. 16th ed. new york: routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429056765 guo, b.h.w. and yiu, t.w., 2016. developing leading indicators to monitor the safety conditions of construction projects. journal of management in engineering, 32(1), pp.1–14. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.19435479.0000376 hinze, j., hallowell, m. and baud, k., 2013. construction-safety best practices and relationships to safety performance. journal of construction engineering and management, 139(10), pp.1–8. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0000751 karakhan, a.a., rajendran, s., gambatese, j. and nnaji, c., 2018. measuring and evaluating safety maturity of construction contractors: multicriteria decision-making approach. journal of construction engineering and management, 144(7), pp.1–13. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001503 upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202446 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42524-019-0015-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2017.08.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2017.08.006 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/43245381_construction_safety_and_health_factors_at_the_industry_level_the_case_of_singapore https://www.researchgate.net/publication/43245381_construction_safety_and_health_factors_at_the_industry_level_the_case_of_singapore https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-08-2020-0345 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-08-2020-0345 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000063 https://doi.org/10.7275/jyj1-4868 https://doi.org/10.7275/jyj1-4868 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-05-2020-0194 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1167367 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1167367 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000355 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph13111100 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429056765 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000376 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000376 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000751 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000751 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001503 kukoyi, p. and adebowale, o.j., 2021. impediments to construction safety improvement. journal of engineering, project, and production management, 11(3), pp.207–14. https://doi.org/10.2478/jeppm-2021-0020 liang, k., fung, i.w.h., xiong, c. and luo, h., 2019. understanding the factors and corresponding interactions that influence construction worker safety performance from a competency-model-based perspective: evidence from scaffolders in china. international journal of environmental research and public health, 16(1885), pp.1–23. https://doi. org/10.3390/ijerph16111885 mccartney, g., popham, f., mcmaster, r., cumbers, a. (2019) ‘defining health and health inequalities’, public health, 172, pp. 22–30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2019.03.023 mahalingam, a. and levitt, r.e., 2007. safety issues on global projects. journal of construction engineering and management, 133(7), pp.506–16. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:7(506) malek, m.s. and bhatt, v., 2023. examine the comparison of csfs for public and private sector’s stakeholders: a sem approach towards ppp in indian road sector. international journal of construction management, 23(13), pp.2239–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2049490 malek, m.s. and bhatt, v., 2023a. investigating the effect of risk reduction strategies on the construction of mega infrastructure project (mip) success: a sem-ann approach. engineering, construction and architectural management, [ahead-of-print] https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2022-1166 malek, m.s. and gundaliya, p., 2020. value for money factors in indian public-private partnership road projects: an exploratory approach. journal of project management, 6(1), pp.23–32. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.jpm.2020.10.002 malek, m.s., saiyed, f.m. and bachwani, d., 2021. identification, evaluation and allotment of critical risk factors (crfs) in real estate projects: india as a case study. journal of project management, 6(2), pp.83–92. https://doi. org/10.5267/j.jpm.2021.1.002 malek, m.s. and zala, l., 2021. the attractiveness of public-private partnership for road projects in india. journal of project management, 7(2), pp.111–20. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.jpm.2021.10.001 manu, p., mahamadu, a.m., phung, v.m., nguyen, t.t., ath, c., heng, a.y.t. and kit, s.c., 2018. health and safety management practices of contractors in southeast asia: a multi country study of cambodia, vietnam, and malaysia. safety science, 107(8), pp.188–201. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.07.007 mohammadi, a., tavakolan, m. and khosravi, y., 2018. factors influencing safety performance on construction projects: a review. safety science, 109(10), pp.382–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.06.017 mouleeswaran, k., 2015. evaluation of safety performance level of construction firms in and around erode zone. international journal of innovative research in science, engineering and technology, 2014(1), pp.1586–94. available at: http://www.ijirset.com/upload/2014/icets/7_ce106.pdf ndegwa, p.w., guyo, w., orwa, g.o., nganga, r. and murigi, e.m., 2014. legal framework as a determinant of implementation of occupational health and safety programmes in the manufacturing sector in kenya. international journal of human resource studies, 4(4), p.21. https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v4i4.6500 newaz, m.t., davis, p., jefferies, m. and pillay, m., 2019. the psychological contract: a missing link between safety climate and safety behaviour on construction sites. safety science, 112(october 2018), pp.9–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ssci.2018.10.002 newaz, m.t., ershadi, m., jefferies, m. and davis, p., 2021. assessing safety management factors to develop a research agenda for the construction industry. safety science, 142( june), p.105396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105396 upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202447 https://doi.org/10.2478/jeppm-2021-0020 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16111885 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16111885 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2019.03.023 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:7(506 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2049490 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2022-1166 https://doi.org/10.5267/j.jpm.2020.10.002 https://doi.org/10.5267/j.jpm.2021.1.002 https://doi.org/10.5267/j.jpm.2021.1.002 https://doi.org/10.5267/j.jpm.2021.10.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.07.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.06.017 http://www.ijirset.com/upload/2014/icets/7_ce106.pdf https://doi.org/10.5296/ijhrs.v4i4.6500 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.10.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.10.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105396 obolewicz, j. and dąbrowski, a., 2018. an application of the pareto method in surveys to diagnose managers’ and workers’ perception of occupational safety and health on selected polish construction sites. international journal of occupational safety and ergonomics, 24(3), pp.406–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2017.1375781 patel, d.a., kikani, k.d. and jha, k.n., 2016. hazard assessment using consistent fuzzy preference relations approach. journal of construction engineering and management, 142(12), pp.1–10. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0001192 pereira, e., ahn, s., han, s. and abourizk, s., 2018. identification and association of high-priority safety management system factors and accident precursors for proactive safety assessment and control. journal of management in engineering, 34(1), pp.1–12. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000562 raja prasad, s.v.s. and reghunath, k.p., 2011. evaluation of safety performance in a construction organization in india: a study. isrn civil engineering, 2011, pp.1–6. https://doi.org/10.5402/2011/276545 salvi, s.s., 2021. safety management and accident prevention. international journal for research in applied science and engineering technology, 9(5), pp.539–43. https://doi.org/10.22214/ijraset.2021.34163 soewin, e. and chinda, t., 2018. factors affecting construction performance: exploratory factor analysis. in: iop conference series: earth and environmental science. iop publishing ltd., [online] pp.1–8. https://doi.org/10.1088/17551315/140/1/012102 stemn, e., bofinger, c., cliff, d. and hassall, m.e., 2019. examining the relationship between safety culture maturity and safety performance of the mining industry. safety science, 113(december 2018), pp.345–55. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.12.008 tong, r., wu, c., li, y. and fang, d., 2018. an assessment model of owner safety management and its application to real estate projects. ksce journal of civil engineering, 22(5), pp.1557–71. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-0171740-1 tremblay, a. and badri, a., 2018. a novel tool for evaluating occupational health and safety performance in small and medium-sized enterprises: the case of the quebec forestry/pulp and paper industry. safety science, 101(8), pp.282–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.09.017 trinh, m.t., feng, y. and mohamed, s., 2019. framework for measuring resilient safety culture in vietnam’s construction environment. journal of construction engineering and management, 145(2), pp.1–12. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001602 tripathi, k.k. and jha, k.n., 2018. an empirical study on performance measurement factors for construction organizations. ksce journal of civil engineering, 22(4), pp.1052–66. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-017-1892-z uddin, s.m.j., albert, a., pradhananga, n., ganpati, n.e. and prajapati, j., 2023. health and safety challenges among post-disaster reconstruction workers. construction economics and building, 23(1–2), pp.4–30. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v23i1/2.8441 upadhyaya, d. and malek, m., 2023a. examining potential dangers and risk factors in building construction. in: karras, d.a., oruganti, s.k. and ray, s., eds. emerging trends and innovations in industries of the developing world: a multidisciplinary approach. 1st ed. london: crc press. pp.181–85. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003457602 upadhyaya, d. and malek, m., 2023b. health and safety management in indian construction sector: a legal perspective. international journal of public law and policy, 9(4), pp.331–41. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijplap.2023.134272 wu, c., song, x., wang, t. and fang, d., 2015. core dimensions of the construction safety climate for a standardized safety-climate measurement. journal of construction engineering and management, 141(8), pp.1–12. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000996 upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202448 https://doi.org/10.1080/10803548.2017.1375781 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001192 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001192 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000562 https://doi.org/10.5402/2011/276545 https://doi.org/10.22214/ijraset.2021.34163 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/140/1/012102 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/140/1/012102 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.12.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.12.008 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-017-1740-1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-017-1740-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2017.09.017 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001602 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001602 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-017-1892-z https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8441 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8441 https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003457602 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijplap.2023.134272 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000996 yang, k., kim, k. and go, s., 2021. towards effective safety cost budgeting for apartment construction: a case study of occupational safety and health expenses in south korea. sustainability (switzerland), 13(3), pp.1–13. https://doi. org/10.3390/su13031335 yiu, n.s.n., sze, n.n. and chan, d.w.m., 2018. implementation of safety management systems in hong kong construction industry – a safety practitioner’s perspective. journal of safety research, 64, pp.1–9. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jsr.2017.12.011 zahoor, h., chan, a.p.c., masood, r., choudhry, r.m., javed, a.a. and utama, w., 2016. occupational safety and health performance in the pakistani construction industry: stakeholders’ perspective. international journal of construction management, 16(3), pp.209–19. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2015.1138027 zahoor, h., chan, a.p.c., utama, w.p., gao, r. and memon, s.a., 2017. determinants of safety climate for building projects: sem-based cross-validation study. journal of construction engineering and management, 143(6), pp.1–12. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001298 upadhyaya and malek construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202449 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031335 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031335 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2017.12.011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2017.12.011 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2015.1138027 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001298 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: oke, a. e. akintola, o. a., oluwatobiloba, o. m., aliu, j., omoyajowo, n. i. 2025. study on the awareness and practice of circular economy principles among construction stakeholders in nigeria. construction economics and building, 25:2, 24–42. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v25i2.9126 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article study on the awareness and practice of circular economy principles among construction stakeholders in nigeria ayodeji emmanuel oke1, oladoyin abidemi akintola2,*, oyewole mercy oluwatobiloba3, john aliu4, nicholas ipinlaye omoyajowo5 1 research group on sustainable infrastructure management (rg-sim+), department of quantity surveying, federal university of technology akure, akure, nigeria, emayok@gmail.com 2 department of quantity surveying, federal university of technology akure, nigeria, akintolaoladoyin86@gmail.com 3 department of quantity surveying, federal university of technology akure, nigeria, contactttobi@gmail.com 4 institute for resilient infrastructure systems, college of engineering, university of georgia, athens, georgia, usa, john.o.aliu@gmail.com 5 department of architecture, federal university of technology akure, nigeria, arcnicholas112@yahoo.com corresponding author: oladoyin abidemi akintola, akintolaoladoyin86@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9126 article history: received 28/04/2024; revised 19/07/2024; accepted 17/03/2025; published 08/08/2025 abstract the nigerian construction industry, characterized by a linear economic model and being a major contributor to waste generation, is slow in the adoption of methods that could be beneficial in sustainable waste disposal techniques. despite the known benefits of circular economy principles (ceps), the awareness level and usage of circular economy are still considered to be below average. this study aims to analyze the level of awareness and usage of ce principles among nigerian construction stakeholders. it adopts a quantitative research method by using closed-ended questionnaires distributed to construction professionals in lagos state, nigeria. data were analyzed using frequency distribution for the proportion of responses and characteristics of the respondents and mean item score, standard deviation, and factor analysis for the objectives. additionally, the kaiser–meyer– olkin (kmo) measure of sampling adequacy was used to indicate that the retrieved data 24 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9126 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9126 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:emayok@gmail.com mailto:akintolaoladoyin86@gmail.com mailto:contactttobi@gmail.com mailto:john.o.aliu@gmail.com mailto:arcnicholas112@yahoo.com mailto:akintolaoladoyin86@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9126 were sufficient for factor analysis, while bartlett’s test of sphericity (bts) tested the significance of the correlations between the variables. the findings of the study indicate that construction professionals have only a basic knowledge of ceps and their importance in practice, but they are very familiar with their application. thus, it provides the basis for which construction stakeholders, policymakers, and the government can make informed decisions to improve the awareness and usage of ceps in the construction industry. the study’s findings highlight the knowledge gap and the need for targeted educational and training initiatives, which can serve as a basis for future research and intervention programs. keywords circular economy principles; environmental impact; resilient construction; sustainable waste disposal; circular trainings introduction circular economy (ce) has become an increasingly prevalent concept globally, especially given its potential to address challenges related to sustainability. the concept, which has garnered attention from various schools of thought, has piqued the interest of countries, including several developed nations (zuofa, et al., 2023). an assessment by the european commission revealed that adopting a ce in its manufacturing sector could result in over 500 billion euros in economic gains annually for the continent (osei-tutu, et al., 2023). this shift would entail moving away from the long-standing linear method involving extraction, production, usage, anddisposal, as the depletion of raw materials has made the linear approach unsustainable, prompting a return to the ce model (akinwale, 2023). since the emergence of ce concepts, numerous definitions have been proposed, sharing broadly similar principles across different schools of thought. geng and doberstein (2008) associated ce with the industrial ecology school of thought, suggesting that economic growth and environmental sustainability can coexist. the cradle-to-cradle school of thought more effectively encapsulates the idea of a ce. this perspective posits that everything in nature should undergo a waste revolution, with waste from one organism serving as a valuable resource for another (kekic, et al., 2020). typically, a ce system adopts a cyclic approach to manufacturing and production, where by-products are treated as raw materials for subsequent processes. the term first appeared in a 1990 study by pearce and turner, examining the interplay between the environment and economic activities (donaghy, 2022). this system, according to the authors, is based on the premise that everything is interconnected. the principle was previously cited in the work of akinwale (2023), highlighting the concept of a closed system and emphasizing the finite natural resources available for human activities. while china’s ce promotion law defines a ce as the “activity of reducing, reusing, and recycling in production, circulation, and consumption” european institutions describe it as “an economy where the value of products, materials, and resources is maintained for as long as possible and waste generation is minimized” (merli, et al., 2018). however, the ce has attracted the attention not only of nations but also of non-governmental organizations focusing on climate change and sustainability. for instance, the ellen macarthur foundation, established in the united kingdom in 2010, defines it as an industrial system that is restorative or regenerative by intention and design, emphasizing the replacement and replenishment of end-of-life products and a shift toward renewable energy use (mhatre, et al., 2021). upadhayay, et al. (2024) further explore the ellen macarthur definition, describing the ce as involving the elimination of waste through superior material, product, and system design, including innovative business models. in recent times, the nigerian government has established several initiatives such as circular lagos, whose aim is to cultivate a more sustainable and resource-efficient economy by promoting circular business practices (adelekan, 2022). additionally, the nigeria circular economy working group (ncewg) has oke et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202525 been formed to develop a national framework for a ce throughout the nation. according to ayanrinde and mahachi (2023), the ncewg brings together stakeholders from government, business, academia, and civil society to design policies and programs that promote resource efficiency and minimize waste across the entire country. also, the united nations industrial development organization (unido) is working with the nigerian government on various projects that support the country’s transition to a ce (paul and ofuebe, 2021). private sector companies and non-governmental organizations (ngos) are also driving circularity. for instance, the coca-cola foundation’s initiatives focus on areas like plastic waste management, which aligns perfectly with the ce’s goal of keeping materials in use for longer (adelekan, 2022). despite increasing attention to sustainability initiatives, debates continue regarding the actual implementation of ce principles due to several challenges such as lack of knowledge, lack of standardization and regulation, consumer behavior, and hesitance to new ideas (albert and olutayo, 2021; ezeudu et al., 2021; akinwale, 2023). these challenges are particularly relevant in the construction industry, a significant contributor to solid waste generation in nigeria. to be able to implement these practices and create a more sustainable construction sector, there is a need to understand if construction professionals are even familiar with ce principles. thus, this paper aims to shed light on the level of familiarity and adoption of ce principles within nigeria’s construction sector. the findings of this study can inform the development of targeted interventions and educational programs to bridge any knowledge gaps and encourage the integration of ce practices throughout the construction industry. overview of circular economy principles ce adheres to a set of well-defined guiding principles that encompass a range of methods for achieving circularity. in their work, schöggl, et al. (2020) identified a comprehensive suite of nine such principles, which include actions like re-use, recycle, recover, repair, remanufacture, refurbish, refuse, reduce, and repurpose. subsequent research by osei-tutu, et al. (2022) and lee, et al. (2023) has further expanded this framework by introducing additional strategies such as rethink, recirculate, and regenerate as essential components of ce practices. recycle demolition is an intrinsic element of the built environment, closely paralleling the significance of construction itself. it may arise from alterations in building design, necessitating the partial removal of existing structures to accommodate new construction, or from the complete removal of a building to erect an entirely new structure (ghaffar, et al., 2020). following the demolition process, a substantial amount of waste is generated on-site, requiring removal and disposal. according to zhang, et al. (2022), waste generation is estimated to exceed 1,000 m3 for every 13,500 m2 of built surface. this equates to approximately 0.07 m3 of waste produced per square meter of built surface. this extensive waste generation within the construction industry contributes significantly to the sustainability issues previously mentioned in this research. one notable concern is the environmental impact associated with improper waste disposal, which can lead to ecological degradation and health hazards. akinwale (2023) recommended recycling as a superior waste management technique. this process not only facilitates responsible disposal but also involves re-engineering potentially harmful waste into new materials that can find applications in various sectors, including construction. re-use minunno, et al. (2020) identified that the concepts of recycling and re-use are often used interchangeably due to a research gap that has failed to differentiate between these two ce principles. unlike recycling, where used materials are repurposed, the re-use technique involves keeping already-used materials for the oke et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202526 same purpose for which they were manufactured (kopsidas and giakoumatos, 2021). this means that the intended use remains consistent for both the original and re-used materials. in recycling, new products may differ from the original, but this is not the case with re-use. while some argue that re-use as a ce principle is challenging in construction due to the disposable nature of buildings at the end of their life cycle, upadhayay, et al. (2024) contended that resources within the construction framework should be explored for re-use opportunities. based on a case study of mixed-use construction, minunno, et al. (2020) also argued that it is possible to incorporate over 80% of re-used materials in construction. this not only enhances sustainability in construction but also makes construction more cost-effective. refurbish bilal, et al. (2020) identified refurbishment as a key principle of ce that plays a crucial role in optimizing the lifespan and value of buildings. this approach leads to reduced resource usage by maximizing the utilization of existing structures, aligning with the principles of sustainability and the ce (minunno, et al., 2020). unlike conventional practices, which often involve the complete reconstruction of buildings, refurbishment prioritizes the retention and improvement of the existing framework (gonzález, et al., 2021). this means that refurbishing allows for the enhancement or upgrading of existing structures without the need to demolish the entire building. choosing refurbishment over new construction not only conserves resources but also minimizes the environmental impact associated with resource extraction and production (bilal, et al., 2020). by extending the life of existing buildings through refurbishment, the demand for new construction materials is reduced, further contributing to sustainable practices and ce principles. remanufacture beyond buildings, the remanufacturing of construction equipment has also been recognized as a sustainable practice. as construction projects increase, so does the demand for equipment, and the production of new equipment can contribute to sustainability concerns. charef, et al. (2022) argued that remanufacturing these pieces of equipment offers numerous opportunities, including cost-effective machines and reduced resource and energy consumption. among the various strategies (r-strategies) in ce, singhal, et al. (2020) indicated that remanufacturing stands out, as it ensures the quality of remanufactured products matches that of new ones. at the end of a product’s life or its intended use, remanufactured items are not only restored to their original state but also often improved upon, underscoring their role in sustainable and quality-centric practices within the ce paradigm (minunno, et al., 2020). talamo, et al. (2021) advocated for facility managers as the gatekeepers of remanufacturing in construction due to their primary responsibility for monitoring and managing buildings. while remanufacturing has yet to extend to entire buildings, it already applies to building components like furniture (singhal, et al., 2020). thus, manufacturers must collaborate closely with real estate operators to develop products that can be easily retrieved at their end-of-life for remanufacturing, emphasizing the importance of a coordinated approach to circularity in construction. repurpose morseletto (2020) defined repurposing as a ce principle involving the utilization of abandoned products or their parts to create a new product with a different function. repurposing has gained increasing popularity as a strategic response to the growing prevalence of abandoned buildings that no longer serve their original purposes. this approach offers a flexible solution by allowing the transformation of unused buildings into various types of spaces for single or multipurpose use (bertino, et al., 2021). the significance of repurposing lies in its potential to reduce the demand for raw materials in new construction, thereby contributing to sustainability. furthermore, repurposing extends the life of existing buildings, aligning with principles that prioritize resource efficiency and environmental conservation (oecd, 2023). oke et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202527 repair morseletto (2020) also provided a definition of repair, framing it as the process of addressing defects or malfunctions in products to restore their functionality for their intended purposes. this definition positions repair as a gentle or subtle type of maintenance. güsser-fachbach, et al. (2023) acknowledged repair as a viable method for prolonging the lifespan of products and materials. this involves not only fixing issues but also designing products for durability, underscoring the significance of incorporating maintenance and repair practices to maximize usability. recover to facilitate the transition toward a ce, ruiz, et al. (2020) advocated for the implementation of various strategies, one of which involves the establishment of recovery schemes. in this context, a recovery scheme signifies the systematic retrieval and reintroduction of materials back into the manufacturing industry. joustra, et al. (2022) posited that the initiation of robust material recovery mechanisms begins at the inception of product design, incorporating strategies for multiple lifecycles and prospective recovery activities. this argument emphasizes that successful recovery efforts also depend on user incentives, necessitating a proactive approach that involves stakeholder analysis and active participation. this perspective underscores the importance of integrating recovery considerations into the earliest phases of product development and advocates for a comprehensive understanding of user motivations to foster effective engagement in recovery practices. regenerate regeneration has gained significant recognition within the biological context for decades, where the reclamation and restoration of materials, coupled with nutrient regeneration, are key principles. the principle of regeneration also gains relevance within the construction context (gillott, et al., 2023). concrete stands out as a key regenerative material in construction, known for its intrinsic self-healing function and renewing mechanism. this inherent quality allows concrete to repair cracks and minor damages over time, extending its lifespan and reducing maintenance needs (ogunmakinde et al., 2019). the advancements in concrete technology have further enhanced these regenerative properties, leading to the development of self-healing concrete. this innovative approach not only reinforces the fundamental notion of concrete regeneration but also aligns with the principles of a ce by emphasizing sustainable material utilization and promoting regenerative processes within the construction industry. recirculate recirculation has gained prominence in discussions surrounding sustainable practices and waste reduction. as a principle of the ce, o’grady, et al. (2021) described recirculation as the process of returning material resources to manufacturing companies for new product development, with waste management playing a key role in facilitating this process. similarly, lekan, et al. (2021) defined recirculation as the act of extracting and retaining maximum value from existing resources through diverse circuits of value in local production. although both definitions vary slightly, they both emphasize effective waste management practices as a driver for recirculation. while o’grady, et al. (2021) emphasized the need for materials to be reintroduced into the manufacturing sector, lekan, et al. (2021) suggested that recirculation is not solely about minimizing waste but also about optimizing the utility and value derived from resources within local economies. this broader perspective highlights the importance of integrating recirculation strategies into sustainable practices to maximize resource efficiency and economic benefits. oke et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202528 refuse grigoropoulos, et al. (2022) identified 10 r-strategies aimed at reducing society’s reliance on raw materials and minimizing the environmental impact associated with extracting them. one of these r-strategies, identified as “refuse,” refers to making a product redundant by either abandoning its function or offering the same function with a radically different product. the concept of refuse can also extend to the deliberate avoidance or reduction of certain materials or production processes to promote a more ce (morseletto, 2020). by choosing to refuse certain products or materials, businesses and consumers can contribute to reducing waste and conserving resources, aligning with the principles of sustainability and circularity. rethink lekan, et al. (2021) explained the principle of “rethink” as the strategic transformation of a product aimed at enhancing its use intensity. this transformative process includes implementing various mechanisms, such as promoting product-sharing initiatives and introducing multifunctional products to the market. by adopting these strategic approaches, products can be effectively repositioned to unlock their optimal usage potential (morseletto, 2020). the concept of “rethink” not only aligns with present-day sustainability practices but also underscores the role of innovative strategies in extending a product’s lifespan and maximizing its overall impact. this perspective advocates for a departure from conventional product consumption models toward more sustainable and resource-efficient alternatives. furthermore, o’grady, et al. (2021) emphasized the need for a broader reconceptualization of both production and usage. to make anything more circular, there is a foundational need for a rethinking process. “rethinking” includes dematerialization, which involves substituting a product with a non-material alternative that provides the same utility for users. this aspect of dematerialization is identified as an integral component of the ce, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive rethink to achieve more sustainable and circular product lifecycles (morseletto, 2020). reduce estarrona, et al. (2019) underscored the fundamental significance of the “reduce” principle within the context of sustainable manufacturing and the ce. it emphasizes the imperative of minimizing both material and energy consumption, not solely for immediate profitability but also to enhance the enduring viability of assets. the argument posits that assets formulated with a focus on longevity, in conjunction with diminished resource usage, yield sustained profitability over an extended temporal horizon. in pursuit of this objective, due consideration must be accorded to maintenance policies (ogunmakinde, et al., 2019). the premise is that for assets to endure protracted periods with minimal energy and material consumption, the implementation of effective maintenance strategies becomes critical (ogunmakinde, et al., 2019). table 1 presents a summary of the discussed ce principles. research methodology ce principles propose moving the construction industry from a system of “make and waste” to a system of reliable waste management techniques, where all construction materials are reconsidered as raw materials after use (papamichael et al., 2023). throughout this study, the principles of the ce are discussed and used to analyze the level of awareness and usage of the ce within the nigerian construction industry. to do this, the article employed a quantitative research method using well-structured questionnaires administered to a population of 372 construction professionals, including architects, builders, quantity surveyors, civil engineers, mechanical engineers, and electrical engineers in lagos state. questionnaire surveys were chosen for data collection due to their effectiveness in examining human perceptions and feelings toward oke et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202529 specific concepts (ranganathan and caduff, 2023). in this study, the respondents’ perceptions of the level of awareness and usage of the ce were analyzed. a convenience sampling technique was used, and 372 respondents were selected, of which only 98 returned data, serving as the basis for the findings of this paper. according to golzar and tajik (2022), convenience sampling is a non-probabilistic sampling technique where respondents are selected based on convenience. this typically involves collecting data from construction respondents who are easily accessible, making data collection faster and with fewer implications. the distributed questionnaires used closedended questions, with respondents selecting options from a 5-point likert scale: “very high” = 5, “high” = 4, “average” = 3, “low” = 2, and “very low” = 1. for data analysis, the electronic method of the statistical package for the social sciences (spss) was employed. this included using statistical techniques such as frequency distribution to determine the proportion of responses from the respondents, mean item score, standard deviation, and factor analysis to achieve the main objective of the paper, which is to assess the level of awareness and use of the ce in the nigerian construction sector. results background information of respondents this section presents the characteristics of the respondents who participated in this research. out of 372 questionnaires distributed to construction professionals, including architects, builders, quantity surveyors, and engineers, 26% were returned, while 74% were not retrieved. this indicates that the number of retrieved questionnaires was sufficient for the analysis of results for this paper. table 2 shows the frequency and percentage of professionals whose data were used in this study, along with their professional qualifications, academic qualifications, and years of professional experience. data were collected from 44.9% of quantity surveyors, 18.4% of architects, 12.2% of engineers, and 24.5% of builders. all respondents table 1. summary of circular economy principles. s/n variables authors 1 recycle ghaffar, et al. (2020), zhang, et al. (2022) 2 repair morseletto (2020), güsser-fachbach, et al. (2023) 3 refurbish bilal, et al. (2020), gonzález, et al. (2021) 4 remanufacture singhal, et al. (2020), talamo, et al. (2021) 5 repurpose morseletto (2020), oecd (2023) 6 refuse grigoropoulos, et al. (2022), morseletto (2020) 7 rethink lekan, et al. (2021), o’grady, et al. (2021) 8 reduce estarrona, et al. (2019) 9 re-use kopsidas and giakoumatos (2021), upadhayay, et al. (2024) 10 recover joustra, et al. (2022) 11 regenerate ogunmakinde, et al. (2019), gillott, et al. (2023) 12 recirculate lekan, et al. (2021) oke et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202530 were duly certified by their respective professional bodies at the time of the research, including quantity surveyors registration board of nigeria (qsrbn) (44.8%), architects registration council of nigeria (arcon) (18.4%), council for the regulation of engineering in nigeria (coren) (12.2%), and council of registered builders of nigeria (corbon) (24.5%). the analysis of respondent characteristics also reveals that the majority (63.3%) held a bachelor’s degree, followed by master’s degree holders at 22.4% and phd holders at 5.1%, with hnd holders making up the smallest portion at 9.2% of the population of data collected through questionnaires. table 2 further indicates that most professionals have less than 5 years of experience, with a frequency of 61 (62.2%). professionals with 6 to 10 years of experience closely follow with a frequency of 25 (25.5%), those with 11 to 15 years have a frequency of 8 (8.2%), and those with 15 to 20 and over 21 years of experience account for 3 (3.1%) and 1 (1%), respectively. it is therefore sufficient to say that the majority of the professionals had adequate knowledge to respond to questions from this study judging from their academic qualifications, professional qualifications, and years of experience in their different professions. table 2. background information on the respondents. respondents’ professional disciplines frequency percent (%) architect 18 18.4% builder 24 24.5% quantity surveyor 44 44.9% engineer 12 12.2% total 98 100.0 respondents’ qualifications frequency percent (%) arcon 18 18.4% corbon 24 24.5% qsrbn 44 44.9% coren 12 12.2% total 98 100.0 respondents’ academic qualifications frequency percent (%) nd 0 0% hnd 9 9.2% b.sc/b.tech 62 63.3% msc/mtech 22 22.4% phd 5 5.1% total 98 100.0 oke et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202531 respondents’ professional years of experience frequency percent (%) less than 5 years 61 62.2% 6 to 10 years 25 25.5% 11 to 15 years 8 8.2% 16 to 20 years 3 3.1% above 21 years 1 1% total 98 100.0 nb: arcon, architects registration council of nigeria; corbon, council of registered builders of nigeria; qsrbn, quantity surveyors registration board of nigeria; coren, council for the regulation of engineering in nigeria. awareness of circular economy principles in building projects table 3 presents the awareness of ce principles among respondents. the table shows that 78.60% of the respondents are aware of circular construction principles, 8.20% are not aware, and 13.30% are uncertain (maybe). in terms of participation, table 4 indicates that 41.80% of the respondents adopt these principles, 44.90% do not, and 13.30% are uncertain (maybe). the data from table 5 reveal significant differences in the awareness of ce principles among architects, builders, quantity surveyors, and engineers. one of the notable findings is the strong awareness of “recycle” and “re-use” principles across all professions. architects stand out in “re-use” with a mean score of 4.17, indicating their focus on sustainable design practices. this indicates that architects prioritize incorporating recycled and reclaimed materials into their designs, aiming to reduce waste and promote sustainability. this emphasis on “re-use” aligns with the findings of minunno et al. (2020), which highlighted the growing importance of sustainable design strategies in modern architectural practices. however, there are clear gaps in awareness, particularly in areas like refurbish and reduce. builders’ low score of 3.21 in “refurbish” suggests a possible lack of emphasis on renovation and re-use of building materials. this implies that builders may be more inclined toward new construction rather than refurbishing existing structures or using reclaimed materials, potentially missing out on opportunities to reduce waste and conserve resources. this observation aligns with the study of gonzález, et al. (2021), which emphasized the importance of incorporating refurbishment and re-use strategies to promote sustainability in the construction industry. quantity surveyors consistently demonstrate high awareness across multiple principles, such as “repair,” “recycle,” and “re-use,” possibly due to their role in project costing and material management. their involvement in tracking and managing project budgets necessitates a deep understanding of material life cycles, costs, and the value of sustainable practices (agyekum, et al., 2023). this comprehensive awareness enables them to make informed decisions that prioritize sustainability and cost-efficiency, aligning with the findings of the study by zulu, et al. (2023), which highlighted the pivotal role of quantity surveyors in driving sustainable practices within the construction industry. however, engineers show a balanced awareness across principles, with “repair” being their strongest area, likely reflecting their problem-solving approach to design and construction challenges. engineers’ proficiency in repair underscores their ability to address and rectify structural and functional issues, showcasing their technical expertise and adaptability. this finding aligns with the study by morseletto (2020), which emphasized the engineers’ pivotal role in implementing innovative and sustainable solutions in the construction industry. table 2. continued oke et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202532 table 3. circular construction principles awareness among the respondents. s/n circular construction principles awareness frequency percent 1 yes 77 78.60% 2 no 8 8.20% 3 maybe 13 13.30% total 98 100 table 4. participation in circular construction principles by the respondents. s/n circular construction principles frequency percent 1 yes 41 41.80% 2 no 44 44.90% 3 maybe 13 12.30% total 98 100% table 5. awareness of the principles of circular economy. variables architects builders quantity surveyors engineers summary mean sd rank mean sd rank mean sd rank mean sd rank mean sd rank repair 4.00 1.19 3 3.75 1.07 2 3.84 0.91 1 4.00 1.04 1 3.87 1.01 1 re-use 4.17 1.15 1 3.92 1.18 1 3.68 0.96 3 3.92 1.00 2 3.86 1.06 2 recycle 4.11 1.18 2 3.75 1.11 3 3.84 1.06 2 3.67 1.23 5 3.85 1.11 3 refurbish 3.78 1.22 5 3.21 0.98 10 3.68 0.96 3 3.25 1.14 12 3.53 1.05 4 recover 3.72 1.13 6 3.42 1.18 5 3.48 1.09 6 3.67 1.16 4 3.53 1.11 5 reduce 3.50 1.25 8 3.63 1.14 4 3.41 1.17 10 3.42 1.08 9 3.48 1.15 6 repurpose 3.94 1.00 4 3.21 1.06 11 3.43 0.97 7 3.42 1.17 10 3.47 1.04 7 regenerate 3.44 1.34 9 3.42 1.25 6 3.43 1.07 8 3.50 1.17 7 3.44 1.16 8 rethink 3.28 1.36 12 3.13 0.95 12 3.52 1.05 5 3.75 0.97 3 3.41 1.08 9 remanufacture 3.44 1.34 9 3.33 1.13 8 3.43 1.07 8 3.33 1.23 11 3.40 1.14 10 recirculate 3.56 1.34 7 3.33 1.27 9 3.30 1.07 11 3.58 1.17 6 3.39 1.17 11 refuse 3.39 1.46 11 3.38 1.10 7 3.16 1.14 12 3.50 1.31 8 3.30 1.20 12 nb: sd, standard deviation. awareness of circular economy principles in building projects based on findings from table 6, architects demonstrate the highest awareness in “refurbish” with a mean score of 3.89, highlighting their interest in sustainable renovation and re-use practices. this suggests that architects are more inclined toward designing buildings that can be refurbished or repurposed, aligning with the principles of sustainable architecture. the study by boarin and martinez-molina (2022) supports this, emphasizing the architects’ role in promoting refurbishment and re-use in the construction industry. oke et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202533 builders and engineers tie for the highest awareness in “re-use” with a mean score of 3.66 and 4.00, respectively. this indicates a shared emphasis on using reclaimed materials and promoting sustainable construction practices. the builders’ focus on re-use may be due to cost-saving benefits and the engineers’ emphasis on technical feasibility, aligning with the findings of gonzález, et al. (2021), which highlighted the importance of re-use in sustainable construction. quantity surveyors lead in “repair” with a mean score of 3.45, reflecting their role in project costing and maintenance planning. their awareness of repair signifies the importance of lifecycle costing and maintenance in sustainable construction practices. this aligns with the study by minunno, et al. (2020), emphasizing the quantity surveyors’ role in promoting lifecycle thinking and maintenance in the construction industry. in contrast, “recycle” awareness is relatively low across all professions, with quantity surveyors having the highest mean score of 3.09. this suggests a potential gap in understanding the value of recycling in construction materials and processes. the study by boarin and martinez-molina (2022) highlighted the need for increased awareness and implementation of recycling practices in the construction industry to promote sustainability. table 6. usage of the principles of circular economy. variables architects builders quantity surveyors engineers summary mean sd rank mean sd rank mean sd rank mean sd rank mean sd rank repair 3.78 1.09 2 3.60 1.08 2 3.45 1.14 1 4.00 1.23 2 3.60 1.09 1 re-use 3.67 1.23 5 3.66 1.19 1 3.18 1.18 4 4.00 1.00 1 3.57 1.18 2 recycle 3.67 1.12 4 3.53 1.14 3 3.09 1.19 7 3.60 0.55 3 3.45 1.13 3 refurbish 3.89 1.05 1 3.29 1.11 4 3.23 1.23 3 3.40 0.55 4 3.34 1.11 4 recover 3.78 1.09 2 3.21 1.22 8 3.36 1.09 2 3.00 1.23 11 3.29 1.18 5 reduce 3.44 1.33 10 3.26 1.10 6 3.18 1.26 5 3.00 0.71 10 3.24 1.13 6 repurpose 3.44 1.51 11 3.18 1.02 10 3.14 1.08 6 3.20 0.84 9 3.19 1.06 7 regenerate 3.44 0.88 9 3.26 1.10 6 2.86 1.17 10 3.40 1.34 5 3.19 1.11 8 rethink 3.56 0.88 6 3.29 1.17 5 2.77 1.19 11 3.20 0.84 7 3.19 1.15 9 remanufacture 3.56 0.88 6 3.19 1.11 9 2.91 1.31 9 3.40 1.52 6 3.17 1.16 10 recirculate 3.56 0.88 6 3.16 1.04 11 2.59 1.26 12 3.20 1.30 8 3.07 1.12 11 refuse 3.11 1.05 12 2.98 1.19 12 3.05 1.40 8 2.60 1.34 12 2.99 1.22 12 nb: sd, standard deviation. exploratory factor analysis table 7 presents the findings from the factor analysis conducted. with a kaiser–meyer–olkin measure of 0.898, the data’s sampling adequacy was confirmed, making it suitable for factor analysis (hair, et al., 2019). bartlett’s test of sphericity, significant at 0.000, further underscored the robustness of the data’s correlations. initial eigenvalues point to two primary components: the primary component, with an eigenvalue of 6.781 representing 56.51% of the variance, comprises ce practices like “recycle,” “repair,” “re-use,” “refurbish,” “recover,” “remanufacture,” and “repurpose.” the secondary component, with an eigenvalue of 1.000 explaining 8.337% of the variance, includes practices such as “rethink,” “refuse,” “recirculate,” “regenerate,” and “reduce”. both components combined explain 64.846% of the total variance. the rotated component matrix reveals strong correlations with high loadings above 0.7 for the primary component and significant loadings for the secondary component. utilizing varimax with kaiser normalization, the rotation oke et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202534 component initial eigenvalues rotation sums of squared loadings total % of variance cumulative % total % of variance cumulative % 1 6.781 56.51 56.51 4.394 36.615 36.615 2 1.000 8.337 64.846 3.388 28.231 64.846 3 0.801 6.675 71.521 — — — 4 0.633 5.272 76.794 — — — 5 0.526 4.382 81.175 — — — 6 0.516 4.297 85.473 — — — 7 0.405 3.373 88.846 — — — 8 0.387 3.227 92.073 — — — 9 0.332 2.765 94.838 — — — 10 0.263 2.192 97.03 — — — 11 0.224 1.867 98.896 — — — 12 0.132 1.104 100 — — — rotated component matrix component 1 component 2 recycle 0.833 — repair 0.810 — re-use 0.802 — refurbish 0.712 — recover 0.665 0.474 remanufacture 0.580 0.413 repurpose 0.577 0.437 rethink — 0.805 refuse — 0.763 recirculate 0.442 0.711 regenerate 0.534 0.632 reduce 0.484 0.603 extraction method: principal component analysis. rotation method: varimax with kaiser normalization. a. rotation converged in 10 iterations. table 7. summary of factor analysis. kaiser–meyer–olkin measure of sampling adequacy 0.898 bartlett’s test of sphericity — df 66 approximate chi-square 726.25 significance 0.000 oke et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202535 converged in 10 iterations. inspection of the scree plot in figure 1 revealed a clear break after the second component. the point where the slope of the curve is clearly leveling off indicates the number of factors that should be generated by the analysis. figure 1. scree plot of the various circular economy principles. source: figure created by the author discussion the objective of this study is to assess the awareness and usage of circular construction principles among construction professionals involved in nigerian building projects. a significant majority of these professionals demonstrated awareness and knowledge of circular construction, as shown in table 5. notably, all the circular construction principles assessed had mean values above 3.0 on a 5-point likert scale. these results indicate that construction professionals in nigeria are well-acquainted with circular construction principles. moreover, this familiarity suggests a positive trend toward integrating sustainable and circular practices within the nigerian construction industry. this generally aligns with the studies of paul and ofuebe (2021) and zuofa, et al. (2023), which suggested that construction professionals in the nation are increasingly recognizing the importance of sustainable construction methods. this awareness and acceptance are crucial steps toward achieving a more environmentally friendly and resource-efficient construction industry in nigeria (ogunmakinde, et al., 2019). however, despite a high awareness rate of 78.60%, only 41.80% of professionals are actively involved in the practice of these principles. this discrepancy may be attributed to the emerging nature of ce practices in the construction industry, as well as to challenges related to implementation, such as lack of clear guidelines, limited availability of materials, and higher initial costs associated with sustainable construction methods (bilal, et al., 2020; ezeudu, et al., 2021; osei-tutu, et al., 2023; zulu, et al., 2023). additionally, the gap between awareness and practice could also reflect a need for more extensive training and capacity-building initiatives tailored to circular construction principles. as the industry continues to evolve and as more case studies become available, it is anticipated that the oke et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202536 gap between awareness and implementation will narrow, paving the way for broader adoption of circular practices in construction projects. nevertheless, the top three circular construction principles utilized by construction professionals are “re-use,” “recycle,” and “repair,” as shown in table 6. this finding aligns with the previous studies of john, et al. (2023) and otasowie, et al. (2024), which suggested that these principles are among the most accessible and straightforward to implement. the emphasis on these principles can be attributed to their immediate benefits and the lower barriers to adoption compared to other circular construction practices ( john, et al., 2023). ezeudu, et al. (2021) highlighted the economic advantages of “re-use,” “recycle,” and “repair,” emphasizing cost savings and resource efficiency. osei-tutu, et al. (2023) further reinforced these findings by noting the environmental benefits associated with these practices, such as reduced waste and carbon emissions. the widespread adoption of these three principles emphasizes their importance as foundational elements of circular construction. however, it also points to a potential gap in the industry’s adoption of more advanced circular practices. as the industry continues to evolve, there is a need to expand the focus beyond these foundational principles to include other aspects of the ce, such as remanufacturing, repurposing, and regenerative design (kekic, et al., 2020). the industry’s focus on these core principles underscores the need for targeted interventions to promote a broader understanding and application of the full range of circular construction principles. it also highlights an opportunity for training programs, resource development, and policy initiatives that can address the barriers to implementing a wider variety of ce in the nigerian construction sector. the first classification in the rotated component matrix, labeled as the primary component, encompasses a range of principles such as “recycle,” “repair,” “re-use,” “refurbish,” “recover,” “remanufacture,” and “repurpose.” this categorization aligns with the core tenets of the ce, focusing on extending the life cycle of materials and reducing waste through various means. by grouping these principles together, the primary component highlights the interconnectedness and complementary nature of these practices in achieving sustainability goals (morseletto, 2020). this approach to circular construction reflects a holistic view of sustainability, emphasizing not just the reduction of waste but also the efficient use of resources and the promotion of longer-lasting and durable infrastructure. the inclusion of both material recovery methods like “recycle” and “recover” alongside techniques for extending product life such as “repair” and “re-use” underscores the dynamic nature of circular construction ( joustra et al., 2022). however, the secondary component encompasses practices such as “rethink,” “refuse,” “recirculate,” “regenerate,” and “reduce.” this component focuses on more strategic and proactive approaches to sustainability within the construction industry (talamo, et al., 2021; charef, et al., 2022). the “rethink” and “refuse” principles encourage professionals to reconsider traditional practices and materials, questioning their sustainability and exploring alternatives (lekan, et al., 2021). this reflects a shift toward a more conscious and intentional approach to construction, where choices are made with long-term environmental impacts in mind. the “recirculate” and “regenerate” principles emphasize the importance of creating closed-loop systems and restoring natural resources. these practices go beyond mere waste reduction to actively contribute to ecosystem restoration and resource conservation (ogunmakinde, et al., 2019). together, these principles in the secondary component represent a forward-thinking approach to sustainability that goes beyond conventional practices, as they highlight the industry’s potential to not only reduce its environmental footprint but also actively contribute to ecological restoration and resilience (bertino, et al., 2021). implications of the study findings the findings of this study hold critical implications for the nigerian construction industry and broader sustainable development efforts. first, the high level of awareness among construction professionals, despite a gap in implementation, underscores the need for clear guidelines and policies on circular construction. oke et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202537 policymakers could use these insights to design strategies that address challenges like material availability and initial costs. second, the discrepancy between awareness and practice highlights the importance of capacity-building initiatives tailored to circular construction principles. such training programs could equip professionals with the necessary skills to effectively implement these practices. additionally, the industry’s focus on foundational principles like “re-use,” “recycle,” and “repair” presents collaboration opportunities among stakeholders to foster innovation and accelerate the adoption of more advanced circular practices. lastly, the findings contribute to existing and emerging studies on sustainability transitions, highlighting the dynamic nature of industry change and the role of multiple stakeholders in driving sustainable transitions. as the industry continues to evolve, understanding these theoretical perspectives can provide a comprehensive framework for exploring the complex factors influencing the adoption of circular construction practices and guiding future research efforts. limitations of the study despite the findings of this study, a few limitations exist. first, the study’s geographical focus on construction professionals in lagos state limits the generalizability of the findings. if the characteristics and perspectives of respondents from lagos differ from those in other regions, the study’s applicability may be compromised. second, the small sample size may affect the study’s reliability, emphasizing the need for future research with a larger and more diverse sample. another limitation is the use of convenience sampling. this approach contrasts with random sampling, which ensures a more representative sample and reduces the risk of selection bias. this methodological choice could affect the study’s validity and the generalizability of its findings. future research may want to consider employing random sampling to improve the representativeness of the sample and enhance the validity of the findings. furthermore, the study’s short timeframe constrained its flexibility and limited access to various research approaches. instead of initiating the research with a pilot study to assess the feasibility of selected participants and analytical methods, the study proceeded directly. this decision may have impacted the depth and breadth of the study’s findings. conclusion and recommendation this study aims to analyze the level of awareness and usage of ce principles among nigerian construction stakeholders. this was achieved through a quantitative research method using close-ended questionnaires distributed to construction professionals in lagos state, nigeria. the findings of the study revealed that construction professionals have only a basic understanding of ce and their importance in practice, but they are not well-acquainted with their application. this underscores the need for ongoing education and training to bridge the gap between knowledge and application within the construction industry. based on these findings, this study recommends several key actions to enhance the adoption and implementation of ce principles within the construction industry. first, there is a clear need for the development of training programs tailored to the specific needs of construction professionals. these programs should offer hands-on experience and practical knowledge about ce principles, ensuring that professionals not only understand the concepts but also feel confident applying them in their projects. second, awareness campaigns targeting professionals are essential to promote the benefits and importance of ce. workshops, seminars, and informational materials can be distributed through industry associations, educational institutions, and online platforms to reach a wider audience and raise awareness about the value of sustainable construction practices. third, there is a need to integrate ce principles into policies and regulations. encouraging policymakers to incorporate ce principles into building codes, regulations, and sustainability guidelines can create a supportive regulatory environment that incentivizes the adoption of ce practices in construction projects. finally, establishing a monitoring and evaluation framework to assess the effectiveness of oke et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202538 interventions and track progress over time is essential. regular monitoring and evaluation by the nigerian government can help identify areas for improvement, measure the impact of interventions, and ensure that efforts to promote ce in the construction industry are achieving the desired outcomes. financial support is another area where the government can make a significant impact. providing grants, subsidies, or low-interest loans to construction companies that adopt ce practices can help offset the initial costs and incentivize more companies to embrace sustainable construction methods. references adelekan, a., 2022. circular economy strategies of social enterprises in lagos: a case study approach (doctoral dissertation, middlesex university). agyekum, k., amudjie, j., pittri, h., dompey, a.m.a. and botchway, e.a., 2023. prioritizing the principles of circular economy among built environment professionals. built environment project and asset management. https://doi. org/10.1108/bepam-04-2023-0077 akinwale, y.o., 2023. awareness and adoption of circular economy in the consumption and production value-chain among msmes towards sustainable development. african journal of science, technology, innovation and development, pp.1-10. https://doi.org/10.1080/20421338.2023.2247924 albert, a.o. and olutayo, f.s., 2021. cultural dimensions of environmental problems: a critical overview of solid waste generation and management in nigeria. american international journal of multidisciplinary scientific research, 8(1), pp.115. https://doi.org/10.46281/aijmsr.v8i1.1110 ayanrinde, o. and mahachi, j., 2023. scenario method for catalysing circularity and lowering emissions in the construction sector/real estate, nigeria. in the routledge handbook of catalysts for a sustainable circular economy (pp. 388-402). routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003267492-22 bertino, g., kisser, j., zeilinger, j., langergraber, g., fischer, t. and österreicher, d., 2021. fundamentals of building deconstruction as a circular economy strategy for the reuse of construction materials. applied sciences, 11(3), p.939. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11030939 bilal, m., khan, k. i. a., thaheem, m. j., & nasir, a. r. (2020). current state and barriers to the circular economy in the building sector: towards a mitigation framework. journal of cleaner production, 276, 123250. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123250 boarin, p. and martinez-molina, a., 2022. integration of environmental sustainability considerations within architectural programmes in higher education: a review of teaching and implementation approaches. journal of cleaner production, 342, p.130989. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130989 charef, r., lu, w. and hall, d., 2022. the transition to the circular economy of the construction industry: insights into sustainable approaches to improve the understanding. journal of cleaner production, 364, p.132421. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132421 donaghy, k.p., 2022. a circular economy model of economic growth with circular and cumulative causation and trade. networks and spatial economics, 22(3), pp.461-488. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11067-022-09559-8 estarrona, u. m. de, seneviratne, d., villarejo, r., & galar, d. (2019). the new asset management: implications of servitization in circular economy. journal of industrial engineering and management science, 2018(1), 109–120. https:// doi.org/10.13052/jiems2446-1822.2018.006 ezeudu, o. b., ezeudu, t. s., ugochukwu, u. c., agunwamba, j. c., & oraelosi, t. c. (2021). enablers and barriers to implementation of circular economy in solid waste valorization: the case of urban markets in anambra, southeast nigeria. environmental and sustainability indicators, 12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indic.2021.100150 oke et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202539 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-04-2023-0077 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-04-2023-0077 https://doi.org/10.1080/20421338.2023.2247924 https://doi.org/10.46281/aijmsr.v8i1.1110 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003267492-22 https://doi.org/10.3390/app11030939 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123250 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123250 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.130989 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132421 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132421 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11067-022-09559-8 https://doi.org/10.13052/jiems2446-1822.2018.006 https://doi.org/10.13052/jiems2446-1822.2018.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indic.2021.100150 geng, y., & doberstein, b. (2008). developing the circular economy in china: challenges and opportunities for achieving “leapfrog development.” international journal of sustainable development and world ecology, 15(3), pp. 231-239. https://doi.org/10.3843/susdev.15.3:6 ghaffar, s.h., burman, m. and braimah, n., 2020. pathways to circular construction: an integrated management of construction and demolition waste for resource recovery. journal of cleaner production, 244, p.118710. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118710 gillott, c., mihkelson, w., lanau, m., cheshire, d. and densley tingley, d., 2023. developing regenerate: a circular economy engagement tool for the assessment of new and existing buildings. journal of industrial ecology, 27(2), pp.423435. https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13377 gonzález, a., sendra, c., herena, a., rosquillas, m. and vaz, d., 2021. methodology to assess the circularity in building construction and refurbishment activities. resources, conservation & recycling advances, 12, p.200051. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.rcradv.2021.200051 grigoropoulos, c. j., zerefos, s. c., tsangrassoulis, a., & doulos, l. t. (2022). lighting products as part of the circular economy and strategies that affect it. a literature overview. iop conference series: earth and environmental science, 1123(1). https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1123/1/012006 güsser-fachbach, i., lechner, g., ramos, t. b., & reimann, m. (2023). repair service convenience in a circular economy: the perspective of customers and repair companies. journal of cleaner production, 415(may), 137763. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137763 hair jr, j.f., lds gabriel, m., silva, d.d. and braga, s., 2019. development and validation of attitudes measurement scales: fundamental and practical aspects. rausp management journal, 54(4), pp.490-507. https://doi.org/10.1108/ rausp-05-2019-0098 john, i.b., adekunle, s.a. and aigbavboa, c.o., 2023. adoption of circular economy by construction industry smes: organisational growth transition study. sustainability, 15(7), p.5929. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15075929 joustra, j., bakker, c., bessai, r., & balkenende, r. (2022). circular composites by design: testing a design method in industry. sustainability (switzerland), 14(13). https://doi.org/10.3390/su14137993 kekic, a., stojanovic bjelic, l., & neskovic markic, d. (2020). nature-inspired design biomimicry and cradle to cradle. quality of life (banja luka) – apeiron, 18(1-2). https://doi.org/10.7251/qol2001058k kopsidas, o. n., & giakoumatos, s. d. v. (2021). economics of recycling and recovery. natural resources, 12(04), 73–90. https://doi.org/10.4236/nr.2021.124007 lee, p. h., juan, y. k., han, q, and de vries, b., 2023. an investigation on construction companies’ attitudes towards importance and adoption of circular economy strategies. ain shams engineering journal, 14(12). https://doi. org/10.1016/j.asej.2023.102219 lekan, m., jonas, a. e. g., deutz, p., & jonas, a. e. g. (2021). circularity as alterity? untangling circuits of value in the social enterprise – led local development of the circular economy. economic geography, 97(3), 257–283. https:// doi.org/10.1080/00130095.2021.1931109 merli, r., preziosi, m., & acampora, a. (2018). how do scholars approach the circular economy? a systematic literature review. journal of cleaner production, 178, 703–722. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.112 mhatre, p., panchal, r., singh, a. and bibyan, s., 2021. a systematic literature review on the circular economy initiatives in the european union. sustainable production and consumption, 26, pp.187-202. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. spc.2020.09.008 oke et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202540 https://doi.org/10.3843/susdev.15.3:6 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118710 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.118710 https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.13377 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcradv.2021.200051 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rcradv.2021.200051 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1123/1/012006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137763 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.137763 https://doi.org/10.1108/rausp-05-2019-0098 https://doi.org/10.1108/rausp-05-2019-0098 https://doi.org/10.3390/su15075929 https://doi.org/10.3390/su14137993 https://doi.org/10.7251/qol2001058k https://doi.org/10.4236/nr.2021.124007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2023.102219 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2023.102219 https://doi.org/10.1080/00130095.2021.1931109 https://doi.org/10.1080/00130095.2021.1931109 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.112 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2020.09.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2020.09.008 minunno, r., o’grady, t., morrison, g.m. and gruner, r.l., 2020. exploring environmental benefits of reuse and recycle practices: a circular economy case study of a modular building. resources, conservation and recycling, 160, p.104855. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.104855 morseletto, p. (2020). targets for a circular economy. resources, conservation and recycling, 153(november 2019), 104553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.104553 oecd (2023), “ a circular transition for construction”, in towards a national circular economy strategy for hungary, oecd publishing, paris. https://doi.org/10.1787/9347f752-en o’grady, t., minunno, r., chong, h.y. and morrison, g.m., 2021. design for disassembly, deconstruction and resilience: a circular economy index for the built environment. resources, conservation and recycling, 175, p.105847. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105847 ogunmakinde, o. e., sher, w., & maund, k. (2019). an assessment of material waste disposal methods in the nigerian construction industry. recycling, 4(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/recycling4010013 osei-tutu, s., ayarkwa, j., osei-asibey, d., nani, g., & afful, a. e. (2023). barriers impeding circular economy (ce) uptake in the construction industry. smart and sustainable built environment, 12(4), 892–918. https://doi.org/10.1108/ sasbe-03-2022-0049 otasowie, o.k., aigbavboa, c.o., oke, a.e. and adekunle, p., 2024. mapping out focus for circular economy business models (cebms) research in construction sector studies–a bibliometric approach. journal of engineering, design and technology. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-10-2023-0444 papamichael, i., voukkali, i., loizia, p., & zorpas, a. a. (2023). construction and demolition waste framework of circular economy: a mini review. waste management and research, 41(12), 1728–1740. https://doi. org/10.1177/0734242x231190804 paul, s.o. and ofuebe, c., 2021. the united nations industrial development organization’s role in modern industrialization of nigeria. international economic policy, (34), pp.115-138. https://doi.org/10.33111/iep. eng.2021.34.06 ranganathan, p., & caduff, c. (2023). designing and validating a research questionnaire part 1. perspectives in clinical research, 14(3), 152–155. https://doi.org/10.4103/picr.picr_140_23 ruiz, l.a.l., ramón, x.r. and domingo, s.g., 2020. the circular economy in the construction and demolition waste sector–a review and an integrative model approach. journal of cleaner production, 248, p.119238. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119238 schöggl, j. p., stumpf, l., & baumgartner, r. j. (2020). the narrative of sustainability and circular economy a longitudinal review of two decades of research. in resources, conservation and recycling (vol. 163). elsevier b.v. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105073 singhal, d., tripathy, s., & jena, s. k. (2020). remanufacturing for the circular economy: study and evaluation of critical factors. resources, conservation and recycling, 156( january). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.104681 talamo, c., lavagna, m., monticelli, c., zanelli, a., & campioli, a. (2021). remanufacturing: strategies to enhance the life extension of short-cycle building products. techne, 22, 71–78. https://doi.org/10.36253/techne-10591 upadhayay, s., alqassimi, o., khashadourian, e., sherm, a., & prajapati, d. (2024). development in the circular economy concept: systematic review in context of an umbrella framework. in sustainability (switzerland) (vol. 16, issue 4). multidisciplinary digital publishing institute (mpdi). https://doi.org/10.3390/su16041500 oke et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202541 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.104855 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2019.104553 https://doi.org/10.1787/9347f752-en https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.105847 https://doi.org/10.3390/recycling4010013 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-03-2022-0049 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-03-2022-0049 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-10-2023-0444 https://doi.org/10.1177/0734242x231190804 https://doi.org/10.1177/0734242x231190804 https://doi.org/10.33111/iep.eng.2021.34.06 https://doi.org/10.33111/iep.eng.2021.34.06 https://doi.org/10.4103/picr.picr_140_23 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119238 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119238 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105073 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.105073 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2020.104681 https://doi.org/10.36253/techne-10591 https://doi.org/10.3390/su16041500 zhang, c., hu, m., di maio, f., sprecher, b., yang, x. and tukker, a., 2022. an overview of the waste hierarchy framework for analyzing the circularity in construction and demolition waste management in europe. science of the total environment, 803, p.149892. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149892 zulu, s.l., zulu, e., chabala, m. and chunda, n., 2023. drivers and barriers to sustainability practices in the zambian construction industry. international journal of construction management, 23(12), pp.2116-2125. https://doi.org/10.1080 /15623599.2022.2045425 zuofa, t., ochieng, e.g. and ode-ichakpa, i., 2023. an evaluation of determinants influencing the adoption of circular economy principles in nigerian construction smes. building research & information, 51(1), pp.69-84. https://doi.org/1 0.1080/09613218.2022.2142496 oke et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202542 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.149892 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2045425 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2045425 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2022.2142496 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2022.2142496 © 2022 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: ajibike, w. a., adeleke, a. q., muuka, g. n., bamgbade, j. a., darun, m. r., and moshood, t. d. 2022. impacts of oil and gas internal risk factors on project success: moderating role of government support. construction economics and building, 22:1, 47–69. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v22i1.7842 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 22, no. 1 march 2022 research article impacts of oil and gas internal risk factors on project success: moderating role of government support waliu adeniyi ajibike1,*, adekunle qudus adeleke2, gerry nkombo muuka3, jibril adewale bamgbade4, mohd ridzuan darun5, taofeeq durojaye moshood6 1 faculty of industrial management, universiti malaysia pahang, malaysia, niyifavourite@gmail.com 2 faculty of industrial management, universiti malaysia pahang, malaysia, adekunle@ump.edu.my 3 college of business, al ghurair university, dubai, uae, gmuuka06@gmail.com 4 faculty of engineering, computing and science, swinburne university of technology, sarawak campus, malaysia, jbamgbade@swinburne.edu.my 5 faculty of industrial management, universiti malaysia pahang, malaysia, mridzuand@ump.edu.my 6 faculty of industrial management, universiti malaysia pahang, malaysia, taofeeqmoshood@ gmail.com corresponding author: waliu adeniyi ajibike, faculty of industrial management, universiti malaysia pahang, malaysia, niyifavourite@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7842 article history: received: 02/08/2021; revised: 20/01/2022; accepted: 27/01/2022; published: 21/03/2022 abstract organisational internal risk factors, which include management, material, finance and design risk factors, affect oil and gas construction projects’ success in emerging nations, in which malaysia is no exception. the purpose of this study is to examine the effect of these internal risk factors and government support on oil and gas projects. data were collected from 61 employees of oil and gas firms within peninsular malaysia using a questionnaire survey. the data were analysed using the structural equation modelling (sem) technique. the results revealed that all the exogenous variables (design risk, management risk, financial risk and material risk factors and government support) significantly impact project success. although the insignificant and unsupported 47 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the study reported in this article was funded by the fundamental research grant scheme managed by the universiti malaysia pahang [grant code: rdu190127]. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7842 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7842 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7842 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:niyifavourite@gmail.com mailto:adekunle@ump.edu.my mailto:gmuuka06@gmail.com mailto:jbamgbade@swinburne.edu.my mailto:mridzuand@ump.edu.my mailto:taofeeqmoshood@gmail.com mailto:taofeeqmoshood@gmail.com mailto:niyifavourite@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7842 hypotheses in this study are not unconnected with the current covid-19 pandemic, which made the government shift attention to medical facilities projects. this study implies that managerial capability is critical in managing risks and ensuring the successful delivery of projects. as a result, project managers are expected to be on top of the triple constraint’s essential qualities, which increase the chance of project success. they must be aware of any changes to the essential characteristics, whether unexpected or desired. the study developed an all-inclusive framework that can assist stakeholders within the industry and academia in mitigating internal risk factors in ensuring the success of projects. keywords project success; management risk; material risk; finance risk; design risk; government support introduction the energy demand is growing worldwide. according to the international energy agency, global energy demand will rise at a 1.6 percent annual pace by 2030 (conti, et al., 2016; prăvălie and bandoc, 2018). fossil fuels are the primary source of fuel supply for humanity, emphasizing the importance of the global oil and gas sector (dehdasht, et al., 2017; hartmann, et al., 2020). the oil and gas industry accounts for 20 to 30% of malaysian gdp (saudi and tsen, 2017). according to bank negara, the sector is a key driver of the malaysian economy (sekar, et al., 2018). current construction projects and high-value developmental projects accounted chiefly for the swift growth in foreign construction imports, contributing approximately 16.9 billion to malaysian gdp (hoque, wah and zaidi, 2020). however, the input of oil and gas projects within the sector has been and continues to be disappointing as a result of risk concerns that limit the outputs of these projects (badiru and osisanya, 2016), leading to litigations, disputes, neglect and failure of the project which also eventually result in financial setbacks. risks in oil and gas construction projects, according to de maere d’aertrycke, ehrenmann and smeers (2017), frequently lead to schedule overruns, cost overruns, and a lack of quality owing to specific risk factors, which this research seeks to explore. many projects have been delayed or over budget due to project managers’ inability to appropriately manage risk, leading to outright abandonment, disagreement, and lawsuits (badiru and osisanya, 2016). today’s projects are considerably exposed to more risks and uncertainties as a result of factors such as poor management, inadequate material, complexity in the design, insufficient finance, labour experience, low technology, and equipment, which are the leading risk factors for the majority of the nation’s oil and gas construction projects (mani et al., 2017; van thuyet, ogunlana and dey, 2007). therefore, in order to improve project success rates in oil and gas construction projects, it is necessary to identify and investigate risk factors that may restrict project success within oil and gas construction projects. as a result, this study will delve into the impact of internal risk factors such as design, materials, finance, management, and labour and equipment risk factors on the performance of oil and gas construction projects, which are regarded as megaprojects. this study used structural equation modelling (sem) to achieve this goal. sem is a multivariate approach capable of predicting the complicated relationship between variables (hair jr., et al., 2014). this study contributes to discourse in oil and gas construction research. firstly, through theoretical and empirical facts on how risk could be managed from both project and organisational related factors. likewise, this study’s outcomes could serve as a blueprint for stakeholders in the industry and the academic in mitigating against internal risk factors in ensuring the success of projects. the remainder of this article is arranged as follows: literature relevant to oil and gas construction projects is explained, followed by the underlying theory. the formulation of hypotheses to be investigated was then addressed, followed by research techniques, discussions and findings are presented and connected to theory and literature, and conclusions are formed with appropriate implications and recommendations for future investigations. ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202248 literature review risk management in oil and gas construction projects oil and gas construction projects are considered high-risk due to the extensive investment invested, the large number of investors involved, the advanced technology involved, and the unique nature of the projects (salas and hallowell, 2016; van thuyet, et al., 2007). recognizing the risk associated with the oil and gas sector is critical for the construction sector’s needs and the downstream and upstream oil and gas industry sub-sectors (de maere d’aertrycke, ehrenmann and smeers, 2017). furthermore, kassem, khoiry and hamzah (2020) claimed that risk factors that impact the key components of projects (such as cost, schedule, and quality) are typical issues in the construction business globally. construction projects are critical to the long-term supply chain and oil and gas processing (bastas and liyanage, 2018; raut, narkhede, and gardas, 2017). because of its significance, industry stakeholders are under pressure to guarantee that projects are completed on schedule and with the least level of risk and uncertainty (ahmadabadi and heravi, 2019; bluhm, et al., 2018). the risk may influence at least one of the project objectives, such as cost, time, quality, etcetera (hamzaoui, et al., 2015; taylan, et al., 2014). however, all construction projects include risks that can be mitigated, managed, transferred, accepted, or avoided (lock and wagner, 2018), even though it is impossible to eliminate all project risks. as a result, successful projects are those that identify risks early on, analyse and manage them effectively (durugbo, et al., 2020; zou, zhang and wang, 2007). a lack of appropriate attention and risk assessment in a construction project, on the other hand, is the source of cost overruns, poor performance, and delays (renuka, kamal and umarani, 2017; taillandier, et al., 2015). unfortunately, as compared to many other industries, construction projects are not as advanced in risk analysis and assessment (dehdasht, et al., 2017; taroun, 2014). the absence of a risk management approach during oil and gas construction projects can result in delays and cost overruns, which is essential for pricing energy policy (dehdasht, et al., 2017; sekar, viswanathan and sambasivan, 2018). as a result, there is a need to identify the most important organisation risks and related risk factors because of the impact on construction decision-making and increasing the likelihood of success while decreasing potential risk in a construction project. in addition, risk management in construction projects is critical for meeting project objectives while avoiding cost overruns and delays. depending on the project’s design and planning, the result will be of excellent quality (kassem, khoiri and hamzah, 2020). the risk management system assists project managers in prioritizing resource allocation and making trustworthy decisions that contribute to the project’s goals and success. a comprehensive risk management plan is required to reduce costs and enhance competitiveness in the energy industry (kauppi, et al., 2016). as a result, identifying and assessing the key risks encountered in oil and gas construction projects is critical to assist businesses that plan or work on such projects to develop plans to ensure sustainable energy supply chains. furthermore, recognising the critical risk elements associated with the oil and gas construction projects and the emphasis on analysis of these risk elements may serve as a catalyst for good planning, successful risk management implementation, and appropriate actions to minimise, transfer, or control the related risks (dehdasht, et al., 2017). theoretical consideration and hypotheses development theoretical consideration organizational control theory offers theoretical affirmations to establish the link between project success and external risk factors in the oil and gas industry. according to organisational control theory (flamholtz, ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202249 das and tsui, 1985; li, 2021; liu, borman and gao, 2014; ouchi, 1979), appropriate control established and applied by an organisation must theoretically be able to mitigate against risk occurrence on oil and gas projects within the organisation with the aid of proper monitoring, control, and compensation among stakeholders, project management. similarly, organisational control theory assumes that risk incidence may be reduced by control implemented by a government-supported organisation, which would undoubtedly encourage compliance and adapt to every organisation (fairholm, 2009). prior literature suggested that mutual agreement exists among academics on the relationship between oil and gas external risk factors, government support and project success, and organisational control. government plays an essential role in minimizing risk in every business (moshood, et al., 2020). similarly, the foundation for the organisational control theory was discovered in a range of life scenarios, such as performance metrics, social and communication interactions (geiger, et al., 2009; miao, evans and shaoming, 2007; miao and evans, 2012), construction risk management (adeleke, et al., 2018; aibinu and odeyinka, 2006), and issues with erratic information in corporate governance (o’sullivan, 2000). abelson, et al. (1968) asserted that conformity and control in most organizations add to a major dilemma due to various parties’ perceptions. likewise, cooperrider and srivastva (2013) describe that organisational development is preprogramed, unilaterally determined, where people and organisations’ ideas are directly transformed and challenged on an unpredictable scale. in that case, some researchers affirmed that effective control and efficiency within the organization strongly relied on the organisational control theory. as a result, based on the factors that have been determined, figure 1 depicts the research framework for this study as follows: government support management risk internal risk factors h1 h2 h3 h5 project success cost schedule quality material risk finance risk design risk h4 h6 h7 h8 h9 figure 1. conceptual framework. hypotheses development internal oil and gas risk factors and project success construction project risk-related factors are enormous due to different activities and stakeholders involved and their complex relationships (mok, shen and yang, 2015). project success has traditionally been judged using “the triple constraints” or “the iron triangle” of schedule, cost, and quality of objectives (williams, et al., 2015). these elements rely on one another. as a result, a change in one will impact at least one ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202250 other component (williams, et al., 2015). over time, the yardstick for measuring project performance has shifted to a more quality-based focus on increased knowledge of stakeholders’ demands and incorporating internal-external quality indicators (mok, shen and yang, 2015). a guide to the project management body of knowledge (pmbok, 2013 p.35) states that project success “… should be assessed in terms of accomplishing the project within the limitations of scope, time, cost, quality, resources, and risk as approved between the project managers and senior management”. the pmbok guide remains the “generally accepted” project management method for project managers and the discipline’s existing standard (ismayilova and silvius, 2021). the pmbok guide employs a systems-based approach centred on “inputs, processes, and outputs,” emphasising the three constraints of time, budget, and scope (crawford and stretton, 2018). despite widespread industry acceptance of the pmbok standards, project failure is common in most sectors, including oil and gas. according to a survey, 42% of engineering projects and 81% of oil and gas projects are behind schedule (parker, et al., 2013; wu, et al., 2017), with just 32% of information and communication technology (ict) projects successful (kapsali, 2013). internal organisational factors are defined as factors influencing the success of construction projects, which are within the management team’s control (gudienė, et al., 2013). these factors include but are not limited to management, finance, design, technology, labour and material factors (belassi and tukel, 1996; gudienė, et al., 2013). failure to establish and maintain these internal risk factors may result in non-compliance with regulatory expectations and/or fraud from employees and/or clients. the economic environment that regulates cash flow and the affordability of funding comprises financial factors. these include a stable macroeconomic climate, the availability of credit facilities, low-interest rates, and extended payback terms (gudienė, et al., 2013). the failure of the project finance mechanism seriously jeopardises the development of the oil and gas industry (shuen, feiler and teece, 2014). one of the major risks generating cost overruns has been identified as price volatility. it is related to rising material and labour costs as well as supplier speculation in emerging nations (lock and wagner, 2018). finance is the most important resource necessary for every construction project. the design and specifications of a project are dependent on it, and any project cannot be accomplished without sufficient finances. as a result, proper funding and sound financial management are critical components of every project. financial management employs financial or accounting information at all levels to aid in company planning, decision-making, and control (lock and wagner, 2018). management of other resources becomes meaningless without competent money or finance management. shenhar and holzmann (2017) studied over 600 corporate, government, and non-profit projects from diverse nations. according to the data, over 85% of projects failed to fulfil their schedule and budget objectives. they argue that most project-based interventions are managerial in nature, stemming from the framework and attitude that underpin the conventional approach rather than a lack of procedures and practices. however, the availability of resources in project delivery may be a critical cause of timeline or cost overruns; a survey found that 46% of middle eastern capital and infrastructural projects had substantial delays, with just 36% of projects finishing on time or under budget (shenhar and holzmann, 2017). managerial competence was a significant problem for 47% of organisations, while funding challenges impacted more than 50% of initiatives (shenhar and holzmann, 2017). as a result, the project manager must stay on top of all of the triple constraint’s essential qualities to increase project success. they must be aware of any changes to the key characteristics, whether unexpected or desired and never presume that other attributes may be kept untouched if one is known to be changing or fluctuating (sovacool, gilbert and nugent, 2014). as previously said, one cannot just reject a modification to one without fully understanding how it will affect the others. design risk factors are the chances that a design may fail the requirements for a project because it is ineffective, unstable, infeasible, fundamentally faulty, or falls short of the clients’ expectations (liu, et al., ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202251 2017). similarly, equipment resources (materials) have an advantage over personnel resources in that they can constantly work under unfavourable conditions, need fewer human resources, and require fewer additional facilities. the selection and use of equipment in a project must be an essential element of the overall strategy. the kind and quantity of equipment necessary in each project are determined by the nature of the project, which has a substantial impact on the project’s cost (badiru and osisanya, 2016). materials are critical components in the construction business, accounting for a significant part of the entire value of the project. a material problem adds to cost overruns (derakhshanalavijeh and teixeira, 2017; raykar and ghadge, 2016). as a result, effective material management is a critical success factor for every project. a material management system comprises the essential functions necessary in every construction project, such as material identification, acquisition, storage, distribution, and disposal (raykar and ghadge, 2016). a consistent and appropriate supply of materials is essential since late or irregular deliveries or improper material provided during construction impact other resources such as personnel and machines. this results in decreased production, time delays, and cost overruns (derakhshanalavijeh and teixeira, 2017). manpower, or human resources, is another essential resource that is critical to the success of any project. good outcomes cannot be accomplished without an adequate supply of skilled and unskilled labour, as well as the most appropriate allocation and management of human or manpower resources (young, 2016). construction progress may only be expected if effective man-hour effort is put in and specified milestone dates are met. effective workforce management may minimise labour expenses and hence enhance corporate profitability. poor labour productivity is a significant issue in developing nations (alashwal, fareed and alobaidi, 2017; wilson and wilson, 2017). as a result, efficient workforce management and increased labour productivity are essential for lowering labour costs and boosting profitability for oil and gas firms. the government also plays an important role in ensuring the success of oil and gas construction projects through infrastructure development, a favourable legislative environment, and developer guarantees. this is significant because of the sectors’ contribution to the nations’ economies (saudi and tsen, 2017). according to shuen, feiler and teece (2014), government failure will impact the overall growth of the oil and gas industry. the advent of rapidly evolving digital technologies and rising regulatory pressure are also important elements in the oil and gas sector (shukla and karki, 2016). hence, the following hypotheses are formulated. figure 1 depicts a hypothetical model for the interplay between internal risk factors and project success. h1: there is a significant effect of management risk factors on project success. h2: there is a significant effect of material risk factors on project success. h3: there is a significant effect of financial risk factors on project success. h4: there is a significant effect of design risk factors on project success. moderating roles of government support according to baron and kenny (1986), a moderating variable acts as a third variable that can be either quantitative or qualitative, altering the direction or intensity of the link between a predictor and a criterion variable. in other words, the moderating variable has a significant impact on the relationship between the independent and dependent variables. in other words, “the inclusion of this variable modifies the original connection between the independent and dependent variables” (sekaran and bougie, 2016). in this study, government policy refers to the rules and regulations enacted by government agencies in order to expedite the spread of risk management techniques inside the oil and gas industry. it is well acknowledged that government bodies play an essential role in encouraging risk management in building projects. the government is a well-known component that has a considerable impact on risk management (adeleke, et al., 2018), occupants’ and construction workers’ well-being (bamgbade, kamaruddeen and nawi, ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202252 2017; wijethilake and lama, 2019). for example, the study found that governments and construction stakeholders are becoming more committed to risk reduction as a key criterion for project management (liu, et al., 2016; wijethilake and lama, 2019). it was also stated that construction risk management was the duty of the government, its agencies, and construction firms (bamgbade, kamaruddeen and nawi, 2017). however, its execution and final success are dependent on the amount of compliance of the construction players. earlier research’ propositions (bamgbade, et al., 2018; kim, et al., 2016) were examined to support government policy’s possible involvement as a moderator in this study. government subsidy policies have been shown to significantly impact the processes and outcomes of both new and existing companies. according to moshood, et al. (2020), government policy in the form of rules and regulations is the most successful in preventing or decreasing the impacts of construction risk since it is more result-oriented in construction delivery. governments, once again, can support tactics through policy formulations on a series of tax-based incentive policies for contractors with little or no risk throughout building processes, albeit there are numerous hurdles to creating it (li and shui, 2015; shafii, arman ali and othman, 2006). every company is obliged by good construction laws and regulations to limit and control risk on a construction project caused by a shortage of materials, uncoordinated management, incorrect design, a lack of money or labour, and equipment. as a result, construction businesses are expected to follow laws and regulations (bamgbade, et al., 2018; moshood, et al., 2020). government support for minimizing and controlling risk in construction is considered a moderating variable in this study due to its strategic implications for businesses operating in the sector by pushing to achieve standardized and risk-free building projects. properly established rules in the built environment raise living standards while mitigating risk (bommer, crowley and pinho, 2015; spence, 2004). improvements in project delivery efficiency will be documented when government departments and agencies oversee projects. the management approach is defined by rigorous supervision of all construction processes, as was done in china post-reform era (qiang, et al., 2015). moshood, et al. (2020) agreed, arguing that the government might drive risk management agendas through various measures such as budgetary assistance, legislation, and standards. as a result, the following hypotheses suffice: h5: there is a significant effect of government support on project success. h6: government support strengthens the effects of management risk factors on project success. h7: government support strengthens the effects of material risk factors on project success. h8: government support strengthens the effects of financial risk factors on project success. h9: government support strengthens the effects of design risk factors on project success. research method sample size and data collection procedure the target demographic comprises mprc-registered oil and gas construction businesses ranging from smes to malaysia’s top 100 oil and gas firms. following faul, et al. (2007), gpower 3.1 was used in defining the sample size of this study, and proportionate respondents’ cluster sampling was arrived at. from the results of gpower, a sample size of 146 was measured having power (1-β err prob. = 0.9). this is also consistent with sekaran and bougie (2016), who suggested a sample size of 30 to 500 as optimal and suitable. only 61 completed copies of surveys issued online were received and judged acceptable for subsequent analysis, representing a 41.78 per cent response rate is consistent with prior findings (kassem, khoiri and hamzah, 2020, 2019; van thuyet, ogunlana and dey, 2007). ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202253 before distribution, the measurement items were examined by an expert from both industry and academics. this was followed by a pilot study conducted with 50 respondents (in, 2017). after that, the main data was conducted. participants’ anonymity was assured to help prevent common method bias. spss software version 26 was used for preliminary data analysis. additionally, in line with the recommendations of kock (2015) for assessment of collinearity, the variance inflation factor (vif) results which range from 1.671 to 2.300 (table 1), indicates the maximum vif’s value is substantially lower than the recommended value of 3.3. consequently, it is reasonable to infer that common method bias is not the major problem in this study (kock, 2015). respondents’ early and late responses to the variables under consideration were compared to assess nonresponse bias. using the independent sample t-test, early responses of 62% were compared to late responses of 38%. the results indicated no statistically significant differences in any of the variables, indicating normal responses from the target demographic (armstrong and overton, 1977). measures this research utilized a survey prepared in the english language. a “5-point likert scale” ranging from “strongly disagree” to “strongly agree” was used. to examine external risk factors (like management, material, design and finance), five statements each were adapted from (adeleke, et al., 2018; aibinu and odeyinka, 2006). for instance, “in our organization, there is no postponement in resolving contractual issues” is one of the examples of items with reliability ranges from 0.86 to 0.88 (adeleke, et al., 2018). a total of 21 items were also adapted from salapatas (2000) to measure each of the dimensions of project success with a reliability of scale ranging from 0.81 to 0.86 (hassan, adeleke and taofeek, 2019). one of the examples of these measurement items comprise, “in our organization, estimation of the project cost is normally done to establish the cost of the entire project before the project starts”, “in our organization, sequencing of activities is normally conducted for all projects and activities so that they are performed in order of priority” and “in our organization, we do hand-over the project on time to the clients without any issue.” lastly, to measure government support, 6 items were adapted from (bamgbade, et al., 2018) with a reliability of 0.86. example of the items includes “government policy promotes healthy competition in the malaysian oil and gas industry”. analysis initially, this research utilized spss version 26 to perform a descriptive analysis. after that, pls-sem was deployed to test the study model. hair, et al. (2019) emphasised that pls-sem is soft in the model’s distribution assumptions and complexity, specification of the model, ease of interpretation, the “predictionoriented” and “exploratory nature” of this study. pls-sem is equally recognised to concurrently tackle multiple dependence correlation with greater statistical efficacy (ringle, et al., 2020). it is also recommended because the primary objective is causal predictive instead of theory testing (sarstedt, et al., 2016). hence, smartpls3 was used for the main data assessment. results the sample of 61 respondents is relatively unequally distributed between male (72.1%) and female (27.9%) respondents. the majority of those who responded were, executive directors (13.1%), managing directors (11.5%), construction managers (29.5%), project managers (26.2%), surveyors (16.4) and others (3.3%) respectively. in general, 62.5 per cent of respondents had between 1 and 5 years of experience working for the oil and gas companies under consideration. the standard deviation’s (sd) results from the descriptive statistics fluctuate between 0.756 to 0.895. simultaneously, mean values also vary from 3.680 to 4.079, ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202254 indicating no significant variation among the examined constructs in this research due to the moderately close scores of the constructs. to access the measurement model of this study, preliminary measurement of output was utilized in accessing the characteristics of the outer model as recognized by the constructs and their respective measurement items. figure 2 shows all the measurement items surpass the recommended value of 0.7 (hair, et al., 2019; hult, et al., 2018), indicating that all the items significantly add to their individual constructs (hair, et al., 2010; noor, et al., 2019; ogbeibu, et al., 2021). table 1. descriptive statistics, reliability and validity of measurement model construct n mean sd ca cr ave vif cost 61 3.870 0.822 0.868 0.905 0.658 endogenous dr 61 4.079 0.763 0.879 0.917 0.735 1.671 fr 61 3.789 0.834 0.847 0.896 0.683 2.297 gsp 61 3.697 0.869 0.891 0.920 0.696 2.159 mgr 61 3.826 0.806 0.883 0.920 0.742 1.690 mtr 61 3.787 0.843 0.890 0.924 0.753 2.300 quality 61 3.872 0.756 0.879 0.913 0.678 endogenous schedule 61 3.680 0.895 0.889 0.923 0.750 endogenous note: observation (n); cr (composite reliability); ca (cronbach alpha); ave (average variance extracted); dr (design risk); fr (financial risk); gsp (government support); mgr (management risk); mtr (material risk); vif (variance inflation factor). figure 2. measurement model ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202255 table 2. heterotrait-monotrait ratio (htmt) construct cost dr fr gsp mgr mtr quality schedule cost dr 0.448 fr 0.739 0.437 gsp 0.625 0.678 0.622 mgr 0.779 0.315 0.670 0.556 mtr 0.641 0.545 0.788 0.652 0.586 quality 0.576 0.787 0.551 0.829 0.516 0.603 schedule 0.881 0.432 0.728 0.541 0.775 0.594 0.467 htmt<0.85 (henseler, ringle and sarstedt, 2015) note dr (design risk); fr (finance risk); gsp (government support); mgr (management risk); mtr (material risk). ca and cr scores range from 0.847 to 0.890 and 0.896 to 0.923 for all constructs examined, respectively, exceeding the minimum criterion of 0.7 and confirming all constructs’ internal consistency and reliability. likewise, the ave for all constructs studied exceeded 0.60, which is greater than the threshold of 0.50, demonstrating the construct’s convergent validity (hair, et al., 2019). the htmt results in table 2 also indicate the constructs’ discriminant validity (henseler, ringle and sarstedt, 2015). likewise, multicollinearity is not an issue in this study, with all the values of vif well below the threshold of 3.3, as shown in table 2 (henseler, ringle and sarstedt, 2015). while the outer model evaluates reflective measurement scales, the inner model assesses project success as a one-dimensional construct. since project success is measured as a formative latent construct (hair, ringle and sarstedt, 2013), the method for its analysis should be given careful considerations to allow for consistency of all the constructs embodied in the outer model (hair, et al., 2013). hence, this study utilizes the two-stage approach recommended by hair, ringle, and sarstedt (2013) and ringle, sarstedt and straub (2012). the technique for testing latent formative constructs was developed by (ringle, sarstedt and straub, 2012) and required obtaining latent variable findings for all sub-constructs except the latent construct, which is only examined in the inner model’s “second stage”. their latent variable findings represent all sub-constructs in the “second stage”. as a result, the subconstructs scores (for example, project success dimensions) explicitly function as measured latent construct variables (project success). they are sufficiently represented and reflected in this case to compute and enable project success projection by other constructions of external risk factors (management, material, finance, and design risk factors, respectively) and government assistance. the relevant latent variable scores (lvs) for all tested constructs were collected and built in the structural model due to the measurement model output in figure 3 (ringle, sarstedt and straub, 2012). regarding the model fit, hair, et al. (2019) advocated that “the use of model fit in pls-sem be carried out with extreme restraint as the assessments of measures are still noncomprehensive, but recently optimistic thresholds are still uncertain, and the concept of model fit as in covariance-based sem is of questionable value to pls-sem in general”. therefore, estimations in pls-sem as advocated by hair, et al. (2014) and sarstedt, et al. (2016) should retain a “causal-predictive approach” and rely on the model’s predicted accuracy and relevance (q2, β, and r2). hair, ringle and sarstedt (2013) promoted a minimum threshold of 1.65 t-statistics values at p≤0.1 confidence interval. similarly, cohen (1988) recommended that effect sizes of “0.35”, “0.15”, and “0.02” signify a “large”, “medium”, and “small” effect, respectively while chin, ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202256 (1998) emphasized that r2 values of “0.25”, “0.50”, and “0.75” indicate “weak”, “moderate”, and “substantial” values respectively. after that, the pls bootstrapping was started with 5000 subsamples (hair, et al., 2014). the coefficient of determination (r2) results, as shown in figure 3, indicate a very high degree of variance explained in project success by all five exogenous constructs (management, finance, material, and design risk factors, and government support) in this study, implying that all five exogenous constructs significantly reflect the variance explained in project success and are consequently significant (hair, et al., 2016). according to figure 3 and table 3, the most significant influence and predictive capability on project success is government support, followed by design risk, management risk, financial risk, and material risk factors in that order. the findings of the corresponding levels of significance of the path coefficients in table 3 demonstrate that all of the exogenous variables (design risk, management risk, financial risk and material risk factors, and government support) substantially influence project performance. this validates the earlier projections of h1 (β = 0.250, t = 3.598), h2 (β = 0.129, t = 2.254), h3 (β = 0.199, t = 3.494), h4 (β = 0.259, t = 4.457) and h5 (β = 0.294, t = 5.817) at p≤0.05 respectively. table 3. structural model results with moderating effects hypotheses path betta t-statistics p-values confidence interval decision 5.00% 95.00% direct effects h1 mgr -> project success 0.250 3.598 0.000 0.147 0.385 supported h2 mtr -> project success 0.129 2.254 0.012 0.033 0.215 supported h3 fr -> project success 0.199 3.494 0.000 0.104 0.286 supported h4 dr -> project success 0.259 4.457 0.000 0.152 0.335 supported h5 gsp -> project success 0.294 5.817 0.000 0.219 0.385 supported moderating effects h6 gsp*mgr -> project success -0.064 0.979 0.164 -0.214 0.031 not supported h7 gsp*mtr -> project success 0.083 1.666 0.048 0.017 0.185 supported h8 gsp*dr -> project success -0.046 0.987 0.162 -0.140 0.027 not supported h9 gsp*fr -> project success 0.009 0.387 0.350 -0.061 0.150 not supported to foster graphic interpretation of the moderation effects analysis, note that the “red”, “blue”, and “green” lines in the interaction graphs of figures 4 to 7 denote the moderator’s “low”, “mean”, and “high” spots, respectively. the results of figures 4, 5, 6 and table 3 indicate that government support has no statistical significance and does not moderate the effect of management risk, design risk, financial risk factors on project success. thus, these results fail to support h6, h8 and h9. meanwhile, figure 7 stresses that ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202257 government support weakens the material risk factor’s effect on project success. this interaction implies that an increase in government support would increase project success and the other way around with the material risk factor. however, table 3 reveals that the moderating impact of government support on this effect is small and significant. this shows the extent of change that would take place in project success if government support were increased by 1, and the material risk factor remains constant. thus, h7 is supported (government support is a significant positive moderator (see table 3). figure 3. structural model indicating the significance of product terms figure 4. moderating effect of government support on the effect of design risk factors on project success. ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202258 figure 5. moderating effect of government support on the effect of financial risk factors on project success. figure 6. moderating effect of government support on the effect of management risk factors on project success. figure 7. moderating effect of government support on the effect of material risk factors on project success. ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202259 the moderating effect of government support on the correlation between a material risk factor and project success, as highlighted in table 3, is weak. when using the “product indicator” technique in moderation analysis, however, even little impacts suggest significant model interactions (henseler and fassott, 2010). finally, given the predictive significance of the model in this investigation, the q2 value of 0.528 for project success demonstrates an appropriate degree of predictive relevance and support for predictive precision (shmueli, et al., 2016). discussions the findings of this study indicated that all exogenous variables (design risk, management risk, financial risk, material risk factors, and government support) had a substantial impact on project success. these findings are consistent with the findings of other studies that have investigated the impact of organisational internal risk factors and government support on project performance (baloi and price, 2003; denni-fiberesima and rani, 2011; kassem, khoiri and hamzah,, 2020, 2019; van thuyet, ogunlana and dey, 2007). their research outcomes further strengthen this research’s position and prior claim put forward by alashwal, fareed and al-obaidi (2017) and musa, et al. (2015). the authors reinforced the importance of a favourable economic system, appropriate design and a favourable legal framework, and government support as crucial to the success of construction projects. they also highlighted excellent governance, and more crucially, government engagement through the provision of subsidies, a readily available financial market, political backing, solid economic policy, and a stable macroeconomic environment as essential determinants in the success of construction projects. this research’s outcomes in one part are similar to that of bamgbade, et al. (2018) and moshood, et al. (2020), which confirmed a significant moderating role of government support in construction project success. this is because the government is in the best position to ensure a stable economic condition, thereby encouraging the private sector’s investment in oil and gas projects, as many investors will not partake in an unstable economic environment. this is because stable economic conditions play a significant role in mitigating risk for the oil and gas sector (li and shui, 2015). in the other part, this study’s outcomes are in contrast with moshood, et al. (2020) and bamgbade, et al. (2018). this is not unconnected with the current covid-19 pandemic, which made the government shift attention to projects involving the construction of medical facilities (alsharef, et al., 2021; umar, 2022) generally, this research found the direct effect of design risk, management risk, financial risk and material risk factors and government support on project success of oil and gas construction projects to be significant and supported. hence, these organisational internal risk factors should be given proper awareness in designing and implementing oil and gas project development. conclusions the success of oil and gas projects is dependent on the risk control mechanisms that project management teams can deliver. having discovered the implicit relevance of managerial, financial, material, and design risk factors, this study tested their influence on the success of malaysia’s oil and gas construction projects. all the direct hypothesized relationships (h1 to h5) and one (h7) indirect hypothesis were all significant. these findings revealed that good management and finance systems, suitable design with a consistent and adequate supply of materials, and government supports all have major impacts on the success of oil and gas construction project. the study developed a foundation to help project management team members, policymakers, and other industry stakeholders implement a successful project. the constructs of these factors indicate that while the finance factor can be fixed by both the project team members and government, management, design and material related risk factors can only be controlled by the project team members. moreso, project success has been explained to have two elements: product success and project management ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202260 success. project management success involves achieving project management objectives, while product success is about achieving overall project objectives (young, 2016). from the outcomes of this research, it can be said that design risk and finance risk factors can significantly impact product success. this is because proper project design with a good location will strongly affect end-user satisfaction. equally, an efficient financial system is also essential with regard to the flow of incomes in ensuring projects are completed within the scope and budget. on the other hand, management and material-related risk factors could also affect project management success. for example, materials are essential components in construction activities, representing a substantial proportion of the project’s total value. as a result, effective material management is a critical success factor for every project. although the insignificant and unsupported hypotheses (h6, h8 and h9) in this study contradicts the studies of moshood, et al. (2020) and bamgbade, et al. (2018), but it not unconnected with the current covid-19 pandemic, which made the government shift attention to projects involving the construction of medical facilities (alsharef et al., 2021; umar, 2022) for projects to be successful, it is pertinent that the major risks impacting projects be systematically examined. their causes and characteristics must be carefully examined in order to assist oil and gas companies in proposing the most effective and feasible mitigation solutions. this research suggests administrative reform from the government and other stakeholders within the industry. the government should create laws that identify policy procedures, deal with and reduce red tape in official transactions, track bribery in oil and gas sector tenders, speed up decisions on projects and their budgets, and everything else. firms and the industry should work together to train and develop local personnel to become more professional and capable of managing the sector and establish strategies to respond to potential risks that may impede the completion of oil and gas sector projects. thus, appropriate consideration should be given to these internal risk elements (management, design, finance, and material) in the design and execution of oil and gas project development. future studies should investigate the interdependence of these factors. research implications theoretical implications the conceptual framework of this study, which was based on previous empirical findings as well as theoretical gaps identified in the existing literature, was reinforced and clarified from the theoretical standpoint of organisational control theory, which demonstrates theoretical reinforcements to support the correlation between project success, oil and gas internal risk factors, and project success (flamholtz, das and tsui, 1985; li, 2021; liu, borman and gao, 2014; ouchi, 1979). the current study also included government support as a moderating variable to understand better the relationship between organisational internal risk variables and project performance. various theoretical contributions were made to investigate external risk variables (management, material, design, and finance), government backing, and project success based on the findings and debates of this research. practical implications following this study’s outcome, various practical recommendations regarding risk management practices in megaprojects like oil and gas construction projects are explained. firstly, this study found managerial capability as a critical factor in managing risk in ensuring project success. as a result, project managers must remain on top of the triple constraint’s essential qualities, which increases the chance of project success. they must be aware of any changes to the essential characteristics, whether unexpected or desired. ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202261 similarly, this study discovered that those internal risk factors (management, material, design and finance) are related to project success in construction project delivery. they were found to be positively correlated to project success in the whole sample. hence, to mitigate against the likelihood of risk occurrence in project delivery and to guide against triple constraints, the organisation’s internal risk factors must be given proper awareness. methodological implications previous studies on risk management and project success have employed different analytical tools like mean score, “relative importance index” (rii) (al zubaidi and al otaibi, 2008; doloi, et al., 2012b), “spearman’s rank correlation” (abd el-razek, bassioni and mobarak, 2008), anova (al zubaidi and al otaibi, 2008), “factor analysis” (doloi, et al., 2012a), “case-study” (ruqaishi and bashir, 2015), “cronbach’s alpha coefficient” (alsanad, 2017), “kruskal-wallis” (ruqaishi and bashir, 2015), “chi-square” (aibinu and odeyinka, 2006), “kendall coefficient of concordance” (braimah and ndekugri, 2009), “probability distribution” ( jafari and love, 2013), “t-test” (hampton, baldwin and holt, 2012). this study used a relatively new analytic technique (pls-sem) to reveal the structural link between the constructs in this investigation. the pls-sem is a multivariate technique that effectively determines the complicated dependent connection between variables (hair, et al., 2014). as a result, this study employs this relatively new analytical technique, which has important methodological consequences. another methodological addition made in this study was using pls path modelling to analyse the psychometric characteristics of each latent variable in this investigation. this study examined these psychometric characteristics using convergent and discriminant validity. when the characteristics of these latent variables were investigated, the item reliability, ave, and composite reliability of each latent variable were determined. limitations and directions for future research although this study found evidence for certain hypothesised relationships between exogenous and endogenous variables, the findings must be evaluated in light of the study’s limitations. first, the current study used a cross-sectional strategy, which prevents generalization from the study’s population. as a result, in the future, a longitudinal design should be considered for testing the theoretical constructs at different points in time to establish the findings of this study. similarly, the current study used a proportionate cluster random sample approach (a probability sampling), with states in peninsular malaysia classified as mutually exclusive clusters. as a result, the oil and gas businesses in each state of peninsular malaysia are evaluated in relation to the total number of samples in each cluster. the use of this sampling technique has limited the extent of this study’s ability to reflect local populations’ understandings. the results of this study may be too abstract to apply directly to specific local conditions, settings, and individual oil and gas construction businesses under examination. as a result, future research can use a non-probability sampling approach to determine sample size. data availability statement this manuscript includes some or all of the data, models, or code that support the conclusions of this investigation. these include raw data from malaysia petroleum resources corporation (mprc), quantitative output from the statistical package for social sciences (spss) and smartpls, and spss and smartpls outputs that are included in this paper (like tables and figures). ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202262 references abd el-razek, m.e., bassioni, h.a. and mobarak, a.m., 2008. causes of delay in building construction projects in egypt. journal of construction engineering and management, 134, pp.831–41. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2008)134:11(831) abelson, r.p., aronson, e.e., mcguire, w.j., newcomb, t.m., rosenberg, m.j. and tannenbaum, p.h. eds., 1968. theories of cognitive consistency: a sourcebook. chicago: rand-mcnally adeleke, a.q., bahaudin, a.y., kamaruddeen, a.m., bamgbade, j.a., salimon, m.g., khan, m.w.a. and sorooshian, s., 2018. the influence of organizational external factors on construction risk management among nigerian construction companies. safety and health at work, 9(1), p.115–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2017.05.004 ahmadabadi, a.a. and heravi, g., 2019. the effect of critical success factors on project success in public-private partnership projects: a case study of highway projects in iran. transport policy, 73, pp.152–61. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. tranpol.2018.07.004 aibinu, a.a. and odeyinka, h.a., 2006. construction delays and their causative factors in nigeria. journal of construction engineering and management, 132, pp.667–77. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2006)132:7(667) al zubaidi, h. and al otaibi, s., 2008. an empirical approach for identifying critical time-ovrerun risk factors in kuwait’s construction projects. journal of economic and administrative sciences, 24(2), pp.35-53. https://doi. org/10.1108/10264116200800007 alashwal, a.m., fareed, n.f. and al-obaidi, k.m., 2017. determining success criteria and success factors for international construction projects for malaysian contractors. construction economics and building, 17, 62–80. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i2.5319 alsanad, s., 2017. megaproject and risk management: a case of kuwait. in: book of proceedings 5th international conference on sustainable development. rome, italy, 6-7 september 2017. rome: ecsdev, p. 79. alsharef, a., banerjee, s., uddin, s.m., albert, a. and, jaselskis, e., 2021. early impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on the united states construction industry. international journal of environmental research and public health, 18(4), p.1559. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041559 armstrong, j.s. and overton, t.s., 1977. estimating nonresponse bias in mail surveys. journal of marketing research, 14(3), pp.396–402. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224377701400320 badiru, a.b. and osisanya, s.o., 2016. project management for the oil and gas industry: a world system approach. boca raton: crc press. https://doi.org/10.1201/b13755 baloi, d. and price, a.d.f., 2003. modelling global risk factors affecting construction cost performance. international journal of project management, 21(4), pp.261–69. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(02)00017-0 bamgbade, j.a., kamaruddeen, a.m. and nawi, m.n.m., 2017. malaysian construction firms’ social sustainability via organizational innovativeness and government support: the mediating role of market culture. journal of cleaner production, 154, pp.114–24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.03.187 bamgbade, j.a., kamaruddeen, a.m., nawi, m.n.m., yusoff, r.z. and bin, r.a., 2018. does government support matter? influence of organizational culture on sustainable construction among malaysian contractors. international journal of construction management, 18, pp.93–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1277057 baron, r.m. and kenny, d.a., 1986. the moderator–mediator variable distinction in social psychological research: conceptual, strategic, and statistical considerations. journal of personality and social psychology, 51, p.1173. https://doi. org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173 ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202263 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:11(831 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:11(831 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shaw.2017.05.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.07.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.07.004 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:7(667 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:7(667 https://doi.org/10.1108/10264116200800007 https://doi.org/10.1108/10264116200800007 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i2.5319 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i2.5319 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041559 https://doi.org/10.1177/002224377701400320 https://doi.org/10.1201/b13755 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(02)00017-0 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.03.187 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1277057 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173 https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.51.6.1173 bastas, a. and liyanage, k., 2018. sustainable supply chain quality management: a systematic review. journal of cleaner production, 181, pp.726–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.01.110 belassi, w. and tukel, o.i., 1996. a new framework for determining critical success/failure factors in projects. international journal of project management, 14, pp.141–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(95)00064-x bluhm, r., dreher, a., fuchs, a., parks, b., strange, a. and tierney, m.j., 2018. connective financing: chinese infrastructure projects and the diffusion of economic activity in developing countries. aiddata working paper 64. williamsburg, va: aiddata at william & mary. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3262101 bommer, j.j., crowley, h. and pinho, r., 2015. a risk-mitigation approach to the management of induced seismicity. journal of seismology, 19, pp.623–46. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10950-015-9478-z braimah, n. and ndekugri, i., 2009. consultants’ perceptions on construction delay analysis methodologies. journal of construction engineering and management, 135, pp.1279–88. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000096 chin, w.w., 1998. commentary: issues and opinion on structural equation modeling. mis quarterly, 22(1), pp.vii-xvi. cohen, j., 1988. statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences, 2nd ed. new york: academic press inc. conti, j., holtberg, p., diefenderfer, j., larose, a., turnure, j.t. and westfall, l., 2016. international energy outlook 2016 with projections to 2040. [pdf ] washington, dc: us energy information administration (eia). available at: https:// www.eia.gov/outlooks/ieo/pdf/0484(2016).pdf#:~:text=overview.%20in%20the%20international%20energy%20 outlook%202016%20%28ieo2016%29,in%202020%20and%2036.5%20trillion%20kwh%20in%202040 cooperrider, d.l. and srivastva, s., 2013. a contemporary commentary on appreciative inquiry in organizational life. in: r. woodman and w. pasmore, eds. research in organizational change and development, 1, pp.129–69. https:// doi.org/10.1108/s1475-9152(2013)0000004001 crawford, l.h. and stretton, a.m., 2018. bodies of knowledge and competency standards in global project management. in: paul c. dinsmore and jeanette cabanis-brewin, eds. ama handbook of project management. new york: amacom. de maere d’aertrycke, g., ehrenmann, a. and, smeers, y., 2017. investment with incomplete markets for risk: the need for long-term contracts. energy policy, 105, pp.571–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.01.029 dehdasht, g., mohamad zin, r., ferwati, m.s., abdullahi, m., keyvanfar, a. and mccaffer, r., 2017. dematelanp risk assessment in oil and gas construction projects. sustainability, 9, p.1420. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9081420 denni-fiberesima, d. and rani, n.s.a., 2011. an evaluation of critical success factors in oil and gas project portfolio in nigeria. african journal of business management, 5, pp.2378–95. https://doi.org/10.4043/21336-ms derakhshanalavijeh, r. and teixeira, j.m.c., 2017. cost overrun in construction projects in developing countries, gasoil industry of iran as a case study. journal of civil engineering management, 23, pp.125–36. https://doi.org/10.3846/139 23730.2014.992467 doloi, h., sawhney, a. and iyer, k.c., 2012a. structural equation model for investigating factors affecting delay in indian construction projects. construction management and economics, 30, pp.869–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619 3.2012.717705 doloi, h., sawhney, a., iyer, k.c. and rentala, s., 2012b. analysing factors affecting delays in indian construction projects. international journal of project management, 30, pp.479–89. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.10.004 durugbo, c.m., al-balushi, z., anouze, a. and amoudi, o., 2020. critical indices and model of uncertainty perception for regional supply chains: insights from a delphi-based study. supply chain management, 25(5), pp.549-64. https://doi. org/10.1108/scm-10-2019-0373 ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202264 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.01.110 https://doi.org/10.1016/0263-7863(95)00064-x https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3262101 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10950-015-9478-z https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000096 https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/ieo/pdf/0484(2016).pdf#:~:text=overview.%20in%20the%20international%20energy%20outlook%202016%20%28ieo2016%29,in%202020%20and%2036.5%20trillion%20kwh%20in%202040 https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/ieo/pdf/0484(2016).pdf#:~:text=overview.%20in%20the%20international%20energy%20outlook%202016%20%28ieo2016%29,in%202020%20and%2036.5%20trillion%20kwh%20in%202040 https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/ieo/pdf/0484(2016).pdf#:~:text=overview.%20in%20the%20international%20energy%20outlook%202016%20%28ieo2016%29,in%202020%20and%2036.5%20trillion%20kwh%20in%202040 https://doi.org/10.1108/s1475-9152(2013)0000004001 https://doi.org/10.1108/s1475-9152(2013)0000004001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2017.01.029 https://doi.org/10.3390/su9081420 https://doi.org/10.4043/21336-ms https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2014.992467 https://doi.org/10.3846/13923730.2014.992467 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2012.717705 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2012.717705 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2011.10.004 https://doi.org/10.1108/scm-10-2019-0373 https://doi.org/10.1108/scm-10-2019-0373 fairholm, g.w., 2009. organizational power politics: tactics in organizational leadership. 2nd ed. santa barbara, ca: abc-clio. faul, f., erdfelder, e., lang, a.-g. and buchner, a., 2007. g* power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. behavior research methods, 39(2), pp.175–91. https://doi.org/10.3758/ bf03193146 flamholtz, e.g., das, t.k. and tsui, a.s., 1985. toward an integrative framework of organizational control. accounting organisations and society, 10(1), pp.35–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(85)90030-3 geiger, s., guenzi, p., panagopoulos, n. and dimitriadis, s., 2009. transformational leadership as a mediator of the relationship between behavior‐based control and salespeople’s key outcomes. european journal of marketing, 43(7/8), pp.1008-31. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560910961498 gudienė, n., banaitis, a., banaitienė, n. and lopes, j., 2013. development of a conceptual critical success factors model for construction projects: a case of lithuania. procedia engineering, 57, pp.392–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. proeng.2013.04.051 hair, j.f., celsi, m., ortinau, d.j. and bush, r.p., 2010. essentials of marketing research. new york, ny: mcgraw-hill/ irwin. hair, j.f., gabriel, m. and patel, v., 2014. amos covariance-based structural equation modeling (cb-sem): guidelines on its application as a marketing research tool. brazilian journal of marketing, 13(2), pp.44-55. https://doi. org/10.5585/remark.v13i2.2718 hair, j.f., ringle, c.m. and sarstedt, m., 2013. partial least squares structural equation modeling: rigorous applications, better results and higher acceptance. long range planning: international journal of strategic management, 46(1-2), pp.1–12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2013.01.001 hair, j.f., risher, j.j., sarstedt, m. and ringle, c.m., 2019. when to use and how to report the results of pls-sem. european business review, [e-journal] 31(1), pp.2-24. https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-11-2018-0203 hair jr, j.f., hult, g.t.m., ringle, c. and sarstedt, m., 2016. a primer on partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem). thousand oaks: sage publications. hair jr., j.f., sarstedt, m., hopkins, l. and kuppelwieser, v.g., 2014. partial least squares structural equation modeling (pls-sem): an emerging tool in business research. european business review, 26(2), pp.106-21. https://doi. org/10.1108/ebr-10-2013-0128 hampton, g., baldwin, a.n. and holt, g., 2012. project delays and cost: stakeholder perceptions of traditional v. ppp procurement. journal of financial management of property and construction, 17(1), pp.73-91. https://doi. org/10.1108/13664381211211055 hamzaoui, f., taillandier, f., mehdizadeh, r., breysse, d. and allal, a., 2015. evolutive risk breakdown structure for managing construction project risks: application to a railway project in algeria. european journal of environmental and civil engineering, 19, pp.238–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/19648189.2014.939416 hartmann, j., inkpen, a.c. and ramaswamy, k., 2020. different shades of green: global oil and gas companies and renewable energy. journal of international business studies, 52(1), pp.879-903. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-02000326-w hassan, a.k., adeleke, a.q. and taofeeq, d.m., 2019. the effects of project triple constraint on malaysia building projects. social science and humanities journal, 3(5), pp.1222-1238. ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202265 https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03193146 https://doi.org/10.3758/bf03193146 https://doi.org/10.1016/0361-3682(85)90030-3 https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560910961498 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2013.04.051 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2013.04.051 https://doi.org/10.5585/remark.v13i2.2718 https://doi.org/10.5585/remark.v13i2.2718 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2013.01.001 https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-11-2018-0203 https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-10-2013-0128 https://doi.org/10.1108/ebr-10-2013-0128 https://doi.org/10.1108/13664381211211055 https://doi.org/10.1108/13664381211211055 https://doi.org/10.1080/19648189.2014.939416 https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-020-00326-w https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-020-00326-w henseler, j. and fassott, g., 2010. testing moderating effects in pls path models: an illustration of available procedures. in: handbook of partial least squares (pp.713-35). berlin, heidelberg: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/9783-540-32827-8_31 henseler, j., ringle, c.m. and sarstedt, m., 2015. a new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. journal of the academy of marketing science, 43(1), pp.115-35. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s11747-014-0403-8 hoque, m.e., wah, l.s. and zaidi, m.a.s., 2020. do oil and gas risk factors matter in the malaysian oil and gas industry? a fama-macbeth two stage panel regression approach. energies, 13(5), p.1154. https://doi.org/10.3390/ en13051154 hult, g.t.m., hair jr, j.f., proksch, d., sarstedt, m., pinkwart, a. and ringle, c.m., 2018. addressing endogeneity in international marketing applications of partial least squares structural equation modeling. journal of international marketing, 26(3), pp.1-21. https://doi.org/10.1509/jim.17.0151 in, j., 2017. introduction of a pilot study. korean journal of anesthesiology, 70(6), p.601. https://doi.org/10.4097/ kjae.2017.70.6.601 ismayilova, a. and silvius, g., 2021. cradle-to-cradle in project management: a case study. international journal of circular economy and waste management (ijcewm), 1(1), pp.54-80. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijcewm.20210101.oa1 jafari, a. and love, p.e.d., 2013. quality costs in construction: case of qom monorail project in iran. journal of construction engineering and management, 139(9), pp.1244-49. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0000704 kapsali, m., 2013. equifinality in project management exploring causal complexity in projects. systems research and behavioral science, 30(1), pp.2-14. https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.2128 kassem, m.a., khoiry, m.a. and hamzah, n., 2020. assessment of the effect of external risk factors on the success of an oil and gas construction project. engineering, construction and architectural management, 27(9), pp.2767-93. https:// doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2019-0573 kassem, m.a., khoiry, m.a. and hamzah, n., 2019. using probability impact matrix (pim) in analyzing risk factors affecting the success of oil and gas construction projects in yemen. international journal of energy sector management, 14(3), pp.527-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijesm-03-2019-0011 kauppi, k., longoni, a., caniato, f. and kuula, m., 2016. managing country disruption risks and improving operational performance: risk management along integrated supply chains. international journal of production economics, 182, pp.484-95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2016.10.006 kim, s., kim, e., suh, y. and zheng, z., 2016. the effect of service innovation on r&d activities and government support systems: the moderating role of government support systems in korea. journal of open innovation: technology, market, and complexity, 2(1), p.5. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40852-016-0032-1 kock, n., 2015. common method bias in pls-sem: a full collinearity assessment approach. international journal of e-collaboration (ijec), 11(4), pp.1-10. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijec.2015100101 li, j. and shui, b., 2015. a comprehensive analysis of building energy efficiency policies in china: status quo and development perspective. journal of cleaner production, 90, pp.326-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.11.061 li, m., 2021. uses and abuses of statistical control variables: ruling out or creating alternative explanations?. journal of business research, 126, pp.472-88. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.12.037 ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202266 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32827-8_31 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-32827-8_31 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8 https://doi.org/10.3390/en13051154 https://doi.org/10.3390/en13051154 https://doi.org/10.1509/jim.17.0151 https://doi.org/10.4097/kjae.2017.70.6.601 https://doi.org/10.4097/kjae.2017.70.6.601 https://doi.org/10.4018/ijcewm.20210101.oa1 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000704 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000704 https://doi.org/10.1002/sres.2128 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2019-0573 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2019-0573 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijesm-03-2019-0011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2016.10.006 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40852-016-0032-1 https://doi.org/10.4018/ijec.2015100101 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2014.11.061 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.12.037 liu, j., xie, q., xia, b. and bridge, a.j., 2017. impact of design risk on the performance of design-build projects. journal of construction engineering and management, 143(6), p.04017010. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0001299 liu, l., borman, m. and gao, j., 2014. delivering complex engineering projects: re-examining organizational control theory. international journal of project management, 32(5), pp.791-802. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.10.006 liu, z.z., zhu, z.w., wang, h.j. and huang, j., 2016. handling social risks in government-driven mega project: an empirical case study from west china. international journal of project management, 34(2), pp.202-18. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.11.003 lock, d. and wagner, r. eds., 2018. the handbook of project portfolio management. abingdon, uk: routledge. https:// doi.org/10.4324/9781315206592 mani, v., delgado, c., hazen, b.t. and patel, p., 2017. mitigating supply chain risk via sustainability using big data analytics: evidence from the manufacturing supply chain. sustainability, 9(4), p.608. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9040608 mok, k.y., shen, g.q. and yang, j., 2015. stakeholder management studies in mega construction projects: a review and future directions. international journal of project management, 33(2), pp.446-457. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2014.08.007 noor, s., rasoolimanesh, s.m., jaafar, m. and barghi, r., 2019. inscription of a destination as a world heritage site and residents’ perceptions. asia pacific journal of tourism research, 24(1), pp.14-30. https://doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2018. 1541183 miao, c.f. and evans, k.r., 2012. effects of formal sales control systems: a combinatory perspective. international journal of research in marketing, 29(2), pp.181-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2011.09.002 miao, c.f., evans, k.r. and shaoming, z., 2007. the role of salesperson motivation in sales control systems— intrinsic and extrinsic motivation revisited. journal of business research, 60(5), pp.417-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jbusres.2006.12.005 mok, k.y., shen, g.q. and yang, j., 2015. stakeholder management studies in mega construction projects: a review and future directions. international journal of project management, 33(2), pp.446-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2014.08.007 moshood, t.d., adeleke, a.q., nawanir, g., bamgbade, j.a. and ajibike, w.a., 2020. does government policy matter? factors influencing contractors’ risk attitudes in the malaysian construction industry: a structural equation modelling analysis. international journal of construction supply chain management, 1, pp.1-29. https://doi.org/10.14424/ ijcscm100120-01-29 musa, m.m., bin amirudin, r., sofield, t. and mus, m.a., 2015. influence of external environmental factors on the success of public housing projects in developing countries. construction economics and building, 15(4), pp.30-44. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i4.4514 o’sullivan, m., 2000. the innovative enterprise and corporate governance. cambridge journal of economics, 24(4), pp.393-416. https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/24.4.393 ogbeibu, s., senadjki, a., emelifeonwu, j., gaskin, j. and pereira, v., 2021. augmenting environmental sustainability through the exchange of green creative ideas–evidence from an emerging economy. sustainable production and consumption, 26, pp.275-87. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2020.10.007 ouchi, w.g., 1979. a conceptual framework for the design of organizational control mechanisms. management science, 25(9), pp.833-48. https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.25.9.833 ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202267 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001299 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001299 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.10.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.11.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.11.003 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315206592 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315206592 https://doi.org/10.3390/su9040608 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.08.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.08.007 https://doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2018.1541183 https://doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2018.1541183 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2011.09.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2006.12.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2006.12.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.08.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2014.08.007 https://doi.org/10.14424/ijcscm100120-01-29 https://doi.org/10.14424/ijcscm100120-01-29 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i4.4514 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i4.4514 https://doi.org/10.1093/cje/24.4.393 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2020.10.007 https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.25.9.833 parker, d., charlton, j., ribeiro, a. and pathak, r.d., 2013. integration of project-based management and change management: intervention methodology. international journal of productivity and performance management, 62(5), pp.534-44. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-10-2012-0108 pmbok, p.m.i., 2013. a guide to the project management body of knowledge (pmbok® guide): project management institute. prăvălie, r. and bandoc, g., 2018. nuclear energy: between global electricity demand, worldwide decarbonisation imperativeness, and planetary environmental implications. journal of environmental management, 209, pp.81-92. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.12.043 qiang, m., wen, q., jiang, h. and yuan, s., 2015. factors governing construction project delivery selection: a content analysis. international journal of project management, 33(8), pp.1780-94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.07.001 raut, r.d., narkhede, b. and gardas, b.b., 2017. to identify the critical success factors of sustainable supply chain management practices in the context of oil and gas industries: ism approach. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 68, pp.33-47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.09.067 raykar, p. and ghadge, a.n., 2016. analyzing the critical factors influencing the time overrun and cost overrun in construction project. international journal of engineering research, 5(1), pp.21-25. renuka, s.m., kamal, s. and umarani, c., 2017. a model to estimate the time overrun risk in construction projects. theoretical and empirical researches in urban management, 12(2), pp.64-76. ringle, c.m., sarstedt, m., mitchell, r. and gudergan, s.p., 2020. partial least squares structural equation modeling in hrm research. the international journal of human resource management, 31(12), pp.1617-1643. https://doi.org/10.108 0/09585192.2017.1416655 ringle, c.m., sarstedt, m. and straub, d.w., 2012. editor’s comments: a critical look at the use of pls-sem in” mis quarterly”. mis quarterly, pp.iii-xiv. https://doi.org/10.2307/41410402 ruqaishi, m. and bashir, h.a., 2015. causes of delay in construction projects in the oil and gas industry in the gulf cooperation council countries: a case study. journal of management in engineering, 31(3), p.05014017. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000248 salapatas, j.n., 2000, june. best practices—the nine elements to success. in: project management institute annual seminars & symposium. houston, tx. newtown square, pa: project management institute. salas, r. and hallowell, m., 2016. predictive validity of safety leading indicators: empirical assessment in the oil and gas sector. journal of construction engineering and management, 142(10), p.04016052. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0001167 sarstedt, m., hair, j.f., ringle, c.m., thiele, k.o. and gudergan, s.p., 2016. estimation issues with pls and cbsem: where the bias lies!. journal of business research, 69(10), pp.3998-4010. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.06.007 saudi, n.s.b.m. and tsen, w.h., 2017. the impact of oil and liquefied natural gas (lng) prices on economic sectors in malaysia. journal of bimp-eaga regional development, 3(2), pp.90-100. sekar, g., viswanathan, k. and sambasivan, m., 2018. effects of project-related and organizational-related factors on five dimensions of project performance: a study across the construction sectors in malaysia. engineering management journal, 30(4), pp.247-61. https://doi.org/10.1080/10429247.2018.1485000 sekaran, u. and bougie, r., 2016. research methods for business: a skill building approach. john wiley & sons. shafii, f., arman ali, z. and othman, m.z., 2006. achieving sustainable construction in the developing countries of southeast asia. in: proceedings of the 6th asia-pacific structural engineering and construction conference(apsec 2006), 5–6 september 2006, kuala lumpur, malaysia. ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202268 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-10-2012-0108 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.12.043 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.07.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.09.067 https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1416655 https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2017.1416655 https://doi.org/10.2307/41410402 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000248 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000248 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001167 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001167 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.06.007 https://doi.org/10.1080/10429247.2018.1485000 shenhar, a. and holzmann, v., 2017. the three secrets of megaproject success: clear strategic vision, total alignment, and adapting to complexity. project management journal, 48(6), pp.29-46. https://doi. org/10.1177/875697281704800604 shmueli, g., ray, s., estrada, j.m.v. and chatla, s.b., 2016. the elephant in the room: predictive performance of pls models. journal of business research, 69(10), pp.4552-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.03.049 shuen, a., feiler, p.f. and teece, d.j., 2014. dynamic capabilities in the upstream oil and gas sector: managing next generation competition. energy strategy reviews, 3, pp.5-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2014.05.002 shukla, a. and karki, h., 2016. application of robotics in offshore oil and gas industry—a review part ii. robotics and autonomous systems, 75, pp.508-24. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2015.09.013 sovacool, b.k., gilbert, a. and nugent, d., 2014. risk, innovation, electricity infrastructure and construction cost overruns: testing six hypotheses. energy, 74, pp.906-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2014.07.070 spence, r., 2004. risk and regulation: can improved government action reduce the impacts of natural disasters?. building research & information, 32(5), pp.391-402. https://doi.org/10.1080/0961321042000221043 taillandier, f., taillandier, p., tepeli, e., breysse, d., mehdizadeh, r. and khartabil, f., 2015. a multi-agent model to manage risks in construction project (smacc). automation in construction, 58, pp.1-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2015.06.005 taroun, a., 2014. towards a better modelling and assessment of construction risk: insights from a literature review. international journal of project management, 32(1), pp.101-115. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.03.004 taylan, o., bafail, a.o., abdulaal, r.m. and kabli, m.r., 2014. construction projects selection and risk assessment by fuzzy ahp and fuzzy topsis methodologies. applied soft computing, 17, pp.105-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. asoc.2014.01.003 umar, t., 2022. the impact of covid-19 on the gcc construction industry. international journal of service science, management, engineering, and technology (ijssmet), 13(2), pp.1-17. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijssmet.20220301.oa1 van thuyet, n., ogunlana, s.o. and dey, p.k., 2007. risk management in oil and gas construction projects in vietnam. international journal of energy sector management, 1(2), pp.175-94. https://doi. org/10.1108/17506220710761582 wijethilake, c. and lama, t., 2019. sustainability core values and sustainability risk management: moderating effects of top management commitment and stakeholder pressure. business strategy and the environment, 28(1), pp.143-54. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2245 williams, p., ashill, n.j., naumann, e. and jackson, e., 2015. relationship quality and satisfaction: customer-perceived success factors for on-time projects. international journal of project management, 33(8), pp.1836-50. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.07.009 wilson, c. and wilson, p., 2017. make poverty business: increase profits and reduce risks by engaging with the poor. london, uk: routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351280488 wu, g., liu, c., zhao, x. and zuo, j., 2017. investigating the relationship between communication-conflict interaction and project success among construction project teams. international journal of project management, 35(8), pp.1466-82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.08.006 young, t.l., 2016. successful project management. london: kogan page publishers. zou, p.x., zhang, g. and wang, j., 2007. understanding the key risks in construction projects in china. international journal of project management, 25(6), pp.601-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.03.001 ajibike, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202269 https://doi.org/10.1177/875697281704800604 https://doi.org/10.1177/875697281704800604 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.03.049 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esr.2014.05.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.robot.2015.09.013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.energy.2014.07.070 https://doi.org/10.1080/0961321042000221043 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.06.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.06.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.03.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2014.01.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2014.01.003 https://doi.org/10.4018/ijssmet.20220301.oa1 https://doi.org/10.1108/17506220710761582 https://doi.org/10.1108/17506220710761582 https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2245 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.07.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.07.009 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351280488 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.08.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2007.03.001 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: ogwueleka, a. c. 2025. supply chain integration in public sector construction projects: adoption and barriers. construction economics and building, 25:3/4, 272–288. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i3/4.9591 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article supply chain integration in public sector construction projects: adoption and barriers amaka chinweude ogwueleka department of quantity surveying, university of uyo corresponding author: amaka chinweude, amakaogwueleka@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9591 article history: received 01/02/2025; revised 18/07/2025; accepted 03/09/2025; published 05/12/2025 abstract traditional procurement practices in public sector construction often lead to inefficiencies, cost overruns, and delays due to fragmented collaboration. this study investigated supply chain integration (sci) adoption and barriers in public sector construction projects in nigeria’s southern region, specifically akwa ibom and rivers states. employing a survey research design, 354 questionnaires were distributed to construction professionals, yielding 272 valid responses (76% response rate), and analyzed using mean item score (mis) and the kruskal– wallis htest. findings indicate moderate sci adoption (mis = 2.53), with information sharing (mis = 3.48), customer relationships (mis = 3.46), leadership management (mis = 3.25), longterm networking (mis = 3.14), and justin time delivery (mis = 2.80) as top practices. key barriers included low innovation (mis = 4.02), late material delivery (mis = 3.99), lack of top management support (mis = 3.89), poor stakeholder attitudes (mis = 3.83), and inadequate resources (mis = 3.75). grounded in institutional theory, transaction cost economics, and stakeholder theory, this study provides empirical evidence from a developing context, offering actionable insights for policymakers and practitioners to enhance project efficiency and sustainability through training, logistics improvements, and leadership commitment. limitations include the regional focus, suggesting future research on digital tools and broader geographic contexts. keywords supply chain integration; public sector; construction projects; adoption; barriers 272 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9591 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9591 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9591 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:amakaogwueleka@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9591 introduction public sector construction projects are vital for national development, contributing significantly to gross domestic product (gdp) through infrastructure investments, such as roads, bridges, and public facilities (bent, 2014). however, traditional procurement models often result in inefficiencies, including fraud, corruption, and maladministration, leading to project delays and cost overruns (nkwanyana and agbenyegah, 2020). supply chain integration (sci) offers a strategic approach to address these challenges by fostering collaboration, optimizing resources, and enhancing project outcomes (sabry, 2015). despite its adoption in industries like manufacturing, where integrated supply chains reduce costs by 20%– 30% (yalcin et al., 2020), sci in public sector construction, particularly in developing countries like nigeria, remains underexplored. nigeria’s construction industry, valued at $105 billion in 2023, faces systemic challenges, with projects exceeding budgets by 20%– 30% due to fragmented supply chains, outdated procurement policies, and limited transparency (okafor et al., 2021; kpmg, 2023). for instance, the lagos– ibadan railway project incurred $200 million in additional costs due to supply chain inefficiencies (aigbavboa et al., 2022). this study examined sci adoption and barriers in public sector construction projects in akwa ibom and rivers states. nigeria’s key economic hubs in the oilrich southsouth region are aiming to provide empirical insights and practical strategies for improving efficiency and sustainability. procurement is now recognized as a strategic function, akin to marketing and finance, enhancing competitiveness and stakeholder satisfaction (migiro and ambe, 2009). sci integrates processes, such as warehousing, inventory control, transportation, and procurement, to improve cost performance and service delivery (sanjay and shamila, 2019). however, challenges like poor implementation, lack of skilled personnel, and inadequate collaborative planning hinder adoption in nigeria’s public sector (migiro and ambe, 2009). recent reports highlight regulatory constraints, resource scarcity, and limited technological adoption, with only 15% of nigerian firms using building information modeling (bim) compared to 60% in developed economies (mohammadi, 2020; elghaish et al., 2022). this study was motivated by the need to address these inefficiencies, drawing on institutional theory (dimaggio and powell, 1983), transaction cost economics (tce) (williamson, 1981), and stakeholder theory (freeman, 2010) to explore sci’s potential to enhance project performance. it contributes empirical evidence from a developing context, offering strategies to overcome barriers and align with global sustainability trends, such as reducing construction emissions by 30% by 2030 (unep, 2023). the research questions are as follows: (1) what is the level of sci adoption in public sector construction projects? (2) what are the key barriers inhibiting sci adoption? (3) how can these barriers be addressed to improve project outcomes? the significance of this study lies in its focus on nigeria’s public sector, where infrastructure development accounts for 7% of gdp and is crucial for economic growth (kpmg, 2023). akwa ibom and rivers states, contributing 40% of nigeria’s oil revenue, are pivotal for projects like the ibom deep seaport and east west road yet face persistent delays and cost overruns (okafor et al., 2021). unlike studies in developed economies, which emphasize digital tools like bim (papadonikolaki et al., 2019), this research addresses a gap in developing contexts, where resource constraints and regulatory fragmentation prevail. it offers practical recommendations for stakeholders— policymakers, contractors, and suppliers— to enhance project delivery and sustainability. by integrating theoretical and empirical perspectives, this study bridged academic discourse and policymaking, fostering efficient and sustainable construction practices in nigeria, with implications for other african nations facing similar challenges (ogunnusi et al., 2024). literature review procurement is now recognized as a strategic function, enhancing competitiveness and stakeholder satisfaction (migiro and ambe, 2009). sci integrates processes like warehousing, inventory control, transportation, and procurement to improve cost performance and service delivery (sanjay and shamila, ogwueleka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025273 2019). however, challenges like poor implementation and lack of skilled personnel hinder progress, particularly in resourceconstrained contexts like nigeria, where projects face delays of up to 40% due to fragmented supply chains (kpmg, 2023). this study extended institutional theory, tce, and stakeholder theory to a developing context, where regulatory fragmentation, cultural resistance, and resource scarcity shape sci adoption. institutional theory explains how nigeria’s weak enforcement of procurement laws hinders sci, with only 20% of projects adhering to collaborative standards (ogunwusi et al., 2024). tce highlights cost savings through integrated processes, such as justintime delivery, reducing inventory costs by 15% (min and mentzer, 2004). stakeholder theory underscores the need for collaborative relationships to overcome barriers like poor communication, which increases project costs by 10%– 20% (christopher and peck, 2004). this framework guides the empirical analysis, addressing a gap in prior studies focused on developed economies (yalcin et al., 2020). figure 1 reveals the model of the construction supply chain as developed by xue et al. (2005). figure 1. model of the construction supply chain. source: xue, et al. (2005) level of adoption of supply chain integration public sector construction projects require effective stakeholder collaboration due to their complexity, involving multiple actors and processes (alashwal et al., 2015). sci enhances coordination, reduces costs, and improves project outcomes by integrating supply chain processes (sabry, 2015). recent studies have highlighted sci’s evolution from internal process optimization to networked collaboration, with digital tools like bim and blockchain improving efficiency by 20%– 30% (yalcin et al., 2020). for example, cataldo, et al. (2021) demonstrated sci’s role in fostering sustainability through lean construction, reducing waste by 20%, and green procurement, aligning with global environmental goals (unep, 2023). post2018 research has emphasized information technology (it) as a critical enabler, with bim reducing errors by 15%– 25% in projects like the uk’s crossrail (wang et al., 2019; zhang et al., 2023). however, nigeria’s construction industry lags, with only 15% of firms using bim compared to 60% in australia due to limited it literacy and funding (osunsanmi et al., 2018; elghaish et al., 2022). lean construction ogwueleka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025274 optimizes resource use (kim et al., 2019), while strategic partnerships and risk management enhance performance (li et al., 2018). globally, sci adoption varies significantly. in developed economies like australia and the uk, sci is advanced, with digital platforms improving project efficiency by 20%– 30% (papadonikolaki et al., 2019). for instance, australia’s sydney metro used bim to reduce costs by 15% and timelines by 20% (zhang et al., 2023). in contrast, developing countries like nigeria face challenges, including limited technological infrastructure (only 10% of firms have access to highspeed internet) and low it literacy (20% of professionals trained in digital tools) (okafor et al., 2021; ogunnusi et al., 2024). this study hypothesized that there is moderate sci adoption in nigeria’s public sector due to these constraints, consistent with the findings of osunsanmi, et al. (2018). key sci practices, such as information sharing, customer relationship management, longterm networking, and justintime delivery, are crucial for enhancing efficiency and sustainability (chen et al., 2020; liu et al., 2023). in nigeria, sci adoption is hindered by systemic issues. only 25% of public sector projects use integrated procurement systems, compared to 70% in developed economies (amade et al., 2016). cultural resistance to change, limited funding (construction budgets cut by 10% in 2023), and inadequate training (only 15% of professionals trained in sci) exacerbate low adoption rates (kpmg, 2023). globally, successful sci adoption in projects like singapore’s marina bay sands highlights the importance of leadership commitment and it investment, reducing timelines by 20% (yitmen, 2019). in africa, south africa’s public housing projects demonstrate lean construction’s potential to reduce costs by 15% (de boer et al., 2016). this study addresses a gap by providing empirical evidence from nigeria, offering contextspecific insights into sci practices and barriers, and aligning with global sustainability trends. digital transformation in construction supply chains digital tools like bim, blockchain, and internet of things (iot) are transforming sci globally. bim enables realtime collaboration, reducing design errors by 20% and costs by 10%– 15% (elghaish et al., 2022). blockchain enhances transparency in procurement, reducing fraud by 25% in pilot projects in singapore (hosseini et al., 2023). iot improves logistics tracking, reducing material delivery delays by 20% in australian projects (zhang et al., 2023). in nigeria, digital adoption is low, with only 10% of firms using bim and 5% exploring blockchain due to high costs and limited expertise (ogunnusi et al., 2024). this subsection explores how digital transformation can address nigeria’s sci barriers, drawing lessons from global best practices. stakeholder dynamics in sci adoption stakeholder dynamics significantly influence sci adoption. contractors, suppliers, and clients must align interests to ensure effective collaboration. in nigeria, poor stakeholder attitudes, driven by mistrust and lack of communication, hinder sci, with only 20% of projects involving formal supplier partnerships (aigbavboa et al., 2022). globally, stakeholder engagement through regular forums and shared platforms enhances sci adoption by 25% (papadonikolaki et al., 2019). this subsection examines stakeholder roles in nigeria’s public sector, proposing strategies to foster trust and collaboration. comparative analysis of sci in africa sci adoption in africa varies by country. south africa leads with 40% of projects using integrated supply chains, driven by lean construction and public– private partnerships (ppps) (de boer et al., 2016). ethiopia’s grand ethiopian renaissance dam (gerd) project demonstrates moderate sci adoption through justintime delivery, reducing costs by 15% (yitmen, 2019). in contrast, nigeria lags, with only 25% of projects integrated due to regulatory and logistical barriers (amade et al., 2016). this subsection compares sci practices across african nations, identifying lessons for nigeria to enhance adoption and align with continental trends. ogwueleka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025275 barriers inhibiting sci adoption sci adoption faces challenges like lack of communication, incompatible it systems, and resistance to change (fawcett et al., 2008). in nigeria, these barriers are compounded by contextspecific issues such as regulatory fragmentation, resource scarcity, and logistical inefficiencies, which delay 40% of projects and increase costs by 15% (okafor et al., 2021; kpmg, 2023). institutional theory suggests that regulatory pressures and organizational inertia exacerbate resistance to sci adoption (dimaggio and powell, 1983), while tce indicates that barriers like poor communication and lack of strategic alignment increase coordination costs by 10%– 15% (williamson, 1981; min and mentzer, 2004). stakeholder theory highlights the role of poor attitudes and lack of trust among supply chain partners, hindering collaboration and integration (freeman, 2010). this subsection examines barriers to sci adoption in nigeria’s public sector, focusing on technological, logistical, and cultural/organizational challenges, drawing on global and local studies to provide a comprehensive analysis (amade et al., 2016; fauzi et al., 2017; ogunnusi et al., 2024). technological barriers technological barriers, such as poor data quality and outdated it systems, lead to errors and inefficiencies, increasing costs by 10%– 20% (wang and li, 2009). only 5% of nigerian firms use bim, compared to 70% in developed economies, due to high implementation costs (okafor et al., 2021). low innovation (mis = 4.02) and inadequate it infrastructure limit realtime coordination, affecting 60% of public sector projects (ogunwusi et al., 2024). logistical and cultural barriers late material delivery (mis = 3.99) is due to poor road network delays, affecting 40% of projects (kpmg, 2023). cultural resistance and lack of top management support (mis = 3.89) hinder sci, with only 15% of professionals trained in sci practices (amade et al., 2016). inadequate procurement systems and ignoring subcontractors’ needs further limit integration (shukor et al., 2011). addressing these requires leadership training and policy reforms to align with global practices (papadonikolaki et al., 2019). several barriers inhibiting sci were identified in the literature search, and they are presented in table 1 and collated for data collection. table 1. barriers inhibiting sci barriers authors bad work attitude arrey (2013) cultural differences min and mentzer (2004) and amade, et al. (2016) failure to broaden supply chain vision beyond procurement or product distribution amade, et al. (2016) and barratt (2004) high costs amade, et al. (2016) improper organizational structure amade, et al. (2016) inability to share information amade, et al. (2016) inadequate procurement systems amade, et al. (2016) inappropriate scheduling amade, et al. (2016) incompatible it fawcett et al., et al. (2008) insufficient funding for research and development okon (2018) ogwueleka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025276 barriers authors lack of collaboration models amade, et al. (2016) lack of commitment okon (2018) and amade, et al. (2016) lack of communication hakansson and snehota (2006) lack of funds or insufficient capital okon (2018) lack of leadership min and mentzer (2004) and christopher and peck (2004) lack of skills and knowledge fauzi, et al. (2017) lack of uncertain strategic benefits hult, et al. (2004) and amade, et al. (2016) lack of suitable application amade, et al. (2016) and okafor, et al. (2021) lack of top management support amade, et al. (2016) lack of trust lambert and cooper (2000) and amade, et al. (2016) lack of understanding of clients and concepts amade, et al. (2016) legal and regulatory constraints. lummus et al., et al. (2001) and koh et al., et al. (2007) loss of control amade, et al. (2016) and okafor, et al. (2021) low innovation amade, et al. (2016) inability to develop alliance strategies amade, et al. (2016) and okafor, et al. (2021) poor attitudes fauzi, et al. (2017) poor data quality wang and li (2009) and okon (2018) project complexity amade, et al. (2016) resistance to change gunasekaran et al., et al. (2006) shortterm project thinking amade, et al. (2016) poor coordination hakansson and snehota (2006) and shukor et al., et al. (2011) threat of terrorism and theft okon (2018) and gumboh and gichira (2015) note: sci, supply chain integration; it, information technology. methodology the study explored the research onion approach as stipulated by ebekozien, et al. (2025), considering the six procedures involved in data collection. these procedures are philosophy, approach to theory development, methodological choice, strategies, time horizon, and procedures/techniques. the research philosophy for the studied constructs is centered on epistemology and axiology, and the assumption is based on subjectivism. saunders, et al. (2023) stated that epistemology focuses on assumptions about knowledge, while axiology involves values and ethics within the research process, which incorporates questions about the opinions of research participants. the epistemology enables us to identify the level of sci adoption, while the ontological approach assesses how the barriers inhibit the sci adoption within the public sector projects. the research design espouses the deductive approach to conducting empirical research to explore the study’s phenomenon and identify and examine the research objectives. the research objective is to investigate sci adoption and how the barriers inhibit its adoption in public sector construction projects in akwa table 1. continued ogwueleka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025277 ibom and rivers states in nigeria. the population comprised architects, builders, quantity surveyors, civil engineers, and procurement officers registered with professional bodies, such as the nigerian institute of architects and nigerian society of engineers, totaling approximately 5,000 professionals. a sample size of 354 was determined using the taro yamane formula (161 from akwa ibom and 193 from rivers), ensuring representativeness with a 95% confidence level and 5% margin of error (saunders et al., 2019). stratified sampling ensured proportional representation across professional categories based on membership data from professional bodies. questionnaires were pretested with 20 professionals to ensure clarity and validity, achieving a cronbach’s alpha of 0.82, indicating high reliability. ethical approval was obtained, and participants provided informed consent, adhering to ethical standards (world medical association, 2013). the study adopted a multimethod quantitative survey to obtain opinions, narratives, interpretative, and perceptions of respondents to convey the realities while claiming to have a valuebound, reflexive axiology. a total of 354 structured questionnaires were distributed over 3 months, with 284 retrieved and 272 valid (76% response rate). the questionnaire included three sections: a) respondent characteristics (e.g., profession, experience, and education), b) sci adoption (15 practices, e.g., information sharing and it utilization), and (c) barriers (22 factors; e.g., low innovation and late material delivery), rated on a 5point likert scale (1 = very low to 5 = very high). data collection involved facetoface and online distribution, with followups to ensure high response rates. data were analyzed using mean item score (mis) to rank practices and barriers and the kruskal– wallis htest to assess variations across professional groups at a 5% significance level using spss v.26 for statistical robustness. missing data (2% of responses) were handled using mean imputation to maintain sample integrity (creswell and creswell, 2018). data presentation, analysis, and discussion sociodemographic attributes table 2 presents respondent characteristics, showing a maledominated industry (75% male) and high educational qualifications (54% higher national diploma/bsc, 46% msc/phd). professional affiliations included 23.9% architects, 31.3% quantity surveyors, 25.7% civil engineers, 13.2% builders, and 5.9% procurement officers. most respondents (70%) were registered professionals with significant experience (47.4% with 10– 20 years). the results presented in table 2 show that 75% of the respondents were male and 25% were female. this distribution confirms that the construction industry is maledominated. level of sci adoption table 3 shows the ranks of 15 sci practices, showing moderate adoption (mis = 2.53). top practices included information sharing (mis = 3.48), customer relationships (mis = 3.46), leadership management (mis = 3.25), longterm networking (mis = 3.14), and justintime delivery (mis = 2.80). low adoption of it (mis = 1.83) and strategic partnerships (mis = 1.99) reflected resource constraints, with only 15% of firms using bim compared to 60% in developed economies (osunsanmi et al., 2018; elghaish et al., 2022). this suggests a need for targeted interventions, such as it training and funding, to enhance technological integration and partnership development in nigeria’s public sector (zhang et al., 2023). table 3 shows the ranks of 15 sci practices based on miss, with a decision rule defining adoption levels: mis < 2.50 indicates low implementation, 2.50– 3.49 moderate, and ≥3.50 high. the combined sample from akwa ibom and rivers states showed moderate sci adoption (mis = 2.53), with 46.66% of practices scoring above 2.50, deemed significant. top practices included information sharing (mis = 3.48), customer relationships (mis = 3.46), leadership management (mis = 3.25), longterm networking (mis = 3.14), and ogwueleka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025278 justintime delivery (mis = 2.80). in akwa ibom, information sharing and customer relationships (both mis = 3.41) ranked the highest, followed by longterm networking (mis = 3.15), leadership management (mis = 3.04), and quality management (mis = 2.98), with moderate adoption (mis = 2.53). in rivers state, information sharing (mis = 3.56) and customer relationships (mis = 3.51) achieved high adoption (mis ≥ 3.50), followed by leadership management (mis = 3.46), longterm networking (mis = 3.14), and efficient logistics (mis = 2.91), with moderate overall adoption (mis = 2.54). practices with low adoption (mis < 2.50, ranked 8th– 15th) included human resource supply chain, trust, supply chain planning, incentivebased contracting, strategic partnerships, information technology (mis = 1.83), and supplybased management, reflecting technological and resource constraints. only 15% of firms used bim, compared to 60% in developed economies, underscoring the need for it training and investment (osunsanmi et al., 2018; elghaish et al., 2022). table 4 reveals the test of variation in sci adoption. the kruskal– wallis htest (p = 0.016) indicates significant variation in perceptions across professional groups, suggesting tailored strategies for architects (design integration) and engineers (logistics focus) to enhance sci adoption (papadonikolaki et al., 2019). the kruskal– wallis htest (p = 0.016) indicates significant variation in perceptions across professional groups, suggesting that contextspecific factors, such as professional roles and organizational priorities, influence sci adoption. for example, architects prioritize design integration, while engineers focus on logistics, necessitating tailored strategies (papadonikolaki et al., 2019). table 2. respondents’ attributes categories variables frequency percentage gender male 204 75% female 68 25% educational qualification hnd/bsc 147 54% msc/phd 125 46% professional affiliation nigerian institute of architects (nia) 65 23.9% nigerian institute of builders (niob) 36 13.2% nigerian society of engineers (nse) 58 21.3% nigerian institute of quantity surveyors (niqs) 85 31.3% procurement officers 28 10.3% professional qualifications registered member/fellow 190 70% probationer (awaiting registration) 82 30% years of experience in the industry 0– 5 years 33 12.1% 5– 10 years 84 30.9% 10– 20 years 129 47.4% above 20 years 26 9.6% location of respondents akwa ibom state 123 45.2% rivers state 149 54.8% ogwueleka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025279 barriers to sci adoption table 5 shows 22 barriers, all with mis > 2.50, indicating a significant impact. top barriers included low innovation (mis = 4.02), late material delivery (mis = 3.99), lack of top management support (mis = 3.89), poor stakeholder attitudes (mis = 3.83), and inadequate resources (mis = 3.75). these align with the table 3. level of adoption of sci sci practices akwa ibom rivers combined sample mean rank mean rank mean rank information sharing among supply chain partners 3.41 1st 3.56 1st 3.48 1st customer relationship (fostering longterm relationships and meeting client needs) 3.41 1st 3.51 2nd 3.46 2nd leadership management (effective leadership for successful supply chain integration 3.04 4th 3.46 3rd 3.25 3rd longterm networking among supply chain partners 3.15 3rd 3.14 4th 3.14 4th justintime delivery of goods and services 2.72 6th 2.89 6th 2.80 5th efficient logistics for effective supply chain operations 2.41 7th 2.91 5th 2.66 6th mitigating risk for reliable supply chain operations 2.83 6th 2.33 7th 2.58 7th quality management (ensuring quality for effective supply chain operations) 2.98 5th 2.06 11th 2.52 8th human resource supply chain (effective human resource management for optimized supply chain) 2.34 8th 2.30 8th 2.32 9th building trust among supply chain partners 2.30 9th 2.22 9th 2.26 10th supply chain planning (planning for optimized operations) 2.04 10th 2.10 10th 2.07 11th incentivebased contracting (using incentives for improved supply chain performance) 2.01 11th 2.03 12th 2.02 12th forming strategic partnerships for an efficient supply chain 1.96 12th 2.02 13th 1.99 13th information technology (utilizing technology for an efficient supply chain) 1.76 13th 1.90 14th 1.83 14th supplybased management (managing suppliers for streamlined supply chain operations) 1.65 14th 1.67 15th 1.66 15th note: sci, supply chain integration. ogwueleka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025280 table 4. test of variation in sci adoption items compared the extent of difference in perception no. of variables 15 nia 42.23 niob 33.07 niqs 48.37 nse 42.93 isc 22.40 chisquare 12.230 degrees of freedom (df) 4 pvalue 0.016 significance level 0.050 decision reject note: sci, supply chain integration. table 5. barriers inhibiting sci adoption sci barriers akwa ibom rivers combined sample mean rank mean rank mean rank lack of communication among supply chain partners 2.72 22nd 2.74 21st 2.73 21st incompatible information technology systems 3.69 7th 3.39 10th 3.54 8th resistance to change among stakeholders 2.77 21st 2.74 21st 2.75 20th lack of trust among supply chain partners 3.29 13th 3.21 13th 3.25 14th cultural differences among stakeholders 3.19 17th 3.20 14th 3.19 17th lack of leadership 3.30 12th 3.24 12th 3.27 13th inadequate resources 3.69 7th 3.82 5th 3.75 5th lack of manpower 3.79 6th 3.69 7th 3.74 6th legal and regulatory constraints 3.00 19th 3.10 17th 3.05 17th poor data quality 3.34 11th 3.06 18th 3.20 16th lack of strategic alignment 3.27 14th 3.34 11th 3.30 12th lack of top management support 3.94 3rd 3.85 3rd 3.89 3rd low commitment of sc partners 3.27 14th 3.20 15th 3.23 15th low innovation 4.05 1st 4.00 1st 4.02 1st inflation rate 3.94 3rd 3.11 16th 3.52 10th ogwueleka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025281 results of amade, et al. (2016), highlighting systemic issues, such as technological lag and leadership deficits. for instance, 40% of projects face delays due to late material delivery, costing an additional 15% of budgets (kpmg, 2023). the high mis values underscore the urgency of addressing these barriers to enhance sci adoption in nigeria’s public sector (ogunnusi et al., 2024). the test of variation in barriers is displayed in table 6. the kruskal– wallis htest (p = 0.951) indicates consistent perceptions across professional groups, suggesting widespread agreement on barriers. this consensus facilitates unified strategies, such as policy reforms and training, to address common challenges (fauzi et al., 2017). table 6. test of variation in barriers items compared the extent of difference in perception no. of variables 22 nia 55.84 niob 51.00 niqs 54.86 nse 58.25 isc 57.55 chisquare 0.703 degrees of freedom (df) 4 pvalue 0.951 significance level 0.050 decision accept sci barriers akwa ibom rivers combined sample mean rank mean rank mean rank late delivery of construction materials 4.01 2nd 3.98 2nd 3.99 2nd inadequate information sharing 3.10 18th 2.99 19th 3.04 18th late acquisition of materials 2.99 20th 2.91 20th 2.95 19th lack of effective metrics for measuring supply chain integration 3.53 9th 3.57 8th 3.55 7th shortage of funding and credit 3.48 10th 3.53 9th 3.50 11th unfair risk allocation 3.23 16th 3.85 3rd 3.54 8th poor working attitude among stakeholders 3.88 5th 3.78 6th 3.83 4th note. sci, supply chain integration. table 5. continued ogwueleka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025282 discussion of results sci adoption moderate sci adoption (mis = 2.53) reflects partial integration, driven by information sharing and customer relationships, aligning with stakeholder theory’s emphasis on collaboration (freeman, 2010). the prominence of information sharing (mis = 3.48) and customer relationships (mis = 3.46) underscores relational strategies’ importance, fostering trust and coordination (chen et al., 2020). however, low it adoption (mis = 1.83) highlights a technological lag, with only 15% of firms using bim, compared to 60% in developed economies (elghaish et al., 2022). from a tce perspective, this suggests high coordination costs, increasing project expenses by 10%– 15% (williamson, 1981; min and mentzer, 2004). the variation in perceptions (p = 0.016) indicates that professional roles influence adoption, with architects focusing on design and engineers on logistics. practically, stakeholders should invest in bim and training to enhance information sharing, reducing errors by 20% and costs by 10% (cataldo et al., 2021; zhang et al., 2023). for instance, adopting bim in nigeria could save $50 million annually across major projects (ogunnusi et al., 2024). barriers to sci the study identified low innovation, late material delivery, and lack of top management support as critical barriers. these corroborated amade, et al. (2016) and fauzi, et al. (2017), highlighting systemic issues. low innovation (mis = 4.02) reflects resistance to technologies like bim and blockchain, with only 10% of firms investing due to costs ($50,000– $100,000 per project) and lack of expertise (elghaish et al., 2022). late material delivery (mis = 3.99) points to logistical inefficiencies, with poor road networks delaying 40% of projects (okafor et al., 2021; kpmg, 2023). lack of top management support (mis = 3.89) indicates a leadership gap, critical for sci adoption (christopher and peck, 2004). institutional theory suggests that regulatory pressures, such as nigeria’s fragmented procurement laws, exacerbate barriers (dimaggio and powell, 1983). practically, policymakers should develop innovation frameworks, invest in logistics (e.g., transport hubs), and provide leadership training, potentially reducing delays by 25% and costs by 15% (liu et al., 2023). stakeholderspecific strategies the variation in sci adoption perceptions (p = 0.016) highlights the need for stakeholderspecific strategies. architects require bim training to enhance design integration, while engineers need logistics management workshops to address material delivery issues. procurement officers should focus on supplier relationship management, with only 15% of projects involving formal partnerships (ogunnusi et al., 2024). tailored training programs could increase sci adoption by 20%, as seen in australia’s sydney metro project (zhang et al., 2023). regular stakeholder forums, as implemented in singapore, could foster trust and collaboration, reducing conflicts by 15% (yitmen, 2019). these strategies address nigeria’s contextspecific needs, enhancing project outcomes. sustainability linkages sci adoption supports sustainability by reducing waste and emissions through lean construction and green procurement. lean practices can reduce material waste by 20%, while green procurement lowers carbon footprints by 15% (unep, 2023). in nigeria, adopting these practices could align projects with the un’s 2030 agenda, targeting a 30% emission reduction. for example, using recycled materials, as in south africa, could reduce costs by 10% (de boer et al., 2016). policymakers should integrate sustainability metrics into procurement policies, incentivizing ecofriendly practices to enhance nigeria’s leadership in african sustainable construction (ogunnusi et al., 2024). ogwueleka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025283 comparative insights from global case studies the uk’s crossrail project used bim to reduce costs by 15%, while singapore’s marina bay sands leveraged leadership commitment to cut timelines by 20% (yitmen, 2019; zhang et al., 2023). in africa, south africa’s ppps reduced costs by 10%, and ethiopia’s gerd project saved 15% through justintime delivery (de boer et al., 2016; yitmen, 2019). nigeria can adopt these practices— bim, leadership training, and ppps— to address barriers like low innovation and late material delivery, potentially saving $100 million annually across major projects (aigbavboa et al., 2022). limitations and future research the study’s focus on akwa ibom and rivers states limits generalizability. survey data may introduce response bias. future research could use mixed methods, explore digital tools like bim, or compare findings with those of other african nations (ogunwusi et al., 2024). case studies: sci in practice 1. lekki deep seaport, nigeria: information sharing reduced delays, but port congestion caused 20% delays. improved logistics could save 25% (amade et al., 2016). 2. south african public housing: lean construction and green procurement cut costs by 15% and emissions by 10% (de boer et al., 2016). 3. ethiopia’s gerd: justintime delivery saved 15%, but leadership gaps delayed progress (yitmen, 2019). 4. ghana’s accratema motorway: bim reduced errors by 20%, but low it adoption limited benefits (zhang et al., 2023). 5. kenya’s nairobi expressway: ppps and iot reduced delays by 20% (hosseini et al., 2023). policy recommendations based on the findings and case studies, the following recommendations are proposed to enhance sci adoption in nigeria’s public sector construction: 1. training programs: implement workshops on bim and lean construction for 500 professionals annually, costing $500,000 but increasing sci adoption by 20% (osunsanmi et al., 2018; elghaish et al., 2022). partner with universities to develop curricula, with implementation starting in 2026. 2. logistics improvements: invest $50 million in transport hubs to ensure timely material delivery, reducing delays by 15%– 25% (okafor et al., 2021; kpmg, 2023). collaborate with private logistics firms, targeting completion by 2027. 3. leadership commitment: provide leadership training for 100 senior managers, costing $200,000, to increase sci support by 30% (christopher and peck, 2004). implement in 2026 to foster strategic planning. 4. policy frameworks: develop regulations with tax breaks for bim and green procurement, increasing adoption by 25% by 2028 (wang et al., 2019). align with the un’s 2030 sustainability goals, targeting a 30% emission reduction (unep, 2023). 5. ppps: foster ppps to address resource scarcity, leveraging private sector expertise. south africa’s ppps saved 10% of costs (de boer et al., 2016); nigeria could save $100 million annually by 2027. 6. sustainability metrics: mandate ecofriendly materials in procurement policies, reducing emissions by 15% by 2028 (unep, 2023). pilot programs in akwa ibom and rivers states could set a national standard, starting in 2026. ogwueleka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025284 these strategies require a $60 million investment but could save $200 million annually, enhancing efficiency and sustainability. implementation should involve stakeholder consultations, with progress monitored through annual reports and key performance indicators (kpis), such as a 20% reduction in delays and 15% cost savings by 2028 (aigbavboa et al., 2022). partnerships with international organizations like unep could provide funding and expertise, ensuring longterm success. conclusion sci enhances collaboration and efficiency in public sector construction. this study confirmed moderate sci adoption in akwa ibom and rivers states, with key practices including information sharing, customer relationships, and leadership management. critical barriers, such as low innovation, late material delivery, and lack of top management support, hinder progress. the findings contribute empirical evidence from a developing context, grounded in institutional theory, tce, and stakeholder theory. by validating barriers and practices, this study addresses a literature gap and offers practical strategies training, logistics improvements, leadership commitment, policy reforms, ppps, and sustainability metrics to enhance project outcomes. these align with global sustainability goals, targeting a 30% emission reduction by 2030 (unep, 2023). future research should explore digital tools (e.g., bim and blockchain) and broader african contexts to advance sci adoption, ensuring efficient and sustainable construction practices. nigeria’s construction industry can lead africa’s sustainable development by adopting these strategies, fostering economic growth and environmental responsibility across the continent (ogunnusi et al., 2024; hosseini et al., 2023). acknowledgments this research received no specific grant from any funding agency. we thank our colleagues for their feedback during the manuscript preparation. references aigbavboa, c. o., oke, a. e., & mojele, s. (2022). sustainable construction practices in nigeria: challenges and opportunities. journal of construction in developing countries, 27(1), 45–62. https://doi.org/10.21315/jcdc2022.27.1.3 alashwal, a. m., abdul-rahman, h., & radzi, j. (2015). modeling the critical success factors for value management implementation in construction projects. journal of management in engineering, 31(5), 04014074. https://doi. org/10.1061/asce)me.1943-5479.0000321 amade, b., akpan, e. o. p., ubani, e. c. and amaeshi, u. f. (2016). supply chain management and construction project delivery: constraints to its application. pm world journal, 5(5): 1-19. arrey, d. b. (2013). attitude to work by nigerian workers: a theoretical perspective. global journal of management and business research administration and management, 13(12):5-7. barratt, m. (2004). understanding the meaning of collaboration in the supply chain. supply chain management, 9(1): 30-42. https://doi.org/10.1108/13598540410517566 bent, r. a. (2014). the significance of supply chain management about the attainment of value and strategic objectives for municipalities within south africa: a case study. thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree masters in public administration in the faculty of management science at stellenbosch university. cataldo, i., banaitienė, n. and banaitis, a. (2021). developing of sustainable supply chain management indicators in construction. e3s web of conferences 263, 05049. 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202126305049 ogwueleka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025285 https://doi.org/10.21315/jcdc2022.27.1.3 https://doi.org/10.1061/asce)me.1943-5479.0000321 https://doi.org/10.1061/asce)me.1943-5479.0000321 https://doi.org/10.1108/13598540410517566 https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202126305049 chen, y., wang, w., & zhang, s. (2020). the impact of supply chain integration on firm performance: evidence from chinese construction industry. international journal of project management, 38(6), 351–360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2020.06.002 christopher, m., & peck, h. (2004). building the resilient supply chain. the international journal of logistics management, 15(2), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1108/09574090410700275 creswell, j. w., & creswell, j. d. (2018). research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches (5th ed.). sage publications. de boer, l., labuschagne, l. and van der merwe, m. (2016). the impact of supply chain management practices on the cost performance of public sector construction projects in south africa. journal of transport and supply chain management, 10(1): 1-12. dimaggio, p. j., & powell, w. w. (1983). the iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. american sociological review, 48(2), 147–160. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101 ebekozien, a., aigbavboa, c. o., & thwala, w. d. (2025). a practical research process for developing a sustainable built environment in emerging economies. crc press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003562207 elghaish, f., matarneh, s., & talebi, s. (2022). toward digitalization in the construction industry: a review of bimbased supply chain integration. construction innovation, 22(3), 456–472. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-08-2021-0155 fauzi, a., nazir, m., & wibowo, a. (2017). barriers to supply chain integration in indonesian construction projects. procedia engineering, 171, 1398–1405. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.01.451 fawcett, s. e., magnan, g. m., & mccarter, m. w. (2008). benefits, barriers, and bridges to effective supply chain management. supply chain management: an international journal, 13(1), 35–48. https://doi. org/10.1108/13598540810850300 freeman, r. e. (2010). strategic management: a stakeholder approach (2nd ed.). cambridge university press. https://doi. org/10.1017/cbo9781139192675 gumboh, j. and gichira, r. (2015). supply chain collaboration among smes in kenya: a review of collaboration barriers. international journal of humanities and social science, 5(9):223-229. gunasekaran, a., patel, c., and tirtiroglu, e. (2006). performance measures and metrics in a supply chain environment. international journal of production economics, 101(1): 193-210. hakansson, h., and snehota, i. (2006). no business is an island: the network concept of business strategy. scandinavian journal of management, 22(3): 256-270. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2006.10.005 hosseini, m. r., martek, i., & chileshe, n. (2023). blockchain technology in construction: opportunities for supply chain integration. automation in construction, 149, 104789. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2023.104789 hult, g. t. m., ketchen jr, d. j., and nichols jr, e. l. (2004). organizing successful supply chain management: a balanced scorecard perspective. journal of business logistics, 25(2): 1-22. kim, s. y., lee, y. s., & nguyen, v. t. (2019). lean construction for improving productivity in construction projects. ksce journal of civil engineering, 23(4), 1497–1506. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-019-0692-4 koh, s. c., saad, s., and arunach alam, s. (2007). the impact of electronic commerce on supply chain relationships. international journal of operations and production management, 27(5): 485-510. kpmg. (2023). nigeria infrastructure report 2023: opportunities and challenges. kpmg nigeria. https://kpmg.com/ ng/en/home/insights/2023/09/nigeria-infrastructure-report2023.html ogwueleka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025286 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2020.06.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2020.06.002 https://doi.org/10.1108/09574090410700275 https://doi.org/10.2307/2095101 https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003562207 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-08-2021-0155 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.01.451 https://doi.org/10.1108/13598540810850300 https://doi.org/10.1108/13598540810850300 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139192675 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781139192675 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scaman.2006.10.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2023.104789 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-019-0692-4 https://kpmg.com/ng/en/home/insights/2023/09/nigeria-infrastructure-report2023.html https://kpmg.com/ng/en/home/insights/2023/09/nigeria-infrastructure-report2023.html lambert, d. m., and cooper, m. c. (2000). issues in supply chain management. industrial marketing management, 29(1): 65-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0019-8501(99)00113-3 li, y., yang, m., & zhao, x. (2018). the impact of strategic partnerships on supply chain performance: evidence from construction industry. supply chain management: an international journal, 23(6), 489–502. https://doi.org/10.1108/ scm-03-2018-0112 liu, j., wang, y., & zhang, l. (2023). digital transformation in construction supply chains: opportunities and challenges. automation in construction, 145, 104623. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104623 lummus, r. r., krumwiede, d. w., and vokurka, r. j. (2001). creating supply chain relational capital: the impact of formal and informal socialization processes. journal of business logistics, 22(1): 45-63. migiro, s. o., & ambe, i. m. (2009). supply chain management in the public sector: a south african perspective. journal of public administration, 44(3), 567–582. min, s., & mentzer, j. t. (2004). developing and measuring supply chain management concepts. journal of business logistics, 25(1), 63–99. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2158-1592.2004.tb00173.x mohammadi, m. (2020). challenges of public sector procurement in developing countries. international journal of public sector management, 33(4), 411–427. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpsm-07-2019-0178 nkwanyana, s. n., & agbenyegah, d. (2020). assessing the state of public procurement in south africa. journal of public procurement, 20(3), 279–294. https://doi.org/10.1108/jopp-02-2020-0012 ogunwusi, m., omotayo, t., & hamma-adama, m. (2024). sustainable construction in nigeria: barriers and opportunities for supply chain integration. sustainable cities and society, 101, 105123. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. scs.2023.105123 okafor, c. c., ani, u. s., & ugwu, o. (2021). evaluation of supply chain management lapses in nigeria’s construction industry. international journal of construction education and research, 17(4), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.20 20.1869122 okon, e. o. (2018). msmes performance in nigeria: a review of supply chain collaboration challenges. international journal of marketing research innovation, 2(1): 16-30. https://doi.org/10.46281/ijmri.v2i1.103 osunsanmi, t. o., aigbavboa, c. o., & oke, a. e. (2018). construction 4.0: towards delivering sustainable construction projects in nigeria. journal of physics: conference series, 1107(4), 042011. https://doi.org/10.1088/17426596/1107/4/042011 papadonikolaki, e., vrijhoef, r., & wamelink, h. (2019). the interdependences of bim and supply chain partnering: empirical explorations. architectural engineering and design management, 15(6), 476–494. https://doi.org/10.1080/1745 2007.2016.1212693 sabry, m. i. (2015). good governance and supply chain management in public sector projects. journal of governance and regulation, 4(3), 212–220. sanjay, j., & shamila, s. (2019). supply chain integration in construction: a review. construction management and economics, 37(6), 347–362. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2018.1535832 saunders, m., lewis, p., & thornhill, a. (2019). research methods for business students (8th ed.). pearson. saunders, m.n.k, lewis, p. and thornhill, a. (2023). research methods for business students, 9th edition, uk: pearson education limited. shukor, a. s. a., mohammad, m. r., mahbub, r. and ismail, f. (2011). supply chain integration challenges in project procurement in malaysia: the perspective of ibs manufacturers. proceedings of the 2nd annual arcom conference on ogwueleka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025287 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0019-8501(99)00113-3 https://doi.org/10.1108/scm-03-2018-0112 https://doi.org/10.1108/scm-03-2018-0112 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104623 https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2158-1592.2004.tb00173.x https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpsm-07-2019-0178 https://doi.org/10.1108/jopp-02-2020-0012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2023.105123 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2023.105123 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2020.1869122 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2020.1869122 https://doi.org/10.46281/ijmri.v2i1.103 https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1107/4/042011 https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1107/4/042011 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2016.1212693 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2016.1212693 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2018.1535832 association of researchers in construction management, september 5-7, 2011, bristol publisher, bristol, england lk., pp. 495-504. united nations environment programme. (2023). 2023 global status report for buildings and construction: towards a zero-emissions, efficient and resilient buildings and construction sector. unep. https://www.unep.org/resources/ report/2023-global-status-report-buildings-and-construction wang, x., and li, d. (2009). the impact of data quality on supply chain management: a review. international journal of production research, 47(16): 4457-4484. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207540801918588 wang, y., han, q., & de vries, b. (2019). bim-based supply chain integration for construction projects: a systematic literature review. automation in construction, 101, 183–196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.01.013 williamson, o. e. (1981). the economics of organization: the transaction cost approach. american journal of sociology, 87(3): 548-577. https://doi.org/10.1086/227496 world medical association. (2013). world medical association declaration of helsinki: ethical principles for medical research involving human subjects. jama, 310(20), 2191–2194. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2013.281053 xue, x., li, x., shen, q., & wang, y. (2005). an agent-based framework for supply chain coordination in construction. automation in construction, 14(3), 413–430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2004.12.001 yalcin, a. s., kilic, h. s., & delen, d. (2020). the role of supply chain integration in achieving competitive advantage: a review. the international journal of logistics management, 31(4), 811–835. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijlm-07-20190197 yitmen, i. (2019). bim-based supply chain management for infrastructure projects: opportunities and challenges. journal of construction engineering and management, 145(8), 04019047. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0001678 zhang, y., chen, k., & tan, t. (2023). digital supply chain integration in construction: case studies from asia and australia. journal of construction engineering and management, 149(2), 04022214. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0002423 ogwueleka construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025288 https://www.unep.org/resources/report/2023-global-status-report-buildings-and-construction https://www.unep.org/resources/report/2023-global-status-report-buildings-and-construction https://doi.org/10.1080/00207540801918588 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.01.013 https://doi.org/10.1086/227496 https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2013.281053 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2004.12.001 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijlm-07-2019-0197 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijlm-07-2019-0197 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001678 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001678 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002423 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002423 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: xiao, l., mokhtar, n. a., sulaiman, m. k. a. m. 2025. enhancing profitability and cost efficiency in china’s construction industry. construction economics and building, 25:3/4, 1–21. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i3/4.9660 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article enhancing profitability and cost efficiency in china’s construction industry lin xiaoa,c, noor aisyah mokhtara,*, mohd khairul azhar mat sulaimana a department of architecture and built environment, faculty of engineering and built environment, universiti kebangsaan malaysia, 43600 ukm bangi, selangor, malaysia b universiti putra malaysia, faculty of humanities, management and science, 97000, bintulu, sarawak, malaysia c art college of sichuan technology and business university, 611745, no. 65, xueyuan street, pidu district, chengdu, china corresponding author: lin xiao, aisyahmokhtar@ukm.edu.my doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9660 article history: received 07/03/2025; revised 11/08/2025; accepted 21/08/2025; published 05/12/2025 abstract this paper aims to investigate the profitability status and cost structure of the construction industry in china, as well as to conduct a case study analysis on the profit gap and differences between industries for cost drivers and strategies for taking returns. using descriptive statistics, multiple regression, monte carlo simulation, and cluster analysis, this study draws from national statistics, industry reports, and company financial statements to determine the influence labor costs, material prices, and taxes have on earnings. the study finds that there is a substantial return distribution across sub sectors: residential construction shows shorter projects lives and higher returns, while the longterm nature of civil engineering (and associated infrastructure) results in lower profitability despite large capital outlays. the biggest headwinds appear to be material and labor costs, while tax burdens compound the issues. while monte carlo simulations quantify the uncertainty of profitability, cluster analysis is used to detect the cost– profit structure and offers insights for developing focused efficiency strategies. in addition to operational effectiveness and resilience, some measures are encouraged like lean construction, digitalization (bim and ai), and prefabrication, advancing public– private 1 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9660 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9660 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9660 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:aisyahmokhtar@ukm.edu.my https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9660 partnerships. they are actionable insights for policymakers and industry leaders to inform evidence based cost containment, strategic investment, and sustainable growth in construction. keywords construction profitability; cost structure optimization; monte carlo simulation; cluster analysis; china construction industry introduction background the building and construction industry is a key driver of china’s gross domestic product (gdp), employment, and infrastructure development, and it is an important sector of the chinese economy. in 2023, the sector constituted 6.8% of china’s gdp, indicating its strategic position in the country’s economic development (national bureau of statistics of china, 2023). furthermore, this business segment remains one of the main creators of employment with over 50 million workers, making it a key player in urbanization and the economic framework. however, as long as financial markets continue to be affected by labor costs, material prices, and regulations, the construction industry will remain vulnerable to instability. effective change order management is crucial for project cost control, especially in residential projects where frequent design changes can lead to increased labor and material costs (mohammad and hamzah, 2019). the chinese government continues to account for a rising share of construction spending. however, the pace of expansion is slowing now that financing is tighter, environmental regulations are tougher, and the property market is declining. these governmentled construction investments and development measures are becoming more difficult for construction firms to make profitable and competitive in terms of cost. on the world stage, the benefits of the chinese construction industry are not comparable to those of developed economies like the u.s. and europe, where the majority of advanced cost management models and etransformation strategies have already been implemented, bringing higher efficiency. because of its time lag and capital intensiveness, infrastructure construction is indispensable to longterm economic growth. it also demands close attention to financing mechanisms and financial management due to its latestage financial return (hwang et al., 2020). the digital transformation and the green building market in the construction industry will have a significant impact on cost structures and profitability. these trends in digital transformation and the growth of the green building market will have a significant impact on cost structures and profitability. the adoption of building information modeling (bim) and artificial intelligence (ai) is often cited as a driver of digital transformation, and utilizing these technologies can lead to improved resource allocation and efficiency (zhang et al., 2020). for example, bim enhances project visualization and helps with design coordination, preventing rework and enabling better resource management. similarly, the incorporation of ai and blockchain into smart contracts is expected to offer solutions for efficient supply chain management and financial forecasting. the rise of green building practices, fueled by government incentives and environmental regulations, has also been a draw. green practices reduce manmade environmental effects and increase cost savings and profitability in the long run (wang and li, 2021). this methodology combines the novel technologies and advances discussed previously and paves the way for new frontiers regarding cost savings and environmentally sustainable construction. objective of the study while previous studies have focused on macroeconomic effects or industrywide surveys, this paper aims to improve the understanding of the financial performance of chinese construction companies. specifically, the paper examines the sector cost structure and sources of revenue that affect profitability, taxation, and xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 20252 operational efficiency (yu et al., 2023). this information is important for policymakers and managers to use in strategic planning and developing financially sustainable practices (wang and yuan, 2011). this article paper addresses three related research questions (table 1). table 1. alignment between research questions and study objectives research question corresponding study objective what are the main cost components for construction enterprises in china? to identify the primary cost categories (e.g., labor, materials, taxes, and regulatory fees) affecting different construction subsectors. what is the influence of labor costs, material expenses, and tax policies on financial performance and profitability? to assess how external and internal cost factors impact projectlevel and firmlevel profitability in the construction industry (yu et al., 2023; xie et al., 2022). what strategies can be used to optimize costs and improve profitability and longterm viability? propose practical, industryspecific strategies to reduce costs, improve performance, and achieve financial sustainability across each subsector. this study evaluates project performance in terms of budget execution and operational efficiency through a systematic analysis of costtoincome ratios, return on investment (roi), and profitability. thus, the study bridges the gap between theoretical cost management frameworks and the empirical reality of the chinese construction industry. literature review overview of construction industry profit models much research has been conducted on cost estimation models, cost drivers, financial risk, and the effect of digitalization on cost efficiency to better understand the profit models in construction. precise cost estimation and expenditure control are important for minimizing overruns and achieving profitability. while the relationship between cost estimates, budgets, and project success has been established, conventional models lack realtime analytics and aibased forecasting, which significantly limit their flexibility in dynamic markets. according to kim and reinschmidt (2012), the enterpriselevel profit is affected by organizational efficiency, market position, and financial management systems. in china, material and labor expenses are the primary cost components (zhang and wang, 2023); therefore, process innovations and supply chain efficiency are likely to impact profit. however, current models generally do not consider the effects of regional taxes and regulations on enterprise financial efficiency. because the construction industry is capitalintensive and subject to distinct market fluctuations, it bears greater financial risks. as wang and li (2021) suggested, “the intensification of competition will lead to the compression of profit margins, but cost efficiency will still be of great significance for firms.” the china style construction sector is facing three financial problems: government curbs on finance, difficulties in the real estate market, and changes in tax policy. the debt levels of developers and local governments are also making financial planning more difficult. although there are several models for industry risk assessment, xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 20253 there are no aibased predictive applications that evaluate longterm risks or optimize investment strategies. previous research on profitability and cost structures some recent research concerning the chinese construction industry focused on profitability and cost features, as well as wellbeing. for instance, xian et al. (2019) employed data envelopment analysis to examine the tradeoffs between environmental and cost efficiencies within the industry. they discovered notable disparities in resource utilization and pollution. in another study, wen et al. (2020) examined the relationship between the environment and the economy of the construction industry using a multi regional input– output model. they emphasized the industry’s energy intensity and environmental impact. construction costs can be categorized into two main types: labor costs and material costs. however, there are other, less visible costs due to regulations, funding constraints, or taxes that equally or even more greatly affect profitability but have received little attention in the literature. effective implementation of environmental management accounting can help identify such hidden costs and improve the overall financial performance of construction companies (hassan, maelah and palil, 2018). a recent systematic review revealed the inconsistent use of key performance indicators (kpis) in cost control, particularly at the project level. technological advancements, such as bim and ai, have the potential to enhance resource use and financial performance. however, they are costly to implement and have not been widely adopted, particularly among small and mediumsized enterprises (smes). epic infrastructure projects, such as china’s highspeed rail, are often financed with longterm debt, raising concerns about longterm financial sustainability. ansar et al. (2016) posited that such megainfrastructure developments can introduce economic fragility rather than robust economic development if not controlled well. international experience and china’s challenges cost overruns and project delays are widespread in the global construction industry. insufficient funding, design modifications, and inefficient management were also identified as the main reasons affecting cost and schedule performance in the tripoli road construction project in libya (alfakhri, ismail and khoiry, 2018). however, countries exhibit greatly varying levels of cost control and efficiency gains within projects. for instance, the netherlands is renowned for its ability to mitigate cost overruns in railroad and bridge projects. on average, cost overruns on its rail projects are 11%, which is much lower than in other regions of northwest europe (27%) and other regions (44%) (cantarelli et al., 2013). these results suggest that the locale and types of national governance significantly impact cost performance at the project level. regarding project management, implementation phase duration, project size, and project ownership type were all significantly related to cost overruns. research has also suggested that implementation duration and project size are factors associated with an increased likelihood of cost overruns. furthermore, cost overruns are more frequent in public than in private projects, but only in countries without an effective system of accountability (flyvbjerg et al., 2010). in terms of sustainable building, countries like singapore and the uk pursue national strategies by taking a proactive stance in promoting sustainable building practices through conducting research and development (r&d) and issuing industry guidelines. for example, singapore’s government published the sustainable singapore blueprint in 2009 and established the s$50 million built environment research fund in 2007 to advance sustainable research (building and construction authority of singapore, 2023). conversely, china has invested heavily in infrastructure, yet has made little profit, failed to reduce debt, and exposed itself to the vulnerabilities that come with being an economy. extensive infrastructure investment in china has been found to not generate positive riskadjusted value, but rather induce structural instability and economic fragility in financial markets (ansar et al., 2016). furthermore, systematic underestimation xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 20254 of project cost estimates is an international phenomenon. research has shown that cost estimates for many public works projects are extremely underreported, and china’s are no different. this may not be a case of general misestimation, but rather, deliberate deception (flyvbjerg et al., 2010). in summary, to better ensure the profitability and economic efficiency of the chinese construction industry, the country should learn from international experience, strengthen project management, improve the system of checks and balances, and promote green construction. meanwhile, china also needs to solve existing policy problems, such as low investment returns, debt servicing risks, and cost deviations, to implement sustainable development in the construction industry. gaps in current research despite the growing body of literature on profitability and cost structure in china’s construction industry, there are gaps in the existing research. most of the existing research has focused on large firms, providing little insight into the cost pressures and financial constraints that smaller companies face. this is significant because smes are a major component of the construction industry. furthermore, many studies in the present era rely heavily on crosssectional data. only a few studies adopt a longitudinal perspective on changes in profit rates to account for the impact of economic cycles or policy interventions. although firmlevel performance measures are examined, projectlevel indicators (e.g., budget performance, return on investment, and life cycle cost gains) remain understudied. recent reviews underscore the importance of detailed projectlevel assessments that inform enterpriselevel strategy. although bim and ai are acknowledged as revolutionary technologies, few empirical studies have examined their financial implications, particularly in china’s specific environmental and economic landscape. furthermore, the chinese building industry has significant regional differences in cost factors, policies, and resources. only a few studies offer regionspecific economics, which limits the applicability of macro results to investment levels. addressing these gaps is essential for developing rigorous and comprehensive cost optimization guidelines that can ensure the construction sector’s longterm financial and economic viability. methodology data sources the study uses a quantitative research design based on statistical modeling and econometric tools to analyze the profitability and cost structure of the construction industry in china. the main data source is the 2023 china statistical yearbook, which was compiled by the national bureau of statistics of china (nbs). the yearbook contains detailed statistics on gross output value, completed floor space, revenue, expenses, and profitability for each industry subsector (nbs, 2023). to improve the robustness of the analysis, additional data were collected from industry reports and company annual reports. these sources include market overviews, competitive forces, and companies’ financial statements. thus, they contribute to the data and provide a multifaceted view of the industry’s financial performance. monte carlo simulation was used to carry out risk analysis and estimate uncertainty in cost. for example, unmanned aerial system (uas) applications have been used in earthwork volume estimation to improve measurement accuracy and reduce measurement costs (romeli, zakaria and ishak, 2023). this stochastic method considers cost and financial risk variations, providing a more comprehensive view of expected results (deng and jian, 2022). incorporating project management approaches, such as earned value management (evm) and life cycle cost analysis (lcca), helps evaluate cost structures at the enterprise and project levels. furthermore, big data analytics and machine learning algorithms are used to handle and analyze massive datasets. these advanced analytics, such as clustering and classification algorithms, help uncover the main sources of profitability or xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 20255 cost efficiency. accordingly, they offer more insight into the financial reality of the construction business (gong et al., 2023). analytical approach this study employs a structured analytical framework to directly address three research questions: identifying cost components, examining influencing factors, and proposing optimization strategies for china’s construction industry. for research question 1 (key cost components), we employed descriptive statistics to calculate indicators such as means, standard deviations, and distributional statistics for key financial variables (e.g., gross output value, floor area, revenue, expenses, and industryspecific profitability). these statistics provide a comparative analysis of cost components across industries. for research question 2 (the impact of labor costs, material costs, and tax policies), we employed econometric models to examine the causal relationship between independent variables (revenue, labor costs, material costs, taxrelated variables, and firm type) and profitability. under the assumptions of linearity, independence, homoscedasticity, and normality, we estimated a multivariate linear regression model using ordinary least squares. the coefficient size and statistical significance of the model indicate the impact of each cost driver on profitability at the firm and project levels. to investigate question 3 (optimization strategies), we employed additional analytical tools. machine learning algorithms (such as clustering and classification) identify patterns in cost performance and group projects according to their financial characteristics, highlighting both high and low efficiency (tayefeh hashemi, et al., 2020). while this study primarily employs descriptive and econometric techniques, its conceptual framework draws on established tools such as lcca and evm to structure the discussion of longterm cost efficiency and performance evaluation (abdulrahman et al., 2015). the overall process is outlined in figure 1, which outlines six phases: data collection, preprocessing, statistical analysis, modeling, results analysis, and report writing. preprocessing ensures data consistency and comparability; statistical analysis detects correlations, significant patterns, and outliers; modeling quantifies the impact of cost drivers; results analysis interprets the findings and tests their robustness; and the synthesis phase integrates empirical evidence with policy implications. this integrated, problemdriven approach ensures that each analytical step is clearly linked to one of the three research objectives, thereby providing a coherent, evidencebased understanding of the financial drivers of profitability and cost structure in china’s construction industry (castro miranda et al., 2022). figure 1. data analysis process flowchart metrics for profit and cost structure analysis only the key financial indicators of construction enterprises in china were referred to, such as revenue, cost, liabilities, and revenues. according to the basis of the tendering stage, revenue in the construction industry mostly includes contracted project value, project completion value of selfcompleted projects, xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 20256 and completion value of subcontracted projects. table 2 shows the total contracted value of residential buildings, as well as civil engineering and other infrastructure projects, which are the two primary sources of income for construction contractors. the total contracted value from construction units in 2022 was 296,799,900,700 rmb (nbs, 2023), reflecting the magnitude of construction activities. furthermore, breaking down the income sources (selfcompleted vs. subcontracted values) contributes to understanding the financial inflow from each sector and shows that the residential building sector contributes the most to the total contracted value. table 2. completion of contracted engineering projects by construction enterprises (in 10,000 rmb) industry contracted value from construction units self completed value subcontracted value external contracted value total 2,967,999,007 2,839,302,412 128,696,595 240,051,381 residential building industry 1,817,018,037 1,763,974,124 53,043,913 100,853,883 civil engineering industry 876,857,918 811,981,358 64,876,561 98,183,768 railway, road, tunnel, and bridge engineering 594,800,112 550,183,058 44,617,054 73,322,629 hydraulic and inland river port engineering 101,365,883 94,161,598 7,204,286 9,586,736 construction project expenditures are classified as direct or indirect costs. these costs include the necessary labor, materials, and equipment for the construction project. indirect costs include a&g, accounting, sales, and sometimes r&d. total output and completion in each construction sector provide additional evidence of this, highlighting railway, civil engineering, and hydraulic engineering. table 3 provides an overview of how these projects contribute to the value of each sector’s output. a more detailed analysis of the margin and costs per output by project type is necessary. construction material suppliers must link revenues and costs by examining the combined effects of both sides of the income statement on the company’s profitability profile, especially the relationships between them and their impact on company performance. ultimately, they must participate in defining the value chain that transforms business drivers into profitability or loss. expected outcomes according to this study, there were differences in profitability and cost structure among sectors of the chinese construction industry. the project size, the local economic situation, and the building category were identified as factors that influence financial performance. for instance, housing and infrastructure projects generate higher income; however, they also incur higher costs due to their complexity and scale (chuai et al., 2021). an examination of cost management revealed differences in the stafftomaterialto subcontracting ratio. these differences indicate a lack of uniformity in cost control measures throughout the industry (gong et al., 2023). these results have practical ramifications for construction managers and policymakers. tailored approaches that take industry characteristics into account can increase profitability, xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 20257 reduce risk, and achieve higher cost efficiency. furthermore, relying on uniform cost planning methods may result in predictable financial patterns for certain construction types. figure 2. sensitivity analysis of profitability drivers (20% increase scenario) the sensitivity analysis in figure 2 shows that output per employee has the most significant positive impact on profitability (+50.31%), further demonstrating that productivity improvements are the primary table 3. total output and completion value of the construction industry (in 10,000 rmb) industry total output value decoration output value external completion value construction output value installation engineering output value other output value completion value railway, road, tunnel, and bridge engineering 623,505,687 3,357,550 258,146,017 592,367,011 12,222,427 18,916,249 169,860,605 hydraulic and waterway engineering 103,748,333 172,930 46,211,923 96,976,207 2,612,096 4,160,031 25,693,640 industrial and mining engineering 36,124,084 124,110 20,823,409 24,007,525 10,197,449 1,919,111 13,544,815 overhead and pipeline engineering 58,190,363 155,032 15,175,409 28,934,717 27,099,908 2,155,737 26,671,142 construction installation industry 158,061,154 2,401,048 56,384,435 65,783,149 84,202,980 8,075,026 69,376,042 building decoration, renovation, and other construction industries 146,299,507 67,431,492 41,660,842 123,764,055 14,379,996 8,155,456 6,255,762 xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 20258 driver of construction companies’ financial performance (rajala, ylkujala, sinkkonen and krri, 2023). in contrast, variables such as r&d expense ratio and fixed asset intensity per employee exhibit negative sensitivities, which echoes previous research showing that, in some cases, overinvestment in r&d or capital can suppress shortterm profitability (hartwig and kockat, 2016). the regression coefficients and 95% confidence intervals in figure 3 further illustrate these dynamics: the financial expense ratio exhibits a significant positive correlation with profitability, while the r&d expense ratio maintains a negative correlation. these relationships are consistent with earlier research on cost structure optimization and project delivery efficiency (chan and park, 2005; oo, drew and lo, 2007). the limited effect of completion rates is similar to findings from research on workplace conditions, in which nonfinancial factors, such as job attractiveness and employee happiness, indirectly influence economic outcomes (yokouchi, ambe, fujisaki suedasakai and ozawa, 2024). taken together, these results suggest that targeted improvements in labor productivity and financial management may yield the greatest earnings gains, while unbridled increases in certain spending categories should be viewed with caution. figure 3. regression coefficients with 95% confidence intervals (horizontal layout) results total output and completion value the construction industry has always played a significant role in china’s economic growth and has developed at a high rate as a fundamental part of china’s output and completion value. figure 4 shows the significant sectoral trend of the total output value of various construction disciplines. the total output value of railway, road, tunnel, and bridge engineering is about 623.5 billion rmb, which is greater than the total output value of the construction installation industry and building decoration, renovation, and other construction industries. this indicates that the total output value differs by industry sector. construction completion value, i.e., the value of completed construction projects, is displayed as a scatter plot in figure 3. xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 20259 it can be seen that completion values vary greatly across different industries. conversely, hydraulic and waterway engineering promises far greater value than its total output. the likely reason is that the state prefers large projects. moreover, the gross production value of the construction industry as a whole is concentrated in the three major infrastructures listed in table 3, and the total values refer to the actual investment completed in these sectors. although railway, road, tunnel, and bridge engineering have the highest total output value at 623.5 billion rmb, the completion value was just 169.86 billion rmb. this suggests that this sector has a number of longterm projects that have not yet been completed. building decoration, renovation, and other construction industries have a relatively high completion ratio compared with other industries, reflecting the faster inproject turnover of these industries. however, project lifetime differences are highlighted by such longterm projectbased industries as energy, manufacturing, and resources. these industries have a more pronounced gap between fullrun output and completed projects, though it is far less ambiguous (figure 3 and table 4). this reaffirms china’s commitment to infrastructurebased economic growth. table 4. total output and completion value of construction industry (in 10,000 rmb) industry total output value completion value railway, road, tunnel, and bridge engineering 623,505,687 169,860,605 hydraulic and waterway engineering 103,748,333 25,693,640 marine engineering 2,153,080 745,743 industrial and mining engineering 36,124,084 13,544,815 overhead and pipeline engineering 58,190,363 26,671,142 construction installation industry 158,061,154 69,376,042 building decoration, renovation, and other construction industries 146,299,507 62,557,628 figure 4. total output value and completed value for construction sectors xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202510 building area and completion area by sector in china, the differences in building and finished areas between regions are much more dramatic. the finished construction area nationwide was 998.31 million m2 and grew 17.0% from the same period in 2022. residential buildings accounted for the largest share, with 724.33 million m2 completed, up by 17.2%. this upward pressure on residential construction reflects a much bigger urbanization trend and the necessity for housing in china. meanwhile, the total floor space of all newly started buildings amounted to 953.76 million m2, down by 20.4%, indicating that new property projects remained lackluster. figure 5 shows the annual differences between finished and new starts by sector. figure 5. total building area and completion area by sector by sector, residential buildings dominate the building stock and working floor area. office buildings were down by 9.4% in 2023, while commercial businesses were up by 16.9%. this change comes as economic conditions continue to shift, and companies reconsider how much commercial real estate they need. a more detailed sectorwise view of building and completion areas is shown in table 5. the enormous expansion of the residential construction industry has been the foundation of government policies to raise living standards and promote urban migration. the significant growth seen in the large project pipeline continues to be counterbalanced by the reduction in new projects, indicating a cautious approach by developers in light of the current economic situation. table 5. building area of construction enterprises by sector (10,000 m2) industry construction area completed construction area residential building industry 1,421,395 368,210 civil engineering 100,630 22,078 railway, road, tunnel, and bridge engineering 66,433 15,030 hydraulic and waterway engineering 9,845 1,881 marine engineering 4 3 xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202511 revenue and cost breakdown the financial condition of china’s construction industry is related to income and spending. in 2021, the industry’s output value was approximately 8,013.85 billion rmb, which equaled 7% of the national gdp. however, the profit margin was much lower at 2.9%, compared to 6.8% in the manufacturing sector (nbs, 2022). this demonstrates the need to examine the industry’s specific profit and cost structures. the industry is divided into three segments: residential building construction, nonresidential building construction, and civil engineering construction. residential building construction is the largest segment and is driven by the increasing demand for construction work. on the other hand, infrastructure projects are expensive due to their high investment and low margin. they take much longer and are subject to many regulations. in terms of expenses, labor is also a key cost because staffing levels are high. additionally, raw material costs are a significant consideration since they directly impact pricing. product costs increase due to administrative and implementation costs, such as project management and compliance. figure 6 shows the respective shares of revenues and expenses by construction sector. figure 7 shows the revenue and cost analysis process flowchart. a numerical summary is also provided in tables 6 and 7 regarding the distribution of financial resources in the industry. profitability metrics figure 8 compares the total profits, income taxes, and main business taxes and surcharges for the three major construction industries: railways, highways, tunnels, and bridges; civil engineering; and residential construction. the residential construction industry has the highest total profits, while civil engineering, despite similar tax contributions, has slightly lower profitability. the railway, highway, tunnel, and bridge industries have the lowest total profits but relatively lower tax burdens. these differences highlight how the operating models, market conditions, and cost structures of specific industries influence economic efficiency. this is consistent with the observation of ingrige (2016): while profitability indicators are crucial for assessing financial performance, they should be interpreted within a broader strategic and contextual framework, particularly in an environment influenced by external pressures such as regulatory changes, disaster risk reduction priorities, and resilience goals. incorporating these contextual factors ensures figure 6. breakdown of main business revenue and costs xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202512 that profitability assessments go beyond shortterm gains to consider the industry’s evolving social and environmental responsibilities. in recent years, the development of policies and the market has led to high volatility in the profit index of china’s construction industry. the industry also experienced a slowdown in revenue growth in 2025, with an anticipated deceleration to 4%– 7%, down from the projected growth of 7%– 10% in 2023. this trend is the result of a high revenue base and a moderate pace of growth for new orders (s&p global, 2024). although revenue expansion was projected to decline, a slight increase in profitability was anticipated due to tighter table 7. expense situation of construction enterprises (in 10,000 rmb) industry management costs sales costs r&d costs financial costs total 82,563,936 7,649,395 34,004,483 16,143,343 residential building industry 37,405,995 3,061,633 15,384,207 9,064,964 civil engineering 29,172,092 2,126,657 15,007,258 5,541,309 railway, road, tunnel, and bridge engineering 15,385,931 1,155,774 9,551,912 3,308,934 table 6. revenue situation of construction enterprises (in 10,000 rmb) industry main business revenue main business costs other business revenues total 2,680,073,892 2,463,236,317 51,230,136 residential building industry 1,502,324,714 1,392,351,117 27,747,943 civil engineering 876,457,796 800,303,752 14,818,233 railway, road, tunnel, and bridge engineering 569,240,532 523,253,647 9,092,425 hydraulic and waterway engineering 105,446,573 94,424,502 1,363,521 figure 7. revenue and cost analysis process flowchart xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202513 management of selling and administrative expenses and possibly a lower receivables impairment ratio. table 6 illustrates growth rates in revenues year over year and presents revenue and profit margins of the biggest companies, respectively. table 8. profit and tax situation in construction enterprises (in 10,000 rmb) industry total profit income tax main business taxes and surcharges total 83,814,579 14,636,174 13,104,007 residential building industry 43,969,183 8,447,218 8,454,434 civil engineering 31,669,687 4,628,700 3,383,731 railway, road, tunnel, and bridge engineering 19,840,431 2,892,134 2,052,930 the monte carlo cost– benefit uncertainty analysis in figure 9 reveals an average profit margin of 3.1% within a relatively narrow 95% confidence interval, indicating moderate volatility in profitability across the simulated scenarios. this probabilistic approach aligns with prior applications of monte carlo methods to construction cost and risk assessment, enabling stakeholders to more effectively incorporate uncertainty into financial forecasts (hu, nippala, kallioharju and pelsmakers, 2022; cheah and liu, 2006). the cost– profit cluster analysis in figure 10 reveals distinct subindustry groupings based on cost ratios and profit margins, demonstrating that strategic segmentation can reveal patterns in operational efficiency and profitability drivers. these findings are consistent with research on cost structure optimization in demolition projects (pun, liu and langston, 2006), innovative classification of strategic decisions (lim and ofori, 2007), and enhancing industry competitiveness using a technology clustering framework (albizri and gray, 2010). furthermore, the application of clustering techniques to map profitability patterns reflects emerging approaches in construction research, such as blockchainbased cluster analysis, which can identify interrelated performance factors (elbashbishy, ali and eladaway, 2022). overall, these results highlight figure 8. profit margin, tax rates, and economic efficiency xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202514 the value of combining probabilistic simulation with clusterbased analysis to inform evidencebased profitability strategies in the construction industry. figure 9. monte carlo cost– benefit uncertainty diagram figure 10. cost– profit clustering of construction industry subsectors while larger construction companies make up a large part of the overall amount, there are marked differences in the quality of profit growth. china communications construction’s main revenue soared by 116.32% in the past 10 years, and cscec’s main revenue rose by 202.14%. net income for the two companies increased by 57.37% and 142.73%, respectively. these numbers suggest that, for example, cscec was growing its revenue base in a larger or faster way and improving profitability in a more xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202515 effective manner. figure 11 plots the cumulative profit margins of these firms over the considered timeframe, while table 9 compares metrics for these efforts. table 9. key economic efficiency indicators for general and specialized contractors (%) industry profit rate tax rate capital profit rate residential building industry 2.4 4.6 18.8 civil engineering 3.5 5.7 17.8 railway, road, tunnel, and bridge engineering 3.2 5.1 17.4 hydraulic and waterway engineering 3.9 6.5 17.4 marine engineering 7.8 10.2 21.6 additional economic variables, such as those external to the construction sector, also influence this sector’s profitability. the persistent woes in the property market, with falling home prices and a bulging supply of homes, have dragged down the profit margins of builders. for instance, new house prices in china were stable in january 2025 as sales were softer than initially expected despite a government effort to revive market sentiment. while it is easy to simply say that in times of a slump, especially at a time when established developers are feeling the pinch even, this is more evidence that the industry needs serious fiscal discipline and planning to weather the economic storm and make money. figure 11. key profitability indicators, such as profit rate and tax rate discussion components with the highest cost sensitivity regarding the first research question, the regression results (figure 11) show that the ratio of material costs to labor costs has the largest negative coefficient on profitability, which is statistically significant (p < 0.05). xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202516 specifically, a one percentage point increase in any cost category is associated with a 0.15– 0.18 percentage point decrease in profitability. monte carlo sensitivity simulations further confirm this conclusion, showing that the 95% uncertainty interval for material costs is within ±12% of the mean, while the fluctuation range for labor costs is ±9% of the mean. this makes them not only the most volatile items in china’s construction industry but also one of the most critical inputs affecting operational efficiency. residential projects have higher average profit margins than public infrastructure projects, primarily due to shorter project cycles and faster revenue realization. in contrast, civil engineering projects such as railways, roads, and bridges, while producing larger total outputs, have lower economic returns due to longer investment horizons, high fixed capital intensity, and a complex tax system. as shown in table 10, surcharges and capitalbased taxes further erode infrastructure returns, resulting in a significantly lower profitability (0.04) for civil engineering projects than for residential projects. these quantitative results confirm that contract manufacturing, raw materials, and taxes are the most influential cost components for optimizing gross profit, providing a concrete, datadriven basis for developing targeted cost control strategies. the least efficient sectors in the cost structure when evaluating return on investment, infrastructure (particularly public works projects such as transportation) is the least costeffective sector, a finding supported by descriptive statistics and previous research (wang and yuan et al., 2011). as shown in table 8, transportationrelated civil engineering projects have the highest cost ratio, reaching 0.93, and correspondingly low profitability, averaging approximately 0.03. in contrast, residential and shipbuilding projects exhibit faster cash flow turnover, higher profit margins, and more efficient cost structures. railway, highway, and other largescale infrastructure projects underperform not only due to their long delivery cycles and capital ties, but also due to persistent cost overruns and increasing regulatory surcharges. high capital taxes and compliance costs further erode returns, magnifying the impact of extended payback periods. in contrast, niche markets such as residential construction and marine engineering maintain lower cost ratios (0.90– 0.91) and higher profitability (up to 0.04), offering greater potential for optimization. these patterns highlight the need for a targeted efficiency strategy in the infrastructureintensive civil engineering sector, where improvements in capital structure, taxation, and cost control mechanisms must work in tandem to enhance financial flexibility. recommended strategies and policy tools based on the patterns revealed by our empirical analysis, several targeted strategies can be recommended to address the third research question. clustering results (figure 10) show that cluster 1 (residential construction and marine engineering) outperforms other subsectors, with a cost ratio between 0.90 and 0.91 and a profitability of 0.04. cluster 3 (infrastructureintensive civil engineering, including railways and roads) has the highest cost ratio (0.93) and the lowest profitability (0.03). these differences highlight where interventions could have the greatest impact. lean construction practices, which streamline processes and eliminate waste, are particularly beneficial in laborintensive clusters. the adoption of digital technologies such as bim and aibased planning tools— which has been shown to improve scheduling performance and reduce rework (zhang et al., 2020)— aligns well with the operational profiles of the topperforming residential and marine clusters, where shorter cycle times can amplify the benefits of efficiency gains. digital transformation, combined with design for manufacturing and assembly (dfma) approaches, can further improve costeffectiveness (abd razak, khoiry, badaruzzaman, hussain and zain, 2023). public– private partnerships (ppps) are particularly wellsuited for infrastructure clusters with low profitability; by enabling companies to operate as both contractors and asset operators, ppps can reduce financing risks and diversify revenue streams (hwang et al., 2020), thereby increasing the financial resilience of capitalintensive projects. supply chain hedging through longterm procurement contracts and bulk purchases can mitigate xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202517 material price volatility found in monte carlo sensitivity analyses, which show an uncertainty range of ±12%. prefabrication and modular construction methods reduce labor requirements and shorten delivery times, with precast concrete structures offering significant cost and time advantages in the residential sector (naz, abro, memon and ahmed, 2023). government subsidies for energyefficient, green buildings can improve profitability and sustainability by reducing the tax burden (a key determinant of our regression results), while utilizing oil industry byproducts as alternative materials can offer further cost savings and environmental benefits. finally, strategic project selection should prioritize highroi sectors, digitalization, adoption of ppps, and sustainable construction practices (such as cleantechdriven geopolymer composites) that offer pathways to longterm financial sustainability while reducing life cycle maintenance costs. conclusion and future work conclusion this study provides empirical evidence on the profitability and cost structure of china’s construction industry, directly addressing three research questions: (1) the extent of profitability differences across sub sectors; (2) the underlying cost drivers; and (3) the strategic implications of different business models. the results show significant differences in profitability, primarily driven by differences in cost structure, project size, payback period, and tax uncertainty. while residential real estate projects tend to generate higher revenues, they are constrained by high tax rates and volatility. in contrast, infrastructure investments such as railways, roads, and bridges have lower profit margins due to their long investment cycles and high capital intensity. table 10 shows descriptive statistics that support this finding. civil and marine engineering projects have the lowest cost ratios (0.91 and 0.90, respectively), and the highest profitability (0.04), while residential and general infrastructure projects have higher cost ratios (up to 0.93) and lower profitability (0.03). these contrasts highlight disparities in financial effectiveness between construction subindustries and suggest the need for constructionspecific strategies. deeper analysis confirms that materials and labor are still the primary cost drivers, and companies are eager to optimize sourcing and digitize the supply chain. specialty subcontractors demonstrate greater cost efficiency and a faster ability to recoup capital than general contractors, which underscores the importance of specialized capabilities in sustaining profitability. furthermore, companies with more revenue bases and ppp models are more resilient to market shocks. this supports the idea that diversified institutions are valuable alternative risk management strategies. table 10. descriptive statistics of cost ratio and profit margin by sector sector cost ratio profit margin total 0.92 0.03 residential building construction 0.93 0.03 civil engineering construction 0.91 0.04 railway, road, tunnel, and bridge 0.92 0.03 hydraulic engineering 0.9 0.04 marine engineering 0.9 0.04 the findings provide actionable insights for policymakers and industry leaders, offering a datadriven foundation for cost control and investment planning in specific industries. by identifying cost– profitability patterns and efficiency drivers, the study supports evidencebased resource allocation and risk aversion. xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202518 however, the scope of the study is limited by the limited availability of aggregate industrylevel data, which restricts analysis of firmlevel behavior, and the crosssectional nature of the dataset, which cannot capture temporal dynamics. future research should incorporate longitudinal data, explore firmlevel heterogeneity, and integrate advanced modeling techniques such as machine learning and scenario simulation to better predict profitability under different market and policy conditions. future work future work may apply econometric models to evaluate the impact of digital technologies, including aibased cost forecasting, blockchainbased contract management, and realtime analytics, on financial transparency and project performances and not only to benchmarking descriptive measures. more importantly, rigorous studies are required to examine the impacts of environmental policy, carbon tax, and green building incentives on the firmlevel financial sustainable development. because of changes in the macro and microstructural conditions of the real estate market in china, research also needs to focus on construction firms’ adaptability and longterm stability levels that they can sustain under the influence of the fiscal and monetary policies designed to stimulate the macroeconomy. this research will provide a programmatic structure applicable to understanding wider industrial reforms and the enhancement of efficiency, sustainability, and competitiveness in the construction industry in the developing world. references abd razak, m. i., khoiry, m. a., badaruzzaman, w. h. w., hussain, a. h., & zain, m. z. m. (2023). development of application framework for design for manufacturing and assembly towards digital and sustainable construction in malaysia. jurnal kejuruteraan, 35(2), 351–360. https://doi.org/10.17576/jkukm-2023-35(2)-06 abdul-rahman, h., wang, c., & sheik mohamad, f. (2015). implementation of risk management in malaysian construction industry: case studies. journal of construction engineering, 2015, 192742. https://doi. org/10.1155/2015/192742 al-bizri, s., & gray, c. (2010). management framework for technology clusters implementation. construction management and economics, 28(7), 771–782. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446191003725170 alfakhri, a. y., ismail, a., & khoiry, m. a. (2018). the effects of delays in road construction projects in tripoli, libya. international journal of technology, 9(4), 766–774. https://doi.org/10.14716/ijtech.v9i4.2219 ansar, a., flyvbjerg, b., budzier, a., & lunn, d. (2016). does infrastructure investment lead to economic growth or economic fragility? evidence from china. oxford review of economic policy, 32(3), 360–390. https://doi.org/10.1093/ oxrep/grw022 building and construction authority. (2023). annual report 2022/2023: connecting the dots. building and construction authority. https://www1.bca.gov.sg/docs/default-source/annual-report-2023/bca-ar23_full_report.pdf cantarelli, c. c., flyvbjerg, b., & buhl, s. l. (2012). geographical variation in project cost performance: the netherlands versus worldwide. journal of transport geography, 24, 324–331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jtrangeo.2012.03.014 castro miranda, s. l., conte, j. c., jara, c. a., & skarmeta, a. (2022). predictive analytics for early-stage construction costs: a systematic literature review. buildings, 12(7), 1043. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12071043 chan, s. l., & park, m. (2005). project cost estimation using principal component regression. construction management and economics, 23(3), 295–304. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190500039812 xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202519 https://doi.org/10.17576/jkukm-2023-35(2)-06 https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/192742 https://doi.org/10.1155/2015/192742 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446191003725170 https://doi.org/10.14716/ijtech.v9i4.2219 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grw022 https://doi.org/10.1093/oxrep/grw022 https://www1.bca.gov.sg/docs/default-source/annual-report-2023/bca-ar23_full_report.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2012.03.014 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2012.03.014 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12071043 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190500039812 cheah, c. y. j., & liu, j. c. (2006). valuing governmental support in infrastructure projects as real options using monte carlo simulation. construction management and economics, 24(5), 545–554. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446190500435572 chuai, x., lu, q., huang, x., gao, r., & zhao, r. (2021). china’s construction industry-linked economy–resources– environment flow in international trade. journal of cleaner production, 278, 123990. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2020.123990 deng, j., & jian, w. (2022). estimating construction project duration and costs upon completion using monte carlo simulations and improved earned value management. buildings, 12(12), 2173. https://doi.org/10.3390/ buildings12122173 elbashbishy, t. s., ali, g. g., & el-adaway, i. h. (2022). blockchain technology in the construction industry: mapping current research trends using social network analysis and clustering. construction management and economics, 40(5), 406–427. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2022.2056216 flyvbjerg, b., skamris holm, m. k., & buhl, s. l. (2010). how common and how large are cost overruns in transport infrastructure projects? transport reviews, 23(1), 71–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/01441640309904 gong, d., zhao, x., & yang, b. (2023). big data adoption in the chinese construction industry: status quo, drivers, challenges, and strategies. buildings, 13(1), 1891. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14071891 hartwig, j., & kockat, j. (2016). macroeconomic effects of energetic building retrofit: input–output sensitivity analyses. construction management and economics, 34(2), 79–97. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1144928 hassan, h., maelah, r., & palil, m. r. (2018). factors affecting the implementation of environmental management accounting and the impact on the performance of a construction company in malaysia. asian journal of accounting and governance, 10, 109–122. https://doi.org/10.17576/ajag-2018-10-10 hu, m., nippala, e., kallioharju, k., & pelsmakers, s. (2022). monte carlo simulation approach to understand the cost variance for energy retrofit projects: comparative study of finland and the united states. construction management and economics, 40(3), 207–222. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2022.2034906 hwang, b.-g., shan, m., zhu, l., & lim, w.-c. (2020). cost control in megaprojects: efficacy, tools and techniques, key knowledge areas and project comparisons. international journal of construction management, 20(5), 437–449. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484976 ingirige, b. (2016). theorizing construction industry practice within a disaster risk reduction setting: is it a panacea or an illusion? construction management and economics, 34(7–8), 592–607. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.12 00735 kim, h.-j., & reinschmidt, k. f. (2012). market structure and organizational performance of construction organizations. journal of management in engineering, 28(2), 212–220. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.19435479.0000082 lim, j. n., & ofori, g. (2007). classification of innovation for strategic decision making in construction businesses. construction management and economics, 25(9), 963–978. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190701393026 mohammad, n., & hamzah, z. (2019). a review of causes of variation order in the construction of terrace housing projects in malaysia. matec web of conferences, 277, 03013. https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201927703013 national bureau of statistics of china or nbs (2022). https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/ndsj/2022/indexeh.htm national bureau of statistics of china or nbs (2023). https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/ndsj/2023/indexeh.htm xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202520 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190500435572 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190500435572 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123990 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123990 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12122173 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12122173 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2022.2056216 https://doi.org/10.1080/01441640309904 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14071891 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1144928 https://doi.org/10.17576/ajag-2018-10-10 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2022.2034906 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484976 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1200735 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2016.1200735 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000082 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000082 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190701393026 https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201927703013 https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/ndsj/2022/indexeh.htm https://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/ndsj/2023/indexeh.htm naz, f., abro, s. a., memon, n. a., & ahmed, n. (2023). cost analysis and economical suitability of prefabricated concrete structures in building construction. jurnal kejuruteraan, 35(5), 1135–1143. https://doi.org/10.17576/ jkukm-2023-35(5)-14 oo, b. l., drew, d. s., & lo, h. p. (2007). applying a random coefficients logistic model to contractors’ decision to bid. construction management and economics, 25(4), 387–398. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190600922552 pun, s. k., liu, c. l., & langston, c. (2006). case study of demolition costs of residential buildings. construction management and economics, 24(9), 967–976. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190500512024 rajala, p., ylä-kujala, a., sinkkonen, t., & kärri, t. (2023). building renovation business: the effects of specialization on profitability. construction management and economics, 41(8), 687–702. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2023.2 192040 romeli, n., zakaria, a. a., halil, f. m., abd ghapar, m. a. a., & ishak, n. (2023). earthwork volumetric estimation via unmanned aerial system application: perception from penang contractors. jurnal kejuruteraan, 35(3), 657–669. https://doi.org/10.17576/jkukm-2023-35(3)-13 s&p global. (2024). china engineering & construction 2024 industry outlook. retrieved from https://www.spglobal. com/_assets/documents/ratings/research/101592333.pdf tayefeh hashemi, s., ebadati, o. m., & kaur, h. (2020). cost estimation and prediction in construction projects: a systematic review on machine learning techniques. sn applied sciences, 2, 1703. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-02003497-1 wang, y., & li, s. (2021). market concentration, market power, and firm growth of construction companies. advances in civil engineering, 2021, article 9990846. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/9990846 wang, j.-y., & yuan, h.-p. (2011). major cost-overrun risks in construction projects in china. international journal of project organisation and management, 3(3–4), 227–242. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpom.2011.042030 wen, q., hong, j., liu, g., xu, p., tang, m., & li, z. (2020). regional efficiency disparities in china’s construction sector: a combination of multiregional input–output and data envelopment analyses. applied energy, 257, 113964. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.113964 xian, y., yang, k., wang, k., wei, y.-m., & huang, z. (2019). cost–environment efficiency analysis of construction industry in china: a materials balance approach. journal of cleaner production, 221, 457–468. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.02.266 xie, w., liu, h., & chen, x. (2022). critical factors influencing cost overrun in construction projects: a fuzzy synthetic evaluation. buildings, 12(11), 2028. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12112028 yokouchi, n., ambe, t., fujisaki-sueda-sakai, m., & ozawa, k. (2024). workplace bullying and harassment in the japanese construction industry: prevalence and associations with subjective health and work attractiveness. construction management and economics, 42(8), 741–757. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2024.2325364 yu, w., huang, h., & zhu, k. (2023). enhancing construction enterprise financial performance through digital inclusive finance: an insight into supply chain finance. sustainability, 15(13), 10360. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su151310360 zhang, x., wu, y., & li, q. (2020). the impact of building information modeling on project cost performance: a meta-analysis. automation in construction, 114, 103120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103120 zhang, n., zhu, y., & wang, r. (2023). digital transformation in the chinese construction industry: status, barriers and impact. buildings, 13(4), 1092. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13041092 xiao et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202521 https://doi.org/10.17576/jkukm-2023-35(5)-14 https://doi.org/10.17576/jkukm-2023-35(5)-14 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190600922552 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190500512024 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2023.2192040 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2023.2192040 https://doi.org/10.17576/jkukm-2023-35(3)-13 https://www.spglobal.com/_assets/documents/ratings/research/101592333.pdf https://www.spglobal.com/_assets/documents/ratings/research/101592333.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-020-03497-1 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-020-03497-1 https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/9990846 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpom.2011.042030 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apenergy.2019.113964 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.02.266 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.02.266 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12112028 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2024.2325364 https://doi.org/10.3390/su151310360 https://doi.org/10.3390/su151310360 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103120 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13041092 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: ramani, p. v., akomah, b. b. 2025. the negative factors that influence the performance of ghanaian construction projects. construction economics and building, 25:2, 112–142. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v25i2.8966 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article the negative factors that influence the performance of ghanaian construction projects prasanna venkatesan ramani*, benjamin boahene akomah school of civil engineering, vit university, vellore, india corresponding author: prasanna venkatesan ramani, prasanna.venkatesan@vit.ac.in doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.8966 article history: received 11/12/2023; revised 17/07/2024; accepted 31/08/2024; published 08/08/2025 abstract numerous factors affect the performance of construction projects. the goal of this paper is twofold: first, to identify and determine the negative factors influencing construction projects, and second, to specify the hypothesised causal relations between the observed and hidden variables using a confirmatory factor analysis (cfa) model. a deductive research approach and a cross-sectional design method were chosen for the study. a literature review was first conducted, and 66 negative variables were identified. the factors were modified and designed into a questionnaire for data collection. the cronbach alphas of the three components indicate a high degree of internal consistency. the measurement variables adequately measure the negative factor construct. in addition, the fit indices suggest that the postulated model sufficiently describes the dataset. poor environmental practices (pas2), inadequate environmental legislative framework to address modern environmental concerns in the delivery of construction projects (pas1), and non-inclusion of occupational health and safety in contracts (pas3) were identified as three relevant negative factors impacting project performance. the paper identified poor assessment strategies, weak management systems, and inefficient regulatory systems as the significant latent factors that affect performance. according to the findings, a poor assessment strategy is more consequential. the results of the study suggest that poor assessment strategies, weak management systems, and inefficient regulatory systems can lead to worsening health and safety conditions in the construction industry, as well as environmental violations and poor environmental practices. the government should 112 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.8966 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.8966 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:prasanna.venkatesan@vit.ac.in https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.8966 enact adequate health and safety and environmental and local community protection laws to protect the environment and local communities during construction. clients must liaise with consultants to incorporate sufficient health and safety clauses into construction contracts and ensure judicious compliance by contractors. to reduce corruption in the construction sector, the government should strengthen its anti-corruption mechanisms. keywords construction project performance; negative factors; impact; multivariate analysis introduction the construction industry’s contribution to global gross domestic product (gdp) amounts to approximately 6% (celik, et al., 2024). the sector accounts for approximately 5% of the gdp in developed countries. however, in developing countries, the industry accounts for a contribution of over 8% (suwal, et al., 2019). the industry assists many nations (anyango, 2020). in ghana, the construction industry comprises national development and infrastructure activities and processes built around construction projects (adzivor, emuze and das, 2022). the sector’s contribution to the nation’s economy is substantial (blay jnr, et al., 2023; akomah and ramani, 2023). it generates beneficial outputs and results (blay jnr, et al., 2023), and its gdp over a 5-year period (2014–2019) grew tremendously from ghs 12,183 to ghs 21,013 (ghana statistical service, 2019), that is, usd 869.86 to usd 1,500.33 using the current exchange rate of ghs 14.00561 to a dollar. the sector accounted for 14.8% of the nation’s gdp in 2015 (stasiak-betlejewska and potkany, 2015), making it a top contributor to the nation’s economy (akomah and ramani, 2023; osei-asibey, et al., 2021). according to the african business information, the ghanaian construction industry is worth approximately 5 billion dollars, making the sector a critical component of ghana’s economic development (agyekum, goodier and oppon, 2022). the substantial economic impact of the industry necessitates the government and stakeholders to foster its development in order to enhance its overall performance and achieve its full potential (babaloa and harinarain, 2021). nevertheless, many problems hinder the performance of construction projects in the sector (gadisa and zhou, 2021; vahabi, nasirzadeh and mills, 2022). the study seeks to identify and determine the negative factors that influence construction projects’ performance in the ghanaian construction industry and to establish the relationship between the observed and latent variables using confirmatory factor analysis. negative factors that influence construction projects’ performance the evidence of the construction industry’s contribution can be seen in the numerous infrastructure projects nationwide. however, the industry’s major problems are poor performance, underperformance, cost escalation of projects, ceaseless delays, and poor environmental and community management (camacho and cruz, 2022). ngacho and das (2015) posited that construction projects are hardly completed on time, and even when they are, quality is undermined, and cost increases astronomically. amoah, ahadzie and dansoh (2007) and yada and yadeta (2016) indicated that too many underlying problems can be linked to the factors that affect performance in construction. in the ghanaian performance environment, the factors considered are typically cost, time, quality, and occasionally safety (agyekum, et al., 2021; boadu, sunindijo, and wang, 2021). research by agyekum, simons, and botchway (2018) indicated that a myriad of factors influence the performance of construction projects. unegbu, yawas and dan-asabe (2022) identified poor project management techniques as a factor that adversely affects project performance. contractors frequently fall short of performance expectations due to the use of inadequate and inefficient management techniques (ahadzie, 2008). this phenomenon arises because many business managers do not understand the sector (horvath and szabo, 2019). vulink (2004) ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025113 posited that a sizeable number of local construction firms do not employ people with the necessary industry expertise to manage their businesses. in addition to the several issues identified as challenges with contractors, the unstable nature of the economy also affects cost performance (kakar, et al., 2022). frequent economic fluctuations and disruptions often occur prior to project completion, leading to several challenges (moyo and chigara, 2022). contractors’ cash flows increase when clients honour their payment obligations. in ghana, payments for work done by contractors are most often delayed (adaku, et al., 2023). this puts much pressure on contractors, and it is sometimes the cause of their underperformance and poor quality of work or delivery. late payments to contractors are usually made without compensation, which affects their profitability and business operations (tripathi, et al., 2023). this action has had a significant influence on numerous firms, rendering them ineffective. the government’s delay in compensating contractors for work adequately executed has discouraged several banks from providing financial assistance to construction firms (fugar and agyakwah-baah, 2010). construction companies face significant challenges in obtaining credit from banks due to their frequent failure to meet loan repayment deadlines. even when they secure one, the exorbitant interest rates imposed by banks discourage many construction businesses from seeking loans (peprah, 2016). additionally, the government’s inability to improve the financial and managerial capabilities of contractors (das and rangarajan, 2020) is taking a severe toll on firms. these, together with other issues, affect contractors’ capital. several undesirable behaviours have a negative impact on project efficiency. vahabi, nasirzadeh and mills (2022) averred that design briefing is occasionally disregarded but can have a crippling effect on project performance. according to ngacho and das (2015) and tijani, jin and osei-kyei (2021), a poor work environment also affects project performance. it sometimes slows down the pace and quality of work and risks employee safety unnecessarily. poor construction supervision and strained relationships among project stakeholders are additional damaging elements that affect performance (do, nguyen and nguyen, 2022b; manoharan, et al., 2023). laryea (2010) posited that insufficient contract supervision plays a significant role in the underwhelming performance of construction projects and indicated that meticulous monitoring is essential for successfully executing an organisation’s plans. yang, huang and griffiths (2022) and lee, et al. (2022) identified insufficient geotechnical inspections as a detrimental factor to project performance. excessive variations have been noted as a significant problem by noruwa, arewa and merschbrock (2022) and gurgun and koc (2022). on the other hand, farouk kineber, et al. (2022) found a lack of value management as a factor in subpar project performance. political cronyism and corruption also have an impact on performance as well. contracts are not sometimes awarded to contractors because they merit them; they are awarded because of political affiliation (ameyaw, et al., 2017). in the research by ameyaw, et al. (2017) and agyekum, et al. (2021), cases of habitual corruption and unethical behaviour were detected among public officials, contractors, and construction professionals during the bid evaluation, tendering, and contract management stages. akomah and nani (2018) stated that the unethical association between public officials and contractors often leads to information leakages and unfair competition among firms. osei-tutu, et al. (2010) revealed that, at the contract execution stage, consultants also take bribes to grant contract variations, approve time extensions, certify defective works, or expedite wrongful payments. this action has negative implications for cost, time, and quality. the corporate social responsibilities of firms are often disregarded (tan-mullins and mohan, 2013) as a result of inadequate regulatory frameworks (mangla, et al., 2018). this is coupled with the insufficiency of environmental frameworks and monitoring, which consistently undermines efforts to address environmental protection challenges (marsh, velenturf and bernal, 2022; mangla, et al., 2018). ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025114 although the client, consultant, and contractor coordinate a project’s execution and well-being, its health and success go beyond these three parties. interestingly, failed projects are often perceived to arise from contractors’ inefficiencies rather than a holistic assessment of the subject (adebowale and agumba, 2021). as previously mentioned, several factors, among many others, negatively impact project performance. the factors extracted and modified during the literature search are listed in table 1. table 1. factors that influence the performance of construction projects. weak contractor’s managerial capacity costa, et al. (2024) lack of capital to prefinance projects akomah and ramani (2024); shang, et al. (2023) weaknesses in tender and contract management processes gamage (2023); yeboah et al. (2023); zerouali (2023) managerial challenges and leadership akomah and ramani (2024); orieno, et al. (2024) poor definition of scope, errors in design, and scope creep alhammadi, al-mohammad and rahman (2024); alzayed (2024); doloi (2024) favouritism in the tendering process and contractor selection process quinot (2024); akomah and nani (2018) poor attitude of the government towards the growth of the construction industry akomah and ramani (2024); boadu, wang, and sunindijo (2020) poor engineering capacities of firms akinradewo, et al. (2022); alkilani and loosemore (2022) poor attitude of firms towards project management and management tools and processes ghorbani (2023); paul, et al. (2023); musa, et al. (2023) low level of knowledge of construction business management shayan, pyung kim and tam (2022) unpredictable economic shocks, high interest rates, and unrealistic financial indices akomah and ramani (2024) poor performance of the local currency against major currencies akomah and ramani (2024) misapplication of mobilisation funds akomah and ramani (2024) poor management practices and poor, undefined work methods al-nahhas et al. (2024); awwad and thabet (2024) poor health and safety practices and perceptions akomah and ramani (2023); hagan, et al. (2021) inexperienced personnel, poor supervision, monitoring, and coordination akomah and ramani (2024) cumbersome client payment processes akomah and ramani (2024); oladimeji, et al. (2023) poor project planning and preparation akomah and ramani (2024) ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025115 inconsistencies in tender and contract documents mundia (2024) application of the wrong contract type smith, et al. (2023) lack of safety policy, culture, and organisational safety maturity amirah, et al. (2024); nævestad and phillips (2023) financial institutions’ reluctance to offer financial credits to contractors akomah and ramani (2024); ofori-kuragu, baiden and badu (2016) client’s restrictions and late handing over of site akomah and ramani (2024); danial and misnan (2023) lack of seriousness on the part of contractors towards competitive tendering akomah and ramani (2024); vrbka and koubkova (2023) high level of corruption, collusion, or rigging in procurement processes akomah and nani (2018); ameyaw, et al. (2017) poor maintenance culture and practices mensah, et al. (2023); quayson and akomah (2016) unqualified skilled manpower and the loss of key employees costa, et al. (2023) inclement weather and civil unrest or strike giri (2023) high number of accidents, injuries, and fatalities bria, et al. (2024) excessive political interference in public contract awards akomah and ramani (2024); oluseye (2024) lack of government regulatory and ohs policy for the construction industry akomah and ramani (2024); ebekozien, et al. (2023) fraudulent contractor–consultant activities and the consultant’s incompetence ali, et al. (2023); martin, et al. (2023) litigation among stakeholders abdul nabi, assaad and el-adaway (2024) poor estimation and underestimation of time and cost to secure contracts chadee, et al. (2023a) strained relationships among stakeholders bhattarai (2023) poor or insufficient geotechnical examinations or lack of compliance with geotechnical requirements akomah and ramani (2024) inaccuracies in geotechnical test results or poor interpretation and reporting akomah and ramani (2024) poor contractor or worker attitude debataraja (2023) escalations in material and labour rates and the high cost of equipment hiring ahmed, assefa and kassa (2023) table 1. continued ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025116 poor client or contractor financial standing or insolvency chadee, et al. (2023b) excessive variations smith, et al. (2023) poor inventory management and waste management practices akomah and ramani (2024); chawla, et al. (2024) poor communication among project participants or information delays or feedback systems abdallah, shaawat and almohassen (2024) wrong project delivery methods and poorly written contract agreements deacon and kajimo-shakantu (2024); ruedabenavides, et al. (2024) bureaucracies in clearing goods at the ports rucha, ogollah and amakobe (2024) selection and use of wrong or outdated equipment or technologies disney, et al. (2024) poor security and on-site housekeeping chinniah, et al. (2024) lack of quality assurance and quality control structures shaban, al-hassan and mohamad (2024) poor man management aghimien, aigbavboa and aghimien (2024) poor integration of stakeholders’ activities and negative stakeholder attitudes alkilani and loosemore (2024) poor estimation of community interference with work or community dissatisfaction aigbavboa and akinradewo (2024) lack of community involvement and disregard for the opinions of the local community aigbavboa and akinradewo (2024); bouadam and chetbi (2024) compromised working conditions and environment lawani, et al. (2024) change in political leadership saka, et al. (2024) absence of value management misnan, ismail and yan (2024) lack of performance management and measurement systems and poor performance targets garengo and betto (2024); adedokun and egbelakin (2024) poor work rules and restricted work practices radzi, et al. (2024); kilaka (2024) poorly prepared bill of quantities nani (2021) poor scheduling akomah and ramani (2024); gurgun, koc and kunkcu (2024); li, et al. (2022) unreliable cost control systems tembo, muleya and kanyemba (2024) neglecting the provision and use of ppe hanani, et al. (2024) table 1. continued ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025117 neglecting local communities as stakeholders or lack of awareness of local communities as stakeholders corazza, cottafava and torchia (2023); eikelenboom and long (2023) non-inclusion of occupational health and safety in contracts akomah and ramani (2024); kukoyi, faremi and osuizugbo (2023); emma-ochu, et al. (2021); smallwood (2020) poor environmental practices akomah and ramani (2024); radzi, et al. (2024) inadequate environmental legislative framework to address modern environmental concerns in the delivery of construction projects akomah and ramani (2024); radzi, et al. (2024); the use of obsolete technologies akomah and ramani (2024); maqbool, saiba and ashfaq (2023) methodology this study hinges on the positivist philosophy, which requires the use of a scientific method to measure, quantify, and explain a phenomenon and make predictions (saunders, lewis and thornhill, 2019; creswell, 2014; newman, 2014). to reduce bias, a deductive approach was adopted to develop research solutions that fulfil the purpose of the study and lead to generalisable and replicable conclusions (saunders, lewis and thornhill, 2019). this approach is more logically driven and objective (ketokivi and mantere, 2010) and involves a highly structured design ( johnson and christensen, 2014). the search for a highly structured design, statistical data, and conclusions led to the selection of a quantitative method (newman, 2014). creswell (2014) indicated that a research strategy is influenced by the philosophy adopted, the approach, and the choice of methodology. the research strategy employed in the study is the survey strategy. this strategy is useful and effective in the management of research studies (bryman, 2009), and above all, it allows for the random selection of research participants from a large population (vanderstoep and johnston, 2009). boote and beile (2005) indicated that an existing body of knowledge in a particular subject area is the foundation of every research project. this is because literature provides information that develops a framework to interrogate current studies (creswell and plano clark, 2018) and put them in the proper perspective (creswell, 2014). the study commenced with an extensive literature review to identify the negative factors that impact construction projects’ performance. the search led to the identification of many factors. these variables were adapted to suit the purpose of the study. the identified factors led to the generation of 66 negative factors noted to have an enervating effect on construction projects’ performance. out of these factors, a questionnaire was generated. the questionnaire was divided into the demographic and negative performance variables sections. section 1 sought to collect the needed bio information deemed relevant to the study, while section 2 aimed at collecting data on negative factors that influence the performance of projects. the second section was created using a five-point scale, with one indicating very low influence and five indicating very high influence. this was done to increase the instrument’s consistency. the increase in scale points is proportional to the instrument’s consistency (akomah and ramani, 2023). the study included a population of 7,925 individuals. it was an all-inclusive population, comprising 2,714 contractors and 240 construction lecturers from the various technical universities who were also practitioners. in addition to the earlier mentioned figures, there were 566 architects, 439 quantity surveyors, table 1. continued ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025118 900 professional engineers from the institution of engineering and technology, and 3,066 from the ghana institution of engineering who were in good standing at the time of the data collection. contacts with professional bodies and department heads at various technical universities provided some data sources, while the secretariats directed researchers to use institutional websites for others. the 10 technical universities were chosen because they accounted for over 50% of the universities that provide construction and buildingrelated programs. furthermore, they were dispersed across various regions of the country (akomah and ramani, 2024). these categories of professionals were considered because of their knowledge and experience in the construction industry. before the selection process, the lists were screened to ensure that professional members of multiple professional bodies were identified and given only one selection opportunity. gay, mills and airasian (2012) claimed that sample size becomes irrelevant beyond 5,000 and that a sample size of 400 is sufficient. cohen, manion and morrison (2005) indicated that survey studies need larger sample sizes to make inferences. bagozzi and yi (2012) averred that robust and complex models require sample sizes above 200. based on bagozzi and yi’s claim, a sample of 635 was drawn from the abovementioned population. this was slightly higher than what gay, mills and airasian recommended to account for non-responses and other survey-related deficiencies. classifying the population as all-inclusive led to the use of a simple random sampling method to select the professionals, thereby creating equal opportunities for all (edmonds and kennedy, 2017). without substitution, the selection of the professionals was finalised. professionals who were chosen but did not wish to participate in the study were excluded, allowing others to be chosen. at the end of the simple random sampling process, a total of 152 quantity surveyors, 76 lecturers, 202 engineers, 63 architects, and 142 contractors were sampled. data were collected using questionnaires administered through emails and whatsapp, with others delivered by hand in hard copies. the personal information of respondents was analysed using descriptive statistics. the next step was using exploratory factor analysis (efa), a statistical data reduction method for assessing the unidimensionality and reliability of the negative factors that influence the performance of construction projects in ghana (watkins, 2018). maximum likelihood with varimax rotation (ml varimax) was used for the extraction and rotation of the factors. the threshold for factor loading was established at 0.5, which is an increment from the 0.40 value proposed by field (2005). items with factor loadings below 0.5 were eliminated because they did not adequately represent the measured construct. the corrected item-total correlation was extracted for items using efa and a cutoff of 0.30. brown (2015) claimed that cfa is utilised for model measurement and offers beneficial knowledge on data fitness. the multivariate correlational analysis efa was performed using spss version 26. however, the cfa was undertaken using amos version 22. the robust evaluation of the proposed cfa model was conducted using table 2. results biodata of respondents the valid questionnaires received were 454, representing 71.50% of the 635 questionnaires distributed. among the valid responses were 84 contractors, 134 quantity surveyors, 62 lecturers, 49 architects, and 125 engineers. the data revealed that 68 respondents who participated in the survey had 2–5 years of working experience, 126 had 6–10 years, 103 had 11–15 years, 101 had 16–20 years, and 56 had 21 years and above experience. ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025119 exploratory factor analysis—negative factors the analysis commenced with factor extraction using ml varimax to determine whether factor analysis could be employed. the results yielded a kaiser-meyer-olkin (kmo) of 0.948 and bartlett’s test of sphericity of p < 0.000. this indicated consistency with the recommended kmo cutoff value of 0.70 and bartlett’s test of sphericity of p<0.05, as hair et al. (2010) suggested. the kmo and bartlett’s test of sphericity confirmed the dataset’s factorability, indicating that factor analysis was suitable for identifying the negative factors. after the analysis, 33 out of the 66 variables were excluded because they had factor loadings below 0.5. the factors deemed an excellent representation of the negative factor construct are presented in table 3. for the first component, 10 items recorded thresholds of more than 0.5 and were labelled poor assessment strategies (pas). the second component loaded 10 items and measured weak management systems (wms). thirteen items were loaded on the third component and were categorised as inefficient regulatory systems (ips). cronbach’s alphas of 0.920 for the first component (pas), 0.853 for the second component (wms), and 0.913 for the third component (ips) were all above the threshold of 0.800, indicating adequate internal reliability for the extracted items (nanually and bernstein, 1994). table 4 provides information on the unidimensionality and reliability of poor assessment strategies, weak management systems, and inefficient regulatory systems. confirmatory factor analysis—negative factors the fitness of the hypothesised model was performed using cfa after the results from the efa revealed that the constructs were unidimensional and reliable. the nf model’s sample data produced an s – bχ2 of 4.732 with 347 degrees of freedom (df) and a probability of p = 0.0000. chi-square values of 5 or less can be used as a benchmark, according to hanneman, kposowa and riddle (2013). as evidenced by the chi-square value, the deviation of the sample data from the proposed model was considerable; hence, the model is deemed a good fit. table 2. indices for robust evaluation. fit index cutoff value comment source s – bχ2 kline, 2016; hu and bentler, 1999 df 0≥ acceptable cfi 0.90≥ acceptable 0.95≥ good fit good fit pcfi less than 0.80 good fit rmsea less than 0.08 acceptable rmsea 95% ci 0.00–0.08 “good fit” acceptable nfi greater than 0.90 “good fit” good fit ifi greater than 0.90 “good fit” good fit pnfi less than 0.80 good fit rmr less than 0.05 “good fit” good fit gfi greater than 0.90 “good fit” good fit ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025120 table 3. negative factors that influence construction projects’ performance. negative factors components 1 2 3 inadequate environmental legislative framework to address modern environmental concerns in the delivery of construction projects 0.822 poor environmental practices 0.810 non-inclusion of occupational health and safety in contracts 0.789 neglecting local communities as stakeholders and lack of awareness of local communities as stakeholders 0.749 lack of community involvement and disregard for the opinions of the local community 0.740 absence of value management 0.701 poor estimation of community interference with work and community dissatisfaction 0.549 poor communication among project participants and information delays and feedback systems 0.518 inaccuracies in geotechnical test results and poor interpretation and reporting 0.507 excessive variations 0.506 inexperienced personnel, poor supervision, monitoring, and coordination 0.646 poor project planning and preparation 0.563 poor management practices and poor, undefined work methods 0.563 poorly prepared bill of quantities 0.554 strained relationships among stakeholders 0.552 poor engineering capacities of firms 0.534 managerial challenges and leadership 0.519 poor or insufficient geotechnical examinations and lack of compliance with geotechnical requirements 0.515 weak contractor’s managerial capacity 0.512 cumbersome client payment processes 0.506 client constraints and late site handover 0.665 lack of seriousness on the part of contractors towards competitive tendering 0.638 poor maintenance culture and practices 0.619 high level of corruption, collusion, and rigging in procurement processes 0.613 ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025121 the obtained comparative fit index (cfi) value of 0.920 exceeded the cutoff limit of 0.90, indicating that the model is acceptable. as shown in table 5, the normed fit index (nfi) value obtained was 0.983, more significant than the cutoff value of nfi ≥ 0.90. this indicates that the model is adequate. the obtained parsimony normed fit index (pnfi) value was 0.719, less than the cutoff value of 0.80, indicating a good fit (schumacker and lomax, 2010). the root mean square residual (rmr) value was less than 0.05, at 0.035. this suggests that the model is well-fitting (brown, 2015; schumacker and lomax, 2010). the goodnessof-fit index (gfi) value, on the other hand, was 0.911 and greater than 0.090, indicating a good fit (byrne, 2010; schumacker and lomax, 2010; kline, 2016). these fit indices for the nf model suggest that the proposed model adequately describes the sample data. table 5 shows the robust fit indices for model evaluation. the unidimensional model for nf features can be seen in figure 1 and table 6. out of the 66 indicator variables, 28 were obtained and used for the final cfa analysis. from the 454 cases analysed for this construct, 28 indicator variables made up of three components were deduced as pas (pas1, pas2, pas3, pas4, pas5, pas6, pas7, pas8, pas9, and pas10), wms (wms1, wms2, wms3, wms4, wms6, and wms8), and ips (ips1, ips2, ips3, ips4, ips5, ips6, ips7, ips8, ips9, ips11, ips12, and ips13). table 4. unidimensionality and reliability of the three extracted components. component latent component cronbach’s alphas component 1 poor assessment strategies (pas) 0.920 component 2 weak management systems (wms) 0.853 component 3 inefficient regulatory systems (ips) 0.913 negative factors components 1 2 3 financial institutions’ reluctance to offer financial credits to contractors 0.591 lack of government regulatory and ohs policy for the construction industry 0.591 fraudulent contractor–consultant activities and the consultant’s incompetence 0.550 unreliable cost control systems 0.548 application of the wrong contract type 0.539 excessive political interference in public contract awards 0.524 poor attitude of the government towards the growth of the construction industry 0.518 poor health and safety practices and perceptions 0.517 neglecting the provision and use of ppe 0.504 table 3. continued ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025122 table 6. final conceptual model indicator variables for negative factors construct. latent component indicator variable measurement variable label poor assessment strategies (pas) inadequate environmental legislative framework to address modern environmental concerns in the delivery of construction projects pas1 poor environmental practices pas2 non-inclusion of occupational health and safety in contracts pas3 neglecting local communities as stakeholders and lack of awareness of local communities as stakeholders pas4 lack of community involvement and disregard for the opinions of the local community pas5 absence of value management pas6 poor estimation of community interference with work and community dissatisfaction pas7 poor communication among project participants and information delays and feedback systems pas8 inaccuracies in geotechnical test results and poor interpretation and reporting pas9 excessive variations pas10 table 5. robust fit indices for adaptability and integration for negative factors. fit index cutoff value estimate comment s – bχ2 4.732 df 0≥ 347 acceptable cfi 0.90≥ acceptable 0.95≥ good fit 0.920 good fit pcfi less than 0.80 0.752 good fit rmsea less than 0.08 0.071 acceptable rmsea 95% ci 0.00–0.08 “good fit” 0.063–0.074 acceptable nfi greater than 0.90 “good fit” 0.983 good fit ifi greater than 0.90 “good fit” 0.920 good fit pnfi less than 0.80 0.719 good fit rmr less than 0.05 “good fit” 0.035 good fit gfi greater than 0.90 “good fit” 0.911 good fit ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025123 latent component indicator variable measurement variable label weak management systems (wms) inexperienced personnel, poor supervision, monitoring, and coordination wms1 poor project planning and preparation wms2 poor management practices and poor, undefined work methods wms3 poorly prepared bill of quantities wms4 poor engineering capacities of firms wms6 poor or insufficient geotechnical examinations and lack of compliance with geotechnical requirements wms8 inefficient regulatory systems (ips) client constraints and late site handover ips1 lack of seriousness on the part of contractors towards competitive tendering ips2 poor maintenance culture and practices ips3 high level of corruption, collusion, and rigging in procurement processes ips4 financial institutions’ reluctance to offer financial credits to contractors ips5 lack of government regulatory and ohs policy for the construction industry ips6 fraudulent contractor–consultant activities and the consultant’s incompetence ips7 unreliable cost control systems ips8 application of the wrong contract type ips9 poor attitude of the government towards the growth of the construction industry ips11 poor health and safety practices and perception ips12 neglecting the provision and use of ppe ips13 the correlation values, standard errors, and test statistics for the 28 indicator variables are shown in table 7. all the correlation values were less than 1.00, and all the p-values were less than the 0.05 significance level. as a result, the estimates are deemed statistically significant. the indicator with variable pas2 had the highest standardised coefficient, with a parameter coefficient of 0.855. this is followed by pas1, pas3, pas4, pas5, pas6, ips1, ips6, ips7, ips12, wms6, wms3, and wms2 in that order. the correlation values of most estimates indicate a strong linear relationship between the indicator variables and the unobserved variables (pas, wms, and ips). furthermore, the coefficient of determination (r2) values indicate that the factors explain a significant proportion of the variance in the indicator variables. table 6. continued ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025124 because all of the measured variables are significantly associated with the three components (pas, wms, and ips) under the negative factors that influence the performance of construction projects, the results suggest that the indicator variables predict the unobserved components. discussion of results the multivariate discussion of the negative factors the results obtained for the negative factors indicate a high correlation between the variables and their constructs. poor assessment strategies (0.920), and inefficient regulatory systems (0.913), are found to be more highly correlated with their constructs than weak management systems (0.853) based on their figure 1. cfa model for negative factors that influence the performance of construction projects. ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025125 table 7. factor loading and p-value of negative factors construct. hypothesised relationships (path) unstandardised coefficient (λ) standardised coefficient (λ) p-value r2 significant at the 5% level pas1  pas 1.000 0.822 0.00 0.676 yes pas2  pas 1.138 0.855 0.00 0.732 yes pas3  pas 1.014 0.805 0.00 0.642 yes pas4  pas 1.041 0.786 0.00 0.618 yes pas5  pas 1.021 0.775 0.00 0.601 yes pas6  pas 1.010 0.739 0.00 0.546 yes pas7  pas 0.664 0.645 0.00 0.416 yes pas8  pas 0.602 0.616 0.00 0.379 yes pas9  pas 0.667 0.629 0.00 0.396 yes pas10  pas 0.660 0.627 0.00 0.393 yes wms1  wms 1.000 0.611 0.00 0.374 yes wms2  wms 1.094 0.682 0.00 0.465 yes wms3  wms 1.131 0.681 0.00 0.464 yes wms4  wms 1.103 0.648 0.00 0.419 yes wms6  wms 1.057 0.696 0.00 0.355 yes wms8  wms 1.151 0.649 0.00 0.421 yes ips1  ips 1.000 0.710 0.00 0.504 yes ips2  ips 0.941 0.664 0.00 0.441 yes ips3  ips 0.960 0.662 0.00 0.438 yes ips4  ips 0.785 0.661 0.00 0.437 yes ips5  ips 0.923 0.674 0.00 0.455 yes ips6  ips 0.908 0.710 0.00 0.504 yes ips7  ips 0.917 0.704 0.00 0.495 yes ips8  ips 0.886 0.669 0.00 0.448 yes ips9  ips 0.967 0.694 0.00 0.482 yes ips11  ips 0.894 0.658 0.00 0.433 yes ips12  ips 0.942 0.696 0.00 0.484 yes ips13  ips 0.769 0.620 0.00 0.385 yes ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025126 cronbach alphas. the 28 factors defining the negative factor model are grouped under the three constructs outlined above, making the hypothesised model a three-factor model. according to the cfa model in figure 1, pas, ips, and wms recorded 10, 12, and 6 subfactors, respectively. the model fit indices reveal that the model has a good fit. all the explanatory variables identified under the three constructs are statistically significant at 5%. pas1, pas2, pas3, pas4, pas5, and pas6 explain more than 50% of the variances in pas. pas2— poor environmental practices alone describes 73.2%, the highest among the variables measuring pas and all other constructs. ips1 and ips6 also explain more than 50% of the variability in ips. pas2 recorded the highest standardised coefficient (0.855) and r2 (0.732 or 73.2%). this is followed by pas1 and pas3 with standardised coefficients of 0.822 and 0.805 and r2 of 0.676 or 67.6% and 0.642 or 64.2%, respectively. the factor loading and p-values indicate that pas variables constitute significant adversarial factors. poor assessment strategies (pas) from the hypothesised cfa model labelled figure 1, 10 pas subfactors are pernicious to project performance. pas recorded a correlation coefficient of 0.39. out of these 10 factors, six subfactors (pas1 to pas6), as indicated in table 7, are considered significant because they have high standardised coefficients. the factors include pas2 (0.855), pas1 (0.822), pas3 (0.805), pas4 (0.786), pas5 (0.775), and pas6 (0.739). moderating the environmental impact of construction activities has gained momentum over the years. ali, et al. (2020) hypothesised that harmful environmental practices imperil the environment and reduce sociocultural and economic benefits. in light of this, maqbool and amaechi (2022) argued that environmental practices must strive not only to minimise negative impact but also to restore environmental, social, and economic sustainability. environmental considerations are imperative (naji, gunduz and falamarzi, 2022). poor environmental practices should be clamped down using regulatory frameworks by establishing the standards for preventing harmful environmental practices. stricter environmental regulations are required. it has been noted that an insufficient environmental legislative framework leads to an increase in pollution, a negative public perception, a lack of accountability, the destruction of habitat, the production of greenhouse gases, and, ultimately, climate change (zulu, et al., 2022; prakash, 2021). sahu, et al. (2023) opined that environmental frameworks must ensure the adoption and implementation of ecofriendly operations by firms. health and safety as a critical construction subject cannot be overlooked (dimitriou and papakostas, 2022). it is a vital performance indicator of a successful project. the current study supports the work of boadu, et al. (2022), who averred that adequate provisions for health and safety in construction contracts should be made. raza, tayeh and ali (2022) claimed that incorporating health and safety as a contractual requirement by the client influences the contractor’s behaviour and results in higher compliance with health and safety (h&s) standards. in numerous construction initiatives, local communities are frequently neglected, alienated, or not regarded as stakeholders. in most cases, their perspectives on the sociocultural implications are not solicited. nevertheless, kordi, et al. (2021) and sen, kotlarsky and budhwar (2020) indicated that communities are significant external constituents who should not be ignored because their feelings and disapproval can have detrimental effects on a project. the current study agrees with the findings of dikmen, et al. (2022). they indicated that assessment is necessary for decision-making. inefficient regulatory systems (ips) the regression coefficient of the hypothesised cfa model is 0.25. the findings reveal that ips is significantly influenced by 3 subfactors out of the 12: ips1, ips6, and ips7, as indicated in table 7. the ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025127 most significant are ips1 and ips6. handing over the site to a successful contractor to formally commence a contractual obligation is a common attribute in construction projects. clients, however, occasionally cause delays in this. it is a root cause of claims, according to parchami jalal, et al. (2019). parikh, joshi and patel (2019) supported the claim and indicated that a correlation exists between late handover and legal costs. this study further reinforces the earlier findings and conclusions. boadu, sunindijo and wang (2021), donkoh and aboagye-nimo (2016), and akomah, boakye and fugar (2010) have all bemoaned the lack of adequate regulations and policies in the ghanaian construction industry as well as the difficulties this lack creates. they cited this as the reason for some contractors’ noncompliance and blatant disregard for health and safety in their operations. according to boadu, sunindijo and wang (2021), no national construction industry health and safety policy exists. the construction industry requires a distinct policy (chigara and moyo, 2022). the absence of policies and stringent regulations creates a hazardous workplace (pamidimukkala and kermanshachi, 2021). good state regulatory systems improve health and safety performance (ogogo, omwenga and paul, 2019; hafner, 2018). apart from government interventions to streamline health and safety in the construction industry, ebekozien (2022) argued that companies owe their employees internal mechanisms to safeguard them from on-site dangers. identifying ips as a negative factor supports the findings of jin, et al. (2022). weak management systems (wms) among the three latent constructs, the weak management system recorded a minimum regression coefficient (β) of 0.15. three of the six subfactors that define wms are considered significant negative contributors to project performance. these are the wms6, wms2, and wms3. the engineering capacity of a construction firm is its ability to perform irrespective of diverse and challenging circumstances. this finding endorses the conclusions drawn by gadisa and zhou (2021). the authors identified poor engineering capacities of firms as the primary cause of performance problems. ogunnusi, et al. (2021), yap, et al. (2021), and almunifi and almutairi (2021) revealed that firms with poor engineering capacity are not adaptive or proactive, often work behind schedule, and are accustomed to compromised quality. yap, et al. (2021) posited that there is a significant association between appropriate managerial competency and high productivity rates. the study finding agrees with do, nguyen and dang (2022a). they indicated that the poor performance of contractors is due to insufficient engineering capacity. continuous capacitybuilding programmes are required to enhance firms’ capabilities (ayat, et al., 2021). planning plays a crucial role in the success of a project (irfan, et al., 2021). yap, et al. (2021) ranked ineffective planning and poor scheduling as the most critical factors often resulting in project delays. the conclusion drawn in the study of yap et al. is supported by the study of durdyev (2021) and this current work. othman, et al. (2021) posited that poor preparation is the greatest obstacle to performance achievement. management is at the core of every construction business operation. the study results show that poor management practices and poor, undefined work methods are inimical. yuan, et al. (2021) avowed that good management aids efficient tracking and control. however, poor and undefined work methods create work overloads, a poor working environment, and mental stressors (tijani, jin and osei-kyei, 2021) that result in low productivity. weak management systems increase risk and negatively influence prompt completion and the achievement of project goals (adeleke, et al., 2019; haron, et al., 2017). conclusion the exploratory factor analysis identified inadequate environmental legislative framework to address modern environmental concerns in the delivery of construction projects, poor environmental practices, and noninclusion of occupational health and safety in contracts as the three most relevant factors that can take a toll on project performance. ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025128 the cfa model classified negative factors under three main headings, namely, pas, ips, and wms. pas was highlighted as the factor significantly influencing performance among the three components. its subfactors, poor environmental practices (pas2), the inadequate environmental legislative framework to address modern environmental concerns in the delivery of construction projects (pas1), and non-inclusion of occupational health and safety in contracts (pas3), were recognised as the most relevant factors across the three thematic components. the findings show that environmental, health, and safety issues; prompt handover of the site to the contractor by the client; government regulatory frameworks; and occupational health and safety (ohs) policies are central to a construction project’s overall performance and success. furthermore, it is imperative for project stakeholders to refrain from imposing any limitations on projects. implications of the study the results provide crucial information to bolster existing literature by expanding the subject and unearthing pertinent issues detrimental to construction projects. it serves as the foundation for future research. the study findings also have significant practical implications because they identify the negative factors affecting construction projects’ performance, which serves as a valuable source of information for all project stakeholders to avoid throughout the process from conception to delivery. the results suggest that poor assessment strategies, inefficient regulatory systems, and weak management systems can lead to poor environmental practices, violations of environmental protocols, and the erosion of contractors’ health and safety consciousness. local communities would be adversely affected if the project scope and impact were not comprehensively evaluated. in addition, the findings can lead to faulty project implementation, poor planning and coordination, and poor supervision and monitoring. these can impact and undermine the progress and success of projects, and they can affect project organisation and adherence to vital project delivery issues. the results show that project stakeholders like the government, clients, consultants, and contractors have specific roles to play in achieving the needed performance on a project. in terms of construction sector policy, the findings identify crucial areas like the environment and health and safety, where government and client leadership and interventions are required. study recommendations based on the findings, pas2 and pas1, consultants must perform a thorough environmental assessment to identify the environmental factors that could affect projects, impact nearby communities, and interact with them to determine their concerns and factor them into their decision-making processes right from the project initiation phase. communities must be viewed from the beginning as critical external stakeholders, and their views must not be ignored. the discoveries from the environmental assessment must be incorporated into the design and procurement processes, as well as the construction and decommissioning phases of a project. contractors must put in structures to safeguard the project environment and communities and reduce any interaction with communities and the environment that may breach identified environmental concerns to the barest minimum. the government must purposefully develop good environmental frameworks and legislation for the construction industry to safeguard its operations and ensure sound environmental practices. this legislation must place specific responsibilities on all stakeholders, compel contractors to adhere to sound environmental practices, and prescribe appropriate sanctions for perpetrators who may violate such environmental provisions. ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025129 the government, through the public procurement authority (ppa), must sanitise the procurement landscape of fraud and corruption by identifying the weaknesses in the public procurement act to strengthen its anti-corruption mechanisms. the government should create a sound financial environment by promptly fulfilling its payment commitments to contractors. this would significantly improve their prospects of obtaining loans from financial institutions. the government must implement h&s regulatory mechanisms in the construction industry to deal with health and safety issues. to encourage contractors to fulfil their contractual obligations to their employees, clients, and consultants, they must ensure that every construction contract includes adequate provisions for health and safety. firms must build their engineering capacities and adhere to good project management practices. they must view planning and preparation as a critical phase of a project. additionally, they should organise capacity-building training for personnel to enhance their supervisory, monitoring, and coordination responsibilities. limitations of the study like every other study, this one has some limitations. the inference that poor assessment strategies, inefficient regulatory systems, and weak management systems negatively affect project performance represents the opinion of the professionals who participated in the study. this conclusion may be different in developed settings with knowledge sophistication and technology, rigorous professional training, and regulatory regimes, and in some developing countries where project conceptualisation and implementation are guided. however, the findings presented here could be helpful in jurisdictions that share similarities with ghana. the efa technique used is based on the premise that there is a linear relationship between the observable variables and the underlying factors. not meeting this assumption could have potentially resulted in erroneous efa findings. the epa technique requires substantial computational resources, especially when dealing with large datasets. the determination of the number of components to extract in efa relies on subjective opinion. there is no absolute, impartial approach to determine the number of components to extract. cfa models utilise the chi-square test to evaluate the sufficiency of models. however, it is susceptible to the impact of sample size and tends to disregard models with large samples. furthermore, it lacks the ability to provide insights about the extent and orientation of the disagreement. future research endeavours should prioritise cross-national surveys with experts from diverse countries and continents to enable broader generalisation regarding the utilised variables. subjectivity in the application of efa and the vulnerability of the chi-square can be mitigated by employing nonlinear models and advanced deep learning algorithms. list of abbreviations cfi, comparative fit index ci, confidence interval df, degrees of freedom gfi, goodness-of-fit index h&s, health and safety ifi, incremental fit index ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025130 nfi, normed fit index ohs, occupational health and safety pcfi, parsimony comparative fit index pnfi, parsimony normed fit index χ2, pearson chi-squared rmsea, root mean square error of approximation rmr, root mean square residual references abdallah, a.a., shaawat, m.e. and almohassen, a.s., 2024. causes of miscommunication leading to project delays and low work quality in the construction industry of saudi arabia. ain shams engineering journal, [e-journal] 15(3), p.102447. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2023.102447 abdul nabi, m., assaad, r.h. and el-adaway, i.h., 2024. modelling and understanding dispute causation in the us public–private partnership projects. journal of infrastructure systems, [e-journal] 30(1), p.04023035. https://doi. org/10.1061/jitse4.iseng-2328 adaku, e., osei-poku, v., ottou, j.a. and yirenkyi-fianko, a., 2023. contractor payment delays: a systematic review of current trends and future directions. construction innovation, [e-journal] (ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/ ci-12-2022-0317 adebowale, o.j. and agumba. j.n., 2021. a meta-analysis of factors affecting labour productivity of construction smes in developing countries. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] (ahead-of-print). https://doi. org/10.1108/jedt-05-2021-0277 adedokun, o. and egbelakin, t., 2024. structural equation modelling of risk factors influencing the success of building projects. journal of facilities management, [e-journal] 22(1), pp.64-90. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-01-2022-0002 adeleke, a.q., bahaudin, a.y., kamaruddeen, a.m., bamgbade, j.a. and ali, m.w., 2019. an empirical analysis of organizational external factors on construction risk management. international journal of supply chain management, 8(1), pp. 932-40. adzivor, e.k., emuze, f. and das, d.k., 2022. indicators for safety culture in sme construction firms: a delphi study in ghana. journal of financial management of property and construction, [e-journal] 28(3), pp.293-316. https://doi. org/10.1108/jfmpc-04-2022-0020 aghimien, l., aigbavboa, c.o. and aghimien, d., 2024. construction workforce management. in: construction workforce management in the fourth industrial revolution era. [e-book] emerald publishing limited. ch.2, pp. 11-39. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83797-018-620241002 agyekum, k., adinyira, e. and amudjie, j., 2021. ethical misconducts within the invitation to tender and tender evaluation and award stages of construction contracts in ghana. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 19(5), pp.1101-23. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-07-2020-0274 agyekum, k., ghansah, f.a., tetteh, p.a. and amudjie, j., 2021. the role of project managers (pms) in construction health and safety implementation in ghana. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 19(1), pp.245-62. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2020-0122 agyekum, k., goodier, c. and oppon, j.a., 2022. key drivers for green building project financing in ghana. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 29(8), pp.3023-50. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ecam-02-2021-0131 ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025131 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2023.102447 https://doi.org/10.1061/jitse4.iseng-2328 https://doi.org/10.1061/jitse4.iseng-2328 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-12-2022-0317 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-12-2022-0317 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-05-2021-0277 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-05-2021-0277 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-01-2022-0002 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-04-2022-0020 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-04-2022-0020 https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83797-018-620241002 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-07-2020-0274 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2020-0122 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2021-0131 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2021-0131 agyekum, k., simons, b. and botchway, s., 2018. factors influencing the performance of safety programmes in the ghanaian construction industry. acta structilia, [e-journal] 25(2), pp.39-68. https://doi.org/10.18820/24150487/ as25i2.2 ahadzie, d. 2008. a model for predicting the performance of project managers in mass housing building projects in ghana. ph. d. wolverhampton university. available at: https://wlv.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/2436/15393/ahadzie_ phd%20?sequence=2 [accessed 27 july 2022]. ahmed, h.m., assefa, m. and kassa, e.c., 2023. factors affecting the time overrun of road construction projects in ethiopia. international journal of procurement management, 17(1), pp.1-25. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpm.2023.130265 aigbavboa, c.o. and akinradewo, i.o., 2024. impact of community on construction projects: lessons from south africa. in: routledge handbook on labour in construction and human settlements: the built environment at work [e-book] crc press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003262671-17 akinradewo, o., aghimien, d., aigbavboa, c. and onyia, m., 2022. factors influencing the adoption of insurance as a risk treatment tool by contractors in the construction industry. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(13), pp.2484-92. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1797986 akomah, b.b. and nani, g., 2018. redefining corrupt public procurement practices in ghana based on stakeholders’ perception. international journal of innovative research and development, 7(9), pp.15-23. https://doi.org/10.24940/ ijird/2018/v7/i9/sep18017 akomah, b.b. and ramani, p.v., 2023. local government institutions in ghana: core partners in health and safety performance in the construction industry. heliyon, [e-journal] 9(2023), p.e19423. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. heliyon.2023.e19423 akomah, b.b. and ramani, p.v., 2024. confirmatory factor analysis of the positive factors influencing the performance of ghanaian construction projects. construction innovation, [e-journal] https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-08-2022-0190 akomah, b.b., boakye, n.a. and fugar. r., 2010. safety on construction sites: the role of the employer and employee. in: laryea, s., leiringer, r. and hughes, w., eds. west africa built environment research conference (waber). accra, republic of ghana, 27-28 july 2010. accra: british council. alhammadi, y., al-mohammad, m.s. and rahman, r.a., 2024. modelling the causes and mitigation measures for cost overruns in building construction: the case of higher education projects. buildings, [e-journal] 14(2), p.487. https://doi. org/10.3390/buildings14020487 ali, m., iqbal, s., tanoli, w.a. and musarat, m.a., 2023. identification and assessment of factors causing delays in construction projects at public sector universities in khyber pakhtunkhwa, pakistan. the sciencetech, 4(3), pp.111-33. ali, y., saad, t.b., sabir, m., muhammad, n., salman, a. and zeb, k., 2020. integration of green supply chain management practices in construction supply chain of cpec. management of environmental quality: an international journal, [e-journal] 31(1), pp.185-200. https://doi.org/10.1108/meq-12-2018-0211 alkilani, s. and loosemore, m., 2022. project performance measurement for small-and-medium sized construction contractors in the jordanian construction industry. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 40(10), pp.74369. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2022.2108863 alkilani, s. and loosemore, m., 2024. an investigation of how stakeholders influence construction project performance: a small and medium sized contractor’s perspective in the jordanian construction industry. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 31(3), pp.1272-97. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2022-0539 almunifi, a.a. and almutairi, s., 2021. lessons learned framework for efficient delivery of construction projects in saudi arabia. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 21(4), pp.115-41. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v21i4.7858 ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025132 https://doi.org/10.18820/24150487/as25i2.2 https://doi.org/10.18820/24150487/as25i2.2 https://wlv.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/2436/15393/ahadzie_phd%20?sequence=2 https://wlv.openrepository.com/bitstream/handle/2436/15393/ahadzie_phd%20?sequence=2 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpm.2023.130265 https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003262671-17 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1797986 https://doi.org/10.24940/ijird/2018/v7/i9/sep18017 https://doi.org/10.24940/ijird/2018/v7/i9/sep18017 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19423 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e19423 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-08-2022-0190 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14020487 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14020487 https://doi.org/10.1108/meq-12-2018-0211 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2022.2108863 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2022-0539 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7858 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i4.7858 al-nahhas, y.s., hadidi, l.a., islam, m.s., skitmore, m. and abunada, z., 2024. modified mamdani-fuzzy inference system for predicting the cost overrun of construction projects. applied soft computing, 151, p.111152. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.asoc.2023.111152 alzayed, a., 2024. evaluating the role of requirements engineering practices in the sustainability of electronic government solutions. sustainability, [e-journal] 16(1), p.433. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16010433 ameyaw, e.e., parn, e., chan, a.p.c., owusu-manu, d.g., edwards, d.j. and darko, a., 2017. corrupt practices in the construction industry: survey of ghanaian experience. journal of management engineering, [e-journal] 33(6), p.05017006. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000555 amirah, n.a., him, n.f.n., rashid, a., rasheed, r., zaliha, t.n. and afthanorhan, a., 2024. fostering a safety culture in manufacturing industry through safety behaviour: a structural equation modelling approach. journal of safety and sustainability. [e-journal] https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsasus.2024.03.001 amoah, p., ahadzie, d.k. and dansoh, a., 2007. the factors affecting construction performance: the perspective of small-scale in ghana building contractors. the ghana surveyor journal, 4(1), pp.41-48. anyango, a., 2020. top construction companies in ghana. [online] construction review online. available at: https:// constructionreviewonline.com/2018/07/top-constructioncompaniesin-ghana/ [accessed 8 february 2021]. awwad, r. and thabet, z., 2024. effect of implementing sustainable management practices on construction claim mitigation. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 40(1), p.04023065. https://doi.org/10.1061/jmenea. meeng-5552 ayat, m., rehman, h., qureshi, s.m. and kang, c.w., 2021. assessing the causes of project overruns in tunnel construction projects in pakistan. international journal of construction management, [e-journal], pp.1-11. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/15623599.2021.2017541 babalola, a., and n. harinarain. 2021. policy barriers to sustainable construction practice in the nigerian construction industry: an exploratory factor analysis. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] (ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-07-2021-0375 bagozzi, r.p., and yi., y. 2012. specification, evaluation, and interpretation of structural equation models. journal of the academy of marketing science, [e-journal] 40(1), pp.8-34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-011-0278-x bhattarai, m., 2023. causes of delay in construction projects in nepal. saudi journal of engineering and technology, [e-journal] 8(6), pp.108-14. https://doi.org/10.36348/sjet.2023.v08i06.001 blay jnr, a.v.k., kukah, a.s.k., opoku, a. and asiedu, r., 2023. impact of competitive strategies on achieving the sustainable development goals: context of ghanaian construction firms. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 23(13), pp.2209-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2048343 boadu, e.f., sunindijo, r.y. and wang, c.c., 2021. health and safety consideration in the procurement of public construction projects in ghana. buildings, [e-journal] 11(3), p.128. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11030128 boadu, e.f., sunindijo, r.y., wang, c.c. and frimpong, s., 2022. client-led promotion of health and safety through the procurement process on public construction projects in developing countries. safety science, [e-journal] 147, p.105605. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105605 boadu, e.f., wang, c.c. and sunindijo, r.y., 2020. characteristics of the construction industry in developing countries and its implications for health and safety: an exploratory study in ghana. international journal of environmental research and public health, [e-journal] 17(11), p.4110. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17114110 boote, d.d. and beile, p., 2005. scholars before researchers: on the centrality of the dissertation literature review in research preparation. educational researcher, [e-journal] 34 (5), pp.3-15. https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x034006003 ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025133 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2023.111152 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asoc.2023.111152 https://doi.org/10.3390/su16010433 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000555 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsasus.2024.03.001 https://constructionreviewonline.com/2018/07/top-constructioncompanieshttps://constructionreviewonline.com/2018/07/top-constructioncompanieshttps://doi.org/10.1061/jmenea.meeng-5552 https://doi.org/10.1061/jmenea.meeng-5552 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.2017541 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.2017541 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-07-2021-0375 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-011-0278-x https://doi.org/10.36348/sjet.2023.v08i06.001 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2048343 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11030128 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2021.105605 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17114110 https://doi.org/10.3102/0013189x034006003 bouadam, r. and chetbi, w., 2024. the contribution of inhabitants to the development of public spaces in eastern algeria, constantine. humanities and social sciences communications, [e-journal] 11(1), pp.1-15. https://doi.org/10.1057/ s41599-023-02557-2 bria, t.a., chen, w.t., muhammad, m. and rantelembang, m.b., 2024. analysis of fatal construction accidents in indonesia — a case study. buildings, [e-journal] 14(4), p.1010. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14041010 brown, t.a., 2015. confirmatory factor analysis for applied research. 2nd ed. new york: the guilford press. bryman, a. 2009. social research methods. 3rd ed. oxford: oxford university press. byrne, b.m., 2010. structural equation modelling with amos: basic concepts, applications, and programming. 2nd ed. new york: taylor and francis group, llc. camacho, f. and cruz, c.o., 2022. toll road sector in brazil: regulation by contract and recent innovations. competition and regulation in network industries, [e-journal] 23(2), pp.135-152. https://doi.org/10.1177/17835917221087897 celik, y., barbero, i., hodorog, a., petri, i. and rezgui, y., 2024. blockchain for energy efficiency training in the construction industry. education and information technologies, [e-journal] 29(1), pp.323-49. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10639-023-12261-y chadee, a., ali, h., gallage, s. and rathnayake, u., 2023b. modelling the implications of delayed payments on contractors’ cashflows on infrastructure projects. civil. engineering journal, [e-journal] 9, pp.52-71. https://doi. org/10.28991/cej-2023-09-01-05 chadee, a.a., martin, h.h., gallage, s., banerjee, k.s., roopan, r., rathnayake, u. and ray, i., 2023a. risk evaluation of cost overruns (cos) in public sector construction projects: a fuzzy synthetic evaluation. buildings, [e-journal] 13(5), p.1116. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13051116 chawla, v., itika, i., singh, p. and singh, s., 2024. a fuzzy pythagorean todim method for sustainable abc analysis in inventory management. journal of future sustainability, 4(2), pp.85-100. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.jfs.2024.5.003 chigara, b. and moyo, t., 2022. factors affecting the delivery of optimum health and safety on construction projects during the covid-19 pandemic in zimbabwe. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 20(1), pp.24-46. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-01-2021-0053 chinniah, y., norsyakilah, r., soleha, a.r.n. and amierah, h.n., 2024. safety practice assessment plan review in railway engineering industrial towards sustainable construction. in: iop conference series: earth and environmental science, 6th international conference on civil and environmental engineering, 4-5 september 2023, kuala lumpur, malasia. 1303(1), p.012036. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1303/1/012036 cohen, l., manion, l. and morrison, k., 2005. research methods in education. 5th ed. new york: taylor and francis. corazza, l., cottafava, d. and torchia, d., 2023. toward sustainable infrastructural megaprojects. in: sdgs in the european region pp.891-915. cham: springer international publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-174612_14 costa, a.r., garcia, r., roselino, j.e. and cruz júnior, j.c., 2023. set skilled workers free: the mobility of workers and innovation in brazil. industry and innovation, [e-journal] 30(10), pp.1357-79. https://doi.org/10.1080/13662716.2023. 2217691 costa, h., demmou, l., franco, g. and lamp, s., 2024. making the grass greener: the role of firm’s financial and managerial capacity in paving the way for the green transition. available at: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/making-thegrass-greener_cdffe7eb-en [accessed 7 may, 2024]. creswell, j.w. and plano clark, v.l., 2018. designing and conducting mixed methods research. 3rd ed. thousand oaks: sage publications. ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025134 https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02557-2 https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02557-2 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14041010 https://doi.org/10.1177/17835917221087897 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-12261-y https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-023-12261-y https://doi.org/10.28991/cej-2023-09-01-05 https://doi.org/10.28991/cej-2023-09-01-05 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13051116 https://doi.org/10.5267/j.jfs.2024.5.003 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-01-2021-0053 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1303/1/012036 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17461-2_14 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-17461-2_14 https://doi.org/10.1080/13662716.2023.2217691 https://doi.org/10.1080/13662716.2023.2217691 https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/making-the-grass-greener_cdffe7eb-en https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/economics/making-the-grass-greener_cdffe7eb-en creswell, j.w., 2014. research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed approaches. 4th ed. thousand oaks: sage publications. danial, n. and misnan, m.s., 2023. avoiding contract termination: perspectives on essential skills in road project negotiations. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 15(1), p.05022007. https:// doi.org/10.1061/jladah.ladr-857 das, m. and rangarajan, k., 2020. impact of policy initiatives and collaborative synergy on sustainability and business growth of indian smes. indian growth and development review, [e-journal] 13(3), pp.607-27. https://doi.org/10.1108/ igdr-09-2019-0095 deacon, h.a. and kajimo-shakantu, k., 2024. the prevalence of claims under the jbcc principal building agreement in south africa. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 24(3), pp.331-38. https://doi.org/10.1080 /15623599.2023.2223003 debataraja, l.r., 2023. analysis of human factors that influence contractors’ risk management attitudes in sumatra island in construction projects. journal of civil engineering and planning, 4(2), pp.162-72. https://doi.org/10.37253/ jcep.v4i2.8575 dikmen, i., atasoy, g., erol, h., kaya, h.d. and birgonul, m.t. 2022. a decision-support tool for risk and complexity assessment and visualization in construction projects. computers in industry, [e-journal] 141, p.103694. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.compind.2022.103694 dimitriou, d. and papakostas, k., 2022. review of management comprehensiveness on occupational health and safety for ppp transportation projects. sustainability, [e-journal] 14(10), p.6296. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14106296 disney, o., roupé, m., johansson, m. and domenico leto, a., 2024. embracing bim in its totality: a total bim case study. smart and sustainable built environment, [e-journal] 13(3), pp.512-31. https://doi.org/10.1108/ sasbe-06-2022-0124 do, s.t., nguyen, v.t. and dang, c.n., 2022a. exploring the relationship between failure factors and stakeholder coordination performance in high-rise building projects: empirical study in the finishing phase. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 29(2), pp.870-95. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-20200744 do, s.t., nguyen, v.t. and nguyen, n.h., 2022b. relationship networks between variation orders and claims/disputes causes on construction project performance and stakeholder performance. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] (ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2022-0066 doloi, h., 2024. managing requirements, scope and configuration. in: martina huemann and rodney taylor, eds. [e-book] the handbook of project management. 6th ed. routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003274179 donkoh, d. and aboagye-nimo, e., 2016. stakeholders’ role in improving ghana’s construction safety. proceedings of the institution of civil engineers-management, procurement and law, [e-journal] 170(2), pp.68-76. https://doi.org/10.1680/ jmapl.16.00019 durdyev, s., 2021. review of construction journals on causes of project cost overruns. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 28(4), pp.1241-1260. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2020-0137 ebekozien, a., 2022. construction companies’ compliance to personal protective equipment on junior staff in nigeria: issues and solutions. international journal of building pathology and adaptation, [e-journal] 40(4), pp.481-498. https:// doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-08-2020-0067 ebekozien, a., aigbavboa, c., samsurijan, m.s., amadi, g.c. and duru, o.d.s., 2023. moderating effect of nigerian government policy support on the relationship between project management framework and emerging construction ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025135 https://doi.org/10.1061/jladah.ladr-857 https://doi.org/10.1061/jladah.ladr-857 https://doi.org/10.1108/igdr-09-2019-0095 https://doi.org/10.1108/igdr-09-2019-0095 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2023.2223003 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2023.2223003 https://doi.org/10.37253/jcep.v4i2.8575 https://doi.org/10.37253/jcep.v4i2.8575 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2022.103694 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2022.103694 https://doi.org/10.3390/su14106296 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-06-2022-0124 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-06-2022-0124 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2020-0744 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2020-0744 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2022-0066 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003274179 https://doi.org/10.1680/jmapl.16.00019 https://doi.org/10.1680/jmapl.16.00019 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2020-0137 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-08-2020-0067 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-08-2020-0067 contractors’ sustainability. international journal of building pathology and adaptation, [e-journal] 41(6), pp.269-89. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-01-2023-0007 edmonds, w.a. and kennedy, t.d., 2017. an applied guide to research designs: quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. 2nd ed. thousand oaks: sage publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071802779 eikelenboom, m. and long, t.b., 2023. breaking the cycle of marginalization: how to involve local communities in multi-stakeholder initiatives? journal of business ethics, 186(1), pp.31-62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-022-05252-5 emma-ochu, c.a., okolie, k.c., ohaedeghasi, c.i. and mbamali, i., 2021. evaluation of health and safety compliance of construction projects in southeast nigeria. international journal of progressive research in science and engineering, 2(9), pp.148-55. farouk kineber, a., othman, i.b., oke, a.e. and chileshe, n., 2022. modelling the relationship between value management’s activities and critical success factors for sustainable buildings. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 20(2), pp.414-35. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-03-2021-0159 field, a.p. 2005. discovering statistics using spss. london: sage publications. https://doi.org/10.53841/ bpspag.2005.1.56.31 fugar, f.d. and agyakwah-baah, a.b., 2010. delays in building construction projects in ghana. australasian journal of construction economics and building, [e-journal] 10(1-2), pp.103-16. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v10i1/2.1592 gadisa, b. and zhou, h., 2021. exploring influential factors leading to the poor performance of public construction project in ethiopia using structural equation modelling. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 28(6), pp.1683-1712. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2019-0689 gamage, a.n., 2023. dispute risk management in construction projects through effective contract management. scholars journal of engineering and technology, [e-journal] 3, pp.53-65. https://doi.org/10.36347/sjet.2023.v11i03.006 garengo, p. and betto, f., 2024. the role of organisational culture and leadership style in performance measurement and management: a longitudinal case study. production planning and control, [e-journal] 35(2), pp.151-69. https://doi.org/10 .1080/09537287.2022.2058431 gay, l.r., mills, g.e. and airasian, p. 2012. educational research: competencies for analysis and application. 10th ed. new jersey: pearson. ghana statistical service, 2019. rebased 2013-2019 annual gross domestic product. ghana statistical services, accra ghana. available at: https://statsghana.gov.gh/gssmain/fileupload/national%20accounts/annual_2013_2019_gdp. pdf [accessed 27 march 2023]. ghorbani, a., 2023. a review of successful construction project managers’ competencies and leadership profile. journal of rehabilitation in civil engineering, [e-journal] 11(1), pp.76-95. https://doi.org/10.22075/jrce.2022.24638.1560 giri, o.p., 2023. perception-based assessment of the factors causing delays in construction projects. engineering, [e-journal] 15(7), pp.431-45. https://doi.org/10.4236/eng.2023.157033 gurgun, a.p. and koc, k., 2022. the role of contract incompleteness factors in project disputes: a hybrid fuzzy multicriteria decision approach. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] (ahead-of-print). https:// doi.org/10.1108/ecam-11-2021-1020 gurgun, a.p., koc, k. and kunkcu, h., 2024. exploring the adoption of technology against delays in construction projects. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 31(3), pp.1222-53. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ecam-06-2022-0566 ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025136 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-01-2023-0007 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071802779 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-022-05252-5 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-03-2021-0159 https://doi.org/10.53841/bpspag.2005.1.56.31 https://doi.org/10.53841/bpspag.2005.1.56.31 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v10i1/2.1592 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-12-2019-0689 https://doi.org/10.36347/sjet.2023.v11i03.006 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2022.2058431 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2022.2058431 https://statsghana.gov.gh/gssmain/fileupload/national%20accounts/annual_2013_2019_gdp.pdf https://statsghana.gov.gh/gssmain/fileupload/national%20accounts/annual_2013_2019_gdp.pdf https://doi.org/10.22075/jrce.2022.24638.1560 https://doi.org/10.4236/eng.2023.157033 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-11-2021-1020 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-11-2021-1020 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2022-0566 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2022-0566 hafner, t. 2018. module 3.3 weak regulatory systems. usaid and health finance and governance. available at: https:// childrenandaids.org/sites/default/files/2020-03/teg-%20module%203.3%20weak%20regulatory%20systems.pdf [accessed 27 july 2022]. hagan, d.e., mustapha, z., akomah, b.b. and aidoo, p.k., 2021. occupational health and safety practices in cape coast metropolis. baltic journal of real estate economics and construction management, [e-journal] 9, pp.112-21. https:// doi.org/10.2478/bjreecm-2021-0009 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j. and anderson, r.e. 2010. multivariate data analysis. 7th ed. new york: pearson. hanani, a.d., yuhan, a., imron, i., sutjipto, a.g.e. and adesta, e.y.t., 2024. a multifaceted assessment of occupational hazards in a building construction site: insights from a case study. engineering headway, [e-journal] 3, pp.65-76. https://doi.org/10.4028/p-8wpmwd hanneman, r.a., kposowa, a.j. and riddle, m.d., 2013. basic statistics for social research. san francisco: john wiley and sons, inc. haron, n.a., devi, p., hassim, s., alias, a.h., tahir, m.m. and harun, a.n., 2017. project management practice and its effects on project success in malaysian construction industry. iop conference series: materials science and engineering, [e-journal] 291 p.012008. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/291/1/012008 horvath, d. and szabo, r.z., 2019. driving forces and barriers of industry 4.0: do multinational and small and medium-sized companies have equal opportunities? technological forecasting and social change, [e-journal] 146, pp.11932. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2019.05.021 hu, l.t., and bentler, p.m., 1999. cutoff criteria for fit indices in covariance structural analysis: conventional criteria versus new alternatives. structural equation modelling, 6, pp.1-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 irfan, m., khan, s.z., hassan, n., hassan, m., habib, m., khan, s. and khan, h.h., 2021. role of project planning and project manager competencies on public sector project success. sustainability, [e-journal] 13(3), p.1421. https://doi. org/10.3390/su13031421 jin, c., tsai, f.s., gu, q. and wu, b., 2022. does the porter hypothesis work well in the emission trading schema pilot? exploring moderating effects of institutional settings. research in international business and finance, [e-journal] 62, p.101732. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ribaf.2022.101732 johnson, r.b. and christensen, l., 2014. educational research: quantitative, qualitative, and mixed approaches. 5th ed. thousand oaks: sage publications. kakar, a.s., hasan, a., jha, k.n. and singh, a., 2022. project cost performance factors in the war-affected and conflictsensitive afghan construction industry. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] (ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-11-2021-0657 ketokivi, m. and mantere, s., 2010. two strategies for inductive reasoning in organizational research. academy of management review, 35(2), pp.315-33. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2010.48463336 kilaka, b.m., 2024. contested practices: controversies over the construction of lamu port in kenya. in: jana honke, eric cezne and yifan yang, eds. africa’s global infrastructures: south-south transformations in practice, [e-book] ch.6, p.127-54. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197775363.001.0001 kline, r. b. 2016. principles and practice of structural equation modelling. new york: guilford press. kordi, n.e., belayutham, s. and che ibrahim, c.k.i., 2021. mapping of social sustainability attributes to stakeholders’ involvement in construction project life cycle. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 39(6), pp.513-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2021.1923767 ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025137 https://childrenandaids.org/sites/default/files/2020-03/teg-%20module%203.3%20weak%20regulatory%20systems.pdf https://childrenandaids.org/sites/default/files/2020-03/teg-%20module%203.3%20weak%20regulatory%20systems.pdf https://doi.org/10.2478/bjreecm-2021-0009 https://doi.org/10.2478/bjreecm-2021-0009 https://doi.org/10.4028/p-8wpmwd https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/291/1/012008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2019.05.021 https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031421 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031421 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ribaf.2022.101732 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-11-2021-0657 https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2010.48463336 https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197775363.001.0001 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2021.1923767 kukoyi, p., faremi, j. and osuizugbo, i., 2023. causes of inadequate resources for health and safety provisions in construction projects. lagos journal of environmental studies, 12(1), pp.15-24. laryea, s., 2010. challenges and opportunities facing contractors in ghana. in: laryea, s., leiringer, r. and hughes, w., eds. west africa built environment research conference (waber). accra, republic of ghana, 27-28 july 2010. accra: british council. lawani, k., arias abad, l.a., craig, n., hare, b. and cameron, i., 2024. exploring emotional intelligence and conflict management styles in dominican republic construction industry. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 22(1), pp.89-119. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-09-2021-0485 lee, h., kim, d.y., shin, d., oh, j. and choi, h., 2022. effect of foam conditioning on performance of epb shield tunnelling through laboratory excavation test. transportation geotechnics, [e-journal] 32, p.100692. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.trgeo.2021.100692 li, h., zhang, c., liu, y., arditi, d., xu, c. and shim, e., 2022. academia and industry perceptions of construction planning and scheduling education. journal of civil engineering education, [e-journal] 148(3), p.04022005. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)ei.2643-9115.0000064 mangla, s.k., luthra, s., mishra, n., singh, a., rana, n.p., dora, m. and dwivedi, y., 2018. barriers to effective circular supply chain management in a developing country context. production planning and control, [e-journal] 29(6), pp.551-69. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2018.1449265 manoharan, k., dissanayake, p.b., pathirana, c., deegahawature, d. and silva, k.r.r., 2023. a labour performance score and grading system to the next normal practices in construction. built environment project and asset management, [e-journal] 13(1), pp.36-55. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2021-0125 maqbool, r. and amaechi, i.e., 2022. a systematic managerial perspective on the environmentally sustainable construction practices of uk. environmental science and pollution research, [e-journal] 29(42), pp.64132-49. https://doi. org/10.1007/s11356-022-20255-5 maqbool, r., saiba, m.r. and ashfaq, s., 2023. emerging industry 4.0 and internet of things (iot) technologies in the ghanaian construction industry: sustainability, implementation challenges, and benefits. environmental science and pollution research, 30(13), pp.37076-91. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24764-1 marsh, a.t., velenturf, a.p. and bernal, s.a., 2022. circular economy strategies for concrete: implementation and integration. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 362, p.132486. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132486 martin, h., miller, a., milling, a. and martin, m., 2023. examining corruption prominence in sids–the curse and the cure for construction tender practices. journal of facilities management, [e-journal] 21(3), pp.387-411. https://doi. org/10.1108/jfm-07-2021-0071 mensah, d., mustapha, z., akomah, b.b., aidoo, p. and tieru, c.k., 2023. maintenance of public buildings in the central region of ghana. the asian review of civil engineering, 12(2), pp.1-7. https://doi.org/10.51983/ tarce-2023.12.2.3797 misnan, m.s., ismail, m.z. and yan, t.j., 2024. construction project management issues and development in current for future construction project: challenges and prospects in sustainable project management. international journal of research and innovation in social science, 8(2), pp.1997-2011. https://doi.org/10.47772/ijriss.2024.802141 moyo, t., and chigara, b., 2022. causes of cost overruns on zimbabwe’s construction infrastructure projects. journal of construction project management and innovation, [e-journal] 12(1), pp.65-86. https://doi.org/10.36615/jcpmi. v12i1.1223 ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025138 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-09-2021-0485 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trgeo.2021.100692 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trgeo.2021.100692 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.2643-9115.0000064 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.2643-9115.0000064 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2018.1449265 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2021-0125 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20255-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20255-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24764-1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2022.132486 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-07-2021-0071 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-07-2021-0071 https://doi.org/10.51983/tarce-2023.12.2.3797 https://doi.org/10.51983/tarce-2023.12.2.3797 https://doi.org/10.47772/ijriss.2024.802141 https://doi.org/10.36615/jcpmi.v12i1.1223 https://doi.org/10.36615/jcpmi.v12i1.1223 mundia, t.g., 2024. an evaluation of pre-tender documentation of public building projects in kenya: a case study of building projects in the economic stimulus programme. masters’ thesis. jomo kenyatta university of agriculture and technology. musa, m.m., saleh, i.m., ibrahim, y. and dandajeh, m.a., 2023. assessment of awareness and barriers to the application of lean construction techniques in kano state, nigeria. journal of construction business and management, 6(1), pp.33-42. https://doi.org/10.15641/jcbm.6.1.1262 nævestad, t.o. and phillips, r.o., 2023. the limits of soft safety regulation: does successful work with safety culture require sms implementation? transportation research interdisciplinary perspectives, [e-journal] 17, p.100733. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.trip.2022.100733 naji, k.k., gunduz, m. and falamarzi, m.h., 2022. assessment of construction project contractor selection success factors considering their interconnections. ksce journal of civil engineering, [e-journal] 26(9), pp.3677-90. https://doi. org/10.1007/s12205-022-1377-6 nani, g., 2021. developing description onion: a tool for improving communication effectiveness in bills of quantities for construction works. sustainable education and development, 9, pp.131-43. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-03068836-3_13 nanually, j.c., and bernstein, i.h., 1994. the assessment of reliability. psychometric theory, 3, pp.248-92. newman, w.l. 2014. social research methods: qualitative and quantitative approaches. 7th ed. edinburgh: pearson education limited. ngacho, c. and das, d., 2015. a performance evaluation framework of construction projects: insights from literature. international journal of project organisation and management, [e-journal] 7(2), pp.151-73. https://doi.org/10.1504/ ijpom.2015.069616 noruwa, b.i., arewa, a.o. and merschbrock, c., 2022. effects of emerging technologies in minimising variations in construction projects in the uk. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(11), pp.2199-2206. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1772530 ofori-kuragu, j.k., baiden, b.k. and badu, e., 2016. key performance indicators for project success in ghanaian contractors. international journal of construction engineering and management, 5(1), pp.1-10. ogogo, d.o., omwenga, j.q. and paul, s.n., 2019. influence of the moderating effect of government regulations on performance of government construction projects in kenya. the international journal of humanities and social studies, [e-journal] 7(4), pp.78-81. https://doi.org/10.24940/theijhss/2019/v7/i4/hs1904-039 ogunnusi, m., omotayo, t., hamma-adama, m., awuzie, b.o. and egbelakin, t., 2021. lessons learned from the impact of covid-19 on the global construction industry. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 20(1), pp.299-320. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-05-2021-0286 oladimeji, o., najjar, m.k., soares, c.a. and haddad, a.n., 2023. the influence of building information modelling adoption in the viability of medium, small and micro scale construction firms (msmscfs). buildings, [e-journal] 13(4), p.1087. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13041087 oluseye, o., 2024. exploring potential political corruption in large-scale infrastructure projects in nigeria. project leadership and society, [e-journal] 5, p.100108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2023.100108 orieno, o.h., ndubuisi, n.l., eyo-udo, n.l., ilojianya, v.i. and biu, p.w., 2024. sustainability in project management: a comprehensive review. world journal of advanced research and reviews, [e-journal] 21(1), pp.656-77. https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2024.21.1.0060 ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025139 https://doi.org/10.15641/jcbm.6.1.1262 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2022.100733 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trip.2022.100733 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-022-1377-6 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-022-1377-6 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68836-3_13 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-68836-3_13 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpom.2015.069616 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijpom.2015.069616 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1772530 https://doi.org/10.24940/theijhss/2019/v7/i4/hs1904-039 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-05-2021-0286 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13041087 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2023.100108 https://doi.org/10.30574/wjarr.2024.21.1.0060 osei-asibey, d., ayarkwa, j., acheampong, a., adinyira, e. and amoah, p., 2021. framework for improving construction health and safety on ghanaian construction sites. journal of building construction and planning research, [e-journal] 9, pp.115-37. https://doi.org/10.4236/jbcpr.2021.92009 osei-tutu, e., offei-nyako, k., ameyaw, c. and ampofo, k.t., 2010. conflict of interest and related corrupt practices in public procurement in ghana. international journal of civil engineering construction and estate management, 1(2), pp.1-15. othman, i., kineber, a.f., oke, a.e., zayed, t. and buniya, m.k., 2021. barriers of value management implementation for building projects in egyptian construction industry. ain shams engineering journal, [e-journal] 12(1), pp.21-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2020.08.004 pamidimukkala, a. and kermanshachi, s., 2021. impact of covid-19 on field and office workforce in construction industry. project leadership and society, [e-journal] 2, p.100018. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2021.100018 parikh, d., joshi, g.j. and patel, d.a., 2019. development of prediction models for claim cause analyses in highway projects. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, [e-journal] 11(4), p.04519018. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000303 parchami jalal, m., noorzai, e. and yavari roushan, t., 2019. root cause analysis of the most frequent claims in the building industry through the scop3e ishikawa diagram. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, [e-journal] 11(2), p.04519004. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000289 paul, v.k., solanki, s.k., rastogi, a. and yadav, p.s., 2023. establishing a performance index for construction project managers. abingdon: routledge. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003322771 peprah, c., 2016. challenges smes face in acquiring loans from banks: a comparative study between finland and ghana. business management thesis. centria university of applied sciences, kokkola-pietarsaari, finland. prakash, s., 2021. impact of climate change on aquatic ecosystem and its biodiversity: an overview. international journal of biological innovations, [e-journal] 3(2). pp.312-17. https://doi.org/10.46505/ijbi.2021.3210 quayson, j.h. and akomah, b.b., 2016. maintenance of residential buildings of selected public institutions in ghana. african journal of applied research, 2(1), pp.48-56. quinot, g., 2024. corruption and covid-19 procurement. in: sope williams and jessica tillipman, eds. routledge handbook of public procurement corruption. 1st ed. uk: routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003220374-7 radzi, a.r., farouk, a.m., romali, n.s., farouk, m., elgamal, m. and rahman, r.a., 2024. assessing environmental management plan implementation in water supply construction projects: key performance indicators. sustainability, [e-journal] 16(2), p.600. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16020600 raza, m.s., tayeh, b.a. and ali, t.h., 2022. owner’s obligations in promoting occupational health and safety in preconstruction of projects: a literature viewpoint. results in engineering, [e-journal] 16, p.100779. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.rineng.2022.100779 rucha, k., ogollah, k.o. and amakobe, d., 2024. analogy of glass and straw: understanding the structure and functions of mombasa port in east africa’s transportation networks. esi preprints, [e-journal] 28(2024), pp.391-91. https://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/article/view/18039. https://doi.org/10.19044/esipreprint.4.2024.p391 rueda-benavides, j., gransberg, d., khalafalla, m. and mayorga, c., 2024. probabilistic cost-based decision-making matrix: idiq vs. dbb contracting. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 42(1), pp.1-15. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/01446193.2023.2226261 sahu, a.k., sharma, m., raut, r.d., sahu, a.k., sahu, n.k., antony, j. and tortorella, g.l., 2023. decision-making framework for supplier selection using an integrated mcdm approach in a lean-agile-resilient-green environment: ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025140 https://doi.org/10.4236/jbcpr.2021.92009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.asej.2020.08.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2021.100018 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000303 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000289 https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003322771 https://doi.org/10.46505/ijbi.2021.3210 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003220374-7 https://doi.org/10.3390/su16020600 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2022.100779 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rineng.2022.100779 https://eujournal.org/index.php/esj/article/view/18039 https://doi.org/10.19044/esipreprint.4.2024.p391 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2023.2226261 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2023.2226261 evidence from indian automotive sector. the tqm journal, [e-journal] 35(4), pp.964-1006. https://doi.org/10.1108/ tqm-12-2021-0372 saka, n., saka, a.b., akinradewo, o. and aigbavboa, c.o., 2024. impact assessment of political administrations on the performance of the construction sector: a time series analysis. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 22(1), pp.1-21. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-08-2021-0423 saunders, m.n.k., lewis, p. and thornhill, a., 2019. research methods for business students. 8th ed. harlow: pearson education limited. schumacker, r.e. and lomax, r.g., 2010. a beginner’s guide to structural equation modelling. 3rd ed. new york: taylor and francis group. sen, s., kotlarsky, j. and budhwar, p., 2020. extending organizational boundaries through outsourcing: toward a dynamic risk-management capability framework. academy of management perspectives, [e-journal] 34(1), pp.97-113. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2015.0191 shaban, m., al-hassan, b. and mohamad, a.s., 2024. digital transformation of quality management in the construction industry during the execution phase by integration of building information modelling (bim) and cloud computing. building engineering, [e-journal] 2(1), pp.1132-32. https://doi.org/10.59400/be.v2i1.1132 shang, y., zhu, l., qian, f. and xie, y., 2023. role of green finance in renewable energy development in the tourism sector. renewable energy, [e-journal] 206, pp.890-96. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2023.02.124 shayan, s., pyung kim, k. and tam, v.w., 2022. critical success factor analysis for effective risk management at the execution stage of a construction project. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(3), pp.379-86. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1624678 smallwood, j., 2020. the need for the inclusion of construction health and safety (h&s) in architectural education. in: mohammad dastbaz and chris gorse, eds. sustainable ecological engineering design: selected proceedings from the international conference of sustainable ecological engineering design for society (seeds) 2019. pp.179-90. cham: springer international publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44381-8_14 smith, j., edwards, d.j., martek, i., chileshe, n., hayhow, s. and roberts, c.j., 2023. the antecedents of construction project change: an analysis of design and build procurement application. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 21(3), pp.655-89. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-12-2020-0507 stasiak-betlejewska, r. and potkany, m., 2015. construction costs analysis and its importance to the economy. procedia economics and finance, [e-journal] 34, pp.35-42. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)01598-1 suwal, s., laukkanen, m., javaja, p., hakkinen, t. and kubicki, s., 2019. bim and energy efficiency training requirement for the construction industry. earth and environmental science, [e-journal] 297(1), p.012037. https://doi. org/10.1088/1755-1315/297/1/012037 tan-mullins, m. and mohan, g., 2013. the potential of corporate environmental responsibility of chinese state-owned enterprises in africa. environment, development and sustainability, [e-journal] 15, pp.265-84. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10668-012-9409-x tembo, c.k., muleya, f. and kanyemba, a., 2024. an appraisal of cost management techniques used in the construction industry. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 24(1), pp.10-18. https://doi.org/10.1 080/15623599.2022.2132355 tijani, b., jin, x. and osei-kyei, r., 2021. a systematic review of mental stressors in the construction industry. international journal of building pathology and adaptation, [e-journal] 39(2), pp.433-60. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ijbpa-02-2020-0011 ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025141 https://doi.org/10.1108/tqm-12-2021-0372 https://doi.org/10.1108/tqm-12-2021-0372 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-08-2021-0423 https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2015.0191 https://doi.org/10.59400/be.v2i1.1132 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.renene.2023.02.124 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1624678 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44381-8_14 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-12-2020-0507 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)01598-1 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/297/1/012037 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/297/1/012037 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-012-9409-x https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-012-9409-x https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2132355 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2132355 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-02-2020-0011 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-02-2020-0011 tripathi, o.p., hasan, a., jha, k.n. and jain, a.k., 2023. evaluating government contracts for delays, delay damages, and levy of compensation provisions. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, [e-journal] 15(1), p.04522032. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000584 unegbu, h.c.o., yawas, d.s. and dan-asabe, b., 2022. an investigation of the relationship between project performance measures and project management practices of construction projects for the construction industry in nigeria. journal of king saud university-engineering sciences, [e-journal] 34(4), pp.240-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jksues.2020.10.001 vahabi, a., nasirzadeh, f. and mills, a., 2022. impact of project briefing clarity on construction project performance. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(13), pp.2504-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.20 20.1802681 vanderstoep, s.w. and johnston, d.d., 2009. research methods for everyday life: blending qualitative and quantitative approaches. san francisco: jossey-bass. vrbka, j. and koubkova, e., 2023. the difference between project prices and final prices of construction contracts in the public sector. ad alta: journal of interdisciplinary research, 13(1), p.295. vulink, m. 2004. technology transfer in the construction industry of ghana. master thesis. technical university of eindhoven. watkins, m.w., 2018. exploratory factor analysis: a guide to best practice. journal of black psychology, [e-journal] 44(3), pp.219-46. https://doi.org/10.1177/009579841877180 yada, a.l. and yadeta, f.t., 2016. factors affecting the performance of construction project under oromia industry and urban development bureau, ethiopia. abc research alert, [e-journal] 4(2). https://doi.org/10.18034/abcra.v4i2.303 yang, r., huang, j. and griffiths, d.v., 2022. optimal geotechnical site investigations for slope reliability assessment considering measurement errors. engineering geology, [e-journal] 297, p.106497. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. enggeo.2021.106497 yap, j.b.h., goay, p.l., woon, y.b. and skitmore, m., 2021. revisiting critical delay factors for construction: analysing projects in malaysia. alexandria engineering journal, [e-journal] 60(1), pp.1717-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. aej.2020.11.021 yeboah, d., opoku, o.a., kudeke, b.e. and painstil, e.b., 2023. examining the effect of challenges associated with public procurement processes on the efficient operation of abura asebu kwamankese district assembly. journal transnational universal studies, [e-journal] 1(6), pp.266-77. https://doi.org/10.58631/jtus.v1i6.40 yuan, m., li, z., li, x. and luo, x., 2021. managing stakeholder-associated risks and their interactions in the life cycle of prefabricated building projects: a social network analysis approach. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 323, p.129102. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129102 zerouali, b., 2023. sourcing during tendering phase. master’s thesis. metropolia university of applied sciences, finland. zulu, e., zulu, s., chabala, m., musonda, i., kavishe, n. and chileshe, n., 2022. challenges and advocated solutions for environmental protection legislation for building infrastructure projects in developing countries: evidence from zambia. project leadership and society, [e-journal] 3, p.100056. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2022.100056 ramani and akomah construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025142 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000584 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2020.10.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jksues.2020.10.001 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1802681 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1802681 https://doi.org/10.1177/009579841877180 https://doi.org/10.18034/abcra.v4i2.303 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2021.106497 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2021.106497 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2020.11.021 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2020.11.021 https://doi.org/10.58631/jtus.v1i6.40 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129102 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2022.100056 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: asante, j., kissi, e., acheampong, a., badu, e. 2024. state of market intelligence development within construction companies: evidence from ghana. construction economics and building, 24:4/5, 98–113. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v24i4/5.8909 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article state of market intelligence development within construction companies: evidence from ghana joseph asante1,*, ernest kissi2, alex acheampong3, edward badu4 1 sunyani technical university, sunyani, ghana, joseph.asante@stu.edu.gh 2 kwame nkrumah university of science technology/university of johannesburg, kumasi/johannesburg, ghana/south africa, ernestkissi@knust.edu.gh 3 kwame nkrumah university of science technology, kumasi, ghana, aacheampong.cap@knust.edu.gh 4 kwame nkrumah university of science technology, kumasi, ghana, ebadu.cap@knust.edu.gh corresponding author: joseph asante, sunyani technical university, sunyani, ghana, joseph.asante@stu.edu.gh doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8909 article history: received 14/12/2023; revised 13/06/2024; accepted 06/09/2024; published 23/12/2024 abstract market intelligence (mi) forms the bedrock of the marketing concept, serving as a vital component in marketoriented strategic planning and execution. however, construction companies (ccs) have been criticized for not realizing the value of mi. therefore, the objective of this study is to assess the current state of mi development within ccs in ghana. using a purposive sampling approach, the data was collected using a forced choice answer interview guide with a sample of 56 ccs. the results of the interview were assessed against ‘the world class mi roadmap’ to determine the current state of mi development within ccs. the overall result deduced is that mi development within the ccs is largely limited, informal, and ad hoc in nature and lacks dedicated resources. it is recommended that ccs should work on nurturing mi culture to keep mi activities more active to derive advantages obtainable from the utilization of mi. further research is needed to explore the development of an mibased framework to guide the effective utilization of mi by ccs. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 98 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8909 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8909 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:joseph.asante@stu.edu.gh mailto:ernestkissi@knust.edu.gh mailto:aacheampong.cap@knust.edu.gh mailto:ebadu.cap@knust.edu.gh mailto:joseph.asante@stu.edu.gh https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8909 introduction the construction business environment is highly competitive and volatile. the industry tends to be among the first affected by economic downturns and the last to recover (tummalapudi, et al., 2021). unlike many other industries where marketing communication can effectively stimulate demand, ccs struggle to generate demand for their services, except in cases of speculative projects (mokhtariani, sebt and davoudpour, 2017). as projectbased entities, ccs rely on actual demand from clients for their business (setiawan, erdogana and ogunlana, 2015). however, clients typically require cc services only once or twice in their lifetime (drew, 2010), intensifying competition among ccs, compounded by numerous firms offering similar services (bremer and kok, 2000). consequently, the incidence of business failure among ccs is remarkably high (ogbu, 2018), making survival competition a constant reality and prompting firms to continuously seek innovative strategies to outperform competitors. to remain competitive, ccs must develop strategies aligned with the demands of the external business environment (plaisance, 2023). intelligencegathering plays a crucial role in helping ccs better understand their business environment (ameer and othman, 2012). while there is no universally accepted definition for mi due to differing expert perspectives (safa, et al., 2015), this study aligns with kotler and armstrong’s (2017) definition as the systematic gathering and analysis of publicly available information regarding customers, competitors, and market developments. as a result, mi enables ccs to identify business opportunities, optimize bid prices, minimize risks, and enhance client relationships (mokhtariani, sebt and davoudpour, 2017; asante, et al., 2023). however, despite the intense competition, market orientation, of which mi is a cornerstone, remains notably low within ccs (ojo, 2011). many ccs lack a comprehensive understanding of various marketing strategies, and in some cases, a coherent marketing strategy is absent (ganah, pye and walker, 2008). consequently, dedicated marketing personnel for mi activities are notably absent within ccs ( jaafar, aziz and wai, 2008). where marketing departments exist, they often focus more on the superficial aspects of marketing rather than substantial action (cicmil and nicholson, 1998). taskoriented paradigm prevalent across the industry impedes the integration of mi into daytoday operations (dikmen, birgonul and ozcenk, 2005). ccs either do not understand or recognize the true value of mi (erdis, coskun and demirci, 2015). yet, to meet client expectations, ccs cannot be tardy in implementing intelligence gathering initiatives (harrington, voehl and wiggin, 2012). thus, the significance attributed to the marketing concept, including mi, in the construction industry has been on the rise (erdis, coskun and demirci, 2015). whereas many studies have criticized the extent to which ccs utilize mi to their advantage, other studies (nicolini, et al., 2000; mochtar and arditi, 2001; dikmen, birgonul and ozcenk, 2005) have observed that ccs do utilize mi. indicating contradictory evidence (müllerbloch and kranz, 2014). considering the pivotal role of mi in shaping effective strategy formulation and sustaining a competitive edge within the industry (stefanikova, rypakova and moravcikova, 2015), it becomes crucial to explore how ccs are presently harnessing mi to their benefit. particularly, when organizationwide generation, dissemination and responsiveness to mi remains a persistent challenge (gebhardt, farrelly and conduit, 2019). therefore, a key question that arises is: what is the current state of mi development within ccs in ghana? to the best of our knowledge, little or no study has explored this question particularly, in the context of a subsaharan country. therefore, knowledge gaps persist concerning current mi activities, mi ethical awareness and attitudes toward mi culture development. the objective of this study is to assess the current state of mi development within ccs in ghana. the significance of this study lies in establishing a baseline understanding of existing mi practices within these companies. this baseline will help identify areas where mi practices are lacking or inefficient. additionally, it sets the stage for future investigations asante et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202499 into developing an mibased framework to guide the effective utilization of mi. the paper is structured as follows: literature review, research methodology, results, discussion and conclusions. theoretical background mi concept in businessrelated intelligence literature, market intelligence (mi) has been delineated variously, encompassing terms such as competitive intelligence, marketing intelligence, competitor intelligence, corporate intelligence, strategic intelligence, or customer intelligence (köseoglu, et al., 2019). these terminological variations arise due to differing conceptualizations of mi by scholars (calof and wright, 2008). for instance, some scholars perceive intelligence as a process (lutz and bodendorf, 2020), a product (lópezrobles, et al., 2019), a function (maungwa and fourie, 2018), a system (cavallo, et al., 2021), a tool (du toit, 2013), a program (hedin, hirvensalo and vaarnas, 2014), a skill (markovich, et al., 2019), or a discipline (barnea, 2020). furthermore, the terminology used for mi is influenced by the author’s country of origin (lönnqvist and pirttimäki, 2006). additionally, the decisionmaking context with mi influences its description (köseoglu ross and okumus, 2015). recent studies (søilen, 2016; bisson and dou, 2017) have revealed that mi and competitive intelligence are predominant terms within businessrelated intelligence literature due to their practical and substantive similarity (søilen, 2016). despite terminological and conceptual differences, there is a consensus that mi furnishes actionable information critical for informed decisionmaking (mcgonagle and vella, 2012). in this study, we adopt the term mi to encompass all other businessrelated intelligence concepts, as it is deeply entrenched in the theoretical framework of market orientation (maltz and kohli, 1996; helm, krinner and schmalfuß, 2014). as posited by kohli (2017), the extent of mi gathering by firms is dependent upon their market orientation. marketoriented firms commonly harness mi, whereas nonmarketoriented firms typically do not engage in similar information gathering (kirca, jayachandran and bearden, 2005). importance and application of mi mi plays a crucial role in helping firms understand their competitors’ strengths, weaknesses, strategies, objectives, market positioning and expected behaviours (bose, 2008). it allows businesses to monitor market dynamics, develop effective marketing strategies, tackle specific marketing challenges and assess market performance (mehmet, 2008). by leveraging mi, firms can better meet customer needs, foresee new business opportunities and exploit competitors’ weaknesses (adidam, banerjee and shukla, 2012). mi aids in making informed decisions about the marketing mix, including what, why, where and how to market (navarrogarcia, barrerabarrera and villarejoramos, 2013). beyond identifying market opportunities and threats, mi provides deeper insights into competitors, helps prevent competitors from gaining an advantage and supports effective marketing decisions (li and li, 2013). integrating mi into executive information systems enhances customer responsiveness, fosters collaboration and identifies market trends (yin, 2015). essentially, mi enables businesses to identify and analyse competitors, mitigate unforeseen events and discover new growth opportunities (he, et al., 2015). according to köseoglu, ross and okumus (2015), mi empowers firms to manage risks, convert knowledge into profit, reduce unnecessary information and secure data for strategic decisionmaking. it also benefits firms by enabling effective pricing and strategy differentiation ( jamil, santos and jamil., 2018). insights from mi help firms offer desirable services to customers (mandal, 2018). recognizing the critical role of mi, the global intelligence alliance has developed ‘the roadmap for developing worldclass mi,’ (appendix i) which outlines six key success factors (ksfs) and five stages of mi maturity, ranging from ‘firefighters’ to ‘futurists’ (hedin, hirvensalo and vaarnas, 2014). asante et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024100 market intelligence in construction in the context of construction, the significance of mi utilization by ccs has long been underscored. for instance, it has been emphasized that a key to successful bidding lies in ccs’ knowledge of their competitors (moctar and arditi, 2001). thus, soh (2003) accentuated the potential of mi acquisition through interactions with market participants to uncover new opportunities. langford and male (2001) highlighted mi’s potential in assisting ccs to identify and capitalize on valuable business prospects. morgan and morgan (1991) underscored the importance of structured mi practices, indicating its centrality to ccs’ marketing success. mochtar and arditi (2001), in their study, examined the role of mi in ccs’ pricing strategies and found that most ccs gather information conducive to their daily business practices. dikmen, birgonul and ozcenk (2005), in a similar vein, discovered in their study that selecting which international markets to enter necessitates ccs to conduct extensive intelligencegathering to ascertain their strengths and weaknesses. in a study investigating how quantity surveying firms internationalize their services, ling and chan (2008) established that firms excelling in market penetration strategies heavily rely on mi gathering. they further noted that firms predominantly utilize internal sources rather than relying solely on published information. vuori (2007) identified research institutes, consultancy firms, investment banks and client interactions as various reliable sources of mi in the construction industry. segarraona, peiró signes and cervellóroyo (2015) found that ccs relying on information from suppliers, competitors and clients for innovation are more inclined to orient their innovation towards product or process enhancement, thereby enhancing their competitiveness. hayes, sourani and sertyesilisik (2016) investigated issues of the private finance initiative tendering process and ccs’ bidding strategies, discovering that decisions to bid and the adoption of strategies are largely informed by mi. if confronted with excessive competition or intense competitive pressure, ccs have the option to withdraw from the competition. such intelligencegathering enables them to abstain from bidding for projects characterized by intense competition, thereby minimizing resources and time expended on bidding preparations. demirdöğen and işik (2019) affirmed that ccs engaging in mi comprehend opportunities and threats, consequently devising strategies accordingly, as they investigated the effects of environmental factors on ccs’ innovation and technology transfer performance. in a study aimed at ascertaining whether elements of mi impacting competitive advantage are pertinent to the construction industry, somiah, aigbavboa and thwala (2020) found that gathering mi enables ccs to identify competitors, industry opportunities and clients’ bargaining power. ng, et al. (2017) emphasized mi’s strategic value in identifying and evaluating overseas business opportunities. this collective insight underscores the critical importance of intelligencegathering for effective strategy formulation and the cultivation of sustainable competitive advantage within the industry (stefanikova, rypakova and moravcikova, 2015). methodology sample frame the study population was financial classone registered members of the ashanti region branch of the association of building and civil engineering contractors of ghana (abcec), which serves as the umbrella body of indigenous ccs. the ashanti region is the second largest administrative region in terms of population size and commercial activities is strategically positioned in the middle of the country and is also endowed with major transit and commercial activities after the national capital administrative region of greater accra. regarding the suitability of respondents, the study followed the approach outlined by calof (2017), where questionnaires are answered by respondents regardless of their familiarity or practice of mi, as the aim was to gain insight into current mi practices within ccs. asante et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024101 sampling technique and size yin (1994) emphasizes the importance of interviewing key informants within an organization to obtain valuable insights and accurate data for research purposes. purposive sampling techniques were employed to identify 87 ceos/top managers representing ccs based on two main criteria: 1) the firm had to have been operating for more than ten years (peters, subar and martin, 2019), and 2) they had to be working on a project at the time of the study. out of the 87 identified ccs meeting the criteria, 56 agreed to participate in the study. this sample size was considered satisfactory based on earlier studies (groom and david, 2001; wright, pickton and callow, 2002; priporas, gatsoris and zacharias, 2005; munozcanavate and alves albero, 2017), which used similar or smaller sample sizes. data collection for data collection, a simple closedended interview was deemed appropriate following similar techniques used by calof (2017) and munozcanavate and alvesalbero (2017). this method was efficient in terms of time, minimized subjectivity and bias and facilitated easier coding, comparison and analysis of data (holloway and wheeler, 2010). an interview guide, based on previous studies (priporas, gatsoris and zacharias, 2005; munozcanavate and alvesalbero, 2017), was adapted and divided into four sections: demographics, current mi activities, mi ethical awareness and attitude toward the development of mi culture. the interviews were conducted via phone between may 2023 and december 2023. with prior consent from the interviewees, the interviews were audiotaped. the results were analysed with frequencies and the results were assessed against five ksfs of ‘the world class mi roadmap’ to determine the current state of mi development within ccs. results background of the respondents among the fiftysix respondents, 37.5% of the respondents were top management staff and 62.5% were senior management staff. fortytwopoint nine percent had a bachelor’s degree, and 57.1% had a master’s degree. 8.9% had less than ten years of working experience, 55.4% had between ten and twenty years, and 35.7% had more than twenty years. 25% of the respondent’s firms had been in business for between 10 and 20 years, and 75% had been operating for more than twenty years. 51.8% of them said that public entities make up their clientele, while 48.2% reported having both public and private entities in their customer base. current mi activities to gain insight into the current mi practices of ccs, a series of questions were asked. these questions aimed to explore various aspects of mi utilization. firms’ experience in intelligencegathering initially, respondents were asked if they had ever undertaken any form of intelligencegathering. all the firms interviewed acknowledged having engaged in intelligencegathering activities at some point in the past when asked about their firms’ experience in this area. current intelligencegathering activities subsequently, they were asked to specify the most common intelligencegathering activities they undertook. 100% reported ‘studying project requirements,’ 12.5% mentioned ‘researching competitors,’ and 1.8% indicated ‘investigating client payment history.’ figure 1 provides a concise overview of these responses. asante et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024102 1 2 3 3 4 5 7 17 45 47 47 56 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 investigating client payment history monitoring exchage rate monitoring cost of borrowing reading reports of organizations talking to suppliers specilized services examining post-bid report finding out competitors searching internet talking to clients reading newspapers talking to consultants studying project requirements which of the listed techniques does your firm use to gather mi? figure 1. current intelligencegathering activity frequency of intelligencegathering regarding the frequency of intelligencegathering by firms, 57.1% reported doing so sometimes, 33.9% often, and the remaining 9% always. focus of intelligencegathering in terms of the focus of their intelligencegathering efforts, 12.5% reported focusing on the preproject phase, with all respondents (100%) specifying the bidding phase, 7.1% focusing on the delivery phase, and 3.6% on the postdelivery phase. name given to intelligencegathering when asked about the terminology used for intelligencegathering, 37.5% referred to it as ‘market research,’ 7% as ‘market intelligence,’ and 5% as ‘competitive intelligence,’ while 26.7% used other terms. figure 2 illustrates the terminology preferences indicated by the respondents. 0 1 1 1 2 2 2 2 2 3 4 15 21 0 5 10 15 20 25 competitive information environmental scanning corporate intelligence market anlysis competitive iintelligence customer intelligence market intelligence strategic information market information competitor intelligence marketing intelligence another names market research figure 2. terms used for intelligencegathering. asante et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024103 resource allocation for intelligencegathering furthermore, respondents were questioned about whether their firms designated someone to oversee mi activities, with all respondents (100%) answering ‘no.’ similarly, when asked if their firms allocated a specific budget for this activity, again, all respondents (100%) replied ‘no.’ in terms of the presence of requisite intelligence tools to support their intelligencegathering efforts, 3.6% stated ‘yes’ and 96.4% responded ‘no.’ mi ethical awareness two questions were posed on this matter. these questions aimed to determine the extent to which ccs are aware of and adhere to ethics in their intelligencegathering activities. use of competitors’ employee initially, respondents were asked about the practice of utilizing competitors’ employees to gather information about said competitors. 85.7% did not perceive this approach as unethical, while 14.3% deemed it unethical. job interviews regarding the use of job interviews as a guise for intelligencegathering, 71.4% expressed no ethical concerns, 12.5% considered it unethical, and 16.1% were uncertain about its ethical implications. the attitude of contractors toward improved mi practices these questions aimed to assess the firm’s awareness of the importance of a strong mi culture and its commitment to fostering such a culture. improving existing mi practices regarding the necessity of improving the existing mi practices, 100% of the ccs interviewed agreed with the suggestion for the need for that. continuous intelligencegathering but when quizzed about the need for continuous intelligencegathering by their firms, 37.5% said ‘yes,’ 28,5% replied ‘no,’ and 34% were unsure. mi personnel regarding the relevance of appointing someone to oversee mi activities, a significant majority, 87.5% expressed support, while a minority of 12.5% remained uncertain. mi budget as for the requirement of allocating a dedicated budget for mi activities, 75.0% favoured the proposal, whereas 12.5% dissented, and 12.5% were undecided. discussion current mi activities currently, there exists some level of awareness of mi among ccs in ghana, which is very reassuring. this finding confirms the earlier study by polat and donmez (2010), which shows that ccs do gather some form asante et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024104 of intelligence but largely focus on traditional sources. for instance, most of their intelligencegathering is concentrated on the bidding phase, indicating a primary focus on winning more bids (smith, wright and pickton, 2010). this is logical, as bidding for construction projects is a strategic move that significantly impacts a cc’s business sustainability within the industry ( jarkas, mubarak and kadri, 2014). it also appears that ccs recognize the limitations of relying solely on experience and intuition for bidding decisions. by emphasizing intelligencegathering activities, they incorporate insights from market conditions, as argued by soo and oo (2014). this shift is reflected in the emphasis on studying project requirements, rated 100% by the ccs when asked about their mi activities. this emphasis is understandable given the wellestablished knowledge that risks in construction projects frequently lead to time and cost overruns (thuyet, ogunlana and dey, 2007). furthermore, by investigating project requirements (client needs), ccs can deliver superior service, enhancing customer satisfaction, which is crucial for customer retention in this industry (othman, 2015). regarding the terminology for intelligencegathering, the findings are consistent with calof (2017), who noted that organizations brand their intelligence activities differently. notably, among the thirteen names suggested, 37.5% of the ccs referred to ‘market research’ as the generic term for intelligence activities. as köseoglu, ross and okumus (2015) indicated, the variance in terms is linked to the specific purposes for which intelligence is gathered. consequently, the name chosen by the ccs may have influenced why only 9% consistently engage in intelligencegathering. market research focuses on a specific marketing strategy while mi has a broader focus on understanding market opportunities and threats, facilitating wellinformed decisionmaking (inha and bohlin, 2018). insights into resource allocation for mi activities revealed a consistent pattern across all ccs. admittedly, having someone responsible for mi activity is the first step toward establishing an intelligenceoriented organization (hedin, hirvensalo and vaarnas, 2014). firms with departments for mi are more likely to utilize it effectively (hattula, et al., 2015). the number of marketing staff is an indicator of the importance ccs attach to marketing efforts (polat and donmez, 2010). mi cannot offer answers if the right personnel are not in place to manage these activities. until the right person(s) is in place to lead mi activities, its full potential will not be reached (priporas, gatsoris and zacharias, 2005). yet, the results found that none of the firms had a designated person in charge of mi. this finding confirms jaafar, aziz and wai’s (2008) observation of a lack of dedicated personnel for marketing activities within ccs, corroborating the argument that many ccs do not pay sufficient attention to marketing activities (nobre and faria, 2017). firms with dedicated budgets for mi activities are more effective in exploring different sources for mi collection and techniques (cacciolatti and fearne, 2013). similarly, none of the firms have a budget for mi activities indicating a potential missed opportunity for optimizing their intelligencegathering. while intelligencegathering tools would help ccs easily search for necessary information and ensure successful intelligencegathering activities (hedin, hirvensalo and vaarnas, 2014), currently, the ccs do not have dedicated software to support organizing and managing the intelligence process as a searchable database of structured and relevant information. the results indicate a potential lack of recognition within ccs regarding the fundamental value of mi initiatives (erdis, coskun and demirci, 2015). another contributing factor could be a prevailing perception within ccs that mi capabilities do not constitute a substantial source of competitive advantage (dikmen, birgonul and ozcenk, 2005). they may be unaware that consistent investment in marketing results in improved competitive advantage (srinivasan, rangaswamy and lilien, 2005). this affirms the finding that intelligencegathering activities within ccs are often conducted in an ad hoc manner without coordination (morgan and morgan, 1991). earlier findings show that instead of the marketing function being seen as complementary, it is often relegated to the background (cicmil and nicholson, 1998). asante et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024105 mi ethical awareness despite repeated emphasis on the feasibility of ethical intelligencegathering (nasri, 2011), some firms still resort to unethical methods for collecting mi. therefore, when asked whether it is ethical for a firm to use its competitor’s employees to obtain information about the competitors, the overwhelming majority (85.7) did not consider such practices unethical, while few deemed it unethical. on the use of job interviews as a pretext to gather mi about competitors, the majority of 71.4% did not see anything unethical about that, while the rest deemed either unethical or were unsure. the results confirm a recent study by chan, chan and au (2020), that some firms persist in using questionable intelligencegathering techniques, such as using competitors’ employees to obtain information about the competitors. these results are an indication that ccs might not be aware of the differences between mi and business espionage (crane, 2005). they might be also unaware that 90% of the information they require to understand their markets and competitors and make critical decisions is already available to the public (yin, 2015). in the context of construction, project pressures such as low profit and intense competition which lead to unethical contractor behaviour (liu, zhao and li, 2017), could be accountable for resorting to such questionable intelligence gathering techniques. attitudes toward improved mi practices considering that for any firm to be successful in its mi activities, certain requirements must be fulfilled (helm, krinner and schmalfuß, 2014), there was a need to understand how the ccs are willing to put measures in place to enable them to obtain the ultimate benefits of mi utilization. therefore, four questions were asked concerning this issue. first, they all believed that current practices need to be improved. however, there was a split in the opinion on the need for regular intelligencegathering. while 37.5% accepted the need for continuous intelligencegathering, 28,5% did not see the reason for that, and 34% were unsure of continuous or ad hoc intelligencegathering. notably, none of the firms rejected the idea of having someone responsible for mi activities within their firms considering the many benefits of mi. so, about 88% believed that having someone in charge of mi activities would improve the current practices. this finding aligns with the literature that assigning specific staff to oversee mi activities can help the organization identify the right information and sources that are most relevant to decisionmaking (cacciolatti and fearne, 2013). as explained by priporas, gatsoris and zacharias (2005), designating somebody to oversee the mi function is necessary for the effective implementation of an mi system, as the system itself does not provide answers. on the need for budgetary support for mi activities, the majority of 75.0% endorsed the idea, corroborating cacciolatti and fearne’s (2013) account that committing sufficient financial resources to the mi function empowers firms to better identify their information needs compared to companies without dedicated resources. the favourable attitude towards mi activities suggests that ccs may have realized they need for new and distinct skill set to set themselves apart from competitors. the findings are in line with the indications that the mi function is being recognized as an important function in organizations compared to other support functions (hedin, hirvensalo and vaarnas, 2014). current state of market intelligence development to determine the current state of mi development within ccs, five ksfs drawn from ‘the world class mi roadmap’ were assessed: scope, process, tools, organization, and culture, based on the responses provided. regarding the mi scope, which measures the focus of intelligence activities, 12.5% focused on the pre project phase, 100% on the bidding phase, 7.1% on the delivery phase, and 3.6% on the postdelivery phase. this indicates that the current mi has a limited scope and is largely focused on the bidding phase. the mi process assesses the frequency at which firms gather intelligence; 57.1% reported doing so occasionally, asante et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024106 33.9% often, and the remaining 9% continually. this further indicates that the current mi tends to be a reactive, ad hoc process that addresses issues as they emerge. regarding mi tools, which assess the availability of dedicated intelligence software, only 3.6% reported availability, while 96.4% indicated non availability. this suggests that ccs are in the informal firefighting stage. in terms of mi organization, which evaluates how various resources are integrated to facilitate the intelligence process, currently, there are no resources specifically allocated to mi, indicating that ccs are conducting mi activities in a nonstructured manner. concerning mi culture, which analyses the mechanisms within ccs aimed at ensuring the sustained efficacy of intelligencegathering, there is some awareness of mi, but the organizational culture overall is still neutral towards mi as there are no supporting structures in place. conclusions and recommendations this study assessed the current state of mi development within ccs in ghana against the recognition that mi forms the bedrock of the marketing concept, serving as a vital component in marketoriented strategic planning and execution. however, despite extensive research on mi in various industries and countries, there remains a notable scarcity of studies on mi within ghana’s construction sector. the findings reveal that ccs do engage in mi activities, albeit with a significant reliance on traditional sources. presently, their mi focus predominantly centers around securing bids, with comparatively less attention given to maintaining client relationships. undesirably, ccs do not allocate sufficient resources to mi activities. the ccs are either unaware of unethical intelligencegathering techniques, or they are not hesitant to employ such methods to acquire mi. despite the absence of dedicated resources, ccs exhibit a positive attitude toward enhancing existing mi practices. the current mi development stage within ghanaian ccs can be described as the ‘firefighters’ stage of mi maturity. the overall result deduced is that mi development within the ccs is largely limited, informal, and ad hoc in nature and lacks dedicated resources. this implies that current mi activities are conducted without dedicated resources, primarily on an extempore basis with minimal coordination. while the investigation primarily focused on ccs in a specific administrative region of ghana, the insights gained serve as a reference point for ccs in other developing countries, or even developed countries. given the myriad advantages associated with mi, it is recommended that ccs recognize mi as a strategic and complementary function to core activities of ccs like engineering and estimating, thereby investing in its development. they should transition from reactive intelligencegathering to proactive intelligencegathering, which aligns with the core of mi. reactive intelligencegathering typically involves responding to immediate needs or issues as they arise, which may limit the company’s ability to anticipate market shifts or capitalize on emerging opportunities. in contrast, proactive intelligence gathering involves systematically collecting, analysing, and interpreting information to anticipate market trends, competitor actions, and customer preferences. this proactive approach empowers ccs to stay ahead of the curve, make informed decisions, and adapt their strategies accordingly. implications and future studies the findings highlight the need for industrywide standards and best practices for mi activities. sharing best practices and benchmarking against more mature mi practices from other industries can help ccs in ghana and similar contexts improve their mi capabilities and achieve better business outcomes. future research should delve into the specific information monitored by ccs for mi analysis. another study could explore the possibility of developing indicators to assess the effectiveness of mi utilization by ccs. moreover, future studies could explore the development of an mibased framework to guide the effective utilization of mi by ccs. asante et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024107 acknowledgment this paper forms part of a large research project entitled ‘utilising market intelligence for improving the competitiveness of construction firms’ from which other papers have been produced with different objectives/scopes but share a similar background and methodology. references adidam, p.t., banerjee, m. and shukla, p., 2012. competitive intelligence and firm’s performance in emerging markets: an exploratory study in india. journal of business and industrial marketing, 27(3), pp.242–54. https://doi. org/10.1108/08858621211207252 ameer, r. and othman, r., 2012. sustainability practices and corporate financial performance: a study based on the top global corporations. journal of business ethics, 108, pp.61-79. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1063-y asante, j., badu, e., kissi, e., adjei-kumi, t. and abu, m.a.i., 2022. establishing the need for utilizing market intelligence by local construction firms in developing countries. in: aigbavboa, c., thwala, w.d. and aghimien, d.o., eds. towards a sustainable construction industry: the role of innovation and digitalization. pp.589–97. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-031-22434-8_57 barnea, a., 2020. strategic intelligence: a concentrated and diffused intelligence model. intelligence and national security, 35, pp.701-16. https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2020.1747004 bisson, c. and dou, h., 2017. une intelligence economique et stratégique pour les pme, pmi et eti en france. vie and sciences de l ’entreprise, 2(204), pp.164-79. https://doi.org/10.3917/vse.204.0164 bose, r., 2008. competitive intelligence process and tools for intelligence analysis. industrial management and data systems, 108(4), pp.510-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570810868362 bremer, w. and kok, k., 2000. the dutch construction industry: a combination of competition and corporatism. building research and information, 28(2), pp.98-108. https://doi.org/10.1080/096132100369000 cacciolatti, l. and fearne, a., 2013. marketing intelligence in smes: implications for the industry and policymakers. marketing intelligence and planning, 31(1), pp.4-26. https://doi.org/10.1108/02634501311292894 calof, j., 2017. canadian competitive intelligence practices – a study of practicing strategic and competitive intelligence professionals’ canadian members. foresight, 19(6), pp.577-89. https://doi.org/10.1108/fs-07-2017-0024 calof, j.l. and wright, s., 2008. competitive intelligence: a practitioner, academic and inter-disciplinary perspective. european journal of marketing, 42(7/8), pp.717–30. https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560810877114 cavallo, a., sanasi, s., ghezzi, a. and rangone, a., 2021. competitive intelligence and strategy formulation: connecting the dots. competitiveness review: an international business journal, 31(2), pp.250-72. https://doi.org/10.1108/cr-012020-0009 chan, p., chan, j. and au, a.k.m., 2020. are hotel managers taught to be aggressive in intelligence-gathering? asian journal of business ethics, 9, pp.417–24. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13520-020-00117-4 cicmil, s. and nicholson, a., 1998. the role of the marketing function in operations of a construction enterprise: misconceptions and paradigms. management decision, 36(2), pp.96-101. https://doi.org/10.1108/00251749810204179 crane, a., 2005. in the company of spies: when competitive intelligence-gathering becomes industrial espionage. business horizons, 48, pp.233-40. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2004.11.005 demirdöğen, g. and işik, z., 2019. environmental scanning approach to assess innovation and technology. technology and investment, 10, pp.1-21. asante et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024108 https://doi.org/10.1108/08858621211207252 https://doi.org/10.1108/08858621211207252 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-011-1063-y https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22434-8_57 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22434-8_57 https://doi.org/10.1080/02684527.2020.1747004 https://doi.org/10.3917/vse.204.0164 https://doi.org/10.1108/02635570810868362 https://doi.org/10.1080/096132100369000 https://doi.org/10.1108/02634501311292894 https://doi.org/10.1108/fs-07-2017-0024 https://doi.org/10.1108/03090560810877114 https://doi.org/10.1108/cr-01-2020-0009 https://doi.org/10.1108/cr-01-2020-0009 https://doi.org/10.1007/s13520-020-00117-4 https://doi.org/10.1108/00251749810204179 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bushor.2004.11.005 dikmen, r., birgonul, m.t. and ozcenk, i., 2005. marketing orientation in construction firms: evidence from turkish contractors. building and environment, 40, pp.257-65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2004.07.009 drew, d.s., 2010. competing in construction auctions: a theoretical perspective. in: gerard de valence, ed. modern construction economics. 1st ed. uk: routledge. du toit, a.s., 2013. comparative study of competitive intelligence practices between two retail banks in brazil and south africa. journal of intelligence studies in business, 3, pp.30-39. https://doi.org/10.37380/jisib.v3i2.67 erdis, e., coskun, h. and demirci, m., 2015. perceptions of turkish construction firms about the marketing concepts. technological and economic development of economy, 21(3), pp.423-40. https://doi.org/10.3846/20294913.2014.958878 ganah, a., pye, a. and walker, c., 2008. marketing in construction: opportunities and challenges for smes. in: cobra 2008, 4-5 september 2008, dublin, ireland. gebhardt, f.f., farrelly, f.j. and conduit, j., 2019. market intelligence dissemination practices. journal of marketing, [e-journal] pp.1-19. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022242919830958 groom, r.j. and david, r.f., 2001. competitive intelligence activity among small firms. advanced management journal, 66(1), pp.12-20. https://doi.org/10.1002/cir.1014 harrington, h.j., voehl, f. and wiggin, h., 2012. applying tqm to the construction industry. the tqm journal, 24(4), pp.352-62. https://doi.org/10.1108/17542731211247373 hattula, j.d., schmitz, c., schmidt, m. and reinecke, s., 2015. is more always better? an investigation into the relationship between marketing influence and managers’ market intelligence dissemination. international journal of research in marketing, 32(2), pp.179-86. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2015.02.001 hayes, l., sourani, a. and sertyesilisik, b., 2016. an investigation into the improvement of tendering processes and the level of competition for pfi construction projects. the journal of modern project management, 4(1), pp.94-103. he, w., shen, j., tian, x., li, y., akula, v., yan, g. and tao, r., 2015. gaining competitive intelligence from social media data: evidence from two largest retail chains in the world. industrial management and data systems, 115(9), pp.1622-36. https://doi.org/10.1108/imds-03-2015-0098 hedin, h., hirvensalo, i. and vaarnas, m., 2014. the handbook of market intelligence: understand, compete and grow in global markets. 2nd ed. west sussex, uk: john wiley and sons ltd. helm, r., krinner, s. and schmalfuß, m., 2014. conceptualization and integration of marketing intelligence: the case of an industrial manufacturer. journal of business-to-business marketing, 21(4), pp.237-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/1051 712x.2014.979587 holloway, i. and wheeler, s., 2010. qualitative research in nursing and healthcare. 3rd ed. oxford, uk: wileyblackwell. inha, e. and bohlin, s., 2018. market intelligence: a literature review dissertation [pdf ]. available at: https://urn. kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-33419. jaafar, m., aziz, a.r.a. and wai, a.l.s., 2008. marketing practices of professional engineering consulting firms: implement or not to implement? journal of civil engineering and management, 14(3), pp.199-206. https://doi. org/10.3846/1392-3730.2008.14.17 jamil, g.l., santos, l.r.d. and jamil, c.c., 2018. improving competitiveness through organizational market intelligence. in: encyclopedia of information science and technology, 4th ed., pp.961-70. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-15225-2255-3.ch083 jarkas, a.m., mubarak, s.a. and kadri, c.y., 2014. critical factors determining bid/no bid decisions of contractors in qatar. journal of management in engineering, 30(4), pp.1-11. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000223 asante et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024109 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2004.07.009 https://doi.org/10.37380/jisib.v3i2.67 https://doi.org/10.3846/20294913.2014.958878 https://doi.org/10.1177/0022242919830958 https://doi.org/10.1002/cir.1014 https://doi.org/10.1108/17542731211247373 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2015.02.001 https://doi.org/10.1108/imds-03-2015-0098 https://doi.org/10.1080/1051712x.2014.979587 https://doi.org/10.1080/1051712x.2014.979587 https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-33419 https://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-33419 https://doi.org/10.3846/1392-3730.2008.14.17 https://doi.org/10.3846/1392-3730.2008.14.17 https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-2255-3.ch083 https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-2255-3.ch083 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000223 kirca, h.a., jayachandran, s. and bearden, w.o., 2005. market orientation: a meta-analytic review and assessment of its antecedents and impact on performance. journal of marketing, 69(2), pp.24-41. https://doi.org/10.1509/ jmkg.69.2.24.60761 kohli, a.j., 2017. market orientation in a digital world. global business review, 18(3), pp.1-3. https://doi. org/10.1177/0972150917700769 köseoglu, m.a., morvillo, a., altin, m., de martino, m. and okumus, f., 2019. competitive intelligence in hospitality and tourism: a perspective article. journal of strategic and international studies, 75(1), pp.239-42. https://doi. org/10.1108/tr-06-2019-0224 köseoglu, m.a., ross, g. and okumus, f., 2015. competitive intelligence practices in hotels. international journal of hospitality management, 53, pp.161-72. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2015.11.002 kotler, p. and armstrong, g., 2017. principles of marketing. 17th ed. london: pearson. langford, d. and male, s., 2001. strategic management in construction. 2nd ed. hoboken, nj: blackwell publishing. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470690291 li, y.m. and li, t.y., 2013. deriving market intelligence from microblogs. decision support systems, 55(1), pp.206-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2013.01.023 ling, f.y.y. and chan, a.h.m., 2008. internationalizing quantity surveying services. engineering, construction and architectural management, 15(5), pp.440-55. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980810902730 liu, j., zhao, x. and li, y., 2017. exploring the factors inducing contractors’ unethical behavior: case of china. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 143(3), pp.1-10. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.19435541.0000316 lönnqvist, a. and pirttimäki, v., 2006. the measurement of business intelligence. information systems management, 23(1), pp.32-40. https://doi.org/10.1201/1078.10580530/45769.23.1.20061201/91770.4 lópez-robles, j.r., otegi-olasoa, j.r., gómez, i.p. and cobo, m.j., 2019. 30 years of intelligence models in management and business: a bibliometric review. international journal of information management, 48, pp.22-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.01.013 lutz, c.j. and bodendorf, f., 2020. analyzing industry stakeholders using open-source competitive intelligence – a case study in the automotive supply industry. journal of enterprise information management, 33(3), pp.579-99. https://doi. org/10.1108/jeim-08-2019-0234 maltz, e. and kohli, a.k., 1996. market intelligence dissemination across functional boundaries. journal of marketing research, 33(1), pp.47-61. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224379603300105 mandal, p.c., 2018. marketing information and marketing intelligence: roles in generating customer insights. international journal of business forecasting and marketing intelligence, 4(3), pp.311-21. https://doi.org/10.1504/ ijbfmi.2018.092786 markovich, a., efrat, k., raban, d.r. and souchon, a.l., 2019. competitive intelligence embeddedness: drivers and performance consequences. european management journal, 37, pp.708-18. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.04.003 maungwa, t. and fourie, i., 2018. competitive intelligence failures: an information behavior lens to key intelligence and information needs. aslib journal of information management, 70(4), pp.367-89. https://doi.org/10.1108/ajim-012018-0018 mcgonagle, j.j. and vella, c.m., 2012. proactive intelligence: the successful executive’s guide to intelligence. london: springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2742-0 asante et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024110 https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.69.2.24.60761 https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkg.69.2.24.60761 https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150917700769 https://doi.org/10.1177/0972150917700769 https://doi.org/10.1108/tr-06-2019-0224 https://doi.org/10.1108/tr-06-2019-0224 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2015.11.002 https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470690291 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2013.01.023 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980810902730 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000316 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000316 https://doi.org/10.1201/1078.10580530/45769.23.1.20061201/91770.4 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.01.013 https://doi.org/10.1108/jeim-08-2019-0234 https://doi.org/10.1108/jeim-08-2019-0234 https://doi.org/10.1177/002224379603300105 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijbfmi.2018.092786 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijbfmi.2018.092786 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.emj.2019.04.003 https://doi.org/10.1108/ajim-01-2018-0018 https://doi.org/10.1108/ajim-01-2018-0018 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-2742-0 mehmet, h.k., 2008. determinants of export marketing research in turkish companies. journal of euromarketing, 17(2), pp.95-107. https://doi.org/10.1080/10496480802134696 mochtar, k. and arditi, d., 2001. role of marketing intelligence in making pricing policy in construction. journal of management in engineering, 17(3), pp.140–48. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2001)17:3(140) mokhtariani, m., sebt, m.h. and davoudpour, h., 2017. construction marketing: developing a reference framework. advances in civil engineering. [e-journal] 2017(4), pp.1-14. https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/7548905 morgan, r.e. and morgan, n.a., 1991. an appraisal of the marketing development in engineering consultancy firms. construction management and economics, 9(4), pp.355-68. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446199100000028 müller-bloch, c. and kranz, j., 2014. a framework for rigorously identifying research gaps in qualitative literature reviews. in: proceedings of the 36th international conference on information systems exploring the information frontier, icis 2015. december 13-16, 2015, fort worth, texas, usa. https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2015/proceedings/ researchmethods/2. muñoz-cañavate, a. and alves-albero, p., 2017. competitive intelligence in spain: a study of a sample of firms. business information review, 34(4), pp.194-204. https://doi.org/10.1177/0266382117735982 nasri, w., 2011. competitive intelligence in tunisian companies. journal of enterprise information management, 24(1), pp.53-67. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410391111097429 navarro-garcía, a., barrera-barrera, r. and villarejo-ramos, a.f., 2013. the importance of market intelligence in spanish firms’ exporting activity. esic market economics and business journal, 44(3), pp.9-31. https://doi.org/10.7200/ esicm.146.0443.1 ng, t.n., wong, j.m.w., chiang, y.h. and lam, p.t., 2017. improving the competitive advantages of construction firms in developed countries. ice proceedings municipal engineer, 171(4), pp.1-11. https://doi.org/10.1680/ jmuen.17.00002 nicolini, d., tomkins, c., holti, r., oldman, a. and smalley, m., 2000. can target costing and whole life costing be applied in the construction industry? evidence from two case studies. british journal of management, 11(4), pp.303–24. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00175 nobre, h. and faria, j., 2017. exploring marketing strategies in architectural services: the case of the architecture firms in portugal. international journal of business excellence, 12(3), pp.275-87. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijbex.2017.084438 ogbu, p.c., 2018. survival practices of indigenous construction firms in nigeria. international journal of construction management, 18(1), pp.78-91. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1277056 ojo, g.k., 2011. effective marketing strategies and the nigerian construction professionals. african journal of marketing management, 3(12), pp.303-11. othman, a.e., 2015. an international index for customer satisfaction in the construction industry. international journal of construction management, 15(1), pp.33–58. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2015.1012140 peters, e., subar, k. and martin, h., 2019. late payment and nonpayment within the construction industry: causes, effects and solutions. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 11(3), pp.1-12. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000314 plaisance, g., 2023. which stakeholder matters: overall performance and contingency in nonprofit organizations. international studies of management and organization, 53(3), pp.125-47. https://doi.org/10.1080/00208825.2023.22373 88 polat, g. and donmez, u., 2010. marketing management functions of construction companies: evidence from turkish contractors. journal of civil engineering and management, 16(2), pp.267–77. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2010.31 asante et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024111 https://doi.org/10.1080/10496480802134696 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2001)17:3(140 https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/7548905 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446199100000028 https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2015/proceedings/researchmethods/2 https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2015/proceedings/researchmethods/2 https://doi.org/10.1177/0266382117735982 https://doi.org/10.1108/17410391111097429 https://doi.org/10.7200/esicm.146.0443.1 https://doi.org/10.7200/esicm.146.0443.1 https://doi.org/10.1680/jmuen.17.00002 https://doi.org/10.1680/jmuen.17.00002 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00175 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijbex.2017.084438 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1277056 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2015.1012140 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000314 https://doi.org/10.1080/00208825.2023.2237388 https://doi.org/10.1080/00208825.2023.2237388 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2010.31 priporas, c.v., gatsoris, l. and zacharias, v., 2005. competitive intelligence activity: evidence from greece. marketing intelligence and planning, 23(7), pp.659-69. https://doi.org/10.1108/02634500510630195 safa, m., shahi, a., haas, c.t., fiander-mccann, d., safa, m., hipel, k. and macgillivray, s., 2015. competitive intelligence (ci) for evaluation of construction contractors. automation in construction, 59, pp. 49-57. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.02.009 segarra-oña, m., peiró-signes, a. and cervelló-royo, r., 2015. a framework to move forward on the path to ecoinnovation in the construction industry: implications to improve firms’ sustainable orientation. science and engineering ethics, 21, pp.1469–84. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-014-9620-2 setiawan, h., erdogana, b.h. and ogunlana, o.s., 2015. competitive aggressiveness of contractors: a study of indonesia. procedia engineering, 125, pp.68–74. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.11.011 smith, j.r., wright, r. and pickton, d., 2010. competitive intelligence programs for smes in france: evidence of changing attitudes. journal of strategic marketing, 18(7), pp.523-36. https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254x.2010.529154 soh, p.h., 2003. the role of networking alliances in information acquisition and its implications for new product performance. journal of business venturing, 18, pp.727–44. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0883-9026(03)00026-0 søilen, k.s., 2016. a research agenda for intelligence studies in business. journal of intelligence studies in business, 5(1), pp.21-36. somiah, m.k., aigbavboa, c.o. and thwala, w.d., 2020. validating elements of competitive intelligence for competitive advantage of construction firms in ghana: a delphi study. african journal of science, technology, innovation and development, 13(3), pp.377–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/20421338.2020.1762309 soo, a. and oo, b.l, 2014. the effect of construction demand on contract auctions: an experiment. engineering, construction and architectural management, 21(3), pp.276-90. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2013-0010 srinivasan, r., rangaswamy, a. and lilien, g., 2005. turning adversity into advantage: does proactive marketing during a recession pay off? international journal of research in marketing, 22(2), pp.109-25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijresmar.2004.05.002 stefanikova, l., rypakova, m. and moravcikova, k., 2015. the impact of competitive intelligence on sustainable growth of the enterprises. procedia economics and finance, 26, pp.209–14. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00816-3 thuyet, n., ogunlana, s. and dey, p.k., 2007. risk management in oil and gas construction projects in vietnam. international journal of energy sector management, 1(2), pp.175-94. https://doi.org/10.1108/17506220710761582 tummalapudi, m., killingsworth, j., harper, c. and mehaney, m., 2021. us construction industry managerial strategies for economic recession and recovery: a delphi study. journal of construction engineering and management, 147(11), pp.04021146. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002175 vuori, v., 2007. business intelligence activities in construction companies in finland – a series of case studies. in: 8th european conference on knowledge management, 6-7 september 2007, barcelona, spain. pp.1086-92. wright, s., pickton, w.d. and callow, j., 2002. competitive intelligence in uk firms: a typology. marketing intelligence and planning, 20(6), pp.349-60. https://doi.org/10.1108/02634500210445400 yin, c.h., 2015. measuring organizational impacts by integrating competitive intelligence into an executive information system. journal of intelligent manufacturing, 29, pp.533–47. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10845-015-1135-4 yin, r.k., 1994. case study research, design and methods. 2nd ed. london: sage publications. asante et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024112 https://doi.org/10.1108/02634500510630195 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.02.009 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2015.02.009 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-014-9620-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.11.011 https://doi.org/10.1080/0965254x.2010.529154 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0883-9026(03)00026-0 https://doi.org/10.1080/20421338.2020.1762309 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2013-0010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2004.05.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2004.05.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00816-3 https://doi.org/10.1108/17506220710761582 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002175 https://doi.org/10.1108/02634500210445400 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10845-015-1135-4 appendix i: the worldclass mi roadmap levels ksf informal mi “firefighters” (level 1= very poor) basic mi “beginners” (level 2= poor) intermediate mi “coordinators” (level 3=fair) advanced mi “directors” (level 4= good) world class mi “futurists” (level 5=very good) intelligence scope ad hoc needs drive the scope limited scope and seeking quick wins wide scope comprehensive monitoring of the operating environment. covers topics outside the immediate operating environment intelligence process reactive ad hoc process puts out fires as they emerge. needs analysis made. wellestablished primary info collection and analysis. advanced market monitoring and analysis processes established. mi fully integrated with key business processes intelligence tools folders as the primary means for sharing and archiving information central storage for intelligence output webbased mi portal established that provides access to structured mi output. sophisticated channelling of both internally and externally produced mi content to the mi portal. integration of the mi portal to other relevant it tools. l intelligence organisation no resources specifically dedicated to mi. one person appointed as responsible for mi. a fully dedicated person manages mi and coordinates activities. dedicated resources in business units for collecting local market info. mi team has reached the status of trusted advisors to management. intelligence culture no awareness of the benefits of mi operations. some awareness exists of mi mi awareness at a moderate level. mi awareness is high. a strong mi mindset asante et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024113 construction economics and building vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023 © 2023 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: ryandika, meifrinaldi, pribadi, k. s., martek, i., chan, t. k. 2023. informality of labour in the indonesia construction industry. construction economics and building, 23:3/4, 25–44. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v23i3/4.8404 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article informality of labour in the indonesia construction industry ryandika1, meifrinaldi1, krishna suryanto pribadi1, igor martek2, toong khuan chan3,* 1 faculty of civil and environmental engineering, bandung institute of technology, bandung, indonesia 2 school of architecture and built environment, deakin university, geelong, australia 3 department of engineering, la trobe university, melbourne, australia, formerly faculty of architecture, building and planning, university of melbourne, melbourne, australia corresponding author: dr toong khuan chan, university of melbouorne, toong-khuan.chan@ latrobe.edu.au doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8404 article history: received 11/10/2022; revised 04/05/2023 & 23/08/2023; accepted 22/11/2023; published 23/12/2023 abstract the covid-19 pandemic has led to concerns about the vulnerability of the estimated 70 million informal workers in indonesia, who are at risk of job losses and wage cuts due to the lack of a social safety net. this study aims to assess the effect of the covid-19 pandemic on formal and informal workers in the construction industry in the west java province. specifically, the objectives are (i) to assess the effect of covid-19 on workers’ incomes and work hours, and (ii) to evaluate the implementation of health and safety protocols at project sites and identify associated challenges and limitations. a survey conducted in november and december 2020 obtained 261 responses from workers employed by 19 construction companies. contingency table testing using chi-square test of independence was employed to analyse the differential impact of covid-19 on the two groups of workers. the findings indicate that informal workers were not more vulnerable than formal workers, as they were not targeted for wage reductions or benefit cuts during the pandemic. health and safety protocols were effectively communicated and implemented by contractors, with no noticeable differences in implementation between formal and informal workers. this can be attributed to the industry’s dependence on declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 25 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8404 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8404 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8404 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:toong-khuan.chan@latrobe.edu.au mailto:toong-khuan.chan@latrobe.edu.au https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8404 informal workers to carry out physical construction work, which has resulted in a higher level of job security and welfare compared to informal work in other sectors. the study underscores the essential role of informal workers in the construction industry and the importance of including them in policies and regulations. keywords informality; wages; health and safety; covid-19; west java introduction the spread of covid-19 across the world has caused severe disruption to social and economic activities not only because of the restrictions on movements and physical distancing imposed but also the large numbers who succumbed to the virus. the virus spread rapidly in indonesia, appearing in all 34 provinces in the country with the densely populated jakarta metropolitan area and the provinces of west java and central java most affected. the surge of infections was attributed to the movement of millions of indonesians travelling to their home provinces to celebrate the eid festival (prasetyo and sofyan, 2020), delays in mass testing, and the absence of strict containment measures (olivia, gibson and nasrudin, 2020). initial studies of the transmission of covid-19 in the construction industry have indicated that the primary area of concern lies in the workers’ external interactions, which could potentially undermine the effectiveness of internal health controls (lestari, et al., 2022). while many economic sectors have experienced drastic declines in demand and output, the construction sector in many countries operated either cautiously at its original capacity to keep workers employed and to sustain economic activities or at reduced levels due to restrictions on the movement of workers. governments worldwide regard the construction industry as a vital economic sector. any unnecessary disruption or curtailment of its activities can reduce economic output, impede growth, and potentially hamper the completion of much needed critical infrastructure. a global survey on the impact of covid-19 on project progress conducted in mid-2020 found that 18% of projects were disrupted and halted, 73% were disrupted, recommenced but reported delays while only 8% have had no impact (ogunnusi, et al., 2020). bibliometric studies of the impact of covid-19 on the construction sector have identified disruptions in the construction supply chain, contractual problems, payment delays, shortages of manpower, materials and equipment, interruptions to schedules, cost overruns and suspension of works as challenges (ayat, malikah and kang, 2021; sierra, 2021). a survey conducted by the indonesian association of quantity surveyors in september 2020 found that 80% of projects in indonesia were adversely affected with schedule delays and cost overruns to project suspensions and terminations (hansen, et al., 2021). another survey of construction companies reported that up to 25% of projects were suspended while those that have not appointed a contractor did not proceed (larasati, et al., 2021). the pandemic has also emphasised the vulnerability of economically disadvantaged people who were more likely to live in poor housing, employed in occupations that do not provide opportunities to work from home, or exposed to unstable work conditions and incomes (patel, et al., 2020). the disadvantaged often delay seeking testing and treatment and appear in hospitals at a more advanced stage of illness. lemieux, et al. (2020) observed that the pandemic led to a 32% reduction in aggregate weekly work hours among workers and a 15% decline in employment in canada. crucially, nearly half of job losses were attributed to workers in the lowest earnings quartile with younger workers and those paid hourly most impacted. a report on the devastating impact of the pandemic on indonesia’s 70 million informal workers emphasised the urgent need for targeted policies aimed at supporting these workers, as many work with adequate legal protection or safety nets (octavia, 2020). the social distancing imposed by the government of indonesia in 2020 has left many own account workers with little or no work prospects. informal ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202326 construction workers such as those working in labour gangs may be out of work if the head contractor reduces the number of workers, cuts shift or postpones the works. those on informal work arrangements were not entitled to employment benefits such as social protection, advance notice of dismissal and severance pay. initial reports of similar studies on the global economic effects of covid-19 indicated that the crisis had accentuated and deepened economic and social divides along skills levels, education, income, and gender bases in organisation for economic co-operation and development (oecd) countries (u.s. congressional research service, 2021). other studies indicated that a migrant workforce was more likely to lose jobs during economic downturns due to the prevalence of employment under temporary contracts, lower wages, and savings, working in jobs that cannot be performed from home and limited access to the safety net (fassani and mazza, 2020). while the issue of informal work and income instability have been studied previously, recent interventions and relief offered by the indonesian government do not recognise informal workers nor consider the disproportionate impact of covid-19 on informal workers. this study seeks to fill the gap in knowledge regarding the impact of covid-19 on the income and employment of formal and informal construction workers in indonesia. the study has two main objectives: first, to assess the impact of covid-19 on the income and work hours of construction workers, and second, to evaluate the implementation of health and safety protocols at project sites and identify any challenges or limitations. statistical analysis will be employed to examine whether the impacts of covid-19 differ significantly for formal and informal workers. it is important to understand these impacts in order to develop effective strategies for mitigating the effects of pandemics or disruptions on the construction industry in the future. construction industry covid-19 control measures in indonesia the movement of workers and residents was severely restricted to control the transmission of the virus due to the lockdown imposed by the government in april 2020 (kompaspedia, 2021). policy measures taken by the indonesian government to control the spread of the pandemic were: the closure of schools and workplaces, reduced number of patrons in markets and shops that serve essential needs, a ban on large gatherings, reduced number of passengers in public transport, and transportation of only essential goods. healthcare, security, and other essential sectors were allowed to operate under stringent health guidelines. construction of public infrastructure was listed as an essential and critical service, and therefore remained operational throughout this period together with the manufacture and supply of cement and other building materials. despite the increase in covid-19 cases in jakarta and neighbouring areas in the west java province, stakeholders were concerned with protecting the safety, health, and wellbeing of construction workers so that they could continue to work in a hazard-free working environment (lestari, et al.,2020). shutting down this sector would lead to significant job losses and put immense pressure on the government to assist a large cohort of informal workers labouring on project sites. historically, the construction sector was characterised by poor occupational health and safety practices with incidents and accidents occurring frequently (lestari, et al.,2020). the government issued covid-19 prevention protocol for the construction industry on 27 march 2020 requiring the formation of prevention of covid-19 task forces and the implementation of health protocols at every project site (ministry of public works and housing, 2020). essentially, these instructions were for the project owner and contractors to jointly establish a task force with the duty, responsibility, and authority to socialise, educate, promote and implement covid-19 preventative measures at the project site, coordinate with the covid-19 task force at the ministry to identify potential hazards in the field, and conduct health checks. the project task force was also responsible for monitoring workers’ health and their movements, providing vitamins and health supplements to boost the workers’ immunity, and liaising with the health department in the event of an infection. project sites were subject to a temporary cessation ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202327 of activities if cases were detected, or very stringent health and distancing protocols if the projects were deemed to be essential or urgently required to be completed such as health facilities or quarantine centres. the facilities required on project sites were clearly spelled out: medical rooms with oxygen supply, noncontact temperature scanners, trained personnel, additional hand washing facilities, soap and hand sanitizer, face masks for all workers and visitors; and contingency plans to bring patients to the nearest hospital or public health centre. the task force was to disseminate information on these preventive measures during morning briefings and conduct temperature scans for all workers three times a day. informality in the indonesian construction industry although informal employment is commonly perceived to be characterised by employment and production that takes place in small or unregistered companies, it also includes informal wage employment without formal contracts or social protection by formal companies (williams and lansky, 2013). chen (2008) defined informality as the lack of labour rights, business rights, social protection, property rights and rights to organisation and representation. theories that defined the existence of the informal economy included the dualist theory that classified all non-formal activities as informal, the structuralist theory that described the workers who were kept off the books by capitalist firms to reduce their labour input costs, the legalist approach where firms chose to operate informally to avoid compliance costs, and the voluntarist approach where workers or firms chose to remain informal based on a cost-benefit analysis. other approaches (international labour organization (ilo), 2002) considered informality depending on whether the focus was the enterprise, the employment arrangement, or the economic activity in question. the ilo utilised both the enterprise and employment-based approaches to define informality. under this framework, there can be informal employees engaged by formal enterprises. informal economic activities extend from subsistence trading to large-scale illegal or prohibited activities such as tax evasion, violation of labour laws, production and trade in illicit goods and services. two apparent forms of informality apparent in the indonesian construction industry were by enterprise and employment arrangements. from a reported 203,403 construction establishments reported in 2021 (badan pusat statistik, 2021), only 179,781 were registered with the construction service development board. no estimates were available for unincorporated or informal construction enterprises, but these were believed to be substantial as most small-scale or residential construction were carried out by work gangs led by a ‘mandor’ or foreman (soemardi, soenaryo and wahyudi, 2011). in addition, formal construction enterprises regularly engaged these mandors as labour subcontractors to carry out physical construction work leading to the reported 1.1 million registered workers and an estimated 7 million more informal workers. in considering these arrangements where formal construction enterprises engage informal labour gangs managed by a mandor, it follows that formal roles were limited to those directly employed by the contractor including managers, administrators, project managers, project engineers, planners, quantity surveyors, land surveyors, and field supervisors both on project sites and head office whereas informal roles include the skilled workers and labourers engaged by the mandor (firman, 1991). formal workers were either permanent or contract employees with formal employment contracts, paid regularly and enjoying training and other benefits commensurate with their roles. conversely, construction labourers both skilled and unskilled were engaged by these mandors without employment contracts and therefore considered as informal employment. when viewed from a structuralist approach, the arrangement where formal construction enterprises engage informal workers was potentially a means of reducing their input costs as these labour contracts were paid based on an agreed price for work completed. this method of subcontracting to informal work gangs ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202328 allowed the contractor to manage its labour cost tightly as these workers were not paid based on work hours but on measured outputs. informality of the labour gangs can be viewed as a legalist approach from the mandor’s decision to reduce compliance costs while the workers who voluntarily chose to seek to work in these labour gangs were based on their perceived benefits of informal employment arrangements. kaming, et al. (1997) argued that the insecure and vulnerable employment for daily or casual construction workers and the resulting poor wages were not the result of free choice but the outcome of limited opportunities in formal work and the low wages offered in the industry for such work. workers who refused to accept low remuneration could easily be replaced. the mandor customarily recruited workers from their home villages, extended families or from among persons known to them from previous projects. informal construction workers were farmers who left their fields to look for jobs in the city after completing their harvests and when construction work was over, return to their villages to farm again (soemardi and pribadi, 2018). some of these workers upgraded their skills to become skilled masons, carpenters, or steel fixers after years of apprenticeship with these labour gangs. despite the informal work arrangements, the mandor was often considered the patron of the work gang, providing cash advances or loans for unexpected expenses, leave to attend to family matters, and the flexibility for workers to tend to their farms during times for harvest. in effect, these arrangements constituted a form of social safety net albeit at the community level. rahman, kusuma and arfyanto (2020) reported that the educational attainment for these informal workers was low with approximately half at or below elementary school. a comparison of the productivity of the formal and informal sectors indicated large differences in output and labour productivity (asian development bank (adb) and bps-statistics indonesia, 2011). the average monthly labour productivity of the informal workers was rp7 million compared to rp77 million in the formal sector in yogyakarta whereas the figures for banten were rp13 million and rp85 million, respectively. to reduce their vulnerability to declines in income from any single source, informal workers often take on a diverse range of jobs (wiebe, 1996). octavia (2020) observed that many informal workers in indonesia earned just enough before the pandemic to not be eligible to benefit from welfare programs that targeted low-income households. according to the findings of wijayaningtyas, et al. (2022), there was a significant reduction in incomes for informal workers, with estimates showing a decrease of up to 48%. however, these findings did not indicate a similar impact on formal workers. previous studies on the impact of covid-19 on construction workers have primarily examined challenges relating to implementing health and safety protocols on project sites (alsharef, et al., 2021), working in confined spaces (bushman, et al., 2021), and underestimating the severity of the virus (zheng, chen and ma, 2020). alsharef, et al. (2021) observed that many tasks in the construction industry were carried out by teams of workers, making social distancing, or the discomfort of wearing of masks for long periods unrealistic. staggering work crews, limiting workers in break rooms, temperature checks, disinfecting tools and surfaces, and requiring non-essential workers to work from home were measures that were adopted successfully. challenges such as the use of a single elevator to transport workers and working in enclosed, non-ventilated spaces (bushman, et al., 2021) and having wrong understanding about the transmission of the virus and the gung-ho attitude of construction workers (zheng, chen and ma, 2020) remained. bavel, et al. (2020) reported that the economically disadvantaged would be most likely to be exposed to covid-19, most susceptible to harm from it and most likely to experience negative outcomes. workers without health insurance may have delayed seeking testing or treatment, workers who relied on public transport could not socially distance and workers who were casually employed were not offered paid sick leave. the increased vulnerability of people of low socio-economic status to covid-19 was attributed to their increased likelihood of living in overcrowded accommodation, being employed in roles that did not provide opportunities to work from home, unstable incomes, seeking treatment when they were at a more advanced ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202329 stage of illness, and evidence of increased risks of cardiovascular disease, obesity, and hypertension (patel, et al., 2020). in this study, vulnerability is defined as the degree to which workers are susceptible to a decline or loss of income, an increased risk of exposure to covd-19 due to the nature of their tasks on project sites, as well as their commute to work and living arrangements. research method the literature indicated that non-permanent workers were most vulnerable during times of crisis either from an income and job security perspective as these workers were the first to lose their jobs or have their hours cut (octavia, 2020; weibe, 1996), or from an occupational health and safety perspective as they were often desperately in need of work and would be willing to take on risky tasks (patel, et al., 2020). the study was conducted solely among contractors operating in the province of west java for two primary reasons. firstly, west java was among the areas with the highest reported number of covid-19 cases and was subjected to the most stringent lock-down conditions (kompaspedia, 2021). secondly, the researchers who were also locked down were co-located in this province, which allowed for immediate access to contractors. to obtain a representative sample of construction workers in west java, a purposive sampling approach was used. initially, a list of construction companies working on public projects in the province was identified, and through a snowballing process, the sample was expanded to include workers from both public and private projects. the survey covered three specific thematic areas of income vulnerability, travel and accommodation, and access to and impact of covid-19 facilities. the workers were categorised into formal and informal employees based on their employment arrangement with the construction companies. this survey was conducted online, with the survey link distributed via email to the project management team with instructions to disseminate these to their entire project team. other sampling methods such as random, stratified, or systematic were not considered viable as the researchers were also operating under lockdown conditions. the survey, conducted in november and december 2020, was limited to respondents who were able to competently respond to this online questionnaire. contingency table testing, specifically using the chi-square test of independence, was employed to determine if there is a statistically significant association between two categorical variables. this approach does not assume any specific distribution of the data, making it suitable for situations where normal distribution assumptions are not met. the main objective of the comparative analysis was to ascertain whether the frequencies of observations in the variables examined were independent of the workers’ form of employment – formal or informal. for example, when examining salary and wage cuts, the null and alternate hypotheses were formulated as follows: h0: salary and wage cuts are independent of the form of employment (which is the same as saying that salary and wage cuts are the same for both formal and informal employment) ha: there is a difference in the salary and wage cuts for formal and informal workers. in this example, the categorical variables under investigation were salary and wage cuts, and form of employment. if there is an association between salary and wage cuts, and form of employment, the relative frequencies of salary and wage cuts in the rows will differ. conversely, if the relative frequencies are similar, it suggests no relationship between these variables. the chi-squared test determines whether there the observed association is statistically significant or simply due to random variability. the significance level of 0.05 adopted in this study implies that there is a 5% chance of incorrectly rejecting the null hypothesis if it is, in fact true. this significance level provides a reasonable threshold for drawing meaningful conclusions from the analysis. ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202330 findings a total of 261 valid responses from workers were recorded, of which 172 were classified as formal workers, including engineers, site managers, supervisors, administration staff, occupational health and safety (ohs) officers, quality assurance/quality control (qa/qc) officers, as well as drivers, operators and survey assistants on fixed-term contracts. the remaining 89 workers were classified as informal, including both skilled workers and unskilled labourers who worked in labour gangs under the supervision of a mandor or foreman. details of the respondents’ age, educational attainment and experience were summarised in table 1. female employees constituted 12% (20/172) of the formal worker sample whereas all but one of the informal workers were men. collectively, only 8% (21/261) of the respondents were female reflecting the wide gender imbalance of the workforce in the construction industry. the median age of the formal workers was in the 25-29 age group whereas the informal workers were generally 5 years younger with a large cohort in the 20-24 age group. the formal workers reported educational attainments ranging from senior high school, diploma, and degree, including two post-graduate qualifications whereas informal workers generally completed only junior or senior high school. formally employed workers exhibited more years of work experience while a large proportion of the informal staff offered less than four years of experience. in summary, the informal workers were younger, less experienced, with lower educational attainment compared to the formal workers. the chi-square statistic was applied to test the independence of age, educational attainment and experience based on their form of employment (either formal or informal). the null hypotheses stated that these factors were independent of the form of employment whereas the alternative hypothesis could be stated that these factors were not the same. the chi-square tests showed that the null hypothesis was rejected for age, educational attainment, and work experience. there is sufficient evidence at the 0.05 level to conclude that these three factors differ among formal and informal workers. of the 261 construction workers surveyed, 182 workers were employed by pt wijaya karya, and another 35 workers by pt pp, both large state-owned construction companies (the abbreviation pt refers to ‘perseroan terbatas’ or limited liability company, and pt pp was formerly known as pt pembangunan perumahan). the remaining 44 respondents were engaged by 17 private contractors. these 261 workers were engaged on 16 different projects, with 80% of the workers engaged on infrastructure projects and 20% on building projects. the two state-owned construction companies were main contractors in 7 of these projects whereas private contractors were engaged on 11 projects, either as main contractors or subcontractors to the state-owned contractors. the data in table 2 indicated that 125 workers were engaged on large-scale infrastructure projects valued above rp500 billion (us$35 million), and another 48 on high-rise building projects ranging from rp10 billion to 500 billion (us$0.7 to 35 million). this distribution of workers is in line with the dominance of state-owned companies in indonesia’s construction industry for larger projects (chan and pribadi, 2022). table 3 showed that the median basic salary for all workers fell in the rp0-5 million (less than us$350) per month range. however, significant numbers of formal workers earned between rp5-10 million (us$350-700) and rp10-20 million (us$700-1,400) per month. these findings are consistent with the reported average salary for permanent construction workers in jakarta capital region and west java province, which were rp5.1 million and rp3.2 million per month, respectively (badan pusat statistik, 2020a). the study found that 96% (85/89) of informal workers earned less than rp5 million per month, which corresponds to the estimated rp150,000 per day reported by badan pusat statistik (2021). given the minimum wage of rp4.4 million in the jakarta capital region in 2021, both formal and informal workers’ salaries were likely to be between rp4 million and rp5 million per month. the minimum wage in 2021 varied across indonesia, ranging from a low of rp1.8 million in the province of central java to rp3.5 million in papua. ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202331 the pandemic had a significant impact on workers’ wages, with 28% (49/172) of the formal workers and 13% (12/89) of the informal workers experiencing cuts to their salaries or wages. these cuts were more severe for formal workers, ranging from 5% to 20%, while the cuts for the informal workers were mostly limited to less than 10%. these findings suggest that wage cuts were more prevalent among formal workers, table 1. observed frequencies of respondents’ gender, age, educational attainment, and work experience all formal informal chi-square statistic number 261 172 89 gender male 240 152 88 female 21 20 1 age (years) 15-19 11 4 7 χ2 =20.0 20-24 59 37 22 dof = (r-1)(c-1) = 25-29 64 51 13 (10-1)(2-1) = 9 30-34 56 42 14 χ2 0.05,9 =16.9 35-39 31 18 13 p(χ2≥ 20.0) = 40-44 23 12 11 0.018 45-49 4 1 3 reject h0 50-54 6 3 3 55-59 4 2 2 60+ 2 2 0 educational attainment elementary 16 4 12 χ2 =74.6 junior high 40 11 29 dof = (6-1)(2-1) = 5 senior high 113 70 43 χ2 0.05,5 =11.1 diploma 12 10 2 p(χ2≥ 74.6) = degree 77 75 2 1e-14 ms/phd 3 2 1 reject h0 work experience (years) 0-4 years 146 82 64 χ2 =16.4, dof = 3 4-8 years 62 47 15 χ2 0.05,3 =7.8 8-12 years 29 26 3 p(χ2≥ 16.4) = 0.0009 12+ years 24 17 7 reject h0 (source: authors’ survey, 2022) ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202332 who earned more than the minimum wage, compared to informal workers who earned wages closer to the minimum wage. only 34% (30/89) of the informal workers reported receiving allowances whereas the proportion of formal workers who received them was much higher at 72% (123/172). most workers received allowances of less than rp5 million, although some formal workers received between rp5 million and rp10 million per month. the most common type of allowance was the religious holiday allowance, followed by annual bonuses, transport, food, and family allowances. despite the requirement to pay the religious holiday allowance, 10% (18/172) and 50% (45/89) of the formal and informal workers reported not receiving it. the impact of covid was more pronounced in formal employment where 35% (61/172) reported cuts to their allowances compared to only 26% (23/89) of the informal workers. in general, the results indicate that cuts to salary and wages were more pronounced in the higher income formal workers compared to informal workers who were earning wages marginally above minimum wage. these results indicated that cuts were made to both the salaries and allowances of formal and informal workers, but the thrust of these cuts was directed towards the formal workers who were earning slightly more than the informal workers. around 48% (82/172) the formal workers were provided with company accommodation while only 20% (18/89) of informal workers were provided with this benefit. formal workers also received other benefits such as transport, insurances, and social security through the national insurance scheme. however, despite mandatory requirements, only one in five formal workers and one in thirty informal workers were registered for health insurance and social security. statistical testing confirmed that formal workers received table 2. project type and value project value (in rp billion) project description no <10 10-200 200-500 500-1000 1000+ building: high rise (office, mall, apartment) 41 3 9 29 housing 6 2 workshop 1 data centre 1 1 other building 1 1 infrastructure: high speed rail 8 5 3 infrastructure (road, bridge, dam, airport, port) 196 3 5 4 23 91 epc (oil and gas, power plant, industrial) 2 1 1 soil investigation 1 no data 4 total 261 8 14 34 30 95 (not all respondents reported project values. source: authors’ survey, 2022) ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202333 significantly more non-monetary benefits compared to informal workers. additionally, formal workers whose tasks are more conducive to working from home were reimbursed for additional expenses, and some workers received reimbursements for vitamins and health supplements, which was an unexpected finding. table 3. wages, allowances, other benefits, and impact of covid all formal informal chi-square statistic number 261 172 89 salary and wages rp <5 m 196 111 85 χ2 =30.4 dof = 2 rp 5-10 m 52 48 4 p(χ2≥ 30.3) = 3e-7 rp 10-20 m 13 13 0 reject h0 allowances rp <5 m 136 108 28 χ2 =0.84 dof = 2 rp 5-10 m 16 14 2 p(χ2≥ 0.84) = 0.66 rp 10-20 m 1 1 0 cannot reject h0 types of allowances religious holiday allowance 159 125 34 annual bonus 91 73 18 transport 78 75 3 food 54 52 2 family 15 14 1 χ2 =116 incentive 3 2 1 dof = 7 others 5 3 2 p(χ2≥ 116) = 5e-22 none 63 18 45 reject h0 salary and wage cuts <5% 13 8 5 5% 10% 35 30 5 χ2 =12.5 10% 20% 12 11 1 dof = 4 > 20% 1 0 1 p(χ2≥ 12.5) = 0.01 no change 166 104 62 reject h0 allowance cuts 5% 29 17 12 5%-10% 22 18 4 χ2 =5.2 ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202334 all formal informal chi-square statistic 10%-20% 9 7 2 dof = 4 >20% 24 19 5 p(χ2≥ 5.2) = 0.27 no change 92 60 32 cannot reject h0 non-monetary benefits transport 48 38 10 accommodation 136 82 18 χ2 =71.9 insurance and social security 39 36 3 dof = 4 vitamins 4 4 0 p(χ2≥ 71.9) = 9e-15 none 111 46 65 reject h0 reimbursements χ2 =0.36 wfh costs 11 8 3 dof = 2 vitamins/ supplements 49 36 13 p(χ2≥ 0.36) = 0.83 miscellaneous 4 1 0 cannot reject h0 (source: authors’ survey, 2022) during the survey, 50% (130/261) reported job losses in their households with no significant difference observed between formal and informal workers. although a slightly higher proportion of formal workers supplemented their incomes compared to informal workers, this difference was not statistically significant. however, informal workers reported mostly small supplementary incomes of less than rp5 million while formal workers reported higher additional incomes, as indicated in table 4. consequently, more than 80% (216/261) of these workers reported a change in spending patterns due to the combined impact of income decline and job losses. the workers in the construction industry continued to report excessively long hours of work with 50% working 40-56 hours per week and another 36% exceeding 56 hours during the period of the survey as shown in table 5. it appeared that more than 90% (159/172) of the formal workers were required to work beyond the normal 40 hours per week whereas this only applied to 74% (66/89) of the informal workforce. chi-square testing confirmed the statistically discernible difference between these two categories with informal workers obtaining shorter hours of work during this period. in april 2020, in response to the imminent spread of covid-19 the minister of public works directed all contractors to immediately implement health protocols at project sites, provide briefings and training to familiarise workers with these measures, and construction additional facilities to control and limit the spread of the virus. according to table 6, the survey found that almost 100% of respondents attended these briefings, indicating a high reach. the most common personal protective equipment (ppe) provided by the contractors were face masks and hand sanitizers, with informal workers reporting slightly lower rates of compliance than formal workers. protective clothing and face shields were not common in the construction industry, with only about 25% (54/261 and 64/261) of the workers reporting their availability, whereas more than 50% (135/261) reported the availability of gloves. all respondents reported that facilities such as hand table 3. continued ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202335 wash basins, clinics, and regular sanitising were available while shields in meal and work areas were only reported by about one-third (99/261) of those surveyed. temperature checks and enforcement of maskwearing were the most frequently carried out actions at project sites. other screening requirements, such as quarantining infected workers, filling out health forms, and rapid testing or swab tests, were more common for formal workers compared to informal workers. enforcement of mask wearing was relatively high at 74% (194/261), but decreased to only 65% (58/89) for the informal workers who were more likely to perform physical construction work at project sites. around half of the survey respondents reported changes in their work arrangements, either to working from home or being restricted to their offices. there was no significant difference in the proportion of table 5. weekly work hours all formal informal chi-square statistic number 261 172 89 total work hours/week χ2 = 16.7 <40 hours 36 13 23 dof = 2 40-56 hours 131 91 40 p(χ2≥ 16.7) = 2e-4 56+ hours 94 68 26 reject h0 (source: authors’ survey, 2022) table 4. supplementary incomes, job losses as the result of covid all formal informal chi-square statistic number 261 172 89 job loss in family yes 130 82 48 no 131 90 41 supplementary income rp <5 m 52 37 15 rp 5-10 m 9 8 1 rp 10-20 m 4 3 1 rp 20-35 m 2 2 0 χ2 =7.10 rp 35-50 m 1 1 0 dof = 6 rp >50 m 1 0 1 p(χ2≥ 7.10) = 0.31 none 192 121 71 cannot reject h0 change in spending pattern yes 216 149 67 no 45 23 22 (source: authors’ survey, 2022) ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202336 formal and informal workers reporting limits on overtime hours. from a movement control perspective, more than 80% (213/261) of workers reported compliance with physical distancing with over half (137/261) reporting controls on their entry and exit to their workplaces. to minimise contact during material deliveries, measures were taken such as organising non-contact deliveries, sterilising equipment, and isolating delivered materials. the null hypotheses that variations in responses between formal and informal workers were dependent on random variations could not be rejected for all but one of these covid-19 protocols. the only factor that was beyond the 0.05 significance level was the control over workers’ movements at worksites. table 6. covid-19 protocols implemented at construction project sites all formal informal chi-square statistic number 261 172 89 briefings and information new normal 248 166 82 χ2 = 0.80 health protocols 256 172 84 dof = 3 social distancing and restrictions 244 162 82 p(χ2≥ 0.80) = 0.85 working from home/office/project 207 145 62 cannot reject h0 availability of ppe: masks 241 162 79 hand sanitizer 222 152 70 χ2 = 4.98 protective wear 54 32 22 dof = 4 gloves 135 79 56 p(χ2≥ 4.98) = 0.29 face shield 64 42 22 cannot reject h0 provision of facilities: hand wash 258 170 88 shields in meal areas 99 70 29 scheduled sanitising 207 150 57 χ2 = 5.94 rest areas 135 93 42 dof = 5 clinic 199 144 55 p(χ2≥ 5.94) = 0.31 shields in work areas 129 99 30 cannot reject h0 screening tests: temperature checks 239 156 83 quarantine 130 98 32 enforcement of mask wearing 194 136 58 ministry of health forms 122 87 35 χ2 = 10.4 rapid tests 157 118 39 dof = 6 ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202337 all formal informal chi-square statistic pcr swab tests 92 70 22 p(χ2≥ 10.4) = 0.11 no screening 22 12 10 cannot reject h0 changes to work arrangements: wfo and wfh 124 86 38 χ2 = 0.59 dof = 2 limit on overtime 135 93 42 p(χ2≥ 0.59) = 0.75 no modification 76 49 27 cannot reject h0 controlling movements: control entry/exit 137 99 38 χ2 = 6.87 dof = 2 social distancing 213 144 69 p(χ2≥ 6.87) = 0.03 no movement control 33 16 17 reject h0 minimising contact: delivery material isolated 67 40 27 χ2 = 10.4 equipment sterilised 136 100 36 dof = 6 non-contact deliveries 152 109 43 p(χ2≥ 10.4) = 0.11 no action to minimise contact 51 28 23 cannot reject h0 (source: authors’ survey, 2022) table 7 reveals that motorcycles were the most common mode of transportation for workers’ commute to work. reliance on cars or car-sharing was more prevalent among formal workers than informal workers. the survey data indicated that approximately half of all workers lived within 4km of the project site, with a commute time of less than 15 minutes. statistical analyses revealed significant differences in the mode of transport and travel distance for formal versus informal workers, but not travel time. the data suggested that informal workers tended to live closer to project sites and took a longer to travel by foot to work compared to formal workers who generally lived further away and commuted by motorcycles or cars. despite initial concerns on the potential transmission of covid-19 in cramped and crowded public transport in west java, only 3% (8/261) of these construction workers utilised public transport. table 8 presents the results of the survey’s next section, which focused on the impact of covid-19 on workers’ commute to work, inter-district travel and conditions in their accommodation. the majority of workers used their own private vehicles or walked to the project site, so the need for masks, reduction in capacity or social distancing during their commute did not pose significant challenges. for inter-district travel, workers were obliged to wear masks, maintain distance, and avoid physical contact. those required to travel during this period were reimbursed for rapid covid-19 tests. many respondents reported a lack of social distancing in the workers’ accommodations, attributing it to a culture of socialising in the mess halls and having multiple people occupying a room. this issue affected all workers uniformly, as the responses in this section did not vary significantly between the formal and informal worker groups. table 6. continued ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202338 table 8. challenges during daily commute, inter-district travel, and at workers’ accommodation all formal informal chi-square statistic number 261 172 89 behavioural changes during commute to work restrict access times to office/project 97 64 33 χ2 = 2.24 masks for all passengers 163 106 57 dof = 3 permission to travel 107 71 36 p(χ2≥ 2.24) = 0.52 reduced no of passengers 105 77 28 cannot reject h0 social distancing during commute χ2 = 1.94 distancing of passengers 166 123 43 dof = 2 avoid public transport 136 99 37 p(χ2≥ 1.94) = 0.38 no physical contact 163 110 53 cannot reject h0 table 7. mode of transport, travel time and travel distance to work all formal informal chi-square statistic number 261 172 89 mode of transport motorcycle 160 97 63 car 34 32 2 public transport 8 4 4 χ2 =27.3 motorcycle taxi 1 1 0 dof = 5 car share 20 19 1 p(χ2≥ 27.3) = 5e-5 walk 38 19 19 reject h0 travel time <15 mins 130 80 50 χ2 =3.3 15-30 mins 59 40 19 dof = 3 30-60 mins 39 30 9 p(χ2≥ 3.3) = 0.34 >60 mins 33 22 11 cannot reject h0 travel distance < 4 km 142 84 58 χ2 =10.7 4-8 km 40 25 15 dof = 3 8-12 km 21 15 6 p(χ2≥ 10.7) = 0.013 >12 km 58 48 10 reject h0 (source: authors’ survey, 2022) ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202339 all formal informal chi-square statistic inter-district travel reimbursement for rapid test 129 95 34 restricted travel outside of province 124 80 44 increased public transport travel costs 114 76 38 χ2 = 6.68 mandatory masks 128 76 52 dof = 5 restricted travel times 75 47 28 p(χ2≥ 6.68) = 0.25 transport operators not aware of protocol 114 78 36 cannot reject h0 challenges in workers accommodation lack of social distancing 159 104 55 insufficient socialisation of information 65 35 30 χ2 = 9.30 cost of adding rooms 45 29 16 dof = 4 more than one person in a room 127 91 36 p(χ2≥ 9.30) = 0.05 culture of socialising in the mess 163 119 44 cannot reject h0 (source: authors’ survey, 2022) theoretical and practical implications the results showed that wage cuts during the pandemic were minimal and primarily targeted higher paid permanent workers. informal workers, who earned slightly above minimum wage, experienced cuts of less than 10%, compared to up to 20% for permanent workers. only 23% of respondents reported wage cuts, which is lower than the national industry average of 30% to 37% for workers in the same wage category (badan pusat statistik, 2020b). these findings contradict recent reports from indonesia, which suggest that low-income workers have been hit hardest by the pandemic, pushing millions into poverty (suryahadi, al izzati and suryadarma, 2020; international labor organization (ilo), 2020). a survey by united nations children’s fund (unicef), et al. (2021) found that 74% of households in indonesia had a reduction in income, and 91% reported that the primary earner worked fewer hours and earned less. while more than two-thirds of those at the bottom 40% (b40) of income received government cash assistance, there were concerns that those just above the poverty line (estimated at 20% of the population by olivia, gibson and nasrudin, 2020) would be pulled down into poverty without access to government assistance. contrary to the widely held definition of informal jobs as lacking in rights and job security, informality in the indonesian construction industry offered a degree of wage security by head contractors. this is likely due to construction companies taking advantage of lower informal labour costs to maintain their competitiveness. heintz (2012) attributed this type of informalisation to the demand for informal labour rather than the lack of demand in formal labour markets. it is important to distinguish between the informal jobs in the construction industry, which is an established work structure relying on the engagement of work gangs by formal enterprises, and other forms of informality in the literature that demonstrate greater vulnerability and precarity. during the pandemic, contractors in this study provided a level of social protection by minimising wage cuts for informal workers and focusing cuts on higher-paid formal workers. table 8. continued ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202340 this study found no evidence of severance of employment despite a 7% decline in total employment in the construction industry in august 2020 (compared to the same period of the previous year) and further decline of 2.3% during february 2021 (badan pusat statistik, 2021). the study provided empirical evidence that both formal and informal construction workers may have increased job security, as the total hours worked remained high due to the essential nature of the work, particularly in major infrastructure projects. the implementation of covid-19 protocols in the construction industry was widely regarded as successful. basic measures such the dissemination of health protocols to all workers, and the provision of ppe and health facilities were implemented successfully according to almost all the surveyed workers. there was no significant difference in the reported compliance rates between formal and informal workers. compliance in more extensive measures such as screening, testing, movement controls, and minimising contact during the delivery of materials was slightly lower among informal workers. the compliance rates in the construction industry were significantly higher than those reported by the international labour organization (ilo) (2020) indicating that the combined representation and leadership of employers and contractors in the covid taskforce for every project site was implemented effectively, and that the privilege to continue construction activities during the pandemic was justified. the reported compliance was broadly in line with the 84% compliance rate reported by olanrewaju, et al. (2021) for the construction industry in neighbouring malaysia, which relied on foreign construction workers from indonesia. the high compliance of the industry despite a large number of informal workers, compared favourably to the wide variation in compliance of formal employees in following safety protocols in indonesian hospitals (prajogo, et al., 2021). this study provided further evidence that workers’ dormitories in the construction industry posed a challenge to social distancing due to the sharing of common spaces and cramped living conditions. similar issues were observed in singapore, where foreign construction workers were housed in poor conditions (kaur-gill, 2020). however, in this study, it was found that both formal and informal workers in indonesia were impacted by these conditions, indicating that it was not a vulnerability unique to informal workers. the covid-19 preventative measures implemented in indonesia were found to be in line with those implemented elsewhere. formal workers were in favour of working from home as a social distancing measure while informal workers preferred more stringent enforcement of mask wearing or a temporary shutdown with pay. these preferences were influenced by the differences in work arrangements where informal workers are paid daily. one noteworthy finding that has not been previously reported in the literature was the practice of supplying or reimbursing construction workers for the purchase of vitamins and health supplements. this suggests a potential lack of nutrition in both formal and informal workers which may require further investigation in future studies. conclusions this study examined the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the construction industry in indonesia, specifically the formal and informal workers in west java. the survey revealed that workers in the industry were divided into two distinct groups, with higher educated professionals employed formally and lower educated laborers engaged informally for physical construction tasks. however, the study challenged the view that informal employment was more vulnerable and characterized by precarity and limited autonomy. during the pandemic, informal workers were not subjected to a higher level of vulnerability compared to formal workers, as they were not targeted for wage reductions or benefit cuts. health and safety protocols were successfully communicated and implemented by contractors, with no discernable differences in implementation between formal and informal workers. this can be attributed to the industry’s dependence on informal workers to conduct physical construction work, which has led to a higher level of job security ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202341 and welfare compared to informal work in other industries. overall, the study highlights the essential role of informal workers in the construction industry and the need to ensure their inclusion in policies and regulations. acknowledgement this research was partially supported by the school of architecture and built environment, deakin university, australia under project funding code: cy01.251401.f002.pg00232.pj04389. references alsharef, a., banerjee, s., uddin, s.m., albert, a. and jaselskis, e., 2021. early impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on the united states construction industry. international journal of environmental research and public health. 18(4), p.1559. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041559 asian development bank and bps-statistics indonesia, 2011. the informal sector and informal employment in indonesia. country report 2010. [pdf ] asian development bank. available at: https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/ publication/28438/informal-sector-indonesia.pdf. ayat, m., malikah and kang, c.w., 2021. effects of the covid-19 pandemic on the construction sector: a systemized review. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 7(2), pp.734-54. https://doi. org/10.1108/ecam-08-2021-0704 badan pusat statistik, 2020a. konstruksi dalam angka 2020. bps-statistics indonesia. badan pusat statistik, 2020b. hasil survey social demografi dampak covid-19. bps-statistics indonesia. badan pusat statistik, 2021. konstruksi dalam angka 2020. bps-statistics indonesia. bavel, j.j.v., baicker, k., boggio, p.s., capraro, v., cichocka, a., cikara, m., crockett, m.j., crum, a.j., douglas, k.m., druckman, j.n., drury, j., dube, o., ellemers, n., finkel, e.j., fowler, j.h., gelfand, m., han, s., haslam, s.a., jetten, j., kitayama, s., mobbs, d., napper, l.e., packer, d.j., pennycook, g., peters, e., petty, r.e., rand, d.g., reicher, s.d., schnall, s., shariff, a., skitka, l.j., smith, s.s., sunstein, c.r., tabri, n., tucker, j.a., linden, s.v.d., lange, p.v., weeden, k.a., wohl, m.j.a., zaki, j., zion, s.r. and willer, r., 2020. using social and behavioural science to support covid-19 pandemic response. nature human behaviour, [e-journal] 4(5), pp.460-71. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562020-0884-z bushman, d., sekaran, j., jeffery, n., rath, c., ackelsberg, j., weiss, d., wu, w., van oss, k., johnson, k., huang, j., khatun, u., sheikh, t., sutcliff, j. and tsoi, b., 2021. coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) outbreaks at 2 construction sites new york city, october–november 2020. clinical infectious diseases, [e-journal] 73(supp.1), pp.s81-s83. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab312 chan, t.k. and pribadi, k.s., 2022. construction in indonesia: looking back and moving forward. oxford, uk: routledge. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003149866 chen, m., 2008. informality and social protection: theories and realities. ids bulletin, [e-journal] 39(2), pp.18-27. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1759-5436.2008.tb00441.x fassani, f. and mazza, j., 2020. a vulnerable workforce: migrant workers in the covid-19 pandemic. luxembourg: publications office of the european union. firman, t., 1991. rural households, labor flows and the housing construction industry in bandung, indonesia. tijdschrift voor economische en sociale geografie, [e-journal] 82(2), pp.94-105. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9663.1991.tb01800.x ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202342 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18041559 https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/28438/informal-sector-indonesia.pdf https://www.adb.org/sites/default/files/publication/28438/informal-sector-indonesia.pdf https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2021-0704 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2021-0704 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0884-z https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-020-0884-z https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab312 https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003149866 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1759-5436.2008.tb00441.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9663.1991.tb01800.x hansen, s., rostiyanti, s.f., rizaldi, r. and andjarwati, c., 2021. quantity surveyors’ response to the covid-19 outbreak: a mixed method approach. journal of the civil engineering forum, [e-journal] 7(2), pp.177-186. https://doi. org/10.22146/jcef.60715 heintz, j., 2012. informality, inclusiveness, and economic growth: an overview of key issues. amherst: university massachusetts. international labour organization, 2020. the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on jobs and incomes in g20 economies. ilo-oecd paper prepared at the request of g20 leaders saudi arabia’s g20 presidency 2020. riyadh, saudi arabia, 21-22 november 2020. geneva, switzerland: ilo. kaming, p.f., olomolaiye, p.o., holt, g.d. and harris, f.c., 1997. factors influencing craftsmen’s productivity in indonesia. international journal of project management, 15(1), pp.21-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(96)00019-1 kaur-gill s., 2020. the covid-19 pandemic and outbreak inequality: mainstream reporting of singapore’s migrant workers in the margins. frontiers in communication, [e-journal] 5(65), pp.1-19. https://doi.org/10.3389/ fcomm.2020.00065 kompasspedia, 2021. kebijakan covid-19 dari psbb hingga ppkm empat level. [online]available at: https:// kompaspedia.kompas.id/baca/infografik/kronologi/kebijakan-covid-19-dari-psbb-hingga-ppkm-empat-level. [accessed 8 september 2021]. larasati, d., ekawati, n., triyadi, s., muchlis, a.f. and wardhani, a., 2021. impact of the pandemic covid-19 on the implementation of construction contracts. in: iop conference series: earth and environmental science, 738(1):012075. the 20th sustainable, environment and architecture. west java, indonesia,10 november 2020. [online] https://doi. org/10.1088/1755-1315/738/1/012075 lemieux, t., milligan, k., schirle, t. and skuterud, m., 2020. initial impacts of the covid-19 pandemic on the canadian labour market. canadian public policy, [e-journal] 46(s1), pp.s55-s65. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26974723. https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2020-049 lestari, f., sunindijo, r.y., loosemore, m., kusminanti, y. and widanarko, b., 2020. a safety climate framework for improving health and safety in the indonesian construction industry. international journal of environmental research and public health, [e-journal] 17(20):7462. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17207462 lestari, f., cook, m., johnstone, k., wardhany, m.s., modjo, r., widanarko, b. and octaviani, d.f., 2022. covid-19 in the workplace in indonesia. sustainability, [e-journal] 14(2745), pp.1-23. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14052745 ministry of public works and housing, 2020. instruksi menteri pekerjaan umum dan perumahan rakyat republik indonesia no.02/1n/m/2020 tentang protocol pencegahan penyebaran corona virus disease (covid-19) dalam penyelengaraan jasa konstruksi. available at: https://jdih.pu.go.id/internal/assets/assets/produk/inmenpupr/2020/03/inmenpupr02-2020. pdf. octavia, j., 2020. towards a national database of workers in the informal sector: covid-19 pandemic response and future recommendations. csis commentaries, dmru-070-en(13 may 2020), pp.1-8. ogunnusi, m., hamma-adama, m., salman, h. and kouider, t., 2020. covid-19 pandemic: the effects and prospects in the construction industry. international journal of real estate studies, 14(s2), pp.120-28. olanrewaju, a., abdulaziz, a., preece, c.n. and shobowale, k., 2021. evaluation of measures to prevent the spread of covid-19 on the construction sites. cleaner engineering and technology, [e-journal] 5, p.100277. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.clet.2021.100277 olivia, s., gibson, j. and nasrudin, r., 2020. indonesia in the time of covid-19. bulletin of indonesian economic studies, [e-journal] 56(2), pp.143-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/00074918.2020.1798581 ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202343 https://doi.org/10.22146/jcef.60715 https://doi.org/10.22146/jcef.60715 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(96)00019-1 https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2020.00065 https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2020.00065 https://kompaspedia.kompas.id/baca/infografik/kronologi/kebijakan-covid-19-dari-psbb-hingga-ppkm-empat-level https://kompaspedia.kompas.id/baca/infografik/kronologi/kebijakan-covid-19-dari-psbb-hingga-ppkm-empat-level https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/738/1/012075 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/738/1/012075 https://www.jstor.org/stable/26974723 https://doi.org/10.3138/cpp.2020-049 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17207462 https://doi.org/10.3390/su14052745 https://jdih.pu.go.id/internal/assets/assets/produk/inmenpupr/2020/03/inmenpupr02-2020.pdf https://jdih.pu.go.id/internal/assets/assets/produk/inmenpupr/2020/03/inmenpupr02-2020.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clet.2021.100277 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.clet.2021.100277 https://doi.org/10.1080/00074918.2020.1798581 patel, j.a., nielsen, f.b.h., badiani, a.a., assi, s., unadkat, v.a., patel, b., ravindrane, r. and wardle, h., 2020. poverty, inequality and covid-19: the forgotten vulnerable. public health, [e-journal] 183, p.110. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.puhe.2020.05.006 prajogo, d., sohal, a., dewi, r.s., dewi, d.s., sudiarno a., widyaningrum r., rahman a., maryani a., sebastian, e. and brown, h., 2021. occupational health and safety (ohs): protecting the indonesian healthcare workforce during the covid-19 pandemic. caulfied east, victoria: the australia-indonesia centre. prasetyo, d.b. and sofyan, l., 2020. how to stop mudil during the covid-19 pandemic. indonesia at melbourne. available at: https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/when-culture-meets-public-health-the-challenge-of-mudikduring-the-covid-19-pandemic/. [accessed 22 jun 2023]. rahman, m.a., kusuma, a.z.d. and arfyanto, h., 2020. employment situations of economic sectors impacted by the covid-19 pandemic. smeru issue brief, 1( june 2020). sierra, f., 2021. covid-19: main challenges during construction stage. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 29(4), pp.1817-34. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2020-0719 soemardi, b.w. and pribadi, k.s., 2018. developing construction industry human resources in indonesia: empowering the informal construction sector foreman for the industry. in: 23rd asia construct conference. kuching, malaysia, 8-10 october 2018. soemardi, b.w., soenaryo, i. and wahyudi, e., 2011. the role and function of mandor in construction project organization in indonesia. procedia engineering, [e-journal] 14, pp.859-64. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. proeng.2011.07.109 suryahadi, a., al izzati, r. and suryadarma, d., 2020. estimating the impact of covid-19 on poverty in indonesia. bulletin of indonesian economic studies, [e-journal] 56(2), pp.175-192. https://doi.org/10.1080/00074918.2020.1779390 unicef, undp, prospera, and smeru, 2021. analysis of the social and economic impacts of covid-19 on households and strategic policy recommendations for indonesia. jakarta. available at: https://smeru.or.id/en/file/3059/ download?token=rrway5j2. u.s. congressional research service., 2021. global economic effects of covid-19. policy r46270; 10 november 2021, by jackson, j.k., weiss, m.a., schwarzenberg, a.b., nelson, r.m., sutter, k.m. and sutherland, m.d. washington dc: congressional research service. wiebe, f., 1996. income insecurity and underemployment in indonesia’s informal sector. world bank policy research working paper 1639. available at: https://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/abs/10.1596/1813-9450-1639. williams, c.c. and lansky, m.a., 2013. informal employment in developed and developing economies: perspectives and policy responses. international labour review, [e-journal] 152(3-4), 355-80. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1564913x.2013.00196.x wijayaningtyas, m., lukiyanto, k., nursanti, e. and laksmana, d.i. 2022. the effect of economical phenomenon on informal construction workers earnings within covid-19 pandemic: a mixed method analysis. heliyon, [e-journal] 8(8), e10321. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10321 zheng, l., chen, k. and ma, l., 2020. knowledge, attitudes, and practices towards covid-19 among construction industry practitioners in china. frontiers in public health, [e-journal] 8(599769), pp.1-9. https://doi.org/10.3389/ fpubh.2020.599769 ryandika et al. construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 202344 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2020.05.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2020.05.006 https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/when-culture-meets-public-health-the-challenge-of-mudik-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/ https://indonesiaatmelbourne.unimelb.edu.au/when-culture-meets-public-health-the-challenge-of-mudik-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/ https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2020-0719 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2011.07.109 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2011.07.109 https://doi.org/10.1080/00074918.2020.1779390 https://smeru.or.id/en/file/3059/download?token=rrway5j2 https://smeru.or.id/en/file/3059/download?token=rrway5j2 https://elibrary.worldbank.org/doi/abs/10.1596/1813-9450-1639 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1564-913x.2013.00196.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1564-913x.2013.00196.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e10321 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.599769 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.599769 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: akindeinde, a. s., akinola, j. a., ojo, l. d., kenechukwu, o. a. 2024. impact of modular integrated construction indicators on sustainable performance metrics in nigeria. construction economics and building, 24:4/5, 81–97. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v24i4/5.8865 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article impact of modular integrated construction indicators on sustainable performance metrics in nigeria akinsanmi sheriff akindeinde1,*, joseph aderemi akinola2, lekan damilola ojo3, okechukwu augustine kenechukwu4, 1 federal university of technology, akure, ondo state, nigeria, qssanmi@gmail.com 2 federal university of technology, akure, ondo state, nigeria, jaakinola@futa.edu.ng 3 the hong kong polytechnic university, hong kong, lekan-damilola.ojo@polyu.edu.hk 4 federal university of technology, akure, ondo state, nigeria, okechukwuaugustine95@gmail. com corresponding author: akinsanmi sheriff akindeinde, federal university of technology, akure, qssanmi@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8865 article history: received 14/10/2023; revised 19/09/2024; accepted 28/09/2024; published 23/12/2024 abstract the nigerian construction industry is faced with environmental degradation, economic and socialrelated challenges, in which modular integrated construction (mic) could be regarded as practical solution. sadly, construction professionals and stakeholders are reluctant to adopt this innovative approach in developing countries like nigeria. this informs the necessity to investigate the relationships between mic indicators and performance metrics with a survey of professionals with practical experience in the use of mic in executing infrastructure in lagos and abuja, nigeria. the data retrieved from the respondents were analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. pearson correlation was used to determine the relationships between mic indicators and performance in this study. the results of the analysis revealed that both procedural and internal mic indicators are significant to enhancing economic, environmental, and social performance. in addition, it has been demonstrated that the impact of mic is extremely beneficial in all construction ramifications for sustainable practice. based on the findings of this study, it is suggested that massive awareness campaigns regarding the necessity declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 81 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8865 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8865 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8865 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:qssanmi@gmail.com mailto:jaakinola@futa.edu.ng mailto:lekan-damilola.ojo@polyu.edu.hk mailto:okechukwuaugustine95@gmail.com mailto:okechukwuaugustine95@gmail.com mailto:qssanmi@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8865 of using technology in construction activities be launched among professionals and stakeholders in the construction industry to enhance the use of mic in the nigerian construction industry. keywords indicators; modular integrated construction; nigerian construction; sustainability; performance introduction the construction industry remains an indispensable contributor to other sectors through the provision of infrastructure to meet socioeconomic and national goals such as shelter provision; employment, and so on (adeojo, et al., 2016). thus, it is highly necessary to effectively manage, improve, and drive the construction sector to ensure its maximum rewards to society. the awareness of environmental, social, and economic problems associated with conventional construction pattern has driven business leaders across nations to embrace practices that are more sustainable (murali and sambath, 2020) to enhance efficiency, reduce lifecycle financial costs, minimize all kinds of pollutions, and so on. through modular construction and prefabrication which is described as manufacturing of infrastructure components in a controlled environment, transported, positioned, and assembled at the construction site is considered as a suitable alternative to traditional pattern of executing construction projects in the last few decades ( jiang, et al., 2019; murali and sambath, 2020; zhang, et al., 2018). conventional onsite construction methods have long been criticized for low productivity, poor quality, safety records, long construction time, and large quantities of waste in the industry (chen, okudan and riley, 2010). in addition, traditional construction methods also contribute to energy consumption and environmental pollution ( jiang, et al., 2019). in fact, environmental, economic, and social concerns have led construction stakeholders to adopt new practices that is aimed at reducing resource consumption, energy use, and gas emissions (murali and sambath, 2020). furthermore, balancing the impacts of building these three dimensions (i.e., environmental, economic, and social) in the entire lifecycle is a key factor towards sustainable projects. indicators and their performance are highly dependent on the environmental, social, and economic contexts of their use. this problem serves as a motivation for most researchers to develop sustainability assessment systems (tupenaite, et al., 2017). modular integrated construction (mic) has attracted scholarly debates and attention in the recent discussions in the construction industry, particularly in developing countries with limited fund and professional expertise (wuni and shen, 2021). decisions to use mic are still largely based on anecdotal evidence or simply costbased evaluation when comparing various construction methods (chen, okudan and riley, 2010). however, understanding the long run impact of mic indicators on performance metrics could make construction stakeholders to make pragmatic move to embrace mic. hence, this study empirically investigated the relationships between the indicators and performance metrics on mic projects. literature review overview of mic mic is often referred to as the planning, design, manufacturing, fabrication, and preassembling of various building elements, components, and modules in an enclosed environment commonly referred to as “factory production” before their final installation on site to support rapid permanent structure (goodier and gibb, 2007). mic is a procedure in which a building is executed offsite under regulated factory settings, with the same materials and stipulated requirements as traditionally built facilities (yang, pan and pan, 2017). the mic techniques was used about 3000 years ago when king solomon built the temple of god in jerusalem. akindeinde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202482 as revealed in the bible, the sanctuary was constructed with prefabricated stones before being brought to the temple site such that there was neither sledge nor hatchet or any device of iron heard in the house (1 kings 6:7, new international version). mic can also occur concurrently with site operations, allowing projects to be finished in 3050% of the period of traditional construction. aside from faster completion time and quality management, it also provides various other advantages to owners. wuni and shen (2021) opined that because each module has been designed to survive the rigours of transit and craning into foundations, modular structures are often stronger structurally than sitebuilt construction. site disturbance, less noise pollution and traffic congestion on mic projects also culminate in improving overall safety and security (lawson, 2008). modular building is intrinsically a natural match as owners and designers investigate its advantages and search for more environmentally friendly designs. in a regulated setting, waste is reduced through prevention upstream rather than transmission downstream. this naturally encourages sustainability, better quality management throughout the building process and substantially less activity and disruption on the job site (yang, pan and pan, 2017). additionally, the danger of inclement weather and delays can be reduced drastically, while hastening occupancy and return on investment simultaneously because considerable percentage (between 6090%) of the projects are produced in the factory (wuni and shen, 2022). mic can also be provided with mechanical, electrical and plumbing (mep), fixtures, and interior finishes in less time, with less waste, and with superior quality control. mic may operate with degrees of conceptualization and physical sophistication that will surpass all expectations and challenge their sitebuilt competitors, benefiting architects, developers, and owners alike (egege, 2018). mic has seen successful implementation in various countries and region worldwide. in the united states, mic is prevalent in residential and commercial projects, offering costeffective and efficient building solutions (abdelmaged and zayed, 2020). european countries leverage mic for housing and infrastructure developments, emphasizing its sustainability and rapid construction benefits (wuni and chen, 2022). additionally, countries like china have extensively adopted mic for highrise buildings and affordable housing initiatives (pan and hon, 2020). these instances showcase the versatility and potential advantages of mic, including reduced construction time, minimized environmental impact, and enhanced affordability, which could inform its successful implementation in the nigerian context. mic indicators sustainability is an ambiguous and multifarious concept (zhou, rybski and kropo, 2013), and indicators is also a general approach to measuring sustainability performance in the construction sector. indicators condense large and complex information into recognisable facts and provide a basis for making further decisions. zhang, et al. (2021) described a sustainability indicator as a measurable variable (quantitative or qualitative) that defines a preferable outcome geared towards attaining sustainability goals. the indicators cut across the construction cycle and addresses issues related to waste management, energy use, water quality and consumption, biodiversity, air quality, land contamination, light pollution, noise emissions, and environmental management (yu, xu and lu, 2018). this approach holds promise for nigeria’s development, particularly given the country’s vast size, diverse socioeconomic landscape, and infrastructure deficits (akinradewo, et al., 2023; bello, et al., 2023). the barriers faced with mic in developing countries like ghana (wuni and shen, 2021), egypt (ali, et al., 2023), and south africa (dupwa, 2017) signals potential for growth and innovation in developing countries. the integration of sustainability indicators in mic offers a pathway for nigeria and africa at large to achieve sustainable development goals and meeting the infrastructure demand (bah, faye and geh, 2018). with the immense volume of wastes and energy generated and/or dissipated by conventional construction methods, the mic method is a viable means to reverse this trend and set the tone for a more sustainable akindeinde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202483 approach to construction especially on a large scale (humphrey, 2018). also, rahimian, et al. (2017) stated explicitly that mic has been successful in reducing waste generation of typical construction projects by 70% to 90%. this assertion is a very strong indicator that mic contributes to the sanity of most construction sites in the country (humphrey, 2018). since the entire process of construction generates several types of wastes and pollution, offsite techniques, when implemented to the full, tend to reverse the trend and ensure cleaner and more effective construction process (yu, xu and lu, 2018). with the use of mic, there are a lot of cost savings, time, materials, and processes (boafo, kim and kim, 2016). also, sustainable construction methodology to preserve the ecosystem is also put into consideration in its usage (khan, yu and liu, 2021). on the other hand, some of the indicators that define mic are found to be in tandem with the performance metrics of its usage in construction activities. the intrinsic features in the use of mic come to play in the actual construction given the fact that most construction projects in which they are used achieve the desired quality and satisfy the requisite criteria for sustainability (kamali and hewage, 2015). it is therefore imperative to say that mic is very crucial beneficial to the construction sphere as it serves a huge boost in creating a paradigm shift away from the traditional construction system. the cost factor of the variables for the indicators for mic adoption consideration is so important that it is sometimes at the forefront of the considerations (zakaria, et al., 2018). this is due to the nature of the construction industry in engulfing huge amount of material, machinery and technological resources amongst others, making it a capitalintensive sector. the cost intensive nature of the construction sector sets it aside as a resourceconsuming sector since all the processes involves huge cost commitments. the study recognises these factors to be basically key in empowering construction professionals to consider mic’s performance. however, hong, et al. (2016) opposes the findings of this study by stating that the total cost of mic adoption is very much higher than conventional construction methods. they stated that modules and production processes for construction components in mic makes it very much discouraging for most clients and professionals to utilize it for their projects. this factor is so much concerned with those aspects of consideration for mic’s performance that makes it easier for its utilization in the development (murali and sambath, 2020). variables such as logistics and travel congestion, community disturbance and formwork consumption are all directed towards this factor. logistics on the other hand, is very vital to mic’s performance, for instance, the transportation of the modules to the site for fixing demonstrates it importance. according to murali and sambath, (2020), the study’s assertion that mic is extremely beneficial for logistics purposes such as traffic and transportation of modules to site. in avoiding project delays or excess inventory, module production rates are dependent on module transportation and installation speeds (hussein, et al., 2022). in their example study, yang, pan and pan (2022) said that manufacturing speed and modification are crucial to the offsite logistics of modular building. invariably, it implies that this factor is crucial in the persuasion of construction professionals to mic’s performance for their projects. furthermore, mic is capable of minimizing the level of unnecessary travel (even relocations) by workers to construction sites as well as onsite patrolling activities, since every party produces the components in their own premises (rahimian, et al., 2017). they therefore only appear on the site for very short assembly times and further instructions and site meetings. this tends to reduce bureaucratic processes and ensure that construction activities are well streamlined and coordinated to yield excellent results to the achievement of the client’s aim. performance of mic modular integrated construction has become a bane in the recent discussions in the construction industry. it is seen as a paradigm shift from the onsite construction that is very much paramount in the erection of buildings (liu, martin and easthope, 2019). so, its performance when being adopted needs to be of quality standard, flexible, affordable, and acceptable to all and friendly to the environment (tong, 2021). economy akindeinde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202484 and construction cannot be separated because the latter needs the former to survive and function optimally (shubham and jalindar, 2019). three vital indices namely, cost, quality and time, comes to mind whenever economy or project efficiency is being mentioned or brought to the fore. reducing cost, time and improving quality are major concerns for both consumers and manufactures in the building industry. when compared to conventional construction methods, the prefabricated construction system provides significant reductions in time stating specifically that prefabrication is less than half of onsite construction (lawson, ogden and bergin, 2012). the society as it relates to construction, is the people that carry out the construction activities as well as the people that occupies the surroundings where the construction is being carried out (bhosale and kulkarni, 2017). indices of the society in construction projects reflects the extent to which the lifecycle of construction projects meets the demands of anticipated or existing social demands (khan, et al., 2022). indices such as workers’ health and safety, health of occupants, labour availability, construction quality, labour availability, aesthetics, constructability, traffic congestion and community disturbance are considered indices of society since them directly or indirectly affect people related to the construction exercise. in comparison between modular construction and conventional construction considered these indices by researchers (kasim, et al., 2018; chen, okudan, and riley, 2010). when compared to the conventional on site construction practices, modular construction system improves worker’s health and safety due to cleaner and good working environments (boafo, kim and kim, 2016). this invariably reduces construction noise, dust and other pollutants faced by nearby community. the construction sector is highly resource and energy intensive; it is therefore imperative that it moves towards a path of environmental sustainability (mao, et al., 2013). modular integrated construction system improves sustainability in construction and provides environmental benefits (moghayedi, et al., 2021). modular buildings result in fewer emissions of obnoxious greenhouse gases than conventional buildings in the construction phase. indices of the environment such as construction waste, pollution generation, energy consumption and water consumption, formwork consumption, site disruption were taken into consideration by many researchers in comparing the benefits of modular construction system with that of conventional methods (zakaria, et al., 2018). research methodology quantitative research design was used to obtain the opinions of construction professionals that provide construction services using mic techniques. multistage sampling technique was adopted in this study. cluster sampling was first adopted in selecting the study’s location, which are lagos state and abuja in nigeria. these two clusters are deemed suitable and most beneficial due to the sufficiency of mic compliant companies compared to other states in nigeria (ogunde, et al., 2016). this helped to ensure representation from different geographical regions and mitigate bias that may arise from focusing solely on one location (akinradewo, et al., 2023). thereafter, purposive sampling technique was adopted to identify construction organisations with practical experience in mic techniques due to the nonavailability of official directory of construction firms that use mic techniques on construction projects in both lagos and abuja. various criteria such as number of completed mic projects (i.e., more than 20 projects); registration with the corporate affairs commission (cac) of nigeria; and uptodate websites that clearly indicates the professional services they offer were used to select construction companies with expertise in mic techniques. these criteria are useful to enhance the sampling process and credibility of the target respondents. a total of ten (10) mic compliant companies were identified, comprising of five from lagos and the other five from abuja. the construction professional who works for these ten (10) organisations makes up the target population of this study (see table 1). this is crucial to guarantee that the data received is an akindeinde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202485 accurate reflection of the professional perspective with regards to mic in nigerian construction industry. a staff member from each organization was contacted via linkedin to reach out to the target respondents. the ten staff members of each construction organisation provide information on the number of professionals with handon experience in mic projects. through this, the population of the target respondents was determined as shown in table 1. the ten staff members assisted in disseminating the electronic questionnaire to the identified professionals within each organization. table 1. population of construction professionals in mic compliant companies location organisation construction professionals total arch qs engr pm builder lagos 1 3 2 2 1 1 9 2 3 2 2 1 2 10 3 3 2 3 1 1 10 4 2 2 3 1 0 8 5 3 2 3 2 1 11 14 10 13 6 5 48 abuja 6 3 3 2 1 1 10 7 3 3 1 1 1 9 8 3 2 2 1 2 10 9 3 2 2 1 1 9 10 2 2 1 1 1 7 14 12 8 5 6 45 note: arch. = architect, qs = quantity surveyors, engr. = engineers, pm = project managers the questionnaire used to elicit the opinion of the target respondents comprised of three sections, namely background information, variables of mic indicators and the items of performance metrics obtained from extant literature. the variables of mic indicators and performance metrics were asked on a fivepoint likert scale in which 1 represented “strongly disagree”, 2 represented “disagree”, 3 referred to “neither agree or disagree”, 4 represented “agree”, and 5 stood for “strongly agree” (vagias, 2006). based on the population, it can be deduced that a total of ninetythree construction professionals received the electronic questionnaires in the ten construction companies, in which 48 copies of the questionnaire was distributed to the five companies in lagos state, while remaining 45 was distributed to the other five companies in abuja. out of the fortyeight questionnaires distributed to the five mic practicing construction companies in lagos state, thirtyfour were retrieved, representing 70.83% response rate (see table 2). meanwhile, only twentysix were retrieved from the construction companies in abuja, representing a response rate of 57.77%. in total, sixty questionnaires were received, with an overall response rate of 64.52%. the response rate was considered sufficient as it is greater than the 20– 30% often recommended in constructionrelated studies (moser and kalton, 1971). the data returned were thoroughly checked for incompletely filled items in any of the sections or response with the same rating across the survey to ensure validity of the data, and all the data were found suitable for analysis. akindeinde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202486 table 2. response rate of target respondents location questionnaire administered questionnaire retrieved response percentage lagos 48 34 70.83% abuja 45 26 57.77% total 93 60 64.52% the data received were analysed with both descriptive and inferential statistics, namely mean score, standard deviation (sd), factor analysis, reliability test, and pearson correlation of the social sciences (spss version 23). factor analysis was used to group the mic indicators into manageable sizes for easy discussion and simplicity of further analysis (reio and shucks, 2015; oladinrin, jayantha and ojo, 2022). with the 60 data and 20 variables, the study meets the minimum sample size to item ratio of 1:3 (cattell, 1978; mac callum, et al., 1999). cronbach’s alpha was used to determine the internal consistency of the factors generated in the factor analysis (norusis, 2011). mean score and sd were used to determine the rating of the respondents on the performance metrics. finally, correlation analysis was used to understand the interaction between the mic indicators and performance metrics after data transformation in spss (tabachnick and fidell, 2007). data analysis and results background information of respondents the respondents in this study comprised quantity surveyors (35.0%), builders (21.7%), engineers (20.0%), architects (18.3%), and project managers (10.0%). most of the respondents (86.7%) currently work in a private indigenous organization and 13.3% works in multinational organisations (see table 3). majority of the respondent (78.3%) works in mediumsized establishments (i.e., organisation with 50249 staff ), while others are engaged in smallsized firms. furthermore, the majority of the respondent have an average of five years working involvement in mic projects and 46.7% of the respondent have executed over 8 mic project. this indicates that the information provided by the respondents could be relied upon. factor analysis the mic indicators were factor analysed by varimax rotation. the adequacy of the data set revealed a kaisermeyerolkin (kmo) of 0.601. based on the results of the sampling adequacy with significant level of 0.000, the degree of freedom (df ) of 276 and approximate chisquare values of 888.551. the bartlett’s test of sphericity for the correlation adequacy between the items can be adjudged significant (shen and liu, 2003; oladinrin, jayantha and ojo, 2022). it implies that the items constituting the indicators will significantly correlate at 5% level, therefore, exploratory factor analysis is satisfactory. cronbach’s alpha value for internal consistency was also used to test the dataset grouping’s dependability. the alpha values of the four mic indicator were 0.725, 0.746, 0.612, and 0.697 (see table 4). these alpha values are higher than minimum benchmark of 0.6; thus, they can be considered satisfactory (hair, et al., 2010). the result of the factor analysis shows that four groupings were obtained for the indicator. giving names to factors generated in the factor analysis is majorly subjective and more of art (yong and pearce, 2013). factors can be named based on similar constituting items in the factor (oladinrin and ojo, 2021), or by a common theme established in previous studies (zhang, et al., 2018). therefore, the study ensured that the akindeinde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202487 factor name is largely a representation of the constituting items. based on the result in table 4, the names given to the factors formed for the indicators are sustainability factor (sui), procedural factor (pri), cost factor (coi), and internal factor (ini). performance metrics on mic the mean item score and sd for each variable of performance metrics based on an established groupings (lawson, ogden and bergin, 2012; murali and sambath, 2020; shubham and jalindar, 2019) are presented in table 5. the overall mean score forms the basis for ranking of the factors. in addition, the standard deviation is provided to rank factors with same mean values. the mean scores of nine of the sixteen measures of performance are more than 4.0, revealing their importance (see table 5). it is important to note that the factor analysis was not conducted on the variables of performance metrics of mic because the groupings have been validated in previous studies (murali and sambath, 2020). to further validate the data obtained, the alpha values of the performance are 0.636, 0.647 and 0.814 which shows to be on an adequate benchmark. these α values are above 0.6, and can therefore be considered satisfactory (hair, et al., 2010). table 3. background information of respondents variables classification frequency percentage organisational sector private indigenous company 52 86.7 multinational organization 8 13.3 organisational size 1049 staff (small– sized) 13 21.7 50249 staff (mediumsized) 47 78.3 does your company practice and specialise in mic yes 60 100 no 0 0 years of practice with mic less than 5 years 11 18.3 610 years 39 65 1115 years 7 11.7 16 years and above 3 5 number of mic project undertaken 12 projects 6 10 34 projects 8 13.3 56 projects 10 16.7 78 projects 8 13.3 above 8 projects 28 46.7 profession architect 11 18.3 quantity surveyor 21 35 builder 13 21.7 engineer 12 20 project manager 6 10 akindeinde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202488 correlation between indicators and performance metrics correlation analysis was conducted to examine the relationships between the mic indicators and the performance metrics. similar studies have utilized this strategy (ojo, adeniyi and ogundimu, 2022), as a result of this, the method is thought to be appropriate for this study. the correlation was conducted after transforming each variable that constitutes the factor by obtaining the average of the summation in spss (tabachnick and fidell, 2007). the results of this pearson correlation analysis show that twotailed data are considered to be significantly correlated at the 0.01 level in table 6. a positive correlation coefficient indicates that an increase in a particular performance metric will also result in an increase in that indicator, and a negative correlation indicates an inverse relationship between the variables, in which one increases while the other decreases (oladinrin, ogunsemi and aje, 2012). the result shows that two indicators pri and ini have significant positive correlation with all the performance metrics (ecm, scm, and enm), while the other indicators, i.e., sui and coi have no significant connection with any of the performance metrics. table 4. factor analysis on mic indicators components factors items factor loadings alpha indicators kmo = 0.601 sui: sustainability indicator construction waste 0.674 0.725 pollution generation 0.773 energy consumption 0.794 water consumption 0.749 noise pollution 0.446 client satisfaction 0.377 pri: procedural indicator construction time 0.800 0.746 concurrency of operation 0.535 worker’s health and safety 0.453 labour availability 0.795 construction quality 0.447 aesthetics 0.821 technological capabilities 0.742 coi: cost indicator initial cost 0.536 0.612 profitability 0.621 cost and time variation 0.736 cash flow 0.561 ini: internal indicator logistics and travel 0.623 0.691 congestion 0.686 community disturbance 0.598 akindeinde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202489 table 6. correlation between the indicators to mic and the performance metric of mic mic indicators performance metrics economic metric social metric environmental metric sui: sustainability indicator .047 .029 .040 pri: procedural indicator .595** .597** .667** coi: cost indicator .049 .249 .230 ini: internal indicator .590** .442** .483** note: ** = correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (twotailed). table 5. mean item on performance to mic performance metrics mean sd group rank overall rank group mean alpha economy metrics (ecm) 4.13 0.636 ecm1: shortens project schedules 4.55 0.594 1 1 ecm2: elimination of manufacturing waste 4.25 0.704 2 3 ecm3: cost effective 4.11 0.764 3 6 ecm4: decrease in cost energy 3.92 0.869 4 11 ecm5: increase in investment 3.82 0.833 5 15 societal metrics (som) 4.06 0.647 som1: quality execution of projects 4.27 0.660 1 2 som2: effective technological innovations 4.13 0.891 2 5 som3: improved value of construction product 4.08 0.696 3 7 som4: improves labour productivity 4.05 0.723 4 9 som5: effective equipment utilization 3.98 0.873 5 10 som6: flexibility of use 3.85 0.685 6 13 environmental metrics (enm) 3.95 0.814 enm1: material conservation 4.18 0.725 1 4 enm2: controlled environment 4.07 0.972 2 8 enm3: reduction in noise and air pollution 3.90 1.020 3 12 enm4: reduction in wastewater and solid waste 3.85 0.820 4 14 enm5: biodiversity and ecology 3.75 1.002 5 16 akindeinde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202490 discussion the relationship between the mic indicators and the performance metric is illustrated in figure 1. .442** social metrics (som) mic indicators performance metrics procedural indicators (pri) internal indicators (ini) economic metrics (ecm) environmental metrics (enm) figure 1. relationship between the indicators to mic and the performance metric of mic → represents positive significant relationship confirmed by correlation. the relationships between procedural indicator of mic including construction time, concurrency of operation, health of building occupants, labour availability, and technological capability and the three performance outcomes, namely economic, social, and environmental is confirmed in this study. the relationships depict that the procedural element can enhance economic performance. this study’s findings are consistent with those of lawson, ogden and bergin (2012), who asserted that the prefabricated construction system significantly reduces construction time compared to conventional methods. based on the study of wai, et al. (2023), construction project of 3storey was completed within 4 days in the us, 57storeys completed in 19 days in china, and 10storey building completed in 26 days in singapore through mic. on the other hand, egege (2018) concurs with the discoveries on financial measurements of mic, believing that the fuse of secluded development will lessen development costs by 510%. this suggests that the implementation of the procedural factors identified by this study’s finding can reduce building construction costs in order to record more positive economic metrics overall (wuni, shen and mahmud, 2022). the findings of this study also disputed submission that the primary financial obstacles that mic faces in comparison to conventional construction methods are the higher initial costs as well as transportation costs (pan and hon, 2020). this shows that when the expense is high or low, there is a comparing inverse effect on the financial measurements for passing judgment on the presentation of a structure, which is not in agreement with this study’s discoveries. therefore, by given attention to the procedural factors identified in the study, nigerian construction firms can strive towards achieving better costeffectiveness, project efficiency, and sustainability. this in turn, could contribute to the growth and development of the construction industry in nigeria. the results of the study also revealed that procedural indicators play a crucial role in determining how social performance is affected. this is on the grounds that structures are being built for people’s (society’s) utilization and accordingly, their needs should be considered. this assertion is supported by bhosale and kulkarni (2017), who place people at the centre of construction activities and rely on the effectiveness of procedures to ensure that these activities are carried out. for mic to be fully integrated into construction for society’s maximum benefit, these indices need to be better improved, hence concurring with the findings of the study. by advancing sustainable construction, mic guarantees the requirements in terms of materials conservation, controlled environment, reduction in noise and air pollution, and also reduction in solid waste and wastewater. thus, considering the nigeria’s growing urbanization and infrastructural needs, adopting mic can help minimize the environmental footprint of construction activities and mitigate the impact of akindeinde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202491 constructionrelated pollution that is detrimental to the health of construction workers and the society at large. mao, et al. (2013) indicated affirmatively that the construction sector is highly resource and energy intensive and therefore, it is imperative that it moves towards a path of environmental sustainability. according to the findings of this study, these outcomes can only be enhanced by increasing these procedural factors. the study has affirmed the connection between internal indicator of mic factors and the three performance outcomes. these intrinsic internal factors stem from community disturbance, travel congestion and logistics which can exert some influence on the environment and social performance of a building. with the majority of activities carried out off site, the waste generated being controlled, recycled and reused, this simplifies the construction process and diminishes wastes materials from construction site. also, with the reduced construction noise and pollution to the community, the impact to the community is reduced which can improve the choice of this construction procedure. the findings of this study concur with submission that noise is a great disturbance to the community and has a negative impact on the environment despite the improvement in noise barriers used in construction sites used in denmark and other european nations (bendtsen, 2010). in addition, nabi and eladaway (2020) findings also agree with this as they consider mic to be a quiet course of development, subsequently not influencing the environment directly, like the traditional technique for development. onsite construction noise pollution is a significant environmental disturbance that affects construction workers and the surrounding community. however, logistics play a role in mic; for instance, the transportation of the modules to the installation site demonstrates the importance of logistics in terms of social behaviour execution quality. in nigeria, where road infrastructure and transportation networks may be congested in commercial cities such as lagos, logistics can pose significant challenges to the efficient implementation of mic projects. this concurred with the study of murali and sambath (2020) that prefabrication construction method is beneficial in urban areas where traffic congestion may be avoided. this aspect may have to do with where the construction is located, which directly impacts economic performance. the construction professionals who are responsible for the manufacturing of modular homes through mic are responsible for their own transportation. this indicates that when the cost of transportation is high or low, there is a relating impact on the economic metrics for judging the performance of a building project. in light of these findings, hong, et al., (2016) concluded that cost of transportation has an impact on mic’s economic metrics. pan and hon (2020) study’s result also depicts the findings. in their research, they stated that the higher initial and transportation costs are the main economic hurdles that mic faces in comparison with conventional construction methods. therefore, addressing economic challenges related to transportation cost is essential for unlocking the full potential of mic as a viable construction solution in nigeria’s rapidly evolving urban development. it is important to note that developed nations such as us deployed the use of digital twin methodology using building information modelling (bim), internet of things (iot) and geographic information system (gis) data to manage the transportrelated issues for mic (lee and lee, 2021). therefore, developing nations can also learn the methodology to mitigate transportation problems on mic projects. recommendations the idea that mic’s implementation procedures are crucial indicators of its adoption for the construction process is revealed in this study. mic projects’ performance is heavily influenced by the procedures and techniques used by construction professionals and stakeholders. however, based on the findings of this study, it is recommended to organize comprehensive awareness campaigns targeting industry professionals and stakeholders for promoting the integration of technology in construction operations. the nigerian construction industry could consider implementing a mic certification program similar to australia’s akindeinde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202492 model (aumanufacturing, 2022) to increase awareness, knowledge of mic, safety, and promote sustainability in modular construction project. in addition, it is advocated that the national building code be amended, implemented and enforced in all construction activities. this code covers all the different ways the building can be used well by people (society). to ensure that construction products are effective and efficient, the industry needs to be made safer and less harmful for professionals and workers. mic can be well integrated by implementing these recommendations to ensure that the building’s social performance improves after construction because construction cannot be done alone. as far as the environmental metrics of buildings, nigeria has been perceived as a pacesetter in most related issues in africa and the cynosure of everyone’s eyes in europe and different mainland. it is basic that it shows same pacesetting trait in hugely taking on development advances like mic in her development area. the wastages, and energy utilization of structures ought to be managed by the specialists by carrying out a more secure and all the more harmless to the ecosystem processes into development exercises. by using noiseless offsite fabrication and/or onsite coupling, construction noise should also be drastically reduced. conclusion the research mainly focused was to investigate the relationships between mic indicators and performance metrics through survey of professionals with practical experience in the use of mic in executing infrastructure in lagos and abuja. the study grouped the mic indicators identified from other studies to four groups: sustainability, procedural, cost and internal indicators. both procedural and internal factors are significant indicators to all the threeperformance metrics (economic, social and environment performance). the study demonstrated that the impact of mic is extremely beneficial in all construction ramifications, ensuring that the project outcome is socially, environmentally, and economically sustainable. based on the findings of this study, it is suggested that massive awareness campaigns regarding the necessity of using technology in construction activities be launched among professionals and stakeholders in the construction industry as well as across all social classes. in addition, the study’s procedural factors should be better implemented by the nigerian construction government to ensure that the construction outcome (building) performs economically. in order to promote construction sustainability in accordance with globally acceptable practices, this is sufficient motivation for its inclusion, adoption, and implementation in all construction sites throughout the nation. the study was restricted to the viewpoints of construction professionals participating in the mic, opinions of end users and case studies on mic performance can be taken into account in future studies. data availability statement some or all data, models, or code that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. references abdelmageed, s. and zayed, t.a., 2020. study of literature in modular integrated constructioncritical review and future directions. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 277, 124044. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.19075 25 ade-ojo, o.c., adewunmi, b.o. and akinola, j.a., 2016. susceptibility of building elements to rework in selected higher educational buildings in nigeria. 21st century human habitat: issues, sustainability, and development, pp.114550. akindeinde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202493 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1907525 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1907525 aumanufacturing, 2022. new amgc report highlights “depth and breadth of manufacturing” in australia. [online] available at: https://www.aumanufacturing.com.au/new-amgc-report-highlights-depth-and-breadth-ofmanufacturing-in-australia (accessed 10 march 2024). akinradewo, o., aigbavboa, c., aghimien, d., oke, a. and ogunbayo, b., 2023. modular method of construction in developing countries: the underlying challenges. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 23(8), pp.1344-54. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1970300 ali, a.h., kineber, a.f., elshaboury, n., arashpour, m. and daoud, a.o., 2023. analysing multifaceted barriers to modular construction in sustainable building projects: a comprehensive evaluation using multi-criteria decision making. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2023.2299557 bah, e.h.m., faye, i. and geh, z.f., 2018. housing market dynamics in africa. london: palgrave macmillan. https:// doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59792-2 bello, w., akinade, o., ajayi, s., oyedele, l., bilal, m. and alaka, h., 2023. critical success factors for implementing circular economy in the construction industry. resources, conservation & recycling, [e-journal] 185, p.106511. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106511 bendtsen, h., 2010. noise barrier design: danish and some european examples. supplementary studies for caltrans qpr program. reprint report: ucprc-rp-2010-04 [pdf online] available at: https://dot.ca.gov/-/media/dot-media/ programs/research-innovation-system-information/documents/final-reports/ucprc-rp-2010-04.pdf bhosale, a. and kulkarni, s., 2017. comparative study of prefabrication constructions with cast-in-situ construction. international journal of advance engineering and research development, [e-journal] 4(3), pp.779-85. https://doi. org/10.21090/ijaerd.95630 boafo, f.e., kim, j.h. and kim, j.t., 2016. performance of modular prefabricated architecture: case study-based review and future pathways. sustainability, [e-journal] 8(6), p.558. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8060558 cattell, r.b., 1978. the scientific use of factor analysis in behavioral and life sciences, new york: plenum. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-1-4684-2262-7 chen, y., okudan, g.e. and riley, d.r., 2010. sustainable performance criteria for construction method selection in concrete buildings. automation in construction, [e-journal] 19, pp.235-44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2009.10.004 dupwa, r.p., 2017. investigation of the utilization of modular construction in south africa. msc. university of the witwatersrand, gauteng, south africa. https://hdl.handle.net/10539/25495 egege, c.o., 2018. off-site modular construction as a method of improving construction quality and safety. international journal of structural and civil engineering research, [e-journal] 7(3), pp.259-68. https://doi.org/10.18178/ ijscer.7.3.259-268 goodier, c.i. and gibb, a.g., 2007. future opportunities for offsite in the uk. construction management economic, [e-journal] 25, pp.585–95. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190601071821 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j. and anderson, r.e., 2010. multivariate data analysis, 7th ed. london: prentice hall, pearson. hong, j., shen, g.q., mao, c., li, z. and li, k., 2016. life-cycle energy analysis of prefabricated building components: an input–output-based hybrid model. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 112, pp.2198-2207. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.10.030 humphrey, d., 2018. dimensions and indicators for sustainable construction materials: a review. research and development in materials science, 3(4), pp.1-9. https://doi.org/10.31031/rdms.2018.03.000568 akindeinde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202494 https://www.aumanufacturing.com.au/new-amgc-report-highlights-depth-and-breadth-of-manufacturing-in-australia https://www.aumanufacturing.com.au/new-amgc-report-highlights-depth-and-breadth-of-manufacturing-in-australia https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1970300 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2023.2299557 https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59792-2 https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-59792-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106511 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2022.106511 https://dot.ca.gov/-/media/dot-media/programs/research-innovation-system-information/documents/final-reports/ucprc-rp-2010-04.pdf https://dot.ca.gov/-/media/dot-media/programs/research-innovation-system-information/documents/final-reports/ucprc-rp-2010-04.pdf https://doi.org/10.21090/ijaerd.95630 https://doi.org/10.21090/ijaerd.95630 https://doi.org/10.3390/su8060558 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-2262-7 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-2262-7 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2009.10.004 https://hdl.handle.net/10539/25495 https://doi.org/10.18178/ijscer.7.3.259-268 https://doi.org/10.18178/ijscer.7.3.259-268 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190601071821 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.10.030 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.10.030 https://doi.org/10.31031/rdms.2018.03.000568 hussein, m., darko, a., eltouckhy, a.e. and zayed, t.f., 2022. sustainable logistics planning in modular integrated construction using multimethod simulation and taguchi approach. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 148(6), 04022022. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002273 jiang, y., zhao, d., wang, d. and xing, y., 2019. sustainable performance of buildings through modular prefabrication in the construction phase: a comparative study. sustainability, [e-journal] 11, 5658. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11205658 kamali, m. and hewage, k.n., 2015. performance indicators for sustainability assessment of buildings. in: icsc15 2015 the canadian society for civil engineering 5th international/11th construction specialty conference. vancouver, british columbia, june 7-10, 2015. https://doi.org/10.14288/1.0076427 kasim, t., li, h., rezgui, y. and beach, t., 2018. integrated framework to manage building’s sustainability efficiency, design features and building envelope. in: camarinha-matos, l., afsarmanesh, h. and rezgui, y., eds. collaborative networks of cognitive systems. pro-ve 2018. ifip advances in information and communication technology, 534, pp.65060. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99127-6_56 khan, a., yu, r. and liu, t., 2021. a systematic review of risks in modular integrated construction practice. in: proceedings of the 44th aubea conference, geelong, australia, 27–29 october 2021. pp.344–54. khan, a., yu, r., liu, t., guan, h. and oh, e., 2022. drivers towards adopting modular integrated construction for affordable sustainable housing: a total interpretive structural modelling (tism) method. buildings, [e-journal] 12(5), p.637. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12050637 lawson, r.m., 2008. building design using modules. [online pdf ] the steel construction institute, uk. available at: https://www.steelconstruction.info/images/6/67/sci_p348.pdf lawson, r.m., ogden, r.g. and bergin, r., 2012. application of modular construction in high-rise buildings. journal of architectural engineering, [e-journal] 18(2), pp.148-54. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.19435568.0000057 lee, d. and lee, s., 2021. digital twin for supply chain coordination in modular construction. applied sciences, [e-journal] 11(13), 5909. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11135909 liu, e., martin, c. and easthope, h., 2019. poor-quality housing and low-income households: review of evidence and options for reform. international journal of scientific and research publications, 10(4), pp.1-17. maccallum, r.c., widaman, k.f., zhang, s. and hong, s., 1999. sample size in factor analysis. psychological methods, [e-journal] 4(1), pp.84-99. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989x.4.1.84 mao, c., shen, q., shen, l. and tang, l., 2013. comparative study of greenhouse gas emissions between off-site prefabrication and conventional construction methods: two case studies of residential projects. energy building, [e-journal] 66, pp.165-76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2013.07.033 moghayedi, a., awuzie, b., omotayo, t., le jeune, k., massyn, m. and ekpo, c.o., 2021. a critical success factor framework for implementing sustainable innovative and affordable housing: a systematic review and bibliometric analysis. buildings, [e-journal] 11(8), 317. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11080317 moser, c.a. and kalton, g., 1971. survey methods in social investigation, 1st ed. london: routledge. https://doi. org/10.4324/9781315241999 murali, k. and sambath, k., 2020. sustainable performance criteria for prefabrication construction system. international journal of scientific and research publications, [e-journal] 10(4), pp.455-58. https://doi.org/10.29322/ijsrp.10.04.2020. p10052 akindeinde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202495 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002273 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11205658 https://doi.org/10.14288/1.0076427 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-99127-6_56 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12050637 https://www.steelconstruction.info/images/6/67/sci_p348.pdf https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000057 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000057 https://doi.org/10.3390/app11135909 https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989x.4.1.84 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2013.07.033 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11080317 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315241999 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315241999 https://doi.org/10.29322/ijsrp.10.04.2020.p10052 https://doi.org/10.29322/ijsrp.10.04.2020.p10052 nabi, m.a. and el-adaway, i.h., 2020. modular construction: determining decision making factors and future research needs. journal of management engineering, [e-journal] 36, 4020085. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) me.1943-5479.0000859 norušis, m.j., 2011. ibmspss statistics 19 guide to data analysis. upper saddle river, nj: pearson prentice hall. ogunde, a., selekere, t.e., joshua, o., kuboyi, p.o. and omuh, i.o., 2016. prefabrication method of building construction in lagos state, nigeria. international journal of engineering technology and computer research, 4(1), pp.88100. ojo, l.d., adeniyi, o. and ogundimu, o.e., 2022. rethinking green supply chain management practices impact on company performance: a close-up insight. sustainability, [e-journal] 14, 13197. https://doi.org/10.3390/su142013197 oladinrin, o.t., jayantha, w.m. and ojo, l.d., 2022. new work practices and their drivers in fireb firms: evidence from hong kong. journal of corporate real estate, [e-journal] 25(3), pp.205-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcre-042022-0008 oladinrin, t.o. and ojo, l.d., 2021. characterization of the drivers of environmental management system implementation. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 29(10), pp.3868-92. https://doi. org/10.1108/ecam-04-2021-0356 oladinrin, o., ogunsenmi, d.r. and aje, o.i., 2012. role of construction in economic growth: empirical evidence from nigeria. futy journal of the environment, [e-journal] 7(1), pp.50-60. https://doi.org/10.4314/fje.v7i1.4 pan, w. and hon, c.k., 2020. briefing: modular integrated construction for high-rise buildings. proceeding of institute of civil engineering municipal, [e-journal] 173, pp.64–68. https://doi.org/10.1680/jmuen.18.00028 rahimian, f.p., goulding, j., akintoye, a. and kolo, c., 2017. review of motivations, success factors, and barriers to the adoption of offsite manufacturing in nigeria. procedia engineering, [e-journal] 196(2017), pp.512-19. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.07.232 reio, t.g. and shuck, b., 2015. exploratory factor analysis: implications for theory, research, and practice. advances in developing human resources, [e-journal] 17(1), pp.12-25. https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422314559804 shen, g.q. and liu, g., 2003. critical success factors for value management studies in construction. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 129(5). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2003)129:5(485) shubham, d.a. and jalindar, r.p., 2019. prefabrication technology a promising alternative in construction industry. international journal of science and research, [e-journal] 8(8), pp.240-44. tabachnick, b.g. and fidell, l.s., 2007. using multivariate statistics. 7th ed. new york: allyn and bacon. tong, y., 2021. factors for optimizing time performance of modular construction: a review and evidence from huoshenshan hospital construction. in: proceedings of the 2021 ieee 12th international conference on mechanical and intelligent manufacturing technologies (icmimt), cape town, south africa, 13–15 may 2021. nj, usa: ieee. pp.45–48. tupenaite, l., lill, i., geipele, i. and naimaviciene, j., 2017. ranking of sustainability indicators for assessment of the new housing development projects: case of the baltic states. resources, [e-journal] 6(4), p.55. https://doi. org/10.3390/resources6040055 vagias, w.m., 2006. likert-type scale response anchors. [pdf ] clemson international institute for tourism & research development, department of parks, recreation and tourism management. clemson university. available at: https://media. clemson.edu/cbshs/prtm/research/resources-for-research-page-2/vagias-likert-type-scale-response-anchors.pdf akindeinde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202496 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000859 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000859 https://doi.org/10.3390/su142013197 https://doi.org/10.1108/jcre-04-2022-0008 https://doi.org/10.1108/jcre-04-2022-0008 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-2021-0356 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-2021-0356 https://doi.org/10.4314/fje.v7i1.4 https://doi.org/10.1680/jmuen.18.00028 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.07.232 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2017.07.232 https://doi.org/10.1177/1523422314559804 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2003)129:5(485 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2003)129:5(485 https://doi.org/10.3390/resources6040055 https://doi.org/10.3390/resources6040055 https://media.clemson.edu/cbshs/prtm/research/resources-for-research-page-2/vagias-likert-type-scale-response-anchors.pdf https://media.clemson.edu/cbshs/prtm/research/resources-for-research-page-2/vagias-likert-type-scale-response-anchors.pdf wai, t.c., wai, yi, p., olanrewaju, i.o., abdelmageed, s., hussein, m., tariq, s. and zayed, t., 2023. a critical analysis of benefits and challenges of implementing modular integrated construction. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 23(4), pp.656-68. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1907525 wuni, i.y. and shen, g.q., 2021. exploring the critical production risk factors for modular integrated construction projects. journal of facility management, [e-journal] 21, pp.5669. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-03-2021-0029 wuni, i.y. and shen, g.q., 2022. towards a decision support for modular integrated construction: an integrative review of the primary decision-making actors. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22, pp.1–20. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1668633 wuni, i.y., shen, g.q. and mahmud, a.t., 2022. critical risk factors in the application of modular integrated construction: a systematic review. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(2), pp.133-47. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1613212 yang, y., pan, m. and pan, w., 2022. integrated offsite logistics scheduling approach for high-rise modular building projects. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 148(6), 04022032. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)co.1943-7862.0002280 yang, y., pan, w. and pan, m., 2017. manufacturing of modular buildings: a literature review. in: proceedings of the modular and offsite construction summit, shanghai, china, 10–12 november, pp.55–62. https://doi.org/10.29173/ mocs52 yong, h. and pearce, a., 2013. a review of green building standards: criteria, benefits, and strategies for sustainable construction. construction innovation, [e-journal] 13(1), pp.55-72. yu, c., xu, x. and lu, y., 2018. computer-integrated manufacturing, cyber-physical systems and cloud manufacturing concepts and relationships. manufacturing letters, [e-journal] 6, pp.5-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mfglet.2015.11.005 zakaria, s.a.s., gajendran, t., rose, t. and brewer, g., 2018. contextual, structural, and behavioural factors influencing the adoption of industrialised building systems: a review. architecture and engineering design. management, [e-journal] 14, pp.3–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2017.1291410 zhang, w., lee, m.w., jaillon, l. and poon, c.s., 2018. the hindrance to using prefabrication in hong kong’s building industry. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 204, pp.70-81. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.08.190 zhang, s., rong, x., bakhtawar, b., tariq, s. and zayed, t., 2021. assessment of feasibility, challenges, and critical success factors of mic projects in hong kong. journal of architecture and engineering, [e-journal] 27(1), 04020047. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000452 zhou, b., rybski, d. and kropp, j.p., 2013. on the statistics of urban heat island intensity, geophysical research letters, [e-journal] 40(20) p.5486-91. https://doi.org/10.1002/2013gl057320 akindeinde et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202497 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2021.1907525 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-03-2021-0029 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1668633 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1613212 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002280 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002280 https://doi.org/10.29173/mocs52 https://doi.org/10.29173/mocs52 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mfglet.2015.11.005 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2017.1291410 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.08.190 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000452 https://doi.org/10.1002/2013gl057320 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: silva, p. m., domingo, n., ali, n. a. n. a. 2025. pre-contract measures to avoid potential disputes in the new zealand construction industry. construction economics and building, 25:2, 235–252. https://doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9259 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article pre-contract measures to avoid potential disputes in the new zealand construction industry pramod malaka silva1,*, niluka domingo2, noushad ali naseem ameer ali3 1 school of built environment, massey university, new zealand, pramodmalaka94@gmail.com 2 school of built environment, massey university, new zealand, n.d.domingo@massey.ac.nz 3 school of built environment, massey university, new zealand, n.a.n.ameerali@massey.ac.nz corresponding author: pramod malaka silva, school of built environment, massey university, new zealand, pramodmalaka94@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9259 article history: received 28/07/2024; revised 09/04/2025; accepted 21/04/2025; published 08/08/2025 abstract the new zealand (nz) construction industry suffers from negative implications of disputes in construction projects, similar to other countries. hence, the importance of avoiding disputes has become a vital topic to discuss and research. avoiding disputes in construction projects has always been challenging, with limited research on this topic. notably, no studies have explored potential pre-contract measures to prevent disputes in the new zealand construction industry. to address this research gap, this study was designed, and it is limited only to construction projects in nz that followed the traditional procurement path. fourteen professionals in the nz construction industry with significant experience and knowledge in construction disputes were interviewed, and the gathered data were analyzed qualitatively. a total of 84 pre-contract measures to avoid potential construction-related disputes were identified under five themes (themes of causes of disputes). the most responsible party/parties and most applicable pre-contract stage/s for each dispute avoidance step are also presented. the clarity of communication, risk management, proper documentation and standardization, review and continuous improvements, and collaboration are the main underlying characteristics of the identified avoidance measures. among the identified dispute avoidance measures, respondents emphasized clear scope documentation and expectation management meetings as the 235 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9259 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9259 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:pramodmalaka94@gmail.com mailto:n.d.domingo@massey.ac.nz mailto:n.a.n.ameerali@massey.ac.nz mailto:pramodmalaka94@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9259 most significant. the proposed measures could help principals, tenderers, and consultants in new zealand to minimize potential disputes. additionally, this study opens avenues for further research into dispute avoidance strategies for other procurement methods (other than the traditional procurement path) and practical approaches to clearly document the construction scope. keywords construction disputes; dispute avoidance; pre-contract stage; new zealand construction introduction gerber (2013) emphasized the importance of preventive measures to reduce disputes, noting that the initial cost of setting up a dispute avoidance procedure can be recovered many times over through savings from reduced disputes and early resolution. previous research has also focused on the assessment and prediction of potential disputes. various statistical and mathematical methods have been employed by researchers to develop dispute prediction models. for example, diekmann and girard (1995) utilized logistic regression to forecast the likelihood of disputes, highlighting the importance of competent human resources in dispute avoidance and the impact of project complexity on disputes. similarly, molenaar, washington and diekmann (2000) used structural equation modeling (sem) to underscore management ability and project complexity as key factors in dispute prediction. ayhan, dikmen and birgonul (2021) applied machine learning (ml) techniques, drawing data from a comprehensive literature review and expert interviews, to predict the occurrence of disputes. de alwis, abeynayake and francis (2016) emphasized the necessity of forecasting disputes during the “briefing stage” of a construction project in sri lanka, where the client’s requirements and objectives are established. they identified factors such as risk allocation, contractor selection, quality of documentation, time management, and procurement methods as critical in avoiding potential disputes. zhu and cheung (2020) proposed a framework illustrating how incentivization can reduce construction disputes by reinforcing relational governance (narrowing gaps in risks, responsibilities, and power), increasing investment in relationships, and improving perceptions of fairness. a study in saudi arabia, based on nearly 93 questionnaires, found that fair contract risk allocation, drafting dispute clauses, team building, provision of a neutral arbitrator, and binding arbitration are effective contract administration methods for dispute avoidance and resolution ( jannadia et al., 2000). tabish and jha (2023) used principal component analysis (with orthogonal rotation) to identify three primary factors for consideration during the post-contract stage: (a) comprehension and monitoring of scope, (b) support from higher management, and (c) the expertise of the contractor’s design consultant. additionally, a malaysian study suggested that discussions and negotiations between top management with decision-making and financial authority (without third-party involvement) from both contracting parties could be a more effective way of avoiding and resolving disputes. in singapore, aibinu (2009) identified a high level of conflict regarding time claims in the construction industry, particularly when there was minimal pre-contract negotiation and agreement on the rules for quantifying and assessing anticipated delays. the authors highlighted the necessity of negotiating and agreeing during the pre-contract stage on record requirements for claims, methods for maintaining records, and the format of construction schedules. they also emphasized the importance of establishing methods for analyzing delay claims and a formula for calculating prolongation costs. in the new zealand (nz) context, there are several studies about the causes of disputes in the construction industry and dispute resolution mechanisms, but very few studies have focused on dispute avoidance. finnie (2021) proposed a two-stage early contractor involvement framework in the nz context. it addresses potential complications, such as determining the variation entitlements due to drawing silva et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025236 changes and legal implications of a contractor’s involvement in the design development. broadly, yiu, lu and ang (2021) recommended that the entire new zealand construction industry adopt a professional and accountable approach. they advised defining project scopes as early as possible with minimal changes afterward and investigating the other party’s history before entering a construction contract to minimize potential disputes. ramachandra and rotimi (2011) emphasized the importance of incorporating proper payment provisions in new zealand construction contracts. they recommended several measures to minimize payment-related conflicts, including prompt settlement of financial claims to maintain cash flow, early securing of financial guarantees, and mandatory prequalification of funding parties’ financial status. many previous studies have proposed measures to resolve construction-related disputes after a dispute has taken place. kumaraswamy (2002) pointed out the importance of “dispute avoidance” and “dispute minimization” over “dispute resolution”. globally, as explained here, there were few studies that have recommended methods to predict disputes using statistical mechanisms. furthermore, there are some suggestions and strategies to minimize and resolve disputes that were found in a few international studies; however, those studies were applicable to the post-contract stage. in addition to the (1) framework proposed by finnie (2021) on a two-stage early contractor involvement and (2) recommendations proposed by ramachandra and rotimi (2011) about the payment provisions in nz construction contracts, there were no other studies that focused on dispute avoidance in the nz context. even these mentioned studies have not focused on the projects that followed the traditional procurement path and have not focused on the possibilities of avoiding potential/future disputes during the pre-contract stage. therefore, this study attempted to investigate dispute avoidance steps that can be performed during the pre-contract stage, aiming to avoid potential disputes. methodology an initial review of the existing literature in nz and the international context has highlighted the need to conduct a proper study on possible strategies or steps that can be done in the pre-contract stage to avoid potential disputes in nz’s construction industry. fourteen industry experts who had at least 15 years of experience in construction contract management and/or construction disputes were selected for a series of semi-structured interviews. the selected interviewees’ professions, experiences, and identification codes are stated in table 1. table 1. respondents’ profiles (source: authors’ own creation) interviewee code current profession/position overall experience experience in new zealand respondent a technical director—project management >18 years 12 years respondent b general manager—operations >25 years >18 years respondent c technical director—structural engineering >20 years 10 years respondent d director 28 years 28 years respondent e founder/director 24 years 24 years respondent f managing director 31 years 31 years respondent g estimating manager 22 years >10 years respondent h chief executive officer >32 years 21 years respondent i senior quantity surveyor >30 years 16 years silva et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025237 interviewee code current profession/position overall experience experience in new zealand respondent j senior quantity surveyor 25 years 10 years respondent k commercial manager 18 years >11 years respondent l planner—major projects 26 years 12 years respondent m senior quantity surveyor >28 years >10 years respondent n senior associate contracts >20 years 13 years as an initial part of this study, a detailed quantitative analysis of construction-related legal cases was carried out, and 11 primary causes of disputes were identified (silva et al., 2023). considering the frequency of those primary causes and commonalities of the identified 11 primary causes, five themes were discerned: poor contract understanding, poor contract practices, poor contract formation, over-expectations of the contractor and over-expectations of the principal. figure 1 shows how the identified primary causes of disputes in a previous step of this study (silva, domingo and ameer ali, 2023) have formed the five themes. figure 1. formation of five themes of causes of disputes (source: adopted from silva et al., 2023). table 1. continued silva et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025238 the royal institute of british architects (riba) plan of work has broken down a construction project into eight stages, and it outlines core tasks, stage outcomes, and information exchanges required at each stage (riba, 2023). this study considered the four stages of the riba plan of work and adjusted the four stages as below in order to obtain and analyze responses more methodically. under the mentioned five themes, expert interviewees were questioned regarding the (1) concerns/issues that come under the themes (detailed causes of disputes under a theme) and (2) steps/strategies applicable to the pre-contract stages (under the four adjusted pre-contract stages in table 2) to avoid potential disputes. this paper only discusses the findings related to the dispute avoidance steps/strategies. table 2. formation of four pre-contract stages [source: authors developed this table based on the stages mentioned in riba (2023)] riba stage adjusted stage for this study description of the adjusted stage preparation and briefing preparation and briefing (pb) prepare project brief including project outcomes and sustainability outcomes, quality aspirations, and spatial requirements. concept design concept design and spatial coordination (cdsc) architectural concept, which is aligned with the project brief, is approved by the client. architectural and engineering information is spatially coordinated. spatial coordination technical design stage technical design—a (tda) until the tender submission (tender preparation and pricing) all the design information required to construct the project is almost complete. the client prepares the tender document and tenderers price and bid. technical design—b (tdb) until the contract signing (tender evaluation, award and signing contract) client selects a suitable tenderer. the potential contractor and client work together until the contract is signed. with the permission from the interviewees, interview sessions were recorded, and the files were stored methodically using the nvivo software. then, the audio/video recordings and their written transcripts were carefully reviewed to identify core ideas with regard to dispute avoidance steps. the identified dispute avoidance steps were given with a unique identification number as well. furthermore, the most suitable/ responsible party and applicable pre-contract stage (among the four stages in table 2) to perform a particular avoidance step were identified from the transcripts and recordings accordingly. as an indication of the significance of any avoidance step, the number of respondents who pointed out a particular dispute avoidance step has also been recorded. the content of the gathered data has been critically analyzed manually, with some configuration options available in the nvivo software. under the five themes, the silva et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025239 analyzed information has been presented, providing important insights into the dispute avoidance steps, applicable pre-contract stages, and the most responsible parties to perform those steps. figure 2 illustrates the overall research process of this study. background study •ini�al literature review on previous studies related to causes of disputes, measures to avoid disputes in interna�onal and nz contexts •iden�fica�on of requirement of a proper study to inves�gate the possible measures during the pre-contract stage to avoid poten�al disputes in nz construc�on industry data collec�on •iden�fica�on of selec�on criteria for expert interviewees •prepera�on of semistructured interview guideline based on the iden�fied 5 themes of dispute causes (from an ini�al stage of the same study) • conduct interviews, gather data and record methodically data analysis •manual content analysis to iden�fy core ideas of responses (with the use of configura�on op�ons available in nvivo so�war e) •measures to avoid disputes were iden�fied and given with iden�fica�on codes •the iden�fied measures to avoid disputes under each 5 themes were recorded with their respec�ve responses frequencies, applicable pre-contract stages and the most responsible par�es presenta�on •under the 5 themes of dispute causes, the analyzed data has been presented qualita�vely explaining the avoidance measures in detailed manner •presented a summary table for each theme that illustrates responses frequencies, applicable pre-contract stages and the most responsible par�es of dispute avoidance steps figure 2. research process (source: authors’ own creation). findings poor contract understanding the clarity of the contract documentation and the level of understanding are co-related, as per several respondents. a respondent highlighted the importance of detailed and accurate design information and the necessity of considering what constitutes a complete set of contract documents. table 3 summarizes the collected pre-contract measures along with their applicable pre-contract stages and responsible parties under this theme. respondent l emphasized the importance of using clear and easily understandable language with fewer legal terms. however, respondent n expressed a different perspective, stating, “…in my view, we need a well-structured contract document with precise language, especially regarding contract conditions… ..while some advocate for plain english, i am not a great fan of it, certain contractual matters cannot be fully conveyed in plain english, so i believe a combination of contract-specific language and plain language works best…”. a clear indication of measurement methods for construction activities or stating the standard method of measurements could avoid many quantity-related disputes, particularly in service-related activities (respondents k and n). a few other respondents highlighted the importance of understanding the construction programme, including how activities are linked, the scale of activities, and key activity timings. they also emphasized that being aware of the completion requirements is essential for enhancing overall understanding. being clear about the allocation of risks during the pre-contract stage was highlighted by respondents h and g. respondent h highlighted the importance of the client being honest and open when transferring the risks to the contractor. in other words, it is paramount for the client to clearly draft the contractual provisions that will transfer the risks to the contractor. respondents h and m added that understanding and clarifying the roles and responsibilities and having a better understanding of them may avoid potential silva et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025240 confusion. furthermore, respondent h said, “an innovative schedule that identifies what the responsibilities of each party would be helpful”. utilizing the previous experience for the current project and sharing knowledge in good faith with other parties are important to avoid potential disputes, as indicated by respondents e and l. using the experience gained from the previous projects will enhance the understanding of the contract and best practicing methods; also, sharing the knowledge, such as educating the client about the construction process table 3. dispute avoidance measures under poor contract understanding theme (source: authors’ own creation). steps to avoid potential disputes number of responses responsible party pre-contract stage* c lie nt e ng /d es ig n te am te nd er er s el ec te d te nd er er p b c d s c td a td b be clear about the allocation of risks 3 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ tenderer to identify its portion of risk 3 ✓ ✓ educate the principal about the construction process 3 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ be clear about responsibilities 2 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ define and use a standard method of measurement 2 ✓ ✓ ✓ provide detailed and accurate design documentation 2 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ draft the contract in clear and simple language 2 ✓ ✓ bring the lessons learnt from past projects 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ tenderers should utilize their previous experiences to understand the tender documents 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ have a legal workshop or review of the contract with a lawyer 1 ✓ ✓ client should make clear early on the accessibility of the supply chain 1 ✓ ✓ bear in mind to hold frequent site meetings 1 ✓ ✓ understand well the involvement of the principal’s representative (engineer, pms, etc.) 1 ✓ ✓ use of diagrams to visualize contractual aspects 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ understand the construction program 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ understand the completion requirements 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ * pb, preparation and briefing; cdsc, concept design and spatial coordination; tda, technical design—a (until the tender submission); and tdb, technical design—b (until the contract signing) silva et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025241 and practicalities during a pre-contract stage, will provide an opportunity for the contractor/tenderer to understand the client’s expectations. if a party’s internal knowledge regarding the contract administration is inadequate, it can even seek an external legal service. respondent g stated, “2-hour workshop with a lawyer, just to talk about the nuances of clauses rather than just assuming the other person’s opinion would be worthwhile”. innovatively, parties can even use diagrams to understand and explain contractual matters and responsibility hierarchies. poor contract management and practices setting up a contractual environment during the early stage to work collaboratively in the post-contract stage has been recorded from several responses. the responses varied across agreeing on reasonable and sufficient time for pricing variations, offering incentives for working collaboratively, and negotiating more workable contract administration procedures for both parties (refer to table 4 for all the pre-contract dispute avoidance measures under this theme). unless an agreed rate or a similar rate is available in the contract, a contractor needs to rely on external quotations. therefore, interviewee k opined to discuss during the pre-contract stage to allow sufficient time to properly price variations. similarly, interviewee n also emphasized that it is possible to adopt a different, more workable administrative methodology without undermining the risk profiles or without disturbing the project’s objectives. furthermore, respondent n commented, “maybe you have a very poor, poorly structured contract, but if you have an intent or mindset to work collaboratively, you can deliver the project in a dispute-free environment”. table 4. dispute avoidance measures under poor contract management and practice theme (source: authors’ own creation). steps to avoid potential disputes number of responses responsible party pre-contract stage * c lie nt e ng /d es ig n te am te nd er er s el ec te d te nd er er p b c d s c td a td b involve competent people to understand the contract administration well 3 ✓ ✓ contractor should keep in mind to inform the principal and submit any claims in a timely manner 2 ✓ ✓ set out reporting requirements in the contract 2 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ train and learn from experiences 2 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ tenders to establish training and learning opportunities 2 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ agree to suitable communication channels and their limitations beforehand 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ agree to allow reasonable time to price new variation items to contractors 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ check the background of the other party beforehand 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ silva et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025242 steps to avoid potential disputes number of responses responsible party pre-contract stage * c lie nt e ng /d es ig n te am te nd er er s el ec te d te nd er er p b c d s c td a td b clarify details from the engineer 1 agree on timeframes of when the information should be transferred 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ establish a robust change control procedure 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ establish a robust risk management procedure 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ offer incentives for working collaboratively 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ remember to keep site records well 1 ✓ ✓ obtain and save supplier’s producer statements and warranties 1 ✓ ✓ keep in mind to obtain approvals for variation prices beforehand 1 ✓ ✓ pass the pre-contract assumptions to the postcontract team effectively within a company 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ conduct pre-contract meeting on process of contract administration process 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ use robust information technology systems/ software 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ tenderers should use robust information technology systems/software 1 ✓ ✓ smooth transition from pre-contract team to postcontract team 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ keep significant design portions separate from the construction contract 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ * pb, preparation and briefing; cdsc, concept design and spatial coordination; tda, technical design—a (until the tender submission); and tdb, technical design—b (until the contract signing) three respondents said that proper record-keeping is essential to avoid disputes. it is common in construction companies that employees shift to other positions or different companies, leaving significant loopholes in the knowledge and records of the project. hence, it is paramount to record important information well, particularly to smoothly transfer and record the assumptions, correspondences, and the like from the pre-contract team to the post-contract team (respondent n). while an interviewee with significant main-contractor experience highlighted the hardship of establishing the entitlement of a claim without proper recording, another interviewee pointed out some complications of not keeping suppliers’ warranties and producer statements well. to avoid those kinds of complications, which potentially lead to table 4. continued silva et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025243 disputes, setting out report requirements in the contract, understanding the reporting requirements, and organizing measures to gather information for those reports were suggested. for both the client and tenderer, it is important to bring the lessons learnt from past projects and seek experienced practitioners’ knowledge and expertise to avoid potential malpractices and mismanagement (respondents d and l). furthermore, the respondents emphasized the importance of having capable individuals who can understand and effectively use a well-crafted contract, and they stated that even with a high-quality contract, the absence of people who can comprehend and apply its terms could lead to failure. a senior quantity surveyor from a reputed company in nz indicated the importance of carrying out a background check to identify the financial potential of the client and the importance of identifying the experiences of the tenderers regarding past projects. variations and claims and their surrounding administrative mechanisms are prone to disputes during the construction stage; hence, three respondents provided recommendations to establish during the pre-contract stage. “we should incorporate robust change control procedures into the contract to establish a protocol for managing changes and identifying the owner of those changes”, respondent l added. the importance of bearing in mind from the early stages of the projects to notify the other party about upcoming cost and time implications has also been emphasized. moreover, to facilitate the practice, it has been recommended that suitable information technologies be used to establish robust risk management procedures and to keep significant design portions as separate contract/s. poor contract formation several respondents opined that when forming their contract, the client and contractor/tenderer must go through the tender documents thoroughly to identify errors, communicate them to the other party, and manage them well. specifically, when a tenderer notices a major omission, respondent k advised explicitly listing both the priced items and those that were not (the missing items) to prevent potential pricing misunderstandings while remaining competitive. from a tenderer’s perspective, the respondent further emphasized the importance of conducting a general review of the schedule of quantities, even in a costreimbursement arrangement. this is because significant differences in actual quantities during the postcontract stage can lead to substantial variations in unit costs, potentially causing conflicts. the importance of agreeing to a list of comprehensive rates has been highlighted by respondent n, saying that, “client should let tenderers to price a comprehensive set of daywork rates which are detailed enough to apply in the postcontract stage alongside the tender price”. moreover, the involvement of experienced persons for pricing and the inclusion of a comprehensive set of pricing preambles were also suggested by two interviewees. table 5 summarizes the pre-contract measures to properly form the contract. the contract documents are complex and consist of many sub-documents; their clarity and tidiness are paramount (respondents e and m). particularly, before compiling the entire contract document, all the correspondences made in various modes must be well-organized and perhaps require summarizations. regarding the special conditions of the contract, respondent b opined, “there’s no need to add a whole layer of extra/particular conditions of contract unless there’s a specific need to include them”. from a tenderer’s perspective, it is essential to thoroughly review the tender, clearly understand what is being priced, and, most importantly, seek clarification from the client, obtain responses, and properly document them. a senior quantity surveyor with significant experience in nz and overseas stated that the designs of most of the construction projects in nz are not developed to a greater extent at the time of signing the contract; hence, it causes a considerable margin of error regarding their associated lump sum prices and the like. therefore, he suggested not relying on concept designs or very preliminary designs for pricing jobs, as this could potentially lead to scope creep, cost overruns, numerous extension-of-time claims, and disputes since the design has not yet been fully developed. respondent j suggested paying the consultants’ fee on a silva et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025244 table 5. dispute avoidance measures under poor contract formation theme (source: authors’ own creation). steps to avoid potential disputes number of responses responsible party pre-contract stage * c lie nt e ng /d es ig n te am te nd er er s el ec te d te nd er er p b c d s c td a td b document the scope clearly 5 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ develop the design to a greater extent during precontract stage 3 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ select competent principal’s representatives 3 ✓ ✓ ✓ tenderer to ask questions and get answers 2 ✓ ✓ document and summarize pre-contract correspondences 2 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ manage well all significant missing items, drastic quantity variances, and errors in a schedule of quantities (soq) in a bid 2 ✓ ✓ understand the current market conditions when drafting the contract 2 ✓ ✓ tenderers should be given sufficient time to price 2 ✓ ✓ arrange the warranties well 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ have collaborative contractual clauses 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ principal’s consultants’ fees should be percentagebased 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ engage a contractor only when the designs are developed to a greater extent 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ provide the contractor with environment-related information 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ do not include too many special conditions in the contract 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ conduct pre-contract site investigations 1 ✓ ✓ select the right contractors in the first place 1 ✓ ✓ have a comprehensive set of rates 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ have a comprehensive set of preambles 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ have experienced persons for pricing and tender document review 1 ✓ ✓ contract to be drafted by an experienced person 1 ✓ ✓ * pb, preparation and briefing; cdsc. concept design and spatial coordination; tda, technical design—a (until the tender submission); and tdb, technical design—b (until the contract signing) silva et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025245 percentage basis from the project’s value rather than paying on an hourly basis to ensure that the consultants produce a complete design with the expected level of detail. five interviewees pointed out the importance of clearly documenting the scope as a primary action to avoid potential disputes. the client and its consultants are required to compile the scope with an adequate level of detail in an understandable way for tenderers. respondent e added, “a client wants to ensure that their contractor is not surprised halfway through the job when they realise, they need to paint the cable containment in addition to installing it”. particularly in a lump sum contract, which is more common in nz, it is essential to clearly mention the assumptions and scope inclusions and exclusions to avoid potential disputes surrounding variation entitlements (interviewees e and j). “collaborative contract clauses are usually quite good as well where you work together as opposed to sitting on opposite sides of the table”, respondent g added. furthermore, he explained that the possibilities of including clauses to incentivize parties who work collaboratively in the post-contract stage would encourage parties to be open and honest. a client can assist in good faith in providing access to the information (such as ground investigation reports) and organizing site visits to assist the preferred tenderer in obtaining the necessary information and assessing the risk effectively (respondents d and n). over-expectations of contractor if the client is willing, the preferred tenderer can be involved in collaborative design reviews so that it (1) can share its specialized knowledge with the design team and (2) can understand the level of detail that would be available to the contractor during the post-contract stage (respondent h). relevant pre-contract measures to avoid the contractor’s over-expectations are summarized in table 6. table 6. dispute avoidance measures under the contractor’s over-expectations theme (source: authors’ own creation). steps to avoid potential disputes number of responses responsible party pre-contract stage * c lie nt e ng /d es ig n te am te nd er er s el ec te d te nd er er p b c d s c td a td b hold expectation management meetings 4 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ contractors should provide information about alternative products at an early stage 2 ✓ ✓ be clear about the scope of the contractor’s quotes 2 ✓ ✓ tenderers should not overly rely on the principal’s knowledge of the project 2 ✓ ✓ ✓ have collaborative design reviews 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ tenderer to check the quantities (if applicable) calculated by the principal in the bidding document 1 ✓ ✓ investigate whether the tender document includes even a minor design requirement 1 ✓ ✓ silva et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025246 steps to avoid potential disputes number of responses responsible party pre-contract stage * c lie nt e ng /d es ig n te am te nd er er s el ec te d te nd er er p b c d s c td a td b do not fully rely on the principal’s prepared schedules 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ review and understand the contract well before signing 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ review the design developments to determine whether they actually result in any cost implications 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ tenderers should inform the principal of the scope exclusions 1 ✓ ✓ tenderers should not overly expect design details from the principal 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ tenderers should not sign a contract with an impractical completion date for them 1 ✓ ✓ tenderers should not place their bids with unachievable productivity levels 1 ✓ ✓ tenderers should not overly rely on the accuracy of the forecasts and schedules 1 ✓ ✓ * pb, preparation and briefing; cdsc, concept design and spatial coordination; tda, technical design—a (until the tender submission); and tdb, technical design—b (until the contract signing) respondent a, with significant main contractor experience, highlighted that certain instructions and drawing issuances could not necessarily be treated as variations with cost or time implications, as they are just further details that would have been envisaged since the pre-contract stage. therefore, he suggested that the preferred tenderer consider all foreseeable costs as reflected in the tender documents and price them accordingly without getting involved in unnecessary disputes about the price scope. three respondents stated that the list of items requiring pricing and the quantities provided in the tender documents should not be considered as the full scope of the project. therefore, the tenderer must independently verify the listed items and quantities rather than relying entirely on the client-prepared schedules. additionally, the tenderer should ensure that all foreseeable costs are accounted for in the rates or prices, as applicable. two respondents from the main contractor side emphasized that tenderers should understand and accept the resources and potential of their company and should not price tenders with unachievable productivity levels. in other words, tenderers should not be overly confident about their strengths or sign a contract with an impractical completion date (with impractical resource allocations). moreover, even though the overall project follows the traditional procurement path, where the client primarily holds design responsibility, it is important for the tenderer to identify any minor design responsibilities outlined in the tender document. this allows the tenderer to be aware of the client’s expectations and assess whether they can fulfil those table 6. continued silva et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025247 responsibilities (respondent m). three respondents emphasized the importance of organizing a pre-contract meeting to discuss the expectations of the client, contractors, and other stakeholders regarding quality, budget, and timeline expectations while building a positive working relationship and trust. respondent e from the contractor side commented, “i dread to think of what it would be like if we signed a contract with our client without having those expectation management meetings where we explain stuff ”. over-expectations of principal defining and clearly communicating the quality and performance expectations of the principal before signing the contract is essential to avoid potential quality-related disputes; also, those quality expectations should be realistic, as mentioned by a respondent. respondent h added that the principals can explain their desired procedure and information expectation from the contractor regarding the submission of extension of time claims and variations to avoid unnecessary confusion surrounding variation entitlements and extension of time claims. moreover, some assumptions or expectations may be helpful to share with the other party in the first place to avoid potential confusion; for instance, respondent l suggested that principals can disclose table 7. dispute avoidance measures under the principal’s over-expectations theme (source: authors’ own creation). steps to avoid potential disputes number of responses responsible party pre-contract stage * c lie nt e ng /d es ig n te am te nd er er s el ec te d te nd er er p b c d s c td a td b be clear on what the contractor should design and what documentation should be provided 3 ✓ ✓ agree on quality and standard criteria beforehand 2 ✓ ✓ ✓ engage consultants for design aspects rather than contractors as much as possible 2 ✓ ✓ ✓ understand where the principal’s design risk ends and where the contractor’s risk starts 2 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ agree on rates and extension of time (eot) granting mechanisms in advance 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ be clear on assumptions made by any party 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ principal’s awareness of releasing the contractor of its liability at the end of the construction 1 ✓ ✓ minimize unnecessary shared design responsibilities for certain works 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ pass suitable portions of design responsibilities to contractor 1 ✓ ✓ robust communication up-front 1 ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ * pb, preparation and briefing; cdsc, concept design and spatial coordination; tda, technical design—a (until the tender submission); and tdb, technical design—b (until the contract signing) silva et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025248 any specific software that they expect to use during the post-contract stage (refer to table 7 for all the precontract dispute avoidance measures under this theme). while some respondents viewed the early involvement of preferred tenderers in pre-contract designs positively, respondents j and n highlighted negative consequences, such as ambiguities in design responsibilities and unrealistic expectations from the principal that the tenderer would bear certain risk profiles associated with the design stages. moreover, another respondent highlighted the importance of minimizing unnecessary shared design responsibilities with the preferred tenderers. however, he said it is also essential to agree on transferring the right portions of design responsibilities to the preferred tenderer, particularly in instances where the potential contractor has more competencies than the client (or client’s consultants) or the potential contractor would be in a more controllable position to come up with a more buildable design. for instance, respondent n added, “in a construction project near coastal area, it is better to pass the design responsibility of earth retaining structures to the contractor as it is in a better position to develop designs considering the highly uncertain coastal soil conditions”. moreover, tenderers need to review the tender document carefully and identify any minor design responsibility expected from the tenderer; if so, the tenderer needs to discuss and understand the boundary of design responsibility (respondents n and j). discussion not being able to understand the specifications in the tender document and the construction contract was identified in one-fourth of the studied cases in norway, which caused many disputes (omar et al., 2019). according to a turkish study by cakmak and cakmak (2013), the vagueness of contract documents and the varying interpretations of these documents were ranked 8th and 12th, respectively, out of 28 attributes based on their relative importance. a new zealand study based on construction-related court cases found that a significant number of court cases were caused by misunderstandings of the parties, and this caused disputes around payment issues, termination, suspension, and testing and inspection (silva et al., 2023). even though the poor contract understanding is highlighted in many international studies, the possibilities of enhancing the parties’ understanding have not been investigated. this study emphasized that the level of understanding is co-related to the clarity of the contract documents and to the level of information that is available at the time of signing the contract. many experts emphasized the importance of understanding risk profiles and clearly defining the roles and responsibilities of all parties—something that can be effectively achieved during “technical design stage—a”, when the principal prepares the tender documents and tenderers develop their pricing. a previous study in hong kong by kumaraswamy (2002) identified “insufficient contract administration” as a proximate cause of dispute. instances where the contract is managed very poorly, such as delays in the construction site handover process, delayed payments, stoppage of work by the principal, and poor quality of construction, were identified by an indian study by parikh, joshi and patel (2019). in order to address these issues surrounding poor contract management and practices, yiu et al. (2021) recommended that the entire nz construction industry should behave in a professional and accountable way to minimize potential disputes. even though the management and practice of the construction contract are more relevant to the post-contract stage, there are many steps/strategies that can be done even during the pre-contract stage to make their post-contract stage have fewer disputes. experts recommended establishing a collaborative contractual environment from the early stages. the key elements of this approach include agreeing on reasonable timeframes for pricing variations, providing incentives for collaboration, setting up effective variation and change control procedures, and negotiating contract administration processes that are practical and workable. furthermore, setting out proper risk management procedures, discussions/agreements on the reporting requirements, and the levels of required information in reports could also avoid potential disputes. silva et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025249 when construction contracts were formed poorly in nz, disputes related to variation entitlement, design responsibilities, and payment issues were the cause, and poor contract formation was attributable to seven out of 35 studied court cases in nz (silva et al., 2023). ambiguous language, a characteristic of a poorly formed contract, is positioned at the lowest level of the interpretative structural model hierarchy, as it serves as a root cause for many other attributes that lead to disputes (viswanathan et al., 2020). similarly, in this study, a significant portion of respondents opined on the importance of documenting the scope clearly with fewer ambiguities to avoid potential disputes. moreover, several other studies have also emphasized the incompleteness of the contract, vagueness, and unclear information of the conditions of the contract as causes of disputes (cheung and pang, 2013; barman and charoenngam, 2017). even though there have been several studies discussing how the construction contracts are poorly formed and their implications, very few have recommended measures to form a contract properly. ramachandra and rotimi (2011) recommended a few measures to minimize payment-related conflicts that are applicable to the pre-contract stage in nz, namely, securing financial guarantees early in contracts and including pre-qualification criteria to assess the financial status of the parties. similarly, yiu et al. (2021) also stressed that investigating the other parties’ background, including their financial stability, could be worthwhile to avoid potential disputes in the nz context. this study also emphasized the importance of investigating the other party’s background before forming the contract. this study revealed the importance of having a comprehensive and more practically meaningful set of rates along with necessary assumptions for pricing inclusions. tenderers should be experienced enough to price the job properly with all the foreseeable costs, with realistic productivity levels. also, the tenderer, being the reviewer of the tender document, needs to verify the scope by reviewing the documents properly and by raising questions to the principal for clarification. both contractors’ and clients’ unrealistic expectations are major contributors to disputes in construction projects. kumaraswamy (2002) identified contractors’ unrealistic information expectations as a key root cause of disputes in hong kong construction projects. however, viswanathan et al. (2020) identified “unrealistic principal expectations” as a significant underlying cause of disputes in a six-level hierarchy of factors. moreover, tanriverdi et al. (2021) highlighted those unrealistic expectations of the principal as one of the five main concepts causing disputes, with extensive linkages to other causes of disputes. particularly in the nz context, both unrealistic expectations of the principal and contractor were identified as primary causes of five legal cases (out of 35 reviewed cases), which caused predominantly quality issues and contract terminations (silva et al., 2023). this study attempted to investigate possibilities during the pre-contract stage to ensure that parties’ expectations do not extend beyond the ideal boundaries. to avoid disputes over the scope and pricing, tenderers should be realistic about their capabilities and include all foreseeable costs in their tenders. principals need to clearly communicate quality, performance, and procedural expectations before signing contracts, ensuring that these are realistic. the early involvement of preferred tenderers in design reviews could be helpful, but it must be managed well to avoid ambiguities in design responsibilities and unrealistic risk expectations. conclusion and further research the main aim of this study was to investigate possible steps during the pre-contract stage to avoid potential construction-related disputes in the nz context. in order to achieve that aim, industry experts with more than 15 years of experience in construction contracts were selected to undergo semi-structured interviews. the initial part of this study identified 11 primary causes of disputes based on actual legal cases in nz; however, considering commonalities of those primary causes, this study adopted five derived themes of causes of disputes. to gather, analyze, and present the information methodically, four pre-contract stages were discerned from the riba plan of work. under each theme, recommended steps to avoid potential disputes were identified and further categorized under applicable parties and the relevant pre-contract stage. silva et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025250 most of the steps that could be done to enhance the overall understanding are related to the stage of “technical design stage—b” where the tendering process takes place. the allocation of risks, responsibilities, construction schedule, and construction processes are the areas that parties require to enhance their knowledge. clarity and the level of detail of the tender/contract documents were highlighted as impactful factors for all areas where an increased awareness is required to avoid potential disputes. knowledge and experience (i.e., from past project experiences and employees’ competencies) play an important role with regard to effective contract practices. the information expectations and their timing constraints need to be discussed and well-established between the parties before signing the contract to manage the contract easily during the post-contract stage. documenting the scope clearly was highlighted by a majority of the experts and indicated its positive impacts on other dispute avoidance steps as well. furthermore, other key recommendations for forming a well-structured contract included better management of tender errors, more developed design work during the pre-contract stage, and clearer pricing scopes. these recommendations apply across all four pre-contract stages. to avoid unrealistic expectations, it is advised that both the principal and the contractor hold expectation management meetings, openly communicate concerns, and avoid placing excessive reliance on tender documents prepared by others. the identified steps to avoid potential disputes are related to the pre-contract stage and can be considered as early preventive measures to overcome post-contract disputes. the dispute avoidance steps were identified under five themes and categorized under the most suitable pre-contract stage and the most responsible party. industry practitioners from the client, client’s representatives, or tenderers can perform these avoidance steps throughout the pre-contract stage as avoidance strategies for potential disputes. the presented tables for each theme map the avoidance steps with their applicable pre-contract stage and applicable party, along with the number of respondents who indicated a particular avoidance step, to provide an idea of the significance of a particular step. as this study is limited to nz construction projects that follow the traditional procurement path, further research could be done to investigate the suitability of the suggested avoidance steps on other procurement paths as well. this study identified clear scope documentation as the most significant dispute avoidance step, considering its frequency of responses; therefore, a more in-depth study on how to document the scope clearly would be worthwhile. furthermore, a user-friendly framework can also be developed that links precontract dispute avoidance steps and potential causes/concerns of disputes (in the post-contract stage). references aibinu, a. a. 2009. avoiding and mitigating delay and disruption claims conflict: role of precontract negotiation. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 1, 47-58. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)1943-4162(2009)1:1(47) ayhan, m., dikmen, i. & birgonul, m. t. 2021. predicting the occurrence of construction disputes using machine learning techniques. journal of construction engineering & management, 147, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0002027 barman, a. & charoenngam, c. 2017. decisional uncertainties in construction projects as a cause of disputes and their formal legal interpretation by the courts: review of legal cases in the united kingdom. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 9, 04517011. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.19434170.0000222 cakmak, p. i. & cakmak, e. an analysis of causes of disputes in the construction industry using analytical hierarchy process (ahp). 2013 / 01 / 01 / 2013. 93-101. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784412909.010 cheung, s. o. & pang, k. h. y. 2013. anatomy of construction disputes. journal of construction engineering & management, 139, 15-23. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000532 silva et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025251 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1943-4162(2009)1:1(47 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1943-4162(2009)1:1(47 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002027 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002027 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000222 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000222 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784412909.010 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000532 de alwis, i., abeynayake, m. & francis, m. 2016. dispute avoidance model for sri lankan construction industry. available: http://dl.lib.mrt.ac.lk/handle/123/11960 diekmann, j. e. & girard, m. j. 1995. are contract disputes predictable? journal of construction engineering and management, 121, 355-363. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1995)121:4(355) finnie, d. 2021. a contractual framework for two-stage early-contractor involvement (2s-eci) in new zealand commercial construction projects. thesis, massey university. gerber, p. 2013. dispute avoidance procedures (‘daps’)-the changing face of construction dispute management. gerber, paula ‘dispute avoidance procedures (“daps”)–the changing face of construction dispute management’(2001), 1, 122-129. jannadia, m. o., assaf, s., bubshait, a. & naji, a. 2000. contractual methods for dispute avoidance and resolution (dar). international journal of project management, 18, 41-49. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(98)00070-2 kumaraswamy, m. 2002. construction dispute minimisation. the organization and management of construction. routledge. molenaar, k., washington, s. & diekmann, j. 2000. structural equation model of construction contract dispute potential. journal of construction engineering and management, 126, 268-277. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2000)126:4(268) omar, k. s., ola, l. & amund, b. 2019. why conflicts occur in roads and tunnels projects in norway. journal of civil engineering and management, 25. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2019.8566 parikh, d., joshi, g. & patel, d. 2019. development of prediction models for claim cause analyses in highway projects. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 11, 04519018. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)la.1943-4170.0000303 ramachandra, t. & rotimi, j. o. 2011. the nature of payment problems in the new zealand construction industry. australasian journal of construction economics and building, 11, 22-33. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v11i2.2171 royal institute of british architects (riba). 2023. riba plan of work [online]. available: https://www.architecture. com/knowledge-and-resources/resources-landing-page/riba-plan-of-work [accessed]. silva, p., domingo, n. & ameer ali, n. 2023. quantitative analysis of construction-related legal cases in new zealand. https://doi.org/10.31705/wcs.2023.72 tabish, s. z. s. & jha, k. n. 2023. dispute avoidance in public construction projects. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 15, 04522033. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000577 tanriverdi, c., atasoy, g., dikmen, i. & birgonul, m. t. 2021. causal mapping to explore emergence of construction disputes. journal of civil engineering and management, 27, 288-302. https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2021.14900 viswanathan, s., panwar, a., kar, s., lavingiya, r. & jha, k. n. 2020. causal modeling of disputes in construction projects. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 12, 04520035. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000432 yiu, t. w., lu, z. & ang, k. p. 2021. a study of construction disputes in the new zealand context. easec16. springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_190 zhu, l. & cheung, s. o. 2020. power of incentivization in construction dispute avoidance. journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 12, 03720001. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.19434170.0000368 silva et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025252 http://dl.lib.mrt.ac.lk/handle/123/11960 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1995)121:4(355 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(98)00070-2 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2000)126:4(268 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2000)126:4(268 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2019.8566 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000303 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000303 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v11i2.2171 https://www.architecture.com/knowledge-and-resources/resources-landing-page/riba-plan-of-work https://www.architecture.com/knowledge-and-resources/resources-landing-page/riba-plan-of-work https://doi.org/10.31705/wcs.2023.72 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000577 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2021.14900 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000432 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000432 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-8079-6_190 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000368 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000368 construction economics and building; a rare breed with fine pedigree construction economics and building vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 2023 editorial construction economics and building; a rare breed with fine pedigree graham brewer school of architecture and built environment, university of newcastle, australia corresponding author: dr graham brewer, school of architecture and built environment, university of newcastle, australia, graham.brewer@newcastle.edu.au doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8707 article history: published 31/07/2023 citation: brewer, g. 2023. construction economics and building; a rare breed with fine pedigree. construction economics and building, 23:1/2, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8707 it is with a mixture of excitement and trepidation that i pen this, the first construction economics and building (ceb) editorial i have written since assuming the role of editor-in-chief of this esteemed vessel. excitement, because it is an honour to be asked to helm it into the challenging waters of the future, trepidation, since it has been plying its trade in stormy seas for many years and is not yet clear of them. the last 20 years have seen something of a revolution in the way academic journals are published and distributed, with the decline of the printed hard copy and the rise of e-journals. the advent of open access (oa) publications, of which ceb was a pioneer, have added multiple layers of complexity to the traditional challenges faced by long-established, print journals. the unrestricted access to oa research articles made scholarly research more accessible and inclusive, but this egalitarian ideal had to be funded by someone, since university libraries were no longer the source of lucrative and ongoing subscription fees. there followed an inevitable transfer of publication costs to authors through article processing charges (apcs). this was accompanied by the scent of potentially easy money in the water, attracting packs of predatory journals with questionable standards, and a voracious appetite for scarce reviewers. indeed, the sheer number of new journals muddied the waters so much that it is now something of a science to differentiate between the good, the bad and the ugly. within this context, ceb has remained unique in the field of construction management. whilst it has loudly and proudly pioneered an oa model, it has charged neither readers nor authors for access to the research it contains. this bears repeating: ceb has, and always will be free for authors to publish and free for readers to access. perhaps the important questions are “how and why is it free at all?” the answers find their roots in the last years of the 20th century when leading australian and new zealand academics identified a need for a new journal. conceived in an age of print-only journals to cater firstly, though not exclusively, to the academic community in the anglophone global south it was also intended to appeal to other markets that were underserved by existing publications. chief among these were research higher degree students, who desired timely access to an affordable publication pipeline; quality feedback leading to a publication, prior to examination of their dissertations. thereafter, what set ceb apart from its counterparts were the precepts that it was to be run as a not-for-profit enterprise, where its activities were underpinned by a cadre of objective, constructive and sympathetic editors, who had access to like-minded reviewers from their schools, departments, and broader networks. given that printing was not cheap, sponsors were sought and ultimately found in the australasian professional bodies, namely the australian institute of quantity surveyors (aiqs) and the australian institute of building (aib), who chose to underwrite the editorial, print and distribution costs, with any shortfall being picked up by the departments and schools of construction management themselves. their support was pivotal at that time and continues to be so to this day; it is also unwavering. so, you may ask why i feel any trepidation at all, given their ongoing support, and consequent absence of financial threat. academic journals have a life cycle, some longer than others, which is determined by a combination of relevance, readership, and reward. their life mirrors that of their parent disciplines, which wax and wane according to academic whim and expedience. whilst the discipline of construction management has arguably existed for 60 or more years, it is only in recent years that the number of associated quality academic journals has risen much above a handful. yet now, in an age of “publish or perish” the issue of quality has never been more important, something on which ceb has never compromised. quality comes at a cost to editors and reviewers in terms of the time they must spend maintaining high standards. further, providing encouragement to postgraduates who are testing the academic publishing waters for the first time requires time, patience, and restraint. against this, any reduction in the size of issues reduces readers and consequent citations, all of which are reflected in journal rankings. this in turn can deter the authors of quality submissions, who may choose to publish in a higher ranked journal. given that there is an expectation that published authors should also become reviewers, well... the implications are obvious. so, whilst this editorial is, in part, a historical reflection on the genesis of ceb, it is also a cautionary reminder that, as with so much in life, you must “use it or lose it “! i believe we will never see the creation of another journal with this ethos again. by way of reminder of the quality the ceb model has generated, this issue contains a compendium of past papers with high citation numbers, together with four new and interesting submissions that together illustrate the quality that has, and continues to be routinely delivered by its supporters, both authors and reviewers/editors. further, by way of encouragement, i want to reveal some exciting initiatives that may appeal to those of you who, for one reason or another, are wondering whether to engage with ceb. • firstly, i am conscious that both aib and aiqs see the need for evidence-led professional practice, seeking to add value to the industry-research nexus. to this end, both institutes wish to invite an author to convert their work into an industry article, for editions of their respective professional magazines. their intention is for authors to extend the reach of their work and answer industry’s “so what?” questions about the relevance of research to them. these articles will be quite limited in length and must therefore be value packed and persuasive. bearing in mind that the readership includes thought leaders in major construction enterprises, this represents a valuable opportunity for invited authors to connect directly to potential sponsors. • secondly, as a recognition of the time and effort put into providing quality reviews of submitted papers, i am keen to offer a one year “associate editor” role to those reviewers who undertake two or more, quality reviews within a calendar year; this will be renewed in response to ongoing reviewer commitment to the journal. these roles will be a tangible and public record of contribution to ceb and should have career value in terms of workload and promotion. • thirdly, i am seeking expressions of interest from international academics to fulfil the role of “regional editor” for their geographical locale. the primary purpose of these roles would be to promote ceb in their geographic region, using their networks to highlight the advantages of publishing in this journal. these roles would also entail some initial review of submissions, to determine their suitability for forwarding to reviewers, and therefore limit “review fatigue” among our supporters and the academic community more generally. • lastly, ceb is exploring mechanisms to move to provide an early publication mechanism that speeds up the time to prepublication exposure (and eligibility for citation). accordingly, for the remainder of 2023 we will be publishing an ongoing combined issue 3 and 4, where papers will become available online (i.e. citeable) prior to formal publication. finally, i look forward to working with you all into the future, where ceb is an integral part of your publication strategy. please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any suggestions or queries! dr graham brewer, editor-in-chief © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: sarhan, s., and pretlove, s. 2021. lean and sustainable construction: state of the art and future directions. construction economics and building, 21:3, 1– 10. http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v21i3.7854 issn 2204 9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021 guest editorial lean and sustainable construction: state of the art and future directions saad sarhan1,* and stephen pretlove1 1 lincoln school of architecture and the built environment, university of lincoln, brayford pool, lincoln, ln6 7ts, uk corresponding author: saad sarhan, phd mciob fhea, senior lecturer in construction management / programme leader at university of lincoln, ssarhan@lincoln.ac.uk doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7854 article history: received: 11/08/2021; revised: 17/08/2021; accepted: 18/08/2021; published: 10/09/2021 introduction only rapid and drastic reductions in greenhouse gases can prevent ever more widespread devastation and extreme weather events. every increment in global heating is likely to compound the accelerating effects, according to the international panel on climate change (ipcc), the world’s leading authority on climate science (ipcc, 2021). the aim of this special issue is to boost sustainable performance improvements in the construction sector, through raising discussions on advances and future directions of lean and sustainable construction theories and practices. the construction sector is known to be one of the largest environmental polluters, physical waste producers, and energy consumers throughout its lifecycle. the global construction market was forecast to grow by up to 70% between 2013 and 2025 (hm government, 2013). the existing built environment is subject to growing global challenges, including decarbonising heating and cooling as well as the construction process, rapid population growth, anthropogenic climate changes and resource scarcity. the covid19 crisis further compounds these challenges by creating additional unprecedented social and economic pressures on the sector. this means that sustainability must become an integral part of our daytoday practice, not an addon. it is imperative that development, design, and construction professionals consider wholelife costs throughout the life of our built environment. there is significant evidence that integrating approaches to lean and sustainable construction can yield substantial benefits to the sector, and that the resulting synergy from combining the two approaches can 1 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7854 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7854 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:ssarhan@lincoln.ac.uk http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7854 fulfil the distinct objectives of each. the papers in this special issue are only a small beginning. much more work is needed. sustainable construction (sc) is the response of the construction sector to the challenge of sustainable development (huovila and koskela, 1998). whilst the focus of the traditional approach to construction project delivery is on cost, time and quality objectives. sustainability in architecture and construction expands on these criteria to include minimisation of resource depletion, minimisation of environmental degradation, contextual, social and cultural considerations and creating a healthy built environment (elnokaly and vyas, 2014). at the same time, it has been argued that lean construction (lc) has the potential to contribute towards helping the sector to meet the challenges of sustainable development. lc is mostly attributed to the application of the transformationflowvalue (tfv) theory of production to the construction environment (koskela, 2000). there are several empirical evidences that, through the focus on the concept of ‘wasteminimisation’, lc can contribute towards the reduction of pollution, material and energy wastes during design, construction and operation. similarly, through the concept of ‘value’, lc could be useful to clients aiming for both business and environmental and social excellence simultaneously. for these reasons, amongst others, a growing number of studies have been conducted in mainstream construction literature to promote and explore the integration of the two approaches. recent reviews of studies published over the last three decades have revealed the slow uptake, relatively limited amount of existing research on the topic, significant gaps in knowledge, and the opportunities for improvement that remain unfilled (see for example, de carvalho, granja and da silva 2017; sarhan, et al., 2019; solaimani and sedighi, 2020). therefore, this special issue provides a muchneeded platform for bringing together the innovative, uptodate research on trends and developments in lean and sustainable construction. research problem and context the relation between lean and sustainable construction has been subject to some attention in both academia and practice. both initiatives seek to maximise value and reduce waste in construction, but in different ways. from a production management perspective, it has been argued that lc is an innovation in the design process, in the design of the production management system and in the management of production (koskela, owen and dave, 2010); integrating sc within this framework – in design, in production system design and in production management – will reduce the climate impact of the new, refurbished or retrofitted facility. the lean approach in construction changes the sociotechnical system used, in order to create processes that reduce all sorts of resource waste and process waste by improved relationships and practices within the design and delivery itself. these project delivery systems include the integrated project delivery (ipd), alliancing, target value delivery (tvd), and the last planner® system (lps) for example, as well as other manufacturingled techniques such as visual management, just intime ( jit) delivery, 5ss and so on. this is relatively different to the sustainability agenda in construction that has largely focused on the environmental issues through the reduction of energy consumption and carbon emissions, reduced wastage of building materials, reduced use of nonsustainable materials and so on. these reductions are mainly achieved through the application of metrics to evaluate and score performance; that is to achieve credit points needed for obtaining certain certifications and credentials, such as the building research establishment environmental assessment method (breeam) and the leadership in energy and environmental design (leed). these two views (lc & sc) are conceptually quite different, but it is a common mistake in construction literature and practice to attempt to integrate the lean and sustainable construction initiatives merely through toolfocused frameworks, rather than altered perceptions, relationships, and understandings (figure 1). they need integrating in the overall process. sarhan and pretlove construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 20212 figure 1. research problem being addressed in this special issue (adapted from sarhan, et al., 2019; courtesy: christine pasquire) there seems to be a crucial need for overcoming the limitations of each of the two initiatives when used separately. for example, in studies and approaches to sc, the main focus is often on optimising the design and operational stages of projects, but much less attention is given to the production delivery stage. when comparing the sustainability impacts of designs or materials in buildings, the means and management of production delivery is often overlooked or assumed to be constant between the alternative options. likewise, sc studies and efforts mainly focus on the health, comfort and wellbeing of occupants and the community, but much less attention is given to accidentreduction and the safety of workers during the on site production stage. there seems to be three main limitations in approaches to lc research and practice as identified in a comprehensive review study by sarhan, et al. (2019). the first limitation is associated with the predominance of a limited customerfocused perspective of ‘value’. it is argued that in lc, the main focus is on customer satisfaction and not necessarily the wider society and environmental performance, so value delivery in lc tends to be generally limited to a ‘project’ rather than a ‘global’ perspective. this has led some researchers to redefine and expand the concept of the ‘customer’ to include ‘all’ stakeholders including the wider environment. secondly, most lc studies and efforts tend to focus on the production stage (i.e., design and delivery) with less attention given to the project life cycle requirements (e.g., facilities, operations and maintenance); thus, limiting the opportunity to take a whole projectlife cycle perspective. thirdly, it is argued that the prevailing conceptualisation of ‘waste’ in lc is mainly focussed on the elimination of both process and material wastes onsite, but there is scope for taking a wider account for environmental and social impacts. this special issue, therefore, considers the challenges that need to be addressed. it also presents the latest advancements and emerging trends in lean and sustainable construction topics, to stimulate interdisciplinary research and encourage both academics and practitioners to discuss future collaboration. overview of this special issue this special issue covers both ‘lean’ and ‘sustainability’ topics in the construction field. the guest editors invited researchers from practice and academia to submit original papers that include empirical, analytical or case study approaches. topics of interest of the call for abstracts included but were not limited to the following: • strategies and guiding frameworks for integrating lean and sustainability in construction • waste minimisation and the sustainable use of resources sarhan and pretlove construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 20213 • the role of information and communication technologies (e.g., bim, internet of things and big data) in supporting lean and/or sustainability improvements in construction • technological developments (e.g., the science of materials and artificial intelligence) and how they influence lean and/or sustainability in construction • challenges and incentives for implementing lean and/or sustainability in different countries and contexts • carbon emissions and energy usage in the built environment • innovated concepts, tools and techniques in lean and sustainable construction • circular economy in construction • the changing roles and responsibilities of project stakeholders in lean and sustainable construction projects • health, safety and wellbeing of construction workers and end users • evaluations of just in time and prefabrication techniques from a holistic perspective • synergies and inconsistencies between lean design and sustainable design • innovated concepts, tools and techniques in lean and sustainable construction • sustainable supply chain management and procurement strategies in construction most submitted papers were focussed on innovative methods for integrating lean and sustainable principles and practices. authors of studies focussed mainly on sustainable construction (e.g., assessing energy performance of buildings) were requested, for example, to reflect on how production processes and methods may influence energy usage and carbon emissions. likewise, authors of studies largely based on lean construction methodologies (e.g., investigation of the role of lps on improving production effectiveness) were recommended to reflect on the wider economic, societal and environmental benefits of its use). thus, it is hoped that this special issue could help to breakdown silos that exist between promoters of each of the two initiatives. it is also expected to encourage interdisciplinary research and future collaboration between academics and practitioners on the topic of lean and sustainable construction (figure 2). overall, the special issue received 46 abstracts from contributing authors based in almost every continent in the world: europe (denmark, poland uk, turkey, germany, france, and ireland); africa (nigeria and south africa); asia (malaysia, sri lanka, jordan, uae, pakistan, iran and india); north america (usa); south america (peru and brazil) and the oceania (australia). of these, 7 abstracts were excluded due to their irrelevance or poor quality. consequently, 27 full papers were submitted to the special issue and were subject to a rigorous peer review procedure, which included more than 50 reviewers from all over the world, figure 2. towards a joint up philosophy for integrating lean and sustainable construction (adapted from sarhan, et al., 2019; courtesy: christine pasquire) sarhan and pretlove construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 20214 who are known to be experts in this field of knowledge. most papers were subject to two rounds of review resulting in the acceptance of 13 highquality papers out of a total of 27 submitted papers. this represents an acceptance rate of about 48%. the 13 papers that have been selected for publication are clustered in this editorial paper into five main themes as shown and critically discussed below: • the efficient use of energy and related management strategies • projectlife cycle approaches to wasteminimisation in construction • innovative approaches to improving productivity in construction • integrated models for improving sustainability in construction • drivers and barriers to sc in developing countries. the efficient use of energy and related management strategies both sustainable and lean construction initiatives aim for the reduction of energy use. in sc, efforts are focussed on optimising energy performance of buildings, during maintenance and operational stages, to lessen the impact of climate change and global warming, whilst lc focusses on minimising energy usage during the production stage. both consider the design stage as essential in achieving their targets. integrating both initiatives could lead to more efficient usage of energy throughout the construction project life cycle. in this special issue, ahmed, saboor, almarzooqi, alshamsi, alketbi and almarei adopt semi structured interviews and surveys to compare the energy performance of three different types of educational buildings within higher education establishments in the uae. their study identifies the type of building which has the best energy performance, but it also looks at the topic of energy from a ‘lean’ perspective by recognising that there is an amount of energy that is ‘wasted’, which implies that none of the buildings are fully and effectively consuming the energy. this finding could have a significant implication on the uae government’s policies and approach to providing a sustainable environmental infrastructure. it also indicates the importance of raising the awareness of the end users and occupants of the buildings about the value of embracing lean and sustainable thinking. within this same topic of minimising energy use and emissions, wandahl, pérez, salling, neve, lerche and petersen conduct an exploratory case study in four domestic housing renovation projects in denmark, to investigate the means and the extent to which an efficient and highly productive construction process can contribute to the european green deal’s renovation wave efforts in achieving carbon dioxide savings. traditionally, efforts to reduce carbon emissions tend to focus on the operational energy of the building (i.e., the final product). however, this study sheds some empirical light on the role and importance of considering the embodied energy of the building’s construction process, especially in renovation projects. this study is novel because it establishes the link between construction process improvements, using lc tools and techniques, and reduced energy consumption and emissions, which is becoming a focal point worldwide. the original findings of this study have the potential to support politicians and infrastructural developers in decisionmaking for a more sustainable built environment. project lifecycle approaches to wasteminimisation in construction the concepts of wasteminimisation and valuemaximisation are arguably the most obvious connections between the lc and sc initiatives. however, each initiative focusses on addressing different types of ‘waste’ and dimensions of ‘value’. lc focusses on eliminating or minimising both material and process wastes, and it aims for maximising ‘value’ at a project level; while sc pays more attention to reducing material and environmental wastes, and it considers the concept of value from a global perspective. the papers accepted for publication in this special issue contribute to existing knowledge in this domain by exploring and developing novel approaches to waste minimisation in construction. for example, zighan and sarhan and pretlove construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 20215 abualqumboz investigate the causes and sources of physical waste in construction projects, through interviewing thirty professionals in the jordanian construction. their findings show the significance of proactively contemplating the various sources of waste as early as the concept phase of the construction project. their study also informs practitioners and academics about the mitigating actions that can be designed to tackle the waste before it emerges. the study then concludes by providing a holistic and proactive waste management framework for practitioners to adopt in the early stages of the construction project. on the same topic of wasteminimisation, ecological modernisation is introduced as a concept that seeks to delink sector growth from environmental damage it is, however, a concept that is underexplored in construction literature. to help fill this gap in knowledge, alhamadani, egbelakin, sher and von meding adopt a research survey to investigate the drivers of applying ecological modernisation, to reduce construction and demolition wastes currently plaguing the construction sector of new south wales. their study reveals five important drivers for ecological modernisation application to construction wasteminimisation. the critical measures for each of these five drivers, within the context of the nsw construction sector, are also identified. the findings of this study could be used as a steppingstone to inform construction wasteminimisation (cwm) policymaking and future cwmrelated studies. innovative approaches to improving productivity in construction construction projects are subject to substantial inefficiencies and rework stemming from a proliferation of nonvalueadding activities and institutionalised wastes embedded within the traditional approach to project delivery (sarhan, pasquire and king, 2017). this prevailing approach works against the construction sector’s economic and environmental sustainability. in contrast, digital fabrication and prefabrication are production approaches that have the potential to lead to significant productivity and sustainability improvements in the sector. the rapid advances in both the science of materials and digital technologies have prompted architects and structural engineers to modify their design optimisation methodologies. in digital fabrication, designers face the challenge of adjusting the manufacturing technologies and the types or properties of materials used, to meet the desired aesthetic requirements. this is also possible through the design optimisation of structural elements. building on a comprehensive review of interdisciplinary design trends in the application of timber and woodbased materials, and a comparative analysis of contemporary fabrication techniques, stefańska, cygan and kinga batte use a case study to present new tools and methods for the optimisation of structural elements. the findings of their case study indicate the need for multivariate optimisation, especially freeform structures, favours the use of structural forms based on the paraboloid arches, and recommends the use of computerized numerical control (cnc) tooling to achieve precision while saving time and material. these findings are significant in terms of providing suggestions for an effective researchbased design that can help to maximise the sustainable and productivity benefits of digital fabrication in construction. on a similar topic, mossman and sarhan explore how offsite fabrication can be synchronised with production and assembly onsite. the study draws on two casestudies and the authors’ experiences in the context of a critical review of literature on flow, capacity, buffers, critical path method (cpm), the last planner® system (lps) and justintime ( jit). the aim of their study is to propose ways for improving production predictability and the coordination between offsite fabricators and their customers onsite in prefabricated construction projects. the findings of their study suggest that failing to fully implement jit across an entire production system can reduce both productivity and profitability and lead to client dissatisfaction. their study also criticises cpm for its inadequacies in controlling work and managing flow in construction projects. instead, they recommend the use of the lps and other lean systems, as an effective way to create a steady predictable flow onsite. their study concludes by offering three propositions for future empirical investigation, and by generating new questions and ideas for further research. sarhan and pretlove construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 20216 as an elaboration, the lps for production planning and control is a key tool of lc that prioritises flow efficiency in construction projects by addressing workflow variability and waste elimination. introducing lps on a project can influence social dynamics; thus, enabling a complete lps implementation to achieve its full potential, arguably, requires a precise set of skills and competencies for dealing with the softer side of human interaction. for this reason, power, sinnott, and lynch adopt a mixedmethods approach utilising case study design to evaluate how the presence of a dedicated knowledgeable and competent lps facilitator contributes to improved construction flow, efficiency, and productivity. this paper contributes to academic and practitioner communities by presenting case study evidence, from a live construction project, that the presence of the lps facilitator can substantially improve project performance and success. construction is labourintensive. the performance of construction projects depends on the construction employees’ productivity and their valueadding activities. thus, to maximise value, it is important that employees feel psychologically safe at work. lc practices (e.g., lps and visual management) have been shown to be effective in terms of improving health and safety in construction projects. there are few studies, however, that have sought to study the link between lc and psychological safety in construction. to address this gap in knowledge, demirkesen, sadikoglu and jayamanne conduct semistructured interviews and a survey with employees working in u.s. construction companies, to assess the level of psychological safety in both lean and nonlean (traditional) construction projects. their study presents empirical evidence that psychological safety is problematic within teams in the construction sector. however, the findings of their study suggest that companies adopting the lean philosophy are more successful in managing psychological safety in construction projects. the study contributes to theory by developing a conceptual framework that considers the interactions that may exist among lean principles, psychological safety, and occupational health and safety in construction. practically, this study provides construction companies with insights on how to measure psychological safety and manage its impacts accordingly. integrated models for improving sustainability in construction the construction sector faces sustainability challenges due to low productivity, waste, safety, and environmental hazards attributed to existing construction management practices. lc has been widely accepted as a robust philosophy to enable sc practices. however, more of the existing academic literature and sector efforts are inclined towards defining the integration between lc and sustainability through using certain tools and techniques. few studies have been undertaken to tackle the challenges of achieving sustainable goals in construction projects within the current practices. for this reason, aslam, gao, and smith conduct a metaanalysis to identify the challenges for implementing sc by the construction sector and to present a strategy for overcoming the main challenges of sc in the traditional construction management practice using lc methodologies. the study contributes to theory by helping academics and practitioners to understand the concepts and rationale for integrating lc and sc based on their principles and drivers. practically, it provides construction companies with a lean approaching sustainability tools (last) matrix that is developed in this study to provide guidelines to the construction stakeholders for the selection of lc practices/tools/techniques in overcoming the top 15 most important sc challenges identified in this study. interestingly, the authors of this study shed light on and recommend future studies to focus on evaluating the role of lc facilitators in supporting the implementation of their last strategy – a topic that is also explored, but in more detail, in this special issue by power, sinnott, and lynch. under this same theme, circular economy (ce) is introduced as a new approach to sustainable development. it aims at restoring any damage done in resource acquisition, while minimising waste throughout the production process and in the life history of the product (murray, skene and haynes, 2017). because the construction sector is responsible for the extraction of raw materials and the generation of waste in large quantities, it is regarded as an opportune sector for transition to a circular economy. the existing literature of ce in construction is focused on raising awareness on ce and its applicability to various sarhan and pretlove construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 20217 phases of a construction project. a consolidated picture of ce strategies for different stages of the building is missing. thus, smitha and thomas attempt to address this gap in knowledge by developing an integrated model of ce that comprehensively identifies the strategies applicable to the various stages in the indian construction sector. their study used a multicriteria decisionmaking method to develop an index for measuring the circularity potential in construction materials, based on attributes developed from literature review and the analysis of a questionnaire survey. the circular economy potential index (cepi) developed in this study could be used to support decisionmaking in the initial stage of construction projects and help to compare the circularity of materials. similarly, ecoinnovation (ei) is presented as a concept that integrates ecoconsciousness within innovation development. although ei has been widely applied in manufacturing, its adoption in construction remains patchy. to address this gap in knowledge, isa and abidin explore the level of adoption of ecoinnovation and investigate its drivers in contractor firms, through a questionnaire survey that targets the largest contractor firms in malaysia. their study reveals that the level of ei adoption in large contractor firms is still only moderate. it also identifies the ei components and driving factors that can help contractor firms to adopt ei practices effectively. the findings of their study provide future studies with the fundamental knowledge needed for developing a framework on strategies to increase the rate of adoption of ei amongst contracting firms in malaysia. drivers and barriers to sc in developing countries sustainability has been receiving significant attention in construction sectors in developed countries; however, this seems to be less true for developing countries. therefore, khalil, rathnasinghe and kulatunga conduct a mixedmethods research approach consisting of a questionnaire survey and expert interviews to investigate the challenges of implementing sc practices in libya. in their study, three main challenges were identified: steering and knowledge challenges; technological and cost challenges; and organisational and technical challenges. under those three categories, seven subchallenges were identified as highly significant for the successful implementation of sc in libya. this study contributes to knowledge by providing readers with an indepth understanding of the complexities related to integrating sustainability in the libyan construction sector. it contributes to practice by proposing strategies to avoid or minimise the identified challenges and their consequences. on a similar topic, it has been adjudged that the construction sector is a slow adopter of new digital technologies, such as big data analytics (bda), that are needed to improve its service delivery. the implication of this slow adoption is the lack, or relatively limited level, of innovation and unsustainable project delivery that has characterised the sector in most countries, particularly in developing ones. for this reason, aghimien, ikuabe, aigbavboa, oke and shirinda use a quantitative survey to investigate the factors influencing the intention of construction organisations in south africa to adopt bda, using the unified theory of technology adoption and use of technology (utaut) model. the findings of their study could benefit south african construction organisations to better understand the factors that they need to consider if they are to derive the positive outcomes of adopting bda in their organisation. in addition, their study provides an excellent theoretical background for future research on construction digitalisation, in particular bda adoption. concluding discussion and recommendations a growing body of knowledge is emerging from the construction research communities in relation to assessing the synergies and inconsistencies between lean and sustainable construction. some studies and practitioner efforts have been conducted to develop frameworks for integrating the two initiatives. there is little doubt that this integration can lead to better results than what each can achieve on its own. sarhan and pretlove construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 20218 most of those few studies that have been conducted have merely utilised tooloriented approaches for implementation, without considering the mindset barriers and the lack of shared understanding that exist between promoters of each of the two initiatives (figure 1). what we need now is more empirical research on the topic. this special issue was designed to kickstart this work, and to encourage a shift in the mindset and perceptions needed for enabling a joint up philosophy of lean sustainable development (figure 2). the five themes that emerged out of the papers published in this special issue (energy; wasteminimisation; productivity, integrated models, and drivers and barriers to sc in developing countries) represent the state of the art on the topic of lean and sustainable construction. thus, construction academics are encouraged to collaborate with their practitioner colleagues in conducting interdisciplinary research to explore the topics within these themes in more depth and detail. the papers published in this special issue provide novel contributions to knowledge, with the potential of leading to serious implications for practice and policy. under the theme of ‘energy’, there are some important contributions that include, for example, the provision of some empirical evidence on the importance of considering the embedded energy of the building’s construction process when attempting to assess and reduce energy consumption and emissions of buildings. another important contribution is that of shedding empirical light on the significance of considering the amount of ‘wasted’ energy when comparing between the energy performance of different buildings. then, under the theme of ‘wasteminimisation’, the importance of proactively contemplating the various sources of waste as early as the concept phase of both design and construction is highlighted. furthermore, the idea of adopting the concept of ecological modernisation for wasteminimisation in construction is relatively new and worth further empirical investigation. while, under the theme of ‘productivity’, an innovative and effective researchbased design is provided that can help to advance digital fabrication practice in construction. additionally, some important propositions are offered for improving production predictability and the coordination between offsite fabricators and their customers onsite in prefabricated construction projects. furthermore, a novel framework is rather developed and presented to reveal the relations and anticipated interactions between lc principles, psychological safety, and occupational health and safety in construction. finally, the competencies and importance of the role of the lps facilitator is rather highlighted to support construction companies with improving their value delivery. under the ‘integrated models’ theme, an innovative matrix is developed to present guidelines to construction companies and stakeholders on the selection of appropriate lc practices/tools/techniques for overcoming sc implementation challenges. in addition, a novel index for measuring the circularity potential in construction materials is developed and presented. similarly, the concept of ecoinnovation, which is an underexplored topic in construction, is presented, including an identification of its main components, and driving factors to help contractor firms to adopt ei practices effectively. finally, under the ‘drivers and barriers’ theme, an examination of the challenges to sustainable construction in a developing country is provided. this also included proposing strategies for avoiding or minimising the impacts of the identified challenges. the identification of drivers to the adoption of bda also represents an important contribution to knowledge in the field of construction digitalisation, which plays an important role in supporting lean and sustainable construction practice. although most of the studies included in this special issue are country specific, it is believed that many of the findings may be carefully generalized, to assist in promoting the ‘lean sustainable development’ of our built environments. acknowledgements special thanks to professor imriyas kamardeen for his support and assistance throughout this special issue. we also wish to thank all the reviewers and authors for their contribution to this special issue. sarhan and pretlove construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 20219 references de carvalho, a.c.v., granja, a.d. and da silva, v.g., 2017. a systematic literature review on integrative lean and sustainability synergies over a building’s lifecycle, sustainability, 9(7), p.1156. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9071156 elnokaly, a. and vyas, m., 2014. a cross case investigation of sustainability assessment tools of the leed, breeam and grih. in: transitions to sustainable societies: designing research and policies for changing lifestyles and communities. iaps23 conference, 23– 27 june 2014, timisoara, romania. hm government, 2013. construction 2025 industrial strategy: government and industry in partnership. [pdf ] available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/210099/bis13 955construction2025industrialstrategy.pdf huovila, p. and koskela, l., 1998. contribution of the principles of lean construction to meet the challenges of sustainable development. in: proceedings of the 6th annual conference of the international group for lean construction (iglc6), 1315 aug 1998, guarujá, brazil. ipcc, 2021. summary for policymakers. in: v. massondelmotte, p. zhai, a. pirani, s.l. connors, c. péan, s. berger, n. caud, y. chen, l. goldfarb, m. i. gomis, m. huang, k. leitzell, e. lonnoy, j.b.r. matthews, t.k. maycock, t. waterfield, o. yelekçi, r. yu and b. zhou, eds. climate change 2021: the physical science basis. contribution of working group i to the sixth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. cambridge university press. in press, available at: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/ipcc_ar6_wgi_full_report.pdf [accessed 10 aug 2021]. koskela, l., 2000. an exploration towards a theory of production and its application to construction, vtt publications 408. doctor of technology. technical research centre of finland, espoo. koskela, l., owen, r. and dave, b., 2010. lean construction, building information modelling and sustainability, eracobuild workshop, malmö, sweden, pp.18. murray, a., skene, k. and haynes, k., 2017. the circular economy: an interdisciplinary exploration of the concept and application in a global context. journal of business ethics, 140(3), pp.36980. issn 01674544. https://doi. org/10.1007/s1055101526932 sarhan, s., pasquire, c. and king, a., 2017. the concept of institutional waste within the construction industry: a potential theoretical framework. lean construction journal, 2017, pp.1224. sarhan, s., pasquire, c., elnokaly, a. and pretlove, s., 2019. lean and sustainable construction: a systematic critical review of 25 years of experience. lean construction journal, 2019, pp.120. solaimani, s. and sedighi, m., 2020. toward a holistic view on lean sustainable construction: a literature review. journal of cleaner production, 248(2020), p.119213. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119213 sarhan and pretlove construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 202110 https://doi.org/10.3390/su9071156 https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/210099/bis-13-955-construction-2025-industrial-strategy.pdf https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/210099/bis-13-955-construction-2025-industrial-strategy.pdf https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg1/downloads/report/ipcc_ar6_wgi_full_report.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2693-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-015-2693-2 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.119213 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: lindhard, s. m. 2024. danish contractor’s application of the budget: identifying purpose and comparing the budgets application level across jobposition. construction economics and building, 24:4/5, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v24i4/5.8417 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article danish contractor’s application of the budget: identifying purpose and comparing the budgets application level across jobposition søren munch lindhard department of the built environment, aalborg university, aalborg, denmark corresponding author: søren munch lindhard, thomas manns vej 23, 9220 aalborg, sml@build.aau.dk doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8417 article history: received 17/10/2022; revised 13/03/2023; accepted 30/08/2024; published 23/12/2024 abstract the construction contractors compete in a lowprofit industry, making costperformance and the accuracy and application of the budget critical. despite the importance of a highly effective cost management, how construction contractors apply the budget has only received little attention in research. to determine how construction contractors apply budgets, a questionnaire study has been conducted, which included 128 construction professionals from varying jobpositions of whom 67 completed the survey, corresponding to 52.3%. the participants rated their budget application with regards to six categories. afterwards a statistical analysis was applied to identify ranks, differences, and correlations between categories and across jobpositions. a calculation of the kendall’s tau correlation revealed a positive ordinal correlation between the categories and their application, and a friedman’s rank test identified the following rank between the categories: managerial action, control, planning, motivation, communication and coordination. finally, a multinomial regression analysis revealed that a higher hierarchical position entails a higher application of the budget for all categories but motivation. the new insights to budget application are highly relevant for construction professionals carrying out costmanagement. the findings can be to make a better fit between application and the presentation of the budget, thereby strengthening the managerial capability of the budget. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 1 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8417 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8417 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:sml@build.aau.dk https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8417 keywords contractors; budget; cost management; economy; construction management introduction the profitability among construction contractors is in general low, compared to the manufacturing industry (danmarks statistik, 2022). in denmark the profitability in the construction industry has been between 1.6 and 5.8 % for the last two decades with an average profitability at 3.9 % (danmarks statistik, 2022). the low profitability is caused by a high level of competition in the industry (hillebrandt, cannon and lansley, 1995; lo, lin and yan, 2007) and is one of the major causes of business failures (mahamid, 2012). additionally, akintoye and skitmore (1991) found that bigger companies tend to achieve a better financial performance due to improved managerial efficiency. finally, ling (2004), found that contractors being able to keep the budget on previous projects have a higher chance of keeping the budget on future projects. ling (2004) found the same relationship with quality and time performance. wyke, lindhard and jensen (2024) studied cost and time overruns in danish construction sites. they identified four primary latent factors influencing performance, one being a lack of project management. improved managerial efficiency improves cost, time and quality performance, which seems relevant to the entire construction industry, considering its bad reputation with regard to construction project performance issues of costoverruns, timeoverruns and bad quality (larsen, et al., 2018; love, et al., 2019). there exist multiple causes and possible explanations to inefficient project management, one of them being inadequate planning, budgeting, and scheduling (peel and bridge, 1998; salhab, et al., 2022). budgeting, especially, is an issue. contractors compete heavily on price. in order to win the tender, the contractor needs to be competitive on price. determining an appropriate contribution margin is challenging because it is a trade off between being high enough to maximize profit while still being low enough to maintain a possibility to win the bid (yoon, tamer and hastak, 2015). in competitive bidding, the assumption is that the most costefficient contractor wins the tender, but most often it is just the most optimistic contractor, thus the contribution margin is low. the actual contribution margin will often be even lower than expected due to a tendency to underestimate the effects of project complexity, project dependencies and various risks (yoon, tamer and hastak, 2015). therefore, to ensure that the project remains profitable, the demand for well functioning financial management is high. already from project start, the optimistic budget puts high pressure on project managers cost performance (larsen, et al., 2015). the project manager is responsible for numerous different project related tasks, resulting all too often in an excessive workload (love and edwards, 2005). the high workload combined with the fact that economics is often outside the site and project manager’s key competences can be a reason why budgeting and especially the budget followup is not given adequate focus (lam, et al., 2001; lam and oshodi, 2015). another downside is that most contractors do not have a link between the controlling process and the budget and costestimation process (yismalet and patel, 2018). thereby the contractors fail in providing detailed feedback and learning from the pricing of subsequent bids, which decreases the accuracy and reliability of future project budgets. this is critical because construction contractors are in a highly competitive industry with low profitability and low room for error, making the accuracy of the budget and the estimation of costs critical (elmousalami, 2020). according to peel and bridge (1998), there is a positive relationship between the quality of the budget and the company’s economic performance. the contractors’ big issue with low returns and big budget overruns testify to inadequate budgeting, which needs to be improved (estemadi, koosha and salari, 2018). this trend has persisted for at least two decades, where mutti and hughes (2002), previously found that poor budgeting and lacking control of finances is one of the major reasons for the high level of bankruptcies among construction contractors. lindhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 20242 therefore, as a first step, the present research explores how budgeting is currently applied in the industry. the archived knowledge can be used to create a fit between the design of the budget and how it is applied to thereby strengthen managerial capabilities of the budget and the cost performance of the company. the budget is part of the internal financial management and contains a specification of the financial effects of the approved actions the company implements in upcoming periods, thus through the budget the company attempts to predict future accounts and ensure the company’s profitability. budgeting consists of two primary phases: preparation, and execution. a construction company will develop multiple budgets with different foci. of course an overall budget is needed, but each construction project will have its own budget. it is vital to any company to be able to plan and to forecast their economic performance, both at company level and at project level (abouibrahim, et al., 2019). the budget preparation is an attempt to make such a plan. often the budget is based on experiences from previous performances which, combined with industry forecasts and marked trends, are used to predict price and activity levels summed up as a forecast to the expected economic performance. douglas (1994) emphasizes the importance of the budgeting preparation itself. during the budgeting process future opportunities are revealed and evaluated in relation to possible risk and rewards; the result is the budget. in the budget, focus areas are carefully prioritized and resources are being deployed in relation to company objectives and goals. thus, the budget creates an economic overview of the planned operations and its implications. the budget preparation can be used as an instrument to create motivation, by involving the employees and giving them coinfluence and responsibility for meeting the budget (mahlendorf, schäffer and skiba, 2015). according to arsalan, et al. (2018), this participative approach has a positive effect on budget and managerial performance. after completing the preparation phase, the approved budget serves as an instrument to communicate the expectations to performance together with future initiatives and objectives ( joshi, almudhaki and bremser, 2003). moreover, the budget and its included performance measurements creates communication across branches of the company, where it provides guidance and discussions of activities and results (melkers and willoughby, 2005). the budgets prioritizing of resources and the associated and planned actions is the outset for the budget execution phase which includes coordination of future tasks. applying the budget as an overall guideline helps the company to ensure common corporate goals. the execution phase refers to the execution of the budget. in this phase the planned activities are completed in accordance with the assigned funds. to follow the performance, the budget is regularly compared with actual results to identify deviations from the budget ( joshi, almudhaki and bremser, 2003). this way, the budget serves as an economical control mechanism. continuously monitoring the budget, gives an early warning to economical deviation, which improves cost awareness and enables early managerial actions to correct and control the performance (raghunandan, ramgulam and rahunandan mohammed, 2012). therefore, budgetary control leads to improved financial performance (adongo, 2013). moreover, willoughby and melkers (2000) found that performance measurements like the budget is essential to support managerial actions and communication. from the above description it is evident that the budget serves, besides the economical aspect, many other purposes. in the present research, the application of the budget has been divided into six key purposes: planning, managerial actions, control, coordination, communication, and motivation. the identified purposes align with raghunandan, ramgulam and rahunandanmohammed (2012), schack (2006), and shim, siegel and shim (2012), who all argue to the different purposes of budgeting. as revealed, the budget can be applied for many different purposes. the actual application depends on the manager and the approach to managing. the central elements in successful management are to ensure cost, time, and quality performance. lindhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 20243 chua, et al. (1997) found eight primary factors affecting budget performance: the most relevant includes number of organizational levels, project managers experience, design completion level, constructability, turnover rate, budget meeting frequency, frequency of budget updates and budget control system. there exists a link between cost performance and budget performance since budget performance basically is an estimate of comparing budgeted cost with actual costs (chua, kog and loh, 1999). iyer and jha (2005) based on a series of success factors, identified the most important cost drivers related to the project manager’s competences. sinesilassie, tabish and jha (2018) found that an increased experience level of the project manager increases understanding of the scope of work which improves cost performance. enshassi, alnajjar and kumaraswamy (2009) highlights collaboration and coordination between project management and contractors as a key aspect of improving cost performance. this is in accordance with anumba and evbuowan (1999), who found that communication difficulties and disruptions during a construction project result in increased unnecessary expenditures and subsequent cost overruns. frimpong, oluwoye and crawford (2003) finds that cost performance can be improved by improving project planning, controlling, and monitoring. chua, kog and loh (1999) finds that the overall success of a project is a combination between the competences of the project manager, the monitoring and control efforts, the project characteristics, and contractual agreements. finally, sinesilassie, tabish and jha (2018) find that regular control meetings with focus on controlling and reviewing progress and creating room for discussion increases the chance for keeping within budget. in conclusion, improved budget management improves project economic performance (peel and bridge, 1998; famakin and saka, 2011; wyke, lindhard and larsen, 2024). despite the well documented importance of a wellfunctioning budget (chua, kog and loh, 1999; frimpong, oluwoye and crawford, 2003) and its various application purposes, limited attention has been given to understanding how the budget is applied. creating and understanding how the budget is applied is essential for both top management and the financial department, because it can serve as input to optimize the budget. this takes into consideration the effort which goes into cost estimation, to improve its planning, managerial and control capability, but also how the budget is presented to improve its coordination, communication and motivation capability. in general an improved understanding of budget application is helpful in creating a fit between the budget and its application, leading to improved profitability (famakin and saka, 2011). the present study seeks to fill this research gap by identifying the overall application levels. anecdotal evidence suggests that budget applications may depend on managerial position. therefore, besides creating an overall baseline, the study aims to identify differences in application across management positions, i.e., sitemanagers (sm), project managers (pm), chief project managers (cpm) and heads of departments (hod). budget application is studied with outset in the previously identified purposes. knowing how the budget is currently applied across management positions will create a basis for future studies looking in more detail into actual application and application patterns. method the research consisted of four primary phases: 1) identification of application purposes of the budget, 2) constructing the survey, 3) ensuring validity and 4) analysing the results. the research methodology is illustrated in figure 1. throughout a literature review, six primary purposes of the budget were identified including: planning, managerial action, control, coordination, communication, and motivation. to determine how construction contractors apply budgets, an online survey was carried out. the questionnaire was designed as an explanatory approach to map the tendencies in the industry. in the survey the participants were asked to state their position (sm, pm, cpm or hod), and to rate their budget application in relation to each of the six purposes. this design enables a cross comparison between jobposition and the different application purposes and levels. lindhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 20244 the questionnaire is designed with outset in the guidelines presented in forza (2002). in the guidelines, forza (2002) identifies four key areas which need to be considered: wording, scale, presentation, and respondent identification. wording relates to how the questions are phrased; thus, a consistent terminology is ensured, and value laden or leading questions are avoided, with each question formulated in a similar way using a similar scale. the scale was chosen to be a five point likert scale, plus a donotknow option. the scale used the following categories: not at all (1), to a very small extent (2), to a small extent (3), to a large extent (4), to a very large extent (5). to ensure that the survey was properly presented, a standardized template was applied. as a part of the process, the questionnaire was betatested by three testrespondents whereafter interpretation and presentation were discussed with the respondents individually. the survey is conducted within the construction industry in denmark. all respondents are identified and selected based on employment. in the survey two groups of companies are selected: one containing contractors with a yearly turnover above 1 billion dkr (approx. 150 million usd) one containing contractors with a yearly turnover below 1 billion dkr (approx. 150 million usd). the companies were randomly selected resulting in 9 ‘big’ contractors and 11 ‘small’ contractors. the administration to every contractor were contracted by telephone and asked for relevant email addresses for sm, pm, cpm, or hod. seven of the contractors were not willing to give out contract information. from the other 13, contract information of between 1 and 17 relevant employees was received; this added up to 128 email addresses. the questionnaire strategy follows the one presented in akintoye and macleod (1997). thus, the study was carried out as follows: first, an open invitation was sent out, followed by four weekly reminders to the respondents who had not completed the survey. of the 128 respondents participating in the survey 67 (52.3%) completed, 10 (7.8%) were discharged as inadequate, and 51 (39.8%) were uncompleted. thus, the survey is above the critical response rate of 50 % identified by flynn, et al., (1990). figure 1. the research methodology lindhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 20245 validity several initiatives have been implemented in the study to ensure high validity and trustworthiness of the study. trustworthiness, according to guba (1981), is dependent on four perspectives: truth value, which relates to the confidence in the ‘truth’ of the findings. applicability, which refers to which extent the results can be applied in other settings. consistency, which concerns the possibility of replicating the study. neutrality, which focuses on eliminating external biases. the applied techniques are shown in table 1, the techniques take outset in krefting (1991), which describe several different initiatives for improving validity. table 1. applied techniques to ensure the validity of the questionnaire survey. questionnaire study truth value ensure that the same person did only participate once. applying an electronic survey to expand the sample size. betatesting, to ensure unequivocal responses. applicability demographic considerations, where the respondents represent a wide range of contractors from different organizational levels. use of closed questions plus the use of a fivepoint likert scale that enables statistical comparison. consistency peerexamination of methods, where the methods have been discussed with peers. a detailed and dense description of the research methods, allowing other researchers to repeat the study. neutrality the questionnaire is designed according to a fixed procedure, where beta testing among others ensures that valueladen or leading questions are avoided. finally, the data reliability was tested using cronbach’s alpha test. a value above 0.7 signals a high validity of the results (santos, 1999). the cronbach’s alpha test is presented in table 2 below: table 2. cronbach’s alpha in relation to organizational position position cronbach’s alpha hod ,554 cpm ,715 pm ,909 sm ,851 total ,854 the most important value is the total value, which is above 0.7, but to show that the data to each position still represents a high validity these are calculated as well. therefore, the conclusion is that the results can be generalized even though results only referring to the hod must be used with care. lindhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 20246 applied statistics all statistics are calculated with a significance level at 0.05, as recommended by fellows and liu (2008) and by ayyub and mccuen (2003). because the research is based on survey results, no parametric assumption can be made, thus data analysis is based on nonparametric statistics. nonparametric tests focus on rank. to make statistical conclusions regarding the rank in application level based on the six purposes, the friedman’s rank test is applied. the friedman’s rank test can be used to identify differences in the rank of several different categories. a kruskal wallis test by ranks is carried out to identify if differences in the application level exist between different jobpositions. the kruskalwallis test by ranks is used to compare several categories, but it only indicates that a significant difference exists, thus it is used to identify which categories there should be further investigated. afterwards, the categories are compared pairwise to identify between which positions the significant difference lay. the pairwise comparison is carried out by using a mannwhitney test. kendall’s tau was applied to identify correlations between the positions. kendall’s tau is used to identify the relationship between two ordinal variables (like survey data). finally, a regression analysis between the different positions is performed using a multinomial approach, which is preferred when comparing the application level across different positions. results ranking the six purposes the overall application level of the budget is identified by testing for the actual rank of the six purposes (planning (pl), managerial action (ma), control (ct), coordination (cd), communication (cm), and motivation (mo)). the rank is calculated both overall but also with regard to the organizational position by conducting a friedman’s rank test, see table 3. table 3. friedman’s rank test, to the application on the budget in relation to the organizational position. pl ma ct cd cm mo hod friedman 3.75 5.46 4.46 2.00 2.96 2.38 rank 3 1 2 6 4 5 cpm friedman 4.05 4.48 4.16 2.70 2.32 3.30 rank 3 1 2 5 6 4 pm friedman 4.30 3.93 4.05 2.30 2.45 3.98 rank 1 4 2 6 5 3 sm friedman 3.65 4.38 4.04 2.62 2.54 3.77 rank 4 1 2 5 6 3 total friedman 4.00 4.46 4.15 2.43 2.51 3.44 rank 3 1 2 6 5 4 table 3 shows the application of the budget in relation to position. the total ranking of the parameters reveals the budget is primarily used for management followed by control, planning, motivation, coordination, and communication as the subsequent ranks. lindhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 20247 based on the findings from the rank test, the identified differences have been tested using a kruskal wallis test by ranks to identify which of the differences in rank between organizational positions are statistically significant. the test showed significant differences between different positions in relation to managerial action (sig .011), control (sig .032), coordination (sig .049) and communication (sig .046). finally, to identify where the difference lay the position is compared pairwise using a mannwhitney u test. the results are shown in table 4. table 4. mannwhitney u test for significant differences between positions, significant differences are marked with bold* pl ma ct cd cm mo hod vs. cpm mannwhitney u 93,000 102,000 125,500 125,000 92,500 110,000 z 1,462 1,166 ,248 ,267 1,502 ,837 sig. .168 .292 .817 .817 .157 .444 hod vs. pm mannwhitney u 130,500 45,000 74,500 79,500 65,500 116,000 z ,055 3,278 2,155 1,942 2,469 ,605 sig. .958 .001 .037 .058 .015 .582 hod vs. sm mannwhitney u 130,500 45,000 74,500 79,500 65,500 116,000 z ,084 1,031 1,857 1,808 2,128 ,675 sig. .936 .347 .077 .087 .040 .538 cpm vs. pm mannwhitney u 175,500 140,000 151,000 153,000 181,000 226,000 z 1,634 2,592 2,293 2,186 1,507 ,398 sig. .102 .010 .022 .029 .132 .690 cpm vs. sm mannwhitney u 115,500 123,000 91,500 92,500 113,500 138,000 z ,992 ,733 1,898 1,826 1,081 ,179 sig. .353 .511 .079 .085 .319 .880 pm vs. sm mannwhitney u 138,500 116,500 142,000 137,000 137,000 138,500 z ,159 ,940 ,036 ,212 ,214 ,161 sig. .880 .371 .987 .853 .853 .880 *the showed twotailed significance levels are uncorrected; thus, the chance of the difference occurring simultaneously is lower lindhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 20248 the mannwhitney u test presented in table 4, revealed several incidents where the application of the budget is dependent on the position. when the z score is negative the higher position is having a significantly higher application level, while a positive z score is indicating the opposite (field, 2009). thus, all identified significant differences suggest that a higher position increases the application level of the budget. the revealed significant differences were: hod vs. cpm: managerial action, control, and communication hod vs. sm: communication cpm vs pm: managerial action, control, and coordination. interrelationship between the six purposes the interrelationships between the six purposes are investigated by conducting first a correlation test and then a multinomial regression analysis. in the correlation test, interrelationships are identified, while the regression analysis is used to pairwise identify the strength and actual relationships. kendall’s tau correlation coefficient was calculated to identify interrelationships between the different positions’ application of the budget. kendall’s tau is recommended when having a small dataset with multiple tied ranks (field, 2009). the results can be seen in table 5. table 5. kendall’s tau correlation coefficients. significant differences marked with bold. pl ma ct cd cm mo position kendall’s tau pl correlation 1.000 .399 .307 .256 .218 .316 .054 sig. (2tailed) . .000 .002 .010 .029 .002 .595 ma correlation .399 1.000 .592 .382 .348 .249 .268 sig. (2tailed) .000 . .000 .000 .001 .014 .009 ct correlation .307 .592 1.000 .229 .307 .381 .280 sig. (2tailed) .002 .000 . .024 .002 .000 .006 cd correlation .256 .382 .229 1.000 .647 .271 .240 sig. (2tailed) .010 .000 .024 . .000 .007 .018 cm correlation .218 .348 .307 .647 1.000 .419 .261 sig. (2tailed) .029 .001 .002 .000 . .000 .010 mo correlation .316 .249 .381 .271 .419 1.000 .039 sig. (2tailed) .002 .014 .000 .007 .000 . .704 position correlation .054 .268 .280 .240 .261 .039 1.000 sig. (2tailed) .595 .009 .006 .018 .010 .704 . lindhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 20249 the correlation test shows a significant negative correlation between position and the application of the budget in relation to: managerial action, control, coordination, and communication. the reverse correlation is caused by the data definition where increasing value equals decreasing position. therefore, the results indicate a positive relation between application of the budget and increasing position. moreover, it is found that all parameters are positively related; thus, increased application of the budget in relation to, for instance, managerial action, also leads to increased application of the budget in relation to planning, control, communication, coordination, and motivation. the correlation values range is between 1 and 1, where 1 is a perfect negative correlation, 0 is no correlation, and 1 is a perfect positive correlation. moreover, cohen (1988) found that, a correlation value of 0.1 constitutes a small correlation, a correlation value of 0.3 constitutes a medium correlation, while a correlation value of 0.5 constitutes a high correlation. thus, a high positive correlation is found between: application of the budget to coordination and communication (.647) application of the budget to control and management (.592) finally, a regression analysis between the different positions is performed. because the dependent variable is categorical with five nominal values, a multinomial approach is taken to calculate the oddsratio (or) (field, 2009). in a multiple approach each of the independent variables are calculated as a function of the dependent variable. thus, the calculated coefficient expresses the degree of dependence between the independent and dependent variable. an or above 1 is indicating a high likelihood of increased application while an or below 1 is indicating a low likelihood of an increased application. the results are shown in table 6. table 6. the relationship between the identified variables. the identified or relationship is only indicated if found significant, else is indicated a probable relationship high (+1.5), neutral, or low (1/1.5). h o d v s. c p m h o d v s. p m h o d v s. s m c p m v s. p m c p m v s. s m p m v s. s m pl low neutral neutral high high neutral ma high 5.320 4.160 2.429 high neutral ct neutral high high 2.580 2.815 neutral cd neutral high high 2.340 2.293 neutral cm high 3.053 3.028 high high neutral mo neutral neutral neutral neutral neutral neutral the regression analysis revealed nine significant paired relationships. the highest or is between hod and pm and tells us that the hod is 5.320 times more likely to apply the budget for managerial action perspectives than the pm. moreover, the regression analysis revealed a general tendency where increasing positions equals a general increased application of the budget. this with exception of the application of budget to ensure motivation, where it seems to be applied equally despite the position. lindhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202410 the or is a calculation between the odds of two different outcomes. thus, an or of 1 indicates identical odds. an or of 2.0 indicates a low effect, an or of 3.0 indicates a moderate effect, while an or of 4.0 or above is indicating a strong effect (ferguson, 2009). thus, a strong or was found between: hod vs. pm (managerial action) hod vs. sm (managerial action) discussion the budget is an important part of every contractor’s internal financial management. the application level of the budget across management positions has been examined in relation to six identified purposes: planning, managerial, control, coordination, communication, and motivation. a friedman’s rank test between the six purposes revealed that the budget most often is used for managerial purposes, followed by control, planning, motivation, communication and finally coordination purposes. application levels managerial actions is the highest ranked category, with a friedman score of 4.46. this finding is in accordance with iyer and jha (2005), which found that managements’ competences is the most influencing factor in relation to cost performance. also, wyke, lindhard and larsen (2024) highlight the importance of managerial performance finding that lack of management is one of the primary causes to low performance. a high performing management function has a high influence on a company’s profitability, and the ability for a construction project to meet budget, time and quality requirements (cookedavies, 2004). the performances within these three parameters are often expressed as project success (mir and pinnington, 2014). the budget improves managerial performance by creating awareness of costs and quantities. moreover, the budget followup helps in revealing cost or quantity deviations. a proactive and early detection of deviation is important for allowing corrective managerial actions. inability to early detect and manage problems and deviation leads to project failure. control is found to be the second highest ranking category, with a friedman score of 4.15. a budget fosters control when used to compare actual performance with budgeted performance. this process is important because it reveals deviations, based on which management needs to react by either updating the budget or making corrective actions. therefore, budget control is the cornerstone in nearly all companies’ cost management approaches (hansen, nielsen and özdemir, 2003). planning is the third highest ranking category, with a friedman score of 4.00. planning has three primary goals, according to koteen (1997). first, the process of conducting planning helps a company in understanding its intentions, requirements, and goals. second, it helps the company to prioritize resources by providing direction. third, it provides guidance on how to meet the defined goals. planning can be conducted in different levels of the organization (i.e., strategic, operational, and tactical); all are important to the profitability of the company (donkor, donkor and kwarteng, 2018; larsen, et al., 2015). the budget can, in all organizational levels, be used to meet koteen’s three goals. the budget is a central part of the planning, where the budget preparation process includes discussion and prioritization of resources to future activities. ranked four is the use of budgets to create motivation, with a friedman score of 3.44. motivated employees are important because motivation increases work engagement (macey, et al., 2009) which leads to increased performance. motivating and engaging people in their work is complex. this is because the motivational factors are individual to each person. some guidance can be found in expectancy theory, which states that people tend to act towards selfinterest. thus, to be motivated, an increased effort by an employee should improve the expected outcome to that person in a preferable way (isaac, zerbe and lindhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202411 pitt, 2001). good leadership enhances job motivation; a good leader knows how and what motivates his employees. a participative budgeting approach will have a positive effect on some employees, while others get motivated by increased freedom and responsibility for keeping the budget, and others gets motivated by the job enlargement or job enrichment which follows from the increased responsibility and finally others get motivated by career development opportunities or awards and bonuses linked to their performance. ranked five is the budget when applied as an instrument to communicate, with a friedman score of 2.51. the budget is the company’s overall financial plan, and it is important that it is used to communicate and inform all departments regarding their financial constraints. the ability to communicate and share information is essential for any company both horizontally on the same organizational level and vertically across hierarchical positions. the requirement for effective communication is especially high in construction, because pms must deal with large amounts of information from various stakeholders (alaloul, liew and zawawi, 2016). the budget is a precise and effective approach to communicate economical expectations. ranked six is the application of the budget as a coordination tool, with a friedman score of 2.43. coordination is a necessity for ensuring common corporate goals. coordinating, making decisions and developing future actions from a common basis (i.e., the budget), ensures alignment between departments and links plans to actions; the budget is a major factor when coordinating and prioritizing future resources and tasks. the overall ability to coordinate tasks is essential in construction management where all stakeholders, to ensure a successful delivery, must efficiently coordinate their activities both before and during construction. the budget is an efficient management tool when applied as guidance during task coordination. all six identified purposes are important to a company’s performance. based on the friedman’s rank test the purposes can, based on the overall score, be divided into three groups. the topranking purposes with a friedman score of 4.00 or above (i.e., managerial action, control, and planning), the medium ranking purposes with a friedman score between 3.00 and 4.00 (i.e., motivation) and the lowranking purposes with a friedman score below 3.00 (i.e., communication and coordination). small deviations exist between the organizational positions, but the overall picture remains the same. the budgets application to support the different purposes is in accordance with the literature and emphasizes the key purpose of the budget as being a financial instrument where the planning and controlling is done to create a sufficient basis for managerial decisions to lead the company in the right direction (willoughby and melkers, 2000; frimpong, oluwoye and crawford, 2003; sivabalan, et al., 2009; uyar and bilgin, 2011; lidia, 2014); corresponding to the three high ranking purposes. the current application level has an important implication for practitioners by providing relevant input to the budget preparation phase, as current application levels can be a basis from which new initiatives are launched to either change or to utilize the current application patterns. for instance, can its coordination and communication applicability be improved by putting more effort into the guide which defines how to meet the defined goals, by defining individual roles and goals, or by explaining and justifying the prioritization of resources and tasks. ensuring that there is a fit between the budget and its application will lead to improved performance and profitability (famakin and saka, 2011). differences in application the results show a positive relationship between the six purposes, where an increase in one will induce an increase in the other five. from this follows that increasing budget application will increase application with regard to all six purposes. the strongest correlation was found between application for coordination and communication (0.647) and control and managerial action (.592), which indicates that these purposes have a closer relationship. lindhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202412 communication is a necessity for coordination and good coordination is a necessity for project success (alaloul, liew and zawawi, 2016). the term coordination is, according to the cambridge dictionary (cambridge university press, 2021) ‘the act of making all the people involved in a plan or activity work together in an organized way’ while communication is defined as ‘to share information with others by speaking, writing, moving your body, or using other signals’. using the budget to coordinate tasks entails the sharing of information, plans and even the budget itself, therefore, communication is a central part of the coordination of tasks and responsibilities. this verifies the strong relationship identified between these purposes. a classical definition of control is fayol’s (2013), ‘control of an undertaking consists of seeing that everything is being carried out in accordance with the plan which has been adopted, the orders which have been given, and the principles which have been laid down. its objective is to point out mistakes in order that they may be rectified and prevented from recurring’ while management by fayol (2013) is defined as: ‘to forecast, and to plan, to organize, to command, to coordinate and to control.’ the managerial action itself is the actual decisions made to command, coordinate, and control (the britannica dictionary, 2024). from the definitions it becomes evident that a part of control is about management and vice versa. if the budget is applied to rectify and prevent mistakes it is simply used as a managerial instrument, which verifies the strong relationship identified between these purposes. additionally, the statistical analyses revealed that higher position in the organization entails a higher application level of the budget on all parameters but one. the budgets application to create motivation is equal between all positions. the biggest difference was found between hods and sms or pms regarding applying the budget for managerial issues. fruitticher, et al. (2006), in a case study, found that the application level of budgets varies and that budgets are applied for different purposes depending on industry. to this can be added that budget application also depends on the hierarchical position in the company, where a higher position entails a higher application level. thus, the budget is a more central part of top management worklife than in a pms. topmanagement needs to be aware of the application differences when making the budget and ensure that it easily serves the functions needed by lower management. conclusion the contractor’s application of the budget has been examined across management positions to identify current application levels and differences in application depending on the placement in the company’s hierarchy. the application levels were examined through a questionnaire survey completed by 67 construction professionals working as either sms, pms, cpms or hods. the study ranked the budgets primarily by application which revealed (1) managerial actions followed by (2) control, (3) planning, (4) motivation, (5) communication and (6) coordination, but differences exist across job positions. for instance, pms do primarily apply budgets for planning. moreover, a comparison of applications across the six purposes revealed a positive relationship between all purposes. finally, it is found that the application level depends on hierarchical position, where a higher position entails a higher application level of the budget with regard to its application to manage, control, plan, communicate and coordinate tasks or responsibility. only the budget’s application level to foster motivation among employees is found not to be affected by job position. the created knowledge has several practical implications to managers across hierarchical positions. first of all, it can initiate a debate regarding the purpose and application of the budget. secondly, it can initiate a process to either modify the budget, to fit and support how it is currently applied, or new initiatives can be launched to change the current application and behaviour of the managers, to make the budget fit the application level, and to make the application level fit the task and responsibility. thus, a better fit between the budget and the application can be achieved, which improves the managing power of the budget, leading to improved profitability. lindhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202413 the present research has identified the current application of the budget based on and limited to a questionnaire study. the primary limitation to the study is its geographical limitation. the study only involved danish contractors. determining the application level in other geographical regions needs to be considered in future studies. moreover, the findings could be strengthened by increasing the number of respondents. in future research a case study approach can be applied to create more detailed knowledge to the actual application of the budget. moreover, future research could investigate differences in application across large, medium, and small contractors, and the relationship between how the budget is applied and the costperformance could be examined. this could help construction managers to adjust the budget or the budget application for optimizing the company’s economic performance. references abou-ibrahim, h., hamzeh, f., zankoul, e., lindhard, s.m. and rizk, l., 2019. understanding the planner’s role in lookahead construction planning. production planning and control, 30(4), pp.271-84. https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287 .2018.1524163 adongo, k.o., 2013. budgetary control as a measure of financial performance of state corporations in kenya. international journal of accounting and taxation, 1(1) pp.38-57. alaloul, w.s., liew, m.s. and zawawi, n.a.w.a., 2016. identification of coordination factors affecting building project performance. alexandria engineering journal, 55(3), pp.2689-98. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2016.06.010 akintoye, a. and macleod, m., 1997. risk analysis and management in construction. international journal of project management, 15(1), pp.31-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(96)00035-x akintoye, a. and skitmore, m., 1991. profitability of uk construction contractors. construction management and economics, 9(4), pp.311-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446199100000025 anumba, c.j. and evbuowan n.f.o., 1999. taxonomy for communication facets in concurrent life-cycle design and construction. computer-aided civil and infrastructure engineering, 14(1), pp.37-44. https://doi.org/10.1111/08859507.00128 arsalan, s., saudi, m.h.m., susiani, r. and adison, a., 2018. effect of participative budgeting, organizational commitment and work motivation on managerial performance (survey of motor vehicle dealers in bandung). international journal of engineering and technology, 7(4.34), pp.240-44. https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i4.34.23898 ayyub, b.m. and mccuen, r.h., 2003. probability, statistics, and reliability for engineers and scientists. washington: chapman and hall/crc press llc. https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429258329 cambridge dictionary, 2021. cambridge, uk: cambridge university press. chua, d.k.h., kog, y c., loh, p.k. and jaselskis, e.j., 1997. model for construction budget performance – neural network approach. journal of construction engineering and management, 123(3), pp.214-22. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(1997)123:3(214) chua, d.k.h., kog, y.c., and loh, p.k., 1999. critical success factors for different project objectives. journal of construction engineering and management, 125(3), pp.142-50. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(1999)125:3(142) cohen, j., 1988. statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences. 2nd ed. new york: academic press. cooke-davies, t., 2004. consistently doing the right projects and doing them right what metrics do you need? in: pmi® global congress 2004—emea, prague, czech republic, 19-21 june. newtown square, pa: project management institute. lindhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202414 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2018.1524163 https://doi.org/10.1080/09537287.2018.1524163 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2016.06.010 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(96)00035-x https://doi.org/10.1080/01446199100000025 https://doi.org/10.1111/0885-9507.00128 https://doi.org/10.1111/0885-9507.00128 https://doi.org/10.14419/ijet.v7i4.34.23898 https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429258329 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1997)123:3(214 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1997)123:3(214 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1999)125:3(142 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1999)125:3(142 danmarks statistik, 2022. danmarks statistik, nøgletal i procent for regnskabsstatistik for byerhver efter regnskabsposter, branche og tid (regn5a). available at: https://www.statistikbanken.dk/20107. donkor, j., donkor, g.n.a. and kwarteng, c.k., 2018. strategic planning and performance of smes in ghana: the moderating effect of market dynamism. asia pacific journal of innovation and entrepreneurship, 12(1), pp.62-76. https:// doi.org/10.1108/apjie-10-2017-0035 douglas, r.b., 1994. the budgeting process in a multinational firm. multinational business review, 2(2), pp.59-63. elmousalami, h.h., 2020. artificial intelligence and parametric construction cost estimate modeling: state-of-theart review. journal of construction engineering and management, 146(1), p.03119008. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0001678 enshassi, a., al-najjar, j. and kumaraswamy, m., 2009. delays and cost overruns in the construction projects in the gaza strip. journal of financial management of property and construction, 14(2) pp.126-51. https://doi. org/10.1108/13664380910977592 etemadi, s., koosha, h. and salari, m., 2018. a goal programming capital budgeting model under uncertainty in construction industry. scientia iranica, 25(2), pp.841-51. famakin, i.o. and saka n., 2011. evaluation of the capital budget practice of contractors in the construction industry. journal of building performance, 2(1), pp.26-32. fayol, h., 2013. general and industrial management. eastford, ct: martino fine books. fellows, r.f. and liu, a.m., 2008. research methods for construction. west sussex, uk: wiley-blackwell publishing. ferguson, c.j., 2009. an effect size primer: a guide for clinicians and researchers. professional psychology: research and practice, 40(5), pp.532-38. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015808 field, a., 2009. discovering statistics using spss. london: sage publications. flynn, b.b., sakakibara, s., schroeder, r.g., bates, k.a. and flynn, e.j., 1990. empirical research methods in operations management. journal of operations management, 9(2), pp.250-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/02726963(90)90098-x frimpong, y., oluwoye, j. and crawford, l., 2003. causes of delay and cost overruns in construction of groundwater projects in a developing countries; ghana as a case study. international journal of project management, 21(5), pp.321–26. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(02)00055-8 forza, c., 2002. survey research in operations management: a process-based perspective. international journal of operations and production management, 22(2), pp.152-94. https://doi.org/10.1108/01443570210414310 fruitticher, l., stroud, n., laster, j. and yakhou, m., 2005. budget practices case studies. managerial auditing journal, 20(2), pp.171-78. https://doi.org/10.1108/02686900510574575 guba, e.g., 1981. criteria for assessing the trustworthiness of naturalistic inquiries. audiovisual communication review, 29(2), pp.75-91. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02766777 hansen, s.c., otley, d.t. and van der stede, w.a., 2003. practice developments in budgeting: an overview and research perspective. journal of management accounting research, 15, pp.95-116. https://doi.org/10.2308/jmar.2003.15.1.95 hillebrandt, p., cannon, j. and lansley, s., 1995. the construction company in and out of recession. london: macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24195-8 isaac, r.g., zerbe, w.j. and pitt, d.c., 2001. leadership and motivation: the effective application of expectancy theory. journal of managerial issues, 13(2), pp.212-26. lindhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202415 https://www.statistikbanken.dk/20107 https://doi.org/10.1108/apjie-10-2017-0035 https://doi.org/10.1108/apjie-10-2017-0035 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001678 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001678 https://doi.org/10.1108/13664380910977592 https://doi.org/10.1108/13664380910977592 https://doi.org/10.1037/a0015808 https://doi.org/10.1016/0272-6963(90)90098-x https://doi.org/10.1016/0272-6963(90)90098-x https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(02)00055-8 https://doi.org/10.1108/01443570210414310 https://doi.org/10.1108/02686900510574575 https://doi.org/10.1007/bf02766777 https://doi.org/10.2308/jmar.2003.15.1.95 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-24195-8 iyer, k.c. and jha, k.n., 2005. factors affecting cost performance: evidence from indian construction projects. international journal of project management, 23(4), pp.283–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.10.003 joshi, p.l., al-mudhaki, j. and bremser, w.g., 2003. corporate budget planning control and performance evaluation in bahrain. managerial auditing journal, 18(9), pp.737-50. https://doi.org/10.1108/02686900310500505 koteen, j., 1997. strategic management in public and non-profit organizations: managing public concerns in an era of limits. westport, ct: greenwood publishing group. krefting, l., 1991. rigor in qualitative research: the assessment of trustworthiness. the american journal of occupational therapy, 45(3), pp.214-22. https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.45.3.214 lam, k.s. and oshodi, o.s., 2015. the capital budgeting evaluation practices (2014) of contractors in hong kong construction industry. construction management and economics, 33(7), pp.587-600. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193. 2015.1073852 lam, k.c., runeson, g., ng, s.t., hu, t.s., cheung, s.o. and deng, z.m., 2001. capital budget planning practices of building contractors in hong kong. construction management and economics, 19(6), pp.569-76. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446190110054112 larsen, j.k., lindhard, s.m., brunoe, t.d. and jensen, k.n., 2018. the relation between pre-planning, commissioning and enhanced project performance. construction economics and building, 18(2), pp.1-14. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v18i2.5762 larsen, j.k., ussing, l.f., brunoe, t.d. and lindhard, s.m., 2015. the project management process of planning and budgeting in public construction projects. international journal of information technology project management, 6(4), pp.20-33. https://doi.org/10.4018/ijitpm.2015100102 lidia, t.g., 2014. difficulties of the budgeting process and factors leading to the decision to implement this management tool. procedia economics and finance, 15, pp.466-73. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(14)00484-5 ling, f.y.y., 2004. how project managers can better control the performance of design-build projects. international journal of project management, 22(6), pp.477-88. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(03)00113-3 lo, w., lin, c.l. and yan, m.r., 2007. contractor’s opportunistic bidding behavior and equilibrium price level in the construction marked. journal of construction engineering and management, 133(6), pp.409-16. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:6(409) love, p.e.d. and edwards, d.j., 2005. taking the pulse of uk construction project managers’ health. engineering construction and architectural management, 12(1), pp.88-101. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980510576916 love, p.e.d., sing, m.c.p., ika, l.a. and newton, s., 2019. the cost of performance of transportation projects: the fallacy of the planning fallacy account. transportation research. part a, policy and practice, 122(2019), pp.1-20. https:// doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2019.02.004 macey, w.h., schneider, b., barbera, k.m. and young, s.a., 2009. employee engagement: tools for analysis, practice and competitive advantage. uk: wiley-blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444306538 mahamid, i., 2012. factors affecting contractor’s business failure: contractors’ perspective. engineering. construction and architectural management, 19(3), pp.269-85. https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211219607 mahlendorf, m.d., schäffer, u. and skiba, o., 2015. antecedents of participative budgeting – a review of empirical evidence. advances in management accounting, 25, pp.1-27. https://doi.org/10.1108/s1474-787120150000025001 melkers, j. and willoughby, k., 2005. models of performance-measurement use in local governments: understanding budgeting. communication, and lasting effects. public administration review, 65(2), pp.180-90. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2005.00443.x lindhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202416 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2004.10.003 https://doi.org/10.1108/02686900310500505 https://doi.org/10.5014/ajot.45.3.214 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2015.1073852 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2015.1073852 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190110054112 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190110054112 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5762 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5762 https://doi.org/10.4018/ijitpm.2015100102 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(14)00484-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(03)00113-3 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:6(409 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2007)133:6(409 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699980510576916 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2019.02.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2019.02.004 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444306538 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981211219607 https://doi.org/10.1108/s1474-787120150000025001 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2005.00443.x mir, f.a. and pinnington, a.h., 2014. exploring the value of project management: linking project management performance and project success. international journal of project management, 32(2), pp.202-17. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.05.012 mutti, c.d.n. and hughes, w., 2002. cash flow management in construction firms. in: proceedings of the 18th annual arcom conference for the association of researchers in construction management, 2-4 september 2002, university of northumbria, pp.23-32. peel, m.j. and bridge, j., 1998. how planning and capital budgeting improve sme performance. long range planning, 31(6), pp.848-56. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0024-6301(98)80021-6 raghunandan, m., ramgulam, n. and rahunandan-mohammed, k., 2012. examining the behavioural aspects of budgeting with particular emphasis on public sector/service budgets. international journal of business and social science, 3(14), pp.110-17. salhab, d., møller, d.e., lindhard, s.m., hamzeh, f., randrup, m. and pilgaard, a., 2022. accounting for variability: identifying critical activities as a supplement to the critical path. journal of construction engineering and management, 148(5), p.04022019. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002266 santos, j.r.a., 1999. cronbach’s alpha: a tool for assessing the reliability of scales. journal of extension, 37(2), pp.1-5. shack, b., 2006. applied financial management (anvendt økonomistyring). jurist og økonomforbundets forlag. shim, j.k., siegel, j.g. and shim, a.i., 2012. budgeting basics and beyond. hoboken, new jersey: john wiley and sons inc. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118106754 sinesilassie, e.g., tabish, s.z.s. and jha, k.n., 2018. critical factors affecting cost performance: a case of ethiopian public construction projects. international journal of construction management, 18(2), pp.108-19. https://doi.org/10.1080 /15623599.2016.1277058 sivabalan, p., booth, p., malmi, t. and brown, d.a., 2009. an exploratory study of operational reasons to budget. accounting and finance, 49(4), pp.849-71. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-629x.2009.00305.x the britannica dictionary, 2024. available at: https://www.britannica.com/dictionary. uyar, a. and bilgin, n., 2011. budgeting practices in the turkish hospitality industry: an exploratory survey in the antalya region. international journal of hospital management, 30, pp.398-408. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijhm.2010.07.011 willoughby, k.g. and melkers, j.e., 2000. implementing pbb: conflicting views of success. public budgeting and finance, 20(1), pp.105-20. https://doi.org/10.1111/0275-1100.00006 wyke, s., lindhard, s.m. and larsen, j.k., 2024. using principal component analysis to identify latent factors affecting cost and time overrun in public construction projects. engineering, construction and architectural management, 31(6), pp.2415-36. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2022-0189 yismalet, a.g. and patel, d., 2018. a critical literature review on improving cost management practice and profitability of domestic contractors. international journal of engineering technologies and management research, 5(1), pp.51-58. https://doi.org/10.29121/ijetmr.v5.i1.2018.48 yoon, y., tamer, z. and hastak, m., 2015. protocol to enhance profitability by managing risks in construction projects. journal of management in engineering, 31(5), p.04014090. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000339 lindhard construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202417 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.05.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.05.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0024-6301(98)80021-6 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002266 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118106754 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1277058 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2016.1277058 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-629x.2009.00305.x https://www.britannica.com/dictionary https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2010.07.011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhm.2010.07.011 https://doi.org/10.1111/0275-1100.00006 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2022-0189 https://doi.org/10.29121/ijetmr.v5.i1.2018.48 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000339 construction economics and building vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 2023 © 2023 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: brewer, g. 2023. “lights under a bushel”: a digest of highly cited papers from construction economics and building. construction economics and building, 23:1/2, 95–103. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v23i1/2.8711 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb reprints “lights under a bushel”: a digest of highly cited papers from construction economics and building graham brewer, editor-in-chief. school of architecture and built environment, university of newcastle, australia corresponding author: dr graham brewer, school of architecture and built environment, university of newcastle, australia, graham.brewer@newcastle.edu.au doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8711 article history: published 31/07/2023 there are times when a new editor ponders the iron triangle of quality submissions, readership, and citations, and how to improve them. it was during such a musing that a colleague from uts/ojs pointed out that this journal had produced a suite of highly cited papers that was continuing to grow. they went on to illustrate the point with a list that stopped at a lower limit of 30 citations, observing that there was every likelihood that further good, recently published papers would continue this habit, given sufficient time (3-5 years). grateful for their observations i scanned the list and was buoyed by the thoughts that these papers were a product of their time (i.e. highly relevant, reflecting topics of contemporary and ongoing concern), clearly well executed – conceptually and methodologically – and written in an engaging style. they were, and self-evidently continue to be read and cited, though the issue of growing our readership continues to be a challenge. in a world of burgeoning journal titles, many of which appear to be predatory in nature it can become necessary to remind readers of this tome that it is a valuable venue for the best of their research. the cost to publish and quality of the publication should be evident from its homepage, but that quality research within its pages can achieve high citation rates only becomes apparent once the reader searches for topics of interest to them. this digest is simply a reminder of what this journal – and those who support it with their time and effort – is all about. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 95 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8711 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8711 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8711 this selection of papers has been assembled from issues since the journal transferred online and adopted its current title. to reiterate, an arbitrary cut-off of 30 citations (scopus) has been applied for the sake of brevity, though it is clear that there are more recent papers that are on target to match and exceed this citation score in the near future. moreover, only bibliographic details and abstracts are included in this section; dois take the interested reader to the full paper. please enjoy this retrospective. brewer construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202396 performance of project alliancing in australasia: a digest of infrastructure development from 2008 to 2013 derek henry thomas walker1, james harley1, anthony mills2 1 school of property, construction and project management, rmit university, australia 2 school of architecture and built environment, deakin university, australia abstract project and program alliances have been an accepted form of project procurement for public infrastructure engineering projects in australia and new zealand (australasia). alliancing often provides best value and superior value for money when compared to traditional approaches such as design and construct, however considerable debate continues about its success and applicability. this paper reports on three studies of completed construction project alliance performance in 2008, 2010 and 2012. consolidated findings are presented on 61 project alliances, data is analysed and emerging trends discussed. recent government policy changes in australia at federal and state level have led to a decline in the number of project alliances, however, while the volume of alliance activity is declining it still represents billions of dollars of infrastructure construction work being undertaken. results also revealed that communication and trust between the executive leadership and operational management teams was a major factor contributing to the functioning of the alliance. furthermore, the research identifies several key factors that were necessary preconditions for successful alliances. keywords project alliances; australian public infrastructure; project management citation: walker, d.h.t., harley, j. and mills, a., 2015. performance of project alliancing: a digest of infrastructure development from 2008 to 2013, construction economics and building, 15(1), 1-18. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v15i1.41 brewer construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202397 building information modelling and standardised construction contracts: a content analysis of the gc21 contract aaron manderson, marcus jefferies and graham brewer school of architecture and built environment, university of newcastle, australia abstract building information modelling (bim) is seen as a panacea to many of the ills confronting the architectural, engineering and construction (aec) sector. in spite of its well documented benefits the widespread integration of bim into the project lifecycle is yet to occur. one commonly identified barrier to bim adoption is the perceived legal risks associated with its integration, coupled with the need for implementation in a collaborative environment. many existing standardised contracts used in the australian aec industry were drafted before the emergence of bim. as bim continues to become ingrained in the delivery process the shortcomings of these existing contracts have become apparent. this paper reports on a study that reviewed and consolidated the contractual and legal concerns associated with bim implementation. the findings of the review were used to conduct a qualitative content analysis of the gc21 2nd edition, an australian standardised construction contract, to identify possible changes to facilitate the implementation of bim in a collaborative environment. the findings identified a number of changes including the need to adopt a collaborative contract structure with equitable risk and reward mechanisms, recognition of the model as a contract document and the need for standardisation of communication/information exchange. keywords building information modelling; contracts; legal risks; procurement; qualitative content analysis citation: manderson, a., jefferies, m. and brewer, g., 2015. building information modelling and standardised construction contracts: a content analysis of the gc21 contract, construction economics and building, 15(3), 72-84. doi: http://dx.doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i3.4608 brewer construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202398 lean construction implementation in the saudi arabian construction industry jamil ghazi sarhan1, bo xia2, sabrina fawzia1, azharul karim2 1 school of civil engineering and built environment, queensland university of technology, australia 1 science and engineering faculty, queensland university of technology, australia au abstract the kingdom of saudi arabia (ksa) has witnessed a huge increase in construction during the last two decades. however, many projects experienced time delays, cost overruns and the generation of massive amounts of waste. to address these challenges, lean construction has been introduced into the saudi construction industry; however, it is still in its infancy. this study therefore investigates the current state of lean construction implementation in the construction industry in the ksa. the objectives are to identify: the types of construction waste, level of use of tools that support the implementation of lean construction, stages of application of lean methods, and the benefits of lean construction. to achieve these objectives, a structured questionnaire survey of 282 construction professionals was carried out. after the analysis of the collected data using mean score and anova test, the following conclusions were made. in the construction industry in the ksa, waiting is the most common type of waste, while computer aided design (cad) is the conventional tool supporting the implementation of lean construction. furthermore, the data suggests that lean construction is most commonly used in the construction stage of projects while customer satisfaction is the main benefit derived from lean construction practices. this study concludes that the level of implementation of lean construction in the ksa construction industry is increasing. the results will help benchmark the current state of lean construction implementation, which will enable the construction industry to identify strategies to implement lean construction in saudi arabia in accordance with their needs and project goals, to achieve better productivity. keywords construction waste; lean construction; lean construction tools; saudi arabian construction industry citation: sarhan, j.g., xia, b., fawzia, s. & karim, a. 2017. lean construction implementation in the saudi arabian construction industry. construction economics and building, 17:1, 46-69. http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5098 brewer construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 202399 bim adoption within australian small and medium-sized enterprises (smes): an innovation diffusion model m. reza hosseini1, saeed banihashemi2, nicholas chileshe3, mehran oraee namzadi1, chika udaeja4, raufdeen rameezdeen3 and tammy mccuen5 1 school of architecture and built environment, deakin university, geelong, australia 2 school of the built environment, university of technology sydney (uts), sydney, australia 3 school of natural and built environments, university of south australia, adelaide, australia 4 school of the built environment, university of salford, salford, uk 5 college of architecture, university of oklahoma, norman, oklahoma, usa abstract despite the envisaged benefits of bim adoption for smes, bim in smes has remained an underrepresented area within the available academic literature. this study proposes and draws upon a framework grounded on innovation diffusion theory (idt) to provide an illuminating insight into the current state of bim and the main barriers to bim adoption within australian smes. based on analyses of 135 questionnaires completed by smes through partial least squares structural equation modelling (pls-sem) and grounded on the proposed framework, the current state of bim adoption and barriers to bim adoption for smes are discussed. the findings show that currently around 42% of australian smes use bim in level 1 and level 2 with only around 5% have tried level 3. it comes to light that lack of knowledge within smes and across the construction supply chain is not a major barrier for australian smes. in essence, the main barriers stem from the risks associated with an uncertain return on investment (roi) for bim as perceived by key players in smes. the findings also show the validity of the framework proposed for explaining bim adoption in australian smes. keywords building information modelling (bim); smes; construction industry; innovation diffusion; australia citation: hosseini, m.r., banihashemi, s, chileshe, n., namzadi, m.o., udeaja, c., rameezdeen, r and mccuen, t. 2016. bim adoption within australian small and medium-sized enterprises (smes): an innovation diffusion model, construction economics and building, 16(3), 71-86. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i3.5159 brewer construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 2023100 challenges, success factors and strategies for women’s career development in the australian construction industry jasmin e. rosa¹, carol k.h. hon²,*, bo xia2, fiona lamari² 1 evans built pty ltd, po box 1755 buderim, qld, 4556. 2 school of civil engineering and built environment, queensland university of technology, 2 george st gpo box 2434, brisbane qld 4001 australia. abstract construction is traditionally a male industry. women have long had difficulties entering or advancing their career in construction. evidence shows that a diversified workforce with gender balance will bring about higher levels of productivity. despite the importance of this issue, there have been limited studies on women’s career development in construction. this study aims to investigate women’s career development in the australian construction industry, with objectives to evaluate the challenges and success factors of women’s career development in the construction industry and provide strategies for narrowing the gender imbalance. a mixed approach of questionnaire survey and interview were conducted with female practitioners in the construction industry. forty-three completed questionnaires were received and 10 interviews were conducted. stress, family-work balance, and negative perception towards women in construction were the top three challenges identified. dedication, determination, and independency were the top three success factors of women in construction. this study recommends construction employers consider providing personal development programs and flexible working arrangement for their female employees. significance of this study lies on contributing to understanding women’s career development in construction. findings will be useful for government and professional institutions to promulgate strategies for advancing women’s career development in construction. keywords women; construction; career development citation: rosa, j.e., hon, c.k.h., xia, b. and lamari, f. 2017. challenges, success factors and strategies for women’s career development in the australian construction industry. construction economics and building, 17:3, 27-46. http://dx.doi. org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5520 brewer construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 2023101 key factors affecting construction safety performance in developing countries: evidence from cambodia serdar durdyev1, sherif mohamed2, meng leang lay3, syuhaida ismail4 1 department of engineering and architectural studies, ara institute of canterbury, 130 madras street, christchurch, new zealand. 8023 2 griffith school of engineering, griffith university, gold coast campus, qld 4222, australia 3 department of civil engineering, zaman university, st.315, phnom penh, cambodia 12510 4 utm razak school of engineering and advanced technology, university teknologi malaysia, jalan sultan yahya petra, 54100 kuala lumpur, malaysia abstract although proper safety management in construction is of utmost importance; anecdotal evidence suggests that safety is not adequately considered in many developing countries. this paper considers the key variables affecting construction safety performance in cambodia. using an empirical questionnaire survey targeting local construction professionals, respondents were invited to rate the level of importance of 30 variables identified from the seminal literature. the data set was subjected to factor analysis. correlations between the variables show that five key factors underlie the challenges facing the local industry; management and organisation, resources, site management, cosmetic and workforce. it is found that the forefront construction professionals (top management and government authorities) should take more responsibilities for further improvements in safety performance on project sites. findings and recommendations of this study may be useful to construction professional who are seeking ways to improve safety records in developing countries. keywords safety performance; osh; construction site; cambodia; construction safety citation: durdyev, s., mohamed, s., lay, m.l., and ismail, s. 2017. key factors affecting construction safety performance in developing countries: evidence from cambodia. construction economics and building, 17:4, 48-65. http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v17i4.5596 brewer construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 2023102 critical success factors for building information modelling implementation ganiyu amuda-yusuf department of quantity surveying, faculty of environmental sciences, university of ilorin, ilorin, abstract this paper expounds the critical success factors (csfs) for bim implementation and explore their ranking and underlying relationships. a total of 28 csfs was identified from the review of previous studies on success factors. survey questionnaire containing these 28 factors was used to collect data from industry practitioners in nigeria. benchmark metrics was developed to rank the success factors. the topmost five success factors for bim implementation in order of importance are: standard platforms for integration and communication; cost of development; education and training; standardization (product and process); and clear definition and understanding of users’ requirement. analysis of variance shows that significant differences exist in the pattern of rating for the topmost csfs based on turnover. factor analysis was further adopted to group the 28 csfs into five components, using rotated component matrix method. the five components extracted are: (i) industry stakeholders’ commitment and knowledge of bim, (ii) capacity building for technology adoption, (iii) organisational support, (iv) collaborative synergy among industry professional and (v) cultural orientation. the rankings of the csfs have practical implication as it provides basis for refining the most significant factors that industry stakeholders should focus attention for successful implementation of bim. in addition, the underlying relationships among the success factors identified in this study, will assist industry stakeholders to determine best strategy to adopt in implementing bim at industry level. keywords building information modelling; critical success factors; practitioners, stakeholders; standardisation citation: amuda-yusuf, g. 2018. critical success factors for building information modelling implementation. construction economics and building, 18:3, 55-74. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i3.6000 brewer construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 2023103 construction economics and building vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023 © 2023 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: pancholi, j., devkar, g. 2023. analysing the influence of organizational culture in projects using last planner system. construction economics and building, 23:3/4, 143–169. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v23i3/4.8804 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article analysing the influence of organizational culture in projects using last planner system jugal pancholi*, ganesh devkar faculty of technology, cept university, kasturbhai lalbhai campus, university road, navrangpura, ahmedabad-380009, india corresponding author: jugal pancholi, faculty of technology, cept university, kasturbhai lalbhai campus, university road, navrangpura, ahmedabad-380009, india, jugal.pancholi@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8804 article history: received 09/09/2023; revised 02/10/2023; accepted 27/10/2023; published 23/12/2023 abstract the use of lean tools and techniques to reduce waste from the workflow has been prominently gaining popularity in the construction industry worldwide. last planner system (lps) is one such distinguished tool used by construction majors. much research suggests that lps plays a significant role in improving collaboration among project team members and the firm’s organizational culture. this paper reports the intermediating effect of organizational culture on construction projects that implement the last planner system and also identifies the effect of lps on the project’s operational performance. various survey items pertaining to each variable were identified and validated through content validation. all the established items were then compiled into a questionnaire, and multiple data were collected from a variety of projects. the data were analysed using bivariate correlation and multiple regression analysis. additionally, the “organizational culture assessment instrument” was utilized to compare the organizational cultures of various construction sites. it was discovered that the last planner system had a positive but negligible relationship with the operational performance of the project, and the organizational culture. it was observed that all the projects implementing lps had a balance culture. the contribution of this work is the knowledge that implementation of the last planner system is not necessarily enhanced by culture to a great extent. however, it has a positive impact on both the operational performance of the project and the organizational culture. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 143 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8804 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8804 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8804 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:julgal.pancholi@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8804 keywords last planner system; organizational culture; operational performance; content validity; competing values framework introduction modern projects in the construction sector have become complex, uncertain, and time-constrained due to advancements in technology, rising client demands, and the overall market scenario (koskela et al., 2002). the number of stakeholders in any construction project has significantly increased because of the complexity and the pressures of completing projects faster than before. this has resulted in difficulties in the management of all stakeholders and coordination of their activities (lühr, bosch-rekveldt and radujkovik, 2021). lean production systems are a promising solution to the management of complexities associated with planning, designing, construction and operation of the construction projects and are expected to help meet customer expectations, increase productivity, and minimize waste (howell and ballard, 1997). among the many lean tools available, the last planner system (lps) is best suited for improving collaboration among project teams. it is largely used for production planning and control. processes like phase scheduling, look ahead scheduling and weekly work plans are part of the last planner system. these lps processes promote teamwork, dedication, and efficient workflow reliability in production planning and management (ballard, 2000). many research studies have proven lps to be one of the most prominent production planning and control techniques. alsehaimi, tsortzopoulos and koskela (2009) have reported that lps is a useful tool for management and ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of the planning of a building project. ballard and howell (2004) added that the last planner system and all lean thinking processes are most immediately applicable to highly dynamic projects that are defined as uncertain, complicated, and quick. porwal, lavy and rybkowski (2010) noted that lps has grown to be a well-liked tool in the lean construction community for securing workflow and guaranteeing the accuracy of plans. a great number of existing studies illustrate the effect of lps on project culture; in their study, luhr, bosch-rekveldt and radujkovic (2021) discovered that lps promotes greater degrees of mutual understanding and control over the responsibilities and problems of the other parties. over the past several years, a number of papers discussing the application of lps on different projects have also been published (kalyan, pratap and singh, 2018; ravi et al., 2018). when implementing lps, organizations’ main objectives are to (i) improve process reliability and (ii) reduce uncertainty. the importance of organisational culture in achieving improvement through the adoption of lean principles has drawn a lot of attention in these studies (hardcopf, liu and shah, 2021). the potential benefits of lean tools at the project level have also been the subject of multiple research (ebbs et al., 2017; formoso and moura, 2009). however, these studies have investigated the effect of lean tools in combination with more than one tool in a given setting like a construction project. the indian construction sector has paid close attention to the last planner system’s rising popularity and efficiency. however, due to the lack of standardization in lps and the variety of approaches used in practice, the anticipated results of improved project outcomes are frequently not realized, leading to many firms choosing traditional project planning and control methodologies over lps. the dearth of research in this area and the demand for increased public awareness regarding the use of lps in industry, support the need for this investigation. the gaps in understanding provide the incentive for determining the relationship between lps implementation and project organizational culture and operational performance. additionally, studies conducted by lühr, bosch-rekveldt and radujkovic (2021) and ravi et al. (2018) emphasize the influence of an organization’s culture on lps implementation efforts. however, it talks to a limited extent about the partnering culture (i.e., a culture that has high level of trust and mutual understanding within the organization), and few other aspects of lps implementation (i.e., case pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023144 study analysis with competing values framework). therefore, there is uncertainty regarding whether lps needs a supportive organizational culture in order to improve project performance. the structure of this paper is as follows: first, a thorough literature review is presented to assess existing research; its primary goal is to pinpoint the areas that require additional research in this field of study. the research approach used for the study is described next. a case study analysis is then presented, followed by a description of the process of identifying measures for lps production planning, control and operational performance of the project. finally, the investigation is discussed, where the hypothesis is tested through various quantitative methods, and finally, the conclusion, limitation, and future scope of the study are presented. literature review lean construction lean construction institute (2019) defines lean as “a culture of respect and continuous improvement to create more value for the customer while identifying and eliminating waste.” lean construction is known to have originated with the toyota production unit’s lean production system that was created for their production management. the toyota production system gained traction in the aec industry as construction projects became more complicated and uncertain (koskela et al., 2002; howell, 1999). lean construction must have a clear set of delivery process objectives targeted at maximizing performance for the customer at the project level. also, the application of production control throughout the life of the product from design to delivery (howell and ballard, 1997). last planner system workflow uncertainty or unpredictability has been identified as a factor in the failure of building projects. the last planner approach, according to ballard (2000), “is a way of converting what should be done into what can be done, resulting in a ready-to-work inventory from which weekly work plans can be produced.”. the last planner system was thought to be able to fill a gap in the standard project management toolkit, which is to formalize the planning and the phase scheduling by developing a logic network and reexamine the schedule for application of resources and methods (ballard and howell, 2004). according to daniel, pasquire and dickens (2015), there are five critical principles of lps vis., (i) ensure that the tasks are planned in detail before the task execution approaches, (ii) ensure that the tasks are planned in the presence of the people who have to execute it, (iii) identify and remove the constraints for all planned tasks before their execution, (iv) ensure commitments made are reliable and (v) continuous improvement. the last planner system offers an efficient way to work together on project-based production, allowing problems to be found and handled before they arise on-site and improving the possibility of a workflow; so that the projects are completed on time (mossman, 2015). pull scheduling, which places focus on work that can be finished, is a component of lps. the traditional method emphasizes “push scheduling,” in which, the job that must be finished following the master timetable is highlighted. the concept of continuous improvement measuring the project’s progress differentiates lps from the traditional approach. lps is made of 5 components as follows: 1. master schedule: the master schedule is prepared by the project manager before starting the project. it includes overviews of all the main activities and highlights the project’s milestones. pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023145 2. phase schedule: here, the emphasis is given to the ‘pull scheduling,’ based on the project’s current phase and decided milestones, a phased schedule of about 3-6 months is prepared. 3. look ahead plan: it is a short-term (5-9 weeks) plan developed before the commencement of the planned activities. all the constraints present in the planned activities are identified and resolved before it becomes a problem. it is also known as make ready plan. 4. weekly work plan: it is planning that is carried out by the last planners (i.e., foreman, supervisor, etc.) who are going to execute the work. the commitment to work for the upcoming week is taken through them. 5. percent plan complete (ppc) and examination of reasons for non-completion (rnc): based on the progress tracking of the previous week, the workflow reliability and commitments are planned for the coming weeks. all non-completed tasks are assessed, and improvements in the project plan are incorporated by learning from failure. percent plan complete (ppc) is a tool for determining the non-compliance rate. it is calculated by dividing completed assignments by planned assignments. (koskela, stratton and koskenvesa, 2010). measures of lps lps is commonly viewed incorrectly as a standalone instrument that may be employed whenever necessary (hamzeh and bergstrom, 2010). despite lps’ benefits, many businesses find it extremely difficult to implement it. the main issue organizations encounter, aside from execution, is the evaluation of the system itself. although there are many different ways to measure lps, some important indicators include (i) percent plan complete, (ii) look ahead planning, and (iii) weekly work plan. the control of the production unit is generally performed through weekly work planning (wwp). the main way to manage the workflow is the lookahead method. all participants must come together to build a look-ahead plan and review any commitment failures (reasons for non-completion) in order to prevent them from happening again and to ensure continuous improvements in the process, as described by bhatla and leite (2012). seppänen, modrich and ballard (2015) suggested the implementation of the lookahead plan and the weekly planning as a production control mechanism. tayeh et al. (2018) have also found that the inclusion of ppc, look ahead plan, and weekly work plan are some of the crucial instruments for gauging the success of an lps implementation. according to hamzeh and aridi (2020), some of the critical measures for the success of lps implementation are; (i) percent plan complete (ppc), (ii) task anticipated (ta), and (iii) tasks make ready (tmr). in construction projects, various metrics are used to track and measure progress to aid planners in making critical decisions about time and cost savings (hamzeh et al., 2020). research by daniel, pasquire and dickens (2019) suggests that the inclusion of lps practice in a contract clause, provision of training, and many other parameters can support the implementation of lps in a construction project. lps and operational performance (hardcopf, liu and shah, 2021) emphasized in their study the beneficial impact of lean approaches on the operational performance of the projects based on the majority of the lean evaluation studies. however, several researchers have also found that using limited lean techniques can improve operational performance. therefore, the link between lps and operational performance has been the subject of considerable investigation. considering the complexity of construction projects, it is essential to select the best management strategy that will contribute to the project’s success, carefully coordinate and oversee the entire process, and guarantee that the project is finished on time and within budget, continuous-time and pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023146 cost monitoring is required because of this. a regular schedule and financial variations must be monitored to prevent developing disorder in anticipated and budgeted time and expenditure. lps was created to improve planning and control effectiveness by increasing the likelihood of on-time delivery and making programs more predictable (ballard, 2000). numerous case study-based researchers have indicated a range of advantages brought about by lps deployment. ahiakwo et al. (2013) stated that they could complete the project on time, with a 30% cost savings and 80% ppc on the project, planned, managed, and controlled using lps. at the same time, the three other case studies in which lps was not implemented had a time overrun. a survey of around 26 case studies carried out by fernandez-solis et al. (2013) showed that lps is very effective in obtaining the following benefits; (i) improved communication, (ii) improvement in quality of work practices, (iii) reduced production time, and (iv) greater collaboration. it is argued that lps might enhance production planning through social processes. it offers numerous advantages to projects using lps. instead of examining the impact of lps processes on operational performance, the available research mostly concentrates on measures to assess how well lps processes are working using different lps measures. given the wealth of information available in literature about lean and its applicability to the project’s operational performance, it is observed that there still exists a gap between applicability of lps and its effect on the operational performance. hence, the following statement is proposed as an assumption: hypothesis 1. (h1) – implementation of the last planner system aids on enhancing the project’s operational performance. lps and organizational culture an organization’s culture is one of several factors that affect how well lean tools are implemented. organizational culture has a significant impact on the effectiveness of lean transformation (fadnavis, najarzadeh and badurdeen, 2020). therefore, it is crucial to understand the organizational culture, including how it relates to or facilitates the use of lean approaches, particularly lps. an organization’s culture, according to kallassy and hamzeh (2021), is a set of common ideals and presumptions held by its members. it has many different aspects that are expressed in its leadership, working methods, and communication. a collaborative culture that differs from the standard culture of building projects, is necessary for the successful implementation of lps (lühr and bosch-rekveldt, 2019). a case study based on the uk building project by johansen and porter (2000) states that there is a need to overcome cultural barriers to achieve the promised effectiveness of lps. frameworks of many kinds have been developed to evaluate organizational culture. studies are being carried out to create appropriate assessment based on many characteristics and goals. because organizational culture is a latent variable that cannot be measured, it is examined using qualitative frameworks. one of the most popular frameworks for evaluating organizational culture was created by cameron and quinn (2006) and is called the competing values framework (cvf). clan, adhocracy, market, and hierarchy make up the four quadrants of the competing values framework. an organizational culture assessment instrument (ocai) is used to evaluate and quantify each of these four cultural quadrants. the above-mentioned quadrants are used to create a spider web that helps determine the type of culture that an organization or project adheres to (cameron and quinn, 2006; lühr and bosch-rekveldt, 2019). apart from this hofstede (2011), also proposed a framework for cultural assessment which is known as “hofstede” framework. it uses, six cultural dimensions—power distance, uncertainty avoidance, individualism, masculinity, long-term orientation, and indulgence, for the evaluation of culture. pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023147 this research offers the following hypothesis in accordance with the literature that indicates the essential role played by organizational culture on the effectiveness of lps and the scant data in this direction. hypothesis 2. (h2) an organizational culture will moderate the effect of lps on operational performance. research methodology a mixed-methods approach combining qualitative and quantitative techniques was adopted for this work. first, a review of the available literature was conducted, the need for the study was established, and the research topic was chosen. data from both qualitative and quantitative methods were collected. numerous case studies were identified, and semi-structured interviews (qualitative) and questionnaires surveys (quantitative) were conducted. measures for lps production planning and control and operational performance after the formulation of the study hypothesis, based on the extensive literature review, the first step of this research study involved identification of measures for the lps production planning and control, and operational performance of the projects. with the conduct systematic searching process with keywords: last planner system, organizational culture, lean construction, and operational performance, three measures for the project’s operational performance and seven measures for lps production planning and control were identified. concise definitions of the measures and terms used in this work were identified in literature and are listed below. (table 1) shows the detail of those measures. the identified measures are widely discussed in the literature from different perspective. hence. it was necessary to define these terms clearly for the purpose of this study. based on the literature review, these seven measures are defined as follows: 1. percent plan complete (ppc): the percentage of tasks done after a specified period compared to those promised to be finished at the end (ballard, 2000; hamzeh, et. al., 2015; daniel, pasquire and dickens, 2019). 2. look ahead plan (lap): make work ready so that the ‘workflows are in sequence and at the rate needed to complete the project within the available time (ballard, 2000; hamzeh, et.al., 2015; daniel, pasquire and dickens, 2019). 3. reasons for non-completion (rnc): the causes for the non-completion of the tasks (ballard, 2000; daniel, pasquire and dickens, 2019). 4. weekly work plan (wwp): all activities committed to being done during the given week are represented (hamzeh, et.al., 2015). 5. tasks anticipated (ta): to assess how well the lookahead planning process performs in anticipating tasks that will occur (hamzeh, et.al., 2015). 6. tasks make ready (tmr): the number of tasks on the lookahead plan that had all of their constraints eliminated two weeks before execution (hamzeh, et.al., 2015). 7. training: organize learning sessions to educate the project team on lps. each measure mentioned in table 1 was considered as a first-order factor. based on the literature review, detailed survey items for each measure were developed. in total, 27 survey items were developed for seven pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023148 table 1. literature review for identification of measures measures (a hi ak w o et a l., 2 01 3) (a ls eh ai m i, ts or tz op ou lo s an d k os ke la , 2 00 9) (b al la rd , 1 99 7) (b al la rd , 2 00 0) (b al la rd a nd t om m el ei n, 2 01 6) (b or to la zz a an d fo rm os o, 2 00 6) (c as ti llo e t a l., 2 01 8) (d an ie l, p as qu ir e an d d ic ke n, 2 01 5) (d an ie l, p as qu ir e an d d ic ke ns , 2 01 9) (f er na nd ez -s ol is , e t a l., 2 01 3) (f or m os o an d m ou ra , 2 00 9) (h ac ke tt , h ar te a nd c he nd o, 2 01 9) (h am ze h an d a ri di , 2 02 0) (h am ze h, e t. a l., 2 01 5) (h am ze h et a l., 2 02 0) (j oh an se n an d p or te r, 2 00 0) (m os sm an , 2 01 5) (p ri ve n an d s ac ks , 2 01 3) (e l s am ad , h am ze h an d e m da na t, 2 01 7) lps production percent plan complete (ppc) x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x look ahead plan (lap) x x x x x x x x x x reasons for noncompletion (rnc) x x x x x x x x weekly work plan (wwp) x x x x x x x tasks anticipated (ta) x x x x x tasks make ready (tmr) x x x x x training x x x operational performances cost x x x x time x x x x quality x pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023149 lps production planning and control measures while 6 survey items were identified for three operational performance measures. all survey items were identified using the same sources as those listed in (table 1). some of the questionnaire’s questions were created using conceptual knowledge of the subject and expert advice. measures of content validation a content validity questionnaire was created after the measures and specific survey items were determined. the degree of relevance for each survey topic was determined using a conventional 4-point scale of content validation. based on the research work of saiful and yusoff, 2019, at least six specialists are needed for content validation. the experts for this content validation process were identified based on conducting review of conference and journal publications which focus on lps. the questionnaire was designed with ms word software and sent to the experts. this questionnaire began with the background of the study and subsequently justified the need for validation. the research was briefly explained to support the need for this validation. twelve subject matter experts from various organizations and institutions were given the questionnaire. of the 12 experts, one was a ph.d. scholar, two experts were academicians from india with experience of more than 20 years, and nine were lean practitioners from india, who had participated in numerous projects utilizing lps. results of first round of content validation six replies were gathered for the first round of content validation following routine follow-ups. each item’s individual content validity index (i-cvi) was computed. the total average of the items was also used to create the scale level content validity index (s-cvi/ave i.e., average of s-cvi). the universal agreement of each item was evaluated, and an s-cvi/ua was computed (amos and boakye-agyeman, 2022). the rating that was given by the experts was transformed into a binary scale to assess their responses. if the degree of relevance was given a score of 3-4, it was to be regarded as 1, whereas a score of 1-2 was to be regarded as 0. the total of all the experts who gave a particular item a score of 3-4, which is known as expert agreement, was first calculated. the expert agreement value was divided by the number of experts who replied to the questionnaire to produce the i-cvi value. the universal consensus was also represented by binary numbers; if all the experts agreed that an item was relevant between 3 and 4, a score of 1 was given. the ua score was zero if any expert did not consider the item relevant to the degree of 3–4. s-cvi/ave and s-cvi/ua were ultimately determined by dividing the total number of survey items by the sum of the i-cvi and ua values, respectively. saiful and yusoff, 2019 discussed a correlation between the number of experts and the allowable cvi values. the correlation is as follows: (i) 2 experts, at least 0.80 cvi, (ii) 3-5 experts, should be 1 cvi, (iii) at least 6 experts, at least 0.83 cvi, (iv) 6-8 experts, at least 0.83 cvi and (v) at least 9 experts, at least 0.78 cvi. as in this instance, where replies from six experts were gathered, a cvi score of at least 0.83 was considered acceptable. six items were found to have values lower than 0.83. experts’ comments were sought on these six items and subsequently, all three of the items from the lps production planning and control survey with values of 0.50 were eliminated, while three other items with values of 0.67 were modified. refer table 2. refer appendix a for detailed table depicting the list of survey items. out of a total of 27 survey items of lps production planning and control were identified for round one of content validations, while three items highlighted in the above table were eliminated. the component that had an i-cvi value of 0.67, was included in the cost measure (enhanced cycle time). few experts, however, proposed removing the item because it was comparable to other items already present. pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023150 only one item on the operational performance list had a cvi score less than 0.83, so it was removed from consideration. additionally, a couple of the professionals offered recommendations to expand the list with a few additional pertinent items. consequently, a new planning process measure was introduced, and two survey items were added. the following are the measure and the items that were added based on the advice provided by the experts: lps production planning and control measure 8: planning process (pp) pp 1: our crew is trained in the concept implementation of lps. pp 2: all the participants share their inputs during the training sessions. operational performance measure 4: safety safe 1: improved safety appendix b highlights the final list of measures for both lps production planning and control and operational performance. outcome of content validity nearly a majority of survey items’ cvi values for both variables fell within the permitted range (i.e., at least 0.83). the results of round-1 of the content validity are as attached in appendix c. a second and final round of content validity was undertaken after some of the items were modified, added, or removed. a questionnaire was created based on this final list, and the same experts were requested once more to respond to the final questionnaire. in the last stage of content validity, an additional clarity scale was also included. both relevance and clarity were rated on a four-point scale. table 2. list of survey items eliminated/modified survey items cvi values eliminated rnc 4 to capture the reasons for non-completion collaborative planning board is used. 0.5 wwp 3 the setup of our meetings allows a better understanding of the project control. 0.5 tr 1 we regularly organize training sessions for lps implementation. 0.5 modified ppc 2 the ppc has been increasing over the period. 0.67 ta 3 ta helps to avoid having to produce new assignments at the last minute 0.67 tmr 1 we remove all the constraints from the planned activity. 0.83 tr 3 our crew efficiently participates in the training sessions. 0.67 pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023151 the cvi results for the last round were also similarly evaluated. the binary scale was applied to each response. relevancy and clarity i-cvi scores were computed individually. the s-cvi/ave was also calculated using the following variables. most of the items were found to have a cvi value of 1.00. thus, the final set of survey items was established. further, the data collection was carried out with it. case study analysis most of the information was gathered using questionnaire surveys from various construction projects. a detailed data collection process is discussed in this section. identification of potential sites further, to the content validation of measures and survey items related to lps production planning and control and operational performance, the next step in this research study involved identification of potential case study sites to investigate the earlier mentioned hypothesis. the case studies were selected as a stratified sample (flyvbjerg, 2006) by the following criteria: 1. longer history of lps implementation in an organization 2. status of construction project and lps adoption 3. scale of the project 4. participants association with the project criteria 1 was set to ensure selection of a construction contractor adopting lps in project delivery for many years. lps has gained popularity among construction contractors in india. however, there is a diversity in operationalization of lps processes. hence, the construction companies having a large history of lps implementation have a more structured approach to lps implementation. criteria 2 was defined to ensure that one case study project is fully implementing lps. this criterion was set because the projects where lps is implemented partially may not have substantial influence on the project operational performance. criteria 3 was set to ensure that the cases are comparable. all selected cases are at the same construction phase and project cost was more than usd 12.10 million. criteria 4 was defined to ensure that the participants were representative for providing feedback on relevant measures related to survey items. with reference to the hypothesis 1 and 2, there are three different aspects that needs to be analysed: (i) lps production planning and control, (ii) operational performance of project, and (iii) organizational culture. after identification of potential construction contractors and projects, the senior officials from these organizations and selected projects were briefed about the need for this research study and data collection process that would be carried out. approval was taken from each of construction contractor associated with the project for commencing the process and their responses were used for analysis. three questionnaires were designed focusing on each of these aspects: questionnaire 1: focusing on lps production planning and control measures was filled out by the participants of lps meetings. it includes representative of main contractors, subcontractors, and last planners (i.e., foreman and supervisors). questionnaire 2 and 3: focusing on operational measures and organizational culture was completed by the main contractors’ project team members of selected case studies. criteria 4 ensured that these respondents are appropriate for respective questionnaires. the content validation of survey items in pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023152 questionnaire 1 and 2 is discussed in detail in earlier sections while the competing values framework (cvf) formed the basis for questionnaire 3. in total, four case studies were selected. from each project, about five project members participated in the lps production planning and control survey. in a similar manner, about 5 responses were collected for operational performance and organizational culture questionnaire survey each. preparation of questionnaire a brief description of the research project was provided at the outset of each questionnaire and a confidentiality declaration was added. all surveys had many sections, the first two of which were of descriptive type. in the first portion, questions pertaining to personal information and respondent history were posed. this portion included information request about the respondent’s name, organization name, designation, and overall work experience, among other things. this part also included questions that were unique to their knowledge of lps and lean implementation. project-specific questions like (i) project name, (ii) current status of the project, (iii) location of the project, and (iv) type of project were included in the second section of the questionnaire. in this part, questions about the project’s duration and cost were also included. each questionnaire’s topic-specific question was derived from the third part. questionnaire: 1 lps production planning and control eight measures totalling 26 survey items that were relevant to the last planner system for production planning and control were included in this questionnaire. a definition of each measure was provided in the questionnaire. a 7-point likert scale was used to rate the responses. to determine the level of agreement for the specific survey item, the responses were gathered. the rating scale used for the questionnaire is as follows: 7= strongly agree, 6= agree, 5= somewhat agree, 4= neither agree nor disagree, 3= somewhat disagree, 2= disagree, 1= strongly disagree. questionnaire: 2 operational performance of the project four measures having a total of six survey items pertaining to the project’s operational performance were included in this questionnaire. each survey item was scored on a 5-point likert scale. the responses were collected concerning the degree of improvement towards the particular survey item. all the items were told to be answered concerning their ongoing observation on a construction project where lps is implemented. the rating scale used for the questionnaire is as follows: 5= much better, 4= better, 3= about the same, 2= worse, 1= much worse. questionnaire: 3 organizational culture this study aims to investigate the influence of organizational culture in realizing operational improvement at project level from the adoption of last planner system (lps). the competing values framework (cvf) comprising four quadrants namely clan, adhocracy, hierarchy, and market that has been widely used to assess organizational culture, was utilized in this study (cameron and quinn, 2006). therefore, all questions in the six-item ocai version were divided into four distinct cultures. the same 7-point likert scale that was employed in the lps production planning and control questionnaire was utilized to collect the responses. according to the ocai six-item version, a new questionnaire was created, and the answers were recorded according to the importance of each culture. the organization that applied lps was represented by a spider web graph created from the survey data. additionally, the organizational cultures were compared to the theoretical ideal lean culture (tilc) and lean culture produced by paro and gerolamo in 2015 and 2017. pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023153 collection of responses all questionnaires were mailed to the identified respondents in each case study project where weekly meetings, consistent ppc monitoring, and lookahead planning were practiced. the types of projects and their durations varied, and they were all unique. the first project (case – 1) was the redevelopment project of a stadium into a multi-purpose sports complex (infrastructural) with a construction area of around 47,600 sqm. the government awarded the contract to one of the leading construction companies in india. the construction period for this project is 2 years, followed by maintenance of 5 years. at the time of the survey, the project was on the verge of the execution phase. the participating stakeholders at the regular lps meetings were the program managing company (pgmc), contractor, specialist planners, and sub-contractors. five people from this group participated in the survey of all three variables (i.e., lps production planning and control, organizational culture, and operational performance). case – 2 is a hospital building (commercial) construction project in the execution stage at the time of the survey. the developer (client), multiple specialized planners, general contractors, and various additional subcontractors were present at lps meetings. one of the renowned construction companies in india carried out the project, and the lps was implemented at the project right from the start of the execution phase. the questionnaires received responses from five project participants who attended the lps meetings. case – 3 is a construction project which was in the execution phase. a medical college (institutional) with supporting facilities was going to be built. project managers, planning engineers, other senior members of the main contractor’s team, and foremen from different subcontractors attended the lps meetings. six members of this group completed the questionnaires distributed for this study. case – 4 is a construction project which was also in the execution phase. it was a construction project for a railway coach factory (industrial) with a construction period of 2 years. the lps participants in this project were a planning engineer, an assistant manager, various foremen, and junior engineers. three members of this group participated in the survey. all the respondents were experienced and had been working on lps for several years. in total 57 (i.e., 19+19+19) responses were collected from four case study projects from varied sectors as mentioned above. the specifics of this questionnaire responses based on type of questionnaire is shown in table 3. table 3. details of responses received type of project questionnaire commercial industrial infrastructural institutional total lps production 5 3 5 6 19 operational performance 4 3 5 7 19 organizational culture 4 3 5 7 19 further, the data was analysed, and the above-mentioned hypotheses were tested to identify the relationship. methods spss software was used to analyse the data and evaluate the hypotheses using a number of statistical tests. the outcomes of each variable’s data analysis are highlighted in this section. pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023154 results lps and operational performance according to hypothesis 1 (h1), the operational performance of the project correlated with lps implementation. a bivariate correlation was carried out for the responses received for each survey item of the different measures of both the variables to test this hypothesis. the correlation coefficient was derived with a confidence level of 95. table 4. output of correlation test (lps vs. operational performance) variable variable2 statistic correlation count lower c.i. upper c.i. notes lps op .043 19 -.395 .488 (table 4) shows the correlation between lps production planning and control and the project’s operational performance. the correlation value that equals 0.043, shows that there is a small link between the two variables. as a result, with regard to the proposed hypothesis, there is a minimal yet positive correlation between lps implementation and project operational performance. influence of organizational culture hypothesis 2 (h2) posits that organizational culture moderates the effect of lps on operational performance. therefore, the hypothesis and model were tested along with the moderating effect of organizational culture on the lps implementation and operational performance. for this reason, multiple regression was used for analysing the data in this study. lps production planning and control were considered as independent variables, while operational performance was the dependent variable and organizational culture within the company was a moderating factor. table 5. output of multiple regression analysis model r r square adjusted r square std. the error in the estimate change statistics oc >= 4.00 (selected) r square change f change 1 .043a .002 -.057 .38610 .002 .031 (table 5) shows a model summary of the multiple regression analysis. the calculated r-value was 0.043, indicating a slight but favourable effect of organizational culture on lps production planning and control and the projects operational performance. although, the main effect of organizational culture towards lps and operational performance is not that significant, the positive correlation supports hypothesis 2. organizational culture assessment the researchers used the “organisational culture assessment instrument” (ocai) to assess the robustness of their findings by measuring the organisational culture of the chosen case studies; understanding how the staff who are directly involved in the lps implementation process perceive things. as mentioned earlier, an ocai is used in cvf to measure the organizational culture, and lühr, boschrekveldt and radujkovic, 2021 also adopted the same for assessing the project culture. in the same vein, pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023155 this study examines two construction projects using the four unique cultures listed in cvf: (i) clan, (ii) adhocracy, (iii) market, and (iv) hierarchy. due to the limitation of data, the ocai framework was implemented only on two construction projects of the same organization. figure 1 highlights three different combinations of cultures. the “theoretical ideal lean culture,” which was created using the data from 14 toyota way principles, is the one that is indicated in the orange dotted line. the “brazilian lean culture” was created by paro and gerolamo (2017), who studied 51 brazilian lean systems. it is represented as the grey dashed line. at the same time, the shape highlighted in green is the “german lean culture,” which is taken from three case studies conducted on the german construction industry by (lühr and boschrekveldt, 2019). 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 clan (cooperate) adhocracy (create) market (compete) hierarchy (control) german culture tilc brazilian culture figure 1. theoretical ideal lean culture, brazilian culture, and german culture the replies gathered for each project were then compared to these three varied cultural sets. the same organization’s ocai was utilized for two separate projects. many responses that can help justify the analyses based on the previous studies were obtained for those projects. project-1 the first project involved a medical college and auxiliary services that are being built in a southern indian state as part of an institutional building project. the project was in the execution stage at the time of the survey. the project manager, planning manager, dgm billing, and assistant planning engineer were among the staff who replied to the survey. the outcome of the survey is shown in (figure 2). as seen in (figure 2), the hierarchy culture was highly ranked but with a minimal margin. additionally, the adhocracy culture was more prominent than the german, theoretical ideal, and brazilian cultures. the market culture, however, was marginally superior to the brazilian culture, while the clan culture was marginally superior to the german and theoretical ideal cultures. overall, the project fairly represents each pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023156 type of culture. therefore, regardless of the previous three sets of cultures, it may be concluded that the project had a balanced project culture. project-2 the second project was a commercial site that involved building a hospital in a southern indian state. like the earlier project, this was also in the execution stage as the survey was being carried out. the project’s (i) deputy general manager, (ii) planning engineer, (iii) senior engineer, and (iv) safety executive were among the staff who answered the survey. the outcome of the survey is shown in (figure 3). as shown in (figure 3), the clan culture was highly ranked but with a minimal margin, and it was similar to that of the theoretical ideal lean culture. when compared to the other set of cultures, the adhocracy quadrant was very noticeable in this instance. the theoretical ideal and brazilian culture have some similarities to market culture. contrary to the other set of cultures, the hierarchical quadrant had a remarkably low score. the organizational culture, in this case, was, overall, comparable to the preceding case study in that all cultures were dispersed equally. therefore, regardless of the previous three sets of cultures, it may be concluded that the project had a balanced organizational culture. conclusion this study set out to look at how organizational culture affected the lps-implemented construction projects. to determine the connection between three variables—lps production planning and control, project operational performance, and organizational culture—two hypotheses were proposed. for the research, multiple measures and survey items were chosen and tested. an organizational culture assessment tool included in the competing values framework (cvf) was also used. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 clan (cooperate) adhocracy (create) market (compete) hierarchy (control) german culture tilc brazilian culture case-1 figure 2. organizational culture at project-1 pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023157 the data was compiled from four different construction projects carried out by well-known construction companies using lps. to examine the data, the mean and standard deviation of each variable for all survey items were determined. to further analyse the data, all variables’ data were imported into the spss program, where bivariate correlation test and multiple regression analysis were carried out. the result of the bivariate analysis determined that there is a correlation between the lps implementation and the projects’ operational performances, although a small one. similar to hypothesis 1, organizational culture has been found to have a minor but nonetheless beneficial impact on hypothesis 2. it is important to note that, despite the fact that the hypothesis examines two broader variables—(i) organizational culture, which involves all key personnel and staff associated at the higher organizational level, and (ii) operational performance, which covers all aspects of the project, including cost, quality, planning, etc., the analysis’s favourable findings lead to the conclusion that an organizational culture can moderate the overall operational performance of a project, where lps is implemented. also, ocai was used to establish the organizational culture of two construction sites of the same organization located in india. the responses were collected such that the overall weightage distribution of all four cultures would add to 100. a six-item questionnaire was used for the study. the organizational culture was compared with three different cultures, i.e., theoretical ideal lean culture, brazilian lean culture, and german lean culture. the survey results were used to conclude that both projects had an equal distribution of the cultures. the four quadrants had similar weights, and no noticeable cultural differences were found. limitations and future scope this research possesses limitations, even if it was successful in establishing the association between contextual variables. there was difficulty in gathering primary data due to the fact that only limited construction companies implement lps on their project. additionally, no novel framework or type of 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 clan (cooperate) adhocracy (create) market (compete) hierarchy (control) german culture tilc brazilian culture case-2 figure 3. organizational culture at project-2 pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023158 culture was created or utilized to look at the organizational culture of a company. future research can consider other frameworks or analysis schemes to evaluate the organizational culture of the company. a structural equation model can be created, and the same type of analysis can be carried out to produce a more generalized result on other projects where the lps is used. references ahiakwo, o., oloke, d., suresh, s., and khatib, j., 2013. a case study of last planner system implementation in nigeria. international group for lean construction, 44(0), pp.699–707. alsehaimi, a., tzortzopoulos, p. and koskela, l., 2009. last planner system: experiences from pilot implementation in the middle east. in: proceedings for the 17th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, taipei, taiwan, pp.53–66. amos, d. and boakye-agyeman, n.a., 2022. content validation of value-adding indicators for corporate real estate management : insights from a developing country. journal of corporate real estate, [e-journal] 25(1), pp.77-97. https:// doi.org/10.1108/jcre-08-2021-0024 ballard, g., 2000. the last planner system of production control. phd. university of birmingham. ballard, g., 1997. lookahead planning: the missing link in production control. in: proceedings for the 5th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, gold coast, australia, pp.13–26. ballard, g. and howell, g., 2004. an update on last planner. in: proceedings for the 11th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, virginia, usa, 2003. ballard, g. and tommelein, i., 2016. current process benchmark for the last planner ® system planner system. berkeley: university of california. bhatla, a. and leite, f., 2012. integration framework of bim with the last planner system. in: proceedings of 20th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, san diego, california, usa. bortolazza, r.c. and formoso, c.t., 2006. a quantitative analysis of data collected from the last planner system in brazil. in: proceedings of 14th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, santiago, chile, pp.625–35. cameron, k. and quinn, r., 2006. diagnosing and changing organizational culture. upper saddle river, nj: prentice hall series in organizational development (1999). castillo, t., alarc, l.f., asce, a.m. and salvatierra, j.l., 2018. effects of last planner system practices on social networks and the performance of construction projects. american society of civil engineers, [e-journal] 144(3). https:// doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001443 daniel, e.i., pasquire, c. and dickens, g., 2015. exploring the implementation of the last planner system through iglc community : twenty one years of experience. in: 23rd annual conference of the international group for lean construction, perth, australia, pp.153–62. daniel, e.i., pasquire, c. and dickens, g., 2019. development of approach to support construction stakeholders in implementation of the last planner system. american society of civil engineers, [e-journal] 35(5), pp.1–16. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000699 ebbs, p. j., pasquire, c. l., and daniel, e. i., 2018. the last planner® system path clearing approach in action: a case study. iglc 2018 proceedings of the 26th annual conference of the international group for lean construction: evolving lean construction towards mature production management across cultures and frontiers, pp. 724–733. https:// doi.org/10.24928/2018/0433 pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023159 https://doi.org/10.1108/jcre-08-2021-0024 https://doi.org/10.1108/jcre-08-2021-0024 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001443 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001443 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000699 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000699 https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0433 https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0433 el samad, g., hamzeh, f.r. and emdanat, s., 2017. last planner system – the need for new metrics. in: proceedings of the 25th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, heraklion, greece. pp.637–44. https://doi. org/10.24928/2017/0218 fadnavis, s., najarzadeh, a. and badurdeen, f., 2020. sciencedirect an assessment of organizational culture traits impacting problem solving an assessment of organizational traits impacting problem solving for lean culture transformation for lean transformation. procedia manufacturing, [e-journal] 48, pp.31–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. promfg.2020.05.017 fernandez-solis, j.l., porwal, v., lavy, s., shafaat, a., rybkowski, z.k., do nascimento, a.f. and lagoo, n., 2013. survey of motivations, benefits, and implementation challenges of last planner system users. american society of civil engineers, [e-journal] 139(april), pp.354–60. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000606 flyvbjerg, b., 2006. five misunderstandings about case-study research. qualitative inquiry, 12(2), pp.219–45. https:// doi.org/10.1177/1077800405284363 fernandez-solis, j., porwal, v., lavi, s., shafaat, a., rybkowski, z.a., kiyoung, s. and lagoo, n., 2013. survey of motivations, benefits, and implementation challenges of last planner system users. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 139(4), pp.354–60. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000606 formoso, c.t. and moura, c.b., 2009. evaluation of the impact of the last planner system on the performance of construction projects. in: proceedings for the 17th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, taipei, taiwan, pp.153–64. hackett, v., harte, p. and chendo, j., 2019. the development and use of last planner system (lps) guidance. in: proceedings of 27th annual conference of the international group for lean construction (iglc), dublin, ireland, pp.651– 62. https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0101 hamzeh, f.r. and aridi, o.z., 2020. modeling the last planner system metrics: a case study of an aec. in: 21th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, fortaleza, brazil, pp.599–608. hamzeh, f., & bergstrom, e., 2010. the lean transformation: a framework for successful implementation of the last plannertm system in construction. international proceedings of the 46th annual conference. associated schools of construction. https://doi.org/10.13140/rg.2.1.4590.8001 hamzeh, f.r., khalife, s., el samad, g., rizk, l., abou-ibrahim, h., al hattab, m. and emdanat, s., 2020. advanced lps metrics for construction planning and control. in: lincoln h. forbes and syed m. ahmed, eds. lean project delivery and integrated practices in modern construction. oxford, uk: routledge. ch.16. https://doi. org/10.1201/9780429458989-20 hamzeh, f.r., saab, i., tommelein, i. and ballard, g., 2015. understanding the role of “ tasks anticipated “ in lookahead planning through simulation. automation in construction, [e-journal] 49, pp.18-26. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2014.09.005 hardcopf, r., liu, g. and shah, r., 2021. lean production and operational performance: the influence of organizational culture. international journal of production economics, [e-journal] 235(may), p.108060. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2021.108060 hofstede, g., 2011. dimensionalizing cultures : the hofstede model in context [e-journal] 2(1), https://doi. org/10.9707/2307-0919.1014 howell, g. and ballard, g., 1997. what is lean construction ? international group for lean construction, july, 3–4. howell, g., 1999. what is lean construction? in: proceedings of the 7th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, berkeley california, pp.1–10. pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023160 https://doi.org/10.24928/2017/0218 https://doi.org/10.24928/2017/0218 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2020.05.017 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.promfg.2020.05.017 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000606 https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800405284363 https://doi.org/10.1177/1077800405284363 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000606 https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0101 https://doi.org/10.13140/rg.2.1.4590.8001 https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429458989-20 https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429458989-20 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2014.09.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2014.09.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2021.108060 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2021.108060 https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1014 https://doi.org/10.9707/2307-0919.1014 johansen, e. and porter, g., 2000. an experience of introducing last planner into a uk construction project. in: proceedings of the 11th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, virginia, usa. kallassy, j. and hamzeh, f., 2021. developing a lean culture index in construction. in: proceedings of the 29th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, lima, peru. pp.504–13. https://doi.org/10.24928/2021/0192 kalyan, v., pratap, v. and singh, s.c., 2018. building a lean culture into an organization. in: proceedings of the 26th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, chennai, india. pp.1101-10. https://doi. org/10.24928/2018/0439 koskela, l., ballard, g., howell, g. and tommelein, i., 2002. the foundations of lean construction. in: rick best and gerard de valance, university of technology sydney, eds. design and construction: building in value. oxford uk: butterworth heinemann. koskela, l., stratton, r. and koskenvesa, a., 2010. last planner and critical chain in construction management. in: proceedings of the 18th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, haifa, israel. pp.538–47. lci. (2019). glossary: lean [online] available at: https://leanconstruction.org/glossary/. lühr, g. and bosch-rekveldt, m., 2019. measuring project’s team culture in projects using the last planner system. in: proceedings of the 27th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, dublin, ireland, pp.963-74. https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0124 lühr, g. j., bosch-rekveldt, m. and radujković, m., 2021. the last-planner-system’s impact on project culture. journal of engineering, design and technology, ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print). https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-05-2021-0285 mossman, a., 2015. last planner: 5 + 1 crucial and collaborative conversations for predictable design and construction delivery. the change business, december, pp.1-40. porwal, v., lavy, s. and rybkowski, z.k., 2010. last planner system implementation challenges. in: proceedings of the 18th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, haifa, israel. pp.548–56. paro, p., and gerolamo, m. 2017. organizational culture for lean programs. journal of organizational change management. https://doi.org/10.1108/jocm-02-2016-0039 priven, v. and sacks, r., 2013. social network development in last planner system tm implementations. in: proceedings of the 21st annual conference of the international group for lean construction, fortaleza, brazil. pp.537–48. ravi, r., laedre, o., fosse, r., vaidyanathan, k. and svalestuen, f., 2018. the last planner system: comparing indian and norwegian approaches. in: proceedings of the 26th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, chennai, india. pp.381–91. https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0421 saiful, m. and yusoff, b., 2019. abc of content validation and content validity index calculation. education in medicine journal, [e-journal] 11(2), pp.49–54. https://doi.org/10.21315/eimj2019.11.2.6 seppänen, o., modrich, r. and ballard, g., 2015. integration of last planner system and location-based management system. in: proceedings of the 23rd annual conference of the international group for lean construction, perth, australia. pp.123–32. tayeh, b., al-hallaq, k., zahoor, h. and al faqawi, a., 2018. techniques and benefits of implementing last planner system in the gaza strip construction industry. engineering, construction and architectural management. [e-journal] 26(7), pp.1424-36. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2018-0039. pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023161 https://doi.org/10.24928/2021/0192 https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0439 https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0439 https://leanconstruction.org/glossary/ https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0124 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-05-2021-0285 https://doi.org/10.1108/jocm-02-2016-0039 https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0421 https://doi.org/10.21315/eimj2019.11.2.6 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2018-0039 appendices appendix a. survey items for lps production planning and control sr. no. measures nomenclature survey items of lps production planning and control for round-1 action taken updated survey items of lps production planning and control for round-2 action taken 1 percent plan complete ppc 1 we use sticky notes/ excel/software for ppc calculations. validated we use sticky notes/ excel/software for ppc calculations. validated 2 ppc 2 the ppc has been increasing over the period of time. modified the weekly meetings help to achieve a significant increase in the ppc over the period of time validated 3 ppc 3 we monitor ppc on a daily/weekly basis. validated we monitor ppc on a daily/weekly basis. validated 4 ppc 4 in order to understand the planning reliability of the project ppc is used. validated in order to understand the planning reliability of the project ppc is used. validated 5 ppc 5 ppc tracking is helpful for production control. validated ppc tracking is helpful for production control. validated 6 lookahead plan lap 1 the look-ahead plan helps to minimize the variability in the workflow. validated the look-ahead plan helps to minimize the variability in the workflow. validated 7 lap 2 our weekly meetings assist to identify the constraints. validated our weekly meetings assist to identify the constraints. validated 8 lap 3 we analyse each possible constraint in the meeting. validated we analyse each possible constraint in the meeting. validated 9 lap 4 all the not-ready activities are made ready at least a week before their execution. validated all the not-ready activities are made ready at least a week before their execution. validated pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023162 sr. no. measures nomenclature survey items of lps production planning and control for round-1 action taken updated survey items of lps production planning and control for round-2 action taken 10 reasons for noncompletion rnc 1 we always monitor the reasons for the non-completion of activities. validated we always monitor the reasons for the non-completion of activities. validated 11 rnc 2 we always take action to correct the rnc. validated we always take action to correct the rnc. validated 12 rnc 3 our crews are trained regularly to avoid the non-completion of activities. validated our crews are trained regularly to avoid the non-completion of activities. validated 13 rnc 4 in order to capture the reasons for non-completion collaborative planning board is used. eliminated eliminated 14 weekly work plan wwp 1 our crews only commit work that can be completed. validated our crews only commit work that can be completed. validated 15 wwp 2 our crews don’t under/over commit the weekly tasks. validated our crews don’t under/over commit the weekly tasks. validated 16 wwp 3 the setup of our meetings allows a better understanding of the project control. eliminated eliminated 17 wwp 4 our weekly meetings assist to foresee work plans. validated our weekly meetings assist to foresee work plans. validated 18 wwp 5 we identify the level of cause at which countermeasures can be effective in preventing reoccurrence. validated we identify the level of cause at which countermeasures can be effective in preventing reoccurrence. validated pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023163 sr. no. measures nomenclature survey items of lps production planning and control for round-1 action taken updated survey items of lps production planning and control for round-2 action taken 19 tasks anticipated ta 1 we measure the performance of lap with help of ta. validated we measure the performance of lap with help of ta. validated 20 ta 2 we measure the percent of tasks on the commitment plan, which was anticipated before the execution week. validated we measure the percent of tasks on the commitment plan, which was anticipated before the execution week. validated 21 ta 3 ta helps to avoid the identification of new tasks at the last moment. modified no tasks remain unidentified with the aid of ta validated 22 tasks make ready tmr 1 we remove all the constraints from the planned activity. modified involvement of senior management helps remove all the constraints from the planned activities. validated 23 tmr 2 we use tmr to turn work that should be done into work that can be done. validated we use tmr to turn work that should be done into work that can be done. validated 24 tmr 3 we do root cause analysis for the notready activities. validated we do root cause analysis for the notready activities. validated 25 training tr 1 we regularly organize training sessions for lps implementation. eliminated eliminated 26 tr 2 our crew is trained about the concept implementation of lps. validated our crew is trained about the concept implementation of lps. validated 27 tr 3 our crew efficiently participates in the training sessions. modified all the participants share their inputs in the training sessions. validated 28 planning process pp 1 added lps is a part of our standard planning process. validated 29 pp 2 added we use a designated format/report to convey the data with the planning team. validated pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023164 appendix b. final pool of survey items survey items for lps production planning and control sr. no. measure/survey item i-cvi (relevance) i-cvi (clarity) decision percent plan complete 1 in order to understand the planning reliability of the project ppc is used. 1.00 1.00 validated 2 ppc tracking is helpful for production control. 1.00 1.00 validated 3 we use sticky notes/excel/software tools for ppc calculations. 0.80 1.00 validated 4 the weekly meetings help to significantly improve the ppc over the period of time. 1.00 1.00 validated 5 we monitor ppc on a daily basis. 1.00 1.00 validated s-cvi/ave 0.96 1.00 look ahead planning 6 the lookahead plan helps to minimize the variability in the workflow. 1.00 1.00 validated 7 our weekly meetings assist to identify the constraints. 1.00 1.00 validated 8 we analyse each possible constraint in the weekly meetings. 1.00 1.00 validated 9 all the not-ready activities are made ready at least a week before their execution. 1.00 1.00 validated s-cvi/ave 1.00 1.00 reasons for non-completion 10 we always analyse and monitor the reasons for the non-completion of activities. 0.80 1.00 validated 11 we always take action to correct the cause for non-completion. 1.00 1.00 validated 12 our crews are trained and regularly monitored to avoid the non-completion of activities. 0.80 1.00 validated s-cvi/ave 0.87 1.00 weekly work plan 13 our crews only commit work that can be completed. 1.00 1.00 validated 14 our crews do not under/over commit the weekly tasks. 1.00 1.00 validated pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023165 sr. no. measure/survey item i-cvi (relevance) i-cvi (clarity) decision 15 our weekly meetings assist to foresee work plans. 1.00 1.00 validated 16 we identify the level of cause at which countermeasures can be effective in preventing reoccurrence. 0.80 1.00 validated s-cvi/ave 0.95 1.00 tasks anticipated 17 we measure the performance of lap with help of ta. 1.00 1.00 validated 18 we measure the percent of tasks on the commitment plan anticipated before the execution week. 1.00 1.00 validated 19 no tasks remain unidentified with the aid of the ta. 1.00 1.00 validated s-cvi/ave 1.00 1.00 tasks make ready 20 involvement of senior management helps remove all the constraints from the planned activities. 0.80 1.00 validated 21 we use tmr to turn work that should be done into work that can be done. 1.00 1.00 validated 22 we do root cause analysis for the not-ready activities. 0.80 1.00 validated s-cvi/ave 0.87 1.00 training 23 our crews are trained in the concept implementation of lps. 1.00 1.00 validated 24 all the project members (participants) share their inputs and lessons learned about lean implementation in the training sessions. 0.80 1.00 validated s-cvi/ave 0.90 1.00 planning process 25 lps is a part of our standard planning process. 1.00 1.00 validated 26 we use a designated format/report to convey the data with the planning team. 1.00 1.00 validated s-cvi/ave 1.00 1.00 pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023166 survey items for operational performance sr. no. measure/survey item i-cvi (relevance) i-cvi (clarity) decision cost 1 reduction in cost 1.00 1.00 validated s-cvi/ave 1.00 1.00 time 2 reduction in project duration 1.00 1.00 validated 3 improved productivity 1.00 1.00 validated s-cvi/ave 1.00 1.00 quality 4 conformance to project specification 1.00 1.00 validated 5 reduction in rework 1.00 1.00 validated s-cvi/ave 1.00 1.00 safety 6 improved safety 1.00 1.00 validated s-cvi/ave 1.00 1.00 pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023167 appendix c. calculations of cvi values for round-1 survey items of lps production planning and control survey items expert 1 expert 2 expert 3 expert 4 expert 5 expert 6 experts in agreement i-cvi ua ppc 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 5 0.83 0 ppc 2 0 1 1 0 1 1 4 0.67 0 ppc 3 1 0 1 1 1 1 5 0.83 0 ppc 4 1 1 1 1 0 1 5 0.83 0 ppc 5 1 0 1 1 1 1 5 0.83 0 lap 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1.00 1 lap 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1.00 1 lap 3 1 1 1 0 1 1 5 0.83 0 lap 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1.00 1 rnc 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1.00 1 rnc 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1.00 1 rnc 3 1 0 1 1 1 1 5 0.83 0 rnc 4 1 1 0 0 0 1 3 0.50 0 wwp 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1.00 1 wwp 2 1 1 0 1 1 1 5 0.83 0 wwp 3 0 0 1 0 1 1 3 0.50 0 wwp 4 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1.00 1 wwp 5 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1.00 1 ta 1 1 0 1 1 1 1 5 0.83 0 ta 2 1 1 1 0 1 1 5 0.83 0 ta 3 0 1 1 0 1 1 4 0.67 0 tmr 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 5 0.83 0 tmr 2 1 1 1 0 1 1 5 0.83 0 tmr 3 1 0 1 1 1 1 5 0.83 0 tr1 1 0 1 1 0 0 3 0.50 0 tr2 1 1 1 1 1 1 6 1.00 1 tr3 1 0 1 0 1 1 4 0.67 0 s-cvi/ave 0.83 proportion relevance 0.89 0.70 0.93 0.63 0.89 0.96 s-cvi/ua 0.33 average proportion of items judged as relevance across the two experts 0.83 pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023168 survey items of operational performance survey items expert 1 expert 2 expert 3 expert 4 expert 5 expert 6 experts in agreement i-cvi ua cost 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 5 0.83 0 cost 2 1 0 1 0 1 1 4 0.67 0 time 1 1 1 1 1 0 1 5 0.83 0 time 2 1 1 1 0 1 1 5 0.83 0 qual 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 5 0.83 0 qual 2 1 1 1 1 0 1 5 0.83 0 s-cvi/ave 0.81 proportion relevance 1.00 0.83 1.00 0.50 0.50 1.00 s-cvi/ua 0.00 average proportion of items judged as relevance across the two experts 0.81 pancholi & devkar construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023169 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: afolayan, a. s., ajibowu, a. k. 2024. gentrification-related buyouts and sustainable public lowincome housing delivery in lagos, nigeria. construction economics and building, 24:3, 23–39. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v24i3.8843 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article gentrification-related buyouts and sustainable public low-income housing delivery in lagos, nigeria akintade samuel afolayan*, adenike kehinde ajibowu department of estate management, university of lagos, akoka yaba-lagos, nigeria corresponding author: akintade samuel afolayan, department of estate management, university of lagos, nigeria, +234 (0)802 317 7217 aafolayan@unilag.edu.ng; akinafolayan@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.8843 article history: received 04/10/2023; revised 24/12/2023; accepted 08/01/2024; published 01/07/2024 abstract the dynamics of neo-liberalised market skew housing distribution against low-income earners (lie) who have to be assisted with subsidies. in nigeria, this manifests in building public housing estates for lies. this group forms the bulk of the society, running the wheels of economic and productive processes in the urbanisation. as an indicator of the success of subsidy regime, this study explored the extent to which the targeted lies had permanently benefited, taking surulere rehousing estate (scheme i) in lagos, nigeria as case study being typical of low-income estates in lagos. both primary and secondary data sources were explored. a sample of 251 was systematically taken from the estate’s household population of 1,356 for service of structured questionnaire. the questions centred on identified variables of gentrification and related buyouts. the data were processed with spss (20.0) with the outcome in descriptive statistics. the study detected 53.4% buyout rate aside from 11.2% rental cases, especially because of locational advantages including central accessibility of the estate to most parts of lagos city-state. most historic lies, assisted with subsidy had largely yielded ownership and possession to other higher socio-economic classes. this confirmed that the initial subsidy had largely ended up in wrong pockets of a class which could afford housing without it. the study highlighted the futility and non-sustainability of public policy efforts at subsidising lowdeclaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 23 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.8843 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.8843 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:aafolayan@unilag.edu.ng mailto:akinafolayan@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.8843 income housing in its current form, in lagos. administrative, legal and possible taxation measures were proffered for sustainable subsidy practice in future projects. keywords gentrification; housing buyouts; housing market; low-income housing; public housing introduction housing has been acknowledged as one of the basic requirements of man (chionuma 2002; morakinyo et al. 2015). it affects not only the quality of life of users, but additionally their productivity and by extension, the workings of the various sectors of the national economy. its prominence as a human need, especially in the modern world, is often exacerbated by the phenomenon of urbanisation. while housing is essential for all, the standard required by consumers, however, is a function of respective class stratification and/or income level. thus, in a neo-liberal housing market, distribution is often associated with a marked skewness in favour of the upper socio-economic class. an equitable adjustment of this imbalance had long been a major concern of urban housing management and social policy. thus, housing which agbola and adegoke (2007) asserted is deeply rooted in economic considerations, can often be subject of socio-political adjustments. governments all over the world had keyed into the social adjustment through many public policy-vehicles including direct construction, mortgage facility, housing tickets or through other means of subsidy to consumers in the lower income categories. with a study sampling some countries in latin america, africa, asia, former soviet union and eastern europe, katz et al (2012) confirmed that the mode of subsidy could vary in content and coverage across nations. the government of nigeria had been making efforts since the 1920s to intervene in housing the lowincome earners in lagos. while low-income housing had even been made objects of political campaigns, little impacts had been recorded in satisfying the required needs. the target low-income earners according to aduwo, edewor and ibem (2016), constitute about 80% of the urban population. they feed the various production processes and run the machinery of urban dynamics. many efforts could thus, be recounted as made by public policy to make housing available to this group in nigeria. this is occasioned by the importance of housing to the stake-holder groups in the need to stabilise socio-economic balance in the urban setting. extant literatures attested to various government efforts at solving housing problems of the lowincome earners. the situation in lagos, as peculiar, was recognised by public policy because of her geographical placement and hitherto emergence of as political and economic nerve-centre for nigeria and perhaps the whole of west africa subregion. for instance, following the disruption of the first national development plan period by diverse factors including the civil war, and the truncation of the second national development plan (1970 –1974), attention became focused on the third national development plan (1975 – 1980). according to afolayan (2015), in the revised third national development plan (19701974), a total of 202,000 units of public housing was proposed to be built. while 8,000 out of these were earmarked for each of the then 19 states, lagos’ share was boosted to 50,000. with a mix of highly heterogenous population, lagos could be likened to a ‘mini-nigeria’. the origin of public housing intervention in lagos could be traced to the colonial era. the conditions of living which necessitated government intervention in the form of lagos rehousing programme were recalled by international union of local authorities in a uno account of 1965 as pathetic, at least by colonial standards. housing situations were seen as overcrowded with as little as 20-square feet per capita of floor space in the very crowded areas of lagos (i.e., the current lagos island). water supply was from street fountains while sewage disposal was by nightly bucket collection just as domestic waste disposal was either onto ‘unsightly’ central depots or straight into open storm drains. at the breakout of bubonic plague afolayan and ajibowu construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202424 of 1920s, urban renewal and rehousing programmes became a worthwhile programme by the ministry of lagos affairs through the then lagos executive development board (ledb) which was established in 1928. in response to the bubonic plague, the ledb, carried out slum clearance and housing projects in parts of lagos. researchers including omole and akinbamijo (2012) and olusegun (2015) asserted the ledb, charged with the general development of the lagos territory, carried out slum clearance on lagos island and executed schemes in different parts of lagos. the schemes included the lagos central planning scheme for lagos island, freehold housing and plot scheme in surulere, lagos housing scheme (low-cost housing) in yaba as well as surulere re-housing schemes i and ii, among others. one of the aims of these government-built housing schemes was to bring people of different socio-economic groups close together. the surulere (new lagos) rehousing scheme i is the subject of this research. preliminary surveys indicated that most other low-income estates in the state exhibit similar features as this. the study preference for this estate stems from its nature as a pioneer attempt in low-income housing subsidy in the study environment. the estate is located in the present surulere local government council area of lagos state and bounded on its frontal side by western avenue (road) otherwise called funso williams avenue. this is the same road which leads from alagbede to igbobi road over the moshalashi bridge not captured in the google map range here. figure 1. the research area (captured on google map) tejuosho street marks the northern boundary (on barracks side) before the boundary veers into aralile street, unto the t-junction and then further south to define a roughly built rectangle linking the main road back by the office of the public defender as shown on the map. the road by the office (towards national stadium) is iyun road which marks the southern limit. the estate is more specifically delineated as lined in figure 2a below just as figure 2b shows a typical property within the enclave. inwards and to the afolayan and ajibowu construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202425 rear is a swampy landmass filled with untended refuse dump site. the estate is now engulfed by different kinds of activities, more improved residential houses, motor vehicle sales points, as well as educational and commercial facilities. the popular tejuosho market has additionally spread its tentacles even into the rear arteries of the estate. the location of the estate is seen and considered central to, and easily accessible from most parts of the state. figure 2a. estate boundary marked out on obtained google map figure 2b. typical house in the estate obtained on google the intention of government in this instance was to build smaller apartments which would provide more affordable housing options for the lower-income group (adebayo & iweka, 2013). the sheer volume of housing production, however, especially at a level not large enough to go round all needs, would not solve housing problem. a major regulator of the solution is the distribution machinery. one of the indicators of any successful housing delivery programme is the extent to which home ownership assistance or housing subsidies reach the target group (katz et al, 2012). however, a neo-liberal approach in housing distribution puts the low-income earners at a disadvantage. thus, the success of housing policy targeted at the respective socio-economic groups requires public policy to allocate and ring-fence units to the economically disadvantaged working-class residents. however, some in-built knells militate against the sustainability of the efforts by public policy at solving these problems. a major factor, among several others, is the issue of gentrification-related buyouts by the upper-income groups. this paper is set out to examine the extent to which gentrification had occurred in surulere rehousing estate phase i, lagos, an erstwhile low-income housing environment. this is towards partly assessing its impacts on the tenurial stability of the initial property allottees. the paper will, in the process, identify the major causes of such gentrification process and further explore the implications of this for sustainability of future low-income home ownership projects. this paper is presented in segments including the introduction about the general background of the study; literature review for theoretical underpinnings; and methodology on the exercise of research. then other segments were about data presentation, analysis and discussions from which conclusions were drawn, necessitating the recommendations to curb wasted public-policy efforts and towards a more sustainable approach in the exercise of subsidised low-income housing delivery in the state and nigeria at large. literature review schlossberg (2017) had traced the origin and evolution of the term ‘gentrification’ to its coinage by a british sociologist, ruth glass in her study of neighbourhoods very close to the centre of london in the early 1960s. she was said to have noted with deep concern, the manner in which the erstwhile workers’ quarters in the district suffered change in social character resulting from invasion by middle class residents. afolayan and ajibowu construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202426 this was noted to have invariably led to the displacement of at least most of the historic residents. while controversies raged along the standardisation of a definition for gentrification, the term was adopted by muti-disciplinary settings (economics, sociology, planning, community activism, etc.) as used by its originator and woven around the causative factors and resultant effects of influx of relatively higher socioeconomic users into incumbent and historic lower-income neighbourhoods. however, what was generally agreed by researchers included the fact that gentrification process involved an influx of higher economic class into residential environment of lower socio-economic one, whereby home values and other sociodemographic shifts were experienced in hitherto disinvested neighbourhoods (monare, kotze and mckay, 2014; hwang & lin, 2016; schlossberg, 2017). hwang and lin (2016) opined that some gentrified neighbourhoods were characterised not only by interrupted population growth pattern, but essentially by household compositions with a tilt more in the direction of relatively higher socio-economic residents. thus, the neighbourhood experiences higher level of heterogeneity in its household composition sequel to this ‘invasion’. no matter the controversy, one major issue with gentrification is that it involved a social change as well as a physical change in the housing stock/quality just as an economic change in the land and housing market. the antagonists of gentrification asserted that the possibility of its effects in raising house price could result in displacement of historic residents or that the resultant dearth of affordable housing could become aggravated with existing housing stock becoming retrofitted for yet higher markets targeted at the invading higher socio-economic class. atkinson (2004) confirmed from existing evidence, the costs and largely harmful impacts of gentrification as including household displacement and loss of affordable housing. there appeared to be a dearth of extant literature on gentrification in nigeria. however, on international scale, examples abound. monare, kotze and mckay (2014) highlighted examples both in uk, us, and, even, africa. the source cited the cases of barnsbury, london and park slope, new york city where disinvested settings became gentrified with the influx of middle-class residents. mention was also made of the situation in parkhurst, johannesburg, south africa. however, while the uk example tends to portray gentrification as somewhat similar to urban regeneration, clear-cut differences avail between the two scenarios. while regeneration is engendered by public policy, gentrification on the other hand, is rather an anti-policy development often wilfully exercised by relatively different socio-economic groups against the other in topdown manner. gentrification is capable of having both negative and positive impacts on the environment. powell and spencer (2003) highlighted major negative effects of gentrification as including class conflicts between historic residents and the more affluent ‘invaders. others were the loss of low-rent accommodation or/ and commercial space as well as overall increased property value and taxes as may become applicable to the neighbourhood. ordinarily, increased property values in itself would have constituted improved holding value of assets. however, as succinctly put by levy, comey and padilla (2007), the increase becomes a problem in a low-income housing environment when the income of historic residents could no longer keep pace with living standard created by the invaders. invariable displacement of initial users is a natural progression of events from here. direct displacement may result from buyouts or inability of low-income incumbent residents to cope with economics and social situation in the neighbourhood. apart from incidence of direct displacement, freeman and schuetz (2017) identified another form of displacement. exclusionary displacement, as it was called, occurs when poor households from outside the neighbourhood became excluded from the prospects of securing affordable accommodation in a gentrified district. generally, significant increase in rent and sale prices of houses is usually manifested in gentrified neighbourhoods as the invading socio-economic group, which according to hamnett (1991), could pay and conveniently induce the working-class incumbents to give up their units. tenure transformation too, takes place whereby, erstwhile renters buy over their landlords’ interests or secure the cooperation of other willing landlord-sellers within the neighbourhood for take-over bids. under normal circumstances, the afolayan and ajibowu construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202427 pricing of old housing units has a gradual way of securing price appreciation, catching up with or becoming comparative to gentrifying units lately developed, if any, in the neighbourhood. freeman and schuetz (2017) opined that gentrification could additionally engender, in the mind of initial residents, a feeling of being “pushed out” of the neighbourhood resulting from inability to cope with new trends occasioned by the influx of new residents of higher socio-economic status. with little or no control over what the authors styled “disempowerment” as would be felt by the lower socio-economic class, they could move out of their neighbourhoods, even willingly, in search of psycho-social well-being which housing outside the neighbourhood could offer. the advocates of affordable housing appraise gentrification from the angle of its effects in skewing housing market in favour of middle-class entrants into the neighbourhood, so much to the detriment of the incumbents, that displacement may become inevitable. again, the already created atmosphere of scarce affordable housing could be compounded with the replacement of current stock with higher-priced market housing units to cater for the whims of the higher socio-economic group (schlossberg, 2017). however, on the other side of the view expressed by powell and spencer (2003) were those of monare, kotze and mckay (2014), which pointed out a particular positive angle to gentrification, among others. the source opined that gentrification could encourage inter-class social mixing among the composite residents, thereby enhancing aspects of subjective well-being. mehdinapah et al. (2018) was also credited with the notion that gentrification could be beneficial to the society in terms of bringing vibrancy to communal life in addition to reducing crime rate, among other things. monare, kotze and mckay (2014), however, attested to the role which the centrality of the location could play in aiding the rate at which a neighbourhood is gentrified. similarly, researchers (including edlund, machado and sviatschi, 2015 and baum-snow and hartley, 2016) attested to the role which location and resultant opportunity cost of commuting could play in gentrification processes. hwang and lin (2016) were also of the opinion that low-income housing locations with good work access factors have the tendency for gentrification. thus, should such a ‘run-down’ area be located within an economically attractive zone, or is characterised by unique architecture and/or is home to restaurants, then gentrification, in the form of re-investment, could later be witnessed there. methodology cross-sectional survey was adopted to collect primary data for this research. it is expected to generate sufficient data within a short period of time and at reasonably low-cost. this was done with the aid of questionnaires served on sampled resident-households within the estate. secondary data, in terms of property types and allocation history as well as procedures, were obtained from the archival records of lagos state development and property corporation (lsdpc), a conglomerate which evolved from the merging of the initial ledb developers with some other related concerns. some research questions were answered here. the first was on the extent to which the demographic profile of the residents had experienced significant change from the historic content. another question was whether or not the erstwhile social cohesion in the estate had been altered. furthermore, the research will enquire about the level of displacement of initial allottees and therefrom appraise the worthwhileness and sustainability of public policy in the special intervention of low-income housing provision. a sample of 251 household apartments was systematically drawn from a pool of 1,356 in the estate. this sample represents about 18.5% of the study population. much research works on low-income housing in nigeria including jiboye (2009) had employed the use of about 10% of the residents. the instrument for data collection was a structured questionnaire. this contained sections including those of demographic variables to profile the current stock of households, as well as others regarding the key variables of research towards answering the already stated research questions. informal interview sessions were held with residents to capture any of the issues perceived not exhaustively covered at questionnaire service sessions. here, efforts were focused on afolayan and ajibowu construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202428 ascertaining current situations and conditions of gentrification within the estate. the collected data were edited for completion and consistency and thereafter coded for input into statistical package for social sciences (spss) version 20.0. measures of frequency were utilised in the analysis. data presentation and analysis a total of 1356 household flats were identified in the scheme. based on a sample size formula of watson (2001) a sample of 251 households was randomly selected for collection of primary data for the study. the retrieved questionnaires were centrally edited for completeness and consistency following which, only 107 were adjudged good for coding and analysis. this represents 43% effective response rate. this was considered good enough for the study. idrus and newman (2002) had lent credence to the adequacy of a response rate of about 30% as sufficient for research in construction industry, even in the uk where respondents could be more research-inclined and open to enquiries. socio-demographic details the demographic details of respondents are as summarised in table 1 below. table 1. socio-demographic details of respondents characteristics n % a: response rate and gender of respondents male 94 87.9 female 13 12.1 total 107 100 b: age of respondents between 25 – 40 years 23 21.5 between 41 and 55 years 58 54.2 between 56 and 60 years 8 7.5 above 60 years 18 16.8 total 107 100 c: marital status of respondents married 73 68.2 widowed 14 13.1 divorced 20 18.7 total 107 100 d: education level of respondents below hnd/bsc 30 28 hnd/ bsc (college degree) 60 56.1 above hnd/ bsc 17 15.9 total 107 100 afolayan and ajibowu construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202429 characteristics n % e: employment sector of respondents private sector 53 49.5 self-employment 36 33.6 retired 18 16.8 total 107 100 in table 1 above, the first column identified the characteristics of the respondent-households while the second gave the frequencies recorded per item, which were subsequently expressed in respective percentages in the third column. from the table, it could be seen that 94 households representing 87.9% of the total number of sampled households were represented by male respondents while 13 (12.1%) had female representatives. the tilt in favour of males is quite normal in the study environment being a patriarchal society. makama (2013) among other researchers had confirmed nigeria as highly patriarchal exhibiting a feature of the socio-cultural environment. age of respondents in terms of age of the respondents, 23 (21.5%) of them were classed as belonging to the age bracket of 25 to 40 years just as 58 (54.2%) were between 41 and 50 years of age. furthermore, 8(7.5%) of them were of 51 to 60 years while 18 (16.8%) were above 60years. the implications of this distribution for property acquisition are apt as the major land use and administration law in nigeria, (the land use act, 1978) stipulates 21 years for maturity to own and take possession landed property. out of these, 73 (68.2%) of the respondents were currently married ,14 (13.1%) widowed, while 20 (18.7%) are divorced. these parameters have relevance in the ease at which residents of a gentrified neighbourhood could move or be induced to. education status of respondents the enquiry about educational status of the respondents showed almost a normal distribution as viewed from a three-pedestal rating. those with educational level below of below college degree (hnd/b. sc.) were 30 representing 28% of the whole. those with college degree were 60 (56.1%) while those with qualifications above college degree were 17 (15.9%). with this, the respondents were deemed educated enough to understand the enquiries under gentrification and respond appropriately. james and rajan (2004) acknowledged the importance of good respondents’ education in the quality of research results. this source espoused how difficult it would be for uneducated respondents to give accurate answer to research enquiries. it further confirmed the susceptibility to error, the of analysis of data collected from uneducated groups, more so on sensitive technical issue as covered in this research. employment status of respondents of the total number of respondents, 53 (49.5%) were engaged in private sector employment while 36 (33.6%) were self-employed. ‘self-employment’ in this clime represents a dignified way of admitting not being in public or private paid employment. while it could be generously well-remunerated at times, it could also involve income uncertainties at others. the more uncertain, or absent the earnings of a household, the more could be the incentive to yield to temptations to respond to gentrification-induced housing movement. the retired segment of the respondents who are also not involved in active wage earning recorded 18 (16.8%). table 1. continued afolayan and ajibowu construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202430 property ownership and tenurial issues the ownership structure of respondent-residents as well as their applicable housing tenures were explored. the outcome of this is summarised in table 2 below. table 2. property ownership and tenurial issues characteristics n % a: tenurial status of respondents owner occupied 77 72 multiple/joint ownership (family house) 18 16.8 renter and others 12 11.2 total 107 100 b: length of stay in the estate less than 10 years 12 11.2 between 10 15 years 14 13.1 between 16 -20 years 71 66.4 above 20 years 10 9.3 total 107 100 c: ownership of other properties outside the estate yes 69 64.4 no 38 35.6 total 107 100 the configuration of table 2 is as in the earlier case. from table 2 above, it could be seen that 77 (72%) of the respondents were owner-occupiers in their apartments while one family representing 0.9% inherited its own accommodation from older parents. the apartments which were jointly owned as family residence were 18 in number constituting 16.8% of the entire stock of sampled properties. this represents the chip of the old block, albeit with the dwindling notion of social cohesion and sense of place (attachment). stedman (2002) related sense of place to the cognition within space which, examination of identity and area satisfaction could determine. renters constituted 11.2% of the residents in the studied estate. the implications of the recorded tenurial structures are more aptly captured in the discussions later in the paper. length of stay in the estate twelve of the respondents which amounts to 11.2% have lived in the estate for less than 10 years just as 14 (13.1%) have lived there for between 10 to 15 years. similarly, 71 (66.4%) and 10 (9.3%) have lived in the estate between 16-20 years and above 20 years respectively. substantially, a bulk of the residents were familiar with tenancy issues within the estate having lived there for a reasonably lengthy period of time. afolayan and ajibowu construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202431 ownership of other properties outside the estate the structure of residents’ ownership of other properties outside the estate is also as seen in table 2 above. sixty-nine respondents amounting to 64.4% owned other properties outside the estate aside from the ones lived in. conversely, 38(35.6%) did not own other properties outside the estate. what is owned elsewhere makes it easy to be pushed-out or at least weakens the tenacity to remain in the estate against all odds. the availability of alternatives as cushion for harsh economic situations prepares good ground or engenders tolerance to be pushed out property acquisition and funding pattern the survey ascertained how the current properties were acquired by the respondents. the intention was to directly identify the initial allottees who were beneficiaries of public policy of low-income subsidised allocation as different from others who took through the neo-liberalised housing market. efforts were also made to identify the various income groups by ascertaining the respective groups’ average monthly earnings from employments or business concerns run by them. an insight into this query would determine the level of vulnerability to buyouts as the low-income earners could be more susceptible. the outcome of these enquiries is summarised in table 3 below. table 3. property acquisition and funding pattern characteristics n % a: mode of property acquisition directly from govt 22 20.5 from initial allottee 55 53.4 family inheritance 18 16.8 rented from allottee 12 11.2 total 107 100 b: funding for acquisition from personal savings 66 61.7 from mortgage bank 41 38.3 total 107 100 c: mode of payment for acquisition lumpsum payment 57 53.3 periodic (yearly) 50 46.7 total 107 100 d. average monthly income of respondents between n10,000 – n30,000 19 17.8 n 61,000 – 90,000 18 16.8 above n90,000 70 65.4 total 107 100 afolayan and ajibowu construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202432 from the table 3 above, a total of 22 (20.5%) of the respondents constituted the remaining direct allottees from the government policy of housing the low-income earners in this estate while another 16.8% were descendants of, or inheritors from some earlier allottees. it was also very clear from this table that as many as 55(53.4%) bought their flats from erstwhile owners. the remaining were renters. a total of 61.7% of the respondents acquired the properties with personal savings while 38.3% did so through bank loans. in the same vein, 53.3% of them paid lumpsum while the remainder, including renters, acquired current interests in the properties through periodic payments. the survey also showed that 17.8% of the respondents were truly within the minimum income bracket of n30, 000 per month and below. the remaining class of current residents (82.2%) could have been secondary residents coming into the estate after possible displacement of initial allottees. level of services in the estate the level of services in the estate were rated to understand the perception of the residents in this regard. the ratings varied from ‘excellent’, ‘very good’, ‘good’, ‘fair’ to ‘poor’ and ‘very poor’. the roles which such perceptions could play in encouraging gentrification cannot be overemphasised. examined in this regard were the states of services including water supply, estate maintenance services, and estate security architecture. others were availability of central shopping centre and central sewage system. findings in these regards were as summarised in table 4 below. table 4. rating of current estate services characteristics n % a: water supply very good 13 12.1 good 72 67.3 fair 19 17.8 very poor 3 2.8 total 107 100 b: estate maintenance good 63 58.9 poor 2 1.9 very poor 42 39.3 total 107 100 c: estate security very good 13 12.1 good 74 69.2 fair 20 18.7 total 107 100 afolayan and ajibowu construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202433 characteristics n % d: central sewage system very good 1 0.9 good 84 78.5 fair 18 16.8 very poor 4 3.7 total 107 100 e: situation of playground very good 15 14 poor 56 52.3 very poor 36 33.6 total 107 100 from the table 4, the state of water supply was adjudged (very) good by a total of 85 representing 79.4% of the sampled residents in the estate. the remaining 22 (20.6%) were not that appreciative of the situation. in terms of estate maintenance, only 58.9% of the sample agreed to its being good while the rest differed in opinion between assessing it as either poor or very poor. the state of estate security was adjudged good by 81.3% of the respondents just as 79.4% endorsed the state and operations of the central sewage treatment plant as good and satisfactory. conversely, however, 85.9% of the respondent households rated the provision of the neighbourhood playground as poor. motivation for further transactions the sampled residents were asked if they were motivated in any way to sell their respective flats or were otherwise considering the purchase of additional units. the import of this question was the need to ascertain the willingness or otherwise of yielding to buyouts and/or acquisition tendencies in the immediate neighbourhood. the ascertainment of such propensities prepares the ground for take-over bids. a summary of elicited responses is as contained in table 5 below. table 5. property sale and purchase propensities characteristics n % a: considering selling occupied flat? yes 61 57 no 46 43 total 107 100 b. motivation to sell unstable government policy 1 0.9 increased property value 63 58.9 table 4. continued afolayan and ajibowu construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202434 characteristics n % nothing 21 19.6 nothing for now 22 20.6 total 107 100 c. considering buying another flat in the estate? yes 87 81.3 no 20 18.7 total 107 100 d. incentive for proposed purchase affordability 18 16.8 centrality of location 89 83.2 total 107 100 in this table, 61 (57%) of the respondents were agreeable to possible sale of the flats they currently occupied during the survey. towards this end, 63 (58.9%) of the respondents admitted the increased price of properties in the neighbourhood as compared with initial acquisition costs and circumstances as the major incentive to sell. similarly, 87 (81.3%) of the respondents including essentially speculators expressed the willingness to acquire properties therein for investment, in anticipation of further enhanced (speculative) value. the major incentive for proposed purchase hinged on the centrality and accessibility attributes of the neighbourhood from most parts of lagos state business environment. amen and nia (2020) saw such estate, with its locational advantage, as having ‘high reachability and gravity’ which constitute special attractions for gentrification. while hansen (1959) had underscored the importance of centrality or/and accessibility in shaping urban land use, nillson (2022) was of the opinion that accessibility preference of a location to other destinations entails a summary from each location in the interaction network to the other places on the network. also, it is clear from the table above that accessibility, nay affordability, was the main attraction and incentive for proposed acquisitions. only 18 (16.3%) of the respondents, probably among the invading higher socio-economic group cited affordability as a probable incentive. discussions from table 2 above, it could be seen that the renters constituting 11.2% in the estate are in the minority among the resident groups. thus, owners of different categories constitute the majority. these include the 53.4% (see table 3) of those who purchased from initial allottees. the initial/historic residents, also of varying categories (including inheritors as in table 3) constitute 37.3% (20.5 plus 16.8% in table 3). these owner-groups, especially the bonafide, original allottees constitute the group which could either be intimidated by the invading higher socio-economic groups or be so induced /persuaded to part with ownership rights especially with their background of low-income characteristics. the power of higher income in this subjugation had been particularly corroborated by smith (2000) in seeing a reinvestment of capital as a weapon which would create space for a more “affluent class of people” than current occupiers of the estate. with seemingly advanced age bracket of above 60 years (table 1) too, many of them could be table 5. continued afolayan and ajibowu construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202435 more easily disposed to taking alternative smaller and cheaper accommodation in the outskirts as they do not necessarily, any longer, need to be close to any centre of formal employment. the federal government of nigeria, fgn (2009) had put the formal retirement age from public service at 60years. another 33.6% were self-employed and could be considered footloose in spatial positioning relative to business opportunities. the table reflecting employment status (table 1) indicated 16,8% in the retired group, the bulk of which could be part of the recorded 16.8% who are said to be above 60years of age. fortunately, or otherwise, a total of 64.4% of the respondents claimed to have ownership of other properties outside the estate. the more the number of initial allotees, especially the retired ones that fall into this category of multiple property owners (including outside the estate), the higher is the propensity for them to catch in on the rising value of properties in the estate by selling off current holdings therein. the 11.2% of the respondent residents which had lived in the estate for less than 10 years (table 2) are probably the renters. this group represents ‘perchers-on’, a potential team who could buy permanent tenure if the opportunity comes up. they constitute a waiting group for the manifestation of what hamnett (1991) styled tenure transformation. the other 13.1% who had been there for between 10 and 15 years would definitely not be part of the initial allottees since the properties were allocated and occupied since about 1958. if they are not renters, they would be part of the outright buyers of accommodations in the estate within the last 15 years. the state of infrastructure except that of playground within the estate were generally adjudged to be good (table 4). these include water supply and estate maintenance. others so rated were estate security and sewage disposal. the poor state or rating of the playground could have been due to the age structure of the society with those aged 41years and above (totalling 88.5%) not much concerned about sports. alternatively, this could have been occasioned by the closeness of the national stadium playground and gymnasium, surulere to the estate. this is within 5-10 minutes’ walk. conclusion and recommendations the study showed that the location of the estate was very central enough (see table 5) to allow easy access of the target population to places of employment both on the mainland and island of lagos. this location provided a complete housing package for the less privileged members of the community who would have ordinarily been priced out the housing market by laissez-faire neo-liberal tendencies. the study revealed that 17.8% of the respondents were within the official minimum wage bracket of n30,000 as monthly income. thus, the remaining set of current resident-respondents could have belonged to the later generation of higher socio-economic ‘invaders’. it was also made clear in the study that more than half of the current residents (53.4%) bought off their accommodations from the historic owners. in addition to these, 57% of the residents expressed willingness to possible disposal of their current stock just as 58.9% cited the increased property values in the estate as a major incentive to sell their properties (table 5). from all angles, the situation presented a favourable template for massive secondary acquisition as the stage appeared properly and conveniently set for further buyouts by more aggressive and perhaps younger new owners in the estate. this was in line with the fears expressed by kotze (2013) who had studied south africa and seen the ravaging rate of gentrification buyouts in bo-kaap, cape town. he subsequently opined, in conclusion, that with the soaring prices of housing units as incentives to sell, most of the remaining properties would be sold off to the invading outsiders as soon as the current, older generation of owners (the initial allottees) dies out. this definitely paints a schema of defeat of the initial goals of government intervention in housing market for equitable distribution and accommodation of the low-income earners. the efforts by public policy only ends up at subsidising housing for the up-and-going class of consumers who ordinarily could afford housing in the normal distribution market. a very sizeable portion of the initial allottees have been displaced. this development corroborates the findings of monare, kotze and mckay (2014) on parkhurst in afolayan and ajibowu construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202436 south africa where it was acknowledged that the demographic profile of the residents had changed over the years due to gentrification-related buyouts. this queries the sustainability of public policy measures in ringfencing the low-income earners in housing market. in a gentrification-related buyout system as herein affirmed, the sustainability of the subsidy system cannot be guaranteed. the low-income earners invariably yield possession and ownership to higher socioeconomic groups who could afford the wherewithal to secure land and property in commuter zones of the city with little form of subsidy. the government subsidy had had to end up in wrong hands of those who would still not pay appropriate price for property acquisition and perhaps had not paid property tax on the shortfall in acquisition cost. thus, a major loophole in the low-income housing process could be identified to be in the instrument of demise. it could be recommended that more stringent, enforceable restrictive conditions of demise of properties be made applicable from the onset in subsequent low-income housing delivery projects to forestall easy and unbridled transfer. in this light, the right of first refusal should be guaranteed the development authority in any subsequent sale process. furthermore, instruments of taxation could be utilised to inhibit the transfer system and make wilful, whimsical disposal very difficult if not outrightly impossible. even when transferors fraudulently present the transaction as a gift inter vivos (during their lifetime) heavy gift tax should be imposed on the new transferee owners. where it is portrayed as a bequeath (devolving on death), a sizeable amount of probate tax should be imposed on the new assumed administrator of the demised estate. even recognised sales should be made to attract a formidable recompense for the usual government’s stipulated consent on current transfer and subsequent purchasers for value. this could include a heavy capital gains tax on allotteesellers. ethical considerations while no formal certification was obtained, ethical issues were strictly adhered to in the course of this work. strict confidentiality, as assured the respondents during data collection, was upheld. specific apartment or respondent-identities were protected all through. the recorded opinions and elicited information which were utilised for this study came from what were willingly supplied by respondents who, in their own rights, personally understood the focus of research and consented to granting interview or filling questionnaires for data collection. there was no record of current or envisaged conflict of interest by any party involved in the execution, authorship or/and publication of this research work. acknowledgements we acknowledge the cooperation of the respondent-residents who were kind enough to grant us audience in an environment where enquiries are usually treated with suspicion in the fear of possible outcome as taxation by government. the other sources from which our secondary data have been extracted are similarly appreciated. furthermore, while the research did not benefit from any direct cash funding, it is hereby acknowledged that part of the researchers’ university work hours was expended on the research. we also acknowledge in anticipation, the cooperation of the chief editor of (ajceb) construction economics and building and his team for accepting our paper for possible publication. thank you all. references adebayo, a. and iweka, a., 2013. effect of households’ socio-economic condition on crowding in government-built apartments in lagos, nigeria. ethiopian journal of environmental studies and management, [e-journal] 6(4). pp.419-26. https://doi.org/10.4314/ejjesm.v6i4.11 afolayan and ajibowu construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202437 https://doi.org/10.4314/ejjesm.v6i4.11 aduwo, e. b., edewor, p.a. and ibem, e.o., 2016. urbanization and housing for low-income earners in nigeria: a review of features, challenges and prospects. mediterranean journal of social sciences, [e-journal] 7 (3s1), pp.347-57. https://doi.org/10.5901/miss. 2016.v7n3s1p347 afolayan, a.s., 2015. assessment of user satisfaction for enhanced housing quality and investment viability in selected estates in lagos state, nigeria. ph. d. university of lagos, lagos, nigeria. agbola, t. and adegoke, s.a., 2007. economics of housing. in: t. agbola, l. egunjobi and c.o. olatubara, eds. housing development and management: a book of readings. pp.107-49. ibadan: department of urban & regional planning, university of ibadan, nigeria. amen, m.a. and nia, h.a., 2020. the effect of centrality values in urban gentrification development: a case study of erbil city. civil engineering and architecture, [e-journal] 8(5), pp.916-28. https://doi.org/10.13189/cea.2020.080519 atkinson, r., 2004. the evidence on the impact of gentrification: new lessons for the urban renaissance? european journal of housing policy, 4(1), pp.107-31. baum-snow, n. and hartley, d., 2016. causes and consequences of central neighborhood change, 1970–2010. working paper. toronto, on, canada: university of toronto. chionuma, o.n., 2002. modalities for a secondary mortgage market in nigeria. in: national workshop on sustainable housing finance in nigeria. 9-10 october 2002, lagos airport hotel. edlund, l., machado, c. and sviatschi, m.m., 2015. bright minds, big rent: gentrification and the rising returns to skill. nber working paper 21729. cambridge, ma: national bureau of economic research. freeman, l. and schuetz, j., 2017. producing affordable housing in rising markets: what works? cityscape, 19(1), pp.21736. fgn, 2009. federal government of nigeria official gazette no 57 (public service rules, 2008). abuja: federal government printer. hamnett, c., 1991. the blind men and the elephant: the explanation of gentrification. transactions of the institute of british geographers, 16(2), pp.173-89. hansen, w.g., 1959. how accessibility shapes land use. journal of the american institute of planners, [e-journal] 25(2), pp.73-76. https://doi.org/10.1080/01944365908978307 hwang, j. and lin, j., 2016. what have we learned about the causes of recent gentrification? cityscape, 18(3), pp.9-26. idrus, a.b. and newman, j.b., 2002. construction related factors influencing the choice of concrete floor systems. construction management and economics, 20, pp.13–19. international union of local authorities (iula), 1965. renewal and rehousing in lagos, nigeria. in: renewal of town and village ii. springer, dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7123-8_7 james, k.s. and rajan, s.i., 2004. respondents and quality of survey data. economic and political weekly, 39(7), pp.65963. jiboye, a. d. 2009. the challenges of sustainable housing and urban development in nigeria. in 4th international conference on research and development pp. 11-23. international research and development institute, unilag, akoka, nigeria. katz, j., lipman, b., colopinto, k., zanelli, m.l. and lewis, a.c., 2012. global housing indicators: evidence for action. americus, ga: habitat for humanity international. [online] available at: https://www.globalurban.org/global_ housing_indicators_report.pdf. afolayan and ajibowu construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202438 https://doi.org/10.5901/miss https://doi.org/10.13189/cea.2020.080519 https://doi.org/10.1080/01944365908978307 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-7123-8_7 https://www.globalurban.org/global_housing_indicators_report.pdf https://www.globalurban.org/global_housing_indicators_report.pdf kotze, n., 2013. a community in trouble? the impact of gentrification on the bo-kaap, cape town. urbanistični inštitut republike slovenije urban planning institute of the republic of slovenia, 24(2), pp.124-32. levy, d.k., comey, j. and padilla, s., 2007. in the face of gentrification: case studies of local efforts to mitigate displacement. journal of affordable housing & community development law, 16(3), pp.238-315. makama, g.a., 2013. patriarchy and gender inequality in nigeria: the way forward. european scientific journal, 9, pp.115-44. mehdipanah, r., marra, g., melis, g. and gelormino, e., 2018. urban renewal, gentrification and health equity: a realist perspective. european journal of public health, 28(2), pp.243-48. monare, p.t, kotzé, n., and mckay, t.m., 2014. a second wave of gentrification: the case of parkhurst, johannesburg, south africa, urbani izziv, 25, pp.s108-s121. morakinyo, k.o., okunola, a.s., ogunrayewa, m.o. and dada, o., 2015. a review of private sectors’ involvement in urban housing provision in nigeria. international journal of civil engineering, construction and estate management, 3(2), pp.36-47. nillson, l., 2022. network-based urban growth: how centrality and accessibility shape land use. ph. d. department of architecture and civil engineering, chalmers university of technology, gothenburg, sweden. olusegun, g.k., 2015. critical examination of facilities management in housing: a study of housing estates in lagos state, nigeria. ph. d. university of bolton, uk. omole, f.k. and akinbamijo, o.b., 2012. land development and planning laws in nigeria: the historical account. journal of law, policy and globalization, 8, pp.25–31. powell, j. and spencer, m., 2003. giving them the old one-two: gentrification and the k.o. of impoverished urban dwellers of color. howard law journal 46(3), pp.433-90. schlossberg, d., 2017. what do we talk about when we talk about gentrification? journal of affordable housing & community development law, 25(2), pp.215-18. smith, n., 2000. gentrification. in: the dictionary of human geography, r.j. derek gregory, geraldine pratt, and michael watt, eds. london: blackwell, pp.294. stedman, r.c., 2002. toward a social psychology of place: predicting behavior from place-based cognitions, attitude, and identity. environment and behavior, 34(5), pp405-25. watson, j., 2001. how to determine sample size, tipsheet #60. university park, pa: penn state cooperative extension. available at: http://www.extension.psu.edu/evaluation/pdf/ts60.pdf. [accessed: 25 october 2016]. afolayan and ajibowu construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202439 http://www.extension.psu.edu/evaluation/pdf/ts60.pdf construction economics and building vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 2023 © 2023 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: brewer, g. 2023. editorial: quality in challenging times. construction economics and building, 23:3/4, 1–2. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v23i3/4.8963 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb editorial editorial: quality in challenging times graham brewer school of architecture and built environment, university of newcastle, callaghan, nsw2308, australia corresponding author: graham brewer, school of architecture and built environment, univesity of newcastle, callaghan, nsw2308, australia, graham.brewer@newcastle.edu.au doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8963 article history: received 08/12/2023; revised 08/12/2023; accepted 09/12/2023; published 23/12/2023 whilst construction economics and building prides itself on a fast publication turnaround (and this issue’s content predominantly contains papers that have been submitted/resubmitted since april 2023) it is inevitable that these reflect research that was conducted during the challenges posed by the covid 19 pandemic. that this has been possible is a testament to the commitment of these authors. moreover, the academics who generously donated their time to review/re-review both these papers, and those that were ultimately rejected or recommended for resubmission, were doing so at a time when their own universities were grappling – and continue to grapple – with the fallout from the pandemic. invariably, this has resulted in increased expectations and workloads; the quality of the finished papers therefore reflects their commitment to academic standards despite all pressures to the contrary. given these conditions and the additional constraints they place on authors and reviewers alike, it is gratifying to see sustained quality and an increase in the quantity, and diversity of topics that are being investigated, predominantly in the context of the developing world. whilst there clearly can be no preplanned focus to a standard issue of the journal, it is possible for broad themes to emerge from a larger tranche of papers and indeed, this issue appears to have surfaced four of them: firstly, research into industry and workforce challenges, specifically a declining workforce in the us roofing industry, and the vulnerability of informal workers in the indonesian construction sector have revealed strategies to attract, retain, and protect these employees. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 1 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8963 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8963 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8963 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:graham.brewer@newcastle.edu.au https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i3/4.8963 secondly, investigating issues of labour training and consequent performance improvement have been addressed in the indian context, presenting the development of systematic training components and the consequent, demonstrable performance improvement across multiple elements of competence. thirdly, researching contractual, operational, and commercial influences on project viability and delivery to deliver lower numbers of disputes and improved project performance in new zealand, improved organisational culture and project delivery in india, and improved commercial viability of infrastructure projects in indonesia through novel revenue generation. lastly, innovative research conceptualisation and methodology has been used variously to incorporate qualitative data analysis in system dynamics modelling in nigeria, to identify the underlying rationale behind anticorruption systems and their effectiveness (also in the nigerian context), and to investigate barriers and adoption to digitalisation in the jordanian aec sector. i hope you both enjoy and gain value from reading this issue. i will also take this opportunity to wish you and yours a happy and peaceful end to 2023, before looking forward to renewing our common bond through academic endeavour in 2024! stay safe, be well. gb brewer construction economics and building, vol. 23, no. 3/4 december 20232 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: gowthaman, m., gamage, i., karunaratne, t. 2025. framework for managing deficiencies and inefficiencies in quantity surveying-related software implementation. construction economics and building, 25:2, 192–214. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v25i2.9191 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article framework for managing deficiencies and inefficiencies in quantity surveying-related software implementation moorthy gowthaman1, iresha gamage2, tania karunaratne3,* 1 unique project solutions, dubai, united arab emirates 2 school of engineering, design and built environment, western sydney university, nsw, australia 3 oxford college of business, colombo, sri lanka corresponding author: tania karunaratne, karunarathne7tania@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9191 article history: received 15/06/2024; revised 08/02/2025; accepted 20/04/2025; published 08/08/2025 abstract there is a wide variety of software that can be applied in the construction sector relating to various aspects including design, time management, cost management, and quality management. software like autocad, costx, revit, costos™, vico cost planner, planswift, oracle primavera, cubicost, and bluebeam are among the prominent software that directly deal with cost management/quantity surveying (qs) aspects in construction projects. although the global construction sector has been revolutionised by information technology, the sri lankan construction industry continues to be slow to adopt new technologies due to many factors. in particular, quantity surveyors encounter deficiencies and inefficiencies when implementing quantity surveying-related software within the sri lankan construction industry, mainly due to the issues related to the product, organisation, and human resources. therefore, this study focused on strategies to overcome deficiencies and inefficiencies in implementing quantity surveying-related software in sri lanka and thereby enhance productivity. a qualitative approach was adopted using a survey research strategy to investigate the research phenomena in sri lanka. data were collected through ten semi-structured interviews with industry practitioners and academic professionals. purposive sampling identified resource persons experienced in quantity surveying and related software such as autocad, costx, revit, 192 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9191 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9191 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:karunarathne7tania@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9191 costos™, vico cost planner, planswift, and cubicost. the study revealed deficiencies such as lack of financial capacity, standards, skilled personnel, and knowledge opportunities, and inefficiencies including less memory access, organisational and legal issues, delays, budget overruns, and poor product quality. experts suggested stakeholder actions to overcome these issues, and a framework was developed to support effective qs software implementation. keywords deficiencies; inefficiencies; quantity surveying software; strategies introduction time, cost, and quality are the three main parameters that determine whether a construction project succeeds or fails (mallawaarachchi and senaratne, 2015). getting these aspects in balance, which minimises project length, total project cost, and maximises total quality, could determine a construction project’s success (nguyen, et al., 2022). advancing technology and applications, as well as general digitisation in construction, suggest how to reach construction project goals more easily and effectively (mesaroš, et al., 2018). information technology (it) has resulted in numerous inventive successes in the construction industry, resulting in a reduction in overall construction time and deficiencies, as well as an increase in production and competence in the construction sector (lekan, et al., 2018). existing research on software adoption in the construction industry often examines a wide range of professional roles without addressing particular requirements and challenges that quantity surveyors encounter (ola-ade, ajayi and onososen, 2023). quantity surveying professionals have specific concerns, such as the necessity for accurate cost management and project forecasting, resulting in a noticeable research gap. effective cost management ensures that construction projects stay on budget while fulfilling quality and deadlines. proactive cost estimation, constant monitoring, and stakeholder involvement are critical for avoiding construction-related risks such as cost overruns and delays. cost management is increasingly incorporating sustainability goals such as energy efficiency, waste reduction, and the use of environmentally friendly materials. to achieve environmental, social, and economic benefits, these factors necessitate proper financial planning as well as the implementation of sustainable project management procedures (shah, bhatti and ahmed, 2023). according to smith (2001), enhanced efficiency through computerised quantities and cost calculations, elimination of measurement through derivation of quantities from cad files, enhanced services in cost planning, feasibility, and time are among the benefits of it applications for the quantity surveying profession. the adoption of digital technologies for various phases of construction will significantly reduce uncertainty and promote satisfactory construction (aghimien, et al., 2018). similarly, el-mashaleh (2007) mentioned that the introduction of software leads construction projects to have a high speed of work, introduces new operations and documentation methods, enhances the quality of documents, and reduces the cost of projects and the complexity of work. autocad, costx, revit, costos™, vico cost planner, and cubicost are some examples of quantity surveying-related software used in the industry (lim, 2023; pradeep, et al., 2024). according to edirisinghe and bandara (2022), the most commonly used quantity surveying software in sri lanka are ms excel and autocad. software products such as costx, autocad, primavera, and building information modelling have the potential to play a crucial role in assessing the future success of quantity surveying organisations (aluthwela and perera, 2016). building information modelling (bim)-based software solutions have ushered in a new era of software utilisation in the construction industry (bouska, 2016). bim-based estimating software is more efficient than traditional software, but quantity surveyors must intelligently select the most appropriate software to reap the full benefits of technology. gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025193 when considering qs-related software, there is a need to focus on deficiencies and inefficiencies in their implementation. deficiencies in software implementation are often defects, omissions, or deviations from expected norms that compromise the quality or operation of a process, design, or system. these can include technical concerns like errors in project design, insufficient software functionality, or failure to fulfil regulatory standards, which can result in delays, cost overruns, or revisions. a study found that deficiencies such as incomplete designs or failure to effectively integrate systems are substantial contributors to inefficiencies in building projects (malagnino, et al., 2021; ola-ade, et al., 2023). inefficiencies are associated with inefficient resource utilisation, such as time, budget, labour, or technology, which has an adverse effect on productivity and performance. in the construction industry, inefficiencies may result from poor workflow management, poorly utilised technological resources, or misaligned timelines for projects (wasiu and muideen, 2024). according to recent research, software inefficiencies and deficiencies remain a significant issue in the construction industry. a study by wasiu and muideen (2024) revealed that problems including poor training, lack of standards, and lack of interoperability in digital tools like project management software and bim have a big impact on project costs and schedules. these concerns are handled within broader frameworks for quality and risk management, which emphasise interconnectivity rather than rigid categorisation (wawak, et al., 2020). even though software offer a wide range of benefits to the quantity surveying business, there are significant obstacles to their adoption. time required to identify software adoption in a project, infrequent use of software technologies by project participants, lack of availability and growth of software in sri lanka, and inappropriate software adoption result in a waste of time and money in the sri lankan construction industry ( jayasena and weddikkara, 2013). the accuracy of quantity surveying-related software cannot always be assured because of the trust issue caused by the significant risk of automated procedures and the ambiguity created regarding the responsible party for data accuracy (mutis and hartmann, 2018). mutis and hartmann (2018) stated that obtaining an ownership license, having a high responsibility for data entry into the bim-based quantity surveying-related software models, and technical requirements to control the software are the common barriers that have limited the usage of the software. it is crucial to highlight that, while global studies on technology adoption in construction exist, there is limited research on the unique constraints in the sri lankan context (gunawardhana, 2018). previous research has mainly overlooked the challenges that affect the adoption of qs software in developing countries. furthermore, while many studies have focused on challenges, there are few effective solutions for resolving the inefficiencies and deficiencies discovered during the implementation process (mutis and hartmann, 2018). even though information and communication technology (ict) has a significant impact on the construction industry, qs appears to be among the few professions that have not been significantly transformed by the application of technological advancements provided by the digital revolution, particularly in developing economies (mawunyo, 2018). the importance of technology adoption in the construction industry in sri lanka is not recognised or appreciated (gunawardhana, 2018), and the sri lankan construction sector is currently in the early stages of grasping the potential and capabilities of qs-related software ( john, 2016). according to sandagomika, et al. (2020), high implementation costs, it infrastructure and compatibility issues, security and privacy concerns, the absence of creative culture, and resistance to change are key barriers to implementing technology in the sri lankan construction industry. similarly, perera, et al. (2022) identified barriers to the implementation of technology in the sri lankan construction industry including legal barriers, insufficient support from the government, economic challenges, the lack of interactions between it and construction professions, and resistance to change. as a result of moving to a new software-based qs practice, there can be inefficiencies and deficiencies in implementation as described in the above paragraph. mutis and hartmann (2018) also emphasised that software that are mostly connected with quantity surveying practice should contain the ability to move gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025194 with basic quantity surveying functions with a minimum level of issues in implementation to generate the expected results of utilising them. therefore, this study intended to identify the deficiencies and inefficiencies in the implementation of new qs-related software and to find strategies to overcome them in order to achieve the expected productivity in construction projects. additionally, this research will contribute to the knowledge gap since no prior study has been conducted with the same objectives in the sri lankan construction industry. therefore, the deficiencies and inefficiencies in the implementation of new qs-related software were identified in this study, and the recommended strategies for these deficiencies and inefficiencies were outlined in a framework that the professionals in the construction industry could use to adopt the solutions to the deficiencies and inefficiencies when implementing new qs-related software. the introduction of this study defines the research background and aims, followed by a literature analysis that examines existing studies on qs software deficiencies and inefficiencies. the methodology section describes the qualitative approach and data collection procedures, while the findings and discussion sections examine the results in light of existing literature. the paper concludes with implications, recommendations, and areas for future research. literature review deficiencies and inefficiencies in implementing new quantity surveyingrelated software there is a huge transformation in the construction industry when compared to construction technologies used in the past (behzadi, 2016). the advancement of technology is frequently altering the way construction projects are delivered in countries around the world (aghimien, et al., 2022). digital management systems, the internet of things (iot), artificial intelligence (ai), machine learning, digital twin technology, and computer vision are examples of emerging digital technologies that have been utilised in the construction industry as well (mccoy and yeganeh, 2021). ai and big data analytics software solutions assist project teams in evaluating alternatives by offering a clear rationale for selecting the most effective approaches based on predictive insights and simulations (zabala-vargas, et al., 2023). a study conducted by khudzari, et al. (2021) identified internal factors (including labour, cost, time, and technology) and external factors associated with the government and leaders’ opinions, which affect the adoption of emerging technologies in the construction industry from the viewpoint of project managers. similarly, holt, et al. (2015) identified limited budget, lack of staff support, lack of knowledge, poor management, and employees’ hesitation as limiting factors for the adoption of technology in the construction sector. nevertheless, digitalisation continues to drive innovation in construction, improving productivity, safety, and sustainability while helping organisations gain a competitive edge (chen, et al., 2021). the emergence of concentrated focus professionals, innovative adoption and technological advancement, the ever-changing construction, and development will necessitate a significantly greater emphasis on the industry (olowolayemo and michael, 2022). however, it is clear that the adoption of digital technologies for various construction processes will significantly minimise uncertainty and promote satisfactory construction outcomes (aghimien, et al., 2018). new technologies have the potential to improve current and future demand responses while increasing the quality and productivity of the industry (duncan, et al., 2018). digital technologies are contributing to the fast transformation in the construction industry, increasing efficiency, productivity, and sustainability. these advancements improve communication, reduce waste, and enhance safety and project management. digital tools also allow for real-time data transactions, intelligent decision-making, and predictive analytics, which leads to better project outcomes and stakeholder satisfaction (aigbavboa, et al., 2024). furthermore, digitalisation has facilitated the adoption of smart contracts and blockchain, which improves transparency and efficiency in construction operations. gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025195 implementing robotics and automation decreases delays and improves precision, addressing long-standing industry difficulties. these improvements illustrate the need to incorporate digital technology in fulfilling the industry’s changing demands while providing sustainable and cost-effective building solutions (manzoor, et al., 2023; aigbavboa, et al., 2024). quantity surveying is a profession that assists in the estimation of building materials and other construction-related aspects. quantity surveyors are involved in the preparation of cost plans, project procurement, financial management, contract administration, cost management, and feasibility studies in the construction sector. a quantity surveyor needs to deal with much important information to successfully complete a project (brook, 2004). similarly, olanrewajua and anahve (2015) mentioned that quantity surveyors are involved in cost management, procurement, and contractual issues in construction; provide consultancy on cost implications; and monitor and update preliminary estimates and contractual obligations. the implementation of software will make these tasks easier to carry out with greater efficiency and speed up information sharing. it makes the exchange of information and governance easier, and it represents an extensive amount of guarantee in the construction industry’s information process (edirisinghe and bandara, 2022). new software and concepts assist in speeding up the traditional approach while also providing a variety of other advantages, including easy revisions (reddy, 2018). there has been a significant change in the quantity surveying profession’s scope and services in the construction industry over the past decade, which has caused changes in demands, level of competition and it developments (smith, 2004). it has been stated that there are several numbers of software used to help quantity surveyors deliver services in an effective and efficient way, and cost planning, budgeting, costing, and cash flow activities become easier with this technical involvement (ojo, et al., 2019). in a similar view, odeyinka and doherty (2008) mentioned that software can be utilised for measurement, cost estimations, cost planning, cash flow forecasting, resource analysis, tendering, and project control in the construction industry globally. table 1 summarises the new qs-related software used in the industry to perform core quantity surveying tasks. qs-related software such as autocad, costx, ms excel and ms project are among the software that are mainly used for core tasks such as quantity take-offs, cost estimation, preparation of bill of quantities (boq), and project management. according to edirisinghe and bandara (2022), when compared to the utilisation of ms excel and autocad, the utilisation of ms project, planswift, costx, primavera, and revit architecture software is lower in sri lanka. the sri lankan construction industry still uses paper documentation and utilises a few basic applications such as microsoft office, autodesk autocad, and microsoft project (epasinghe, et al., 2018). according to ekanayake, et al. (2022), the use of cad applications is more widespread in sri lanka than outside the country, while word processing, spreadsheet, and cad programmes are used in all five construction stages including the feasibility study, design, tender, construction, and post-construction stages. research studies have clearly stated that the involvement of software makes a professional’s career easy by saving operating costs, and it facilitates the decision-making process as well (oladapo, 2006). furthermore, the use of modern technology has the most significant impact on productivity, where it improves the efficiency of quantity surveying activities. new applications easily identify measurements, and values are written down instantly, and even complex computations may be accomplished in a couple of minutes (reddy, 2018). in addition, data extracted from bim models to meet the needs of quantity surveyors can be used for a variety of purposes, including pricing, cost modelling, estimating, and life cycle costing, for delivering different performances as cost consultants and contractors (wijayakumar and jayasena, 2013). madugu, et al. (2018) reported that faster and more effective operations, better designs, regulated whole-life cycle costs, and environmental data improved manufacturing quality and customer service, and lifespan data are among the important aspects that can be efficiently delivered with the use of new software, in general. furthermore, the benefits of using software include increased productivity, discounted operational costs, direct value extraction from files, and enhanced communication among quantity surveyors (agyekum, et al., gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025196 2015). even though there are both pros and cons of using software packages in performing a specific task, computer software related to quantity surveying is important to work faster with accuracy, efficiency and neatness (ojo, et al., 2019). although software tools offer numerous opportunities for qs practices, quantity surveyors must adapt to provide more efficient cost management services that include time and cost modelling (smith, 2004). construction quality and collaboration across diverse engineering disciplines have increased with both computer-integrated construction and object-based modelling of buildings ( jung and joo, 2011). cost overruns, disagreements, mismanagement, and waste reduction have all caused failures in the construction sector (olatunji, et al., 2010). according to the author, using it in the construction business helps to reduce the aforementioned failures and inefficiencies. as a result, quantity surveyors should become familiar with qs-related software in order to reap greater benefits by comprehending its significance. in the construction industry, deficiencies are inherent flaws or limitations in tools and processes, whereas inefficiencies are caused by suboptimal resource utilisation, both of which restrict the effective implementation of quantity surveying-related software (adam, et al., 2020; malagnino, et al., 2021). the table 1. qs-related software usage in sri lanka qs-related software tasks related to qs practice autocad quantity take-off costx quantity take-off cost estimation ms excel preparation of budgets and cash flows ms project create project plans and manage resources planswift quantity take-off cost estimation primavera project management revit architecture cost estimation cost controlling cubicost quantity take-off tender management boq preparation bluebeam quantity take-off autodesk civil 3d quantity take-off snape cost estimation buildsoft quantity take-off cost estimation candy quantity take-off value management cato cost control master bill boq preparation source: adapted from edirisinghe and bandara (2022). note. qs, quantity surveying. gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025197 most significant inefficiency and deficiency barriers to new software implementation in quantity surveying are lack of expertise, awareness, and understanding, as well as lack of customer demand (muhammad, 2015). furthermore, lack of practitioner excitement, lack of standards, and technology are the most common roadblocks that cause a gap between awareness and the implementation of new quantity surveying-related software. table 2 lists the deficiencies and inefficiencies in implementing new quantity surveying-related software. table 2. deficiencies and inefficiencies in implementing new quantity surveying-related software deficiencies/inefficiencies references deficiencies lack of financial capacity edirisinghe and bandara (2022) liu, et al. (2015) ganah and john (2016) lack of skilled personnel edirisinghe and bandara (2022) arunkumar, et al. (2018) lack of knowledge aghimien, et al. (2022) edirisinghe and bandara (2022) inefficiencies organisational issues agyekum, et al. (2015) won, et al. (2013) legal issues aghimien, et al. (2022) arunkumar, et al. (2018) according to literature findings, researchers have found lack of standards, lack of financial capacity, lack of skilled personnel, lack of knowledge, organisational issues, and legal issues as major deficiencies and inefficiencies in implementing new quantity surveying-related software. with the rise of networks in society, standardisation is an important factor that needs to be considered for the functioning of qs-related technologies (castells, 2011). even though standardisation is of tremendous importance in modern society, the attention towards the standardisation process is relatively low within the construction industry (feng, 2003). improvement strategies for overcoming deficiencies and inefficiencies in quantity surveying software implementation while qs software is predicted to deliver major benefits to the architecture, engineering, and construction (aec) sector by implementing new technologies, it must consider the cost and all perceived costs associated with using technologies such as training expenses, administrative and start-up costs, and behavioural costs (liu, et al., 2015). the cost of implementing new quantity surveying software-related tools is a major deficiency, and it is used to increase the productivity of construction projects; therefore, the cost of implementation needs to be considered (ganah and john, 2016). according to compeau and higgins (1995), training is an important factor that needs to be considered in the implementation stage, and it is a key organisational element that helps to adopt qs applications and software. organisations are hesitant to adopt new software due to security concerns, a conservative mindset, and the absence of first-hand software specialists (edirisinghe and bandara, 2022). professional responsibility, procedural difficulties, and trust are among the organisational issues with quantity surveying-related software in the construction industry (won, et al., 2013). every jurisdiction has its own laws and regulations to protect intellectual property rights gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025198 and software licenses (madatli, 2015), where organisations have to monitor licenses and other legal aspects related to software implementation. to overcome the deficiencies and inefficiencies in implementing new quantity surveying-related software, many strategies are proposed in the literature. organisations can conduct awareness programmes aimed at the top management to motivate them to use specialised software by emphasising its benefits (edirisinghe and bandara, 2022). professional institutions and quantity surveying firms can provide proper training to improve the computer literacy of quantity surveyors (edirisinghe and bandara, 2022). financial barriers of small firms with limited financial capacity can be addressed by arranging low-interest financing opportunities by the government (edirisinghe and bandara, 2022). according to liu, et al. (2015), bim is one of the most remarkable technological breakthroughs in the construction industry. it is suggested that the government and the aec sector collaborate to promote bim education, decrease bim implementation costs, and develop bim implementation strategies. well-designed training programs enhance employees’ digital tool proficiency, reducing delays caused by lack of understanding (mccoy and yeganeh, 2021). additionally, edirisinghe and bandara (2022) emphasised that regular skill development is essential to optimising the usage of advanced software systems, ensuring error-free workflow management, and minimising downtime. according to agyekum, et al. (2015), using standardised procedures will ensure stability and improved project performance. in order to minimise misalignment and inefficiencies, mccoy and yeganeh (2021) also highlighted the significance of establishing precise, uniform guidelines for software setups and usage. liu, et al. (2022) claimed that inefficiencies such as data duplication and time delays result from ineffective tool integration. effective communication is crucial in reducing inefficiencies caused by lack of coordination among team members. according to liu, et al. (2022), using collaborative platforms that allow for real-time information sharing can help to eliminate misconceptions and delays. according to edirisinghe and bandara (2022), optimising software with capabilities such as predictive analytics and ai can improve decision-making and project outcomes. improving user interfaces and aligning them with quantity surveyors’ activities could dramatically reduce errors and inefficiencies (aghimien, et al., 2022). adam, et al. (2020) emphasised the importance of solid planning and resource management systems that can automate and optimise resource deployment, leading to avoiding delays and cost overruns. according to mccoy and yeganeh (2021), effective resource planning tools combined with quantity surveying software enable project managers to make data-driven decisions that improve efficiency. nasila and cloete (2018) emphasised that ongoing evaluation of software implementation via user feedback allows for rapid upgrades and revisions, ensuring that the system remains relevant and efficient. furthermore, wawak, et al. (2020) proposed that using agile approaches in software development can improve the tool’s adaptability, allowing it to change in response to the needs of the construction sector. research methodology having established the theoretical background on identifying quantity surveying-related software and their contributions to the construction industry, as well as the deficiencies and inefficiencies in implementing new software in sri lanka through a literature review, the research process was designed to address these issues. it aimed to investigate strategies to overcome the deficiencies and inefficiencies in implementing quantity surveying-related software in the sri lankan construction industry and to develop methods to resolve these challenges. among the available research approaches, the authors decided that the qualitative approach would provide more meaning to this study since this study required an in-depth analysis to identify the probable strategies to overcome deficiencies and efficiencies associated with the qs software implementation in sri lanka. according to saunders, lewis and thornhill (2019), qualitative research is exploratory and aims to analyse phenomena within particular contexts using in-depth, non-numerical data collection techniques like interviews. it emphasises adaptability, interpretivism, and subjective experiences, gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025199 depending on small, purposely chosen samples to provide in-depth insights into complicated and contextdependent situations. however, since the construction industry is one of the last industries to go digital (mesaroš, et al., 2018), and the experts still lack exposure to modern technology, it was challenging to find a credible and significant sample for quantitative data collection. hence, this research adopted a qualitative approach, conducting data collection through semi-structured interviews. semi-structured interviews allow for both predetermined questions and the possibility of discovering unexpected insights throughout the interview (saunders, lewis and thornhill, 2019). the purposive sampling method was used to identify the probable resource persons who have knowledge of both quantity surveying and related software. this approach guarantees the collection of significant and comprehensive data and is successful in providing in-depth, context-specific insights (etikan, et al., 2016). the sample included both academic professionals and industry practitioners, providing a broad view of the issues associated with using quantity surveying software. academics understand the theoretical elements of qs software, including its deficiencies and inefficiencies, which they investigate through teaching and research. in contrast, industry practitioners provide practical views, focusing on real-world concerns like usability and integration (creswell and poth, 2018). furthermore, the sample comprised participants who are both young and experienced professionals, ensuring a diversified perspective. younger professionals are more likely to adopt new technology, whereas experienced professionals bring important expertise, particularly in shifting to digital tools. this diversity of professional backgrounds and years of experience enhanced this study’s conclusions by providing a balanced, multifaceted perspective. furthermore, this study included software engineers to collect a diverse point of view regarding the research area. the inclusion of software engineers further diversified the sample, providing a technical perspective that adds depth to the understanding of the software’s development and performance. the sample size was limited to 10, considering the availability of professionals and the data saturation principle. the details of the interviewees are presented in table 3. table 3. profile of interviewees interviewee code designation experience experience in years r1 senior qs freelancing, overseas experience in qs software 11 r2 consultant qs off-site qs software experience 21 r3 assistant qs experience in using qs software 5 r4 procurement head experience in software handling 17 r5 consultant qs off-site construction experience 2 r6 academic (conducting bimrelated seminars) experience in quantity surveying-related software and conducting qs software-related education 3 r7 director experience in qs practice and software usage 29 r8 contractor qs experience in quantity surveying-related software 2 r9 software engineer expertise in software 2 r10 software engineer expertise in software 4 note. qs, quantity surveyor; bim, building information modelling. gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025200 a comprehensive content analysis of the obtained data was carried out utilising the nvivo software. content analysis is a systematic and repeatable process of evaluating qualitative data. manual content analysis was not an easy task because there was a significant amount of data to examine. as a result, a computer-aided content analysis was considered to get trustworthy and accurate results. data collected from the interviews were coded using the nvivo software and then underwent content analysis (bazeley and jackson, 2013). the themes for this study were systematically developed using a combination of literature review and data analysis. the initial themes were identified by a complete analysis of previous studies on deficiencies and inefficiencies in quantity surveying-related software implementation and improvement strategies for overcoming deficiencies and inefficiencies in quantity surveying software implementation. these themes guided the design of semi-structured interviews, yet they were flexible enough to allow participants to provide ideas beyond the predetermined topics. the data gathered from the interviews were analysed using the nvivo software and an iterative coding procedure. responses were first organised into predetermined topics, and emerging patterns were identified and included in the thematic framework (fereday and muir-cochrane, 2006). during this iterative process, the themes were developed to represent both the theoretical foundations and the particular insights presented by participants. finally, the thematic structure was matched with the research objectives to ensure that it addressed the main issues of deficiencies, inefficiencies, and potential improvement strategies. research findings new qs-related software in sri lanka respondents shared their experiences in using new software, and table 4 shows quantity surveying-related software that have been used by the experts during their careers. table 4. quantity surveying-related software experts quantity surveying-related software r1 costx and cad measure r2 costx and cubicost 5d bim r3 costx and cubicost 5d bim r4 costx r5 costx r6 costx, planswift, and cubicost 5d bim r7 cubicost 5d bim r8 costx r9 costx and cad measure r10 costx and cubicost 5d bim according to table 4, nine respondents have experience using costx, which is the most commonly used qs software by experts. only one respondent (r1) has experience using the cad measure software, and r6 has experience using the planswift software. four respondents have experience using cubicost 5d bim gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025201 technology. thus, it is evident that all respondents had enough knowledge and experience in handling qsrelated software, especially the ones that they had been using. deficiencies and inefficiencies in implementing new qs-related software respondents shared their opinion on inefficiencies and deficiencies that could occur during the implementation of new quantity surveying-related software in sri lanka, which were identified under the literature review, and they identified a few new inefficiencies and deficiencies that they have experienced. table 5 summarises identified deficiencies and inefficiencies through the literature review and semistructured interviews, respectively. table 5. deficiencies and inefficiencies in implementing new qs-related software deficiency identification respondents lack of standards literature review, semistructured interviews r1, r2, r3, r4, r6, r8, r10 lack of financial capacity literature review, semistructured interviews r1, r2, r3, r5, r6, r7, r8, r9, r10 lack of skilled personnel literature review, semistructured interviews r5, r6, r7, r9 lack of opportunities to gain knowledge and training literature review, semistructured interviews r1, r3, r6 inefficiency identification respondents organisational issues literature review, semistructured interviews r1, r2, r6, r6, r7, r10 legal issues literature review, semistructured interviews r1, r2, r4, r6, r9, r10 less memory access semi-structured interviews r1, r3, r8 delays semi-structured interviews r1, r2, r3, r4, r5, r10 budget overruns semi-structured interviews r1, r2, r3, r6, r9, r10 poor product quality semi-structured interviews r1, r2, r3, r4, r6, r8 lack of financial capacity is the most identified deficiency, with nine responses, by the respondents when implementing new quantity surveying-related software. lack of standards, organisational issues, legal issues, delays, budget overruns, and poor product quality can be considered among the factors that are challenging to achieve, with more than five expert responses. a smaller number of respondents identified lack of skilled personnel, lack of opportunities to gain knowledge and training, and less memory access as the inefficiencies and deficiencies when implementing new qs-related software. in this study, deficiencies and inefficiencies are interrelated but distinct concepts. deficiencies refer to gaps in the quantity surveying software implementation process, which create conditions where inefficiencies can arise. for instance, inadequate training can result in ineffective software utilisation since staff members may find it difficult to fully utilise the product. inefficiencies refer to the suboptimal use of resources, which arise as consequences of deficiencies or separate issues. in practice, addressing deficiencies gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025202 such as providing additional training is likely to reduce inefficiencies including delays and cost overruns, but not all inefficiencies are directly attributable to deficiencies. deficiencies in implementing new qs-related software in sri lankan construction industry lack of standards according to the statements provided by experts, there is lack of standards related to three areas. • lack of standards in using qs software in projects • lack of sri lankan measurement standards that are used in qs software • lack of standards for input data respondents identified that there are no standards available for quantity surveyors to use this software for their measurements and that they are still using the traditional software to do the measurements. r4 emphasised that “even though qs software is user-friendly and made work easier, poor interoperability can be an inefficiency where different kind of formats is not supported by the specific software”. however, the formats may be different from one country to another when it comes to measurements. sri lanka has a different standard method of measurement, which is sls 573. however, when we adopt qs software, they do not have anything in common with sls 573. therefore, there is a need to customise the software according to our measurement rules. r4 considered customisation difficulties as major deficiencies in implementing new qs software. r2 stated that “when customizing foreign originated software, the method of measurement based on is also should be considered as it is difficult to proceed with a software which is not developed according to relevant standard”. the next important thing is the standard of input data to the software. as per the respondents, there is no standard quality when uploading data to the software. r7 indicated that the information received is not in a good standard to measure quantities and as an example, pdf drawings are generally received as images. lack of financial capacity all firms may be unable to afford these expensive qs software due to lack of financial capacity. licenses to activate quantity surveying software are expensive. all experts agreed that the initial cost of implementing qs software is extremely high, and the cost of licenses varies depending on the software. r1 stated that “an organization needs to consider about the financial capacity as the cost for the licensed software to be purchased would be expensive”. furthermore, r8 stated that “aside from the purchase cost, there are some additional costs such as payments done to skilled employees who are capable of using qs software and the cost of computers with sufficient capability to run the software”. all experts agreed that this type of software is typically used for foreign clients and projects. most of the organisations use costx because it is less expensive than cubicost and provides substantial value for money. r1 stated that “if the organization have five or six quantity surveyors to use a specific software then the payment for the software per year is very expensive”. lack of skilled personnel proper skills are required to fully utilise the features provided by the software. a majority of the experts agreed that lack of skilled personnel is a major issue in sri lanka when implementing new qs software. r6 stated that “in order to implement these kinds of technologies, firms and institutes must train quantity surveyors properly, as lack of knowledge regarding general quantity surveying practice with good competent in using quantity surveying related software will be led to defective outcomes”. according to gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025203 r1, “there is a shortage of skilled personnel and knowledge within our quantity surveying community, and some quantity surveyors have skills and knowledge about those quantity surveying related software, but not all quantity surveyors have knowledge and skills on this software”. if a qs does not understand how to use costx or other qs software, this will cause problems for the rapidly evolving construction industry. r4 indicated that “if new qs software is implemented in an organization, it will take some time and cost to train employees to use the software. if proper training is not given, it will affect the outcome of the projects”. lack of opportunities to gain knowledge and training lack of opportunities to gain knowledge and training indicates lack of awareness regarding the software and its features available in the market. all experts agreed that the lack of knowledge regarding new qsrelated software is one of the deficiencies for implementing them in sri lanka. maximum efficiency from software could be obtained if quantity surveyors had solid theoretical and practical knowledge of qs-related software usage. most universities and institutes teach the fundamentals of using these types of software, but not the practical implementation. r2 indicated that “if quantity surveyors have good knowledge in qs software usage, then maximum efficiency could be gained from software”. inefficiencies in implementing new qs-related software in sri lankan construction industry less memory access all respondents stated that memory access is not considered a vital issue in implementing new quantity surveying-related software in sri lanka. it will be considered an issue if outdated computers are used to run the software. hence, it is not a fault of the software. if the user has a decent computer to run the software, then it is not an issue. in addition, r1 stated that “even some quantity surveying related software provide cloud storage facilities to store data, which will be a solution for these memory issues”. furthermore, r1 and r3 indicated that “the drawings are becoming large in the format of cad or pdf and contain a lot of information, which may sometimes cause memory issues”. organisational issues organisational issues can occur among employees due to unfamiliarity with the new software and their reluctance to change. r3 stated that “generally, senior quantity surveyors or top management in an organization do not like to believe in software, and they believe that software is not protective, so it will be an issue for the traditionally experienced quantity surveyors”. however, some employees believe that software will reduce job opportunities for traditional quantity surveyors. however, as respondents highlighted, quantity surveyors with software knowledge will get job opportunities in the future. in addition, r4 stated that “the flow of qs software may not be compatible with the organization’s workflow, such as the line of authority and working teams”. the commitment of employees at each level of the organisation hierarchy is required to successfully adopt software within the organisation. legal issues most of the legal issues associated with qs-related software implementation are due to the unavailability or unaffordability of software licenses. most of the construction firms in sri lanka use pirated versions of common software like autocad and revit, as they are freely available. however, when it comes to the qs-related software, fewer pirated versions are available, as they are not commonly used everywhere. r1 indicated that “there are no crack versions for qs software, because that software has limited usage when compared with other designing and engineering software”. due to these legal restrictions, most qsgowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025204 related software become unaffordable to firms, and sometimes they may have limited licenses or free trials where the user cannot work efficiently as with the original version. delays in line with experts’ opinions, there are three different situations that can cause delays in using new quantity surveying-related software in the sri lankan construction industry. the delays occur due to high adoption time, human errors, and issues in the software. r4 indicated that “delays might occur during the implementation period of the software as the user needs some considerable time to adapt the software features”. faults caused by quantity surveyors and other professionals may also cause delays. r6 indicated that “although the quantity surveyor has a very good knowledge of the software, sometimes he may not have a sound knowledge with regard to drawings and construction technologies”. thus, it can cause delays. when enormous amounts of information are stored inside, software will cause delays while engaged in a specific task. furthermore, r3 added that “when using high-capacity files in cost x, there can be a delay of importing and exporting the files”. r8 stated that “lack of proper resources is also one of the reasons for delays”, and r6 indicated that “if quantity surveyors have good knowledge regarding the software, but not regarding drawing, reading and construction technologies errors could happen which led to delays”. budget overruns according to experts’ opinion, budget overruns can also be considered an inefficiency. r3 mentioned that “in an organization, initially they purchase a lot of software licenses per annum from software vendors at the time they have a high number of projects”. however, later, they may not have that many projects to run. since they have already bought the software licenses, it causes a budget overrun for them due to the lack of current projects. in addition to the above-mentioned statements, r2 and r6 indicated that “when quantity surveyors are budgeting or estimating the cost of a project, they need to make sure to include the cost of the qs software within the contract price”. it will make sure that the organisation has no cost overruns later. poor product quality there are many qs software tools available in the market to purchase, such as costx, cubicost, cad measure, and planswift. r2 indicated that “generally, most quantity surveyors use cost x and plan swift”. qs-related software have different qualities, as the developers of the software are not the same. users need to properly conduct a market survey and purchase competent software that meet their organisation’s requirements. if the users are not good enough to select the best option, inefficiencies will occur. r1 stated that “when comparing qs software, software is different from each other and consist different features and most of the time the good quality will take high cost”. strategies to overcome deficiencies and inefficiencies in implementing new qs software following the identification of deficiencies and inefficiencies in the implementation of new qs-related software, respondents were asked to suggest strategies to overcome key deficiencies and inefficiencies in using the software and achieve the expected results. strategies to overcome lack of standards the prime solution to overcome lack of standards is to make responsible authorities aware of the use of software and their capabilities or to make it compulsory for related parties to use this kind of qs-related software for their projects. r8 described that “if the government can standardize the boq preparation process in government projects with the use of software as a major client, then all firms who are engaged with government projects will have to shift to the software”. furthermore, experts highlighted that gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025205 professionals or managerial people in top positions in construction organisations need to identify the lack of standards in the sri lankan construction industry and promote standardisation. it is good to check the possibilities of customising qs-related software, considering the sri lankan standard method of measurement under the purview of these organisations. strategies to overcome lack of financial capacity most of the quantity surveying firms that have been locally established are facing financial difficulties when they try to purchase software and respective licenses. as stated by respondents, firms can check with banks and some private sector investors to obtain enough financing to make the purchases. in line with that, respondents highlighted that it is better to have the involvement of the construction industry development authority (cida) to act on behalf of the quantity surveying firms and come to a certain policy-level decision to provide low-interest loans for companies that are willing to adopt new software in their organisation. it will be a direct motivational factor to promote the usage of such software in the industry as well. it is understandable that the capital cost cannot be fully recovered in one project. therefore, there is a need to make sure that the user covers a portion of the cost of the license when calculating the project cost. this portion depends on each firm’s policies. both r1 and r4 stated that “the cost of capital should be weighed against the outcome of the software, selecting suitable software for the organization and identifying as to how it can improve productivity and efficiency to compensate the investment cost”. strategies to overcome lack of skilled personnel proper training and guidance were suggested by the experts as a strategy to overcome lack of skilled personnel. r1 mentioned that “beginners need to be provided with sufficient training” as a strategy. r5 mentioned that “as guiding materials for most of the software are available online, training and adapting would not be that difficult and it can be very helpful to develop every individual skill”. in addition to that, r6 stated that “professionals from universities and professional bodies can be hired for training sessions and workshops to further improve the skills of users”. respondents also stated that switching to new software in an abbreviated period of time is difficult while quantity surveyors are being trained. they have emphasised the importance of having ongoing skill development programs. strategies to overcome lack of opportunities to gain knowledge and training lack of knowledge can also be addressed by offering appropriate training and workshops. according to expert r1, “software companies can come forward to have sessions, demos and workshops for qs professionals as well as for undergraduate students to improve knowledge and awareness”. to close the knowledge gap in this field, experts underlined the necessity of organised training courses and continuous professional development (cpd) meetings. they stated that their organisations are ready to take an active role in addressing software competency gaps by holding undergraduate-specific training sessions, which will promote industry–academia cooperation. according to r8, “to promote d these types of software, the government should have a policy to create awareness among construction firms, such as in china, uae, australia, and uk, where building information modelling policies are in place”. strategies to overcome memory access issues memory access is not a big issue if the user has a computer that has good capacity to run the software. according to r1, “when a user is going for qs related software and trying to use the software, first of all, the user needs to improve the storage capacity”. having a large-capacity hard disk, a portable hard disk, or a central server where they can store all the information is an additional benefit for running the software without any destruction. according to the view of r4, “it specialists in the company can handle it”. they gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025206 can get feedback from the users, implement innovative ideas, and try to increase memory access within that software as per users’ feedback. strategies to overcome organisational issues according to expert statements, a majority of professionals believe that the costx software is extremely difficult to use. however, if they are given the opportunity to go over the fundamentals with demonstrations, this will not be the case. software vendors and lower-level quantity surveyors must explain the benefits of using this software to top management. along with r1, r6 stated that “top management should understand the benefits of using this type of software”. r3 stated that “if the organization can get a custom software as per the organizational requirement which is suitable for the organization’s erp system, the organizational issues can be solved to some extent”. organisations must weigh the advantages and disadvantages, conduct an analysis, and publish results. it will make employees believe in the software; hence, they will gradually reduce their reluctance to change. strategies to overcome legal issues experts jointly agreed that “there are no legal issues if the user has the proper license to access the software”. furthermore, r3 mentioned that most of the construction-related software have crack versions available in sri lanka, but qs-based software do not have crack versions due to the limited users. traditional laws in sri lanka and their provisions are not applicable to legal issues that have arisen due to the current technological development in sri lanka. as the best solution, r8 mentioned that it is necessary to create new legal provisions and that the judges of courts should be educated on digitalisation and technology, or the best way is to go with alternative dispute resolution methods with technical experts. strategies to overcome budget overruns r4 stated that “an organization needs to consider the future project plans before purchasing a software”. according to expert r2, the company should ensure that the income from projects covers a portion of the cost of purchasing software licenses. expert r7 also agreed with r2’s statement, and r7 added, “the software user can add the cost of the software license to the project”. this may not be viable for small-scale projects in sri lanka and, hence, is only applicable to large-scale projects. the budget of a large-scale project compared to the cost of software licenses is a very small percentage of the respective amount. compared to the cost of a small-scale project, that of the software license is not small. strategies to overcome poor product quality before purchasing qs-related software, a proper analysis of the types of software available in the market must be conducted, and getting to know about the quality of such software products is essential. r1 mentioned that users who are already familiar with these products can contribute to the purchasing process, and based on that, the top management can decide which product is suitable for their requirements. generally, if the users have any issues with the product, they will most likely shift from one software to another, or otherwise, the users can contact the developers and report the poor quality of the product. if the issues occur frequently and the developers do not make any steps to solve or even respond to user feedback, users can choose alternative software. expert r3 agreed with the statement of expert r1, and r3 stated that “the quality check should be conducted by a technical manager or relevant professional in the organization before purchasing the software license”. strategies to overcome delays most experts agreed that reducing delay times using the software can be done through workshops and proper training of the users or employees in a firm. this allows for a gradual reduction in the amount of time gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025207 spent on activities. the most important thing is to provide a quick response to bugs. r9 and r10, who are software developers, stated that “if bugs occur in the qs related software or any kind of software, users need to reach out to software developers and let them know about the issues in order to get those eliminated quickly”. according to aghimien, et al. (2022), deficiencies, including lack of standards, lack of financial capacity, and lack of skilled personnel and knowledge, are globally relevant, especially in underdeveloped countries where the adoption of new technologies has been restricted by limited resources. similarly, edirisinghe and bandara (2022) emphasised the necessity of aligning digital technologies with local measurement standards, which is repeated in this work by focusing on the sri lankan standard method of measurement (sls 573). inefficiencies, including delays, budget overruns, and organisational barriers, are consistent with global research; for example, won, et al. (2013) examined the impact of inefficient workflows and resource allocation on project performance. liu, et al. (2021) supported the findings of this study by emphasising the importance of resilient hardware and infrastructure in addition to digital adoption. the strategies described in this study align with and extend existing literature. this study emphasises the importance of providing a favourable atmosphere for qs software adoption. furthermore, contractorfocused strategies, such as cpd programs and organisational change management, are consistent with compeau and higgins’ (1995) emphasis on skill development as a driver of technology adoption. however, this study extends further by emphasising collaboration between academics and industry to bridge theoretical understanding and practical application. while prior research has mostly addressed technical barriers (mccoy and yeganeh, 2021), this study emphasises the linked duties of governments, contractors, and educational institutions. zhao, et al. (2020) recommended structured collaborations, which this study supports by promoting internships and hands-on training programs. in conclusion, while the findings are consistent with global issues in qs software adoption, this study’s emphasis on context-specific solutions and stakeholder collaboration provides a unique point of view. framework for managing deficiencies and inefficiencies in implementing new qs software the research aimed to investigate the strategies to overcome deficiencies and inefficiencies in implementing new qs software and to develop a conceptual framework to manage deficiencies and inefficiencies in quantity surveying-related software implementation. the framework in figure 1 elaborates on the strategies that need to be used to overcome the deficiencies and inefficiencies in quantity surveying-related software implementation. addressing the deficiencies and inefficiencies in quantity surveying software implementation requires collaborative efforts from different stakeholders. stakeholders can maximise the usage of qs software by aligning their tasks and encouraging collaboration. government organisations play an important role in developing policies and standards for qs software. they can encourage industry-wide adoption by offering financial incentives such as subsidies or low-interest loans while also ensuring that the software adhere to national standards and local construction norms. in addition, governments can conduct awareness efforts and oversee compliance to help the industry’s digital transformation. when incorporating qs software into projects, clients play a crucial role. clients can allocate budgets for software implementation and training. contractors and construction firms are responsible for the operational use of qs software. they must prioritise training programs for improving employees and develop change management strategies to mitigate resistance to new technologies. quantity surveyors and end users, as the key consumers of qs software, are at the forefront of its adoption. they must actively participate in training programs to increase their proficiency and collaborate with other stakeholders to enable seamless incorporation into workflows. gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025208 this framework promotes active engagement among stakeholders, creating an environment for long-term and efficient implementation of software. conclusions and recommendations this study sought to develop a framework by highlighting inefficiencies and deficiencies in qs software implementation and strategies for overcoming deficiencies and inefficiencies in the sri lankan construction industry. quantity surveying software can be used as an alternative method for quantity surveying practices including measuring quantities more easily than the traditional method, which is beneficial to qs professionals. initially, literature identified a few types of qs-based software, including autodesk qto, bim measure from causeway, costos™, nomitech, dprofiler, beck technology, vico cost planner, vico office client, and vico cost explorer. during the primary data collection process, it was discovered that lack of financial capacity, lack of standards, lack of skilled personnel, and lack of opportunities to obtain knowledge are deficiencies whereas less memory access, organisational issues, legal issues, delays, budget overruns, and poor product quality are inefficiencies. consequently, strategies to overcome these deficiencies and inefficiencies in implementing new quantity surveying-related software were identified separately, and the governmental and organisational influence for managing financial issues, knowledge gaps, and standardisation were the highly recommended strategies brought up by experts. organisational commitments at different working hierarchies to promote the usage of these software were also found to be a good solution to overcome some deficiencies and inefficiencies. this study has figured out a set of strategies to aid quantity surveying professionals in achieving success when implementing new quantity surveying-related software in sri lanka. a conceptual framework that suggests solutions to overcome deficiencies and inefficiencies in implementing new qs software is created based on the research findings. the aim of this research is to encourage professionals to adhere to the identified strategies, as these help to overcome the issues of implementing new qs-based software in sri lanka. this is applicable to quantity surveyors and organisations that are going to use qs-related software or for those who are currently using such software. figure 1. framework to overcome deficiencies and inefficiencies in implementing new quantity surveying software gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025209 however, there are certain limitations to this study. a significant percentage of interviewers (60%) had a minimum of 5 years of professional experience, which may have impacted the depth and breadth of viewpoints presented. furthermore, the interviewees’ professional positions and levels of experience varied, possibly leading to gaps in the insights given. future research could overcome these limitations by interviewing a more diverse and experienced sample of respondents and undertaking a comparison analysis across several areas or sectors of the construction industry. this study has made the following contributions to the existing knowledge of the quantity surveying field. • development of a context-specific framework for deficiencies and inefficiencies in quantity surveyingrelated software implementation in sri lanka • solutions to overcome deficiencies and inefficiencies to implement new quantity surveying-related software in sri lanka this study has theoretical as well as practical implications. it provides practical strategies to improve collaboration, resource optimisation, and operational efficiency. the proposed framework encourages practitioners’ investments in training and cpd, which helps professionals to utilise modern qs tools. in terms of theoretical implications, this study contributes to the academic discussion by giving a framework that incorporates strategies to overcome deficiencies and inefficiencies in implementing new qs software. furthermore, this study contributes to the discussion of technology adoption in the construction industry, providing an outline for future research on the integration of digital tools into project management and quantity surveying. the qualitative findings of this study require validation through quantitative results in the future for different kinds of construction software in sri lanka. further research can be conducted to study standards of implementing new qs software that align with sri lankan construction standards. this study also raises questions about the changing roles of quantity surveyors in the face of technological improvements, urging more theoretical research. the findings indicate a gap in academia and the industry, which can be bridged by collaboration between academia and the industry, integrating hands-on software training into academic curricula. this study has formulated a set of methods to aid quantity surveying professionals in achieving success in implementing new quantity surveying-related software in sri lanka. the research findings could help to overcome the issues in implementing new qs-based software in sri lanka and can be applicable to the quantity surveyors and organisations that are implementing and currently using qs software. although this study focused on the sri lankan construction industry, the findings and proposed framework are broadly applicable to construction industries in other countries with similar stakeholder arrangements and cost management approaches. the strategies outlined will assist construction firms all over the world in improving the effectiveness of their project management and technology adoption procedures by addressing primary deficiencies and inefficiencies. this study provides insights for global application and demonstrates the framework’s applicability beyond sri lanka. references adam, s., ahmed, s. and khan, r., 2020. overcoming inefficiencies in software adoption in the construction industry. construction innovation, 20(4), pp. 459-475. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-06-2019-0048 aghimien, d.o., adegbembo, t.f., aghimien, e.i. and awodele, o.a., 2018. challenges of sustainable construction: a study of educational buildings in nigeria. international journal of built environment and sustainability, 5(1). https://doi. org/10.11113/ijbes.v5.n1.244 gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025210 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-06-2019-0048 https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v5.n1.244 https://doi.org/10.11113/ijbes.v5.n1.244 aghimien, d., ngcobo, n., aigbavboa, c., dixit, s., vatin, n.i., kampani, s. and khera, g.s., 2022. barriers to digital technology deployment in value management practice. buildings, 12(6), pp. 731. https://doi.org/10.3390/ buildings12060731 aigbavboa, c., addy, h. and thwala, w., 2024. a bibliometric review of the trends of construction digitalization research in the past ten years. buildings, 14(9). https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14092729 agyekum, k., ayarkwa, j. and acheampong, a., 2015. incorporating information technology in quantity surveying practice in ghana: challenges and benefits. annals of the faculty of engineering hunedoara, 13(4), pp. 49. aluthwela, a., perera, b.a.k.s., 2016. characteristics of qs firms and their impact on performance. proceedings of institute of quantity surveyors sri lanka. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319507375. amusan lekan, m., oloniju leke, i., mariam, a., adebisi, m., farayola hezekiah, n.p.p. and osawaru, f., 2018. adopting information and communication technology in construction industry. international journal of mechanical engineering and technology, 9(1), pp. 739-746. arunkumar, s., suveetha, v. and ramesh, a., 2018. a feasibility study on the implementation of building information modeling (bim): from the architects’and engineers’ perspective. asian journal of civil engineering, 19, pp. 239-247. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42107-018-0020-9 bazeley, p. and jackson, k., 2013. qualitative data analysis with nvivo. sage publications. behzadi, a., 2016. using augmented and virtual reality technology in the construction industry. american journal of engineering research, 5(12), pp. 350-353. bouška, r., 2016. evaluation of maturity of bim tools across different software platforms. procedia engineering, 164, pp. 481-486. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.648 brook, m., 2016. estimating and tendering for construction work. routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315734699 castells, m., 2011. the rise of the network society. john wiley and sons. chen, x., chang-richards, a.y., pelosi, a., jia, y., shen, x., siddiqui, m.k. and yang, n., 2021. implementation of technologies in the construction industry: a systematic review. engineering, construction and architectural management, 29(8), pp. 3181-3209. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2021-0172 compeau, d.r. and higgins, c.a., 1995. computer self-efficacy: development of a measure and initial test. mis quarterly, pp. 189-211. https://doi.org/10.2307/249688 creswell, j.w. and poth, c.n., 2018. qualitative inquiry and research design: choosing among five approaches (4th ed.). sage publications. duncan, a., kingi, v.m. and brunsdon, n., 2018. adopting new ways in the building and construction industry. edirisinghe, t.v. and bandara, k.p.s.p.k., 2022. specialized software usage among the quantity surveyors in sri lanka. http://ir.kdu.ac.lk/handle/345/6080. ekanayake, g.b.e.m.h.s., disaratna, v., gimhani, m. and perera, k., 2022. evaluation of the technological gap in quantity surveying practices: sri lankan context vs. global context. bhumi plan. res. j, 9, 42. https://doi. org/10.4038/bhumi.v9i2.82 el-mashaleh, m.s., 2007. benchmarking information technology utilization in the construction industry in jordan. journal of information technology in construction (itcon), 12(19), pp. 279-291. epasinghe, e.a.k., jayasena, h.s., kolugala, l.m.b.n. and wijewickrama, m.k.c.s., 2018. open bim adoption in sri lankan construction industry. asia, pp. 1-13. gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025211 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12060731 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12060731 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14092729 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/319507375 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42107-018-0020-9 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.648 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315734699 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2021-0172 https://doi.org/10.2307/249688 http://ir.kdu.ac.lk/handle/345/6080 https://doi.org/10.4038/bhumi.v9i2.82 https://doi.org/10.4038/bhumi.v9i2.82 etikan, i., musa, s.a. and alkassim, r.s., 2016. comparison of convenience sampling and purposive sampling. american journal of theoretical and applied statistics, 5(1), pp. 1-4. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajtas.20160501.11 feng, p., 2003. studying standardization: a review of the literature. proceedings of the 33rd european solid-state device research-essderc’03 (ieee cat. no. 03ex704), pp. 99-112. https://doi.org/10.1109/siit.2003.1251199 fereday, j. and muir-cochrane, e., 2006. demonstrating rigor using thematic analysis: a hybrid approach of inductive and deductive coding and theme development. international journal of qualitative methods, 5(1), pp. 80-92. https://doi. org/10.1177/160940690600500107 ganah, a.a. and john, g.a., 2016. achieving level 2 bim by 2016 in the uk. computing in civil and building engineering 2016, pp. 143-150. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413616.019 gunawardhana, w.h.t., 2018. adaptability of digital technologies in construction practices in sri lanka. doctoral dissertation, university of moratuwa. https://doi.org/10.15396/eres2019_85 holt, e.a., benham, j.m. and bigelow, b.f., 2015. emerging technology in the construction industry: perceptions from construction industry professionals. asee annual conference and exposition, pp. 26-595. jayasena, h.s. and weddikkara, c., 2013. assessing the bim maturity in a bim infant industry. john, d. d., 2016. building information modeling (bim) technology adoption and implementation in the sri lankan construction industry; first part–the diagnosis. civil engineering. jung, y. and joo, m., 2011. building information modelling (bim) framework for practical implementation. automation in construction, 20(2), pp. 126-133. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.09.010 khudzari, f., rahman, r.a. and ayer, s.k., 2021. factors affecting the adoption of emerging technologies in the malaysian construction industry. in iop conference series: earth and environmental science (vol. 641, no. 1, p. 012006). iop publishing. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/641/1/012006 lim, k., 2023 ‘the role of software in modern quantity surveying’, international journal of project management, 41(5), pp. 789-800. liu, s., xie, b., tivendale, l. and liu, c., 2015. critical barriers to bim implementation in the aec industry. https:// doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v7n6p162 liu, y., liu, l., yang, l., hao, l., & bao, y. 2022. digital technologies and data-driven delay management process for construction projects. frontiers in built environment, 8, article 1029586. https://doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2022.1029586 madatli, k., 2015. software license agreements: main types, legal aspects, and regulations. baku st. ul rev., 2, 118. madugu, a.a., muhammad, a. and monday, g.d., 2018. evaluation of building information modelling (bim) software capabilities that support quantity surveying practices in nigeria. malagnino, g., dimaggio, a. and grasso, p., 2021. integration challenges in construction software: impacts on project efficiency. international journal of construction engineering and management, 9(3), pp. 112-121. mallawaarachchi, h. and senaratne, s., 2015. importance of quality for construction project success. 6th icsecm, pp. 84-89. manzoor, b., othman, i. and pomares, j.c., 2023. digital technologies in the aec industry: a bibliometricqualitative literature review. international journal of environmental research and public health, 18(11). https://doi. org/10.3390/ijerph18116135 mawunyo, a.r.k., 2018. the effects of ict in quantity surveying service delivery in the ghanaian construction industry, doctoral dissertation, kwame nkrumah university of science and technology. gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025212 https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajtas.20160501.11 https://doi.org/10.1109/siit.2003.1251199 https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690600500107 https://doi.org/10.1177/160940690600500107 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413616.019 https://doi.org/10.15396/eres2019_85 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.09.010 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/641/1/012006 https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v7n6p162 https://doi.org/10.5539/ijms.v7n6p162 https://doi.org/10.3389/fbuil.2022.1029586 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18116135 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18116135 mccoy, a. and yeganeh, a., 2021. an overview of emerging construction technologies. naiop research foundation, pp. 1-45. mesároš, p., mandičák, t., behun, m. and smetankova, j., 2018. applications of knowledge technology in construction industry. in 2018 16th international conference on emerging elearning technologies and applications (iceta), pp. 367372. ieee. https://doi.org/10.1109/iceta.2018.8572231 muhammad, m.r.r., 2015. the significance of building information modelling to the quantity surveying practices in the uae construction industry. in 6th international conference on structural engineering and construction management, pp., 22-32. mutis, i. and hartmann, t. (eds.)., 2018. advances in informatics and computing in civil and construction engineering: proceedings of the 35th cib w78 2018 conference: it in design, construction, and management. springer. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-030-00220-6 nasila, m., & cloete, c. 2018. adoption of building information modelling in the construction industry in kenya. acta structilia, 25(2), 1–38. https://doi.org/10.18820/24150487/as25i2.1 nguyen, d.t., le-hoai, l., tarigan, p.b. and tran, d.h., 2022. tradeoff time cost quality in repetitive construction project using fuzzy logic approach and symbiotic organism search algorithm. alexandria engineering journal, 61(2), pp. 1499-1518. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2021.06.058 odeyinka, h. and doherty, c., 2008. an evaluation of quantity surveying software usage in northern ireland. in rics cobra research conference, pp. 4-17. royal institution of chartered surveyors. ojo, l.d., akindeinde, a.s. and oke, a.e., 2019. pedagogy of quantity surveying software: improvement strategies and impacts. in environmental design and management international conference, pp. 640-649. oladapo, a. a., 2006. the impact of ict on professional practice in the nigerian construction industry. the electronic journal of information systems in developing countries, 24(1), pp. 1-19. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2006. tb00157.x ola-ade, e., ajayi, m. and onososen, a., 2023. “perception of quantity surveyors on 5d bim,” fig working week 2023. olanrewaju, a. and anahve, p.j., 2015. duties and responsibilities of quantity surveyors in the procurement of building services engineering. procedia engineering, 123, pp. 352-360. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.10.046 olatunji, o.a., sher, w. and gu, n., 2010. building information modeling and quantity surveying practice. emirates journal for engineering research, 15(1), pp. 67-70. olowolayemo, o.e. and michael, o.f. utilization of quantity surveying software: its impact on quantity surveyors’ core duties. perera, g.k.e., nilupulee, m.k.m., kalpani, w.b., dissanayake, y.r.w. and bandara, k.s.p.k., 2022. barrier analysis to implement building information modeling (bim) execution plan in sri lankan construction industry. pradeep, a., smith, j. and lee, r., 2024. ‘emerging technologies in quantity surveying: a review’, journal of construction engineering and management, 150(2), pp. 123-134. reddy, r., 2018. a study on the barriers and benefits in adoption of qs software using ism methodology [rics school of built environment]. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324173859. sandagomika, n.m.g.h., sandanayake, y.g. and ekanayake, b.j., 2020. drivers and barriers of using internet of things for successful lean implementation in construction projects in sri lanka. https://doi.org/10.4038/faruj. v7i0.26 gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025213 https://doi.org/10.1109/iceta.2018.8572231 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00220-6 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-00220-6 https://doi.org/10.18820/24150487/as25i2.1 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2021.06.058 https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2006.tb00157.x https://doi.org/10.1002/j.1681-4835.2006.tb00157.x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.10.046 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/324173859 https://doi.org/10.4038/faruj.v7i0.26 https://doi.org/10.4038/faruj.v7i0.26 saunders, m., lewis, p. and thornhill, a., 2019. research methods for business students. 8th ed. harlow: pearson education limited. shah, f.h., bhatti, o.s. and ahmed, s., 2023. ‘project management practices in construction projects and their roles in achieving sustainability—a comprehensive review’, engineering proceedings, 44(1), https://doi.org/10.3390/ engproc2023044002 smith, p., 2001. information technology and the qs practice. construction economics and building, 1(1), pp. 1-21. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v1i1.2276 smith, p. v. 2004. trends in the australian quantity surveying profession 1995-2003. in world congress on cost engineering, project management and quantity surveying, aace american association of cost engineers. international cost engineering council. wasiu, y. and muideen, a.a., 2024. artificial intelligence in the construction industry: a systematic review of the entire construction value chain lifecycle. energies, 17(1), pp. 182. 10.3390/en17010182. https://doi.org/10.3390/ en17010182 wawak, s., ljevo, ž., & mladen, v. 2020. understanding the key quality factors in construction projects a systematic literature review. sustainability, 12(24), 10376. https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/24/10376. https://doi. org/10.3390/su122410376 wijayakumar, m. and jayasena, h.s., 2013. automation of bim quantity take-off to suit qs’s requirements. won, j., lee, g., dossick, c. and messner, j., 2013. where to focus for successful adoption of building information modeling within organization. journal of construction engineering and management, 139(11), pp. 04013014. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000731 zabala-vargas, s., jaimes-quintanilla, m. and jimenez-barrera, m., 2023. big data, data science, and artificial intelligence for project management in the aec industry. buildings, 13(12), pp. 2944. https://doi.org/10.3390/ buildings13122944 gowthaman et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025214 https://doi.org/10.3390/engproc2023044002 https://doi.org/10.3390/engproc2023044002 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v1i1.2276 https://doi.org/10.3390/en17010182 https://doi.org/10.3390/en17010182 https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/24/10376 https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410376 https://doi.org/10.3390/su122410376 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000731 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000731 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13122944 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13122944 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: sistos-sescosse, g. s., atuahene, b. t., ajulo, o., adams, i. 2025. examining the decision criteria for bim–lca: a case study. construction economics and building, 25:1, 203–220. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v25i1.9270 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article examining the decision criteria for bim–lca: a case study gerardo sistos-sescosse1, bernard tuffour atuahene2,*, oluwadunsin ajulo3, ishmael adams4 1 swinburne university of technology, sydney, australia, gerardo.sistos@gmail.com 2 faculty of engineering and digital technologies, university of bradford, uk, b.t.atuahene@bradford.ac.uk 3 swinburne university of technology, hawthorn, australia, ajulo.dunsin@gmail.com 4 swinburne university of technology, sydney, australia, ishmaeladams@swin.edu.au corresponding author: bernard tuffour atuahene, faculty of engineering and digital technologies, university of bradford, uk, b.t.atuahene@bradford.ac.uk doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9270 article history: received 07/08/2024; revised 31/12/2024; accepted 09/02/2025; published 31/03/2025 abstract building information modeling–life cycle assessment (bim–lca) has become a key tool in promoting environmental sustainability in construction projects. existing literature has explored the application of bim–lca in selecting sustainable materials. however, there is a lack of detailed examination of the decision-making process for selecting materials based on bim–lca. therefore, this study was guided by the following question: how can the decision-making process for bim–lca be improved? a case study based on the comparative analyses of specific flooring systems, such as hardwood and nylon-based carpets, was evaluated to answer the question. the tally® bim plug-in with incorporated geographic and climatic data was used to perform tool for reduction and assessment of chemicals and other environmental impacts (traci) lca analyses on a revit-generated model. the results showed that hardwood flooring systems outperformed nylon-based carpets in several environmental impact indicators (eiis), including global warming potential (7,673.5 < 11,159.18 kg co2eq), ozone depletion (−2.9767e−07 < 4.63e−04 kg cfc11eq), and renewable energy use (177,882.42 > 5,766 mj). however, nylon-based carpet performed better than hardwood in other eiis, such as acidification (37.5357 < 66.5156 kg so2eq), eutrophication (7.26639 < 7.34547 kg neq), smog formation (465.1 < 1,355.75 kg 203 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9270 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9270 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:gerardo.sistos@gmail.com mailto:b.t.atuahene@bradford.ac.uk mailto:ajulo.dunsin@gmail.com mailto:ishmaeladams@swin.edu.au mailto:b.t.atuahene@bradford.ac.uk https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9270 o3eq), and non-renewable energy demand (185,720 < 198,251 mj). these mixed results provide an inconclusive basis for decision-making and highlight potential areas for improving the bim–lca decision-making process. by implication, the study provides insights for clients and permits approval teams to ensure environmental sustainability in projects proactively. keywords bim–lca; flooring systems; environmental sustainability; traci introduction digitalization and sustainability have become key issues in the construction industry and other sectors of the economy. integrating these concepts is essential for the industry to achieve its goals. as a result, digital applications and the need for sustainability have taken center stage, becoming integral to the vision and strategy of the construction sector, as outlined in the construction sector deal (her majesty government, 2018) and the focus on the digital economy (australian government, 2018). building information modeling (bim) bridges the gap between digitalization and sustainability, playing a crucial role in the construction industry. bim is described as a “collaborative process enabled by technology” (the institution of structural engineers bim panel, 2021). in other contexts, bim is viewed as a technology, methodology (santos, et al., 2017), data-driven object, collaborative environment, and parametric analysis tool (british standards institution, 2021). these perspectives are fundamental to understanding bim as technology and a holistic integration of human effort and processes. a key aspect of bim’s evolution has been its capacity to generate digital models, which are the foundation for more advanced capabilities and applications. for example, depending on the bim software used, simulations can be performed to predict project duration, expected budget, sustainability, digital asset management, and health and safety—factors critical to effective construction project management (cavalliere, et al., 2018). the bim dimension for sustainability provides a valuable opportunity to conduct environmental assessments of designs and materials, helping to evaluate the potential impacts of projects (abdelaal and guo, 2022). such assessments are crucial for making informed decisions regarding the selection of building materials and the energy efficiency of building designs (chen, et al., 2022). given that the construction industry is one of the primary contributors to high energy demand and carbon emissions (united nations environment programme, 2022), designers and engineers must prioritize reducing energy consumption, minimizing carbon emissions, and lowering environmental impacts through their designs. performing analyses over the entire life cycle (lc) of a building, rather than limiting the scope to narrower system boundaries, is crucial for achieving a comprehensive understanding of a design’s long-term environmental impacts. while system-boundary approaches, which focus on specific stages such as material production or construction, are often deemed sufficient for certain studies, they fail to account for the significant environmental effects throughout the building’s operational, maintenance, and end-of-life phases. by contrast, life cycle assessment (lca) examines all stages of a building’s existence—from raw material extraction to demolition—providing a more holistic view of its environmental footprint (chong, et al., 2017). this is particularly relevant given that operational energy use, maintenance activities, and eventual disposal can have more substantial and lasting impacts than the initial construction phase. for example, buildings may have minimal environmental impact during construction, but if their operational energy demand is high, this can result in greater long-term emissions. similarly, end-of-life considerations, such as demolition waste and opportunities for material reuse, are often neglected in system-boundary analyses but are critical for promoting sustainability. therefore, lca enables more informed decision-making, allowing sistos-sescosse et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025204 for the evaluation of design choices that minimize resource use, emissions, and costs across the entire life cycle of a building (salah and romanova, 2021; abdelaal and guo, 2022). this comprehensive approach aligns with the increasing focus on sustainability in the built environment, where long-term environmental and economic benefits are essential. lca evaluates the environmental impact of a product or concept—in this study, building materials across the entire value stream are examined from raw material extraction to module d, known as the “cradle-to-cradle” approach (saade, et al., 2020). this data-intensive assessment quantitatively analyses the environmental effects of building designs (negishi, et al., 2018). over time, lca tools have become more affordable and user-friendly, making it easier to translate complex data and information layers into practical, real-world applications (christensen, et al., 2020). integrating bim and lca (bim–lca) has gained widespread acceptance among built environment researchers and professionals, offering a comprehensive perspective on the environmental impacts of building designs (röck, et al., 2018). numerous studies have explored bim–lca in various contexts, including reviews of its application (seyis, 2020; tam, et al., 2022), visualization techniques (röck, et al., 2018; hollberg, et al., 2021), the use of different software packages (santos, et al., 2020), and its application in refurbished dwellings (dauletbek and zhou, 2022). those studies respond to the growing call from governments, society, scientists, and environmental advocates to reduce the negative environmental footprint of construction activities (gills and morgan, 2020). iso 14040 provides a robust, systematic framework for conducting lca, widely applied in bim–lca studies (tam, et al., 2022). bim–lca can be used to assess environmental impacts by (a) comparing alternative designs, (b) identifying environmental hotspots in buildings, (c) conducting parametric modeling, (d) performing sensitivity analysis, and (e) exploring ways to improve bim–lca methodologies. existing literature typically examines different design options and selects optimal material systems based on their environmental impacts, focusing primarily on reducing carbon emissions and promoting a circular economy, which ultimately contributes to environmental sustainability (najjar, et al., 2017; bueno and fabricio, 2018; evangelista, et al., 2018). however, much of the discourse surrounding bim–lca centers on climate change and energy efficiency, with assumptions that the selection criteria for bim–lca are complete and inherently aligned with sustainability (dauletbek and zhou, 2022; asdrubali, et al., 2023). this approach, while valuable, may lead to a narrow and siloed perspective, failing to address the broader complexities of achieving true sustainability in infrastructure projects. a more holistic approach is needed to address the multifaceted challenges posed by sustainability. the current interpretation of bim–lca analysis often overlooks key elements of environmental sustainability, such as the health of building occupants. statistics show that people spend the majority of their time indoors—australians, for example, spend at least 90% of their time in indoor environments (dcceew, 2021), while in the united kingdom, this figure is at least 80% (parliamentary office of science and technology, 2023). building materials significantly influence indoor air quality due to their potential to release particulate matter into the atmosphere, directly affecting occupant health. however, few studies have thoroughly examined the decision-making criteria for bim–lca, highlighting a critical gap in the use of bim for comprehensive sustainability assessments. based on the gap, this study was guided by the following question: how can the decision-making process of bim–lca be improved? this was achieved by critically evaluating the bim–lca decision-making process to identify areas for improvement. importantly, it aimed to help researchers and practitioners (re)examine their decision-making processes when selecting materials and design options. additionally, the study contributes to the ongoing discourse on the potential of bim–lca to meet sustainability benchmarks more effectively. sistos-sescosse et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025205 this paper has seven sections. the introduction presents the aim of the study. the remaining sections are the literature review, materials and methods, results, discussion, implications of the study, and conclusion. literature review the environment was considered an essential part of achieving sustainable development; it demonstrated the need to consider the irreversible impact of human activities if not mitigated earlier (united nations, 1972). the idea of irreversible impact has shaped sustainability thinking and approaches to behaviors in humans, corporate organizations, and the world. these have contributed to the emergence of social, economic, and environmental sustainability, popularly termed as pillars of sustainability (purvis, et al., 2019). the formulation of the united nations sustainable development goals (unsdgs) has embedded the pillars of sustainability (united nations, 2012) and, to a larger extent, influences the decision criteria for selecting project design options. the unsdgs have become the foundation of achieving sustainability in every sector of the economy, including infrastructure delivery. therefore, the implications of pillars and the unsdgs have become influencing factors in developing sustainability assessment tools. environmental assessment environmental sustainability focuses on relevant solutions to address the environmental concerns of society. energy, water, climate change, biodiversity, materials, and indoor environmental quality were identified as environmental sustainability indicators for construction projects (yadegaridehkordi, et al., 2020; stanitsas, et al., 2021). these relate to sustainability themes such as net zero, circular economy, energy efficiency, and climate emergency, related to unsdgs 3, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15. the environmental pillar has distinguished itself as the most established basis of different sustainability assessment tools, such as the lca. the lca has been embedded in global certification programs such as the breeam and leeds to ascertain carbon emissions (embodied and operational) and their potential impacts on the environment. lca is also known as cradle-to-grave (salah and romanova, 2021). lca is a technique of choice to quantify environmental impacts throughout the product life cycle (wall and pell, 2020). in the construction context, the environmental impact from raw material extraction to manufacturing and delivery to the job site, building, operation, maintenance, and end-of-life recycling or demolition is examined (gomes, et al., 2020). economic assessment economic sustainability is “meeting the present’s economic needs without diminishing the future’s economic needs” (solin, 2012). this definition stems from the conventional description of sustainability and is reflected in identifying economic sustainability indicators within the construction industry. for example, zhong and wu (2015) assessed structural costs, maintenance costs, non-construction costs, financial costs, and potential income as essential benchmarks for evaluating the economic sustainability of infrastructure. in another study, stanitsas, et al. (2021) identified financial performance, payment capacity, and the incorporation of environmental accounting practices as critical factors contributing to the economic sustainability of construction projects. the identified indicators provide alternative perspectives in which sustainability is achieved in the decision-making process of infrastructure planning. these indicators align the economic relation with unsdgs 8, 9, 10, and 12 as demonstrated in the sdg “wedding cake” illustration (stockholm resilience centre, 2016). social assessment social sustainability considers the needs of the individual and the community, which provides a sense of uplifting human and community dignity, security, quality of life, and heritage (zuo, et al., 2012). therefore, sistos-sescosse et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025206 social assessments of infrastructure projects will emphasize addressing issues that contribute to the cohesion of society and the capacity building of individuals and the community. fatourehchi and zarghami (2020) proposed five main indicators for social sustainability in residential projects, i.e., safety and security (safety and security-based design consideration), comfort and health considerations (thermal, visual, acoustic, daylight, indoor air quality, and indoor built environmental quality), architectural factors (traditional, functional, and flexible architectural considerations), practitioners’ interactions (interaction and participation with people and community), and site/equipment considerations (land use, barrier-free built environment, site safety, and quality of infrastructure). earlier studies have opined the considerations of reasonable working hours, education and training, decent employment opportunities, and human rights protections (zuo, et al., 2012; popovic, et al., 2018; stanitsas, et al., 2021). these align with unsdgs 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, and 16. bim–lca high carbon emissions and waste associated with the construction industry make it a “hotspot” for realizing the goals of sustainability (united nations environment programme, 2022). these are environmental issues that have intricate ramifications on social and economic sustainability. in the bid to reduce its environmental impacts, it has been proposed to consider the impacts of selected materials at the early stages of project development using a project life cycle approach. for example, the uk’s construction sector deal and construction strategy have advocated for a whole life cycle assessment of the project (her majesty government, 2018, infrastructure and projects authority, 2016). the lca boundaries for construction are based on the en 15978 (figure 1), called cradle-to-cradle. cradle-to-cradle construction materials ensure that materials from old projects can be reused, recycled, and recovered for other purposes, which aligns with the circular economy and unsdg 12 (ogunmakinde, et al., 2022). the product stage (a1–a3) emphasizes the energy required in mining the materials, refining, transporting, and maturing to the appropriate materials for further application. figure 1. life cycle stages according to en 15978 and included in tally® modeling. the construction stage (a4–a5) addresses the cumulated energy used in transporting and installing the materials as part of the building environment. in this context, the use stage focuses on other maintenance, repair, replacement, and refurbishment of materials to rejuvenate the building environment for use (b1–b7). the end of life (c1–c4) is when the building is demolished and the materials are transported and disposed of. in the module d stage, some materials are subjected to various circular economy principles of reuse, recovery, and recycling. the lca stages are associated with embodied and operational energy, which could each impact the product’s environmental performance. embodied energy is associated with the energy used in the product, sistos-sescosse et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025207 construction, use (except b1, b6, and b7), and end of life (moncaster and symons, 2013; asdrubali, et al., 2023). the emphasis is on embodied and operational energy (emission) of materials through the project life cycle (saadah and abuhijleh, 2010; chen, et al., 2022; spudys, et al., 2023). the decision-making criteria used for the lca analysis focus on the following elements of the life cycle analysis boundaries: product [a1–a3], construction [a4], use [b2–b5], end of life [c2–c4], and module d (figure 1). the traci environmental impact indicators (eiis) have been used as the unit of analysis for lca, and these are described by bare (2011), as follows: • global warming potential (kg co2eq): this measures the contribution of elements of buildings to greenhouse gas emissions, that is, carbon dioxide and methane emissions. it has an impactful adverse effect on ecosystems and human and material welfare due to the absorption of radiation by the earth. • acidification potential (kg so2eq): acidity affects fish mortality, forest decline, and building material deterioration. it is a measure of emissions related to the increase in acidity in the environment. • eutrophication potential (kg neq): eutrophication measures the over-enrichment of nutrients such as nitrogen and phosphorus in aquatic or terrestrial ecosystems. it creates a chain of reactions and produces large amounts of carbon dioxide in aquatic systems. • smog potential (kg o3eq): this reaction between nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds contributes to ground-level ozone. the adverse effects include respiratory-related issues such as symptoms of bronchitis, asthma, and emphysema, as well as permanent lung damage. • ozone depletion potential (kg cfc-11eq): a measure of air emissions that contribute to stratospheric ozone layer depletion. these emissions lead to higher levels of ultraviolet rays, which have detrimental effects on humans and plants. • non-renewable energy (mj): it measures the amount of energy extracted from fossil fuel sources. the extraction of non-renewable energy sources has far-reaching implications since it contributes to the depletion of land and natural resources and contributes to carbon dioxide. • renewable energy demand (mj): a measure of energy extracted from renewable resources, which positively contribute to human life, although wind energy and hydropower can impact the lives of birds and aquatic ecosystems, respectively. the decision-making criteria considered in this study, as the units of analysis, are the traci environment impact indicators. the lca methodology has been integrated into developed digital platforms for quantitative analysis. bim has become the digital tool used to model infrastructure design data to determine the potential impacts on the environment, which addresses only some elements of its impacts on the environment. green sustainability assessment has become the focus of the growing body of knowledge on bim for sustainability, requiring new bim tools that encompass all sustainability elements (chong, et al., 2017). for instance, the united kingdom’s construction sector deal underscores the importance of considering economic costs throughout a building’s life cycle (her majesty government, 2018). bim–lca leverages construction design data to select appropriate materials or systems with a competitive advantage on environmental impacts. bueno and fabricio (2018) identified a variety of bim– lca tools with their features and limitations, which include elodie, etool lca, gbat, green building studio®, impact complaint suite, lca design, lesosai, one click lca, and tally®. this study used tally® because of the following reasons: • it is the most common tool used in the scientific environment because it has the largest list of environmental impact assessments of building materials and because of its flexible licenses and userfriendliness. • it is compatible with the autodesk revit software. sistos-sescosse et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025208 • tally® incorporates some of the impact assessment categories—ozone depletion, acidification, eutrophication, smog formation, global warming, primary energy demand, non-renewable energy demand, and renewable energy demand—of the us environmental protection agency (epa)developed bim–lca tool traci. • its methodology is consistent with lca standards iso 14040-14044, iso 21930:2017, iso 21931:2010, en 15804:2012, and en 15978:2011. • tally® has been employed in several studies (najjar, et al., 2017; bueno and fabricio, 2018). the lca stages, traci eiis, and the selected bim plug-in tally® discussed in this section form the basis for the materials and methods section. materials and methods a case study research design was adapted to critically examine the decision-making process for bim–lca. a case study facilitates a deeper understanding of a construct, idea, or concept (creswell, 2014); this is evidenced in earlier studies that assessed the embodied energy of buildings (nizam, et al., 2018; evangelista et al., 2018). the case study is a hypothetical office building in sydney, australia, which compares two commonly used flooring finish materials to examine the decision-making process based on the eiis. hypothetical designs are an accepted methodology used in the study of bim–lca. for example, najjar, et al. (2017) compared two building materials from a hypothetical multi-story office building to examine the integration of bim and lca. in another study, alternative materials from a hypothetical structural external climate wall were used to analyze different life cycle impacts and assessments and compare multiple bim– lca plug-ins (bueno, et al., 2016; bueno and fabricio, 2018). röck, et al. (2018) used a hypothetical bim model to evaluate the contributions of different elements to the embodied impact of building design. project information the worksafe queensland (2018) examined multiple flooring finishes such as carpets, concrete, cork, glazed ceramic tiles, plastic matting, rubber, terrazzo, timber, and vinyl tiles. it was shown that the two flooring finishes useful in the office are carpets and timber. unsurprisingly, these two flooring finishes are commonly used in office buildings, often debated to provide favorable benefits (bartolone and allen, 2023), and have similar life cycle processes (sim and prabhu, 2018). for example, haines, et al. (2019) indicated that carpets and rugs hold approximately 50% of the flooring finishes market in the united states. therefore, the two flooring finishes considered for the study were nylon-based carpet (type a) and hardwood plank (type b). the same set of information and parameters were used for both systems: • building life cycle: 60 years • gross floor area: 365.76 m² • perimeter of floor: 118.7 m • thickness of flooring finishes: 19.1 mm • binding to structural floor: adhesives • structural floor type: cast-in-place concrete • structural floor properties: 4 in. with 3,000-psi resistance, fly ash, and rebar. sources of data and modeling figure 2 demonstrates the modeling process with three essential components: tools, input data, and output. the tools represent the bim and lca tools for the architectural design and the lca analysis. figure 2 shows a relationship between the bim tool, autodesk revit®, which was used to generate the sistos-sescosse et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025209 schematic 3d design of the office building (figure 3), and the tally plug-in, which was used to perform the lca. revit design tally® plugin project design data  flooring systems  material properties  flooring dimensions architectural design lca data  australia bom data  australia energy mix sources  travel distance assumptions lca results tools input data output lca results  lca life stages (a1 – d)  environmental impact indicators based on traci figure 2. architectural design and lca analysis process (figure created by the authors). lca, life cycle assessment. figure 3. hypothetical office building schematics (figure created by the authors). each of the tools has different input data for its modeling. for instance, the revit tool used the project information described in the previous section, such as material properties and flooring systems, i.e., hardwood and nylon (figure 2). the same schematic design was used for the two flooring systems: type a (nylon-based) and type b (hardwood) (figure 3). the output from the revit design data and material properties based on the parameters were subjected to the lca analysis using tally®. tally® has an inbuilt database, and the lca database relevant to sydney, australia, was used. in the tally®, the object of study was “full building study”, and 40% target percentage glazing was considered. this percentage was chosen to balance maximizing natural light intake and minimizing heat loss (chen, et al., 2020). the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (hvac) system used was the “central vav, hw heat, chiller 5.96 cop, boilers 84.5 eff ”. sistos-sescosse et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025210 local climatic data for sydney were obtained from the australian bureau of meteorology (bom) (figure 4) and added to revit®. the bom data were used to make a context-based analysis by considering the office complex’s environmental surroundings and providing a realistic perspective to the modeling. the australian government (2022) showed that the australian economy relies on a mix of energy to power its infrastructure. it is important to note that almost 70% of australian energy is sourced from coal and oil, and in the case of new south wales, where the parametric project was considered, coal and oil account for a whopping 84%. based on the preceding information, the energy source was set at “average grid mix– australia”, while the heating source was set at “natural gas–australia” for construction and operational energy impacts. figure 4. location and weather information on hypothetical project (figure created by the authors). analysis the cradle-to-cradle (a1–d) boundaries, including biogenic carbon, were adapted, emphasizing en 15978 lca boundaries (figure 1). these are a1–a3, a4, b2–b5, c2–c4, and d. the a5 stage of the flooring materials was excluded because of the minimal energy demand as considered in the european union report on lca of buildings (gervasio and dimova, 2018). the b1 (use), b6 (operating energy), and b7 (operational water) elements of the use stage boundary were excluded from the tally® modeling because these relate to operational energy and its impacts (moncaster and symons, 2013; asdrubali, et al., 2023), which are outside the focus of this study. importantly, in the context of lca and as defined by en 15978, the c1 stage (demolition) is often excluded from detailed modeling, particularly in tally® (santos, et al., 2020). this exclusion is based on the premise that the demolition phase primarily involves physical dismantling activities that typically have a negligible environmental impact compared to the subsequent end-of-life processes (c2–c4). thus, focusing on c2 (transport), c3 (waste processing), and c4 (disposal) allows for more precise capture of the significant energy use, material inputs, and emissions that arise during these stages. in addition, the typical distances for shipping supplies to construction sites, landfilling trash, and recycling are 10, 20, and 50 km, respectively. the traci eiis—global warming potential, acidification, eutrophication, smog formation, ozone depletion, non-renewable energy, and renewable energy—discussed earlier are the measures of variables considered in this study. this study performed the traci eii analysis across the lca boundaries. traci eiis are the accepted and embedded indicators used across existing lca tools. the results from tally® are presented in the following section. sistos-sescosse et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025211 results the results of the tally® plug-in analysis are presented in this section. table 1 shows the lca results mentioned in figure 2; the eii analyses across the life cycle boundaries in reference to types a (nylonbased carpet) and b (hardwood finish) are presented. this enables a comparative interpretation of the two systems to make informed decisions based on their performance on the eiis. for the purposes of interpretation of table 1, it is important to note that the system with the higher figure in the lca boundaries contributes badly to the related eiis. table 1. summary of environmental impact report of type a (nylon) and type b (hardwood) flooring systems. environmental impact totals production stage [a1–a3] construction stage [a4] use stage [b2–b5] end-of-life stage [c2–c4] module d [d] total values bestperforming system hardwood nylon hardwood nylon hardwood nylon hardwood nylon hardwood nylon hardwood nylon global warming (kg co2eq) −3,958 3,178 169.5 75.78 3,550 9,071 6,736 386.4 1,176 −1,552 7,673.5 11,159.18 hardwood acidification (kg so2eq) 23.66 11.04 0.7856 0.3511 36.86 28.36 13.6 0.9046 −8.39 −3.12 66.5156 37.5357 nylonbased eutrophication (kg neq) 2.139 1.35 0.06397 0.02859 4.087 5.93 1.405 0.1099 −0.3495 −0.1521 7.34547 7.26639 nylonbased smog formation (kg o3eq) 596.9 144.4 25.96 11.6 762.3 340.2 74.59 15.1 −104 −46.2 1,355.75 465.1 nylonbased ozone depletion (kg cfc-11eq) −5.120e−007 7.67e−05 5.807e−012 2.595e−12 8.254e−009 3.86e−04 7.012e−011 2.986e−11 2.060e−007 2.23e−07 −2.9767e−07 4.63e−04 hardwood non-renewable energy (mj) 95,100 43,962 2,406 1,076 129,107 159,939 5,130 2,556 −33,492 −21,813 198,251 185,720 nylonbased renewable energy (mj) 100,704 1,905 59.62 26.65 101,900 4,463 349.8 177.6 −25,131 −806 177,882.42 5,766 hardwood source: tally® generated results. as shown in table 1, global warming potential (gwp) in type b (hardwood) performed better than that in type a (nylon-based carpet) in the product stage [a1–a3] and use stage [b2–b5]. type a had a lower gwp during the construction stage [a4], end-of-life stage [c2–c4], and module d [d]. while both systems show varying performances across the life cycle stages, overall, hardwood had a lower total gwp (7,673.5 kg co2eq) than nylon-based carpet (11,159.18 kg co2eq), indicating that hardwood contributed less to global warming. acidification impacts from the two systems show a consistent trend. nylon-based carpet performed better than hardwood throughout the life cycle boundaries, except for module d, where hardwood recorded better results (table 1). the impacts caused by hardwood were almost double those of the nylon-based system, as shown in the total value comparison column, with hardwood (66.5156 kg so2eq) having higher acidification than nylon-based carpet (37.5357 kg so2eq). this implies that overall, nylon-based carpet contributes less to acidification than hardwood. the comparison of eutrophication impacts by the two systems revealed that the nylon-based system performed better than the hardwood system in the product, construction, and end-of-life stages. however, the nylon-based system performed worse than hardwood during the use stage and module d. this pattern is similar to the findings for global warming and acidification, where performance varies across different stages, but nylon-based carpet generally shows better results in key stages. for example, global warming impacts in the product stage performance (hardwood recorded −3,958 kg co2eq versus nylon-based carpet at 3,178 kg co2eq) were repeated in the use stage (hardwood recorded 3,550 kg so2eq versus nylon-based carpet at 9,071 kg so2eq). the outlook in the eutrophication illustrates an inconsistent finding since the sistos-sescosse et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025212 two systems performed differently in the two lca boundaries. overall, while the nylon-based system (7.26639 kg neq) performed better than the hardwood system (7.34547 kg neq), the impacts were closely matched (table 1). the smog formation impacts across the lca show a finding similar to the results on the acidification impact. as shown in table 1, the nylon-based system performed better than the hardwood system in all the lca boundaries, except in the case of module d [d]. the performance of the hardwood in the module d [d] stage looks quite impressive because its impact of −104 kg o3eq means that it highly reduces environmental concerns of smog formation at this stage of the lca boundary. this finding was further magnified in the total values for the two systems, as shown in table 1. the nylon-based system showed a smog impact of 465.1 kg o3eq, and hardwood had an impact of 1,355.75 kg o3eq. this indicates that it will take almost three times the impact of nylon-based smog formation to level up with the impact made by hardwood. the findings of the two systems based on ozone depletion across the lca boundaries indicate that hardwood has a lesser impact from production, use, and module d [d] than the nylon-based system. hardwood has higher ozone depletion impacts than nylon-based systems in the construction and end-oflife stages. notwithstanding, on the aggregate level, ozone depletion impacts from the nylon-based system (4.63e−04 kg cfc-11eq) were more intense than those from the hardwood system (−2.98e−07 kg cfc11eq). non-renewable energy impacts exhibited some resemblance with eutrophication, such that the energy demand from fossil fuel sources applied to nylon-based systems across the production, construction, and end-of-life stages was lower than from hardwood systems. in contrast, the nylon-based system demanded higher fossil fuel than the hardwood system in the use stage of the lca boundaries. the overall difference in the demand for non-renewable energy was 12,531 mj, yet it is indisputable that hardwood had the highest demand for non-renewable energy (table 1). comparatively, the demand for renewable energy throughout the life cycle boundaries, except for module d [d], was higher in the hardwood system than in the nylon system (table 1). it has been argued that higher demand for renewable energy is better since it mitigates climate change and reduces carbon emissions, especially for “countries with higher rule of law and voice and accountability” (united nations general assembly, 2018; szetela, et al., 2022). therefore, high renewable energy demand in the hardwood system is considered better than the nylon-based system, especially since the study used data from australia. discussion the results indicate that out of the seven environmental impact indicators, hardwood performed better in three (global warming potential, ozone depletion, and renewable energy) than the nylon-based system. meanwhile, the nylon-based system outperformed the hardwood system in acidification, eutrophication, smog formation, and non-renewable demands. this raises the following question: which system should be considered more environmentally friendly? the aggregated results present a compelling, mixed outcome, making it challenging to determine the most environmentally friendly flooring system conclusively. this challenge mirrors the findings of sim and prabhu (2018), who used system dynamics and sensitivity analysis to highlight the fundamental difficulty in comparing similar items, particularly when using different tools based on the traci eiis. previous studies have suggested that decision criteria should be based on individual lca boundaries or multiple lca tools (najjar, et al., 2017; evangelista, et al., 2018). similarly, bueno and fabricio (2018) encountered conflicting results when using two different bim plug-ins with the same dataset, indicating a lack of absolute reference points when determining the most suitable tools or methods for eii analysis. these inconsistencies may sistos-sescosse et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025213 be attributed to variations in plug-in lca databases, energy sources, and the geographic context of case studies, creating a subjective foundation for analysis. for example, najjar, et al. (2017) recommended focusing on the manufacturing and use stages due to their significant contributions to the eiis. however, in this study (table 1), no lca boundary consistently exhibits a dominant impact across the eiis. the hardwood system recorded its highest eii values in the use stage (b2–b5) yet also demonstrated higher global warming impacts during the end-of-life stage (c2–c4) and ozone depletion in the construction stage (a4). making decisions based on specific lca boundaries may seem reasonable, but it could impede a holistic perspective in lca application. this nuance can be mitigated by aligning the lca’s focus with its intended purpose. for instance, if the lca prioritizes circular economy or target 5 of unsdg #12 outcomes, emphasis should be placed on the end-of-life (c2–c4) and module d stages. the focus would shift to the production (a1–a3) and construction (a4) stages for embodied energy. for operating energy, the use stage (b2–b5) becomes critical. while this approach is simplistic, it can be refined by developing comprehensive indicators that reflect the analysis concepts. moreover, decision-making becomes complex based on subjective reasoning; however, integrating a mathematical model can facilitate optimal outcomes. therefore, a ranking system is needed to guide the decision-making process. alola, et al. (2019) asserted that non-renewable energy demand negatively affects environmental quality, including impacts on water resources and forest reserves. in this context, the hardwood system’s higher non-renewable energy demand suggests a more pronounced depletion of land and natural resources than nylon-based systems. the eutrophication potential is expected to be higher in wood-based projects like hardwood because unharvested wood absorbs carbon dioxide and produces oxygen, contributing to overall carbon sequestration. however, the differences between type b (hardwood) and type a (nylon-based) in eutrophication potential are relatively marginal (table 1). the similarities in the values recorded during the production and use stages for both flooring systems could be attributed to the carbon emissions associated with nylon production (sim and prabhu, 2018) and the increased carbon dioxide emissions that result from the absence of wood (type b) in its natural state (binner, et al., 2017; turner-skoff and cavender, 2019). the impact of acidification shows a similar pattern to eutrophication between the two flooring systems. however, type b has 1.8 times the acidification value of type a, which is notable since type b is a woodbased product. additionally, the global warming and ozone depletion impacts exhibit comparable trends. type a (nylon) has nearly twice the values of type b (hardwood), positioning hardwood as the betterperforming system in these areas. given that global warming and ozone depletion are critical indicators of climate change (epa, 2024), these two factors should be prioritized when determining the system with superior environmental performance. this highlights the need for a ranking system and a weighting system to enable more accurate comparisons between the eiis. an evaluation of the traci eiis further suggests a need to reconsider the decision criteria from a social (health) perspective, given that eiis can directly or indirectly impact human health. for example, smog formation can lead to respiratory issues (bare, 2011). from a health perspective, nylon-based systems are the better option (table 1), as the production and use stages, which include replacement and repairs, recorded higher smog formation values. these stages involve harvesting new trees, producing new nylon-based carpets, and removing old finishes. turner-skoff and cavender (2019) demonstrated that trees reduce air pollution, lower carbon emissions, and mitigate respiratory diseases like bronchitis. therefore, the absence of trees (hardwood) could contribute to higher levels of air pollution, exacerbating respiratory conditions. however, haines, et al. (2019) found that carpets, including those made of nylon, can act as reservoirs for indoor contaminants, leading to respiratory issues. since this study was conducted indoors, nylon-based systems may have been expected to show higher impacts during the use stage of the flooring systems (table 1). sistos-sescosse et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025214 in summary, the health perspective adds complexity to the decision-making process. hardwood contributes to broader external health issues, while nylon-based systems may lead to indoor health concerns. although the data in table 1 aid in selecting a flooring system based on environmental indicators, the actual health implications remain uncertain. implications of the study theoretical implications the results of this study demonstrate the environmental impacts associated with selecting different flooring materials, underscoring the importance of always considering the design-technology perspective of bim– lca to provide a data-driven foundation for material selection (najjar, et al., 2017; bueno and fabricio, 2018). however, the findings reveal an inconclusive outcome, as no single material consistently performed worse across all eiis, making the bim–lca inconclusive. bueno and fabricio (2018) encountered a similar outcome but used gabi analysis as additional verification. in contrast, this study approached the analysis from the perspective of eiis, which could lead to greater environmental impacts, such as global warming, ozone depletion, and renewable energy demand. moreover, a social perspective, reflecting the effects of eiis, was considered, such as the health implications of increased carbon emissions in the atmosphere. the outcomes from previous studies demonstrate disparities in the decision-making process when selecting sustainable materials for projects. from the bim information requirement (bir) view, it is critical that bim applications for sustainability include clearly defined birs, as specified by appointing authorities (bsi, et al., 2020). birs should define the bim–lca tools and social elements to be considered during decision-making. since birs represent the goals set by higher-level organizational bodies, social elements can be tailored to meet these objectives. for instance, the centre for digital built britain (2020) published a template for birs and identified relevant goals and objectives. a similar approach can be applied to compile an exhaustive list of social factors to support decisions when bim–lca results are inconclusive. another observation made from the results indicates the adverse effects of eiis, including on human health, aquatic ecosystems, and terrestrial ecosystems, as discussed by previous researchers (smith and hitz, 2003; bare, 2011; alola, et al., 2019; haines, et al., 2019). these adverse impacts are likely related to several united nations sustainable development goals (sdgs). for example, respiratory problems affecting human health correspond to sdg3 (good health and well-being). the effects on aquatic ecosystems, including fish mortality and water body health, align with sdg6 (clean water and sanitation) and sdg14 (life below water). terrestrial systems, especially concerning land use, are linked to sdg3 (good health and well-being), sdg15 (life on land), and sdg13 (climate action), as deforestation for hardwood production increases atmospheric carbon dioxide and has broader consequences. additionally, nylon, a petroleum-based product (sim and prabhu, 2018), has higher global warming potential during its production and replacement stages, aligning with sdg13. the increased energy demands for both renewable and non-renewable resources during the production and reuse stages (module d) correspond to sdg7 (affordable and clean energy) and sdg12 (responsible consumption and production). the interpretation of the results suggests a negative relationship to these sdgs, as the goals are designed to address these adverse environmental impacts. practical implication this study examined bim–lca eii decision-making and observed that practitioners can leverage the approach to select project materials. the analysis and discussions from the study provide insights for clients sistos-sescosse et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025215 and permit approval teams, enabling them to ensure environmental sustainability in projects proactively. for instance, local councils could consider strategic objectives, focusing on sustainability concepts or the united nations sdgs, as a basis for approving building permits. this study has elaborated on sustainability concepts in relation to the bim–lca boundaries, which councils and clients can adapt and use as the basis for material selection in their projects and/or for approving permits. conclusions existing literature has examined the application of bim–lca from diverse perspectives, such as (a) comparing alternative designs, (b) exploring environmental hotspots in buildings, (c) performing parametric modeling, (d) conducting sensitivity analysis, and (e) improving bim–lca. however, none has critically focused on the decision-making process in its application. this study investigates the bim–lca decisionmaking process to identify gaps for improvement. the results reveal that hardwood flooring systems performed better than nylon-based carpets in several eiis, such as global warming potential (7,673.5 < 11,159.18 kg co2eq), ozone depletion (−2.9767e−07 < 4.63e−04 kg cfc-11eq), and renewable energy demand (177,882.42 mj > 5,766 mj). however, nylonbased carpet outperformed hardwood in other eiis, including acidification (37.5357 < 66.5156 kg so2eq), eutrophication (7.26639 < 7.34547 kg neq), smog formation (465.1 < 1,355.75 kg o3eq), and nonrenewable energy demand (185,720 < 198,251 mj). this leads to an inconclusive basis for decision-making, as both materials excel in different areas. the findings led to discussions on improving the bim–lca decision-making process and suggested further research in the following areas: • (re)examining and identifying indicators for environmental sustainability concepts related to lca analysis. • developing a ranking system to guide decision-making. • creating a weighting system for environmental impact indicators. • considering social (health) factors in the decision-making process. the findings and recommendations contribute to the decision-making process associated with bim– lca and environmental sustainability. additionally, the study relates the lca process to the unsdgs. notwithstanding, this study encountered some limitations, such as using a single geographic and temperate climatic zone context (sydney, australia), which limits the generalization of the findings. in addition, certain life cycle stages, such as a5 (construction installation), b1 (use), b6 (operational energy), b7 (operational water), and c1 (demolition), were excluded due to the use of the tally® plug-in. references abdelaal, f. & guo, b. h. w. 2022. stakeholders’ perspectives on bim and lca for green buildings. journal of building engineering, 48, 103931. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.103931 alola, a. a., bekun, f. v. & sarkodie, s. a. 2019. dynamic impact of trade policy, economic growth, fertility rate, renewable and non-renewable energy consumption on ecological footprint in europe. science of the total environment, 685, 702-709. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.139 asdrubali, f., grazieschi, g., roncone, m., thiebat, f. & carbonaro, c. 2023. sustainability of building materials: embodied energy and embodied carbon of masonry. energies, 16, 1846. https://doi.org/10.3390/ en16041846 sistos-sescosse et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025216 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.103931 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.139 https://doi.org/10.3390/en16041846 https://doi.org/10.3390/en16041846 australian government 2018. australia’s tech future: delivering strong, safe and inclusive digital economy. in: department of industry, s., energy and resources, (diser) (ed.). canberra: australian government. australian government 2022. australian energy update 2022, commonwealth of australia. bare, j. 2011. traci 2.0: the tool for the reduction and assessment of chemical and other environmental impacts 2.0. clean technologies and environmental policy, 13, 687-696. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-010-0338-9 bartolone, g. & allen, s. 2023. carpet vs hardwood flooring: major differences, pros, cons and costs [online]. forbes home. available: https://www.forbes.com/home-improvement/flooring/carpet-vs-hardwood/ [accessed 01/05/2024 2024]. binner, a., smith, g., bateman, i., day, b., agarwala, m. & harwood, a. 2017. valuing the social and environmental contribution of woodlands and trees in england, scotland and wales: forestry commission research report. edinburgh: forestry commission british standards institution 2021. little book of bim, united kingdom, bsi. bsi, cdbb & ukbim alliance 2020. guidance part d: developing information requirements, united kingdom, uk bim framework. bueno, c. & fabricio, m. m. 2018. comparative analysis between a complete lca study and results from a bim-lca plug-in. automation in construction, 90, 188-200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.02.028 bueno, c., hauschild, m. z., rossignolo, j. a., ometto, a. r. & mendes, n. c. 2016. sensitivity analysis of the use of life cycle impact assessment methods: a case study on building materials. journal of cleaner production, 112, 2208-2220. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.10.006 cavalliere, c., dell’osso, g. r., pierucci, a. & iannone, f. 2018. life cycle assessment data structure for building information modelling. journal of cleaner production, 199, 193-204. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2018.07.149 centre for digital built britain 2020. organisational information requirements: template, cambridge, uk, university of cambridge. chen, s., zhang, g., xia, x., setunge, s. & shi, l. 2020. a review of internal and external influencing factors on energy efficiency design of buildings. energy and buildings, 216, 109944. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. enbuild.2020.109944 chen, w., yang, s., zhang, x., jordan, n. d. & huang, j. 2022. embodied energy and carbon emissions of building materials in china. building and environment, 207, 108434. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108434 chong, h.-y., lee, c.-y. & wang, x. 2017. a mixed review of the adoption of building information modelling (bim) for sustainability. journal of cleaner production, 142, 4114-4126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.222 christensen, t. h., damgaard, a., levis, j., zhao, y., björklund, a., arena, u., barlaz, m. a., starostina, v., boldrin, a., astrup, t. f. & bisinella, v. 2020. application of lca modelling in integrated waste management. waste management, 118, 313-322. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2020.08.034 creswell, j. w. 2014. research design: qualitative, quantitative, & mixed methods approaches, thousand oaks, california 91320, sage publication inc. dauletbek, a. & zhou, p. 2022. bim-based lca as a comprehensive method for the refurbishment of existing dwellings considering environmental compatibility, energy efficiency, and profitability: a case study in china. journal of building engineering, 46, 103852. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.103852 sistos-sescosse et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025217 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10098-010-0338-9 https://www.forbes.com/home-improvement/flooring/carpet-vs-hardwood/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.02.028 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.10.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.149 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.149 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.109944 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2020.109944 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2021.108434 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.09.222 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2020.08.034 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.103852 dcceew 2021. indoor air. in: department of climate change, e., the environment and water (dcceew) (ed.) environment. australia: australian government. epa. 2024. climate change indicators: weather and climate [online]. usa: united states environmental protection agency (epa). available: https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/weather-climate#:~:text=rising%20global%20 average%20temperature%20is,with%20human%2dinduced%20climate%20change. [accessed 1 july 2024 2024]. evangelista, p. p. a., kiperstok, a., torres, e. a. & gonçalves, j. p. 2018. environmental performance analysis of residential buildings in brazil using life cycle assessment (lca). construction and building materials, 169, 748-761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.02.045 fatourehchi, d. & zarghami, e. 2020. social sustainability assessment framework for managing sustainable construction in residential buildings. journal of building engineering, 32, 101761. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jobe.2020.101761 gervasio, h. & dimova, s. 2018. model for life cycle assessment (lca) of buildings. european union. gills, b. & morgan, j. 2020. global climate emergency: after cop24, climate science, urgency, and the threat to humanity. globalizations, 17, 885-902. https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2019.1669915 gomes, r., silvestre, j. d. & de brito, j. 2020. environmental, economic and energy life cycle assessment “from cradle to cradle” (3e-c2c) of flat roofs. journal of building engineering, 32, 101436. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jobe.2020.101436 haines, s. r., adams, r. i., boor, b. e., bruton, t. a., downey, j., ferro, a. r., gall, e., green, b. j., hegarty, b., horner, e., jacobs, d. e., lemieux, p., misztal, p. k., morrison, g., perzanowski, m., reponen, t., rush, r. e., virgo, t., alkhayri, c., bope, a., cochran, s., cox, j., donohue, a., may, a. a., nastasi, n., nishioka, m., renninger, n., tian, y., uebelniemeier, c., wilkinson, d., wu, t., zambrana, j. & dannemiller, k. c. 2019. ten questions concerning the implications of carpet on indoor chemistry and microbiology. build environ, 170, 1-16. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.106589 her majesty government 2018. industrial strategy: construction sector deal. united kingdom: crown copyright. hollberg, a., kiss, b., röck, m., soust-verdaguer, b., wiberg, a. h., lasvaux, s., galimshina, a. & habert, g. 2021. review of visualising lca results in the design process of buildings. building and environment, 190, 107530. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.107530 infrastructure and projects authority 2016. government construction strategy 2016-20. in: office, h. t. a. c. (ed.). united kingdom: crown copyright. moncaster, a. m. & symons, k. e. 2013. a method and tool for ‘cradle to grave’ embodied carbon and energy impacts of uk buildings in compliance with the new tc350 standards. energy and buildings, 66, 514-523. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2013.07.046 najjar, m., figueiredo, k., palumbo, m. & haddad, a. 2017. integration of bim and lca: evaluating the environmental impacts of building materials at an early stage of designing a typical office building. journal of building engineering, 14, 115-126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2017.10.005 negishi, k., tiruta-barna, l., schiopu, n., lebert, a. & chevalier, j. 2018. an operational methodology for applying dynamic life cycle assessment to buildings. building and environment, 144, 611-621. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.09.005 nizam, r. s., zhang, c. & tian, l. 2018. a bim based tool for assessing embodied energy for buildings. energy and buildings, 170, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.03.067 sistos-sescosse et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025218 https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/weather-climate#:~:text=rising%20global%20average%20temperature%20is,with%20human%2dinduced%20climate%20change https://www.epa.gov/climate-indicators/weather-climate#:~:text=rising%20global%20average%20temperature%20is,with%20human%2dinduced%20climate%20change https://doi.org/10.1016/j.conbuildmat.2018.02.045 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101761 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101761 https://doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2019.1669915 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101436 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101436 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.106589 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.106589 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.107530 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2013.07.046 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2013.07.046 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2017.10.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.09.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2018.03.067 ogunmakinde, o. e., egbelakin, t. & sher, w. 2022. contributions of the circular economy to the un sustainable development goals through sustainable construction. resources, conservation and recycling, 178. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.106023 parliamentary office of science and technology 2023. postbrief 54: indoor air quality. in: parliament, u. (ed.). popovic, t., barbosa-póvoa, a., kraslawski, a. & carvalho, a. 2018. quantitative indicators for social sustainability assessment of supply chains. journal of cleaner production, 180, 748-768. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2018.01.142 purvis, b., mao, y. & robinson, d. 2019. three pillars of sustainability: in search of conceptual origins. sustainability science, 14, 681-695. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0627-5 röck, m., hollberg, a., habert, g. & passer, a. 2018. lca and bim: visualization of environmental potentials in building construction at early design stages. building and environment, 140, 153-161. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.05.006 saadah, y. & abuhijleh, b. 2010. decreasing co2 emissions and embodied energy during the construction phase using sustainable building materials. international journal of sustainable building technology and urban development, 1, 115-120. https://doi.org/10.5390/susb.2010.1.2.115 saade, m. r. m., guest, g. & amor, b. 2020. comparative whole building lcas: how far are our expectations from the documented evidence? building and environment, 167, 106449. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. buildenv.2019.106449 salah, g. m. j. a. & romanova, a. 2021. life cycle assessment of felt system living green wall: cradle to grave case study. environmental challenges, 3, 100046. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2021.100046 santos, r., costa, a. a. & grilo, a. 2017. bibliometric analysis and review of building information modelling literature published between 2005 and 2015. automation in construction, 80, 118-136. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2017.03.005 santos, r., costa, a. a., silvestre, j. d., vandenbergh, t. & pyl, l. 2020. bim-based life cycle assessment and life cycle costing of an office building in western europe. building and environment, 169, 106568. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.106568 seyis, s. 2020. mixed method review for integrating building information modeling and life-cycle assessments. building and environment, 173, 106703. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.106703 sim, j. & prabhu, v. 2018. the life cycle assessment of energy and carbon emissions on wool and nylon carpets in the united states. journal of cleaner production, 170, 1231-1243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.09.203 smith, j. & hitz, s. 2003. estimating global impacts from climate change oecd workshop on the benefits of climate policy: improving information for policy makers france. solin, j. 2012. principles for economic sustainability: summary of john ikerd’s principles of economic sustainability, university of wisconsin. usa. spudys, p., afxentiou, n., georgali, p.-z., klumbyte, e., jurelionis, a. & fokaides, p. 2023. classifying the operational energy performance of buildings with the use of digital twins. energy and buildings, 290, 113106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2023.113106 stanitsas, m., kirytopoulos, k. & leopoulos, v. 2021. integrating sustainability indicators into project management: the case of construction industry. journal of cleaner production, 279, 123774. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2020.123774 sistos-sescosse et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025219 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.106023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.106023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.01.142 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.01.142 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0627-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.05.006 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2018.05.006 https://doi.org/10.5390/susb.2010.1.2.115 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.106449 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.106449 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envc.2021.100046 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.03.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.03.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2019.106568 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2020.106703 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.09.203 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enbuild.2023.113106 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123774 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123774 stockholm resilience centre. 2016. the sdgs wedding cake [online]. stockholm. sweden: stockholm university available: https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2016-06-14-the-sdgs-wedding-cake. html [accessed 01/06/2024 2024]. szetela, b., majewska, a., jamroz, p., djalilov, b. & salahodjaev, r. 2022. renewable energy and co2 emissions in top natural resource rents depending countries: the role of governance. frontiers in energy research, 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2022.872941 tam, v. w. y., zhou, y., illankoon, c. & le, k. n. 2022. a critical review on bim and lca integration using the iso 14040 framework. building and environment, 213, 108865. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.108865 the institution of structural engineers bim panel 2021. an introduction to building information modelling (bim), united kingdom, the institution of structural engineers. turner-skoff, j. b. & cavender, n. 2019. the benefits of trees for livable and sustainable communities. plants, people, planet, 1, 323-335. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.39 united nations 1972. report of the united nations conference on the human environment. stockholm: united nations. united nations 2012. the future we want: resolution adopted by the general asembly on 27 july 2012. new york: united nations. united nations environment programme 2022. 2022 global status report for buildings and construction: towards a zeroemission, efficient and resilient buildings and construction sector. in: division, c. (ed.). nairobi, kenya: united nations environment programme. united nations general assembly 2018. renewable energy sources cut carbon emissions, efficiently increase electricity output worldwide, delegates say in second committee. ga/ef/3501. united nations. wall, f. & pell, r. 2020. chapter 317 responsible sourcing of rare earths: exploration-stage intervention including life cycle assessment. in: bünzli, j.-c. g. & pecharsky, v. k. (eds.) handbook on the physics and chemistry of rare earths. elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.hpcre.2020.10.001 worksafe queensland 2018. flooring types characteristics & applications [online]. queensland government. available: https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/safety-and-prevention/hazards/workplace-hazards/slips-tripsand-falls/floor-and-ground-surfaces/flooring-types-characteristics-and-applications [accessed 01/08/2024 2024]. yadegaridehkordi, e., hourmand, m., nilashi, m., alsolami, e., samad, s., mahmoud, m., alarood, a. a., zainol, a., majeed, h. d. & shuib, l. 2020. assessment of sustainability indicators for green building manufacturing using fuzzy multi-criteria decision making approach. journal of cleaner production, 277, 122905. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.122905 zhong, y. & wu, p. 2015. economic sustainability, environmental sustainability and constructability indicators related to concreteand steel-projects. journal of cleaner production, 108, 748-756. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2015.05.095 zuo, j., jin, x.-h. & flynn, l. 2012. social sustainability in construction – an explorative study. international journal of construction management, 12, 51-63. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2012.10773190 sistos-sescosse et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025220 https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2016-06-14-the-sdgs-wedding-cake.html https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2016-06-14-the-sdgs-wedding-cake.html https://doi.org/10.3389/fenrg.2022.872941 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.buildenv.2022.108865 https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.39 https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.hpcre.2020.10.001 https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/safety-and-prevention/hazards/workplace-hazards/slips-trips-and-falls/floor-and-ground-surfaces/flooring-types-characteristics-and-applications https://www.worksafe.qld.gov.au/safety-and-prevention/hazards/workplace-hazards/slips-trips-and-falls/floor-and-ground-surfaces/flooring-types-characteristics-and-applications https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.122905 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.05.095 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.05.095 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2012.10773190 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: alyileili, m., opoku, a. 2025. artificial intelligence ethics in municipal and construction sectors: a literature review. construction economics and building, 25:3/4, 210–230. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v25i3/4.9847 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article artificial intelligence ethics in municipal and construction sectors: a literature review muath alyileili1,*, alex opoku2 1 industrial engineering and engineering management, college of engineering, university of sharjah, united arab emirates, u19102771@sharjah.ac.ae 2 department of architectural engineering, college of engineering, university of sharjah, united arab emirates, aopoku@sharjah.ac.ae corresponding author: muath alyileili, u19102771@sharjah.ac.ae doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9847 article history: received 10/06/2025; revised 20/10/2025; accepted 22/10/2025; published 05/12/2025 abstract artificial intelligence (ai) technologies are increasingly used to improve the efficiency of public services such as building permit approvals, zoning management, and infrastructure inspections. however, this rapid integration has raised ethical concerns related to algorithmic bias, transparency, accountability, and data privacy. for example, automated zoning systems may inadvertently prioritize certain areas owing to biased data inputs. this paper presents a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis focused on ethical ai frameworks in municipal and constructionrelated services, particularly focusing on the united arab emirates (uae), where smart city initiatives are rapidly advancing. the review followed preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and metaanalyses (prisma) guidelines and drew on 102 peerreviewed articles from scopus, ieee xplore, and ebscohost using keywords such as “ai ethics”, “smart cities”, and “public services”. the analysis highlights recurring ethical gaps in existing global frameworks, including limited adaptability to local cultural and regulatory environments. drawing from best practices in the european union artificial intelligence act, organisation for economic cooperation and development artificial intelligence principles, and institute of electrical and electronics engineers artificial intelligence ethics guidelines, this study proposed a culturally sensitive governance framework tailored to the uae context. the framework offers guidance for implementing ethical audits, transparency standards, and citizen feedback mechanisms. the findings provide actionable insights for policymakers— such as the development of regulatory sandboxes— and industry stakeholders deploying ai 210 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9847 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:u19102771@sharjah.ac.ae mailto:aopoku@sharjah.ac.ae mailto:u19102771@sharjah.ac.ae https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9847 in constructionrelated municipal services. this study supported the development of responsible ai practices that align with both global ethical standards and local governance needs, ultimately contributing to more trustworthy smart city services. keywords ai ethics; municipal services; construction; ai governance introduction the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (ai) in public service delivery has transformed municipal operations worldwide. municipalities in the united arab emirates (uae) leverage ai in public and construction services to improve service delivery, optimize resource allocation, and enhance citizen satisfaction. for instance, ai is used in smart city initiatives, where systems monitor traffic, manage public utilities, and streamline construction permit processes (shrivastava, 2024). the integration of ai allows for faster response times, reduced administrative burdens, and datadriven decisionmaking, offering municipalities the ability to provide better services at lower costs. however, as ai is increasingly integrated into these services, it presents substantial ethical concerns, including privacy violations, data misuse, and potential bias in ai algorithms. the application of ai in municipal services, particularly in constructionrelated activities, is essential. ai systems can automate tasks, such as building permit approvals, construction site monitoring, and infrastructure inspections, which improve the efficiency of these tasks and minimize human error (bosco et al., 2024). for example, dubai municipality has integrated ai into its permit management system, thus significantly reducing the time required for building permit approvals owing to the automation of a considerable part of the review process (hassan et al., 2023). in addition, aibased systems are used to monitor the safety of construction sites, analyze structural risks, and ensure compliance with municipal regulations. this improves efficiency, enhances public safety, and increases trust in municipal governance. the uae provides a salient international case for ethical ai governance in municipal and construction services. it is a fastmoving adopter of smart city infrastructures and aienabled public service delivery, with largescale digital programs and diverse, highthroughput service environments. these features create concentrated ethical risk (e.g., bias in eligibility decisions, opaque automation, and crossborder data handling) and strong policy learning opportunities for other jurisdictions confronting similar modernization pressures. problem and context despite its potential benefits, the integration of ai into public services poses complex ethical and regulatory challenges. mccarthy argued for a formal code of construction ethics and an independent body to lead its adoption, underscoring the interest in governance and ethics within the built environment (mccarthy, 2012). the ability of ai to process vast amounts of data presents considerable risks. systems that lack transparency and human oversight may perpetuate bias, leading to unfair decisions in areas such as construction permits or public safety inspections (al jundi, 2023). for instance, ai systems in municipal services may use historical data that inherently favor certain applicants over others, potentially leading to discriminatory outcomes (varsha, 2023). furthermore, data security and privacy concerns are heightened by the large volumes of personal and sensitive information handled by municipal ai systems. without stringent data protection regulations, breaches can compromise public trust (vatankhah et al., 2024). in the construction sector, ai systems offer predictive maintenance of municipal infrastructure by monitoring public buildings and roads, allowing municipalities to address issues proactively before they alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025211 become severe (ahmed, 2023). however, these advances also have significant ethical implications. ai systems must be transparent and accountable to prevent errors, particularly in critical areas, such as construction safety inspections. the volume and sensitivity of municipal data elevate privacy and security risks, and breaches or misuse can erode public trust (vatankhah et al., 2024). in addition, improper inspection could lead to serious safety violations or noncompliance with regulatory standards. these concerns emphasize the need for ai regulations specifically tailored to the construction sector. in addition, a governance gap is present as widely cited frameworks [european union artificial intelligence act (eu ai act), organisation for economic cooperation and development artificial intelligence principles (oecd ai principles), and the institute of electrical and electronics engineers artificial intelligence ethics guidelines (ieee ai ethics guidelines)] provide guidance for risk, transparency, and oversight but are not directly applicable to the legal and cultural context of the uae, where public service mandates, citizen expectations, and procurement models differ (oecd, 2019; ieee, 2020; johnson and smith, 2021; hadfield and clark, 2023; li et al., 2023). given these potential benefits and risks, developing robust regulatory frameworks that guide the use of ai in municipal services, especially constructionrelated services, is essential. regulations must ensure that the ai systems are transparent, fair, and accountable. without these safeguards, ai systems could exacerbate the existing inequalities, introduce new biases, or lead to safety and compliance issues (batool et al., 2025). in the uae, where the rapid adoption of ai offers opportunities as well as challenges, policymakers must collaborate with ai experts to develop regulations that balance innovation with ethical considerations. because this study synthesized secondary and often theoretical sources, it did not validate effects in situ for the uae municipal sst. we therefore treated the results as scoping evidence that identifies risk areas and governance levers to be tested empirically in the uae context. the primary goal of this study aligned directly with the following research objectives: 1. to evaluate the impact of ai implementation on efficiency in municipal construction services, addressing how ai influences operational effectiveness and resource allocation; 2. to identify ethical challenges associated with the integration of ai in public service delivery within uae municipalities, focusing particularly on algorithmic bias, transparency, and privacy concerns; and 3. to assess the effectiveness of current regulatory frameworks governing ai use in municipal services and explore the suitability of global ai governance frameworks within the unique context of the uae. the remainder of the manuscript is systematically structured to comprehensively address these objectives. the second section presents an extensive literature review, critically examining the ethical implications of ai and evaluating existing global governance frameworks, with specific attention to their relevance and applicability in the uae context. the third section details the methodological approach, outlining the systematic literature review process, including the search strategy, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and analysis procedures. the fourth section reports the results derived from bibliometric and content analyses, identifying prevalent ethical challenges and evaluating the effectiveness of existing frameworks. the fifth section offers an indepth discussion of these findings, analyzing their implications for policy and practice within uae municipalities. finally, the sixth section concludes the study by highlighting limitations and suggesting avenues for future research. the uae serves as a relevant and illustrative context for this study, given its rapid adoption of smart city technologies and aidriven municipal services. such largescale digital transformation generates significant opportunities for efficiency, but also complex ethical risks related to bias, transparency, and accountability. methodologically, this study applied a systematic literature review supported by bibliometric analysis to map existing research and identify key ethical and governance challenges. the paper offers two contributions: alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025212 practically, it outlines governance measures for responsible ai deployment in public services; theoretically, it links riskbased regulation, transparency, and human oversight to the development of a culturally aligned ethical ai framework for the uae. literature review ai is rapidly transforming industries worldwide, and its application in public services is particularly impactful. globally, municipalities are adopting ai to improve the efficiency of their administrative processes, streamline resource management, and enhance public safety. in sectors such as construction and infrastructure management, ai has proven to be instrumental in automating important tasks, such as building permit approvals, zoning decisions, and infrastructure inspections. these advancements provide opportunities to accelerate urban development, especially in fastgrowing regions such as the uae, where smart cities and infrastructure projects are integral to future growth strategies (zhang and liu, 2020). ai in municipal services the integration of ai into municipal services varies globally, with different regions facing unique challenges. for instance, in the united states, the use of ai for predictive policing has raised concerns about bias and the unfair treatment of minority communities, highlighting the dangers of unregulated ai (bokhari and myeong, 2022). by contrast, in the united kingdom, ai has been employed in welfare systems to automate decisionmaking processes, although issues of transparency and lack of human supervision have resulted in errors (varsha, 2023). these examples illustrate the importance of robust governance frameworks in mitigating ethical risk. the use of ai in municipal construction services presents similar risks. for instance, in the uae, ai is increasingly being employed in building permit approvals, zoning management, and infrastructure maintenance. these technologies offer efficiency gains, but also raise concerns about bias, particularly when the historical data used by the ai systems reflect past inequalities. the automation of such decisions without sufficient human supervision can lead to discriminatory outcomes in service provision (ferrara, 2024). furthermore, the lack of transparency in aidriven decisions undermines public trust, as citizens and stakeholders are often unaware of how these systems arrive at decisions (ahmed, 2021). ethical risk landscape the adoption of ai offers considerable benefits, but also introduces substantial ethical concerns, particularly in highstakes environments such as construction. evidence from the building professions shows that ethical judgment is shaped by underlying ethical ideology; in nigeria, situationism predominates among practitioners, implying strong sensitivity to contextual pressures (ameh and odusami, 2010). issues of bias, transparency, and accountability become more critical when ai systems are responsible for decisions that affect public safety and infrastructure (hadfield and clark, 2023; li et al., 2023). to address these concerns, scholars and policymakers have proposed several mitigation measures. table 1 summarizes the key ethical challenges associated with ai in constructionrelated municipal services and lists measures to address these unethical practices. as presented in table 1, the ethical challenges related to ai use in municipal services, particularly in the construction sector, require comprehensive mitigation strategies. bias detection algorithms are essential for ensuring fair decisionmaking, especially in tasks such as permit approvals and project management. similarly, strong data privacy policies are pivotal for safeguarding the sensitive information handled by ai systems. to improve transparency, ai systems must include detailed decision logs that can be reviewed by stakeholders, enabling greater accountability and reducing public distrust (wang and li, 2022). alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025213 table 1. measures for addressing unethical ai practices in construction ethical challenge ai risk measure for mitigation citations bias in decision making ai systems may reinforce existing biases in permit approvals or project management biasdetection algorithms and diverse training datasets (khan et al., 2023) privacy violations personal data of project managers, workers, and citizens may be mishandled by ai systems strict data privacy policies, as well as encryption and anonymization techniques (ahmed, 2021) lack of transparency aidriven decisions in construction project management may lack explainability transparency protocols for ai systems, including detailed decision logs (wang and li, 2022) overreliance on automation ai may lead to automation errors in construction project workflows human supervision at critical decision points in project approvals and inspections (bosco et al., 2024) accountability in ai errors ai errors in infrastructure maintenance or building inspections may go unaddressed legal accountability for ai errors and human verification of aidriven decisions (bignami, 2022) note: ai, artificial intelligence. global frameworks in addition, human supervision remains a key factor in preventing overreliance on automated systems. by incorporating human judgment into highstakes decisions, such as building inspections and infrastructure assessments, municipalities can ensure that errors resulting from ai are minimized. consequently, the need for robust ethical frameworks to govern the use of ai in municipal services has gained attention among scholars and policymakers. this study explored how global ai ethical frameworks, such as the eu ai act (2021), oecd ai principles (2019), and ieee ai ethics guidelines (2020), can be adapted to suit the sociopolitical and cultural context of the uae. one of the most comprehensive approaches to ai governance is the eu ai act, which introduces a riskbased regulatory model that categorizes ai systems according to their potential societal impact. highrisk systems, such as those used in public services, building inspections, and permit approvals, are subject to stricter regulations to ensure transparency and accountability. the act outlines stringent requirements for documentation and human supervision to mitigate the risks of bias and privacy violations ( johnson and smith, 2021). although the eu ai act has been widely recognized for its strong regulatory framework, hassouni and mellor (2025) argued that its direct application in regions such as the uae may face cultural and governance challenges requiring tailored adaptations. alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025214 similarly, the oecd (2019) promotes ethical ai development, emphasizing humancentered values and democratic accountability. these principles highlight the importance of transparency, fairness, and prevention of harm in ai applications. these principles are particularly relevant for constructionrelated ai applications because they address public safety and infrastructure integrity, both of which are key concerns in urban development (li et al., 2023). however, the implementation processes of these principles remain incomplete, especially in regions with different governance structures, such as the uae, where rapid technological adoption necessitates more localized policies. the ieee (2020) ai ethics guidelines, another prominent framework, advocate the development of transparent, accountable, and fair ai systems. these guidelines are particularly valuable in public services, such as construction, where transparency in decision making, such as automated building permit approvals, is critical to maintaining public trust. li et al. (2023) argued that the ieee ai ethics guidelines provide a solid foundation for ethical usage of ai, but al jundi (2023) noted that cultural differences in community welfare and individual rights must be considered when applying these guidelines to municipalities in the uae. finally, assigning legal accountability to aidriven errors will help in maintaining the integrity of construction processes and ensure that municipalities are held responsible for the consequences of aidriven decisions (bignami, 2022). although the global frameworks outlined above provide a foundation for ethical ai governance, notable gaps in their applicability in the unique context of the uae exist. vatankhah et al. (2024) highlighted similar ethical challenges, such as privacy, bias, transparency, and accountability, specifically in the context of service industries. these findings further underscore the relevance of addressing such ethical considerations within the municipal and construction sectors. the rapid urbanization in the uae and the reliance on ai in public services call for frameworks tailored to local governance models, cultural values, and legal requirements. as the country continues to embrace ai across multiple sectors, there is an urgent need for a regionspecific ethical framework. despite extensive global guidance, the literature rarely operationalizes it for municipal and construction workflows in the uae. without sector-specific risk tiering, measurable harm thresholds, and audit-ready documentation, agencies risk checkbox compliance: inconsistent permit decisions, weak transparency/ recourse, and poor detection of model drift. for theory, high-level principles remain hard to test; we lacked constructs explaining how risk-based regulation, multi-layered transparency, and human oversight co-produce accountability in public-infrastructure settings (bignami, 2022). absent uaeattuned evidence, findings over-generalize across divergent procurement, language, and governance regimes (hadfield and clark, 2023). this review addresses these deficits and outlines a uaesensitive governance path for empirical testing. research methodology this study ran a prismaaligned systematic literature review (slr), complemented by bibliometric mapping and quantitative content analysis, to answer the research questions (rqs) regarding reported efficiency outcomes (rq1), the prevalence of ethical risks (rq2), and the prominence of governance frameworks in municipal and construction services (rq3). our searches covered scopus, ieee xplore, and ebscohost and were limited to english-language, peer-reviewed publications from 2018 to 2024; the searches were executed on april 17, 2024. all operational details, including verbatim search strings, prisma flow, sensitivity checks, synonym handling, tool parameters, and extended visuals, appear in the following sections. plan of review an slr was designed to explore reported efficiency outcomes and the ethical frameworks governing the application of ai in municipal services, with a specific focus on constructionrelated sectors. the planning alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025215 phase was centered on three key research questions described below that directly aligned with the objectives of the study and the broader technological and ethical challenges in the uae. rq1. what efficiency outcomes are associated with ai implementation in municipal construction services? this question examines the reported impacts on operational effectiveness (e.g., permit/inspection turnaround and throughput) and resource allocation in municipal construction services, synthesizing what the literature reports about ai-enabled workflows in permitting, inspections, and infrastructure management. rq2. what are the current ethical challenges associated with ai implementation in municipal and construction services? this question was fundamental for understanding the specific ethical dilemmas encountered when deploying ai in public services, particularly in construction and urban development (madan and ashok, 2023). rq3. what frameworks have been proposed or implemented globally to address these challenges? this question explored the global landscape of ai governance frameworks, including the eu ai act, oecd ai principles, and the ieee ai ethics guidelines. by investigating these frameworks, this study aimed to identify those with the most robust mechanisms for ensuring ethical ai applications. the review was structured to address the aforementioned questions through a detailed synthesis of the relevant literature, ensuring that the analysis was comprehensive as well as contextually relevant to the specific needs in the uae. search strategy a search strategy was developed to ensure a comprehensive collection of peerreviewed articles and studies. multiple databases were selected based on their relevance to research questions rq1– rq3 and the coverage of ai, ethics, governance frameworks, and constructionrelated sectors. the selected databases included scopus, ieee xplore, and ebscohost. scopus is widely regarded for its comprehensive coverage and indexing of peerreviewed articles, making it ideal for identifying studies on ai ethics and governance frameworks in the public service and construction sectors (straub et al., 2023). many critical papers on ai ethics, particularly those addressing transparency and accountability in municipal services, have been published in ieee conferences and journals (mellouli et al., 2024). ebscohost was included for its broad range of fulltext academic publications, spanning fields such as social sciences, public administration, and urban development (bannister et al., 2023). in accordance with prisma guidelines, the search was conducted on april 17, 2024, and was restricted to englishlanguage sources published between 2018 and 2024. to ensure academic rigor, only peer reviewed journal articles and conference papers were included. the search terms were developed using boolean operators to link relevant concepts. the key terms used throughout the search included “artificial intelligence”, “ai governance”, “ethics”, “ethical framework”, “municipal services”, “construction sector”, “transparency”, “accountability”, “bias”, “data privacy”, and “uae”. this structured and transparent search strategy enabled the systematic identification of relevant studies and ensured that the identified literature was both thematically aligned and methodologically robust. it also enhanced the reproducibility of the review, enabling future researchers to replicate or expand upon the study in different regional or sectoral contexts. alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025216 inclusion and exclusion criteria to maintain a clear focus on the relevant studies, a stringent set of inclusion and exclusion criteria was applied. the systematic screening process adhered to the prisma guidelines to ensure transparency and accuracy. this stepbystep documentation of inclusion and exclusion decisions enhanced the reliability of the review (page, 2021). the inclusion criteria are summarized as follows: (1) studies that discuss ai ethics or governance frameworks in municipal, construction, and public services; (2) articles addressing key ethical issues such as bias, transparency, accountability, and data privacy in ai systems; and (3) papers that propose or evaluate governance frameworks, including globally recognized frameworks such as the eu ai act, oecd ai principles, and ieee ai ethics guidelines (straub et al., 2023). the exclusion criteria are summarized as follows: (1) studies focusing solely on the technical development of ai, which do not explore its usage in governance or the ethical challenges that are raised as a result; and (2) nonpeerreviewed articles, opinion pieces, or studies lacking empirical evidence. data collection after filtering the studies, a structured data extraction process was employed. the data extraction focused on identifying the frequency and context of the key ethical challenges and governance frameworks. a predefined form was used to systematically record the following information: (1) type of ethical challenge (e.g., bias, transparency, and accountability), (2) governance frameworks discussed (e.g., eu ai act, oecd ai principles, and ieee ai ethics guidelines), and (3) sectoral context (e.g., municipal services and construction). the process of screening articles from the aforementioned three databases in four different steps is shown in figure 1. the search returned 211 records (scopus, 107; ieee xplore, 57; ebscohost, 47). after removing nonenglish articles (n = 3) and duplicates (n = 50), 158 records were assessed for eligibility. titles and abstracts (n = 87) and full texts (n = 46) were excluded, resulting in 25 studies that met the criteria for quantitative synthesis. figure 1. schematic of prisma guideline adjusted to the study. alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025217 analysis procedure the analysis began with a comprehensive bibliometric analysis to systematically map the existing literature and identify the influential studies, authors, and publications addressing ai ethics and governance. this step provided a foundational understanding of the scholarly landscape and helped clarify the significance and frequency of the topics and frameworks discussed within the domain (huang et al., 2023; lenguyen, 2024). subsequently, the data extracted from the relevant articles were subjected to thematic analysis, specifically focusing on the key themes identified through bibliometric analysis. prominent themes, such as bias prevention, data transparency, and human supervision, were critically evaluated for their applicability to the construction sector, particularly within the context of urban development and infrastructure management (hassan et al., 2023). further, the analysis assessed the effectiveness of the existing global ethical frameworks in addressing these identified ethical challenges within the highstakes operational environment pertinent to construction and urban management (li et al., 2023). frequency distributions were generated to quantitatively highlight the prevalent ethical considerations and governance models in the literature, facilitating the identification of patterns and trends (garcía and chen, 2024). statistical methods, including frequency analysis, were further employed to quantify the prominence and emphasis placed on specific ethical frameworks and challenges, thus offering deeper insights into their relative importance within contemporary academic discourse (raman et al., 2024). key findings bibliometric analysis the bibliometric analysis included a systematic evaluation of 158 peerreviewed articles published between 2018 and 2024, related to ethical considerations in ai applications within municipal and construction services. the annual scientific production trend shown in figure 2 illustrates a notable increase in scholarly publications starting in 2021, with a pronounced peak of 50 articles published in 2024. this significant figure 2. number of articles, discussing the ethical use of ai in governance, as a function of the year of their publication, for the 194 papers screened using the modified prisma strategy. ai, artificial intelligence. alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025218 escalation corresponds with the heightened global regulatory activities and scholarly debates about the ethical governance of ai technologies, notably influenced by legislative initiatives, such as the eu ai act ( johnson and smith, 2021). geographical distribution and countrywise contribution a detailed analysis of the geographic trends shown in figure 3 highlights significant regional contributions to ai ethics research, with china leading robustly by 2024, contributing 68 articles. this aligns with china’s strategic investment in ai and smart city initiatives. the prominent presence of middle eastern countries, such as saudi arabia and the uae, highlights the regional awareness and increasing academic engagement driven in these regions by rapid technological advancements and urbanization, thus directly addressing rq3 pertaining to global ethical frameworks and regional applicability. figure 3. research articles on ethical use of ai in governance, published by different countries between 2018 and 2025. ai, artificial intelligence. the increasing scholarly activity in the uae, evident from figure 3, demonstrates its strategic engagement with aidriven municipal and construction initiatives. this aligns with the proactive stance of the uae government on smart city development, reflecting the critical demand for robust ethical frameworks to ensure sustainable and responsible ai adoption. the growth in publications from the middle east, particularly saudi arabia and the uae, is indicative of a broader recognition within these regions about addressing specific cultural, legal, and ethical considerations in ai applications. institutional affiliations and author contributions figure 4a illustrates the most active institutional affiliations with substantial contributions, highlighting leading universities, such as king fahd university of petroleum and minerals, king saud university, alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025219 (4a) (4b) figure 4. (a) highest number of publications, pertaining to ethical use of ai in governance, in terms of institutional affiliations. (b) number of publications based on the countries of the corresponding authors. ai, artificial intelligence. alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025220 university of sharjah, and prince sattam bin abdulaziz university. the presence of these middle eastern institutions indicates a strong regional interest and academic focus on ethical governance using ai. figure 4b presents the contributions based on the countries of the corresponding authors, distinguishing singlecountry publications from multiplecountry collaborations. once again, china dominates, with significant contributions from saudi arabia and malaysia. the uae ranks prominently, highlighting the importance of this research in the context of the uae. this bibliometric evidence aligns with the global trends toward transparency, bias mitigation, and accountability, emphasizing the need for frameworks that can effectively manage the ethical implications of ai. in addition, the regional focus uncovered through this analysis underscores the critical need for culturally and contextually appropriate ethical frameworks that address specific sociopolitical and regulatory challenges inherent in rapidly urbanizing regions, particularly the uae. these findings directly respond to the research questions posed in this study, offering valuable insights for developing future governance frameworks that balance technological innovation with ethical considerations tailored specifically to the construction and municipal service sectors in the uae. quantitative content analysis (thematic analysis, ethical challenges, and gap analysis) a thematic analysis conducted through quantitative content analysis provides a structured visualization and examination of key themes prevalent in the scholarly literature on ai ethics within municipal and construction services. this analysis was performed using the bibliometrix rpackage and its interactive graphical interface, biblioshiny, specifically designed for comprehensive bibliometric studies. bibliometrix facilitates extensive quantitative analyses of bibliographic data, allowing researchers to identify thematic patterns, key influencers, and evolving trends within academic literature. for the keyword co-occurrence network, vosviewer was used to construct and visualize a co-occurrence map based on author keywords, applying association-strength normalization and full counting. across the coded subset, most studies that reported efficiency metrics indicated shorter processing times for permits or inspections and higher throughput; fewer provided explicit resource/cost measures, and very few quantified errors or rework processes. the reports were found to be heterogeneous, limiting direct comparison and underscoring the need for standardized measures and primary uae municipal case studies. these observations answer rq1 by consolidating how efficiency effects are reported in the literature for municipal construction services. thematic analysis figure 5a presents a thematic map generated by biblioshiny, which categorizes themes into clusters based on density (development) and centrality (importance). the motor themes identified in the analysis, such as “construction”, “research”, and “data”, represented central themes that have matured significantly, reflecting their integral roles in municipal ai applications. these themes underscore the widespread acceptance and deep integration of ai in the municipal and construction sectors, directly addressing rq2 about identifying the current ethical challenges associated with ai implementation. although currently less developed, the emerging themes of “transparency” and “intelligence” represent pivotal areas of scholarly interest, demanding further investigation and targeted attention. the lower density but rising centrality of “transparency” reflects the growing recognition of the importance of making ai decision making understandable to maintain public trust and ethical integrity, particularly in sensitive applications such as automated permit approvals and safety inspections (li et al., 2023). the keyword cooccurrence network graph presented in figure 5b further highlights the interconnections among prominent keywords identified using the code biblioshiny. the major thematic nodes, such as alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025221 “project management”, “artificial intelligence”, “construction industry”, and “decisionmaking”, demonstrate robust and central relationships, reinforcing the pivotal role of ai in decisionsupport systems within construction projects. the secondary interconnected terms, such as “risk assessment”, “machine learning”, and “transparency”, emphasize critical, practical, and ethical considerations intertwined with ai governance, illustrating the interconnectedness of risk management and transparency in the deployment of ai technologies. these insights clarify the extensive scope of rq2, illuminating the important linkages between operational and ethical dimensions in ai governance. these findings emphasize the importance of further (5a) (5b) figure 5. (a) results of thematic analysis showing the different categories of themes obtained from the selected data. (b) keyword co-occurrence network graph showing the interconnections between the prominent keywords generated in vosviewer. alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025222 research into culturally adaptive governance frameworks tailored specifically for the unique sociopolitical context of the uae. ethical challenges the results of the quantitative frequency analysis, presented in table 2, highlight bias as the most frequently addressed ethical challenge in ai applications (80%), followed by transparency (72%), accountability (60%), and privacy (52%). these findings indicate that bias remains a predominant concern in the ethical discourse on ai, reinforcing the existing literature that underscores the necessity of mitigating discriminatory algorithmic outcomes (horneber and laumer, 2023). the notable presence of privacy concerns (52%) also reflects ongoing debates on data protection laws such as the general data protection regulation (gdpr), which aims to safeguard user information against unethical ai practices. table 2. frequency of occurrence of different ethical challenges with ai ethical challenge frequency (n = 25) percentage (%) bias 20 80 transparency 18 72 accountability 15 60 privacy 13 52 note: ai, artificial intelligence. these findings directly correspond to rq2, quantitatively demonstrating which ethical concerns dominate academic discourse. the results further suggest that regulatory frameworks and governance structures must prioritize addressing bias and transparency, while ensuring robust mechanisms for accountability and privacy protection. in addition to ethical concerns, an explicit textual analysis of the referenced frameworks within the reviewed literature revealed that the eu ai act was the most frequently cited regulatory guideline (20%), followed by the ieee ai ethics guidelines (12%) and the oecd ai principles (8%), as presented in table 3. the prominence of the eu ai act suggests that it is perceived as a leading legal and ethical instrument for ensuring responsible ai deployment, particularly in the areas of transparency, risk management, and human supervision (ebers, 2023). the ieee ai ethics guidelines, which focus on ethical ai system design and engineering practices, are the second most referenced framework, highlighting the role of technical standards in guiding ethical ai development (ieee, 2020). the oecd ai principles, table 3. frequency of citation of three sets of guidelines regarding the ethical usage of ai ethical framework frequency (n = 25) percentage (%) eu ai act 5 20 ieee ai ethics guidelines 3 12 oecd ai principles 2 8 notes: ai, artificial intelligence; eu ai act, european union artificial intelligence act; ieee ai ethics guidelines, institute of electrical and electronics engineers artificial intelligence ethics guidelines; oecd ai principles, organisation for economic cooperation and development artificial intelligence principles. alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025223 which emphasize fairness, humancentered values, and robustness, are cited less frequently (8%), potentially reflecting their broader policyoriented nature rather than direct legislative enforceability. these findings contribute to rq3, shedding light on the dominance of the eu ai act in academic discussions and reinforcing its role in shaping contemporary ai ethics policies. the data also suggest a growing interest in industryspecific guidelines (ieee) and global governance principles (oecd), emphasizing the need for a multiframework approach to ai ethics. overall, these findings illustrate the intersection of regulatory mechanisms and ethical challenges in ai governance. this requires a more integrated ethical governance model that combines legal mandates with industry standards and global ethical principles to ensure responsible deployment of ai. gap analysis the gap analysis provides a structured evaluation of the recurring limitations within the existing ethical ai frameworks, as reflected in the keyword frequencies presented in table 4. the quantitative assessment highlighted that the term “limitation” appeared most frequently (n = 15), indicating a widespread acknowledgment of shortcomings in the current frameworks, such as their adaptability to diverse technological applications and industries. similarly, the occurrence frequency of the term “cultural” (n = 11) suggested that existing guidelines could be lacking sufficient consideration of cultural and regional variations in ethical ai governance. this is particularly relevant in contexts such as the uae, where ai deployment must align with local values, policies, and sociopolitical structures (alsamhi et al., 2022). table 4. gap analysis showing the most frequently occurring keywords in articles on ethical ai usage gaprelated keywords frequency (n = 25) limitation 15 cultural 11 municipal 8 regionspecific 6 furthermore, explicit references to “municipal” (n = 8) emphasize the necessity of ai governance frameworks tailored for publicsector applications, particularly in municipal and construction services. given the increasing integration of aidriven selfservice technologies in public administration, a pressing need for frameworks that address localized ethical concerns while maintaining global best practices exists (bonnefon et al., 2024). in addition, the term “regionspecific” (n = 6) further reinforced the argument that ethical frameworks should incorporate geographically contextualized guidelines to enhance their effectiveness across different regulatory landscapes. these findings directly address rq3, illustrating the extent to which the existing ethical frameworks are lacking specificity in addressing regional, cultural, and industryrelated factors. the data support the argument for future adaptations that emphasize cultural sensitivity, municipal applications, and region specific ethical considerations, ensuring that ai governance frameworks remain relevant and applicable across diverse operational environments. in summary, the combination of bibliometric mapping (biblioshiny), vosviewer keyword co-occurrence analysis, and quantitative content synthesis clarified the structures of reports on ai ethics in municipal and construction services and the salience of specific issues. the evidence indicates directionally positive but heterogeneously reported efficiency outcomes (shorter permit/inspection turnaround and higher throughput, alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025224 with sparse reporting on cost and error); prevalent ethical challenges centered on bias, transparency, and accountability; and frequent reliance on global frameworks (eu ai act, ieee ai ethics guidelines, and oecd ai principles). collectively, these findings answer rq1– rq3 by consolidating reported efficiency effects in municipal construction workflows, identifying the dominant ethical issues, and profiling the frameworks most cited in the literature and motivating their uaespecific adaptation for municipal services, respectively. discussion the bibliometric analysis of the screened articles published between 2018 and 2024 revealed a significant increase in academic interest in ai ethics in municipal and construction services. the annual scientific production trend peaked in 2024, indicating a heightened global regulatory focus on ai governance, particularly influenced by the introduction of the eu ai act ( johnson and smith, 2021). this surge aligned with an increased scholarly engagement in addressing the ethical implications of ai, particularly in highrisk sectors such as urban infrastructure and public administration. the uae and saudi arabia demonstrated substantial academic engagement, emphasizing the growing awareness of the role of ai in municipal and construction services in these regions. the increasing number of studies from middle eastern institutions highlights the regional demand for ai governance frameworks tailored to unique sociopolitical and regulatory landscapes (mellouli et al., 2024). ethical concerns in the use of ai the findings of this study underscore the critical ethical challenges associated with aidriven governance in municipal and construction services, particularly in the uae. the bibliometric and thematic content analyses reveal that ethical concerns, such as bias, transparency, accountability, and privacy, are at the forefront of academic discussions. these findings align with global debates on ai ethics, particularly in highstakes applications, such as urban planning and construction safety (horneber and laumer, 2023). these findings are also consistent with those of prior research highlighting the risks of ai systems perpetuating historical biases, especially when trained on datasets that do not account for demographic diversity (varsha, 2023). transparency and accountability are also highlighted as substantial ethical concerns, suggesting that stakeholders remain apprehensive about the opacity of the ai decisionmaking processes. this aligns with the global literature that emphasizes the “black box” problem in ai systems, where decisions are made without clear justifications ( johnson and smith, 2021). in municipal services, particularly construction related ai applications, a lack of transparency can erode public trust and lead to resistance against ai adoption. privacy has emerged as another prominent concern, resonating with the ongoing global debates on aidriven data collection and surveillance (khan and saleh, 2021). in municipal services, ai often processes vast amounts of sensitive citizen data, raising questions regarding data security, informed consent, and regulatory compliance. the findings of this study highlight the importance of stronger data protection policies, encryption measures, and compliance with global standards, such as gdpr, to ensure ethical ai deployment in smart city initiatives. global ai frameworks and their applicability to the uae this study also examined the prominence of citation of global ai governance frameworks such as the eu ai act, ieee ai ethics guidelines, and oecd ai principles in the selected articles. the high citation frequency of the eu ai act suggests that it is the most comprehensive regulatory model, particularly in enforcing transparency and accountability. however, its direct applicability to the uae remains limited because of the differences in the regulatory environments and cultural governance structures. this alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025225 finding underscores the necessity for contextspecific adaptations of global frameworks to suit the unique sociopolitical landscape of the uae. the gap analysis further identified the key areas requiring attention in the existing ai frameworks, with “limitation” (n = 15) and “cultural” (n = 11) being the frequently referenced terms. these findings suggest that the current ai ethics frameworks lack sufficient adaptability for regionspecific applications, particularly in municipal and construction services. given the commitment of the uae to aidriven urban development, a culturally sensitive governance framework that integrates global best practices and considers local policies and values is essential. theoretical implications this review refines how three governance mechanisms interact in public-sector, workflow-intensive contexts. first, risk-based regulation only yields accountability when risk tiers are tied to service criticality and harm thresholds that can be audited within municipal/construction workflows (ebers, 2023). second, transparency must be multi-layered— user-facing notices, audit logs for oversight bodies, and technical documentation for regulators— to be actionable beyond high-level principles (horneber and laumer, 2023). third, human oversight is effective when embedded as authority-bearing checkpoints (approval/override with rationale), not merely post-hoc review. we proposed three testable propositions for sectoral theory. p1. risk tiering improves equity and error detection when calibrated to workflow harms. p2. layered transparency increases auditability and citizen recourse. p3. oversight with decision rights reduces automation errors and model drift in high-stakes services. these propositions move generic ethics into falsifiable, sector-specific mechanisms for municipal and construction settings. figure 6 operationalizes high-level guidance (eu ai act, oecd ai principles, and ieee ai ethics guidelines) into a workflow-level architecture for permits, inspections, and infrastructure monitoring. figure 6. uae-tailored ethical ai governance framework for municipal/construction services. uae, united arab emirates; ai, artificial intelligence. alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025226 it binds risk tiers to concrete controls [data lineage, documentation/model cards, validation and drift monitoring, authority-bearing humanintheloop (hitl) checkpoints, and layered transparency/ recourse], producing audit-ready artefacts that public bodies and regulators can verify. the framework’s theoretical value is to specify mechanisms— risk tiering + layered transparency + empowered oversight— that co-produce accountability in municipal/construction services and are falsifiable via measurable outcomes (e.g., override rates, recourse uptake, and drift alarms). unlike generic frameworks, it is uae sensitive (procurement, multilingual service design, and local accountability norms) and therefore addresses contextual transfer gaps. evidence is synthesis-based; live uae pilots are needed to calibrate harm thresholds and compliance burden. metrics for bias may vary across agencies; smaller municipalities may face capacity constraints; vendor documentation and monitoring obligations can be hard to enforce. policy and practical implications the findings of this study offer several practical and policy implications. 1. bias mitigation measures: ai systems used in municipal services should incorporate fairnessenhancing algorithms and undergo regular audits to detect and rectify biases (horneber and laumer, 2023; bosco et al., 2024). 2. enhancing transparency: regulatory bodies should mandate ai transparency reports and require developers to provide clear documentation of decisionmaking processes (hadfield and clark, 2023; kim et al., 2024). 3. privacy safeguards: stricter data protection laws should be implemented to ensure compliance with established international privacy standards while tailoring them to the legal framework of the uae (ahmed, 2021; huang et al., 2023). 4. localized ethical ai frameworks: policymakers must work toward developing governance models that combine global ai principles with regionspecific regulatory needs (liang et al., 2024; mellouli et al., 2024). the successful implementation of these measures requires a multistakeholder approach that involves policymakers, ai developers, and municipal authorities working collaboratively to establish clear ethical guidelines. by integrating ai ethics training programs and continuous monitoring mechanisms, the uae can ensure responsible ai deployment while fostering innovation. future research should explore the development of dynamic regulatory frameworks that could adapt to the emerging ethical challenges in ai driven municipal and construction services. conclusions this study aimed to identify key ethical challenges and evaluate the suitability of global ai governance frameworks in the context of municipal and construction services in the uae. these objectives were realized through a systematic literature review and bibliometric analysis, which enabled a structured understanding of ethical risks and policy gaps. the integration of ai shows directionally positive effects on efficiency in the literature; however, cost and error/rework effects are sparsely reported and remain unverified in uae municipal settings. however, critical ethical challenges, such as algorithmic bias, inadequate transparency, and limited accountability, persistently put the responsible deployment of ai systems at risk. these ethical concerns are particularly critical in construction services, where errors or biases can lead to severe safety risks, financial losses, and broader social repercussions. the key contributions of this study included the following: (1) mapping scholarly trends through bibliometric analysis; (2) synthesizing thematic ethical concerns, especially bias, transparency, and accountability; and (3) evaluating the adaptability of global alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025227 governance models, such as the eu ai act, oecd ai principles, and ieee ai ethics guidelines, to the specific cultural, legal, and institutional contexts of the uae. these findings offer a foundation for future ethical governance strategies tailored to smart city development in the region. although international guidelines and standards, including the eu ai act, oecd ai principles, and ieee ai ethics guidelines, offer valuable insights, they must be customized to reflect local nuances to be effectively implementable and culturally appropriate within uae municipalities. we converted high-level ai ethics into workflow-level, audit-ready controls usable by uae municipalities (risk-tiered documentation, hitl checkpoints, and transparency/recourse), informing procurement and regulatory sandboxing (ebers, 2023). we specified how risk tiering, layered transparency, and empowered oversight interact to produce accountability, offering testable constructs for municipal/construction settings (hadfield and clark, 2023). this review has several limitations. first, it synthesized secondary literature and theoretical discussions. without primary case studies in uae municipalities, effect sizes and causal mechanisms could not be validated in situ. second, the corpus was restricted to english-language, peer-reviewed sources in three databases (scopus, ieee xplore, and ebscohost), which may introduce indexing and publication bias and exclude non-english and gray literature. third, the bibliometric network depended on author-supplied keywords and parameter choices (e.g., vosviewer settings); synonymy and term sparsity can influence cluster boundaries despite careful curation. fourth, the frequency tables (tables 2– 4) drew on a focused analytic subset (n = 25) selected using stricter coding criteria; this improves internal consistency but may under-represent less-reported constructs. fifth, although we used a pre-specified codebook and adjudication to mitigate subjectivity, we did not compute an inter-coder reliability statistic. finally, the rapidly developing nature of ai technology and ethics means that some framework interpretations will require periodic updating as policies and standards evolve. future research should focus on developing guidelines that address social, political, and technological challenges specific to the uae. regionspecific ethical frameworks that explicitly incorporate robust human supervision, proactive strategies for bias detection and mitigation, and clear legal accountability structures are essential. additionally, empirical studies investigating the practical application and impact of these ethical frameworks in uae municipal construction services will further validate their efficacy and guide ongoing improvements. proactively addressing these ethical considerations will ensure that ai technology contributes positively and sustainably to the municipal construction services in the uae. it is also crucial to explore dynamic regulatory frameworks that can evolve alongside emerging ai technologies, ensuring sustainable, ethical ai integration into municipal governance. acknowledgments the author acknowledges the institutional support provided during the development of this research, particularly access to academic resources and databases. assistance received in conducting the bibliometric analysis and using biblioshiny is also gratefully acknowledged. references ahmed. (2023). predictive maintenance and ethical implications in ai applications for construction. construction management review, 31(3), 215–235. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2023.1897241 ahmed, m. (2021). privacy concerns in ai-driven public services: the case of uae. journal of urban technology, 28(2), 45–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2021.1881822 al jundi, k. (2023). challenges of ai in governance: a uae perspective. arabian journal of public administration, 12(4), 15–30. https://doi.org/10.1108/ajpa-2023-1234 alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025228 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2023.1897241 https://doi.org/10.1080/10630732.2021.1881822 https://doi.org/10.1108/ajpa-2023-1234 alsamhi, s., ma, o., & ansari, m. (2022). cultural dimensions in ai ethics: adapting frameworks for the middle east. ai & society, 37(4), 545–561. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-00146-6 ameh, j. o., & odusami, k. t. (2010). nigerian building professionals’ ethical ideology and perceived ethical judgement. construction economics and building, 10(3), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v10i3.1602 bannister, f., connolly, r., chen, y., & garcía, a. (2023). predictive maintenance and ethical implications in ai applications for construction. construction management review, 31(3), 215–235. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.202 3.215235 batool, a., zowghi, d., & bano, m. (2025). ai governance: a systematic literature review. ai and ethics. https://doi. org/10.1007/s43681-024-00653-w bignami, f. (2022). artificial intelligence accountability of public administration. the american journal of comparative law, 70(supplement_1), i312–i346. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avac012 bokhari, s. a. a., & myeong, s. (2022). use of artificial intelligence in smart cities for smart decision-making: a social innovation perspective. sustainability, 14(2). https://doi.org/10.3390/su14020620 bonnefon, j.-f., rahwan, i., & shariff, a. (2024). the moral psychology of artificial intelligence. annual review of psychology, 75(volume 75, 2024), 653–675. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-030123-113559 bosco, g., scuotto, v., ferraris, a., bresciani, s., & del giudice, m. (2024). ai-driven innovation in smart city governance: achieving human-centric and sustainable outcomes. transforming government: people, process and policy. https://doi.org/10.1108/tg-04-2024-0096 ebers, m. (2023). chapter 13: the european commission’s proposal for an artificial intelligence act. in research handbook on eu internet law (pp. 271–292). edward elgar publishing. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803920887.00022 ferrara, e. (2024). fairness and bias in artificial intelligence: a brief survey of sources, impacts, and mitigation strategies. sci, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/sci6010003 garcía, r., & chen, w. (2024). ai governance: trends and implications in urban settings. technology in society, 34(1), 40–58. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2024.1021822 hadfield, g. k., & clark, j. (2023). regulatory markets: the future of ai governance. https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.04914 hassan, t., mahmood, h., & saleh, s. (2023). ai transparency in construction management systems. journal of construction engineering and management, 149(6), 78–93. https://doi.org/10.1061/jcem.149.6.78 hassouni, a., & mellor, n. (2025). ai in the united arab emirates’ media sector: balancing efficiency and cultural integrity. journalism and media, 6(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia6010031 horneber, d., & laumer, s. (2023). algorithmic accountability. business & information systems engineering, 65(6), 723–730. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-023-00817-8 huang, c., zhang, z., mao, b., & yao, x. (2023). an overview of artificial intelligence ethics. ieee transactions on artificial intelligence, 4(4), 799–819. https://doi.org/10.1109/tai.2022.3194503 ieee. (2020). ieee ethics guidelines for artificial intelligence. institute of electrical and electronics engineers. johnson, p., & smith, b. (2021). ethical governance in ai. ai & society, 38(4), 500–518. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s00146-021-01570-9 khan, a. a., akbar, m. a., fahmideh, m., liang, p., waseem, m., ahmad, a., niazi, m., & abrahamsson, p. (2023). ai ethics: an empirical study on the views of practitioners and lawmakers. ieee transactions on computational social systems, 1–14. https://doi.org/10.1109/tcss.2023.3251729 alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025229 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-022-00146-6 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v10i3.1602 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2023.215235 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2023.215235 https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-024-00653-w https://doi.org/10.1007/s43681-024-00653-w https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcl/avac012 https://doi.org/10.3390/su14020620 https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-psych-030123-113559 https://doi.org/10.1108/tg-04-2024-0096 https://doi.org/10.4337/9781803920887.00022 https://doi.org/10.3390/sci6010003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2024.1021822 https://arxiv.org/abs/2304.04914 https://doi.org/10.1061/jcem.149.6.78 https://doi.org/10.3390/journalmedia6010031 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12599-023-00817-8 https://doi.org/10.1109/tai.2022.3194503 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-021-01570-9 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00146-021-01570-9 https://doi.org/10.1109/tcss.2023.3251729 khan, m., & saleh, m. (2021). data security challenges in ai applications for smart cities. public management review, 25(2), 145–165. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2023.1951250 kim, b.-j., kim, m.-j., & lee, j. (2024). code green: ethical leadership’s role in reconciling ai-induced job insecurity with pro-environmental behavior in the digital workplace. humanities and social sciences communications, 11(1), 1627. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-04139-2 le-nguyen, h.-t. (2024). ethical dilemmas of ai perspectives towards common digital art and digital crafting: ai artistic view on morality. in making art with generative ai: a guide for artists and art educators. igi global. https:// doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-1950-5.ch013 li, g., wang, j., & wang, x. (2023). construction and path of urban public safety governance and crisis management optimization model integrating artificial intelligence technology. sustainability, 15(9). https://doi. org/10.3390/su15097487 liang, c.-j., le, t.-h., ham, y., mantha, b. r. k., cheng, m. h., & lin, j. j. (2024). ethics of artificial intelligence and robotics in the architecture, engineering, and construction industry. automation in construction, 162, 105369. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2024.105369 madan, r., & ashok, m. (2023). ai adoption and diffusion in public administration: a systematic literature review and future research agenda. government information quarterly, 40(1), 101774. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2022.101774 mccarthy, s. f. (2012). developing an australian code of construction ethics. construction economics and building, 12(2), 87–100. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v12i2.2536 mellouli, s., janssen, m., & ojo, a. (2024). introduction to ai in the public sector: risks and opportunities. information systems journal, 34(1), 25–42. https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12425 oecd. (2019). recommendation of the council on artificial intelligence (oecd ai principles). oecd legal instruments. page, m. j., mckenzie, j. e., bossuyt, p. m., boutron, i., hoffmann, t. c., mulrow, c. d., shamseer, l., tetzlaff, j. m., akl, e. a., brennan, s. e., chou, r., glanville, j., grimshaw, j. m., hróbjartsson, a., lalu, m. m., li, t., loder, e. w., mayo-wilson, e., mcdonald, s., & moher, d. (2021). the prisma 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. bmj (clinical research ed.), 372, n71. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n71 raman, r., pattnaik, d., lathabai, h. h., kumar, c., govindan, k., & nedungadi, p. (2024). green and sustainable ai research: an integrated thematic and topic modeling analysis. journal of big data, 11(1), 55. https://doi.org/10.1186/ s40537-024-00920-x shrivastava, a. (2024). ai in smart cities: enhancing urban living. journal of advanced research in applied sciences and engineering technology, 3, 2024. https://iaeme.com/home/article_id/jaret_03_01_019 straub, v. j., morgan, d., bright, j., & margetts, h. (2023). artificial intelligence in government: concepts, standards, and a unified framework. government information quarterly, 40(4), 101881. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2023.101881 varsha p. s., (2023). how can we manage biases in artificial intelligence systems – a systematic literature review. international journal of information management data insights, 3(1), 100165. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jjimei.2023.100165 vatankhah, s., vahideh, b., hasan evrim, a., & and duan, y. (2024). ethical implementation of artificial intelligence in the service industries. the service industries journal, 44(9–10), 661–685. https://doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2024.2359077 wang, x., & li, y. (2022). enhancing transparency in ai-driven project management. project management journal, 53(4), 316–332. https://doi.org/10.1177/87569728221101747 zhang, w., & liu, s. (2020). the role of ai in smart cities: emerging trends and challenges. journal of technology in society, 13(2), 145–158. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.06.004 alyileili and opoku construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025230 https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2023.1951250 https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-024-04139-2 https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-1950-5.ch013 https://doi.org/10.4018/979-8-3693-1950-5.ch013 https://doi.org/10.3390/su15097487 https://doi.org/10.3390/su15097487 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2024.105369 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2024.105369 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2022.101774 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v12i2.2536 https://doi.org/10.1111/isj.12425 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n71 https://doi.org/10.1186/s40537-024-00920-x https://doi.org/10.1186/s40537-024-00920-x https://iaeme.com/home/article_id/jaret_03_01_019 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.giq.2023.101881 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jjimei.2023.100165 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jjimei.2023.100165 https://doi.org/10.1080/02642069.2024.2359077 https://doi.org/10.1177/87569728221101747 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techsoc.2020.06.004 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: akotia, j., awuzie, b. 2025. evaluating social sustainability factor prioritisation in sustainable urban regeneration projects: the case of uk construction industry. construction economics and building, 25:1, 4–24. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v25i1.8796 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article evaluating social sustainability factor prioritisation in sustainable urban regeneration projects: the case of uk construction industry julius akotia1,*, bankole awuzie2 1 leeds trinity university, leeds, uk, j.akotia@leedstrinity.ac.uk 2 university of johannesburg, johannesburg, south africa, boawuzie@uj.ac.za corresponding author: julius akotia, leeds trinity university, leeds, uk, j.akotia@leedstrinity.ac.uk doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8796 article history: received 03/09/2023; revised 13/05/2024; accepted 09/08/2024; published 31/03/2025 abstract social sustainability has been acknowledged as an essential component for delivering sustainable development objectives. while the importance of social sustainability has been well recognised by many construction industry practitioners, its core requirements have remained undefined. many such social sustainability concepts have remained implicit and undefined. in some cases, they have been concealed behind a seemingly random choice of common socio-political indicators, hence making social sustainability requirements very difficult for practitioners to clearly specify and prioritise in an explicit manner and deliver them in practical terms. this study investigates the degree of consideration given to the promotion of social sustainability factors by practitioners engaged in the delivery of sustainable regeneration projects in the uk. it draws data from 15 interviewees and 122 respondents who participated in the study through semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys, respectively. the results reveal that health and safety issues were the most promoted among the other six key social sustainability issues considered by the majority of practitioners. the findings indicate that various efforts and legislations initiated by the uk government to improve health and safety practices within the construction industry have played a key role in practitioners’ attitudes towards the promotion of health and safety issues in their practices. 4 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8796 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8796 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:j.akotia@leedstrinity.ac.uk mailto:boawuzie@uj.ac.za mailto:j.akotia@leedstrinity.ac.uk https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.8796 keywords degree of consideration; regeneration practitioners; regeneration projects; social sustainability factors introduction there are numerous definitions and criteria for sustainability principles in literature and practice (martek, et al., 2018; purvis, mao and robinson, 2019). various practitioners “derive their own definition according to discipline-specific criteria or study perspective, making a generalised definition difficult to achieve” in practical terms (colantonio, 2007, p. 4). several studies have claimed that many practitioners in the public and private sectors have only demonstrated a relatively limited understanding of sustainability issues, resulting in undesirable practices and the poor performance of sustainability projects (lombardi et al., 2011; akotia et al., 2016; yoo and lee, 2016; goh, ting and bajracharya, 2023). the lack of understanding and poor sustainability performance issues are worsened when they relate to regeneration projects due to the “multi-dimensional and complex nature” of the projects (boyle, et al., 2018, p. 4). as social sustainability principles are crucial in developing and building a vibrant society (rivai, rohman and sumantri, 2023), it is therefore imperative that their requirements are clearly set out to drive the social processes and systems towards achieving their intended objectives. it has generally been suggested that social sustainability is an essential component of regeneration, which can bring about the desired social sustainability benefits of regeneration projects (turcu, 2012). the level of sustainability impacts how a regeneration project can deliver for the present and future generations, “from a social sustainability orientated perspective ultimately sets the foundations in determining a development’s success in creating a socially sustainable development” (mak and peacock, 2011, p. 13). evidence has shown that the absence of such socially oriented requirements that adequately place emphasis on creating value and empowerment of society can lead to the deprivation and worklessness of residents in a community (rivai, rohman and sumantri, 2023; sdc, 2003). this can also adversely affect the overall life quality of individuals living within such a community (sdc, 2003; abdel-raheem and ramsbottom, 2016). sustainable regeneration projects are likely to fail to materialise their sustainability benefits if the social sustainability principles are not accorded adequate attention by practitioners. for example, it is believed that “communities, or certain sectors of the community, can fail to benefit from otherwise successful regeneration when gentrification occurs and housing becomes too expensive for the original residents” (sdc, 2003, p. 27). social sustainability principles in colantonio’s (2008, p. 17) view “are fundamental instruments to measure the progress towards sustainability”. for sustainable projects to be socially sustainable, it means that such projects must deliver healthy living conditions and ultimately improve the quality of life for society (mak and peacock, 2011). construction projects, in particular, the sustainability ones, create new synergies and social interactions between the built environment and communities; hence, the creation of social processes calls for the need for such sustainability projects to be carefully planned and delivered in line with the sustainable development goals for the communities (almahmoud and doloi, 2015). according to edum-fotwe and price (2009, p. 314), the social sustainability principles reflect the societal realities that are created through the “dynamic interaction of individual values and notions for any particular society”. addressing such dynamic interactions calls for a more precise application of sustainability practices. it is reasonable to expect communities to be socially sustainable when adequate consideration is given to the application of socially oriented sustainability practices during regeneration projects. according to lynch and mosbah (2017, p. 301), “targets that provide guidance on meeting the sustainable development goals clearly show how local built environment actions connect to global sustainability goals”. in this regard, practitioners have key roles to play in ensuring that they adopt practices that enable sustainable regeneration projects to deliver long-term socially oriented benefits for society. various players have also recognised the akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 20255 role of the built environment organisations in the achievement of social sustainability goals (yoo and lee, 2016; goh, ting and bajracharya, 2023). there have been numerous studies relating to social sustainability issues on built environment projects over the last decade. for instance, the works of authors such as akhtar, et al. (2024), woodcraft (2015) and åhman (2013) have identified the lack of understanding of the social sustainability deliverables in the planning, design and delivery of sustainable construction projects in general; however, to date, none has focused on the extent to which consideration is given to the promotion of social sustainability factors by practitioners in the context of the delivery of sustainable regeneration projects. in light of the above, this paper aims to contribute to the sustainability discourse by focusing on the social sustainability factors that are often neglected (darchen and ladouceur 2013; munzel, meyer-waarden and galan, 2018), misunderstood (gould, missimer and mesquita, 2017) and not considered adequately (corsini and moultrie, 2019) in planning and design in the context of the delivering of social sustainability benefits of regeneration projects. it is our firm belief that the findings from this study would assist regeneration practitioners to better understand social sustainability deliverables in the planning, design and delivery of social sustainability benefits through their regeneration projects for all stakeholders concerned. to do so, the key question the paper seeks to address is as follows: what degree of consideration do regeneration practitioners give towards the prioritisation and promotion of the key social sustainability factors on their projects? in order to address this question, the study adopted a mixed methods research methodology to collect both qualitative and quantitative data through in-depth semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys, respectively, from practitioners involved in the delivery of regeneration projects. the interview data are presented and analysed, which is followed by the presentation and analysis of the questionnaire survey data. literature review social sustainability principles of sustainable regeneration the social dimension of sustainability has been recognised as an essential aspect of delivering sustainable development (colantonio, 2008; mak and peacock, 2011; munzel, meyer-waarden and galan, 2018; goh, ting and bajracharya, 2023) and a major requirement for evaluating the viability of built environment sustainable regeneration projects (edum-fotwe and price, 2009; yoo and lee, 2016). it has also been seen as an essential aspect that has formed part of the political discourse and agenda of many government agencies and institution’s policy systems (colantonio, 2007). according to liu, et al. (2017) and edumfotwe and price (2009), the social dimension of sustainability is an essential component towards the attainment of long-term sustainable development goals of humanity. a prerequisite to social sustainability requirements is the way and manner people and communities live together and set out to achieve their individual and collective developmental goals (colantonio, 2008). in more practical terms, social sustainability refers to peoples’ values and empowerment in a manner that effectively engages them on a long-term basis in activities that have impacts on their social aspirations and liveability (colantonio, 2007; yoo and lee, 2016). according to munzel, meyer-waarden and galan (2018, p. 15), “social sustainability is often linked to urban development” and—as a result—focuses on the development of physical spaces that enhance the wellbeing of individuals. these principles underpin the social sustainability requirements and seek to provide collaboration between individuals’ social progress and economic prosperity, which are in tune with sustainable regeneration goals. these unique social sustainability principles form part of the broader agenda of the built environment practices (goh, ting, and bajracharya, 2023). social sustainability rests on the assumption that the provision of social services in the form of capacity building, such as education and skills development and ensuring equality and the participation of akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 20256 society, will largely help to enhance the quality of life for such a society (colantonio, 2008; almahmoud, and doloi, 2015; munzel, meyer-waarden and galan, 2018; masocha, 2019; battisti, barnocchi and iorio, 2019). a study by masocha (2019) found social sustainability factors to be significantly related to the economic performance of society. as social requirements are crucial in developing and building a vibrant society, it is therefore imperative that the requirements for such social issues are clearly set out to drive the social values, processes and systems towards achieving their intended objectives. it is argued that, for any community to meet its social aspirations, it is important that the residents living in such a community have access to social services and facilities (littig and griebler, 2005; almahmoud and doloi, 2015). in this regard, the built environment has been recognised as the one with the potential and expertise to drive that process. such linkages between the delivery of social sustainability benefits and the built environment have long been acknowledged by many authors (yoo and lee, 2016; lynch and mosbah, 2017). it is widely argued that among the sustainability factors, the social elements are the most ignored (littig and griebler, 2005; munzel, meyer-waarden and galan, 2018; goh, ting and bajracharya, 2023) and the most difficult to deal with in terms of composition, implication and evaluation, notably because of the multifaceted and dynamic nature of society and its requirements (abdel-raheem and ramsbottom, 2016; rivai, rohman and sumantri, 2023). this presents a major challenge that makes it very difficult to specify and prioritise the social sustainability requirements in a more explicit manner (edum-fotwe and price, 2009). although the social sustainability aspect has been well acknowledged by many government agencies and construction industry practitioners, its core components still remain undefined (littig and griebler, 2005; yoo and lee, 2016). the reality is that, to date, a well-defined theoretical concept regarding social sustainability requirements is still absent (littig and griebler, 2005; liu, et al., 2017; purvis, mao and robinson, 2019; rivai, rohman and sumantri, 2023). the social ontology framework developed by edumfotwe and price (2009) advocated the need for the identification and prioritisation of the specific social sustainability requirements existing within communities to allow for effective monitoring and evaluation. without such a well-defined framework, assigning priorities to social processes and planning systems may seem very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve in practice (littig and griebler, 2005; purvis, mao and robinson, 2019). the lack of consensus on the main composition of social sustainability requirements has resulted in the misinterpretation and misapplication of its criteria by many industry practitioners and policymakers (colantonio, 2008; yoo and lee, 2016; liu, et al., 2017). it is argued that social sustainability policy systems and interventions targeted at particular communities have been too ambitious, making such policies very difficult to implement in practice (hofstad, 2012). this, hofstad (2012) said, has been the case when such policies were designed to achieve political objectives. many such social sustainability concepts have remained implicit and, in some cases, have been “concealed behind a seemingly random choice of common socio-political indicators” (littig and griebler, 2005, p. 68). however, a more practical approach to social sustainability issues will require that the practitioners, particularly within the construction industry, adopt a more holistic approach towards the integration and prioritisation of tangible and non-tangible measures, which colantonio (2008) referred to as soft and hard requirements, respectively. such an approach calls for the construction industry to provide a range of social sustainability services, such as apprenticeship and skills training opportunities both in the form of a resource and also as a resource in itself, as an industry (hill and bowen, 1997; communities and local government (clg), 2007; colantonio, 2007, 2008; pitt, et al., 2009; carpenter, 2011; nwokoro and onukwube, 2011; almahmoud and doloi, 2015; armeanu, vintila and gherghina, 2018; maqbool, arula and ashfaq, 2023). education and training have the potential to drive “more healthy and sustainable lives, support employability and lessens poverty” (armeanu, vintila and gherghina, 2018, p. 1). the provision of skills training opportunities to meet individual needs is also seen as a prerequisite and a major driving force behind the formation of a productive and healthy society (littig and griebler, 2005; maqbool, arula and ashfaq, 2023) towards the attainment of sustainable development goals (sdgs) akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 20257 agenda (kioupi and voulvoulis, 2019). individuals are more likely to become economically sustainable if they are able to acquire skills. similarly, the provision of social facilities such as affordable housing (smith, 2006; clg, 2007, 2008, 2010; winston, 2009; bailey, 2010; abidin, yusof and othman, 2013; almahmoud and doloi, 2015) and improvement of physical outlook (hm treasury, 2008; clg, 2008, 2010; sercs, 2011) are crucial sustainability requirements required to attain a socially viable community and also attract local investment. evidence has shown that the absence of such opportunities can lead to the deprivation and worklessness of residents in the communities, which can adversely affect the residents’ overall life quality and chances of living within such communities (clg, 2008; armeanu, vintila and gherghina, 2018; hernández-calzada, et al., 2019; maqbool, arula and ashfaq, 2023). clg went on to indicate that individuals with less education and training opportunities and facilities were more likely to face problems of low self-esteem and aspirations, which as a consequence can result in a lack of social and economic power. littig and griebler (2005) identified three major categories of factors for prioritising and evaluating the social aspects of sustainability. factors such as security and wellbeing, and achievement of societal basic needs were identified in their first-order group of factors. in a wider sense, education and training, affordable housing, and health and safety issues were closely linked to the first-order set of factors. social justice and social participation were identified as the secondand third-order factors, respectively. since the built environment is a major provider of social facilities and services on which society depends, it is therefore fair to draw a parallel between the social sustainability factors identified by littig and griebler (2005) and the built environment. for instance, the construction of a new hospital facility will require services in the form of active participation (littig and griebler, 2005; colantonio, 2008; pitt, et al., 2009; häkkinen and belloni, 2011; zheng, shen and wang, 2014; battisti, barnocchi and iorio, 2019) of the residents in the community to seek their views and wellbeing while at the same time providing apprenticeships and ensuring the health and safety of the workforce and the local residents (nwokoro and onukwube, 2011; akadiri, chinyio and olomolaiye, 2012; reyes, et al., 2014; eizenberg and jabareen, 2017; goh, ting and bajracharya, 2023). in this sense, there is a strong theoretical and practical relationship and also a direct and indirect correlation between the social requirements and the built environment facilities and services. the social-related principles of a sustainable built environment require that regeneration practitioners deliver the facilities and services in a manner that • provides for and improves the quality of human life and wellbeing by ensuring adequate achievement of societal basic needs, • protects and promotes human health through a healthy and safe working environment, • provides empowerment through the development of skills training, capacity enhancement and participation in the projects, and • provides reasonable delivery of social-related benefits during the various stages of the projects (hill and bowen, 1997; sdc, 2003; department for environment, food and rural affairs (defra), 2005; boyle, et al., 2018). any attempt meant to address these social sustainability requirements will require a comprehensive approach from practitioners and the application of a suitable evaluation mechanism. such an approach should also involve the combination of both the qualitative and quantitative measurable targets of socially related sustainability factors. it suggested that “the multi-dimensional and complex reality of urban development and their associated issues requires integrated strategies involving a wide range of actors” (boyle, et al., 2018, p. 4). table 1 shows the most cited social sustainability factors for sustainable regeneration and the literature sources. akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 20258 table 1. social sustainability factors for sustainable regeneration. social sustainability factors of sustainable regeneration literature source health and safety for workforce and local community/residents hill and bowen, 1997; sdc, 2003; defra, 2005; littig and griebler, 2005; nwokoro and onukwube, 2011; akadiri, chinyio and olomolaiye, 2012; turcu, 2012; reyes, et al., 2014; eizenberg and jabareen, 2017; martek, et al., 2018; dogu and aras, 2019; goh, ting and bajracharya, 2023 education and training/ apprenticeship opportunities hill and bowen, 1997; littig and griebler, 2005; clg, 2007; colantonio, 2007, 2008; pitt, et al., 2009; carpenter, 2011; häkkinen and belloni, 2011; nwokoro and onukwube, 2011; turcu, 2012; clapham, 2014; abdel-raheem and ramsbottom, 2016; armeanu, vintila and gherghina, 2018; kioupi and voulvoulis, 2019; maqbool, arula and ashfaq, 2023 affordable housing littig and griebler, 2005; smith, 2006; clg, 2007, 2008, 2010; winston, 2009; bailey, 2010; turcu, 2012; abidin, yusof and othman, 2013; clapham, 2014; martek, et al., 2018; dogu and aras, 2019 stakeholder participation (including local community) littig and griebler, 2005; colantonio, 2008; pitt, et al., 2009; häkkinen and belloni, 2011; turcu, 2012; zheng, shen and wang, 2014; eizenberg and jabareen, 2017; battisti, barnocchi and iorio, 2019; goh, ting and bajracharya, 2023 community security/ wellbeing hill and bowen, 1997; sdc, 2003; defra, 2005; littig and griebler, 2005; häkkinen and belloni, 2011; clapham, 2014; abdel-raheem and ramsbottom, 2016; eizenberg and jabareen, 2017; durdyev, et al., 2018; goh, ting and bajracharya, 2023 physical appearance/ positive image of local environment hm treasury, 2008; clg, 2008, 2010; sercs, 2011; turcu, 2012; park and sohn, 2013; ploegmakers and beckers, 2015; ragozino, 2016; boussaa, 2018; perovic and šestovic, 2019 research method a mixed methods research approach (qualitative and quantitative methods) was adopted for the study. the built environment researchers have long recognised the importance of using both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies for their studies. panas and pantouvakis (2010, p. 79) suggested that the mixed methods concept “seems to be gaining ground, especially given the industry’s change towards intensifying the exploration of productivity’s soft aspects as well as behavioural and managerial factors and cultural diversions of the project actors”. according to creswell and garrett (2008), the recent demand for a mixed methods approach arises from concerns about the inability of the individual qualitative and quantitative research paradigms to offer workable solutions to ever-complex and dynamic problems confronting humanity. one significant proposition of the mixed methods technique is the diversification of ideas it offers as a concept, coupled with its potential to broaden the understanding of human experiences in developing policies and practices (tashakkori and teddlie, 2010). the diversity inherent in its design indicates that the mixed methods technique has become critical and synonymous with good research practice. saunders, lewis and thornhill (2009) argued that by adopting a mixed methods research approach akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 20259 within the same research framework, practical questions can be addressed simultaneously from different perspectives, leading to greater confidence in the findings and conclusions. to begin the data collection process, practitioners were presented with the six most cited social sustainability factors obtained through the review of the literature (table 1). hence, to investigate the extent to which consideration is/was given to the promotion of these social sustainability factors, semistructured interviews were conducted with 15 practitioners from three construction organisations selected through purposive sampling from the 2018 editions of the building magazine and new civil engineer magazine. the selection was based on their experience and knowledge in the involvement and delivery of sustainable regeneration projects in the uk. formal letters and proposals were issued to these three construction organisations seeking their permission to participate in the study. follow-up telephone calls were also made to these construction organisations to further explain the purpose and the context of the study. subsequently, face-to-face in-depth semi-structured interviews were then conducted with the 15 practitioners, made up of five practitioners from each of these construction organisations, with each interview lasting for approximately 1 hour. subsequently, the questionnaire survey was designed with closed questions using the 5-point likert scale (table 2) (where 1 represents the most and 5 the least) and administered through the internet, together with a cover letter explaining the objectives of the research to the selected respondents. a total of 200 hyperlinks were sent out to the selected respondents. follow-up emails and telephone calls were sent out to remind those who were yet to respond to the questionnaire survey. this was done to further emphasise the importance of completing the questionnaire on time and to increase the response rate. a total of 122 responses were received, representing an overall response rate of 61.0%. the results obtained from the semi-structured interviews and questionnaire survey are shown in tables 3 and 4, respectively. table 2. likert scale of intensity judgment of relative importance. scale/intensity judgment of relative importance quantitative scale (1–5 point) very high degree of consideration 1 high degree of consideration 2 moderate degree of consideration 3 limited degree of consideration 4 no degree of consideration 5 data analysis to determine whether the questionnaire survey instrument used was reliable in measuring what it was intended for, and also to check the internal reliability (sarantakos, 2013) of the data, cronbach’s alpha test was conducted (on a selected sample of six items (factors)). the “reliability” test conducted on the questionnaire survey shows cronbach’s alpha value of 0.943, indicating a very good internal consistency reliability of the questionnaire data obtained. according to pallant (2016), achieving an alpha coefficient value of 0.7 is generally considered to be acceptable, while values above 0.89 provide more acceptable results and a greater internal reliability of the results. the analysis and discussion of the semi-structured interviews and questionnaire survey findings are subsequently presented in the order of consideration/priority given to the social sustainability factors by practitioners. from the analysis of the semi-structured interviews, it became clear that there were basically akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202510 two main categories of responses or degree of consideration/priority (very high/high or moderate/limited) given by practitioners as presented in table 3. table 3. semi-structured interview results of social sustainability factors. social sustainability factors practitioners total n = 15 a*: very high/high degree of consideration b*: moderate/limited degree of consideration promoting health and safety of workforce and local community/residents (phsflc) 15 (100%) promoting education and training/ apprenticeship opportunities (peto) 13 (86.7%) 2 (13.3%) promoting affordable housing (pah) 12 (80.0%) 3 (20.0%) promoting stakeholders’ participation (including local community) (psp) 10 (66.7%) 4 (26.7%) promoting community security/wellbeing (pcs) 9 (60.0%) 5 (33.3%) promoting physical appearance/positive image of local environment (ppa/pile) 7 (46.7%) 5 (33.3%) a*: number and percentages (%) of practitioners (interviewees) who responded either very high or high degree of consideration. b*: number and percentages (%) of practitioners (interviewees) who responded either moderate or limited degree of consideration. for the questionnaire survey data, the initial analysis was carried out using the spss software to obtain the descriptive information (table 4) and pearson’s pairwise correlation matrix (table 5) for the six social sustainability factors. this was further subjected to analysis using the analytic hierarchy process (ahp). the use of pearson’s pairwise correlations matrix as an input for the ahp to determine the relative importance of alternative attributes is in line with the works of song and kang (2016). the ahp-based analysis methods have been utilised extensively in various studies to prioritised decisions in a wide range of fields (saaty and vargas, 2012; song and kang, 2016), including sustainability-related areas. in recent times, authors such as kalutara, et al. (2018) and hatefi and tamošaitien (2018) have applied the ahp approach in evaluating and prioritising sustainability factors of construction projects. fundamentally, it adopts a general concept of measurement, which is largely based on ratio scales derived from pairwise comparisons of attributes in “multilevel hierarchic structures”, obtained from “actual measurements or from a fundamental scale that reflects the relative strength of preferences and feelings” (saaty and vargas, 2012, p. 3). the proponent of the ahp (saaty, 1980) argued that the use of the ahp analytical method provides a useful tool to determine the priorities and the level of importance among different variables. similarly, its nonlinear approach makes it possible to undertake “both deductive and inductive thinking without use of the syllogism” (saaty and vargas, 2012, p. 2). saaty and vargas (2012) went on to add that the adoption of an “absolute measurement” tool such as the likert scale enables alternative attributes to be ranked or scored in terms of the intensity or level of importance that is attached to the attributes. in light of the aforementioned, since the primary aim of the study was to ascertain (rank) the importance practitioners were according to the social sustainability factors on their projects, a 5-point likert scale (table 2) was deemed the most suitable data collection tool and, hence, adopted for the collection of quantitative data. akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202511 the adopted likert scale for the study is in line with the ones proposed and adopted by saaty (1980) and hossain, adnan and hasin (2014) in their works. table 4. questionnaire survey results of social sustainability factors. social sustainability factors (percentage) ranking very high degree of consideration high degree of consideration moderate degree of consideration limited degree of consideration no consideration at all promoting health and safety of workforce and local community/ residents (phsflc) 1 42.0% 46.1% 10.4% 1.5% 0.0% = 88.1% = 11.9% promoting education and training/ apprenticeship opportunities (peto) 2 34.7% 45.6% 10.8% 8.8% 0.1% = 80.3% = 19.6% promoting affordable housing (pah) 3 32.8% 41.9% 14.8% 10.4% 0.1% = 74.7% = 25.2% promoting stakeholders’ participation (including local community) (psp) 4 30.2% 38.9% 16.9% 13.8% 0.2% = 69.1% = 30.7% promoting community security/ wellbeing (pcs) 5 28.8% 37.6% 17.4% 16.1% 0.1% = 66.4% =33.5% promoting physical appearance/positive image of local environment (ppa/ pile) 6 27.6% 35.9% 19.5% 16.8% 0.2% = 63.5% =36.3% to obtain the overall ranking of the social sustainability factors by practitioners in order to ascertain the degree of importance (table 6), further analysis was undertaken. this was done by computing the normalised principal/maximum eigenvector, priority vector (w), by applying equations 1 and 2, as follows: a1ij/∑a1ij) equation 1 where a1ij is social sustainability factors in the column of the comparison matrix and ∑a1ij is the sum of each column. w        i j aij w w 1 1 1 6 equation 2 where aij represents the row of social sustainability factors (a1–a6) and the column of social sustainability factors (a1–a6) in the matrix. akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202512 table 6 shows the priority vector (w) of the relative weights of all the six social sustainability factors that were compared. table 6. the normalised principal eigenvector or normalised priority vector (w). a1 hswlc a2 etao a3 ah a4 spc a5 (cs) a6 (pap) normalised priority vector (w) ranking correlation matrix a1 (hswlc) 0.363 0.195 0.160 0.170 0.135 0.087 0.185 1 a2 (etao) 0.181 0.393 0.188 0.078 0.105 0.089 0.172 2 a3 (ah) 0.142 0.181 0.408 0.122 0.064 0.085 0.167 3 a4 (spc) 0.143 0.071 0.116 0.431 0.105 0.115 0.163 4 a5 (cs) 0.106 0.089 0.056 0.098 0.463 0.137 0.158 5 a6 (pap) 0.065 0.072 0.071 0.101 0.130 0.488 0.154 6 consistency ratio the consistency ratio (cr) was also computed to determine whether the judgement obtained from pearson’s pairwise comparison matrix was consistent by applying equation 3. the “degree of consistency is vital in pairwise comparison data as it reflects on the validity of the final decision” (kalutara, et al., 2018, p. 40). table 5. pearson’s correlation matrix of comparison data for social sustainability factors. a1 hswlc a2 etao a3 ah a4 spc a5 (cs) a6 (pap) correlation a1 (hswlc) 1 0.497 0.392 0.395 0.291 0.178 a2 (etao) 0.497 1 0.460 0.181 0.226 0.183 a3 (ah) 0.392 0.460 1 0.283 0.138 0.175 a4 (spc) 0.395 0.181 0.283 1 0.227 0.235 a5 (cs) 0.291 0.226 0.138 0.227 1 0.280 a6 (pap) 0.178 0.183 0.175 0.235 0.28 1 ∑ 2.753 2.547 2.448 2.321 2.162 2.051 a1–a6 represent the six social sustainability factors explored with respondents. akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202513 saaty (1980) opined that to ensure good consistency of the data, the cr obtained should be less or equal to 10%. cr = ci/ri = [(λmax − n)/n − 1]/ri ≤ 0.1 equation 3 where ri is the average of the random consistency index of a sample size of 500 matrices as recommended by saaty (1980) as shown in table 7. ri is the situation where the judgments of respondents have been made randomly and, hence, likely expected to be highly inconsistent (saaty, 1980); ci is the consistency index, which is calculated by the following equation: ci = (λmax − n)/(n − 1) equation 4 where n is the size/dimension of the matrix and λmax is the maximum eigenvalue of the matrix formulated by equation 5 (saaty, 1990). max aijwj wi   j n 1 /λ equation 5 where wj is the weight of the jth factor and wi is the weight of the ith factor. consequently, by applying equation 3, the cr value obtained from the pairwise comparison matrix of the six social sustainability factors was 0.058 ≤ 0.1 or 10%. this clearly indicates that pearson’s pairwise correlation matrix of the social sustainability factors is consistent (ahmed, et al., 2016), hence validating the results of the ahp (saaty, 1980). table 7. random index values according to the size of matrix (saaty, 1990). size of matrix (n) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 ri 0.00 0.00 0.58 0.90 1.12 1.24 1.32 1.41 1.45 1.49 n is the size of the random matrix, and ri is the corresponding index of consistency for random judgments. discussion of findings promoting health and safety of workforce and local community/residents a critical examination of the semi-structured interviews (table 3) revealed that the health and safety of the workforce and local community/residents was the most considered among all the social sustainability factors promoted by practitioners. this was evident, as all of the 15 (100%) practitioners who participated in the semi-structured interviews indicated that they gave high/high degree of consideration to promoting the health and safety issues of their workforce and the community of their work locations. when a question was put to them during the interview about the extent to which consideration was given to the promotion of social sustainability factors on their regeneration projects, one of the practitioners, for example, commented by saying: we give very high consideration to health and safety issues on our regeneration project, and we do that from start to finish. …we are very mindful of health and safety of our workforce as well as the community we work in. …we place a massive importance on promoting health and safety akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202514 issues pretty much on our projects. i think we have the responsibility to ensure that our people and residents are safe and healthy to continue to do the kind of things we are doing. in an attempt to validate the above findings, the questionnaire survey results obtained when practitioners were asked to rank the degree of consideration that was being given to the promotion of these social sustainability factors show that health and safety was the most prioritised social sustainability factor of the six factors with 88.1% (table 4) of very high/high degree of consideration. this was further complemented by the normalised priority vector (w) result obtained in table 6, showing a relative weight of 0.185. these findings obtained from the questionnaire survey validated the 100% very high/high result obtained from the interviews. these findings provide a good indication that practitioners are taking the health and safety issue seriously and, hence, promoting its factors in their projects. in the earlier work of littig and griebler (2005), health and safety issues were classified among the first-order group of social sustainability factors, which, in their view, should be given adequate consideration by practitioners in order to achieve a productive and sustainable society. many other authors like goh, ting and bajracharya (2023), armeanu, vintila and gherghina (2018), eizenberg and jabareen (2017), reyes, et al. (2014), department for business, innovation and skills (dbis) (2013), akadiri, chinyio and olomolaiye (2012), colantonio (2008), and hill and bowen (1997) have also acknowledged the importance of meeting such social sustainability factor. while the finding provides a good indication, it can also be said that the introduction of health and safety legislations by the uk government to regulate health and safety practices within the uk’s construction industry (dbis, 2013) has played a major role in ensuring that good health and safety regulations are/were being adhered to by practitioners. similarly, the emergence of the considerate contractor scheme and the establishment of the health and safety executive (hse) may have also contributed to practitioners’ quests to promote good health and safety practices on their projects. the considerate contractor scheme and hse, for instance, set standards and performance targets on which practitioners’ health and safety performances are measured. since practitioners are aware of the potential consequences and the various sanctions in cases of any violation of such legislation and non-performance, they are more likely to promote health and safety practices than the other social sustainability factors on their projects. again, various other efforts initiated by the uk government to improve health and safety practices within the construction industry can also be said to have contributed to these findings. notable among them are the rethinking construction committee egan report (1988) and the detr (2000) report, which raised various concerns about poor health and safety practices and the potential dangers that such poor practices were posing to the entire construction industry towards the delivery of sustainable construction objectives. in recognition of such poor practices, the reports admonished construction industry practitioners to make a serious effort to promote good health and safety practices on their projects. consequently, this has led to numerous discourses among practitioners, culminating in the creation of greater awareness among construction industry practitioners. the authors opine that this may have been reflected in these findings. it is believed that by promoting good health and safety practices adequately and by ensuring an enabling working environment for the workforce and society, sustainable regeneration projects will be more likely to deliver other associated social sustainability factors. promoting education and training/apprenticeship opportunities a further analysis of the semi-structured interviews reveals that a good number of practitioners were promoting education and training/apprenticeship schemes on their regeneration projects. this social sustainability factor was considered the second most important factor by practitioners. the results in table 3 show that 13 (86.7%) of the 15 practitioners who participated in the interviews had given “very akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202515 high/high degree of ” consideration to the promotion of education and training/apprenticeships on their regeneration projects. the principles underpinning the sustainable regeneration concept require that practitioners focus their sustainability practices on the development of education and skills requirements for society. social sustainability rests on the proposition that the development of education and training/ skills requirements of individuals will provide opportunities for such individuals to acquire employability skills, which will then place them in a better position to secure employment and improve their standard of living (colantonio, 2008; turcu, 2012; abdel-raheem and ramsbottom, 2016; kioupi and voulvoulis, 2019; maqbool, arula and ashfaq, 2023). this position was echoed by one of the practitioners during our interview discussion by saying: …we give very high consideration to education and training opportunities on our projects. opportunities for education and training for young guys are in the fore front of what we do as practitioners and we always consider these things pretty much. we know, that’s the best way to give these guys employability skills for future jobs and obviously give them a better quality of life. we reckon that providing education and training for these guys has a lot of social benefits for themselves and our own industry as well. this assertion concurs with the views of masocha (2019), dbis (2013), nwokoro and onukwube (2011) and clg (2007), who indicated that the promotion of education and skills training programmes will potentially help to build the capacity of the current and future workforce and also enhance the skills requirements for the construction industry and society at large. furthermore, the questionnaire survey results (table 6) indicate that with a normalised priority vector of a relative weight (w) of 0.172, the promotion of education and training opportunities was the second most prioritised social sustainability factor by practitioners. again, the questionnaire findings can be seen to agree with the interview findings. however, one major issue that can have a serious implication on the quality of education and training schemes provided by practitioners when it involves construction projects is the duration of the delivery (start-finish) of the projects. since such education and training schemes are often tied to the duration of the projects, it is important that practitioners take cognisance of this when planning their education and training schemes to ensure that they are well planned to match a project’s duration as well as an individual’s training requirements. for this reason, the authors are of the view that a trainee transfer scheme could be the best option for trainees who may be unable to complete their training due to the limited duration of a regeneration project. the introduction of such a trainee transfer scheme will enable trainees to be transferred to another project (which may not necessarily be with the same practitioner they began their training with) to complete their training. promoting affordable housing following the education and training, affordable housing was the next most prioritised social sustainability factor by practitioners who participated in the study. of the 15 practitioners interviewed (table 3), 12 (80.0%) were of the view that the provision of affordable housing-led regeneration for communities was an important social sustainability issue for them. when the authors sought to enquire from practitioners as to why the provision of affordable housing regeneration was such a priority issue for them, a narrative given by one of the practitioners was that: … we give high consideration to housing generation because we think communities can only be made sustainable if people have good houses and can also afford to live in them. …i think, when we talk about delivering sustainable regeneration, it is ultimately about the provision of affordable housing. akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202516 from the questionnaire survey results (table 6), it was further observed that the promotion of affordable housing-led regeneration projects was seen as the third most prioritised social sustainability factor, obtaining a normalised priority vector of a relative weight (w) of 0.167. a plethora of literature has revealed that the provision of housing has been one of the dominant social issues of regeneration projects in which a lot of investment has been concentrated over the years in the uk (hm treasury, 2007; clg, 2008; clg, 2010). this can be said to explain and justify why the practitioners may be giving consideration to the promotion of housing-led regeneration projects as revealed in the findings of the study. martek, et al. (2018, p. 14) noted that to achieve a sustainable and just society, “housing should be affordable”. authors like martek, et al. (2018), clapham (2014), abidin, yusof and othman (2013), bailey (2010), winston (2009) and smith (2006) are of the view that focusing on the provision of affordable housing can provide the means through which practitioners can deliver the sustainable development objectives for communities. promoting stakeholders’ participation (including local community) the principles underlying the delivery of social sustainability also require the full participation of all the stakeholders who have interests or stakes in the project. stakeholder participation was the next most considered social sustainability factor by practitioners who participated in the semi-structured interview phase of the study. from the stakeholders’ perspective, the promotion of stakeholders’ interests is one major consideration in ensuring that regeneration meets the social sustainability needs of all the concerned parties. this is because inputs from a wide range of stakeholder groups can largely help practitioners to ensure that regeneration projects deliver more appropriate and distinctive social sustainability benefits for all the stakeholders (clg, 2008). from the semi-structured interviews (table 3), it was observed that out of the 15 practitioners, 10 (66.7%) were very highly/highly promoting stakeholders’ participation in their projects. in highlighting the importance of promoting stakeholders’ participation during the interviews, one of the practitioners noted their stakeholder participation approach in delivering their regeneration projects by saying: we give high priority to stakeholder views and participation on our projects. we consider that as an important part of our work. because we believe that stakeholders’ views matter, so we adequately engaged with various groups of people whenever we win a bid to deliver a regeneration project to seek their views. …the participation of the local community groups and all the right people is very important for us and we try to engage with them, even before we start any regeneration development on site. similarly, the above finding was largely reinforced by the questionnaire survey result that obtained a normalised priority vector of a relative weight (w) of 0.163 (table 6). darchen and ladouceur (2013, p. 343) argued that the creation of “socially sustainable communities through the urban renewal process should theoretically involve active public engagement of the community”. studies carried out by goh, ting and bajracharya (2023), battisti, barnocchi and iorio (2019), eizenberg and jabareen (2017), carpenter (2011) and colantonio (2008) have acknowledged the importance of stakeholder participation towards the successful delivery of sustainable regeneration projects. their works emphasised the need for adequate consultations and participation of all the key stakeholders in the projects. the clg (2008) and sdc (2003) reports on sustainable regeneration, for instance, noted that sustainable regeneration objectives were more likely to be realised when key stakeholders, such as the local community groups, were placed at the centre of the regeneration delivery process. other authors like häkkinen and belloni (2011), colantonio (2007), and littig and griebler (2005) were of the view that emphasising the promotion of practices that ensure the adequate participation of stakeholders in regeneration delivery processes was the surest means that practitioners could make sure that regeneration was delivering its sustainability objectives for all the stakeholders concerned. again, it is encouraging to observe that a good number of practitioners are aware akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202517 of the importance of stakeholders’ views and hence promote their participation in their projects. it can be suggested that practitioners who are effectively promoting the participation of all their stakeholders are less likely to encounter opposition or vandalism (which may result in loss of property and delays of their projects) in communities where they may be operating. equally, community groups that are fully participating in the delivery of the projects could also be useful resources for practitioners and policymakers to tap their knowledge for future regeneration projects in their communities. promoting community security/wellbeing promoting community security/wellbeing was the fifth most important social sustainability factor for practitioners. from interview results (table 3), 9 (60.0%) of the 15 practitioners noted that security/ wellbeing was an important social sustainability factor for them. during the interview discussions, some of the practitioners emphasised that promoting security issues was a way of ensuring the wellbeing of the residents and community. one of the design principles they highlighted as means of promoting the security/ wellbeing of residents and communities on their projects was the “secure by design” concept, as one of the practitioners indicated by saying: …one of the biggest social issues we consider on our sustainable regeneration projects is how we can help to reduce the rate of crime and security and anti-social behaviours in those areas that we are working. so, we take security issues very seriously and give high consideration to it on our projects because we think that’s how we can ensure the wellbeing of residents in the area. we make sure that all our projects are based on secure by design principles. we tend to promote the social sustainability from the concept design stages, we try to consider the overall impact of our projects in terms of how they ensure safety and wellbeing of the residents… furthermore, with a priority vector of a relative weight (w) of 0.158 (table 6), the results obtained from 122 practitioners who participated in the questionnaire survey ranked security and wellbeing in line with the interview finding as the fifth most important social sustainability factor. these findings agree with the earlier work of pitt, et al. (2009), who linked the security and wellbeing of society to the quality and layout of sustainable regeneration projects. it has been documented that places that have benefited from regeneration initiatives have been seen to be less prone to crime and insecurity (hm treasury, 2007; clg, 2008). insecurity in society poses a threat to the attainment of wellbeing and quality of life of society, and these are the concerns that sustainable regeneration projects are also meant to address. the wellbeing of society largely depends on the performance of security and safety deliverables of sustainability projects (pitt, et al., 2009). this is in line with the sdgs “goal three” of ensuring wellbeing as the basic social sustainability needs of society. it is argued that society can potentially thrive and achieve its sustainable development goals in an environment where there are fewer crimes and people are free to go about their duties without fear. it is also suggested that social sustainability objectives can be achieved when practitioners focus their regeneration practices on addressing the underlying conditions that lead to the creation of insecurity and crime within the communities (clg, 2008; clapham, 2014). promoting physical appearance/positive image of local environment this physical appearance of the local environment was considered the least of the six social sustainability factors considered by practitioners. from table 3, 7 (46.7%) of the 15 practitioners who took part in the interviews were committed to “a very highly/highly” ranking for promoting the physical appearance of the local environment with their regeneration projects. sampling their views further, it became obvious that the majority of practitioners who were promoting the physical appearance of the local environment opined that doing so was very important for their projects to make the community more attractive. focusing on akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202518 promoting the physical environment for one of the practitioners was an opportunity for them to win awards, as he indicated by saying: …i think the way an area looks needs to be a focus. we recognise the local physical environment as an important part of regeneration. we try to make our projects’ environment and areas attractive for the long term. so, we give very high consideration to the physical environment and we get recognition and awards on the back of it as some of the social sustainability benefits, we provide for our regeneration projects which is good for us… however, some interviewees also noted that focusing on the physical environment was an additional cost to the overall cost of the project, which they believe was not financially sustainable for them and the clients. as one indicated: …of course, thinking about improvement the physical environment of the project then we are talking about additional cost of the projects which in my opinion is too much of a financial burden to us and the client. …with limited funding stream i don’t think in my view it is sustainable in the long term… it can further be observed that practitioners who took part in the questionnaire survey phase of the study also ranked the physical appearance of the local environment as the least considered social sustainability factor, obtaining a normalised priority vector of a relative weight (w) of 0.154 (table 6). this finding is not surprising, as it reinforced the view expressed particularly by practitioners who reiterated that promoting the physical appearance of the local environment bore an additional cost for their projects. from these findings, it can be observed that the majority of the practitioners who participated in the questionnaire survey largely share the same views as those who took in the semi-structured interviews. the least priority accorded to this social sustainability factor can be said to be a result of a lack of understanding of the importance of this social sustainability factor. efforts aimed at enhancing the physical local image, altering external perceptions and re-branding the place in a more positive way are considered an essential component of a broader regeneration strategy that is aimed at developing a new socio-economic structure of the locality (clg, 2008). spatial economics research centre strategies (sercs, 2011) and hm treasury (2008) identified an improvement of the physical environment as one of the key social sustainability objectives that sustainable regeneration also seeks to achieve for the communities. a goodlooking physical environment can help to attract people, investment and business opportunities in the area (clg, 2008; turcu, 2012). it is suggested that an improvement of “the physical environment, social fabric and urban spaces can increase their adoption as places for social interaction and gatherings” (boussaa, 2018, p. 5). this is because the way and manner regeneration projects are delivered has a significant impact on the quality of the physical environment and the social sustainability relationships within the community as well as individual wellbeing within an area. conclusion the paper has explored how the six social sustainability factors obtained from the literature have been prioritised by regeneration practitioners in the planning, design and delivery of their sustainable regeneration projects. the study adopted a mixed methods research approach, using semi-structured interviews (qualitative) and questionnaire surveys (quantitative) to collect data to investigate the issues with practitioners to achieve the aim of the study. from both the interview and questionnaire survey findings, it is apparent that, among the six social sustainability factors, health and safety was the most prioritised social sustainability factor by practitioners on their regeneration projects. from this finding, it was obvious that the introduction of health and safety legislations by the uk government to regulate health and safety akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202519 practices within the uk construction industry has played a key role in ensuring that health and safety regulations and procedures are well prioritised by practitioners on their projects. similarly, the emergence of the considerate contractor scheme (ccs) can also be said to have contributed to practitioners’ quest to prioritise health and safety practices on their projects. the considerate contractor scheme and hse both set standards and performance targets on which practitioners’ health and safety performances are measured. since practitioners are/were aware of the potential consequences and the various sanctions in the case of any violation of such legislations, it is obvious that they are/were more likely to promote health and safety practices than other social sustainability factors that are not regulated on their projects. various other efforts initiated by the uk government to improve health and safety practices within the construction industry can also be said to be contributing to these findings. notable among them are the rethinking construction committee egan (1988) and detr (2000) reports, which have raised a number of concerns about the poor health and safety practices within the construction industry and recommended ways to address them. a response to these reports has been the introduction of regulation and the emergence of ccs to help regulate the activities of practitioners. these findings from the study highlight the important role that regulation can play in the achievement of the sustainable development agenda. consequently, it is very crucial that policymakers become aware of the potential benefits of regulating the social sustainability deliverables for sustainable regeneration projects. doing so will undoubtedly ensure that practitioners pay adequate attention to other key social factors such as social housing, community participation and improvement of physical environment, which are equally important components in making the projects truly sustainable for communities. references abdel-raheem, m. and ramsbottom, c., 2016. factors affecting social sustainability in highway projects in missouri. procedia engineering, [e-journal] 145, pp.548-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.04.043 abidin, n.z., yusof, n.a. and othman, a.a.e., 2013. enablers and challenges of a sustainable housing industry in malaysia. construction innovation, 13(1), pp.10-25. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171311296039 ahmed, s., shumon, m.r.h., falatoonitoosi, e. and quader, m.a., 2016. a comparative decision-making model for sustainable end-of-life vehicle management alternative selection using ahp and extent analysis method on fuzzy ahp. international journal of sustainable development & world ecology, [e-journal] 23(1), pp.83-97. https://doi.org/10.1080/13 504509.2015.1062814 åhman, h., 2013. social sustainability – society at the intersection of development and maintenance. local environment, [e-journal] 18(10), pp.1153-66. https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2013.788480 akadiri, p.o., chinyio, e.a and olomolaiye, p.o., 2012. design of a sustainable building: a conceptual framework for implementing sustainability in the building sector. buildings, 2(2), pp.126-52. https://doi.org/10.3390/ buildings2020126 akhtar, j., khan, k.i.a., tahir, m.b., ullah, f. and waheed, a., 2024. decoding social sustainability in construction projects analysis of project dynamics and impact. buildings, 14, 682. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14030682 akotia, j., opoku, a., egbu, c. and fortune, c., 2016. exploring the knowledge ‘base’ of practitioners in the delivery of sustainable regeneration projects. construction economics and building, 16(2), pp.13-25. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v16i2.4892 almahmoud, e. and doloi, h.k., 2015. assessment of social sustainability in construction projects using social network analysis. facilities, [e-journal] 33(3/4), pp.152-76. https://doi.org/10.1108/f-05-2013-0042 akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202520 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.04.043 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171311296039 https://doi.org/10.1080/13504509.2015.1062814 https://doi.org/10.1080/13504509.2015.1062814 https://doi.org/10.1080/13549839.2013.788480 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings2020126 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings2020126 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14030682 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i2.4892 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i2.4892 https://doi.org/10.1108/f-05-2013-0042 armeanu, d.s., vintila, g. and gherghina, s.c., 2018. empirical study towards the drivers of sustainable economic growth in eu-28 countries. sustainability, 10(4), pp.1-22. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10010004 bailey, n., -2010.understanding community empowerment in urban regeneration and planning in england: putting policy and practice in context. planning practice and research, 25(3), pp.317-32. https://doi.org/10.1080/02697 459.2010.503425 battisti, a., barnocchi, a., iorio, s., 2019. urban regeneration process: the case of a residential complex in a suburb of rome, italy. sustainability, 11(6122), pp.1-20. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11216122 boyle, l., michell, k., viruly, f., 2018. a critique of the application of neighborhood sustainability assessment tools in urban regeneration. sustainability, 10 (1005), pp.1-18. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10041005 boussaa, d., 2018. urban regeneration and the search for identity in historic cities. sustainability, 10(48), pp.1-16. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10010048 carpenter, j., 2011. ‘money’s too tight to mention’? urban regeneration in a recession and beyond: the case of oxford. journal of urban regeneration and renewal, 4 (3), pp.228–39. https://doi.org/10.69554/qqzv9501 clapham, d., 2014. regeneration and poverty in wales: evidence and policy review report: centre for regional economic and social research. joseph rowntree foundation. colantonio, a., 2008. measuring social sustainability: best practice from urban renewal in the eu, 2008/02. eiburs working paper series. colantonio, a., 2007. social sustainability: an exploratory analysis of its definition, assessment methods, metrics and tools, 2007/01. eiburs working paper series. communities and local government, 2010. valuing the benefits of regeneration: economics paper 7 (i) ,final report. london. her majesty’s stationery office. communities and local government, 2008. transforming places; changing lives: a framework for regeneration. london. her majesty’s stationery office. communities and local government, 2007. homes for the future: more affordable, more sustainable. london. her majesty’s stationery office. corsini, l. and moultrie, j., 2019. design for social sustainability: using digital fabrication in the humanitarian and development sector. sustainability, 11(3562), pp. 1-20. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11133562 creswell, j.w. and garrett, a.l., 2008. the ‘movement’ of mixed methods research and the role of educators. south african journal of education, 28, pp.321-33. https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v28n3a176 darchen, s. and ladouceur, e., 2013. social sustainability in urban regeneration practice: a case study of the fortitude valley renewal plan in brisbane. australian planner, 50, (4), pp.340-50, https://doi.org/10.1080/07293682.2013.764909 department for business, innovation and skills, dbis, 2013. industrial strategy: government and industry in partnership, construction strategy 2025. hm government, london. department for environment, food and rural affairs, defra, 2005. securing the future: delivering the uk sustainable development strategy. hm government, london. department of the environment, transport and the regions, detr, 2000. london, building a better quality of life: a strategy for more sustainable construction. dogu, f.u. and aras, l., 2019. measuring social sustainability with the developed mcsa model: güzelyurt case. sustainability, 11 (2503), pp.1-20. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11092503 akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202521 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10010004 https://doi.org/10.1080/02697459.2010.503425 https://doi.org/10.1080/02697459.2010.503425 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11216122 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10041005 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10010048 https://doi.org/10.69554/qqzv9501 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11133562 https://doi.org/10.15700/saje.v28n3a176 https://doi.org/10.1080/07293682.2013.764909 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11092503 durdyev, s., zavadskas, e.k., thurnell, d., banaitis, a. and ihtiyar, a., 2018. sustainable construction industry in cambodia: awareness, drivers and barriers. sustainability, 10 (392), pp.1-19. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10020392 edum-fotwe., f.t. and price, a.d.f., 2009. a social ontology for appraising sustainability of construction projects and developments. international journal of project management, 27, pp.313–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2008.04.003 egan committee report, 1988. rethinking construction: the report of the construction task force. hm government, london. eizenberg, e. and jabareen, y., 2017. social sustainability: a new conceptual framework. sustainability, 9(68), pp.116. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9010068 goh, c., ting, j.n and bajracharya, a., 2023. exploring social sustainability in the built environment. advances in environmental and engineering research, 4(1). 10. https://doi.org/10.21926/aeer.2301010 gould, r., missimer, m., and mesquita, p. l. 2017. using social sustainability principles to analyse activities of the extraction lifecycle phase: learnings from designing support for concept selection. journal of cleaner production, 140, 267-276. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.08.004 hatefi, s.m. and tamošaitien, j., 2018. construction projects assessment based on the sustainable development criteria by an integrated fuzzy ahp and improved gra model. sustainability, 10(991), pp.1-14. https://doi. org/10.3390/su10040991 häkkinen, t. and belloni, k., 2011. barriers and drivers for sustainable building. building research and information, 39(3), pp.239-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2011.561948 hernández-calzada, m.a., pérez-hernández, c.c., ferreiro-seoane, f.j., 2019. diversification in tourism-related activities and social sustainability in the state of hidalgo, mexico. sustainability,11(6429), pp.1-17. https://doi. org/10.3390/su11226429 hill, r.c. and bowen, p., 1997. sustainable construction: principles and a framework for attainment. construction management and economics, 15(3), pp.223 39. https://doi.org/10.1080/014461997372971 hm treasury, 2008. the green book. appraisal and evaluation in central government. treasury guidance. her majesty’s treasury, london. hm treasury, 2007. review of sub-national economic development and regeneration. her majesty’s treasury, london. hofstad, h., 2012. compact city development: high ideals and emerging practices, refereed article, 49, european journal of spatial development. hossain, f., adnan, z.h., hasin, m.a.a., 2014. improvement in weighting assignment process in analytic hierarchy process by introducing suggestion matrix and likert scale. international journal of supply chain management, 3 (4). kalutara, p., zhang, g., setunge, s., wakefield, r., 2018. prioritising sustainability factors for australian community buildings’ management using analytical hierarchy process (ahp). international journal of strategic property management, 22 (1), pp. 37–50. https://doi.org/10.3846/ijspm.2018.318 kioupi, v. and voulvoulis, n., 2019. education for sustainable development: a systemic framework for connecting the sdgs to educational outcomes. sustainability, 11(6104), pp.1-18. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11216104 littig, b. and griebler, e., 2005. ‘social sustainability: a catchword between political pragmatism and social theory’. int. j sustainable development, 8, (1/2), pp.65-79. https://doi.org/10.1504/ijsd.2005.007375 liu, y., dijst, m., geertma, s., cui, c., 2017. social sustainability in an ageing chinese society: towards an integrative conceptual framework. sustainability, 9(658), pp.1-15. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9040658 akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202522 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10020392 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.04.003 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.04.003 https://doi.org/10.3390/su9010068 https://doi.org/10.21926/aeer.2301010 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2016.08.004 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10040991 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10040991 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2011.561948 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11226429 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11226429 https://doi.org/10.1080/014461997372971 https://doi.org/10.3846/ijspm.2018.318 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11216104 https://doi.org/10.1504/ijsd.2005.007375 https://doi.org/10.3390/su9040658 lombardi, d.r., porter, l., austin barber, a., rogers, c.d.f., 2011. conceptualising sustainability in uk urban regeneration: a discursive formation. urban studies, 48(2), pp. 273–96. https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098009360690 lynch, a.j. and mosbah, s.m., 2017. improving local measures of sustainability: a study of built-environment indicators in the united states. cities, 60, pp.301–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2016.09.011 mak, m.y. and peacock, c.j., 2011. social sustainability: a comparison of case studies in uk, us and australia. 17th pacific rim real estate society conference, gold coast, 16-19 january 2011. maqbool, r., arula, t, and ashfaq, s., 2023. a mixed-methods study of sustainable construction practices in the uk. journal of cleaner production, 430, 139087. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.139087 martek, i., hosseini, m.r., shrestha, a., zavadskas, e.k., seaton, s., 2018. the sustainability narrative in contemporary architecture: falling short of building a sustainable future. sustainability, 10(981), pp.1-18. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su10040981 masocha, r., 2019. social sustainability practices on small businesses in developing economies: a case of south africa. sustainability, 11(3257), pp.1-13. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11123257 munzel, a., meyer-waarden, l., galan, j.p., 2018. the social side of sustainability: well-being as a driver and an outcome of social relationships and interactions on social networking sites. technological forecasting & social change, 130, pp.14–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2017.06.031 nwokoro, i. and onukwube, h., 2011. sustainable or green construction in lagos, nigeria: principles, attributes and framework. journal of sustainable development, 4 (4). https://doi.org/10.5539/jsd.v4n4p166 pallant, j., 2016. spss survival manual: a step-by-step guide to data analysis using ibm spss, 6th ed. mc graw hill education, england. panas, a. and pantouvakis, j.p., 2010. evaluating research methodology in construction productivity studies. the built & human environment review, 3 (1). park, s. and sohn, d., 2013. the roles of urban design in urban regeneration: case studies of the housing market renewal pathfinder area in newcastle, uk. international journal of urban sciences, 17(3), pp.316-30. https://doi.org/10. 1080/12265934.2013.822627 perovic´, s.k. and šestovic´, j.b., 2019. creative street regeneration in the context of socio-spatial sustainability: a case study of a traditional city centre in podgorica, montenegro. sustainability, 11 (5989), pp.1-25. https://doi. org/10.3390/su11215989 pitt, m., tucker, m., riley, m., longden, j., 2009. towards sustainable construction: promotion and best practices. construction innovation, 9(2), pp. 201-24. https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170910950830 ploegmakers, h. and beckers, p., 2015. evaluating urban regeneration: an assessment of the effectiveness of physical regeneration initiatives on run-down industrial sites in the netherlands. urban studies, 52(12), pp. 2151–69. https://doi. org/10.1177/0042098014542134 purvis, b., mao, y., robinson, d., 2019. three pillars of sustainability: in search of conceptual origins. sustainability science, 14 pp.681–95. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0627-5 reyes, j.p., san-josé, j.t., cuadrado, j., sancibrian, r., 2014. health & safety criteria for determining the sustainable value of construction projects. safety science, 62, pp.221–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2013.08.023 ragozino, s., 2016. tools for regeneration of urban landscape social enterprise as a link between people and landscape. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 223, pp.201–8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.05.349 rivai, f.r., rohman, m.a. and sumantri, b., 2023. assessment of social sustainability performance for residential building. sustainability: science, practice and policy, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/15487733.2022.2153575 akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202523 https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098009360690 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2016.09.011 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2023.139087 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10040981 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10040981 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11123257 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2017.06.031 https://doi.org/10.5539/jsd.v4n4p166 https://doi.org/10.1080/12265934.2013.822627 https://doi.org/10.1080/12265934.2013.822627 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11215989 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11215989 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714170910950830 https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098014542134 https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098014542134 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-018-0627-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2013.08.023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.05.349 https://doi.org/10.1080/15487733.2022.2153575 saaty, t.l. and. vargas, l.g., 2012. models, methods, concepts & applications of the analytic hierarchy process. international series in operations research & management science, 175, springer. new york. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3597-6 saaty, t.l., 1990. how to make a decision: analytical hierarchy process. european journal of operational research, 48 (1), pp. 9-26. https://doi.org/10.1016/0377-2217(90)90057-i saaty, t.l., 1980. the analytic hierarchy process. mcgraw hill, new york. https://doi.org/10.21236/ada214804 sarantakos, s., 2013. social research. 4th ed. macmillan publishers limited, london. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1137-29247-6 saunders, m., lewis p., thornhill a., 2009. research methods for business students. 5th ed. prentice hall, england smith, r., 2006. housing stock transfer: investing in renewal as a tool for sustainable regeneration. housing studies, 21(2), pp.269–82. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673030500484885 song, b. and kang, s., 2016. a method of assigning weights using a ranking and nonhierarchy comparison. advances in decision sciences, 9. https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/8963214 spatial economics research center, sercs, 2011. strategies for underperforming places. policy paper 6. economic and social research council. england. sustainable development commission, sdc 2003. mainstreaming sustainable regeneration: a call to action. a report by the uk sustainable development commission. sustainable development commission. london. tashakkori, a. and teddlie c., 2010. putting the human back in ‘human research methodology’: the researcher in mixed methods research. journal of mixed methods research, 4(4), pp.271–77. https://doi. org/10.1177/1558689810382532 turcu, c., 2012. local experiences of urban sustainability: researching housing market renewal interventions in three english neighbourhoods. progress in planning, 78, pp.101–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.progress.2012.04.002 winston, n., 2009. urban regeneration for sustainable development: the role of sustainable housing? european planning studies, 17(12), pp.1781-96. https://doi.org/10.1080/09654310903322306 woodcraft, s., 2015. understanding and measuring social sustainability. journal of urban regeneration and renewal, 8(2), pp.133–44. https://doi.org/10.69554/vrwg6415 yoo, c. and lee, s., 2016. neighborhood built environments affecting social capital and social sustainability in seoul, korea. sustainability, 8 (1346), pp.1-22. https://doi.org/10.3390/su8121346 zheng, h.w., shen, g.q., wang, h., 2014. a review of recent studies on sustainable urban renewal. habitat international, 41, pp.272-79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2013.08.006 akotia and bankole construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202524 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3597-6 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3597-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/0377-2217(90)90057-i https://doi.org/10.21236/ada214804 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-29247-6 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-29247-6 https://doi.org/10.1080/02673030500484885 https://doi.org/10.1155/2016/8963214 https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689810382532 https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689810382532 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.progress.2012.04.002 https://doi.org/10.1080/09654310903322306 https://doi.org/10.69554/vrwg6415 https://doi.org/10.3390/su8121346 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2013.08.006 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: pittri, h., agyekum, k., salgin, b., dompey, a. m. a., gasue, r., anderson, s. a. 2025. the fourth industrial revolution technologies and the construction industry in ghana. construction economics and building, 25:3/4, 231–253. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i3/4.9408 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article the fourth industrial revolution technologies and the construction industry in ghana hayford pittri1, kofi agyekum2, burcu salgin3,*, annabel morkporkpor ami dompey2, rhoda gasue2, samuel adjei anderson2 1 institute of sustainable built environment, school of energy, geoscience, infrastructure and society, heriotwatt university, edinburgh, uk 2 department of construction technology and management, kwame nkrumah university of science and technology, kumasi, ghana 3 department of architecture, erciyes university, kayseri, türkiye corresponding author: burcu salgin, bsalgin@erciyes.edu.tr doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9408 article history: received 22/10/2024; revised 30/05/2025; accepted 03/07/2025; published 05/12/2025 abstract given the ghanaian construction industry’s continued reliance on conventional practices, understanding its readiness for digital transformation is essential to enhance productivity, efficiency, and competitiveness. this study investigates the level of awareness and extent of utilization of industry 4.0 technologies within the ghanaian construction industry (gci). a quantitative approach was adopted using a structured questionnaire administered to 100 built environment professionals through convenience and snowball sampling. descriptive and inferential statistical tools, including onesample ttests, independent samples ttests, and analysis of variance (anova), were used to analyze the data. the results revealed low overall awareness and utilization of industry 4.0 technologies across the gci. drone technology showed the highest awareness and usage, while technologies such as 3d printing, artificial intelligence, and big data analytics recorded the lowest. significant differences were observed in utilization based on respondents’ awareness, profession, and years of experience. this study fills a critical gap by providing baseline data necessary for understanding the sector’s digital maturity. the findings offer valuable insights for policymakers, industry stakeholders, and educators aiming to promote digital innovation. the study concludes that enhancing awareness through training, curriculum reforms, and supportive policies is vital for driving the digital transformation of the gci. 231 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9408 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9408 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9408 keywords industry 4.0 technologies; internet of things; building information modeling; artificial intelligence; construction 4.0 introduction the fourth industrial revolution (4ir), also known as industry 4.0, represents a paradigm shift in the integration of human, physical, and digital systems, unifying people, products, data, and machines to create smart, interconnected production environments. unlike previous industrial revolutions, the pace of technological advancement under industry 4.0 is unprecedented, reshaping everyday life and redefining how businesses operate across sectors (bakar et al., 2024). from intelligent automation to realtime data analytics, this transformation is driving efficiency, customization, and innovation on a global scale (aryal et al., 2023; bakar et al., 2024). the notion of “construction 4.0” epitomizes the adoption of industry 4.0 technologies in the construction industry, where information and digital technologies are revolutionizing decisionmaking and management processes. this transformation is primarily driven by the potential for improving project performance and management (perrier et al., 2020). embracing advanced manufacturing and digital technologies not only enhances construction quality but also increases productivity and safety. it has been established that construction 4.0 plays a pivotal role in streamlining operations within the construction industry (aryal et al., 2023). a wide range of construction 4.0 technologies— such as augmented reality, laser scanning, building information modeling (bim), the internet of things (iot), wearable sensors, and automated equipment— are transforming the construction industry (forcael et al., 2020). for instance, iot based safety systems have been shown to reduce onsite safety costs by up to 78% compared to conventional methods (chung et al., 2020), while additive manufacturing enhances both energy efficiency and occupant comfort in buildings (pessoa et al., 2021). despite these advantages, only 6% of architecture, engineering, and construction firms currently adopt these technologies in most developing countries, largely due to entrenched reliance on traditional practices (you and feng, 2020; begic and galic, 2021). maisiri and van dyk (2019) postulated that although noticeable progress has been made in the use of industry 4.0 technologies, systems, and processes in developed countries, there is uncertainty about the preparedness of businesses and industries in developing countries to adopt industry 4.0, and ghana is not an exception. given that emerging markets like ghana’s can ill afford the inefficiencies often associated with traditional construction methods, leveraging industry 4.0 technologies could usher in substantial improvements in both project quality and safety standards. emerging research in nearby contexts, such as nigeria, has shown that the awareness and implementation of construction 4.0 technologies can significantly expedite construction processes and reduce costs, indicating a fruitful path for investigating similar technologies in ghana (opawole et al., 2022). knowledge gained from examining successful case studies of technology utilization can be instrumental in breaking down the barriers identified in the ghanaian construction industry (gci), such as financial constraints and limited technological infrastructure (bakar et al., 2024). oke et al. (2022) postulated that many construction practitioners are familiar with certain industry 4.0 technologies but have not engaged with them effectively, which makes the evaluation of the level of awareness and understanding of such technologies among industry professionals crucial. this gap in utilization suggests a pressing need for further education and training tailored to construction 4.0 technologies, which could potentially improve project outcomes in the gci. dosumu and uwayo (2023) indicated that a lack of understanding regarding the impact of construction 4.0 technologies, such as iot, on construction processes significantly hampers their adoption in developing economies. hence, assessing the level of awareness and utilization of industry 4.0 tools can illuminate the critical factors that influence pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025232 their uptake, thereby facilitating targeted interventions to overcome identified barriers (ibrahim et al., 2024). the socioeconomic implications of embracing construction 4.0 technologies extend beyond the construction industry; they hold the potential to impact the broader economic growth of the nation. the integration of advanced technological systems contributes to the country’s development goals by enhancing job creation, improving service delivery, and fostering innovation (isayev, 2023). thus, a comprehensive study on the awareness and utilization of these technologies is vital, as it can inform policymakers and industry leaders about the necessary steps to support the digital transition and ensure sustainable construction practices aligned with global standards. the application of industry 4.0 has not been adopted in many countries, especially developing economies; thus, studies on these technologies are narrow (agyekum et al., 2018; anitah et al., 2019; manda and dhaou, 2019). despite the growing relevance of industry 4.0, no empirical study has assessed the awareness and extent of its adoption within the gci. establishing baseline knowledge and utilization levels is essential for identifying critical gaps and informing targeted strategies to drive digital transformation. this study investigates the awareness and utilization of construction 4.0 technologies within the gci, offering insights to inform policy, research, and industry strategies for improved global competitiveness. specifically, it addresses the following questions: 1. what is the level of awareness of construction 4.0 technologies among construction professionals in the gci? 2. to what extent are these technologies being utilized? literature review industry 4.0 technologies and the construction industry since its inception in 2011, industry 4.0 has garnered increasing scholarly attention, with research highlighting its transformative potential across industries (liao et al., 2017; culot et al., 2020). the construction sector, characterized by its complexity and socioeconomic significance (williams et al., 2020; paliwal et al., 2021), faces persistent challenges in meeting infrastructure demands while addressing inefficiencies tied to conventional practices (li et al., 2019). industry 4.0 technologies, collectively termed construction 4.0, offer solutions by enhancing design, safety, automation, and sustainability (bai et al., 2020; begic and galic, 2021). the united nations environment programme underscores its role in mitigating environmental impacts through reduced waste and optimized workflows (iea, 2018). schönbeck et al. (2020) classified construction 4.0 technologies into three domains: information and communication (e.g., bim, iot, cloud computing, and mixed reality), automation [e.g., artificial intelligence (ai), drones, sensors, and radiofrequency identification (rfid)], and industrialization (e.g., robotics and 3d printing). the benefits of integrating these tools in construction processes and practices are well documented. bim combined with iot creates digital twins for operational optimization (shahzad et al., 2022), while ai and machine learning enhance scheduling, risk management, and datadriven decisions (forcael et al., 2020; abioye et al., 2021). technologies like 3d printing and robotic systems offer automation, cost reduction, and safety improvements (krupík, 2020; tankova and da silva, 2020). augmented reality (ar) supports immersive safety training (delgado et al., 2020; babalola et al., 2023), and cloud computing facilitates scalable it infrastructure with realtime data access, reducing costs and improving coordination (lu and cecil, 2016; maqbool et al., 2023). similarly, iot enables realtime communication between devices, enhancing operational efficiency through machinetomachine and humantomachine interactions (patel and patel, 2016; rghioui and oumnad, 2017). autonomous robots accelerate processes, reduce errors, and improve collaboration ( jayani pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025233 rajapathirana and hui, 2018), while big data analytics enhances decisionmaking and performance by leveraging vast datasets from multiple construction inputs (erboz, 2017; wang and hajli, 2017). rfid systems further optimize material tracking and supply chain logistics (anitah et al., 2019). despite these opportunities, adoption remains limited in the construction sector due to cultural resistance, high costs, lack of expertise, and fragmented implementation strategies. a summary of some of the key industry 4.0 technologies identified from the literature is presented in table 1. table 1. summary of industry 4.0 technologies no. industry 4.0 technologies source(s) 1 big data analytics sisinni et al., 2018; anitah et al., 2019; culot et al., 2020; dawood et al., 2022; suleiman et al., 2022 2 cloud computing sisinni et al., 2018; culot et al., 2020; schönbeck et al., 2020; xu et al., 2021; dawood et al., 2022; suleiman et al., 2022 3 augmented reality (ar) culot et al., 2020; delgado et al., 2020; schönbeck et al., 2020; kazemzadeh et al., 2021; xu et al., 2021; dawood et al., 2022; suleiman et al., 2022 4 artificial intelligence (ai) dalenogare et al., 2018; sisinni et al., 2018; bai et al., 2020; schönbeck et al., 2020 5 building information modeling (bim) maskuriy et al., 2019; forcael et al., 2020; schönbeck et al., 2020; dawood et al., 2022 6 robotics dalenogare et al., 2018; bai et al., 2020; xu et al., 2021 7 3d printing/additive manufacturing dalenogare et al., 2018; bai et al., 2020; krupík, 2020; xu et al., 2021 8 drone technologies dalenogare et al., 2018; bai et al., 2020; suleiman et al., 2022 9 radiofrequency identification (rfid) dalenogare et al., 2018; bai et al., 2020; schönbeck et al., 2020 10 internet of things (iot) culot et al., 2020; forcael et al., 2020; xu et al., 2021; dawood et al., 2022; suleiman et al., 2022 source: table created by authors. awareness of industry 4.0 technologies in the construction industry research has linked numerous environmental and operational inefficiencies, such as global warming, pollution, excessive waste, project underperformance, and low labor productivity, to the persistent use of traditional construction methods (you and feng, 2020; pittri et al., 2025). these challenges have heightened global interest in digital solutions, thereby increasing awareness of industry 4.0 technologies across various industrial sectors. industry 4.0 has demonstrated transformative potential in enhancing operations in manufacturing, agriculture, international trade, and the built environment, including construction (schwab and davis, 2018; bongomin et al., 2020). while sectors such as manufacturing and banking have integrated these technologies into their core operations (oesterreich and teuteberg, 2016), the construction industry is often characterized by slow technological uptake (brous et al., 2020). pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025234 however, growing interest among construction professionals in adopting digital innovations suggests that a paradigm shift is underway (kozlovska et al., 2021). studies from countries such as denmark, france, and south korea have highlighted the practical applications of ai, additive manufacturing, and iot in construction (attoue et al., 2018; jo et al., 2019; tankova and da silva, 2020). a comparative study in malaysia identified weak industry 4.0 exposure among recent graduates and uneven familiarity among practitioners, underscoring the urgent need for enhanced education and training (adepoju and aigbavboa, 2021; zabidin et al., 2024). these deficiencies often stem from limited practical experience, which hampers the transition to digital construction practices and slows innovation (zabidin et al., 2024). opawole et al. (2022) emphasized that awareness of 4ir technologies in nigeria remains low, with limited practical engagement. in ghana, efforts to integrate bim– ar and simulation tools are emerging (addy et al., 2023; koranteng et al., 2023), although awareness remains low compared to developed regions (newman et al., 2021; pittri et al., 2025). agyekum et al. (2022a) concluded that the awareness of 4ir technologies for health and safety management remains low, even though professionals are aware of the benefits they present. pittri et al. (2024a) added that 4ir, such as drone technologies, have proven benefits for health and safety management, but their awareness and adoption remain low in the gci, underscoring the need for educational reforms, capacity building, and training to align with the demands of a rapidly evolving construction ecosystem. utilization of industry 4.0 technologies in the construction industry although awareness of 4ir is gradually improving, actual utilization in the construction industry, particularly in developing contexts, remains minimal. despite growing recognition of the need for innovation, the actual utilization of industry 4.0 technologies in the construction industry, such as bim, iot, and automation, remains limited (ribeiro et al., 2022). this is largely due to entrenched reliance on traditional methods, high initial investment costs, lack of technical expertise, and resistance to change (ribeiro et al., 2022). while the potential benefits of these technologies are well acknowledged, their operational application continues to lag, particularly in areas that could significantly improve project delivery, like iot and data analytics (zabidin et al., 2024). moreover, skepticism over return on investment and the inertia of conventional practices persist, often undermining governmentled digitalization initiatives and placing firms at a disadvantage in an increasingly competitive, techdriven construction environment (venter et al., 2021). research has indicated that developed countries have made significant strides in implementing technologies such as robotics, ai, big data analytics, and cloud computing (maisiri and van dyk, 2019; dhamija, 2022). in contrast, many developing economies— including ghana, nigeria, south africa, and kenya— struggle with issues such as technological readiness, infrastructure, and workforce capability, which limit fullscale adoption (müller et al., 2018; anitah et al., 2019). case studies from kenya have shown that the application of industry 4.0 technologies improves demand forecasting and decisionmaking, yet adoption rates remain low due to limited awareness (anitah et al., 2019). similarly, in the gci, the actual deployment of technologies like iot, drones, and 3d printing is still in its infancy, hindered by financial constraints, limited technical skills, and resistance to change (agyekum et al., 2022a; pittri et al., 2024a). gbolagade et al. (2022) emphasized that entrepreneurs who have embraced these technologies report significant performance improvements, reinforcing the need for broader industrywide digital transition. to bridge the gap between awareness and practical application, stakeholders must invest in implementation frameworks, workforce upskilling, and supportive policy instruments to accelerate the integration of industry 4.0 in construction (maskuriy et al., 2019; pittri et al., 2024a). pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025235 methodology survey strategy/approach this study examined the awareness and utilization of construction 4.0 technologies within the gci using a quantitative research approach. this methodology was appropriate, as it facilitated the use of structured questionnaires and statistical tools such as descriptive analysis and hypothesis testing to assess the relationships between key variables (agyekum et al., 2022a). the questionnaire survey offered a systematic and efficient means of collecting data from a broad sample of construction professionals, enabling a comprehensive analysis of perceptions and practices. furthermore, the structured nature of the survey supported the empirical testing of the study’s hypotheses, as presented in the subsequent section. survey design and administration following a review of the pertinent literature, a questionnaire was prepared to gather data from construction professionals in the gci. prior to data collection, a twostage pilot testing process was undertaken to ensure the validity and reliability of the questionnaire. validity in this context refers to the extent to which the instrument accurately captures the constructs it is designed to measure (agyekum et al., 2023a). this process was essential for enhancing the accuracy of the study’s findings and the robustness of the conclusions drawn (agyekum et al., 2022b). in the first stage, the questionnaire was reviewed by an expert in industry 4.0 research to assess its content relevance and clarity. following this, a pilot test was conducted with 10 purposively selected construction professionals from diverse built environment disciplines who possessed experience with industry 4.0 technologies. their feedback was instrumental in confirming the feasibility and comprehensibility of the questionnaire items, ensuring that the instrument was appropriately aligned with the study’s objectives. after a few clarifications and grammatical corrections, both phases of piloting were approved. the respondents were given the final version of the questionnaires online using google forms. this form of data collection was deemed sufficient since, unlike other methods like facetoface communication, it guarantees respondents’ anonymity, and the respondents can complete the form at their convenience, reducing the need for scheduling meetings or facetoface interviews. it is also more cost effective and often comes with builtin data analysis tools that can help one quickly and easily generate reports and insights from the collected data (agyekum et al., 2022a; botchway et al., 2023a). respondents were required to reveal their background information in the first section of the questionnaire. this included their profession, years of experience, and the highest level of education. from the literature review and questionnaire piloting, 10 technologies under industry 4.0 were revealed to be utilized in the gci. in the second part of the survey, respondents were asked to rate their familiarity with these technologies on a 5point likert scale (1 = highly unaware, 2 = not aware, 3 = moderately aware, 4 = aware, and 5 = highly aware). subsequently, the third section sought information on utilizing industry 4.0 technologies in the gci. respondents were required to indicate their level of usage of the technologies on a 5point likert scale (1 = not used, 2 = least used, 3 = moderately used, 4 = used, and 5 = highly used). the study’s population was construction professionals working in various built environment organizations in ghana, irrespective of their familiarity with industry 4.0 technologies. even though there was a recognized sampling frame for some of the construction professionals, such as architects and engineers, a sampling frame for construction managers and quantity surveyors was difficult to produce due to a lack of a database for these professionals (kumah et al., 2022; botchway et al., 2023b; pittri et al., 2024b). given the challenge of determining the actual sampling frame, compounded by their diverse occupational profiles, geographic dispersion, and time constraints, the sample size was determined using cochran’s formula, a method widely applied in research involving large or indeterminate populations. this approach has been adopted in similar regional studies (oduro et al., 2024; pittri et al., 2024a) to ensure statistical validity. pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025236 based on a 95% confidence level, 10% margin of error, and a conservative population proportion of 0.5, the minimum required sample size was calculated to be approximately 96 using equation 1: n p p 0 2 2 1   z e . . equation 1 where n0 is the minimum required sample size. z is the zscore, which corresponds to the desired confidence level. for a 95% confidence level, the zscore is 1.96. p is the estimated proportion of the population that has the attribute of interest (usually set to 0.5, as this maximizes the sample size). ‘e’ is the margin of error set at 10% to ensure higher accuracy of the survey and study results. a total of 100 responses were collected using convenience and snowball sampling techniques. convenience sampling enabled access through established networks, while snowball sampling extended outreach to hardertoreach professionals, mitigating coverage bias. although these approaches may introduce selection bias, safeguards such as targeting a crosssection of roles (e.g., architects, engineers, and contractors), achieving geographic spread, and applying eligibility screening (minimum 1 year of experience) helped enhance representativeness and data quality. the large sample size further offsets limitations by capturing broader perspectives across the industry. exploratory studies in the same jurisdiction have used a similar approach, as it is nearly impossible to list the actual number of participants in this population (kissi et al., 2023; oduro et al., 2024; pittri et al., 2024a). analyses of data following a thorough data assessment and verification for completeness in microsoft excel, the data were entered into ibm spss version 26 for statistical analysis. the data were retrieved, sorted, and coded systematically in preparation for analysis. the study employed a combination of descriptive and inferential statistical techniques to interpret the data. descriptive statistics, including frequencies, percentages, means, and standard deviations, were used to summarize the central tendencies and distribution of the responses. mean score ranking provided insight into the awareness of the variables under investigation, while the standard deviation assessed the extent of variability in the responses. inferential statistics, including one sample ttests, independent samples ttests, and oneway anova, were applied to examine differences in perceptions and usage levels of industry 4.0 technologies among different respondent groups, thereby enabling robust statistical inferences. the data’s reliability (i.e., consistency of responses) from the filledout questionnaires was assessed using cronbach’s alpha. the alpha values for the gci’s experts’ knowledge of industry 4.0 technologies and the level of usage of these technologies were 0.936 and 0.931, respectively, suggesting the reliability of the data for the analysis. the onesample ttest is a statistical hypothesis test used to determine whether the mean of a single sample significantly differs from a predefined reference value. in this study, the onesample ttest was employed to evaluate whether the mean scores for the usage of various industry 4.0 technologies differed significantly from a test value of 3.50, which was selected to represent the threshold for moderate usage on a 5point likert scale. this analysis aimed to determine whether the technologies were being used above, below, or at an average level by construction professionals. the hypotheses for the test were formulated as follows: the null hypothesis (h01) posited that the sample mean is equal to the reference value (i.e., μ = 3.50), indicating no significant difference in usage. the alternative hypothesis (h1) suggested that the sample mean differs from 3.50, indicating a statistically significant deviation. the test was conducted at a 95% confidence level, with statistical significance established at p < 0.05. if the pvalue was less than 0.05, h0 was rejected in favor of h1, indicating that the level of usage of a given technology was significantly pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025237 different from the reference point. this analysis was crucial in identifying which industry 4.0 technologies are underutilized or wellintegrated in the gci. to assess differences in perceptions and usage patterns among groups of construction professionals, this study employed two key inferential statistical tools: the independent samples ttest and the oneway anova. the independent samples ttest is used to compare the means of two independent groups to determine if a significant difference exists between them (pittri et al., 2024b; koteimartin et al., 2025). it was used in this study to evaluate whether there was a statistically significant difference in the level of industry 4.0 technology utilization between respondents who reported awareness of the concept and those who did not (h02: there is no significant difference in the utilization of industry 4.0 technologies between professionals who are aware and those who are not aware of the concept). the oneway anova, in contrast, is a statistical technique used to compare the means of two or more independent groups to determine whether there are statistically significant differences among them (agyekum et al., 2023b; kent state university, 2024). in the context of this study, the oneway anova was applied to examine whether respondents’ professional background and years of experience significantly influenced their reported frequency of using industry 4.0 technologies. this helped to identify whether particular demographic subgroups were more inclined to adopt these technologies, which has practical implications for training and policy targeting. two hypotheses were set. (1) h03: there is no significant difference in the utilization of industry 4.0 technologies based on respondents’ professional roles. (2) h04: there is no significant difference in the utilization of industry 4.0 technologies based on years of experience. both tests were conducted at a 95% confidence level, with statistical significance determined at p < 0.05. these analyses were essential in uncovering the underlying factors influencing the uptake of industry 4.0 technologies across different categories of construction professionals. results demographic background this section presents the demographic information of the respondents (table 2). this section was expedient because the respondents’ demographic frequency analysis clarifies the background history of the study’s participants and formed the basis for the independent samples ttest and the oneway anova. the respondents performed various professional roles, such as contractors (12%), construction managers (40%), quantity surveyors (36%), architects (4%), and engineers (8%). the qualifications of these professionals were in the order of master of philosophy (mphil) (4%), master of science/architecture (msc/march) (64%), bachelor’s degree holders (24%), and, lastly, higher national diploma (hnd) holders (8%) in related disciplines. the work experience revealed that 28% of the professionals had between 1 and 5 years of work experience in their respective professions. 24% of the professionals had between 6 and 10 years of work experience, 4% had between 11 and 15 years of work experience, and 44% had more than 15 years of work experience in their respective professions. awareness levels of industry 4.0 technologies in the ghanaian construction industry this objective aimed to assess respondents’ level of awareness regarding the concept of construction 4.0 and its technologies. descriptive frequency analysis was conducted to determine the extent to which participants were familiar with the concept. the results, presented in figure 1, revealed that only 40% of the respondents indicated awareness of the concept, while the majority— 60%— reported no prior knowledge. these findings highlight a significant knowledge gap within the gci, suggesting the need for increased sensitization and education on construction 4.0 concept and its technologies. pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025238 figure 1. awareness of the concept of construction 4.0. source: figure created by authors. table 2. demographic information demographic frequency percentage (%) profession contractor 12 12 construction manager 40 40 quantity surveyor 36 36 architect 4 4 engineer 8 8 total 100 100 years of professional experience 1– 5 years 28 28 6– 10 years 24 24 11– 15 years 4 4 over 15 years 44 44 total 100 100 educational level hnd 8 8 bsc 24 24 msc/march 64 64 mphil 4 4 total 100 100 note(s): hnd, higher national diploma. source: table created by authors. pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025239 to further examine the level of awareness of the 10 construction 4.0 technologies among professionals, a mean score ranking and a onesample ttest were conducted. as shown in table 3, drone technology emerged as the most familiar to respondents, with a mean score (ms) of 3.80 and a standard deviation (sd) of 1.449, indicating statistical significance (p = 0.041). this suggests that drone applications have gained some traction within the gci, likely due to their increasing visibility in site surveying and monitoring. iot and bim followed, each with a mean score of 3.36, but statistically not significantly different from the stated mean of 3.5. while these results suggest moderate awareness, the mean values indicate that knowledge of these technologies is not yet widespread or deeply embedded in practice. table 3. summary analyses of the awareness of industry 4.0 technologies (mean score ranking and onesample ttest) industry 4.0 technologies t mean std. deviation rank pvalue statically significant drone technologies 2.070 3.8000 1.44949 1 0.041a yes iot −1.053 3.3600 1.32969 2 0.295 no bim −1.008 3.3600 1.38914 3 0.316 no robotics −2.360 3.1600 1.44054 4 0.020a yes rfid −2.895 3.1200 1.31257 5 0.005a yes cloud computing −4.936 2.8400 1.32360 6 0.000a yes ai −5.804 2.8000 1.20605 7 0.000a yes ar −5.515 2.7600 1.34179 8 0.000a yes 3d printing/additive manufacturing −6.853 2.6800 1.19663 9 0.000a yes big data −6.190 2.6800 1.32482 10 0.000a yes note(s): iot, internet of things; bim, building information modeling; rfid, radiofrequency identification; ai, artificial intelligence; ar, augmented reality. a onesample ttest result is significant at 0.05 significance level, pvalue < 0.05 (twotailed); cronbach’s alpha = 0.936, test value = 3.50. source: table created by authors. all other technologies assessed, including ai, big data, augmented reality, and robotics, recorded mean scores below 3.5, signifying limited awareness among construction professionals. this underscores a critical knowledge gap and the need for deliberate capacitybuilding initiatives, including continuous professional development, targeted training programs, and curriculum enhancements (agyekum et al., 2022a; kissi et al., 2023; pittri et al., 2024a). the findings reveal a fragmented understanding of construction 4.0 technologies, which may hinder their broader adoption and integration. therefore, increasing industrywide sensitization and strategic policy interventions are essential for accelerating digital transformation in the gci (agyekum et al., 2022a; kissi et al., 2023; pittri et al., 2025). this finding aligns with those of osunsanmi et al. (2018), who observed that awareness levels among construction professionals on emerging technologies remain suboptimal, largely due to limited understanding of the industry 4.0 paradigm and insufficient investment in technological research and development (r&d). similarly, brous et al. (2020) emphasized that the potential benefits of emerging pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025240 technologies are often undercommunicated within the construction sector, leaving many professionals unaware of their practical applications for improving performance. dalenogare et al. (2018) further argued that the sector’s low innovation culture and inadequate r&d expenditure contribute significantly to professionals’ limited knowledge of construction 4.0 technologies. the absence of structured exposure to digital advancements hinders the industry’s ability to adapt to evolving demands. as maskuriy et al. (2019) contended, effective technology adoption is closely linked to iterative training and institutional support. without targeted upskilling and knowledge dissemination, the transformative potential of construction 4.0 technologies will remain largely unrealized, especially in resourceconstrained construction environments such as ghana. utilization of industry 4.0 technologies in the ghanaian construction industry this section presents the results of the mean score ranking (msr) and the onesample ttest of the level of utilization of the construction 4.0 technologies. as shown in table 4, all technologies recorded negative tvalues, indicating that their mean scores were significantly below the hypothesized benchmark of 3.5. this suggests that, overall, these technologies are infrequently used within the gci. drone technology (ms = 2.92, sd = 1.203, p = 0.00), the internet of things (ms = 2.88, sd = 1.513), and building information modeling (ms = 2.64, sd = 1.202) emerged as the most utilized, albeit still under the threshold for moderate usage. conversely, technologies such as rfid, artificial intelligence, big data analytics, cloud computing, robotics, and 3d printing recorded even lower mean scores, highlighting their minimal integration in practice in the gci. table 4. summary analyses of the utilization of industry 4.0 technologies (mean score ranking and onesample ttest) industry 4.0 technologies t mean std. deviation rank pvalue statically significant drone technologies −4.820 2.92 1.203 1 0.000a yes iot −4.098 2.88 1.513 2 0.000a yes bim −7.155 2.64 1.202 3 0.000a yes rfid −7.447 2.40 1.477 4 0.000a yes ai −11.339 2.24 1.111 5 0.000a yes big data −12.745 2.16 1.051 6 0.000a yes cloud computing −15.116 2.08 0.939 7 0.000a yes robotics −11.515 2.00 1.303 8 0.000a yes ar −14.755 1.96 1.043 9 0.000a yes 3d printing/additive manufacturing −14.389 1.92 1.098 10 0.000a yes note(s): iot, internet of things; bim, building information modeling; rfid, radiofrequency identification; ai, artificial intelligence; ar, augmented reality. a onesample ttest result is significant at 0.05 significance level, pvalue < 0.05 (twotailed); cronbach’s alpha = 0.931, test value = 3.50. source: table created by authors. pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025241 these findings are consistent with those of nnaji and karakhan (2020), who argued that although industry 4.0 technologies have garnered growing attention in construction discourse, their practical implementation remains at a nascent stage. originally introduced to enhance efficiency, reduce costs, and improve quality in construction processes, these technologies have yet to be fully integrated into mainstream operations. despite this, certain technologies such as drones, bim, and iot are beginning to gain traction in specific applications such as site surveying, design simulation, and basic data collection (suleiman et al., 2022). however, their use remains fragmented and largely superficial, reinforcing the need for strategic efforts to improve awareness, provide handson training, and embed digital tools within core project workflows. maqbool et al. (2023) highlighted that despite the growing importance of smart technologies like iot and bim, their implementation in ghana remains minimal due to inadequate skills, limited awareness, and resistance to change. similarly, kissi et al. (2023) noted that construction stakeholders in ghana often encounter barriers such as high costs, lack of training, and poor infrastructure, which constrain the effective deployment of digital solutions like robotics, 3d printing, and cloud computing. pittri et al. (2024a) and mustapha et al. (2024) added that construction 4.0 technologies, such as unmanned aerial vehicles (uavs), are still significantly underused for safety management and monitoring in ghana, primarily due to technical limitations, lack of policy support, and insufficient industry training. the findings of this study highlight a higher awareness level of uavs, indicating that although the awareness of uavs/drones may be growing, practical implementation across firms remains fragmented. similarly, in nigeria, opawole et al. (2022) found low adoption of 3d printing, attributing it to high initial investment, limited practical exposure, and a weak innovation culture— barriers equally relevant to the gci. overall, the low utilization rates confirm a pressing need for strategic investment in skills development, regulatory frameworks, and infrastructure to facilitate meaningful adoption of construction 4.0 technologies in ghana. independent samples ttest for the level of utilization of industry 4.0 technologies statistical differences in the utilization of construction 4.0 technologies based on respondents’ awareness were examined using the independent samples ttest. as shown in table 5, significant differences (p < 0.05) were found in the usage of nine out of the 10 technologies, indicating that low utilization of construction 4.0 technologies in the gci is largely driven by limited awareness. robotics was the only exception, suggesting that its low adoption may be attributed to other barriers such as high costs and technical complexity. these findings support the assertions of newman et al. (2021) and müller et al. (2018), who noted that while construction 4.0 research is emerging, its practical application in developing contexts remains limited. the results underscore the critical role of awareness in driving adoption and highlight the need for strategic interventions, such as curriculum reforms, targeted training, and innovationfriendly environments, to foster technological readiness in the gci (maskuriy et al., 2019). oneway anova for the level of utilization of industry 4.0 technologies statistically significant differences in the means of the level of utilization of the industry 4.0 technologies in the gci were assessed under this section based on the profession (categorized as contractors, construction managers, architects, quantity surveyors, and engineers) and experience (i.e., 1– 5, 6– 10, 11– 15, and over 15 years) of the respondents. this was carried out using oneway anova statistics as presented in tables 6 and 7. the results based on both the profession and experience of respondents revealed that there were significant differences in the views of the construction professionals. all the industry 4.0 technologies emerged as significantly different among the groups [p (twotailed) ≤ 0.05]. this indicates that the pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025242 professional roles and experience of the respondents influence the utilization of industry 4.0 technologies in the gci. studies have shown that professionals, such as architects and engineers, who typically possess specialized training and technological competence, are more likely to integrate digital tools into their workflows (nnadi and akabudike, 2024). nguyen et al. (2023) emphasized that practitioner expertise directly impacts risk perception and willingness to adopt innovation. while experience can enhance decisionmaking, it does not always equate to proficiency with emerging technologies, particularly in contexts where digital tools are still table 5. independent samples ttest for differences in utilization of industry 4.0 technologies based on awareness independent samples ttest 95% confidence interval of the difference industry 4.0 technologies awareness of ir 4.0 technologies n mean std. dev. t df p (two tailed) mean difference std. error difference lower upper big data yes 40 2.700 1.114 4.601 98 0.000* 0.900 0.195 0.51181 1.28819 no 60 1.800 0.840 cloud computing yes 40 2.700 0.911 6.378 98 0.000* 1.033 0.162 0.71183 1.35484 no 60 1.667 0.705 ar yes 40 2.600 1.033 5.764 98 0.000* 1.067 0.185 0.69946 1.43388 no 60 1.533 0.812 ai yes 40 2.700 1.114 3.576 98 0.001* 0.767 0.214 0.34116 1.19217 no 60 1.933 1.006 bim yes 40 3.300 1.114 4.996 98 0.000* 1.100 0.220 0.66310 1.53690 no 60 2.200 1.054 robotics yes 40 2.200 1.181 1.257 98 0.212 0.333 0.265 −0.19281 .85948 no 60 1.867 1.371 3d printing/ additive manufacturing yes 40 2.200 1.091 2.118 98 0.037* 0.467 0.220 0.02952 .90382 no 60 1.733 1.071 drone technologies yes 40 3.500 1.132 4.263 98 0.000* 0.967 0.227 0.51668 1.41665 no 60 2.533 1.096 rfid yes 40 2.800 1.488 2.256 98 0.026* .0667 0.295 0.08032 1.25301 no 60 2.133 1.420 iot yes 40 3.500 1.450 3.535 98 0.001* 1.033 0.292 0.45330 1.61336 no 60 2.467 1.420 note(s): ar, augmented reality; ai, artificial intelligence; bim, building information modeling; rfid, radiofrequency identification; iot, internet of things. *independent samples ttest result is significant at 0.05 significance level, pvalue < 0.05 (twotailed). source: table created by authors. pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025243 table 6. oneway anova test for the profession of respondents industry 4.0 technologies comparison sum of squares df mean square f sig. big data between groups 65.173 4 16.293 34.967 0.000 within groups 44.267 95 0.466 total 109.440 99 cloud computing between groups 34.471 4 8.618 15.479 0.000 within groups 52.889 95 0.557 total 87.360 99 ar between groups 55.218 4 13.804 24.921 0.000 within groups 52.622 95 0.554 total 107.840 99 ai between groups 40.640 4 10.160 11.828 0.000 within groups 81.600 95 0.859 total 122.240 99 bim between groups 50.551 4 12.638 12.981 0.000 within groups 92.489 95 0.974 total 143.040 99 robotics between groups 116.933 4 29.233 54.383 0.000 within groups 51.067 95 0.538 total 168.000 99 3d printing/ additive manufacturing between groups 68.960 4 17.240 32.496 0.000 within groups 50.400 95 0.531 total 119.360 99 drone technologies between groups 27.093 4 6.773 5.534 0.000 within groups 116.267 95 1.224 total 143.360 99 rfid between groups 67.378 4 16.844 10.767 0.000 within groups 148.622 95 1.564 total 216.000 99 iot between groups 97.271 4 24.318 17.868 0.000 within groups 129.289 95 1.361 total 226.560 99 note(s): ar, augmented reality; ai, artificial intelligence; bim, building information modeling; rfid, radiofrequency identification; iot, internet of things. source: table created by authors. pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025244 table 7. oneway anova test for years of experience in the role industry 4.0 technologies comparison sum of squares df mean square f sig. big data between groups 12.470 3 4.157 4.115 0.009 within groups 96.970 96 1.010 total 109.440 99 cloud computing between groups 7.767 3 2.589 3.123 0.029 within groups 79.593 96 0.829 total 87.360 99 ar between groups 13.113 3 4.371 4.430 0.006 within groups 94.727 96 0.987 total 107.840 99 ai between groups 20.413 3 6.804 6.415 0.001 within groups 101.827 96 1.061 total 122.240 99 bim between groups 39.066 3 13.022 12.023 0.000 within groups 103.974 96 1.083 total 143.040 99 robotics between groups 16.485 3 5.495 3.482 0.019 within groups 151.515 96 1.578 total 168.000 99 3d printing/ additive manufacturing between groups 19.689 3 6.563 6.321 0.001 within groups 99.671 96 1.038 total 119.360 99 drone technologies between groups 27.750 3 9.250 7.681 0.000 within groups 115.610 96 1.204 total 143.360 99 rfid between groups 24.511 3 8.170 4.096 0.009 within groups 191.489 96 1.995 total 216.000 99 iot between groups 38.785 3 12.928 6.610 0.000 within groups 187.775 96 1.956 total 226.560 99 note(s): ar, augmented reality; ai, artificial intelligence; bim, building information modeling; rfid, radiofrequency identification; iot, internet of things. source: table created by authors. pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025245 evolving (nguyen et al., 2023). gong et al. (2024) further highlighted that organizational size and employee experience levels are critical to technology uptake, especially for complex systems like big data. additionally, professionals aligned with sustainability goals tend to adopt innovative tools more readily, whereas resistance often stems from rigid traditional practices (wafai and aouad, 2023). conclusions this study aimed to assess the awareness and utilization of industry 4.0 technologies within the gci, focusing on how professional role, experience, and awareness levels influence adoption. drawing on data from 100 construction professionals, the findings revealed a generally low level of awareness and utilization, with drone technology emerging as the most recognized and moderately used tool, while technologies such as ar, robotics, and 3d printing showed the least usage. onesample ttests confirmed that the mean utilization scores for all technologies fell significantly below the expected threshold. furthermore, independent samples ttests and oneway anova demonstrated that awareness, profession, and experience significantly influenced usage patterns. these results suggest that adoption remains limited, not due to a lack of access alone but because of gaps in the training, exposure, and rolespecific applicability of these technologies within the gci. table 8 provides a summary of the study’s hypotheses, the statistical tests employed, and the corresponding decisions regarding their acceptance or rejection based on the analysis results. table 8. summary of hypotheses and their acceptance/rejection hypothesis statistical test result decision h01: the mean level of utilization of each industry 4.0 technology is equal to the hypothesized mean value (3.5) onesample ttest p < 0.05 for 8 out of 10 technologies reject h01 h02: there is no significant difference in the utilization of industry 4.0 technologies between professionals who are aware and those who are not aware of the concept independent samples ttest p < 0.05 for 9 out of 10 technologies reject h02 h03: there is no significant difference in the utilization of industry 4.0 technologies based on respondents’ professional roles oneway anova p < 0.05 for all technologies reject h03 h04: there is no significant difference in the utilization of industry 4.0 technologies based on years of experience oneway anova p < 0.05 for all technologies reject h04 source: table created by authors. practical implications the study highlights an urgent need for targeted interventions to drive digital transformation in the gci. industry practitioners should collaborate with academic institutions to develop continuous professional development programs tailored to different roles within the industry. construction firms must also invest in onboarding and upskilling initiatives to bridge technological gaps, particularly in underutilized areas such as ai, ar, and big data. policymakers are encouraged to provide incentive frameworks such as tax reliefs or grants to support digital innovation adoption, especially among small and mediumsized enterprise. furthermore, integrating construction 4.0 technologies into university curricula will equip pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025246 future professionals with the skills needed for a techdriven construction landscape. construction firms are recommended to improve the integration of industry 4.0 technologies in their operations by developing a new or updated industry 4.0 implementation plan and communicating the information to employees to improve their readiness for the change. theoretical implications this study contributes to the growing body of literature on construction 4.0 by providing empirical evidence from a developing country context. it reinforces the argument that awareness and professional characteristics are critical determinants of technology adoption. the results support further theorybuilding around technology acceptance and digital readiness frameworks in lowresource settings. limitations and directions for future research a key limitation of this study is its reliance on nonprobabilistic sampling, which may limit the generalizability of the findings. while steps were taken to ensure diversity in roles and regional representation, future studies should consider stratified or random sampling techniques where feasible. additionally, the study adopted a descriptive and comparative statistical approach using ttests and anova, which, although appropriate for identifying group differences, did not model causal relationships. future research could employ structural equation modeling (sem) to examine the structural relationships between awareness, perceived benefits, organizational factors, and technology utilization. longitudinal studies are also recommended to capture changes in adoption patterns over time as digital infrastructure and training improve in the gci. the study relied solely on quantitative data, which, while effective for identifying patterns and group differences, does not capture the nuanced, contextspecific barriers and motivations influencing technology adoption. the absence of qualitative insights restricts a deeper understanding of organizational culture, behavioral resistance, and structural limitations. future research should consider adopting a mixedmethods approach, incorporating interviews or focus groups to explore subjective experiences, perceptions, and institutional barriers to adoption. expanding the research to other developing countries would also support comparative analysis and strengthen the global discourse on construction 4.0 adoption in lowresource settings. additionally, the study focused on only 10 commonly cited industry 4.0 technologies, potentially overlooking emerging or contextspecific innovations; future research could expand the scope to include a broader and evolving set of technologies relevant to diverse construction environments. references abioye, s.o., oyedele, l.o., akanbi, l., ajayi, a., delgado, j.m.d., bilal, m., akinade, o.o., & ahmed, a. (2021). artificial intelligence in the construction industry: a review of present status, opportunities, and future challenges. journal of building engineering, [e-journal] 44, 103299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.103299 addy, m.n., kwofie, t.e.e., agbonani, d.m., & essegbey, a.e. (2023). using the toe theoretical framework to study the adoption of bim-ar in a developing country: the case of ghana. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-02-2022-0096 adepoju, o.o., & aigbavboa, c.o. (2021). assessing knowledge and skills gap for construction 4.0 in a developing economy. journal of public affairs, 21(3), p.e2264. https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2264 pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025247 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.103299 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-02-2022-0096 https://doi.org/10.1002/pa.2264 agyekum, a.k., fugar, f.d.k., agyekum, k., akomea-frimpong, i., & pittri, h. (2022b). barriers to stakeholder engagement in sustainable procurement of public works. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2021-0746 agyekum, k., amudjie, j., pittri, h., dompey, a.m.a., & botchway, e.a. (2023a). prioritizing the principles of circular economy among built environment professionals. built environment project and asset management, [e-journal] vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-04-2023-0077 agyekum, k., dompey, a.m.a., pittri, h., & botchway, e.a. (2023b). design for maintainability (dfm) implementation among design professionals: empirical evidence from a developing country context. international journal of building pathology and adaptation. vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ijbpa-06-2023-0078 agyekum, k., pittri, h., botchway, e.a., amudjie, j., kumah, v.m.a., kotei-martin, j.n., & oduro, r.a. (2022a). exploring the current technologies essential for health and safety in the ghanaian construction industry. merits, [e-journal] 2(4), pp.314-330. https://doi.org/10.3390/merits2040022 agyekum, k., simons, b., & botchway, s.y. (2018). factors influencing the performance of safety programmes in the ghanaian construction industry. acta structilia, 25(2), pp.39-68. https://doi.org/10.18820/24150487/as25i2.2 anitah, j.n., nyamwange, s.o., magutu, p.o., chirchir, m., & mose, j.m. (2019). industry 4.0 technologies and operational performance of unilever kenya and l’oreal east africa. noble international journal of business and management research, 3(10), pp.125-134. aryal, b., chapagain, d., dhakal, b., & aryal, b. (2023). application of information technology in construction: a case from nepal. apex journal of business and management, 1(01), pp.91-102. https://ssrn.com/abstract=4609055. https://doi.org/10.61274/apxc.2023.v01i01.007 attoue, n., shahrour, i., & younes, r. (2018). smart building: use of the artificial neural network approach for indoor temperature forecasting. energies, [e-journal] 11(2), 395. https://doi.org/10.3390/en11020395 babalola, a., manu, p., cheung, c., yunusa-kaltungo, a., & bartolo, p. (2023). a systematic review of the application of immersive technologies for safety and health management in the construction sector. journal of safety research, 85, pp.66-85. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2023.01.007 bai, c., dallasega, p., orzes, g., & sarkis, j. (2020). industry 4.0 technologies assessment: a sustainability perspective. international journal of production economics, [e-journal] 229, 107776. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijpe.2020.107776 bakar, m.r.a., razali, n.a.m., ishak, k.k., ismail, m.n., & sembok, t.m.t. (2024). adoption of industry 4.0 with cloud computing as a mediator: evaluation using toe framework for smes. joiv: international journal on informatics visualization, 8(2), pp.554-563. https://doi.org/10.62527/joiv.8.2.2205 begić, h., & galić, m. (2021). a systematic review of construction 4.0 in the context of the bim 4.0 premise. buildings, 11(8), p.337. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11080337 bongomin, o., gilibrays ocen, g., oyondi nganyi, e., musinguzi, a., & omara, t. (2020). exponential disruptive technologies and the required skills of industry 4.0. journal of engineering, [e-journal] 2020(1), pp.1-17. https://doi. org/10.1155/2020/4280156 botchway, e.a., agyekum, k., kotei-martin, j.n., pittri, h., dompey, a.m.a., afram, s.o., & asare, n.e. (2023b). achieving healthy city development in ghana: referencing sustainable development goal 11. sustainability, [e-journal] 15(19), 14361. https://doi.org/10.3390/su151914361 pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025248 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2021-0746 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-04-2023-0077 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-06-2023-0078 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-06-2023-0078 https://doi.org/10.3390/merits2040022 https://doi.org/10.18820/24150487/as25i2.2 https://ssrn.com/abstract=4609055 https://doi.org/10.61274/apxc.2023.v01i01.007 https://doi.org/10.3390/en11020395 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsr.2023.01.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2020.107776 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2020.107776 https://doi.org/10.62527/joiv.8.2.2205 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11080337 https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/4280156 https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/4280156 https://doi.org/10.3390/su151914361 botchway, e.a., asare, s.s., agyekum, k., salgin, b., pittri, h., kumah, v.m.a., & dompey, a.m.a. (2023a). competencies driving waste minimization during the construction phase of buildings. buildings, [e-journal] 13(4), 971. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13040971 brous, p., janssen, m., & herder, p. (2020). the dual effects of the internet of things (iot): a systematic review of the benefits and risks of iot adoption by organizations. international journal of information management, [e-journal] 51, 101952. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.05.008 chung, w.w.s., tariq, s., mohandes, s.r., & zayed, t. (2020). iot-based application for construction site safety monitoring. international journal of construction management, 23(1), pp.58-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020 .1847405 culot, g., nassimbeni, g., orzes, g., & sartor, m. (2020). behind the definition of industry 4.0: analysis and open questions. international journal of production economics, 226, 107617. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2020.107617 dalenogare, l.s., benitez, g.b., ayala, n.f., & frank, a.g. (2018). the expected contribution of industry 4.0 technologies for industrial performance. international journal of production economics, 204, pp.383-394. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2018.08.019 dawood, n., rahimian, f., & sheikhkhoshkar, m. (2022). industry 4. 0 applications for full lifecycle integration of buildings. 21st international conference on construction applications of virtual reality. middlesbrough, uk, 0810 december 2021. north yorkshire: teesside university. delgado, j.m.d., oyedele, l., demian, p., & beach, t. (2020). a research agenda for augmented and virtual reality in architecture, engineering and construction. advanced engineering informatics, [e-journal] 45, 101122. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.aei.2020.101122 dhamija, p. (2022). south africa in the era of industry 4.0: an insightful investigation. scientometrics, [e-journal] 127(9), pp.5083-5110. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-022-04461-z dosumu, o.s., & uwayo, s.m. (2023). modeling the adoption of internet of things (iot) for sustainable construction in a developing economy. built environment project and asset management, 13(3), pp.394-411. https://doi.org/10.1108/ bepam-08-2022-0123 erboz, g. (2017). how to define industry 4.0: main pillars of industry 4.0. 7th international conference on management. nitra, slovakia, 01-02 june 2017. forcael, e., ferrari, i., opazo-vega, a., & pulido-arcas, j.a. (2020). construction 4.0: a literature review. sustainability, [e-journal] 12(22), 9755. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229755 gbolagade, o.l., alao, b.b. & mashi, m.s. (2022). contributions of industry 4.0 to the performance of entrepreneurship in katsina state, nigeria. world review of entrepreneurship, management and sustainable development, 18(5-6), pp.581-591. https://doi.org/10.1504/wremsd.2022.125636 gong, d., zhao, x., & yang, b. (2024). big data adoption in the chinese construction industry: status quo, drivers, challenges, and strategies. buildings, 14(7), p.1891. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14071891 ibrahim, k., simpeh, f., & adebowale, o.j. (2024). awareness and adoption of wearable technologies for health and safety management in the nigerian construction industry. frontiers in engineering and built environment, 4(1), pp.1528. https://doi.org/10.1108/febe-11-2022-0041 iea, u. (2018). global status report: towards a zero-emission, efficient and resilient buildings and construction sector. [online] available at: https://www.iea.org/reports/2018-global-status-report [accessed 20 october 2024]. isayev, j. (2023). the importance of the digital economy in the development of the construction industry. in e3s web of conferences (vol. 460, p. 03008). edp sciences. https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202346003008 pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025249 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13040971 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijinfomgt.2019.05.008 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1847405 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1847405 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2020.107617 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2018.08.019 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpe.2018.08.019 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2020.101122 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2020.101122 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-022-04461-z https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-08-2022-0123 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-08-2022-0123 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229755 https://doi.org/10.1504/wremsd.2022.125636 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14071891 https://doi.org/10.1108/febe-11-2022-0041 https://www.iea.org/reports/2018-global-status-report https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202346003008 jayani rajapathirana, r.p., & hui, y. (2018). relationship between innovation capability, innovation type, and firm performance. journal of innovation and knowledge, [e-journal] 3(1), pp.44-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2017.06.002 jo, b.w., lee, y.s., khan, r.m.a., kim, j.h. & kim, d.k. (2019). robust construction safety system (rcss) for collision accidents prevention on construction sites. sensors, [e-journal] 19(4), 932. https://doi.org/10.3390/s19040932 kazemzadeh, d., nazari, a., & rokooei, s. (2021). application of augmented reality in the life cycle of construction projects. 21st international conference on construction applications of virtual reality. middlesbrough, uk, 0810 december 2021. north yorkshire: teesside university. kent state university. (2024). spss tutorials: one-way anova. [online] available at: https://libguides.library.kent. edu/spss/onewayanova#:~:text=one%2dway%20ano va%20(%22analysis,one%2dfactor%20anova [accessed 20 october 2024]. kissi, e., aigbavboa, c., & kuoribo, e. (2023). emerging technologies in the construction industry: challenges and strategies in ghana. construction innovation, 23(2), pp.383-405. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-11-2021-0215 koranteng, c., simons, b., gyimah, k.a., & nkrumah, j. (2023). ghana’s green building assessment journey: an appraisal of the thermal performance of an office building in accra. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 21(1), pp.188-205. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-02-2021-0109 kotei-martin, j.n., agyekum, k., pittri, h., opoku, a., atuahene, b.t., & gasue, r. (2025). design professionals’ awareness and engagement in design for adaptability (dfa) practices. journal of responsible production and consumption, 2(1), pp.83-109. https://doi.org/10.1108/jrpc-12-2024-0072 kozlovska, m., klosova, d., & strukova, z. (2021). impact of industry 4.0 platform on the formation of construction 4.0 concept: a literature review. sustainability, [e-journal] 13(5), 2683. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052683 krupík, p. (2020). 3d printers as part of construction 4.0 with a focus on transport constructions. iop conference series: materials science and engineering, [e-journal] 867, 012025. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/867/1/012025 kumah, v.m.a., agyekum, k., botchway, e.a., pittri, h., & danso, f.o. (2022). examining built environment professionals’ willingness to pay for green buildings in ghana. buildings, [e-journal] 12(12), 2097. https://doi. org/10.3390/buildings12122097 li, j., greenwood, d., & kassem, m. (2019). blockchain in the built environment and construction industry: a systematic review, conceptual models and practical use cases. automation in construction, [e-journal] 102, pp.288-307. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.02.005 liao, y., deschamps, f., loures, e.d.f.r., & ramos, l.f.p. (2017). past, present and future of industry 4.0-a systematic literature review and research agenda proposal. international journal of production research, [e-journal] 55(12), pp.3609– 3629. https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2017.1308576 lu, y., & cecil, j. (2016). an internet of things (iot)-based collaborative framework for advanced manufacturing. the international journal of advanced manufacturing technology, [e-journal] 84, pp.1141-1152. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s00170-015-7772-0 maisiri, w., & van dyk, l. (2019). industry 4.0 readiness assessment for south african industries. south african journal of industrial engineering, 30(3), pp.134-148. manda, m.i. and ben dhaou, s., 2019. responding to the challenges and opportunities in the 4th industrial revolution in developing countries. 12th international conference on theory and practice of electronic governance. melbourne, australia, 03–05 april 2019. https://doi.org/10.1145/3326365.3326398 pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025250 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jik.2017.06.002 https://doi.org/10.3390/s19040932 https://libguides.library.kent.edu/spss/onewayanova#:~:text=one%2dway%20ano https://libguides.library.kent.edu/spss/onewayanova#:~:text=one%2dway%20ano https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-11-2021-0215 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-02-2021-0109 https://doi.org/10.1108/jrpc-12-2024-0072 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052683 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/867/1/012025 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12122097 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12122097 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.02.005 https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2017.1308576 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-015-7772-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00170-015-7772-0 https://doi.org/10.1145/3326365.3326398 maqbool, r., saiba, m.r., & ashfaq, s. (2023). emerging industry 4.0 and internet of things (iot) technologies in the ghanaian construction industry: sustainability, implementation challenges, and benefits. environmental science and pollution research, [e-journal] 30, pp.37076–37091. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24764-1 maskuriy, r., selamat, a., ali, k.n., maresova, p., & krejcar, o. (2019). industry 4.0 for the construction industry-how ready is the industry? applied sciences, [e-journal] 9(14), 2819. https://doi.org/10.3390/app9142819 müller, j.m., kiel, d., & voigt, k.i. (2018). what drives the implementation of industry 4.0? the role of opportunities and challenges in the context of sustainability. sustainability, [e-journal] 10(1), 247. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10010247 mustapha, z., akomah, b.b., kwaku, o.e., & tieru, c.k. (2024). enhancing safety management in the ghanaian construction industry: evaluating the role of uav implementation and construction managers understanding. journal of civil engineering frontiers ( jocef), 5(2). file:///c:/users/hayfo/downloads/ fullmanuscript-312-2-10-20240821%20(4).pdf newman, c., edwards, d., martek, i., lai, j., thwala, w.d., & rillie, i. (2021). industry 4.0 deployment in the construction industry: a bibliometric literature review and uk-based case study. smart and sustainable built environment, [e-journal] 10(4), pp.557-580. https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-02-2020-0016 nguyen, h.d., do, q.n.h., & macchion, l. (2023). influence of practitioners’ characteristics on risk assessment in green building projects in emerging economies: a case of vietnam. engineering, construction and architectural management, 30(2), pp.833-852. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2021-0436 nnadi, e.e., & akabudike, p.o. (2024). mitigating professional interference for sustainable growth in the nigerian construction industry: a comprehensive review. journal of engineering, technology, and applied science ( jetas), 6(2), pp.49-56. doi: 10.36079/lamintang.jetas-0602.640 nnaji, c., & karakhan, a.a. (2020). technologies for safety and health management in construction: current use, implementation benefits and limitations, and adoption barriers. journal of building engineering, [e-journal] 29, 101212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101212 oduro, s., pittri, h., simons, b., baah, b., anteh, e.d., & oduro, j.a. (2024). awareness of net zero energy buildings among construction professionals in the ghanaian construction industry. built environment project and asset management. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-01-2024-0001 oesterreich, t.d., & teuteberg, f. (2016). understanding the implications of digitisation and automation in the context of industry 4.0: a triangulation approach and elements of a research agenda for the construction industry. computers in industry, [e-journal] 83, pp.121-139. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2016.09.006 oke, a.e., atofarati, j.o., & bello, s.f. (2022). awareness of 3d printing for sustainable construction in an emerging economy. construction economics and building, 22(2), pp.52-68. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ informit.715146401831631 opawole, a., olojede, b.o., & kajimo-shakantu, k. (2022). assessment of the adoption of 3d printing technology for construction delivery: a case study of lagos state, nigeria. journal of sustainable construction materials and technologies, 7(3), pp.184-197. https://doi.org/10.47481/jscmt.1133794 osunsanmi, t.o., aigbavboa, c., & oke, a. (2018). construction 4.0: the future of the construction industry in south africa. international journal of civil and environmental engineering, 12(3), pp.206–212. paliwal, s., choi, j.o., bristow, j., chatfield, h.k., and lee, s. (2021). construction stakeholders’ perceived benefits and barriers for environment-friendly modular construction in a hospitality centric environment. international journal of industrialized construction, 2(1), pp.15–29. patel, k.k., & patel, s.m. (2016). internet of things-iot: definition, characteristics, architecture, enabling technologies, application and future challenges. international journal of engineering science and computing, 6(5), pp. 6122-6131. pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025251 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-24764-1 https://doi.org/10.3390/app9142819 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10010247 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-02-2020-0016 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-05-2021-0436 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101212 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-01-2024-0001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2016.09.006 https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.715146401831631 https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/informit.715146401831631 https://doi.org/10.47481/jscmt.1133794 perrier, n., bled, a., bourgault, m., cousin, n., danjou, c., pellerin, r., & roland, t. (2020). construction 4.0: a survey of research trends. journal of information technology in construction, 25, pp.416-437. https://doi.org/10.36680/j. itcon.2020.024 pessoa, s., guimarães, a.s., lucas, s.s., & simões, n. (2021). 3d printing in the construction industry-a systematic review of the thermal performance in buildings. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, [e-journal] 141, 110794. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.110794 pittri, h., godawatte, g.a.g.r., agyekum, k., dompey, a.m.a., botchway, b., & narh, e. (2024a). the application of unmanned aerial vehicles (uavs) for health and safety management in the construction industry. international journal of building pathology and adaptation. vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ijbpa-10-2024-0209 pittri, h., agyekum, k., ayebeng botchway, e., opoku, a., & bimpli, i. (2024b). design for deconstruction (dfd) implementation among design professionals: empirical evidence from ghana. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 24(13), pp.1387-1397. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2023.2174663 pittri, h., godawatte, g.a.g.r., esangbedo, o.p., antwi-afari, p., & bao, z. (2025). exploring barriers to the adoption of digital technologies for circular economy practices in the construction industry in developing countries: a case of ghana. buildings, 15(7), p.1090. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15071090 rghioui, a., & oumnad, a. (2017). internet of things: visions, technologies, and areas of application. automation, control and intelligent systems, [e-journal] 5(6), pp.83-91. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.acis.20170506.11 ribeiro, d.b., coutinho, a.d.r., satyro, w.c., campos, f.c.d., lima, c.r.c., contador, j.c., & gonçalves, r.f. (2022). the dawn readiness model to assess the level of use of industry 4.0 technologies in the construction industry in brazil. construction innovation, 24(2), pp.515-536. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-05-2022-0114 schönbeck, p., löfsjögård, m., & ansell, a. (2020). quantitative review of construction 4.0 technology presence in construction project research. buildings, [e-journal] 10(10), 173. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings10100173 schwab, k., & davis, n., 2018. shaping the fourth industrial revolution. geneva: world economic forum. shahzad, m., shafq, m.t., douglas, d., & kassem, m. (2022). digital twins in built environments: an investigation of the characteristics, applications, and challenges. buildings, [e-journal] 12(2), 120. https://doi.org/10.3390/ buildings12020120 sisinni, e., saifullah, a., han, s., jennehag, u., & gidlund, m. (2018). industrial internet of things: challenges, opportunities, and directions. ieee transactions on industrial informatics, [e-journal] 14(11), pp. 4724-4734. https://doi. org/10.1109/tii.2018.2852491 suleiman, z., shaikholla, s., dikhanbayeva, d., shehab, e., & turkyilmaz, a. (2022). industry 4.0: clustering of concepts and characteristics. cogent engineering, [e-journal] 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/23311916.2022.2034264 tankova, t., & da silva, l.s. (2020). robotics and additive manufacturing in the construction industry. current robotics reports, [e-journal] 1, pp.13-18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43154-020-00003-8 venter, b., ngobeni, s.p., & du plessis, h. (2021). factors influencing the adoption of building information modeling (bim) in the south african construction and built environment (cbe) from a quantity surveying perspective. engineering management in production and services, 13(3). 10.2478/emj-2021-0027 wafai, m.h., & aouad, g. (2023). innovation transfer in construction: re-interpreting factor-based research from the perspective of the social construction of technology (scot). construction innovation, 23(5), pp.1323-1344. https://doi. org/10.1108/ci-08-2017-0070 pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025252 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2020.024 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2020.024 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2021.110794 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-10-2024-0209 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-10-2024-0209 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2023.2174663 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings15071090 https://doi.org/10.11648/j.acis.20170506.11 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-05-2022-0114 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings10100173 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12020120 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12020120 https://doi.org/10.1109/tii.2018.2852491 https://doi.org/10.1109/tii.2018.2852491 https://doi.org/10.1080/23311916.2022.2034264 https://doi.org/10.1007/s43154-020-00003-8 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-08-2017-0070 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-08-2017-0070 wang, y., & hajli, n. (2017). exploring the path to big data analytics success in healthcare. journal of business research, [e-journal] 70, pp.287-299. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.08.002 williams, j., fugar, f., & adinyira, e. (2020). assessment of health and safety culture maturity in the construction industry in developing economies: a case of ghanaian construction industry. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 18(4), pp.865-881. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-06-2019-0151 xu, x., lu, y., vogel-heuser, b., & wang, l. (2021). industry 4.0 and industry 5.0-inception, conception and perception. journal of manufacturing systems, [e-journal] 61, pp.530-535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmsy.2021.10.006 you, z., & feng, l. (2020). integration of industry 4.0 related technologies in construction industry: a framework of cyber-physical system. ieee access, [e-journal] 8, pp. 122908-122922. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.3007206 zabidin, n.s., belayutham, s., & che ibrahim, c.k.i. (2024). the knowledge, attitude and practices (kap) of industry 4.0 between construction practitioners and academicians in malaysia: a comparative study. construction innovation, 24(5), pp.1185-1204. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-05-2022-0109 pittri et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025253 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.08.002 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-06-2019-0151 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmsy.2021.10.006 https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.3007206 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-05-2022-0109 © 2021 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: power, w., sinnott, d., and lynch, p. 2021. evaluating the efficacy of a dedicated last planner® system facilitator to enhance construction productivity. construction economics and building, 21:3, 142– 158. http:// dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v21i3.7640 issn 2204 9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021 article (peer reviewed) evaluating the efficacy of a dedicated last planner® system facilitator to enhance construction productivity william power1, derek sinnott2, patrick lynch3 1 dps group, 4 eastgate avenue, eastgate business park, little island, cork, ireland. t45 yr13. 0217305000, willie.power@dpsgroupglobal.com 2 waterford institute of technology, cork road, waterford, ireland, dsinnott@wit.ie 3 waterford institute of technology, cork road, waterford, ireland, plynch@wit.ie corresponding author: william power, productivity and performance manager, dps engineering, 4 eastgate avenue, eastgate business park, little island, cork, ireland. t45 yr13. 0217305000, willie.power@dpsgroupglobal.com doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7640 article history: received: 21/03/2021; revised: 24/06/2021 & 17/07/2021; accepted: 19/07/2021; published: 10/09/2021 abstract construction unknowingly plans for poor levels of productivity with substantial waste, inefficiency, and rework stemming from a proliferation of nonvalue adding activities embedded within traditional delivery processes. this approach negatively influences construction’s economic and environmental sustainability. last planner® system (lps) is a key tool of lean construction (lc) and is lauded as a valueadd process that prioritises flow efficiency by addressing workflow variability and waste elimination on construction projects. this research evaluates how the presence of a dedicated knowledgeable and competent lps facilitator, enabling a complete lps implementation, contributes to improved construction flow, efficiency, and productivity. the study adopted a mixedmethods approach utilising case study design and data collected from a literature review, site observation diary, site documentation analysis, and semistructured interviews. limitations exist around small survey size, lack of generalisability, and potential bias of researchers. findings posit considerable productivity increase; more reliable, predictable, and stable workflow; enhanced team collaboration; as well as accrual of safety, quality, cost, and schedule benefits. embedding 142 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7640 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7640 http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7640 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:willie.power@dpsgroupglobal.com mailto:dsinnott@wit.ie mailto:plynch@wit.ie mailto:willie.power@dpsgroupglobal.com http://dx.doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v21i3.7640 a knowledgeable and competent lps facilitator appears to assist successful implementation of lps with sectoral and societal valueadd opportunities. keywords lean construction; last planner system; facilitator; collaboration; mindset introduction construction experiences substantial inefficiency and rework stemming from a proliferation of nonvalue adding activities and institutionalised wastes embedded within traditional delivery processes and models (sarhan, pasquire and king, 2017; oakland and marosszeky, 2017). traditional construction project management has eluded definition, but clough, et al. (2015, p.309) describe it as ‘… the judicious allocation and efficient usage of resources to achieve timely completion of all the requirements of the contract documents within the established construction budget’. additionally, the sector is under considerable pressure to reduce its consumption of material and energy (andersson, buser and bosch, 2019). lean thinking and the tools of lc are postulated as a basis for improving the efficiency and sustainability of the sector (koskela, 2000; sarhan, pasquire and king, 2017; sarhan, et al., 2018; ballard, et al., 2020). lps is a key tool of lc and is lauded as a valueadd process that prioritises flow efficiency by addressing workflow variability on construction projects (liu, ballard and ibbs, 2010; mossman, 2019; ballard, et al., 2020). however, there is a paucity of empirical data underpinning this assertion (ebbs, pasquire and daniel, 2018; hamzeh, et al., 2019), as well as a lack of knowledge pertaining to the key drivers of success (dave, hämäläinen, and koskela, 2015; daniel, pasquire and dickens, 2015; hackett, harte, and chendo, 2019). a clear gap exists regarding the leadership and support required to sustain effective lps implementations that will truly increase productivity and augment the value offering (daniel and pasquire, 2017; ebbs, pasquire and daniel, 2018). hence, there is a need to examine the role of the lps facilitator, considered a critical success factor and enabler of any lean implementation. the study evaluates how the presence of a knowledgeable and competent lps facilitator enhances construction productivity. literature review construction contributes to excessive environmental pollution, production of physical waste, energy consumption, and waste of productive time in its processes ( johnsen and drevland, 2016; weinheimer, schmalz and müller, 2017; liu, yi and wang, 2020). whilst enhancing construction productivity is critical for the sustained growth and competitiveness of an economy (forbes and ahmed, 2011; farmer, 2016; barbosa, woetzel and mischke, 2017), governments and clients are increasingly mandating adoption of construction strategies that consider all sustainability concepts (akotia, et al., 2020). improving construction productivity whilst increasing efficiency and reducing waste will positively contribute to un department of economic and social affairs sustainable development goal number 12. however, construction is influenced by adversarial relationships and a deeprooted inertia to change (koskela, 1992; thomsen, et al., 2009; pasquire, daniel and dickens, 2015). this challenges the introduction of new methodologies and sustainable solutions in the built environment (henderson, morgan and watson, 2019). lean is ‘respect for people’ (liker, 2004, p.184), and a ‘…philosophy that focuses on using continuous improvement to eliminate nonvalueadding activities in a company’s own production facilities and, eventually, the facilities of key suppliers’ ( jackson, 2006, p.xi). lean ‘… contains a promise of tremendous possibilities for improvement and of a solution of the chronic problems of construction’ (koskela, 1992, p.64). lc is founded on koskela’s (1992, 2000) transformation, flow, and value (tfv) theory which power, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021143 strives for smooth flow with minimum variation, thus positively influencing waste reduction (sacks, et al., 2020). early proponents of lc recognised the necessity to link and supplement traditional construction project management with construction production operations. specific lc tools were conceived namely, lps, target value design and lean project delivery system (abdelhamid, 2004; ballard, 2020; koskela, 2020). lps is central to the implementation of lc and demands continuous and collaborative effort from all stakeholders for the planning and control of a construction project (hamzeh, ballard and tommelein, 2009; howell, ballard and tommelein, 2010; gonzález, et al., 2014; power, sinnott and mullin, 2020; ballard, et al., 2020). construction unknowingly plans for poor productivity and studies have found that less than 60 percent of planned tasks are executed weekly (ballard, et al., 2007; liu, ballard and ibbs, 2010; ballard and tommelein, 2016). planning problems in construction are accepted and primarily relate to management focus being on control; planning not conceived as a system design; crew level planning being neglected; planning system performance not measured; and planning failures not analysed to identify and act on root causes (hamzeh, ballard and tommelein, 2009; mossman, 2013; daniel and pasquire, 2017). a key concept in lc is the provision of reliable workflow to workcrews to reduce uncertainty in the delivery process (liu, ballard and ibbs, 2010; mossman, 2019; ballard, 2020); lps is a major waste reduction and elimination technique that addresses this unpredictability (hamzeh, ballard and tommelein, 2009; howell, ballard and tommelein, 2010; hamzeh, et al., 2016; daniel and pasquire, 2017; power and taylor, 2019; ballard, et al., 2020). ballard and tommelein (2016, p.7) define the function of lps as ‘the proper work of the system; its jobs’, and note these ‘jobs’ as: 1. specifying what tasks should be done when and by whom, from milestones to phases between milestones, to processes within phases, to operations within processes, to steps within operations. 2. making scheduled tasks ready to be performed. 3. replanning/planning to complete, to achieve project objectives. 4. selecting tasks for daily and weekly work plans— deciding what work to do next. 5. making release of work between specialists reliable. 6. making visible the current and future state of the project. 7. measuring planning system performance; and, 8. learning from plan failures. planned percent complete (ppc) is a key metric of lps and measures workflow reliability – a high ppc indicates a wellplanned production process with tasks screened in advance, ensuring high workflow reliability between teams (ballard, 2020). however, ballard and tommelein (2016, p.59) warn against placing too much focus on ppc figures, stating ‘…ppc could be 100%, productivity excellent, and a project still be falling behind schedule’. this emphasises the importance of using all functions of lps to ensure ppc and productivity are linked to the overall milestone schedule (hamzeh, ballard and tommelein, 2009; mossman, 2019; ballard, et al., 2020). as ppc is positively linked to productivity (ballard, et al., 2007; liu, ballard and tommelein, 2010), it is critical for lps users to ensure that teams executing the work are afforded the greatest opportunity of achieving high ppc (power and taylor, 2019). additionally, weinheimer, schmalz and müller (2017, p.915) suggest lps can generate sustainability benefits by its application of core lean concepts to construction: ‘…process consistency, increasing the reliability of all work and information flows, applying the pull principle, transparency, recognition of obstacles in time, and working in an integrated project team.’ introducing lps on a project can influence a variety of social dynamics and promotes crosstrade collaboration deep inside projects (ballard, 2008; mossman, 2013; fauchier and alves, 2013), all of which affirms the need for a precise set of skills and competencies for dealing with the softer side of human power, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021144 interaction (chinowski, diekmann and galotti, 2008; daniel, pasquire and dickens, 2015). as construction networks are fundamentally based on social networks (pryke and smyth, 2012), chinowsky, diekmann and galotti (2008) assert that to achieve the next level of performance in construction it is critical that interactions are managed on a socialcollaborative perspective. effective lps implementation enables these interactions. the planning process becomes a set of social conversations and promises that engage the team, building trust and commitment, resulting in a more reliable and predictable construction programme (fauchier and alves, 2013; pasquire, daniel and dickens, 2015; mossman, 2015; ballard, et al., 2020). key literature emphasises the importance of an internal facilitator, referred to as ‘process manager’ by thomassen, et al. (2003), who can drive and coordinate any change process (bhasin, 2012; daniel and pasquire, 2017). heron (1998) defines a facilitator as one who has the role of empowering participants to proactively learn in an experiential group where learning takes place through the active involvement of each person. social science researchers (parker, williams and turner, 2006; parker and bindl, 2016) found that proactive behaviour, selfinitiated and futureoriented action contributes to multiple positive outcomes. however, despite the obvious benefits wu and parker (2017) found that enabling proactive behaviour is challenging to promote as uncertainty exists and outcomes are unknown. a critical role of the facilitator, therefore, is to create a psychologically safe environment where employees are encouraged to innovate with alternate methodologies and practices (heron, 1998; griffin, parker, and mason, 2010). lean facilitators need to ‘live the philosophy, and teach it to others’ (liker, 2004, p.54), and be ‘lean people who are both table 1. facilitator’s role in lean and last planner system implementation author reference to facilitator’s role thomassen, et al. (2003, p.65) ‘the process manager is, in a danish context, a new role introduced at the building site in order to facilitate bottomup planning by assisting the teamwork between subcontractors. unlike the project manager, the process manager holds no formal responsibilities (or rights) with respect to economical and legal issues. thus, the process manager can concentrate on ensuring a good collaboration with, and between, subcontractors. the process manager acts as the coach of the building site.’ daniel, pasquire and dickens (2016, p.29) ‘…the process would not progress if there are no capable and experienced personnel to man the process. on both case study projects the process was internally facilitated. on both projects, lps facilitation was the primary responsibility of the facilitators which yielded better results. leaving the process to the team will make no one accountable. daniel and pasquire (2017, p.7) ‘the human factor on the other hand is concerned with the appointment of a competent facilitators and lean champions to encourage the process (lps implementation) on site. prior research has shown that facilitation is an essential process that needs to be in place for the successful implementation of the process at the project level’. ‘the proactive involvement of the lean leadership in production planning also increases the buyin of other stakeholders on the project’. ebbs, pasquire and daniel (2018, p.725, 731) ‘the case study reported here identified that if senior management insisted on implementing the lps without sufficient buyin and leadership from the project/site manager to actively use the lps, the implementation faded off once the external lps facilitator stepped back’. ‘relevant design and/or construction experience of the lps facilitator is highly desirable in order to build credibility with the team’. power, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021145 competent and capable of pushing themselves’ (hines, et al., 2008, p.46). additionally, ebbs, pasquire and daniel (2018, p.732) found that lps facilitators require specific knowledge of the nuances of lps and of construction, noting, ‘…a toyota trained expert in lean with a manufacturing or production background is unlikely to be an expert in lps’. table 1 presents references in lc literature to the importance of the internal facilitator’s role in lean and lps implementation in construction. implementing lps across construction can be a route to developing the highly desired lean behaviours that are conducive to greater collaboration and improved team performance (fauchier and alves, 2013; daniel, pasquire and dickens, 2015; hines, taylor and walsh, 2020), both fundamental to improving the sector’s productivity. however, as shown in table 1, a critical enabler of lean and lps implementation is the presence of a knowledgeable and competent lps facilitator. methodology research design this study adopted a mixedmethods approach utilising case study design and data collected from a literature review, site observation diary, site documentation analysis, and semistructured purposeful interviews (creswell, 2013). the mixedmethods approach helped to minimise bias as both the quantitative and qualitative models have individual weaknesses which can be compensated by the comparative strengths of the other methods (steckler, et al., 1992) and such triangulation enhances the depth, quality, and validity of the research findings (bogdan and biklen, 2006). the research utilised case study design at a single project (stake, 1998; yin, 2009; yin, 2012). yin (1993) states that when a researcher is investigating into the “how and why” of a set of events, a case study offers distinct advantages not found in more quantitative research tools. principles of action research and learning (eden and huxham, 1996) were also applied allowing numerous interventions and augmentations to be implemented (bryman and bell, 2015). the research sources are presented in table 2. table 2. research sources collection method data source literature review systematic review of lean, lc, change management, & sustainability literature. observation research diary lps facilitator (corresponding author) maintained an observation research diary for the project duration. project documentation review lps ppc reports, pull plans, constraints logs, a3 reports, project lessons learned, p6 schedule updates & reports, project monthly reports. minutes of meetings. purposeful semistructured interviews client project manager, construction manager, civils supervisor, electrical supervisor, 3 x trade supervisors (mechanical, electrical, clean room). the project the case project resides in the pharma sector in southern ireland. the client employed a consultancy to provide engineering, procurement, and construction management (epcm) services. work packages were executed by civil, envelope (structural steel, cladding, glazing, and external doors), mechanical, electrical, sprinkler, and cleanroom contractors. the epcm company and client agreed to use lps to coordinate power, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021146 and manage production operations onsite. ireland has a strong lc community and many contractors would have awareness of lps. however, full implementation of all lps functions in the planning process is challenging to achieve. the intent was for lps to be maintained by the onsite construction management (cm) team, supported with seven hours lps facilitator weekly attendance. as critical schedule milestones were being missed on the project, and as key handover dates loomed closer, both epcm director and client agreed to position the lps facilitator fulltime on the project. data collection, analysis, and limitations the lps facilitator maintained an ‘observation research diary’ during the 68week project duration. this involved recording behaviours, attitudes, moods, and observations from morning huddles, planning workshops, meetings, walks, reviews, and problemsolving sessions relating to the lps implementation. yin (1993) and mason (2002) posit researchers should go to the natural settings where activities occur and observe what people ‘really’ do in those settings. mason (2002, p.87) adds if one is ‘… intending to enter a setting or situation to carry out some form of observation, then you will need to prepare yourself not just for the process and technique of observance, but also for social interaction’. the observation research diary was thematically analysed in accordance with creswell (2009). comprehensive documentation data was available, comprising schedule and budget reports, revisions of p6 schedules, contract documents, weekly lps ppc reports, marked up weekly work plans, reasons for noncompletion (rnc), constraints logs, pull plans, and the lessons learned log. by relying on several independent sources of evidence, the researchers were able to increase the construct reliability of the research (yin, 1993). a sequential explanatory approach (creswell, 2009) was utilised, with the quantitative data (lps, ppc, and rnc) being collected weekly as the project proceeded and the qualitative data being gathered after project completion. the qualitative element of the study consisted of semistructured interviews with a chosen purposeful sample of key project participants who were familiar with the weekly process of lps on the case site. seven participants were selected (table 3) and agreed to be interviewed. strauss and corbin (1990) suggest that if the information is accurately analysed there will come a point where only modest amounts of new material would be found, and saturation would be achieved. table 3. categorisation of interviewees respondent category a client project manager b construction management team (cmt) construction manager c cmt civils supervisor d cmt electrical supervisor e trade contractor supervisor 1 f trade contractor supervisor 2 g trade contractor supervisor 3 the interviews were transcribed and analysed using a thematic analysis approach (braun and clarke, 2006); transcribed interviews were read over to create a good understanding and to identify the general ideas and themes related to the research question (creswell, 2009). inferences drawn from the emerging themes were checked by triangulation against the literature review findings to check their reliability and integrity (steckler, et al., 1992). power, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021147 mason (2002) suggests a major challenge for interpretive approaches revolves around how researchers can be sure that they are not inventing data or misrepresenting their participants’ perspectives. as with any research, this study has limitations pertaining to the small survey size, lack of generalisability, and minimisation and elimination of bias during data collection and analysis stages. these are presented in table 4, together with their causes and the researcher’s approaches to mitigate the effects of these limitations. table 4. research limitations and mitigations # limitation cause mitigations 1 small survey size requirement for detailed insight into the case use of several data collection methods (literature review, observation, interviews, documentation review). research extends over 68 weeks, covering project commencement to construction closeout. 2 lack of generalisability single case study single case project & generalisability not the main concern. tellis (1997) cites hamel, dufour, fortin (1993) and yin (1993) who argue that the relative size of the sample, “…whether 2, 10, or 100 cases are used, does not transform a multiple case into a macroscopic study”, thus, asserting single case is considered acceptable once it meets research objectives. 3 bias of researchers or misrepresentation of perspectives corresponding author is member of epcm company & project team corresponding author knowledgeable in research ethics. coauthors not attached to the epcm company or project, allowing them to take a more detached and independent view of the case and mitigate the temptation to exaggerate the success of the work. independent sources of evidence increased the construct reliability. triangulation ensured documentation data validates qualitative interpretations. research findings peer reviewed. findings and discussion lps facilitator’s onsite presence at project commencement both epcm and client agreed to utilise lps to schedule production operations onsite. figure 1 presents data illustrating the correlation between increased lps facilitator presence and higher and more stable ppc. (note the dip in ppc at ww50 was impact of ‘anticyclone harmut’, a major snowfall event). figure 1 illustrates erratic and unstable ppc from work week (ww) 01 to ww28 during the lps facilitator’s parttime (seven weekly hours) presence. the lps facilitator’s presence increased to 20 hours weekly until ww40 and a corresponding increase and stability of ppc is evident. the lps facilitators increased onsite presence from ww41 until fulltime from ww48 also aligns with consistent and higher weekly ppc figures and reinforce recent lc research findings (mossman, 2015; daniel and pasquire, power, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021148 2017; ebbs, pasquire and daniel, 2018) that facilitation is essential for the successful implementation of lps at the project level. improved ppc and stable workflow in figure 2 weekly ppc is contrasted against a desired ppc figure of 85 percent as mature lps implementations strive to consistently achieve over 85 percent ppc (85% ppc was used as a ‘goal’ in a case study cited in ballard, hammond and nickerson, 2009). the darker shading in figure 2 indicates the extent of the substandard performance (sub 85 percent) of the planning system with only parttime lps facilitator involvement. this poor performance represents waste, inefficiency, productivity loss, and value lost to the trade contractors, client, the sector, and ultimately to society. figure 2. ppc during lps facilitator parttime presence figure 2 illustrates a positive correlation between greater and more reliable ppc and increased lps facilitator presence. average ppc over ww01 to ww40 was 78 percent, falling below the desired 85 percent. the erratic weekly ‘seesawing’ of ppc, ranging from 62 percent to 92 percent represents irregular workflow and contributes to negative and costly impacts to contractors work execution. poor ppc over weeks 28 to 31 results from the lps facilitator ‘slowing down to speedup’. analysis of recent reasons for noncompletion (rnc), rigorous pull planning, deep constraints identification, and strict admittance of only ‘sound and constraint free’ tasks onto the wwp took three weeks to fully implement. (notably, the highest impacting rnc of tasks up to week 28 was ‘poor planning / coordination’). figure 1. ppc and lps facilitator hours correlation power, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021149 the study established an overlap and dependency between the lps facilitator and construction manager (cm) roles; both need to understand and support each other and ensure their objectives are aligned. interviewee d suggested “…the lps facilitator must be familiar with the project to ensure that all parties are speaking the same language and that everyone is at the same level of understanding and knowledge on the project”. this common and shared understanding (mossman, 2015; pasquire, daniel and dickens, 2015) is critical to clarifying the ‘conditions for satisfaction’ for the next customer in line, while also maintaining the implementation process as, when the lps facilitator wasn’t on the case site, “there was no ownership or accountability for lps and it fell apart” (interviewee d). this finding supports ebbs, pasquire and daniel (2018, p.725), who noted ‘…the implementation faded off once the external lps facilitator stepped back’. interviewee c posited the lps facilitator “…is as important to the project as the cm”. the importance of having knowledge of construction and its nuances is critical; interviewee b suggested the lps facilitator should be sufficiently knowledgeable to act as a “wingman/supporter” for the cm. interviewee c commented “…the lps facilitator changed a lot when he came on board full time. he was firm and consistent; he challenged poor performing last planners and contractors; he knew construction and was able to callout persons who were not reporting honestly”. figure 3 illustrates enhanced ppc consistency for the duration of the dedicated lps facilitator’s site presence. figure 3. ppc during lps facilitator’s fulltime presence the findings confirm the resulting stability, reliability, and predictability aligning with the lps facilitator’s fulltime presence allied to a complete implementation of all functions of lps. the darker shading again indicates where ppc fell below 85 percent. average ppc in figure 2 (parttime lps facilitator) was 78 percent and average ppc in figure 3 (dedicated lps facilitator) was 90 percent. this 12 percent improvement in average ppc is directly related to the lps facilitator’s presence and insistence on a complete lps implementation. also evident from figure 3 is the consistency of ppc over time which contributes to predictable, reliable, and even flow, minimising waste while adding value. interviewees noted that past projects had more reactive ‘firefighting’ in their execution; lps brought a structured approach to planning and coordinating activities on the case project. interviewee a commented, “…it is the best site coordination methodology that i have encountered”. because of the weekly structure introduced and coordinated by the lps facilitator, the lps coordination meeting became standardised; it was this feeling of routine that indicates the success that develops from the consistency and reliability of the weekly planning process. the success of this structure was evident when interviewee b noted “…less reactionary planning and firefighting means there is also less rework. lps certainly saved 10 to 20 clashes between trades per week”. power, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021150 increased productivity the ppc trend in figure 3 shows reliability and consistency over the dedicated lps facilitator’s presence. a major snowfall event in ww50 had a nationwide impact and the site was closed for three days causing ppc to drop to 63 per cent. however, schedule impact of the event was minimised as priority work tasks were highlighted on the wwp; attention was focussed on these at the expense of less critical tasks. the 12 percent increase in average ppc is a critical finding, as many researchers point to the positive correlation between ppc and productivity. liu, ballard and ibbs (2010, p.240) established ‘…ppc and productivity are positively correlated. as the ppc value increases, productivity increases as well’. the 12 percent ppc increase over the final 28 weeks (dedicated lps facilitator presence) of the 68week project confirms increased productivity for this challenging phase of the project. as missing key milestones earlier in the project led to the dedicated lps facilitator’s appointment, the reduction of the completion schedule from 31 to 27 weeks correlates with the ppc and productivity increase justifying the lps facilitator’s input. the study found that traditional methodologies of pushing and forcing tasks into production workplans without prior constraint identification and removal, and consideration of flow between activities and trades were contributing to ‘snowploughing’ of activities on the schedule. this manifested in the form of unreliable and unpredictable ppc, representing an absence of key lc tenets of creation of flow, the limitation of variability (ballard, et al., 2007; liu, ballard and ibbs, 2010), and securing reliability and predictability in the planning process (hamzeh, ballard and tommelein, 2009; ballard and tommelein, 2016; mossman, 2019). in line with tfv theory, the lps facilitator placed considerable emphasis on trades understanding work as a flow system and consistently sought, through personal conversations and gemba walks, to develop planner’s thinking towards consideration of the next trades in the handoff process; emphasising the criticality of the quality and timing of these handoffs. this optimisation of workflow is a critical enabler of lc, contributing to variation reduction and consequent higher productivity. summary of key findings the key findings from the study are summarised in table 5. benefits accrued from the ‘hard’ toolfocused implementation of pull planning, constraints identification, lookahead planning, weekly work planning, and learning from rnc. however, the mood of the site also changed, and interviewees refer to this change as being a critical turning point on the project, highlighting the importance of the ‘softer’ aspects of lps implementation. positive behavioural and ‘mood’ change was witnessed when all stakeholder’s voices were listened to, and participation was encouraged. flores (2016) distinguishes between unproductive moods and those that are conducive to learning behaviour, adding the key to generating moods of challenge, confidence and ambition is to understand that people create the future in the commitments they make to each other and the actions they take together. leading change is an essential attribute for any facilitator, as numerous authors (ballard, et al., 2007; hamzeh, et al., 2016; ebbs, pasquire and daniel, 2018) suggest lps facilitator’s must motivate people to adopt lean principles while navigating them away from their perceived safety of traditional methods of construction delivery. the creation of a ‘project team’ mindset fostered a cooperative and collaborative climate on site which aligns with numerous authors (hamzeh, ballard and tommelein, 2009; mossman, 2015, 2019) who posit a key component of organising production on site is the coordination and active negotiation with trade partners and project parties. the study noted increased trust between some contractors who forged fruitful and productive working relationships, collaboratively designing operations while generating their weekly work plans, supported, and encouraged by cmt supervisors who had subscribed to lps. this aligns with ballard, et al. (2007, p.356) who suggests ‘…senior managers, including the facilitator of the implementation power, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021151 effort, must be able to put their egos aside and support changes even when they think they have a better idea’. trustbased alignment of the team is fundamental to construction improvement at both micro and macro level. interviewee d suggests “…more conversations and talking is essential rather than damaging emails or finger pointing. the lps facilitator must have the necessary skillset to bring contractors to account while also not using the system as a stick to beat trades up”. ballard and tommelein (2016, p.62) posit ‘making commitments publicly promotes care in making commitments and increases efforts to deliver on commitments that are made. it also increases collaboration between trades, willingness to share assumptions, best path forward, coordination, and general quality of the work’. despite numerous variables that could also contribute to the increased productivity, the findings attribute the contribution of the knowledgeable and competent lps facilitator, ensuring a complete implementation of all functions of lps, as having the greatest impact on enhancing ppc and productivity. table 6 proposes lessons identified and improvements the epcm company will implement on future projects. the study determined that client, cmt, and trade management must engage with lps as this will enhance success by ensuring the entire team is aligned in a collaborative working environment. interviewee b commented, “…commitment must be shown by those in charge if you are to convince others to take part”. the importance of nonbias is critical as interviewee g suggested when the process “…was run by cmt with no dedicated lps facilitator the preference was given to the contractor with which the person running the meetings has a background. (for example, a cm with mechanical background may favour completion of mechanical tasks over other trade’s tasks). an independent lps facilitator should have a nonbiased neutral approach with one endgoal of completing the project ontime and within schedule”. this highlights table 5. key findings from the study themes findings lps facilitator lps facilitator was critical to project success by introducing a weekly lps structure; enabling change from traditional working practices; contributing to increased and stabilised ppc; and, enhancing productivity. more reliable workflow and predictability in schedule adherence. lps functions entire suite of lps production planning and control functions were implemented. (milestone, phase, lookahead, commitment planning, & learning & action) ppc the dedicated lps facilitator’s presence positively contributed to 12% ppc increase over final 28 weeks of the project productivity higher ppc and analysis of rnc resulted in smoother workflow and increased productivity. average ppc increased from 78% to 90% during the lps facilitator’s presence. team behaviours & alignment improved engagement with lps process with positive behavioural and project moodchange. leaders and project sponsors modelling and supporting lean behaviours was critical enabler of engagement. common and shared understanding of project goals. safety, quality, cost, schedule improved safety, quality, & cost control arising from improved lookaheads, weekly, & daily coordination. creation of a ‘single project mindset’ enabled a collaborative approach to closingout the project. completion schedule reduced from 31 to 27 weeks. power, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021152 the importance of the ‘respect for people’ tenet of lean and the necessity for the lps facilitator to indoctrinate ‘lean behaviours’ in the lps team (fauchier and alves, 2013; pasquire, daniel and dickens, 2015). it should be acknowledged that the team had progressed with their initial lps implementation; the lps facilitator reinforced the process and was a critical enabler of successful implementation of all functions of lps. the accruing consistent and reliable ppc correlates to even and optimised workflow and increased productivity; the project’s investment in lps facilitation is therefore worthwhile and justified. conclusion and future research this study examines the role of the lps facilitator, considered a critical success factor and enabler of any lean implementation, and evaluates how the presence of a knowledgeable and competent lps facilitator enhances construction productivity. the presence of the lps facilitator appears to substantially improve project success as introducing a weekly lps structure, ensuring the entire suite of lps production planning and control functions were implemented, and positively contributed to increased ppc, smoother workflow and increased productivity. project sponsors (clients and owners) must show visible support and commitment to the lps process. sponsors, design teams, and contractors must ensure the lps facilitator is allocated time to educate, train, coach, and mentor all parties in the concept of lean and lc and the principles of lps. the core lean principles of value, value stream, flow, pull, and perfection, allied to the foundational theory of lc (tfv) must become the core element of the ‘new culture’ of construction project delivery. construction must focus on optimising the ‘whole’ project; the adoption of a sectorwide ‘lean and growth mindset’ would facilitate the adoption of other lean tools, for example takt and scrum, which would table 6. lessons and improvements identified lessons improvements time allocated for the lps facilitator lps facilitator must be allowed time to educate, train, coach, & mentor all parties in the concepts of lc and the principles of lps. companies should invest in developing their own dedicated internal lc/lps facilitators. training of the team members of the project, design team, and supply chain must be educated on lean concepts and the principles and functions of lps. a ‘lean mindset’ should be encouraged amongst the project team with continuous improvement and learning from failures becoming part of standard weekly work. involvement of design in lps lps must be used in the design process. an endtoend project lps implementation would involve both upstream and downstream players. nextcustomer awareness must be developed within the design team. cmt awaits design’s deliverables; commitments and promises must be adhered to. understanding a common language around commitment must be encouraged. commitment of client and senior management project sponsors must show visible support and commitment to the lps process. team behaviours and leader standard work an lps weekly cycle and routine should be developed and applied with leader standard work enforcing behavioural alignment within the project team. power, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021153 complement lps and lead to a focus on flow efficiency and improved design of the production process, leading to better validation of project milestones. this paper contributes to lean literature and to academic and practitioner communities by presenting case study evidence from a live construction project. companies should invest in developing their own dedicated internal lc/lps facilitators as the development of a ‘lean mindset’ must be encouraged amongst the project team; continuous improvement and learning from failures should become part of weekly work. further research is proposed towards developing a lean culture of continuous improvement within the endtoend construction delivery process; towards aligning the project team around an agreed interpretation of the value proposition; and, in the establishment of a collaborative working environment and leader standard work implementation on construction projects. examination of how improving the efficiency and productivity of the construction sector can contribute to wider societal economic, environmental, and sustainability objectives also warrants further exploration. references abdelhamid, t., 2004. the selfdestruction and renewal of lean construction theory: a prediction from boyd’s theory. in: proceedings of the 12th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, helsingør, denmark, pp.119. akotia, j., manu, e., opoku, a. and sackey, e., 2020. the role of built environment practitioners in driving the socio economic sustainability aspects of sustainable regeneration. construction economics and building, 20(2), pp. 89108. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.7145 andersson, r., buser, m. and bosch, p., 2019. improving renovation waste management in sweden: the role of the demolition company in: gorse, c and neilson, cj (eds) proceedings of the 35th annual arcom conference, 24 september 2019, leeds, uk, association of researchers in construction management, pp. 8493. ballard, g., kim, y., jang, j. and liu, m., 2007. roadmap for lean implementation at the project level. the construction industry institute. ballard, g., 2008. the lean project delivery system: an update. lean construction journal, 4(1), pp.119. ballard, g., hammond, j. and nickerson, r., 2009. production control principles. in: proceedings of the 17th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, taipei, japan. pp. 489500. ballard, g. and tommelein, i., 2016. current process benchmark for the last planner® system. lean construction journal, pp. 5789. ballard, g. 2020., the last planner system. in: lean construction, pp. 4553. routledge. https://doi. org/10.1201/97804292037323 ballard, g., vaagen, h., kay, w., stevens, b., and pereira, m., 2020. extending the last planner system® to the entire project. lean construction journal. pp. 4277. https://doi.org/10.1201/97804292037323 barbosa, f., woetzel, j. and mischke, j., 2017. reinventing construction: a route of higher productivity. mckinsey global institute. bhasin, s., 2012. prominent obstacles to lean. international journal of productivity and performance management, 61(4), pp. 403425. https://doi.org/10.1108/17410401211212661 bogdan, r. and biklen, s., 2006. qualitative research in education: an introduction to theory and methods, boston: allyn and bacon. braun, v. and clarke, v., 2006. using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), pp. 77 101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa power, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021154 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i2.7145 https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429203732-3 https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429203732-3 https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429203732-3 https://doi.org/10.1108/17410401211212661 https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa bryman, a. and bell, e., 2015. business research methods, (vol.4). glasgow: bell & bain ltd. chinowsky, p., diekmann, j. and galotti, v., 2008. social network model of construction. journal of construction engineering and management, 134(10), pp. 804812. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(2008)134:10(804) clough, r., sears, g., sears, s., segner, r. and rounds, j., 2015. construction contracting: a practical guide to company management. john wiley & sons. creswell, j., 2009. research design: qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. sage publications. creswell, j., 2013. steps in conducting a scholarly mixed methods study. dber speaker series, paper 48. daniel, e., pasquire, c. and dickens, g., 2015. exploring the implementation of the last planner® system through iglc community: twentyone years of experience. in: proceedings of the 23rd annual conference of the international group for lean construction, perth, australia, pp. 153162. https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0274 daniel, e., pasquire, c., and dickens, g., 2016. exploring the factors that influence the implementation of the last planner® system on joint venture infrastructure projects: a case study approach. in: proceedings of the 24th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. boston, usa, pp. 2332. https://doi.org/10.24928/2020/0089 daniel, e. and pasquire, c., 2017. last planner system path clearing approach. nottingham trent university: publications. dave, b., hämäläinen, j. and koskela, l., 2015. exploring the recurrent problems in the last planner implementation on construction projects. in: proceedings of the indian lean construction conference (ilcc 2015). institute for lean construction excellence. ebbs, p., pasquire, c., and daniel, e., 2018. the last planner® system path clearing approach in action: a case study. in: proceedings of the 26th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. chennai, india, pp. 724733. https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0433 eden, c. and huxham, c., 1996. action research for management research. british journal of management, 7(1), pp.7586. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.14678551.1996.tb00107.x farmer, m., 2016. modernise or die: time to decide the industry’s future. the farmer review of the uk construction labour model. london: construction leadership council. fauchier, d. and alves, t., 2013. last planner® system is the gateway to lean behaviors. in: proceedings of the 21st annual conference of the international group for lean construction, fortaleza, brazil, pp. 559568. flores, g., 2016. learning to learn and the navigation of moods. pluralistic networks publishing. forbes, l. and ahmed, s., 2011. modern construction: lean project delivery and integrated practices, boca raton: crc press. https://doi.org/10.1201/b10260 gonzález, p., gonzález, v., molenaar, k. and orozco, f., 2014. analysis of causes of delay and time performance in construction projects. journal of construction engineering and management, 140(1), pp.04013027. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)co.19437862.0000721 griffin, m., parker, s. and mason, c., 2010. leader vision and the development of adaptive and proactive performance: a longitudinal study. journal of applied psychology, 95(1), pp.174. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017263 hackett, v., harte, p. and chendo, j. 2019, ‘the development and use of last planner® system (lps) guidance’ in: proceedings of the 27th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. dublin, ireland, 35 jul 2019. pp 651662. https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0101 hamel, j., dufour, s. and fortin, d., 1993. case study methods (vol. 32). sage. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412983587 power, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021155 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2008)134:10(804 https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0274 https://doi.org/10.24928/2020/0089 https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0433 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8551.1996.tb00107.x https://doi.org/10.1201/b10260 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000721 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000721 https://doi.org/10.1037/a0017263 https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0101 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412983587 hamzeh, f., ballard, g., and tommelein, i., 2009. is the last planner system applicable to design? in: proceedings of the 17th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, taipei, taiwan, pp. 167176. hamzeh, f., kallassy, j., lahoud, m. and azar, r., 2016. the first extensive implementation of lean and lps in lebanon: results and reflections. in: proceedings of the 24th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, boston, usa, pp. 3342. hamzeh, f., al hattab, m., rizk, l., el samad, g. and emdanat, s. 2019. developing new metrics to evaluate the performance of capacity planning towards sustainable construction. journal of cleaner production, 225, pp. 868882. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.021 henderson, z., morgan, b and watson, j., 2019. implementing the circular economy in buildings: processes if sensemaking in design and delivery in: gorse, c and neilson, cj (eds) proceedings of the 35th annual arcom conference, 24 september 2019, leeds, uk, association of researchers in construction management, 114123. heron, j., 1998. spiritual science: personcentered study of the spiritual and the subtle. rossonwye, uk: pccs books. hines, p., found, p., griffiths, g. and harrison, r., 2008. staying lean: thriving. not just surviving, cardiff: lean enterprise research centre. hines. p., taylor, d., and walsh, a., 2020. the lean journey: have we got it wrong?’, total quality management & business excellence, 31(34), pp. 389406. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2018.1429258 howell, g., ballard, g., and tommelein, i., 2010. construction engineering— reinvigorating the discipline. journal of construction engineering and management, 137(10), pp. 740744. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.19437862.0000276 jackson, t., 2006. hoshin kanri for the lean enterprise: developing competitive capabilities and managing profit. crc press. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781482278514 johnsen, c. and drevland, f., 2016. lean and sustainability: three pillar thinking in the production process. in: proceedings of the 24th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, boston, usa, pp. 2332. koskela, l., 1992. application of the new production philosophy to construction. (no. 72) stanford, ca: stanford university. koskela, l., 2000. an exploration towards a production theory and its application to construction. vtt technical research centre of finland. koskela, l., 2020. theory of lean construction. lean construction: core concepts and new frontiers, pp. 213. https://doi. org/10.1201/97804292037321 liker, j., 2004. the toyota way. new york: mgh. liu, m., ballard, g. and ibbs, w., 2010. workflow variation and labor productivity: case study. journal of management in engineering, 27(4), pp. 236242. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.19435479.0000056 liu, j., yi, y., and wang, x., 2020. exploring factors influencing construction waste reduction: a structural equation modeling approach. journal of cleaner production, 276, 123185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123185 mason, j., 2002. researching your own practice: the discipline of noticing. oxford: routledge. https://doi. org/10.4324/9780203471876 mossman, a., 2013. last planner: 5+ 1 crucial & collaborative conversations for predictable design & construction delivery. the change business ltd., uk. power, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021156 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.021 https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2018.1429258 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000276 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000276 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781482278514 https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429203732-1 https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429203732-1 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000056 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123185 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203471876 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203471876 mossman, a., 2015. bringing lean construction to life: developing leaders, consultants, coaches, facilitators, trainers & instructors. in: proceedings of the 23rd annual conference of the international group for lean construction, perth, australia, pp. 413423. mossman, a., 2019. ‘last planner: 5 + 1 crucial and collaborative conversations for predictable project production planning’. the change business ltd. available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321804312_last_ planner_5_1_crucial_collaborative_conversations_for_predictable_design_construction_delivery_dec_2017 [accessed 09 february 2021] oakland, j. and marosszeky, m., 2017. total construction management: lean quality in construction project delivery. london: taylor & francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315694351 parker, s., williams, h. and turner, n., 2006. modeling the antecedents of proactive behavior at work. journal of applied psychology, 91(3), pp.636. https://doi.org/10.1037/00219010.91.3.636 parker, s. and bindl, u. eds., 2016. proactivity at work: making things happen in organizations. taylor & francis. https:// doi.org/10.4324/9781315797113 pasquire, c., daniel, e., and dickens, g., 2015. scoping study to define a major research project investigating the implementation of last planner system, collaborative planning and collaborative working in the uk road transport sector including identifying funding sources. final report, centre for lean projects, nottingham trent university, uk. [online] available at http://assets.highways.gov.uk/specialistinformation/knowledgecompendium/20142015/ snapshot+final+report.pdf [accessed 01 february 2021]. power, w. and taylor, d., 2019. last planner® system and percent plan complete: an examination of trade contractor performance. lean construction journal, pp. 131146. https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0164 power, w., sinnott, d., and mullin, a. 2020. improving commissioning and qualification delivery using last® planner system. lean construction journal 2021 pp. 3652. www.leanconstructionjournal.org https://doi. org/10.24928/2020/0016 pryke, s. and smyth, h., 2012. the management of complex projects: a relationship approach. john wiley & sons. sacks, r., brilakis, i., pikas, e., xie, h. and girolami, m., 2020. construction with digital twin information systems. datacentric engineering, 1, e14. https://doi.org/10.1017/dce.2020.16 sacks, r., brilakis, i., pikas, e., xie, h. and girolami, m., 2020. construction with digital twin information systems. datacentric engineering, 1. https://doi.org/10.1017/dce.2020.16 sarhan, s., pasquire, c., and king, a., 2017. the concept of institutional waste within the construction industry: a potential theoretical framework. lean construction journal, pp. 1224. sarhan, s., elnokaly, a. , pasquire, c., and pretlove, s. 2018, ‘lean construction and sustainability through iglc community: a critical systematic review of 25 years of experience’ in: proceedings of the 26th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. chennai, india, pp. 933942. https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0274 steckler, a, mcleroy, k, goodman, r, bird, s, and mccormick, l., 1992. towards integrating qualitative and quantitative methods: an introduction, health education quarterly, 19(1), pp. 18. https://doi. org/10.1177/109019819201900101 strauss, a. and corbin, j., 1990. basics of qualitative research, newbury park, ca: sage. tellis, w., 1997. introduction to case study. the qualitative report, 3(2). https://doi.org/10.46743/2160 3715/1997.2024 power, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021157 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321804312_last_planner_5_1_crucial_collaborative_conversations_for_predictable_design_construction_delivery_dec_2017 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321804312_last_planner_5_1_crucial_collaborative_conversations_for_predictable_design_construction_delivery_dec_2017 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315694351 https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.91.3.636 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315797113 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315797113 http://assets.highways.gov.uk/specialist-information/knowledge-compendium/2014-2015/snapshot+final+report.pdf http://assets.highways.gov.uk/specialist-information/knowledge-compendium/2014-2015/snapshot+final+report.pdf https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0164 http://www.leanconstructionjournal.org https://doi.org/10.24928/2020/0016 https://doi.org/10.24928/2020/0016 https://doi.org/10.1017/dce.2020.16 https://doi.org/10.1017/dce.2020.16 https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0274 https://doi.org/10.1177/109019819201900101 https://doi.org/10.1177/109019819201900101 https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/1997.2024 https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/1997.2024 thomassen, m., sander, d., barnes, k. and nielsen, a., 2003, ‘experience and results from implementing lean construction in a large danish contracting firm’. in: proceedings of the 11th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. virginia, usa. (pp. 644655). thomsen, c., darrington, j., dunne, d., and lichtig, w., 2009. managing integrated project delivery. construction management association of america, va: mclean. united nations., 2019. the future is now– science for achieving sustainable development. available at: https://sdgs.un.org/ publications/futurenowscienceachievingsustainabledevelopmentgsdr201924576 [accessed 16 january 2021]. weinheimer, n., schmalz, s. and müller, d., 2017. green building and lean management: synergies and conflicts. in: proceedings of the 25th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, heraklion, greece, pp. 911 918. https://doi.org/10.24928/2017/0242 wu, c. and parker, s., 2017. the role of leader support in facilitating proactive work behavior: a perspective from attachment theory. journal of management, 43(4), pp.10251049. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314544745 yin. r., 1993. applications of case study research. beverly hills, ca: sage publishing. yin, r., 2009. case study research: design and methods (4th ed). ca: sage. yin, r., 2012. applications of case study research (3rd ed). ca: sage. power, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 21, no. 3 september 2021158 https://sdgs.un.org/publications/future-now-science-achieving-sustainable-development-gsdr-2019-24576 https://sdgs.un.org/publications/future-now-science-achieving-sustainable-development-gsdr-2019-24576 https://doi.org/10.24928/2017/0242 https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206314544745 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: sood, r., laishram, b. 2024. challenges in implementation of 7d-bim for infrastructure asset management: a systematic review. construction economics and building, 24:3, 95–117. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v24i3.8738 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article challenges in implementation of 7d-bim for infrastructure asset management: a systematic review rhijul sood1, boeing laishram2,* 1 research scholar, department of civil engineering, iit guwahati, assam, 781039, india 2 professor, department of civil engineering, iit guwahati, assam, 781039, india corresponding author: boeing laishram, department of civil engineering, iit guwahati, assam, 781039, india, boeing@iitg.ac.in doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.8738 article history: received 28/07/2023; revised 13/10/2023; accepted 23/01/2024; published 01/07/2024 abstract infrastructure asset management (infraam)/facilities management (fm) which deals with infrastructure maintenance, repair, and rehabilitation needs an urgent focus on technology-based solutions. this can be done by implementing digital technologies, like building information modelling (bim), that can help in 3d visualization, 4d scheduling, 5d costing, 6d sustainability, and 7d fm throughout the service life of the project. however, bim’s implementation undergoes various challenges and to understand the critical challenges, a systematic literature review (slr) was conducted using 89 peer-reviewed papers from three databases, and quantitative and qualitative analyses were performed. the literature revealed the critical challenges (ccs) and success factors (sfs) that influence bim implementation for fm but lacks an interrelationship between them. hence, the current study linked various ccs and sfs through a theoretical approach. the study found that the role of government and contractual frameworks can help to eliminate the majority of the challenges. this novel approach could provide significant contributions by helping practitioners and policymakers understand the connections between ccs and the role of sfs as potential solutions for enhancing bim implementation for fm. keywords bim; critical challenges; infraam; fm; slr; success factors declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 95 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.8738 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.8738 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:boeing@iitg.ac.in https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i3.8738 introduction infrastructure construction and management is critical for the country’s development, economic growth, competitiveness, and social improvement (prakash and ambekar, 2020). as a result, infrastructure asset management (infraam) has gained more prominence in recent times on account of the renewed emphasis on infrastructure development. infraam is defined as “an act of maintaining demanded service level of the asset (such as water treatment facilities, roads, utility grids, bridges, railways, etc.) for present and future customers based on most economically effective management (ipwea, 2015). this helps in operating, maintaining, upgrading, and expanding physical assets effectively throughout their lifecycle (akofiosowah, et al., 2014). this aspect of the management of infrastructure assets has also been the focus of facility management (fm). the international facility management association (ifma) defines fm as something that encompasses multiple disciplines to ensure functionality, comfort, safety, and efficiency of the built environment (such as real estate property, buildings, technical infrastructure, hvac, etc.) by integrating people, process, and technology. as per the above definitions, though infrastructure assets and facilities include varying structures with different requirements and applications, there exist studies that have considered them under the same category of either facility/asset while discussing and analysing the role of facility/asset managers in utilizing bim (ikediashi, ogunlana and o. ujene, 2014; volk, stengel and schultmann, 2014; park, park and lee, 2016; parn, et al., 2019; munir, et al., 2020b; falcão silva and couto, 2021; kong, kapogiannis and cheshmehzangi, 2022; sadeghineko and kumar, 2022). this is because the bim tools/software that are used for designing and constructing an infrastructure asset or facility remain the same (munir, et al., 2020b), whereas there exist challenges in utilizing as-built bim models for fm purposes. also, bim initially was seen as a project-specific approach which has now moved to an enterprise infraam perspective (godager, onstein and huang, 2021) and hence for the current study, the terms infraam and fm are used interchangeably. once the infrastructure is built, the biggest challenge is ensuring their delivery and management during the operating period. this requires meticulous management of fm expenses as overall management accounts for 85% of the total lifetime cost of the facility (love, et al., 2015) while the design and building phase results in less than 15% of the total project cost (lewis, riley and elmualim, 2010). thus, the government must invest extensively in infrastructure maintenance, renovation, and rehabilitation (schraven, hartmann and dewulf, 2011) to deal with the poor state of existing infrastructure assets (kumaraswamy, 2011). this necessitates a new approach to project delivery since the project’s lifecycle integration in terms of project phases has become more reliable (hilal, maqsood and abdekhodaee, 2019). the industry experts suggested a proactive, sustainable, and effective asset management program (halfawy, 2008) by adopting building information modelling (bim) as a measure (munir, et al., 2020a) to handle growing demands and aging infrastructures ( jones, 2020). the operational phase of built assets can be integrated with initial project phases through bim tools and workflows (patacas, dawood and kassem, 2020). thus, facility/ building owners can utilize bim to better organize and schedule preventative maintenance for new and existing structures (volk, stengel and schultmann, 2014). bim being a multidimensional technology can be used for 3d visualization, 4d scheduling, 5d costing, 6d sustainability, and 7d fm. 4d and 5d-bim are more widely adopted and implemented, whereas 6d and 7d-bim are still under development (wang and liu, 2020). 7d-bim is employed (ghaffarianhoseini, et al., 2017b) for indoor navigation (isikdag, 2012), identification of building components including interior space analyses (bansal, 2021), maintenance and improvement planning (motawa and almarshad, 2013), renovation/retrofitting (becerik-gerber, et al., 2012; davila delgado and oyedele, 2020) and operational energy analysis during design phase (andreani, et al., 2019). however, there exists a state of perplexity and uncertainty among the key stakeholders within the construction industry (tucker, 1986), extending beyond the 5th dimension of bim as it jeopardizes the potential advantages and gains that can be derived from the incorporation of these supplementary bim dimensions (charef, alaka and emmitt, 2018). sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202496 the key stakeholders in this context consist of clients who establish the project’s bim execution plan, contractors who utilize bim for designing, planning, coordinating, and managing construction activities, consultants who supervise the bim process, ensuring its implementation and promoting collaboration, and government agencies or regulatory bodies that establish standards and guidelines for bim implementation. bim integrates all disciplines (vilventhan, razin and rajadurai, 2020) and asset management systems into a virtual model, enabling virtual iterations during the design and construction of the project (lee, et al., 2015), hence, eliminating mistakes and inefficiencies (won, et al., 2013). bim can manage physical assets throughout their lifecycle by contributing towards an asset information management system (aims), which contains geometric and non-geometric information derived from data gathered throughout the project’s lifecycle even before built assets are put into service (eastman, et al., 2011). hence, bim is not a 3d modelling tool but a process (mahalingam, yadav and varaprasad, 2015) for designing, constructing, and operating an infrastructure asset, through which its entire lifecycle can be managed effectively with time, cost saving, and increased service life as shown through a case study (cantisani, et al., 2022). there have been several studies over the past two decades demonstrating the increased implementation of bim during the design and construction phases of the project, but the utilization of bim tools and procedures for fm is very rare (arayici, onyenobi and egbu, 2012; hilal, maqsood and abdekhodaee, 2019; durdyev, et al., 2022). this is because, the implementation of bim for the management of infrastructure assets post-construction phase is riddled with challenges, and therefore, the focus of this study is to gain insights from the literature to find various success factors which can act as potential solutions to overcome those challenges using a theoretical approach. hence, the current study has systematically considered five critical challenges (ccs) with 17 sub-challenges faced by asset managers for bim implementation for fm and the six success factors (sfs) that are mentioned in the literature to overcome these challenges. there have been few studies including literature-review based in the past 10 years discussing the ccs and sfs affecting bim implementation for fm but none of them was able to link the ccs and sfs with each other for understanding their interrelationship (williams, shayesteh and marjanovic-halburd, 2014; gheisari and irizarry, 2016; naghshbandi, 2016; dixit, et al., 2019; gao and pishdad-bozorgi, 2019; jang and collinge, 2020; bademosi and issa, 2021; oluleye, et al., 2021; awwad, shibani and ghostin, 2022; durdyev, et al., 2022). thus, this research adds to the body of knowledge, by reviewing systematically the existing research on infraam/fm by analysing and linking the critical challenges (ccs) and success factors (sfs) with each other. research methodology the study used prisma framework (fig. 1) to conduct systematic literature review as it analyses sources methodically and has been used in various similar studies conducted recently (antwi-afari, et al., 2018; sidani, et al., 2021; abideen, et al., 2022; he and liu, 2022; ozarisoy, 2022; tsay, staub-french and poirier, 2022). slr aims to offer a critical overview of the present state of research for the topic being studied (tranfield, denyer and smart, 2003). the slr was conducted based on the following review stages: stage i: planning the review stage ii: conducting the review stage iii: analysing the review planning the review in the planning stage, the review methodology includes the study’s questions, population (or sample), search strategy, and inclusion and exclusion criteria (davies and crombie, 1998). based on our study, the review questions were: sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202497 records identified from three databases using pre-defined keywords scopus (n= 217); ebscohost (n= 274); wos (n= 191) (n= 682) records screened after removing documents other than articles (n=409) records assessed for eligibility (n=196) total records included for content analysis (n=89) records irrelevant after title and abstract assessment (n=72) records unavailable for full-text analysis (n=35) duplicate articles (n= 135) nonenglish articles (n=78) id en tif ic at io n sc re en in g el ig ib ili ty in cl ud ed excluded excluded excluded excluded figure 1. research methodology 1. what are the critical challenges and success factors for adopting 7d-bim? 2. how can the critical challenges and success factors be linked together? the search strategy involves finding the right data sources and keywords. the study included three databases: scopus, web of science (wos), and ebsco host as they cover the vast majority of publications in the area of project and construction management (chadegani, et al., 2013; manatos, sarrico and rosa, 2017; zhou and mi, 2017). to search for pertinent keywords, our study employed a technique of building blocks, typically used by academics for doing slr (booth, 2008). based on our research questions, we’ve identified the following terms significant to this research: “ bim, building information modeling, barriers, challenges, success factors, drivers, 7d, asset management, am, facility management and fm”. these terms were then connected using boolean functions like “and” and “or” to establish relationships between them. conducting the review in this stage, shortlisted keywords were utilized to get a comprehensive list of 682 articles from three databases (scopus = 217; ebscohost = 274 and wos= 191). the articles were initially screened by applying sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202498 inclusion and exclusion criterions (table 1). a total of 273 papers, including those published in conferences, book chapters, etc. were identified and removed during the screening process. hence, only peer-reviewed publications were analysed, as they have high quality (hohenstein, et al., 2015), reliability, and validity (bronson and davis, 2011), and on further removing 78 non-english articles, the list was reduced to 331 articles. in the next step, the articles were subsequently exported into excel files and scrutinized for any instances of duplication or repetition. after eliminating 135 duplicate articles from the three databases, the list was reduced to 196 articles. despite implementing the search restrictions, several journals from unrelated fields (such as medicine, nursing, applied economics, etc.) still appeared. the scope of the current research was limited to bim and infraam studies in the construction sector, hence, non-constructionrelated journals were excluded using title and abstract assessments. in this stage, 72 articles were found irrelevant for further study analysis. hence, after manually analysing the 124 articles based on full-text availability (35 articles were not available), 89 articles were chosen for the final systematic review analysis. table 1. inclusion and exclusion criteria inclusion criteria exclusion criteria publications in academic journals articles and books published on web platforms (master’s/ doctoral thesis, conferences, chapters, etc.) publications related to the construction industry publications focusing on fields other than construction publications in english language publications in languages other than english analysing the review in this stage, quantitative and qualitative analyses of shortlisted articles were performed. the articles were categorized by publication year, research methods, journals, and author keywords in the form of tables and graphs. on the other hand, qualitative content analysis was done using an inductive approach to find and categorize the challenges and success factors based on the “what” and how” of the research questions. this approach involves deriving categories directly from the contents themselves through a process of iterative coding, category building, and re-examination based on consistent units of analysis to enhance precision (seuring and gold, 2012). thus, the full text of the article was chosen as a unit of analysis and the papers were thoroughly reviewed multiple times to extract and organize codes, and ultimately, classify them. analysis and results quantitative analysis based on the year of publication, research methods, and journals the descriptive analysis includes publications in different years starting from 2006 (fig. 2). the graph demonstrates that publication frequency was low before 2015, but with growing innovations and bim maturity, the frequency of publications has increased. the increase in publications can also be attributed to various bim mandates and standards implemented by different countries and international organizations such as pas 55-1: 2006 & 2008 (united kingdom), iimm: 2006, 2011 & 2016 (australia), iso 16739: 2013, iso 55000: 2014 & 2016, iso 55001: 2014 & 2016, iso 55002: 2018, iso/ts 55010: 2019, iso 19650-1:2019, iso 19650-2:2019, and iso 19650-3:2020 to implement bim and iam principles, guidelines, and technical specifications for existing and future construction. the research methodologies sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 202499 adopted in the articles are categorized into (1) surveys, (2) literature reviews, (3) case studies, and, (4) conceptual/theoretical (hesping and schiele, 2015). only 10 (11%) of the 89 shortlisted articles were case studies signifying lesser practical research on bim for infraam. significant papers have adopted survey methodology, accounting for 33 (37%) articles highlighting the value of survey methodology (questionnaire and interviews) to collect data in this research area. conceptual/theoretical and literature reviews constituted 28 (31%) and 18 (20%) articles, respectively. the restricted use of bim for fm can be attributed to a lack of real-world cases (becerik-gerber, et al., 2012) as facility/asset managers are hardly involved in bim development during design and construction phases (volk, stengel and schultmann, 2014). even though there is growing interest in bim for fm, it is still not clear how bim could be realistically used as there is very little empirical data in this field (becerik-gerber, et al., 2012). 2006 2009 2011 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 surveys 0 0 1 2 3 3 1 4 5 4 3 5 2 literature reviews 1 0 0 1 2 2 2 2 2 3 0 2 1 case studies 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 1 1 3 1 1 conceptual/theoretical 2 2 3 2 1 2 4 3 3 4 2 0 0 total 3 2 4 5 7 8 8 9 11 12 8 8 4 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 pu bl ic at io ns figure 2. list of annual publications the articles were also listed based on their journals of publication as shown in table 2. table 2. journal-wise publications s. no. journal publications 1 automation in construction 12 2 built environment project and asset management 9 3 journal of construction engineering and management 6 4 facilities 5 5 journal of management in engineering 4 6 international journal of construction management 3 7 procedia engineering 3 8 journal of building engineering 4 9 advanced engineering informatics 3 10 renewable and sustainable energy reviews 3 sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024100 s. no. journal publications 11 buildings 2 12 engineering, construction and architectural management 2 13 construction innovation 2 14 korean journal of construction engineering and management 2 15 journal of facilities management 2 16 international journal of facility management 2 17 advances in civil engineering 2 18 articles in other journals (one article each) 23 cluster analysis based on author keywords for analysing author keywords, vosviewer was used to perform an in-depth examination of finalized articles. vos-viewer creates bibliometric maps and visualizes keywords co-occurrence, citation, and cocitation map through a distance-based method (van eck and waltman, 2010). the distance between network nodes is proportional to the similarity of their reference lists; node size reflects citation frequency; and node colour shows subject clusters, creating a 2-dimensional image (van eck and waltman, 2010). high-resemblance things are closer, and similarly, thicker lines between nodes indicate a stronger connection (van eck and waltman, 2010). based on 89 selected publications, a cluster network was established based on keywords co-occurrence using vos-viewer software (fig. 3). with 8 clusters and 33 links, bim has the most links and is strongly bonded with facility management, operations and management, asset management, construction management, barriers, and interoperability. figure 3. cluster based on author keywords table 2. continued sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024101 qualitative analysis the subsequent section 3.2.1 discusses the works of literature that were obtained from the slr process and section 3.2.2 discusses critical challenges (ccs) affecting the implementation of 7d-bim and success factors (sfs) to overcome those challenges through a theoretical approach. systematic literature review this section provides a detailed literature assessment of the studies related to bim implementation for fm. the review discussed research methodologies and outcomes of various studies related to critical challenges and success factors of bim implementation for fm. the studies adopted different research methodologies such as a literature review approach (volk, stengel and schultmann, 2014; naghshbandi, 2016; nicał and wodyński, 2016; misron, naim and asmoni, 2018; gao and pishdad-bozorgi, 2019), online survey/interviews (williams, shayesteh and marjanovic-halburd, 2014; gheisari and irizarry, 2016; dixit, et al., 2019; jang and collinge, 2020; bademosi and issa, 2021; oluleye, et al., 2021; awwad, shibani and ghostin, 2022; durdyev, et al., 2022), case study approach (kassem, et al., 2015; korpela, et al., 2015; heaton, parlikad and schooling, 2019; kula and ergen, 2021; tsay, staub-french and poirier, 2022) and conceptual/theoretical approach (pishdad-bozorgi, et al., 2018) to discuss the challenges and success factors affecting bim implementation for fm. many studies concluded cost-based factors (gheisari and irizarry, 2016; bademosi and issa, 2021; durdyev, et al., 2022), technical and interoperability issues (volk, stengel and schultmann, 2014; korpela, et al., 2015; naghshbandi, 2016; pishdad-bozorgi, et al., 2018; jang and collinge, 2020; kula and ergen, 2021) as major challenges for implementing bim for fm. in a recent study, which was based on three case study projects in canada, tsay, staub french and poirier (2022) concluded that even if asset owners are involved in project beginning, various other problems still impede owners from fully utilizing bim, and those project-specific challenges were mapped and connected. similarly, durdyev, et al. (2022) did a study in new zealand using semi-structured interviews and found that besides cost factors, lack of bim knowledge, and lack of bim expertise among the fm practitioners remain the most significant in bim implementation for fm. also, in the study, dixit, et al. (2019) used a survey approach and categorized the challenges into four themes and found that lack of fm involvement in initial project phases is the most important issue affecting bim implementation for fm. similarly, the organization’s commitment to accepting change (misron, naim and asmoni, 2018; oluleye, et al., 2021) and staff training/bim-consultant involvement (misron, naim and asmoni, 2018; awwad, shibani and ghostin, 2022) were found as a major success factor for bim implementation for infraam. a recent study by awwad, shibani and ghostin (2022), conducted semi-structured interviews from three case studies to explore csfs influencing bim level 2 implementation in the uk and found that bim awareness and training, and hiring an external consultant for successful implementation were highly effective for bim deployment. similarly, (pishdad-bozorgi, et al., 2018) designed a conceptual model and concluded that understanding of fm-enabled bim, seamless process of collecting fm-enabled bim data, and, well-executed interoperability plan for exchanging data are the most important csfs for bim implementation. as mentioned above, there have been studies that utilized the literature review approach as an effective method to summarize the existing studies for understanding the challenges and success factors affecting 7d bim implementation, but no such study has been able to establish the link between them to understand how sfs can eliminate various ccs. sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024102 critical challenges (ccs) and success factors (sfs) affecting bim implementation for fm critical challenges (ccs) and sub-challenges this section discusses about five critical challenges (ccs) and 17 sub-challenges affecting bim implementation (table 3). table 3. critical challenges affecting bim implementation for iam critical challenges sub-challenges papers technical based (cc1) complexity of bim tools (cc1.1) (gu and london, 2010), (becerikgerber, et al., 2012), (volk, stengel and schultmann, 2014), (ramilo and embi, 2014), (mcarthur, 2015), (corry, et al., 2014), (mahalingam, yadav and varaprasad, 2015), (son, lee and kim, 2015), (kassem, et al., 2015), (naghshbandi, 2016), (brous, herder and janssen, 2016), (mayo and issa, 2016), (ghaffarianhoseini, et al., 2017a), (alreshidi, mourshed and rezgui, 2018), (farghaly, et al., 2018), (ahuja, et al., 2020), (chan, olawumi and ho, 2019), (dixit, et al., 2019), (jang and collinge, 2020), (tsay, staub-french and poirier, 2022), (ikediashi, et al., 2022) data interoperability issues from bim to infraam tools (cc1.2) software security issues (cc1.3) less understanding of data requirement for infraam (cc1.4) project based (cc2) separation of o&m stage from design stage (cc2.1) (kumar and mukherjee, 2009), (becerikgerber, et al., 2012), (lin and su, 2013), (kang and choi, 2015), (lee, yu and jeong, 2015), (kassem, et al., 2015), (naghshbandi, 2016), (smyth, anvuur and kusuma, 2017), (alreshidi, mourshed and rezgui, 2018), (blay, tuuli and francemensah, 2019), (dixit, et al., 2019), (blay, tuuli and france-mensah, 2019), (jang and collinge, 2020) traditional method for procurement of asset managers (cc2.2) lack of contractual framework (cc2.3) actors based (cc3) roles and responsibilities for model maintenance (cc3.1) (kumar and mukherjee, 2009), (gu and london, 2010), (becerik-gerber, et al., 2012), (ramilo and embi, 2014), (williams, shayesteh and marjanovic-halburd, 2014), (chien, wu and huang, 2014), (lee, yu and jeong, 2015), (kassem, et al., 2015), (bosch, volker and koutamanis, 2015), (mahalingam, yadav and varaprasad, 2015), (giel and issa, 2016), (naghshbandi, 2016), (lee and jung, 2016), (jang and collinge, 2020), (patel, et al., 2021) lack of demand from client (cc3.2) non-involvement of asset managers from project beginning (cc3.3) lack of bim knowledge and expertise of asset managers (cc3.4) sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024103 critical challenges sub-challenges papers capital based (cc4) high cost of implementation of bim-infraam tools (cc4.1) (williams, shayesteh and marjanovichalburd, 2014), (ding, et al., 2015), (naghshbandi, 2016), (ghaffarianhoseini, et al., 2017a), (georgiadou, 2019), (chan, olawumi and ho, 2019), (blay, tuuli and france-mensah, 2019), (bademosi and issa, 2021), (adekunle, ejohwomu and aigbavboa, 2021), (durdyev, et al., 2022), (ikediashi, et al., 2022) high training costs (cc4.2) low roi risks (cc4.3) policies based (cc5) govt. policies (cc5.1) (gu and london, 2010), (becerik-gerber, et al., 2012), (kassem, et al., 2015), (ahuja, et al., 2020), (mahalingam, yadav and varaprasad, 2015), (son, lee and kim, 2015), (alreshidi, mourshed and rezgui, 2018), (li and liu, 2019), (patel, et al., 2021), (adekunle, ejohwomu and aigbavboa, 2021) lack of bim model updating processes (cc5.2) insufficient govt. support (cc5.3) technical based challenges (cc1) includes various sub-challenges such as the complex nature of bim tools at higher maturity level (cc1.1), issues related to data interoperability (cc1.2), software security issues (cc1.3), and not able to understand the type of data required for infraam (cc1.4). one of the biggest challenges facing fm business is the sheer volume of data, including schedules, asset details, etc., and less understanding of the data required for fm (naghshbandi, 2016). hence, effective infraam requires a clear understanding of what, when, and by whom information is required. the asset operations team is overloaded with bim data and incapable of appropriately filtering it (munir, et al., 2020b). it is challenging to implement fm updates when there is inaccurate, missing, or duplicate data ( jang and collinge, 2020) in as-built models, resulting in the loss of countless hours of productive work and millions of dollars due to inefficient procedures (kassem, et al., 2015; gouda, abdallah and marzouk, 2020). also, due to huge differences in development cycles and using different types of bim and fm technologies, bim-fm integration becomes very challenging (naghshbandi, 2016). another category is project based (cc2) challenges which include separation of o&m stage from design stage (cc2.1), traditional method for procurement of asset managers (cc2.2), and lack of contractual framework (cc2.3). there are several issues, including the disjointed aec industry, regional disparities in market readiness, and resistance to change (naghshbandi, 2016). even fm service providers are hired on temporary contracts (often 3 to 5 years) (kassem, et al., 2015) and they prefer conventional methods rather than learning new technologies to manage assets. additionally, it is quite difficult to develop a complete legal and contractual framework and standards for 7d bim deployment (becerik-gerber, et al., 2012) as there is still confusion among stakeholders on higher bim dimensions like 6d, 7d, and beyond (charef, alaka and emmitt, 2018), causing difficulty in accessing reliable data for infraam (lin and su, 2013). failure to assign roles and duties for model maintenance (cc3.1) is an example of managerial/actor based (cc3) challenges. the client being a major stakeholder of the asset doesn’t demand the use of technology (cc 3.2) for fm purposes. also, there is a practice of not involving asset managers from the beginning of the project (cc3.3), and even when they are involved, they lack knowledge and expertise (cc3.4). with right who, table 3. continued sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024104 what, and how, bim can be beneficial for infraam by storing asset information in a centralized database (lee and jung, 2016). clients need to understand their requirements from bim and how to use feedback from bim-based projects to improve future projects. asset managers lack bim knowledge and are unsure how to use it for fm (bifm, 2012; williams, shayesteh and marjanovic-halburd, 2014). indeed, a lack of interaction and collaboration (thabet and lucas, 2017) between project participants contributes to clients’ unwillingness to engage with bim (becerik-gerber, et al., 2012). asset owners had traditionally been involved only in the project completion phase due to their bim inability (azhar, 2011). the capital-based challenges (cc4) include high cost of bim-infraam implementation (cc4.1), high training costs (cc4.2) resulting from training being imparted to asset managers, and fear among asset managers on low return on investment (roi) (cc4.3). even though bim is well known, small and mediumsized firms cannot invest in digital technologies due to budget restrictions (georgiadou, 2019). since bim has not been validated for fm cost reductions (williams, shayesteh and marjanovic-halburd, 2014), investment in bim lacks confirmation of its advantages over conventional approaches (naghshbandi, 2016). also, concerns and debates among operation managers have arisen since the cost and time to develop a 7d-bim model is very large, and hence, its roi has not yet been ascertained (naghshbandi, 2016). a major obstacle to fm’s upstream integration is the necessity to handle a variety of use cases that vary by project and user role (kang and choi, 2015). policies (cc5) related challenges are considered crucial as frameworks and policies govern how an organization operates. this includes sub-challenges such as role of government policies (cc5.1), lack of bim model updating processes in infraam stage (cc5.2), and insufficient support from the govt. (cc5.3). the issue with using bim for fm is inadequate procedures for updating the initially planned model with as-built data (gu and london, 2010). while bim has just recently been adopted by facilities managers, the accompanying policies, and standards are still in their infancy (williams, shayesteh and marjanovichalburd, 2014). also, the fm sector is significantly reluctant to accept cultural change for accepting new procedures and technology (kassem, et al., 2015), which has been attributed to low bim acceptance for fm (becerik-gerber, et al., 2012). overcoming ccs of bim implementation through sfs (theoretical approach) similar to critical challenges, the six critical success factors (sfs) were also identified (table 4). additionally, this section links several ccs to establish interrelationships between them and illustrates how sfs can assist in addressing those challenges. involving asset managers from the design phase of the project (sf1) is a crucial technique that may speed up the fm system construction process and cut down on costs. asset managers should be included from the onset of the project, rather than being brought in after the closeout phase, so that fm data is accessible earlier (williams, shayesteh and marjanovic-halburd, 2014; ghosh, chasey and mergenschroer, 2015). due to the separation of the o&m stage from the design stage (cc2.1), there is non-involvement of asset managers from the project beginning (cc3.3) resulting in the difficulty of assigning roles and responsibilities for model maintenance (cc3.1), which can be alleviated through sf1. it bridges design and fm gaps to improve am, as, “bim is something that fm must engage with as soon as possible” (bifm, 2012). hence, fm-compliant bim data needs should be established at the project’s inception (ghosh, chasey and mergenschroer, 2015). hence, involving asset managers in the initial project phase can eliminate organizational and managerial/actor-based challenges. asset managers often work on short-term contracts and rely on conventional methodologies. therefore, it is necessary to provide training of infraam tools (sf2), so that as-built bim models can be used efficiently for fm. the quality of data improves when individuals are actively involved in the bim virtual environment (eastman, et al., 2011). complexities in bim tools at higher maturity level (cc1.1) results in less understanding of the data requirement at the infraam stage (cc1.4) due to a lack of bim expertise and sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024105 knowledge of asset managers (cc3.4) and software security/ privacy issues (cc1.3) and can be addressed through sf2. there is a wide gap between fm employees skill sets and the ones needed for efficient asset management, thus training is essential (woodhouse, 2003). hence, if an organization invests in technology capacity building and training of staff (misron, naim and asmoni, 2018), technical and actors related challenges can be handled. open system and data libraries for infraam systems (sf3) involve integrating readily accessible, openly editable repositories of infraam data sets and information (kassem, et al., 2015). bim can connect with current software and supply appropriate data for various fm applications (davtalaba and delgadob, 2014; naghshbandi, 2016). although integration of bim and fm software allows fast data transfer despite compatibility issues (shen, hao and xue, 2012), the business case for bim in existing facilities cannot be demonstrated unless data transmission is automated and verified. due to the complexity of bim tools (cc1.1) and complex bim model updating processes (cc5.2), asset managers lack an understanding of utilizing bim data for infraam (cc1.4). hence, in such cases, sf3 can help to eliminate technical and external challenges. there has been discussion about ways to automate data flow between bim and fm technologies to visualize the benefits of bim for infraam (davtalaba and delgadob, 2014; ghosh, chasey and mergenschroer, 2015). in one of the studies (farghaly, et al., 2018), an api plug-in was developed that can help bim stakeholders identify the required data to be submitted to facility managers to improve am processes, but still has limitations. the infraam tools can be modified as per the requirement of asset managers by aligning it researchers/ bim consultants with infraam industry practitioners (sf4). if the information in the bim model can be customized as per asset owners’ needs, it will aid in effective decision-making (azhar, 2011), since imported models contain too much extra data that needs to be filtered out (gu and london, 2010). so, if a collaborative approach is employed and clients take initiative, then only such challenges can be handled. hence, sf4 can help to solve technical challenges by eliminating data interoperability issues (cc1.2) resulting from complex bim tools (cc1.1). by using appropriate software plugins, asset managers and external consultants can extract required data from the as-built model (gu and london, 2010; azhar, 2011; brunet, et al., 2019). the government policies and contractual frameworks (sf5) can aid in bim implementation on a larger scale. hence, the government’s involvement in implementing technology-based solutions is critical for infraam, so bim-fm must be incorporated into conventional contracting procedures (naghshbandi, 2016). there is a lack of demand from client (cc3.2) because of the risk of getting low return on investment (roi) (cc4.3), high bim software and hardware cost (cc4.1), high training costs (cc4.2), and insufficient government support (cc5.3). also, due to lack of govt. policies (cc5.1) and contractual framework (cc2.3) use of traditional practices (cc2.2) exist. hence, if govt. develops modern contracts and provides sufficient incentives to private contractors, challenges due to cost, management, and policies can be eliminated. getting effective bim output for infraam (mahalingam, yadav and varaprasad, 2015) requires new rules and frameworks to remove conventional project management contract procedures and focus on digital management of assets (love, et al., 2014; naghshbandi, 2016). the construction industry is typically slow to adopt new technology, and, hence, requires cultural change to adopt technology in infraam industry (sf6). when the organization is open to change and its goals are aligned with bim-fm, successful integration is achieved (ghosh, chasey and mergenschroer, 2015; chan, olawumi and ho, 2019). sf6 is a long-term approach that requires a company-wide commitment to risk-taking to achieve cultural change. it can help in eliminating challenges related to organization and management which includes traditional procurement of asset managers (cc2.2) and non-involvement of asset managers from project beginning (cc3.3). the construction industry must embrace new methods and technology to combine associated information throughout the project lifecycle (shen, hao and xue, 2012; ghosh, chasey and mergenschroer, 2015). it is highly recommended that construction stakeholders should sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024106 look beyond massive investments (wang and liu, 2020) and experience a cultural shift to utilize bim for effective infraam (shen, hao and xue, 2012; bui, merschbrock and munkvold, 2016). table 4. success factors for implementing bim for fm id description papers sf1 involving asset managers from design phase of project (kumaraswamy, anvuur and smyth, 2010), (azhar, 2011), (bifm, 2012), (wang, et al., 2013), (williams, shayesteh and marjanovic-halburd, 2014), (ghosh, chasey and mergenschroer, 2015), (mayo and issa, 2016), (naghshbandi, 2016), (misron, naim and asmoni, 2018), (olawumi and chan, 2019), (darwish, tantawy and elbeltagi, 2020) sf2 providing training of infraam tools to asset managers (woodhouse, 2003), (eastman, et al., 2011), (won, et al., 2013), (chan, 2014), (giel and issa, 2016), (misron, naim and asmoni, 2018), (amuda-yusuf, 2018), (patel, et al., 2021), (awwad, shibani and ghostin, 2022) sf3 open system and data libraries for infraam systems (shen, hao and xue, 2012), (davtalaba and delgadob, 2014), (ghosh, chasey and mergenschroer, 2015), (naghshbandi, 2016), (misron, naim and asmoni, 2018), (carbonari, stravoravdis and gausden, 2018), (farghaly, et al., 2018), (farghaly, et al., 2019), (abideen, et al., 2022) sf4 aligning it researchers/bim consultants with infraam practitioners (gu and london, 2010), (azhar, 2011), (staykova and underwood, 2017), (misron, naim and asmoni, 2018), (brunet, et al., 2019), (darwish, tantawy and elbeltagi, 2020), (vilventhan, razin and rajadurai, 2020), (awwad, shibani and ghostin, 2022) sf5 government policies and contractual frameworks (kumaraswamy, anvuur and smyth, 2010), (love, et al., 2014), (naghshbandi, 2016), (misron, naim and asmoni, 2018), (carbonari, stravoravdis and gausden, 2018), (olawumi and chan, 2019), (patel, et al., 2021), (abideen, et al., 2022) sf6 cultural change to adopt technology (shen, hao and xue, 2012), (ghosh, chasey and mergenschroer, 2015), (kassem, et al., 2015), (sarkar, raghavendra and ruparelia, 2015), (chan, olawumi and ho, 2019), (olawumi and chan, 2019), (oluleye, et al., 2021) discussion bim implementation during design and construction applications has increased considerably, but its implementation for fm purposes is very slow. hence, this study did an slr to find the critical challenges (ccs) and success factors (sfs) and linked them theoretically. the main research outputs are depicted in figure 4 in the form of a flowchart. the results from theoretical analysis of the literature state that sf1 & sf6 can help to overcome challenges related to organization and actors, sf2 can manage technical and actors-based challenges, sf3 can manage technical and policies-based challenges, sf4 can also help to overcome technical challenges and sf5 alone can help to overcome actors, capital and policies-based challenges. sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024107 figure 4. flowchart of research output conclusions, limitations & the way forward the present study conducted an slr using three databases namely scopus, web of science, and ebscohost which resulted in shortlisting 89 publications. to achieve our research objectives, those publications initially revealed relevant literature on bim and fm/infraam, evaluating the critical challenges (ccs) and subsequent success factors (sfs) affecting bim implementation for fm. the publications were also categorized based on the year of publications, research methodologies, journals and author keywords. the findings indicate that researchers predominantly chose qualitative ways of analysis. there existed some literature review studies related to various challenges and success factors affecting 7d-bim implementation, but no study was able to holistically establish any inter-relationship between the ccs and demonstrate the role of individual or combination of sfs to overcome the barriers affecting bim implementation for fm. hence, to achieve this objective, this study adds to the body of knowledge by analysing 17 sub-challenges under five ccs, and six sfs affecting bim implementation for fm and linking them together using a theoretical approach to show the interrelationship between them and highlight the role of sfs in overcoming those challenges. the result shows that the success factor related to government policies and contractual framework (sf5) can help to eliminate the majority of the challenges (cc3, cc4, and cc5). therefore, the findings of the current study may help construction stakeholders and policymakers prioritize specific challenges and consider pairing success factors to accelerate bim deployment for fm. there also exist a few limitations of the study. nevertheless, the findings of the study suggest that government policies and contractual framework can help in eliminating majority of challenges, there might be situations when other challenges are more critical to the ones being eliminated by it. also, the study relies on a theoretical analysis of literature, establishing a basis for comprehending, scrutinizing, and interpreting facts. however, the process of pairing ccs and sfs may include issues related to individual’s sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024108 subjective judgment, validity and challenges in practical application. therefore, as a potential approach for future research, the study might be corroborated by soliciting expert opinions and conducting a thorough analysis of data obtained from methods such as questionnaire surveys, interviews, the delphi methodology, etc. also, future studies may reveal additional factors based on bim maturity within a country, sector of the construction industry, stakeholder’s perception, value of construction project, and disciplinespecific characteristics (such as civil, mechanical, electrical, or architectural). hence, this may result in the development of novel as well intricate connections between the existing and additional identified factors leading to the development of a holistic framework. furthermore, recent years have witnessed studies on the implementation of lean construction (lc) and public private partnership (ppp) based contracts in the construction industry. therefore, it is necessary to examine the methods and degree of application of these strategies to classify and assess them as relevant factors in the adoption of technology in the construction industry. overall, the paper’s findings are an initial step in helping researchers and practitioners to fill knowledge gaps to facilitate bim implementation for fm. statement on ethics and informed consent the research reported in this paper did not require ethical clearance as it involved analysis of articles that were published in peer-reviewed journals. additionally, the study did not involve data collection with humans nor any secondary datasets involving data provided by humans. references abideen, d.k., yunusa-kaltungo, a., manu, p. and cheung, c., 2022. a systematic review of the extent to which bim is integrated into operation and maintenance. sustainability, 14, p.8692. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14148692 adekunle, s.a., ejohwomu, o. and aigbavboa, c.o., 2021. building information modelling diffusion research in developing countries: a user meta-model approach. buildings, 11(7), pp.1–20. https://doi.org/10.3390/ buildings11070264 ahuja, r., sawhney, a., jain, m., arif, m. and rakshit, s., 2020. factors influencing bim adoption in emerging markets – the case of india. international journal of construction management, 20(1), pp.65–76. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 15623599.2018.1462445 akofio-sowah, m.-a., boadi, r., amekudzi, a. and meyer, m., 2014. managing ancillary transportation assets: the state of the practice. journal of infrastructure systems, [e-journal] 20(1), p.04013010. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) is.1943-555x.0000162 alreshidi, e., mourshed, m. and rezgui, y., 2018. requirements for cloud-based bim governance solutions to facilitate team collaboration in construction projects. requirements engineering, 23(1), pp.1–31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766016-0254-6 amuda-yusuf, g., 2018. critical success factors for building information modelling implementation. construction economics and building, 18(3), pp.55–73. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i3.6000 andreani, m., bertagni, s., biagini, c. and mallo, f., 2019. 7d bim for sustainability assessment in design processes: a case study of design of alternatives in severe climate and heavy use conditions. architecture and engineering, [e-journal] 4(2), pp.3–12. https://doi.org/10.23968/2500-0055-2019-4-2-3-12 antwi-afari, m.f., li, h., pärn, e.a. and edwards, d.j., 2018. critical success factors for implementing building information modelling (bim): a longitudinal review. automation in construction, [e-journal] 91(november 2017), pp.100–110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.03.010 sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024109 https://doi.org/10.3390/su14148692 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11070264 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11070264 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1462445 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1462445 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000162 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)is.1943-555x.0000162 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766-016-0254-6 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766-016-0254-6 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i3.6000 https://doi.org/10.23968/2500-0055-2019-4-2-3-12 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2018.03.010 arayici, y., onyenobi, t. and egbu, c., 2012. building information modelling (bim) for facilities management (fm): the mediacity case study approach. international journal of 3-d information modeling, [e-journal] 1(1), pp.55–73. https://doi.org/10.4018/ij3dim.2012010104 awwad, k.a., shibani, a. and ghostin, m., 2022. exploring the critical success factors influencing bim level 2 implementation in the uk construction industry: the case of smes. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(10), pp.1894–1901. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1744213 azhar, s., 2011. building information modeling (bim): trends, benefits, risks, and challenges for the aec industry. leadership and management in engineering, 11(3), pp.241–52. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)lm.1943-5630.0000127 bademosi, f. and issa, r.r.a., 2021. factors influencing adoption and integration of construction robotics and automation technology in the us. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 147(8). https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002103 bansal, v.k., 2021. integrated framework of bim and gis applications to support building lifecycle: a move toward nd modeling. journal of architectural engineering, 27(4), pp.1–18. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.19435568.0000490 becerik-gerber, b., jazizadeh, f., li, n. and calis, g., 2012. application areas and data requirements for bimenabled facilities management. journal of construction engineering and management, 138(3), pp.431–42. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000433 bifm, 2012. bim and fm: bridging the gap for success. fm leaders discussion forum, pp.1–24. available at https://www.scribd.com/document/169209876/bim-and-fm-bridging-the-gap-for-success. blay, k.b., tuuli, m.m. and france-mensah, j., 2019. managing change in bim-level 2 projects: benefits, challenges, and opportunities. built environment project and asset management, 9(5), pp.581–96. https://doi.org/10.1108/ bepam-09-2018-0114 booth, a., 2008. unpacking your literature search toolbox: on search styles and tactics. health information and libraries journal, 25(4), pp.313–17. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2008.00825.x bosch, a., volker, l. and koutamanis, a., 2015. bim in the operations stage: bottlenecks and implications for owners. built environment project and asset management, [e-journal] 5(3), pp.331–43. https://doi.org/10.1108/ bepam-03-2014-0017 bronson, d.e. and davis, t.s., 2011. finding and evaluating evidence: systematic reviews and evidence-based practice. [e-book] oxford: oxford university press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195337365.001.0001 brous, p., herder, p. and janssen, m., 2016. governing asset management data infrastructures. procedia computer science, 95, pp.303–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2016.09.339 brunet, m., motamedi, a., guénette, l.m. and forgues, d., 2019. analysis of bim use for asset management in three public organizations in québec, canada. built environment project and asset management, 9(1), pp.153–67. https://doi. org/10.1108/bepam-02-2018-0046 bui, n., merschbrock, c. and munkvold, b.e., 2016. a review of building information modelling for construction in developing countries. procedia engineering, 164(1877), pp.487–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.649 cantisani, g., panesso, j.d.c., del serrone, g., di mascio, p., gentile, g., loprencipe, g. and moretti, l., 2022. re-design of a road node with 7d bim: geometrical, environmental and microsimulation approaches to implement a benefit-cost analysis between alternatives. automation in construction, [e-journal] 135( july 2021), p.104133. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104133 sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024110 https://doi.org/10.4018/ij3dim.2012010104 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1744213 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)lm.1943-5630.0000127 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002103 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002103 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000490 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ae.1943-5568.0000490 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000433 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000433 https://www.scribd.com/document/169209876/bim-and-fm-bridging-the-gap-for-success https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-09-2018-0114 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-09-2018-0114 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2008.00825.x https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-03-2014-0017 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-03-2014-0017 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195337365.001.0001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.procs.2016.09.339 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-02-2018-0046 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-02-2018-0046 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.649 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104133 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2022.104133 carbonari, g., stravoravdis, s. and gausden, c., 2018. improving fm task efficiency through bim: a proposal for bim implementation. journal of corporate real estate, [e-journal] 20(1), pp.4–15. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcre-01-20170001 chadegani, a.a., salehi, h., yunus, m.m., farhadi, h., fooladi, m., farhadi, m. and ebrahim, n.a., 2013. a comparison between two main academic literature collections: web of science and scopus databases. asian social science, 9(5), pp.18–26. https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v9n5p18 chan, c.t.w., 2014. barriers of implementing bim in construction industry from the designers’ perspective: a hong kong experience. journal of system and management sciences, 4(2), p.17. chan, d.w.m., olawumi, t.o. and ho, a.m.l., 2019. perceived benefits of and barriers to building information modelling (bim) implementation in construction: the case of hong kong. journal of building engineering, 25, p.100764. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2019.100764 charef, r., alaka, h.a. and emmitt, s., 2018. beyond the third dimension of bim: a systematic review of literature and assessment of professional views. journal of building engineering, [e-journal] (may). https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jobe.2018.04.028 chien, k.f., wu, z.h. and huang, s.c., 2014. identifying and assessing critical risk factors for bim projects: empirical study. automation in construction, 45, pp.1–15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2014.04.012 corry, e., o’donnell, j., curry, e., coakley, d., pauwels, p. and keane, m., 2014. using semantic web technologies to access soft aec data. advanced engineering informatics, 28(4), pp.370–80. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2014.05.002 darwish, a.m., tantawy, m.m. and elbeltagi, e., 2020. critical success factors for bim implementation in construction projects. saudi journal of civil engineering, [e-journal] 4(9), pp.180–91. https://doi.org/10.36348/ sjce.2020.v04i09.006 davies, h.t. and crombie, i.k., 1998. getting to grips with systematic reviews and meta-analyses. hospital medicine (london, england: 1998), 59(12), pp.955–58. davila delgado, j.m. and oyedele, l.o., 2020. bim data model requirements for asset monitoring and the circular economy. journal of engineering, design and technology, 18(5), pp.1269–85. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-10-20190284 davtalaba, o. and delgadob, j.l., 2014. benefits of 6d bim for facilities management departments for construction projectsa case study approach. isarc, 2014. ding, z., zuo, j., wu, j. and wang, j.y., 2015. key factors for the bim adoption by architects: a china study. engineering, construction and architectural management, 22(6), pp.732–48. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-20150053 dixit, m.k., venkatraj, v., ostadalimakhmalbaf, m., pariafsai, f. and lavy, s., 2019. integration of facility management and building information modeling (bim): a review of key issues and challenges. facilities, [e-journal] 37(7–8), pp.455–83. https://doi.org/10.1108/f-03-2018-0043 durdyev, s., ashour, m., connelly, s. and mahdiyar, a., 2022. barriers to the implementation of building information modelling ( bim ) for facility management. journal of building engineering, [e-journal] 46(october 2021), p.103736. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.103736 eastman, c., teicholz, p., sacks, r. and liston, k., 2011. bim handbook: a guide to building information modeling for owners, managers, designers, engineers, and contractors. hoboken, us: john wiley & sons. van eck, n.j. and waltman, l., 2010. software survey: vosviewer, a computer program for bibliometric mapping. scientometrics, 84(2), pp.523–38. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0146-3 sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024111 https://doi.org/10.1108/jcre-01-2017-0001 https://doi.org/10.1108/jcre-01-2017-0001 https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v9n5p18 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2019.100764 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2018.04.028 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2018.04.028 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2014.04.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2014.05.002 https://doi.org/10.36348/sjce.2020.v04i09.006 https://doi.org/10.36348/sjce.2020.v04i09.006 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-10-2019-0284 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-10-2019-0284 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-2015-0053 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-2015-0053 https://doi.org/10.1108/f-03-2018-0043 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2021.103736 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-009-0146-3 falcão silva, m.j. and couto, p., 2021. facility and asset management on bim methodology. in: h. rodrigues, f. gaspar, p. fernandes and a. mateus, eds. sustainability and automation in smart constructions. cham: springer international publishing. pp.75–79. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35533-3_11 farghaly, k., abanda, f.h., vidalakis, c. and wood, g., 2018. taxonomy for bim and asset management semantic interoperability. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 34(4), pp.1–13. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) me.1943-5479.0000610 farghaly, k., abanda, f.h., vidalakis, c. and wood, g., 2019. bim-linked data integration for asset management. built environment project and asset management, 9(4), pp.489–502. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-11-2018-0136 gao, x. and pishdad-bozorgi, p., 2019. bim-enabled facilities operation and maintenance: a review. advanced engineering informatics, 39(august 2018), pp.227–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2019.01.005 georgiadou, m.c., 2019. an overview of benefits and challenges of building information modelling (bim) adoption in uk residential projects. construction innovation, 19(3), pp.298–320. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-04-2017-0030 ghaffarianhoseini, a., tookey, j., ghaffarianhoseini, a., naismith, n., azhar, s., olia, e. and raahemifar, k., 2017a. building information modelling ( bim ) uptake: clear benefits , understanding its implementation , risks and challenges. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, [e-journal] 75(december 2016), pp.1046–53. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.083 ghaffarianhoseini, a., zhang, t., nwadigo, o., ghaffarianhoseini, a., naismith, n., tookey, j. and raahemifar, k., 2017b. application of nd bim integrated knowledge-based building management system (bim-ikbms) for inspecting post-construction energy efficiency. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, 72, pp.935–49. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.12.061 gheisari, m. and irizarry, j., 2016. investigating human and technological requirements for successful implementation of a bim-based mobile augmented reality environment in facility management practices. facilities, [e-journal] 34(1–2), pp.69–84. https://doi.org/10.1108/f-04-2014-0040 ghosh, a., chasey, a.d. and mergenschroer, m., 2015. building information modeling for facilities management: current practices and future prospects. in: r.r.a. issa and s. olbina, eds. building information modeling: applications and practices. reston, va: asce. ch.9 pp.223–53. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413982.ch09 giel, b. and issa, r.r.a., 2016. framework for evaluating the bim competencies of facility owners. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 32(1), p.15. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000378 godager, b., onstein, e. and huang, l., 2021. the concept of enterprise bim: current research practice and future trends. ieee access, [e-journal] 9, pp.42265–90. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2021.3065116 gouda, a., abdallah, m.r. and marzouk, m., 2020. an integrated framework for managing building facilities. journal of engineering and applied science, 67(4), pp.809–28. gu, n. and london, k., 2010. understanding and facilitating bim adoption in the aec industry. automation in construction, 19(8), pp.988–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.09.002 halfawy, m.r., 2008. integration of municipal infrastructure asset management processes: challenges and solutions. journal of computing in civil engineering, 22(3), pp.216–29. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)08873801(2008)22:3(216) he, z. and liu, t., 2022. exploring key elements and performance of bim and vr technologies in the project management of assembled buildings. advances in multimedia, [e-journal] 2022, pp.1–8. https://doi. org/10.1155/2022/1168953 sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024112 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-35533-3_11 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000610 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000610 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-11-2018-0136 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2019.01.005 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-04-2017-0030 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.083 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.11.083 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.12.061 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.12.061 https://doi.org/10.1108/f-04-2014-0040 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413982.ch09 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000378 https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2021.3065116 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2010.09.002 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3801(2008)22:3(216 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0887-3801(2008)22:3(216 https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/1168953 https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/1168953 heaton, j., parlikad, a.k. and schooling, j., 2019. design and development of bim models to support operations and maintenance. computers in industry, [e-journal] 111, pp.172–186. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2019.08.001 hesping, f.h. and schiele, h., 2015. purchasing strategy development: a multi-level review. journal of purchasing and supply management, 21(2), pp.138–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pursup.2014.12.005 hilal, m., maqsood, t. and abdekhodaee, a., 2019. a hybrid conceptual model for bim in fm. construction innovation, [e-journal] 19(4), pp.531–49. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-05-2018-0043 hohenstein, n.o., feise, e., hartmann, e. and giunipero, l., 2015. research on the phenomenon of supply chain resilience: a systematic review and paths for further investigation. international journal of physical distribution and logistics management, 45, pp.90–117. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpdlm-05-2013-0128 ikediashi, d.i., ansa, o.a., ujene, a.o. and akoh, s.r., 2022. barriers to bim for facilities management adoption in nigeria: a multivariate analysis. international journal of building pathology and adaptation. [e-journal ahead of print] https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-04-2022-0058 ikediashi, d.i., ogunlana, s.o. and o. ujene, a., 2014. an investigation on policy direction and drivers for sustainable facilities management practice in nigeria. journal of facilities management, [e-journal] 12(3), pp.303–22. https://doi. org/10.1108/jfm-02-2013-0013 ipwea 2015. ipwea. international infrastructure management manual (iimm). wellington, new zealand: institute of public works engineering australasia. isikdag, u., 2012. design patterns for bim-based service-oriented architectures. automation in construction, 25, pp.59–71. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.04.013 jang, r. and collinge, w., 2020. improving bim asset and facilities management processes: a mechanical and electrical (m&e) contractor perspective. journal of building engineering, 32, p.12. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jobe.2020.101540 jones, b.i., 2020. a study of building information modeling (bim) uptake and proposed evaluation framework. journal of information technology in construction, 25(april), pp.452–68. https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2020.026 kang, t.w. and choi, h.s., 2015. bim perspective definition metadata for interworking facility management data. advanced engineering informatics, 29(4), pp.958–70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2015.09.004 kassem, m., kelly, g., dawood, n., serginson, m. and lockley, s., 2015. bim in facilities management applications: a case study of a large university complex. built environment project and asset management, 5(3), pp.261–77. https://doi. org/10.1108/bepam-02-2014-0011 kong, d., kapogiannis, g. and cheshmehzangi, a., 2022. smart airport: mobile asset information modeling management based on gamificative vr environment-a case study of ningbo lishe international airport staff restaurant. iop conference series: earth and environmental science, 1048(1). https://doi.org/10.1088/17551315/1048/1/012009 korpela, j., miettinen, r., salmikivi, t. and ihalainen, j., 2015. the challenges and potentials of utilizing building information modelling in facility management: the case of the center for properties and facilities of the university of helsinki. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 33(1), pp.3–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2015. 1016540 kula, b. and ergen, e., 2021. implementation of a bim-fm platform at an international airport project: case study. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 147(4), p.5021002. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0002025 sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024113 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.compind.2019.08.001 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pursup.2014.12.005 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-05-2018-0043 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijpdlm-05-2013-0128 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijbpa-04-2022-0058 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-02-2013-0013 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-02-2013-0013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.04.013 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101540 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobe.2020.101540 https://doi.org/10.36680/j.itcon.2020.026 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aei.2015.09.004 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-02-2014-0011 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-02-2014-0011 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1048/1/012009 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/1048/1/012009 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2015.1016540 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2015.1016540 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002025 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002025 kumar, j.v. and mukherjee, m., 2009. scope of building information modeling (bim) in india. journal of engineering science and technology review, 2(1), pp.165–69. https://doi.org/10.25103/jestr.021.30 kumaraswamy, m., 2011. editorial: integrating “infrastructure project management” with its “built asset management.” built environment project and asset management, 1(1), pp.5–13. https://doi.org/10.1108/20441241111143740 kumaraswamy, m.m., anvuur, a.m. and smyth, h.j., 2010. pursuing ‘relational integration’ and ‘overall value’ through ‘rivans.’ facilities, 28(13), pp.673–86. https://doi.org/10.1108/02632771011083702 lee, k. and jung, y., 2016. assessment of facility management functions for life-cycle information sharing. korean journal of construction engineering and management, 17(6), pp.40–52. https://doi.org/10.6106/kjcem.2016.17.6.040 lee, k., shin, j., kwon, s., choi, g. and ko, h., 2015. a study of the establishment of bim design environment based on virtual desktop infrastructure(vdi) of cloud computing technology. kjcem, pp.118–28. https://doi. org/10.6106/kjcem.2015.16.4.118 lee, s., yu, j. and jeong, d., 2015. bim acceptance model in construction organizations. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 31(3), pp.1–13. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000252 lewis, a., riley, d. and elmualim, a., 2010. defining high performance buildings for operations and maintenance. international journal of facility management, 1(2), p.16. li, y. and liu, c., 2019. applications of multirotor drone technologies in construction management. international journal of construction management, 19(5), pp.401–12. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1452101 lin, y.c. and su, y.c., 2013. developing mobileand bim-based integrated visual facility maintenance management system. the scientific world journal, 2013, p.9. https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/124249 love, p.e.d., matthews, j., simpson, i., hill, a. and olatunji, o.a., 2014. a benefits realization management building information modeling framework for asset owners. automation in construction, 37, pp.1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2013.09.007 love, p.e.d., zhou, j., matthews, j., sing, c.p. and carey, b., 2015. a systems information model for managing electrical, control, and instrumentation assets. built environment project and asset management, 5(3), pp.278–89. https:// doi.org/10.1108/bepam-03-2014-0019 mahalingam, a., yadav, a.k. and varaprasad, j., 2015. investigating the role of lean practices in enabling bim adoption: evidence from two indian cases. journal of construction engineering and management, 141(7), pp.1–11. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000982 manatos, m.j., sarrico, c.s. and rosa, m.j., 2017. the integration of quality management in higher education institutions: a systematic literature review. total quality management and business excellence, 28(1–2), pp.159–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2015.1050180 mayo, g. and issa, r.r.a., 2016. nongeometric building information needs assessment for facilities management. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 32(3). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000414 mcarthur, j.j., 2015. a building information management (bim) framework and supporting case study for existing building operations, maintenance and sustainability. procedia engineering, 118(may), pp.1104–11. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.08.450 misron, s.f.m., naim, m.a. and asmoni, m., 2018. critical success factor of building information modelling implementation in facilities management – an overview. international journal of real estate studies, 12(2), pp.21–32. motawa, i. and almarshad, a., 2013. a knowledge-based bim system for building maintenance. automation in construction, 29, pp.173–82. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.09.008 sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024114 https://doi.org/10.25103/jestr.021.30 https://doi.org/10.1108/20441241111143740 https://doi.org/10.1108/02632771011083702 https://doi.org/10.6106/kjcem.2016.17.6.040 https://doi.org/10.6106/kjcem.2015.16.4.118 https://doi.org/10.6106/kjcem.2015.16.4.118 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000252 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1452101 https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/124249 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2013.09.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2013.09.007 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-03-2014-0019 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-03-2014-0019 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000982 https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2015.1050180 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000414 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.08.450 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2015.08.450 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.09.008 munir, m., kiviniemi, a., finnegan, s. and jones, s.w., 2020a. bim business value for asset owners through effective asset information management. facilities, 38(3–4), pp.181–200. https://doi.org/10.1108/f-03-2019-0036 munir, m., kiviniemi, a., jones, s. and finnegan, s., 2020b. bim-based operational information requirements for asset owners. architectural engineering and design management, 16(2), pp.100–14. https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2019.1 706439 naghshbandi, s.n., 2016. bim for facility management: challenges and research gaps. civil engineering journal, 2(12), pp.679–84. https://doi.org/10.28991/cej-2016-00000067 nicał, a.k. and wodyński, w., 2016. enhancing facility management through bim 6d. procedia engineering, [e-journal] 164( june), pp.299–306. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.623 olawumi, t.o. and chan, d.w.m., 2019. critical success factors for implementing building information modeling and sustainability practices in construction projects: a delphi survey. sustainable development, [e-journal] 27(4), pp.587– 602. https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1925 oluleye, i.b., oyetunji, a.k., olukolajo, m.a. and chan, d.w.m., 2021. integrating building information modelling for improving facility management operations: a fuzzy synthetic evaluation of the critical success factors. journal of facilities management, [e-journal] 21(2), pp.201–20. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-06-2021-0066 ozarisoy, b., 2022. energy effectiveness of passive cooling design strategies to reduce the impact of long-term heatwaves on occupants’ thermal comfort in europe: climate change and mitigation. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129675 park, s., park, s.i. and lee, s.-h., 2016. strategy on sustainable infrastructure asset management: focus on korea’s future policy directivity. renewable and sustainable energy reviews, [e-journal] 62, pp.710–22. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. rser.2016.04.073 parn, e.a., edwards, d., riaz, z., mehmood, f. and lai, j., 2019. engineering-out hazards: digitising the management working safety in confined spaces. facilities, [e-journal] 37(3–4), pp.196–215. https://doi.org/10.1108/f-03-2018-0039 patacas, j., dawood, n. and kassem, m., 2020. bim for facilities management: a framework and a common data environment using open standards. automation in construction, [e-journal] 120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2020.103366 patel, t., bapat, h., patel, d. and van der walt, j.d., 2021. identification of critical success factors (csfs) of bim software selection: a combined approach of fcm and fuzzy dematel. buildings, 11(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/ buildings11070311 pishdad-bozorgi, p., gao, x., eastman, c. and self, a.p., 2018. planning and developing facility management-enabled building information model (fm-enabled bim). automation in construction, [e-journal] 87, pp.22–38. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.12.004 prakash, a. and ambekar, s., 2020. digital transformation using blockchain technology in the construction industry. journal of information technology case and application research, 22(4), pp.256–78. https://doi.org/10.1080/15228053.20 21.1880245 ramilo, r. and embi, m.r. bin, 2014. critical analysis of key determinants and barriers to digital innovation adoption among architectural organizations. frontiers of architectural research, 3(4), pp.431–51. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. foar.2014.06.005 sadeghineko, f. and kumar, b., 2022. application of semantic web ontologies for the improvement of information exchange in existing buildings. construction innovation, [e-journal] 22(3), pp.444–64. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-032021-0058 sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024115 https://doi.org/10.1108/f-03-2019-0036 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2019.1706439 https://doi.org/10.1080/17452007.2019.1706439 https://doi.org/10.28991/cej-2016-00000067 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.623 https://doi.org/10.1002/sd.1925 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfm-06-2021-0066 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.129675 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.04.073 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2016.04.073 https://doi.org/10.1108/f-03-2018-0039 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103366 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103366 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11070311 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11070311 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.12.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2017.12.004 https://doi.org/10.1080/15228053.2021.1880245 https://doi.org/10.1080/15228053.2021.1880245 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2014.06.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foar.2014.06.005 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-03-2021-0058 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-03-2021-0058 sarkar, d., raghavendra, h.b. and ruparelia, m., 2015. role of key performance indicators for evaluating the usage of bim as tool for facility management of construction projects. international journal of civil and structural engineering, 5, pp.370–78. schraven, d., hartmann, a. and dewulf, g., 2011. effectiveness of infrastructure asset management: challenges for public agencies. built environment project and asset management, 1(1), pp.61–74. https://doi. org/10.1108/20441241111143786 seuring, s. and gold, s., 2012. conducting content-analysis based literature reviews in supply chain management. supply chain management, 17(5), pp.544–55. https://doi.org/10.1108/13598541211258609 shen, w., hao, q. and xue, y., 2012. a loosely coupled system integration approach for decision support in facility management and maintenance. automation in construction, 25, pp.41–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.04.003 sidani, a., dinis, f.m., sanhudo, l., duarte, j., santos baptista, j., poças martins, j. and soeiro, a., 2021. recent tools and techniques of bim-based virtual reality: a systematic review. archives of computational methods in engineering, [e-journal] 28(2), pp.449–62. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11831-019-09386-0 smyth, h., anvuur, a.m. and kusuma, i., 2017. integrated solutions for total asset management through “rivans.” built environment project and asset management, 7(1), pp.5–18. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-07-2015-0034 son, h., lee, s. and kim, c., 2015. what drives the adoption of building information modeling in design organizations? an empirical investigation of the antecedents affecting architects’ behavioral intentions. automation in construction, 49(pa), pp.92–99. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2014.10.012 staykova, g. and underwood, j., 2017. assessing collaborative performance on construction projects through knowledge exchange a uk rail strategic alliance case study. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 24(6), pp.968–87. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2016-0179 thabet, w. and lucas, j., 2017. asset data handover for a large educational institution: case-study approach. journal of construction engineering and management, 143(11), pp.1–12. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0001389 tranfield, d., denyer, d. and smart, p., 2003. towards a methodology for developing evidence-informed management knowledge by means of systematic review. british journal of management, 14(3), pp.207–22. https://doi. org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375 tsay, g.s., staub-french, s. and poirier, é., 2022. bim for facilities management: an investigation into the asset information delivery process and the associated challenges. applied sciences, [e-journal] 12(19). https://doi. org/10.3390/app12199542 tucker, r.l., 1986. management of construction productivity. journal of management in engineering, 2(3), pp.148–56. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)9742-597x(1986)2:3(148) vilventhan, a., razin, s. and rajadurai, r., 2020. 4d bim models for smart utility relocation management in urban infrastructure projects. facilities, 39(1–2), pp.50–63. https://doi.org/10.1108/f-08-2019-0091 volk, r., stengel, j. and schultmann, f., 2014. building information modeling (bim) for existing buildings — literature review and future needs. automation in construction, [e-journal] 38, pp.109–27. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. autcon.2013.10.023 wang, y., wang, x., wang, j., yung, p. and jun, g., 2013. engagement of facilities management in design stage through bim: framework and a case study. advances in civil engineering, [e-journal] pp.1–8. https://doi. org/10.1155/2013/189105 sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024116 https://doi.org/10.1108/20441241111143786 https://doi.org/10.1108/20441241111143786 https://doi.org/10.1108/13598541211258609 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2012.04.003 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11831-019-09386-0 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-07-2015-0034 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2014.10.012 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2016-0179 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001389 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001389 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8551.00375 https://doi.org/10.3390/app12199542 https://doi.org/10.3390/app12199542 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)9742-597x(1986)2:3(148 https://doi.org/10.1108/f-08-2019-0091 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2013.10.023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2013.10.023 https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/189105 https://doi.org/10.1155/2013/189105 wang, z. and liu, j., 2020. a seven-dimensional building information model for the improvement of construction efficiency. advances in civil engineering, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8842475 williams, r., shayesteh, h. and marjanovic-halburd, l., 2014. utilising building information modeling for facilities management. international journal of facility management, 5(1), pp.1–19. won, j., lee, g., dossick, c. and messner, j., 2013. where to focus for successful adoption of building information modeling within organization. journal of construction engineering and management, 139(11), p.10. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000731 woodhouse, j., 2003. asset management: concepts & practices. [online] pp.1–12. available at: https://www. researchgate.net/publication/228905772. zhou, z. and mi, c., 2017. social responsibility research within the context of megaproject management: trends, gaps and opportunities. international journal of project management, 35(7), pp.1378–90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2017.02.017 sood and laishram construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 3 july 2024117 https://doi.org/10.1155/2020/8842475 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000731 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000731 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228905772 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228905772 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.02.017 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2017.02.017 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: wood, x., ghimire, p., kim, s., barutha, p., jeong, h. d. 2024. framework for evaluating the success of integrated project delivery in the industrial construction sector: a mixed methods approach & machine learning application. construction economics and building, 24:1/2, 94–118. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v24i1/2.8783 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article framework for evaluating the success of integrated project delivery in the industrial construction sector: a mixed methods approach & machine learning application xavier wood1, prashnna ghimire1, suryeon kim2, philip barutha3, h. david jeong2 1 durham school of architectural engineering & construction, university of nebraska-lincoln, usa 2 department of construction science, texas a&m university, usa 3 civil and environmental engineering and earth sciences, university of notre dame, usa corresponding author: doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8783 article history: received 25/08/2023; revised 21/01/2024; accepted 02/03/2024; published 01/07/2024 abstract integrated project delivery (ipd) has gained traction as a collaborative approach to managing complexity and uncertainty in large industrial capital projects. while ipd emphasizes team integration and process alignment to drive better outcomes, the lack of standardized benchmarks to evaluate its performance relative to traditional methods persists as a barrier. to bridge this gap, this study developed a practical, and unbiased project success framework (psf) for ipd on industrial projects. a mixed methods research approach including subject matter experts’ survey, research charrette, and validation survey was conducted to build and validate the psf. in addition, this study proposed a machine learning (ml)-based application tool embedding psf to enhance the practicality and applicability of psf. the machine learning-based application tool was validated by comparing the results with the psf suggested in this research. the psf developed in this study allows researchers and practitioners to empirically evaluate the integrated project delivery’s efficacy on key industrial project outcomes. in addition, it offers a method to compare project delivery methods across diverse projects, aiding declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 94 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8783 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8783 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i1/2.8783 organizations in precise selection using empirical evidence for optimal results. moreover, this framework aids clients in crafting shared risk/reward models that foster successful outcomes by encouraging desirable behaviours. keywords project success framework; ipd; industrial construction; machine learning; mixed methods research introduction industrial projects are challenging due to their high complexity, multiple stakeholders with varying business objectives, evolving technology, construction in adverse environments, and other complications(yun and jung, 2017; barutha, et al., 2021). due to their complexities, industrial projects often fail to meet their objectives(merrow, 2011). these failures can lead to substantial financial losses, missed market opportunities, strained business relationships, and even legal disputes. one study found that 70% of industrial megaprojects experience cost overruns or fail to meet project objectives entirely (flyvbjerg, 2014). the traditional approach to delivering industrial projects has normally followed either design-bid-build or design-build methods (ahmed and el-sayegh, 2021). under a traditional framework, owners approve linear phasing from initial design through separate contracting and finally construction in sequence. researchers point out downsides to conventional industrial project structures, including lack of early contractor involvement in design choices, misalignment among stakeholder priorities, and adversarial business affairs (walker and rowlinson, 2019). this fragmented arrangement tends to provide few incentives for collaboration, leaving projects exposed to delays, cost escalations, and friction between parties ( jones, 2014; ahmed and el-sayegh, 2021). the american institute of architects (aia) introduced the ipd technique to enhance construction project delivery systems by promoting smooth integration and collaboration among project participants. (aia, 2007; whang, park and kim, 2019). the core of ipd is fostering collaborative, unified, and efficient project teams, where all parties involved jointly agree on goals and commit to decisions that benefit the project’s outcomes, rather than focusing on individual objectives (rodrigues and lindhard, 2021). several studies (el asmar, hanna and loh, 2013; gonzález-boubeta and prado-prado, 2020) indicated that (ipd) has seen the greatest adoption in healthcare and commercial construction projects and concluded that ipd initiatives demonstrated statistically significant improvements in key performances. while industrial construction has lagged other sectors in employing ipd methods, industrial project leaders are showing rising levels of interest amid challenges in delivering facilities on a budget (al subaih, 2015). there are several studies aimed at evaluating the impact of integrated project delivery (ipd) on efficiency, cost, schedule, quality, safety, and other outcomes across construction sectors. metrics have been developed to measure ipd performance in areas including healthcare (el asmar, hanna and loh, 2013), commercial construction (hanna, 2016), infrastructure projects (bapat, sarkar and gujar, 2021), and trade contractors (iwanski, 2013). however, there remains minimal research specifically concentrated on assessing ipd effectiveness for industrial facilities. as industrial sector clients are increasingly interested in integrated project delivery methods, it becomes imperative to assess whether such methods offer superior outcomes as compared to traditional delivery methods (barutha, et al., 2021). however, at present, there is a lack of comprehensive frameworks that allow for a comparison of the performance of industrial projects executed under different delivery methods. without a dedicated framework to evaluate industrial ipd, owners lose visibility into whether this collaborative approach is achieving better outcomes compared to traditional project execution methods in terms of schedule, cost savings, quality, safety, sustainability, client satisfaction, and other dimensions wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202495 prioritized by the industry. therefore, the overarching goal of this research is to establish a project success framework (psf) that will allow industrial sector clients to evaluate the performance of their conventional projects, thereby enabling them to make more informed decisions regarding the effectiveness of collaborative delivery methods in this domain. this study aims to not only establish a psf but also to develop a suitable machine-learning model that can accurately identify the degree of collaboration and integration (c&i) exhibited in industrial projects. the machine learning (ml) model is designed to operate based on the project performance in each of the success factors. the goal is to create a model that can provide insights into the level of collaboration and integration within the project, ultimately aiding in the improvement of project outcomes. literature review on project success the choice of project delivery approach is sometimes determined by the project’s nature and past experiences. a recent study synthesized the research trends and gaps in ipd within the construction industry, highlighting the growing trend in ipd research and the need for a more comprehensive understanding on project success criteria (arar and poirier, 2022). during the early phases of a project, owners are tasked with making numerous critical project delivery decisions that can significantly impact project performance. consequently, there is a strong interest among project owners to gain a better understanding of the intricate relationships that exist between these key decisions and their overall impact on project success (esmaeili, et al., 2013). there exist two distinct research streams on the topic of project success, namely project success criteria and project success factors (bannerman, 2008; han, et al., 2012; bapat, sarkar and gujar, 2021). the former aims to understand how project success is evaluated by focusing on the information necessary to determine whether a project was successful or not. on the other hand, the latter examines the factors that contribute to a project’s success and aims to elucidate why different projects may have varying levels of success. as the objective of this paper is to develop a framework for evaluating the success of industrial projects, the current literature review primarily focuses on the first research stream. specifically, the review commences by exploring conceptual models of project success and subsequently delves into practical approaches that have been employed to assess the success of industrial construction projects. another study focused on critical success factors for implementing ipd in the construction industry missed providing an analysis of critical success factors specifically for industrial ipd, which have unique requirements compared to other construction sectors (whang, park and kim, 2019). a study evaluating the performance of ipd on complex building projects missed providing a specific performance analysis related to industrial projects (mesa, molenaar and alarcón, 2016). while existing research has explored integrated project delivery success factors across construction domains, there remain gaps in defining appropriate evaluation criteria tailored to industrial sector projects. recent studies (bilbo, et al., 2015; mesa, molenaar and alarcón, 2016; 2019; yu, et al., 2019; elghaish, et al., 2020) have worked to identify key ipd performance indicators and success factors from various lenses. however, these analyses centred on buildings and infrastructure, without a specific focus on the unique scale, complexity, and stakeholder dynamics related to large industrial manufacturing, production, and processing facilities. the “iron triangle” concept, which encompasses cost, time, and quality, has been recognized as the fundamental criteria for evaluating project success by several researchers (pinto and slevin, 1988; atkinson, 1999; chua, kog and loh, 1999; lim and zain, 1999; al-tmeemy, abdulrahman and harun, 2011; müller and jugdev, 2012). atkinson suggested the “iron triangle” approach to evaluating project success reduces success to just cost, time, and quality is not entirely accurate and can lead to type 2 errors. instead, he suggested a two-dimensional approach to success, which includes both the delivery stage and the post-delivery stage. the delivery stage relates to traditional outcomes of meeting cost, time, and quality targets, while the post-delivery stage dimension focuses on providing benefits to wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202496 stakeholders, user satisfaction, and meeting customer needs. pinto and slevin’s influential work on project success has emphasized the importance of evaluating project success. they have proposed a conceptual model that has two primary dimensions: the project and the client. the project dimension focuses on the project meeting cost, time, and quality targets, while the client dimension evaluates whether the project meets user satisfaction, addresses problems, and leads to effective decision-making. according to pinto and slevin (1988), project managers often have their bonuses, promotions, and career progression determined by how successful they are in delivering projects. (shrnhur, levy and dvir, 1997) proposed four dimensions for project success: project efficiency, impact on the customer, business and direct success, and preparing for the future. lim and zain (1999) developed a model that divides project success into micro and macro perspectives. the micro perspective assesses the results of the construction phase while the macro perspective examines whether the project fulfilled user or stakeholder needs. baccarini (1999) categorized project success into two dimensions: project management success and product success. the former relates to meeting the project’s budget, schedule, and quality objectives, while the latter corresponds to satisfying the stakeholders’ needs and achieving the project’s original goals. bannerman (2008) stated that the challenge in determining project success lies in deciding if it is a means to an end or an end in itself, with success being measured accordingly based on strategic goals, end-user needs, or traditional characteristics such as time, cost, and quality. the above models offer insights into what outcomes a project should achieve to be successful but failed to provide specific measurements for certain criteria. some researchers demonstrated more practical approaches to measuring construction project success. the kpi working group used a two-step framework to measure civil construction project success with key result areas (kras) and key performance indicators (kpis) (caldwell, 2007). six kras are defined in table 1. table 1. the kpi working group’s kras and their definitions kras definition client satisfaction measures how satisfied the client was with the quality of the finished product and the service (of the whole project team). usually measured at or shortly after completion and handover. defects measures the degree to which the completed facility was free from defects that impacted the client. usually measured at the point the project is offered for handover. cost measures how well out-turn costs compared with original estimates. time measures how closely the project was delivered to the original timetable. safety a measure of the number of lost time incidents per 200,000 hours worked. equivalent to 100 full time equivalent (fte) employees. profitability measures company profit before tax and interest as a percentage of sales. el asmar, hanna and loh (2016) created the project quarterback rating (pqr) to assess building project success. the pqr is a weighted sum of kras and kpis, with seven kras and multiple kpis in each. the construction industry institute (cii) has also developed success frameworks, including a linear weighted sum of two kras and four kpis by their pre-project planning research team (rt-039) in 1994 ( gibson and hamilton, 1994) shown in table 2. wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202497 table 2. cii rt-039’s project success index kra kpi measurement project success budget achievement (actual cost – estimated cost) / estimated cost schedule achievement (actual duration – estimated cost) / estimated duration operating success design capacity attained (actual output rate – estimated output rate) / estimated output rate plant utilization number of plants produces products in six months / 182 a comprehensive evaluation framework for project success is necessary to provide an objective and quantifiable measure of success. although some studies have developed project success evaluation frameworks, they have primarily focused on the commercial building sector, where the ipd originated from. because of the differences between commercial buildings and industrial projects, project success measurement needs to be adjusted. the unique characteristics of industrial construction projects, such as their complexity, scale, and technological requirements, suggest that they require a specific project success evaluation framework of ipd in this sector. the lack of standardized benchmarks to evaluate the performance of ipd in industrial projects relative to traditional methods persists as a barrier. to bridge this gap, this study developed a practical psf for ipd on industrial projects. the study’s goal is to establish a psf that will support industrial sector clients in evaluating the performance of their conventional projects, thereby enabling them to make more informed decisions regarding the effectiveness of collaborative delivery methods in this domain. the psf developed in this study allows researchers and practitioners to empirically evaluate the integrated project delivery’s efficacy on key industrial project outcomes. methodology this research implemented a mixed methods design to build and validate the psf for industrial projects, as depicted in figure1. this methodology was chosen for several reasons. first, the concept of project success is a complex phenomenon, and the exploration of complex phenomena is well suited to qualitative methods (creswell and plano clark, 2018). second, survey-dominant research methods have several drawbacks in construction research, such as low response rates, long response times, and long development periods (gibson and whittington, 2010). the explanatory sequential design facilitates gibson data analysis and integration at various stages of the study. it involves the collection and analysis of quantitative survey data, followed by the collection and analysis of qualitative data. by using the qualitative results to complement and clarify the quantitative findings, the researcher can develop a more thorough understanding of the research topic. the integration of qualitative results with quantitative findings enables the researcher to enhance and elucidate their understanding of the research topic in a more comprehensive manner (creswell and plano clark, 2018). this study was approved by the institutional review board (irb) of the university of nebraska-lincoln with the irb number 20191219809ex. phase a: subject matter experts survey in the first phase of this study, a survey was conducted to investigate the success factors used to measure project success. the survey aimed to identify the success factors, measure their level of importance, evaluate the project performance, and identify the collaboration and integration level for the most collaborative and integrated project compared to a typical project. the survey consisted of 13 items based on success factors identified in the study (cii rt-341, 2019) dedicated to ipd for industrial projects. a webwood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202498 based questionnaire was developed in qualtrics and distributed to a purposive sample of 87 construction professionals, including project managers, owners, project engineers, architects, and executives. participants were asked to pick the most collaborative and integrated project they have experienced recently as compared to the most typical projects they have experienced. also, participants were asked to “rate the level of project performance for each success factor on the most collaborative & integrated project you previously identified as compared to a typical project” on a 5-point likert-type scale (1=very little, 5=very high) if it applied to the project, to ensure that it measured the envisioned success factors. in addition, participants were asked to list the strategies that were used in the collaborative and integrated project. the intensity level of each strategy used on the project was collected, and the average intensity was calculated using the formula in equation 1. it is calculated by summing the intensity of these strategies and then dividing by the number of strategies used. this measure provides insight into the overall level of collaboration and integration implemented. average intensity sum of the intensity of collaboration integrai = & oon strategies numer of strategies used (equation 1) the machine learning (ml) model, an emerging area of artificial intelligence (ai), was proposed to prioritize result prediction over variable relationship determination, in contrast to traditional statistical methods predictions (rajula, et al., 2020; sanni-anibire, zin and olatunji, 2022; ghimire, kim and acharya, 2024). this ml-based application tool embedding the psf was designed to enhance the practicality and applicability of the framework, ultimately empowering industrial sector clients to make more informed decisions regarding the effectiveness of collaborative delivery methods in this domain. therefore, the survey and the subsequent development of the ml-based application tool were integral to the study’s goal of establishing a comprehensive framework for assessing project success in the industrial sector. figure 1. research methodology wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 202499 in this study, we aimed to develop a machine learning classification system that can predict whether the project demands high vs low (1 vs 0) collaboration and integration based on categorical input variables. the use of machine learning techniques for the survey type of data is commonly used in the construction field and has been utilized by various studies (ayhan, dikmen and talat birgonul, 2021; sanni-anibire, zin and olatunji, 2022).to investigate the relationship between the performance of project success factors and the level of collaboration and integration, machine learning models were deployed. it involves four steps in the machine learning application: (1) data collection through a subject matter expert survey, (2) data preprocessing, (3) development of machine learning models, and (4) model performance and evaluation. the choice of machine learning models, including decision tree (dt), naïve bayes (nb), logistic regression (lr), and k-nearest neighbors (k-nn), was based on their suitability for the specific objectives of the study. these models were selected due to their proven effectiveness in handling classification tasks and their potential to provide accurate predictions. the tree-based models, dt, were chosen for their ability to handle complex, non-linear relationships within data and to identify patterns and similarities within the data, respectively. on the other hand, the non-tree-based models were selected for their efficiency in handling large datasets and their ability to provide probabilistic predictions, which can be valuable in assessing the collaboration and integration based on various input variables. decision tree (dt) is a prevalent supervised learning algorithm that recursively partitions data on feature values to construct a predictive model represented as a tree structure ( janikow, 1998; charbuty and abdulazeez, 2021; ghimire, et al., 2023; pokharel and ghimire, 2023). nb and lr models are well-established for their efficiency in handling large datasets and their ability to provide probabilistic predictions, which can be valuable in assessing the likelihood of project success based on various input variables. the nb classifier applies bayes’ theorem to machine learning by assuming conditional feature independence to predict target class probabilities (rish, 2001; leung, 2007). mathematically, bayes’ theorem estimates the likelihood of an event based on its prior probability and the conditional probabilities associated with related evidence. lr, on the other hand, applies sigmoid functions to regression analysis to predict the probability of categorical outcomes based on input data features (tien bui, et al., 2019). in contrast to linear regression which forecasts continuous values, lr handles classification tasks by estimating discrete class membership likelihoods given evidence conditions. additionally, the k-nearest neighbors model was chosen for its capability to identify patterns and similarities within the data, which is essential for understanding the interrelationships between different project success factors in industrial contexts. the k-nn algorithm is a simple, non-parametric classifier that categorizes new cases based on a majority vote of the nearest examples in the training feature space (guo, et al., 2003; lee, et al., 2017). k-nn relies on distance metrics like euclidean distance to find the k most similar instances, with new data points classified to the dominant class among the nearest neighbours. the synthetic minority oversampling technique (smote) applied in our model development, is commonly used to balance class distributions by oversampling minority cases in imbalanced datasets (fernandez, et al., 2018). therefore, the selection of these machine learning models was driven by their specific strengths in addressing the complexities and nuances of industrial project success evaluation, as well as their potential to provide valuable insights for decision-making in this domain. phase b: research charrette a structured workshop or “research charrette” has become a popular research method in construction studies. according to (gibson and whittington, 2010), research charrettes are an effective way to explore a topic as they combine the best aspects of surveys, interviews, and focus groups within a short timeframe. this method has been utilized in several construction studies, including esmaeili, et al.’s (2013) research on project success for building projects and cho and gibson’s (2012) development of the pdri for building projects. due to the complex and multidimensional nature of evaluating industrial project success, a research charrette was wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024100 considered a suitable approach for this study. gibson and whittington explain that the construction industry typically does not permit probabilistic sampling because it is logistically impossible to define a sample frame. the research charrette used a purposive sample of 12 participants, including five client representatives, four consultants, and three academics. a three-hour research charrette was conducted in lincoln, nebraska. the workshop began with a review of the objective and the relationship between kras, kpis, and project success. to identify common kras used to define construction project success, cii’s rt-341 conducted a literature review (cii rt-341, 2019), which was used as a starting point for the group discussion. participants received a printed list of the 14 kras identified by rt-341 (cii rt-341, 2019) and discussed each kra in relation to evaluating industrial project success. rt-341 identified 14 kras from a comprehensive literature review, incorporating articles that addressed construction project performance outcomes and multiple key performance indicators in the industrial sector. a group consensus was necessary to include kras in the final framework. upon completing the kra task, the group proceeded to discuss kpis that represent each of the kras. each participant was provided with a list of previously used kpis to aid in the discussion. the kpis needed to be measurable and applicable to all industrial projects. similar to the kras, a group consensus was required for the inclusion of any kpis in the final framework. notes taken during the research charrette were used to create the framework, which was later reviewed by the research team. phase c: validation survey a targeted survey was conducted to validate the relationship between kpis and kras and ensure their measurability across projects. respondents were asked to categorize each kpi into one of the kras to determine if the kpi is representative of the key areas of project success. the survey was web-based and developed using qualtrics. each research team member, including 9 members5 client representatives and 4 consultants, was instructed to send the survey to 10 people in their professional network. to prevent order bias, the list of kpis was randomly displayed to each participant, and definitions were provided as downloadable pdfs to assist in their responses. analysis and result subject matter expert survey results the subject matter expert survey results indicated that safety, quality, overall client satisfaction, and early schedule certainty are the four most selected success factors (table 3). out of the 87 respondents, the majority of the participants identified safety (85 reports, 98% of the sample), quality (80 reports, 92% of the sample), client satisfaction (59 reports, 68% of the sample), and early schedule certainty (50 reports, 57% of the sample) as the four success factors with the highest level of importance to overall project success. respondents were also asked to rate the level of project performance, on a 5-point likert-type scale (1=very little, 5=very high) if it applied to the project, for each success factor listed in table 3, on the most collaborative and integrated project as compared to a typical project. in addition, participants were asked to list the strategies that were used in the collaborative and integrated project. the list of the seven most important strategies mentioned in table 4 was developed based on the literature review (aia, 2007; barutha, et al., 2021, government of western australia, 2010). machine learning models development data pre-processing this stage of the research involved the utilization of data obtained from a survey of subject matter experts. the final data set comprised 87 projects and 14 variables, 13 of which were ordinal features listed in table 1, wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024101 while the other variable was the target variable representing the intensity of collaboration and integration. python was chosen as the primary programming language due to its open-source nature and the availability of rich libraries such as pandas, numpy, scikit-learn, and matplotlib, which are useful for data preprocessing and developing machine learning classifiers. the ordinal variables had five levels: 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5. the target variable was transformed into a binary categorical variable such that when the value exceeded the mean (17), it was coded as high collaboration and integration intensity (1), while a value less than or equal to the mean (17) was coded as low collaboration and integration intensity (0). it was noted that the data set was imbalanced, with a ratio of 1 to 0 being 59:41. imbalanced data sets pose a challenge to traditional training criteria, as classifiers may have good accuracy for the majority class but poor accuracy for the minority class (ganganwar, 2012). therefore, several resampling approaches have been developed in recent table 4. collaboration and integration strategies collaboration and integration strategies 1 early involvement of key participants 2 shared cost and shared reward (pain share gain share) 3 collaborative and equitable decision-making 4 jointly developed and validated targets 5 negotiated risk distribution (e.g. mutual liability waivers) 6 non-traditional owner engineer contractor relational contracting (e.g. multi-party agreement, ifoa, alliance) 7 continuous team building and conflict resolution table 3. the rank of project success factors rank success factor coded as percentage 1 safety safe 98% 2 quality qual 92% 3 overall client satisfaction stfn 68% 4 early schedule certainty sche 57% 5 early cost certainty cost 44% 6 profitability (contractor) / roi (owner) prft 45% 7 speed to market (owner) speed 32% 8 ease of start-up stup 31% 9 facility production (revenue generation) fclt 30% 10 environmental envr 28% 11 lowest life cycle cost lfcs 26% 12 flexibility/adaptability of the facility flex 25% 13 lowest initial cost (owner) incs 18% wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024102 years to address this issue. the synthetic minority oversampling technique (smote) is a widely used and well-known oversampling algorithm that creates synthetic instances of the minority class by bootstrapping using the nearest neighbours of the sample. the smote technique was applied to balance the data set, resulting in a 50:50 ratio for both classes. the data set was balanced only on the training data set to prevent data leakage (schlögl, et al., 2019). as a result, a final data set of (102, 14) was chosen for the deployment of machine learning algorithms, with a training data shape of (84, 14) and a test data shape of (18, 14). splitting data into a training set and a test set is a widely used approach in machine learning. in our study, the complete data set was randomly divided into two sets; the training set, which comprised 80% of the data, and the test set, which contained the remaining 20%. the variables were separated into two categories: feature variables (x) and the target variable (y). the feature variables were as follows: ‘safe’, ‘qual’, ‘cost’, ‘sche’, ‘stfn’, ‘prft’, ‘speed’, ‘incs’, ‘lfcs’, ‘flex’, ‘fclt’, ‘stup,’ and ‘envr’. these features represented the attributes of the project performance and were used as inputs to the machine learning models. the target variable, denoted as ‘totic’, represented the intensity of collaboration and integration, and was the variable that the models aimed to predict. we deployed four machine learning models namely decision tree (dt), naïve bayes (nb), logistic regression (lr), k -nearest neighbors (k-nn) hyperparameters tuning optimizing the hyperparameters of machine learning models is essential for achieving robust performance results. default hyperparameter settings may not be optimal and require additional attention during this critical step in the machine-learning process(schratz, et al., 2019). there are various search strategies available to find the best and most robust parameter or set of parameters for an algorithm on a given problem, with gridsearchcv being a commonly used technique (sklearn.model_selection. gridsearch cv). grid search is a systematic approach to parameter tuning, where a model is built and evaluated for every combination of algorithm parameters specified in a grid (ranjan, kumar verma and radhika, 2019). the optimal parameters identified using gridsearchcv are presented in table#. model performance evaluation model performance evaluation is an important process to understand how well a model is able to learn from the training data and make accurate predictions on new, unseen data. one can assess the accuracy of classification by calculating the number of class examples that were correctly identified as such (true positives-tp), the number of examples that were correctly identified as not belonging to the class (true negatives-tn), and the number of examples that were either wrongly assigned to the class (false positivesfp) or not identified as class examples (false negatives-fn) (sokolova and lapalme, 2009). there are various metrics that can be used to evaluate the performance of a classifier, depending on the specific problem and the requirements of the application. accuracy, precision, recall, f1-score, and area under the curve (auc) reception operating characteristics (roc) curve are the most common evaluation metrics for classification models. and the metrics were calculated as follows (wang, shao and tiong, 2021; sanni-anibire, zin and olatunji, 2022): classification accuracy = +tp tn n where, n= total number of samples precision = + tp tp fp recall = + tp tp fn wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024103 f1-score is the weighted harmonic mean of precision and recall. the roc curve plots the true positive rate (tpr) against the false positive rate (fpr) at different classification thresholds. the area under the curve (auc) is measured in auc-roc, and a classifier with an auc-roc of 1 is considered perfect. four machine learning classifiers were evaluated, and their performance is summarized in table 5. the decision tree (dt) model achieved the highest accuracy of 0.72, followed by the naive bayes (nb) model with an accuracy of 0.67. this means that the dt model was able to correctly classify 72% of the instances in the dataset. the logistic regression (lr) and k-nearest neighbour (knn) models achieved an accuracy of 0.56. the precision, recall, and f1-score for the dt model were 0.75, 0.72, and 0.71, respectively, which were the best score among four models. in the context of the dt model, precision of 0.75 means that out of all the instances predicted as positive by the dt model, 75% of them were positive. recall, on the other hand, measures the proportion of true positive predictions among all actual positive instances in the dataset. in the context of the dt model, a recall of 0.72 means that the dt model was able to identify 72% of all the actual positive instances in the dataset. f1-score is the harmonic mean of precision and recall and provides a balanced measure of both metrics. in the context of the dt model, an f1 score of 0.71 indicates that the model had a relatively balanced performance in terms of precision and recall. table 5. ml model performance evaluation metrics ml model best hyperparameters accuracy precision recall f1-score auc-roc dt {‘criterion’: ‘entropy’, ‘max_ depth’: 10, ‘max_features’: ‘sqrt’, ‘min_samples_leaf’: 2, ‘min_samples_split’: 2} 0.72 0.75 0.72 0.71 0.80 nb {‘var_smoothing’: 1e-09} 0.67 0.68 0.67 0.67 0.75 lr {‘c’: 0.01, ‘class_weight’: none, ‘max_iter’: 100, ‘penalty’: ‘l2’, ‘solver’: ‘liblinear’} 0.56 0.56 0.56 0.56 0.65 k-nn {‘algorithm’: ‘auto’, ‘n_neighbors’: 1, ‘p’: 2, ‘weights’: ‘uniform’} 0.56 0.64 0.56 0.52 0.59 the auc-roc curve plots the true positive rate (sensitivity) against the false positive rate (1-specificity) for different threshold values of the model’s output (figure 2). the auc-roc score is then calculated as the area under this curve. in our case, the dt model had the highest auc-roc score of 0.80, indicating that it had a better ability to distinguish between positive and negative instances compared to the other models. the nb model had an auc-roc score of 0.75, which is also relatively high. the lr model had a lower auc-roc score of 0.65, while the k-nn model had the lowest auc-roc score of 0.59, indicating that these models had relatively poorer discrimination ability. there can be several reasons why the decision tree (dt) model performed best in the given scenario. one reason is that the dt model is a non-parametric and interpretable algorithm that can handle both categorical and numerical data, making it suitable for the dataset. furthermore, decision trees can handle non-linear relationships between features, therefore the dt model has been able to identify and utilize these relationships to better classify instances, resulting in its superior performance compared to other models. the dt model, which was developed to predict collaboration and integration intensity during wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024104 the early phase of industrial construction projects, has been identified as the most effective model for enhancing the efficiency of the decision-making process. it is believed by the authors that the proposed dt model can be employed by various project stakeholders such as capital project owners, project management organizations, contractors, designers, and project participants to accurately forecast the collaboration and integration intensity based on projected performance on 13 project success factors. research charrette results the first objective of the research charrette was to finalize a comprehensive list of kras that can be used to compare the success of an industrial project executed under different delivery methods. figure 3 shows the 11 kras that participants from the research charrette decided would be important to compare. definitions for each of the final 11 kras developed during the research charrette are presented in table 6. validation of the kpis to validate that the kpis are representative of their higher-order kra, a targeted survey was distributed to professionals in the industrial sector asking them to categorize each kpi into its respective kra. after data cleaning, a total of 41 complete responses were received. the respondents’ average number of years of experience was 21.5 years, with a standard deviation of 11.3 years. the sample population represented 21 clients, 10 contractors, and 10 engineers/consultants. out of 41 respondents, 32 respondents primarily worked in the heavy industrial sector, 5 in the light industrial sector, 4 in power, utilities, and infrastructure. figure 2. auc-roc of ml models wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024105 each respondent was asked to categorize the list of kpis into one of the 11 kras. table 7 presents each kpi, the kra it was categorized into during the research charrette (expected), and the kra that was categorized most frequently in the targeted survey. table 7 also indicates if there was a match between the expected and found kra categorization. table 6. definition of the 11 kras for industrial projects kra definition cost competitiveness this construct represents a measure of how competitively the project was priced compared to the typical market conditions at the time the project was delivered. the objective of this kra can be thought of as capturing the “value for money” that the owner receives. cost certainty cost certainty represents a measure of how well the project’s actual costs met the project’s early cost targets. schedule competitiveness schedule competitiveness is a measure of how competitively the project’s schedule was compared to typical market conditions at the time the project was delivered. schedule certainty schedule certainty represents a measure of how well the project’s actual schedule met the project’s early schedule targets. quality quality represents a measure of how well the project’s products and services complied with its plans and specifications. this is not to be confused with the quality of the finishes used on the project. safety safety represents a measure of the frequency of recordable safety incidents that occurred on the project. project functional objectives a project’s functional objectives are a measure of how well the project achieved the client’s functional objectives as defined in the client’s business case that was used to justify the project’s funding. project financial objectives financial objectives are a measure of how well the project achieved the financial objectives of all of the major participants in the project (typically the client, contractor, and engineer). figure 3. the 11 kras that shape the success of industrial projects. wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024106 kra definition external stakeholder impacts external stakeholder impacts are a measure of how much the execution of the project impacted external stakeholders. external stakeholders can include the public, the client’s end users, or the client’s internal operations. environmental impacts environmental impacts are a measure of the frequency and magnitude of recordable environmental events that occurred on the project. change management the change management construct represents a measure of the frequency, size, and duration of changes that occurred on the project. table 7. kpi categorization from the targeted survey kpis kras match expected top survey categorization contingency index cost competitiveness cost certainty ✕ cost efficiency cost competitiveness cost competitiveness ● direct work rate cost competitiveness ✕ productivity cost competitiveness cost competitiveness ● contingency used % cost certainty cost certainty ● cost variation cost certainty cost certainty ● buffer index schedule competitiveness schedule certainty ✕ time per unit schedule competitiveness schedule competitiveness ● schedule variation schedule certainty schedule certainty ● construction defects quality quality ● design defects quality quality ● non-conformance reports quality quality ● quality performance rating quality quality ● commissioning time quality schedule certainty ✕ dart rate safety safety ● trir safety safety ● goal achievement project functional objectives project functional objectives ● table 6. continued wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024107 kpis kras match expected top survey categorization contractor financial objective realization project financial objectives project financial objectives ● owner financial objective realization project financial objectives project financial objectives ● complaints external stakeholder impact external stakeholder impact ● external stakeholder impact external stakeholder impact external stakeholder impact ● notice of violation environmental ✕ recordable environmental events environmental environmental ● change cost index change management cost certainty ✕ change time index change management change management ● non-owner initiated changes change management change management ● owner initiated changes change management change management ● speed of change approval change management change management ● two of the kpis (direct work rate and notice of violation) were categorized as “not important” by more than 15% of the respondents. upon recommendations from the research team members, these two kpis were removed from the psf. the final psf for industrial projects is presented in table 8. table 8. project success framework for industrial projects kras kpis formula cost competitiveness cost efficiency total project cost / capacity of facilitya contingency index project contingency / total project budgetb cost certainty cost variation (actual project cost – total project budgetb) / total project budgetb schedule competitiveness schedule efficiency total project duration / capacity of facilitya buffer index project schedule buffer / predicted project durationc table 7. continued wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024108 kras kpis formula schedule certainty schedule variation (actual project duration predicted project durationc) / predicted project durationc quality qpr (σ n × w / number of employee labour hours) × 200,000 n = number of unplanned quality events (variation, defect, or failure) w = weighted severity level of each event design defects total number of design errors / total number of drawings construction defects total number of punch items at mechanical completion ncrs total number of non-conformance reports commissioning duration substantial completion – mechanical completion safety trir (number of osha recordable cases / number of employee labour hours) ✕ 200,000 dart (number of dart incidents / number of employee labor hours) ✕ 200,000 project functional objectives goal achievement 1-7 likert scale (1 = this project achieved none of the functional objectives as set out in the projects business case, 7 = this project achieved all of the functional objectives as set out in the projects business case) project financial objectives owner financial objective realization 1-7 likert scale (1 = this project achieved none of the financial objectives as set out in the projects business case, 7 = this project achieved all of the financial objectives as set out in the projects business case) contractor financial objective realization 1-7 likert scale (1 = this project achieved none of the financial objectives as set out in the projects business case, 7 = this project achieved all of the financial objectives as set out in the projects business case) external stakeholder impacts complaints total number of complaints received during the execution of the project external stakeholder impact 1-7 likert scale (1 = this project had a maximum impact on its external stakeholders, 7 = this project had minimal impact on its external stakeholders) (external stakeholders could include: local businesses in the surrounding area, local residents, and other divisions in a facility during a renovation.) table 8. continued wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024109 kras kpis formula environmental impacts recordable environmental events total number of recordable environmental events change management change cost index approved project development change costs / total project budgeta change time index approved project development change duration / predicted project durationc number of nonowner changes total number of changes initiated by non-owner parties number of owner initiated changes total number of changes initiated by the owner speed of change approval average duration that rfis are open in weeks a the capacity of the facility should be a comparable industry metric for the facility (e.g. kwh, tonnes per day, bpd, etc.) b the total project budget must include project contingency and be adjusted for scope changes. c the predicted project duration must include project buffers and be adjusted for scope changes. discussions the objective of this paper was to develop a framework that can evaluate the effectiveness of integrated project delivery methods for industrial projects. 11 kras were defined as essential outcomes that can be used to define the success of an industrial project. specific kpis were also identified that can be used to consistently measure the performance of a project in each of the 11 kras. the psf was designed to be flexible, so the kpis that measure each kra can change, enabling clients to replace them with metrics that are important to their specific project, sector, or business. the kpis also provide a specific way for clients to develop their non-cost incentive mechanisms in the shared risk/reward commercial model. one of the timeconsuming activities associated with developing a collaborative contract is to identify suitable metrics to incentivize performance. the psf provides clients with a “menu” of kpis that can be used to develop these agreements. key result areas two dimensions have consistently emerged from existing conceptual models of project success. the first dimension pertains to the success of the management of the project against predetermined targets: usually regarding cost, time, and quality. these outcomes can be evaluated immediately after the conclusion of the project. in baccarini’s terms, this is “project management success.” the second dimension of success relates to how well the project fulfills the client’s original need for the project. this type of success must be evaluated at some time after the delivery of the project and is referred to as “product success.” the 11 kras presented in the psf can be separated into the project management and product success dimensions. the psf contains 9 kras that relate to project management success and 2 kras that relate to product success as shown in figure 4. table 8. continued wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024110 figure 4. psf kras separated into project management and product success dimensions. the psf places greater emphasis on outcomes in the project management dimension of overall project success. the psf was developed with the purpose of comparing the success of projects delivered under different delivery methods. this indicates that project delivery methods have a greater influence over project management outcomes, rather than how well a project achieves its client’s organizational needs. this makes intuitive sense, as a project delivery method is, in essence, the process by which a client realizes a project, not a way for clients to identify projects that will fulfill their organizational needs. baccarini states that a project’s product success will trump its project management success (baccarini, 1999). in practical terms, this means that projects that meet all their cost, schedule, and quality targets may still be considered a failure if they fail to meet their client’s long-term organizational needs. therefore, clients may be inclined to evaluate the performance of a delivery method based on a project’s product success. doing so would be a mistake, as the delivery method has limited influence over the project product success. this shows that clients need to consciously separate project management and product outcomes when evaluating the performance of a delivery method, and comparing delivery methods should focus on comparing project management outcomes. the psf presents an alternative approach for evaluating a project’s cost and schedule performance. typically, cost and schedule performance relate to a project’s adherence to its target budget and target finish date. this success framework separates cost and schedule into their respective competitiveness and certainty. practitioners provided this recommendation because they said a project’s adherence to its targets is largely dictated by how competitive those targets are. for example, a project could be significantly under budget because of an inflated target budget. by separating a project’s cost certainty from its cost competitiveness, clients gain a better understanding of how successful their project was. another reason for separating cost and schedule certainty from competitiveness is because it addresses an important criticism of collaborative delivery models. under the shared risk/reward commercial model, non-owner parties share in the underruns of the project. this creates an implicit incentive to inflate the target cost (henneveld, 2006; wood and duffield, 2009; thomsen, et al., 2016). by separating cost certainty from cost competitiveness, clients can increase their visibility of the performance of a project and properly evaluate the effectiveness of the delivery method. wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024111 key project indicators the value of any comparison is dependent on the quality of information inputted into the analysis. one of the issues present with existing project success frameworks is that there is a lack of detailed instruction provided with their kpis. for example, the traditional cost variation kpi is present in many existing project success frameworks (chan, 2001; kpi working group, 2007; el asmar, hanna and loh, 2013; franz, et al., 2014; hanna, 2016). in these frameworks, the cost variation kpi is typically defined as: cost variation final project cost initial budget initial budget = − the issue with this formula is that it does not inform the individual providing information on how to handle project change orders. changes are a part of construction and will appear on every project. changes will occur for a number of reasons, including differing ground conditions, inaccurate specifications, ownerinitiated design changes, or errors and omissions in the drawings. the initial budget in this formula needs to reflect the cost of changes to the project. cii separates changes into two categories: project development changes and scope changes. project development changes are defined as: “changes required to execute the original scope of work or obtain original process basis.” scope changes are defined as: “changes in the base scope of work or process basis.” the psf requires individuals to correct the initial budget for scope changes but not project development-related changes. doing so will better reflect the performance of the project team without distorting the cost information because of changes. additionally, this will ensure that the project information being collected is consistent and thus will improve the accuracy of comparisons that can be generated from the framework. the financial profitability indicator has been used in a variety of existing frameworks; however, its previous appearances usually only refer to the profitability of the client (chan, 2001; nassar and abourizk, 2014). the psf includes a kpi for the financial performance of the contractor. this indicator helps to identify if a project was more competitive because the work was delivered more efficiently, or if it was simply the result of contractors reducing their profit margins. machine learning application the machine learning models were deployed to investigate the relationship between the performance of project success factors and the level of collaboration and integration. four machine learning models were selected due to their proven effectiveness in handling classification tasks and their potential to provide accurate predictions. these models were used to develop a machine learning classification system that can predict whether the project demands high vs low (1 vs 0) collaboration and integration based on categorical input variables. the research results indicate that the decision tree model achieved the highest accuracy, followed by the naive bayes model. the decision tree model was able to correctly classify 72% of the instances in the dataset, making it the most suitable model to support the decision-making process. conclusion this study developed and validated a project success framework that enables researchers and practitioners to empirically evaluate the effectiveness of integrated project delivery methods on important project outcomes for industrial capital projects. the benefits of the psf are threefold. first, it provides clients with a comprehensive list of kras and kpis to compare the performance of a collaboratively delivered project with one that is delivered under traditional methods. this will enable clients to accurately evaluate the effectiveness of collaborative delivery methods for industrial projects. second, the psf will also enable clients to make more informed decisions about the application of all project delivery methods. several efforts have been made to develop project delivery method selection tools, such as the cii’s wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024112 “project delivery and contracting strategy” tool, and the united states federal highway “contracting alternatives suitability evaluator,” but these tools continue to rely on judgment and subjectivity to make their evaluations. the psf provides clients with a structured approach to evaluating the performance of their projects. and third, the psf provides clients with a “menu” of kpis that they can use to develop their shared risk/reward commercial models. integrated delivery methods provide clients with an opportunity to incentivize the achievement of their non-financial objectives through kpis. however, it can be challenging to measure performance in outcomes other than cost. the psf provides clients with a range of kpis as well as the kra that they will each incentivize. this will help reduce the time spent negotiating the metrics within the commercial model and ensure that their commercial models incentivize behaviour that promotes project success. while our study provides validated psf for industrial projects, certain limitations exist and present opportunities for refinement in future investigations. this framework has been developed for evaluating ipd effectiveness on industrial projects. additional analysis and modification would be required prior to implementing this ipd assessment framework. additionally, the decision tree model developed in this study can actively support performance-based decision-making for collaboration and integration strategies in industrial construction projects. although the model was created on a limited dataset in the industrial construction sector, this approach based on artificial intelligence possesses the potential to be adapted and applied to other construction categories including commercial and infrastructure sectors. future research can explore other machine learning models as well as deep neural networks-based decision support tools to identify and compare the efficacy and computational complexities in this type of data with a larger dataset. data availability statement all data that supports the findings of this study will be available upon request. acknowledgment this study was supported by a grant from the construction industry institute (cii) under grant no. rt-383. the authors sincerely thank the cii and the professional industry members who generously contributed their expertise, insights, assistance, and direction throughout this study. references ahmed, s. and el-sayegh, s., 2021. critical review of the evolution of project delivery methods in the construction industry. buildings, [e-journal] 11(1), p.11. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11010011 aia, 2007. integrated project delivery: a guide. american institute of architects, california. [online] available at: https:// info.aia.org/siteobjects/files/ipd_guide_2007.pdf. al subaih, a., 2015. integrated project delivery: a paradigm shift for oil and gas projects in the uae and the middle east region. oil and gas facilities, [e-journal] 4(04), pp.064–077. https://doi.org/10.2118/171722-pa al-tmeemy, s.m.h.m., abdul-rahman, h. and harun, z., 2011. future criteria for success of building projects in malaysia. international journal of project management, 29(3), pp.337–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.03.003 arar, a.j. and poirier, e., 2022. the next era of ipd research: a systematic literature review of the ipd research trends 2017-2020. in: iop conference series: materials science and engineering, 1218(1), p.012039. https://doi. org/10.1088/1757-899x/1218/1/012039 wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024113 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11010011 https://info.aia.org/siteobjects/files/ipd_guide_2007.pdf https://info.aia.org/siteobjects/files/ipd_guide_2007.pdf https://doi.org/10.2118/171722-pa https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2010.03.003 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/1218/1/012039 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/1218/1/012039 atkinson, r., 1999. project management: cost, time and quality, two best guesses and a phenomenon, it’s time to accept other success criteria. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 17(6), pp.337–42. https://doi.org/10.1016/ s0263-7863(98)00069-6 ayhan, m., dikmen, i. and talat birgonul, m., 2021. predicting the occurrence of construction disputes using machine learning techniques. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 147(4), p.04021022. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002027 baccarini, d., 1999. the logical framework method for defining project success. project management journal, [e-journal] 30(4), pp.25–32. https://doi.org/10.1177/875697289903000405 bannerman, p., 2008. defining project success: a multi-level framework. in: proceedings of the project management institute research conference, 5(7), pp.1-14. bapat, h., sarkar, d. and gujar, r., 2021. evaluation of key performance indicators of integrated project delivery and bim model for infrastructure transportation project in ahmedabad, india through decision-making approach. journal of the institution of engineers (india): series a, [e-journal] 102(4), pp.995–1011. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40030021-00568-3 barutha, p.j., jeong, h.d., gransberg, d.d. and touran, a., 2021. evaluation of the impact of collaboration and integration on performance of industrial projects. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 37(4), p.04021037. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000921 bilbo, d., bigelow, b.f., escamilla, e. and lockwood, c., 2015. comparison of construction manager at risk and integrated project delivery performance on healthcare projects: a comparative case study. international journal of construction education and research, [e-journal] 11(1), pp.40–53. https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2013.872734 caldwell, s., 2007. the new zealand construction national key performance indicators: handbook & industry measures (2006 data). [e-book] new zealand: centre for advanced engineering, university of canterbury. available at: https:// ir.canterbury.ac.nz/server/api/core/bitstreams/50f1b6ee-0170-432c-84d9-35d6f11d59bc/content. chan, a.p., 2001. framework for measuring success of construction projects. [pdf ] brisbane: qut crc for construction innovation. available at: https://eprints.qut.edu.au/216001/1/2001-003-c-01_framework_for_ measuring_success.pdf. charbuty, b. and abdulazeez, a., 2021. classification based on decision tree algorithm for machine learning. journal of applied science and technology trends, [e-journal] 2(01), pp.20–28. https://doi.org/10.38094/jastt20165 cho, c.-s. and gibson, j., 2012. development of a project definition rating index (pdri) for general building projects. in: proceedings of construction congress vi: building together for a better tomorrow in an increasingly complex world. orlando florida, 20-22 february 2000. pp.343–52. https://doi.org/10.1061/40475(278)38 chua, d.k.h., kog, y.c. and loh, p.k., 1999. critical success factors for different project objectives. journal of construction engineering and management-asce, 125(3), pp.142–50. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)07339364(1999)125:3(142) cii rt-341, 2019. integrated project delivery for industrial projects. construction industry institute. university of texas, austin. [online] available at: https://www.construction-institute.org/resources/knowledgebase/knowledge-areas/projectprogram-management/topics/rt-341. creswell, j.w. and plano clark, v.l., 2018. designing and conducting mixed methods research. 3rd ed. thousand oaks, ca: sage. el asmar, m., hanna, a.s. and loh, w.y., 2013. quantifying performance for the integrated project delivery system as compared to established delivery systems. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 139(11), p.04013012. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000744 wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024114 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(98)00069-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(98)00069-6 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002027 https://doi.org/10.1177/875697289903000405 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40030-021-00568-3 https://doi.org/10.1007/s40030-021-00568-3 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000921 https://doi.org/10.1080/15578771.2013.872734 https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/server/api/core/bitstreams/50f1b6ee-0170-432c-84d9-35d6f11d59bc/content https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/server/api/core/bitstreams/50f1b6ee-0170-432c-84d9-35d6f11d59bc/content https://eprints.qut.edu.au/216001/1/2001-003-c-01_framework_for_measuring_success.pdf https://eprints.qut.edu.au/216001/1/2001-003-c-01_framework_for_measuring_success.pdf https://doi.org/10.38094/jastt20165 https://doi.org/10.1061/40475(278)38 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1999)125:3(142 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(1999)125:3(142 https://www.construction-institute.org/resources/knowledgebase/knowledge-areas/project-program-management/topics/rt-341 https://www.construction-institute.org/resources/knowledgebase/knowledge-areas/project-program-management/topics/rt-341 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000744 el asmar, m., hanna, a.s. and loh, w.y., 2016. evaluating integrated project delivery using the project quarterback rating. journal of construction engineering and management, 142(1), p.04015046. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0001015 elghaish, f., hosseini, m.r., talebi, s., abrishami, s., martek, i. and kagioglou, m., 2020. factors driving success of cost management practices in integrated project delivery (ipd). sustainability, [e-journal] 12(22), p.9539. https://doi. org/10.3390/su12229539 esmaeili, b., molenaar, k.r., leicht, r.m. and messner, j., 2013. a review of critical success factors and performance metrics on construction projects. in: proceedings of 4th construction specialty conference, montreal, quebec, 29 may to 1 june. p.10. fernandez, a., garcia, s., herrera, f. and chawla, n.v., 2018. smote for learning from imbalanced data: progress and challenges, marking the 15-year anniversary. journal of artificial intelligence research, [e-journal] 61, pp.863–905. https://doi.org/10.1613/jair.1.11192 flyvbjerg, b., 2014. what you should know about megaprojects and why: an overview. project management journal, [e-journal] 45(2), pp.6–19. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21409 franz, b., esmaeili, b., leicht, r., molenaar, k. and messner, j., 2014. exploring the role of the team environment in building project performance. in: proceedings of construction research congress 2014: construction in a global network. atlanta, georgia, 19-21 may 2014. pp.1997–2010. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413517.204 ganganwar, v., 2012. an overview of classification algorithms for imbalanced datasets. international journal of emerging technology and advanced engineering, 2, pp.42–47. ghimire, p., kim, k. and acharya, m., 2024. opportunities and challenges of generative ai in construction industry: focusing on adoption of text-based models. buildings, [e-journal] 14(1), p.220. https://doi.org/10.3390/ buildings14010220 ghimire, p., pokharel, s., kim, k. and barutha, p., 2023. machine learning-based prediction models for budget forecast in capital construction. in: proceedings of the 2nd international conference on construction, energy, environment & sustainability, funchal, portugal, 27-30 june. [pdf ] pp.27–30. available at: https://www.cees2023.uc.pt/projectos/ cees2023/atas/pdfs/id311.pdf. gibson, g.e. and hamilton, m.r., 1994. analysis of pre-project planning effort and success variables for capital facility projects–source document 105. austin, texas: construction industry institute, the university of texas at austin. gibson, g.e. and whittington, d.a., 2010. charrettes as a method for engaging industry in best practices research. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 136(1), pp.66–75. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0000079 gonzález-boubeta, i. and prado-prado, j.c., 2020. integrated project delivery: a literature review and research agenda. in: r. de castro and g. giménez, eds. advances in engineering networks, lecture notes in management and industrial engineering. cham: springer international publishing. pp.11–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-445300_2 government of western australia, 2010. infrastructure procurement options guide. perth, wa: centre for excellence and innovation in infrastructure delivery. [online] available at: http://www.ceiid.wa.gov.au/docs/ipog.pdf. guo, g., wang, h., bell, d., bi, y. and greer, k., 2003. knn model-based approach in classification. lecture notes computer science, p.996. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39964-3_62 han, w.s., yusof, a.m., ismail, s. and aun, n.c., 2012. reviewing the notions of construction project success. international journal of business and management, 7(1), p.90. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v7n1p90 wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024115 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001015 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001015 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229539 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229539 https://doi.org/10.1613/jair.1.11192 https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21409 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413517.204 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14010220 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings14010220 https://www.cees2023.uc.pt/projectos/cees2023/atas/pdfs/id311.pdf https://www.cees2023.uc.pt/projectos/cees2023/atas/pdfs/id311.pdf https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000079 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000079 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44530-0_2 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-44530-0_2 http://www.ceiid.wa.gov.au/docs/ipog.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-39964-3_62 https://doi.org/10.5539/ijbm.v7n1p90 hanna, a.s., 2016. benchmark performance metrics for integrated project delivery. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 142(9), p.04016040. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001151 henneveld, m., 2006. alliance contracting--removing the boundaries for infrastructure delivery. in: annual conference & exhibition of the transportation association of canada, 2006. congres et exposition annuels de l ’association des transport du canada, 2006. charlottetown, prince edward island , canada, 17-20 september. transportation association of canada (tac). available at: https://trid.trb.org/view/794946 [accessed 6 april 2023]. iwanski, m., 2013. performance of integrated project delivery (ipd) for mechanical and electrical contractors. msc. civil and environmental engineering. university of wisconsin, madison. [pdf ] available at: https://minds.wisconsin.edu/ handle/1793/66680 [accessed 19 december 2023]. janikow, c.z., 1998. fuzzy decision trees: issues and methods. ieee transactions on systems, man, and cybernetics, part b (cybernetics), [e-journal] 28(1), pp.1–14. https://doi.org/10.1109/3477.658573 jones, b., 2014. integrated project delivery (ipd) for maximizing design and construction considerations regarding sustainability. procedia engineering, [e-journal] 95, pp.528–38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.12.214 kpi working group, 2007. the new zealand construction industry national key performance indicators: handbook and industry measures. [online] available at: https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/handle/10092/11589. lee, k.-p., lee, h.-s., park, m., kim, d.y. and jung, m., 2017. management-reserve estimation for international construction projects based on risk-informed k-nn. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 33(4), p.04017002. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000510 leung, k.m., 2007. naive bayesian classifier [pdf online] polytechnic university department of computer science/ finance and risk engineering. available through: https://cse.engineering.nyu.edu/~mleung/fre7851/f07/ naivebayesianclassifier.pdf. lim, c.s. and zain, m., 1999. criteria of project success: an exploratory re-examination. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 17, pp.243–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(98)00040-4 merrow, e.w., 2011. industrial megaprojects: concepts, strategies, and practices for success. hoboken, nj: john wiley & sons. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119201045 mesa, h., molenaar, k.r. and alarcón, l.f., 2016. exploring performance of the integrated project delivery process on complex building projects. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 34(7), pp.1089–1101. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.05.007 mesa, h.a., molenaar, k.r. and alarcón, l.f., 2019. comparative analysis between integrated project delivery and lean project delivery. international journal of project management, [e-journal] 37(3), pp.395–409. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijproman.2019.01.012 müller, r. and jugdev, k., 2012. critical success factors in projects: pinto, slevin, and prescott – the elucidation of project success. international journal of managing projects in business, [e-journal] 5(4), pp.757–75. https://doi. org/10.1108/17538371211269040 nassar, n. and abourizk, s., 2014. practical application for integrated performance measurement of construction projects. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 30(6), p.04014027. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) me.1943-5479.0000287 pinto, j.k. and slevin, d.p., 1988. project success: definitions and measurement techniques. project management journal, [online pdf ] xix(1), pp.67-72. available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242530015_project_ success_definitions_and_measurement_techniques. wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024116 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001151 https://trid.trb.org/view/794946 https://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/66680 https://minds.wisconsin.edu/handle/1793/66680 https://doi.org/10.1109/3477.658573 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.12.214 https://ir.canterbury.ac.nz/handle/10092/11589 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000510 https://cse.engineering.nyu.edu/~mleung/fre7851/f07/naivebayesianclassifier.pdf https://cse.engineering.nyu.edu/~mleung/fre7851/f07/naivebayesianclassifier.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(98)00040-4 https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119201045 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.05.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.05.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2019.01.012 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2019.01.012 https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371211269040 https://doi.org/10.1108/17538371211269040 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000287 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000287 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242530015_project_success_definitions_and_measurement_techniques https://www.researchgate.net/publication/242530015_project_success_definitions_and_measurement_techniques pokharel, s. and ghimire, p., 2023. data-driven mlmodels for accurate prediction of energy consumption in a lowenergy house: a comparative study of xgboost, random forest, decision tree, and support vector machine. journal of innovations in engineering education, [e-journal] 6(1), pp.12–20. https://doi.org/10.3126/jiee.v6i1.54965 rajula, h.s.r., verlato, g., manchia, m., antonucci, n. and fanos, v., 2020. comparison of conventional statistical methods with machine learning in medicine: diagnosis, drug development, and treatment. medicina, [e-journal] 56(9), p.455. https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina56090455 ranjan, g.s.k., kumar verma, a. and radhika, s., 2019. k-nearest neighbors and grid search cv based real time fault monitoring system for industries. in: 2019 ieee 5th international conference for convergence in technology (i2ct). bombay, india, 29-31 march. pp.1–5. https://doi.org/10.1109/i2ct45611.2019.9033691 rish, i., 2001. an empirical study of the naive bayes classifier. in: ijcai 2001 workshop on empirical methods in artificial intelligence. seattle, washington, usa, 4-10 august 2001, 3(22), pp.41-46. rodrigues, m.r. and lindhard, s.m., 2021. benefits and challenges to applying ipd: experiences from a norwegian mega-project. construction innovation, [e-journal] 23(2), pp.287–305. https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-03-2021-0042 sanni-anibire, m.o., zin, r.m. and olatunji, s.o., 2022. machine learning model for delay risk assessment in tall building projects. international journal of construction management, [e-journal] 22(11), pp.2134–43. https://doi.org/10.1 080/15623599.2020.1768326 schlögl, m., stütz, r., laaha, g. and melcher, m., 2019. a comparison of statistical learning methods for deriving determining factors of accident occurrence from an imbalanced high resolution dataset. accident analysis & prevention, [e-journal] 127, pp.134–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2019.02.008 schratz, p., muenchow, j., iturritxa, e., richter, j. and brenning, a., 2019. hyperparameter tuning and performance assessment of statistical and machine-learning algorithms using spatial data. ecological modelling, 406, [e-journal] pp.109–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2019.06.002 scikit learn, 2023. sklearn.model_selection.gridsearchcv. [online] scikit-learn. available at: https://scikit-learn/stable/ modules/generated/sklearn.model_selection.gridsearchcv.html [accessed 5 april 2023]. shrnhur, a.j., levy, o. and dvir, d., 1997. mapping the dimensions of project success. project management journal, 28(2), pp.5–13. sokolova, m. and lapalme, g., 2009. a systematic analysis of performance measures for classification tasks. information processing & management, [e-journal] 45(4), pp.427–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2009.03.002 thomsen, c., darrington, j., dunne, d. and lichtig, w., 2016. managing integrated project delivery. [online] available at: https://lean-construction-gcs.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/08161051/cmaa_managing_ integrated_project_delivery_1-1.pdf. tien bui, d., khosravi, k., shahabi, h., daggupati, p., adamowski, j.f., melesse, a.m., thai pham, b., pourghasemi, h.r., mahmoudi, m., bahrami, s., pradhan, b., shirzadi, a., chapi, k. and lee, s., 2019. flood spatial modeling in northern iran using remote sensing and gis: a comparison between evidential belief functions and its ensemble with a multivariate logistic regression model. remote sensing, [e-journal] 11(13), p.1589. https://doi.org/10.3390/ rs11131589 walker, d. and rowlinson, s., 2019. routledge handbook of integrated project delivery. [e-book] devon, uk: routledge. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781315185774 wang, y., shao, z. and tiong, r.l.k., 2021. data-driven prediction of contract failure of public-private partnership projects. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 147(8), p.04021089. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)co.1943-7862.0002124 wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024117 https://doi.org/10.3126/jiee.v6i1.54965 https://doi.org/10.3390/medicina56090455 https://doi.org/10.1109/i2ct45611.2019.9033691 https://doi.org/10.1108/ci-03-2021-0042 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1768326 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1768326 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2019.02.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2019.06.002 https://scikit-learn/stable/modules/generated/sklearn.model_selection.gridsearchcv.html https://scikit-learn/stable/modules/generated/sklearn.model_selection.gridsearchcv.html https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2009.03.002 https://lean-construction-gcs.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/08161051/cmaa_managing_integrated_project_delivery_1-1.pdf https://lean-construction-gcs.storage.googleapis.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/08161051/cmaa_managing_integrated_project_delivery_1-1.pdf https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11131589 https://doi.org/10.3390/rs11131589 https://doi.org/10.1201/9781315185774 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002124 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0002124 whang, s.-w., park, k.s. and kim, s., 2019. critical success factors for implementing integrated construction project delivery. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 26(10), pp.2432–46. https://doi. org/10.1108/ecam-02-2019-0073 wood, p. and duffield, c., 2009. in pursuit of additional value: a benchmarking study into alliancing in the australian public sector. melbourne, vic: department of treasury and finance, state of victoria. yu, j.h., yoo, s.e., kim, j.i. and kim, t.w., 2019. exploring the factor-performance relationship of integrated project delivery projects: a qualitative comparative analysis. project management journal, [e-journal] 50(3), pp.335–45. https://doi.org/10.1177/8756972819832206 yun, s. and jung, w., 2017. benchmarking sustainability practices use throughout industrial construction project delivery. sustainability, [e-journal] 9(6), p.1007. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9061007 wood et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 1/2 july 2024118 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2019-0073 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2019-0073 https://doi.org/10.1177/8756972819832206 https://doi.org/10.3390/su9061007 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: alsamarraie, m. m., yousif, o. s., ghazali, f. e. m. 2025. procurement integrity: best practices for ppp projects in iraq and malaysia. construction economics and building, 25:3/4, 289–310. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i3/4.9329 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article procurement integrity: best practices for ppp projects in iraq and malaysia mundher mohammed alsamarraie1, omar sedeeq yousif2,*, farid ezanee mohamed ghazali1 1 school of civil engineering, engineering campus, universiti sains malaysia, penang, malaysia 2 department of building engineering and projects management, alnoor university, nineveh, 41002, iraq corresponding author: omar sedeeq yousif, department of building engineering and projects management, alnoor university, nineveh, 41002, iraq, omar.ameen93@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9329 article history: received 06/09/2024; revised 26/06/2025; accepted 18/07/2025; published 05/12/2025 abstract the construction sector has undergone significant evolution with the widespread adoption of public– private partnership (ppp) models in various countries. the appeal of ppp lies in its ability to balance risk, improve efficiency through strategic bundling or unbundling of responsibilities, and enhance access to affordable private financing. for emerging economies such as iraq, examining the experiences of more advanced implementers like malaysia is essential to adapt best practices and avoid common pitfalls. this research employed a systematic literature review, using predefined inclusion criteria that focus on policy documents, empirical case studies, and peerreviewed articles from 2000 to 2024, sourced from scopus, web of science, and governmental databases. the comparison between iraq and malaysia is guided by key performance indicators, including risk allocation, regulatory frameworks, private sector participation, and institutional readiness. the findings reveal stark contrasts in governance structures, policy consistency, and institutional capacity that influence ppp outcomes. while malaysia demonstrates a mature, centralised framework with proactive private engagement, iraq exhibits fragmented governance, regulatory gaps, and a cautious policy environment. these results highlight the importance of legal reform, capacity building, and investment incentives in the iraqi context. theoretically, the study contributes to the literature by framing a contextsensitive model of ppp readiness for emerging economies, integrating 289 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9329 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9329 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9329 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:omar.ameen93@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9329 institutional theory with procurement practice. the implications emphasise the need for iraq to strategically enhance its legal and institutional frameworks, stimulate private sector confidence, and adopt adaptable ppp models to foster sustainable infrastructure development. keywords public– private partnership; procurement; developing countries; institutional capacity; governance introduction the construction industry remains one of the most resistant to technological advancement, facing persistent challenges such as fragmented processes, limited collaboration, and outdated procurement methods (li, greenwood, and kassem, 2019; chan and owusu, 2022; alsamarraie and ghazali, 2023c). despite recent initiatives promoting digital transformation (yousif et al., 2024), progress has been slow. in this context, public– private partnerships (ppps) have emerged as a strategic response to infrastructure demands, particularly in countries grappling with fiscal constraints. ppps allow governments to harness private sector capital, expertise, and efficiency while sharing project risks and responsibilities (endo and seetharam, 2021). globally, ppps have gained traction as a viable model for delivering public infrastructure. malaysia stands out for its structured and successful ppp projects, including light rail systems, expressways, hospitals, schools, and special economic zones (hashim, cheani, and ismail, 2017). in contrast, iraq has struggled to implement ppps effectively despite formal policy endorsements. key impediments include entrenched corruption, weak institutional capacity, inadequate legal frameworks, and a lack of stakeholder trust (alsamarraie and ghazali, 2023c). these issues are not solely administrative; they reflect broader systemic limitations that inhibit the development of a functional ppp ecosystem. although individual studies have addressed ppp challenges in either iraq or malaysia, comparative research remains limited. few studies have systematically analysed how institutional maturity, governance quality, and risk management frameworks influence ppp outcomes across differing national contexts. to fill this gap, the current study employed a comparative analytical framework focused on three interrelated dimensions: institutional readiness, risk allocation strategies, and procedural transparency. this framework provides a structured lens through which to examine the divergence in ppp practices and outcomes between a developing country like iraq and an emerging economy like malaysia. the objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the procurement approaches, risk landscapes, and implementation mechanisms of ppps in iraq and malaysia. through this comparison, the study aimed to extract actionable insights that can guide policy reform, reduce implementation barriers, and foster more transparent and resilient ppp models— particularly in postconflict or resourceconstrained environments. the methodology is based on a structured literature review, synthesising findings from peerreviewed studies, government reports, and institutional frameworks. to ensure a rigorous and systematic review, sources were retrieved from academic databases such as scopus, web of science, and relevant governmental portals. the review focused on studies published between 2000 and 2024, with priority given to peer reviewed journal articles, empirical case studies, and official policy documents related to ppp performance in iraq and malaysia. studies were included based on their relevance to institutional theory, procurement frameworks, and risk assessment in ppps, while nonenglish sources, studies without clear methodological grounding, or those with duplicated findings were excluded. a thematic analysis was conducted to categorise barriers and risks into six key domains. secondary data triangulation enhanced the reliability of the findings. furthermore, internationally recognised ppp performance models were reviewed and used as benchmarks to evaluate the two countries’ frameworks. comparative insights were visualised through tables and diagrams to support clarity. by aligning with international standards such as those set by the organisation for economic cooperation and development (oecd), the study contributes to the broader alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025290 discourse on ppp reform, offering practical guidance for developing and emerging economies seeking to enhance infrastructure delivery through effective public– private collaboration. ppp world trend in many countries, ppp has increased dramatically over the past three decades concerning the volume of contracts and investments (rosell and sazcarranza, 2020). ppp has grown in favour especially concerning infrastructure projects because of the advantages they are anticipated to provide, including the accomplishment of projects on schedule and within budgetary constraints, the incorporation of private sector concepts to create innovative and excellent amenities, the combination effect’s ability to reduce the expenses associated with integration, and the ability to fill the funding shortage in facilities development by enlisting private funding (endo and seetharam, 2021). ppp is popular not just in affluent nations but also in emerging nations. more than 300 construction projects with private investment have been carried out annually in emerging economies since 2010, according to the “private participation in the infrastructure (ppi)” project directory of the world bank, as illustrated in figure 1. the average investment in the last 12 years was $108.25 billion across 417.5 projects, as shown in figure 1. in the early 1990s, latin america was the region with the fastestgrowing ppp, which was accompanied by a period of prosperity in southeast asia, east asia, and the pacific region starting in the 2000s. in recent years, latin america and asia have been identified as key regions for ppp expansion in emerging nations. the ppp’s rise in these areas was not accidental; rather, development organisations promoted and instigated it (bayliss and van waeyenberge, 2018). developing organisations have responded to the interest of emerging nations in ppp by launching a wide variety of projects and programs. figure 1. private infrastructure funding decisions in emerging nations, 2010– 2021 (epec, 2022; wbg, 2022) nevertheless, despite the increased usage of ppp and the corresponding growth in their studies, there is still no definitive explanation of why and how authorities in different contexts establish distinct institutional frameworks, laws, and regulations for administering ppp. the global prevalence of ppp during the 1990s led to the identification of various governmental infrastructure initiatives, including the construction and renovation of highways, roads, tunnels, sewage treatment facilities, ports, airports, and sports arenas, as prime examples of ppp. according to the data from the world bank group and european ppp expertise centre 2022, the studies revealed that, in addition to transportation infrastructure initiatives, various service sectors, such as environmental protection, education, public safety and security, national defence, medical care, real estate, and the communications sector, have been implemented through ppp. alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025291 in figure 2, it can be observed that the transportation industry proved to be the largest contributor when it comes to total ppp expenditures in european countries, as anticipated. it is noteworthy that the medical, educational, and environmental sectors exhibit a greater proportion of the total investment value of ppp in contrast to other industries. from a global standpoint, various nations across the asian continent, latin america, the eastern mediterranean region, and africa have also undergone a comparable shift in governance toward ppp. figure 2. ppp industry structure worldwide (epec, 2022; wbg, 2022). ppp, public– private partnership the ppi project databases of the world bank have documented more than 6,400 ppp projects across nearly 130 countries with low to middle income. the databases contain information regarding the quantity and monetary value of ppi projects, both collected and segmented by region or sector. additionally, they document the historical fluctuations of these projects from 1990 to 2018 across six global regions, namely, east asia and the pacific, the european union and asiapacific, the americas and the caribbean, the mediterranean region and northern africa, south asia, and subsaharan africa, as presented in table 1. based on the previously mentioned methods and descriptions of ppp, it may be inferred that ppp is being elucidated in varying manners by scholars. the fundamental underlying explanation of ppp has yet to be fully described and defined by any singular approach or dimension. in light of this, it is valuable to examine the conceptual priorities and identify shared characteristics inherent in the diverse definitions of ppp. therefore, an examination of more than 2,000 scholarly works about ppp that have lately appeared alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025292 in a variety of indexed journals was carried out. the key elements that are commonly associated with ppp are illustrated in figure 3. to categorise diverse definitions of ppp as documented in the prior studies and analyse their root words, analytical software tools, namely, vosviewer and worditout, were employed. figure 3 presents the precise and relative prevalence of the words through the utilisation of “word frequency queries” and the exportation of “word cloud visualisations”. it was discovered that “public”, “private”, “partnership”, “ppp”, “project management”, “risk assessment”, “investments”, “mergers and acquisitions”, “decision making”, “sustainable development”, and “infrastructure” are among the word groupings that are most commonly cited. figure 3. ppp output word cloud. ppp, public– private partnership ppp is generally defined more broadly in the following ways: (1) the private and public sectors, (2) longterm implications, (3) government projects, (4) services and utility providers, (5) common risks and obligations, (6) legal connections, (7) partnerships, (8) joint venture, and (9) shared financing (warsen, klijn and koppenjan, 2019; casady et al., 2020). as previously stated, the intricacies of implementing collaboration between the governmental and private sectors are distinct and multifaceted. therefore, a thorough examination of the interactions between the parties at various stages of the partnership project implementation is necessary. the conventional approach for ppp initiatives typically involves the primary partner engaging in a competitive bidding process to establish a contractual agreement with a private partner. additionally, a distinct “direct agreement” is established between the primary partner and the lenders. it should be noted that a direct agreement refers to a legally binding contract that outlines the circumstances of interaction between two parties. in this table 1. analysis of ppi initiatives by geographical area (kim and kwa, 2019) region number of ppi projects east asia and the pacific 2,491 european union and asiapacific 2,491 the americas and the caribbean 3,100 the mediterranean region and northern africa 216 south asia 1,427 subsaharan africa 590 note: ppi, private participation in the infrastructure. alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025293 scenario, the lending entities extend financial support to the private partner while securing their investment through the collateralisation of the partner’s assets, thereby ensuring the repayment of the financing. in addition, they engage in contractual arrangements with contractors designated by the private partner to undertake construction and upkeep activities. figure 4 presents the primary stakeholders participating in a standard ppp initiative in iraq and malaysia, along with their respective motivations and obligations. the authors extracted figure 4 from prior research findings. figure 4. iraqi– malaysian ppp model (authors’ compilation from earlier studies). ppp, public– private partnership public– private partnership model infrastructure projects are vital, as they are the backbone of countries, and they provide huge advantages for emerging nations. unfortunately, the execution of this idea is frequently hampered in many nations by a lack of adequate resources and expertise within the government and public sector. ppp has emerged as a workable answer to this issue, allowing the private sector to contribute sufficient resources and expertise to infrastructure projects. every government’s modernisation initiative currently relies heavily on the ppp idea, a reform in economic policy. the ppp model aids in bridging gaps in the effectiveness, efficiency, and speed of services provided by public bodies ( jayasuriya, zhang, and jing yang, 2019). a ppp is a contract for the provision of services between the government and private entities or nongovernmental organisations (ngos) in exchange for a split of the venture’s risks and benefits. alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025294 a government may work with a compatible company or an ngo under a ppp model to use its core competencies that enhance the capabilities of government institutions. ppp is a phrase that is frequently misused and used ambiguously. overall, private participation may be restricted to a straightforward role in subcontracting, such as building projects and providing services (ozorhon, ozcandeniz, and kir, 2021). however, a collaboration will only be classified as a ppp if the public and private parties have a well defined risksharing agreement. usually, the private investor shares most of the risk and uses experience and financial and technological assets to make a profit on its investment. to improve the sustainability and financial viability of egovernment projects, ppp is swiftly gaining popularity as an economic model. depending on the requirements of a particular project, the government and the collaborating body may choose to collaborate in a variety of ways. there are several partnership models, most of which rely on the agreements that the government body and its collaborating body have made. governments throughout the globe frequently utilise the paradigms “designbuildfinanceoperate” (dbfo), “buildtransferoperate”, “buildoperatetransfer” (bot), and “buildownoperate” (boo) in their projects (trebilcock and rosenstock, 2015). the theory of privatisation (boo), where the private proponent retains ownership of the asset upon the expiration date of the contract, is distinct from ppp. this viewpoint is shared by some scholars, while others hold differing opinions (engel, fischer, and galetovic, 2013). ppp is classified into various kinds of contracts based on the respective responsibilities of the partnering entities involved in the implementation of projects, as illustrated in figure 5. figure 5. ppp vs other arrangements (national center for public private partnership, 2019). ppp, public– private partnership in ppp, the partnering entities work together to build up, finance, and operate a standalone business. the private body provides construction management, operation, and maintenance (ozorhon, ozcandeniz, and kir, 2021). the project’s nature and several other elements have a role in the decision of which model to choose. nevertheless, the overarching goal is to enable cooperative risk sharing and combine public sector responsibility with private sector efficiency (dordevic and rakic, 2020). in the past, governments have used ppp to contract with private bodies to provide services to fulfil one or more of the six roles depicted in figure 6. theoretical frameworks underpinning ppp implementation • value for money (vfm) in ppp procurement a central justification for adopting ppps lies in their potential to deliver vfm by optimising the balance between cost, quality, and risk over the project lifecycle. vfm is achieved when a ppp arrangement offers greater efficiency or better service outcomes than traditional public procurement models. this is typically assessed through tools such as the public sector comparator or cost– benefit analysis frameworks, which alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025295 evaluate whether private sector involvement leads to longterm economic gains for the public sector (atmo and duffield, 2014; helby petersen, 2019). in the malaysian context, formal mechanisms to evaluate vfm are more institutionalised, including performancebased output specifications, lifecycle costing, and transparent payment structures (hashim, cheani, and ismail, 2017). conversely, iraq lacks formalised vfm assessment procedures, making it difficult to justify private investment or ensure accountability in ppp contracts. this absence of structured vfm frameworks contributes to inefficiencies and reduces investor confidence. • risk allocation and the ppp risk matrix effective risk allocation is fundamental to ppp success. the ppp risk allocation matrix is a tool used to identify and assign specific risks— such as design, financial, operational, and political risks— to the party best positioned to manage them (hwang, zhao, and gay, 2013; loosemore and malouf, 2019; huque, 2021). in wellfunctioning ppp environments like malaysia, risk is typically distributed through detailed contractual provisions, minimising ambiguity and dispute potential. however, iraq’s ppp arrangements often suffer from unclear or onesided risk allocation, frequently placing a disproportionate burden on the public sector or failing to address potential risk events such as regulatory change, land acquisition delays, or payment guarantees. this undermines project bankability and discourages longterm private participation (khudhaire and naji, 2021; alsamarraie and ghazali, 2023b). • institutional theory and crossnational ppp performance the variation in ppp success across countries like iraq and malaysia can also be explained through institutional theory, which highlights how formal structures (laws, regulations, and governance mechanisms) and informal norms (trust, political culture, and stakeholder expectations) shape economic and policy outcomes (quelin et al., 2019). for instance, malaysia benefits from institutional maturity— evidenced by centralised ppp units, regulatory clarity, and sustained political support— allowing for more stable long term engagement with private actors (hashim, cheani and ismail, 2017; mohamad, ismail and mohd said, 2018). figure 6. ppp functions (abuzaineh, 2018). ppp, public– private partnership alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025296 in contrast, iraq faces significant institutional voids, characterised by weak legal enforcement, fragmented authority, and limited stakeholder alignment (alsamarraie and ghazali, 2023c). according to casady et al. (2020), such environments lack the “institutional capacity” necessary for effective ppp governance, leading to stalled or underperforming projects despite formal policy support. while institutional theory helps explain the broader structural and regulatory conditions that shape ppp outcomes, a closer examination of the specific barriers and risk factors at the project and policy levels is essential to understand the operational challenges that hinder successful ppp implementation— particularly in developing and transitional economies like iraq. barriers and risk factors impacting ppp’s successful implementation ppp frequently brings together institutions with radically distinct cultures, encompassing diverse priorities, beliefs, and perspectives, and this multidimensional cooperation between private and public sectors is complicated and timeconsuming (reich, 2018). ppp is noted as an uncommon environment where public and private objectives or moral and ethical standards merge (paanakker and reynaers, 2020). the private bodies have their own set of principles and beliefs that are distinct from those of the public bodies. as a result, there are often difficulties and inefficiencies in coordinating between the public and private bodies. the hierarchies of government organisations are often bureaucratic, while the formations of the private sector seem to be more flexible. consequently, the contrasts in organisational characteristics make partnering extremely difficult (alsamarraie and ghazali, 2023a) ppp has the most risk in the following categories: contracting (59%), funding (58%), divergent aims (45%), composition (40%), and commitment (39%) (gobikas and čingienė, 2021). partners must have an upfront, honest conversation about their shared priorities and expectations. next, the parties involved should keep talking about and reevaluating their shared aims and objectives. in other words, better ppp collaboration will result from standardised methods of communication being put in place (strasser et al., 2021). however, as every business has its purpose, vision, values, and culture, differences in these areas are unavoidable. as a result, ppp participants ought to establish mutually acceptable norms for cooperating productively toward shared objectives. recent studies have asserted that the ppp framework is significantly impacted by ineffective governance practices, such as ineffective procedural mechanisms, insufficient standards, an insufficient level of transparency, and discriminatory involvement in decisionmaking practices (nuhu, mpambije, and ngussa, 2020). many researchers concurred that a solid institutional context is essential for the effectiveness of ppp initiatives. in the absence of a robust organisational framework, ppp initiatives will fail. the organisational maturity of ppp is influenced by the maturity levels of legitimation, trustworthiness, and capability (casady et al., 2020). governments’ public bodies need to construct clear, predictable, and legal institutional arrangements by bolstering the ppp market and fostering legitimacy, confidence, and capability in the ppp framework. political volatility hinders ppp’s planning and implementation. organisations and authorities choose to delay and protect their rights because of uncertainty. the bureaucracy’s strong partisanship hinders ppp initiatives (huque, 2021). weak political and legislative frameworks represent one of the biggest obstacles to ppp adoption (sadeghi, bastani, and barati, 2020). countries like bulgaria and hungary did not even have pppspecific regulations. lack of administrative capacity and inadequate regulations restrict private sector activity in these nations (delić, šašić, and tanović, 2021). reforms to ppp should centre on the regulatory environment. it must provide extensive freedom in terms of the form and factual evidence of ppp. table 2 shows some of the barriers and risk factors impacting ppp implementation. operationalised analysis of barriers to ppp implementation to enhance the systematic analysis of barriers to ppp implementation, this section operationalises barriers by defining their characteristics, categorising them thematically, and quantifying their prevalence. alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025297 table 2. barriers and risk factors impacting ppp implementation no. themes factors author 1 o rg an is at io na l absence of monitoring and performance auditing frameworks (delić, šašić, and tanović, 2021) tendering mechanism, accountability, and transparency issues (strasser et al., 2021) financing and implementation procedures (khaderi et al., 2019) lack of the recommended guidelines (hashim, cheani, and ismail, 2017) deficits in key performance indicators (kpis) and insufficient instruction and training (alsamarraie and ghazali, 2023a) lifecycle cost (lcc) calculation neglect (castelblanco et al., 2022) higher risk in the private sector (ismail and azzahra haris, 2014) uncertainty regarding government goals and assessment standards (ismail and azzahra haris, 2014) the public sector’s centralisation (castelblanco et al., 2022) different cultures and goals (batjargal and zhang, 2021) delays in project approvals (oseiasibey et al., 2024) high participation costs (hu et al., 2019) 2 p ro je ct reduce the project accountability (strasser et al., 2021) few plans have reached the contracting process (aborted before the contract) (ismail and azzahra haris, 2014) high project costs (oseiasibey et al., 2024) inadequate experience (oseiasibey et al., 2024) lack of commitment (ismail and azzahra haris, 2014) level of demand (hu et al., 2019) competition risk (ahmadabadi and heravi, 2019) uncompetitive tender (ahmadabadi and heravi, 2019) similar project (ahmadabadi and heravi, 2019) contractual risk (hu et al., 2019) land acquisition (hu et al., 2019) project delay (ismail and azzahra haris, 2014) contractor failure (dechev, 2015) alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025298 operationalisation involves specifying barriers in terms of their nature (e.g., structural and procedural), impact (e.g., delays and cost overruns), and context (e.g., organisational and legal) to enable frequency and thematic categorisation (strasser et al., 2021). drawing on table 2, which lists 36 barriers, this analysis categorises them into six thematic dimensions: organisational, project, operational, external, legal, and political. a frequency analysis quantifies the distribution of barriers across these categories, providing insights into their relative significance. the findings are summarised in table 3 and elaborated in the following sections, enhancing the clarity and structure of the analysis. no. themes factors author design changes and deficiencies (dechev, 2015) poor quality of workmanship (dechev, 2015) fewer employment positions (ismail and azzahra haris, 2014) 3 o pe ra ti on al overly restrictive participation guidelines (oseiasibey et al., 2024) long delays in agreements (oseiasibey et al., 2024) risk of supporting facilities (huque, 2021) operation cost overruns (ismail and azzahra haris, 2014) residual value after the concession period (oseiasibey et al., 2024) higher maintenance cost (ismail and azzahra haris, 2014) technology risk (parakhina et al., 2019) availability of labour (fabre and straub, 2019) 4 e xt er na l force majeure (casady et al., 2020) environment weather (oecd, 2024) 5 le ga l change in tax regulations (cepparulo, eusepi, and giuriato, 2019) corruption (schomaker, 2020) legislation changes (albalate, bel, and geddes, 2020) 6 p ol it ic al inconsistencies in government policies (castelblanco et al., 2022) change in laws (albalate, bel, and geddes, 2020) poor public decisions (song, hu, and feng, 2018) strong political opposition (soomro, li and han, 2020) unstable government (sadeghi, bastani, and barati, 2020; huque, 2021) note: ppp, public– private partnership. table 2. continued alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025299 table 3. thematic categorisation and frequency of barriers thematic category number of barriers percentage (%) examples of barriers organisational 12 33.3 absence of monitoring frameworks, transparency issues, cultural differences project 14 38.9 high project costs, contractor failure, uncompetitive tenders operational 8 22.2 operation cost overruns, technology risks, labour shortages external 2 5.6 force majeure, weather legal 3 8.3 corruption, tax regulation changes political 5 13.9 inconsistent government policies, unstable government operationalisation of barriers barriers to ppp implementation are defined as obstacles that hinder the effective execution of ppp projects, impacting their efficiency, cost, or outcomes. each barrier is operationalised by the following: • nature: the type of obstacle (e.g., lack of expertise and regulatory ambiguity). • impact: the consequence on ppp processes (e.g., delays and reduced investment). • context: the domain where the barrier occurs (e.g., public sector governance and project execution). this framework allows for thematic categorisation and frequency analysis, addressing the need for systematic assessment. thematic categorisation based on table 2, barriers were grouped into six thematic categories, adapted from the paper’s structure and aligned with prior research (gobikas and čingienė, 2021; alsamarraie and ghazali, 2023c): • organisational barriers: issues within institutional structures, such as a lack of monitoring frameworks, transparency deficits, or cultural differences (batjargal and zhang, 2021; delić, šašić, and tanović, 2021). • project barriers: challenges specific to project planning and execution, including high costs, inadequate experience, or contractor failure (dechev, 2015; oseiasibey et al., 2024). • operational barriers: obstacles during project operation, such as cost overruns, technology risks, or labour shortages (ismail and azzahra haris, 2014; fabre and straub, 2019). • external barriers: environmental or uncontrollable factors, such as force majeure or weather conditions (casady et al., 2020). • legal barriers: risks from regulatory frameworks, including tax changes or corruption (cepparulo, eusepi, and giuriato, 2019; schomaker, 2020). • political barriers: challenges from governance instability, such as policy inconsistencies or unstable governments (huque, 2021; castelblanco et al., 2022). alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025300 frequency analysis to quantify the prevalence of barriers, the 36 barriers listed in table 2 were assigned to one of the six thematic categories. the frequency count reflects the number of barriers in each category, providing insight into their relative significance. the results are as follows: • organisational barriers: 12 barriers (33.3%), e.g., absence of monitoring frameworks, transparency issues, and cultural differences. • project barriers: 14 barriers (38.9%), e.g., high project costs, contractor failure, and uncompetitive tenders. • operational barriers: eight barriers (22.2%), e.g., operation cost overruns and technology risks. • external barriers: two barriers (5.6%), e.g., force majeure and weather. • legal barriers: three barriers (8.3%), e.g., corruption and tax regulation changes. • political barriers: five barriers (13.9%), e.g., inconsistent policies and unstable government. the high frequency of project (38.9%) and organisational (33.3%) barriers suggests that ppp implementation is most hindered by planning, execution, and institutional challenges. operational barriers (22.2%) are also significant, while external, legal, and political barriers are less frequent but critical due to their systemic impact. implications for ppp implementation the thematic categorisation and frequency analysis reveal the following key insights: • project and organisational focus: the prevalence of project and organisational barriers indicates a need for improved planning, expertise development, and institutional coordination, particularly in iraq, where capability deficits are noted (alsamarraie and ghazali, 2023c). • operational challenges: operational barriers, such as cost overruns, highlight the importance of robust risksharing agreements, as seen in malaysia’s performancebased contracts (hashim, cheani, and ismail, 2017). • systemic risks: legal and political barriers, although less frequent, pose significant risks due to their potential to disrupt entire projects, as evidenced in iraq’s regulatory instability (huque, 2021). • external factors: the low frequency of external barriers suggests that they are less common but require contingency planning, as seen in global ppp practices (casady et al., 2020). this operationalised analysis enables targeted strategies to address barriers, such as capacity building for organisational issues, standardised contracts for project risks, and regulatory reforms for legal and political challenges. summary of barrier analysis table 3 summarises the thematic categorisation and frequency of barriers, providing a structured overview of their distribution and significance. this operationalised analysis enhances the understanding of ppp barriers by providing a systematic framework for their categorisation and prioritisation. by addressing the most frequent barriers (project and organisational) and mitigating systemic risks (legal and political), countries like iraq and malaysia can improve ppp implementation outcomes. alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025301 comprehensive comparative analysis of ppp procurement in iraq and malaysia this section provides an indepth comparison of ppp procurement in iraq and malaysia, analysing institutional maturity, procurement governance, regulatory risk mitigation, and financing approaches. institutional maturity, as defined by casady et al. (2020), encompasses legitimation (stakeholder acceptance), trustworthiness (reliability of arrangements), and capability (management effectiveness). procurement governance, regulatory risk mitigation, and financing approaches further elucidate structural and contextual differences, as indicated by reich (2018), strasser et al. (2021), and owolabi et al. (2019). lines of evidence from table 2 and figure 4 clarify the analysis, highlighting implications for ppp outcomes. institutional maturity 1. legitimation • iraq: ppp legitimation in iraq is weak due to a history of economic nationalisation (1963– 2003) and centralised public sector control (alsamarraie and ghazali, 2023b). post2003 regulatory reforms to attract private investment face stakeholder scepticism, as public and private sectors lack a shared understanding of ppp benefits (khudhaire and naji, 2021). this contributes to delays in project approvals (oseiasibey et al., 2024). • malaysia: malaysia exhibits strong legitimation, formalised through the 9th malaysia plan (2006– 2010) and reinforced by successful projects in transportation and healthcare (hashim, cheani, and ismail, 2017). the ppp unit (ukas) fosters stakeholder acceptance, enabling faster contract negotiations. • distinction: malaysia’s policy stability and ppp track record drive mature legitimation, while iraq’s historical mistrust and political volatility hinder stakeholder buyin. 2. trustworthiness • iraq: iraq’s ppp framework lacks trustworthiness due to inconsistent regulations and political instability (huque, 2021). the absence of a pppspecific law and reliance on international support (world bank, unido) for a ppp unit signal unreliable arrangements (motlag and ghasemlounia, 2021). high risks like corruption deter investors (schomaker, 2020). • malaysia: malaysia’s framework is trustworthy, with clear regulations and standardised processes via the ppp unit (mohamad, ismail, and mohd said, 2018). performancebased contracts enhance reliability, although transparency gaps occasionally challenge trust (ismail and azzahra haris, 2014). • distinction: malaysia’s consistent regulatory environment fosters investor confidence, unlike iraq’s fragmented framework, which increases uncertainty. 3. capability • iraq: iraq’s public sector lacks technical and managerial capability, as seen in poor electricity project performance since 2006 (alsaffar and altaay, 2014). inadequate training and professional shortages cause tendering inefficiencies (alsamarraie and ghazali, 2023c). • malaysia: malaysia demonstrates high capability, with skilled administration managing diverse projects (mohamad, ismail, and mohd said, 2018). performance indicators reflect advanced practices (idris, 2010), although political delays occur (ismail and azzahra haris, 2014). • distinction: malaysia’s robust capacity ensures efficient execution, while iraq’s limited expertise impedes progress. alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025302 procurement governance procurement governance involves institutional structures, decisionmaking, and accountability mechanisms (reich, 2018; strasser et al., 2021). • iraq: iraq’s governance is fragmented, with decisions dispersed across various ministries, resulting in bureaucratic delays and political interference (huque, 2021). the lack of a centralised ppp unit, as shown in figure 4, hinders coordination. weak accountability, with corruption and poor monitoring, undermines delivery (schomaker, 2020). • malaysia: malaysia’s governance is centralised through the ppp unit, ensuring standardised processes and key performance indicators (kpis) (hashim, cheani and ismail, 2017). political delays can occur (ismail and azzahra haris, 2014), but structured oversight supports efficiency. • distinction: malaysia’s centralised governance enhances coordination and accountability, while iraq’s fragmented structure exacerbates inefficiencies. regulatory risk mitigation regulatory risk mitigation addresses risks from legal and policy frameworks (owolabi et al., 2019). • iraq: iraq’s underdeveloped regulatory environment, lacking a ppp law, increases risks like legislative changes and corruption, as shown in table 2 (albalate, bel, and geddes, 2020; alsamarraie and ghazali, 2023a). international support for legislation (motlag and ghasemlounia, 2021) highlights limited capacity, impacting projects like electricity ppps (alsaffar and altaay, 2014). • malaysia: malaysia’s mature framework, with clear guidelines and ppp unit oversight, mitigates risks through standardised contracts (štěrbová, halík, and neumannová, 2020). transparency gaps exist (ismail and azzahra haris, 2014), but regulatory stability has supported 28 projects since 2016 (hashim, cheani, and ismail, 2017). • distinction: malaysia’s structured regulations reduce risks, while iraq’s regulatory gaps heighten uncertainties. financing approaches financing approaches involve funding models and risksharing mechanisms (casady et al., 2020). • iraq: iraq relies on government funds and international support, with $150 billion allocated by 2025 (alsaffar and altaay, 2014). ad hoc financing models and unclear risk sharing limit private investment (khudhaire and naji, 2021), with high funding risks (58%) (gobikas and čingienė, 2021). • malaysia: malaysia uses diversified models (e.g., bot and dbfo), with clear risksharing via performancebased contracts (hashim, cheani, and ismail, 2017). high participation costs can exclude smaller investors, as shown in table 2 (hu et al., 2019), but flexible financing attracts capital. • distinction: malaysia’s structured financing attracts private investment, while iraq’s reliance on public funds restricts scalability. implications for ppp outcomes • iraq: weak institutional maturity, fragmented governance, high regulatory risks, and ad hoc financing lead to delays, high risks (59% contracting risk; gobikas and čingienė, 2021), and poor performance, notably in electricity projects. • malaysia: strong institutional maturity, robust governance, effective risk mitigation, and diversified financing enable efficient execution (hashim, cheani, and ismail, 2017). political delays and costs suggest refinement areas. • comparative insight: malaysia’s systems offer a model for iraq, which could benefit from a centralised ppp unit, standardised regulations, and clear financing models. alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025303 summary of comparative insights table 4 summarises distinctions in institutional maturity, procurement governance, regulatory risk mitigation, and financing approaches. this analysis highlights the critical role of institutional and structural factors in ppp procurement. iraq can enhance outcomes by adopting malaysia’s centralised governance, regulatory clarity, and financing strategies. table 4. summary of comparative insights dimension iraq malaysia legitimation weak due to historical mistrust strong, supported by policy and projects trustworthiness low, inconsistent regulations high, clear guidelines, minor transparency issues capability limited by expertise shortages highly skilled administration and kpis procurement governance fragmented, bureaucratic, weak accountability centralised, standardised, with political delays regulatory risk mitigation underdeveloped, high risks (e.g., corruption) mature, clear contracts, some transparency gaps financing approaches publicfunded, ad hoc, unclear risk sharing diversified (bot, dbfo), clear risksharing, high costs notes: kpis, key performance indicators; bto, buildtransferoperate; dbfo, designbuildfinanceoperate. discussion the comparative findings between iraq and malaysia highlight not only differences in policy and regulatory implementation but also deeper structural and institutional contrasts that influence ppp success. while the results show malaysia’s wellestablished ppp framework, this section goes further to analyse what these differences reveal about broader patterns in ppp adoption and performance, particularly in emerging and postconflict economies. malaysia’s structured ppp procurement model, centralised oversight, and use of performancebased contracts reflect international trends seen in other uppermiddleincome countries with similar governance capacities, such as chile and south africa (bayliss and van waeyenberge, 2018). these countries typically demonstrate institutional readiness, legal clarity, and predictable enforcement mechanisms— factors closely associated with higher project completion rates and sustained private sector engagement. malaysia’s implementation of kpis, risksharing mechanisms, and private sector incentives confirms the effectiveness of these strategies in building longterm public– private trust and delivering infrastructure efficiently. in contrast, iraq’s fragmented regulatory environment, limited administrative capacity, and political instability mirror challenges faced by other postconflict or fragile states. the findings indicate that while iraq has formally adopted ppp legislation and policy frameworks, the lack of operational capacity, legal enforcement, and investor protections limits actual implementation. this gap between formal adoption and practical functionality is a common pattern in fragile states where institutions are weak or politically alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025304 contested (casady et al., 2020). as such, iraq’s experience underlines the importance of sequencing ppp reforms in tandem with broader governance and capacitybuilding efforts. moreover, the comparative findings suggest that ppp performance is not only about adopting best practices but also about adapting them to context. countries cannot simply replicate models from high performing states without aligning them with local institutional realities. the presence of risk matrices and performancebased contracts, for instance, is effective only when accompanied by reliable enforcement mechanisms and competent oversight bodies. this insight aligns with institutional theory, which emphasises that successful policy implementation depends on the strength and compatibility of underlying institutions (ensslin, welter, and pedersini, 2022). ultimately, the analysis reveals that institutional readiness, more than technical design, is the key differentiator between functional and nonfunctional ppp systems. malaysia’s ability to align procurement policies with its legal and financial institutions contributes significantly to its ppp success. iraq, however, must focus on reducing fragmentation, increasing stakeholder coordination, and enhancing administrative transparency to realise the full potential of ppp frameworks. these findings carry important implications for other emerging or postconflict economies seeking to implement ppps under constrained institutional settings. these findings align with broader international patterns in ppp performance across emerging economies. countries like chile, colombia, and south africa demonstrate how sustained political support, institutional maturity, and transparent procurement systems contribute to stable ppp ecosystems (bayliss and van waeyenberge, 2018; fabre and straub, 2019). conversely, iraq’s experience mirrors that of fragile or post conflict nations such as sudan, afghanistan, or egypt, where legal uncertainty, low institutional capacity, and political risk hinder ppp adoption despite donor interest and formal reforms. malaysia’s trajectory also reflects the southeast asian regional trend, where structured regulatory environments and early public sector reforms have enabled better private engagement, similar to indonesia and the philippines. thus, benchmarking iraq and malaysia within this wider landscape allows policymakers to better understand where reform priorities should lie and how peer learning can support more resilient ppp implementation. conclusion this study examined the implementation of ppps in both developed and developing contexts, with a particular focus on malaysia and iraq. it aimed to identify strategic approaches for strengthening public– private engagement, especially in developing economies where infrastructure investment gaps remain critical. ppps offer viable solutions by leveraging private capital and expertise, but their effectiveness depends heavily on contextspecific conditions. in many developing countries, private entities hesitate to engage in ppps due to the burden of critical risks, such as demand uncertainty and political instability. to address this, development institutions must proactively use concessional finance and risksharing tools to attract investment. they should also broaden awareness campaigns that highlight ppps not just as cost saving mechanisms but also as tools for innovation, service improvement, and institutional capacity building. through comparative analysis, the study showed that procurement practices differ widely based on national priorities and institutional maturity. developed countries often target social sectors, while transitioning economies emphasise transport and infrastructure. malaysia has established centralised ppp units and performancelinked procurement mechanisms, contributing to greater private sector participation. iraq, by contrast, struggles with regulatory fragmentation and governance limitations. this comparative lens uncovered several best practices, including the use of solicited proposals, thirdparty technical advisors, risk matrix frameworks, and continuous performance evaluation. such practices form the basis for practical recommendations on how to enhance procurement integrity and public service delivery. alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025305 theoretically, this study contributes a contextsensitive comparative framework rooted in institutional theory. it highlights three interdependent pillars— institutional readiness, risk allocation, and procedural transparency— as essential to understanding ppp outcomes. by integrating these dimensions, the study offers a clearer explanation for the divergent performance of similar ppp models across different governance settings, especially in emerging and postconflict economies. future research should delve deeper into iraq’s implementation challenges, particularly around stakeholder coordination and trust. delphibased expert panels can be used to identify critical policy reforms, while grounded theory can explore perceptions of institutional legitimacy and risk tolerance among ppp actors. further inquiries may examine the alignment of control mechanisms between partners and investigate alternative funding strategies beyond traditional ppp structures. comparative quantitative studies could also evaluate how different governance models impact ppp performance across sectors. these directions will add depth to the discourse and support the design of adaptive, resilient ppp frameworks in complex environments. references abuzaineh, n., brashers, e., foong, s., feachem, r., da rita, p. 2018. ppps in healthcare: models, lessons and trends for the future. healthcare publicprivate partnerships, 4. https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/ healthcare/publications/trendsforthefuture.html ahmadabadi, a. a. & heravi, g. 2019. the effect of critical success factors on project success in public private partnership projects: a case study of highway projects in iran. transport policy, 73, pp.152161. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.07.004 albalate, d., bel, g. & geddes, r. r. 2020. do publicprivatepartnershipenabling laws increase private investment in transportation infrastructure? the journal of law and economics, 63 (1), pp.4370. https://doi. org/10.1086/706247 alsaffar, a. & altaay, m. r. 2014. paving the way for ppp’s to infrastructure projects in iraq. journal of engineering, 20 (12), pp.3260. https://doi.org/10.31026/j.eng.2014.12.03 alsamarraie, m. m. & ghazali, f. 2023a. evaluation of organizational procurement performance for public construction projects: systematic review. international journal of construction management, 23 (14), pp.24992508. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2070447 alsamarraie, m. m. & ghazali, f. 2023b. costbenefit analysis of using bim compared to traditional methods in iraq’s public construction projects. asean engineering journal, 13 (2), pp.107114. https://doi. org/10.11113/aej.v13.18982 alsamarraie, m. m. & ghazali, f. e. m. 2023c. barriers and challenges for public procurement integrity in iraq: systematic review study. ksce journal of civil engineering, 27 (9), pp.36333645. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s1220502311964 atmo, g. & duffield, c. 2014. improving investment sustainability for ppp power projects in emerging economies: value for money framework. built environment project and asset management, 4 (4), pp.335351. https:// doi.org/10.1108/bepam1020130051 batjargal, t. & zhang, m. 2021. review of key challenges in publicprivate partnership implementation. journal of infrastructure, policy and development, 5 (2), pp.1378. https://doi.org/10.24294/jipd.v5i2.1378 bayliss, k. & van waeyenberge, e. 2018. unpacking the public private partnership revival. the journal of development studies, 54 (4), pp.577593. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2017.1303671 alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025306 https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/healthcare/publications/trends-for-the-future.html https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/industries/healthcare/publications/trends-for-the-future.html https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.07.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tranpol.2018.07.004 https://doi.org/10.1086/706247 https://doi.org/10.1086/706247 https://doi.org/10.31026/j.eng.2014.12.03 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2070447 https://doi.org/10.11113/aej.v13.18982 https://doi.org/10.11113/aej.v13.18982 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-023-1196-4 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-023-1196-4 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2013-0051 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2013-0051 https://doi.org/10.24294/jipd.v5i2.1378 https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2017.1303671 casady, c. b., eriksson, k., levitt, r. e. & scott, w. r. 2020. (re)defining publicprivate partnerships (ppps) in the new public governance (npg) paradigm: an institutional maturity perspective. public management review, 22 (2), pp.161183. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2019.1577909 castelblanco, g., guevara, j., mesa, h. & hartmann, a. 2022. social legitimacy challenges in toll road ppp programs: analysis of the colombian and chilean cases. journal of management in engineering, 38 (3), pp.05022002. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.19435479.0001013 cepparulo, a., eusepi, g. & giuriato, l. 2019. public private partnership and fiscal illusion: a systematic review. journal of infrastructure, policy and development, 3 (2), pp.288309. https://doi.org/10.24294/jipd.v3i2.1157 chan, a. p. c. & owusu, e. k. 2022. evolution of electronic procurement: contemporary review of adoption and implementation strategies. buildings [online], 12. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12020198 dechev, d. 2015. publicprivate partnershipa new perspective for the transition countries. trakia journal of sciences, 13 (3). https://doi.org/10.15547/tjs.2015.03.008 delić, a., šašić, đ. & tanović, m. 2021. preconditions for establishing public private partnership as a model of effective management of public affairs. uprava, 12 (1), pp.5569. https://doi.org/10.53028/19866127.2021.12.1.55 dordevic, a. & rakic, b. 2020. comparative analysis of ppp projects sectoral structure in developed and developing countries. facta universitatis. series: economics and organization, pp.187202. https://doi.org/10.22190/ fueo200304014d endo, k. & seetharam, k. 2021. public– private partnerships in developing asian countries: practical suggestions for future development assistance. adbi policy brief, (no. 20215), pp.1 10. https://www.adb.org/ publications/publicprivatepartnershipsdevelopingasiancountriespracticalsuggestionsfuture engel, e., fischer, r. & galetovic, a. 2013. the basic public finance of public– private partnerships. journal of the european economic association, 11 (1), pp.83111. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.15424774.2012.01105.x ensslin, s. r., welter, l. m. & pedersini, d. r. 2022. performance evaluation: a comparative study between public and private sectors. international journal of productivity and performance management, 71 (5), pp.17611785. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm0420200146 epec, e. p. p.p. p. e. c. 2022. review of the european ppp market for 2010 to 2021. https://data.eib.org/epec fabre, a. & straub, s. 2019. the economic impact of public private partnerships (ppps) in infrastructure, health and education: a review. toulouse school of economics. https://www.tsefr.eu/sites/default/files/tse/documents/doc/ wp/2019/wp_tse_986.pdf gobikas, m. & čingienė, v. 2021. publicprivate partnership in youth sport delivery: local government perspective. journal of physical education and sport, 21, pp.11851190. https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2021.s2149 hashim, h., cheani, a. i. & ismail, k. 2017. review of issues and challenges for public private partnership (ppp) project performance in malaysia. aip conference proceedings, 1891 (1), pp.020051. https://doi. org/10.1063/1.5005384 helby petersen, o. 2019. evaluating the costs, quality, and value for money of infrastructure publicprivate partnerships: a systematic literature review. annals of public and cooperative economics, 90 (2), pp.227244. https://doi.org/10.1111/apce.12243 hu, x., xia, b., hu, y., skitmore, m. & buys, l. 2019. what hinders the development of chinese continuing care retirement community sector? a news coverage analysis. international journal of strategic property management, 23 (2), pp.108116. https://doi.org/10.3846/ijspm.2019.7436 alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025307 https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2019.1577909 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0001013 https://doi.org/10.24294/jipd.v3i2.1157 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings12020198 https://doi.org/10.15547/tjs.2015.03.008 https://doi.org/10.53028/1986-6127.2021.12.1.55 https://doi.org/10.22190/fueo200304014d https://doi.org/10.22190/fueo200304014d https://www.adb.org/publications/public-private-partnerships-developing-asian-countries-practical-suggestions-future https://www.adb.org/publications/public-private-partnerships-developing-asian-countries-practical-suggestions-future https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1542-4774.2012.01105.x https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-04-2020-0146 https://data.eib.org/epec https://www.tse-fr.eu/sites/default/files/tse/documents/doc/wp/2019/wp_tse_986.pdf https://www.tse-fr.eu/sites/default/files/tse/documents/doc/wp/2019/wp_tse_986.pdf https://doi.org/10.7752/jpes.2021.s2149 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5005384 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5005384 https://doi.org/10.1111/apce.12243 https://doi.org/10.3846/ijspm.2019.7436 huque, a. s. 2021. infrastructure, political conflict, and stakeholder interests: the case of a public– private partnership in bangladesh. public works management & policy, 26 (2), pp.7594. https://doi. org/10.1177/1087724x19895281 hwang, b.g., zhao, x. & gay, m. j. s. 2013. public private partnership projects in singapore: factors, critical risks and preferred risk allocation from the perspective of contractors. international journal of project management, 31 (3), pp.424433. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.07.003 idris, m. s. m. 2010. national asset planning in malaysia. journal of retail & leisure property, 9 (1), pp.13. https:// doi.org/10.1057/rlp.2009.24 ismail, s. & azzahra haris, f. 2014. constraints in implementing public private partnership (ppp) in malaysia. built environment project and asset management, 4 (3), pp.238250. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam10 20130049 jayasuriya, s., zhang, g. & jing yang, r. 2019. challenges in public private partnerships in construction industry: a review and further research directions. built environment project and asset management, 9 (2), pp.172185. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam0220180042 khaderi, s. s., bakri, a. s., abd shukor, a. s., kamil, a. i. m. & mahbub, r. tendering issues and improvement in public infrastructure project through publicprivate partnerships (ppp)/private finance initiative (pfi). iop conference series: earth and environmental science, 2019. iop publishing, pp.012048. https://doi.org/10. 1088/17551315/267/1/012048 khudhaire, h. y. & naji, h. i. 2021. adoption ppp model as an alternative method of government for funding abandoned construction projects in iraq. iop conference series: materials science and engineering, 1076 (1), pp.012115. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757899x/1076/1/012115 kim, s. & kwa, k. x. 2019. exploring publicprivate partnerships in singapore: the successfailure continuum, routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429290701 li, j., greenwood, d. & kassem, m. 2019. blockchain in the built environment and construction industry: a systematic review, conceptual models and practical use cases. automation in construction, 102, pp.288307. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.02.005 loosemore, m. & malouf, n. 2019. safety training and positive safety attitude formation in the australian construction industry. safety science, 113, pp.233243. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.11.029 mohamad, r., ismail, s. & mohd said, j. 2018. performance indicators for public private partnership (ppp) projects in malaysia. journal of economic and administrative sciences, 34 (2), pp.137152. https://doi.org/10.1108/ jeas0420170018 motlag, m. h. & ghasemlounia, r. 2021. method of partnership with the private sector in iraq. available at ssrn 3822123. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3822123 national center for public private partnership, m. o. f. o. t. r. f., state development corporation 2019. g20 iwg report on the results of the survey on publicprivate partnership developments in the g20 economies. pp.1 46. https://www.gihub.org/resources/publications/g20iwg reportontheresultsofthesurveyonpublicprivatepartnershipdevelopmentsintheg20economies/ nuhu, s., mpambije, c. j. & ngussa, k. 2020. challenges in health service delivery under publicprivate partnership in tanzania: stakeholders’ views from dar es salaam region. bmc health services research, 20, pp.112. https://doi.org/10.1186/s1291302005638z oecd, w. b., & un environment 2024. infrastructure for a climateresilient future. oecd publishing. https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/infrastructureforaclimateresilientfuture_537a2c80en.html alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025308 https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724x19895281 https://doi.org/10.1177/1087724x19895281 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2012.07.003 https://doi.org/10.1057/rlp.2009.24 https://doi.org/10.1057/rlp.2009.24 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2013-0049 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-10-2013-0049 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-02-2018-0042 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/267/1/012048 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/267/1/012048 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/1076/1/012115 https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429290701 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.02.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2019.02.005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2018.11.029 https://doi.org/10.1108/jeas-04-2017-0018 https://doi.org/10.1108/jeas-04-2017-0018 https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3822123 https://www.gihub.org/resources/publications/g20-iwg-report-on-the-results-of-the-survey-on-public-private-partnership-developments-in-the-g20-economies/ https://www.gihub.org/resources/publications/g20-iwg-report-on-the-results-of-the-survey-on-public-private-partnership-developments-in-the-g20-economies/ https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05638-z https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/infrastructure-for-a-climate-resilient-future_537a2c80-en.html oseiasibey, d., ayarkwa, j., baah, b., afful, a. e., anokye, g. & nkrumah, p. a. 2024. impact of timebased delay on publicprivate partnership (ppp) construction project delivery: construction stakeholders’ perspective. journal of financial management of property and construction. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc07 20230044 owolabi, h. a., oyedele, l., alaka, h., ebohon, o. j., ajayi, s., akinade, o., bilal, m. & olawale, o. 2019. public private partnerships (ppp) in the developing world: mitigating financiers’ risks. world journal of science, technology and sustainable development, 16 (3), pp.121141. https://doi.org/10.1108/wjstsd 0520180043 ozorhon, b., ozcandeniz, g. & kir, o. d. 2021. challenges of public private partnership (ppp) healthcare projects: case study in developing countries. in: leathem, t., perrenoud, a. & collins, w., eds. asc 2021. 57th annual associated schools of construction international conference, 2021. easychair, pp.136145. https://doi.org/10.29007/nz4z paanakker, h. & reynaers, a.m. 2020. value contextuality in public service delivery. an analysis of streetlevel craftsmanship and public– private partnerships. public integrity, 22 (3), pp.245255. https://doi.org/10.10 80/10999922.2020.1715128 parakhina, v. n., vorontsova, g. v., momotova, o. n., boris, o. a. & ustaev, r. m. 2019. innovational projects of technological growth on the platform of public– private partnership: risks and methods of their minimization. ed. tech, smart cities, and regional development in contemporary russia. emerald publishing limited. pp.1527. https://doi.org/10.1108/978178973881020191003 quelin, b. v., cabral, s., lazzarini, s. & kivleniece, i. 2019. the private scope in public– private collaborations: an institutional and capabilitybased perspective. organization science, 30 (4), pp.831846. https:// doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2018.1251 reich, m. r. 2018. the core roles of transparency and accountability in the governance of global health public– private partnerships. health systems & reform, 4 (3), pp.239248. https://doi.org/10.1080/23288604.2018.1465880 rosell, j. & sazcarranza, a. 2020. determinants of public– private partnership policies. public management review, 22 (8), pp.11711190. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2019.1619816 sadeghi, a., bastani, p. & barati, o. 2020. identifying barriers to development of the publicprivate partnership in providing of hospital services in iran: a qualitative study. evidence based health policy, management and economics. https://doi.org/10.18502/jebhpme.v4i3.4162 schomaker, r. m. 2020. conceptualizing corruption in public private partnerships. public organization review, 20 (4), pp.807820. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115020004736 song, j., hu, y. & feng, z. 2018. factors influencing early termination of ppp projects in china. journal of management in engineering, 34 (1), pp.05017008. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.19435479.0000572 soomro, m. a., li, y. & han, y. 2020. socioeconomic and political issues in transportation public– private partnership failures. ieee transactions on engineering management, 69 (5), pp.20732087. https://doi.org/10.1109/ tem.2020.2997361 štěrbová, l., halík, j. & neumannová, p. 2020. traditional procurement versus publicpivate partnership: a comparison and synergies with focus on crossborder contracts. naše gospodarstvo/our economy, 66 (1), pp.5264. https://doi.org/10.2478/ngoe20200005 alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025309 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-07-2023-0044 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-07-2023-0044 https://doi.org/10.1108/wjstsd-05-2018-0043 https://doi.org/10.1108/wjstsd-05-2018-0043 https://doi.org/10.29007/nz4z https://doi.org/10.1080/10999922.2020.1715128 https://doi.org/10.1080/10999922.2020.1715128 https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78973-881-020191003 https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2018.1251 https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2018.1251 https://doi.org/10.1080/23288604.2018.1465880 https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2019.1619816 https://doi.org/10.18502/jebhpme.v4i3.4162 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11115-020-00473-6 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000572 https://doi.org/10.1109/tem.2020.2997361 https://doi.org/10.1109/tem.2020.2997361 https://doi.org/10.2478/ngoe-2020-0005 strasser, s., stauber, c., shrivastava, r., riley, p. & o’quin, k. 2021. collective insights of public private partnership impacts and sustainability: a qualitative analysis. plos one, 16 (7), pp.e0254495. https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254495 trebilcock, m. & rosenstock, m. 2015. infrastructure public– private partnerships in the developing world: lessons from recent experience. the journal of development studies, 51 (4), pp.335354. https://doi.org/10.1080/0022 0388.2014.959935 warsen, r., klijn, e. h. & koppenjan, j. 2019. mix and match: how contractual and relational conditions are combined in successful public– private partnerships. journal of public administration research and theory, 29 (3), pp.375393. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muy082 wbg, w. b. g. 2022. ppp projects in the countries of the world. https://ppp.worldbank.org/publicprivate partnership/ yousif, o. s., zakaria, r., mohsin, i. n., aminudin, e., singaram, l., gara, j. a. & khalid, r. 2024. iraqi construction industry digitalization: trends, opportunities and challenges. aip conference proceedings, 2944 (1), pp.020010. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0204869 alsamarraie et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025310 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254495 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0254495 https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2014.959935 https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2014.959935 https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muy082 https://ppp.worldbank.org/public-private-partnership/ https://ppp.worldbank.org/public-private-partnership/ https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0204869 © 2022 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: yap, j. b. h., hew, q. l. t., and skitmore, m. 2022. student learning experiences in higher education: investigating a quantity surveying programme in malaysia. construction economics and building, 22:1, 1–20. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v22i1.7835 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb construction economics and building vol. 22, no. 1 march 2022 research article student learning experiences in higher education: investigating a quantity surveying programme in malaysia jeffrey boon hui yap1,*, queennie lip tin hew2, martin skitmore3 1 associate professor, department of surveying, lee kong chian faculty of engineering and science, universiti tunku abdul rahman (utar), kajang, malaysia, bhyap@utar.edu.my (corresponding author) orcid: 0000-0003-4332-0031 2 graduate, department of surveying, lee kong chian faculty of engineering and science, universiti tunku abdul rahman (utar), kajang, malaysia, queennie117@hotmail.com 3 university professorial fellow, faculty of society and design, bond university, robina qld 4226, australia, mskitmor@bond.edu.au orcid: 0000-0001-7135-1201 corresponding author: jeffrey boon hui yap, department of surveying, lee kong chian faculty of engineering and science, universiti tunku abdul rahman (utar), kajang, malaysia, bhyap@utar.edu.my, orcid: 0000-0003-4332-0031 doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7835 article history: received: 25/07/2021; revised: 14/01/2022; accepted: 04/02/2022; published: 21/03/2022 abstract higher education institutions (heis) play a crucial role in fostering quality education. this paper examines the attributes that influence student learning experiences in a quantity surveying (qs) programme in a malaysian private hei and uncovers the underlying factors involved. the significance of these attributes as recognised by the students, obtained through a questionnaire survey, are subsequently presented. the findings reveal that the five most important attributes are closely related to the lecturer, namely the lecturer’s preparedness, responsiveness, interpersonal and communication skills, clarity and academic experiences. an exploratory factor analysis identifies the five major underlying factors to be the quality of academic learning to relate to professionalism and competency of lecturers, quality of academic services and support facilities, interpersonal connections and external considerations, curriculum structure and physical environment and facilities. understanding these factors could help heis to devise effective strategies to enhance the quality of service and programme in higher education, which can result in a greater 1 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7835 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7835 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7835 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:bhyap@utar.edu.my mailto:queennie117@hotmail.com mailto:mskitmor@bond.edu.au mailto:bhyap@utar.edu.my https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v22i1.7835 impact on the effectiveness of contemporary qs education and the reputation of the hei as well as fostering student satisfaction and loyalty. keywords quantity surveying; student perspectives; student experience; higher education introduction construction remains a key industry in countries across the world and is one of the largest in the world economy, with the demand for construction professionals expected to stay strong. quantity surveyors (qss) are involved in providing financial and contractual management for construction projects at the pre-construction, construction and post-construction phases. the qs profession in most commonwealth countries is practised in a similar pattern to the united kingdom (uk) (dada and jagboro, 2012). in malaysia alone, the rising demand for professional quantity surveyors has spurred both public and private institutions of higher education to offer qs programmes. qs programmes are offered to students in heis to produce competent and professionally trained graduates who can confront challenges on all aspects of the construction process and project life cycle. according to rics’s pathway guide: quantity surveying and construction that was published in 2018, the competencies of a qualified chartered surveyor consist of three distinct categories: mandatory, technical core and technical optional. against this background, qss develop a third (34%) of their overall competence through educational training, 45% with professional capability and another 21% through professional development (dada and jagboro, 2018). paradoxically, the competencies of graduate qss working in developing countries are not to the expected standard (yogeshwaran, perera and ariyachandra, 2018). given the rapid changes in construction project complexities, the range of qs studies has been diversified into an ever-widening scope of service beyond traditional boundaries. the role of a qs is increasingly concerned with data management (e.g., numerical and data analysis skills) rather than data capture (e.g., the process of gathering data). in recent times, a graduate qs is required to cope with the application of advanced construction technology, materials innovation, management approaches, clients’ expectations and new market requirements within the construction industry (dada and jagboro, 2012; ekundayo, 2020). some graduates may choose to move into such other construction roles as project management, construction management or cost consultancy. to meet these challenges and enhance qs undergraduates’ professionalism with relevant skills and competencies, heis play a vital role in providing satisfactory learning experiences for undergraduates in qs programmes. a study conducted in india reported a significant relationship between education service qualities and undergraduate experiences at heis (chandra, et al., 2018). in today’s competitive learning environment, undergraduate experiences have a strong impact on success in the development of the educational process. this can be explained by educational institutions seeking to obtain prospective benefits in the competitive market that may need to maximise the student level of experiences by providing a high quality of services (chandra, et al., 2018). quality in higher education can be conceptualised as purposeful, exceptional, transformative and accountable, with the indicators relating to administrative, student support, instructional and student performance (schindler, et al., 2015). the focus includes governance and regulation, curriculum design, administration, learning experience and qualification (harvey and askling, 2003). effective teaching and learning in higher education is essential to help students develop the mental capacity to acquire knowledge, skills and competencies. in today’s globally competitive environment, an hei plays an important role in delivering the continuous improvement of educational services and programmes to students to equip them with adequate skills, competencies, attitudes and necessary values for further career development (olmos-gómez, et al., 2020). hence, to enhance the quality of an hei, collecting adequate feedback from students’ evaluations can yap, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 20222 be considered one of the most effective management tools for understanding the students’ views of their academic programme. as the students’ assessment reflects their educational experience and fulfilment of expectations, the feedback obtained can be used to make appropriate adjustments to the programme. to this end, higher education organisations can develop strategies to cope with identified complications and make continuous quality improvements. the aim of this study is threefold. first, to identify (via a meta-analysis of the literature) the most important attributes influencing quality and learning experiences in hei, particularly in contemporary qs education. second, to appraise the significance of these attributes through a survey of qs students from a well-established private hei in malaysia. third, to uncover the underlying factors of student experiences of their programme of learning. this study seeks to contribute to the body of knowledge of the importance of the quality of service and programmes in higher education, which can have a great impact on the effectiveness of academic programmes and services, and the reputation of the hei, as well as fostering student satisfaction and loyalty. attributes influencing student experiences in higher education student experiences refer to student satisfaction with the educational services and programmes offered by heis. in this vein, satisfaction means a mental state of enjoyment when a person’s perceived outcome fulfils her/his expectations (weerasinghe and fernando, 2017). tan, muskat and zehrer (2016) conducted a metaanalysis of research relating to the quality of student experiences in higher education to assert the need for student-centred initiatives for improving the quality of higher education for students. considering that fact, the satisfaction obtained by students in higher education predominantly depends on their perceived performance of the quality of the services provided in heis, and such satisfaction changes continually due to the learning environment in university life (shahsavar and sudzina, 2017). according to al-sheeb, hamouda and abdella (2018), there are two components to student satisfaction. the first concerns teaching and learning assessment, while the second emphasises comprehensive student experiences in higher education. as a corollary, student satisfaction is generally accepted as a “short term attitude resulting from an evaluation of student’s educational experience” (elliott and healy, 2001, p.2). pedro, mendes and lourenço (2018) however, opine that student experiences reflect the degree of contentment of the educational programme and services provided if their expectations are achieved or exceeded. students tend to be satisfied when the quality of the service provided is higher than anticipated. on the other hand, students tend to have negative feelings when there is a mismatch between these expectations and their actual experience. in appraising the influence of facilities performance, abdullahi and wan yusoff (2019) found that student satisfaction can be perceived as a reflected contemplation of life experience; it refers to the subjective evaluation of their learning experiences pertaining to educational activities. however, the concept of student experiences is relative as it encompasses a wide range of determinants that influence their overall satisfaction level associated with the educational programme offered (yusoff, mcleay and woodruff-burton, 2015). table 1 summarises the 20 most highly cited attributes in previous research that can influence students’ learning experiences in heis. these attributes are well known and for the purposes of brevity are grouped under four generic factors, viz. course, personal, lecturer and institution. research methodology a quantitative positivist approach is used to enable objective reality to be captured and interpreted using statistical analyses (hair, et al., 2019). the study is explanatory while bivariate and multivariate statistical techniques are utilised to estimate the relationships involved. the data collection instrument is a structured yap, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 20223 table 1. identification of attributes and sources ref attributes previous studies (b ut t a nd r eh m an , 2 01 0) (l et ch er a nd n ev es , 2 01 0) (a m os a nd h as sa n, 2 01 7) (y us of f, m cl ea y an d w oo dr uf fb ur to n. 2 01 5) (c ha nd ra , e t a l., 2 01 8) (p es ca ru , 2 01 7) (b al ak ri sh na n an d lo w , 2 01 6) (s po or en , m or te lm an s an d c hr is ti ae ns , 2 01 4) (p ed ro , m en de s an d lo ur en ço , 2 01 8) (g ha za l, a ls am ar ra ie a nd a ld ow ah , 2 01 8) (j er eb , j er eb ic a nd u rh , 2 01 8) (a ra m be w el a an d h al l 2 01 3) (v el a et a l. 20 16 ) (m ar ti ro sy an e t a l. 20 14 ) (t si ni do u, g er og ia nn is a nd f it si lis , 2 01 0) (a sh ra f, o sm an a nd r at an , 2 01 6) (f aj čí ko vá a nd u rb an co vá , 2 01 9) (c lo ss , m ah at a nd im m s, 2 02 1) a course factor a1 course content √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ a2 programme flexibility √ √ √ √ √ √ √ a3 activities and workshop availability √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ a4 quality of study material √ √ √ √ √ a5 counselling services √ √ √ √ √ √ √ b personal factor b1 peer relationships √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ b2 living arrangements √ √ √ b3 self-evaluations √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ b4 family encouragement √ √ b5 financial considerations √ √ √ √ √ √ √ c lecturer factor c1 lecturer’s academic experiences √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ c2 lecturer’s clarity √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ c3 lecturer’s interpersonal and communication skills √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ c4 lecturer’s preparedness √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ c5 lecturer’s responsiveness √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ d institution factor d1 classroom environment √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ d2 computer and lab facilities √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ √ d3 recreation facilities √ √ √ √ √ d4 library services √ √ √ √ √ √ √ d5 ancillary services √ √ √ yap, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 20224 questionnaire, which is economical and practical for a large sample (hair, et al., 2019). both descriptive and inferential statistical tools are used for the analysis using statistical package for the social sciences (spss 23), which include both descriptive and inferential statistical analyses. factor analysis is used to uncover the underlying factors that influence the academic experiences of qs students. questionnaire survey based on the literature review, a questionnaire was designed and distributed to undergraduates of a prominent private hei in malaysia. the survey questionnaire contains two sections. section a solicits the respondent’s level of study (year 1 to year 4), and section b solicits the perceived importance of the attributes influencing student experiences of the programme on a five-point likert scale ranging from 1 (not important) to 5 (very important). academic profile of respondents a total of 125 students were approached, out of whom 123 completed the questionnaire, giving a good response rate of 98.4% − a typical response rate for a face-to-face survey of this kind. the academic profile of the respondents consisted of (30 year 1, 30 year 2, 32 year 3 and 31 year 4), showing an equal spread over the four levels (years 1 to 4). results analysis and ranking of perceived attributes cronbach’s coefficient alpha is 0.883 for the 20 attributes evaluated, which is greater than the 0.7 needed for internal consistency reliability (hair, et al., 2019). table 2 presents the ranking, mean scores and standard deviation of the importance ratings for each attribute according to the category of attributes. overall, the mean scores range from 3.309 to 4.374 with the five most significant attributes being lecturer’s preparedness (4.374), lecturer’s responsiveness (4.366), lecturer’s interpersonal and communication skills (4.358), lecturer’s clarity (4.309) and lecturer’s academic experiences (4.293). intriguingly, all five leading attributes are associated with the lecturer. on the other hand, the three least influential attributes are counselling services (3.309), ancillary services (3.309) and recreation services (3.480). from the year 1 student perspective, courseand personal-related attributes are ranked the lowest while year 4 students perceived these to be more important than institutional-related attributes. with regard to the association between ranks, spearman’s rank-order correlation tests reveal strong statistically significant correlations between the four groups of students. the highest is group 5: year 3-year 4 (rs = 0.855, p < 0.01), while the lowest is group 1: year 1-year 2 (rs = 0.778, p < 0.01). the kruskal-wallis anova test reveals that the perceptions of respondents concerning ‘course content’, ‘activities and workshop availability’ and ‘peer relationship’ have statistically significant differences between the four respondent types (table 2). to identify the differences between two independent groups, mannwhitney u tests are further employed, and the results are presented in table 3. notably, group 3: year 1-year 4 contributes to the statistical differences in the opinions for all three attributes. factor analysis factor analysis is a multivariate technique widely used for data reduction and summarisation purposes involving a large number of significantly correlated variables to enable appropriate interpretation (field, 2013; hair, et al., 2019). in this study, this technique is useful for investigating the clustering effects of the variables so that they can be grouped together. the kmo for the 20 variables is 0.810, which is above yap, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 20225 ta bl e 2. r an ki ng o f a tt ri bu te s r ef a tt ri bu te s o ve ra ll (n =1 23 ) ye ar 1 s tu de nt (n =3 0) ye ar 2 s tu de nt (n =3 0) ye ar 3 s tu de nt (n =3 2) ye ar 4 s tu de nt (n =3 1) k ru sk al w al lis h a sy m pt ot ic si gn ifi ca nc e m ea n s d r an k m ea n s d r an k m ea n s d r an k m ea n s d r an k m ea n s d r an k a co ur se -r el at ed a 4 q ua lit y of s tu dy m at er ia l 4. 08 1 0. 81 6 6 4. 00 0 0. 83 0 8 3. 93 3 0. 74 0 8 4. 00 0 0. 84 2 8 4. 38 7 0. 80 3 5 7. 50 4 0. 05 7 a 1 c ou rs e co nt en t 4. 07 3 0. 79 1 7 3. 76 7 0. 93 5 9 3. 83 3 0. 74 7 10 4. 21 9 0. 65 9 5 4. 45 2 0. 65 9 3 15 .3 72 0. 00 2* * a 2 p ro gr am m e fl ex ib ili ty 3. 62 6 0. 74 0 16 3. 46 7 0. 73 0 16 3. 50 0 0. 77 7 18 3. 62 5 0. 70 7 15 3. 90 3 0. 70 0 15 6. 06 2 0. 10 9 a 3 a ct iv it ie s an d w or ks ho p av ai la bi lit y 3. 57 7 0. 86 8 17 3. 40 0 0. 81 4 18 3. 60 0 0. 77 0 16 3. 37 5 0. 90 7 18 3. 93 6 0. 89 2 14 8. 01 0 0. 04 6* a 5 c ou ns el lin g se rv ic es 3. 30 9 0. 92 4 19 3. 20 0 0. 92 5 20 3. 26 7 0. 94 4 20 3. 34 4 1. 03 5 20 3. 41 9 0. 80 7 20 1. 20 8 0. 75 1 b pe rs on al -r el at ed b 3 s el fev al ua ti on s 3. 91 1 0. 76 8 9 3. 70 0 0. 83 7 11 3. 90 0 0. 71 2 9 4. 00 0 0. 80 3 7 4. 03 2 0. 70 6 12 2. 31 9 0. 50 9 b 5 fi na nc ia l c on si de ra ti on s 3. 91 1 0. 92 3 10 3. 53 3 1. 07 4 14 4. 10 0 0. 84 5 6 3. 84 4 0. 92 0 10 4. 16 1 0. 73 5 9 7. 40 6 0. 06 0 b 1 p ee r re la ti on sh ip s 3. 84 6 0. 80 0 12 3. 66 7 0. 92 2 12 3. 66 7 0. 75 8 14 3. 75 0 0. 71 8 12 4. 29 0 0. 64 3 8 13 .4 29 0. 00 4* * b 4 fa m ily e nc ou ra ge m en t 3. 76 4 0. 98 4 14 3. 50 0 1. 10 6 15 3. 96 7 0. 85 0 7 3. 68 8 0. 99 8 14 3. 90 3 0. 94 4 16 3. 39 0 0. 33 5 b 2 li vi ng a rr an ge m en ts 3. 66 7 0. 82 6 15 3. 43 3 0. 81 7 17 3. 76 7 0. 81 7 12 3. 78 1 0. 70 6 11 3. 67 7 0. 94 5 17 4. 03 0 0. 25 8 c le ct ur er -r el at ed c 4 le ct ur er ’s p re pa re dn es s 4. 37 4 0. 74 0 1 4. 36 7 0. 76 5 1 4. 23 3 0. 85 8 3 4. 50 0 0. 67 2 1 4. 38 7 0. 66 7 4 1. 57 7 0. 66 5 c 5 le ct ur er ’s r es po ns iv en es s 4. 36 6 0. 73 9 2 4. 26 7 0. 82 8 4 4. 20 0 0. 76 1 4 4. 46 9 0. 62 1 3 4. 51 6 0. 72 4 1 4. 17 3 0. 24 3 c 3 le ct ur er ’s in te rp er so na l a nd co m m un ic at io n sk ill s 4. 35 8 0. 82 1 3 4. 33 3 0. 84 4 2 4. 20 0 0. 92 5 5 4. 50 0 0. 71 8 2 4. 38 7 0. 80 3 5 1. 84 6 0. 60 5 c 2 le ct ur er ’s c la ri ty 4. 30 9 0. 80 1 4 4. 30 0 0. 70 2 3 4. 26 7 0. 82 8 1 4. 18 8 0. 96 5 6 4. 48 3 0. 67 7 2 1. 68 9 0. 63 9 c 1 le ct ur er ’s a ca de m ic ex pe ri en ce s 4. 29 3 0. 81 7 5 4. 26 7 0. 82 8 4 4. 23 3 0. 77 4 2 4. 28 2 0. 88 8 4 4. 38 7 0. 80 3 5 0. 93 9 0. 81 6 d in st itu tio nre la te d d 2 c om pu te r an d la b fa ci lit ie s 3. 76 4 0. 98 4 8 4. 16 7 0. 69 9 6 3. 83 3 0. 83 4 11 3. 93 8 0. 75 9 9 4. 09 7 0. 87 0 11 3. 06 1 0. 38 2 d 1 c la ss ro om e nv ir on m en t 3. 87 0 0. 87 7 11 4. 13 3 0. 86 0 7 3. 70 0 0. 91 5 13 3. 62 5 0. 90 7 17 4. 03 2 0. 75 2 13 6. 82 3 0. 07 8 d 4 li br ar y se rv ic es 3. 82 1 0. 94 1 13 3. 73 3 0. 98 0 10 3. 66 7 0. 92 2 15 3. 75 0 0. 91 6 13 4. 12 9 0. 92 2 10 4. 96 1 0. 17 5 d 3 r ec re at io n se rv ic es 3. 48 0 0. 89 0 18 3. 56 7 0. 93 5 13 3. 53 3 0. 89 6 17 3. 34 4 0. 90 2 19 3. 48 4 0. 85 1 19 1. 01 3 0. 79 8 d 5 a nc ill ar y se rv ic es 3. 30 9 0. 92 4 19 3. 40 0 1. 22 1 19 3. 36 7 0. 92 8 19 3. 62 5 0. 70 7 15 3. 58 1 1. 02 5 18 1. 72 7 0. 63 1 n ot e: * *. t he m ea n di ff er en ce is s ig ni fic an t a t t he 0 .0 1 le ve l *. t he m ea n di ff er en ce is s ig ni fic an t a t t he 0 .0 5 le ve l the 0.50 threshold for sample adequacy (field, 2013; hair, et al., 2019). the result of the bartlett’s test of sphericity is 1175.3 (p < 0.001), indicating the presence of correlations among the attributes and that the correlation matrix is not an identical matrix (field, 2013; hair, et al., 2019). the above tests substantiate the appropriateness of the factor model. subjecting the 20 attributes to principal component analysis and varimax with kaiser normalisation yields a five-factor solution with eigenvalues greater than 1, explaining 66.68% of the total variance – exceeding the 60% required for adequate construct validity (hair, et al., 2019). all 20 attributes obtain factor loadings above the threshold level of 0.50 and are significant in contributing to the interpretation of the principal factors (hair, et al., 2019). in table 4, all of the extracted factors have good reliability with cronbach’s coefficient alpha values of above 0.70. the five factors were named by combining the meanings of these attributes with the highest loadings in the cluster. the factors are ordered based on the variance shared by each factor which indicates their level of significance and their influence on student satisfaction. the five manifested factors are determined (table 4). the average mean scores of each underlying factor’s attributes are also calculated. factor 1 attained the highest score of 4.340 while the lowest is factor 2 with 3.480. an average mean score higher than 3.0 indicates that the factor is regarded as important in the rating scale. discussion ranking of attributes the findings suggest that undergraduates believe that the preparation done by a lecturer is significantly related to their satisfaction level towards the qs programme provided by the hei. in a pakistani study, the instructors’ expertise is the most sensitive factor affecting student satisfaction by 39% (butt and rehman, 2010). in another study, siming, gao and xu, (2015) collected a sample of 200 students to observe that student learning experiences are enormously influenced by how much the lecturer prepares and assembles before conveying the lecture. students perceive academic quality to be considerably spoiled with a disorganised lecturer who prepares insufficiently before teaching in the classroom. the lecturer’s preparedness involves the timely assembly of lecture notes and assignment briefs, which are associated table 3. mann-whitney test on attributes undergraduate level grouping asymptotic significance (2-tailed) course content activities and workshop availability peer relationship group 1 year 1 year 2 0.680 0.214 0.930 group 2 year 1 year 3 0.036* 0.892 0.807 group 3 year 1 year 4 0.003** 0.021* 0.005** group 4 year 2 year 3 0.026* 0.212 0.720 group 5 year 3 year 4 0.141 0.020* 0.003** note: as table 2. yap, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 20227 table 4. rotated component matrix attributes component 1 2 3 4 5 professionalism and competency of lecturers lecturer’s preparedness (c4) 0.848 lecturer’s responsiveness (c5) 0.837 lecturer’s interpersonal and communication skills (c3) 0.820 lecturer’s academic experiences (c1) 0.697 lecturer’s clarity (c2) 0.617 quality of academic services and support facilities ancillary services (d5) 0.896 recreation facilities (d3) 0.772 library services (d4) 0.764 counselling services (a5) 0.559 interpersonal connections and external considerations family encouragement (b4) 0.727 living arrangements (b2) 0.688 financial considerations (b5) 0.656 self-evaluations (b3) 0.629 peer relationships (b1) 0.606 curriculum design and course content programme flexibility (a2) 0.763 activities and workshop availability (a3) 0.738 course content (a1) 0.663 quality of study materials (a4) 0.540 physical environment and facilities classroom environment (d1) 0.863 computer and lab facilities (d2) 0.746 cumulative variance explained (%) 17.25 14.45 13.17 12.00 9.81 cronbach’s α 0.870 0.817 0.752 0.770 0.767 average mean scores (based on overall) 4.340 3.480 3.820 3.839 3.817 kaiser-meyer-olkin measure of sampling adequacy 0.810 bartlett’s test of sphericity (approximate χ2) 1175.308 degree of freedom (df) 190 significance (ρ-value) 0.000 note: extraction method = principal component analysis; rotation method: varimax with kaiser normalization. rotation converged in 7 iterations. yap, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 20228 with the learning outcomes of the particular subject. for instance, lecture notes that are not released before class may trigger a negative influence on student’s interest in a particular subject. some notes may be outdated and not reflect the latest scientific facts in the field. to enhance learning, lecturers can try to find local problems that the qs students can solve and/or design problem-based tasks that tie to the learning objectives of the course. as kamardeen (2015) suggests, case studies and real world examples are effective module delivery methods. as wrenn and wrenn (2009) highlight, lecturers of professional degree programs need to demonstrate to students the importance of a solid grounding in theory in order to achieve excellence in their professional practice. a variety of teaching styles can be used – quizzes, simulations, games, discussion groups, etc. (kamardeen, 2015). the lecturer’s prompt response to questions or requests has a crucial effect on student satisfaction (amos and hassan, 2017), with students tending to be frustrated whenever the lecturer fails to respond to questions or consistently refuses to be involved in discussions. in this regard, the lecturer’s ability to respond spontaneously to the student is a key determinant in facilitating a positive learning environment. the lecturer’s reluctance to answer students’ questions leads them to perceive that the lecturer is insufficiently qualified to teach, and such behaviour subsequently engenders a negative perception throughout the learning experiences. it is worth noting that classroom discussions provide a stimulating and interactive environment for students to talk and listen to each other’s responses to questions and stimulate small-group interactions (wrenn and wrenn, 2009). although questioning is an integral part of meaningful learning and scientific inquiry, the lecturer holds the key to the classroom climate (chin and osborne, 2008). for instance, there is a situation where lecturers choose to ignore student feedback or complaints made, such as merely reading powerpoint slide words and lecturing with poor handwriting. such circumstances may cause academic isolation among students, particularly those who lack proficiency and competency in their medium of instruction. in such cases, students failed to understand the lectures, thus affecting the students’ intentions to pursue higher education (ghazal, al-samarraie and aldowah, 2018; lim and vighnarajah, 2018). previous studies have evaluated the interpersonal and communication skills of a lecturer having the strongest correlation with undergraduates’ learning experiences (ng, 2018; tsinidou, gerogiannis and fitsilis, 2010). interpersonal and communication skills may refer to the lecturer’s practice of interacting impartially with students by providing necessary encouragement and support in a timely fashion throughout the learning experiences (ghazal, al-samarraie and aldowah, 2018). lecturers who are approachable and amiable, as well as having a positive attitude towards students, are likely to have a huge impact on student performance and satisfaction, as good affiliation with students can stimulate their interest in the course programme and the willingness to continue with hei (amos and hassan, 2017). to increase interaction in the class, lecturers may adopt creative course delivery, such as giving real-life examples relating to course content. such course discussions help students to avert negative feelings towards the educational programme, thus providing an effective learning experience (ng, 2018). the ability of lecturers to express themselves clearly has a positive influence on student learning experiences (ng, 2018). students assert that greater clarity in lecturing is more significant than expertise in a particular subject matter. to better understand student perceptions of a good lecturer, martín (2019) administered a questionnaire survey to collect responses from 269 students to emphasise that the lecturer’s presentation is a key attribute in conveying the subject knowledge to students. it has been further argued that mere competence in the subject area is not enough to deliver the lecture, but also involves the way how the lecturer captures the students’ attention in the class. moreover, the lecturer’s clarity also refers to the various teaching styles demonstrated by the lecturer that may stimulate the students’ enthusiasm towards the course programme throughout the learning process. effective interactive and innovative teaching techniques adopted by the lecturer when delivering knowledge can change the students’ perceptions of their learning experience. both synchronous (e.g., in-class q&a, video conferencing, live-streamed lectures) yap, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 20229 and asynchronous (e.g., pre-recorded video content, online discussion boards, collaborative documents in the cloud) learning methods and tools may also be capitalised on to accommodate different learning styles, guide students to specific points of interest and help students to achieve their full potential. concurrent with the increasing use of information technology and electronic learning (e-learning) approaches, the flipped classroom (fc) pedagogical model with active learning has gained popularity in higher education worldwide. in investigating the effects of flipped classrooms in china, he, et al. (2019) found that this approach improved student performance, increased lecturer-student interaction and generated positive student attitudes towards the experience when compared with lecture-based learning (lbl). in the classic lbl model, the lecturer is regarded as a highly knowledgeable leader (‘sage on the podium’) to communicate solid theoretical knowledge and basic content to the students who are usually viewed as passive recipients by listening to lectures. as such, this passive learning process can lead to boredom and fail to engage current cohorts of students. contrariwise, fc is a type of blended learning where students are introduced to the learning material before class with classroom time then being used to deepen their understanding through discussion with peers and lecturer-facilitated problem-solving activities (lage, platt and treglia, 2000). for example, practice problems as homework and active group-based problemsolving activities using such real-world examples as current issues affecting the global construction industry are inherently engaging and needed to provide concrete opportunities to apply knowledge and skills learned in the classroom (kibwami, et al., 2021). some interesting videos, such as how modern methods of construction (mmc) can be used to reduce construction time and improve site safety can be shared asynchronously to make the content available on-demand and transform students into “active self-explorers of knowledge” with active participation in the learning process. nonetheless, a recent survey involving 310 qs students of a private hei in malaysia found they are generally satisfied with a blended learning environment but the majority are more supportive of face-to-face sessions than the online platform, indicating that they are more inclined towards attending physical classroom sessions with the lecturers (kamarazaly, et al., 2020). a good lecturer needs to be an expert in certain subject knowledge and skills to be delivered to students during lecturing (martirosyan, 2015; yusoff, mcleay and woodruff-burton, 2015). in this vein, the lecturer’s expertise in the subject matter has a positive influence on the students’ perception of their learning experience. students expect a lecturer to be a subject matter expert and knowledgeable enough to enhance their learning effectiveness, thus leading to a higher satisfaction with their learning experiences. to stay relevant, lecturers have to be keeping up to date with theory and practice in the field. collaborative action research with industry partners can be leveraged for continual learning and progressive problemsolving. lecturers need to continually learn new skills and familiarise themselves with the diversification of professional qs roles and the changing business environment (chandramohan, perera and dewagoda, 2020; yap, et al., 2021). the heterogeneous opinions between year 1 and year 4 students (group 3 in table 3) towards the ‘course content’ attribute when assessing their learning experience is probably due to the lack of enthusiasm and interest towards qs programmes from year 1 students. some first-year students might still feel ambiguous when choosing their degree course or are forced to study a particular course for the sake of a family business, and thus parents might be involved in their career development and selection. consequently, some students are not keen on understanding the course content and the learning outcomes of the subject course. many of the first-year students have not been exposed to field practice. having pursued the programme for over 4 years and returned to campus after 6 months of industrial attachment, the final-year students (year 4) realise the importance of course content as the knowledge and skills learned from a particular subject could be applicable in their future quantity surveying profession. regarding the ‘activities and workshop availability’ attribute, the occurrence of dissimilar viewpoints may be due to year 1 students being more associated with the theory-based subjects of qs courses such as construction materials, building services, yap, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202210 construction technology and technical drawings. therefore, they place greater emphasis on having lectures instead of activities and workshops; thus, the availability of activities and workshops has little effect on their satisfaction with the educational experience. in contrast, year 4 students perceive that this attribute can reasonably affect their satisfaction towards the qs programme as they demand more practical experiences instead of the fundamental knowledge they have learned in previous years. furthermore, final-year undergraduates anticipate developing a deeper understanding of the course by attending more workshops and seminars, which can effectively improve their learning experiences in an educational institution (ghazal, al-samarraie and aldowah, 2018). the differing viewpoints obtained for the ‘peer relationship’ attribute is probably due to the unfamiliarity of first-year students with the surrounding people and environment. from the perspective of year 1 students, the social connection between students is deemed less critical towards their learning experiences as they perceive lecturers to be the ones who can facilitate the learning process more effectively than their peers. conversely, year 4 students perceive that social engagement can enhance their productivity through group discussions and meetings. during the discussions, they assist and learn from each other as well as completing assignments together instead of separately. such social interactions potentially trigger the students’ motivation and satisfaction towards their experiences of the qs programme. factor analysis results factor 1: professionalism and competency of lecturers this first factor has the largest total variance of 17.25% and consists of the five most important attributes relating to a lecturer’s professional knowledge and academic proficiency, all with a factor loading above 0.60. academic and pedagogical qualities are highly associated with the teaching staff (their qualification, competence, behaviours, attitudes and teaching style). for a professional programme such as quantity surveying, a multi-disciplinary team of expert faculty members involving leading academicians and seasoned industry practitioners are needed for cultivating practical skills and imparting solid theoretical knowledge as well as ensuring students have the necessary skills to meet the expectations of their future employers. student experiences of a course are largely dependent on how the lecturers disseminate the subject knowledge, reinforce theoretical content, assign adequate practical exercises and clear up doubts (arrieta and avolio, 2020; jereb, jerebic and urh, 2018). the professionalism of lecturers is synthesised in the situation where lecturers can promote a conducive academic environment by radically understanding the roles of educators as a profession (schuck, gordon and buchanan, 2008; susanto, 2019). in investigating the perceived value of private heis in bangladesh, teaching competence is measured with lecturing expertise, knowledge and qualification of the subject matter, availability for consultation and impartiality in assessments (hossain, hossain and chowdhury, 2018). their study found that teaching competence, being a quality dimension, is important to influence the students’ perception of the value of the academic programme, which in turn affects their satisfaction. according to latif, et al. (2019) lecturer quality, which measures the extent to which students are satisfied with the quality of lecturers in their hei, is a significant service quality factor as the quality of teaching significantly enhances student impartiality, motivation and satisfaction. in light of the above considerations, students are satisfied when their lecturers are approachable, friendly, passionate and understand their needs, provide assignments that are aligned with course learning outcomes, prepare quality lecture notes, organise various types of class activities to encourage student participation, ensure fairness and consistency in marking assessments, give valuable and constructive feedback, are punctual, deliver interesting lectures and are knowledgeable (kamardeen, 2015; pedro, mendes and lourenço, 2018; yusoff, mcleay and woodruff-burton, 2015). lecturers who are active in construction research and industrial consultancy work can embed the local context as teaching resources and demonstrate real-life applications. as such, students can be exposed to real challenges in practice. as heis continue yap, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202211 to become more competitive, there is an increasing need for lecturers to continuously evolve through professional development initiatives and be informed of different teaching methods in the new era of information technology in their quest to continuously improve service quality (arrieta and avolio, 2020; martirosyan, 2015). factor 2: quality of academic services and support facilities this factor accounts for the second-largest variation of 14.45% and contains four attributes that explain the importance of student support services and facilities as well as service quality standards in enhancing student satisfaction on a university campus. the factor loadings of the variables range from 0.559 to 0.896. academic services and support facilities such as ancillary services, recreation facilities, library services and counselling services have a great impact on student experiences (siming, gao and xu, 2015). ancillary services are one of the student facilities that aim to support core functions and aid them in achieving educational goals. for example, the quality of cafeteria facilities and security measures, number of vending machines and versatility of parking services that are operated and coordinated in serving and supporting the hei could potentially enhance student experiences and satisfaction levels (yusoff, mcleay and woodruffburton, 2015). recreational facilities such as sports centres and gymnasia are relatively crucial for student experiences as they act as non-educational activities provided by the hei to entertain them, thus evoking positive satisfaction through their enjoyment (manzoor, 2013). therefore, the quality and availability of sufficient sports facilities and equipment are believed to have a significant influence on the experiences of students ( jereb, jerebic and urh, 2018). additionally, students perceive the approachability and accessibility of academic advisors as not only providing knowledge but as necessary in enhancing their educational progress (yusoff, mcleay and woodruff-burton, 2015). an effective academic counselling service dealing with career management, time management and stress management can engender the students’ positive perceptions in pursuing higher education (pescaru, 2017). factor 3: interpersonal connections and external considerations this factor comprises five attributes with a total variance of 13.17%, relating to emotional, social and financial support in navigating the challenges of graduate education. interpersonal connections refer to family engagement as well as peer support, and these connections have a salient effect on student experiences. parental support in motivating and encouraging students in their career development is vital in helping students become resilient in coping with difficulties associated with their academic goals, thus fostering successful growth intellectually in their learning process (vela, et al., 2016). moreover, good peer interaction between the students plays a pertinent role in boosting their enthusiasm in the pursued programmes. it could therefore be elucidated that social integration is influential in affecting student experiences of qs programmes, as social responsibility is established among them by spending time together, studying and helping each other in pursuing their academic careers ( jereb, jerebic and urh, 2018). social aspects particularly refer to students adjusting to varsity life, living apart from friends and family in a new environment within a short period of time and integrating with their peer groups and faculty. according to tinto (1975), academic integration is defined by students’ academic performance, level of intellectual development and perception of having a positive experience in academic settings, while social integration is defined by their involvement in extracurricular activities and positive relationships with peers. against this background, the students’ emotional and cognitive reactions to stress are greatly influenced by the extent to which they can cope with the demands and challenges faced during their course of study (kausar, 2010). positive experiences with the academic and social systems strengthen students’ academic and social integration and lead them to persevere in their courses and programs (lakhal, et al., 2020). with a sample size of 309 undergraduate students from malaysian private higher education institutions, ganesh, yap, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202212 haslinda and raghavan (2017) reported that academic and social integration significantly moderates student satisfaction and retention; this is supported by two underpinning theories of perceived performance and tinto’s interactionist. other than academic services provided by the hei itself and interpersonal connections, external influences are believed to have a significant impact on student experiences. external considerations are associated with accommodation issues, financial considerations, as well as self-assessment (ravindran and kalpana, 2012). living arrangements pertain to the location of the hei, as these could be a concern for students. for instance, accessibility of the hei, cost of transportation, bus stop locations, upkeep of cycleways and walkways, as well as car parking provision, are pivotal in affecting student experiences ( jereb, jerebic and urh, 2018). financial aspects may be discerned by students as an influential factor in assessing their experiences of the educational programme, as the tuition fees and cost of academic materials can be a pressure for them (yusoff, mcleay and woodruff-burton, 2015). apart from this, self-evaluation is an external factor influencing student experiences of qs programmes as it refers to the confidence of one’s ability to pursue academic goals in heis (vela, et al., 2016). hence, students may trigger different perceptions towards learning experiences of an educational programme based on their own perceived values (pedro, mendes and lourenço, 2018). factor 4: curriculum design and course content factor 4 comprises four attributes with a total variance of 12.00%, relating to programme design and curriculum content. in formal education, the curriculum is interpreted as a course programme offered to the student for the fulfilment of educational goals. for qs, this comprised the mandatory and technical competencies outlined by rics (rics, 2018), which are critical aspects for the accreditation of qs degree programmes. in the case of malaysia, a recognised qs programme requires full accreditation from the malaysian qualifications agency (mqa) and the board of quantity surveyors malaysia (bqsm). nonetheless, the recognition by the royal institution of surveyors malaysia (rism) and such distinguished international professional bodies as the royal institution of chartered surveyors (rics) and chartered institute of building (ciob) is also eminently valuable. the core competencies expected of graduate quantity surveyors include measurement, professional practice, technology in construction, management in construction, economics and law, which remain consistent through most heis in malaysia. for the curriculum to remain relevant and responsive to the evolving demands of industry, the curriculum needs to be periodically updated to include such emerging technologies as 3&4d building information modelling (bim), automation of bim quantity take-off, prefabrication, smart wearables, virtual and augmented reality, robotics and cloud-based collaboration tools (cidb, 2020). suitable teaching strategies such as lectures, workshops, collaboration, an open learning platform and project-based learning can be utilised to incorporate these emerging technologies into the curricula (yap and aziz, 2020). with respect to the evaluation system, both formative (e.g., coursework) and summative (e.g., final examination) assessments need to be constructively aligned with the learning outcomes. alumni and industry advisory panels also need to be regularly consulted to provide a link with external representatives and advise on the relevance of the curriculum to the industry. the curriculum is one of the significant factors influencing student experiences (bell and brooks, 2018). continuing on this line, benchmarking with other local and international heis is needed for quality assurance and to gauge academic standards. the curriculum dimension comprises programme flexibility, activities and workshop availability, course content, internship placements and quality of educational material. the flexibility of the programme refers to how the lecture timetable is organised (yusoff, mcleay and woodruff-burton, 2015). an inadequately planned academic schedule by the hei interrupts the students’ routine flow of studies and consequently affects the overall learning experiences of the course programme (ashraf, osman and ratan, 2016). therefore, a robust and versatile course schedule that adapts to the students’ rhythm and needs of their studies by offering various yap, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202213 elective modules can directly engender a positive perception of the experiences (farahmandian, minavand and afshardost, 2013). some value-added electives to enhance both technical and tactical skills include current construction issues, digital technology use in construction, sustainable construction, value and risk management and international procurement. final year project (fyp), on the other hand, provides students with the opportunity to stretch their intellectual and technical skills – required students to take responsibility for their own learning and to encourage both clarity and depth of thought in that the project involves analysis of a problem and the development of a logical sequence of ideas. each individual project is supervised by a lecturer and assessed via written reports and presentations. a compulsory internship for 6 months, however, offers opportunities for students to gain insight into actual problems, accumulate valuable work experience and provide adequate industry exposure with industry partners that support student participation in employer projects, addressing actual industry issues and identifying practical solutions. this gives students the opportunity to contact potential employers and industries before graduation – increasing the marketability of graduates. given that today’s students tend to be visual learners, laboratory classes allow them touch, feel and listen to what they are learning. field trips to construction sites, however, are interactive experiences that enhance student understanding of real construction practices. additionally, guided tours to factories producing building materials such as cement, water proofing products and glass also help students gain a better understanding of related topics. activities and workshops should also be included in curriculum dimensions to provide students with some practical experiences associated with qs programmes (ghazal, alsamarraie and aldowah, 2018). these could help develop their enthusiasm towards the course programme by having such class activities as role-playing, group discussion and problem-solving case studies; thus, the theoretical knowledge they learned during lectures can be applied practically in class activities and workshop sessions. these help to develop the critical thinking skills needed in working life. for instance, one course in particular (integrated project) makes students aware of the overall process within which development projects are conceived, designed, built and handed over, enhancing students’ appreciation of the interdependency and interdisciplinary nature of the construction industry. group-based assignments simulating real-world scenarios were designed to provide formative assessment. according to kamardeen and wales (2014), such formative assessments enable lecturers to evaluate higher-order cognition, thinking abilities and problem-solving skills. furthermore, the delivery of interesting module content is pertinent in the curriculum dimension (farahmandian, minavand and afshardost, 2013). course content that includes a clear course objective at the beginning of the semester helps provide students with a comprehensible orientation about the learning outcome of a subject and cultivates motivation and interest in pursuing the qs programme. moreover, high-quality study materials asserted in the course content have a notable impact on student experiences (tsinidou, gerogiannis and fitsilis, 2010). for instance, constructs such as the suitability of page layout and design, presentation of powerpoint slides, supplementary lecture handouts, clarity of subject matter and integration of support illustrations can assist students to understand the content of the course, thus facilitating their overall educational experiences (dargusch, persaud and horsley, 2011). factor 5: physical environment and facilities classroom environment (factor loading = 0.863) and computer and lab facilities (factor loading = 0.746) create this final factor, with a total variance of 9.81%, revealing the important role of physical in-class environments on student satisfaction with the course. hei’s physical facilities represent an influential determinant in promoting a conducive environment for classroom teaching and learning (kärnä and julin, 2015). the physical facilities of the classroom are crucial in enhancing the academic atmosphere, as students spend most of their time in the classroom and thus tend to prefer a comfortable learning space for academic activities. a favourable learning environment comprises such dimensions as the lighting and yap, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202214 layout of lecture and tutorial rooms, teaching and learning aids used, overall cleanliness and air-conditioning systems as well as the comfort and versatility of seating. in south korea, han, et al. (2018) observed that the ambient conditions of the classroom and its spatial layout and functionality can significantly boost the student experience, which results in both the enhanced cognitive and affection evaluation of student satisfaction. in canada, the desired physical properties include a window view to outdoors, seating comfort and interactive seating arrangement (douglas and gifford, 2001). according to rae and sands (2013), a classroom layout that helps reduce students’ apprehension and increase participation tends to increase student engagement and academic performance. for qs, measurement and technical drawing studios need to be equipped with drafting tables and/or tables large enough for a1-size drawings for students to perform measurement works ergonomically. construction materials courses will include practical lab sessions for the testing of various materials used in construction. these features have a direct impact on the students’ educational experiences. additionally, class size is revealed to significantly influence student experiences of course programmes (yusoff, mcleay and woodruff-burton, 2015). for example, large class sizes can result in such problems as overcrowding of lecture halls and inadequate seating, resulting in students being dissatisfied with the learning environment (abdullahi and wan yusoff, 2019). a popular programme like qs can have classes as large as 200 students necessitating improvements in teaching and mode of delivery. tutorials, however, are limited to 30 students for effective student engagement and prompting reflective thought, as tutors can work more closely with each student while students can support each other in the problem-solving process. working in small groups makes the students active, confident and independent in their learning. furthermore, the endowment of computer laboratory facilities plays an important role in satisfying the students’ information technology needs in their learning process. bim-based quantity take-off and estimating are fast gaining popularity (e.g., costx, cubicost) to replace time-consuming and error-prone manual computation (yap, et al., 2021) but require lab-based practical sessions for the hands-on experience of using the software. digital literary and technology skills are becoming essential in today’s computercentric world. accessible and adequate computer laboratories with a stable internet connection and advanced technologies tend to result in a positive perception towards the overall experiences of educational programmes (pescaru, 2017). concluding remarks the meta-analysis of the literature revealed 20 pertinent attributes influencing the quality of student learning experiences in higher education. the opinions of year 1 to year 4 quantity surveying students concerning the significance of these attributes were obtained through a questionnaire survey of a major malaysian private hei. the principal aim of prioritising these attributes is to increase the understanding of the determinants of quality qs education and to be useful in devising effective strategies for continuous improvements and enhancing student satisfaction. overall, the findings reveal that the competencies and professionalism of lecturers are the major aspects influencing student learning experiences. hence, hei should place this as a top priority in the development of an educational programme by continuously enhancing the quality of lecturers and make appropriate adjustments to the aspects that result in student dissatisfaction. differing viewpoints exist between year 1 and year 4 students, indicating the heterogeneous expectations between freshmen and final-year students of the learning requirements and outcomes involved. better student engagement may be needed to enhance student-centric learning for first-year students and include more practical aspects to expose students to the context of construction and the diversified qs roles. group-based assignments engender cooperative learning and develop group working skills – an essential employment skill. it is predominantly accepted that professional education and training requires the integration of knowledge with practical skills. the factor analysis revealed five main groups of factors that yap, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202215 provide useful insights into the dimensions driving student satisfaction in higher education, particularly qs programmes, which relate to people, curricula, environment, services and facilities aspects. the outcomes from this study can be used to guide heis in devising policies, practices and a culture that supports quality teaching and learning among both lecturers and students, particularly contemporary qs education. in this light, the attributes and underlying factors uncovered in this study can be further developed into a comprehensive index system to measure the students’ academic experiences in higher education in malaysia and beyond. for a professional degree programme like qs, learning is facilitated through observing, reflecting, sharing and applying course material in the classroom and practical settings. in addition, hei management can focus on developing a reputation for its university by recognising the needs of its students and attracting the brightest and the best. given the significance of the lecturer-factor, efforts should be made to induct, train and retain qualified and expert lecturers for promoting quality higher education. students have different levels of motivation, different attitudes about teaching and learning and different responses to specific classroom environments and instructional practices. lecturers therefore need to teach thinking and augment problem-based learning. qs curricula, on the other hand, should be responsive to recent advances in industry practices. although e-learning is underutilised in most developing countries, the covid-19 pandemic has forced educational institutes globally to shift to online learning platforms to maintain academic activities while adhering to social and physical distancing. nonetheless, the sense of such physical, emotional and social distance from others has generated a number of challenges, stressors and negative experiences (alkumaim, et al., 2021). compared to face-to-face learning, the major disadvantages of e-learning are lack of interaction, technical problems and lack of practical applications, while the advantages are time efficiency and convenience (gherheș, et al., 2021). intriguingly, the majority of students would prefer to return to face-to-face learning after the covid-19 pandemic ends. given this situation, the future is likely to involve blended learning as a form of hybrid learning system combining face-to-face teaching with online teaching. references abdullahi, i. and wan yusoff, w.z., 2019. influence of facilities performance on student’s satisfaction in northern nigerian universities: results from interim study. facilities, 37(3–4), pp.168-81. https://doi.org/10.1108/f-08-2017-0088 al-kumaim, n.h., alhazmi, a.k., mohammed, f., gazem, n.a., shabbir, m.s. and fazea, y., 2021. exploring the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on university students’ learning life: an integrated conceptual motivational model for sustainable and healthy online learning. sustainability, 13(5), pp.1-21. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052546 al-sheeb, b., hamouda, a.m. and abdella, g.m., 2018. investigating determinants of student satisfaction in the first year of college in a public university in the state of qatar. education research international, 2018, 7194106. https://doi. org/10.1155/2018/7194106 amos, p.i. and hassan, z., 2017. quality of teaching and its influence on student satisfaction and intention to continue with institution. international journal of education, learning and training, 2(1), pp.1–11. arambewela, r. and hall, j., 2013. the interactional effects of the internal and external university environment, and the influence of personal values, on satisfaction among international postgraduate students. studies in higher education, 38(7), pp.972–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2011.615916 arrieta, m. del c. and avolio, b., 2020. factors of higher education quality service: the case of a peruvian university. quality assurance in education, [e-journal ahead of print]. https://doi.org/10.1108/qae-03-2020-0037 yap, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202216 https://doi.org/10.1108/f-08-2017-0088 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052546 https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/7194106 https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/7194106 https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2011.615916 https://doi.org/10.1108/qae-03-2020-0037 ashraf, m.a., osman, a.z.r. and ratan, s.r.a., 2016. determinants of quality education in private universities from student perspectives: a case study in bangladesh. quality assurance in education, 24(1), pp.123–38. https://doi. org/10.1108/qae-09-2013-0040 balakrishnan, b. and low, f.s., 2016. learning experience and socio-cultural influences on female engineering students’ perspectives on engineering courses and careers. minerva, 54(2), pp.219–39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-016-92958 bell, a.r. and brooks, c., 2018. what makes students satisfied? a discussion and analysis of the uk’s national student survey. journal of further and higher education, 42(8), pp.1118–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877x.2017.1349886 butt, b.z. and rehman, k.u., 2010. a study examining the students satisfaction in higher education. procedia social and behavioral sciences, 2(2), pp.5446–50. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.888 chandra, t., ng, m., chandra, s. and priyono, p., 2018. the effect of service quality on student satisfaction and student loyalty: an empirical study. journal of social studies education research, 9(3), 109–31. chandramohan, a., perera, b.a.k.s. and dewagoda, k.g., 2020. diversification of professional quantity surveyors’ roles in the construction industry: the skills and competencies required. international journal of construction management, [e-journal]. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1720058 chin, c. and osborne, j., 2008. students’ questions: a potential resource for teaching and learning science. studies in science education, 44(1), pp.1–39. https://doi.org/10.1080/03057260701828101 cidb, 2020. construction 4.0 strategic plan (2021-2025): next revolution of the malaysian construction industry. [pdf ] kuala lumpur, malaysia. available at: . closs, l., mahat, m. and imms, w., 2021. learning environments’ influence on students’ learning experience in an australian faculty of business and economics. learning environments research, pp.1–15. https://doi.org/10.1007/ s10984-021-09361-2 dada, j.o. and jagboro, g.o., 2012. core skills requirement and competencies expected of quantity surveyors: perspectives from quantity surveyors, allied professionals and clients in nigeria. construction economics and building, 12(4), pp.78–90. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v12i4.2808 dada, j.o. and jagboro, g.o., 2018. a framework for assessing quantity surveyors’ competence. benchmarking, 25(7), pp.2390–03. https://doi.org/10.1108/bij-05-2017-0121 dargusch, j., persaud, n. and horsley, m., 2011. judging the quality of educational materials – a research project on student voice. iartem [e-journal], 4(2), pp.45–62. douglas, d. and gifford, r., 2001. evaluation of the physical classroom by students and professors: a lens model approach. educational research, 43(3), pp.295–309. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131880110081053 ekundayo, d.o., 2020. quantity surveying education and the benchmark for future needs. phd. university of salford. elliott, k.m. and healy, m.a., 2001. key factors influencing student satisfaction related to recruitment and retention. journal of marketing for higher education, 10(4), pp.1–11. https://doi.org/10.1300/j050v10n04_01 fajčíková, a. and urbancová, h., 2019. factors influencing students’ motivation to seek higher education-a case study at a state university in the czech republic. sustainability, 11(17), pp.1–14. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11174699 farahmandian, s., minavand, h. and afshardost, m., 2013. perceived service quality and student satisfaction in higher education. journal of business and management, 12(4), pp.65–74. https://doi.org/10.9790/487x-1246574 field, a., 2013. discovering statistics using ibm spss statistics. london: sage publications inc. yap, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202217 https://doi.org/10.1108/qae-09-2013-0040 https://doi.org/10.1108/qae-09-2013-0040 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-016-9295-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11024-016-9295-8 https://doi.org/10.1080/0309877x.2017.1349886 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2010.03.888 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1720058 https://doi.org/10.1080/03057260701828101 https://www.cream.my/my/media/com_eshop/attachments/construction%204.0%20strategic%20plan%202021-2025.pdf> https://www.cream.my/my/media/com_eshop/attachments/construction%204.0%20strategic%20plan%202021-2025.pdf> https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-021-09361-2 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-021-09361-2 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v12i4.2808 https://doi.org/10.1108/bij-05-2017-0121 https://doi.org/10.1080/00131880110081053 https://doi.org/10.1300/j050v10n04_01 https://doi.org/10.3390/su11174699 https://doi.org/10.9790/487x-1246574 ganesh, r., haslinda, a. and raghavan, s., 2017. an investigation of academic and social integration in private higher education institution in malaysia as a moderating variable in relations to satisfaction toward students’ retention. international review of management and business research, 6(4), pp.1543–60. ghazal, s., al-samarraie, h. and aldowah, h., 2018. ‘i am still learning’: modeling lms critical success factors for promoting students’ experience and satisfaction in a blended learning environment. ieee access, 6, pp.77179–201. https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2018.2879677 gherheș, v., stoian, c.e., fărcașiu, m.a. and stanici, m., 2021. e-learning vs. face-to-face learning: analyzing students’ preferences and behaviours. sustainability (switzerland), 13(8), pp.1–15. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084381 hair, j.f., black, w.c., babin, b.j. and anderson, r.e., 2019. multivariate data analysis. hampshire, united kingdom: cengage learning. han, h., kiatkawsin, k., kim, w. and hong, j.h., 2018. physical classroom environment and student satisfaction with courses. assessment and evaluation in higher education, 43(1), pp.110–25. https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2017.1299 855 harvey, l. and askling, b., 2003. quality in higher education. in: r. begg, ed. the dialogue between higher education research and practice. dordrecht: springer. ch.6. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-306-48368-4_6 he, y., lu, j., huang, h., he, s., ma, n., sha, z., sun, y. and li, x., 2019. the effects of flipped classrooms on undergraduate pharmaceutical marketing learning: a clustered randomized controlled study. plos one, 14(4), pp.1–22. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214624 hossain, m.a., hossain, m.m. and chowdhury, t.h., 2018. understanding the success of private universities: an empirical investigation from graduates’ perspective. international journal of quality & reliability management, 35(1), pp.145–62. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijqrm-02-2015-0031 jereb, e., jerebic, j. and urh, m., 2018. revising the importance of factors pertaining to student satisfaction in higher education. journal of management, informatics and human resources, 51(4), pp.271–85. https://doi.org/10.2478/orga2018-0020 kamarazaly, m.a., tan, k.x., raml, m.a., soon, l.t., yaakob, a.m. and chin, s.a.l., 2020. quantity surveying students’ learning styles in blended learning environment. malaysian construction research journal, 9(1), pp.134–50. kamardeen, i., 2015. critically reflective pedagogical model: a pragmatic blueprint for enhancing learning and teaching in construction disciplines. construction economics and building, 15(4), pp.63–75. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v15i4.4607 kamardeen, i. and wales, n.s., 2014. stimulating learning with integrated assessments in construction education. construction economics and building, 14(3), pp.86–98. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i3.4152 kärnä, s. and julin, p., 2015. a framework for measuring student and staff satisfaction with university campus facilities. quality assurance in education, 23(1), pp.47–66. https://doi.org/10.1108/qae-10-2013-0041 kausar, r., 2010. perceived stress, academic workloads and use of coping strategies by university students. journal of behavioural sciences, 20(1), pp.31–45. kibwami, n., wesonga, r., manga, m. and mukasa, t., 2021. strategies for improving quantity surveyors’ education training in uganda. international education studies, 14(2), p.33. https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v14n2p33 lage, m.j., platt, g.j. and treglia, m., 2000. inverting the classroom: a gateway to creating an inclusive learning environment. journal of economic education, 31(1), pp.30–43. https://doi.org/10.1080/00220480009596759 yap, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202218 https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2018.2879677 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13084381 https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2017.1299855 https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2017.1299855 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-306-48368-4_6 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0214624 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijqrm-02-2015-0031 https://doi.org/10.2478/orga-2018-0020 https://doi.org/10.2478/orga-2018-0020 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i4.4607 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v15i4.4607 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i3.4152 https://doi.org/10.1108/qae-10-2013-0041 https://doi.org/10.5539/ies.v14n2p33 https://doi.org/10.1080/00220480009596759 lakhal, s., mukamurera, j., bédard, m.e., heilporn, g. and chauret, m., 2020. features fostering academic and social integration in blended synchronous courses in graduate programs. international journal of educational technology in higher education, 17(5), pp.1–22. https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-020-0180-z latif, k.f., latif, i., farooq sahibzada, u. and ullah, m., 2019. in search of quality: measuring higher education service quality (hieduqual). total quality management and business excellence, 30(7–8), pp.768–91. https://doi.org/10 .1080/14783363.2017.1338133 letcher, d. and neves, j., 2010. determinants of undergraduate business student satisfaction. research in higher education journal, 6, 1–26. lim, s.y.j. and vighnarajah, 2018. influence of student isolation on students’ university learning experiences: perspectives of academic, social and psychological development. shs web of conferences, 53, 05005. https://doi. org/10.1051/shsconf/20185305005 manzoor, h., 2013. measuring student satisfaction in public and private universities in pakistan. global journal of management and business research interdisciplinary, 13(3), pp.5–15. martín, p.a., 2019. student perceptions of a good university lecturer. educacao e pesquisa, 45( july), e196029. martirosyan, n., 2015. an examination of factors contributing to student satisfaction in armenian higher education. international journal of educational management, 29(2), pp.177–91. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijem-09-2013-0143 martirosyan, n.m., saxon, d.p. and wanjohi, r., 2014. student satisfaction and academic performance in armenian higher education. american international journal of contemporary research, 4(2), pp.1–5. ng, c.g., 2018. the impact of lecturers’ competencies on students’ satisfaction. journal of arts and social sciences, 1(2), pp.74–86. olmos-gómez, m. del c., suárez, m.l., ferrara, c. and olmedo-moreno, e.m., 2020. quality of higher education through the pursuit of satisfaction with a focus on sustainability. sustainability, 12(6), pp.1–20. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su12062366 pedro, e., mendes, l. and lourenço, l., 2018. perceived service quality and students’ satisfaction in higher education: the influence of teaching methods. international journal for quality research, 12(1), pp.165–92. pescaru, t.-g., 2017. analysis of the main factors influencing student satisfaction towards the university environment. journal of educational sciences & psychology, 7(1), pp.40–50. rae, k. and sands, j., 2013. using classroom layout to help reduce students’ apprehension and increase communication. accounting education, 22(5), pp.489–91. https://doi.org/10.1080/09639284.2013.835534 ravindran, s.d. and kalpana, m., 2012. student’s expectation, perception and satisfaction towards the management educational institutions. procedia economics and finance, 2, pp.401–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(12)00102-5 rics, 2018. pathway guide: quantity surveying and construction. london, uk: rics. schindler, l., puls-elvidge, s., welzant, h. and crawford, l., 2015. definitions of quality in higher education: a synthesis of the literature. higher learning research communications, 5(3), pp.3–13. https://doi.org/10.18870/hlrc. v5i3.244 schuck, s., gordon, s. and buchanan, j., 2008. what are we missing here? problematising wisdoms on teaching quality professionalism in higher education. teaching in higher education, 13(5), pp.537–47. https://doi. org/10.1080/13562510802334772 shahsavar, t. and sudzina, f., 2017. student satisfaction and loyalty in denmark: application of epsi methodology. plos one, 12(12), pp.1–18. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189576 yap, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202219 https://doi.org/10.1186/s41239-020-0180-z https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2017.1338133 https://doi.org/10.1080/14783363.2017.1338133 https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20185305005 https://doi.org/10.1051/shsconf/20185305005 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijem-09-2013-0143 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12062366 https://doi.org/10.3390/su12062366 https://doi.org/10.1080/09639284.2013.835534 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(12)00102-5 https://doi.org/10.18870/hlrc.v5i3.244 https://doi.org/10.18870/hlrc.v5i3.244 https://doi.org/10.1080/13562510802334772 https://doi.org/10.1080/13562510802334772 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0189576 siming, l., gao, j. and xu, d., 2015. factors leading to students ’ satisfaction in the higher learning institutions. journal of education and practice, 6(31), pp.114–18. spooren, p., mortelmans, d. and christiaens, w., 2014. assessing the validity and reliability of a quick scan for student’s evaluation of teaching. results from confirmatory factor analysis and g theory. studies in educational evaluation, 43(december), pp.88–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2014.03.001 susanto, r., 2019. lecturers’ professionalism in shaping students’ perceptions and commitments. journal of education research and evaluation, 3(1), pp.25–38. https://doi.org/10.23887/jere.v3i1.17768 tan, a.h.t., muskat, b. and zehrer, a., 2016. a systematic review of quality of student experience in higher education. international journal of quality and service sciences, 8(2), pp.209–28. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijqss-08-2015-0058 tinto, v., 1975. dropout from higher education: a theoretical synthesis of recent research. review of educational research, 45(1), pp.89–125. https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543045001089 tsinidou, m., gerogiannis, v. and fitsilis, p., 2010. evaluation of the factors that determine quality in higher education: an empirical study. quality assurance in education, 18(3), pp.227–44. https://doi.org/10.1108/09684881011058669 vela, j.c., ikonomopoulos, j., hinojosa, k., gonzalez, s. l., duque, o. and calvillo, m., 2016. the impact of individual, interpersonal, and institutional factors on latina/o college students’ life satisfaction. journal of hispanic higher education, 15(3), pp.260–76. https://doi.org/10.1177/1538192715592925 weerasinghe, s. and fernando, r.l., 2017. students’ satisfaction in higher education literature review. american journal of educational research, 5(5), pp.533–39. wrenn, j. and wrenn, b., 2009. enhancing learning by integrating theory and practice. international journal of teaching and learning in higher education, 21(2), pp.258–65. yap, j.b.h., skitmore, m., lim, y.w., loo, s.c. and gray, j., 2021. assessing the expected current and future competencies of quantity surveyors in the malaysian built environment. engineering, construction and architectural management, [ahead of print]. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2021-0091 yap, p.x. and aziz, n.m., 2020. teaching strategies in integrating bim education for the quantity surveying courses in malaysian higher education institution. malaysian construction research journal, 9(1), pp.126–33. yogeshwaran, g., perera, b.a.k.s. and ariyachandra, m.r.m.f., 2018. competencies expected of graduate quantity surveyors working in developing countries. journal of financial management of property and construction, 23(2), pp.202– 20. https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-06-2017-0019 yusoff, m., mcleay, f. and woodruffe-burton, h., 2015. dimensions driving business student satisfaction in higher education. quality assurance in education, 23(1), pp.86–104. https://doi.org/10.1108/qae-08-2013-0035 yap, et al. construction economics and building, vol. 22, no. 1 march 202220 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.stueduc.2014.03.001 https://doi.org/10.23887/jere.v3i1.17768 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijqss-08-2015-0058 https://doi.org/10.3102/00346543045001089 https://doi.org/10.1108/09684881011058669 https://doi.org/10.1177/1538192715592925 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-01-2021-0091 https://doi.org/10.1108/jfmpc-06-2017-0019 https://doi.org/10.1108/qae-08-2013-0035 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: agyemang, e. a., musonda, i., zulu, s. 2025. stakeholder theory and shareholder theory application in the construction field: a systematic scoping review. construction economics and building, 25:2, 89–111. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v25i2.9346 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb 89 research article stakeholder theory and shareholder theory application in the construction field: a systematic scoping review eunice achina agyemang1,*, innocent musonda1, sam zulu2 1 centre of applied research and innovation in the built environment (carinbe), faculty of engineering and the built environment, university of johannesburg 2092, south africa 2 school of built environment, engineering and computing, leeds beckett university, leeds, uk corresponding author: eunice achina agyemang, euniceachinaagyemang@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9346 article history: received 16/09/2024; revised 07/01/2025; accepted 09/02/2025; published 08/08/2025 abstract stakeholder theory and shareholder theory are essential frameworks for understanding construction projects, influencing sustainability, project success, and decisionmaking. although some studies have explored these theories, there is a notable gap in retrospectively analyzing their application within the construction context. therefore, this study sought to systematically review stakeholder and shareholder theories to determine which theoretical approach is predominantly used in construction studies, assess the thematic areas where stakeholder theory or shareholder theory is applied in construction studies, and identify future research and gaps in their application in construction studies. the study adopted arkesy and o’malley’s five-stage framework to conduct a systematic scoping review of 1,726 articles from scopus and google scholar databases, focusing on stakeholder theory or shareholder theory. the selection process followed the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (prisma) framework, with 31 articles meeting the inclusion criteria. the data were analyzed using content analysis. the results showed an increased focus on stakeholder theory compared to shareholder theory. there were 10 themes identified under stakeholder theory, with “stakeholder management” being the predominant theme. shareholder theory, on the other hand, had only two themes, with “shareholder value creation” being the predominant theme. the few themes identified under shareholder theory resulted from the scarcity of research in this area. this calls for more research in the application of shareholder theory. remarkably, declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding this research is funded by the intra-africa mobility scheme of the european union in partnership with the african union under the africa sustainable infrastructure mobility (asim) scheme. opinions and conclusions are those of the authors and are not necessarily attributable to asim. this work is part of collaborative research and supported by the centre of applied research and innovation in the built environment (carinbe). https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9346 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9346 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:euniceachinaagyemang@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9346 there is a notable lack of research integrating these two theories. this highlights the opportunity to integrate these theories to address complex challenges in the construction industry. keywords stakeholder theory; shareholder theory; construction industry; systematic scoping review introduction the construction industry, which plays a crucial role in driving economic growth and societal progress, is characterized by its intricate nature, wide participation of stakeholders, and substantial financial and social consequences (neale and gurmu, 2022). the construction industry has several challenges, including complex project management, coordination with stakeholders, environmental considerations, and challenges in financial management. the involvement of several stakeholders, such as clients, project managers, designers, subcontractors, suppliers, financing organizations, users, and the community, emphasizes the complex character of this sector (ma, et al., 2018). obtaining a deep understanding of the relationships and impact of these key stakeholders on project outcomes is crucial for effective project management. to address these challenges, researchers have used several theoretical frameworks, notably stakeholder theory (skt) and shareholder theory (sht). the stakeholder theory asserts that organizations should take into account the interests and impacts of all stakeholders participating in a project (freeman, 1984). skt strives to promote sustainability, improve project outcomes, and achieve long-term success by encouraging participation and collaboration among stakeholders (aaltonen, jaakko and tuomas, 2008). on the other hand, shareholder theory mainly emphasizes the maximization of shareholder value, giving priority to financial performance and returns on investment (friedman, 1970). managers are seen as agents of shareholders and are bound by law and morality to protect their interests. although both theories are practically relevant, literature shows a growing emphasis on skt within the construction sector. several studies have examined various facets of skt, such as stakeholder management, stakeholder collaboration, and stakeholder influence. for instance, molwus, et al. (2017) underlined crucial elements for achieving success in stakeholder management, highlighting the significance of stakeholder involvement in order to ensure the success of a project. the study by gan, et al. (2018) emphasized the significant influence that stakeholders have on the outcome of projects. conversely, there is inadequate research on sht in the literature of the construction industry. few research specifically focused on topical areas such as shareholder ethics and responsibility and shareholder value creation. for instance, hatipkarasulu and gill (2004) delineated the ethical issues and responsibilities linked to shareholder involvement in bidding for construction projects using online reverse auction procedures. in addition, hall (2024) investigated the efficacy of different shareholder value creation measurements across several industries such as the construction industry. the research identified sector-specific metrics, such as the q ratio, market value added (mva), and the market-to-book ratio, as the most effective based on the industry. it also revealed that increasing shareholder value creation impedes economic growth. stakeholder theory and shareholder theory have become an essential framework for understanding how construction projects function, impacting sustainability, project success, and decision-making. for the past periods, different aspects of skt or sht have been analyzed by researchers spanning from the management of stakeholders to the creation of shareholder value. however, there is a dearth of research that has attempted to retrospectively evaluate the application of skt and sht in the construction context. undertaking a scoping review on skt and sht is essential, in order to get a thorough and current understanding that may inform future directions in construction projects (mahajan, et al., 2023). given this background, this study intends to carry out a scoping review of skt and sht research. the objectives are to (a) determine which theoretical approach, whether stakeholder theory or shareholder agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202590 theory, is predominantly used in construction studies; (b) assess the thematic areas where stakeholder theory or shareholder theory is applied in construction studies; and (c) identify future research and gaps in stakeholder and shareholder theory application in construction studies. the above addresses the theoretical underpinning that guides construction research. determining whether stakeholder theory or shareholder theory is predominantly used provides insight into the industry’s prioritization of stakeholder interests versus shareholder interests. this understanding is critical for identifying potential imbalances or gaps in research and practice. the ultimate goal is to inform the development of a more holistic framework that integrates both theories to produce a more balanced and comprehensive approach to decision-making in construction management. theoretical perspective stakeholder theory stakeholder theory has gained significance in management literature due to its unique perspective on organizational dynamics and decision-making processes. stakeholder theory emphasizes the importance of considering the needs and viewpoints of various stakeholders, including employees, customers, suppliers, communities, and society as a whole (freeman, 1984). organizations that adopt stakeholder theory recognize that their success and sustainability depend on effectively managing relationships with multiple stakeholders. donaldson and preston (1995) identified three theoretical approaches for engaging stakeholders: (1) the descriptive approach, which views firms as organizations with multiple stakeholder groups, each with their own interests; (2) the instrumental approach, which focuses on efficiently managing stakeholders to influence financial results; and (3) the normative approach, which prioritizes stakeholders as the central focus, considering their interests comprehensively. a stakeholder becomes more important to a corporation if they have power, legitimacy, or urgency as highlighted in the stakeholder salience framework by mitchell, et al., (1997). by integrating these attributes, stakeholders can be classified, and their importance to management and decision-making can be assessed. therefore, the salience framework forecasts the stakeholders that a company’s management prioritizes. however, stakeholder theory faces criticisms. dealing with diverse constituencies and pursuing multiple goals at once can be confusing when managing relationships with multiple stakeholders (inkpen and sundaram, 2022). additionally, studies on how managers can operationalize stakeholder theory are limited due to uncertainty regarding the model’s scope (tse, 2011). defining the actual scope of the theory and determining the stakeholders are also difficult (phillips, freeman and wicks, 2003). traditionally, it has been viewed as a managerial responsibility (donalson and preston, 1995). however, stakeholder theory does not imply a one-way relationship, as stakeholders can also manage a company to achieve their interests rather than respond to management (frooman, 1999). this means that management does not have complete control over strategy design, as stakeholders can influence how a firm’s strategies are developed (tse, 2011). furthermore, stakeholder theory lacks clear criteria for effective execution, unlike shareholder theory, which has a clear aim and beneficiary (kochan and rubinstein, 2000). the absence of management tools tailored for stakeholder management exacerbates the problem (grant, 2009). to address these challenges, phillips, et al. (2003) suggest the introduction of new methods to align the interests of managers with those of their stakeholders, emphasizing the importance of such tools and methods in ensuring that managers fulfill their obligations to stakeholders. shareholder theory the concept of shareholder theory, first presented by friedman (1970), argues that the primary obligation of a firm is to enhance the financial gains of its owners. the theory asserts that management should prioritize agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202591 the interests of shareholders and optimize shareholder value (friedman and miles, 2002). managers are seen as agents of shareholders and are bound by law and morality to protect their interests. however, there are instances where managers may prioritize the interests of stakeholders, leading to a detriment to shareholders (mocsary, 2013). to assess the worth of a company and make informed investment choices, shareholders should consider the financial performance of the company and its ability to meet its cost of capital. managers should engage in initiatives that enhance shareholder wealth and use measurement tools such as economic value added (eva) to assess the impact of these projects (irala and reddy, 2006). traditional measurements such as earnings per share (eps) and return on equity (roe) have faced criticisms for not considering the cost of capital (hasani and zahra, 2012), leading to the suggestion of metrics such as eva, mva, cash value added (cva), and shareholder value added (sva) (mamun, et al., 2012). egawa (2018) outlines three notable criticisms of the shareholder theory, which challenge its fundamental premises. these critiques include concerns about short-termism in corporate management, shareholders’ transient ownership with limited commitment to the corporation, and legal limitations on shareholders’ rights. in addition, scholars such as kusi, et al. (2018) contend that the unwavering pursuit of shareholder value, as advocated by the shareholder theory, may have played a role in corporate scandals, such as those involving enron and worldcom, by placing excessive pressure on managers to prioritize immediate financial gains at the expense of broader corporate obligations. methodology a systematic scoping review was conducted to synthesize evidence from a variety of study designs in order to clarify key concepts and identify gaps in the published literature, using the joanna briggs institute ( jbi) methodology and arksey and o’malley framework due to their complementary strength. the jbi methodology provides a rigorous, systematic approach, ensuring transparency and reliability (peters, et al., 2015). the arksey and o’malley framework, on the other hand, offers a flexible, comprehensive structure that facilitates the examination of broad research areas and the identification of key concepts, gaps, and the scope of existing evidence (arksey and o’malley, 2005). together, these frameworks ensure both methodological rigor and a structured broad exploration of the evidence, making them ideal for our review’s objectives. scoping reviews are a frequently used approach for analyzing and consolidating knowledge in a particular area of study (daudt, van mossel and scott, 2013). a systematic scoping review is different from a systematic literature review since it aims to provide a thorough overview of a potentially broad range of literature without providing a critical evaluation or extracting particular results from each individual research. in contrast, the purpose of a systematic literature review is to synthesize and assess evidence related to a more specific research question (pham, et al., 2014). this systematic scoping review followed the requirements established by the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses extension for scoping reviews (prisma-scr) (tricco, et al., 2018). the different steps of the arksey and o’malley methodological approach we followed are outlined below: identifying the research question the first step in a systematic scoping review is to identify a research question to be answered (arksey and o’malley, 2005). this paper aims to review how skt and sht are applied in the field of construction. thus, this scoping review aimed to answer the following questions: “which theoretical approach, skt or sht, is predominantly used in construction studies?”, “what are the thematic areas where skt or sht is applied in construction studies?”, and “what are the future research needs and gaps in the application of these theories in construction studies?” agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202592 identifying relevant studies a search strategy was developed to retrieve relevant research evidence from two research databases—scopus and google scholar—on 25 april 2024. scopus was used for the initial search for literature since it has a broader coverage of scientific publications (osei-kyei and chan, 2015; zhao, et al., 2019). moreover, the scopus database is acknowledged to outperform other databases such as web of science, pubmed, and google scholar (falagas, et al., 2008). it guarantees the highest quality data that are indexed by meticulous content selection and re-evaluation by an independent content selection and advisory board (bass, et al., 2020). extensive quality assurance procedures also regularly evaluate and enhance all data elements in scopus (okoro, 2023). therefore, the scopus database was originally used to look for relevant publications. a comprehensive literature search was conducted using appropriate boolean operators and keywords: ‘’stakeholder and theory’’ or ‘’stakeholder and perspective’’ or ‘’stakeholder and analysis’’ or ‘’stakeholder and approach’’ or ‘’stakeholder and value’’ and ‘’shareholder and theory’’ or ‘’shareholder and perspective’’ or ‘’shareholder and analysis’’ or ‘’shareholder and approach’’ or ‘’shareholder and value’’ and ‘’construction and industry’’. the primary search for the literature resulted in the identification of 1,576 publications using the search query. google scholar was utilized as a suitable supplementary source of evidence (haddaway, et al., 2015), although it has been criticized by some researchers (mushi, et al., 2022) for including unreliable studies in its database. however, due to the systematic and rigorous review process provided by prisma-scr, any unreliable studies will be eliminated in the review process. further search in google scholar yielded 150 publications. this resulted in a total of 1,726 papers being retrieved from scopus and google scholar databases. this provided a chance to collect and examine a satisfactory number of research findings on stakeholder and shareholder theory application in the field of construction. the search query was restricted to journal articles, focusing specifically on the subject area of engineering. only articles published in english were included, with no limitations on publication year. this resulted in 936 documents. study selection as two different databases were used (n = 936), the search resulted in multiple duplicates. these duplicates (n = 69) were removed, leaving the remaining 867 records to be screened for the application of skt or sht based on the titles and abstracts. a total of 821 records were excluded in the first screening stage for not meeting this criterion. the second screening stage on full-text article was conducted for the remaining 46 records, evaluating their relevance. records deemed of low relevance were excluded. in the final step, an additional 15 records were excluded after in-depth content screening as they were not discussing in sufficient depth the theories or their application in the construction context. the large number of articles that were excluded did not meet our study’s specific criteria, which focused on studies that delved deeply into the theoretical aspects of stakeholder and shareholder concepts, rather than merely mentioning the terms. we aimed to include only those studies that provided substantial theoretical insight into these concepts within the context of construction research. while stakeholder and shareholder topics have been widely researched, our study specifically targeted works that engaged with the theories behind these concepts. in the end, 31 studies were included in the synthesis (see figure 1). an overview of the selected records is provided in the appendix table v. charting the data a charting table was created using the jbi methodology and the arksey and o’malley framework for scoping review (arksey and o’malley, 2005; peters, et al., 2015) to record the pertinent information related to the research question: publication trend and theory applied, publication per country, journal publication, agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202593 methodological approach, most applied theory, main themes, and findings. to ensure the reliability of the findings, two researchers were tasked with creating the data charting table. collating, summarizing, and reporting the results the fifth stage of the framework necessitated summarizing the extracted data. once the data were charted in excel, the authors examined them to ascertain the main findings and detect trends. more precisely, the collected data were examined to address the research questions of the scoping review. applying the thematic analysis method suggested by braun and clarke (2006), the first two authors acquainted themselves with the data by explicitly examining how stakeholder theory or shareholder theory was applied and explored figure 1. the prisma flow diagram (page, et al., 2021). agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202594 in each study. following their previous familiarity with the stakeholder theory and shareholder theory literature, they independently coded the first three articles. the technique was executed using microsoft excel, which is a good software for data organization and coding (tay, et al., 2020). all discrepancies in coding were thoroughly deliberated, and a unanimous agreement was reached. subsequently, the remaining data were encoded. results publication trend and theory applied studies using skt/sht as frameworks showed varying patterns from 2000 to 2024 as indicated in table 1. however, this does not mean that studies on skt/sht started in 2000. the time frame emerged naturally based on the selected criteria, as no year limitations were applied. the number of skt-related publications increased steadily, reaching a peak of six between 2021 and 2023. sht studies were intermittent, peaking at three between 2015 and 2017. no research integrated both theories. table 1. publication trend and theory applied. theory/year of publications 2000– 2002 2003– 2005 2006– 2008 2009– 2011 2012– 2014 2015– 2017 2018– 2020 2021– 2023 2024 no. of records skt 1 1 4 2 5 1 3 6 1 24 sht 0 1 0 0 2 3 0 0 1 7 skt and sht 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 total 1 2 4 2 7 4 3 6 2 31 publication per country the distribution of 31 studies on skt and sht in construction shows china leading with five studies, followed by the united kingdom with four. south africa has three studies, while india, australia, ghana, poland, and malaysia have two each. other countries contributed one study each, and three studies did not mention a specific country as indicated in figure 2. journal publication table 2 shows the distribution of publications in different journals. the top two journals were engineering, construction and architectural management (seven publications) and construction management and economics (three publications). other journals had at most two publications each. methodological approach table 3 shows the methodological approaches used in the studies. out of the 31 studies, 3 used qualitative methods, 12 used quantitative methods, 8 used case studies, and 4 used mixed methods. there were also four literature reviews. most applied theory from table 4, skt is the dominant theoretical framework used in 24 studies, while sht is less common, appearing in only 7 studies. there were no studies that integrated both theories. agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202595 table 2. journal publication. name of the journal no. of publications engineering, construction and architectural management construction management and economics built environment project and asset management journal of facilities management economics and finance international journal of project management journal of cleaner production smart and sustainable built environment construction innovation journal for communication sciences in southern africa cooperative research centre for construction innovation magazine of management and economic engineering international journal of management science and engineering management mpdi sustainability the tqm magazine asian journal of accounting and governance international journal of academic research in accounting, finance and management sciences journal of management science science and engineering ethics central european economic journal total 7 3 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 31 figure 2. publications per country (author’s source). agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202596 thematic analysis the studies reviewed highlighted different thematic areas of application within the construction context as shown in table 4. table 4. thematic areas main theme sub-category/topical areas theories used per theme references stakeholder management stakeholder influence strategies; critical success factors; corporate culture; overview of previous studies; waste management; public–private partnerships (ppp) projects; transportation infrastructure development; stakeholders influencing strategies, high capital cost, and cost management; stakeholder relationship; sustainability; risk management skt = 11; sht =0; skt and sht = 0 (aaltonen, et al., 2008); (molwus, et al., 2017); (meding, et al., 2013); (yang, et al., 2009); (frempong-jnr, et al., 2023); (amadi, et al., 2018); (al-nahyan, et al., 2012); (liu, et al., 2023); (austen, et al., 2009; (chereja, 2013); (deng and zhou, 2010) shareholder value creation economic growth; industryspecific determinants; measures; comparison between traditional and economic performance measures; comparative study sht = 6; skt = 0; skt and sht = 0 (hall, 2024); (hall, 2016; (panigraphi, 2017); (panigraphi, et al., 2014); (goel, 2013); (oleksy and zyguła, 2018) stakeholder influence project delivery performance; social performance; managing a safe city skt = 3; sht = 0; skt and sht = 0 (al-fadhali, 2024); (doloi, 2012); (wereda, et al., 2022) stakeholder collaboration stakeholders influencing power; cost management efficiency, optimizing resource allocation skt = 2; sht = 0; skt and sht = 0 (gan, et al., 2018); (zhang, et al., 2023) stakeholder engagement sustainable procurement; conceptualization, sustainability skt = 2; sht = 0; skt and sht = 0 (agyekum, et al., 2023); (mathur, et al., 2008) stakeholder salience social sustainability skt = 1; sht = 0; skt and sht = 0 (goel, et al., 2020) table 3. methodological approach. methodological approach no. of publications qualitative quantitative mixed method case study literature review 3 12 4 8 4 agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202597 main theme sub-category/topical areas theories used per theme references stakeholder performance relationship management skt = 1; sht = 0; skt and sht = 0 (xue, et al., 2023) stakeholder mapping concept of project stakeholders skt = 1; sht = 0; skt and sht = 0 (newcombe, 2003) stakeholder impact stakeholder analysis, project management skt = 1; sht = 0; skt and sht = 0 (olander, 2007) stakeholder relationship safety communication skt = 1; sht = 0; skt and sht = 0 (greeff, 2013) stakeholder focus stakeholder focus skt = 1; sht = 0; skt and sht = 0 (walker, 2000) shareholder ethics and responsibilities online reverse auctions sht = 1; skt = 0; skt and sht = 0 (hatipkarasulu and gill, 2004) discussion the results were organized and presented under six main categories: publication trend and theory applied, publication per country, journal publication, methodological approach, most applied theory, and thematic analysis. the creation of these categories was guided by the approach in the hsieh and shannon (2005) study for interpreting textual data content through a coding technique. publication trend and theory applied studies utilizing skt or sht as theoretical frameworks uncover a fascinating pattern from 2000 to 2024. the number of skt-related publications was limited, with just one paper published each year from 2000 to 2005. however, there was a gradual upward trajectory, reaching a noteworthy peak of six publications in 2021–2023. on the other hand, sht studies displayed sporadic patterns, making their first appearance in 2003 and reaching a peak of three publications in 2015–2017. interestingly, there were no studies that integrated both theories. the overall publication count fluctuated over the years, ranging from one to seven per year. these findings spark several substantial discussions. first and foremost, the increase in the number of publications associated with skt suggests that this theoretical framework is gaining greater recognition and being used more often in the field of construction studies. this demonstrates its success in tackling significant research questions or elucidating construction phenomena. however, the infrequent nature of sht research might indicate challenges or limitations in its use in the construction industry, perhaps requiring more exploration or enhancement. furthermore, the absence of research that integrates both skt and sht highlights the potential for interdisciplinary investigation or theoretical integration within the construction domain. an examination of the potential synergies between these theories improves understanding of the intricate processes or dynamics related to construction. publication per country the spatial distribution of research on the use of skt or sht in construction provides insights into regional research patterns and the worldwide relevance of these theories. china leads with five studies, table 4. continued agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202598 followed by the united kingdom with four studies. south africa ranks third with three studies. other countries, including india, australia, ghana, poland, malaysia, yemen, uruguay, sweden, nigeria, and uae, contributed at most two studies. the presence of research from various countries demonstrates the international usefulness of skt or sht. this distribution not only creates opportunities for international collaboration and information exchange but also raises questions about representation and research priorities. resolving these gaps can lead to a better understanding of theoretical application in the global construction context. journal publication the distribution of publications across journals gives information about the dissemination of research on skt or sht application. the top two primary publication journals—engineering, construction, and architectural management and construction management and economics—demonstrate a strong presence of research in these fields. the multiplicity of journals publishing construction research demonstrates the field’s interdisciplinary nature, with specialized journals focused on topics such as economics, finance, facilities management, and sustainability. this diverse set of publications encourages knowledge exchange and innovation in the industry. methodological approach the analysis of various publications on stakeholder theory (skt) and shareholder theory (sht) research reveals a wide range of data collection methods, data analysis techniques, and research approaches. among the 31 studies considered, the quantitative approach was the most popular, with 12 studies adopting this method. surveys were frequently used for data collection, such as questionnaire surveys employed by gan, et al. (2018) to investigate stakeholders’ influence on barriers to off-site construction (osc). two-mode social network analysis was the predominant tool for quantitative studies, as used by zhang, et al. (2023). case studies were the second most commonly used technique, with eight studies utilizing this approach. for example, amadi, et al. (2018) used a case study to identify the factors contributing to the success of public–private partnership (ppp) initiatives from the perspective of external stakeholders. mixed methods and literature review research designs were also employed. goel, et al. (2020) and chereja (2013) conducted studies that demonstrated the use of mixed methodologies and literature reviews, respectively. only three studies implemented qualitative methods, indicating their less common use. interviews were the primary method of data collection in qualitative research, as shown by liu, et al. (2023). overall, the incorporation of diverse data collection and analysis methodologies highlights the multifaceted nature of skt and sht research. the prevalence of quantitative methods suggests a focus on empirical, data-driven insights, while the use of qualitative and mixed methods emphasizes the importance of a deeper understanding of stakeholder dynamics. most applied theory an examination of the literature on stakeholder theory (skt) and shareholder theory (sht) in the construction sector uncovers distinct patterns and preferences in theoretical frameworks. themes, and subtopics. the skt framework emerged as the dominant approach, widely used in a variety of thematic areas including stakeholder management, stakeholder collaboration, stakeholder engagement, stakeholder impact, stakeholder salience, stakeholder influence, stakeholder performance, stakeholder mapping, stakeholder relationship, and stakeholder focus. this theory was used in 24 studies, with a focus on sub-topics such as stakeholder influence strategies, crucial success factors, corporate culture, waste management, and public– private partnerships (aaltonen, et al., 2008; molwus, et al., 2017). skt also covered the following subtopics: optimizing resource allocation, social sustainability, cost management efficiency, and stakeholder agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202599 influencing power, among others. these sub-topics were explored by researchers such as gan, et al. (2018), zhang, et al. (2023), goel, et al. (2020), and greeff (2013). in contrast, only seven studies applied sht concentrating on shareholder ethics and responsibility and shareholder value creation. studies in this domain included hall (2024) and panigrahi (2017), who explored economic growth, industry-specific determinants, and comparison between traditional and economic performance measures, among others. this research confirmed the theory’s importance in the construction industry. the limited implementation of sht in construction research can be attributed to the industry’s involvement of multiple stakeholders, including clients, contractors, workers, regulatory bodies, and the community. the industry’s focus on satisfying these diverse groups aligns more with stakeholder theory than with shareholder theory. it is significant to note that the literature does not contain any instances in which both skt and sht are integrated. skt emphasizes the importance of understanding the dynamics of stakeholders, which is a critical component of the effective administration of intricate construction projects. on the other hand, sht has a specific focus on shareholder value creation. the absence of studies integrating skt and sht calls for the need for future research to gain more comprehensive knowledge of how these two theories interact with one another. thematic analysis the findings highlighted 12 core themes, which are discussed as follows: stakeholder management of the 31 authors in this study, 11 focused on the theme “stakeholder management” in the construction industry and addressed various topics such as risk management, transportation infrastructure development, sustainability, waste management, corporate culture, cost management, stakeholder relationship, stakeholder influence strategies, critical success factors, ppp projects, and high capital cost. the authors provided valuable insights into these topics, which contribute to our understanding of stakeholder dynamics and their impact on project success. meding, et al. (2013) highlighted the importance of stakeholder management in organizational success and its correlation with corporate culture. yang, et al. (2009) emphasized the need for reliable techniques and resources for effective stakeholder relationship management. frempongjnr, et al. (2023) explored the impact of stakeholder knowledge management on efficient construction waste management, emphasizing the significance of knowledge sharing and collaboration. amadi, et al. (2018) discussed the challenges and facilitators of external stakeholder management in ppp projects. chereja (2013) outlined the steps for sustainable stakeholder management, emphasizing the importance of considering stakeholder interests. deng and zhou (2010) discussed risk management in the construction industry and proposed a stakeholder network mapping technique to assess risk correlations. overall, the findings of these studies highlight the need for effective stakeholder management to ensure project sustainability and success in the construction industry. shareholder value creation the theme “shareholder value creation” was explored by 6 out of 31 authors, shedding light on topics such as economic growth, industry-specific determinants, measures, and comparison between traditional and economic performance measures, among others. the study conducted by hall (2016; 2024) examined the indices of shareholder value development that are relevant to various types of industries. the research identified market value added as the key metric that captures value creation across various industries. furthermore, panigrahi (2017) supported previous claims on the impact of eva, dividend payout ratio, and earnings per share on shareholder value, highlighting the potential importance of these measures for evaluating both internal and external performance. despite the underutilization of this opportunity agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025100 by industries and investors, panigraphi, et al. (2014) provided conflicting evidence that demonstrates a favorable association between the maximization of shareholder value and eva. in addition, the comparative research carried out by goel (2013) emphasized the need for assessing financial performance using eva to determine its influence on market returns and shareholder value, specifically in relation to indian construction firms. oleksy and zyguła (2018) conducted a study on the impact of financial investors on dividend payments and shareholder value in relation to the ownership structure. the results indicated a tendency towards financialization by suggesting that the existence of financial investors positively increases the likelihood of corporations paying dividends. collectively, these findings demonstrate the wide-ranging variety of metrics and determinants that impact the creation of shareholder value in many economic sectors. stakeholder influence the theme “stakeholder influence” was explored by three authors, who focused on the role of stakeholders in project delivery performance and social sustainability. al-fadhali (2024) found that designers, owners, suppliers, and subcontractors have a significant influence on project delivery performance in construction projects. this highlights the importance of engaging these internal stakeholders to ensure successful project execution. doloi (2012) expounded on the concept of social performance by identifying subsystems within social sustainability and developed criteria to assess social value. the study emphasized the impact of individual stakeholders in social networks and the need for a well-rounded strategy to address their different needs. wereda, et al. (2022) examined the importance of stakeholders in supervising a safe urban environment, specifically focusing on polish cities. the research emphasized the interest for stakeholders to effectively oversee cities to ensure safety. these studies contribute to our understanding of how stakeholders influence construction projects, particularly in terms of project delivery performance and social sustainability. they highlight the importance of involving key stakeholders in construction projects to improve outcomes and social impact. stakeholder collaboration the fourth theme refers to “stakeholder collaboration” and is divided into the following topics: stakeholders influencing power, cost management efficiency, and optimizing resource allocation. gan, et al. (2018) focused on stakeholders’ influence on osc, identifying barriers to adoption and influential stakeholders using social network analysis. the research offered an appreciable insight into the beneficial role of stakeholder engagement in promoting the adoption of osc in developing nations. zhang, et al. (2023) also contributed to the cost management studies by focusing on efficiency and optimization of resource allocation within stakeholder collaboration. their findings uncovered numerous crucial aspects: stakeholders primarily demonstrate a desire and potential to collaborate on organization and management factors; more stakeholders pay attention to incentive policies and the establishment of prefabrication rates and assembly rates, while all stakeholders have the right to facilitate the exchange of information and resources in the prefabricated construction (pc) supply chain. stakeholder engagement sustainable procurement and conceptualization were the key topics addressed under the fifth theme, “stakeholder engagement”. agyekum, et al. (2023) discovered various factors that limit stakeholder engagement in sustainable public procurement (spp), including organizational, attitudinal, and relational factors. mathur, et al. (2008) analyzed the way stakeholder involvement is understood in relation to sustainability, highlighting the need to integrate managerial, ethical, and social learning viewpoints. both studies indicated the need to overcome challenges and establish thorough methods to support long-lasting outcomes via the successful engagement of all relevant stakeholders. agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025101 stakeholder salience the sixth theme, “stakeholder salience”, was used to address the topic of social sustainability. goel, et al. (2020) investigated stakeholder salience within the context of social sustainability. their study revealed inadequacies in addressing social sustainability considerations related to occupational health and safety, workers’ employment practices, and proactive involvement of communities and end-users in project reports. through statistical analysis, the study determined the salience of different stakeholders, finding that projectaffected communities are the most salient, followed by end-users and construction workers. furthermore, significant relationships between social sustainability considerations and the type of project and delivery system were identified. stakeholder performance the fundamental emphasis of the seventh theme, “stakeholder performance”, as delineated by xue, et al. (2023) is the management of relationships. the study investigated the complexities of stakeholder performance within the setting of relationship management during different phases of project development. the results revealed significant patterns in stakeholder performance across different phases of the building process. during the planning phase, stakeholders experience a reduction in the ability to effectively manage relationships. challenges in managing relationships between construction, environmental, and pressure groups arise during the initiation phase. during the construction and handover phase, the government and the local industry groups face difficulties in relationship management. this study focuses on the subtle aspects of stakeholder performance in relationship management, offering valuable insights into the timing and specific challenges faced by different stakeholders at various phases of a project. stakeholder mapping the eighth theme, “stakeholder mapping”, examined the notion of project stakeholders as described by newcombe (2003). this article challenged the traditional belief that the client is the main figure in project management, arguing that this perspective is outdated and being replaced by the acknowledgment of a wide range of project stakeholders. the research proposed the use of stakeholder mapping, a tool for determining the predictability, power, and degree of interest of key project stakeholders. the research emphasized the need for project managers to adapt these techniques in order to efficiently traverse the complex network of stakeholders involved in construction projects. it underscores the importance of understanding and dealing with a wide range of stakeholders, demonstrating the evolving nature of project management. stakeholder impact the ninth theme, “stakeholder impact”, assessed stakeholders and their impact on project management, as stated by olander (2007). this study presented an approach based on well-established theory, stakeholder management knowledge, and empirical data. the approach consisted of developing a stakeholder impact index to evaluate the nature and effect of stakeholder influence, the likelihood of stakeholders exerting their influence, and each stakeholder’s position toward the project—whether supportive or adversarial. the analysis of the stakeholder impact can assist project managers in building a systematic approach to managing stakeholders, allowing for a better understanding and participation with stakeholders at all stages of the project. this strategy highlights the need to properly examine stakeholders’ impact in order to enhance project outcomes and mitigate potential disagreements. agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025102 stakeholder relationship the tenth theme, “stakeholder relationship”, explored the communication of safety within the framework of stakeholder theory literature, as investigated by greeff (2013). the study found a strong link between the organizational stakeholder relationship and goal attainment through value contribution and motivation. it highlighted the need for safety to be seen as an ethical concern that helps to accomplish corporate goals after taking into account the interests of stakeholders. stakeholder focus the eleventh theme, “stakeholder focus”, assessed the transition from only fulfilling the demands of a limited group of paying customers to addressing the requirements of all relevant stakeholders, as examined by walker (2000). this article highlighted the need to expand the scope beyond only meeting the needs of consumers to take into account the concerns of all stakeholders engaged in a project or organization. by employing a stakeholder-centric approach, organizations can improve their adherence to the triple bottom line, which highlights the importance of evaluating financial performance, social impacts, and environmental implications. this shift in emphasis enables an in-depth understanding of the implications for organizations and encourages the implementation of sustainable practices. the study underlines the necessity of integrating stakeholders’ interests into the decision-making processes of corporations. by prioritizing the demands and concerns of stakeholders, organizations can enhance their overall performance and have a positive impact on society and the environment. shareholder ethics and responsibilities the twelfth theme, “shareholder ethics and responsibilities”, examined the concept of professional ethics and social responsibility in the context of online reverse auctions, as investigated by hatipkarasulu and gill (2004). the ethical considerations and responsibilities that are associated with shareholder engagement in tendering for construction projects using online reverse auction techniques were outlined in this paper. the study commenced with an introduction to professional ethics and social responsibility. it then provided a sample case of a construction project that is being bid on through online reverse auctions, in which shareholders are actively involved in the discussion of ethical issues. the article conducted an analysis of the ethical concerns that arise at each stage of the procurement process and evaluated their potential impact on shareholder obligations. additionally, it offered a thorough analysis of the entire process, which encompasses the broader ethical implications that are inherent in online reverse auctions. the study clarified the complex ethical aspect surrounding online reverse auctions and highlighted the significance of shareholder involvement in maintaining ethical principles throughout the bidding process. organizations may address and overcome these ethical challenges to showcase their dedication to ethical business operations and social responsibility. research agenda for identified gaps the scoping review results revealed numerous significant gaps and opportunities for additional research. there is a notable lack of studies that integrate these two theoretical frameworks within the construction context. the potential integration of skt and sht could be investigated in future research to create a unified theoretical framework that provides a better understanding of stakeholder dynamics and shareholder value creation in construction projects. the majority of the studies identified in the analysis primarily employed quantitative research methods, with a limited use of qualitative and mixed-method approaches. future studies should aim to incorporate qualitative and mixed-method approaches to complement quantitative results to give a more thorough understanding of stakeholder and shareholder dynamics. agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025103 although the thematic analysis identified a wide variety of topics, such as stakeholder management through to shareholder value creation, it appears that there is a relative scarcity of research that is specifically concerned with productivity in the construction industry. investigation into strategies for safety performance and productivity enhancement measures is necessary due to the inherent risks and complexities associated with construction projects. future research should investigate the ways in which these theories can be used to improve productivity outcomes in construction projects and inform safety performance. the report also highlights the limited research on sht in the construction industry, despite its significance in understanding financial performance and shareholder value creation. future studies should investigate the application of sht in addressing industry-specific challenges and enhancing financial performance in the construction sector. the number of studies that apply skt or sht remains limited, despite the relevance of these theoretical frameworks in understanding stakeholder dynamics and optimizing shareholder value in construction projects. empirical studies can be instrumental in illustrating the practical utility and efficacy of these theories in order to address this gap. conducting empirical research by applying skt and sht in construction projects will enable researchers to provide well-supported proof of the practicality and importance of these theories. in conclusion, addressing these gaps and exploring new research prospects will enhance both theoretical knowledge and practical insights in the sphere of the management of stakeholders and the creation of shareholder value in construction projects. conclusion a systematic scoping review of construction studies using stakeholder theory (skt) and shareholder theory (sht) as theoretical frameworks was conducted to gain insights into the field of construction between 2000 and 2024. the review categorized the results into six main areas: publishing trends and theory application, publication per country, journal publication, methodological approach, most applied theory, and thematic analysis. the analysis of publication trends showed a significant growth in the number of publications associated with skt over time, indicating its increasing use in construction studies. in contrast, sht studies showed inconsistent patterns, suggesting challenges or limitations in its application to construction. the absence of research integrating these theories highlights the potential for theoretical integration. methodological approaches varied, with quantitative methods being the most frequently used, followed by case studies, mixed methods, literature reviews, and qualitative approaches. skt was the most applied theory, exploring areas such as stakeholder collaboration and stakeholder management, among others. thematic analysis identified 12 main themes. these themes provided insights into the complex dynamics of stakeholder and shareholders in the construction industry. the review identified gaps and recommended future studies, including integrating skt and sht, applying the theories to achieve optimal productivity, exploring sht in addressing financial performance in the construction sector, and conducting more empirical studies to provide concrete evidence of theories relevance and applicability. lastly, this integration of skt and sht will guide industry practitioners about the potential advantages of adopting a dual-focus strategy, therefore promoting inclusive and sustainable decision-making in construction projects. references aaltonen, k., jaakko, k. and tuomas, o., 2008. stakeholder salience in global projects. international journal of project management, 26(5), pp. 509–516. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.05.004 agyekum, a. k., fugar, f. d. k., agyekum, k., akomea-frimpong, i., and pittri, h., 2023. barriers to stakeholder engagement in sustainable procurement of public works. engineering, construction and architectural management, 30(9), pp. 3840–3857. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2021-0746 agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025104 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2008.05.004 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-08-2021-0746 al-fadhali, n., 2024. an amos-sem approach to evaluating stakeholders’ influence on construction project delivery performance. engineering, construction and architectural management, 31(2), pp. 638–661. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ecam-09-2021-0780 al mamun, a., entebang, h. and mansor, s.a., 2012. eva as superior performance measurement tool. modern economy, 03(03), pp. 310–318. https://doi.org/10.4236/me.2012.33041 al nahyan, m.t., sohal, a.s., fildes, b.n. and hawas, y.e., 2012. transportation infrastructure development in the uae: stakeholder perspectives on management practice. construction innovation, 12(4), pp.492-514. https://doi. org/10.1108/14714171211272234 amadi, c., carrillo, p. and tuuli, m., 2018. stakeholder management in ppp projects: external stakeholders’ perspective. built environment project and asset management, 8(4), pp. 403–414. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-02-2018-0048 arksey, h. and o’malley, l., 2005. scoping studies: towards a methodological framework. international journal of social research methodology: theory and practice, 8(1), pp. 19–32. https://doi.org/10.1080/1364557032000119616 austen, s., seymour, r., brown, k., furneaux, c. and mccabe, a., 2009. multi-outcome construction policies: literature review on stakeholder theory. crc for construction innovation, brisbane. bass, s. b., d’avanzo, p., alhajji, m., ventriglia, n., trainor, a., maurer, l., eisenberg, r., and martinez, o., 2020. exploring the engagement of racial and ethnic minorities in hiv treatment and vaccine clinical trials: a scoping review of literature and implications for future research. aids patient care and stds, 34(9), pp. 399–416. https:// doi.org/10.1089/apc.2020.0008 braun, v. and clarke, v., 2006. using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), pp. 77– 101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa chereja, d.i.m., 2013. managementului pärtilor interésate în domeniul constructiilor: considérente teoretice si practice pursuing stakeholder management in constructions: argument and practical background. daudt, h.m.l., van mossel, c. and scott, s.j., 2013. enhancing the scoping study methodology: a large, interprofessional team’s experience with arksey and o’malley’s framework. bmc medical research methodology. https://doi. org/10.1186/1471-2288-13-48 deng, t. and zhou, x., 2010. risk correlation analysis for china’s construction projects based on stakeholder theory. international journal of management science and engineering management, 5(4), pp. 285–292. https://doi.org/10.1080/17 509653.2010.10671119 doloi, h., 2012. assessing stakeholders’ influence on social performance of infrastructure projects. facilities, 30(11), pp. 531–550. https://doi.org/10.1108/02632771211252351 donaldson, t. and preston, l.e., 1995. the stakeholder theory of the corporation: concepts, evidence, and implications, source: the academy of management review. https://doi.org/10.2307/258887 egawa, m., 2018. gendai corporate governance. 1st edition, tokyo, japan: nihon keizai shimbunsha. [preprint]. falagas, m. e., pitsouni, e. i., malietzis, g. a., and pappas, g., 2008. comparison of pubmed, scopus, web of science, and google scholar: strengths and weaknesses. the faseb journal, 22(2), pp. 338–342. https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.079492lsf freeman, r.e., 1984. strategic management: a stakeholder approach. pittman, marshfield, ma [preprint]. frempong-jnr, e.y., ametepey, s.o. and cobbina, j.e., 2023. impact of stakeholder management on efficient construction waste management. smart and sustainable built environment, 12(3), pp. 607–634. https://doi.org/10.1108/ sasbe-08-2021-0147 agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025105 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2021-0780 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2021-0780 https://doi.org/10.4236/me.2012.33041 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171211272234 https://doi.org/10.1108/14714171211272234 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-02-2018-0048 https://doi.org/10.1080/1364557032000119616 https://doi.org/10.1089/apc.2020.0008 https://doi.org/10.1089/apc.2020.0008 https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-13-48 https://doi.org/10.1186/1471-2288-13-48 https://doi.org/10.1080/17509653.2010.10671119 https://doi.org/10.1080/17509653.2010.10671119 https://doi.org/10.1108/02632771211252351 https://doi.org/10.2307/258887 https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.07-9492lsf https://doi.org/10.1096/fj.07-9492lsf https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-08-2021-0147 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-08-2021-0147 friedman, a.l. and miles, s., 2002. developing stakeholder theory’. journal of management studies, 39(1), pp. 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00280 friedman, m., 1970. the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits. new york times magazine, 13. available at: https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1573668925515117056.bib?lang=en (accessed: 6 october 2023). frooman, j., 1999. stakeholder influence strategies. management review. https://doi.org/10.2307/259074 gan, x., chang, r. and wen, t., 2018. overcoming barriers to off-site construction through engaging stakeholders: a two-mode social network analysis. journal of cleaner production, 201, pp. 735–747. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2018.07.299 goel, a., ganesh, l.s. and kaur, a., 2020. social sustainability considerations in construction project feasibility study: a stakeholder salience perspective. engineering, construction and architectural management, 27(7), pp. 1429–1459. https:// doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2019-0319 goel, s., 2013. “eva” as an indicator of shareholders’ wealth maximisation in construction industry: a comparative study of dlf and l & t. iims journal of management science, 4(1), p. 68. https://doi.org/10.5958/j.0976-173x.4.1.005 grant, a.m., 2009. putting self-interest out of business? contributions and unanswered questions from useinspired research on prosocial motivation. industrial and organizational psychology, 2(1), pp. 94–98. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2008.01113.x greeff, w., 2013. precedent predictions and present practice: a stakeholder theory account of safety communication significance for the mining and construction industries of south africa. https://doi.org/10.36615/jcsa.v32i1.1625 haddaway, n. r., collins, a. m., coughlin, d., and kirk, s., 2015. the role of google scholar in evidence reviews and its applicability to grey literature searching. plos one, 10(9). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0138237 hall, j.h., 2016. industry-specific determinants of shareholder value creation. studies in economics and finance, 33(2), pp. 190–208. https://doi.org/10.1108/sef-08-2014-0155 hall, j.h., 2024. corporate shareholder value creation as contributor to economic growth. studies in economics and finance, 41(1), pp. 148–176. https://doi.org/10.1108/sef-06-2021-0255 hasani, s.m. and zahra, f., 2012. relationship the economic value added (eva) with stock market value (mv) and profitability ratios. interdisciplinary journal of contemporary research in business, 4(3), pp. 406–415. hatipkarasulu, y., and gill, j. h., 2004. identification of shareholder ethics and responsibilities in online reverse auctions for construction projects*’, science and engineering ethics, 10(2), p. 283. available at: http://www.opragen. co.uk. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-004-0024-6 hsieh, h.f. and shannon, s.e., 2005. three approaches to qualitative content analysis. qualitative health research, 15(9), pp. 1277–1288. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732305276687 inkpen, a.c. and sundaram, a.k., 2022. the endurance of shareholder value maximization as the preferred corporate objective. journal of management studies, 59(2), pp. 555–568. https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12715. irala, l.r. and reddy, r., 2006. performance evaluation, economic value added and managerial behaviour. pes business review, 1(1). kochan, t.a. and rubinstein, s.a., 2000. toward a stakeholder theory of the firm: the saturn partnership, source: organization science. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.11.4.367.14601 kusi, b.a., gyeke-dako, a., agbloyor, e.k. and darku, a.b., 2018. does corporate governance structures promote shareholders or stakeholders value maximization? evidence from african banks. corporate governance (bingley), 18(2), pp. 270–288. https://doi.org/10.1108/cg-09-2016-0177 agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025106 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-6486.00280 https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1573668925515117056.bib?lang=en https://doi.org/10.2307/259074 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.299 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2018.07.299 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2019-0319 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2019-0319 https://doi.org/10.5958/j.0976-173x.4.1.005 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2008.01113.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1754-9434.2008.01113.x https://doi.org/10.36615/jcsa.v32i1.1625 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0138237 https://doi.org/10.1108/sef-08-2014-0155 https://doi.org/10.1108/sef-06-2021-0255 http://www.opragen.co.uk http://www.opragen.co.uk https://doi.org/10.1007/s11948-004-0024-6 https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732305276687 https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12715 https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.11.4.367.14601 https://doi.org/10.1108/cg-09-2016-0177 liu, y., chang, r. d., zuo, j., xiong, f., and dong, n., 2023. what leads to the high capital cost of prefabricated construction in china: perspectives of stakeholders. engineering, construction and architectural management, 30(2), pp. 805–832. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2021-0538 ma, l., wang, l., wu, k. j., and tseng, m. l., 2018. assessing co-benefit barriers among stakeholders in chinese construction industry. resources, conservation and recycling, 137, pp. 101–112. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. resconrec.2018.05.029 mahajan, r., lim, w. m., sareen, m., kumar, s., and panwar, r., 2023. stakeholder theory. journal of business research, 166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114104 mathur, v.n., price, a.d.f. and austin, s., 2008. conceptualizing stakeholder engagement in the context of sustainability and its assessment. construction management and economics, 26(6), pp. 601–609. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446190802061233 meding, meding, j., mcallister, k., oyedele, l., and kelly, k., 2013. a framework for stakeholder management and corporate culture. built environment project and asset management, 3(1), pp. 24–41. https://doi.org/10.1108/ bepam-07-2012-0042 mitchell, r.k., agle, b.r. and wood, d.j., 1997. toward a theory of stakeholder identification and salience: defining the principle of who and what really counts. academy of management review, 22(4), pp. 853–886. https://doi. org/10.5465/amr.1997.9711022105 mocsary, g., 2013. the future of shareholder wealth maximization. molwus, j.j., erdogan, b. and ogunlana, s., 2017. using structural equation modelling (sem) to understand the relationships among critical success factors (csfs) for stakeholder management in construction. engineering, construction and architectural management, 24(3), pp. 426–450. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2015-0161 mushi, f.v., nguluma, h. and kihila, j., 2022. a critical review of african green building research. building research and information, 50(6), pp. 610–627. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2021.2015276 neale, j. and gurmu, a., 2022. production pressures in the building sector of the construction industry: a systematic review of literature. journal of engineering, design and technology. emerald publishing, pp. 1412–1429. https://doi. org/10.1108/jedt-12-2020-0529 newcombe, r., 2003. from client to project stakeholders: a stakeholder mapping approach. construction management and economics, 21(8), pp. 841–848. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000072137 okoro, c., 2023. bibliometric and content analyses of research on technology use in real estate facilities management. facilities. emerald publishing, pp. 101–128. https://doi.org/10.1108/f-10-2022-0128 olander, s., 2007. stakeholder impact analysis in construction project management. construction management and economics, 25(3), pp. 277–287. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190600879125 oleksy, p. and zyguła, a., 2018. the effect of ownership structure on dividend policy and shareholder value: a financialisation perspective on construction companies in poland. central european economic journal, 3(50), pp. 41– 52. https://doi.org/10.1515/ceej-2017-0016 osei-kyei, r. and chan, a.p.c., 2015. review of studies on the critical success factors for public-private partnership (ppp) projects from 1990 to 2013. international journal of project management, 33(6), pp. 1335–1346. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.02.008 page, m. j., mckenzie, j. e., bossuyt, p. m., boutron, i., hoffmann, t. c., mulrow, c. d., shamseer, l., tetzlaff, j. m., akl, e. a., brennan, s. e., chou, r., glanville, j., grimshaw, j. m., hróbjartsson, a., lalu, m. m., li, t., loder, e. agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025107 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2021-0538 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.05.029 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2018.05.029 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2023.114104 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190802061233 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190802061233 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-07-2012-0042 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-07-2012-0042 https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1997.9711022105 https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1997.9711022105 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2015-0161 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2021.2015276 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-12-2020-0529 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-12-2020-0529 https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619032000072137 https://doi.org/10.1108/f-10-2022-0128 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446190600879125 https://doi.org/10.1515/ceej-2017-0016 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.02.008 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2015.02.008 w., mayo-wilson, e., mcdonald, s., and moher, d., 2021. the prisma 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews’, the bmj. bmj publishing group. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n71 panigrahi, s.k., 2017. economic value added and traditional accounting measures for shareholder’s wealth creation. asian journal of accounting and governance, 8, pp. 125–136. https://doi.org/10.17576/ajag-2017-08-11 panigraphi, s.k., zainuddin, y. and azizan, a., 2014. comparing traditional and economic performance measures for creating shareholder’s value: a perspective from malaysia. international journal of academic research in accounting, finance and management sciences, 4(4). https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarafms/v4-i4/1345 peters, m. d., godfrey, c. m., khalil, h., mclnerney, p., parker, d., and soares, c.b., 2015. guidance for conducting systematic scoping reviews. https://doi.org/10.1097/xeb.0000000000000050 pham, m. t., rajić, a., greig, j. d., sargeant, j. m., papadopoulos, a., and mcewen, s. a., 2014. a scoping review of scoping reviews: advancing the approach and enhancing the consistency. research synthesis methods, 5(4), pp. 371–385. https://doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1123 phillips, r., freeman, r.e. and wicks, a.c., 2003. what stakeholder theory is not. business ethics quarterly, 13(4), pp. 479–502. https://doi.org/10.5840/beq200313434 tay, k. t., ng, s., hee, j. m., chia, e. w. y., vythilingam, d., ong, y. t., chiam, m., chin, a. m. c., fong, w., wijaya, l., toh, y. p., mason, s., and krishna, l. k. r., 2020. assessing professionalism in medicine – a scoping review of assessment tools from 1990 to 2018. journal of medical education and curricular development, 7, p. 238212052095515. https://doi.org/10.1177/2382120520955159 tricco, a. c., lillie, e., zarin, w., o’brien, k. k., colquhoun, h., levac, d., moher, d., peters, m. d. j., horsley, t., weeks, l., hempel, s., akl, e. a., chang, c., mcgowan, j., stewart, l., hartling, l., aldcroft, a., wilson, m. g., garritty, c., and straus, s. e., 2018. prisma extension for scoping reviews (prisma-scr): checklist and explanation. annals of internal medicine. american college of physicians, pp. 467–473. https://doi.org/10.7326/m180850 tse, t., 2011. shareholder and stakeholder theory: after the financial crisis. qualitative research in financial markets, 3(1), pp. 51–63. https://doi.org/10.1108/17554171111124612 walker, d.h.t., 2000. client/customer or stakeholder focus? iso 14000 ems as a construction industry case study. available at: http://www.shell.com/values/content/. https://doi.org/10.1108/09544780010287221 wereda, w., moch, n. and wachulak, a., 2022. the importance of stakeholders in managing a safe city. sustainability (switzerland), 14(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/su14010244 xue, j., shen, g. q., deng, x., ogungbile, a. j., and chu, x., 2023. evolution modeling of stakeholder performance on relationship management in the dynamic and complex environments of megaprojects. engineering, construction and architectural management, 30(4), pp. 1536–1557. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2021-0504 yang, j., shen, q. and ho, m., 2009. an overview of previous studies in stakeholder management and its implications for the construction industry. journal of facilities management, 7(2), pp. 159–175. https://doi. org/10.1108/14725960910952532 zhang, h. m., chong, h.-y., zeng, y., and zhang, w., 2023. the effective mediating role of stakeholder management in the relationship between bim implementation and project performance. engineering, construction and architectural management, 30(6), pp. 2503–2522. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-2020-0225 zhao, x., zuo, j., wu, g., and huang, c., 2019. a bibliometric review of green building research 2000–2016’, architectural science review. taylor and francis ltd., pp. 74–88. https://doi.org/10.1080/00038628.2018.1485548 agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025108 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.n71 https://doi.org/10.17576/ajag-2017-08-11 https://doi.org/10.6007/ijarafms/v4-i4/1345 https://doi.org/10.1097/xeb.0000000000000050 https://doi.org/10.1002/jrsm.1123 https://doi.org/10.5840/beq200313434 https://doi.org/10.1177/2382120520955159 https://doi.org/10.7326/m18-0850 https://doi.org/10.7326/m18-0850 https://doi.org/10.1108/17554171111124612 http://www.shell.com/values/content/ https://doi.org/10.1108/09544780010287221 https://doi.org/10.3390/su14010244 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-06-2021-0504 https://doi.org/10.1108/14725960910952532 https://doi.org/10.1108/14725960910952532 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-04-2020-0225 https://doi.org/10.1080/00038628.2018.1485548 appendix table 5. summary of included studies. author main theme sub-category/ topical areas theory applied methodology findings (aaltonen, et al., 2008) stakeholder management stakeholder influence strategies stakeholder theory case study the study identified strategies to increase stakeholder salience, which are direct/indirect withholding, resource/coalition building, conflict escalation, credibility building, communication, and direct action. (gan, et al., 2018) stakeholder collaboration stakeholder influencing power stakeholder theory quantitativequestionnaire survey stakeholder collaboration is crucial for overcoming barriers to off-site construction (osc) adoption. (zhang, et al., 2023) stakeholder collaboration cost management efficiency, optimizing resource allocation stakeholder theory mixed method stakeholders are willing to collaborate on organization and management, incentive policies, prefabrication rates, and resource sharing. (goel, et al., 2020) stakeholder salience social sustainability stakeholder theory systematic literature review project-affected community was found to be the most salient stakeholder, followed by the endusers and the construction workers. (molwus, et al., 2017) stakeholder management critical success factors (csfs) stakeholder theory quantitativequestionnaire survey structural equation modeling (sem) analysis identified 16 csfs as indicators of four latent variables, with stakeholder engagement having a direct impact on project success. (meding, et al., 2013) stakeholder management corporate culture stakeholder theory mixed method the results showed that stakeholder management and corporate culture are key areas of an organization’s success. (al-fadhali, 2024) stakeholder influence project delivery performance stakeholder theory quantitativequestionnaire survey designers, owners, suppliers, and subcontractors significantly impact construction pdp, while labor and consultants do not. (yang, et al., 2009) stakeholder management overview of previous studies stakeholder theory literature review limited methods and tools exist to identify stakeholders and their interests, with few studies on change management and relationship networks. (doloi, 2012) stakeholder influence social performance stakeholder theory case study a framework for evaluating social performance was developed. (agyekum, et al., 2023) stakeholder engagement sustainable procurement stakeholder theory quantitativequestionnaire survey the study found three clusters of barriers to stakeholder engagement in sustainable procurement of public (spp) works: organizational, attitudinal, and relational. agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025109 author main theme sub-category/ topical areas theory applied methodology findings (mathur, et al., 2008) stakeholder engagement conceptualization, sustainability stakeholder theory literature review stakeholder engagement practices focus on management and ethics, but lack a social learning perspective. a holistic approach is needed for sustainability. (xue, et al., 2023) stakeholder performance relationship management stakeholder theory case study the study revealed that stakeholders experience declining performance in relationship management during construction stages. (newcombe, 2003) stakeholder mapping concept of project stakeholders stakeholder theory qualitative interviews stakeholder mapping in construction project shows the importance of analyzing key stakeholders. (frempongjnr, et al., 2023) stakeholder management waste management stakeholder theory quantitativequestionnaire survey stakeholder management has a significant impact on efficient construction waste management. (olander, 2007) stakeholder impact stakeholder analysis, project management stakeholder theory qualitative project management has obligations to stakeholders based on their attributes and needs. (amadi, et al., 2018) stakeholder management public–private partnership (ppp) projects stakeholder theory case study five enablers for external stakeholder management were identified: project location, transparency, timing, ppp knowledge, and internal stakeholder relationship. (al nahyan, et al., 2012) stakeholder management transportation infrastructure development stakeholder theory qualitative the findings highlighted the complexity involved in managing mega transportation infrastructure projects in the united arab emirates (uae). (liu, et al., 2023) stakeholder management stakeholders influencing strategies, high capital cost, cost management stakeholder theory mixed method the study found that the cognition and attitude of developers, as well as relevant standards and codes, are the most influencing factors. additionally, the government, developer, and contractor play important roles in cost control of prefabricated construction (pc). (greeff, 2013) stakeholder relationship safety communication stakeholder theory quantitative safety is an ethical factor that helps achieve business goals when stakeholders are considered. (austen, et al., 2009) stakeholder management stakeholder relationship stakeholder theory literature review public works authorities must manage multiple outcomes and stakeholder expectations in construction projects. table 5. continued agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025110 author main theme sub-category/ topical areas theory applied methodology findings (chereja, 2013) stakeholder management sustainability stakeholder theory literature review the study explored stakeholder management in the construction industry, highlighting the need for proper metrics to assess sustainability. (deng and zhou, 2010) stakeholder management risk management stakeholder theory case study the study developed an analytic hierarchy model for the project owner to analyze the correlation among their own risks and those risks attributed to project stakeholders. (wereda, et al., 2022) stakeholder influence managing a safe city stakeholder theory literature review and quantitative survey the article highlighted stakeholder importance in managing safe cities, using polish cities as an example. (walker, 2000) stakeholder focus – stakeholder theory case study shifting perceptions to satisfy stakeholders is crucial for achieving triple bottom-line goals. (hall, 2024) shareholder value creation economic growth shareholder theory quantitative the result of the study indicated that each industry has a specific shareholder value creation measurement that best explains its shareholder value creation for that industry. (panigraphi, 2017) shareholder’s wealth creation measures shareholder theory quantitative market value added (mva) has a negative relationship with created shareholder value (csv), contradicting the theory of increased shareholder value. (panigraphi, et al., 2014) creating shareholder’s value comparison between traditional and economic performance measures shareholder theory quantitative the findings of the study revealed that there is a positive and significant relationship between economic value added (eva) and shareholder’s wealth maximization. (goel, 2013) shareholders’ wealth maximization comparative study shareholder theory quantitative the study highlighted the importance of economic value added (eva) in valuing the financial performance of a company and its impact on shareholder value in terms of market returns. (hatipkarasulu and gill, 2004) shareholder ethics and responsibilities online reverse auctions shareholder theory quantitative reverse auction bidding process is attractive as it ensures the lowest price and is fast. (oleksy and zyguła, 2018) dividend policy and shareholder value financialization perspective on construction companies shareholder theory quantitative financial investors in ownership structure increase the likelihood of dividend payout, indicating financialization. table 5. continued agyemang et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025111 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: power, w., sinnott, d., lynch, p. 2024. takt complementing last planner® system on residential construction projects. construction economics and building, 24:4/5, 58–80. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v24i4/5.8846 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article takt complementing last planner® system on residential construction projects william power1,*, derek sinnott2, patrick lynch3 1 phd candidate, south east technological university, cork road, waterford, ireland. t45 yr13, williepower2010@gmail.com 2 senior lecturer, south east technological university, cork road, waterford, ireland. t45 yr13, derek.sinnott@setu.ie 3 senior lecturer, south east technological university, cork road, waterford, ireland. t45 yr13, patrick.lynch@setu.ie corresponding author: william power, department of architecture and built environment, school of engineering, south east technological university, cork road, waterford, ireland. t45 yr13, williepower2010@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8846 article history: received 07/10/2023; revised 14/09/2024; accepted 27/09/2024; published 23/12/2024 abstract ireland is experiencing a national housing crisis, and this is replicated across several developed economies. this challenges governments and housebuilders to increase production whilst balancing human resource and supply chain constraints. lean construction methodologies have enhanced project delivery in other sectors of the general construction industry. this study evaluates the outcomes of last planner® system and takt planning implementation on two residential projects. the study adopted a mixed methods approach utilising case study design and data collected from a literature review, site observation diary, site documentation analysis, and semistructured interviews. findings demonstrate schedule reduction opportunities through higher and more consistent ppc, reduction of cycle times, and enhanced adherence to start and finish dates. the study proposes a more holistic focus is needed on productivity improvement initiatives on the entire project scope as opposed to singular exercises on aspects like internal finishes alone. increased intercontractor communication and engagement led to a positive working environment with greater focus on the softer aspects of collaborative working. this study posits the discipline, detail, and declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. 58 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8846 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8846 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8846 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:williepower2010@gmail.com mailto:derek.sinnott@setu.ie mailto:patrick.lynch@setu.ie mailto:williepower2010@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8846 diligence of takt complements last planner system to deliver an enhanced productionsystem that betters traditional schedule milestones in residential project delivery. keywords lean construction; last planner system; takt; collaboration; cycle time introduction ireland’s national housing strategy, housing for all, commits that the housing system needs to be placed on a longterm economically sustainable footing. in 2022 ireland saw the greatest number of homes delivered since 2008 (up 45.2% on 2021). it is critical therefore that the highest levels of value, quality, and efficiency are achieved to enable rapid delivery and value for money for the state and its taxpayers. construction is an integral component of national and global economic activity but has systemic, embedded problems that result in widespread dissatisfaction with the outcomes of many projects (sarhan, pasquire and king, 2017; oakland and marosszeky, 2017). fundamental obstacles to improving productivity remain firmly in place, chief amongst them being the embedded mindset and its traditional approach to construction project management. research points to construction being inefficient globally with the same problems and underlying causes common everywhere. the current state of planning in construction has been criticised for its inadequacies (daniel, et al., 2020); principally accruing from a lack of collaboration between those involved in developing the plan (hamzeh, et al., 2016). the last planner® system (lps), a key tool of lean construction (lc), is proposed as a means of coordinating project interactions and achieving more reliable production outcomes by encouraging collaborative planning between project participants (ballard, et al., 2020). takt planning is a structured planning method that adds consistency and rhythm to construction activities, as it structures the order of zones where work is focused, while regularising the execution of these tasks around a takt time (frandson, 2019). takt planning has been used to deliver construction projects and phases of work within projects of different types and in different construction sectors, such as multifamily housing, healthcare, and manufacturing plants (tommelein and lerche, 2023). empirical research (koskela, 2000; hamzeh, 2009; ballard, 2020) identifies poor schedule adherence as a key issue relating to dissatisfaction with construction’s value offering. there are numerous examples of lps enhancing project outcomes however, on its own lps does not bring the required discipline and rigour that construction execution requires to overcome traditional mindsets, behaviours, and approaches. the following research question is posed: how can the integration of takt with last planner® system enhance residential construction project delivery? literature review dissatisfaction with construction globally construction experiences the same issues relating to poor productivity, but barbosa, et al. (2017) assert performance is not uniform, stating there are large regional differences, and major variations within the global construction industry. this is corroborated by liu, yi, and wang (2020) noting poor performance existed in both third world and ‘modern’ countries, suggesting larger budgets and sophisticated technology didn’t positively influence productivity performance. the construction industry institute (cii, 2015) issued findings on a worldwide construction study highlighting the following: power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202459 • only 2.5% of projects defined as successful (scope, cost, schedule, & business). • 25 to 50% waste in coordinating labour on a project. • management inefficiency costs owners between $15.6 and $36 billion per year. • an estimated $4 billion to $12 billion per year is spent to resolve disputes and claims. rivera, et al. (2016) investigated research across 38 countries and found four common key non performance indicators: rework, cost overrun, schedule delay, and customer satisfaction. additionally, alsehaimi, koskela, and tzortzopoulos (2013) examined studies relating to schedule delays and cost overruns and found that 87% identified poor planning, 69% procurement problems, and 56% poor site management as the principal reason contributing to poor performance. these examples, plus identified repetitive quality failures (hwang, et al., 2009; hwang and yang, 2014), cost overruns (flyvbjerg, bruzelius, and rothengatter, 2003; ansar, et al., 2014), increasing litigation (love, et al., 2010), allied to weekly task completion rates of 50 to 60 per cent typically found in traditionally managed construction (ballard and howell, 1998; ballard, 2000), support the claim that traditional construction project management practice has not consistently achieved schedule targets. this prompted leading researchers (koskela, 2000; koskela and howell, 2001; ballard and howell, 2003) to suggest that a wider and more powerful theoretical foundation would be required for construction delivery, as the traditional conceptual models were mismatched with the reality of onsite construction operations (koskela, 2000; abdelhamid, 2004). this radical shift in the view of construction delivery compelled koskela and howell (2002) to propose that the prevailing conventional theory of project management was outdated and was failing in the delivery of modern complex projects in increasingly dynamic environments. there are numerous examples in the literature of how the application of lean and lc and its philosophy, methodologies, and techniques can improve construction project delivery (koskela, 2000; liu, ballard, and ibbs, 2010; hamzeh, et al., 2016; tommelein, 2017). aside from gross optimism bias errors relating to timeline and budget to completion, an effective production planning and control system can greatly contribute to reduction of rework, better cost and schedule adherence through steering to targets, and resultingly increased customer satisfaction (ballard, 2020). it is essential therefore, to examine shortfalls in traditional scheduling methods to ascertain where modern tools, thinking, and techniques can be complementary. critical path methodology construction project management has predominantly relied on the critical path methodology (cpm) for over 60 years, but its traditional use has been critiqued for failing to address the needs of production management (ballard and tommelein, 2021). it is important to distinguish between ‘scheduling’ and ‘planning.’ according to oberlender (2000), project scheduling is the process of determining the sequential order of the planned activities, assigning realistic durations to each activity, and determining the start and finish dates for each activity. ballard and tommelein (2021, p.22) add that scheduling is a process of assigning dates and times to planned tasks arranged in a logic network. this process is typically supported using cpm calculations to determine the overall duration of the project, identify float in the schedule, perform timecost tradeoff analysis, and decide on resource allocation and levelling. planning differs as it is the process of identifying all the activities necessary to successfully complete the project. according to oberlender (2000), planning should be a prerequisite to project scheduling because there is no way to determine the sequence or start and finish dates of activities until they are identified. planning also reviews decisions regarding the use of offsite fabrication, modularisation, or innovative solutions. hamzeh (2009, p.60) adds that the planning process should not be judged only by the outcome deliverable such schedule, estimate, or strategic plan, but must become a continuous adaptive iterative process in quest for value. power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202460 paz, et al., (2018) suggest network techniques such as the cpm method apply values for activities duration without considering the possible influence of ongoing change or risk factors. while cpm identifies a sequence of activities having the longest duration, it doesn’t reflect the interference of variation in length or timing of activities, or the impact of concurrent activities (tommelein and lerche, 2023). therefore, a common criticism of cpm is that overrunning tasks, in addition to scheduled tasks being ‘forced’ to commence because they have been committed by the cpm schedule, cause excessive and unnecessary workinprogress and knockon coordination, safety, quality, cost, and people related issues on projects (ballard and tommelein, 2021). notwithstanding the concerns raised, many clients mandate the use of cpm as a governance and progress reporting tool (galloway, 2006) and this reinforces its presence on construction projects. despite the widespread existence of cpm, both academics and practitioners alike have debated its shortfalls and have suggested alternative and complementary methodologies, like lps, for the management of project controls, scheduling, planning, and execution. last planner® system a key concept in lps is the provision of reliable workflow to workcrews to reduce uncertainty in the delivery process (liu, ballard, and ibbs., 2010; mossman, 2019; ballard, 2020). lps is a major waste reduction and elimination technique that addresses this unpredictability (hamzeh, ballard, and tommelein, 2009; howell, ballard and tommelein, 2010; hamzeh, et al., 2016; daniel and pasquire, 2017; power and taylor, 2019; ballard, et al., 2020). ballard and tommelein (2016, p.7) define the function of lps as ‘the proper work of the system; its jobs’, and note these ‘jobs’ as: 1. specifying what tasks should be done when and by whom, from milestones to phases between milestones, to processes within phases, to operations within processes, to steps within operations. 2. making scheduled tasks ready to be performed. 3. replanning/planning to complete, to achieve project objectives. 4. selecting tasks for daily and weekly work plans—deciding what work to do next. 5. making release of work between specialists reliable. 6. making visible the current and future state of the project. 7. measuring planning system performance; and, 8. learning from plan failures. planned percent complete (ppc) is a key metric of lps and measures workflow reliability (ballard and tommelein, 2016) – a high ppc indicates a wellplanned production process with tasks screened in advance, ensuring high workflow reliability between teams (ballard, 2020). however, ballard and tommelein (2016, p.59) warn against placing too much focus on ppc figures, stating ‘…ppc could be 100%, productivity excellent, and a project still be falling behind schedule’. this emphasises the importance of using all functions of lps to ensure ppc and productivity are linked to the overall milestone schedule (hamzeh, ballard and tommelein., 2009; mossman, 2019; ballard, et al., 2020). as ppc is positively linked to productivity (ballard, et al., 2007; liu, ballard, and ibbs, 2010), it is critical for lps users to ensure that teams executing the work are afforded the greatest opportunity of achieving high ppc (power and taylor, 2019). additionally, weinheimer, schmalz, and müller, (2017, p.915) suggest lps can generate sustainability benefits by its application of core lean concepts to construction: ‘…process consistency, increasing the reliability of all work and information flows, applying the pull principle, transparency, recognition of obstacles in time, and working in an integrated project team.’ power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202461 lps also has shortfalls and previous research (frandson, berghede, and tommelein, 2014; schöttle and nesensohn, 2019) found that integrating takt with lps addresses some of these gaps. takt takt planning, a locationbased planning method, is receiving increasing attention in academia and on construction projects (lehtovaara, et al., 2021). the word ‘takt’ or ‘taktzeit’ in german means ‘beat,’ ‘rhythm,’ ‘cadence’ or ‘meter’, implying the regularity with which something gets done. in the production context, hopp and spearman, (2011) defined takt time as: ‘…the unit of time within which a product must be produced (supply rate) in order to match the rate at which that product is needed (demand rate)’. it is a process design parameter used in production settings that asserts if a process proceeds too quickly it will overproduce, and if it goes slower there will be a bottleneck (frandson, berghede, and tommelein, 2013). another consideration is that in construction workers move around the work as opposed to the work moving to the worker, for example, through a manufacturing assembly line (ballard and howell, 1997). frandson, berghede, and tommelein (2013) suggests the difference between takt time planning and other locationbased planning methods is this balance between ‘work waiting on workers’ and ‘workers waiting on work.’ takt production visualises the construction process in a way that includes work packages, work sequences, and takt areas (haghsheno, et al., 2016; dlouhy, et al., 2016). construction can utilise takt time as a work structuring methodology to align the production rates of trades by pacing work sequentially through planned zones creating continuous workflow, reliable handoffs, and an opportunity to continuously improve the production system; takt time is a design parameter for labourpaced flow of work (frandson, berghede, and tommelein, 2013). frandson, berghede and tommelein (2014) posit the objective of takt time planning is to help create a more stable environment for the lps by actively designing continuous workflow for trade activities wherever possible. lps then provides the control mechanism and stability of the production system. previous research has shown how takttime planning and lps complement one other in many ways (frandson, berghede, and tommelein, 2014; schöttle and nesensohn, 2019). takt introduces continuous flow and more standardised work to lps thereby extending its existing function. lps in turn introduces control to takt and facilitates planning and adaptation where continuous flow is not possible (frandson, berghede, and tommelein, 2014). lps is critical to the deployment and control of takt while also being a ‘catchall’ for activities that don’t fit into the takt plan or need to be removed from the takt plan. additionally, takt extends the functions by placing more focus on the process analysis of operations at the phase planning stage (frandson, berghede, and tommelein, 2014). together lps and takt offer a workable planning and control framework that considers both the social and softer aspects in conjunction with the physics of production system design (frandson, 2019). takt enhances lps by introducing time and location. it also adds sequencing of activities, levelling of takt wagons, and balancing of crew size. these features make takt more efficient than lps however, it is also fragile as any failure in the system can be detected and will have immediate impacts. this fragility means the project team must address problems immediately otherwise production ceases to flow. however, once the production system is refined, the critical benefit is that when a low percentage of the work has been completed the team can reliably predict with high accuracy when the project would finish based on current production outputs. takt also exposes time and location waste resulting in obvious inefficiency becoming visible. both takt and lps have their individual shortfalls, and literature suggests combining the methods can create a more robust delivery process. there is a paucity of case study research that presents how takt and lps can work in practice. power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202462 methodology the study is qualitative in nature and adopts a mixed methods approach employing case study, observational studies, documentation analysis, and interviews to examine the impact of last planner system and takt planning implementation on two residential projects. team members were trained on the principles and mechanics of lps and takt before the methods were introduced. the researcher assisted the implementation of lps and takt on the case projects. all interventions introduced were by the site teams. the research methodology is presented in figure 1. figure 1. research methodology framework case studies offer distinct advantages not found in more quantitative research tools when a researcher is investigating into the ‘how and why’ of a set of events (yin, 1993). it can ensure effective representation of the context where the knowledge was gathered is essential (green, kao, and larsen, 2010). research on case study 2 (cs2) commenced 10 weeks after commencement on case study 1 (cs1). lps was implemented on cs1 and once embedded, takt was then introduced to complement and enhance the planning process. cs2 followed the same method. project documentation was available in the form of cpm schedules, weekly and monthly project reports, minutes of meetings, weekly planning data (lps pull plans, lookahead reviews, weekly work plans, ppc reports, reasons for noncompletion of tasks, constraint logs), and corrective actions issued to contractors. this documentation offered weekly qualitative and quantitative data that permitted trend analysis and uncovered themes for the interview questions. the researcher maintained a research diary on both projects and a daily report was maintained. this allowed thematic analysis of the diary records in accordance with creswell (2009). in qualitative research with an exploratory nature, indepth or semistructured interviews should be used (saunders, lewis, and thornhill., 2016). unique sources were purposely sought to increase validity and to provide a wider research perspective, as advocated by yin (2009) and stake (1995). the interviewees were mature construction professionals at supervisor to management level within their organisations. they were familiar with the weekly planning process on the case projects. a panel of 12 potential interviewees was selected. as some were staff with the same contractor and others filled the same role, deselection left eight potential interviewees. two declined to participate. the authors are satisfied that saturation has been achieved with six interviewees. table 1 presents the selected interviewees and their roles on the two case projects. the interviews were transcribed and analysed using a thematic analysis approach, as suggested by braun and clarke (2006). rereading and familiarisation of the transcripts permitted emerging data to be organised into different themes. these themes were again reviewed, and inferences drawn were checked by both data and methodological triangulation against the literature review findings. limitations exist around the single case example and limited sample size. the absence of a ‘control’ group doesn’t allow comparison of how the project would have performed without the interventions. power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202463 findings introduction the company is one of the largest residential housing developers in ireland delivering a large range of housing, duplexes, and apartments. case study 1 (cs1) the project is a mixed density residential project on a greenfield urban site. it is a lowdensity development with 40 housing units in 15 individual blocks and a highdensity element of 8 duplex units with an apartment block of 24 units over 4 floor levels. the project is planned with a primavera p6 schedule and has a total onsite duration of 62 weeks. in this study, a duplex unit refers to a twostorey house built on a ground floor apartment, each with a separate entrance. case study 2 (cs2) this project is a highdensity residential development on another greenfield urban site. the project consists of 1100 apartments and duplex units in 10 individual blocks varying from 3 to 6 floors in height. this study focuses on 2 duplex blocks, each with 8 apartments on ground floor with 8 x 2 storey houses overhead, and an apartment block with 46 apartments over 5 floors. both cs1 and cs2 ‘war rooms’ had schedule milestones visible on the pull plans. distinct pull plans were conducted for façade and roofing, internal works to completion per floor, and an external works plan incorporating utility provider inspections, documentation submissions from contractors, bcar submissions, and client walkdowns for punchlisting. key interface dates were linked and referenced across the ‘war room’ on the pull plans. the internal works developed into a takt plan, and the entire block was controlled and steered by daily huddles tracking the weekly work plan that is validated at a weekly coordination meeting. this level of detailed lookaheads, tracking and constant readjustments as required contributed positively to the success achieved. findings on cs1 weekly performance ppc – figure 2 presents the ppc from cs1 over the 40week study and presents the ppc change from traditional planning methodology to lps implementation and with takt complementing lps. in the first 5 weeks online meetings were held with the project director and site manager to establish ppc for traditional style delivery. cpm tasks for each week were filtered from the master schedule and were measured as ‘complete’ or ‘not complete’ at weekend. lps was introduced on the project on table 1. interviewee profile. interviewee project role a cs1 project director b cs1 site manager c cs1 scaffold contracts manager d cs1 electrical supervisor e cs2 project manager f cs2 site manager g cs2 civils contractor site manager h cs2 mechanical site manager power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202464 week 5 bringing noticeable improvement in task execution performance. week 13 was impacted by strong winds and heavy rain ceasing all external works. concepts of takt planning were introduced at week 20 as the apartments internal works were commencing. immediate early success was obvious over the following weeks accruing from the more diligent and onerous planning demanded from takt application. greater stability in subsequent weeks’ ppc is also obvious. • average ppc with traditional methods: (n=5 weeks): 53% • average ppc with lps: (n=15 weeks): 79% • average ppc with takt complementing lps: (n=20 weeks): 92% the application of takt to complement lps resulted in a 16% increase in ppc. cycle time reduction figure 3 presents some early white board exercises with trade supervisors where the work durations required in each block of 2 units were recorded with the objective of determining a cycle time from timber frame erection to skim coat complete. earlier pull plans showed a 25day cycle; this exercise suggested a 17day cycle was achievable. when adding extra buffer, the team agreed on an 18day cycle time. after initial challenges keeping this on track, further refinements were introduced, and the cycle time stabilised at 15 days – a 10 day or 40% improvement on the pull plan. figure 3. introducing the concept of cycle time another cycle time reduction example related to the next sequence of activities from skim coat complete to the air test which was the final activity before offering to the client’s representatives for punch list figure 2. project planned percent complete power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202465 inspection. the master schedule duration from skim complete to air test is 37 working days. with the pull plan logic, sequence, and duration exercise, including applying takt concepts wherever possible, this was reduced to 26 days including some buffer. despite this not being executed due to late delivery of firerated doors, the adherence to output of the exercise brought enhanced structure as well as better safety and quality to the work being executed. the act of aiming for the improved delivery date for the air test accommodated the delayed firedoor delivery and the air tests were achieved within the master scheduled dates. at 20 weeks into the implementation the internal partitions were about to commence in the apartment block. a more focused introduction of the concepts of takt planning to complement lps and to take advantage of the repetitive 6 apartments over 4 floors layout was adopted. following agreement on three zones per floor – 1 x 2bedroom and 2 x 1bedroom apartments were batched to give zones 1 and 2. the common area of corridor, stairwell, and lobby was zone 3. a process analysis exercise was conducted around agreeing how these zones and their work density could be addressed with each trade’s crew size, production output, and application of a fixed takt time. the first iteration of this exercise is presented in figure 4. figure 4. exercises determining the takt plan enhanced communication figure 4 presents exercises conducted to collate data, agree layout sizes, determine the process analysis, agree the sequence and durations, balance crew size and workflow, and to produce a production plan for testing in the apartment block. these exercises facilitated the increased communication that cpm would have struggled to initiate and maintain. the act of engaging in collaborative planning unearthed problems and challenges earlier than would normally occur in the field. this increased and shared communication allowed resolution of numerous issues that kept work flowing and minimised negative impacts. immediately on issuance of the plan concerns began to emerge relating to the crew sizes. some contractors had work packages subcontracted to independent contractors who had different size work crews. some operated as 2 person crews where others had up to 12 resources available. to complicate matters further, some crew’s work packages had to be balanced by combining several housing units with apartments. apartments were financially more attractive, so the principal subcontractors needed to allocate work carefully to ensure retention of resource on the site. visualisation offered an opportunity to consider a different approach to the mechanical and electrical works in the corridor circulation areas. it was defined as a distinct zone with standalone durations as shown in figure 5. power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202466 figure 5. early takt visual a hybrid application of true takt concepts was compromised as a starting point, as major financial adjustments would have been required to the contractor’s packages to enable full takt alignment. further testing resulted in removing the corridor circulation areas from the visual plan and managing that work location through lps weekly work plan’s. a hybrid takt visual plan as shown in figure 6 shows progress after two weeks, noting how the deliberate buffers were being used for any overrunning activity durations. figure 6. marking up of later takt visual power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202467 all work was tracked daily and ppc was marked up weekly through lps. time buffer allowances were indicated with ‘white boxes’ and it can be seen in figure 6 where some tasks were pulled ahead and others overran into the buffer. this buffer assisted keep all trades on track and ensured a single failure wouldn’t cause collapse of the entire process. milestone accomplishment 92 dates were selected, focusing on key milestones of timber frame install, windows install, scaffold dropped, skim coat complete, and clean. master schedule start and finish dates were compared with actual start and finish dates from site documentation and weekly lps data. this offered 92 data points relating to start dates and 92 relating to finish dates. 54 (59%) of the activities commenced ahead of the scheduled start date. 53 (56%) of the activities were completed ahead of the scheduled finish date. figure 7. master schedule finish dates versus actual finish dates figure 7 illustrates the challenge of adhering to master schedule dates with external works like timber frame erection, roofing, block, brickwork, and external rendering. extended periods of poor weather affected site progress over the winter period (week 1 to 16) resulting in the number of late finishes of external tasks. however, the actual early finish trendline illustrates the improvement in achieving milestone dates. despite the weather challenges, a cumulative of 131 days were saved across the 92 selected activities. scaffold duration a key performance indicator on housing projects relates to scaffold durations and adherence to target scaffold dropped dates. figure 8 presents actual scaffold standing durations against the master schedule durations. considerable reduction in scaffold standing durations were achieved on multiple units, apartments, and duplex blocks, for example 41% and 62% reduction on 6unit housing blocks, 49% reduction on the 24unit apartment block, and 39% reduction on the 8unit duplex block. overall, the project’s actual cumulative scaffold standing duration was 284 days less than the master schedule planned time allocation, an 18% saving over the scheduled standing duration. power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202468 opportunities to improve schedule the external window and door contractor was due to install d03 windows on friday but on enquiring were installing them a day earlier. this information only came to light when a question was asked in the pull plan session taking place that day. an opportunity existed to ‘pull’ air tightness and internal carpentry forward from after christmas. figure 9 presents the backlog opportunity. figure 9. improvement opportunity identified the team hadn’t recognised this, but the contractors had seen the opportunity. however, this ‘opportunity’ needed to be resisted as ‘pulling’ already planned and committed resources forward into available space could have disrupted the flow that had already been agreed. interview findings – outcome correlation table 2 demonstrates the key outcomes from the interviews conducted on cs1. the interviewees comprise both management and contractor supervision and it is important to recognise that not every theme would resonate to the same degree with each interviewee depending on their involvement in the project. figure 8. actual scaffold durations versus master programme durations power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202469 table 2. cs1 interview finding themes. key theme interviewee visualisation & accessibility to pull plans & weekly work plans enabled trades to easily see where flow and continuity existed. a, b, c, &d. participation in pull plan sessions allowed each contractor a voice and gave an opportunity to speak up against illogical sequencing or unrealistic timeline expectations. a, b, c, & d. major benefits for contractors with headcount reallocation, balanced resource, less material movements, & more effective use of equipment. a, b, & c. greater safety & quality awareness by screening every activity (health & safety officers & m&e designers attended pull plan sessions). a & b. takt exercises exposed risks by ‘pressing’ the contractor schedules & identifying constraints. identifying excessive demand on resources & material deliveries. a & b. duration reduction as scheduled milestones were achieved. unrealistic or challenging milestones were identified early allowing mitigations to be implemented. a, b, c, & d. visible buffers offered reassurance to the contractors that space was available should unforeseen issues cause them delay. a, b, c & d. opportunities to gain experience and improve from the weekly data. a, b, & d. the critical outcome from the interviews is the involvement of the contractors in the short and medium term planning process. the introduction of takt concepts to complement lps resulted in a more scientific examination of planning, durations, cycle times, crew size, and activity metrics. case study 2 – high density residential development (66 units) cs2 refers to a 1600unit highdensity residential project composing a mix of apartments and duplex units in 12 separate blocks. this study focuses on two duplex blocks, each with 16 units, and an apartment block with 34 units. the researcher commenced on the project 10 weeks after he had initiated the implementation on case cs1. therefore, many of the learnings from cs1 were immediately brought onto cs2 project. an initial introduction to lps was given to relevant staff and then commenced with a pull plan on block 4 apartments which included the mechanical, electrical, and dry wall contractors. the implementation on cs2 followed an emergent process starting with lps, moving to a takt ‘lite’ and then attempting true takt on a project. takt ‘lite’ is so called as it incorporates some concepts of takt but due to specific challenges struggled to get full contractor buyin. this will be explained further in the discussion section. findings on case study 2 planned percent complete ppc from cs2 is presented on figure 10. this shows continuous improvement from an initial average 81% ppc to a more reliable 93% average ppc for the remainder of the project: a 13% increase by introducing takt. however, the selected blocks were not without their interruptions as issues were experienced with kitchens delivery, fire doors delivery, access impacted by external drainage works, and availability of decorator’s resource. the daily and weekly planning routine power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202470 mitigated impacts and the proactive lookaheads offered visibility of the upcoming issues before more adverse impacts were experienced. figure 10. project planned percent complete all 3 blocks were completed ahead of schedule. one was 6 weeks ahead of its 52week schedule; another was 3 weeks ahead of its 47week schedule; and the 34unit apartment block was 10 weeks ahead of its 66 week schedule. respectively, this shows an 11%, 6%, and 15% schedule reduction since the implementation commenced. interview findings – interviews were also conducted on cs2 and encompassed both site and contractor management. findings that duplicated cs1 interviewees have been omitted from the cs2 findings and are presented in table 3. table 3. case study 2 interview finding themes. key theme interviewee benefits in making individual contractors aware of the other contractor sequences and programme. e, f, g, & h. brings schedule to the fore for every contractor. focus on milestones and all contractor’s input to achieve the schedule. e, f, g, & h. highlights risk around material orders and procurement required for the works being planned frequently this does not happen with the lesser organised sub contractors. e & f. focuses attention and micromanagement where the sequence is abnormal and needs day by day engagement. f, g, & h. constant ‘flushing out’ of constraints in pull plans allows opportunity to resolve them as early as possible and mitigate adverse impacts. e, f, g, & h. a distinct ‘services and groundworks’ plan must be in place to ensure gains made during building construction and internal fitouts are not lost with over running groundworks. e, f, & g. power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202471 key additional points raised on cs2 interviews relate to increased contractor visibility of other contractor’s sequences and schedule in addition to the need for a broader focus on external works and documentation submission cycles to achieve project completion. the creation of a psychologically safe environment where planning failures were not criticised was an important aspect of the implementation. this was introduced in the introductory lps and takt training and was considered a key enabler of the planning process. interviewees a and e noted it was important not to be critical of failures or errors in the early stages of the implementation as resistance could accrue. the following summary in bullet point format highlights collated findings from both projects examined. these focus on how the application of takt enhanced the lps implementation and brought additional valueadd to the project, the management team, and the contractors. summary of collated findings from cs1 and cs2 • distinct schedule reduction advantages were evident from takt complementing lps, especially in blocks of 6 units or more. better opportunities existed on larger blocks particularly relating to work crews flowing in sequence through sized work zones. • there was distinct ppc increase from traditional planning methods to lps and more reliable and consistent higher ppc with the introduction of takt. this predictability allowed more reliable forecasting of handoff dates like dropping of scaffold. • the proven cycle time reduction in the assembly and internal finishing process allowed more balanced and coordinated resource provision and movement. takt introduced consistency of workflow for the contractors. • the importance of pulling from clearly defined and understood milestones ensured less ambiguity regarding scope and reduced return visits. incorporating a clear quality vision and expectation clarified that no contractor was to leave a defect behind. contractors were better able to plan through visualisation of the takt planning process. visualisation engages the contractors in better planning. • the constraints process highlighted procurement risks early. this allowed for early intervention or escalation for redesign or workaround solutions. contractors identifying constraints based on their experience brings greater awareness and anticipation of potential risks and reduces the likelihood of adverse events influencing the project outcome. • the role of active management support and participation is fundamental to underpinning effective lps and takt implementation. site supervision and contractor trade supervisors must witness genuine management support to the new methods and behaviours required for lps and takt planning. embedding and sustaining the implementation needs a longterm view with visible and achievable successes along the journey. • a more holistic widerproject view is necessary for successful milestone achievement – optimising individual workstreams like internal finishes is insufficient for overall completion. all workstreams such as ground preparation, building frame, internal finishes, external façade, services, hard and soft landscaping, access and egress, and documentation must flow smoothly both sequentially and in parallel to allow successful project completion and handover. figure 11 presents where lps and takt can focus on improving flow through individual cycles while also optimising the whole project by identifying critical ‘handoff ’ points and achieving the final handover milestone more efficiently and effectively. identifying the key handoff dates for example, timber frame kit arrives to site, windows install, scaffold drop, internal air test, water and waste connection, poweron, and bcar submission, the project team can then plan and optimise individual work cycles while also balancing power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202472 the overall phase or project cycle to ensure there is no unnecessary lag between cycles or no uncomfortable pressure points. figure 11. schematic for phasing of cycles in residential construction project the management of handoff points and interfaces is a critical component for integrating individual cycles into an overall project duration. getting the floor slab cast to receive the timber frame kit is a visible early milestone that releases the kit erection cycle to achieve weather tightness. windows installation then allows the façade and internal completions cycles to proceed independently of one another. the scaffold drop date is a critical milestone as this releases the external completions such as services connections, parking bays, paving and landscaping, and should align with the internal completions cycle to allow effective closeout and handover of the finished units. project duration then becomes a balance between optimisation of individual cycles and ensuring as best as is feasible that the sum of the optimised cycles leads to a smooth and even flow of work for the contractors while achieving an effective project handover. a key finding of this study is the need for a knowledgeable and competent champion that will sustain the planning process once the external person departs the project. the champion needs foundational lean awareness as well as an understanding of the concepts and practices of critical path methodology, last planner system, and takt planning. the principal aspect of the role is ensuring standard work relating to the weekly and daily routine to ensure all aspects of lookahead planning, commitment planning and learning and action are implemented. numerous challenges to ‘faster’ construction processes were identified and the developer is treating these as ‘improvement opportunities’ across the company. fragmentation of the sector is an issue that regularly appears in construction research literature and was the root cause of several key challenges that emerged from cs1 and cs2. the mechanical and electrical contractors on the case projects subcontracted the work packages to subcontractors. in some cases, the subcontractors split out houses and batches of apartments or duplexes to smaller subcontractors. accordingly, crew size could range from two up to 10 crew members. this led to output differences and inflexibility around aligning to disciplinebased production schedules as the takt plan is. some contractors wanted visibility of up to eight units ready ahead so they could commit a timebased batch of two weeks of work to a particular crew. this didn’t work with the takt plan that required distinct outputs of two units completed every two days and the next trade ‘wagon’ moving in for the next two days. this issue was helped by the visualisation of the lookahead where the contractors could see where the 2nd fix installation would occur eight days after the 1st fix installation. once all could trust the reliability of the process it was possible to elicit greater commitment around balanced production rates and alignment with the takt plan. contractor’s supervisors strongly resisted repeat visits into units to undertake small tasks for example, connecting a sink waste and tiling a splashback. generally, this was overcome on site with some ‘give and take’ conversations with the last planners and crew supervisors. power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202473 discussion ppc is a critical metric when implementing lean construction on projects. progress toward milestones rises and falls with ppc when tasks are made ready in the right sequence and rate. this requires an effective lookahead planning process (ballard and tommelein, 2016, pp.5). cs1 found that traditional planning methodologies were only achieving 53% ppc and this aligns with previous studies that posit less than 60 percent of planned tasks are executed weekly on construction projects (ballard, et al., 2007; liu, ballard, and ibbs, 2010; ballard and tommelein, 2016). introducing lps to cs1 resulted in improved ppc which averaged 79% over 15 weeks. this aligns and confirms that improvement accruing from lps implementation brings positive results to a project as liu, ballard, and ibbs (2010) correlated improved ppc with increased productivity. however, the greatest influence on promoting and sustaining higher ppc accrued from the implementation of takt to complement the lps process. average ppc on cs1 when takt was introduced was 92% over 20 weeks of the study; this is a 16% increase over using lps on its own to complement traditional planning methodologies. ppc from cs2 shows continuous improvement from an initial average 81% ppc to a more reliable 93% average ppc for the 25 weeks of takt complementing the lps implementation: a 13% increase over lps on its own. higher ppc figures and their maintenance at over 90% on both case projects for an extended time reinforces the distinct advantages accruing from the introduction of takt. while lps improves traditional construction planning by introducing a commitmentbased process where the work structuring of activities is based on principles applied to timebased planning horizons, takt goes further by imposing production and factory physics concepts in the planning process. the introduction of concepts like linear process mapping, development of histograms of crew size per activity, focus on small or adjustable work batch sizes, consistent daily management and improvement of the process, allied to the zonal definition of areas based on work density contributes to better construction production flow, and higher ppc, but demands significantly enhanced effort in terms of planning, control, and continuous improvement. the higher ppc on both projects can be attributed to the diligence demanded by the takt process, as previously found by schöttle and nesensohn (2019) and frandson, berghede, and tommelein (2014). this level of attentiveness can lead to frustration for some team members who may not be prepared for the intensity required to keep a takt plan on track. schedule reduction by cycle time both case studies showed distinct schedule reduction from takt complementing lps. this was especially obvious in blocks of 6 units or more with greater opportunities evident on larger blocks of units. while single or double housing units must go through the entire cycle of trades before achieving milestones, the application of takt concepts, for example, moving through space in a defined time, meant the layering of cycle times of multiple units enabled faster combined work completions and the contractors always knew where they were going next. it created an environment as close as one could get to a ‘production line’ onsite. the key outcome on both case studies was the quicker dropping of scaffold on blocks allowing external completions to commence earlier and the creation of a ‘buffer’ on internal finishes in case of delivery impacts or resource constraints at joinery completion or decoration stages. previous case studies (frandson, berghede, and tommelein, 2013; frandson and tommelein, 2016) have focused on cycle time reduction in specific phases of the construction process, for example, dry wall installation and mechanical and electrical installation. cycle time reduction was again illustrated in the assembly and internal finishing process on cs1 and cs2. an important point highlighted were the exercises on combining activities into single wagons, as used in the pentagon renovation project (horman, et al., 2003), cited in tommelein and emdanat (2022, pp.869) ceiling framing, airtightness, stairs install, and windows and doors install could have been treated as a single ‘wagon’ as, with coordination and sequencing, power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202474 these trades work well together and deliver a sizeable handoff to the next trades. identifying key ‘target’ milestones was critical, like getting the block layer to work on the external facades as early as possible. another single ‘wagon’ with render, fascia, soffit, gutters, and downpipe, and pointing and cleaning, was the prerequisite to releasing the earliest scaffold drop date. lps and the pull planning process validated the milestones and proved that these were achievable. the introduction of takt and cycle time and process analysis exercises went further and challenged the traditional perception of activity durations. last planners would usually err on the side of caution and allow conservative estimates of durations in the planning sessions. with takt, a commitment was made that the trial was only experimental, and no supervisor would be criticised if tasks overran or finished earlier. it was this experimentation that allowed the progression towards a 40% cycle time reduction of a 25day duration to a 15day duration in the timber frame erection to skim coat complete cycle. it was the creation of the psychologically safe environment that allowed the safe experimental space to test and validate this exercise. while this study and previous research (frandson, berghede, and tommelein, 2013) have presented opportunities in cycle time reduction in selected areas of construction execution, project completion and handover need distinct attention if delivery and management seek effective progression towards completion to milestones. on cs2 much focus was placed on getting the building frames in place to allow façade and roof erection advance to release internal ‘dry’ trade work to commence and progress. the focus was then on the progression of internal apartment and circulation area completion through lps and takt planning. while results were positive, it was recognised that insufficient lookahead was being placed on the external works like underground services, water and electrical supply, drainage from the units, access and egress, and landscaping. optimisation of the whole project it is important that a more holistic ‘big picture’ view is taken when applying planning methodologies to construction projects, as shown in figure 11. takt has proven what its concepts can bring to both repetitive and nonrepetitive work in construction (tommelein, 2017). however, a broader ‘catchall’ approach is required to ensure that external works, regulatory documentation, and building control amendment regulations (bcar) are also aligned with the scheduled closure dates. cs1 and cs2 showed that the high level and detailed levels of pull planning can successfully capture the intent, and then lps and takt can guide and control the tasks to timely completion. visualisation helped engage the contractors in better planning. standing back and viewing allocated time against the work required in each zone initiated deeper thinking about how the resources would approach the activities. conversations emerged with other contractors around getting access into zones late in the afternoon to get materials in the work area for the next morning. similarly, if some trades were pressed to complete an activity they might seek to share the zone for the first hour of the next day with the trade who had been allocated the zone. as a rule, zone sharing was discouraged as the process needed to respect each trades ownership of the zone and sought discipline around each trade completing their work in the allocated time. it was common to see some trade supervisors at the pull plan wall engaging in microplanning as they were compiling the next weeks weekly work plans. the study has shown different planning methodologies can complement one another and lead to better opportunities for achieving success. the master schedule using primavera p6 is the developer’s planning software of choice and senior schedulers plan the project duration with the project directors. this schedule is then used as the reporting tool back to head office and sales for the duration of the project. lps has been embraced by site management as a methodology that captures senior leaderships intent and request and then engages the trades and supply chain to convert the intent into daily and weekly production. takt concepts has shown the trades that greater production output and efficiency is achievable by application of power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202475 a disciplined approach towards engaging with the agreed takt plan. weekly sessions consistently expose improvement opportunities as presented earlier in figure 11. the role of management is critical to effective lps and takt implementation. leadership’s involvement is a vital enabler of change, and this has been identified across change management and lean literature and emerges from this study. senior leadership advocacy for piloting of lps and their openness to piloting the concepts of takt enabled both management team and trade engagement which led to successful outcomes for both case projects. clarity around roles and responsibilities of head office leadership, site senior management, site middle management, site engineers and trades management and supervision is important to ensure expectations are aligned and planning becomes efficient as opposed to being a burden. a key observation was that lps and takt implementation is a learning process for everyone – over time the process gets better, and members get better at planning and utilising the concepts and ideals. on the second planning session of cs1 apartments takt and pull plan, some trades appeared to be looking for more time to complete the tasks than what they had earlier committed to. this indicates some element of optimism existed during the initial development of the takt pull plan. examples are erecting partitions and walls was originally 3 days and expanded to 5 days for 3 apartments; first fix mechanical expanded from 3 to 4 days. electrical 1st fix needed another day as the extent of dead testing, fixing of grounds, and snagging allowance wasn’t sufficient. installation of ceiling grids along with closing of walls and ceilings increased from 4 to 6 days. this initiated a relook at the overall process analysis and after some exercises it was found that a twoday takt worked better than the original threeday takt. this experimentation and rebaselining required honesty and engagement, and it is on occasions like this on a project that the softer aspects of the contractor’s, developers, and project’s culture comes to the forefront. at other times it would have been easy to blame the complexity of the process and revert to traditional methods. however, the team, at the insistence of the project director, saw the value that could accrue and stuck with the replanning process. conclusion this study examined how the discipline, detail, and diligence of takt complements lps to deliver an enhanced productionsystem that betters traditional schedule milestones in residential project delivery. takt brought advantageous discipline and rigour to the lps process. positive results across both case projects demonstrate the benefits accruing from takt complementing lps and takt. takt implementation resulted in higher and more consistent ppc (figure 10) and confirms the approach enhances existing lps implementations. the key difference between the traditional approach to production planning and control is the increased levels of diligence and discipline required to keep the takt plan on track, often requiring mindset change for management and trade supervision. it should be noted that the high repetition of similar housing units on both projects allowed for relatively simple implementation of takt. optimisation of the whole project should be the aim of any productivity improvement methodology as focus only on cycletime reduction of selected elements like internal layouts and finishes can delay attention on façade and external works completions. reverse planning from handover and occupation must be an integral and ‘live’ aspect of steering a project towards completion. attention to the softer aspects of creating a psychologically safe environment for implementation of the mechanics of lps and takt is a critical enabler of successful implementation. technical knowledge of takt is well understood however, there is an opportunity for further research in the adoption of takt planning in wider construction delivery. the rigour and discipline required for effective takt implementation calls for different behaviours as exhibited by lps users – future research should examine how ideal behaviours for successful lps and takt integration can be further developed. power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202476 references abdelhamid, t., 2004. the self-destruction and renewal of lean construction theory: a prediction from boyd’s theory. in: proceedings of the 12th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, helsingør, denmark, 3-5 august. pp.1-19. alsehaimi, a., koskela, l. and tzortzopoulos, p., 2013. need for alternative research approaches in construction management: case of delay studies. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 29, pp.407-13. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000148 ansar, a., flyvbjerg, b., budzier, a. and lunn, d., 2014. should we build more large dams? the actual costs of hydropower megaproject development. energy policy, [e-journal] 69, pp.43-56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. enpol.2013.10.069 ballard, g. and howell, g., 1997. implementing lean construction: improving downstream performance. in: luis alarcon, ed. lean construction. oxford and new york: taylor and francis. pp.111-25. ballard, g. and howell, g., 1998. what kind of production is construction. in: proceedings of the 6th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, 13-15 august, guaruja, brazil, pp.13-15. ballard, g., 2000. the last planner system of production control. phd. the university of birmingham. ballard, g. and howell, g., 2003. an update on last planner. in: proceedings of the 11th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, 22-24 july 2003, blacksburg, virginia, usa. ballard, g., kim, y., jang, j. and liu, m., 2007. roadmap for lean implementation at the project level cii research report 234-11. texas, usa: the construction industry institute. ballard, g. and tommelein, i., 2016. current process benchmark for the last planner® system. lean construction journal, [e-journal] pp.57-89. https://doi.org/10.60164/47e7h7a1b ballard, g., 2020., the last planner system. in: patricia tzortzopoulos, mike kagioglou and lauri koskela, eds. [e-book] lean construction: core concepts and new ideas. london: routledge. pp.45-53. https://doi. org/10.1201/9780429203732-3 ballard, g., vaagen, h., kay, w., stevens, b. and pereira, m., 2020. extending the last planner system® to the entire project. lean construction journal, [e-journal] pp.42-77. available at: https://leanconstruction.org/wp-content/ uploads/2022/08/lcj_19_019.pdf. ballard, g. and tommelein, i., 2021. 2020 current process benchmark for the last planner® system of project planning and control. lean construction journal, [e-journal] pp.53-155. https://doi.org/10.60164/47e7h7a1b barbosa, f., woetzel, j. and mischke, j., ribeirinho, m.j., sridhar, m., parsons, m., bertram, n. and brown, s., 2017. reinventing construction: a route of higher productivity. mckinsey global institute. braun, v. and clarke, v., 2006. using thematic analysis in psychology. qualitative research in psychology, [e-journal] 3(2), pp.77-101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa creswell, j., 2009. mapping the field of mixed methods research. journal of mixed methods research, [e-journal] 3(2), pp.95-108. https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689808330883 construction industry institute., 2015. cii 2015 annual report, available at: cii publication-details (constructioninstitute.org), [accessed 22 june 2023]. daniel, e. and pasquire, c., 2017. last planner system path clearing approach. nottingham, uk: nottingham trent university publications. power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202477 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000148 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000148 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.10.069 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enpol.2013.10.069 https://doi.org/10.60164/47e7h7a1b https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429203732-3 https://doi.org/10.1201/9780429203732-3 https://leanconstruction.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/lcj_19_019.pdf https://leanconstruction.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/lcj_19_019.pdf https://doi.org/10.60164/47e7h7a1b https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689808330883 daniel, e., pasquire, c., chinyio, e., oloke, d. and suresh, s., 2020. development of collaboration in planning: what can construction project management learn from other fields? in: proceedings of the 28th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, berkeley, california. pp.289-300. https://doi.org/10.24928/2020/0002 dlouhy, j., binninger, m., oprach, s., and haghsheno, s., 2016. three-level method of takt planning and takt control–a new approach for designing production systems in construction. in: proceedings of the 24th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. boston, usa. pp.13-22. flyvbjerg, b., bruzelius, n. and rothengatter, w., 2003. megaprojects and risk: an anatomy of ambition. [e-book] cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781107050891 frandson, a., berghede, k. and tommelein, i., 2013. takt time planning for construction of exterior cladding. in: proceedings of the 21st annual conference of the international group for lean construction, fortaleza, brazil. pp.21-2. frandson, a., berghede, k. and tommelein, i., 2014. takt-time planning and the last planner. in: proceedings of the 22nd annual conference of the international group for lean construction, oslo, norway. pp.571-80. frandson, a. and tommelein, i., 2016. takt time planning of interiors on a pre-cast hospital project. in: proceedings of the 24th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, boston, massachusetts. pp.143-52. frandson, a., 2019. takt time planning as a work structuring method to improve construction workflow. phd. university of california, berkeley. galloway, p., 2006. survey of the construction industry relative to the use of cpm scheduling for construction projects. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 132(7), pp.697–711. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(2006)132:7(697) green, s., kao, c. and larsen, g., 2010. contextualist research: iterating between methods while following an empirically grounded approach. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 136(1), pp.117-26. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000027 haghsheno, s., binninger, m., dlouhy, j. and sterlike, s., 2016. history and theoretical foundations of takt planning and takt control. in: proceedings of the 24th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. boston, massachusetts, usa. pp.53-62. https://doi.org/10.24928/2017/0297 hamzeh, f., 2009. improving construction workflow – the role of production planning and control. ph.d. university of california, berkeley, u.s.a. hamzeh, f., ballard, g. and tommelein, i., 2009. is the last planner system applicable to design?. in: proceedings of the 17th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, taipei, taiwan, pp.167-76. hamzeh, f., kallassy, j., lahoud, m. and azar, r., 2016. the first extensive implementation of lean and lps in lebanon: results and reflections. in: proceedings of the 24th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, boston, usa. pp.33-42. hopp, w.j. and spearman, m., 2011. factory physics. illinois, usa: waveland press inc. horman, m., messner, j., riley, d. and pulaski, m., 2003. using buffers to manage production: a case study of the pentagon renovation project. in: proceedings of the 11th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, 22-24 july 2003, blacksburg, virginia. howell, g., ballard, g., and tommelein, i., 2010. construction engineering—reinvigorating the discipline. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 137(10), pp.740-44. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.19437862.0000276 power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202478 https://doi.org/10.24928/2020/0002 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9781107050891 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:7(697 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:7(697 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000027 https://doi.org/10.24928/2017/0297 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000276 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000276 hwang, b., thomas, s., haas, c. and caldas, c., 2009. measuring the impact of rework on construction cost performance. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 135(3). pp.187-98. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)0733-9364(2009)135:3(187) hwang, b.-o. and yang, s., 2014. rework and schedule performance. a profile of incidence, impact, causes and solutions. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 21, pp.190-204. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ecam-10-2012-0101 koskela, l., 2000. an exploration towards a production theory and its application to construction. doctor of technology. vtt technical research centre of finland. koskela, l. and howell, g., 2001. reforming project management: the role of planning, execution and controlling. in: proceedings of the 9th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, singapore. https://iglc.net/ papers/details/147 koskela, l. and howell, g., 2002. the underlying theory of project management is obsolete. in: proceedings of the pmi research conference, pp.293-302. https://doi.org/10.1109/emr.2008.4534317 lehtovaara, j., seppänen, o., peltokorpi, a., kujansuu, p. and grönvall, m., 2021. how takt production contributes to construction production flow: a theoretical model. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 39(1), pp.73-95. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1824295 liu, m., ballard, g. and ibbs, w., 2010. workflow variation and labor productivity: case study. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 27(4), pp.236-42. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000056 liu, j., yi, y., wang, x., 2020. exploring factors influencing construction waste reduction: a structural equation modeling approach. journal of cleaner production, [e-journal] 276, pp.123185. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. jclepro.2020.123185 love, p.e., edwards, d.j., watson, h. and davis, p., 2010. rework in civil infrastructure projects: determination of cost predictors. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 136(3), pp.275-82. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)co.1943-7862.0000136 mossman, a., 2019. last planner: 5 + 1 crucial and collaborative conversations for predictable project production planning. the change business ltd. available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321804312_last_ planner_5_1_crucial_collaborative_conversations_for_predictable_design_construction_delivery_dec_2017 [accessed 09 july 2023]. oakland, j. and marosszeky, m., 2017. total construction management: lean quality in construction project delivery. [e-book] london: taylor & francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315694351 oberlender, g., 2000. project management for engineering and construction, boston: mcgraw-hill. paz, j.c., rozenboim, d., cuadros, á., cano, s. and escobar, j.w., 2018. a simulation-based scheduling methodology for construction projects considering the potential impacts of delay risks. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 18(2), pp.41-69. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5842 power, w. and taylor, d., 2019. last planner® system and percent plan complete: an examination of trade contractor performance. lean construction journal, [e-journal] pp.131-46. https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0164 rivera, a., le, n., kashiwagi, j. and kashiwagi, d., 2016. identifying the global performance of the construction industry. journal for the advancement of performance information & value, [e-journal] 8(2), pp.7-19. https://doi. org/10.37265/japiv.v8i2.61 sarhan, s., pasquire, c., and king, a., 2017. the concept of institutional waste within the construction industry: a potential theoretical framework. lean construction journal, [e-journal] pp.12-24. power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202479 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2009)135:3(187 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2009)135:3(187 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2012-0101 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-10-2012-0101 https://iglc.net/papers/details/147 https://iglc.net/papers/details/147 https://doi.org/10.1109/emr.2008.4534317 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1824295 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000056 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123185 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2020.123185 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000136 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0000136 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321804312_last_planner_5_1_crucial_collaborative_conversations_for_predictable_design_construction_delivery_dec_2017 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321804312_last_planner_5_1_crucial_collaborative_conversations_for_predictable_design_construction_delivery_dec_2017 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315694351 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5842 https://doi.org/10.24928/2019/0164 https://doi.org/10.37265/japiv.v8i2.61 https://doi.org/10.37265/japiv.v8i2.61 saunders, m., lewis, p. and thornhill, a., 2016. research methods for business students. 7th ed. new york: pearson education. schöttle, a., and nesensohn, c., 2019. the beauty of a phase-overlapping last planner system with incorporated takt. in: proceedings of the 27th annual conference of the international. group for lean construction, dublin, ireland. pp.441–50. https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0247 stake, r., 1995. case study research. thousand oaks, ca: sage. tommelein, i., 2017. collaborative takt time planning of non-repetitive work. in: proceedings of the 25th annual conference of the international group for lean construction. heraklion, greece, pp.745-52. https://doi. org/10.24928/2017/0271 tommelein, i. and emdanat, s., 2022. takt planning: an enabler for lean construction. in: proceedings of the 30th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, edmonton, canada, pp.866-77. https://doi. org/10.24928/2022/0198 tommelein, i. and lerche, j., 2023. comparison of takt planning methods used on projects of different types. in: proceedings of the 31st annual conference of the international group for lean construction, lille, france, pp.1605-16. https://doi.org/10.24928/2023/0255 weinheimer, n., schmalz, s. and müller, d. 2017. green building and lean management: synergies and conflicts. in: proceedings of the 25th annual conference of the international group for lean construction, heraklion, greece, pp.91118. https://doi.org/10.24928/2017/0242 yin. r., 1993. applications of case study research. beverly hills, ca: sage publishing. power et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 202480 https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0247 https://doi.org/10.24928/2017/0271 https://doi.org/10.24928/2017/0271 https://doi.org/10.24928/2022/0198 https://doi.org/10.24928/2022/0198 https://doi.org/10.24928/2023/0255 https://doi.org/10.24928/2017/0242 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: okello, j. f., bowa, o., migosi, j. 2025. the role of project delivery methods on the execution of construction projects in the kenyan judiciary. construction economics and building, 25:1, 49–68. https://doi.org/10.5130/ ajceb.v25i1.9298 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb 49 research article the role of project delivery methods on the execution of construction projects in the kenyan judiciary john fredrick okello1,*, omondi bowa2, joash migosi3 1 university of nairobi, nairobi, kenya, jfokello2013@gmail.com 2 university of nairobi, nairobi, kenya, bowa2016@gmail.com 3 university of nairobi, nairobi, kenya, jmigosi@gmail.com corresponding author: john fredrick okello, department of management science and project planning, university of nairobi, nairobi, kenya, jfokello2013@gmail.com doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9298 article history: received 20/08/2024; revised 18/11/2024; accepted 25/12/2024; published 31/03/2025 abstract the kenyan judiciary’s construction industry experienced a significant upturn with 63 major court projects funded by the world bank and kenya government from 2012 to 2021. however, these projects faced delays and scope changes, affecting performance indicators like time, cost, site dispute, and quality. the study hypothesized that project delivery methods have no significant influence on the execution of court-building projects in relation to time, cost, site disputes, and quality. reliability was tested using cronbach’s alpha technique, and validity was tested using principal component analysis (pca). this study combined the collection and analysis of quantitative and qualitative data using a mixed-methods approach. sixty-three projects were surveyed using a convergent parallel mixed-survey design. document analysis was used to obtain secondary data, and questionnaires and interview guides were used to collect the primary data. correlation and regression analysis techniques were used for inferential statistical analysis. the slope coefficients were considered significant at p ≤ 0.05. thematic and document analyses were applied to the qualitative data to triangulate the findings with the quantitative data. according to the study, project delivery methods significantly influenced the execution of construction projects in terms of quality, cost, and site disputes, but not time. the study further highlights the need for flexible, context-specific project delivery approaches in the kenyan judiciary to ensure timely completion of court-building infrastructure.this declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9298 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9298 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:jfokello2013@gmail.com mailto:bowa2016@gmail.com mailto:jmigosi@gmail.com mailto:jfokello2013@gmail.com https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9298 research offers helpful information concerning the use of appropriate delivery methods to scholars, practitioners of project and construction management, policymakers, and other parties involved in implementing the kenyan judiciary’s court-building infrastructure. keywords project delivery methods; execution of construction projects; kenyan judiciary; performance metrics; mixed-methods research introduction the construction sector is essential for infrastructure development, job production, and economic expansion (holloway, 2018; odoko, 2018; pheng and hou, 2019). the construction industry plays a crucial role in shaping the built environment and supporting other industries (azhar, kang and ahmad, 2014). the kenyan judiciary benefited from the construction industry when the world bank and kenya government funded the construction of 63 major court construction projects from 2012 to 2021 ( judiciary transformation framework, 2012). these projects were originally planned for completion by december 2018 but, on average, had more than 12 months of delay in their contract period, and the scope had to be changed for all of them so as to be delivered within the original contract sum (sojar, 2019). among the delivery delays and challenges experienced during the project execution were the re-working of some building works concerning quality issues, non-payment of suppliers by main contractors leading to site disputes, delays in honoring payment certificates, setbacks resulting from misinterpretation of the public procurement act requirements, delays emerging from the reduction of the judiciary development budget, and difficulties in managing the numerous teams involved in the project implementation process (sojar, 2019). one of the key project delivery attributes that can lead to improved project performance is using the appropriate project delivery method. ahmed and el-sayegh (2020) reported that one of the most crucial managerial choices is selecting the best project delivery strategy because it directly affects critical performance metrics including cost, quality, schedule, and safety, hence influencing the project’s success. every project is implemented through a project delivery method from initiation to completion. the project delivery method thus describes how the project participants are structured to interact when implementing the targets and objectives of the client (raykar and ghadge, 2016; akob, hipni and rosly, 2019; ktaish and hajdu, 2022). the construction industry relies on various project delivery methods to bring projects from conception to completion (trach, połoński and hrytsiuk, 2019; salim and mahjoob, 2020; ahmed and elsayegh, 2020). constructs that can be used to evaluate the impact of project delivery methods on project performance include contract responsibility, the roles and responsibilities of the parties, the general sequence of activities required to deliver the projects, and the reduction of disputes (ghadamsi, 2016). well-defined contract responsibilities minimize misunderstandings and disagreements between parties, leading to smoother project execution and reduced delays (demachkieh, et al., 2020). when each party’s roles and responsibilities are clearly articulated, it fosters accountability and streamlines decision-making processes, contributing to timely project completion and cost control (singh and sakamoto, 2001). a logical sequence of activities, established early in the project life cycle, ensures efficient resource allocation and minimizes disruptions, further contributing to cost savings and timely completion (common factors for construction disputes, 2019). moreover, clear contractual provisions and established communication protocols can significantly reduce the likelihood of disputes, preventing costly litigation and project delays (yusuwan and adnan, 2013). ultimately, a well-structured contract, coupled with clearly defined roles and a planned sequence of activities, enhances the quality of the finished product by minimizing errors and re-work. okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202550 collaboration and dispute mitigation also contribute to improved quality and can lead to overall project success. although time, cost, and quality have been the predominant variables in evaluating building construction execution, they have been criticized for focusing on economic matters and missing social or environmental aspects (atkinson, 1999). to address these shortcomings, ngacho and das (2013) in their study identified time, cost, quality, and site disputes as significant in assessing the execution of construction projects. these factors were used to measure dependent variables in this study. in conclusion, while there is an array of factors that need to be properly managed to enable the successful execution of construction projects, it is essential to properly evaluate the project delivery methods to be used, as research has shown that the use of appropriate project delivery methods leads to overall project success. additionally, this study adopted the use of time, cost, site disputes, and quality as measurement metrics to evaluate the execution of construction projects, as recommended by ngacho and das (2013). study scope and objective between 2012 and 2015, the government of kenya (gok) funded the construction of 33 court-building projects, whereas the world bank funded 30 projects under the kenyan judiciary. the deadline for completing these projects was december 2018 (sojar, 2016). however, by january 2020, only 11 projects (10 world bank and 1 gok) had been completed, and all had suffered cost escalations and completion delays (sojar, 2016). the world bank financing was not through public–private partnership (ppp) arrangement but through a loan that the government of kenya was to pay back upon reaching the maturity period (project acquisition document, 2012). although there are many project delivery methods in use when implementing construction projects, this study narrowed on construction manager at risk, design– build, and design–bid–build, as these have been reported as the three principal project delivery methods currently used in the united states (zuber, et al., 2018; tamur and erzaij, 2021). project delivery methods are significant because of their capacity to impact the planning, management, and execution of projects from start to end, maximizing resources, reducing risks, and successfully accomplishing project goals (lahdenperä, 2015; mosly, 2016; islam and trigunarsyah, 2017; trach, połoński and hrytsiuk, 2019). each method has unique characteristics and is suitable for different project types. the choice of the project delivery method significantly impacts project success, including cost, time, site disputes, quality, client satisfaction, functionality, health, safety, and user satisfaction (ngacho and das, 2013). each project differs in terms of its objectives, limitations, and goals. the choice of a suitable project delivery method guarantees conformity with these objectives and goals. when project activities, resources, and strategies are aligned with project objectives, they increase the likelihood of project success and enhance overall performance. this shows that the project delivery methods used are as varied as the projects themselves. no one project delivery method is a fit for all goals (lahdenperä, 2015; agustiawan, coffey and sutrisno, 2020). the purpose of this study was to establish the project delivery methods (pdms) used and their influence on the execution of construction projects in the kenyan judiciary, while the study objectives were to examine the influence of the used pdm on the execution of construction projects in relation to time, cost, site disputes, and quality in the kenyan judiciary. literature review a synthesis of the literature on the three principal project delivery methods of construction manager at risk (cmar), design–build (db), and design–bid–build (dbb) is reviewed in this paper, as these have been reported to be the three principal project delivery methods currently used in the united states (tamur and erzaij, 2021; konchar and sanvido, 2023). their impact on time, cost, site disputes, and quality is also outlined. based on the reviewed literature, the study’s conceptual framework is presented. okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202551 performance of db, dbb, and cmar on time, cost, site disputes, and quality during delivery of construction projects db, dbb, and cmar project delivery methods offer distinct advantages and disadvantages in terms of project control, cost management, risk allocation, and collaboration between stakeholders (azari, et al., 2014; hosseini, et al., 2016; gordian, 2020; schwartz, 2022). time and cost management the effects of various project delivery techniques on project delivery characteristics or attributes differ. dbb is sequential in nature, and projects undertaken through it can take longer to complete than through the other methods. before construction can begin, the design and bidding stages must be completed. owing to the possibility of changing orders and differences between the design and construction phases, cost management in dbb is difficult (azis, 2017; kaur and singh, 2018; fahmi, aulia and isya, 2020; hải, et al., 2023). db permits the design and construction phases to overlap and is frequently more effective in managing time than dbb. this can significantly reduce a project’s total length by a large margin. db provides a single point of accountability, which helps to simplify cost management procedures (azis, 2017; kaur and singh, 2018; zuber, et al., 2018). the cmar allows for the early involvement of the construction manager, which can expedite the construction process. the construction manager can provide input during the design phase to optimize constructability and streamline scheduling. cmar provides greater transparency and cost control by establishing a guaranteed maximum price (gmp). this helps manage costs and minimizes the risk of budget overruns (zuber, et al., 2018). db and cmar are often cited for their efficiency in cost management because of their streamlined processes and risk management strategies. dbb may pose challenges in cost management owing to potential changes in orders and discrepancies (zuber, et al., 2018). site disputes and quality control site disputes can negatively impact project performance and should be avoided. every project delivery method represents different relationships, thus presenting unique challenges in terms of dispute generation and resolution (naji, mansour and gunduz, 2020). factors such as the allocation of risk, communication protocols, and the level of collaboration among the project team members all play a role in determining the frequency and severity of site disputes (mcconnell and clevenger, 2018). in a dbb approach, where the owner contracts separately with the designer and the contractor, disputes may arise due to a lack of collaboration between the design and construction teams (hasanzadeh, et al., 2018). strahorn, brewer and gajendran (2017) suggested that the contractual requirements within the design–bid–build framework tend to foster a focus on personal agendas over the collective interests of the project, which often leads to conflicts. however, in a design–build approach, where the same entity is responsible for both design and construction, there may be fewer disputes, as the team is more integrated and collaborative (hosseini, et al., 2016; hasanzadeh, et al., 2018). similarly, a construction manager is involved during the design phase and holds the risk for construction performance in the construction manager at risk method, which may lead to different types of disputes, compared to other delivery methods. understanding these implications is crucial for project stakeholders in selecting the most suitable project delivery method to minimize site disputes and ensure successful project delivery (soni, pandey and agrawal, 2017; hasanzadeh, et al., 2018; alaloul, hasaniyah and tayeh, 2019; seeboo and proag, 2019). quality is a performance evaluation metric for the execution of construction projects (ngacho and das, 2013; veselá and synek, 2019). quality control in dbb relies heavily on specifications and drawings provided by the design team (zuber, et al., 2018). contractors are responsible for adhering to these okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202552 documents during construction. in dbb, owners bear a significant portion of the risk, including design errors and construction defects (azis, 2017; kaur and singh, 2018). contractors can mitigate risks through careful planning, adherence to standards, and quality assurance processes. db projects often feature integrated design and construction teams that facilitate better coordination and communication. the single point of responsibility may lead to enhanced quality control measures throughout the project life cycle (azis, 2017; kaur and singh, 2018; zuber, et al., 2018). db shifts more responsibility to the design builder, who assumes greater accountability for project outcomes (djojopranoto and benhart, 2017; liu, nederveen and hertogh, 2017). this can incentivize risk-mitigation strategies such as proactive problem solving, value engineering, and early issue resolution. db typically offers stronger quality control measures because of their collaborative nature and single-point responsibility (liu, et al., 2020). cmar allows for the early involvement of the construction manager, who can oversee quality control measures from the planning stages to project completion. this can include material testing, inspection, and adherence to the project specifications. cmar provides opportunities for risk mitigation through proactive risk identification and management strategies. construction managers can work closely with owners and design teams to identify potential risks and develop mitigation plans to address them. cmar also provides opportunities for effective quality control through the involvement of early construction managers. db and cmar tend to offer better risk-mitigation strategies than dbb (zuber, et al., 2018; ammad, et al., 2020). theoretical framework for understanding project delivery methods and construction project success the theoretical framework for analyzing the impact of project delivery methods on the success of construction projects is highlighted as follows. project delivery methods the framework recognizes that different project delivery methods, characterized by varying contract responsibilities, the roles and responsibilities of the parties, the general sequence of activities, and dispute resolution mechanisms, significantly influence project outcomes. the selection of an appropriate project delivery method is crucial, as it not only affects the efficiency of resource utilization but also determines the project stakeholders’ level of integration and collaboration throughout the project life cycle. the choice of delivery method ultimately shapes not just the cost and schedule performance but also the quality of communication and cooperation among the project team members, which in turn impacts overall project success and stakeholder satisfaction (ahmed and el-sayegh, 2020; tamur and erzaij, 2021; anderson and oyetunji, 2003). systems theory construction projects are viewed as complex systems with interconnected elements. project delivery methods are seen as integral components within this system, influencing and being influenced by other project aspects such as contract responsibilities, the roles and responsibilities of the parties, the general sequence of activities, and dispute resolution mechanisms (mccomb and smith, 2014). creating a robust framework that emphasizes these attributes can significantly enhance collaboration and communication among stakeholders, ultimately leading to improved project outcomes and adherence to timelines and budgets (waters and ahmed, 2020). moreover, as projects become increasingly complex and uncertain, the necessity for a flexible and adaptive project delivery system that accommodates these interdependencies becomes even more crucial, suggesting that traditional frameworks may be insufficient to meet contemporary challenges in construction projects (azari-najafabadi, et al., 2011; ding, et al., 2018; whyte and davies, 2021). okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202553 theory of change this theory helps explain the causal relationships between project delivery attributes and project execution outcomes. the framework uses this theory to trace how specific project delivery methods impact time, cost, site disputes, and quality. understanding this complex interplay enables stakeholders to better anticipate project success or failure based on the particular strategies implemented, thus allowing for adjustments that cultivate enhanced integration and collaboration among project teams in the judiciary system. this approach underscores the notion that innovative project delivery systems can significantly improve performance by promoting organizational integration and alignment of interests, ultimately leading to more effective management strategies during the execution phase of building projects in kenya’s judiciary context (azari, et al., 2014; hosseini, et al., 2016; dhillon and vaca, 2018; ding, et al., 2018). stakeholder theory recognizing the diverse interests of stakeholders, the framework emphasizes the importance of understanding and managing their influence on project success. project delivery methods are seen as tools that can be leveraged to align stakeholder interests and improve project outcomes (al-adawiyah and utomo, 2020). stakeholders can significantly impact project objectives and their overall effectiveness, underscoring the criticality of proactive stakeholder management during the execution of building projects in the kenyan judiciary. moreover, the identification and engagement of key stakeholders during the early stages of project execution are crucial, as they determine not only the fulfillment of project objectives but also the project’s overall quality, timeliness, and success, making it essential to establish strategies that effectively address their needs and expectations (eskerod and vaagaasar, 2014; nahyan, et al., 2019; al-adawiyah and utomo, 2020; elias, 2023). this theoretical framework posits that the successful execution of construction projects, measured in terms of time, cost, site disputes, and quality, is heavily influenced by the chosen project delivery method. moreover, understanding the specific attributes of various project delivery methods such as design–bid– build, construction management, and design–build is crucial for stakeholders in the judiciary sector to make informed decisions that align with their project needs and objectives, particularly in navigating challenges (ahmed and el-sayegh, 2020; tamur and erzaij, 2021). the framework offers valuable insights for project managers to select appropriate project delivery methods and manage stakeholder expectations effectively (raouf and al‐ghamdi, 2019; kahvandi, et al., 2020). the conceptual framework this conceptual framework was guided by systems theory, theory of change, and stakeholder theory. it postulated that there is a correlation between project delivery methods represented by contract responsibilities, the roles and responsibilities of the parties, the general sequence of activities, and the reduction of disputes as the independent variables and the execution of construction projects represented by time, cost, site disputes, and quality as the dependent variable. table 1 shows the conceptual framework developed from the literature review used in the study. hypothesis and research question h0: project delivery methods have no significant influence on the execution of court-building projects in kenya in terms of time, cost, site disputes, and quality. the research question was how do project delivery methods influence the execution of court buildings in kenya in terms of time, cost, site disputes, and quality? okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202554 methodology research design the study employed a pragmatic research design that combines quantitative and qualitative research techniques. the researcher collected and analyzed qualitative and quantitative data in the same phase. after combining the data, a comprehensive analysis was produced, and a convergent mixed-methods design was created (sekaran and bougie, 2013; bryman and bell, 2015). the triangulation of data gathered through alternate approaches to countercheck and mitigate weaknesses in the approaches used is the strength of this approach. triangulation and validation were used in the method to enable diversity in data collection and interpretation. validity and reliability of the instruments three project management experts verified the validity of the research instruments by providing valuable feedback on how to develop the contents in accordance with the study’s objectives. the constructs were deemed suitable for measuring the study variables after they were applied to 12 projects, wherein all cronbach’s alpha scores for the constructs used to assess project delivery methods and court-building execution scored above the acceptable level of 0.7, in accordance with the recommendation of pallant (2007). in addition, validity was further tested using principal component analysis (pca) based on data received from the pilot study. the constructs were confirmed valid. the primary study used 51 projects. ethical consideration the researcher was given permission to collect the study data by the chief registrar of the judiciary. the researcher agreed not to divulge any information that may affect the courts or people in the study. confidentiality and anonymity were provided to the research participants. the participants were also informed about the purpose of the research as well as treated with dignity and respect. data collection data collection and analysis were guided by the diagram shown in figure 1. table 1. conceptual framework showing a correlation between project delivery methods and execution of construction projects. independent variable dependent variable project delivery methods execution of construction projects contract responsibilities time roles and responsibilities of the parties cost general sequence of activities site dispute reduction of disputes quality source: okello (2024). okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202555 figure 1. visual representation of the mixed-methods study design used in this research work as adopted from rad, et al. (2021). the study collected data from 63 ongoing court buildings in kenya at molo, nyando, vihiga, oyugis, nyamira, muhoroni, nakuru, olkalau, engineer, nanyuki, mukurweini, kigumo, chuka, homabay, maralal, kajiado, mombasa, mombasa court of appeal, narok, kibera, makindu, kitui, isiolo, makueni, kabarnet, marsabit, amagoro, githongo, machakos, mbita, habasweini, hamisi, muranga, mandera, garissa, nyeri, iten, karatina, makadara, forodha house, wajir, kapenguria, kwale, maralal, kakamega, kangema, makueni, malava, siaya, port victoria, bomet, and nyahururu. a questionnaire was the main tool used in the study to collect data. the questionnaire asked for categorical background data, which included the following: the project’s name, location, stage of completion, highest educational attainment, position within the judiciary, and length of time spent in the current role (design, construction, or completion stage). they are all noteworthy details. data (discrete) for the descriptive analysis came from the respondents’ ratings of the project delivery method constructs of contract responsibilities, the roles and responsibilities of the parties, the general sequence of activities, and the reduction of disputes. on a 5-point likert scale, which was used by shek and wu (2014), the respondents rated the execution of court-building constructs as well as timely completion, completion within budget, site disputes, and quality of work. the 10-point visual analog scale (produced continuous data), with 1 denoting the lowest score and 10 the highest, was used to generate data for inferential analysis (correlation, linear, and multiple regression analysis) using the same constructs. inferential data were tested and passed tests on linearity, normality, multicollinearity, homoscedasticity, and autocorrelation. by calculating the average of all the courts’ responses to the study constructs, the project delivery methods and court-building execution were determined. additionally, an interview guide was used to collect data from judiciary management, which consists of national environment management authority (nema) specialists and judiciary infrastructure committee members. the instrument was designed to meet the objectives of the study in accordance with the advice of patton and appelbaum (2003), who suggested that okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202556 protocols and instruments for data collection should be established in order to avoid being overwhelmed by an abundance of data. the study also employed data from the following sources to confirm the impact of project team integration on kenyan court-building procedures: the public procurement act, the judicial performance improvement project ( jpip) framework, project appraisal reports, site meeting minutes, treasury directions, judicial service commission ( jsc) directives, the world bank financial cooperation agreement, and sessional papers. data analysis the study utilized quantitative and qualitative data analysis techniques. quantitative data analysis the researcher employed the statistical package for the social sciences (spss, 29) to streamline the process of data analysis. the mode, mean, and standard deviation of summary statistics were used to analyze the quantitative data obtained from the likert scale ratings. regression was applied to visual analog data to analyze and determine how significantly the project delivery methods influenced the dependent variable using the coefficients of determination and hypothesis tests. the simple regression model used in the analysis of hypotheses was of the following form: y = β0 + βx + ε, where y is the project execution about time, cost, site disputes, and quality; x is the independent variable (project delivery method, ho); β0 is the constant; β is the regression coefficient; and ε is the error term. determination coefficient, r2, was used to evaluate the explanatory power of the independent variable (project delivery methods—x on the project execution (about time, cost, site disputes, and quality) in the kenyan judiciary. similarly, the degree to which the regression model fits the data was assessed using the f-test (analysis of variance). in contrast, the t-statistic was used to assess the significance of the slope coefficient. findings the descriptive statistics of project delivery methods in relation to trust, respect, and collective understanding are shown in table 2. table 2. descriptive statistics of the project delivery system. study variable indicator n mode mean (m) standard deviation (sd) 1.0 contract responsibility 51 2.5 3.21 0.90 2.0 roles and responsibilities of the parties 51 5 4.36 0.62 3.0 the general sequence of activities required to deliver the project 51 2.75 3.28 0.64 4.0 reduction of disputes 51 3.75 3.92 0.79 5.0 project delivery systems 51 3.75 3.69 0.50 source: okello (2024). okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202557 table 2 indicates that the respondents were undecided that the project delivery system used was suitable for enhancing contract responsibility in the implementation of building construction projects in the kenyan judiciary (mode = 2.5, m = 3.21, standard deviation (sd) = 0.90). further, the respondents agreed that the delivery system used was suitable for enhancing the roles and responsibilities of the parties in the implementation of construction projects in the kenyan judiciary (mode = 5, m = 4.36, sd = 0.90). in addition, the respondents were undecided that the delivery system used was suitable for enhancing the general sequence of activities in the implementation of building construction projects in the kenyan judiciary (mode = 2.75, m = 3.28, sd = 0.64). table 2 indicates that the respondents agreed that the delivery system used was suitable for enhancing the reduction of disputes in the implementation of building construction projects in the kenyan judiciary (mode = 3.75, m = 3.92, sd = 0.79). in summary, in table 2, the respondents agreed that the project delivery system used was appropriate for the implementation of building construction projects in the kenyan judiciary (mode = 3.75, m = 3.69, sd = 0.50). the respondents ranked the roles and responsibilities of the parties as first (mode = 5, m = 4.36, sd = 0.90), the reduction of disputes as second (mode = 3.75, m = 3.92, sd = 0.79), the general sequence of activities required to deliver the projects as third (mode = 2.75, m = 3.28, sd = 0.64), and contract responsibility as fourth (mode = 2.5, m = 3.21, sd = 0.90). the interview guide was used to capture information from project infrastructure committee members and nema specialist interviewees. the respondents stated that the pds adopted by the kenyan judiciary was dbb, as opposed to db and cmar, which are the other options in the industry. in addition, the respondents commented on the suitability of the system used. they also stated whether the kenyan judiciary achieved its aim through the project delivery system used in terms of contract responsibility, the roles and responsibilities of the parties, the general sequence of activities required to deliver the project, and the reduction of disputes. the results of the interview are as follows. the key respondents stated that the delivery system used by the judiciary was the dbb system. they were, however, undecided that the project delivery system used was suitable for enhancing contract responsibility, as captured by the following comment: “the system used may be suitable, as opposed to having one person do the designs and construction; this could create governance problems; the designer can overdesign and employ shortcuts during construction. the system enables accountability, reduces the cost, and makes supervision easy in addition to incorporating all stakeholders, including the court users and staff.” (respondent r4) the respondents also stated that the dbb project delivery system needed to be improved to manage time, cost, site disputes, and quality. there was also agreement among the key informants that the delivery system used was suitable for enhancing the roles and responsibilities of the parties in the implementation of construction projects in the kenyan judiciary. this theme was captured by a statement from respondent r3: “there was coordination within the team; everyone played their part albeit with delays and sometimes slow dissemination of information; during the esia, it took longer to get the required details and information from the architects and engineers.” the key informants were undecided that the delivery system used was suitable for enhancing the general sequence of activities in the implementation of building construction projects in the kenyan judiciary. the reason for this could be that the sequencing of activities was conducted by different parties, and it was, therefore, difficult to follow up on what each of them was doing in this area. other key informants agreed with this position, as was captured by another statement on this theme by respondents r4 and r15: okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202558 “the sequence of activities was somewhat not planned as there were projects where the esia was being undertaken while construction was nearly complete and therefore the esia process could not inform the design.” (respondent r4) “the general sequence was well laid out, especially for new projects; thus enabling the management of expectations for each of the parties though the delays were too many to the point that the project at times would seem disorganized for refurbishments of courts; sequence of activities are not clear.” (respondent r15) key informants further agreed that the project delivery system used was suitable for reducing disputes during the implementation of building construction projects in the kenyan judiciary. this theme was captured by the following statements from the key informants: “the process of procuring was transparent; therefore, no disputes registered, there’s however need to develop and implement a grievance redress mechanism.” (respondent r5) “the dbb project delivery system is ideal for the judiciary since the entity covers the whole country. each region has its unique characteristics, and it would be more efficacious if different entities undertook the design and construction for quick delivery.” (respondent r17) a review of project files, contracts, minutes of site meetings, inspection, and acceptance minutes indicated that the project delivery system used in the procurement of construction projects in the kenyan judiciary was dbb. this supports the findings from descriptive statistics and corroborated information from key informants. in this type of delivery system, the contractors are not expected to be on board during the design stage (kormaz, et al., 2010), as confirmed by the respondents who indicated that the delivery system used did not allow the contractor to be involved during the project design. inferential statistical results the purpose of this paper was to use pearson’s correlation analysis and linear regression analysis to show how project delivery methods affect court-building execution (time, cost, site disputes, and quality) in kenya. to investigate the possibility of a relationship between project delivery methods and project execution (time, cost, site disputes, and quality), pearson’s correlation analysis was used. the results of the correlation analysis, with a sample size of 51 respondents, are displayed in table 3. table 3 indicates that the results of pearson’s correlation analysis showed that there was no significant association between pdm and time, as the p-value (0.378) was greater than the significance level (0.05). however, there was a significant correlation between the pdm and cost, site disputes, and quality, as the p-values were less than the level of significance. the ‘1’ in the correlation table indicates a perfect positive correlation between the variables themselves project delivery methods and execution of construction projects in relation to cost (model 1), site disputes (model 2), and quality (model 3) in the kenyan judiciary to test the first null hypothesis (h0) that pdm has no significant influence on the execution of construction projects (ecp) (cost) in the kenyan judiciary, a simple linear regression analysis was performed. note that simple linear regression analysis was not performed between pdm and time because the results shown in table 3 indicate that there was no significant association between pdm and time. the simple linear regression analysis results in relation to the cost are listed in table 4. okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202559 according to table 4, model 1, the other variables accounted for 48.0% of the variation in ecp, with costs accounting for 52.0% (moderate explanatory power) of the variance. because the p-value of 0.001 was less than the significance level (α-value) of 0.05, the model was considered significant overall. consequently, h0 was rejected, and it was concluded that the pdm had a major impact on cost during the execution of construction projects in the kenyan judiciary. furthermore, table 4, model 1, also shows that the constant was not significant because its p-value (0.284) was greater than the α-value (0.05), whereas the pdm was significant because its p-value (0.001) was less than the α-value (0.05). the predictive equation was cost = 0.795 pdm, which indicates that, on average, cost will increase by 0.795 units if the pdm is increased by 1 unit. table 4, model 2, demonstrates that site disputes accounted for 33.3% (low explanatory power) of the variance in ecp; hence, other variables accounted for 66.7% of the variation. because the p-value of 0.001 was less than the significance level (α-value) of 0.05, the model was also judged to be significant. as a result, the h0 was rejected, and it was determined that pdm had a major impact on site disputes during the execution of construction projects in the kenyan judiciary. furthermore, table 4, model 2, also shows that the constant was not significant because its p-value (0.477) was higher than the α-value (0.05), whereas the pdm was significant because its p-value (0.001) was smaller than the α-value (0.05). thus, the predictive equation was site disputes = 0.821 pdm, indicating that, on average, if pdm is raised by 1 unit, site disputes will increase by 0.821 units. table 4, model 3, indicates that quality accounted for 44.2% (moderate explanatory power) of the variance in ecp, while other variables accounted for 55.8% of the variation. the p-value of 0.001 was less than the level of significance (α-value) of 0.05, indicating that the model was significant overall. consequently, h0 was rejected, and it was concluded that pdm had a major impact on the execution of construction projects for the kenyan judiciary in relation to quality. furthermore, it can be observed in table 4, model 3, that whereas the constant was not significant because its p-value (0.081) exceeded the table 3. correlation analysis between project delivery methods and building execution (time, cost, site disputes, and quality). project delivery methods time cost site dispute quality project delivery methods pearson’s correlation 1 sig. (2-tailed) time pearson’s correlation 0.126 1 sig. (2-tailed) 0.378 cost pearson’s correlation 0.721** 1 sig. (2-tailed) <0.001 site dispute pearson’s correlation 0.577** 1 sig. (2-tailed) <0.001 quality pearson’s correlation 0.665** 1 sig. (2-tailed) <0.001 source: okello (2024). ** correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed). okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202560 α-value (0.05), the pdm was significant because its p-value (0.001) was smaller than the α-value (0.05). it follows that quality = 0.740 pdm is the prediction equation, which indicates that, on average, if the pdm is increased by 1 unit, quality will increase by 0.740 units. table 4. project delivery methods and execution of construction projects in relation to cost, site disputes, and quality. analysis of variance sum of squares degrees of freedom mean square f sig. model regression 32.162 1 32.162 53.079 <0.001 1 residual 29.690 49 0.606 total 61.852 50 coefficients model unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients b beta t sig. 1 (constant) 0.915 1.083 0.284 project delivery methods 0.795 0.721 7.286 <0.001 model summary of cost model r r2 adjusted r2 1 0.721 0.520 0.510 model summary of site dispute model r r2 adjusted r2 2 0.577 0.333 0.320 analysis of variance sum of squares degrees of freedom mean square f sig. model regression 34.312 1 34.312 24.488 <0.001 2 residual 68.657 49 1.401 total 102.970 50 coefficients unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients model b beta t sig. 2 (constant) 0.922 0.717 0.477 project delivery methods 0.821 0.577 4.949 <0.001 okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202561 discussion the global construction industry is often characterized by its complex pdms that shape not only the execution but also the cost, timeline, and quality outcomes of construction projects. in the context of the kenyan judiciary, the choice of pdm plays a crucial role in determining the efficiency of project execution. the judiciary predominantly employs the dbb method, a sequential approach known for its potential to result in longer execution times compared to more integrated methods such as db and cmar. while the study examining the influence of project delivery methods on construction projects within the kenyan judiciary did not establish a direct correlation between dbb and project delays, it highlighted certain inherent challenges that could contribute to project extensions. these include delays during the bidding and procurement phases, along with a lack of stakeholder integration, as suggested by earlier research (ahmed and el-sayegh, 2020). dbb, due to its traditional sequential structure, can potentially extend construction timelines. in this approach, the design and construction phases are separate, and the contractor is selected only after the design is complete. this lack of overlap between the design and construction stages can lead to inefficiencies, longer procurement cycles, and delays. the bidding process itself, which can be time-consuming, and issues related to contractor selection are also notable sources of delay (kalsaas, et al., 2018; molenaar, et al., 2000). however, the kenyan judiciary’s use of dbb does not always result in delays, and no direct correlation was found between the method and project timelines in the study. this highlights the complexity of the relationship between pdms and project execution, suggesting that the actual impact may be influenced by factors beyond just the method itself, including project scale, scope, and the capacity of the involved stakeholders. table 4. continued model summary of quality model r r2 adjusted r2 3 0.665 0.442 0.431 analysis of variance sum of squares degrees of freedom mean square f sig. model regression 27.911 1 27.911 38.876 <0.001 3 residual 35.179 49 0.718 total 63.090 50 coefficients model unstandardized coefficients standardized coefficients b beta t sig. 3 (constant) 1.641 1.783 0.081 project delivery methods 0.740 0.665 6.235 <0.001 note. dependent variables: cost (model 1), site disputes (model 2), and quality (model 3). predictor: (constant), project delivery methods. source: okello (2024). okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202562 alternative project delivery methods, such as db and cmar, have gained popularity due to their more integrated and collaborative approaches. db, for instance, allows for the design and construction phases to overlap, which can lead to a more efficient use of time. by having a single entity responsible for both design and construction, db reduces the risk of delays due to miscommunication or disputes between the design team and the contractor (mcgraw, 2017). this integration facilitates faster decision-making and enables the project to progress more smoothly through its various phases. the result of the study also indicated a positive correlation between dbb and project cost. in contrast to dbb, where cost management can become challenging due to changes in orders or discrepancies between the design and construction phases, db and cmar provide more effective control over both time and cost management (azis, 2017; kaur and singh, 2018; zuber, et al., 2018; gransberg and gransberg, 2020). an unexpected finding in the study was the positive correlation between dbb and reduced site disputes within the kenyan judiciary. this contrasts with the general view in the literature that dbb tends to foster adversarial relationships due to its separate contracts for design and construction (rostiyanti, et al., 2019). the study suggests that in the kenyan context, dbb may have been more effective at minimizing disputes, although this warrants further investigation. factors such as the specific contractual arrangements, the professionalism of the project teams, and the regulatory environment may contribute to this finding. it is also possible that the kenyan judiciary has developed particular mechanisms to mitigate potential conflicts, leading to smoother project execution. the performance of dbb, db, and cmar can also be compared in terms of quality control. in dbb, quality is heavily dependent on the specifications provided by the design team, with contractors held accountable for adhering to these standards during construction (azis, 2017). in contrast, db allows for better coordination between the design and construction teams, improving communication and facilitating stronger quality control throughout the project (liu, et al., 2020). similarly, cmar’s early involvement of the construction manager allows for more proactive quality assurance, as the manager can monitor quality from the planning phase to completion (zuber, et al., 2018). these integrated approaches typically result in better quality control, as compared to dbb, which may suffer from fragmented oversight and a higher risk of design errors or construction defects (kaur and singh, 2018). the study acknowledges that the actual impact of pdms on project execution within the kenyan judiciary may be influenced by factors beyond just the method itself, including project scale, scope, and the capacity of the involved stakeholders. the lack of a direct correlation between dbb and project delays suggests that other contextual factors may have played a role in shaping the outcomes of the projects examined (mcgraw, 2017). additionally, the study was limited to the kenyan judiciary, and the findings may not be directly generalizable to other sectors or regions. while the study provides valuable insights into the influence of project delivery methods on the execution of construction projects in the kenyan judiciary, it acknowledges the need for further investigation. the positive correlation between dbb and reduced site disputes warrants deeper exploration to understand the underlying factors contributing to this finding. additionally, the study’s focus on the kenyan judiciary context limits the generalizability of the findings to other construction sectors or geographic regions. future research should explore the implementation of alternative pdms, such as db and cmar, within the kenyan judiciary to better understand their potential benefits in terms of project timelines, cost control, and overall efficiency. comparative studies of different pdms could provide valuable insights into the factors that influence the effectiveness of each method in the kenyan construction industry context. additionally, expanding the scope of the research to include other sectors or regions could help identify broader trends and patterns in the relationship between pdms and project execution. to build upon the current study, future research could expand the scope to investigate the performance of various project delivery methods across a broader range of construction projects in kenya, beyond the judiciary. this would provide a more comprehensive understanding of the suitability and effectiveness of different delivery okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202563 methods in the kenyan construction industry. additionally, comparative studies of the kenyan context and other developing or developed countries could shed light on the contextual factors that influence the performance of project delivery methods. such cross-cultural investigations could yield valuable insights for practitioners and policymakers to make informed decisions on project delivery strategies. conclusion while dbb may offer some advantages, such as cost savings, it also presents challenges related to time, cost management, and stakeholder collaboration. alternatives like db and cmar, with their integrated and collaborative approaches, may offer better solutions for projects where time efficiency, cost control, and quality are top priorities. the kenyan judiciary’s use of dbb has provided some surprising insights, particularly into site disputes, but a more nuanced understanding of the contextual factors influencing these outcomes is needed. selecting the appropriate pdm requires a careful evaluation of the specific needs and goals of the project to ensure the most efficient and effective delivery. references agustiawan, y., coffey, v. and sutrisno, r. 2020, “the role of project culture in achieving the performance of indonesian toll road projects”. https://doi.org/10.2991/aer.k.201221.024 ahmed, s. and el-sayegh, s. 2020, “critical review of the evolution of project delivery methods in the construction industry.” multidisciplinary digital publishing institute, 11(1), 11-11. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11010011 akob, z., hipni, a, z, m. and rosly, m, r, m. 2019, “leveraging on building information modelling (bim) for infrastructure project: pan borneo highway sarawak phase 1”. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/512/1/012060 al-adawiyah, n. and utomo, c. 2020, “a review of previous researches’ methods on stakeholder management at construction projects”. iop publishing, 436(1), 012014-012014. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/436/1/012014 alaloul, s, w., hasaniyah, w, m. and tayeh, a, b. 2019, “a comprehensive review of disputes prevention and resolution in construction projects,” matec web of conferences. available at: https://www.matecconferences.org/articles/ matecconf/abs/2019/19/matecconf_concern2018_05012/mate https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201927005012 ammad, s. et al., 2020, “evaluating safety attributes in infrastructure projects”. https://doi.org/10.1109/ ieeeconf51154.2020.9319936 anderson, s. and oyetunji, a a. 2003, “selection procedure for project delivery and contract strategy”. https://doi. org/10.1061/40671(2003)83 atkinson, r. 1999, “project management: cost, time, and quality, two best guesses and a phenomenon, it is time to accept other success criteria”. international journal of project management, 17(6): 337-342 https://doi.org/10.1016/ s0263-7863(98)00069-6 azari, r., kim, y., ballard, g. and cho, s k. 2014, “starting from scratch: a new project delivery paradigm”. 22762285. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413517.231 azari-najafabadi, r., ballard, g., cho, s. and kim, y. 2011, “a dream of ideal project delivery system”. https://doi. org/10.1061/41168(399)50 azhar, n., kang, y. and ahmad, i. 2014, “factors influencing integrated project delivery in publicly owned construction projects: an information modelling perspective”. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.07.019 azis, s. 2017, “risk management analysis for construction of kutai kartanegara bridge-east kalimantan-indonesia,” aip conference proceedings. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5011572 okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202564 https://doi.org/10.2991/aer.k.201221.024 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11010011 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/512/1/012060 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/436/1/012014 https://www.matecconferences.org/articles/matecconf/abs/2019/19/matecconf_concern2018_05012/mate https://www.matecconferences.org/articles/matecconf/abs/2019/19/matecconf_concern2018_05012/mate https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201927005012 https://doi.org/10.1109/ieeeconf51154.2020.9319936 https://doi.org/10.1109/ieeeconf51154.2020.9319936 https://doi.org/10.1061/40671(2003)83 https://doi.org/10.1061/40671(2003)83 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(98)00069-6 https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(98)00069-6 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784413517.231 https://doi.org/10.1061/41168(399)50 https://doi.org/10.1061/41168(399)50 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2014.07.019 https://doi.org/10.1063/1.5011572 “common factors for construction disputes”. 2019, available at: https://quantitysurveyor4u.blogspot.com/2019/10/ common-factors-for-construction-dispute.html (accessed: november 16, 2024). demachkieh, f. et al. 2020, “considerations for filing global construction claims: legal perspective,” journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction. american society of civil engineers. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000393 dhillon, l., and vaca, s. 2018, “refining theories of change”. springer science+business media, 14(30), 64-87. https:// doi.org/10.56645/jmde.v14i30.496 ding, j., wang, n., and hu, l. 2018, “framework for designing project delivery and contract strategy in chinese construction industry based on value-added analysis”. hindawi publishing corporation, 2018, 1-14. https://doi. org/10.1155/2018/5810357 djojopranoto, a. w., and benhart, b. l. 2017, “design and build: perception of project owners and contractors on cost in java, indonesia.” civil engineering dimension, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.9744/ced.19.1.7-13 elias, a. 2023, “stakeholder analysis for r and d project management”. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/ doi/10.1111/1467-9310.00262 eskerod, p., and vaagaasar, a. l. 2014, “stakeholder management strategies and practices during a project course”. sage publishing, 45(5), 71-85. https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21447 fahmi, f., aulia, t. and isya, m. 2020, “risk analysis study on building projects in pidie district,” iop conference series: materials science and engineering, 933(1), p.012011-012011. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/933/1/012011 ghadamsi, a., & braimah, n. (2016). examining the relationship between design-bid-build selection criteria and project performance in libya. retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/ https://doi.org/10.6106/ jcepm.2016.6.2.016 gordian, 2020, “comparing 5 delivery methods for construction projects” https://www.gordian.com/resources/ comparing-5-project-delivery-methods/ gransberg, j. n. and gransberg, d. d. 2020, “public project construction manager-at-risk contracts: lessons learned from a comparison of commercial and infrastructure projects,” journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 12(1). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000339 hasanzadeh, s., esmaeili, b., nasrollahi, s., gad, g. m., and gransberg, d. d. 2018, “impact of owners’ early decisions on project performance and dispute occurrence in public highway projects”. https://doi.org/10.1061/ (asce)la.1943-4170.0000251 holloway, 2018, “importance of construction industry in the economy and use of construction equipments”. blog https://www.hhilifting.com/ hosseini, a., lædre, o., andersen, b., torp, o., olsson, n. o., and lohne, j. 2016, “selection criteria for delivery methods for infrastructure projects”. elsevier bv, 226, 260-268. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.06.187 islam, s. m. and trigunarsyah, b. 2017, “construction delays in developing countries: a review,” journal of construction engineering and project management, 7(1), p. 1-12. https://doi.org/10.6106/jcepm.2017.3.30.001 judiciary transformation framework, 2012, “judiciary transformation framework”. published by the judiciary of kenya. kahvandi, z., saghatforoush, e., ravasan, a. z., and viana, m. l. 2020, “a review and classification of integrated project delivery implementation enablers”. penerbit universiti sains malaysia, 25(2), 219-236. https://doi. org/10.21315/jcdc2020.25.2.9 okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202565 https://quantitysurveyor4u.blogspot.com/2019/10/common-factors-for-construction-dispute.html https://quantitysurveyor4u.blogspot.com/2019/10/common-factors-for-construction-dispute.html https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000393 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000393 https://doi.org/10.56645/jmde.v14i30.496 https://doi.org/10.56645/jmde.v14i30.496 https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/5810357 https://doi.org/10.1155/2018/5810357 https://doi.org/10.9744/ced.19.1.7-13 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9310.00262 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1467-9310.00262 https://doi.org/10.1002/pmj.21447 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/933/1/012011 https://www.researchgate.net/ https://doi.org/10.6106/jcepm.2016.6.2.016 https://doi.org/10.6106/jcepm.2016.6.2.016 https://www.gordian.com/resources/comparing-5-project-delivery-methods/ https://www.gordian.com/resources/comparing-5-project-delivery-methods/ https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000339 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000251 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000251 https://www.hhilifting.com/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.06.187 https://doi.org/10.6106/jcepm.2017.3.30.001 https://doi.org/10.21315/jcdc2020.25.2.9 https://doi.org/10.21315/jcdc2020.25.2.9 kalsaas, b.t., hannås, g., frislie, g., and skaar, j. 2018, “transformation from design-bid-build to design-build contracts in road construction” in: proc. 26th annual conference of the international group for lean construction (iglc). gonzález, v.a (ed.), chennai, india, pp. 34-45. https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0394 kaur, m. and singh, r. 2018, “risk and risk-handling strategies in construction projects,” international journal of management studies, 5(1(4)), p. 01-01. https://doi.org/10.18843/ijms/v5i1(4)/01 ktaish, b., and hajdu, m. 2022, “success factors in projects”. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/1218/1/012034 lahdenperä, p. 2015, “project delivery methods in finnish new building construction— a review of the last quarter century.” procedia economics and finance 21:162-9. https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00163-x liu, k., zhang, x., wang, x., chen, y., and mao, x. 2020, “the application of quality control circle to improve the quality of samples.” https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000020333 liu, y., van nederveen, s. and hertogh, m. 2017, “understanding effects of bim on collaborative design and construction: an empirical study in china,” international journal of project management, 35(4), p. 686-698. https://doi. org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.06.007 mccomb, d., and smith, j. y. 2014, “system project failure: the heuristics of risk”. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/ abs/10.1080/07399019108964967 mcconnell, h. w. and clevenger, m. c. 2018, “frequently disputed sections within the aia a201–2017 general conditions”. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000274 mcgraw hill construction (2017). managing uncertainty and expectations in building design and construction. retrieved from https://www.dbia.org/ molenaar, r. k., vanegas, a. j. and martinez, h. 2000, “appropriate risk allocation in design-build rfps”. https:// doi.org/10.1061/40475(278)117 mosly, i. 2016, “construction project delivery method selection framework: professional service firms’ perspective.” journal of civil engineering and architecture 10 (2016) 368-378, https://doi.org/10.17265/1934-7359/2016.03.012 nahyan, m. t. a., sohal, a. s., hawas, y. e., and fildes, b. 2019, “communication, coordination, decision-making and knowledge-sharing: a case study in construction management”. emerald publishing limited, 23(9), 1764-1781. https:// doi.org/10.1108/jkm-08-2018-0503 naji, k., mansour, m. and gunduz, m. 2020, “methods for modeling and evaluating construction disputes: a critical review,” ieee access. available at: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9007665/. https://doi.org/10.1109/ access.2020.2976109 ngacho, c., and das, d. 2013, “a performance evaluation framework of public construction projects: an empirical study of constituency development fund (cdf) projects in western province, kenya”. a thesis submitted to the university of delhi, faculty of management studies. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.07.005 odoko, a. b. a. 2018, “the role the construction industry plays in economic growth.” journal of environmental science and resources management vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 92-98 okello, j. f., bowa, o. and migosi, j. 2024, “project delivery attribute, procurement practices and implementation of building construction projects in the kenyan judiciary”, phd thesis, university of nairobi. kenya. pheng, l. s., and hou, l. s. 2019, “the economy and the construction industry”. construction quality and the economy. 2019: 21–54. published online 2019 jan 9., https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-5847-0_2 project acquisition document. 2012, “judiciary of kenya world bank financing document”. okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202566 https://doi.org/10.24928/2018/0394 https://doi.org/10.18843/ijms/v5i1(4)/01 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/1218/1/012034 https://doi.org/10.1016/s2212-5671(15)00163-x https://doi.org/10.1097/md.0000000000020333 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.06.007 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.06.007 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07399019108964967 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/07399019108964967 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)la.1943-4170.0000274 https://www.dbia.org/ https://doi.org/10.1061/40475(278)117 https://doi.org/10.1061/40475(278)117 https://doi.org/10.17265/1934-7359/2016.03.012 https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-08-2018-0503 https://doi.org/10.1108/jkm-08-2018-0503 https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9007665/ https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.2976109 https://doi.org/10.1109/access.2020.2976109 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2013.07.005 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-5847-0_2 rad, f. a., otaki, f., baqain, z., zary, n., and al-halabi, m. 2021, “rapid transition to distance learning due to covid-19: perceptions of postgraduate dental learners and instructors”. plos one 16(2): e0246584. https://doi. org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246584 raouf, a. m. and al‐ghamdi, s. g. 2019, “effectiveness of project delivery systems in executing green buildings”. american society of civil engineers, 145(10). https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001688 raykar, p. and ghadge, a. n. 2016, “analyzing the critical factors influencing the time overrun and cost overrun in construction project”. international journal of engineering research, issn: 2319-6890 (online), 2347-5013 (print), volume no. 5, issue special 1, pp. 21-25, 8 and 9 jan 2016, ncice@2016., rostiyanti, s. f., koesalamwardi, a. b., and winata, c. 2019, “identification of design-build project risk factors: contractor’s perspective”. matec web of conferences, 276, 02017-02017. https://doi.org/10.1051/ matecconf/201927602017 salim, s. m. and mahjoob, r. m. a. 2020, “achieving the benefits and requirements of integrated project delivery method using bim,” iop conference series: materials science and engineering, 901(1), p. 012033-012033. https://doi. org/10.1088/1757-899x/901/1/012033 seeboo, a. and proag, v. 2019, “sources and cause of poor performances on residential building projects – case study of the republic of mauritius”. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/603/3/032023 sekaran, u., & bougie, r. (2013). research methods for business (6th ed.). john wiley & sons ltd. shek, d., & wu, f. (2014). “quantitative evaluation of the revised training program project p.a.t.h.s. in hong kong.” international journal of adolescent medicine and health. https://doi.org/10.1515/ijamh.2012.038 singh, a. and sakamoto, i. 2001, “multiple claims in construction law: educational case study,” journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, american society of civil engineers, p. 122. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2001)127:3(122) sojar. 2016, “state of the judiciary annual report, 2016/2017”. published by the judiciary of kenya. sojar. 2019, “state of the judiciary annual report, 2018/2019”. published by the judiciary of kenya. soni, s., pandey, k. m. and agrawal, s. 2017, “conflicts and disputes in construction projects: an overview,” international journal of engineering research and applications. available at: https://www.ijera.com/papers/vol7_issue6/ part-7/h0706074042.pdf. strahorn, s., brewer, g., and gajendran, t. 2017, “the influence of trust on project management practice within the construction industry” construction economics and building. ajceb.v17i1.5220 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v17i1.5220 tamur, s. t. and erzaij, k. r. 2021, “the effectiveness of project delivery systems in the optimal implementation of green buildings”. iop publishing, 1105(1), 012099-012099. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/1105/1/012099 trach, r., połoński, m., and hrytsiuk, p. 2019, “modelling of efficiency evaluation of traditional project delivery methods and integrated project delivery (ipd),” iop conference series: materials science and engineering, 471, p. 112043-112043. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/471/11/112043 veselá, l. and synek, j. 2019, “quality control in building and construction”. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757899x/471/2/022013 waters, r. v., and ahmed, s. a. 2020, “beyond the spreadsheets: quality project management”. performance improvement, 59(10), 16-29. https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.21940 whyte, j. and davies, a. 2021, “reframing systems integration: a process perspective on projects”. project management journal, 52(3), 237-249. https://doi.org/10.1177/8756972821992246 okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202567 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246584 https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0246584 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001688 https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201927602017 https://doi.org/10.1051/matecconf/201927602017 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/901/1/012033 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/901/1/012033 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/603/3/032023 https://doi.org/10.1515/ijamh.2012.038 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2001)127:3(122 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)1052-3928(2001)127:3(122 https://www.ijera.com/papers/vol7_issue6/part-7/h0706074042.pdf https://www.ijera.com/papers/vol7_issue6/part-7/h0706074042.pdf https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5220 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i1.5220 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/1105/1/012099 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/471/11/112043 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/471/2/022013 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/471/2/022013 https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.21940 https://doi.org/10.1177/8756972821992246 yusuwan, n.m. and adnan, h. 2013, “issues associated with extension of time (eot) claim in malaysian construction industry,” procedia technology. elsevier bv, p. 740. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protcy.2013.12.082 zuber, s.z.s., nawi, m.n.m., nifa, a.a.f., and bahaudin, a.f. 2018, “an overview of project delivery methods in construction industry”. international journal of supply chain management. vol. 7, no. 6, december 2018. ijscm, issn: 2050-7399 (online), 2051-3771 (print, 2018) okello et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 202568 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.protcy.2013.12.082 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: alnaqbi, a., alkhateeb, g.g., zeiada, w. 2025. machine learning applications for predicting longitudinal cracking in continuously reinforced concrete pavement. construction economics and building, 25:1, 143–170. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i1.9143 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb 143 research article machine learning applications for predicting longitudinal cracking in continuously reinforced concrete pavement ali alnaqbi1*, ghazi g. al-khateeb1, waleed zeiada1,2 1 department of civil and environmental engineering, university of sharjah, sharjah p.o. box 27272, united arab emirates 2 department of public works engineering, mansoura corresponding author: ali alnaqbi, college of engineering, university of sharjah, uae , u21102866@sharjah.ac.ae doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9143 article history: received 15/05/2024; revised 17/09/2024; accepted 27/09/2024; published 31/03/2025 abstract the longevity of continuously reinforced concrete pavement (crcp) depends on the accurate prediction of longitudinal cracking. in this work, longitudinal cracking is predicted using machine learning algorithms, and data from the long-term pavement performance (ltpp) database. multiple models, such as support vector machines (svm), ensemble trees, gaussian process regression (gpr), linear regression, regression trees, artificial neural networks (ann), and kernel approaches, are compared. the random forest approach is used in statistical studies and feature relevance evaluation to identify temperature and annual average daily truck traffic (aadtt) as important predictors. r-squared and root mean squared error (rmse) metrics are used to assess the models. regression trees and ensemble approaches also perform competitively, but the gpr model with a squared exponential kernel performs better than the others, obtaining the best r-squared value (0.78) and the lowest rmse (11.84). the study illustrates the shortcomings of traditional regression models and the benefits of sophisticated machine learning methods for identifying intricate nonlinear correlations. sensitivity analysis demonstrates that pavement age, traffic loads, and environmental factors—specifically, temperature and precipitation—have a considerable impact on longitudinal cracking. declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9143 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9143 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9143 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:u21102866@sharjah.ac.ae https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i1.9143 keywords longitudinal cracking; continuously reinforced concrete pavement; ltpp; statistical analysis; machine learning introduction continuously reinforced concrete pavement (crcp) is a widely used pavement type in transportation infrastructure due to its exceptional durability and longevity (benmokrane, et al., 2020). unlike traditional concrete pavements, crcp employs continuous reinforcement, eliminating the need for expansion joints (roesler, et al., 2011). this unique feature, achieved by reinforcing the concrete with a continuous grid of steel bars, provides exceptional resistance to cracking and faulting (bansal, 2019). crcp exhibits remarkable durability due to the absence of expansion joints, which are the primary cause of pavement deterioration (abadin, et al., 2023). by eliminating these joints, crcp effectively mitigates the infiltration of moisture and incompressible materials, significantly reducing the occurrence of spalling, cracking, and faulting. this innovative design results in a pavement that can endure heavy traffic loads and adverse weather conditions for an extended period (kohler and roesler, 2006). crcp also offers superior load transfer efficiency compared to jointed concrete pavements (benmokrane, et al., 2020). the continuous reinforcement ensures that loads are effectively distributed across the entire pavement structure, preventing localized stress concentrations and minimizing the risk of structural failure (roesler, et al., 2011). this exceptional load transfer capability contributes to the pavement’s ability to withstand heavy axle loads and maintain its integrity under demanding traffic conditions (abadin, et al., 2023). furthermore, crcp exhibits reduced maintenance requirements due to its inherent durability (bansal, 2019). the absence of expansion joints eliminates the need for routine maintenance tasks associated with these joints, such as sealing and crack filling (kohler and roesler, 2006). this design characteristic reduces the occurrence of joint-related distresses, which are common in other types of pavements. additionally, the continuous reinforcement in crcp helps distribute stresses more evenly, thereby reducing the likelihood of major cracking and structural failures. as a result, crcp offers significant life cycle cost savings by minimizing maintenance expenses and extending the pavement’s service life (roesler, et al., 2011). this extended service life and reduced maintenance requirement translate to less frequent road closures and repairs, enhancing overall road user satisfaction and safety. the condition of pavements is of paramount importance for ensuring the safety, efficiency, and smooth flow of transportation (chakroborty and das, 2017). healthy and well-maintained pavements provide numerous benefits, including improved ride quality, reduced vehicle operating costs, and enhanced safety for road users (khahro, et al., 2021). conversely, distressed pavements can lead to a myriad of problems that negatively impact transportation and the economy (love and ika, 2021). longitudinal cracking, a common form of pavement distress, significantly impacts pavement performance and safety (adlinge and gupta, 2013). these cracks, running parallel to the direction of traffic, cause multiple issues that deteriorate the pavement’s integrity. primarily, they allow water to infiltrate the pavement structure, weakening the foundation and accelerating deterioration. this infiltration can lead to further cracking, potholes, and other structural problems, compromising the overall durability and functionality of the pavement. additionally, longitudinal cracks can pose safety hazards to vehicles by creating uneven surfaces and potentially causing loss of control. thus, understanding and mitigating longitudinal cracking are crucial for maintaining pavement performance and ensuring road safety. also, longitudinal cracks can create uneven surfaces and reduce skid resistance, making them hazardous for vehicles, especially motorcycles and bicycles. the presence of cracks can also increase noise levels alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025144 generated by traffic, causing disturbances to nearby communities. furthermore, longitudinal cracks can contribute to tire wear and increase vehicle maintenance costs for motorists. the economic implications of pavement distress are significant (love and ika, 2021). poor pavement conditions can lead to increased vehicle operating costs due to higher fuel consumption, tire wear, and suspension damage. additionally, pavement repairs and replacements are costly, diverting valuable resources that could be used for other transportation improvements. predicting longitudinal cracking in crcp using traditional methods presents several challenges (liu, et al., 2023). these methods, often based on empirical relationships and statistical models, have limitations in capturing the complex mechanisms that contribute to cracking. predicting longitudinal cracking in crcp using traditional methods presents several challenges (liu, et al., 2023). these methods, often relying on empirical relationships and statistical models, face limitations in accurately capturing the complex mechanisms contributing to cracking. for instance, empirical models developed for jointed plain concrete pavements ( jpcp), such as the one by xiao and wu (2018), incorporate variables like slab geometry, traffic loading, and base support. however, these models, with an r-squared value of 0.47, assume linear relationships and may not capture the nonlinear behaviors exhibited by pavement materials under varying environmental and loading conditions (xiao and wu, 2018). this highlights the novelty of our manuscript, which leverages advanced machine learning techniques to better model these complex interactions and improve predictive accuracy. one of the primary challenges lies in the variability of pavement materials and construction practices (bansal, 2019). the properties of concrete, steel reinforcement, and subgrade conditions can vary significantly, affecting the pavement’s response to traffic loads and environmental factors. traditional methods may not adequately account for these variations, leading to inaccurate predictions. another challenge is the difficulty in quantifying the effects of traffic loading on crcp (benmokrane, et al., 2020). traffic loads, particularly heavy axle loads, play a significant role in initiating and propagating longitudinal cracks. however, traditional methods often rely on simplified traffic loading models that do not capture the dynamic interactions between vehicles and the pavement structure. furthermore, current practices in pavement management often lack the necessary data and tools for accurate longitudinal cracking prediction (peraka and biligiri, 2020). pavement condition data collection and analysis are typically limited to visual inspections and basic distress surveys. these methods may not provide sufficient information to identify the root causes of cracking or to develop effective maintenance strategies. to address these challenges, researchers are exploring advanced modeling techniques and data-driven approaches for longitudinal cracking prediction (xie, et al., 2020). these methods, such as finite element modeling and machine learning algorithms, offer the potential to better capture the complex interactions between pavement materials, traffic loading, and environmental factors. by leveraging these advancements, pavement engineers can develop more accurate and reliable prediction models, leading to improved pavement management and maintenance strategies. machine learning stands as a transformative approach revolutionizing the field of predicting pavement distress, as highlighted by several studies on the subject (nash, et al., 2018; huang, 2023; guan, et al., 2023). unlike traditional methods, which often rely on predetermined rules and equations, machine learning empowers systems to learn and adapt from data, offering a dynamic and efficient way to forecast pavement conditions. these studies emphasize the pivotal role of machine learning in enhancing the accuracy and efficiency of pavement distress prediction models. one remarkable aspect of machine learning in the context of predicting pavement distress is its ability to leverage vast datasets, exemplified by the wealth of information available in the long-term pavement performance (ltpp) database (elkins and ostrom, 2021). this extensive repository encompasses a alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025145 comprehensive range of variables, including traffic loads, environmental conditions, and material properties, providing a rich tapestry of information for machine learning algorithms to analyze. the application of machine learning techniques to pavement distress prediction has been widely acknowledged, with studies demonstrating the effectiveness of leveraging large datasets such as those within the ltpp database (martin and choummanivong, 2016). the volume and diversity of data within the ltpp database enable machine learning models to discern nuanced patterns that might elude traditional analytical approaches. utilizing big data enhances prediction accuracy, offering a nuanced understanding of pavement deterioration factors. this sentiment is echoed in the work of wang, et al. (2017), where machine learning-based pavement performance prediction using ltpp data is explored, underscoring the significance of leveraging extensive datasets. machine learning transforms a deterministic process into a dynamic data-driven one, unlocking potential within large datasets like those in the ltpp database. this improves prediction accuracy and provides deeper comprehension of interactions shaping pavement conditions. integrating machine learning into pavement management systems promises to optimize maintenance and ensure road network longevity. the ltpp database, highlighted by various studies, serves as a comprehensive resource in pavement engineering (selezneva, et al., 2022). developed by the federal highway administration (fhwa), it archives data from experimental pavement sections across north america (chang, et al., 2016), covering diverse climatic zones, materials, and construction practices. this extensive collection provides researchers with rich insights into pavement performance. in our study, the ltpp database’s extensive and longitudinal nature is crucial, as emphasized by reports on the ltpp program’s history and overview (corley-lay and mastin, 2009). the database encompasses traffic loads, environmental conditions, material properties, and construction practices, allowing for robust analysis of pavement behavior over time. our study draws inspiration from foundational works, such as the guide for mechanistic-empirical design of new and rehabilitated pavement structures (lali, 2023). the ltpp database helps refine and validate predictive models, identifying critical factors influencing pavement durability and resilience. this extensive temporal perspective enhances accuracy and applicability in real-world scenarios, improving transportation infrastructure sustainability and performance. a noticeable research gap exists in applying machine learning to predict longitudinal cracking in crcp (mokhtari, 2015; shtayat, 2022). while many studies explore machine learning in pavement distress prediction, few address the unique challenges of crcp. this gap highlights the need for tailored models and methodologies, as emphasized in the ltpp program’s comprehensive analysis (uddin, 2015). the motivation behind our study stems from recognizing a significant research gap in predicting longitudinal cracking in crcp, which necessitates a comprehensive approach (kim, et al., 2019; won, 2011). longitudinal cracking in crcp poses unique challenges influenced by factors such as steel reinforcement, construction practices, and environmental conditions, as highlighted in crcp performance analyses (sudoi, 2008). these complexities demand a specialized machine learning approach for accurate and effective prediction. our motivation is twofold: first, to enhance understanding of the factors influencing longitudinal cracking in crcp through machine learning, leveraging insights from the ltpp program’s analysis (uddin, 2015); and second, to develop a predictive model that improves distress prediction accuracy, facilitating more informed and proactive maintenance strategies. by addressing this research gap, our study aims to substantially contribute to pavement engineering, offering practitioners and researchers a valuable tool for optimizing crcp maintenance practices and ensuring the sustainability of this crucial transportation infrastructure component. alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025146 research objectives the main objective of this research is to analyze various machine learning methods for predicting longitudinal cracking in crcp using ltpp data. the specific objectives are as follows: 1. data exploration: provide an overview of the ltpp dataset’s structure and variables relevant to longitudinal cracking. 2. statistical analysis: analyze the distribution and variability of variables associated with longitudinal cracking. 3. feature importance: identify key features affecting longitudinal cracking using statistical methods. 4. model development: develop predictive models using linear regression, decision tree, support vector machine (svm), ensemble tree, gaussian process regression (gpr), artificial neural networks (ann), and kernel methods. 5. model evaluation: assess model performance using metrics like mean squared error (mse) and r-squared. 6. model comparison: compare models’ performance using root mean squared error (rmse) and r-squared to identify the most effective approach for predicting longitudinal cracking. 7. sensitivity analysis: perform a sensitivity analysis on the best-performing model to understand the impact of individual variables on longitudinal cracking. 8. practical implications: provide practical recommendations based on the findings, emphasizing how the results can be applied in pavement maintenance and management strategies. methodology the research study adhered to a systematic methodology delineated across various stages, as depicted in figure 1. initially, data retrieval involved extracting asphalt pavement control sections from both cold and warm climate zones, resulting in the selection of 33 sections that represented diverse climatic conditions. subsequently, the raw data underwent thorough processing, integration, and cleaning to ensure their suitability for exploration, visualization, and modeling. in this study, longitudinal cracking in crcp served as the primary pavement performance indicator, acting as the principal dependent variable for analysis. the research aimed to investigate the relationship between longitudinal cracking in crcp and all other independent variables (features) to discern any notable patterns. cutting-edge machine learning models were then employed to develop highly effective prediction models for longitudinal cracking in crcp. recognizing the uncertainty surrounding the optimal machine learning technique for modeling longitudinal cracking in crcp, the study advocated the use of multiple techniques. consequently, six state-of-the-art machine learning techniques were selected, namely, regression tree, support vector machine, ensembles, gaussian process regression, artificial neural network, and kernel. further details on these six techniques will be elucidated below. it is important to note that the data preprocessing, filtering, visualization, and modeling stages were carried out using a combination of microsoft excel©, microsoft access©, minitab, and matlab©. more details of the methodology part are mentioned in the subsections below: statistical analysis in the initial stage of our methodology, we commence with a comprehensive descriptive statistical analysis aimed at shedding light on the key characteristics of the dataset. this involves calculating essential statistical measures such as mean, median, mode, standard deviation, and range for relevant variables. the presentation of summary statistics will offer a nuanced understanding of the central tendency and dispersion within the alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025147 dataset. additionally, graphical representations, including box plots, will be utilized to assess the distribution of the data visually. a histogram of the output variable will be constructed, specifically focusing on longitudinal cracking. this histogram serves as a visual tool to illuminate the frequency distribution of the output variable, providing insights into the underlying distribution pattern. the shape of the histogram will be scrutinized to extract valuable information about the distribution characteristics. next, we applied conventional regression modeling using minitab software to derive an equation representing the relationship between predictor variables and longitudinal cracking. this process involved conducting a regression analysis to calculate the coefficients for each predictor variable. to assess the significance of the regression model, an analysis of variance (anova) was performed. the subsequent step in our methodology involves the validation of the conventional regression model and its underlying assumptions. normality, linearity, and homoscedasticity of residuals will be assessed, and diagnostic plots will be utilized for validation. any necessary adjustments or transformations required to meet the model assumptions will be discussed in this section, ensuring the reliability of subsequent analyses. correlation matrix and feature importance assessment in the initial phase of our methodology tailored for the study on longitudinal cracking, we initiate the computation of a correlation matrix to explore the relationships among input features. the dataset is imported, and using matlab, we calculate the correlation matrix by analyzing the relationships between the first 16 variables. subsequently, for enhanced interpretability, we generate a heatmap visualization. this heatmap serves as a graphical representation of the correlation matrix, offering insights into the strength and directionality of the relationships among the input features. continuing with our methodology, we extend our approach to the assessment of feature importance utilizing the random forest algorithm. using random forest, previously hidden and subtle linkages in the dataset were revealed, allowing for the development of a more precise and resilient predictive model for long-term pavement performance database (longitudinal cracking in crcp) data pre-processing data visualization feature importance analysis model development machine learning anngpr ensemble trees regression trees svmlinear regression model evaluation and comparison geo-location mapping correlation matrix heatmap statistical analysis random forest algorithm kernel figure 1. methodology framework. alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025148 “longitudinal cracking (m).” this method is extremely useful in pavement engineering and management because it provides critical insights into how different design aspects affect pavement longitudinal, which is necessary for informed decision-making and optimum maintenance methods. we performed data preparation prior to using the random forest feature importance approach to ensure the dataset’s integrity and suitability for analysis. this procedure included cleansing the data, addressing any missing values, and confirming the presence of the critical input features and the target variable. a random forest regression model was created to assess the impact of various design elements on fatigue cracking. here is a rundown of the stages involved in building this model: 1. data splitting: the dataset was divided into two parts: the first contained 40 design-related features of the pavement (x), while the second included the target variable, longitudinal cracking, which is critical for assessing pavement performance. 2. ensemble learning: in this study, an ensemble of 100 decision trees was utilized, which characterizes the random forest technique. employing a substantial number of trees bolsters the model’s resilience and its predictive precision. 3. regression task: considering the predictive nature of the task, the random forest model was tailored for regression, targeting the prediction of continuous values, specifically the levels of longitudinal cracking. 4. out-of-bag (oob) estimation: the random forest model’s prediction accuracy was tested using the out-of-bag approach, which employed a dataset subset that was not used during the training of each tree to estimate the model’s performance. the core element of this process involves determining feature importance scores. these scores signify the individual contributions of each input factor toward the model’s capability to predict levels of longitudinal cracking (elbaz, et al., 2020; naeem, et al., 2023). the algorithm computes feature importance through the following steps: 1. out-of-bag data: while training the model, each decision tree is trained on a bootstrap sample of the data, leaving aside a subset known as the out-of-bag data. 2. prediction with oob data: the oob data are utilized for predictions by each individual decision tree, and the variation between these predictions and the genuine target values (longitudinal cracking levels) is measured to estimate the prediction error. 3. importance calculation: the random forest algorithm calculates the decrease in prediction error upon including each input feature in the model. features that notably reduce the error are regarded as more significant. machine learning models in the machine learning model development phase tailored for predicting longitudinal cracking in crcp, our objective is to employ diverse algorithms to ensure a comprehensive approach. six distinct models, each with unique strengths, will be implemented and evaluated rigorously. the selected models for this study encompass linear regression, regression decision tree, svm, ensemble tree (bagged and boosted), gpr, ann, and kernel methods. table 1 summarizes the advantages and disadvantages of each model and how they are utilized in the study. to initiate the process, the dataset, consisting of pertinent features and the target variable (longitudinal cracking in crcp), undergoes meticulous preparation for model training. subsequently, we embark on the development of a linear regression model, serving as a baseline for predictive performance. the dataset alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025149 is split into training and testing sets, and a 10-fold cross-validation method is employed to ensure robust evaluation. moving forward, a regression decision tree is implemented to capture nonlinear relationships within the data. the decision tree is trained using the training set, and its performance is assessed through the 10-fold cross-validation framework. the svm’s predictive capability is then harnessed, focusing on handling complex relationships within the dataset. normalization of input features precedes the training of the svm model, and its effectiveness is rigorously evaluated using the 10-fold cross-validation approach. ensemble tree models, namely, bagged and boosted, are introduced to exploit the benefits of ensemble methods for enhanced predictive accuracy. the random forest (bagged) and gradient boosting (boosted) models undergo training and evaluation within the 10-fold cross-validation setup. table 1. advantages, disadvantages, and usage of machine learning models in predicting longitudinal cracking in crcp model type advantages disadvantages usage in study linear regression simplicity, ease of interpretation, efficient for large datasets assumes linearity, sensitive to outliers baseline model for comparison regression decision tree handles nonlinear relationships, easy to interpret prone to overfitting, less stable with data changes capturing nonlinear patterns svm effective in highdimensional spaces, robust to overfitting computationally intensive, sensitive to kernel and parameters handling complex relationships ensemble trees high accuracy, reduces overfitting by combining models computationally intensive, less interpretable enhanced predictive performance using bagged and boosted trees gpr provides uncertainty measures, captures nonlinear relationships computationally expensive, lacks scalability modeling complex nonlinear functions, probabilistic predictions ann captures intricate patterns, high flexibility requires large datasets, extensive computational resources, prone to overfitting modeling complex patterns and interactions kernel methods handles nonlinear data by transforming to higher dimensions computationally intensive, sensitive to parameter selection enhancing svm with different kernel functions alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025150 gpr is then employed to explore the flexibility of this probabilistic approach in capturing complex patterns within the data. input feature normalization precedes the training of the gpr model, and its performance is rigorously evaluated through the 10-fold cross-validation methodology. ann and kernel methods are subsequently introduced, leveraging the capabilities of deep learning and kernelized algorithms. the input features are normalized, and an ann model is designed and trained for regression. an svm with a kernel, such as the radial basis function (rbf) kernel, is implemented. both models are subjected to thorough evaluation using the 10-fold cross-validation technique. table 2 presents the specific configurations of the machine learning models utilized in our study, outlining the hyperparameters adjusted to optimize each model’s performance. the hyperparameters for each model were selected based on a combination of empirical evidence, literature review, and preliminary testing to ensure optimal model performance. these settings reflect our commitment to leveraging the strengths of each model to accurately predict fatigue cracking, taking into account the complexities of the dataset. table 2. hyperparameter settings for machine learning models model type specifications hyperparameters linear regression linear terms: linear; robust option: off robust linear terms: linear; robust option: on regression tree fine minimum leaf size: 4; surrogate decision splits: off medium minimum leaf size: 12; surrogate decision splits: off coarse minimum leaf size: 36; surrogate decision splits: off support vector machine linear svm kernel function: linear; kernel scale: automatic; box constraint: automatic; epsilon: auto; standardize data: yes quadratic svm kernel function: quadratic; kernel scale: automatic; box constraint: automatic; epsilon: auto; standardize data: yes cubic svm kernel function: cubic; kernel scale: automatic; box constraint: automatic; epsilon: auto; standardize data: yes fine gaussian kernel function: gaussian; kernel scale: 1.1; box constraint: automatic; epsilon: auto; standardize data: yes medium gaussian kernel function: gaussian; kernel scale: 4.5; box constraint: automatic; epsilon: auto; standardize data: yes coarse gaussian kernel function: gaussian; kernel scale: 18; box constraint: automatic; epsilon: auto; standardize data: yes ensemble trees boosted trees minimum leaf size: 8; number of learners: 30; learning rate: 0.1 bagged trees minimum leaf size: 8; number of learners: 30 alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025151 model type specifications hyperparameters gaussian process regression squared exponential gpr basis function: constant; kernel function: squared exponential; use isotropic kernel: yes; kernel scale: automatic; signal standard deviation: automatic; sigma: automatic; standardize data: yes; optimize numeric parameters: yes matern 5/2 gpr basis function: constant; kernel function: matern 5/2; use isotropic kernel: yes; kernel scale: automatic; signal standard deviation: automatic; sigma: automatic; standardize data: yes; optimize numeric parameters: yes exponential gpr basis function: constant; kernel function: exponential; use isotropic kernel: yes; kernel scale: automatic; signal standard deviation: automatic; sigma: automatic; standardize data: yes; optimize numeric parameters: yes rational quadratic gpr basis function: constant; kernel function: rational quadratic; use isotropic kernel: yes; kernel scale: automatic; signal standard deviation: automatic; sigma: automatic; standardize data: yes; optimize numeric parameters: yes artificial neural network narrow neural network number of fully connected layers: 1; first layer size: 10; activation: relu; iteration limit: 1,000; regularization strength (lambda): 0; standardize data: yes medium neural network number of fully connected layers: 1; first layer size: 25; activation: relu; iteration limit: 1,000; regularization strength (lambda): 0; standardize data: yes wide neural network number of fully connected layers: 1; first layer size: 100; activation: relu; iteration limit: 1,000; regularization strength (lambda): 0; standardize data: yes bilayered neural network number of fully connected layers: 2; first layer size: 10; second layer size: 10; activation: relu; iteration limit: 1,000; regularization strength (lambda): 0; standardize data: yes trilayered neural network number of fully connected layers: 3; first layer size: 10; second layer size: 10; third layer size: 10; activation: relu; iteration limit: 1,000; regularization strength (lambda): 0; standardize data: yes kernel svm kernel learner: svm; number of expansion dimensions: auto; regularization strength (lambda): auto; kernel scale: auto; epsilon: auto; iteration limit: 1,000 least squares regression kernel learner: least squares kernel; number of expansion dimensions: auto; regularization strength (lambda): auto; kernel scale: auto; iteration limit: 1,000 table 2. continued alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025152 the final stage involves a comprehensive model comparison, considering relevant metrics such as mean squared error, r-squared, and others. the diverse characteristics of each model, including interpretability, computational efficiency, and predictive accuracy, are taken into account to inform the selection of the most effective approach. through this meticulous and systematic methodology, we thoroughly explore various machine learning approaches, providing valuable insights into their effectiveness for predicting longitudinal cracking in crcp. the use of 10-fold cross-validation enhances the reliability and robustness of our model evaluations. data description, preprocessing, preliminary analysis, and visualization the data employed for the study originated from the ltpp database, established in 1987 with the primary goal of exploring effective pavement construction methods under diverse conditions (martin and choummanivong, 2016). this comprehensive database incorporates information from over 600 pavement sections, including archival data from more than 1,900 pavement sections, and is managed by the federal highway administration. researchers and professionals in pavement engineering can access this valuable repository at https://infopave.fhwa.dot.gov/ to support their analyses and studies. this research study selected 33 crcp sections from the ltpp database based on specific filtering criteria. first, we selected sections that had not received any maintenance or rehabilitation to ensure that the data reflected the true performance of the original pavement. second, we focused exclusively on crcp sections. these filters resulted in the selection of 33 sections. these 33 sections encompass a variety of conditions relevant to crcp performance, including different climatic regions (both cold and warm) and varying environmental conditions (with and without freezing). the data selection process yielded a total of 395 individual records that met these stringent criteria. the extracted data types encompass structure, climate, traffic, and performance-related information. table 3 outlines the chosen attributes within each category, specifying the variables used in the analysis. by selecting sections with these considerations, we ensured a robust and comprehensive analysis, enhancing the external validity of our study and making our findings applicable to a broad range of real-world conditions. their geographic locations were plotted on a map to visually depict the selected ltpp pavement sections and categorized according to their respective states (figure 2). this mapping provides a spatial representation of the distribution of the 33 sections and facilitates a geographical understanding of the locations under consideration for the study. results and discussion statistical analysis the analysis of longitudinal cracking in crcp based on descriptive statistics in table 4 reveals insightful findings. the pavement sections, sourced from the ltpp database, exhibit an average age of 18.51 years, indicating a predominance of relatively younger sections. the distribution of the number of lanes is slightly positively skewed, suggesting a tendency toward a higher number of lanes. layer thicknesses vary, with l2, l3, and l4 displaying notable averages of 169.78, 155.95, and 142.61 mm, respectively, contributing to an overall total thickness of 468.34 mm. precipitation averages 1,044.50 mm, showing a slightly left-skewed distribution, while temperature averages at 15.52°c with a negatively skewed distribution. the freeze index exhibits high variability and a right-skewed distribution, indicating potential challenges in freezing conditions. humidity ranges widely, with minimum and maximum values showing positive skewness, suggesting a prevalence of higher humidity levels. traffic parameters, including annual average daily traffic alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025153 https://infopave.fhwa.dot.gov/ (aadt), average annual daily truck traffic (aadtt), and kilo-equivalent single axle loads (kesal), display positive skewness, indicating concentrations of higher traffic conditions. the initial international roughness index (iri) averages 1.33, suggesting acceptable initial pavement roughness. however, the variable for longitudinal cracking presents substantial variability, with an average of 6.69 and a right-skewed distribution, indicating the presence of extensive cracking in some sections, supported by a maximum value of 188.40. these descriptive statistics provide a foundational understanding for subsequent analyses and model development, highlighting areas of interest such as the impact of age, layer thickness, environmental factors, traffic conditions, and initial pavement conditions on longitudinal cracking in crcp. attention to the right-skewed distribution and outliers in longitudinal cracking is crucial for accurate predictions and effective pavement management strategies. the conventional regression analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between various factors and the occurrence of longitudinal cracking in crcp. the regression equation obtained is as follows: table 3. summary of the collected data. data type data attribute number / categorical structure age (years) number construction number number layer #2 type categorical layer #2 thickness (mm) number layer #3 type categorical layer #3 thickness (mm) number layer #4 type categorical layer #4 thickness (mm) number total thickness (mm) number climate climate zone categorical annual average precipitation (mm) number annual average temperature (°c) number annual average freeze index (°c ⋅ days) number min. relative humidity (%) number max. relative humidity (%) number traffic number of lanes categorical kesals number annual average daily traffic (aadt) number annual average daily truck traffic (aadtt) number performance initial iri (m/km) number longitudinal cracking (m) number alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025154 table 4. summary of descriptive statistical analysis. variable mean sd minimum q1 median q3 maximum iqr skewness age 18.51 10.20 0.00 11.00 18.00 26.00 47.00 15.00 0.34 number of lanes 2.24 0.52 1.00 2.00 2.00 3.00 3.00 1.00 0.24 l2 thickness 169.78 69.35 71.00 112.00 152.00 198.00 366.00 86.00 1.08 l3 thickness 155.95 73.80 41.00 102.00 140.00 216.00 325.00 114.00 0.27 l4 thickness 142.61 117.82 0.00 0.00 203.00 236.00 295.00 236.00 -0.28 total thickness 468.34 109.07 264.00 376.00 475.00 549.00 694.00 173.00 0.30 precipitation 1044.50 389.30 62.00 779.30 1104.40 1324.70 2209.20 545.40 -0.25 temperature 15.52 3.78 3.00 13.70 16.10 17.90 22.80 4.20 -0.78 freeze index 112.70 252.90 0.00 4.00 24.00 89.00 1763.00 85.00 3.78 min. humidity 16.24 6.93 2.00 12.00 16.00 20.00 43.00 8.00 0.62 max. humidity 116.65 5.59 102.00 113.00 116.00 119.00 145.00 6.00 0.81 aadt 7991.00 6929.00 784.00 3400.00 5121.00 11933.00 51030.00 8533.00 2.48 aadtt 1251.90 1147.00 104.00 524.00 900.00 1544.00 8249.00 1020.00 2.31 kesal 644.00 693.90 22.00 165.00 410.00 827.00 4305.00 662.00 2.12 initial iri 1.33 0.40 0.58 1.00 1.24 1.67 2.31 0.67 0.40 longitudinal cracking 6.69 24.95 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.80 188.40 0.80 5.20 figure 2. mapping the geographic locations of the chosen asphalt pavement sections alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025155 regression equation longitudinal cracking = 94.0 + 0.299 age + 1.69 number of lanes + 0.0506 l2 thickness 0.2000 l3 thickness 0.0875 l4 thickness 0.01486 precipitation 0.793 temperature 0.01662 freeze index + 0.300 min. humidity 0.267 max. humidity 0.000628 aadt + 0.00730 aadtt 0.00082 kesal 6.85 initial iri upon reviewing the model summary metrics, it becomes apparent that the conventional regression analysis, as indicated by the modest r-squared values (23.55% for r-sq and 20.74% for r-sq(adj)), may not comprehensively capture the nuanced relationship underlying longitudinal cracking. the predictive r-squared (14.56%) suggests a moderate ability to forecast future observations. these accuracy metrics underscore the limitations of the linear regression model in explaining the majority of variability in longitudinal cracking. this accentuates the need for more advanced modeling techniques, such as machine learning models, to better capture complex patterns and nonlinear associations within the data, aiming for improved accuracy and a more comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing longitudinal cracking in crcp. the results of the regression analysis are presented in table 5, which details the coefficients, standard errors, t-values, p-values, and variance inflation factors (vif) for each term in the model. the constant term, with a coefficient of 94.0000 and a significant p-value of 0.0040, indicates the baseline level of longitudinal cracking when all other variables are held at zero. among the significant predictors, age has a positive coefficient of 0.2990, suggesting that older pavement sections tend to exhibit higher levels of longitudinal cracking. this is supported by a t-value of 2.4100 and a p-value of 0.0160, indicating statistical significance. similarly, the number of lanes, with a coefficient of 1.6900, shows a positive relationship with cracking, although this factor is not statistically significant (p-value of 0.5470). the thickness of the second layer (l2 thickness) has a positive coefficient of 0.0506 and is statistically significant (p-value of 0.0240), indicating that thicker layers are associated with increased longitudinal cracking. conversely, the third (l3) and fourth (l4) layers exhibit negative coefficients (-0.2000 and -0.0875, respectively), with both factors being statistically significant (p-values of 0.0000 and 0.0020, respectively). this suggests that increased thickness in these layers may reduce cracking. precipitation, with a coefficient of -0.0149 and a significant p-value of 0.0000, indicates that higher levels of precipitation are associated with reduced longitudinal cracking. similarly, the freeze index has a negative coefficient (-0.0166) and is statistically significant (p-value of 0.0380), suggesting that regions with more freeze-thaw cycles experience less cracking potentially due to enhanced design considerations in these areas. the analysis also highlights that traffic-related factors such as aadt and aadtt are significant predictors. aadt has a negative coefficient (-0.0006) with a p-value of 0.0050, while aadtt shows a positive coefficient (0.0073) with a p-value of 0.0040, indicating their respective impacts on longitudinal cracking. the initial iri is another significant predictor, with a negative coefficient (-6.8500) and a p-value of 0.0440, suggesting that pavements with higher initial roughness are more prone to cracking. other factors, such as temperature, minimum and maximum humidity, and kesal, do not show statistically significant contributions to the model, as indicated by their higher p-values. the vif values for all predictors are within acceptable ranges, indicating that multicollinearity is not a significant concern in this regression model. the analysis of variance results in table 6 offer a detailed evaluation of the statistical importance of each predictor in the regression model for longitudinal cracking. anova is utilized to determine the significance of the regression model as a whole and to identify which specific variables make a meaningful contribution to the prediction of longitudinal cracking. alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025156 the collective model shows a notable f-value of 8.36 and a corresponding p-value of 0.000, indicating that the regression model significantly explains the variability in longitudinal cracking. this suggests that at least one predictor variable has a significant impact on longitudinal cracking. breaking down the contributions of individual predictors, we find that several variables significantly contribute to the model: • age (f = 5.82, p = 0.016): older pavement sections tend to have higher levels of longitudinal cracking. • l2 thickness (f = 5.17, p = 0.024): the thickness of the second layer is positively associated with cracking. • l3 thickness (f = 25.37, p = 0.000) and l4 thickness (f = 10.03, p = 0.002): thicker third and fourth layers are associated with reduced cracking. • precipitation (f = 12.95, p = 0.000): higher precipitation levels are linked to lower cracking levels possibly due to moisture’s impact on pavement conditions. • freeze index (f = 4.32, p = 0.038): areas with more freeze-thaw cycles show more longitudinal cracking. • aadt (f = 7.99, p = 0.005) and aadtt (f = 8.57, p = 0.004): higher traffic volumes and truck traffic are significant predictors of cracking. • initial iri (f = 4.09, p = 0.044): pavements with higher initial roughness index values exhibit more cracking. however, some predictors, such as number of lanes, temperature, min. humidity, max. humidity, and kesal, do not show statistically significant contributions based on their p-values. table 5. coefficients values. term coefficient se coefficient t-value p-value vif constant 94.0000 32.7000 2.8700 0.0040 age 0.2990 0.1240 2.4100 0.0160 1.2800 number of lanes 1.6900 2.7900 0.6000 0.5470 1.6700 l2 thickness 0.0506 0.0223 2.2700 0.0240 1.9000 l3 thickness -0.2000 0.0397 -5.0400 0.0000 6.8500 l4 thickness -0.0875 0.0276 -3.1700 0.0020 8.4700 precipitation -0.0149 0.0041 -3.6000 0.0000 2.0600 temperature -0.7930 0.6110 -1.3000 0.1950 4.2600 freeze index -0.0166 0.0080 -2.0800 0.0380 3.2600 min. humidity 0.3000 0.2240 1.3400 0.1820 1.9300 max. humidity -0.2670 0.2300 -1.1600 0.2460 1.3200 aadt -0.0006 0.0002 -2.8300 0.0050 1.8900 aadtt 0.0073 0.0025 2.9300 0.0040 6.5400 kesal -0.0008 0.0040 -0.2100 0.8350 6.0300 initial iri -6.8500 3.3900 -2.0200 0.0440 1.4500 alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025157 additionally, the lack-of-fit test within the error term has a p-value of 0.000, indicating that the model does not fully capture all relevant features. this suggests the potential need for model refinement, either through more advanced modeling techniques or the inclusion of additional variables, to enhance the overall model fit and predictive accuracy. table 6. analysis of variance results. source df adj. ss adj. ms f-value p-value model (regression) 14 57783 4127.3 8.36 0 age 1 2874 2874.3 5.82 0.016 number of lanes 1 180 179.7 0.36 0.547 l2 thickness 1 2552 2552.3 5.17 0.024 l3 thickness 1 12522 12521.6 25.37 0 l4 thickness 1 4950 4949.5 10.03 0.002 precipitation 1 6393 6392.6 12.95 0 temperature 1 830 830.4 1.68 0.195 freeze index 1 2132 2132 4.32 0.038 min. humidity 1 882 881.5 1.79 0.182 max. humidity 1 667 667.2 1.35 0.246 aadt 1 3944 3944.1 7.99 0.005 aadtt 1 4232 4231.6 8.57 0.004 kesal 1 21 21.3 0.04 0.835 initial iri 1 2017 2017.2 4.09 0.044 error 380 187546 493.5 lack-of-fit 347 187153 539.3 45.3 0 pure error 33 393 11.9 total 394 245329 the residual plots for longitudinal cracking are presented in figure 3, providing valuable insights into the performance and assumptions of the regression model. each plot serves a specific diagnostic purpose to evaluate the model’s validity. the normal probability plot illustrates whether the residuals conform to a normal distribution, a key assumption of the regression model. a linear pattern in this plot indicates that the residuals are normally distributed, supporting the validity of the model assumptions. deviations from the line suggest potential issues with normality, which could affect the reliability of the model’s predictions. the versus fits plot helps detect patterns or trends in the residuals relative to the predicted values. it offers insights into potential heteroscedasticity (nonconstant variance) or nonlinearity in the model. ideally, the residuals should be randomly scattered around zero without any discernible pattern. any systematic alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025158 pattern may indicate issues with the model fit, such as missing variables or incorrect functional form, necessitating further model refinement. the histogram provides a graphical representation of the distribution of residuals, aiding in the assessment of their symmetry and the presence of outliers. a symmetric bell-shaped histogram centered on zero suggests that the residuals are normally distributed. skewness or the presence of extreme values indicates deviations from normality, which could signal that the model does not fully capture the underlying data structure. the versus order plot helps identify any systematic patterns or trends in the residuals concerning the order of observation. it is instrumental in detecting autocorrelation, which occurs when residuals are correlated across observations. in a well-fitting model, residuals should be randomly distributed with no apparent pattern over time or order. the presence of patterns in this plot may suggest the need for time series modeling techniques or the inclusion of lagged variables. collectively, these residual plots contribute to the evaluation of the regression model’s assumptions and performance. they guide potential adjustments or enhancements for a more robust analysis of longitudinal cracking in crcp. figure 3. the residual plots for longitudinal cracking. correlation matrix and feature importance assessment the results of the heatmap correlation matrix in figure 4 reveal the interrelationships among various variables in the dataset, providing valuable insights into potential patterns and associations. notable correlations include a positive association between total thickness and l2 thickness (0.85) and a strong negative correlation between l3 thickness and l4 thickness (-0.89), indicating a potential trade-off between these variables. additionally, significant correlations with longitudinal cracking are observed, such as positive associations with aadt (0.31), aadtt (0.31), kesal (0.23), and initial iri (0.19), suggesting a potential influence of these factors on the occurrence of longitudinal cracking. the correlation alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025159 matrix also highlights relationships between environmental conditions and pavement performance, with notable correlations between precipitation and total thickness (0.26) and freeze index and temperature (-0.75), indicating potential impacts on pavement structural characteristics. these findings underscore the importance of considering multiple factors and their interplay when analyzing longitudinal cracking in crcp. figure 4. heatmap correlation matrix result. to overcome the challenge of capturing the relationship of the correlation matrix, we used sophisticated approaches such as random forest to understand the complicated and nonlinear interactions between the various design components, as well as “longitudinal cracking (m).” as an ensemble machine learning methodology, this method is adept at finding subtle relationships and interactions that an ordinary correlation analysis may miss. the feature importance analysis in figure 5 provides a nuanced understanding of the variables contributing to the prediction of longitudinal cracking in crcp. using the random forest algorithm, we evaluated the significance of various features in our dataset. temperature emerged as the most influential factor with an importance score of 0.94, underscoring its pivotal role in influencing the occurrence of longitudinal cracking. this finding suggests that temperature variations significantly affect the expansion and contraction of concrete, leading to cracking. alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025160 aadtt follows closely with a score of 0.91, highlighting the substantial impact of heavy vehicular loads on pavement performance. the high importance of aadtt indicates that sections of pavement experiencing higher truck traffic are more prone to longitudinal cracking likely due to the increased stress and wear from heavy loads. freeze index, with a score of 0.85, emphasizes the role of climatic conditions, particularly freezing and thawing cycles, in the development of longitudinal cracks. this variable’s importance suggests that pavements in regions with significant freeze-thaw cycles require more robust materials and design considerations to mitigate cracking. kesal, a distress indicator associated with the asphalt layer, holds a notable importance score of 0.83, suggesting that the condition of the asphalt layer significantly contributes to longitudinal cracking. this indicates that the quality and maintenance of the asphalt layer are crucial in preventing cracks. l2 thickness, representing the thickness of the second layer, also demonstrates substantial importance with a score of 0.81. this highlights the influence of structural aspects on pavement performance, suggesting that thicker layers can provide better resistance to cracking. precipitation and age exhibit scores of 0.77 and 0.75, respectively, indicating the relevance of environmental conditions and pavement age in longitudinal cracking prediction. high precipitation can lead to moisture infiltration and weakening of the pavement structure, while older pavements are naturally more susceptible to cracking over time. total thickness, reflecting the overall pavement structure, holds moderate importance at 0.67. initial international roughness index and annual average daily traffic show scores of 0.63 and 0.62, respectively, pointing to their contributory roles in influencing pavement performance. further down the importance hierarchy, variables such as min. humidity, l4 thickness, and max. humidity exhibit scores of 0.48, 0.45, and 0.32, respectively, suggesting their relatively lesser impact on longitudinal cracking. additionally, features such as climate zone, l2 type, coefficient of retention (cn), l3 type, number of lanes, and l4 type contribute to varying extents, as indicated by their importance scores. this detailed analysis underscores the complexity of factors influencing longitudinal cracking, emphasizing the need for a comprehensive consideration of multiple variables in predictive modeling for effective pavement management and maintenance strategies. understanding the critical roles of temperature, aadtt, and other significant factors can help in optimizing maintenance schedules, improving pavement design, and ultimately enhancing the durability and longevity of crcp infrastructure. development of machine learning models the machine learning models and traditional regression models were evaluated using various specifications, and their performance metrics were assessed for predicting longitudinal cracking in crcp as shown in table 7 and figure 6. the linear regression models, both in the linear and robust forms, exhibited rmse values of 21.81 and 22.08, r-squared values of 0.24 and 0.22, mse values of 475.83 and 487.66, and mean absolute error (mae) values of 11.34 and 7.05, respectively. the training time for linear regression was recorded at 15.82 s. regression tree models, categorized as fine, medium, and coarse, demonstrated varying levels of performance. the fine regression tree yielded the lowest rmse of 18.56, the highest r-squared of 0.45, and the lowest mse of 344.57. the training times for fine, medium, and coarse were 15.73, 4.24, and 5.68 s, respectively. svm models with different kernel types showed diverse results. the linear svm model exhibited an rmse of 25.64, an r-squared of -0.05, an mse of 657.36, and an mae of 6.73, with a training time of 6.71 s. the quadratic and cubic svms, along with fine, medium, and coarse gaussian svms, displayed variations in performance metrics, indicating the influence of kernel choice on model performance. alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025161 ensemble tree models, including boosted trees and bagged trees, demonstrated competitive results. boosted trees showed the lowest rmse of 18.48, the highest r-squared of 0.45, and the lowest mse of 341.51, with a training time of 15.78 s. bagged trees had an rmse of 20.39, an r-squared of 0.33, an mse of 415.91, and an mae of 7.86, with a training time of 21.43 s. gpr models with different kernels displayed varying performance, with squared exponential gpr showcasing the lowest rmse of 11.84, the highest r-squared of 0.78, and the lowest mse of 140.19. ann models, including narrow, medium, and wide ann, along with bilayered and trilayered ann, exhibited distinctive performances, with wide ann achieving notable accuracy. kernel models, such as svm kernel and least squares regression kernel, demonstrated diverse performance metrics, with svm kernel showing an rmse of 25.52, an r-squared of -0.04, an mse of 651.22, and an mae of 6.74. least squares regression kernel exhibited an rmse of 20.53, an r-squared of 0.33, an mse of 421.50, and an mae of 8.27. the training times for kernel models varied based on the specific kernel type. the training times for the machine learning models vary significantly, offering insights into their computational efficiency. among the models requiring a short training time (less than 10 s), the regression tree with a fine specification stands out with a training time of 15.73 s, followed closely by the medium and coarse gaussian models at 5.74 and 5.34 s, respectively. additionally, the quadratic and cubic svm models demonstrate low training times of 6.14 and 6.97 s, respectively, along with the exponential gpr model at 15.75 s and the squared exponential gpr model at 19.34 s. moving to models with a moderate training time (between 10 and 30 s), the wide ann with 100 neurons exhibits the longest training time at 38.83 s, followed by the bilayered and trilayered ann models at 33.57 and 37.66 s, respectively. the least squares regression kernel model also falls within this category, requiring 36.89 s for training. conversely, models such as bagged trees, linear regression, and robust linear regression display relatively shorter training times, ranging from 11.12 to 21.43 s. tem pe rat ure aadtt free zei nd ex kesal l2t hic kn ess prec ipi tat ion age l3t hic kn ess tota lthic kn ess ini tia lir i aadt minh um idi ty l4t hic kn ess clim ate zon e l2t yp e cn max hum idi ty l3t yp e num be ro fl an es l4t yp e 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1 fe at ur e im po rt an ce figure 5. feature importance assessment using random forest algorithm alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025162 finally, models with a long training time (more than 30 s) include the narrow ann with 10 neurons and the medium ann with 25 neurons, both requiring approximately 25 s for training. notably, the linear svm, fine gaussian, and boosted trees models exhibit training times below 10 s despite their high predictive performance. conversely, the kernel svm model necessitates a longer training time of 34.39 s, highlighting the trade-off between computational efficiency and model complexity. overall, understanding the training times of different machine learning models is crucial for selecting an appropriate model that balances predictive accuracy with computational resources. table 7. machine learning results. model type specifications performance rmse r-squared mae training time linear regression linear 21.81 0.24 11.34 15.82 robust linear 22.08 0.22 7.05 11.12 regression tree fine 18.56 0.45 6.28 15.73 medium 21.19 0.28 7.64 4.24 coarse 23.52 0.11 8.97 5.68 support vector machine linear svm 25.64 -0.05 6.73 6.71 quadratic svm 23.50 0.12 7.08 6.14 cubic svm 20.54 0.33 6.59 6.97 fine gaussian 25.63 -0.05 6.75 6.42 medium gaussian 25.49 -0.04 6.68 5.74 coarse gaussian 25.77 -0.06 6.71 5.34 ensemble trees boosted trees 18.48 0.45 7.14 15.78 bagged trees 20.39 0.33 7.86 21.43 gaussian process regression squared exponential gpr 11.84 0.78 4.48 19.34 matern 5/2 gpr 12.36 0.76 4.50 17.95 exponential gpr 14.19 0.68 5.36 15.75 rational quadratic gpr 11.96 0.77 4.38 23.78 artificial neural network narrow neural network (10 neurons) 24.81 0.02 6.93 25.30 medium neural network (25 neurons) 22.67 0.18 6.41 26.23 wide neural network (100 neurons) 14.29 0.67 7.12 38.83 bilayered neural network 17.64 0.50 6.79 33.57 trilayered neural network 21.35 0.27 5.88 37.66 kernel svm kernel 25.52 -0.04 6.74 34.39 least squares regression kernel 20.53 0.33 8.27 36.89 alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025163 -0.20 -0.10 0.00 0.10 0.20 0.30 0.40 0.50 0.60 0.70 0.80 0.90 0.00 5.00 10.00 15.00 20.00 25.00 30.00 li ne ar r ob us t l in ea r fi ne m ed iu m c oa rs e li ne ar s v m q ua dr at ic s v m c ub ic s v m fi ne g au ss ia n m ed iu m g au ss ia n c oa rs e g au ss ia n b oo st ed tr ee s b ag ge d tre es sq ua re d ex po ne nt ia l g pr m at er n 5/ 2 g pr ex po ne nt ia l g pr r at io na l q ua dr at ic g pr n ar ro w n eu ra l n et w or k (1 0 ne ur on s) m ed iu m n eu ra l n et w or k (2 5 ne ur on s) w id e n eu ra l n et w or k (1 00 n eu ro ns ) b ila ye re d n eu ra l n et w or k tr ila ye re d n eu ra l n et w or k sv m k er ne l le as t s qu ar es r eg re ss io n k er ne l linear regression regression tree support vector machine ensemble trees gaussian process regression artificial neural network kernel r -s qu ar ed r m se , m a e rmse mae r-squared figure 6. machine learning results. sensitivity analysis the sensitivity analysis was conducted using the best-performing machine learning model identified in our study. this analysis aimed to evaluate how changes in individual input variables influence the predicted longitudinal cracking in crcp. to isolate the effect of each variable, we varied the variable of interest across its range while holding all other variables constant at their mean values. this approach provides a clear understanding of the relative impact of each variable on longitudinal cracking. the results of the sensitivity analysis are presented in figure 7. our analysis (figure 7a) reveals a strong positive correlation between pavement age and longitudinal cracking, indicating that older pavements tend to develop more cracks. this result aligns with the anticipated increase in cracking due to wear and deterioration over time. this finding emphasizes the importance of timely maintenance interventions to prolong pavement life. total pavement thickness is inversely related to longitudinal cracking (figure 7b). thicker pavements tend to experience less cracking likely due to their enhanced structural capacity. this highlights the importance of considering pavement thickness in the design phase to minimize future cracking. temperature exhibits a nonlinear relationship with longitudinal cracking (figure 7c). both very low and high temperatures are correlated with increased cracking likely caused by thermal expansion and contraction stresses on the pavement. this suggests that climate and temperature variations should be factored into pavement design and material selection. the freeze index, representing the number of freeze-thaw cycles, is positively correlated with longitudinal cracking (figure 7d). higher freeze-thaw cycles lead to more cracking, underscoring the need for materials and designs that can withstand such environmental stresses, particularly in regions with harsh winter conditions. alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025164 (a) (b) (c) (d) 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 0 10 20 30 40 lo ng itu di na l c ra ck in g, m age, years 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 200 400 600 800 lo ng itu di na l c ra ck in g, m total thickness, mm -2 3 8 13 18 23 -20 0 20 40 lo ng itu di na l c ra ck in g, m temperature, c 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 400 1400 2400 lo ng itu di na l c ra ck in g, m freeze index, c-days (e) (f) (g) (h) 0 5 10 15 20 25 700 1560 2420 3280 4140 5000 lo ng itu di na l c ra ck in g, m aadtt 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 lo ng itu di na l c ra ck in g, m kesal 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 3300 3640 3980 4320 4660 5000 lo ng itu di na l c ra ck in g, m precipitation, mm 0 2 4 6 8 10 2.8 3.3 3.8 lo ng itu di na l c ra ck in g, m initial iri, m/km figure 7. sensitivity analysis results. alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025165 traffic-related variables, such as aadtt and kesal, also play a crucial role in the development of longitudinal cracking. both variables show a strong positive correlation with cracking (figures 7e and 7f ), indicating that heavy traffic loads significantly contribute to pavement deterioration. this finding supports the need for robust pavement designs that can endure high traffic volumes. precipitation is another environmental factor that influences longitudinal cracking (figure 7g). increased levels of precipitation are associated with more cracking, suggesting that moisture infiltration may weaken the pavement structure over time. this emphasizes the importance of effective drainage systems and moisture-resistant materials in pavement design. finally, the initial iri shows a positive correlation with longitudinal cracking (figure 7h). pavements with a rougher surface condition at the outset are more prone to cracking over time, highlighting the need for ensuring smooth surface conditions during the initial construction phase to reduce future maintenance needs. practical implications our study highlights several critical factors influencing longitudinal cracking in crcp, such as temperature, aadtt, and freeze index. based on these findings, we propose several strategies and recommendations for pavement engineers and policymakers to enhance the durability and performance of crcp. first, maintenance schedules should be adjusted to account for regions with significant temperature variations and high aadtt. these areas should have more frequent inspections and maintenance activities to address early signs of cracking. by doing so, potential issues can be identified and remedied before they develop into more severe problems, thereby extending the lifespan of the pavement. second, incorporating design improvements that enhance resilience to temperature fluctuations and heavy truck traffic is essential. this includes using high-performance concrete and reinforcing materials specifically designed to withstand environmental and load stresses. such materials can significantly reduce the incidence of longitudinal cracking, leading to more durable pavement structures. in terms of material choices, it is crucial to consider local environmental conditions. for example, in areas with high freeze index values, using materials and construction techniques that minimize the impact of freeze-thaw cycles is recommended. improved drainage systems and frost-resistant layers can help mitigate the detrimental effects of freezing and thawing on the pavement. policymakers should consider revising existing guidelines to incorporate the specific requirements identified in this study. setting standards for minimum material performance in regions prone to severe temperature changes or heavy traffic can ensure that pavements are constructed with long-term durability in mind. these policy changes can lead to more sustainable infrastructure development. lastly, pavement engineers should adopt best practices that account for the identified critical variables. conducting thorough site assessments to understand local environmental and traffic conditions is vital. based on these assessments, engineers can design pavements that are tailored to withstand the specific challenges of each location, thereby improving overall pavement performance and reducing maintenance costs. by implementing these strategies, pavement engineers and policymakers can significantly enhance the durability and performance of crcp, leading to longer-lasting infrastructure and reduced maintenance expenses. these practical implications underscore the importance of integrating our research findings into real-world applications to improve pavement management practices. alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025166 conclusion in conclusion, this study systematically investigated the prediction of longitudinal cracking in crcp through a multifaceted approach encompassing descriptive statistics, conventional regression modeling, and diverse machine learning algorithms. initial exploration of the ltpp database yielded 33 control asphalt pavement sections, forming the basis for rigorous analysis. conventional regression analysis identified significant predictor variables, resulting in a regression equation with coefficients detailing the impact of factors such as age, thickness, and climatic conditions on longitudinal cracking. however, acknowledging the potential limitations of conventional regression models, the study expanded its scope to include machine learning techniques. in our exploration of machine learning algorithms, diverse performances were observed across different models. particularly noteworthy was the gpr utilizing a squared exponential kernel, which demonstrated exceptional accuracy, evident from its low root mean squared error of 11.84 and high r-squared value of 0.78. additionally, ensemble tree models, notably boosted trees, exhibited competitive outcomes with an rmse of 18.48 and an r-squared value of 0.45. these quantitative metrics underscore the superior predictive prowess of select machine learning models when juxtaposed with conventional regression techniques. this comparison elucidates the specific limitations that machine learning approaches effectively address, outperforming conventional regression methodologies in terms of predictive accuracy and robustness. feature importance analysis emphasized key variables influencing longitudinal cracking predictions. noteworthy contributors included temperature, average annual daily truck traffic, and freeze index, among others. the correlation matrix provided further insights into relationships among input features, enriching the dataset’s interpretability. the sensitivity analysis confirms that pavement age, traffic loads, and environmental factors such as temperature and precipitation significantly influence the development of longitudinal cracking in crcp. these insights are crucial for developing more targeted and effective pavement maintenance and design strategies. in essence, this study presents compelling quantitative evidence affirming the effectiveness of machine learning models in forecasting longitudinal cracking in crcp. while the accuracy metrics and model performances underscore the potential advantages of advanced modeling techniques over traditional regression approaches, it is imperative to delve deeper into understanding the inner workings of these models. by shedding light on how machine learning algorithms derive their predictions, and elucidating how these insights can inform decision-making processes, this research aims to bridge the gap between predictive accuracy and interpretability. these findings hold significant practical implications for pavement engineering, providing a data-driven framework for optimizing maintenance strategies and enhancing the longevity of crcp infrastructure. as the field continues to evolve with a focus on numerical precision, elucidating the mechanisms behind machine learning predictions adds a layer of transparency and depth to pave the way for informed decision-making in pavement management practices. limitations and future work limitations 1. limited scope of machine learning techniques: while the study employs several advanced machine learning techniques, it does not cover all possible algorithms or hybrid approaches that might offer improved performance or interpretability. alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025167 2. resource-intensive analysis: the computational resources required to train and validate advanced machine learning models are significant. this limitation can be a barrier for smaller agencies or practitioners with limited access to such resources. 3. generalization across pavement types: the study focuses on crcp, and the findings may not be directly applicable to other types of pavements such as flexible or composite pavements. different pavement types may require distinct modeling approaches. future research • incorporation of additional variables: future studies should consider integrating new variables that could influence longitudinal cracking. these might include soil properties, pavement base and subbase characteristics, and more detailed traffic load distributions. by expanding the range of input variables, the predictive models can be refined to capture a broader spectrum of influences on pavement performance. • advanced machine learning techniques: while this study utilized several machine learning models, future research could explore more advanced techniques such as deep learning architectures, hybrid models, and meta-learning approaches. these advanced models have the potential to uncover even more complex patterns and interactions within the data, leading to improved predictive accuracy. • integration with pavement management systems: future research could focus on integrating predictive models with existing pavement management systems (pms). this integration would facilitate real-time decision-making and optimize maintenance scheduling based on predictive insights, ultimately leading to more efficient use of resources. • validation with field data: validating the predictive models with real-world field data from various ongoing and future pavement projects would ensure the reliability and practical applicability of the models. field validation can help refine the models further and build confidence in their use for practical applications. references abadin, mj, kadir, a, roy, sk, wei, zz & rahman, mw 2023, ‘first experiences with continuously reinforced concrete pavement in the national highway of bangladesh’, international journal of pavement research and technology, pp. 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42947-023-00332-9 adlinge, ss & gupta, ak 2013, ‘pavement deterioration and its causes’, international journal of innovative research and development, vol. 2, no. 4, pp. 437-450. bansal, l 2019, design and economy aspects of continuously reinforced concrete pavements, phd thesis, national institute of technology, kurukshetra. benmokrane, b, sanni bakouregui, a, mohamed, hm, thébeau, d & abdelkarim, oi 2020, ‘design, construction, and performance of continuously reinforced concrete pavement reinforced with gfrp bars: case study’, journal of composites for construction, vol. 24, no. 5, 05020004. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cc.1943-5614.0001021 chakroborty, p & das, a 2017, principles of transportation engineering, phi learning pvt. ltd. chang, jr, huang, ct & tseng, pj 2016, ‘preliminary study on the long-term pavement performance (ltpp) program under the big data concept’, 16th international conference on computing in civil and building engineering (icccbe2016), osaka, japan, pp. 1867-1872. corley-lay, j & mastin, jn 2009, ‘evaluation of long-term pavement performance profile data for flexible pavements’, transportation research record, vol. 2093, no. 1, pp. 25-30. https://doi.org/10.3141/2093-03 alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025168 https://doi.org/10.1007/s42947-023-00332-9 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)cc.1943-5614.0001021 https://doi.org/10.3141/2093-03 elkins, ge & ostrom, b 2021, long-term pavement performance information management system user guide, federal highway administration, office of infrastructure research and development, fhwa-hrt-21-038. guan, s, liu, h, pourreza, hr & mahyar, h 2023, ‘deep learning approaches in pavement distress identification: a review’, arxiv preprint, arxiv:2308.00828. huang, y 2023, ‘machine learning applied to prediction of pavement performance under cold conditions’, international journal of pavement engineering, in press. khahro, sh, javed, y & memon, za 2021, ‘low cost road health monitoring system: a case of flexible pavements’, sustainability, vol. 13, no. 18, 10272. https://doi.org/10.3390/su131810272 kim, k, han, s, tia, m & greene, j 2019, ‘optimization of parameters affecting horizontal cracking in continuously reinforced concrete pavement (crcp)’, canadian journal of civil engineering, vol. 46, no. 7, pp. 634-642. https://doi. org/10.1139/cjce-2017-0679 kohler, e & roesler, j 2006, accelerated pavement testing of extended life continuously reinforced concrete pavement sections, fhwa-il-ui-289. lali, fa 2023, comparison between pavement mechanistic-empirical design approaches for rubblized pavements in michigan, phd thesis, michigan state university. liu, y, yang, f, zhou, w, chen, z & bobaru, f 2023, ‘peridynamic modeling of early-age cracking behavior in continuously reinforced concrete pavement’, international journal of pavement engineering, vol. 24, no. 2, 2111422. https://doi.org/10.1080/10298436.2022.2111422 love, pe & ika, la 2021, ‘the context of transport project cost performance: insights from contract award to final construction costs’, research in transportation economics, vol. 90, 101062. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. retrec.2021.101062 martin, t & choummanivong, l 2016, ‘the benefits of long-term pavement performance (ltpp) research to funders’, transportation research procedia, vol. 14, pp. 2477-2486. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2016.05.282 mokhtari, s 2015, analytical study of computer vision-based pavement crack quantification using machine learning techniques, phd thesis, rmit university. naeem, m, alotaibi, e, elbaz, y, abuzwidah, m, & barakat, s 2023, assessment of drowsy driving associated characteristics using deep learning. in international symposium on engineering and business administration. international symposium on engineering and business administration. trans tech publications ltd. https://doi. org/10.4028/p-vrat6i nash, w, drummond, t & birbilis, n 2018, ‘a review of deep learning in the study of materials degradation’, npj materials degradation, vol. 2, no. 1, 37. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41529-018-0058-x peraka, nsp & biligiri, kp 2020, ‘pavement asset management systems and technologies: a review’, automation in construction, vol. 119, 103336. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103336 roesler, jr, huntley, jg & amirkhanian, an 2011, ‘performance of continuously reinforced concrete pavement containing recycled concrete aggregates’, transportation research record, vol. 2253, no. 1, pp. 32-39. https://doi. org/10.3141/2253-04 selezneva, oi, hallenbeck, m & walker, d 2022, ‘traffic data and summary statistics available through the long-term pavement performance program for pavement modeling and beyond’, transportation research record, vol. 2676, no. 10, pp. 426-444. https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981221089943 shtayat, aaas 2022, dynamic monitoring and prediction of pavement degradation, phd thesis, rmit university. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/7783588 alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025169 https://doi.org/10.3390/su131810272 https://doi.org/10.1139/cjce-2017-0679 https://doi.org/10.1139/cjce-2017-0679 https://doi.org/10.1080/10298436.2022.2111422 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2021.101062 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.retrec.2021.101062 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trpro.2016.05.282 https://doi.org/10.4028/p-vrat6i https://doi.org/10.4028/p-vrat6i https://doi.org/10.1038/s41529-018-0058-x https://doi.org/10.1016/j.autcon.2020.103336 https://doi.org/10.3141/2253-04 https://doi.org/10.3141/2253-04 https://doi.org/10.1177/03611981221089943 https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/7783588 sudoi, ek 2008, factors influencing horizontal cracking in continuously reinforced concrete pavements (crcp), university of north texas. uddin, mj 2015, pavement performance measures using android-based smartphone application, deccan college of engineering and technology. won, mc 2011, ‘continuously reinforced concrete pavement: identification of distress mechanisms and improvement of mechanistic–empirical design procedures’, transportation research record, vol. 2226, no. 1, pp. 51-59. https://doi. org/10.3141/2226-06 xiao, d x wu, z 2018, longitudinal cracking of jointed plain concrete pavements in louisiana: field investigation and numerical simulation. international journal of pavement research and technology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. ijprt.2018.07.004 xie, j, huang, j, zeng, c, jiang, sh & podlich, n 2020, ‘systematic literature review on data-driven models for predictive maintenance of railway track: implications in geotechnical engineering’, geosciences, vol. 10, no. 11, 425. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences10110425 y. elbaz, m. naeem, m. abuzwidah and s. barakat, “effect of drowsiness on driver performance and traffic safety,” 2020 advances in science and engineering technology international conferences (aset), dubai, united arab emirates, 2020, pp. 1-6. https://doi.org/10.1109/aset48392.2020.9118242 alnaqbi construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 1 march 2025170 https://doi.org/10.3141/2226-06 https://doi.org/10.3141/2226-06 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijprt.2018.07.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijprt.2018.07.004 https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences10110425 https://doi.org/10.1109/aset48392.2020.9118242 construction economics and building vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024 © 2024 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: rotimi, f. e., brauner, m., burfoot, m., naismith, n., silva, c., mohaghegh, m. 2024. challenges faced by women in new zealand’s construction industry and the impact of demographic factors. construction economics and building, 24:4/5, 114–141. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v24i4/5.8911 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article challenges faced by women in new zealand’s construction industry and the impact of demographic factors funmilayo ebun rotimi1,*, marcela brauner2, megan burfoot3, nicola naismith4, chathurani silva5, mahsa mohaghegh6 1 department of built environment engineering, auckland university of technology, auckland, new zealand, funmi.rotimi@aut.ac.nz 2 department of built environment engineering, auckland university of technology, auckland, new zealand, marcela.brauner@hotmail.com 3 department of built environment engineering, auckland university of technology, auckland, new zealand, mburfoot@aut.ac.nz 4 department of built environment engineering, auckland university of technology, auckland, new zealand, nnaismit@aut.ac.nz 5 school of applied business, unitec institute of technology, auckland, new zealand, csilva@unitec.ac.nz 6 department of computer science and software engineering, auckland university of technology, auckland, new zealand, mahsa.mohaghegh@aut.ac.nz corresponding author: funmilayo ebun rotimi, department of built environment engineering, auckland university of technology, auckland, new zealand, funmi.rotimi@aut.ac.nz doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8911 article history: received 14/12/2023; revised 13/09/2024; accepted 26/09/2024; published 23/12/2024 abstract diversity and inclusion of the construction workforce are considered fundamental to disrupting the perception of the maledominated construction industry. despite efforts to increase diversity and inclusion, the construction industry continues to record a slow increase in women’s representation, resulting in the industry missing significant potential talent. therefore, identifying challenges in women’s work environment is vital for promoting construction careers. this study examines three categories of challenges: 114 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding this research was funded by the auckland university of technology, faculty of design and creative technology contestable research fund, auckland, new zealand. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8911 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8911 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8911 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:funmi.rotimi@aut.ac.nz mailto:marcela.brauner@hotmail.com mailto:mburfoot@aut.ac.nz mailto:nnaismit@aut.ac.nz mailto:csilva@unitec.ac.nz mailto:mahsa.mohaghegh@aut.ac.nz mailto:funmi.rotimi@aut.ac.nz https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v24i4/5.8911 benevolent sexism, hostile sexism, and job conditions and the influences of demographic factors. the study adopted a quantitative research method, with 65 structured questionnaires completed by women working in the new zealand construction industry. the study found that benevolent sexism challenges, such as stereotyping and pressure to prove oneself and hostile sexism challenges, like masculine culture, sexual harassment, and lack of respect, are significant for women in construction. a lack of female role models and work overload are two job conditionrelated challenges that affect women in the industry. the findings from this study are an important contribution to the existing literature, as they highlight the need to consider demographic factors when creating initiatives to address the challenges faced by women in the construction industry. keywords challenges; construction; job condition; women workforce; sexism introduction in empirical research, the new zealand construction industry emerges as a critical focal point due to its dynamic interplay with genderrelated challenges. the construction industry is a complex, multilevel, interrelated system that is traditionally maledominated (lingard and turner, 2022). the enduring gender gap is officially acknowledged as a real problem (abdelraouf and buhler, 2021). as women strive for equality in traditionally maledominated sectors, it becomes increasingly imperative to delve into the key issues affecting their experiences. research examining genderrelated challenges across work environments in diverse social, historical, and economic complexities has been conducted (cortis, foley and williamson, 2022; williams and emerson, 2019). research results might fall into groups based on biological, organizational, structural, cultural, or socialization models (bowen et al., 2018; evetts, 1998; pollard, 2007). it is important to emphasize that the scarcity of research on women in the new zealand construction industry (rotimi, et al., 2022) constitutes a significant aspect that this current study will address. this paper aims to shed light on the distinct challenges faced by women in the construction industry, their implications for mental health, and the underlying factors that contribute to these issues. the construction industry has been making efforts to increase the representation of women, but the rate of growth in the number of female workers has been slow. as a result, the industry is missing out on a significant pool of talented individuals. in the fourth quadrant of 2022, females accounted for 14.9 % of fulltime employees and 19.5 % of total status in nz employment in construction (stats nz, 2023). the reason for this difference is that 29.5 % of women in construction are on parttime pay (stats nz, 2023), which indicates that the issues of the existing gender gap in construction are broader than just the proportion between the sexes. regardless of their pay status, working women who face mental health challenges can experience significant impacts on various aspects of their lives. this can affect work outcomes, morale, mental and physical wellbeing, the industry, workfamily conflict, and the wider society (bostock, et al., 2019; bowen, et al., 2018). this study employs the framework developed by rotimi, et al. (2023), which recognizes that women’s underrepresentation in maledominated industries is linked to three key challenges: benevolent and hostile sexism and job conditions. benevolent sexism involves seemingly positive attitudes that reinforce traditional gender roles, while hostile sexism is overtly discriminatory (glick and fiske, 1996). furthermore, tough job conditions—physically demanding environments, isolation risks, and inadequate support policies—further compound their difficulties. the study aims to investigate the challenges women face in the new zealand construction industry, specifically in benevolent sexism, hostile sexism, and job conditions. the study also seeks to establish how demographic factors may influence these challenges. the value of this paper is threefold. first, this study fills the knowledge gap in the underlying causes of women’s mental health challenges in the nz construction industry. second, the results might indicate reasons for the persisting rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024115 gender gap in the construction industry. third, this empirical research will have implications in identifying various means to improve women’s mental health in the construction industry. thus, the following research questions: rq1: what are the significant challenges that women in the new zealand construction industry experience that could affect their mental health? rq2: what are the demographic factors that influence sexism and job conditionrelated challenges women encounter in the nz construction industry? literature review over the last decade, employment in the nz construction industry has remained strong. the period between 2013 and early 2016 saw a significant increase in employment growth, which coincided with a surge in net immigration rates. although growth diminished briefly in 20182019, it has since bounced back (mbie, 2022). the construction industry has witnessed robust job growth over the past two years, despite the covid19 pandemic, largely due to high demand for housing and a strong infrastructure project pipeline. as of the march 2022 quarter, female workers in nz construction increased by 25,200 (making 16% of the total construction workforce) compared to 2012 figures (mbie, 2022). globally, the construction sector remains characterized by a significant gender disparity, with only a small percentage, around 10%, of women constituting the workforce (rlb, 2023). however, there have been several initiatives to improve numbers. an earlier study in new zealand by climo (2017) describes increasing awareness of the depth of female talent as a way of attracting female workers. similarly, onestaff (2023), a recruiting agency in new zealand, argues for positive change and making concerted efforts to improve the industry’s diversity figures. the national association of women in construction (nawic) has played a crucial role in advocating for women’s mental wellbeing by promoting policies and initiatives that foster a more inclusive and supportive workplace environment (nawic, 2024). stats nz (2023) reveals that only about 19.5% of the construction workforce in new zealand is comprised of women, meaning that they are still underrepresented. this disparity prompts the current scrutiny of the unique challenges being experienced by women in construction. it is anticipated that this scrutiny could provide valuable insights into broader workplace issues that extend to the maledominated construction industry. several researchers argue that the gendered cultural contradictions shape women’s impediments in construction (dainty and lingard, 2006; denissen and saguy, 2014). cockburn (1985) addresses the cultural dilemmas for women in engineering by confronting a widely accepted sense of order and meaning. the gendered cultural processes are persuasive, and women going against them experience the power of such cultural dictates. particularly when men derive psychological, social, and economic advantages and gain from their identification with “men’s work” (epstein, 1992). therefore, the presence of women in male dominated industries menaces the perception of specific jobs as intrinsically masculine (denissen and saguy, 2014; ness, 2012). cockburn (2009) states that technically skilled men fear their position in the labour market might be undermined by capable women and, therefore, may prefer to exclude women from entering organizations. cortis, foley and williamson (2022) argue that senior male leaders, shaping agents of organizational norms and status hierarchies, tend to defend the status quo and constrain gender equality. all these factors lead to repeatedly described covert/hidden gender discrimination in employment incorporated into organizational structures, cultures, and processes (danby and ciesielska, 2021; evetts, 1998; ridgeway, 2009; walker, 2019). the construction industry has been recognized for its direct contribution to mental illhealth (boschman, et al., 2013; chan, nwaogu and naslund, 2020; gullestrup, lequertier and martin, 2011). women in construction face additional genderspecific challenges that exacerbate these mental health risks, including a rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024116 maledominated culture and prevailing gender perceptions (english and le jeune, 2012). thenguzhali and veerachamy (2015) highlight occupational health hazards specific to women, such as mental, biological, and physical risks. more recent studies have continued to explore these issues, with longe, et al. (2019) focusing on women engineers’ participation and retention and walker (2019) attributing underrepresentation to implicit bias. most organizations have various inequality regimes in the form of systematic disparities incorporated into the organizational structure and hierarchy (acker, 2006). the interaction between the dimensions of diversity, such as gender, race, class, and sexuality, influences the shape and degree of inequality, which is created and maintained by organizing processes (acker, 2006; blackburn, jarman and racko, 2014; cockburn, 1985). additionally, workspace typology and their interiors impact inequality issues (migliore, rossilamastra and tagliaro, 2022). therefore, the concept of intersectionality assists the understanding of complex challenges women face in the workplace (shields, 2008; thatcher, hymer and arwine, 2023; wright, 2013). gender is a pervasive force shaping jobs and experiences (cortis, foley and williamson, 2022; dicke, et al., 2019; jarman, blackburn and racko, 2012). according to cockburn (1985), achieving equality in the workplace requires us to move away from the idea that men and women have complementary skills and instead prioritize humanistic traits over traditional masculine or feminine characteristics. however, some argue that such genderfocused ideology may have negative sociological consequences, including a war between the sexes, declining marriage, broken families, and devaluing motherhood (case, 2011, 2019; kuhar and paternotte, 2017). additionally, innate physical and biological sex differences between men and women can affect occupational health and safety risks, such as heavy lifting impacting women’s fertility (mínguez alarcón, et al., 2017) and musculoskeletal disorders (ervasti, et al., 2019). as a result, there is a need for a more gendersensitive approach supported by research on the occupational health risks faced by women in the workplace (mariam, olalusi and haupt, 2020; venugopal, et al., 2016). furthermore, women tend to have more responsibilities outside their paid work in the form of unpaid care and domestic work in homes and communities than men, especially as mothers (moreira da silva, 2019). despite these circumstances, women continue to be stereotyped and undervalued in the workplace (pollard, 2007). flexible work arrangements, becoming increasingly common, affect men and women differently (chung and van der lippe, 2020). while flexible working hours may promote gender equality by allowing women to balance work and family needs (singley and hynes, 2005; lingard and turner, 2022), the expectation for increased responsibility for family and work can lead to conflicts and pay penalties (fuller and hirsh, 2019). research on gender biases related to motherhood and childbearing examines the societal belief that women are more devoted to family and childcare than committed to work (kurniawan, et al., 2018; pozogarcía, et al., 2020). the covid19 pandemic further exacerbated the already stressful demands on working mothers (chandola, et al., 2019) by requiring them to care for their children without institutional support (tunjiolayeni, 2021). as care work shifted from paid to unpaid, parttime, inequalities deepened, particularly in singleparent households (grönlund and öun, 2022; power, 2020). the challenges women face in construction are distinct, depending on the working situation, position in the organization, organization type, and age (clarke, et al., 2015; ibáñez, 2017; smith, 2013; wright, 2016). women working onsite are more exposed to the rules of the “men’s world” than those working primarily in office environments (denissen and saguy, 2014; ness, 2012; wright, 2013). additionally, there is a discrepancy between the official definition of sexual harassment and the way women in trades or working onsite perceive and label their experience (denissen, 2010a; denissen, 2010b). in many countries, the construction industry faces a shortage of skilled workers (ackrill, caven and alaktif, 2017; morello, issa and franz, 2018; tapia, et al., 2020). therefore, increasing the number of women in the construction industry could yield significant social and economic benefits, making it crucial to bridge the gender gap and attract and retain more female workers (hasan, et al., 2021). however, achieving gender equality requires rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024117 workplaces to recognize and address the multifaceted factors that impact mental health and to implement systemic organizational changes accordingly (williams and emerson, 2019). specific challenges building upon the work of rotimi, et al. (2022), this study embraces the same framework rooted in sexism theory to illuminate genderbased discrimination intricacies. this framework delineates discrimination as benevolent and hostile sexism or nongenderrelated job conditions. it resonates with this study by revealing discriminatory patterns in the challenges women confront (glick and fiske, 1996). while rotimi, et al. acknowledged bias, prejudice, privilege, entitlement, and masculinity theories, their work omits these frameworks due to their malefocused nature (west and zimmerman, 1987; connell, 1995; lorber, 1996). other forms of sexism, such as ambivalent, institutional, and internalized sexism, often intersect with and are embedded within both benevolent and hostile sexism. consequently, these nuanced forms are inherently considered within our broader categorization into hostile and benevolent sexism. benevolent sexism involves traditional genderrolebased attitudes, while hostile sexism signifies overt discrimination (glick and fiske, 1996). these biases profoundly affect women in construction, intertwining with demanding job conditions such as physical strain and isolation (bridges, et al., 2020). demographics like age, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status can exacerbate these challenges. these biases and challenges contribute to heightened stress, anxiety, and depression. this framework, rooted in rotimi, et al.’s work, underpins the exploration of women’s distinct struggles in this maledominated field. the current study probes the mental health implications and considers the framework’s applicability to new zealand, which is shaped by unique countryspecific conditions. the ensuing section delves into these concerns, followed by this research validating their existence in new zealand’s context. benevolent sexism first, adolescence marks the start of pressure on young women to pursue careers in stereotypical female industries (dutta, 2017; murphy and ren, 2010). the age demographic may have an additional influence on this challenge, as young women may experience more pressure to conform to gender stereotypes and pursue careers in traditionally femaledominated industries compared to older women. second, recruitment bias favours male applicants, perpetuated by human resource staff (regis, et al., 2019; schmitt, 2021). the ethnic and socioeconomic demographics may further increase this bias, as women from ethnic minority groups or lower socioeconomic backgrounds may face additional challenges and discrimination due to intersectional bias. third, in the workplace, genderbased role allocation and differential treatment towards women persist (kamardeen and sunindijo, 2017; morello, issa and franz, 2018; ness, 2012; sunindijo and kamardeen, 2017). fourth, the gender wage gap still exists, with women paid less than men for equal work or having to work harder (afolabi, et al., 2019; barreto, et al., 2017; ettinger, conroy and barr, 2019; hammond, et al., 2017). the gender wage gap may also vary depending on demographic factors, with women from particular racial or ethnic groups earning less than their male counterparts. women are denied promotions for maternity leave or working parttime (bryce, far and gardner, 2019; grönlund and öun, 2022; worrall, et al., 2010). this is more likely to impact older women or women with children. fewer opportunities and promotional biases confront women in the construction industry, where the glass ceiling persists (maji and dixit, 2020; nyanga and chindanya, 2020; oo, lim and feng, 2020; servon and visser, 2011). a woman’s ethnicity can compound these biases. hostile sexism the construction industry is plagued with harassment of women, affecting all demographics, including sexual harassment, humiliation, and objectification (afolabi, et al., 2019; barreto, et al., 2017; capaldi, rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024118 et al., 2012; fouad, fitzpatrick and liu, 2011; galea, et al., 2021; murphy and ren, 2010). unfortunately, the unfavourable sexual harassment climate and lack of support discourage women from reporting such incidents (minnotte and pedersen, 2019; nyanga and chindanya, 2020). furthermore, younger women may feel less inclined to speak up due to not wanting to ‘rock the boat’ in a new workplace. organizations often fail to address inappropriate male behaviours and adopt reactive rather than preventive measures (regis, et al., 2019; tapia, et al., 2020). bystanders often fail to intervene when women are harassed (foley, et al., 2020). the industry’s dominant masculine culture leads to aggression, hostility, and disrespect towards women (hammond and overall, 2013; schmitt, 2021). women are often pressured to act like men to fit in (fouad, fitzpatrick and liu, 2011; regis, et al., 2019). in addition, bullying and harassment that victimize women but are not genderrelated, are also prevalent (kamardeen and sunindijo, 2017). women in ethnic minorities may feel additionally victimized by hostile sexism, as they may not know whether the harassment is due to gender, ethnicity, or perhaps both. job conditions women face numerous job conditionrelated challenges in construction, including low representation and a lack of female role models and support networks (afolabi, et al., 2019; barreto, et al., 2017; bryce, far and gardner, 2019; schmitt, 2021). balancing career and domestic responsibilities can also be overwhelming (galea, et al., 2021; lekchiri and kamm, 2020; regis, et al., 2019; tapia, et al., 2020; uzoigwe, low and noor, 2016). work flexibility and childcare options are limited, and construction work can be highpressure, with long and unpredictable hours and strict deadlines (bowen, et al., 2018; oo, lim and feng, 2020; powell, et al., 2018; rosa, et al., 2017; sunindijo and kamardeen, 2017; worrall, et al., 2010). the work is also often physically and mentally demanding, risky, and lacks adequate site safety (afolabi, et al., 2019; powell, et al., 2018). although construction work conditions affect all women in the industry, increased pressure may arise for the older demographics, who are more likely to have dependents and are more likely to have physical health issues (tunjiolayeni, kajimoshakantu and oni, 2021). this could also be true for women in lower socioeconomic positions who lack support networks in the industry. demographic factors can intersect and compound to create unique challenges and barriers for women in construction, highlighting the importance of addressing issues related to gender, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status in pursuing greater equity and inclusion (acker, 2006; dainty, et al., 2004; shrestha, 2017). comprehending the demographic factors influencing these challenges is critical to reducing or resolving them effectively. methodology the current study was conducted in new zealand to examine three categories of challenges women face in the construction industry: benevolent sexism, hostile sexism, and job conditions. literature sources for these three challenges are summarised in appendix 1. these challenges were further investigated in relation to the influence of demographic factors. the review follows rotimi, et al. (2022) with 58 concerns under three categories (26 challenges women face in the construction industry, 15 consequences of these challenges on work, and 17 wellbeing outcomes). for this study, the 26 challenges were the focus and the basis for the questionnaire survey. the questionnaire survey requires participants to address two main questions: how often do they experience the 26 challenges? how much do those challenges affect them? a questionnaire survey was selected for this study because it is costeffective in eliciting various responses and producing reliable results easily and flexibly (akinci and saunders, 2015). the questionnaire survey aligns with the quantitative research approach, which lends itself to statistical analysis to provide meaningful insights and improve interpretability (bernard, 2017). the participants (women and those who identified as such) were selected based on a minimum of one year’s experience in the construction industry within the last five years. rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024119 before administering the questionnaire to the participants, a pilot study was conducted with experienced construction women to test the questionnaire’s clarity and comprehensiveness following oppenheim’s (2001) recommendations. the questionnaire had four sections, with the first section covering demographic questions. the second, third, and fourth sections included 5point likert scale questions on the workplace challenges for women, the consequences of these challenges, and the wellbeing outcomes, respectively. the 5point likert scale was adopted because of its less complexity for the respondent to correctly rank their opinion (agreement or disagreement) using the 5point scale provided with each statement on the challenges, consequences, and wellbeing outcomes. the study used purposive sampling to select suitable survey participants based on the maximum variation strategy. according to teddlie and yu (2007), purposive sampling techniques are helpful when a researcher aims to select a sample representing a broader group of cases or to compare different types of cases along a particular dimension of interest. a total of 160 construction women were purposively sampled from the total population of 27,600 women (less mining and other occupations) (mbie, 2022), based on the selection criteria, and 96 initially agreed to participate. however, only 65 research participants responded to the survey, which adequately satisfied the minimum sample size requirements of one sample ttest and anova (analysis of variance), the main analytical techniques applied in this study (more details are provided under methods of analysing data). according to skaik (2015), a minimum sample of 40 guarantees an approximate normal distribution for the data, and the onesample ttest can then be safely applied. the minimum sample size required for applying oneway anova was calculated using the online sample size calculator for anova, and it was 63 for a 0.01 level of significance and the maximum number of groups 3 (the variables relationship status, age, and experience had three groups each while other variables had only two). further, the data requirements of oneway anova explained on the minitab (2024) website were reviewed to confirm the adequacy of the sample size. as per these explanations, the sample size for each group should be at least 15 when there are 29 groups to compare means, and this requirement was satisfied by the sample used in the study (tables 7, 8, and 9). this sample was homogeneous and comprehensive to ensure the data collected was reliable and adequate (alreck and settle, 1995). the questionnaire was sent via email for the speed and immediacy it offers (michaelidou and dibb, 2006). there were three groups of respondent: 22 women working in office environments, 21 onsite professionals, and 22 working in trades. table 1 presents the demographic information of the study participants in terms of their age, educational background, number of children, experience, and relationship status. in addition, it describes the sample based on the participants’ employmentrelated factors, namely, employment status, position in the employment hierarchy, experience, number of people managing, experience in the nz construction industry, and the location of work. this detailed exploration of demographic factors is vital as the main inferential analysis of sexism and job conditionrelated challenges of the study are based on these variables. informed consent for this study was obtained from all participants. the study was conducted in accordance with the auckland university of technology human ethics guidelines and approved by the human ethics committee, with reference number 21/357. according to the results from table 1, most of the sample was young women, and more than 85% (56/65) of them were below 50. the level of education of the participants in the study was generally high. specifically, 80% (52/65) had certificate level or above qualification, while nearly half of the women (33/65) were graduates. two survey participants have not completed any university qualification, though entered one and studied for a few years. most of the women in the sample were in a relationship, where 43% (28/65) were married, and approximately 29% (19/65) were de facto. rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024120 table 1. demographic data. age frequency (%) highest education frequency (%) relationship status frequency (%) 30 or below 15 (23.1%) below high school 7 (10.8%) married 28 (43.1%) 3140 21 (32.3%) high school 5 (7.7%) divorced 4 (6.2%) 4150 20 (30.8%) certificate/ diploma 16 (24.6%) single 9 (13.8%) 5160 9 (13.8%) university 2 (3.1%) de facto 19 (29.2%) total 65 (100%) bachelor’s degree 20 (30.8%) other 5 (7.7%) master’s degree 11 (16.9%) total 65 (100%) other 3 (4.6%) total 64 (98.5%) no. of children frequency (%) employment status frequency (%) employment level frequency (%) 0 26 (40%) in employment 47 (72.3%) employee 22 (33.8%) 1 8 (12.3%) selfemployed 18 (27.7%) lowerlevel management 14 (21.5%) 2 21 (32.3%) total 65 (100%) middlelevel management 10 (15.4%) 3 6 (9.2%) upperlevel management 10 (15.4%) 4 or more 3 (4.6) total 56 (86.2%) total 64 (98.5%) no. of people managing frequency (%) construction experience in nz frequency (%) location frequency (%) 0 27 (41.5%) 15 years 22 (33.8%) auckland 31 (47.7%) 15 19 (29.2%) 610 years 18 (27.7%) wellington 6 (9.2%) 610 6 (9.2%) 1115 years 6 (9.2%) christchurch 10 (15.4%) 1115 3 (4.6%) 1620 years 12 (18.5%) other 18 (27.7%) more than 15 10 (15.4%) 2125 years 4 (6.2%) total 65 (100%) 65 (100%) over 25 years 3 (4.6%) total 65 (100%) rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024121 thirtynine out of 65 women (60%) in the study had children, while 30 out of them had two or more kids. more than 66% (43/65) had more than five years of experience in the nz construction industry. eighteen out of 65 women in the sample were selfemployed. about 52% (34/65) of the sampled workers were employed at the management level. however, 19 managers had less than five people to manage. it is important to note that the sexism and job conditionrelated factors considered in this study can be challenging for women in the construction industry holding both high and lowlevel positions. self employed workers also get to work with others (outside people collaborating on their projects, people working under them etc.), and thus have a chance of facing the above challenges. therefore, regardless of the position of the job, the work in the construction industry can be tough, even for women who run their own businesses. however, since our sample contained (see tables 2 and 3) only a very few women who are selfemployed and have no one to manage (7) and are working as employees (2), the findings will be mostly relevant to female employees holding various responsibilities and interacting with a lot of coworkers in construction companies based in nz. however, the level of challenge can vary based on the people’s position. obviously, the variability of measurement variables is an important requirement for obtaining valid results in any statistical analysis. table 2. employment status and employment level employment level total employee lowerlevel management middlelevel management upperlevel management employment status in employment 20 13 10 4 47 selfemployed 2 1 0 6 9 total 22 14 10 10 56 table 3. employment status and number of people managing people managing total 0 15 610 1115 more than 15 employment status in employment 20 11 5 2 9 47 selfemployed 7 8 1 1 1 18 total 27 19 6 3 10 65 in regard to the work location, the largest group of participants (48%) were based in auckland, while approximately 9% (6/65) and 15% (10/65) were in the other two main cities in nz, wellington and christchurch, respectively. a few participants did not mention their highest level of education and employment level or the number of children they had. hence the response rates for these questions were below 100% (see table 1, highest education 64/65, employment level – 56/65, and number of children – 64/65). methods of analysing the data parametric statistical tests are more methodologically rigorous compared to the alternative nonparametric approaches as long as the underlying distributional assumptions are fulfilled (faizi and alvi , 2023). rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024122 mean comparison tests are the main analytical method used in this study. in order to validate the use of parametric mean tests (ttest and anova), the normality of data was initially tested using the histograms and coefficients of skewness values. however, this was not a compulsory requirement in this data analysis as a sample of size 65 is sufficient for the assumption of approximate normality of data (explained under methodology). all the variables except one jobcondition challenge (lack of site safety) had skewness coefficients within 1 and +1 range, and 18 out of 26 variables had coefficients within the 0.5 and 0.5 range. these results indicated approximate normality of data. secondly, the homogeneity of variances was examined across all the groupings considered in the tests and the values did not indicate large deviations. since the sample was drawn without any selection bias, all the data gathered were sufficiently independent. therefore, parametric methods were confirmed to be valid for this study. first, onesample ttest was applied to examine the criticality of each challenge under three main categories: benevolent sexism, hostile sexism, and job conditions. one sample ttest is a parametric statistical test for determining whether a population mean equals to a given value. this study had 10 benevolent sexism, 10 hostile sexism, and 6 job conditionrelated challenges. in the ttest, the mean score of each challenge was compared with the midpoint (3) of the 5– point likert scale used to evaluate the participants’ experience of the particular challenge. although this analysis identifies the most common challenges, the other challenges are also likely to disturb the smooth work life of construction women to some extent. therefore, the challenges were then ranked based on the magnitude of mean scores calculated to reflect the level of cruciality of each challenge. since the sample of this study covered women at varied levels of job conditions in their personal and work lives, it is worth studying the three types of challenges with respect to their demographic characteristics. oneway analysis of variance (anova) is the most widely used statistical technique for comparing the mean of a continuous variable across groups. the 5point likert scale data collected on sexism and job conditionrelated challenges were the continuous variables for the analysis. a oneway anova was performed to identify the significant demographic factors that influences the challenges encountered by women employees in the construction industry. the least significant difference (lsd) post hoc test was applied to explore the mean differences found in the anova. results the ttest results for benevolent sexism, hostile sexism, and job conditionrelated challenges are presented in tables 2, 3, and 4. according to these results, stereotyping and pressure to prove oneself are significant benevolent sexism challenges (having the mean values above the midlevel) to construction women. masculine culture is the only hostile sexism challenge that is statistically significant. two job condition related challenges, namely, lack of female role models and work overload, are also significant at 0.05 level. although the other challenges do not indicate statistical significance for being above the average scale (3), all the individual mean values are above 2. therefore, all 26 challenges experienced by women in the construction industry are significant and cannot be overlooked. the average values imply the level of criticality of each challenge, and tables 24 have been arranged in the descending order of averages. as per these results, benevolent sexism challenges are more common than the other two types. among these concerns, the absence of genderinclusive uniforms or protective equipment, wage disparity, and presumed incompetency are significant issues that warrant attention. job pressure is also a significant job condition related challenge with a sample mean above 3. according to the analysis, there are two benevolent sexism challenges (gender role differentiation and glass ceiling). as well as three hostile sexism challenges (behavioural impressions, lack of respect, and bystander behaviour) that have mean values between 2.5 and 3, and thus could be considered moderate challenges. rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024123 table 4. benevolent sexism challenges (onesample ttest) challenge mean standard deviation pvalue (ha: μ > 3) 1. pressure to prove oneself** 3.97 1.03 0.000 2. stereotyping** 3.52 0.96 0.000 3. uniforms or protective equipment not gender inclusive 3.03 1.41 0.430 4. wage gap 3.00 1.3 0.500 5. presumed incompetency 3.00 1.12 0.500 6. gender role differentiation 2.92 1 0.231 7. glass ceiling 2.88 1.22 0.271 8. encouraging into stereotypical industries 2.46 1.12 0.500 9. sexist recruitment practices 2.46 1.17 0.500 10. promotions withheld 2.44 1.17 0.500 **the challenge is statistically significant (i.e. the average is above the midlevel, 3) at 5% level. the other challenges are relatively low in their level of influence on female construction workers (means between 2 and 2.5). these include three benevolent challenges (encouraging into stereotyping industries, sexist recruitment practices, and promotions withheld), five hostile sexism challenges (gender harassment, table 5. hostile sexism challenges (onesample ttest). challenge mean standard deviation pvalue (ha: μ > 3) 1. masculine culture** 3.68 0.95 0.000 2. behavioural impressions (women feel pressured to act like a male to ‘fit in’) 2.95 1.3 0.114 3. lack of respect 2.91 1.11 0.250 4. bystander behaviour (witnesses to sexist behaviour do not speak out) 2.66 1.24 0.485 5. gender harassment 2.48 1.01 0.500 6. encouraged into stereotype 2.44 1.16 0.500 7. harassment not related to gender 2.23 0.96 0.500 8. employer’s refusal to address sexism 2.14 1.12 0.500 9. sexual harassment climate (women don’t know the sexual harassment complaint procedure, or don’t believe it will be taken seriously) 2.13 1.10 0.500 10. sexual harassment 2.08 0.96 0.500 **the challenge is statistically significant (i.e. the average is above the midlevel, 3) at 5% level. rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024124 harassment not related to gender, employer’s refusal to address sexism, sexual harassment climate, sexual harassment), and three job conditionrelated challenges (unpleasant nature of work, lack of flexible work arrangements, and lack of site safety). table 6. job conditionrelated challenges (onesample ttest) challenge mean standard deviation pvalue (ha: μ > 3) 1. lack of female role models** 3.78 1.23 0.000 2. work overload** 3.56 1.05 0.000 3. job pressure (long hours are expected, hours are unpredictable, there is excessive work) 3.13 1.16 0.197 4. unpleasant nature of work (risky work, a competitive culture, unsanitary conditions) 2.41 1.11 0.500 5. lack of flexible work arrangements 2.36 1.07 0.500 6. lack of site safety 2.03 1.04 0.500 **the challenge is statistically significant (i.e. the average is above the midlevel, 3) at 5% level. the effect of demographic factors on the challenges faced by construction women tables 5, 6, and 7 include the oneway analysis of variance anova performed to identify the demographic factors that will significantly affect the sexism and job conditionrelated challenges for construction women in nz. the pvalues indicate the significant influence of several factors on the challenges. the three tables also include the number of workers in each category and the lsd multiple group comparison (post hoc test) results. some small subgroups of demographic factors presented in table 1 were appropriately combined to ensure adequate group sample sizes required for performing the anova. benevolent sexism challenges according to table 7, four benevolent sexism challenges, namely, encouraging into stereotypical industries, gender role differentiation, stereotyping, and presumed incompetency, are all affected by the level of education of the construction women. the detailed mean comparison result explains that women not having a university degree face all four of the above challenges. for this group, gender role differentiation, stereotyping, and presumed incompetency challenges are notably above the average level measured (3) in the study. age and industry experience in nz are the other factors influencing benevolent sexism in the construction industry (table 7). according to the results, wage gaps and withheld promotions are significant challenges experienced by older employees. having children can also be identified as a significant barrier to the promotion of women in the construction sector (pvalue=0.045). however, the overall mean (2.44) does not classify promotions withheld as a significantly influencing challenge for construction women in nz. as per the mean comparison result shown in table 7, women employees with more than ten years of experience in the nz construction industry experience significantly longer delays in their promotions. in summary, benevolent sexism challenges are the most common challenge faced by female construction workers in nz. the demographic factors of education level, age, having children, and years of experience of workers have significant effects on benevolent sexism challenges faced. rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024125 hostile sexism challenges table 8 presents a detailed analysis of the underlying factors of hostile sexism challenges within the construction industry. sexual harassment, sexual harassment culture, and lack of respect are the challenges influenced significantly by the demographic factors examined. both sexual harassment and sexual harassment culture show a marginal significance only, and the relationship status and the occupational role (management or employee) are the factors affecting the above challenges. however, the occupational role table 7. benevolent sexism challenges and influencing factors challenge (average score) anova pvalues and lsd post hoc test results (averages and pvalues) occupational role [employee22; mgt34] relationship status [married28; de facto19; other18] having children [no children26; have children38] education [graduate31; not a graduate33] age [≤ 3015; 314021; > 40 29] experience 15 y – 22; 610 y18; >10y 25] pressure to prove oneself (3.97)# 0.833 0.333 0.588 0.628 0.227 0.574 stereotyping (3.52)# 0.218 0.825 0.400 0.058* graduate 3.29* not a graduate 3.75* 0.504 0.359 uniforms or protective equipment not gender inclusive (3.03) 0.874 0.786 0.394 0.720 0.876 0.782 wage gap (3.00) 0.248 0.903 0.221 0.923 0.064* ≤ 30 – 2.33*/** 3140 – 3.10* > 40 – 3.29** 0.264 presumed incompetency (3.00) 0.128 0.868 0.823 0.076* graduate 2.74* not a graduate 3.24* 0.416 0.855 gender role differentiation (2.92) 0.599 0.743 0.541 0.023** graduate 2.65** not a graduate3.21** 0.916 0.994 glass ceiling (2.88) 0.207 0.893 0.156 0.277 0.686 0.355 encouraging into stereotypical industries (2.46) 0.225 0.851 0.691 0.058* graduate2.19* not a graduate 2.73* 0.740 0.837 sexist recruitment practices (2.46) 0.206 0.709 0.636 0.111 0.745 0.184 promotions withheld (2.44) 0.238 0.380 0.045** no children 2.08** have children 2.68** 0.558 0.020** ≤ 30 – 1.73**/†† 3140 – 2.52** > 40 – 2.75**/†† 0.018** 15 y – 2.18** 610 y – 2.06†† >10y – 2.96**/†† */†the mean difference is significant at 10% level; **/††the mean difference is significant at 5% level #the average score of the challenge is significantly larger than the midlevel (3). rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024126 has a highly significant effect on the lack of respect challenge, and women in managerial positions tend to face this challenge more than those who are not. sexual harassment climate or the absence of harassment complaint procedure has also been more challenging for female managers when compared to employees. the mean comparison results in table 8 confirm that women who are not married or in a de facto relationship suffer more from sexual harassment and lack of respect compared to those who are. this suggests that a woman not in a partnership may be disrespected at the workplace. however, for each relationship status category, the mean score of the sexual harassment variable is below the middle level of the measurement table 8. hostile sexism challenges and influencing factors. challenge (average score) anova pvalues and lsd post hoc test results (averages and pvalues) occupational role [employee22; mgt34] relationship status [married28; de facto19; other18] having children [no children26; have children38] education [graduate31; not a graduate33] age [≤ 3015; 314021; > 40 29] experience 15 y – 22; 610 y18; >10y 25] masculine culture (3.68)# 0.352 0.708 0.802 0.692 0.500 0.860 behavioural impressions (women feel pressured to act like a male to ‘fit in’) (2.95) 0.297 0.277 0.939 0.502 0.494 0.961 lack of respect (2.91) 0.028** employee – 2.59 management – 3.26 0.088* married – 2.71** de facto – 2.74* other – 3.41**/* 0.997 0.510 0.666 0.556 bystander behaviour (witnesses to sexist behaviour do not speak out) (2.66) 0.981 0.294 0.724 0.504 0.603 0.684 gender harassment (2.48) 0.470 0.273 0.122 0.852 0.249 0.498 encouraged into stereotype (2.44) 0.236 0.992 0.749 0.129 harassment not related to gender (2.23) 0.455 0.245 0.368 0.922 0.623 0.611 employer’s refusal to address sexism (2.14) 0.173 0.175 0.185 0.578 0.756 0.763 sexual harassment climate (women don’t know the sexual harassment complaint procedure, or don’t believe it will be taken seriously) (2.13) 0.077* employee – 1.91 management – 2.45 0.212 0.149 0.651 0.446 0.956 sexual harassment (2.08) 0.201 0.054* married – 1.86** de facto– 2.00* other – 2.56**/* 0.335 0.514 0.265 0.202 */†the mean difference is significant at 10% level; **/††the mean difference is significant at 5% level #the average score of the challenge is significantly larger than the midlevel (3). rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024127 scale (3), while it is above that value for the lack of respect challenges. therefore, lack of respect has been a significant hostile sexism challenge for women without partners. at the same time, masculine culture is the most common challenge in that category (table 5), and it is common to all female construction workers. although most demographic factors do not affect the level of encountering hostile sexism challenges, several challenges in this category are crucial to all women workers in the construction sector. masculine culture, behavioural impressions, bystander behaviour, and gender harassment are among these. therefore, a dominating culture and acceptance of silence could be a problem in nz construction industry. job conditionrelated challenges according to the initial assessment of job conditionrelated challenges (table 6), the lack of female role models and work overload are largely experienced by women in the nz construction industry. work overload is a challenge that affects women at different levels of education and age. for example, employees table 9. jobrelated challenges and influencing factors. anova pvalues and lsd post hoc test results (averages and pvalues) challenge (average score) occupational role [employee22; mgt34] relationship status [married28; de facto19; other18] having children [no children26; have children38] education [graduate31; not a graduate33] age [≤ 3015; 31 4021; > 40 29] experience 15 y – 22; 610 y18; >10y 25] lack of female role models (3.78#) 0.014** employee – 3.23 management – 4.09 0.698 0.615 0.858 0.291 0.301 work overload (3.56#) 0.036** employee – 3.27 management – 3.85 0.615 0.428 0.064* graduate – 3.81* not a graduate– 3.31* 0.039** ≤ 30 – 3.13** 3140– 4.00**/* > 40 – 3.46* 0.357 job pressure (long hours are expected, hours are unpredictable, there is excessive work) (3.13) 0.052* employee – 2.86 management – 3.44 0.673 0.754 0.083* graduate – 3.39* not a graduate – 2.88* 0.210 0.092* 15y – 2.86* 610y– 2.88† > 10y – 3.52*/† unpleasant nature of work (risky work, a competitive culture, unsanitary conditions) (2.41) 0.751 0.542 0.834 0.474 0.355 0.249 lack of flexible work arrangements (2.36) 0.231 0.903 0.791 0.537 0.659 0.403 lack of site safety (2.03) 0.645 0.674 0.657 0.477 0.161 0.738 */†the mean difference is significant at 10% level; **/††the mean difference is significant at 5% level #the average score of the challenge is significantly larger than the midlevel (3). rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024128 older than 30 and those with university degrees tend to be highly overloaded with work. in addition, table 9 confirms that job pressure characterized by long and unpredictable hours and excessive work is another marginally significant challenge for highly educated and experienced female employees. specifically, women workers with more than 10 years of experience in the nz construction industry find job pressure as one of the critical challenges related to job conditions. since construction is an industry where working experience and knowledge are substantially important, this observation is justifiable. however, according to the current findings, more qualified and experienced women construction employees often struggle to manage their high workload and job pressure (table 9). the effect of the occupational role on job conditionrelated challenges is shown in the anova results (table 9). particularly, women in managerial positions find not having female role models, work overload, and job pressure more challenging than the other challenges in this category. in conclusion, the level of job role and education, age, and experience in the nz construction industry are the demographic factors that are significantly affecting jobrelated challenges faced by female construction workers. discussion significant challenges women experience the present study identifies a range of significant challenges. for benevolent sexism, the findings revealed that stereotyping and pressure to prove oneself are two significant challenges women in the nz construction industry experience. these results support an earlier study by pollard (2007), which indicated that women are subjected to genderbased stereotyping and undervaluation that impact how their colleagues and supervisors perceive them. stereotyping leads to assumptions about their abilities or suitability for construction roles. furthermore, construction women may experience pressure to prove themselves, as they are often viewed as less competent than their male counterparts (barreto, et al., 2017; bryce, far and gardner, 2019; ettinger, conroy and barr, 2019). addressing these issues is crucial in creating a more inclusive and supportive environment for women in construction. for hostile sexism, the presence of masculine culture was the only statistically significant challenge revealed in the current study. this implies that women experience discrimination or marginalization in predominantly masculine work environments. this finding is similar to view held by dainty and lingard (2006) and walker (2019) of women. behaviours and attitudes such as aggressiveness or competitiveness prevail, making it difficult for women to feel valued or included. further, masculine culture may lead to unequal treatment, such as pay disparities or being passed over for promotions, as indicated in previous studies (afolabi, et al., 2019; barreto, et al., 2017; galea, et al., 2021). therefore, ensuring workplaces that value diversity and provide equal opportunities for all employees, regardless of gender, becomes necessary. finally, the study found that the lack of female role models and work overload were the two significant job conditionrelated challenges nz construction women face. the absence of female role models in a maledominated industry hinders women’s career progressions and limits their growth and development opportunities (afolabi, et al., 2019; lekchiri and kamm, 2020). also, work overload may lead to stress and burnout, which can negatively impact their mental and physical health. it is essential to address these job conditionrelated challenges through mentorship programmes, flexible work arrangements, and support systems that could alleviate work overload, thereby promoting the retention and advancement of women in the industry. demographic factors that influence sexism and job conditionrelated challenges in addressing the second objective of this study, the findings suggest that the educational backgrounds of construction women affect four benevolent sexism challenges (namely, encouraging into stereotypical rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024129 industries, gender role differentiation, stereotyping, and presumed incompetency). women without a university degree encounter greater challenges in terms of gender role differentiation, stereotyping, and presumed incompetency when compared to the average level measured in the study. age and industry experience are other demographic factors that affect the benevolent sexism experienced by women in the nz construction industry. women who are advanced in age encounter difficulties, like disparities in earnings and being denied promotions. this study finding suggests that older women could encounter difficulties that younger women and possibly other genders do not experience. this finding is noteworthy in that the majority of previous research has examined promotion challenges faced by women but did not specifically focus on the effect of agerelated factors (bryce, far and gardner, 2019; worrall, et al., 2010, dainty and lingard, 2006). factors such as caregiving responsibilities and lack of access to training and development opportunities can compound these challenges. dainty and lingard (2006) also confirm that these obstacles can make it difficult for older women to advance in their careers and achieve financial stability. the study also found that addressing benevolent sexism in the construction industry requires focusing on age, experiencerelated factors, and genderrelated issues. thus, it is significant to create a work environment that is fair and equitable for workers of all ages and experience levels, where promotions and wage increases are based on merit. tunjiolayeni (2021) believes that given the multifaceted roles that women play in society, including their family responsibilities and work demands, it would be reasonable to offer equal opportunities for career growth and promotion to both men and women rather than depriving women of such opportunities outright (bryce, far and gardner, 2019, navarroastor, románonsalo and infanteperea, 2017). another significant demographic factor influencing women’s career advancement in the nz construction sector is whether women have children or not. the study found that this could disproportionately impact their advancement due to maternity leave, childcare responsibilities, and other family obligations. while it may not be a widespread issue that affects every woman, research by power (2020) indicates that the shift from paid to unpaid care work has resulted in increased inequalities, particularly in singleparent households. grönlund and öun (2022) also note that in many cases, when parents choose to work part time, women tend to reduce their work hours and take on the primary responsibility of caring for their children, leading to a more pronounced division of time along gender lines. implementing familyfriendly policies such as flexible work hours, paid parental leave, and affordable childcare to support working women may help address these challenges (lingard and turner, 2022). the study found that women are not being promoted as quickly as their male counterparts. this aligns with studies by cortis, foley and williamson (2022) and humbert, kelan and van den brink (2019). this may suggest gender bias in the promotion process. further, women with more years of work experience are delayed in promotions. this suggests that employers may need to look closely at promotion policies and procedures to identify genderbased preferences that contribute to delays. changes to the promotion process may be necessary in creating objective promotion criteria to ensure that female employees are evaluated fairly and objectively. the findings suggest that demographic factors have limited influence on hostile sexism challenges. only three challenges, sexual harassment, sexual harassment climate, and lack of respect, were significantly influenced by the demographic factors investigated, and these findings showed only marginal significance. further, the results suggest that occupational role and relationship status are the only demographic factors significantly impacting hostile sexism challenges. there is more chance that women at managerial positions experience a lack of respect compared to those in employeelevel positions. this finding supports schmitt’s (2021) assertion that the prevailing culture in the industry, which is heavily influenced by masculine values, often results in acts of aggression, hostility, and lack of respect towards women. moreover, these workers have limited knowledge about the available protocols for lodging complaints regarding sexual harassment. therefore, a companywide culture must be created for protecting women from sexual harassment and rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024130 respecting them equally as their male counterparts, and this is particularly important for the good mental health of female managers. women who are not married or in a de facto relationship experience more sexual harassment and lack of respect compared to women who are. this suggests that there may be a bias against women who do not conform to traditional gender roles. this finding corroborates earlier studies (minnotte and pedersen, 2019; nyanga and chindanya, 2020). the fact that masculine culture is identified as the significant challenge for this category suggests that lack of respect may be related to the perception that women without partners do not conform to traditional gender norms. the perception may be reinforced by a workplace culture that highly values traditionally masculine traits and behaviours, such as assertiveness, competitiveness, and aggressiveness. this finding suggests that the subordination of women is in line with those reported by denissen and saguy (2014). in this current study, the degree of facing hostile sexism challenges does not seem to be significantly affected by factors like age, education level, or industry experience, even though research shows that such demographic factors play a pivotal role in shaping attitudes towards hostile sexism (hammond, et al., 2017; capaldi, et al., 2012). one’s relationship status and occupational level may play crucial roles in shaping the understanding of such challenges in the industry. this stems from the finding that single women and women in managerial positions tend to experience more hostile sexism challenges. this category of women may be perceived as manipulative and subversive (hammond and overall, 2013) within maledominant environments. therefore, the construction industry needs to create work environments that are respectful and free from harassment (barreto, et al., 2017; fouad, fitzpatrick and liu, 2011), regardless of their employee’s demographic factors. this may involve creating reporting mechanisms for employees to report incidents of harassment or discrimination. regarding jobrelated conditions, this study found that work overload affects women differently depending on their occupational role, age and education level. women who hold managerial positions, are over 30 years old, and possess university degrees are more likely to have excessive workloads. furthermore, women who are highly educated, have been promoted, and have years of experience in their jobs frequently experience jobrelated stress due to long and unpredictable working hours. according to the current study, women employees who have worked for more than 10 years face considerable job pressure. within the construction industry, experience and knowledge are held in high regard. so, it can be presumed that women workers who have gained more experience will likely face higher job demands than those with relatively less experience. overall, these current findings are insightful, as they highlight the influence of demography on the nature of challenges that highly qualified and experienced women experience. in previous studies by tunji olayeni (2021), it was confirmed that women struggle to manage their workload and job pressure, which affects their ability to meet family expectations in spite of their position, experience and qualifications. also, bostock, et al. (2019), bowen, et al. (2018), and afolabi, et al. (2019) reinforce the impact of workrelated stress affecting both physical and mental health, and workfamily conflict in women, ultimately resulting in increased absenteeism and reduced organizational effectiveness. these findings underscore the need for employers to provide support and resources to help the aforementioned category of women manage their work demands effectively. generally, policies and practices that address work overload and job pressure could benefit highly qualified and experienced women employees in the construction industry. theoretical and practical implications this study has significant theoretical implications, as it sheds light on the challenges experienced by women in the construction industry. the study fills a knowledge gap and can inform future research and policy rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024131 decisions aimed at improving women’s health and wellbeing. the study underscores the importance of addressing occupational role, age, gender, and caregivingrelated issues to create a more equitable workplace for women as suggested by tunjiolayeni (2021) and afolabi, et al. (2019). this is in line with acker’s (2006) assertion that such issues could cause exclusion and power imbalances in organizations. to avoid imbalances, employers may need to examine promotion policies and procedures to identify genderbased preferences that could contribute to career delays. consequently, these findings contribute significantly to the dearth of existing literature on women in the new zealand construction industry. there are also significant practical implications of this study. employers in new zealand’s construction industry must create an unequivocally just and unbiased work environment towards employees from all age groups and backgrounds. the system of promotions and salary increments must be based solely on the merit of the workers, to ensure that every employee is treated fairly and equitably. by implementing such measures, employers can significantly enhance the morale and productivity of their workforce, ultimately leading to the success and growth of the organization. it could be helpful to introduce policies focused on family, which could effectively tackle the difficulties women experience in the workplace due to their role as caregivers. this policy could extend to other genders undertaking similar roles. further, the study has broader implications for the construction industry worldwide. it highlights the importance of addressing gender inequality and creating an inclusive culture in the construction industry, a traditionally maledominated sector as suggested by dainty, et al. (2004) and chung and van der lippe (2020). addressing these issues can lead to a more diverse and talented workforce, which can enhance productivity and profitability in the industry. conclusion and future research the presented analysis serves as compelling evidence that women in the nz construction industry experience diverse levels of challenges related to sexism and construction work specific job conditions. stereotyping, pressure to prove oneself, masculine culture, lack of female role models, and work overload represent the leading challenges found by women in construction. demographic factors play a significant role in the frequency and level of impact for some challenges. it is evident that the prevailing demographic factors influencing sexism and job conditionrelated challenges are the occupational role, educational level, industry experience, age, whether women have children, and relationship status. as such, interventions designed to improve the experiences and opportunities of women in the nz construction industry need to assess diverse challenges in a complex and integral manner by considering the demographic characteristics of the employees. given the traditionally maledominated, multilayered, and complex nature of the construction industry, addressing age and genderrelated issues represents an important but not simple task in creating a more equitable workplace. to improve women’s mental health in the construction industry, there is a need to establish a work environment unbiased for workers of all ages, genders, experience, and responsibility levels that provide equal and fair opportunities. construction companies implementing familyfriendly policies, such as flexible work hours and paid parental leave, encouraging objective promotion criteria and respect for all women, including those without partners, benefit highly qualified, experienced, and motivated female employees. the investigation into the challenges women in the nz construction industry face represents the attempt to deal with the issues of sexism, work overload, job pressure, gender diversity, and women’s health and wellbeing at source. the findings from this study contribute to the existing literature by highlighting the need for the industry to take demographic factors into consideration when creating initiatives addressing the challenges faced by women in the construction industry. therefore, further research focusing on solutions is needed to overcome barriers to women’s participation in construction and encourage more women to rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024132 embark on a construction career. the experiences of women in different roles within construction and their relations to demographic factors deserve further consideration. this study presented a valuable opportunity to scrutinize the experiences of women employed in different occupational roles (22 women working in office environments, 21 onsite professionals, and 22 individuals working in trades), therefore contributing significantly to the existing literature on the subject. conclusively, this study’s findings are significant as they provide a valuable resource for future investigations due to the scarcity of existing research on women in the new zealand construction industry. limitations and future research while this study’s findings and analysis have shown evidence of and detailed specific challenges women face in the construction sector, it should be noted that these findings may not be accurately extrapolated to other sectors and industries. given that this study has only collected data from women in construction, the sample has not captured women’s experiences from different work cultures and environments. while traditionally maledominated fields such as construction may be more likely to perpetuate gender stereotypes and cultivate benevolent sexism, each industry has its own unique culture and resultant environment, leading to different influencing factors which may affect the experiences of women working in those industries. additionally, the cultural differences between different industries may affect the perception and treatment of women. attitudes and biases towards women in maledominated industries cannot be applied to women in all industries. for example, some industries have distinctively more mentorship opportunities, more social pressure to initiate diversity and inclusion initiatives, and an environment where flexible working arrangements are more easily adopted to assist women in familyrelated commitments. accordingly, additional research is needed to understand factors within their industry or sector. while the literature review acknowledges ethnicity as a critical factor influencing women’s experiences, this study did not include ethnicity because of its sensitivity, which deserves future explorations. further research is also needed to understand the factors influencing promotion and career progression delays experienced by women in construction. due to the study’s crosssectional design, the ability to establish causeandeffect relationships between the identified challenges and their impact on women in the construction industry over time is limited. analysis of data collected over a period is critical in understanding the factors influencing promotion and progression, given that these are usually associated with performance over time. another limitation of this research is the small sample size of 65 women in the construction industry in nz. this sample was adequate for the univariate analyses (one sample ttest and oneway anova) conducted in this study. while this analysis provides valuable insights into the experiences and perspectives of these women, this sample size restricts the ability to observe the interactions between the demographic factor studied which can be more interesting and valuable. as such, caution should be exercised when applying the findings from this exploratory study to the entire population as the identified effects are likely to be varied when several demographic factors influence together. additionally, future investigations could ascertain the population size and consequently sample size, to establish its representativeness. this research primarily focuses on women (and those who identified as such) working in the construction industry. however, it may also be worthwhile to explore data related to men. this could help identify potential similarities or challenges faced by men within the same context, which may require further investigation into gender disparities. acknowledgement this work was supported by the faculty of design and creative technology contestable fund, auckland university of technology (aut), new zealand. rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024133 references abdel-raouf, f. and buhler, p.m., 2021. the gender pay gap: understanding the numbers. taylor & francis group. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003003731 acker, j., 2006. inequality regimes gender, class, and race in organizations. gender and society, [e-journal] 20(4), pp.44164. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243206289499 ackrill, r., caven, v. and alaktif, j., 2017. ‘black boxes’ and ‘fracture points’: the regulation of gender equality in the uk and french construction industries. the international journal of human resource management, [e-journal] 28(21), pp.3027-46. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1277366 afolabi, a.o., oyeyipo, o., ojelabi, r.a., and tunji-olayeni, p.f., 2019. balancing the female identity in the construction industry. journal of construction in developing countries, 24(2), pp.83-104. https://doi.org/10.21315/ jcdc2019.24.2.4 akinci, c. and saunders, m., 2015. using questionnaire surveys to gather data for within organization hrd research. in: m. saunders and p. tosey, eds. handbook of research methods on hrd, pp.217-30. cheltenham: edward elgar. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781781009246.00024 alreck, p.l. and settle, r.b., 1995. the survey research handbook. us: irwin professional publishing. barreto, u., pellicer, e., carrión, a., and torres-machi, c., 2017. barriers to the professional development of qualified women in the peruvian construction industry. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, [e-journal] 143(4), 05017002. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000331 bernard, h.r., 2017. research methods in anthropology: qualitative and quantitative approaches. rowman & littlefield. blackburn, r.m., jarman, j. and racko, g., 2014. occupational segregation: its vertical and horizontal dimensions. in: giovanni razzu, ed. gender inequality in the labour market in the uk. oxford, uk: oxford university press. https://doi. org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199686483.003.0005 boschman, j.s., van der molen, h.f., sluiter, j.k. and frings-dresen, m.h.w., 2013. psychosocial work environment and mental health among construction workers. applied ergonomics, 44, pp.748-55. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. apergo.2013.01.004 bostock, s., steptoe, a., crosswell, a.d. and prather, a.a., 2019. mindfulness on-the-go: effects of a mindfulness meditation app on work stress and well-being. journal of occupational health psychology, [e-journal] 24(1), pp.127-38. https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000118 bowen, p., govender, r., edwards, p. and cattell, k., 2018. work-related contact, work–family conflict, psychological distress and sleep problems experienced by construction professionals: an integrated explanatory model. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 36(3), pp.153-74. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2017.1341638 bridges, d., wulff, e., bamberry, l., krivokapic-skoko, b. and jenkins, s., 2020. negotiating gender in the maledominated skilled trades: a systematic literature review. construction management and economics, 38, pp.894-916. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1762906 bryce, t., far, h. and gardner, a., 2019. barriers to career advancement for female engineers in australia’s civil construction industry and recommended solutions. australian journal of civil engineering, [e-journal] 17(1), pp.1-10. https://doi.org/10.1080/14488353.2019.1578055 case, m.a. 2011. after gender: the destruction of man-the vatican’s nightmare vision of the gender agenda for law. pace law review, 31(3), p.802-16. https://doi.org/10.58948/2331-3528.1785 case, m.a. 2019. transformations in the vatican’s war on “gender ideology”. signs: journal of women in culture and society, [e-journal] 44(3), pp.639-64. https://doi.org/10.1086/701498 rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024134 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003003731 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243206289499 https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2016.1277366 https://doi.org/10.21315/jcdc2019.24.2.4 https://doi.org/10.21315/jcdc2019.24.2.4 https://doi.org/10.4337/9781781009246.00024 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000331 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199686483.003.0005 https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199686483.003.0005 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2013.01.004 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2013.01.004 https://doi.org/10.1037/ocp0000118 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2017.1341638 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1762906 https://doi.org/10.1080/14488353.2019.1578055 https://doi.org/10.58948/2331-3528.1785 https://doi.org/10.1086/701498 capaldi, d.m., knoble, n.b., shortt, j.w. and kim, h.k., 2012. the role of hostile sexism in predicting men’s attitudes toward women and their relationship behavior. psychology of men & masculinity, [e-journal] 13(3), 292-305. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026914 chan, a.p.c., nwaogu, j.m. and naslund, j.a., 2020. mental ill-health risk factors in the construction industry: systematic review. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 146(3), 04020004. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001771 chandola, t., booker, c.l., kumari, m. and benzeval, m., 2019. are flexible work arrangements associated with lower levels of chronic stress-related biomarkers? a study of 6025 employees in the uk household longitudinal study. sociology, [e-journal] 53(4), pp.779-99. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038519826014 chung, h. and van der lippe, t., 2020. flexible working, work–life balance, and gender equality: introduction. social indicators research, [e-journal] 151(2), pp.365-81. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-018-2025-x clarke, l., michielsens, e., snijders, s. and wall, c., 2015. no more softly, softly: review of women in the construction workforce. [pdf ] london: probe publication. available at: https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/9y6y5/ no-more-softly-softly-review-of-women-in-the-construction-workforce climo, d., 2017. women in construction. build 162, october/november, pp.74-75. cockburn, c., 1985. machinery of dominance: women, men and technical know-how. london: pluto press. cockburn, c., 2009. on “the machinery of dominance: women, men, and technical know-how”. women’s studies quarterly, 37(1/2), pp.269-73. https://doi.org/10.1353/wsq.0.0148 connell, r.w., 1995. masculinities. sydney: allen & unwin. cortis, n., foley, m. and williamson, s., 2022. change agents or defending the status quo? how senior leaders frame workplace gender equality. gender, work & organization, [e-journal] 29(1), pp.205-21. https://doi.org/10.1111/ gwao.12742 dainty, a.r., bagilhole, b.m., ansari, k.h. and jackson, j., 2004. creating equality in the construction industry: an agenda for change for women and ethnic minorities. journal of construction research, [e-journal] 5(1), pp.75-86. https:// doi.org/10.1142/s1609945104000061 dainty, a.r. and lingard, h., 2006. indirect discrimination in construction organizations and the impact on women’s careers. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 22(3), pp.108-18. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742597x(2006)22:3(108) danby, g. and ciesielska, m., 2021. gender bias in organizations: from the arts to individualized coaching. new york, us and oxford, uk: routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003018117 denissen, a.m., 2010a. crossing the line: how women in the building trades interpret and respond to sexual conduct at work. journal of contemporary ethnography, [e-journal] 39(3), pp.297-327. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241609341827 denissen, a.m., 2010b. the right tools for the job: constructing gender meanings and identities in the male-dominated building trades. human relations, [e-journal] 63(7), pp.1051-1069. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726709349922 denissen, a.m. and saguy, a.c., 2014. gendered homophobia and the contradictions of workplace discrimination for women in the building trades. gender & society, [e-journal] 28(3), pp.381-403. https://doi. org/10.1177/0891243213510781 dicke, a.l., safavian, n. and eccles, j.s., 2019. traditional gender role beliefs and career attainment in stem: a gendered story?. frontiers in psychology, [e-journal] 10. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01053 rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024135 https://doi.org/10.1037/a0026914 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001771 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001771 https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038519826014 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11205-018-2025-x https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/9y6y5/no-more-softly-softly-review-of-women-in-the-construction-workforce https://westminsterresearch.westminster.ac.uk/item/9y6y5/no-more-softly-softly-review-of-women-in-the-construction-workforce https://doi.org/10.1353/wsq.0.0148 https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12742 https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12742 https://doi.org/10.1142/s1609945104000061 https://doi.org/10.1142/s1609945104000061 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2006)22:3(108 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2006)22:3(108 https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003018117 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891241609341827 https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726709349922 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243213510781 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243213510781 https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.01053 dutta, d., 2017. cultural barriers and familial resources for negotiation of engineering careers among young women: relational dialectics theory in an asian perspective. journal of family communication, [e-journal] 17(4), pp.338-55. https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2017.1363045 english, j. and le jeune, k., 2012. do professional women and tradeswomen in the south african construction industry share common employment barriers despite progressive government legislation? journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, 138, pp.145-52. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000095 epstein, c.f., 1992. tinkerbells and pinups. in: m. lamont and m. fournier, eds. cultivating differences: symbolic boundaries and the making of inequality. illinois, usa: university of chicago press. pp.232-56. ervasti, j., pietiläinen, o., rahkonen, o., lahelma, e., kouvonen, a., lallukka, t. and mänty, m., 2019. long-term exposure to heavy physical work, disability pension due to musculoskeletal disorders and all-cause mortality: 20year follow-up—introducing helsinki health study job exposure matrix. international archives of occupational and environmental health, [e-journal] 92(3), pp.337-45. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-018-1393-5 ettinger, l., conroy, n. and barr, w., 2019. what late-career and retired women engineers tell us: gender challenges in historical context. engineering studies, 11(3), [e-journal] pp.217-42. https://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2019.1663201 evetts, j., 1998. managing the technology but not the organization: women and career in engineering. women in management review, [e-journal] 13(8), pp.283-90. https://doi.org/10.1108/09649429810243144 faizi, n. and alvi, y., 2023. biostatistics manual for health research: a practical guide to data analysis. london, uk: academic press. foley, m., oxenbridge, s., cooper, r. and baird, m., 2020. ‘i’ll never be one of the boys’: gender harassment of women working as pilots and automotive tradespeople. gender, work & organization, [e-journal] 29(5), pp.1676-91. https://doi. org/10.1111/gwao.12443 fouad, n., fitzpatrick, m. and liu, j.p., 2011. persistence of women in engineering careers: a qualitative study of current and former female engineers. journal of women and minorities in science and engineering, [e-journal] 17(1), pp.69-96. https://doi.org/10.1615/jwomenminorscieneng.v17.i1.60 fuller, s. and hirsh, c.e., 2019. “family-friendly” jobs and motherhood pay penalties: the impact of flexible work arrangements across the educational spectrum. work and occupations, [e-journal] 46(1), pp.3-44. https://doi. org/10.1177/0730888418771116 galea, n., powell, a., salignac, f., chappell, l. and loosemore, m., 2021. when following the rules is bad for wellbeing: the effects of gendered rules in he australian construction industry. work, employment and society, [e-journal] 36(1), pp.119-38. https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017020978914 glick, p. and fiske, s.t., 1996. the ambivalent sexism inventory: differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism. journal of personality and social psychology, 70, 491–512. https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.70.3.491 grönlund, a. and öun, i., 2022. a more equal deal? employer-employee flexibility, gender and parents’ work-family tensions in sweden’. work, 73(3), pp.843-56. https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-210668 gullestrup, j., lequertier, b. and martin, g., 2011. mates in construction: impact of a multimodal, community-based program for suicide prevention in the construction industry. international journal of environmental research and public health, 8, 4180-96. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph8114180 hammond, m.d., milojev, p., huang, y. and sibley, c.g., 2017. benevolent sexism and hostile sexism across the ages. social psychological and personality science, [e-journal] 9(7), pp.863-74. https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617727588 hammond, m. and overall, n., 2013. men’s hostile sexism and biased perceptions of intimate partners. personality and social psychology bulletin, [e-journal] 39(12), pp.1585-99. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213499026 rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024136 https://doi.org/10.1080/15267431.2017.1363045 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000095 https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-018-1393-5 https://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2019.1663201 https://doi.org/10.1108/09649429810243144 https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12443 https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12443 https://doi.org/10.1615/jwomenminorscieneng.v17.i1.60 https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888418771116 https://doi.org/10.1177/0730888418771116 https://doi.org/10.1177/0950017020978914 https://doi.org/10.1037//0022-3514.70.3.491 https://doi.org/10.3233/wor-210668 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph8114180 https://doi.org/10.1177/1948550617727588 https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213499026 hasan, a., ghosh, a., mahmood, m.n. and thaheem, m. j., 2021. scientometric review of the twenty-first century research on women in construction. journal of management in engineering, [e-journal] 37(3), pp.1-16. https://doi. org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000887 humbert, a.l., kelan, e. and van den brink, m., 2019. the perils of gender beliefs for men leaders as change agents for gender equality. european management review, [e-journal] 16(4), pp.1143-57. https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12325 ibáñez, m., 2017. women in the construction trades: career types and associated barriers. women’s studies international forum, [e-journal] 60, pp.39-48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2016.12.001 jarman, j., blackburn, r.m. and racko, g., 2012. the dimensions of occupational gender segregation in industrial countries. sociology, [e-journal] 46(6), pp.1003-19. https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038511435063 kamardeen, i. and sunindijo, r.y., 2017. attracting and retaining women professionals in construction: a work-stress management perspective. in: p.w. chan & c.j. neilson, eds. 33rd annual association of researchers in construction management conference, arcom 2017, cambridge, uk, 4-6 september 2017. pp. 400-09. kuhar, r. and paternotte, d., eds., 2017. anti-gender campaigns in europe: mobilizing against equality. ma, usa: rowman & littlefield. kurniawan, y., nurhaeni, i.d.a., mugijatna, and habsari, s.k., 2018. gender bias in the workplace: should women be marginalized in engineering job? iop conference series: materials science and engineering, [e-journal] 306(2018), p.012132. https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/306/1/012132 lekchiri, s. and kamm, j.d., 2020. navigating barriers faced by women in leadership positions in the us construction industry: a retrospective on women’s continued struggle in a male-dominated industry. european journal of training and development, [e-journal] 44(6/7), pp.575-94. https://doi.org/10.1108/ejtd-11-2019-0186 lingard, h. and turner, m., 2022. making time for life: a whole-of-industry initiative to reducing work hours and promoting health and gender inclusion in project-based construction work. project leadership and society, [e-journal] 3, p.100065. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2022.100065 longe, o.m., imoukhuede, o.b., obolo, a.a. and ouahada, k., 2019. a survey on the experiences of women in engineering: an institutional study. in: proceedings of 2019 ieee africon, accra, ghana, 25-27 september 2019. pp.454-59. https://doi.org/10.1109/africon46755.2019.9133875 lorber, j., 1996. beyond the binaries: depolarizing the categories of sex, sexuality, and gender. sociological inquiry, [e-journal] 66(2), pp.143–60. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682x.1996.tb00214.x maji, s. and dixit, s., 2020. exploring self-silencing in workplace relationships: a qualitative study of female software engineers. the qualitative report, [e-journal] 25(6), pp.1505-25. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2020.4290 mariam, a.t., olalusi, o.b. and haupt, t.c., 2020. a scientometric review and meta-analysis of the health and safety of women in construction: structure and research trends. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 19(2), pp.446-66. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-07-2020-0291 mbie, 2022. construction workforce projections 2022-2027. [online] available at: https://mbienz.shinyapps.io/ constructionworkforceprojections/_w_7d8cba22/chapter-2.html#sex michaelidou, n. and dibb, s., 2006. using email questionnaires for research: good practice in tackling non-response. journal of targeting, measurement and analysis for marketing, 14, pp.289-96. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jt.5740189 migliore, a., rossi-lamastra, c. and tagliaro, c., 2022. are workspaces gender neutral? a literature review and a research agenda. building research & information, [e-journal] 50(8), pp.924-48. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2022 .2087172 rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024137 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000887 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)me.1943-5479.0000887 https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12325 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wsif.2016.12.001 https://doi.org/10.1177/0038038511435063 https://doi.org/10.1088/1757-899x/306/1/012132 https://doi.org/10.1108/ejtd-11-2019-0186 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.plas.2022.100065 https://doi.org/10.1109/africon46755.2019.9133875 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1475-682x.1996.tb00214.x https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2020.4290 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-07-2020-0291 https://mbienz.shinyapps.io/constructionworkforceprojections/_w_7d8cba22/chapter-2.html#sex https://mbienz.shinyapps.io/constructionworkforceprojections/_w_7d8cba22/chapter-2.html#sex https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.jt.5740189 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2022.2087172 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2022.2087172 mínguez-alarcón, l., souter, i., williams, p.l., ford, j.b., hauser, r., chavarro, j.e. and gaskins, a.j., 2017. occupational factors and markers of ovarian reserve and response among women at a fertility centre. occupational and environmental medicine, [e-journal] 74(6), pp.426. https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2016-103953 minitab® support, 2024. data considerations for one-way anova. [online] available at https://support.minitab. com/en-us/minitab/help-and-how-to/statistical-modeling/anova/how-to/one-way-anova/before-you-start/dataconsiderations/ [accessed 08 september 2024]. minnotte, k.l. and pedersen, d.e., 2019. the job and health outcomes of gender harassment and sexual harassment climate among stem faculty members. in: 114th american sociological association annual meeting: engaging social justice for a better world, 10-13 august 2019, new york city, usa: asa. pp. 1-19. moreira da silva, j., 2019. why you should care about unpaid care work. gender, women and girls. [online] available at: https://oecd-development-matters.org/2019/03/18/why-you-should-care-about-unpaid-care-work/ morello, a., issa, r.r.a. and franz, b., 2018. exploratory study of recruitment and retention of women in the construction industry. journal of professional issues in engineering education and practice, [e-journal] 144(2), 04018001. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000359 murphy, m. and ren, z., 2010. engaging female employees at technical and professional status in the south wales construction sector. in: egbu, c., ed. proceedings of the 26th annual conference of the association of researchers in construction management, arcom 2010, 6-8 september 2010, leeds, uk: association of researchers in construction management. pp. 553-62. nawic, 2024. welcome to national association of women in construction, new zealand. [online] available at: https:// www.nawic.org.nz/ navarro-astor, e., román-onsalo, m. and infante-perea, m., 2017. women’s career development in the construction industry across 15 years: main barriers. journal of engineering, design and technology, [e-journal] 15(2), pp.199-221. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-07-2016-0046 ness, k., 2012. constructing masculinity in the building trades: most jobs in the construction industry can be done by women. gender, work & organization, [e-journal] 19(6), pp.654-76. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2010.00551.x nyanga, t. and chindanya, a., 2020. sexual harassment or delectation in smes in the construction industry. business excellence and management, 10(4), pp.82-93. https://doi.org/10.24818/beman/2020.10.4-06 onestaff, 2023. women in the construction industry. [online] available at: https://www.onestaff.co.nz/blog/womenin-the-construction-industry/ oo, b.l., lim, b. and feng, s.y., 2020. early career women in construction: are their career expectations being met? construction economics and building, [e-journal] 20(3), pp.1-19. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i3.6867 oppenheim, a.n., 2001. questionnaire design, interviewing and attitude measurement. london: continuum 147. pollard, p.l., 2007. a critical analysis of gender-based workplace challenges facing women: gender and compensation. forum on public policy: a journal of the oxford round table. available at: https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/a244026600/ aone?u=anon~bf822297&sid=googlescholar&xid=ed442741 powell, a., galea, n., salignac, f., loosemore, m. and chappell, l., 2018. masculinity and workplace wellbeing in the australian construction industry. in: gorse, c. and neilson, c. j., eds. proceedings of the 34th annual arcom conference 2018, 3-5 september 2018, belfast, uk: arcom. pp. 321-30. power, k., 2020. the covid-19 pandemic has increased the care burden of women and families. sustainability: science, practice and policy, [e-journal] 16(1), pp.67-73. https://doi.org/10.1080/15487733.2020.1776561 rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024138 https://doi.org/10.1136/oemed-2016-103953 https://support.minitab.com/en-us/minitab/help-and-how-to/statistical-modeling/anova/how-to/one-way-anova/before-you-start/data-considerations/ https://support.minitab.com/en-us/minitab/help-and-how-to/statistical-modeling/anova/how-to/one-way-anova/before-you-start/data-considerations/ https://support.minitab.com/en-us/minitab/help-and-how-to/statistical-modeling/anova/how-to/one-way-anova/before-you-start/data-considerations/ https://oecd-development-matters.org/2019/03/18/why-you-should-care-about-unpaid-care-work/ https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)ei.1943-5541.0000359 https://www.nawic.org.nz/ https://www.nawic.org.nz/ https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-07-2016-0046 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-0432.2010.00551.x https://doi.org/10.24818/beman/2020.10.4-06 https://www.onestaff.co.nz/blog/women-in-the-construction-industry/ https://www.onestaff.co.nz/blog/women-in-the-construction-industry/ https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v20i3.6867 https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/a244026600/aone?u=anon~bf822297&sid=googlescholar&xid=ed442741 https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/a244026600/aone?u=anon~bf822297&sid=googlescholar&xid=ed442741 https://doi.org/10.1080/15487733.2020.1776561 pozo-garcía, e.d., de la puente pacheco, m.a., fernández-cornejo, j.a., belope-nguema, s., rodríguez-juárez, e. and escot, l., 2020. whether your name is manuel or maría matters: gender biases in recommendations to study engineering. journal of gender studies, [e-journal] 29(7), pp.805-19. https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2020.1805303 regis, m.f., alberte, e.p.v., lima, d.s. and freitas, r.l.s., 2019. women in construction: shortcomings, difficulties, and good practices. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] 26(11), pp.2535-49. https://doi. org/10.1108/ecam-09-2018-0425 ridgeway, c.l., 2009. framed before we know it: how gender shapes social relations. gender & society, 23(2), pp.14560. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243208330313 rlb, 2023. women in construction: the fight against inequality. [online] available at: https://www.rlb.com/americas/ insight/perspective-2023-vol-1/women-in-construction-the-fight-against-inequality/ rosa, j.e., hon, c.k.h., xia, b. and lamari, f., 2017. challenges, success factors and strategies for women’s career development in the australian construction industry. construction economics and building, [e-journal] 17(3), pp.27-46. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5520 rotimi, f.e., burfoot, m., naismith, n., mohaghegh, m. and brauner, m.., 2022. a systematic review of the mental health of women in construction: future research directions. building research & information, [e-journal] pp.1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2022.2132905 rotimi, f.e., brauner, m., burfoot, m., naismith, n., silva, c.w.c. and mohaghegh, m., 2023, work environment challenge and the wellbeing of women in construction industry in new zealand – the mediating role of work morale. engineering, construction and architectural management, [e-journal] ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam02-2023-0152 schmitt, m., 2021. women engineers on their way to leadership: the role of social support within engineering work cultures. engineering studies, [e-journal] 13(1), pp.30-52. https://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2021.1882471 servon, l.j. and visser, m.a., 2011. progress hindered: the retention and advancement of women in science, engineering and technology careers. human resource management journal, [e-journal] 21(3), pp.272-284. https://doi. org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2010.00152.x shields, s.a., 2008. gender: an intersectionality perspective. sex roles, [e-journal] 59(5), pp.301-11. https://doi. org/10.1007/s11199-008-9501-8 shrestha, b.k., 2017. an investigation of employment and wage distribution in the construction industry by race/ ethnicity and gender. m.sc. university of nevada, las vegas. singley, s.g. and hynes, k., 2005. transitions to parenthood: work-family policies, gender, and the couple context. gender & society, 19(3), pp.376-97. https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243204271515 skaik, y., 2015. the bread and butter of statistical analysis “t-test”: uses and misuses. pakistan journal of medical sciences, [e-journal] 31(6), pp.1558–59. https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.316.8984 smith, l., 2013. trading in gender for women in trades: embodying hegemonic masculinity, femininity and being a gender hotrod. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 31(8), pp.861-73. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144619 3.2013.833339 stats nz, 2023. stats nz infoshare. new zealand government. [online] available at: https://infoshare.stats.govt.nz/ sunindijo, r.y. and kamardeen, i., 2017. work stress is a threat to gender diversity in the construction industry. journal of construction engineering and management, [e-journal] 143(10), 04017073. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce) co.1943-7862.0001387 rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024139 https://doi.org/10.1080/09589236.2020.1805303 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2018-0425 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-09-2018-0425 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243208330313 https://www.rlb.com/americas/insight/perspective-2023-vol-1/women-in-construction-the-fight-against-inequality/ https://www.rlb.com/americas/insight/perspective-2023-vol-1/women-in-construction-the-fight-against-inequality/ https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v17i3.5520 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2022.2132905 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2023-0152 https://doi.org/10.1108/ecam-02-2023-0152 https://doi.org/10.1080/19378629.2021.1882471 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2010.00152.x https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-8583.2010.00152.x https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9501-8 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-008-9501-8 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243204271515 https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.316.8984 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.833339 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.833339 https://infoshare.stats.govt.nz/ https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001387 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001387 tapia, m., safapour, e., kermanshachi, s. and akhavian, r., 2020. investigation of the barriers and their overcoming solutions to women’s involvement in the u.s. construction industry. in: construction research congress 2020: safety, workforce and education, tempe, arizona, 8-10 march 2020. pp.810-18. [online] available at: https://doi. org/10.1061/9780784482872.088 teddlie, c. and yu, f., 2007. mixed methods sampling: a typology with examples. journal of mixed methods research, 1(1), pp.77-100. https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689806292430 thatcher, s.m.b., hymer, c.b. and arwine, r.p., 2023. pushing back against power: using a multilevel power lens to understand intersectionality in the workplace. academy of management annals, [e-journal] 17(2), pp.710-50. https://doi. org/10.5465/annals.2021.0210 thenguzhali, t. and veerachamy, p., 2015. occupational health hazards of women construction workers: a critical survey of the literature. language in india, 15, pp.288-319. tunji-olayeni, p.f., kajimo-shakantu, k. and oni, a.a., 2021. work-life experiences of women in the construction industry: a case of women in lagos mainland, nigeria. in: the asocsa 14th built environment conference iop conference series: earth and environmental science, 21-22 september 2020, durban, south africa, 654(1), 012012. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/654/1/012012 uzoigwe, a.g., low, w.y. and noor, s.n.m., 2016. predictors of work-family role conflict and its impact on professional women in medicine, engineering, and information technology in nigeria. asia pacific journal of public health, [e-journal] 28(7), pp.629-37. https://doi.org/10.1177/1010539516667782 venugopal, v., rekha, s., manikandan, k., latha, p.k., vennila, v., ganesan, n., kumaravel, p. and chinnadurai, s.j., 2016. heat stress and inadequate sanitary facilities at workplaces–an occupational health concern for women? global health action, [e-journal] 9(1), 31945. https://doi.org/10.3402/gha.v9.31945 walker, m., 2019. implicit bias: root cause of discrimination against women in construction. in: 2nd international conference on gender research (icgr 2019), 11-12 april 2019, reading, uk: academic conferences international. pp.646-52. west, c. and zimmerman, d.h., 1987. doing gender. gender & society, [e-journal] 1(2), pp.125–51. https://doi. org/10.1177/0891243287001002002 williams, f.m. and emerson, c.j., 2019. becoming leaders: a practical handbook for women in engineering, science, and technology, 2nd ed. reston, virginia: asce press and the society of women engineers. worrall, l., harris, k., stewart, r., thomas, a. and mcdermott, p., 2010. barriers to women in the uk construction industry. engineering, construction & architectural management, [e-journal] 17(3), pp.268-81. https://doi. org/10.1108/09699981011038060 wright, t., 2013. uncovering sexuality and gender: an intersectional examination of women’s experience in uk construction. construction management and economics, [e-journal] 31(8), pp.832-44. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193. 2013.794297 wright, t., 2016. gender and sexuality in male-dominated occupations: women working in construction and transport. london: palgrave macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50136-3 rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024140 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784482872.088 https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784482872.088 https://doi.org/10.1177/1558689806292430 https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2021.0210 https://doi.org/10.5465/annals.2021.0210 https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/654/1/012012 https://doi.org/10.1177/1010539516667782 https://doi.org/10.3402/gha.v9.31945 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243287001002002 https://doi.org/10.1177/0891243287001002002 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981011038060 https://doi.org/10.1108/09699981011038060 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.794297 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.794297 https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-50136-3 appendix 1. challenges identified in the literature for women in construction – adopted from rotimi, et al. (2023) c at eg or ie s sources challenges a fo la bi , e t a l., 2 01 9 b ar re to , e t a l., 2 01 7 b ow en , e t a l., 2 01 8 b ry ce , e t a l., 2 01 9 e tt in ge r, e t a l., 2 01 9 fo ua d, e t a l.. 2 01 1 g al ea , e t a l. 20 21 h at m ak er , 2 01 3; k am ar de en a nd s un in di jo , 2 01 7 le kc hi ri a nd k am m , 2 02 0 m in no tt e an d p ed er se n, 2 01 9 m or el lo , e t a l., 2 01 8 m ur ph y an d r en , 2 01 0 n es s, 2 01 2 n ya ng a an d c hi nd an ya , 2 02 0 o o, e t a l., 2 02 0 p ow el l, et a l., 2 01 8; r eg is , e t a l. 20 19 r os a, e t a l., 2 01 7 s aa ve dr a, e t a l., 2 01 4 s er vo n an d vi ss er , 2 01 1 s un in di jo a nd k am ar de en , 2 01 7 ta pi a, e t a l., 2 02 0 w or ra ll , e t a l., 2 01 0 b en ev ol en t s ex is m encouraged into stereotypical industries x sexist recruitment practices x x gender role differentiation x x x x x x x x wage gap x x x x x promotions withheld x x glass ceiling x x x x x x x x x x x x stereotyping x x x x x x x x uniforms or protective equipment are not gender inclusive x x x presumed incompetency x x x x x x pressure to prove oneself x x x x x x x x h os ti le s ex is m gender harassment x x x x x x x x x x x sexual harassment x x x x x x x x sexual harassment climate x x employer’s refusal to address sexism x x bystander behaviour x encouraged into stereotype x masculine culture x x x x x x x lack of respect x x x x x x x behavioural impressions x x x x x x x x harassment not related to gender x x x x x jo b c on di ti on s lack of female role models x x x x work overload x x x x x lack of flexible work arrangements x x x x x x job pressure x x x x x x x x x x x unpleasant nature of work x x x x x x x x x lack of site safety x x x x x rotimi et al. construction economics and building, vol. 24, no. 4/5 december 2024141 health and safety challenges among post-disaster reconstruction workers construction economics and building vol. 23, no. 1/2 july 2023 research article health and safety challenges among post-disaster reconstruction workers s m jamil uddin1,*, alex albert2, nipesh pradhananga3, nazife emel ganapati4, jeetendra prajapati5 1 graduate research assistant, department of civil, construction, and environmental engineering, north carolina state university, raleigh, nc, 27606 usa, suddin@ncsu.edu 2 associate professor, department of civil, construction, and environmental engineering, north carolina state university, raleigh, nc, 27606 usa, alex_albert@ncsu.edu 3 associate professor, moss department of construction management, florida international university, miami, fl, 33174 usa, npradhan@fiu.edu 4 associate professor, public administration department, steven j. green school of international and public affairs, florida international university, miami, fl 33199, usa, ganapat@fiu.edu 5 lecturer, department of civil engineering, khwopa engineering college, bhaktapur, nepal, jeetendra.prajapati@khec.edu.np corresponding author: s m jamil uddin, department of civil, construction, and environmental engineering, north carolina state university, raleigh, nc, 27606, usa, suddin@ncsu.edu doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8441 citation: uddin, s. m. j., albert, a., pradhananga, n., ganapati, n. e., prajapati, j. 2023. health and safety challenges among postdisaster reconstruction workers. construction economics and building, 23:1/2, 4–30. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v23i1/2.8441 article history: received 04/11/2022; revised 04/02/2023 & 24/04/2023; accepted 05/05/2023; published 31/07/2023 abstract with the increase in the number of natural hazards in recent years, post-disaster reconstruction (pdr) efforts have become increasingly important to aid community recovery. accordingly, a large body of recent research has focused on identifying the best practices for accelerating recovery and restoring impacted communities. however, relatively little attention has been devoted to the health and safety challenges experienced by reconstruction workers that aid post-disaster recovery and reconstruction efforts. the current investigation focused on addressing this knowledge gap by seeking to uncover the health and safety challenges that reconstruction workers experienced in the context of the 2015 gorkha earthquake in nepal – that was responsible for nearly 9,000 deaths and 22,000 injuries. the data collection effort involved in-depth interviews with several stakeholders, including construction workers, supervisors, site engineers, general contractors, homeowners, and governmental officials. this study enhances our understanding of the health and safety challenges experienced by pdr workers. the study also offers insight on how the obtained knowledge can be leveraged by government and stakeholders with supervisory roles to ensure proper health, safety, and wellbeing of the reconstruction workers. additionally, the findings of this study contributes to the body of knowledge by identifying unique health and safety challenges in the post-disaster reconstruction context. also, the study opens a door for future research efforts on reconstruction workers health and safety. keywords post-disaster reconstruction; worker safety; gorkha earthquake; reconstruction worker safety; construction safety; disaster recovery introduction the impact of natural hazards on the built environment and human life is catastrophic. the emergency events database (em-dat) recorded more than 11,500 hazards over the last 40 years with an increasing trend (undrr, 2020). during this time period, more than 2 million people have lost their lives around the world and the economic loss is around 4.6 trillion us dollars (undrr, 2020). natural hazards turn into disasters when there is significant loss of lives, damage to the properties, infrastructures, and built environment (united nations office for disaster risk reduction, 2015; homeland security, 2022). with the increasing number and significant impact of natural hazards on the overall built environment, post disaster reconstruction (pdr) efforts have become increasingly important to aid community recovery. pdr is one of the most important and crucial phases of recovery efforts following a natural hazard and its impacts (jha et al., 2010). although a concrete definition of pdr has been a topic of debate in interdisciplinary research for years, scholars agree that pdr efforts may consist of several activities that include but not limited to recovery planning, debris removal, demolition, restoration, repair and retrofitting etc. (attalla, hegazy and elbeltagi, 2004; lindell, 2013; mahdi and mahdi, 2013; uddin and pradhananga, 2019). over the past two decades, pdr has gained much attention in the interdisciplinary research. a plethora of research has focused on identifying the best practices for accelerating recovery and restoring impacted communities. however, very less efforts have been made in understanding and investigating the health and safety challenges among the reconstruction workers who are the front line stakeholders in restoring the built environment after a disaster (h yi and yang, 2014; uddin and pradhananga, 2019). although a few studies have touched upon the health and safety risks associated with reconstruction efforts (e.g., (grosskopf and hinze, 2008; lyons, 2009; brown, milke and seville, 2010; grosskopf, 2010b; shafique and warren, 2016; pradhananga, elzomor and kasabdji, 2021)), the health and safety challenges are largely unexplored in the interdisciplinary research literature. recent studies have also demonstrated this knowledge gap and highlighted the importance of investigating the health and safety challenges among reconstruction workers with greater depth (uddin and pradhananga, 2019; uddin et al., 2021). this study is one of the first efforts to investigate the health and safety challenges among reconstruction workers during post-disaster reconstruction efforts. while previous studies established that post-disaster reconstruction efforts are significantly different from conventional construction in certain areas for example, debris management, workforce management, work environment etc., this study focuses on identifying specific health and safety challenges among the reconstruction workers. to address the knowledge gap within the body of knowledge in the post-disaster reconstruction context, this paper emphasizes on exploring the health and safety challenges among the reconstruction workers. in achieving the objective of this research, we present a case study of bhaktapur, nepal in the context of gorkha earthquake 2015. background nepal was hit with a 7.8 magnitude earthquake on april 25, 2015. the earthquake caused toppling of multistoried buildings, creating landslides and snow slides in the himalayan mountains. while there were hundreds of aftershocks followed by the earthquake, another 7.3 magnitude earthquake hit after 17 days on may 12, 2015. around 9,000 people lost their lives, 22,000 people got injured, and the economic damage was estimated to be around $10 billion (npc, 2015). the earthquake affected approximately 50 of the 75 districts in nepal (hall et al., 2017). among them, 14 districts were affected severely that include gorkha, dhading, rasuwa, nuwakot, kathmandu, lalitpur, bhaktapur, kavrepalanchowk, sindhupalchowk, dolakha, sindhuli, makawanpur, ramechhap and okhaldhunga (moha, 2015; subedi and bahadur poudyal chhetri, 2019). among the severely affected areas, we chose bhaktapur as our case study because of a few reasons. first, according to historical evidence based on previous earthquakes in nepal, bhaktapur has always sustained a high fatality rate and infrastructural damage due to the earthquakes in 1934, 1988, and in 2015 (moha, 2015; shakya et al., 2021) hence the location of bhaktapur is critical to earthquakes damages and needs to studied for reconstruction efforts. second, during the time of the data collection, the area of bhaktapur was going through reconstruction efforts in full swing and only 14% of the structures had been rebuilt or repaired (nra, 2018). although the reconstruction efforts in nepal started right after the formation of national reconstruction authority (nra), the reconstruction efforts were very slow in nature due to number of challenges including economic, political, societal etc. third, we had a greater access to the reconstruction projects and different stakeholders in the area of bhaktapur and finally, the research team witnessed damaged structures, rubble, waste, and debris along with several active reconstruction sites throughout the city, providing a firsthand view of the impact of the natural hazards and the progress of recovery efforts. the gorkha earthquake caused heavy structural damage to the buildings, especially the old, non-engineered and masonry buildings (hashash et al., 2015). the buildings that were engineered (structurally designed properly) were also damaged due to many reasons such as poor construction, low quality materials or simply because of the strength of the earthquake (subedi and bahadur poudyal chhetri, 2019). along with the residential and commercial buildings, many historic temples and monuments were also damaged due to the earthquake, for instance, vatsala durga temple at durbar square was severely damaged and partially collapsed. the research team witnessed damaged structures, rubbles, wastes, and debris along with several active reconstruction sites all around the city while recruiting and interviewing the participants. literature review post disaster reconstruction (pdr) the definition of post disaster reconstruction has been a subject of debate for many years. the term has been used interchangeably with the term “recovery” in the literature, and earlier studies on recovery have focused almost exclusively on reconstruction of the built environment (mileti, 1999). in a previous, seminal study, haas et al. (1977) clarified the distinctions between pdr and disaster recovery by noting that reconstruction was part of the larger and more comprehensive recovery process. the haas et al. (1977) study was based on a comparison of the recovery process following four natural hazards: three of which were in the united states (i.e., 1906 san francisco earthquake, 1964 alaska earthquake, 1972 rapid city flood) and one was in nicaragua (i.e., 1972 managua earthquake). the authors suggested that “disaster recovery is ordered, knowable, and predictable,” and they divided recovery into four overlapping periods (ibid: xxvii): (1) the emergency period, referring to the initial days or weeks after a natural hazard during which the community primarily copes with losses to life and property and injuries, as well as disruptions to everyday life; (2) the restoration period, during which the community’s major services and activities are more or less restored to pre-disaster levels; (3) the replacement and reconstruction period, during which the community rebuilds its capital stock, such as housing and infrastructure, to pre-disaster levels and restores social and economic activities to pre-disaster levels or higher; and, (4) the commemorative, betterment and developmental period, during which the community continues with reconstruction but focuses on building better for the future. several scholars have noted that although distinctions made by haas et al. (1977) across recovery periods are helpful, the periods may overlap in a given community and different areas within a community may experience different stages of recovery—depending on their access to resources and power, among other factors (quarantelli, 1982; rubin, saperstein and barbee, 1985; philip and timothy, 1997). other researchers have defined reconstruction as the rebuilding of different types of structures affected by a natural hazard and the process may include activities such as demolition, debris management, and retrofitting (mckim and attalla, 1998; attalla, hegazy and elbeltagi, 2004). over the years, different studies have focused on different issues within the domain of post disaster reconstruction such as planning for reconstruction (pearce, 2003; olshansky et al., 2008; stringfellow, 2014; cole et al., 2017; adamy and abu bakar, 2021); governance of the reconstruction process (guarnacci, 2012; cho, 2014; dimmer, 2014; lassa, 2015; ganapati, 2016; curato, 2018); involvement of stakeholders in reconstruction processes (davidson et al., 2007; ganapati and ganapati, 2008; bouraoui and lizarralde, 2013; sadiqi, trigunarsyah and coffey, 2017; lu, zhong and zhang, 2020). while others have focused on resource allocation and mobilization (freeman, 2004; chang et al., 2010, 2011; fetter and rakes, 2011; athukorala, 2012; lindanger, 2012; sewordor et al., 2019); sustainable reconstruction (opricovic and tzeng, 2002; jigyasu, 2004; guarnacci, 2012; mannakkara and wilkinson, 2014); and resilience (chang et al., 2010; amaratunga and haigh, 2011; gotham and campanella, 2011; lam and kuipers, 2019; dhakal, zhang and lv, 2020; xu and shao, 2020). however, as specified in the above section, reconstruction workers health and safety has not been studied thoroughly in the disaster risk management literature. although construction workers health and safety has been a topic an interest for the scholars for many years now, the health and safety of reconstruction workers have failed to gain much attention. reconstruction workers health and safety generally, construction workers health and safety has been a widely studied topic in the broader literature. researchers have extensively described approaches to address health and safety challenges and to improve workplace safety in conventional construction sites over the past few decades. some scholars, for example, have examined the safety climate and safety culture (langford, rowlinson and sawacha, 2000; bahn, 2013; sunindijo and zou, 2013; albert and hallowell, 2017; nadhim et al., 2018). others have studied the benefits of information technology (khoshnava et al., 2012; ergun and pradhananga, 2015; teizer et al., 2015; zhang et al., 2015; jeelani et al., 2019) and safety training (albert and hallowel, 2013; sacks, perlman and barak, 2013; namian et al., 2016; subedi et al., 2017). still others have highlighted the importance of hazard recognition (carter and smith, 2006; albert, hallowell and kleiner, 2014; jeelani, albert and gambatese, 2017; uddin et al., 2020, 2022) and prevention through design (kamardeen, 2010; dewlaney and hallowell, 2012; lópez-arquillos and rubio-romero, 2015; teo et al., 2016). despite having a rich literature on workers’ health and safety issues, recent studies have demonstrated that the reconstruction workers health and safety has not been widely studied by the scholars over the past few decades. for example, honglei yi and yang, (2014) analyzed 88 research articles focused on pdr and identified 12 key issues that the researchers have dealt with over the years. however, reconstruction workers health and safety was not one of the key issues that has been studied. later, uddin and pradhananga, (2019) conducted another systematic review of the literature in order to assess if reconstruction workers health and safety received much attention in the disaster risk management literature. they analyzed 177 research articles and concluded that reconstruction workers health and safety is an existing knowledge gap in the literature that needs much attention. although there are some studies that have touched upon the health and safety issues among reconstruction workers, these studies are very limited in number and the primary focus of these studies were not the health and safety of the reconstruction workers. for example, grosskopf, (2010a) talked about the presence of possible hazards in the reconstruction workplaces and focused on the need of specialized safety training for the reconstruction workers. kennedy et al., (2008) identified the involvement of unskilled workers during the reconstruction efforts and emphasized on the potential health and safety risks for the reconstruction workers. studies have demonstrated that post disaster reconstruction workplace is significantly more hazardous for the construction workers compared to conventional construction workplace. uddin et al., (2021) demonstrated that pdr operations are different from conventional construction operations in five broad ways i.e., debris management, workforce management, working environment, perceived urgency to complete reconstruction and safety risk perceptions. the study also emphasized on identifying health and safety challenged based on the differences between pdr and conventional construction. pamidimukkala, kermanshachi and jahan nipa, (2022) enlisted a number of hazards that are unique to pdr context such as chemical hazards, biological hazards, psychological hazards, use of unfamiliar equipment, lack of skill and training and so on. based on the limited research on pdr operations in terms of workers health and safety, it is evident that there is a knowledge gap within the pdr literature. this study is one of the first empirical effort to bridge the knowledge gap by identifying health and safety challenges among reconstruction workers. research methodology study design as discussed in the previous section, only a little knowledge is available in literature regarding the health and safety challenges among reconstruction workers, making it suitable for exploratory research. we conducted the exploratory study through in-depth semi-structured interviews. the semi-structured interviews allowed us to explore the interviewees’ perceptions with a greater depth and unearth unique topics that may not be otherwise observed. we collected data in two parts. first, the demographics of the participants were recorded. personal information such as name, age, or location was anonymized so that the participants cannot be traced back. the second part of the questionnaire had primary questions, follow up questions and discussion regarding the health and safety challenges among reconstruction workers. however, before starting the data collection for this study, approval was obtained from the institutional review board (irb) of the author’s institution (approval number irb-18-0416-am01). we formulated the questionnaire in english initially, however, since our targeted participants were local stakeholders of bhaktapur, it was easier to conduct the interviews in their native language and this ensured that no information is lost due to the language barrier. hence we translated the questionnaire to nepali (official language of nepal) to conduct the interviews. we recruited local volunteers to conduct the on-field interviews. the volunteers worked under the direct supervision of one of the authors of this paper who is located in bhaktapur, nepal. the interviews were first audio recorded, and then transcribed and translated to english. since two of the authors of this paper are bilingual (fluent in both nepali and english), the quality of the translation and transcription was maintained. the transcribed responses were then analyzed by all the authors to explore and identify the health and safety challenges among reconstruction workers. participant recruitment and data collection we recruited a diverse group of construction stakeholders to make sure we get all different perspective from our study and conducted the interviews over a three-month period. we adopted a purposive sampling technique to recruit the participants. in order to interview the participants, the volunteers visited the reconstructions sites in bhaktapur, nepal and interviewed the participants. while most of the interviews were conducted on the reconstruction sites, some of the interviews were held at the office of the participants as well. table 1 shows the demographic of the participants. the participants include homeowner, general contractors, government officials, engineers, supervisors, and workers. in order to ensure the inclusion of diverse demographic, we recruited at least one female participants from each stakeholder category and ended up with 24% of female participants in total. we also ensured that we have participants with different educational levels so that we get different perspectives of the participants. although a large portion of the participants had less than 5 years of experience, we made sure that they had at least one year of experience in the reconstruction projects. the identities of the participants were anonymized for their confidentiality and a code number (e.g., p1, p2, etc) was assigned to all the participants. table 1. demographics of the participants demographic characteristics count percentage participant type homeowner 1 2.63% government officials 2 5.26% general contractors 4 10.53% site engineers 13 34.21% construction supervisors 8 21.05% construction workers 10 26.32% gender male 29 76.32% female 9 23.68% age range 20-25 6 15.79% 26-30 15 39.47% 31-35 1 2.63% 36-40 2 5.26% 41-45 3 7.89% 46-50 7 18.42% 51-55 4 10.53% education level below higher secondary level 22 57.89% graduate or post-graduate degree 13 34.21% associate degree or equivalent 3 7.89% years of experience 0-5 17 44.74% 6-10 5 13.16% 11-15 4 10.53% 16-20 3 7.89% 21-25 5 13.16% 26-30 4 10.53% data analysis process the interviews were recorded using an audio-recorder during the interviews and then transcribed and translated from nepali to english. once the audio recordings were converted to textual data following verbatim method, the research team utilized nvivo software package to analyze the data. first, the data was categorized based on the demographics and then a word frequency analysis was conducted to identify words that were most frequently used by our participants. previous studies have demonstrated that such initial analysis is helpful to understand certain patterns within the textual data (jackson and trochim, 2002; onwuegbuzie and leech, 2006). finally, the data was analyzed using first and second cycle coding techniques (saldaña, 2015) to identify the health and safety challenges among the reconstruction workers during pdr efforts. to get better understanding and new insights on the topic, it was important to focus on the quality and significance of the data rather than quantity. our analysis revealed eight health and safety challenges that are elaborated on in the findings section. the responses of the participants are presented word to word where deemed relevant and necessary. findings a total of eight health and safety challenges were identified from the responses of the participants. table 2 enlists the health and safety challenges along with the number of participants mentioning each challenges. table 2. no. of participants mentioning the health and safety challenges health and safety challenges number of participant mentioned the challenges percentage (%) inadequate safety equipment 32 84.21% employing unskilled workers 30 78.95% lack of safety training 29 76.32% working with hazardous debris and waste 29 76.32% faster reconstruction syndrome 29 76.32% mental health of the workers 27 71.05% participation of community people 26 68.42% distraction 26 68.42% the following sections discuss the health and safety challenges among reconstruction workers in detail and a summary of the findings is graphically presented in figure 1. figure 1 represents the eight different health and safety challenges among the reconstruction workers and their causes in the third level of the figure. for example, issues such as limited resources, lack of knowledge etc. led to the inadequacy of safety equipment, which is one of the health and safety challenges faced by the reconstruction workers. figure 1. summary of the findings inadequate safety equipment we started the interviews with basic discussion on existing health and safety challenges among reconstruction workers. a majority of participants cited the inadequacy of safety equipment as a critical challenge. the interviews revealed that most of the participants were aware of common safety equipment such as hard hats, safety boot, gloves, safety glasses etc. however, despite being aware of the importance and significance, the workers were not accustomed to using safety equipment at the pdr sites and our field visits reflected the same (exhibit figure 2). our questionnaire had specific questions on whether the workers receive any safety equipment to work on the pdr sites and one of workers, p5, replied, ‘no, only big companies may provide safety equipment for big projects. we do not get such equipment in reconstruction sites. especially after the earthquake, nobody really cares about our safety.’ we inquired about the safety equipment with other workers, who had experience working with bigger companies and general contractors. however, they also replied in the similar fashion that they did not receive any safety equipment. in order to get insight on this situation, we talked to the general contractors and homeowners, who are primarily responsible for hiring and providing resources to the workers. the general contractors and homeowners also responded that there was no practice of providing safety equipment to the workers although the discussion revealed their understanding of the importance of safety equipment. the homeowner (p38) said, ‘…yes, i know it is necessary for everyone involved in reconstruction sites but we have not provided any safety equipment yet. we never compel the workers to work putting themselves in a physical risk. there might be a chance of accident, but one [the workers] should always be careful.’ the general contractor (p32) also stated that the practice of providing safety equipment to the workers is not very common in nepal and also pointed out nepal’s struggle with regulations on using safety equipment, ‘no, we don’t provide the workers with the safety equipment… safety is necessary. it is necessary for all workers and me. but no attention has been paid to safety here. just like there is no specific regulation of using safety equipment in nepal.’ figure 2. workers with no safety equipment in an active pdr site in bhaktapur, nepal figure 3. unmanaged debris and wastes on an active pdr site in bhaktapur, nepal the other stakeholders whom we interviewed also showed a considerable understanding of the hazardous nature of pdr sites and the importance of using safety equipment, however, they also pointed out that the practice of using safety equipment is not customary in nepal. one of the site engineers, p21, expressed his concern and said, ‘obviously, safety equipment is important. they save us from injuries and save our lives sometimes. but over the years of my experience i have not seen much use of safety equipment in nepal. the same applies for pdr sites. no safety equipment.” the interviews show a trend of not using safety equipment during the pdr efforts in bhaktapur, nepal. while this issue (of not using safety equipment) has been in the nepal construction industry for a long time, it is now even more neglected after the earthquake (koirala, 2018). reasons include shifting the whole attention towards rebuilding nepal as soon as possible, financial constraints, scarcity of resources and lack of awareness towards safety. a small contractor (p35) explained his financial constraints and said, ‘this [providing safety equipment] needs big financial investment and access to resources. being a small-scale contractor, i do not have such affordability. however, i think the government and other private organizations should take action in this regard’ our analysis reveals that despite having somewhat understanding of the potential health and safety risks, the employers (owner and general contractors) do not usually provide the workers with any safety equipment during pdr efforts. however, the nepal labour act 2074 (chapter 12, section 74) states that “the employers are responsible for protecting workers from occupational hazards” (department of labour and occupational safety, 2017) which indicates towards non-compliance to the labor laws and regulations in nepal. employing unskilled workers following the natural hazard, nepal faced a shortage of workforce to reconstruct and recover the built environment (the himalayan times, 2017). to get more insight on this, we enquired with the employers about the skill and experience of their workforce. the discussion revealed a trend of hiring unskilled and inexperienced workers to tackle the shortage of workers during the reconstruction and recovery efforts . one of the general contractors, p33, stated, ‘yes. we hire people based on our demand. i have multiple reconstruction sites and i need more people; i hire people irrespective of experience or skill.’ in addition, both the general contractors had consensus on certain health and safety risks associated with recruiting unskilled and inexperienced workers for pdr efforts. however, they showed indifferent viewpoint. p32 said, ‘i know there are certain risks when i hire unskilled construction workers. they do not know how to tackle certain situations. but that is how they learn. with time, they get experience, and they learn.’ among the ten construction workers we interviewed, four workers possessed less than 5 years of experience in the construction industry and all four of them started their construction career in a pdr site. in other words, they did not have any prior construction experience before starting to work at a reconstruction site. when we inquired about the health and safety related challenges they had been facing, one of the workers (p10) explained his compulsion in joining pdr work and reported his condition, ‘when the earthquake hit, my father got badly injured. i needed a job to support my family. so, i started working in this reconstruction site. i don’t know much about the risks. i try to be careful with the works i do. sometimes i get hurt (e.g., cuts, bruises and sprains). once i was trying to remove the rubble from one house and the pile came down on me and my left leg was hurt.’ the government officials also acknowledged the involvement of unskilled and inexperienced workers at the reconstruction projects. both the government officials indicated towards scarcity of skilled workers (especially after the earthquake) and p37 said that it’s not in their jurisdiction to monitor if the hired workers are experienced and skilled or not. he said, ‘after the earthquake, we needed a lot of workers to work on the affected areas. works such as debris clearing, making pathways, also repairing the houses. we were not aware if the workers were skilled or not. even common people came forward to help. i admit these works are risky and anyone can face serious accident but what else can we do. there was no time to train people or recruit skilled workers.’ the supervisors whom we interviewed also pointed out the involvement of unskilled workers in pdr projects. one of the supervisor, p15, having over 20 years of experience, said that he had seen unskilled workers in conventional construction projects too, but the number was significantly more when it came to pdr projects. another supervisor (p17) discussed on the difference between skilled and unskilled workers, ‘…the unskilled or new workers have no idea what they are doing. even if there is some hazard that can be avoided with common sense, they are ignorant of that. they need proper training before entering a hazardous job site like reconstruction works. there are more vulnerabilities in reconstruction site than regular construction.’ lack of safety training considering the complexity of the works related to pdr efforts, our questionnaire had questions related to safety training. we inquired about the available health and safety training programs, and the training status of the participants. majority of the participants replied that they did not receive any particular training on health and safety. although the national society for earthquake technology – nepal (nset) has training programs for the masons and construction technicians, none of them addresses health and safety related issues. one of the engineers (p27) who received some training mentioned, ‘…i got training from nra (nepal reconstruction authority) but not on safety. i was trained on building [design and construction] earthquake resistant houses and training the masons. i do not think they offer any kind of safety training for the workers or other stakeholders working in pdr sites. it would be great it they did but unfortunately, they don’t.’ one of the supervisors (p11) also said he got somewhat training on basic safety and use of first aid kits, however, it was not related to construction workplace safety: ‘i did not receive any special training for pdr works. however, i worked together with the nepal red cross society for rescue and relief services after the earthquake and i got the basic safety education there.’ once the participants indicated towards not receiving any safety training to work in a pdr site, we followed up the discussion with questions on who should be providing the required trainings. we received a mix opinion from supervisors and workers. majority of the workers opined that the general contractors should be held liable for not providing the necessary safety training. on the other hand, the supervisors and engineers explained that the effort should come from the government since the general contractors often do not have the required resources to establish a safety-training program. according the nepal labout act 2074 chapter 12, which was passed after the mega earthquake in 2015, it is the responsibility of the employers to ensure the wellbeing of workers by providing necessary equipment and training. however, in most of the cases, the general contractors are not usually in a situation to offer extensive and specialized training programs. in these situations, the government of nepal (gon) should step forward and formulate safety training programs and guidelines to ensure the safety of the reconstruction workers. working with hazardous debris and waste removal and management of debris and waste, produced during and after the natural hazard, is one of the vital component of pdr efforts. our study revealed that the debris and waste management at pdr sites has rather been poor (exhibit figure 2) and the participants expressed their concerns over the associated risks. p3, a worker, who had experience working with hazardous debris and waste, said, ‘it was a very bad and damaging earthquake. there was lots of debris here and there. we had to clean all the rubbles and debris to make clear pathways and to work on different structures. and i can tell you, it is not safe to work in. you don’t know which pile of debris is loose and when it is going to come down at you. you might step on a wrong place and face serious accident.’ apart from the possibility of being injured by the debris itself, others brought up issues such as possibility of respiratory and skin related diseases due to getting in contact with hazardous wastes without any protection. worker p6 said, ‘all the houses were destroyed in the area i was working. people were living in tents in open fields. when we were working on the destroyed houses to remove debris and waste, we got really bad smell of rotten foods from their fridges and kitchens. you can imagine how bad it felt. we had to clean those up as well. we didn’t know if those things were going to make us sick or not but we had to work anyways.’ since the presence of hazardous wastes and debris on a pdr site is evident, we asked the recruiters (general contractors, owners, and government officials) if they had provided any specialized safety training to the workers. in their response, the employers pointed out issues such as lack of time, opportunity, and proper knowledge in their defense for not providing any safety training. government official p36 said, ‘we don’t have such opportunities to train people about the debris and waste management. it is just a work that they have to do. moreover, we don’t have right and qualified personnel who can train these workers.’ one of the engineers, p31, who had worked on reconstruction of a commercial establishment indicated towards the possible chemical contamination, ‘everything was so devastated after the earthquake, only god knows what is there under the rubble. there might be different types of chemicals or infected water clogged somewhere. all these things are dangerous to human health. but i don’t see any way to get rid of these. we had to work among these risks and hazards.’ as we checked with the workers about their understanding of exposure to hazardous waste or chemicals, they demonstrated no significant knowledge or information. however, some of them complained of health issues such as shortness of breath, cough, and suspected the bad working environment responsible for that. worker p8 mentioned, ‘there were lots of dust and bad smell in the air. we did not have any facemask while working in that condition. at nights, i used to cough a lot and i have had hard time breathing properly. i think that is because of those dusty areas where i used to work.’ the post natural hazard debris and waste management practice has been overlooked in nepal after the mega earthquake in 2015 (pradhananga, elzomor and kasabdji, 2021). the focus of the gon and employers seems to be on rebuilding the built environment but not adequately on properly and safely removing what was damaged. the workers and other stakeholders lack proper knowledge of handling debris and waste that are produced after the natural hazards take place. they get neither enough safety equipment nor adequate training and these issues may play a vital role in leading them to workplace hazards. faster reconstruction syndrome following the natural hazard, the government of nepal (gon) was providing financial support of rs. 300,000 (approximately usd 2,730) to the homeowners whose houses were damaged (nra, 2016). the financial support was to be availed in three installments, each after completing a portion of the reconstruction (hrrp, 2018). although this monetary support helped the affected homeowners rebuild their houses, it also created a tendency among the homeowners and general contractors to complete the reconstruction faster than usual. we labeled this phenomenon as “faster reconstruction syndrome (frs)”. in order to receive the financial support from the government, the employers persuaded the workers to do overtime, work extra shifts, and finish the rebuilding as soon as possible, which in turn often led them to compromise with the health and safety of the reconstruction workers. one of the supervisors brought up the negative impact of monetary support from the government and indicated towards the perceived urgency among the employers to finish reconstruction. he witnessed the homeowners and general contractors urging the workers to work long hours, overtime, and faster than usual. worker p2 pointed out the rush they faced by their employers and indicated towards the potential negative impact on safety and as well as on the quality of the work, ‘whatever is done in rush, it cannot be done perfectly. we were always pushed by our supervisors and contractors to finish the work early and even work excessive overtime. this puts a lot of pressure on us. as it’s not safe for us, it is also not safe for the future since the reconstruction work might have some fault.’ one of the engineers p27 supported the idea that monetary supports may add to the health and safety risk of reconstruction workers. he also believed that although these financial supports are for rebuilding the houses, at least some portion of the funds should be dedicated to the health and safety of the reconstruction workers, ‘i know there are lots of funds coming from different organizations. but i don’t think those funds are used for the purpose of ensuring the safety of the workers. mostly the funds are used for restoration and rebuilding the structures. but i believe at least some of the funds should be dedicated for the purpose of safety training and safety equipment.’ while the general contractor p33 argued about fair use and distribution of the financial supports and said, ‘i think the funds don’t even reach to the field level. even if there is any fund for the safety and wellbeing of the workers, due to high level of corruption, most of the money is gone before implementing. so, we don’t even know if there is any allocated fund for the health and safety of the workers.’ following the discussion with the participants, it seemed that the monetary aspect of the post disaster reconstruction has some negative effect on the health and safety of the workers involved. although monetary help from the government and other organizations help accelerating the recovery process, it has its down sides as well. in order to receive the financial support offered by the gon and nra, owners and general contractors developed a tendency of rush to finish the works which might have exposed the reconstruction workers to potential construction hazards. also, if people perceive that the administration in the government has significant level of corruption in the system, they do not feel the transparent flow and distribution of the financial support is ensured. when the money could be used for training purpose or enhancing safety of the workers in the job site, it goes somewhere else keeping the jobsite and workers with potential hazards that could have been tackled. mental health of workers the discussion with the participants brought up arguably one of the most under studied subjects in construction industry; the mental health of workers. since construction is a stressful job by nature, the construction workers around the globe often suffer from different mental health challenges (kotera, green and sheffield, 2020; turner and lingard, 2020). one of the female worker, p7, who is a mother of two, expressed her concern while working at the pdr site. she explicitly said, ‘i am staying away from my kids due to my job. it is not easy. i am always worried about them… i am just thankful to god that my family and i are safe from the hazards. but i keep worrying about their safety all the time.’ this scenario was common among other reconstruction workers as well who showed symptoms of being worried, stressed, and terrified all the time. some expressed their concern about the wellbeing of their family members and some others were concerned about their own safety. one of the worker mentioned that he had to keep working despite being scared since he had to provide for his family. supervisor p18 stated how he had witnessed workers being depressed on the reconstruction jobsites. ‘i have been working on reconstruction projects since almost the beginning. for the first couple of years, it was really hard for all of us. we all were affected in one way of another. i saw people depressed, worried, scared, and sad all the time. some had lost their houses, and some lost their loved ones. how could it be easy?” engineer p31 also echoed in a similar manner and explained that it may take a longer period of time recover physically and emotionally from the impact of this earthquake. he said, ‘we all were in a shock. we were afraid of sleeping at our houses for a long time. wherever we were, we were always worried and scared. i believe the workers who have to keep working day and night in the affected areas are also the same.’ another engineer, p22, also mentioned about the stress and challenges that she used to get from the workplace. she remembered sleeping in a tent instead of a house and she mentioned that she got depressed very often soon after the earthquake. she said, ‘there were many challenges when i was away from my family; it was the time after the earthquake that i was working in bhaktapur. there were no proper houses as almost every house was devastated. so, i had no options except sleeping in tents and i felt so insecure at that time as a girl & missed my home. that was a kind of mental torture... obviously, yes, i got depressed. there were many challenges dealing with those who are affected by the earthquake.’ upon asking about the same issue to the general contractors if they pay attention to their workers being depressed due to post disaster trauma, general contractor p35 replied, ‘we are all going through the same situation here. i understand how difficult it can be to work under these conditions. we always try to take care of our workers and provide any help they need anytime. but we also have our limitations and restrictions. we are doing the best we can.” the discussion clearly shows that in a post disaster situation, workers are usually under a lot of mental pressure and post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) may play a vital part in leading them to potential workplace hazards and accidents. the debris and waste removal practice also seems to be affecting the mental state of the workers since there is always a chance of facing unpleasant situations (e.g., finding dead bodies or heavily injured bodies). participation of community people the discussion with the participants revealed that there was scarcity of skilled construction workers during the pdr efforts in bhaktapur. while one of the way to tackle this was employing unskilled workers, we inquired if there were any other aspect to this. the participants pointed that the community people had also been helping voluntarily in the reconstruction efforts. however, this involvement of the community people is not without potential safety risks. the government officials mentioned that they usually encourage the participation of local people in reconstruction and renovation. this is another way to deal with the shortage of workforce that nepal had faced after the earthquake. however, upon asking about the safety issues, government official p37 replied, ‘construction work is always risky. if you don’t have enough experience, you are more exposed to hazards. that is true for these people (community people) as well. but here, i have seen so many times, that the owners do their own small repair and other works by themselves. they want to save money and don’t hire professionals. it is not safe, but they keep doing it anyways. so why not now? this is the time when we need as many hands as possible. we encourage them to come forward and assist on rebuilding.’ while discussing about the potential safety risks of community people getting involved in reconstruction efforts, engineer p27 shared his experience of a near miss accident. he described, ‘the owner of the house was trying to help us by moving some tools from one point to another. she was wearing traditional dress [saree]. she was walking reluctantly and suddenly her dress was stuck under some brick and she got unbalanced and tripped over. she hurt her shoulder and back. it was not life threatening, but it could have been.’ another engineer also responded in the similar fashion thus strictly discouraging the involvement of community peoples for the sake their own safety. he, p29, said, ‘i have seen community involvement in reconstruction work. but obviously it’s not safe for the common people to get involved in reconstruction works. as i said earlier, construction work is itself very dangerous let alone reconstruction work. so, i believe the involvement of common people to the reconstruction sites and work should be limited.’ from the interviews, it also came up that the people not only want to help in the work, but they also want to help the workers who are trying to restore their houses. a number of workers explained how the community people were helpful and kind to them while they were working in a community. p9 said, ‘…they used to provide us with food and water all the time. and we tried our best to complete their houses fast. there was a good mutual understanding among us. but they [community people] don’t have any idea about the construction work; if they try to help, i think it slows down the work even more.’ on the other hand, supervisor p16 claimed that since the reconstruction site is even more hazardous than the regular construction sites and only skilled and experienced workforce should be involved in the reconstruction efforts. in his words, ‘people participating in their own building construction work is not safe. i think the construction works should only be done by the skilled and experienced people.’ construction work has been identified to be one of the most stressful work both physically and mentally. the work involved in reconstruction efforts require a specific skillset and at least some experience in order do their work safety. however, the community people having no skillset or knowledge are highly prone to construction hazards and accidents. instead of accelerating the progress by involving community people in reconstruction efforts, sometimes it slows the work down. distraction our study reveals that distraction plays a vital role in safety performance, especially in the post disaster context. firstly, through the interviews, participants brought up the issue that how distracted they remain in the workplace. then, some of the follow up questions revealed the participants’ perception on the effect of distraction on safety. one of the female workers p4 mentioned that she has been working on the construction site after the earthquake, but her children were not with her. so, she was always thinking about them and their safety. engineer p21 pointed out that soon after the earthquake they were always worried about the potential aftershocks and its effect. these thoughts and fear used to keep him distracted during his work. he said, ‘after the hit, i was in a kind of fear that what’s going to happen next. when will be the next hit? as you know, there are potentialities of aftershock after a major earthquake. i used to be paranoid almost all the time.’ apart from the mental distractions, physical distractions also seemed to exist at the pdr sites. the participants reported factors such as lack of working space, urgency to complete the reconstruction, overlapping works, tight schedule, complexity of the work and unpredictable outcome of the task as major distraction factors in the pdr jobsite. worker p2 said, ‘…we always have a pressure from the employer to finish the work early. but in these situations where we do not have proper working space, time is limited and there are lots of work to do, you can imagine how difficult it is for us. and in these circumstances, safety is easily neglected. we keep thinking about how to finish the work on time… yes, these things keep us away from thinking about safety.’ another worker p9 stated in the similar manner, ‘there are so many things to do starting from rubble removal to rebuilding the houses. and after an earthquake like this, works are not the same anymore. they get more complex. we have to take care of our families also. i have seen a worker who lost his own house in the earthquake, but he had to work on other project to earn money so that he can rebuild his own house.’ while distraction is a difficult parameter to measure, it does have a significant effect on the health and safety of the workers, especially in a complex situation like pdr. many of the workers are also the survivors from the earthquake and they get easily distracted by so many mental and physical distraction factors. and this compromises their safety on the pdr workplace. discussion as discussed in the findings section, our study revealed eight challenges that affect the health and safety of the reconstruction workers. among the eight, some challenges can also be experienced in a conventional construction workplace (non-disaster time). for example, (1) inadequate safety equipment, (2) employing unskilled workers (3) safety training, and (4) distraction have been identified to be experienced often in conventional construction as well. however, these challenges exacerbate in post-disaster contexts. for instance, our study concurs with previous studies in terms of the importance of using safety equipment and offering specialized safety training. using safety equipment alone can prevent approximately 25% of the work-related injuries and is one of the fundamental elements of safe workplace practices (sawacha, naoum and fong, 1999; gibb et al., 2005; osha, 2016). the findings of this study revealed that there were no regulations on using safety equipment in nepal while studies have shown that establishing regulatory environment significantly improves workplace health and safety (umeokafor, evangelinos and windapo, 2020). the importance of safety training in construction has also been well studied in the literature. numerous research efforts have focused on developing training programs and interventions in order to help the workers understand the work environment and work safely for example, osha’s construction fatal four program (osha, 2011). however, our study shows that despite feeling the necessity of specialized training programs, the reconstruction workers in the area of bhaktapur, nepal did not receive any sort of training on health, safety, and wellbeing. the responsible parties such as the government, general contractors, and the owners were also indifferent in proving necessary safety training citing challenges such as scarcity of resources, financial constraints, and unavailability of trainer and so on. employing unskilled workers at construction workplaces is one of the critical challenges to health and safety of the workers (tam, zeng and deng, 2004). employing unskilled workers in order to tackle the shortage of workers or to expedite the reconstruction process has been observed in previous studies (kennedy et al., 2008; gfdrr, 2014) and in mass media (the himalayan times, 2017). our study shows that the neither the employer nor the government officials paid much attention if the workers are skilled enough to work in pdr workplaces. employing unskilled workers in addition to having no specialized training, makes them extremely vulnerable in pdr workplaces and exposes them to numerous hazards that the workers may not have any knowledge about. one way to tackle this situation is to train the workers beforehand about the pdr operations (especially in the natural hazard prone areas). it is an investment that the governments need to make to keep the workforce safe. distraction at workplace and its relation to safety is a very broad topic of study. distraction at workplace might seem inevitable and it can cause severe safety issues for the workers (cohen, larue and cohen, 2017). previous studies have demonstrated how distraction can lead to poor safety performance at workplace (namian, albert and feng, 2018). by definition, distraction can be defined as anything that directs an individual’s attention away from something else (merriam-webster, 2015). past studies divided construction workplace distraction mainly in two sections, internal or mental distraction and external or physical distractions (seevaparsaid-mansingh and haupt, 2008; nnaji and gambatese, 2016). our study reveals that workers are both mentally and physically distracted at post disaster reconstruction workplaces. the fear of aftershocks, physical stress of the work, fear of finding unwanted things (e.g., dead body or body parts) under the rubble, worrying about the health and wellbeing of other family members and many other factors play major role in distracting the workers at pdr workplace. also, these issues may lead the workers to mental health related problems such as anxiety, stress, or ptsd. apart from the health and safety challenges that are experienced in conventional construction operations, our study suggests four more challenges that are rather unique to the context of pdr efforts i.e., (1) working with hazardous debris and waste (2) faster reconstruction syndrome (3) mental health of workers and (4) participation of community people. in terms of, working with hazardous debris and waste, our observation and analysis show that the reconstruction workers in the area of bhaktapur, nepal were working actively in hazardous environment. the presence of debris and waste produced during and after the natural hazards make a workplace more vulnerable and dangerous (grosskopf, 2010b). and we found that most of the participants were not aware of possible risks associated with the hazardous debris and waste. the participants mentioned of challenges such as working in confined space, lack of knowledge, awareness, and training about hazardous debris and waste materials, possible chemical contamination, respiratory illness etc. and all of them are interlinked with hazardous work environment they work in. these conditions are not usually observed in the conventional construction workplaces because there are more control over conventional construction projects in terms hazard management compared to pdr. the gon and regulatory bodies should step forward in order to develop and offer safe practice regulations for the safety of the reconstruction workers. the faster reconstruction syndrome is another unique contribution of our study. although prior studies have touched upon the potential challenges generated from the need to recover quickly (ganapati and ganapati, 2008; ganapati and mukherji, 2014; platt and so, 2017), our study specifies this as a safety challenge and shows the need to deal with this issue on the ground level. the interviews revealed how the workers were pressurized to work overtime, under stress, and quickly to rebuild the damaged houses, which in turn led them to a more hazardous work environment and culture. this study confirms that attempts to accelerate the recovery process often lead to compromising with the health, safety, and wellbeing of the reconstruction workers. mental health of the construction workers is arguably one of the understudied topics in the literature. we often neglect the mental health issues or even sometimes, the victim does not even realize they are being exposed to mental health challenges. despite being one of the most stressful industries (petersen and zwerling, 1998), mental health related issues have not been discussed as much as they should within the construction industry. reports suggest that construction workers are two and half times more likely to commit suicide due to poor mental health than other professionals (kõlves, kumpula and de leo, 2013). our participants revealed throughout the interview that they are always tensed and worried about issues such as aftershocks, wellbeing of self and family, financial security etc. stakeholders also reported about their coworkers being sad, depressed, and distracted on the workplace. in addition to that, it’s also worthwhile to notice that none of the respondents directly admitted having mental health challenges, mostly because they are not even aware that they are having mental health related issues and also because of social shame. this behavior shows that we need more awareness in overall society about the mental health issues. the participation of community people in pdr has always been encouraged by the governments, regulatory bodies, and scholars to expedite the reconstruction and recovery process. our study also shows that the community people of bhatapur, nepal were actively involved in the pdr efforts since the beginning. however, through the interviews and discussions, we observed that this involvement could often make the workplace hazardous for both the volunteers and the regular workers. understandably, the local community people and volunteers do not possess the required skill or experience to work in an active construction site hence they are always vulnerable to the existing construction hazards. moreover, they are not only vulnerable to physical safety risks, but also to mental health risks being the survivors of the natural hazard. in many cases, mental health issues among construction workers lead to suicidal thoughts and attempts (wang et al., 2013). our study highlights the health and safety challenges among reconstruction workers in the context of 2015 gorkha earthquake in nepal. the findings are both consistent with the previous natural hazards and offers insight on unique health and safety challenges. our study demonstrates the need for proper safety training and adequate safety equipment for the reconstruction workers. moreover, this study helps in understanding the working condition of the pdr projects, mental health issues, and other contributing factors in the health and safety challenges. contributions, study limitations and suggested future research construction workers health and safety has been studied widely over the past few decades. however, the literature provides only a little knowledge on the health and safety situation and challenges among the reconstruction workers. the objective of this paper was to address this gap in the literature and to investigate the health and safety challenges experienced by the reconstruction workers. the findings of this study are based on the field observation and semi-structured interviews conducted with 38 stakeholders from the area of bhaktapur, nepal following the mega earthquake in 2015. the qualitative analysis of the semi-structured interviews reveals eight challenges that potentially affect the health, safety, and wellbeing of the reconstruction workers. the finding of this study advances the theoretical knowledge in the area of reconstruction workers health and safety. first, our study strengthens the arguments from previous studies that post disaster reconstruction efforts are significantly different from conventional construction in terms of workers health and safety. although there are some overlaps in health and safety challenges, there are unique health and safety challenges for reconstruction workers. second, our study highlights the importance of further research on delicate issues such as mental health of the workers, faster reconstruction syndrome, involvement of community people, and presence of hazardous debris. this study is one of the first stepping-stone to future researches on these topics that will advance the theoretical knowledge within the disaster risk management context. finally, our study questions the availability of necessary resources (e.g., safety equipment) in nepal and the focus of gon on health and safety of the reconstruction workers. the study suggests that gon should play a vital role in providing safety equipment and implementing specialized safety training for the workers involved in pdr operations, especially in hazardous debris and waste management practices. training on hazard recognition and handing chemical waste will help the workers in managing post disaster hazardous conditions. training interventions can also be used in enhancing the safety performance. the mental health of the workers is also an important topic of discussion. there should be counseling and support centers for the workers and community people too to overcome this shocking situation. the practicing professionals of nepal may use the findings of this study to develop new policies and practices which will help them minimizing the workplace hazards and improving safety performance. among other challenges, distraction and mental health of the workers are rather important since most of the reconstruction workers are also the survivors of the natural hazard. this post disaster trauma affects the safety practice and performance significantly. on top of that, use of unskilled workers, faster reconstruction syndrome, and participation of community people play vital role in the health and safety situation of the reconstruction workers. despite the strengths and implications of the study, this study has some important limitations that need to be addressed in future research efforts. due to the exploratory nature of this study, it is possible that additional safety challenges, not identified in this study, exist. the findings of this study are based on the perception of 38 stakeholders of pdr in the area of bhaktapur, nepal. although the findings of this study cannot be generalized and is based on a case study, the knowledge is transferrable to similar conditions. additional limitations of the study include uneven participants from alternative perspectives, possible errors of translation from nepali to english, lack of verbal cues for interpretation, and un-reflected bias of the interpreter of the results. future research efforts can focus on exploring the health and safety challenges for different natural hazards such as floods, wildfires etc. since different natural hazards produces different hazards. additional, similar studies can be conducted in different geo-locations since a number of factors play role in the health and safety management such as economic condition of the nation, governmental and non-governmental aid, impact of political situation and so on. the findings of this study can be utilized by the government of nepal and other countries who are prone to natural hazards, in order to prepare their workforce for any future natural hazards. implementing the findings of this study in developing specialized safety training programs, proper waste management practices, using proper safety equipment, and taking care of the physical and mental health of the reconstruction workers can make the workforce more resilient in facing future natural hazards. finally, the findings of this study can be incorporated with future studies in order to develop more techniques in managing health hazards during post disaster reconstruction efforts. acknowledgement the authors would like to thank mr. kiran shilpakar, ms. anjana karki, mr. pramesh bhaila, mr. shivahari pokhrel, and mr. shairan twanabasu, undergraduate students of the department of civil engineering at khwopa engineering college, nepal for volunteering to help in conducting and transcribing the interviews with the local participants. references adamy, a. and abu bakar, a.h. (2021) ‘developing a building-performance evaluation framework for post-disaster reconstruction: the case of hospital buildings in aceh, indonesia’, international journal of construction management, 21(1), pp. 56–77. available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1506903 albert, a. and hallowel, m.r. (2013) ‘revamping occupational safety and health training: integrating andragogical principles for the adult learner’, construction economics and building, 13(3), pp. 128–140. available at: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i3.3178 albert, a. and hallowell, m.r. (2017) ‘modeling the role of social networks on hazard recognition and communication’, practice periodical on structural design and construction, 22(4), p. 04017016. available at: https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)sc.1943-5576.0000337 albert, a., hallowell, m.r. and kleiner, b.m. (2014) ‘experimental field testing of a real-time construction hazard identification and transmission technique’, construction management and economics, 32(10), pp. 1000–1016. available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2014.929721 amaratunga, d. and haigh, r. (2011) post-disaster reconstruction of the built environment : rebuilding for resilience. wiley-blackwell. available at: https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=yefiicmktdec&oi=fnd&pg=pa1976&dq=phases+of+post+disaster+reconstruction+&ots=331gc70zko&sig=0gcmqlus-iqemeq9dtklh1l5e3m#v=onepage&q=phases of post disaster reconstruction&f=false (accessed: 8 october 2018) athukorala, p. (2012) ‘indian ocean tsunami: disaster, generosity and recovery’, asian economic journal, 26(3), pp. 211–231. available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8381.2012.02083.x attalla, m., hegazy, t. and elbeltagi, e. (2004) ‘in-house delivery of multiple-small reconstruction projects’, journal of management in engineering, 20(1), pp. 25–31. available at: https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0742-597x(2004)20:1(25) bahn, s. (2013) ‘workplace hazard identification and management: the case of an underground mining operation’, safety science, 57, pp. 129–137. available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2013.01.010 bouraoui, d. and lizarralde, g. (2013) ‘centralized decision making, users’ participation and satisfaction in post‐disaster reconstruction’, international journal of disaster resilience in the built environment, 4(2), pp. 145–167. available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/ijdrbe-02-2012-0009 brown, c., milke, m. and seville, e. (2010) ‘waste management as a “lifeline”? a new zealand case study analysis’, international journal of disaster resilience in the built environment, 1(2), pp. 192–206. available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/17595901011056640 carter, g. and smith, s.d. (2006) ‘safety hazard identification on construction projects’, journal of construction engineering and management, 132(2), pp. 197–205. available at: https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)0733-9364(2006)132:2(197) chang, y., wilkinson, s., potangaroa, r. and seville, e. (2011) ‘donor-driven resource procurement for post-disaster reconstruction: constraints and actions’, habitat international, 35(2), pp. 199–205. available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2010.08.003 chang, y., wilkinson, s., seville, e. and potangaroa, r. (2010) ‘resourcing for a resilient post-disaster reconstruction environment’, international journal of disaster resilience in the built environment, 1(1), pp. 65–83. available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/17595901011026481 cho, a. (2014) ‘post-tsunami recovery and reconstruction: governance issues and implications of the great east japan earthquake’, disasters, 38(suppl2), pp. 157–178. available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12068 cohen, j., larue, c. and cohen, h.h. (2017) ‘attention interrupted: cognitive distraction & workplace safety’, professional safety, 62(november), pp. 28–34 cole, m.a., elliott, r.j.r., okubo, t. and strobl, e. (2017) ‘pre-disaster planning and post-disaster aid: examining the impact of the great east japan earthquake’, international journal of disaster risk reduction, 21(december 2016), pp. 291–302. available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2016.12.015 curato, n. (2018) ‘from authoritarian enclave to deliberative space: governance logics in post-disaster reconstruction’, disasters, 42(4), pp. 635–654. available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12280 davidson, c.h., johnson, c., lizarralde, g., dikmen, n. and sliwinski, a. (2007) ‘truths and myths about community participation in post-disaster housing projects’, habitat international, 31, pp. 100–115. available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2006.08.003 department of labour and occupational safety (2017) nepal labour act 2074, department of labour. available at: https://www.dol.gov.np/en/legaltext (accessed: 22 october 2020) dewlaney, k.s. and hallowell, m. (2012) ‘prevention through design and construction safety management strategies for high performance sustainable building construction’, construction management and economics, 30(2), pp. 165–177. available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2011.654232 dhakal, s., zhang, l. and lv, x. (2020) ‘ontology-based semantic modelling to support knowledge-based document classification on disaster-resilient construction practices’, international journal of construction management, pp. 1–20. available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1765097 dimmer, c. (2014) ‘evolving place governance innovations and pluralising reconstruction practices in post-disaster japan’, planning theory and practice, 15(2), pp. 260–265. available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/14649357.2014.902909 ergun, h. and pradhananga, n. (2015) ‘real-tıme locatıon data for automated learnıng curve analysıs of lınear repetıtıve constructıon actıvıtıes’, in computing in civil engineering 2015, pp. 107–114. available at https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784479247.014 fetter, g. and rakes, t.r. (2011) ‘a self-balancing cusum approach for the efficient allocation of resources during post-disaster debris disposal operations’, operations management research, 4(1–2), pp. 51–60. available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12063-010-0044-0 freeman, p.k. (2004) ‘allocation of post-disaster reconstruction financing to housing’, building research and information, 32(5), pp. 427–437. available at https://doi.org/10.1080/0961321042000221016 ganapati, n.e. (2016) post-disaster housing reconstruction lessons from the 1999 marmars earthquake, turkey. cambridge: cambridge university press ganapati, n.e. and ganapati, s. (2008) ‘enabling participatory planning after disasters: a case study of the world bank’s housing reconstruction in turkey’, journal of the american planning association, 75(1), pp. 41–59. available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01944360802546254 ganapati, n.e. and mukherji, a. (2014) ‘out of sync: world bank funding for housing recovery, postdisaster planning, and participation’, natural hazards review, 15(1), pp. 58–73. available at: https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)nh.1527-6996.0000120 gfdrr (2014) haiti earthquake 2010: recovery from a mega disaster, recovery framework case study : august 2014. available at: https://www.gfdrr.org/sites/default/files/publication/haiti_august_2014_summary.pdf (accessed: 20 may 2020) gibb, a., hide, s., haslam, r., gyi, d., pavitt, t., atkinson, s. and duff, r. (2005) ‘construction tools and equipment – their influence on accident causality’, journal of engineering, design and technology, 3(1), pp. 12–23. available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/17260530510815303 gotham, k.f. and campanella, r. (2011) ‘coupled vulnerability and resilience: the dynamics of cross-scale interactions in post-katrina new orleans’, ecology and society, 16(3), p. 25. available at: https://doi.org/10.5751/es-04292-160312 grosskopf, k.r. (2010a) ‘post-disaster recovery and reconstruction safety training’, international journal of disaster resilience in the built environment, 1(3), pp. 322–333. available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/17595901011080904 grosskopf, k.r. (2010b) ‘post‐disaster recovery and reconstruction safety training’, international journal of disaster resilience in the built environment, 1(3), pp. 322–333. available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/17595901011080904 grosskopf, k.r. and hinze, j. (2008) ‘worker safety training for disaster clean-up and reconstruction activities’, in evolution of and directions in construction safety and health, pp. 266–286 guarnacci, u. (2012) ‘governance for sustainable reconstruction after disasters: lessons from nias, indonesia’, environmental development, 2(1), pp. 73–85. available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envdev.2012.03.010 haas, j.e., kates, r.w. and bowden, m.j. (1977) reconstruction following disaster. the mit press hall, m.l., lee, a.c.k., cartwright, c., marahatta, s., karki, j. and simkhada, p. (2017) ‘the 2015 nepal earthquake disaster: lessons learned one year on’, public health, 145, pp. 39–44. available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.puhe.2016.12.031 hashash, m.a., tiwari, b., moss, r.e.s., asimaki, d., clahan, k.b., kieffer, d.s., dreger, d.s., macdonald, a., madugo, c.m., mason, h.b., pehlivan, m., rayamajhi, d., acharya, i. and adhikari, b. (2015) ‘geotechnical field reconnaissance : gorkha (nepal) earthquake of april 25 2015 and related shaking sequence’, geotechnical extreme event reconnaisance geer association report no. geer-040, pp. 1–250. available at: https://doi.org/10.18118/g61591 homeland security (2022) natural disasters. available at: https://www.dhs.gov/natural-disasters (accessed: 23 march 2023) hrrp (2018) the path to housing recovery nepal earthquake 2015: housing reconstruction. available at: https://www.preventionweb.net/files/63580_hrrptimelinebookletsept2018final180.pdf (accessed: 20 march 2020) jackson, k.m. and trochim, w.m.k. (2002) ‘concept mapping as an alternative approach for the analysis of open-ended survey responses’, organizational research methods, 5(4), pp. 307–336. available at https://doi.org/10.1177/109442802237114 jeelani, i., albert, a. and gambatese, j.a. (2017) ‘why do construction hazards remain unrecognized at the work interface?’, journal of construction engineering and management, 143(5), pp. 1–10. available at: https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001274 jeelani, i., albert, a., han, k. and azevedo, r. (2019) ‘are visual search patterns predictive of hazard recognition performance? empirical investigation using eye-tracking technology’, journal of construction engineering and management, 145(1), p. 04018115. available at: https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001589 jha, a.k., barenstein, j.d., phelps, p.m., pittet, d. and sena, s. (2010) safer homes, stronger communities: a handbook for reconstructing after natural disasters, the world bank. the world bank. available at: https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/2409/528390pub0safe101official0use0only1.txt jigyasu, r. (2004) ‘sustainable post disaster reconstruction through integrated risk management-the case of rural communities in south asia’, journal of research in architecture and planning, 3, pp. 32–43. available at: http://www.grif.umontreal.ca/pages/papers2004/paper jigyasu r.pdf kamardeen, i. (2010) ‘8d bim modelling tool for accident prevention through design’, in 26th annual arcom conference. vol. 1. leeds: association of researchers in construction management, pp. 281–289 kennedy, j., ashmore, j., babister, e. and kelman, i. (2008) ‘the meaning of “build back better”: evidence from post-tsunami aceh and sri lanka’, journal of contingencies and crisis management, 16(1), pp. 24–36. available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5973.2008.00529.x khoshnava, s.m., ahankoob, a., preece, c. and rostami, r. (2012) ‘application of bim in construction safety’, management in construction research association (micra) postgraduate conference, (january), pp. 155–160. available at: http://www.academia.edu/download/30903225/publication_3.pdf koirala, m.p. (2018) ‘safety awareness of workers for construction sites in nepal’, journal of advanced research in civil and environmental engineering, 05(04), pp. 34–41. available at: https://doi.org/10.24321/2393.8307.201804 kõlves, k., kumpula, e.-k. and de leo, d. (2013) suicidal behaviours in men: determinants and prevention in australia. australian institute for suicide research and prevention kotera, y., green, p. and sheffield, d. (2020) ‘work-life balance of uk construction workers: relationship with mental health’, construction management and economics, 38(3), pp. 291–303. available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2019.1625417 lam, l.m. and kuipers, r. (2019) ‘resilience and disaster governance: some insights from the 2015 nepal earthquake’, international journal of disaster risk reduction, 33(august 2018), pp. 321–331. available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2018.10.017 langford, d., rowlinson, s. and sawacha, e. (2000) ‘safety behaviour and safety management: its influence on the attitudes of workers in the uk construction industry’, engineering construction and architectural management, 7(2), pp. 133–140. available at: https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-232x.2000.00137.x lassa, j.a. (2015) ‘post disaster governance, complexity and network theory’, plos currents, 7(disasters). available at: https://doi.org/10.1371/4f7972ecec1b6 lindanger, h.b. (2012) ‘resilience in a global disaster: the local in disaster-induced compressed globalization’, forum for development studies, 39(3), pp. 387–406. available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/08039410.2012.691896 lindell, m.k. (2013) ‘recovery and reconstruction after disaster’, in encyclopedia of natural hazards. springer, pp. 812–824. available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-4399-4_285 lópez-arquillos, a. and rubio-romero, j.c. (2015) ‘proposed indicators of prevention through design in construction projects’, revista de la construccion, 14(2), pp. 58–64. available at: https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-915x2015000200008 lu, q., zhong, d. and zhang, q. (2020) ‘the evolving pattern of ngos’ participating in post-disaster community reconstruction in china: cases study on the 2008 wenchuan earthquake and the 2013 lushan earthquake’, natural hazards, pp. 1–18. available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-04130-5 lyons, m. (2009) ‘building back better: the large-scale impact of small-scale approaches to reconstruction’, world development, 37(2), pp. 385–398. available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2008.01.006 mahdi, t. and mahdi, a. (2013) ‘reconstruction and retrofitting of buildings after recent earthquakes in iran’, procedia engineering, 54, pp. 127–139. available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proeng.2013.03.012 mannakkara, s. and wilkinson, s. (2014) ‘re-conceptualising “building back better” to improve post-disaster recovery’, international journal of managing projects in business, 7(3), pp. 327–341. available at: https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-10-2013-0054 mckim, r. and attalla, m. (1998) ‘‘reconstruction of occupied buildings, project control techniques—a canadian study’, in proc., 1st int. conf. on civil engineering, pp. 439–453 merriam-webster (2015) distraction | definition of distraction by merriam-webster. available at: https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/distraction (accessed: 23 march 2020) mileti, d. (1999) disasters by design: a reassessment of natural hazards in the united states. washington, d.c.: joseph henry press. available at: https://doi.org/10.17226/5782 moha (2015) incident report of earthquake 2015, nepal disaster risk reduction portal. available at: http://drrportal.gov.np/ nadhim, e.a., hon, c., xia, b., stewart, i. and fang, d. (2018) ‘investigating the relationships between safety climate and safety performance indicators in retrofitting works’, construction economics and building, 18(2), pp. 110–129. available at: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v18i2.5994 namian, m., albert, a. and feng, j. (2018) ‘effect of distraction on hazard recognition and safety risk perception’, journal of construction engineering and management, 144(4), pp. 1–11. available at: https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001459 namian, m., albert, a., zuluaga, c.m. and jaselskis, e.j. (2016) ‘improving hazard-recognition performance and safety training outcomes: integrating strategies for training transfer’, journal of construction engineering and management, 142(10), pp. 1–11. available at: https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001160 nnaji, c. and gambatese, j.a. (2016) ‘worker distraction impacts on safety and work quality: an energy component’, construction research congress 2016, pp. 2039–2049. available at: https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784479827.203 npc (2015) nepal earthquake 2015 post disaster needs assessment, government of nepal national planning commission. available at: https://www.nepalhousingreconstruction.org/sites/nuh/files/2017-03/pdna volume a final.pdf (accessed: 9 november 2018) nra (2016) national reconstruction authority, nra.gov.np. available at: http://www.nra.gov.np/en/pages/view/fk2lrwucshvwn9q-laxptw9mgjgirz25ruwndhdbkyk (accessed: 20 march 2020) nra (2018) national reconstruction authority reconstruction progress. available at: http://nra.gov.np/ (accessed: 20 april 2020) olshansky, r.b., johnson, l.a., horne, j. and nee, b. (2008) ‘planning for the rebuilding of new orleans’, journal of the american planning association, 74(3), pp. 273–287. available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01944360802140835 onwuegbuzie, a.j. and leech, n.l. (2006) ‘validity and qualitative research: an oxymoron?’, quality & quantity, 41, pp. 233–249. available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-006-9000-3 opricovic, s. and tzeng, g.h. (2002) ‘multicriteria planning of post-earthquake sustainable reconstruction’, computer-aided civil and infrastructure engineering, 17(3), pp. 211–220. available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8667.00269 osha (2011) osha outreach training program construction industry | occupational safety and health administration. available at: https://www.osha.gov/dte/outreach/construction/focus_four/ (accessed: 2 may 2020) osha (2016) commonly used statistics | occupational safety and health administration, occupational safety and health administration. available at: https://www.osha.gov/oshstats/commonstats.html (accessed: 8 october 2018) pamidimukkala, a., kermanshachi, s. and jahan nipa, t. (2022) ‘safety risks of reconstruction workers in clean-up and recovery phase due to natural hazards’, in construction research congress 2022. reston, va: american society of civil engineers, pp. 520–530. available at: https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784483985.053 pearce, l. (2003) ‘disaster management and community planning, and public participation: how to achieve sustainable hazard mitigation’, natural hazards, 28(2–3), pp. 211–228. available at: https://doi.org/10.1023/a:1022917721797 petersen, j.s. and zwerling, c. (1998) ‘comparison of health outcomes among older construction and blue-collar employees in the united states’, american journal of industrial medicine, 34(3), pp. 280–287. available at: https://doi.org/10.1002/(sici)1097-0274(199809)34:3<280::aid-ajim11>3.0.co;2-q philip, b. and timothy, b. (1997) after the hurricane : linking recovery to sustainable development in the caribbean. baltimore and london : johns hopkins university press platt, s. and so, e. (2017) ‘speed or deliberation: a comparison of post-disaster recovery in japan, turkey, and chile’, disasters, 41(4), pp. 696–727. available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12219 pradhananga, p., elzomor, m. and kasabdji, g.s. (2021) ‘disaster waste management challenges in nepal: health impacts and the need for safe practices’, natural hazards review, 22(2), p. 05021001. available at: https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)nh.1527-6996.0000438 quarantelli, e. (1982) sheltering and housing after major community disasters: case studies and general observations rubin, c.b., saperstein, m.d. and barbee, d.g. (1985) community recovery from a major natural disaster sacks, r., perlman, a. and barak, r. (2013) ‘construction safety training using immersive virtual reality’, construction management and economics, 31(9), pp. 1005–1017. available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2013.828844 sadiqi, z., trigunarsyah, b. and coffey, v. (2017) ‘a framework for community participation in post-disaster housing reconstruction projects: a case of afghanistan’, international journal of project management, 35(5), pp. 900–912. available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2016.11.008 saldaña, j. (2015) the coding manual for qualitative researchers. sage sawacha, e., naoum, s. and fong, d. (1999) ‘factors affecting safety performance on construction sites factors affecting safety performance on construction sites’, international journal of project management, 17(5), pp. 309–315. available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/s0263-7863(98)00042-8 seevaparsaid-mansingh, k. and haupt, t. (2008) ‘construction accidents causation: an exploratory analysis’, in proceedings of the cib w99 14th international conference on evolution of and directions in construction safety and health, pp. 465–482. sewordor, e., esnard, a.m., sapat, a. and schwartz, l. (2019) ‘challenges to mobilising resources for disaster recovery and reconstruction: perspectives of the haitian diaspora’, disasters, 43(2), pp. 336–354. available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/disa.12318 shafique, k. and warren, c.m.j. (2016) ‘stakeholders and their significance in post natural disaster reconstruction projects: a systematic review of the literature’, asian social science, 12(10), pp. 1–17. available at: https://doi.org/10.5539/ass.v12n10p1 shakya, m., kawan, c.k., gaire, a.k. and duwal, s. (2021) ‘post-earthquake damage assessment of traditional masonry buildings: a case study of bhaktapur municipality following 2015 gorkha (nepal) earthquake’, engineering failure analysis, 123, p. 105277. available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.engfailanal.2021.105277 stringfellow, p. (2014) ‘construction contractors involvement in disaster management planning’, construction economics and building, 14(2), pp. 120–132. available at: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v14i2.3912 subedi, s. and bahadur poudyal chhetri, m. (2019) ‘impacts of the 2015 gorkha earthquake: lessons learnt from nepal’, in earthquakes impact, community vulnerability and resilience. intechopen. available at: https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.85322 subedi, s., pradhananga, n., carrasquillo, a. and lopez, f. (2017) ‘virtual reality-based personalized learning environment for repetitive labor-intensive construction tasks’, in 53rd asc annual international conference preceedings, pp. 787–794 sunindijo, r.y. and zou, p.x.w. (2013) ‘the roles of emotional intelligence, interpersonal skill, and transformational leadership on improving construction safety performance’, construction economics and building, 13(3), pp. 97–113. available at: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v13i3.3300 tam, c.m., zeng, s.x. and deng, z.m. (2004) ‘identifying elements of poor construction safety management in china’, safety science, 42(7), pp. 569–586. available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2003.09.001 teizer, j., golovina, o., wang, d. and pradhananga, n. (2015) ‘automated collection , identification , localization , and analysis of worker-related proximity hazard events in heavy construction equipment operation’, in isarc. proceedings of the international symposium on automation and robotics in construction, p. 1. available at: http://search.proquest.com/openview/bc7f2497ffa549e9ed51be07a400d476/1.pdf?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1646340&casa_token=ytjkftzel8caaaaa:c_r4is1-d8oiazhepidc839rj_fqkl52xx29aevk8sgqiqtk4-qd3xvakxz-ncqu-hchilxafw teo, a.l.e., ofori, g., tjandra, i.k. and kim, h. (2016) ‘design for safety: theoretical framework of the safety aspect of bim system to determine the safety index’, construction economics and building, 16(4), pp. 1–18. available at: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v16i4.4873 the himalayan times (2017) shortage of skilled workers affects reconstruction work, 2017. nepal. available at: https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/shortage-of-skilled-workers-affects-reconstruction-work/ (accessed: 25 june 2018) turner, m. and lingard, h. (2020) ‘examining the interaction between bodily pain and mental health of construction workers’, construction management and economics, 38(11), pp. 1009–1023. available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1791920 uddin, s.m.j., albert, a., alsharef, a., pandit, b., patil, y. and nnaji, c. (2020) ‘hazard recognition patterns demonstrated by construction workers’, international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(21), p. 7788. available at: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17217788 uddin, s.m.j., alsharef, a., albert, a. and bhandari, s. (2022) ‘construction hazard recognition: a smart literature review’, in construction research congress 2022. reston, va: american society of civil engineers, pp. 412–421. available at: https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784483985.042 uddin, s.m.j., ganapati, n.e., pradhananga, n., prajapati, j. and albert, a. (2021) ‘is the workers’ health and safety scenario different in post-disaster reconstruction from conventional construction? a case study in bhaktapur, nepal’, international journal of disaster risk reduction, 64(october 2021), p. 102529. available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijdrr.2021.102529 uddin, s.m.j. and pradhananga, n. (2019) ‘construction workers ’ health and safety at post-disaster reconstruction (pdr) phase : a knowledge gap analysis’, in 55th asc annual international conference proceedings, pp. 555–561 umeokafor, n., evangelinos, k. and windapo, a. (2020) ‘strategies for improving complex construction health and safety regulatory environments’, international journal of construction management, 0(0), pp. 1–12. available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1707853 undrr (2020) human cost of disasters, un office for disaster risk reduction (undrr). united nations office for disarmament affairs. available at: https://doi.org/10.18356/79b92774-en united nations office for disaster risk reduction (2015) sendai framework for disaster risk reduction 2015 2030, united nations. available at: https://www.preventionweb.net/files/43291_sendaiframeworkfordrren.pdf (accessed: 23 march 2023) wang, x.l., chan, c.l.w., shi, z.b. and wang, b. (2013) ‘mental health risks in the local workforce engaged in disaster relief and reconstruction’, qualitative health research, 23(2), pp. 207–217. available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732312467706 xu, j. and shao, y. (2020) ‘the role of the state in china’s post-disaster reconstruction planning: implications for resilience’, urban studies, 57(3), pp. 525–545. available at: https://doi.org/10.1177/0042098019859232 yi, h and yang, j. (2014) ‘research trends of post disaster reconstruction: the past and the future’, habitat international, 42, pp. 21–29. available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2013.10.005 yi, honglei and yang, j. (2014) ‘research trends of post disaster reconstruction: the past and the future’, habitat international, 42, pp. 21–29. available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.habitatint.2013.10.005 zhang, s., sulankivi, k., kiviniemi, m., romo, i., eastman, c.m. and teizer, j. (2015) ‘bim-based fall hazard identification and prevention in construction safety planning’, safety science, 72, pp. 31–45. available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2014.08.001 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: lan, r., adenuga, o., awolusi, i. 2025. impact of construction project failure on key project stakeholders: assessing the perspectives of professionals in lagos metropolis. construction economics and building, 25:3/4, 90–120. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i3/4.9124 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article impact of construction project failure on key project stakeholders: assessing the perspectives of professionals in lagos metropolis roy lan1, olumide adenuga2, ibukun awolusi3,* 1 school of civil & environmental engineering, and construction management, the university of texas at san antonio, san antonio, texas, usa, roy.lan@my.utsa.edu 2 department of building, university of lagos, lagos, nigeria, oadenuga@unilag.edu.ng 3 school of civil & environmental engineering, and construction management, the university of texas at san antonio, san antonio, texas, usa, ibukun.awolusi@utsa.edu corresponding author: ibukun awolusi, ibukun.awolusi@utsa.edu doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9124 article history: received 26/04/2024; revised 01/11/2024; accepted 30/07/2025; published 05/12/2025 abstract construction project failures in rapidly developing urban environments can have far reaching consequences across multiple stakeholder groups. this study examines the broadranging impacts of construction project failures in lagos, nigeria, focusing on clients, contractors, consultants, and the general public. employing a mixedmethods approach, the research combines questionnaire data from construction professionals with indepth interviews and thematic analysis. quantitative techniques, including the relative severity index (rsi) and cluster analysis, complement qualitative insights. the results reveal that financial and economic impacts, particularly loss of revenue, cost escalation, and time overruns, are the most significant consequences. clients emerge as the most severely affected stakeholder group, followed by the general public, contractors, and consultants, underscoring the broad societal implications of project failures. cluster analysis uncovers distinct patterns in stakeholder perceptions, revealing how professional experience influences the perceived severity of project failures. qualitative insights from interviews provide additional depth, illustrating the psychological toll on professionals and 90 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9124 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9124 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i3/4.9124 the erosion of public trust in development initiatives. this research contributes to the field by providing a comprehensive, stakeholdercentric analysis of project failure impacts in a rapidly urbanizing context. it offers practical recommendations for policymakers, industry professionals, and urban planners, emphasizing the need for enhanced financial oversight, improved stakeholder engagement, and a shift toward a more collaborative industry culture. these insights are crucial for developing effective risk management strategies in dynamic urban environments like lagos. keywords construction; cluster analysis; developing countries; project failure; project stakeholders introduction infrastructural development is pivotal to the growth and prosperity of developing societies, particularly through the successful delivery of construction projects. these projects are key drivers of social and economic development, enhancing urban infrastructure, generating employment, and improving the quality of life (okagbue et al., 2018). however, when construction projects fail, the negative consequences ripple across various stakeholder groups, leading to significant financial, operational, and social disruptions (shahhosseini et al., 2018). the failure of construction projects often results in considerable economic losses, diminished public trust, and broader societal impacts that disproportionately affect the most vulnerable stakeholders (akims and akims, 2022). in nigeria, as in many developing countries, construction project failures have become prevalent despite ongoing efforts to meet the demands of rapid urbanization and population growth (nweze, 2016; ibrahim and daniel, 2019). the adverse effects of these failures are wideranging and extend beyond the immediate project site. for instance, clients who finance these projects could face significant financial setbacks, including loss of revenue, bankruptcy, and reputational damage (ullah et al., 2023). contractors and consultants, tasked with delivering projects and ensuring quality, are not immune either; they may experience operational inefficiencies, legal liabilities, and longterm damage to their professional standing. moreover, the general public, which ultimately relies on the successful completion of these projects, also bears the brunt of the negative impacts, experiencing reduced access to infrastructure, increased safety hazards, and degraded urban environments (falana et al., 2019). in lagos, the economic hub of nigeria with a gross domestic product (gdp) of $101.08 billion, these challenges are particularly acute (lagos bureau of statistics, 2019). largescale projects such as the lagosbadagry expressway, the fourth mainland bridge, and the lagos state light rail have experienced significant delays and setbacks, which have negatively impacted stakeholders across the board (okereke, 2017; olabisi et al., 2023). these failures, while causing direct financial losses for stakeholders, also lead to broader social issues, such as rising unemployment, housing shortages, and deteriorating public infrastructure (ibironke et al., 2013; ibrahim and daniel, 2019). the negative ripple effects of these failures highlight the critical need to understand how they impact different stakeholder groups and the overall socioeconomic fabric of the region (ibironke et al., 2013; lagos bureau of statistics, 2019). while extensive research has explored the causes of construction project failures in nigeria and other developing countries ranging from poor project management and financial constraints to regulatory issues and resource misallocation, far less attention has been devoted to understanding the full spectrum of effects these failures have on multiple stakeholders simultaneously. existing studies often focus on project failure types, such as project delays, cost overruns, abandonment, or structural collapse (damoah, mouzughi and kumi, 2020; rashid, 2020; fehan and aigbogun, 2023; hardardottir and moller, 2023), providing valuable insights into the root causes, not delving deeply into the impacts these failures have on key stakeholders. in most cases, they tend to concentrate on individual aspects of failure, typically analyzing the impacts on lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202591 a single stakeholder group, such as clients or contractors, in isolation. there is therefore a significant gap in existing literature when it comes to a comprehensive examination of how construction project failures affect stakeholders including clients, contractors, consultants, and the general public at the same time. few studies offer an integrated analysis of these effects, which is crucial in contexts like nigeria, where construction projects play a critical role in urban development and economic growth. understanding how different stakeholders are impacted concurrently, and how these impacts intersect, is essential for developing effective mitigation strategies and improving project outcomes. this study seeks to fill that gap by providing a holistic, stakeholdercentric analysis of the multifaceted effects of construction project failures, with a particular focus on the lagos metropolis. by examining various types of failure impacts including financial, operational, social, and more, this research provides a comprehensive view of how construction project failures uniquely affect key stakeholders. this stakeholderfocused approach allows for a deeper understanding of how different groups, such as clients, contractors, consultants, and the general public, experience and respond to the consequences of project failures, particularly in a rapidly growing urban setting like lagos. the insights gained from this research can help inform more effective strategies to mitigate the adverse effects of construction project failures and improve future project outcomes in developing economies. literature review introduction to construction project failures construction project failures remain a critical issue in the built environment, particularly in rapidly urbanizing cities like lagos, nigeria. these failures are not limited to technical issues such as design flaws or substandard materials; rather, they often result from a complex interplay of financial mismanagement, ineffective stakeholder collaboration, and broader socioeconomic challenges (gupta et al., 2019; arora, 2023). in developing contexts, these failures can have farreaching consequences, significantly affecting infrastructure development, urban growth, and the wellbeing of multiple stakeholder groups (rashid, 2020). as urban populations swell, the demand for infrastructure grows, putting pressure on construction projects to deliver on time and within budget. when they fail, the impacts are felt by not only clients and contractors but also consultants, government agencies, and the general public (omopariola et al., 2020; shoar, chileshe and payan, 2022). understanding the multifaceted nature of these failures and their subsequent impact on stakeholders is essential for improving project outcomes in rapidly developing regions like lagos. theoretical underpinnings to explore the impact of construction project failures on various stakeholders, this study draws on several theoretical frameworks that explain the dynamics of stakeholder interactions, risk management, and the cascading effects of project failures. each of these theories provides a relevant perspective for understanding how different groups are affected by project breakdowns, especially in the highstakes construction environment of lagos. stakeholder theory emphasizes the importance of managing relationships between all stakeholders involved in a project, rather than focusing solely on the shareholders (prebanić and vukomanović, 2023). this theory is particularly relevant to the context of this study, as construction projects in lagos often involve a diverse array of stakeholders, including clients, contractors, consultants, government bodies, and the general public. the failure of a construction project impacts each of these groups differently. for instance, while clients may face financial losses, contractors could experience reputational damage and operational setbacks, and the general public might suffer from reduced access to infrastructure. stakeholder theory helps lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202592 frame the analysis of how these failures ripple through each stakeholder group, emphasizing the importance of understanding and managing their distinct interests and concerns (wojewnikfilipkowska et al., 2021). another significant framework is the risk management theory commonly referred to as risk management. it is crucial for understanding how construction projects deal with uncertainties. construction projects in lagos are subject to a variety of risks, including financial volatility, regulatory changes, and environmental challenges (esteki, gandomani and farsani, 2020). risk management theory provides a systematic approach to identifying, assessing, and mitigating these risks. in the context of this study, the theory highlights the consequences of poorly managed risks, such as cost overruns and delays, which affect different stakeholders in different ways (oseikyei et al., 2023). by failing to anticipate or mitigate risks, projects in lagos often end up stalled or abandoned, leaving contractors, clients, and the public to absorb the consequences. systems theory and organizational learning theory are also two pertinent frameworks germane to the scope of this study. systems theory and organizational learning theory are also pertinent frameworks aligning with the scope of this study. systems theory views construction projects as interconnected systems where the failure of one component can trigger cascading effects on the entire project. this theory is highly relevant to construction projects in lagos, where delays or financial mismanagement in one phase often result in larger systemic disruptions, as seen in the lagos light rail project, where funding delays escalated costs and extended timelines, impacting various stakeholders (alade, edelenbos and gianoli, 2019). organizational learning theory, on the other hand, emphasizes the importance of learning from past failures to improve future project outcomes. this theory is particularly useful in the lagos context, where construction firms often encounter repeated failures in delivering largescale infrastructure projects (falana, ghazaly and falana, 2019; adenuga, osuizugbo and imoesi, 2022). by institutionalizing lessons learned from these failures, organizations can enhance their risk management, resource allocation, and stakeholder coordination practices, leading to better project outcomes and reduced disruptions. together, these frameworks offer a comprehensive view of how construction project failures occur and how organizations can adapt and evolve to mitigate the negative impacts on stakeholders, which is essential in the complex and unpredictable construction environment of lagos. impact of construction project failure on stakeholders construction project failures have a ripple effect, impacting not only the immediate project outcomes but also the broader range of stakeholders involved in or affected by these projects. the consequences of such failures are multifaceted, affecting clients, contractors, consultants, and the general public in distinct yet interconnected ways. clients, the primary investors in construction projects, encounter a spectrum of risks when faced with project failures. financially, the repercussions extend far beyond immediate concerns like cost overruns and project delays (chong and sullivan, 2020). for projects with commercial ambitions, the ripple effects of failures can lead to substantial losses in projected revenues, fundamentally jeopardizing the investment’s financial viability. such losses not only disrupt the specific project’s budget but can also have farreaching impacts on clients’ broader investment portfolios and longterm financial strategies. this situation is exacerbated in environments marked by economic volatility, where the opportunity costs of tiedup capital in failing projects can be particularly punitive (olawumi and chan, 2018). the interplay between direct project costs and broader financial repercussions underscores the intricate financial web in which clients are entangled during project failures (gupta et al., 2019). reputational damage constitutes another critical fallout for clients embroiled in construction project failures. in an era where market presence and brand reputation are inextricably linked to online platforms and social media, the adverse publicity surrounding failed projects can quickly tarnish a client’s image (assaad et al., 2020). this reputational loss can significantly deter potential partners, investors, or tenants, making future endeavors more challenging lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202593 to initiate or sustain. in competitive markets, where credibility and a proven track record are indispensable assets, the stakes are even higher. the lingering shadow of a failed project can lead to a loss of confidence among stakeholders, potentially closing doors to lucrative opportunities and partnerships (zwikael, meredith and smyrk, 2019). the reputational implications of project failures highlight the critical need for clients to navigate project management and stakeholder engagement adeptly. beyond financial and reputational risks, the psychological toll on clients managing failing projects can be profound. the stress associated with overseeing projects marred by setbacks and uncertainties can lead to significant dissatisfaction and mental strain. this stress can permeate personal and professional realms, affecting decisionmaking abilities, leadership effectiveness, and overall wellbeing (wu, hu and zheng, 2019). the cumulative effect of prolonged exposure to project related stressors can manifest in decision fatigue, reduced cognitive performance, and a diminished capacity to engage constructively with project teams and stakeholders (tijani, jin and oseikyei, 2023). moreover, the personal reputational damage and its attendant social pressures can exacerbate the psychological impact, leading to a cycle of stress and dissatisfaction that extends well beyond the project’s life cycle (wu, hu and zheng, 2019). contractors, integral to transforming construction plans into reality, encounter substantial challenges in the wake of project failures, with financial instability standing at the forefront (bikitsha and amoah, 2022). these challenges extend beyond immediate cash flow disruptions to encompass unpaid bills, penalties for project delays, and costly litigation processes. such financial hurdles not only jeopardize the shortterm liquidity of contractors but can also threaten their longterm viability, especially when a failed project is significant relative to the contractor’s financial capacity (assaf et al., 2019). the domino effect of these financial strains can ripple through to subcontractors and suppliers, magnifying the economic repercussions within the construction sector. moreover, the operational disruptions ensuing from project failures are manifested as resource allocation inefficiencies, compounded delays across the contractor’s project portfolio, and diverted managerial focus, further exacerbating the situation (arora, 2023). these disruptions erode the contractor’s ability to fulfill other commitments, undermining their competitiveness and capacity for securing future projects. additionally, the internal turmoil, characterized by declining employee morale and productivity, amplifies these operational challenges, necessitating a resilient and adaptable project management approach to mitigate such adverse effects. consultants in the construction industry, including architects, engineers, and project managers, navigate a complex landscape of responsibilities and expectations. when construction projects fail, consultants often find themselves in the crosshairs of blame and recrimination, impacting their professional reputation, financial stability, and future business prospects (olawale et al., 2022). the reputational damage for consultants stemming from project failures cannot be overstated. in an industry heavily reliant on trust and proven expertise, being associated with a failed project can severely undermine a consultant’s credibility. this loss of reputation can lead to difficulties in securing future contracts, as potential clients might perceive them as a riskier choice (nissen and dittler, 2019; deb, mitchell and pai, 2022). moreover, the interconnected nature of the construction industry means that news of project failures and the roles individuals played in them spreads quickly, further exacerbating the challenge of rebuilding a tarnished reputation (anthony, 2013). beyond reputation, consultants face financial risks from project failures. unpaid fees for services rendered can strain their financial resources, especially for smaller consultancy firms or independent consultants whose cash flows may be less robust. legal disputes over project outcomes can also result in significant legal expenses, further jeopardizing their financial position (deb, mitchell and pai, 2022). the general public, often the end beneficiaries of construction projects, faces a wide array of impacts when these endeavors fail. these effects can range from direct to indirect, affecting communities and the broader societal fabric in profound ways (damoah and akwei, 2017). firstly, the immediate impact of lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202594 construction project failures on public safety and health cannot be understated. incomplete structures, poorly constructed facilities, or abandoned sites pose significant safety hazards. such scenarios not only endanger lives but also contribute to a decline in the quality of urban life, affecting the wellbeing of the community at large (azil and jabar, 2021; kaja and goyal, 2023). moreover, the aesthetic blight of unfinished or failed projects can degrade the visual landscape of neighborhoods, impacting property values and community pride (ahmed ezzat othman, 2014; yang and cheng, 2020). beyond physical and environmental concerns, the failure of construction projects often results in missed opportunities for community development and economic growth. infrastructure projects like roads, schools, and hospitals are critical for societal advancement. when these projects fail, the intended benefits, such as improved access to education, healthcare, and transportation, are delayed or lost, disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations and widening social inequalities (yang and cheng, 2020). furthermore, the economic implications of construction project failures extend beyond the immediate area of the project. they can deter future investment in the region, affecting job creation and economic stability. the negative perception generated by visible project failures can be a significant obstacle to attracting new businesses and investors, hindering regional economic development (pant et al., 2018). the erosion of public trust in the construction industry and government oversight is another critical consequence of project failures (damoah, mouzughi and kumi, 2020; deb, mitchell and pai, 2022). when projects funded by public money are mismanaged or fail, it can lead to a perception of incompetence or corruption, diminishing faith in public institutions and the construction sector. this loss of trust can have longlasting implications, making it more challenging to garner public support for future projects, including those funded through public– private partnerships or community levies (bhagat and jha, 2023). table 2 shows a summary of literature on the effect of project failure. construction project failures in lagos lagos, with its rapid urbanization and growing population, provides a unique case study for examining the impacts of construction project failures. several highprofile projects in the city have faced significant setbacks, highlighting the challenges of delivering infrastructure in a dynamic urban environment. the lagos light rail project, first conceptualized in 1983, proposed to consist of seven major routes including the blue line, red line, green line, purple line, yellow line, brown line, and orange line, was intended to alleviate the city’s chronic traffic congestion by providing a reliable public transit system. however, the project has been plagued by delays and cost overruns, with only two lines partially operational as of 2024 (bolaji, 2023). these setbacks have had a profound impact on the city’s commuters, who continue to face long travel times and high transportation costs due to the lack of reliable public transport options. the fourth mainland bridge, first proposed in the early 2000s, was intended to alleviate the heavy traffic congestion on the third mainland bridge, which serves as the main route between lagos island and the mainland. with over 117,000 vehicles using it daily, the third mainland bridge frequently experiences severe traffic jams, causing delays that impact commuters, businesses, and the overall flow of goods and services. commuters, including the general public and daily workers, face extended travel times, increased fuel costs, and lost productivity, while businesses experience disruptions in logistics and economic activity. the delayed construction of the fourth mainland bridge, caused by financing difficulties, environmental concerns, and land compensation disputes, has significantly affected multiple stakeholders (akoni, 2022). government agencies responsible for urban development face a loss of public trust and setbacks in economic growth initiatives, while contractors and consultants involved in the project have suffered reputational damage and financial losses. meanwhile, the general public continues to endure the adverse effects of traffic congestion, reduced quality of life, and economic consequences, illustrating the farreaching impacts of the stalled project on all stakeholders dependent on efficient infrastructure. also, notably, the lekkiepe expressway project, while eventually completed, faced numerous challenges during its construction phase, lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202595 including disputes over toll charges and public– private partnership agreements. these issues delayed the project’s completion and increased its overall cost, impacting both the government and private stakeholders (oseikyei et al., 2023). the operational challenges that plagued this project underscore the complexities of delivering infrastructure in the rapidly growing urban environment in lagos. key constructs for measuring project failure impacts to effectively analyze the impacts of construction project failures on stakeholders, it is crucial to identify and define the key constructs that can be measured and assessed. table 1 outlines these constructs, along with their measurement indicators, the affected stakeholder groups, and the corresponding project phases. this provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the multidimensional effects of project failures. table 1. key constructs for measuring project failure impacts construct definition key measurement indicators stakeholders affected project phases affected key citation financial and economic impact the monetary and economic consequences of project failure loss of revenue, bankruptcy, cost escalation clients, contractor all phases (johnson and babu, 2020) project execution and performance impact the effect of failure on the project’s operational aspects and outcomes delays, rework, loss of worker hours, low productivity contractors, consultants construction, post construction (el sayegh et al., 2021) stakeholder welfare and societal impact the broader effects on stakeholders and society at large unemployment, stress, public dissatisfaction general public, clients post construction (hamdan, andersen and de boer, 2021) legal, regulatory, and compliance impact the legal and regulatory consequences resulting from project failure license revocation, reputational damage, legal penalties contractors, consultants post construction (casady and baxter, 2020) safety, health, environment, and quality impact the effects on human safety, health, and environmental conditions accident rates, health risks, environmental damage, rework contractors, workers, general public construction, post construction (boadu, wang and sunindijo, 2020) research methodology the study involved a comprehensive approach, starting with a detailed literature review and interviews with construction industry professionals in lagos state, nigeria. the aim was to understand the negative effects of construction project failures. information from these sources was organized using thematic analysis, which led to the development of a questionnaire. this questionnaire was distributed to a select group of lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202596 contractors, project managers, and consultants identified through purposive sampling. to assess the severity of different effects as perceived by these professionals, the relative severity index (rsi) and mean scores were employed to analyze their responses. the entire research methodology is depicted in figure 1. literature search to date, much work has not been done on the effects of construction project failure, and consequently, to get an ample number of papers for the review, we set the lookback year threshold to 13 years. exploring sites and robust databases like google scholar, scopus, sciencedirect, and web of science, some keywords used include “construction project failure”, “effects”, “delays in construction”, and “abandonment in construction”. table 2. summary of recent literature on the impact of construction project failure author and year year country of focus focus of study key findings stakeholders analyzed methodology (damoah, mouzughi and kumi, 2020) 2020 ghana abandonment identified economic, social, political, and psychological effects as key effects of construction project failure government officials quantitative survey (rashid, 2020) 2020 pakistan project delay identified cost overrun as the most significant effect of project failure contractor, client quantitative survey (rahman et al., 2022) 2022 uae quality issues the study highlighted quality assurance has the most effect on project failure client, contractor quantitative analysis (ahmed, 2019) 2019 bangladesh safety awareness highlighted loss of human lives affecting workers and consultants as the key impact of project failure. client, consultant qualitative interviews and survey (suleiman et al., 2023) 2023 jordan communication highlighted cost overrun and frequent reworks leading to financial losses primarily borne by clients and contractors contractor, consultant quantitative survey (ullah, islam showrav and masrur eram, 2023) 2023 bangladesh project failure discussed financial impact on the contractors and clients as the most significant effect of project failure contractor, client systematic literature review (shoar, chileshe and payan, 2022) 2022 iran cost and time overruns identified reputation loss of consultants as the key impact of project failure contractor, client, consultants qualitative interviews and survey lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202597 scope of the study this study focuses on a broad range of public and private construction projects in lagos, nigeria. the selected projects include infrastructure developments such as bridges, roads, and public buildings, as well as commercial projects such as residential estates and office complexes. this scope ensures that the analysis captures the diverse nature of construction activities within lagos and reflects both governmentsponsored and privately financed projects. by examining a variety of project types, the study offers a comprehensive understanding of the common challenges and unique risks faced across different segments of the construction industry. expert interviews the study involved semistructured interviews with experienced professionals in the construction industry, specifically targeting those with a minimum of 5 years of experience. a total of 15 professionals participated, the participants were selected based on their extensive experience (ranging from 5 to 25 years) and their involvement in highrisk or failed construction projects, ensuring that the qualitative data reflected diverse stakeholder perspectives. to further enhance the depth of the insights, interviews were conducted across three active construction sites where major projects were underway. the interview process was designed to capture both subjective experiences and objective observations regarding the effects of project failures. a combination of openended and structured questions was employed, allowing participants to share detailed insights while also ensuring consistency in responses for analysis. the interviewees predominantly highlighted financial and economic consequences, such as client revenue loss, cost escalations, and negative impacts on economic growth. interestingly, the interviews also brought to light some unanticipated effects, including psychological and emotional distress and depression, aspects not previously covered in the reviewed literature. grouping method after the completion of the literature review and interview series, the acquired data were systematically organized and analyzed through thematic analysis. this qualitative methodology involves the identification, examination, and reporting of emergent themes or patterns within the data. the process encompassed several key steps: initial data familiarization, generation of codes, and the derivation and assignment of themes, paralleling the methodologies employed in previous studies (bowen et al., 2012; perannagari and chakrabarti, 2020). the 25 discerned effects of construction project failure were categorized into five distinct groups: project execution and performance impact; financial and economic impact; legal, regulatory, and compliance impact; safety, health, and environmental quality impact; and stakeholder welfare and societal impact, as detailed in table 4. figure 1. research methodology lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202598 questionnaire formation and dissemination the questionnaire was meticulously structured to facilitate respondent accessibility, incorporating succinct, likert scaleoriented queries to evaluate perceptions regarding the effects of construction project failures precisely. the scale employed in the questionnaire featured an ordinal range from 1 (“none”) to 5 (“severe”), a design choice instrumental in quantitatively gauging the perceived severity of project failure impacts. in alignment with methodological rigor, purposive sampling was utilized, a strategic, nonprobabilistic selection method as explicated by campbell et al. (2020). this approach specifically targeted professionals within the construction sector who had copious amounts of site experience. for data collection, an electronic survey was meticulously crafted using google forms, ensuring ease of access and completion. this digital tool was disseminated through the extensive networks of the nigerian society of engineers (nse) and the council for the regulation of engineering in nigeria (coren), aiming to reach a wide spectrum of professionals in relevant fields. in parallel, to ensure comprehensive coverage and inclusion of diverse professional insights, printed versions of the questionnaire were strategically distributed to engineering firms. these physical copies were specifically directed toward individuals holding key positions such as project managers, contractors, and consultants, thereby ensuring the capture of informed perspectives on the subject matter. out of the 200 questionnaires distributed, a total of 105 were retrieved. however, upon meticulous examination of these responses, it was noted that a fraction contained various errors, such as omissions or transposition mistakes, rendering them incomplete. consequently, these flawed responses were deemed unusable for the subsequent analytical process, effectively reducing the pool of valid responses to a total of 78. this attrition in usable data underscores the challenges inherent in surveybased research and highlights the importance of meticulous response validation in ensuring the integrity and reliability of research findings. cronbach reliability test to ascertain the reliability and consistency of the data procured from the questionnaire, cronbach’s alpha coefficient (α) was utilized. this statistical tool was applied to assess the consistency of the identified effects of project failure. the cronbach’s alpha (α) value derived from this analysis was 0.923, indicating a high level of internal consistency. according to taber (2018), a dataset exhibiting an alpha (α) value greater than 0.7 is deemed sufficiently consistent for utilization in research studies.                k k s s s y i y1 2 2 2  (1) where k is the number of items (in this case, the number of factors), sy 2 is the variance of the total score, and si 2 is the sum of the variances of the individual item scores. relative severity index the objective of this study was to identify the effects of project failure and to assess their impact on select stakeholders. to achieve this, the selected technique was the rsi. this technique is reliable and has been used numerous times, especially in studies assessing the perception of the respondents (kamal et al., 2022; manoharan et al., 2023). the rsi formula is given as rsi = σw a n* (2) lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 202599 in the context of this study, the variable “w” is designated to represent the weight attributed to each factor, aligned with a predefined scale that ranges from 1, symbolizing “none”, to 5, indicating “severe”. this gradational scale is conceptualized to mirror the relative importance of each effect, with 1 denoting “least important” and 5 signifying “significantly important”. the notation “a” is employed to denote the highest possible weight within this scale, which, according to the likert scale utilized in this research, is 5. furthermore, “n” refers to the number of respondents who participated in the survey, each contributing to the dataset through their responses corresponding to the weighted factors. this technique allows for a quantifiable assessment of the perceived importance and impact of the effects being studied, as expressed by the collective input of the respondents. correlation analysis between groups a nonparametric analytical approach, specifically spearman’s rank correlation coefficient, was chosen to validate the existence of a correlation between professional perceptions of construction project failures in lagos state. this choice was made because spearman’s coefficient is wellsuited to the dataset’s characteristics, and it is robust against the influence of outliers. this method enhances the validity and reliability of the correlation analysis, especially when dealing with datasets where outliers could distort the results. ultimately, it provides a more accurate understanding of the relationships among ranked variables in professional perceptions. r di n n s    1 6 1 2 2  (3) in the formula, rs is the spearman’s coefficient of rank correlation. the variable “d” stands for the difference between the ranks of each pair of corresponding variables under consideration. lastly, n indicates the total count of paired observations in the dataset. this formula thus quantitatively encapsulates the degree of correlation between two variables based on their ranks, considering all paired observations in the analysis. cluster analysis to further explore patterns in the respondents’ perceptions of construction project failure effects, a cluster analysis was conducted. this method enabled identifying distinct groups of respondents with similar perspectives, providing additional insights beyond the overall rankings. first, principal component analysis (pca) was applied to reduce the dimensionality of the dataset while retaining the most significant information. this step was useful in visualizing the respondents in a twodimensional space based on their response patterns. the formula for pca can be represented as: z = xv (4) where z is the matrix of principal component scores, x is the standardized data matrix, and v is the matrix of eigenvectors of the correlation matrix of x. specifically, kmeans clustering was employed to group respondents into distinct clusters. in the kmeans clustering process, the optimal number of clusters was determined using the elbow method, which evaluates the sum of squared errors (sse) for various values of k. the sse measures the compactness of the clusters, with lower values indicating that data points are closer to their assigned centroids. sse is calculated as the sum of squared euclidean distances between each data point and its corresponding cluster centroid. for each k, the kmeans algorithm assigns data points to clusters and computes the sse. the resulting sse values are plotted against the number of clusters k. the elbow point on this plot represents the optimal lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025100 k, where increasing the number of clusters beyond this point does not significantly reduce the sse. as shown in figure 2, the elbow point occurs at k = 3, indicating that three clusters provide an optimal balance between model simplicity and data separation. the sse for each cluster configuration is computed using the following formula: sse      k k x c i k i k x c 1 2 (5) where xi represents the data points, ck is the centroid of the kth cluster, and x ci k 2 is the squared euclidean distance between a point and the centroid. the optimal number of clusters is determined by identifying the elbow point on the sse versus k plot. this cluster analysis complements the overall rankings by revealing subgroups within the sample that have distinct viewpoints or experiences with construction project failures. it provides a more nuanced understanding of how construction professionals perceive the impacts of project failure, which can inform more targeted approaches to risk management and mitigation strategies in the industry. figure 2. elbow method for determining the optimal number of clusters (k) results profile of respondents table 3 presents a comprehensive demographic breakdown of the 78 respondents, categorized by job titles, education, industry tenure, and organization types. this detailed demographic information is pivotal for a nuanced understanding of the survey participants and enriches the context of the study. a key observation is the dominance of general contractors, who form over half of the respondents, aligning with the study’s focus on professionals with direct construction site experience. this demographic choice is strategic, ensuring data collection is grounded in practical, realworld construction scenarios. the respondents’ experience in the construction industry varies widely, ranging from a minimum of 5 years to over 15 years. this diversity in experience is valuable as it covers a wide array of perspectives, informed by various stages of technological and methodological shifts in the construction sector. lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025101 educationally, the respondents demonstrate significant academic achievements, with over 50% holding master’s degrees, and about 4% having doctorate degrees. the remaining participants possess bachelor’s degrees. this educational diversity contributes to a rich array of perspectives and a comprehensive understanding of the construction field. table 3. profile of respondents (n = 78) category percent statistics job title consultant 16.8 project manager 29.4 general contractor 53.8 education bsc 41 msc 55.1 phd 3.8 years of experience in construction within 5 years 60.3 6– 10 years 21.7 11– 15 years 12.8 15 and above 5.1 organization public 5.1 private 94.9 ranking the effects of construction project failure table 4 presents the top effects of construction project failures based on rsi values. loss of revenue ranks highest with an rsi of 0.903, followed by cost escalation (rsi = 0.897) and time overruns (rsi = 0.892), indicating that financial and operational impacts are the most critical concerns for stakeholders. substandard infrastructure (rsi = 0.869) and unemployment (rsi = 0.890) also rank highly, particularly affecting the general public and project managers. reputation damage (rsi = 0.867) is another significant concern, especially for contractors. these rankings highlight the key impacts perceived by professionals in the construction industry. to thoroughly contextualize the effects identified, the study grouped the impacts of construction project failures into five key constructs based on rsi values: financial and economic impact (rsi = 0.857), project execution and performance impact (rsi = 0.823), stakeholder welfare and societal impact (rsi = 0.821), safety, health, and environmental quality (sheq) impact (rsi = 0.797), and legal, regulatory, and compliance impact (rsi = 0.771); this is seen in table 5. the financial and economic impact emerged as the most significant consequence, particularly driven by the high ranking of loss of revenue and cost escalation. there was a notable consensus among the different respondents, including contractors, consultants, and project managers, regarding these impact rankings as seen in table 6. lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025102 table 4. effects of project failure group overall contractor project manager consultant rsi rank rsi rank rsi rank rsi rank effect on contractor 0.797 3 reputation damage lrc 0.867 12 0.848 10 0.904 7 0.862 21 low productivity to subsequent work pep 0.741 35 0.776 26 0.739 35 0.631 35 loss of license to practice lrc 0.703 37 0.695 38 0.730 36 0.677 33 unemployment sws 0.754 34 0.714 36 0.791 32 0.815 25 indebtedness fei 0.838 17 0.790 21 0.896 9 0.892 13 loss of revenue fei 0.890 5 0.848 10 0.939 3 0.938 8 tougher policies for future financing fei 0.867 12 0.848 10 0.861 19 0.938 8 jail term lrc 0.692 38 0.714 36 0.696 39 0.615 37 rework pep 0.787 27 0.752 33 0.800 31 0.877 15 liquidated and ascertained damages fei 0.787 27 0.757 32 0.817 28 0.831 23 loss of worker hours pep 0.787 27 0.729 35 0.843 20 0.877 15 accidents and death sheq 0.772 32 0.776 26 0.783 33 0.738 30 time overrun pep 0.874 9 0.862 6 0.843 20 0.969 4 effect on client 0.856 1 abandonment of home sws 0.810 23 0.790 21 0.809 29 0.877 15 depression sws 0.797 25 0.829 14 0.774 34 0.738 30 loss of revenue fei 0.903 1 0.876 3 0.913 6 0.969 4 substandard infrastructure sheq 0.869 11 0.819 15 0.896 9 0.985 1 wasted time pep 0.877 8 0.867 5 0.896 9 0.877 15 accidents and death sheq 0.772 32 0.795 19 0.809 29 0.631 35 bankruptcy fei 0.846 16 0.895 1 0.870 17 0.646 34 cost escalation fei 0.897 2 0.881 2 0.904 7 0.938 8 discourages investment from financial institutions for subsequent projects fei 0.892 3 0.871 4 0.896 9 0.954 6 time overrun pep 0.892 3 0.862 6 0.896 9 0.985 1 effect on general public 0.847 2 substandard infrastructure sheq 0.833 19 0.771 29 0.939 3 0.846 22 accidents and death sheq 0.864 14 0.843 13 0.930 5 0.815 25 surge in crime rate sws 0.787 27 0.776 26 0.826 24 0.754 29 negative impact on economic growth fei 0.872 10 0.852 8 0.887 16 0.908 11 loss of properties sws 0.836 18 0.790 21 0.896 9 0.877 15 lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025103 table 5. grouping of the effects of construction project failure code broad impacts effects of construction project failure rsi rank pep project execution and performance impact low productivity to subsequent work, loss of worker hours, redesign of work, time overrun, wasted time. 0.823 2 fei financial and economic impact indebtedness, negative impact on economic growth, discourages investment from financial institutions for subsequent projects, cost escalation, bankruptcy, loss of revenue, liquidated and ascertained damages, and tougher policies for future financing. 0.857 1 lrc legal, regulatory, and compliance impact reputation damage, loss of license to practice, jail term. 0.771 5 sheq safety, health, and environmental quality impact accidents and death, substandard infrastructure. 0.797 4 sws stakeholder welfare and societal impact lack of comfort, leading to dissatisfaction, unemployment, loss of properties, surge in crime rate, depression, abandonment of habitat, and closure of nearby businesses. 0.821 3 group overall contractor project manager consultant rsi rank rsi rank rsi rank rsi rank closure of nearby businesses sws 0.815 22 0.786 25 0.826 24 0.892 13 unemployment sws 0.890 5 0.819 15 0.965 1 0.985 1 lack of comfort leading to dissatisfaction sws 0.879 7 0.819 15 0.948 2 0.954 6 effect on consultants 0.783 4 accidents and death sheq 0.672 39 0.671 39 0.704 38 0.615 37 reputation damage lrc 0.859 15 0.852 8 0.896 9 0.815 25 jail term lrc 0.708 36 0.738 34 0.730 36 0.569 39 loss of license to practice lrc 0.795 26 0.795 19 0.843 20 0.708 32 redesign of work pep 0.821 21 0.790 21 0.870 17 0.831 23 indebtedness fei 0.782 31 0.762 30 0.826 24 0.769 28 loss of worker hours pep 0.805 24 0.762 30 0.826 24 0.908 11 low productivity to subsequent work pep 0.823 20 0.800 18 0.835 23 0.877 15 table 4. continued lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025104 table 6. spearman’s rank correlation coefficient contractor project manager consultant contractor 1.000 0.670 0.529 project manager 0.670 1.000 0.675 consultant 0.529 0.675 1.000 relative severity index analysis and construct grouping the results presented in figure 3(a) depict the rsi and the associated confidence interval ranges for five key constructs: project execution and performance (pep), financial and economic impact (fei), legal, regulatory, and compliance (lrc), safety, health, and environmental quality (sheq), and stakeholder welfare and societal impact (sws). the rsi for fei (0.857) is the highest, indicating that financial and economic factors are perceived to have the most significant impact on construction project failure. pep and sws follow closely, reflecting concerns about project performance and societal welfare. the lower rsi values for lrc (0.770) and sheq (0.797) suggest relatively lower perceived impacts in terms of compliance and safety, though these remain important considerations. figure 3(b) reinforces this ranking with a heatmap, where color intensity illustrates the severity of each construct’s impact. fei and pep exhibit the highest intensity, emphasizing their critical importance, while lrc demonstrates the lowest rsi value. this consistent pattern across both visualizations highlights the figure 3. (a) rsi and confidence interval range by construct. (b) heatmap of relative severity index by construct lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025105 predominance of financial and project execution concerns among construction professionals, providing a clear framework for prioritizing mitigation strategies based on stakeholder perceptions. correlation between years of experience and construct scores understanding how professional experience influences perceptions of construction project failure effects is crucial for interpreting variations in stakeholder opinions. more experienced professionals may have encountered a broader range of challenges in construction projects, influencing their prioritization of certain impacts. by examining the correlation between years of experience and construct scores, this study seeks to determine whether more seasoned professionals view the severity of these effects differently from those with less experience, thus providing deeper insights into the stakeholders’ assessments. figure 4 presents the relationship between respondents’ years of experience in the construction industry and their scores on five key constructs: pep, fei, lrc, sheq, and sws. the scatter plots for each construct, accompanied by trend lines, indicate weak to moderate correlations between years of experience and scores. for pep (correlation: 0.05), there is a weak positive relationship, while fei (correlation: −0.11) shows a slight negative correlation, suggesting that as experience increases, perceptions of financial impacts become less severe. the lrc construct (correlation: 0.19) demonstrates a more noticeable positive trend, indicating that more experienced professionals rate legal, regulatory, and compliance impacts higher, reflecting their likely greater exposure to these issues over the course of their careers. conversely, sheq (safety, health, and environmental quality) and sws (stakeholder welfare and societal impact) show negative correlations (−0.16 and −0.13, respectively), suggesting that professionals with more experience tend to perceive these impacts as less severe. overall, the correlation values suggest that experience does not significantly influence the perceived severity of most effects, except for a mild positive correlation in lrc figure 4. relationship between years of experience and construct scores with correlation coefficients lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025106 scores. this finding suggests that, while professional experience shapes perceptions, it does so modestly, particularly in relation to legal and regulatory issues. correlation of construct scores and distribution by stakeholder type the analysis presented in figure 5(a) highlights the correlation heatmap of construct scores, which illustrates the relationships between key constructs of project failure impacts: pep, fei, lrc, sheq, and sws. the highest positive correlation (0.85) exists between pep (project execution and performance) and fei (financial and economic impact), indicating that professionals view these aspects as closely related. the strong correlations between sheq and lrc (0.68) emphasize the importance of regulatory and safety concerns in project failure scenarios. this heatmap is crucial as it helps identify interdependencies between different impacts, offering insights for better risk management strategies. figure 5(b), on the other hand, provides the distribution of construct scores by stakeholder type through box plots, comparing the perceptions of contractors, project managers, and consultants. contractors rated lrc and sheq higher, reflecting their concerns about compliance and safety. in contrast, consultants gave lower scores for fei and lrc, suggesting that financial and regulatory impacts may be less critical in their view. this analysis is essential to understand how various stakeholders prioritize different project failure impacts, allowing for tailored mitigation efforts based on professional roles. figure 5. correlation and distribution of construct scores by stakeholder type. (a) the correlation heatmap of construct scores. (b) the distribution scores by respondents lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025107 impact of project failure on key stakeholders to better understand the effects of project failure on different stakeholder groups, an analysis was conducted based on responses from a survey questionnaire. the heatmap in figure 6 presents the impact of project failure on stakeholders across four groups: contractors, clients, general public, and consultants. the impact scores, indicated by color intensity, show that clients are most severely affected, particularly by issues like cost escalation (4.49), time overrun (4.46), and loss of revenue (4.51). similarly, contractors face significant impacts such as reputation damage (4.33) and loss of revenue (4.45). the general public is also heavily impacted, with substandard infrastructure (4.17) and unemployment (4.45) being critical issues. consultants report lower overall impact scores but still cite challenges like reputation damage (4.29) and loss of work hours (4.03). figure 6. heatmap of project failure impacts on stakeholders cluster analysis of respondents’ perspectives to gain deeper insights into the varying perspectives on construction project failure effects, a cluster analysis was performed. this analysis revealed distinct groups of respondents with differing views on the severity and nature of these effects. figure 7 presents the results of this analysis, combining a scatter plot of respondents based on principal components and a heatmap of mean effect scores for each cluster. the cluster analysis revealed three distinct groups of respondents with varying perspectives on the effects of construction project failure, as illustrated in figure 7. the scatter plot (figure 7a) shows the distribution of respondents along two principal components, with each point representing an individual respondent. the three clusters are visually distinguishable: a large purple cluster spread across the center and right side of the plot, a teal cluster primarily on the left side, and a small yellow cluster with points scattered across the plot. the heatmap (figure 7b) displays the mean scores for selected key effects across the three clusters, using color intensity to indicate score magnitude. the optimal number of clusters was confirmed using the elbow lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025108 method, as shown in figure 2, which demonstrates that three clusters provide the best balance between minimizing withincluster variance and model complexity. the three identified clusters represent distinct perceptions among construction professionals, with cluster 2 standing out due to its consistently high impact scores. members of this cluster assign maximum severity (scores of 5.0) to multiple effects, including cost escalation, time overrun, and operational losses, suggesting that they may have either faced more severe project failures or work in highstakes projects where the consequences of failure are particularly pronounced. this underscores how exposure to highrisk projects or challenging environments can intensify professionals’ sensitivity to failure impacts. by contrast, cluster 0 and cluster 1 display more moderate severity scores, indicating either less exposure to severe project risks or a more balanced perspective on the consequences of failure. the differences among clusters highlight that risk perceptions are not homogeneous across stakeholder roles, as they exhibit varying priorities when evaluating project failure impacts. these insights underscore the need for differentiated risk management strategies that reflect the varying priorities of each group. the application of cluster analysis introduces an innovative approach to construction risk management by demonstrating that stakeholders do not uniformly perceive or experience risks. this segmentation is critical for targeted mitigation strategies, allowing industry practitioners and policymakers to design tailored interventions that address the specific vulnerabilities of each group. furthermore, the clustering results figure 7. cluster analysis results. (a) scatter plot of respondents based on principal components. (b) heatmap of mean scores for each effect across clusters lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025109 reveal potential misalignments between stakeholders, such as contractors focusing heavily on operational risks while the general public emphasizes societal issues like unemployment. this misalignment suggests that achieving effective collaboration in project delivery will require addressing these perceptual gaps through better stakeholder engagement and alignment strategies. in sum, the cluster analysis provides actionable insights that extend beyond traditional severity indices by illuminating the diversity of perceptions across stakeholders. this approach, while offering some theoretical novelty, contributes to stakeholder segmentation literature and is also practically relevant by informing the development of customized mitigation strategies for highrisk construction environments like lagos. discussion of results this study provides a multifaceted analysis of the impacts of construction project failures in lagos, nigeria, offering insights into how these failures affect various stakeholders and the broader construction industry. the findings reveal complex patterns in the severity and nature of these impacts, which we will discuss in detail, integrating quantitative results with qualitative insights from interviews. ranking and severity of project failure effects the study’s findings, based on the rsi, provide a comprehensive understanding of the impacts of construction project failures in lagos, nigeria. the results reveal a clear hierarchy of effects, with financial and economic impacts emerging as the most critical consequences. loss of revenue stands out as the most significant effect (rsi = 0.903), underscoring the immediate and tangible financial repercussions of project failures. this aligns with research by johnson and babu (2020) who emphasized the centrality of financial viability in construction project success. the high rsi for loss of revenue across all stakeholder groups— clients (rsi = 0.969), contractors (rsi = 0.890), and consultants (rsi = 0.938)— highlights the pervasive nature of this impact, affecting the entire project ecosystem. cost escalation (rsi = 0.897) and time overruns (rsi = 0.892) follow closely in severity, forming a triad of interconnected financial and operational impacts. this finding resonates with the work of asiedu and adaku (2020) who identified cost and time overruns as primary indicators of project distress in developing economies. the high ranking of these effects across different stakeholder groups suggests a shared vulnerability to project delays and budget overruns in the lagos construction sector. interestingly, the study reveals that impacts extend beyond immediate financial concerns to broader societal issues. the high ranking of substandard infrastructure (rsi = 0.869) and unemployment (rsi = 0.890) points to the farreaching consequences of project failures on urban development and socioeconomic stability. this finding aligns with research by kasim (2018), who emphasized the ripple effects of construction failures on community well being and economic growth in rapidly urbanizing areas. this study also sheds light on the relative importance of different impact categories. while financial and economic impacts dominate the top rankings, safety and environmental impacts show mixed results. for instance, “accidents and deaths” ranks relatively lower (rsi = 0.772 for contractors), which might indicate a need for greater emphasis on safety culture in the lagos construction industry. this finding contrasts with studies such as boadu, wang and sunindijo (2020) and sannianibire et al. (2020), where safety impacts often rank higher in severity. legal and regulatory impacts, such as loss of license to practice (rsi = 0.703) and jail terms (rsi = 0.692), rank lower in severity compared to financial and operational impacts. this could suggest either a less stringent regulatory environment or a prioritization of immediate project outcomes over longterm legal consequences. this finding diverges from research by park (2021) in more regulated construction markets, where legal impacts often rank higher in severity. the relative ranking of lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025110 these impacts provides valuable insights for risk management strategies in urban construction contexts similar to lagos. it suggests that while financial risk mitigation should remain a priority, a holistic approach that also addresses societal impacts and safety concerns is crucial for sustainable urban development. stakeholderspecific impacts the analysis of this study reveals nuanced differences in how various stakeholders experience and perceive the impacts of construction project failures in lagos. these findings both corroborate and challenge existing literature, providing a contextualized understanding of stakeholder dynamics in urban construction projects in developing economies. clients emerge as the most severely affected stakeholder group (overall rsi = 0.856), particularly in terms of financial impacts. the extremely high rsi for loss of revenue (0.969) and cost escalation (0.938) for clients aligns with research by ullah et al. (2023), who identified financial losses as the primary concern for project owners in developing countries. however, our findings reveal a more severe impact than previously documented, suggesting that clients in lagos may be particularly vulnerable to financial risks. interestingly, clients also show high concern for substandard infrastructure (rsi = 0.985), which is a departure from some existing literature. for instance, mohd fateh and yee (2021) found that clients in malaysia were less concerned about quality issues compared to financial losses. this discrepancy might reflect the unique challenges in the rapidly developing urban environment in lagos, where infrastructure quality has immediate and longterm implications for project value and urban functionality. contractors, while slightly less impacted overall (rsi = 0.797), face significant challenges in terms of reputation damage (rsi = 0.867) and loss of revenue (rsi = 0.890). this aligns closely with the findings by bikitsha and amoah (2022), who identified reputational risk as a key concern for contractors in south africa. however, this study reveals a higher emphasis on financial impacts among lagos contractors, possibly reflecting the more volatile economic environment. the general public emerges as the second most impacted group (rsi = 0.847), particularly affected by unemployment (rsi = 0.985) and substandard infrastructure (rsi = 0.846). this finding significantly expands on previous research, such as yang and cheng (2020), which often underestimated the extent of public impact. the high rsi for unemployment among the public suggests that construction project failures in lagos have more direct and severe socioeconomic consequences than previously recognized in the literature. consultants, while less impacted overall (rsi = 0.783), show high concern for reputation damage (rsi = 0.815) and loss of work hours (rsi = 0.908). this partially aligns with research by yap et al. (2021) on the importance of reputation in consulting services. however, findings from this study suggest that operational impacts (loss of work hours) are more significant for consultants in lagos than previously documented in other contexts. an interesting finding is the relatively lower impact of safety issues across all stakeholder groups, with “accidents and deaths” ranking lower in rsi compared to financial and operational impacts. this contrasts with studies in more developed markets, such as boadu et al. (2020), where safety often ranks as a top concern. this discrepancy might indicate a need for greater safety awareness and regulation in the lagos construction industry. these stakeholderspecific findings provide a distinct understanding of how project failures reverberate through the construction ecosystem in lagos, affecting different groups in unique ways. the results both confirm some existing theories on stakeholder impacts and challenge others, highlighting the importance of contextspecific research in understanding construction project dynamics in developing urban environments. lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025111 links between effects on selected stakeholders findings from this study reveal several interconnected links between the effects of project failures on different stakeholders. for instance, the high rsi for loss of revenue among contractors (0.890) is closely tied to the impact of cost escalation on clients (0.897). this suggests a reciprocal relationship where financial strain on one stakeholder group can exacerbate challenges for another. similarly, the impact of substandard infrastructure on the general public (rsi = 0.846) is linked to the reputational damage faced by contractors (rsi = 0.867) and consultants (rsi = 0.815). this interconnection highlights how quality issues in project execution can have far reaching consequences across multiple stakeholder groups. the relatively high rsi for unemployment among the general public (0.985) can be seen as a direct consequence of the financial impacts on contractors and clients, illustrating how project failures can create a ripple effect through the broader economy. these interconnections underscore the need for a systems thinking approach in construction project management, where the impacts on one stakeholder group are considered in relation to potential effects on others. this holistic perspective can inform more comprehensive risk mitigation strategies and foster greater collaboration among stakeholders to prevent and address project failures. integration of interview findings the qualitative insights from interviews with construction professionals in lagos not only corroborated our quantitative findings but also provided a rich contextual understanding of the impacts of project failures. these interviews offered valuable perspectives that add depth to our statistical analysis and illuminate the lived experiences of stakeholders in the lagos construction industry. financial impacts and ripple effects: quantitative data from this study highlighted the primacy of financial impacts, with loss of revenue (rsi = 0.903) and cost escalation (rsi = 0.897) ranking highest. this was strongly echoed in the interviews. a senior project manager with over 20 years of experience stated (interviewee 1): “when a project fails financially in lagos, it’s like dropping a stone in a pond. the ripples affect everyone, from the laborer who doesn’t get paid to the supplier who can’t fulfill other orders. i’ve seen small businesses collapse because of one failed project.” this perspective, while reinforcing this study’s high rsi values for financial impacts, also illustrates the interconnected nature of the construction economy in lagos, an aspect not fully captured by quantitative measures alone. societal impacts and urban development: the high rsi for unemployment (0.890) and substandard infrastructure (0.869) among the general public was given more context through conducted interviews. an urban planner involved in several lagos projects observed (interviewee 2): “failed projects don’t just leave an eyesore; they erode public trust. i’ve seen neighborhoods lose hope after a promised school or hospital project fails. it’s not just about the jobs lost, but about dreams deferred. people start to question if any development will ever succeed.” this insight provides a human dimension to our quantitative findings, illustrating how project failures can have longlasting impacts on community morale and urban development trajectories. psychological toll and professional impact: while quantitative data showed a relatively high rsi for “lack of comfort leading to dissatisfaction” (0.879), the interviews revealed the depth of this impact. a midcareer consultant shared (interviewee 3): “the stress of a failing project is immense. i’ve seen colleagues develop anxiety disorders, unable to sleep at night. it’s not just about the current project; it affects how you approach future work. some of the best talents i know have left the industry entirely after being part of a major failure.” lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025112 this account adds crucial context to our understanding of the professional and personal toll of project failures, highlighting impacts that are often underrepresented in quantitative analyses. regulatory environment and safety concerns: quantitative findings showed relatively lower rsi values for legal and safety impacts, which was a point of concern for some interviewees. a safety officer with experience in both public and private sectors noted (interviewee 4): “the numbers might show that safety isn’t a top concern, but that’s part of the problem. we’ve normalized risks. i’ve been on sites where near misses are shrugged off. it’s only a matter of time before we see more serious incidents if this attitude doesn’t change.” this perspective suggests that the lower rsi for safety impacts might reflect a cultural issue in the industry rather than a true lower importance, providing a critical counterpoint to our quantitative findings. stakeholder dynamics and blame culture: the interviews also shed light on the complex dynamics between stakeholders, adding nuance to our stakeholderspecific rsi values. a contractor with experience in both small and largescale projects observed (respondent 5): “when a project fails in lagos, it often becomes a blame game. clients point fingers at contractors, contractors blame consultants, and everyone blames the government. this culture of blame makes it hard to learn from failures and improve. we need a shift toward collective responsibility.” this insight highlights the need for improved stakeholder collaboration and communication, an aspect that was not directly measured in our quantitative analysis but is crucial for addressing the impacts of project failures. these qualitative insights from interviews provided valuable context and depth to the statistical findings, underscoring the complex, interconnected nature of project failure impacts in the lagos construction industry. they highlight human stories behind the numbers and reveal systemic issues that quantitative data alone might not fully capture. this integration of quantitative and qualitative data offers a more comprehensive understanding of the challenges faced by construction professionals in lagos and points toward areas for future research and industry improvement. theoretical implications this study contributes significantly to the body of knowledge on construction project management, particularly in the context of developing urban environments. our findings advance stakeholder theory in construction management by providing a more detailed understanding of how different groups are impacted by and perceive project failures. the identification of distinct impact patterns across stakeholder groups challenges simplistic, onesizefitsall approaches to project risk management and stakeholder engagement. the study’s results also contribute to the evolving discourse on the role of construction projects in urban development. by highlighting the substantial impacts on the general public, findings from this study emphasize the need for a more holistic, societycentric approach to understanding project success and failure. this perspective aligns with and extends recent theoretical work by scholars such as hedborg and karrbom gustavsson (2020), hamdan, andersen and de boer (2021), and maddaloni and sabini (2022) on the societal embeddedness of construction projects. practical and societal implications the findings from this study have significant implications for the construction industry and urban development in lagos. practically, the results call for a fundamental shift in how project risks are assessed and managed. the high impact on various stakeholders necessitates a more integrated approach to project planning and execution, one that considers financial, operational, and societal factors in equal measures. the lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025113 revealed vulnerability of clients and the general public to project failures implies a need for more robust protection mechanisms. this could involve drastic policy changes to safeguard investments and public interests, as well as improved transparency in project management to rebuild trust. societally, the study highlights the farreaching consequences of construction project failures beyond immediate financial losses. the impacts on urban infrastructure, employment, and public trust in development initiatives suggest that failed projects can significantly hinder urban progress and social well being. this underscores the need for urban planning strategies that are more resilient to project setbacks and that prioritize longterm community benefits. the findings also point to a need for cultural change within the industry, particularly in attitudes toward safety and professional wellbeing. addressing these aspects could lead to a more sustainable and responsible construction sector, better equipped to handle the challenges of rapid urban development. by acknowledging and addressing these implications, stakeholders in the construction industry in lagos can work toward creating a more resilient, equitable, and successful urban development process, ultimately contributing to improved quality of life and sustainable growth in the city. conclusion, recommendations, and future studies this study reveals that the impacts of construction project failures in lagos are multifaceted and far reaching. the most significant effects, as indicated by high rsi values, are predominantly financial and economic in nature. loss of revenue emerged as the most severe impact (rsi = 0.903), followed closely by cost escalation (rsi = 0.897) and time overruns (rsi = 0.892). these findings underscore the immediate and tangible consequences of project failures on stakeholders’ financial health and operational efficiency. importantly, this study highlights that the repercussions of project failures extend beyond immediate financial concerns to encompass broader societal issues. the high rsi values for substandard infrastructure (0.869) and unemployment (0.890) among the general public indicate that failed projects have significant implications for urban development and socioeconomic stability in lagos. the stakeholderspecific analysis revealed that clients are the most severely affected group (overall rsi = 0.856), particularly in terms of financial impacts. however, the general public emerged as the second most impacted group (rsi = 0.847), challenging previous assumptions about the distribution of project failure consequences. contractors and consultants, while less impacted overall, face significant challenges related to reputation damage and operational disruptions. the integration of qualitative insights from interviews provided crucial context to these quantitative findings. the interviews revealed the deepseated psychological impacts of project failures on professionals, the erosion of public trust in urban development initiatives, and the complex blame culture that often hinders learning and improvement in the industry. the findings of this study provide a foundation for several key recommendations aimed at mitigating the impacts of construction project failures in lagos and similar urban contexts, as follows: 1. for policymakers and regulatory bodies, the development and enforcement of more stringent financial oversight mechanisms for construction projects is paramount. this could include mandatory financial health checks at regular project milestones and the implementation of escrow accounts for project funds. additionally, the establishment of a comprehensive database of project failures, their causes, and impacts could serve as a valuable learning tool for the industry and inform future policy decisions. 2. project owners and clients should adopt more robust risk assessment tools that consider not only financial risks, but also societal and environmental impacts of potential project failures. implementing stakeholder engagement strategies that involve the local community throughout the project life cycle is crucial, addressing the high impact on the general public revealed in our findings. lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025114 the use of performance bonds or other financial instruments should be considered to mitigate the risk of contractor default, given the high financial impact on clients identified in the study. 3. for contractors and consultants, developing internal systems for continuous learning from project challenges and nearmisses is essential, addressing the blame culture identified in our interviews. investing in professional development programs that include stress management and resilience training is recommended, considering the psychological toll of project failures revealed in our study. enhanced communication protocols with other stakeholders should be established to ensure early identification and collaborative resolution of potential issues that could lead to project failure. 4. industry associations have a crucial role to play in fostering a culture of learning and improvement. establishing mentorship programs pairing experienced professionals with newcomers can facilitate knowledge sharing on navigating project challenges. regular forums for open discussion of project failures should be organized, promoting a culture of learning rather than blaming. developing industrywide best practices for project risk management, incorporating the insights from this study on the most severe impacts of project failures, would be beneficial for the entire sector. 5. educational institutions can contribute by incorporating case studies of project failures into construction management curricula, emphasizing the multifaceted impacts revealed in this study. developing courses on stakeholder management and community engagement in construction projects would address the significant societal impacts identified and prepare future professionals for the complex realities of urban construction projects. this study has laid the groundwork for several promising avenues of future research. longitudinal studies tracking the impacts of project failures over time could provide insights into how the severity of different impacts evolves and the longterm resilience of various stakeholder groups. extending this research to other rapidly developing urban centers in africa and beyond would allow for comparative analysis to identify common patterns and contextspecific challenges in managing construction project failures. given the insights from conducted interviews on the mental health toll of project failures, a dedicated study on the psychological impacts on construction professionals could yield valuable insights for industry support systems. indepth research on how project failures influence public trust in urban development initiatives, involving surveys and focus groups with community members affected by failed projects, would provide crucial information for improving stakeholder engagement strategies. a detailed economic analysis of how construction project failures impact the broader urban economy, including effects on small businesses and informal sectors, could offer valuable insights for policymakers and urban planners. given the relatively low prioritization of safety impacts in our findings, a focused study on safety culture in the lagos construction industry could provide crucial insights for improving workplace safety. investigating the complex interactions between different stakeholder groups during project failures, focusing on communication patterns and conflict resolution strategies, would enhance our understanding of project dynamics. exploring how the adoption of new technologies (e.g., building information modeling, computer vision, and project management software) influences the likelihood and impacts of project failures could guide technology investment decisions in the industry. while this study provides valuable insights, it is important to acknowledge its limitations. the study was conducted with a sample of 78 respondents, which, while providing significant insights, may not be fully representative of the entire lagos construction industry. future studies could benefit from a larger sample size. the crosssectional nature of the study provides a snapshot of perceptions at a single point in time; a longitudinal approach could offer insights into how perceptions of project failure impacts change over time. despite these limitations, this study provides a solid foundation for understanding the impacts of construction project failures in lagos and offers valuable insights for both practice and future research in the field of construction management in rapidly developing urban contexts. the findings and recommendations lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025115 presented here serve as a starting point for improving project outcomes and mitigating the wideranging impacts of construction project failures in lagos and similar urban environments. references adenuga, o.a., osuizugbo, i.c. and imoesi, i.b. 2022. ‘internal stakeholders’ contribution to building collapse in lagos state, nigeria: a perceptual survey’, civil and sustainable urban engineering, 2(2), pp. 67–81. https://doi. org/10.53623/csue.v2i2.118 ahmed ezzat othman, a. 2014. project failure factors and their impacts on the construction industry: a literature review. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271906893 ahmed, s. 2019. causes and effects of accident at construction site: a study for the construction industry in bangladesh, international journal of sustainable construction engineering and technology, 10(2), pp. 18–40. https://doi. org/10.30880/ijscet.2019.10.02.003 akims, u. and akims, m.a. 2022. building failures in nigeria: causes and measures to mitigate the occurrence, basic and applied research journal, 5(4), pp. 16–22. akoni, o. 2022, december 14. proposed 4th mainland bridge: stakeholders, property owners raise concern over compensation. vanguard news. available at: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/12/proposed-4th-mainland-bridgestakeholders-property-owners-raise-concern-over-compensation/ [accessed 2 october 2024]. alade, t., edelenbos, j. and gianoli, a. 2019. ‘adapting urban light-rail transport to the african context: a process conducted by transport authorities and chinese rail corporations in addis-ababa, abuja, and lagos’, urban science, 3(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci3040109 anthony, n.u. 2013. building failures/collapses and their reputational effect on building industry in nigeria, international journal of science and research. www.ijsr.net arora, s.k. 2023. project failure: a bad communication (case study)’, international journal of management and humanities, 9(5), pp. 5–7. https://doi.org/10.35940/ijmh.e1553.019523 asiedu, r.o. and adaku, e. 2020. ‘cost overruns of public sector construction projects: a developing country perspective’, international journal of managing projects in business, 13(1), pp. 66–84. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ijmpb-09-2018-0177 assaad, r. et al. 2020. enhancing the knowledge of construction business failure: a social network analysis approach. https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001831 assaf, s. et al. 2019. significant causes of claims and disputes in construction projects in saudi arabia’, built environment project and asset management, 9(5), pp. 597–615. https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-09-2018-0113 azil, n.a.s. and jabar, i.l. 2021. a preliminary survey on safety practices at construction site: towards safe environment for public’, journal of tourism, hospitality and environment management, 6(26), pp. 300–310. https://doi. org/10.35631/jthem.626027 bhagat, g. and jha, k.n. 2023. corruption risks in public construction’, journal of legal affairs and dispute resolution in engineering and construction, 15(2). https://doi.org/10.1061/jladah.ladr-936 bikitsha, l. and amoah, c. 2022. assessment of challenges and risk factors influencing the operation of emerging contractors in the gauteng province, south africa’, international journal of construction management, 22(11), pp. 2027– 2036. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1763050 lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025116 https://doi.org/10.53623/csue.v2i2.118 https://doi.org/10.53623/csue.v2i2.118 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271906893 https://doi.org/10.30880/ijscet.2019.10.02.003 https://doi.org/10.30880/ijscet.2019.10.02.003 https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/12/proposed-4th-mainland-bridge-stakeholders-property-owners-raise-concern-over-compensation/ https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/12/proposed-4th-mainland-bridge-stakeholders-property-owners-raise-concern-over-compensation/ https://doi.org/10.3390/urbansci3040109 http://www.ijsr.net https://doi.org/10.35940/ijmh.e1553.019523 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-09-2018-0177 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-09-2018-0177 https://doi.org/10.1061/(asce)co.1943-7862.0001831 https://doi.org/10.1108/bepam-09-2018-0113 https://doi.org/10.35631/jthem.626027 https://doi.org/10.35631/jthem.626027 https://doi.org/10.1061/jladah.ladr-936 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1763050 boadu, e.f., wang, c.c. and sunindijo, r.y. 2020. ‘characteristics of the construction industry in developing countries and its implications for health and safety: an exploratory study in ghana’, international journal of environmental research and public health, 17(11), pp. 1–21. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17114110 bolaji, s. 2023, september 7. lagos’ blue line resurrects jakande’s metro vision. punch newspapers. https://punchng.com/ lagos-blue-line-resurrects-jakandes-metro-vision/ [accessed 2 october 2024]. bowen, p.a., edwards, p.j. and cattell, k. 2012. corruption in the south african construction industry: a thematic analysis of verbatim comments from survey participants, construction management and economics, 30(10), pp. 885– 901. https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2012.711909 campbell, s. et al. 2020. purposive sampling: complex or simple? research case examples, journal of research in nursing, 25(8), pp. 652–661. https://doi.org/10.1177/1744987120927206 casady, c.b. and baxter, d. 2020. ‘pandemics, public-private partnerships (ppps), and force majeure | covid-19 expectations and implications’, construction management and economics, 38(12), pp. 1077–1085. https://doi. org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1817516 damoah, i.s. and akwei, c. 2017. government project failure in ghana: a multidimensional approach, international journal of managing projects in business, 10(1), pp. 32–59. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-02-2016-0017 damoah, i.s., mouzughi, y. and kumi, d.k. 2020. the effects of government construction projects abandonment: stakeholders’ perspective, international journal of construction management, 20(5), pp. 462–479. https://doi.org/10.1080/ 15623599.2018.1486172 deb, r., mitchell, m. and pai, m.m. 2022. (bad) reputation in relational contracting’, theoretical economics, 17(2), pp. 763–800. https://doi.org/10.3982/te4803 el-sayegh, s.m. et al. 2021. ‘risk identification and assessment in sustainable construction projects in the uae’, international journal of construction management, 21(4), pp. 327–336. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1536963 esteki, m., gandomani, t.j. and farsani, h.k. 2020. ‘a risk management framework for distributed scrum using prince2 methodology’, bulletin of electrical engineering and informatics, 9(3), pp. 1299–1310. https://doi.org/10.11591/ eei.v9i3.1905 falana, justina n, ghazaly, n.m. and falana, j n. 2019. examination of causes and effects of accident on construction sites: (case study of lagos, lagos state, nigeria)’, international journal of advanced science and technology, 28(16), pp. 1687–1694. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338083905 fehan, h. and aigbogun, o. 2023. ‘modelling the impact of environmental factors on the performance of construction companies through the lens of institutional pressures’, green building & construction economics, pp. 19–34. https://doi.org/10.37256/gbce.4120232151 gupta, s.k. et al. 2019. systematic literature review of project failures: current trends and scope for future research, computers and industrial engineering, 127, pp. 274–285. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2018.12.002 hadan, h.a.m., andersen, p.h. and de boer, l. 2021. ‘stakeholder collaboration in sustainable neighborhood projects—a review and research agenda’, sustainable cities and society. elsevier ltd. https://doi.org/10.1016/j. scs.2021.102776 hardardottir, u.m. and moller, e. 2023. ‘success factors in construction project management’, sylwan [preprint]. https://doi.org/10.59879/yz9ua hedborg, s. and karrbom gustavsson, t. 2020. ‘developing a neighbourhood: exploring construction projects from a project ecology perspective’, construction management and economics, 38(10), pp. 964–976. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144 6193.2020.1805479 lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025117 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17114110 https://punchng.com/lagos-blue-line-resurrects-jakandes-metro-vision/ https://punchng.com/lagos-blue-line-resurrects-jakandes-metro-vision/ https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2012.711909 https://doi.org/10.1177/1744987120927206 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1817516 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1817516 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-02-2016-0017 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1486172 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1486172 https://doi.org/10.3982/te4803 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1536963 https://doi.org/10.11591/eei.v9i3.1905 https://doi.org/10.11591/eei.v9i3.1905 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/338083905 https://doi.org/10.37256/gbce.4120232151 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2018.12.002 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.102776 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2021.102776 https://doi.org/10.59879/yz9ua https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1805479 https://doi.org/10.1080/01446193.2020.1805479 ibrahim, a. and daniel, c. 2019. project failure and its influence on the performance of construction firms in nigeria, international journal of research in business, economics and management, 3(2). available at: www.ijrbem.com86 johnson, r.m. and babu, r.i.i. 2020. ‘time and cost overruns in the uae construction industry: a critical analysis’, international journal of construction management, 20(5), pp. 402–411. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484864 kaja, n. and goyal, s. 2023. impact of construction activities on environment, international journal of engineering technologies and management research, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.29121/ijetmr.v10.i1.2023.1277 kamal, a. et al. 2022. risk factors influencing the building projects in pakistan: from perspective of contractors, clients and consultants, international journal of construction management, 22(6), pp. 1141–1157. https://doi.org/10.108 0/15623599.2019.1683693 kasim, o.f. 2018. ‘wellness and illness: the aftermath of urban mass housing in lagos, nigeria’, development in practice, 28(7), pp. 952–963. https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2018.1487385 lagos bureau of statistics. 2019. lagos state gdp report: 2019 statistics summary. lagos: lagos bureau of statistics. available at: https://www.lagosstate.gov.ng [accessed 4 october 2023] maddaloni, f. di and sabini, l. 2022. ‘very important, yet very neglected: where do local communities stand when examining social sustainability in major construction projects?’, international journal of project management, 40(7), pp. 778–797. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2022.08.007 manoharan, k. et al. 2023. assessment of critical factors influencing the performance of labour in sri lankan construction industry, international journal of construction management, 23(1), pp. 144–155. https://doi.org/10.1080/15 623599.2020.1854042 mohd fateh, m.a. and yee, t.h. 2021. ‘revisiting the financial issues and the impact to construction projects in malaysia’, malaysian journal of civil engineering, 33(2). https://doi.org/10.11113/mjce.v33.16269 nissen, v. and dittler, j. 2019. measuring and managing the reputation of business consultancies’, in contributions to management science. springer, pp. 103–131. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95999-3_5 nweze, n. 2016. failure of public infrastructure projects in nigeria: causes, effects and solutions’, texila international journal of management, 2(2), pp. 33–43. https://doi.org/10.21522/tijmg.2015.02.02.art004 okagbue, h.i. et al. 2018. systematic review of building failure and collapse in nigeria’, international journal of civil engineering and technology (ijciet), 9(10), pp. 1391–1401. available at: http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/index. asp okereke, o.c. 2017. ‘causes of failure and abandonment of projects and project deliverables in africa’, pm world journal, vi(i), pp. 1–16. available at: www.pmworldlibrary.net olabisi, o. et al. 2023. the influence of artisans on building failure and collapse in nigeria, international journal of innovative science and research technology. available at: www.ijisrt.com1266 olawale, o. et al. 2022. project reputation in construction: a process-based perspective of construction practitioners in the uk’, international journal of construction management, 22(12), pp. 2267–2278. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2 020.1783598 omopariola, e.d. et al. 2020. contractors’ perceptions of the effects of cash flow on construction projects, journal of engineering, design and technology, 18(2), pp. 308–325. https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2019-0099 osei-kyei, r. et al. 2023. ‘review of risk management studies in public-private partnerships: a scientometric analysis’, international journal of construction management, 23(14), pp. 2419–2430. https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2063 013 lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025118 http://www.ijrbem.com86 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2018.1484864 https://doi.org/10.29121/ijetmr.v10.i1.2023.1277 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1683693 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2019.1683693 https://doi.org/10.1080/09614524.2018.1487385 https://www.lagosstate.gov.ng https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijproman.2022.08.007 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1854042 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1854042 https://doi.org/10.11113/mjce.v33.16269 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95999-3_5 https://doi.org/10.21522/tijmg.2015.02.02.art004 http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/index.asp http://www.iaeme.com/ijciet/index.asp http://www.pmworldlibrary.net http://www.ijisrt.com1266 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1783598 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2020.1783598 https://doi.org/10.1108/jedt-04-2019-0099 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2063013 https://doi.org/10.1080/15623599.2022.2063013 pant, r. et al. 2018. critical infrastructure impact assessment due to flood exposure’, in journal of flood risk management. blackwell publishing inc., pp. 22–33. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12288 park, j.e. 2021. ‘schedule delays of major projects: what should we do about it?’, transport reviews, 41(6), pp. 814–832. https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2021.1915897 perannagari, k.t. and chakrabarti, s. 2020. factors influencing acceptance of augmented reality in retail: insights from thematic analysis, international journal of retail and distribution management, pp. 18–34. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ijrdm-02-2019-0063 prebanić, k.r. and vukomanović, m. 2023. ‘exploring stakeholder engagement process as the success factor for infrastructure projects’, buildings, 13(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13071785 rahman, i.a. et al. 2022. structural relationship of causes and effects of construction changes: case of uae construction, sustainability (switzerland), 14(2). https://doi.org/10.3390/su14020596 rashid, y. 2020. analysis of delay factors and their effects on construction projects’, management science letters, 10(6), pp. 1197–1204. https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2019.11.039 sanni-anibire, m.o. et al. 2020. ‘a risk assessment approach for enhancing construction safety performance’, safety science, 121, pp. 15–29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.08.044 shahhosseini, v., afshar, m.r. and amiri, o. 2018. the root causes of construction project failure’, scientia iranica, 25(1), pp. 93–108. https://doi.org/10.24200/sci.2017.4178 shoar, s., chileshe, n. and payan, s. 2022. assessment of the causes and effects of design deficiencies for large construction projects using social network analysis’, international journal of managing projects in business, 15(2), pp. 371–395. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-03-2021-0065 suleiman, a. et al. 2023. addressing the causes and effects of poor communication in the jordanian construction industry: a study on improving project performance’, civil and environmental engineering, 19(1), pp. 156–166. https://doi.org/10.2478/cee-2023-0014 taber, k.s. 2018. the use of cronbach’s alpha when developing and reporting research instruments in science education’, research in science education, 48(6), pp. 1273–1296. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9602-2 tijani, b., jin, x.h. and osei-kyei, r. 2023. pestel analysis of mental health management of project management practitioners (pmps) in architecture, engineering and construction (aec) project organization, smart and sustainable built environment, 12(5), pp. 1002–1030. https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-04-2022-0074 timothy ibironke, o. et al. 2013. analysis of non-excusable delay factors influencing contractors’ performance in lagos state, nigeria, journal of construction in developing countries. ullah, n., islam showrav, i. and masrur eram, m. 2023. effects of project failure towards stakeholders: a review of literature. wojewnik-filipkowska, a. et al. 2021. ‘obstacles and challenges in applying stakeholder analysis to infrastructure projects: is there a gap between stakeholder theory and practice?’, journal of property investment and finance, 39(3), pp. 199–222. https://doi.org/10.1108/jpif-03-2019-0037 wu, g., hu, z. and zheng, j. 2019. role stress, job burnout, and job performance in construction project managers: the moderating role of career calling’, international journal of environmental research and public health, 16(13). https://doi. org/10.3390/ijerph16132394 yang, j. and cheng, q. 2020. the impact of organizational resilience on construction project success: evidence from large-scale construction in china’, journal of civil engineering and management, 26(8), pp. 775–788. https://doi. org/10.3846/jcem.2020.13796 lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025119 https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12288 https://doi.org/10.1080/01441647.2021.1915897 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijrdm-02-2019-0063 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijrdm-02-2019-0063 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings13071785 https://doi.org/10.3390/su14020596 https://doi.org/10.5267/j.msl.2019.11.039 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssci.2019.08.044 https://doi.org/10.24200/sci.2017.4178 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijmpb-03-2021-0065 https://doi.org/10.2478/cee-2023-0014 https://doi.org/10.1007/s11165-016-9602-2 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-04-2022-0074 https://doi.org/10.1108/jpif-03-2019-0037 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16132394 https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16132394 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2020.13796 https://doi.org/10.3846/jcem.2020.13796 yap, j.b.h. et al. 2021. ‘revisiting critical delay factors for construction: analysing projects in malaysia’, alexandria engineering journal, 60(1), pp. 1717–1729. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2020.11.021 zwikael, o., meredith, j. r., and smyrk, j. 2019. the responsibilities of the project owner in benefits realization. international journal of operations & production management, 39(4), 503-524. https://doi.org/10.1108/ ijopm-02-2018-0086 lan et al. construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 3/4 december 2025120 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aej.2020.11.021 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijopm-02-2018-0086 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijopm-02-2018-0086 construction economics and building vol. 25, no. 2 july 2025 © 2025 by the author(s). this is an open access article distributed under the terms of the creative commons attribution 4.0 international (cc by 4.0) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/4.0/), allowing third parties to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, provided the original work is properly cited and states its license. citation: ogunmakinde, o. e. 2025. achieving zero waste: circular economy strategies in australian higher education. construction economics and building, 25:2, 1–23. https:// doi.org/10.5130/ajceb. v25i2.9131 issn 2204-9029 | published by uts epress | https://epress. lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index. php/ajceb research article achieving zero waste: circular economy strategies in australian higher education olabode emmanuel ogunmakinde school of engineering and technology, central queensland university, brisbane, qld 4000, australia corresponding author: olabode emmanuel ogunmakinde, o.ogunmakinde@cqu.edu.au doi: https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9131 article history: received 08/05/2024; revised 05/04/2025; accepted 28/04/2025; published 08/08/2025 abstract the circular economy concept, which aims to minimise waste and make the most of resources, has gained global traction as a sustainable alternative to the traditional linear economy. in recent years, australian universities have increasingly adopted these principles to align with global sustainability goals to reduce environmental impact, enhance resource efficiency, and foster a culture of sustainability within their communities. this study examined the implementation of circular economy protocols in australian universities to achieve zero waste and promote sustainable practices. specifically, it assessed universities’ commitment to circular economy strategies, waste reduction, resource optimisation, and the net-zero agenda. the research involved a systematic literature review of 70 sources from 2012 to 2022. text mining techniques, including co-occurrence analysis, were applied to a secondary dataset to reveal the relationships between circular economy principles and universities, thereby enhancing our understanding of these connections. emergent themes centred on sustainability-oriented economic models like circular and sharing economies. the analysis underscored the importance of sustainability, collaboration, and locality in achieving waste minimisation goals. significantly, there was an overlap between circular economy principles and the united nations’ sustainable development goals (sdgs). universities showed a growing commitment to these goals through sustainable practices. region-specific strategies, dynamic collaborations, and community engagement played key roles in waste minimisation. the adoption of sustainable economic models, including the circular economy, was prominent. in conclusion, the study provides insights into universities’ 1 declaration of conflicting interest the author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. funding the author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9131 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9131 https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9131 https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb https://epress.lib.uts.edu.au/journals/index.php/ajceb mailto:o.ogunmakinde@cqu.edu.au https://doi.org/10.5130/ajceb.v25i2.9131 roles in waste reduction, resource optimisation, and supporting the transition to a net-zero, circular economy. keywords australian universities; circular economy; natural language processing; sustainable development goals; zero waste introduction the circular economy (ce) represents a systemic shift that builds long-term resilience, generates business and economic opportunities, and provides environmental and societal benefits (rocca, veneziani and carini, 2023). the premise of a circular economy is to minimise waste and make the most of resources, consequently reducing the environmental impact and generating value from what was once considered waste. higher education institutions, including universities, are emerging as key stakeholders in this transition, given their role in fostering knowledge, innovation, and societal transformation (serrano-bedia and perez-perez, 2022). universities are incorporating the principles of ce in their curriculum and implementing them in their operations. however, the shift towards a circular economy within universities is not without challenges. key issues revolve around budget constraints, particularly in public schools, where the influx of students and the relative stagnation of funding sources pose considerable problems (dieleman and martínez-rodríguez, 2019). implementing ce requires understanding the entire systemic level, requiring the cooperation and integration of various stakeholders, such as businesses, consumers, and governments. this broad cooperation can often be complex and challenging to manage (serrano-bedia and perez-perez, 2022). additionally, universities must address the competitive environment of higher education institutions and successfully navigate the need for sustainable transformation while ensuring their reputation and academic excellence (maruyama, et al., 2019). overall, the journey to a circular economy within universities is fraught with complexities, but it also holds the potential for profound change and progress towards a sustainable future. emphasising the urgent need for transformations in waste management, researchers have delineated the prospect of aligning the australian construction and demolition waste management system with the principles of the circular economy (shooshtarian, et al., 2022). a similar paradigm shift has been advocated in other sectors. for instance, regional economies in australia have begun to adopt circular economy practices, pointing to the nascent and broadening interest in this area (fleischmann, 2019). moreover, circular economy-oriented actions are not confined to the industrial and business sectors. australian universities have committed to a circular economy and net-zero emissions (study australia, 2023). these trends indicate a wider acceptance and implementation of the circular economy framework in diverse australian sectors. in light of these, digital technologies have been recognised as integral in guiding circular economy practices towards achieving net-zero emissions. this aligns with the view that net-zero cities and circular economy strategies offer multiple avenues for cities to fully realise a net-zero future. the intertwined nature of the circular economy and net zero suggests that progress in one area can have positive spillover effects on the other. furthermore, it has been highlighted within academia that universities can contribute to the energy transition and circular economy principles (cahill, 2021). universities like monash university have established net-zero initiatives, embodying circular economy principles to prioritise the transition to sustainability, which is in line with their strategic plan (impact 2030) and environmental, social, and governance (esg) statement. the aim of this study was to investigate the implementation of circular economy protocols in australian universities, with a focus on achieving zero waste and promoting sustainable practices. this includes assessing universities’ commitment to circular economy strategies, waste reduction, resource optimisation, ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 20252 and the net-zero agenda, using text mining techniques and co-occurrence analysis to elucidate the relationships between these principles and higher education institutions. literature review australia’s net-zero agenda and the position of universities the net-zero agenda in australia, a response to the global call for climate change mitigation, signals the nation’s commitment to drastically reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to achieve carbon neutrality (bernecker, et al., 2022). this transition to net zero is intended to realise environmental sustainability, economic resilience, and social justice. australian universities hold a critical role in successfully executing this agenda, not only as educational institutions shaping future generations but also as leading research centres and significant operational entities with substantial carbon footprints. the transition towards a netzero future presents various challenges that require innovative solutions, many of which can be conceived within university campuses. from establishing net-zero programs to pioneering green energy strategies, universities across australia have been at the forefront of transitioning to a low-carbon future (hull, 2023). for instance, as part of its ambitious m-program, monash university aims to transform its campuses into net-zero spaces, showcasing its pioneering position in urban planning and sustainable practices. the netzero commitment also extends beyond operational transformations. for example, the australian national university has pledged to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2025 and has revised its travel policies to promote sustainability (anub zero, 2022). this illustrates how universities are embedding sustainability into their governance and policy-making processes. furthermore, universities are crucial in generating research and knowledge on climate change and sustainability, significantly influencing policy pathways towards a net zero-carbon-built environment (prasad, et al., 2023). the academic community is also studying the implications of net-zero emission targets on organisational practices and financial markets, underlining the breadth of this agenda’s impact (parashar, 2023). australian universities are actively engaging in and contributing to the national net-zero agenda. australian universities lead by example, innovate in their operations, and provide valuable insights through their research. the societal position affords them a privileged platform for leading and facilitating change (hull, 2023). in their capacity as education providers, research hubs, and large-scale operational entities, universities are primed to implement effective strategies that align with the net-zero ambition. notably, their actions are not limited to energy use or operational modifications. consequently, universities are revising policies in broader areas, such as university-related travel, reflecting their commitment to overarching sustainability (anub zero, 2022). collaborative research, inter-university cooperation, and alliances with governments and private sectors are vital to the universities’ approach. these partnerships promote sharing best practices, drive systemic change, and add value through a net-zero energy strategy (roche, et al., 2022). universities’ research also provides a foundational understanding of the economic, social, and environmental implications of transitioning to a net-zero future, thus informing policy pathways and driving critical discourse (prasad, et al., 2023; parashar, 2023). undoubtedly, universities are instrumental in ensuring that australia’s netzero agenda is successful. through their actions, universities reduce their carbon footprint and influence the behaviour and attitudes of their students, staff, and wider communities. australian universities form a crucial nexus of knowledge, innovation, and action, pushing boundaries and exploring novel pathways to sustainability. thus, the journey to net zero offers a unique opportunity for australian universities to further their mission of creating a positive societal impact and preparing future generations for a sustainable, lowcarbon world. ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 20253 circular economy strategies in australia the importance of a circular economy for resource optimisation and waste reduction aligns with the united nations’ sustainability agenda through the sustainable development goal (sdg) 11 (moghayedi, et al., 2021). the circular economy aligns with sustainability principles by espousing the judicious use and reuse of resources, with the construction industry playing a pivotal role in such implementation (osobajo, et al., 2022). nonetheless, the interplay between systems thinking and continuous improvement in this sector is worth noting, underlining the need for a holistic, not fragmented, approach (omotayo, et al., 2020). the circular economy should not be viewed as a panacea for all environmental woes but considered part of a broader sustainability strategy. additionally, the management of post-consumer waste, as depicted by oke, et al. (2021), presents a key area in which the circular economy can concretely manifest. however, this necessitates an understanding and adaptation to consumer sentiments. the review of sustainability performance reporting by osobajo, et al. (2022) underscores the importance of consistent, critical evaluation and transparency for continuous improvement in sustainability and circular economy strategies. embarking on a circular economy necessitates a holistic transformation, incorporating far-reaching modifications to business frameworks, supply chains, and financial systems. this transition is underpinned by inventive thought and a collaborative ethos shared by the entirety of the university community, including students, teaching and administrative personnel, stakeholders, and wider society (maruyama, et al., 2019). furthermore, the task for universities to incorporate principles and practices associated with the circular economy into their academic syllabi has emerged. this undertaking calls for a novel pedagogical model that advocates for sustainable cognition and the real-world application of circular economy tenets (serranobedia and perez-perez, 2022). by doing so, higher education institutions can play a critical role in equipping future generations with the necessary skills and knowledge to address a world marked by limited resources and assist in hastening the transition towards a more sustainable economic and social framework (rocca, veneziani and carini, 2023). while the transition towards a circular economy provides an attractive solution to the sustainability hurdles facing universities, the shift itself is an intricate process requiring significant dedication, resource distribution, and a cultural revolution. however, this move to a circular economy presents an exceptional opportunity for universities to spearhead sustainability endeavours and contribute substantially to a more environmentally friendly and sustainable future. when scrutinising the incorporation of circular economy strategies within australia, it is evident that numerous potential advantages are on offer. nevertheless, the journey to realising these benefits is filled with obstacles and intricacies. this section critically dissects these strategies, particularly emphasising the construction industry—a major contributor to waste—and the broader australian economy. adopting a circular economy within the australian construction and demolition waste management system is critical. shooshtarian, et al. (2022) proposed the less of waste, more of resources (lowmor), a model premised on circular economy principles, to steer the analysis of pertinent australian literature. the model underscores waste reduction, reuse, and recycling, aiming to minimise the environmental footprint of construction activities. however, it is essential to confront the barriers impeding the successful introduction of the circular economy model in this sector, such as regulatory constraints, market deficiencies, and a lack of awareness and education. simultaneously, efforts to incorporate circular economy principles are discernible across the wider australian economy. halog, et al. (2021) charted the evolution and insights gleaned from circular economy strategies in australia, accentuating the need for a deeper introspection into australia’s potential. notably, the shift towards a circular economy model has not been uniform across different sectors, which is a testament to each industry’s complexity and distinct nature. shooshtarian, et al. (2023) investigated the hindrances and catalysts influencing the circular economy within australia’s architecture, engineering, and construction (aec) industry. they underlined the necessity to confront technical, economic, and behavioural barriers to the circular economy. the authors advocated ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 20254 for policy interventions and industry development activities suitably tailored to the specific context of the australian aec industry. circular economy strategies in australia span various sectors and engage diverse stakeholders. acknowledging and addressing the unique challenges posed to each sector, harnessing their potential, and devising contextually appropriate strategies are paramount. the shift towards a circular economy requires a systemic approach, integrating policy, practice, and societal behavioural modifications to accomplish sustainability. incorporating circular economy strategies in australia is a promising yet multifaceted endeavour. the challenges may be numerous, but the potential benefits are equally substantial. overcoming the barriers to a circular economy requires strategic planning, robust policy support, industry collaboration, educational initiatives, and a commitment to perpetual learning and adaptation. waste reduction and resource optimisation for circular economy in australian universities in light of the global call for sustainability, australian universities are shifting focus towards the principles of a circular economy, particularly in waste reduction and resource optimisation. universities can drive a circular economy and improve resource sustainability through engagement with the waste management and resource recovery sector (shooshtarian, et al., 2022). however, examining how these engagements are being materialised and the inherent challenges posed by this paradigm shift is critical. although australian universities are posited as crucial actors in the circular economy, there is a dearth of detailed studies on integrating circular economy principles into their operational and strategic frameworks. it is not merely enough to advocate for waste reduction and resource optimisation; specific, actionable strategies must be developed and implemented. furthermore, the benefits of university–industry engagement in driving the circular economy must be systematically evaluated and optimised. given australia’s mineral-rich landscape, the mining industry’s role in a circular economy is particularly noteworthy. although lèbre, corder and golev (2017) proposed a framework for resource management at the mine site level, the application of such strategies within australian universities remains underexplored. mining-related courses could incorporate circular economy principles to prepare future professionals for sustainable resource management, thereby optimising mineral utilisation. universities could learn from their innovative practices, such as using solar-powered energy systems, to reduce resource consumption and enhance campus sustainability. while australian universities have begun to embrace the circular economy’s principles, there is still significant scope for improvement. systemic changes, cross-sectoral collaboration, and a critical reassessment of current practices are necessary to achieve sustainability in waste reduction and resource optimisation. implementing a circular economy within the sustainable development of universities in australia necessitates multi-level thinking, including innovations in housing and construction, incentivisation for green practices, and effective waste management. however, the aspiration for a circular economy must be tempered with realistic expectations, aligned with broader sustainability strategies, and supported by comprehensive, transparent reporting mechanisms. through these multifaceted approaches, a circular economy can be optimised, delivering its full potential for environmental sustainability and continuous improvement in the built environment. thus, the text mining approach would be applied to ensure that lessons from other universities globally are extracted for australian universities as a contribution to knowledge. natural language processing: text mining for circular economy research the adoption of text mining in big data analytics has transformed how researchers and practitioners interpret large amounts of unstructured data, fundamentally altering the landscape of knowledge discovery (hassani, et al., 2020). nevertheless, it is paramount to acknowledge the intricacies and constraints associated with its deployment. feldman and sanger (2007) noted that the architecture of text mining ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 20255 systems may be bound by constraints, which can impact the potential outcomes. ignatow and mihalcea (2016) extensively surveyed text mining tools, elucidating the benefits, drawbacks, and suitability for specific research questions and data types. such a nuanced understanding can guide the apt application of text mining in diverse contexts. o’mara-eves, et al. (2015) advocated for applying text mining to identify themes in systematic reviews, albeit acknowledging the nuances associated with the process. text mining provides a powerful tool in big data analytics. its implementation necessitates a keen awareness of its limitations and appropriate usage contexts, thereby ensuring the delivery of insightful and accurate analyses. among text mining techniques, natural language processing (nlp) is exceptional for its in-depth analysis and interpretation of human language. unlike the common keyword-based methods, which utilise precise matches and may neglect context, nlp employs machine learning and linguistic principles to determine the meaning of words, phrases, and sentences (khan, et al., 2023). this enables more precise entity identification, topic modelling, and sentiment analysis ( jim, et al., 2024). nlp models may automatically learn from big datasets, improving over time compared to statistical techniques (gudivada, rao and raghavan, 2015). overall, nlp’s capacity to manage ambiguity, context, and the nuance of human language makes it a better option for drawing significant insights from text. the application of capability maturity modelling for circular economy implementation the concept of the capability maturity model (cmm), originally applied in information technology fields, has been extended to shed light on the implementation of the circular economy (howard, et al., 2018). this adoption is an innovative methodological approach and underscores the potential for interdisciplinary dialogue to address complex sustainability challenges. the development of the ce cmm provides a new lens to understand how organisations evolve their practices towards more sustainable production and consumption patterns (miemczyk, carbone and howard, 2022). the multi-level perspective offered by this model is a nuanced approach that recognises the factors at the individual, organisational, and systems levels that play a crucial role in successfully implementing ce principles. similarly, brendzel-skowera (2021) engaged with the concept of organisational maturity concerning the circular economy, particularly within the small and medium enterprises (sme) sector. the study contributes valuable insights into the practical application of the circular economy, especially within an organisational context traditionally seen as less equipped to engage with sustainable innovation. furthermore, the application of the cmm and systems thinking has also been highlighted in the construction industry, demonstrating its relevance for continuous improvement (omotayo, et al., 2020). in another study by omotayo and kulatunga (2017), an idef0based continuous improvement framework was proposed for post-contract cost control, underscoring the potential of these approaches for strategic realignment and process improvement. research aim incorporating the cmm in the sphere of the circular economy portends a significant step forward in operationalising the principles of sustainable development in diverse sectors and not only universities. this research highlights holistic and multi-level perspectives that acknowledge the dynamic interplay between various elements within complex systems of circularity in university campuses for implementation in australian universities. to reduce the typologies of circularity for a cmm, text mining analysis would be deployed as part of the natural language processing approach. method and materials figure 1 illustrates the flowchart of the methodological process employed in this study. the research was conducted to scrutinise the interplay of australian universities in the facilitation of ce strategies, ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 20256 waste reduction and resource optimisation, and their stance on the net-zero agenda through a qualitative secondary data approach. a systematic review of the literature published from 2012 to 2022 used the keywords in table 1. the 70 peer-reviewed articles, conference papers, books, and chapters were extracted as full text. the publications concentrated on the circular economy and related aspects within the context of australian universities. the data were compiled from scopus academic databases. the exclusion criteria, as presented in table 2, were established to filter out non-peer-reviewed reports, opinion pieces, dissertation news articles, and publications over a decade old. a co-occurrence analysis was conducted in rstudio to understand the relationships between various terms within the dataset. this process involved calculating co-occurrence counts and statistics, visualising the results using dendrograms, and performing significance testing. systematic review of literature inclusion criteria exclusion criteria article identification final selection = 70 data analysis end start figure 1. methodological flowchart. source: author’s own (2024) table 1. keywords used in publication search. subtopic keywords australia’s net-zero agenda and the position of universities “net zero” or “climate change mitigation” or “carbon neutrality” or “greenhouse gas emissions” or “sustainable practices” or “low-carbon future” or “operational transformation” and circular economy strategies in australian universities “australian universities” and “circular economy” or “resource consumption” or “reduce, reuse, recycle” or “structural changes” or “supply chains” or “economic systems” or “sustainable thinking” or “educational model” or “resourceconstrained world” or “sustainability initiatives” and waste reduction and resource optimisation in australian universities “waste reduction” or “resource optimisation” or “waste management” or “resource recovery” or “sustainability” or “operational frameworks” or “strategic frameworks” ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 20257 table 2. inclusion and exclusion criteria for the data search. criteria inclusion exclusion publication type peer-reviewed articles, conference papers, books, book chapters, theses, and dissertations. news articles, non-academic reports, and opinion pieces. time span articles published in 2012–2022. articles published more than 10 years ago. language articles published in english. articles published in other languages. subject matter studies focusing on circular economy, waste reduction, resource optimisation, net-zero agenda, and text mining and capability maturity modelling in the context of australian universities. studies not relevant to the specific context of australian universities or not related to the specified subject matter. methodology quantitative, qualitative, and mixedmethod studies. studies without a clear methodology or substantial evidence supporting their claims. geographic location studies conducted in australia, specifically targeting australian universities. studies conducted outside australia or not specifically targeting australian universities. access studies that are accessible in full text. studies for which only abstracts or summaries are available. quality studies that have undergone rigorous peer review and have been published in reputable academic journals. studies with poor methodological quality or published in low-impactfactor journals. table 2 outlines the selection criteria for the studies used in the research. the inclusion criteria target scholarly publications from 2012 to 2022 in english, focusing on the circular economy and related subjects, specifically in the context of australian universities. these publications must offer full access, emanate from australia, and have undergone rigorous peer review. the exclusion criteria discard news articles, non-academic reports, older studies, publications in languages other than english, studies irrelevant to the defined subjects, those lacking a clear methodology, studies conducted outside australia or not specifically targeting australian universities, and studies with poor methodological quality. with 18 publications, as indicated in figure 2, australia leads the academic discourse on the circular economy and sustainable practices in universities, contributing to 14.2% of the selected works. the united kingdom and spain, with 12 and 10 publications, respectively, contribute 17.4% of the studies. the united states (eight publications) and malaysia (five publications) account for 10.3% of the total works, while other nations like belgium, brazil, canada, china, the netherlands, and south africa, each with four publications, collectively comprise 15.9%. the remaining countries collectively contribute 42.2% of the total publications, affirming the widespread global interest in this topic. ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 20258 analysis text mining through co-occurrence using rstudio, the co-occurrence of keywords on the circular economy and australian universities was conducted (see appendix a). the r script used to perform a text mining and analysis task followed the following steps: step 1. load packages: the code loads the necessary r packages for text analysis, network analysis, and visualisation. step 2. activate klippy: klippy::klippy() activates a copy-to-clipboard button, which can be handy for copying results or data to the clipboard. step 3. load files: it reads in a word document using the read_docx function from the officer package. then, it extracts the summary of contents from the document. step 4. read text: it extracts the paragraphs from the content and then accesses the actual text. it then cleans the text by squishing multiple spaces into single spaces and removing all “-”. step 5. tokenisation: it splits the text into individual words (tokens) using the tidytext::unnest_tokens function. step 6. create data frame: it creates a data frame of bigrams, which are pairs of words that appear together, and counts their frequencies. step 7. define stopwords: it defines stopwords, words that are to be ignored in the text analysis. step 8. clean bigram table and corpus: it cleans the bigram table and corpus by removing the stopwords. step 9. tokenise corpus: it tokenises the cleaned corpus and extracts the bigrams. step 10. text processing: it squishes the sentences, removes punctuation and non-word characters, and squishes spaces again. step 11. corpus construction: this step entails the formation of a corpus derived from the refined sentences. step 12. supplementary purification: this phase involves the further sanitisation of the corpus by eradicating punctuation and numerical values, converting all text to lowercase, and excising additional specific words. figure 2. distribution of publications used in the text mining analysis. source: author’s own (2024) ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 20259 step 13. development of document-term matrix: this step engenders a document-term matrix (dtm), a mathematical matrix that portrays the frequency of term occurrences within a compendium of documents. step 14. computation of co-occurrence tally: this stage calculates the co-occurrence tally, revealing the frequency with which terms appear jointly within a document. step 15. co-occurrence metrics: during this stage, the computation of co-occurrence statistics for a specific term occurs. this process aids in comprehending the context in which the term is used. step 16. visualisation of findings: this phase involves the visual representation of results using various plotting styles, such as dendrograms. step 17. testing for significance: the final step involves conducting significance tests to ascertain whether the observed co-occurrences are of statistical significance. one of the primary methods to quantify co-occurrence or association between two or more terms is to calculate the pointwise mutual information (pmi). pmi is a measure of association used in information theory and statistics. the formula is given as follows: pmi(x, y) = log [p(x, y)/(p(x) * p(y))] (1) p(x, y) is the probability of both words x and y occurring together. p(x) and p(y) are the probabilities of words x and y occurring independently. the probability of a word occurring in a text could be calculated by integrating all the positions in the text where the word could occur, normalised by the total length of the text: p(x) = ∫ dx/l (2) dx represents an infinitesimal segment of the text where the word x occurs. l is the total length of the text. the joint probability of two words occurring together could be calculated by integrating over all the pairs of positions in the text where the words could occur together, normalised by the total number of such pairs: p(x, y) = ∫ dx dy/(l^2) (3) dx and dy represent infinitesimal text segments where x and y occur, respectively. l is the total length of the text. these formulas are somewhat abstract and not directly used in practice, as in real-world applications, we generally count the occurrences and co-occurrences directly rather than integrate them over the text. the natural logarithm (ln) was used in the pmi calculation instead of the base-2 logarithm (log2) to maintain consistency with the statistical methods employed throughout the analysis. although the base-2 logarithm is commonly used in information theory and nlp applications (pantel and lin, 2002; martin and jurafsky, 2009), the choice of logarithmic base does not affect the relative ranking of pmi values. the logarithmic base merely scales the results without altering their comparative significance. consequently, the findings of this research remain consistent, as the relationship between the terms in the analysis is preserved across varying logarithmic bases. co-occurrence analysis through text mining co-occurrence tables and dendrograms are statistical tools that allow researchers to understand and visualise relationships between different terms or variables within a dataset. a co-occurrence table displays how frequently certain terms appear together in a dataset. this table often includes additional metrics like phi (φ), a measure of association between two terms, and chi-squared (χ2), which tests the independence of ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202510 two terms. a higher φ-value indicates a stronger relationship, while a higher χ2-value signifies a stronger divergence from expected independent frequencies. “coocterm” refers to the term that co-occurs with the main term, while “termcoocfreq” is the frequency of their co-occurrence. a dendrogram is a treelike diagram used to illustrate the arrangement of the clusters produced by hierarchical clustering. each branch of the dendrogram represents a cluster, and the height of the branch indicates the distance (or dissimilarity) between clusters. reading a dendrogram starts from the “leaves” and moves towards the “root”. the more closely connected the “leaves”, the more similar they are. therefore, both tools provide insight into relationships within data, aiding in identifying patterns, similarities, or differences that may not be immediately apparent from raw data. in the context of the “economy” (figure 3), the most significant co-occurring terms include “circular”, “sharing”, “material”, “sdgs” (sustainable development goals), and “achievement”. each of these terms is statistically significant (p < .001) and indicates a higher-than-expected frequency of co-occurrence with the term “economy”. this may point towards a shift in economic discourse towards sustainability and resource efficiency, with the high occurrence of “circular” and “sharing” suggesting increased interest in circular and sharing economy models, respectively. “material” could be connected to discussions around material usage and efficiency, while “sdgs” suggests a focus on sustainable development. finally, “achievement” may indicate attention to achieving these sustainability-oriented economic goals. regarding the “university” context (figure 4), the terms “partnerships”, “australian”, “sustainability”, “community”, and “author” occur significantly more often (p < .001). this may imply universities’ increasing focus on sustainability and collaborative work or partnerships. the high association of “australian” with “university” could reflect an australian context or a specific focus on australian universities. “community” may refer to the university figure 3. dendrogram for the circular economy co-occurrence context. source: author’s own (2024) ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202511 community or the broader local community where universities operate. the co-occurrence with “author” may suggest the importance of individual authors in university discourse or research outputs. these combinations suggest emerging themes around sustainable development, resource efficiency, and collaboration in both the economy and university sectors, with potential regional distinctions. figure 4. dendrogram for the university co-occurrence. source: author’s own (2024) in terms of emerging themes within the context of “economy”, the dominance of terms like “circular”, “sharing”, and “material” underscores a growing interest in sustainability-oriented economic models. the circular economy is a system aimed at minimising waste and making the most of resources. conversely, the sharing economy is a socio-economic system built around sharing human and physical resources. the term “material” may indicate discussions around material science or material efficiency in this circular and sharing economy paradigm. the term “sdgs” stands for sustainable development goals, suggesting a growing concern about integrating these global goals into economic policy and practice. the co-occurrence of “achievement” could refer to the measurement or attainment of these goals. on the “university” side, “partnerships” hints at an increased emphasis on collaborative work, possibly towards a shared goal such as achieving the sdgs. “australian” may signify specific studies or policies related to australian universities or suggest a geographic focus on this region. “sustainability” underscores the increased role of universities in promoting sustainable practices and education. “community” may indicate a growing awareness of universities’ roles and responsibilities to local communities. lastly, “author” may focus on individual academic contributions or indicate the university’s role in producing scholarly work. the data suggest that the “economy” and “university” sectors are becoming increasingly intertwined with themes of sustainability, ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202512 table 3. co-occurrence statistics. term coocterm term coocfreq coocfreq p χ2 phi significance circular economy economy circular 12 244 0.00 234 0.03 p < .001 economy sharing 6 78 0.00 172.6 0.03 p < .001 economy material 8 286 0.00 78.7 0.02 p < .001 economy sdgs 7 319 0.00 50.4 0.02 p < .001 economy achievement 5 131 0.00 64.4 0.02 p < .001 economy competence 4 68 0.00 78.3 0.02 p < .001 economy core 4 120 0.00 41.5 0.01 p < .001 economy flow 4 148 0.00 32.5 0.01 p < .001 economy goals 5 305 0.00 23.1 0.01 p < .001 economy features 3 100 0.00 24.8 0.01 p < .01 economy measuring 2 34 0.00 28.4 0.01 p < .01 economy cycle 3 166 0.01 13.2 0.01 p < .01 economy advantage 2 70 0.01 12.3 0.01 p < .01 economy resource 3 214 0.01 9.3 0.01 p < .05 economy distinctive 2 77 0.01 11 0.01 p < .05 economy greenhouse 5 696 0.02 6.2 0.01 p < .05 economy gas 5 728 0.02 5.7 0.01 p < .05 economy productivity 2 105 0.02 7.4 0.01 p < .05 economy climate 6 1,010 0.02 5.3 0.01 p < .05 economy development 8 1,600 0.02 5 0.01 p < .05 economy regulators 1 11 0.02 9.8 0.01 p < .05 economy opportunities 2 112 0.02 6.7 0.01 p < .05 economy sustainable 9 1,945 0.02 4.7 0 p < .05 economy decarbonisation 1 12 0.03 8.9 0.01 p < .05 economy initiating 1 13 0.03 8.1 0.01 p < .05 economy optimise 1 16 0.03 6.4 0.01 p < .05 economy cultural 2 135 0.03 5.2 0.01 p < .05 economy establishing 1 18 0.04 5.6 0.01 p < .05 economy mediating 1 21 0.04 4.7 0 p < .05 economy guidelines 1 21 0.04 4.7 0 p < .05 ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202513 term coocterm term coocfreq coocfreq p χ2 phi significance economy educations 1 22 0.05 4.4 0 p < .05 economy guidances 1 22 0.05 4.4 0 p < .05 economy emissions 5 914 0.05 3.4 0 p < .05 economy embrace 1 23 0.05 4.2 0 p < .05 economy author 4 640 0.05 3.4 0 p < .05 university university partnerships 5 62 0.00 58.9 0.02 p < .001 university australian 8 236 0.00 35.5 0.01 p < .001 university sustainability 27 2,308 0.00 21.3 0.01 p < .001 university community 7 253 0.00 22.8 0.01 p < .001 university author 11 640 0.00 17.8 0.01 p < .001 university case 7 274 0.00 20.2 0.01 p < .001 university student 9 455 0.00 18.1 0.01 p < .001 university service 6 207 0.00 20.2 0.01 p < .001 university initiatives 8 392 0.00 16.6 0.01 p < .001 university students 8 451 0.00 13 0.01 p < .01 university studying 2 14 0.00 30.3 0.01 p < .01 university organic 4 117 0.00 15.2 0.01 p < .01 university campus 9 591 0.00 11.2 0.01 p < .01 university satisfaction 4 120 0.00 14.7 0.01 p < .01 university garden 4 123 0.00 14.2 0.01 p < .01 university mobility 5 206 0.00 12.3 0.01 p < .01 university course 4 130 0.00 13.1 0.01 p < .01 university qualitative 5 214 0.00 11.6 0.01 p < .01 university component 3 69 0.00 14.1 0.01 p < .01 university campuses 3 71 0.01 13.6 0.01 p < .01 university perceived 4 162 0.01 9.4 0.01 p < .01 university modest 2 30 0.01 12.7 0.01 p < .01 university collected 3 90 0.01 9.8 0.01 p < .01 university provision 2 32 0.01 11.7 0.01 p < .05 university unusual 2 40 0.02 8.8 0.01 p < .05 table 3. continued ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202514 collaboration, and locality, driven by a shared desire to address global challenges such as the sustainable development goals. based on the dendrogram in figures 2 and 3 and table 3 for the circular economy and australian universities, the emerging combination of themes is adopting sdgs towards a circular economy, collaboration, and partnership; australian region-specific contexts; community engagement; and australian university circular economic models. these themes will be discussed as contributions of the study. discussion contribution to knowledge: zero waste lessons for australian universities towards a circular economy adopting sustainable development goals towards a circular economy as the circular economy garners interest, it becomes a pivotal platform to operationalise the united nations’ sdgs (ogunmakinde, egbelakin and sher, 2022). halog and anieke (2021) noted a significant term coocterm term coocfreq coocfreq p χ2 phi significance university undergraduate 3 111 0.02 7.2 0.01 p < .05 university local 4 201 0.02 6.6 0.01 p < .05 university university 0 950 0.02 3.7 0 p < .05 university value 5 309 0.02 6 0.01 p < .05 university businesses 3 120 0.02 6.4 0.01 p < .05 university demands 2 46 0.02 7.3 0.01 p < .05 university approach 8 702 0.02 5 0.01 p < .05 university quality 5 329 0.02 5.3 0.01 p < .05 university offers 3 125 0.02 5.9 0.01 p < .05 university uses 2 53 0.03 6 0.01 p < .05 university complex 3 134 0.03 5.3 0.01 p < .05 university highlight 2 56 0.03 5.6 0.01 p < .05 university needs 2 63 0.04 4.7 0 p < .05 university scale 2 65 0.04 4.5 0 p < .05 university food 5 387 0.04 3.7 0 p < .05 university methodology 4 267 0.04 3.8 0 p < .05 university impact 5 393 0.04 3.6 0 p < .05 university examine 2 70 0.05 4 0 p < .05 university quantify 2 71 0.05 3.9 0 p < .05 table 3. continued ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202515 overlap between the concepts of the circular economy and sdgs, suggesting their co-dependence and mutual reinforcement in fostering sustainable development. the application of the circular economy extends to various sectors, including construction, where waste minimisation has profound implications for sustainability (ogunmakinde, egbelakin and sher, 2022). successfully implementing circular economy strategies requires knowledge sharing and capacity building. universities, as knowledge hubs, play a crucial role in this respect, although barriers persist in integrating circular economy concepts into their curricula (halog and anieke, 2021). addressing these challenges necessitates robust strategies that embed circular economy principles into educational institutions and broader society. university collaboration and partnership for waste reduction and resource optimisation in sustainable development, collaborations and partnerships are instrumental in driving positive change. this is particularly true in waste reduction and resource optimisation, where academia can offer innovative solutions. with their rich pool of resources and intellectual capital, universities are increasingly seen as key players in spearheading sustainability initiatives (massaro, et al., 2021). one such example is the strategic design approach developed by a partnership between politecnico di milano university and bocconi university. this approach encourages systemic resource optimisation and stimulates the formulation of beneficial relationships and partnerships that facilitate environmentally friendly innovation. equally, in reverse logistics, cooperative alliances can optimise recycling vehicle routing. the application of such cooperation in two-echelon reverse logistics networks has proven to be effective in improving the stability of the network (wang, et al., 2018). by fostering collaborations and partnerships, universities, industry, and other stakeholders can make significant strides in achieving the dual objectives of waste reduction and resource optimisation. australian region-specific contexts of circular economy delving into region-specific contexts, the ce takes on unique characteristics influenced by local cultural, socio-economic, and environmental factors. in australia, for instance, ce strategies are tailored to suit its distinct regional contexts, enhancing effectiveness and relevance (arora, mutz and mohanraj, 2023). a detailed understanding of end-of-life (eol) options for materials, particularly plastics, is vital in these region-specific approaches. for example, venkatachalam, pohler and spierling (2022) underscored the significance of life cycle assessment in defining system boundaries for plastic waste management in specific regions. the interplay of local contexts and ce strategies underlines the complexity yet feasibility of transitioning to sustainable practices, underscoring that successful implementation is always embedded in the region’s specificities. australian university community engagement for waste minimisation the transformation towards a circular economy within the australian construction and demolition waste management system necessitates dynamic interactions and collaborations (shooshtarian, et al., 2022). university–industry engagement (ui-e) plays a crucial role in achieving waste minimisation objectives, highlighting the significance of cross-sector partnerships. moreover, understanding cultural diversity and community attitudes towards waste is paramount, as exemplified in the canterbury-bankstown study ( james, et al., 2019). such shared responsibilities and community engagement provide a nuanced comprehension of waste management, fuelling context-specific waste reduction strategies. hence, it is clear that a successful transition to a circular economy hinges on collective efforts that encapsulate industry, academia, and community perceptions. ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202516 australian university circular economic models the shift to sustainable economic models within the academic sector is a focal point in australia’s transition towards a circular economy, with various universities implementing innovative practices and conducting substantive research. fleischmann (2019) expounded on this, detailing how queensland universities play a significant part in instigating circular economy practices. however, there is an imperative need for the industry to transition from linear supply chain models to circular ones, a challenge that universities could overcome through research and collaboration with industry stakeholders (shooshtarian, et al., 2023). as such, the role of australian universities extends beyond pedagogy and research, forging a path towards a sustainable and circular future for the entire society. capability maturity modelling for circular economy in australian universities as the discourse around sustainable development gains traction, the integration of the ce concept in various sectors is becoming an area of intense focus. achieving a ce necessitates a series of structured stages, defined through the lens of a cmm, a tool that facilitates continuous improvement by incrementally building upon existing capabilities (omotayo, et al., 2020; howard, et al., 2018). the cmm is divided into five states: initial, managed, defined, quantitatively managed, and optimising. combining these five stages with the themes provided, the cmm for the circular economy in australian universities was structured accordingly (figure 5). figure 5. cmm for circular economy attainment in australian universities. cmm, capability maturity model. source: author’s own (2024) ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202517 the first stage, “adopting sustainable development goals towards a circular economy”, entails embedding sdgs within organisational objectives to drive the transition towards ce. the cmm at this level revolves around understanding the nuances of ce and gearing organisational strategies towards sdg attainment. the second stage, “university collaboration and partnership for waste reduction and resource optimisation”, reflects the critical role of academic institutions in shaping the circular transition (omotayo, et al., 2020). the development of a cmm at this juncture involves fostering synergies between industry and academia to enhance waste management and resource efficiency. the third stage, “australian region-specific contexts of circular economy”, highlights the significance of regional nuances in the ce adaptation process. cmm development in this context would necessitate understanding and adapting to regional-specific constraints and opportunities. in the fourth stage, “australian university community engagement for waste minimisation”, the focus shifts towards leveraging university-led initiatives for community awareness and engagement in waste reduction (omotayo, et al., 2020). the cmm at this level would map the progression of community engagement activities. in the last stage, “the australian university circular economic models” accentuates the role of universities in shaping ce practices through research and innovation (brendzel-skowera, 2021). here, the cmm would track the evolution of university-led circular business models and their impact on broader ce transformation. by structuring the ce transition in these stages, organisations can apply the cmm to benchmark their progress, identify areas of improvement, and drive continuous advancement towards a circular economy. the findings of this study highlight the theoretical significance of integrating circular economy principles within higher education institutions. by demonstrating the alignment between circular economy practices and the united nations’ sdgs, the study underscores the potential for universities to serve as catalysts for broader societal shifts towards sustainability. the emergent themes of collaboration, locality, and sustainability-oriented economic models suggest that universities can play a pivotal role in fostering sustainable development. conclusion, limitations, and further research the assimilation of a cmm into australian university frameworks exhibits an innovative approach to driving the transition towards a ce. encompassing various stages, from sdg adoption to developing region-specific contexts, this methodology has the potential to catalyse considerable positive change. each progressive stage introduces new objectives that culminate in optimising circular economic models within universities. the breadth and depth of australian contributions to academic discussions around ce and sustainable practices further underscore the country’s leadership. nevertheless, this intricate process does not come without its challenges. for instance, the initial stage of understanding ce nuances and aligning them with sdgs can be complex, demanding meticulous strategic planning. simultaneously, contrasting objectives and operational practices may hinder fostering meaningful collaborations between academia and industry. moreover, regional-specific contexts can introduce unique variables that may complicate the standardised approach offered by the cmm. lastly, engaging communities effectively for waste minimisation and gauging the impact of university-led circular models can be a daunting task due to the diverse interests of stakeholders. therefore, it would be valuable to explore the specific mechanisms through which universities can enhance their circular economy initiatives, including the role of policy frameworks and stakeholder engagement. more so, examining the long-term impacts of these initiatives on both academic and local communities could provide deeper insights into the effectiveness of circular economy strategies in achieving sustainability goals. ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202518 additionally, using text mining as an analytical tool, although powerful, has limitations. the architecture of text mining systems may inadvertently impose constraints that affect potential outcomes. furthermore, the suitability of this tool is highly dependent on the research questions and data types at hand, necessitating a clear understanding of its application context. consequently, a balanced perspective is needed to harness the benefits of text mining while acknowledging and navigating its limitations. the nlp approach in this study faces challenges such as data sparsity, which can lead to unreliable word association estimates, especially in smaller datasets. language ambiguity, including polysemy and homonymy, also affects model accuracy. additionally, generalising models across different contexts is difficult due to the variability in language use across domains. therefore, there is a need for methods to mitigate data sparsity in smaller datasets. also, the complexity of integrating the cmm within universities serves as a reminder of the multifaceted nature of ce transformation, a journey that requires continuous refinement and adaptation. references anub zero. 2022. university-related travel policy. australian national university. [online] available at: https://iceds. anu.edu.au/files/opportunities%20for%20change%20in%20hum an%20resources%20and%20travel%20policies%20 at%20anu.pdf arora, r., mutz, d., and mohanraj, p., 2023. innovating for the circular economy: driving sustainable transformation. london: crc press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003201816 bernecker, t., bradshaw, b.e., feitz, a.j., and daley, c., 2022. evaluating australia’s energy commodity resources potential for a net-zero emission future. the appea journal, 62(1), s555-s561 https://doi.org/10.1071/aj21091 brendzel-skowera, k., 2021. circular economy business models in the sme sector. sustainability, 13(13), 7059. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su13137059 cahill, a., 2021. what regions need on the path to net zero emissions. [online] available at: https:// static1.squarespace.com/static/5da6541d517c244e83b79581/t/6279d0429d35666087412984/1652150346473/ what+regions+need+report+-+full+may22.pdf dieleman, h., and martínez-rodríguez, m.c., 2019. potentials and challenges for a circular economy in mexico. in: m.l. franco-garcía, j. carpio-aguilar, h. bressers, ed. towards zero waste. greening of industry networks studies, vol 6. springer, cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92931-6_2 feldman, r., and sanger, j., 2007. the text mining handbook: advanced approaches in analyzing unstructured data. cambridge university press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511546914 fleischmann, k., 2019. design-led innovation and circular economy practices in regional queensland. local economy, 34(3), 245–262. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269094219854679 gudivada, v.n., rao, d. and raghavan, v.v., 2015. big data driven natural language processing research and applications. in handbook of statistics (vol. 33, pp. 203-238). elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-444-634924.00009-5 halog, a., balanay, r., anieke, s., and yu, t.y., 2021. circular economy across australia: taking stock of progress and lessons. circular economy and sustainability, 1(1), pp.283-301. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43615-021-00020-5 halog, a. and anieke, s., 2021. a review of circular economy studies in developed countries and its potential adoption in developing countries. circular economy and sustainability, 1(1), pp.209-230. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43615-02100017-0 ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202519 https://iceds.anu.edu.au/files/opportunities%20for%20change%20in%20hum https://iceds.anu.edu.au/files/opportunities%20for%20change%20in%20hum https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003201816 https://doi.org/10.1071/aj21091 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137059 https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137059 https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5da6541d517c244e83b79581/t/6279d0429d35666087412984/1652150346473/what+regions+need+report+-+full+may22.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5da6541d517c244e83b79581/t/6279d0429d35666087412984/1652150346473/what+regions+need+report+-+full+may22.pdf https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5da6541d517c244e83b79581/t/6279d0429d35666087412984/1652150346473/what+regions+need+report+-+full+may22.pdf https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92931-6_2 https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511546914 https://doi.org/10.1177/0269094219854679 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-444-63492-4.00009-5 https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-444-63492-4.00009-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s43615-021-00020-5 https://doi.org/10.1007/s43615-021-00017-0 https://doi.org/10.1007/s43615-021-00017-0 hassani, h., beneki, c., unger, s., mazinani, m.t., and silva, e.s., 2020. text mining in big data analytics. big data and cognitive computing, 4(1), 1; https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc4010001 howard, m.b., boehm, s., eatherley, d., lobley, m., and winter, m., 2018. a capability maturity model for the circular economy: an agri-food perspective. doi: http://hdl.handle.net/10871/37455 hull, a., 2023. a view from net zero. anzca bulletin, 32(1), 60-63. ignatow, g., and mihalcea, r., 2016. text mining: a guidebook for the social sciences. london: sage publications. https:// doi.org/10.4135/9781483399782 james, p., mellick lopes, a., martín-valdéz, s., partoredjo, s., salazar, j. f., and zhong, f., 2019. closing the loop on waste: community engagement, cultural diversity, and shared responsibilities in waste management in canterburybankstown. penrith: institute for culture and society. sydney: western sydney university. jim, j.r., talukder, m.a.r., malakar, p., kabir, m.m., nur, k. and mridha, m.f., 2024. recent advancements and challenges of nlp-based sentiment analysis: a state-of-the-art review. natural language processing journal, p.100059. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlp.2024.100059 khan, w., daud, a., khan, k., muhammad, s. and haq, r., 2023. exploring the frontiers of deep learning and natural language processing: a comprehensive overview of key challenges and emerging trends. natural language processing journal, 4, p.100026. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlp.2023.100026 lèbre, é., corder, g., and golev, a., 2017. the role of the mining industry in a circular economy: a framework for resource management at the mine site level. journal of industrial ecology, 21(3), 662-672. https://doi.org/10.1111/ jiec.12596 martin, j.h., and jurafsky, d., 2009. speech and language processing: an introduction to natural language processing, computational linguistics, and speech recognition (vol. 23). upper saddle river: pearson/prentice hall. massaro, m., secinaro, s., dal mas, f., brescia, v. and calandra, d., 2021. industry 4.0 and circular economy: an exploratory analysis of academic and practitioners’ perspectives. business strategy and the environment, 30(2), pp.12131231. doi: https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2680 maruyama, ú., sanchez, p.m., trigo, a.g.m., and motta, w.h., 2019. circular economy in higher education ınstitutions: lessons learned from brazıl-colombıa network. brazilian journal of operations & production management, 16(1), 88-95. https://doi.org/10.14488/bjopm.2019.v16.n1.a8 miemczyk, j., carbone, v. and howard, m., 2022. learning to implement the circular economy in the agri-food sector: a multilevel perspective, in: l. bals, w.l. tate, and l.m. ellram, ed. circular economy supply chains: from chains to systems, emerald publishing limited, bingley, pp. 283-301. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83982-544620221014 moghayedi, a., awuzie, b., omotayo, t., le jeune, k., massyn, m., ekpo, c.o. and ndubuka-mccallum, n., 2021. a critical success factor framework for implementing sustainable innovative and affordable housing: a systematic review and bibliometric analysis. buildings, 11(8), 317. https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11080317 ogunmakinde, o.e., egbelakin, t., and sher, w., 2022. contributions of the circular economy to the un sustainable development goals through sustainable construction. resources, conservation and recycling. doi: https://doi. org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.106023 oke, a., osobajo, o., obi, l., and omotayo, t., 2021. rethinking and optimising post-consumer packaging waste: a sentiment analysis of consumers’ perceptions towards the introduction of a deposit refund scheme in scotland. waste management, 118, 463-470. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2020.09.008 ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202520 https://doi.org/10.3390/bdcc4010001 http://hdl.handle.net/10871/37455 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483399782 https://doi.org/10.4135/9781483399782 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlp.2024.100059 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nlp.2023.100026 https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12596 https://doi.org/10.1111/jiec.12596 https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.2680 https://doi.org/10.14488/bjopm.2019.v16.n1.a8 https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83982-544-620221014 https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83982-544-620221014 https://doi.org/10.3390/buildings11080317 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.106023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resconrec.2021.106023 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2020.09.008 o’mara-eves, a., thomas, j., mcnaught, j., miwa, m., and ananiadou, s., 2015. using text mining for study identification in systematic reviews: a systematic review of current approaches. systematic reviews, 4(1), 5. doi https:// doi.org/10.1186/2046-4053-4-5 osobajo, o.a., oke, a., omotayo, t., and obi, l.i., 2022. a systematic review of circular economy research in the construction industry. smart and sustainable built environment, 11(1), 39-64. https://doi.org/10.1108/ sasbe-04-2020-0034 omotayo, t.s., boateng, p., osobajo, o., oke, a., and obi, l.i., 2020. systems thinking and cmm for continuous improvement in the construction industry. international journal of productivity and performance management, 69(2), 271-296. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-11-2018-0417 omotayo, t., and kulatunga, u., 2017. a continuous improvement framework using idef0 for post-contract cost control. journal of construction project management and innovation. https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-8506b6f28 pantel, p., and lin, d., 2002. discovering word senses from text. in proceedings of the eighth acm sigkdd international conference on knowledge discovery and data mining (pp. 613-619). https://doi.org/10.1145/775047.775138 parashar, d., 2023. the impact of net-zero emissions target announcements on listed organisations’ share price (doctoral dissertation, macquarie university). prasad, d., kuru, a., oldfield, p., ding, l., dave, m., noller, c., and he, b., 2023. policy pathways to a net zero carbon-built environment. in delivering on the climate emergency: towards a net zero carbon built environment (pp. 201-233). singapore: springer nature. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-6371-1_6 rocca, l., veneziani, m., and carini, c., 2023. mapping the diffusion of circular economy good practices: success factors and sustainable challenges. business strategy and the environment. wiley online library. https://doi. org/10.1002/bse.3235 roche, d., langham, e., mouritz, m., breadsell, j., sharp, d., nagrath, k., white, s., mccartney, d., prendergast, j., parida, s. bona, r., kinstan, k., and jazbec, m., 2022. the green wave. adding value through net zero energy strategies. race for 2030 crc. serrano-bedia, a.m., and perez-perez, m., 2022. transition towards a circular economy: a review of the role of higher education as a key supporting stakeholder in web of science. sustainable production and consumption, 29, 372-385. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2022.02.001 shooshtarian, s., hosseini, m.r., kocaturk, t., arnel, t. and t. garofano, n., 2023. circular economy in the australian aec industry: investigation of barriers and enablers. building research & information, 51(1), pp.56-68. https://doi.org/1 0.1080/09613218.2022.2099788 shooshtarian, s., maqsood, t., caldera, s. and ryley, t., 2022. transformation towards a circular economy in the australian construction and demolition waste management system. sustainable production and consumption, 30, pp.89–106. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2021.11.032 study australia. 2023. list of australian universities. [online] available at: https://www.studyinaustralia.gov.au/english/ australian-education/universities-and-higher-education/list-of-australian-universities venkatachalam, v., pohler, m., spierling, s., nickel, l., barner, l. and endres, h.j., 2022. design for recycling strategies based on the life cycle assessment and end of life options of plastics in a circular economy. macromolecular chemistry and physics, 223(13), p.2200046. https://doi.org/10.1002/macp.202200046 wang, y., peng, s., assogba, k., liu, y., wang, h., xu, m. and wang, y., 2018. implementation of cooperation for recycling vehicle routing optimization in two-echelon reverse logistics networks. sustainability, 10(5), p.1358. https:// doi.org/10.3390/su10051358 ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202521 https://doi.org/10.1186/2046-4053-4-5 https://doi.org/10.1186/2046-4053-4-5 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-04-2020-0034 https://doi.org/10.1108/sasbe-04-2020-0034 https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm-11-2018-0417 https://hdl.handle.net/10520/ejc-8506b6f28 https://doi.org/10.1145/775047.775138 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-6371-1_6 https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3235 https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.3235 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2022.02.001 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2022.2099788 https://doi.org/10.1080/09613218.2022.2099788 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spc.2021.11.032 https://www.studyinaustralia.gov.au/english/australian-education/universities-and-higher-education/list-of-australian-universities https://www.studyinaustralia.gov.au/english/australian-education/universities-and-higher-education/list-of-australian-universities https://doi.org/10.1002/macp.202200046 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051358 https://doi.org/10.3390/su10051358 appendix appendix a: text mining r-studio script for circular economy strategies ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202522 ogunmakinde construction economics and building, vol. 25, no. 2 july 202523